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Monday, September 12, 2011

Authors Guild sues universities over online books (AP) : Technet

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Authors Guild sues universities over online books (AP) : Technet

Authors Guild sues universities over online books (AP)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 07:16 PM PDT

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Larry Neumeister, Associated Press – Mon Sep 12, 10:16 pm ET

NEW YORK – Authors and authors' groups in the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom sued the University of Michigan and four other universities Monday, seeking to stop the creation of online libraries made up of as many as 7 million copyright-protected books they say were scanned without authorization.

The Authors Guild, the Australian Society of Authors and the Union Des Ecrivaines et des Ecrivains Quebecois, or UNEQ, joined eight individual authors to file the copyright infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan against Michigan, the University of California, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University and Cornell University.

The lawsuit accuses the University of Michigan of creating a repository known as HathiTrust where unlimited downloads could be accessed by students and faculty members of so-called orphan works, which are out-of-print books whose writers could not be located.

The authors said they obtained from Google Inc. the unauthorized scans of an estimated 7 million copyright-protected books. They said the schools had pooled the unauthorized files at Michigan.

The university planned to make about 40 books available online to its students and faculty in October, said Paul Courant, the dean of libraries at the university. He said university officials had been in discussions with the Authors Guild in recent weeks about its plans and were surprised by the lawsuit.

"I'm confident that everything we're doing and everything we're contemplating doing is lawful use of these works," Courant said.

The lawsuit seeks to impound the digital copies of the works along with other unspecified damages.

Courant said Google had digitized about 5 million books out of its library so far and had several million books left to scan. He said it was of "great value" to students and faculty to get the books online.

In a statement, the authors said they sought to stop the Oct. 13 release of 27 works by French, Russian and American authors to an estimated 250,000 students and faculty members, along with the scheduled release in November of an additional 140 books. Those works, they said, included some in Spanish, Yiddish, French and Russian.

The authors said Michigan announced plans in June to permit unlimited downloads by its students and faculty members of the scanned works it considered orphans and other universities joined the project in August.

"This is an upsetting and outrageous attempt to dismiss authors' rights," said Angelo Loukakis, executive director of the Australian Society of Authors. "Maybe it doesn't seem like it to some, but writing books is an author's real-life work and livelihood. This group of American universities has no authority to decide whether, when or how authors forfeit their copyright protection. These aren't orphaned books, they're abducted books."

"I was stunned when I learned of this," said Daniele Simpson, president of UNEQ. "How are authors from Quebec, Italy or Japan to know that their works have been determined to be `orphans' by a group in Ann Arbor, Michigan? If these colleges can make up their own rules, then won't every college and university, in every country, want to do the same?"

The authors said books from nearly every nation have been digitized, including thousands of works published in 2001 in China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom, and hundreds from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Mexico, The Netherlands, The Philippines, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.

The lawsuit was filed just days before lawyers for authors and publishers are scheduled to tell a judge whether they have reached a new deal with the Mountain View, Calif.-based Google to create a massive online library.

U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin had rejected a $125 million settlement of a 6-year-old lawsuit after objections were filed by Google rivals, consumer watchdogs, academic experts, literary agents and even foreign governments.

Chin wrote that many objectors would drop their complaints if Google allowed book owners to choose to join the library rather than being required to quit it.

Broadcom to acquire NetLogic for about $3.7B (AP)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 12:05 PM PDT

– Mon Sep 12, 3:05 pm ET

NEW YORK – Broadcom Corp. said Monday it is buying NetLogic Microsystems Inc., another chip maker, for about $3.7 billion in cash.

Broadcom designs chips that are used in products ranging from cable boxes to cell phones. It says NetLogic will extend its product line with a number of new processors.

Netlogic's chips are used in computer networking equipment such as switches, routers, wireless base stations and data storage devices. Its customers include Cisco Systems Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

The purchase price works out to $50 per share, a 57 percent premium to NetLogic's closing price of $31.91 on Friday.

Shares of Netlogic, based in Santa Clara, Calif., climbed 51 percent, or $16.26, to $48.17 Monday.

Broadcom shares fell, $1.02, or 3 percent, to $32.42 by mid-afternoon.

The transaction has been approved by both companies' boards. It still needs regulatory clearance in the U.S., Taiwan and China, but it is expected to close in the first half of next year.

Broadcom expects the acquisition to boost earnings by about 10 cents per share next year.

Broadcom based in Irvine, Calif., also said it expects third-quarter revenue to fall in the middle of a previously announced range of $1.9 billion to $2.0 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet expect $1.95 billion.

Bionic ear maker Cochlear recalls hearing implants (AP)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 03:50 PM PDT

– Mon Sep 12, 6:50 pm ET

SYDNEY – Bionic ear maker Cochlear has been forced to begin a global recall of the world's thinnest hearing implants after some stopped working.

The Sydney-based company, which dominates the world's bionic ear market, said Monday it was mystified as to why some of its award-winning Nucleus CI500 devices were suddenly shutting down.

The company has begun recalling its entire Nucleus CI500 range, which makes up the bulk of its sales, from shelves after a rise in the number of faults with the CI512 model.

While Cochlear believes the faults are unlikely to cause any health problems for people with defective implants, they are offering replacement models for re-implantation.

The news sent Cochlear's shares into a tailspin, with the stock dropping more than 25 percent at one stage amid worries about the financial impact and potential damage to the company's reputation the recall could cause.

Shares in Cochlear fell 14.68 Australian dollars ($15.21), or 20 percent, to close Monday at AU$57.50 ($59.58), the lowest in over two years.

Cochlear chief executive Chris Roberts said he was unable to say how many of the "very reliable" titanium-based devices were faulty.

While less than 1 percent of the Nucleus CI500 devices had failed since they hit the market in 2009, there had been a steady rise in faults being reported in recent weeks.

"We don't know what the cause is," Roberts told analysts on a conference call.

"That's exactly what we need to evaluate. We want to avoid saying it's 'a' or 'b' or 'c' when we have to up every stone and examine every possibility," he added.

People fitted with CI500 units but who have not experienced any problems are being advised to continue using the devices.

The voluntary recall of the Nucleus CI500 range includes the CI512 model as well as the CI513, CI551 double array implant and ABI 541 auditory brainstem implant.

It does not affect its earlier Nucleus Freedom range or its Nucleus 5 external hearing devices.

Production of the CI500 devices has stopped and patients needing bionic ear implants are being offered the Nucleus Freedom model, which has been on the market for seven years.

Roberts said Cochlear was better off halting manufacture until the cause of the faults was uncovered.

He was unable to say how long it would take before the devices were back on sale but said if any changes had to be made, the company would need to get regulatory approval from the countries where the units are sold.

Cochlear was also unable to say what the cost of the product recall would be.

Cochlear sold more than 17,000 of its Nucleus 5 range of devices in the 2010/11 financial year, representing 70 percent of its total bionic ear sales in 100 different countries.

The Nucleus 5 range includes the thinnest hearing implants on the market at just 3.9 millimeters (0.15 of an inch) thick.

Cochlear has promoted them as "a new design that is built to last a lifetime."

Astronomers spot 16 super-Earths among stash of 50 new planets (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 06:43 PM PDT

Year-old 9/11 memorial photo takes Twitter by storm, leaves its creator miffed (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 05:06 PM PDT

Carol Bartz Resigns From Yahoo Board of Directors (Mashable)

Posted: 11 Sep 2011 01:30 PM PDT

Emily Banks Emily Banks – Sun Sep 11, 4:30 pm ET

After saying she wouldn't step down from Yahoo's board of directors, Carol Bartz has resigned from the board. Bartz's role as CEO ended abruptly Tuesday when she was ousted from the position she'd held for less than three years. In an interview with Fortune later in the week, she made it clear she intended to stay on the company's board. In the interview, she called its members "doofuses" and said they "f***ed me over."

[More from Mashable: Carol Bartz: Yahoo's Board "F***ed Me Over"]

SEE ALSO: AOL Eyes Merger With Yahoo [REPORT]

It appears she is no longer among them, though. According to multiple reports, Bartz's last day on the board was Friday.

[More from Mashable: Yahoo Forms "Executive Leadership Council" to Replace Carol Bartz]

[via Bloomberg]

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Nintendo unveils raft of software in bid to rescue 3DS (Reuters)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 09:53 PM PDT

By Isabel Reynolds Isabel Reynolds – 28 mins ago

TOKYO (Reuters) – Nintendo announced a raft of new software in an attempt to prop up disappointing sales of its latest handheld games gadget, the 3DS, but there was no sign of the add-on accessory that games blogs have said is in the works.

Nintendo's shares slid about 6 percent on Tuesday in a strong broader market in a sign that investors are not convinced boosting content will enable the 3DS to fight off growing competition from smartphones and tablets.

President Satoru Iwata unveiled what he said was an unprecedented range of games, including some featuring the company's much-loved Mario character and others specifically aimed at attracting women, at an event held two days ahead of the Tokyo Game Show.

"From the end of this year to the beginning of next, we are planning the kind of extensive line-up that has probably never been seen before in the history of video games," Iwata told reporters and guests at the event.

"We will make an all-out effort to see that the 3DS sells enough to become the successor to the DS," he said.

That will be no easy task, given that earlier models of the DS had sold a cumulative total of about 148 million units by the end of June this year. The gadget, along with the motion-controlled Wii home console, enabled Nintendo to dominate the industry for years.

Many casual gamers are now turning to Apple's iPhone and iPad and mobile gadgets based on Google's Android operating system, which offer cheaper content and multiple functions.

Tech website C-NET had reported that Nintendo was set to launch an accessory for the 3DS that would provide an extra control button, but this was not mentioned at Tuesday's event.

In July, Nintendo slashed the price of the 3DS, which features glasses-free 3D images, after sales shriveled to just 710,000 units in April-June from 3.6 million in the first month after its launch, and a tiny fraction of the 16 million unit target for the year.

The company reported its first-ever quarterly operating loss and cut its full-year profit forecast far below market expectations, hit by sluggish sales and a strong yen.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Joseph Radford and Anshuman Daga)

FCC's Internet rules clear a review hurdle (Reuters)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 03:01 PM PDT

– Mon Sep 12, 6:01 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Controversial new Internet rules adopted late last year by the Federal Communications Commission will soon be published officially, a step expected to trigger legal challenges.

The White House's Office of Management and Budget signed off on the rules on Friday, according to a notice on the OMB's website, clearing way for publication in the Federal Register, a process which generally takes one to three weeks.

The rules, which try to balance fair treatment of competing content with the need for internet providers to manage their networks, will go into effect 60 days after publication.

Verizon Communications Inc and MetroPCS Communications Inc had accused the FCC of overstepping its authority in a challenge shortly after the FCC's 3-2 vote.

But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in April said the challenges were premature, coming prior to publication in the Federal Register.

The same court ruled last year that the FCC lacked the authority to stop Comcast Corp from blocking bandwidth-hogging applications on its broadband network. A decision leading to the FCC's latest rules.

Criticized by opponents as a legally shaky government intrusion into regulating the Internet, the new rules would prevent network operators from blocking lawful content but still let them ration access to their networks.

The debate surrounding the Internet rules has highlighted a huge divide between those who say the Internet should flourish without regulation and those who say the power of high-speed Internet providers to discriminate against competitors needs to be restrained.

The delay between the FCC's vote and official publication has been unusually

long.

Some industry sources and former regulators have accused the FCC of intentional foot-dragging to stall court challenges.

But the FCC has attributed the delay to data collection requirements that were subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act review process.

(Reporting by Jasmin Melvin; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Gamestop to carry tablets in stores for first time (Reuters)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 03:06 PM PDT

– Mon Sep 12, 6:06 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The largest U.S. video game retailer GameStop Corp will sell Android tablets this holiday for the first time in a bid to grab a slice of the growing market of people who play games on the go.

A company spokeswoman told Reuters on Monday that the company is still figuring out which Android tablets it will carry holiday season.

"We are evaluating which tablets to carry in stores this holiday and the chosen tablets will be capable of delivering a great gaming experience using the latest chip technology," said GameStop spokeswoman Wendy Dominguez.

Dominguez added the tablets "will come preloaded with exclusive content."

The company is also looking at creating a controller to accompany the tablets, GameStop said.

The tablets will be in stores this holiday. This is separate from GameStop's announcement on Monday that it would carry used Apple devices including iPads and iPods. Consumers will also be able to trade in their old Apple devices for cash.

GameStop declined to comment on sales expectations for the Android devices.

Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia said he was cautiously optimistic about the news and said it will likely not generate much revenue for the company initially since the margins on the tablets will not be very high, he said.

"The impact on GameStop's bottom line will be small since this is an unproven market for them," he said.

GameStop shares closed 0.4 percent higher on Monday at $23.22.

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

Video game retailer GameStop announces branded Android tablet (Appolicious)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 11:04 AM PDT

Live-blogging the CNN/Tea Party Express Republican presidential debate (The Ticket)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 01:57 PM PDT

Will CNN Debate Be 'Perry vs. Romney Two' or Something Different? (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 02:46 PM PDT

Saul Relative Saul Relative – Mon Sep 12, 5:46 pm ET
Contribute content like this. Start here.

Almost nobody will watch the CNN/Tea Party Express Republican Debate being broadcast live on CNN tonight. And those who are actually interested will most likely TiVo it or catch the highlights on the news or in their favorite blog -- or wait to see Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert lampoon for the rest of the week. It is up against the first night of "Monday Night Football." That being said, it does not help that the media is already calling the debate "Perry vs. Romney, Round Two." Why not call it "Two Republicans Split Hairs" and be done with it?

But splitting hairs is not the way most Republican voters will see the debate, regardless if they watch the live broadcast or if they watch it on YouTube or read about it in the Wall Street Journal. They will see a set of candidates that vary on their positions by degrees but where the two most preferred contenders are nearly diametrically opposed (sort of).

Although Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney do see eye-to-eye on several subjects (strong defense, limited government, less regulation), they are also quite dissimilar in their views on others. Like health care and Social Security, for instance. And since the debate is being held in Florida, a state with a large retirement (and close to retirement) population, those differences will undoubtedly be highlighted at the debate.

Perry is for the repeal of what the GOP faithful like to call Obamacare. A states' rights advocate, he has likened the Massachusetts health care plan passed during Romney's administration to the national health care reform act passed in 2010. Romney maintains they are different, that he, too, supports state oversight of health care as opposed to federal.

As for the Social Security issue, both men agree the system needs to be revamped for future generations. However, Perry is for at least partial privatization and Romney has attempted to paint him as a candidate who wishes to abolish Social Security altogether or at drastically abolish it as it is currently known, a decided unpopular position.

Perry has countered that that is not true and that he wants a more stable, self-perpetuating system where the individual controls at least part of their retirement funds (although how privatization would ensure stability is anyone's guess). He has labeled it a Ponzi scheme and has pointed to Romney referring to the management of Social Security as criminal.

With the Tea Party Express involved in the debate, there could be a few questions posed to the candidates that are more geared toward the fiscal conservative/less governance stance. If so, the Obamacare and Social Security repeal/revamp/elimination ideas of the candidates might be better extracted, the candidates pressed to express their positions in better detail.

Unless, of course, the contenders prefer to dance around the subject and simply push their talking points (which has become a problem with Michele Bachmann's responses of late), in which case nothing will be gained by the debate and viewers would have been correct in ignoring it or viewing it later (or on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart").

Regardless, the debate will be parsed ad infinitum, ad nauseum -- until the next debate (Fox News/Google will broadcast a debate from Orlando, Fla., on Sept. 22). Still, hopefully it will not devolve into the disservice that was the coverage of the MSNBC/Politico debate, which fell to simply posting sound bites and reporting on what Perry and Romney said -- even though there were six other candidates on the stage.

If the CNN/Tea Party Express Republican Debate does become "Perry vs. Romney, Round Two," the nation -- whether they watch it (or not) or delay their debate experience in some manner -- should perhaps take it as a cue to simply watch Stewart and Colbert eviscerate the poor coverage on their shows, like Stewart did following the MSNBC/Politico exchange. At least Stewart and Colbert tend to be insightful and entertaining.

Because who really enjoys uninspiring, non-entertaining, unoriginal quasi-repetitive programming when that kind of stuff can be seen daily on any news media broadcast?

Are you ready for some football?

iPad apps to make your fall TV viewing less cable-centric (Appolicious)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 03:00 PM PDT

Chipmaker Broadcom to buy NetLogic for $3.7 billion (Reuters)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 09:34 AM PDT

By Sinead Carew Sinead Carew – Mon Sep 12, 12:34 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Chipmaker Broadcom Corp plans to buy NetLogic Microsystems Inc for about $3.7 billion to expand its lineup of chips used in wireless network equipment to take advantage of growing demand for mobile data services.

The $50-per-share deal, which represents a premium of 57 percent over NetLogic's Friday close of $31.91 on the Nasdaq, sent NetLogic's shares soaring 50 percent on Monday. But Broadcom shares were down 2.5 percent at $32.60 as some investors questioned the steep premium.

Broadcom Chief Executive Scott McGregor defended the premium, noting that NetLogic would bring faster profit and revenue growth and that the addition of the products to Broadcom's lineup would double the size of the network equipment market it can go after to about $12 billion by 2015.

"Premier assets are going to cost more than a fixer-upper," McGregor told Reuters. "They're a decent growth company. They accelerate our revenue growth and increase our market opportunity."

Broadcom already sells different types of chips to the same network equipment makers that use NetLogic products. Broadcom chips help direct traffic across networks while the NetLogic chips are used to examine the type of data on the network so that it can be processed more efficiently.

"It doesn't bring us any new customers but it brings us new value for the customers we have," McGregor said.

He said that Broadcom would continue to look for more acquisitions in the communications chip market.

It would cost a lot for Broadcom to build the NetLogic technology itself, Williams Financial analyst Cody Acree said.

"It's a high premium but it's a necessary premium. NetLogic has a huge amount potential," Acree said. "They've developed a portfolio of products that's unique and difficult for Broadcom to reproduce."

Shares of NetLogic rival Cavium Inc were up 5 percent at $32.47 on Monday as some investors hoped Cavium could also attract a suitor. However, Acree said that a stronger NetLogic could make it more difficult for Cavium to compete.

The companies said the transaction has been approved by their respective boards and was expected to close in the first half of 2012.

Broadcom expects the deal to add 10 cents a share to earnings on an adjusted basis in 2012. It kept its forecast for third-quarter revenue of $1.9 billion to $2 billion, with product gross margins flat to slightly higher.

Broadcom said it expects to have around $4.2 billion in cash on hand by the end of third quarter, up from some $3.8 billion at the end of the second quarter.

In its latest quarterly report, NetLogic posted a 14.4 percent revenue increase to $98.7 million. Roughly 42 percent of revenue depends on network equipment sales in China.

NetLogic already sells chips to Cisco Systems Inc and Alcatel-Lucent and said in May that it expects Hewlett-Packard Co, Ericsson and ZTE to become major customers later this year as they increase spending on high-speed wireless technologies.

NetLogic shares were up 50.4 percent at $47.99 on Monday afternoon on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew, with Yinka Adegoke in New York and Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; editing by Derek Caney, Maureen Bavdek and Matthew Lewis)

Bob Seger ends iTunes holdout (AP)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 07:24 AM PDT

– Mon Sep 12, 10:24 am ET

DETROIT – Bob Seger is ending his time as an iTunes holdout.

The Detroit Free Press reports ( http://bit.ly/q9AyTq) that the Grammy winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member's move into digital music sales will start Tuesday, when downloads of the concert albums "`Live' Bullet" and "Nine Tonight" are set to appear on iTunes and Amazon.com.

The rocker says his remaining catalog "will come out in dribs and drabs."

Seger tells the newspaper for a story published Monday he'll also use Apple Inc.'s iTunes to unveil songs from his sizable backlog of unreleased material.

The Michigan resident had been among the few notable acts that staunchly held out from putting his music on iTunes. Segar's manager Ed "Punch" Andrews says the decision would keep the artist "current."

Just Show Me: How to take a screenshot on a Mac (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 02:33 PM PDT

HTC Reportedly Eyeing webOS (NewsFactor)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 04:33 PM PDT

Adam Dickter, newsfactor.com Adam Dickter, newsfactor.com – Mon Sep 12, 7:33 pm ET

The operating system webOS seems on it way to becoming the foster child of the mobile world, wandering from one home to the next.

Initially developed by Palm as the successor to its Palm OS for personal data assistants and introduced in January 2009, the Linux-based webOS became part of the Hewlett-Packard family in April 2010 when the company took over struggling Palm.

Now, it could enter a new relationship with top handset-maker HTC, which makes such Android-based devices as the Thunderbolt and Droid Incredible for Verizon and the coming Radar and Titan, running Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.

No Impulse Buying

Recent comments from the Taiwan-based company's chairwoman, Cher Wang, have been interpreted as signaling that HTC is carefully considering webOS or another platform that could help it differentiate its devices.

"We have given it thought and we have discussed it internally, but we will not do it on impulse," Wang said in an interview with China's Economic Observer. But she emphasized that the company was OK with its present strategy of personalizing its phones running other platforms by adding its HTC Sense interface.

Devices running webOS, such as Palm's Pre, Pixi and Veer made up only 2 percent of the U.S. smartphone market in the second quarter, according to a survey by Gartner Research, while other recent surveys have simply included the system on the "other" category without a share.

HP last month announced its intention to get out of the smartphone and tablet business, and its webOS-based TouchPad was a poor seller until the price was slashed to $99.

Technology consultant Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group said that while webOS has a dedicated fan base, it has been badly managed.

Clues Needed

"Palm's horrid execution was followed by HP's, but even so the HP devices reviewed well, suggesting that a company that had a clue could pull this off," Enderle said. "With Microsoft cutting funding for Windows Phone 7 and Android litigation issues, it appears HTC is going for Door No. 3 and hoping to better match Apple."

He added that since HTC is considered one of the most creative and "Apple-like" of smartphone manufacturers, "The combination could be really interesting."

As tablets raise the value of operating systems beyond phones, manufacturers are becoming increasingly wedded to an OS.

Apple has its own system, iOS, for its iPhone, while Research In Motion last year acquired QNX for its tablets and future smartphones. Google just acquired Motorola Mobility, which rules out any future Windows phones for the company rather than Android. Finnish giant Nokia owns Symbian but is mostly dumping the platform in a major deal with Microsoft to run Windows 7 on most of its devices.

Last year South Korea-based Samsung unveiled its own platform, Bada, which it hopes will "open and extend a new smartphone market."

IBM putting Watson to work in health insurance (AP)

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 09:13 AM PDT

JIM FITZGERALD, Associated Press Jim Fitzgerald, Associated Press – Mon Sep 12, 12:13 pm ET

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – Enough with the fun and games. Watson is going to work.

IBM's supercomputer system, best known for trouncing the world's best "Jeopardy!" players on TV, is being tapped by one of the nation's largest health insurers to help diagnose medical problems and authorize treatments.

WellPoint Inc., which has 34.2 million members, will integrate Watson's lightning speed and deep health care database into its existing patient information, helping it choose among treatment options and medicines.

"This very much fits into the sweet spot of what we envisioned for the applications of Watson," said Manoj Saxena, general manager of an IBM division looking at how the computer can be marketed.

Lori Beer, an executive vice president at Indianapolis-based WellPoint, agreed.

"It's really a game-changer in health care," she said.

The WellPoint application will combine data from three sources: a patient's chart and electronic records that a doctor or hospital has, the insurance company's history of medicines and treatments, and Watson's huge library of textbooks and medical journals.

IBM says the computer can then sift through it all and answer a question in moments, providing several possible diagnoses or treatments, ranked in order of the computer's confidence, along with the basis for its answer.

"Imagine having the ability within three seconds to look through all of that information, to have it be up to date, scientifically presented to you, and based on that patients' medical needs at the moment you're caring for that patient," said WellPoint's chief medical officer, Dr. Sam Nussbaum.

Saxena said the WellPoint application would likely be accessed from an ordinary computer or hand-held device.

Beer said patients needn't worry that Watson will be used to help insurers deny benefits.

"We're really trying to bring providers a tool that's successful, that helps drive better outcomes, which is how we want to reimburse physicians in the future," Beer said.

Nussbaum said a pilot program will be rolled out early next year at several cancer centers, academic medical centers and oncology practices.

WellPoint is the nation's largest publicly traded health insurer based on enrollment. It operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, including New York and California.

Neither party would say how much Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM is being paid. Saxena said it's the first money Watson has earned for the company; the $1 million it won on "Jeopardy!" earlier this year was given to charity.

Watson's next jobs will probably also be in health care, but financial services and public safety applications are on the horizon, Saxena said.
at 10:32 PM

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