Sponsored
Laptop tracks gaze, taking eye-tracking out of lab (AP) : Technet |
- Laptop tracks gaze, taking eye-tracking out of lab (AP)
- Next venture for Andreessen: Mobile social app (AP)
- NJ congressman tops 'Jeopardy' computer Watson (AP)
- Report: Verizon may ditch unlimited iPhone data plan by summer (Ben Patterson)
- T-Mobile to switch off Sidekick servers, promises “easy” transition (Ben Patterson)
- The Next Big Idea in Tech: Do-It-Yourself Focus Groups? (Mashable)
- Sina says to experiment with Weibo monetization in H2: CEO (Reuters)
- Gadgets galore at world's top tech fair (AFP)
- Google Pulls 21 Apps In Android Malware Scare (Mashable)
- "Unemployed winner" Charlie Sheen joins Twitter (Reuters)
- GDC: Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY Makes US Debut (PC World)
- ITU, IETF Push Dueling Standards on MPLS Features (PC World)
- Android is virtually everywhere, from docks to clouds (Appolicious)
- Canada's telecoms fight over spectrum auction rules (Reuters)
- Sony unit apologizes for band's Nazi-like costumes (AP)
- Apple set to unveil new iPad, with or without Jobs (Reuters)
- Man Gets 7 Years for Forcing Modems to Call Premium Numbers (PC World)
- SAP Unveils 'Facebook for Enterprise' Sales Tool (NewsFactor)
| Laptop tracks gaze, taking eye-tracking out of lab (AP) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 03:09 AM PST NEW YORK – Ever wish your eyes were lasers? A laptop prototype brings that wish closer to reality. It tracks your gaze and figures out where you're looking on the screen. That means, among other things, that you can play a game where you burn up incoming asteroids with a laser that hits where you look. In another demonstration this week, the computer scrolled a text on the screen in response to eye movements, sensing when the reader reached the end of the visible text. In the future, a laptop like this could make the mouse cursor appear where you're looking, or make a game character maintain eye contact with you, according to Tobii Technology Inc., the Swedish firm that's behind the tracking technology. The eye tracker works by shining two invisible infrared lights at you. Two hidden cameras then look for the "glints" off your eyeballs and reflections from each retina. It needs to be calibrated for each person. It works for people with or without eyeglasses. Rather than a replacement for the traditional mouse and keyboard or the newer touch screen, the eye-tracking could be a complement, making a computer faster and more efficient to use, said Barbara Barclay, general manager of Tobii's Analysis Solutions business. Tobii has been making eye-tracking devices for researchers and the disabled for nearly a decade. The laptop is its way of showing that eye-tracking could expand beyond those niches, Barclay said, calling it an "idea generator." The laptop is made by Lenovo Corp., and incorporates Tobii's eye-tracking cameras in a "hump" on the cover, making the entire package about twice as thick as a regular laptop. But future, commercial versions can be slimmer and are perhaps two years away, Barclay said. Lenovo and Tobii made 20 of the laptops and planned to demonstrate them at the CeBIT technology trade show in Hanover, Germany, on Tuesday. Tobii's current, standalone eye-trackers cost tens of thousands of dollars, but Barclay said the cost of adding consumer-level eye-tracking to a commercial laptop could be much less. New ways to use computers have been proliferating in recent years. Touch screens are becoming popular on smart phones and tablet computers such as the iPad. Nintendo Corp.'s Wii game console brought motion-sensing technology to the masses. Microsoft Corp. released an accessory for its Xbox games console last year that uses an infrared camera to sense the movement of bodies in three dimensions. |
| Next venture for Andreessen: Mobile social app (AP) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 09:57 AM PST NEW YORK – The brains behind social-networking company Ning have launched a new venture, a smart-phone communication tool called Mogwee. Mogwee is short for "more great weekends." That's what Ning CEO Jason Rosenthal and chairman Marc Andreessen, the Web pioneer, hope people will get from using the service. Mogwee is a free application available on the iPhone. An Android version and others are coming soon. It combines into one package elements of chat, photo sharing and group-outing planning that people already do on their phones. Rosenthal said Mogwee is different from social networks such as Twitter and Facebook because it was built for mobile devices from the start. And it works in real time, the way people communicate on their phones, as long as an Internet connection is available. "Smart phones have changed the way people think about their phones, but no one has yet reinvented the way people communicate on their phones," Rosenthal said, adding that the main way to communicate remains text messaging. Mogwee plans to make money by letting users buy virtual gifts such as a burger, a heart or a zombie sheep that they can send to their friends. Five of these cost 99 cents, though the first five are free to get you hooked. The app also lets users access and share restaurant and movie listings, with other types of events coming later. Rosenthal said the people behind Ning had the time to develop the app because Ning is in good shape and growing its revenue. Ning, which lets people create their own social networks, started charging all of its users for the service last year. Ning has about 90,000 paying subscribers. |
| NJ congressman tops 'Jeopardy' computer Watson (AP) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 08:06 PM PST WASHINGTON – Turns out it really does take a rocket scientist to beat Watson, the "Jeopardy"-winning computer. U.S. Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey — a five-time champion during the trivia show's original run 35 years ago — topped the IBM computer Monday night in a "Jeopardy"-style match of congressmen vs. machine held at a Washington hotel. Though Holt isn't the first human to beat Watson, the victory adds to the 62-year-old Democrat's already-impressive resume: a former State Department arms control expert and ex-leader of the federal Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. "I wonder if Watson wasn't having a low-voltage night, because I certainly didn't expect to score higher than the computer," he told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. He built a lead in categories including "Presidential Rhyme Time," in which the correct response to "Herbert's military strategy" was "Hoover's maneuvers." The congressman also correctly identified hippophobia as the fear of horses. Watson beat him to the buzzer with "love" when prompted on what Ambrose Bierce described as "a temporary insanity curable by marriage." Holt played the first round along with Rep. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican. At the end of the round, Holt had earned $8,600 to Watson's $6,200. But the computer ultimately triumphed in later rounds against the other representatives: Nan Hayworth, R-N.Y., Jim Himes, D-Conn., and Jared Polis, D-Colo. Watson amassed a combined $40,300 to the humans' $30,000. Watson, designed specifically to excel at the type of answers-and-questions format used on "Jeopardy," took 25 IBM scientists four years to create. Humans have beat Watson before, including sparring matches with various players held in the fall to prepare for a televised match with top human "Jeopardy" champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter; and during rehearsals, when Jennings won at least once. Holt received a round of applause Tuesday at a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee for besting the computer. He thanked the crowd and gave a shout-out to "neuron-based thinking, instead of semi-conductor thinking." Holt said it was fun to beat the heralded computer. But he also said it's important that Americans realize how crucial math and science education is to the nation's future. "I jumped at the chance to do this, not only because it would be fun, but as a way to highlight our national need to invest in research and science education," he told the AP. "It's something I've been talking about for decades." The match shows "that so many people are interested not so much in Watson but what the possibilities here are," said IBM spokeswoman Lia P. Davis. "That said, Watson still won the match," she said. "So I think we can all be proud of that. It demonstrates that humans are very smart and computers are very smart." Holt has a doctorate in physics from New York University and was elected to Congress in 1998. ___ Parry reported from Atlantic City, N.J. Associated Press writer Mark Kennedy in New York contributed. |
| Report: Verizon may ditch unlimited iPhone data plan by summer (Ben Patterson) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 11:46 AM PST It looks like the days of unlimited 3G data for new Verizon iPhone customers are numbered, with a Verizon Wireless exec confirming Tuesday that the carrier will soon drop its all-you-can-eat data plan for the iPhone—possibly around the time that the widely expected iPhone 5 hits the market. During a Tuesday conference call with analysts and investors, Verizon Wireless CFO Fran Shammo said the current $30-a-month unlimited data plan for the iPhone is "not a long-term solution," Bloomberg News reports.
That's not exactly news, given that Verizon officials said much the same thing when they first announced the unlimited 3G data plan for the iPhone back in January. What is news, however, is the potential timing for the end of unlimited iPhone data plan: "as soon as this summer," according to the Bloomberg News story, or right around the time the next iPhone (which, of course, has yet to be officially announced) is expected to arrive. Shammo didn't say give any details about a replacement for Verizon's unlimited data plan, and the Bloomberg story doesn't say anything (yet) about the fate of unlimited 3G plans for other smartphones offered by the carrier. That said, Verizon Wireless hasn't made a secret of its plans to eventually roll out tiered smartphone data plans similar to those offered by AT&T, which charges $25 a month for 2GB of data or $15 a month for 200MB. Sprint still offers an unlimited 3G smartphone plan in a bundle (although it now levies a $10 "premium data" fee for new smartphone users on top of its "Everything Data" packages, which start at $69/month), while T-Mobile's $30/month "unlimited" 3G smartphone plan involves throttling data speeds for users who consume more than 5GB of data in a month. Verizon briefly offered a cheaper, $15-a-month, 150MB 3G data plan for smartphones, which has since been discontinued. The successor to the iPhone 4 is expected to be unveiled during Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference in June, and it will likely go on sale in late June or early July—leaving open the possibility that Verizon will ditch its unlimited smartphone data plan before the (rumored) new iPhone lands in stores. If that scenario comes to pass, it'll mirror AT&T's move last summer to end its own unlimited 3G smartphone data plan right before the iPhone 4 went on sale. Current Verizon iPhone users who want to keep their unlimited 3G data plans should be safe, given that their rate plans are locked in with their two-year contracts. Verizon may also follow the practice of AT&T, which grandfathered in subscribers with unlimited 3G plans who traded up for a new iPhone. Related: — Ben Patterson is a technology blogger for Yahoo! News. |
| T-Mobile to switch off Sidekick servers, promises “easy” transition (Ben Patterson) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 06:07 AM PST Still using a Sidekick phone? If so, bad news: the party's almost over, with T-Mobile telling its remaining Sidekick-toting subscribers that their devices will turn into pumpkins at the end of May. The carrier says it will be turning off Sidekick data service, a.k.a. the Danger Service, after May 31—and since the Sidekick relies on the Danger servers for everything from the apps in the Sidekick Catalog to storing e-mail and contacts, any handsets still in use will lose nearly all their functionality, save for the most basic calling and text-messaging features. Sidekick owners already got a taste of life without data back in October 2009, when the great Sidekick server meltdown hit. Furious handset users were locked out of their e-mail and contact lists for days before the Microsoft-owned Danger service was restored. In a statement e-mailed early Tuesday, T-Mobile promised not to leave its remaining Sidekick users high and dry, with a spokesman said the carrier will "provide offers" to its "loyal" Sidekick customers before the music stops. There's still no word on what kind of deals might be in store, but T-Mobile says the offers will "help make an easy transition from [an] existing Sidekick to a new device." The carrier also points Sidekick users to an app in the Sidekick Catalog that exports contacts and other "personal data" to the Sidekick's memory card. The news comes a little more than a month after T-Mobile announced plans to reboot the Sidekick brand this year with a new, Android-based Sidekick device. The handset will connect to T-Mobile's 4G data network, with leaked images showing a Samsung-made phone with the same swiveling display and QWERTY-style keyboard for which the original Sidekick phones were known. The first Sidekick handset came out way back in 2002, boasting little more than a GPRS data connection (for $40 a month, mind you), a monochrome screen, and little in the way of apps or media playback. That said, the original Sidekick offered an "always-on" Internet connection—a novelty in those days—as well as e-mail and instant messaging. While the phones became fashion statements and red-carpet regulars back in the mid-2000s, the Sidekick line slowly fell behind the times as it faced competition from 3G- and GPS-enabled QWERTY smartphones like the Motorola Q and the Palm Treo. Once the touchscreen iPhone arrived, the Sidekick's days were clearly numbered, with T-Mobile pulling the final Sidekick handset (2009's LX) from stores last July. — Ben Patterson is a technology blogger for Yahoo! News. |
| The Next Big Idea in Tech: Do-It-Yourself Focus Groups? (Mashable) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 02:15 PM PST In a class of 53 startups presenting at DEMO's Spring 2011 conference in Palm Springs, GutCheck stood tallest. The do-it-yourself qualitative research company took home the People's Choice award and $1 million in winnings. The Denver-based company was voted best in show by conference attendees. The startup's mission: to make focus groups more accessible and affordable. GutCheck customers draw from the service's pool of five million participants for targeted questioning. Then they interview respondents in a traditional question-and-answer survey format, or something more free-form. Interview transcripts are stored and can be shared with co-workers. DEMO's focus this time around: apps for mobile and the social sector. Several startups offered me-too services for social media management, news curation, mobile application development and group communication. The show was not without its standout ideas -- ecoATM, for instance, is a hardware company with a futuristic solution to electronics recycling. So, all competitors considered, is GutCheck the next big idea? Given that it has no groundbreaking or remarkable technology, this respondent would have to answer no. But, GutCheck does have the makings of a revenue-generating hit, perhaps following in the footsteps of Groupon's low-tech success. Its low price point -- $40 per qualified 30 minute interview -- makes it affordable for even the smallest of businesses and startups. Prior to its official DEMO debut, GutCheck had raised $2 million. Now, as the People's Choice winner, GutCheck is the beneficiary of $1 million worth of complimentary advertising from IDG publications. Six other startups were recognized by DEMO organizers for the quality of their products and demonstrations Tuesday. Webcam Social Shopper from Zugara, Nimble, ecoATM, Stratosphere by V3, Manilla and ecobe all received recognition for ideas ranging from augmented reality e-commerce and social CRM to a drop-in virtual desktop appliance. Images courtesy of Flickr, The DEMO Conference |
| Sina says to experiment with Weibo monetization in H2: CEO (Reuters) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 06:14 PM PST SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Sina Corp, China's largest Internet portal, will start to experiment with monetization of its microblogging product Weibo in the second half of the year, its chief executive said on Wednesday. The company has said Weibo will start generating revenue in the first half of 2011 via the sale of virtual items and advertising space. But chief executive officer Charles Chao told reporters and analysts on a telephone conference that the priority will be on investing in infrastructure of the product rather than on its revenue. (Reporting by Kazunori Takada; Editing by Jacqueline Wong) |
| Gadgets galore at world's top tech fair (AFP) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 07:20 PM PST HANOVER, Germany (AFP) – A Shakespeare-reciting robot, the world's most merciless alarm clock and "intelligent" cocktail shakers were among the gadgets wowing visitors at the CeBIT high-tech fair on Wednesday. Ranging from the futuristic to the ingenious to the downright pointless, the world's biggest IT expo this year showcased thousands of the latest gadgets to pull in the 350,000 visitors expected to travel to Hanover in northern Germany. No one finds it easy to wake up in the morning. But even the heaviest sleeper has found his match in the "intelligent" alarm clock designed by students at the Technical University of Wildau in Germany. At the appointed time, the clock communicates with the curtains in the user's bedroom, instructing them to open. Five minutes later, it turns on the bedside lamp. Five minutes after that, the radio is turned on, then an alarm. The sleepy user can only stop this pitiless process by standing on a sensor pad beside the bed for five seconds. When the alarm clock is satisfied its master is awake, it stops the alarm and turns on the coffee machine as reward. "It was conceived by my students who sometimes find it tricky to get out of bed for classes," explained Birgit Wilkes from the university. "But it has a serious application. We are using similar sensor technology to monitor the homes of old people to detect if they have had a fall," she added. Worried about hair loss? Itching to see if you have a bald patch on top of your head? Then Spec, a Hong-Kong based firm, has the product for you with its hairbrush-cum-camera with built-in magnifier. The user simply runs the brush through his hair and a magnified image of the scalp is transmitted to a computer, which then analyses the hair density over time to judge whether the dreaded baldness is setting in. For the dental-health conscious, the company has also pioneered a toothbrush with a built-in camera that shows up hard-to-reach tooth plaque and tracks how efficiently you are brushing your teeth. And for the discerning geek, the German Centre for Artificial Intelligence has created the "intelligent" talking cocktail shaker to ensure that every White Russian or Singapore Sling is mixed and poured to perfection. The user inputs his or her chosen cocktail and the shaker's "voice" cheerfully offers the correct recipe. Linked wirelessly to tiny devices on bottles on the bar, it ensures no mistakes are made no matter how many drinks have been consumed and berates the budding cocktail waiter in no uncertain terms if the wrong booze is selected. This done, it offers pointers on how best to shake the cocktail, again reacting angrily if it senses its tips are not being followed to the letter. Other gadgets were less practical, from sunglasses with a built-in camcorder to record exactly what your eye sees, a miniature helicopter piloted by iPhone to an electronic smokeless cigarette that replicates the sensation of smoking. But there was no doubt what stole the show: the Shakespeare-reciting, multilingual, all-singing, all-dancing sleek life-sized white robot called the "RoboThespian" who drew huge crowds with its cheeky tricks. From delivering the soliloquy from "Hamlet", complete with over-the-top theatrical actions, to impersonating another famous robot -- C3PO from "Star Wars" -- the charming computer quickly became the fair's star attraction. Yours for a snip at 55,000 pounds (65,000 euros, $90,000), the "RoboThespian" has already featured at NASA, as well as at robot museums and banks, where it acts as a tour guide-cum-greeter with a difference. Just don't get too close. The amorous and ever-friendly robot is not afraid of trying to plant a kiss on the cheeks of anyone it senses standing nearby. The CeBIT runs until March 5. |
| Google Pulls 21 Apps In Android Malware Scare (Mashable) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 01:59 PM PST Google has just pulled 21 popular free apps from the Android Market. According to the company, the apps are malware aimed at getting root access to the user's device, gathering a wide range of available data, and downloading more code to it without the user's knowledge. Although Google has swiftly removed the apps after being notified (by the ever-vigilant Android Police bloggers), the apps in question have already been downloaded by at least 50,000 Android users. The apps are particularly insidious because they look just like knockoff versions of already popular apps. For example, there's an app called simply "Chess." The user would download what he'd assume to be a chess game, only to be presented with a very different sort of app. These apps are all pirated versions of popular games and utilities -- an expeditious solution for busy hackers. Once downloaded, the apps root the user's device using a method like rageagainstthecage, then use an Android executable file (APK) to nab user and device data, such as your mobile provider and user ID. Finally, the app acts as a wide-open backdoor for your device to quietly download more malicious code. Below is a complete list of the bad apps, all of which were made by an entity called Myournet. If you've downloaded one of these apps, it might be best to take your device to your carrier and exchange it for a new one, since you can't be sure that your device and user information is truly secure. Considering how much we do on our phones -- shopping and mobile banking included -- it's better to take precautions.
|
| "Unemployed winner" Charlie Sheen joins Twitter (Reuters) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 05:58 PM PST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Charlie Sheen joined the Twitter ranks on Tuesday, opening a new window into the restless psyche of the former sitcom star. Sheen, describing himself on his bio as "an unemployed winner," attracted about 300,000 followers in the first few hours, and in turn signed up to follow the tweets of one of his many porn-star girlfriends. "Winning! Choose your Vice," he wrote in his first and only message to date. Sheen has been so ubiquitous on the talk show circuit in recent days that his former network boss lamented that he wished the actor could have worked as hard to promote himself for an Emmy award. The actor has plenty of time on his hands following the cancellation of his top-rated sitcom "Two and a Half Men." CBS and producer Warner Bros pulled the plug on the show for the rest of the season last week after Sheen launched several expletive-filled rants against the show's creator. He has since recast himself as the savior of the production workers he helped make jobless by campaigning for them to be paid for the eight unproduced episodes. "I have to right this unconscionable wrong," he told radio host Howard Stern on Tuesday. "I have to take a stand ... many people are suffering and I'm the only guy who can effect a change." Sheen said he did care about his public image, telling Stern: "I don't have much of a reputation left to ruin." The 45-year-old actor has defended his partying lifestyle, and said his extracurricular habits need not interfere with the sitcom's production. Sheen stars as a womanizing bachelor, a role not too far removed from his real-life status. Meanwhile CBS said it would actually benefit in the short term from the sitcom's cancellation since it does not have to pay a license fee to Warner Bros for new episodes, and the reruns pull in strong ratings. "I'm not saying long-term I want this to go on," CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves said at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco. "Going down the road ... I don't know what's going to happen," he added. "I hope it's back. We'll see." Noting Sheen's appearances on the various radio and television shows, Moonves said: "I wish he would have worked this hard to promote himself for an Emmy." Sheen has received four Emmy nominations for "Two and a Half Men." (Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Eric Walsh) |
| GDC: Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY Makes US Debut (PC World) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 07:04 PM PST Sony Ericsson's Android-powered PlayStation gaming phone, the Xperia PLAY, made its US debut this evening at the Gaming Developer Conference in San Francisco. Sony Ericsson also revealed that the PLAY will be the official mobile phone for Major League Gaming (MLG), North America's official pro video games league. MLG attracts about 40 million gamers and represents some of the top professional gamers in the world. The fact that a mobile phone is now counted as a medium for competitive gaming is a huge step for Android game developers. Another exciting piece of news for gamers is that the Havok software development suite will be available to Android developers. This is the first time the cross-platform SDK, which is currently available to Xbox, Wii and Playstation develops, will be available for Android. Havok's technology is behind titles such as Halo's Reach, Asassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and Fallout: New Vegas. We already got a chance to play with the Xperia Play at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month. While the display is impressive and the controls seem solid, the phone's body feels a bit flimsy and plasticky. It is also unfortunate that it's not a 4G phone, as a 3G network isn't likely to produce the upload speed necessary to play multiplayer online games smoothly. The PLAY will be coming to the US on Verizon and to Canada on Rogers, though pricing and availability have not yet been announced. Interact with Game On: Twitter - Facebook - Get in touch |
| ITU, IETF Push Dueling Standards on MPLS Features (PC World) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 06:10 PM PST The Internet Engineering Task Force is slamming a decision by the International Telecommunication Union to pursue its own standard for troubleshooting and fault detection in service-provider networks. The ITU agreed last Friday on first-stage approval of a standard for OAM (operations, administration and maintenance) in transport networks based on MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching). The IETF said this violated an agreement between the two groups and would lead to two separate technologies, possibly threatening the future health of the Internet. MPLS lets carriers set up logical circuits across their IP (Internet Protocol) networks based on tags placed on IP packets. The protocol, developed by the IETF, can give priority to certain types of traffic and speed its transmission across the Internet. The OAM standard is intended to provide better tools for detecting transmission problems in MPLS networks, pinpointing where they are taking place and quickly resolving them. Earlier in this decade, the ITU and IETF had both been developing OAM mechanisms but agreed to form a Joint Working Team to determine whether the new specification would be developed through the standards process of the ITU or of the IETF, said IETF Chair Russ Housley. The joint team determined in December 2008 that the new standard would come through the IETF, Housley said. He expects the IETF standard to be completed within six months. The ITU said a standard was urgently needed and the IETF had not carried out some of the work it had promised to do. "In this case it was clear that a significant part of our membership could not accept any further delay," the ITU said in its statement. Housley said the IETF had made "steady, consistent progress" on the standards process. "The only complaint that they're really making was that it took long," Housley said. "I'm not saying that either side is totally clean here. I'm just saying we had a[n] agreement." The IETF said the ITU's decision to pursue its own standard will lead to separate, incompatible technologies being deployed by different vendors and operators. "This situation ensures that the two product groups will not work together," the IETF said in a statement along with the Internet Society. "While this impact may not be immediate, ongoing evolution along this path will jeopardize the globally connected Internet, which is an interoperable network of networks." Industry analysts questioned the IETF's claim of danger to the Internet. Service providers need to connect to each other in order to provide services, and if they ask equipment vendors to support both standards, they will, said analyst Michael Howard of Infonetics Research. The carrier equipment industry has successfully dealt with other dual standards in the past, he said. In those cases, there were dual implementations until one of the standards eventually won out in the market, he said. The IETF's Housley acknowledged that vendors could implement both standards. However, this would add cost and complexity to their products, which ultimately will affect the rates that subscribers pay, he said. |
| Android is virtually everywhere, from docks to clouds (Appolicious) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 08:43 AM PST |
| Canada's telecoms fight over spectrum auction rules (Reuters) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 12:52 PM PST TORONTO (Reuters) – The next government auction of valuable wireless spectrum in Canada is still at least a year and a half away, but the fight among telecom companies over how the auction should be run is already in full swing. The big issue is whether any of the prime 700 MHz airwaves need be set aside for new entrants to the market as was the case in the government auction of wireless spectrum in 2008. At the time, Canada's Conservative government was pushing for more competition in wireless, long dominated by three companies: BCE Inc's Bell Canada unit, Rogers Communications and Telus Corp. The "Big Three" -- which together hold 95 percent of the market -- say the new entrants need no more help. Among the companies seeking a bigger piece of the Big Three's pie are Mobilicity and Globalive's foreign-funded Wind Mobile service, as well as established regional cable companies Shaw Communications and Quebecor's Videotron. "Everybody needs it (700 MHz spectrum), everybody wants it, and the only way to sort that out is to have a wide open auction," said Ken Engelhart, senior vice-president for regulatory affairs at Rogers. That message was echoed by his counterparts at Bell and Telus, which share a national wireless network. Engelhart said putting caps on how much spectrum any one buyer can grab in the auction, due by late 2012, would be a mistake and that fears of hoarding -- holding the spectrum without rolling out service -- could be allayed by making rollout a condition of purchase. An open auction would almost certainly ensure that the three cash-rich incumbents get the lion's share of the spectrum. Initial submissions to the federal government's industry department on how the auction should be handled were due on Monday, and responses will be accepted until March 30. Bell said in its submission that with half as much spectrum on offer as in the 2008 auction, any airwaves set aside for new entrants would inflate the prices paid. "Industry Canada would in effect dictate that one major Canadian operator will likely not even have the chance to obtain the spectrum it needs," Bell said. The 700 MHz airwaves are valuable as they cover long distances and more easily penetrate thick walls and buildings, making them useful for both expanding rural reach and deepening urban capacity. The frequency is seen as aiding rural Canadian deployment of high-speed Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks, the path chosen by most telecoms carriers globally to upgrade 3G data networks. Each of the Big Three have announced plans for LTE deployment. Globalive Chairman Anthony Lacavera said he wants all or most of the spectrum to be auctioned to be set aside for newcomers and says established operators own plenty of spectrum similar to that which is going on the block. "The Canadian consumer experience in wireless has improved directly as a result of government policy, so our view is that the government should continue that policy," Lacavera said. "It's working." Wind Mobile entered the market in 2009 after some 40 percent of the higher-frequency AWS spectrum was set aside for new entrants in the 2008 auction, which raised C$4.25 billion ($4.38 billion) for the government. Wind Mobile, along with other new entrants Mobilicity and Public Mobile, offer unlimited talk and text and no-contract plans that attract budget-conscious customers and push down rates, particularly for voice. Incumbent telecom carriers in Canada already hold far more spectrum than peers such as AT&T and Verizon in the United States and carry just a fraction of the subscribers per megahertz, according to a report from telecom consultancy Seaboard Group released on Monday. That report concluded that new entrants remain at a significant disadvantage to the incumbents and called on Ottawa to make the new auction available to only those companies that do not already own spectrum below 1 GHz frequency. "Resist the incumbent cajolery, ignore the veiled threats and protestations of doom, and move forward to allocate the 700 MHz resource to the feisty upstarts," Seaboard said. Telus's head of regulatory affairs, Michael Hennessy, said Industry Canada should shape the auction on the assumption that at least some of the new entrants will have merged by the time the auction takes place. That's one point on which he agrees with Globalive, which expects to be the fourth and only new national carrier by 2014. "Everyone knows it's going to look a lot different in a year and a half when the auction happens," Hennessy said. A further issue is Canadian foreign ownership limits on telecom companies. Under Canadian law too much control and ownership of Globalive may rest with Cairo-based Orascom Telecom, and the matter is now being fought before the courts. Industry Minister Tony Clement has said any lifting of foreign ownership restrictions would have to be decided before the auction proceeds, but it is unclear whether any changes would apply to both telecom companies and broadcasters, which are governed by different laws. ($1=$0.97 Canadian) (Editing by Peter Galloway) |
| Sony unit apologizes for band's Nazi-like costumes (AP) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 09:05 PM PST TOKYO – Executives from a Japanese Sony music unit apologized Wednesday for a rock band under its management that dressed up like Nazis on a national TV broadcast. The apology from Sony Music Artists Inc. came after an international Jewish group complained about Japanese band "Kishidan" wearing the costumes during an appearance on an MTV Networks Japan show that aired a week earlier. Images broadcast on the "Megavector" program show the six-member band in black uniforms resembling those of Nazi soldiers, with distinctive red arm bands and epaulets. On Monday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish rights organization based in Los Angeles, issued a statement expressing "shock and dismay" over the uniforms. A statement posted early Wednesday morning on the websites of the band and Sony Music Artists, a music agency that is a unit of Sony's entertainment subsidiary, apologized for the costumes. "Although it was not meant to carry any ideological meaning whatsoever, we deeply regret and apologize for the distress it has caused Simon Wiesenthal Center and all concerned," read the statement, which was signed by two executives from the subsidiary. The band Kishidan often dresses up in dark uniforms, including those worn by Japan's motorcycle gangs called "bosozoku." Asia is less sensitive to the use of Nazi themes than the West. In December, a complaint from the center caused a large Japanese retailer to stop sales of a Nazi costume, and it has previously protested Nazi themes in Korean advertising and bars. Thailand has had past instances where icons of the genocidal German regime have been used for advertising and entertainment, and in 2007 a Thai school apologized to the Simon Wiesenthal Center for a Nazi-themed parade at its sports day. |
| Apple set to unveil new iPad, with or without Jobs (Reuters) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 09:13 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – More than a year after igniting the tablet computing craze, Apple Inc prepares to unveil the second version of its blockbuster iPad -- possibly minus lead showman Steve Jobs. Plenty has changed over the course of the year. The iPad became a bona fide smash, essentially creating the tablet category and triggering a wave of me-too products that are just starting to hit the market. Now, as rivals Motorola and Research in Motion race to catch up, Apple itself is going through a transformation. There is as much speculation about whether iconic Chief Executive Jobs will take the stage at Wednesday's event in San Francisco as there is about the new device. Jobs traditionally launches major products with a pizzazz and style that reflect his eye for detail and design. But he took indefinite medical leave last month and Apple has not revealed details of the cancer survivor's medical condition. His absence is bound to spark a fresh round of speculation on his condition. And his presence will be scrutinized equally closely for any signals on his health. Many in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street doubt he will return to the company he co-founded in 1976. In his absence, it is a good bet that Tim Cook, the company's operations chief and Jobs' heir apparent, or marketing head Phil Schiller, will lead Wednesday's show. If Cook does appear, investors will scrutinize his performance. While Wall Street has grown comfortable with Cook's leadership, Wednesday would provide the first major test of his showmanship skills -- a key asset for marketing maestro Apple. Regardless, the company is in little danger of losing its massive lead in the tablet market in the near term. With a big first-mover advantage, the company is rolling out the second-generation iPad just as its rivals are bringing their first offerings to consumers. IPAD, PART DEUX The new model will sport the same 10-inch screen but should be lighter, thinner and faster, according to a plethora of analyst and blog reports. Apple is expected to add a camera to enable video chat using the FaceTime application. Some industry watchers believe it may also sport a chip that enables it to run on networks that use both GSM and CDMA technologies. Consumer appetite for tablets seems sizable, and businesses are also piloting the devices for a variety of uses, including retail and healthcare. But Apple no longer has the tablet market to itself. Motorola has just launched the well-reviewed Xoom. Research in Motion, which specializes in corporate customers with its BlackBerry, will begin selling the PlayBook. And Hewlett-Packard Co will bring the TouchPad this summer. Companies like Samsung Electronics and Dell Inc are already selling tablets, but neither seems to have slowed the iPad's momentum. Apple set a high bar with the first iPad, so the company will have a harder time creating a "wow-factor" with the second iteration. It sold nearly 15 million iPads in 2010 after an April launch, three or even four times as many as some analysts had predicted. The tablet added more than $9 billion in revenue for the company last year. It became a must-have for the holiday season, embraced by taste arbiters such as Oprah Winfrey. Analysts expect the company to sell more than 30 million iPads this year, as the overall tablet market explodes to more than 50 million units. Jobs' absence comes at a crucial time. Apple is engaged in a battle in the smartphone market with Google Inc, whose Android operating system was installed on more devices than Apple's for the first time in 2010. Its usually gravity-defying stock has fluctuated this year. Shares in the world's most valuable technology company are up roughly 8.5 percent this year, but slid nearly 7 percent over three trading days from February 17 to 22. (Editing by Edwin Chan, Kenneth Li and Richard Chang) |
| Man Gets 7 Years for Forcing Modems to Call Premium Numbers (PC World) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 03:40 PM PST A New Hampshire man who made US$8 million by installing unwanted dial-up software on computers and then forcing them to call expensive premium telephone numbers was handed down an 82-month sentence on Monday. Prosecutors say that between 2003 and 2007, Asu Pala and others put together a lucrative business by setting up premium telephone numbers in Germany -- similar to the 1-900 numbers used in the U.S. -- and then infecting German PCs with software that would automatically dial the numbers for short periods of time. "The victims were generally unaware that their computers' telephone modems were calling these numbers and charging them with expenses," the U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release. These dialers were a major, but largely unreported, problem in Europe in the early part of the last decade. In 2006, two men were given stiff sentences by an Austrian court for running a scam that brought in €12 million ($16.5 million). And while dial-up modem usage has dwindled, shrinking the number of possible victims, this type of software is still in circulation in Europe. Pala, a Turkish immigrant to the U.S., ran a small Massachusetts Internet service provider called Sakhmet when he was approached by others -- men he believed to be the brains of the operation -- and enticed into building the back-end infrastructure for dialer software that was then downloaded onto the German computers, his lawyer, Geoffrey Nathan, said in an interview Tuesday. The money was good. Pala was caught after he was flagged by federal authorities after paying cash for his second Lamborghini sports car, Nathan said. By May 2009, Pala had begun cooperating with federal authorities and was training U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents across the country on how the Trojan downloader scam worked. He was also secretly working on a sting, trying to nail the two men who had introduced him to the scam. But they couldn't be enticed into a meeting, and the feds ultimately pulled the plug on the operation. At his sentencing, Pala was given a break for his cooperation with the government, but had the sting worked, it would have cut years more off his sentence, Nathan said. "The case reflects the pitfalls and the success of a cooperation agreement," he said. The people Pala had been trying to turn in, however, are still running the scam, Nathan said. "Most regrettably, it turns out that the big fish got away with the crime and they remain in operation." Pala pleaded guilty to fraud and tax evasion charges in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in April 2010. In addition to the 82-month sentence, he must pay a $7.9 million fine, along with $2.2 million in back taxes to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Robert McMillan covers computer security and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Robert on Twitter at @bobmcmillan. Robert's e-mail address is robert_mcmillan@idg.com |
| SAP Unveils 'Facebook for Enterprise' Sales Tool (NewsFactor) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 02:10 PM PST SAP AG is showing a new package it describes as "Facebook for the enterprise" -- even as it fends off suggestions that it might be up for sale. The new solution, called SAP Sales OnDemand and announced at the CeBIT 2011 trade show currently taking place in Hanover, Germany, could compete with products from Salesforce.com and Microsoft's CRM Online. The company said Sales OnDemand is designed for sales professionals, so they can more effectively collaborate in teams and more efficiently manage customer information. The key approach is that salespeople can interact with each other, not unlike Facebook friends. 'People-Centric' Solutions SAP said the package, due for release in the second quarter, is the first in a new category of "people-centric" solutions and the first to be built on Business ByDesign, its new on-demand, cloud-based platform that can be integrated with its Business Suite software, as well as with non-SAP software. SAP co-Chairman Jim Hagemann Snabe told reporters at CeBIT that the company expects a "substantial" amount of its expected revenue growth will come from ByDesign. The company projects an increase of 10 to 14 percent in software and services sales this year. ByDesign allows customers to build on their investment in SAP on-site software while utilizing the advantages of software-as-a-service packages. The company has said it expects enterprises to use both cloud- and premise-based software for the next decade or two. Upcoming applications on ByDesign include expense management and human resources, which will be released later in 2011. Sales OnDemand will also be available for Apple's iPhone and iPad, Research In Motion's BlackBerry, and devices using Google's open-source Android operating system. Chatter Competition SAP executives told news media that Sales OnDemand will not initially have all the capabilities of the company's CRM suite, but will focus on the 20 percent of the functionalities that are used the most. One of the key selling points of this "people-centric" orientation is social collaboration, as well as salesforce automation. Some observers are suggesting the key impetus is to keep SAP customers from migrating to the socially friendlier Salesforce.com. The company compares Sales OnDemand's user interface to Facebook's, while industry observers are comparing the new product to Salesforce.com's Chatter. Chatter is a Facebook-like, secure social network that enables collaboration among groups and is available free to Salesforce customers. Users can form a secure community inside a business and share information. Even as it unveils major new products, SAP is tapping down talk that it's on the verge of selling itself. Snabe said the company is not "having talks with anyone," and noted that the 30 percent increase in its share price in the past 12 months has made it less attractive to potential buyers. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Yahoo Tech News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment