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Verizon to start selling iPhone on Feb. 10 (AP) : Technet |
- Verizon to start selling iPhone on Feb. 10 (AP)
- MySpace slashes nearly half its global staff (AP)
- Verizon iPhone questions and answers (Ben Patterson)
- Hands-on with the Verizon iPhone (Ben Patterson)
- Ex-RIM employee says the PlayBook faces challenges (Digital Trends)
- Verizon iPhone is Officially Here -- Details and Why (ContributorNetwork)
- Fujitsu Shows Windows 7-based Tablet (PC World)
- Windows Phone 7 rumored to get a FaceTime function (Digital Trends)
- Family Data Plans Likely Coming From Wireless Carriers (PC World)
- Chromium Goes All In for Open Source Video (Mashable)
- Verizon on the iPhone is a win for all consumers (Appolicious)
- Why Verizon's iPhone won't bury Android (Digital Trends)
- ConnectU faces skeptical judges in Facebook appeal (AFP)
- Homeless 'golden voice' web star arrested in LA (AFP)
- Remains of the Day: Open, for business? (Macworld)
- Jaspersoft Rearchitects BI Stack (PC World)
- AP Enterprise: FDA helps states get execution drug (AP)
| Verizon to start selling iPhone on Feb. 10 (AP) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 06:31 PM PST NEW YORK – Verizon Wireless made the long-awaited announcement Tuesday that it will start selling a version of the iPhone 4 on Feb. 10, giving U.S. iPhone buyers a choice of carriers for the first time. New Yorker Wes Moe can't wait. He has wanted one to accompany his iPad and Mac, but held back because he shares a Verizon plan with his wife, a BlackBerry user. "I'm super happy with all those other Apple devices, and I want that phone in my hands," said Moe, 32. In the U.S., the iPhone has been exclusive to AT&T Inc. since it launched in 2007, frustrating many people who for one reason or another haven't wanted an AT&T phone. "I can't tell you the number of times I've been asked and my colleagues have been asked ... When will the iPhone work on the Verizon network?" said Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, at Tuesday's launch event. Pre-orders for existing Verizon customers will start Feb. 3. The price will be $200 or $300 with a two-year contract, about the same as the iPhone through AT&T. Verizon has wider domestic network coverage than AT&T does, particularly for the older "3G" wireless broadband. In the interior of the country, it covers vast areas that AT&T doesn't. In the big cities of the coasts, iPhone service can be spotty because of crowding on AT&T's network. Nonetheless, it's not clear how many people will flee from AT&T and other carriers. Unless Verizon's service plans are radically different from AT&T's, Beth Henriksen, 31, said she won't dump her AT&T iPhone 4 any time soon. Verizon did not reveal its service plan pricing on Tuesday. Nor did it say whether it would offer the same unlimited data-use plans it offers for other smart phones. Last year, AT&T stopped offering unlimited data plans to new customers. She said she has big service problems with AT&T in and around Washington, D.C., but she's hesitant to switch because unlike the AT&T version, the Verizon phone won't be able to surf the Web or use other data connections while a phone call is in progress. Henriksen, a sign-language interpreter, often looks up directions and other online aides while talking to customers. AT&T activated 11.1 million iPhones in the first nine months of 2010. Analysts now expect Verizon to sell anywhere from 5 million to 13 million this year. Some buyers will be former AT&T customers, but the impact will likely be muted because most iPhone users have two-year contracts, and many are on family and employer plans, which are more difficult to switch from. Verizon's iPhone version will work only on the carrier's current "3G" network even though the carrier has fired up a super-fast "4G" network in many cities. Cook said the first generation of "4G" phone chips would have forced some design compromises, which Apple wasn't willing to make. It wasn't waiting for the second generation, either. "Verizon customers have told us they want the iPhone now," Cook said. The lack of 4G means the Verizon iPhone will have much lower data speeds than AT&T's, at least in the areas where AT&T has upgraded its 3G to higher speeds. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel also said international roaming through Verizon will be very limited compared with AT&T. This summer, AT&T could get another competitive advantage, when Apple is expected to debut a new iPhone model. Cook wouldn't say if Verizon would get it right away. Though Verizon Wireless is the largest wireless carrier in the country, with 93.2 million subscribers, it has been losing out to AT&T in the battle to sign up high-paying smart-phone subscribers because of AT&T's iPhone exclusivity. In the last few years, Verizon has promoted phones with Google Inc.'s Android operating system as its alternative to the iPhone. Verizon's iPhone 4 is identical in form and function to AT&T's but has one feature AT&T's does not: It can act as a portable Wi-Fi "hot spot," connecting up to five laptops or other devices to Verizon's 3G network through Wi-Fi. It's a feature that's been offered on other smart phones, usually for an added monthly fee. The Verizon iPhone is the first one that works on so-called "CDMA" networks, a standard also employed by Sprint Nextel Corp. and carriers in China and South Korea. Cook said the phone wouldn't be exclusive to Verizon, but he didn't say what other carriers might get it. Analysts don't expect Sprint to sell it. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC. Shares of Verizon Communications fell 56 cents, or 1.6 percent, to close Tuesday at $35.36. The shares are still close to a two-year high of $37.70, set last week. Apple shares lost 81 cent to $341.64, while AT&T lost 43 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $27.91. Verizon issued its press release at 11:11 a.m. on Jan. 11, 2011, or 1/11/11. ___ AP Technology Writers Barbara Ortutay and Jessica Mintz contributed to this report. |
| MySpace slashes nearly half its global staff (AP) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 05:28 PM PST LOS ANGELES – Struggling entertainment site MySpace said Tuesday that it is cutting nearly half of its staff worldwide, or about 500 people, after an extensive revamp in October overhauled its look and allowed it to be run with fewer people. The cuts, part of a two-stage layoff plan, better position the site for a possible sale or spin-off by parent News Corp. Mike Jones, the chief executive of MySpace, called the cuts "tough but necessary" but said they put the site on a path to profitability while making it more nimble and entrepreneurial. MySpace declined to say how much the cuts would save. A person with close ties to the site said that the cuts, combined with a previous round of layoffs and office closures in June 2009, would save more than $200 million a year. The previous layoffs eliminated about 420 jobs in the U.S. and 300 jobs overseas, and shut several offices abroad. For the latest move, MySpace said it will enter into ad sales partnerships in the U.K., Germany and Australia. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and declined to be identified. The recent relaunch focused MySpace on giving its users, mostly aged 13 to 34, more ways to consume music, videos and celebrity gossip. Before, MySpace tried to be an all-purpose social networking site like Facebook. MySpace recently said it is no longer trying to compete with Facebook. Executives had expected the changes to turn off some users, and its visitor count has indeed fallen since the makeover. But the cuts and a tighter focus on younger users could still help it make money as a smaller company. It is now relying more on selling space directly to advertisers, by integrating their ads with content, and less on its revenue sharing deal with search leader Google Inc. which it renewed in December, the person said. Globally, MySpace had 81.5 million visitors in November, down from 88.0 million in October and down from 108.1 million in November 2009, according to tracking firm comScore Inc. Meanwhile, Facebook visitors hit 647.5 million, up 48 percent from a year ago, comScore said. Microblogging site Twitter has grown 71 percent in a year to 103.0 million. News Corp. bought MySpace in 2005 for $580 million, but it has been losing money consistently. In the three months through Sept. 30, the "other" segment housing MySpace lost $156 million, about $30 million more than the previous year, mostly because of lower search and ad revenue at MySpace. By contrast, juggernaut Facebook is making money. According to documents recently shared with prospective shareholders, Facebook earned $355 million on revenue of $1.2 billion in the first nine months of last year. News Corp. executives had put MySpace on a short leash to get profitable. News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey told investors in November he would judge efforts to reboot the site "in quarters, not in years" and opened the possibility the site could be sold. Since then, News Corp. executives have been fielding inquiries from strategic investors. Possible moves include an outright sale, taking on new investors, or merging the asset into a larger company for an equity stake, the person said. News Corp.'s widely traded Class A shares fell 21 cents, or 1.4 percent, to close at $14.41 on Tuesday. |
| Verizon iPhone questions and answers (Ben Patterson) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 01:13 PM PST So, how is the Verizon iPhone different from the AT&T version? How much will the data plans cost? Will Verizon be offering any early upgrades for existing subscribers? And what about early termination fees? Those questions and more, answered below. First things first: When will the Verizon iPhone arrive, and how much will it cost? (Get the details on Verizon's iPhone announcement right here.)
Will Verizon be offering early upgrades for those of us still under contract? How much will data plans cost? So, what are the differences between the Verizon and AT&T iPhones? (Check out my hands-on impressions of the Verizon iPhone.)
Did Apple make those changes to fix all the "antennagate" problems we heard about over the summer? What about features: any differences? Cool — but will using the iPhone 4 as a Wi-Fi hotspot cost anything extra? Will the iPhone 4 work on Verizon's speedy new 4G LTE network?
I love being able to surf and talk at the same time on my AT&T iPhone. Will I be able to do the same thing on the Verizon version? I'm tempted to get the Verizon iPhone, but I'm wondering … when does the iPhone 5 come out? Of course, it's always possible that AT&T will get the iPhone 5 (or whatever it ends up being called) this summer, while Verizon will get a new phone a year from now. That's all just conjecture, though. Cook said Apple doesn't comment on unreleased products. Is Verizon's network really better than AT&T's? I'm still under contract with AT&T, but I want the Verizon iPhone. How much will it cost to break my contract? So, should I dump AT&T and switch to the Verizon iPhone? — Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News. |
| Hands-on with the Verizon iPhone (Ben Patterson) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 09:43 AM PST Yep, the Verizon iPhone is finally here, and it's set to go on sale early next month. But beyond a few minor changes to external antenna design and a telltale "Verizon" icon in the corner of the screen, we're pretty much talking the same iPhone 4 that's already on AT&T. As for Web browsing on the Verizon iPhone: speedy, at least during my brief tests. I got the chance to handle the new CDMA iPhone (get all the launch details right here) directly following Verizon Wireless' New York press event Tuesday, and lo and behold, it looks practically identical to my AT&T iPhone 4. That said, there are some minor differences worth mentioning.
Stacking the Verizon and AT&T iPhone 4s on top of each other, you can see that the tiny gaps separating the segments of the external antenna are a little different. (Questions—and answers—about the Verizon iPhone.) The Verizon has a tiny gap on the upper-left corner of the antenna that the AT&T iPhone doesn't have, although both handsets have a gap on the lower-left corner of the phone â€" the same notorious gap that caused Apple so much trouble during the "Antennagate" fiasco last summer.
Also different: an additional gap in the upper-right corner of the Verizon iPhone 4, while the AT&T iPhone has an extra gap on top, near the headphone jack. So, has Apple been making improvements to the iPhone 4 antennas? No, Apple's Tim Cook insisted during Tuesday's announcement; rather, the changes are merely to accommodate Verizon's CDMA network, which uses a fundamentally different technology from AT&T's GSM network.
That's it for the cosmetic changes â€" well, besides the "Verizon" icon that sits on the upper-left corner of the iPhone 4's retina display. Of course, one of the first things I wanted to try after checking out the Verizon iPhone's physical shell were some speed tests — completely unscientific, mind you, given that I was testing a single phone in a single location over a period of a few minutes. That being said, I went ahead and tapped out the URL for the hefty New York Times website on both the Verizon iPhone and my own AT&T iPhone, then tapped the "Go" button at the same time. Within about 15 to 20 seconds, the Times home page had fully loaded on the Verizon iPhone's Web browser. On my AT&T iPhone, though … tick, tick, tick. It didn't take all that long for the majority of the New York Times page to load on the AT&T iPhone, but it took well over a minute for the page to arrive in its entirety. Meanwhile, the Verizon iPhone, all finished in its task, sat nearby, looking smug.
My AT&T iPhone came a lot closer to the Verizon version when it came to mobile-optimized sites for CNN and the New York Post, but for the most part, it was no contest. Again, though, we'll have to wait for a more detailed analysis before declaring a winner in the iPhone speed war — after all, for all I know, there could be a Verizon cellular tower standing right here in Columbus Circle. And here's another thing to consider: Verizon Wireless' CDMA/EV-DO network still won't let you make simultaneous voice and data calls, as Verizon CEO Dan Mead confirmed Tuesday. That means no surfing the Web or looking for nearby restaurants on Yelp while making a voice call, unless you happen to be connected to a Wi-Fi network. — Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News. |
| Ex-RIM employee says the PlayBook faces challenges (Digital Trends) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 05:46 PM PST
According to Raymond Reddy, who was previously involved in RIM's corporate development and M&A, developers might want to hesitate before starting projects for the PlayBook. Reddy himself owns and operates a music software company that he says he will initially drive towards Android tablets, and he doesn't think he'll be the only one. At launch, there will be a scant amount of third-party apps since RIM will have to persuade developers to create apps for the PlayBook's QNX operating system, a major transition from the traditional BlackBerry OS. On the flipside, since the PlayBook is the first tablet to fully support Flash, this opens up a whole new realm for developers. Reddy also warns the device might not make its launch date. While the QNX OS is responsible for the PlayBook's heightened performance, it's also apparently been more difficult than expected to adopt the pervious UI to the tablet. Which leads to the largest issue: the Wi-Fi version will not have access to corporate BlackBerry e-mail. One of the PlayBook's crucial features has been its productivity functions. Reddy told Business Insider that the BlackBerry crew first told him this, saying it's for security reasons. The tablet is supposed to be available in early 2011, so we'll soon find out if RIM is able to deliver with the PlayBook. |
| Verizon iPhone is Officially Here -- Details and Why (ContributorNetwork) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 04:03 PM PST Contribute content like this. Start here. After years of rumor mills and speculations that a Verizon iPhone was in the works and the anticipation at the 2011 CES that a Verizon iPhone would be announced, it is finally here, despite the numerous implications from Steve Jobs that a Verizon iPhone would never happen. While the CES rumors never came to fruition, announced yesterday morning at an invitation only event, Verizon released the official plans for iPhone on the Verizon network. Android and iPhone by the Numbers In an interview with Gene Munster, a Piper Jaffray analyst at Apple, he stated that Verizon getting an iPhone is not only about more sales, but "[m]ore importantly, it's about snuffing out a nascent threat from Google's Android software, which has been gaining traction thanks to sales of smartphones at Verizon Wireless." That does not say much for the iPhone and it implies is that Android is beating iOS senseless -- and it is. According to a Jan. 7 market share report, Android claimed 19.6 percent in August 2010 and 26 percent in November 2010, while Apple claimed 24.2 percent in August 2010 and 24 percent in November 2010, so Apple is right to worry. Verizon iPhone just as Limiting as AT&T iPhone Many consumers were waiting to purchase an iPhone because they wanted a Verizon version and many thought that a Verizon iPhone would have better network capabilities and possibly better features. Nevertheless, consumers who thought this are, unfortunately, sorely mistaken. While yes, the iPhone on Verizon's network will probably have a better connection and fewer dropped calls, the Verizon version of the iPhone is just as feature-limited and platform-closed as the AT&T version -- unless, of course, it is jailbroken. Also not included on the Verizon iPhone is flash support, HDMI out, and no microSD card slot or USB ports. These are all basic features included on any Android-based smartphone and are the main reasons why Android smartphones are so popular. Additionally, if the Verizon iPhone is built anything like the AT&T iPhone is, it will probably contain the same antenna problems, where consumers could not hold it with their left hand or the signal would cut out completely. According to reports, the Verizon iPhone will in fact be a CDMA phone, which is required to run on Verizon's network and while it will come with a pre-installed 3G Mobile hotspot, allowing the user to connect five Wi-Fi devices. It will be built-in to the phone, not available as an application, as it usually is. However, the Verizon iPhone will not allow users to use voice and data simultaneously and AT&T's iPhone does for $20 a month. Nevertheless, that is the only advantage that AT&T's iPhone has over Verizon's version. The Verizon iPhone is expected to be released on February 10 2011, but consumers can start to pre-order the devices on February 3 2011. The cost of the devices with a two-year Verizon contract is $199 for a 16 GB iPhone and $299 for a 32 GB model; the eight GB iPhone 3GS model will not be available at all from Verizon. Jessica (JC) Torpey is a self-taught computer technician with more than 10 years experience in the field. JC's passion is studying the various political and business aspects of the technology industry. Combining that knowledge with her love of computers, JC uses it to influence her writing. |
| Fujitsu Shows Windows 7-based Tablet (PC World) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 03:53 PM PST Fujitsu demoed its next-generation tablet at the Consumer Electronics Show. It came as no surprise, as the company has long been a player in highly mobile and slate-style products--especially ones aimed at corporate and vertical markets in previous pushes towards a tablet PC. "There will be a lot of entries, and they'll either fly or die," Fujitsu's product manager Paul Moore astutely notes. For Fujitsu's first tablet, due in the United States in the first half of 2011, the company is showing a 10-inch Windows slate design. The slate is running a 1280 by 800 resolution, 400 nit screen that uses N-trig's multi-touch screen technology for doing finger and pen navigation on the same screen. (HP's Slate, announced late fall 2010, already uses this technology, and N-trig has announced support for Android devices as well.) This technology alone makes the unnamed Fujitsu slate a good fit for the company's target vertical markets, which include finance and healthcare. The unit will have Windows 7 Professional running on an Intel Atom Oaktrail-based system with a self-encrypted solid state drive, an option for wireless broadband, plus standard connectivity like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, biometric security (a small swipe is on the underside of the unit), and front- and rear-facing cameras and microphones. Fujitsu expects the slate to come in at about 1.7 pounds, a figure Moore notes is about the same across his competitive set just because of the all the component requirements necessary to create a Windows slate. The price has yet to-be-determined, but "competitive" with other Windows tablets. As for Android? "We've been leery of the Android OS," admits Moore. "We have an Android slate on the roadmap, and it would have Honeycomb. But the regions for distribution have not been settled yet." Moore says the Android slate will ship in Japan, but he's not sure if it will make it to U.S. shores. Also unknown is whether the Fujitsu phone displayed at CES will make it Stateside, either. Fujitsu showed a Docomo phone that ships in Japan today. The hook? The phone, in black and gold, is waterproof: Drop it in water, and it will survive. At the least, the company plans to take the technology of the interface and the waterproof feature, and considering integrating it into an Android based tablet later this year. Check out our complete coverage of CES 2011. |
| Windows Phone 7 rumored to get a FaceTime function (Digital Trends) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 03:49 PM PST A rumor claiming Microsoft will install a FaceTime-like feature on its Windows Phone 7 has surfaced. Neowin is reporting that at a "high profile" CES event, a Windows Phone employee mentioned developers were interested in created a program similar to FaceTime that would pair with Microsoft Live services, as well as with MSN Messenger. If you're thinking Skype seems like an easy alternative, the insider reportedly claimed this new application "will reach beyond the hand of Skype." When such an update would launch is unknown, but we wouldn't rule it out as a new feature included in Windows Phone 8 – which the rumor says could come with a front-facing camera. The screenshot below containing the registry keys within Windows Phone 7 shows that the hardware alteration is in the works. TechTree claims the image comes courtesy of former Microsoft Silverlight Program Manager Justin Angel. Mobile World Congress 2011 will take place next month in Barcelona, and it's possible Microsoft will make an official announcement about updates or even the next generation of the Windows Phone. While there's been no word from the company on when to expect any phone upgrades, BGR was able to spot a slip on Microsoft's site (see below), leading many to believe something's scheduled for this month. A video chat application is most likely further down the line, but for now you can expect to see the copy-and-paste functionality mentioned in Microsoft's keynote, as well as improved app and game startup speeds. |
| Family Data Plans Likely Coming From Wireless Carriers (PC World) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 06:00 PM PST Years ago cell phone companies began offering "family plans" that provided a common bucket of voice minutes for use by anybody in the family who owned a cell phone. Now, in 2011, many voice devices have been replaced by data devices--little computers, such as smartphones and tablet PCs, that require data connections. In response, wireless carriers are currently thinking hard about offering a new type of "family plan," a data-service (Internet-access) plan that covers a family of devices, allowing users to purchase a single bucket of bits for sharing among devices of their choosing. In theory, under such a family plan a consumer or business customer would be able to purchase one plan and use any mix of compatible devices on it. If, for instance, you had a smartphone, a tablet, and a laptop or netbook, you could conceivably log in from any of those devices and have your network activity count toward a single billable total, instead of having to purchase a separate plan for each device, as is now the case. While a family plan would probably make sense for most wireless-data users (since according to carriers most users don't come close to approaching the data-download limits of current cellular data plans), carriers may be reluctant to implement such plans for several reasons. At the top of that list may be the cost of extra back-end duties associated with ensuring proper billing and security for a multiple-device billing scheme. But carriers may also be wary of a strategy that pushes users toward the higher end of data-plan usage, especially as more devices that can easily consume more bandwidth hit the marketplace. However, some kind of combined billing scheme may be necessary to persuade more customers to purchase multiple devices, since three $60-per-month contracts would be hard to justify for many users' communications budgets. Carriers Not Yet Willing to Commit Although no major U.S. wireless carrier has yet committed to the family-plan idea for data contracts, all the big players say they are considering such pricing tiers, and may introduce them as early as this year. The carriers say they want to collect more information about how customers might wish to combine a stack of devices, such as a smartphone, a tablet computer, and a netbook or laptop. "We're still trying to figure out the best combinations to offer customers," said Teresa Kellett, Sprint's director of 4G, in an interview at CES in Las Vegas. While Sprint needs to determine how it might price combined device and service packages, Kellett points out, the company already offers its customers a form of family plan with its Overdrive mobile hotspot, which connects to either a 3G or 4G cellular network on the back end and then provides Wi-Fi connectivity to additional devices nearby. (At CES, Sprint also announced a Novatel MiFi version of the same product, available February 27 and priced at $50 per month.) Verizon, which announced at CES ten new devices for its just-launched Long Term Evolution 4G network, said publicly that it is still looking at new pricing plans for providing data service to all those devices. The carrier notes, however, that the first iteration of 4G device pricing would likely mirror the current consumer plans for 3G devices, which cost around $60 per month on average and allow for 5GB of data downloads per month. In December, Verizon launched its LTE service with USB modems and two data plans: a $50-per-month plan for 5GB of data and an $80-per-month plan for 10GB of data. One potential problem with the new, fast and data-hungry devices is that they could quickly chew through old-style data plans, making such contracts less attractive to power users who might want to watch a lot of video or download large files. During its ten-device LTE announcement last Thursday, Verizon said that it will have two portable hotspots for its 4G network, which will allow sharing across multiple Wi-Fi-equipped devices. T-Mobile, which announced its first 4G tablet devices at CES along with plans to increase the speed of its HSPA+ network, said that it is also considering family-plan pricing but is still researching the issue. "We have some data plans where you are able to tether and use a device as a modem, but nothing for sharing data [plans] yet," said Cole Broadman, chief marketing officer for T-Mobile. "We're still looking at a variety of ideas, including tablets and smartphones and how we might bundle those together." AT&T, meanwhile, stepped up its plans to deploy an LTE network, and announced new HSPA+ smartphones and plans to launch services by the middle of the year. Like the other major carriers, AT&T has not yet announced pricing or data plans, but is clearly looking closely at the family-plan idea. "Our CMO [chief marketing officer] David Christopher and I spend a lot of time talking about what are the right rate structures and could there be that family plan," said Glenn Lurie, head of AT&T's emerging devices division, at the Dive Into Mobile conference in December. "So we are constantly talking to our customers to find out what they want--and just so you know, we've heard that one [the request for a family data plan] once or twice," Lurie said. Paul Kapustka is the editor of Sidecut Reports, a research site that focuses on wireless technology and services. |
| Chromium Goes All In for Open Source Video (Mashable) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 10:45 AM PST About half a year after Google announced its WebM video codec at Google I/O, Chromium has made some interesting announcements on how the open-source browser project plans to support open-source video. Chromium Project Manager Mike Jazayeri writes that his team is "changing Chrome's HTML5 support to make it consistent with the codecs already supported by the open Chromium project." That means WebM (VP8) will be supported, as will the open-source codec Theora. H.264, on the other hand, will be phased out. When Google rolled out WebM back in May 2010, we were excited by the possibilities for this open-source, royalty-free format for online video. The technology uses the VP8 codec that Google acquired in February 2009. Google has been using the WebM format in its HTML5 YouTube experiment with mixed results. Now, Jazayeri writes that only open-source video codecs will be supported. So far, these codecs include WebM and Theora, a traditionally inferior and still developing technology, as far as playback is concerned. The H.264 standard has been around since 2003 and has gained a great deal of traction during that time. Still, it's technically not an open technology. The entity that controls licensing for H.264 video says it will refrain from collecting royalties until the end of 2015. So while the technology is free for now, it's still proprietary. And in the world of die-hard FOSS advocacy, that's a huge no-no. It's also likely no coincidence that H.264 is strongly supported by Apple and has been for many years. Jazayeri writes, "Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies." While the FOSS love-fest is a thing of beauty, more than one commenter on the Chromium blog post pointed out the impracticality of Google's lack of ideological and technical support for one of the most widely used video codecs on the web. As one person wrote, "This is a move by Google where they care more about the open source 'community' than they do actual users of their browser. Let's be real here: WebM has a LONG way to go before it will have any serious amount of traction, and Theora is a joke. Like it or now, H.264 is becoming the standard, and dropping support for it for no good reason is ridiculous." We'll see how the web video "wars" play out and will continue to report on newsworthy updates in this area. In the meantime, we'd love to get your opinions in the comments. Is support for open technologies -- even flawed ones -- better than support for proprietary technologies, no matter how ubiquitous? Image based on photo from Flickr user Damon Duncan. |
| Verizon on the iPhone is a win for all consumers (Appolicious) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 10:43 AM PST |
| Why Verizon's iPhone won't bury Android (Digital Trends) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 04:13 PM PST
Now that it is finally official, and the iPhone will escape the solitary confines of AT&T's grasp to debut on America's largest cell phone carrier on February 10, the impact will reverberate through the cell phone world in several ways, and the resulting shift will leave the landscape looking totally different. The question is, when the dust settles, who will be left in the best position?
Berries and ‘bots remainDespite all the predictions of the analysts and experts, Android is not going anywhere.  The arrival of the iPhone to Verizon is sure to make Apple shareholders very happy over the next few months, but Android is not going to surrender nearly as much of its hard earned market share as some are saying.  But it will be interesting to see the results.Apple's competitors have managed to dig in well for the coming battle. Android has managed to gain a solid foothold, and thanks to its wide spread usage on multiple carriers, Google's mobile OS is by far the most sold operating system at the moment– although it is still playing catch up to Apple and RIM in terms of total market share. As recently as October, RIM was the market share leader with BlackBerry OS. Although that changed in November, RIM still has a strong share, and with upcoming devices like the critically acclaimed PlayBook tablet on the way, don't expect the Canadian company to go gentle into that good night just because Apple is being sold under Verizon's banner. But that doesn't mean that RIM and Google aren't both nervous.
The iPhone 4 will sell phones. Lots and lots of phones. Betting against Apple over the last few years has generally been proven to be a bad idea. But there are a few things working against Apple. |
| ConnectU faces skeptical judges in Facebook appeal (AFP) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 07:08 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – A skeptical panel of judges is mulling whether Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg duped former Harvard classmates in a $65 million settlement of a lawsuit charging that he stole the idea for the website recently valued at $50 billion. Twin brothers Tyler and Cameron Winkelvoss claim they enlisted Zuckerberg to finish software code for their ConnectU social-networking website while they were all students at Harvard in 2003. Zuckerberg, a second year student at the time, took their code and their idea and launched Facebook in February 2004 instead of holding up his end of the deal, according to the brothers. Facebook refutes that account. Hollywood made the saga famous in the recent hit film "The Social Network." The twins inked a settlement two years ago that got them $20 million in cash and $45 million worth of stock valued at $36 per share. The brothers are gambling the settlement, which was supposed to be confidential, on a federal court appeal that contends they were tricked a second time because Facebook internally valued the stock at $9. Members of a three-judge panel bore holes in the argument pitched by Jerome Falk, the attorney who spoke for the Winklevoss twins during a hearing Tuesday in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Judge John Wallace noted that teams of lawyers and a top mediator had worked on the settlement. "The (ConnectU) founders are pretty smart people themselves," Wallace said. "The twins also have a father from Wharton School who is very bright," he continued as he grilled Falk. "If you have all these people to advise you, isn't it difficult to say this is one of those things where you were taken advantage of?" he asked. The Winkelvoss brothers based the value of Facebook stock on news that months earlier technology giant Microsoft had bought a small piece of the social networking star in a deal that valued the stock at just shy of $36 and the company at $15 billion, Falk said. He argued that Facebook violated US securities law by not disclosing that it had valued the stock at closer to $9 for stock options issued to employees at that time. "No one was misled here," he said. "The ConnectU founders struck a deal that made them very rich and is making them richer by the day. No one made them sign it." Rosenkranz argued that Facebook was under no obligation to volunteer the stock option information during settlement negotiations and that the information was not intentionally withheld. "It looks like it's got a lot of just about everything you would "This case is about whether sophisticated parties surrounded by a platoon of world-class lawyers can cancel a deal that is binding," Facebook attorney Joshua Rosenkranz countered in his time before the judges. want in a contract," Ninth Circuit chief judge Alex Kozinski said while leafing through the settlement paperwork. "It definitely says we have a binding agreement." The panel is expected to decide in about three months whether it will overturn a decision by a federal district court denying the appeal. "They certainly exhibited a healthy degree of skepticism," Falk told AFP after the hearing. "They pressed me on things. I hope I answered to their satisfaction." If the appeal is rejected, the Winkelvoss brothers would lose the cash and stock, which is in escrow, but would be free to pursue their original lawsuit, according to Falk. A US probe into Goldman Sachs's fresh $450 million investment in Facebook could drive the hugely popular social networking site to go public earlier than planned. Goldman evaluated Facebook at a whopping $50 billion, more than longstanding giants such as Boeing, Time Warner and Yahoo!. Regulators at the US Securities and Exchange Commission are reportedly examining disclosure rules for private firms and might consider compelling Facebook to register as a public company. Facebook has more than 500 million active users per month worldwide as subscribers "friend" their contacts and share their activities. |
| Homeless 'golden voice' web star arrested in LA (AFP) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 06:44 PM PST LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A homeless man who became a YouTube hit for his astonishing baritone radio voice was arrested in Los Angeles after an altercation with his daughter, police and reports said. Ted Williams, who had struggled with drugs and alcohol, became an overnight celebrity when a video clip of his voice skills filmed while he was on the side of an Ohio highway was posted on the Internet last week by the Columbus Dispatch newspaper. He was flooded with job offers and brought to Hollywood -- where he was arrested after officers were called to a disturbance at his hotel Monday night, and taken to a local police station, according to LA Police Department (LAPD). The LA Times newspaper quoted sources as saying there had been an altercation between the 53-year-old and his daughter. Both were released after about an hour, and no charges were pressed, said an LAPD spokeswoman. Williams was offered a two-year job with the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA club. He visited the home of the LA Lakers on Monday, and was in town for interviews with "Entertainment Tonight" and other media outlets. Williams, who pleaded guilty to theft charges after being arrested last May, had been living in a tent when he was discovered in the online clip showcasing his deep vocal tone and polished pronunciation. |
| Remains of the Day: Open, for business? (Macworld) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 04:30 PM PST Well, thank heavens we can stop speculating about the Verizon iPhone now. I feel lighter already. Let's see how AT&T is doi—oh. Does anybody have a tissue? Elsewhere, Google Chrome creates a paradox and Hershey lands in hot…cocoa? The remainders for Tuesday, January 11, 2011 go great with marshmallows. AT&T Preps iPhone Plan (Wall Street Journal) So now that Verizon has the iPhone too, is AT&T feeling "not so special"? Wireless chief Ralph de la Vega says heck no! In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he said "The short- and long-term viability of AT&T will be good whether we have exclusivity or not. We are much bigger than this." And then he shed a single tear. HTML Video Codec Support in Chrome (The Chromium Blog) In a rather surprising move, Google announced on Tuesday that it's dropping support for the H.264 video codec (used extensively on iOS devices) in Chrome, and instead focusing on the WebM and Theora formats. The reasoning? H.264 just isn't open enough. But, as Daring Fireball's John Gruber points out, the browser ships with its own embedded version of Flash—a proprietary standard if there ever was one. That *pop* you just heard was caused by Chrome going back in time and hitting its grandfather with a car. Chocolate-Milk App Lands Hershey In Court (paidContent) A federal judge greenlit a copyright lawsuit from Las Vegas-based Hottrix against chocolatier Hershey, who Hottrix claims ripped off the concept of its "virtual drinking" app—pioneered in such groundbreaking apps as iBeer, iMilk, and iSoda—for a Hershey syrup-themed software program. The Quik Bunny could not be reached for comment. |
| Jaspersoft Rearchitects BI Stack (PC World) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 03:20 PM PST Anticipating greater use of BI (business intelligence) on the Web and in the cloud, Jaspersoft has rebuilt its software using a standards-based Web architecture. "The Web is driving the new development paradigm" for business intelligence, said Brian Gentile, CEO of Jaspersoft. With the just-released 4.0 version of the company's eponymous software package, Jaspersoft is eschewing the typical upgrade process taken by most BI vendors, that of adding new analytical features. Instead it has focused on making its software more easily manageable for a wider range of administrators who are not BI tool specialists. The new version "makes it easier for the developer to extend, integrate, customize and maintain custom or specific Jaspersoft functionality," Gentile said. By relying on Web standards, the new version of Jaspersoft should also be more portable, allowing organizations to deploy the software in-house as a service, or as part of a public-facing or internal Web application stack, Gentile said. Version 4.0 has been reorganized into three distinct layers, each based on an open Web technology, Gentile said. The bottom layer, where the BI engine resides, can now be extended using Java Server Pages. The middle layer, which Gentile called the event layer, can now be extended through the use of Javascript. This middle layer is where administrators can set up workflows, such as the ability to e-mail reports if a particular metric crosses a pre-defined threshold. The top layer, or presentation layer, has been re-rendered using HTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). The company also used CSS to redesign the software's stock user and administrator user interfaces. While previous versions of Jaspersoft used Web technologies such as Javascript, "it wasn't consistent across the architecture," Gentile said. In order to make changes, the user would sometimes have to alter the underlying Java code directly. The company is assuming that working with JSPs, Javascript and CSS will be easier, as well as more understandable by a wide range of IT professionals Jaspersoft estimates there are 160,000 production deployments of its open-source BI software now running, and the company has 13,500 paying customers. The enterprise version of the software was released on Wednesday, and the free open-source community version will be available within the next few weeks, Gentile said. Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com |
| AP Enterprise: FDA helps states get execution drug (AP) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 03:06 AM PST The Food and Drug Administration helped Arizona and California obtain a quick overseas source of a hard-to-find execution drug even as the agency declared it would not regulate or block imports, records show. The shortage of the drug, sodium thiopental, has disrupted executions around the country. Newly released documents show the FDA helped Arizona import a supply of the drug from an English company last fall as it prepared to execute a condemned killer. California prison officials also say the agency last week released a batch of the drug the state bought, also from England. The FDA would not comment on its role in helping either state. Three states — Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas — plan executions this week. Alabama and Texas use sodium thiopental, an anesthetic in short supply in the U.S. because of manufacturing issues, and have enough of the drug for now. Record obtained by The Associated Press show, though, that Texas may soon run out. Oklahoma uses a different drug. Missouri and Texas have executions next month, as does Ohio, which has hinted it could be run short after Feb. 17. "Beyond that, we will not be commenting on our supply," said Ohio prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith. Missouri may also be running out. In response to state queries, the FDA has announced it will not stop overseas shipments to the U.S. of the drug sodium thiopental, because the agency does not regulate products used in lethal injection. A pending federal lawsuit in Arizona challenges the use of overseas drugs, saying they may be substandard and could lead to botched executions if they don't render an inmate properly unconscious. "Reviewing substances imported or used for the purpose of state-authorized lethal injection clearly falls outside of FDA's explicit public health role," said agency spokesman Christopher Kelly. The FDA has long maintained that a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court ruling freed it from any authority to regulate drugs used in executions. The new FDA documents reveal the agency's role in helping Arizona get sodium thiopental as the state prepared to execute Jeffrey Landrigan for the 1989 murder of a Phoenix man. After Arizona officials explained to the FDA the need to bring the drugs in quickly, the FDA official recommended "the shipment be processed expeditiously to us as it was for the purpose of executions and not for use by the general public." The information is contained in an e-mail from an Arizona prisons official to the California prisons agency obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union through a public records request and posted publicly. The ACLU accused the FDA of trying to hold two contradictory positions at once. "The FDA is actively assisting these states, but they're not enforcing the law, and they're not doing anything to determine that the drugs are what they're claimed to be and that they work properly," said Natasha Minkser, death penalty policy director for the ACLU's Northern California chapter. Kelly, the FDA spokesman, declined to comment. Most state prison systems use sodium thiopental to put condemned inmates to sleep before administering pancuronium bromide, a paralyzing agent, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart. Sodium thiopental has been in short supply since last spring, when Ohio nearly had to postpone a May execution because it didn't have enough. The drug's sole U.S. manufacturer, Hospira Inc. of Lake Forest, Ill., has blamed supplier issues for its inability to make the drug, which it markets as an anesthetic. Any remaining batches expire this year. Hospira has repeatedly deplored states' use of the product in executions. Oklahoma has switched from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital, a drug commonly used to put animals to sleep. The state has conducted two executions successfully with the new drug. Two states, Washington and Ohio, use a single powerful dose of sodium thiopental to carry out executions. At least three states — Arizona, Arkansas and Tennessee — appear to have gotten supplies of the drug from England, according to recently released records. California also got its supply indirectly from England after Arizona provided California with 12 grams of sodium thiopental in September. In December, the state paid $36,415 to acquire 521 grams of the drug manufactured by Archimedes Pharma of Great Britain. The drug has yet to arrive. Arizona acknowledged last fall getting drugs from an English company. To date it is the only state known to have used a drug imported from overseas. "We have followed the lead of Arkansas and purchased the drugs from a company in London," Charles Flanagan, the deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, said in a Sept. 28 e-mail to John McAuliffe, a California prisons official. Arkansas prisons spokeswoman Dina Tyler declined to comment. Records show several states have scrambled to find enough of the drug, lending the FDA's announcement renewed importance. In Washington state, officials "called every community hospital in the state" until they found one willing to provide the drug last year, according to an internal California prisons department e-mail released by the ACLU. It's common practice when the prison system is looking for drug supplies to contact local pharmacies, many of which are at community hospitals, said Washington prisons spokeswoman Maria Peterson. Missouri told the AP in the fall that its supply was to expire this year. Documents released by the ACLU said the state has enough for five executions, but it's unclear when that stock expires. Without explanation, Gov. Jay Nixon spared a Missouri inmate who had been scheduled to die Wednesday; the state's next scheduled execution is Feb. 9. Texas, with the country's busiest death chamber, is scheduled Tuesday to put Cleve Foster to death for a 2002 abduction, rape and shooting death. The state's supply of the drug, enough for 39 executions, expires in March, according to records obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request. Alabama said it has enough unexpired sodium thiopental to carry out Wednesday's execution of Leroy White for the 1988 shotgun slaying of his 35-year-old wife, Ruby. Virginia, which executed a woman in late September, had an expired batch in early August that it tried unsuccessfully to get the FDA to approve, according to e-mails obtained by the ACLU from the California prison system. It's not clear whether the FDA would bother to approve the use of an expired batch, given its position that it has no regulatory power over drugs used in executions. Death penalty opponents have argued that expired drugs could be weakened and hence less effective. "They ran into brick wall when they tried this with the FDA," the California e-mail said. Virginia executed a woman about six weeks later and said at the time it was in the same position as other states when it came to its supply. A Virginia prisons spokesman declined to comment. Early last year, Tennessee shared its sodium thiopental with Georgia and Arkansas but scrambled by midyear to find its own supply, with a fall execution pending. In September, Ricky Bell, the warden of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, where Tennessee's executions are held, ordered sodium thiopental, apparently from a British company, that was delivered by Oct. 26, just days before a scheduled execution. Reprieve, a British rights group, said Tennessee received the drugs. In the meantime, the Tennessee Supreme Court halted executions while hearings are held on the constitutionality of the state's new injection procedures. California tried to recruit private doctors who could procure the drug and went from state to state looking for supplies, including Arizona, Indiana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia, records show. The state also contacted dozens of hospitals and general surgery centers, Veterans Administration hospitals and the federal Bureau of Prisons and even looked into obtaining a supply from Pakistan. ___ Welsh-Huggins reported from Columbus, Ohio. Associated Press writers Bob Johnson in Montgomery, Ala., Kristin Hall in Nashville and Jim Salter in St. Louis contributed to this report. |
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