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.
Rabu, 01 April 2009
Dell Adds 720p Resolution Option to Mini 10
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.
