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Google-Motorola deal highlights patent arms race (AP) : Technet |
- Google-Motorola deal highlights patent arms race (AP)
- Hackers gain access to transit police union site (AP)
- MetroPCS starts unlimited music plan with Rhapsody (AP)
- Homebrew device mutes your TV when it hears unwanted phrases (Yahoo! News)
- Earth’s moon may be 200 million years younger than previously thought (Yahoo! News)
- Every Hour of TV You Watch May Shorten Your Lifespan By 22 Minutes [STUDY] (Mashable)
- Google launches tablet-optimized app for catalog viewing (Appolicious)
- Sina profit slips in second quarter (Reuters)
- Sony PlayStation 3 getting DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket, no dish necessary (Digital Trends)
- Verizon's LTE spreading to 15 more cities, now covers over half of the US population (Digital Trends)
- NY man suing Facebook must explain missing items (AP)
- Skype WiFi app offers iOS users cheap global net access (Digital Trends)
- LinkedIn’s Android app finally gets a worthy update... kind of (Appolicious)
- Apple, others weighing bids (Investor's Business Daily)
- California Supreme Court turns down Phil Spector appeal (Reuters)
- South Korean iPhone Owners Seek Damages from Apple (NewsFactor)
- VMware's Pricing Fiasco Exploited by Microsoft (NewsFactor)
- 3 Tips for Building a Web App That Can Scale (Mashable)
| Google-Motorola deal highlights patent arms race (AP) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 02:39 PM PDT NEW YORK – When an Internet company plunks down $12.5 billion to buy a struggling cellphone company for its collection of patents, it's another sign that, for the high-tech industry, patents have become a mallet wielded by corporations to pummel their competitors. Google Inc. announced the deal to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. on Monday, specifically for its trove of 17,000 patents. Google needs them to shield companies like HTC Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. _who make phones based on Google's Android software_ from lawsuits filed by Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. "Google is not acquiring Motorola for the sake of its technology or its research," said James Bessen, a lecturer at Boston University and co-author of a book on the patent system. "Patents have become legal weapons — they're not representing ideas anymore." The trend, decades in the making, raises questions that pending patent legislation in Washington only begins to answer. Google's multi-billion bid to get its hands on Motorola's output of legal paperwork is the culmination of a "bubble" in the value of patents relating to smartphones that started last year, as Microsoft and Apple mounted their legal attack. Industry watchers say that bubble may deflate now that Google is set to gain the protection of Motorola's patents in a deal that's set to close late this year or early next. But an underlying problem will keep growing: patent filings and lawsuits that distract companies and sap resources that are better spent on other things. Engineers spend their time writing patents rather than inventing things, or reworking products just to avoid patent infringement. Customers put off purchases because of pending lawsuits, and independent software developers close up shop because they can't afford licensing fees. "If you have to pay $12.5 billion dollars to play, you can sense why maybe an individual who has a great idea would feel discouraged," said Julie Samuels, a patent lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a technology-oriented civil liberties group. "It affects the whole economy." It wasn't always this way. The U.S. software industry got its start with nary a patent filed, and on the hardware side, patent suits were rare until the mid-1980s. That was when calculator and chip maker Texas Instruments Inc., on the brink of extinction, decided to see if it could make some money from its patent portfolio. It started filing patent lawsuits and demanding money from companies with infringing products. It saved the company. IBM Corp. latched on to TI's lead in patent licensing in the mid-90s, when it was down on its luck. That coincided with courts broadening the types of patents allowed. Patents on software and "business methods," with vague, broad claims, were now accepted. Since then, an arms race has slowly escalated in the industry. Companies found that the best defense against a patent suit from a rival was to have a patent portfolio to wield as a deterrent: "Sue me and I'll sue you back," is the message Google is sending by buying Motorola. Motorola is already suing Apple over several patents, including one that purports to cover the act of sending address data between two phones. Another patent at issue covers the idea of concealing a phone's antenna in its outer case, which Apple arguably does with the iPhone 4. It's a situation reminiscent of the nuclear standoff between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. But just as the threat of nuclear weapons didn't stop third-world guerillas during the Cold War or deter terrorists today, the patent arsenals are useless against "patent trolls" — companies that own patents but don't do actual research or development. Since they don't make anything themselves, they can't be the targets of patent suits, says Colleen Chien, assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "Mountains of patents have proven useless against the patent system's `stateless actors,' non-practicing entities who are invulnerable to patent counterclaims," Chien writes. In one example, a company with a 1980s patent on a kiosk that made music audiotapes on the spot for customers in stores tried to levy license fees from tens of thousands of technology companies, claiming that the patent covered any downloading of media from the Internet. Microsoft was among the companies that settled. Bessen puts the cost of dealing with "patent trolls" at half a trillion dollars in the last two decades. Yet patent trolls account for only one in six patent suits, by his estimate, so the patent system's burden on the economy is much higher. Just as we worry about old Soviet nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands, Chien says that the patent hoards accumulated by corporations as "defensive" measures are starting to end up with "non-practicing entities" who use them for lawsuits. For example, memory chip-maker Micron Technology Inc. in 2009 sold 4,500 patents to a patent lawyer in 2009. Chien points out that the patents are worth more to "non-practicing entities," because they can sue without fear of retaliatory patent suits. During the Cold War, there were arms limitation talks. Similarly, many of the big technology corporations want the patent bombs taken away, or at least limited. Google's lawyers are critical of the patent system, and it's clear the company would rather not have to strike deals like the one to buy Motorola. Cisco Systems Inc., the world's largest maker of networking gear, wants patent infringement damages to be based on the value of the component in question rather than the entire product. Tech companies can expect little help from Washington. After a decade of wrangling, Congress is set to approve a patent reform bill when the Senate reunites in December. It will be the largest legislative change to the patent system since 1952. Even so, experts say its effect on the high-tech industry will be marginal. It had sought more sweeping changes, but resistance from the pharmaceutical industry, which is much better served by the current system, has kept out the more radical proposals. The legislation will make it marginally harder to get and hold onto patents, Chien said, but that's unlikely to cut down on the number of spurious patents, she believes. And paradoxically, the bills could expand the glut of patents that's plaguing the industry, since one of its goals is to reduce the three-year backlog of patents pending at the Patent Office. "It's going to take a long time for Congress to tackle patents again, and that's really a problem because this troll problem is going to continue to fester," Samuels said. "We all feel the effects." |
| Hackers gain access to transit police union site (AP) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 06:23 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO – Hackers launched another online attack Wednesday against a California transit agency that found itself in the middle of a debate about free speech after it turned off cell phone service in its stations to thwart a potential protest. This time, hackers gained access to the website of the union that represents Bay Area Rapid Transit police and posted personal information on more than 100 officers. The officers' home and email addresses were leaked along with passwords. BART Police Deputy Chief Daniel Hartwig said his office was aware of the breach and referred inquiries to the BART Police Officers Association. Union president Jesse Sekhon didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment. The union's website was disabled later in the day. The hackers group Anonymous announced the most recent breach on Twitter and published the address of the website where the information could be found. However, Anonymous didn't immediately claim responsibility for the hack, as it did when it broke into BART's marketing website last week and released the personal information of more than 2,000 customers. "No one claimed responsibility for the hack," Anonymous said in a Twitter post. "Some random joe joined a channel and released the data to the press." BART interim General Manager Sherwood Wakeman condemned the latest "attack on the working men and women of BART." "We are deeply concerned about the safety and security of our employees and their families," he said in a prepared statement. The two hacks came in apparent retaliation for BART cutting wireless communication in its San Francisco stations Thursday night to quell a brewing protest over a police shooting. The agency took that action after demonstration organizers said they would issue last-minute instructions in text messages and on social networks about where to gather and disrupt the evening commute. The demonstration was planned over the July 3 BART police shooting and killing of Charles Blair Hill, 45. The police allege the transient lunged at them with a knife. A demonstration on July 11 over the shooting disrupted the evening commute, as one protester scrambled on top of a train, halting all BART transit in San Francisco for 30 minutes. The decision to cut wireless communication to head off another protest Thursday put the transit agency in the middle of a worldwide debate over free speech, social networks and public safety. The action was compared unfavorably to Hosni Mubarak's attempt to shut Internet access in Egypt before he was forced from office by mass demonstrations. BART's action is widely believed to be the first time a U.S. governmental agency cut wireless communication to quell a protest. BART chief spokesman Linton Johnson said Tuesday it was his idea to cut the power, and the tactic was vetted by police and approved by the agency's general manager, who previously served as BART's top attorney. Johnson defended the tactic as legal and appropriate to ensure a safe commute. The planned protest never materialized Thursday and all trains were on time that night. The Federal Communications Commission is looking into BART's action while the FBI is investigating the hack of mybart.org last week. |
| MetroPCS starts unlimited music plan with Rhapsody (AP) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 04:48 PM PDT LOS ANGELES – MetroPCS Communications Inc., the nation's fifth-largest wireless phone carrier, is jumping into the unlimited music business behind its smaller competitor, Cricket. The company said Wednesday it is now offering unlimited on-the-go access to 12 million tracks through subscription music provider Rhapsody. The plan is bundled with unlimited voice, text and Web access on Android-powered smartphones for $60 a month. The entry into the subscription music field follows the huge success of Muve Music, a $55-a-month plan offered by prepaid wireless phone provider Cricket, the seventh-largest carrier and a division of Leap Wireless International Inc. Muve added 100,000 subscribers within months of launching in January and found its users downloaded hundreds of songs each month and listened for two to three hours a day. Muve Music is now available only on a Samsung Suede feature phone with stripped-down capabilities, but it plans to roll out on Android devices in the fall. MetroPCS said its customers who use Android phones were already listening to other streaming music offerings such as the free Internet radio service, Pandora. Internal surveys also suggested high interest in a subscription music plan, said Gavin Throckmorton, staff vice president of product management at MetroPCS. "Providing our customers with a high value, mobile entertainment experience is exactly what they're looking for," he said. Rhapsody has about 800,000 subscribers. Its stand-alone plan costs $10 a month. The plan is available immediately to the approximately 20 percent of MetroPCS's 9.1 million customers who have Android-powered smartphones and some customers have already downloaded the app and changed their rate plans to sign up for the service, Throckmorton said. It will also be available on all new Android phones sold by the carrier. A significant hold-out in the plan is Warner Music Group Corp., the nation's third-largest recording company. That means Warner Music artists such as Linkin Park and B.o.B. won't be accessible for now. Rhapsody spokeswoman Jaimee Steele said the company is working to reach a deal. Warner Music spokeswoman Amanda Collins declined to comment. Rhapsody President Jon Irwin said the popularity of Muve was encouraging, as was early uptake by MetroPCS customers. "It's the value of bundled service — music as a service with something else," Irwin said. "I think their success is understandable and it gives us great optimism about what we see MetroPCS doing out of the gate." Music companies have been embracing digital subscription plans and other new business models as CD sales continue to fall and gains in song downloads haven't made up the difference. |
| Homebrew device mutes your TV when it hears unwanted phrases (Yahoo! News) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 05:45 PM PDT |
| Earth’s moon may be 200 million years younger than previously thought (Yahoo! News) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 05:38 PM PDT |
| Every Hour of TV You Watch May Shorten Your Lifespan By 22 Minutes [STUDY] (Mashable) Posted: 16 Aug 2011 06:18 PM PDT In case you needed more proof that watching excessive amounts of TV is bad for your health: new research shows that there is a correlation between the amount of time you spend in front of the TV and how long you live. A study by researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia has concluded that, for every hour of television watched after age 25, the average human lifespan drops by 22 minutes. A person who watch six hours of TV per day will, on average, live five years less than people who spent less time on the couch and in front of the television screen. Those are some scary numbers. [More from Mashable: Virtual Currency Beats All Other Kinds of Mobile Game Purchases [REPORT]] The study tracked data from 11,000 Australian participants over the age of 25. It was published earlier this month in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. This study doesn't prove that TV is quietly killing us. It's more likely that lack of exercise and bad eating habits are shortening the lifespans of TV couch potatoes. A person who spends six hours a day staying active is almost certainly going to live longer than a person who likes to lean back in a recliner watching countless episodes of Judge Judy or Law and Order: SVU. [More from Mashable: '90s Nickelodeon Shows Interpreted as Art on Tumblr Blog [PICS]] It's not just TV watching that's bad for you, either. We recently learned that sitting in front of the computer for six hours a day increases your risk of death by 40%. And with Americans watching more video than ever, the health problem is growing. That's why we're fans of the stand-up desk. [via Yahoo News] This story originally published on Mashable here. |
| Google launches tablet-optimized app for catalog viewing (Appolicious) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 09:00 PM PDT |
| Sina profit slips in second quarter (Reuters) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 03:52 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Sina Corp, China's largest Internet portal, said net profit fell 60 percent as the firm spent heavily on investment in its highly popular microblogging service, Weibo. The earnings were slightly above Wall Street expectations and Sina's shares were up nearly 7 percent in after-hours trading at $99. Sina, which rolled out its Weibi virtual currency this month, is trying to generate revenue from Weibo and turn it into a full-fledged social networking site, pitting it against the likes of Kaixin001 and Renren Inc. Sina said on Wednesday it earned a second-quarter net income of $10 million, or 15 cents a share, compared with $25.2 million or 38 cents a share for the same period a year ago. Excluding one-off items, it earned 20 cents a share, beating the average forecast of earnings of 19 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue excluding Sina's separate real estate advertising business rose 21 percent to $114.3 million, within the range of its forecast of $112 million to $115 million. For the third quarter, Sina expects adjusted revenue between $123 million and $126 million, versus analysts' expectations of $125.7 million. Advertising revenue jumped 26 percent year-over-year to $91.8 million in the second quarter, while mobile-related revenue declined 2 percent to $19.5 million. (Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco and Melanie Lee; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Matthew Lewis) |
| Sony PlayStation 3 getting DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket, no dish necessary (Digital Trends) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 08:07 PM PDT
Sony announced a collaboration with DirecTV to bring the NFL Sunday Ticket to PlayStation 3 owners. Access to the programming doesn't require an installed satellite dish or DirecTV's service. PS3 owners will be able to view live streaming video of up to 14 out-of-market games per weekend. The games will be displayed in high definition and users will also have access to the Red Zone Channel. This channel shows highlights of every scoring drive of every single game without the burden of commercials. One negative to the service is that it's limited to out-of-market games. If the PlayStation 3 is hooked up on the same television used for watching local games, users will have to switch back and forth between inputs rather than on the DirecTV service. With the recent price drop of the PlayStation 3 to $249 for the 160GB model, a die-hard NFL fanatic that doesn't have DirecTV service is looking at nearly $600 to outfit a home with NFL Sunday Ticket access before the season officially kicks off on September 8. In addition to NFL Sunday Ticket access on the PlayStation 3, DirecTV also announced a collaboration with the NFL.com to bring Fantasy Football functionality to the television screen. Using connected set-top boxes, users can assign icons to specific players and jump to those games to check up on stats and overall progress. |
| Posted: 17 Aug 2011 05:10 PM PDT
Verizon first launched its 4G LTE network just eight months ago, and it already covers 150 cities. It seems like just yesterday that we were reporting Verizon breaking the 100 city mark. In the same short time Verizon has also bolstered its line of LTE devices. There are already three LTE phones available, and the Droid Bionic could be released any day now. There might be another LTE Droid joining the ranks after the Bionic, but we haven't heard too much about the Droid HD yet. Of the 160 million people covered by Verizon’s LTE the vast majority of them are in highly populated areas. The company’s press release notes that thanks to a few rural networks they were able to cover 2.1 million people in rural areas of the United States. Once all the major cities are covered the real challenge will be to spread coverage to the lesser populated areas. Sure Verizon has a long ways to go before LTE is truly a technology for everyone to use, but they are well on their way. Verizon's 3G network covers 290 million people and it is several years old, so LTE covering 160 million in just eight months is pretty amazing growth. The company already beat its lofty prediction of reaching 110 million people by the end of the year, and at this rate will smash its goal to match its 3G coverage by 2013. We are still waiting for the official launch of AT&T's LTE network, which should be any day now. AT&T will start with service in five cities and hopes to be in 15 cities by the end of the year. For more information about 4G and which provider is right for you make sure to check our guide to all things 4G.
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| NY man suing Facebook must explain missing items (AP) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 08:20 PM PDT BUFFALO, N.Y. – A judge on Wednesday gave Facebook access to the personal email accounts of a man suing for half ownership of the social networking website and ordered him to explain why he can't produce documents its lawyers believe are evidence. Proof that Paul Ceglia's case is a fraud has been sitting on a Chicago law firm's email server since 2004, Facebook attorney Orin Snyder told the federal judge. An email that Ceglia sent to a former business associate at the firm includes a scanned version of the two-page contract he and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg signed, Snyder said. Unlike the one Ceglia filed, it doesn't mention Facebook, only a street-mapping database Ceglia had hired Zuckerberg to work on, he said. "The noose is tightening around the neck of this plaintiff, and he knows it," Snyder said during a four-hour procedural hearing that had each side accusing the other of dirty tricks. Snyder said Ceglia had artificially aged his "phony" contract with light and chemicals, backdated computer files and transferred others to portable storage devices, which he'd likely tossed into Lake Erie. Ceglia's attorney, Jeffrey Lake, countered that Facebook had tried to "poison the jury pool" by releasing what should have been confidential documents and implied Facebook had planted damning evidence on Ceglia's computers, a statement he backed away from after the hearing. In the end, Facebook gained access to Ceglia's personal email accounts and additional ink sampling from the contract. U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Foschio also denied Ceglia's request for a set of relevant Zuckerberg emails and ordered Ceglia to explain why he can't produce five portable storage drives that Facebook's experts believe contain the scanned version of the contract. Ceglia says he lost them, his attorney said. "Asking me to produce them will be like asking me to produce a unicorn or a leprechaun," Lake said. Ceglia has been waiting out the case in Ireland and wasn't at the hearing. The Wellsville man's lawsuit claims that when he hired Zuckerberg as a Harvard University freshman to work on the Streetfax business in 2003, he gave him $1,000 in start-up money for his fledgling Facebook idea with the condition he'd own half if it expanded. Facebook believes that for his lawsuit, Ceglia altered the Streetfax contract to insert references to Facebook. Experts first found what they believe to be the authentic contract in an email outbox on one of Ceglia's computers, Snyder said. They've since verified it still exists on the Sidley Austin law firm's server. "It says, `This is my contract with Mark,'" Snyder said, calling it "proof positive" the case is a fraud. He signaled he would eventually seek to have the lawsuit thrown out. Before the hearing, emails bearing Ceglia's name and sent to several media outlets accused the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook of planting the damning contract on his computer, and Lake raised the possibility at the hearing. After the hearing, Lake said he couldn't confirm the emails had come from Ceglia. When asked whether he thought Facebook had planted evidence, he said he'd rely on experts before drawing any conclusions. After Lake's request to try to settle the case through mediation was shot down by Facebook, Lake said a resolution will likely come down to a battle of experts testifying about which version of the contract is authentic. He said he intends to seek access to Zuckerberg's computers, email accounts and the Facebook code as the case proceeds, in part to see whether Zuckerberg used code he wrote for Ceglia's now-defunct Streetfax business in the creation of Facebook. |
| Skype WiFi app offers iOS users cheap global net access (Digital Trends) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 07:18 PM PDT
The app enables iPhone, iPad and iPod touch owners to connect to the Internet via a million WiFi hotspots worldwide at places such as hotels, airports, train stations, convention centres, bars and restaurants. The service isn't free, but the rates are very competitive (from $0.06 per min), with charges being made through your Skype Credit account. You only pay for the time you're online, not the amount of data you use. In a blog post on Wednesday, Skype's Shadi Mahassel wrote: "Skype WiFi is great for travelers all over the world: It's a must-have app, for your iPhone or iPad whether you're on a business trip or enjoying holidays abroad." He added: "Paying on a per-minute basis for WiFi Internet access is great when you're abroad as you can avoid data roaming charges when you update Facebook, send a tweet, make a Skype call or upload photos." How useful will the app be? Well, maybe not so much in the US, where a great many restaurants, cafes and the like already offer Internet access, and free access at that. Outside the US, however, such a service is not quite so widespread, so it's during those business trips or vacations in other countries that you might find yourself tapping into the service. Those interested in Skype WiFi can try out the new app for free from 7pm ET Friday August 19 to 7pm Sunday August 21, for a maximum of 60 minutes. To use Skype WiFi, all you need to have is a Skype account and some Skype credit – and of course, a Skype WiFi hotspot.
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| LinkedIn’s Android app finally gets a worthy update... kind of (Appolicious) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 02:30 PM PDT |
| Apple, others weighing bids (Investor's Business Daily) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 03:35 PM PDT The iPhone and iPad maker (NASDAQ:AAPL - News), Nokia (NYSE:NOK - News) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM - News) are among several companies mulling bids for wireless communications technology firm InterDigital (NASDAQ:IDCC - News), sources told Reuters. On Monday, potential bidder Google (NASDAQ:GOOG - News) said it's buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5 bil, which resulted in a 23% drop in InterDigital shares. But Google hasn't officially pulled out of the auction. InterDigital climbed 8.6% to 69.56. |
| California Supreme Court turns down Phil Spector appeal (Reuters) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 08:09 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The California Supreme Court declined on Wednesday to review the 2009 murder conviction of music producer Phil Spector, turning down an appeal that had been filed by his attorneys. Spector's lawyers had asked the state's highest court to take another look at the case after a three-justice panel from the California 2nd District Court of Appeal earlier this year upheld his conviction of second-degree murder in the 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson. The killing occurred at Spector's suburban Los Angeles mansion, which was called the "Pyrenees Castle." Spector, 71, is famous for his signature "wall of sound" recording technique, and he worked with the Beatles, the Ronettes and the Ramones in the 1960s and 1970s. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Cynthia Johnston) |
| South Korean iPhone Owners Seek Damages from Apple (NewsFactor) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 02:44 PM PDT A legal firm representing more than 26,600 South Korean iPhone owners has filed a class-action suit against Apple for violating their privacy rights. The suit filed in Changwon District Court by the law firm Miraelaw on Wednesday asks the court to award damages of 27 billion won (US$26 million). Though this is little more than spare change for Apple, which is currently sitting on cash reserves of more than $75 billion, losing the suit could embolden others to file similar lawsuits in other countries. The problem for Apple is that the Changwon court awarded a single plaintiff one million won in July after a similar privacy lawsuit was filed by Miraelaw. "It is clearly illegal for Apple to indiscriminately collect location data on iPhone users without consent," Miraelaw lawyer Lee Jae-choul told the Korea Times on Wednesday. "To protect consumers' rights, we filed a class-action lawsuit against information-technology giant Apple." Fixing the Problem Apple said iPhones were storing personal-location information for up to a year due to a software glitch. Last April, the design flaw raised the ire of privacy advocates in the United States, since the file in which location information was stored was both unencrypted and relatively simple for an unauthorized person to access. "Anyone who finds a lost or stolen iPhone or iPad or who has access to any computer used to sync one of these devices could easily download and map out a customer's precise movements for months at a time, [including] the businesses he frequents, the doctors he visits, the schools his children attend, and the trips he has taken over the past months or even a year," noted Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) in an April letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Responding to the letter, Apple said it doesn't track the locations of iPhone users and the data collected is used to maintain a database of the Wi-Fi hot spots and cell towers around each iPhone, which helps users receive location information more quickly and more accurately than GPS technology used on its own. Apple subsequently addressed the concerns by pushing out an iOS update with changes to the location storage. A Slap on the Wrist Among other things, Apple's iOS upgrade reduced the size of the location cache, which is deleted whenever the user turns off the iPhone's location service used by maps, geo-tagged photos, and other location-based apps. Additionally, the location data is encrypted and stored for no longer than seven days. Still, earlier this month the Korea Communications Commission fined Apple for violating the nation's location-information laws. Though the slap on the wrist only amounted to three million won (US$2,800), the judgment may embolden other regulatory bodies to impose fines. Meanwhile, Miraelaw is hoping more Korean iPhone owners will join the class-action suit before the end of this month. According to the Korea Times, Apple has sold more than three million iPhones in South Korea, which means less than one percent of the device users are currently represented in the suit. |
| VMware's Pricing Fiasco Exploited by Microsoft (NewsFactor) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 02:13 PM PDT Microsoft is working to get a toehold in the enterprise market at VMware's expense. On Tuesday in a blog post, the software giant took a few jabs at VMware's revised pricing strategy. VMware announced a new pricing model when it released vSphere 5 in July. The pricing drew the ire of customers. VMware has since made adjustments and worked to better explain those changes in the wake of the customer backlash. But Microsoft isn't letting it slide. In a blog post entitled Beware the VMware Memory vTax Part 2, Microsoft picked up where it left off with its attacks on the dominant player in the virtualization market. Jeff Woolsey of the Windows server and cloud team posted a lengthy argument in an attempt to leverage VMware customer discontent. VMware's Marketing Spin "While VMware is delivering their best marketing spin to the situation, claiming they are 'customer focused,' trumpeting 'they listened,' and hoping that the furor will die down, VMware is continuing to misjudge the situation and engage in selective listening with their customers," Woolsey wrote. "Even after modifying the vSphere 5.0 memory entitlements, the fundamental tax on memory still exists, which is an anathema to customers, and VMware is still receiving colorful feedback from their customers." Woolsey pointed to a Twitter outcry with tweets carrying the #vtax hashtag, as well as industry reaction in technology news articles. Woolsey also noted negative customer comments in VMware's community forums before comparing the new pricing strategy to what Hyper-V has to offer. His conclusion: Hyper-V is customer-driven and free. Hyper-V Lags Behind Of course, there are challenges any time a vendor changes its traditional pricing scheme. Companies run into problems unless they actively discuss why the new pricing is better than the old model, said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, and many users were extremely confused by the new pricing. "To its credit, VMware has improved the explanation and made some changes that make the new model more attractive, but this still created a competitive opportunity for Microsoft," King said. "It doesn't surprise me that the company is trying to make the most of it even if they aren't being entirely straightforward." King recalled how Microsoft went to market with Hyper-V with a competitive message against VMware and plans to become the leading virtualization platform for x86. But it hasn't happened. VMware is estimated to have an 80 percent market share. By contrast, Hyper-V has been on the market for more than three years and hasn't gained much traction even though its solution is free. "While usage of Hyper-V has increased, it hasn't displaced VMware. You see a lot of companies that are using both solutions together, but I haven't seen very many examples of sizable companies that have basically ripped VMware out and replaced it with Hyper-V," King said. "Those types of competitive migration example are very few and far between." |
| 3 Tips for Building a Web App That Can Scale (Mashable) Posted: 16 Aug 2011 06:23 AM PDT Lew Cirne is founder and CEO of New Relic, the leading SaaS-based web application performance management company supporting 10,000 customers including companies from Comcast to Zynga. Twitter generates about eight terabytes of data a day. That's a hell of a lot of data for one application. Some SaaS companies might look at that number and think that they'll never need to handle that much data, or if they did, it would take far more infrastructure and server hardware than they could afford to maintain. [More from Mashable: HOW TO: Target Ads Without Stalking Customers on the Web] In both cases, they might be wrong. Any SaaS business can handle as much data as Twitter and many can do it on only a handful of servers. It's all a matter of understanding your data and planning your technology investments to be as scalable as possible. Sounds easy enough. So where do you begin? [More from Mashable: HOW TO: Choose the Right Office Space]
1. Plan to Scale, Even in the Beginning |
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