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Monday, July 25, 2011

China's Baidu quarterly profit up 95 percent (AP) : Technet

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China's Baidu quarterly profit up 95 percent (AP) : Technet

China's Baidu quarterly profit up 95 percent (AP)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 08:47 PM PDT

– 1 hr 32 mins ago

BEIJING – Baidu Inc., which operates China's dominant search engine, said Tuesday its quarterly profit jumped 95 percent on traffic growth and strong spending by big advertising customers.

Profit for the three months ending June 30 was $252.6 million, or 72 cents per share, the Beijing-based company said. Total revenue rose 78.4 percent from a year earlier to 3.4 billion yuan ($528.4 million).

"We benefited from strong traffic growth and improved monetization," said Baidu's chairman and CEO, Robin Li, in a statement. "We were especially encouraged with the strong spending from large customers."

The company said it expects more strong growth this year and forecast a 75.1 percent to 79.5 percent increase in total revenue for the July-September quarter.

Baidu, already China's most popular search engine, has expanded its market share since rival Google Inc. closed its China search engine last year after saying it no longer wanted to comply with the communist government's Internet censorship.

Baidu's market share has risen to 75.9 percent from 64 percent in the first quarter of last year before Google's closure, according to Analysys International, a research firm in Beijing. Google is still China's second-most popular search engine but its market share has declined from 30.9 percent to 18.9 percent.

China has the world's most populous Internet market with more than 485 million people online. Beijing encourages Web use for business and education but tries to block access to material deemed subversive or pornographic.

Baidu, long seen as a Google copycat, has launched a series of initiatives to expand its appeal and differentiate its brand. Last week, it announcement an agreement with three global recording labels to distribute music online in China.

___

Baidu Inc.: http://www.baidu.com

Netflix braces for growth slowdown, stock plunges (AP)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 04:58 PM PDT

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Mon Jul 25, 7:58 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Netflix Inc. is bracing for a backlash to its recently announced price hikes that could result in its slowest subscriber growth in more than three years.

The company's sobering forecast Monday overshadowed its second-quarter earnings that easily topped Wall Street's expectations.

Netflix's shares plummeted by more than 10 percent, largely because the company expects its results for the current quarter ending in September to miss the targets set by industry analysts.

The shortfall stems from an anticipated slowdown in Netflix's subscriber growth amid changes to its online video and DVD rental service that will raise prices by as much as 60 percent. It's most radical change in the company's pricing since it began renting DVDs through the mail 12 years ago.

Instead of offering packages that combine DVD rentals and Internet-delivered video for a single price, Netflix informed subscribers two weeks ago that it would sell the two entertainment options as separate plans.

The change means customers will have to pay substantially more if they want to get both DVDs and Internet video from Netflix. For instance, a bundled plan that had been priced at $10 per month will now cost $16 per month, beginning Sept. 1, for existing customers. The prices of other popular bundled plans will rise by 20 percent to 33 percent.

Netflix expects many customers to pick between the DVD or streaming plan to avoid getting hit with a higher bill if they subscribe to both plans. The company said it anticipates other subscribers irked by the rate changes will stop being customers entirely.

Management didn't estimate how many subscribers will cancel, but a large customer exodus appears to be factored into the company's forecast for the current quarter.

Netflix expects to add as few as 190,000 subscribers or as many as 1.29 million subscribers in the current quarter. Either figure will be a falloff from the 1.9 million subscribers added in the April-June period, which propelled Netflix's total customers to nearly 25.6 million. In last year's third quarter, Netflix added nearly 2 million subscribers.

If the growth falls on the lower end of management's estimates, it would represent the lowest number of subscribers that Netflix has picked up during a three-month stretch since the second quarter of 2008 when it added 168,000 customers. Back then, Netflix only operated in the U.S. It now has 1 million Canadian customers who subscribe to the Internet streaming service. The company plans to expand into Latin America later this year.

"We are feeling great about the decision, as tough as it is," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told analysts about the new pricing plan in a Monday conference call.

Hastings is counting on the squall stirred up by the pricing changes to blow over quickly. By the final quarter, he thinks Netflix's subscriber growth will return to the rapid pace of the past two years. To do that, Netflix will have to add more than 3 million subscribers during the final three months of the year.

Some of the numbers that Netflix released helped explain why the company felt compelled to change its rental plans, even though it knew the new prices would alienate many of its most loyal customers.

The company is paying increasingly higher bills for the rights to stream Internet video. It's happening while Netflix must also cover the costs of mailing DVDs to millions of U.S. households that still want to watch movies on discs because movie studios insist on keeping the most-recent theatrical releases on that format.

Netflix spent nearly $613 million on streaming rights in the second quarter, a more than nine-fold increase from the same time last year. The company, which is based in Los Gatos, has signed long-term contracts committing it to pay $2.44 billion for streaming rights.

Meanwhile, more than 15 million of Netflix's subscribers were still renting DVDs through the mail, although they aren't asking for as many discs each month as they once did.

Even before the rate changes, most of Netflix's new subscribers have been signing up for a streaming-only plan that the company rolled out last year. About 75 percent, or 1.3 million, of the customers added in the second quarter opted for the streaming-only option.

The company expects 12 million subscribers, or less than half of its customers, to be paying for both the DVD and streaming options at the end of September.

Netflix earned $68.2 million, or $1.26 per share, in the most recent quarter. That marked a 57 percent increase from $43.5 million, or 80 cents per share, at the same time last year.

Revenue climbed 52 percent from the same time last year to $789 million.

The earnings per share were well above the average estimate among analysts surveyed by FactSet. The revenue fell about $2 million below analyst forecasts.

Investors though were more concerned about management's third-quarter forecast. That calls for Netflix's earnings per share to range from 72 cents to $1.07 per share on revenue of $800 million to $829 million. Analysts had projected earnings of $1.11 per share on $845 million in revenue.

Netflix shares plunged $28.53 to $253 in Monday's extended trading. The stock had closed at $281.53, leaving it with a 60 percent gain so far this year.

China orders safety inspection after train crash (AP)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 09:49 PM PDT

By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press Gillian Wong, Associated Press – 21 mins ago

BEIJING – The Chinese government on Tuesday ordered a two-month, nationwide safety campaign for its railway system after a collision between two bullet trains killed at least 39.

The Railways Ministry said in a statement on its website that all local railway bureaus were to draw lessons from Saturday's accident in the eastern city of Wenzhou and immediately launch safety inspections.

One train rammed into the back of another that had stalled after being hit by lightning, causing six carriages to derail and four to fall about 65 to 100 feet (20 to 30 meters) from a viaduct. More than 190 people were injured.

The ministry says local railway bureaus in various cities around the country such as northwestern Urumqi, southwestern Kunming, Harbin in the northeast and elsewhere have already begun safety checks.

The accident was the latest blow to China's bullet train ambitions. Designed to show off the country's rising wealth and technological prowess, the high-speed rail project has national prestige on par with China's space program.

Beijing plans to expand the high-speed rail network — already the world's biggest — to link far-flung regions and is also trying to sell its trains to Latin America and the Middle East. But critics say tickets are costly and the services do not really meet the needs of average travelers in many areas.

Last month, China launched to great fanfare the Beijing to Shanghai high-speed line, whose trains can travel at a top speed of 186 miles (300 kilometers) per hour. The speed was cut from the originally planned 217 mph (350 kph) after questions were raised about safety.

In less than four weeks of operation, power outages and other malfunctions have plagued the showcase 820-mile (1,318-kilometer) line. The Railways Ministry previously apologized for the problems and said that summer thunderstorms and winds were the cause in some cases.

Railways Minister Sheng Guangzu said the inspection campaign would be held over two months, and apologized for the crash that was China's deadliest rail accident since 2008, the People's Daily newspaper said.

Sheng placed an emphasis the safety of bullet trains, the report said, saying that research should be done to solve recurrent problems with the trains' equipment.

The Railways Ministry and government officials have not explained why the second train was apparently not warned a stalled train in its path.

The government also moved to compensate relatives of victims. The family of one victim agreed to accept payment of 500,000 yuan ($77,500), the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday, citing the government of Wenzhou city.

Need help with medical bills? Start your own online fundraiser with GiveForward (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 04:52 PM PDT

Sorry, everyone: Scientists prove time travel impossible (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 04:49 PM PDT

Airbnb Raises $112 Million to Take Its Marketplace For Places Global (Mashable)

Posted: 24 Jul 2011 07:58 PM PDT

Ben Parr Ben Parr – Sun Jul 24, 10:58 pm ET

Airbnb, the popular marketplace for places, has raised $112 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global and General Catalyst in order to boost international growth. The company is now worth north of $1 billion, according to our sources. It's a big jump from the $7.2 million Series A it raised in November 2010. The company also received a "significant investment" from Ashton Kutcher just a few months ago.

[More from Mashable: 14 Ways to Create a Memorable Business Card [PICS]]

“Today is a watershed moment â€" both for Airbnb as a company and for our community -- that will enable us to touch new markets and expand our vision to make the world’s most interesting and inspiring places accessible to our users," co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said in a statement.

Andreessen Horowitz, whose portfolio companies now include Box.net, Foursquare, Facebook, Groupon, Instagram, Twitter, Zynga and Skype, led the round with a $60 million investment. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is also reportedly invested as well.

[More from Mashable: Amazon.com Facts: 10 Things You Didn't Know About the Web's Biggest Retailer]

The money is clearly meant to fuel growth rather than cash out its existing investors, something that Facebook, Groupon and others have done with their massive funding rounds. Airbnb faces international competition from companies like Wimdu, which it publicly calls "impostors." They money could be used for international acquisitions, a strategy Groupon has liberally utilized.

"And while [Airbnb] has accomplished a ton in just a couple of years, we believe that they're just scratching the surface of their potential," Andreessen Horowitz partner Jeff Jordan said about the acquisition. "They have opportunities to go much deeper in their current categories, broaden into new categories of spaces, and build out their global footprint. They are truly pioneering a new marketplace, where access to spaces is more valuable than ownership."

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Zynga partners with Tencent to debut first mainland China game (Reuters)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 08:17 PM PDT

By Liana B. Baker Liana B. Baker – 1 hr 53 mins ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Social games maker Zynga is partnering with Tencent Holdings Ltd, the Chinese Internet company, to launch its first game in mainland China as it tries to find new users by tapping into the $5.8 billion Chinese games market.

Zynga will release an early version of a game called Zynga City on Tencents' open platform, Zynga said in a statement on Monday.

The game will be a Chinese version of Zynga's most popular game, CityVille. It will feature Chinese architecture, references to Chinese pop culture, as well as events and contests in the game that will be linked to Chinese holidays and news, the company said.

Zynga, which filed with regulators in the United States on July 1 for an initial public offering of up to $1 billion, is hoping to attract millions of users to its new game. A Zynga spokesman declined to say when the game would be available.

The company launched a poker game in Hong Kong last year.

In 2011, the Chinese games market is forecast to rise 21 percent to $5.8 billion, according to Niko Partners.

Tencent is one of the world's largest Internet firms. It leads China's online games market with hits such as "Dungeon & Fighter" and "Three Kingdoms." It currently has a partnership with Take-Two Interactive to help bring the U.S. company's basketball video games to China.

Zynga said the game would be on Tencent's open platform. In June, Tencent launched a platform to allow third-party developers to market their products to Tencent users in a revenue sharing scheme.

Zynga first entered China in 2010 when it bought XPD Media, a social game developer in Beijing. This studio in Beijing is in charge of developing the game.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker, editing by Bernard Orr)

(This story was corrected to clarify in the headline and first paragraph that the game launch is the first in mainland China. Also added was reference to a Hong Kong game launch in paragraph five)

Baidu sees strong third quarter on China ads (Reuters)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 08:07 PM PDT

By Edwin Chan and Kazunori Takada Edwin Chan And Kazunori Takada – 2 hrs 3 mins ago

LOS ANGELES/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China's top search engine Baidu Inc forecast revenue well ahead of Wall Street's expectations as large advertisers increased spending, sending its shares up around 7 percent.

Baidu, which has increased its focus on online video and e-commerce, has steadily grown its search market share since Google Inc curtailed its operations after a fallout with Beijing over censorship.

It was benefiting from higher income from big advertising clients in the world's largest Internet market, which helped nearly double its net profit in the second quarter to $252.6 million.

"The company is pretty confident on the longer term outlook since growth is coming from across the industries," said Dick Wei, an analyst at JPMorgan in Hong Kong.

"Overall we remain positive on Baidu. As the largest search engine in China, they continued to gain market share and are taking more of their advertisers from offline to online platforms."

The search engine, which controls more than three-quarters of China's Internet market, forecast revenue of $611.1 million to $626.6 million in the third quarter, outpacing Wall Street's expected $569.6 million.

Shares in Baidu, which have risen more than 60 percent so far in 2011, were trading at $166.74 after hours after closing up 1.65 percent at $156.54 on the Nasdaq.

"The search market is growing very strongly. It's a rising tide," said Collins Stewart analyst Mayuresh Masurekar. "But Baidu has a lot of irons in the fire. It has a lot of non-search initiatives" that are rounding out its growth.

Baidu's 150 million users in online video, after only about a year, are generating advertising and premium subscription revenue, he said.

Baidu is rapidly making inroads into other markets from online music to video, and it is vying with Youku, Tudou and Ku6 Media for the rights to stream content.

Last week, Baidu inked a landmark deal with record labels to stream music, marking a victory for a global recording industry that has battled piracy for decades.

Baidu Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Li said the firm expected higher costs in the second half, as seen in previous years, with spending most heavy in research and development. Costs from music content purchases are unlikely to affect the overall picture, she added.

Last month, Baidu, whose name comes from an ancient Song Dynasty poem, said it was buying China's leading travel website, Qunar.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

But competition is intensifying. Google's exit from that market has made room for other competitors from Sohu.com and Alibaba Group to Tencent Holdings.

Robin Li, Baidu's chairman and chief executive officer, told analysts in a telephone conference that the firm was looking to bump up its products in the social networking services (SNS) arena.

"In China, there are no dominant SNS. That gives us a big opportunity to innovate and lead in markets like this," Li said.

The company said its second-quarter net income had almost doubled to $252.6 million, or 72 cents per American depositary share, beating analysts' expectations, on average, for 66 cents per depositary share.

Second-quarter revenue rose 78.4 percent to $528.4 million, surpassing analysts' forecasts, on average, for $502.6 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Chinese online advertising is estimated to be growing at about 45 percent per year, but some analysts have said companies will be tightening marketing budgets in anticipation of slowing economic growth.

(Additional reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore and Lee Chyen Yee in Hong Kong; editing by Bernard Orr and Lincoln Feast)

Blackberry maker to cut 2,000 jobs, splits COO job (AP)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 02:41 PM PDT

By BARBARA ORTUTAY and PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writers Barbara Ortutay And Peter Svensson, Ap Technology Writers – Mon Jul 25, 5:41 pm ET

NEW YORK – Faced with tough competition and falling profits, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. is cutting 2,000 jobs as part of a cost savings plan announced last month and is shuffling some senior executives.

The job cuts amount to about 10 percent of the company's work force. The company said Monday it will notify affected employees this week. It expects to give more information on the layoffs when it reports fiscal second-quarter results on Sept. 15.

Its U.S. shares fell $1.24, or 4.4 percent, to $26.67. The shares are close to their five-year low of $25.60, hit Wednesday.

Although BlackBerrys have dominated the corporate smartphone market, their popularity in the consumer market has been short-lived. While RIM's sale are still growing thanks to BlackBerry adoption overseas, U.S. consumers have moved on to phones with big touchscreens like Apple Inc.'s iPhone and various models that run Google Inc.'s Android operating system are dominating that market.

Last week, Apple reported selling 20.3 million iPhones in the April to June period, a record number. RIM sold 13.2 million BlackBerrys in the March to May period.

RIM has been slow to adapt to the changing winds in the phone market. Last month, Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said the company was already far along in developing its next-generation BlackBerrys when it realized that U.S. customers wanted higher performance, requiring the company to upgrade the chips used. That posed an engineering challenge and delayed products, he said.

The launch of its PlayBook tablet computer, meanwhile, wasn't as successful as the company had hoped, and phone companies have shown little interest in pushing it.

RIM reported a 10 percent drop in its fiscal first-quarter earnings in June and gave an outlook for the year that was well below what analysts had expected. Co-CEO Jim Balsillie said then that the planned cost cuts were a "streamlining," prompted by the rapid growth of the company and more than a dozen acquisitions.

Also Monday, RIM said it is naming two executives to take on different parts of the chief operating officer role. COO Don Morrison went on medical leave in June.

Thorsten Heins is being named chief operating officer, product and sales. Jim Rowan will become COO, operations. Morrison is retiring after more than 10 years with the company.

AT&T Will Upgrade Android Phones, Starting with Atrix 4G (NewsFactor)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 02:08 PM PDT

Mark Long, newsfactor.com Mark Long, newsfactor.com – Mon Jul 25, 5:08 pm ET

AT&T said Monday that it intends to upgrade all the carrier's postpaid Android smartphones to Android 2.3, Gingerbread. The first to get the update, which became available Monday, is the Motorola Atrix 4G.

Users of the HTC Inspire 4G will receive their updates next month, according to AT&T. In addition, AT&T subscribers who have purchased the LG Phoenix, Pantech Crossover, Samsung Captivate, and Samsung Infuse will also be able to upgrade to Gingerbread.

Though some smartphone upgrades will be delivered over standard cellular connections, the Motorola Atrix 4G and HTC Inspire 4G will require users to upgrade over a Wi-Fi connection, and in other cases users will need to connect their devices to a PC to install the new software. AT&T said each device requires a separate update, which will vary in timing -- depending on factors such as manufacturer-defined software and other device performance improvements.

Atrix 4G Upgrade

According to AT&T, the Gingerbread upgrade will feature enhanced power management as well as an improved on-screen keyboard with multi-touch support that makes typing faster and more accurate. Motorola also noted that the 161MB upgrade for the Atrix 4G features a simplified home-screen design as well as the ability to pin access icons for favorite apps to the bottom of each screen.

What's more, the Atrix 4G upgrade gives users the ability to aggregate photos and photo comments from social-networking and photo sites, such as Facebook and Picasa, in the handset's gallery. The device's music player is also now connected to a music-discovery dashboard.

The Atrix 4G upgrade finally empowers users to download Android apps from third-party sources. Even better, the handset's video player now runs at 1080p resolutions and the browser has been upgraded to Firefox 4.

The upgrade's enterprise-class security enhancements include virtual private network access as well as device and SD card encryption. IT departments will also gain device-management capabilities, such as being able to remotely wipe devices. Additionally, the upgrade makes it easier for Atrix 4G owners to dial in to conference bridges on the go.

Whether all users will want to immediately upgrade to Gingerbread is a real issue -- especially for enterprises -- since there are a lot more apps currently available for Android 2.2, Froyo.

"New Android releases are going to be less field-tested, less stable, and have smaller app portfolios that work well," noted Al Hilwa, director of applications development software at IDC. "Over time, developers will move to new OSes. We are still in a relatively early stage of maturity on the mobile-application platform battles, and the complexity may get worse before it gets better."

AT&T's Android Growth

Smartphone users now make up 50 percent of AT&T's postpaid subscriber base -- up from 36 percent a year ago. Moreover, the network operator fully expects this percentage held to keep on growing.

Though AT&T activated 3.6 million iPhones during the second quarter, more than 40 percent of the carrier's smartphone sales were handsets running the Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 mobile OS platforms. This helps explain why AT&T is devoting more attention to non-iPhone smartphone sales, which have doubled since the year-earlier quarter.

"Nearly 70 percent of postpaid sales during this past quarter were smartphone sales," AT&T CFO John Stephens told investors last week. "Our strongest growth was with other smartphones, BlackBerrys, Androids and other devices, where we sold nearly 2.3 million devices during the second quarter. "

LinkedIn simplifies applying for jobs with new employer button (Digital Trends)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 09:26 PM PDT

Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – 44 mins ago

apply-linkedin

With over 100 million users on the LinkedIn service, it's clear that potential employers can find tech-savvy candidates through the site. LinkedIn is making the process easier with the launch of the "Apply with LinkedIn" button for employer sites. A company takes a few lines of code, drops them into the job posting and applicants can quickly submit applications for the position. Companies can also customize the button to require a cover letter or answer a series of questions to qualify for the job.

apply-linkedin-laptopFor the job hunter, this button can potentially speed up the application process and allow users to work within their network of contacts for recommendations. After the user clicks the button, light changes to the profile can be made such as altering contact information. After the user clicks the 'Submit Application' button, they can scroll through people in their network that work at the company and request referrals through the LinkedIn messaging system.

The "Apply with LinkedIn" button is very similar to the Facebook Like button in functionality and ease of use. While this can help a savvy candidate quickly apply for several jobs, LinkedIn has not indicated if users are going to be limited to a specific number of job application submissions per day. Without a limit, it's possible that the volume of applications could overwhelm companies with unqualified candidates.

Companies that already use applicant tracking systems like JobVite or Bullhorn will find that the new button is compatible and feeds information to those services. Other services like Talos and Kenexa are still in the works. The service can also simply output all potential applicant information to an email address. LinkedIn launched tools for developers to customize the application such as adding the company logo to the pop-up screen. Netflix, PhotoBucket and Tripit are a few of the Web companies that are rolling out support for the button first.

The Weirdest Games for Android Smartphones (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 02:25 PM PDT

Jared Spurbeck Jared Spurbeck – Mon Jul 25, 5:25 pm ET
Contribute content like this. Start here.

Maybe you like to live life on the edge. Maybe you're a daring soul, who puts extra hot sauce on her burrito and rips the tags off of mattresses! Or maybe you just like weird smartphone games. In which case, check out these demented games for your Android smartphone!

SpaceCat (3D)

From Pill Tree, the crazy Netherlanders who brought you Chalk Ball, comes SpaceCat (3D)! (Henceforth known as just SpaceCat.) And what, you ask, could be better than cats in space? Cats in flying saucers, that's what.

"In the year 3122," the game's description explains, "man has conquered space and has taken his favorite pets with him: Cats." Dog lovers, commence weeping. But it's not all fun and games for the SpaceCats, because they have to catch SpaceRats, "an evolved species that keeps annoying the crew of the spaceships." That's where the miniature flying saucers come in. How else are the kitties going to catch them?

The actual game play is Lunar Lander-style; tilt your phone to pivot the on-screen saucer, and tap the screen to fire its thrusters. Steer the saucer kitty towards the floating rats, and make sure you don't run into walls. An optional realistic physics setting is provided, for those who want to know what cats in flying saucers would really be like.

Drive your kitty around the spaceship! Paint your flying saucer in tie-dye colors! Get weirded out by the game's very premise! It's SpaceCat! Because "Every kitty deserves a chance to pilot a spaceship."

Robot Unicorn Attack

With a name like Robot Unicorn Attack, how can you go wrong? Especially since it's based on the popular, tongue-in-cheek Flash and iPhone game from Adult Swim.

The graphics aren't quite as sharp as in the iPhone version, but the two-button game play is fast and responsive. The titular robot unicorn constantly gallops across the screen, to the tune of Erasure's "Always," and one button makes it jump while another makes it dash forward to destroy obstacles. You get three wishes, I mean lives, to clear every stage, and your high scores are tracked on the OpenFeint network.

"Run like the wind, dash like the rain, and make your dreams come true"! Actual dreams not guaranteed to come true. Not recommended for those who are allergic to rainbows, or who would faint at the sight of robot unicorns' severed heads.

Angry Birds

What could be weird about such a mainstream game as Angry Birds, you ask? Come on. You're launching birds from a slingshot. As weapons. To blow up buildings made by pigs. What's not weird about that?

Still don't believe me? Watch this fake movie trailer, and tell me Angry Birds is not weird. I dare you.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Return to the NFL with these Hall-of-Fame Android apps (Appolicious)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 02:00 PM PDT

Qualcomm Buys Gesture Technology for Mobile Chips (NewsFactor)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 02:08 PM PDT

Jennifer LeClaire, newsfactor.com Jennifer Leclaire, newsfactor.com – Mon Jul 25, 5:08 pm ET

Qualcomm started the week with a mobile bang, snapping up assets from GestureTek for an undisclosed amount. As its name suggests, GestureTek develops gesture-recognition technology. In fact, GestureTek is a leader in the field with more than 25 years of experience implementing gesture-based technologies in mobile devices, entertainment facilities, healthcare systems, retail locations, and public and private venues.

"Application processors are enabling a range of new ways for consumers to interface with their home entertainment and mobile devices," said Steve Mollenkopf, executive vice president and group president at Qualcomm. "Our acquisition of key technology and assets from GestureTek will strengthen Qualcomm's smartphone product portfolio and enable our customers to launch products with new and compelling user experiences."

From Pens To Gestures

Qualcomm's acquisition gives the 3G and next-generation mobile-technologies firm full ownership of intellectual-property assets related to gesture recognition, as well as key engineering resources. GestureTek is retaining other assets to continue its gesture-controlled public display and digital signage business.

GestureTek is a multiple patent holder in camera-enabled gesture-recognition technology for presentation and entertainment systems. The company's gesture-control technology lets users control multimedia content, access information, manipulate special effects, and immerse themselves in an interactive 3D virtual world by moving their hands or body. Essentially, GestureTek delivers Wii-like gesture control without the need to wear, hold or touch anything.

"It was not that long ago when keyboards or pens were the input choice for mobile phones. Apple changed all that with the iPhone and the idea of gestures and touch," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner. "So it's not surprising to see more folks trying to add this type of IP into their architecture and, of course, in Qualcomm's case make that available to its licensees."

Snapdragon Integration

Qualcomm plans to integrate gesture-recognition technology into its current and next-generation Snapdragon processors. The technology will give OEMs the ability to produce smartphones, tablets and home entertainment devices with user interfaces based on natural human gestures. It's not clear how the gesture-recognition technology will fit into the recently announced Snapdragon Game Pack, but the possibilities are interesting.

The Snapdragon Game Pack is an optimization program that currently offers more than 100 mobile games. The games represent a growing collection of the latest console-quality and casual games optimized and enhanced for Snapdragon-based mobile devices. The offering is made possible through a collaboration among Qualcomm, gaming publishers, and developers who are using the advanced graphics capability of the embedded Adreno GPUs in Snapdragon mobile processors.

"It's unclear exactly how Qualcomm will use the technology, but my guess is that it's some sort of internal gesturing where the device could be used for any number of things," Gartenberg said. "Of course, we'll have to wait and see how they implement it. Buying the technology and implementing it could always be two different things. But it shows how far we've come with phone user interfaces when keyboards and pens were the standard."

Google buys PittPatt: What does it mean for Google products? (Digital Trends)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 12:58 PM PDT

Molly McHugh Molly Mchugh – Mon Jul 25, 3:58 pm ET

google glassesGoogle has acquired face recognition software company PittPatt, and likely will implement this technology into Google+'s photo feature. "At Google, computer vision technology is already at the core of many existing products (such as Image Search, YouTube, Picasa, and Goggles), so it's a natural fit to join Google and bring the benefits of our research and technology to a wider audience. We will continue to tap the potential of computer vision in applications that range from simple photo organization to complex video and mobile applications," a statement from PittPatt reads.

pittpattGoogle+'s photo feature currently includes photo tagging technology but hasn't gone the full nine yards a la Facebook to include recognition software. Facebook officially rolled out the update to its Photos application early last month and the user outrage arrived on cue. Privacy advocates argue that this technology coupled with the immense amount of user data Facebook has means the site could virtually create a photo database fairly easily, allowing people to upload pictures of anyone and search by image for your profile. There were also the more basic cries of concern over Facebook knowing what you look like, and how valuable this information would be to various parties.

The backlash has since quieted, but could easily be reignited by Google's latest acquisition. PittPatt has a strong core to say the least, and originated from Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute's research. It's incredibly accurate at identifying faces in images and can even analyze video to determine subjects. The kicker is that PittPatt's API is sophisticated enough that it allows for integration into a variety of devices, including smartphones or tablets. It's possible that multiple Android products would have the ability to take photos and immediately identify the subjects, not just photos uploaded to Google+.

This acquisition is made all the more interesting by the fact that Google recently denounced implementing such technology. In response to the Facebook face recognition furor, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said "We actually built that technology and we withheld it. As far as I know it's the only technology Google built and after looking at it we decided to stop." He commented such software can be used in "very bad way[s] as well as [in] a very good way." Of course Schmidt made these remarks after leaving the company, and the Google roadmap could have easily changed since his departure. Still, given Schmidt's role at Google and assumed influence, it's surprising what a 180 the company might be doing.

Google has been up to its neck in privacy lawsuits, mostly stemming from its street view cameras, for the better part of the last two years. But we can see Google's line of thinking here: There's bound to be some initial resistance to this type of new technology, as evidenced by Facebook's experience. Still, that's not always a reason to keep from implementing new innovations, especially those that a top competitor has. Face recognition and automatic photo tagging might be standard applications in the not-too-distant future, and Google is always one to be on the forefront.

Keeping Google+ on Facebook's heels is one thing, but there's also iOS to consider. Google's Android ecosystem has its work cut out for it when it comes to the mobile operating system, and beating Apple to the punch with this type of feature would be a considerable coup. As long as Google's prepared to take some criticism (and it's safe to say it was born ready), extensively integrating PittPatt's technology throughout its products and platforms is a smart business move.

Zuckerberg named as most powerful person in UK media (Digital Trends)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 06:32 PM PDT

Trevor Mogg Trevor Mogg – Mon Jul 25, 9:32 pm ET

Mark ZuckerbergApple boss Steve Jobs has been pushed aside by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the latest Top 100 list of the most influential people in the UK media, published by the Guardian.

The list, brought out annually by the British newspaper, is compiled by experts from the world of technology, public relations and media.

Zuckerberg, who was placed seventh last year, now tops the list, with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who didn't even appear last year, straight in at number two. The new placements at the top clearly reflect the growing influence of social networking sites in the media world.

Another new entry is Amazon's founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos, placed at number twelve. The success of the Kindle has helped raise the company's profile even further, and this year it's expected to release a tablet or two to go head-to-head with the iPad.

Google's Larry Page drops down one position to number three, while last year's most influential person, Steve Jobs, is now at number five. The highest placed UK figure is Mark Thompson, the director general of the BBC, positioned at four.

The rise of Facebook has been phenomenal â€" the social networking site launched in 2004, with Zuckerberg appearing in the Guardian list for the first time three years later in 2007 â€" at that time the site had fewer users than MySpace.

Facebook now has around 700 million members, with the Guardian judges calling it an "immense media distribution platform" and the "number one media player" in the world today.

A report back in June, however, suggested Zuckerberg's Facebook was losing users in the US, with stats showing traffic there going down. Facebook refuted the figures.

In the UK, more than 50 percent of the online population uses the social networking site. Zuckerberg, keen to get a billion people on board, is looking to China to bolster numbers.

With Twitter's Jack Dorsey now breathing down Zuckerberg's neck after coming from nowhere, the Facebook founder will have to find new ways to keep ahead of the game in the coming twelve months if he's to stay at the top of the tree.

Italian Cyber Police Hit by Anonymous Hackers, 8GB stolen (Digital Trends)

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 06:25 PM PDT

Jeff Hughes Jeff Hughes – Mon Jul 25, 9:25 pm ET

italy-anonymousSeems like Anonymous' AntiSec campaign is gaining ground internationally. Italian hackers tied to Anonymous are claiming to have acquired a "Pandora[s] box" of data stripped from Italian cyber police servers.

On Monday the hacktivist collective's Italian branch, dubbed Legion of Anonymous Doom, released a statement on pastebin announcing they had a 8GB of leaked data but only provided links to few previews of their cache. The purported leaks come from evidence servers at the "Centro Nazionale Anticrimine Informatico per la Protezione delle Infrastrutture Critiche" or CNAIPIC, Italy's cybercrime unit. The release promised that this was only the beginning in a series which would "reveal the biggest in history of European LE cyber operation Evidence exploitation and abuse."

The Telegraph points out that the 8GB contains information on many firms "involved in critical infrastructure, including oil and nuclear firms, as well as government bodies such as the Australian Ministry of Defence." The stolen data is claimed to have originated from the seized property of "computer professional entertainers" and spans through the countries of Egypt, Australia, Ukraine, Nepal, Belarus, Vietnam. The hackers also say they have some US data on EXXON MOBIL, the Department of agriculture and many attorneys.

The Legion of Anonymous Doom says the CNAIPIC was using the data for their own gain in the “global spy game galoreâ€

It's strongly suspected that these attacks against the Italian cyber police are retaliation for the arrest of 15 possible Anonymous members earlier this month. Recently, AntiSec hackers breached the security systems of NATO and stole a gigabyte of data.

at 10:37 PM

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