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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Newspaper ads sag to a 25-year low in 2010 (AP) : Technet

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Newspaper ads sag to a 25-year low in 2010 (AP) : Technet

Newspaper ads sag to a 25-year low in 2010 (AP)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 03:24 PM PDT

– Tue Mar 15, 6:24 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Newspaper advertising in the U.S. has sunk to a 25-year low as marketing budgets followed readers to the Internet, where advertising is far cheaper than what publishers have been able to command in print.

Advertisers spent $25.8 billion on newspapers' print and digital editions last year, according to figures released Tuesday by the Newspaper Association of America. That's the lowest amount since 1985 when total newspaper advertising stood at $25.2 billion.

After adjusting for inflation, newspaper advertising now stands at about the same level as nearly 50 years ago. In 1962, newspaper advertising totaled $3.7 billion, which translates to about $26 billion today.

Print advertising has fallen in each of the past five years, dramatically shrinking newspaper publishers' main source of income. Even as the economy has gradually improved since 2009, newspapers are still bringing in less revenue as advertisers embrace free or cheaper Internet alternatives that aim to deliver the messages to people most likely to be interested in the products being pitched. The shift has accelerated in recent years as more readers abandoned newspapers' print editions for the Web.

Newspapers have been mining their digital editions for more revenue. Online ads generated $3 billion for newspapers last year, an 11 percent increase from the previous year. Meanwhile, print ads dropped 8 percent to $22.8 billion. Before the slump began in 2006, print advertising generated about $47 billion in annual revenue for newspapers.

To cope with the upheaval, newspapers have cut their staffs, raised their prices and, in the most extreme cases, filed for bankruptcy protection to lighten their debt loads.

Many publishers are pinning their comeback hopes on delivering more news to the growing audience on mobile phones and tablet computers such as Apple Inc.'s iPad.

Tablets, in particular, could create new moneymaking opportunities because early research indicates that their users tend to spend more time reading stories and watching video on those devices than they do on laptops and desktop computers. That trend could help newspapers charge higher rates for ads on their tablet editions than they do on their websites and perhaps make it easier to sell subscriptions to digital editions. With the exception of The Wall Street Journal and a few other newspapers, most publishers have given away their content on the Web — a factor that contributed to their financial woes in recent years.

Publishers would settle for any sign of overall ad growth after 16 consecutive quarters of decline from the previous year. The severity of the slide has been easing since 2009 as the U.S. economy has gradually recovered from the deepest recession since World War II.

Newspaper advertising totaled $7.3 billion in the last three months of 2010, down 5 percent from the prior year. The quarterly decreases have been getting progressively smaller since the July-September period of 2009, when newspaper ad revenue plunged 29 percent from the previous year.

Online ads were the bright spot again in last year's fourth quarter, rising 14 percent to $878 million. The Internet now accounts for about 12 percent of newspaper's ad revenue, up from 4 percent in 2005.

"Quarter after quarter, newspaper advertising has shown signs of a continued turnaround and an essential repositioning," said John Sturm, the Newspaper Association of America's president.

Tech companies pitch in on earthquake response (AP)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 05:48 AM PDT

– Tue Mar 15, 8:48 am ET

SEATTLE – Google Inc., Twitter, Microsoft Corp. and other U.S. technology companies are finding ways large and small to help out in the wake of last week's earthquake in Japan and the resulting tsunami.

Google put together an online "person finder" database in Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese and Portuguese for people who are either seeking information about a missing person or have information to provide about someone affected by the disaster.

The search company also launched a service that lets people staying in shelters share the list of names of disaster victims posted at their locations. People can snap photos of the lists using their cell phone cameras and e-mail them. The photos automatically are uploaded to an online photo album. Google said it is entering the names on those lists into the person finder database by hand, so that others will know they are alive.

Google, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., has also made its mobile site for the crisis response easier to read for people in Japan who don't have smart phones. It also posted a map in Japanese that gives information about road conditions, with data from Honda.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., said it was reaching out to customers and partners affected by the earthquake and offering them free technical support and temporary software licenses. The software maker also said it has a Web portal that governments, non-governmental organizations and other agencies can use to communicate with each other and with the public. For people interested in news about the disaster, it set up a page on its Bing search engine.

The company has also pledged $250,000 in cash, according to its disaster response website.

Twitter, a startup that lets people share short messages called tweets, is trying to help organize the flood of information flowing through its system by suggesting a set of "hashtags" — a pound sign followed by a word or code. Tweets with the code "Jishin" at the end, for example, are for general earthquake information. People can search Twitter based on such tags.

Twitter also said its mobile website in Japanese now has a special earthquake section, and it has posted links to mobile phone operators' sites that are trying to help people check on the safety of friends and family in Japan.

EBay Inc., the online auctions and e-commerce platform, is hosting auctions that give part or all of the proceeds to aid agencies helping out in Japan.

PayPal, eBay's online payments division, is crediting transactional fees for a month to qualified U.S. and Canada non-profit agencies that are raising money to aid in the disaster response in Japan. PayPal usually charges a small fee to the recipient of a payment.

PayPal is also hosting a site with links to nonprofits that are taking donations via PayPal.

Web retailer Amazon.com Inc. and Web portal pioneer Yahoo Inc. have both added links to their home page encouraging people to donate to support the relief efforts.

___

Online:

Goog le: http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011. html

Microsoft:

http://bit.ly/dTRZ8w http://binged.it/hx Kujh

Twitter (in Japanese and Englis h): http://blog.twitter.jp/2011/03/blog-post(und erscore)12.html eBay: http://donations.ebay.com/charity( underscore)event( underscore)61.html

PayPal: http://bit.ly/eeR7op

Is Twitter Dividing the Happy From the Unhappy? (Mashable)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 03:50 PM PDT

Netflix in talks to nab Spacey drama ahead of HBO,AMC (Reuters)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 06:17 PM PDT

– Tue Mar 15, 9:17 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Netflix Inc, the DVD rental and online video service is breaking away from its traditional role just as a licensor of movies and TV shows by negotiating with two of Hollywood's biggest names for an original show.

The Los Gatos, California company is in early stage discussions with representatives for movie star Kevin Spacey and director David Fincher for the exclusive rights for a two-season, 26-episode remake of British political drama "House of Cards", according to a person familiar with the talks. Fincher directed the Oscar-winning movie 'The Social Network'.

The news was first reported by Hollywood blog Deadline.com which said the deal could be worth $100 million. That figure was described as "way off mark" by a Reuters source.

If Netflix wins rights to a high profile show like this it will likely need to outbid the likes of major players like Time Warner Inc's HBO, CBS Corp's Showtime or Cablevision Systems Corp's AMC.

With just over 20 million subscribers it is still way behind a powerhouse like HBO which has thousands of hours of original programing and more than 28.2 million subscribers, according to SNL Kagan, a research firm. But a move to option original programing will change the way Netflix is perceived in Hollywood. Up till now it has been seen as a safe way for studios to make money from library TV shows and older movies. But some executives have worried that Netflix's online service priced at less than $10 a month could undermine the cable pay-TV business model.

Time Warner in particular has been the most vocal critic of Netflix when analysts have asked if Netflix's online service is a threat to the future of its HBO pay-TV service.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Internet is world's 'greatest spying machine': Assange (AFP)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 05:24 PM PDT

– Tue Mar 15, 8:24 pm ET

LONDON (AFP) – Julian Assange, the founder of whistleblower website WikiLeaks, has warned that the Internet was the "greatest spying machine the world has ever seen" and an obstacle to free speech.

Speaking to students at Britain's prestigious Cambridge University on Tuesday, the former computer hacker claimed that the Internet, particularly social networking sites such as Facebook, gave governments greater scope for snooping.

"There was actually a Facebook revolt in Cairo three or four years ago," Assange explained.

"It was very small... After it, Facebook was used to round up all the principal participants and they were then beaten, interrogated and incarcerated.

"So while the Internet has in some ways an ability to let us know to an unprecedented level what government is doing... it is also the greatest spying machine the world has ever seen," he added.

The rise of technology was helping tyrannical regimes, said the 39-year-old Australian, who is currently fighting extradition to Sweden over allegations of sex offences.

"It is not a technology that favours freedom of speech," he claimed.

"It is not a technology that favours human rights.

"Rather it is a technology that can be used to set up a totalitarian spying regime, the likes of which we have never seen."

But the activist restated his belief that his website had helped trigger the ongoing Arab uprising.

He also said that the release of official US diplomatic documents had "changed part of the dynamics" in Tunisia, resulting in eventual regime change.

Assange sympathised with imprisoned US soldier Bradley Manning, who is suspected of having leaked the cables.

"Our support for his plight cannot be stated too loudly," he said.

Verizon 4G Phones: HTC Thunderbolt or Droid Bionic? (PC World)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 04:08 PM PDT

JR Raphael Jr Raphael – Tue Mar 15, 7:08 pm ET

Fasten your seatbelts, friends: Verizon's first 4G smartphone has finally arrived.

The long-anticipated HTC Thunderbolt launches this Thursday, March 17. It'll sell through Verizon for $250 with a two-year contract (though you can get it for $200 if you buy from a third-party retailer like Wirefly).

The Thunderbolt has plenty going for it: Running Google's Android operating system, the phone boasts a giant 4.3-inch display and a look similar to HTC's popular EVO 4G device. Like the EVO, the Thunderbolt even comes with a kickstand.

The Thunderbolt has more horsepower than its Sprint-based predecessor, mind you -- 768MB of RAM compared to the EVO's 512MB -- and a good bit more storage space, too. But the Thunderbolt is also going to have some serious competition in the form of Verizon's next high-profile 4G smartphone, the Motorola Droid Bionic.

So is it worth springing for the HTC Thunderbolt now, or would you be wiser to wait for the Bionic to arrive? Check out this comparison and see what you think.

Verizon 4G Phones: HTC Thunderbolt vs. Droid Bionic

First and foremost, make no mistake about it: The HTC Thunderbolt is a multimedia powerhouse. The Thunderbolt runs on a 1GHz processor with that aforementioned 768MB of memory. It has an 8MP rear-facing camera and 1.3MP front-facing camera for video chat. Of course, there's that 4.3-inch screen with 480-by-800 resolution. And the Thunderbolt is ready to use Verizon's speedy 4G network, provided you're in a city that supports it.

Despite those impressive specs, the Droid Bionic -- set to launch sometime in the second quarter of this year -- comes out ahead in a few noteworthy measures: The Bionic runs a dual-core 1GHz processor. That distinction, also present in Android tablets like the new Motorola Xoom, makes a big difference when it comes to multitasking and resource-intensive applications. The Bionic one-ups the Thunderbolt with its HDMI output, too, as well as its higher resolution display, at 540-by-960 pixels in the same 4.3-inch size.

Hang on, though: The Thunderbolt isn't down for the count. While the Bionic has the dual-core processor, it has just 512MB of RAM -- less than the Thunderbolt's 768MB helping. And while the two phones are matched in terms of their rear cameras, the Thunderbolt's front-facing camera beats the Bionic's hands-down; the Bionic has only a 0.3MP camera on its face.

Then there's storage: The Thunderbolt comes with 8GB of internal space, plus another 32GB via an included MicroSD card. The Bionic has 16GB of internal space and can support up to 32GB of external storage; as of now, however, it isn't clear what (if any) level of SD card will be included with the phone at purchase.

Finally, consider the software: While both phones ship with Android 2.2, aka Froyo -- hopefully with upgrades to Android Gingerbread in the cards -- each device has its own unique interface added on by its manufacturer. The Thunderbolt runs HTC's Sense UI, while the Droid Bionic runs a version of Motorola's Motoblur skin. Neither is objectively better than the other, but they're definitely different.

Verizon 4G Faceoff: Final Thoughts

In the end, there's really no clear-cut winner between the HTC Thunderbolt and Droid Bionic; based on the specs and our early impressions, both phones have their perks, and both promise to be powerful and compelling devices.

The decision ultimately comes down to a matter of preference. Personally, I'd veer more toward the Bionic; I tend to prefer Motorola's hardware design over HTC's, and I see a lot of value in having a dual-core processor phone. I'm also not a fan at all of the manufacturer-baked-in Android UIs. Ideally, I'd prefer a phone with stock Android -- but given the choice between Sense and Motoblur, I'd pick Motoblur; for my tastes, it's the less invasive and more stock-like option. That's just me, of course; some people swear by Sense and wouldn't buy a phone without it.

If you're debating between getting the Thunderbolt and the Bionic, the best thing I could suggest would be to think carefully about what it is that you want in a phone. Check out the Thunderbolt in a store later this week. If you like the way it looks and feels and are happy with the way the device works in terms of its software, it might just be the one for you.

Also check out a phone like the Droid X, though. While it's certainly not the same as the Bionic, it'll give you a basic idea of what Motorola's hardware is like and how its Motoblur interface feels to use. If that style strikes your fancy -- or if the idea of a next-gen, dual-core phone is important to you -- then the Bionic might be the better option.

Whichever way you go, rest assured: Something faster and shinier will be along to tempt you six months later. Welcome to the wild new world of mobile technology; there's rarely a dull moment.

JR Raphael is a PCWorld contributing editor and the author of the Android Power blog. You can find him on both Facebook and Twitter.

HTC Thunderbolt will make use of Verizon's 4G network Thursday (Appolicious)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 01:37 PM PDT

US regulator warns of Facebook pre-IPO scams (AFP)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 02:34 PM PDT

– Tue Mar 15, 5:34 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US financial regulator warned investors on Tuesday to be wary of con artists peddling non-existent shares in social media companies such as Facebook ahead of their going public.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) said the scams involved offering investors' access to private shares in social media companies ahead of their initial public offerings.

"Investors might think they are getting in on the ground floor of innovative social media companies, but instead find that they may have handed over real money for non-existent shares," John Gannon, FINRA senior vice president for investor education, said.

"Any investor who receives an unsolicited offer to invest in a pre-IPO company should walk away," Gannon said in a statement.

FINRA noted that a company is allowed to sell shares in private transactions but said "these investments can be fraught with risk and are typically open to a select group of investors who meet certain income or asset thresholds."

"While most pre-IPO offerings are legitimate, some are frauds in which con artists sell shares they do not actually have," it said. "Recently, FINRA became aware of potentially fraudulent schemes to sell purported shares of Facebook."

FINRA said the US Securities and Exchange Commission had recently reached a settlement with a securities trader accused of bilking more than 50 US and foreign investors out of more than $9.6 million in pre-IPO scams involving purported shares of Google, Facebook and other companies.

Microsoft Discontinues the Zune, Latest in the History of Failed Products (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 03:22 PM PDT

Mark Whittington Mark Whittington – Tue Mar 15, 6:22 pm ET
Contribute content like this. Start here.

Industry sources are reporting that Microsoft has decided to discontinue the Zune, once considered its answer to the Apple iPod. Microsoft will now concentrate on providing Zune-like functions on other platforms, such as the Phone 7 and Xbox.

The Zune was rolled out after the Apple iPod had already grabbed a lot of market share and had garnered a lot of momentum. The Zune, therefore, never could compete very effectively; it didn't not offer very much if at all that the iPod already gave one.

The Zune is surely not the first product to fall by the wayside practically from the gate. Here are three examples.

The Iomega Zip Drive, at one time, was supposed to be an alternative to the standard floppy disk. It had a 100 megabytes of storage capacity when it was first introduced in the 1990s. But a combination of the rise of writable CDs, the DVD, and an explosion in capacity for hard drives doomed the Zip Drive very soon after it was rolled out.

In the last decade, HD DVDs battled with Blue Ray to become the high definition DVD standard format. While HD DVD players enjoyed initial healthy sales, the format began a decline as the Blue Ray beat it out in video and software sales. One by one, film studios and computer software firms stopped supporting the HD DVD. Currently Blue Ray is the industry standard for high definition DVDs.

The most famous failed product in recent memory doesn't come from the electronics/computer world, but from the soft drink industry. The Coca Cola Co. introduced a new product called New Coke in the mid-1980s that was suppose to replace the Coke it had been selling for decades.

Initial taste tests during the development of the product showed New Coke had great promise. What followed was the biggest marketing disaster in the history of the soft drink industry as people declined to drink New Coke in droves, hording cases of Old Coke and launching protests. To its credit, Coca Cola pivoted, reintroduced its old fashioned coke as "Classic Coke" and quietly phased out "New Coke." It was the Edsel of the soft drink industry.

Google Revamps Its iPhone App (Mashable)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 02:05 PM PDT

Ben Parr Ben Parr – Tue Mar 15, 5:05 pm ET

Google has released a major update to its iPhone app, giving it a new design, new features and even a new name.

Google Search for iPhone, formerly Google Mobile, features a brand-new interface for searching the web and accessing apps. The mobile search interface is now more like the regular Google.com interface. The mobile search app also includes quick access to Voice Search and to Google Googles, which lets users conduct searches via photo.

The biggest update to the Google Search app is a new search toolbar that is accessible by swiping from left to right. Google.com users will immediately recognize this toolbar. It's almost identical to the left-hand column that appears on all Google Search result pages. Users can access news, image, shopping, video, blog, discussion, social, and place searches from the new search toolbar -- thus dramatically improving the usefulness of Google's iPhone app.

The new app includes another feature: the ability to pick up where you left off. If you get dragged into a series of phone calls while in the middle of a search, you can simply return to the page you were visiting by tapping the lower half of the page. The app also includes the familiar hotlist of Google's mobile web apps, from Gmail to Google Earth.

In short, the app is a dramatic improvement from the previous version. It is faster, more intuitive and includes a deeper stable of mobile search features. Our only complaint: given that we're in the fourth generation of iPhone, Google really should have released this app a long time ago.

Despite Google going forward, reports say no NFC on iPhone 5 (Appolicious)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 11:37 AM PDT

Seven Cool Apps at SXSW (PC World)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 05:20 PM PDT

Mark Sullivan Mark Sullivan – Tue Mar 15, 8:20 pm ET

Not all of the companies that developed these apps are exhibiting at the show, but they're all here. Some are throwing lavish coming-out parties, while others are just riding wave of buzz. But all of them are doing something creative, meaningful, and cool in the social/mobile/location-based space.

Here are seven apps that intrigued me.

Hashable: A mobile networking app (iPhone and Android) that lets you exchange virtual business cards with people, track your new introductions, and track who your new acquaintances are meeting. Runs on Android and iPhone.

GroupMe: This group messaging app allows you to form a virtual, private chat room from people in your smartphone's address book. The company has apps for Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone.

Foodspotting: This restaurant suggestion website and iPhone app lets you take pictures of foods at restaurants and post them for the Foodspotting community. The pictures are plotted on a map.

IntoNow: The app lets people share their favorite shows with their friends by taking a picture of the TV screen with their smartphone.

Quora: At Quora you can post a question and members of the community answer your questions. If you provide a really good answer to somebody else's question, other users will vote your answer up-in short, you will be loved.

SWAGG: This (iPhone and Android) app keeps all of you coupons and gift cards well organized in your smartphone so they're there when you need them. You also don't have to fool with paper clutter. SWAGG has deals with 3,000 retailers so that users can get special discounts.

Yobongo: This location-based chatting app lets you know when other Yobongo users are nearby and lets you initiate chats with them. Right now the app is only available for iPhone (boo), but it's one with some immediate usability in the real world.

YouTube buys Green Parrot Pictures (AFP)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 04:20 PM PDT

– Tue Mar 15, 7:20 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Google-owned YouTube said Tuesday that it has bought an Irish digital video company whose technology can help improve the quality of amateur footage submitted to the video-sharing site.

Financial details of the acquisition of Green Parrot Pictures, which was founded by Anil Kokaram, an associate professor at the engineering school of Trinity College in Dublin, were not disclosed.

YouTube said in a blog post that much of the 35 hours of video uploaded to the site every minute is "beautifully shot by professionals or aspiring filmmakers."

"But some of YouTube's most popular or moving videos are shot using low-quality mobile phones and video cameras," said Jeremy Doig, director of Google Video Technology.

"Take, for example, videos of recent protests in Libya," Doig said. "Although emotionally captivating, they can be jerky, blurry or unsteady.

"What if there was a technology that could improve the quality of such videos -- sharpening the image, reducing visual noise and rendering a higher-quality, steadier video -- all while your video is simply being uploaded to the site?"

Technology developed by Green Parrot Pictures "can do exactly this," Doig said, and has been used by major studios on films such as "Lord of the Rings," "X-Men" and "Spider-Man."

"Their technology helps make videos look better while at the same time using less bandwidth and improving playback speed," Doig said.

Remains of the Day: Truth or fiction? (Macworld)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 04:30 PM PDT

Dan Moren Dan Moren – Tue Mar 15, 7:30 pm ET

Apple now owns another piece of Beatles history, the iPhone can be used to hijack video billboards, and it's time for another game of "incompetence or malice?" The remainders for Tuesday, March 15, 2011 are stranger than fiction.

Apple Files for Apple Logo Trademarks Once used by the Beatles (Patently Apple)

Well, with the Beatles at last absorbed into iTunes, there was little left for Apple to do but take over the rest of the Fab Four's holdings as well. Cupertino has filed a trademark for the apple logo previously used by Apple Corps, the Liverpool lads' media company. This is fallout from an agreement struck in 2007, which saw Apple take over all of Apple Corps's trademarks—and required that Steve Jobs be inserted onto Abbey Road's album cover as the fifth Beatle.

Amazing Video: Man hacks Times Square billboards with iPhone? (CBS)

Is this man hacking Times Square video billboards with the help of just his iPhone and a couple of home-built circuit boards? It's hard to say, but it's a sad day and age when we're forced to be skeptical of random videos posted on the Internet.

Apple handcuffs 'open' web apps on iPhone home screen (The Register)

To hear The Register tell it, Apple has planned an elaborate conspiracy to make fullscreen Web apps launched from the iPhone's Home screen run slower than their in-browser counterparts. Or, alternatively, it's a bug. Bah, we all know Apple never makes mistakes! Just ask alien Elvis, Bigfoot, and Jimmy Hoffa.

Product Remainders:

Brother 2.6 Printer Drivers for Mac OS X v10.6 - Apple has added support for more Brother printer and scanner models to Snow Leopard.

Remote 2.1.1 - Apple's free Remote app has been updated, bringing improvements for connecting to iTunes or the Apple TV, a new "skip back" button for video, and improved stability.

Due 1.4 updated for iPhone, gains iPad interface - Timer app Due gains iPad support, the ability to specify seconds for timers, editing those timers by double tapping them, expanding title text boxes, and more.

You Gotta See This! 2.0 - The 2.0 version of Boinx Software's photo-recording app adds native support for the iPad 2 and other small fixes.

Djay for iPhone - Algoriddim's popular iPad-based music program for DJs has been updated to version 1.1 with auto-looping, three new cue points, a variety of bug fixes, and more. There's also now a separate version for iPhone and iPod touch ($10).

Intuit Glitch Leads to Mistaken Mega-tax Refunds (PC World)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 12:40 PM PDT

Chris Kanaracus Chris Kanaracus – Tue Mar 15, 3:40 pm ET

Most U.S. residents would be happy to get a few thousand dollars back from the Internal Revenue Service at tax time. But a snafu in some Intuit software recently resulted in a number of Ohio residents receiving letters indicating that eye-popping sums were en route -- in one reported case, a cool US$200 million.

The bug befell Intuit's ProSeries and Turbo Tax software and involved the process by which taxpayers submit requests for a direct deposit of their refunds, Ohio Department of Taxation spokesman Gary Gudmundson said via e-mail.

Intuit worked with the state of Ohio to resolve the problem, spokeswoman Julie Miller said via e-mail Tuesday.

An incorrectly formatted data field in the TurboTax product "affected a small number of customers -- only those returns filed with TurboTax between Jan. 21-24, 2011 and which indicated direct deposit," she wrote. "We immediately fixed the error so no additional filers were affected."

The glitch "in no way affects the accuracy of the customer's return or their true refund amount," Miller added. "We regret any inconvenience this may have caused our customers."

The Sandusky Register newspaper in Ohio reported last week that 9,700 customers received letters "promising grossly inflated refunds." Ohio officials could not immediately confirm that figure.

Now would have been no time for Ohio to be cutting excessive tax-refund checks, given the state's economic woes.

Gov. John Kasich released a 2012-2013 spending plan on Tuesday that includes drastic cuts meant to close a reported $8 billion budget gap.

Meanwhile, U.S. residents have until April 15 to file their income taxes. Intuit competes with a burgeoning array of tax-preparation software services, such as TaxAct and H&R Block At Home.

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

Officials: Health Net aware of data breach in Feb. (AP)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 06:25 PM PDT

– 2 hrs 52 mins ago

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Data servers containing the personal financial information, Social Security numbers and health history for nearly 2 million Health Net customers nationwide have been missing from a Sacramento-area office for roughly a month, authorities said Tuesday.

The Connecticut attorney general's office said the managed care company called March 4 to say the drives had been unaccounted for since early February. The office said Health Net began sending letters Monday to affected people, including former and current clients, employees and health care providers.

"When you're dealing with identity theft, time is of the essence," said Susan Kinsman, a spokeswoman for the attorney general.

It was unclear why Health Net Inc. didn't publicly announce until Monday that the servers were missing. California regulators have said nine servers are unaccounted for.

Health Net, which provides benefits to 6 million people across the country, would not confirm any of the details released by authorities in the two states.

As part of a lawsuit settlement, Health Net must notify Connecticut officials anytime the privacy of its customers is compromised. The Woodland Hills, Calif.-based company paid fines to Connecticut and Vermont after waiting more than six months in 2009 to inform 1.5 million people that it lost their private information.

In response to the latest data breach, the California Department of Insurance said Tuesday it will determine "whether the company did everything it could have done to avoid and appropriately remedy this security breakdown." The state Department of Managed Health Care, which was notified Friday, also is investigating Health Net's security practices.

On Monday, Health Net said it is investigating how the drives went missing and is offering two years of credit monitoring to people whose private information might have been compromised. Debix Identity Protection Network will provide identity theft insurance, fraud resolution and restoration of credit files.

Health Net began analyzing its system after IBM, which manages the company's information technology, informed the company that it could not find the drives, which belong in an office in Rancho Cordova, a Sacramento suburb.

The 1.9 million people potentially affected include more than 622,000 enrollees in Health Net products regulated by the state Department of Managed Health Care, more than 223,000 enrolled in California Department of Insurance products and an unspecified number enrolled in Medicare.
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