The new service pack for Office 2007 adds support for a broader range of file formats and other welcome enhancements.
Microsoft on Tuesday released Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office 2007, a big update to its productivity suite. With the next major version of the suite—Office 10—not due until early next year, SP2 will be the dominant version of the world's leading productivity software for a while. The most newsworthy capability added by the service pack is support for a broader range of file formats, Open Document Formats (ODF, the open-standard document formats used by OpenOffice) and Adobe PDF in particular. It also allows users to uninstall service pack updates individually, using Microsoft Service Pack Uninstall Tool for the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite. PCMag.com got an early look at the service pack, though not at the uninstall tool.
It's been speculated in the tech press that the support for Adobe's page definition format finally being baked into Office was a result of a court ruling or agreement with Adobe, but since many other third-party products have long included the ability to save to PDF format, the move seems more a sign of Microsoft acknowledging the popularity of the competitor's format. Incidentally, the option for saving as PDF also offers to save the file in Microsoft's competing XPS format.
A representative for Microsoft explained the move as follows: "As far as including PDF, this is not a result of a court ruling or some other agreement. The decision to add PDF, and XPS, support to Office is consistent with our long held belief that customers should be able to choose the document format that best meets their needs in a given situation. This is why Microsoft has supported many formats in Office in the past and is including support for these additional formats in SP2."
Microsoft also claims improved performance with multiple graphics elements present, better printout quality, and as the Office Sustained Engineering blog notes, "Improved interoperability using standard DrawingML markup to describe the visual properties of the SmartArt graphic and Substantial improvements to Forms-based authentication support in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and SPD." Those last won't affect most everyday users, but there are many fixes and app-specific updates that will be welcome productivity adds. Access gets the ability to export reports to Excel spreadsheets, Excel gets improved charting functionality, and Outlook and PowerPoint get improved performance.
Service Pack 2 updates all editions of Office from Basic to Ultimate, and all Office applications. This means not just the biggies—Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint—but also InfoPath, Publisher, OneNote, Groove, Access, SharePoint, Project, Visio, and InterConnect. It also updates shared ancillary programs such as Proofing Tools, Printing Assistant, and Viewers, plus updates for all languages.
Service Pack 2 includes more than 2,000 updates in all. For this reason, the update can take a while if you have a lot of apps that haven't been updated. The Microsoft team warned me that the update could take more than an hour to install, but on a 2GHz dual-core Athlon Vista machine with 2GB RAM, it only about 15 minutes. Of course, the update time depends on how many Office apps are installed on your system, how up-to-date they are, and the speed of the system itself.
When I tried the new Saving to PDF feature, it worked without a hitch, and now the option for that and for OpenDocument Text format appear right in the main Save As choices in Word. In my tests, PDFs saved complete with fonts, formatting, and images.
I did run into a snag on an XP machine: I was unable to install SP2 on an XP system running Office 2007, getting the error "A failure occurred during installation." The error noted a Knowledge Base article I could look up to see what was going on, but the KB article had not yet been posted at the time of my testing. On other test systems, the updater sometimes produced a dialog stating "There are no products affected by this package installed on this system." Despite this message, the Office programs' About dialogs showed that the version was now SP2. My guess is that because the updater consists of two executable program files, the second did not contain new updates for my setup. When the update is released on Microsoft Update and Download Center, this two-step process may not be necessary.
SP2 also includes server product updates: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server SP2 include fixes and performance improvements. The servers also support more Web browsers, and will run on Windows Server 2008 R2 at its release. SP2 also improves Groove Server's synchronization reliability, LDAP connectivity, and "robustness."
Rabu, 29 April 2009
Hands On with Office 2007 SP2
Microsoft Vine Beta Targets 'Societal Networking'
Is Microsoft learning something from its $240 million investment in Facebook? The software giant this week unveiled Vine, a beta social networking application intended to help families, friends, or neighbors keep in touch.
Vine is a downloadable dashboard accessible with a Windows Live ID, though it can also be accessed via mobile phones and e-mail.
Select your location, the people with whom you want to keep in touch, and start sending alerts or reports to those contacts.
"Microsoft Vine is appropriate for any small group of people who want to stay in touch, informed, and involved – families, neighbors, sports teams, school committees, volunteer groups, or faith-based groups," according to Microsoft.
Vine is currently available only in the U.S. To access it, users must request an invitation by sending in their e-mail address at Vine.net."Microsoft Vine aims to create an inclusive network so that ultimately anyone can participate, through a social networking application such as Twitter or Facebook or using e-mail, any computer connected to the Internet, or a mobile phone, kitchen phone, or special needs device," Microsoft said.
What's included in Vine?
When you specify your city, Vine will alert you when there's a news story or public safety announcement associated with your location via a blue notification. The company will pull from over 20,000 local media sources and public safety information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Vine lets you specify which types of information you want to receive -- select alerts using the Vitals management area, and who can send alerts to you in the People management area.
Have something you want to share that you can't say on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, in an e-mail, a text message, LinkedIn, or a phone call? Set up "alerts" for quick blasts of information, or write "reports" for more detailed information.
"Check in safe and well to let your family know you are okay, let trusted neighbors know you're headed out of town, keep people informed of situations that matter, or share general information like the team practice schedule for the week," Microsoft said.
Microsoft has dubbed the effort societal networking.
"Over time, the network will provide advanced capabilities to help individuals, communities, and organizations work together to fundamentally improve quality of life and be better prepared for any disaster," the company said. "Microsoft is working toward a new generation of software and services that will enable society to self-organize effectively toward a broad range of goals."
To access Vine, you must have a PC with Windows Vista or XP with SP2, a broadband Internet connection, Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox 3, 100MB of space for the Vine download, and 500MB for the .Net framework version 3.5 with SP1.
Samsung Plans First Android Phone for Europe
Samsung Electronics Co said on Monday that its first phone based on Google Inc's Android operating system would be available in major European countries Europe in June.
The company said its 17500 phone has touchscreen controls and runs on networks based on HSDPA, a high-speed wireless technology popular in Europe.Samsung did not reveal specific plans for selling the phone in the United States where smaller rival Motorola Inc is developing its own range of phones based on Android for release later this year.
Android integrates features such as Gmail and Google maps in the phone and includes a virtual store for software applications, competing with the App Store that helped sales of Apple Inc's iPhone.
South Korea's Samsung follows Taiwan's HTC Corp, the first to launch a phone based on the Android system last year. HTC has an exclusive agreement to sell its next Generation Android phone via Vodafone Group Plc in four countries this Spring.
Samsung said its Android phone will also have a five megapixel camera an memory capacity of up to 40 Gigabytes, including external memory, as well as Internet links based on Wi-Fi, a short range high speed wireless technology often found in cafes and airports
Meet 'Facet,' the RealNetworks DVD Ripper Box
It's not every day that a court case drags a product roadmap out into the light of day. Yet that's what happened with "Facet," a set-top box that RealNetworks hopes will do for DVDs what MP3s did for the home stereo.
Somewhat ironically, Hollywood is positioning Facet and the RealDVD software as just another illegal DVD ripper.
The fate of Facet, of course, rests in the hands of Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, who is expected to rule in a case this week pitting Real versus the top Hollywood studios and its content control association. The product in question is actually known as RealDVD, code-named "Vegas," which launched last year before the studios halted sales with a restraining order; Facet has been in development nearly as long, and uses the same technology.
A spokesman said Facet would be priced at less than $300. If Judge Patel rules for RealNetworks without conditions, then the device could be out by Christmas; if not, the company may have to redesign the box to factor in any additional restrictions, he said. A 500-Gbyte drive could hold between 70 and 75 DVDs, he said.
In court, Real chief executive Rob Glaser showed off what Facet actually is, at the moment: a box about the size of a DVD player, with a glowing blue status light. Real is working with Taiwan ODMs to build the first boxes, the Real spokesman said.
Court rules forbid pictures in Judge Patel's courtroom, and Real representatives declined to allow the box to be photographed.
The box displayed the RealNetworks logo while booting up, then displayed a simple overview screen with images of the front covers of DVDs. One key feature that Real hopes to hype is Facet's ability to load an entire boxed set of DVDs, and then remember on which disc and which episode to resume playback after a user returns.
When a user loads a disc to be copied, the screen displays one of Real's chief defenses against piracy: a nagware screen.
"RealDVD should only be used with discs you own," the screen said. "If you own the disc press play."
Glaser acknowledged that are several, if not tens, of illegal third-party ripper software available that can do more on a PC's hard drive, than either Facet or the RealDVD product. Glaser said that the one of the features that he would have liked to include was a feature to compress the video so that more movies could be stored, a feature that the Content Scrambling System contract governing the copy protections on DVDs prohibited.
But, Glaser said, the RealDVD and Facet technology was designed to appeal to families with small children who would scratch the DVDs, as well as consumers with large video collections. Business travelers hopefully would also gravitate toward the RealDVD product, ripping DVDs for use on a plane via a laptop, Glaser said.
Senin, 27 April 2009
Microsoft Windows 7 Release Candidate: An Early Look
The Release Candidate puts some finishing touches on some new features and adds a good deal of polish to the OS.
The Windows 7 Beta, the next version of Microsoft's flagship operating system, was all about finalizing underlying changes to the system architecture. The Release Candidate, which the company will make available on the TechNet website on April 30th and available for public consumption on May 5th, puts some finishing touches on some new features and adds a good deal of polish to the OS. And that polish is apparent from the first moments you begin installing it: The install routine has been refined, with new icons and a few splash screens ("Checking video performance") with a starburst-type effect. Even the Starting Windows and log-on screens gain a cool, patterned background.The Windows 7 Beta was lauded for its stability. The Release Candidate makes the operating system feel just a touch faster; it's quicker to load and just a bit more responsive. And you'll be happy to hear that it installed in no time, too—as little as 20 minutes in my experience. Compared to the hour it often took to install Windows Vista, this thing flies.
Users will find many welcome additions to personalization options, including substantially more themes, more user icons, and new sound effects. New Aero Themes (they're no longer called Windows Themes) include Architecture, Scenes, and Characters, and you'll find 36 user icons rather than the 12 included in the beta. The aged Device Manager and the Control Panel have gained new icons as well, but more important, if you pin the Control Panel to the Taskbar, you'll note a very versatile new jump list. As you play with these "smart" jump lists, they become more and more useful, learning the most recently or most commonly opened files; how did we live with "dumb" Taskbar icons before?
The Control Panel itself has seen a few minor tweaks. A new "View by" menu appears beneath the Control Panel search box, which defaults to the category view but also lets you see all Control Panel items (rather than clicking the "All Control Panel Items" item, as in the beta). The Windows 7 Beta had a whopping 59 Control Panel items; the Release Candidate whittles that list down to 47. Gone are: Biometric Devices, ClearType Text Tuner, Default Location, Feedback (released just for the beta, this one doesn't really count, I suppose), Game Controllers, iSCSI Initiator, Offline Files, Pen and Touch, System Icons, Tablet PC Settings, Text to Speech, and Windows SideShow. Many of those features have been swallowed by the Devices and Printers control panel, but a few are surprising. What's happened to SideShow, for example?
On the Internet side, IE8 is out of beta! The Windows 7 beta came with a beta version of IE8, build number 8.0.7000.0. In the Release Candidate, the beta tag is gone, and IE8 is updated to version number 8.0.7100.0. Is this a newer version? Hardly. The build string of Internet Explorer is tied to the operating system you've got it installed on. The beta was build 7000, and the Release Candidate is build 7100. Install IE8 on an XP system and you'll see a 6001 in that build string.
Windows Media Center has gone through dramatic changes between Windows Vista and Windows 7. Eagle eyed users of the Release Candidate will note that PlayReady, Microsoft's new DRM scheme for protecting recorded television shows, is being updated to version 1.3—no word yet on what changes are included there, or when the scheme will be available for download on Microsoft's Web site. The inclusion of Internet TV in the Guide is a big leap forward, exposing even those without an integrated TV tuner to the fun of IP based TV. This feature was in the Beta, however, and despite the recent efforts to alphabetize items listed under the Movies, News, Sports, and other categories, the hoped for integration of Hulu, TV.com, and other IP-based TV doesn't exist. Yet.
Conficker Virus Starts to Attack PCs, Experts Say
A malicious software program known as Conficker that many feared would wreak havoc on April 1 is slowly being activated, weeks after being dismissed as a false alarm, security experts said.
BOSTON - A malicious software program known as Conficker that many feared would wreak havoc on April 1 is slowly being activated, weeks after being dismissed as a false alarm, security experts said.Conficker, also known as Downadup or Kido, is quietly turning an unknown number of personal computers into servers of e-mail spam, they added.
The worm started spreading late last year, infecting millions of computers and turning them into "slaves" that respond to commands sent from a remote server that effectively controls an army of computers known as a botnet.
Its unidentified creators started using those machines for criminal purposes in recent weeks by loading more malicious software onto a small percentage of computers under their control, said Vincent Weafer, a vice president with Symantec Security Response, the research arm of the world's largest security software maker, Symantec Corp.
Conficker installs a second virus, known as Waledac, that sends out e-mail spam without knowledge of the PC's owner, along with a fake anti-spyware program, Weafer said.
The Waledac virus recruits the PCs into a second botnet that has existed for several years and specializes in distributing e-mail spam.
Conficker also carries a third virus that warns users their PCs are infected and offers them a fake anti-virus program, Spyware Protect 2009 for $49.95, according to Russian-based security researcher Kaspersky Lab. If they buy it, their credit card information is stolen and the virus downloads even more malicious software.
Weafer said that while he believes the number of infected machines that have become active is relatively small, he expects a consistent stream of attacks to follow, with other types of malware distributed by Conficker's authors.
"Expect this to be long-term, slowly changing," he said of the worm. "It's not going to be fast, aggressive."
Researchers feared the network controlled by the Conficker worm might be deployed on April 1 for the first time since the worm surfaced last year because it was programed to increase communication attempts from that date.
The security industry formed a task force to fight the worm, bringing widespread attention that experts said probably scared off the criminals who command the slave computers.
That task force thwarted the worm partially by using the Internet's traffic control system to block access to servers that control the slave computers.
Viruses that turn PCs into slaves exploit weaknesses in Microsoft's Windows operating system. The Conficker worm is especially tricky because it can evade corporate firewalls by passing from an infected machine onto a USB memory stick, then onto another PC.
The Conficker botnet is one of many such networks controlled by syndicates that authorities believe are based in eastern Europe, southeast Asia, China and Latin America.
Obama To Ditch Sectera Edge for BlackBerry?
President Obama has been carrying two smartphones: a BlackBerry 8830 that he uses for personal calls, and a General Dynamics Sectera Edge that he uses for secret government business.
Until now.
Those two devices will soon become one, once Obama's BlackBerry gets a SecurVoice software package from Genesis Key, according to The Washington Times. Obama will then be able to use his BlackBerry for "Top Secret" communicationsGeneral Dynamics told us back in January that standard government-issue BlackBerries can be used for "sensitive, but unclassified" calls, a few notches short of Top Secret.v
According to Genesis Key, SecurVoice uses Type 1 encryption algorithms, the same NSA-developed spy-movie stuff used by the Sectera Edge.
The Times story says that right now, the General Dynamics Corp.-made Sectera must be plugged into the presidential BlackBerry, which makes no sense. They also say BlackBerry makers Research in Motion are based in Toronto, which they aren't. But we'll let that pass. There's no reason that the rest of the story couldn't be true.
Microsoft Still Sees Potential in Yahoo Partnership
U.S. software company Microsoft still sees value in a potential partnership with Yahoo.
COLOGNE, Germany - U.S. software company Microsoft still sees value in a potential partnership with Yahoo.
even though it is no longer wants to buy it, chief executive Steve Ballmer said on Friday.
"I have said many times that we no longer are interested in acquiring Yahoo, but we'd see the potential to create real value by partnering with Yahoo," he said at an industry event in Germany."I have said many times that when the time is right I'm sure we will have such discussions and I've said many times I'm not going to tell you when the time is right."
Technology blog All Things Digital reported this month the chief executives of Microsoft and Yahoo had met to discuss potential partnerships between the companies' Internet search and advertising operations. At the time, both companies declined to comment on the report.
Earlier this week, Ballmer said Microsoft was not interested in buying a hardware company following Oracle Corp's proposed takeover of Sun Microsystems.
Kamis, 23 April 2009
AMD Upgrades 'Dragon' With New Phenom II BE
AMD has added a second "Black Edition" microprocessor to its Phenom II X4 lineup, pairing it with three new utilities to improve the overall system performance.
The 3.2-GHz Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition is 200 MHz faster than the existing Phenom II X4 945 Black Edition. The 955 is priced at $245, which AMD executives claimed gave them price/performance leadership in the enthusiast category. The addition of the 955 represents a slight shift in strategy for AMD; usually, the chip maker has only offered one Black Edition processor at a time. Both the 955 and the 945 are identical, save for the difference in speed. However, the market still has pent-up demand for the older 945, and AMD intends to keep the slightly older processor as long as customers keep asking for it, said Brent Barry, a desktop gaming strategist for AMD.
AMD claims that the 955 is, on average, about 30 to 48 percent faster than last year's "Spider" platform, and that the refreshed Dragon platform with the 955 is about 10 to 15 percent faster than the older 945-based Dragon platform. The bulk of the gains have come from the 4890 graphics enhancement, Barry said.
AMD also launched enhancements to both its OverDrive and Cool'N'Quiet technologies, offering fine-tuned performance enhancements for overclocking, and improved power management, respectively. Barry said the new 955 eliminates many of the "freezing bugs" that can cause a chip cooled to under 80 degrees Celsius to basically shut down.
The OverDrive 3.0 software utility features include AMD Black Edition memory profiles, with pre-tuned memory profiles for the Black Edition and DDR-2 and DDR-3 memory; AMD Smart Profiles, with custom performance tuning on an application-by-application basis, and customized autoclock and fan control enhancements. The utility has also been tuned to work with Windows 7.
"We're trying to help develop more of the overall platform experience," Barry said. As the only silicon manufacturer with a high-performance graphics and CPU line, "there are all the different pieces of the platform stuff that we can do and other people can't…software is an easy, quick way to do that," he said.
AMD's Cool'N'Quiet was the first effort by a manufacturer to optimize a PC's microprocessor for low power, and the company's third update to the technology builds on that premise. An enhanced CoolCore version shares the same technology as is found in AMD's new Opteron EE chips, introduced Wednesday; parts of the cache can be turned off when not in use. SmartFetch writes data stored in the level-1 and -2 caches to the shared level-3 cache when a core shuts off, allowing the other cores to access the data without waking up the original core. Finally, an advanced version of AMD's PowerNow! Technology can double the number of available power states, allowing finer granularity in the tradeoff between lowering power consumption and increasing performance.
AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics card, part of the Dragon platform, also has a similar capability, throttling its power in response to low activity.
Symantec to Release New Parental-Control System
OnlineFamily.Norton is an Internet-based service that protects and manages each child's Internet access on all Windows PCs and Macs in the home. Until January 2010, the service will be completely free for parents.
Symantec is releasing a new parental-control system that isn't just focused on restricting and controlling a child's access to the Internet, but also to foster dialog between parents and kids about online safety. OnlineFamily.Norton (formerly known as Norton Online Family) is an Internet-based service that can protect and manage each child's Internet access on all Windows PCs or Macs in the home. While normally priced at $60 per year, the service will be completely free until January 2010.
OnlineFamily.Norton includes all the expected features of a parental-control program, but adds its own twist: It can block sites in specific categories, or just warn kids to stay away from them. Parents can set a weekly schedule of times when Internet access is permitted as well as a daily or weekly cap. But it doesn't necessarily cut off access outside these limits. Instead, it can give the child a warning and send a notification to the parent.
Parents can choose to monitor their kids' IM traffic and Web surfing, or back off and only monitor seeming violations. It's also possible to view just what your kids are searching for on popular search engines, and to force "safe search." And as long as your kids access their social-networking profiles from home computers, it can track their presence in different social-networking sites and even send a notification if they supply a false age.
The program's settings are automatically boiled down into a set of "house rules" for each child. The OnlineFamily.Norton Web site even includes suggestions on initiating "the talk" about online safety with your kids.
To ensure that the product conveys the right message, Symantec has assembled an advisory board of experts, among them former PCMag Editor Robin Raskin, to discuss children and technology.
iPhone Dominates Mobile Ad Share; Android Rising
AdMob has released its March 2009 Mobile Metrics Report, which this time around focuses on Google Android smartphones--meaning, essentially, the T-Mobile G1, since new Android handsets are MIA lately. The AdMob report said Android is actually doing pretty well, with two percent of all U.S. requests. That puts it in the fourth spot behind the iPhone, the BlackBerry Curve, and the BlackBerry Pearl.However, "fourth place" doesn't mean a whole lot here when you compare it to the iPhone. "Both grew more quickly than the market, but iPhone growth was much faster than Android," the report said. "To put some numbers to this, we found that Android traffic in the US grew an average of 47% per month since it launched five months ago while iPhone traffic in the US grew an average of 88% per month in the five months following the launch of their App Store."
Interestingly, Android has now caught Palm OS in overall smartphone OS market share; each company has six percent of the market. The iPhone leads with 50 percent, while RIM plays second fiddle at 22 percent. Meanwhile, Windows Mobile is sitting in third place at 11 percent.
Kindle Helps Boost Amazon Sales 18 Percent
Amazon reported an increase in sales of 18 percent for the first quarter, buoyed by sales of its second generation e-book, the Kindle 2.
"We're grateful and excited that Kindle sales have exceeded our most optimistic expectations," Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, said in a statement.
Total revenue came in at $4.89 billion, up 18 percent from $4.13 billion during the same period last year. Net income was $177 million, up 24 percent from $143 million last year.Amazon did not provide any additional details on number of Kindle 2 sales. The device made its debut in February, several months after Oprah Winfrey endorsed the original Kindle on her talk show.
Sales in North America and Canada were up 21 percent to $2.58 billion from last year. Global sales of electronics and other general merchandise sales were up 38 percent to $2.05 billion.
Many users were taking advantage of the third-party sellers on the site. Items shipped on behalf of that program were up more than 300 percent from last year, Amazon said.
Bezos and chief financial officer Thomas Szkutak acknowledged during a conference call with analysts that sales for big ticket items were growing, but not as fast as they were in previous years.
Yahoo Shutting Down Geocities
Carol Bartz does not mess around. Ever since taking the helm from the company's long-demonized Jerry Yang, the new Yahoo CEO has made it very clear that her primary objective is streamlining the struggling search giant. The latest casualty of the company's cuts is Geocities. Yes, Geocities is still around--or it was, until now.
Yahoo, which purchased the site building operation back in 1999, quietly closed it down this week--barring new users from signing up with the service. People visiting the site are greeted with the simple message, "Sorry, new GeoCities accounts are no longer availavle." Existing users can still access their accounts, but Yahoo has begun aggressively pushing them to its premium Web Hosting. Once the cream of the Webhosting crop, Geocities (which cost Yahoo a cool $2.87 billion) had been floundering in recent year, likely due in no small part to the success of free blogging apps like Blogger and Wordpress.com.
While it's understandable that Yahoo would want to pull its resources away from the site, I can't help but get a little sentimental on this one. The first Website I ever created was hosted on Geocities--actually, the first several were. I know I'm not alone on this one. Any other fellow Geocities ex-pats out there want to chime in?
IBM Plans Cloud Services
BOSTON (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp plans to launch cloud computing services this year, taking on companies such as Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp and Google Inc.
Company spokeswoman Kelly Sims said on Thursday the first of these new services will enable developers to write software that works with the emerging new technology. Cloud computing systems run software and store information in remote, large-scale data centers that users and programmers access over the Internet.
In addition to the service for developers, the company also plans to introduce clouds that allow businesses to run business applications and virtualize personal computer networks, Sims said.
Much of the technology was developed using know-how that IBM developed through a partnership with Google to develop cloud services for academic computing that dates back to 2007, she said.
"IBM is applying those skills for the commercial offerings that will be launched in 2009," she said.
The company got its feet wet in the field last year when it launched an Internet-based data backup and recovery service.
Echelon to Connect Smart Meters Via T-Mobile
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Smart power grid company Echelon Corp and T-Mobile USA said on Thursday they had formed an alliance to use T-Mobile's wireless network to link "smart meters" to utilities.
T-Mobile will provide embedded SIMs inside a cellular radio module in Echelon's smart meters, which collect power usage and other data for the company's network. Several U.S. utilities have begun testing smart meters in pilot projects that are designed to measure power demand at the consumer level and help the electricity providers generate and distribute power more efficiently.
Smart meters are a key part in the rollout of "smart grid" technology that power companies hope will enable the United States to use electricity far more efficiently.
Experts say upgrading the nation's power grid is essential to help accommodate the growth of green power sources such as wind and solar, as well as enabling the system to eventually supply a fleet of electric cars.
Echelon, which has shipped more than 100,000 of its smart meters to U.S. utility owner Duke Energy and more than 1.6 million worldwide, said the partnership with T-Mobile would provide a cost-effective communications tool for the meters.
Its meters cost about $100 apiece excluding installation.
Eventually, companies like Echelon hope to link smart meters to "smart appliances" which consumers can program to operate during hours when electricity demand is low.
Currently, utilities pay more for power generated during "peak" daytime hours. They hope to shift some of that usage to early morning or evening hours when demand is lower, allowing them to buy cheaper power and pass the savings on to consumers.
That technology is already in use for some businesses and factories that have agreed to reduce their electricity usage during periods when supplies are stretched. Those companies receive power at lower prices in exchange for agreeing to reduce their demand during those periods.
T-Mobile USA said the embedded SIM, slightly larger than the head of a pin, will be built of silicon rather than plastic, making it very durable, since too much heat, vibration, or humidity can damage traditional SIM cards.
Durability problems have been a key obstacle for the adoption of remote, smart grid devices, and T-Mobile expects the potential market to be huge.
"There are 300 million electric meters. You've got gas and water on top of that. It's a very, very large opportunity ... billions of dollars," John Horn, national director of T-Mobile USA's M2M division, told Reuters.
The partnership's wireless technology will be deployed on low-voltage transformers, which typically provide electricity connections to between four and 10 homes or businesses.
Data provided from the transformers to a central collection point at the utility will allow the power provider to easily pinpoint problems in the network and reduce cost and duration of power outages, the companies said.
Look to This Seal for Green LCD Displays
Eco-friendly computer displays have long carried the TCO certified seal, which covers with the environmental impact of materials and product content and takes into account impact on the climate as well as a commitment to corporate social responsibility by all companies certifying to the TCO standard. We told you about the changes introduced in TCO Monitors 5.0 back in December, and noted that a new logo was in the works. The group has finally unveiled the logo--Pretty, ain't it?--as well as a crop of monitors to earn it, from companies like Eizo, Fujitsu, Lenovo, and more.
TCO Development has traditionally focused its attentions on computer monitors, but that's changing too: A draft of TCO Notebooks 3.0 was just unveiled, and the group turns its attentions soon to projectors. In other words, as you're shopping for gear, keep your eyes open for that big green eye.
Eizo Nanao Adds Presence Sensor to LCDs
Presence sensors are most often seen in air conditioning units, but Eizo Nanao announced an integration of the technology to its new LCD monitor models.
Two models - one a 20-inch display, the other a 23-inch model - will be fitted with infrared sensors that can detect the presence of a user and distinguish it from inanimate objects directly in front of the monitor such as office chairs. This feature, called the "EcoView Sense" can scan the area within 120 cm right in front of the LCD. If, within a 40-second scan, it fails to determine the presence of a human user, the monitor shifts to a power-saving mode that adjusts the screen display.
But the sensor doesn't just work to determine a user's presence, it also scans for the degree of ambient lighting and adjusts the backlight intensity to complement it. In power-saving mode, both models consume only 0.7 watts or lower, whereas the 20-inch and 23-inch monitors would normally use 25 watts and 18 watts of electricity respectively. Of course ordinary monitors available in the market today would already have a feature that could turn itself off after a pre-determined time of inactivity. The difference lies in the presence sensor's ability to adjust backlighting as was mentioned and, for what it's worth, the ability to quickly revert back to regular mode upon detection of a user.
Google Brings Product Search to iPhone, Android
Not sure which HDTV is best? Wondering if that Bluetooth headset is compatible with your phone? Those with iPhones and Android-based handsets can now access Google Product Search to check prices and read reviews before buying."Say you're in a store and having a hard time deciding between two products. Instead of waiting to go home to check the internet for ratings and reviews, you can now get all of this information right there on the spot," Rob Stacey, a software engineer on Google's mobile team, wrote in a blog post.
To access, go to Google.com on your browser and type in the product in which you're interested. Click on the "shopping" link at the top of the results page, and info on the product will pop up. Users can also click "more" and then "shopping" to get to Product Search directly.
"Google Product Search for mobile gives you the same product information that you would get at your computer," Stacey wrote. "And when you click on products like electronics and video games, you'll see dedicated product pages that include ratings charts and technical specifications."
iPhone Boosts Apple; Execs Float Netbook Idea
Apple reported a second-quarter profit of $1.21 billion on revenue of $8.16 billion, versus a profit of $1.05 billion a year ago, when Apple reported revenues of $7.51 billion. Apple still expects chief executive Steve Jobs will return at the end of June, Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, said during a conference call Wednesday afternoon. Apple also resuscitated thoughts of a netbook.
Apple reported iPhone sales of 3.79 million units, a sharp 123 percent increase from a year ago. Apple Macintosh unit sales fell by three percent versus a year ago to 2.22 million units, while iPod sales grew by three percent to 11.01 million units, a new record for the March quarter.
Unexpectedly strong sales of both iLife and iWork also contributed positively to Apple's gross margin of 36.4 percent, up from 32.9 percent for the same period a year ago.
"We are extremely pleased to report the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history," Oppenheimer said, both in a prepared statement, and again on the conference call.
Apple's App Store is expected to sell its 1 billionth app on Thursday, bringing to a close a contest that began earlier this month. All told, there are now 35,000 apps available, Oppenheimer said, up from 15,000 apps a quarter ago.
Associated iPhone revenue grew to $1.52 billion, up over 300 percent from the same period a year ago. Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 will launch this summer, with push, MMS support, and cut-and-past features. Although subsidy payments from AT&T have apparently ceased, Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook called AT&T the "best wireless provider in the USA". "We have a very happy relationship with them and plan to maintain it," he added.
Apple hopes to sell the iPhone in China within the next year, Cook added.
Apple executives pooh-poohed the drop in Mac shipments, noting that both the education market and professionals have been tightening belts during the economy. Cook nearly chastised an analyst for asking about the numbers: "Cycles come and cycles go; what we're about is making the best computers in the world."
Instead of concentrating on a number, Apple wants to make computers it's proud of, Cook said. "We believe if we do that, over time, we will gain share," he said.
Interestingly, Cook didn't shoot down the idea of an Apple netbook. "If people want a small computer for Web browsing... they might want to buy an iPod touch or an iPhone, he said.
But Cook also hinted that Apple's researchers might have some ideas that they could bring to market. "If we can find a way to deliver an innovative product that really makes a contribution we'll do that, and we have a few interesting ideas in that space," Cook said.
In March, patents surfaced that suggested Apple was working on a touchscreen netbook.
Cook was again asked about veiled threats to sue a PDA competitor, thought to be Palm, about a device that would mimic the iPhone. This time, however, Cook was a bit more circumspect. Cook, who said he believed Apple was leading by years over rivals, said that Apple welcomed competition as long as "other companies invent their own stuff".
Jumat, 17 April 2009
Hands On with T-Mobile's New Sidekick LX
The 854-by-480 screen on the new Sidekick LX is by far the highest resolution on any device near its price of $199. The new handheld also comes with MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter clients.T-Mobile announced a powerful new Sidekick today that kicks almost all of the cult handheld's specs up a notch and ties it in with Facebook and Twitter.
The Sidekick LX (2009) runs on T-Mobile's and foreign 3G networks and has an amazing 3.2-inch, 854-by-480 screen. It also offers an autofocus 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording, a Qualcomm MSM7201A 400 MHz processor, and built-in MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter clients.
Slideshow | All Shots
The 854-by-480 screen—by far the highest resolution on any device near its price—also lets Sidekick owners take advantage of a dramatically improved Web browser and a Microsoft Live Search mapping client with satellite view.
I had a little time with the Sidekick LX (2009) last month, and I was pleasantly surprised. While the original Sidekick and Sidekick 2 were great messaging devices for their day, I felt that the Sidekick iD, original LX, and Slide were a bit behind the times.
Sidekicks are all smartphones running their own operating system designed by Danger, now a subsidiary of Microsoft. There are several dozen applications available in the onboard app store, but the phone's real strength is messaging. Where the original Sidekicks were top-notch e-mail machines, the newer ones focus more on instant messaging, SMS, and social networking like MySpace and Facebook.
The new Sidekick is about the same size as the Sidekick LX (in other words, big), but a little heavier at 5.12 by 2.36 by .63 inches and 6.02 ounces. The screen is slightly separated from the body—it still swings open, but it doesn't snap totally flush like the original Sidekick LX's did. The whole device feels classy and powerful, not toy-like.
The big keys on the keyboard are round rather than square-like, but otherwise all the traditional Sidekick controls are there, including the track ball and various action buttons.
The new screen is drool-worthy. It has an extremely high-pixel density, which really pops out at you when running something like the Microsoft Live Search satellite view. It's a good thing Sidekicks are aimed at young people, because the extreme detail of this screen really rewards sharp eyes.
Web browsing using 3G felt fast, but not blindingly so; I'll have to do some more tests there. The Twitter client was impressive, showing little icons of my friends. And the 3-megapixel camera was a huge step up from any previous Sidekick; I noticed the device I used was packing an 8GB memory card, too. (The retail model comes with a 1GB card.)
All in all, the device felt fast and powerful enough for any messaging task. It might be the first Sidekick in years I can recommend enthusiastically.
The Sidekick LX (2009) also has GPS, the usual SMS/MMS/IM clients, an automatic YouTube video uploader, a basic music player, a video player, and stereo Bluetooth. The phone comes in "carbon" and "orchid" colors, which in English seems to be gray and maroon.
The Sidekick's one Achilles heel seems to be the size of its mailbox. When I spoke to T-Mobile a few weeks ago, they said the new LX would still have a 6MB mailbox. I get 6MB of mail in two days. In this era of huge cloud storage, it's really unclear why T-Mobile is keeping such a stingy limit.
The Sidekick LX (2009) will cost $199.99 for existing users who want to upgrade, $249.99 for everyone else, and $449.99 on prepaid. That makes it one of only two viable prepaid smartphone options in the U.S., along with MetroPCS's $449.99 BlackBerry Curve.
Available for presale starting today, the Sidekick LX (2009) won't hit store shelves until May 13, according to T-Mobile. PCMag will have a review closer to the retail date.
Hands On with T-Mobile's New Sidekick LX
The 854-by-480 screen on the new Sidekick LX is by far the highest resolution on any device near its price of $199. The new handheld also comes with MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter clients.T-Mobile announced a powerful new Sidekick today that kicks almost all of the cult handheld's specs up a notch and ties it in with Facebook and Twitter.
The Sidekick LX (2009) runs on T-Mobile's and foreign 3G networks and has an amazing 3.2-inch, 854-by-480 screen. It also offers an autofocus 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording, a Qualcomm MSM7201A 400 MHz processor, and built-in MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter clients.
The 854-by-480 screen—by far the highest resolution on any device near its price—also lets Sidekick owners take advantage of a dramatically improved Web browser and a Microsoft Live Search mapping client with satellite view.
I had a little time with the Sidekick LX (2009) last month, and I was pleasantly surprised. While the original Sidekick and Sidekick 2 were great messaging devices for their day, I felt that the Sidekick iD, original LX, and Slide were a bit behind the times.
Sidekicks are all smartphones running their own operating system designed by Danger, now a subsidiary of Microsoft. There are several dozen applications available in the onboard app store, but the phone's real strength is messaging. Where the original Sidekicks were top-notch e-mail machines, the newer ones focus more on instant messaging, SMS, and social networking like MySpace and Facebook.
The new Sidekick is about the same size as the Sidekick LX (in other words, big), but a little heavier at 5.12 by 2.36 by .63 inches and 6.02 ounces. The screen is slightly separated from the body—it still swings open, but it doesn't snap totally flush like the original Sidekick LX's did. The whole device feels classy and powerful, not toy-like.
The big keys on the keyboard are round rather than square-like, but otherwise all the traditional Sidekick controls are there, including the track ball and various action buttons.
The new screen is drool-worthy. It has an extremely high-pixel density, which really pops out at you when running something like the Microsoft Live Search satellite view. It's a good thing Sidekicks are aimed at young people, because the extreme detail of this screen really rewards sharp eyes.
Web browsing using 3G felt fast, but not blindingly so; I'll have to do some more tests there. The Twitter client was impressive, showing little icons of my friends. And the 3-megapixel camera was a huge step up from any previous Sidekick; I noticed the device I used was packing an 8GB memory card, too. (The retail model comes with a 1GB card.)
All in all, the device felt fast and powerful enough for any messaging task. It might be the first Sidekick in years I can recommend enthusiastically.
The Sidekick LX (2009) also has GPS, the usual SMS/MMS/IM clients, an automatic YouTube video uploader, a basic music player, a video player, and stereo Bluetooth. The phone comes in "carbon" and "orchid" colors, which in English seems to be gray and maroon.
The Sidekick's one Achilles heel seems to be the size of its mailbox. When I spoke to T-Mobile a few weeks ago, they said the new LX would still have a 6MB mailbox. I get 6MB of mail in two days. In this era of huge cloud storage, it's really unclear why T-Mobile is keeping such a stingy limit.
The Sidekick LX (2009) will cost $199.99 for existing users who want to upgrade, $249.99 for everyone else, and $449.99 on prepaid. That makes it one of only two viable prepaid smartphone options in the U.S., along with MetroPCS's $449.99 BlackBerry Curve.
Why the Spam Carbon Footprint Study is Wrong
McAfee just released the details of a new study, conducted and published by ICF International, which seeks to measure the carbon footprint of spam. The study's conclusions: The global annual energy used to transmit, process, and filter spam is the equivalent to powering 2.4 million homes, and spam filtering saves 135 terawatt hours--the equivalent of taking 13 million cars off the road. The study decides that the average greenhouse gas emissions associated with an individual spam email are about 0.3 grams of CO2. Fascinating, right? But it's completely wrong.
There's one basic tenet of this study I take issue with, and it centers around the finding that most of the energy consumption associated with spam (nearly 80%) comes from end-users deleting spam and searching for legitimate email.
The study doesn't detail the methodology , but we can conclude that the real carbon footprint of a spam message lies in the energy wasted by PCs, notably the fixed amount of time users spend dealing with spam. The math sounds solid: Figure out the average power that a PC draws, the average amount of time spent dealing with each message, and the total volume, and calculate away.
But is that energy wasted really associated with spam? Do people turn on their PCs, read their email, and then turn them off? Or would their PCs simply be on anyway? If you had absolutely no spam in your inbox, would you turn your PC off earlier--or use the extra time you've saved to play more World of Warcraft? Business users leave their PCs on all day regardless of whether they've finished sorting their inboxes, so in my eyes you can't count any of the energy exhausted by their PCs. Besides, many email users don't have to deal with (much) spam anyhow, with filters on the job. (Well, my old Hotmail account gets hundreds of spam mails a day, but really, I only have to deal with them when the computer is supposed to be on anyway).
In my eyes, you could really substitute "Bejeweled" or email in general or any other computing activity for spam and reach a similar computing, if all we're doing is quantifying uptime. Bottom line: PCs waste energy, and humans leave them on too long, wasting energy. But spam? It's kind of meaningless here.
Google's Revenues Dip From Fourth Quarter
Google saw a 3 percent drop in revenue from last quarter, the company said Thursday, the first time the company has posted a quarter to quarter loss. Revenues climbed 6 percent from last year, however. Total revenue for the first quarter was $5.51 billion. Net income for the first quarter was $1.42 billion, up from $382 million from the last quarter and $1.31 billion during the same period last year. Last quarter, net income was affected by a $1.09 billion investment in WiMAX provider Clearwire that the company wrote down, as well as an investment in AOL.
"Google had a good quarter given the depth of the recession," Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said during a conference call with analysts. "No company is recession-proof. Google is absolutely feeling the impact. Users are still searching, but they're buying less [so] ads are converting less."
Google also announced that Omid Kordestani, who has served as senior vice president of Google's Global Sales and Business Development for 10 years, will leave his role to become senior advisor to the office of the CEO and the company's founders. Nikesh Arora, currently president of international operations at Google, will step into Kordestani's old job.
"No one is better placed to advise us on future growth," Schmidt said of Kordestani. On specific products, Google.com was up 9 percent from last year, driven primarily by traffic growth, said chief financial officer Patrick Pichette. AdSense, meanwhile, was down 3 percent from last year to $1.6 billion.
Google's integration with DoubleClick has gone smoothly, Pichette said. "I don't know how we define full integration, but those efforts as well as efforts on ad exchange are coming along nicely," he said.
Schmidt was asked about licensing deals for YouTube. The Google-owned video site recently signed a lucrative deal with Universal Music Group, but has been locked in a battle with Warner Music Group over licensing fees.
Google has "made progress" with the studios and will be "announcing additional things in that area literally very, very soon," Schmidt said.
Google has been rumored to be in talks with micro-blogging site Twitter, and while Schmidt did not address those rumors when asked about the company, he did say that Google would be "very happy to pursue" any sort of ad-related monetization plan Twitter might put in place in the future.
iPhone App Makes Wall Street Journal Free
People who love to read free news online (and contribute to the death of newspapers) know one sad fact: The Wall Street Journal requires a subscription. But now iPhone and iPod Touch owners can get all the Journal's content for nothing by downloading the WSJ app from the iTunes Store.The WSJ app looks a lot like the New York Times app. Why mess with a good thing? It features a tabbed interface along the bottom leading to different content areas, and there's a small ad just above the tabs to sponsor all this free goodness. The app offers print, video, and audio content. I haven't found the little wood cut-style illustrations yet, but I'm sure they're here somewhere.
This actually isn't the Journal's first foray into the app world: It put out an app for the BlackBerry in August. So far most user comments on the iTunes Store are positive, but many complain about the size of the banner ad. Click here to see the app in the iTunes Store.
Rabu, 01 April 2009
Your Conficker To-Do List
Worried about Wednesday's Conficker update? Here are eight action items that will help you weather the potential storm.
Unless you're living in a cave, by now you've heard that a worm known as Conficker (or Downadup, or Kido) has infested computer systems around the world, and that it will do something April 1st, though nobody knows exactly what. How can you be sure your computer doesn't become a casualty? Here are eight action items—things you can do yourself to weather the potential storm.Double-check Windows Update
The worm weasels into computer systems through a Windows vulnerability that was patched last October, and once in place it interferes with the Windows Update system, to protect itself. So, verify that your system is up to date. XP users should launch Internet Explorer (no other browser will do), visit www.windowsupdate.com, and click the "Review your update history" link. Vista users should launch Windows Update from the Start menu and click the "View update history" link. In particular, you want to see KB958644 in the list—that's Conficker's entry point. If your latest update is any older than March 2009, that's not good. Go back to the main Windows Update page and install all critical and security updates.
Turn Off AutoRun
Sure, it's convenient that CDs and DVDs automatically launch their programs when you put them in. You may even be happy to see the window that asks what you want to do when you insert a USB key. But Conficker and other worms subvert this handy feature to spread their infestation. Use a Conficker-tainted USB key to share pictures or music with a friend, and you're sharing the malware, too. The feature's convenience just isn't worth that risk. Here are instructions to turn off AutoRun.
Update Your Protection
It goes without saying that you should always keep your security software and malware definitions up to date. Don't just rely on automatic updates, as the worm has been known to interfere with these. Dig into your security software and manually launch an update, then watch to make sure it completes the process successfully. Now launch a full system scan.
Get a Second Opinion
Your security software can probably handle the Conficker worm, but why take a risk? Visit the Conficker Working Group's Repair Tools page to find the latest collection of threat-specific cleanup tools. At present, this page links to tools from AhnLab, ESET, Kaspersky, F-Secure Malware Removal Tool, McAfee, Microsoft, Sophos, Symantec, and TrendMicro. Run one or more of these to verify that your system is clean.
Check Your Servers
Conficker also attacks network shares using what's called a dictionary attack. It tries to gain Administrator access using a bunch of common passwords and often lucks out. If you're responsible for a network, whether it's an office or home network, check all of the network shares and make sure they're protected with a strong password. While you're at it, check the root folder of each drive for the presence of an AUTORUN.INF file or any unrecognized software—these are clues that Conficker is already in residence.
Inoculate Your Servers
Products like Faronics Anti-Executable prevent the launch of any program that's not pre-approved. On an individual workstation where installing new software is common, this kind of program can prove annoying, but server configuration is much slower to change. It's a little late to apply this kind of program-whitelist protection now, but going forward you'll want to consider it for your servers. When no unapproved program is allowed to launch, it doesn't matter how cleverly malware morphs—it's powerless.
Back Up, Back Up, Back Up
Conficker isn't the only possible threat to your important data: Your computer could fail; thugs could steal it; a car might drive through your office wall and flatten it. If you have a backup system in place, make sure that it's operational and that you have a recent full backup. If not, get yourself a high-capacity USB drive and copy all your most essential files onto it. (After making sure you've disabled AutoRun as described above, of course.)
Scared? Hide Under the Covers
Does the fact that Conficker's final aim is unknown give you the willies? Are you shaking with worry that a hitherto-unknown "D" variant will show up tomorrow and zap your computer? OK, it's not very likely, but if you're concerned, take a day off from the Internet! Unplug the network cables from your computers, disable the wireless connections, and spend the day working on local documents or revisiting your favorite pre-Internet games.
Microsoft Names Mobile Apps Store Partners
Microsoft on Monday announced more than two dozen partners for its upcoming Windows Marketplace for Mobile, including EA Mobile, Pandora, and Netflix.
Mobile apps from the companies will be available in the Windows app store when it debuts later this year. Other partners include AccuWeather.com, Associated Press, CNBC, Facebook, MySpace, Gameloft, Sling Media, and Zagat Survey. Users with Windows-based phones will be able to buy the apps with their credit cards or have the purchases posted to their mobile phone bills. Don't like what you bought? The Marketplace will offer the opportunity to return the app for a refund within 24 hours.
Developers will also be able to add updates to their apps for free.
"We know it's the experiences that mobile phones can offer to people that really matter," Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft, said in a statement. "The continued support from the world's top mobile operators, manufacturers and developers means you can choose the Windows phone, applications and experiences that are right for you."
"EA Mobile develops some of the world's most fun and advanced mobile gaming applications, and we understand the importance of product quality and consumer discovery as keys to success," said Adam Sussman, vice president of Worldwide Publishing for EA Mobile.
The app store will also focus on social networking. MySpace has announced support for Microsoft Windows Mobile and Microsoft Silverlight, and LG will pre-load the MySpace application on phones that are expected to be available in the second half of 2009.
In addition, Microsoft has created a new Facebook application, which will be available for free in April, that makes it easier for people to take video on their phone and upload it to Facebook.
Windows Live for Mobile will also be available in 25 languages as a free download starting April 2. It includes mobile versions of Hotmail, Messenger, Contacts, Live Spaces, Search, and a photo uploader. Users with Windows Mobile version 6 phones can download it Thursday at wl.windowsmobile.com.
The mobile version of Hotmail will also get a revamp, with an updated interface, navigation enhancements for touch-screen phones, the ability to view HTML within e-mail, and improved e-mail search functionality. The beta version will be available at m.mail.live.com.
But how does it look? Microsoft also announced that it will partner with the Design Museum London and the Council of Fashion Designers of America to develop custom themes for Windows-based phones. The first in a series of designers to create themes will be Isaac Mizrahi.
"Phones are just as much a fashion statement as the clothes you wear," Mizrahi said in a statement. "Cast aside your old black phone, and make this year about color and fun."
Later this year, Microsoft will also offer the Theme Generator, which lets Windows phone users set pictures from their PCs as background images that they can color and personalize via their navigation bar.
Dell Adds 720p Resolution Option to Mini 10
Dell has said previously that the Inspiron Mini 10 netbook would eventually come with two screen resolution options, an internal HD TV tuner, and a high-capacity battery. On Tuesday, the company lived up to the first part of its three promises. In addition to the ho-hum 1,024-by-576 resolution that came with the previous version, a 1,366-by-768 (or 720p) option is now available for a $35 upgrade. So far, the Mini 10 is the only netbook that offers such a resolution.
The HP Mini 2140 was the first netbook to offer dual resolution options when it announced earlier this year, but has yet to sell the 720p option on its website. The Mini 10 is not the only netbook sporting a WXGA resolution, though. The Inspiron Mini 12 is the company's 12-inch netbook that ships with a standard 1,280-by-800 resolution. Recently, Samsung has also announced a 12-inch netbook, the NC10-14GB, that will undoubtedly feature a 1,280-by-800 resolution.
Out of Work? Software Services is Hiring
Technology companies have taken a hit during the current economic downturn, but the industry is faring better than the economy as a whole, according to a Tuesday report. In the fourth quarter of 2008, the tech industry had a 0.6 percent drop in employment, or 38,000 jobs. Total private sector employment, meanwhile, declined 1.3 percent, according to TechAmerica, a new group formed by the merger of AeA and the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA).
"The U.S. high-tech industry continued to add jobs in 2008; however, future growth is clearly jeopardized as a result of the current economic downturn and the volatility of global financial markets," Christopher W. Hansen, chief executive of TechAmerica, said in a statement. "While we suffered losses in the fourth quarter, our industry has weathered the storm better than most, and the results of our report indicate that the tech industry is well positioned to help lead America's economic recovery."
Assisting in that recovery will be funds from the economic stimulus package, said Philip Bond, president of TechAmerica.
"In crafting the stimulus bill, Congress and the Obama administration put their trust in the transformative power of technology to build infrastructure for the 21st century, modernize our education and healthcare systems, and create smarter and more efficient ways to use energy," Bond said.
The report found that the two strongest sectors were software services, which added 86,200 jobs in 2008, and engineering and tech services, which added 26,600 jobs. But high-tech manufacturing saw a decline of 23,100 jobs, while communications services lost 12,700 jobs.
The results are part of the twelfth annual Cyberstates report, which studies the tech industry on a state-by-state basis. Though the national data is from 2008, TechAmerica must rely on stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for state information, the most recent of which is from 2007.
Texas, Georgia, and Washington experienced the greatest growth in 2007, with 39 states reporting growth overall. Virginia led the nation with the highest concentration of tech workers for the fourth year in a row, followed by Massachusetts and Colorado.
David Thomas, executive director for TechAmerica's Silicon Valley sector, said that while member firms reported a decline in investment and a hold on new hires, he does not believe the current recession is as "pervasive and deep" as the 2001 tech decline.
"I think this recession is much broader in terms of hitting other sectors," Thomas said in a teleconference with reporters. "When the tech bubble burst in 2001, it was primarily focused on Internet start-ups and other tech companies. As a broader-based hit, [the current recession's] impact on tech is less."
Jeff Clark, the executive director for Texas at TechAmerica, said that he sees a shift toward the energy sector. Texas has traditionally been known for its PC manufacturers, but while those companies diversify and merge "we're seeing alternative energy and nanotechnology driving investment," Clark said.
Disney/ABC/ESPN Content to Appear on YouTube
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Walt Disney and Google's YouTube said on Monday they have reached a pact to offer sports highlights, clips of television shows and other short-form content on the hugely popular video-sharing site. The deal will see videos from sports network ESPN from April and the Disney/ABC Television networks such as ABC Entertainment and SoapNet become available on YouTube from May. Disney Media Networks will have the option to sell its own advertising inventory within those channels.
While the deal does not entail full-length programing, analysts said it represents an important validation for YouTube as it seeks to present itself as an outlet for professionally-made, premium video content.
"The important thing is we got ABC up on the platform, it remains to be seen how that will grow," said YouTube head of content partnerships Jordan Hoffner.
Hoffner said the deal was the product of several months of work and adds to the comprehensiveness of YouTube's library of professional video content which includes content from CBS Corp, the Food Network and Discover Communications Inc's the Discovery Channel, among others.
Disney has resisted making its original content widely available for free through third party distributors on the Web before now. But in recent weeks there have been reports of plans for the media company to partner not just with YouTube but also with Hulu, the online video service owned by News Corp and NBC Universal.
It's unclear whether Disney is still considering a separate deal with Hulu. Representatives at Disney and Hulu were not immediately available to comment.
Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks said in a statement announcing the YouTube partnership that the deal offers Disney the opportunity to reach a broader online audience, to experiment with different monetization models "and to "extend the reach of our advertisers within branded environments that they most desire."
Sanford Bernstein & Co. analyst Jeff Lindsay said Disney appears to be taking a cautious approach in its deal with YouTube, perhaps to minimize creating too big of a stir among the cable and satellite providers with which it has television distribution agreements.
But he said the deal could cause other producers of premium cable TV content to take note and explore ways of offering programing over the Internet.
YouTube is easily the most popular online video service in the United States, according to data from Web audience measurement firm comScore, with more than 99 million unique viewers in February.
But despite that popularity it has been under pressure from Google investors keen to see the audience numbers converted to dollars. YouTube has yet to make a significant contribution to Google's bottom-line, and the site has struggled to convince advertisers to make a major financial commitment with so many of the videos dominated by clips uploaded by users.
One sign that YouTube executives are prepared to start making compromises is that it has agreed for Disney to test pre-roll advertising on short-form content. YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen have in the past said that pre-roll advertising would harm the popularity of its service as its videos are short-form.
Shares of Google were up $1.56 at $344.25 in after-hours trade. Disney shares were up 15 cents at $18.
(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic and Yinka Adegoke)
American to Expand In-Flight Wi-Fi
CHICAGO (Reuters) - AMR Corp's American Airlines said on Monday it would expand its in-flight Wi-Fi Internet service to 300 more aircraft to help lure passengers with popular revenue-generating perks. American said it would install the service over the next two years on its domestic MD-80 and Boeing Co 737-800 aircraft fleets, beginning with 150 MD-80 aircraft this year.
The carrier began offering Internet service last year to passengers on 15 Boeing 767-200 aircraft on certain routes.
Airlines have been racing to get reliable Internet access on their flights in hopes of gaining a competitive edge in the troubled airline industry. Delta Air Lines Inc said last week it would install Wi-Fi on Delta-branded U.S. aircraft by late this year.
Experts have said they expect in-flight Internet to become common in the industry.
American's mobile broadband service, which is called Gogo, is provided by AirCell. Passengers will pay $12.95 for Internet service on transcontinental flights over 1,150 miles and $9.95 for service on shorter flights.
American will charge $7.95 for passengers using handheld devices only.
(Reporting by Kyle Peterson; Editing by Andre Grenon)
Google Launches Venture Fund for 'Exceptional' Firms
Despite the current economic situation, Google is looking to invest in promising start ups. The search engine giant on Tuesday announced the start of Google Ventures, its new venture capital fund.
"This is Google's effort to take advantage of our resources to support innovation and encourage promising new technology companies," Rich Miner and Bill Maris, managing partners at Google Ventures, wrote in a blog post. "By borrowing the best practices of top-tier, financially focused venture capital firms and bringing to bear Google's unique technical expertise and brand, we think we can find young companies with truly awesome potential and encourage their development into successful businesses." The existence of Google Ventures had been suspected earlier this month, when a reporter caught Miner wearing a Google Ventures badge.
Google Ventures will focus its initial efforts on finding and developing "exceptional" start-ups, they wrote. That will cover a range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, clean-tech, bio-tech, and health care.
"Economically, times are tough, but great ideas come when they will," Miner and Maris wrote. "If anything, we think the current downturn is an ideal time to invest in nascent companies that have the chance to be the 'next big thing,' and we'll be working hard to find them." Those with big ideas to pitch can go to the Google Ventures Web site at www.google.com/ventures.
Samsung Expects Camera Sales to Double by 2012
SEOUL, March 31 (Reuters) - Samsung Digital Imaging, a camera-making affiliate of technology giant Samsung Electronics, said on Tuesday it aimed to increase its global market share in compact cameras to 12.5 percent in 2009 from 10.4 percent in 2008. The affiliate, spun off from Samsung Techwin and 33 percent owned by Samsung Electronics, also said it aimed to increase its digital imaging product sales to 5 trillion won ($3.59 billion) in 2012 from about 2 trillion won in 2008.
"We will focus on premium products for future growth," said Park Sang-jin, CEO of the company, at an event to unveil new camera models.
Samsung Digital Imaging shares extended their recent rally on Tuesday, after more than trebling their price since listing on March 10.
At 0314 GMT, the stock was up 4.6 percent at 28,600 won, after rising as much as 14.6 percent. The wider market was up 2.1 percent.
It has risen for the past seven consecutive sessions on strong retail interest, closing at daily limit highs four times.
Samsung Digital Imaging competes with better known Japanese brands such as Canon Inc, Sony and Nikon. It is currently the world's No. 3 maker of compact cameras.
Samsung has yet to compete in the digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera market, which is rising in popularity and is more profitable than the compact camera segment.
It is developing a hybrid model which would feature the small body of a compact camera with exchangeable lenses.
"Samsung wants to make cameras its next handset business," said Park Won-jae, an analyst at Daewoo Securities.
"Samsung will always need strong devices that consume memory chips, just like handsets use NAND flash chips. Therefore digital cameras are something it will never give up."
Samsung Electronics is the world's top maker of memory chips. (Reporting by Marie-France Han and Rhee So-eui; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)
Sony to Cut PlayStation 2 Price to $99.99 03.31.09
Sony said Tuesday that it plans to cut the price of its last-generation PlayStation 2 to $99.99 on April 1, allowing a greater number of consumers to play PlayStation gamesSome sort of Sony announcement had been expected for several days, although the news may underwhelm gamers, most if not all already own a PlayStation 2. The move was announced by Sony's John Koller, director of hardware marketing, on a company blog.
By cutting the price, Sony apparently wants to take advantage of a principle called elasticity of demand, which says that unit sales increase as the price decreases. However, Sony has already sold over 50 million PlayStation 2s in the United States alone. The PlayStation 2 is also nearly a decade old, having launched in Oct. 2000 in the United States.
"Well most importantly, this new price means that more people than ever will be able to join in on the fun that so many of you PlayStation 2 owners have been enjoying for years, which means new families will become part of the platform's record-breaking install base," Koller wrote. "With this new price, we intend to introduce a new generation of consumers – some of whom weren't even alive when the system was first introduced in 2000 – to the immense entertainment value offered by PlayStation 2."
Koller also acknowledged that while the typical lifespan of a game console is five years, the company also redesigns them over time. Moreover, he said, consumers have held interest in the platform for a number of years: "[It] speaks to the technology and features that were packed into PlayStation 2 from the beginning, as well as to the ongoing support the platform enjoys from the publishing and retail communities and, well, all of you fans," he wrote.
The PlayStation 2 already boasts about 1,900 games, and the company plans to add MLB '09, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Guitar Hero Metallica and MotorStorm: Arctic Edge this year, he wrote.
Who Needs Encarta When You Have the Web?
"On October 31, 2009, MSN® Encarta® Web sites worldwide will be discontinued, with the exception of Encarta Japan, which will be discontinued on December 31, 2009. Additionally, Microsoft will cease to sell Microsoft Student and Encarta Premium software products worldwide by June 2009."I remember being favorably impressed by Encarta back in the day. Before the World Wide Web... before broadband... before Wikipedia... Encarta nicely scratched the computer encyclopedia itch. It was convenient and useful though often suspect in its attention to detail and speed of correction.
Before Encarta students were required to actually type the words they were plagiarizing from encyclopedias! Welcome to the brave new world.
As is so often the case for Microsoft products Encarta wasn't the first CD based encyclopedia (Academic American Encyclopedia) nor was it Microsoft's own original scholarship burned onto the CD (Funk and Wagnalls). It did carry Microsoft's reputation which was enough to help it drive well established paper and lesser known digital encylopedias to the curb. Now it joins them there.
Facebook Gains Flash Apps with Adobe Deal
Adobe and Facebook on Tuesday jointly announced a code library that supports Flash Web applications in the Facebook platform.
The open-source ActionScript 3 Client Library for Facebook Platform includes sixty application programming interfaces (API) calls that support all Facebook functionality, including Facebook Connect. ActionScript 3 is the object-oriented programming language for Adobe Flash."Combining social functionality with the Adobe Flash Platform gives the millions of Flash developers the tools to create Web experiences that are truly differentiated," said Bryant Macy, director of product marketing for the Platform Business Unit at Adobe. "Flash developers are already creating great applications for Facebook, and the new ActionScript 3 Client Library for Facebook Platform will accelerate the pace of social innovation on the Web."
Developers can use Adobe's Flex application framework and the Flash developer environment to build rich internet applications (RIAs) within Facebook. ActionScript 3 joins JavaScript and PHP as languages supported by the Facebook Platform. Example Facebook apps using the technology include iLike—a social music app; Graffiti, which lets you draw pictures in your profile; and Playfish games like Who Has The Biggest Brain?, Word Challenge, and Bowling Buddies.
According to Adobe, the ActionScript 3 Client Library for Facebook Platform is available immediately as a free download along with developer documentation and tutorials at www.adobe.com/devnet/facebook.
CTIA: Sprint Opens Up Third-Party Apps on Feature Phones
Mobile-phone apps can now control phone cameras and send messages.
LAS VEGAS—Sprint made a big change in a quiet way today, opening up third-party Java applications on its feature phones so independent programmers can access more of the phones' functions.
Sprint also gave a thumbs-up to third-party app stores and independent methods of software distribution, rather than going down T-Mobile's road of offering a carrier-sponsored application store.
It's a lot easier for developers to write software for smartphones like the iPhone than for feature phones like the Samsung Instinct, for various reasons. One reason is that feature phones' programming systems—typically BREW and Java—only allow access to a limited number of features.
Sprint is opening up several powerful new feature sets to third parties. On the new Samsung Instinct s30, and soon the older Samsung Instinct M800 and future Sprint phones, programmers will be able to play and record audio, take photos with the phone's camera, send and receive messages, connect with other devices over Bluetooth, read and write to the address book and calendar, and store and access files on the phone.
"Access to core Java APIs like messaging and multimedia will make it even easier for more developers to create new applications," Kevin Packingham, Sprint senior vice president of product and technology development, said in a press release.
Of course, with more features comes more danger. An app that can control your camera and send messages could do some nefarious things. Except on the new Samsung Instinct s30 phone, Sprint will require that applications be 'signed' by the carrier, Spokeswoman Jennifer Walsh Kiefer said, and all of Sprint's phones will force users through two levels of prompts if an app wants to use sensitive functions. Users will have to agree to the functionality when they install the app, and then they'll have to agree again each time they run the app, Walsh Kiefer said.
Sprint intends to hold developers' hands—at least for folks developing for the Samsung Instinct phones—by offering free resources, developer guides, and sample applications at http://developer.sprint.com/instinct.
But Sprint has decided not to open up its own easy-to-use app store. Rather, Sprint is backing a free-market approach, letting developers distribute their own apps through Web sites and third-party stores, Kiefer explained.
