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Planned wireless Internet network threatens GPS (AP) : Technet |
- Planned wireless Internet network threatens GPS (AP)
- Email marketer at center of breach apologizes (AP)
- Networks work to master new era of sports in 3-D (AP)
- Why Glenn Beck's Show Was Cancelled [POLL] (Mashable)
- Time Warner Cable CEO's pay up 10 percent in 2010 (AP)
- Under fire, US eyes Internet to reach Chinese (AFP)
- Elpida develops new DRAM for smart phones, shares jump (Reuters)
- 4G Phone Shootout: Verizon ThunderBolt Fastest by Far (PC World)
- Facebook elbows for journalists' attention with new features (Digital Trends)
- Dish-Blockbuster Deal Could Allow Us to Admire Their Cool TV Tech in One Place (PC World)
- Celebrating 20 Years of Linux [INFOGRAPHIC] (Mashable)
- Xoom, Atrix struggling in iPad-dominated world (Appolicious)
- Verizon among hacker victims (Investor's Business Daily)
- Dish expands its scope with Blockbuster win (Reuters)
- Go Spartans! Steve Wozniak to speak at Michigan State University commencement (Digital Trends)
- Huawei Has Ongoing Oversight Deal With CFIUS (PC World)
- Windows Servers Hacked at The Hartford Insurance Company (PC World)
| Planned wireless Internet network threatens GPS (AP) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 12:02 PM PDT WASHINGTON – A new, ultra-fast wireless Internet network is threatening to overpower GPS signals across the U.S. and interfere with everything from airplanes to police cars to consumer navigation devices. The problem stems from a recent government decision to let a Virginia company called LightSquared build a nationwide broadband network using airwaves next to those used for GPS. Manufacturers of GPS equipment warn that strong signals from the planned network could jam existing navigation systems. A technical fix could be expensive — billions of dollars by one estimate — and there's no agreement on who should pay. Government officials pledge to block LightSquared from turning on its network as scheduled this year unless they receive assurances that GPS systems will still work. The stakes are high not only for the GPS industry and its users, but also for those who would use LightSquared's network. In approving it, the Federal Communications Commission seeks to boost wireless competition and bring faster and cheaper Internet connections to all Americans — even in remote corners of the country. LightSquared and the FCC both insist the new network can co-exist with GPS systems. But device makers fear GPS signals will suffer the way a radio station can get drowned out by a stronger broadcast in a nearby channel. The problem, they say, is that sensitive satellite receivers — designed to pick up relatively weak signals coming from space — could be overwhelmed when LightSquared starts sending high-power signals from as many as 40,000 transmitters on the ground using the airwaves next door. "The potential impact of GPS interference is so vast, it's hard to get your head around," said Jim Kirkland, vice president and general counsel of Trimble Navigation Ltd., which makes GPS systems. "Think 40,000 GPS dead spots covering millions of square miles in cities and towns throughout the U.S." One of the biggest risks is to the GPS navigation systems used by about 40 percent of commercial and private planes. Backup systems that rely on ground-based radio signals are not as accurate and have coverage gaps. Some older private planes have no backup at all. With GPS interference, a pilot "may go off course and not even realize it," said Chris Dancy, a spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. LightSquared's network could also undermine the Federal Aviation Administration's multi-billion-dollar program to upgrade the nation's air-traffic control system, which is based on World War II-era radar technology. The new GPS-based system is more precise and lets planes fly more direct routes. That will save airlines time, money and fuel and cut pollution. It is also key to accommodating projected increases in airline traffic by enabling planes to fly safely closer together. Public-safety officials, too, are nervous about LightSquared because they rely on GPS to track and dispatch police cars, fire trucks and ambulances. Many 911 systems also use GPS to help locate people. Disruptions could delay responses to emergencies, said Harlin McEwen, an official with the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Even the Pentagon has expressed concern as it relies on GPS to guide planes, ships, armored vehicles, weapons and troops. LightSquared plans to compete nationally with super-fast, fourth-generation wireless services being rolled out by the likes of AT&T and Verizon Wireless. It won't sell directly to consumers, though. Instead, LightSquared will provide network access to companies including Leap Wireless, parent of the Cricket phone service, and Best Buy, which will rebrand the service under its own name. LightSquared has its roots as a satellite-phone operator, so its airwaves historically have been reserved primarily for satellite communications. FCC rules adopted in 2003 allowed the company to back up those signals with ground-based wireless service, but only to fill in coverage gaps. In January, however, the FCC gave LightSquared permission to use its airwaves for a broader, conventional wireless data network. Although the company will continue to offer satellite service too, it plans to cover at least 92 percent of Americans by 2015 with high-power wireless signals transmitted by base stations on earth. Until now, GPS receivers haven't had much trouble filtering out noise in the adjacent airwaves because it consisted mostly of low-power signals beamed from space. But GPS manufacturers warn that will change once there is a major ground-based broadband network next door. Both LightSquared and the FCC say further testing is needed to determine the true extent of any interference. The FCC is requiring LightSquared to participate in a study group with GPS manufacturers and users. LightSquared won't be allowed to start operating its network until the government is satisfied that any problems are addressed, FCC spokesman Rob Kenny said. "We have every reason to resolve these concerns because we want to make sure there is a robust GPS system," LightSquared executive vice president Jeffrey Carlisle said. Dan Hays, a consultant with the firm PRTM, insists the technical solution is straightforward: GPS devices need to include better filters to screen out the LightSquared signals. Estimates on the costs of a fix, however, range widely. Hays believes it will cost no more than $12 million — or 30 cents per device — to install better filters in roughly 40 million standalone GPS units made worldwide each year. Cell phones, he said, will be fine because they don't rely solely on GPS to determine location and have better filters anyway. But Tim Farrar, a consultant with TMF Associates, insists cellphones need upgrades, too — raising the annual cost to as much as $1 billion. Tens of billions of dollars of existing equipment may also need to be replaced, Farrar said. GPS manufacturers insist that neither they nor their customers should have to pay. That's because GPS receivers were designed to screen out low-power signals next door, and now the government is changing the rules, said Scott Burgett, software engineering manager with Garmin Ltd. But Hays said GPS receivers are "eavesdropping on signals outside of where they are supposed to be" — in LightSquared's space. That was not a problem — until now. Moreover, LightSquared and the FCC say the GPS industry should have been preparing for a ground-based network nearby since the FCC first allowed backup wireless systems in that space in 2003. The real dilemma, Hays said, is this: "This is a situation where the neighbor built the fence too far over the property line and may not have realized it at the time. Now the other neighbor wants to build a pool and there is not enough space. So the question is: who has to pay to move the fence?" ___ Associated Press Writer Joan Lowy in Washington contributed to this report. |
| Email marketer at center of breach apologizes (AP) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 06:18 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO – The company at the center of a data heist involving Best Buy, Citigroup, and other major brands said Wednesday that the theft of potentially millions of names and email addresses won't significantly slow its email marketing juggernaut. Epsilon, a subsidiary of Alliance Data Systems Corp., was the victim of a hacking attack that triggered scores of public warnings this week from major retailers, banks and others. Epsilon sends more than 40 billion emails a year on behalf of more than 2,500 companies, for things like loyalty rewards programs. In a statement Wednesday, it reiterated that Social Security and credit card numbers weren't compromised. Epsilon president Bryan Kennedy apologized for the inconvenience and the "phishing" emails that victims are receiving. The company said that only 2 percent of its client base was affected and that its email volumes aren't expected to be significantly impacted. Epsilon said the incident should have "minimal if any impact" on Alliance Data's financial performance. Epsilon is a big moneymaker for Alliance Data, which is based in Plano, Texas. Epsilon turned $65 million in operating profit last year, and its $613 million in revenue was 22 percent of Alliance Data's total. |
| Networks work to master new era of sports in 3-D (AP) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 02:57 PM PDT NEW YORK – The camera is affectionately known as WALL-E, its two lenses reminiscent of the eyes on the animated movie robot. It shoots sports in 3-D, a sci-fi sight that's the product of the newest way fans can watch games on TV. Few are doing so for now. In fact ESPN, which launched a 3-D network last summer, doesn't even have exact numbers on how many people are putting on their glasses and tuning in. But the focus is on working out the kinks of broadcasting sports in 3-D, so the network will be ready when the audience starts to grow. Research firm DisplaySearch estimated that fewer than 1.6 million 3-D capable sets were sold in the U.S. last year, and not all those owners are necessarily taking advantage of 3-D programming. Yet television manufacturers and movie studios are committed to the medium, and sales are expected to increase exponentially in the next few years. At last month's Big East men's basketball tournament, ESPN personnel in their 3-D production truck outside Madison Square Garden celebrated a particularly nifty shot from an overhead angle that captured the ball bouncing straight up from the rim and then down through the net. Cameraman Eric Grubb, who's worked for the network for a quarter-century, has had to relearn many of his instincts developed over the years. For 2-D TV, he tends to zoom a lot. For 3-D, he has to remind himself to stay wide, to "let the shot speak for itself." "You try to create a human experience," coordinating producer Phil Orlins said. "Eyes don't zoom." In the truck, they try to cut between shots at a slower pace. Viewers say that when a 3-D program switches from one shot to another, it sometimes looks out of focus. It's not, but that's how the brain perceives the shift. In other cases, 3-D is more susceptible to technical difficulties that really will give you a headache. Unlike filming a movie, sports are live and have to be shot right the first time — and the need for two cameras to create the 3-D image greatly increases the odds something will go awry. If the color is slightly different in the right camera than the left, the viewer's brain will sense the picture is wrong. If the two transmissions are off by a split second, the broadcast appears as though it's underwater. Even when the technology is working perfectly, some sports just look better in 3-D than others. Orlins says the three keys are proximity, predictability, and a three-dimensional playing surface. The X Games are a 3-D producer's dream. Proximity: When Shaun White is snowboarding down the halfpipe, the camera can capture him in a tight shot. Predictability: The director knows ahead of time the basic path of his run. Playing surface: The steepness and enormity of the halfpipe come to life in 3-D. Conversely, Orlins said, "if the court is flat, it still looks flat." A very different sort of competition — golf — also thrives in 3-D. Last year, the Masters was the first major sports event broadcast live internationally on TV and the Internet in 3-D. ESPN 3D will air two hours from each round this week. "That commitment and embracing technology will just enhance the enjoyment for the fans of the Masters," ESPN executive vice president John Wildhack said. Baseball isn't anywhere near as good a fit because it requires too wide a shot. "People think it will pop out at you," Orlins said of the ball flying off the bat. "But it travels too far." Some sports also allow for more cost-efficient 3-D productions. For the kinds of shots needed for boxing and X Games, ESPN could use the same camera setup for 2-D and 3-D, which requires fewer personnel. Orlins estimated he needed 14 extra people at the Big East tournament to do a separate 3-D broadcast. "You need to be able to do that to make it a fully viable business," Orlins said of combining productions. Grubb and the other camera operators review video after each 3-D event, learning a little more each time. How not to give the viewer vertigo. How to think in layers. Working in a format that's so new is actually relaxing, Grubb said. "It's all an experiment," he said. "Nothing is wrong." |
| Why Glenn Beck's Show Was Cancelled [POLL] (Mashable) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 04:19 PM PDT The Twittersphere is exploding over news of Glenn Beck's "transition" away from his daily Fox News program later this year. Why did this happen? Let's take a look at circumstances surrounding the cancellation of his show:
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| Time Warner Cable CEO's pay up 10 percent in 2010 (AP) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 07:13 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO – The CEO of Time Warner Cable Inc. received compensation worth $17.3 million in 2010, an increase of 10 percent from the year before, as the country's second-largest cable company lost cable TV subscribers but gained high-speed Internet customers. Glenn Britt, 61, took home a salary of $1.25 million, up 25 percent from $1 million in 2009, and a performance-based bonus that rose 33 percent to $8.3 million. He received stock valued at $3.1 million on the day it was granted — an increase of 31 percent over what he got in 2009 — as well as options valued at $4.4 million, which marks a decrease of 26 percent year over year. Britt's 2009 option award included a $2 million stock option for renewing his employment contract through 2012. Britt also received other compensation valued at $296,880, up 12 percent from 2009. That included $192,734 for personal use of a company plane and $40,250 in reimbursements for financial services. The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. The AP formula does not count changes in the present value of pension benefits. That makes the AP total slightly different in most cases from the total reported by companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The value that a company assigned to an executive's stock and option awards for 2010 was the present value of what the company expected the awards to be worth to the executive over time. Companies use one of several formulas to calculate that value. However, the number is just an estimate, and what an executive ultimately receives will depend on the performance of the company's stock in the years after the awards are granted. Most stock compensation programs require an executive to wait a specified amount of time to receive shares or exercise options. During its first full year apart from Time Warner Inc., from which it split in March 2009, Time Warner Cable shed 454,000 residential cable TV subscribers but gained 475,000 residential high-speed data subscribers and 40,000 residential digital phone subscribers. While the New York-based cable company's subscriber numbers could show that the popularity of watching TV on websites like Hulu and Netflix is starting to cut into cable TV's hold on consumers, when pressed in January to comment on so-called cord-cutting Britt questioned the sustainability of the Netflix model. He said Netflix and its peers are essentially acting as extra middle men between the companies that create entertainment and those that deliver it. Netflix investors feel differently: The company's stock tripled in 2010, and the company currently has a market value of $12.7 billion. For all of last year, New York-based Time Warner Cable earned $1.3 billion on $18.9 billion in revenue, up from a profit of $1.1 billion on $17.9 billion in revenue in 2009. The company's stock climbed nearly 60 percent during the year, ending 2010 at $66.03. |
| Under fire, US eyes Internet to reach Chinese (AFP) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 06:48 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US broadcasting agency said Wednesday it saw the Internet as the future for reaching the Chinese public as it came under fire from lawmakers for slashing short-wave radio service. Under a budget proposal for next year, Voice of America would close its longtime radio and television broadcasts in Mandarin and eliminate its Cantonese service entirely, cutting 45 jobs and saving $8 million. The belt-tightening comes as China ramps up global distribution of its own state-run radio and television, an effort symbolized by the official Xinhua news agency's efforts to secure a spot in New York's Times Square. Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a staunch critic of China, called a congressional hearing to voice alarm at the cuts and questioned if President Barack Obama's administration was trying to curry favor with Beijing. "The $8 million 'saved' will do far more to weaken our efforts in a dictatorial and belligerent China than it will to balance the budget," said Rohrabacher, a Republican from California. He questioned the shift to an Internet platform, noting that China has worked tirelessly to build a firewall that blocks out online searches for politically sensitive topics. But S. Enders Wimbush, a board member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an autonomous US government agency, testified to lawmakers that the budget proposal was only a nod to "common sense." The board "did not plan to make it easier on Chinese authorities. In fact, we plan to make it more difficult for them," Wimbush said. "We are going heavily into digital because that is where the audience is and, particularly, that's where the demographic is that we seek to reach," he said. Launched in 1942, Voice of America was active during the Cold War as the US government's international broadcaster. It stopped live broadcasts in Russian in 2008. The 2012 budget still funds radio and Internet broadcasts in Mandarin and Cantonese by Radio Free Asia, a separate service founded after China's Tiananmen Square crackdown that focuses on providing news within closed Asian societies. |
| Elpida develops new DRAM for smart phones, shares jump (Reuters) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 07:02 PM PDT TOKYO (Reuters) – Elpida Memory Inc said on Thursday it has developed a 4-gigabit DRAM chip for smart phones, joining bigger rival Samsung Electronics as the only producers of the large capacity power-saving memory chip. The news pushed Elpida's shares up 5.5 percent. Elpida, the world's No.3 maker of DRAM chips, will start production of the new chip in June at a plant in Hiroshima and aims to generate 100 billion yen ($1.2 billion) of sales in the 2012/13 business year, Elpida spokesman Hideki Saito said. That is equal to about one-fifth of Elpida's expected annual sales for the financial year ended last month, according to analyst estimates. "This is a growing market and the chip will enjoy healthy demand," said Yuichi Ishida, a senior analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities. "The production of 4-gigabit DRAM chip will certainly make a positive contribution to its earnings." Saito said Elpida would start supplying the chip to its main clients as early as this summer, and that it planned to begin production in Taiwan as well to diversify its geographical risk. Japan's catastrophic March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which triggered a nuclear safety crisis and rolling power blackouts, have interrupted production at many factories in Japan, including several key chip plants. The Nikkei business daily, which first reported Elpida's plans to produce the 4-gigabit DRAM, said buyers of the chip would include Apple. (Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Nathan Layne) |
| 4G Phone Shootout: Verizon ThunderBolt Fastest by Far (PC World) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 06:30 PM PDT 4G phones that they had promised at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The new phones are designed to take advantage of the faster data speeds offered by the next-generation networks the carriers have been spending megabucks to build (and advertise) over the past year. In total, four such phones have come to market so far: the HTC ThunderBolt (the first phone designed to run on Verizon's 4G LTE network), the Samsung Galaxy S 4G from T-Mobile, the Motorola Atrix 4G from AT&T, and the HTC EVO Shift 4G from Sprint. The phones have arrived with a considerable amount of hype from the companies selling them. Verizon, for instance, says that its ThunderBolt has "immense power, scorching speed." T-Mobile claims that its Galaxy S 4G is "the fastest phone running on America's largest 4G network." And Motorola, which makes the Atrix for AT&T, insists that its device is "the world's most powerful smartphone." Naturally, we wanted to know how fast these phones really are, so we hit the road to speed-test them in five cities around the western United States: Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. In a nutshell: Verizon's ThunderBolt is in a league of its own, averaging 18.30 megabits per second for downloads and 7.39 mbps for uploads. T-Mobile's Samsung Galaxy S 4G turned in a solid performance, clocking average speeds that looked 4G-like (3.38 mbps for downloads, 1.13 mbps for uploads). AT&T's Motorola Atrix 4G, on the other hand, produced speeds that were consistently 3G-like, while Sprint's EVO Shift 4G seemed able to hook up with the carrier's 4G WiMax network all too infrequently. Testing Methodology Before we dig deeper into the results, here's a bit about the way we tested. We hit the ground in five West Coast cities--Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas--and ran speed tests on each phone at ten or more locations. To measure the speeds of the Atrix, Galaxy S, and EVO Shift phones, we ran the FCC-approved Ookla testing app on the handsets. Since the Ookla app has a difficult time measuring LTE networks, we tethered Verizon's ThunderBolt to a laptop and then measured the connection speed at Speedtest.net, also operated by Ookla. Use the following links to see maps of our testing locations, with speed results, in Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Moving rightward across the chart below (click for the enlarged version), you can see the speed averages and network latency times for each of the four smartphones. Speeds are expressed in megabits per second. Latency--or the time it takes a single small packet of data to travel to a network server and back--is represented in milliseconds. ThunderBolt Appears, 4G Future Begins In our recent 13-city speed tests, we declared T-Mobile the fastest in our smartphone-based tests. But that was before the arrival of Verizon's 4G LTE ThunderBolt. The phone clocked download speeds that were more than five times faster than T-Mobile's Galaxy S 4G, and about eleven (yes, eleven) times faster than AT&T's Atrix. The ThunderBolt registered download speeds of less than 10 mbps in only 7 of our 52 testing locations. It produced 30-mbps-plus speeds in Century City and Silver Lake in Los Angeles, and hit peak speeds nearing 30 mbps in Seattle, San Francisco, and San Jose. The LTE phone's overall average upload speed came in at 7.39 mbps, more than six times the upload speed of the second-place finisher, T-Mobile's Galaxy S 4G. With speeds like that, even high-bandwidth bidirectional apps such as video chat and online gaming perform as they do when hooked up with a fat broadband cable. Network latency, or the time needed for a single packet of data to travel through the network, was also exceedingly low on the Verizon LTE network at 57 milliseconds, meaning that the network has very little congestion or bottlenecking at this time. Latency times of less than 100 milliseconds are ideal, while delays of more than 200 milliseconds can limit throughput and impair real-time services such as VoIP and videoconferencing. In our January speed tests, we discovered that Verizon LTE USB modems, which the company had begun selling well in advance of its first LTE smartphone, were hitting download speeds and upload speeds that were twice as fast as T-Mobile and AT&T USB modems, and almost three times faster than Sprint's fastest 4G WiMax modem. We knew the network was crazy-fast, but we were waiting to see whether the first LTE smartphones would reach the same high speeds. We predicted that they would, but we were only half right: The ThunderBolt, even with the hardware limitations of a compact smartphone, actually proved far faster than Verizon's LG 600 LTE modem in our tests. Still, the ThunderBolt has been selling only since St. Patrick's Day, and Verizon's LTE modems have been on sale for less than four months. With the stunning 20-mbps-plus download speeds registering on the ThunderBolt, we can't help but wonder if the network is simply underutilized right now. Certainly the LTE network was engineered to support millions and millions of users; when the load on the network comes closer to capacity, we might see download speeds settle down to the 5-to-12-mbps levels that Verizon has told users to expect. T-Mobile's Galaxy S Clocks 4G-Like Speeds The Samsung Galaxy S 4G is the first phone to support T-Mobile's new HSPA 21 network technology, meaning that the handset is capable of reaching the 21 mbps of (theoretical) throughput speed that the T-Mobile network is built to deliver. This does not mean that the Galaxy S 4G should be expected to hit 21-mbps download speeds, but rather that it contains a radio and chipset capable of faster speeds than earlier T-Mobile phones achieved. This idea proved out in our tests. The T-Mobile HTC G2 we used in our 13-city speed tests in January and February clocked an average download speed of 2.28 mbps, with an average upload speed of 0.95 mbps. This time around, our T-Mobile Galaxy S 4G turned in a five-city average download speed of 3.38 mbps and an average upload speed of 1.13 mbps. The Galaxy S 4G was especially impressive in Las Vegas, registering download speeds of faster than 5 mbps at six of our ten testing locations there. In Los Angeles, the phone hit download speeds of more than 4 mbps in six of twelve locations, and averaged 3.23. The phone hit top speeds of 6.6 mbps in both San Francisco and San Jose. Upload speeds were also impressive. The Galaxy S 4G had upload speeds of more than 1 mbps in 27 of our 52 testing locations. Fast upload speeds are required for bidirectional applications such as online gaming and video chat. These apps also depend on superfast network response time, and the Galaxy S 4G did very well in that respect, too: Network latency times clocked in at less than 100 milliseconds in the vast majority of our testing locations. And the handset had an average latency score of just 103 milliseconds across our five testing cities. While testing the Galaxy S 4G, we felt confident that we could connect from just about anywhere, at a speed that would make both Web browsing and video streaming operate smoothly. Only in San Francisco did T-Mobile's coverage seem spotty, yielding sub-1-mbps download speeds in half of our testing locations. Motorola Atrix 4G and the HTC Inspire 4G. These phones are meant to deliver the "4G" speeds that AT&T says its 3G HSPA+ network is capable of. At least where the Atrix is concerned, the claims did not prove out in our tests. In fact, the Atrix's average download and upload speeds (but especially the upload speeds) in our five testing cities seemed distinctly 3G-like. The phone scored a five-city download speed average of 1.68 mbps (far slower than the Verizon and T-Mobile phones, and just a hair faster than Sprint's EVO Shift 4G), and an average upload speed of 0.19 mbps (the slowest average upload speed in our tests). Only in San Jose did the Atrix score an average download speed of more than 2 mbps--our dividing point between 3G and 4G speeds. The phone didn't break the 2-mbps barrier even once in our Las Vegas and Los Angeles tests; in San Francisco it passed the barrier four times, and in Seattle it did so only twice. In the majority of our tests, the Atrix clocked download speeds of between 1 and 2 mbps. While we were conducting our tests, news surfaced that AT&T had admitted to intentionally throttling back the upload speeds of the Atrix. This certainly bore out in the test results we were seeing at street level. Our measured average upload speed of just 0.19 mbps on the Atrix is the kind of performance that would seriously hinder bidirectional apps like VoIP or video chat. In our 13-city tests earlier this year, the iPhone 4 achieved far faster uploads (0.97 mbps on average) on the very same AT&T network. Nor would the Atrix's latency scores help the performance of the above-mentioned apps: AT&T's network registered an average 247 milliseconds of latency time across our five testing cities, well above the 100-millisecond breaking point between smooth, responsive performance and delayed, choppy results. Sprint: Where Art Thou, WiMax? Our January speed tests demonstrated that Sprint's 4G WiMax service is indeed fast, but that it isn't available in enough places in Sprint's markets. The same theme was evident in our recent five-city testing of Sprint's EVO Shift 4G phone. (The Shift was the first new 4G phone to hit the shelves this year; the company announced it at CES on January 4, and put it on sale January 9.) The Shift averaged 1.65 mbps for downloads and 0.50 mbps for uploads--pretty good in 3G terms, but poor in 4G terms. Sprint and its WiMax partner Clearwire simply don't have sufficient density of WiMax base stations on the ground to ensure that Sprint 4G customers can pick up the WiMax signal consistently across cities. We found that when the EVO Shift 4G was close to a WiMax base station, it could connect at between 2 mbps and 4 mbps--but we spent much of our time outside the reach of a base station. The problem was especially bad in our Seattle and Los Angeles tests. Of the 22 testing locations in those cities, the EVO Shift 4G connected at a 4G-like 2-mbps-plus speed at only one (2.15 mbps in south-central Los Angeles). One explanation might involve the way the EVO Shift 4G moves back and forth between 3G and 4G modes: When the Shift searches for 4G service and doesn't find any, it turns the 4G radio off--but whether the phone turns the radio back on when it picks up the 4G signal anew remains unclear. Overall, the Shift's average speeds were about the same as those we recorded in our 13-city speed tests earlier this year using the Shift's older sibling, the EVO 4G. The EVO 4G ended up with a 1.50-mbps average download speed and a 0.56-mbps average upload speed. Network latency times on the Shift were similarly unimpressive, at 237 milliseconds. Although we didn't test the video-chatting feature that Sprint shows in its ads, we doubt that it would work very smoothly with delay times like that. A Final Note About the Testing Our testing method is designed to approximate the experience of a real smartphone user on any given day in their city. We speed-tested our four phones from ten to twelve testing locations spaced evenly throughout our five testing cities. At each testing location in each city, we took a "snapshot" of the performance of each wireless service, testing for upload speed, download speed, and network latency. We looked for the fastest signal available for each carrier, searching first for 4G service, and then, failing that, defaulting to the carrier's 3G service. Because wireless signal quality depends to a large extent on variables such as network load, distance from the nearest cell tower, weather, and the time of day, our results can't be used to predict exact performance in a specific area. Rather, they illustrate the relative performance of wireless service in a given city on a given day. |
| Facebook elbows for journalists' attention with new features (Digital Trends) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 05:45 PM PDT
Twitter and Quora have become well known for their aid to journalists and researchers alike, and now Facebook's trying to get in the club as well. The site launched its new Facebook for Journalists platform, a tool, it claims, to be "an ongoing resource for the growing number of reporters using Facebook to find sources, interact with readers, and advance stories. The page will provide journalists with best practices for integrating the latest Facebook products with their work and connecting with the Facebook audience of more than 500 million people." Sure, users Facebook may have, but industry pull it does not. At least not yet. Up until this point, Twitter and Quora are the sites du jour for writers looking for a story, or trying to dig up one. Twitter's bite-sized information and dearth of insiders using the site makes it a natural platform to find a story. There are an innumerable amount of reports that have begun with nothing more than an executive's tweet. And Quora has become a natural outlet: It's got some pretty prestigious clientele actively using the site, keen to ask and answer questions. And of course, you're able to plant the seed for a story right there and hope the likes of Mark Zuckerberg or Kevin Rose will feel compelled to answer. And Facebook wants a piece of the action. While it's inarguably influential, even to the point of spurring global change, professional it is not. Its' very purpose (at least originally) is to make news out of what your girlfriend and brother and roommate are doing, not world events. But the site's obviously taking steps to add some of that in: In addition to its journalist-dedicated page, President Obama is slated to appear in a live streamed event later this month. What seems to be more important than providing journalists with yet another way to find information is providing them with some evolving ethics on the matter. The blogosphere and digital reporting arena would do well to have a coalition helping mold this new ground â€" and Facebook has one thing Twitter and Quora definitely don’t: More than 500 million active users who spend 700 billion minutes on the site a month. |
| Dish-Blockbuster Deal Could Allow Us to Admire Their Cool TV Tech in One Place (PC World) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 06:46 PM PDT After my initial "Whaaaaat?" reaction to Dish Network's $320 million bid for what's left of Blockbuster Video, I started to imagine what the satellite TV provider might do with Blockbuster's assets. The result could be fun for entertainment addicts and gadget fans. I predict Dish will use the best Blockbuster locations to demo and sell its cool TV-everywhere technology like Slingbox and GoogleTV , which have been a tough sell to Dish's 14.1 million price-conscious customers. Remember the month-long Fox Networks' blackout on Dish last fall? National Geographic, FX and Fox Sports Networks went dark for a month during football season, and angry Dish subscribers bailed in droves. By hooking up with Blockbuster, Dish acquires leverage with the studios to get the shows and movies customers want - at the bargain-basement price it demands. Pivotal Research Group analyst Jeff Wlodarczak wrote in a research note that "Blockbuster's roughly 1 million DVD mail-order customers and its robust online business could lead to a Netflix-like product for Dish and non-Dish customers." Here's the context: Dish, which added just 33,000 subscribers in 2010, admits that it wins customers by cutting prices. luring away eyeballs from DirecTV and cable. Dish and its parent company, EchoStar, are hoping that next-generation technology and exclusive content will keep subscribers loyal, but Dish execs admit it's been a tough sell, according to Broadcasting & Cable. Echostar owns Sling, which gives Dish customers exclusive access to Slingbox tech that lets people watch their pay TV channels and DVR recordings from any Internet-connected device. Reviews have been great, but Dish has been strangely silent about sales. But Sling has huge potential. If you like your local news while on the road, want to watch the Glee episode you recorded, or paid $179 for an NBA League Pass, you can now access that content on an iPhone on the subway, in the Shanghai airport, or on the TV in your beach house. GoogleTV mashes up Internet and TV functionality, using the Logitech Revue. Dish was first to offer GoogleTV and sells the Logitech box at a discount ($179, down from its $299 MSRP). Users can install Android apps on their DVR, surf the Web and watch online content on their big screens. Did you know about TV Everywhere? Probably not--it's a tough sell at installation or over the phone with an underpaid service rep. Will Dish benefit from a storefront that lets potential customers play with their cool new toys on various devices--like Apple Stores for couch potatoes? Time will tell. |
| Celebrating 20 Years of Linux [INFOGRAPHIC] (Mashable) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 03:03 PM PDT You've come a long way, Tux the Penguin. The Linux Foundation is celebrating 20 years of the famous FOSS operating system, Linux -- or GNU-slash-Linux, depending on how hard-line a fossie you're talking to -- with a slew of special events, both online and IRL. Linux enthusiasts can check out the official anniversary site for details. The Foundation is also sharing a few other exciting news items, including:
You might also enjoy the commemorative infographic and video (entitled The Story of Linux and featuring Richard Stallman in a cameo as St. IGNUcius) we've included below. Take a moment to look them over, and in the comments, reminisce with us about your Linux experiences over the years. I can still remember my first Red Hat box from early 2000...
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| Xoom, Atrix struggling in iPad-dominated world (Appolicious) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 01:20 PM PDT |
| Verizon among hacker victims (Investor's Business Daily) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 03:36 PM PDT The largest U.S. mobile carrier was among the companies that had the email addresses of customers exposed in a massive online data breach last week. In what could be one of the biggest online attacks, a hacker penetrated online marketer Epsilon, a unit of Alliance Data Systems (NYSE:ADS - News), which controls email databases for 50 companies. Verizon Communications' (NYSE:VZ - News) wireless unit, the largest U.S. mobile carrier and a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone (NASDAQ:VOD - News), said only email addresses were exposed. Verizon dipped 0.1%. Alliance rose 0.5%. |
| Dish expands its scope with Blockbuster win (Reuters) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 07:12 PM PDT WILMINGTON, Del./NEW YORK (Reuters) – Dish Network Corp won Blockbuster Inc in a bankruptcy auction for $320 million, further broadening its business beyond satellite TV and setting up a possible showdown with Netflix. Dish, the second-largest U.S. satellite TV company after DirecTV, trumped at least three other bidders, including activist investor Carl Icahn, for the one-time leader in video rentals. Dish said the deal, which includes more than 1,700 Blockbuster stores, gives it new ways to market its services. The deal covers "substantially all" of the rental chain's business, and likely gives Dish the rights Blockbuster had to stream movies over the Internet, the Blockbuster brand name and customer lists. Blockbuster said in a statement that it believes the sale "represents the best means of maximizing value for the company's stakeholders." Dish declined to comment beyond its news release. A court hearing to approve the sale is scheduled for Thursday. "This is very clever," said Todd Mitchell, an analyst with Kaufman Brothers. "Dish can transition Blockbuster from a retail to a streaming model so you have basically a Netflix-like offering." Shares of Dish ended one cent higher, while Netflix Inc's stock slid nearly 2 percent. The deal follows two others this year led by Dish Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Charlie Ergen that could transform the company into a major provider of on-demand video through its satellite system and eventually over a wireless network for handheld devices, according to analysts. Dish is expanding its broadband spectrum by acquiring DBSD North America for about $1.4 billion. Digital set-top box maker EchoStar Corp, where Ergen is also chairman, has announced it is buying Hughes Communications, which Mitchell said could one day provide technology to create a wireless network. Together, the deals could give Dish the tools it needs to deliver movies to phones and iPads and compete with Netflix, which streams most of its videos over the Internet. "Young people are downloading increasing amounts of content direct to handheld devices. The iPhone is at the forefront of a new generation of devices that are revolutionary because you don't have to plug them into the computer to receive content," said David Pauker, a turnaround specialist with Goldin Associates. Dish expects to pay about $228 million in cash to acquire Blockbuster's assets, which as of February 27 included more than $100 million of receivables and cash and a rental library estimated to be worth $175 million. The money will go toward paying off the company's creditors, which include Icahn and other bondholders as well as movie studios. The creditors are owed more than a $1 billion. David Berliner, a turnaround advisor for BDO Consulting said the Dish deal reminded him of Cablevision's purchase of The Wiz electronics stores as a way to sell its cable TV subscriptions. Blockbuster currently has a similar agreement with Dish rival Comcast Corp, which has kiosks in some stores. When Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in September it said it had about 1.3 million subscribers for its monthly or annual rental services. Netflix has more than 20 million for its mail-order delivery of movies. It is a dramatic fall for Blockbuster. Mail-order and then digital competitors have steadily eaten into its business, which at its peak in 2002 had a market value of $5 billion. Dish is expected to continue to close Blockbuster stores, which have already been cut nearly in half during its six months in bankruptcy. Landlords such as Simon Property Group Inc were quick to object to the sale and wanted assurances Dish will continue paying rent. When Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy it originally proposed to emerge under the control of a group of investors that included Icahn and several hedge funds. However, those investors never agreed on a business plan and after poor holiday sales Blockbuster was put up for sale. Icahn has long been an investor in Blockbuster, but resigned from the board last year. He recently wrote in a letter to the Harvard Business Review that Blockbuster was the "worst investment I ever made." Dish shares ended up 1 cent to $24.32 on Nasdaq on Wednesday, while shares of Netflix fell 1.7 percent to $239.97 also on Nasdaq. The case is in re: Blockbuster Inc, U.S. bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No 10-14997. (Additional reporting by Sakthi Prasad and Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Derek Caney, Richard Chang, Tim Dobbyn and Carol Bishopric) |
| Go Spartans! Steve Wozniak to speak at Michigan State University commencement (Digital Trends) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 05:17 PM PDT
"Technology plays a critical role in the education of our students, so it's fitting that Steve Wozniak will send our graduates off to careers that have been influenced by his innovations," said MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon. Wozniak speak to will speak at the 1 p.m. convocation, which will be held at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center, One Birch Road in Lansing, MI. It is expected that he'll discuss the impact and success of the iPad 2. In a recent speech, he spoke of the importance of the iPad and how it's finally a computer for normal people. "I think Steve Jobs had that intention from the day we started Apple, but it was just hard to get there, because we had to go through a lot of steps where you connected to things, and (eventually) computers grew up to where they could do … normal consumer appliance things," Wozniak said. The commencement will be MSU's second "green" graduation. All gowns and hats will be made of recycled bottles, while programs and diplomas will be printed on recycled paper. (As an MSU graduate, I must say I'm a bit jealous I won't be in attendance this year.) |
| Huawei Has Ongoing Oversight Deal With CFIUS (PC World) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 05:00 PM PDT When Huawei Technologies agreed to dissolve its controversial acquisition of some intellectual property from U.S. mainframe software vendor 3Leaf in February, it also negotiated an arrangement with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) for ongoing oversight of Huawei's operations in the U.S., a Huawei executive said Tuesday. The agreement set up a formal communications channel between Huawei and the investment review agency, which Huawei welcomed as a way to demonstrate its transparency, said Huawei Group Chief Technology Officer Matt Bross. He spoke in an interview during an event celebrating Huawei's tenth anniversary in the U.S. and the grand opening of a research and development center in Santa Clara, California. Huawei has come under close scrutiny by some regulators and elected officials in the U.S. because of concerns that network equipment made by the Chinese company could be vulnerable to manipulation from China. In particular, some U.S. officials have raised concerns about possible "back door" code in Huawei software that would let the Chinese government or military disrupt or spy on U.S telecommunications. Huawei has said repeatedly that those concerns are unfounded because Huawei has no government or military ownership. The CFIUS is an inter-agency committee, led by the Secretary of the Treasury, that reviews transactions that could result in control of a U.S. business by a foreign entity. It seeks to determine the impact of such deals on U.S. national security. The CFIUS could not be reached Wednesday for comment When Huawei's U.S.-based subsidiary FutureWei acquired the intellectual property from 3Leaf for about US$2 million, its legal counsel concluded that the company did not have to submit the deal to CFIUS for review. But later, another FutureWei counsel, in Washington, D.C., concluded that it wasn't clear whether the deal had to undergo the review, Bross said. FutureWei then submitted the acquisition to CFIUS for review. The situation presented an administrative challenge because it wasn't clear how to craft a mitigation agreement -- an arrangement for offsetting the potential harm to security -- for an acquisition that had already taken place, Bross said. CFIUS eventually recommended that FutureWei divest the property it had bought, though it didn't force the company to do so. After about three days of negotiations, FutureWei and CFIUS agreed on the deal for ongoing oversight and FutureWei agreed to give up the 3Leaf assets, Bross said. Shortly after that deal was reached, Huawei published an open letter in which it asked the U.S. government to conduct a full investigation of the company to clear up what it called misperceptions about the company. In addition to the arrangement with CFIUS, Huawei has taken other steps to help assure regulators outside China that its products don't present a security risk. It has contracted with Electronic Warfare Associates for third-party security audits of its software and hardware products. These reviews ensure that there are no "back doors" or Trojan horse programs that would let the Chinese government or any other entity gain access to Huawei equipment, he said. Huawei makes EWA's reports available to regulators and customers, he said. Before joining Huawei, Bross was group CTO at British Telecom, which awarded Huawei significant portions of its far-reaching 21st Century Network project. The U.K. government and public were worried about Huawei at first, but Huawei worked with regulators and BT customers to ensure its products were secure, he said. Its software for the network infrastructure was vetted by customers and security agencies, and Huawei ensured that the software was administered by U.K. citizens who also had been vetted, he said. All other major telecommunications vendors have facilities in China, and Huawei takes greater efforts than they do to ensure its products are safe from intrusions, according to Bross. Huawei says its products are used by 45 out of the 50 largest carriers in the world. Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is stephen_lawson@idg.com |
| Windows Servers Hacked at The Hartford Insurance Company (PC World) Posted: 06 Apr 2011 02:00 PM PDT Hackers have broken into The Hartford insurance company and installed password-stealing programs on several of the company's Windows servers. In a warning letter sent last month to about 300 employees, contractors, and a handful of customers, the company said it discovered the infection in late February. Several servers were hit, including Citrix servers used by employees for remote access to IT systems. A copy of The Hartford's letter was posted earlier this week to the website of the Office of the New Hampshire Attorney General. "It was a very small incident," said Debora Raymond, a company spokeswoman. The victims were mostly company employees. Less than 10 customers were affected by the malware, the W32-Qakbot Trojan, she said. Qakbot has been around for about two years. Once installed it spreads from computer to computer in the network, taking steps to cover its tracks as it logs sensitive data and opens up back doors for the hackers to access the network. With 28,000 employees worldwide, the 200-year-old Hartford, Connecticut, firm is one of the country's largest insurance companies. The Hartford's letters are going out to "users who logged onto an infected server (either through a Citrix session or support purposes)" between Feb. 22 and Feb. 28, 2011, The Hartford said in its letter. "We do know that the virus has the potential to capture confidential data such as bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, user accounts/logins, passwords, and credit card numbers," the letter states. It's not clear how The Hartford was infected, but hackers have been targeting staffers for years now -- particularly those in IT -- with targeted e-mail attacks, trying to trick them into visiting malicious websites or downloading Trojan horse programs. Security experts say that these attacks are widespread and often methodically planned. Despite the presence of keylogging software, the insurance company's lawyer, Debra Hampson, said that her company has "no reason to believe that any information has been or will be misused." Victims are being given two years' free credit monitoring. Working with its antivirus vendor, The Hartford has cleaned up the infected servers and is working on locking down its systems. One of the steps, Hampson said: "Providing additional privacy and information security training for employees in order to warn them of the dangers of downloading files from unknown sources on the Internet." 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 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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