Europe to get Universal Cellphone Charger by 2010

Starting next year, Apple, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, and RIM will begin making handsets with a standard phone charger based on the micro-USB connector. The goal is to reduce the number of useless chargers we seem to accumulate and then store in our junk drawers, closets, and boxes in our basements.

To me this is one of those tech milestones that should have been past years ago. However, these handset makers deserve recognition for trying to simplify our lives and reduce the number of obsolete adapters that get thrown away. But I say to the tech industry: why stop at cell phone chargers? Here's a quick list of product categories that could use a little more conformity:

Device Chargers
How many chargers from discarded cell phones, music players, and other electronic gadgetry do you have lying around the house? And even if you recycle or (gasp) dump them, those orphan chargers wind up somewhere, often in a landfill or some third-world toxic trash pile.

There's good news, though. Cell phone makers in Europe have agreed to a phone-charging standard that uses the Micro-USB interface. If implemented, this change could eliminate-or at least seriously reduce-the need for one charger per gadget. Odds are good the U.S. will adopt the standard too.

Memory Cards
MicroSD, SDHC, Memory Stick...ugh! The market for portable data storage has long been a nightmare of cryptically-named puzzle pieces. How about a one-size-fits-all memory card? Again, there's some progress here. Cellphone maker Sony Ericsson recently said adios to the proprietary Memory Stick Micro and may switch to MicroSD, which is the closest thing we've got to an industry standard. Then again, newer and faster memory card formats like SDXC are coming next year, so who knows what'll happen.

TV Remotes
Is there a less friendly tech gadget than the TV remote? Each has a different layout and requires an engineering degree to master. (Then again, engineers can't figure they out either.) Universal remotes? They're even worse. TV manufacturers should now by now that handheld devices aren't designed to hold 250 tiny buttons.

My suggestion: Have Apple design a TV remote, and make it a standard. The iPhone is proof that a user-friendly interface is possible, even on a small gadget that controls dozens of functions.

Wireless Technologies
Sure, PC World readers know the difference betweenBluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMax, 3G, and 4G, but the average consumer doesn't. To the uninitiated, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi may seem head-scratchingly similar, and the myriad of wireless data offerings are just as puzzling. WiMax? Forget it.

My proposal: Around the time that, say, 5G or 6G wireless broadband appears, we merge everything into one, easy-to-understand spec. I even have name for it: Universal Wireless. There, wasn't that easy?

Game Controllers
Okay, this will never happen, but I'll propose it anyway. Why can't game controllers be more alike? In a perfect world, Xbox, PS3, and Wii remotes would work pretty much the same way. And there'd be world peace too.

What standards would simplify your tech life?

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Steve Jobs goes back to work

Apple boss Steve Jobs is back at work following six months of medical leave, although he will work from home for part of the week, the company says.

His return to the office follows months of speculation about his health and his future at the firm he founded more than 30 years ago.

The 54-year-old had a liver transplant while on leave, reports said.

He was behind the Macintosh computer, iPhone and iPod, which helped to revive Apple's fortunes.

"Steve is back to work," an Apple spokesman said.


"He's currently at Apple a few days a week and working from home the remaining days. We are very glad to have him back."

Mr Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004.

The company's share price fell in January this year, when he announced he was taking leave because of a hormone imbalance.

Investors are likely to welcome Mr Jobs' return to the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California.

"In many ways he's irreplaceable," Ashok Kumar, of financial analysts Collins Stewart, told news agency.

"Having him back brings the halo back to the company."

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Online journalism classroom on Youtube

YouTube opened an online journalism training hub on Monday featuring tips from some of the top names in the business including Bob Woodward of Watergate fame.

The YouTube Reporters' Center, located at youtube.com/reporterscenter, hosts a series of short video tutorials on subjects such as investigative journalism, citizen journalism, journalism ethics and how to conduct an interview.

The five-minute video on investigative journalism is presented by Woodward, who along with a fellow Washington Post reporter uncovered the Watergate scandal which led to president Richard Nixon's resignation.

CBS News anchorwoman Katie Couric offers tips on "how to conduct a good interview" while Ariana Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post website, talks about "citizen journalism."
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof provides instruction on reporting from a conflict zone "without getting shot."

Other tutorials include "How to Capture Breaking News on Your Cell Phone" and "How to Build Your Audience on YouTube."

YouTube described the venture as a bid to help "citizen reporters" learn more about how to report the news.

The Google-owned video-sharing site also invited users with reporting experience to upload "how-to" videos to YouTube to "share your knowledge with citizen journalists around the world."

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Comcast launches high-speed wireless

Cable television and broadband provider Comcast launched a high-speed wireless data service in Portland, Monday, with plans to bring the service to Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia by the end of 2009.

The service, called Comcast High-Speed 2go, will give the cable operator another tool in its competition with large telecom vendors such as Verizon and AT&T. Comcast already offers home-based voice and broadband services.

"With Comcast's wideband Internet, we already offer one of the fastest wired connections available today," Cathy Avgiris, Comcast's senior vice president and general manager for wireless and voice services, said in a statement. "Now with the launch of High-Speed 2go, we also deliver the nation's fastest wireless Internet."

Comcast plans a nationwide deployment of this WiMax service. Comcast's service, provided through Clearwire's wireless broadband network, is expected to be in 80 U.S. markets by the end of 2010, a Comcast spokeswoman said.

Comcast customers will be able to buy wired and wireless broadband together for US$49.99 per month over the next year, the company said. New and existing Comcast customers can also buy the so-called 4G wireless broadband service for as low as $30 a month.

The $49.99 Fast Pack Metro bundled service includes Comcast's 12M bps home broadband service, a Wi-Fi router and 4G service that will provide up to 4M bps download speed away from home. For an additional $20 per month, customers can upgrade to the Fast Pack Nationwide service that includes the same services plus nationwide 3G mobile network access.

Comcast, in late 2005, was among several cable companies that signed a $200 million, 20-year agreement with Sprint Nextel to develop wired and wireless broadband products. In May 2008, Clearwire, backed by Comcast and other companies, announced a $14.5 billion joint venture with Sprint to deploy the first nationwide mobile WiMax network.

Comcast's 4G service will be provided by the Clearwire network, and its 3G service will be provided by Sprint's nationwide 3G network.

"Comcast didn't want to get into the wireless business, but because of competition has to do so," said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecom analyst. "If they don't they will lose customers to AT&T and Verizon, who do offer that bundle."

Kagan called Comcast's first wireless broadband attempts with Sprint a failure. "This is the second pitch in the big game," he said. "I think their chances of success are pretty strong if they market this new service correctly. It will compete with Comcast wireline high-speed internet service. Customers will choose one or the other, but probably not both wireless and wireline Internet service."

Clearwire's WiMax service is fast and works well, Kagan added.

Comcast, the largest residential broadband provider in the U.S., will be selling High-Speed 2go to small-to-mid-sized businesses through Comcast Business Services sales teams

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Nine disappointments in iPhone 3G S

New iPhone is here, iPhone 3G S. iPhone 3G S offers as many as 100 new features and more than double the speed of the earliest version. Plus, it comes with a price cut. Seems like users have got all they wanted and wished for in the new gadget. Not really!

iPhone 3G S though offers a lot, still leaves a lot wanting. The revamped iPhone disappoints users on many counts, some which were on top of their wishlist for the new iPhone.

Here are the 9 things that disappoint many users in iPhone 3G S.

The same old look
Apple products are known for their design. Apple iPhone too scores high on looks. But a change is always refreshing. So, a change in looks was high on users' wishlist. However, the new iPhone 3G S disappoints with almost nothing new in terms of appearance.

The camera
The phone looks exactly same like its predecessors with same dimensions and screen display. iPhone 3G S, in both 16GB or 32GB variants, will be available in black and white colour options.
Apple finally upgraded iPhone's camera megapixel. iPhone 3G S offers 3 megapixel camera over 2 megapixel in the previous version. However, 3 megapixel looks pale in front of the higher megapixel camera smartphones that are flooding the market.

Recently, world's top cellphone maker Nokia unveiled its second touchscreen phone with 5 megapixel camera (with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash). Other iPhone rivals including Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson boast of a portfolio of higher megapixel camera phones.

Lack of Flash Player

iPhone 3G S also disappoints fans looking forward to Flash support in the new version. The latest iPhone too offers no Flash support. In case users wish to see those multimedia files that require Flash, they will have to do away with them.

Presently, when users browse through Web pages with Adobe Flash, it displays empty spaces with missing icons. Earlier, Apple said that Flash would run too slowly on the iPhone.

No USB
Another big miss in the new iPhone is the absence of a standard USB port. iPhone 3G S comes with a proprietary USB connector rather than a microUSB. This means users have to shell out extra money to buy separate cables to use phone's USB features.

Battery
Like the all earlier versions iPhone 3G S too does not come with user-replaceable battery. Apple has increased the battery life but it does not still allow users to replace battery when it runs out of juice.

Apple had earlier reportedly said that it left out the user-replaceable battery because it adds bulk and weight, but users can't help comparing it with other smartphones

No Front-Camera

Though Apple has fulfilled a long time wish by enabling the device to record videos, however, iPhone 3G S still lacks front-facing camera for video conferencing. This means the device is not capable of sending videos across a Wi-Fi or cellular network in real time.

Screen Resolution
Another disappointment is no upgrade in screen resolution. Apple has made no enhancement in the iPhone 3G S screen resolution, which is same as its 2007 and 2008 predecessors. It has 480 x 320 pixel resolution at 163 ppi, same as the iPhone 3G's. Recently-launched Nokia N97 boast of a wide touchscreen that has a 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels.

No HD Support
As speculated, iPhone 3G S does not support HD (high-definition) content. iPhone 3G S supports 640 x 480 videos as its predecessors and is not capable of playing higher-resolution videos. The phone supports video formats: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 x 480 pixels, 30 frames per second.

HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition (SD) video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1280 720 pixels (720p) or 1920 1080 pixels (1080i/1080p).

FM Transmitter
Another big rumour doing rounds was an iPhone FM transmitter chip. However, it remained a rumour only. iPhone's new model does not offer support for FM Transmitter. Some reports claim that the chip would have enabled faster wireless connection and FM transmission.

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Mozilla firefox 3.5 to release on Tuesday morning

Mozilla is scheduled to release Firefox 3.5 on Tuesday morning.

"The Mozilla team is mobilizing to ship Firefox 3.5 and it's looking like Tuesday morning," a Mozilla spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

Tuesday's unveiling will come after three Firefox 3.5 release candidates in three weeks.

The first RC was made available in mid-June to about 800,000 beta users. The June 22 RC2 then incorporated feedback from the RC1 beta users, as did the final June 25 RC3.

Firefox 3.5 will include a private browsing mode that hides browser activity, a sped-up JavaScript engine known as TraceMonkey, new location services, and support for several emerging HTML 5 features.

HTML 5 support will allow the browser to natively play video encoded in the open source Ogg Theora format and Ogg Vorbis audio, which provides for manipulation and editing of video without the use of an external program.

Firefox 3.0 made its debut in June 2008, and heavy demand for the updated browser prompted Mozilla to delay its release for several hours. When it finally went live, the company reported an estimated 14,000 downloads per minute, and a total of 8 million downloads in 24 hours.

Firefox is now used by 300 million people, up from 175 million last year, Mike Beltzner, Mozilla's director of Firefox, told last week. Global market share is now at 22 percent, and in some countries that number is closing in on 50 percent, he said.

Beltzner said he expects over one billion downloads of Firefox 3.5.

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Google and Grameen Launch Mobile Apps for Africa

Google has launched its SMS service and a new SMS-based classifieds system in Uganda, in collaboration with the Grameen Foundation and mobile operator MTN Uganda.

The offerings are aimed at helping poor farmers and other underserved communities access information using mobile phones, which they may own or borrow from small businesses that sell phone use.

The SMS service lets people send text messages with certain keywords to get information in a number of categories. Farmer's Friend offers agricultural advice and weather forecasts. In a video posted on the Google.org blog, one farmer used the service to discover that rather than pay for a pesticide for his tomatoes, he could use materials that he already had on hand in excess. He says he used the money he saved to buy more land.

Health Tips and Clinic Finder are two other SMS services that let people find sexual and reproductive health information and find nearby clinics.

People use the service by texting a keyword like "weather" or "clinic" followed by the city. They get the information they request by return SMS.

The Google Trader service lets people sell or buy crops or other items. For example, a user would text "BUY Toyota Kampala" to receive a list of Toyotas for sale within 50 kilometers of Kampala, Uganda.

The services don't come with additional fees beyond standard text messaging rates.

The Grameen Foundation, started by Nobel Peace Prize winnerMuhammad Yunus, who created the Village Phone project inBangladesh, spearheaded the text service as a way to deliver information to people who live in remote areas. Village Phone is the project that turns primarily poor women in developing countries into entrepreneurs by offering them micro-loans to buy a cell phone that they let other villagers use for a fee.

Those operators in Uganda have been trained to use the new SMS service, so they can sell it to their customers.

Grameen set out to develop a way to offer people in remote areas access to information that many people in the developed world take for granted. "There's this great idea of rolling out a lot of computers, but it's hard to figure out a business model and how to keep those devices charged when they're off the grid," said Peter Bladin, founding director of the Grameen Technology Center and executive vice president for programs and regions at the Grameen Foundation, in a recent interview. "But the mobile phone is one device that already has incredible penetration."

However, most phones used in the developing world don't have the capability to surf the Internet, and the networks they run on don't support Internet access either. As a result, Grameen began investigating ways to let people use SMS, which is available on even the lowest-cost phones and the oldest mobile-phone networks, to access information.

Bladin has high hopes for the initiative. "Devices or technology can shorten that gap between where the information exists and where people who need it are. That's really a great empowerment," he said.

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Major or minor iPhone upgrade problems? Fix them

Some iPhone Atlas readers, and posts on Apple's Discussion boards, have reported additional problems--some large, some small--after upgrading to iPhone OS 3.0 or the iPhone 3GS. The following procedures will solve a number of the reported problems.

• Reset your iPhone by holding down the Sleep and Home buttons until the Apple logo appears.
• Restore your iPhone: In iTunes, click the Restore button under the Summary tab. Restoring the phone will erase contacts, calendars, photos, and other data on the phone, but will restore automatically backed-up information including text messages, notes, call history, contact favorites, sound settings, widget settings, etc.

Yet, even after performing these steps additional issues have persisted. For more detail, read on.

Sound issues
Though listed on discussion boards here and here, I've also heard sound distortion when making a call, listening to the other phone ringing, and receiving an incoming SMS text message at the same time. The second sound, Glass (my SMS tone), has a buzzing noise as it plays.

An theAppleBlog report has mentioned an audible whine on recorded iPhone 3GS videos. There does not appear to be a fix for this at this time, so I'm hoping that Apple addresses it via a software update.

Here's the video from theappleblog.com Web site and a direct link to the isolated sound here.


A suggested short-term workaround is easy enough to implement; some people might even learn to live with the problem. Prior to recording a video, either plug in your headphones or manually place the iPhone into "silent" mode by moving the ring selector to vibrate. The entire post is worth reading as it includes more examples and the steps to recreate the problem on the iPhone 3GS.

Wrong or "changing" icons
Apple's discussion boards here, here, and here are reporting a problem that I've encountered as well. In my case the problem occurs when I remove apps from the iPhone using the delete feature in Springboard and then install new apps.

The newly installed apps can inherit the icons from the apps that were deleted from the same location. This is a known bug documented under Apple Bugfix 6906853. The only fix that I've been able to find is to reinstall the apps affected by the bug and hope it does not happen again. Hopefully, Apple will get this really annoying bug fixed soon.

Tell us about your iPhone OS 3.0 or iPhone 3GS upgrade problems in the comments.

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Price of Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 may drop this Fall

When it comes to console price drops, especially when it involves the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, most of the rumors have gotten it wrong, so echoing another one's a bit like strapping yourself to the mast of the Titanic. We know Sony and Microsoft will, but the when's about as accessible as a crystal ball locked in a safe sheathed in cement at the bottom of a well.

The story this time? The price cut--make that price cuts--are coming this fall for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. What's more, Sony's planning to replace the 80GB PS3 with a 160GB model, the PS3 slim is real but coming a bit later, Microsoft's planning to replace the Pro with its Elite model, and both systems are getting new bundles in time for the holidays.

To be fair, some of that predates the Ars Technica story (they're attributing it to a mole they imply has a sterling track record). The only new bits are the Xbox 360 price drop, Microsoft mainlining its Elite model, and the bundle additive, though it would've been more impressive if the mole knew the bundle specifics--the tradition of new holiday bundles leading out of the summer into the holidays is as inevitable as death and taxes.

I've got to invoke my usual line here about Microsoft needing to drop where it matters, i.e. component prices. As I've shown time and again, the Xbox 360 is actually more expensive than Sony's PlayStation 3 when you configure the former to spec equivalency. If Microsoft just nudges the system's price, they're not doing their existing base any favors.

On the other hand, Microsoft's selling well enough in part because people have bought into their "upgrade in installments" approach. If it costs you $50 more to pull out all the stops in the long run, no biggie--at least you don't have to mortgage the house to get started. Based on that approach, if the Xbox 360's unit cost drops further, it could well undermine Sony's own own price moves, even if they're as substantial as they need to be, i.e. $100 or more.

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Nine main troubles of Nokia

Like most Finns, Perttu Iso-Markku always bought mobile phones made by his country's biggest company, Nokia Oyj. Then in February, he invested in an Apple Inc iPhone and started loading it with applications.

Nokia is unlikely to win him back anytime soon. "If I just wanted a phone, I’d buy a Nokia," said Iso- Markku, a 34-year-old officer at OneWorld Finland, a non-government organization. "I wanted something more like a small computer."

Iso-Markku’s switch shows how Espoo-based Nokia, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, is struggling against application-rich competitors such as Apple as customers increasingly want their handsets to be catch-all devices. As more and more of the industry’s battles are fought on content, Nokia’s piece of the $50 billion market for smartphones, the industry’s fastest-growing segment, is shrinking.


Failure to capitalise

"The Apple store provided a very simple path for developers to create stuff and get it into the hands of users, and there’s no question they’ve done it more effectively than anyone else," said Nick Jones, a Egham, UK-based analyst with industry researcher Gartner Inc. "Now everyone’s playing catch- up to Apple."

The irony is that Nokia should have been way ahead of rivals on software. It had the first Internet-enabled mobile device in 1996, even before mobile broadband was available. Its Nokia Communicator was a narrow handset the size of a paperback book with customizable applications and a full Web browser.

Falling or Flat marketshare

The failings on software are costing Nokia some market share even as it ramps up its own Ovi Store for applications. Nokia’s share of worldwide smartphone sales fell to 41.2 percent in the first quarter from 45.1 percent in the year-earlier period, according to Gartner, while Apple’s doubled to 10.8 percent. Smart phones run sophisticated applications and can handle large amounts of data. They accounted for about 13 percent of Nokia’s total sales of 468 million handsets in 2008.

Most phones Nokia sells are medium and low-end mobile phones, while Apple only makes the iPhone. Nokia faces other rivals in this segment, including Palm Inc, which this month started selling its newest model, Pre, and opened its App Catalog with 18 applications. Research In Motion Inc, maker of the Blackberry smartphones, and Samsung Electronics Co have also opened applications stores.

Flaws in Execution


Nokia's weakness has been one of execution rather than of technology. It courted software developers for years, registering more than four million of them on its Forum Nokia service in the last decade. It hasn’t done as well at getting software add-ons to customers.

"Software distribution didn’t have top management attention or marketing power," said Ari Hakkarainen, a former Nokia manager and author of `Behind the Screen', a history of the company published this year by Finland’s Readme.Fi.

Developer support

Nokia’s multiple devices with different configurations make designing more difficult, time consuming and expensive, developers said. The company’s software efforts included Club Nokia for images and ringtones, N-Gage for games, Mosh for content sharing, WidSets, Software Market, and Download! Most are now folded into Nokia’s Ovi, which offers maps, e-mail, file sharing, games and backup of phone information.

Software downloads now have management attention. Ovi is central to Chief Executive Officer Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo’s vision of Nokia becoming a software provider that gets revenue from customers continuously, and not just every few years when they buy a new mobile phone.

Nokia has seen `double-digit daily growth' in users and downloads on Ovi, Marco Argenti, the vice president responsible for Ovi Store, said in a phone interview. He’s encouraging users to flag problems in the service, which is complicated by having to cater to dozens of handset types, carriers and countries.


Service experience

The Finnish company is hiring more managers to improve the services experience, said Argenti, who joined six months ago from Italian Internet services company Dada SpA to head Nokia’s entertainment and game offerings. "There’s nobody in Nokia today who thinks only about devices," he said.

By 2012 the company aims to have 300 million active users, who will keep in touch with Nokia, downloading upgrades and providing feedback, Chief Financial Officer Rick Simonson told investors at a Barclay’s conference last month.

"The strategy makes sense for future revenues, because if you can scale it up, you can sell the same software over and over for zero marginal cost," said Mikko Ervasti, a Helsinki- based analyst with Evli Bank, who has a "buy" rating on Nokia.

Nokia’s 5800 music phone accounts for 20 percent of touch- screen devices worldwide, the company said in April. The Ovi Store Web site listed 239 applications on June 16 -- 50 more than the previous week. It had 831 available items in all, including 155 audio and video pieces, 123 games and 314 wallpapers and ringtones when accessed in English from Finland.

Disbelief

"Nokia’s not the most creative handset company, but they seem to be making a concerted effort," said Wendy Trevisani, who helps manage $22 billion including Nokia stock at Thornburg Investment Management in Santa Fe, New Mexico. "They're putting some money into it and they’ve got bright and ambitious people and a decent track record of making things work."

Nokia targeted 20,000 separate items for the early days of the Ovi store, which opened on May 25, including versions for different languages and phone models. Some items are for specific countries and aren't available for others.

Still, there’s skepticism. "When they say software and services will be a 2 billion-euro business by 2012, I don’t take that as said," said Evli Bank's Ervasti. "I try to be cautious."

In 2008, the company had revenue from software and services of 476 million euros ($665 million), or less than 1 percent of total sales of 50.7 billion euros. For Thornburg Investment's Trevisani, even an incremental increase is "pure upside."

Apple apps

Nokia has a network of games users and its acquisition of Navteq helped it build a maps service based on GPS locations. Apple is ahead in categories including e-book readers, personal productivity tools, education and science software, and hobby applications such as birding guides and knitting calculators.

Apple has more than 50,000 applications available for all iPhone and iPod Touch models after less than a year of operation. The company says there have been more than 1 billion downloads at a 30 percent commission on an average application, with most applications costing a few dollars or nothing. It doesn’t disclose applications revenue figures.

More significant is the effect on phone sales from being the first application store with products such as the Shazam song identifier. Apple says the application flood has far exceeded expectations.

Comfortness in using


"People are already using their iPhones in ways no one could have imagined less than a year ago, thanks to the runaway success of the App Store with over 50,000 apps available and more than 1 billion downloaded," said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris.

Many iPhone applications come from developers who’ve already worked with Apple on the Macintosh. Life Balance, a personal task-list product followed its desktop users to the iPhone so they could update their lists on the go. Catherine White and Stuart Malone, the founders of Franklin, Mass.-based Llamagraphics Inc, don’t plan to develop for Nokia. "Nokia had so many handsets and operating system variants, compared to iPhone or Palm where you write things just once," Malone said.

The Ovi Store may expand faster if the London-based Symbian Foundation succeeds in making Nokia's basic phone software easier to work with. Symbian, which Nokia converted to a freestanding non-profit entity last year from a joint venture with other handset makers, resembles a small software company, with doodle pads and whiteboards on the walls and titles such as "futurist" on its business cards.

`Growing complexity'

Still, Nokia’s services strategy is not there yet for users such as Aleksi Bardy, 38, a Helsinki-based film producer, who tried and failed to get a maps application on his Nokia E90 device for a trip to Paris.

"I consider myself technically oriented but I found them difficult to install," he said. "It was really a bad experience."

He’s switched to an iPhone, and was able to download naval maps for Nordic countries for 10 euros, letting him plan vacations while trapped in meetings and use the phone as a backup navigation system when he’s sailing.


Nokia was "very good at the beginning of the mobile era, when the interface was just characters, but now with the complexity and graphical nature of phones, they’ve lost the game," he said.

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Facebook: Want To Keep That Update Private? Go Ahead

Facebook can cause problems for professionals who want to keep in touch with friends while still connecting with current or future employers. Unflattering photos, updates and wall posts on Facebook can be harmful to future job prospects and embarrassing to individuals.

That's why Facebook, the massively popular social network, is updating its privacy features, allowing users to choose who sees specific updates.

Writing in a Facebook blog post yesterday, Olaoluwa Okelola, an employee of Facebook, laid out the changes that are coming to the Publisher feature. Publisher is the page on the social network where users add photos, updates and information.

"The new Publisher has been streamlined a bit, and its most significant improvement is the new Publisher Privacy Control that gives you the opportunity to answer the question, "Who do you want to tell?" as easily as you answer the question, 'What's on your mind,'" wrote Okelola.

Not everyone has access to the beta version of the changes that have come to Facebook's Publisher, but the upshot is that before posting anything to the social network, users will be able to select who in their network sees the updates.

"If you have access to this beta version, every time you publish content into your stream you are able to control which people can access that specific piece of content," explained Okelola.

The choices that Facebook users will have when updating their page include options for everyone to see the message; only allowing friends and people in specific networks to see the updates; friends of friends allows anyone who is friends with a friend to see it; friends only; and, custom, which lets individuals pick and choose who sees the updates.

The goal of Facebook's impending privacy update is to, presumably, allow users of the social network to express themselves more freely while not worrying about whether a future employer, for example, might find pictures they consider to be inappropriate.

Facebook users who have their profile open to everyone are eligible for the beta test of the changes to Publisher. Users who have already implemented some privacy settings -- such as friends and networks or friends only -- are not.

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Google Voice Calls Out To New Users

Google has started sending out invitations to use Google Voice, the company's online voice mail and communication management service.

Google, on Thursday began issuing invitations to users who have expressed interest in Google Voice, the company's online voice mail and call management system.

"We are happy to share that Google Voice is beginning to open up beyond former GrandCentral users," said Google Voice product managers Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet in a blog post. "If you requested an invitation on the Google Voice site or previously on GrandCentral, keep your eye out for an invite e-mail."

Google in May reportedly reserved 1 million phone numbers through network operator Level 3 Communications, a move seen as a sign of the company's intent to open Google Voice to a large number of new users.

Google introduced Google Voice as a private beta test in March and said at the time that the service would start accepting new users in a few weeks. The service was acquired by Google in July, 2007, when it was known as Grand Central.

Google Voice provides a new phone number that can be used to route calls to up to six other phone numbers, based on criteria determined by the user. It also features an online voice mail inbox that stores calls and provides speech-to-text transcriptions.

It's most broadly appealing feature is the ability to place free domestic calls in the United States and low-rate international calls to select countries.

Other features include the ability to screen calls, to block calls, and to receive e-mail or SMS notifications when voice mail messages are left.

Google Voice allows users to personalize greeting messages and the ringing sound that callers hear while awaiting an answer, and to determine which phone numbers ring when a call comes in.

And it supports a WebCall button: When embedded on a Web page, would-be callers can click on the button to initiate a call.

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Palm Posts Wider Loss but Beats Analysts' Expectations

Palm Inc. posted a wider loss for its fiscal fourth-quarter as revenue dropped again in the latest full quarter before the release of the Pre smart phone, yet results topped analysts' expectations.
In after-hours trading, shares were up 8.1% to $15.15.

The company is banking on the Palm Pre to revive its once-dominant smart-phone franchise. So far, all signs point to a strong launch for the Pre, fueling the company's shares to a 52-week high last week. But the competition isn't standing still, as Apple Inc. made over and cut prices on its category-leading iPhone.

"The launch of Palm webOS and Palm Pre was a major milestone in Palm's transformation; we have now officially reentered the race," said Jon Rubinstein, the executive chairman who took over as chief executive when Ed Colligan departed earlier this month. "We have more to accomplish, but the groundwork is laid for a very promising future here at Palm.

Mr. Rubinstein is a former executive at Apple's iPod music player division.

For the quarter ended May 30, Palm reported a loss of $91.5 million, or 78 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $41.1 million, or 40 cents a share. Excluding charges including those from stock compensation and acquisitions, the loss came to 40 cents a share from a loss of 22 cents a year earlier.

Revenue fell 71% to $86.8 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected an adjusted loss of 62 cents a share on revenue of $80.6 million.

Smart-phone shipments fell 62% to 351,000 units, but rose 6% from the third quarter.

Gross margin narrowed to 23.1% from 25.2%.

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Windows 7 Half-Price Sale Starts Friday

Consumers who pre-order a copy of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system will receive more than 50% off the retail price for a limited time starting Friday.

The full version of Windows 7 Home Premium is priced at $199, with an upgrade from Vista or XP costing $119. The full version of Windows 7 Professional is $299, with upgrades going for $199. Windows 7 Ultimate is priced at $319, with the upgrade version at $219.

But U.S. shoppers who pre-order between June 26th and July 11th will receive discounts of 50% or more, Microsoft said. For instance, Windows 7 Home Premium will sell for $49 during the discount period, while Windows 7 Professional will sell for $99. Participating retailers include Best Buy and Amazon, as well as Microsoft's own online store.

A similar program will be offered in Europe from July 15th to Aug. 14th.

Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc, in a blog post Thursday, said the discounts are meant "as a way of saying thank you to our loyal Windows customers."

That may be, but Microsoft's aggressive pricing for Windows 7 shows that the company is anxious to reinvigorate flagging Windows sales. Microsoft's client unit, which houses Windows, saw sales slip 16% in the most recent quarter.

In a further effort to boost sales, Microsoft on Thursday disclosed an upgrade program through which consumers who purchase a Vista-powered PC can migrate to Windows 7 at little or no cost when the latter becomes available on Oct. 22.

Microsoft said it would defer recognition of 50% of revenue for sales made through the program until the fulfillment date of the purchases or until the program expires, based on whichever comes earliest. Microsoft said it expects to defer $200 to $300 million in such revenues during its current fiscal fourth quarter, which ends June 30.

Such upgrade programs are generally meant to convince consumers to not hold off purchasing PCs during the time period between when a new product is announced and when it's actually available.

Microsoft needs to tread carefully when it comes to upgrade programs. The company was sued last year by consumers who complained that some Windows XP PCs sold as "Vista Capable" prior to Vista's launch in January 2007 were anything but.

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Few iPhone apps likely to get wide usage: AdMob report

Tens of thousands of applications are available for Apple's popular iPhone and the iPod Touch but a report released on Thursday indicates that only a few are likely to attract widespread usage.

Mobile advertising platform AdMob tracked the popularity of more than 2,300 applications for the iPhone and the iPod Touch used by the more than 15 million members in its network.

AdMob said five percent, or 116, of the applications had more than 100,000 active users in May.

It said 14 percent, or 322, applications had between 10,000 to 100,000 active users while 54 percent, or 1,244, applications had less than 1,000 active users.

The average iPhone user in AdMob's network accessed four applications in May, AdMob said.
Apple's online App Store offers more than 50,000 applications and has notched up more than one billion downloads since it opened a year ago.

AdMob said the vast majority of the applications in its network were free applications and the pattern of usage may be different for paid applications.

"As is true with many other forms of media, the most popular applications generated the majority of usage by consumers," AdMob said.

It said the App Store "ranking system feeds the success of these top applications, some of which were accessed by more than one million users in May."

A study in February by Pinch Media found that fewer than five percent of iPhone users were still actively using an application a month after downloading it and that only one percent of total downloads have a long-term audience.

Games were used for longer periods than any other type of application, the study found.

Tens of thousands of applications for the iPhone have been created by independent developers, but Apple has strict control over which ones are featured in the App Store.

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Microsoft Security Beta 'Sells Out' Within 24 Hours

The beta version of Microsoft's security software is a hit. The software giant announced Wednesday on its Web site that it had reached the U.S. limit on downloads for Microsoft Security Essentials -- which was only made available Tuesday.

The general release of the free software is expected this fall.

"Alert!" said a posting on the Web page for the security software. "Thank you for your interest in joining the Microsoft Security Essentials Beta. We are not accepting additional participants at this time. Please check back at a later date for possible additional availability."

Limit Reached Within 24 Hours

The beta became available Tuesday morning and reached the limit for the U.S. and Israel within twenty-four hours. Microsoft had said it would allow 75,000 downloads for users in the U.S., Israel and Brazil.

According to news reports, the limit for the U.S. and Israel was reached at about 5 a.m. PDT Wednesday. The limit of 20,000 downloads for Brazilian users hadn't been reached, meaning 55,000 downloads were reserved for U.S. and Israel.

Microsoft said the cap was "based on our ability to support the beta while still maintaining our commitment to delivering a quality product in the time frame promised."

The free software, which helps protect a PC against viruses, spyware, Trojans, rootkits and other malware, was developed under the code name of Morro. It consists of the anti-malware components of Windows Live OneCare, for which there has been an annual charge of $49.95.

Security Essentials will regularly update itself with signatures of new malware through its online signature service. To do so, auto updates need to be enabled in Windows. The software is designed for PCs running Windows Vista, Windows XP, and the upcoming Windows 7.

'Pretty Big' Threshold

The free service is expected to compete directly with the lower-end offerings of McAfee and Symantec, two of the leading providers of security software.

Microsoft said last year that retail sales of Live OneCare would be discontinued by the end of this month. Support will continue through the end of current subscriptions. As Security Essentials rolls out, all Live OneCare sales, including online, will be phased out.

According to industry observers, Microsoft has been concerned because PCs have been getting infected, and it has been impacting the Microsoft experience as well as the Windows reputation. Some analysts have also noted that signature-based antivirus software has basically become a commodity, where the distinguishing feature is price.

Peter Firstbrook, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner, said 55,000 downloads was a "pretty big" threshold to be reached in a day for a beta program. He mentioned that he went to get a download, but was too late.

"Everybody wants to see what this software is about," he said, adding that it's not clear if Microsoft will offer another round of beta downloads before the final release

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Microsoft Gains in Search Market as Bing Stays Strong

Bing is still building momentum. The new decision engine from Microsoft is gaining ground on many fronts, including search-engine marketing.

Almost two weeks ago, Efficient Frontier, a marketing firm that places about $750 million in text ads on search engines around the world, reported that Bing saw a more than eight percent lift in paid clicks compared to the week before the launch. While Microsoft's click share remains at less than five percent and continues to lag Yahoo and Google, the company called Bing's gains a positive step.

"If this share lift holds, we can expect advertisers to allocate additional budget to Microsoft over the coming months. Paid-click growth lagging search-query growth could be due to organic listings in Bing delivering stronger relevancy," said Justin Merickel, marketing vice president at Efficient Frontier.

Bing Keeps Expanding

Merickel pointed to Bing features, such as query-specific drill-down categories available on the top left of the results page, as factors that may be allowing consumers to more easily find a relevant result. The question is whether Bing's success is sustainable.

Recent comScore research suggests it is, at least so far. Microsoft sites' average daily penetration among U.S. searchers reached 16.7 percent during the week of June 8-12, up three percentage points from the May 25-29 week before Bing's introduction, comScore reports. The search-engine world is waiting for comScore's June 2009 U.S. Search Engine Rankings because it will be the first to include search activity at Bing, which was launched June 1.

Efficient Frontier isn't waiting for the rankings. The firm was too curious to learn if Bing's click share is gaining, holding or falling back to Microsoft's previous levels. The latest analysis is good news for the software giant: Bing expanded its share of paid clicks for the two weeks after launch. Bing's share of paid clicks is up 13 percent for its second week. And, it represents an incremental five percent lift over the first week.

A Consistent Success Story

The search advertising market is an important and potentially lucrative one for Microsoft, valued at about $12 billion this year. If Microsoft grabs search-ad market shares from Google, Yahoo and others, it could drive tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue, more than offsetting the $80 million to $100 million the company is spending on marketing Bing.

Merickel said one week doesn't make a trend, nor does two weeks. It's possible that new Bing users may just be exploring the engine after the hype of launch. But it's undeniable that the needle moved in a positive direction for Microsoft, he said. Efficient Frontier plans to watch closely to see whether Bing gains additional traction, sustains the lift from launch, or falls back to Microsoft's previous levels.

Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, has a similar reaction to the data: "These data are consistent with what we've seen from Hitwise, comScore and others showing initial gains by Bing. The issue is whether the momentum can be sustained over time," he said. "But there's no question that Bing is off to a solid start. This performance has got to have exceeded all of the expectations in Redmond."

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China appears to block Google sites

Google Web sites including its English search engine became inaccessible in China late Wednesday, following the country's criticism of Google last week for serving up pornographic search results.

China appeared to block sites including Google.com, Gmail and Google Docs around 9:30 p.m. local time, when complaints about the sites not loading began appearing on Twitter. Attempts to visit the sites timed out or returned a "connection interrupted" message.

A Chinese government-backed Internet watchdog criticized Google last week for allowing links to pornographic Web sites to appear in its results. A news program broadcast by state-owned CCTV drew widespread attention to the issue when it showed google.cn, the company's Chinese-language search engine, returning the links based on English searches.

Google this week said it had developed an automated system to remove pornographic results from searches on google.cn. But links to porn still appeared in searches using google.com in China earlier on Wednesday.

Google.cn could still be loaded in China on Wednesday night.

Some Twitter users reported spotty access to Gmail and google.com returning around 11 p.m. local time, but others still said the sites would not load.

Google.com appeared to be blocked through interference with the DNS (Domain Name System). The DNS translates alphabetic URLs such as google.com into a corresponding IP (Internet Protocol) address so the Web site's server can be reached. Google.com could be viewed by directly visiting its IP address.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Microsoft launches home energy monitoring tool

US software giant Microsoft launched a free online home energy monitoring tool on Wednesday that allows consumers to gauge their usage and reduce consumption.

Microsoft Hohm, available as a beta, or test, version in the United States at microsoft-hohm.com, lets users "better understand their energy usage, get recommendations and start saving money," Microsoft said.

"We believe technology will play a pivotal role in tackling the global energy issues we currently face," Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft, said in a statement.

"Microsoft Hohm demonstrates how a combination of advanced software and Internet-based services can help people track, understand and manage their personal energy usage," he said.
Microsoft said Microsoft Hohm uses advanced analytics licensed from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the US Department of Energy.

It said Hohm provides suggestions for energy conservation based on home energy input data and feedback contributed by users.

Savings recommendations can range from caulking windows to removing air leaks to installing a programmable thermostat, Microsoft said.

It said consumers who are customers of a Microsoft Hohm utility partner company will be able "in the near future" to automatically upload their energy usage data into the application.

Microsoft is partnering with four West Coast utility companies on Microsoft Hohm: Puget Sound Energy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Seattle City Light and Xcel Energy.

"Microsoft Hohm will help our customers be more energy efficient by providing new insights and understanding into how they use energy and how they can conserve," said Steve Reynolds, chief executive of Puget Sound Energy.

Microsoft's launch of Hohm comes a month after Google announced that it had partnered with energy companies in six US states, Canada and India in "smart meter" software which allows consumers to monitor their home electricity usage.

The Google PowerMeter can tell residents which devices or appliances in their homes are being electricity hogs and which are being frugal with energy.

The software program receives information from smart meters and sends a detailed report to a home computer on how the power is being divvied up.

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HTC Hero runs Google Android, will have a flash player

HTC has unveiled the first Flash-equipped Android smartphone, the Hero -- the third in its line of handsets based on Google's open source mobile operating system. The Hero sports an intuitive interface called "Sense," which combines personalization with streamlined communications and innovative feature options.

Taiwan-based HTC, a fast-rising star in the smartphone manufacturing industry, has unveiled its latest model, the Hero, its third offering based on the Android operating system.

The Hero comes with a new user interface called "Sense" that makes use the device almost intuitive.

The Hero is the first Android smartphone with Adobe Flash support, according to HTC.


The Hero's Features

HTC's focus on form and function, evident in its other smartphones, such as the TouchPro2 and the Diamond, continues with the Hero.

This device has beveled edges and a protective coating for its screen that prevents smudging by users' fingers.

Heroes that come in white have a Teflon coating -- said to be an industry first -- to improve their feel and durability.

The Hero has a 3.2 inch HVGA display and is optimized for Web, multimedia and other content.
It comes with a built-in GPS; digital compass; gravity sensor; 3.5-mm stereo headset jack; and a 5-megapixel autofocus camera. Its memory can be expanded using microSD cards.

MicroSD is a removable flash memory card format. MicroSD cards measure 15 mm x 11 mm x 1 mm, which makes them roughly the size of a fingernail, or about one-quarter the size of the SD memory cards used in cellular phones and digital cameras.

The Hero includes a dedicated search button that provides natural contextual search.

The Hero's Tech Specs
Built around a Qualcomm MSM7200 A, 528 MHz processor, the Hero has 512 MB of ROM and 288 MB of RAM.
It measures 4.41 x 2.21 x 0.7 inches, and weighs 4.76 ounces with its battery.
The device's TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen has a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels.
It runs on HSPA / WCDMA networks as well as quad-band GSM / GPRS / EDGE networks.
The Hero supports Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate (Enhanced Data Rate is an optional feature according to published Bluetooth 2.0 specs) and WiFi.
Audio formats supported include MP3, MIDI and Windows Media Audio 9. Video formats supported include MPEG-4 and Windows Media Video 9.

The Lowdown on HTC

Founded in 1997, HTC, which began as an OEM handset manufacturer focusing on the Windows Mobile platform, launched its own brand less than two years ago.

It has established partnerships with major mobile carriers in Europe, the U.S. and Asia. These include Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Cingular, Verizon, Sprint and NTT DoCoMo.

The company released its first Android smartphone, the HTC Dream, in Singapore and Australia in February.

The HTC Magic, the company's second Android phone, has been distributed exclusively in the UK, France, Germany and Spain by Vodafone UK since the spring.

In April, HTC and Taiwanese wireless carrier Chunghwa Telecom unveiled a version of the Magic that is the world's first traditional-Chinese-language Android smartphone.

Scoping Out Sense

Sense, the new HTC user interface delivered with the Hero, is based on three principles: Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.

Make it Mine focuses on letting users personalize their Hero smartphone in various ways. They can add widgets that push content to the surface, or set up the device for faster access to email and calendars. Sense has a new profile feature called "Scenes" that lets users create different content profiles around specific functions or times in their lives.

Stay Close is all about communication.

Like the Palm Pre's webOS, Sense integrates emails, phone calls, text messages, Facebook status updates, Flickr photos and other communications into a single view.
Discover the Unexpected apparently consists of innovative functions such as letting users silence a ringing phone by turning it over and "Perspectives," a new way of viewing content such as email, photos, music and Twitter .

"HTC wants to take whoever's operating system -- Google's or Microsoft's -- and put their own spin on it," Ramon Llamas, a senior analyst at IDC, told LinuxInsider.

"That's an excellent idea, and other handset vendors are also picking up on it because they need to have some way to differentiate themselves from the competition."

Getting Flash-y

Adobe and HTC jointly announced that the Hero is the first Android phone to ship with support for Adobe Flash Platform technology.

The Hero offers video playback using Flash. Adobe demonstrated Web sites with Flash on the Hero on its Web site.

HTC also announced its participation in the Open Screen Project, which has 25 other industry members collaborating to bring Flash Player 10 and full Web browsing to the next generation of mobile computing devices and platforms.

Flash Lite 2.1 for Windows Mobile 5.0 is available on Adobe's Web site.

Last November, Adobe announced collaboration with chipmaker ARM, whose chips power most of the mobile phone devices in the market, to optimize and enable Adobe Flash Player 10 and Adobe AIR. The technology stems from the Open Screen Project and will hit the market later this year.

"The Hero is the first Android handset with real Flash capabilities," Julien Blin, CEO and principal analyst at JBB Research, told LinuxInsider.

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Toshiba 1GHz smartphone launched, runs Windows

The 1GHz smartphone has arrived. A Japanese telecommunications carrier is the first to launch a device based on Qualcomm's much-anticipated Snapdragon processor.

Docomo is now offering the T-01A in Japan, while Microsoft is pitching the phone on its Japanese Web site.

This would mark the first commercially available product using the Snapdragon chip, a Qualcomm spokeswoman confirmed Monday. The chip's claim to fame is that it's an ARM design running at 1GHz. Typical ARM architecture chips used in mobile phones, such as the iPhone 3G S, peak at about 600MHz.

A legion of other chip suppliers offer ARM-based chips for mobile devices, including Texas Instruments, Freescale Semiconductor, Samsung, Nvidia, STMicroelectronics, and Broadcom.

The Toshiba-Docomo T-01A--which will be offered outside of Japan as the TG01--runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and is designed to take on the iPhone. Only 9.9mm thick, it uses a 4.1-inch WVGA 800x480 384k pixel resistive touch screen and comes with support for 3G HSPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and assisted-GPS.

The TG01 is also slated to be available in Europe this summer.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon silicon supports high-definition (720p) video decode, 3D graphics (up to 22M triangles/sec), XGA display support, a 12-megapixel camera, and mobile broadcast TV.

Qualcomm has been talking up the Snapdragon (aka QSD8250) since November 2007, when the company announced initial sample shipments of the chipset.

And Qualcomm won't stop at 1GHz. The San Diego-based company has demonstrated Netbooks running a 1.3GHz Snapdragon processor and will eventually push the chip to 1.5GHz.

The future Qualcomm QSD8672 will be a dual-core Snapdragon that features two CPU computing cores and will include HSPA+, up to 28Mbps download speeds, 1080p high-definition video, Wi-Fi, mobile TV, and GPS. The graphics core is based on Advanced Micro Devices' ATI unit's technology.

Pricing is not immediately available.

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Free Windows 7 won't last forever

Microsoft has been pretty generous in letting folks play around with Windows 7 for free. But it has put some time limits on that generosity.

Those who want to try out the release candidate of Windows 7 only have until August 15 to download the code. After that date, you can still install a copy you have downloaded (and even get additional product keys), but most folks won't be able to get the code from Microsoft's Web site.

For those who have a spare machine to try out Windows 7, it's worth a try. I have been using it for months now and find the release candidate stable enough to use as my everyday machine. It's a particularly nice option for Mac users who have wanted to try Windows on their Mac but haven't wanted to steal a copy from work or fork over the money to be legit.

A separate deadline is looming for those still running the beta version, as opposed to the release candidate. Starting July 1, that software will start shutting down every other hour. (Here's the place to insert your best anti-Windows joke. I'll get you started: "Why, that makes it just like Windows ME.")

In any case, to avoid that nastiness, one should move from the beta version to the release candidate version in the next seven days or so. In addition to the shutdowns that start July 1, the beta software will expire completely on August 1.

Similarly, the release candidate also won't last forever. Microsoft says it is set to expire on June 1, 2010, with the bi-hourly shutdowns starting March 1. And, Microsoft also says that those moving from the release candidate to the final version of Windows 7 will have to do a clean installation, so be prepared for that, as well.

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Toshiba USB drives get backup, security features

Toshiba on Tuesday announced the release of its updated Portable Hard Drives with new system backup functionality and password-protected encryption. The drives also now ship with pre-loaded software to make them compatible with either Windows or Mac systems. The drives are the first to include NTI's BackupNow EZ software, which not only allows users to backup their entire system with but also restore the complete system even if Windows doesn't start.

This software also scans a system and provides recommendations on the best coverage for files and folders. Mac users get NTI's Shadow 4 that lets them select which files or folders need to be backed up and set a schedule for the backups. The Toshiba drives are also instantly compatible with Apple's Time Machine for those who prefer the official Mac OS X route.

Both Windows and Mac Toshiba drives feature password-protected security with up to 256-bit encryption. There is also a new Drive Space Alert feature that lets users know when storage capacity is low.

The user interface is suitable for both beginners, with intuitive graphics and controls, while advanced users can custom-tailor their backups with settings that include frequency, level of security and types of files saved.

Available in 320GB and 500GB capacities as well as white, blue, green and red colors, the drives are the same size as before and weigh six ounces. The new 500GB Toshiba Portable Hard Drive is priced at $150, while the 320GB version is priced at $120. 

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New technology enables high-speed data transfer

GridFTP, a protocol developed by researchers at Argonne National Laboratory, has been used to transfer unprecedented amounts of data over the Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), which provides a reliable, high-performance communications infrastructure to facilitate large-scale, collaborative science endeavors .

The Argonne-developed system proved key to enabling research groups at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center in California to move large data sets between the facilities at a rate of 200 megabytes per second.

The deployment of GridFTP at the two computing facilities is part of a major project to optimize wide-area network data transfers between sites hosting DOE leadership-class computers.

According to Ian Foster, co-director of the Globus Alliance project responsible for designing GridFTP, large-scale data transfer places an enormous burden on networks. "Conventional protocols have proven unable to handle the increasing demand of large-scale data transfer," he said. "The result has been delays in obtaining data, or even lost data as the network becomes overwhelmed. GridFTP changes that."

As large-scale collaborative science projects become increasingly common, the need to transfer unprecedented amounts of data is becoming critical. Having GridFTP on ESnet will enable the sharing of data between supercomputer centers in disciplines such as climate modeling and nuclear physics that require secure, robust, high-speed bulk data transfer.

"Our goal is to enable the scientists to rapidly move large-scale data sets between supercomputer centers as dictated by the needs of the science," said Eli Dart, a network engineer for ESnet, which is managed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "High-performance networking has become critical to science due to the size of the data sets and the wide scope of collaboration characteristic of today's large science projects such as climate research and high energy physics."

GridFTP offers several advantages over other data transfer systems. For example, with Secure Copy, or scp, bulk transfer of a 33-gigabyte dataset between the two remote hosts could take up to eight hours. With GridFTP, almost 20 times that amount of data can be transferred in the same amount of time. And, unlike the transfer application FTP, GridFTP uses multiple data channels for improving the transfer speed.

"The data tsunami problem has been a major bottleneck to scientific advancement," said Raj Kettimuthu, technical lead and technology coordinator of the GridFTP project at Argonne. "With GridFTP computational scientists can analyze their simulated and derived data in real time."
More information on GridFTP is available at http://www.globus.org/grid_software/data/gridftp.php .

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Flash 10 Beta for Smartphones Expected by October

Adobe plans to ship a beta version of Flash 10 for smartphone developers by October, company executives said recently.

During the company's second-quarter earnings call on June 19, chief executive officer Shantanu Narayen said that a beta version would be released at Adobe's MAX conference this fall. At last year's MAX, Adobe showed an even earlier version of the technology running on the first Android-powered phone, the G1.

"We are bringing Flash Player 10 to smartphone class devices to enable the latest web browsing experience," Narayen said, according to a transcript of the call compiled by SeekingAlpha.com.

"Multiple partners have already received early versions of this release and we expect to release a beta version for developers at our MAX Conference in October. Google's Android, Nokia's Symbian OS, Windows Mobile, and the New Palm Web OS will be among the first devices to support web browsing with the newest Flash player."

Narayen also said that Adobe continues to "work with Apple" to develop Flash 10 for the iPhone.
"We think it's in Apple's and Adobe's best interest to make sure that Flash is a first-class citizen and we will work with Apple," he said. "In order to deliver it as a browser plug-in, we need APIs and support and cooperation from Apple and we are constantly reaching out to them."

A large chunk of the Web is already powered by Flash, although developers have written around the lack of Flash for mobile devices. A good example of this is YouTube, which Google, for example, saves as a cached video for playback. Other services like iMeem depend on Flash for their in-browser media players.

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Intel, Nokia work on new pocket computer project

Intel Corp. and Nokia Corp. said Tuesday they're joining forces to build better technology for smart phones and other mobile Internet devices.

The deal is significant for Intel because it will help the world's biggest maker of PC microprocessors penetrate the smart phone market, an area Intel sees as crucial for growth.

Intel now makes smaller, lower-power chips for devices like "netbooks" — stripped-down laptops that do less and cost less. The company wants its chips used in other devices that act as computers, like smart phones made by Nokia.

Nokia gets Intel's agreement to license modem technology from Nokia and build it into future Intel chips.
The companies said in a joint release that they will also collaborate extensively on research projects, including improving the operating software for mobile devices. Any breakthroughs there should make the gadgets more attractive to consumers, which would sell more Nokia phones, presumably with Intel chips inside them.

The companies already collaborate on research projects, but Tuesday's announcement signals their intention to build products together. No specific products were announced.

"The possibilities are endless," Anand Chandrasekher, Intel's ultra mobility group general manager, said in a statement.

The companies said they would collaborate on improving so-called "open-source" software for mobile devices. Open-source software is code that's distributed freely on the Internet so programmers can modify and improve it on their own.

Kai Oistamo, Nokia's executive vice president of devices, said the deal represents a significant commitment between the two companies to work together on the future of mobile computing.

"We will explore new ideas in designs, materials and displays that will go far beyond devices and services on the market today," Oistamo said.

Shares in Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel were up 13 cents to close Tuesday at $15.81. Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, rose 38 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $14.46.

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Sony Plugs Blu-ray on a Budget With New Vaio

Blu-ray won the hard-fought format wars, and then not much happened. Consumers have been slow to adopt the high-def disc format, perhaps expecting that high-definition movie downloads and streaming will soon become widely available. Sony is betting the technology will be around long enough to stoke demand for its new budget-priced Blu-ray equipped Vaio notebook, however.

Amid questions about consumer enthusiasm for Blu-ray technology, Sony (NYSE: SNE)  on Monday announced a new notebook computer positioned by the electronics giant as an entry-level Blu-ray player for mobile viewing.

The VAIO NW notebook series carries an US$880 starting price tag for a Blu-ray equipped model, and comes with a 15.5-inch widescreen display, as well as an HDMI output connector for use with a larger screen.

It includes the ability to turn the screen display off while allowing the laptop to continue running, saving battery life while allowing a quick return to movie-watching or other computing tasks, and also allows users to launch directly to the Internet without waiting for the PC's operating system to load, according to Sony.

The PC comes equipped with three USB ports and ExpressCard, SD card and Memory Stick Pro slots. It comes in three colors -- brown, white and silver -- and includes software designed to help users make easy home movies and music mixes.

Will Blu-ray Move Laptops?
Sony clearly has a stake in highlighting Blu-ray. It's the company's technology, after all, and it emerged as the victor of the much-touted format wars to succeed traditional DVDs, particularly in the home market.

However, using such technology to move the needle on notebook sales is another question entirely, said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for the NPD Group."I don't think there's any peripheral technology that's going to sell notebooks," he said.

It's possible that some consumers who are looking to buy notebooks as desktop replacements may be swayed by Blu-ray technology, he said.

Blu-ray technology is gaining traction in U.S. households, NPD's research indicates, and it will likely to continue to grow in popularity, said Baker -- even if it is a transitional technology destined for eventual obsolescence as faster download speeds and beefier computers make digital streaming of high-definition video increasingly attractive.

Survey Data
Sales of standalone Blu-ray players increased by 72 percent in the first quarter of 2008, according to data NPD released in May. That showing was likely due to the perceived end of the format wars and the increasing adoption of high-definition televisions in U.S. households.
"It has legs across all platforms," said Baker.

Six percent of the 6,994 consumers who participated in an NPD survey in March said they planned to buy a Blu-ray player in the next six months, up slightly from August 2008. The poll carries a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

Those numbers are fairly similar to data released in a June 18 poll from Harris Interactive(Nasdaq: HPOL), which found that 7 percent of U.S. households without Blu-ray have plans to purchase such a player in the next year. Unlike NPD's report, however, Harris' research found interest in purchasing a Blu-ray player declining somewhat from 2008, with 7 percent of respondents saying they were likely to purchase a Blu-ray player in the next year. That's down from 9 percent in 2008.

Harris does not disclose specific margin of error information for its interactive polls.
The survey found 7 percent of Americans have Blu-ray players, up from 4 percent in 2008. Nine percent of respondents reported owning a PlayStation 3 gaming console, which includes a Blu-ray player.

The survey did not specifically ask about purchasing laptops with the technology integrated, Joan Barten Kline, vice president of research for Harris Interactive,told TechNewsWorld. The question is an interesting one, she said, and it will likely be included in upcoming editions of the survey.

Competing Technologies
Blu-ray is under pressure from competing technologies and sources of high-definition video, which could make the need for a dedicated disc player a temporary one, noted Harris vice president Milton Ellis at the time of the survey's release.

Sony spokesperson Judy Hillerman did not return a telephone call seeking comment on Blu-ray adoption

Although it is likely that digital streaming will eventually replace physical media, NPD's Baker agreed, he doesn't expect Blu-ray to go away any time soon.

"That kind of transition takes longer than you or I have patience for," he said. "There's plenty of momentum there to keep Blu-ray relevant, interesting and important for the next few years."

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