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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Google brings high-speed broadband network to Kan. (AP) : Technet

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Google brings high-speed broadband network to Kan. (AP) : Technet

Google brings high-speed broadband network to Kan. (AP)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 02:28 PM PDT

By MARIA SUDEKUM FISHER and JOELLE TESSLER, Associated Press Maria Sudekum Fisher And Joelle Tessler, Associated Press – Wed Mar 30, 5:28 pm ET

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – After seeing Facebook pleas and flash mobs, and even cities temporarily renaming themselves "Google," the search engine giant said Wednesday it has chosen Kansas City, Kan., as the first place that will get its new ultra-fast broadband network.

Google announced that the city would be the inaugural site for its "Fiber for Communities" program, which it says will be capable of delivering Internet access more than 100 times faster than the home broadband connections provided by phone and cable companies across the U.S.

The company envisions systems that will let consumers to download a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes, allow rural health clinics to send 3-D medical images over the Internet and let students collaborate with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture.

Google's service, which will provide Internet connections of 1 gigabit per second to as many as 500,000 people, will be offered in early 2012 while the company looks at other communities across the country.

More than 1,100 cities had made bids to become a test site for the company's fiber-optic network, trying to catch Google's attention and show their enthusiasm.

Milo Medin, Google's vice president for access services, said Kansas City, Kan., was selected in part because of its solid network infrastructure and because the program would have an impact on the community, one of the poorest in the state.

"We believe gigabit broadband can be leveraged for economic development and educational gain, both of which are vital in the global economy that we live in today,'" Medin said. "We want to be able to build strong relationships and partnerships with local government and communities so that we can work together to use technology in a new way to make a city a better place to live in, a better place to work in, a better place to learn in."

The company's deadline for city governments and citizens to express interest in attracting Google passed in March 2010. Many cities used stunts and gimmickry to get the company's attention and show interest in the experimental network.

Topeka informally renamed itself "Google, Kansas." Members of the group Think Big Topeka also organized a flash mob at a community meeting and a formation of fans spelling out "Google" on the ice during a RoadRunners hockey game. A group in Baltimore launched a website that used Google mapping to plot the location of more than 1,000 residents and give their reasons for wanting the service. Hundreds of groups on Facebook implored Google to come to their cities.

Joe Reardon, mayor and CEO of Kansas City and Wyandotte County, said the "1 gigabit fiber backbone straight through to businesses and homes" would mean business and educational opportunities for the area, and would help the community grow in unique ways.

"The unbelievable thing about this from a development perspective is that it knows no particular place or boundary" he said. "It could be deployed to anywhere the need and interest is."

Google's new fiber-optic network comes amid growing worry among policy makers and public interest groups in Washington that broadband connections in the U.S. are far slower and more expensive than those available in many European and Asian countries, and that too many Americans still have no broadband access at all.

President Barack Obama recently pledged to expand high-speed wireless Internet access to 98 percent of Americans. The Federal Communications Commission and the Commerce Department are searching for more wireless spectrum — or airwaves — to make that possible. The FCC is also seeking to tap the federal program that subsidizes phone service in rural and poor communities to pay for broadband access.

For its part, Google has said it's not interested in dominating or even grabbing a sizable chunk of the broadband market. Instead, it is dipping into its $35 billion bank account to build an ultra-fast Internet network in hopes of prodding telecommunications and cable providers to upgrade their services in communities across the country.

Google says it hopes phone and cable companies will learn lessons from the experimental network that will help them hurry the rollout of their own high-speed systems and bring faster connections to more Americans at a lower cost. It also hopes to provide a test-bed for online video and other advanced applications that require a lot of bandwidth.

If more data can be sent through Internet pipes at faster speeds, Google believes people will spend more time on the Internet — an activity that typically enriches the company by bringing more traffic to its dominant search engine and producing more opportunities to show revenue-generating ads.

Unlike many of Google's Web-based applications such as email, calendars and document creation, Kansas City's Internet access using Google's pipes likely won't be free. On a question-and-answer page at its website, Google did not give specifics on its pricing plan, but said the company plans to offer the service "at a competitive price to what people are paying for Internet access today."

___

Tessler reported from Washington, D.C.

Google reaches privacy settlement with FTC (AP)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 03:58 PM PDT

By JOELLE TESSLER, AP Technology Writer Joelle Tessler, Ap Technology Writer – Wed Mar 30, 6:58 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Google has agreed to adopt a comprehensive privacy program to settle federal charges that it deceived users and violated its own privacy policy when it launched a social networking service called Buzz last year.

The search giant triggered a fierce user backlash when it integrated Buzz into its Gmail email service in February 2010. The service automatically created public circles of friends for users based on their most frequent Gmail contacts. But many users complained that they didn't want all their email contacts — which could include ex-spouses, doctors, employers and recruiters — to become part of a social network for anyone to see.

The settlement announced Wednesday with the Federal Trade Commission requires Google to study both its existing services and any new services it launches to determine if they pose risks to user privacy — and develop policies to address those risks if they do.

The settlement mandates independent audits to oversee and verify Google's privacy program every other year for the next 20 years. The settlement also requires Google to obtain user consent before sharing consumer information with third parties if it alters a service to use the data in a way that would violate its existing privacy policy.

The FTC charged that Google had violated its own privacy policy by taking personal information provided for Gmail and integrating it into Buzz without permission, even though it had promised to obtain consent before using information "in a manner different than the purpose for which it was collected."

"When companies make privacy pledges, they need to honor them," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement.

The FTC complaint outlined a number of problems with Buzz. Those included ineffective options to let users decline to participate in the service, confusing and hard-to-find controls to let users limit sharing of their email contacts, and inadequate notice of exactly what the service did.

After receiving thousands of complaints, Google responded by tweaking the service to make it easier for users to hide their lists of contacts and block specific people from following their Buzz updates, including links, posts, photos and videos. In addition, the company agreed late last year to give about $8.5 million to Internet privacy and policy organizations to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by Gmail users over Buzz.

Jessica Rich, deputy director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said the agency hopes that Wednesday's settlement will help set privacy standards for companies across the Internet ecosystem — not just Google.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy watchdog group that filed the FTC complaint about Google Buzz that led to Wednesday's settlement, echoed that point. "For Internet users, the FTC decision should lead to higher privacy standards and better protection for personal data," EPIC President Marc Rotenberg said in a statement.

For its part, Google said in a blog post that it hopes the FTC settlement puts the issue behind it and apologized for its missteps with Buzz.

"We try to be clear about what data we collect and how we use it — and to give people real control over the information they share with us," the blog post said. "That said, we don't always get everything right. The launch of Google Buzz fell short of our usual standards for transparency and user control — letting our users and Google down."

Google has already stepped up its efforts to improve its privacy policies and practices following last year's disclosure that it had inadvertently sucked up fragments of e-mails, Web surfing behavior and other online activities over public Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries while photographing neighborhoods for its "Street View" mapping feature. Google said it discovered the problem after an inquiry by German regulators.

The FTC's rebuke is the latest blow that the government has dealt to Google. Last week, a federal judge rejected a proposed legal settlement that would have given Google the digital rights to millions of out-of-print books after determining that the agreement would have violated U.S. copyright laws and given Google's already-dominant search engine an unfair advantage over its rivals.

Google is hoping to avoid another setback as it tries to persuade the Justice Department to approve its proposed $700 million acquisition of online air fare tracker ITA Software. The Justice Department has spent the past eight months examining whether the deal would allow Google to use its search engine to highlight its travel recommendations over other services and withhold the latest technology from rivals who already license ITA Software's products. Lawyers familiar with antitrust reviews expect the Justice Department to decide whether to challenge the acquisition or approve it, possibly with strings attached, within the next month.

___

AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Google adds button to endorse search results, ads (AP)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 03:22 PM PDT

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Wed Mar 30, 6:22 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Google Inc. likes the way Facebook gets people to share their recommendations so much that it's adding its own option for endorsing search results and online ads.

The "+1" button announced Wednesday represents the Internet search leader's latest attempt to make it easier for its users to share their insights with their online contacts, formed through other Google services such as Gmail.

Someone who wants to endorse a particular search term or an ad simply hits the +1 button. When people in that person's Internet circle uses the same search term or sees the same ad, they'll see the person's endorsement next to it.

In another Facebook imitation, Google also will allow other websites to place the +1 button next to their content.

Google hopes to benefit from its version of Facebook's "Like" button by making its search results more relevant and its ads more tempting to click.

If enough people use the recommendation button, the number of endorsements for links eventually could influence the order of some search results, said Matt Cutts, a Google's principal search engineer.

The +1 button initially will begin appearing next to search results and ads for a relatively small number of Google users. Anyone who wants the +1 feature sooner can sign up at http://www.google.com/experimental.

Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., has been experimenting with different social tools since late 2009 with limited success.

In a major misstep, Google last year tried to attach a social network called "Buzz" to its popular Gmail service and wound up exposing email contacts that users didn't want to share. The company conceded the Buzz bungle violated its own privacy policies and agreed to submit to independent audits of its privacy controls every other year for the next two decades as part of a Federal Trade Commission settlement, which also was announced Wednesday.

To avoid any misunderstandings with the +1 button, Google will explicitly advise people they are publicly sharing their recommendations when they click on the new tool.

The online connections for the +1 tool will be drawn from users' Gmail and Buzz accounts, as well as other contact lists set up within Google's services. Later, Google hopes to tether the +1 connections to Twitter's short messaging services and other websites, too. The feature won't be able to hook up with the social networks within Facebook because that online hangout doesn't share the data with other websites.

LinkedIn Founder: "Web 3.0" Will Be About Data (Mashable)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 04:27 PM PDT

Ben Parr Ben Parr – Wed Mar 30, 7:27 pm ET

LinkedIn founder and chairman Reid Hoffman says that the future of the web will be all about data and how we utilize it.

Hoffman made his assertion during a fireside chat at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. While he conceded that mobile is an obvious candidate for what will define "Web 3.0," he said that data will be the platform of the next era of the web. "This is where some massive innovation will happen that will transform our lives," he told Liz Gannes of AllThingsD on stage.

Hoffman, who is now a partner at venture capital firm Greylock Partners, says that data will come in two forms: explicit and implicit. Explicit data is data users willingly give to social networks, blog posts and tweets, while implicit data is data collected in the background, such as geolocation.

There are also two types of data sets, he said: tightly held sets (passwords, credit card numbers) and open sets. He cited Google as a company focused on the open data set, since in order for its search engine to be functional, it needs website data to be publicly available and indexable by its bots so it can be delivered as search results.

All of this data will lead to a lot of interesting products and insights. He cited LinkedIn Skills as an example of how analyzing user data can result in useful insights and reveal trends -- figuring out things like which industries are growing the fastest and which skills are related to each other.

Hoffman also had a strong opinion of what companies should do with the data they collect. "Good Internet companies do not ambush their users," he said. Both Google and Facebook have been criticized for their use of user data and their treatment of user privacy. Google in fact settle with the FTC on Wednesday in relation to "deceptive tactics" the company used with Google Buzz

Australia PM urges consul access to China blogger (AFP)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 09:05 PM PDT

– 28 mins ago

SYDNEY (AFP) – Prime Minister Julia Gillard urged China Thursday to allow consular access to an Australian writer and blogger feared detained by authorities after confirming he had been in touch with friends.

Yang Hengjun, a former Chinese diplomat who is now based in Sydney and is an Australian citizen, disappeared on Sunday after ringing a colleague to say he was at Guangzhou in southern China and was being followed by three men.

Rights group Amnesty International has said those close to Yang, a spy novelist and prominent online commentator, believe he is being held by Chinese authorities.

Gillard, who is scheduled to make her first trip as prime minister to China in April, told reporters: "I am now advised he is in hospital (and) he's in contact with his family.

"We're pleased that we now know where he is and we will pursue consular access and assistance to him, making sure that our officials in China support him."

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs late Wednesday reminded Beijing that consular agreements between the two countries required notification of any detention within three days.

At a foreign ministry briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, a Chinese government spokeswoman said she had not heard of Yang and had no information about him.

Friends fear Yang has been detained as part of China's crackdown on political expression in the wake of the democratic uprisings sweeping the Middle East and north Africa.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Yang phoned his sister on Monday with a coded message "Relax, I'm chatting with old friends." The paper cited Yang's confidants as saying that "old friends" meant the secret police.

The State of 'Do Not Track' on the Internet (PC World)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 06:00 PM PDT

David Daw David Daw – Wed Mar 30, 9:00 pm ET

Users concerned with online privacy have been struggling for years to come up with a solution to being tracked on the Web. Such users either want to avoid irritating, targeted ads based on browsing history or are concerned about businesses having too much access to our personal information.

Historically, each new workaround to escape tracking online--such as deleting cookies or enabling private browsing modes--is met with new and more effective forms of tracking, such as the much-harder-to-delete flash cookies. The situation may be changing, however, with a new standard that has been making some significant headway in the past few months.

The Do Not Track standard, created by researchers at Stanford University, is a simple solution that has found its way into new and forthcoming browsers--the recently released Mozilla Firefox 4 and the final version of Microsoft Internet Explorer 9, due out in soon. The promise of Do Not Track is the hope that users could opt out from all online tracking with one click. The concept has been under discussion in Congress and by the Federal Trade Commission.

How Does 'Do Not Track' Work?

By checking a box in either browser's preferences, Do Not Track adds a message to your http: headers confirming that you don't want to be tracked. (That checkbox will be available only in the final version of IE 9.) These headers are already sent with each request for information you make to any site, thus ensuring that any site that tracks you gets the message. The hope is that Do Not Track will let users quickly and easily opt out of all online tracking at once, instead of forcing them to find solutions for each type of tracking individually.

Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Do Not Track's current flaw is also what makes it so easy to use. Once you've flagged yourself as unwilling to be tracked, it is up to individual Websites to honor your request, and that creates quite a few problems. Hardly any site is complying with the Do Not Track requests--but new federal legislation proposed in Congress in the wake of the FTC's call for a Do Not Track system promises to change all that. However, predictions abound that Do Not Track could have larger, undesirable consequences.

The End of the Free Web?

Advertising makes up a significant revenue stream for plenty of sites on the Internet that provide free content (including PCWorld.com), and Do Not Track throws a serious monkey wrench into a certain type of targeted advertising. Exactly how serious a problem Do Not Track could cause depends on who you ask: Industry trade groups are very critical of Do Not Track legislation, and you'll find no shortage of doomsday scenarios suggesting that the passage of this type of legislation will destroy the advertising revenue that funds most free content online and put an end to the Internet as we know it.

The idea is that--without the financial support provided by targeted advertisements--ad-supported sites will no longer be able to sustain themselves, and that the buffet of free content that has been available to users online will therefore disappear.

While Do Not Track is likely to have some economic consequences, these predictions seem seriously overblown. Jonathan Mayer of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society has suggested that Do Not Track's effect on advertising will likely be far smaller than predicted. The behavioral advertising that the Do Not Track law would affect constitutes only about 4 percent of advertising online, according to Mayer--which makes the odds rather low that the content you like to read online would be targeted. In addition, if a site really depended on such behavioral advertising for a large proportion of its revenue, it would be relatively simple for the site to request, or even require, users to allow tracking before they entered the site.

Online tracking is an important tool for advertisers, but it's hardly the only one. Rainey Reitman, Activism Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, thinks Do Not Track might let users who are concerned with privacy but who want to support advertising-based sites have it both ways. "The way things are today, the only reasonable method a consumer has to protect her online privacy is to block most of the advertisements on the Internet," Reitman says. "Do Not Track offers a way for users to protect their privacy in a meaningful way without just blocking all advertisements."

Would Tracking Move Underground?

A second, less hyped concern with Do Not Track legislation is that we might be targeting the wrong people. As PCWorld.com blogger Jared Newman noted in "Do-Not-Track in Chrome and Firefox: Different Approaches, Same Fatal Flaw," Do Not Track, even with legislation in place, affects only those sites that play by the rules. Users could end up punishing sites like Google that traffic solely in comparatively harmless advertising, while giving free rein to sites that have fewer scruples about using your online information.

This is a real concern with systems where compliance by trackers is voluntary. But it's also important to remember that Do Not Track doesn't exist in a vacuum. Microsoft, for instance, will package Do Not Track with a tracking protection list, a feature currently in the IE 9 beta that lets users manually exclude content from suspicious sites. These two solutions in IE 9 do a great job of complementing each other. While Do Not Track passively opts you out of most tracking, the protection list actively excludes those sites that don't play by the rules.

It's also important to remember that Do Not Track isn't an all or nothing solution. If you want to support more reputable sites that still engage in tracking, the standard lets users manually allow some sites to track them. So, if you feel that a site like Amazon or Google actually provides value to you when it tracks, you can let it do so without losing your protection against other sites.

What Will 'Do Not Track' Change for the User?

If we get national Do Not Track legislation, what changes are end users likely to experience? The EFF's Reitman says that most users probably won't notice much at first. "What you have to remember is that Web tracking as we know it today is insidious in large part because it's invisible. [...] So, just as the problem is in itself hard to spot, the solution will be subtle--most people who enable Do Not Track won't notice a huge difference in their online reading experience."

Do Not Track is far from a perfect solution to online privacy, but it's an important step in the right direction for concerned Web users. When combined with other solutions--like tracking protection lists--it promises to help protect your privacy without seriously affecting your browsing online.

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Japan disasters could send gadget prices higher (AFP)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 08:45 PM PDT

by Alix Rijckaert Alix Rijckaert – 48 mins ago

PARIS (AFP) – Disaster-hit Japan churns out many of the world's smartphones, video cameras and other gadgets and while sales are not expected to suffer around the globe, industry analysts expect prices to rise.

"From semiconductors to displays, to automotive and consumer electronics, the effects of the Japan earthquake continue to reverberate throughout the world," said Dale Ford, senior vice president at research firm IHS iSuppli.

"Beyond the damage to Japan's own industrial base, the earthquake has impacted the production of basic electronic raw materials," Ford said.

Japan produces between 15 percent and 20 percent of the world's electronics and "plays a particularly key role in some areas," said Jean-Philippe Dauvin of Paris-based consulting company Decision.

Dauvin said 30 percent of the videogames, 40 percent of the video cameras and still cameras and 15 percent of the television sets sold around the world are manufactured in Japan.

He said 40 to 50 of Japan's 140 semiconductor factories have been shut down as a result of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and noted that DRAM and NAND memory are key components of both tablet computers and smartphones.

Within the next few weeks, there will be disruptions to the global supply chain and higher prices for computer chips, "leading inevitably to higher prices for the consumer," Dauvin said.

"There's about 100 euros ($141) worth of semiconductors in a smartphone," Dauvin said. "There's sure to be memory and Japanese components in there."

Apple's iPad and iPhone, for example, is assembled mostly in China but is brimming with "Made in Japan" parts according to IHS iSuppli, including the battery, electronic compass, NAND and DRAM memory and the touchscreen display.

"The supply chain will begin to dry up within about three weeks," Dauvin said, leading to shortages, delivery delays and forcing the shutdown of some production lines.

Japan's factories usually work at full capacity from April and May to crank out products for later in the year, including the Christmas holidays.

It remains difficult to predict when the country will resume producing at full capacity because aftershocks are continuing to play havoc with factories and electricity remains rationed in some areas.

Gartner research vice president Richard Gordon said he was cautiously optimistic Japan's disasters would not have too much of a negative impact on the global supply chain for electronics.

"Early on, when the earthquake just happened, there was lot of concern that there would be an immediate impact and that it would be quite significant on the global level in terms of a disruption to the electronics supply chain," he said.

"But over the past two or three weeks we've become a bit more optimistic that disruptions will be contained, that there will be enough flexibility in the supply chain to smooth out some of these disruptions," he said.

"It is still possible in the next months, into April and May, that we may see some shortages that we're not forecasting at the moment," Gordon said.

"But at this stage it's a bit early to say so," he said. "We will wait and see how the supply chain copes."

Hacktivist Android Trojan Designed to Fight App Piracy (PC World)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 07:15 PM PDT

Tony Bradley Tony Bradley – 2 hrs 18 mins ago

There's hacking, then there's hacktivism. There's malware, then there's Android Trojans like the latest "threat" discovered by Symantec. Android.Walkinwat is like the Batman of mobile malware--a rogue vigilante seeking justice through means that also skirt legality, but for a good cause.

The purpose of Android.Walkinwat is not to take control of your Android smartphone, compromise your personal data, or steal your bank account information. In fact, if you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear from Android.Walkinwat. But, if you have a habit of downloading pirated Android apps rather than paying for the legitimate version, you might run into this Trojan.

Android. Walkinwat poses as a pirated version of "Walk and Text"--a legitimate Android app. Users who install this version of "Walk and Text", though, are in for a surprise. The Trojan will gather some information from the Android smartphone, then notify the user that they have been caught downloading a pirate version of the app.

As if that is not enough, Android.Walkinwat adds public humiliation by sending an SMS text message to all of the contacts on the smartphone with the text "Hey, just downlaoded a pirated App off Internet, Walk and Text for Android. Im stupid and cheap, it costed only 1 buck. Don't steal it like I did!"

A Symantec blog post breaks down the hacktivist mobile malware in more detail. It describes how Android.Walkinwat uses a routine called "LicenseCheck"--a function typically used by legitimate Android apps for license management in conjunction with a Licensing Verification Library developed to help prevent piracy.

A Symantec spokesperson explained, "Although this isn't the first case of digital vigilante justice being used as means to send a message against piracy, it is the first of its kind discovered in the mobile threat landscape."

Apps--at least the vast majority of apps--cost virtually nothing. Yes, I agree it sucks to spend even one dollar and find out the app sucks, but it's only one dollar. Someone, somewhere invested time and effort and some degree of skill and ingenuity to design the app, and that someone deserves to get paid.

Twitter co-founder Williams taking wing (AFP)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 07:53 PM PDT

by Glenn Chapman Glenn Chapman – 1 hr 40 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Twitter co-founder Evan Williams is throttling back his role in the hot microblogging startup and turning his attention to a new entrepreneurial endeavor.

"After stepping down from CEO six months ago, my mind started to wander," Williams said in a message at his EvHead blog on Wednesday. "I've decided to scale back my role at the company."

The message by Williams came on the heels of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announcing that he was returning to the high-flying company as executive chairman to head its product team.

When he ceded the Twitter helm to then chief operating officer Dick Costolo, Williams said he would be focusing on product strategy at the San Francisco-based firm.

"Now that Twitter is in capable hands that aren't mine, it's time to pick up a whiteboard marker and think fresh," Williams said.

"There are other problems/opportunities in the world that need attention, and there are other individuals I'd love to get the opportunity to work with and learn from," he continued.

Twitter has enjoyed skyrocketing popularity since it was launched in March of 2006 and now claims to have more than 450 employees, with new hires arriving weekly.

More than 200 million people use Twitter, firing off more than 140 million messages of 140 characters or less daily. The length limit was set to fit the maximum allowed in text messages sent using mobile phones.

Williams said he felt that Twitter is "on solid ground and in capable hands."

"I'm still involved, but it's no longer my full-time job," Williams said of his evolving position at Twitter.

"I'm not ready to talk about what I have planned next," he continued. "But, I will venture a prediction about what's next for Twitter: It will be bigger and better."

Williams said he will remain on the Twitter board of directors and meet frequently with people at the firm.

"I'm not disappearing from Twitter," he stressed.

Twitter has been a media darling in recent weeks as it officially marks its fifth birthday and shines as a tool used by people fighting for political reform in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Twitter's third co-founder Biz Stone was being interviewed by bawdy radio talk show personality Howard Stern when he revealed details of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg expressing interest in buying Twitter.

Williams and Stone made a road trip from San Francisco to Facebook headquarters in the Silicon Valley city of Palo Alto to meet with Zuckerberg in late 2008.

On the way Williams and Stone pondered a price for Twitter, and settled on a figure of $500 million tossed out by Stone.

Zuckerberg led Williams and Stone into a room and sat in the only single chair, leaving the Twitter co-founders to share a small love seat.

"It was fun, but it was also awkward," Stone said of the chat with Zuckerberg. "I was making all these jokes, and they were just dying."

Zuckerberg asked the pair to propose a sale price for Twitter, and responded "That's a big number" after Williams tossed out the $500 million figure, according to Stone.

Facebook made a cash-and-stock offer for Twitter during a cordial meeting that included lunch, Stone said.

"When talking to him it was weird," Stone said of Zuckerberg.

"He was one guy but it almost seemed he had 12 people in his head," he added during the Stern broadcast. "He had already gone through every possible scenario that we could talk about."

After returning to Twitter offices that afternoon, Williams sent Zuckerberg an email saying the firm wasn't for sale.

"To be perfectly honest, we really had no intention of selling," Stone said. "We just had to go meet the great Mark Zuckerberg."

Microsoft developing mobile payments system for Windows Phone (Digital Trends)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 06:29 PM PDT

Jeffrey Van Camp Jeffrey Van Camp – Wed Mar 30, 9:29 pm ET

nfc-near-field-communications-visa-thingNew rumors suggest that, much like Google and Apple, Microsoft may be working on its own mobile payments software for Windows Phone 7 using the popular Near-Field Communications (NFC) technology. The software would be integrated into a future version of the mobile OS and is intended to help Microsoft keep pace with Android and iOS. However, Redmond may move a bit faster with the technology. Bloomberg reports that the first WP handsets with NFC built in may be released this year.

NFC is a new, more secure wireless payment system that allows a device to be flicked past or held about 2-4 inches from a reciever to make a payment, much like many credit card companies touted RFID-equipped cards (which are very insecure) a few years back. Some gas stations and grocery stores still have the little wireless payment receivers on top of the credit card machines, but the technology has not caught on as fast as some had hoped. Wireless carriers and platform operators are hoping that NFC technology could help phones become the next credit cards.

However, though NFC integration seemed imminent a few months back, more recent rumors indicate that it may be a while longer before Google and Apple fully integrate NFC, giving Microsoft a head start, should it move quickly. Google is preparing to test its mobile payments system in New York City and San Francisco within the next four months, and has signed deals with Mastercard and Citigroup. In Europe, Deutsche Telekom (who recently sold T-Mobile to AT&T) announced in February that it plans to aggressively roll out NFC payments this year.

It looks like NFC may launch on almost every major smartphone platform in the next year or two. Are you ready to give up that credit card and start swiping your phone to pay?

Overwhelmed By News? Summify Picks The Top 5 Articles You Should Read (Mashable)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 04:06 PM PDT

Sarah Kessler Sarah Kessler – Wed Mar 30, 7:06 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: Summify

Quick Pitch: Summify e-mails users five stories they should read based on what their friends are talking about on social networks.

Genius Idea: Making a product so simple it's impossible to be overwhelmed by it.

In attempting to build the perfect RSS feeder, Summify founders Mircea Paşoi and Cristian Strat quickly learned one thing: the world does not need another RSS feeder.

Their original product ranked news items in real time based on who in the users' network was sharing them. In order to promote it, the team sent e-mails to their users with a summary of the top five stories suggested for them at that time. Everybody opened the emails, Paşoi says -- but nobody returned to the website.

On Wednesday, the team launched a new version of its product, exclusively dedicated to delivering the top five news stories to users based on what their friends shared and liked.

"You get your stories once a day or every few hours ... and then you're done," explains PaÅŸoi. "That's the feeling that people actually enjoy -- that they're done and there's not more that they need to read."

Here's how it works: users connect their RSS feeds, Twitter accounts, and Facebook profiles to Summify. An algorithm takes into account what feeds they follow and what their friends are talking about, and determines what they should read. Stories that are unusually popular on social networks are also accounted for. The resulting list is e-mailed to users directly.

By default, Summify sends its users five stories once a day. But users can include as many stories as they want, and change the frequency of the email.

Summify isn't the first company to realize the need to sort out information. My6Sense sends important tweets to the top of your Twitter feeds, and also sorts through users' RSS feeds and social networks. The Tweeted Times compiles a personal newspaper based on Twitter activity. Zite is an iPad magazine that learns what kind of news you like to read.

But none of these platforms has the simplicity that Summify brings to the table. Those services are immersive and comprehensive, by design. With Summify, you can happily ignore feeds of all kinds, and possibly even become productive again.

There is no set plan to monetize this simplicity, though advertising and a premium version are both possibilities. Regardless, investors are excited about the Vancouver-based Summify. It announced a seed round on Wednesday that includes Accel Partners, Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield, and FeedBurner co-founder Steve Olechowski.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, kemalbas

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.

What Jack Dorsey’s return to Twitter may mean for the company’s mobile app efforts (Appolicious)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 05:30 PM PDT

AT&T mega-merger tied to spectrum drought: Cicconi (Reuters)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 04:24 PM PDT

By Jasmin Melvin Jasmin Melvin – Wed Mar 30, 7:24 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. government remedies to free up more U.S. airwaves for wireless services are not coming fast enough and were an important driver behind AT&T Inc's (T.N) $39 billion bid to buy Deutsche Telekom AG's (DTEGn.DE) T-Mobile USA, an AT&T executive said on Wednesday.

James Cicconi, the head of AT&T's lobbying effort to acquire T-Mobile, said the merger creates a fast and certain solution to AT&T's impending spectrum shortage.

"We're deploying additional spectrum as quickly as we can, but you hit exhaust rates very fast," Cicconi said during a panel discussion on spectrum at the Brookings Institution.

AT&T estimates it will carry the equivalent of the volume of all the mobile traffic it handled last year in just the first six or seven weeks of 2015, as the explosive demand for wireless devices such as Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone continues.

A spectrum shortage would mean clogged networks, more dropped calls and slower connection speeds for wireless customers.

"This merger will more quickly create the spectrum efficiencies that we need to sustain demand and it will free up more spectrum well in advance of the reallocation of spectrum that the government is working on," said Cicconi, senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs for AT&T.

The U.S. government has been hunting for underused airwaves to make 500 megahertz of spectrum available over the next 10 years for wireless services.

Some 2,200 megahertz of spectrum with the potential for wireless broadband use has been identified, but evaluating the airwaves and providing current holders time to relocate their operations will take some time.

The FCC hopes to "repurpose" 120 megahertz of spectrum through incentive auctions where television broadcasters would voluntarily give up spectrum in exchange for a portion of the auction proceeds.

But the agency needs Congress to grant it the authority to hold such auctions and divert some of the proceeds from the U.S. Treasury.

Broadcasters have raised concerns about giving up their airwaves and have considerable support among lawmakers because of local television coverage of home-town politics.

"The current recalcitrance by broadcasters will have to give way to economic logic," Cicconi said, comparing the over-the-air broadcast industry to the pager industry that saw its spectrum reallocated to better uses.

Cicconi added that budget deficit demands are likely to weigh more heavily on lawmakers as time goes by, which could shrink the share of proceeds that go to broadcasters when auctions do occur, suggesting to broadcasters that they should jump on board sooner than later.

"We would all welcome the broadcasters actually deciding to be constructive in this debate," Cicconi said. "If they've got a better idea, they need to put it on the table."

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) said they would only oppose the auctions if they appeared to harm broadcasters who opt not to part with spectrum or seemed to harm viewers. They were not against a truly voluntary auction.

Some 43 million Americans rely exclusively on over-the-air television, Dennis Wharton, the group's executive vice president of communications, said on Wednesday.

NAB also questioned the existence of a nationwide spectrum shortage.

"If there is a spectrum crunch, it exists in only a few metropolitan areas. One has to ask why free TV should be compromised in Bend, Oregon, just to accommodate a faster download app in Los Angeles," Wharton said.

(Reporting by Jasmin Melvin; editing by Andre Grenon)

Chatting babies video a YouTube sensation (AFP)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 07:16 PM PDT

– 2 hrs 17 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – A video of a pair of diaper-clad babies seemingly engaged in an animated conversation in a home kitchen was a fast-spreading YouTube sensation.

The two-minute snippet of the lively exchange between twin brothers barely old enough to stand has been watched more than 2.2 million times since it was uploaded to the Google-owned video sharing website on Valentine's Day.

The then 17-month-old boys laughed, gestured, and raised their feet during what appeared to be a baby talk chat so genuine that it inspired viewers to add playful captions suggesting translations.

Suggestions included that one brother telling the other "That diaper is so 2010" and getting a retort along the lines of "If you're so smart, where is your other sock, Einstein?"

By Wednesday, child development specialists were citing the video in online discussions of how natural and healthy it is for babies to develop language skills as they mature.

"We've had a fascinating time seeing language blooming around here," the boy's mother said Wednesday at her twinmamarama.com blog devoted to being a twin sister raising twin boys.

"Now the experts weigh in on this kind of twin language," she continued.

"I remember my own folks talking about my sister and I sending out verbal signals (essentially squeaks and shouts) in an attempt to pinpoint the location of our twin sister around the house!"

The "Twin baby boys have a conversation -- part 2" video at YouTube was one of a trio of clips at the website starring the babies.

  1. Chatting Babies

AU jumps after iPad 2 order report; analysts cast doubts (Reuters)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 08:07 PM PDT

– 1 hr 26 mins ago

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Shares in Taiwan's AU Optronics Corp jumped as much as 6 percent on Thursday after a report that the world's No.4 LCD maker has won an order to provide flat panel screens for Apple Inc's hot-selling iPad 2 tablet.

Taiwan's Economic Daily News, citing no sources for its information, said the panels' selling price will be three to four times more than regular panels of the same size, giving a big boost to AU's profit.

AU could ship 30 million of the screens in a year, it said. The order will take up over half the capacity of its plant in Taichung, central Taiwan.

AU declined to comment.

Analysts however cast doubt on the ability of AU to produce iPad 2 screens, which are based on a different technology than it currently uses and would require a patent authorization that AU does not have.

"I think the credibility of this news is only at 30-40 percent, mainly because of the patent authorization for the technology," said Wayne Cheng, an analyst of Primasia Securities.

If AU, which is currently using MVA technology for its panels, is to make the panels for the iPad 2, it first needs to get authorization for the IPS technology from patent holders Hitachi and Sharp of Japan and South Korea's LG Display, according to analysts.

Other companies that use IPS include Samsung and Taiwan's Chimei Innolux.

MVA and IPS refer to technologies for viewing angles and color reproduction in liquid crystal displays.

"It takes at least six months to one year to apply for the patent authorization, and it also takes time to convert a fab to use the new technology," said an analyst from a foreign brokerage, who asked not to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to media.

"So it's quite impossible for AU to produce for iPad 2 this year."

Analysts also think it is impossible for AU to win over half of iPad 2 orders. Sales of the new tablet this year are seen at around 50 million units.

"The shipment figure also looks bloated. Apple always diversifies its suppliers to avoid the over-concentration risk," Cheng said.

AU shares were up 4.7 percent at T$25.65 at 0258 GMT after having risen to as high as T$26.05.

Analysts forecast some 1 million iPad 2s may have been sold in the first weekend of its launch in the United States on March 11. The device went on sale in 25 markets in Europe, Australia and elsewhere on March 25, drawing long queues outside stores.

(Reporting by Jonathan Standing and Clare Jim)

Samsung Series 9 Laptop Shows No Signs Of Spyware (PC World)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 05:13 PM PDT

Alex Wawro Alex Wawro – Wed Mar 30, 8:13 pm ET

Are Samsung laptops shipping with software that will monitor your every keystroke, as one security researcher claimed Wednesday? We can't say for sure, but we couldn't find any trace of spying software on the one Samsung laptop in PCWorld's Lab.

On Wednesday, researcher Mohammad Hassan claimed to have found StarLogger keylogging software installed on two brand-new Samsung R Series laptops. Hassan says he found the spyware when he was initially setting up the laptops. When he contacted Samsung support, a manager told Hassan the StarLogger keylogger was installed to "monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used."

The PCWorld Lab has a 13" Samsung Series 9 ultraportable laptop in for testing and review, so we decided to run a rigorous malware scan to see if we could confirm Hassan's allegations. (Samsung told the IDG News Service's Robert McMillan that they are investigating the claims.)

After unboxing the Series 9 review unit (identical to the Series 9 laptop a consumer would purchase from their local retailer) and making a backup copy of everything on the hard drive, our laptop analysts installed a copy of Norton Internet Security 2011 and updated it with the latest virus definitions and security updates. We subjected the Samsung Series 9 to a full scan and it passed with flying colors; PCWorld laptop editor Jason Cross also scanned the registry for the keys typically left behind by StarLogger, but found nothing.

We will continue to test the Samsung Series 9 and future Samsung laptops for any sign of malicious software, and will keep you updated with any further information from our lab or Samsung representatives. Look for our testing results and full review of the Samsung Series 9 next week.

Salesforce to acquire Radian6 (Investor's Business Daily)

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 03:24 PM PDT

– Wed Mar 30, 6:24 pm ET

The provider of cloud-based business software agreed to buy privately held Radian6, which scans social networking and other online content to see what is being said about a company, for $326 mil. Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM - News) will pay $276 mil in cash and $50 mil in stock. The company sees its largest deal ever boosting 2012 revenue by $45 mil-$50 mil while reducing EPS to $1.24-$1.27, below views for $1.38. Salesforce climbed 5.6% to 134.49.
at 9:44 PM

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