Sponsoer by :

Monday, February 14, 2011

Nokia CEO under gun to justify Microsoft switch (AP) : Technet

Sponsored

Nokia CEO under gun to justify Microsoft switch (AP) : Technet

Nokia CEO under gun to justify Microsoft switch (AP)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 01:41 PM PST

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson, Ap Technology Writer – Mon Feb 14, 4:41 pm ET

BARCELONA, Spain – Investors have panned his shake-up strategy and employees are rankled. Now, Nokia Corp.'s Stephen Elop, the first non-Finn to lead the world's largest maker of phones, is in a hurry to justify his decision to ditch the company's smart-phone software in favor of a former employer's, Microsoft.

He has a lot of ground to cover.

Nokia's stock, which lost 14 percent after the Microsoft deal was announced Friday, fell by more than 5 percent Monday. Nokia employees showed their displeasure with the software switch on Friday, using flex time to head home en masse.

Elop presented his case, to both investors and employees, at the world's largest cell-phone trade show, which opened Monday in Barcelona, Spain.

In a message to investors, Elop said Sunday that the deal means billions of dollars for Nokia from Microsoft, in addition to benefits like lower software development costs.

Elop, who is Canadian, discussed employee reactions during an interview with The Associated Press.

"Every employee goes through an emotional journey, and the emotional journey is difficult, because this is such a big change," he said. "I've had four and a half months to go through my emotional journey, ending up in a very different position from what I had assumed when I first joined."

Nokia has been losing market share to Apple Inc., Google Inc. and others that have moved aggressively into the smart phone market.

The company's worldwide market share in smart phones was just over 30 percent in the fourth quarter, down from 40 percent a year earlier. It's still the biggest maker of non-smart phones, but everyone in the industry believes smart phones are the future.

The shift has been so drastic that Elop, in a memo leaked last week, compared the company to a burning oil platform, asking employees to jump off of it with him in search of a safer place.

The memo had industry analysts talking.

"Nokia has jumped into the icy water from the burning platform, but we are not sure when the lifeboat is going to turn up, and the water appears to be infested with predators," said analyst Richard Windsor of Nomura Securities.

Microsoft Corp. launched a new phone operating system, Windows Phone 7, late last year. Reviewers hailed it as big improvement over previous attempts, but so far it hasn't made a dent in the dominance of Google's Android software and Apple's iPhone.

Windsor expects Android to snap up the market share that Nokia might lose while it phases out Symbian. Nokia has said it might start selling a Windows phone this year, but it isn't promising anything.

One competitor, Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg, said that he was "very happy" that Nokia chose Microsoft rather than Android. If Nokia had entered the same space, it would have created enormous competition and pricing pressure.

Sony Ericsson ditched Symbian last year in favor of Android, and the strategy has met with modest success. On Sunday, Nordberg announced that Verizon Wireless would carry a Sony Ericsson phone for the first time in years.

Elop said that he and other Nokia executives felt that adding Nokia's production capacity to an already crowded field of Android phones would have forced prices down too sharply.

"We also believe firmly that creating a three-horse race was also in the best interest of consumers: It gives them more choice," Elop told the AP.

Nokia also had more to give Microsoft than it had to give Google, Elop said. Its location and mapping services complement Microsoft's Web search services. Google already has broad backing for Android, so it may not have been as willing to pay Nokia to switch as Microsoft was.

Analysts are now speculating that the phone makers that have supported Windows Phone 7, HTC Corp. and LG Electronics Inc., might be less inclined to do so with a giant like Nokia jumping into the game, supported by billions in Microsoft subsidies.

In his keynote speech Monday at the trade show, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer rebutted that suggestion.

"Nokia's support will help Windows Phone overall to build strength versus other mobile platforms," Ballmer said. "That's not just good for Nokia, that's good for all our handset partners."

Ballmer also demonstrated some of the improvements that are coming to Windows Phone 7 this year. They include a faster Web browser and quicker switching between applications.

Shares of Nokia fell 52 cents, or 5.6 percent, to close Monday at $8.84.

Artificial retina helps some blind people (AP)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 05:20 AM PST

By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng, Ap Medical Writer – Mon Feb 14, 8:20 am ET

LONDON – For two decades, Eric Selby had been completely blind and dependent on a guide dog to get around. But after having an artificial retina put into his right eye, he can detect ordinary things like the curb and pavement when he's walking outside.

"It's basically flashes of light that you have to translate in your brain, but it's amazing I can see anything at all," said Selby, a retired engineer in Coventry, central England.

More than a year ago, the 68-year-old had an artificial implant called the Argus II, made by U.S.-based company Second Sight, surgically inserted into his right eye. Dutch regulators are expected to decide within weeks on the company's request to market the device in the EU. If greenlighted, it would be the first artificial retina available for sale.

The implant works with a tiny video camera and transmitter in a pair of glasses and a small wireless computer.

The computer processes scenes captured by the camera and converts them into visual information in the form of an electronic signal that's sent to the implant. The device stimulates the retina's remaining healthy cells, causing them to relay the data to the optic nerve.

The visual information then moves to the brain, where it's translated into patterns of light that can take the shape of an object's outline. Patients need to learn how to interpret the flashes of light; for instance, they might decode three bright dots as the three points of a triangle.

The implant is intended only for people with a specific type of inherited retina problem, who still have some functional cells. They must have previously been able to see and their optic nerve must be working. About one in 3,000 people are blind due to one of this group of hereditary diseases, called retinitis pigmentosa, and might potentially benefit from the artificial retina.

The device comes with a hefty price tag — about $100,000. In Britain, the national health service sometimes pays for expensive new technologies for a small number of patients, said Lyndon da Cruz, one of the doctors who tested the artificial retina at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

He said if the artificial retina allows patients to be more self-sufficient, the implant could turn out to be cheaper than governments paying for higher levels of health care or in-home care for patients.

So far, about 40 people have gotten the artificial retina since 2002 and some patients have seen well enough to identify objects, shapes, or even read large print during their participation in trials.

The implant's maker has applied to the Netherlands' medical devices regulator for marketing permission. The company is also in talks with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the kind of tests needed to secure the retinal implant's approval in the United States.

"The device is currently very crude, but it's impressive that some patients have been able to read large fonts," said Daniel Palanker, who works in opthalmology and experimental physics at Stanford University, and is not connected to the Argus II.

He and colleagues are developing another artificial retina implant that delivers images to the eye via pulses of infrared light, though they are years away from having a commercial product.

"It's just remarkable that we've gone from having no cure to blindness to a situation where we can restore sight to some extent," Palanker said.

There are a handful of competing retinal implant projects worldwide. Last year, Eberhart Zrenner at the Centre for Opthalmology in Tuebingen, Germany and colleagues published research about their implant, which also depends on patients' remaining working retinal cells. Only 11 people have received the device so far, but one reported being able to see his girlfriend's face while another reported seeing a duck in a meadow. Zrenner hopes the device will be available in two years.

Gregoire Cosendai, senior director of European Operations at Second Sight, said the Argus II implant's success depends largely on how adept patients are at decoding the flashing lights the device produces. He said the implant isn't meant to replace guide dogs or canes at the moment, but may improve patients' coordination and help them with daily tasks like cooking.

Cosendai compared the retinal implant to the first cochlear implants for deaf people, which had mixed success when they were introduced more than 20 years ago. Modern cochlear implants are now good enough to allow some deaf people to talk on the telephone.

Experts said future retinal implants might restore enough sight to make some patients self-sufficient. Still, most doubt the devices will ever come close to normal human vision.

"The way these implants work is they plug into what's left of the retina, so that limits just how much you can reproduce," said da Cruz. He predicted the device would improve dramatically in the next decade.

"The big breakthroughs — making a device you can sit on the retina which doesn't kill it and proving it works for years — have already been made," he said. He said it would be much easier to refine the implant and improve the quality of what patients see. Second Sight is already developing a new version of its retinal implant that will soon be tested.

Selby says his artificial retina allows him to see certain shapes and shades of black, white and gray. He mostly uses it to help navigate his walking route when he goes outside.

"I'm only seeing a fraction of things but it does still help," he said. Selby lost his sight nearly 20 years ago due to an inherited eye condition and hopes his grandchildren and future generations might benefit from his experience with the implant.

"It's like when people were first trying to fly to the moon," he said. "Nowadays they're sending people to the moon and into space, but they had to start off with a propeller engine ... For artificial eye implants, it could be a whole different ballgame in a few years."

(This version CORRECTS Updates with approval expected within weeks, not months in paragraph 3; corrects that patients have received implant since 2002, not 2006 in paragraph 10)

Microsoft upgrade to let phones connect to Xbox (AP)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 01:45 PM PST

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson, Ap Technology Writer – Mon Feb 14, 4:45 pm ET

BARCELONA, Spain – Now that it has hooked up with Nokia Corp. phones, Microsoft Corp. hopes to connect its phone software to the Xbox this year too. It's also planning other improvements that include a faster Web browser and quicker switching between phone applications.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the upgrades Monday in a keynote speech at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. On Friday, Nokia Corp. said it would ditch its smart-phone software in favor of using Windows Phone 7, which launched late last year.

Microsoft showed a video of three people using an Xbox game console with a Kinect camera. One of them, standing in front of the camera, "dodged" balls that appeared on the TV screen, sent by the two other players from their Windows phones.

In another upgrade, Microsoft plans to introduce a form of "multitasking" for third-party applications. To switch quickly between apps, the user can hold down the "back" button, which reveals a list of recently-used applications, displayed like a row of "cards" on the screen. It's a design reminiscent of Palm Inc.'s webOS software, which attracted few customers despite receiving favorable reviews when it was released in 2009. Hewlett-Packard Co. bought Palm last year and plans to use the software in a range of products, including tablets and PCs.

Microsoft also plans to upgrade its browser to make it more responsive. Microsoft runs a version of its Internet Explorer that lags behind smart-phone browsers when it comes to speed.

Windows phones will get their first, previously announced software update in March. It will add a cut-and-paste feature. The more wide-ranging updates revealed Monday will come later in the year.

Microsoft is playing catch-up in the phone market, with sales far behind those of Apple Inc.'s iPhone and phones based on Google Inc.'s Android software. Microsoft is paying billions for Nokia's support, and Nokia's CEO says the smart-phone market will now be more of "three-horse race."

Microsoft shares dipped 2 cents Monday to close at $27.23.

Multitasking, cut-and-paste support coming to Windows Phone 7 (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 09:36 AM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Mon Feb 14, 12:36 pm ET

Two of the biggest complaints about Microsoft's mobile OS reboot—no multitasking for third-party apps, and no cutting and pasting—will be fixed before the year is out, with the initial cut-and-paste update slated to arrive next month.

Speaking at Microsoft's Mobile World Congress keynote in Barcelona on Monday, Steve Ballmer promised that the first of two patches for Windows Phone 7—the one that adds cut and paste functionality, as well as tweaks supporting handsets on CDMA networks, such as those run by Sprint and Verizon Wireless—will be coming in early March.

Meanwhile, a second, "major" patch is due in the second half of this year—no word on exactly when—and will add a slew of new features, including multitasking for third-party apps, cloud-based storage for Office documents, Twitter integration into Windows Phone 7's "People" hub (which, for now, only taps into Facebook), and a revamped mobile browser based on Internet Explorer 9.

Interestingly enough, Ballmer didn't unveil any new Windows Phone 7 handsets during Monday's keynote, although Microsoft did promise that handsets for Sprint and Verizon will be "available soon." How soon? Good question.

Current Windows Phone 7 handsets already support multitasking for native Windows Phone apps (like the Zune music player), but the upcoming patch will finally enable multitasking and fast-app switching for third-party applications. Pressing and holding the "back" button will call up a series of tiles showing recently used apps; just tap one to switch, All Things Digital's Ina Fried reports.

The Windows Phone 7 browser will also be getting a much-needed shot in the arm, with the new version to be based on Microsoft's still-in-beta IE 9 desktop browser. That means HTML5 support is at last on the way, along with hardware-accelerated graphics.

Not included in the second Windows Phone update, however: Flash support, with a Microsoft exec telling All Things Digital that the lack of Flash is due to "battery [life] and other reasons," rather than a sign that Microsoft is "allergic to Flash."

The larger of the two Windows Phone 7 updates will also let mobile Office users store and share documents in the cloud, via Microsoft's Windows Live SkyDrive service.

Microsoft also showed off how Windows Phone users might eventually be able to play along with Xbox 360 games—for example, imagine a game of Kinect dodgeball where a Windows Phone user controlled the ball's trajectory by tapping and swiping on the touchscreen. Interesting, but Microsoft execs stressed that the demo was only that—a demo, with no guarantees that the feature would actually ship.

The news comes just days after Nokia announced that it will phase out its Symbian OS in favor of Windows Phone 7, which will become its "primary" smartphone platform.

Related:
Press release [Microsoft]
Microsoft to Add Multitasking, Internet Explorer 9 to Windows Phone Later this Year [All Things Digital]
Windows Phone 7 and Kinect learn to play ball together [VentureBeat]

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

Follow me on Twitter!

Android-powered “PlayStation phone” gunning for March release (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 08:07 AM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Mon Feb 14, 11:07 am ET

One of the worst-kept secrets in smartphones and/or gaming—the Xperia Play, a.k.a. the PlayStation phone—is finally official, and it's reportedly coming to a U.S. carrier near you in a matter of weeks.

Armed with a four-inch display, a five-megapixel camera, and a set of slide-out gaming controls that had been leaked from one end of the Web to the other over the past several months, Sony Ericsson's Android-powered Xperia Play will get a worldwide release next month, Sony execs said Sunday at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona. Gearlog says the new handset will arrive Stateside on Verizon, potentially as an exclusive.

Engadget had already spilled most of the beans about the Xperia Play in an early hands-on report a few weeks back, and Sony had been heavily hyping the phone through a series of teasers and an incredibly creepy Super Bowl TV ad.

But we didn't have the official specs until Sunday, much less a lineup of initial games.

The 6.2-ounce, 16mm-thick handset will arrive with a four-inch, 480-by-854-pixel display, says Sony, along with stereo speakers, a five-megapixel camera (no sign of a front-facing lens, unfortunately), on-demand media via Sony Ericsson's PlayNow service, and a microSD slot for memory expansion. (An 8GB memory card will come bundled in the box.)

The Xperia Play will run on Android 2.3 "Gingerbread," Sony confirmed, and will arrive with a 1GHz Scorpion ARMv7 processor with an embedded Adreno CPU, good for 3G gaming at 60 frames per second.

We've already seen the slide-out gaming controls from every possible angle, but they're worth summarizing again: we're talking the standard D-pad on the left and a quartet of PlayStation buttons (triangle, square, circle, and "X") on the right, with a pair of analog touchpads sitting in the middle. A pair of shoulder buttons will double as triggers, similar to the controls on the DualShock controller.

One of the key questions about the Xperia Play is how much gaming you'll get out of a single charge; the answer, Sony claims, is about five-and-a-half hours worth. Whether that estimate holds up under real-world testing remains to be seen, of course.

The Xperia Play will mark the first "PlayStation-certified" handset, and as such will get access to games via the coming "PlayStation Suite": a new Android-based gaming platform that Sony announced last month alongside the upcoming NGP portable gaming console.

Among the first titles to arrive in the PlayStation Suite will be The Sims 3, FIFA 10, a "Guitar Hero" game (the franchise lives, at least in the mobile world), Assassin's Creed, and Splinter Cell, according to Sony.

How much will the Xperia Play cost? No word on that yet, unfortunately.

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

Follow me on Twitter!

Charles Schwab tops in U.S. online satisfaction survey (Reuters)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 09:11 PM PST

By Joe Rauch Joe Rauch – 18 mins ago

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) – Charles Schwab Corp's customer satisfaction topped that of rival Fidelity Investments for the first time ever in 2010, according to a new annual online brokerage study released by the American Customer Satisfaction Index on Tuesday.

The San Francisco-based online broker reported the highest customer satisfaction among the four major U.S. online brokerages, breaking a deadlock from a year earlier with Boston-based Fidelity.

The ACSI's report ranks satisfaction on a 100-point scale. In the most recent report, Schwab's customer satisfaction rose to 80 from 79 a year prior, while Fidelity's dropped one point to 78.

The range of customer satisfaction scores for the four online brokerages also narrowed to the tightest margin since the study was first conducted in 2000.

"They're all coming together in terms of how they operate, which is ultimately a positive for the consumer," said Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee Results, which conducted the survey for ACSI.

Freed said the narrow gap will make it more difficult for brokerages to poach clients, and will heighten competition for new customers.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp posted an ACSI score of 77.

E*Trade Financial Corp posted a 76 satisfaction score -- the lowest among the four rivals -- but the figure was a 3 percent increase, the largest among the four major online brokerages.

The study was conducted in the 2010 fourth quarter and surveyed 1,250 online brokerage customers.

(Reporting by Joe Rauch; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Man ties machine on Day 1 of "Jeopardy!" showdown (Reuters)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 09:16 PM PST

By Ritsuko Ando Ritsuko Ando – 13 mins ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A man-versus-machine showdown on popular U.S. quiz show "Jeopardy!" ended in a tie on the first day of a three-day challenge, when an IBM computer showed off its knowledge of the Beatles, as well as a few glitches.

The machine, dubbed Watson after International Business Machines Corp's former president Thomas Watson, is the computer and software maker's latest display of its expertise in advanced science.

Watson's ability to understand language and solve problems through complex algorithms makes it even more evolved than Deep Blue, an IBM chess-playing supercomputer that beat world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.

"Any time you feel the pain, hey -- this guy -- Don't carry the world upon your shoulders," was one clue posed by host Alex Trebek on Monday's show.

"Who is Jude?" answered Watson, following the show's trademark question-as-an-answer style.

It also gave correct responses to clues about the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo and U.S. Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps.

But Watson also made some errors, coming up with the wrong Latin word for "terminal" and repeating another contestant's mistake because it can't interact with other players.

In an earlier practice session, it mistakenly named Beethoven instead of actor and musician Jamie Foxx, prompting contestant Brad Rutter to quip: "I get the two mixed up all the time." Watson didn't laugh, revealing what some say is another flaw -- the lack of a sense of humor.

At the end of Monday's half-hour show, Watson and Rutter, who has in previous appearances won a total of $3.3 million, were tied with $5,000 each.

In third place with $2,000 was Ken Jennings, who won 74 games in a row during the show's 2004-2005 season.

The final showdown airs on Wednesday, with contestants vying for a grand prize of $1 million. IBM plans to donate all of Watson's winnings to charity.

IBM spends around $6 billion a year on research and development. An unspecified part of that goes to what it calls "grand challenges," or big, multiyear science projects such as Watson and Deep Blue.

IBM executives have said Watson's linguistic and analytical abilities may eventually help develop new products in areas such as medical diagnosis.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

Hands On with Samsung's Galaxy S 4G Smartphone (Video) (PC World)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 03:26 PM PST

Mark Sullivan Mark Sullivan – Mon Feb 14, 6:26 pm ET

After hearing lots of talk about the new 4G phone from Samsung, I finally got some hands on time with the Galaxy S 4G here in Barcelona, Spain, where the 2011 Mobile World Congress is in progress.

In Video: Hands On With the Samsung Galaxy S 4G

The Android 2.2-powered Galaxy S 4G will be sold by T-Mobile starting February 23, and will be priced at about $150 with a two year contract. T-Mobile's network, while not technically a 4G network, has been showing some impressive speeds after upgrading to reach up to 21 megabits per second (theoretical) download speeds.

The Galaxy S will be the first T-Mobile smartphone to support up to 21 mbps if the network delivers it. T-Mobile's other HSPA+ smartphones-the HTC myTouch 4G and the HTC G2-max out at 14.4 mbps.

This speed could make streaming video work very well on the phone. I found the HD video displayed on the phone's 4-inch screen to be colorful, bright and sharp. The games I played on the phone looked similarly good. The Galaxy S 4G has a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor inside, which seemed like more than enough to run smooth video and to launch apps quickly.

One disappointment here is the Android 2.2 OS. It's unclear why Samsung is not shipping this phone with the latest version of the OS, which has been out long enough to have proven stability to manufacturers. The phone may be upgraded to the newer OS in later versions.

One could also complain about the absence of a dual-core processor and an 8-megapixel camera. But the real story here is the HSPA+ radio and chipset technology in the phone. The Galaxy S 4G is like last year's model with this year's wireless tech under the hood. It's not a bleeding edge phone, it's just fast--potentially.

The phone has a 5-megapixel camera on the back (with which I took some sharp looking photos), and another 1.3 megapixel camera on the front to support videoconferencing (Skype comes preloaded on the phone). A Samsung rep took the phone into Skype videoconferencing quickly and showed me a live video conferencing session. The live images were a bit fuzzy, but good enough.

The phone itself felt solid in my hand (if a bit lightweight) and I liked the rounded corner design.

In a nutshell, I'm impressed with the Galaxy S 4G. It doesn't have the features or horsepower of its brother the Galaxy S II (launched here yesterday), but to get to a $150 price point you can't have the best of everything.

Court to hear challenge in Twitter-WikiLeaks case (AFP)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 09:19 PM PST

– 9 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A federal judge will hear arguments Tuesday on a court order directing Twitter to hand over information on the accounts of people connected to WikiLeaks in a case pitting privacy advocates against federal prosecutors.

The court order was handed down in December, but unsealed February 9 to allow Twitter to notify the users -- three supporters of the whistleblowers' website -- and give them an opportunity to appeal the decisions.

"This is an outrageous attack by the Obama administration on the privacy and free speech rights of Twitter's customers -- many of them American citizens," WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a statement Monday.

He said the order was "more shocking, at this time, (as) it amounts to an attack on the right to freedom of association, a freedom that the people of Tunisia and Egypt, for example, spurred on by the information released by WikiLeaks, have found so valuable."

The court order directed Twitter, a microblogging site, to turn over information about three users -- Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir; Jacob Appelbaum, a US computer researcher; and Rop Gonggrijp, a Dutch volunteer for WikiLeaks.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others have challenged the order's validity, prompting Tuesday's hearing in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.

WikiLeaks described the hearing as "the first round in the US government's legal battle against Julian Assange."

But it said neither it nor Assange would take part in the hearing because they believed the United States lacked jurisdiction "over expressive activities beyond its borders."

However, Assange's lead council in London, Geoffrey Robertson had brought in Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz as part of the legal team battling the US government's request.

Assange, meanwhile, was in London awaiting a court decision on whether he should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual molestation.

The US Justice Department has been pursuing a criminal investigation of WikiLeaks, which has obtained and published hundreds of thousands of secret US military reports and diplomatic cables.

Iceland's foreign ministry last month summoned the US ambassador in Reykjavik to express "serious concern" about the court order on behalf of Jonsdottir, who distanced herself from WikiLeaks a few months ago.

WikiLeaks said Twitter was being ordered to "disclose the names, dates and locations of all persons who have used its services to receive messages from WikiLeaks or Mr Assange."

While it welcomed Twitter's response in resisting the subpoena, WikiLeaks said other service providers like Google, Facebook and Yahoo may also have received a similar demand and "may already have provided information to the government."

"We are all asking all service providers to explain whether they, too, have been served with a similar order, and whether, they have caved into it," Assange said.

The US government's bid "to obtain vast amounts of private information (could) jeopardize and chill First Amendment rights of association, of expression, of political assembly, of speech," WikiLeaks said.

Mobile app store GetJar raises $25 million (Reuters)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 09:03 PM PST

By Tarmo Virki, European Technology Correspondent Tarmo Virki, European Technology Correspondent – 25 mins ago

BARCELONA (Reuters) – GetJar, the largest independent mobile software store, said on Tuesday it had raised $25 million from Tiger Global Management and Accel Partners to fund its wider push into Android software distribution.

"GetJar plans to aggressively expand its offering to Android publishers in order to secure its position as the premier 'open' Android Market alternative," GetJar said in a statement.

Silicon Valley-based GetJar was a pioneer when it launched in 2005, three years ahead of Apple's online App Store, which now holds the top spot on the market.

Since then dozens of companies, including Nokia, Microsoft, Research in Motion and many telecoms operators, have created stores.

Sales from all app stores are expected to triple this year to $15 billion, research firm Gartner said last month.

The open-source Android software platform, released onto the market just two years ago by Google, has already stormed to the top of the smartphone platform popularity charts, overtaking Nokia's Symbian at the end of last year.

Ilja Laurs, founder and chief executive of GetJar, said he expected Nokia's decision to start using Microsoft's Windows Phone software across its devices would boost GetJar's opportunities.

"The industry's perception changes immediately from two strong frontrunners to three. We benefit from fragmentation," he said.

While Nokia shares have been hammered on the bourse since the announcement was made, Laurs said the deal gave a lifeline for both giants in the software space.

"Individually they had no chance to compete. Together they have an opportunity," he said.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Will Waterman)

Grammys sing the praises of independent labels (AP)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 09:09 PM PST

By RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima, Ap Business Writer – 20 mins ago

LOS ANGELES – Independent labels are reveling in their success after grabbing the spotlight and many of the biggest awards at the Grammys. It marked one of the biggest nights in years for indies, setting the stage for a surge in their online music sales.

Meanwhile, the rest of music industry is trying to figure out if the unsung acts from smaller labels are winning major awards because of the viral nature of the Internet — or in spite of it.

The presence of the indies during the annual awards show has grown in recent years as more bands appeal to fans directly through Facebook and YouTube instead of traditional sales channels.

A record number of nominations this year and the most wins in two years proved that a good band can break out despite lacking the resources of a major recording company.

"This was a major, major night for the independents," said Daniel Glass, CEO of Glassnote Records, whose band Mumford & Sons performed during the show and was nominated for best new artist but didn't win.

Canadian indie band Arcade Fire won for album of the year — an unprecedented third straight time an indie label act has taken the top crown. In all, independent label artists won awards in 45 of 108 categories, the most since 2008, and they accounted 273 of the 542 nominations, up from 231 three years ago, according to the American Association of Independent Music.

Despite the critical acclaim, just 11 percent of the music sold last year came from artists signed to labels other than the majors Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Corp. and EMI Group Ltd., according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The relative obscurity of some acts left some Twitter posters stunned ("Album of the year goes to who ?" one tweeted) but with 484,000 albums sold since "The Suburbs" was released in August, according to SoundScan, Arcade Fire has a solid following.

"There's a lot of great music being made outside of the major label system," said Recording Academy President Neil Portnow. "It's created a window of opportunity for some very independent, forward-thinking, risk-taking entrepreneurs."

The most stunning victor of the night may have been Esperanza Spalding, a little known but well-loved jazz bassist and vocalist who topped Justin Bieber, the teen sensation with a half billion video views, for best new artist.

Spalding's Concord Music Group, among the largest of the independent labels with more than $100 million in annual revenue, said votes might have split among the other popular nominees, Bieber, Drake, Florence + The Machine, and Mumford & Sons, allowing his star to shine.

"I think the truly sophisticated voters, the member base of (The Recording Academy) ... had no choice but to vote for her. This is an artist that really has undeniable talent and superior musicianship," said Concord's chief label officer, Gene Rumsey.

Portnow insists that the system set up for the Grammys' 12,000 voting members helps prevent results that only favor the most popular artists. Major labels have too few qualified voting producers to guarantee wins for their artists, and artists tend not to vote in lock-step with their label mates, he said.

Instead, all of the voters gain equal access to the nominees' music online on a password-protected site. Sometimes during a listening session, the cream can unexpectedly rise to the top, he said.

For independent labels, a win can be transformative.

Google was flooded with "Esperanza Spalding" searches after her win was announced. Online album sales hit 3,000 over 12 hours on Sunday night up from an average of 300 the previous week, according to Mike Gillespie, Concord's senior vice president of sales. The company plans to ship up to 100,000 physical CDs this week, up from the normal 2,000 to 3,000 discs, as stores like Best Buy stock up on the winners. If sold, the amount would more than triple her sales so far.

Arcade Fire's Durham, N.C.-based indie label, Merge Records, was so unprepared for the win that its founders Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance, of the band Superchunk, were in Japan on tour and didn't attend the live show.

Merge publicist Christina Rentz said there was virtually no campaigning for Grammy votes aside from a small ad in Billboard magazine.

"We don't play the game. We don't know how it's played. And this happened," she said. "Hopefully it'll encourage musicians to know that you can do it your way and have recognition from the bigwigs."

Courtney Holt, the president of MySpace Music and a voting member of the Academy, vouched for the legitimacy of the Grammy system. He thinks the ballot serves as a gut check among fellow artists, who aren't as swayed by what music is selling the most.

Holt hailed Arcade Fire as a "band's band" that earned the respect of other musicians. The group represented the closest thing to the archetypal rock band in a category whose other nominees were Eminem, Lady Antebellum, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. Given the popularity of those artists, Arcade Fire also probably won support for being the underdogs.

"People talk about the rise of independents in the modern music business," Holt said. "Maybe this is an example of that being celebrated."

Skype Can Now Get You Access to 500,000+ Wi-Fi Hotspots (Mashable)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 03:48 AM PST

Christina Warren Christina Warren – Mon Feb 14, 6:48 am ET

Skype announced a new partner program for its Wi-Fi hotspots service, Skype Access, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Monday.

Using Skype Access, Skype users can pay for Wi-Fi hotspot access using Skype Credit on a pay-as-you-go (per minute) basis, rather than having to pay by day or by hour. Skype introduced this program in January 2009 and has slowly expanded the network over time.

At Mobile World Congress, the company announced that it has expanded its partnerships to include more than 500,000 hotspots around the world. This includes 500 airports, 30,000 hotels and many other locations. Furthermore, Skype is offering free Skype Access across Spain through February 18.

Skype's list of Skype Access partners include:

  • BT Openzone - The largest Wi-Fi hotspot provider in the UK.
  • Fon - This is billed as the "world's largest Wi-Fi network."
  • M3 Connect - Major German Wi-Fi provider.
  • Row 44 - An in-flight broadband platform that serves many international flights.
  • Skyrove - A hotspot provider in South Africa.
  • Spectrum Interactive - A Wi-Fi provider in the UK with a focus on the travel and media sector.
  • Tomizone - A Wi-Fi provider in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.
  • Vex - A South African Wi-Fi provider.
To use Skype Access, users need to to use the latest version of Skype for Mac or Windows.

Mobile Partner Programs

In addition to expanding its Skype Access program, Skype has also announced its new Mobile Partner Program. This program is aimed at mobile operators in areas with low 3G broadband penetration. It is designed to allow mobile operators to provide customers with additional benefits and services.

The program follows the past partnerships that Skype has forged with Verizon, KDDI and Hutchinson 3, but it is designed in a way that allows smaller operators to roll out their own version.

The program works by using a client/server solution developed for mobile operators. This solution allows the operators to distribute Skype to a broader range of handsets -- including featurephones and smartphones.

Mobile game maker Gameloft throws support behind Xperia Play (Appolicious)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 12:07 PM PST

Lawsuit accuses Google of stealing trade secrets (Reuters)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 03:55 PM PST

– Mon Feb 14, 6:55 pm ET

NEW YORK, Feb 14 (Reuters Legal) – Technology communications company VoIP Inc sued Google Inc. in New York Supreme Court on Monday, accusing the Internet giant of stealing its trade secrets related to online voice technology.

The litigation stems from a September 2005 contract in which, according to the complaint, VoIP's Los Angeles-based subsidiary, VoiceOne Communications Corp, agreed to provide Google with its patented "Click to Call" technology that allows Internet users to place a call to advertisers or merchants simply by clicking a link on a website. The technology was designed to increase the value of online advertising by giving customers direct, free phone access to advertisers via their computers. VoIP is currently in bankruptcy proceedings.

VoiceOne was the designated carrier of phone calls initiated on Google websites under the agreement, according to the complaint. Google terminated the contract with VoiceOne in 2007, claiming that the company had violated a nondisclosure agreement by revealing that Google was its client, the suit said.

Google entered a 2006 joint venture with eBay and Skype related to Internet call services. VoiceOne argues that Google's justification for terminating the 2005 agreement was "a pretext" to allow the company to exploit VoiceOne's confidential information, including source codes, algorithms and "know how" for monetizing Internet phone calls, in its deal with eBay and Skype.

Google spokesman Aaron Zamost was not immediately available for comment. Plaintiffs' attorneys Christopher Seeger and Jonathan Shub did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The lawsuit claims trade secret theft, unfair competition, unjust enrichment and breach of contract and seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, disgorgement of illegal gains, an injunction and attorney's fees.

On July 29, 2009, VoIP filed a similar lawsuit against Google in Los Angeles Superior Court. That case was dismissed without prejudice in December 2009 due to jurisdictional issues and VoIP's pending bankruptcy proceedings, according to plaintiffs' lawyer Brian Kabatek. Creditors filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against VoIP in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida in 2009.

Last June, Frontier Communications sued Google over its Google Voice product, which gives users one phone number to connect their home, work and cell phones. Frontier, a provider of phone, Internet and satellite TV services, alleged that Google Voice infringed on its patented invention that linked multiple phone lines to a single number. That litigation is underway in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.

The latest case is VoIP Inc et al v. Google Inc, New York Supreme Court, No. 650380/2011.

For VoIP and the other plaintiffs: Christopher Seeger and Jonathan Shub of Seeger Weiss.

For Google: Not immediately available.

The California case is VoIP Inc et al v. Google, Los Angeles Superior Court, No. BC418842.

For VoIP and the other plaintiffs: Byron Ball of The Ball Law Firm, Mark Geragos of Geragos & Geragos and Brian Kabateck of Kabateck Brown Kellner.

For Google: Los Angeles lawyer Gary Bostwick; Michael Page and Ragesh Tangri of Durie Tangri.

(Reporting by Terry Baynes of Reuters Legal; Editing by Amy Singer)

LG Electronics (Investor's Business Daily)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 03:38 PM PST

– Mon Feb 14, 6:38 pm ET

LG Electronics, a S. Korean consumer electronics maker, unveiled a phone with a 3-D screen and a 3-D camera, called the Optimus 3D, that doesn't require special glasses. It is set to go on sale later this spring. LG said it was forming a partnership with Google's YouTube site to make it easier for people to share 3-D content online.

Big Tablet Fight: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs. HP TouchPad vs. Motorola Xoom vs. Apple iPad (PC World)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 05:51 PM PST

Daniel Ionescu Daniel Ionescu – Mon Feb 14, 8:51 pm ET

Samsung is going head-to-head with Motorola after announcing the Galaxy Tab 10.1, an Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablet almost identical in specifications with the Xoom. But Samsung's new 10-inch tablet will not only have to fight with Motorola's offering; HP is preparing to counter with its upcoming TouchPad and Apple's iPad is still the heavyweight of the 10-inch category.

the battle for 10-inch class tablets was coming, but it's only now this battle is starting to take shape. Last year Samsung tried in an honorable effort to compete with the iPad by launching a smaller 7-inch Galaxy Tab tablet, yet the company made no firm retail figures available. This year though, manufacturers have clearly turned to the 10-inch form factor, which made the iPad such a popular device (over 14 million sold at last count). Samsung is the latest in line to introduce a 10-inch tablet, after Motorola and HP. See how they stack up against the iPad by clicking on our tablet comparison chart.

Android vs. Android

Like the Motorola Xoom, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (named after the tablet's screen size) will run on Google's tablet-optimized operating system, Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). As with the Xoom, the Tab 10.1 will run a stock version of the OS (also known as Google Experience).p://www.pcworld.com/zoom?id=207197&page=1&zoomIdx=1" target="_blank"> see our c

Stock Android 3.0 on both devices could mean that Google has not given Samsung and Motorola enough time to develop their own customizations for the tablets, which in turn could mean that Google is yet to put the finishing touches on Honeycomb (hence why no exact shipping date has been announced for the Xoom and Tab 10.1).

The resemblances between the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Xoom don't stop at the OS. Both feature a 10.1-inch screen with a 1280 by 800 pixels display, dual core 1GHz processors and front-facing 2-megapixel cameras. The Xoom has a 5-megapixel camera on the back, while the Tab 10.1 rocks an 8-megapixel camera. The Tab is also slightly thinner and lighter than the Xoom, TouchPad or the iPad. Meanwhile, the iPad has no cameras and the TouchPad will feature only a front-facing camera.

Getting The Price Right

While the Xoom will run on Verizon's network when launched, the HSPA/EDGE/GPRS chip inside the Tab indicates that Samsung's new tablet is headed to AT&T, the same network currently homing the 3G version of the iPad. HP said that it will have a 3G version of the TouchPad too, but initially a Wi-Fi-only version will be introduced. Carrier partnerships or subsidies have yet to be announced.

Pricing is the biggest unknown with this latest batch of iPad competitors. Motorola, Samsung or HP did not say how much their tablets will cost; nor have they given an exact shipping date. The Motorola is widely expected to surface sometime in late February (or early March).

Samsung was not able to undercut iPad pricing even with a smaller-screen tablet, so the chances of this happening with a more powerful and expensive to produce tablet are even slighter. Leaks point out that the Xoom could cost anywhere between $800 and $1,200, a whole lot more expensive than the $499 starting price of the iPad (though that price does not represent a feature-by-feature match).

Apple Is Not Done Yet

Finally, Apple is yet to have the latest word in the big tablet fight. The company is expected to announce a new version of the tablet, bringing improvements such as dual cameras, faster processor and more RAM and even a native Verizon version. If Apple manages to stick to the same price points introduced by the original iPad (and no other tablet undercuts it)

, then no matter how much more powerful competing tablets look on paper, they will stand little chance against the iPad 2.

Which 10-inch tablet would you buy and why? Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola's Xoom, HP's TouchPad or Apple's iPad 2? Sound off in the comments.

Follow Daniel Ionescu and Today @ PCWorld on Twitter

HP Beefs Up Software with Vertica Systems Acquisition (NewsFactor)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 02:09 PM PST

Jennifer LeClaire, newsfactor.com Jennifer Leclaire, newsfactor.com – Mon Feb 14, 5:09 pm ET

In a move to compete with Oracle and IBM in software, Hewlett-Packard has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Vertica Systems. Terms of the real-time analytics platform deal were not disclosed.

"In today's highly competitive environment, customers need the ability to manage the increasing amounts of data and growing streams of information with more flexible, more dynamic architectures," said Shane Robison, executive vice president and chief strategy and technology officer at HP. "Vertica's unique platform combines simplicity with industry-leading performance, allowing HP to leap ahead of the industry in the race to analyze massive amounts of data."

Vertica's Impressive Pedigree

Leaping ahead of the industry may sound like puffery -- and it may indeed be -- but one thing is certain: HP's acquisition of Vertica will beef up the company's capabilities for information optimization. The Vertica technology will also give HP much-needed real-time business analytics for large and complex sets of data in physical, virtual and cloud environments.

"By combining Vertica's offerings with HP's brand and global reach, customers will benefit from the commitment, expertise and resources from the largest technology company in the world," said Christopher Lynch, president and CEO of Vertica. "Combined with HP, we will be able to better help customers develop flexible business performance solutions that improve decision-making and streamline business processes."

Vertica had a record-breaking year in 2010 for sales, customer wins, and head count. During 2010, Vertica saw both revenues and customers increase more than 100 percent, with 328 customers by the end of 2010. Vertica serves the likes of Twitter, AOL and Blue Cross Blue Shield with an architecture that lets users analyze massive amounts of data for real-time business intelligence.

HP's Software Flurry

Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, called the acquisition "potentially interesting." IBM has been on the analytics roll for the past five years, and Oracle is also pushing hard in this direction. HP was behind the curve on the analytics front, which is a major growth area.

"HP's hiring of [CEO] Leo Apotheker, a very software-oriented executive with deep experience in software, portended this sort of acquisition. Vertica is a solid player," King said. "Given the flurry of business-intelligence and analytics acquisitions that happened last year, many saw Vertica as one of the cards that would be in play this year. It looks to me like a potentially solid acquisition and it will be interesting to see what HP does with it."

HP needs to do something. Although it's the largest by revenue in the technology industry, the company has never been a software powerhouse. In fact, King said one could point to HP's lack of software prowess as one of former CEO Mark Hurd's most singular failures during his tenure.

"Hurd did a great job of making the company extremely popular and driving revenues up. Software was very clearly an area where the company was weak. My hat's off to Apotheker," King said. "Vertica is a solid acquisition and I don't think this will be the last software acquisition we see out of HP this year."

IBM computer, Jeopardy! champ tied after first day (AFP)

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 07:28 PM PST

by Chris Lefkow Chris Lefkow – 2 hrs 1 min ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – An IBM computer displayed a few quirks but played to a draw on the opening day of a man vs. machine showdown with two human champions of the popular US television game show Jeopardy!.

"Watson," a supercomputer named after the founder of the US technology giant Thomas Watson, and human contestant Brad Rutter each had $5,000 after the first day of the three-day match.

The other human player, Ken Jennings, was trailing the pair with $2,000.

Watson, represented on stage by a large computer monitor, was frequently quicker to the buzzer than Rutter and Jennings, correctly answering questions in its artificial voice.

Jeopardy!, which first aired on US television in 1964, tests a player's knowledge in a range of categories, from geography to politics to history to sports and entertainment.

A dollar amount is attached to each question and the player with the most money at the end of the game is the winner. Players have money deducted for wrong answers.

In a twist on traditional game play, contestants are provided with clues and need to supply the questions.

Watson receives the clues electronically by text message at the same time as they are revealed to the human contestants. The first player to hit the buzzer gets to answer the question.

Watson showed an impressive grasp of the Beatles songbook.

"What is Maxwell's silver hammer?" replied Watson to the clue "Bang, bang, his silver hammer came down upon her head," a reference to the Beatles song.

"What is Eleanor Rigby?" Watson answered correctly to the clue "She died in the church and was buried along with her name, nobody came."

Watson at one point built up a commanding lead with $4,000 to $200 each for Rutter and Jennings.

But the machine then began to slip up, oddly repeating a wrong answer to a question Jennings had already answered incorrectly.

Jennings wrongly identified the 1920s as the decade during which the crossword puzzle and the Oreo cookie were introduced.

Given its chance, Watson also said in the 1920s.

"No, Ken said that," Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek admonished Watson.

Rutter then answered correctly -- the 1910s.

On another question, about a one-legged US Olympic champion, the clue was "It was the anatomical oddity of US gymnast George Eyser who won a gold medal on the parallel bars in 1904."

Watson replied "What is a leg?" instead of "What is missing a leg?"

"Watson's very bright, very fast but he has some weird little moments once in a while," Trebek said.

Watson, which is not connected to the Internet, plays the game by crunching through multiple algorithms at dizzying speed and attaching a percentage score to what it believes is the correct response.

Watson, which has been under development at IBM Research labs in New York since 2006, is the latest machine developed by IBM to challenge mankind -- in 1997, an IBM computer named "Deep Blue" defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match.

Developing a supercomputer that can compete with the best human Jeopardy! players, however, involves challenges more complex than those faced by the scientists behind "Deep Blue," according to IBM researchers.

Watson uses what IBM calls Question Answering technology to tackle Jeopardy! clues, gathering evidence, analyzing it and then scoring and ranking the most likely answer.

"You are about to witness what may prove to be an historic competition -- an exhibition match pitting an IBM computer system against the two most celebrated and successful players in Jeopardy! history," Trebek said to kick off the show.

Jennings holds the Jeopardy! record of 74 straight wins while Rutter won a record $3.25 million on the show.

The winner of the Jeopardy! showdown is to receive $1 million. Second place is worth $300,000 and the third place finisher pockets $200,000.

IBM plans to donate 100 percent of its winnings to charity. Jennings and Rutter plan to give 50 percent of their prize money to charity.
at 9:40 PM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

My Blog List