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Intel 4Q a window into industry's inflection point (AP) : Technet |
- Intel 4Q a window into industry's inflection point (AP)
- Computer could make 2 'Jeopardy!' champs deep blue (AP)
- US sales of video game content flat in 2010 (AP)
- Leaked Dakota takes old BlackBerry design, adds touchscreen (Ben Patterson)
- PSP2 to be revealed this month? (Ben Patterson)
- HP nearly confirms a webOS tablet for next month (Digital Trends)
- Tablet Battle to Heat Up, Prices to Fall in 2011 (PC World)
- Annual video game sales fall, better 2011 in view (Reuters)
- Could the Verizon iPhone Spell Trouble for Android? [STATS] (Mashable)
- Code of iOS 4.3 suggests multiple iPhone 5 iterations (Appolicious)
- Verizon Will Drop 'New Every Two' Credit for Phones (NewsFactor)
- Hate mobs thrive in Asia's booming social media (AFP)
- Livescribe Pen Beats Programmer at Tic-Tac-Toe (PC World)
- Remains of the Day: Appy New Year (Macworld)
- Is Android Less Secure Than iPhone? Um, No. (PC World)
- IBM prepares for machine vs man Jeopardy! showdown (Reuters)
| Intel 4Q a window into industry's inflection point (AP) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 09:08 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO – Intel Corp.'s 48 percent jump in fourth-quarter net income, driven by strong corporate spending, comes at a turning point in the personal computer industry's 30-plus year history. The results, reported Thursday after the market closed, topped Wall Street's forecasts and sent Intel shares up 2 percent. The numbers reflect the PC industry's steady growth, as Intel, the world's biggest maker of PC processors, is feeding a market that is bigger now than it has ever been. Some 350 million PCs were shipped in 2010, according to data released this week, and Intel CEO Paul Otellini says that more than 1 million PCs are now being sold every day. Yet that momentum has slowed and major players have been shaken as economic hardship has depressed consumer spending, and the rise of mobile gadgets such as Apple Inc.'s iPad are offering a new vision of personal computing. Intel's fourth-quarter numbers reflect those pressures. Net income was $3.39 billion, or 59 cents per share, higher than the 53 cents per share analysts polled by FactSet were expecting. In the same period in 2009, Intel earned $2.28 billion, or 40 cents per share. The year-ago figures would have been higher were it not for Intel's $1.25 billion payment to rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to settle claims that Intel abused its market dominance to bully computer makers into avoiding AMD's chips — charges Intel has long denied. Intel's chips are inside 80 percent of the world's PCs. Earlier this week, AMD ousted its CEO over the company's growth prospects. Intel's revenue rose 8 percent to $11.5 billion, up from $10.6 billion last year. Analysts had forecast $11.4 billion. For the first quarter, Intel expects revenue of $11.1 billion to $11.9 billion, ahead of analysts' expectation for $10.8 billion. And Otellini predicted that Intel's revenue would rise 10 percent in 2011 — which translates to about $48 billion, up from $43.6 billion in 2010 and higher than the $45.5 billion analysts expected. What saved Intel's fourth quarter was strong corporate spending. Companies, many of which froze their technology budgets during the Great Recession, are buying new servers for their data centers and PCs for their workers as their business prospects have brightened. Operating profit in the Intel division that sells server chips jumped 47 percent to $1.43 billion, while the division that makes desktop and laptop chips grew at a slower rate, up 8 percent to $3.62 billion. Server chips tend to carry higher profit margins than chips for PCs. The PC industry in general struggles with increasing commoditization, which lowers PC prices and benefits consumers, but erodes profits. Although Intel's results were strong compared with the previous year, revenue in each of its major divisions, except for server chips, was flat from the third quarter. That showed the strain that emerged toward the end of the year, from economic problems such as prolonged unemployment and the European debt crisis, and competition from Apple Inc.'s iPad. Intel's chief financial officer, Stacy Smith, said in an interview that the extent of sluggish consumer demand was in line with what the company was predicting. Intel has a pulse on consumer and corporate spending on technology. And as the first major technology company to report fourth quarter results, its numbers help set the tone for other large tech firms' reports in the coming weeks. IBM Corp., the biggest technology services provider and a seller of Intel-based servers, reports Tuesday. AMD reports next Thursday. Computer companies have shifted gears quickly to get in on the mobile computing craze. Intel is expanding with low-power chips called Atom to compete with so-called ARM chips, which are mainstays of the mobile world and use designs from U.K.-based ARM Holdings. Intel says its chips will be used in 35 different tablets and an unspecified number of smart phones, but it's behind competitors such as Qualcomm Inc., Texas Instruments Inc. and even Apple, which makes its own chips for the iPad. Intel's shares rose 45 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $21.74 in extended trading after the release of results Thursday. Earlier, it finished the regular session down 1 cent at $21.29. Shares in other semiconductor industry companies also rose in after-hours trading Thursday. KLA-Tencor Corp. rose 6 percent, Applied Materials Inc. was up 5 percent, Novellus Systems Inc. added 3 percent. |
| Computer could make 2 'Jeopardy!' champs deep blue (AP) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 04:06 PM PST YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y. – The clue: It's the size of 10 refrigerators, has access to the equivalent of 200 million pages of information and knows how to answer in the form of a question. The correct response: "What is the computer IBM developed to become a `Jeopardy!' whiz?" Watson, which IBM claims as a profound advance in artificial intelligence, edged out game-show champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on Thursday in its first public test, a short practice round ahead of a million-dollar tournament that will be televised next month. Later, the human contestants made jokes about the "Terminator" movies and robots from the future. Indeed, four questions into the round you had to wonder if the rise of the machines was already upon us — in a trivial sense at least. Watson tore through a category about female archaeologists, repeatedly activating a mechanical button before either Ken Jennings or Brad Rutter could buzz in, then nailing the questions: "What is Jericho?" "What is Crete?" Its gentle male voice even scored a laugh when it said, "Let's finish 'Chicks Dig Me.'" Jennings, who won a record 74 consecutive "Jeopardy!" games in 2004-05, then salvaged the category, winning $1,000 by identifying the prehistoric human skeleton Dorothy Garrod found in Israel: "What is Neanderthal?" He and Rutter, who won a record of nearly $3.3 million in prize money, had more success on questions about children's books and the initials "M.C.," though Watson knew about "Harold and the Purple Crayon" and that it was Maurice Chevalier who sang "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" in the film "Gigi." The computer pulled in $4,400 in the practice round, compared with $3,400 for Jennings and $1,200 for Rutter. Watson is powered by 10 racks of IBM servers running the Linux operating system. It's not connected to the Internet but has digested encyclopedias, dictionaries, books, news, movie scripts and more. The system is the result of four years of work by IBM researchers around the globe, and although it was designed to compete on "Jeopardy!" the technology has applications well beyond the game, said John Kelly III, IBM director of research. He said the technology could help doctors sift through massive amounts of information to draw conclusions for patient care, and could aid professionals in a wide array of other fields. "What Watson does and has demonstrated is the ability to advance the field of artificial intelligence by miles," he said. Watson, named for IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, is reminiscent of IBM's famous Deep Blue computer, which defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. But while chess is well-defined and mathematical, "Jeopardy!" presents a more open-ended challenge involving troves of information and complexities of human language that would confound a normal computer. "Language is ambiguous; it's contextual; it's implicit," said IBM scientist David Ferrucci, a leader of the Watson team. Sorting out the context — especially in a game show filled with hints and jokes — is an enormous job for the computer, which also must analyze how certain it is of an answer and whether it should risk a guess, he said. The massive computer was not behind its podium between Jennings and Rutter; instead it was represented by an IBM Smart Planet icon on an LCD screen. The practice round was played on a stage at an IBM research center in Yorktown Heights, 38 miles north of Manhattan and across the country from the game show's home in Culver City, Calif. A real contest among the three, to be televised Feb. 14-16, will be played at IBM on Friday. The winner of the televised match will be awarded $1 million. Second place gets $300,000, third place $200,000. IBM, which has headquarters in Armonk, said it would give its winnings to charity while Jennings and Rutter said they would give away half theirs. In a question-and-answer session with reporters after the practice round, Rutter and Jennings made joking reference to the jump in technology Watson represents. "When Watson's progeny comes back to kill me from the future," Rutter said, "I have my escape route planned just in case." Jennings said someone suggested his challenge was like the legend of John Henry, the 19th-century laborer who beat a steam drill in a contest but died in the effort. Jennings prefers a comparison to "Terminator," where the hero was a little more resilient. "I had a friend tell me, 'Remember John Henry, the steel-drivin' man.' And I was like ... 'Remember John Connor!'" Jennings said. "We're gonna take this guy out!" ___ Associated Press writer Leon Drouin-Keith in New York City contributed to this report. |
| US sales of video game content flat in 2010 (AP) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 06:09 PM PST SEATTLE – U.S. retail sales of new video games dropped in 2010, but revenue from mobile game "apps" and other new formats helped keep the total amount spent on video game content unchanged from a year ago, according to market researchers NPD Group Inc. NPD said Thursday that sales of video games made for consoles, portable gaming devices and personal computers dropped 5 percent to $10.1 billion. However, NPD said increased sales of used games, digital downloads, games for smart phones and games played over social networks kept video game content sales at $15.4 billion to $15.6 billion for 2010 — about flat with 2009. The numbers underscore the growing role of mobile devices and social networks such as Facebook. "The dynamics of games-content purchasing changed dramatically in 2010," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a statement. Frazier said she expects game sales to increase again in 2011. Video game console sales slipped 13 percent to $6.3 billion in the U.S. in 2010, NPD said. Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 was the only console to sell more units than it did in 2009. In December, traditionally the biggest month for video game sales, console sales declined 9 percent to $5.1 billion. Total sales of video game software at retail, which includes PC games, slipped 5 percent to $2.5 billion during the month, compared with the same month in 2009. The best-selling hardware system in December was the Nintendo DS, a handheld gaming system. Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo's of America, called the holiday shopping season "exceptional" for the company. David Dennis, a Microsoft spokesman, said the company couldn't keep up with demand for Xbox 360 consoles in December, but despite shortfalls Xbox had its biggest month to date, with 1.9 million units sold. Video game accessory sales rose 10 percent to $778.4 million in December, led by sales of Microsoft's $150 Kinect motion-sensing controller. Microsoft would not say how many consoles were bought together with Kinect in December, but has said it sold 8 million Kinect units in November and December. The top-selling game in December was "Call of Duty: Black Ops," the shooter from Activision Blizzard Inc., which has versions for all the consoles and for the PC. The game broke entertainment records after its November launch, bringing in $1 billion in worldwide revenue in its first six weeks in stores. "Just Dance 2" from Ubisoft Entertainment for Nintendo's Wii and "World of Warcraft: Cataclysm" from Activision Blizzard for the PC were the second and third biggest selling games in December. For all of 2010, "Black Ops" was the top-selling video game. The No. 2 game was "Madden NFL 11" from Electronic Arts Inc., followed by "Halo: Reach" from Microsoft for the Xbox 360. |
| Leaked Dakota takes old BlackBerry design, adds touchscreen (Ben Patterson) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 11:18 AM PST The still-unannounced Dakota looks pretty much like your garden-variety BlackBerry — except for the touchscreen, that is. Rumors of the BlackBerry Dakota have been circulating for well over a year now, but Boy Genius Report just got its hands on what it claims are the latest specs and a promo image for the 3G handset, which you can check out right here. Overall, the Dakota doesn't look all that different from, say, the BlackBerry Bold, a snazzy BlackBerry handset — well, snazzy for 2008, anyway — that boasted a peppy (again, for the time) 624MHz Marvell processor and the then-new BlackBerry OS 5.0. Bu while this would-be flagship BlackBerry might arrive with the same overall look and feel of the Bold, the Dakota would add a little extra zing — in the form of a capacitive touchscreen. RIM already has a few touchscreen BlackBerrys on the market, of course, including the BlackBerry OS 6.0-powered Torch from last August. (The Torch is reportedly getting an update of its own, by the way.) But the Dakota — assuming it's the real deal, of course (RIM hasn't officially announced the phone yet) — would mark the first touchscreen BlackBerry with RIM's classic, candy-bar-style design: display on the top half of the handset, QWERTY keypad on the bottom half. The Dakota's touchscreen, by the way, would measure 2.8 inches diagonally — again, classic RIM — with a solid VGA resolution, Boy Genius claims. Other specs listed in the Boy Genius post include a five-megapixel camera capable of HD video recording, 3G mobile hotspot support, 4GB of internal storage, and 768MB of RAM. No word on the speed of the Dakota's processor, but the leaked specs point toward an accelerometer and a digital compass — a pair of features that, incidentally, are supported in the just-announced BlackBerry OS 6.1 update. Again, there's no word on release dates, prices, or carriers, although the Dakota's (rumored) GSM radio would indicate that we're talking either AT&T (the original carrier for the Bold) or T-Mobile. Can't remember what the 2008-era Bold looked like? Here's a snapshot from my nostalgia file — and more than two years later, I'm still a fan, I admit:
Related: — Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News. |
| PSP2 to be revealed this month? (Ben Patterson) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 08:18 AM PST A new version of the PlayStation Portable — a dedicated PlayStation Portable, mind you, not the all-but-confirmed PlayStation Phone — is long overdue. The latest rumors, however, point toward Sony unveiling a next-generation PSP as early as this month. Gaming sites VG247 and MCV both claim that the so-called PSP2 will be unveiled at a Sony "business overview and strategy meeting" in Tokyo on January 27, just two weeks away. The new PSP will go on sale "later this year," VG247 reports, adding that early versions of the console have been circulating around gaming development houses for about a year. Sony has yet to confirm the PSP2, but execs for the electronics giant have been hinting about the handheld for months now. Only a few weeks ago, Sony gaming boss Kazuo Hirai told the New York Times that a new version of the PSP — not that there necessarily is one, of course! — might boast touchscreen controls, similar to iOS and Android handsets. (Let's just hope Sony doesn't throw out analog controls with the bathwater.) But while Sony may take some cues from smartphones with its new PSP, the PlayStation Portable platform will continue to focus more on deeper, more "immersive" games, rather than casual mobile titles like the ubiquitous Angry Birds, Hirai promised in the December interview. There's also been talk of Sony execs supposedly bragging to game makers that the PSP2 "is as powerful as the PlayStation 3." The latest chatter comes as rumors continue to mount over the widely leaked, Android-powered PlayStation Phone, which has been spied, videoed, poked, prodded, and even dismantled in recent days and weeks, although neither Sony Ericsson nor Sony proper has spilled the beans yet. It's been more than a year since we saw a new PlayStation Portable arrive in stores — the PSP Go, a slimmed-down version of the still-available PSP 3000 with slide-out gaming controls and flash memory instead of a UMD disc drive. The Go landed with a thud, however, with gamers objecting to the lack of UMD (which meant old disc collections wouldn't work on the Go) and the then-steep price tag ($250, which Sony ultimately chopped to $199 last fall). OK, so what happens if that January 27th Sony meeting comes and goes without a PSP2 announcement? Well, there's always the Game Developers Conference in late March, a reliable venue for gaming news. Further out, we've got E3 in June, or the Tokyo Game Show in September. One way or another, though, I'd say it's a safe bet that we'll see the PSP2 sooner rather than later รข€" and yes, I want one. Stay tuned. Related: — Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News. |
| HP nearly confirms a webOS tablet for next month (Digital Trends) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 01:49 PM PST We told you last month that a Fox report claimed an HP, webOS-based tablet was on its way, and we may have been onto something. While HP made no such announcement at CES, an interview with Hewlett-Packard executive vice president Todd Bradley at the event gives us reason to believe an iPad competitor from the developer is coming – February 9. In an interview with CNBC, Bradley was asked about his company's entry into tablets. After claiming HP is "totally focused on the tablet market," Bradley then said that on February 9 we can expect a public announcement. And when asked if an HP tablet could hold its own against Apple, Bradley responded, "You and I will talk about that on the ninth." So why didn't HP choose CES for its introduction? Over-saturation. It sounds like HP wants a little more focus on this launch, and that a tablet will only be a piece of the "ecosystem" the company wants to create. This seems reminiscent of the Microsoft keynote at CES; the long-awaited Microsoft tablet announcement turned out to be more of an introduction of various tablet-PC devices. While he didn't give up many other specifics in the interview, Bradley did admit that HP bought webOS last summer with the intention of tablet development in mind.
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| Tablet Battle to Heat Up, Prices to Fall in 2011 (PC World) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 07:44 AM PST Last week's Consumer Electronics Show was indisputably dominated by tablets. Almost a year since Apple redefined portable computing with its iPad, competitors launched attempts to cut the Cupertino company's lead. Taken together, the announcements at CES provide a much clearer picture of the likely evolution of the tablet market in 2011 and provide consumers a few tips on what to look for and when to buy. Some of the biggest buzz at the show was for Honeycomb, version 3 of Google's Android operating system and the first developed for tablet PCs rather than smartphones. The operating system and a tablet that will use it, Motorola's Xoom, were unveiled at CES and are due to be launched in the next few months. (Watch related video.) "Until now these tablets have basically been big smartphones and for the first time this spring we'll start to see tablets like the Motorola Xoom that run on a version of Android that is really much better suited for that screen size," said Sarah Rotmann Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research. At least two other vendors, Toshiba and Asus, also promised Honeycomb tablets and more are on the way, strengthening Honeycomb's position against Apple, but it won't be the only technology to take on the market leader. Research In Motion, which makes the popular BlackBerry smartphone, will launch PlayBook that runs on a proprietary platform and connects with the BlackBerry. Hewlett-Packard has also promised a tablet based on the WebOS platform that it purchased from Palm. "We see this becoming a three-horse race pretty quickly," said Rotmann Epps. "We see iPad leading, and then Motorola and then BlackBerry ... duking it out for second and third place. HP, who is not showing at CES, is kind of a wildcard here." While CES represented the start of the tablet race, things won't really heat up until the first iPad competitors begin hitting shelves in the next few months. Many expect Apple will have announced an update for the iPad by then. "By the end of March we will see probably the iPad 2, as well as the Motorola tablet based on Honeycomb, the Xoom," said Bob O'Donnell, vice president at IDC. "We will also see the release of PlayBook, so at that point in time I think it is a good time to buy." "Later in the year I think we're going to see lower prices, so if you want, wait and let these guys battle it out and keep undercutting each other on price," said O'Donnell. "By holiday 2011 they'll be some amazingly good prices. Unfortunately it will probably be on products that are being discontinued but nevertheless they'll be some really low prices." Missing from much of 2011's tablet talk is Microsoft. The world's biggest software maker promoted tablets in Las Vegas as far back as 2001, but moved away from the market after several years of little success. Apple's success caught the company napping without a tablet-optimized OS. Tablets based on Windows 7 were unveiled at CES, but they're not expected to achieve the same level of success as some of their competitors. For that, Microsoft might have to wait until Windows 8. At CES the company said it would port the next version of its Windows operating system to ARM chips, the processors around which many tablets are based. Its current Windows 7 doesn't support ARM and that means Windows 7 tablets have to be based on Intel and AMD laptop chips. "That's a big deal however, let's be honest, it's probably two years away so let's not hold off, let's not wait for that one," said O'Donnell. "By then the world is going to be very different." Martyn Williams covers Japan and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com |
| Annual video game sales fall, better 2011 in view (Reuters) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 04:55 PM PST SEATTLE (Reuters) – Video game sales fell for 2010 but are expected to bounce back this year as people embrace new ways of playing games online and on-the-go, according to retail research firm NPD Group. Despite a surge in video game accessories -- spurred by Microsoft Corp's Kinect and Sony Corp's Move motion control systems -- total spending on video games and equipment fell 6 percent to $18.6 billion in 2010, as gamers curtailed spending in the early part of the year. But a recovery is predicted for this year, as more people access games on Internet sites such as Facebook and play them on mobile devices. "The increasing number of ways to acquire content has allowed the industry to maintain total consumer spend on content as compared to 2009," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "We should expect 2011 to be a growth year in the games industry as the consumer demand for gaming continues to evolve." Microsoft notched its best ever month for the Xbox in December, selling 1.9 million of the game consoles, helped by its new Kinect hands-free system and the latest in the "Fable" and "Halo" game series. But the world's largest software company, which launched its latest Xbox 360 console in 2005, lost out to Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii in the key holiday shopping month, according to NPD figures. Sony's PlayStation was third. Microsoft said on Thursday high demand for the Xbox and Kinect add-on unit caused shortages in stores over the holiday period and forced it to accelerate delivery of units to stores that were meant to be sold in January and February. As a result, the company said, it expects shortages of both the Xbox console and the Kinect add-on for the next two months. Microsoft said last week it has sold more than 8 million Kinect units over November and December, the first two months on the market, beating its target of 5 million. (Reporting by Bill Rigby; editing by Andre Grenon and Carol Bishopric) |
| Could the Verizon iPhone Spell Trouble for Android? [STATS] (Mashable) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 12:45 PM PST When we look at a breakdown of Android device carriers, Verizon is a popular choice. So will the iPhone's arrival on the most popular network for Android owners spell trouble for Android device manufacturers? Before we answer that question, let's take a look at the numbers. Our data comes from a sample of 2.5 million Android impressions across the Chitika mobile ad network. When we consider Android operating systems only, the majority -- that's 54.58% and around 1.4 million impressions -- were on the Verizon network. Other networks included Sprint, which accounted for around a quarter (633,923) of the impressions, and T-Mobile, which garnered around 19% or 477,893 impressions. AT&T accounted for a mere 2% of impressions as counted by Chitika. In fact, four of the top five Android devices in this survey were Verizon-powered phones from the wildly successful Droid line. The HTC Evo 4G, which is a Sprint phone, was the only exception. We know that the Verizon iPhone isn't necessarily disastrous for AT&T -- at least not on the Verizon iPhone's launch date -- but the distribution of smartphones among wireless networks is decidedly about to change. Current Android-owning Verizon customers could decide to switch to the iPhone and keep their current network. However, as the Android OS and app ecosystem continue to develop and as Android-powered hardware becomes more varied and sophisticated, the reasons for switching become less urgent and more emotional. It'll be interesting to see Apple and Android device makers continue to battle it out through their ad campaigns now that a core tenet of the argument has changed. Will Android owners on Verizon switch to the iPhone now that AT&T's famously bad service is no longer mandatory? Or will they keep their devices because the network was just one reason they chose those phones in the first place? Time will tell, but what happens next will be a portentious token of Android's true position in the smartphone market nd in public opinion. |
| Code of iOS 4.3 suggests multiple iPhone 5 iterations (Appolicious) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 10:57 AM PST |
| Verizon Will Drop 'New Every Two' Credit for Phones (NewsFactor) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 01:55 PM PST Welcome, iPhone. Goodbye, "new every two" credit. Those appear to be the transitional greetings at Verizon Wireless, which is getting ready for big sales on Apple iPhones -- in part by quietly canceling a program that offers a credit for a new phone under a two-year plan. Next week, the popular "new every two" deal will end. Under that program, existing customers get a credit of $30 to $100 off a new phone after 20 months of a two-year contract have been completed. The credit could also be transferred to another line of the same account. The discount applies to the discounted retail price of the device, and will end as of Jan. 16. Current "new every two" customers can obtain their credit, but won't be allowed to re-enroll. Initially Offered On Tuesday, Verizon confirmed the long-standing rumor that it will offer Apple's iPhone, beginning in February. AT&T has been the exclusive carrier in the U.S. for the popular smartphone. When the iPhone deal was announced earlier this week, Verizon initially said that customers could use the "new every two" credit toward an iPhone. Thus, the end of the "new every two" credit comes just before Verizon's expected wave of iPhone sales. The iPhone price for customers with a two-year contract is listed as $199 for the 16GB device, and $299 for the 32GB version, essentially equal to AT&T's offering. Without the carrier's subsidy, the 16GB iPhone would cost $599. Carriers commonly subsidize the cost of the devices, and Verizon's "new every two" credit was an additional price break. However, the regular subsidy applies to any customer, new or old, while the "new every two" credit required a customer to have been with Verizon for at least 20 months. 'Design Compromises' The Verizon iPhone has been adapted for Verizon's CDMA network. Apple said it has been working on an LTE iPhone for Verizon, which would take advantage of the carrier's new 4G network. But Apple COO Tim Cook said at the Verizon event announcing the iPhone availability, "the first-generation LTE chipsets force some design compromises, some of which we would not make." He added that Verizon customers have been requesting that the carrier offer the phone now, not later. The Verizon iPhone does have a few differences from AT&T's. While the Verizon iPhone won't let customers talk on the phone and browse the web at the same time, as the AT&T phone does, it will allow owners to use the device as a wireless hot spot to offer data connections for as many as five other devices. This latter capability is something the AT&T phone doesn't yet have. Some industry observers are suggesting that Verizon's new stinginess with credits will be reflected at other carriers. The thinking is that all the major carriers are going to be looking for more revenue to support the rollout of their new 4G networks and the costs of handing the heavier data traffic from more smartphone users. |
| Hate mobs thrive in Asia's booming social media (AFP) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 08:05 PM PST BANGKOK (AFP) – A teenager involved in a car crash that killed nine people in Thailand deserves "no happiness forever", according to just one of more than 300,000 Facebook users who support a page set up to condemn her. "Only your death is worthwhile for what you have done," said an angry post on the site. "Are you still a human?" asked another. One of the members of the cyber hate campaign threatened to rape the youngster if he saw her. The 16-year-old girl, from a wealthy Thai family, faces charges of reckless driving resulting in death and driving without a licence, after her car crashed with a public minibus on a Bangkok tollway last month. Soon afterwards a photo emerged that appeared to show the girl leaning on a roadside barrier, calmly using a BlackBerry smartphone, having escaped serious injury. She was quickly accused in Internet forums of idly chatting to friends as victims lay dying nearby, which her family denied. Her photos and contact details were posted online and she reportedly received death threats. While the exact circumstances of the crash are unclear, the outrage unleashed on Facebook, Twitter and other websites has highlighted the murky phenomenon of cyber "hate mobs" on popular social networking sites. Behind this trend is what is known as "Internet disinhibition", said Adrian Skinner, a clinical psychologist in Britain who has researched behavioural differences on the web. "It's now well established that some people can behave in a much less inhibited way on the Internet, and the primary reason is that they feel there's no return, no comeback," he told AFP. He explained this "lowered sense of responsibility" was coupled with the fact that writing online involved much less effort than taking to the streets in a revenge-seeking crowd -- a more likely option in the pre-Internet age. "A mob can form much more easily because of electronic communication," he said. "It's much easier for this phenomenon of an 'e-mob' to grow." Membership of Facebook in Thailand more than doubled last year and now stands at about 7.4 million -- 11 percent of the population -- according to Socialbakers, which compiles data about the site. The boom was fuelled by fierce debate over the kingdom's political crisis, which triggered deadly opposition protests in Bangkok in April and May last year. "These tools allow us to express our feelings, ideas and thoughts easily," said Supinya Klangnarong, coordinator of the cyber campaign group Thai Netizen network, who thinks evolution of Internet usage is happening "too quickly". "Expressing ourselves is good but we need to know the boundary of expression and how to use social media positively," she said. "We need a standard to control what is creative expression and what is intimidation." The issue is not unique to Thailand, however, with numerous examples of Internet hate campaigns emerging across Asia, which was named by Facebook in September as the fastest-growing region for new subscribers to the site. In China, where traditional media is heavily censored, the web has become a key way for people to air their views and vent their anger, with many using Facebook and Twitter through proxy servers because they are officially blocked. There are scores of cases of people -- celebrities, officials or ordinary citizens -- who have been at the receiving end of disapproval or anger on the Internet, particularly where corruption or abuse of power are concerned. In one of the most famous recent examples, Zhang Ziyi, a Chinese movie star, received a barrage of online criticism after it was revealed she had only given part of a promised donation to victims of the huge 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The incident took a toll on the actress, known for her roles in "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and she apologised in a teary interview. The entire one million yuan ($152,000) was eventually paid. The Internet has now become such a medium for people's wrath in China that it has triggered the so-called "human flesh search" phenomenon, where netizens hunt down and reveal the identities of perceived offenders. Their targets have included young women who crushed rabbits to death in graphic videos posted on the web. In South Korea, netizens have come up against the law for what Korean President Lee Myung-Bak has described as "improper Internet witch-hunting". His comments were sparked by the case of popular hip-hop singer Tablo, who faced a fierce web campaign from November 2009 when bloggers cast doubt about his educational background. Police launched a criminal probe, concluding that Tablo's academic credentials were authentic, and referred 14 bloggers to prosecutors on libel charges. The case highlighted "the tyranny of the cyber mob that gets a high from spreading ungrounded rumours," a major South Korean newspaper, the JoongAng Daily, said in an editorial in October. "The situation shows a dark shadow that arches over the Internet age." |
| Livescribe Pen Beats Programmer at Tic-Tac-Toe (PC World) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 06:10 AM PST We've seen a lot of crazy stuff here at GeekTech, from the Wii-Kinect mashup to the yarn monster. But we've never seen something quite like this. YouTube user chipos81 demonstrated in a video a Tic-Tac-Toe game that he programmed for a Livescribe Echo digital pen. The pen beat him, though he did sort of give the game away. But that isn't even the coolest part. No, the coolest part is that he ported the classic text adventure game Zork to the pen as well. The pen displays the text descriptions, and you respond by writing down instructions of what to do next on the Livescribe's bundled notepad. It's toocool for words; just...just watch the video. [chipos81 on YouTube / Photo: Mkisono on Flickr; used under Creative Commons] Like This? You might also enjoy...
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| Remains of the Day: Appy New Year (Macworld) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 04:30 PM PST "App's one baaaad mother—" "Shut your mouth!" "I'm just talkin' 'bout apps!" Wikipedia's founder has some choice words for the App Store model, linguists jump on the app bandwagon (appwagon?), and FireWire hits a milestone. The remainders for Thursday, January 13, 2010 can dig it. Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales: App stores a clear and present danger (Tech.Blorge) Wikipedia founder Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales says that the app store model is a threat to Internet freedom—even more so than concerns about net neturality. Wales called the app store model a "chokepoint." The sentiment was later edited to the less biased "bottleneck" by an anonymous user from Duluth. Linguists vote 'app' Word of the Year (Associated Press) Speaking of apps, the word "app" was accorded 2010's Word of the Year last week by the American Dialect Society. "App" narrowly beat out "nom" for the award, virtually ensuring that our language will be incomprehensible within the next ten years. FireWire hits 2 billion ports, still far behind USB (CNet) There are two billion FireWire ports in the world—that's roughly one for every three people on the planet. FireWire ports for everyone! Sadly, it still lags behind the 10 billion USB ports in the world, one of which is now installed in every child upon birth. |
| Is Android Less Secure Than iPhone? Um, No. (PC World) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 03:56 PM PST One can only hope that security software provider Trend Micro saw a nice sales boost after the proclamation of its chairman earlier this week that Android phones are more vulnerable to hacking than iPhones are. If it didn't, those blatantly self-serving statements were made for nothing. After all, they're certainly not true. Not only that, but they were made immediately after the company launched its brand-new security software for Android. There's no way that was a coincidence. The statements were, however, a classic example of the FUD that's so often resorted to by companies that earn their bread by instilling fear in the hearts of computer users. Microsoft's recent anti-OpenOffice.org campaign was one example of such fear tactics used for profit; now, Trend Micro's little threat is another. Who needs enemies when you've got "friends" like these, working to steer you away from free and open source software and toward their expensive products? Lest anyone get fooled by the dramatic headlines, let's take a cold, rational look at Android vs. iPhone security. 'Security Through Obscurity' "Android is open source, which means the hacker can also understand the underlying architecture and source code," is what Trend Micro's Steve Chang originally told Bloomberg Businessweek. Basically, what he's doing there is falling back upon the tired old argument--highly popular among closed-source vendors and those that make a living off of their products--that open source software's openness makes it less secure. It's called the old "security through obscurity" claim, and those of us who have been watching this industry for more than a few minutes know it well. "If hackers can't see the code," the old argument goes, "then it's harder for them to create exploits for it." The reality, however, is that it just doesn't work that way--as evidenced by the ever-increasing parade of (often incomplete) patches coming out of Redmond. First, even developers for Windows or the iPhone, say, have to understand the underlying architecture in order to create their applications. It's by no means a Big Secret. A Misplaced Trust Second, no closed-source company's limited set of developers--each of which is bound to have its own timetable and agenda--can possibly do a better job of finding and eliminating vulnerabilities than the worldwide mass of developers and users, which is who's at work 24/7 for open source software's security. Zooming in more specifically on Android, the software draws many security advantages from the Linux operating system that underlies it. Much the way Linux users are not typically given the "root," or administrator, privileges that would be required in order for a virus to do widespread harm, so Android apps are isolated in separate "silos," unable by default to read or write data or code to other applications. With Android, users are explicitly asked for permissions right up front, when the app is installed. On the iPhone, users can only blindly trust Apple to keep things secure for them--a trust that seems misplaced at best given the threats that have slipped into Apple's "walled garden" anyway. 'Most Vulnerable' of 2010 Then, too, there's the data. Security research firm Lookout, for example, recently reported through its App Genome Project that Android applications are more secure than iPhone apps are because they're less likely to be capable of accessing a user's contact list or retrieving their location. It also found that nearly twice as many free iPhone apps can access the user's contact data. Security firm Secunia, meanwhile, declared that Apple products now have more security vulnerabilities than any others--including even Microsoft's. Apple, in fact, topped Secunia's ranking of the top 10 vendors with the most vulnerabilities in 2010. Even more recently, researcher McAfee fingered Apple products as growing targets for malware this year. Government Users Would companies far and wide be placing increasing trust in open source applications, and would this country's Departments of Defense and Homeland Security be among the U.S. government's biggest users of open source technology, if openness made technology less secure? I don't think so. It was a nice try, Trend Micro--all's fair in love and marketing, right? But next time, it might be a good idea to pay attention to the facts, too. Follow Katherine Noyes on Twitter: @Noyesk. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| IBM prepares for machine vs man Jeopardy! showdown (Reuters) Posted: 13 Jan 2011 04:27 PM PST YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, New York (Reuters) – Computer history for $400? An IBM computer won the practice round on popular quiz show Jeopardy! against two top contestants, showing artificial intelligence has come a long way in simulating how humans think. "We have created a computer system which has the ability to understand natural human language, which is a very difficult thing for a computer to do," said John Kelly, the director of IBM Research. "In the field of artificial intelligence, people spend their lifetimes trying to advance that science inches. What Watson does and has demonstrated is the ability to advance the field of artificial intelligence by miles." The machine, named Watson after legendary International Business Machines president Thomas Watson, is a showcase of the company's computing expertise and research in advanced science. It also shows IBM -- which turns 100 years old this year -- wants to stay at the forefront of technology, even as companies such as Google Inc and Apple Inc have become the industry's popular leaders. IBM says the ability to understand language makes Watson far more evolved than Deep Blue, the company's supercomputer which won against world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The biggest challenge for IBM scientists was teaching Watson to differentiate between literal and metaphorical expressions and understanding puns and slang. Feeding it knowledge was easier. Watson is not plugged into the Internet, but has a database covering a broad range of topics, including history and entertainment. At Thursday's practice, held at IBM's Eero Saarinen-designed research facility in the quiet New York suburb of Yorktown Heights, Watson showed off its familiarity with musical film. "The film Gigi gave him his signature song, 'Thank Heaven for Little Girls'," asked host Alex Trebek. "Who is Maurice Chevalier," replied Watson. The machine, which combines IBM's refrigerator-sized Power7 computers, was too big to fit on the set and was connected on the ground floor. It also accurately answered questions on Agatha Christie and the city of Jericho. Watson triumphed in the first practice round, earning $4,400, while Ken Jennings, who won 74 games in a row during the show's 2004-2005 season, trailed with $3,400. Brad Rutter, who has earned a cumulative $3.3 million on the show, came in last. "I'm very impressed," said Jennings, a former computer programer. A win on the actual show, which goes on air February 14, 15 and 16, would be a triumph for IBM, which spends around $6 billion per year in research and development. An unspecified portion of that spending goes to what IBM calls "grand challenges," or big, multi-year science projects such as Watson and Deep Blue. While Watson might not turn into a commercial project right away, IBM executives said its linguistic and analytical capabilities may eventually help the company develop new products in areas such as medical diagnosis. Jennings, however, said he thought Watson could be beaten in the actual competition. "Watson is fallible," he said. Fellow contestant Brad Rutter agreed, citing Watson's weakness at grasping humor -- a key part of some of the questions. In the morning session, in a question about the actor and musician Jamie Foxx, who learned to play the cello, Watson came up with a baffling answer, "who is Beethoven?" "I get the two mixed up all the time," joked Rutter, earning guffaws. Watson did not laugh, but went on to win the practice round. (Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; editing by Andre Grenon) |
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