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Monday, June 6, 2011

Still-frail Jobs appears to hail Apple's latest (AP) : Technet

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Still-frail Jobs appears to hail Apple's latest (AP) : Technet

Still-frail Jobs appears to hail Apple's latest (AP)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 07:03 PM PDT

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE and MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press Michael Liedtke And Marcus Wohlsen, Associated Press – 2 hrs 45 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Steve Jobs re-emerged from his latest medical leave Monday to show off Apple Inc.'s latest innovations and sustain the hope that he eventually will return to dream up more ways to reshape technology.

The highlight, as usual, came at the end of Jobs' presentation. He was onstage for less than 30 minutes during a nearly two-hour event that primarily featured his subordinates.

Ever the showman, the Apple CEO announced that the company had struck licensing agreements with all the major recording labels on a new music synching system.

It will allow people to put all the songs they have ever bought from the company's iTunes store on up to 10 devices at no additional charge. Apple is offering to do the same thing with all books and applications previously purchased through its online stores.

All future iTunes purchases also will be automatically sent to all the devices, too. None of the transfers will require devices to be plugged into a single computer. It will automatically happen over wireless connections.

"Keeping all those devices in sync is driving us crazy," Jobs said.

Jobs' keynote address at a conference for application developers marked his first onstage appearance since he unveiled the second version of Apple's tablet computer, the iPad, three months ago.

It comes five months after Jobs went on his third medical leave of absence in the past seven years to deal with an unspecified medical issue. He has previously survived pancreatic cancer and undergone a liver transplant.

Unlike during a six-month leave in 2009, Jobs, 56, hasn't said when he is coming back to work. The uncertainty makes his every appearance even more of a spectacle because people don't know if it will be the last time they will see one of the world's most influential CEOs and cultural taste-makers.

Looking as frail as he did in his last appearance in March, Jobs didn't discuss his health Monday.

That wasn't unusual; he has consistently treated his health as a personal matter and insisted that Apple's board remain mum, too, much to the frustration of some shareholders who believe they deserve to know more about the condition of the man whose vision drives a company with a $312 billion market value. That's about $300 billion more than when Jobs, Apple's co-founder, became the company's CEO in 1997.

Apple, though, tried to strike an optimistic note by playing the James Brown song "I Feel Good" as a prelude to Jobs' appearance. When the song concluded, Jobs stepped onstage to a standing ovation and a "We love you" shout from one man in the audience. Jobs smiled and said the warm reception "helps."

After his presentation, Jobs talked briefly with Connor Ellison, a 13-year-old boy he met earlier this year at a group that supports organ donations. When Ellison asked Jobs how he was feeling, the Apple CEO said "I feel good" and posed for a picture. Afterward, Ellison said he and Jobs share the same doctor. Ellison also said Jobs had invited him to come down from his home in Folsom, Calif., to attend the event in San Francisco — about a two-hour drive.

While he was onstage, Jobs seemed animated as he gestured frequently and paced about the stage. He appeared to walk up the steps of the stage slowly after sitting down in the audience a couple of times while other Apple executives demonstrated features of the iCloud service.

"He delivered all the key points, but it doesn't look like he is getting any better," said veteran Silicon Valley technology analyst Rob Enderle.

Jobs didn't look much different from his March appearance for the iPad 2, said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies and a longtime Apple watcher. Bajarin downplayed Jobs' limited time on stage on Monday, saying he "almost always" relies on underlings to handle the bulk of demos at developers' conferences.

Having Jobs appear at major events remains important to preserving Apple's market value and keeping shareholders at bay, Enderle said.

"As long as he is still showing up and looking like he can still do the job, that helps keep the pressure off the board to replace him," Enderle said.

Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, has been running the company, just as he has through all of Jobs' medical leaves. Jobs still has a say in major decisions.

Apple shares fell $5.40 Monday to close at $338.04. Before Jobs' appearance, the shares had been up slightly.

"I don't think the stock reaction is about (Jobs') health," said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. "Almost every investor I talk to doesn't believe he'll be part of the company in a year or two."

The stock has declined 3 percent since Jobs announced his latest medical leave Jan. 17. During that time, the technology-driven Nasdaq composite index has fallen 2 percent.

The new synching service Jobs announced Monday could be a boon for consumers because more than 18 billion songs already have been bought through iTunes. Apple said Monday that more than 130 million digital copies of books have been downloaded from its store so far. The new feature to have additional copies of previously purchased songs and books sent to more devices is available now.

Jobs also unveiled a way for most people to keep their entire music collections on the company's computers without going through the time-consuming hassle of uploading each song over the Internet.

The $25-per-year service, called iTunes Match, will allow people to play their personal jukeboxes on any device with iTunes software instead of keeping them tethered to a personal computer that must be synced with other devices. It's aimed at people who have transferred their CD collections to the iTunes library on their own computers, but also gives music labels a chance to be paid for pirated music. Apple is paying most of the iTunes revenue to the labels.

The music streaming is part of broader service, called iCloud, that represents Apple's attempt to persuade the tens of millions of people who own iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches to store documents, video and photos in three data centers, including a recently completed one in rural North Carolina that cost more than $500 million.

The allure for consumers is to have all their digital content available on any device running Apple's mobile software, called iOS.

For Apple, the iCloud service represents a response to similar storage services offered by Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. Although those rivals have a head start, Apple is betting it can make the concept of online storage more appealing and convenient. ICloud replaces a failed syncing service called MobileMe, which Jobs said "was not our finest hour."

It will take a few more months to find out if Apple is taking the next step in the evolution of digital music and Internet storage. ITunes Match and most other iCloud features won't be available until the fall when Apple plans to release iOS 5.

Apple announced it will release the next version of its operating system for Mac computers, called Lion, next month. A preview of that software, which will cost $29.99, was handled by two other Apple executives. Lion will give Apple a jump on Microsoft Corp., which recently said it won't release the next version of its Windows operating system until next year.

___

AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in New York contributed to this report.

Sony unveils next-gen portable device 'Vita' (AP)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 07:47 PM PDT

By RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima, Ap Business Writer – 1 min ago

LOS ANGELES – Sony Corp. on Monday took the wraps off its next generation portable gaming machine, PlayStation Vita, a touch-interface and motion-sensitive handheld that outdoes its workhorse PlayStation Portable and will go on sale before the winter holidays. Company executives have called the device Sony's biggest product launch since the PlayStation 3 five years ago.

The device will allow gamers to be connected with one another over cellphone networks and Wi-Fi hotspots, and use GPS location-tracking technology. In the U.S., Sony is partnering exclusively with AT&T Inc. for cellphone service.

The device, available for $249 for its Wi-Fi-only version, was unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the video game industry's annual convention known as E3. A version that will also have cellphone service will retail for $299, and buyers will have to subscribe to a cellular data plan.

The handheld has front and back cameras, a touchscreen in front, a touch pad on the back and two knob-like joysticks. It will enable gamers to play against people using PlayStation 3 consoles over the Internet-based PlayStation Network, a system that was recently restored after being shut down due to a massive hacking attack.

Sony apologized again for the outage and said since the network was restored, activity is back to 90 percent of the pre-attack level.

The hardware comes with an accelerometer, which means it will also react to being held at different angles and being moved through the air.

"PlayStation Vita will revolutionize the portable entertainment experience," Kazuo Hirai, president and chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America, told a crowd of 6,000 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. "The whole world is really in play."

The Vita is slightly bigger than the PlayStation Portable, which has sold more than 70 million units worldwide since its launch in 2004. The PSP will continue to be sold along with new games.

But the Vita — code-named "NGP," or next generation portable, until Monday — will enable gamers to do more.

A Sony staffer demonstrated a version of "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception," in which he used the familiar buttons and knobs but also touched the screen to move the Drake avatar across ledges and attack opponents in close combat.

Another game called "Reality Fighters" will allow users to take a picture and have fighting characters battle each other using objects from the real world.

Along with social games and email, Sony also unveiled a communication service it called "Party" that will enable voice and text chat during games or when using the Web browser.

Users will also be able to sense when other gamers are nearby, what games they have played recently, and enable in-game gifting of virtual items.

Sony was the latest technology company to make a big bet on connected-everywhere services, following Apple Inc.'s presentation Monday in San Francisco of its iCloud storage service, which will allow consumers to access their photos, music and documents on distant servers.

"Cloud is where everything is headed," said Ricardo Torres, editor-in-chief of GameSpot.com. "This is certainly the attempt by Sony to make sure they're not left behind."

Sony also introduced a range of new 3-D games such as "Resistance 3," a traditional shooter game, in a big push to make it a leader in the format. It is bundling the PS3 game with a pair of 3-D glasses and a 24-inch 3-D monitor for $499, a price far lower than most 3-D displays on the market.

Sony's array of new 3-D games and the Vita itself are directed at so-called core gamers, who are focused on serious action and effects.

But in a reflection of the growing popularity of games that make use of iPad and iPhone touch screens and Apple's iOS operating system, like the addictive "Angry Birds," Sony also said Monday it would put PlayStation games onto smartphones that run on Google Inc.'s competing Android operating system.

It called the service focused on such casual gamers "PlayStation Suite" and said further details would be announced in the coming months.

"Smartphones and tablets have really created a large market for casual gaming," Hirai said in an interview after Sony's presentation. "We want to make sure we're in both areas."

Apple's cloud music could finally make piracy pay (AP)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 04:47 PM PDT

By RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima, Ap Business Writer – Mon Jun 6, 7:47 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs on Monday introduced more than just a cloud storage system for songs that fans buy legitimately through iTunes. He unveiled a system that might finally get music lovers to pay for the songs they got through less-than-proper means.

Aside from offering to freely distribute new and old iTunes purchases on all of a user's devices, the Apple impresario unveiled "iTunes Match," a $25-a-year service starting this fall that will scan users' devices and hard drives for music acquired in other ways, store it on distant computer servers and allow them to access it anywhere.

The service acknowledges a well-known fact — that most music on iPods, iPhones and iPads was ripped or swapped. Apple reached a deal that gives recording companies more than 70 percent of the new fees, addressing a dark secret that has crippled the music industry, and provides them with some economic payback.

Where Apple is able to identify and match songs from its 18 million-song database, it will transfer them into the user's iCloud, a storage area housed on servers, including those at a massive new data center in North Carolina.

"The chances are awfully good that we've got the songs in our store that you've ripped," Jobs said.

Where songs can't be identified — say of bootlegged concert recordings — users can manually upload them to the cloud and gain the same access.

Jobs called it "an industry-leading offer" compared with similar song-uploading storage services recently introduced by Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. The limit of "iTunes Match" is 25,000 songs, and the service will update lesser-quality song files to iTunes standards. ITunes purchases do not count against the limit.

Industry observers said the new service could translate into big bucks for both Apple and the recording companies.

Apple has about 225 million credit card-backed accounts on iTunes. If only 10 percent signed up for the convenience of accessing music they hadn't bought there, it could turn into more than $500 million a year in new revenue, said Jeff Price, CEO of TuneCore Inc., a company that helps independent artists sell their music on iTunes and other digital music outlets.

The best thing is that consumers get the sense that they're paying for convenience, not for things they already own, he said.

"It allows for revenue to be made off of pirated music in a way that consumers don't feel that's what they're paying for, and that's what I find fascinating about it," Price said.

Both the free and the paid cloud services address a pressing need — to access music, documents and photos that are now stored on various devices — without the need for connecting wires to a computer. Such syncing has been a headache for music fans.

"If you're a music fan, the greater the fan, the greater the frustration," said Eric Garland, the CEO of online media measurement company Big Champagne LLC.

Garland said that he expected "iTunes Match" would allow consumers to stream music to themselves if they have any Internet connection by the time it is released in the fall, a capability not mentioned in Monday's presentation.

Such streaming capabilities are part of the cloud services recently launched by both Amazon and Google. But those technology giants failed to come to an agreement with the recording labels.

Therefore, both of those services require users to upload music from their computer before playback, which can take hours depending on the size of one's library. Apple said it can match users' songs in the cloud in "just minutes."

Amazon and Google felt they didn't need that ability to launch their services, but they may soon find they do if Apple's service takes off.

Recording companies Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, EMI Group Ltd. and Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment are hoping their deal with Apple will bring those holdouts back to the table, said Eric Custer, a music and entertainment lawyer with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in Los Angeles.

"It may light a fire under them to now try and conclude those deals," he said.

___

Associated Press Writers Michael Liedtke and Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco and Barbara Ortutay in New York contributed to this report.

Just Show Me: How to set up Kinect facial recognition on your Xbox 360 (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 07:42 PM PDT

By Barb Dybwad barb Dybwad – 2 hrs 6 mins ago

Welcome to Just Show Me on Tecca TV, where we give you tips and tricks for getting the most out of the gadgets in your life. In today's episode we'll look at the Xbox 360's Kinect ID feature — the settings on the Xbox that lets it recognize your face automatically so you can sign in with just the Kinect.

If you're unfamiliar with the Kinect, it's a small sensor bar that sits above or below your TV with small cameras embedded in it which track your movements. This allows you to control Kinect-enabled games by just waving a hand, kicking a leg, moving your body, etc... It's a really fun way to play video games! For more information, check out our Kinect review.

As usual, if you have any requests for something you'd like Just Show Me to cover, we want to know about them! Please be sure to let us know what you want to know in the comments.

Just Show Me tech how-to videos

Can Google Wallet reinvent the way we pay for things? (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 07:34 PM PDT

By Tecca tecca – 2 hrs 14 mins ago

Last week's unveiling of Google's mobile payment app, Google Wallet, heralds a radical revamping of commerce and currency. Google Wallet, rolled out first in New York and San Francisco, uses near field communication (NFC) technology that allows two-way communication between a smartphone and payment terminal, all with a tap. Google's payment vision is seductive: to create an "open commerce ecosystem" and change the future of commerce. Will Google Wallet reinvent the way we pay for things?

In his excellent piece The Future of Money, Wired's Daniel Roth argues convincingly that PayPal and TwitPay opened up vendor payment and money transfers, previously the domain of large financial institutions, to the everyman. Roth credits these emerging alternative payment systems with the 2009 decline in U.S. consumer credit card debt. Whether Google Wallet will continue this trend largely depends on consumer confidence in financial data security during payment processing and its ability to overcome consumer jitters about new technology.

Can I use Google Wallet?
For this first phase of Google Wallet, only consumers with Samsung's highly rated Nexus S 4G will be able to launch the app, but in the future, Google hopes to roll it out for more Android phones.

Allaying security concerns
Smartphones as payment devices require a paradigm shift. Can these battery-hogging, frequently unreliable devices be counted on to transmit financial data and do it securely? Google wisely touts security measures such as multilayer data encryption between Google Wallet and MasterCard PayPass, required PIN entry at each purchase, and the separate lock screen available on Android Phones. The Google Wallet FAQ section reflects general consumer concern about phone batteries dying in the midst of a purchase, lost or stolen phones, or hacked financial data.

Coming to a store, bank, or card near you
Google's ability to enroll a broad range of merchants will directly influence mainstream users, whose confidence in new technology often rises only with familiarity and exposure. Well-known merchants already enrolled include Subway, Bloomingdale's, Rite Aid, Dairy Queen, and more. Consumers interested in finding nearby merchants can enter their zip code online.

Currently, users of Google Wallet must have an account with Citi Mastercard or load a Google Prepaid Card to make purchases. Google's partnership with more banks and financial institutions will net more consumer buy-in. Meanwhile, users can streamline various club cards, loyalty cards, and deal cards in one location. Google Offers, Groupon's doppelganger, gets a boost from the new app, delivering daily deals to your phone while you shop.

Other players join in
Fee-weary merchants avidly searching for ways to avoid exploding credit card fees and charges increasingly turn to companies such as Square, which turns your smartphone into a card reader. And Obopay, which lets people send money via text, mobile web, or Obopay.com, might take a bite out of wire transfer services. Countless others have thrown down the gauntlet and jumped into the new world of commerce.

Back to the future
Companies such as PayPal, eBay, and Groupon, plus nonprofits such as Craigslist continue to radically reformulate how we buy, sell, trade, and donate goods and services, creating an environment rich with possibilities for a company like Google. The urgency created by Google Wallet (appealing to our go-go mobile tech mindset and buy-shop-deal proclivities, much like the popular cheerleader showing up for band practice) gives panache to the endeavor. If Google can give us another way to pay — a faster, quicker, easier way to get goods, deals, and services — maybe ditching plastic and cash will finally happen.

"You have nothing to lose but your fees!"
This could be the rallying cry of the next wave of mobile money movers, to continue developing ways for consumers to avoid touching filthy lucre again, all without nasty service and processing fees. And while Google Wallet may not lead to the perfectly open commerce ecosystem Google visionaries dream of, it might reinvent the way we pay for things and the way we think about money.

Post by Rachael Brownell

More from Tecca:

Kids' Online Game Moshi Monsters Hits 50 Million Registered Users (Mashable)

Posted: 05 Jun 2011 02:01 PM PDT

Brenna Ehrlich Brenna Ehrlich – Sun Jun 5, 5:01 pm ET

Two-year old online game Moshi Monsters has just reached a sizable milestone: 50 million registered users. Moshi Monsters is a social online game/community that allows kids 6 to 12 to adopt virtual pets, tool around a virtual land called Monstro City, play games to earn virtual currency and communicate with other kids in a moderated, safe environment. The franchise also includes toys (coming soon), books, video games, trading cards and a Moshi magazine. Moshi will also soon begin its foray into music, live tours, a TV platform and film.

[More from Mashable: Video Glasses Stream Everything You Do to Social Media Sites [VIDEO]]

Moshi, founded by London-based startup Mind Candy, also reports that it has more than 15 million registered users (out of the total 50 million) in North America. Apparently, the game gets one signup per second.

Fifty million is a pretty hefty community, but it makes sense considering the rise of the digital native we have been privy to lately. In October, a study conducted by Internet security firm AVG found that 92% of children in the U.S. have an online presence by the time they are two, compared to 73% in western Europe.

[More from Mashable: 9 Things Weinergate Tells Us About Twitter]

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Tearful US congressman admits to online, phone sex (AFP)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 09:01 PM PDT

by Sebastian Smith Sebastian Smith – 48 mins ago

NEW YORK (AFP) – New York congressman Anthony Weiner wept, backtracked, and admitted he lied about extra-marital online and phone sex with several young women, but refused to leave his elected post.

Weiner called a nationally televised press conference to admit he had been in a string of lewd online relationships.

Pressure had been building on the 46-year-old Democrat after a close-up picture of an aroused male member in underpants reached a woman in Seattle via his Twitter account. For a week he hotly denied sending the picture and claimed to have been hacked.

Wiping away tears Monday, Weiner admitted: "The picture was of me and I sent it. I am deeply sorry for the pain this has caused."

He said he had been sending naughty pictures online and sexting with about six women over the years and "we had become friends." But he said he had not met any of them and had not had a physical relationship outside his year-old marriage to Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Weiner, a seven-term congressman who until now was seen as a leading candidate to take over as New York mayor in 2013, said he does not intend to resign his seat in the US House of Representatives.

"I don't know what I was thinking. This was a destructive thing to do," he said. But "I am not resigning. I have made it clear that I accept responsibility for this."

However, signaling his problems are not yet over, leading Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader in the House, said an ethics investigation should be opened.

"I am deeply disappointed and saddened about this situation; for Anthony's wife, Huma, his family, his staff and his constituents," Pelosi said in a statement.

"I am calling for an Ethics Committee investigation to determine whether any official resources were used or any other violation of House rules occurred."

With his stunning admission, Weiner -- the son of a schoolteacher who as a politician has played up his middle-class, not-so-privileged upbringing -- becomes the third New York politician in recent times to get in trouble over kinky sex habits.

The state's governor, Eliot Spitzer, resigned in 2008 after being caught visiting expensive prostitutes, while earlier this year another married congressman, Chris Lee, stepped down over his attempt to arrange sex online.

The clean-cut, fast-talking Weiner has long been tabloid fodder thanks to his name. But the underpants crisis put him in a career-threatening twist.

In his groveling mea culpa, he said he'd encountered the women mostly via the social networking site Facebook and had not broken any laws. But once the underpants shot was exposed he "panicked" and lied, pretending to have been hacked.

"I was trying to protect my wife. I was trying to protect myself from shame. It was a mistake and I really regret it."

One reason why Weiner finally decided to bare all to the press could be the growing body of evidence that he -- not some prankster impersonating him -- was the man in the underpants.

BigGovernment.com, a conservative website, posted new pictures that clearly showed Weiner's face and naked torso.

Also, ABC News ran an interview Monday with Meagan Broussard, a 26-year-old single mother from Texas who says she has been in a sexting relationship with Weiner since April.

Without ever meeting, they exchanged graphic photos and flirtatious conversations, she said. The congressman also sent pictures of himself clothed, with his face visible.

Apple's Jobs makes big push into an everyday cloud (Reuters)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 06:23 PM PDT

By Poornima Gupta and Noel Randewich Poornima Gupta And Noel Randewich – Mon Jun 6, 9:23 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs unveiled services for people to store more of their photos, music and other data online, giving the iPad and iPhone maker the lead in a fast-expanding new consumer market.

Jobs entered to a standing ovation from more than 5,000 Apple faithful at its Worldwide Developers' Conference on Monday and showed off Apple products meant to help customers keep their iPhones, iPads and computers in sync.

The Silicon Valley icon and pancreatic cancer survivor -- animated but again looking very thin -- unveiled remote computing services that for now at least push Apple ahead of rivals Google and Amazon.com, which recently launched their own moves into music storage and streaming.

Jobs, whose decision to headline the event assuaged some concerns on Wall Street about his health, didn't say a word about his condition but strode briskly onstage after James Brown's soul classic "I Got You (I Feel Good)" blasted over the sound system.

"We're going to move the digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud," Jobs said. "Everything happens automatically and there's nothing new to learn. It just all works."

In cloud computing, data and software are stored on servers, and devices like smartphones or PCs access them through the Internet.

With its knack for designing easy-to-use gadgets, Apple hopes to make cloud computing -- right now a term tossed about mostly by corporate IT departments and Silicon Valley geeks -- an everyday convenience for many people.

As more and more people use smartphones and tablets with limited storage, demand for cloud-based services is growing, and technology companies from Amazon to Zynga are rushing to stake out their turf.

Beyond storing music online, Apple's revamped operating systems for its Macs, iPhones and iPads integrate cloud storage in everything from word processing to calendars and to-do lists, going beyond what other companies have done.

"For the average consumer it makes cloud computing real," said Mike McGuire, a media analyst with Gartner. "What we saw from Amazon and Google were features, not services."

Apple's new iTunes Match service will also scan users' hard drives and automatically make the songs it finds available on the iCloud. In contrast, users of Google and Amazon cloud-based storage have to upload every song themselves.

"This is potentially game-changing," said Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu. "It's a whole new way of computing where you're less dependent on PCs and local storage."

PIE IN THE SKY

Monday was only Jobs' second public appearance since he went on medical leave in January. He shared the spotlight, letting his executive team showcase new features in Apple's mobile and computer operating software.

"He is looking thin but as energetic as usual," Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart said, adding that Apple's expansion into remote computing "is very powerful stuff."

Apple's iCloud service is not a huge revenue generator for right now and it is tough to quantify longer-term impact, but it lays the foundation for future products with the push into cloud computing, Wall Street analysts say.

With that infrastructure in place, Apple can look to streaming video, a lucrative opportunity rivals also covet.

But complex licensing requirements for distribution of video content mean that the business may be farther off than music cloud services.

The most immediate impact might come from the iTunes Match feature that Jobs introduced with his signature "one more thing" line. Costing $25 a year, it yields a fresh source of revenue for Apple and the music industry -- and from songs that customers would be unlikely to buy again. Apple has been busy wrapping up negotiations with major record labels to secure licenses for its cloud service.

Apple's move to cloud services could also ignite more demand for devices from the iPhone to the iPad, while helping sales of music through iTunes.

"Relative to iCloud, Google and Amazon are far behind. Nobody else can do what Apple's doing today," said Brian Marshall, an analyst with Gleacher & Co.

"They are doing music, they are doing photos, documents. The next will certainly be video," Marshall said.

Jobs' decision to headline such events often is news in itself, and his appearance likely heartened investors worried about his health after the pancreatic cancer survivor went on his third medical leave for an undisclosed condition.

Apple's share price fell 1.6 percent to close at $338.04 on the Nasdaq stock market. The stock traditionally gains before a major event -- of which there are only a handful through the year -- before dipping on the day itself.

"They telegraphed in advance what they were going to say and that Steve Jobs was going to show up," said Daniel Ernst at Hudson Square Research. "It's pretty boring, which is, for Apple, bad. It's all good, but everybody always expects them to walk on water unfortunately."

(Additional reporting by Sinead Carew and Paul Thomasch in New York, Writing by Edwin Chan. Editing by Robert MacMillan, Gary Hill)

Xbox 360 with Kinect shows off new tricks at E3 (AFP)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 09:08 PM PDT

– 40 mins ago

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Microsoft added YouTube, voice commands, television shows and more to its Xbox 360 with Kinect as the hot-selling videogame console matures into an entertainment center for all.

Studios joined Microsoft on the eve of a premier Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles to unveil blockbusters such as "Mass Effect 3" that let players use body motion or voice to execute tactics once the exclusive duty of toggles or buttons in controllers.

"Kinect is a natural way to converse with characters," said BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka, whose studio is behind hit videogame franchise "Mass Effect."

"In a game that already reacts to every decision you make, you will feel even more connected."

Microsoft was intent on broadening the array of Kinect titles to appeal to the traditional "hard core gamers" devoted to shooter games as well as the "casual" audience happy with virtual darts or bowling.

Microsoft ramped up voice capabilities in Kinect to allow Xbox users not only to give commands to in-game characters but to speak Bing searches for games, movies, television shows, music and other entertainment content.

"This is an incredible time of growth and innovation for our business leveraging technologies that see us, hear us and connect us all together," said Microsoft president of the Interactive Entertainment Business Don Mattrick.

"This year by bringing together the power of Kinect for Xbox 360 and the intelligence of Bing, we are transforming how people enjoy entertainment."

Microsoft has sold more than 10 million of the gesture-sensing Kinect accessories for the Xbox 360 consoles worldwide since they hit the market in November of last year.

Kinect uses a 3D camera and motion recognition software to let people play videogames on the Xbox 360 using natural body movements and voice commands instead of hand-held controllers.

More than 50 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold worldwide.

Microsoft has teamed with television operators in Britain, France and Australia in the past two years to bring television shows to local audiences through an Xbox Live online entertainment service.

Executives from the Seattle, Washington-based company said Monday they are making alliances to do the same in the United States and other countries.

Microsoft was also adding Google-owned online video-sharing service YouTube to an Xbox Live line-up that includes Hulu Plus, Netflix, and Zune.

"We feel that we have all the great momentum," said Dennis Durkin, chief operating officer of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business. "With our hardware, Kinect sensor, and Live services we feel we can go from being Number One in North America to being Number One worldwide."

Sony tries to move on from hacking woes with new handheld (Reuters)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 08:24 PM PDT

– 1 hr 24 mins ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Sony showed off its new PlayStation Vita handheld games device at a flashy Los Angeles event on Monday, in a bid to move on from the hacking attacks that forced the company to shut down its videogames network for almost a month.

The new PlayStation Vita will go on sale for $249, or $299 for a 3G mobile version, starting in the holiday season, the Japanese electronics giant's No. 2 executive Kazuo Hirai told reporters on the eve of the E3 games convention.

But he drew some groans from the thousands strong audience in a sports arena when he said Sony would work with AT&T as exclusive carrier for the Vita. Many users of Apple's iPhone in the United States have complained that AT&T provided poor connectivity.

The upbeat presentation was a far cry from Hirai's last public appearance, a May 1 news conference in Tokyo at which he bowed deeply and repeatedly to show the company's contrition after data on tens of millions of user accounts was stolen by hackers.

The company just managed to restore the PlayStation Network in full in its main North American and European markets ahead of E3, which runs from June 7-9.

Jack Tretton, the head of the company's U.S. videogames division, told reporters activity on the network was back up to 90 percent of what it had been before the security breach and that last week's PlayStation sales were up 27 percent on last year.

Restoring services quickly was seen as essential because connectivity is one of the main selling points of the Vita.

For serious gamers, the ability to take up games where they left off, even while they are away from home, could be a key differentiation point from main rival Microsoft, which does not offer a portable device.

The global games market is expected to grow to $65 billion this year, up from $62.7 billion in 2010.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds and Liana Baker; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

Breitbart on #Weinergate presser: ‘One of the surreal moments of my life’ (Daily Caller)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 05:40 PM PDT

Sony polishes image with PlayStation Vita, 3D games (AFP)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 08:32 PM PDT

– 1 hr 16 mins ago

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Sony has introduced its new-generation "PlayStation Vita" gaming handset and blockbuster 3D console titles as it sought to shake off the stigma of cyberattacks on its system.

The Japanese entertainment giant turned the Los Angeles sports arena into a music and videogame Mecca starring exciting new game play and hardware on the eve of the opening of a premier Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

"This is not the first time I've come onto the stage at E3 with an elephant in the room," Sony Computer Entertainment of America chief executive Jack Tretton told the 6,000 people packed into the arena.

He apologized to people who use the PlayStation Network (PSN) to connect to games, films, and music online through PlayStation 3 (PS3) videogame consoles.

PSN was shut down after hackers broke in and looted user data. Sony brought the system back online gradually the week before E3 after hardening its defenses.

Tretton thanked PS3 fans for their loyalty, saying the level of online traffic at PSN was already more than 90 percent of what it was before the disruption and that console sales jumped last week.

Sony executives got apologies out of the way quickly and focused on a lineup of videogames packed with vivid 3D titles such as the installment of in the beloved "Drake's Fortune: Uncharted" franchise to be released in November.

"Our commitment to 3D is unwavering," Tretton said, noting that Sony would soon boast more than 100 titles in the format including a collector edition of "God of War" titles.

In a bid to make 3D ore ubiquitous, Sony will release a 24-inch display for the format bundled with special glasses, an HDMI cable, and a copy of the coming "Resistance 3" videogame at a package price of $500.

The components will also be sold separately.

Tretton boasted that the accompanying 3D glasses would accomplish the unprecedented feat of letting two people play a game together on a shared display but each see only their setting without any "split-screen."

Sony's Kazuo Hirai introduced the "PlayStation Vita" successor to the PlayStation Portable handheld device.

"Vita" was chosen because it is Latin for "life," Hirai said, explaining the gadgets are designed to "blur the line" between game life and real life with augmented reality and other features.

A PS Vita model that connects to the Internet only using Wi-Fi will be priced at $249 while a version of the gadget featuring 3G connectivity to telecom data services will be priced at $299.

PS Vita is to launch in Japan, Europe and the United States by the end of the year. Telecom giant AT&T will be the exclusive carrier in the United States, Hirai said, eliciting groans from the audience.

8Coupons aggregates deals near you, but don't count on immediate availability (Appolicious)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 03:00 PM PDT

The Cool New Apple Products Steve Jobs Unveiled Today (The Atlantic Wire)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 01:01 PM PDT

John Hudson John Hudson – Mon Jun 6, 4:01 pm ET

Steve Jobs lit up a packed crowd at the World Wide Developer's conference in San Francisco today. The Apple CEO's presentation introduced some interesting updates to Apple's computer and mobile operating systems. But most intriguingly, he unveiled the company's hotly-anticipated iCloud service, which syncs users' music, photos, e-mail messages and backup data across every device (iPhone, iPad, MacBook etc). Here are the highlights from Jobs's presentation:

iCloud

As Jobs put it today, "iCloud stores your content in the cloud and wirelessly pushes it to all your devices. It automatically uploads it, stores it, and pushes it." That includes photos, books, calendar information, videos and even the page numbers of the latest documents your reading on your iPhone or iPad. The basic cost to the user for all of this service snycing is nothing, which garnered a lot of applause at the conference. "There will be no advertising (contrary to previous rumors), and calendar, mail, and contact sync is free (for up to five gigs of mail)," writes Engadget's Joseph Flatley. "Also in store is the new PhotoStream cloud feature, which is essentially a gallery in Photos that exists on all of your iOS devices, Apple TV, your OS X and even your Windows PCs, and syncs through the cloud." As for your existing music library, iTunes will match your music to the cloud server for a fee: $25 per year for 5,000 songs. "Will this work with massive amounts of pirated music?" wonders Gizmodo's Sam Biddle. "We don't see how it couldn't. So whether you've amassed a giant library from CDs or the seedier corners of the internet, Apple's giving you unlimited access for 25 bucks a year. Someone at the RIAA just punched a hole in the wall."

OS X Lion

Lion offers a number of interesting new features. One of them is Mission Control, which is basically a better version of Exposé. This integrates the Dock, Dashboard and icons of open programs into one place. "Flinging windows to different spaces also just got a whole lot easier, as Lion will let you drag whatever you're working with into sortable stacks in the top-right corner," writes Gizmodo's Sam Biddle. Lion also offers the Launchpad, which organizes your programs in a way similar to how the iPad organizes apps. The new Resume feature guarantees that when you quit a program and restart it later, it appears exactly how you left it down to the most detailed aspects like highlighted text on a page. Lion also comes with an updated Mail app, with multiple ways of viewing your message: fullscreen, three column and a conversation view of your letters. They've also improved Mail's search functionality. "On the productivity side of the equation," writes Nicholas Kolakowski at eWeek,  "Lion includes Auto Save and Versions. The latter is Time Machine for individual documents, allowing the user to revert to any number of previous versions with a single click. AirDrop wirelessly shoots files to other users, and FileVault keeps information secure with XTS-AES 128 data encryption—for both internal and external drives."

iOS 5

The latest installment of Apple's mobile operating system introduced Apple fans to a number of very cool apps. One of the most loudly-applauded apps was Notifications. "OS 5 introduces something Apple calls Notification Center, a single place that combines all of your notifications," writes Lex Friedman at MacWorld. "You can access Notification Center at any time with a single swipe down from the menu at the top of your device--a gesture which, it must be said, achieves the same effect already on Android phones." Another feature of iOS, the phones can now be synced over the air--no more USB cables. The Safari browser app gained some new features. "Like the similar functionality in the desktop version of Safari, Reader lets you get (and share) all the content of an article, removing navigation, ads, and other content--leaving only the text," writes Friedman. To many, the Reader feature will be viewed as an InstaPaper killer. iOS 5 will also have greater integration with Twitter: "Several of Apple's own apps, like Camera Photos, Safari, YouTube, and Maps will all support direct Twitter integration, so that you can quickly post data from those apps to your Twitter account," writes Friedman.

Apple iCloud: Everything you need to know (Digital Trends)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 05:20 PM PDT

Kelly Montgomery Kelly Montgomery – Mon Jun 6, 8:20 pm ET

In addition to discussing OSX Lion and iOS 5 today at Apple's WWDC, Steve Jobs announced that Apple will once again make a foray into cloud storage with a new service called iCloud. The idea is that the new service will seamlessly push user content like music, photos, and documents from the original source (theoretically a Mac or PC) to all of the user's other iOS devices. With iPhones and iPads becoming almost as common as phones and computers themselves, Apple realizes that it's now common for users to have all of their content on a home computer without an easy way to get it to their other devices. Jobs noted that the notion of having a home computer as a digital hub for content will soon be outdated. The new hub will be in the cloud, where content can be easily accessed from any of several devices. Apple took a shot at cloud service with MobileMe, but it was generally considered a failure and also cost users $99 per year. Now, Apple has revamped its approach and is offering the content-syncing service for free. Jobs reviewed all the specs in his announcement today, but we've got all the details you will need to know as a user looking into the iCloud service.

Jobs boasted today that the best thing about the iCloud service is that it works without any hassle for the user. Content will be stored in the cloud and transparently and wirelessly pushed to all devices. The service will be integrated with apps as well, meaning that all synchronization will be automatic. The free service will also offer daily backups, via Wi-Fi, of important data like photos, music, apps, and books. We've broken iCloud down into categories to show you how the service will work with your various forms of content.

Data, apps, and documents

Like MobileMe before it, iCloud will offer easy syncing of basic data like contacts, calendars, and email. Everything in those categories will be synced automatically with no effort by the user. iCloud users will also be able to look at a list of every app users have ever purchased, and then tap to download the app again to any of their devices, free of charge. In the future, apps will automatically download to all devices. Until then, the same system will apply to iBooks, including bookmarks and last-read page markers. Documents will also be available in the cloud. Anything created in Pages or Keynote will automatically be shared across devices, meaning that users will no longer have to worry about physically transferring that document from their home computers to their iPads.

Photos

A new app called Photo Stream will keep photos synchronized across devices along with iCloud. Take a photo on your iPhone and it will automatically be downloaded to your computer and iPad. This feature is built-in to the photo app, meaning that users don't have anything new to learn to make sure their photos are syncing. The photos will be accessible from your Apple TV, too. Your photos will even show up on your PC. Photos will be directly downloaded to the My Photos folder on PCs.

Music

Perhaps the most important part of the iCloud announcement today was hearing how Apple would integrate iTunes with the cloud. As expected, any songs purchased in iTunes will be available to download on any iOS devices. This syncing won't be automatic, but it's probably a plus to leave users some control when dealing with large music libraries. However, Jobs noted it as an advancement in the music industry as it's the first time record labels have allowed users to download the same album on multiple devices with no extra charge. When new music is purchased through iTunes, users will have the option to have the songs automatically available on all devices.

The other important question that users will have is whether iCloud will be able to handle and store songs that weren't purchased through iTunes. Luckily for all music lovers, the answer is yes, in some form or another. For songs that have been ripped from CDs or downloaded somewhere other than iTunes, users will have two options. The most significant option is the new iTunes Match, which will scan the non-iTunes-downloaded songs in your library and attempt to find a match for each song in the iTunes store. As long as there is a match to the song, iCloud will treat the song as if you downloaded it from the iTunes store originally, giving you all the benefits of the song within iCloud. The iTunes Match service, which should allow users to have full access to their entire music libraries in iCloud (without any slow uploading process), will cost $25 per year. If there is no match to a song in the iTunes store, or if users don't want to fork over the $25 per year, songs can be uploaded to the cloud manually. Songs matched with iTunes Match will also be upgraded to a 256 Kbps DRM-free AAC format.

Conclusion

We will have to wait until we can get our hands on the full iCloud service before making a full judgment, but it sounds like Apple is headed in the right direction with the announcement of iCloud. Apple clearly wants users to have a full suite of products at home: iPhone, iPad, Mac, so it makes sense that they would create a service that would allow users to move seamlessly from one device to another. This service makes it clear that Apple is moving forward with the assumption that users will want to have their 'hub' of data in the cloud instead of on their home computer. We think this is a safe assumption that will make iCloud a success, even if it takes consumers a little while to fully catch up to the idea.

You can now watch the WWDC Keynote on Apple's website to learn more about iCloud, iOS 5 and OSx Lion.

Apple takes a giant leap into the 'iCloud' cloud (AFP)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 07:59 PM PDT

by Stephanie Rice Stephanie Rice – 1 hr 50 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has interrupted his medical leave to unveil a free service called iCloud that stores music, photos and other content on the Web and shares it across multiple devices.

"We're going to move the digital hub to the cloud," the 56-year-old Jobs told software developers at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at San Francisco's Moscone Center.

Jobs and other top Apple executives also gave developers a preview of the next generation of Lion, the software that powers Macintosh computers, and iOS 5, the latest mobile operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

But the highlight of the event was Apple's long-awaited iCloud service, which eliminates the need to hook up a cable to transfer files between Apple devices.

"Keeping these devices in sync is driving us crazy," Jobs said to cheers from the audience of more than 5,000 software developers. "We think the solution is our next big insight.

"iCloud stores your content in the cloud and automatically pushes it to all your devices," he said.

Apple said iCloud wirelessly synchronizes mail, contacts, calendars, photos, applications, e-books, music and other files across devices.

Apple's "iTunes in the Cloud" shares music bought through iTunes across Apple devices while a Photo Stream service does the same with pictures.

For music not bought through iTunes, Apple is offering a service called "iTunes Match" for $24.99 a year that matches music ripped from CDs in a subscriber's personal music collection and makes it available online.

"Chances are awfully good that we've got the songs in the store that you've ripped," Jobs said in a reference to the 18 million songs in iTunes.

"The other guys, you've got to upload your whole music library," he added in a jab at rival cloud music services introduced by Amazon and Google. "That's gonna take weeks."

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at technology research company Gartner, said iCloud represents a "pretty big shift for Jobs."

"Where 10 years ago he talked about the Mac as the hub for your digital life today he said the cloud is now the hub for your digital life," Gartenberg said.

"Apple's talking about an entire ecosystem," he said. "What they presented today was from a software platform perspective an entire vision of the future of the digital consumer all tied together by cloud service offerings."

Jobs, dressed in his trademark black pullover and blue jeans, took the stage to a standing ovation shortly after the music sound system blared out the James Brown hit "I Feel Good."

Jobs appeared frail but relatively healthy in his first public appearance since March, when he unveiled the iPad 2.

Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant two years ago and has fought pancreatic cancer, was making just his second public appearance since going on medical leave in January with an unspecified illness.

Jobs and other Apple executives took potshots at the personal computer during Monday's event, promoting Apple's ecosystem of mobile devices over the PC.

"We're going to demote the PC to just being a device," Jobs said, instead of the center of a user's life.

With the new version of iOS 5, for example, a personal computer would no longer be needed to set up and activate an iPad and software updates will be delivered wirelessly.

"With the new iPad we're ushering in the post-PC world," said Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iPhone software. "Now if you want to cut the cord, you can."

Besides iCloud, Apple also unveiled a new iMessage service that lets users send text messages, photos and videos between Apple devices and Newsstand, a bookshelf for newspaper and magazine subscriptions that updates automatically with the latest issue.

A camera icon on the iPad now lets users open the camera directly from the lock screen and the volume-up button can be used to take a picture.

Apple said iCloud will be available this fall with the release of iOS 5 and will provide five gigabytes of free cloud storage for mail, document storage and backup.

Music, applications, books and photos do not count against the storage limit.

Lion will be available as a download in July for $29.99, considerably cheaper than the $129 charged for previous upgrades.

Apple shares lost 1.57 percent on Monday to close at $338.04.

iCloud, Operating System Updates Unveiled at WWDC (NewsFactor)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 01:50 PM PDT

Adam Dickter, newsfactor.com Adam Dickter, newsfactor.com – Mon Jun 6, 4:50 pm ET

At its first Worldwide Developers Conference in five years without a new iPhone, Apple instead launched a dazzling display of features for its mobile devices and computers with iCloud and updated operating systems.

iCloud, announced by CEO Steve Jobs in a temporary return from medical leave, will take the place of MobileMe services to synchronize contacts, calendar events, and e-mail on different devices as well as share them with friends and family. Ad-free push mail accounts will be hosted at me.com.

Synchronized Updates

Users of iCloud will also be able to download apps and books to all connected Apple devices -- including iPads, iPhones, iPods and Macs -- in one shot; up to 10 devices will be included at no additional cost, with automatic, secure backups of music, apps, books and settings to iCloud. The backups occur daily via Wi-Fi while devices are charging.

Even changes to documents are updated on synchronized devices, and users get up to five gigabytes of storage free. Prices for additional storage will be announced in the fall.

"Today it is a real hassle and very frustrating to keep all your information and content up to date across all your devices," Jobs said. "iCloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices. All of this happens automatically and wirelessly, and, because it's integrated into our apps, you don't even need to think about it -- it all just works."

The cloud will also change the way iTunes works, allowing previous downloads to be transferred to new devices for free, with iTunes Match available to replace songs downloaded from other services for a $24.99 fee.

The beta version of iTunes in the Cloud is available now without iTunes Match for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users running iOS 4.3. iTunes in the Cloud will support all iPhones that iOS 5 supports this fall.

As details of the conference spread via a WWDC hashtag on Twitter, one heavily retweeted message said "Breaking: iTunes now works like it always ... should have."

In unveiling iOS 5, Jobs pointed out features such as Notification Center, iMessage and Newsstand and said "we can't wait to see what our developers do with its 1,500 new APIs. Perhaps iOS 5's paramount feature is that it's built to seamlessly work with iCloud in the post-PC revolution that Apple is leading."

More than a few observers noted the similarity between iMessage and Research In Motion's BlackBerry Messenger.

"iMessage is like putting a hit out on RIM," said consumer-devices analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis in an e-mail from the WWDC.

New Math

He said that overall, "Nothing was terribly surprising" about the conference. "But in the aggregate, this ensures that Apple maintains its position in smartphones, tablets and laptops. Apple continues to do a better job ensuring that one Apple product plus one Apple product equals more than two."

Mac OS X Lion, the eighth major release of Apple's computer operating system, will have more than 250 new features and 3,000 new developer APIs, and will be available for download in July from the new Mac App Store for $29.99.

Features include Multi-Touch gestures for the trackpad; systemwide support for full-screen apps; a Mission Control view of everything running on the computer; access to the Mac App Store built into the OS and launchpad, a new home for all apps; and a redesigned Mail app.

Lion's features were first unveiled by Apple last October.

"The Mac has outpaced the PC industry every quarter for five years running, and with OS X Lion we plan to keep extending our lead," said Philip Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. "The best version of OS X yet, Lion is packed with innovative features."

Nintendo says US server breached, no data lost (AP)

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 07:12 AM PDT

By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama, Ap Business Writer – Mon Jun 6, 10:12 am ET

TOKYO – Nintendo was targeted in a recent online data attack, but no personal or company information was lost, the Japanese maker of the Wii game console said Sunday.

The server of an affiliate of Nintendo Co.'s U.S. unit was accessed unlawfully a few weeks ago, but there was no damage, company spokesman Ken Toyoda said.

"There were no third-party victims," Toyoda said, declining to elaborate. "But it is a fact there was some kind of possible hacking attack."

The damage from what could be part of a recent spate of such data breaches targeting big-name brands was more serious at rival Sony Corp.

Sony has said massive personal information, including email addresses, names and birth dates, and involving more than 100 million users, is suspected of having been stolen after security was compromised in April for its network service for the PlayStation 3 game machine, for other online services and, in the past week, from Sony Pictures' website.

It is still unclear who is behind the attacks at Sony or Nintendo, based in Kyoto.

Hackers calling themselves Lulz Security — a reference to Internetspeak for "laugh out loud" — claim to have compromised more than 1 million Sony users' personal information, posting many of the details to the Internet.

Lulz Security also claimed credit for the Nintendo attack, posting what they said was a Nintendo server configuration file to the Web. The group added that they pulled the hack off just for fun.

"We're not targeting Nintendo," the group said in a message posted to Twitter over the weekend. "We like the N64 (gaming console) too much — we sincerely hope Nintendo plugs the gap."

Tokyo-based Sony has said it is strengthening security measures. It has contacted the FBI and other authorities for an investigation into the cyber attacks.
at 9:59 PM

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