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Friday, December 17, 2010

Smart phone rivalry plays out in patent suits (AP) : Technet

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Smart phone rivalry plays out in patent suits (AP) : Technet

Smart phone rivalry plays out in patent suits (AP)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 01:15 PM PST

By JESSICA MINTZ, AP Technology Writer Jessica Mintz, Ap Technology Writer – Fri Dec 17, 4:15 pm ET

SEATTLE – Competition among smart phone makers is heating up at retail, in advertising and, increasingly, in the courtroom as handset and software makers wield patent lawsuits to protect their turf and slow down their rivals.

Just a few years ago, smart phones were mainly for office workers who needed to check e-mail after hours. For most people, the Web browsers and other programs were too much trouble, and the data connections too slow.

Apple Inc. changed all that with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007. Its touch-sensitive screen and big icons made it easy to use. Its programs were designed from the ground up to work well on the small screen. And the sleek design made it an instant hit with consumers.

Even as competitors have rushed out copycat designs, the iPhone still sets the agenda.

But that throne is weakening. And as the other devices, including those running Google Inc.'s Android system, catch up with the iPhone, smart phone makers are having a harder time standing out to consumers or persuading them to pay more for their devices.

In turn, that has prompted a slew of patent disputes over all aspects of basic phone use, from the way a user swipes a touch screen to perform an action to the method a phone uses to extend battery life. Nokia is suing Apple, Apple is suing HTC, Microsoft is suing Motorola and more.

"In consumer electronics and related fields, it's a great challenge to earn a profit," said Bruce Sunstein, an intellectual property lawyer at Sunstein Kann Murphy & Timbers in Boston. "The way you can usually get profit is through innovation."

Smart phone makers must not only come up with novel features, he said, but must also stake claims to the technology behind them and thus reap the rewards in licensing fees.

Consumers shouldn't worry about buying or using any of those phones. Patent cases can take months or years to resolve — sometimes longer than the life of these phones — and disputes are often settled with licensing deals.

Ultimately, no one company will prevail. Rather, the results will determine how profits are divvied up among a vast number of players.

It's a pool of money that's growing as smart phone sales balloon. Research group IDC expects global smart phone shipments of 270 million in 2010, a 55 percent increase from last year.

Intellectual property lawsuits can also help distract a rival or make entering the market less attractive. Amid fierce competition, companies are suing first rather than approaching rivals about licensing deals, said Ronald Cahill, manager of the intellectual property department at Nutter McClennen & Fish in Boston.

The rivals countersue, partly to make the other company just as miserable. Plus, when an agreement finally does get hammered out — most of these cases end in settlements — it's more likely that each will license the other's technology.

Among the lawsuits and countersuits so far:

• On Thursday, Nokia Corp. said it filed patent lawsuits against Apple in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands. The actions follow Nokia's 2009 lawsuits against Apple in the U.S. Apple countersued Nokia in late 2009. The features at issue include swiping gestures on touch screens and the built-in "app store" for downloading updated programs.

• In October, Microsoft Corp. sued Motorola over its phones running Android software. Microsoft said the Motorola phones step on Microsoft technology when it comes to synchronizing e-mail, calendars and contacts, among other things. Motorola replied with a lawsuit against Microsoft in November, adding claims that related to computer and server software and the Xbox video game system.

• Apple and Taiwan-based HTC, which makes smart phones that run various software systems, are also suing each other. Apple says it owns patents for the way screens detect more than one finger touch at a time, allowing someone to zoom in or out by spreading their fingers apart or pinching them together. HTC says Apple infringes on patented technology that helps prolong battery life.

"Where you have innovation proceeding at this great pace, it's not surprising that it takes a while for the rights to get settled and adjusted," Sunstein said. "I don't think anybody easily escapes litigation in this space."

While the lawyers file the paperwork, smart phone and software companies continue building new gadgets, adding features and updating software, leaving consumers more choices than ever.

For instance, Research in Motion Ltd. added an "app store" like Apple's to its BlackBerry phones and is now selling a more competitive touch-screen model.

Phones from HTC Corp., Motorola Inc. and others that use Android have matured into credible rivals to the iPhone. They accounted for 26 percent of all smart phones sold worldwide in the third quarter, while the iPhone made up 17 percent, according to research group Gartner Inc. In November, the first phones running new Microsoft software went on sale.

The rivalry has played out in TV commercials that zero in on the iPhone's flaws.

Verizon Wireless and Motorola ads have cast "Droid" phones as more capable and powerful than the iPhone and mocked reception problems users face on AT&T Inc.'s 3G network.

A recent T-Mobile ad for the Android-based MyTouch 4G parodies Apple's "I'm a Mac" commercials. The iPhone 4 character carries a guy in a suit on his back — AT&T's 3G network — who brags about video-chat over Wi-Fi. The MyTouch character, a pretty woman in a bright sundress, boasts of video chat anywhere over a faster network.

And Microsoft, which comes late to the party, promises in its inaugural Windows Phone 7 "a phone to save us from our phones."

In such a competitive market, patent agreements and even the lawsuits are to be expected, intellectual property experts say. But that doesn't mean the companies are thrilled about the time and money it takes to resolve them.

"Ideally, a lot of these companies would be happy to just compete on the phones," said Cahill, the lawyer, "and not compete by suing each other."

Cheeky tweeters use EU outreach experiment to mock (AP)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 10:19 AM PST

By ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Angela Charlton, Associated Press – Fri Dec 17, 1:19 pm ET

BRUSSELS – It was meant to be an effort to plug Twitter users into the conversation at the summit of European power. Instead it ended in very public embarrassment.

European Union officials fell into a trap after scrolling tweets from the social networking site on big screens at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels this week.

Twitter users saw opportunity and used keywords to post tweets Thursday mocking scandals involving Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The tweets quickly disappeared from the screens, though appeared again Friday. An EU official said scrolling the tweets is a pilot project, one of the EU's many Twitter-related projects.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity according to his office policy.

Survey: Parents start to see TV, Internet the same (AP)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 08:08 AM PST

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay, Ap Technology Writer – Fri Dec 17, 11:08 am ET

NEW YORK – No TV for a week, the time-honored punishment for misbehaving children, has been enhanced. Now, parents are also withholding Internet access to punish their kids, further sign that the Web has become as important to families as television.

As the two mediums converge, parents are quickly coming to see TV and the Internet in similar ways and are seeking to limit their kids' access to both, according to a report out this week from researchers at the University of Southern California.

The survey from the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future found that two-thirds of parents say they restrict their kids' access to TV as punishment, a number that has barely budged over the past 10 years. But the percentage of parents who limit Internet access as a form of punishment has nearly doubled in the last decade.

Among parents surveyed this spring, 57 percent said they withheld Web access to punish their kids. That is up from 32 percent in 2000.

Michael Gilbert, a senior fellow at the center, said parents are starting to not see a big distinction between TV watching and Internet use. Even so, parents are still more comfortable with the amount of time kids spend on the Internet — 71 percent said it was "just about right" compared with just 51 percent for TV.

Earlier surveys by the center have shown that families are spending less time together than they used to, a decline that has coincided with the explosive growth of social networks in the past few years.

Now, parents are saying Internet access at home is also reducing the time their children spend with their friends face-to-face. Gilbert called this a worrisome trend, though noted that the number of parents to report this is still small — 11 percent in 2010 compared with 7 percent in 2000.

Of course, the Internet and social networks also make it easier to communicate and they help families stay in touch with loved ones.

"The answer is never about technology. It's always about parental responsibility," Gilbert said. But he noted that the explosive growth of digital technology has made it increasingly difficult for parents to monitor what their kids are doing.

The 2010 survey was conducted in April among about 2,000 Americans over the age of 12. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

PlayStation app coming to iPhone, Android handsets (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 02:00 PM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Fri Dec 17, 5:00 pm ET

Coming soon: a mobile app that'll let you show off all your glittering PlayStation 3 trophies, wherever you go.

Just announced on the official European PlayStation blog, the aptly named Official PlayStation App will make landfall in the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands "very soon" — and while no mention was made of a North American launch date, I can't imagine we'll have to wait for the U.S. version too much longer.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to play Super Stardust HD or Echochrome II on the upcoming app, but at least you'll be able to keep tabs on your PS3 trophy count, as well as what your pals are playing and whether they're online.

The PlayStation app will also deliver the scoop on new PlayStation games and hardware, as well as any incoming announcements (such as PS3 or PSP firmware updates or PSN service bulletins) from the official PlayStation blog.

Last but not least, you'll be able to share articles on the PlayStation app with fellow gamers via Facebook and Twitter.

The new PlayStation app will work on any iPhone or iPod Touch with iOS 4 or better installed, while the Android version requires Android 1.6 or higher.

The European wing of Sony's PlayStation division adds that it's "already working" on a new version of the app that will add support for more countries and languages, and that we can expect "tons more features" in the months ahead.

The ability to actually play mobile PlayStation games on a phone, however, might end up being relegated to the long-rumored, supposedly Android-powered PlayStation Phone, sightings of which have been popping up on the Web for weeks now.

Unsurprisingly, the PlayStation Blog post had nothing to reveal about the mysterious "Zeus Z1" slider, which is said to have its own PlayStation app specifically for mobile games.

At least we'll have the PlayStation app and our old PSPs to tide us over until the Z1 — or whatever it ends up being called — finally rears its head.

Related: The Official PlayStation App, Coming Soon To iPhone And Android Handsets [Official PlayStation Blog]

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

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Wanted: a one-stop shop for finding online video (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 01:16 PM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Fri Dec 17, 4:16 pm ET

Picture this: You've just finished watching a $5 iTunes movie rental, only to belatedly discover that you could've streamed the very same movie from Netflix, for free (well, not counting your $8 monthly subscription fee). Sound familiar?

It's happened to me once or twice, and each time I wonder: Why couldn't there be a single service that searches all the major online streaming services — such as iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, Xbox Live, Vudu, and so on — at once, with a single movie or TV-show query?

Several existing services already seek to do just that, but most are still hit-and-miss. Clicker (my favorite of the bunch) offers search results for online movies and TV shows on iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix, but not on Vudu or Xbox Live, while Google TV and TiVo also offer a mixed bag of online streaming results.

But a single service that would search all the big online streaming services — from Amazon and Apple to Vudu and Xbox Live — now, that would be cool.

Enter Fanhattan, a new player in the universal online-video search game that's slated to launch "early" next year.

According to an emailed press release, Fanhattan hopes to become your single destination for browsing and searching for movies and TV episodes from a variety of sources. Whether the makers of Fanhattan will, in fact, succeed in culling more sources than its competitors is another question.

Using a single, "simple and elegant" interface — on your Mac or PC, or potentially even on your TV or over a set-top box — Fanhattan could let you check out the latest online releases, critics picks, popular titles, or highest-rated videos. Each movie or TV title will boast cover art, along with relevant YouTube snippets and cast and crew data from The Open Movie Database — an online well of movie info that Fanhattan's parent company recently acquired.

The makers of Fanhattan say they hope to embed the new service in upcoming HDTVs and set-top boxes, although it will be available initially as a PC or Mac download. I hope they'll also consider releasing iOS and Android apps, so we could search for movies on our phons as we lounge on our sofas.

Once you've decided on a film, Fanhattan will then list all your options for online viewing, rentals, or purchase — so, for example, you might discover that 2010's "Alice in Wonderland" is available on iTunes as a $10 purchase, on Vudu starting at $15, or — best of all, if you don't mind SD video streaming — free on Netflix, so long as you're a subscriber.

Aye, but here's the rub: Fanhattan's founders are still negotiating with Apple, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and the other big online streaming services for the right to search their respective movie and TV databases, according to the Wall Street Journal, with company execs saying they'd rather have solid agreements in place rather than just "hacking" their way into the information.

Another possible wrinkle: The makers of Fanhattan are also responsible for Vuze, a popular BitTorrent client — and being a favorite haven for (among other things) movie pirates, BitTorrent isn't too popular in Hollywood circles.

Might piracy-obsessed Hollywood executives pressure the likes of Netflix and Vudu into rejecting any deals with Fanhattan? For their part, the company's founders tell the Journal that since Vuze "never directed people to sources of pirated material," movie execs won't "hold Vuze's past product against it." Time will tell.

So, do you use services like Clicker, Google TV, or TiVo search to find online movies and TV shows, or do you search sources like Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, and Vudu individually?

Related: Fanhattan Seeks To Unify Web Movie Services [Wall Street Journal]

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

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WikiLeaks chief Assange fears US charges (AFP)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 06:16 PM PST

by Beatrice Debut Beatrice Debut – 2 hrs 56 mins ago

BUNGAY, United Kingdom (AFP) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Friday it was "increasingly likely" the US would try to extradite him on charges related to leaked cables as he savoured his first day on bail.

Speaking outside Ellingham Hall, a friend's mansion in eastern England, where he must live while on bail, Assange said he was concerned about potential moves from US authorities.

"The big risk, the risk we have always been concerned about, is onwards extradition to the United States. And that seems to be increasingly serious and increasingly likely," the Australian told reporters.

The 39-year-old founder of the whistle-blowing website is fighting extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations that he sexually assaulted two women, which he denies.

But Assange said his lawyers believed a secret US grand jury investigation had been started into his role in WikiLeaks' release of thousands of leaked US diplomatic cables -- a probe he condemned as "illegal".

Looking relaxed, he said the mansion was a "big improvement" on the London jail where he was held in solitary confinement for nine days before his release on bail Thursday.

Media reports suggest that US prosecutors are trying to build a case against Assange on the grounds that he encouraged a US soldier, Bradley Manning, to steal US cables from a government computer and pass them to WikiLeaks.

Assange said: "I would say that there is a very aggressive investigation, that a lot of face has been lost by some people, and some people have careers to make by pursuing famous cases."

He said WikiLeaks had pledged 50,000 dollars (38,000 euros) towards Manning's legal fund.

But he told ABC television in the US that: "I had never heard of the name Bradley Manning before it was published in the press.

"WikiLeaks technology (was) designed from the very beginning to make sure that we never know the identities or names of people submitting us material."

Meanwhile, the Pentagon defended itself against allegations that Manning was being kept in harsh conditions in a military brig at the Quantico Marine base, Virginia, where he has been placed under a maximum security regimen.

Manning was in solitary confinement because he was considered a national security risk, said prison spokesman First Lieutenant Brian Villiard.

"What I will tell you is that he is not treated any differently than any other maximum confinement detainee," he said.

In interviews with British media, Assange said Manning "is the only one of our military sources who has been accused and that means that he is in a difficult position."

Meanwhile, in Washington a report by congressional researchers said the Espionage Act and other US laws could be used to prosecute Assange, but there is no known precedent for prosecuting publishers in such a case.

"Leaks of classified information to the press have only rarely been punished as crimes, and we are aware of no case in which a publisher of information obtained through unauthorized disclosure by a government employee has been prosecuted for publishing it," the report said.

On the Swedish case against him, Assange, a former computer hacker, claimed it was part of a "smear campaign" linked to WikiLeaks. But Swedish prosecutors deny their case is related to WikiLeaks.

Assange's supporters have put up a 240,000-pound (283,000-euro, 374,000-dollar) surety to ensure he does not flee the country.

He has also been electronically tagged, is subject to a curfew and must report daily to a police station near the mansion in picturesque Suffolk.

The mansion is owned by Vaughan Smith, a former army officer and journalist who founded the Frontline Club in London, which acts as WikiLeaks' British base.

Assange has vowed the allegations against him will not stop WikiLeaks from releasing further documents.

"People like to present Wikileaks as just me and my backpack -- it is not true. We're a large organisation," he told reporters Friday.

The latest US cables released by WikiLeaks showed that the former New Zealand Labour Party government led by Helen Clark courted China and France in an attempt to curb American and Australian influence in the Pacific.

Word Lens iPhone app is an amazing translator, but finicky (Appolicious)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 03:24 PM PST

Conn. AG: Google refusing to turn over Wi-Fi data (AP)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 06:24 PM PST

– 2 hrs 47 mins ago

HARTFORD, Conn. – Connecticut's attorney general says Google is refusing to give him access to data it collected about state residents from public Wi-Fi networks.

In May, Google announced that it had inadvertently collected information from people's online activities from unsecured networks in more than 30 countries while taking photographs for its Street View mapping project.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and officials in nearly 40 other states have been seeking to review the information to see if Google improperly accessed e-mails, passwords and other private data.

He had given Google until 5 p.m. Friday to turn over the data. Blumenthal says he will now consider whether legal action is warranted.

Blumenthal previously said Google had allowed Canadian and other authorities to review the information.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google declined to comment on Blumenthal's efforts Friday.

Status update: Facebook founder "friends" new image (Reuters)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 05:13 PM PST

By Alexei Oreskovic Alexei Oreskovic – Fri Dec 17, 8:13 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – At a conference six months ago, Facebook's 26-year-old chief executive was literally dripping in sweat as he fielded tough questions about his company's privacy practices and a forthcoming movie portraying him as manipulative and arrogant.

On Wednesday, a poised, perspiration-free portrait of Mark Zuckerberg graced the cover of Time magazine, which crowned him its Person of the Year, capping what may be one of corporate America's most remarkable transformations.

The make-over of Zuckerberg's public image has been hard to miss, with a high-profile donation to New Jersey public schools in September and appearances on television programs like "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "60 Minutes." It has occurred as Facebook, the world's No. 1 Internet social network, sees its audience of "friends" and its influence swell.

Facebook may not need a smiling Zuckerberg to thrive, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

"He is the face of the company," said Paul Argenti, a professor of corporate communication at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, who said "The Social Network," the fictionalized film about Facebook's controversial creation in a Harvard dorm room in 2004, "put (Zuckerberg's) reputation up for grabs."

"He's been on a tear to repair that," Argenti said.

The film, which recounted claims that Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from a separate project spearheaded by classmates (which led to a lawsuit that has been settled), came out at the same time as reports surfaced in online blogs suggesting Zuckerberg had shown a cavalier attitude toward Facebook users' privacy in the company's early days.

WHO'S BEHIND THE TRANSFORMATION?

The change is more than image-deep. The redheaded CEO, whose net worth was recently estimated at $6.9 billion by Forbes magazine, was prone to awkwardness in interviews in the past, with a demeanor that made him seem aloof.

But he has appeared decidedly more comfortable in his interactions with reporters in recent months.

During a recent discussion with reporters, he played with a boomerang and cracked jokes, nothing like the stiff and guarded delivery of previous encounters.

Whether Zuckerberg has simply found his comfort zone as a result of a string of back-to-back media briefings and product announcements, or extensive coaching, or a combination of the two, is not clear.

Facebook has its share of executives well-versed in public image, including Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, chief of staff for the U.S. Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton.

Facebook spokesman Jonny Thaw declined to comment on the matter, but analysts saw Zuckerberg simply being more open.

"One of the things he's done is he's made a conscious move to not let somebody else define who he is, but to go out and sort of let people know who he is," said Jim Bates, of the crisis communications firm Sitrick and Company, which has helped rehabilitate the images of such clients as R&B singer Chris Brown and celebrity socialite Paris Hilton.

Some industry insiders see the efforts to improve Zuckerberg's image as reminiscent of another out-sized technology figure. Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp, was often criticized for cut-throat business practices and a brusque personality during the 1990s.

That edge has softened in recent years, particularly as he has focused on philanthropic work, which earned him a share of Time magazine's people of the year cover in 2005, alongside his wife, Melinda Gates, and rock star-philanthropist Bono.

Of course, Gates, unlike Zuckerberg, is no longer running his company. Stan Kowalczyk, a professor at San Francisco State University who focuses on corporate reputation, said that gave Zuckerberg room to see another flip in his image if he was not careful.

"He's going to have to walk on eggshells to make sure that he doesn't do something that is going to jeopardize that reputation," Kowalczyk said.

(Editing by Mary Milliken and Peter Cooney)

`Cool Revolution' marks CTI's 40th anniversary (AP)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 12:57 PM PST

By CHARLES J. GANS, Associated Press Charles J. Gans, Associated Press – Fri Dec 17, 3:57 pm ET

Various Artists, "CTI Records: The Cool Revolution" (Sony/Masterworks Jazz)

This four-CD collection celebrates the 40th anniversary of producer Creed Taylor's launch of CTI Records. The independent jazz label managed to reach a larger audience without compromising artistic integrity, finding middle ground between straight-ahead acoustic jazz and the electric jazz-rock fusion that was all the rage in the early 1970s.

The 39 remastered tracks from 1970-1975 — featuring CTI's musicians trading roles as leaders and sidemen — is organized thematically to showcase different facets of the label's profile. Disc one ("Straight Up") is the closest to unadulterated mainstream jazz, highlighted by tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine's hard-driving "Sugar."

Disc two ("Deep Grooves/Big Hits') includes trumpeter Freddie Hubbard's groove masterpiece "Red Clay" as well as Brazilian keyboardist Eumir Deodato's funky jam on Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathrustra." Other tracks reflect the label's penchant for jazz versions of pop hits: Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" performed by Benson or James Taylor's "Fire and Ice" by flutist Hubert Laws.

Disc three ("The Brazilian Connection") reflects Taylor's affinity for the bossa nova sound he introduced to U.S. audiences on early 1960s Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz recordings. There are selections by Brazilian stars — Antonio Carlos Jobim, singer Astrud Gilberto and percussionist Airto — as well as by American jazzmen interpreting Brazilian tunes — notably alto saxophonist Paul Desmond's gently flowing version of Jobim's "Wave."

Disc four ("Cool and Classic") presents 1950s cool jazz mainstays in more contemporary settings — for example trumpeter-vocalist Chet Baker's tenderly caressing "What'll I Do" in a string arrangement by Don Sebesky. There are also versions of jazz standards and classical works, including guitarist Jim Hall displaying his subtle mastery in a 19-minute-plus performance of Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto De Aranjuez."

This is the most comprehensive anthology to date of a label which had a big influence on smooth jazz, hip-hop and R&B, although it omits the label's post-1975 recordings by Patti Austin, Lalo Schifrin, Nina Simone and others.

CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: Freddie Hubbard — with the support of pianist Herbie Hancock, drummer Lenny White and an all-star lineup — creates a funky, infectious groove on "Red Clay," an R&B-influenced jazz masterpiece from 1970 that became the trumpeter's signature tune.

Learn HTML5, JavaScript and CSS With Mozilla's Free "School of Webcraft" (Mashable)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 02:17 PM PST

OpenFeint launches Groupon-style game buying network (Appolicious)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 10:45 AM PST

Intel's $7.68 billion McAfee bid raises EU concern: report (Reuters)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 07:35 PM PST

– 1 hr 37 mins ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Intel Corp (INTC.O)'s $7.68 billion deal to buy security-software specialist McAfee (MFE.N) Inc is running into close scrutiny from European officials that could delay the transaction, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said the European Union's anti-trust regulator had privately expressed concerns during its preliminary review of the deal, which could prompt the regulator to submit the deal to a lengthy examination.

A key focus of the European review, the report said, is Intel's stated desire to incorporate security features into its widely used microprocessor chips. The EU appears concerned that if McAfee, by virtue of being owned by Intel, had privileged access to those features, it could be difficult for McAfee's rivals to compete, they added.

Since Intel formally notified the European Commission of the deal in late November -- a procedural step that kicked off the agency's review -- the commission has sent several questionnaires soliciting opinions about the deal from other security-software companies, the Journal's sources said.

The questions focus on how Intel could embed security functions into its chips and whether any of them could be reserved to work only with McAfee software, according to one questionnaire reviewed by the Journal.

(Reporting by Steve James; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Biggest ERP Failures of 2010 (PC World)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 12:40 PM PST

Chris Kanaracus Chris Kanaracus – Fri Dec 17, 3:40 pm ET

No year in the IT industry would be complete without a number of high-profile ERP (enterprise resource planning) project failures, ones that burn through mountains of cash, bring company operations to a standstill, generate bad publicity for vendors and toss careers in the trash.

There's no one reason why ERP projects run off the rails. In fact, you can equate a typical project to a three-legged stool, with the customer, vendor and systems integrator each serving as a leg.

Customers have to plan well, budget enough money for training and evolve their usual way of working. Vendors must deliver software that functions properly and matches up well with a customer's business processes. And implementation teams have to set the right expectations, meet project milestones and avoid waste.

If one or more of these "legs" doesn't hold up, things can get ugly.

Michael Krigsman, president and CEO of Asuret, a consulting firm focused on helping companies improve the outcome of IT projects, prefers to use the more ominous metaphor of "the Devil's Triangle" to describe the dynamics in play.

And he sees no immediate end to troubled projects. "There is no magic bullet. The magic bullet is to change human nature, to make us wise and all-seeing," he said.

But Krigsman sees "bright lights on the horizon," such as the gradual emergence of cloud-based ERP, which can take the complexity out of upgrades for customers, as well as packaged services offerings, where the job gets a fixed price tag instead of being billed by the hour. In addition, such services are often based on well-established processes that have worked for many other customers, Krigsman said.

"Where the gotcha comes in is when you're working with a fixed-price agreement and you ask them to do something different," Krigsman added. Then the job might revert to a standard, by-the-hour billing arrangement that can ratchet up costs. "That's why the customer has to exercise a greater level of discipline," he said.

All vendors want their customers to be successful, but they can do more to improve project outcomes, according to Krigsman. One way would be to tie part of a salesperson's compensation to project success. This way, a salesperson won't be able to simply disappear after the ink dries, and moreover, they might be less inclined to upsell a customer on marginally beneficial extras that could make the project unwieldy.

Someday, the bright lights Krigsman sees in the distance could be shining broadly over the IT industry. In the meantime, we have the status quo, where one study found that nearly 70 percent of the time, project success is "improbable."

Here's a look at some of the top ERP project boondoggles, flameouts and failures of the year -- and these are just the ones that entered public view.

New York's CityTime 'disaster'

CityTime, an effort by New York City to modernize its payroll system, is more of an ERP "project failure of the decade" and then some, as it dates to 1998. But in recent weeks allegations of massive corruption and waste regarding the project have come to a boil.

It was originally budgeted at around US$60 million, but has since ballooned to a colossal $700 million-plus, the New York Daily News reported recently.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has called the project a "disaster." This week, federal authorities charged a number of workers on the project with being the ringleaders of a fraud scheme that siphoned some $80 million from taxpayers, reports said.

On Thursday, New York Comptroller John Liu suspended Joel Bondy, executive director of the city's office of payroll administration, and stopped all payments to consulting firm Spherion until a thorough review has been conducted.

New York officials simply did not understand just how complex the project would end up being, Bloomberg said in a radio interview Friday. "Once they started, part of it was they just kept adding things that it made sense to do," he said.

But he stressed that the city still needs the system "desperately," and it is saving money for agencies that are using it. The project is on track for completion by June, he added.

BSkyB gets £318 million settlement from Hewlett-Packard/EDS

While the £318 million settlement broadcaster BSkyB received in June from Hewlett-Packard was technically for a CRM (customer relationship management) implementation, not ERP, the award still stands to make a serious impact on the outsourcing business.

A court found that HP's EDS division had lied about how long it would take to finish the project, which was started in 2000 and originally budgeted at £48 million. BSkyB fired EDS in 2002 and completed the job itself, but costs ultimately quintupled.

Some believe the massive verdict will give systems integrators and salespeople pause from here on out when making promises at the contract negotiating table.

Marin County's "rip and replace"

If there is a worst way for an ERP project to end, it's with a "rip-and-replace," and that's what officials in Marin County, California, decided to do in August.

Officials decided that it would be less expensive to simply replace its ailing SAP system with something else, instead of trying to fix widespread problems with it.

Marin County sued system integrator Deloitte Consulting in connection with the system earlier this year, saying Deloitte used the project as "a trial-and-error training ground" for inexperienced employees, and the result was a "costly computer system far worse than the legacy systems it was intended to replace."

Deloitte has denied the county's claims.

Marin County determined that maintaining the system at "status quo" would cost up US$34.7 million over 10 years. Fixing it and "supporting continual improvement" by bringing on more workers would cost $49.8 million. Addressing the problems and keeping the system in place would run up a $34.1 million tab.

In contrast, starting over with something new would cost just $26.2 million over the same 10-year period, according to the county.

An SAP spokesman stressed at the time that the company's software is not to blame in Marin County, and is "installed and functioning perfectly in tens of thousands of public sector agencies, including dozens in California."

SAP settles with Waste Management

One of the ugliest ERP project legal battles in memory came to an end in May, when SAP reached a settlement with trash hauler Waste Management.

Waste Management originally sued SAP for fraud in March 2008 over an allegedly failed implementation of its ERP (enterprise resource planning) software. The company claimed it suffered significant damages, including more than US$100 million it spent on the project, as well as more than $350 million for benefits it would have gained if the software had worked as intended.

SAP made a one-time cash payment to Waste Management under the confidential settlement's terms.

The saga's quiet end bore little resemblance to the colorful fray that played out in pre-trial proceedings.

Waste Management claimed SAP used a "fake" product demonstration to trick it into believing its software was a good fit.

In addition, SAP's technical team had "recommended that SAP deliver to Waste Management a later version of the software than the version SAP in fact delivered," according to one filing.

If the newer version had been used instead, "the multi-million dollar sales price for the software could not be immediately recognized as revenue under the accounting rules for revenue recognition," and salespeople involved in the deal would not receive bonuses, according to the filing.

In its defense, SAP said Waste Management didn't "timely and accurately define its business requirements" or provide "sufficient, knowledgeable, decision-empowered users and managers" to the implementation.

Lumber Liquidators blames ERP for bad quarter

In November, Lumber Liquidators blamed a weak third quarter on issues with its SAP implementation, saying the project significantly dampened worker productivity. But the problems were caused by employees having trouble figuring out the new system, rather than the software itself, according to the company.

"One feature of our previous system is that it was very flexible and easy to manipulate," CEO Jeffrey Griffiths said at the time. "SAP is much more structured, you follow steps, but it's much more stable. Because of that it was a change for us," he said.

Before buying into SAP, Lumber Liquidators had some clunky manual processes, even running some operations off spreadsheets, he said. With SAP, "we're confident that we're going to see significant improvements and benefits."

Jury awards pet food maker $61 million in ERP lawsuit

In December, an Alabama jury awarded pet food manufacturer Sunshine Mills $61 million in connection with a suit it had filed against ERP vendor Ross Systems, a subsidiary of CDC Software.

Ross Systems is planning to fight the verdict, saying Sunshine "knowingly purchased a beta version of the software" and that its claims were "subject to various limitations contained in the agreement between the parties."

Ross Systems president Sherri Rodriguez called the verdict "a sad day for the software industry."

But Daniel McDowell one of the attorneys who represented Sunshine Mills, said Ross Systems fooled the company, showing software that supposedly would work out of the box, but which failed miserably once it was turned on, McDowell said.

In an internal e-mail, a Ross employee labeled Sunshine workers "clueless fools" who were unable to learn how to use the system, McDowell added.

Honorable mentions:

PeopleSoft pegged for Fort Worth police pay problems

Police in Fort Worth, Texas are hopping mad, saying problems with a recently implemented Oracle PeopleSoft payroll system has been botching their paychecks, leaving them shortchanged or even without a pay at all.

"It is unacceptable that some officers have failed to receive a check, [and] that so many more have not been fully paid since going online 8 wks ago," the Fort Worth Police Officers Association said in a Dec. 12 posting on its official Facebook page. "We will continue to fight & try to find a way to FORCE the city to do the right thing."

The system wasn't set up to handle the odd hours and shifts police officers work, a union official told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspaper.

The city blamed human error for the problems, according to the paper.

There's that 'human error' again

News emerged in November that San Diego has been forced to delay a city budget audit for six months due to data issues in its SAP payroll system.

The long-troubled project is running well over budget, and San Diego previously fired its original consulting firm in order to ink a deal with SAP's services arm, which is finishing the work.

"There were many timecard entry errors introduced by our employees (i.e time being charged to one account when it should have been charged to another account) when the new payroll system went live [in January]," a city official said in a memo at the time.

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris's e-mail address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Avira: 25 pct of PC users disable antivirus software (Digital Trends)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 10:28 AM PST

Geoff Duncan Geoff Duncan – Fri Dec 17, 1:28 pm ET

A new survey from German antivirus and computer security firm Avira finds that about one in four PC users admit to turning off virus protection on their PCs because they thought the programs were slowing down their computers. Furthermore, more than three out of five (62.8 percent) have tried multiple computer security products in the span of a year on the same computer, hoping to find one they like, and nearly one in eight (12 percent) have considered getting off the Internet altogether for safety reasons.

“The scary take-away from this survey is that 25 percent of the respondents admitted to just turning off their security products because they feel that it hurt the performance of the machine,” said Avira’s Sorin Mustaca. “That’s not a good idea because such a practice leaves the computer totally exposed to the even simplest of viruses, allowing the bad guys to include it in a botnet used to distribute malware and phishing.”

Avira says the survey questions were put to more than 100 million Avira customers around the world during November 2010, although the results are based on 9,091 respondents. Avira says the margin of error for the responses is between 0.28 and 1 percent…although, if the respondents were self-selecting, it’s difficult to know how well the results apply to general computer users, or even to Avira’s customers. (For instance, most Mac OS X users don’t use any antivirus software at all, since the universe of malware targeting the Mac is a tiny fraction of that targeting Windows—for now, anyway.)

Avira is interpreting the results as a sign that antivirus vendors need to take special care not to impact overall system performance—even if that means staying out of users faces, drawing less attention to themselves, or even providing less protection. “It is better to have minimal protection which goes unnoticed than protection with all whistles and bells which the user deactivates in order to be able to use his computer,” Mustaca noted.

If Avira’s survey results can be generalized to a broad group of Windows users, it is also interesting that the majority of Windows users try multiple antivirus and security products on the same computer during the course of a year, indicating that the majority of people who are interested in keeping their PCs secure are dissatisfied with the antivirus products they’re using. Avira’s results don’t go into respondents’ reasons for switching security products: system performance could certainly be one, but factors like pricing play a role.

Google alerting searchers to hacked websites (AFP)

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 04:47 PM PST

– Fri Dec 17, 7:47 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Google on Friday announced search engine upgrades that included alerting people to hacked websites that make it into query results.

"We've added new notifications to the results page to warn you when sites may have been compromised, spammed or defaced," Google director of product management Mike Cassidy said in a blog post.

"In addition to helping users, these notices will also help webmasters more quickly discover when someone is abusing their sites."

Google added automated tools designed to detect signs of hacking and then pin warnings reading "This site may be compromised" beneath potentially tainted entries in search results, according to Cassidy.

"Rest assured, once the problem has been fixed, the warning label will be automatically removed from our search results," said Google associate product manager Gideon Wald.

The Mountain View, California-based Internet giant also added new languages and domains to its "Instant" search feature that delivers suggested results with each key stroke of a query.

Google's translation service was given upgrades that include providing alternatives as to what the intended meaning of phrases might be.
at 9:27 PM

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