FCC preparing to vote on network neutrality rules (AP) : Technet

FCC preparing to vote on network neutrality rules (AP)
EU probe delves into heart of Google's business (AP)
Motorola to break into 2 on Jan. 4 (AP)
Japanese carrier to give away iPads â€” with strings attached (Ben Patterson)
Is Kinect the new Wii this holiday season? (Ben Patterson)
Dwolla a new player in electronic money transfers (AP)
iPad has real Xmas rival in Galaxy tablet (AFP)
Downloads to Lighten Your Laptop (PC World)
Tiger Woods all a-Twitter at Sherwood (Reuters)
New Michael Jackson Song debuts on Ping (Reuters)
Dating Site Lets You Propose Cool Dates, Rather Than Pore Over Pics (Mashable)
Apple looks to take over the world with iPad (Appolicious)
How Microsoft May Help Open Source in Court (PC World)
IBM Chip Breakthrough May Lead to Exascale Supercomputers (PC World)
China arrests hundreds of hackers, says situation "grim" (Reuters)
Linux Kernel Shows Growing Mobile Influence (PC World)
BP oil spill swamps Yahoo search engine in 2010 (AP)

FCC preparing to vote on network neutrality rules (AP)

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 09:17 PM PST

By JOELLE TESSLER, AP Technology Writer Joelle Tessler, Ap Technology Writer – 31 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Federal regulators are moving ahead with a plan to prohibit phone and cable companies from blocking or discriminating against Internet traffic flowing over their broadband networks.

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, will outline his proposal for so-called "network neutrality" rules in a speech on Wednesday. Despite Republican opposition in Congress, Genachowski plans to bring his proposal to a vote by the full commission before the end of the year.

Net neutrality rules were one of the Obama administration's top campaign pledges to the technology industry and have been among Genachowski's priorities since he took over the FCC more than a year ago.

Many big Internet companies, such as search leader Google Inc. and calling service Skype, as well as public-interest groups, insist regulations are needed to ensure broadband companies don't use their control over Internet connections to dictate where consumers can go and what they can do online.

But Genachowski has run into substantial opposition from big phone and cable companies, including AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp., which argue that they should be allowed to manage their networks as they see fit. Genachowski has spent the past several months trying to craft a compromise.

His new proposal would "culminate recent efforts to find common ground" and create "rules of the road to preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet," according to an advance copy of his remarks.

The plan — which builds on a set of FCC principles first established under the previous administration in 2005 — would require that broadband providers let subscribers access all legal online content, applications and services over their wireline networks.

But it would give broadband providers flexibility to manage their systems to deal with problems such as network congestion and unwanted traffic like spam as long as they publicly disclose their network management practices.

The proposal would also prohibit wireless carriers from blocking access to any Web sites or competing applications such as Internet calling services on mobile devices, and would require them to disclose their network management practices.

But it would give wireless carriers more leeway to manage data traffic since wireless systems have more bandwidth constraints than wired networks. That provision is likely to draw fire from public-interest groups, which argue that wireless networks should have the same protections as wired systems, particularly as more and more Americans go online using mobile devices.

In addition, the proposal would allow broadband providers to experiment with routing traffic from specialized services such as smart grids and home security systems over dedicated networks as long as these services do not hurt the public Internet.

In one key victory for the phone and cable companies, Genachowski's proposal would leave in place the FCC's current regulatory framework for broadband, which treats broadband as a lightly regulated "information service."

The agency has been trying to come up with a new framework since a federal appeals court in April ruled that the FCC had overstepped its existing authority in sanctioning cable giant Comcast for discriminating against Internet file-sharing traffic on its network — violating the very net neutrality principles that Genachowski now hopes to adopt as formal rules.

In order to ensure that the commission would be on solid legal ground in adopting net neutrality rules and other broadband regulations following that decision, Genachowski had proposed redefining broadband as a telecommunications service subject to "common carrier" obligations to treat all traffic equally. But that effort quickly triggered a fierce backlash from the phone and cable companies, as well as many Republicans on Capitol Hill — prompting Genachowski to abandon it in his current plan.

Genachowski's new plan is based in large part on a proposal that Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the outgoing chairman of the House Commerce Committee, tried unsuccessfully to push in Congress several months ago. Waxman, too, ran into opposition from Republicans who warn that net neutrality rules amount to burdensome regulation that would discourage broadband providers from investing in their networks.

With Republicans set to take over the House next year, Genachowski is running out of time to get his net neutrality proposal through the FCC without being blocked by lawmakers.

Supporters argue that net neutrality rules are critical to preserving an open Internet and ensuring that phone and cable companies cannot slow or block online phone calls, Web video and other Internet services that compete with their core businesses.

Indeed, the online file-sharing service blocked by Comcast was used in large part to trade movies and other video over the Internet. Net neutrality proponents also want rules to ensure that broadband companies cannot favor their own online traffic or the traffic of business partners that can pay for priority access.

But the phone and cable companies insist they need flexibility to manage network traffic so that high-bandwidth applications — such as online video — don't hog capacity and slow down their systems. They say this is particularly true for wireless networks. The communications companies also argue that after spending billions to upgrade their lines for broadband, they need to be able earn a healthy return by offering premium services.

EU probe delves into heart of Google's business (AP)

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 04:09 PM PST

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE and GABRIELE STEINHAUSER, AP Business Writers Michael Liedtke And Gabriele Steinhauser, Ap Business Writers – Tue Nov 30, 7:09 pm ET

BRUSSELS – European regulators are tackling a puzzle that could shift the balance of power on the Internet: Is Google stifling competition by juicing its search results to favor its services over its rivals?

Hoping to find an answer, regulators announced an investigation Tuesday that will take the first major look into the heart of Google Inc., focusing on the very thing that corporations from Coca-Cola to KFC go to enormous lengths to keep secret.

In Google's case, the mathematical formulas that determine its search engine's prized recommendations.

The rankings of Google's results can make or break a business these days, whether it is a blogger or a multibillion dollar company. Knowing how Google makes its decisions, or persuading regulators to dictate changes, could be of enormous value to competitors.

Word of the investigation caused Google's stock to tumble $26.40, or 4.5 percent, to close at $555.71. It was the largest one-day drop in the company's shares since mid-July. The company is also dealing with national antitrust probes in Germany, Italy and France.

The inquiry's timing also threatens to complicate Google's efforts to expand an empire that will bring in nearly $30 billion in revenue this year. U.S. officials are reviewing its $700 million acquisition of a leading travel technology provider, ITA Software.

Perhaps most troubling to Google, the European Commission conceivably could require it to divulge information about the algorithms that decide the links listed at the top of its search results.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has zealously guarded those formulas in much the same manner as the Coca-Cola Co. protects the recipe for its signature drink or KFC guards the ingredient mix for its chicken.

Although any confidential information that Google shares with regulators probably would remain under seal, the company's executives may not want to run the risk of opening its trade secrets to outsiders, Boston University antitrust law professor Keith Hylton said.

"They are probably going to think long and hard about what to do in Mountain View and they may end up saying, 'Let's just cut a deal,'" Hylton said. "And that decision may not have anything to do with whether Google is in the right or in the wrong on this issue."

It's still too early to say whether the commission will ask Google to disclose the algorithms, said Amelia Torres, the spokeswoman for Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia.

In a Tuesday statement, Google said it will attempt to answer the commission's questions.

If regulators conclude Google acted illegally, the company could face billions of dollars in fines, similar to what Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. faced in recent antitrust cases brought by the commission.

The investigation marks the first time a government has delved so deeply into Google's core business practices, although there have been other antitrust inquiries that have touched upon the company's dominance of the Internet's lucrative search market.

It wouldn't be surprising if the commission's probe spurs similar investigations in the U.S., Hylton said. "State attorney generals will probably look at this and see an opportunity to get their names on the front pages of newspapers, too," he said.

Google processes about two of every three search requests on the Web, even though there's nothing to prevent people from using other services, such as Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo Inc., the next two biggest search engines.

People have become so addicted to Google in Europe that it commands a 90 percent market share in some countries.

The investigation was triggered after several competitors — U.K.-based price comparison site Foundem, French legal search engine ejustice.fr and shopping site Ciao, owned by Microsoft — that complained their services were being buried in Google's main search results.

The companies also contended that Google highlights its own services, such as online price comparison, in the advertising section of the search results. Google charges other companies to be listed in this prime space.

In addition, regulators will look into whether Google tried to prevent other websites in its advertising network from featuring the commercial messages from its rivals. They also want to know whether Google made it more difficult for advertisers to export their information to other online marketing platforms.

Several websites in the U.S. have also complained that their links have been unfairly buried in Google's search results and, in some instances, have even filed lawsuits.

ICOMP, a business group whose members include Foundem and which is sponsored by Microsoft, said it welcomed the investigation.

"This is not just about search results," said ICOMP's legal council David Wood. "This is about the whole ecosystem of doing business with online content, online advertising companies and software companies."

The European probe will help underscore the threat posed by Google's market power, said Thomas Barnett, a former U.S. Justice Department lawyer who oversaw a 2008 investigation that broke up a proposed search partnership between Google and Yahoo in 2008.

Barnett, now working to block the ITA Software deal in private practice, predicted the inquiry will delve much deeper into Google's operations. He said no agency has gone after Google the way the European regulators are in their current investigation.

Google insists its search decisions are guided by a desire to quickly provide the most relevant and convenient information.

"We built Google for users, not websites," Susan Wojcicki and Udi Manber, two of Google's top executives, wrote in a blog post. "It may seem obvious, but people sometimes forget this — not every website can come out on top, or even appear on the first page of our results."

Google's lawyers have also argued the company's website recommendations are a matter of opinion protected by free speech, much like a newspaper's movie reviews or political commentary.

"This investigation could come down to whether Google is a publisher or whether it has become a public utility or some other creature that requires regulatory oversight," said Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of SearchEngineLand.com.

There's little dispute that Google's own services consistently have ranked at or near the top of its search results.

In some cases, there's clear logic to the rankings because some of Google's properties, including its mapping service and YouTube video site, are considered to be among the best and most authoritative in their categories.

Other services, such as finance and health, aren't as widely used or as well regarded, but tend to get high rankings in the search results.

Although Google says it strives to avoid bias, one of its top executives publicly conceded that the company sometimes give its own services preferential treatment.

Marissa Mayer, who formerly helped oversee the search, said the favoritism began shortly after Google introduced its finance section in 2006, according to a June 2007 presentation still available on YouTube (http://bit.ly/eIHZD2).

"We used to have Yahoo (Finance) first and now Google is first," she said. "...When we rolled out Google Finance, we did put the Google link first. It seems only fair, right, we do all the work for the search page and all these other things, so we did put it first.

"That's actually been our policy since then because of Finance," she said.

Google's self-interest isn't much different from a lot of companies that publish or broadcast information, Sullivan said.

The latest inquiry seems "like being upset at NBC for showing only NBC shows, even though people tune into NBC because they like the network's programming" he said.

___

Liedtke reported from San Francisco.

Motorola to break into 2 on Jan. 4 (AP)

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 02:33 PM PST

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson, Ap Technology Writer – Tue Nov 30, 5:33 pm ET

NEW YORK – Motorola Inc. will split into two companies effective Jan. 4, finalizing the breakup of one of the founders of the U.S. electronics industry.

Motorola is splitting its consumer-oriented side, which makes cell phones and cable set-top boxes, from the side that sells police radios and barcode scanners to government and corporate customers.

Shareholders of record on Dec. 21 will receive shares in both the consumer business, Motorola Mobility, and the professional business, Motorola Solutions.

The breakup is motivated by the desire to present two simple stories to investors, rather than one complicated one.

Motorola set the breakup plan in motion in 2008 after prodding from activist investor Carl Icahn. The goal was to complete the separation by 2009, but the economic downturn and the continuing collapse of Motorola's phone sales prompted it to postpone the plan. Motorola announced the new date Tuesday.

One big piece of Motorola won't make it to separation: The company is selling a division that makes network equipment for cell phone companies to Nokia Siemens Networks, a Finnish-German joint venture. The deal is expected to close before the end of the year.

Motorola started out as a manufacturer of car radios in the 1930s. It pioneered the U.S. cell phone industry in the 1980s.

Motorola's cell phone business, which as late as 2007 was riding high on the success of the Razr, is struggling to reshape itself. Once the second-largest phone maker in the world, Motorola is now the seventh-largest and sells fewer phones than either Apple Inc. or Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry. However, cost-cutting and a focus on smart phones such as the Droid X allowed it to post an operating profit for the July-to-September quarter. It was the first profitable quarter for the division in three years.

On Jan. 4, shareholders will receive one share of Motorola Mobility for every eight shares of Motorola Inc. Motorola Inc. share will then go through a 1-for-7 reverse stock split, as the company renames itself Motorola Solutions. Both stocks will trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

The businesses that will become Motorola Mobility had $2.9 billion in sales in the most recent quarter, compared with $1.9 billion for Motorola Solutions. However, the $321 million in operating earnings at Solutions dwarfed the $3 million Mobility made.

Motorola Solutions will stay in Schaumburg. Motorola Mobility will initially be based nearby in Libertyville, Ill., but officials have said that it may later move its headquarters team to San Diego, the San Francisco area or Austin, Texas.

Motorola prepared for the breakup by hiring Sanjay Jha in 2008 to head the handset division and making him co-CEO. He will be the head of Mobility. The other co-CEO, Greg Brown, will head Solutions.

Shares of Motorola, which is based in Schaumburg, Ill., closed Tuesday at $7.66, down 11 cents.

Japanese carrier to give away iPads â€” with strings attached (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 01:21 PM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Tue Nov 30, 4:21 pm ET

Don't want to fork over $500 for a new iPad? Well, what if you could get one for free? That's what Japanese carrier Softbank is promising to subscribers starting early next month — but of course, there's a two-year catch involved.

Softbank's "iPad for Everybody" promotion begins December 2, reports MocoNews, with those who sign up set to get their very own 16GB iPad 3G, which retails here in the U.S. for a cool $629. (The 16GB Wi-Fi-only version of the iPad sells for $499.)

That's not the end of the story, though. Users who sign up for a "free" iPad through Softbank will also have to sign a 25-month contract that involves a 4,725-yen monthly 3G data fee, which, based on the latest exchange rates, comes out to about $56 a month.

Do the math ($56 a month, times 25 months) and that comes out to about 118,125 yen — or $1,400 — over two years. Yikes.

On the other hand, 25 months of AT&T's 2GB, $25-a-month iPad 3G plan would cost you $625 (not counting taxes and other fees, of course), while a 16GB iPad 3G goes for $629 — bringing the 25-month total to $1,254, or nearly $150 less than the Softbank deal.

That's not an entirely fair comparison, though. For one thing, Softbank is offering unlimited monthly 3G data for its iPad subscribers, while both AT&T and Verizon (which is offering the Wi-Fi iPad bundled with a MiFi wireless hotspot) are capping their no-strings iPad 3G plans. There's also the relative strength of the yen to consider, which complicates straight-ahead currency conversions when it comes to comparing international products and services.

Still, as with the steeply discounted smartphones sold by wireless carriers here in the States, there's no question that a "free" iPad from Japan's Softbank isn't really free — and indeed, it may end up costing users about as much as they would have paid for an iPad up front.

Softbank isn't the first carrier to offer the iPad 3G at a discount, as MocoNews points out. Both Orange and T-Mobile in the U.K. are offering £200 iPads (about US$320) with two-year contracts, while Orange France will serve up a two-year-contract iPad for 279 euros.

Neither AT&T nor Verizon Wireless are offering discounted iPad deals yet, although it's worth noting that the iPad's newest competitor — the 7-inch, Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab — recently went on sale on Sprint and T-Mobile for a subsidized $399 with two-year contracts. The full retail price of the 3G-enabled Tab: a hefty $599.

Competition with the Tab could be one reason that overseas carriers are offering the iPad for a discount in exchange for a two-year service agreement, although MocoNews has another theory: an effort by Apple to boost the iPad's user base in Japan before its iAd mobile advertising platform makes its 2011 Japanese debut.

What about you — would you rather pay full-price for an iPad (or the Samsung Galaxy Tab, for that matter) up front, with no strings attached, or at a discount with a two-year contract?

— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.

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Is Kinect the new Wii this holiday season? (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 11:52 AM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Tue Nov 30, 2:52 pm ET

Just a few years ago, parents and gamers alike were lining up in the dark for a chance to snag the impossible-to-find Wii at their local Target or Toys 'R Us. Nowadays, walking into a store to scoop up a Wii is a cakewalk; good luck finding an Xbox Kinect motion-control camera, though.

Microsoft just announced that after only 25 days on the market, it's managed to sell — and yes, they're saying "sell," not just ship — a whopping 2.5 million Kinects, or about 100,000 Kinect sensors a day.

Pretty impressive, especially once you consider that the Nintendo Wii — once the hottest gaming console on the market, although sales have cooled over the past year or so — sold "just" 600,000 units in its first eight days back in 2006, or about 75,000 consoles a day. (CNN sagely notes, however, that the comparison isn't entirely fair, given the Wii's then-$250 price tag, versus the $150 sticker price for the cheapest Kinect bundle.)

Meanwhile, Sony's own motion controller for the holidays — the PlayStation Move — is also moving some serious units, although hard sales figures are tough to come by.

Sony says it shipped a million Moves in the controller's first 30 days on the market — although "shipped" doesn't necessarily mean "sold," as Ars Technica points out — and crowed back in October that it had already sold (not "shipped") 1.5 million Move units in Europe.

So … does that equal 2.5 million Move bundles rung up at cash registers since the controller's mid-September debut? Unknown, for now. Update: Sony now claims it has shipped 4.1 million Move controllers to retailers worldwide, although once again it's not clear how many Moves have actually been sold to gamers.

Anyway, the PlayStation Move (which starts at $99 for a single controller bundled with Sports Champions, Sony's version of Wii Sports) appears to be readily available online and in stores, with retailers such as Amazon, Toys 'R Us, and Gamestop showing the Move "Starter Bundle" in stock and ready to ship.

The same can't be said of Kinect, however.

Amazon, for example, isn't even letting you put the $150 Kinect bundle (which includes a copy of the family-friendly Kinect Adventures) in your shopping cart. A message on Amazon's Kinect product page reads that due to "high demand," Amazon is "limiting orders" for the motion sensor to one per customer, and that "we cannot guarantee that we will receive additional quantities in a timely manner."

New and used Kinect bundles are available through third parties via Amazon, but expect to pay $200 and up, a $50 premium over the regular MSRP.

The situation is a little better at Gamestop's website, which lists the 4GB Xbox 360 bundled with Kinect (for $299) as in stock and shipping within 24 hours. The $150 Kinect bundle is back-ordered, however, and the 250GB Xbox/Kinect bundle (which retails for $399) is listed as "currently unavailable online."

Walmart.com doesn't have the 4GB or 250GB Kinect bundles, but it does have a special Kinect package — including the Kinect sensor, Kinect Adventures, and a choice of two more Kinect games — in stock, for $250.

If you've got your heart set on Kinect for the holidays, you could always try a Kinect stock tracker, a tool that'll bring back memories for anyone who was scrounging for a Wii back in the day.

Again, though, the news looks grim, with NowInStock.com's Kinect tracker showing each and every Kinect bundle as "out of stock"— well, save for that $250 Kinect bundle at Walmart.

And yes, there's always eBay, but prepare to pay through the nose if you go that route.

So, are you having trouble finding Kinect in stock? Got any Kinect shopping tips? Let us know.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.

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Dwolla a new player in electronic money transfers (AP)

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 09:14 PM PST

By DAVID PITT, AP Personal Finance Writer David Pitt, Ap Personal Finance Writer – 33 mins ago

DES MOINES, Iowa – Just as plastic rendered paper checks nearly obsolete, gadgets may soon do the same to credit and debit cards.

Smart phones and other mobile devices are staples for many holiday shoppers. That's because retailers are taking advantage of their low-cost ability to offer deals on websites like Facebook and Twitter (Think: no paper or mailing costs). Technology is also making mobile payments easier and helping to provide what can be a less expensive option for businesses.

It's an important development because companies like PayPal and the major credit card issuers charge 2 percent or more per transaction. But more informal money transfers are another key factor and their number is growing. This may include purchases from smaller businesses or just sending money to friends and family without writing a check.

Already such direct electronic money transfers between individuals are estimated to total some $3 trillion a year, and that's only expected to increase.

That means there's a clear profit potential, making the business ripe for additional players with new ideas to emerge.

A Des Moines-based company called Dwolla Corp. (DWAL'-ah) is one of the new players.

On Wednesday, the company launched nationally its lower cost payment processing service for use by businesses and individuals. The company was already operating in Iowa and California.

Dwolla offers a payment service that charges a flat fee of 25 cents per transaction.

Banks have relied too long on debit and credit cards and their high fees, said Matt Harris, managing general partner of New York-based Village Ventures, a venture capital firm.

"It has sparked a lot of entrepreneurship on the part of people thinking they can do it better than these sleepy giants," Harris said.

That certainly rung true for Dwolla creator Ben Milne. As the owner of an audio equipment business he disliked the high fees he paid credit card companies to process purchases. Two years ago he came up with the idea of a low-cost payment system and began shopping around for investors.

Milne, 28, found investors willing to bankroll $250,000 to help him get started in November 2009. He also obtained a $55,000 grant from the Iowa Department of Economic Development.

Earlier this month he received $1 million in venture capital from the Veridian Credit Union and The Members Group, which provides transaction processing and other financial services.

In addition to the cash infusion, the affiliation means deposits held in a Dwolla accounts are insured by the FDIC and the National Credit Union Administration. Its transactions are secured by the same technology that protects online banking systems.

Banks and credit unions are adopting mobile banking and integrating social networking as fast as they can, said Nick Evans, president of The Veridian Group, a subsidiary of Veridian Credit Union — noting it's important to stay on the cutting edge of technology and consumer demand.

Dwolla's technology is designed to easily integrate into the checkout page of an online business. The Dwolla logo appears as a payment option at checkout. The flat fee is expected to be particularly attractive to small and medium-sized businesses.

That's because the savings can be significant, said Nick Kremer, 32, president of Nine Dot Systems, a website design and hosting company. One of his customers orders computer servers regularly and can easily spend $5,000 for each transaction. In turn, Kremer paid credit card fees of about $150 per order. That dropped to just 25 cents with Dwolla.

"People can see the hard number value in it," he said. "If I can push the cost savings on to customers it makes it worthwhile for both of us."

Milne said he can keep his costs low because he uses the latest transaction clearing technology and doesn't rely on middlemen that would require him to pay user fees.

Dwolla also can be easily integrated with programs like Facebook and Twitter, allowing friends to send each other money quickly, easily, and for the 25-cent transaction fee.

Brad Bacheir, 30, who works at insurance and financial services company Principal Financial Group Inc., said he started using Dwolla to pay rent because his landlord encouraged him to pay that way.

Once he had an account set up and liked using it, he began sending friends money on their birthday instead of sending a gift card.

He pays for his haircuts with Dwolla through a Facebook account. It saves his hair stylist processing fees that come with credit card swiping machines.

Bacheir thinks the ease of transferring money and the low cost will catch on fast for individuals.

Once you sign up at Dwolla.com, sending money is as easy as punching in the amount, the friend's user name on Facebook or Twitter and sending. The friend will get a message that you've sent money.

The user can either deposit funds in the Dwolla account and send money from there or link Dwolla to a bank account and send money directly from one bank account to another. There is no credit application process.

Dwolla also works with Apple's iPhone or iPad and Android mobile devices.

Dwolla's launch on Wednesday was accompanied by the announcement that the Mars Cafe, a Des Moines restaurant, was testing an in-store payment system. Customers can pay by logging into their Dwolla account on their phone, calling up the restaurant from a list of participating businesses and sending the money from the smart phone.

Next to the cash register is another smart phone that tells the clerk the bill has been paid electronically. The clerk provides a receipt and the customer's on his way. No cash, checks, or credit cards needed.

It seems the virtual payment future has arrived.

iPad has real Xmas rival in Galaxy tablet (AFP)

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 07:55 PM PST

by Adrian Addison Adrian Addison – 1 hr 52 mins ago

HONG KONG (AFP) – Last Christmas anybody asked if they wanted a "tablet" probably thought they were being offered a pill to ease indigestion caused by a little bit of festive over-indulgence.

But this year, millions of people around the world will be glued to their iPad or other tablet computer instead of watching yet another re-run of a movie on TV.

Samsung Electronics says it has sold over 700,000 of its Galaxy Tab device in the six weeks since its launch and believes at least a million will be in people's hands by the end of the year.

But that's still miles behind the iPad, which only went on sale in South Korea -- Samsung's home turf -- for the first time on Tuesday.

Apple has sold more than eight million of the gadgets since it went on sale in April but could have sold more, experts say, were it not for problems making enough to meet demand.

Sony, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM), Toshiba, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Dell, Asus, Acer -- most of the big global brand names in the technology sector have a tablet computer on the market or in the pipeline.

Technology research firm Gartner last month said sales of tablet computers are expected to soar from nearly 20 million units this year to 55 million next year and over 208 million in 2014.

The Galaxy Tab has a seven-inch (18-centimetre) touch screen -- significantly smaller than the iPad's nearly 10-inch display. But Samsung says it will introduce "new tablets of different sizes in the near future".

Apple's first generation iPad does not have a camera, does not function as a phone and the company does not allow the Flash video standard on the gadget.

These are all big advantages for Samsung, the company says.

"The Tab sets itself apart from other similar smart media devices by featuring optimal portability, Flash support, dual cameras and phone-call functions," Samsung Electronics spokesman Nam Ki-yung told AFP

"Owning a Tab is like having your personal library, entertainment system, office workstation and e-learning resources rolled into one device -- that snugly fits into your pocket."

While Apple has its own App store where iPad owners can buy software and games to run on its array of gadgets, Samsung and most other tablets run on Google's Android, with apps available from the Android Market store.

Sales in tablet computers should see exponential growth in the next 12 months, analysts say.

"Tablets are basically new creatures," Young Park, a tech analyst for South Korea's Woori Investment and Securities, told AFP.

"So this is a brand new market which is set to grow substantially. It will be interesting to watch how the market evolves over the next year or so.

"As more and more tablet devices come onto the market, that will inevitably eat into Apple's lead."

Sales of tablet computers, Hong Kong-based Young believes, will remain steady during the run up to Christmas but will not increase significantly.

"A tablet computer such as Apple's iPad or the Samsung Galaxy Tab is hard to give as a Christmas gift," Young said.

"The main problem is most of them require a subscription with a network and you have to sign a 12 or even 24 month contract. That makes it difficult to give as a surprise. Plus, they're not cheap."

The cheapest iPad costs 499 dollars in the US while the top model is priced at 829 dollars. Samsung's Galaxy Tab costs around 600 dollars, when bought without a subscription to a network.

Downloads to Lighten Your Laptop (PC World)

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 06:30 PM PST

Preston Gralla Preston Gralla – Tue Nov 30, 9:30 pm ET

If you have a laptop, you have instant computing wherever you are. Using a laptop means that you can always stay connected, keeping work and entertainment near at hand. Unfortunately, using a laptop also means that you have big problems, largely relating to security: As the recently released hacking tool Firesheep makes clear, every time you open your laptop and connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot, you're in danger of having your identity stolen.

Fear not, though. The following eight downloads can help you get the most out of your laptop, while keeping your data safe and secure.

(For links to all of these downloads in one convenient place, see our "Downloads to Lighten Your Laptop" collection.)

Stay Secure

When you connect to a public Wi-Fi hotspot, such as at a café, you can be hacked--all too easily. The free Firesheep Firefox hacking add-on is disturbingly simple to use: With it almost anyone can intercept your private information and then log in as you to many sites, including Amazon, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter.

You can--and should--protect yourself. The free BlackSheep Firefox add-on can help, but not greatly so, because it works only in Firefox and merely warns you that you're being hacked (as opposed to actually doing anything about it). I've also had problems installing BlackSheep. A better bet is to use a virtual private network, which encrypts all of your communications over a hotspot so that hackers and snoopers can't reach it.

Hotspot Shield. Run the application, and it pops open as a browser window that tells you it's at work. When you surf the Web with Hotspot Shield active, you're protected via the secure HTTPS protocol. The program pipes ads into its browser window, and it also might pop up ads at the top of Web pages you visit. When you install it, make sure to uncheck boxes that allow the program do things such as change your default search engine.

HTTPS Everywhere. This free add-on encrypts most of your Web communications when you use Firefox. It can't encrypt all content on sites that incorporate material from third parties, though. The add-on will let you know when full encryption is active, and when it can encrypt only part of the communications.

Anonymizer Universal is a solid for-pay VPN. Once you've set it up, using it is a breeze--just click a button. At that point, use the Internet as you normally do; your communications are secure and protected. The main drawback of this program is its price: $80 for a one-year subscription.

AlwaysVPN, which charges on a per-gigabyte basis. That way, if you need a VPN only infrequently, you can save a good deal of money. For $8.50, you get 5GB of bandwidth use; the pricing scales up to $47 for 80GB for more-frequent users. To use AlwaysVPN, you'll need to install AlwaysVPN's own version of the free OpenVPN software. Once you've done that, you can connect with a click or two, and you're protected.

Get More out of Wi-Fi

Xirrus Wi-Fi Inspector, which shows you any nearby hotspots using a radar-like display. You get detailed information about every hotspot, including the strength, what kind of network it is (802.11n, for example), the router vendor, the channel on which it transmits, and whether it's an access point or an ad hoc network. It even shows you how physically far away you are from the network.

Connectify is useful for laptop owners, as well. With this tool you can turn your laptop into its own hotspot so that other people can share your Internet connection. If your group is at a location with only an ethernet connection to the Internet, for instance, you can bring your wireless friends or colleagues onto that connection. And if you're at a for-pay hotspot, one person can establish on the laptop a single for-pay connection that everyone in the group can use.

Other Useful Tools

BatteryBar, which shows on your taskbar exactly how much juice your machine has left so that you don't run out of power during an important task. You can learn not just how much of the charge remains but also details such as the total battery capacity, the discharge rate, the battery wear, and how much total capacity your battery has in terms of time per full charge.

SugarSync is a great tool. It automatically synchronizes files and folders among multiple machines so that your latest work is always within close reach. It doubles as backup software, too, because it also saves files and folders to cloud-based storage. You get 5GB free; to get more, you'll have to pay fees starting at $50 per year for 30GB.

Tiger Woods all a-Twitter at Sherwood (Reuters)

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 06:43 PM PST

By Mark Lamport-Stokes Mark Lamport-stokes – Tue Nov 30, 9:43 pm ET

THOUSAND OAKS, California (Reuters) – Two weeks after testing out Twitter for the first time, Tiger Woods engaged the social network with a flurry of activity on Tuesday.

While preparing to host this week's Chevron World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club, the former world number one sent 23 tweets in reply to various questions posed by his fans.

Asked what his goals were for the 2011 PGA Tour, he tweeted: "As Al Davis said: 'Just win baby'."

In answer to a query about his favorite food while out on the course, he said: "During a round I eat peanut & banana sandwich & almonds."

Woods sported a goatee during his pre-tournament news conference at Sherwood on Tuesday and another Twitter fan asked him whether he could "rock a full beard or only the goatee".

His tweeted reply: "I can barely grow a goatee."

Woods has been carefully crafting an image rebuild following his scandal-hit start to this year.

His private life unraveled after stunning revelations emerged about his serial philandering, an unexpected chain of events that led to a loss of form and sponsorships as well as his divorce.

On November 17, he reached out to fans on his sporadically used Twitter account, tweeting: "What's up everyone? Finally decided to try out twitter!"

However he sent out only five more tweets before his renewed burst this week, helping lift his total of followers to 281,946.

"Wasn't gonna follow @TigerWoods but now he's tweeting like crazy so I think he'll be well worth a follow!!," tweeted Britain's Rory McIlroy who is playing at Sherwood this week.

Britain's Ian Poulter is one of golf's most prolific tweeters with more than a million followers and he felt Woods had under-clubbed with his initial forays on the microblogging service.

"He has only written about seven tweets so far so I think I might need to give him a little gee up and tell him to write a few more," Poulter told Reuters before Woods fired off 23 on Tuesday.

"It's all been good fun. Lee (Westwood) has been a new addition to Twitter over the last couple of weeks, along with Tiger, and certainly Lee has taken to it with fine form.

"He has given me plenty of abuse and plenty of banter. It's great. You can have a bit of fun with it and it makes it very enjoyable."

Westwood, who became world number one for the first time earlier this month, tweeted Woods on Tuesday without getting an immediate reply.

"Just tweeted Tiger and he's blanked me!" Westwood said to Poulter via Twitter. "Have a word!"

(Editing by Frank Pingue)

New Michael Jackson Song debuts on Ping (Reuters)

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 05:36 PM PST

By Jason Lipshutz Jason Lipshutz – Tue Nov 30, 8:36 pm ET

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Following the release of first single "Hold My Hand," a new song from the forthcoming Michael Jackson album "Michael" has debuted online.

The somber love ballad "Much Too Soon," which is the 10th and final track on the posthumous set, has premiered on iTunes' social networking service, Ping. It is described as "the bittersweet closing to a stellar collection."

Backed by an acoustic guitar and a swelling string section, Jackson quietly sings about missing a lover who rejected him. "I'm hoping that my prayers will see/The day that you come back to me," Jackson sings at the song's conclusion, "But I guess I learned my lesson much too soon."

According to the song's description on Ping, "Much Too Soon" was "written at the time of 'Thriller,'" and Jackson "always liked the song but never found the right home for it." The ballad was written by the singer and co-produced with John McClain, the co-executor of his estate.

"Much Too Soon" is a change of pace from the optimistic Akon duet "Hold My Hand," which debuted at No. 84 on Billboard's Hot 100 last week.

Along with the media-baiting dance track "Breaking News," "Soon" is the third taste of "Michael," which is set to hit stores December 14.

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)

Dating Site Lets You Propose Cool Dates, Rather Than Pore Over Pics (Mashable)

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 03:07 PM PST

Brenna Ehrlich Brenna Ehrlich – Tue Nov 30, 6:07 pm ET

This post is part of Mashable's Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: HowAboutWe

Quick Pitch: HowAboutWe is an online dating site -- once New York-only, now national -- that lets users propose unique date activities, making the experience more about meeting up and doing cool things than scrolling through pics and profiles.

Genius Idea: If you're a tech-savvy person in your 20s and 30s, chances are you've been on an online date or two. And chances are, you've been on a horribly awkward -- or downright awful -- online date or two. The whole process can be overwhelming -- scrolling through pages and pages of photos, sending messages into the ether, receiving countless borderline revolting epistles from dudes who only display photos of their torsos.

HowAboutWe seeks to alleviate that daunting experience by putting the focus on the date, rather than the hassle of getting there. Upon signing up for the site, users are asked to express their levels of interest in a series of dates, beer tasting, concerts, walks on the beach -- that kind of deal.

This information -- along with data from your profile -- is plugged into an algorithm that determines what kinds of dates you're sent via e-mail (every user gets a daily e-mail detailing dates that he or she might be interested in) and which show up on a stream on your homepage.

After answering said questions, users can create a rather barebones profiles (based on quirky questions like "What I would bring to show and tell?" and "One thing my mother would want you to know about me?") that focus more on their personalities than their looks, and then propose dates that they would like to go on.

This injection of novelty into the dating scene seems par for the course for Co-founders Brian Schechter and Aaron Schildkrout. The two met in kindergarten, and have since been collaborating on everything from a spaghetti business at a hippie festival the summer after high school to teaching; before founding HowAboutWe, both worked as teachers.

"For most of our careers as teachers, we taught courses that focused on self-knowledge, using the humanities as subject foci and big public projects that gave students chances to express themselves and share their knowledge," Schechter says.

"We're talking having students write their own versions of Plato's Apology and perform them in front of large audiences, creating massive hip-hop operas about the history of labor and segregation, or taking parents and students on weekend retreats to talk about everything they need to say before they go to college."

When they turned 30, the pair decided to create an online dating site -- one that they would use. Hence the creative nature of HowAboutWe, which just scored $3.1 million in series A funding round led by RRE Ventures (syndicate includes Founder Collective, Thrive, FF Assets and individual angel/entrepreneurs like George Kliavkoff and Scott Kidder).

Schechter shared a few intriguing dates from around the country with us to give Mashable readers a better sense of what the site's users are like:

"How about we…ride bikes wearing our shortest shorts then get a malted milkshake." (Los Angeles)
"How about we…bike along the lakefront and have a progressive picnic at each beach, starting way north." (Chicago)
"How about we…buy bingo scratchers at random liquor stores. If we win, we move on to the next?" (Boston)
"How about we…go to the National Portrait Gallery and make up back stories about the historical figures in the paintings?" (DC)
"How about we…throw Twinkies at Marie Antoinette on Bastille Day at the Eastern State Pen?" (Philly)
"How about we…try the new Indian street food restaurant then go to UO and make fun of ourselves in skinny jeans!" (San Francisco)

If any of the above (or myriad other dates on the site) strike a user's fancy, they can indicate that they're interested by clicking "I'm Intrigued," and then, hopefully, start dating. "The date someone wants to go on provides an ideal digital first impression," Schechter says. Also, the process aims to cut down on the penpal-like discourse so common on other dating sites: You propose a date, someone accepts, you go. And, even if the person is super lame, at least you got an interesting date out of it.

Largely, HowAboutWe is a free service. You can propose dates, browse dates, receive daily dates e-mails, create a profile, look at other profiles, indicate that you're "Intrigued" and read messages for free, but if you want to send messages, you'll have to pony up the cash (12 months cost $8 per month. Six months is $12 per month. Three months is $18 per month. One month is $28). Which means that you only have to pay if you actually want to go on a date.

The more active one is, the more the site will work in his or her favor -- one could score a $100 check (for dating purposes, of course) for racking up 1,000 points, which are earned by proposing dates, getting friends to join, etc. The latter impetus will also help HowAboutWe grow its base of users. Pre-national launch, it had 25,000 users in New York City.

HowAboutWe could also be a boon to businesses and advertisers. The site features a storehouse of dates called "The Datetropolis," where businesses can propose dates at their locations, which can then be proposed by users. Right now, this is the only way businesses can advertise on the site.

We like that HowAboutWe is simple and creative. The old practices of online dating -- what with the MySpace shots and general penpal-age -- were getting stale, and the site injects a new kind of life into the business. Also, the site itself is friendly, clean and attractive, which makes a big difference. One wants users to feel comfortable in an online space: Think about it, would you rather meet someone in a tacky dive (not the good kind) or somewhere well-lit and welcoming?

Naturally the secret behind any successful social network or dating site is having a large user base. Until now, this has been the main drawback of HowAboutWe -- its limited, hyper-local pool of daters. Now that it has expanded to the rest of the U.S., it will be interesting to see how it grows and, potentially, flourishes.

Would you use HowAboutWe to secure your weekend plans?

Image courtesy of Flickr, Meagan

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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

FCC preparing to vote on network neutrality rules (AP) : Technet

FCC preparing to vote on network neutrality rules (AP) : Technet

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