Techno-way | Your World For Technology News

░▒▓█ أنه دجال التصميم ◄Adobe Photoshop Cs3 Full► بشرح من الصفر للأحتراف ♫♪

2010-04-16T13:04:00.000-07:00

░▒▓█ أنه دجال التصميم ◄Adobe Photoshop Cs3 Full► بشرح من الصفر للأحتراف ♫♪

Adope Photoshop in Iphone

2009-10-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

Adobe Systems on Friday introduced a new Photoshop app for iPhone users that lets them edit photos from both their phone and their online library on Photoshop.com.
The app is free of charge and offers tools such as cropping, image rotation, color controls, and simple one-touch filter effects that can change the look and feel of shots all at once. It also features undo and redo controls so that if users make a mistake, or want to revert back to the original, it takes just a few taps.

As soon as users are done editing any photo, they can either save it back to their phone or upload it to their Photoshop.com account. The app also doubles as a photo-taking tool since you can simply take a photo, then have it upload right away.
What makes the app notable (besides from being from Adobe) is that the entire editing control set works off gestures. Instead of using dials or sliders, users just need to swipe their finger across the screen to change things such as brightness or color values. The same goes for its filters, which can be whisked from one end of the screen to the other instead of taking up more screen real estate or using a drop-down menu. It's one of the more intuitive control methods I've seen on a mobile photo-editing app, and can be quite precise once you get the hang of it.
The app is available now and is free of charge, although Adobe's free Photoshop.com service has a 2GB limit, which can be expanded with an annual paid storage plan.

google books and what do the users says

2009-10-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

NEXT week details of a plan that could shape the future of books and publishing in the digital age will be spelled out in a New York courtroom. The plan is complex but, in a nutshell, search engine giant Google intends to scan and make available perhaps a million or more books that are out of print but still in copyright.
Google has the support of the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers , but it faces formidable opposition. Some 400 legal objections have been filed, and the US Department of Justice has serious concerns. The dispute was due to be resolved in court next week, but at the last minute Google and its partners asked for the case to be adjourned so they could make revisions. A hearing will still take place, but only to inform the parties concerned how Google intends to proceed.
The case is the culmination of a process that got under way several years ago when Google began scanning books in research libraries to create a searchable archive. Libraries liked it; they saw it as a way to improve access, particularly to rarely used books. But authors and publishers did not. In 2005, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers filed a suit to block the scanning of copyrighted books.
Last year Google hammered out a deal with the authors and publishers which, at first sight, appeared to please everyone. Under the Google Book Settlement , the company would be allowed to scan out-of-print books still in copyright unless expressly asked not to by the copyright holder. That would greatly expand a treasure trove of information available to the serious researcher or the merely curious. Where else could I have learned that my great-great-grandfather was chief car builder for a small 19th-century railroad? Google also promised to supply every library in the US with a terminal for free public access, supported by advertising revenue.
Google also promised to come up with $125 million, partly to pay authors and publishers whose books it had scanned without permission before the settlement. On top of that, authors and publishers would receive 63 per cent of the income from the project.
Nobody would get rich, but authors would earn some money and their books would remain available indefinitely - an important concern for many. The deal would also make available "orphan works", books that are still in copyright but whose authors (or their heirs) can't be located.
Done deal? Far from it. The settlement - around 300 pages of mind-numbing legal jargon - was received with howls of protest. The justice department warned that the proposed settlement violated competition and copyright laws. Numerous groups filed objections, including the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Internet Archive, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Amazon, Microsoft and the German government.
The objections cover a range of issues. Would Google gain a monopoly on copyrighted books that would make it the sole gatekeeper to a large body of knowledge? Could the deal limit authors' rights to control their own works? Would there be any protection for non-US authors? Why should authors be forced to go to the trouble of telling Google if they do not want their works to be copied, and why should Google be absolved from identifying copyright owners? Why should the Authors Guild be considered to speak for all authors? Why should Google alone be given the right to use orphan works? The list could go on for pages. The whole thing is reminiscent of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, the interminable legal proceedings in Charles Dickens's novel Bleak House.
Perhaps the biggest concern is that the settlement in effect rewrites US copyright law - usurping the role that rightfully belongs to Congress. It would let Google keep on scanning while absolving it of liability should it fail to identify copyright owners or obtain their consent.
The plan in effect rewrites US copyright law, usurping a role that ought to belong to Congress
There are practical issues, too. Google has already bungled the job of compiling a list of every book published in the US since 1923, and thus still under US copyright. By including every record it could find, it managed to collect every data entry error made over the past 86 years.
I write technical books and short fiction in addition to magazine articles. Searching under my name, I have found a book never published and a bogus co-author, as well as editions never available in the US. Worse, Google keeps adding new entries, which authors must go through. While writing this piece, I found more than 20 new entries about me. I haven't written that many books.
It's not just me. I also found a listing for the 1924 master's thesis of a great-aunt who died long before my birth, plucked by Google from a library database. There's no evidence it was published, or that she registered the copyright. If Google can list that as an out-of-print but still in-copyright book then god only knows what else is in there.

virtual economies of Second Life, Facebook and Everquest

2009-10-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

WHILE global economies have endured a torrid time of late, business is booming in the virtual economies of Second Life, Facebook and Everquest. As the economic boundaries between virtual and real worlds continue to blur, the supposedly liberated virtual worlds are now running up against some very real-world legal problems.
Financial analyst Piper Jaffray estimates that US citizens will spend $621 million in 2009 in virtual worlds; estimates of the Asian market are even larger. Research firm Plus Eight Star puts spending at $5 billion in the last year.
Over in Second Life, trade remains robust. The value of transactions between residents in the second quarter of this year was $144 million, a year-on-year increase of 94 per cent. With its users swapping virtual goods and services worth around $600 million per year, Second Life has the largest economy of any virtual world - which exceeds the GDP of 19 countries, including Samoa

i Phone Allows New Voip application

2009-10-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

AT&T Announces iPhone VOIP Now Permitted Over 3G Data Network

AT&T has just issued a press release in the last few minutes announcing that it will allow VOIP applications such as Skype to be used over its 3G network, confirming its decision to Apple and the FCC.
This follows FCC inquiries into AT&T’s practices regarding its policies on allowing or restricting certain applications on its data network in the wake of Google Voice being rejected for the iPhone while other VOIP applications were restricted to Wi-Fi.

Next Year New computers , New Generations Incomming For Desktop Pc

2009-10-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

In Media Advertisement of Videocon, Bollywood Multi Starer Shahrukh Khan says “Bada Hai to Behtar Hai” means “Big is better”. But now the things have totally changed. Every thing is going to shrink. If we talking of gadgets earlier mobile are big in size to put in the pocket, but now all the companies are rushing to make a thinnest and smallest mobile. Let’s take the example of Television earlier televisions were big box type structure, but now you are watching smallest and thinnest plasma TV. So how can a desktop pc escape from this transformation? Firstly Desktop PC has also come with a new form of Laptop. Laptop computers are becoming popular in customers mind due to mobility, style, battery backup and the most important feature is its small size and weight. But most of consumers felt an experience gap between Laptop and desktop. That’s why manufactures are trying to bridge this gap by introducing a new Avtar of desktop called “NETTOP”. Nettops are not a new thing but the condensed version of desktop computers which can performs all the operations in better way.

Windows smartphones , the new technology from microsoft

2009-10-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

PARIS (AFP) – Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer on Tuesday unveiled his company's line of Windows smartphones in an offensive against Apple's iPhone and Google's Android system.
Around 30 types of "Windows phones" with various designs will be available by the end of the year in more than 20 countries.
Seven phone-makers, including Sony, Samsung and Toshiba, and 16 operators including Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile, are involved in the launch.
The phones, which combine the ability to make calls, surf the Internet and view videos, carry Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system.
"We have done a lot of work on the user interface, we simplified the user interface," Ballmer told a news conference at Microsoft's new French headquarters near Paris in Issy-les-Moulineaux.
"We have taken the Internet Explorer browser technologies, and we rebuilt them for the first time for these Windows phones. So you can get the same experience on these phones that you will get on your windows PC," he said.
The new mobile operating system was launched simultaneously in France and New York on Tuesday.
With Tuesday's launch Microsoft hopes to reassert itself on the smartphone market, where it has lost ground. The sector is considered especially promising, with 29 percent jump in sales expected this year.
But in the second quarter only 9.0 percent of all smartphones sold were equipped with Microsoft's operating system, against 12 percent a year earlier, according to the Gartner research group.
At the same time, Apple's iPhone has seen its share jump from 2.8 to 13.3 percent.
Google, which launched its Android system in early 2008 and is provided free to phone-makers, managed to secure a share of almost 2.0 percent in a few months and could gain further ground in the fourth quarter this year.

Fifa announced the start of the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2010

2009-10-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

LONDON (Reuters) -
Soccer's global governing body FIFA, gaming software-maker Electronic Arts and Sony Corp's PlayStation announced the start of the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2010 (FIWC10) season on Tuesday.
The sixth edition of the world's largest football gaming tournament allows virtual athletes the unique opportunity of competing in an official FIFA World Cup, FIFA said in a statement.
The champion will be decided at the final in Barcelona, Spain on May 1, 2010, for which players can qualify online or at live qualifier events.
The winner will receive $20,000 and "a money can't buy" experience of attending the FIFA World Player Gala, where he or she will mingle with the best football players in the world.
"More than half a million players vied for a spot in the Grand Final of last year's FIFA Interactive World Cup," said Chuck Blazer, a member of the FIFA Executive Committee.
"This makes it the FIFA tournament with the most competitors."
Over the next seven months, players will compete against each other online or at one of the 10 live qualifier events that will be held in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russia, South Africa and Britain.
For the first time, the online qualification will be split into two separate seasons, the first running from October 2 through to December 18 2009, and the second from January 4 to March 31, 2010.
Players interested in participating in either the online qualifiers or one of the live qualifier events will find all information on how to register as well as reports and stories around the tournament on the official website, www.fifa.com/FIWC.
The 31 players to successfully qualify for the grand final will come up against last year's FIWC champion -- Bruce Grannec from France -- who has automatically qualified for the final and will be aiming to become the first player to retain his title.
(Reporting by Paul Casciato, editing by Steve Addison)

Dell's newest addition to the Latitude line, the Z600

2009-09-30T05:09:00.000-07:00

This is way out of the Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) dude's league.

Dell's newest addition to the Latitude line, the Z600, is designed as a sleek envy item for high-ranking corporate executives, entrepreneurs and other style leaders, and bears the stats to prove it, beginning with its US$1,999 starting price tag.

Technical Details

CLOSE X

Loading Image...

Dell Latitude Z

(click image to enlarge)

Dell bills the 4.5-pound , 0.57-inch thick unit with a "black cherry" finish as the lightest, thinnest 16-inch unit on the market, as well as the world's first laptop with wireless docking as an optional accessory. It also features inductive charging, eliminating the need for power cords with use of a charging stand.

It's also the first Dell to fully implement Latitude ON, a hardware-based instant-on technology that can access Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Exchange servers to deliver a constant stream of emails, calendar items and other basic information services without waiting for the laptop to boot up. The company is comparing the feature to having a built-in smartphone inside the laptop.

The technology includes a second motherboard with its own processor and operating system to run the instant-on service. Run times for the feature can stretch as long as two days, according to Dell.

It also features an integrated 2 megapixel camera with software that allows users to use the camera to scan and save business cards to Microsoft Outlook contacts, as well as to "scan" and copy documents.

On sale as of Monday in select countries in Europe, as well as the U.S. and Canada, it also comes with custom-designed bags by Cole Haan and Timbuk2.

But Will It Sell?

It might seem counterintuitive to come out with a pricey full-sized laptop in the apparent era of the cheap netbook, especially in the middle of a recession when IT budgets are at their leanest.

However, this move is about Dell reasserting its ability to create sophisticated design as well as value computing, and giving executives who want a sleek, impressive computer an option beyond the Sonys and Apples that have dominated that market, said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and analysis with Interpret.

"That executive walks into a meeting and takes out his Dell instead of a Sony (NYSE: SNE) or an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) -- that makes a difference," he told TechNewsWorld. "They're not going to sell a lot of these, but the ones they do sell will matter."

Designed for the IT Team, Too?

The move is a clever way for Dell to help IT departments meet the needs and wants of C-level executives who demand fancy computers, Gartenberg said. They can satisfy them without having to tear up existing vendor relationships or re-engineer their networks to make a Mac work with corporate IT assets.

It makes perfect sense for Dell to target high-end corporate clients, said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for the NPD Group.

"If you're looking for a cool, high-tech product like this from a business standpoint, Apple doesn't have nearly the cachet it does among consumer power users," he told TechNewsWorld.

Dell did not respond to questions about its marketing strategy by deadline for this publication, but in a blog posting, the company noted the product is part of a line dedicated to "purpose-engineered" products, which include ruggedized laptops and machines designed for educational use.

In the end, what Dell appears to be offering is less about substance and more about style, said Baker.

"Dell has been pretty aggressive over the last few years about upping their design DNA," he said. "This is just part of that

Microsoft released version 1.0 of Microsoft Security Essentials

2009-09-30T05:08:00.001-07:00

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) released version 1.0 of Microsoft Security Essentials, a free basic anti-malware service from Redmond, on Tuesday.

This replaces Microsoft's discontinued Live OneCare Security-as-a-Service offering.

Live OneCare customers can move to Microsoft Security Essentials once their subscriptions expire.

About MSE

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is a lightweight application that runs in the background and takes up few CPU and memory resources, the vendor said.

It is the first Microsoft security product to use the company's new Dynamic Signature Service, which ensures users are protected by the most current virus definitions available. Most other antivirus applications download the latest virus signatures one or more times daily.

MSE will run on Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or SP3, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

Only users of genuine versions of these Windows operating systems will be able to install MSE. The application will be available in eight languages and in 19 countries including the United States; Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore.

Technical Stuff

MSE monitors the file, registry, network and kernel mode actions taken by unknown programs to look for suspicious behavior , according Microsoft. When a program initiates unexpected network connections, tries to modify privileged parts of the system, or downloads known malicious content, this triggers MSE to request updates from the Dynamic Signature Service.

Further, MSE uses the Microsoft SpyNet telemetry system to monitor the quality of definition updates. When users detect and remove malicious files, information on that is sent to Microsoft in real time, and that information is used to identify abnormal patterns and assess the potential impact of an incorrect or misbehaving signature.

If a false positive is detected, the Dynamic Signature Service fixes the signature in real time and prevents users from being affected, according to the company.

Despite this, MSE lacks the personal firewall, backup and PC tuning features offered in Windows Live OneCare, which it replaces. "Microsoft Security Essentials is a no-cost core antimalware service that provides real-time protection to address the ongoing security needs of a genuine Windows PC," Microsoft spokesperson Mac Brown told TechNewsWorld.

The Nitty-Gritty

MSE may be lightweight, but it does what it's supposed to do, Directions on Microsoft analyst Michael Cherry said. "I've been using Security Essentials for the past little while," he told TechNewsWorld. "It's a base-level antimalware tool that gets antivirus signature files updated and runs very efficiently."

Windows Live OneCare subscribers have to go to the MSE Web page and download the application once their subscriptions expire.

MSE is essentially targeted at users who don't really pay attention to security but do want some basic form of defensive line. "We still see far too many consumers worldwide that do not have up-to-date protection either because they cannot afford it, are concerned about the impact the suites will have on the performance of their PCs, or because they simply do not realize their AV (antivirus) software is not up to date," Microsoft's Brown explained. MSE will help them because it's free, consumes few systems resources and updates itself automatically, he said.

New computers often have antivirus software pre-installed, so is this argument valid? "Most preloaded antivirus applications are trial offers that run out after 30, 60 or 90 days, or perhaps after a year," Directions on Microsoft's Cherry said. "A surprisingly high number of people don't pay to have them renewed after that because they don't understand why they have to pay for it, and don't understand that, even though it's still running, it's not updating the virus signatures."

With MSE, Microsoft joins the ranks of vendors like AVG in offering free, basic antivirus software. AVG also sells more advanced security packages.

Users do need to do some work. The MSE help page has videos on how to install the application; how to scan for viruses on demand; and how to fix a threat once it's been detected. After that, they're on their own, though Microsoft's Brown said MSE users can get free community and e-mail support.

Why Offer MSE Free?

Microsoft loses nothing by giving away MSE, said Peter Christy, cofounder of Internet Research Group.

One factor leading to the decision to give MSE away for free was the failure of Redmond's Live OneCare Security as a Service product to take off. "The launch of Live OneCare was problematic because it was not as good as antivirus vendors' solutions and because they could make a case that there could be a conflict of interest with Microsoft selling both the operating system and security," Christy explained.

Another factor was that Live OneCare competed with offerings from antivirus vendors, who simultaneously have strong business ties with Microsoft, Christy told TechNewsWorld. Meanwhile, Redmond was improving its operating system security and Windows update patch system.

"I believe they decided to continue delivering a base system, which they may not have to invest as heavily in as if they were competing with the antivirus vendors, but which helps them control malware," Christy said.

"Malware is a huge problem for Microsoft, and we see that even in Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) ads, so with Microsoft Security Essentials they're walking the fine line between competition with partners like Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) , which is bad, and protecting their customers, which is good," he said.

Google sent shock waves through the Android community

2009-09-30T05:07:00.001-07:00

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) sent shock waves through the Android community late last week by launching a cease-and-desist order at well-regarded modder Cyanogen for bundling some of its closed-source applications with his CyanogenMod ROM.

CyanogenMod is a free, heavily optimized build of Android 1.5r2 that focuses on performance and reliability. Its developer -- Steve Kondik, also known as "Cyanogen" -- claims some 30,000 users for the firmware product, which bundles closed-source Google apps such as Gmail, Market, Talk and YouTube .

"Google just cease and desisted me," wrote Kondik in a short chat transcript uncovered by Android and Me last Thursday. "Cyanogenmod is probably going to be dead. I'm opening a dialogue with them."

Kondik did not respond in time to LinuxInsider's requests for comment on Monday. The official CyanogenMod site, meanwhile, has been unavailable due to the controversy's "Slashdot effect," Kondik wrote in a Twitter post.

'Nurturing' the Platform

CyanogenMod enhances the Android platform with extra functionality including multitouch capabilities and an improved user experience -- such as by providing five home screens instead of the usual three, according to reports.

Kondik's product has also reportedly spurred innovation in the development community.

"Countless other developers have sourced his work to breathe new innovation into their own creations and making it more stable or functional or both," wrote Mobility Site blogger Tariq Bamadhaj, for example. "In short, if Google gave birth to Android, Cyanogen was the one who nurtured and continues to nurture this growing baby."

'These Apps Aren't Open Source'

Google, for its part, attempted to respond and clarify its position through a post from Android developer Dan Morrill on Friday.

"I've noticed some confusion around what is and isn't part of Android's open source code," Morrill wrote.

Android apps for Google services like YouTube, Gmail and Google Voice "are Google's way of benefiting from Android in the same way that any other developer can, but the apps are not part of the Android platform itself," Morrill explained.

"These apps aren't open source, and that's why they aren't included in the Android source code repository," he asserted. "Unauthorized distribution of this software harms us just like it would any other business, even if it's done with the best of intentions."

Google spokesperson Carolyn Penner declined to provide additional comment.

"We don't have much more to say beyond what was included in the blog post," she told LinuxInsider.

'I Intend to Respect That'

On Monday, Kondik posted an update on the situation on the CyanogenMod site, which was viewable in Google's cache.

"What has become clear now is that the Android Open Source Project is a framework," Kondik wrote. "It's licensed in such a way so that anyone can take it, modify it to their needs, and redistribute it as they please. Android belongs to everyone. This also means that big companies [like] Google, HTC, Motorola (NYSE: MOT) , and whomever else can add their own pieces to it and share these pieces under whatever license they choose.

"The issue that's raised is the redistribution of Google's proprietary applications like Maps, GTalk, Market, and YouTube," he added. "These are not part of the open source project and are only part of 'Google Experience' devices. They are Google's intellectual property and I intend to respect that."

'A Bare Bones ROM'

Kondik will no longer distribute the apps as part of CyanogenMod.

Rather, "what I intend to do is simply ship the next version of CyanogenMod as a 'bare bones' ROM," he wrote. "You'll be able to make calls, MMS, take photos, etc. In order to get our beloved Google sync and applications back, you'll need to make a backup first. I'm working on an application that will do this for you."

Nevertheless, many in the open source community are now questioning Google's commitment to its open source offspring.

Not So Open?

"Google throws the 'open' out of 'open-source' by shutting down Android mod" read one headline, for example. Scores of comments on sites across the blogosphere expressed similar sentiments.

Several petitions are circulating -- on PetitionSpot and on Cyrket, for example -- urging fans to help save CyanogenMod.

An Android developer who reportedly works for Google's Morrill, meanwhile, wrote in a tweet on Friday, "To my Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) , Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) buddies: are you hiring to work on mobile stuff?"

'A Confrontational Approach'

It is surprising that Google "took a more confrontational approach rather than contacting the developer directly in order to sort out the differences," Stephen Schultze, associate director of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University, told LinuxInsider.

Google's intellectual property claims are "legitimate and understandable," but there is probably "a reasonable 'third way' solution," Schultze added.

To wit: Cyanogen's own proposed solution, "divorcing his code base from the proprietary elements," may mean the developers are "on their way to solving the legal issues by creating a simple way for end-users to patch in their legal copies of the proprietary Google apps," he noted. "I would hope that Google would consider ways in which it could facilitate this process from its end."

Terms and Conditions

Android "has spawned a plethora of individuals and companies leveraging that platform with their own products," Raymond Van Dyke, a technology attorney in Washington, told LinuxInsider. "Since Google has expended considerable sums to roll out their paradigm, they naturally wish to maintain some control over it," he added.

Cyanogen's CyanogenMod "got Google's attention" by rolling various modules of Android into a bundled and popular product, Van Dyke noted -- "hence the cease and desist letter to let them know that this behavior was not OK."

Indeed, in Android's Terms and Conditions, Google not only expressly says that it retains all intellectual property, but it "also states that 'you agree that Google may stop (permanently or temporarily) providing the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) (or any features within the SDK) to you or to users generally at Google's sole discretion, without prior notice to you," Van Dyke pointed out.

'Not Just Google'

Cyanogen's attempts to work around the problem will likely be permitted "so long as they avoid Google's IP," Van Dyke concluded. "Good luck!"

Looking ahead, in fact, luck may be just what Cyanogen needs.

"We are also trying to deal with the issue of htc/ti/qualcomm proprietary stuff," Kondik wrote in a tweet on Monday afternoon. "It's not just google."

Wii At War " the action begens "

2009-09-30T05:05:00.000-07:00

For years, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 have been gut-punching each other with price cuts while the Nintendo Wii just sits on the sidelines with a smug little grin on its face. While the two bigger consoles entered the market with huge MSRPs, the Wii planted itself at US$250 and stayed there for nearly three years, easily beating the others month after month in units sold.

But now that Xbox and PlayStation have reduced each other to heaving, $300 heaps, Nintendo has finally jumped in and knocked the price of its basic unit down to $199, which still probably preserves a decent margin. The move wasn't exactly unexpected, but Nintendo has only recently verified it.

This could set the video game industry up for a pretty brisk holiday season. Everyone's fresh off a price cut, there are some nice titles coming out, and people are at least talking about climbing out of the recession, if not actually making it happen. And here's something that may remind you of cushier times, like December 2006: Soon you may not be able to find any of these consoles on retailers' shelves. Supply chain issues may translate into shortages come November or December. So let's everyone load up the truck and get that eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) account warmed up. Happy hoarding!

Listen to the podcast (12:15 minutes).

Neutral Advocate

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski put on some big heavy boots and stomped right into the political mine field of Net neutrality, the controversial topic that concerns how much regulatory power the government should have over the way Internet service providers control the tubes.

First, he wants to make the guidelines that the FCC already uses in managing Internet policy into official rules rather than just informal rules of thumb. Genachowski boiled those guidelines down into one succinct statement: "Network operators cannot prevent users from accessing the lawful Internet content, applications, and services of their choice, nor can they prohibit users from attaching non-harmful devices to the network."

Then he tossed in a couple more requirements for good measure: Service providers can't disfavor a service just because it competes with a similar service offered by that provider, and providers must be transparent about changes they're making to the basic functioning of the Internet. He's looking at you, Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSK) .

As expected, reactions were strongly divided. Consumer advocacy groups cheered the chairman's stance, saying it's a strong sign that the commission plans to protect a free and open Internet. Service providers, on the other hand, say that government intervention in how the Internet is run will hinder innovation, cripple competition and ultimately hurt the consumer.

Family First

Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) still might have high hopes for its Pre, but the launch of the smartphone earlier this summer wasn't enough to turn the company's fortunes around -- at least not overnight. For its first fiscal quarter, which ended Aug. 28, Palm's losses were four times what they were in the year-ago period. Just 500,000 Pres had been sold by the quarter's end, and Palm's revenue projections for Q2 fell short of analyst targets.

Palm predicts better news in the second half of next year. Even so, now is not the time for the company to hedge its bets. It's dropping Windows Mobile and devoting itself full time to devices running its own webOS -- the new operating system that runs the Pre and Pixi smartphones. In abandoning WinMo, Palm is putting all its eggs into one OS basket, though it will save a bit on licensing fees.

So Palm's abandoning Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) , but at this point it's pretty debatable whether WinMo is a friend worth having. It's still tight with the enterprise, and major updates are on the way, but for now, other platforms are doing much more exciting things.

Developers are bringing new applications to users of other platforms every day, while Microsoft has been very slow to get its mobile application storefront up and running. According to Greg Sterling at Sterling Market Intelligence, "Microsoft has a challenge with Windows Mobile. It needs to create a consumer identity in the marketplace for the platform. So far, Windows Mobile has been subordinate to what the carrier does."

Testing the Webby Waters

Microsoft also looks to be a little slow to the punch when it comes to productivity Web apps, something companies like Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Zoho have been hosting for years. But remember that Microsoft does have an incredibly popular client-based productivity suite under its belt, so there's a lot of power behind that punch, if the company can make it connect.

Redmond recently launched a limited preview program for Microsoft Office Web Apps, the lightweight online version of Office that it plans to eventually expand to widespread availability. Early tests are by invitation only, mostly from among users of Windows Live SkyDrive. The next step will be a public beta.

This gradual testing strategy can be slow and awkward at times -- but so far, it seems to have worked alright with Windows 7. With that one, Microsoft managed to get massive amounts of feedback by letting anybody download a beta copy, then later a release candidate copy, for free. Early reviews of Windows 7 have been fairly positive, especially when it's compared to Windows Vista.

Phones From Big Pink?

Microsoft's big pink secret peeked out from behind the curtains again, this time in the form of a post on the 9to5 Mac blog, oddly enough. That's where Cleve Nettles reported that an unnamed source revealed that Microsoft is readying two new smartphones for CES next January as part of its so-called Project Pink.

What exactly Project Pink is all about is still a mystery, but last November, the word was that it involved a Zune phone. So far, there's been nothing more on that. Last year was when Microsoft bought Danger, which partners with Sharp to build the SideKick, bane of highschool teachers everywhere. So maybe these Pink things will come from Sharp's garage, if they come at all.

Whatever happens, Microsoft needs to get some kind of action happening in the smartphone realm, because not only has Palm dumped it, but HTC also looks like it's getting friendlier with Android and less interested in Windows Mobile.

Financial Power-Up

Not that it seems to need a whole lot of help lately, but Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) financial situation may start looking even better soon, at least on paper. And it has nothing to do with a new product or a new marketing campaign or a case of Redmond, Washington, being swallowed into the sea.

Instead, it's all thanks to an organization called "FASB" moving the goalposts. The Financial Accounting Standards Board does exactly what the name implies -- it sets the standards for how corporate bean counters should count the beans and draw up the financial reports they give to the public. They recently instituted a rule change that will take effect next June. It concerns how revenue is recognized for products that combine hardware and software. That could be a lot of things, but for Apple and some other consumer electronics companies, it means smartphones.

Once the rule kicks in, financial statements from Apple might appear to show remarkable year-over-year improvement, even though at least part of that will be due to paper shuffling rather than some as-yet-unborn iBauble.

Vapo-Tablet, Part Deux

While it's lagging in the smartphone space, Microsoft just may be getting a jump on its competitors with a tablet PC that someone might actually want to use. The tech blog Gizmodo posted photos and video of Microsoft's upcoming entry into the tablet market, a device called the "Courier." That's according to Gizmodo -- Microsoft hasn't officially confirmed anything's in the works. If it's true that the device is in a late stage of prototype development, though, it could actually beat Apple to the market. No, Apple hasn't confirmed anything either.

But confirmation or not, consumers' imaginations have been on overdrive over tablets. The popular notion surrounding a supposed Apple tablet holds that it'll look like an overgrown iPod touch. This Microsoft Courier thing looks like it'll take different approach. It'll still be a touchscreen tablet, but it'll have two screens and fold up like a book. Also, the leaked images show a stylus -- looks kind of 2002, but it might be convenient for detail work, providing the screens also take input from fingertips.

Since it's still unconfirmed whether this thing is even going to make it to market, pricing is completely up in the air. It's also unclear what sort of software it might use. Windows 7 has been built to support touchscreen devices, but it's still mainly designed for use with a mouse and keyboard. A form factor like what we're seeing in these Courier photos might require an OS that speaks touchscreen as its native language rather than something it picked up in high school.

No One's Leaving

When Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) first announced its plan to buy up Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: JAVA) , it was a little unclear whether all of Sun's various technologies would get a seat at Oracle's table, or whether Oracle would chop it up, wrap the prime cuts and throw the rest into the dog food pile.

Of particular concern was MySQL, Sun's open source database technology that arguably competes with Oracle's own products. That's actually become a reason why European regulators aren't very enthusiastic about the acquisition as a whole.

On Tuesday, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison let shareholders in on a few insights. First, he thinks the deal will ultimately get the go-ahead, in part because a combined Oracle and Sun would be strong competitor to IBM (NYSE: IBM) . Secondly, he has no intention of spinning off MySQL, even though doing so might help soothe the EC, which has been holding up the deal while Sun bleeds losses of $100 million a month. Hanging onto MySQL does seem to match Ellison's stated goal of going head-to-head with IBM. David Boulanger of Frost and Sullivan told us, "Oracle is going to need every bit of the technology it acquires for its long-range plans."

DIY Cell Tower

For as long as there have been wireless networks, there have been customers grousing about spotty service. But AT&T (NYSE: T) has taken even more flack than usual over the last few months, perhaps in part because of its own success. The iPhone has been a big seller for it, and buyers like to use those phones -- a lot. Puts quite the strain on the network.

Well, AT&T is working to catch up by building more towers, but soon, customers who live in an AT&T black hole will be helping the carrier along by opening up their wallets and buying a tower of their very own.

The MicroCell is something AT&T is test marketing in North Carolina. It's a little gadget you hook up to your home Internet connection. Once it's set up, it gives you a nice, clear 3G signal for voice and data that spreads out over about 5,000 square feet. It goes for $150, but if you're an AT&T landline or DSL subscriber, you can get a $100 rebate then pay $20 per month for unlimited calling capabilities from the MicroCell, if you so choose.

How'm I Doing?

Do you like advertisements? They don't get all that much respect, it seems. People buy Tivos to skip them, they download ad blockers to kick them off the Web browser, and every time a commercial gets a chance to shine on prime-time TV, everyone just stands up and leaves to go to the bathroom.

But without advertisers, it would cost Web surfers and TV viewers a whole lot more money to see that content. And believe it or not, the goal of the advertisers isn't to make you roll your eyes in disgust; they honestly do want to pique your interest.

So, what exactly are they doing wrong? And on the rare occasion when your interest is successfully piqued, what was it that made that happen? That's the information that Facebook's new deal with Nielsen is designed to uncover, and it takes a pretty direct approach. Facebook users can decide to answer a one- to two-question poll about various ads they're exposed to on the site. The polls ask some pretty broad questions: "Does this ad make you want to buy the product?" "How did you like its message?" "Is it easy to remember?"

Facebook says it doesn't bundle any of these voluntary responses with personal info; it just gives the answers over to Nielsen, Nielsen does its thing with analytics, and the marketers theoretically learn how to do better next time. Hope they have thick skin.

Intel : New Technology "we will put a computer inside your TV" New 2009

2009-09-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

The dream of taking Internet TV to an actual TV seems a no-brainer to consumers: a screen's a screen, and a monitor's just another screen, after all. However, there's more to the technology than meets the eye or fits the couch potato's view. Even so, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) made a huge step toward plugging the Internet TV play on Thursday when it unveiled Atom processor CE4100 (code-name "Sodaville") -- its 45nm System-on-Chip for Internet TV.

The CE4100 processor is the first 45nm-manufactured consumer electronics SoC based on Intel architecture. It supports Internet and broadcast applications on one chip, and has the processing power and audio/video components necessary to run rich media applications such as 3-D graphics.

Is this remarkable advancement enough to make a real change in TV?

"It's an incredibly powerful product -- and at 45nm, it's far closer to what the industry needs," John Barber, a research analyst at Gartner (NYSE: IT) , told TechNewsWorld. "But it's still questionable in terms of industry adoption, simply because current architectures are under tremendous price pressures from box manufacturers."

Intel will "make a significant impact in Internet TV in scale and market share when it reaches 32nm and below," added Barber.

Cracking the Navigation Nut

One could also make the argument that the cable industry, in particular, is badly in need of some oomph in its sagging numbers during this recession. Normally, cable subscriptions increase during a recession; people seek more in-home entertainment since they can't afford to go out. Not this time.

Instead, Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) and other alternative competitors are cleaning cable companies' clocks and cleaning out their coffers. It is conceivable, then, that cable could pressure box manufacturers to turn out the Intel chip at supersonic speed. Maybe. It's also possible that alternative competitors may beat cable to the punch once again. This time, it might even be a TKO.

"Navigation is the No. 1 challenge for today's television viewers," said George Schweitzer, president of CBS marketing. "Intel's CE technology and our new TV Widget platform are designed to help people find the shows they want and discover new programs that are relevant to their interests. What's more, the TV Widget gives us another platform to connect and interact with our audience while delivering an exciting new television experience."

Intel is working with the industry to expand Widget Channel, in order to provide consumers with a range of services such as movies, music, games and personal videos.

"Web content to the TV will evolve and come via many types of devices," Mary Ragland, spokesperson for Intel, told TechNewsWorld. "Consumers will see connected CE devices coming to market -- like advanced set-tops and Blu-ray Disc players powered by Intel media processors -- to bring Web content and entertainment to their TVs. As business models and products evolve, this will eventually come to HDTVs."

Chicken, Egg, Rooster

"Eventually" may be the operative word, however.

"Internet TVs are a long way from making inroads in consumer households, and it's not just because they don't have an Intel chip inside," James L. McQuivey, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, told TechNewsWorld.

"It's mostly because TV makers have been trying to use their own silicon to keep costs down while they wait to see if connected TVs will even sell. It's not just a chicken-and-egg problem," McQuivey explained, "it's a chicken-egg-and-rooster problem -- by which I mean that TV makers are waiting to see if consumers want these TVs; consumers are waiting to see if there will be any valuable content on these TVs from content providers; content providers are waiting to see if consumers are going to want these TVs. Basically, everybody's waiting to see what everyone else will do."

Any TV maker that decided to incorporate Intel chips now would be making a "big leap," McQuivey continued, and that's not likely to happen unless there's some strong indication consumers would be willing to pay a premium price for them.

"If Intel can get its TV chips down in form factor and therefore at a better price point, it will obviously help," said McQuivey, "but will it happen fast enough so that TV makers don't commit to some less effective but less expensive alternative? That's the big question right now."

Google Operating System New Pictures 2009 And soon Download

2009-09-29T11:13:00.000-07:00

Google Operating System New Pictures 2009 And soon Download

Here is some pictures for google operating system

Techno-way

Enjoy

Busniss case for windows se7en ! By microsoft

2009-09-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO--Microsoft trotted out some of its biggest customers on Tuesday to make its case that it still makes sense to spend money on software in a tough economy.

The gathering of invited corporate IT users here is designed to serve as the beginning of the business push for Windows 7, which is already available to larger businesses and goes on sale to consumers and small businesses on October 22.

A panel of Microsoft executives and customers talked about the pending launch of Windows 7 at an event in San Francisco on Tuesday.

(Credit: CNET News)

Among those already trying out Windows 7 is Intel. The chipmaker did a lot of work to make Windows Vista work, but like many companies, it decided not to put it on its own desktops.

By contrast, Intel is adopting Windows 7 rather quickly. Already about 500 employees from throughout the company are testing the software, said CIO Diane Bryant. Of those workers, 97 percent said they would recommend the operating system.

"It's a very strong pull," Bryant said.

Although a good business case can be made for upgrading our machines, it can still be a tough sell, said IDC analyst Al Gillen.

CEO Steve Ballmer presided over an event that was, effectively, the business launch of Windows 7.

(Credit: CNET)

"The problem is it costs money to save money," Gillen said.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who earlier Tuesday sent out an e-mail to customers arguing for "the new efficiency" driven by software, is slated to speak shortly at the event being held at the at the University of California, San Francisco's Mission Bay campus.

Update 9:55 a.m.: The panel has wrapped up and Ballmer has taken the stage. So far, we're hearing familiar talk about doing more with less and his case that technology is at the early stage of its influence on business.

10 a.m.: Ballmer starts his pitch for Windows 7.

Ballmer said his hope is that, once the new operating system hits the market, that individual workers will be going to businesses asking them to put Windows 7 on their corporate computers. "I think we are going to see a lot of that kind of demand," Ballmer said.

But, he acknowledged that alone won't sway businesses. "Even with that swell of interest, you are still going to have to confront the new efficiency."

There, he said, it will come down to whether Windows 7 really can make business workers more productive, something he clearly believes it can. 10:20 a.m. Ballmer has switched into the full-on sales pitch, highlighting the cost savings that can be achieved. Customers can expect to save $90 to $160 in costs each year per computer that they move onto Windows 7, largely from lower support and management costs. (It wasn't clear if this was as compared to a PC running XP or one running Windows Vista.)

Windows 7 can also make it cheaper to deploy new software, though Ballmer acknowledged that skeptics will point out the cheapest thing is just not to deploy new software at all. "I got that," Ballmer said.

Still, he said, it's a "very good place in the product cycle" to embrace Windows 7," Ballmer said, noting that businesses that move now would be early adopters, but not the first companies to do so, pointing to a list that included Ford, Fiat, BMW, Bombardier, Continental Airlines, Intel, Halliburton and Starwood.

Ballmer said he expects most companies will start moving to Windows 7 as they add new PCs, but won't do large-scale upgrades of existing machines and probably won't rush out to replace all their PCs either.

10:30 a.m.: On to questions and answers. Microsoft starts with a few written ones that came in over the Internet. First off: No, Ballmer is not free for golf next Monday--he'll be in London.

10:32 a.m.: Well, he took a couple more written questions but no live questions from the audience before the event wrapped up.

IP Address Location ,, How to find the locate from ip .. new technology

2009-09-29T11:07:00.000-07:00

What is my IP address

Have you ever wondered "what is my IP address" and how to trace and locate IP?
Or thought about IP addresses block that belong to a specific country?

Keep your privacy intact
and hide IP address with:

Have you ever used a web-based IP address lookup tool to trace and locate IP and find the geographical location of an IP address?
Maybe you are looking for an IP address location, DNS lookup, IP address range etc... or you simply wish to learn more about how networking protocols, like UDP and TCP/IP, work?
We can help with all of this and more. Our impressive collection of IP tools including a couple email lookup tools (check email and email tracking) and tips how to change or hide IP address will help you to find anything what you would like to know about IP addressing.

Using IP Address Location and all our IP tools for tracking IP addresses is free. Our IP finder is the fastest, easiest and most precise way to search and find the exact location of any IP address, OS, DNS, IP country, country code and country flag. Furthermore, we have integrated Geolocator and a world map to display your results by city and country. Our IP database is updated every 48 hours so you can be sure the IP information we provide is up to date.

http://www.ipaddresslocation.org/

Microsoft to open Windows cafe in Paris

2009-09-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

Microsoft confirmed Wednesday that it plans to open a "Windows Cafe" in Paris where people will be able to try out the latest from Redmond while drinking a cup of coffee.
The cafe will open on Oct. 22--the day that Windows 7 launches, Microsoft said.
"This initiative expresses our intention to meet with the general public and show the new Windows experiences on PC, mobile and on the Internet," a Microsoft representative said in a statement to CNET News. "People will be able to discover Windows 7, the Windows phones and the Windows Live services."
Microsoft's statement comes after photos of the cafe appeared on a French technology Web site.
In the United States, Microsoft has announced plans to open a network of retail stores--with the first two opening this fall. More are slated to open next year.
For now, the Paris location is the only cafe planned, Microsoft said.
Others chimed in on Wednesday with some interesting tidbits. TechCrunch observes that, ahead of the opening, the cafe is already offering free Wi-Fi to those on the sidewalk, while Silicon Alley Insider notes that the location was previously home to an eatery called Wet Willie's.

Sony release a new motion-sensitive controller for its PlayStation 3

2009-09-24T09:07:00.000-07:00

Sony announced it was working on a new motion controller at E3 last June in Los Angeles.(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
Sony announced late Wednesday night from the Tokyo Game Show that it plans to release a new motion-sensitive controller for its PlayStation 3 video game console sometime during spring of 2010. The news came just hours after Nintendo's own announcement that it was cutting the price of its Wii console from $250 to $200.
The company originally announced that it was working on a new controller at E3 last June. That news seemed, at the time, to indicate that Sony was aiming at taking on the Nintendo Wii and its intuitive Wii-mote. Microsoft, too, unveiled a hot new controller system, code-named Natal, but revealed no substantial details about how it would be used, what it would cost or when it would be available.
As for Sony, it didn't say last June when its new device would hit the market. So Wednesday night's announcement marks the first time it has given any specificity about the date.
"The newly announced Motion Controller is equipped with two motion sensors, three axes gyroscope and three axes accelerometer that can detect the controller's angle and movement held in the user's hand," Sony said in a release. "Together with the PlayStation Eye camera for PS3 which can accurately track the absolute position of the controller, the controller can detect the natural and intuitive movement of the hand and reflect the precise movement on to the game."
Earlier Wednesday evening, Nintendo said it was slashing the price of the Wii from $250 to $200. Although both announcements were made during the Tokyo Game Show, the timing is notable given that with Sony's announcement, PS3 users and fans now have a better sense of when their favorite console will take on some additional Wii-like functionality. Nintendo may well have decided it couldn't waste any time in making its own move to protect its console.

Top technology news headlines

2009-09-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

(Credit: Nintendo)
Nintendo has officially announced that the price of the Wii will drop to $199.99, effective on Sunday. The long-rumored $50 price cut comes in the wake of recent price drops for the PlayStation 3 ($299, with built-in Blu-ray player) and Xbox 360 ($299 for the 120GB version with built-in DVD player and Netflix support), which have boosted sales of the Sony and Microsoft consoles. (To date, the Wii remains the best-selling home game console of the three.)
Other than the price cut, there are no other changes to the current Wii bundle--you're still getting the console, along with the Wiimote and Nunchuk controllers and the bundled Wii Sports game. By contrast, there's at least one rumor that the U.K. will get a Wii package that adds the MotionPlus peripheral and Wii Sports Resort to the mix. Meanwhile, white remains the only color choice in North America (Japanese consumers can choose black as well).
Nintendo also took the opportunity to officially announce the release date for New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which had previously been slated for a vague "fall 2009" window. The multiplayer Super Mario game will hit store shelves on November 15.
So, what do you guys think? Does the price drop make the Wii more attractive? Would you prefer a more enticing bundle? Or are you holding out for the Wii HD? Share your comments below.

A nascent technology called WebGL for bringing hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the Web

2009-09-22T03:51:00.000-07:00

A nascent technology called WebGL for bringing hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the Web is getting a lot closer to reality.
Last week, programmers began building WebGL into Firefox's nightly builds, the developer versions used to test the latest updates to the open-source browser. Also this month, programmers began building WebGL into WebKit, the project that's used in both Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome.
Wolfire Games picked up on the WebKit move and offered a video of WebGL in action.
Overall, the moves stand to accelerate the pace of WebGL development by making it easier to try out. But the technology still has a ways to go before people will be able to play Web-based versions of a 3D software such as first-person shooter video games or Google Earth.
"All of these implementations are going to have some interoperability issues for the next little while, as the spec is still in flux and we're tracking it at different rates, but will hopefully start to stabilize over the next few months," said Vladimir Vukicevic in a blog post.
WebGL is one of a several efforts under way to make Web browsers into a more powerful computing platform, increasingly capable of rivaling what software running natively on a computer can do. Even the company with the most to lose from that direction--Microsoft--is embracing it with a Web-based version of Office.
The WebGL plan emerged in March from Mozilla and the Khronos Group, which oversees the venerable OpenGL standard to let software tap into a computer's hardware-based graphics power . WebGL's roots lie with an earlier Mozilla project called Canvas 3D, a cousin of the present two-dimensional Canvas technology for drawing graphics in Web pages.
Although Google is a WebGL supporter, it's also developing a higher-level 3D graphics technology called O3D for browsers. Google is working on building O3D into Chrome, but the fruits of that labor aren't yet available.
WebGL has a ways to go, as well, but developers eager to give it a whirl should probably start thinking seriously about it.
"The WebGL working group is targeting the first half of 2010 for release of the standard, but implementations will show up before that," said WebGL programmer Mark Steele in August.
Those wanting to try it not only have to download the Firefox nightly build, but also have to specifically enable WebGL through the Firefox "about:config" mechanism. Vukicevic has instructions on his blog.

Facebook confirms site Problems

2009-09-22T03:50:00.000-07:00

No, it's not just you.
Facebook confirmed on Monday afternoon that there have been sitewide problems that saw log-in credentials turned down, status messages eaten up, and other various unpleasant occurrences over the course of the past few days. But the social network, which recently surpassed 300 million active users worldwide, hasn't yet disclosed the source of the problem.
"Some users are experiencing errors across a number of site features," a statement e-mailed to CNET News read. "This includes content occasionally disappearing, difficulty logging in or viewing profiles, and error messages when posting content. We are working to resolve these issues as soon as possible."
Outages at major social media sites have drawn particular attention since a massive distributed denial-of-service attack last month threw Facebook into flux and took down Twitter altogether.

Microsoft : eventually Xbox handheld coming

2009-09-22T03:48:00.000-07:00

Shortly before the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo, rumors surfaced that Microsoft was on the verge of announcing the ZuneX. The ZuneX was purported to be a gaming handheld that integrated with Xbox Live Arcade and "ZuneX originals" and featured mobile-phone capabilities. That's a marked contrast from the current generation, which offers only a half-dozen games despite promises of titles that would be transferable from the Xbox 360.

The Xbox 360 may soon have a small, sleeker sibling.
With that rumor quickly marginalized as a phony by many industry watchers, Microsoft has now once again signaled that its portable gaming ambitions may extend beyond the struggling Zune. In an interview with gaming site Kikizo, Microsoft corporate vice president Shane Kim said that the Xbox brand is destined for the mobile platform.
"For us, it's a matter of focusing on 'when,'" said Kim, who transitioned from his role as head of Microsoft Game Studios to a strategic development position within the Interactive Entertainment and Devices division last year.
As for what's been holding up that "when," Kim said that the division has been focused on fleshing out the core Xbox 360 and Xbox Live experiences.
"If we chased after a mobile or handheld opportunity, we would not have the resources and ability to do things like instant-on 1080p HD, Facebook, Twitter, Project Natal," he said. "And so we've chosen to focus on the living room experience from a hardware standpoint, if you will, but we're building a service in Live that will...will extend to other platforms." [Emphasis in original.]
One other question facing the company is what form a mobile gaming device would take. "How do we enter into that market," pondered Kim. "Do we do our own device, do we create our own phone--that's a question for the company itself--do we continue to go down the Windows Mobile path, which is the path that we're on today, etcetera, etcetera."
Kim concluded by reemphasizing Microsoft's desire to be a player on all relevant platforms, whether that be consoles, desktops, or mobile devices.

Dell announced Monday that it will buy IT services provider Perot Systems for $3.9 billion

2009-09-22T03:45:00.000-07:00

Dell announced Monday that it will buy IT services provider Perot Systems for $3.9 billion.
The two companies expect to provide a broad range of IT services and packages, expanding the global reach of Perot Systems and selling Dell computer systems to additional Perot customers. The move could be a shot in the arm for Dell, giving it a way to diversify beyond its bread-and-butter business of selling hardware.
"This significantly expands Dell's enterprise-solutions capabilities and makes Perot Systems' strengths available to even more customers around the world," said Dell CEO Michael Dell. "There will be efficiencies from combining the companies, but the acquisition makes such great sense because of the obvious ways our businesses complement each other."
Perot Systems, founded by one-time presidential candidate Ross Perot, provides IT services and business solutions to customers in health care, government, manufacturing, banking, and insurance. The company has built a large customer base in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia.
"Today's announcement is the next step in formalizing a relationship that has flourished for some time," said Perot Chairman Ross Perot Jr. "When my father founded Perot Systems he envisioned a global information-technology leader. The new, larger Dell builds on that promise and its own successes by taking Perot Systems' expertise to more customers than ever."
Under the agreement, PC and server maker Dell will acquire all outstanding common stock of Perot Systems for $30 a share in cash, a 65 percent premium over Friday's closing price. Subject to the usual government approvals, the deal is expected to close in Dell's November-January fiscal quarter.
In Monday morning trading, Perot Systems' shares were up by essentially that same margin, to $29.60. Dell's shares were down about 4 percent to $15.92.
Once the deal is completed, Perot Systems will become Dell's services unit, headed by Peter Altabef, current Perot Systems CEO. Ross Perot Jr. is expected to be considered for a slot on Dell's board of directors.
Dell and Perot Systems have worked together in the past. In April, for instance, they teamed up to get in on the ground floor of electronic health records, a field that is expected to grow substantially in coming years as hospitals and physicians increasingly digitize patients' medical records. The companies also talked about the ability to run some medical applications in a hosted, "private cloud" offering to help make costs more manageable.
One of the largest computer makers in the world, Dell has been hit hard by the global recession as its business customers hold off on upgrading their banks of servers and arrays of desktop and laptop PCs. In its most recent quarter, Dell's earnings were down 23 percent year over year to $472 million, on revenue of $12.76 billion, also down just over 20 percent.
Dell and Perot Systems say that over the past four quarters they have taken in a combined $16 billion in enterprise hardware and IT services revenue, with about $8 billion from enhanced services and support.

Google bought YouTube for $1.65bn !!!

2009-09-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

Google buys YouTube for $1.65bn

YouTube is growing in popularity

Google is buying video-sharing website YouTube for $1.65bn (£883m) in shares after a weekend of speculation that a deal was in the offing.

The two companies will continue to operate independently, Google said as it announced the news on Monday.

YouTube, launched in February 2005, has grown quickly into one of the most popular websites on the internet.

It has 100 million videos viewed every day and an estimated 72 million individual visitors each month.

'Natural partners'

"The YouTube team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said in a statement.

He said the two companies were "natural partners" to offer a media entertainment service to users, content owners and advertisers.

Mr Schmidt also told investors that YouTube will be "one of many investments" Google plans to make in the video field.

However, the company will keep operating its own Google Video as a separate operation.

YouTube will retain its brand, and its 67 staff, including co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, will keep their jobs.

"Our community has played a vital role in changing the way that people consume media, creating a new clip culture," said Mr Hurley.

"By joining forces with Google, we can benefit from its global reach and technology leadership to deliver a more comprehensive entertainment experience for our users and to create new opportunities for our partners."

According to Comscore World Metrix, YouTube's audience has soared from 2.8 million unique users one year ago to 72 million users in August 2006.

Music tie-ups

The announcement came after a day of distribution deals drawn up by the pair.

Universal Music Group has signed a distribution deal with YouTube, which will protect the rights of the music firm's artists.

YouTube also says it has signed a deal with CBS, which will offer short-form video programming, including news, sport and entertainment on YouTube.

Google has also signed distribution deals of its own, with Sony BMG and Warner Music to offer music videos.

The Google deals should enable internet users in the US to view music videos, artist interviews, and other footage from the two firms on Google video for free from this month.

The content is sponsored through a Google advertising-supported revenue-sharing agreement.

Google also said that in addition to the advertising-supported video content, music videos from Warner would be available for purchase as downloads at $1.99 each.

As part of YouTube's deal with CBS, the companies will share revenue from advertising sponsorship of CBS Videos.

The new 3d-tv Technology maybe come to home in 2010

2009-09-20T01:19:00.000-07:00

Three-dimensional images are expected jump out of movie theaters and into living rooms by next year.

Panasonic demonstrates 3-D television at a recent technology expo in Atlanta, Georgia.

Sony and Panasonic say they will release home 3-D television systems in 2010; Mitsubishi and JVC are reported to be working on similar products.

"TV finally becomes real" in three dimensions, said Robert Perry, an executive vice president at Panasonic. "You're in it. It's the next frontier."

Perry compared the 3-D transition to the switch from black-and-white to color television and the shift from standard- to high-definition images. See what 3-D TV demos look like »

ESPN is test-recording some sporting events in 3-D, using cameras with two sets of lenses, which would make football players appear to jump out of home television screens during live 3-D broadcasts.

And, although television makers haven't released specifics, the price of 3-D TV -- which requires a new television, broadcasting content and 3-D glasses -- is not expected to be substantially higher than some high-definition televisions on the market now.

Still, there are skeptics who say that 3-D is not ready for prime-time home viewing.

There are concerns that 3-D broadcasts, which require twice the data, will gobble up an unworkable amount of television bandwidth. And some worry that 3-D glasses and graphics won't make a smooth transition to American living rooms.

Shane Sturgeon, publisher of HDTV Magazine, said some of the glasses give him a headache and will block some people from buying the new technology.

Don't Miss

"From what I've seen from most of the manufacturers, it's just not there yet," he said of 3-D TV technology. "I think right now, the technology -- whether you're talking about the refresh rate or the strobing or the glasses -- there are too many things right now that get in the way of enjoyment of the film for it to kick off."

All 3-D technology relies on the idea that if separate images are presented to the left and right eyes, the human brain will combine them and create the illusion of a third dimension.

TV makers go about this in different ways, though.

Panasonic and Sony, which demonstrated their products for CNN at a recent tech expo in Atlanta, Georgia, use "active glasses" and TVs with high refresh rates to achieve the effect.

Two images, one for the right eye and one for the left eye, alternate quickly on the TV. Shutters on the 3-D glasses swap the viewer's vision from right eye to left eye at the same rate: 120 hertz, or 240 hertz for the images together. The TV connects with the glasses through a sensor that's placed between the lenses on the glasses.

"It's like a little Venetian blind: open, close, open, close, open, close," John Wyckoff, a Sony content manager, said of the glasses.

The effect moves so quickly that it tricks the brain into merging the images and creates the perspective needed to see images in 3-D, he said.

Glance away from the TV, though, and you can see the lenses opening and closing, which irritates some people.

Those who saw the technology at the recent Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association Expo seemed wowed by Panasonic's 3-D footage of Olympic events and skiers who appeared to send snow flying into the laps of the audience.

David Lesch fidgeted with his 3-D glasses during Panasonic's demo but said the 3-D picture on the company's 103-inch plasma screen was excellent.

However, it may not be effective for all TV programming, he said.

"I cannot imagine that I will watch CNN in 3-D," said Lesch, sales director at AV Media, which sells electronics. "But for sports, yes. To watch soccer and ice hockey -- anything -- that would be great."

These next-generation televisions would be able to play shows in 2-D or 3-D. They also would be able to show video games in 3-D, which Sony demonstrated at the expo in Atlanta.

Sturgeon, of HDTV Magazine, said JVC is working on a type of 3-D technology that's different form the strobing glasses used by Panasonic and Sony.

JVC's version uses polarized glasses to separate the right-eye image from the left-eye image and is more pleasing to the eye, he said.

Aside from the kooky glasses, people who want to watch television that jumps off the screen will need something to watch. The process of making live television work in 3-D probably would involve a major conversion of broadcast equipment.

Also, Blu-ray is said to be working on a product that would play three-dimensional movies at home.

Panasonic and Sony said they're still working out some kinks in their 3-D entertainment systems. The TV makers hope to ride the wave of popularity of improved stereoscopic 3-D movies, such as recent hit "Up," that are being shown in theaters.

Perry, of Panasonic, said he expects 3-D TV to be common in homes within five to 10 years. Technology that will make 3-D TV possible without glasses should be ready in 10 to 15 years, he said.

Michael Bridwell, spokesman for Digital Projection, a company that makes high-end 3-D home theaters, said 3-D is the biggest technology coming to television and home movies in the foreseeable future.

Well, at least "until we get to holograms," he said

Zune HD and Microsoft hopes to turn it around with it

2009-09-19T22:59:00.000-07:00

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft will take another swipe at the iPod on Wednesday when it launches the latest version of the Zune media player.

After three years and untold millions spent on the line, Microsoft's hopes of cutting into iPod's big lead are now on the Zune HD, with its 3.3-inch multitouch screen, streaming-music feature, and the ability to playback video, with the help of an HDTV, in 720p. A 16GB Zune HD is available at retailers for $219.99 and a 32GB will cost $289.99.

But at this point in Zune's evolution there's plenty of skepticism that the Zune can close the gap on Apple. A Zune-iPod comparison has for too long resembled a late-round prize fight, the kind where the challenger is cut, swollen-eyed and wobbly legged but refuses to go to the canvas. Zune sales are falling, a top manager has moved on and what's perhaps most worrisome is that the category is becoming passe.

While Apple also tries to kick-start lackluster iPod sales--upgrading Nanos with such features as a video camera and voice recording--CEO Steve Jobs has steered consumer interest away from straight digital music players and into smartphones. Apple has sold more than 30 million iPhones over the past two years and seen more than 1.8 billion iPhone applications downloaded.

Nonetheless, this is still Microsoft, one of the biggest technology companies in the world and well known for its patience.

"You can make the argument this is Microsoft's first real shot to getting it right," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group. "Remember, the bar doesn't have to be set all that high for them to be successful. Nobody is supposed to unseat iPod...and Microsoft now has a product that they seem to be more confident in."

That confidence may come in part from an upgrade that some have called the best Zune yet. (For more, see CNET's full review of the Zune HD.)

Zune HD features a new OLED (organic light emitting diode) screen and will send high-def video to a HDTV using a new Zune AV dock, sold separately.

"Consumers can buy or rent HD content from the Zune Marketplace," Microsoft said in a statement, "sync that content to a Zune HD and take it with them to play back on a large screen HD TV in the home or on the road."

The 16GB is available in black and the 32GB is available in "platinum" at retail locations. Customers can purchase Zune in red, green, or blue in both capacities from Zuneoriginals.net.

Zune HD will also play games, HD Radio, and offers music-recommendation software, called Smart DJ.

The new xbox 360 250gb !!! relased

2009-09-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

"Infinity Ward announced at a press event in Los Angeles today that, to commemorate the release of the game, Microsoft will be releasing a brand new model of the Xbox 360 based on Modern Warfare 2."

windows games in the way for updates

2009-09-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

In 2008, the global PC game software market reached $12.7 billion in revenue from a combination of retail sales, subscriptions, virtual item sales, advertising and digital distribution revenue according to the PC Gaming Alliance Horizons Software Report (click here to download the report). This was up 18% from 2007! PC gaming is hotter than ever!

So today we are announcing that we are revamping the Games for Windows Program. This revamp includes new technical guidelines, a self-certification option, and a set of 22 technical requirements which are designed to:

Create an easier game installation experience.

Support both 32-bit and 64-bit Platforms.

Support Ratings and Parental Controls in Windows 7

Game titles populated in the Game Explorer.

Enhanced game update notifications for game titles.

Stability, security and compatibility against commonly known issues.

The idea is to have more game developers participating with more game titles that pass a standardized set of technical requirements. Games that go through and pass these technical requirements will offer consumers a better gaming experience. Gamers can expect awesome high-quality gaming with Games of Windows titles going forward.

The new requirements for Games for Windows will also allow developers to take advantage of Windows 7 features and compatibility when Windows 7 is released on October 22^nd.

You get some of these improvements today with Games for Windows – LIVE titles. When you install the Games for Windows – LIVE 3.0 client on Windows 7, Games for Windows – LIVE is added to Game Providers in Games Explorer.

As you can see, I can receive the latest news on Games for Windows – LIVE in the right-hand pane directly within the Games Explorer in Windows 7. When I click on Street Fighter IV (which is a Games for Windows – LIVE title) I can see whether or not the game is up to date directly from Games Explorer.

You can download the Games for Windows – LIVE 3.0 client here.

I posted about many of the brand new enhancements to Games Explorer (and the gaming experience) in Windows 7 several months ago.

Starting today, the program will be available to all PC gaming developers and publishers.

Over the past few years, we have worked to improve the quality of PC gaming in Windows for consumers through the Games for Windows. We hope that the revamp of the program we are announcing today makes gaming in Windows and on a PC even better!

Mozilla’s move to nudge Firefox users into updating the browser’s Flash Player plug-in

2009-09-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

Mozilla’s move to nudge Firefox users into updating the browser’s Flash Player plug-in is being hailed as a “phenomenal” success with about 10 million users clicking through to the Web page with Adobe’s patch.

Mozilla released some brief statistics to track the success of its new program, which serves up a visual warning to Firefox users if their version of the ever-present Adobe Flash Player plug-in is out of date. The program started last week with the releases of Firefox 3.5.3 and Firefox 3.0.14.

Here’s a chart tracking the traffic and click-through rates on the Flash security warning page:

From Mozilla’s Ken Kovash:

Beyond the total impact of 10,000,000 clicks, the most impressive pattern that stands out is the click through rate. While the Firefox whatsnew page generally sees a click through rate below 5%, the flash update link alone has generated a click-through rate north of 30%. Phenomenal!

The 30% click-through number might be something to celebrate but it means that a whopping two-thirds of all Firefox users may still be running a version of Flash Player that’s vulnerable to malware attacks.

Adobe’s software — especially Flash Player and Reader/Acrobat — have become a preferred target for malware attacks because they are usually unpatched on the majority of Windows desktops. By Adobe’s count, 99% of all Internet-enabled PCs are currently running Flash.

A wave of new devices powered by Google's Android

2009-09-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

A wave of new devices powered by Google's Android platform look set to test the flexibility and appeal of the software.

Within the last week, LG, Motorola, and INQ Mobile all announced Android phones, which will join offerings from Samsung and HTC. Few details have been released about INQ's and LG's phones, but Motorola's device, known in the United States as the CLIQ, boasts an interface designed specifically for accessing social media.

The CLIQ's interface organizes information on the phone into "streams," weaving data from the phone's address book with information posted on social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Users can respond to messages through a number of social channels without having to log in or out of accounts or switch applications.

Experts say that the new devices could give more clues about how manufacturers plan to use Android software. Ian Fogg, a principal analyst at Forrester Research who specializes in mobile technology, says that companies are taking one of two approaches to Android. Either they're using it to ship a broadly standard device that features integration with Google services as a main selling point, or they're using the platform to create devices, such as the CLIQ, with unique software designed to stand out in the marketplace.

Whichever approach a company takes, Fogg says Android offers some key advantages. Handset manufacturers "can get a leg up, a quicker start, because they're using Android as a base, they can still differentiate with software, and they get the advantage of having compatibility with all the applications out in the Android marketplace."

But though using Android as a foundation is quicker than building a mobile operating system from scratch, Kevin Burden, head of ABI Research's mobile-devices group, points out that it takes a lot of work for a device manufacturer to develop the Android framework enough to release a phone. This explains in part why it took some time for other devices to join HTC's early offering, the G1, which was released last year.

Google now with DoubleClick Ad Exchange

2009-09-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

Google is about to launch its most potent weapon to date in the battle over the $15 billion market for display ads—the pictorial banners and videos that support most major Web sites. On Sept. 18 the search giant will launch its new DoubleClick advertising exchange, a sort of stock exchange for online ads it has been developing since early last year.

Google's (GOOG) exchange lets Web sites offer space that ad agencies and online brokers called ad networks can bid for in an automated auction system. Advertisers hope to get a wider choice of ad space and the ability to target ads more precisely to the most likely prospects. Publishers hope to net higher rates than they can from the hundreds of ad networks—which generally pay very low rates—and sell more of the ad space that today goes unsold. As BusinessWeek reported three months ago, Google's ad exchange has been widely anticipated because of the company's growing influence over online ads.

The goal for Google is to make display advertising, which currently requires a lot of time and effort to create and distribute on thousands of sites, much simpler to deploy so that many more advertisers and publishers can run the ads. Because of the existing complexity, as well as advertiser uncertainty over display ads' effectiveness, text search ads such as Google's have grown far faster than display in recent years. "The idea is to grow the overall display-advertising pie," says Neal Mohan, Google's vice-president for product management. "Display advertising is still not living up to its full potential."

It's far from certain that Google will succeed with its new exchange. The giant dominates the market for search advertising, garnering about half the industry's total revenues. But it has struggled to expand into new fields, such as radio and print advertising, and its efforts in display ads have seen little success so far. Search ads still constitute over 95% of Google's revenues. The company's display-ad exchange, an early version of which Google picked up early last year when it acquired online ad-placement firm DoubleClick for $3.2 billion, will face competition, too. Yahoo! (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT), and others already operate their own exchanges.

New Technology for blinds To map the world

2009-09-19T09:22:00.000-07:00

Virtual reality used for blind to map real world

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) -

Virtual reality can let video game players escape from the real world but a group of researchers are using virtual reality to help the blind join the real world more, by navigating real places.

Researchers at the University of Chile and Harvard Medical School are using three audio-based PC games that allow players to navigate a labyrinth, a subway system and real-world buildings based on audio cues. "Essentially the games work by interpreting information generated by spectral sounds like footsteps and door knocks," said Lotfi B. Merabet, PhD of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School and co-author of "AER Journal: Research and Practice in Visual Impairment and Blindness."

"The player uses a keyboard to move and interact with the virtual world. By sequentially interacting within the virtual 3-D environment, the user learns to build a spatial cognitive map of their surroundings."

The goal was to develop audio-based gaming to help blind children develop spatial, cognitive and social skills.

"(We've) concentrated on developing the gaming software as a rehabilitation tool to allow blind users to survey unfamiliar buildings before actually navigating through them in real life, as well as conducting brain imaging studies to uncover how the brain of a blind individual accomplishes this task," said Merabet.

According to the World Health Organization, there are about 314 million visually impaired people worldwide and about 45 million of them are blind.

There are over 50 audio-based games for the blind currently available, according to Kelly Sapergia, who reviews games created by and for blind people for the American Council of the Blind's "Main Menu" radio program.

She said these vary from pinball to "Space Invaders"-style games to "GMA Tank Commander," which is a World War II game that lets you drive a tank and shoot various weapons at enemies.

Blind gamers also have access to the classic text-based games that preceded the video game explosion, including titles like "Zork" from Infocom. Sapergia said blind gamers can plug in an audio synthesizer and have the text-based adventure read to them.

There are even games that offer a level playing field regardless of sight. Since 2001, AllinPlay has offered subscription-based online community games like "Texas Hold-em," "Crazy Eights," and "The Anagram Game" that were designed for both blind and sighted people.

Previous research efforts have also become games for the blind. In 2005, the Utrecht School of the Arts in the Netherlands developer a racing game called "Drive" in cooperation with the Bartimus Institute for the Blind. The game lets players drive a shuttle along a fixed track with a co-pilot named Bob. But compared to the millions of copies of PC and console games sold every week, the market for games for the blind is tiny.

"There's a community of blind gamers, but I think the main drawback has been that the big game publishers like Nintendo and Sony haven't created games that are more accessible for blind people," said Sapergia.

Merabet and fellow researcher Jaime Sanchez from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chile do not view audio-based computer games as a replacement for current rehabilitative techniques but they hope this research will provide a complementary technique.

Video games The best for you

2009-09-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

Keen video gamers now have one more excuse to keep on playing.

Parents may not welcome the research

US scientists have found that regular players of shoot-em-ups, such as Half-Life and Medal of Honour, have much better visual skills than most of the population.

The researchers have shown that gamers were particularly good at spotting details in busy, confusing scenes and could cope with more distractions than average.

The two scientists also found that with a little game playing the visual skills of anyone can be improved.

Sight skills

Researchers Shawn Green and Daphne Bavelier pitted keen players of computer games against people who never play in a series of psychological tests that measure basic visual skills.

The tests demanded that subjects match shapes appearing in a series of circles with ones displayed at the side of the screen.

Although video game playing may seem to be rather mindless, it is capable of radically altering visual attentional processing

Daphne Bavelier and Shawn Green

Keen players were vastly better at this task, and completed it much faster, especially when the test was made more difficult by the circles being filled with distracting shapes.

Gamers also showed their skill in another experiment that measured "attentional blink" which captures how easy it is to catch someone's attention.

The test asks subjects to identify a symbol flashed up very soon after the appearance of a first one.

The second symbol appeared between two-tenths and half a second after the first symbol.

Gamers managed to correctly identify the second symbol correctly far faster than non-players.

"Video game playing enhances the capacity of visual attention and its spatial distribution," wrote the researchers in a paper published in the journal Nature this week.

Training day

To ensure that it was experience with computer games that was refining visual and attentional skills, the researchers trained subjects on a variety of games and then tested them again.

Crazy Taxi was a favourite of the gamers tested

The subjects were trained on two different games. One group played the WWII shooter Medal of Honor and the second group got to play the classic puzzle game Tetris.

After training for an hour per day for 10 days, the subjects were put through the tests again.

The players who had been wrestling with Medal of Honor showed a significant improvement in visual and attentional skills. By contrast, the Tetris veterans showed almost no change in these skills.

"By forcing players to simultaneously juggle a number of varied tasks, action video game playing pushes the limits of three rather different aspects of visual attention," wrote the researchers.

The added: "Although video game playing may seem to be rather mindless, it is capable of radically altering visual attentional processing."

The study was commissioned by the US Government's National Institute of Health.

Feds balk at Google book deal, hopes for changes

2009-09-19T09:19:00.000-07:00

Enlarge

John Bivens, head of services and support for On Demand Books, demonstrates the printing of a book from an Espresso Book Machine at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

(AP) -- The U.S. Justice Department advised a federal judge Friday that a proposed legal settlement giving Google Inc. the digital rights to millions of out-of-print books threatens to thwart competition and drive up prices unless it's revised.

The brief filed in New York federal court marks the first time that the Justice Department has publicly shared its thoughts about Google's agreement with a large class of U.S. authors and publishers.

The nation's top law enforcement agency began looking at the Google book settlement earlier this summer amid a loudening outcry against an agreement affecting a reservoir of human knowledge.

"The breadth of the proposed settlement...raises significant legal concerns," the Justice Department wrote in its 28-page filing with U.S. District Judge Denny Chin.

Despite its misgivings, the Justice Department expressed confidence that Google and the author and publishers could negotiate changes so the settlement will adhere to U.S. copyright and antitrust laws.

The Justice Department told Chin it hopes an acceptable compromise can be worked out because the agreement "has the potential to breathe life into millions of works that are now effectively off limits to the public."

Even with those words of encouragement, the Justice Department's brief raises the biggest red flag about the settlement yet. The agency warned Chin it probably will conclude the deal breaks federal antitrust law unless changes are made.

While other critics such as Google rivals Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. also have objected in recent weeks, the Justice Department's opinion presumably will carry more weight with Chin. His approval is needed before the $125 million settlement can take effect, a hurdle that could be more difficult to clear with the Justice Department's assertion that the agreement would violate several laws.

"We are considering the points raised by the department and look forward to addressing them as the court proceedings continue," Google said in a joint statement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, the groups that sued and then settled with the Internet search leader.

Critics seized on the Justice Department's brief as validation of their arguments urging Chin to block the settlement.

"The current settlement proposal would stifle innovation and competition in favor of a monopoly over the access, distribution, and pricing of the largest collection of digital books in the world," said the Open Book Alliance, a group that includes Amazon.com, Microsoft and another Google rival, Yahoo Inc. The alliance also includes authors and several nonprofit organizations.

The Justice Department's lawyers, as well as a long line of the settlement's opponents and supporters, will have an opportunity to elaborate on their arguments in a New York court hearing scheduled Oct. 7.

Mountain View, Calif-based Google conceivably could use the Justice Department's filing as a road map for navigating to new settlement terms before the hearing.

In its current form, the settlement would entrust Google with a digital database containing millions of copyright-protected books, including volumes no longer being published. The Internet search leader would act as the sales agent for the authors and publishers, giving 63 percent of the revenue to the copyright holders. Authors and publishers could either set their own prices for their books, or rely on a formula drawn up by Google - a provision that has raised fears of the partnership turning into a price-gouging cartel.

The Justice Department sided with those arguments, saying the settlement could lessen competition among U.S. publishers. The agency also expressed concern that Google would gain a monopoly on so-called "orphan works" - out-of-print books that are still protected by copyright but whose writers' whereabouts are unknown.

The arrangement "appears to create a dangerous probability that only Google would have the ability to market to libraries and other institutions a comprehensive digital-book subscription."

Hoping to ease those concerns, Google has promised to share its electronic index with its rivals - an idea that has drawn an icy response from Amazon.com, one of the world's biggest book merchants and the maker of the Kindle, an electronic reader.

Google already has gone into some of the nation's largest libraries to scan about 6 million out-of-print books into its electronic index. So far, though, it has only been able to show snippets of those digital copies. The settlement would clear the way for Google to sell all those out-of-print books and scan even more into its index.

The project has turned into a crusade for Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who have for years dreamt of making books collecting dust on library book shelves accessible around the clock to anyone with an Internet ambition.

That ambition has won Google broad support from librarians, disabled rights activists and big companies like Sony Corp., that wants to tap into the digital book index to feed its own electronic reader.

While the settlement's goals are admirable, the Justice Department said the deal doesn't do enough to protect the copyrights of orphan works and authors outside the United States.

The United States' top copyright cop and the governments in Germany and France also have raised objections about the settlement overstepping its bounds.

Consumer watchdogs are worried about the settlement opening a door for Google to collect too much information about the books that people are reading. Google has tried to address those concerns by promising to draw up a separate policy governing its digital library.

The Justice Department didn't address the privacy issues in its brief.

Once it is finished, Mystery will contain a big Island

2009-09-19T09:16:00.002-07:00

Crysis map Mystery (16) [Source: view picture gallery]

Once it is finished, Mystery will contain a big Island inhabited by enemy soldiers and Aliens. The player and a team have to make a force landing and find an alien artifact.

For Mystery the modder is working on new cut scenes, optimized Time of Day settings, individual targets and the A.I. for the opponents. According to the modder, it will take several weeks until the map is final and ready for download. To pass the time you can take a look at the screenshots in our gallery. More information can be found in the Crymod Forum.

the best UT3 Mods Unreal world

2009-09-19T09:16:00.001-07:00

The Haunted WS [Source: view picture gallery]

The Make Something Unreal contest consists of four phases. The overall value of all prices, cash and hardware prices, adds up to 1 million US Dollar. Developers of UT3 mods have been call on sending in their creations. Now the third phase is over and the winners of the following categories:
- Best First-Person Shooter (FPS) Game Mod
- Best Non-FPS Game Mod
- Best New Character / Customization Pack
- Best Deathmatch or CTF Level
- Best vCTF or Warfare Level
- Best Level for a Game Mod
- Best Machinima
- Best New Weapon Set
- Best Graphics in Map
- Best Use of Physics

The complete rankings and the according downloads can be found at the Unreal website. PC Games Hardware introduces the best mods with screenshots in the gallery below. Which of the pictures do you like best? Give your opinion in the comments.

Nvidia Optix Ray Tracing engine The new technology

2009-09-19T09:14:00.000-07:00

Nvidia: Examples for real-time ray tracing in movies [Source: view picture gallery]

Only recently PC Games Hardware reported that Nvidia introduced the Optix at the Siggraph 2009. The Ray Tracing engine has formerly known as NVIRT (Nvidia Interactive Raytracer). Currently the intended fields of operation are photorealistic rendering, visual simulations or scientific research.

Nvidia has released new material of the Optix Ray Tracing engine and the related software packages Complex and Scenix. Among the new releases are pictures of GPU Ray Tracing and impressive full body scans that have been calculated with several GPUs as well as Scenix shots that show some cars from Autodesk.

Windows 8 is in the road to come in 2012

2009-09-19T09:09:00.000-07:00

A roadmap of the Italian Microsoft subsidiary reveals that the software company plans the release of Windows 8 for the year 2012. This apparently confirms that Microsoft wants to release a new operating system very two to three years.

Only recently Microsoft finalized the RTM of windows 7. Planning for Windows 8 is taking up speed, says the Blog that published the roadmap. Furthermore it seems that Microsoft sticks to the tactics of planning release dates on a conservative basis. Chief of development Steven Sinofsky introduced this with windows 7 in order to prevent such a disaster as it happened with Windows Vista. Therefore Microsoft might target an earlier release date internally.

Windows 8: Roadmap reveals release in 2012 [Source: view picture gallery]

Tables Now Turned on the hacker sites

2009-09-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

Here's one to make you smile. An underground malware and hacking forum got a taste of its own medicine when it was itself hacked by a digital vigilante.

A post from F-Secure says the underground pakbugs.com forum drew malicious hackers who bought and sold malware, stolen credit card numbers and the like. That is, until someone going by "Catch Them" broke into the site and gathered the full list of registered users, including their forum passwords and e-mail addresses, which the vigilante then posted to the Full Disclosure security mailing list. The F-Secure post includes screen shots of the pakbugs site and the users list.

F-Secure says the site has been going up and down since the event, and it's not responding when I check it (from a Linux test machine, probably not a good idea to visit underground hacking sites using your Windows desktop). Let's hope the site stays down.

`Need for Speed' titles lead pack of racing games Updated news

2009-09-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES -

The video game racing genre is gearing up for a traffic jam.

Nearly a dozen racing games are expected to drive onto store shelves before the end of the year, competing for the attention of gamers at a time when sales have tapped the brakes. "Forza MotorSport 3," "Dirt 2," "Blur," "MotorStorm: Arctic Edge" and "Gran Turismo" for the PlayStation Portable are among the titles plotting a course for release this year.

Electronic Arts has revved up new "Need for Speed" titles as part of its strategy to diversify the 15-year-old racing franchise for different platforms. EA Black Box, the Canadian developer that created the previous "Need for Speed" games, has taken a backseat while other developers have crafted three games aimed at three different audiences.

The first, developer Slightly Mad Studios' hardcore racing simulator "Need for Speed Shift," was released this week for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, PC, iPhone and iPod Touch. "Shift" abandons the series' slick street style in favor of photorealistic action similar to the "Forza MotorSport" franchise. The focus is on recreating the sensation of being pulled by G-forces during high-speed cornering inside the game's 72 realer-than-real racing cars.

"It's something we euphemistically refer to as first-person driving," said "Shift" producer Jesse Abney. "First-person shooter games have done a great job over the last few years of creating an environment where players are really immersed in the action. What we've done with `Need for Speed Shift' is create that true driver's experience of being in the cockpit."

EA will venture down a different path with "Need for Speed Nitro," the arcade-style racing game developed by EA Montreal for the Wii and Nintendo DS set for release Nov. 17. Unlike "Shift," this "Need for Speed" edition will feature speedy police pursuits and the ability for racers to trick out their rides and tracks with customizable decals and colors.

"When I first came to EA, I thought it was a really interesting challenge to make a `Need for Speed' game on the Wii that can attract gamers and a general mass audience because the Wii is not a platform that's about graphics," said "Nitro" producer Gadi Pollack, who worked on "Prince of Persia" at Ubisoft. "It's about the gameplay and the handling."

The third "Need for Speed" title, "Need for Speed World Online," is a massively multiplayer online game being developed by EA Singapore. The free-to-play action-driving game, which will be released in Asia before coming to the U.S., will feature fully customizable cars and a matchmaking system that pits players against each other in multiple game modes.

___

On the Net:

http://www.needforspeed.com/

Google News Page !

2009-09-19T06:03:00.000-07:00

Google turns page on news content

The BBC is the only UK media outlet that has signed up to Fast Flip

Google has unveiled a service called Fast Flip to let users consume news more quickly and to boost the flagging fortunes of the news industry.

The product is designed to mirror the way readers flick through magazines and newspapers.

Google has teamed up with more than 30 providers such as the BBC to provide what it calls a new reading experience.

The search giant was recently called a parasite for making money aggregating content it did not create.

"I don't believe we are part of the problem. I believe we are part of the solution," Google's vice-president of search, Marissa Mayer, told BBC News.

"We have tried to build platforms and tools that build a healthy, rich eco-system online that is supportive of content. This is a new way of looking at content."

Earlier this year, Wall Street Journal chief Robert Thomson called the search company and other aggregators such as Yahoo "parasites or tech tapeworms in the intestines of the internet".

The news industry has been struggling with how to broaden the size of its online audience and how to make money from content it has long given away free.

Last month, media mogul Rupert Murdoch said he hoped all of his major newspapers would be charging for online content by the end of June next year.

Preferences

Fast Flip imitates a conventional print publication by offering screenshots of the web pages containing relevant articles.

Newspapers have struggled to make money from online content

The stories are organised following a number of different criteria. For example, readers will be offered articles that have been popular all day, that reflect their personal preference or that have been recommended by friends.

Users who want to dig deeper into the story can click through to the publisher's website.

To make money, Fast Flip also serves up contextual adverts around the screenshots.

Publishers who have signed up to provide content to the service will share in that revenue; that was proof, said Ms Mayer, that Google was keen to help the industry at a time when it was clearly struggling.

"We are excited to team with publishers and look at a new possibility for how people might consume news online and how to monetise it," said Ms Mayer.

Google admitted that there was no "magic bullet" to quickly solve the challenges the publishing industry faced but it added that "we believe encouraging readers to read more news is a necessary part of the solution".

Ms Mayer said the science behind this was simple.

"Advertising responds well when you have engaged users.

"If you have users that stay on the site for a long time and who do a lot of page views, all of those are good measurers because you will have a better chance to engage them with the ads and learn from their behaviour what type of ads to target," explained Ms Mayer.

Hands-on control

Ms Mayer told TechCrunch 50, a conference aimed at start-up companies, that Google co-founder Larry Page had asked why the web was not more like a magazine, allowing users to flip from screen to screen seamlessly.

Delegates were told that one reason had to do with media-rich content that took time to load - five to 10 seconds.

Fast Flip marries the best of the web and publishing, said Google

"Imagine if it took that long to flip a magazine page," said Krishna Bharat, a distinguished engineer at Google who led the creation of the Google news service.

"We wanted to bring the advantages of print media, the speed and hands-on control you get with a newspaper or magazine, and combine that with the technical advantages of the internet. We wanted the best of both worlds," said Mr Bharat.

Ms Mayer revealed that initially they thought a solution to the problem posed by Mr Page was "a decade away".

She explained that Google had long been trying to harness increased speed, "shaving a millisecond here and another millisecond there".

But Ms Mayer said that the success of Fast Flip was down to having a specific problem to solve.

"A big part of innovation is having the right goal and asking the right question," she said.

Initially Fast Flip will concentrate on audiences in the US. The BBC is the only UK-based media outlet to have a presence on the site, due largely to its popularity in America.

Other publishers involved include Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, Popular Mechanics, Slate, Salon, the New York Times, the Washington Post and ProPublica.

Amazing Wierd Tricks (dirty)

2009-09-19T06:02:00.000-07:00

Science & Environment

-----------------

-----------------

Related BBC sites

Page last updated at 11:57 GMT, Friday, 18 September 2009 12:57 UK

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version

Will election campaign online be policed?

By Gavin Stamp
Political reporter, BBC News

Rules for identifying campaign leaflets have been in place for nearly 30 years

Another morning and a slew of press releases drop into the e-mail box from the Liberal Democrats, reacting to various government announcements.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, have sent out another e-mail giving details of events at their upcoming party conference.

What do the two have in the common?

At first glance, not much.

But if you read down to the bottom of both messages, you will be told that each has been printed and published by a named individual on behalf of the party concerned.

Each also tells you that the individual and the party are based at a given address, in effect the party's HQ.

Since 1983, all election candidates have been required by law to provide certain information - known as an imprint - on unsolicited campaign literature to alert voters to who it comes from.

Leaflets pushed through a letterbox have to identify who has printed the material - normally a candidate's agent or assistant - who has published it - normally the candidate - and a postal address where they can be contacted.

This is designed to help voters tell the material is genuine and enable them to complain about it if they want.

The rules were updated in 2000 to cover material sent out by political parties as well as candidates and anyone breaching them faces a potential £5,000 fine.

Ministers have been chugging along either unaware that there is a risk building up or being vaguely aware of it and keeping their fingers crossed

Mark Pack

But with a general election on the horizon, there are concerns that the laws are ill-equipped for the new digital battlefields that the campaign will be fought on.

Candidates will be using all means at their disposal to get their faces known and messages across, including text messages, social networking sites, campaign videos and internet ads, not to mention the political classes' latest communication fad - Twitter.

'Good practice'

Current laws give ministers the power, subject to Parliamentary approval, to draw up specific rules for non-printed material but, nine years on, they have yet to do so.

In its most recent guidance, the Electoral Commission said candidates should as "a matter of good practice" include imprint details on their campaign websites.

But candidates are not required to do so and the watchdog advised ministers in 2003 to look at the issue, arguing candidates need to be equally accountable in all different mediums.

Do you need party details on tweets?

While all mainstream parties and many candidates already do this, the Commission admits the practice is not "consistent" among all campaigners.

"We believe that this requirement should be applied consistently across all non-broadcast media if voters are to maintain trust in online campaign material and the current generally positive relationship between voters and campaigners online is to continue," it says.

With electronic campaigning set to play a bigger role than ever before in the next election, some people are worried about this apparent discrepancy.

"Ministers have been chugging along either unaware that there is a risk building up or being vaguely aware of it and keeping their fingers crossed," says Mark Pack, a former Lib Dem executive who co-wrote the party's election law manual.

Although there has yet to be a serious breach of the rules Mr Pack believes this may be only a matter of time and there is uncertainty about how the law would be interpreted in such a case.

Citing a case in the US where the authorities in Florida have banned political adverts on Google because there is not enough room to display the imprints, he says there are potential "flashpoints" around the corner.

"Anyone can put something on the internet, send a text message or an e-mail as the bar to action is so low," he says.

Those potentially falling foul of the rules could range from "over-enthusiastic" campaigners to those mounting "dishonest" attacks and misrepresenting opponents' views.

"It is not out of the question you are going to get some foolishness and the more you can protect people from this the better for everyone."

Finding space

Yet the idea that every electioneering text message or tweet should carry an imprint from its sender seems implausible.

With space at a premium in these missives, the Electoral Commission acknowledges it would be "counter-productive" if such details squeezed out the actual content of a message.

Sites like Youtube have become huge since the 2005 election

There is also the issue of where an imprint should appear on a social networking page or a YouTube video to ensure voters can see it or whether a prominent link to an official website is enough.

Ministers recognised the complexity of these issues in 2004 when they decided the ever-changing media landscape meant it was impractical to create laws which would be effective and lasting.

Five years on, it appears little has changed.

The Ministry of Justice says specific guidance for candidates is a matter for the Electoral Commission while pointing out there is "already legislation which specifies that unsolicited material must contain details of its printer and promoter".

Dirty tricks

But critics like Mark Pack have urged ministers and watchdogs to end what he calls their "stand-off" and bring rules for digital communications into line with those for printed material.

"I think they have essentially let it drift because there has not been a case come up which has made everyone think we must do something about it," he says.

Since 2005 the internet has grown hugely, with rising numbers of bloggers and social network sites - which all means that regulators will face new challenges such as the growing scope for dirty tricks in cyberspace.

Back in 2003, the Electoral Commission said spoof websites were an acceptable part of the democratic debate as long as they were clearly identifiable as such and did not seek to deceive the voters.

But now spoof videos can be seen by millions of people within a matter of minutes, do the same judgements still apply?

The answer is, come the next election, the watchdog will not be spending its time scouring the internet for potential "video nasties".

A spokesman explains: "There is nothing in electoral legislation that would cover that kind of stuff. Our job is to provide guidance for those people taking part in an election and to help them stay within the law."

But he makes clear that complaints about potentially defamatory material, under electoral laws, remain a matter for the police and that cases will be investigated.

The download service is not enought to

2009-09-19T06:01:00.000-07:00

Downloading is not enough

Young people's attitudes to music may be too complicated and fast-changing to measure, says Bill Thompson

Peer-to-peer (p2p) download services are still popular with music-loving kids, it seems. The second annual survey of young people's music consumption by pressure group UK Music found among 1,808 respondents aged 18 to 24 that three-fifths of them used p2p services, and four-fifths of those did so at least once a week.

This is almost the same as last year's result, and would seem to indicate that the efforts by the music industry to offer a range of licensed alternatives to Limewire and other p2p services have failed to have any real impact.

The survey was carried out by academic researchers in the Music and Entertainment Industry Management research group at the University of Hertfordshire, and the picture it presents is a complex one that will surely give the music industry many sleepless nights.

Mixed messages

Feargal Sharkey, the former pop star who now heads the group, hinted at the possibility of failure in his introduction to the survey results, where he notes that "the shape of our entire business will continue to evolve".

"However, we will achieve nothing if we do not work with music fans, and young music fans in particular," he continued. "They are hugely demanding in their needs, but collectively we must rise to that challenge."

But even if they want to rise to the challenge, it's not clear that the survey tells them what do to next. Kids, it seems, like unlicensed services because they are free. But the report also acknowledges their usefulness in finding more obscure music and letting them listen to a band before they buy, so closing them down may actually make it harder for new artists to break through.

The survey offers no coherent picture of the state of young people's consumption of and attitude to music

Bill Thompson

They are willing to abandon p2p in favour of licensed services that they have to pay for, but they wouldn't pay for a streaming service like Spotify. They apparently want to own their music, or rather they want to have the music files on their hard drives rather than rely on streaming.

They happily spend as much money on live concerts as on recorded music, and over half would not object to a levy on copying music from one device to another.

Overall the picture seems full of contradictions, perhaps reflecting a wide range of attitudes among young people themselves.

The unwillingness to use streaming services is interesting, especially since I've seen every one of my son's friends sign up to Spotify recently. While is is possible that kids really do value "ownership" of music, I suspect it has more to do with the limitations of their online lives.

Here today

Young people are less likely to have fast, reliable net connections at home, or laptops to carry around from place to place, or they probably value the ability to transfer a track from computer to MP3 player to USB stick to mobile phone.

Another aspect may relate to the music industry's own record when it comes to online services. It might be that young people have no faith that the streaming services are going to stay around since they operate at the discretion of the record labels, which have clamped down on many services that are popular with young music fans in the past.

Spotify has already had to remove a large number of tracks from its catalogue because rights to use them were removed, and internet radio firms have lurched from crisis to crisis because the record companies have demanded such large license fees from even the smallest of them.

Evidence to support this view comes from elsewhere in the report, in responses to the questions about CDs. The average size of CD collections was 70 (for 14-17 year olds) and 98 (for 18-24 year olds), and a massive 77% of respondents said that they would still buy original albums even if they subscribed to a music download service.

There is still some push toward "owning" online music

The reasons for wanting CDs include a desire to have sleeve notes, the sound quality and the desire to own a physical object. But 44% of respondents said that one reason for wanting a CD was that it "cannot be deleted", an indication that young people have taken note of the problems that have occurred in the past when access to rights-managed music files has been withdrawn because services have been shut down.

Overall, the survey offers no coherent picture of the state of young people's consumption of and attitude to music, perhaps because things are changing so fast and young people are so quick to adapt to new technological realities that there simply is no single coherent model that will explain it all.

But it is also necessary to be cautious with the data and its interpretation. The problem with a survey commissioned by a group with a significant interest in the outcome is that no matter how independent and objective the organisation that actually does the polling is, the questions asked may subtly shape the responses.

For example, one of the "key findings" that UK Music draws out in its press release on the survey is that "music remains the most valued form of entertainment". Indeed, this is seen as so important that it tops the list of talking points, above the finding that three-fifths of young people download music from p2p services.

This is a remarkable finding in the age of the PS3, the Wii and the Xbox.

Except that the question that was actually asked was "what entertainment would you miss most on a desert island?"and the three options offered were mobile phone, internet and music - they weren't asked about videogames, and so could not rank them.

Bill Thompson is an independent journalist and regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Digital Planet.

Sony PlayStation claim Rebuts

2009-09-19T05:59:00.000-07:00

Sony rebuts BBC PlayStation claim

Sony has sold 2.5 million Playstation 3 consoles in the UK

Sony has rebutted claims made by the BBC programme Watchdog that its PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles suffer from a manufacturing fault.

The programme spoke to PS3 owners who experienced the "yellow light of death" - after which the video game consoles did not work.

Sony argued that the small Watchdog study did not support firm conclusions about a potential manufacturing fault.

It also criticised the programme's approach as a "stunt".

"We think it is highly unfair to suggest that from an installed base of 2.5 million that the numbers you mention somehow are evidence of a 'manufacturing defect'," wrote Ray Maguire, senior vice-president and managing director of Sony UK, in a letter to the programme ahead of the broadcast.

"The phrase 'yellow light of death' has been adopted by certain members of the online community to describe the situation in which PS3 systems have shut down following the illumination of the yellow light on the PS3's front panel," the letter stated.

"The yellow indicator is simply a non-specific fault indicator that can be triggered in a range of different circumstances."

Into the voids

The Watchdog producers approached three commercial repair technicians, who examined the faulty units and said they displayed a high number of "voids" - faults in the solder that connect the electronic components.

In the letter, Mr Maguire said the fact that those voids were not exhibited by all of the faulty units presented to the programme was an indication that they were not the source of a definitive manufacturing problem.

The Watchdog team set up its PlayStation Repair Action Team, or Prat - a clinic for faulty PS3s outside Sony's London offices, advertising that they were offering a service that Sony charges for.

Mr Maguire's letter called the segment a "stunt" that "treats with inappropriate levity an issue which may do serious damage to...the Sony and PS3 brands".

A BBC spokesperson defended the programme, saying that "Watchdog investigated this item having been contacted by 155 viewers who had experienced problems with their PS3".

"We presented a fair and accurate account of their stories, using expert advice and we broadcast Sony's response."

Since the programme was broadcast on Thursday night, the BBC has been contacted by a further 265 PS3 owners experiencing the yellow-light fault.

Sony told the Watchdog programme that "less than half a percent" of the 2.5 million consoles it has sold exhibited the "yellow light" phenomenon when they failed.

The programme quoted the figure as 12,500 consoles - half a percent of that 2.5 million figure - but a spokesperson for Sony said the number is less than that.

However, Sony declined to give BBC News a more exact figure, citing a risk to its competitive advantage.

Samsung's 'Apple' chip Went to the markets again !

2009-09-19T05:57:00.002-07:00

Query: Who makes the Apple-branded chip in the iPhone? Answer: Samsung. This nontrivial detail translated into smartphone chip market share gains for Samsung in the second quarter, according to iSuppli.

Apple iPhone market share gains drove Samsung chip rise.

(Credit: Apple)

The iPhone, largely due to the popularity of the 3GS model, accounted for 13.9 percent of global smartphone shipments in the second quarter, up from 10.1 percent in the first quarter, according to iSuppli. As a result, Samsung accounted for 15.9 percent of global revenue from sales of standalone applications processors. An applications processor is roughly analogous to the main Intel or Advanced Micro Devices processor in a PC: it is basically the brains of a smartphone.

Samsung's market share was up nearly 1 percent from the first quarter, iSuppli said, though it still trailed No. 1 supplier Texas Instruments. iSuppli defines a "standalone" applications processor as digital signal- or logic-based processors not integrated with the digital baseband function.

"Since the introduction of the first (iPhone) in January 2007, Samsung has occupied the key applications processor slot in Apple's iPhone line," Francis Sideco, principal analyst of wireless communications for iSuppli, said in a statement. "With the new 3GS model allowing the iPhone to gain share in the smartphone market, Samsung also is claiming a larger portion of standalone applications processor shipments."

As with previous iPhone models, the 3GS--introduced in June--integrates a Samsung processor based on the ARM architecture. The processor accounted for $14.46, or 8.4 percent, of the materials cost of the iPhone 3GS based on pricing in late June, iSuppli said.

"The partnership between Apple and Samsung on the applications processor in the iPhone has been a major coup for Samsung, establishing it as a player in the market and allowing it to challenge the incumbent leader, Texas Instruments," Sideco said.

The big question, however, is how long a good thing will last for Samsung. Sideco added that "there is a lot of speculation as to whether Apple's acquisition of PA Semi will change the parameters of this partnership." Apple announced its purchase of PA Semi in March 2008.

One of the most rapidly circulating rumors has Apple using a PA Semi design in the upcoming Apple tablet. The latest word is that the screen size is about 10 inches diagonally, meaning that a tablet will require more processor and graphics horsepower than a smaller device like the iPhone.

Although Texas Instruments lost some share to Samsung in the second quarter, the U.S. chip giant retained its dominant position in the market, with a share of 24.4 percent. "Texas Instruments continues to lead the market on the strength of its Open Multimedia Application Platform (OMAP) line of applications processors," Sideco said.

Google Go Down With Ads !!

2009-09-19T05:57:00.001-07:00

With a new display ad exchange developed by its DoubleClick subsidiary, Google is hoping to give its one-trick pony another act.

Google has turned into one of the Internet's largest and most influential companies on the popularity of its search engine and the profitable text ads it sells alongside those search results. This business generates the vast majority of its revenue and profits and gives Google the resources to tackle a variety of other projects from Google Apps to Chrome OS to Google Books.

But like just about anything, that business can only grow so fast. Google will need another profitable, growing business to maintain its spot atop the Internet world, hence the motivation for its $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick a year ago and the launch of the DoubleClick Ad Exchange Friday.

The DoubleClick Ad Exchange is sort of like a stock exchange, where buyers and sellers meet to haggle over prices for display ads, such as banner ads or video ads. Companies that sign up to participate in the exchange can search for open spaces in which to place their ads and bid on that space just like Google's text-ad auction system for search keywords. It will also plug into Google's existing infrastructure for AdWords--ads sold on Google search results pages--as well as AdSense--ads hosted by Google but displayed on third-party Web sites, giving those customers another option for their marketing campaigns.

The DoubleClick Ad Exchange is based on the marriage of DoubleClick's ad exchange and Google's text-ad auction process.

(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)

Internet display advertising--banner ads, video ads, and the like--has a been a bit frustrating for advertisers and publishers to date. Advertisers spent $10.5 billion on search ads last year, up 20 percent from 2007, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. They spent $7.6 billion on display ads in 2008, up just 8 percent from the previous year.

Unlike simple text ads, display ads are more complex and time-consuming to develop, and haven't yet produced the same level of returns for advertisers that text ads have garnered. At the same time, the amount of advertising inventory on the Internet has exploded with the growth of news and entertainment on the Web, leaving tons of space for advertisers to flock their wares and the requisite supply and demand issues for publishers.

Yet even in the depths of a horrific advertising recession, few companies are willing to give up on Internet display ads altogether. They offer the chance to present a much more sophisticated brand image than a "Cool shoes found here!" text ad on Google or other search engines, and when not obnoxious can be creative and even entertaining.

Google is hoping that its auction-based format can entice more ad buyers into the display market by matching them more appropriately with publishers looking to offload their ad inventory. "We believe that a better system built on better technology can help grow the display advertising pie and benefit everyone," Google said in a blog post announcing the DoubleClick Ad Exchange.

As has been the case for years, Yahoo is squarely in Google's sights with this launch. Yahoo owns the display ad market at the moment following its purchase of Right Media in 2007, and with its decision to exit the search business plans to rely increasingly on display ads to fund its Web site in the coming years.

"While Right Media is the largest ad exchange and platform solution, we fully expect the display market to be fragmented and for there to be other exchanges. We welcome these exchanges, and look forward to working with them and integrating with them for our partners," Yahoo's Frank Weishaupt, vice president of North American marketplaces, said in a statement on Google's launch.

Google's edge could be the marriage of the AdWords and AdSense networks with the Display Ad Exchange. Under its deal with Microsoft Yahoo retains the right to sell search ads on search result pages powered by Bing, meaning it can also offer advertisers a combination of outlets for their messages. But advertisers looking for a search ad partner tend to think Google first, and that's not going to change unless Bing makes serious market share gains against Google over the coming year.

Some are skeptical that Google is going to make a large dent in this market right away. BernsteinResearch's Jeff Lindsey put out a research note spotted by Paid Content predicting that the exchange doubles DoubleClick's revenue to around $500 million next year, but that's still a pittance compared to Google's $21.8 billion in 2008 annual revenue.

But it's a chance for Google to see if the auction model developed for text ads will work in the more complicated display ad market, and could provide a foundation for future growth.

Apple Vs Google 2009

2009-09-19T05:54:00.000-07:00

First it was Steve Jobs' health. Then it was the layoffs earlier this year. Now the Google Voice rejection. Apple's credibility is being questioned yet again.

Anyone who deals with Apple on a regular basis knows it is a company that gives information on its own terms. But now even the federal government is having problems getting a clear answer regarding Apple's rejection of the Google Voice application for the iPhone.

On July 28, Google announced that the calling and message service application had been rejected from Apple's App Store. Three days later, Google, Apple, and AT&T, the iPhone's exclusive carrier in the U.S., received inquiries from the Federal Communications Commission regarding the app's rejection. In its answer to the FCC, Apple said that the application was not rejected, but was still "under review." In Google's response--the most interesting parts redacted until Friday--it told the FCC that a series of conversations took place between Apple Senior Vice President of Marketing Phil Schiller and Google Senior Vice President of Engineering Alan Eustace during the month of July, including one on July 7, where Schiller told Eustace that Google Voice was being rejected for duplicating the phone dialing function of the iPhone.

The discrepancy between what Google said and what Apple said in their answers to the FCC, of course, leads to many more questions. In response, Apple released the following statement Friday:

"We do not agree with all of the statements made by Google in their FCC letter. Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application and we continue to discuss it with Google."

So basically we have a classic he said, she said situation between two companies known to (formerly?) enjoy a close relationship: Google says it was told the application was rejected, by one of the highest-ranking people at Apple. Apple says the app wasn't rejected. So Apple is either: a) insinuating that Eustace somehow misunderstood what Schiller said, or b) suggesting that Google is lying, or c) being picky about how it's parsing words.

Perhaps "rejected" doesn't mean the same thing to Apple as it does to everyone else. While that sounds kind of silly, quite frankly, it's not outside the realm of possibility of how Apple is thinking. Perhaps Apple is planning to formalize such a category of App Store approval status where applications are neither approved nor rejected. Other applications have languished for months, but their developers have been unclear on what has caused the delay.

It's not impossible, of course, that Google misunderstood, or is itself misleading the FCC, though it's unclear why that would be. Especially since at the point when Google initially said Google Voice was rejected by Apple, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was still sitting on Apple's board of directors. (He has since resigned.) But this is also not the first time there's been the perception that Apple has been less than forthcoming on important matters.

Who could forget the uproar over Jobs' physical appearance last summer and his top spokesperson's response that he was "suffering from a common bug"? It came out later that he was having serious medical problems that resulted in a liver transplant earlier this year.

In March, when rumors swirled that some sales employees got laid off, Apple representatives denied the reports. The people who lost their jobs later came forward to confirm the reports.

And just last week, observers of the company wondered if Jobs purposely misled The New York Times when he told them they did not put a camera in the iPod Touch because it didn't make sense for customers--speculation that heightened after a tear-down revealed space for a camera sensor in the updated design.

Apple has a lot of sway in several industries and makes products that people like. But customer confidence in your ability to be forthcoming is important, especially when it comes to making a successful sales pitch for, say, an iPod Touch sans camera, when there could be a new model with a camera coming soon that's just been delayed because of manufacturing problems.

But there's also the reality that a lot of customers just flat out don't care. Apple has a particularly loyal fan base, and to date the company's bottom line hasn't shown distaste for deception or misleading information.

Google Aims to Wrest Display Ads From Yahoo

2009-09-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO — Google is pushing for a second act.

Skip to next paragraph

Lionel Cironneau/Associated Press

Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief, has often said his company’s future is in display ads.

The company has built its fortune almost entirely on the back of small text ads, which appear alongside its search results and on sites across the Web. Now it is stepping up efforts to make inroads into graphical display ads, a business long dominated by Yahoo.

On Friday, the company plans to introduce a long-awaited new version of an ad exchange, like a stock market, where advertisers and publishers can buy and sell advertising space, filling spots in Web pages on the fly.

Google’s chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, has said repeatedly that display advertising offers one of the company’s best prospects for expansion, now that growth in its text ad business has slowed significantly. The new advertising exchange is a cornerstone of Google’s display strategy, and one of the main reasons Google bought the ad company DoubleClick last year for $3.1 billion.

Google executives say the new system, called the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, will greatly simplify the process of buying and selling display advertising, allowing many more publishers and advertisers to benefit from it.

“The objective from the outset is to grow the display advertising pie for everybody,” said Neal Mohan, vice president for product management at Google.

But both in display advertising and in advertising exchanges, Google finds itself in the unfamiliar role of underdog. As one of the Web’s biggest publishers, and a seller of ads on a network of top sites like eBay and hundreds of newspapers, Yahoo is the king of the display advertising business. In 2007 Yahoo bought Right Media, a pioneering ad exchange whose business has grown steadily since, in part because many of the ads that run on Yahoo are brokered through it.

Still, analysts say Google’s push into the business could shake up the market. DoubleClick has had an ad exchange for some time. But the new system will automatically allow hundreds of thousands of advertisers and publishers who now use Google’s AdWords and AdSense systems to run their ads and ad space through the exchange.

Analysts say that should expand use of the DoubleClick exchange and allow brand advertisers to easily run campaigns that reach virtually everyone on the Internet.

“Marketers are going to be able to effectively reach 100 percent of the Internet audience and do so at a high frequency,” said William Morrison, an analyst with ThinkEquity Partners. “That is very difficult to do on the Internet right now, outside of a handful of major Web sites like Yahoo and a few others.”

Ad exchanges have been hailed as the future of the industry for some time, yet Mr. Morrison said that they only account for between 10 and 15 percent of the display advertising business. He said it was unlikely that the DoubleClick exchange would catch up with Yahoo’s exchange within the next year. But the Google exchange could become dominant over the long term, especially among premium brand marketers and publishers, he added.

Yahoo said it welcomed the competition. “We are very confident in our capabilities,” said Frank Weishaupt, the company’s vice president for North American marketplaces. “We will continue to innovate and do our best to control our own destiny.”

Some industry executives say that the DoubleClick exchange will give advertisers more flexibility than Yahoo’s, allowing marketers to aim their ads more precisely at certain types of customers and to buy one ad spot or “impression” at a time.

When a person requests a Web page from a site that is participating in the exchange, the publisher notifies the exchange that space on that page is available. It might also let the exchange know something about that person, based on his or her past online activity or shopping habits. Advertisers bid on the ad space, offering different amounts depending on the person’s attributes, the time of day and other factors. The winner’s ad is then slotted into the page. All of this happens nearly instantly.

“Now it’s a shift to, each and every request comes over, you’re able to see the attributes of that impression, then able to respond with a fair market price for that impression,” said Joe Zawadzki, chief executive of MediaMath, which advises agencies on exchange-trading strategies.

But Mr. Zawadzki said that Yahoo, and perhaps other exchange operators like Microsoft, could indirectly benefit from Google’s success, as more advertisers and publishers become used to buying and selling ads through exchanges.

Mr. Mohan of Google said that the exchange will allow publishers to fill their ad slots with the highest-paying ads. But some ad executives said that the exchange, if successful, could mean headaches for high-end publishers, as it would allow advertisers to reach their intended audiences more cheaply on other sites.

“They’re going to have to compete, from a performance perspective, with the long tail,” said Curt Hecht, president of the VivaKi Nerve Center, the digital research and development arm of Publicis Groupe.

Google’s path to the display advertising business has been tortuous. The company began tackling the market years ago. Unable to make serious headway, it bought DoubleClick, and since the deal closed more than a year ago, Google has been integrating DoubleClick’s technology with its own advertising systems. Mr. Mohan said that the new ad exchange was a major milestone in that integration.

Yet in the last few months, Google has also lost a number of advertising executives, including David Rosenblatt, the former chief executive of DoubleClick, who was president of display advertising for Google. Michael Rubenstein, who oversaw the original DoubleClick ad exchange, also left recently to join a start-up.

Skype Founders Escalate Legal Battle

2009-09-18T16:17:00.000-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO — The founders of Skype, the Internet calling service, appear to be scorching the earth in an effort to scuttle eBay’s sale of the service. On Friday they filed another lawsuit related to the sale.

Multimedia

Video

Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, both Danish programmers, sold Skype to eBay for more than $2 billion in 2005, though they kept the ownership of the peer-to-peer software at its heart. The two men then licensed that technology back to eBay and, later, to Joost, an Internet video service they created in 2007 and still own.

Last week, Joost declared that it had removed its former chief executive, Michelangelo Volpi, from its board and had begun an investigation of his conduct. Mr. Volpi put together a group of private equity and venture capital funds that agreed to buy 65 percent of Skype from eBay for $1.9 billion in cash earlier this month.

On Friday, Joost sued Mr. Volpi and his investment firm, Index Ventures. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware state court, asserts that he misused confidential technical information about both Skype and Joost in an effort to persuade investors that he could sidestep a dispute over Skype’s use of the software owned by the founders.

The complaint says that “sophisticated parties,” including Microsoft and Google, considered buying Skype from eBay but “could not get comfortable proceeding with formal bids” considering the legal issues involved.

The lawsuit follows two others filed by the Skype founders. Two days ago, Joltid, another firm they own, sued eBay and the Skype buyers in a district court in Northern California over copyright infringement of the peer-to-peer software.

That lawsuit followed a similar one filed by Joltid in Britain in March that asked a British court to force Skype to shut down. That case is scheduled to come to trial next year.

EBay has said that it was confident of the outcome. “We had a good clean process, we got a good valuation, and our focus now is on getting the deal closed,” said an eBay spokesman, Alan Marks.

In a court hearing in London last June, eBay’s lawyer told the court that if Mr. Friis and Mr. Zennstrom won the case, the result would be “devastating” to the service. Skype has been downloaded by almost 500 million people, many of whom use the software to make free calls to one another.

According to the complaint filed in Delaware, Joost had been trying to merge with Skype through an acquisition of Skype from eBay. This year, it was reported that Mr. Zennstrom and Mr. Friis had unsuccessfully tried to buy Skype back again.

The successful group, led by Silver Lake Partners and Mr. Volpi’s Index Ventures, beat out a rival group lead by Elevation Partners, another Silicon Valley private equity fund.

“Janus and Niklas are pulling out every stop they can, in the hope that they can pry the Skype sale out of Silver Lake’s paws and back into their own,” said Randy Katz, partner with the law firm, Baker Hostetler.

Mr. Zennstrom and Mr. Friis founded Skype in 2002 after creating the controversial peer-to-peer file sharing company Kazaa, which was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America.

A person briefed on the Skype sale process says that as part of the sale, Skype’s founders were offered “hundreds of millions” worth of Skype common stock. The founders declined the offer.

“This is emotional,” this person said. “This is ‘You stole my baby.’ These are two guys who survived lawsuits from the R.I.A.A. They have staying power, they know how the legal system works, and they are not wimps.”

Mr. Volpi declined to comment. The new Skype buyers would not comment either, but they have said publicly that they were well aware of the legal issues.

A person familiar with Silver Lake’s and Index Ventures’s due diligence process said that the investors had hired a risk-assessment company to analyze the legal issues, and the firm produced a lengthy report that chronicled the litigious history of the Skype founders, who have initiated multiple lawsuits against many of their former business partners.

Still, eBay and Skype do not appear to have much room to navigate out of the expanding legal mess. In regulatory filings on the Skype sale, eBay revealed that it had agreed to pay half of any settlement costs and legal judgments. And Skype’s buyers agreed to pay a $300 million penalty if they back away from the acquisition agreement.