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Friday, March 4, 2011

$430k Love settlement shows tweets can be costly (AP) : Technet

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$430k Love settlement shows tweets can be costly (AP) : Technet

$430k Love settlement shows tweets can be costly (AP)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:08 PM PST

By ANTHONY McCARTNEY, AP Entertainment Writer Anthony Mccartney, Ap Entertainment Writer – Fri Mar 4, 7:08 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – Courtney Love's settlement of a case sparked by online attacks on a fashion designer show that while Twitter posts may be short, they can also be costly.

The singer has agreed to pay Dawn Simorangkir $430,000, plus interest, to settle a lawsuit the designer filed in March 2009 over comments Love made on Twitter and her MySpace blog.

While the case didn't go to a jury, First Amendment experts say it highlights the need for celebrities and average people to watch what they say online.

"People are getting in trouble for Twitter postings on an almost daily basis," said First Amendment Attorney Doug Mirell, a partner at Loeb and Loeb who did not handle the case.

"The laws controlling what is and isn't libelous are the same regardless of the medium in which the statements appear," he said.

Nancy Derwin-Weiss, an attorney who specializes in digital entertainment and advertising law, said the amount was sure to get the attention of stars and their handlers.

"I think it's just a wake up call," she said. "It's something that their advisers should talk to them about."

Simorangkir's attorney, Bryan J. Freedman, predicted the case would spark conversations between celebrities and their advisers.

"The fact is that this case shows that the forum upon which you communicate makes no difference in terms of potential legal exposure," Freedman said. "Disparaging someone on Twitter does not excuse one from liability."

Love's attorney, Jim Janowitz, said the settlement actually saved the rocker money. "This is a case where the economics of the case didn't make a lot of sense for either side," he said, noting that the costs of going to trial would have been large.

Janowitz said he would have argued that Love's statements were opinion and hyperbole, but not libelous, and that Simorangkir's sales rose after Love's tirades.

Derwin-Weiss, a partner at Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon, said the settlement amount was significant.

"It's a number that's not trivial," she said. "It has some heft to it."

Twitter's popularity has skyrocketed in the past year, in part because celebrities interact with fans on a daily basis by posting candid photos, thoughts and even product endorsements.

The widow of grunge rocker Kurt Cobain, Love has gained a reputation on the microblogging service Twitter with her posts, which are occasionally profane and sometimes nonsensical messages on a variety of topics. Several posts have lashed out at attorneys and other individuals who have drawn the musician's ire, with her tweets coming in rapid succession and using every bit of the site's 140 character maximum per post.

Simorangkir sued over several postings written under Love's former Twitter account, courtneylover79, that accused the designer, who is known as Boudoir Queen, of theft and of having a criminal background.

Simorangkir's lawsuit claimed Love became angry with her after she completed five outfits for the singer and sent her a bill.

"Love mounted a malicious campaign to not only terrorize Simorangkir, but to ruin and destroy her reputation and livelihood," Freedman wrote in a May 2009 filing.

The case had been scheduled to go to trial in February, and was expected to be the first in which a jury decides whether a celebrity's Twitter posts could be considered libel.

Freedman confirmed that a settlement had been reached, and said Love's attorneys had hoped to keep it confidential. Love also settled another lawsuit filed by Simorangkir's husband over photos for a nominal amount, Janowitz said.

"In order to show the world the comments were derogatory and completely illegal, it was imperative to my client to have the settlement be public," Freedman said.

The attorney said a public statement will be issued next week, but the monetary settlement that Love is required to pay, reflects the seriousness of the case.

"Personally, I think $430,000 is an appropriate way to say she's sorry," Freedman said.

Mirell said stars need to be cautious about how and what they post online, especially when they're talking about others.

"When you start talking about someone other than yourself, you are beginning to get into dangerous territory," Mirell said.

Janowitz predicted other celebrities are likely to get into trouble over their social media musings.

"Undoubtedly there will be people who do it until it is better understood that this publication, just like anything else, is publication," he said.

NASA research satellite plunges into the sea (AP)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 03:27 PM PST

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer – Fri Mar 4, 6:27 pm ET

WASHINGTON – For the second time in two years, a rocket glitch sent a NASA global warming satellite to the bottom of the sea Friday, a $424 million debacle that couldn't have come at a worse time for the space agency and its efforts to understand climate change.

Years of belt-tightening have left NASA's Earth-watching system in sorry shape, according to many scientists. And any money for new environmental satellites will have to survive budget-cutting, global warming politics and, now, doubts on Capitol Hill about the space agency's competence.

The Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA's Glory satellite lifted from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and plummeted to the southern Pacific several minutes later. The same thing happened to another climate-monitoring probe in 2009 with the same type of rocket, and engineers thought they had fixed the problem.

"It's more than embarrassing," said Syracuse University public policy professor Henry Lambright. "Something was missed in the first investigation and the work that went on afterward."

Lambright warned that the back-to-back fiascos could have political repercussions, giving Republicans and climate-change skeptics more ammunition to question whether "this is a good way to spend taxpayers' money for rockets to fail and for a purpose they find suspect."

NASA's environmental division is getting used to failure, cuts and criticism. In 2007, a National Academies of Science panel said that research and purchasing for NASA Earth sciences had decreased 30 percent in six years and that the climate-monitoring system was at "risk of collapse." Then, last month, the Obama administration canceled two major satellite proposals to save money.

Also, the Republican-controlled House has sliced $600 million from NASA in its continuing spending bill, and some GOP members do not believe the evidence of manmade global warming.

Thirteen NASA Earth-observing satellites remain up there, and nearly all of them are in their sunset years.

"Many of the key observations for climate studies are simply not being made," Harvard Earth sciences professor James Anderson said. "This is the nadir of climate studies since I've been working in this area for 40 years."

Scientists are trying to move climate change forecasts from ones that are heavily based on computer models to those that rely on more detailed, real-time satellite-based observations like those that Glory was supposed to make. The satellite's failure makes that harder.

Ruth DeFries, the Columbia University professor who co-chaired the 2007 National Academies of Science panel, said in an e-mail that this matters for everyone on Earth.

"The nation's weakening Earth-observing system is dimming the headlights needed to guide society in managing our planet in light of climate change and other myriad ways that humans are affecting the land, atmosphere and oceans," DeFries wrote.

NASA Earth Sciences chief Michael Freilich said it is not that bad.

"We must not lose sight of the fact that we in NASA are flying 13 research missions right now, which are providing the fuel for advancing a lot of our Earth science," Freilich told The Associated Press. He said airplane missions, current satellites and future ones can pick up much of the slack for what Glory was going to do.

However, Freilich, at a budget briefing a year ago, described the Earth-watching satellites as "all old," adding that 12 of the 13 "are well beyond their design lifetimes."

"We're losing the ability to monitor really key aspects of the climate problem from space," said Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist at the University of Arizona. "Just about every climate scientist in the world has got to be sad right now."

Glory failed when the rocket's clamshell-shaped protective covering that was supposed to shield it during launch never opened to let the satellite fire into orbit. A similar fiasco happened in 2009 when the Orbiting Carbon Observatory fell back to Earth after the rocket nose cone also failed to separate.

A NASA investigation board and Taurus' builder, Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., will try to figure out what wrong. It was the third failure out of nine launches for that rocket. NASA paid Orbital $54 million for launching Glory. The last failure was traced to the system that jettisons the covering, and Orbital changed its design.

"To make any connection between our investigation of the 2009 ... mishap and Friday's failure of the Glory launch at this time would be purely speculative and wholly inappropriate," said investigative panel chairman Rick Obenschain, deputy director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

___

Science writer Alicia Chang contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

Mobile gaming dominates Game Developers Conference (AP)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 06:15 AM PST

By DERRIK J. LANG, AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang, Ap Entertainment Writer – Fri Mar 4, 9:15 am ET

SAN FRANCISCO – With retail video game sales smacked down by the rough economy and ever-growing competition in the crowded social and mobile game marketplace, it seemed like attendees at this week's annual Game Developers Conference were more frustrated than birds catapulted at pigs.

Game designers, programmers and executives from around the world converged at the Moscone Convention Center in hopes of figuring out how to become the next "Angry Birds," the silly top-selling mobile game that pits birds against pigs. Yet many attendees dismissed the mobile platform as The Next Big Thing, noting that selling 99-cent games isn't a dependable way to generate revenue.

"Downloadable games are the future, which is what I keep telling my team when they ask why we don't make any money," joked "Psychonauts" and "Brutal Legend" developer Tim Schafer while hosting the Game Developers Choice Awards on Wednesday. "Just kidding. I blame marketing."

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said in the conference's keynote speech Wednesday morning that "game development is drowning" because of the rise of cheaply made and priced mobile and social games. He expressed concern that those platforms have "no motivation to maintain the value of gaming" and that they lower gamemakers' ability to make a living.

"We invest a tremendous amount in technology, engineering and in the staff that create these games to maintain that high level of value, so that consumers want this content," said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime in an interview afterward. "It's not disposable, and it's something that consumers can enjoy over long periods of time."

Iwata and Fils-Aime also used the speech as a chance to reveal that the Nintendo 3DS, the glasses-free hand-held 3-D gaming device set for release in the U.S. on March 27, would be able to stream Netflix movies and freely connect to more than 10,000 AT&T wi-fi hotspots. Iwata also teased that Nintendo is working on a new "Super Mario" title in 3-D.

Coincidentally, Iwata made his declaration the same day that Apple head honcho Steve Jobs stepped onto a different stage within the massive Moscone Convention Center for the unveiling of the iPad 2, the latest Apple doodad that can — among other things — be used to play games. However, Apple's iPad 2 announcement wasn't related to the conference.

The convergence of the gaming and mobile realms was also on display during the U.S. debut of the Xperia Play, Sony Ericsson's gaming-centric smart phone, which features a 4-inch touch-screen and a slide-out controller reminiscent of Sony's PlayStation Portable controls. Instead of dual analog joysticks, it features a pair of sleek round touch-pads.

The smart phone will be available later this month and have about 50 games at launch designed to use the unique controls from such publishers as Electronic Arts, Glu Mobile and Gameloft. The titles include the fighter "Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior" and role-playing game "Dungeon Defenders," as well as a few editions of original PlayStation games.

"It is a smart phone first," said Xperia Play product manager Aaron Duke. "But we wanted to make sure gamers could get the most out of the device. We wanted them to be able to beat it up and treat it like a true game controller. We really feel like we've built a platform where developers can bring real console-quality games to a mobile device."

There were regular ol' console titles on display at the conference, too. Electronic Arts previewed the multiplayer mode for military shooter "Battlefield 3." Sony showcased the superheroric "inFamous 2" and the sci-fi blaster "Resistance 3." Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment unleashed the sprawling Dark Knight sequel "Batman: Arkham City."

THQ hyped its shooter "Homefront," which imagines a North Korean invasion of America, by handing out free food from a Korean-themed food truck and hosting a phony political rally Wednesday, which featured the release of thousands of red balloons in the air. Environmental groups complained about the stunt, but THQ said the balloons were biodegradable.

"Console games are not going anywhere," noted Game Developers Conference director Meggan Scavio. "There will always be a place for hardcore gamers and blockbuster titles, just like movies. This conference started as the Computer Game Developers Conference, and it has evolved over the years. We dropped the word computer because of the rise of consoles."

___

Online:

http://www.gdconf.com/

Pared-down Netflix iPad app gains speed, loses features (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 12:57 PM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Fri Mar 4, 3:57 pm ET

Netflix just made some fairly dramatic, server-side changes to its killer iPad app—and unfortunately, not all the changes are for the better.

If you're wondering how Netflix managed to sneak in a new version of its iPad app (which is, strictly speaking, a universal iOS app for both iPad and iPhone) without an update popping up in the App Store (the latest version, 1.1.3, is dated Dec. 21, 2010), it's because the changes appear to have taken place on the Netflix side.

Netflix's iOS app is essentially just a browser, after all—and up until now, the iPad version of the app essentially served up the same version of the Netflix Web site that you'd find on a desktop PC.

That meant that iPad app users could also rearrange their instant and DVD queues, sift through recommendations, find related videos, browse swipable rows of vidoes, and even tweak their account settings.

Unfortunately, all that functionality came with a price. While the Netflix app for the iPad was relatively stable once you began streaming a video, getting there could be a painfully slow, choppy experience. Navigating from one page to the next typically took several seconds, and regular crashes came with the territory.

On Thursday, however, iPad users woke up to a new Netflix app experience—an undeniably faster and more responsive one that tosses out a slew of features in the process.

Now, instead of seeing a home page that looked similar to the desktop Netflix site, users get about a dozen, sparce-looking categories, ranging from "Top Picks" to "Action Sci-Fi," "Gritty Dramas," and "Romantic Comedies." Click a title, and an info page springs into view, complete with a brief description, a few cast and crew details, and two buttons: "Add to instant" and the all-important "Play."

The good news is that the page loads almost instantly, with no annoying lag or poky performance. The bad news: no more user reviews, related videos, or option to add a title to your DVD queue. Indeed, you can no longer access your DVD queue at all. (That shouldn't come as much of a surprise, given Netflix's new policy of only letting users tweak their DVD queues on the Web.

I was also disappointed that the new page layout for the Netflix iPad app makes poor use of the iPad's roomy 9.7-inch display. Rather than a slick, information-packed interface, everything looks too spread out, as if the Netflix iPhone interface had simply been stretched to fill a larger screen. (In fact, comparing the look of the universal Netflix app on the iPad versus iPhone, I'm pretty sure that's essentially what happened.)

Of course, anyone who still wants to edit their Netflix queues or get the full Netflix Web experience on the iPad can still do so via Safari—and even better, if you tap the "Play" button on an instant-watch Netflix video while browsing in the Safari browser, the Netflix app will open automatically, queuing up the movie or TV show you selected in the process.

So … given that, are iPad-toting Netflix subscribers really missing out on anything given the latest changes in the app? Not really, one could argue, although I'm still not sure why Netflix can't combine all that functionality into a single app. And the thing that makes the Netflix iPad app a killer oneâ€"on-demand access to more than 20,000 TV shows and movies, for as little as $8 a monthâ€"is still front-and-center.

Indeed, consider the case of the ABC Player app for iPad, which comes with a beautiful interface but recently had trouble streaming videos without choking and crashing mid-stream. The app (or ABC's servers, at least) seems more stable now, but for awhile there, it was a prime example of a great-looking application that failed to deliver on its core promise.

The Netflix iPad app has the opposite problem: it's saddled with a clunky, bare-bones interface that's shedding rather than adding features, and failing to take advantage of the iPad's big displayâ€"while at the same time serving up thousands and thousands of videos, one after another, and typically without a hitch. Hard to argue with that.

Given the choice, I'll take the clunky app that delivers a killer core feature.

Still, like Pete Campbell in "Mad Men," I wish I could have everything I want, all at the same time ... and preferably right now. (Speaking of which, where's the Netflix app for Android that we've been waiting for?)

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

Follow me on Twitter!

More update woes for Samsung-made Windows Phone 7 handsets (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 08:20 AM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Fri Mar 4, 11:20 am ET

Despite Microsoft's assurances that it had "fixed" a buggy Windows Phone 7 patch that bricked a "small number" of Samsung phones, some users are still complaining that they can't update their handsets.

Dozens of annoyed Samsung Omnia 7 owners are lighting up Microsoft's "Answers" support site with tales of failed updates and a new error code: 800705B4.

"Did the install and finished with Error Code 800705B4 and no update," wrote one user. "Followed the web help. No help. 2nd fail at update. Anyone have any ideas?"

Windows Phone support staffers suggested that Samsung handset owners try deleting files off their phones to clear out more storage space—or, failing that, remove the batteries from the devices, put them back in, and restart.

But several Samsung users, understandably testy after nearly two weeks of dealing with the glitchy update, were growing impatient.

"Tried it and guessed what? It FAILED," wrote one annoyed user. "Now what?!"

To be fair, it's not clear how many Windows Phone users are still having trouble with the "cursed" patch (as WMPoweruser puts it), which was originally released last Monday. Microsoft later pulled the Samsung version of the patch after getting hit with complains of stalled updates and bricked phones.

A Microsoft rep blogged last week that 9 out of 10 Windows Phone users had no trouble with the update. A few days later, he followed up with news that engineers had "pinpointed and fixed" the problem and had redeployed the patch.

I'm sure I wasn't alone in thinking that would be the end of it ... but apparently not. The good news, at least, is that the 800705B4 error doesn't seem to be resulting in any more bricked handsets.

In any case, a Microsoft rep tweeted on the official Windows Phone support Twitter feed that engineers are—again—"looking into" the latest update problems.

The patch in question is the very first for Windows Phone 7, Microsoft's top-to-bottom revamp of its long-in-the-tooth Windows Mobile platform.

The initial update was only intended to smooth the way for a pair of larger, upcoming updates—ironic, as some tech bloggers have already noted.

Related:
Cursed Samsung Windows Phones still having problems with updated pre-update Update [WMPoweruser]
Samsung Windows Phone 7 update still failing for some users [WinRumors]

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

Follow me on Twitter!

Projeqt Is an Online Storytelling Engine for Creatives [INVITES] (Mashable)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 03:31 PM PST

Jennifer Van Grove Jennifer Van Grove – Fri Mar 4, 6:31 pm ET

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Projeqt

Quick Pitch: Projeqt is a creative storytelling platform.

Genius Idea: The art of online storytelling is all about presentation. As a non-linear storytelling engine, Projeqt gives creatives the ability to weave together stories dripping with style and personality from Flickr photos, RSS feeds, tweets, YouTube or Vimeo videos, and any media stored on their own computers.

The accidental startup came to be after creative director and co-founder David Lee was tasked with redesigning creative advertising agency TBWA's website to better display client work and do so in a Flash-free fashion that would work across any device. Projeqt was born then as a device agnostic web-publishing tool for TBWA and later spun off as its own entity.

Today, Projeqt is a private beta startup for the creative community with two primary use cases: a simple portfolio tool for artists to showcase their work and a presentation tool for brands and business users.

The service's 2,700 beta testers have been using the platform for said purposes since its release in December. Projeqt users are also repurposing the experience for personal start pages, press rooms, virtual classrooms and even company websites, says Lee.

Users can craft "projeqts," whatever their purpose may be, by adding content in the form of slides. Create a slide, name it, add tags, and fill the slide with a photo, text, video or feed. Slides are published to create the web story and be can reordered via drag and drop. Users can also create a projeqt within a projeqt to serve as a story inside a story.

More advanced users can tinker with the branding and design tools to adjust the appearance of the projeqt and add footer links and social network buttons.

In the coming months, Projeqt hopes to tap into additional social APIs -- Instagram integration, for instance, is in the works and will allow users to display their Instagram photos in their projeqts. Also coming soon are theme options, though Lee insists that the startup won't exactly follow the theme direction of Wordpress or Tumblr.

Projeqt remains free for now, though the startup's long-term plan is to develop a freemium model that would charge users for more advanced features.

Projeqt is graciously giving interested Mashable readers invites. Want in? Send an email to contact@projeqt.com with "Mashable" in the subject line.

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DaveBolton

Simple Steps To Secure Your Smartphone Against Data Theft (PC World)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 03:52 PM PST

Alex Wawro Alex Wawro – Fri Mar 4, 6:52 pm ET

You may already know the basics of Internet security and keeping your personal data private while browsing the Web: Use a firewall, don't open attachments you aren't expecting, and never follow links from strangers. But what about your smartphone? The ease with which security researcher Georgia Weidman was able to infect Android phones with her custom botnet during the 2011 ShmooCon security conference suggests that anyone concerned about the privacy of the personal data stored on their smartphone should think twice before downloading dubious or otherwise untrustworthy apps.

So how does a smartphone botnet spread? First, the victim needs to download a file that contains a bot builder program--a secret snippet of malicious code that will install a bot into the basic operating system of a phone. The infected file could be an app, a piece of music or even an email attachment. "It could be camouflaged in anything at all;" claims Weidman. "Someone might put out a great, functional app that users want. Worse, the app would work as advertised so they wouldn't suspect it; meanwhile the botnet could be active for years."

Once your phone is infected, a slave bot program will be installed in the base operating system, beneath the application layer that most users are familiar with. From there these bots can monitor and modify all data sent to and from the phone before you do, allowing the botmaster to command and control your phone without your knowledge. "Since the bot sees everything before the user does, it's possible to catch private data and forward it elsewhere on the internet," says Weidman. "What you've been doing, who you're speaking to and where you've been."

Once a botmaster is in control of your phone, the first priority is to spread the infection to as many other users as possible. In the past, mobile botnets have taken advantage of smartphone Internet access to spread malicious code via e-mail; Weidman's Android botnet is dangerous because it communicates and spreads via SMS text messaging instead. Weidman claims hijacking the SMS text messaging service is more battery-efficient and far more subtle than accessing the Internet via a phone's modem. In addition, it opens up a new attack vector whereby unsuspecting users may receive text messages from an infected friend that contain links to malicious code.

"If I get a text message from a friend with a link that says "hey check this out," why wouldn't I trust it?" says Weidman. "If one of my contacts is infected they could be infecting me without knowing it." Of course, smartphone malware is nothing new; security companies like Symantec and Lookout offer iOS and Android apps that provide malware detection and remote security features like locking or wiping a phone via SMS, but the balkanization of the wireless market among so many different devices and carriers means that it's often difficult for security companies to keep their apps updated with the latest malware profiles. Worse, most detection apps only scan other applications for malicious code; that approach will catch an infected app, but it won't do much good if the bot builder program has already overwritten part of the phone's operating system. It doesn't matter which operating system either; while Weidman developed her prototype botnet on the Android OS, she claims the bots could work on any smartphone and is currently seeking iOS and Windows Phone 7 devices for testing purposes.

But while Weidman's security research may seem scary, for the moment it's just that: research. "If this type of attack becomes prevalent in the future, we will update our software to detect it," says Kevin Mahaffey, CTO of Lookout Security. "Unless we see malware like this in the wild, we will continue to focus our efforts on existing threats."

Plus, it's actually pretty simple to secure your smartphone and keep your data private from a botnet: just remember to take security on your iPhone or Android device as seriously as you do on your laptop. Don't download apps or files from people you don't trust, and be wary of any links or files embedded in text messages. Be aware that any file you download to your phone has the potential to be infected, and plan accordingly.

RIM to find new marketing chief to revive its brand (Reuters)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:16 PM PST

– Fri Mar 4, 7:16 pm ET

TORONTO (Reuters) – The head of marketing for Research In Motion will leave the company in six months, raising questions about BlackBerry branding as the smartphone maker gets set to launch its long-awaited PlayBook tablet.

Keith Pardy, who joined the Canadian technology company in December 2009, decided to leave for personal reasons, RIM said in a statement on Friday. He will stay with the company for the next six months to help with transition.

His surprise resignation comes weeks before the expected launch of RIM's PlayBook -- almost a year after the introduction of Apple's iPad tablet. The RIM offering will also have to compete against devices powered by Google's Android platform.

The appeal of the BlackBerry brand - once equal with Apple's -- has withered under Pardy's stewardship, according to a January ranking from Brand Keys consultancy.

"The brand's been losing resonance over the past few years. It does not have the brand cachet ... to engage consumers the way an iPhone does," Brand Keys president Robert Passikoff said.

RIM has sought to keep PlayBook in the minds of consumers and business customers with a drip feed of announcements and trade show appearances since first lifting the covers on the tablet in September. The company has yet to announce when it will ship or give details of its pricing.

In contrast, Apple founder Steve Jobs received a standing ovation when he announced the iPad 2 on Wednesday. The product will ship later this month, possibly ahead of the PlayBook.

But Pardy's imminent departure may not have much impact on the immediate success of the PlayBook when it finally launches, said Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at market research firm IHS iSuppli.

"Hopefully, when you're weeks away from product release, you've laid most of the groundwork for the marketing efforts," she said. "Others can execute the groundwork that's been laid out."

Shares of the Waterloo, Ontario-based company dropped 2 percent to close at $66.47 on Nasdaq and at C$64.53 in Toronto.

Pardy has long experience in consumer marketing. Prior to joining RIM, he worked for 17 years in marketing at Coca-Cola before joining Nokia in 2004.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp and Liana Baker; editing by Frank McGurty)

3 Good Reasons To Buy an Open-PC (PC World)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:15 PM PST

Katherine Noyes Katherine Noyes – Fri Mar 4, 7:15 pm ET

For many small business users, all the rational arguments for using open source software like Linux make a great deal of sense: It's free, customizable, compatible, and it's free of vendor lock-in, to name just a few.

When it comes down to the wire at purchase time, however, many fall prey to one or more of the frequently perpetuated myths out there, and vague fears of incompatibility or a lack of support or something else drive them right back into Redmond's waiting arms.

One way to make the notion of a Linux-based computer less worrisome for such users is to buy hardware preloaded with Ubuntu, Canonical's version of the open source operating system. That can go a long way toward ensuring that everything "just works" out of the box, and I've already discussed good ways and places to do this.

As of December, however, another option emerged that's well worth checking out--it's even better, in fact, from the perspective of software freedom. It's called the Open-PC, and it offers "a PC for everyday use built by the Linux community for the Linux community," in the project's own words.

With three models to choose from--two built and sold in Europe and one through ThinkPenguin in the United States--the Open-PC has several key advantages that could make it the right choice for your small business. Here are just a few to consider.

1. It's Entirely Free

You know how when you use proprietary software like Microsoft's, you tend to have to agree to an end-user license agreement that restricts with an iron hand what you can and can't do with the software? Well, the Open-PC more or less does away with that.

Only free software is used in Open-PC devices, and that includes those rascally drivers, which can on occasion cause a problem when you least expect it. All software was chosen by the Linux community through a series of surveys, in fact.

In Europe, Open-PCs reportedly use the OpenSUSE Linux distribution, according to Free Software Magazine, while the U.S. version uses Ubuntu. Either way, KDE is the standard desktop. The most important point, of course, is that you're free to alter and customize the software to suit your business's needs.

Also worth noting, though, is that--as with any instance of Linux--you're also relatively free from viruses and malware. That kind of freedom may just be worth even more, in fact.

2. It Just Works

Specs on the Open-PC sold in the United States by ThinkPenguin include a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, up to 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM, Intel GMA 3150 Accelerated Graphics, Realtek RTL8103EL Fast Ethernet and 4 USB ports, for example.

Perhaps even more important, however, is that--similar in many ways to a preloaded Ubuntu machine--energy-efficient Open-PCs are preconfigured to your specifications and arrive customer-ready. Only fully documented hardware is used--chosen, once again, through surveys of the Linux community--and it's designed for ease of use, even by novices. Gone can be all those fears about getting everything up and running smoothly.

3. Support Is Included

Adding further to that peace of mind is that if, by chance, you do encounter a problem, telephone and email support are included in the Open-PC's price. For those reluctant to entrust support to the community--excellent as that resource tends to be--that extra reassurance can be significant.

Bottom line? With prices starting at $249 in the United States, the Open-PC's price isn't insignificant. On the other hand, if you factor in the inclusion of support, the "just works" factor and an included donation to the KDE project, the Open-PC could be a compelling choice.

Follow Katherine Noyes on Twitter: @Noyesk .

Salesforce Service Cloud 3 Adds Customer Social Networking (PC World)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 03:50 PM PST

Bruce Gain Bruce Gain – Fri Mar 4, 6:50 pm ET

I was pleasantly surprised during an online presentation about Salesforce.com's Service Cloud 3. At first glance, it looks like a simple and powerful customer relationship management (CRM) tool that takes advantage of social networking to help connect with customers.

The concept is simple. Customer input by phone, e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, and video sites displays in a single interface. This also offers information about different customers, such as their "tweeting" history, with links to relevant white papers or troubleshooting FAQs that can solve problems individual customers might have. This is all available through a Web browser, which means you can access the service, whether at your home office or on a PC at a café in the Bahamas, without downloading software.

A main novelty is Service Cloud 3's aggregation. Small business users can be bombarded with tweets, e-mails, phone calls, and Facebook postings, pulled in different directions while sifting through social media sites and inboxes to address customer issues. All of these sources combined in a single screen reduces the amount of time otherwise spent clicking through various interfaces.

Salesforce.com says large enterprises can use the service to combine millions of queries about a common subject. But, for a smaller business, while a dozen customer queries about a similar problem don't seem like a lot in comparison, aggregating all of the queries from separate social networks in order to craft a single response can save a lot of time.

The service also supports video, although how well it works in practice remains to be seen. During the demonstration in New York on Thursday, someone posing as a customer placed a video call with the iPad 2 about a simulated product problem. Her issue was resolved by way of video chat through the Service Cloud 3 interface. While the iPad 2 capability seems nice to have, Salesforce.com says Service Cloud 3 can handle most other video calling services, such as from Skype. How willing small businesses will be to place video calls will depend, of course, but being able to walk a customer through a problem through video chat, with ready-to-access information in a knowledgebase on the same screen, sounds useful for live troubleshooting help.

Service Cloud 3 follows Salesforce.com's launch of Chatter, which offers social networking for businesses. While that's a more closed, intranet-like service compared to what Facebook offers, the service allows users to share comments, gather and list information about different subjects, and share content with colleagues. Users can share input from Chatter with Service Cloud 3 to address customer issues.

Service Cloud 3 extends what Salesforce.com previously offered with Service Cloud 2, with the addition of the new social networking capabilities, for a per-seat starting price of $65 per month. Not all of the functions displayed Thursday are available yet. While you can purchase Service Cloud 3 today, the Salesforce for Facebook features will be available by the end of April and will be free for Professional, Enterprise and Unlimited edition Salesforce.com customers.

Salesforce.com has built a business model based on offering cloud computing services on a pay-as-you-go basis, often allowing small businesses to use powerful CRM and other tools they couldn't otherwise afford. Service Cloud 3 can potentially be useful and unique, although how well it works in practice remains to be seen.

Bruce covers tech trends in the United States and Europe.

A Tougher, Greener Battery Could Power Phones in Africa (LiveScience.com)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 03:44 PM PST

Rob Goodier, TechNewsDaily Contributor,
LiveScience.com Rob Goodier, Technewsdaily Contributor,
livescience.com – Fri Mar 4, 6:44 pm ET

One of the problems facing developing countries is that people in rural communities tend to walk around with dead cell phones. That is because mobile devices are cheaper than ever, but power plants are still expensive. But as a work-around in off-the-grid communities, phone owners have learned to run charge cords off of used car batteries.

Now, Fenix International, a San Francisco-based design firm, may have a better solution for these communities: a new ruggedized battery and generator system called ReadySet. The device, its designers believe, could put more electricity in off-the-grid homes, create jobs, reduce indoor air pollution by replacing kerosene lanterns with LEDs, and eliminate car battery acid leaks. Plus, the telecom industry is hooked on it. Network carriers can make 10 to 14 percent more money from users who can keep their phones charged, and an estimated 500 million cell phone users worldwide live off the grid, according to a report from the mobile communications group GSMA.

“Building upon the existing culture was the inspiration for this solution,” said Michael Lin, founder of Fenix. “People in developing communities have a variety of needs, of course, but access to electricity is exciting in that it empowers people to improve their lives in a number of areas.”

Ready, set…

ReadySet is a plastic-encased brick optimized for charging phones and powering electronics. It has USB and cigar-lighter ports to serve the chargers most commonly found in East Africa, and it can recharge in a standard electrical outlet, a solar panel or on a mount for a stationary bicycle called a “Velo.”

The device needs no assembly. Under its cute case, ReadySet is a lead-acid battery, so it shares the same guts that a car battery has. The difference is that because it is programmed to shut off before it is fully drained,  this device retains its ability to charge for longer than a car battery does. It is also acid leak-resistant, unlike a car battery. Fenix's lab testers dropped the battery onto concrete from three feet above, sprayed it with salt water, blasted it UV rays, ran it through thousands of cycles — and it still stayed intact and leak free.

Will it sell?

Fenix is pilot-testing ReadySet in ten African markets. Retail sales should begin by June, and it may make its way to the developed world by the end of the year. The price for the kit should start at US $150, and the cost could fall if orders pick up.

That price, however, could be a sticking point for poor rural consumers, many of whom earn $2 to $4 per day. But in Lin's view, ReadySet could pay for itself by enabling business. In pilot tests, small business owners supplement their income by selling charges for $0.25 each. That is nothing new—people have paid for phone charges from car batteries for several years.

“We are working to distribute ReadySet with several large mobile phone network operators that have in excess of 100 million subscribers,” Lin said.

This story was provided by InnovationNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience.

CBS buys online video guide Clicker Media (AFP)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 03:30 PM PST

– Fri Mar 4, 6:30 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US television network CBS announced on Friday that it has acquired Clicker Media, a startup which provides an online video program guide.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

CBS Corp. president and chief executive Leslie Moonves said in a statement that Clicker's co-founder and chief executive, Jim Lanzone, had been named president of CBS Interactive, which oversees the broadcaster's Web properties.

"I'm confident that with Jim at the helm, we will continue to expand our digital footprint, and capitalize on our scale in this fast-growing marketplace," Moonves said.

CBS Web properties include technology blog CNET.com, TV.com, CBS.com, CBSSports.com, CBSNews.com and Gamespot.com.

Clicker, which was launched in November 2009, provides a directory of online television shows and movies and allows users to save and share their favorites with friends.

Clicker indexes more than one million online TV shows, movies and videos, both free and paid, and claims 2.5 million monthly users.

Samsung working on improving Galaxy Tab after seeing new iPad (Appolicious)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 12:18 PM PST

Intel Hopes to Boost Cloud Gaming With Ray Tracing (PC World)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 01:30 PM PST

Agam Shah Agam Shah – Fri Mar 4, 4:30 pm ET

A new technology from Intel called ray tracing could bring lifelike images and improved 3D effects to games on tablets and other mobile devices.

The chip maker is creating chips and rewriting games to use ray tracing, which generates accurate images by tracing paths of light and could lead to console-like gaming via the cloud, the company said in a podcast this week.

At some point in the future, after a new Intel chip is released, mobile device users will be able to play complex 3D games over the cloud using real-time ray tracing, which demands a lot of computing power, Intel said. Clusters of power servers with multiple CPUs and vector processing units could process tasks in parallel, with accurate images then being delivered to tablets and smartphones.

Tablets and smartphones are mostly used for casual gaming, but increasingly sophisticated hardware is making the devices capable of handling higher-resolution graphics. Apple's iPad 2 tablet, which was announced this week, has improved graphics capabilities compared to its predecessor, while LG's Optimus 2X smartphone can render 1080p video. A tablet using Nvidia's upcoming mobile chip called Kal-El was demonstrated playing an Xbox 360 game at last month's Mobile World Congress show.

Intel has rewritten the first-person shooter game "Wolfenstein," which looks more realistic with ray-tracing technology, said Daniel Pohl, an Intel researcher, in the podcast.

"We have a red car sitting at a courtyard, which has a very shiny reflective surface. That can be rendered very good ... because ray tracing can do very physically [accurate] modeling of reflections," Pohl said.

For example, ray tracing will let gamers use reflections off the car's surface as a mirror to see if snipers are approaching from the rear, Pohl said. Ray tracing could also add more visual detail such as shadows, which could help enhance 3D effects in a game.

Modern device screens employ millions of pixels and millions of rays are sent out for every pixel, which creates a challenge as a lot of processing power is needed, said John Owens, associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of California at Davis, during the podcast.

Billions of rays may need to be continually bounced off objects to accurately sample the changing scenes in a game. Modeling becomes even more complex if a game has a lot of moving objects and changing scenes.

"The reason [ray tracing] isn't pursued in your normal graphics cards today or that most of your games aren't done through it is that actually doing that computation is very challenging," Owens said.

Intel is trying to address the challenge through an experimental server chip called Knights Ferry, which is based on the company's new MIC (many integrated core) architecture. The chip, which was announced in May at the International Supercomputing Conference, is designed for intensive graphics and high-performance computing.

The chip has 32 x86 cores with corresponding 512-bit vector processing units. The cores operate at a clock speed of 1.2GHz, and the chip supports OpenCL and Microsoft's DirectX, which are frameworks that include tools for parallel programming.

Knights Ferry also implements elements of the now defunct Larrabee chip, which was to be Intel's first graphics processor. The chip maker showed Larrabee's ray-tracing capabilities on-stage at the Intel Developer Forum in 2009 in a game titled "Enemy Territory: Quake Wars," but many audience members were underwhelmed by the limited scope of the demonstration.

The first commercial product based on MIC architecture will be a chip called Knights Corner, which the company said will include more than 50 cores. Intel will release the chip in the first half of next year, an Intel executive said on a podcast in late February. Use of ray tracing for mobile gaming hinges on that chip's release.

Apple May Make MobileMe a Music Locker in the Cloud (NewsFactor)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 02:03 PM PST

Barry Levine, newsfactor.com Barry Levine, newsfactor.com – Fri Mar 4, 5:03 pm ET

A revamped MobileMe service from Apple, allowing users unlimited downloads of music to multiple devices. According to a new report, the company is planning such an announcement for the middle of this year.

Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was looking into a relaunch of its MobileMe online storage service. Currently, the $99-a-year service lets subscribers store data in the cloud and synchronize their contacts and calendars across devices. The Journal said Apple was considering making MobileMe into a free cloud-based service for a wide variety of digital content, including music, videos and photos.

Pandora, Rhapsody, Spotify

On Thursday, the Bloomberg News Service reported that Apple is negotiating with the big music companies -- Universal, Sony, Warner and EMI -- to allow unlimited downloads to multiple Apple devices sharing the same iTunes account. The news service said that, according to two people familiar with the planning, an announcement will be made within a few months and could involve a remake of the MobileMe service.

Such an arrangement would provide a permanent backup of music purchases -- essentially, a master file in the cloud -- in case a given file became damaged or lost. It could also provide a transition for Apple to offer more cloud-based services for its huge stores of content, including movies, e-publications and more.

Streaming cloud-based music services -- such as Pandora, Rhapsody and the European service Spotify -- are increasing in popularity. Spotify is expected to launch a U.S. version as soon as it concludes deals with the music labels. Pandora has filed for a public offering and its registered user population has doubled in a year to 80 million.

'Digital Locker'

Some observers expect Apple to avoid using the term "subscription" if it does relaunch MobileMe, but others have described the arrangement as a "digital locker." Digital downloads are plateauing in appeal, not only because of the growth of other cloud-based services, but also because of the multiple device management that many users find time-consuming.

Many users buy iTunes music through their computer and then sync mobile devices to that computer. But if they buy the music from one of their mobile devices instead of the computer, library management becomes more complicated.

While Apple still has an estimated 70 percent of all online music sales, cloud-based content is appealing. Google, among others, has reportedly also been in discussion with the music companies to offer a cloud-based music digital locker for smartphones using its open-source Android operating system.

In 2009, Apple bought streaming music service Lala. Some observers expected Apple to use the purchase as the basis for an entry into cloud-based music, but Apple shut down Lala in 2010.

Remains of the Day: Inadequacy, incorporated (Macworld)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:42 PM PST

Dan Moren Dan Moren – Fri Mar 4, 7:42 pm ET

Samsung takes a hard look at its iPad competitors and comes up short. Elsewhere, Apple is back at the bargaining table with music labels and, despite its best efforts, Microsoft is late to the tablet game. The remainders for Friday, March 4, 2011 are right on time.

Samsung exec: Our tablet is 'inadequate' (CNN)

At least one of Apple's competitors has apparently taken Steve Jobs's words to heart. Samsung executive Lee Don-Joo described the company's forthcoming 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab as "inadequate" in light of the newly announced iPad 2. The company had planned to make the 10.1-inch version more expensive than the 7-inch model, which retails for $750. On the upside, at least the company hasn't sold enough of Galaxy Tabs to have legions of disappointed customers.

Apple Said in Talks to Sell ITunes Buyers Unlimited Downloads for Devices (Bloomberg)

Apparently, Apple's in talks with music companies to allow iTunes users to download songs multiple times. If an agreement is reached, you'd be allowed to redownload songs on your devices, just as you can redownload apps you've already bought. Then again, such a feature might also reveal that your purchase of the latest Jonas Brothers single wasn't a one-time fluke.

AirPlay Is Coming to Apps, Except the Ones You Use (GigaOm)

While HBO is apparently over taking advantage of Apple's AirPlay technology, Netflix has no plans to implement the feature for its iOS apps when iOS 4.3 drops next week, pointing out that the Apple TV already has Netflix support. Surprising restraint for a company that allows streaming to everything from my Xbox 360 to my toaster.

Microsoft Said to Plan Windows Release for Tablets in 2012 (BusinessWeek)

The company that has tried to invigorate the tablet market more times than George Lucas has rereleased the Star Wars trilogy will be trying once again…in 2012. Yes, Microsoft is reportedly giving tablets another shot, aiming for back-to-school season next year. To be fair, they need at least a year to figure out how to smush the Surface into something that fits in a backpack.

Apple iPad 2 launch? Fix in-app purchases first, Apple! (NMA.tv)

If you've been waiting breathlessly for the next installment of Taiwanese-produced CGI versions of current events, wait no longer: the latest edition covers the in-app purchase foofaraw and includes an evil Steve Jobs stealing a house with a helicopter—a phrase I will no doubt never get to write ever again in my career.

Patch Tuesday Will Skip IE Before PWN2OWN Contest (NewsFactor)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 02:04 PM PST

Mark Long, newsfactor.com Mark Long, newsfactor.com – Fri Mar 4, 5:04 pm ET

Microsoft notified customers Friday that it will release several security patches next Tuesday, two of which pertain to Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 as well as Windows Server 2003 and 2008. Another patch will fix a vulnerability in an Office collaboration component called Microsoft Groove 2007.

Some observers were surprised that Microsoft's next Patch Tuesday won't include patches for Internet Explorer. At next week's fifth annual PWN2OWN competition at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, security experts will compete for prizes by attempting to breach the security of the latest Chrome, Firefox, IE and Safari browsers.

"Upcoming Microsoft patch day before PWN2OWN will not fix any IE vulnerabilities!" exclaimed France-based security research firm Vupen in a Friday tweet. "With or without a patch, Microsoft knows that IE will be PWNed!"

Squarely in the Crosshairs

Google and Mozilla issued a flurry of browser security updates earlier this week to strengthen Chrome and Firefox in advance of March 9 -- the opening day of the annual PWN2OWN contest. Sponsored by the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) team at security research firm TippingPoint, PWN2OWN is held for the purpose of responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities so the affected vendors can prepare effective security patches.

"The competition will focus on two main technologies: Web browsers and mobile devices," noted Aaron Portnoy, manager of the security research team at TippingPoint. "Staying true to the original intent of the PWN2OWN contest, we intend to empirically demonstrate the current security posture of the most prevalent products in use today," he wrote in a blog.

Though this week's security update from Apple was squarely aimed at patching security vulnerabilities in iTunes, Apple is also widely expected to issue similar patches for Safari. According to a Thursday tweet from Vupen, which will be the first PWN2OWN contestant to attack Safari, Apple fixed a record 50 vulnerabilities in its iTunes WebKit this week "and is preparing the update for Safari/Mac OS X."

But as the second PWN2OWN competitor slated to target Internet Explorer next week, it's Microsoft which Vupen has in the crosshairs. "We discovered a new vulnerability in IE8/Windows 7 SP1 which allows the bypass of Protected Mode (IE sandbox)," Vupen security experts said in another tweet. "Maybe we will use it at PWN2OWN."

Hacking for Dollars

According to Portnoy, each browser will be installed on a 64-bit system running the latest version of either OS X or Windows 7. "A successful hack of IE, Safari or Firefox will net the competitor a $15,000 cash prize," Portnoy wrote in a blog.

For Chrome, this year's PWN2OWN contest will feature two separate competitions. "On day one, Google will offer $20,000 and the Cr-48 [laptop] if a contestant can pop the browser and escape the sandbox using vulnerabilities purely present in Google-written code," Portnoy explained. "If competitors are unsuccessful, on day two and three the ZDI will offer $10,000 for a sandbox escape in non-Google code and Google will offer $10,000 for the Chrome bug."

PWN2OWN contestants also will be aiming to win $15,000 cash prizes for exploiting the security measures built into a Dell Venue Pro smartphone running Windows Phone 7, an iPhone 4 running iOS, a BlackBerry Torch 9800 running BlackBerry OS 6, and a Nexus S smartphone running Android.

"A successful attack against these devices must require little to no user interaction and must compromise useful data from the phone," Portnoy explained. "Any attack that can incur cost upon the owner of the device -- such as silently calling long-distance numbers, eavesdropping on conversations, and so forth -- is within scope."

IBM Fires Back at Oracle in Middleware Fray (PC World)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 12:50 PM PST

Chris Kanaracus Chris Kanaracus – Fri Mar 4, 3:50 pm ET

IBM is returning fire to Oracle in an increasingly heated battle over who has the faster stack of middleware.

Big Blue released new SPECjEnterprise 2010 benchmarking statistics on Friday that it said "demonstrate how businesses using IBM WebSphere middleware on Power 7 hardware can get the lowest cost for performance in the industry." IBM also claimed that it "has proven 76 percent higher performance than Oracle overall."

In addition, IBM has launched a new website that lays into Oracle on a number of fronts. "Are you overpaying for Oracle Database? Hint. You're overpaying for Oracle Database," one barb reads.

An Oracle spokeswoman could not immediately comment.

While such chest-beating is nothing new in the software industry, and occurs even as Oracle and IBM partner on other fronts, this particular dispute has a significant backstory.

In September 2009, the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) fined Oracle US$10,000 over an advertisement Oracle placed in the Wall Street Journal, which claimed that a system using Oracle hardware and software ran faster than an IBM combination, based on TPC benchmarks.

Oracle said at the time that its benchmark would be released Oct. 14.

Both Oracle and IBM are members of the group, which was "founded to define transaction processing and database benchmarks and to disseminate objective, verifiable TPC performance data to the industry," according to its website.

After IBM complained, the TPC found that Oracle's claim "was not supported because Oracle did not have a TPC result at the time of publication," and ordered the ads pulled.

That incident no doubt had an influence on IBM's current campaign against Oracle, which after its acquisition of Sun Microsystems and move into integrated systems, has become IBM's primary competitor.

"IBM is totally ripped at what it sees as Oracle FUD and outright lies in its marketing and sales messages," said Forrester Research analyst John Rymer via e-mail. "I think Oracle is hurting IBM, and now, bloodied, IBM is starting to fight back."

As for the benchmarks each vendor is wielding, they deserve "zero attention" in Rymer's view. "It is simply too hard to determine what they mean to real applications," he said.

Meanwhile, for all their flag waving, both Oracle and IBM face serious challenges in middleware.

"IBM's challenge is to integrate all its acquisitions in middleware and serve it up as one solution that's simple and low-cost to own," said Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research. "That's the battle they are waging now, to show they are doing this. Oracle just took BEA and built around it. Neither is easy to do."

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

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