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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Google manager complicates role in Egypt protests (AP) : Technet

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Google manager complicates role in Egypt protests (AP) : Technet

Google manager complicates role in Egypt protests (AP)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 04:06 PM PST

By JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer Jordan Robertson, Ap Technology Writer – Tue Feb 8, 7:06 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – The demonstrations in Egypt have left Google in a bind, trying to maintain a careful diplomatic distance from one of its own young employees who has become a hero to protesting crowds in Cairo — in an uprising that the company's own technology had a small role in advancing.

Google has taken political stances in the past, most notably last year, when it opposed China's censorship laws. Its power-to-the-people philosophy is influenced by co-founder Sergey Brin, who developed an enmity for oppression because of his Jewish family's suffering under Communism in the Soviet Union, including efforts to block his father's career. Google's famous "don't be evil" catchphrase has long been a guiding principle for the company, as it has advocated for openness on the Internet, even as the motto has become a punch line in recent years for privacy activists who object to the company's data-collection methods.

Google's relationship with Egypt has been relatively calm. Based on the company's own breakdown of how frequently it is asked to remove content by authorities around the world, the government of President Hosni Mubarak has rarely objected to its search engine.

Egypt's release this week of Wael Ghonim, the 30-year-old marketing manager for Google who has claimed credit for the Facebook page that helped start the uprising, highlights the predicament for high-profile companies whose workers' political activism can become a liability.

Ghonim is an Egyptian who oversees Google's marketing in the Middle East and Africa from Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. He went missing Jan. 27, two days after protests calling for Mubarak's ouster began.

One of the main tools for organizing the rallies was a Facebook page in honor of Khaled Said, a 28-year-old businessman who died in June at the hands of undercover police, a hated institution for many Egyptians.

Ghonim said he was snatched off the street and spent much of his detention blindfolded. Upon his release, he confirmed reports that he was the administrator of the Facebook page, saying he didn't want anyone to know about it earlier because "we are all heroes on the street."

On Tuesday, Ghonim was greeted with thunderous applause when he joined a massive crowd in Cairo's Tahrir Square and whipped up admirers with a chant of "Mubarak, leave, leave." When he finished, the crowd erupted.

While the demonstrations seeking an end to Mubarak's three decades of authoritarian rule would seem to be in line with Google's philosophy, the company has been careful to distinguish between its employee's off-duty political activities and its own official stance.

Google has said only that it is a "huge relief that Wael Ghonim has been released. We send our best wishes to him and his family." In an interview with Egypt's independent Dream TV, Ghonim said he told his managers that he had an urgent personal matter to attend to and took vacation days to travel to Egypt.

Google stepped in after Egypt cut off Internet access during the unrest. It devised a way for people to leave voice messages, then have their thoughts posted through the Twitter messaging service. The service, Speak2Tweet, is credited with helping Egyptians get around the blackout.

Politically outspoken companies such as Google must consider the safety of their own workers who might be targeted with violence if their employers are seen as taking sides. And they must navigate fast-changing government relationships while trying to keep business humming in lucrative new markets.

Experts say the stakes in such situations are high because prominent companies attract outsize attention. And the more well-articulated a company's political beliefs, such as Google's, the harder it becomes to disentangle the activism of employees from the company's own actions.

What workers do on their own time typically won't have an effect on their employers — unless those actions are political or criminal or the people involved are top managers, says Jack James, professor of management and corporate governance at the Lubin School of Management at Pace University.

He says Google is wise to stay quiet even as Ghonim's star rises with protesters since taking a position "in a time of turmoil against a regime with 30 years of building vested interests is, in my opinion, an unwise risk."

In an indirect way, Ghonim may help Google's reputation. His actions have become part of the Google brand, and Google will get credit for them whether it wants to or not, says Michael Useem, a professor of management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ghonim's heroic status could "embolden voices within the company to say, `One of our missions in life is not just to make money for our very successful stockholders, but also make the world better for free expression,'" he says.

"As Google is in the business of seeing information as a powerful and liberating force, this is a case statement that indeed there is just enormous power in the kind of new medium Google has helped create," he said. "This is symbolic, a kind of turning point of our recognition of the power of such media."

There's a circular element to Ghonim's case as well.

Ghonim's relationship with Google is what drove press coverage of his disappearance. Now that he has revealed his involvement in the protests, his activism may remain tied to Google's brand in people's minds.

___

AP Technology Writer Jessica Mintz contributed to this story from Seattle.

Court tells man to stay away from Facebook founder (AP)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 02:11 PM PST

By TERRY COLLINS, Associated Press Terry Collins, Associated Press – Tue Feb 8, 5:11 pm ET

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has obtained a temporary restraining order against a California man accused of stalking him, his girlfriend and his sister.

A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge on Feb. 1 ordered 31-year-old Pradeep Manukonda of Milpitas to stay away from Zuckerberg and stop contacting him.

Manukonda tried to contact Zuckerberg numerous times in December via letter, e-mail and Facebook, including more than 20 times in one day, Facebook security officer Todd Sheets said in a court declaration. Manukonda also left a note on Zuckerberg's car and was later spotted outside his house, Sheets said.

Guards stopped Manukonda just as he was about to walk up the front stairs to Zuckerberg's Palo Alto residence, where Zuckerberg's girlfriend was inside, according to court documents.

Sheets said he contacted Palo Alto police at the time and that an officer gave Manukonda a verbal stay-away order. Two days later, Sheets says Manukonda sent Zuckerberg a letter at his home and flowers two days after that, despite an in-person interview with Sheets where he promised to stop.

Manukonda did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Facebook confirmed the restraining order but declined to comment.

In the letters included as evidence in the court file, Manukonda pleads with Zuckerberg for a few minutes of his time. Though his requests are vague, he appears to be seeking money to pay for medical treatment for his mother.

"I plead, please help me in saving my mother," he writes in a letter dated Jan. 23. "I am ready to die for you. Please Mark please."

Later in the same letter he writes: "I am waiting outside your house."

The order also requires Manukonda to stay away from Zuckerberg's girlfriend.

The restraining order was first reported by TMZ.com.

___

Associated Press writers Marcus Wohlsen and Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Can Huffington transform AOL like she has herself? (AP)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 01:39 PM PST

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Tue Feb 8, 4:39 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – AOL can only hope that Arianna Huffington proves to be as adept at engineering corporate transformations as she has been at personal ones.

Since she became a prominent public figure as the wife of a multimillionaire running for the U.S. Senate in 1994, Huffington has been both a darling of conservatives and a heroine for liberals.

She disavowed any interest in becoming a political candidate herself during her husband's unsuccessful campaign, only to make an aborted run for California governor in 2003. She has been criticized for falling under the influence of self-help gurus and hailed for having the courage to pursue her own convictions.

Along the way, she has been proven she can be both charming and antagonizing — sometimes all within a few minutes of conversation punctuated in her distinctive Greek accent.

"She is a force of nature. It can really be something to watch her in action," said Jeff Jarvis, a City University of New York journalism professor who has gotten to know Huffington while writing a blog about online media. "She is one of those people who will tell you, 'We simply must do this' and will persuade you to do it. She believes she can change the world."

Huffington, 60, could have her biggest pulpit yet at AOL Inc. It's paying $315 million to buy her news and opinion site, the Huffington Post, and anointing her as its next best hope to orchestrate a long-awaited turnaround at an Internet company that lost its way a decade ago. Huffington's cut of the sale will be $20 million to $30 million in cash plus $3.75 million in AOL stock, estimates Needham & Co. analyst Laura Martin.

After the deal closes this spring, Huffington will oversee most of AOL's content as the company tries to attract more people and sell more ads. The inventory includes technology sites Engadget and TechCrunch, Patch.com's network of suburban news sites and online mapping service MapQuest. Combined with the Huffington Post, the sites will have a total audience approaching 300 million people worldwide.

"I think that we have an incredible opportunity to tell the stories of our times, at the national level, at the local level and increasingly at the international level," Huffington told The Associated Press during an interview Monday.

Huffington's charisma and the high hopes riding on her were on display when she swung by AOL's New York offices Monday to introduce herself to about 300 employees. They greeted her with a standing ovation, according to Howard Fineman, a Huffington Post employee who accompanied his boss.

"She's the one who had them in the palm of her hand, explaining the mission and telling jokes. She's a star," said Fineman, who first met Huffington in 1994 while he was at Newsweek magazine writing a story about her.

Although she was already well-known as author and commentator with frequent appearances on TV and radio, Huffington didn't become prominent until she started the Huffington Post in 2005 with former AOL executive Kenneth Lerer. Backed by just $1 million from her initial investors, Huffington thought there was a place for a site featuring the opinions of her celebrity pals, who would write for free.

The concept was initially ridiculed, but it resonated with people and became more popular as it started to repackage and comment on the top stories from other sites.

By the time AOL came courting, Huffington Post had more than 6,000 unpaid bloggers and a payroll of 210 people who occasionally score their own scoops. It ranks among the Internet's top 10 destinations for cultural and global news with an average of 25 million U.S. visitors per month.

The site's success stamped Huffington as the 28th most powerful woman in the world in an October 2010 list compiled by Forbes magazine. She ranked right behind Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates' wife, Melinda, who contributed a piece about vaccines to Huffington Post last month. (First Lady Michelle Obama topped that Forbes list).

Long before she became prominent in her own right, Huffington knew how to find her way into influential circles. When she married Texas oil scion Michael Huffington in 1987, philanthropist Ann Getty paid for the wedding, television news personality Barbara Walters was a bridesmaid and the guest list included former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. When her 2006 book "On Becoming Fearless" came out in 2006, Silicon Valley billionaire Larry Ellison hosted a reception in his San Francisco home overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.

"The Internet was invented for Arianna Huffington," Fineman said. "Finally a medium was created for her and allows her to fully be what she was destined to be, which is a global networker."

Most of Huffington's 13 books are about political and social topics. One exception was a biography about Pablo Picasso that stands as testament to her love of art. When she invited a few reporters to join her for a dinner party with music and movie executive David Geffen at her Los Angeles-area home a few years ago, Huffington proudly pointed out a painting the she said was done by Picasso's mistress.

Huffington was born in Athens in 1950 as Arianna Stassinopoulos. After her parents broke up while she was a teenager, she moved to England. She eventually enrolled at Cambridge University, where she would hone her verbal sparring skills as president of the Cambridge Union Society, a debating club dating back to 1815. She would also get a master's degree in economics.

After college, she developed a fascination with self-help philosophies that are said to still influence her today. She once was friendly with Werner Erhard, the founder of the self-help program "est," in the 1970s and later became a minister of in the Movement for Spiritual Inner Awareness founded by a man who would become known as "John-Roger." That connection came back to haunt her after published stories aired allegations of sexual and financial abuse against John-Roger.

Huffington embraced the conservative views of her husband, Michael, who was elected as a California congressman representing the Santa Barbara area in 1992. He then mounted a 1994 bid for a Senate seat against Dianne Feinstein. Arianna campaigned hard for her husband, but Michael Huffington lost, even after spending $28 million of his own fortune.

After that setback, Arianna Huffington remained a staunch Republican who backed then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

Her politics began to lean to the left following her 1997 divorce from Michael Huffington, who later made even more news by revealing he was bisexual. The Huffingtons have two daughters, Christina, now 21, and Isabella, 19. They both attend Yale University.

Tony Blankley, Gingrich's former press secretary, has had an up-close view of Arianna Huffington's political evolution as the co-host of "Left, Right & Center," a radio show produced by NPR affiliate KCRW in Los Angeles. He now fills the conservative role that Arianna once played on the weekly program. The two remain good friends, largely because Blankley can't resist Arianna's flair.

"When you start looking for someone who's got her set of mind and personality, it's just real hard to find, left, right or center," Blankley says.

___

AP Technology Writer Jessica Mintz in Seattle, AP Technology Writer Rachel Metz in San Francisco and AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima contributed to this report.

Verizon slated to launch voice-over-LTE service [updated] (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 12:11 PM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Tue Feb 8, 3:11 pm ET

Execs for Verizon Wireless tell CNN that they're set to launch a new feature on its recently launched 4G LTE network that will, among other things, let users make voice calls and access data at the same time.

Slated to arrive next year, Verizon's Voice Over LTE service (or VoLTE, for short) would also boost call quality, as well as handle native video chat that's tied to your cell phone number rather than, say, to a Skype account, according to CNN.

Verizon will demonstrate its upcoming VoLTE at the Mobile World Congress confab in Barcelona next week on the LG Revolution, according to the CNN report, an Android-based smartphone that Verizon unveiled last month at CES in Las Vegas.

Running on version 2.2 of the Android OS, the 4G-ready Revolution (pictured here) boasts a jumbo 4.3-inch display, wireless hotspot capabilities, and a pair of cameras—a 5MP one in back, plus a front-facing lens for video chat. Unfortunately, the handset won't do the VoLTE trick (or not yet, anyway) when it initially ships later this year.

The news comes just a couple of days before the official, long-awaited debut of the iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless. While millions of AT&T iPhone users frustrated by dropped calls and spotty connections are expected to jump ship for the Verizon iPhone, the arrival of the iPhone 4 highlights a key deficiency of Verizon's existing CDMA network: it can't handle voice calls and data at the same time.

AT&T's GSM network, on the other hand, does support simultaneous voice and data—a fact that the carrier, which has now lost its exclusive hold over the iPhone, has been hyping in a series of new TV ads.

Verizon's just-launched LTE network only covers about a third of the U.S. so far. At CES last month, Verizon execs promised that it would have most of the country blanketed in LTE coverage by 2013.

So … how much would VoLTE calls cost, then? Would subscribers still buy buckets of voice minutes, or would they be charged based on how much 4G data they use?

Good question—and unfortunately, I'm betting we won't get the answer until closer to the eventual launch date.

Update: CNN originally (and incorrectly, as it turns out) reported that the LG Revolution would support the upcoming Voice Over LTE service when the handset goes on sale later this year; that story has since been corrected, and I've tweaked this post accordingly.

Related:
Verizon plans 4G internet calling service [CNN]

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

Follow me on Twitter!

HTC sinks $40 million into OnLive, makes us wonder (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 08:44 AM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Tue Feb 8, 11:44 am ET

One day, I'd love to be able to play Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, or even World of Warcraft—the PC versions, mind you, not a watered-down, mobile-optimized port—on a smartphone or tablet. It's a tantalizing idea, and while a recent investment by handset maker HTC in streaming game company OnLive may not signal any imminent products, it's certainly sparking imaginations.

The Wall Street Journal reports that HTC just took at $40 million stake in OnLive, the "in-the-cloud" gaming service (check out my hands-on review from last summer) that lets gamers stream full-on PC games (ranging from Batman: Arkham Asylum and Bioshock to Unreal Tournament III and Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II) to desktops, laptops, and now HDTVs.

OnLive has also taken a few baby steps into mobile, issuing an app late last year for Android and iPad tablets that lets you watch—but not play—in-progress matches.

While the promise of true PC gaming on a phone still seems somewhat distant, it's a promise that's clearly gotten HTC's attention—not to mention its money.

Maker of such Android-based hits as the Droid Incredible on Verizon and the Evo 4G for Sprint, HTC has been busy shoring up its investments in cloud-based, on-demand content for mobile devices (it also took a stake in Saffron Digital, a London-based multimedia delivery company, on Monday), so establishing a foothold in the nascent streaming gaming business seems like a logical move.

Of course, just because HTC sunk $40 million in OnLive doesn't mean we should expect to play a streaming version of BioShock on, say, the HTC Thunderbolt anytime soon.

For one thing, just because one company invests in another doesn't mean it'll necessarily bear fruit as a concrete, shipping product.

Also, OnLive faces a series of daunting challenges when it comes to streaming PC games to tablets or phones, such as modifying mouse and keyboard controls for touchscreens (no small feat), squeezing complex HUDs onto cramped mobile displays, and dealing with frustrating lag over Wi-Fi or even cellular data networks.

Still, trying the OnLive viewer app on an Android tablet or the iPad makes for an eye-opening experience. There's something pretty compelling about watching a live Red Faction: Guerrilla match on a 9.7-inch iPad screen—or, even better, a real-time strategy title like Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II, a game that doesn't rely on hair-trigger controls that might be stymied by lag.

But while watching live PC games on a tablet is one thing, playing them is something else. For instance, how *would* you deal with converting mouse-and-keyboard controls for a touchscreen? Good question. Perhaps the answer lies with those PC remote-control apps for tablets and smartphones that let you control a static cursor by pinching and zooming the desktop in the background, or maybe a custom, touch-friendly UI could be designed.

While those ideas might not be workable for a fast-action game like "Just Cause," they could be feasible for slower-paced strategy and role-playing games—heck, maybe even MMO epics like World of Warcraft and Eve Online (neither of which are available through OnLive, unfortunately).

No question, streaming playable PC games to mobile devices like tablets and smartphones ranks as a serious challenge, but I hope that OnLive and HTC take a crack at it.

Related:
HTC Invests in Two Mobile Software Companies [Wall Street Journal]

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

Follow me on Twitter!

FCC eyes reducing barriers to broadband buildout (Reuters)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 06:54 PM PST

– 2 hrs 39 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Communications Commission will launch an initiative on Wednesday to spur broadband deployment by reducing regulatory barriers.

The Broadband Acceleration Conference to be held Wednesday morning at the agency will kick off an aggressive agenda to expand the reach and reduce the cost of broadband deployment.

"It has been estimated that removing red tape and expediting approval processes could unleash $11.5 billion in new broadband infrastructure investment over two years," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski told Reuters on Tuesday.

Accessing utility poles, rights-of-way, and sites for wireless towers are among the barriers companies seeking to establish broadband networks must contend with.

These and other regulatory roadblocks account for 20 percent of the cost of broadband buildout, Genachowski said.

The agency is expected in April to vote on an order to streamline access to pole attachments and to seek comment on rights-of-way practices that may be standing in the way of investment.

The FCC is seeking more concrete ideas that it can move forward with or recommend to Congress and other agencies to speed the deployment of broadband while reducing costs, Genachowski said.

Wednesday's conference will bring together federal, state and local governments as well as industry stakeholders, including broadband providers, utility companies and telecommunications carriers.

An internal FCC working group will ultimately use what is learned at the conference and other meetings to lay out specific goals and a timeframe for swiftly curbing barriers to broadband buildout.

A separate working group of industry and technology leaders formed last year is slated to unveil in March the steps it believes the FCC can take to spur broadband buildout.

The agency has already moved to eliminate some of the hurdles associated with broadband buildout.

The FCC took action in 2009 to speed up permitting of cell towers that were too often held up by local zoning authorities simply not making a decision, Genachowski said. The agency created a "shot clock" that put a 90-day time limit on permitting decisions.

The FCC on Tuesday proposed reforms to transition funding from a rural phone subsidy program thought to be broken and inefficient to a new Connect America Fund that would support the buildout of high-speed Internet services in rural areas.

An FCC fact sheet said shifting $5 billion from the landline phone subsidy to broadband could indirectly create 75,000 jobs due to broadband's implications for health care, smart grid, education and small business.

Additionally, President Barack Obama called for deployment of high-speed wireless services to virtually all Americans within five years during his annual State of the Union speech to the U.S. Congress last month.

Investing in the 40,000 towers needed to expand mobile broadband to virtually all Americans could create 53,000 jobs, an FCC fact sheet said.

Genachowski said unleashing spectrum for mobile broadband, transforming the universal service fund to support broadband and removing regulatory barriers are atop his agenda for speeding the deployment of broadband.

(Reporting by Jasmin Melvin; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Smart phones outsell PCs for the first time (AP)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 05:53 PM PST

By DANA WOLLMAN, AP Technology Writer Dana Wollman, Ap Technology Writer – Tue Feb 8, 8:53 pm ET

NEW YORK – For the first time ever, smart phones such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone are outselling personal computers, according to a report by research group IDC that was released Monday.

Worldwide, consumer electronics makers shipped 100.9 million smart phones in the last three months of 2010, an 87 percent jump from a year earlier. PC shipments were weaker than expected, edging up just 3 percent to 92.1 million.

The two trends aren't necessarily related, said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas. Smart phones and PCs serve different purposes, and consumers generally need both. PCs remain important for writing papers, editing photos and creating other kinds of content.

PC sales are, however, have been hurt by competition from tablet computers — namely Apple's iPad.

Meanwhile, smart phones are getting a boost from falling prices. It's not uncommon to find brand-new models on sale for $100, a price Llamas says consumers are willing to pay. Some retailers, such as Amazon.com Inc., are willing to offer smart phones at steep discounts, sometimes for as little as a penny.

Smart phone sales are also getting a push from growing interest in Google Inc.'s Android software, which powers dozens of phones made by HTC Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and others.

"Android continues to gain by leaps and bounds, helping to drive the smart phone market," Llamas said.

People also tend to replace their phones much more often than they do their computers. Consumers might wait three to five years to replace computers, some of which are protected under warranties that last several years. Meanwhile, cell phone subscribers often have the option of upgrading to a newer phone well before their two-year service contracts are up.

Such incentives are becoming less common, however. Last month, Verizon Wireless said it will phase out its early upgrade program, while Sprint Nextel Corp. said last week that it is making it more expensive for customers to upgrade ahead of schedule.

Geek 101: Demystifying Custom Android ROMs (Part II) (PC World)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 05:15 PM PST

Brent Rose Brent Rose – Tue Feb 8, 8:15 pm ET

This is the second installment of our custom-ROM tutorial for Android phones. If you're just tuning in, check out Part I, which covers installing a custom ROM, using ROM Manager, and backing up your data.

What the Heck Is a Kernel?

Basically, the kernel is the most important piece of most operating systems. It serves as the link between applications and the data processing that happens at a hardware level.

For Android phones the kernel has a lot of control over the handset's speed and battery life, as well as over how applications perform (to some extent). Some kernels are built for speed, and some are designed for battery longevity. When you hear about a phone being "overclocked," it's the kernel that is overclocking the processor. Kernels typically have names indicating their speed and voltage. For example, LFY-1100_SLV.zip means the maximum speed is 1100MHz (megahertz, expressed in gigahertz as 1.1GHz), and SLV means "super low voltage." (The LFY stands for Liquid Frozen Yogurt, which is the ROM it was built for, though it works with other ROMs, too.)

Overclocking a processor too fast can overheat it and make your phone's system unstable. Using a voltage that is too low may put your handset in a bootloop (in which case you'd have to boot the phone into recovery and restore from a backup, and then install a kernel that works better). SetCPU, an app you can download from the Market, enables you to set profiles for your processor's speed and enable fail-safes to keep your phone from overheating. Various kernels also have different "governors," which scale power/performance differently given the circumstances. Governors include Conservative, Interactive, OnDemand, Performance, and Powersave, among others. You can change governors in SetCPU, or natively in some ROMs.

You can download and install many kernels directly from ROM Manager. Many more are available online; you can download one to your desktop and transfer it to your phone's SD Card (though downloading it directly on your phone from a Website may be possible), and then flash the kernel following the steps outlined for flashing ROMs (in Part I of our tutorial). Popular kernel developers include Bekit, ChevyNo.1, Koush, P3, and Slayher, to name just a few. Do some research on what kernel will work best for your phone, and on how fast you can safely overclock it; for example, I've found that my Droid can tolerate overclocking to 1100MHz and stay stable, but your mileage may vary depending on your phone. Strangely enough, two phones that are the exact same model often behave differently, so you might have to experiment to see what kernel you (and your phone) like best.

What Is the Best ROM?

For the record, no single ROM is "the best"--there is only what works best for you and for your phone. Some ROMs will work for some phone models but not for others, so be sure that you are downloading a compatible ROM. Here are a few of the major players, all of which are downloadable via ROM Manager.

Cyanogen

CyanogenMod is the most popular ROM out there, which makes its creators' forum a fantastic place for help and information. It also has the most people working on it, so users get more features and faster fixes. Overall, it's a very good choice for your first custom ROM. Currently it works on more phones than any other ROM, too. For the Droid it comes with an 800MHz kernel (though, as I mentioned above, you can install a different, faster kernel if you want).

Bugless Beast

Less feature-rich than Cyanogen, Bugless Beast is generally smooth (on most phones) and stable, but it doesn't have as many options for customization. Development tends to be a bit on the slower side, too. Bootup is quite fast (much speedier than Cyanogen). Under Settings you'll find the ROM Toolkit, where you can access ROM settings and tweaks. It comes with an 800MHz kernel that has many governors. Personally, when I tried this, I missed some of the neat stuff in CyanogenMod, and I had some radio problems and a few initial Market issues, too. The experience was good overall, though.

Liquid Smooth ROMs

The folks that made the popular Liquid Frozen Yogurt ROM now have a nice Liquid Gingerbread (based on Android 2.3), which is in beta. LFY and LGB both start with cool boot animations, which you can select and customize. Liquid has several slick custom themes that change your icons and some of the system colors, too. It uses Launcher Pro as its default home launcher, which is my favorite replacement home. LFY and LGB are both extremely fast (though LFY is faster at this stage, and far more stable). They come with a kernel made by Slayher (1GHz for Droid), which makes LFY easily the fastest out of the box among the ROMs I've tested. The app called Liquid Tweaks lets you change your ROM settings. The Liquid ROM offering is still not as feature-rich as Cyanogen (though LGB is getting closer), and it may not be as stable, but it's quite good.

Other popular ROMs include Simply Stunning (by ChevyNo.1), Ultimate Droid, and Lithium Mod, but many others exist. GEM ROMs (such as Sapphire) were very popular, but their developer has left the project to work on Cyanogen development, which is a major coup for that group.

What Is a ROM Theme?

A ROM theme is a pack that you download and install over your current ROM. It typically changes a lot of the colors and icons, and sometimes the sounds as well. It doesn't really add any functionality (in fact, it may slow your phone down some), but it does spice up your handset a bit and give it a fresh look. You can download some themes directly from ROM Manager; more often, though, you'll find a link in the forums, download it, transfer it to your SD Card, and install it with ROM Manager or via your custom recovery.

Conclusion

Obviously, you have a lot on the subject of custom ROMs to wrap your mind around. Do a lot of digging on your own and make sure you're confident in what you're doing before you start. Again, the forums at XDA Developers, CyanogenMod, and other sites are terrific resources. If you get into a jam, you may find more-immediate help on various IRC channels that specialize in this stuff.

Custom ROMs are a fantastic way to enhance the capabilities of your current device: You can make it speedier and last longer, and you can get the latest versions of Android and enable it to do things it couldn't before. If you know what you're doing, you can truly unlock your phone's potential.

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Twitter data privacy in dispute in WikiLeaks case (AP)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 08:51 PM PST

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press – 41 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Three people associated with the website WikiLeaks are asking a federal judge not to force the social networking site Twitter to turn over data about whom they communicate with online.

The dispute cuts to the core of the question of whether WikiLeaks allies are part of a criminal conspiracy or a political discussion. It also challenges the Obama administration's argument that it can demand to see computer data and read months' worth of private messages, even if they have nothing to do with WikiLeaks.

In court documents unsealed Tuesday, the three challenged a Dec. 14 court order forcing Twitter to tell the government the names of those they talk to privately and who follow their posts.

The information would allow the government to map out their entire audience and figure out where each person was when he logged on to Twitter, attorneys said, amounting to an intrusion on the First Amendment guarantee of free speech.

The documents echo the international debate WikiLeaks sparked when it began revealing a trove of sensitive military and diplomatic documents.

The U.S. is investigating whether WikiLeaks should be held responsible for leaking classified information, even though it was not the original leaker. Defense attorneys say it's a question of political discussion, arguing that Twitter communication about WikiLeaks is protected speech.

"The First Amendment guarantees their right to speak up and freely associate with even unpopular people and cause," attorneys wrote.

Aiden Fine, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said lawyers believe the government has also demanded similar information from other social networking sites and have asked a judge to make them public. Doing so would provide a rare glimpse at how widely the Obama administration believes it may trawl such sites for information.

The documents were filed by a member of Iceland's parliament and a former WikiLeaks activist, Birgitta Jonsdottir, as well as two computer programmers, Rop Gonggrijp and Jacob Appelbaum.

Attorneys said the demand for documents related to Jonsdottir raise their own unique concerns because she is a member of the foreign government. She uses her Twitter account primarily to discuss Icelandic issues, attorneys said, so the Justice Department's demand raises the possibility that foreign governments might make similar demands on members of Congress.

An e-mail seeking Justice Department comment was not immediately returned Tuesday.

Leaked Nokia memo acknowledges 'burning platform,' big changes ahead (Digital Trends)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 05:52 PM PST

Molly McHugh Molly Mchugh – Tue Feb 8, 8:52 pm ET

elopEngadget got its hands on the entirety of an internal Nokia memo from CEO Stephen Elop earlier today, and now claims that "multiple trusted course" confirm its legitimacy. The disparaging note details former Microsoft exec Elop's disappointment with the company's progress compared to Apple's market dominance, as well as his frustration losing global smartphone shipments to Android.  "The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don't have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over two years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable," the memo reads.

Elop also writes, "We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven't been delivering innovation fast enough. We're not collaborating internally. Nokia, our platform is burning." This all but declares that the company will be switching to a non-native OS – say, Windows or Android. Recent rumor has mainly paired Nokia with the Windows Phone 7, but Elop's note heaps praise on Google's OS, saying, "Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry's innovation to its core." There's also criticism that Windows Phone 7 itself has struggled against its competitors, and two jeopardized products may not be the best duo.

When a piece of the memo leaked earlier today, mentioning that Nokia's options are to "build, catalyst or join a competitive system," it simply seemed to confirm recent rumblings about the company. But now it's incredibly clear that the mobile manufacturer is in for some big changes. This Friday, the company will hold its annual Capital Markets Day, where Elop says he will unveil Nokia's new strategy. What's it going to be? Windows Phone 7? Android integration? Shift the headquarters to Silicon Valley?

We'll have to wait until Friday to find out. In the meantime, check out the scathing memo in full below.


Hello there,

There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform's edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters.

As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a “burning platform,â€

He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times – his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a "burning platform" caused a radical change in his behaviour.

We too, are standing on a "burning platform," and we must decide how we are going to change our behaviour.

Over the past few months, I've shared with you what I've heard from our shareholders, operators, developers, suppliers and from you. Today, I'm going to share what I've learned and what I have come to believe.

I have learned that we are standing on a burning platform.

And, we have more than one explosion – we have multiple points of scorching heat that are fuelling a blazing fire around us.

For example, there is intense heat coming from our competitors, more rapidly than we ever expected. Apple disrupted the market by redefining the smartphone and attracting developers to a closed, but very powerful ecosystem.

In 2008, Apple's market share in the $300+ price range was 25 percent; by 2010 it escalated to 61 percent. They are enjoying a tremendous growth trajectory with a 78 percent earnings growth year over year in Q4 2010. Apple demonstrated that if designed well, consumers would buy a high-priced phone with a great experience and developers would build applications. They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range.

And then, there is Android. In about two years, Android created a platform that attracts application developers, service providers and hardware manufacturers. Android came in at the high-end, they are now winning the mid-range, and quickly they are going downstream to phones under €100. Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry’s innovation to its core.

Let's not forget about the low-end price range. In 2008, MediaTek supplied complete reference designs for phone chipsets, which enabled manufacturers in the Shenzhen region of China to produce phones at an unbelievable pace. By some accounts, this ecosystem now produces more than one third of the phones sold globally – taking share from us in emerging markets.

While competitors poured flames on our market share, what happened at Nokia? We fell behind, we missed big trends, and we lost time. At that time, we thought we were making the right decisions; but, with the benefit of hindsight, we now find ourselves years behind.

The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don't have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.

We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market.

At the midrange, we have Symbian. It has proven to be non-competitive in leading markets like North America. Additionally, Symbian is proving to be an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop to meet the continuously expanding consumer requirements, leading to slowness in product development and also creating a disadvantage when we seek to take advantage of new hardware platforms. As a result, if we continue like before, we will get further and further behind, while our competitors advance further and further ahead.

At the lower-end price range, Chinese OEMs are cranking out a device much faster than, as one Nokia employee said only partially in jest, "the time that it takes us to polish a PowerPoint presentation." They are fast, they are cheap, and they are challenging us.

And the truly perplexing aspect is that we're not even fighting with the right weapons. We are still too often trying to approach each price range on a device-to-device basis.

The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren't taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we're going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem.

This is one of the decisions we need to make. In the meantime, we've lost market share, we've lost mind share and we've lost time.

On Tuesday, Standard & Poor's informed that they will put our A long term and A-1 short term ratings on negative credit watch. This is a similar rating action to the one that Moody's took last week. Basically it means that during the next few weeks they will make an analysis of Nokia, and decide on a possible credit rating downgrade. Why are these credit agencies contemplating these changes? Because they are concerned about our competitiveness.

Consumer preference for Nokia declined worldwide. In the UK, our brand preference has slipped to 20 percent, which is 8 percent lower than last year. That means only 1 out of 5 people in the UK prefer Nokia to other brands. It's also down in the other markets, which are traditionally our strongholds: Russia, Germany, Indonesia, UAE, and on and on and on.

How did we get to this point? Why did we fall behind when the world around us evolved?

This is what I have been trying to understand. I believe at least some of it has been due to our attitude inside Nokia. We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven't been delivering innovation fast enough. We're not collaborating internally.

Nokia, our platform is burning.

We are working on a path forward — a path to rebuild our market leadership. When we share the new strategy on February 11, it will be a huge effort to transform our company. But, I believe that together, we can face the challenges ahead of us. Together, we can choose to define our future.

The burning platform, upon which the man found himself, caused the man to shift his behaviour, and take a bold and brave step into an uncertain future. He was able to tell his story. Now, we have a great opportunity to do the same.


Stephen.

Facebook to open sales office in Hong Kong: media (Reuters)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 06:42 PM PST

– 2 hrs 51 mins ago

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Facebook, the world's largest social-networking site, will open a sales office in Hong Kong, in a move to tap the region's booming Internet scene, local media reported on Wednesday.

The Hong Kong office will service brands, companies and agencies in Hong Kong and Taiwan that want to advertise or launch marketing campaigns on its website, the company said in a statement posted on Asia Media Journal's website http://www.asiamediajournal.com.

Facebook has been banned in mainland China, the world's largest Internet market at over 450 million users, since 2009 and since then many Facebook-clones have sprung up to fill the void.

"By continuing to build our presence in the region, Facebook will be able to directly provide full support to advertisers here," Blake Chandlee, a Facebook executive, said in the press release.

Facebook opened offices in Singapore and India last year and has been looking for ways to expand into Asia, home to millions of young, savvy Internet users.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported that Jayne Leung, a former Google executive, will head Facebook's North Asia operations.

Facebook's Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg toured China last December, visiting the heads of numerous Chinese Internet firms including Baidu Inc, Sina Corp and Alibaba Group.

(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Kazunori Takada)

Cloud Networking Startup Meraki Raises $15M From Sequoia (Mashable)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 02:10 PM PST

Jolie O'Dell Jolie O'dell – Tue Feb 8, 5:10 pm ET

Meraki, a relatively new company in the cloud networking arena, has just announced a $15 million round of funding. This is the company's Series C. The round was led by Sequoia Capital.

This is the company's first funding since its pre-economic-meltdown $20 million Series B in January 2008. Altogether, Meraki has taken $40 million since its founding in 2006.

Along with the funding, Meraki also announced some interesting growth metrics.

The startup claims it has tripled its quarterly revenues year over year. It also reports 1,300 new customer wins in Q4 2010, which it says is a record number. Some of these new customers include big-brand names such as Burger King, Albany State University, Mandalay Bay Convention Center and United Colors of Benetton.

The company says many existing customers also expanded their purchases from Meraki last quarter. New products from Q4 include routers, traffic shapers, firewalls, location services, and "Networking as a Service," which the startup says is a "pay-as-you-go subscription model for cloud networking that eliminates up-front hardware costs and increases flexibility."

Sanjit Biswas is Meraki's founder and CEO. In a release, he said, "As new types of devices like iPads and Android phones enter the network, and as users migrate to bandwidth-intensive web and video applications, IT administrators are rethinking their network architectures. Meraki's cloud networking solutions combine greater capacity and mobility with easier management to prepare enterprises for this new generation of open networks."

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, shulz

Android app ad revenue expected to break $1 billion in 2012 (Appolicious)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 11:50 AM PST

Verizon's iPhone Boom Launches Telecom Waves (NewsFactor)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 01:59 PM PST

Barry Levine, newsfactor.com Barry Levine, newsfactor.com – Tue Feb 8, 4:59 pm ET

With Verizon Wireless having already sold an estimated half-million CDMA iPhone 4s during pre-sales, the impact is beginning to ripple through the smartphone industry. The waves include new phone deals sprouting up, higher stock prices for suppliers, and questions about upgrading.

Dan Mead, president and CEO of Verizon Wireless, has told news media that, "in just our first two hours, we had already sold more phones than any first-day launch in our history." Remarkably, those two hours were between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. EST.

Sales, Stock Surge

The pre-orders sold out in 24 hours. Online sales will begin Wednesday, and store sales on Thursday. Neither Verizon nor Apple has officially confirmed the estimated number of pre-sales. Pre-orders were only available to existing Verizon customers.

With Verizon doing a boffo business with the iPhone, other carriers are beginning to offer competing deals. Offers timed for this week and weekend include a Valentine's Day special from T-Mobile. The carrier will offer all models free with a two-year contract, but the special is only good for this weekend.

eBay is offering an Instant Sale service until Feb. 22, during which a third party will buy a variety of smartphones through the popular online market. The service will pay $200 for a working iPhone 3GS, Motorola's Droid X, HTC's EVO 4G, or Samsung's Galaxy X Vibrant. This is approximately the price of a low-end, 16GB iPhone 4 through Verizon.

The glow from the Verizon iPhone is also washing over the device's suppliers. Qualcomm's stock set a two-year high on Tuesday, based on the fact that one of its chipsets is used in the device. Its role in the new iPhone isn't unexpected, given that, like Verizon, it is heavily invested in CDMA network technology. At AT&T, the exclusive carrier in the U.S. for the iPhone before the popular smartphone arrived at Verizon, the technology is GSM.

In addition to the iPhone, Qualcomm's stock surge has also been stoked by the use of its products in Android and Windows Phone 7 devices, as well as its growing role in the tablet market.

Consumer Union's Questions

With so many deals and products flying around, some observers are asking questions. Consumers Union, publisher of the Consumer Reports magazine and web site, has asked Verizon to clarify the options available to customers who buy the iPhone 4 and want to upgrade to the iPhone 5 when it arrives. A Consumers Union official has indicated that an iPhone 5 release could be timed for this summer.

Consumers Union wants clarification on such questions as whether there will be a rebate or discount toward the new model, if that would trigger a penalty fee for early termination of the two-year contract, and other issues.

The Verizon iPhones cost $199 for the 16GB, $299 for the 32GB, and there is a minimum voice plan of 450 minutes, which is $39.99 monthly. Also required is a mobile and data plan at $30 per month.

Share mobile videos with Thwapr app (Macworld)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 01:39 PM PST

David Dahlquist David Dahlquist – Tue Feb 8, 4:39 pm ET

The iPhone makes it easy to shoot video on the fly, but sharing these videos can be a bit tricky. Thwapr's new app and video sharing service, Thwapr, helps overcome the iPhone's video sharing limitations, letting you easily capture and share videos and photos with many types of mobile devices.

With the standard Photos app, your sharing options are limited to e-mail, MMS, and YouTube, all of which have their own shortcomings. E-mail and MMS are limited to around one minute of video length, and uploading a video to YouTube is a hassle if you just want to share it with one friend.

Thwapr works like a YouTube for the mobile world, letting you upload up to 30 minutes of video, which can be shared with friends via an SMS link. Friends with the Thwapr app can view your video within the app and comment on it with text or with their own videos or photos.

You can capture video or photos directly from within the app, or you can import media from the Camera Roll. Photos and videos taken within the app are automatically geotagged and their locations can be viewed on a map in the app. The app also supports background uploads if you're running iOS 4.0 or later, and can keep you updated with user sharing, uploading, and commenting activity via push alerts.

A free download, Thwapr runs on iOS 3 or later.

Remains of the Day: Et tu, iPad 2? (Macworld)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 04:45 PM PST

Dan Moren Dan Moren – Tue Feb 8, 7:45 pm ET

Frankly, I'm getting kind of sick of the iPad 2, and it isn't even out yet. The Wall Street Journal throws fuel on that fire, Apple stays out of the kitchen, and it's time to lay another round of FUD to rest. The remainders for Tuesday, February 8, 2011, are standing tall.

Apple's New iPad in Production (Wall Street Journal)

That production? West Side Story. Its parents are so proud.

Apple says NO! to iPad Cutting Board (Dean on Software)

Want a cutting board that looks like an iPad? Tough. Apparently, Apple has put the kibosh on one fellow who was selling the tablet-inspired creations. Though, really, when it comes right down to it, don't all cutting boards look a bit like iPads?

Confession App: Catholic Church Sanctions New iPhone App (ABC News)

Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has given the thumbs up to an iPhone app that can take your confession, though the church says it doesn't wholly replace the traditional version (a priest still has to give you absolution). A subsequent update will make the app even more efficient by just giving it full access to your browser history.

YouTube - Robot Chicken - Steve Jobs Killing the CD (YouTube)

Remember that time Steve Jobs murdered the CD in cold blood? You're about to.

iPhone App Fragmentation FUD Is Looming (TechCrunch)

TechCrunch's MG Siegler weighs in on a ZDNet report over iPhone apps that supposedly won't run on the Verizon iPhone. (Spoiler: it's not true.) I spoke to TeleNav, makers of the app in question, who assured me that the changes made for the Verizon version were related to billing, branding, and some features—not because of any underlying hardware differences. Once again, the only fragmentation in the iPhone app market remains between apps that are worth your time and money, and those that aren't.

Cyber crooks targeting smartphones: McAfee (AFP)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 04:07 PM PST

– Tue Feb 8, 7:07 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Smartphones have become prime targets for hackers and spammers, computer security firm McAfee said in a report released Tuesday.

The number of pieces of malicious software, referred to as "malware," surged 46 percent last year as compared with 2009, according to a McAfee Threats Report for the final three months of 2010.

"Cybercriminals are keeping tabs on what's popular, and what will have the biggest impact from the smallest effort," said McAfee Labs senior vice president Vincent Weafer.

"We've seen a significant shift in various regions, showing that cybercriminals are tapped in to trends worldwide," he continued. "McAfee Labs also sees the direct correlation between device popularity and cybercriminal activity, a trend we expect to surge in 2011."

McAfee has seen software threats to mobile devices steadily increase in recent years as the popularity of smartphones and tablet computers has climbed.

"Threats to mobile platforms are not new," McAfee said in the report. "However, as more consumers use mobile devices and tablets in their daily lives and at work, cybercriminals have taken note."

Geinimi malware slipped into legitimate games and other applications for Android-based mobile phones was listed by McAfee as "one of the most important threats of the quarter."

As greater varieties of smartphones, tablets, televisions, and computers link to the Internet, hackers are likely to resort to "poisoning" Internet search results with links to websites booby-trapped with malware, according to McAfee.

"Web-based threats will continue to grow in size and sophistication," McAfee said.

Hacker tactics include luring people to bogus websites and then tricking them into downloading malware or revealing valuable information.

Adobe software products such as Flash and Acrobat were the "clear choice of malware authors and cybercriminals" when it came to compromising computers or networks, according to McAfee,

In good news, spam in the final quarter of 2010 hit is lowest level in three years, the report indicated.

Blast rocks Enterprise natgas plant in Texas (Reuters)

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 03:16 PM PST

By Erwin Seba and Kristen Hays Erwin Seba And Kristen Hays – Tue Feb 8, 6:16 pm ET

HOUSTON (Reuters) – One worker was unaccounted for after explosions rocked a natural gas liquids storage complex on Tuesday in Mont Belvieu, Texas, according to the plant's owner, which also said the main facilities were not damaged.

Firefighters contained the massive fire, visible 35 miles to the west in Houston, and there were no reported injuries, Chambers County Judge Jimmy Sylvia told Reuters. One plant worker was unaccounted for, owner Enterprise Products Partners said.

Enterprise said the complex's main facilities were not damaged and remained operational. Those include natural gas liquids and propylene fractionators, an octane enhancement plant and import/export terminals on the Houston Ship Channel, the company said.

The fire struck after a "failure of some kind" hit one or more pipelines that ship natural gas liquids into the storage facility, Enterprise spokesman Rick Rainey said.

The complex processes natural gas liquids like propane and butane for use at nearby petrochemical plants, sits atop natural gas liquids in storage at underground salt domes. Enterprise also operates a pipeline from the plant.

Propane prices at Mont Belvieu, a U.S. pricing point for gas liquids like ethane, butane and propane, rose about 7 cents to $1.39 a gallon after the fire.

The high trade on the Intercontinental Exchange's trading platform was at $1.3550 after news of the fire, and offers were at $1.3488 a gallon subsequent to that trade, brokers said.

Rainey said all operations at the facility were shut down and feeder pipelines had been shut, though the continued flames likely came from liquids that were left inside.

"What we're now seeing is probably product that was already in the pipelines that is still being fed into the location," Rainey said.

Officials did not yet know how the fire started and had yet to determine whether to try to extinguish it or let it burn itself out, he said. No nearby residents had to be evacuated, but a school kept students inside as a precaution.

The facility employs eight to 10 workers, and all but one were accounted for. Rainey said officials were trying to confirm reports that the missing worker was seen leaving the scene.

Rainey did not know the capacity the storage facility under the fire. He said it was "significantly smaller" than a 100-million-barrel storage facility about a mile away.

Several petrochemical companies store products in underground salt domes.

Firefighters from surrounding communities and petrochemical plants worked to contain the blaze as one state highway about a mile from the plant was shut down, according to Texas Department of Public Safety.

Winds blew smoke from the blaze away from the Houston area, and children at nearby schools were being kept inside during play periods, according to local media reports.

Enterprise built its complex in 1979 at Mont Belvieu, north of the Houston Ship Channel and its row of crude oil refineries, which process about 13 percent of U.S. refined products. The blaze had no effect on Ship Channel operations on Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba and Kristen Hays in Houston, Robert Gibbons in New York, editing by Alden Bentley and Chris Baltimore)
at 9:43 PM

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