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Apple Meeting iPad Demand with 24-Hour Shipping
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74966
After months of lag between supply and demand, Apple has begun shipping all six versions of its iPad tablet computer within 24 hours of purchase. Apple's online store now features the 16-gigabyte, 32-gigabyte and 64-gigabyte iPads in both the Wi-Fi-only incarnation and Wi-Fi with 3G without delay, and with free standard shipping. Don't expect a rush, though. There's no option for expedited delivery.
The iPad ranges in price from $499 to $829, depending on storage size and features, and the 3G version requires a data plan.
Fueled by a strong media buzz, Apple sold 300,000 iPads at launch on April 3 and has faced supply problems ever since, pushing back the dates for the 3G version and international release. Orders have been filled in seven to 10 business days.
The groundbreaking device with a 9.7-inch screen and no keyboard, essentially a marriage between an iPod and an e-reader, was so rarely seen except in media reports that Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyers, in his Weekend Update fake newscast, quipped that the device ushered in "a new era of thousands of people buying something just to find out what it does."
In a July earnings call with investors, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said the company sold one million iPads in 28 days and 3.3 million in the second quarter. But he conceded the company underestimated demand, saying "we're increasing capacity as quickly as we can."
Altimeter Group analyst Michael Gartenberg noted that while late summer is not typically a time of strong device sales, there's every indication that iPad orders are as brisk as ever.
"At this particular point we're not seeing demand slowdown," Gartenberg said. "Production has caught up with demand. We are only going to see demand increase as we head into Q4 as people do their holiday shopping."
A new iPad is...
Tue, 31 Aug 10
Oracle's Suit Against Android Could Split Open Source
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74965
Oracle's suit against Google for the use of Java in its Android portable operating system continues to reverberate through the open-source movement. In the newest development, Google has declined to participate in the upcoming JavaOne conference, an event formerly hosted by Java creator Sun Microsystems and now run by Sun's new owner, Oracle.
Joshua Bloch of Google's Open Source Programs Office, in a posting Friday on the company's open-source blog, wrote that Google wished it could attend, "but Oracle's recent lawsuit against Google and open source has made it impossible for us to freely share our thoughts about the future of Java and open source generally." Bloch noted that the company had attended every JavaOne event since 2004.
Some observers are raising the possibility that, if the suit continues, Java may split into different versions, most notably a Google-branded version designed to avoid legal obstacles.
Others have warned that the battle could have unforeseen consequences for open-source software, which has found a home in many corporations. According to some estimates, as much as 75 percent of open-source software usage is inside corporations.
Oracle is viewed as trying to get as much leverage and revenue as possible from its Sun acquisition earlier this year.
In 2006, Sun made Java open source, hoping to increase its usage on the web and in data centers. When Google started developing its software platform for mobile devices, it founded the Open Handset Alliance and created Android on a Java path that it says diverged from Sun's.
Google and Sun held talks over the last three years about remaining legal issues, but no agreement was reached. Reportedly, Sun chose not to sue Google over Java because Sun's then-CEO Jonathan Schwartz was championing open source, including the use of an open-source version of the company's Solaris operating...
Tue, 31 Aug 10
Clearwire Aims Rover Prepaid Broadband at Gen Y
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74964
Clearwire on Monday introduced a pay-as-you-go 4G mobile broadband service aimed at Generation Y consumers. Dubbed Rover, the brand works to appeal to a younger generation that isn't hip on long-term contracts.
Mike Sievert, chief commercial officer for Clearwire, has done his homework. His research shows that commitment-free services are "wildly popular" with the Gen Y crowd.
"We've built Rover from the ground up with products, pricing and features designed specifically to serve a younger market who knows how you get connected is just as important as where," Sievert said. "Expanding our offers to meet this underserved segment is an important new business opportunity for Clearwire as we continue to extend our leadership in mobile broadband."
Rover's flagship device is the Rover Puck, a portable Wi-Fi hot spot that lets consumers share broadband access with up to eight devices at the same time. The Rover Puck lets consumers connect devices such as laptops, netbooks, the iPad, the iPod touch, smartphones, PSP systems, game consoles, and Wi-Fi-enabled digital cameras.
The Rover Puck offers mobile download speeds of three to six Mbps, with bursts of more than 10 Mbps. That's up to four times faster than conventional 3G. The Rover Puck is priced at $150.
The Rover Stick is a personal 4G USB modem that connects notebooks, laptops or desktops to the Rover 4G Service at the same speeds. The Rover Stick is compatible with Mac and Windows computers and retails for $100.
"The opportunity for pay-as-you-go mobile broadband should not be underestimated," said Carrie MacGillvray, program manager and wireless analyst at IDC. "Prepaid -- or pay-as-you-go -- data provides an option for consumers to experiment with the power of mobile broadband without being saddled with a two-year commitment. A prepaid mobile broadband service can offer consumers the ability to access and share Internet...
Tue, 31 Aug 10
Samsung Galaxy S Sales Top One Million in 45 Days
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74963
Samsung said Monday that AT&T and T-Mobile collectively shipped one million Galaxy S smartphones during the device's first 45 days in the United States. The world's number-two handset maker also said Sprint Nextel will launch the new Android-powered device on Aug. 31, followed by Verizon Wireless, U.S. Cellular, and Cellular South later this year.
Considering that just under five million Android phones shipped in the U.S. during this year's second quarter, the Galaxy S currently appears to be the hottest Android alternative to Apple's iPhone, which sold 3.2 million units in the three months through June. "Bringing Galaxy S devices to multiple carriers has given Samsung Mobile the opportunity to reach millions of consumers," said Samsung Mobile President Dale Sohn.
The Galaxy S sports a brilliant four-inch AMOLED display and a one-gigahertz Hummingbird processor that supports 3-D graphics and HD-like multimedia content. What's more, the device's accelerometer and geomagnetic sensors provide a smooth, fluid gaming experience whenever users tilt the device up or down or pan to the left or right.
The Galaxy S user interface supports advanced touchscreen gestures such as long tap and zoom, multi-touch pinch, and vertical and horizontal swiping. The goal is to provide users with easier and quicker access to location-based services, web browsing, digital photos, and other apps, Samsung said.
Samsung has been aggressively promoting the device's multitude of entertainment, messaging and social-networking capabilities through daily updates on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. And given the tough economic times, it also helps that the Galaxy S connects to a wealth of free apps at the Android Market, whereas Apple's Apps Store is dominated by offerings for which users must pay a fee.
In the handset market overall, Samsung sold 65.32 million devices in the year's second quarter for a 20.1 percent market share --...
Tue, 31 Aug 10
Intel Strengthens Connectivity with Purchase from Infineon
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74962
As the bidding war between Hewlett-Packard and Dell for 3PAR continues, Intel is making another major market move. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker is acquiring Infineon's wireless-solutions business in a $1.4 billion cash deal. The deal comes on the heels of Intel's $7.6 billion McAfee acquisition.
Infineon's wireless business delivers cellular platforms to global phone makers. Intel said the division will continue to serve existing customers. But Intel's underlying goal is to tap the unit's intellectual property to make connected computing ubiquitous, from smartphones to laptops to embedded systems.
"Intel's forward-looking strategy is based on the idea of blending mobility with connectivity and security," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. "Intel has been making a pitch with its Atom processors for a bigger and bigger piece of the mobile-computing market. With this acquisition, we're seeing a declaration of a way forward to further enhance its connectivity technologies."
Paul Otellini, Intel's president and CEO, pointed to a growing global demand for wireless solutions. As he sees it, the unit will strengthen the second pillar of Intel's computing strategy -- Internet connectivity -- and empower the company to offer a portfolio of products that covers the full range of wireless options, from Wi-Fi and 3G to WiMAX and LTE.
"As more devices compute and connect to the Internet, we are committed to positioning Intel to take advantage of the growth potential in every computing segment, from laptops to handhelds and beyond," Otellini said.
Intel's plans to expand its mobile and embedded product offerings to support additional customers and market segments, including smartphones, tablets, netbooks, notebooks and embedded computing devices, is no secret. Intel already has partnerships with Nokia on several mobile fronts.
Intel said it will couple Infineon's cellular technology with its core strengths to deliver low-power platforms that...
Tue, 31 Aug 10
Printed Oxford English Dictionary May Fade Away
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74961
If those reference books on the shelf of your home or office are looking rather forlorn these days, there's a reason. Their granddaddy, the Oxford English Dictionary, may never see another printing.
Oxford University Press, publisher of the OED, told the Associated Press this weekend that it hasn't been decided if there will ever be another printed edition of the venerable tome. The dictionary, age 126, is still being heavily used -- but online.
The publisher reported that the online version of the OED gets two million visits a month from subscribers. In the U.S., a subscription is $295 annually, while the 750-pound full edition, last published in 1989 and consisting of 20 volumes, costs $1,165 and has sold about 30,000. A single-volume printed version, which weighs a mere 130 pounds, might survive in the near term.
But the long-term outlook isn't good. Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University Press, has predicted that all dictionaries will be online within 30 years. Each new edition takes a decade to accomplish, and the third edition, under construction with a staff of 80, is only about 25 percent finished.
Portwood said the print dictionary market is "falling away by tens of percent a year." However, some schools and libraries are still buying the printed version.
The online version began in 2000, in part so that it could respond more quickly to changes and additions in the language. Online updates are quarterly, and a historical thesaurus will be added to the online version later this year.
The first print dictionary dates back to 1884, with the first full version being printed in 1928. It was the first complete reference of the English language since Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary.
Even in its heyday, the printed edition was not a big seller, and...
Tue, 31 Aug 10
Corporations Want Your Business Ideas
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74940
Tom Quinn isn't the kind of entrepreneur who needs help getting his ideas in front of the right people. He's a former president of networking software maker Novell, and he invented the motion-controller technology behind Nintendo's Wii while running a company called Gyration, where he raised $40 million in venture capital. So why is he pitching his latest idea -- a portable system to convert food scraps and other waste into ethanol -- on a Web site frequented by basement tinkerers and dorm-room startups?
Quinn's E-Fuel is among more than 1,000 companies, inventors, and students vying for funding in a General Electric contest called the ecomagination Challenge. A half-dozen winners will get cash prizes of up to $100,000. More significantly, GE and four venture capital firms plan to invest $200 million in the best clean-technology ideas entered in the contest.
A partnership with GE could give a big boost to E-Fuel, which now has 25 employees and has sold 50 of its biofuel systems. (They retail for $10,000, though a 50 percent federal tax credit can cut the cost in half.) Quinn says GE could manufacture the machines at lower cost and deploy its army of salespeople to get E-Fuel's products to customers worldwide. "I think we'd be a multibillion-dollar company," Quinn says. "And I'm a guy that's created multibillion-dollar companies."
GE's contest is one of at least a dozen similar programs sponsored by corporations casting a wider net for new business ideas, in the process creating opportunities for entrepreneurs. Such contests have "just exploded," says Jay Rao, a professor of innovation at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. Cisco Systems, Netflix, and PepsiCo have launched competitions to incorporate outside ideas into their businesses, offering winners cash prizes or partnership opportunities. Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, Dell, and others have pages on their Web sites...
Tue, 31 Aug 10
Booming Africa: An Opportunity for Europe
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74939
With the 2010 FIFA World Cup well over, the international sports spotlight has moved on, from South Africa to other tournaments in other lands. Still, European companies and investors should keep their eyes on Africa because competition in commerce is heating up across the continent.
A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute shows that Africa is now among the fastest-growing economic regions in the world, creating significant business opportunities in a wide range of industries. Early entrants onto the field can seize the advantage.
Africa's collective gross domestic product rose at a 4.9 percent annual rate from 2000 through 2008, twice the pace of the preceding two decades. In our report, Lions on the Move: The Progress and Potential of African Economies, we show that this growth surge was broadly based, with roots extending far beyond the global commodities boom.
Looking ahead, we project that at least four groups of industries on the continent could together generate as much as $2.6 trillion in annual revenue by 2020, or $1 trillion more than today, measured in 2010 dollars. The biggest business opportunity of the four lies in consumer goods and services, followed by natural resources, agriculture, and infrastructure.
These projections reflect Africa's recent economic advances and strong long-term prospects. The continent's combined economic output, valued at $1.6 trillion in 2008, is now roughly equal to Brazil's or Russia's. Several factors suggest that this economic momentum can be sustained.
To start, Africa's growth acceleration was widespread, with GDP rising more rapidly in 27 of its 30 largest economies -- both in countries with significant resource exports and those without. Rising revenues from oil, minerals, and other natural resources accounted for just 24 percent of growth from 2000 through 2008. All the other sectors contributed as well, including finance, retail, agriculture,...
Tue, 31 Aug 10
No-Fuss Backup Solutions To Secure Your Data
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74937
Let's face it: If you have to remember to back up your data, you won't. Any backup solution that does not eliminate the human factor is bound to fail. So put away your external hard drives and thumb drives that you bought so that you could back up your data regularly, and read on to learn about some solutions that will take the chore of backing up from you -- and, in the process, make sure that your data is regularly secured.
Windows Home Server (WHS) has been out for several years now, but few people have even heard of it. That's a shame because it provides the kind of hands-off, automated backup that most Windows users need.
WHS is an operating system, not a device. It's based on Microsoft's rock-solid Windows 2003 Server operating system, which is still in production on millions of servers -- computers that run web sites, transport e-mail, and perform dozens of file streaming functions -- around the world. WHS, though, takes the geeky foundation of Server 2003 and adds functionality aimed squarely at home users -- most significantly, automated backup of all household computers. The only requirements to use WHS are an in-home network -- which many already have through their wireless broadband or DSL router -- and a healthy fear of losing data.
The easiest way to acquire WHS is by purchasing a product with the operating system pre-installed, such as HP's MediaSmart Server. These devices, which are essentially small computers designed to be run and operated without a keyboard or monitor attached, are relatively inexpensive, starting at about half the cost of a full-fledged desktop machine. Four hundred dollars, for example, gets you a MediaSmart Server with plenty of horsepower and a 1 terabyte drive to start out. Or, if you have an...
Tue, 31 Aug 10
Yelp Delves Into One-Day Deals Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74932
Review Web site Yelp said Thursday that it is testing out "Yelp Deals" -- large discounts at local businesses that site users can buy on one day only.
The move comes as sites such as Groupon have gotten extremely popular by combining social media with the power of group buying, offering shoppers daily deals on products and services in their communities. With Groupon, however, the deals are only made active once a certain number of people in a city have agreed to participate.
In Yelp's case, there is no minimum participant requirement. Right now, Yelp is just testing the service in San Diego and it isn't currently offering one deal each day. It has offered two deals so far: one at a spa and another at a Yoga studio.
The Yoga studio deal was offered to users on Thursday, giving them five yoga classes for $30 -- $35 off the normal price at The Little Yoga Studio. Revenue from the coupons is divided between Yelp and the participating business, though Yelp isn't saying what percentage each party gets.
Yelp spokeswoman Stephanie Ichinose said Yelp decided to test Yelp Deals in San Diego since it is one of the company's oldest and most mature markets. Yelp plans to test the feature out in San Francisco and New York in the coming weeks, and, depending on how that goes, more cities may be added.
Ichinose said Yelp is delving into the deals market because consumers are often already intending to make some sort of purchase when they go to Yelp to check out a business reviewed on the site. And businesses have asked how they can offer discounts to Yelp users.
Yelp now allows businesses to list specials on their Yelp pages, such as a discount being offered for joining a health club when you mention the review...
Tue, 31 Aug 10
Intel Warns That Third-Quarter Results May Disappoint
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74929
Chip-maker Intel Corp. is cutting its sales forecast for the quarter, adding fresh evidence that a rickety economy is putting a damper on the back-to-school shopping season.
Intel is the world's biggest provider of microprocessors for PCs and a bellwether for the broader technology industry.
In a statement Friday, the company said it is seeing "weaker than expected demand for consumer PCs in mature markets," including the U.S. and Europe.
The warning comes a little more than a month after Intel reported its biggest quarterly profit in a decade. But those results were fueled by a rebound in technology spending at corporations, many of which held off replacing older computers during the recession.
Home computer purchases are another matter. Uncertainty about jobs is still keeping people's spending in check.
Intel said it now expects revenue of $10.8 billion to $11.2 billion for the fiscal third quarter, which ends in September. That compares with a previous forecast of $11.2 billion to $12 billion.
On average, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected $11.5 billion.
Intel is scheduled to report results on Oct. 12 and plans to update its fourth-quarter and full-year outlook then.
Despite the downward third-quarter outlook, the company's shares rose 7 cents to $18.25 in morning trading Friday, amid a general lift on Wall Street.
Last week, PC makers Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. also raised red flags about what is normally a robust season for sales. Dell Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden said in a conference call that the back-to-school shopping season has been "a little weaker than we would have expected."
Todd Bradley, head of HP's PC division, told investors the company saw some "softness" in the consumer laptop market and that back-to-school shopping started "somewhat late for us."
Sat, 28 Aug 10
Google Aims at Twitter with Organized Real-Time Search
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74946
Google moved into Skype territory this week with a new VoIP service that works from the Gmail interface. Now the search giant is throwing down the real-time gauntlet with a new service that hopes to one-up both Bing and Twitter.
Dubbed Google Realtime Search, Google rolled out a page that returns Twitter conversations and other real-time results related to user search queries. This isn't Google's first move into real-time search, but it's the biggest. In fact, Google is calling Realtime Search its most significant enhancement to date, serving up real-time results on its own page complete with new search tools.
Google launched real-time search features in December. At that time, the company worked to increase the relevance of search results by offering the freshest information on the web. Google's goal was to bring real-time content from a comprehensive set of sources into search results.
"On the new home page you'll find some great tools to help you refine and understand your results. First, you can use geographic refinements to find updates and news near you, or in a region you specify. So if you're traveling to Los Angeles this summer, you can check out tweets from Angelenos to get ideas for activities happening right where you are," Google Product Manager Dylan Casey wrote in the Official Google Blog.
Google has also added a conversations view to help searchers follow a discussion in real time on the web. This tops Twitter's search capabilities. Casey pointed out that a single tweet can often spark a larger conversation of re-tweets and other replies, but users have to click through a bunch of links and figure out how it all fits together on their own.
"With the new 'full conversation' feature, you can browse the entire conversation in a single glance," Casey wrote. "We organize the...
Sat, 28 Aug 10
Older Folks on Social Networks Are Growing Fast
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74945
If you think social media is just for young people, it's time to recalibrate. According to a new study from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, social-networking use by those 50 years old and up has nearly doubled in the last year.
The rapid growth of older users in social media could have a long-term effect on the development of those services, and on the approaches by various industries who use social media for marketing and sales.
The report, released Friday, said social-networking use among people aged 50-64 grew from 25 percent to 47 percent, an 88 percent increase, from April 2009 to this past May. Use by those over age 65 doubled, to 26 percent from 13 percent. Contrast this to a healthy but much smaller growth among users aged 18-29 -- 86 percent from 76 percent.
While usage zoomed up to about 67 percent in 2007 for the 18-29 set, it started more gradually for older groups. By May 2008, for instance, the 30-49 group was only 25 percent, the 50-64 group made up about 11 percent, and those over 65 were seven percent. But, since then, the rates of increase for the older groups have exceeded the 18-29 group.
Mary Madden, a senior research specialist at Pew and the report's author, said that while young adults "continue to be the heaviest users of social media," the segment's growth "pales in comparison with recent gains made by older users."
She noted that while e-mail is still the preferred electronic means for older users to maintain contacts, many are now using social-networking platforms for daily communication. Twenty percent of those aged 50-64 use social-networking daily, double the rate of a year ago. Among those 65+, the rate is 13 percent, compared to four percent in 2009.
Sat, 28 Aug 10
It's Not Over: HP Ups the Ante for 3PAR To $2 Billion
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74944
Hewlett-Packard submitted a $2 billion offer for 3PAR on Friday morning, topping Dell's latest $1.8 billion bid for the storage technology provider. Formed in 1999 by a group of server-cluster engineers from Sun Microsystems, 3PAR offers technologies that enable enterprises to service a wide range of applications concurrently from multiple on-premise servers, virtual cloud servers, or hybrid systems that combine on-premise and off-premise elements.
And the 3PAR bidding war may not be over since HP and Dell are both sitting on huge money reserves. HP reported last week that it had $14.8 billion in gross cash on hand at the end of its latest business quarter, while Dell said it had $13.1 billion in cash and investments.
Dell began the quest to acquire 3PAR with an Aug. 16 agreement for $1.15 billion. But HP stepped in on Aug. 23 with a $1.6 billion bid, which Dell then matched. Dell said the Aug. 16 agreement allows it to match any competing bids and requires 3PAR to pay it $72 million if a competing bid is accepted.
"Both companies would benefit from 3PAR" because the winning bidder will be able to tap "the 3PAR customer base, which is a mecca for selling servers," said IDC Vice President Benjamin Woo. "HP is due for a full refresh for its mid- to high-end storage portfolio," and "Dell wants to own a product for the top price bands in the $100,000-plus" range "rather than OEMing a product," he said.
Just hours before HP's latest bid, Dell announced Friday that 3PAR's board had unanimously recommended that its shareholders approve the $1.8 billion offer Dell tendered Thursday afternoon, matching HP's offer. But HP had already made it clear that the world's leading PC maker sees considerable merit in offering "superior value to 3PAR's shareholders."
HP is committed...
Sat, 28 Aug 10
Gmail Users Dial One Million VoIP Calls in 24 Hours
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74943
One million calls in 24 hours. That's Google's story with its just-introduced Gmail phone-calling feature. Google sent a message via Twitter announcing the near-immediate milestone and thanking people for trying the feature.
Google has more than 175 million users, and the service isn't even available to all users yet. Google started rolling it out in phases on Wednesday.
Google's service allows users to make telephone calls from the Gmail interface. Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year. Google promised to add international calling at low rates in the near future.
"A good deal of those million phone calls were from folks who were just testing out the feature to see if it works," said Michael Gartenberg, partner at Altimeter Group. "The question is, will they continue to use it? I think the answer is yes."
Gmail users have been chatting through PC microphones and speakers via a service called Google Talk since 2005. But until now Gmail users couldn't dial into landlines. Both Gmail users had to be sitting behind their computers and signed into Gmail to talk.
"This shows how Google is looking to build a set of services that become a hub of social activity, and one of the social activities we forget is the good old telephone," Gartenberg said. "By integrating telephony into the overall communications experience, Google has given users one more reason to stay with Google services like Gmail and Google Voice."
Google has designed a user-friendly interface for the service. Users dial a phone number in much the same way they would a normal telephone, but with a mouse instead of fingers. When users click "Call phone" at the top of their chat list and dial a number or enter a contact's name, it rings...
Sat, 28 Aug 10
FTC Moves To Enforce Rules Against False Online Ads
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74942
The Federal Trade Commission has started enforcing false advertising rules against "astroturfing." On Friday, the agency announced a settlement with a public-relations firm that had been posting fake, favorable online reviews for a client. The settlement is the first enforcement under new FTC guidelines.
Astroturfing is a term used to described apparent grassroots efforts that are, in fact, part of an advertising or political campaign.
The marketing and public-relations agency, Reverb Communications, used employees posing as regular consumers to post fake game reviews at the iTunes Store. Mary Engle, director of the FTC's Division of Advertising Practices, said "advertisers should not pass themselves off as ordinary consumers touting a product, and endorsers should make it clear when they have financial connections to sellers."
The settlement requires Reverb and its owner, Tracie Snitker, to remove any fake endorsement posts that pretend to be ordinary consumers. The agreement also prohibits the company and Snitker from repeating this kind of fake endorsement in the future.
It's not known how widespread the practice is. Andrew Frank, research director for media and marketing at Gartner, said it's "more common than people think." He compared the FTC's enforcement to Whac-A-Mole, the game where a player can use a toy hammer to whack down a toy mole, only to find that other moles have popped up.
Frank also compared the enforcement to antispam efforts in that the larger perpetrators are targeted, even though the practice continues to be widespread. "In theory," he said, "the honest public should outnumber" the imitation consumers, but Frank said this kind of fraud will continue, especially given the availability of cheap labor around the world.
eBay deals with this problem, Frank noted, through a reputation system, where other people's opinions of your reliability are taken into consideration, but this isn't foolproof and cannot be applied to every...
Sat, 28 Aug 10
Report Finds Cell-Phone Domination, Lowered Prices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74941
With cell-phone use skyrocketing in the United States, consumers enjoy prices that are 50 percent lower than a decade ago, but smaller carriers face severe obstacles to gaining a foothold in the market, says a government report made public on Thursday.
The General Accounting Office study of the wireless industry for the House and Senate commerce committees looked at changes in the wireless industry since 2000, the perception of stakeholders about regulatory policies and industry practices, and how the Federal Communications Commission can better carry out its mandate to foster a more competitive market.
There were 285 million cell subscribers in the U.S. in 2009, up from only 3.5 million in 2000. Forty percent of Americans now use wireless phones as their primary home telephone.
Meanwhile, four top wireless carriers control 90 percent of the industry due to consolidation, news that should boost those in Congress who argue that the FCC should crack down on that dominance to avoid higher prices and worse service.
The report's authors analyzed data from a commercial database as well as from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, UBS Investment Research's March 2010 Wireless 411 report, and the year-end 2009 CTIA semiannual survey of wireless carriers. To assess the impact of industry changes on consumers and competition, they interviewed FCC Wireless Telecommunications, Wireline Competition, and Enforcement Bureau officials, device manufacturers, tower companies, industry associations, consumer groups, and academic and industry experts. Interviews were also conducted with smaller carriers.
The conclusion is that smaller carriers face obstacles gaining subscribers, investing in their networks, and offering the latest handsets to compete with the industry leaders.
"Members of Congress and public-interest groups have raised concerns about the competitiveness of the wireless industry in recent years," the report says. "Consolidation through mergers and acquisitions has created a market...
Sat, 28 Aug 10
The Apple Guessing Game Continues
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74938
By now you might have heard: Apple is holding an invitation-only news media event Sept. 1.
Invites like these show up two or three times a year, and it is always a puzzle wrapped in a cryptic bow of noninformation. Such is the case with the most recent one, which shows a picture of an Apple-branded guitar.
So what could it mean? Is Apple going to start selling wooden guitars? Will Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, stand up on stage and announce the long awaited iGuitar?
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it: Probably not. But what could Apple be readying?
One possibility, which is floated every time Apple sends an invitation, could be the entrance of the Beatles catalog into the Apple iTunes store. Apple, the Beatles and Yoko Ono have been stuck in a fight over the Beatles music rights for several years. The odds are slim.
Keeping in line with the musical vein, the announcement could mean a new iPod. Rumors have been floating around the Web that a new iPod Touch could be imminent with updated internals, front-facing camera and the high-resolution retina display technology used on the new iPhone 4. The AppAdvice blog says it is FaceTime on the iPod Touch.
Or, it could be TV related, as more news surfaces of Apple's third attempt to foray into the living room. Bloomberg Businessweek is dubious and suggests betting on iTunes.
My colleagues Brian Stelter and Miguel Helft noted in a New York Times article Wednesday that Apple, "which is widely expected to announce a revamped product for television sets next month, is pressing the television networks to rent their TV series through its iTunes service for as little as 99 cents an episode."
I wrote an article in July pointing out that Apple had been hard at...
Sat, 28 Aug 10
State AGs Say Craigslist Should Drop Adult Services
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74922
Craigslist should remove its adult services section because the Web site cannot adequately block potentially illegal ads promoting prostitution and child trafficking, attorneys general in 17 states demanded Tuesday in a joint letter.
"Only Craigslist has the power to stop these ads before they are even published," Kansas attorney general Steve Six said in a statement. "Sadly, they are completely unwilling to do so."
The joint letter acknowledged Craigslist faces the prospect of losing revenue if it were to remove the adult services section.
"No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist," the letter said.
Craigslist supports states' efforts to stop illegal exploitation, spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best said in a statement that did not indicate whether the Web site plans to get rid of its adult services section.
"We hope to work closely with them, as we are with experts at nonprofits and in law enforcement, to prevent misuse of our site in facilitation of trafficking," she said.
Some encounters set up through Craigslist have ended in violence and even death, authorities have said.
Last week, authorities said a former medical student accused of killing a masseuse he met through Craigslist committed suicide in the Boston jail where he was awaiting trial.
Philip Markoff, 24, was found unresponsive in his cell Aug. 15. A former Boston University student, Markoff had pleaded not guilty in the fatal shooting of Julissa Brisman of New York City and in the armed robbery of a Las Vegas woman. Both crimes happened at Boston hotels within four days in April 2009. Rhode Island prosecutors also accused him of attacking a stripper that week.
Markoff had met the women through advertisements for erotic services posted on Craigslist.
The Web site...
Sat, 28 Aug 10
Review: Dell Streak Is an Awkward Phone, So-So Tablet
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74919
Lately I've been feeling very self-conscious when talking on the phone in public, and it's not because I'm worried about strangers listening in on my private conversations.
Rather, it's because the cell phone I'm using -- the just-released Dell Streak -- is actually a touch-screen tablet device that makes some of the clunkiest handsets from the late '90s look diminutive by comparison.
The Streak ($300 with a two-year AT&T contract) is a complicated gadget. For a tablet computer, it is fairly small and thin -- a fraction the size of Apple Inc.'s popular iPad. Its face is dominated by a touch screen that is 5 inches diagonally, compared with the iPad's 9.7-inch display. Yet Dell insists it is also a phone, and as such it is fairly enormous and uncomfortable to talk on. Beyond that, it comes with an older version of Google Inc.'s Android software. Overall, it's just too awkward to bear.
The Streak's enormity is inescapable. It's a little less than 6 inches long and 3 inches across, so it looked mammoth in my petite hands. I felt like a little kid holding her father's smart phone.
It was clear from the start that carrying around the black gadget would be a chore. It fit into the back pockets of my jeans, but protruded noticeably. I was afraid it would fall out or be filched by some tablet-phone-hungry thief. As a result, I had to carry it in a bag or hold it in my hand if I wanted to tote it around, and this latter option quickly got old.
Still, I figured the Streak's size would be great for at least one thing: watching videos. As expected, videos streamed well from such sites as YouTube and Funny or Die, probably helped by the device's 1 GHz processor. Images looked sharp and bright...
Sat, 28 Aug 10
Pentagon Computers Suffered Flash Drive Attack
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74918
A foreign spy agency pulled off the most serious breach of Pentagon computer networks ever by inserting a flash drive into a U.S. military laptop, a top defense official said Wednesday.
The previously classified incident, which took place in 2008 in the Middle East, was disclosed in a magazine article by Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn and released by the Pentagon Wednesday.
He said a "malicious code" on the flash drive spread undetected on both classified and unclassified Pentagon systems, "establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control."
"It was a network administrator's worst fear: a rogue program operating silently, poised to deliver operational plans into the hands of an unknown adversary," Lynn wrote in an article for Foreign Affairs. "This ... was the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever and it served as an important wake-up call."
The Pentagon operation to counter the attack, known as Operation Buckshot Yankee, marked a turning point in U.S. cyberdefense strategy, Lynn said.
In November 2008, the Defense Department banned the use of the small high-tech storage devices that are used to move data from one computer to another. The ban was partially lifted early this year with the approval of limited use of the devices.
Lynn did not disclose what, if any, military secrets may have been stolen in the 2008 penetration of the system, what nation orchestrated the attack, nor whether there were any other repercussions.
The article went on to warn that U.S. adversaries can threaten American military might without building stealth fighters, aircraft carriers or other expensive weapons systems.
"A dozen determined computer programmers can, if they find a vulnerability to exploit, threaten the United States' global logistics network, steal its operational plans, blind its intelligence capabilities, or hinder its ability to deliver weapons...
Sat, 28 Aug 10
Tax Those Bloggers, City of Philadelphia
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74912
Bloggers in my hometown are up in arms because the City of Philadelphia is charging some of them a $300 lifetime "business privilege" tax. The city's position is that many of the bloggers accept advertising revenue and are in effect operating a business within the city limits. "How can they do this," the bloggers shriek. "This is a violation of free speech; it's an outrage."
To the City of Philadelphia I say: "Hip, hip hooray."
Tax those guys. By doing so you're actually helping small businesses, not hurting them. I support this tax of bloggers. (Actually, I think it's too small.) If you're going to have a blog and use it for your small business, you should pay a significantly higher tax. This way we can rid the world of lousy bloggers. We can save many small business owners a lot of time they're now wasting by blogging. And those small business owners who don't have a blog can stop feeling so guilty every time their technology guy tells them they should. Because they shouldn't.
Why? Most small business blogs are terrible. Most business people [like me) don't know how to write very well, even if they did get a B in 8th Grade English. Many small business owners are told by their IT advisors, marketing experts and public relations gurus that they should have a blog. The truth is that they really have nothing important to say. I don't care if my office equipment supplier wants a free Tibet. I just want lower prices on ink toner. The City of Philadelphia is providing a service. They're making us face the fact that most small business owners shouldn't waste their time on a blog. Instead of writing about the state of society and whether Barack Obama is a Muslim (by the way, he's...
Sat, 28 Aug 10
Hackers Invade iTunes Accounts, Buy Gift Cards
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74909
Cybercriminals are stepping up the hijacking of Apple iTunes accounts, often leaving consumers distraught.
Hijackers buy iTunes logons from e-mail phishers expert at tricking you into typing your credentials at spoofed Web sites. ITunes logons also get stolen and sold off by hackers who spread computer infections containing keystroke loggers that capture logons as you type them.
Hijackers often begin by testing a few $1 purchases before moving on to larger transactions. They typically buy iTunes gift card codes, usually in $50 to $200 amounts. They then sell the codes -- which can be used like cash to buy music and videos -- at a steep discount, openly on the Internet. "Any online account that allows the transfer of funds can be a cash cow," says Randy Eset, education director for anti-virus firm ESET.
Apple says there is little it can do about iTunes account hijacking. The company advises victims to change their passwords and contact their financial institution about being made whole.
ITunes hijacking has been happening for at least a year. It heated up after CEO Steve Jobs boasted at a June conference that Apple supports 150 million iTunes users, says Kurt Baumgartner, senior researcher at Kaspersky Lab. Cybercriminals are opportunistic, he says. They know Apple stores credit and debit card, checking account and PayPal information to enable online transactions.
Jeremy Schwartz, a 24-year-old tech contractor from Maumee, Ohio, recently had to scramble to get his bank to reimburse $87. An intruder logged into his iTunes account and used his debit card account number to buy an iTunes gift card and other items. Schwartz launched a Facebook discussion page for angry iTunes victims, and shut down his iTunes account. "I refuse to buy from a company that can't even admit there's a problem when the problem is pretty big," he says.
Schwartz got his...
Fri, 27 Aug 10
Cisco Will Buy ExtendMedia To Manage Video Delivery
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74927
Internet infrastructure giant Cisco Systems will acquire a small content-management firm in a bid to help clients stream video to multiple screens. "Today, we are pleased to welcome ExtendMedia to the Cisco family," wrote John Earnhardt, Cisco's social-media director on the company's blog Thursday.
A privately held company based in Newton, Mass., with most of its employees in Toronto, Canada, ExtendMedia is a leading provider of software-based content-management systems that "manage the entire life cycle of video content through monetization for pay media and ad-supported business models."
"ExtendMedia will enable Cisco to help service providers deliver multiscreen offerings as the market transitions to IP video," Earnhardt wrote. "In English: Video, video, video and more video on any screen, on any network, on any device."
Cisco didn't release the terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the first half of the next fiscal year. The majority of ExtendMedia employees will be integrated into Cisco's Service Provider Video Technology Group. Cisco said the company's software team "understands the complexities of delivering multiscreen video over IP networks," and its CMS software will be a core component of Cisco's next-generation video architecture
The deal is consistent with efforts by a growing number of companies to get ready for an age in which mobile devices like tablets, smartphones and laptops become receivers for a variety of content from cable companies, movie rental firms, YouTube, TV networks, and others.
"Everyone has been looking at different methods for managing content and distributing that content via different delivery methods," said Jason Blackwell, digital home analysis director at ABI Research.
"This puts [Cisco] in a more competitive position against companies that do content management like Brightcove and Limelight networks," he added. "Cisco is already positioned well with cable and electronics in terms of set-top boxes. But those same...
Fri, 27 Aug 10
Facebook Sues To Bar the Use of 'Book' in Site's Name
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74926
Facebook is suing Teachbook, claiming the startup's use of the word "book" in its name trespasses on its trademark. Facebook filed the complaint last week in the U.S. District Court of San Jose, Calif. Facebook argues that Teachbook is trying to leverage the social-networking giant's popularity by launching a social network for teachers with the word "book" in the name.
"The 'book' component of the Facebook mark has no descriptive meaning and is arbitrary and highly distinctive in the context of online communities and networking web sites," the lawsuit says.
"If others could freely use 'generic plus book' marks for online networking services targeted to that particular generic category of individuals, the suffix 'book' could become a generic term for 'online community/networking services' or 'social-networking services,'" it says. "That would dilute the distinctiveness of the Facebook marks, impairing their ability to function as unique and distinctive identifiers of Facebook's goods and services."
Teachbook bills itself as a professional online community for teachers. Teachers can join the site to communicate with colleagues; create, share and search a database of lesson plans and instructional videos created by other teachers; and find online courses, instructional modules, and other educational resources.
"The difficulty Facebook is going to have is with the word 'book,' which is a common name and therefore difficult to protect," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. "Teachbook isn't a direct competitor to Facebook. It is trying to carve out a different kind of a niche."
Facebook isn't likely to back down and has plenty of money to put into a battle to protect its trademark. It's not likely that Teachbook can match Facebook's financial wherewithal in a long legal battle. Enderle expects Teachbook to capitulate rather than attempt to battle Facebook.
Facebook didn't specify damages in its...
Fri, 27 Aug 10
Netflix App Streams Video Onto iPhone and iPod Touch
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74925
Even as rumors about a 99-cent iTunes TV rental service swirl, Netflix is moving onto Apple's hardware with a free application that will let its members watch television episodes and movies on the iPhone and iPod touch. On Thursday, Netflix rolled out the Netflix App for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Members with plans starting at $8.99 a month can stream content to an Apple device at no additional cost. The Netflix App supports any iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.13 or later.
"Apple has changed the game for mobile devices," said Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO and cofounder. He said Netflix members can now carry "Netflix around in their pockets" and enjoy entertainment wherever their Apple devices take them.
Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, said the iPhone app is a "no-brainer" for Netflix members because it's free. Although some competing music services struggled to get Apple's App Store sanction, Enderle said the Netflix App isn't competing directly with Apple -- at least not now -- because Apple doesn't currently offer a subscription service.
"The Kindle app hasn't hurt Apple, and when Apple allowed Slacker in the App Store, that didn't hurt them, either," Enderle said. "So allowing these kinds of applications into the App Store has so far made the phones a lot more successful."
At the end of the day, Enderle noted, Apple is in the hardware business. Although Apple wants consumers locked into its services, as long as consumers are buying iPhones and iPods and iPads, the company is going to make its margins.
The Netflix App promises a high-quality viewing experience, a good variety of movie and TV choices, and a user-friendly interface. It's available via both Wi-Fi and 3G networks.
TV episodes and movies are organized into categories based on members' personal preferences,...
Fri, 27 Aug 10
Security Threats Reach Record Levels, IBM Reports
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74924
Security vulnerabilities reached record levels in the first half of 2010, according to a new report from IBM. Released Wednesday, the company's X-Force 2010 Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report documented more than 4,396 new vulnerabilities so far this year, an increase of 36 percent over the same period in 2009.
Currently, the report said, more than half -- 55 percent -- of these vulnerabilities "had no vendor-supplied patch at the end of the period." Web-application vulnerabilities are cited as the most frequent threat, with more than half of all reported issues involving this area. But the report said even that assessment could be underestimated, since it doesn't include custom-built web applications.
The report was released by IBM's X-Force team, the key security-research organization within the company. The team has collected and analyzed more than 50,000 vulnerabilities since 1997, and its Trend and Risk Report draws on that data, as well as an extensive database of intrusion events on customer networks worldwide.
A growing area of attacks with increasing complexity are occurring within JavaScript and Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Sophisticated attackers, the report noted, are breaking into networks without being spotted by traditional detection tools by using such techniques as "JavaScript obfuscation" to hide attacks within documents and web pages. Such attacks increased more than 50 percent year over year.
IBM's X-Force team said it started to see "widespread use of PDF-based exploits" in the first half of this year, and now three of the top five browser exploits involve PDFs. In April, IBM detected nearly 37 percent more activity than average in this area. This was the same period when a "malicious spam campaign" involving PDFs was used to transmit the Zeus and Pushdo botnets, which the company called "some of the most insidious threats" around.
The good news is that...
Fri, 27 Aug 10
Dell Matches HP's $1.6 Billion Bid for 3PAR
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74923
Dell said Thursday that 3PAR has accepted an enhanced $1.6 billion acquisition offer that matches the counteroffer Hewlett-Packard submitted on Aug. 23. Dell's initial bid for 3PAR was $1.15 billion.
Though HP could up the ante again, Dell noted that the acquisition agreement it signed with 3PAR on Aug. 16 includes a provision for matching competing bids. Moreover, if 3PAR accepts a competing offer, it will have to pay Dell a $72 million termination fee.
Thanks to its acquisition of EqualLogic in 2007, Dell already owns intellectual property for entry-level and mid-market storage deployments, noted IDC Vice President Benjamin Woo. "The addition of 3PAR would allow Dell to round out its storage portfolio by adding a high-end offering," Woo said.
Dell's other storage-technology acquisitions this year include Ocarina Networks and Scalent Networks. But Dell's strategy was incomplete without an enterprise-class primary storage system, observed Forrester Research Senior Analyst Andrew Reichman.
"3PAR, whose products generally compete with high-end systems in terms of performance and availability, will give Dell the ammunition they need to go head-to-head with the big guys," Reichman wrote in a blog.
IT organizations faced with ever-increasing storage requirements can deploy 3PAR's clustered storage architecture for multi-tenant cloud-computing environments. Though 3PAR is not yet profitable, Dell said it believes its global brand and customer reach will accelerate 3PAR's revenue growth.
"Dell has a demonstrated commitment and track record in integrating and growing acquired companies and nurturing their entrepreneurial and innovative cultures, as illustrated by the dramatic growth of the EqualLogic iSCSI storage business over the last three years," the company said.
Should HP decline to submit another bid, Dell's acquisition of 3PAR is expected to close before the end of the year. The goal is to offer Dell's customers a unified enterprise environment that includes all storage categories from direct...
Fri, 27 Aug 10
Apple May Offer New iPod Touch, iTunes Social Links
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74907
What will Apple do? That question, which pops up before every major Apple press event, is now focused on the company's Sept. 1 event in San Francisco when, according to various reports, a new iPod and a new socially oriented iTunes may be announced.
An update to the venerable iPod line is expected, since the company usually makes iPod announcements in September. Specifically, the speculation is centering around the addition of the Retina display technology to a new iPod touch, as well as dual cameras, front and back. The front camera would enable use of Apple's new FaceTime video-conferencing application.
Current Analysis' Avi Greengart said he expects Apple to announce an iPhone 4-like upper-end iPod touch, and he said "it wouldn't shock me" if a lower-cost iPod touch is also unveiled. Greengart said he also expects a new iPad with a camera, but probably not in September.
Some sort of music-related news is expected, since the media invitations show an acoustic guitar with the Apple logo in the center hole.
The rumor mill has also been abuzz about the possibility that some version of a socially oriented, web-based iTunes will be unveiled. Some reports, citing unnamed music-industry sources, say the new version will allow users to more easily share playlists, and possibly allow new ways for iTunes to connect with popular social-networking services like Twitter and Facebook.
A iPod-to-iPod capability for transferring songs, without involving a computer and iTunes, is also on the menu of possibilities.
There have also been reports the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has been setting up servers to allow music streaming through iTunes, essentially a cloud-based massive jukebox available from any device. But others are throwing cold water on that idea, saying Apple hasn't been securing the necessary licensing deals.
Both reports could be correct, and Apple could...
Fri, 27 Aug 10
Security Firm Survey Lists Safest Web-Surfing Countries
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74899
New Zealanders surfing the web are relatively safe from malicious computer attacks and viruses, according to an Internet security company study released on Tuesday.
Melbourne-based AVG Technologies compiled data from 127 million PCs from 144 countries to look at security threats that its software dealt with in the last week of July.
It found one in 103 New Zealand PCs are attacked, coming in at 63rd, while Australia ranked 37th with a one in 75.
The world's riskiest country for web surfers is Turkey with AVG software protecting one in 10 Internet users. In Russia, one in 14 users were hit, and one in 24 in Armenia.
Other countries on the riskiest top 10 list were the United States, Vietnam, Portugal and the Ukraine.
The safest place to surf the web is Japan with one in 404 hit.
The study shows South America was the safest continent to surf with one in 164 PCs hit. Africa came in second with one in 108, followed by Asia, including Asia Pacific, with one in 102.
North America was the riskiest with one in 51. Globally, the average was one in 73 attacks.
Fri, 27 Aug 10
Google's 'Search Czar' Is in Touch with the World
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74898
Like few other people on the planet, Google's Ben Gomes knows what interests the world.
Gomes is the engineer in charge of improving what you see when you Google. From one of the most important but little-known offices in the Googleplex in Mountain View, Gomes is responsible for shaping the automatic suggestions users get as they begin typing a query, and the few lines of text and links they get back, which Google calls "the snippet." He sees the digital torrent of Google's 1 billion daily search queries.
The interaction between user and search engine defines what Google is all about, and company co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have put Gomes in charge of improving that dialogue.
"I think of Ben as our diplomat," said Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience. "It's Google; it's search. There's a lot of big personalities; there's a lot of opinions, and Ben is the reasonable one that can help build the bridges. When we look back, there was a point where Larry and Sergey really felt like we needed to name a search czar. ... And there was only one natural choice -- this was back in 2002 -- and that was Ben."
Despite the wave of Google products like Gmail, Android smart phones and digital maps, Google's touchstone remains search, which according to estimates by the research firm IDC accounted for 92.5 percent of Google's $6.8 billion in revenue in the second quarter. The history of Google search can be told through the evolution of technical features like the snippet, but it is also the story of the dogged behind-the-scenes work of engineers like Gomes, who is little known outside the Googleplex.
Gomes shares an office with three key search engineers, including one he has known since they were 13-year-old friends in...
Fri, 27 Aug 10
Benefits Are Vague for Location-Based Apps
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74895
Facebook's announcement last week that it plans to drag its 500 million users into the location-sharing craze raises an important question: Why in the name of Ferdinand Magellan would anyone want to do such a thing?
For the past two years, I've experimented with various services that allow you to "check in" and share your location with friends and social networks. Among the early adopter crowd, this is considered The Next Really Big Thing. In certain circles, it seems like everyone is spending their whole day checking in everywhere.
But it's mostly been a fringe phenomenon, with less than 4 percent of adults trying it, according to Forrester Research. However, Facebook's launch of its new Places service could give a major shot of adrenaline to the practice of checking in. It will take time before we know for sure, because Facebook is rolling the service out slowly. For now, it's only going to be available to iPhone users and people with smart phones that have the most advanced browsers.
Owners of Android and BlackBerry phones are out of luck for the moment. Facebook said it will eventually create new apps for those phones, but didn't say when.
Facebook's move into this space also raises the question of whether it will squash all the other companies that provide various check-in services. Many of them were gamely on stage at the Facebook announcement, trying to put a brave face on a development that could in fact deliver a death blow to many of them. But there are plenty of things these services offer that Facebook doesn't, so perhaps some of them will survive.
If you're among the uninitiated, "checking in" works like this: You arrive at some place and take out your smart phone. You launch the app of one of the check-in services, which tries to...
Fri, 27 Aug 10
iTunes Texas Education Channel Launched
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74892
Texas students can now download podcasts, videos and other multimedia lessons directly from iTunes through a new online program aimed at providing free, supplementary coursework that can be accessed anywhere, state officials announced Tuesday.
The Texas Education iTunes U channel allows teachers to upload material from their classes to help students understand new concepts or do more research in a specific subject area. Students and parents can access the material through home or school computers, and those with iPods can download the information to the handheld devices.
The state first met with Apple Inc. about three years ago. The governor's office and the Texas Education Agency began working on the project in November, finding and culling existing teacher training videos and programs for students, said agency spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe.
"A lot of that content may already be out there, but it's either overlooked or hard to access," Gov. Rick Perry told about 50 students at Sharpstown High School in southwest Houston. "This will really consolidate that information."
Teachers across the state can also trade tips and advice about lesson plans by posting and viewing each other's videos. Already, 146,000 teachers have signed up to participate and formed 5,000 subject groups, said Education Commissioner Robert Scott.
The only external costs associated with the program would be additional server space or production equipment, Ratcliffe said. Apple is currently hosting the files and videos that have already been created.
"Once we get a huge volume of content, then we would have to buy a server, but that's pretty far down the road," she said.
Other state agencies and nonprofit groups will also participate and upload content to the site. The state has partnered with PBS, the Smithsonian Institution and the National Archives, Scott said.
Any user can download the public, free materials the same way music and videos are accessed from...
Fri, 27 Aug 10
Target Boosts Electronics Offerings with Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74891
Target is known for being cheap and chic. But now the retailer is making a big push to become known as a destination for electronics.
Target Corp. said Tuesday it's adding several services for electronics shoppers, including free telephone technical support for purchases, an electronics recycling program that offers store gift cards and expanded wireless phone offerings.
The company is rolling out mobile centers in its stores with partner RadioShack to allow people to sign up for cell phone plans with major carriers or get new phones. People will also be able to trade in old video games and other electronics for store gift cards.
The moves come as the electronics business becomes more competitive. Discounters such as Target and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are competing with specialized electronic retailers such as Best Buy. The category, despite the economic downturn, is still hot because people consider cell phones and other electronics necessities, said Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy.
"It's another way to draw traffic into the stores," he said. "I think if you're going to become a major electronics retailer, you have to have the service side behind it."
Minneapolis-based Target wants to make sure people think of its stores as a destination for electronics. It wants shoppers to be able to use the products they buy and have no fears about buying them, said Senior Vice President Mark Schindele.
"Electronics are getting more complicated and more of us are connected to the Internet and wireless," he said. "Guests want a seamless experience."
So the new focus on electronics service starts in store and follows shoppers home.
Target started quietly testing a toll-free number, 877-myTGTtech, last month. The hot line is available nationwide to anyone who bought an electronic item at Target. All they have to do is provide a receipt number, although Schindele said the operators would most likely...
Fri, 27 Aug 10
Germany To Prevent Facebook Checks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74888
Ever thought twice about posting a party picture on Facebook, fearing it could someday hurt your chance at a dream job?
A new German law is supposed to solve the problem by making it illegal for prospective employers to spy on applicants' private postings.
The draft law on employee data security presented by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Wednesday is the government's latest attempt to address privacy concerns about online services including social networks and Google "Street View".
It is also a reaction to corporations checking on employee e-mails and filming sales clerks during coffee breaks -- which has triggered public outrage in Germany.
De Maiziere acknowledged that some of the new regulations -- which have yet to be discussed and passed by parliament -- might be complicated to enact.
For example, employers will still be allowed to run a search on the Web on their applicants, de Maiziere said. Anything out in public is fair game, as are postings on networks specifically created for business contacts, such as LinkedIn.
In contrast, it will be illegal to become a Facebook friend with an applicant in order to check out private details, he said, adding that some people seem to be indiscriminate about whom they accept as a friend.
"If an employer turns down an application with another reasoning it might be difficult to prove" that the negative answer was based on the Facebook postings, de Maiziere said.
A rejected job applicant who proves he or she was turned down based on violation of the new law could take the company to court and claim damages, he said.
The new law will also prevent clandestine video surveillance in the workplace, particularly in private spaces like lavatories or locker rooms, de Maiziere said. An employer ignoring the new rule could be charged fines of up to ?300,000 (about $379,000).
However, cameras...
Thu, 26 Aug 10
Motorola Buys 280 North To Expand Android Apps
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74905
Motorola, maker of the top-selling Android-based smartphone, Droid, is investing in the Google operating system's future by buying a company that will make it easier to develop Android applications. Schaumberg, Ill.-based Motorola is believed to have paid $20 million to buy 280 North.
The two-year-old venture has three founders. Francisco Tolmasky and Ross Boucherformer are former Apple engineers who worked on maps for the iPhone, on the mobile version of Safari, and on the iTunes store. The third founder is Tom Robinson. The trio were students together at the University of Southern California.
The company is best known for creating Cappuccino, an open-source framework for developers to create applications for web browsers that look and operate like desktop applications. Cappuccino uses a programming language called Objective-J, which, according to 280 North, is "modeled after Objective-C and built entirely on top of JavaScript. Programs written in Objective-J are interpreted in the client, so no compilation or plug-ins are required."
The acquisition took place earlier this summer, a Motorola spokesperson told the tech blog that broke the story. The spokesperson said the deal "provides Motorola with specialized web-app engineering talent and technology that will help facilitate the continued expansion of Motorola's application ecosystem." The spokesperson added that "280 North will be instrumental in helping us continue to foster the Android ecosystem with innovative web-based technologies and applications."
Motorola didn't return our calls for comment about whether the company will produce applications for non-Android systems.
The Droid is offered by Verizon Wireless and has been purchased by 33.75 percent of Android users, according to an analysis by the mobile-ad firm Chitika. Motorola also makes T-Mobile's CLIQ and CLIQ QT, which the survey found to be capturing a smaller share of the Android market, 4.48 and 0.86 percent, respectively.
A study by Canalys showed that shipments of Android-based products...
Thu, 26 Aug 10
VoIP Calls Make Gmail a Converged E-Mail Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74904
Should Skype be worried? Google just invaded its territory with a new service that brings Voice over Internet Protocol to Gmail and links it to the Google Voice app. All this means users can make telephone calls from the Gmail interface.
Gmail users have been chatting through PC microphones and speakers via a service called Google Talk since 2005. But until now Gmail users couldn't dial into landlines. Both Gmail users had to be sitting behind their computers and signed into Gmail to talk.
"Given that most of us don't spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, 'Wouldn't it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones?'" Google Software Engineer Robin Schriebman wrote on the Official Google Blog. "Starting today, you can call any phone right from Gmail."
"We've been testing this feature internally and have found it to be useful in a lot of situations, ranging from making a quick call to a restaurant to placing a call when you're in an area with bad reception," Schriebman wrote.
Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year, Google said, and it promised calls to other countries will be billed at very low rates. Schriebman said Google worked hard to make international calling rates "really cheap." Calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan -- and many more countries -- are as...
Thu, 26 Aug 10
Russian Document Leaks IE9 Interface and Features
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74903
With the beta of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 scheduled for release on Sept. 15, a new document from Microsoft Russia has surfaced that indicates the user interface and other details. The Russian-language document, called 5 New Opportunities IE9, was online only briefly, although it's currently available in the Bing search cache.
The company has released information about IE9 several times in the last six months, which included some of the upcoming capabilities but little about the user interface. The Microsoft Russia document features a screenshot of a very simple screen design, with only a handful of menu items at the very top and bottom of the screen. The document touts the new browser's support for HTML5, focus on the web, increased productivity, and taskbar-based site icons.
The inclusion of "focus on web" refers to the avoidance of too many navigational elements, leaving more visible space for sites.
"The user now sees only what is necessary for navigation," the document said. In the document's screenshot, the address bar, search bar, and toolbar are in one row.
In Microsoft's previous information releases, and in the Microsoft Russia document, the clear enthusiasm for HTML5 and other standards is, in part, due to the performance boost the browser is expected to get from hardware. For instance, the Russian document mentions playback of embedded video and audio content -- including high-definition -- without plug-ins or other software, enabled by hardware support for HTML5 and related standards.
According to the document, Windows users will have the ability to go to a site directly from the Windows taskbar without opening IE9. Dragging a site to the taskbar will create an icon in the taskbar. Essentially, the focus is on sites, not the browser, and some observers are comparing this feature to application mode in Google's Chrome browser. Only...
Thu, 26 Aug 10
Mobile-Apps Provider Cellmania Joins Research In Motion
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74902
Cellmania says it has become part of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion under undisclosed terms. Cellmania is "bringing their expertise in application storefront development to the BlackBerry platform," a company spokesperson said Wednesday. "However, RIM is not providing any further comment at this time."
Cellmania reportedly has 23 customers spread across four continents and currently provides some two million content items. Although RIM offers mobile software in its App World, the inventory of mobile apps is a fraction of what rivals deliver, so Cellmania's technology could help it better compete with Google's Android Market and Apple's App Store.
"It is refreshing when a company understands the threat to its position in the market, resists the not-invented-here instincts, and opens up for acquisition in the way RIM has," said Al Hilwa, director of application development software at IDC. "It shows a strong survival instinct and adaptability."
The Mountain View, Calif.-based Cellmania said it will continue to support its client base, which consists of multiple devices and content types. What Hilwa finds interesting about RIM's acquisition is its potential as a content hub for more than just the BlackBerry platform.
"That is a new play and would position them well if they choose to keep that part of Cellmania's portfolio active," Hilwa explained. "Generally, the more traffic you can get to your catalog, the more visible the apps for your platform will be."
Still, RIM's future hinges on more than a storefront overhaul. RIM had high hopes earlier this month when the company launched a new Torch smartphone featuring the latest version of the Blackberry OS, but analysts were unimpressed. "With this specific phone, the screen size and resolution are probably a generation behind the state of the art today from Apple or Android," Hilwa said.
Gartner currently ranks RIM as number two...
Thu, 26 Aug 10
Microsoft's Bing Now Powers Searches on Yahoo
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74901
At Yahoo search, the buck stops with Bing. Yahoo has officially transitioned its search back end to Microsoft's Bing platform.
The announcement is the first major move in the 10-year deal Microsoft and Yahoo inked after the companies failed to execute a merger agreement. Forged just 13 months ago, the 10-year search partnership will see Microsoft's Bing technology powering Yahoo search and Yahoo will become the worldwide sales arm for both companies' premium search advertisers.
"Microsoft and Yahoo won't take down Google. But they'll provide broader reach and greater simplicity for advertisers on their combined network -- which now has enough scale to be meaningful to advertisers," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.
"The Bing index may help Yahoo be more competitive from a consumer standpoint as well," he added. "However, Yahoo will have to get busy and 'innovate' around the user experience as it has said it will do."
So now that Bing is officially powering Yahoo's search results in the U.S. and Canada -- in English only for now; other languages will come later -- what's next?
As the agreement continues to roll out, advertisers will see self-serve advertising for both companies fulfilled by Microsoft's AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter's automated auction process. Each company will maintain its own display-advertising business and sales force.
"We continue to work hard on the migration to AdCenter, and are optimistic about completing this phase later this fall," said Satya Nadella, senior vice president of Microsoft's Online Services Division. "As we have said all along, our primary goal is to provide advertisers with a quality transition experience in 2010, while being mindful of the holiday season."
Yahoo's Innovation Plans
What will the change look like to the end user? The Yahoo web, image...
Thu, 26 Aug 10
99-Cent iTunes Rentals Could Transform TV Reruns
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74900
Rent a TV episode for 99 cents on iTunes. That possibility is now being considered by industry watchers as the rumor mill gears up for an expected Sept. 1 Apple press event in San Francisco, Calif.
The initial report came Wednesday from Bloomberg News, which cited "three people familiar with the plan." The news service said Apple is in "advanced talks" with News Corp., owner of Fox, as well as with CBS, NBC Universal, and Walt Disney. Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs is a member of the board at Disney and its biggest shareholder. Bloomberg said Fox and the ABC Network, which is owned by Disney, are closer to a deal than the other two major entertainment networks, CBS and NBC.
In the 99-cent rental being discussed, a user could watch a commercial-free program an unlimited number of times within a 48-hour period. New episodes would be available on iTunes within 24 hours of their airing.
As the 600-pound gorilla in the world of online entertainment, an iTunes TV rental service could have a significant impact on the TV industry in general, and on online competitors Netflix, Amazon.com and Hulu in particular. Among other things, it could propel Apple's popular mobile devices -- the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch -- into a favored position as the device of choice for those watching off-air TV.
TV might be the primary theme of the Sept. 1 event, as reports also indicate the company will announce a $99 version of its Apple TV set-top box. Renamed iTV, the new device is expected to essentially be an iPhone 4 adapted for display on TVs.
Van Baker, an analyst with Garter, noted that the "iPad is a very nice device for watching TV content." If iTunes does get 99-cent TV rentals, he said, it...
Thu, 26 Aug 10
3Par Bids Lift Data Storage Stocks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74879
As computer makers Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. start a bidding war for 3Par Inc., investors are placing bets on who the next acquisition target will be in the data storage industry.
HP and Dell are both looking past a sluggish personal computer market to find bigger profits elsewhere. They are among the tech giants trying to branch out with more software, hardware and services offerings for other companies. They hope to be a trusted, one-stop-shop for customers updating their technology infrastructures.
And one piece of that infrastructure is the software and equipment used to store data. H-P on Monday bid $1.5 billion for data storage provider 3Par, 33 percent more than the $1.13 billion that rival Dell agreed to pay for the company just a week earlier.
The interest in 3Par has investors looking at similar names in the industry, which is driving up the value of their shares.
Shares of Compellent Technologies Inc., a Eden Prairie, Minn., maker or storage hardware and software, jumped $1.64, or nearly 12 percent, to $15.59 in afternoon trading. Oceanport, N.J.-based CommVault Systems Inc., which makes data management software under the Simpana brand, rose $2.82, or 13.6 percent, to $23.61.
And the Seattle-based storage company Isilon Systems Inc. saw shares rise $2.08, or almost 12 percent, to $19.91.
Investors signaled that they don't expect the bidding for 3Par to end either.
The company's stock jumped $7.64, or 42.4 percent, to $25.68, well above HP's offer of $24 per share. Dell opened the bidding last week at $18. A company spokesman declined to say what Dell's next move will be.
Thu, 26 Aug 10
Video Games Help Shy Kids Build Social Skills
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74873
Scientists have found that children who spend hours playing online games may be developing friendships and nurturing vital social skills, a news report said Tuesday.
Rather than causing them harm, playing computer games can help boost the self-esteem of shy youngsters and increase their satisfaction with life, the South China Morning Post reported.
The benefits of online games were similar to those of making friends in the real world, the researchers from the Chinese University in Hong Kong concluded.
More than 600 primary school children were interviewed for the study, which found they spent an average of 67 minutes a day playing online games and 44 minutes using hand-held game consoles.
Nearly one-fifth of the pupils interviewed said they played for three hours a day or more, according to the newspaper.
Dr. Angel Leung of the university's psychology department said: "Online friendship is ... especially important to those who are extremely shy or introverted -- those who have difficulties making friends in real life."
However, she conceded that playing online games too much could adversely affect their academic results with English the subject most affected by game playing, the report said.
Thu, 26 Aug 10
Browsers' Private Mode Doesn't Offer Perfect Security
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74851
Many Internet browsers offer "private mode" or "InPrivate" mode to protect surfers against those who might want to retrace their steps later.
However, a study by scientists at Stanford University in California showed that significant holes remain in the protection offered by such modes. The desired security levels can be negated by certain plug-ins that store information about which Web sites have been visited.
"Many popular browser extensions and plug-ins undermine the security offered by private surfing," the four authors of the study explained prior to its recent publication at a security conference in Washington. The team, under the leadership of computer scientist Dan Boneh, examined four browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.
The scientists identified 16 extensions in Firefox alone that stored Internet usage data on the hard drive. That data could then be misused by an attacker to spy on information related to visiting specific Web sites.
The authors of the study developed a plug-in of their own which they call "ExtensionBlocker." The program deactivates all extensions that compromise the security of surfing in private mode.
Private mode is found in Internet Explorer and Firefox under the "Tools" menu. It prevents cookies from being stored on the hard drive and turns off the history function while private mode is on. Cookies are text files that many Web sites use to retain settings for the user's next visit. The researchers found that private mode is most frequently used to visit erotic Web sites.
Thu, 26 Aug 10
Toshiba's Blu-ray Entry: Solid But Slow
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74773
The promise of zipping music, movies, and TV around the home has been a chief selling point for many electronics gadgets in the past few years. Cables create clutter, and the relatively recent Wi-Fi "n" flavor offers home networkers improved data speeds and coverage area. In other words -- let that content flow wirelessly. At least that was my thinking when I expanded my home network's utility by hooking up the latest Blu-ray offering from Toshiba.
Toshiba has been playing catch-up. Parent to the rival high-def format, the now-defunct HD-DVD, Toshiba didn't release its first Blu-ray player until September 2009 and has been selling a standard "upconversion" DVD player aimed at consumers who want simulated high-def picture but may be reluctant to take the Blu-ray plunge. Toshiba's initial Blu-ray player was sold largely as a product for retailers to bundle into high-def TV packages and did not receive much of a marketing push. Fast-forward to summer 2010, and Toshiba is selling two new Blu-ray players, the WiFi-ready BDX2500 and the WiFi-enabled BDX2700. A third model sporting both WiFi and 3D capability, the BDX3000, is to be introduced later this year. The players also stream video from Netflix, CinemaNow, and VUDU, and music from Pandora.
I chose to review the middle player of the pack, the BDX2700, which lists for $249 but is easy to find online for around $170. The first thing you notice is how petite this machine is: less than 4 pounds and just 8 inches deep. Light as a feather, it's a breeze to fit in most equipment racks and to reposition, which you may find necessary depending on your WiFi coverage. I discovered this right after completing the simple set-up: A weak network connection makes the player freeze and behave disagreeably, inducing frustration. Pandora would usually play one...
Wed, 25 Aug 10
Touchscreen iMac Could Come from Old Apple Patent
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74885
Apple long ago made the transition from a company that makes news with its products to a company that makes news with products people think it may be making. Lately, it has become the company that makes news for what it reserves the right to do.
For the second day in a row, the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer giant has caused a stir with patent applications. On Monday it was for a system to allow tracking and deactivation of lost, stolen or misused phones, and on Tuesday it's for an application for a computer form factor that can handle both touchscreen and keyboard input, much like a growing number of smartphones.
The difference is that while the tracking patent was filed recently in the United States, the touchscreen patent was filed in Europe and is dated July 9, 2009. A blog that solely covers Apple patents discovered the application in the course of researching news of a rumored touchscreen iMac.
The application came before Apple's release of the much-anticipated and highly successful iPad tablet computer in January.
The application is titled Transitioning Between Modes of Input, and includes "Transitioning between a high-resolution input mode, such as a mouse-based interface, and a low-resolution input mode, such as a touch-based interface, is described. ... A change of orientation can be detected with one or more sensors, such as an accelerometer, position sensors, etc. Transitioning from one mode to another can include modifying an item displayed in the UI of the one mode into a corresponding item displayed in the UI of the other mode. The modifying can include enlarging/reducing, obscuring/unobscuring, moving, etc."
Apple published several diagrams from the application that show a desktop that can swivel from the traditional orientation facing the user to become flat, which would require the user to look down as touchscreen controls...
Wed, 25 Aug 10
Samsung Confirms Galaxy Tablet To Battle Apple's iPad
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74884
Samsung is getting ready to introduce an Android tablet that plays off the success of its Galaxy S smartphones. The long-rumored device was confirmed Tuesday when Samsung launched a web site and a short video teaser for the tablet.
Samsung's video sets out to get attention with a provoking question that aims right at the heart of Apple's iPad: "Need More?" The video uses phrases like "Rugmented Reality" to describe the device, which will launch in Berlin on Sept. 2.
Dubbed the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the iPad competitor will offer a seven-inch touchscreen and run on Android 2.2. The tablet uses Samsung's popular Swype software that promises faster text input. The Tab offers HD movie playback, navigation, augmented reality, e-reading capabilities, and a PC-like browsing experience.
"No one is going to cede that market to Apple without a fight," said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group. "It's hard to get a good sense based on the teaser Samsung put out there of how this will compete. We'll have to really see what they've done and how they are going to distinguish and differentiate."
One of the ways the Samsung Tab plans to differentiate is with two cameras and the ability to make video calls. However, the brief commercial, which plays repeatedly on Samsung's mini-site for the product, doesn't give any details about the video-sharing software or the camera resolution.
"Samsung could offer differentiation through hardware, either in terms of the type of screen or offering voice capabilities," Gartenberg said. "The question is, will those be features that matter only on paper, or will they be features that resonate with the consumer?"
Apple has sold millions of iPads, so it's no surprise that Samsung would launch a tablet with a design that appears at least somewhat similar to the market-leading device. One...
Wed, 25 Aug 10
Dell Begins Selling the Aero, Its First U.S. Smartphone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74883
From now on, "a Dell" can also refer to a smartphone. On Tuesday, the computer maker started selling its first smartphone in the U.S., the Aero.
The new device utilizes Google's open-source Android operating system, has a 3.5-inch 640x360 touchscreen with pinch-to-zoom functionality, and is available for $99 with a two-year AT&T contract, or $299 by itself.
Ron Garriques, president of Dell Communications Solutions, emphasized the social orientation of the new device, which, he said, will "help people find new ways to connect with friends and express themselves socially."
Features in the new device include handwriting recognition, support for Exchange e-mail with Active Sync, the Quick Office productivity app, a management tool for searching, Facebook with integrated calendar and contacts, Twitter, Google apps such as YouTube, 2GB of internal memory, a single-click upload to social-networking sites, and access to the Android Market.
There's also a five-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, a customized user interface, Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), and Tri-Band UMTS/HSDPA (850/1900/2100 MHz). The five-megapixel camera has 8x zoom and flash, as well as a dedicated camera key and what the company described as "advanced shooting and editing capabilities." User-accessible microSD offers expandable memory up to 32GB, and there's a full HTML browser.
The smartphone uses the 1.5 version of Android, and Dell hasn't yet confirmed when the most recent version, 2.2, will be available. Some Dell watchers have wondered why the company is releasing the device with a not-quite-up-to-date OS. Dell has said the company developed "a tremendous amount of customization and features" on top of the 1.5 version, so the Aero actually offers a "superset of 1.5."
Dell previously released the Mini 3i smartphone in China, although the company hasn't said how well that product fared. The Aero was announced by Dell in March.
Like many other Android-based products, the...
Wed, 25 Aug 10
Intel, Nokia Collaborate To Bring 3-D To Mobile Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74882
Looking to ride on the wave of 3-D buzz flooding the consumer electronics market this year, Intel and Nokia have established a collaborative research lab in Oulu, Finland, to tackle the challenge of bringing 3-D to mobile devices. The Intel and Nokia Joint Innovation Center is up and running at the Center for Internet Excellence at the University of Oulu. More than 20 researchers plan to spend three years collaborating on the 3-D mobile concept.
The innovation center will initially focus on creating "new and compelling" Internet user experiences that "leverage the rapidly increasing processing and graphics power of mobile devices." Work is already under way on using 3-D graphics technology to create immersive mobile interfaces.
"3-D technology could change the way we use our mobile devices and make our experiences with them much more immersive," said Rich Green, senior vice president and CTO at Nokia. "Our new joint laboratory with Intel draws on the Oulu research community's 3-D interface expertise and, over time, will lay down some important foundations for future mobile experiences."
Intel and Nokia are betting on the potential for 3-D Internet to become the next major breakthrough in the mobile user experience. The Oulu region is home to a strong 3-D Internet development community, and technologies such as the open-source virtual reality platform realXtend have been created as a result of 3-D research in Oulu.
The Intel-Nokia research is part of their MeeGo project. The MeeGo concept was born about a year ago when Intel and Nokia decided to work together on mobile-computing initiatives. Essentially, MeeGo merges Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo operating environments for use in devices with both Intel Atom and ARM processors.
Nokia is betting heavily on the MeeGo operating system, which was developed for use in smartphones, tablet devices, and other touch-enabled environments....
Wed, 25 Aug 10
Bulldozer and Bobcat Cores Are Central To AMD's Plans
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74881
Advanced Micro Devices was to detail the performance characteristics of two new cores for x86 computer architectures Tuesday at the Hot Chips 22 conference in Palo Alto, Calif. AMD said the new Bulldozer core for servers and high-performance PCs, and the forthcoming Bobcat core for low-power notebooks and other small form-factor devices, are central to the chipmaker's future road map.
Bulldozer's multi-threaded performance balances dedicated and shared resources to provide a highly compact, high-core-count design, AMD executives noted. By contrast, AMD's Bobcat platform is geared for flexibility, low power, and size, and can even become scaled and combined with other IP in accelerated processing unit (APU) configurations, they said.
"With CPUs and APUs built from these core implementations, we expect our customers to deliver a new wave of innovative PC form factors and high-performance computing experiences," said AMD Senior Vice President Chekib Akrout.
According to AMD, Bulldozer's dedicated resources include two integer-execution cores that deliver true core functionality. "By presenting two true cores to the operating system and applications, two simultaneous threads can be executed more efficiently than two threads running on a single integer core," the chipmaker said.
Multi-threading on a single core often can be inconsistent and only deliver incremental gains -- or, under some workloads, even result in negative throughput, AMD observed. "With dedicated cores and parallel thread execution, Bulldozer offers more consistent results and superior throughput," the chipmaker said.
Moreover, the new 16-core Bulldozer platform will feature AMD's first major memory controller overhaul since the introduction of the quad-core AMD Opteron in 2007, noted John Fruehe, director of product marketing for servers and workstations at AMD.
"Back then, everyone was looking at virtualization, but not as many were deploying it," Fruehe wrote in a blog. "These new memory-controller enhancements were designed with virtualization in mind so...
Wed, 25 Aug 10
Toshiba May Offer 3-D TV Without Glasses By Year's End
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74880
The prospect of watching 3-D TV while wearing clunky glasses is less than appealing to many consumers -- especially those already wearing glasses. TVs that don't require glasses could be the solution, and Toshiba has confirmed it's developing sets that could be on the market by year's end.
According to an article in the Japanese newspaper Yomiyuri, the company is developing models using autostereoscopic 3-D technology. Although the technical details of Toshiba's approach aren't yet known, autostereoscopy can use one of several techniques to provide multiple vantage points so glasses are not required.
On Tuesday, company spokesperson Yuko Sugahara confirmed that Toshiba is working on such technology, but she declined comment on reports that the sets could be out this year. She did say the technology transmits different images at different angles, which could create multiple viewing positions.
Regardless of Toshiba's plans, the future of 3-D future is without glasses, according to Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). ITRI demonstrated a 42-inch glasses-free 3-D LCD TV in May, and a company executive said it can manufacture such sets up to 65 inches.
ITRI said the main issues for adoption of 3-D without glasses are broadcasting, content and eye safety, and it predicted that 3-D TV without glasses won't be widely available until 2015.
While 3-D sets requiring glasses have been big news at trade shows this year, including models from Panasonic, Samsung and Sony, the no-glasses technology has been lower profile. There are currently no-glasses screens for in-store display that require the viewer to stand in particular locations, such as those using Phillips' lenticular technology.
Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group, noted there is also no-glasses 3-D technology that achieves the effect by using two layers of glass, such as from a...
Wed, 25 Aug 10
Recession Hurts Smartphone Makers in the Chips
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74863
The seemingly recession-proof smart phone is suffering from a side effect of the rough economy: Manufacturers simply can't build enough of the gadgets because chip-makers that rolled back production last year are now scrambling to play catch-up.
The chip shortage means Apple Inc.'s rivals are having trouble making enough phones to compete with the iPhone, a problem expected to persist through the holidays. It's also affecting wireless carriers, some of which are seeing delays in improving their networks, and it could even raise computer prices.
There isn't an across-the-board shortage of chips, but rather problems with certain components here and there. If just one of the 20 to 30 critical chips that go into a smart phone is unavailable, the whole production line screeches to a halt.
Sprint Nextel Corp., for instance, couldn't satisfy demand for HTC Corp.'s EVO 4G, the first phone to use a faster "4G" network, in parts of the country. Motorola Inc. said shortages of a wide range of chips, from memory to camera sensors to touch-screen controllers, are contributing to problems supplying enough of the new Droid X phones to Verizon Wireless. The carrier's online store reports a two-week wait for shipping orders.
The chips that go into smart phones compete for production capacity with other chips at the gigantic factories run by contract manufacturers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and United Microelectronics Corp. Makers of a vast array of electronics, from TVs to data center switches, also depend on the factories.
The chip-making industry had a tough start to 2009. February sales were only $14.2 billion, down 30 percent from the year before, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.
Although sales sprang back later in the year, manufacturers were spooked and reined in investment in chip factories. Capital spending plunged 41 percent to $25.9 billion in 2009, after dropping...
Wed, 25 Aug 10
British Official Decries Video Game with Taliban Role
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74859
A video game that allows players to adopt the role of the Taliban is a "tasteless product," Britain's defense secretary said Sunday, calling on retailers to show their support for troops by not selling it.
Liam Fox said he was "disgusted and angry" by "Medal of Honor," produced by Electronic Arts Inc.
"At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands. It's shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban against British soldiers," he said in a statement. "It's hard to believe any citizen of our country would wish to buy such a thoroughly un-British game. I would urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product."
The California-based company did not immediately respond to e-mails from the Associated Press, but spokeswoman Amanda Taggart was quoted by the Sunday Times as saying the game's format "merely reflects the fact that every conflict has two sides."
"We give gamers the opportunity to play both sides. Most of us have been doing this since we were seven: someone plays cop, someone must be robber," the newspaper quoted her as saying. "In Medal of Honor multiplayer, someone's got to be the Taliban. Nobody who plays video games is going to be shocked or surprised by this."
Playing from the perspective of the "enemy" isn't new to video games. Other versions of "Medal of Honor" have been set in the World War II era. When playing sessions with many different players, gamers can choose to be members of Allied forces or the Nazi regime. In "Grand Theft Auto" titles, from Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., gamers have the choice to take part in multiple controversial and criminal acts, including killing cops.
Last fall, Activision Blizzard Inc.'s "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" had...
Wed, 25 Aug 10
Upgrade Your Operating System Properly
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74854
When your computer's operating system starts showing its age, it's time for an upgrade to a newer version. But if the upgrade isn't done properly, you can create a whole new host of problems.
One thing to keep in mind is that computers cannot generally support more than one operating system at a time. That means, users need to delete their old system before installing the new one. Failing to do so can mean that a computer will no longer operate stably.
A clean new installation is always better than a basic update, says Mark Perseke of Netzwelt, an online German technology magazine.
A fresh operating system is faster and more reliable than one that has been copied over another. A new system also does not need to spend a lot of time integrating pre-existing files and programs or creating new data paths.
"That's why it's recommended to completely format the computer and, afterward, install the new operating system."
Technically, only software and programs can be de-installed. When discussing the de-installation of Windows, one is actually talking about erasing the operating system, explains Klaus Eickemeier of Computer Bild, another German computer magazine.
There is no proper de-installation routine for Windows. The two most common methods are to boot up a computer with the operating system CD installed and then to format the drive or, alternatively, to boot up the computer with a formatting program CD installed. If you want to be sure to erase all data, opt for the second method.
DBAN is a freeware program guaranteed to delete Windows. Once downloaded, it can be burned onto a CD and then used to boot up a computer. If you want to get your formatting program from the store, Acronis offers Director 11.
Once the drive has been wiped, the user can then simply start up the computer with...
Wed, 25 Aug 10
All Together Now: Collaborative Software for Beginners
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74853
It's no longer such a strange scenario. Work on a project begins on one person's computer before it's sent on via email for other people to weigh in and make changes.
"This can lead to duplication and someone ends up doing the work twice, which can make agreement difficult," says Herbert Braun of c't, a German computer magazine.
Help might come in the form of collaborative office services, which streamline the workflow for everything from word processing to creating spreadsheets, says Braun. This kind of collaborative work is fairly commonplace among software developers and freelancers. But now it's getting easier for laymen to do the same.
"Students now have the opportunity to do homework together from various locations, for example," says Braun.
Google Docs is one free collaborative online service. "It was the first important online office application that was easy to use for private users," says Braun. Zoho, a competitor, offers a service of similar quality.
Google Docs allows any user, regardless of time or place, to work together in flexible teams says Madeleine von Mohl, one of the founders of Betahaus Berlin, an open collaborative office space for the creative-minded. Documents are processed together while calendars are kept jointly. The Spreadsheet program is used to manage online questions or invitations.
Microsoft also recently introduced a web-based version of Office. Office Web Apps allows users to work on documents in their web browser, explains Mark Perseke from Netzwelt.de, a German online magazine. Those documents can then be made accessible to other users.
"The point here is not collaboration, but access and the ability to make changes from any computer with an Internet connection." Microsoft Web Apps is free for users who are registered with Windows Live.
Formatting problems are unusual in online collaboration. Documents retain their formatting during export even if multiple users on a variety of...
Wed, 25 Aug 10
Notebook Tools for Computing On the Road
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74852
For many these days, a notebook computer is an essential travel companion. But the computer itself is usually just the first tech tool you'll need in order to get your work done or to stay connected while you're away. What else is essential? Read on for some answers.
No matter how long your notebook's battery lasts, you'll have to charge it at some point. So don't forget your power cable. Beyond that, though, you'll need a power plug adapter if you're traveling to a country that uses a different power plug than the one you use at home.
Most power bricks that come with notebook computers can automatically sense the voltage necessary to run the machine, regardless of where you are in the world. But, if you're traveling abroad, you may still need a simple adapter to convert your plug into the one used in your destination.
If you're also taking along your smartphone, you'll need to charge it frequently, probably every day. You can probably charge it directly from your notebook by obtaining a simple USB cable that goes from your phone's power jack to a USB port in your notebook. Be sure to pack the cord -- it'll save you from having to take or purchase a more expensive power adapter for the phone.
If your notebook computer is not your main machine, chances are that you'll leave some essential file or e-mail message at home. That's where a remote access service like Logmein.com can be a life-saver.
Logmein is free, and with it you can use your Internet-connected notebook to access your main computer just as if you were sitting in front of it. Before you leave, use your main machine to create a Logmein account, install the unobtrusive client software, and practice accessing your machine from your...
Wed, 25 Aug 10
Experts Warn That Public Wi-Fi Is Not Always Secure
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74849
U.S. experts say computer users should be more security-aware and cautious when using Wi-Fi networks in public places like libraries and coffee shops.
Simple precautions available in most Wi-Fi hardware, like encryption protocols, can protect users and their computers at home but not necessarily in public places, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Friday.
Wi-Fi use in public places such as coffee shops is becoming increasingly popular, but these networks are typically wide open, Eric Johnson, a computer security expert at Florida International University, said.
"You should always treat any Internet activity you do at these locations as if it's being monitored," he said.
At home, he said, it's easier to use a network router's security features to protect private data.
"It's like putting a lock on your door of your house," Johnson said. "That's not going to stop a determined bad guy, but it's going to keep the wandering neighbor from making use of your Internet connection without your knowledge."
Encryption is built into any hardware that is branded "Wi-Fi Certified," given to products authorized by the Wi-Fi Alliance, a non-profit consortium of technology companies.
This protects home networks by securing data between the access point and the computer with government-grade encryption, the alliance Web site says.
Still, experts warn, users should always be aware of risks.
"The (Wi-Fi) user should be in the mindset that nothing is 100 percent secure," Elias Montoya, technology director for a Miami-based law firm, said. "If someone is intent on hacking you, they will."
Tue, 24 Aug 10
Facebook Buys Hot Potato To Jazz Up Places Feature
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74870
The media buzz around Facebook's new geolocation Places feature didn't even die down before the social-networking giant fueled the fire. Facebook acquired a startup called Hot Potato last week that could add some beef to Places.
Launched last November, Hot Potato helped stir the social-networking world's appetite for socializing around activities and live events. With some users complaining that Facebook's Places feature is a boring takeoff on competitor Foursquare, Hot Potato may heat up a so-far bland service.
Places lets Facebook's 500 million members share their locations by "checking in" to that place -- whether it's a movie theater, a restaurant, or a Starbucks -- to let friends know where they are. They can also see if friends have been there recently or are nearby. But you can't be the mayor like you can in Foursquare.
"Facebook wanted to create a foundation upon which they could build, so it's not surprising that they are acquiring this company that can add functions to Places," said Brad Shimmin, an analyst at Current Analysis. "Facebook has learned from past mistakes that if they are too aggressive with the launch of a new product, they can run into opposition."
As Shimmin sees it, Facebook's Places launch was a tentative first step designed to get the geotagging service into users' hands and give them an opportunity to get familiar with the concept without running into a major backlash from privacy advocates.
"Unfortunately, there are some aspects of how Facebook rolled out Places that could cause trouble," Shimmin said. "Opting everyone in and not providing a really clear mechanism for opting out could be a problem, and they didn't make it very easy to disallow people from checking you in."
"At least they've allowed you to take yourself off the grid if you want to, but you...
Tue, 24 Aug 10
Apple Patent Outlines a System To Track Users
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74869
Future versions of Apple's iPhone may come equipped with the smartphone version of a LoJack car-recovery system, a patent application filed by the computer giant suggests. The application details a system that can take photos of an unauthorized user, pinpoint his or her location, or even detect the user's heartbeat patterns after the phone owner reports it lost or stolen.
The technology, which can also be applied to Wi-Fi-equipped iPods and iPads, could notify Apple or the user if the SIM card is removed or if multiple failed log-ins occur.
The Aug. 19 application drew notice in the tech media for its reference to jailbreaking -- the process of owners modifying an iPhone to run applications not approved by Apple -- as one of the red flags triggering remote action. But while the system might alert Apple if an iPhone has been jailbroken, there's not much the company can do about it.
The Library of Congress ruled last month that, despite Apple's protests, "Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications" are exempt from the prohibition against circumventing technological measures that control access to copyrighted works.
That's as long as the modification is "for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset." So the process is legal, although it voids Apple's warranty.
Previous tracking solutions for wayward iPhones have involved apps that continuously transmit the iPhone's data via GPS -- which only work if the program is running in the background -- and one that sends tweets with the phone's coordinates to a Twitter account. But neither enables remote locking or deletion of data.
Apple used a remote wipe to deactivate a prototype of the iPhone 4 that was lost in a California bar and ended up in...
Tue, 24 Aug 10
Dual-Core Atoms Boost Performance for New Netbooks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74868
The category of netbooks, often described as underpowered, got a performance boost Monday as Intel announced that a dozen new netbooks based on its mobile dual-core Atom processors are shipping. The chipmaker said the netbooks, from such manufacturers as Acer, ASUS, Fujitsu, Lenovo, LG, Samsung and Toshiba, offer "new levels of support" for games and Flash-based multimedia sites such as YouTube, Hulu and online hotel booking systems.
The dual-core, 1.5-GHz Atom N550 is available in the same form factor as its predecessor, the single-core Atom N450; uses the same graphic chipset; and offers the same thinness, lightness and battery life. The new netbooks are designed to handle 720p high-definition video and DDR3 memory.
Erik Reid, director of marketing for online platforms at Intel, said about 70 million single-core Atom-based netbooks have been shipped since the category began in 2008. "There is obviously a great market for these devices around the world," he said.
The new dual-core Atom is based on Intel's Pinetrail platform and has two physical cores with two threads per core. According to news reports, some manufacturers are touting a performance improvement of up to 20 percent over the single-core versions.
Netbooks have been a hot category, offering low-cost mobile computers with smaller screens, keyboards, overall specifications, and prices. The targeted uses for netbooks have included web surfing, e-mailing and basic word processing, but their limited abilities have kept them from becoming popular as productivity tools.
Netbooks are also now facing the newer category of tablets, currently dominated by the highly popular iPad from Apple. ASUS, which has been successful in netbooks, plans to release an Android-based tablet with a 10-inch screen next March, priced below $400. This compares favorably to the iPad's starting price of $499, as well as with many netbook prices.
But while...
Tue, 24 Aug 10
Google Acquires Like.com Visual Shopping Technology
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74867
Google is moving to improve its search engine with new acquisitions and new test features that could help it ward off its emerging competitor Bing. On Friday, Google acquired Like.com, a startup search engine that combines computer vision and machine learning to deliver shopping search results.
Like.com's technology will let Google's search engine understand visually what terms like "red high-heeled pumps" and "floral patterned sleeveless dress" mean -- and even understand whether those pumps clash with the dress. Details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
"Since 2006, Like.com has been moving the frontiers of e-commerce forward one step at a time. We were the first to bring visual search to shopping, the first to build an automated cross-matching system for clothing, and more," said Munjal Shah, cofounder and CEO of Like.com. "We see joining Google as a way to supersize our vision."
Google may see Like.com as a way to combat Bing's Visual Search features. Bing Visual Search formulates and refines search queries through imagery, particularly for sets of results that tend to be more structured. Microsoft calls those data groupings galleries, and shopping is a key category within Bing Visual Search.
"This is about improving the shopping experience on Google Product Search and in mobile. Google has largely neglected its e-commerce site until very recently, yet it's still the largest shopping engine by traffic," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.
As Sterling sees it, there remains a largely untapped opportunity for Google to dramatically improve e-commerce on its site. But more intriguing is how this might be used in mobile, perhaps in conjunction with Google Goggles -- the company's camera-based search tool.
"Like.com's visual database and capabilities will be folded into Google shopping and other products. That may give people the ability to take a picture of a pair...
Tue, 24 Aug 10
NAB Would Mandate FM in Cell Phones and Royalty Fees
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74866
A FM receiver required for every cell phone, and royalty payments from every over-the-air radio station. Those are the key recommendations of a proposal released this month from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB).
Radio stations currently play music without licensing payments, on the grounds that such use helps to promote the musicians. In the NAB's proposal, stations would pay a performance fee of one percent or less of net revenue. Smaller stations would pay smaller amounts, and the total generated is estimated at $100 million annually.
The NAB plan is an attempt to work out an industry plan before Congress does. House and Senate committees approved bills in 2009 that would mandate performance fees for over-the-air radio stations. But, at the urging of lawmakers, the industry has been working on its own deal for several months.
There's already a requirement for online radio stations to pay performance fees, which followed a major battle between SoundExchange, which collects the fees for rights holders, and online stations and content providers. More than $180 million was collected from online radio in 2009.
The issue isn't trivial for the music industry, whose revenue from recorded music has dropped 50 percent over the last 10 years, in part due to the widespread sharing of music.
The association also said that FM capability on all cell phones would enable a much...
Tue, 24 Aug 10
HP Outbids Dell To Acquire 3PAR in Storage War
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74865
Hewlett-Packard submitted a competing $1.6 billion bid Monday for storage-technology vendor 3PAR, which represents a 33.3 percent premium over the acquisition offer submitted by Dell last week. HP's counterproposal puts the pressure on Dell, which is "not commenting regarding ongoing mergers and acquisition activity," said Dell spokesperson David Fink.
HP said adding 3PAR's next-generation storage architecture would help accelerate the converged-infrastructure strategy of the world's leading computer maker, which provides customers with a large portfolio of intellectual property across storage, server and networking solutions. Moreover, the proposal offers superior value to 3PAR's shareholders, noted HP Executive Vice President Dave Donatelli.
"Our global reach, strong routes to market, and commitment to innovation uniquely position HP as the ideal fit for 3PAR," Donatelli said. "We've seen great momentum with our converged-infrastructure strategy, and 3PAR accelerates that strategy, particularly in cloud and scale-out markets."
Dell's combined commercial server, networking, storage and services revenue grew 43 percent to $4.3 billion in the company's second business quarter. Dell's storage business was up 13 percent overall to $624 million, "server revenue was up 35 percent, our EqualLogic line of storage was up 63 percent, and services revenue was up 57 percent," Fink said.
Dell has been building its storage business through acquisitions over the last several years, with key technologies from EqualLogic, Ocarina Networks, Scalent Networks, and Exanet filling out parts of the market segment that Dell had lacked.
"With the addition of key IT and technology from companies like Ocarina and Exanet, we will continue to enhance our product offerings as we seek to provide customers greater choice and value in storage and data-management solutions," said Steve Schuckenbrock, president of Dell's large-enterprise business unit.
The strategy paid off handsomely in Dell's latest quarter as the company's revenue growth from consumer products remained flat. Dell's proposed acquisition...
Tue, 24 Aug 10
Dell's Net Income Rises 16 Percent
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74838
PC maker Dell Inc. said Thursday that its net income improved 16 percent in the most recent quarter, though a key measure called gross profit margin fell.
The majority of Dell's revenue comes from selling computers and other technologies to businesses, so its results offer a gauge of the economic recovery in the form of business spending on technology.
Companies spent more on servers, storage and computers for employees in the fiscal second quarter, which ended July 30, compared with the previous year.
Brian Gladden, Dell's chief financial officer, said in an interview that the "corporate refresh" of old technology is continuing.
That pushed earnings for the world's second-largest computer maker up to $545 million, or 28 cents per share. It was $472 million, or 24 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier.
Excluding certain items, Dell's net income was 32 cents per share, 2 cents better than Wall Street expected, according to a Thomson Reuters poll of analysts.
Revenue rose 22 percent to $15.5 billion, from $12.8 billion. That's more than the $15.2 billion analysts predicted.
Dell's largest product categories -- laptops and desktop PCs -- saw revenue jump 17 percent and 22 percent, respectively. Those increases came from PCs sold to businesses.
Dell said revenue from the consumer PC division was flat from a year earlier. Gladden said demand for consumer PCs dropped off in the second half of the quarter.
Dell's gross profit margin -- the percentage of revenue left after subtracting the cost of making products -- fell to 16.6 percent from 18.7 percent a year ago. Prices remained high for some PC components, including memory and LCD screens, in the quarter.
Shares of the company fell 1 percent to $11.92 in extended trading after the release of results Thursday. Earlier, it lost 15 cents, or 1.2 percent, to close regular trading...
Tue, 24 Aug 10
HP's 3Q Numbers Solid, But Could Fuel Doubts
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74837
Now that Mark Hurd is out as CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's biggest technology company is trying to prove to Wall Street that it can thrive under the sweeping changes he set in motion.
Its numbers for the May-July quarter -- the last full quarter under Hurd -- were solid. Profit matched analyst estimates, and revenue slightly exceeded them. But uncertainty about who will be picked as Hurd's replacement, and doubts about the overall health of technology spending, weighed on HP's stock.
HP shares fell 1 percent, or 41 cents, to $40.35 in extended trading Thursday after the results were reported. They had declined 1.5 percent, or 60 cents, to close the regular session at $40.76.
Since Hurd's abrupt resignation August 6, the stock is down 12 percent, wiping out $13 billion in shareholder wealth.
Investors are mostly worried about who will be picked to succeed Hurd.
In five years as CEO, Hurd orchestrated HP's push beyond personal computers into more profitable areas such as outsourcing and computer networking. He did more than $20 billion in acquisitions and was praised by Wall Street for extensive cost-cutting. He cut some 50,000 jobs. HP currently has about 300,000 employees.
Another factor weighing on HP's stock, though, is that there are signs consumer spending on PCs is weakening.
HP is the world's No. 1 PC seller and gets a third of its revenue from PC sales.
While that business prospered in the latest quarter, Todd Bradley, head of HP's PC division, on Thursday described some "softness" in the consumer laptop market. Back-to-school sales "started somewhat late for us," he said on a conference call with analysts. Dell Inc., which also reported quarterly numbers Thursday, also experienced weaker-than-expected back-to-school sales.
The problem is that while companies are buying more to replace aging PCs, consumers are scaling back.
There are concerns that technology spending...
Tue, 24 Aug 10
Pentagon Takes Aim at Chinese Cyberthreat
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74836
The U.S. for the first time is publicly warning about the Chinese military's use of civilian computer experts in clandestine cyber attacks aimed at American companies and government agencies.
In a move that is being seen as a pointed signal to Beijing, the Pentagon laid out its concerns this week in a carefully worded report.
The People's Liberation Army, the Pentagon said, is using "information warfare units" to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks, and those units include civilian computer professionals.
The assertion shines a light on a quandary that has troubled American authorities for some time: How does the U.S. deal with cyber espionage emanating from China and almost certainly directed by the government -- despite the fact that U.S. officials don't have or can't show proof of those ties?
Asked about the civilian hackers, a Defense Department spokesman said the Pentagon is concerned about any potential threat to its computer networks. The Pentagon, said Cmdr. Bob Mehal, will monitor the PLA's buildup of its cyberwarfare capabilities, and "will continue to develop capabilities to counter any potential threat."
The new warning also comes as U.S. and other international leaders are struggling to improve cooperation on global cybercrime and set guidelines for Internet oversight.
"The Chinese government, particularly the PLA, has sought to tap into the hacker community and take advantage of it," said cybersecurity expert James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "One of the things that the Defense Department has been looking for is a way to start signaling potential opponents about activities that might cross the line in cyberspace."
The China report, he said, is one way to send that signal to Beijing.
The Pentagon report says that last year "numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, continued to be...
Tue, 24 Aug 10
E-Reading: Revolution in the Making or Fading Fad?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74833
The marriage of an American technology firm and a Taiwanese display panel manufacturer has helped make digital reading a prospective challenger to paper as the main medium for transmitting printed information.
Four years ago Cambridge, Mass.-based E Ink Corporation and Taiwan's Prime View International Co. hooked up to create an e-paper display that now supplies 90 percent of the fast-growing e-reader market.
Taiwanese involvement has led some observers to compare e-reading to the Chinese technological revolution 2,000 years ago, when newly invented paper replaced the bulky wooden blocks and bamboo slats on which Chinese characters were written.
But questions still hang over the Taiwanese-American venture, including the readiness of the marketplace to dispense with paper-based reading, in favor of relatively unfamiliar e-readers.
"It's cockamamie to think a product like that is going to revolutionize the way most people read," analyst Michael Norris of Rockville, Maryland research firm Simba Information Co. said in an e-mail. Americans use e-books at a rate "much, much slower than it looks."
Another challenge for the venture is the ability of key customers such as Amazon and Sony to withstand the onslaught of multifunctional computing devices that have e-reader capability, particularly Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc.'s iPad, whose five-month sales history has left their one-dimensional models struggling to keep up.
Researcher Chris Hung of Taiwan's Institute for the Information Industry says iPad sales are expected to reach 9 million this year, a figure that took e-books two years to reach.
Competition among e-book readers is heating up. Last month, Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. cut the U.S. price of its smaller Kindle by $70, to $189, after Barnes & Noble reduced the price of its Nook e-reader by $60, to $199. The iPad starts at $499.
Still, the dedicated e-reader manufacturers appear to have a lot to be happy about -- at least for now. Sales in...
Tue, 24 Aug 10
Salesforce.com Shares Jump After 2Q Results
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74832
Shares of business software provider Salesforce.com jumped Friday after the company's second-quarter results came in ahead of Wall Street forecasts and it raised its full-year outlook.
THE SPARK: Though a rise in costs put a dent in second-quarter earnings, the company's adjusted profit of 29 cents per share beat the average estimate from analysts by two cents, according to Thomson Reuters.
Revenue rose 25 percent to $394.4 million, also topping analysts' $384.8 million forecast.
Salesforce also lifted its full-year revenue forecast to roughly $1.6 billion, up from a prior outlook of $1.55 billion to $1.56 billion and well above analysts' $1.57 billion estimate.
THE BIG PICTURE: While the overall economy has offered mixed signals lately, many tech companies are reporting a rebound in corporate technology spending. More companies are looking to save money by signing up for cloud computing services like those offered by Salesforce.com, in which the company hosts client software on its servers and makes it accessible over the Web. That saves companies from having to invest in major server equipment and individual hard drives themselves.
THE ANALYSIS: In a note to investors, Caris & Co. analyst Curtis Shauger said he expects Salesforce.com shares to continue marching higher, raising his price target to $120 from $115.
He said the company has "one of, if not the most, powerful" growth trajectories in the technology industry.
SHARE ACTION: Salesforce.com shares rose $12.71, or 13.2 percent, to $109.12.
Tue, 24 Aug 10
New Software Tools Fortify Your Cyberdefenses
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74775
It's riskier than ever to get on the Internet. Cybercriminals use tricks to get you to click on infectious Web links in e-mail, social-network postings and even search engine results.
Simply navigating to a well-known, legitimate Web site can result in what's known as a "drive-by download," the stealthy installing of a computer infection onto your PC's hard drive.
The endgame for cybercriminals: take full control of your PC and use it to help carry out online thefts and scams. It's essential to keep your anti-virus protection current and to regularly install all Microsoft, Adobe, Apple and Java security patches.
But that's not nearly enough to stop many of the latest infections. The good news: There are new software tools that can help you clean up and repel the latest cyberattacks. Many of them are free. Most require patience to learn how to use. Be prepared to sacrifice convenience for added security, as using these tools will add steps to your ongoing use of the Internet. Here are four of the newest tools:
What it does: SlimComputer and SlimCleaner work together to boost overall computer health and performance. "We can help identify malicious programs that are hooked into your operating system that you may have picked up over time," says Chris Cope, SlimWare founder and CEO.
How it works: SlimWare keeps track of your applications. It makes special note of apps configured to launch on start-up and run in the background, as well as programs set to run in your Web browser. It then guides you through deciding whether to disable each program.
What you gain: Disabling browser toolbars, instant-messaging programs and unnecessary software updaters (apps that periodically prompt you to update or upgrade games, media players and the like) can dramatically boost PC performance, says Cope. SlimWare also helps identify and eradicate apps that...
Sat, 21 Aug 10
Sen. Al Franken Blasts Move To Weaken Net Neutrality
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74846
As a satirical performer on TV's Saturday Night Live and elsewhere, Al Franken has been an active user of the First Amendment. On Thursday, the now-Senator Franken told a public hearing in his home state of Minnesota that "Net neutrality is the First Amendment issue of our time."
While Franken was speaking, it appears that a group of Internet service providers were meeting in private -- sparking another controversy -- to discuss their approach to an open Internet.
The public hearing at South High School in Minneapolis, was also attended by two Democratic members of the Federal Communications Commission, Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn. The ball is now in the court of the FCC and Congress, following the recent release of a proposed "framework" from Google and Verizon Wireless that has drawn heavy criticism from consumer groups and some Net companies for favoring a tiered Internet.
At the hearing, Franken noted that the Google-Verizon plan would empower the FCC to "get this -- publish a report," and he added that, "when government will not act, corporations will." He noted that if "companies write the rules that they're supposed to follow," those rules are "going to be written only to protect corporations."
Last week, about a hundred people marched to Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., to deliver boxes they said contained 300,000 signatures in support of Net neutrality, which specifies that all data is handled equally.
The key fear among Net neutrality supporters is that, as Comcast tried to do with a streaming-movie application that competed with its own movie services, some applications or content could be slowed down, or priced up, by an Internet service provider unless Net neutrality is maintained.
If providers can determine pricing or service for specific content or applications, competitors could be in jeopardy. Net providers point to...
Sat, 21 Aug 10
Developer Demand Drives Nexus One Shortage
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74845
Although Google pulled the plug on consumer sales of its pioneering Nexus One in May, a "substantial" quantity of the Android-based smartphones has been snapped up by registered application developers in the past two weeks. In fact, Google said Thursday that the mobile device is selling so well that the Nexus One is currently unavailable.
"We blew through the initial inventory in almost no time, and they're back-ordered from HTC," noted Android Developers blogger Tim Bray. "Everyone appreciates that it's important to the platform to get phones in the hands of developers, so we're working hard on restocking the shelves."
The temporary hiatus in Nexus One availability is due in major part to a worldwide Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED) shortage, Bray observed. According to iSuppli, the Nexus One's bill of materials costs $174.15 -- with the centerpiece the handset's advanced display.
AMOLED represented the sole display technology for which revenues increased sequentially in the second quarter of 2010 -- when DisplaySearch said both unit shipments and average prices increased. "This reflects the success AMOLED is finding in high-end smartphones" that are "demanding larger display sizes," the research firm's analysts said. "In the first quarter of 2010, the average screen size for AMOLED passed three inches, larger than TFT LCDs."
The Nexus One is valuable to developers because it arrives unlocked and runs the latest version of Google's Android OS -- known as Froyo, or Android 2.2. Developers "like unlocked phones because they want to put any version of the OS on it and then any app they like on it," said Al Hilwa, director of applications development software at IDC.
The unlocked devices are compatible with most 3G (900/AWS/2100 MHz) networks, but North American carriers AT&T and Rogers Wireless use different 3G frequencies. So users with SIM cards for...
Sat, 21 Aug 10
Intel's Deal for 'Buggy Whip' Maker McAfee Will Impact IT
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74844
Security analysts are still digesting the implications of Intel acquiring McAfee for $7.68 billion. The purchase plan comes four months after McAfee was forced to apologize for an antivirus update that shut down Windows XP computers around the world -- including PCs at Intel.
The acquisition comes on the heels of Symantec's PGP acquisition, IBM's BigFix acquisition, and Hewlett-Packard's Fortify acquisition earlier this week.
Intel said it's investing in McAfee, in part, to address billions of new Internet-ready devices, including mobile and wireless devices, TVs, cars, medical devices, and ATM machines as well as the accompanying surge in cyberthreats.
"As a result of this particular acquisition, Intel can now deliver security as part of their hardware and device business line," said Pat Clawson, CEO of Lumension. "This not only changes the fundamental security landscape, it will have a ripple effect throughout the industry."
With about 80 percent of the PC processor market, Intel is looking for ways to grow in other areas of computing. Clawson said adding McAfee to the Intel mix will offer the chipmaker three benefits: Additional technology to add value in smartphone devices that are coming under malicious hacker attack, the ability to potentially embed security into the PC platform, and the capability to develop security within the cloud-computing infrastructure.
But the acquisition isn't an automatic success. Intel will face challenges. Andrew Jaquith, an analyst at Forrester, said Intel's purchase of McAfee is a lot like a horseless-carriage vendor buying a leading supplier of buggy whips.
"Given the risks associated with this deal, enterprise customers should be wary of making long-term commitments to McAfee until Intel's intentions are clear," Jaquith said. "It would be best if McAfee was left to manage itself, largely as a stand-alone company."
However, Jaquith added, Forrester has spoken to many McAfee customers in the last...
Sat, 21 Aug 10
Quattro Wireless To Be Closed as Apple Focuses on iAd
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74843
Things are heating up in the mobile-ad world. As Research In Motion searches for an acquisition in the emerging space, Apple is putting the kibosh on the mobile-ad company it purchased earlier this year.
Apple purchased Quattro Wireless in January for $275 million. That buy came on the heels of Google's announced plan to scoop up AdMob for $750 million last November. Fast forward nearly a year, and not much has changed in the mobile-ad space from a practical standpoint.
But Apple appears closer to making a big move. The iPhone maker has decided to shutter Quattro as of Sept. 30 and focus on its own advertising platform, known as iAd. It seems Apple acquired Quattro more for the intellectual property than to keep it up and running.
Now that Apple has extracted the technology and processes it needs from Quattro for its iAd platform, Apple is forging ahead with iAd, which debuted this summer.
"We believe iAd is the best mobile-ad network in the world, and starting next month we're going to focus all of our resources on the iAd advertising platform," iAd Vice President Andy Miller, who was Quattro's CEO, wrote in a letter to Quattro clients.
Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, was not surprised by Apple's decision. From the outset, it was expected that Apple would use Quattro for its own purposes rather than maintain the broader ad network for third parties not part of the Apple ecosystem, he said.
"There have been mixed reviews of iAd, with some complaining that it's another 'black box.' But there have also been very positive reviews from some developers and publishers," Sterling said. "I wonder what the key Quattro employees will do now: Hang out for the requisite two years and then leave?"
When Apple introduced iAd, it said the...
Sat, 21 Aug 10
Nokia Buys Motally To Find Most Popular Mobile Apps
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74842
Still on top but losing market share to Google and Apple, Finland-based handset maker Nokia will acquire a U.S. mobile-analytics company to study how consumers use its phones. The data from privately held Motally, which has only eight employees, may help attract developers and publishers for Qt, Symbian, MeeGo and Java applications that can enhance Nokia phones and make them more competitive.
The San Francisco, Calif., company, founded in 2008, has patents pending on technology that collects data and reports analytics for mobile sites. It currently specializes in Apple's iPhone and iPad, Research In Motion's BlackBerry, and Google's Android.
Financial terms of the agreement, which is expected to close in the third quarter, were not disclosed.
"The acquisition underpins Nokia's drive to deliver in-application and mobile web-browsing analytics to Ovi's growing, global ecosystem of developers and publishers, enabling partners to better connect with their customers and optimize and monetize their offering," said Marco Argenti, Nokia's vice president in charge of media, in an investor news release.
Ovi, Finnish for door, is Nokia's range of Internet services, including games, maps, media, messaging and music. Increasingly competing with Apple and Google as the gateway to the mobile Internet, Nokia is looking for new partners.
A study of global mobile-device sales in the second quarter by Gartner Research put Nokia on top with 34.2 percent, but down from 36.8 percent during the same period last year. At the same time, phones based on Google's Android operating system exploded and Apple saw a slight gain.
A key to the smartphone battle is having an inventory of apps, a field where Apple dominates with around 1.3 million offerings, and Google is in second place with about 83,000 available. The Ovi store has about 800 apps.
The Motally acquisition shows Nokia wants to study not just which apps are popular, but which...
Sat, 21 Aug 10
HP Will Offer Tablets Running Windows 7 and webOS
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74841
After months of dueling reports that Hewlett-Packard would release either a Windows 7-based tablet or one based on Palm's webOS platform, HP has now confirmed the reports. The decision: Both of them.
In a conference call with analysts on Thursday, Todd Bradley, executive vice president of the company's personal systems group, said a Microsoft-based tablet will be out "in the near future," and a webOS tablet will be launched early next year. He acknowledged what many industry observers have assumed, that "tablet sales" are "a big part of the reason we acquired Palm."
According to the San Jose Business Journal, the Windows 7-based tablet will be called the Slate 500 and will be directed toward business markets. The webOS tablet will be designed and marketed for the consumer market currently dominated by Apple's iPad. Two names have been mentioned as possible brands for the consumer version -- either the PalmPad or the Hurricane.
HP reportedly has had a Hurricane Project, and some observers have speculated that the webOS tablet is the main offspring. According to news sources, earlier this month Bradley discussed a webOS-based tablet at a HP employees meeting, which he called Hurricane.
The techncal specifications of either tablet have not be revealed, except that a Palm executive had previously said a tablet based on webOS would have Adobe Flash, the popular interactive multimedia technology that is widely used on web sites. Apple has refused to allow Flash on its mobile devices, and has instead touted open standards based around HTML5. Many tablet makers see Apple's refusal to allow Flash as an invitation for differentiation from the iPad.
At the big Consumer Electronics Show in January, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed a Windows 7-based, HP tablet, but rumors of its demise followed shortly thereafter. A key reason cited for...
Sat, 21 Aug 10
Review: Samsung Galaxy S Phones Do Android Proud
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74826
The more phones that hit the market using Google's Android operating software, the harder it is for each offering to stand out from the black-and-silver crowd.
Samsung is the latest company trying to turn heads, hoping consumers will snatch up its new Galaxy S smart phones, which are both attractive on the surface and well-appointed under the hood.
AT&T already sells the Samsung Captivate, and T-Mobile offers the Vibrant. Two more are coming: Sprint will start selling the Epic 4G at the end of August, and Verizon plans to roll out the Fascinate this fall.
I tested the Captivate, Vibrant and Epic 4G, which all have plenty of great features in common: bright, crisp screens; 5-megapixel cameras that can also take high-definition videos; speedy 1 Ghz Hummingbird processors and Google Inc.'s easy-to-use Android operating software.
With all this and more, one of these may be the 'droid you're looking for.
Probably the most obvious feature on each Galaxy S phone is a sharp AMOLED touch screen that runs 4 inches diagonally and dominates the face. AMOLED screens tend to have higher color saturation than standard LCD screens, and they can be thinner. In plain English, it meant that the videos I watched looked great -- sometimes even better than on Apple Inc.'s new iPhone 4.
I was also jazzed to see that each of the phones includes Swype, a new third-party application that lets you type on virtual keyboards by simply swiping your finger around from one letter to the next. Swype alone is almost a good enough reason to get a Galaxy S phone. It's only available on a handful of handsets so far, but given how quickly and accurately you can type with it -- much faster than pecking away one letter at a time -- I bet it will be on tons of...
Sat, 21 Aug 10
WikiLeaks Seeks Online Safe Haven in Sweden
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74825
WikiLeaks moved its servers from the U.S. to Sweden in 2007 to take advantage of laws protecting whistleblowers and a culture supportive of online mavericks.
Sweden's support for Internet freedom has made it a base for cyberactivists ranging from a Chechen rebel site to the file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay.
But even here, WikiLeaks may not be home free.
The self-styled whistleblower, which has angered Washington by publishing leaked documents about U.S. military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, could present a strong test of how far Sweden is prepared to go to defend its freedom of expression.
Swedish laws allow prosecutors to intervene against publication of material deemed harmful to national security. It's unclear whether that could also include the security of a friendly nation. The U.S. argues the secret documents risks the lives of coalition forces and Afghans helping them.
Another question is whether there is political will in Sweden to go after WikiLeaks. The site's founder, Julian Assange, is confident there isn't.
"The will of the Swedish people is with us," Assange told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the U.S. has not contacted Sweden about WikiLeaks. Any complaint against the site would be a matter for Swedish judicial authorities -- not the government, Bildt said, but added he doesn't primarily see WikiLeaks as a legal problem.
"Is it responsible to publish information that leads to people being killed? I think that is more of an ethical question than a legal one," he said.
Swedish ministers typically refrain from getting involved when foreign governments complain about material published by the country's media.
Last year, Bildt dismissed demands by Israel for the government to condemn a Swedish newspaper article that claimed Israeli soldiers harvested organs from dead Palestinians.
Asked whether Sweden would react differently if it were the U.S. that had issues with material published in...
Sat, 21 Aug 10
Music Royalty Dispute May Result in Cell-Phone Mandate
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74824
A long-running dispute between radio broadcasters and the recording industry over music royalties has taken an unexpected turn with a proposed settlement that threatens to drag the mobile phone industry into the ring.
The compromise under discussion by radio broadcasters, recording labels and recording artists could include a federal mandate that all new cell phones come with a built-in FM radio chip. While a deal is far from final, the prospect that the government could dictate a key design decision for such a ubiquitous consumer device has alarmed electronics manufacturers and wireless providers.
"This is two old-media industries attacking the new wireless broadband industry," said Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumers Electronics Association. "This is a battle that doesn't involve us."
Building FM radio into cell phones requires an additional antenna, which could add weight and bulk to devices prized for their sleekness, Shapiro said. It could also drain battery life more quickly, which could lead manufacturers to remove other features from their devices, he added.
"We don't think Congress should accept a back-room deal on how an iPhone should be designed," Shapiro said. "We think consumers should choose and companies should choose."
For years, the National Association of Broadcasters has been fighting a music industry proposal that would require radio stations to pay music royalties to recording labels and performers for the right to play their songs on the air.
Current law requires broadcast radio stations to pay royalties to songwriters, but not recording labels or artists. Broadcasters argue that the existing arrangement makes sense because radio airplay provides free promotion and drives music purchases and concert ticket sales.
But compact disc sales have dropped off, and sales of digital albums haven't made up the difference, prompting labels and artists -- represented by a group called musicFirst -- to step up their push to start collecting...
Sat, 21 Aug 10
Lenovo Profits from Emerging Markets, Mobile Internet
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74823
Lenovo Group, the fourth-largest personal computer maker, rebounded to a quarterly profit from a loss a year earlier, driven by strong sales in China and other emerging markets.
Profit was $55 million for the three months ending June 30, or 54 cents per share, compared with a $16 million loss last year, the company said Thursday.
Global sales surged 50 percent from a year ago to $5.1 billion, boosted by a 50 percent rise in China. The company said sales in other emerging markets doubled, while its global market share rose to double digits for the first time, reaching 10.2 percent.
"We achieved great results across the world last quarter, with all of our regions outgrowing the market," said CEO Yang Yuanqing on a conference call with reporters.
Lenovo was hit hard by the global economic crisis, which prompted its core corporate customers to slash purchases. The company suffered three losing quarters before rebounding to profit in the three months ending last September.
Global demand is recovering, though mature markets have yet to emerge fully from the global crisis, Yang said.
"Global commercial replacement demand is gradually recovering," he said. "Emerging markets still offer growth opportunities we can leverage."
Chairman Liu Chuangzhi said the company will spend more on research and development to maintain its profit margins as PCs become a commodity.
"In the next few years, Lenovo will work on maintaining sustainable and stable fast growth, rather than just generating extremely high profits in the short term," Liu said.
Lenovo acquired IBM Corp.'s PC unit in 2005 and expanded into wireless computing this year, launching its Lephone smart phone and two Web-linked portable computers in January.
Yang said Lenovo sold about 100,000 Lephones in the quarter, though a lack of panels held down sales volume. He said the company is dealing with the shortage and should be able...
Sat, 21 Aug 10
Google Bends To Accommodate German Privacy Fears
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74818
Google Inc. said Thursday it would double the amount of time Germans have to opt out of having their homes shown in its "Street View" feature, which has sparked a fierce public debate over privacy concerns.
Germans will now have eight weeks, instead of four, to request images of their homes be deleted, Philipp Schindler, Google's vice president for Northern and Central Europe said in a statement.
Google last week announced its plan to introduce "Street View" for the 20 biggest German cities in November, raising concerns in this privacy-conscious country.
"We were aware of the fact that 'Street View' could lead to discussions in Germany," Schindler said.
He stressed that Google has committed itself to an extensive series of measures to protect people's privacy, "far beyond those in other countries."
At authorities' insistence, the company created an online tool Germans can use to request pictures of their homes be removed before the service's launch -- something Google hasn't done anywhere else. "Street View" is currently available in 23 countries.
Many officials and politicians pressured the company to extend the deadline for people to opt out.
Germany's justice minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger welcomed the move, saying in a statement that "it is good that Google has doubled the time for objections to restore lost trust."
The online tool launched Monday and will now be available throughout October 15.
The Mountain View, California, company also addressed another demand of German data protection officials by saying that data would be handled securely and deleted as soon as legally possible. Google also conceded to allowing officials to carry out inspections to ensure appropriate handling of the data.
"Street View" has also tangled with authorities in other European countries, including Austria and Spain, over privacy concerns.
The U.S. Internet giant lost the trust of many when it had to acknowledge this spring that technology used by...
Sat, 21 Aug 10
Building a Business Presence Beyond Facebook
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74815
A page on Facebook is a must-have marketing tool for every business. But there are advantages to building a social media page outside of Facebook's walls.
For small, new companies, drawing friends and fans outside your personal group of Facebook friends can be difficult. And those who do "like" the page may not see the company's updates on his or her news feed, because Facebook uses a formula that only shows updates from 250 friends and pages that the user interacts with the most.
So if Susy "likes" Bob's Frozen Yogurt Shop, she likely won't see the shop in her news feed unless she interacts with that page once in awhile.
Building a social network Web site in addition to a Facebook page can be handy for a young organization to reach out to more eyes. One free way is Grouply.com; it combines old-school listserv groups with modern social networking. Although Grouply is a sliver of the size of Facebook, it is a good option for beginners (even though it includes ads on your page to pay for its costs).
Grouply lets you quickly create a page without needing to know any Web programming language. Administrators can insert features like a wall for comments, videos, marketplace, calendar and can easily mass e-mail members.
Members of your business' page don't ever have to go to Grouply if they aren't into social media. They have the option to participate solely through e-mail. That gives business owners the chance to reach members with different communication preferences.
Grouply also imports groups from Yahoo and Google and gives them a social network page makeover -- and the groups are not deleted from Yahoo or Google.
The best known alternative for creating your own community page is the simple-to-use Ning.com. But the build-it-yourself social network site announced in April that it is no...
Sat, 21 Aug 10
Delta Monitors Twitter To Remedy Customer Complaints
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74779
Mike Brice skipped the queue at the Delta Air Lines Inc. ticket counter and dashed off a post on Twitter Inc. when he missed his Atlanta connection en route home to Utah from South Carolina.
Within minutes, the 40-year-old communications consultant had been rebooked for the following morning by an agent on the Delta team that uses Twitter to remedy passengers' real-time complaints -- changing flights, finding lost luggage, or sharing details on weather delays.
Bucking the typical corporate practice of monitoring Twitter just to listen to consumers, Delta sets itself apart by resolving gripes on the No. 3 social-networking site in the U.S., said Shel Holtz of consultant Holtz Communication & Technology in San Francisco.
"Delta is out in front, especially for the airline industry," Holtz said. "What people are looking for in a lot of these situations is just acknowledgment, and to have someone try to resolve their problem. It shouldn't matter which way they reach out, whether it's by phone or e-mail or on Twitter."
Delta's Twitter account is run by customer-service employees who use the direct-message function to privately swap information and view passengers' itineraries. The account is watched from 8 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. New York time on business days. Brice fired off his posting to the world's largest airline and headed to a hotel to sleep when he was stranded.
"Instead of waiting in a long line with everyone else, I knew on Twitter they would get to me right away," said Brice, of Ogden, Utah, who has flown 30 times this year.
Delta maintains a main company account as well as one dedicated to service issues, @DeltaAssist. Remedying complaints via Twitter also scrubs the carrier's image, because passengers camped out in airports after late or canceled flights have time on their hands to grumble online.
"The whole idea is...
Fri, 20 Aug 10
Actress Cameron Diaz Tops List of Search Threats
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74829
If you like keeping tabs on actress Cameron Diaz, you may be better off sticking to People magazine and Access Hollywood rather than Googling her. A report from security vendor McAfee says the actress is this year's number-one celebrity whose search results are likely to infect your computer.
The Charlie's Angels star, who turns 38 next week, edged out Eat Pray Love star Julia Roberts and Jessica Biel, last year's winner of the dubious distinction, in McAfee's fourth annual analysis.
Other suspicious-search stars include supermodel Gisele Bundchen at fourth, followed by Inglourious Basterds squad leader Brad Pitt and Brazilian model Adriana Lima. CBS TV's Ghost Whisperer star Jennifer Love-Hewitt and actress Nicole Kidman tied for seventh.
Searching for Kidman's ex-husband, actor Tom Cruise, could also be considered risky business: The star ranked eighth, while model Heidi Klum and Oscar-winner Penelope Cruz tied for ninth. HBO's True Blood star Anna Paquin was last on the list.
Searching for Diaz, whose most recent film was Knight and Day, will yield a 10 percent chance of reaching a site that loads malware onto your computer. The risk increased to 19 percent when searching for "Cameron Diaz and screensavers," McAfee said.
"This year, the search results for celebrities are safer than they've been in previous years, but there are still dangers when searching online," said Dave Marcus, security researcher for McAfee Labs. "Through consumer education and tools ... consumers are getting smarter about searching online, yet cybercriminals are getting sneakier in their techniques. Now they're hiding malicious content in 'tiny' places like shortened URLs that can spread virally in social-networking sites and Twitter, instead of on web sites and downloads."
The study offers an insight into how cybercriminals perceive the interests of Internet users, staking out sexy celebrities -- including three models who have...
Fri, 20 Aug 10
Adobe Updates Reader, Acrobat and Flash Player
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74828
Adobe Systems has issued emergency updates for its Reader and Acrobat products to address a critical flaw disclosed at the Black Hat conference in July. The updates take Reader to version 9.3.4 and Acrobat to version 8.2.4.
The overflow vulnerability could let hackers execute arbitrary code and was disclosed at Black Hat by Charlie Miller of Independent Security Evaluators. An attacker could use a specially crafted PDF file to corrupt memory. Miller said the vulnerability is related to the way fonts are handled in PDF files.
Adobe's updates also fix six Flash Player vulnerabilities that could be used to take control of a PC. Although no exploits have been reported, Adobe decided not to wait for its next scheduled quarterly update on Oct. 12.
The Reader update is for Windows, Mac and Linux, while the Acrobat update is for Windows and Mac. They can be downloaded from Adobe or applied by the Update command in Reader and Acrobat.
Security company Secunia urged users to install the updates immediately. Meantime, it said, be careful about opening PDF files from unknown sources.
Fri, 20 Aug 10
RIM Seeks Mobile-Ad Network To Make Apps Profitable
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74827
As it watches Android and Apple eat away at its smartphone market share, Research In Motion is looking for ways to win the attention of consumers and developers. RIM reportedly hopes to attract developers with a yet-to-be purchased mobile-ad network that would pull in application makers and potentially bring consumers with them.
According to The Wall Street Journal, RIM has held talks with Millennial Media, which bills itself as the largest independent mobile-ad network, about a possible acquisition. However, the discussions reportedly stalled over disputes about the value of the company that serves ads on both internal and third-party mobile web sites.
Millennial is the largest pure-play mobile-ad network left after its competitors were scooped up by RIM rivals. Google announced plans to acquire AdMob for $750 million in November 2009, and Apple followed suit by acquiring Quattro Wireless for an undisclosed amount in January 2010.
Millennial is the next probable acquisition target, but the company is reportedly holding out on price. The Journal reported that Millennial is asking for between $400 million and $500 million. RIM hasn't been willing to invest at that price.
"If you are a platform provider, you need to provide ways for application developers to monetize their applications, and one of the best ways to do that is through advertising," said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group. "It's one of the reasons why Google has gotten into that business. It's one of the reasons why Apple has gotten into that business."
Gartenberg said it's not surprising that RIM would explore the mobile-ad network space, given the popularity of both apps and mobile advertising. If RIM doesn't acquire Millennial, it could pick up any number of smaller players in the space, he said. But Millennial's stature in the market comes with a big price tag.
According...
Fri, 20 Aug 10
Facebook's New Places Feature Could Hurt Foursquare
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74813
Facebook on Thursday night unveiled its Foursquare killer. Dubbed Places, the feature lets Facebook's 500 million members share their location by "checking in" to that place -- whether it's a movie theater, a restaurant, or a Starbucks -- to let their friends know where they are. They can also see if their friends have been there recently or are nearby.
Here's how it works: Tap the "Check In" button on the Places iPhone application. That will display a list of places near you. You can choose the place that matches where you are. If that place is not on the list, you can search for it or add it. Then, after you check in, Facebook will post a story in your friends' news feeds and your visit will show up in the "Recent Activity" section on the page for that place.
"When you check in, you can also tag friends who are with you, just as you can tag a friend in a status update or photo," said Michael Sharon, Facebook product manager for Places. "You can post an update along with your check-in to tell people more about what you are doing."
Foursquare has gained momentum in the geolocation marketplace in recent months, with about 2.5 million users, and it broke the million-a-day check-in milestone in July. But will Facebook make Foursquare obsolete since most, if not all, of Foursquare's users are probably also on Facebook?
"Foursquare was present at the launch event last night, so there's an official 'partnership' there. However, Foursquare is the company that perhaps may stand to lose the most if Places takes off and becomes mainstream," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.
Sterling noted some differences between Places and Foursquare. For example, Facebook doesn't offer rewards for checking in. However, Facebook has a...
Fri, 20 Aug 10
Intel Will Acquire McAfee To Secure Online Computing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74812
Intel said Thursday that the chipmaker will purchase security software vendor McAfee in an all-cash transaction valued at $7.68 billion -- equivalent to a 60 percent premium over the closing price for McAfee shares on Wednesday. Unanimously approved by the boards of both companies, Intel said it hopes to complete the acquisition of McAfee as early as the end of this year, subject to regulatory review and other factors.
Security has now become the "third pillar" of online computing -- on par with energy-efficient performance and connectivity, noted Intel CEO Paul Otellini. By combining McAfee's security software and Intel's hardware capabilities in a single solution, the chipmaker hopes to better protect consumers, corporations and governments.
"I believe we are entering a new era of computing platforms that has broad implications for our company and for computer users worldwide," Otellini told analysts during a conference call Thursday morning.
With the rapid expansion of Internet-connected gadgets -- such as mobile devices, medical gear, TVs, cars and ATM machines, as well as servers and cloud-based networks -- more of the elements of our lives have moved online, Otellini observed.
"In the past, energy-efficient performance and connectivity have defined computing requirements," Otellini said. "The addition of McAfee products and technologies into the Intel computing portfolio brings us incredibly talented people with a track record of delivering security innovations, products and services that the industry and consumers trust to make connecting to the Internet safer and more secure."
The acquisition is a direct outgrowth of an ongoing collaboration between McAfee and Intel over the past 18 months. "This is an important strategic step," Otellini told analysts. "In working together, the notion of moving on beyond just partnering became clear."
The close partnership made Intel realize the value of "a deeper collaboration" that would enable...
Fri, 20 Aug 10
MySpace Music Unveils Romeo Video App
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74804
MySpace is further defining itself as a place to find music rather than a catchall social networking site as it launched on Thursday a music video player that plays random videos to match users' mood.
The MySpace Music Romeo application lets users select from 15 genres such as pop or hip hop and 13 moods including "chill," "naughty" and "studying." Videos play automatically, interspersed with artist images and an advertisement every 15 minutes or so.
Users can "love" videos (thus, the name Romeo), and then get more videos like the ones they choose. But they won't be able to search for specific songs.
The back-end technology that helps determine recommendations is provided by Australian company We Are Hunted, which scours the Internet for artists and songs with the greatest buzz and mixes that with users' personal tastes.
According to MySpace Music President Courtney Holt, the randomness of the service will prompt users to discover new artists.
"Inevitably if you use this application, you will find an artist that you've never heard of before that you will fall in love with," he said.
The Romeo application launches both as a free app for Apple Inc.'s iPad and as an application that can be played from computer Web browsers.
It won't be available on the iPhone's small screen, as Holt said MySpace wanted to maintain the best video-watching experience possible. Recording companies, which have partnered with MySpace on the MySpace Music joint venture, also have been shying away from free, on-the-go offerings that could sap sales on iTunes. Instead, recording companies have been pushing mobile services that offer $10-per-month music subscription plans intended to boost consumer spending overall.
MySpace, a unit of News Corp., plans to launch several mobile apps in the coming months amid an overhaul to freshen its look and focus more on its core under-35 audience. MySpace,...
Fri, 20 Aug 10
FAA Computers Are Vulnerable to Cyberattack
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74802
Federal Aviation Administration computer systems remain vulnerable to cyber attacks despite improvements at a number of key radar facilities in the past year, according to a new U.S. government review.
The Department of Transportation's inspector general said while the FAA has taken steps to install more sophisticated systems to detect cyber intrusions in some air traffic control facilities, most sites have not been upgraded. And there is no timetable yet to complete the project, the IG said.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the agency is working on a timetable and will notify the IG with that information soon. The FAA also said that upgrades to critical air traffic control systems have taken precedence over the intrusion detection improvements at a number of facilities.
Without the detection abilities, the FAA cannot effectively monitor air traffic control for possible cyber attacks or take action to stop them, the inspector general said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
The findings echo broad U.S. government worries about gaps in critical U.S. computer systems and networks that leave them vulnerable to cyber attacks by criminals, terrorists or nation states.
U.S. networks are persistently probed and attacked by hackers and criminals looking to steal money or information, get access to classified documents or military technologies, or disrupt networks that control vital utilities and services.
Last year, a government audit found that air traffic control systems were vulnerable to cyber attacks, and that some support systems had been breached, allowing hackers access to personnel records and network servers.
The computer systems used to control air traffic are often in the same building as ones used for administrative functions, but they are not connected.
Cyber experts repeatedly warn, however, that in some cases software glitches and other gaps can be exploited by hackers to move between computer systems at critical infrastructure facilities.
In the report...
Fri, 20 Aug 10
India Eyes Google and Skype Amid Security Crackdown
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74800
India may ask Google and Skype for greater access to encrypted information once it resolves security concerns with BlackBerrys, which are now under threat of a ban, according to a government document and two people familiar with the discussions.
The 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, which were coordinated with satellite and cell phones, helped prompt a sweeping security review of telecommunications ahead of the Commonwealth Games -- a major sporting event to be held in New Delhi in October.
Some analysts say more anonymous technologies -- like the basic Nokia phones used by 10 gunmen who rampaged through Mumbai in November 2008, leaving 166 dead -- and Gmail are more likely to be used to plan terror attacks than BlackBerry devices, which require reliable identity proof and contact information.
On July 12, officials from India's Department of Telecommunications met with representatives of three telecom service provider groups to discuss interception and monitoring of encrypted communications by security agencies.
"There was consensus that there are more than one type of service for which solutions are to be explored," according to a copy of the minutes of the meeting obtained by The Associated Press. "Some of them are BlackBerry, Skype, Google etc. It was decided first to undertake the issue of BlackBerry and then the other services."
"They have clearly instructed us that after BlackBerry, they are going to take to task Google, Skype and similar services that bypass the monitoring department of India," said Rajesh Chharia, president of the Internet Service Providers Association of India, who attended the meeting. "According to the law, they have to allow monitoring."
The officials' immediate concern was the BlackBerry, but they also plan to look at Google and other companies that use encryption for e-mail and messaging services, said Rajan Mathews, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India, who...
Fri, 20 Aug 10
BlackBerry Security Fears Echo U.S. Debate
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74797
Threats by the governments of India, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to shut down BlackBerry's corporate e-mail services reflect unease about a technology that the U.S. government also took a while to accept.
The foreign governments are essentially a decade behind in coming to terms with encryption, a technology that's fundamental to the Internet as a medium of commerce.
Encrypted communications are scrambled in a complex process to ensure that only the intended recipient can read them, using the proper digital key. This often takes place behind the scenes, without the user needing to do anything. When a shopper submits a credit card number on a shopping site, for example, the communication is encrypted. When consumers log on to their bank's site, that connection is encrypted as well.
Most companies use encrypted connections for their corporate e-mails, at least if employees need to access e-mail outside the office through virtual private networks and other secure systems. One of the reasons Research In Motion Ltd. has been so successful with its BlackBerry phones is that it brought that level of security to e-mail-capable phones.
Encryption, however, poses a problem for law enforcement officials. They can intercept encrypted messages, but can't read them unless the encryption is poor and agents have vast computer resources to use in unscrambling them. Traditional investigative tools such as wiretaps don't work. Canada's RIM and other technology companies stress that they agree to legal requests from law enforcement, but in RIM's case, it can't decrypt the messages on its corporate e-mail service.
BlackBerrys seem to have been singled out by foreign governments because the devices provide an easy and convenient way to communicate securely. But there are many other ways to communicate in an encrypted fashion, and any government that's serious about squelching encrypted communications would need to go after...
Fri, 20 Aug 10
No Charges To Be Filed in School Laptop-Spying Case
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No criminal charges will be filed against a suburban Philadelphia school district that secretly snapped tens of thousands of webcam photographs and screen shots on laptops issued to students.
The FBI and federal prosecutors announced Tuesday they could not prove any criminal wrongdoing by Lower Merion School District employees.
"We have not found evidence that would establish beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone involved had criminal intent," U.S. Attorney Zane D. Memeger said in a statement.
The FBI investigated the wealthy district for possible wiretap violations after a student's civil lawsuit exposed the issue. Lower Merion High School student Blake Robbins alleged the district photographed him 400 times in a 15-day period last fall, sometimes as he slept in his bedroom or was half-dressed.
District officials said its technology staff only activated the remote tracking system to try to find laptops that had been reported lost or stolen. But the district soon acknowledged that the software system sometimes remained activated for weeks or months, even after a laptop was found -- causing the district to capture 56,000 webcam photographs and screen shots from student laptops.
"We are very pleased with today's decision by the U.S. Attorney's Office, which supports the findings of our internal investigation," Superintendent Christopher W. McGinley said. "This is all good news for the students and staff of Lower Merion School District as we prepare for the start of a new school year."
The federal prosecutor's announcement follows a school board decision Monday to prohibit the remote use of the tracking software without the written consent of students and their parents or guardians. The policy was recommended by a task force formed in the wake of the February lawsuit.
Robbins' lawsuit is pending, and a second student has joined him in suing the district over the alleged electronic spying.
None of the images captured appeared...
Fri, 20 Aug 10
Woman Demands Google Unmask Cyber Cipher
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74790
A business consultant wants a court to force YouTube and owner Google to unmask a cyber cipher who posted what she says are unauthorized videos of her and online comments that hurt her reputation.
Carla Franklin, a former model and actress turned businesswoman, said in a legal petition filed Monday that she believes a Google user or users impugned her sexual mores in comments made under pseudonyms on a Columbia Business School Web site. Franklin says someone also posted unauthorized YouTube clips of her appearing in a small-budget independent movie.
Google Inc. said in a statement that it doesn't discuss individual cases to protect users' privacy, but it follows applicable laws.
The postings caused Franklin "personal humiliation" and hurt her professional prospects as she was job-hunting after graduating from the Ivy League business school in 2009, her legal papers say.
The video clips were innocuous but unauthorized, and she found it creepy that someone had unearthed the film and posted pieces in an apparent effort to make her uncomfortable, her lawyer, David M. Fish, said Tuesday.
Anonymity is a cherished and staunchly defended refuge for many Internet users. But a growing number of people and businesses have tried to force blogs, Web sites and other online entities to disclose who's trashing them, and some have succeeded.
In one case that grabbed headlines, Vogue cover model Liskula Cohen successfully sued Google in a state court in Manhattan last year to get the name of a blogger who had published comments about Cohen's hygiene and sexual habits.
Cohen argued that the comments on the site were defamatory. The blogger, ultimately identified by court order as Rosemary Port, said her privacy was violated, and she had a right to her opinions.
Franklin's petition, also filed in state court in Manhattan, cites the Cohen case and argues that Franklin, too, was defamed...
Fri, 20 Aug 10
iPhone Maker Rallies Workers After China Suicides
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74786
Young workers who normally spend their days assembling iPhones and other high-tech gadgets packed a stadium at their massive campus Wednesday, waving pompoms and shouting slogans at a rally to raise morale following a string of suicides at the company's heavily regimented factories.
The outreach to workers shows how the normally secretive Foxconn Technology Group has been shaken by the suicides and the bad press they have attracted.
"For a long period of time I think we were kind of blinded by our success," said Louis Woo, special assistant to Terry Gou, the founder of Foxconn's parent company. "We were kind of caught by surprise."
The company has already raised wages, hired counselors and installed safety nets on buildings to catch would-be jumpers. Other changes include job rotation so workers can try different tasks and grouping dorm assignments by home province so workers don't feel so isolated.
However, Woo acknowledged there will be challenges in preventing such tragedies in a work force of 920,000 spread across 16 factories in China, all of which are to have morale boosting rallies. Woo said he expected the company will grow to 1.3 million workers sometime next year.
"No matter how hard we try, such things will continue to happen," he said.
The rally Wednesday took place at Foxconn's mammoth industrial park in Shenzhen, which employs 300,000 and where most of the suicides have taken place. The latest suicide -- the 12th this year -- occurred Aug. 4 when a 22-year-old woman jumped from her factory dormitory in eastern Jiangsu province.
Twenty thousand workers dressed in costumes ranging from cheerleader outfits to Victorian dresses filled the stadium at the factory complex, which was decorated with colorful flags bearing messages such as "Treasure your life, love your family." The workers chanted similar slogans and speakers described their career development at Foxconn.
As they...
Fri, 20 Aug 10
Solving the Integrated Marketing Mess
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74780
What do a public relations firm in Boston, a digital shop in Minneapolis, and an ad agency in Albuquerque have in common? A small client in St. Louis. At first glance, relying on three businesses for specialized marketing services might seem odd, but it's not.
More and more businesses are relying on multiple firms for their marketing needs in this digital age, particularly smaller companies that want a sophisticated plan but don't have the big bucks to hire a huge agency. They may have to look beyond their immediate geography to get their unique needs met, and they're increasingly able to do so as technology continues to shrink the distance between clients and contractors.
There is, however, a downside, from which many company leaders I have spoken with lately are suffering. I call it the integrated marketing mess.
Integrated marketing used to be fairly simple. If your television and radio ads were tied to your newspaper and direct mail campaign, you had an "integrated" plan. Today it's a bit more complicated. Traditional media vehicles still need to be tied together, but they also must integrate with point-of-sale materials and PR efforts. And Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. Plus Web site content and search engine optimization, and in some cases YouTube channels and LinkedIn profiles. Not to mention customer service and internal communications. It's downright dizzying the number of things we now have to keep track of.
It gets worse. Most marketers don't know that an epic struggle is going on just beneath the surface of the marketing communications industry. Digital agencies are starting to offer more traditional services. Traditional agencies are adding digital capabilities. Ad agencies are offering PR. PR firms are selling graphic design. Design firms are calling themselves ad agencies. And every one is staking a claim to the new ground of...
Thu, 19 Aug 10
Verizon Wants To Stream FIOS To iPad, Other Tablets
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74810
Instead of fighting over the TV remote control, Verizon FIOS customers in the same household will soon be able to access the fiber-optic provider's shows via Wi-Fi on a tablet device so they can watch in different rooms.
Verizon Communications announced Wednesday that it is talking to its partners about streaming content to Apple's iPad through a new application called What's Hot, which will display thumbnails of programming in the user's area and turn the device into a mobile version of set-top devices that steam TV to computers. The service is planned for next year and eventually may include tablet reception outside the home.
The service is expected to be free, although content providers may demand fees from Verizon for adding their movies and shows to additional screens. The company will also develop applications for other tablets as the market for those devices grows.
"Technologically, there's no difference between this and the set-top box," Verizon Chief Information Officer Shaygan Kheradpir told reporters during a demonstration at his New York apartment, as reported by Dow Jones.
Verizon also announced a service available later this year that will allow FIOS customers to stream content such as rental movies to up to five devices, including handsets, that run operating systems by Research In Motion, Google and Microsoft. That app will also allow sharing of photos and music.
The technology for streaming TV and video content to mobile devices is nothing new, said analyst Jeff Orr of ABI Research. It already exists in such services as Sprint Nextel's MobiTV, while CNN streams live programming to its web site.
Under Verizon's plan, "FiOS would likely be the content-distribution network and the FiOS network into the home would be the pipe to carry the IP data," Orr said. "From there, a media tablet -- and any other computing device --...
Thu, 19 Aug 10
Lyric Technology Could Change Computer Processing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74809
Lyric Semiconductor has unveiled its first device, which promises to dramatically raise computing efficiencies for applications performing complex tasks. In contrast to standard processors designed to perform binary calculations based on strings of zeros and ones, Lyric's chips are able to natively process probabilities, the chipmaker said Tuesday.
Spun out from MIT and funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that gave birth to the Internet, Lyric's technology promises to deliver a fundamental change in processing performance and power consumption. The first commercial application, known as Lyric Error Correction (LEC), is available now and targets the flash-memory segment of the computing market.
Featuring an advanced error corrector for flash memory, LEC produces chip die sizes that are not only 30 times smaller but also reduce power consumption by a factor of 12. "We are starting with LEC, but ultimately plan to develop a more general-purpose probability processor that will truly change the landscape for many applications," said Lyric cofounder and CEO Ben Vigoda.
Lyric has designed a completely new type of logic gate featuring circuits that can accept a range of inputs and produce outputs that vary between the binary "off" and "on" stages of conventional computing systems. As a result, the technology can directly represent probabilities as levels of certainty.
Some of the first computers made were analog, and in an ideal world it would be a very good way to calculate probabilities because analog can represent numbers between one and zero, noted Lyric Director of Business Development Mira Wilczek. "After 60 years of digital computing, we've started encountering a large class of applications -- probability calculations -- that are extremely inefficient when you implement them in digital," Wilczek said Wednesday.
So it's time to revisit basic assumptions and combine the good ideas of both digital and analog,...
Thu, 19 Aug 10
Did You Do Bad? Google CEO Says Change Your Name
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74808
Worried that your Facebook postings could someday catch up with you? No problem, says Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Just change your name.
That's a possible solution the executive suggested in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal. "I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time," he told the newspaper. In fact, he suggested, someday every young person will be entitled to automatically change his or her name upon reaching adulthood because of the embarrassing online history left over from their youth.
These comments and similar ones are raising eyebrows since they come from the head of a company that has become embroiled in a boatload of government investigations around the world because of possible privacy violations from the unauthorized capture of private wireless information by Google's Street View mapping vehicles.
Additionally, Google has received sharp criticism for its unveiling last week with Verizon Wireless of a suggested "policy framework" for Net neutrality. Consumer advocate groups, which had been part of an alliance with Google for an open Internet, and many Net content-based companies have attacked the plan as an attempt to foster a multitiered Internet in which some kinds of content could be monitored by an Internet provider and treated differently than other kinds.
In this context, other aspects of the Journal interview raise questions as to whether Google is becoming a threat to traditional notions of privacy and choice, or simply reflecting the way the world is evolving. For instance, Schmidt also told the Journal that, someday, searching on the web will be less of an active query by an individual and more a function of software that knows what you want.
He said "one idea is that more and more searches" will be conducted on behalf of the...
Thu, 19 Aug 10
Yahoo and Microsoft Creep Up on Search Leader Google
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74807
Even as Yahoo tries to reinvent itself and Microsoft's Bing tries to define itself, Google remains the clear search champ. That's the takeaway from the new monthly survey by comScore, which puts Google's market share at 65.8 percent in July, with Yahoo remaining in second place at 17.1 percent and Bing third at 11 percent.
The numbers were virtually the same as in June, with Google dropping .4 percent, Yahoo rising .4 percent, and Microsoft remaining even. Ask Network was fourth, at the same 3.8 percent in July as in the preceding month, and AOL is fifth at 2.3 percent, about .1 percent less than the previous month.
Those figures are part of comScore's Explicit Core Search Share Report, which it will now report every month along with its Total Core Search.
The company defines Explicit Core Search as "user engagement with a search service with the intent to retrieve search results," which means that contextual links and slideshows are excluded. Slideshows in response to a search query results in multiple web pages, and each slide can be counted as a search. Contextual links can count even when the user is simply hovering over a link and not clicking.
Slideshows and contextual links were recently added by Bing and Yahoo, and some search-engine observers have described these additions as ways that the two companies "inflate" their search volume. Explicit Core Search, as defined by comScore, reflects the "traditional" view of searches, in which a user conducts a search, sees results, and can refine the search if desired.
Some analysts have indicated that slideshows and contextual links constituted a significant amount of the reported search results from Yahoo and Bing in June.
comScore's Cameron Meierhoefer told news media that his company noticed "a significant spike" in nontraditional searches and, as a result,...
Thu, 19 Aug 10
Chrome-Powered Tablet and Store May Take on iPad
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74806
As Google Android-powered smartphones catch up with Apple's iPhone, rumors are again swirling about a Google tablet that would square off with Apple's iPad in the holiday shopping season. News reports are pointing to a tablet based on Google's Chrome operating system that would launch on Black Friday.
HTC would manufacture the rumored Google tablet, and Verizon Wireless would be the carrier. The trio of companies would challenge Apple and AT&T.
At the same time, a Chrome app store is set to debut in October. The store would give Chrome OS and Chrome browser users more ways to customize, and developers would retain 70 percent of the revenues. A Chrome tablet complete with a store would be the foundation for iPad competition.
"Apple has provided the industry with a blueprint on how to create a successful tablet product. That's a market segment that eluded success for quite some time. So it's not at all surprising that we are going to see an entire army of new tablet devices this holiday season," said Avi Greengart, principal analyst at Current Analysis.
Indeed, the Consumer Electronics Show in January witnessed tablet after tablet promising to make a splash in the market. Many of those tablets were subsequently canceled, or at least postponed to tweak the hardware and software after manufacturers saw Apple's iPad. Apple is selling an estimated one million iPads a month. But Apple's success has never swayed Google's determination.
"Google has been very clear that they intended a Chrome OS and Android both to be used on tablets," Greengart said. "It will be interesting to see if there will be any conflict between Chrome OS and Android, and whether they will be able to create an apps market for Chrome or whether they'll just be HTML5 apps, and, if so, whether that will...
Thu, 19 Aug 10
Apple Dominates Mobile Ads, with Android Moving Up
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74805
The long-prophesied age of mobile ads is upon us. But it's not Research In Motion or Motorola dominating the landscape -- it's Apple, which didn't even have a mobile device when pundits were proclaiming that mobile ads would one day drive millions in ad sales.
Millennial Media's July 2010 Mobile Mix report, which offers information on the latest mobile-device trends for connected devices, mobile manufacturers, operating systems, and apps, shows that Apple has maintained the lead in mobile ads since September 2009.
Apple ad requests increased 36 percent and iPad ad requests grew 327 percent month over month. In total, Apple gets 55 percent of mobile-ad hits, though Apple did lose one percentage point of market share in July. Google's Android operating system overtook RIM to hold the number-two spot. RIM maintains third place.
Drilling down into those numbers demonstrates the growth of Android and the threat to Apple's dominance. Android ad requests grew 47 percent month over month. But since January, Android's growth has jumped 690 percent compared to only 15 percent growth for Apple's iOS. RIM ad requests increased 18 percent month over month, a 66 percent increase since January.
"What the data mean is that there are more Android devices and more Android users online. It's catching up in terms of mobile Internet usage. No surprise given the accelerating sales that Android is seeing across many devices and carriers," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.
Android and Apple users are somewhat different demographically, Sterling noted, but their behavior is similar, so the data is consistent with what he would expect to see.
"Android, however, is not a 'single platform' like iOS," Sterling added. "It represents dozens of devices now across many carriers. But the larger point is that when people have a more user-friendly mobile Internet device,...
Thu, 19 Aug 10
Teachers, Students Face Digital Communication Dilemma
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74706
Peter Kupfer has made it difficult for his physics students to claim they didn't know about a homework assignment.
Not only does Kupfer outline the assignment during class at Lake Zurich High School, he also tweets a daily reminder to his followers on Twitter. On Facebook, he posts a status update and occasionally provides extra details on his fan page.
"I, personally, am not worried about sharing (online) space with students," he said. "The kids can talk to me and I find it a useful avenue to communicate."
But as teachers like Kupfer increasingly are connecting with their students online, school districts are working to define appropriate ways for teachers and students to communicate outside the classroom.
It's a murky area with a variety of questions: Should teachers use a Facebook fan page to contact students? Should they allow students to "friend" them on their personal profiles, or post pictures on their walls? Should they notify parents that they are using social networking sites to communicate?
The Illinois school code requires that districts develop polices for social networking and teach students how to safely use chat rooms, e-mail, and instant messaging. Some districts have responded with vague policies open for interpretation. Others have banned all use of social media between teachers and students.
In Community High School District 128 in Libertyville, Ill., the school board approved a set of "expectations" for social networking between teachers, coaches and students, which are now incorporated into employee policies.
It deems district-provided e-mail and school-based Web sites acceptable forms of communication. However it warns that text messages are highly personal, can quickly get "off topic" and be easily misinterpreted by a parent.
"What you want to avoid is a parent seeing a coach's cell phone number on their daughter's phone and being surprised," said Mick Torres, the district's technology director.
While District 128...
Thu, 19 Aug 10
Relax, Put Your Feet Up and Innovate
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74593
Over the years many of the finest managers I've known have confided to me what they regard as their deepest, darkest secret. Their confessionals are strikingly similar and run along these lines: "People see me as a very driven person, but what they don't know is that my downtime is when I do a lot of my real problem solving."
Most of the time executives find themselves bombarded with reports, e-mails, telephone calls, fire-fighting, and meetings. If you're like me, you have days you think you're going to scream if you don't get away from the office. It's a natural response to a humdrum, energy-sapping routine.
The answer is to engage in what I call passive innovation. I routinely advise my clients to unplug by taking a drive to a park, the ocean, or into the country with only a blank pad of paper and pen. Think of it as a coffee break for your brain.
"But what'll I do when I get there?" they inevitably ask. "Nothing," I reply. "Just sit or walk and drain your mind of thoughts." The intellect at rest can turn into an inspiration incubator, but we have to learn how to give it time off and then listen to it.
A senior executive at a technology company once told me the most valuable lesson he'd ever had was a seemingly off-the-cuff remark by a friend who had guided his career since college. "He advised me in no uncertain terms," my client recalled, "that the mark of good executives is how much time they spend with their feet up on the desk." I couldn't agree more.
Here are some other tips and tricks overachievers use to clear their minds and open up the neural pathways for breakthrough thinking:
Put on Your Thinking Cap: While you can't force inspiration, you can...
Thu, 19 Aug 10
Review: Hulu Plus Brings Television To Your Pocket
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74584
Hulu, the popular Web site with TV shows, now comes as a subscription-based application for iPhones and iPads. Although it isn't perfect, it works well enough that it may make you wonder if the TV's reign as the center of family life is coming to an end.
Instead of gathering to turn our faces to the blue glow of the living-room set, maybe we'll curl up, each in our own little world, with a phone or tablet in our lap. They don't look as good as HDTVs, but we won't have to fight over remotes any more. An iPhone held 7.5 inches from my eye looks just as big as a 46-inch TV, 10 feet away.
This comes just as many of us have invested in a humongous flat-panel TV, so it doesn't sound like good news (TV manufacturers, of course, are trying to convince you that your TV isn't 3-D, it's already obsolete). As a consolation, consider that Hulu and a few other online video services are now also available for Internet-connected TVs and Blu-ray players. It's coming to game consoles as well, starting with the PlayStation 3 later this year.
Hulu's Web site is free and gathers shows from ABC, Fox and NBC, including "Glee," "The Office," and "House." Generally, shows are available starting the day after they air, and for a few weeks after that.
With Hulu Plus, you get:
- The ability to play the shows on iPhone models 3GS and 4, iPads, iPod Touches from September or later, and some high-end Samsung TVs and Blu-ray players.
- Entire seasons of shows, current and past.
- Some shows in high definition, if you're watching on a TV or computer screen.
Hulu Plus is still in "preview," and you can't just sign up like that. You supply your e-mail address to Hulu.com, and they send...
Thu, 19 Aug 10
Dragon NaturallySpeaking Cool, But Not Foolproof
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74579
There's always been something magical about speech-recognition software such as Nuance Communications' Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
It's cool to use your voice instead of a mouse and keyboard to input text or give commands to your PC. It can be a lifesaver for people who can't type or have a hard time doing so.
Dragon also has come a long way since 1997 when it was released -- and even in the three years since I last reviewed the program. In the latest PC version, Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11, Nuance bolsters the things that matter most: accuracy and speed, though to be frank, you may not notice. And there are several incremental enhancements, including a sidebar window you can summon as a crib sheet for commands and tips.
Nuance claims accuracy rates as high as 99 percent without any training at all. That's a 15 percent boost in accuracy over the previous iteration, Nuance says, and a 25 percent to 30 percent gain over the version before that.
Training does help, of course, both in getting the computer to learn the way you speak and to get you more comfortable with dictating text. Dragon is happier when you speak in a natural, fluid voice, rather ... than ... like ... a ... robot.
If you're new to the program, Dragon creates a "user profile" collecting information about your voice, writing style and audio equipment. You can add or modify specialized words, names, acronyms and so on that are unique to your profile.
Now the reality check: I used Dragon to write, um, dictate into a microphone, a good chunk of this column. My suspicion is I didn't surpass 90 percent accuracy overall. To be fair, as a writer, I find it more natural to type than to speak. (And I'm not a perfect typist.)
That said, I was impressed by...
Thu, 19 Aug 10
Boeing Enlists Hollywood To Make Engineering Cool
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74574
On the TV show NCIS, actress Pauley Perrette plays quirky, über-smart forensic specialist Abby Sciuto. As part of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the tattooed, well-educated goth uses her expertise in hacking, ballistics, and DNA analysis to solve murders and other crimes that involve the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
p
In a public service announcement shot in July, Perrette takes on a different -- and possibly more challenging -- role. On behalf of the nonprofit Entertainment Industries Council, Perrette encourages students to pursue careers in the fields of science, engineering, and technology.
p
There's a pressing need for young people in the U.S. to consider careers in science and technology, particularly in aerospace, says Marion Blakey, chief executive officer of the Aerospace Industries Assn. A high percentage of the industry's workforce is nearing retirement and many of the jobs that will need to be filled are in engineering, she says. Because many of the jobs relate to defense contracts and require employees to be U.S. citizens, aerospace companies must find new scientists at home, rather than abroad. Within 10 years half of our workforce will be eligible to retire, Blakey says. We have to home-grow this workforce because of the security clearance requirements. Already, there are more than 7,000 job openings, many of them on defense projects and hard to fill, she says.
p
Boeing, the second-biggest U.S. defense contractor, may feel the pinch acutely. Chicago-based Boeing says that by 2015, about 40 percent of its workforce, or 60,000 people, will be eligible to retire. To ensure that the open positions are filled, the company works closely with 150 colleges in the U.S. and abroad.
p
subhead
In Aerospace, 20 Percent Retire Soon
/subhead
p
Boeing is also trying to get young people interested in technology-related fields at an earlier age. Last year the company joined forces with the Entertainment Industries...
Thu, 19 Aug 10
How To Sell Online Successfully in China
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74572
To many multinationals, digital China is the mother of all untapped markets. At 384 million as of 2009, China already has twice as many Internet users as the U.S. and Japan combined. Just as important is the intensity with which Chinese are connected -- an average of 2.7 hours online each day. That translates to Chinese eyeballs glued to e-commerce sites, blogs, mobile applications, and games for 1 billion hours each day, twice as many as in the U.S.
p
So far, many Western companies have been caught flat-footed. Savvy Chinese Internet companies like Tencent, Alibaba.com, and Sohu are running circles around Western Internet giants, utterly dominating a fast-growing, $37 billion consumer e-commerce industry. Many foreign consumer-product and services companies are missing out, too. At a time when tens of millions of Chinese each year are newly embracing online shopping, it is essential to move beyond traditional television and outdoor advertising.
p
The good news for foreign companies is that the game is still early. China's online population is projected to reach 650 million in five years as the Web penetrates deep into the interior. The percentage shopping online is expected to surge from 9 percent in 2009 to 19 percent in 2012. And digital activities still nascent in China such as social networking, mobile broadband services, and online advertising are poised for explosive growth.
p
To succeed, multinationals must shed assumptions that have worked well in the West. Instead, they must carefully study the idiosyncrasies of Internet use in China and the online impulses of its digital consumers.
p
subhead
Enormous Potential
/subhead
p
Mind you, China isn't a snap for anybody. The government can change the rules swiftly. On June 22, for instance, the Culture Ministry announced regulations for online gaming that sent shares of Tencent tumbling. Big urban markets like Beijing and Shanghai are also getting saturated from some...
Wed, 18 Aug 10
Windows Phone 7 Will Be a Platform for Video Games
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74769
If people chatting or texting on their smartphones on the railroad get you annoyed, wait until you see them rocking out to Guitar Hero 5 during the morning commute. Betting big on mobile gaming to stand apart from rival operating systems, Microsoft on Tuesday announced 50 games it will integrate into its Windows Phone 7 Series devices in time for this year's holiday season.
The games run the gamut from family-style fare like Bejeweled and Uno to Xbox classics like Rocket Riot, which will make its mobile debut with Windows 7. The phone-based games will interact with Microsoft's Xbox Live universe so users can update their avatars, keep track of their game score, and add achievements to their profiles. They can also access Halo:Waypoint, a Live hub where they can watch videos and interact with other players, though the hot game itself apparently isn't going mobile.
"We're really approaching this as we would a console, so we have to deliver the breadth of games and the quality people expect from Xbox," said Kevin Unangst, Microsoft's senior director of PC and mobile gaming, in a posting on the Microsoft News Center site. "To have this quantity and quality of games committed this far ahead of launch, with even more to come, is a statement of support that says Windows Phone 7 will be a big success."
Other notable games announced at this year's GameCon in Cologne, Germany, include Digital Chocolate's 3D Brick Breaker Revolution, Protégé Games' Armor Valley, i-Play's Fast Furious 7, Konami's Frogger, Gameloft's Assassins Creed, and Arkedo's O.M.G. Additional titles will be named before the Windows 7 launch in October, with more titles to be added every week, Microsoft said.
p
Windows Phone 7 is the launch of a major gaming platform for Microsoft, said Matt Booty, general manager of...
Wed, 18 Aug 10
Democrats Slam Google-Verizon Internet Proposal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74768
Four members of the U.S. House of Representatives expressed opposition Tuesday to a plan under which wireless operators would be exempt from the Net-neutrality rules for other broadband service providers. According to the four Democrats, if the Google-Verizon Wireless proposal is adopted, it would diminish the Federal Communication Commission's ability to implement a national broadband plan.
p
Rather than expanding on a proposal from two large companies with a vested interest in the outcome, formal FCC action is needed, said Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), and Mike Doyle (D-Penn.).
p
The recent proposal by Google and Verizon of an industry-centered Net-neutrality policy framework reinforces the need for resolution of the current open proceedings at the commission to ensure the maintenance of an open Internet, they wrote in an open letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
p
subhead
Widening the Digital Divide
/subhead
p
The FCC is moving to establish new rules in the wake of a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals that cast doubt on whether broadband falls within the scope of the FCC's existing regulations. The FCC wants to reclassify broadband as a Title II telecommunication service, which would give it regulatory authority to implement open-access provisions.
p
By contrast, the Google-Verizon proposal would limit the FCC's openness policies to a complaint-driven process with actions on a case-by-case basis. Furthermore, the industry giants believe the guiding principles they have proposed for governing wireline networks should not apply to wireless, except for a transparency requirement.
p
Inslee, Markey, Eshoo and Doyle are concerned that the exclusion of wireless services from open Internet requirements could result in a widening of the digital divide.
p
Underserved regions and demographic groups that either need or prefer to access the Internet on a mobile device could end up with a substandard, less open experience, they wrote. Moreover, such inconsistent principles...
Wed, 18 Aug 10
Apple Eyes Smaller iPad as Tablet Rivals Gear Up
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74766
Apple's iPad may have the tablet field to itself at the moment, but a variety of competitors are lacing up their shoes. Within the next few months, tablets are expected from Samsung, Hewlett-Packard, ASUS, LG Electronics, Research In Motion, Dell and others. But they better move fast, since there are reports that Apple is planning a smaller seven-inch iPad 2 for release as early as Christmas.
p
The competition certainly has its work cut out. The 9.7-inch iPad is currently selling about a million units per month, and in the minds of many consumers it is the tablet category. But it's a growing category. One industry projection, from IDC, estimated 12 million units will be sold by the end of this year, and twice that number next year.
p
subhead
Android, webOS, BlackBerry OS
/subhead
p
Many of the new tablets will be built on Google's open-source Android operating system, including Samsung's Galaxy, the Dell Streak, and ASUS' Eee Pad. Google is expected to release a more tablet-optimized version of Android in the fall. HP originally was going to release a tablet based on Microsoft's Windows 7, but has canceled that and is expected to use the webOS it acquired when it bought Palm. RIM is expected to use an updated version of its BlackBerry OS.
p
Aside from mindshare, a key problem competitors must solve is that the OS must be tablet- and touch-optimized. HP apparently decided that Windows 7 wasn't. Another essential factor is the number of third-party applications, given that Apple has more than 225,000 apps for its mobile devices.
p
A third key issue is differentiation. Apple has opened one of those doors by refusing to allow the popular Flash multimedia technology on its devices, and its rivals are all too happy to offer it on their tablets. Price could obviously be a differentiator, but it's not...
Wed, 18 Aug 10
Barnes Noble Releases Updated Nook E-Reader Apps
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74765
Barnes Noble is increasing its bet on e-books with the release Tuesday of updated, free nook e-readers for Apple's iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and Windows-based PCs. The move re brands its existing software, launches a new nook reader for the iPhone, and updates the iPad and PC readers.
p
The iPad update includes such features as content rating, which the company said has been requested by users. The new readers include one of the nook's touted advantages, the LendMe technology that allows a user to share e-books with friends.
p
subhead
iPhone Features
/subhead
p
The iPhone app borrows personalization features that had existed in the iPad version, including the ability to use professionally designed visual themes, choose line spacing or justification, optimize reading for either day or night conditions, preview before settings are changed, and pick from millions of color alternatives for fonts, backgrounds, or links. The new iPhone app is designed to present e-book cover art and text at its best on the iPhone 4's Retina display.
p
The nook software readers complement the Barnes Noble e-reader by the same name. In June, the bookseller announced a Wi-Fi version and lowered the price of the 3G model.
p
At its launch, the nook was widely panned. David Pogue of The New York Times, for instance, wrote that every one of the nook's vaunted distinctions come fraught with buzz-kill footnotes, adding that, in short, the nook is a mess. But with software updates and other fixes, the company has been trying to address many of the initial issues.
p
Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst with industry research firm Forrester, said she doesn't think the new readers are a case of Barnes Noble hedging its bets. Actually, she said, this is part of the company's multi-device strategy, similar to Amazon.com's for its Kindle e-reader.
p
subhead
'Jump-Start' the Category
/subhead
p
The nook hardware, she...
Wed, 18 Aug 10
Dangerous 'Dislike' Scam Spreading on Facebook
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74764
There are many opportunities to Like content on Facebook -- and increasingly on sites all over the web -- but Facebook doesn't offer a Dislike button that people who don't like a status update or a New York Times story can click to express their opinion. Facebook wants you to remember this.
p
That's because a bogus Dislike button is appearing as an option on status updates. When a user clicks this nefarious button, he or she may wind up with more reason to dislike the page: The scam steals their identity or hijacks their account.
p
Beware of the fake Facebook 'Dislike' button. As always, we advise you not to click on suspicious links on Facebook, Facebook said in a security post. We're working hard to stop these from spreading. If you see one, report it to us, and warn any friends who might be affected.
p
subhead
Not So Clever
/subhead
p
At first glance, the Dislike button appears to be a clever trick, but security researchers said it's not unlike other survey scams they have seen on Facebook. Graham Cluley, a senior security consultant at Sophos, pointed to three sequential survey scams last week that use the same approach.
p
There was the Justin Bieber trying to flirt scam, the Student attacked his teacher and nearly killed him scam, and the World's worst McDonald's customer, to name a few, he said. Thanks to the viral nature of Facebook, these rogue apps have a tendency of spreading rapidly.
p
What's different this time is that the ruse uses a commonly requested Facebook feature -- a 'Dislike' button -- as bait for the unwary, Cluley said. It appears to have affected hundreds of thousands of Facebook accounts; however, Facebook has now closed down the rogue applications. Of course, there's nothing to stop scammers trying again with a slightly different disguise.
p
subhead
Handing Over...
Wed, 18 Aug 10
Amazon Cuts BlackBerry Torch Price Amid Weak Sales
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74763
When Research In Motion rolled out the BlackBerry Torch 9800 in early August, co-CEO Mike Lazaridis called it one of the most significant launches in the company's history. Strong words -- and so far, weak results.
p
The Torch isn't turning many heads compared to the breakaway success of the iPhone 4 and competing Android-powered devices. The Wall Street Journal reports less-than-impressive sales of the Torch by ATT, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and RadioShack. The device went on sale Aug. 12.
p
While Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4s in the first three days, RIM sold only about 150,000 Torch phones in its opening weekend. Even though no one expected the Torch to pace the iPhone 4, unit sales were less than spectacular for what was billed as one of the most significant phone launches in RIM's history.
p
subhead
A Grain of Salt
/subhead
p
Amazon.com is taking a bold step to sell more Torch devices by slashing the price to $99. ATT priced the Torch at $199.00 with a two-year service contract. Before the device even makes its international debut, Amazon has cut the price in half. But some analysts warn not to make too much of Amazon's strategy.
p
Amazon often discounts even high-profile phones earlier than other retailers, and at much lower price points -- even to the point where it's below cost, said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group. So that's not unusual, and it's not particularly reflective of the Torch.
p
Amazon's price cut has spawned questions, though, considering that the cost to build the device is $183, according to iSuppli. But again, Gartenberg warns not to put too much stock in estimates.
p
It's hard to pinpoint numbers. You don't know how accurate they are, Gartenberg said. The component pricing seems a little high -- almost as high as the iPhone 4. That doesn't make much sense.
p
subhead
No iPhone Killer
/subhead
p
Positioned...
Wed, 18 Aug 10
Business Owners Go Back To School To Learn New Skills
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74743
With the start of the new school year, many small business owners are about to become students. Some are brand-new entrepreneurs who want to learn the basics, such as how to use accounting software. Others are veterans who want to learn new skills so they can expand their business.
p
Owners who want to learn have a wide variety of options. Traditional options like colleges and universities offer courses, but so do trade organizations and chambers of commerce. Some government agencies also have courses.
p
Lynette Viviani, who owns a public relations firm, will be going to school this fall to learn more about social media and how to use it for marketing. Viviani has taken classes at the City University of New York's Business Development Institute. She has also taken courses offered by trade groups.
p
You have to go out there and learn new things, says Viviani, whose company, Viviani Associates PR is located in Parsippany, N.J. She's been taking classes since the early days of running her own business, which she started 22 years ago. At first she was taking courses in subjects like speechwriting. Now, she says, continuing education is a must, especially in light of today's evolving world of social media and content marketing.
p
An owner concerned about the expense will quickly find that money isn't an issue. Although some courses at major universities can cost $1,000 or more, there are plenty of courses or seminars that cost $20, $50 or at most, a few hundred dollars.
p
Location is also not a problem, because so many courses are offered online. And taking classes doesn't have to be a big time-burner. Classes range from 90-minute seminars to college or university courses that last a semester.
p
subhead
Colleges, Universities and For-Profit Schools
/subhead
p
Schools ranging from community colleges to major universities usually have courses that appeal to business owners....
Wed, 18 Aug 10
Review: New Choices Enliven Back-to-School PCs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74712
Looking at getting a new PC for the fall semester? Here's a jolt of cheer in these uncertain times: PCs are not only cheaper than ever, there's real innovation going on, yielding interesting new choices.
p
This is a rundown of options in a couple of price categories.
p
subhead
$300 to $500
/subhead
p
There used to be three main choices in this price range: netbooks, which are small laptops; heavy, frumpy laptops; and no-frills desktop computers.
p
To that we can now add laptops that are slightly bigger than netbooks, yet still light, and have enough processor power to play movies off YouTube and Hulu without stuttering, something netbooks can't do. The cheapest of these thin-and-light laptops use AMD's Neo chips. They're considerably more powerful than the Intel Atom chips that are used in most netbooks, but also drain batteries faster.
p
I tried the $450 Neo-powered Gateway LT32, which has a screen that is 11.6 inches diagonally. I found the LT32 a good choice for someone who needs a computer to carry outside the home but doesn't need all-day battery life or an optical drive.
p
Not much is new on the netbook front this year, except that most of them now come with Windows 7. That's a big improvement over Windows XP, but their Atom processors are still quite limiting and have seen only minor speed improvements over the last two years. Late this year we should see dual-core Atoms in netbooks, which should kick things up a notch.
p
From the conventional netbook camp, I tried the Toshiba NB255, which has a 10-inch screen. It's available for $300, and it's well built.
p
For a variation on the standard netbook formula, try the Samsung NB30. It's ruggedized to survive drops, so it's supposed to have a better chance of surviving the lifestyle of a teenager, or a klutz of any age. Available for...
Wed, 18 Aug 10
T-Mobile Looks To Lag in Offering 4G Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74701
Deutsche Telekom risks getting left behind in the U.S. market -- again.
p
After four years of delays, Europe's biggest phone company -- whose T-Mobile USA unit accounts for a quarter of its revenue -- leapfrogged bigger rivals Verizon Wireless and ATT in some locations this year with a faster mobile Internet network. Now, Verizon and ATT are on the cusp of network upgrades that might once again leave T-Mobile in the dust.
p
In the not-too-distant future they're going to be playing catch-up again, said Mike Roberts, an analyst at London-based research company Informa Telecoms Media.
p
T-Mobile USA has been finding it harder to retain customers as Verizon and ATT lure them with promises of faster networks or more attractive handsets such as Apple's iPhone. The German company's unit said last week that it lost 93,000 customers in the second quarter and posted an 11 percent decline in operating income, to $1.42 billion, before depreciation and amortization. For now, Bonn-based Deutsche Telekom is banking on its current third-generation network to drive U.S. growth.
p
We'll get a fourth-generation wireless network either by buying spectrum or re-farming existing spectrum, or potentially leasing spectrum together with others, Chief Executive Officer Rene Obermann said at a press conference on Aug. 5. I don't think we'll trail others in the next two years.
p
subhead
'We Still Have Plenty of Capacity'
/subhead
p
T-Mobile last year started rolling out its so-called high-speed packet access, or HSPA+ 3G network that outpaced those of Verizon and ATT in some locations. Verizon, the U.S.'s largest mobile operator, expects to offer its next-generation, long-term-evolution technology network this year, while ATT will start offering LTE in 2011.
p
With HSPA+ we're in a very good position, Obermann said. We still have plenty of capacity, so we are competitive.
p
Some analysts question the company's confidence. The question is: Are they facing another technology gap...
Wed, 18 Aug 10
Can Students Learn As Well on iPads and E-Books?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74688
Oklahoma State University professor Bill Handy has big plans for the Apple iPad this fall. If the text messages he has received since the school announced he would test the tablet-style e-reader in some courses are any indication, students are eager to get their hands on the devices, too.
p
Handy, who teaches in the School of Media and Strategic Communications, is quick to stress that his intent is not to celebrate the new technology so much as to evaluate its effectiveness in the classroom.
p
This is not research to prove that the iPad is great, he says. There's a lot riding on what direction the university might take. If it's not beneficial, (I'll be) glad we figured that out early in the game.
p
Compared with traditional textbooks, the iPad and other devices for reading digital books have the potential to save on textbook costs in the long term, to provide students with more and better information faster, and -- no small matter -- to lighten the typical college student's backpack.
p
Yet the track record on campus so far for e-readers has been bumpy. Early trials of the Kindle DX, for example, drew complaints from students about clunky highlighting of text and slow refresh rates. Princeton and George Washington universities this spring found the iPad caused network problems. Federal officials in June cautioned colleges to hold off on using e-readers in the classroom unless the technology can accommodate disabled students.
p
Though many of those problems are being or have been addressed, some of the most tech-savvy students aren't quite ready to endorse the devices for academic use. And some educational psychologists suggest the dizzying array of options and choices offered by the ever-evolving technology may be making it harder to learn rather than easier.
p
The challenge for working in the electronic age is that we have so...
Wed, 18 Aug 10
Make an Easy Transition to Microsoft Office 2010
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74568
The transition to Microsoft Office 2010 from a previous version won't result in a great deal of culture shock for keyboard connoisseurs.
p
Despite the new ribbon interface, most of the keyboard commands from earlier versions also work with the new Office suite, says German computer magazine c't.
p
For those uninteresting in learning the new ribbon bar, however, there's a freeware utility called Ubitmenu that can bring back the classic menus. To make the switchover to the ribbon bar and symbols more palatable, Microsoft has also created interactive handbooks.
p
With the exception of Outlook, all components of the Office 2010 installation will configure themselves based on any existing older installations. When upgrading from Office 2007, some templates and macros are automatically converted, says Microsoft. Those upgrading from Office 2000, XP, or 2003 will have to manually transfer some of those customizations to the new installation. There's a simple reason for the extra inconvenience: Microsoft changed the directory names.
p
Applications like Word 2010 offer more convenience than its predecessors, the magazine claims: flexible formatting templates are useful for more than just creating good-looking documents. The improved navigation area also makes it possible to depict dozens of pages of text-heavy documents in just a few views.
p
For its part, Excel 2010 makes it easier to keep on top of things. New mini-diagrams give a quick overview of trends. The new PowerPoint also offers the option to edit videos and create new graphics.
Tue, 17 Aug 10
Dell Buys Virtualization Storage Provider 3PAR
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74760
Dell has reached an agreement to acquire virtualized storage provider 3PAR in a transaction valued at $1.15 billion. The deal announced Monday, which has already been approved by the two companies' boards, is expected to close before the end of this year.
The 3PAR acquisition is expected to add additional muscle to Dell's line of intelligent data-management offerings. By enabling organizations to treat storage as a utility, Dell executives said, 3PAR gives customers the ability to use and pay for only the capacity and performance they need, and only when they use it.
"The emergence of software as a service, infrastructure as a service, social networking, and cloud computing business models is increasing the need for storage platforms that scale capacity and performance efficiently for massive throughput in a multi-tenant environment," said Dell Senior Vice President Brad Anderson. "3PAR is the leader in scalable utility storage solutions for the cloud."
Anderson characterized the 3PAR deal as "a natural extension" of a strategy that began with Dell's acquisition of EqualLogic in 2007 and continued this year with the addition of Ocarina Networks and Scalent Networks, together with the assets of Exanet. "3PAR brings the same values of performance, agility and ease of use to higher-end, virtualized storage deployments as EqualLogic does for the entry-level and mid-range," Anderson said.
Monday's acquisition of 3PAR moves Dell up the SAN tier to offer a choice of midrange and high-end storage solutions, Anderson told financial analysts on a conference call. The move targets customers that require "utility storage and highly virtualized server environments," Anderson said.
Dell has been aligning its storage offerings over the last several years to provide customers choice and value, Anderson observed. For example, Ocarina's content-aware deduplication app is central to Dell's plan for delivering intelligent storage management over a unified environment,...
Tue, 17 Aug 10
Apple Files Patents for Mobile Payments on iPhone, iPod
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74759
With mobile-payment systems and services expected to surge this year to include more than three million users in the U.S., Apple appears eager to jump into the field. The computer giant has filed numerous patents involving Near Field Communication (NFC) in the last few months related to systems for buying airline or concert tickets, making payments to vendors, and transferring media from computers to iPhones and iPods.
A patent would also create iPay, iBuy and iCoupons, Apple's own currency for products.
In keeping with Apple's long-standing policy of keeping mum about upcoming products until they are ready to launch, it's saying little about its mobile-payments strategy. But the recent hiring of a leading NFC guru, Benjamin Vigier, suggests Apple is planning to make mobile payments a key feature of its next iPhone.
A site that covers NFC technology reported that Vigier will be Apple's product manager for mobile commerce. Vigier has been working with NFC since 2004 and worked for mFoundry, managing the PayPal Mobile service and Starbucks' bar code-based mobile payments service; for mobile-phone networks; and a bank, Near Field Communications World reported.
NFC is a short-range, high-frequency technology that enables the contactless exchange of data between devices that are within about four inches of each other, allowing a chip inside or a sticker on a phone or credit card to complete transactions with scanners in stores, ticket counters, and other venues.
A June study by Gartner estimated that the number of people using mobile payments will soar 54.5 percent from 70.2 million in 2009 to 108.6 million people worldwide. It also expects that 2.1 percent of all mobile users will adopt payments.
But the adoption rate is far slower in North America, where mobile-payment usage is expected to grow from 1.9 million users last year to 3.5 million this year....
Tue, 17 Aug 10
IBM Buys Unica To Boost Business Analytics Services
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74758
IBM is beefing up its business analytics. Big Blue on Friday agreed to acquire Unica for $480 million in an all-cash transaction.
IBM bought the Waltham, Mass.-based analytics company to expand its software portfolio that analyzes and predicts customer preferences in order to develop more targeted marketing campaigns. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
"IBM understands the demands on today's organizations to transform core business processes in functions such as marketing with intelligence and automation," said Craig Hayman, general manager of IBM Industry Solutions. "Unica was a clear choice for IBM based on its power to automate a broad set of marketing capabilities and its established reputation for delivering customer success in marketing to organizations around the world."
Unica brings IBM more than 1,500 global customers across a wide range of verticals such as financial services, insurance, retail telecommunications, travel and hospitality. Unica's customers include Best Buy, eBay, ING, Monster, Starwood and U.S. Cellular. But IBM snapped up Unica for something more than a growing customer list.
The acquisition gives IBM more analytical firepower to help its customers automate, manage and accelerate core business processes across marketing, demand generation, sales, order processing, and fulfillment. Moreover, Unica fits into IBM's bigger analytics picture, working with other acquisitions, such as Sterling Commerce and CoreMetrics, to improve its business-analytics portfolio.
"Depending on who you talk to, IBM has spent $10-plus billion building up the business intelligence and business analytics part of its software portfolio over the last few years," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.
"There have been some very large pieces like Cognos. But what we've been seeing over the past few months is a shift in tactics where IBM has most of the analytics infrastructure pieces it needs right now. What IBM has been doing to...
Tue, 17 Aug 10
HP Board Ousted Hurd After Outside Settlement
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74757
Just in case you thought the Mark Hurd melodrama at Hewlett-Packard had played itself out, a new plot twist is refreshing the story. According to Monday's Wall Street Journal, the HP board voted to fire Hurd after the CEO reached a sexual-harassment settlement without the board's knowledge or input.
The Journal reported that the board felt the settlement got in the way of its investigation. The settlement was reached on Aug. 4 between Hurd and Jodie Fisher, an ex-marketing contractor to HP. The board also canceled a mediation session scheduled for Aug. 5, where Fisher and her lawyer were scheduled to meet with Hurd's lawyer as well as an outside counsel for HP.
But the newspaper also reported that, according to Hurd, HP had given instructions to Hurd to settle with Fisher before the mediation. An unnamed source, familiar with Hurd's thinking, said the former chief executive complied in every way with the board's investigation, although the board reportedly felt Hurd had not cooperated fully.
There isn't even agreement about whether Hurd was asked to speak with the board. Reportedly the board wanted him to but he declined -- but Hurd has reportedly said he was not given that opportunity. The Journal said the board, according to the unnamed source, had "enough evidence of misconduct" before the settlement meeting, including failing to disclose a personal relationship with a contractor and filing expense reports that concealed the truth.
Hurd's forced departure on Aug. 6 on the grounds of violations of HP's code of business conduct, hit the company in its stock price, and there is a shareholder suit over the decisions surrounding the ouster.
Hurd has denied an improper relationship, and Fisher has denied a sexual one.
Late last week, information came out indicating that a key aide to Hurd, Caprice Fimbres McIlvaine,...
Tue, 17 Aug 10
$10 Million Reportedly Buys Facebook Chai Labs Talent
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74756
Google isn't the only company making cash acquisitions to compete in the next round of the Web 2.0 battle. Facebook just made another acquisition.
According to D: All Things Digital, the social-networking giant scooped up Chai Labs for about $10 million in what appears to be a talent acquisition more than a technology acquisition. But Facebook could leverage both as it positions against a possible Google social-media attack.
Neither Facebook nor Chai Labs was immediately available for comment, but analysts are already seeing the potential of the deal.
"Facebook has at least two recent acquisitions for talent. It's probably a little unsettling for Google to have so many former employees now at Facebook, including 'the Godfather of AdSense,'" said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "But it remains to be seen what will specifically come out of these several acquisitions from product or revenue standpoints."
By the Godfather of AdSense, Sterling is referring to former Google AdSense executive Gokul Rajaram. Rajaram founded the Mountain View, Calif.-based Chai Labs and raised $1.1 million in funding last year alone. Rajaram has raised a total of $2.4 million for the company. Investors include Marc Andreessen, Joe Kraus, and Reid Hoffman.
Kraus is a general partner at Google Ventures. Hoffman is the chairman of LinkedIn and Andreessen the cofounder of Netscape who launched his own venture-capital firm last year. All three men are members of Chai's advisory board.
But Facebook isn't just acquiring Rajaram. Chai Labs also employs veterans from top Silicon Valley companies like Sun and Cisco, along with technical talent from universities like MIT, Stanford and Berkeley.
The team has collectively grown billion-dollar businesses, built soccer-playing robots, represented the U.S. at the Mathematics Olympiads, and won gold medals at ACM International Collegiate Programming Contests.
What do these Chai Labs employees actually do? The...
Tue, 17 Aug 10
Samsung's Galaxy Tablet Could Challenge Apple's iPad
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74755
In the growing firmament of the tablets category, there will soon be a new Galaxy. According to information based on a firmware update for the not-yet-released P1000 Galaxy Tab tablet computer from Samsung, the new device could become one of the challengers to the undisputed king of tablets, Apple's iPad.
Specs from the new firmware, first announced by a blog named Samsung-Firmware.webs.com, indicate that the tablet will use Android 2.2 and have a 480x800 screen, front and back cameras, an ARM11 CPU running at 1.0 GHz, GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The Galaxy name relates it to the company's Galaxy S smartphone line.
The date on the firmware was August 2010, and the Galaxy tablet is expected to be released in the third quarter this year. According to industry rumors on the web, Vodafone UX will carry the Galaxy Tab, and the tablet itself will be unveiled in early September at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.
The tablet was confirmed in a Wall Street Journal interview in June with a Samsung executive. The new information presents the apparent specs and release date.
Tablets are becoming, or may soon become, good friends of wireless carriers in Europe and the U.S. In part, this is because they are built on mobile operating systems, such as Apple's iOS and Google's open-source Android. The iPad, for instance, is in many ways a larger version of the iPod touch. If tablets become the dominant mode for personal and possibly business computing, carriers could become the main conveyors.
Michael Gartenberg, an analyst and partner with the Altimeter Group, said "if the rumor leaks are accurate," the Galaxy tablet's specs are impressive. A key question, he said, is the degree to which the Android-based device will have access to Google's Android Market and its growing library of applications.
Gartenberg also pointed...
Tue, 17 Aug 10
Magic Trackpad May Convert Mouse Lovers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74704
Touch pads have become all but ubiquitous on laptops, which now represent the majority of computers sold. But they're still an afterthought when it comes to desktops.
Apple's new Magic Trackpad may help change that.
The pointing device, which Apple released late last month, allows users to interact with Mac desktop computers with many of the same gestures they can use on a Mac notebook or an iPad. It's much easier to use than the typical mouse and feels more natural and comfortable.
To be sure, I come to that conclusion from a somewhat unusual vantage point: I'm a longtime touch-pad user -- even on my desktop -- who has long been baffled by the mouse's enduring popularity.
A mouse is unwieldy. Moving the pointer from one side of a screen to another often requires the user to pick up and move the mouse. That can be awkward or frustrating in a cramped work space.
And they can be painful to use, literally. I gave up using a mouse about 13 years ago after I suffered repetitive stress injuries to my hands. In searching for a solution to relieve the pain in my aching hands -- and still allow me to do my job -- I found a keyboard that had a built-in track pad. I've used a variation of that at work and at home ever since and have rarely felt a hint of pain.
Also, compared to track pads, most mice are fairly dumb devices. Yes, you can use them to click on a button or use a scroll wheel to page up and down. But few allow you the range of actions you can now do with gestures on a track pad, such as rotating pictures or minimizing windows on a screen.
Touch pads, particularly those on the notebook side, have been gaining usefulness...
Tue, 17 Aug 10
New Browsers Aim To Corral Social-Network Explosion
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74698
It just got to be too much -- the 255 Facebook friends, the four e-mail accounts, the Flickr and Picasa photo albums, the LinkedIn updates, the daily tech blogs I follow and the Twitter feed that never stops disgorging rumors and tips.
So much information was pouring in about friends, relatives and sources that I was feeling swept downstream in a river of status updates. Trying to check in at all those online services -- and remembering all those passwords -- became overwhelming. For a while I just stopped visiting Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
So it was with the relief of a rescued castaway that, at a recent Internet trade show, I stumbled across the booth of 18-year-old Diane Keng, a recent graduate of Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, Calif., who is already on her third business startup. Her Web site, MyWeboo.com has brought order to my online social life, along with a new Web browser service offered by a Menlo Park, Calif., company called Flock.
"The whole idea is that now you have control of your digital life," said Keng, the marketing director of MyWeboo, which she co-founded this spring with her 26-year-old brother Steven, a former engineer at AOL who is the CEO. "We don't just bring things together; we also push it back out to the social networks."
You could think of either Flock or MyWeboo as the hub of a wheel whose spokes radiate out to your accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Blogger or Flickr. Both allow you to channel content from multiple services into a single coherent stream. But even more useful, Flock and MyWeboo are easy ways to share your content back out to the world.
For example, you could upload the photos of the rattlesnake that almost bit you in the high Sierra to MyWeboo.com, and...
Tue, 17 Aug 10
Hard Drive Docking Stations for Fast Data Transmission
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74651
External hard drives are a frequent sight on home office desks. Take a look at the statistics, though, and it quickly becomes clear that the most popular type of storage device is and remains the internal hard drive inside the computer itself.
Special docking stations, though, have been developed to move content easily from point A to B. A docking station accepts conventional internal hard drives and can be connected to the computer via a standard USB cable. The stations are well suited for old hard drives that you've taken out of a PC or laptop.
For laptops in particular the docking stations are a big help when an installed hard drive is replaced with a bigger model, says Hard Lehner from the electronics chain Conrad Elektronik. It makes the hard drive's data accessible even if it's already been removed.
"The docking station offers fast data transmission for relatively little money," Lehner says. Hard drives without casings are much cheaper than external hard drives," says Thomas Littschwager from Chip magazine.
"A docking station is certainly not something every user needs at home, but it does offer certain benefits if large volumes of data are being moved," he says.
There are docking stations compatible with 2.5 and 3.5 inch hard drives, notes Peter Tonev from Technaxx, a hardware maker in Germany. Some models even offer two hard drive slots so that two units can be run parallel.
The standard docking station uses a USB 2.0 connection to transfer data to the computer. "If you move around large volumes of data, USB 2.0 is not going to make you very happy, though," says Littschwager.
Models with a faster eSATA port are available to cure that problem. The hard drive in the docking station then runs just as fast as a hard drive installed within the computer itself, but you...
Tue, 17 Aug 10
As Mainframes Outlast Workforce, Tech Problems Seen
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74573
When Giorgos Tsapepas started as an intern at IBM in 2002, he had never used a mainframe. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the university he attended in upstate New York, there was no instruction in handling the powerful machines that tackle complicated computing tasks for such industries as finance and health care. Now a mainframe expert, Tsapepas had to learn his specialty on the job.
Teaching mainframe skills is out of vogue at many universities with the advent of newer approaches to solving the biggest computing challenges. At the same time, many of the engineers capable of tinkering with the refrigerator-sized machines are nearing retirement. The average age of mainframe workers is 55 to 60, according to Dayton Semerjian, a senior vice-president at CA Technologies, the second-largest maker of software for mainframe computers after IBM. "The big challenge with the mainframe is that the group that has worked on it -- the Baby Boomers -- is retiring," Semerjian says. "The demographics are inescapable. If this isn't addressed, it will be trouble for the platform."
The resulting worker shortage poses a threat to Armonk (N.Y.)-based IBM. The company commands 85 percent of the mainframe market and can't afford to abandon a technology that despite its age, still underpins some 10,000 mainframes that are used by 4,000 to 5,000 customers around the globe. If unresolved, the lack of engineers adept at designing, programming, and repairing mainframes could curb demand for one of IBM's most profitable products. The dearth of talent could also spur customers -- from banks to hospitals -- to consider adopting alternatives to mainframes. These include servers made by Hewlett-Packard and Dell to run networks, Web operations, and a growing range of the computing tasks once entrusted to mainframes.
CA, based in Islandia, N.Y., surveyed its customers last year and found that 70 percent...
Sat, 14 Aug 10
News Corp. Plans National Newspaper for Tablets
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74754
News Corp. is planning a national digital newspaper designed exclusively for tablet computers and smartphones. CEO Rupert Murdoch's latest brainchild would compete with The New York Times, USA Today, and other national newspapers.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the new effort will target general readership with "short, snappy stories" that consumers can read quickly. The digital newspaper would carry the New York Post moniker under the leadership of Managing Editor Jesse Angelo. A launch date hasn't been set, but the Times predicted a year-end debut.
"We'll have young people reading newspapers," Murdoch said during the company's Aug. 4 earnings call. "It's a real game-changer in the presentation of news."
Murdoch has a reputation for changing the news game. The Fox TV network is a prime example. If the new digital national publication finds a niche like Fox did, it could also find similar success, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.
"Murdoch is going to have to pick an audience that's consistent with the device and then cater to that audience. Short, pithy news stories with a lot of entertainment and technology news could probably play very well if it was packaged properly," Enderle said. "Getting that right package, though, would probably be their biggest problem, and would be for anyone trying to do this."
As Enderle sees it, the broader the news coverage, the less likely the new publishing platform would be to succeed. He even suggested multiple targeted publications might serve the mobile-device market better than a single platform. Another alternative, he added, is a publication that alters itself to fit the specific interests of individual readers. The Internet medium allows such customization on the fly.
The success of Apple's iPad has apparently gotten the 79-year-old Murdoch's attention. The New York Times has run ahead with...
Sat, 14 Aug 10
Microsoft Will Release IE9 Beta with Accelerated HTML5
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74753
Microsoft said Thursday it will launch the first public beta of Internet Explorer 9 at an event in San Francisco next month. The goal is to show off new online experiences enabled by the software giant's next-generation web browser, which delivers "a more beautiful web that feels native on Windows," Microsoft said.
Earlier this month, Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch noted that IE9 started from the premise that the Internet will soon be delivering HTML5 experiences that feel more like native applications than web sites.
"Building on hardware-accelerated SVG [Scalable Vector Graphics], canvas, video, audio and text, developers will use the power of the whole PC to achieve great performance," Hachamovitch wrote in a blog. "On the modern web, developers will use the same markup across different HTML5 browsers."
Microsoft's event on Sept. 15 will mark the first time that IE9 will be available in a public beta release. Developers, designers and Microsoft's partners have already been paying close attention to the four IE9 previews that Microsoft has launched so far.
The latest platform preview of IE9 introduced earlier this month shows off the capabilities of fully hardware-accelerated HTML5. "The performance benefits of hardware acceleration are clear from running different sample sites side by side in IE9 and other browsers," Hachamovitch wrote. "IE9 offers consistent, fully hardware-accelerated text, graphics and media, both audio and video."
IE9's integration of HTML5 with full hardware acceleration is clearly a first step and it is good for Microsoft to be behind HTML5, noted Al Hilwa, director of applications software development at IDC. A whole new browser generation is coming to market "with better implementation of HTML5," but almost all have partial implementations, Hilwa said. So the battle is definitely on to see "who has the most extensive implementations."
When it comes to HTML5's video...
Sat, 14 Aug 10
Google Insists It Didn't 'Sell Out' with Net Neutrality Plan
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74752
Amid a storm of opposition from consumer groups and some Internet-based companies for its joint proposal with Verizon Wireless on how to handle Net neutrality, Google is now defending its position. On Thursday, the search giant sought to shoot down what it described as six "myths" about the proposal.
"On balance," the statement on the official Google Blog said, "we believe this proposal represents real progress on what has become a very contentious issue." The statement was posted by Richard Whitt, Washington telecom and media counsel for the company.
The first myth, the company said, is that it has "sold out" on Net neutrality. On the contrary, the company said, it has been "the leading corporate voice" on this issue over the past five years. It noted that there currently are "no enforceable protections" at the Federal Communications Commission or elsewhere against the "worst forms of carrier discrimination against Internet traffic."
In that climate, Google said, it decided to "partner with a major broadband provider on the best policy solution we could," one that is not perfect but that "locks in key enforceable protections for consumers."
The second myth cited is that the proposal is a "step backward" for an open Internet. Whitt said the proposal would give the FCC the ability to preserve an open Internet for the first time, although the agency would be prohibited from imposing regulations. Some observers have noted that the proposal appeared to confine the FCC to answering consumer complaints and filing observational reports.
Another myth, Google said, is that the proposal would eliminate network neutrality for wireless. Google said "in the spirit of compromise" it agreed to allow wireless to remain "free from regulation" for now. The company acknowledged that it had previously argued that "certain openness safeguards" be applied to wireless as well as wireline.
Sat, 14 Aug 10
Oracle Sues Google for Java Infringements in Android
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74751
Oracle announced Thursday that it has sued Google for patent and copyright infringements relating to the use of Java in Google's open-source Android operating system. "In developing Android," Oracle said, "Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle's Java-related intellectual property," adding that the lawsuit "seeks appropriate remedies."
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, contends that "Google's Android competes with Oracle America's Java as an operating-system software platform for cellular telephones and other mobile devices." Oracle acquired the Java language when it bought Sun Microsystems earlier this year.
The lawsuit also said the search giant "has been aware of Sun's patent portfolio," and noted that it hired "certain former Sun Java engineers."
Java is used in Google's software development kit (SDK), and Java-built applications are compiled to run in Google's custom virtual machine, Dalvik, using the search giant's custom versions of the compiler and runtime. Java has been attractive to developers in part because Java apps can be written once, and then run on any platform that has the Java virtual machine software.
Another development kit, the Android Native Development Kit, enables third-party developers to build apps in C and C++, although Java has remained the primary development language. The complaint said Android, the Android SDK, and Dalvik violate the seven Oracle patents cited in the lawsuit.
Al Hilwa, program director for application development at IDC, noted Google released Android as open source under the Apache open license, which allows other companies to modify it with their own code, although there is liability if any vendor uses protected intellectual property.
He said that it's not clear what part of Google's code is the subject of Oracle's contention of infringement.
"One important piece of code in Android," Hilwa said, "is the Dalvik Java virtual machine, which is based...
Sat, 14 Aug 10
Tweet Button Pulls Twitter Followers To Web Sites
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74750
Not to be outdone by Facebook -- or even TweetMeme for that matter -- Twitter has officially rolled out its own Tweet Button for web sites. The Tweet Button lets users link to content on third-party sites with a mouse click.
Let's say you are on CNN.com (which happens to be one of the early adopters of the Tweet Button) and you read an article that wows you. The Tweet Button lets you click a link and share the article with your friends via your Twitter account. No need to cut and paste the URL, shrink it down to size with bit.ly, or jump through any other hoops. The Tweet Button does all that automatically.
"Twitter is great for sharing interesting things you find on the web. In fact, close to a quarter of all Tweets include a link in them," a Twitter rep wrote on the company blog. "Despite the high volume of sharing, there is plenty of room to make it easier. Copying and pasting, link shortening, and bouncing between browser tabs just to share a link in a Tweet is too much work."
Twitter's Tweet Button capabilities don't stop with simple sharing. After you post a story to Twitter, you may also see suggestions for other Twitter users to follow. Twitter bases these suggestions on the web site you visited. The list of suggestions may even include CNN.com, if you posted an article from CNN, or the reporter who wrote the article.
"The Tweet Button is not only simple for users, but for publishers of all sizes, too. Recreational bloggers to large media companies can quickly and easily add the Tweet Button to their sites," the Twitter rep said. "It only takes a few lines of code. The Tweet Button will help publishers grow traffic and increase their...
Sat, 14 Aug 10
Tablets Have Minimal Impact on Smartphone Sales
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74749
Consumers worldwide grabbed up an astonishing 325.6 million mobile devices in the second quarter, up 13.8 percent from the same period a year ago, a study by Gartner Research suggests. Smartphones accounted for 19 percent of those sales, a 50.9 percent increase over last year, showing a vital market for the devices as manufacturers and carriers seem to roll out new models and features nearly every month.
But Gartner's vice president of research, Carolina Milanesi, told us the boom may not last long as the market matures.
"Overall growth is stimulated by new sales in emerging markets as well as replacement sales in mature markets," said Milanesi. "After last year, when we saw no growth in the market due to the economy, sales have picked up but remain lower than in previous years, excluding the anomaly of 2009."
Average sales prices, Gartner noted, were lower than expected, due in part to a stronger dollar, declining euro, and strong competition.
The second quarter also saw the debut of Apple's iPad and a slew of other tablet devices. But Gartner found that mobile devices with larger screens and some of the same functionality as a smartphone didn't make much of a dent in handset sales.
"We believe that most tablet users still feel the need for a truly pocketable, yet highly capable, device for those situations when it's inconvenient to carry a device with a larger form factor," Milanesi said.
Gartner's rating of the top manufacturers of the quarter put Nokia in its usual place on top, with a seemingly untouchable 34.2 percent -- or 111,473,800 units sold -- though that share dropped slightly from 36.8 percent last year. Samsung is the next closest competitor at 20.1 percent of worldwide sales, or 65,328,200 units. The biggest movement was HTC's debut in the top 10 at number...
Sat, 14 Aug 10
Mall Deal Boosts Retailers' Cell-Phone Coupon Dreams
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74742
The nation's biggest mall operator is teaming up with a Silicon Valley startup to reward smart-phone-equipped shoppers for walking into its shopping centers.
The partnership between Simon Property Group, which owns 370 shopping centers, and technology company Shopkick Inc. is a big step in realizing retailers' long-held dream of using cell phones to beam ads and coupons to people passing by.
Simon is launching the program by the end of the month in 25 malls in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.
Separately, four retailers will start offering Shopkick offers at the same time at some stores, including Macy's Inc. and electronics chain Best Buy Inc. The other two are being kept under wraps.
The potential to expand the program and affect how and what shoppers will buy is huge, according to Mikael Thygesen, Simon's chief marketing officer. He is traveling around the country to recruit more retailers into the program.
Thygesen expects to roll the program out to 100 of Simon's 370 shopping centers over the next couple of months. He anticipates one-third of the centers' stores to sign up over the next year. Each center averages about 140 stores.
Shopkick's system doesn't use the Global Positioning System, or GPS, which is what phones usually use to determine their location. Instead, it relies on retailers installing small speakers at the entrance to their stores or the mall. The speakers emit an inaudible sound that can be picked up by cell phone microphones. The sound contains a code that identifies the store.
Customers have to pull out their phones and fire up the Shopkick application -- available for iPhones and Android phones -- to pick up the signal. The app figures out where they are, then credits their account with "Kickbucks," which can be redeemed for songs from Napster; Facebook credits, a currency that can...
Sat, 14 Aug 10
Delta Launches 'Ticket Windows' for Facebook
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74734
Delta Air Lines Inc. said Thursday it's launched a new "Ticket Window" on Facebook that will allow passengers to book directly on the social media site.
It's the first time an airline has allowed customers to reserve flights on Facebook, although nearly all major U.S. airlines use Facebook and Twitter to promote sales.
Delta plans to expand the Ticket Window to other sites, including online banner ads from which customers could book directly.
The airline said the move, along with a redesign of its Web site delta.com earlier this week, is part of an overall effort to interact directly with its customers on the Web.
Big airlines like Delta, the world's largest, have been slower than their discount counterparts in catching the wave of social media. JetBlue and Southwest were the first to use social media for communicating with customers -- dedicating staff to promoting their brands across cyberspace and dealing directly with individual complaints or complements on Twitter.
Delta, which is based in Atlanta, said there's still more changes to come on its Web site to make it more user-friendly. It's also working to improve the ease of use for its airport kiosks. It plans to launch an iPhone application within the next few weeks that will offer customers the ability to check in for flights, check flight status, review schedules, set a parking reminder, review frequent flier account balance and use electronic boarding passes in select cities.
Sat, 14 Aug 10
India Sets Aug. 31 Deadline for BlackBerry Data Access
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74733
India's Home Ministry threatened Thursday to block BlackBerry corporate e-mail and messaging services unless the device's manufacturer makes them accessible to its security agencies by Aug. 31.
The ministry said that if no technical solution is provided by then, it will take steps to block the services from the country's mobile phone network. The phones are made by Canada's Research in Motion Ltd.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also threatened to cut off popular BlackBerry services unless they get greater access to user information. Like India, they've cited security concerns in pushing for access to encrypted information sent by the cell phones that gets routed through servers overseas.
India has asked for encrypted BlackBerry communications to be made easily available to its intelligence and law enforcement agencies, saying that the services could be used by militant groups.
The 10 heavily armed gunmen who rampaged through Mumbai, India's financial capital, in November 2008, killing 166 people, used cell and satellite phones to communicate with their Pakistan-based handlers, according to Indian officials.
Research In Motion had no immediate comment on India's announcement. It has said its discussions with regulators around the world are private.
The announcement came after a meeting of India's home secretary, an official in charge of domestic security, and representatives of security agencies and the government's telecommunications department, the ministry said in a statement.
The United Arab Emirates last week called for a sweeping ban on BlackBerry e-mail, messaging and Web services, saying the devices "allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns." It plans to shut off the services in October unless it works out a compromise with RIM.
Talks between the UAE and RIM are still ongoing, said a person familiar with the issue who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity.
The person said the...
Sat, 14 Aug 10
The End of Outsourcing As We Know It?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74702
In the next five years outsourcing as we know it will disappear. The legion of Indian service providers will be sidelined or absorbed. U.S. and European companies that pioneered this corner of the high tech industry will suffer similar fates if they don't wake up. Who will emerge as the new leaders? Google and Amazon.com, brands that we associate with search and retail, will become better known for outsourcing.
Ludicrous? Not if you follow this industry. Desktop computers yielded to laptops. Web portals AOL, MSN, and Yahoo! are giving way to social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Software once distributed by disk is now available as apps over the Web -- often for less than the cost of a slice of pizza. And so it goes. The same Darwinian process is creating a fresh ecosystem in outsourcing, one that will usher in an era of consolidation and a new way of working with clients.
Traditionally, outsourcing companies sell customers deals that can span a decade and easily run to tens of millions of dollars. The service provider takes on the expensive, time-consuming task of building and operating the digital tools that the customer requires to vanquish the competition, often involving development of custom software to get the job done. To do that, service providers need aisles of powerful computers, armies of programmers, and lots of applications, which are housed either at the client's site or located at a third-party data center that's usually owned and paid for by the client but managed and maintained by the outsourcer. Accenture is a good example of the old model of outsourcing, which involves long-term contracts; customized software, legacy software, or both; and on-site systems integration work.
In the new model, outsourcers provide standard, off-the-shelf software on a "pay-per-drink" basis. For that,...
Sat, 14 Aug 10
Marketing 'Rituals' Can Annoy or Please Customers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74655
We've all been there: sitting in a restaurant, enjoying a quiet meal when the waitstaff comes charging through with a cupcake topped by a candle and singing some form of "Happy Birthday."
A targeted 7-year-old may be thrilled; a 30-year-old, not so much.
The secret to whether this sort of attention translates into repeat business is all in how it's done, said Cele Otnes, a business professor and marketing expert at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
"When done well, (marketing rituals) can be huge sources of bondedness," Otnes said. The problem, however, is that many such rituals are not well thought out or well executed and wind up annoying customers rather than making them loyal, repeat clients.
Otnes presented research on the topic recently at the European Association for Consumer Research Conference at Royal Holloway University of London.
Otnes found that workers in costume who give polished performances made customers feel special and left a positive impression.
The now-defunct Marshall Field's department store chain was a master of ritual.
"Consumers mourn the loss of cherished retail stores. They (Field's) had excellent customer service. Going to the bargain basement was a tradition. Then there were the Christmas windows, the Walnut Room, the incredible amount of attention paid to you shopping for wedding dresses and prom dresses," Otnes said. "You really see the poignancy that can be evoked when retailers do these rituals right."
"Consumers claim them as their own traditions. They don't think of them as a marketing offering anymore."
Another retailer that does rituals right is American Girl, which makes tea at the store feel like a rite of passage. Also good at it are Disney and high-end spas. And for sports fans, there's the 7th inning stretch.
Otnes, who has been studying gift-giving and rituals for two decades, said the mistake retailers make is not talking with their...
Sat, 14 Aug 10
Tips and Tricks for Remote PC Access
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74652
Going on the road with your data used to mean making lists of files and equipment that you couldn't forget. No more. With the right setup and know-how, you can leave your main computer and all of its files at home, accessing it on the road from any Internet-connected computer. In fact, there are now so many ways to access your main computer on the road that the difficulty lies in figuring out which one is right for you. Read on to find out.
Q: I used a free trial of GoToMyPC to access my home computer from the road. I like the service, but I don't use it enough to buy a subscription. Are there free alternatives out there?
A: GoToMyPC may be the most recognizable name in the remote control space, but it's certainly not the only one. And yes, free alternatives do exist.
Representative of the free remote control alternatives is LogMeIn.com (https://secure.logmein.com). It's also one of the easiest to use. Just sign up for an account with an e-mail address, allow the service to install a small host application on the computer you will be accessing from afar, and you're ready to go. You'll be able to access your main computer through any Internet-connected computer by going to LogMeIn and typing in your user name and password. Your main computer will then be one button-click away. With LogMeIn, everything takes place within a web browser. You'll see your remote computer's desktop, just as you left it, and have access to all of its files and e-mail.
There are, however, always limitations with the free versions of third-party remote control solutions. With LogMeIn, one limitation is that you cannot transfer files from the remote machine to whichever one you're using to access your main computer. You could get around that, however,...
Fri, 13 Aug 10
Android 2.2 Carries Out Phone Users' Spoken Orders
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74748
If your Android phone already seems more like a personal assistant, wait until you have the ability to give it orders. Google's Android 2.2 now features Voice Search with Voice Actions, an app that enables smartphones to set reminders and alarms, take dictation for and send e-mails or texts, browse the Internet, get directions, or search for music.
The actions are carried out by tapping the microphone button or holding the search button and using commands such as "note to self," "listen to" "go to," "navigate to," or "map of."
Android phones have had the ability to search through Google via voice commands for about two years. And while voice dialing for programmed contacts is nothing new, Voice Actions will actually look up a number for you, then dial it after you check that it's what you were looking for.
"Let's say I want to get some food at my favorite brunch place but I don't have the number," says Mike LeBeau, the lead engineer for Voice Actions in a promotional video. LeBeau, wearing a bright blue Android T-shirt, then speaks the name of a Brooklyn bakery into his phone and it dials the number.
"Voice Actions uses the magic of Google Maps to find businesses fast," LeBeau says.
Michael Gartenberg of the Altimeter Group, who has tried the app, reports that Froyo devices --- those using the latest Android operating system --- are well suited for voice applications. "Google is working very hard to differentiate by incorporating more speech directly into the [operating system] for common tasks," he said.
Voice Actions is already available on the Motorola Droid 2 handsets released by Verizon Wireless on Thursday and on the Nexus One, which is no longer being sold, and it will likely spread like wildfire as more phones get the Android 2.2 upgrade over the...
Fri, 13 Aug 10
Hurd Aide Also Resigns as HP Soap Opera Continues
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74746
The plot in the made-for-TV story at Hewlett-Packard continues to unfold as a key aide to ex-CEO Mike Hurd has resigned. Fortune magazine reported Wednesday that Caprice Fimbres McIlvaine, who was head of internal communications at the company, has left. Her resignation, reported Wednesday, was effective Aug. 9.
Her departure follows Hurd's by three days, and Fortune said McIlvaine was the "key conduit" in hiring Jodie Fisher. Fisher is a former actress who became a marketing contractor at HP and has sued Hurd for sexual harassment. The magazine cited "two people with knowledge" of McIlvaine.
McIlvaine was an aide with many of the responsibilities of a chief of staff. She traveled to the same away-from-headquarters customer meetings as Hurd, and her duties included being the key person for travel arrangements. Some observers have noted that travel arrangements for such occasions are usually conducted by staff outside the CEO's office.
McIlvaine, 37, posted the title of CEO program manager in an online profile. She was the organizer of the CEO Summits, where HP met with top customers, where Hurd spoke, and where Fisher acted as a company greeter.
None of the parties in question -- McIlvaine, Fisher or Hurd -- has commented on this latest development.
Fisher, meanwhile, has taken a job as a branch manager at a New Jersey staffing agency which her mother manages, according to The Wall Street Journal. Her mother, Polly McDonald, is the founder and president of Flanders, N.J.-based TeleSearch Staffing Solutions. McDonald said she advised her daughter to continue with the sexual-harassment suit against Hurd when Fisher asked for her advice.
Fisher is living in New Jersey with her 12-year-old son, and her mother said the new job is simply because she "needed work like a lot of people these days."
Hurd was asked to resign...
Fri, 13 Aug 10
New Samsung Epic 4G Won't Have a Screen Shortage
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74745
Sprint Nextel is hyping its next major 4G phone launch. The Samsung Epic 4G, the latest in the Galaxy S series, will debut on Sprint's next-generation network on Aug. 31. The device is set to compete in a summer smartphone market where shortages have made more headlines than new phone launches.
The Epic 4G is the first 4G-capable phone with a full QWERTY keyboard and a four-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen. That's the screen that Samsung couldn't supply fast enough to HTC to avoid widespread shortages of the HTC EVO 4G and the HTC Droid Incredible.
The Epic 4G will come to market with the Android 2.1 operating system. Sprint plans to upgrade the device to Android 2.2 in the coming months, which would enable improved EAS support, better browser support, Flash 10x support, voice dialing over Bluetooth, and application storage on external memory.
"This is another pretty cool phone. All of the manufacturers of these hot devices now seem to have one trait in common: They can't keep them in stock," said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group. "That shows there's a diversity of consumers looking at these devices. They all aren't buying the same thing. And if consumers can't find one in stock, they may go looking for another. So whoever solves this problem first is going to be very happy."
The thin-design touchscreen Epic 4G makes possible multi-touch pinch, long tap and zoom, and vertical and horizontal swiping. Users who prefer to type the old-fashioned way can slide out a traditional keyboard. Samsung claims users can input text faster with one continuous finger motion across the virtual keyboard with its Swype technology.
The Epic 4G also comes equipped with a five-megapixel camera and camcorder with autofocus, power LED flash, and 4x digital zoom for photos, as well as HD video...
Fri, 13 Aug 10
Apple Issues iOS Patch To Block Hacker Bonanza
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74727
Apple security engineers may have breathed a sigh of relief after issuing a security update Wednesday to plug some holes in the iPhone iOS, but now it's time to take a deep breath and hope people install the update.
Comex, the developer of JailbreakMe 2.0, released source code for the now infamous hacks that take advantage of two vulnerabilities in iOS. Beyond voiding the warranty by using the software to jailbreak the iPhone, the code release opens the door for hackers to dump malicious payloads that take complete control of the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
The saving grace is that hackers need a social-engineering scam. Apple product users would have to willfully visit a malicious web site or click on a link in an e-mail or text message to allow hackers access to the device.
How dangerous is this new exploit? Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, called it "impressive" and "dangerous" in a Twitter post.
The vulnerability can potentially be exploited by hackers to run malicious code on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, according to Graham Cluley, a senior security consultant at Sophos.
That, he said, means that if you visit a booby-trapped web site from an unpatched iPhone, you could be infected with malware.
"Equally, malicious hackers could send you spam which exploits the vulnerability -- again infecting your Apple gizmo with malware," Cluley said. "The danger is compounded because the code to exploit the vulnerability has been published openly on the web, making it trivial for hackers to exploit."
Although Apple for many years escaped most of the hacker wrath, the company has been the target of high-profile attacks in recent years. Both Macs and iPhones have had attacks.
"We do see malware attacks against the Mac -- in fact, much more than we've seen against the iPhone,"...
Fri, 13 Aug 10
Android Rockets Past iPhone on Path To No. 2 Globally
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74726
Global smartphone sales grew 50.5 percent year over year to 61.6 million in the second quarter, Gartner said Thursday. Moreover, sales of Android-based smartphones were robust, with Google's mobile operating system leaping past Apple's iOS to become the third most popular platform worldwide.
In the United States, Android overtook Research In Motion's BlackBerry and led the smartphone OS market with a 34.1 percent share. By contrast, Android held a mere 3.9 percent share in the same period last year, noted Gartner Research Vice President Carolina Milanesi. "We are expecting Android to become the second-largest OS at a worldwide level before the end of the year," Milanesi said.
Sales of Apple's iPad, which enjoyed successful international launches during the quarter, had no impact on the smartphone market, Milanesi noted. "We believe that most tablet users still feel the need for a truly pocketable, yet highly capable, device for those situations when it's inconvenient to carry a device with a larger form factor," she explained.
New smartphones from Apple, HTC and Motorola helped drive strong sales in the quarter. However, shortages of active-matrix organic LED (AMOLED) displays and other crucial components impaired sales of some of the more popular new smartphones, the research firm observed.
Apple's mobile-device sales reached 8.7 million and accounted for 14.2 percent of the smartphone market in the quarter. Gartner analysts noted that Apple's sales would have been even higher if it had not been forced to tightly manage inventory in advance of the iPhone 4's launch.
Furthermore, Gartner said Apple's sales suffered from some iPhone 4 supply constraints. The research firm expects a wider global rollout of iPhone 4 will sustain Apple's sales momentum throughout the second half of 2010.
Given that the iPhone 4's antenna problems didn't come to light until after the end of the second quarter,...
Fri, 13 Aug 10
Apple May Redefine Showing Web Content with iTV
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74725
Having changed the product categories of computers, portable media players, smartphones and tablets, can Apple pull the rabbit out of the hat again for devices to show web-based content on TVs? According to several rumors floating around, the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker may be revving up for a new try.
The reports indicate the company's current Apple TV product, which CEO Steve Jobs described as "a hobby," will be renamed iTV, priced at $99, and essentially be an iPhone 4 adapted for display on TVs. The product, which was originally named the iTV several years ago before becoming Apple TV, is expected to out by the fall.
According to an analysis in 2007 by the research firm iSuppli, the relatively high raw cost to Apple of manufacturing the Apple TV meant the profit margins were very low, and certainly not near the 40 to 50 percent margins it has received on other products. The current Apple TV sells for $229.
But by building on the economies of scale created by the iPhone, the device's component costs could be dramatically reduced, and the product could move out of the company's classification of "hobby." Since its launch in 2007, the product has undergone few changes, most notably an interface and operating system upgrade in 2009.
The reports, attributed to unnamed sources, indicate that the new iTV will display 720p high-definition video. This is a step down from earlier rumors, which had indicated it would support the higher-resolution 1080i or 1080p video.
The step-down is apparently a result of a decision to use the A4 processor, although some observers have noted that the processor should be able to handle 1080p.
The new box, which is expected to use the iPhone's iOS instead of the current Mac OS X, will also reportedly run...
Fri, 13 Aug 10
Intel and Other Chipmakers Suffer on PC Sales Fears
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74719
Shares of chipmakers Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Nvidia Corp. dropped Tuesday as analysts said demand for computers looks shaky heading into the all-important back-to-school season.
The stocks tumbled as J.P. Morgan analyst Christopher Danely warned investors that personal computer orders are "falling off a cliff." Barclays Capital's Tim Luke told clients that his latest checks reveal that third-quarter PC sales "have continued to remain subdued and Intel and AMD seasonal sales guidance may prove bold."
The comments amplified fears that PC sales, which have been buoyed by intense interest in cheap laptops, are starting to slow. One reason is tightfistedness by consumers who are worried that the economy and their job prospects will stay weak.
Some semiconductor makers have reported blowout numbers -- Intel, for example, booked its biggest quarterly net income in a decade in the second quarter -- but in many cases their stocks have barely budged. That's because investors have been worried that forecasts for the second half of 2010 could be too optimistic, given worries about Europe's debt crisis and the strength of the U.S. economy's recovery.
Intel is the world's No. 1 maker of the "brains" of PCs. AMD is No. 2. Nvidia is a big maker of graphics chips. The stocks can rise or fall together on sweeping news about the health of the computer market.
On Tuesday, Intel shares fell 4.2 percent, or 86 cents, to $19.79. AMD shares fell 8 percent to $6.83, while Nvidia shares slipped 4.5 percent, or 43 cents, to $9.21. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index slid 2.8 percent, or 9.88 points, to 344.17 points -- a bigger drop than in the broader markets Tuesday.
Computer sales are being hurt by austerity measures in Europe, tightened spending in China and a cooling off of stimulus spending in the U.S., said analyst Tristan Gerra...
Fri, 13 Aug 10
Netflix To Stream Paramount, Lionsgate, MGM Movies
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74717
Netflix Inc. will pay nearly $1 billion during the next five years for the online streaming rights to movies from Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM in a deal that could help convert even more people to the idea of getting their entertainment piped over high-speed Internet connections.
The agreement announced Tuesday marks another breakthrough in Netflix's bid to stock its online streaming library with more compelling material, so it can keep its subscription service relevant as on-demand video systems supplant its core business of renting DVDs through the mail. The online streaming push also helps the company reduce its postage bill for mailing DVDs.
The deal also makes the three studios' joint pay TV venture, Epix, immediately profitable.
Streaming movies provide more instant gratification than renting DVDs through the mail or from a store because the video can be delivered within 30 seconds over a high-speed connection. The video isn't stored on the computer hard drives owned by subscribers; it's just shown on a connected device, such as video game consoles. The concept has become more popular as more households have gotten high-speed Internet access and Netflix has obtained the streaming rights to more recent movies and TV shows.
Analysts believe the influx of newer movies available for Internet streaming will enable Netflix to maintain its rapid growth of the past two years, lifting its earnings even higher despite the hefty licensing fees. That expectation helped lift Netflix shares $8.11, or nearly 7 percent, to close at $125.01.
Netflix's stock price has quadrupled during the last two years as the number of the company's subscribers has nearly doubled to 15 million. Meanwhile, traditional video stores have been closing, a trend reflected by the collapse of Movie Gallery Inc. and the struggles of Blockbuster Inc., whose shares are worth so little now that they were recently de-listed...
Fri, 13 Aug 10
BlackBerry Debate Stirs Information-Control Accusations
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74716
The militants who carried out the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India, used mobile phones and other handheld gadgets to coordinate an assault that left 166 dead.
Cell phones with video cameras helped bring the world the iconic footage of a young Iranian woman dying of a gunshot wound in the midst of the country's 2009 "Green Revolution" -- images spread rapidly on Web sites the government tried feverishly to block.
Now the use of new, sophisticated technologies is raising alarm in the Arab world's two biggest economies. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have threatened to cut off popular BlackBerry services unless they wring out concessions that would almost certainly give them greater access to user information.
Both countries cite security threats. The U.S. says those concerns are legitimate. But critics say the governments' fears also provide a convenient justification to further tighten controls on the flow of information they believe could stir opposition or morally corrupt their societies.
"This is a medium, unlike Facebook or Internet chat rooms, that is very difficult to monitor," said Christopher Davidson, a Gulf expert at Britain's University of Durham. "Security concerns, including terror threats, are sadly being used to mask this clampdown, and the international community is buying this explanation."
It's a tug-of-war over data and security that finds echoes in China's censorship fight with Google Inc., and highlights the way rapid technological change is sowing unease in countries where the unfettered flow of digital information is seen as a threat.
Like China and Iran, the UAE and Saudi Arabia actively police the Internet, blocking access to pornography and material deemed politically or morally objectionable. Neither Gulf state allows organized political opposition or direct elections of national representatives. Freedom of expression is limited.
In the Gulf, BlackBerrys are used both by busy professionals and consumers who see them...
Fri, 13 Aug 10
Observing Ramadan? There's an App for That, Too
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74714
The most ancient traditions of Islam are going high-tech, with a slew of modern offerings for those observing the holy month of Ramadan, which begins this week.
Cell phone applications such as "iPray" or "iQuran" offer a beeping reminder of requisite prayer times, while the "Find Mecca" and "mosque finder" programs help the Muslim traveler in an unfamiliar city find the nearest place to pray.
"When I saw these applications for the first time, I thought: this is amazing," said James Otun, who has several Islamic applications on his Apple iPhone and iPad. "Whoever came up with this idea: God bless him or her."
The applications aren't just for Ramadan; there are Islamic-themed programs that help users find the nearest Costco offering foods prepared according to Islamic dietary rules, learn the correct Arabic pronunciations in a daily prayer, or count how many pages of the Quran they've read that day -- all on a mobile phone.
There also are applications, or apps, for the holy books of several other religions, from the Catholic Holy Bible to the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu scripture.
The first time Sumeyye Kalyoncu heard the Adhan -- or call to prayer -- through surround-sound speakers on her iPhone dock, she was overcome with nostalgia for her native Turkey. Such applications are especially popular in the U.S., Kalyoncu said, as U.S. mosques do not broadcast daily calls to prayer from external loudspeakers, as they do in Muslim countries.
"These are traditions and these have been in our lives for ages, like almost 15 centuries, so they seem very old," Kalyoncu said. "I think this is like combining together the technology and the things that we do daily."
Kalyoncu uses an iPhone app called iPray Lite, keeping track of requisite daily prayers with a program that simulates the clicking sound of prayer beads or...
Fri, 13 Aug 10
Google Makes Deal To Sell Ads on DirecTV Channels
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74711
Satellite television provider DirecTV Inc. said Wednesday it has signed up Google Inc. to sell commercial time on some of the channels it carries.
The company said Google will sell both day and primetime ads for Bloomberg, Fox Business, Centric, Fuel, G4, Current, Ovation, Fit, Sleuth, Chiller and TV Guide channels. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Google, through its Google TV Ads business, already has deals in place to sell commercial time on 98 other cable channels. The search giant said its TV Ads customers will now be able to reach up to 30 million satellite households through both DirecTV's 18.7 million households and its existing partnerships.
Google makes the bulk of its revenue from Internet ads displayed on computer screens, but has been trying to sell ads for regular television programming for the past three years. Google, which estimates that television accounts for $70 billion in annual advertising in the U.S. alone, also wants to turn televisions into giant monitors for Web surfing so it can make even more money. It has partnered with Sony Corp., Intel Corp. and Logitech International to make a "smart" TV that is expected to go on sale this fall in U.S. Best Buy stores.
DirecTV shares were down 72 cents to $38.71 in midday trading amid broader market losses, while Google fell $10.80, or 2.1 percent, to $492.91.
Fri, 13 Aug 10
Flipboard Pretties Up Social-Media Updates on iPads
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74699
It is a quiet morning, and Silicon Valley veteran Mike McCue can finally sit down on a big red couch and talk about his latest product -- Flipboard, an app for Apple's iPad that turns your Facebook, Twitter and other social content into a digital magazine.
Flipboard launched in July to glowing reviews. So many people wanted to download the free app that the company had to move to a reservation system, holding back new customers until its servers could handle the load.
The doors are now wide open.
"Everybody who wants to use the app immediately now can," says McCue, former CEO of voice-search pioneer Tellme Networks, which was sold to Microsoft for $800 million in 2007.
He got the idea for Flipboard while on a flight with a stack of magazines.
"A magazine is so much more beautiful than what's online," says McCue, Flipboard's CEO. "Content online still lives as if it's the mid-1990s."
How Flipboard works: After you register with your Twitter and Facebook credentials, it takes tweets and updates from your friends and lays them out as if they were being presented in a magazine. Interesting Internet link suggestions show up as article snippets interspersed with photos and comments from friends.
Your iPad has to be online to use Flipboard. A new version, which will be available by next week, will save the information from your last visit, making it possible to read offline.
To create Flipboard, McCue teamed with Evan Doll, a former Apple engineer. They first conceived of it for the Web but shifted gears to target the iPad, because it "perfectly matches what you would expect a social magazine to be in, the kind of thing you can hold in your hand and flip through pages," McCue says.
McCue raised $10.5 million from venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, actor Ashton...
Thu, 12 Aug 10
Broadband Growth in Homes Is Slowing, Study Finds
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74723
Two-thirds of American adults now have broadband Internet access at home, but fewer people are signing up for it, according to the latest study by the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project.
The survey of 2,252 adults 18 and older, conducted for the center by Princeton Survey Research Associates International between April 29 and May 30, found 66 percent using broadband, almost the same as 63 percent in 2009.
That five percent increase is the slowest growth measured by the center since 2004.
The 63 percent in 2009 was a 15 percent jump from the previous year. In 2005, the number of broadband homes measured by the center grew to 53 percent from 50 percent the previous year, a statistically insignificant number, after a 20 percent increase in 2004 from 2003.
"Broadband is slowing in the U.S. due to saturation and a relatively high price point, typically $40 per month," said Gerry Purdy of MobilTrax. "It's hard for some people on low budgets to buy broadband. They realize they have to have a phone but don't have to have broadband at home, especially with Starbucks and McDonald's now offering free wireless broadband access all day long."
At the same time, use of the mobile Internet through 3G connections on smartphones and other devices has exploded.
"There is growth in 3G wireless due to lots of different reasons, including growth in machine-to-machine, use of wireless access cards for notebooks, growth of MiFi, growth of migration to smartphones," Purdy said.
J.D. Power and Associates wireless analyst Kirk Parsons says 3G could be one of many factors in the broadband slowdown.
"3G may have a minor impact, but not major, as users tend to employ broadband services via PC for different reasons than when they access Internet services via devices," Parsons said....
Thu, 12 Aug 10
Plastic Logic Drops QUE To Work on New E-Reader
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74722
In the face of heavy competition from the Kindle, nook and even the iPad, Plastic Logic is nixing its QUE e-reader. On Tuesday, the company announced a revised shrouded product strategy that focuses on the next generation of e-readers.
"We recognize the market has dramatically changed, and with the product delays we have experienced, it no longer makes sense for us to move forward with our first-generation electronic reading product," said Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta. "This was a hard decision, but is the best one for our company, our investors, and our customers."
Plastic Logic announced plans for the QUE in October 2009, positioning its e-book reader as a device aimed at business professionals. The company debuted its product at CES in January and had hoped to expand the e-reader category from a leisure-reading device to a business-oriented device.
QUE was designed to streamline the modern businessperson's varied lifestyle and to literally lighten the workload. The device aimed to connect users with business and professional newspapers, books and periodicals, as well as support the document formats that business users need, such as PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The device also offered tools for interacting with and managing the content.
QUE users would have connected to content and downloaded wirelessly via Wi-Fi and AT&T's 3G network. Plastic Logic promised its store would offer the most significant collection of business reading available on any e-reader. The QUE store is powered by Barnes & Noble.
Fast-forward almost a year and it's a different e-reader landscape, including a competitive device from partner Barnes & Noble, a much lower-priced Kindle, and, of course, Apple's iPad.
Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis, isn't surprised Plastic Logic killed QUE. As he sees it, QUE was always too expensive. With mainstream e-readers now selling for less than $200...
Thu, 12 Aug 10
Internet Industry Cheers and Jeers Google-Verizon Plan
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74721
Consumer groups have heavily criticized the Google-Verizon proposed plan for Net neutrality. Now companies are beginning to voice their opinions -- both for and against.
A rough demarcation is that broadband providers favor the direction of the plan, while Internet-based companies, especially content providers, oppose it.
AT&T, for example, likes it. On Wednesday, company executive Ralph de la Vega told analysts "it's a positive sign that shows that those two companies can agree on something as different as Net neutrality." He called it a right step forward.
Similarly, Level 3 Communications also voiced some satisfaction about the joint proposal, although it noted reservations about the "paid priority data service" that last-mile carriers, like AT&T, could implement.
But Facebook, among other companies, opposes the plan. Spokesperson Andrew Noyes told news media that his company "continues to support principles of Net neutrality for both landline and wireless networks." He added that an open Internet "will promote a vibrant and competitive marketplace where consumers have ultimate control over the content and services."
Amazon.com has also voiced opposition to the idea of managed services. The company said "we agree that network operators should be allowed to offer additional services," but added that "this proposal appears to condone services that could harm consumer Internet access."
Brad Burnham and Fred Wilson, partners in an early stage venture-capital fund, wrote in The New York Times on Wednesday that they fear "this agreement is a compromise that does not serve the next great startup enterprise well." The companies they cited as examples of successes because there were no Internet "gatekeepers" or "toll takers" are eBay, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare -- and Google.
The Verizon-Google framework outlines a variety of recommended policies, including prohibiting wireline providers from preventing the sending or receiving of any lawful content or applications.
But the proposal...
Thu, 12 Aug 10
Raid, Complaints Push Back at Google's Street View
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74720
The real world continues to push back against Google's virtual Street View. On Tuesday, South Korean police raided the company's offices as they investigated whether the search giant illegally collected personal wireless information. And in Germany, government officials criticized Google's plan to give a four-week deadline for property owners to make their buildings invisible in Street View.
Google had said it would start Street View in the 20 biggest German cities by the end of 2010, and it recently announced that, beginning next week, owners of properties in those cities could use an online tool for four weeks to hide their buildings.
But that was news to Johannes Caspar, who oversees data protection in Hamburg. He issued a statement that Google's announcement "surprised me very much," adding that the company's decision to start the deadline clock during the summer holidays and its refusal to add a complaints hotline "create doubts about Google's interests in a simple and user-friendly implementation."
Peter Schaar of the German Federal Commission for Data Protection posted on his blog Tuesday that people should be able to make objections about photos of their property "at all times," and Google should make sure all complaints have been dealt with before it begins Street View in that country.
In South Korea, the government is investigating whether Google's Street View cars, which have been capturing photos of neighborhoods before the service's launch there, illegally acquired personal data. "We will investigate Google Korea officials and scrutinize the data we confiscated today," the Korean National Policy Agency's Cyber Terror Response Center said in statement.
The actions by the two countries are only the most recent in a series of government responses to Google's service. The Street View controversy stems from the collection of private wireless data by Google's vehicles, which have ridden down...
Thu, 12 Aug 10
Patch Fixes SMB Attack That Could Come from Within
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74697
In a record-setting August release, Microsoft issued 14 security bulletins to address 34 vulnerabilities, 14 of them rated as critical. The flaws span Windows and Office, Internet Explorer, Silverlight and SQL.
Joshua Talbot, security intelligence manager for Symantec Security Response, is shining a light on the SMB pool overflow vulnerability. As he sees it, this should be a real concern for enterprises.
"Not only does it give an attacker system-level access to a compromised SMB server, but the vulnerability occurs before authentication is required from computers contacting the server," Talbot said. "This means any system allowing remote access and not protected by a firewall is at risk."
Although best practices dictate file- or print-sharing services, such as SMB servers, should not be open to the Internet, Talbot said such services are often unprotected from neighboring systems on local networks. That paves the way for cybercriminals to use a multi-staged attack.
"Such an attack would likely start by compromising an employee's machine via a drive-by download or a socially engineered e-mail, and would end by using that compromised computer to attack neighboring machines on the same local network that has the SMB service running," Talbot said.
This affects more than just file servers using the SMB service. Talbot said workstations that have enabled file and print sharing are also at risk. "Laptops with this configuration that connect to untrusted networks, such as public Wi-Fi, or that allow ad hoc connections could be attacked by neighboring computers," he warned. "The user could then unwittingly carry their infected system back to the enterprise, opening the door to an organization's entire network."
SMB servers aside, August is another movies-to-malware month for Microsoft, according to Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle. Four of the 14 bulletins this month fix bugs in media applications....
Thu, 12 Aug 10
Hybrid Dell Streak Phone-Tablet Goes on Sale This Week
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74696
Dell is slated to begin processing U.S. pre-orders for its hybrid smartphone-tablet on Thursday, with the Dell Streak going on sale Friday. Customers who sign up for a two-year service agreement with AT&T will be able to purchase the device for $299.99 -- or for $549.99 without the service contract, Dell said Tuesday.
"The Dell Streak has found a way to fit your whole world in a five-inch screen," said Ron Garriques, president of Dell Communication Solutions. "Its unique size will help people discover new ways to enjoy the web, connect with friends, and navigate their lives."
The tablet space is an exciting one to be in right now because it's still emerging and with the story still being written, said Kevin Andrew, a member of the Dell Streak development team. However, for a class of device "that sits somewhere between a smartphone and a full netbook or notebook" to succeed, "it needs to do certain activities better than anything else," he said.
One thing that differentiates the Streak from pure-play tablets is that it also can place and receive phone calls over 3G networks, Andrew observed. "What's great about Google is that if you have your contacts in your Google accounts or Gmail, it will actually pull all those contacts down to the phone when you log in for the first time," Andrew said. "So if I ever lost the device, I could actually go in and find those contacts."
Dell is also counting on the Streak's video-conference capabilities to differentiate the device from tablet rivals. Unlike Apple's iPad, the Dell Streak is equipped with a rear five-megapixel camera with dual flash for taking pictures at night as well as a front-facing VGA camera for video chat or snapping self-portraits.
Forrester Research analyst Henry Dewing sees a slightly larger...
Thu, 12 Aug 10
Video Game Publishers Try New Lines of Income
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74689
With sales of console games waning, publishers are calling new plays to get customers to open their wallets.
EA Sports' Madden NFL 11 (out today, $60, all ages, PS3 and Xbox 360) expands online head-to-head matches to three players on a side. Only new copies of the game, however, are guaranteed to come with an Online Pass to connect and play over the Internet free. Those who buy a secondhand copy in which the online code has been used must pay $10 for online play.
Used games are just one culprit in this year's 8 percent decline in console game sales reported by market tracker NPD Group. That trend continues from 2009, when game and system sales fell 8 percent below 2008's record $21 billion.
Another factor: Downloadable updates let games such as EA's Madden NFL (also available for Wii and other platforms) and Activision's Call of Duty be playable far longer after their release.
"It lengthens the game experience and keeps consumers engaged in our franchises, but there's obviously a cost that comes with that," says Jordan Edelstein of EA Canada, which develops the NBA Elite, Fight Night and NHL franchises. "For the person who buys a used product, we ask for $10 to help provide the premium experience. ... If someone goes out and buys a used copy of Madden, they play their share."
Though overall consumer spending on games is rising thanks to the growth of social and mobile platforms, publishers consider console games their core business. So they're seeking to spur sales and increase income:
*THQ's UFC Undisputed 2010, released in May, included a one-time-use online play code. Used-game buyers were required to pay $5 to play online.
*Sony's new PlayStation Plus tier (about $50 a year) on its free-to-access PlayStation Network offers free downloadable games, trial versions and discounts.
*EA Sports' NBA Elite...
Thu, 12 Aug 10
iPads Are Saving Cities Paper Expenses
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74686
Soon after Hampton, Va., Mayor Molly Ward bought an iPad for her personal use last spring, she started thinking of an application of her own -- one that might save her town both paper and money.
Ward decided it would make both environmental and fiscal sense for the Hampton City Council to switch from paper to iPads for conducting official business.
The council agreed and last month made the move that Ward says will save $18,000 annually in paper costs. The devices for the six other council members totaled $4,200, she says.
Hampton joins a growing number of municipalities -- from Williamsburg, Va., to Albertville, Ala., to Redwood City, Calif. -- that are turning to iPads to conduct government business.
The move that is helping cash-strapped municipalities trim expenses is also raising concerns with government transparency advocates.
Megan Rhyne of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government says iPads make it easier for council members to e-mail, text or chat during a meeting without those conversations becoming part of the public record.
"Records generated are subject to disclosure, but we don't have a mechanism for getting those records from an iPad," Rhyne says.
"Citizens are going to want to be able to see that the iPads are being used as they are touted -- as a cost-efficient way to keep track of the documents being discussed during the meetings and not being used to subvert the open meetings and open records requirements," she says.
Ken Bunting of the National Freedom of Information Coalition says data from the council members' iPads should be public record, although the law varies by state.
"They shouldn't be conducting public business out of public view," he says, "and if those are government devices they're using, that ought to be public record."
Because technology is changing rapidly, states are still trying to catch up with various laws,...
Thu, 12 Aug 10
Saudi To Continue BlackBerry Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74682
Saudi Arabia's telecommunications regulator on Tuesday said it would allow BlackBerry messaging services to continue in the kingdom, citing "positive developments" with the device's Canadian manufacturer.
The Communications and Information Technology Commission's announcement staves off, at least for now, a potential ban of Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry Messenger service in the country -- a step which officials had said was possible because of national security concerns.
It was not immediately clear whether the decision was just a temporary reprieve, or whether the threat to ban the service was off the table.
Saudi's announcement of the possible ban -- which came shortly after officials in the United Arab Emirates announced a more sweeping crackdown on the devices due to start in October -- was read by many analysts as a reflection of the conservative governments' concerns over an inability to access user data.
Both countries have strict Internet controls. In addition, free speech is sharply curtailed, as much to rein in political dissent as to keep tabs on a tenacious Islamic militancy problem that has both domestic national security and global terrorism implications.
CITC said mobile phone service providers in the country had been given a 48-hour extension ending Monday night to address security concerns, and that progress had been made.
"In light of the positive developments toward addressing some of the organizational requirements ... the commission decided to allow BlackBerry Messenger service to continue," it said in a brief statement.
The commission said it would continue to work with the country's three mobile phone service providers and, based on developments, it would "take the necessary steps."
The regulator did not say if it had reached any final deal with RIM.
Saudi officials had said earlier the company had reached a preliminary agreement with Saudi regulators allowing the government some access to user data.
The plan being discussed involved placing...
Thu, 12 Aug 10
Researchers Use 'Spintronics' To Read and Write Data
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74677
U.S. researchers have demonstrated a form of plastic computer memory that uses the spin of electrons to read and write data, computer experts say.
Scientists at Ohio State University see "spintronics" as an alternative to traditional microelectronics that could store more data in less space, process data faster and consume less power, a university release said.
Normal electronics encode computer data in a binary code of ones and zeros, depending on whether an electron is present or not in a void within the memory material.
But researchers have long known that electrons can be polarized to orient in particular directions, like the poles of a bar magnet. They refer to this orientation as either "spin up" or "spin down" and have been working on a way to store data using that spin. The resulting "spintronics" would store and transfer twice as much data per electron.
But that's only part of the story, OSU researchers say.
"Spintronics is often just seen as a way to get more information out of an electron, but really it's about moving to the next generation of electronics," Arthur J. Epstein said. "We could solve many of the problems facing computers today by using spintronics."
Typical circuit boards use a lot of energy and generate a lot of heat, limiting chip makers in how closely they can pack circuits together to avoid overheating.
Flipping the spin of an electron requires less energy, and produces hardly any heat at all, Epstein said.
Spintronic devices could run on smaller batteries, he said, and if made out of plastic are also light and flexible.
Wed, 11 Aug 10
Apple Buys Rights To Casings for Small Electronics
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74695
In a deal that became public this week, Apple has purchased intellectual-property rights to develop Liquidmetal Technology's alloys for electronic product casings. The deal creates a wholly owned Apple subsidiary for that purpose and will allow the Delaware-based Liquidmetal to continue marketing products for sporting goods, jewelry, medical equipment, and defense contractors, but not for companies that compete with Apple.
According to Liquidmetal's web site, its engineered designs, developed by a research team of students at California Institute of Technology, are 2.5 times the strength of titanium alloy and 1.5 times the hardness of stainless steel. That would allow the computer giant to make more durable products that are lighter and smaller as it prepares a refresh of its iPod line as well as a smaller version of the iPad tablet. The non-crystalline alloy was first used commercially in 2003.
"As the demand for product 'miniaturization' continues in the electronic casings industry, Liquidmetal alloys enable smaller, thinner and more durable designs," says the company's web site. "Current casings technology is pushed to the limit in supporting these new designs and specifications, especially requirements for larger LCD screens, thinner wall sections, and pure metallic surface finishes for products such as mobile phones, PDAs and cameras."
Liquidmetal is already in use in some Nokia phones and in SanDisk products such as USB flash drives.
Scouting out and forming partnerships with emerging technology leaders is a key part of Apple's strategy, said consumer-devices analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis.
"Apple has a long history of using materials and manufacturing techniques to create unique products," Greengart said. "Unlike most PC and mobile-device vendors, Apple designs products with teams of hardware and software designers working together from the outset, which often results in devices where the form and function play off of each other."
Apple made great...
Wed, 11 Aug 10
Oracle Chief Blasts HP for Ousting Hurd in Sex Scandal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74694
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is taking his Hewlett-Packard counterpart's forced resignation seriously. So seriously that Ellison blasted off an e-mail to The New York Times defending his friend and calling HP to the carpet for the "cowardly" way it handled the situation.
Ellison's words carry plenty of weight in Silicon Valley. The software tycoon is the third-richest man in America. He has spoken, and the tech industry is listening, if not agreeing, with his rant about how HP treated its former Chairman, CEO and President Mark Hurd.
"The HP board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago," Ellison wrote to the Times. "That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn't come back and saved them."
Hurd resigned suddenly in the wake of an investigation into his relationship with a former actress named Jodie Fisher, who accused Hurd of sexual harassment. The investigation cleared Hurd of any wrongdoing with Fischer, but Hurd resigned, saying there were instances in which he "did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity" that he espoused at HP.
"In losing Mark Hurd, the HP board failed to act in the best interests of HP's employees, shareholders, customers and partners," Ellison wrote, noting that Hurd did a brilliant job during his five-year tenure to return HP to its "former greatness" after a "long list of failed CEOs."
Ellison's defense of his friend may be admirable on some level, but Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, said it's prolonging the drama and pointing to possible fear on Ellison's part.
"You can understand why Larry is suddenly very concerned," Enderle said. "Hurd is one of the most powerful men in the valley and he got shot by a hand-picked board....
Wed, 11 Aug 10
AT&T's U-verse Mobile Puts TV on Subscribers' iPhones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74693
AT&T launched a new mobile app Monday that is already enabling the company's U-verse TV subscribers to remotely manage digital video recorders as well as download and view programs in full-screen mode on Apple's iPhone. Called U-verse Mobile, the new offering is currently available for download at Apple's App Store.
The goal is to enable iPhone users to take their U-verse TV experience wherever they go at no extra charge, noted David Christopher, chief marketing officer at AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "No cable provider comes close to matching the cross-platform experience we're delivering today," he said. "And we'll continue to add unique features that further integrate these screens."
Netflix and the Dish Network -- through the satellite-TV provider's acquisition of Slingmedia in 2007 -- likewise offer remote TV viewing to mobile handset users. But in light of AT&T's heavy commitment to Apple's iPhone platform, the new mobile app is perhaps far more important to both the U.S. communications provider and its customers.
Any U-verse TV subscriber can now download the new app to schedule and otherwise manage downloads to a home DVR. However, only subscribers to AT&T's premium U300 package and higher-level subscription tiers will be able to download and watch programs on the iPhone. Even then, AT&T's free mobile app will only download U-verse content over a home wireless network or any available Wi-Fi hot spot, sparing the wireless carrier's 3G network from more data-overload problems.
After downloading U-verse Mobile from the App Store, users will need to log in to their U-verse accounts, noted a spokesperson identified as Seth in AT&T's new video demo at YouTube. "Once you do that for the first time, you'll never have to do it again," he said.
To download a TV program, select a series, locate the desired episode, and then click on the...
Wed, 11 Aug 10
Microsoft's Site Picks a Fight with 'Learning Curve' Macs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74691
Just in case you thought Macs and Windows 7 machines were looking more like siblings, Microsoft has decided to point out how its computer offspring are so much more than the other guy. A new section of Microsoft's site seeks to give you ammunition if you are "deciding between a PC and a Mac."
The section notes that Macs don't let you choose built-in hardware features like a Blu-ray player, TV tuner, Memory Stick reader, 3G or colors other than white or silver. The site also says Windows 7 supports Blu-ray, eSATA, multi-format card readers, and mobile broadband -- and Mac does not.
There are a host of other differences, according to Microsoft. "Most of the world's most popular computer games aren't available for Macs," the site says, and "Macs can't connect to an Xbox 360" or view movies and photos on a TV without a converter dongle.
In a reverse of the long-standing claim that Macs are easier to use, Microsoft's staff may have felt no small amount of satisfaction in being able to write a headline in the section that reads, "Macs can take time to learn."
Their point is that people have an easier time learning a computer they've been using, and most people have been using Windows. Hence, "while some say Macs are easy, the reality is that they can come with a learning curve." On the other hand, the site noted, Windows 7-based PCs "look and work more like the computers you're familiar with, so you can get up and running quickly."
The differences that take some getting used to, the site says, include a mouse and shortcuts that work differently. It also noted that many Windows 7 PCs support touchscreen interaction.
But other areas of the software giant are pitching a conflicting message....
Wed, 11 Aug 10
Critics Blast Google-Verizon Plan To Circumvent FCC
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74690
If Google's stock price were linked to its reputation among fellow advocates for an open Internet, the search giant would find its market value tanking. On the day after the joint announcement by Google and Verizon Wireless of a proposed policy framework for the wired and wireless Internet, consumer groups, as well as a variety of industry bloggers and some Internet companies, are highly critical of the companies' vision.
Andrew Jay Schwartzman, policy director at the Media Access Project in Washington, D.C., told news media that the plan "creates an Internet for the haves and an Internet for the have-nots." Among the "have-nots," he indicated, could be the next generation of "new startups."
Former MySpace President Jason Hirschhorn told The New York Times that the plan could lead to an Internet that more closely resembles the tiered structured of cable than the open Internet of today. "Imagine," he said, "a world where ABC, Comedy Central, MTV, any of these brands, were on some other network, and then there was this open Internet."
Public-interest group Public Knowledge expressed its "alarm at the extraordinary loopholes" in the proposal. The organization noted that, in addition to outlining how Net neutrality might work in wireless and wired broadband, the proposal also recommends that "the FCC have no rule-making authority with respect to consumer protection and nondiscrimination," and "directs the FCC to defer to rules set by industry-led advisory groups."
The proposal, Public Knowledge said, is "nothing more than a private agreement between two corporate behemoths."
The plan outlines a variety of proposed policies, including prohibiting wireline providers from preventing the sending or receiving of any lawful content or applications. There would also be transparency rules, where the provider's offering and conditions would be described in plain language.
But the proposal also would allow providers to offer...
Wed, 11 Aug 10
Currency Vendor May Join Google's Gaming Buildup
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74676
The pieces of Google's social-networking puzzle are slowly coming together. The latest snippet in the panoramic view is Jambool.
News reports indicate the search giant plans to purchase the virtual currency maker as it continues acquiring and investing in online companies that could form the foundation of what some are calling a Facebook killer.
As rumors abound and speculation grows, both Google and Jambool remain tight-lipped about the potential $75 million buy. But if Google plans to dominate social media with a strong gaming component, Jambool would help the company position itself as an end-to-end online gaming solution.
"Virtual currency has become an important component of online gaming. So I'm not surprised that Google would be considering such a move," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "The company appears to be using gaming as the opening salvo in its new bid to build a social platform and combat what it perceives to be a growing threat from Facebook."
Jambool peddles a virtual economy platform called Social Gold that developers can use to create currency systems and monetize it using in-game payments. Founded by Amazon.com veterans, Social Gold also offers analytics.
Social Gold offers a virtual currency API that updates a user's currency balance. Game developers can let users buy currency with a credit card. Developers pay between seven and 10 percent of each transaction to sell the virtual currency.
Social Gold is found in popular Zynga games like Mafia Wars to buy additional loot. Although Facebook hosts Zynga games that use Social Gold, Facebook also has its own virtual currency system called Facebook Credits. Facebook launched the system in 2009, but has recently started pushing it harder by giving away 20 credits (a $2 value) to people logging onto games.
The virtual currencies work much the same way, but Facebook...
Wed, 11 Aug 10
Estonian Hacker Faces Charges in United States
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74667
In November 2008, with America transfixed by a presidential election and a collapsing economy, a group of international hackers infiltrated the computer network of a major financial services company in what authorities describe as one of the most sophisticated attacks ever concocted.
Their work was both furtive and impressive: Around the time Barack Obama was securing his White House victory, the hackers entered RBS WorldPay servers, accessed prepaid payroll card numbers, cracked their encrypted PIN codes, raised the balances on the cards and distributed dozens of them to a team of people around the world.
Then, in the span of 12 hours around Nov. 8 of that year, the group hit 2,100 ATM terminals in 280 cities spanning the world, from the United States to Russia to Italy to Japan. Prosecutors say they withdrew $9 million -- a haul that rivals 1,000 typical bank robberies in the United States.
Despite the technical and international challenges of the case, U.S. investigators believe they were able to trace the scheme back to its origin. On Friday they brought one of the accused ringleaders from Estonia to Atlanta to face arraignment on several fraud charges -- a rare appearance in U.S. courts for an accused international hacker.
Sergei Tsurikov, 26, of Tallinn, Estonia, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment to conspiracy to commit computer fraud, computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
FBI officials said in interviews with The Associated Press that they weren't so much drawn to the case by the dollar amount of the RBS heist but by the coordination. It exemplified the international scope and increasing acumen of cyber attacks.
"As people become more technically proficient and get access to the Internet, we see this crime showing up in more and more places," said Pat Carney, who supervised the RBS...
Wed, 11 Aug 10
Apple To Set Up Hot iPod Warning in Japan
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74666
After prodding from the Japanese government, Apple Inc. will post prominent notices on its Web site warning that some older iPod Nano music players may overheat.
Sixty-one cases of batteries overheating have been reported in first-generation iPod Nano machines sold in 2005 and 2006, according to Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Some units were warped by the heat that caused minor burns when people touched them, but no serious injuries or damage have been reported, it said.
A notice for a battery replacement was posted late last year on Apple Japan's Web site but it requires several clicks before it can be read.
The government, in talks with Apple Japan since last year, pressed the company to correct that, ministry official Seiji Shimagami said Friday.
Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said an easily accessible web page will be set up by early next week that outlines how to get a battery replacement.
Apple will also send e-mails to registered owners, he said in a telephone interview from California. "Safety is the highest priority for Apple," said Neumayr.
Japanese are among the world's biggest fans of Apple products, standing in long lines to snatch up iPhone models and the iPad as soon as they go on sale.
The ministry said 1.8 million first-generation iPod Nano players have been sold in Japan, but it is unclear how many of those have the problem battery.
Neumayr declined to comment on whether Nano players in other parts of the world may be affected by the same problem.
Last month, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs offered free protective cases to buyers of the new iPhone 4 to prevent reception problems that occur when people cover a certain spot on the phone with a bare hand.
Wed, 11 Aug 10
WikiLeaks Set To Publish New Documents
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74665
The online whistle-blower WikiLeaks said it will continue to publish more secret files from governments around the world despite U.S. demands to cancel plans to release classified military documents.
"I can assure you that we will keep publishing documents -- that's what we do," a WikiLeaks spokesman, who says he goes by the name Daniel Schmitt in order to protect his identity, told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday.
Schmitt said he could not comment on any specific documents but asserted that the publication of classified documents about the Afghanistan war directly contributed to the public's understanding of the conflict.
"Knowledge about ongoing issues like the war in Afghanistan is the only way to help create something like safety," Schmitt said. "Hopefully with this understanding, public scrutiny will then influence governments to develop better politics."
He rejected allegations that the group's publication of leaked U.S. government documents was a threat to America's national security or put lives at risk.
"We have tried our best and we are still working on minimizing the harm that has been caused," Schmitt said.
The Pentagon demanded on Thursday that WikiLeaks cancel any plan to publish more classified military documents and pull back tens of thousands of secret Afghan war logs already posted on the Internet.
The demand to stop publishing more classified documents, which the Pentagon has no independent power to enforce, is primarily aimed at preventing release of approximately 15,000 secret documents that the Web site WikiLeaks has said it is holding and possibly classified U.S. State Department cables.
The Pentagon also hopes to stop WikiLeaks from making public the contents of a mammoth encrypted file recently added to the site. Contents of that file remain a mystery and Schmitt did not want to comment specifically on the content of a file the group posted online with the label "Insurance"...
Wed, 11 Aug 10
Deal To Avert BlackBerry Ban May Set Precedent
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74662
A preliminary agreement between the maker of the popular BlackBerry smart phone and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which government officials say grants them some access to users' data, will avert a ban on the phone in that country.
The pact involves placing a BlackBerry server inside Saudi Arabia, Saudi telecom regulatory officials said, and that likely will let the government monitor messages and allay official fears the service could be used for criminal purposes.
Bandar al-Mohammed, an official at the Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission, told The Associated Press that BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. has expressed its "intention ... to place a server inside Saudi Arabia."
Even though RIM encrypts e-mails, the deal would open messages to Saudi surveillance, said Bruce Schneier, an author and chief security technology officer at British telecommunications operator BT.
RIM could be setting a worldwide precedent for how technology companies and governments get along. A number of countries see the devices as a security threat because encrypted information sent on them is difficult, it not impossible, for local governments to monitor when it doesn't pass through domestic servers.
Saudi security officials fear the service could be used by militant groups to avoid detection. Countries including India and the United Arab Emirates have expressed similar concerns.
But e-mails sent by BlackBerry users are encrypted only as they pass between phones and the company's servers, Schneier said. Within the server, messages must be unencrypted for sorting and distribution.
"It renders the encryption irrelevant to the Saudi Arabian government," Schneier said. "They'll read everything."
RIM, based in Toronto, declined to comment on the proposed deal Saturday, but referred to a statement it issued last week denying it has given some governments access to BlackBerry data.
John Sfakianakis, who uses three BlackBerrys operated by different telecom companies and is chief economist at the Riyadh-based...
Wed, 11 Aug 10
Internet Calling Service Skype Files for IPO
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74658
Skype SA, the Internet calling service that was controlled until last year by eBay Inc., filed Monday for a U.S. initial public offering.
Luxembourg-based Skype tentatively put the value of the offering at $100 million, but that's a rough estimate only used as a basis for the filing fee for the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Skype did not say when its shares would go on sale, or at what price. It expects to list on the Nasdaq Stock Market under an unspecified symbol.
EBay sold 70 percent of Skype for $2 billion to an investor group led by private equity firm Silver Lake, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Andreessen Horowitz. The group owns 56 percent of the company. The remaining 14 percent is owned by Joltid, a firm controlled by the founders of Skype, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. EBay kept a 30 percent stake.
Friis and Zennstrom sold Skype to eBay for $2.6 billion in 2005 and left the company in 2007.
Between Nov. 19, 2010, when it became independent of eBay, and Dec. 31, Skype lost $99.7 million on $92.4 in revenue, according to the filing with the SEC.
Calls between Skype users are free. The company makes most of its money from calls Skype users place to landline and cellular phones.
Skype said a portion of the IPO shares will be made available to its customers, "based on the nature and extent of their relationship with Skype." Another Internet calling service, Vonage Holdings Corp., offered shares to its customers in its 2006 IPO. That turned into a disaster, as unsophisticated investors jumped at the chance to participate, thinking that they could cash out soon. The shares tanked immediately after going on sale, and have never recovered their value. Lawsuits followed.
Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley will lead the offering.
Wed, 11 Aug 10
Apple Wrestles With a Security Conundrum
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74653
Apple is quietly wrestling with a security conundrum. How the company handles it could dictate the pace at which cybercriminals accelerate attacks on iPhones and iPads.
Apple is hustling to issue a patch for a milestone security flaw that makes it possible to remotely hack --or jailbreak -- iOS, the operating system for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch.
The patch is completed, Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said in an interview. But Kerris said on Friday that she was not able to give a time frame for its public release.
Jailbreaking refers to hacking iOS to download Web apps not approved by Apple. This used to be difficult. This spring, a Web site came along called JailbreakMe.com that made it trivial to jailbreak your own iPhone or iPad. Last week, a technique for remote jailbreaking appeared on the site. It's now possible to access the operating system of an iPhone or iPad owned by someone else.
An attacker would get "fairly complete control of affected devices," says Michael Price, an operations manager for McAfee Labs. No such attacks are known to have happened yet, he says.
For the moment, the most visible concern for Apple has been pranksters going into Apple and Best Buy retail stores and jailbreaking display models, according to tech blog Engadget. Yet, the security and privacy issues are serious.
Security experts expect the pattern that has come to dominate the PC world to begin to permeate smartphones. Bad guys continually flush out new security flaws in PCs, then tap into them to launch malicious attacks. Good guys, meanwhile, scramble to patch and block.
Now, cybercriminals are rapidly adapting PC hacking techniques to all smartphone platforms, including Symbian, Google Android, Windows Mobile, RIM BlackBerry and Apple iOS.
"It's a brand new game with new rules," says Dror Shalev, chief technology officer of DroidSecurity, which supplies protection...
Wed, 11 Aug 10
Removing Stubborn Viruses That Plague Your PC
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74650
If you're a technology fan, you probably try out a lot of software, visit a lot of web sites, and have your share of externally-connected drives. And eventually, you'll fall prey to a computer virus or worm that you cannot eradicate. What can you do if that happens to you? Read on for some answers.
Q: I run Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus software on Windows 7. Recently it has been telling me that my computer is infected with Win32/Rebhip.A. I tell the program to remove the virus, and it succeeds. But the message that my computer is infected keeps re-appearing. How can I get rid of this virus?
A: If standard antivirus scans and automated removal attempts do not get rid of a virus, you will have to get a bit more aggressive. Start by doing some research on the virus that has infected your PC.
Rebhip.A, it turns out, is a self-propagating virus that is spread over unsecured shared drives on networks and from removable USB drives. That means that while your antivirus tool may be getting rid of a current instance of the virus, if its source is not eliminated -- or if it has inserted an entry into your Windows registry which causes the virus to be re-deposited on your system -- you could be facing a Sisyphean task of continually removing the virus, only to be infected once again when you restart your computer.
There are two steps that may help you get rid of this or any stubborn virus. First, search a trusted site on the Internet to see whether there are any manual removal instructions. Occasionally there are. If the manual fix involves removing entries from the Windows Registry, get an overview of the Registry and know what you're doing before you attempt the fix. You'll find good...
Tue, 10 Aug 10
New Droid 2 Could Be Snubbed in Favor of Droid X
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74673
Droid 2, the much-anticipated follow-up to the original Motorola Droid that debuted on Verizon Wireless in November, could be on store shelves and online as soon as Thursday, according to unconfirmed reports. And if past Droid sales are any indication, Verizon may have trouble keeping the Droid 2 in stock.
The original Droid sold 250,000 units in its first week and 1.05 million in 74 days. Both HTC's Droid Incredible and the jumbo-screen Motorola Droid X that went on sale last month saw supply problems at launch as Verizon underestimated demand.
The Droid 2 will likely be the first phone to ship with Google's Android 2.2 operating system and will pack a slide-out keyboard like its predecessor, but with raised buttons. The 3.7-inch screen and five-megapixel camera are the same as the first Droid, but Droid 2 will have a faster one-gigahertz processor and 512 megabytes of volatile memory, up from 550 megahertz and 356 megabytes. The Droid 2 reportedly has eight gigabytes of installed memory, expandable to 32 gigabytes, and can be used as a mobile Wi-Fi hot spot. The likely cost is $199 with a two-year plan.
But one wireless industry analyst thinks the Droid X may actually undermine its newest sibling.
"The original Droid was a big success because Verizon customers are desperate for an iPhone clone," said Ken Dulaney of Gartner Research. "But horizontal sliders are for users who spend a lot of time texting. At $199, the likely buyer is more split between voice and data and prefers a device that spends more time in portrait mode. And thus the Droid X is the preferred product, as will be the iPhone when it appears [in Verizon stores.]"
So judging the potential of the Droid 2 by the success of the first Droid could be a mistake, Dulaney said. "When there...
Tue, 10 Aug 10
Google-Verizon Net Neutrality Plan Exempts Wireless
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74672
Following a rash of rumors in the last week about what they were discussing, Google and Verizon Wireless on Monday unveiled a joint policy proposal for Net neutrality. Under the proposal, a broadband provider can prioritize some kinds of online content to willing customers, wireline Internet remains neutral as to content, and wireless is unregulated.
In a joint statement posted simultaneously with the opening of a press conference by Google CEO Eric Schmdt and Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, the two companies said it is "imperative that we find ways to protect the future openness of the Internet and encourage the rapid deployment of broadband." Schmidt noted that the announcement was about a "joint policy," not a business arrangement.
The companies said their "principled compromise" is guided by two main goals -- allowing users to choose content, applications and devices, and encouraging investment and innovation in the broadband infrastructure.
Those are the twin, opposing arguments about Net neutrality -- that users need access to any Net content, without some content being prioritized or charged at the carrier's whim, while carriers want to ensure that they have the financial resources to continue building a broadband infrastructure that can handle increasing volumes of traffic.
In the Verizon-Google Legislative Framework Proposal laid out Monday, wireline Internet service providers would be prohibited from preventing customers from sending or receiving any lawful content, running lawful applications, or connecting any lawful device.
Broadband providers would be required to be transparent about their conditions, and to disclose "in plain language" the nature of their offerings. The framework states, however, that providers are permitted to engage in "reasonable network management" to reduce network congestion, ensure security, or ensure "service quality to a subscriber" according to best practices by an unnamed, "widely recognized Internet community governance initiative or standard-setting organization."
The framework also says...
Tue, 10 Aug 10
Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10 Will Launch on AT&T
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74671
Sony Ericsson will launch its Xperia X10 smartphone in the United States on AT&T's network Aug. 15, the companies said Monday. The device's unique Mediascape app collates music, photos, videos and other multimedia content that resides on the phone's memory card or online, enabling users to browse, search, listen and share media from a single unified view, the handset maker said.
AT&T intends to price the new Android-based smartphone at $149.99 for users who sign up for a two-year service agreement and minimum smartphone data plan. According to Sony Ericsson Senior Vice President Paul Hamnett, the U.S. launch of the Xperia X10 will raise the bar for entertainment-rich phones. "With the convergence of our user-experience platform and the Android OS, we are bringing consumers a smartphone experience that is not only exciting, but also very refined," Hamnett said.
Sporting a four-inch touch display, a one-gigahertz Snapdragon processor, and GPS technology, the Xperia X10 is equipped with one gigabyte of on-board memory and a 2GB in-box microSD card that can be replaced by higher-capacity cards with up to 32GB of memory. The new Android-based smartphone also is equipped with an 8.1-megapixel camera with LED flash and features smile detection, face recognition, and autofocus capabilities.
On the software side, the device's new Mediascape app will enable users to view photos taken on the device as well as stored online in Facebook and Picasa web albums. Handset owners listening to a favorite song on the phone, for example, will also be able to press the device's infinite button to access related content about the artist that either resides in the phone's memory or online -- such as YouTube video content as well as search results from Google.
What's more, the handset's Timescape app will automatically organize in chronological order all the user's social interactions...
Tue, 10 Aug 10
Apple's iPhone and iPad Chief Departs Suddenly
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74660
Mark Papermaster has left Apple. He was the senior vice president of mobile devices at the Cupertino, Calif., company, overseeing the iPhone and iPad businesses, but departed suddenly and without details.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Papermaster had a falling-out with Apple CEO Steve Jobs. He came to Apple 15 months ago from IBM, but reportedly failed to gain Jobs' confidence. What caused that falling-out is not yet known.
Some are speculating that Papermaster's departure comes in the wake of iPhone stumbles, most notably iPhone 4 antenna problems that plagued the company and could lead to potentially millions in lost revenue.
Apple will give away free cases to anyone who buys an iPhone 4 before Sept. 30. Apple set aside $175 million to cover the so-called Antennagate problem. But Apple isn't just spending money to cover the problem, it's also losing profits. The cases retail for $29.99 at the Apple Store.
Apple also had to offer a software update to fix the way signal-meter bars appear and other bugs, and the company had to delay the launch of a white iPhone 4. There have also been shortages of the device that have frustrated consumers.
"There has been a lot of speculation that somehow Papermaster's departure was related to the negative press around the iPhone and the antenna issue. I think that's probably unlikely," said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group. "Just because one thing follows another doesn't mean one thing causes another. Breakfast doesn't cause lunch. When the iPhone 4 was introduced, Papermaster wasn't in the introduction video, whereas other iPhone executives were."
The Journal cited people familiar with the matter who said Papermaster "didn't appear to have the type of creative thinking excepted at Apple and wasn't used to Apple's corporate culture, where even senior executives are...
Tue, 10 Aug 10
HP Is Looking for a New CEO After Hurd Sex Scandal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74657
Mark Hurd has resigned from Hewlett-Packard, sending shock waves through the high-tech industry and pushing the company's shares down 7.6 percent in early Monday trading. The Chairman, CEO and president of HP stepped down in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment and improper conduct.
Hurd's forced resignation comes after outside legal counsel and HP's General Counsel's Office concluded an investigation into the sexual-harassment claims against him and the company by a former HP contractor. The conclusion: Hurd may not have violated HP's sexual-harassment policy, but he did violate the company's standards of business conduct.
"As the investigation progressed, I realized there were instances in which I did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that I have espoused at HP and which have guided me throughout my career. After a number of discussions with members of the board, I will move aside and the board will search for new leadership," Hurd said.
"This is a painful decision for me to make after five years at HP, but I believe it would be difficult for me to continue as an effective leader at HP, and I believe this is the only decision the board and I could make at this time," he added. "I want to stress that this in no way reflects on the operating performance or financial integrity of HP."
How will this impact HP? In the short term, Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, expects volatility at the hardware maker's headquarters. But he doesn't see HP heading into the rocks despite the captain being hurled overboard in a lifeboat with $12 million and a swift bon voyage.
"The people tending the boilers and working on the bridge are fairly capable of keeping HP on the straight and narrow over the short term,"...
Tue, 10 Aug 10
Verizon iPhone, New Apple TV and iPad Rumored
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74656
A CDMA iPhone for Verizon Wireless, a new kind of Apple TV, and a seven-inch iPad. These are some of the rumors about new Apple products that are sprouting around the web like late-summer flowers.
According to various web sites, a key driving force for the reports has been information coming from Asian component suppliers. Taiwan-based Pegatron Technology, for instance, is reportedly preparing for mass production of a CDMA iPhone in December. It would be intended for both Verizon Wireless and China Telecom, and is projected to launch at January's Consumer Electronics Show, where Verizon's CEO is scheduled to give the keynote address.
According to the reports, Apple has already placed an order for millions of Qualcomm CDMA chips, and the new device will utilize an internally insulated antenna in order to avoid the reception problems that have beset the iPhone 4 when a user's hand touches the antenna area.
A CDMA-based phone has been rumored for quite a while, noted Current Analysis' Avi Greengart. However, he said his assumption is that any iPhone Apple develops for Verizon will be based on the carrier's growing, next-generation LTE technology, not CDMA.
"Apple typically does not create one-off products," he pointed out, adding that CDMA is an architecture with a very limited life span. Verizon has aggressively been planning and building its next-generation LTE infrastructure, an effort that Greengart noted is ahead of schedule.
"They always planned to start this year," he said, "but it's looking like it will be a two-year rollout for LTE rather than four years." Greengart pointed out that, typically, data cards would precede handsets based on a new transmission technology. "It's also possible that Apple could release a multimode iPhone," he said, which would allow the device to be used on both the existing CDMA and the...
Tue, 10 Aug 10
WikiLeaks Posts Huge Encrypted 'Insurance' File
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74643
Online whistle-blower WikiLeaks has posted a huge encrypted file named "Insurance" to its Web site, sparking speculation that those behind the organization may be prepared to release more classified information if authorities interfere with them.
Bloggers have noted that it's 20 times larger than the batch of 77,000 secret U.S. military documents about Afghanistan that WikiLeaks dumped onto the Web last month. Contributors to tech sites such as CNet have speculated that the file could be a way of threatening to disclose more information if WikiLeaks' staffers were detained or if the site was attacked, although the organization itself has kept mum.
"As a matter of policy, we do not discuss security procedures," WikiLeaks said Thursday in an e-mail response to questions about the 1.4 gigabyte file.
Editor-in-chief Julian Assange was a bit more expansive -- if equally cryptic -- in his response to the same line of questioning in a television interview with independent U.S. news network Democracy Now!
"I think it's better that we don't comment on that," Assange said, according to the network's transcript of the interview. "But, you know, one could imagine in a similar situation that it might be worth ensuring that important parts of history do not disappear."
Assange, a former computer hacker, has expressed concern over his safety in the past, complaining of surveillance and telling interviewers that he's been warned away from visiting the United States.
Since the publication of the Afghanistan files, at least one activist associated with the site has been questioned by U.S. authorities. Programmer Jacob Appelbaum, who filled in for Assange at a conference last month, was reportedly detained and questioned about the site by officials after arriving in the U.S. on a flight from the Netherlands.
U.S. officials have had harsh words for Assange, with Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of...
Tue, 10 Aug 10
Warner Music CEO Looks 'Beyond iTunes' Model
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74641
Digital download sales growth slowed further for Warner Music Group Corp. in its fiscal third quarter, prompting CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. to say Thursday that the company was looking "beyond the iTunes model" to return to growth.
After the company reported a wider loss, Bronfman pointed to new "access models" based on monthly music subscription plans, and the entry of Google Inc. and others into the business to reverse a decade of declining CD sales.
"Digital growth ... has the opportunity to return to more robust growth rates as we see the introduction more broadly of access models and new business models beyond the iTunes model," Bronfman told analysts.
Revenue from digital sales of recorded music grew just 3.7 percent to $169 million. That's a slower pace than the 4.5 percent growth posted a year ago and 39 percent growth two years earlier.
Sales of downloads from Apple Inc.'s iTunes store are slowing as the market matures, especially in the United States. Late adopters of new gadgets such as the iPod and iPhone generally consume less content than early buyers.
The third-quarter gains in digital music sales were limited to markets outside the United States. Domestically, digital music sales fell 3 percent to $102 million. Digital music sales outside the U.S. grew 12 percent thanks mainly to the later introduction of iTunes and a smaller base.
Bronfman said device manufacturers such as Apple and Sony Corp. are jockeying for position with Internet giants like Google and Microsoft Corp. for dominance in the arena for wireless content. He said he expected that competition to help Warner's business as companies vie to develop business plans that use music to attract customers.
"We think content, and music specifically, is a critical enabler to those companies," he said.
Sales of physical CDs and vinyl records declined 25 percent to $350 million from...
Tue, 10 Aug 10
Adobe Investment Is 'Watershed Moment' for Utah
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74640
Utah officials heralded a major investment by software company Adobe Systems Inc. as a sign that a state that produces many early computer innovations is finally amassing jobs, talent and Fortune 500 operations instead of exporting startups through corporate mergers.
"This is a watershed moment for Utah," said Spencer P. Eccles, executive director of Gov. Gary Herbert's economic development office and the son of a prominent Utah banker.
"We'll look back at this as a real tipping point," added Jeff Edwards, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah, which recruits major companies.
Herbert seized on Adobe's announcement Thursday that it will build a $100 million campus and add 1,000 jobs to brag that Utah is leading the nation's economic recovery. Other recent arrivals are Twitter Inc. and eBay Inc., which plan to build huge data centers in Utah, video game maker Electronic Arts Inc., and Walt Disney Co.'s video-game unit, Disney Interactive.
The California-based companies say they are looking to Utah for its ready supply of young, tech-savvy workers, and its lower business and living costs. Quality of living also is a factor, say executives, who have a name for Utah -- Silicon Slopes -- that invokes nine ski resorts within an hour's drive of Salt Lake City. Utah has hundreds of technology companies, mostly small ones in need of bigger partners.
"Utah is at the cutting edge of economic growth and expansion. We're starting to come out of the recession," Herbert boasted Thursday alongside Adobe executives at the Utah Capitol. "Utah is not just the place you want to be. It's the place you need to be."
The Republican governor is running in a special November election to fill out the term of former Gov. Jon Huntsman, who left to become President Barack Obama's ambassador to China. Huntsman, a progressive Republican, spent...
Tue, 10 Aug 10
China Unicom To Sell Wi-Fi iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74637
Apple's Chinese partner says it will sell iPhones with Wi-Fi starting Monday, adding to mounting competition in China's smart phone market.
China Unicom Ltd. started selling the iPhone in October but early models lacked wireless connections due to Chinese regulations. Industry analysts say that hurt the iPhone's appeal in China, where black market versions are widely available.
Unicom will sell eight-gigabyte iPhones with third-generation service and Wi-Fi throughout China starting Monday, a company spokesman, Wen Baoqiu, said Friday.
Wi-Fi is a part of the iPhone's appeal elsewhere and allows phones to use free wireless networks in cafes and offices to download e-mail and the latest applications.
Beijing barred use of Wi-Fi while the government tried to develop a competing Chinese system, dubbed WAPI but regulations issued this year allow Wi-Fi.
Unicom also sells 16- and 32-gigabyte iPhones without Wi-Fi.
The latest iPhone should help Unicom and Apple Inc. compete in an increasingly crowded Chinese smart phone market. China has the most populous mobile phone market, with some 600 million accounts.
Taiwan's HTC Corp., which supplies smart phones to Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless in the United States, launched four models for China last month with Unicom rival China Mobile Ltd., the world's biggest carrier by subscribers.
Tue, 10 Aug 10
As Ban Looms, Saudis Try To Unload BlackBerrys
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74635
Some Saudis are trying to sell their BlackBerrys ahead of a ban on the smart phone's messenger service in the kingdom -- but with few willing to buy, they're having to slash prices.
The Saudi telecoms regulatory agency announced earlier this week the service would be halted Friday. By mid-afternoon, it was still operating. One Saudi newspaper, Okaz, said the halt would begin at the end of the day, at midnight. Saudi officials were not available Friday, a weekend day, to confirm.
The kingdom is one of a number of countries expressing concern that the device is a security threat because encrypted information sent on the phones is routed through overseas computers -- making it impossible for local governments to monitor. The United Arab Emirates has announced it will ban BlackBerry e-mail, messaging and Web browsing starting in October, and Indonesia and India are also demanding greater control over the data.
On Friday, Lebanon said it is also looking into whether BlackBerry use raises security concerns there -- in part due to allegations that Israeli spies are trying to infiltrate phone networks in Lebanon. This summer, Lebanese authorities charged two employees at the state-owned Alfa mobile phone company with spying for Israel. A third suspect worked for the landline operator Ogero.
Lebanon's main concern is "the ability of our security and judicial groups to access the data ... when it is required by law and when the security situation requires it," Imad Hoballah, the acting head of the Telecoms Regulatory Authority, told The Associated Press in an interview in Beirut.
In Saudi Arabia -- which local media say has some 750,000 BlackBerry users -- the ban has raised accusations the government is trying to limit freedom of expression.
"The real reason behind the ban is the freedom granted by BlackBerry messenger to its users to criticize,...
Tue, 10 Aug 10
Swedish Web-Hosting Firm Verifies WikiLeaks Link
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74634
A Swedish Internet company linked to file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay says it's helping online whistle-blower WikiLeaks release classified documents from servers located in a Stockholm suburb.
Mikael Viborg, the owner of the Web hosting company PRQ, on Friday showed The Associated Press the site -- the basement of a drab office building -- in Solna on the condition that the exact location was not revealed.
"This is the office. The server room is further inside," the 28-year-old Viborg said, with the door to the office cracked open. Desks with computers, documents, and empty pastry boxes and soda cans could be seen inside before he closed the door.
WikiLeaks posted more than 76,900 classified military and other documents, mostly raw intelligence reports from Afghanistan, on its Web site July 25. The White House angrily denounced the leaks, saying they put the lives of Afghan informants and U.S. troops at risk.
The secretive Web site gives few details about its setup, but says its "servers are distributed over multiple international jurisdictions and do not keep logs. Hence these logs cannot be seized."
Viborg said WikiLeaks has servers outside Sweden, too.
"There are backups," he said. "If one goes down, there are others that take over."
Viborg said he was comfortable revealing the location in Solna because Swedish authorities already know where it is and have not tried to shut down the servers.
"Not so far," Viborg said. "First I thought it was a bit surprising. But when you look at the legal situation it's hard to see that Swedish authorities can tell us to do anything, legally.
"They can ask us to do it out of goodwill, but I can tell you right now that we won't oblige."
Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman Anders Jorle said the government had not been contacted by the United States about the WikiLeaks servers and had...
Sat, 7 Aug 10
Apple Offers Trial Versions of Paid App Store Offerings
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74648
Apple's launch this week of a new "Free on the App Store" marketing category means that iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users now have an easy way to try out "lite" versions of selected premium mobile apps and games without charge. The new Apps Store segment also includes full software offerings that are entirely free, together with a new Genius tool for more easily finding personally relevant iPad apps.
Though Google's Android Market maintains a one-day return policy on its mobile-app sales, Apple's "try before you buy" offerings give users a no-hassle way to see what premium apps can do. This change is a welcome step in the right direction and far superior to the current Android model, said Lisa Pierce, an independent wireless analyst at the Strategic Networks Group.
"In and of itself, it won't create more exposure for less-popular applications or developers, because that's more of an awareness issue," Pierce said. "But the change creates less perceived risk, and so improves customer satisfaction and loyalty for Apple, and likely some additional revenue for developers -- I just can't say which ones for certain."
Given that the Google and Apple mobile marketplaces now offer thousands of apps to choose from, users do need better ways of painlessly finding what works best for them. This explains why these online stores are experimenting with various approaches that can improve app buyer experiences, noted Al Hilwa, director of application development software at IDC.
"I see this as a maturation process of the model," Hilwa said, but "in this case, I am not sure we have heard the whole story."
For one thing, the new approach will force developers to create separate versions of their products in order to take advantage of Apple's enhanced marketing opportunity. Moreover, Hilwa thinks the "try before you...
Sat, 7 Aug 10
Symbian Remains Way Ahead of Android and iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74647
Google's Android is showing impressive growth. Apple's iPhone iOS is holding its own, while Research In Motion's BlackBerry, feeling the heat, has a few tricks up its sleeve.
But none of those players yet hold a candle to worldwide sales of handsets running the Symbian operating system, primarily on devices made by Nokia, the world's biggest cell-phone manufacturer.
The nonprofit Symbian Foundation, a cooperative with several wireless carriers and OEMs that manages the open-source operating system, boasted Thursday that 300,000 Symbian phones are sold each day around the world, or three per second. That's about a dozen in the time it took you to read this sentence.
The estimate is 50 percent higher than the 200,000 Android-based phones that Google CEO Eric Schmidt said are being activated each day, in an interview with Reuters this week.
The Symbian numbers are based on a Canalys report this week that said Symbian is the first operating system to be shipped on 25 million phones in one quarter.
"The smartphone marketplace has become more crowded than ever," said the foundation's executive director, Lee M. Williams. "So the fact we continue to outsell our competitors by such large margins [makes] make us highly confident in our outlook, and we will continue to embrace the challenges ahead."
Symbian's world market share has fallen from 73 percent in 2006 to a still-impressive 49 percent as it faces an increasingly crowded field. Many consumers in the United States, however, may never have heard of Symbian because its profile here is so low.
"In the U.S., Symbian is largely irrelevant because of Nokia's small penetration here," said Alexander Spektor of Strategy Analytics. Although Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile offer Symbian-based devices, those handsets rank seventh in terms of market share, according to Strategy Analytics.
"It might be a matter of the specific tastes...
Sat, 7 Aug 10
FCC Drops Industry Talks on Plan for Net Neutrality
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74646
The war over Net neutrality is entering a new phase, with an announcement Thursday by the Federal Communications Commission that it is discontinuing efforts to reach a deal with large web and telecommunications companies on a plan to send to Congress. The breakdown comes just as reports broke Thursday that Google, a leader in advocating an open Internet, had reached an agreement with Verizon about ways to offer better service to some of its customers.
This ability to favor some content and applications over others, possibly divided by those who can pay for better access and those who cannot, is the core battle in Net neutrality. To date, the Internet experience has been that all sites have equal access to bandwidth, even if the speed of a site's servers and other factors differ.
According to The Washington Post, the now-discontinued FCC/industry negotiations had led to agreement on a variety of issues, including what the paper described as "tighter boundaries for managing web traffic than those agreed upon by Verizon and Google, according to sources familiar with the meetings."
In the wake of a storm of criticism that descended on both Google and Verizon, the FCC is faced with having to move as quickly as it can, or face a de facto industry arrangement. Some industry observers are saying that Google, which has been a champion of Net neutrality and an open Internet, only intends to agree to service-level agreements on content that requires quick delivery, such as real-time medical files and communications, and leave all else to voluntary arrangements.
One question is whether the FCC will now attempt to regulate Net neutrality with its rules, or if that fight will be in Congress -- or both. In mid-June, the agency released what Chairman Julius Genachowski described as a "Third...
Sat, 7 Aug 10
Age-Bias Ruling Against Google Opens Pandora's Box
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74645
Score one for ex-Googler Brian Reid in an age-discrimination suit he filed against the search giant in 2004. Reid won favor with the California Supreme Court in his quest to have the "stray remarks" doctrine overturned in his case.
The court's ruling affirmed an appeals-court decision on the doctrine. Typically, courts allow stray remarks -- remarks that display discrimination in the workplace -- to be included as evidence in suits if they did not come from people directly involved in the employee's termination.
Reid charges that Google executives pushed him out of the company before its billion-dollar initial public offering because he was too old to click with the young company's corporate culture. He pointed to discriminating remarks by several coworkers, including Google's senior vice president for operations and Google Fellow Urs Hölzle.
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Stray Remarks Allowed
/subhead
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The California Supreme Court agreed to allow the statements as trial evidence that Reid was working in a hostile environment.
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Strict application of the stray-remarks doctrine, as urged by Google, would result in a court's categorical exclusion of evidence even if the evidence was relevant. An age-based remark not made directly in the context of an employment decision or uttered by a non-decision-maker may be relevant, circumstantial evidence of discrimination, the court wrote.
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Eric Steinert, an employment lawyer at Seyfarth Shaw, said the ruling could pave the way for more age-discrimination suits in California: As a practical result, employers will win fewer age cases on summary judgment.
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Targeting Boomers?
/subhead
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Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, agreed. He said the precedent the California court set is fairly broad and will reach beyond ex-Googlers who feel they were victims of discrimination to other companies by potentially allowing people who partially justify their case based on coworker comments.
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Many boomers are clearly well within the age-protected group. The boomers are now the...
Sat, 7 Aug 10
What's Up, Eric? Google Moves Into Social Gaming
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74644
Google, possibly getting its cards ready for its next big move, is buying social-gaming company Slide as it dumps its Wave collaborative platform. The New York Times reported earlier this week that the search giant had purchased Slide for about $228 million, citing two unnamed sources, and a formal sale announcement was expected Friday.
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Slide provides virtual goods, social games, and virtual community applications for Facebook, MySpace and other social-networking sites, such as SuperPoke Pets, Top Fish, SPP Range, and SuperPocus Academy of Magic. Revenue sources include sales of virtual goods, which some observers anticipate will reach $1.6 billion this year in the U.S. alone.
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'Some Sort of Eruption'
/subhead
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On Wednesday, Google announced on its blog that it is ending development of Wave, its real-time collaboration tool. Despite numerous loyal fans, posted Senior Vice President Urs Holzle, Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. Holzle noted that a variety of technical innovations in Wave are available as open source.
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Google has also invested $150 million in Zynga, the online entertainment company behind Farmville and Mafia Wars on Facebook.
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Brad Shimmin, an analyst with Current Analysis, said Google's purchase of Slide and plug-pulling of Wave are a build-up to some sort of eruption from Google.
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He noted that, as an infrastructure vendor, Google's big move would likely involve infrastructure. But a key question, Shimmin noted, is the degree to which Google will also be releasing one or more products under its own brand. The rumor mill has been speculating about a Google Me major social-networking service to rival Facebook.
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subhead
Search 'Better' with Social Information
/subhead
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Google CEO Eric Schmidt has indicated that his company does not intend to compete with Facebook, but to do an end run around it. The Times quoted Schmidt as emphasizing the importance of social networking, because search is going to...
Sat, 7 Aug 10
Microsoft's August Patches Will Keep IT Admins Busy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74633
Microsoft on Tuesday will serve up a flood of security bulletins in its monthly patch update. The patches will address 34 individual vulnerabilities, including eight critical and six important fixes, in Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, Silverlight and SQL.
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On the Windows front, the fixes target Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and 2008, and Windows Server 2008 release 2. Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 will also be patched.
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In terms of productivity software, Office XP Service Pack 3, Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac, Office Word Viewer, Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint, 2007 File Formats Service Pack 2, and Microsoft Works 9 will see fixes. Finally, bugs in Silverlight 2 and 3 will be eradicated with the August patch.
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This will be the most bulletins we have ever released in a month. We have released 13 bulletins on a couple of occasions, said Angela Gunn, security response communications manager at Microsoft. However, in total CVE [common vulnerabilities and exposures] count, this release ties with June 2010, so there's no new record there.
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subhead
The Symantec Factor
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With more than half of Tuesday's patches rated critical, requiring a restart and impacting most of the Microsoft platform, Paul Henry, a security analyst for Lumension, said IT admins will have to put off any last-ditch effort to enjoy the end of summer.
p
While it is concerning to deal with the high volume of critical patches, even more concerning is the recent Stuxnet revelation by Symantec, saying that they've identified an early version of the worm that was created in June 2009, and that the malicious software was then made much more sophisticated in the early part of 2010, Henry said.
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Symantec also said its critical infrastructure and enterprise networks were exposed to the LNK vulnerability and were targeted for more than a year....
Sat, 7 Aug 10
New Business Owners Perform a Juggling Act
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74629
Multi-tasking is something that most people have to do at work. Those who start their own companies quickly find they have an even bigger juggling act.
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Many brand-new entrepreneurs try to do it all: finding new customers, doing the work when they land an account, sending invoices, keeping the books, dealing with high-tech problems.
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Building a new company can be exhilarating, but doing it all yourself can be overwhelming and that can lead to burnout. It may end up hurting rather than helping the business.
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People who have started companies usually find ways to get the work done. Often, though, it means getting some help.
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Should You DIY? Or Get Some Help?
/subhead
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Many entrepreneurs try to do everything themselves at the start simply because they can't afford to pay someone else to help them. Others believe they can and should do it all. And many can, until they get so much work that it's impossible to keep juggling. Or, when they realize their time needs to be focused on building the business, not on administrative tasks.
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Jason Brown juggled everything when he started PublicCity PR, a Beverly Hills, Mich.-based public relations firm, in 2008. But as the company grew, he was spending more time on administrative chores, and that took away from finding and working for clients.
p
His first solution was to hire a part-time bookkeeper to handle invoices and the company's books. Then, as he became more successful, he took on a full-time staffer to help with clients. He also enlisted the help of an accounting firm.
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This has made it easier for Brown to focus on clients. You don't want to get bogged down and have them wait three days for you to call them back, he said.
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Craig Clark said at first he could manage to do everything himself, but not if he wanted his business,...
Sat, 7 Aug 10
Dish To Stream Live TV on iPad and Other Gadgets
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74628
Dish subscribers will soon be able to watch live satellite TV on their mobile devices at no extra cost.
p
Dish Network Corp. is planning to offer the feature on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and BlackBerry devices in September and on phones using Google Inc.'s Android system in October.
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Subscribers will need special hardware. One option is Sling Media Inc.'s SlingBox, which retails for $180 to $300. Dish subscribers can also pay $200 to $400 to upgrade to Dish's high-definition digital video recorder with SlingBox features; they'll need to pay $10 a month for multiple DVR service, but they'll get recording capabilities with it. Sling is owned by EchoStar Corp., whose chairman is Dish CEO Charles Ergen.
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Viewers using Dish's new app can switch channels remotely. But if someone at home is watching one channel, the person using a mobile device elsewhere has to watch the same thing, unless the DVR being used has a second tuner. SlingBox also can access programs recorded on your DVR, but the box itself can't record.
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The offering from Dish is the latest in the race for video supremacy among subscription TV providers. With most TV viewing households already signed up for a cable, satellite TV or video service from a phone company, companies have to step up promotions to lure subscribers. These include free HD for life from Dish and DirecTV Inc., and a two-year rate guarantee from Comcast Corp. on its HD TV, Internet and phone plan.
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Dish already makes free apps for Apple Inc.'s iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch to let customers program their digital video recorders, browse TV shows and use their devices as a remote control. Dish will update that to allow for live streaming. The BlackBerry and Android apps will already have the feature enabled when they become available.
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Dish can offer the live...
Sat, 7 Aug 10
T-Mobile Loses 93,000 Customers in Second Quarter
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74624
T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier, said Thursday that it added crucial contract-signing customers even though it lost subscribers in the second quarter as prepaying subscribers fled to other carriers.
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It's a reversal of what the carrier had seen over the past year -- a reduction in contract subscribers since last year's second quarter, while adding prepaying ones.
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Now, tough competition in the prepaid market, where customers don't sign contracts and usually pay much less per month, means T-Mobile subscribers are being siphoned off. It lost a net 199,000 prepaying customers, compared with a gain of 268,000 in the same quarter last year.
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The rate of prepaying subscribers who cancel service every month rose from the already high 7 percent a year ago to 7.6 percent.
p
T-Mobile, the Bellevue, Washington-based unit of German phone company Deutsche Telekom AG, added a net 106,000 contract customers, helped by a variety of promotional offers. That was up from 56,000 gains in the same quarter last year, and from a loss of 118,000 customers in the first quarter of 2010.
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T-Mobile's improvement in contracts contrasts with the two larger carriers, Verizon Wireless and ATT Inc., which have both posted large declines in contract additions this year. However, they're still growing much faster than T-Mobile. Sprint Nextel Corp. is still posting net subscriber losses.
p
In total, T-Mobile lost 93,000 customers, ending the quarter with 33.6 million.
p
T-Mobile posted net income of $404 million, down from $425 million a year ago. Revenue was $5.36 billion, almost flat with $5.34 billion a year ago. Revenues were helped by higher sales of smart phones, balanced by lower monthly calling fees. T-Mobile is aggressively boosting its data network speeds to compete with the bigger players.
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Parent company Deutsche Telekom delisted its shares from the New York Stock Exchange in June, a move it said was aimed...
Sat, 7 Aug 10
Should You Keep or Ditch Your Landline?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74623
Reception complaints with the new iPhone 4, and occasionally every mobile phone on earth, have made the decision to ax one's landline less clear-cut than many thought it would be by this stage of the cell game.
p
But as consumers continue to cut costs, more are cutting the cord. One in four homes in the U.S. relied on cell phones alone during the last half of 2009, an increase of 1.8 percentage points since the first half of 2009, according to a survey by the National Center for Health Statistics.
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One in every seven homes had a landline yet received all or almost all calls on cell phones.
p
I argue with my wife often about why we still have a landline, said Mitch Hiller, director of technology for Consumers' Checkbook. She wants one. She isn't clear on the reasons for that, but for the sake of domestic tranquility, I give in.
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Several variables, logical and psychological, complicate making the call.
p
Part of the answer about what is the right answer is the comfort level of the person with technology, Hiller said. The answer for me is very different than for my mother, who is phobic of technology. If she tries to implement the same solution, she's going to be frustrated and unhappy.
p
Here are some arguments for and against the landline. You make the call.
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subhead
Five Reasons To Keep Your Landline
/subhead
p
_ Multiple users: Having a landline means relatives and family friends can reach all members of your household (in theory) by dialing one number and/or leaving one message. (That's assuming voice mail in your household gets checked more than once every two months.)
p
_ Multiple phones: It also means you can have several phones within your house, rather than conjoining yourself to your cell phone in order to hear incoming calls.
p
_ Reception: Landline phones don't require you to...
Sat, 7 Aug 10
The Long-Term Jobless: Left Behind
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74621
To understand the potential consequences of long-term unemployment, consider the job prospects of Sheldon Fisher and Douglas Lawson. In January, Fisher, 53, was dismissed from a software company in Washington State. Lawson, 34, lost his job in October with a builder in South Carolina. Now the technology industry is bouncing back while construction remains in the dumps, and Washington's jobless rate is 8.9 percent, vs. South Carolina's 10.7 percent. Still, Lawson's prospects may be better than Fisher's.
p
That's because being jobless for a long time hurts workers in some industries far more than in others. The technology sector is known for such rapid change that those out of work for even a few months can find themselves with out-of-date skills. Construction skills are far less likely to grow stale. I never forget what I know. I'm not worried about doing the work once I get it, says Lawson, who has applied for about 30 jobs so far. Fisher, by contrast, is considering leaving information technology altogether, though he says he's not sure what else he's qualified to do. After applying for about 100 jobs in his first half-year out of work, Fisher began to worry that employers might think he was getting rusty. Then everything after six months just makes it worse, he says.
p
The average duration of unemployment in the U.S. jumped to a record 35.2 weeks in June, up from 16.5 weeks when the recession began in December 2007, according to the Labor Dept. Today, almost half of unemployed Americans have been out of work for 27 weeks or more (the official definition of long-term unemployment), vs. 30 percent in June 2009.
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subhead
Perishable Skills
/subhead
p
Industries with highly perishable skill sets include health-care technology, telecommunications, and finance, where regulations have changed dramatically in the past year. The toughest, though, may be information technology....
Sat, 7 Aug 10
Review: Long-Awaited StarCraft II Sparkles
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74599
Twelve years is an eternity is the video-game business. In 1998, the Microsoft Xbox didn't even exist, and games for the top consoles -- Sony's PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 -- were still regarded as kids' stuff in comparison with the more demanding fare you could play on a PC.
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Blizzard Entertainment's science-fiction strategy epic StarCraft was one of the highlights of that year, and fans have been craving a sequel for a long time. Blizzard, however, has been busy, most notably with its blockbuster online game World of Warcraft.
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At long last, though, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty ($59.99) has arrived, but Blizzard has made few concessions to the current marketplace. The sequel, again, is only available on the PC or Mac -- never mind that consoles have gotten so much more powerful. And the core gameplay doesn't hold many surprises for folks who have been hooked on the original for a dozen years.
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With a few exceptions, each of the levels in StarCraft II unfolds the same way. You land on a planet with a few buildings and a handful of robots. You gather the resources needed to erect more buildings, train troops and develop weapons. Then you pound the enemy with some good ol' shock-and-awe.
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There are enough variations on this strategy to keep things interesting. You may be assigned to defend a landmark -- say, a giant laser -- from increasingly aggressive assaults. You may need to escort a group of civilians to escape ships. Or you may be asked to sabotage enemy trains before they abscond with valuable artifacts.
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StarCraft II is described as real-time strategy, meaning your enemies are in motion even when you're plotting your moves. I am not a big fan of the genre, so it's a considerable tribute to Blizzard's skill when I say I was...
Sat, 7 Aug 10
The Whole Picture: Extra Monitors for PCs and Laptops
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74569
If your monitor's not giving you a broad enough view, simply expand it. A second display can be a big boon, with higher resolution and better image quality. In some cases it's even possible to add a third display to the computer. The extra monitor typically improves your working comfort.
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The second display enlarges the virtual workspace for the PC or laptop, says Robert Kraft from computer portal chip.de. Multitasking suddenly becomes much easier: your can play back your vacation film on the second monitor while editing it on the first -- without the annoying minimizing and maximizing of windows. The same applies to office tasks: you can keep a program like your email client permanently open on the second screen.
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A study by Microsoft a few years ago showed that two monitors provides a more effective way to work. The boost comes through the so-called widescreen effect: the larger, multi-section image area simplifies working on the computer and increases productivity by ten per cent on average. The study found that once you use a second monitor, you'll never go back.
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Another reason for picking up a second monitor is to achieve higher resolutions. That's particularly the case for laptops, Robert Kraft observes. Monitors of 22 inches in size, with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels or greater, are suitable for playing back HD films.
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The cable for connecting display and computer usually comes delivered with the monitor. Additional hardware is only needed if the computer lacks a digital DVI, HDMI, or display port and the monitor does have one. The lowest common denominator is almost always the analog VGA port, which typically delivers worse image quality than a DVI port.
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If the cable doesn't have the right plug, then you'll need an adapter to convert a DVI or VGA signal, Kraft explains. The...
Fri, 6 Aug 10
Clearwire To Hedge WiMAX Bet By Adding LTE for 4G
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74632
Wireless Internet provider Clearwire, which pioneered the 4G WiMAX network with its partner, Sprint Nextel, will hedge its bets by branching out into another 4G technology, LTE. Long Term Evolution is the standard that will soon provide 4G coverage for Verizon Wireless and AT&T's network as well as markets around the world.
Clearwire announced Wednesday that it will begin testing a new network in Phoenix, Ariz., with Huawei Technologies, the infrastructure provider that deployed the first commercial LTE network in Europe. Clearwire now uses the same spectrum band and flexible base-station platform in the United States.
Clearwire isn't giving up on WiMAX. The Kirkland, Wash.-based company, which describes itself as "technology agnostic," is still committed to WiMAX for its current 4G plan. But with a growing number of LTE devices expected to be available in coming years -- Samsung and MetroPCS last week won approval for the first LTE phone -- Clearwire wants to conduct technical trials to see how it could have the best of both worlds.
"WiMAX provides us with unique advantages to meet the needs of our customers today," said Dr. John Saw, Clearwire's chief technology officer. "Ultimately, consumers don't care about technical acronyms, but they do care about quality and affordable Internet services that work where and when they want, and that's what we're focused on delivering."
Clearwire's plan shows how tech companies may adapt to the rapidly changing wireless landscape by covering as many bases as they can, creating bridges between current and future technologies.
"WiMAX is certainly getting broad adoption internationally where there isn't any underlying broadband like in the U.S. and Europe," said analyst Gerry Purdy of MobilTrax. "As far as Clearwire, they will continue to use WiMAX and partner with Sprint. Look at the Sprint Overdrive [a mobile hot-spot device released in April] as a...
Fri, 6 Aug 10
Google Denies Plans To Pay for Priority Internet Traffic
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74631
Google has denied a report that it's working with Verizon Communications to allow faster delivery of paid online content. The New York Times said such an agreement would undercut the concept of Net neutrality and suggested it could lead to tiered service with higher costs for premium delivery.
Net neutrality has been the focus of battles between Comcast and other Internet providers and the Federal Communications Commission. Following a court ruling that gave the FCC limited authority to regulate broadband restrictions imposed by Internet providers, the FCC has been seeking to reclassify broadband service as a "telecommunications service" but only apply part of the rules. Providers have opposed that move.
While Google said, "We have not had any conversations with Verizon about paying for carriage of Google or YouTube traffic," it did not challenge a Wall Street Journal story that said the companies are working on a legislative model to prevent delays or blocking of Internet traffic.
While broadband providers want the right to regulate traffic on their networks, they have also said prioritized traffic could lead to higher costs. That could be particularly true for Google's YouTube, which generates high traffic.
If Google and Verizon are indeed working on a plan to pay for priority content delivery, private-interest groups are certain to object.
Meantime, wireless carriers are preparing for a faster Internet and an expected explosion in traffic by scrapping unlimited mobile data plans and setting prices for levels of service. AT&T, for example, now charges $15 a month for 200MB of data and $25 for 2GB. Subscribers who exceed those caps will be charged overage fees.
Fri, 6 Aug 10
Analysts Say BlackBerry Torch Is Still Behind Rivals
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74630
The unveiling of Research In Motion's new BlackBerry Torch earlier this week has so far generated mixed reactions among industry analysts. Though the new smartphone is the first from RIM to support the company's new BlackBerry 6 OS, one major drawback is the handset's failure to achieve parity with rival smartphone platforms.
When it comes to touchscreen capabilities, for example, RIM continues to trail the market. The Torch's 3.2-inch, capacitive touchscreen, which features a resolution of 360x480 pixels, doesn't compare to the iPhone 4's 3.5-inch widescreen multi-touch display, which delivers a resolution of 960x640 pixels.
"The touch capability afforded by the new BlackBerry 6 OS is definitely an improvement," noted Al Hilwa, director of applications development software at IDC. "However, with this specific phone, the screen size and resolution is probably a generation behind the state of the art today from Apple or Android."
Gartner Research Director Carolina Milanesi sees the touchscreen capabilities of the BlackBerry Torch potentially offering a nice upgrade path for BlackBerry Bold users. "From demos I have seen, it seems that the new OS is an improvement," Milanesi wrote in a blog. But it "is not a feature that will set RIM apart from its competitors," she added.
The BlackBerry Torch also continues to lag rival smartphone platforms in processor speed and storage memory. RIM's new smartphone features a 624-MHz processor, 512MB of flash memory and 4GB of built-in memory storage that is expandable to a maximum of 32GB with a microSD/SDHD memory card. By contrast, the iPhone 4 ships with a substantially faster one-GHz Apple A4 processor and the user's choice of either 16GB or 32GB of internal flash storage.
On the other hand, Hilwa noted that the BlackBerry 6 OS integrates admirable improvements such as a new browser based on RIM's acquisition of Torch Mobile last...
Fri, 6 Aug 10
'E-Mail Successor' Google Wave Will Be Dropped
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74613
So much for Google Wave. What was positioned as web-based software that could transform Internet communications is officially dead. Yes, Google has pulled the plug on Google Wave.
Google Wave blended e-mail, instant messages, blogs, wikis and other collaboration tools in a web-based application that aimed to allow people to communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps and more.
Launched with plenty of fanfare at the Google I/O conference in May 2009, Google called the HTML5 app a successor to e-mail and instant messaging, a reinvention of these tools that took a fresh look at what people need in communication and collaboration online. Now Google is waving goodbye to these aspirations.
Google Senior Vice President of Operations and Google Fellow Urs Hölzle pointed to Wave's many successes in the past year. He recalled how Google demonstrated character-by-character live typing, and the ability to drag-and-drop files from the desktop, even playback the history of changes -- all within a browser -- at the Google I/O conference. And he remembered how developers in the audience stood and cheered, some even waving their laptops.
p
The use cases we've seen show the power of this technology: Sharing images and other media in real time, improving spell-checking by understanding not just an individual word, but also the context of each word, and enabling third-party developers to build new tools like consumer gadgets for travel, or robots to check code, Hölzle said.
p
Despite the warm welcome -- and despite the successes and loyal Wave fans, Hölzle admitted the platform hasn't seen the user adoption Google hoped for. Therefore, Google will not continue developing Wave as a stand-alone product. Google will, however, maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects.
p
subhead
A Google...
Fri, 6 Aug 10
Microsoft, Salesforce Settle Cloud Patent Battle
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74612
No long, drawn-out IP battle for Microsoft, which said Wednesday it has settled the patent-infringement cases Salesforce.com brought against it. Salesforce also settled with Microsoft in a countersuit.
p
The companies inked a patent agreement in which Salesforce will get broad coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio for its products and services as well as its back-end server infrastructure. In return, Microsoft gets coverage under Salesforce's patent portfolio.
p
Microsoft filed a patent-infringement action against Salesforce in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in May. Microsoft claimed Salesforce's CRM product trespassed on nine of its patents. Salesforce countersued in June, alleging Microsoft willfully infringed on its intellectual property.
p
subhead
Salesforce Pays Microsoft
/subhead
p
It's rare for Microsoft to file a patent-infringement suit. The software giant has only filed four such suits in its history, though the company has been the defendant in scores of suits. It's possible that Microsoft feels threatened by Salesforce's software-as-a-service model. And it's clear that Salesforce feels threatened by Microsoft. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff called Microsoft an alley thug and a patent troll in a recent earnings call.
p
Nevertheless, the companies came to an agreement. The financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Microsoft said Salesforce is making a payment based on the strength of Microsoft's patent portfolio in the areas of operating systems, cloud services, and customer relationship management (CRM) software.
p
We are pleased to reach this agreement with Salesforce.com to put an end to the litigation between our two companies, said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of intellectual property and licensing at Microsoft. Today's agreement is an example of how companies can compete vigorously in the marketplace while respecting each other's intellectual-property rights.
p
subhead
The Cloud's IP Shootout
/subhead
p
Dana Gardner, principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions, said the Microsoft-Salesforce spat and settlement demonstrates how the cloud-computing...
Fri, 6 Aug 10
Indonesia Joins Nations Mulling BlackBerry Ban
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74598
Indonesia said Wednesday it is considering following the lead of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in banning BlackBerry services, adding to pressure on device maker Research in Motion Ltd. to give governments greater access to data.
p
Gatot Dewabroto, spokesman for the Ministry of Communication and Information, wants RIM to set up a server locally so encrypted information sent by the phones will not have to be routed through the Canadian company's overseas computers.
p
We don't know whether data being sent through BlackBerrys can be intercepted or read by third parties outside the country, he said, expressing concern that information could be used by criminals or spies.
p
The announcement came hours after Saudi Arabia said its telecom regulator had ordered mobile operators across the kingdom to halt BlackBerry services as of Friday.
p
The United Arab Emirates, too, plans to shut down e-mail, messaging and Web browsing on BlackBerrys starting in October.
p
India is in talks with RIM over how information is managed on the devices.
p
Analysts say RIM's expansion into fast-growing emerging markets is threatening to set off a wave of regulatory challenges, as the device maker's commitment to keep corporate e-mails secure rubs up against the desires of local law enforcement.
p
RIM has said discussions with the more than 175 countries where it operates are private. It does offer help to governments, but says its technology does not allow it, or any third party, to read encrypted e-mails sent by corporate BlackBerry users. (The consumer version has a lower level of security.)
p
The e-mails are, however, unencrypted on the servers of corporate clients, and can be obtained from the companies.
p
Satchit Gayakwad, an RIM spokesman in India, denied there were plans to give the government greater control over surveillance of its corporate clients.
p
We won't compromise on the security architecture of our corporate e-mails, he said. We respect...
Fri, 6 Aug 10
Germany Warns of Apple iOS Security 'Weak Points'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74596
Several versions of Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch have potentially serious security problems, a German government agency said in an official warning Wednesday.
p
Apple's iOS operating system has two critical weak points for which no patch exists, the Federal Office for Information Security said.
p
Opening a manipulated Web site or a PDF file could allow criminals to spy on passwords, planners, photos, text messages, e-mails and even listen in to phone conversations, the agency said in a statement.
p
This allows potential attackers access to the complete system, including administrator rights, it added, urging users not to open PDF files on their mobile devices and only use trustworthy Web sites until Apple Inc. publishes a software update.
p
A spokesman for Apple in Germany, Georg Albrecht, told The Associated Press that the company is looking into the matter.
p
We know these reports and are investigating them, he said, refusing to elaborate.
p
Although no attacks have been observed yet they were likely to appear soon, the German agency said.
p
It has to be expected that hackers will soon use the weak spots for attacks, it said, noting that the devices' popularity could lead to attacks within the corporate world.
p
The warning relates to iPhones using iOS versions 3.1.2-4.0.1., iPads using iOS 3.2-3.2.1 and iPods Touch using iOS 3.1.2.-4.0.
p
The agency said it was possible but not clear whether older iOS or iPhone OS versions could also be affected.
p
The federal agency, based in Bonn, said it was in contact with Apple on the issue.
Fri, 6 Aug 10
File-Sharing Becomes a No-No at Colleges
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74595
College students who download music and movies from peer-to-peer file-sharing programs such as LimeWire and KaZaA will find themselves cut off when they return to campus this fall.
p
Every college across the country must either have installed software to block illegal file-sharing or have created some other procedure for preventing it. The requirement is part of the 2008 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which took effect July 1.
p
Some schools have been working to comply with the provisions for several years.
p
Under the law, student violators face fines from $750 to $30,000 for each song or movie downloaded. If a court determines the infringement was willful, that fine can be as much as $250,000, although some judges have reduced higher fines, saying they're unreasonable. Schools' liability is limited if they cooperate with law enforcement.
p
Campus punishments vary. The University of North Carolina Web site lists expulsion as a possible consequence. Vassar College requires first-time offenders to perform 20 hours of sanctioned service and pay a $25 fine. Second-time offenders face double the service requirements, double the fines and loss of Internet access, says spokesman Jeff Kosmacher.
p
Most schools use commercial software on their networks to restrict downloads, says Gregory Jackson, vice president for policy analysis and advocacy at Educause, a non-profit that focuses on higher education and technology. Companies such as Red Lambda, based in Longwood, Fla., and Audible Magic in Los Gatos, Calif., automate a large portion of the process.
p
These products look for file-sharing programs and block them. They shut down a user's Web access for a period of time, and the user must remove the file-sharing program and any files that were downloaded before access is restored.
p
But some schools, such as UCLA, have opted to find other ways of monitoring downloads. Using commercial software would violate the University of California's privacy policy, say Steve...
Fri, 6 Aug 10
Web Site Helps You 'Jailbreak' Your iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74567
Less than a week after the US government said it was no longer illegal to hack your own phone, a new Web site launched on Monday that allows iPhone owners to jailbreak their smartphones online to circumvent restrictions put on the devices by Apple.
p
Prior to the launch of the Web site jailbreakme.com users had to download software to their computers and then connect their phones up in a complicated and time-consuming process. However, many iPhone users went through to this trouble to circumvent the tight restrictions on what software can be used on the popular devices.
p
Jailbroken phones can download any software they want, not just Apps pre-approved by Apple. Some of the most popular applications include include MyWi, which turns phones into mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, and IntelliScreen, which lets users put e-mail and calendars on their home screens.
p
The U.S. government updated its regulations last week to legalize jailbreaking, though the activity still violates Apples software license and voids the company's warranty on the phone.
p
Early reports said that some users of the site were experiencing difficulties using the videoconferencing feature called Facetime on their hacked phones. The new Web site does allow users to uninstall the software by using the restore feature available over iTunes, and this seems to fix the problem, according to online reports.
p
There was no initial reaction from Apple to the new software. But after the government changed the jailbreaking rules last week, the company justified its tight control over the phone's software.
p
Apple's goal has always been to ensure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience, Apple wrote.
Fri, 6 Aug 10
Hacker Builds $1,500 Cell-Phone Tapping Gadget
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74564
A computer security researcher has built a device for just $1,500 that can intercept some kinds of cell phone calls and record everything that's said.
p
The attack Chris Paget showed Saturday illustrates weaknesses in GSM, one of the world's most widely used cellular communications technologies.
p
His attack was benign; he showed how he could intercept a few dozen calls made by fellow hackers in the audience for his talk at the DefCon conference here. But it illustrates that criminals could do the same thing for malicious purposes, and that consumers have few options for protecting themselves.
p
Paget said he hopes his research helps spur adoption of newer communications standards that are more secure.
p
GSM is broken -- it's just plain broken, he said.
p
GSM is considered 2G, or second generation, cellular technology. Phones that run on the newer 3G and 4G standards aren't vulnerable to his attack.
p
If you're using an iPhone or other smart phone and the screen shows that your call is going over a 3G network, for example, you are protected. BlackBerry phones apply encryption to calls that foil the attack, Paget pointed out. But if you're using a type of phone that doesn't specify which type of network it uses, those phones are often vulnerable, Paget said.
p
Paget's device tricks nearby cell phones into believing it is a legitimate cell phone tower and routing their calls through it. Paget uses Internet-based calling technology to complete the calls and log everything that's said.
p
A caveat is that recipients see numbers on their Caller IDs that are different than the cell numbers of the people calling them. Paget claims it would be easy to upgrade the software to also include the callers' real numbers.
p
The device he built is called an IMSI catcher, which refers to the unique International Mobile Subscriber Identity numbers that phones use to...
Fri, 6 Aug 10
HP Reaches Settlement with DOJ in Kickbacks Case
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74559
Hewlett-Packard Co. said Monday that it has agreed in principle to settle a lawsuit by the Department of Justice, which alleged that HP and other technology companies paid kickbacks to Accenture PLC in exchange for recommendations for government work.
p
HP denied engaging in any illegal conduct. It said the deal will lower its fiscal third-quarter profit by 2 cents per share. That's about $50 million given that it has 2.33 billion shares outstanding.
p
We believe it is in the best interest of our stakeholders to resolve the matter and move beyond this issue, HP said in a statement.
p
A Justice spokesman declined to comment.
p
The settlement still needs to be approved by the Justice Department, an Arkansas district court where the original lawsuit was filed, and government agencies.
p
The government joined whistleblower lawsuits against HP, Accenture and Sun Microsystems Inc. in 2007 over the arrangements, alleging violations of the False Claims Act. The companies had alliance relationships in which they agreed to work together, but the agreements resulted in what amounted to kickbacks in securing government contracts, it said at the time.
p
Microsoft Corp. was named a whistleblower lawsuit but the government declined to join the lawsuit and the case was dismissed.
p
Last week, the Justice Department said it was joining a fraud lawsuit against Oracle Corp. related to software contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
p
The agency said Oracle failed to offer government customers the same discounts on its software that it offered commercial customers. As a result, the lawsuit alleges, Oracle overcharged the government on a contract that ran from 1998 to 2006.
p
HP shares rose 10 cents to $47.66 in after-hours trading. The stock finished regular trading up $1.52, or 3.3 percent, at $47.56.
Thu, 5 Aug 10
Intel Agrees To Reform Sales Practices in FTC Settlement
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74611
Intel and the Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday a tentative settlement of an antitrust action filed last December alleging anticompetitive practices by the world's number-one microprocessor manufacturer. The settlement is subject to a 30-day public comment period as well as final FTC approval.
FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said he expects the provisions to which Intel has agreed will open the door to renewed competition and prevent the chipmaking giant from suppressing competition in the future.
"This case demonstrates that the FTC is willing to challenge anticompetitive conduct by even the most powerful companies in the fastest-moving industries," Leibowitz said. "Everyone, including Intel, gets a greater degree of certainty about the rules of the road going forward, which allows all the companies in this dynamic industry to move ahead and build better, more innovative products."
The FTC's settlement is expected to result in major changes to the ways that Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel sells and promotes its CPUs, graphics processors, and chipsets. Among other things, Intel is prohibited from offering material benefits to computer makers in exchange for their promise to buy Intel chips on an exclusive basis.
Moreover, the impact of the settlement won't be restricted to a single competitor, as was Intel's $1.25 billion antitrust deal in November 2009 with rival Advanced Micro Devices. Before their settlement, AMD had accused Intel of using billions of dollars in "rebates" to coerce PC makers Dell and Hewlett-Packard into excluding AMD chips in their desktop and laptop products.
Other alleged Intel practices -- such as bundling prices or deceiving OEMs about the performance of rival processors, chips and chipsets -- are likewise prohibited under the FTC settlement. In May 2009, the European Commission slapped Intel with a record $1.45 billion fine and restricted its use of microprocessor rebates and other...
Thu, 5 Aug 10
Android Use Continues Growing as RIM Declines
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74610
Continued good news for Google's ascendant Android operating system is bad news for Research In Motion, as the Canadian smartphone leader lost some market share for the first time in nearly three years, a study suggests.
NPD Group's analysis of the second quarter of 2010 found that Android took the lead among operating systems in handsets sold in the U.S., with 33 percent of the market, compared with RIM's 28 percent and the Apple iPhone's 22 percent.
The survey came just a day after a Nielsen Company survey found that the launch of the Android-based Motorola Droid on Verizon Wireless at the end of last year bumped Android use from four percent of the market in the fourth quarter of 2009 to nine percent in the first quarter and 13 percent in the second quarter. During the same period, RIM fell from 38 to 35 percent and Apple gained only slightly, from 27 to 28 percent, the company said.
Among people who bought phones in the past six months reached by the Nielsen survey, Android's share shot up to 27 percent from 17 percent while RIM fell from 36 to 33 percent and Apple dropped from 27 to 23 percent.
Those figures are all before Apple pulled off the most successful smartphone launch ever with the iPhone 4 in June, which would explain why many Apple users might have been holding off buying a new device until then.
Still, Android's momentum is unmistakable.
"Android is definitely on a roll, though it must be noted that comparing RIM to Google is only part of the story," said consumer-devices analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis. He noted that Android devices are increasingly available on a wide range of devices and on multiple carriers.
"It is not too surprising that a popular OS used by...
Thu, 5 Aug 10
Vonage Offers Free Mobile Calls for Facebook Friends
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74609
Vonage is getting into the mobile-apps game with a social-media twist, combining two of the tech industry's hottest trends with a new service for Facebook. The Vonage Mobile application lets users make free mobile calls to Facebook friends who also have the app.
After bragging about the app as a tangible example of the company's commitment to deliver more value to its global customer base, Vonage CEO Marc Lefar promised it's only the beginning. "In the future we will expand on this service to include a wide range of integrated voice and messaging services that change the way people communicate," he said.
Vonage is working to one-up Skype, which has Voice over Internet Protocol apps that work with Verizon Wireless. Like Vonage, Skype offers free calls and IM. But Skype is limited to Verizon and Symbian phones.
The Vonage app also works with Android devices on Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile. And Vonage now has something no other mobile VoIP provider offers, at least not yet -- the Facebook connection.
As Yankee Group Director Carl Howe sees it, Vonage's move to integrate its mobile app with Facebook is interesting for a few reasons.
"You don't have to load up your contact list. Your contact list is already there. It clearly has a bit of a viral component. The more people who use the applications, the more invitations will go out," Howe said. "This is an area where you are going to see a lot of companies jockeying for position, trying to become the mobile-voice app on the smartphone."
Vonage customers can download the mobile app from the iTunes Store, Android Market, or the Vonage Facebook fan page. The software is free. Then users enter their Facebook ID and password. This only has to be done once.
The software automatically loads the user's...
Thu, 5 Aug 10
Leaked T-Mobile Glacier Specs Hint at Super Speed
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74608
A new Android-based phone from HTC for T-Mobile is creating a buzz, thanks to details leaking like a glacier on a warming planet. The phone, called the Glacier, has performance levels three times the HTC EVO 4G, 67 percent faster than the Motorola Droid X, and 41 percent faster than Apple's iPhone 4.
A key piece of evidence was found among the test results posted on GLBenchmark.com, which enables CPU-testing speeds for Android-based devices. According to AlienBabeltech.com and other sites, the benchmarks for the Glacier were posted by Mike Bibik, a Seattle-based employee at T-Mobile. Some observers have noted that all his postings, under the user name of mbibik, were for T-Mobile devices, including the Nexus One and myTouch Slide.
The testing results have been taken down. In addition to speed, they noted a 800x480-pixel screen. There's also speculation on the web that the Glacier's impressive specs make it a likely candidate to be part of T-Mobile's rumored Project Emerald to deliver a device with a dual-core CPU running Google's open-source Android operating system.
Some industry observers speculate that the new device's CPU will be a 1.2- to 1.5-GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, the first of its kind. One of the few competitors to the Glacier's blazing test results is Samsung's Galaxy S, which is also known as the T-Mobile Vibrant. Motorola has already announced it will release a two-GHz Android phone by the holiday season this year, although that device maker's CPUs for the higher end tend to be Texas Instruments ARM processors.
There is speculation that the Glacier could be a new name for the HTC Vanguard, which has also been known as the G1 Blaze and Vision.
Android's presence has been growing by leaps and bounds. Audience tracker Nielsen, for instance, has said the open-source operating system has a...
Thu, 5 Aug 10
Motorola and Verizon Plan Cable-TV-Watching Tablet
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74607
In the wake of the huge success of Apple's iPad, Motorola and Verizon are working on a tablet that could change how television is watched. The device, based on Google's open-source Android operating system, will allow users to watch cable TV on its 10-inch screen and could be available in the U.S. as early as this fall.
According to a report in Tuesday's Financial Times attributed to "people briefed on the plans," the tablet is intended to work with Verizon's lightning-fast FiOS fiber optic-based cable and Internet system. Motorola makes the set-top boxes for FiOS.
The companies intend to hit the iPad right in its vulnerabilities. One of those is the iPad's integration with cable TV.
Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group, noted that it's been "difficult for Apple to break into the cable infrastructure," which could allow the groundbreaking iPad to add cable TV as one of is programming streams along with music, e-books and apps.
Apple has run into problems working out deals with leading television-programming sources. Instead, he noted, Apple has had to do an "end run" around cable TV in the home through downloadable TV episodes.
The Motorola-Verizon tablet, Rubin said, could provide a "value-added" component to Verizon's marketing mix, but he doubts it would be replicated any time soon by other cable companies because of the existing infrastructure.
Another perceived iPad vulnerability is Adobe Flash, which is widely used across the web and is growing in its presence on mobile devices. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has steadfastly refused to allow Flash on the iPad, and the company has been pushing open-source HTML5 instead. This has been a boost for HTML5, but has left many software developers unhappy, since they're already created and want to use Flash...
Thu, 5 Aug 10
Gmail Users Can Now Sign In To Multiple Accounts
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74591
If you have more than one Gmail account, you may be growing weary of signing out of one to sign into another. Google has fixed that annoying issue with a new feature that lets you sign into multiple Google accounts from the same browser.
Google started testing the feature in July, and it officially rolled out on Tuesday. Multiple sign-in works for Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Reader, Google Sites, Google Voice, App Engine, and Google Code.
Google's main motivation may be driving business-user adoption of Google Apps. What does this mean for Google users? Multiple sign-in lets you open Gmail in multiple tabs, log in using different accounts, and read the messages from all your accounts without opening another browser.
"This allows various Google products to be used for different purposes. For example, it adds convenience and, to some degree, improved security if I use Gmail or Google Calendar for personal and business purposes," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.
"Those can now can be managed by the multiple sign-in option on the same browser. I don't have to use multiple browser windows or keep signing in and out of Google to access different accounts for different purposes."
Google users need to opt in to begin using the multiple sign-in service on the Google accounts page. In the personal-settings area, users will see an option for "Multiple sign-in" that is set to Off by default. Users can activate the new feature by clicking on the Change link. Once enabled, a drop-down menu appears next to the e-mail address at the top of the page so users can switch to a new account quickly.
"If you use multiple sign-in, the first account you sign in to will be your default account," Google explains in its Help Center. "If...
Thu, 5 Aug 10
Google's Privacy Lawsuit Location Pondered
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74582
A panel of federal judges is deciding where to consolidate several lawsuits against Google Inc. that allege the company violated wiretapping laws.
At least nine lawsuits seeking class-action status have been filed in the United States so far contending that Google collected fragments of e-mails, Web surfing data and other online information from unencrypted wireless networks as it photographed neighborhoods for its "Street View" Google Maps feature. Google is also facing investigations or inquiries in 38 states as well as in several countries, including Germany, Spain and Australia.
The Mountain View, California, company said in May it inadvertently collected the data from public Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries, but it maintains it never used the data and it hasn't broken any laws.
Google attorney David Burman asked the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to consolidate the cases on Google's home turf in the Northern District of California. Some of the plaintiffs suing Google are pushing for the same location, Burman told the judges, and the majority of witnesses are likely to be from the region.
But Robert Curtis, an attorney who filed one of the first cases against Google on behalf of Hamilton County, Ohio, resident Matthew Burlage, pointed out that other plaintiffs could come from anywhere in the United States.
"In the allegations of the complaint, the Google Street View cars drove down almost every street in America, so it could be in the tens of millions of people," Curtis said. "Everybody who had a wireless or Internet connection accessible at the street level."
Still, Curtis said his clients supported consolidating the cases in the Northern California as well. Other possibilities sought by some plaintiffs include Washington, D.C., and Massachusetts.
The judges didn't indicate when they would make a decision.
Some of the lawsuits are filed by people who say they saw Google's Street...
Thu, 5 Aug 10
iSuppli: HTC's Droid Incredible Costs $163 To Make
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74580
The Droid Incredible, a smartphone manufactured by HTC Corp., has materials that cost $163.35, according to a teardown analysis of the phone conducted by iSuppli Corp.
The Incredible, which has been available for sale online from Verizon Wireless, is expected to make its debut at Verizon stores on Aug. 3 for $199 with a contract. It runs Google's Android operating system.
The iSuppli analysis released July 29 found that internally the Incredible is similar to a prior Android phone, the Nexus One, which Taiwan-based HTC built for Google. Google stopped selling the Nexus One on July 21. "There are so many commonalities between the Incredible and the Nexus One, and some of the other Android phones we're looking at, it's pretty clear the manufacturers are following some of the same basic design guidelines," says iSuppli analyst Andrew Rassweiler, who supervised the teardown.
For example, both use the same Qualcomm Snapdragon wireless chip in combination with the same touchscreen controller chip from Atmel, a San Jose-based chipmaker. "What we think is that there's a reference design, which is like a basic recipe, suggesting that if you use this chip in combination with another chip, you end up with a cool smartphone," Rassweiler says.
One key difference between the Nexus One and the Incredible is that the newer phone runs on Verizon's wireless network, which is different from that of T-Mobile USA, which carried the Nexus One. Qualcomm is the leading supplier of chips for phones that work on the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) standard Verizon uses for its network. At $31.40, Qualcomm's Snapdragon chip is the most expensive component inside the Incredible, Rassweiler says. Aside from the network difference, the phones are so similar that the Incredible might have easily been dubbed the "Nexus Two," Rassweiler says. A Qualcomm spokeswoman did not return...
Thu, 5 Aug 10
Banks Urge Customers To Help Stop Cyberattacks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74578
For generations, U.S. consumers have relied on banks to bear the primary responsibility for keeping their hard-earned cash deposits out of the hands of thieves. Now, banks want consumers to share the load.
About 80 percent of U.S. households have come to do their banking over the Internet, banking consultancy Novantas says. Many consumers believe online banking is every bit as safe as branch banking. But that's clearly not the case, banking and tech security specialists say.
Cyberattacks against individual online accounts have become so sophisticated and pervasive that the American Bankers Association (ABA) is now asking consumers to "partner" with banks to keep cyberrobbers in check.
The banking industry wants consumers to monitor their online accounts for unauthorized transactions on a "continuous, almost daily, basis," says Doug Johnson, the ABA's vice president of risk-management policy. That's because PCs and smartphones have become "the online bank branch for a lot of individuals," he says. "The customer needs to really recognize that security is most effective when they work in partnership with their financial institution."
This shifting burden has come about because of developments that the banking industry did not anticipate a decade ago, when it began promoting personal computers as convenient venues for consumer banking. Ambitious online attacks soon followed. Banks have spent heavily to shore up cyberdefenses, and they've kept a policy of reimbursing individual online account holders who can verify that they've been ripped off, Johnson says.
Even so, cyberrobbery has evolved into a multifaceted, multibillion-dollar global industry that shows little sign of cooling. Last year, the number of malicious software programs designed to pilfer online bank accounts -- referred to as banking Trojans -- rose to 65,098 in December, up from 4,295 at the start of 2009, according to Panda Security, a Madrid-based anti-virus software supplier.
Writers of malicious software code are prolific,...
Thu, 5 Aug 10
Web Sites Crank Up Customer-Data Tracking Tools
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74577
Major U.S. Web sites are increasing the number of so-called tracking tools that collect personal details on behalf of marketers, the Wall Street Journal said.
The newspaper said some sites will be capable of planting more than 100 such tools at a time on the computers of visitors that allow real-time surveillance of their activities and generate detailed databases of consumer preferences.
The Journal said its investigation focused on 50 Web sites accounting for about 40 percent of U.S. page visits.
A dozen sites, including Comcast.net and MSN.com, installed more than 100 such tracking files on test computers. Google and similar sites also use a plethora of tracking files to develop targeted advertising.
Some of the trackers seek data on personal income and health-related searches and do not offer users an opportunity to opt out, the report said.
The advertising industry was unapologetic, saying better ads were vital to the Web sites' finances.
"We are delivering free content to consumers," said Mike Zaneis, vice president of public policy for the Interactive Advertising Bureau. "Sometimes it means that we get involved in a very complex ecosystem with lots of third parties."
Thu, 5 Aug 10
WikiLeaks Case Spotlights Hacker Culture
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74575
It's hardly the first time Boston-area hackers have been in the headlines.
But it's potentially the most serious.
The strong technology industry and universities here foster people with the right blend of technical expertise, audacity, and subversiveness to help feed a thriving and longstanding hacker community. In the 1990s, a group called L0pht Heavy Industries (pronounced loft) became well-known for publishing security flaws in computer software, eventually testifying before Congress that it could take the Internet down in a half-hour; more recently, a group of MIT students earned notoriety for finding a way to hack the MBTA's CharlieCard.
But now that a recent MIT graduate has acknowledged trading multiple e-mails with the Army private who stands accused of giving the whistleblower Web site, WikiLeaks, thousands of pages of classified war records, the hacker community is in the spotlight.
Hackers are not one kind of person: some take apart hardware, like teens who used to dismantle car engines.
Others try to find vulnerabilities in networks and software, burrowing through firewalls and other security features -- often with the goal of exposing flaws so they can be fixed. At the extremes are those who are outright computer criminals, pirating company or government secrets or victims' identities.
But a common thread is the idea that constraints and limits imposed on a system can be surmounted: "Information wants to be free" is their rallying cry.
As the mantra suggests, many hackers view their probing of computer systems as a social good -- disclosing flaws in computer security, for example, so that millions of people who may be at risk can better protect themselves.
But the law often has a less generous interpretation of their actions.
"I think there's definitely some ambiguity around how far you can really go to make information free without violating the law," said Zach Lanier, a hacker who lives...
Thu, 5 Aug 10
Antivirus Software: Do You Really Need It?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74570
Do you wish you could do without antivirus software? There are certainly plenty of good reasons not to like it. After all, antivirus programs invariably slow down your computer, annoy you with false positives or status pop-ups, and of course most of them cost money -- often on a recurring, yearly basis. But can you just say no to antivirus software and still stay safe? The short answer is "yes" -- if you adopt some security-savvy computing practices.
If you only use commercial software and never install programs you've downloaded from the Internet or copied from a friend, then your main sources of concern for contracting a computer virus will come from web sites and e-mail. Common sense -- and following the guidelines below -- will protect you the rest of the way.
On the other hand, if you're addicted to free downloads, shareware, and "warez" sites that purport to offer commercial software at no cost, then you have no viable option. You must install antivirus software -- and perhaps even use a couple of programs -- to make sure you don't fall victim to malicious software or phishing attacks.
Most people, however, run just the few programs that came with their PCs and don't venture into dangerous territory on the web. For them, the guidelines below will provide adequate protection.
Today's browsers have a lot of security controls built in, and these tend to do a fine job of preventing phishing attacks or the automatic downloading of potentially malicious software. Antivirus tools add little to their already robust protections.
So if you want to be free of antivirus software, be sure to use to latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Chrome, and keep those browsers up to date through your operating system's automatic update feature. Also, do not disable or...
Thu, 5 Aug 10
UAE To Ban BlackBerry Services, Saudi Follows Suit
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74563
The United Arab Emirates outlined plans Sunday to block BlackBerry e-mail, messaging and Web browsing services in a crackdown that could jeopardize efforts to establish the country as an international business hub.
The government cited a potential security threat because encrypted data sent on the devices is moved abroad, where it cannot be monitored for illegal activity. But the decision -- quickly followed by a similar move in Saudi Arabia -- raises questions about whether the conservative Gulf nations are trying to further control content they deem politically or morally objectionable.
BlackBerry phones have a strong following in the region, not only among foreign professionals in commercial centers such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but also among youth who see their relatively secure communication channels as a way to avoid unwanted government attention.
"The authorities have used a variety of arguments, like it can be used by terrorists" to justify the crackdown, said Christopher Davidson, a professor at the University of Durham in Britain, who has written extensively about the region. "Yes that's true, but it can also be used by civil society campaigners and activists."
The UAE's decision will prevent hundreds of thousands of BlackBerry users from accessing e-mail and the Web on their handsets starting in October. It's unclear whether the ban will extend to foreign visitors with roaming services, including the roughly 100,000 passengers who pass through the region's busiest airport in Dubai each day.
The ban risks further damaging the UAE's reputation as a relatively easy place to do business.
Dubai, one of seven hereditary sheikdoms in the federation, in particular has sought to turn itself into a global finance, trade and tourism hub. But its reputation has been tarnished by a credit crisis that has left the emirate more than $100 billion in debt.
Residents say the BlackBerry crackdown will only do...
Wed, 4 Aug 10
Amazon Temporarily Sells Out Newest Kindle E-Readers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74587
Amazon.com says it's temporarily sold out of the new 3G and Wi-Fi-only models of the online retailer's new Kindle e-readers, which were announced just last week. Though the Kindle has been Amazon's best-selling item for two years running, the company wasn't prepared for the flood of orders for the new devices priced at $189 and $139.
Orders placed Tuesday are expected to ship on or before Sept. 4, with pre-orders coming in thereafter "prioritized on a first-come, first-served basis," the company said on its web site. Amazon had previously announced a shipping date of Aug. 27 for the new e-readers.
Right now the Kindle is "killer affordable," noted Forrester Research Vice President James McQuivey. "The price cuts are proof that Amazon intends to own the e-book business by dominating the e-reader business," he said, and "we see no evidence that its strategy won't work."
Moreover, McQuivey believes Amazon has little to fear from Apple's red-hot iPad, which also reads e-books -- at least in the short run. "We're so confident of the long ramp Amazon still has ahead of it that our latest e-reader forecast shows that for at least the next year, e-readers of all flavors will outnumber iPads in the U.S.," he wrote in a blog last month.
A new Forrester survey indicates that more people want to buy an e-reader of any kind than want to buy an iPad this year, though the iPad has more likely buyers than any single e-reader. By 2012, however, Forrester forecasts tablet PCs will start to outnumber dedicated e-readers. "By 2015, we see the e-reader market starting to cap at just under 30 million U.S. adults," with nearly all of them "people who read 2+ books a month," McQuivey explained.
He disputed recent media reports about Barnes & Noble and Apple each...
Wed, 4 Aug 10
Private Contractor Will Build Wireless for NYC Subway
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74586
The nation's largest mass transit system moved one step closer to accommodating cell-phone and Wi-Fi usage for its estimated five million daily riders this week as New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) approved the plans of a private company to set up digital access on its subway system.
But passengers won't be using iPhones on the A train anytime soon. The New York plan will take about two years to outfit the first six stations on Manhattan's east side, and another four years to expand to 277 underground stations at a rate of 10 to 15 per month. The subway has 242 miles of routes and 468 stations, including those aboveground.
The vendor is Transit Wireless, a partnership between Dianet Communications, based in Manhattan and Cranbury, N.J.; Nab Construction of College Point, N.Y.; and Q Wireless of Manhattan. The company was formed in 2007 specifically in response to the MTA's request for proposals to design, market, install and operate a system serving the underground stations in New York's five boroughs. The final plan was made possible by funding from Broadcast Australia, which oversaw the wireless system in Hong Kong.
The New York system will ultimately extend service from stations to tunnels, meaning rush-hour riders who are annoyed by delays, crowding, panhandling and unintelligible announcements will soon add gabby fellow passengers to their list of gripes.
The reported cost of the project is $200 million, plus a $46 million fee to the cash-strapped MTA over 10 years.
Several foreign subway systems, including those in Berlin, Paris, Singapore and Hong Kong, have cell or Wi-Fi service or both, but in the U.S., only Washington, D.C.'s Metro system is as close as New York. A February 2009 agreement there will allow the nation's four leading carriers -- Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, AT&T and T-Mobile -- to...
Wed, 4 Aug 10
RIM Launches Torch 9800 with New BlackBerry 6 OS
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74585
Research In Motion on Tuesday introduced the BlackBerry Torch 9800 smartphone on the AT&T network. RIM is blending consumer and business features in the device, which has both a keyboard and a touchscreen.
The importance of Tuesday's launch to RIM should not be underestimated. In fact, Mike Lazaridis, RIM president and co-CEO, called it one of the most significant launches in RIM's history.
Part of what makes the Torch such a significant release is the new operating system. The BlackBerry 6 OS offers a familiar feel and many of the same features that made the BlackBerry popular, but also offers what RIM calls a fresh experience.
The question is, will it be enough to ward off customer migration to Apple's iPhone? According to a report from Nielsen, BlackBerry has a loyalty rate of 42 percent, and 29 percent of BlackBerry owners are considering a move to Apple.
"We are going to end up seeing a fragmented market, somewhat based on what enterprises force," said Michael Disabato, managing vice president of network and telecom at Gartner. "If enterprises don't get the kind of management capabilities on the iPhone that they want, they will keep people on BlackBerrys, which are admittedly the gold standard."
A new operating system alone isn't enough to battle Apple and Android-based smartphones. On the consumer side, Disabato said RIM is going to have to play catch-up with Apple and Android to come up with some "neat touchscreens to make the devices look like an Apple and an Android" and stock applications that are equivalent to what's available for competing devices.
Set to compete with Apple's iOS 4, the BlackBerry 6 platform interface is a complete redesign with expanded messaging capabilities and features that aim to make it easier for users to manage social networking and RSS...
Wed, 4 Aug 10
Smartphone Battle Is Between Android and Apple
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74550
Watch out Apple, Android isn't just nipping at your heels -- it's overtaking you. At least that's what the latest figures from The Nielsen Company show.
Nielsen reports that multipurpose smartphones that let users surf the web, read e-mail, run apps, and share text and picture messages make up 25 percent of the U.S. mobile market. That's up from 23 percent in the last quarter.
Call it the year of the smartphone, with Nielsen predicting smartphones will finally overtake feature phones in the U.S. by the end of 2011.
But will Apple, Android or Research In Motion lead the charge? What about Nokia, Microsoft and even Palm, which is now owned by Hewlett-Packard? Nokia still leads the smartphone market with a 38 percent market share, according to Canalys, and RIM's BlackBerry smartphones grew 41 percent in the second quarter. But the real battle for dominance seems to be brewing between Android and Apple.
The iPhone continues to generate waves of interest worldwide, even with controversy swirling around the antenna on the iPhone 4. But Google's Android operating system is rapidly expanding its market share.
In fact, Nielsen reports, Android's meteoric rise has intensified in the last six months. Android moved past Apple's iOS in the last quarter with 27 percent of the market.
"The Nielsen research is a data point and a moment in time," said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group. "It doesn't factor in iPhone 4 sales and, of course, you have to consider that the iPhone in the U.S. is only available on one carrier. There are multiple Android devices on multiple carriers, and that tends to create some degree of imbalance."
For all the momentum Android is building, though, it seems Apple still has an edge. According to Nielsen, iPhone users are loyal to the device. Ninety percent...
Wed, 4 Aug 10
OfferEx Takes on Groupon with Daily-Deal Exchange
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74549
At a time when Groupon daily-deal clones are fast becoming a dime a dozen, a company called DealOn Media unveiled a deal-buying exchange that could level the playing field for publishers and open new revenue streams for deal providers.
Dubbed OfferEx.com, DealOn on Tuesday released a private beta of the platform. If you're thinking DoubleClick for daily deals, you aren't too far off. OfferEx is built on proprietary technology owned by AdBlade, an ad network that displays ads across a network of more than 1,100 top news and information sites.
The powerful online exchange connects discounted voucher offers with qualified resellers in the billion-dollar daily-deal and group-buying marketplace.
"OfferEx distribution partners can immediately leverage the revenue potential around the billion-dollar daily-deal and group-buying space without the substantial effort and expense of building out a large sales force to secure merchant and business offers," said Rich Razgaitis, CEO of DealOn Media. "Groupon made daily-deal sites popular, but OfferEx will make daily-deal sites mainstream."
Local merchants like restaurants and spas love the daily-deal model, as it is inherently much less risky than buying traditional advertising. Traditional advertising requires local merchants to invest heavily up front without any guarantee of results. The daily-deal model is less risky and puts a little more pressure on the deal provider to perform. Between merchants loving the model and customers loving the savings, the daily-deal craze seems like an instant classic.
Although a handful of daily-deal incumbents dominate the industry today, there's still room for competition -- and there's plenty of it. Even Yelp and Twitter are getting into the daily-deals space. With OfferEx, deal suppliers and publishers can jump into the lucrative fray and claim their share of dollars in a growing industry. Indeed, OfferEx is introducing homogeneous technology that sets the stage for a daily-deal showdown.
For...
Wed, 4 Aug 10
With Stigma Gone, Online Dating Sites Bloom
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74509
Jay and Christina Lorance first met in an MSN chat room in May 1996, when the Internet, or even the idea of communicating electronically with a stranger, was an unfamiliar concept to many Americans.
Their online interaction led to four months of telephone calls and snail-mail letters, culminating in a face-to-face meeting in Colorado. Jay showed up with a ring. One year and four months later, they were married.
"We shocked a lot of people," said Christina Lorance, 41. "I'm from New York and he's from Oklahoma, so the first question everyone had was, 'How did you meet?' ... When we said the Internet, their eyes would bug out. They didn't even think it was true."
Digital culture has changed drastically since the Lorances' first virtual meeting. Online dating is now an accepted and commonplace way to meet someone, having largely shed its stigma as an option for only socially stunted nerds. Match.com, one of the leading Web sites, celebrated its 15th anniversary in April.
While advanced technology can't guarantee in-person chemistry, that hasn't stopped dozens of new offerings from touting their matchmaking algorithms or catering to a demographic niche.
Michelle Teplitz, a 29-year-old Connecticut native, was drawn to JDate.com, a site geared toward Jewish singles, because she wanted to meet someone with similar values.
"It weeds out the people you wouldn't want to talk to in a bar," said Teplitz, who met her husband of three years on JDate. "You know when you're on this site, (you're meeting) people who, for the most part, are interested in meeting someone they want to spend their life with."
Online dating has grown into big business. Match.com is part of IAC/Interactive Corp. and recently became the exclusive dating service on Yahoo, while eHarmony has acquired other Web properties related to weddings and parenting, including Weddingbee and JustMommies. Web-based dating...
Wed, 4 Aug 10
Continental Tests 'Self-Boarding' Technology
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74491
Boarding a plane without an agent to inspect or take your pass has arrived in the USA.
Continental Airlines has confirmed it's testing the procedure at a gate in its hub at Houston Intercontinental. It's the first experiment at what's called "self-boarding" in the U.S.
In self-boarding, passengers -- much like customers of the New York City subway -- swipe their boarding passes at a kiosk reader at the gate. That opens a turnstile or door to the jet-bridge. Although an agent isn't there to take the pass, one is typically present to handle other customer service tasks.
Continental declined to provide further details on its experiment. The Transportation Security Administration says self-boarding doesn't jeopardize security because all passengers are screened before they get to departure gates.
Self-boarding is the latest in a series of new technology steps airlines are taking to automate getting on a flight. Among others: check-in kiosks that print out boarding passes and boarding pass bar codes e-mailed to smartphones.
Self-boarding has been common at foreign airports for several years. If the rate of adoption abroad is any indication, it could proliferate here.
Last year, 14 airlines worldwide were using self-boarding gates, including Air France, Korean Air, Japan Airlines and Air New Zealand, according to the International Air Transport Association. The airline trade group has been pushing members to embrace the practice and develop standard technology. German airline Lufthansa started using its "quick boarding gates" in 2003. All its gates at Frankfurt and Munich are now automated.
To do this, airlines need to use boarding passes with so-called two-dimensional bar codes, which contain more traveler information than magnetic strips or traditional bar codes, IATA spokesman Steve Lott says. Airlines have agreed to phase out magnetic strips by the end of the year.
Lufthansa spokesman Martin Riecken says that while loading customers at self-boarding gates...
Wed, 4 Aug 10
Offline Tools Keep the Internet in Your Grasp
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74489
Almost all of the information you need is online today. The only trouble is that you're not always connected to the Internet. So how can you take the Internet's information with you to enjoy while you're not connected? Offline tools are the answer. Read on to learn about a few.
Q: How can I download an entire web site to read offline in an airplane?
A: There are a number of programs that will download web sites and store them on your local drive so that you can view them offline. These tools are a great way to save content, too, that you don't want to see lost as web pages get updated.
Backstreet Browser (http://www.spadixbd.com/backstreet) is among the best of the offline web site downloaders and readers. Install this free utility, click the New button on its toolbar, and specify the web site you'd like to download. Pay special attention to the "Maximal link depth" setting, which controls how many levels deep into the web site your download will go. The deeper into the site you go, the longer it will take to download and the more disk space will be required to store the site's files. You'll also find settings to control whether to update the web site when you're reconnected to the web and where to store the files locally. Once you've set the utility up, just click the Start button and sit back and wait as the tool copies the site's files to your drive.
Other free tools that do essentially the same thing as Backstreet Browser include PageNest (http://pagenest.com) and HTTrack (http://www.httrack.com). You might want to try all three to see which you like best.
The power of a site downloader or offline browser is impressive when you consider the growing number of free e-books available today. Point your site...
Wed, 4 Aug 10
Make Hot Spots Out of Your Computer or Smartphone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74479
If you find yourself without a WLAN router for wireless Internet access, you can turn your computer or smartphone into a hotspot with a few simple steps.
To do so, you'll need a Windows 7-ready PC, a Mac with Internet access, or a mobile phone that can support UMTS or WLAN.
To turn a PC or notebook into a hotspot, one needs to use the Windows 7 Virtual WiFi function.
The first step is to activate the function. Provided one is logged on as an administrator, one can use the cmd.exe function to open the Windows command prompt. Input this command: netsh wlan set hostednetwork modeallow ssid"SSID" key"Password" keyUsagepersistent.
Where it says the letters "SSID," one can input a name for the wireless network. And one should not type the word "password" but an actual, secure password one has chosen to keep out interlopers.
If that's too technical, one can also opt to use Connectify software. Whichever option is chosen, one can use wireless-enabled machines to access the computer's landline Internet connection. Those portable devices will recognize the WLAN signal and request the password chosen during the setup operation.
Problems can develop when using a notebook if its WLAN card driver does not support Virtual WiFi.
Mac users can turn their computers into a hotspot by accessing System Preferences and then Sharing. Once there, choose Internet Sharing and then the Internet connection of the active UMTS surfstick and the Mac Airport connection. The WLAN name and the network code have to be entered under Airport options.
Smartphones can also be used to build WLAN networks. Palm Pre's even include Mobile Hotspot software since the release of the Web OS version 1.4.0. Android-based mobiles need to access the Anetshare program. The Joikuspot app gives Symbian mobile phones WLAN router capabilities.
Wed, 4 Aug 10
Review: Infocast Web Media Display Not So Talented
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74339
If you like the idea of a digital photo frame but are concerned about shelling out nearly $100 or more for the gadget equivalent of a one-trick pony, the Insignia Infocast may sound intriguing.
The touch-screen-enabled, Internet-connected device can play music and show news and e-mails, besides displaying photos and video.
Sadly, while the Infocast is a decent digital photo frame and Internet radio player, it needs a lot of work before this $170 device can claim a featured spot in my living room.
My biggest problem with it is the display -- an adequate 8 inches diagonally, but not all that sharp or touch-sensitive. Good-quality photos looked fine on it, but they didn't look great. Videos shot on my iPod Nano or viewed through a YouTube application looked fair to dismal.
Beyond that, I often had to practically stab the screen with my finger to perform such tasks as opening applications or viewing e-mails. It seemed particularly bad when I was using the Infocast's on-screen keyboard. I often found myself pressing the screen multiple times before anything happened. That got old quickly.
Made by Insignia, a brand sold by consumer electronics chain Best Buy Co., the Infocast uses technology from Chumby Industries, which makes the similarly versatile (and cuter) Chumby devices.
The Infocast comes with one "channel" (think of it as a folder) pre-loaded with apps such as a YouTube video player and ESPN News. To make it really useful and personalized, you'll want to create your own channels and drag apps into them -- all free -- from an App Catalog you can access on the device.
I started out by adding "fun stuff," "news" and "social" channels and filling them with apps.
I got chummy with ChumbySpy, which flits among different surveillance cameras around the world. It showed me important scenes such as pigs bumbling...
Wed, 4 Aug 10
Internet 'Super Reviewers' Reap Offline Rewards
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74305
Damien Smith leans in to hug Mairead Kelly. They have never met, but he has read her reviews dozens of times. "I can finally put a face to the person. She's a great writer," Smith said, sampling some squid ink risotto and moving between groups of smiling online friends.
We are at a party for "elite" reviewers for Yelp, a Web site where the public reviews bars, restaurants, laundries, car mechanics and just about every service imaginable. On mass review sites like Yelp, Amazon and Epinion, "super reviewers" get extra recognition for the hundreds of reviews they post. (Sixteen of the partygoers later review the Yelp event, several finding the finger food below par.)
Yelpers who write frequently and succinctly are given elite status by a Yelp review board, while high profile Amazonians have hundreds of listed "fans" waiting for their next reviews.
A cynic might see that as free labor for the corporations that make big bucks from their reviews. But that is not how the dozens of elite Yelpers see it. Damien, like others here, speaks of his Yelp profile the way a starlet might speak of a planned Hollywood career: "With perseverance and a tenacious attitude and writing reviews and building a name for yourself, you establish your own following," he said.
Many of the Yelpers recall "building a name" before they reached the much-coveted elite status, which allows them to come to Yelp parties and mingle with other elite members.
Danny Chonde is studying for a doctorate in medical physics at Harvard University and sees Yelp as a form of public expression.
"It's a creative outlet," he says before a fellow Yelper leans in for a hug. "Hey lady, how's it going?"
She asks if his friend Krystale got him into the event. "Yeah, she did, but at the last minute, they also...
Wed, 4 Aug 10
Moms Form Parenthood Bonds Online
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73970
It takes a village to raise children, and Sarah Carzoli's is a big one. It stretches from her home in Crystal Lake, Ill., to Australia, Paris, London, Canada, Israel and Milwaukee.
She joined the online group of parents she calls "her moms" on Mother's Day 1996. They've shared bottle battles, potty training, sleep deprivation, divorce and death across glowing screens that have sometimes brought them closer to women they may never have met in person than the folks next door.
"I would leave my daughter with any of these women in a heartbeat," Carzoli says. Their group was the leading edge of what has blossomed into a key part of parenting in some circles: the electronic mailing list, or listserv.
In many cities and neighborhoods across the country, these e-mail groups are creating -- or re-creating -- supportive and sometimes intimate connections of the kind that once happened over the backyard fence or at the local coffee klatch. They're giving new parents the on-the-ground knowledge they need to cope with everything from what stroller to buy to dealing with potential child predators, says Liliana Lengua, a professor of child psychology at the University of Washington.
Yahoo and Google groups, which are free and easy to set up, are a popular place to put listservs. Gannett, which owns USA TODAY, offers dozens of free MomsLikeMe.com lists in 40 states. Though across-the-board numbers aren't available, there are thousands of lists nationwide with tens of thousands of members.
Search "parents" on Yahoo alone, and 79,530 different groups come up. Some are very specific, such as groups for parents of children with autism (14,639 members).
But the vast majority are simply local parents, most of them mothers, who hear about a group at the playground, sign up and start chatting. They can be small -- the East Atlanta...
Tue, 3 Aug 10
Wireless Carriers Seek To Boost Mobile Payments
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=74546
Using your smartphone to pay for purchases, already common in parts of Europe and in Japan, could soon be a regular occurrence in the United States. With as many Americans carrying phones as credit cards, three top wireless carriers are working with a major card service to promote the practice.
Bloomberg news cited three people with direct knowledge of the plan by AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Deutsche Telekom, a division of T-Mobile, to work with Discover Financial Group -- the fourth-largest credit-card agency -- and Barclays Plc to make contactless mobile payments common. The joint venture will test the market in Atlanta and three other cities yet to be named and is currently shopping for a CEO.
Although Americans increasingly use feature phones or smartphones with mobile applications for everything from downloading music to getting directions, playing games or watching movies, the idea of turning an iPhone or a Droid smartphone into an electronic credit card might meet some resistance.
"Folks already perform banking transactions online, so doing it via your smartphone should not be a big leap -- but the key will be addressing security concerns," said J.D. Power and Associates wireless analyst Kirk Parsons. "Also, making sure it's easy to navigate and perform the functions as advertised will be paramount in order to boost potential adoption."
The success of such a system depends on the willingness of merchants to set up the infrastructure for such payments, but the motivation could come from smaller transaction fees than credit-card companies charge.
As to the impact on the smartphone market, Parsons said, "I do not think this new service will necessarily boost smartphone sales; it's just another service you can perform on the device."
A study by Gartner Research released in June estimates that more than 108.6 million people...
Tue, 3 Aug 10
Emergency Patch Fixes Windows Shortcut Vulnerability
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Microsoft has rushed out a patch to correct the way Windows parses shortcuts, a vulnerability we reported two weeks ago. Hackers have been exploiting the bug, which Microsoft had warned was most likely to be spread by removable drives when AutoPlay was not disabled.
While the patch, rated critical, fixes currently supported Windows operating systems, Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000 were not included. Those versions have reached their end of life, although many systems are still using them. The patch can be applied with the Microsoft Update and Windows Update services.
In mid-July, Microsoft admitted vulnerability was being exploited by the Stuxnet worm. That virus targets industrial control systems usually referred to as supervisory control and data-acquisition systems, or SCADA. On Friday, Microsoft said Sality malware was also using the vulnerability.
While Windows 7 automatically disables AutoPlay for removable drives, Microsoft had suggested a workaround of disabling icons for shortcuts, which could create problems in a visual user interface. Microsoft had also suggested disabling the WebClient service used by WebDAV, but that hampered SharePoint users.
Microsoft's MS-10-046 bulletin says the problem was fixed by "correctly validating the icon reference of a shortcut." The software giant advised users to undo the workaround of disabling shortcuts after the patch, but some web posts advised that step needs to be taken before the shortcut is applied.
The patch creates a new version of Shell32.dll, a crucial Windows library file. If incorrectly updated on some machines, some PCs could lock up.
Chester Wisniewski of the Sophos security firm said the vulnerability involves how Shell32.dll attempts to load control-panel icons from applets. If a specially made shortcut points to a malicious file, Windows Explorer will execute it simply by browsing to the location.
The shortcut vulnerability affects all currently supported Windows versions. These include XP...
Tue, 3 Aug 10
Windows 7 Tops Vista, But Windows XP Still Dominates
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The percentage of Windows 7 users worldwide exceeded the share held by Windows Vista for the first time last month, according to Net Applications. Despite Microsoft's withdrawal of active support, however, the web metrics firm's latest data demonstrates that Windows XP continues to be the OS of choice for the majority of PC users worldwide.
Windows 7 beat out Vista in July with a 14.46 percent market share, followed by Vista at 14.32 percent. Released at the end of January 2007, Vista reached its market share peak of 18.83 percent in October 2009 when Windows 7 was commercially introduced. "With 175 million licenses sold to date, [Windows 7] is the fastest-selling operating system ever," said Microsoft CFO Peter Klein last month.
Enterprise adoption of Windows 7 is accelerating, driven by an increase in volume licensing to businesses plus retail sales, noted Microsoft Director of Investor Relations Bill Koefoed. "Importantly, customer satisfaction for Windows 7 is incredibly high at 94 percent and businesses are deploying Window 7 in the enterprise," Koefoed said.
However, Windows XP remains the world's leading operating system by far. Released in August 2001 and with more than 400 million copies in use by January 2006, Windows XP held a global market share of more than 61.8 percent in July -- double the share of Vista and Windows 7 combined, according to Net Applications.
Overall, Microsoft attained a 91.3 percent share of the global OS market in July, followed by the Mac OS at 5.06 percent, and Linux at slightly less than one percent. The market shares for the Mac and Linux have remained relatively flat this year.
Microsoft executives expect sales at the company's Windows division to grow roughly in line with PC shipments during the current quarter and over the next 12 months. Given that...
Tue, 3 Aug 10
Lower-Priced Office for Mac 2011 Will Ship in October
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Microsoft on Monday announced the release date for the next version of Office for Mac. The software giant will make its productivity software suite available to Mac users by the end of October.
Eric Wilfrid, general manager of the Macintosh business unit at Microsoft, promised Office for Mac 2011 will bring the "familiar productivity tools and features of Microsoft Office to a suite of applications that work great on the Mac."
Perhaps the bigger news is the pricing. Microsoft announced more aggressive pricing for the Mac software, aligning more closely to its Windows versions and opening the door to possibly sell more high-end software to Mac users.
Microsoft is serving up two editions of Office for Mac: Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 and Office for Mac Home and Business 2011.
The Home and Student edition will cost $119, 20 percent less than the 2008 version, which sold for $149.95. It includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Messenger for Mac. The Home and Business version will be $199.99, a drastic reduction from $399 for the 2008 version. It offers everything in the Home and Student edition, plus Outlook.
Consumers can also opt for a Family Pack of the Home and Student edition, which offers three installs for families with more than one Mac, for $149. The Multi-Pack for the Home and Business edition offers two installs for $279. The Academic version of the new software will retail at $99.
Consumers who purchase Office 2008 for Mac can upgrade to Office 2011 when it is available at no additional cost through the Microsoft Office for Mac Technology Guarantee Program.
Advantage Apple?
What's really behind the 50 percent price cut of Office for Mac Home an