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Thursday, March 24, 2011

Oracle fiscal 3Q net income up 78 pct (AP) : Technet

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Oracle fiscal 3Q net income up 78 pct (AP) : Technet

Oracle fiscal 3Q net income up 78 pct (AP)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 04:04 PM PDT

By JESSICA MINTZ, AP Technology Writer Jessica Mintz, Ap Technology Writer – Thu Mar 24, 7:04 pm ET

SEATTLE – Database software maker Oracle Corp. said Thursday its net income rose 78 percent in the fiscal third quarter, helped by a rise in new software license sales and the benefit of three full months of revenue from Sun Microsystems, a company it acquired last year.

Oracle also issued earnings guidance for the current quarter that is higher than Wall Street expected. Shares climbed in extended trading.

The strong performance by Oracle is further testament to the recovery in business spending on technology. It is also a sign that the acquisition of Sun Microsystems, which turned Oracle into more of a one-stop shop by adding server computers to its software and consulting services lineup, is humming right along.

Oracle, which makes database software that underpins everyday transactions, from bank withdrawals to airline reservations, said new software license sales, a key figure for measuring Oracle's growth, increased almost 30 percent to $2.2 billion, above its own forecast for a 10 percent to 20 percent improvement.

Hardware systems revenue more than tripled to $1.7 billion from $458 million in the year-ago quarter. Oracle's $7.3 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems, a server computer company, closed last January, so last year's quarter only included one month of revenue from Sun. This year's quarter included three months of Sun revenue.

It "was just a great quarter," said Mark Hurd, a president at Oracle.

Hurd, the former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO who joined Oracle after his ouster last year in a sexual harassment scandal, took the place of Oracle's bombastic chief Larry Ellison, who could not join a conference call because he is serving jury duty.

Net income for the quarter that ended on Feb. 28 increased to $2.1 billion, or 41 cents per share, from $1.2 billion, or 23 cents per share a year earlier.

Excluding certain items, Oracle earned 54 cents per share, more than Wall Street was expecting. Analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast earnings of 50 cents per share.

Selling more Sun hardware and less third-party hardware helped Oracle improve profits in the quarter, as did improvements to the hardware supply chain, the company said.

Revenue jumped 37 percent to $8.8 billion from $6.4 billion, more than the $8.7 billion analysts predicted. The company said revenue increased more than 30 percent in every region worldwide.

Oracle said it expects fourth-quarter revenue to grow 10 percent to 14 percent, which comes out to $10.5 billion to $10.8 billion. Analysts currently predict $10.5 billion.

The company forecast earnings of 69 cents to 73 cents. Analysts forecast fourth-quarter earnings of 66 cents per share.

Oracle said it expects new software license revenue to grow 9 percent to 19 percent.

The Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company also said Thursday that employees in Japan are safe after the earthquake and tsunami, and that its Tokyo building was not damaged. Safra Catz, an Oracle president, said during a conference call that she does not expect problems with the supply chain as a result of the recent disasters.

Shares of Oracle bounced up $1.09, or 3.4 percent, to $33.20 in after-hours trading following the release of the earnings report. Earlier, the stock added 73 cents, or 2.3 percent, to close the regular session at $32.14.

RIM shares down on BlackBerry revenue miss (AP)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 03:27 PM PDT

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson, Ap Technology Writer – Thu Mar 24, 6:27 pm ET

NEW YORK – Research in Motion Ltd.'s stock took a hit Thursday after the maker of the BlackBerry reported revenue from its latest quarter that fell short of expectations and warned that sales in the current three-month period are shifting to cheaper models.

RIM's shares were down $6.59, or more than 10 percent, at $57.50 in extended trading after the Waterloo, Ontario, company reported results from the three months that ended Feb. 26.

It posted net income of $934 million, or $1.78 per share, for its fiscal fourth quarter. That was up 31 percent from $710 million, or $1.27 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected earnings of $1.75 per share, on average.

Revenue rose 36 percent to $5.6 billion, shy of the $5.65 billion expected by analysts.

For the current quarter, ending in May, RIM said it expects earnings of $1.47 to $1.55 per share, below the average analyst forecast at $1.65. It said that was because cheaper phones would make up more of its sales in the quarter, and it's spending more on research, development, sales and marketing, especially on its new tablet, the PlayBook.

"These are investments in the future," RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie told investors on a conference call. The decline in earnings isn't a trend, he said. The PlayBook and new "superphones" that use the same underlying software as the tablet will keep growth going, he said.

"I have many corporate clients that have approached us about, you know, each wanting tens of thousands, several tens of thousands of PlayBooks," Balsillie said.

The PlayBook goes on a sale in the U.S. on April 19. It's half the size of Apple Inc.'s iPad, and it's designed to work both as a standalone tablet and as an accessory for a BlackBerry phone.

RIM said Thursday that the PlayBook will be able to run applications written for Google Inc.'s Android software.

RIM expects earnings for the entire fiscal year of $7.50 per share, well above the analyst forecast at $6.82.

The growth of BlackBerry sales has slowed in North America due to competition from the iPhone and phones running Android. But overseas, sales are taking off, as corporations are only starting to put BlackBerrys in the hands of employees. Sales outside the old core markets of U.S., Britain and Canada are now 52 percent of the total, the company said. Cheaper models make up more of the overseas sales, analysts say.

Balsillie also said the company is selling more of its cheaper phones because more BlackBerrys are sold without contracts. Such phones aren't subsidized as much by the wireless carriers, so they're usually cheaper, entry-level models.

Google in translation pact for European patents (AP)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 09:27 AM PDT

By CAMILLE RUSTICI, Associated Press Camille Rustici, Associated Press – Thu Mar 24, 12:27 pm ET

PARIS – Google said Thursday it has reached an agreement with European patent authorities to use its online technology to translate some 50 million patents.

Google Inc. and the Munich-based European Patent Office will cooperate to use Google Translate technology to translate patents into 28 European languages as well as into Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian.

The deal with enable researchers and the curious to search for patents in the EPO's three official languages — English, French and German — and translate them on the fly on the EPO's website. The translations are to serve informational and research purposes only, and will not replace legal requirements for patents to be translated by professional translators.

The project is expected to be completed in 2014.

"Machine translation helps to overcome language barriers and make information contained in patents globally accessible and available," said EPO President Benoit Battistelli. "The new translation tool is a further stepping stone to improving innovation in Europe, and enabling European businesses to play level with their competitors in other regions," he said.

The Google-EPO deal is also a chance to simplify the European patent system and "facilitate the development of the unitary patent," Battistelli said. Years of infighting between the 38 EPO member countries prevented an agreement on the official language of the unitary patent. The new deal could bring up that issue back on the agenda.

Mountain View, California-based Google will gain access to all the translated patents - more than 1.5 million documents and 50 000 new patents each year - which will help improve its machine translation technology. Moreover, it will also deal with the growing amount of technology-related information in Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Russian.

How One Music Startup Is Defying the Odds By Breaking the Rules (Mashable)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 05:12 PM PDT

Jennifer Van Grove Jennifer Van Grove – Thu Mar 24, 8:12 pm ET

This post is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark as a new part of the Spark of Genius series that focuses on a new and innovative startup each day. Every Thursday, the program focuses on startups within the BizSpark program and what they're doing to grow.

Working against the notion that most online music startups are dead on arrival is newcomer Soundtrckr.

The young startup breaks all the rules; it offers listeners unlimited streaming access to 10 million songs on the web, across a smattering of mobile platforms and soon the television. Plus, Soundtrckr has social and local components on lockdown -- you can listen to the "stations" of friends or people nearby. And it costs nothing. No subscription fees, no mobile surcharge, no ads, nada. So, where's the catch?

Soundtrckr takes the similar artist, algorithmic playlist selection model that Pandora uses and has song skip limitations, so it's not of Spotify's or Rdio's on-demand ilk.

But rarely do the adjectives free and good go together to describe a single music service. Soundtrackr is an exception. It's already growing fast in the U.S. and overseas -- 35% of users are spread across the U.K., India, Brazil, Germany, France and Mexico. It's also nearing 500,000 users just three months post launch.

Soundtrckr hits at the cross section between mobile, social and local in a fresh way, creating new conditions for success, founder and CEO Daniele Calabrese tells me.

"You can tune into your friends, tune into what's nearby, and tune into discover music. That's what it's really about," he says.

Outsourcing the Music, Holding the Ads

"We had two choices," says Calabrese of the startup's debate between the only two legal options available for a music startup: to forge streaming deals with music labels or work with a third-party music provider. "We went with the option that brings the largest and richest experience to our users."

Soundtrckr uses MediaNet, the same company that powers MOG's music offering, as its music database. MediaNet delivers ten million tracks, with 20,000 new ones added each week, and Soundtrckr delivers the user interface and performs the algorithmic magic on-the-fly to create playlists based on artist selections.

MediaNet's services are far from free. "The arrangement is sustainable for a startup," Calabrese assures me.

Soundtrckr has raised $800,000 from private angel investors. That's not a lot of dough, but it's enough, according to Calabrese. Soundtrckr is looking at raising more funding in the next quarter to help finance growth, and to likely offset music streaming costs. No word yet on how much and from whom.

The startup plans to skip ads and subscription fees for the time being. Revenue, instead, will (hopefully) come from a recently cemented partnership with Songkick that will add concert ticket sales integration to Soundtrckr's mobile applications in May.

"There are ways to bring in revenue and still bring value to users," says Calabrese. "We want to create the best conditions, so [bringing in revenue] doesn't hurt the experience."

This means that the experience will remain entirely ad free, for now. Calabrese is against the idea of forcing users to pay to remove annoying features (like ads), but does indicate that he's keeping a close watch on mobile advertising opportunities.

Music, Everywhere

Already on the web, iPhone, iPod Touch, Windows Phone 7, Nokia, and in the Chrome Store, Soundtrckr is readying the release of several more applications and new features in the weeks ahead.

First up is the obligatory integrations with Twitter. Soundtrckr is not the social music experience it seeks to be without these integrations. Calabrese promises that users can expect the social add-ons to come to the iPhone application and the website next week.

A Google TV Soundtrckr application could be released as early as next week as well, and iPad and Android versions are also in the works.

The applications will be soon be everywhere, but they'll also be ubiquitous in language as well. Soundtrckr is currently available in six different languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and German. Russian and Japanese versions are scheduled for release in three weeks time.

The startup is aggressively targeting multiple distribution channels and international audiences because it believes those two factors will combine to create a cataclysmic effect that propels it to immediate popularity.

"We're going to grow fast," says Calabrese confidently. "You will hear more about us."

Images courtesy of Flickr, (e)Spry, chiarashine, lism

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.

Top 5 Online 2011 Tax Scams (PC World)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 06:00 PM PDT

Ian Paul Ian Paul – Thu Mar 24, 9:00 pm ET

You may not want to think about your taxes until Tax Day on April 15, but online scammers are already plotting to separate you from your tax refund and your identity. Scams for the 2011 tax season include promises of tax credits for charitable donations to disaster relief in Japan, malware-laden Websites optimized for search engines, dangerous e-mail, and so-called 'likejacking' techniques found on the social network Facebook.

About 19 million people have already filed their taxes at home in 2011, an increase of almost 6 percent from the year previous, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Consequently, this time of year is ripe for tax-related online scams. Crooks know that taxpayers are looking for information on deductions and tax laws. They know that this is the time of year when taxpayers submit personal information online and store sensitive financial documents on their hard drives.

Jennifer Torode, a spokesperson for the security firm Sophos, says that most of us wait until the last minute to file our tax forms. Scammers know this and "take advantage over the next few weeks to find ways to lure frantic filers into their webs," she says.

Here are five tips to help you avoid getting ensnared by tax scammers this tax season.

1. Japan Quake Scam

Among the newest scams for 2011 are bogus e-mail messages promising a tax credit applicable to your 2010 tax return if you make a charitable donation to Japan earthquake relief, according to McAfee consultant and identity theft expert Robert Siciliano. "The scam is based on the ruse being similar to a real law passed last year regarding Haiti," Siciliano said. In January 2010, Congress passed the Haiti Assistance Income Tax Incentive Act that allowed taxpayers to contribute to Haiti relief from January 11 to March 1, 2010 and claim it on their 2009 tax return. So far, the government has not established any retroactive tax rules involving this year's relief effort for Japan.

Tip: You can find many earthquake relief scams online; however, it's not clear how prevalent this particular scam is. For more information on how to make tax-deductible donations safely and effectively, consult this notice on IRS.gov.

2. Gone Phishing

One of the most popular ways to scam people during tax season is to set up Websites that look as if they are an official IRS site or a legitimate tax preparation service. "We have seen some scammers pretending to be tax preparation services, abusing brand names such as TurboTax, to obtain people's personal details," said Richard Wang, manager for Sophos Labs.

Other sites are designed to trick you into downloading a PDF file laden with malware, according to Jeff Horne, director of threat research for the security company Webroot. Horne also warns that sites may try to sneak malware onto your machine using a technique called a "drive-by download." Such sites contain code looking for exploits in your browser that will enable them to download malware onto your system without your knowledge. Merely by using a vulnerable browser to visit a site, you can be victimized with bad guys wielding this technique.

Once tax-related malware is loaded on your machine, it can set up a keylogger to track everything you type into your computer, or it can search your saved documents for keywords related to tax season such as "social security" or "1040."

Tip: The best defense against drive-by downloads is to make sure that you always use the latest version of a modern Web browser, such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

3. Black Hat SEO

One of the tricks that crooks use to lure victims into a scam is to optimize their sites for Google searches, a technique known as "black hat SEO" (the acronym stands for "search engine optimization"). Horne suspects that these sites use resources such as Google Trends and Google Insights to discover the types of tax-related searches people are requesting. Once criminals have figured out some of the more popular keywords for this year's tax searches it's not difficult for them to optimize their bogus sites for search engines.

Tip: "Never use search engines to search for tax documents," Horne said. Instead, go directly to the government site (such as IRS.gov, USA.gov, or an individual state government site ending in '.gov') to look for tax forms and other tax information.

4. Likejacking

Facebook and other social networking sites are major targets for online scammers looking to make a quick buck off tax season. Horne says that Webroot has seen some examples of 'likejacking' in which scammers try to trick you into 'liking' their scam site on Facebook. Achieving this objective may involve hiding a Facebook "Like" button under another button on a third-party Website or exploiting a weakness in your browser by using a few snippets of JavaScript to press the Like button for you.

Once you "like" the site, an external link will show up in your Facebook news feed with a scam message such as, "I just got $500 by using this free tax preparation service." Friends who see that message may be tempted to click the link leading them to a phishing site or a spam site looking to increase its ad revenue by generating Web traffic.Note, however, that some legitimate tax preparation services are promoted on Facebook by institutions such as universities as well by individual friends.

Tip: Don't choose a tax preparation service on the basis of Facebook message attributed to a friend. At the very least, talk to the friend directly to confirm that he or she endorses the service.

3 percent of online Americans still using Internet Explorer 6, dump it for the latest version of IE available for your operating system--or use a different popular browser such as Chrome or Firefox.

3. Never use a search engine to look for government documents. Instead, go directly to sites such as IRS.gov, USA.gov, or individual state government sites ending in .gov, and search for forms there.

4. Never open or download attachments included with messages claiming to be from the IRS. The wisest course may be to refrain from opening any unsolicited tax-related e-mail message, as some poisoned messages use HTML to exploit weaknesses in your browser and initiate a drive-by download.

5. Never do your taxes over an unencrypted wireless connection such as free Wi-Fi at Starbucks. At home, even if you use the latest wireless security encryption standards such as WPA2 there, you are better off breaking out the LAN cable and using a wired connection when dealing with sensitive financial information.

6. Once you're finished filing your taxes for this year, make sure that you move all of your tax-related files for safe keeping to a USB key, an external hard drive, or some other form of removable storage. Then wipe all tax files off your computer's hard drive. Tax-related malware may lurk online long after tax season is over, according to Horne. If you happen to get infected, and you've stored your tax forms in a special folder on your PC, it won't take much for a scammer to steal your identity.

IRS Advice

The IRS also has a lot of helpful information to help keep you safe from phishing and other e-mail scams. The IRS emphasizes that it never asks taxpayers for their passwords, PINs, or other secret data relating to bank accounts and credit cards. Furthermore, never initiates taxpayer communication through e-mail. If you receive a dubious e-mail message claiming to be from the IRS, you can report it by forwarding the message without altering it to phishing@irs.gov. For more online tax security tips, check out the IRS's page on how to protect your personal information.

Connect with Ian Paul ( @ianpaul ) and Today@PCWorld on Twitter for the latest tech news and analysis.

NPR Deploys Splunk for Web Analytics (PC World)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 03:20 PM PDT

Joab Jackson Joab Jackson – Thu Mar 24, 6:20 pm ET

In a novel use of the software, National Public Radio is using the Splunk log search engine to analyze Web traffic for its audio streams and downloads.

NPR metrics analyst Sondra Russell described the setup at GigaOm's Big Data conference, held Wednesday in New York.

Splunk offers what it calls a search engine for machine data. It was originally built to parse log files, or the files programs and hardware generate to document their transactions, errors and other operational information. By coordinating the timestamps of messages from different applications and hardware, Splunk allows system administrators to pinpoint difficult-to-locate system problems.

In recent years, however, customers have been expanding their uses of Splunk to other duties, explained Splunk Chief Technology Officer Erik Swan, also speaking at the event. Web traffic analysis and business intelligence are two such ancillary uses.

For much of its Web traffic monitoring, NPR uses standard Web traffic analytic software, which can deliver reports on how many people visit each Web page. Such software usually generates these counts by using cookies or by embedding each page with a small script that alerts the software when the page is rendered in a browser.

The media organization, however, found it difficult to get reliable usage summaries for a number of aspects of its service. For instance, the organization needed to get an accurate count of how many listeners tuned into their streamed audio and video programs.

To get this data, NPR had prepared a PHP script that would parse the server log files and translate the results into a form that could be digested by Adobe's Omniture, a Web analytic tool. Getting information back, however, could take up to 24 hours, and Russell still didn't trust that the results provided an accurate count.

In the cases of streaming usage, many users might start a stream, then pause it, and restart it. Or perhaps a user would restart a stream after a failed Internet connection. In the server log files, all these events were logged as separate events, not a linear sequence of actions by a single user. As a result, there was no way of determining how many connections were from different listeners, and how many were multiple streams to a single user.

"With our PHP scripts, we could not get that level of sophistication. So our numbers could be off," Russell said."It was hard to make rational decisions based on this."

By working with Splunk, NPR could derive listener numbers and information directly from its servers' log files. The software allows users to script search results and then graph the results, or show them on a dashboard.

In NPR's case, for instance, it provided the exact number of listeners for each program that was streamed or downloaded. "With Splunk you can wrap multiple [log entries] into a single distinct visit, so I feel my numbers are actually accurate," she said.

Splunk helped identify users' mobile platforms as well. An increasing amount of traffic to the NPR site comes from mobile clients, such as iPhones, iPads and Android smartphones. In one case, a manager wanted to know which version of the iPhone operating system was most often used, as the results would direct the company's design work for its iPhone app.

"I could not have answered that without Splunk," Russell said.

Splunk also solved a seemingly unsolvable problem for the organization: determining how to pay royalties for streamed songs. NPR offers a streaming service for songs, called SoundExchange. It must pay out royalties for each song played, based on the number of listeners that stream had at the moment. "It can get complicated to reconcile the two," Russell said.

Using Splunk, Russell was able to merge two files -- a list of when each song was played, and the number of listeners that stream had when the song was played. "Splunk put them together," Russell said.

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com

RIM's outlook disappoints, shares tumble (Reuters)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 06:52 PM PDT

By Alastair Sharp Alastair Sharp – 2 hrs 41 mins ago

TORONTO (Reuters) – Blackberry maker Research In Motion on Thursday warned its earnings would slip as it spends heavily on the launch of its PlayBook tablet, sending its shares tumbling as much as 12 percent.

While the Canadian technology company's net profit in the quarter ended in February jumped 32 percent, and it shipped a solid number of its BlackBerry smartphones, investor attention zoomed in on its less-than-rosy forecasts for the current quarter.

"The February quarter was fine. The May quarter guidance -- shocking might be too strong a word -- but it was very weak," said Matthew Thornton, an analyst at Avian Securities.

RIM projected earnings of between $1.47 and $1.55 per share in the current quarter -- well below the $1.65 analysts had forecast.

RIM said its profit margins will take a hit as it spends heavily to overhaul its operating system and introduce its tablet in a burgeoning market created by Apple's iPad. The PlayBook is due in North American stores on April 19.

RIM also said it gave a wider guidance range due to potential disruption to its supply chain in the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake this month. It said it had inventory on hand but delivery times for more supplies are uncertain.

RIM co-chief Jim Balsillie portrayed the near-term outlook as an anomaly needed to lay the groundwork for a resurgence.

"We believe the launch of new handsets beginning in Q2 and into the second half of the year, as well as the positive halo from the PlayBook launch, (will provide) an opportunity for improved growth in North America," he told a conference call.

RIM aims to shift the QNX-powered platform of its PlayBook on to its BlackBerry smartphones by early in 2012, he said.

Some figure the task is too great.

"What people are worried here is you've got one company, albeit a really good company, but they're trying to take on all the OS development, all the ecosystem development, work with the developers on apps, build the hardware, work with the carriers. ... Any one company that tries to do this by themselves will probably lose," said Ed Snyder, an analyst from Charter Equity.

DIFFICULTY IN U.S. MARKET

In the meantime, RIM is finding it increasingly difficult to impress consumers with its smartphones, particularly in the U.S. market. There the BlackBerry is steadily losing market share to snazzier competitors including the iPhone and Android devices.

But it is nurturing solid growth in global markets, where customers and carriers are impressed with its mid-range devices, cheaper data plans and applications such as BlackBerry Messenger, a free instant messaging service.

More than half its sales came from outside North America and Britain in the latest quarter, the company said.

RIM said it would offer support for Android apps, potentially enabling the PlayBook to carry more than 200,000 of the third-party software additions available on the Google platform.

RIM reported net profit of $934 million, or $1.78 per share, for the fiscal fourth quarter ended February 26, on revenue of $5.56 billion, it said.

Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of $1.76 per share and revenue of $5.64 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"Generally looks like Q4 was in line with expectations, Q1 is a little lower on EPS due to research and development, along with sales and marketing associated with the tablet initiative," said Tavis McCourt, an analyst at Morgan Keegan.

In an unusual move perhaps intended to inspire confidence, RIM also forecast earnings for its full fiscal year, which started in late February.

It said it would earn more than $7.50 a share fully diluted, higher than the $6.81 average expectation of analysts. It made $6.34 a share in the year just ended.

"It's like 'I'm going to make it up in the last half of the year, don't worry' -- what gives them the confidence that that's going to happen?," said Colin Gillis from BGC Partners in New York.

Balsillie said he expects RIM to sell "millions" of PlayBooks in the next 12 months but said the company would not provide regular forecasts on the tablet sales.

The company shipped 14.9 million BlackBerry smartphones in the quarter, and said that would likely fall to between 13.5 million and 14.5 million in the current quarter. It sees its gross margin slipping to around 41.5 percent in the current quarter.

Shares of the Canadian company plummeted as much as 12 percent in after-hours Nasdaq trade before settling 10 percent lower at $57.50. (Additional reporting by Euan Rocha, John Tilak, Susan Taylor; Editing by Frank McGurty)

RIM confirms Blackberry PlayBook Android integration, with a catch (Digital Trends)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 05:31 PM PDT

Molly McHugh Molly Mchugh – Thu Mar 24, 8:31 pm ET

playbook androidFinally, there's been some confirmation on a very important PlayBook rumor that's been around for months now. RIM has officially stated that it will open up the PlayBook for BlackBerry Java and Android-based applications – but of course, it can't be quite that simple. In a press release, RIM explains that the Android Market itself won't be operable on the PlayBook. Users will only be able to access Android apps via BlackBerry App World. And there's another catch: Only specific Android apps will run on the tablet. For now, the PlayBook will only support Android 2.3 apps.

"Developers will simply repackage, code sign and submit their BlackBerry Java and Android apps to BlackBerry App World. Once approved, the apps will be distributed through BlackBerry App World, providing a new opportunity for many developers to reach BlackBerry PlayBook users."

It's definitely a coup for the PlayBook: A launch that includes a hearty amount of apps is always beneficial, and tying itself to the established Android ecosystem doesn't hurt. The QNX OS BlackBerry has chosen to use for PlayBook doesn't have the recognition Google's mobile OS does, not to mention the sheer number of applications. It also makes the tablet more attractive to developers. While there's been increasing interest in creating PlayBook applications, it doesn't have the pull Android does, and now developers will be able to market their programs to both easily due to what RIM describes as "a high degree of API compatibility."

RIM revealed in its earnings call (via BBC) today that shares fell 12 percent, saying the sagging numbers were caused by "investments in the future." But good news, as RIM CEO Jim Balsillie also revealed there are "many corporate clients that have approached us about, you know, each wanting tens of thousands, several tens of thousands of PlayBooks." The PlayBook launches April 19.

Facebook revamps and reintroduces Questions (Digital Trends)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 04:31 PM PDT

Molly McHugh Molly Mchugh – Thu Mar 24, 7:31 pm ET

facebook questionsFacebook has relaunched its Questions application and turned it into a succinct, sleek, poll-taking machine. There's nothing Quora-like about this feature: Facebook doesn't want your personal diatribes about anything. Instead the application works like an addition to the user status and lets you ask your network their opinion and force them to vote for an answer or provide their own.

"We wanted to make questions easier and faster to answer. With the updated Questions you can agree with an existing answer with a single click, or you can add a different response," writes Facebook staffer Adrian Graham.

Anytime Facebook introduces a new feature, there's bound to be complaints. This time we think it might have something to do with the visibility of users' Questions. In order to "cast a wider net," Facebook has determined that not only your friends, but their friends, can respond to your queries. However, you'll see your own friends answers first. From the initial look and sound of it, the application is intended to be used for quick poll taking – for example, advice on the best local burger, or quickest way to get to the airport.

And there's a concrete difference between this and Quora, for anyone feeling like Facebook is taking advantage of the growing site's niche: The Quora community is exclusive and the Facebook community is not. While users are more than welcome to ask whatever they like on Quora, its focus is definitely not on the trivial. And of course, Facebook is so heavily populated you are more likely to get real time answers from your friends (and their friends).

Questions will begin rolling out to all Facebook users today and available to all account holders soon.

Incase Courier Collection for spring offers bike-conscious designs (Digital Trends)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 06:00 PM PDT

Kelly Montgomery Kelly Montgomery – Thu Mar 24, 9:00 pm ET

A new collection from Incase for spring and summer of this year features a set of modern bags catering to the urban cyclist, hence the 'courier' title. The collection's two standouts are the well-equipped Courier Messenger Bag (above, $180) and the Courier Messenger Backpack ($150), but the line also includes a few other items, like a hip pack and iPhone pouch. The weather-resistant messenger bag is made of 1680D nylon with a waterproof lining and has an exterior waterproof stash pocket as well as a variety of interior pockets, including two that are lined with plush faux-fur for gadget protection. An ergonomic, padded cross-body strap features a one-handed adjustment slack pull and a large side release buckle for convenience and comfort on cycling trips around town. Other bike-conscious features include bicycle lock storage, a pump tie-down, removable stabilizer strap, and an exterior reflective panel.


The messenger backpack (above) offers many of the same design and convenience factors as well as a faux-fur lined laptop compartment that fits up to a 17-inch laptop and a wide-mouth top opening for quick access. Side access compartments leave room for all your smaller items while padded shoulder straps and adjustable front straps keep you comfortable on the go. The collection is available in tonal black-on-black, dove gray with orange accents, or our favorite, minty jade green with black and orange design details.

Is "Closing" Honeycomb the Beginning of an Androidocalypse? Hardly. (Mashable)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 03:34 PM PDT

Jolie O'Dell Jolie O'dell – Thu Mar 24, 6:34 pm ET

Earlier today, we learned that Google would be limiting access to the source code for Android 3.0, a.k.a. Honeycomb, its tablet-specific OS.

For a famously open-source platform, this decision was startling to many in the field; however, the situation isn't as dire as it seems at the outset. For one thing, any tablet manufacturer or dev can get their hands on the code; all they have to do is ask.

As a Google rep told us in an email, the Honeycomb OS was designed for the larger form factor that goes along with tablet devices; it definitely wasn't intended for use on phones. And Honeycomb includes new features and improvements to existing features such as multi-tasking, browsing, notifications and customization.

The rep stated, "While we're excited to offer these new features to Android tablets, we have more work to do before we can deliver them to other device types including phones. Until then, we've decided not to release Honeycomb to open source."

"We're committed to providing Android as an open platform across many device types and will publish the source as soon as it's ready."

In other words, this doesn't signal a fundamental shift in everything that Android stands for; after all, the open-source mantra has been such a fundamental part of the platform's PR that killing off that aspect of the technology would amount to Google shooting itself in the foot.

Hardly the End of Open-Source Android

Google's isn't locking down the source code for Froyo (Android 2.2) or Gingerbread (Android 2.3) any time soon, and it doesn't have and intentions of keeping future releases closed, either.

And as we know, the tablet and phone forks of Android will be merged in a future release (possibly Android 4.0), which will also be open-sourced.

The "I" release, which may or may not be code-named "Ice Cream," will combine the Gingerbread and Honeycomb capabilities, and it's rumored to be coming this summer. We may get to learn more about Ice Cream at Google I/O this May.

Also, for developers, the Honeycomb SDK is still freely available for developing Android tablet apps. And the source code for Honeycomb is still available; it just isn't publicly posted on the web for anyone to download.

Anyone in the Open Handset Alliance can get the source code for Android 3.0. And any person working with Android tablets can contact Google directly, sign a licensing agreement (no fees required), and get the source code that way, as well.

The Real Reason for the Decision

In short, Google is simply trying to prevent sloppy implementation of a slick OS. The company doesn't want to see more gaffes like tablets running Froyo or earlier mobile OSes -- and Google sees phones running Honeycomb as an equally inept implementation.

As we asked ourselves around the Mashable office, "Who in the world would want to put a tablet OS on a phone?"

Hackers, that's who. And when we say "hackers," we don't mean the script kiddies trying to steal your bank info; rather, we refer to the creative technologists and tinkerers whose guiding principle is a question: "What's this button do?"

In fact, such hardware hackers have already played with putting Honeycomb on the ancient T-Mobile G1 and the equally early Nexus One.

While neither of these hacks would likely come to a mass market, Google might be making a legitimate argument about misunderstanding and misuse of the Honeycomb OS.

Timelines & Influences

Two questions then remain: When will the tablet OS be open-sourced, and did current Honeycomb-using manufacturers who happen to be particularly close to Google (here's lookin' at you, Motorola) have anything to do with the decision?

The Google rep we spoke to was unable to comment on specific timelines or Google's decision-making process, but we did reach out to Android dev and Android blogger Fred Grott for his take on the matter.

We noted earlier that Ice Cream was expected to arrive between May and later in the summer of 2011. Grott noted, "I would hazard a guess that the Android phone-tablet port is due out this summer, and the source would be open to public this fall."

He also said that at Mobile World Congress, the more cutting-edge devices with NFC tech were not running the most recent versions of Android for mobile devices, which hints that manufacturers may be lagging in adoption of the newest releases.

"What I gather from what Google has stated," Grott continued, "is that they want the Honeycomb port to the phone branch correct and right the first time to head off any manufacturer customizations of the UI and finally nip that part of fragmentation in the bud."

Grott also said that dealing with those OS customizations is a pain point for manufacturers; they have to rewrite native apps, and they don't get any kickbacks from carriers for doing so.

Also, for manufacturers, carriers, Google and the community of Android tablet consumers, having a partially closed door for OS customizations helps breed a culture of trust. It's not the closely guarded world of iOS, but it's also not an unpredictable, anything-goes free-for-all. And in the new, new arena of Android tablets, that might be a good and solidifying factor.

This might chafe FOSS advocates mightily, but it's likely in Google's best interest for the time being. Let us know what you think about Google's decision and reasoning.

New Android Opera browsers offer simplicity and smoothness (Appolicious)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 05:05 PM PDT

Time Cable seeks wireless pact (Investor's Business Daily)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 03:15 PM PDT

– Thu Mar 24, 6:15 pm ET

The cable giant is in talks with LightSquared to form a partnership that would allow Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC - News) to offer wireless services over LightSquared's next-generation network, according to published reports. An outright acquisition isn't expected, and Time Warner Cable is seen maintaining a stake in another wireless company, Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR - News), which is currently the focus of its wireless strategy. Time Warner Cable rose 1.3%. Clearwire slid 0.1%.

Alesis iO Dock for iPad lets users create music on the fly (Digital Trends)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 05:00 PM PDT

Kelly Montgomery Kelly Montgomery – Thu Mar 24, 8:00 pm ET

This new iPad dock from Alesis is the first of its kind, designed to make the iPad a portable and easy-to-use interface for creating, producing, and performing music. The iO Dock ($399) transforms your iPad (or iPad 2) into a professional tool for musicians, producers, and recording engineers, allowing users to create and produce music with connected instruments and professional gear, or all alone with one of the numerous iPad music-creation apps. Almost any instrument or professional gear can be connected to the dock, which also includes Core MIDI support and two combination XLR and 1/4-inch inputs. A convenient guitar-direct switch lets the guitarist play and record right into the iPad's amplifier- or effects-modeling apps. We're not going to say we know everything about the technical mumbo-jumbo, head on over here to get all the details, but we'd say that this is a pretty smart way to combine the functionality of creative apps with traditional recording methods.

Apple's iPad 2 hits overseas stores after U.S. sellout (Reuters)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 07:47 PM PDT

– 1 hr 46 mins ago

WELLINGTON/SYDNEY (Reuters) – Hundreds of customers lined up outside Apple stores in Australia and New Zealand on Friday for the international launch of the iPad 2, which has flown off the shelves in the United States leaving the company struggling to meet demand.

Analysts forecast some 1 million devices may have been sold in the first weekend of the launch in the United States, but many warn that it's not clear how supply constraints will affect availability following the Japan earthquake and tsunami.

Apple plans to roll out the new iPad on Friday to 25 markets including France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, and Spain.

The iPad 2, a thinner and faster version that features two cameras for video chat, was introduced in the United States on March 11. But some would-be buyers have expressed frustration at how difficult it has been to secure one of the wildly popular tablet computers, sparking speculation Apple misjudged demand.

"If it wasn't for the iPad, I wouldn't be in Australia right now," said Alex Lee, a backpacker from Canada, who was the first in the queue outside the glass-fronted Apple store in Sydney's central business district. He said he diverted his travels from Singapore to attend the launch.

"It's like a habit. I've also lined up on Regent Street in London for the iPhone," added Lee, who had a folding chair and blanket and had spent two nights waiting.

Blue-shirted Apple staff in Sydney handed out trays of sandwiches to those in the queue, some of whom had bedded down on blankets overnight before being awoken by bright sunshine.

The iPad 2 goes on sale at 5 p.m. local time (0400) GMT in New Zealand and at 0600 GMT on the east coast of Australia, before sales kick off in other markets.

Its retail price in Australia starts at A$579 ($568), against $499 in the United States.

Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in a statement on Tuesday the company was "experiencing amazing demand for iPad 2 in the U.S." and added "We appreciate everyone's patience and we are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone."

Fiona Martin, a spokeswoman for Apple in Australia, declined to comment on whether there was enough stock to meet demand.

"We don't comment on speculation, we've got plenty down there for all those folk that are in the queue."

In New Zealand, a shop assistant at JB HiFi, one of Wellington's major electronic shops, said there had been a constant stream of people asking about the iPad.

"We haven't even seen it, we don't know how many we're getting, but there'll be big demand you can bet," said the assistant.

A prospective buyer, 22-year-old student Ian MacDonald, said he had held off buying the first generation iPad because it lacked a camera and he wanted any bugs ironed out.

"This version looks way better, with the cameras and it beats all the other tablets because there are so many apps (applications)," he said.

In addition to Friday's rollout, Apple said the iPad 2 will be available in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and additional countries in April.

JAPAN SUPPLY CONCERNS

Analysts are concerned that Apple will face shortages of key components for the iPad 2 because of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan two weeks ago.

Several key components in the new version of Apple's popular iPad come from Japan, including the battery and the flash memory used to store music and video on the device, according to IT research house iSuppli.

Apple delayed sales of the iPad 2 in Japan, but has said that had nothing to do with any component shortages.

"We expect Apple to face increased pressure in meeting iPad 2 and iPhone 4 demand in the second quarter," Stifel Nicolaus analyst Doug Reid wrote recently. "Although it is early to gauge the extent of component supply shortages, we see risk to our iPad and iPhone unit estimates in the June quarter."

That said, the wait time on delivery of online orders has shortened to 3-4 weeks in recent days from as high as 6-7 weeks, suggesting component shortages have not reached critical levels.

The iPad two also faces increased competition. Samsung Electronics and Motorola have tablets on the market and Blackberry-maker Research In Motion and Hewlett-Packard Co are set to release tablets in coming months.

(Reporting by Cecile Lefort and Amy Pyett in Sydney and Gyles Beckford in Wellington; Additional reporting by Edwin Chan in Los Angeles; Writing by Ed Davies)

Google delays open access to new Android software (Reuters)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 04:34 PM PDT

By Alexei Oreskovic Alexei Oreskovic – Thu Mar 24, 7:34 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc is delaying widespread access to the new version of its Android software, saying it has more work to do before the product is ready for certain types of devices.

Google unveiled Android 3.0, known as Honeycomb, earlier this year, billing it as the first version of its Android operating system designed from the ground up for use in tablet PCs. Honeycomb software is already available on the Motorola Mobility Inc Xoom tablet, which went on sale in February.

The software represents Google's first dedicated effort to challenge the dominance of Apple Inc's iPad in the nascent tablet PC market.

But Google said it will not immediately make its Honeycomb software available as open source code, the company's traditional practice with Android whereby any developers are free to modify the software as they see fit. The reason for the delay, Google said, was because Honeycomb was not ready to be customized for use on smartphones.

"While we're excited to offer these new features to Android tablets, we have more work to do before we can deliver them to other device types including phones," a Google spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

"We're committed to providing Android as an open platform across many device types and will publish the source as soon as it's ready," the statement said.

The spokeswoman said there was no timeline at the moment for when Honeycomb would be available as open source software.

News of the delay was first reported by Bloomberg Businessweek on Thursday.

Previous versions of Google's two-year-old Android software have primarily been used in smartphones. Google became the No. 1 smartphone operating system in the world in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to research firm Canalys.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Gary Hill)

Oracle Slandered Itanium To Boost Sun Servers, HP Says (NewsFactor)

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 02:05 PM PDT

Barry Levine, newsfactor.com Barry Levine, newsfactor.com – Thu Mar 24, 5:05 pm ET

On Tuesday, Oracle declared it is discontinuing all software development for Intel's Itanium microprocessor. The company said its decision came after "Intel management made it clear that their strategic focus is on their x86 microprocessor and that Itanium was nearing the end of its life." Except that Intel disputes that assessment, with Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini issuing a statement that his company remains "firmly committed" to Itanium.

This dispute has a substantial impact on Hewlett-Packard, which helped Intel develop the chips in the 1990s. Oracle and HP have been partners, but the Itanium episode is highlighting their increasingly divergent interests. Sun Microsystems, which Oracle acquired in 2009, makes chips that are Itanium competitors, and former HP CEO Mark Hurd now works for Oracle.

'Shameless Gambit'

Oracle added that not only is it discontinuing support for Itanium, but that both Microsoft and Red Hat have similarly ended software support for the processor. It also noted that HP CEO Leo Apotheker "made no mention of Itanium" in a detailed presentation this week on the "future strategic direction" at Apotheker's first shareholder meeting as chief executive.

In this battle of the statements, HP on Wednesday didn't mince words as it responded to Oracle's attempt to assign Itanium to the dustbin of chip history.

"Oracle continues to show a pattern of anti-customer behavior as they move to shore up their failing Sun server business," HP's statement quoted Dave Donatelli, its executive vice president and general manager of enterprise servers, storage and networking. He added that HP was "shocked that Oracle would put enterprises and governments at risk while costing them hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity in a shameless gambit to limit fair competition."

HP's Itanium-based servers, which run the HP-UX version of Unix, compete with Oracle's Solaris servers. HP contends that Oracle's abandonment of Itanium is an attempt to keep its servers from losing more market share.

Intel Remains 'Firmly Committed'

By some estimates, as much as 50 percent of HP's Itanium-based Superdome servers run Oracle, and any doubts sown by Oracle about the future of that architecture could impact buying decisions about new hardware for the popular database software. As x86 processors increase in capability, some industry observers are suggesting HP -- if need be -- could readily port HP-UX to x86 platforms.

HP pointed to Otellini's Itanium-supporting statement that promised Intel's work on the processor and related platforms will continue "unabated with multiple generations of chips currently in development and on schedule." Otellini added that Intel remains "firmly committed to delivering a competitive, multigenerational road map for HP-UX" and other OSes that run on the Itanium architecture.

The Itanium road map includes Poulson, an eight-core chip that will double current performance, and then Kittson, now being developed.
at 9:45 PM

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