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Monday, November 22, 2010

Netflix expects video streaming to drown out DVDs (AP) : Technet

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Netflix expects video streaming to drown out DVDs (AP) : Technet

Netflix expects video streaming to drown out DVDs (AP)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 02:37 PM PST

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Mon Nov 22, 5:37 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Netflix is preparing for the day when getting DVDs by mail is as old-fashioned as going to the video store.

It's hoping to wean people from DVDs with a cheap plan that offers movies and old TV episodes exclusively through online streaming. It will cost $8 per month, matching a recent price cut by rival Hulu.

So should you get rid of your DVD player? Maybe not yet. But it might be a good time to make sure your television can connect to the Internet.

Most analysts expect the streaming-only plan to appeal to younger subscribers, especially those who have signed up for Netflix in the past couple years as the service became available through video game consoles. To them, the new price will probably seem like a bargain: Netflix had been charging $9 per month for the lowest-priced plan that included unlimited video streaming.

At the same time, Netflix is making it more expensive to receive those familiar red envelopes in the mail. The company is trying to offset its postage expenses and bring more money to improve the quality of its Internet streaming library.

The monthly rates on Netflix's three most popular rental plans will rise $1 to $3, depending on the plan. They will be $10, $15 and $20, depending on how many DVDs the subscriber is allowed to have out at once.

The changes announced Monday are Netflix's latest step to ensure it doesn't repeat the same mistakes of Blockbuster Inc., a once-ubiquitous video store chain that didn't adapt quickly enough to technological change and went bankrupt.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says he always envisioned movies being piped through high-speed connections — even back in 1999, when his company began mailing out DVD rentals requested on the Web. That expectation is why Hastings says he chose the name Netflix.

But the transition has come more quickly than Hastings had thought. When Netflix added Internet streaming as a free supplement to its DVD plans in early 2007, Hastings assured analysts DVDs would remain the primary way Netflix's subscribers watched movies for at least the next decade.

That changed as it became possible to stream Netflix's service through game consoles, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes that are easy to hook up to TVs. Netflix also is streaming on more mobile devices, including the iPad.

Now, Netflix says its 17 million subscribers watch more hours of Internet-streamed video each month than they do on the DVDs they get through the mail.

Even so, Netflix remains a major buyer of DVDs because most of its subscribers still want the discs. That way they can watch the latest movie releases that aren't available for streaming.

The company doesn't specify how many DVDs it ships out each month, but Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter estimates the average Netflix subscriber still gets four to five DVDs per month. That's down from an average of five to six a year ago.

In a way, the move to streaming mirrors what's happening in the newspaper industry. While tens of millions still subscribe to print editions, that audience is getting older and shrinking. Younger readers get their news on computers and other digital devices.

Pachter expects DVDs to be around for at least 20 more years. Netflix itself has projected that its DVD-by-mail shipments will peak in 2012 and then progressively decline until they become infinitesimal around 2030.

Meanwhile, subscribers are expected to watch progressively more hours through the Internet. The convenience and perceived value of streaming is the main reason Netflix's total subscribers have nearly doubled in the past two years.

Netflix Inc. is getting more popular on Wall Street, too. Its stock is worth nine times what it was two years ago and rose to another record high Monday. The shares gained $15.28, or nearly 9 percent, to close at $188.32.

Investors love streaming because it should help Netflix make more money. The simple math: The more people stream, the less the company will have to devote to buying DVDs and getting them to customers. This year, for instance, Netflix is expected to spend more than $700 million on postage and handling.

And streaming will make it easier for Netflix to expand into other countries without having to invest in the dozens of DVD distribution centers it has set up in the U.S. By some estimates, more than 500 million households worldwide are equipped with high-speed Internet connections, and that number is expected to grow in the years to come.

As Netflix's postage and DVD expenses decline, the company is pouring more money into licensing movies and TV shows for its Internet streaming library.

The streaming catalog is still mostly made up of older movies and TV shows at least a season or two behind. Netflix is trying to freshen that lineup. During the summer, it cut a series of deals that will narrow the time between when movies reach the theater screens and Netflix's streaming library.

All told, Netflix's commitments for streaming rights totaled $1.1 billion as of Sept. 30, up from $115 million at the end of last year.

No matter how much Netflix invests, the streaming library probably still won't have as much new material as pay TV and DVDs offer. That is largely because the studios still think they can pad their profits by selling DVDs. As part of that goal, several major studios have persuaded Netflix to refrain from renting many popular DVDs during the first 28 days the discs are on sale in stores.

Sales and rentals of DVDs and Blu-ray discs fell 7 percent to $10.9 billion in the first nine months of this year compared to last year, according to The Digital Entertainment Group, an industry body. Meanwhile, Internet downloads rose 37 percent to $432 million.

Netflix's popularity is also turning it into a threat to pay-TV, including long-established premium cable channels, such as HBO and Starz. Time Warner Inc.'s HBO so far has refused to license classic TV shows such as "The Sopranos" and "Deadwood" to Netflix.

The total number of cable and satellite pay-TV subscribers in the U.S. fell for the first time ever in this year's second quarter, according to analyst estimates. Cable companies attributed the decline to seasonal and economic weakness rather than people cutting the cord in favor of Internet video, but the total subscriber figure declined again in the third quarter.

Netflix's streaming ambitions could suffer a setback if the cable and telecommunications companies that provide high-speed Internet service attempt to impose surcharges on heavy users of Web video.

Streaming through Netflix accounts for more than 20 percent of peak traffic to Internet users in the U.S., according to a recent report by Sandvine Inc.

Attempts by Internet service providers to apply extra fees on customers who use a lot of data have so far been quashed by consumer backlashes, and Hastings is betting extra fees won't become a hurdle for Internet video. But that doesn't mean the cost of high-speed Internet service won't rise if people get hooked on video streaming.

____

AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

HP's fiscal 4Q tops Wall Street estimates (AP)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 05:03 PM PST

By JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer Jordan Robertson, Ap Technology Writer – Mon Nov 22, 8:03 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Hewlett-Packard Co. on Monday reported a 5 percent jump in net income driven by corporate spending that was offset by weak consumer demand, reflecting the industry's lopsided recovery.

The world's biggest technology company also raised its profit forecast for the new fiscal year. The numbers were posted after the market closed and HP's shares rose in after-hours trading.

Purchases by big companies are buoying growth. They have thawed budgets that were frozen during the depth of the recession. Meanwhile, unemployment worries have sapped consumers' appetite for computers, and state governments in the U.S. have slashed spending to plug budget holes.

Other technology major leaguers, such as Cisco Systems Inc. and Intel Corp., have issued warnings.

HP said its net income was $2.54 billion, or $1.10 per share, in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Oct. 31. That was up 5 percent from $2.41 billion, or 99 cents per share, last year.

Excluding items, the company earned $1.33 per share, topping the $1.27 per share that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting, excluding items.

Revenue was $33.28 billion, an 8 percent increase over last year. Analysts expected $32.75 billion.

The higher guidance calls for profit of $5.16 to $5.26 per share for the fiscal year ending in October 2011. The previous forecast was $5.05 to $5.15 per share.

The higher figures include a gain of 4 cents per share from real estate sales.

HP's earnings conference call marked the first chance for investors and analysts to hear from the company's new CEO, Leo Apotheker, since he started the job three weeks ago.

He takes over the company as it's in mid-stride in a radical makeover. Mark Hurd, HP's former CEO, was spending billions of dollars in acquisitions to make the company less of a one-trick pony that was dependent on printer ink for most of its profits, before he was ousted in the wake of a sexual harassment investigation.

Apotheker identified software and research as some of the areas he will focus on as CEO.

Building or buying better software would close a gap that exists between HP and IBM Corp. Pouring more funds into research will help HP tamp down a frequent criticism of the Mark Hurd years, in which research was among the areas clipped in broad cost-cutting.

Apotheker also is trying to win over HP's workers.

He is restoring the vast majority of employees' salaries to their levels before an across-the-board cut that Hurd implemented in February 2009. The amount of the cut varied depending on job function. HP is also proposing a program that would allow employees to buy HP shares at a five percent discount.

Shaw Wu, an analyst with Kaufman Bros., said he thought Apotheker handled the call "pretty well considering he's only been CEO for a short period of time."

"The best thing he can do, which he is already doing, is to visit the company's customers and its employees to get a feel of what they want and the main issues," Wu said. "It's similar to what Mark Hurd did when he started."

Wu pointed to the uptick in HP's stock price as evidence that many investors were comforted by the numbers and Apotheker's message.

HP's results illuminate trends in multiple markets. It's the world's top PC seller, and reported that revenue from consumer PCs fell 10 percent in the latest quarter while business PCs rose 20 percent. That was a reversal of the trend during the recession, when consumers snapped up inexpensive "netbooks."

Meanwhile, servers and data storage technologies are moving fast. HP's revenue in that business-focused category rose 25 percent. HP is among the top sellers in both categories.

Recent forecasts from other technology heavyweights have painted a cloudy picture.

Intel warned about consumer interest in PCs heading into the holidays.

An unexpectedly weak outlook from Cisco dragged down the stock market earlier this month. It raised fears that lackluster government spending would spread beyond Internet infrastructure, which is Cisco's specialty and an area HP has moved aggressively into.

HP's chief financial officer, Cathie Lesjak, said that HP is less vulnerable to swings in government spending because the public sector is only 10 percent of its business and is made up mostly of long-term services contracts.

HP shares rose $1.30, or 3 percent, to $44.55 in extended trading, after the results were reported. The stock had risen 76 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $43.25 at the end of regular-session trading.

The stock is still trading below its levels at the time of Hurd's departure. It is down 7 percent, a decline that has wiped out $10 billion in shareholder wealth.

WikiLeaks: New release 7 times size of Iraq logs (AP)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 09:52 AM PST

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Raphael G. Satter, Associated Press – Mon Nov 22, 12:52 pm ET

LONDON – WikiLeaks' next release will be seven times the size of the Iraq war logs, already the biggest leak in U.S. intelligence history, the website said Monday.

The organization made the announcement in a brief message posted to its followers on Twitter, giving no information about the content of the coming release or its exact timing — although it did refer to "the coming months" in a separate tweet sent about an hour later.

Although the website has been spilling secrets for years, WikiLeaks shot to international prominence this year with a three leaks. One exposed a classified U.S. helicopter video that appears to show an attack on two Reuters employees and other civilians. The second made public 77,000 ground-level U.S. intelligence files covering the war in Afghanistan. The third put out 400,000 more such files exposing the daily grind of attacks, detentions and interrogations in Iraq.

Although it isn't clear what WikiLeaks is planning to release next, it allegedly has a huge cache of classified U.S. State Department cables whose publication could give a behind-the-scenes look at American diplomacy around the world.

In the message, the site also said it was under "intense pressure" over the imminent release — a possible reference to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's legal problems in Sweden, where he is wanted for alleged sexual misconduct. It could also be a reference to the constant pressure Assange says is being applied to the website's servers, security, and finances.

WikiLeaks did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking further clarification. Assange says he never makes the exact nature of his releases public ahead of time, saying that gives secret-holders time to spin the information to their advantage.

Apple releases iOS 4.2 for iPhone & iPad, ‘Find My iPhone’ feature now free (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 08:28 AM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Mon Nov 22, 11:28 am ET

The long-awaited iOS software update that brings the iPhone's multitasking capabilities to the iPad was slated to arrive Monday, along with a bonus: free use of Apple's gadget-tracking "Find my iPhone" feature.

iOS 4.2 finally brings the iPad up to par with the iPhone and iPod Touch, which both got the ability to switch between third-party applications this past summer.

The update also adds application folders, a unified email inbox, threaded messaging, and TV rentals from iTunes to the iPad's litany of features, along with support for Game Center, Apple's social-gaming platform.

The iPhone and iPod Touch already got Game Center support, TV rentals, HDR photography (for the iPhone 4) and the ability to upload HD video to YouTube and MobileMe in the iOS 4.1 update back in September, while multitasking, folders, and the unified inbox arrived in iOS 4.0.

The iPad had been left behind with iOS 3.2.2 — until now, at least. After the iOS 4.2 update, the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch will be on a level playing field, Apple promises.

In addition to bringing the iPad up to speed with Apple's other iOS devices, the new software update adds several new features — most notably AirPlay, which lets you stream videos, music, and photos to the new Apple TV, or stream audio to AirPort Express-connected speakers or third-party systems with AirPlay support, and AirPrint for wireless printing.

Besides the release of iOS 4.2 (which is reportedly set to go live on Apple's servers at 10 a.m. PT), Apple also announced that Find My iPhone — a key feature of the $99-a-year MobileMe service — will now be free for any iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad running on iOS 4.2.

Find My iPhone lets you track a lost iOS device using the Find My iPhone app or on the MobileMe website. A map shows you the approximate location of your wayward gadget, and you can also sound an alarm, send a message (like "Lost!" and your phone number) to the screen, or even remotely lock or wipe your missing device. (My wife and I recently used Find My iPhone after she lost her iPhone 3GS in a cab — and yes, she got it back.)

In the fine print of its iOS 4.2 webpage, Apple says that you must first activate Find My iPhone on an iPhone 4, iPad, or fourth-generation iPod Touch to get free access to the service. Once that's done, you can use your ID and password to enable Find My iPhone on older-generation iPhones and iPod Touches that support iOS 4.2.

To get the iOS 4.2 update, connect your iPhone, iPad, or Touch to your system, fire up iTunes, select your device in the iTunes interface, and click the Check for Update button; a pop-up should appear prompting you to install the update. (If it doesn't, try again later in the day.)

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

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Netflix bows $8/month streaming plan for U.S., raises DVD-by-mail prices (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 07:37 AM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Mon Nov 22, 10:37 am ET

At last, movie lovers in the U.S. will be able to sign up for Netflix's unlimited streaming service without having to pay for DVDs as well. Those who still want DVDs from Netflix, however, will be getting a rude surprise: a price hike.

The new streaming-only plan, which is available now and costs $8 a month, costs the same as the streaming plan Netflix launched in Canada two months ago — and it also happens to be the same price as Hulu Plus, which just lowered its original $10-a-month subscription fee.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings had been hinting for months that a streaming-only plan similar to the just-launched streaming service for Canada was on tap for U.S. viewers, so today's news wasn't a huge surprise.

But there had also been rumblings that Netflix might raise prices for its existing DVD-by-mail subscribers (who get unlimited streaming included with their at-home discs) in the bargain, which is exactly what happened.

Netflix has a chart of its new pricing scheme on its official blog; in a nutshell, those who get either one or two DVDs at home will pay a buck extra a month, with one-at-a-time DVD subscribers now paying $10 a month and two-at-a-timers paying $15 a month.

The price hikes are even higher for those who get three or more DVDs at home, ranging from $3 more a month for three at-home DVDs to $8 a month extra for eight DVDs.

Meanwhile, Netflix's "limited" DVD plan — which offers just one DVD at home, with a limit of two DVD rentals per month, and no streaming — will remain unchanged at $5 a month.

On the official Netflix blog, VP Jessie Becker explains that the price hikes will "allow us to continue to offer the popular plan choice of unlimited TV episodes and movies streaming instantly along with unlimited DVDs," and that the new $8 streaming-only plan "reflects no DVD shipping costs."

Becker added that there won't be any cheaper unlimited DVD plans without a streaming option because Netflix users are "already watching more TV episodes and movies streamed instantly over the Internet than on DVDs, and we expect that trend to continue."

The news comes about a month after Netflix's chief executive declared that Netflix is "by every measure" a "streaming company, which also offers DVDs-by-mail" rather than the other way around.

And it was barely a week ago that Hulu, which is increasingly looking like a Netflix competitor, lowered the monthly subscription fee for its Hulu Plus service from $10 to $8.

Hulu Plus offers thousands of streaming TV episodes from networks such as ABC, NBC, and Fox, including hundreds of full seasons of shows. The Plus service also lets you stream shows to devices like the iPad, iPhone, PlayStation 3, and Roku and TiVo set-top boxes.

For now, Hulu has the edge when it comes to streaming TV shows, while Netflix has a leg up in streaming movies. Netflix is starting to close the gap, though, meaning that Hulu and Netflix are increasingly starting to eye each other as competitors.

So, anyone out there interested in signing up for Netflix's new streaming-only service? Annoyed that Netflix's unlimited DVD plans are getting price hikes? Fire away below.

Update: For those Netflix unlimited DVD subscribers who've noticed that their pricing plans are "no longer offered" but haven't changed yet, be aware that you'll have to start higher prices beginning with your next billing period. Also, for those of you who were asking, about 20,000 videos are available for streaming on Netflix; not bad, but still only a fraction of the 90,000-plus DVD titles in Netflix's collection.

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

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Ambrosia releases WireTap Anywhere 2.0 (Macworld)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 03:31 PM PST

David Chartier David Chartier – Mon Nov 22, 6:31 pm ET

Got a burning need to reroute audio around your Mac in order to record, process, or otherwise make it do things Apple never originally intended? Ambrosia and WireTap Anywhere 2.0 would like to chat with you.

Ambrosia Software's WireTap Anywhere is a utility that lets you redirect audio from any program—or even hardware devices—into the software of your choice. Want to record both sides of a Skype conversation for editing later, or stream a Pandora track over iChat for a friend to enjoy? WireTap Anywhere is the Mac audio middleman for you.

New in WireTap Anywhere 2.0 is more fine-grained control over routing audio. You can create virtual input devices and assign them any number of audio channels, plus combine audio channels from both software and hardware devices into any arrangement you want. In addition, you can tweak per-channel audio levels both before and after you mix them, then preview the mix before you begin recording.

WireTap Anywhere 2.0 is available now for $129, and owners of version one can upgrade for $69. A free demo is available, and it requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or later.

'The Daily' App Should Be a Lifestyle Product (PC World)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 03:40 PM PST

Keir Thomas Keir Thomas – Mon Nov 22, 6:40 pm ET

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is joining forces with Apple to launch a new iPad-only newspaper called The Daily. This is a whole new newspaper in the form of a dedicated app, designed to exploit the touch-friendliness and multimedia nature of the iPad, with journalistic content not found anywhere else.

The New York Times reports an investment of $30 million in The Daily and a staff of 100. This is small compared to some newspapers, and there are apparently no newsdesks overseas or even in Washington, D.C.

Although details are still mere rumors, it seems users will subscribe each week for 99 cents. Mr Murdoch has said that The Daily is his "No. 1 most exciting project," and believes the iPad will see massive growth in the coming years. The Guardian newspaper in the U.K. quotes sources that say Murdoch expects to see an iPad in every home.

While I was generally optimistic when I heard the news about The Daily, that last comment made me wonder if Murdoch isn't heading for another online disaster (nobody mention MySpace, OK?).

If Murdoch expects an iPad to be in every home then he totally misunderstands Apple's market positioning. Apple products are high-priced, aspirational, and exclusive. Apple isn't Microsoft. Once upon a time Bill Gates might have wanted a PC on every desk, but Apple's voodoo simply wouldn't work if iPads were as commonplace as toasters.

Drill down into the The Daily app concept, and more questions quickly arise. What does the iPad offer that's so useful to a newspaper app? In particular, what technology does an iPad have that can't be found on a standard Website? Based on technical format alone, can The Daily be compelling enough for subscribers? Why shouldn't they simply browse to any news Website, for free?

In fact, The Daily will have to overcome limitations presented by the iPad, such as the touch interface, although this could be made into a selling point: Links within The Daily app could be made bigger and clearer, so there's less fumbling when trying to hit tiny hyperlinks.

However, the main area where The Daily will have to score highly is in its approach and content. Content is one area where Murdoch is on home territory, of course, but the iPad newspaper will have to resonate with the kind of ultra-cool people who buy the iPad. Again, I'm not sure Murdoch gets this.

Most of all, The Daily will have to emulate the same "must-have" coolness as the iPad itself. Hipsters already score points for pulling an iPad out of their bags at the coffee store, but Murdoch will have to ensure that The Daily looks cool to those peering over the readers' shoulders in public. In other words, the publication will have to be a lifestyle product first and foremost.

The Daily won't work if traditional newspaper content is simply packaged into an iPad app. What's needed is a modern style of journalism that's in-tune with the tech-savvy, switched-on iPad userbase.

The Daily will have to lean towards the liberal point of view, which might raise issues for the right-leaning Murdoch. But more than this, to truly appeal to iPad users, the journalism will need to be responsive, rather than agenda setting. It'll have to have more in common with the coolest blogs than it does with a fusty leader column.

Murdoch should note that many young Americans receive their daily dose of news not from traditional news outlets but from satire TV, like the "Daily Show" and the "Colbert Report." News on its own isn't enough anymore. The news bread needs a thick layer of entertainment spread on it.

It's believed that Steve Jobs is personally involved with the project, so hopefully he'll be offering this kind of advice to Murdoch. However, I can't help feeling that The Daily is arriving several years too early. A tablet computer in every home might happen, but it will probably not be an iPad. I suspect Mr Murdoch's main interest in the iPad as a platform is the tightly controlled distribution system via iTunes. Right now, at least, this kind of infrastructure is something that only Apple can offer.

Keir Thomas has been writing about computing since the last century, and more recently has written several best-selling books. You can learn more about him at http://keirthomas.com.

News Corp to buy education tech co for $360 mln (Reuters)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 08:27 PM PST

– 42 mins ago

(Reuters) – News Corp said it will acquire 90 percent of Wireless Generation, a privately-held Brooklyn-based education technology firm, for about $360 million in cash to expand its presence into the education technology sector.

The company said that on completion of the deal, Wireless Generation will become a unit of News Corp and will be managed by the target company's executives, including founder and CEO Larry Berger, who will retain a 10 percent interest.

"When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone...," News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch said in a statement.

Established in 2000, Wireless Generation offers mobile and web software, data systems and professional services that allow teachers to use data to assess student progress and deliver individualized instruction.

News Corp is home to Fox broadcast and cable networks, Twentieth Century Fox movie studio, and newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal.

Shares of News Corp closed at $14.21 on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Monday.

($1=.6267 Pound)

(Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan in Bangalore; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe)

Startup Puts a Twitter Twist on Real-World Networking [INVITES] (Mashable)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 03:00 PM PST

Jennifer Van Grove Jennifer Van Grove – Mon Nov 22, 6:00 pm ET

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Hashable

Quick Pitch: Track and share all your social and professional interactions and discover who else is out there to connect with.

Genius Idea: Networking is an important activity for most of us. In the age of social media, tools like Twitter and LinkedIn help us extend offline networking online, but private beta startup Hashable seeks to both simplify and better track our personal and professional interactions.

Hashable helps you document real-world connections with friends and professional contacts by using hashtags to describe interactions. Hashable tracks actions, connections, salutations, props and any other type of hashtag you can dream up.

With introductions, for instance, a Hashable user can introduce any two Twitter users or e-mail contacts using the "Make an #intro" feature. Hashable publicly (or privately) notifies both parties via Twitter or e-mail and follows up to verify a connection was made.

The "Post a connection" feature lets you specify a hashtag and the e-mail addresses or Twitter names of the people you have connected with offline. With this feature, you can use the system to quickly document all types of exchanges with hashtags such as #justmet, #meeting, #breakfast, #lunch, #dinner, #drinks, #coffee, #golf, #tennis, #brunch and #thanks.

Hashable supports Twitter and e-mail and will soon support iPhone-app connections. The service employs game mechanics to inspire user engagement, rewarding users with points in the form of "Hashcred" for making introductions and receiving connections; super users are highlighted on the "top connectors" leader boards.

The ultimate aim is to create a new data set around person-to-person interactions. The premise is that people already share their breakfast meetings and coffee get-togethers on Twitter, so Hashable wants to capture that information and structure the data for individual user and global insight. It's the social graph concept that Facebook is working to build around friends, but with relationships and specific interactions in focus.

The startup just closed a $4 million round of funding led by Union Square Ventures, giving the company a rumored $30 million valuation, according to All Things D. That's not too shabby considering the startup pivoted from a financial data site to focus on this idea not too long ago.

Hashable is currently in private beta, but the first 1,000 Mashable readers to follow the Hashable Twitter account will receive invites to the site.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Tedx SF

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Streaming-Only Service Reveals Netflix's Shortcomings (PC World)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 02:46 PM PST

Jeff Bertolucci Jeff Bertolucci – Mon Nov 22, 5:46 pm ET

It's official: Netflix sees itself as "primarily a streaming video company," says co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings. To drive the point home, the home entertainment provider is now offering an $8 monthly plan in the U.S. that lets you stream all the movies you want. (Netflix debuted its streaming-only deal in Canada earlier this year.)

While the move signals the beginning of the end for DVD and Blu-ray--a slow death, perhaps, but the countdown has begun--Netflix fans should think twice before signing up for the streaming-only plan.

Here's why: Netflix's online library is maddeningly incomplete. Want to watch Toy Story 3 or Avatar? You'd better sign up for one of Netflix's DVD + streaming plans, because those films are available on disc only. And it's not just new content that's off-limits to video streamers. Plenty of popular films from recent years, including Juno and The Dark Knight, are disc-or-miss titles, too.

Netflix's DVD plans with video-streaming range from $10 to $56 a month. The $10 plan, for instance, lets you have one DVD out at a time. You'll pay an extra $2 a month to watch Blu-ray discs.

I'm a Netflix subscriber and I love the service. But I'd find the streaming-only service too limiting.

Some TV series, such as Showtime's Dexter, have one or two seasons online--but later seasons are available on disc only. Fox's Family Guy has eight "volumes" online, but the eighth collection (from 2009) has only 7 episodes. You'll need the DVD to watch episodes 8 to 15.

Older shows have similar limitations. I'm a fan of the quirky 1970's detective series Columbo. Season one is available online-well, sort of. Five of nine episodes are stream-able. Want the rest? Get the DVD.

Netflix's all-you-can-stream deal is great for film and TV buffs, but it's incomplete and not ready to go it alone without a DVD accompaniment. For now, I'd rather pay an extra $2 per month to get the discs too.

Contact Jeff Bertolucci via Twitter (@jbertolucci ) or at jbertolucci.blogspot.com .

Does WiFi Kill Trees? Dutch Report Causes Doubt (Mashable)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 01:17 PM PST

Jolie O'Dell Jolie O'dell – Mon Nov 22, 4:17 pm ET

Recently, we've read a few articles stating that, according to research from Dutch scientists, WiFi is bad for deciduous trees -- so bad, in fact, that it's killing them in urban areas where WiFi networks abound.

However, the situation isn't really so dire -- not yet, at least. The question is more complicated than a simple blog headline could convey.

The research in question was commissioned by the city of Alphen aan den Rijn, a town in the western Netherlands. To learn more, you can read the abstract (Google Translate will come in handy if your Dutch is rusty) or contact the Plant Cell Biology department at Wageningen University, where the research was conducted.

The study determined that radiation from WiFi networks might (might) negatively affect the health of nearby plants.

Ash trees near WiFi access points showed "an increasing number of damage such as cracks, bumps, discoloration and various forms of tissue necrosis" over recent years. In seeking to determine whether this damage was due to WiFi networks, the researchers examined trees near known WiFi access points during a three-month period. During this period, leaves within 50 to 300 centimeters of a 100 milliwatt, 2412-2472 megahertz radiation source showed "a metallic luster appearance, a discoloration of the leaves that appeared to result in the disappearance of the outer cell layer of the leaves. The metallic luster was followed by desiccation and death of a portion of the leaf."

The study also found slower growth and delayed flowering in corn plants near WiFi access points.

The researchers involved in this study would like to do another study to see if their results can be observed over a longer period of time and at a larger scale, presumably one that would include other locales and proximities to WiFi access points. Their full findings are not yet published and will be discussed in detail at a February 2011 conference.

However, some are saying this report -- or at least media coverage of the findings -- might be a bit too alarmist.

Even the scientists involved in the study noted that their initial findings, while enough to warrant curiosity and more research on the subject, weren't enough to proclaim that WiFi networks are universally bad for trees.

The Dutch Antenna Agency says these abnormalities in the trees at Alphen aan den Rijn might simply be due to disease. It also notes that similar studies conducted on other species of trees have not reported the same negative effects.

So, does WiFi kill trees? The short answer is that we don't know yet. More research needs to (and likely will be) done before anyone can make such a sweeping statement.

Image courtesy of Flickr, autanex.

Find My iPhone, AirPlay top iOS 4.2 features (Appolicious)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 10:14 AM PST

Oracle wants SAP to pay billions for looted programs (AFP)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 07:03 PM PST

by Glenn Chapman Glenn Chapman – 2 hrs 5 mins ago

OAKLAND, California (AFP) – Attorneys for business software giant Oracle want a jury to order German rival SAP to pay billions of dollars for looting its software libraries for competitive advantage.

Lawyers for SAP have rejected the notion that the pilfering of programs was worthy of more than 40 million dollars, calling the reasoning for many times that amount "silliness" or "crazy."

Both companies made their pitches to jurors in a high-stakes copyright infringement damages trial playing out in a federal court in the California city of Oakland.

The panel returns on Tuesday for its first full day of deliberations.

Magistrate Phyllis Hamilton ordered jurors not to discuss the case outside the deliberation room or in online locales including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace.

"I'm not proud of this and SAP is not proud of this," SAP attorney Robert Mittelstaedt said during closing arguments in which he conceded the copyright infringement by SAP and focused on minimizing any damage award.

"SAP is here to pay the damages now."

SAP was there, but its former chief executive Leo Apotheker avoided efforts by Oracle's trial team to serve him a subpoena that would have compelled him to testify at trial.

Apotheker was recently hired by US computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) to replace Mark Hurd as chief executive, but HP refused to help track the former SAP boss down for the trial.

"I think it was too bad," Oracle lawyer David Boies said of Apotheker winning the game of hide-and-seek with process servers.

Apotheker was on the SAP board that unanimously approved a deal to buy US technology firm TomorrowNow, which recovered and copied massive amounts of Oracle software and confidential data by posing as clients.

TomorrowNow answered directly to the SAP board and was considered a "cornerstone" of the German company's business plan, according to Boies.

SAP admitted to the copyright infringement in legal "stipulations" that cleared the way for a jury trial regarding how much should be paid to Oracle in damages.

Oracle says in court documents that SAP used a customized software tool dubbed "Titan" to plunder Oracle's website of patches, updates, fixes and other programs crafted for Oracle's paying customers.

"What SAP did was beyond the pale," said Bingham McCutchen law firm partner Geoffrey Howard, who is part of the Oracle trial team. "It was massive data scraping by SAP."

Oracle attorneys told AFP outside of court on Monday that the case was about protecting intellectual property key to the value of technology companies.

Boies told jurors that SAP owed Oracle the fair market value of its copyrighted software at the time the program plundering began in early 2005.

He suggested to jurors a range of 1.6 billion dollars to 3 billion dollars. He later declined to pinpoint what he thought damages should tally, only to say "multiples of billions."

"TomorrowNow was gaining traction and was a real threat," Boies told jurors. "The results were very enriching to SAP and very damaging to Oracle."

Mittelstaedt contended that Oracle value estimates were "self-serving" and not in keeping with the realities of the world of licensing copyrighted software.

Mittlestaedt parsed testimony at length in a bid to convince jurors that fair compensation to Oracle was approximately 40 million dollars.

"We know SAP thought this was incredibly valuable because we have their documents," Boies argued. "We also know they wanted to disrupt Oracle."

US computer giant Hewlett-Packard named former SAP chief executive Apotheker as its new president and CEO in September.

Apotheker, 57, spent more than 20 years at SAP, one of the world's largest business software companies.

Apotheker replaced Hurd, who resigned as chief executive of HP after a sexual harassment probe uncovered subterfuge with company expenses.

Attachmate buying Novell for 2.2 billion dollars (AFP)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 03:56 PM PST

– Mon Nov 22, 6:56 pm ET

NEW YORK (AFP) – US enterprise software maker Novell announced Monday that it had agreed to be acquired for 2.2 billion dollars by Attachmate, an investment group made up of three private equity firms.

The deal calls for Attachmate, which is owned by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital and Thoma Bravo, to buy Novell for 6.10 dollars per share in cash, a nine percent premium over Friday's closing price in New York.

The Waltham, Massachusetts-based Novell also said it had agreed to sell unspecified intellectual property assets to CPTN Holdings, a consortium of technology companies led by Microsoft for 450 million dollars in cash.

"We are pleased that these transactions appropriately recognize the value of Novell's relationships, technology and solutions, while providing our stockholders with an attractive cash premium for their investment," Novell president and chief executive Ron Hovsepian said in a statement.

Attachmate said it expects the deals to close in the first quarter of 2011.

Novell provides identity and security, systems management and collaboration solutions for Linux-based operating platforms.

Novell shares gained 6.62 percent on Wall Street on Monday to close at 5.96 dollars.

Cyberthieves use human money mules for risky work (AP)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 03:35 PM PST

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL and PETE YOST, Associated Press Alicia A. Caldwell And Pete Yost, Associated Press – Mon Nov 22, 6:35 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Sitting at a computer somewhere overseas in January 2009, computer hackers went phishing.

Within minutes of casting their electronic bait they caught what they were looking for: A small Michigan company where an employee unwittingly clicked on an official-looking e-mail that secretly gave cyberthieves the keys to the firm's bank account.

Before company executives knew what was happening, Experi-Metal Inc., a suburban Detroit manufacturing company, was broke. Its $560,000 bank balance had been electronically scattered into bank accounts in Russia, Estonia, Scotland, Finland and around the U.S.

In August, the Catholic Diocese in Des Moines, Iowa, lost about $680,000 over two days. Officials there aren't sure how hackers got into their accounts, but "they took all they could" before the bank noticed what was going on, according to Jason Kurth, diocese vice chancellor.

The diocese and the Detroit company were among dozens of individuals, businesses and municipalities around the country victimized by one of the largest cybertheft rings the FBI has uncovered.

In September, the bureau and its counterparts in Ukraine, the Netherlands and Britain took down the ring they first got wind of in May 2009 when a financial services firm tipped the bureau's Omaha, Neb., office to suspicious transactions. Since then, the FBI's Operation Trident Breach has uncovered losses of $14 million and counting.

Overall in the last two years, the FBI has opened 390 cases against schemes that prey on businesses that process payments electronically through the Automated Clearinghouse, which handles 3,000 transactions every five seconds. In these cases, bureau agents have uncovered attempted thefts totaling $220 million and actual losses of $70 million.

But the court records of Operation Trident Breach reveal a surprise: For all the high-tech tools and tactics employed in these computer crimes, platoons of low-level human foot soldiers, known as "money mules," are the indispensable cogs in the cybercriminals' money machine.

A dozen FBI criminal complaints filed in New York provide an inside look at how this cybertheft ring worked:

Operating from Eastern Europe and other overseas locations, the thieves used malicious software, known as malware, to infect the computers of unsuspecting users in the United States by e-mail. The malware-infected e-mails were written to look like they came from a company manager or colleague who might send an e-mail message to everyone in a company, such as the head of human resources.

When the e-mail recipient clicked on an embedded link to a website or opened an attachment, a Trojan horse virus called Zeus installed itself and gathered usernames, passwords and financial account numbers typed by the victims on their own computers. The hackers then used this information to move the victims' money electronically into bank accounts set up in the United States by the money mules.

The money mules set up shell bank accounts to receive the money. Then they withdrew the funds from the shell accounts in amounts they thought were small enough to elude detection by banks and law enforcement. In some cases, the cyberthieves bombarded telephone numbers attached to the targeted accounts with calls to block the company from calling to verify the transactions.

The mules sent most of the stolen funds overseas electronically to accounts controlled by the ring leaders; the mules usually kept 8 to 10 percent as their cut.

For instance, the FBI said money belonging to one TD Ameritrade customer landed in the bank account of a fake company, the Venetian Development Construction Service Corp., which was registered at an unmarked, two-story brick building in Brooklyn. The sole name on the construction company's account was that of one of the money mules. Eventually some of the money wound up in accounts in Singapore and Cyprus and some walked out the bank's door in the pockets of mules. TD Ameritrade spokeswoman Kim Hillyer said the company has reimbursed customers who lost money

Just like in the illegal drug trade, the ring leaders overseas reaped the big profits but relied on the mules to do the risky, dirty work.

For each shell account, a mule had to walk into a bank, in full view of surveillance cameras and leave copies of personal identification documents. The ring leaders hid behind computer screens overseas.

Operation Trident Breach found many mules are Eastern Europeans who came to the U.S. on student visas.

Among the allegations in the FBI's criminal complaints:

One mule was an immigrant from Moldova who within a few months of her arrival in New York this year had opened at least six bank accounts using a trio of names. Another mule, a Russian national, opened eight accounts at three different banks using five different aliases.

The criminal networks used so many money mules that full-time recruiters were needed. One recruiter placed advertisements on Russian language websites seeking students with U.S. visas.

A pair of Russian roommates living in Brooklyn worked together. One smuggled at least $150,000 in cash to hackers in Russia, arranged for fake passports to be smuggled into the U.S., and acted as a middleman picking up and delivering stolen money from other mules. The other roommate opened accounts with fake names and false passports in New York and New Jersey this summer.

This cybertheft ring zeroed in on individuals and small- and medium-sized businesses because they usually have fewer computer security safeguards than huge companies. Among its targets: municipalities in Massachusetts and New Jersey, the account held by a hospital at a California bank and the computers of at least 30 customers of E Trade Financial Corp.

Like a number of victims, Experi-Metal has sued its bank over the thefts.

A lawyer for Experi-Metal, Richard Tomlinson, said the thieves emptied the company's account and then tried to siphon another $5 million out through an empty savings account of an Experi-Metal employee. They actually transferred another $1.34 million before the bank shut down the mystery wire transfers, Tomlinson said.

According to court records, the company's bank, Dallas-based Comerica Inc., has recovered all but the company's original balance of $560,000. Tomlinson said the bank should be liable for the company's losses because the wire transfers were obviously dubious — the company hadn't made any transfers in more than two years and never to Eastern Europe.

"Canada was maybe as exotic as we got and it was maybe three or four years before this," Tomlinson said.

Comerica says it wasn't part of the problem.

"This was caused solely by the actions of that (Experi-Metal Inc.) employee," a lawyer for the bank wrote in a court filing. "The criminal that accessed Experi-Metal's accounts was able to do so only because Experi-Metal gave him its key."

___

Online:

FBI background: http://tinyurl.com/27ae5bc

E Trade security: http://tinyurl.com/34g9zya

E Trade losses: http://tinyurl.com/2v3oga7

TD Ameritrade: http://www.tdameritrade.com/security/index.html

Comerica security: http://tinyurl.com/2u9akou

.

Mozilla Confirms an App Store Is on the Way (PC World)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 04:47 PM PST

– Mon Nov 22, 7:47 pm ET

Along with its audited financial statements indicating a revenue increase of 34 percent last year, Mozilla late last week also published a "State of Mozilla" report providing a glimpse at what the organization is planning for the future.

Firefox for Android is one part of those future plans, of course, and will be released "in a few months," according to the report.

Even more intriguing, though, is the company's confirmation that it's planning what it calls an "Open Web App ecosystem"--also known, in other words, as a platform-independent app store.

Device-Independent

"The current app model has traits that threaten some of the characteristics that have made the Web so vibrant a platform, particularly in the mobile space," Mozilla explained in its report.

Specifically, "apps are often device specific and platform specific," it said. "Information we create in an application is stuck in that application and / or that platform. One doesn't join a unified whole as one can with the Web. App-related information isn't generally linkable or findable. In addition, developers often need to get permission from one or more gatekeepers to reach people--from a network operator, a device manufacturer, a 'store' operator. Similarly, consumers must go through these filters to access new functionality."

As a way to remedy such problems, Mozilla has designed a prototype of an Open Web App ecosystem, it says, noting that "this includes a system design, technical documentation and examples of what such a system would look like and work like." A video on YouTube offers further explanation.

HTML5, CSS and Javascript

Taking inspiration from the success of Apple's App Store, of course, Google has been working on its own mentioned similar plans back in May.

"Supporting the needs of Web developers in their efforts to develop websites and apps that aren't bound to a specific browser and work across the Web is core to Mozilla's public benefit mission," Mozilla wrote back then.

Accordingly, an open Web app store should "exclusively host web applications based upon HTML5, CSS, Javascript and other widely-implemented open standards in modern web browsers - to avoid interoperability, portability and lock-in issues," it explained.

Such a store should also "ensure that discovery, distribution and fulfillment works across all modern browsers, wherever they run (including on mobile devices)" and "set forth editorial, security and quality review guidelines and processes that are transparent and provide for a level playing field."

Finally, an open Web app store should "respect individual privacy by not profiling and tracking individual user behavior beyond what's strictly necessary for distribution and fulfillment" and it should "be open and accessible to all app producers and app consumers," Mozilla wrote in May.

Too Many Apps For That?

App stores are becoming a ubiquitous part of the Internet; in addition to Apple's longstanding offering and the planned entries from Google and Mozilla, there are also app stores from Research In Motion for the Blackberry phone and from Microsoft for Windows Phone 7.

Then, too, there's Apple's Mac App Store for desktops and Google's assortment for Google TV, among others.

Few, however, can boast Mozilla's commitment to openness and open standards like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Google's Chrome store notwithstanding, it seems to me that amid all these platform-specific offerings, a device-agnostic store is just what we need.

Follow Katherine Noyes on Twitter: @Noyesk.

Summary Box: Netflix's streaming-only plan (AP)

Posted: 22 Nov 2010 02:30 PM PST

By The Associated Press The Associated Press – Mon Nov 22, 5:30 pm ET

THE NEW PLAN: Netflix is introducing a U.S. subscription plan for $8 per month that doesn't include any mailed DVDs, just movies and TV shows streamed over the Internet.

THE OLD PLANS: The most popular plans that include mailed DVDs will see price increases of between $1 and $3 per month.

THE BACKGROUND: Catching itself somewhat by surprise, Netflix Inc. is finding that subscribers are already spending more time watching its Internet streams than they are on watching DVDs. A plethora of devices, including game consoles, now make it possible to show Internet movies on TVs.
at 9:34 PM

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