Tech Life

2010-05-21T03:43:00.000-07:00

Apple denies battery problem with iPhone

2009-08-30T19:04:00.001-07:00

Technology giant Apple rejected reports Friday that overheated batteries had caused some of its iPhone devices to explode in users' hands, blaming incidents in France on "external pressure".

French authorities have opened an investigation into the safety of the cult smartphone, following claims by several users in France and elsewhere that their iPhone screens had shattered in a dangerous manner during use.

"As of today, there has been no confirmed incident linked to battery overheating in the iPhone 3GS, and the number of cases we are investigating amounts to less than a dozen," the firm said in a statement to AFP.

"The iPhones with broken screens that we have been able to analyse so far show, in all cases, that the cracks were caused by an external pressure upon the iPhone," the company added.

Apple's commercial director in France, Michel Coulomb, was due to meet the country's consumer affairs minister Herve Novelli later in the day to discuss the probe launched by a state safety agency following consumer complaints.

Apple has sold 26 million iPhones and 200 million iPods around the world.

Ten French consumers have come forward to say their iPhone screens exploded or cracked without explanation, according to an AFP tally, including a case in mid-August in which a teenager was said to have suffered an eye injury.

Facebook buys social media start-up FriendFeed

2009-08-10T20:10:00.001-07:00

Facebook, the world's largest social networking site, said it will buy FriendFeed, netting a group of prized ex-Google engineers in the fast-growing Internet business.

FriendFeed, an up-and-coming social media startup, lets people share content online in real time across various social networks and blogs. The service is similar to, though less popular than Twitter, the microblogging site that Facebook tried to buy for $500 mn in 2008, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed on Monday, but Facebook said FriendFeed would operate as it has for the time being as the teams determine long-term plans.

Facebook's big gain in the acquisition is the engineering talent at FriendFeed, rather than the actual product, which has won critical praise, but lagged in popularity compared to Twitter, said Forrester Research analyst Jeremiah Owyang.

"These guys now how to build scalable, social applications," said Owyang.

In a statement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he admired the FriendFeed team for having created a service he described as simple and elegant.

"As this shows, our culture continues to make Facebook a place where the best engineers come to build things quickly that lots of people will use," said Zuckerberg.

FriendFeed's four founders are former Google Inc employees who count well known products like Gmail and Google Maps among their accomplishments.

Facebook said the founders will hold senior roles on its engineering and product teams.

FriendFeed had talked with Facebook "casually" for a couple of months, and that it became clear that the teams were "cut from the same cloths," FriendFeed co-founder Bret Taylor told Reuters in an interview.

He declined to say whether FriendFeed had been in talks with other companies.

One bridge between Facebook and FriendFeed might have been Matt Cohler, Facebook's former management vice president. He joined FriendFeed backer Benchmark Capital last year.

Asked what role the connection played in the deal, FriendFeed's Taylor said the decision to be acquired by Facebook was made entirely by the team at FriendFeed.

Facebook has more than 250 million registered users. In May, the social networking company announced a $200 million investment from Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies that pegged the value of its preferred shares at $10 billion.

Facebook has said its revenue is on track to rise 70 percent this year, and board member Mark Andreessen has said the company will bring in more than $500 million in revenue in 2009.

But Forrester's Owyang said that Facebook must make the content generated within the site more accessible to the public instead of only to closed networks of Facebook friends, so that the company can sell more ads.

Earlier this year, Facebook announced changes to its privacy controls to allow people to make their status messages and posts viewable to a broader Internet audience.

Facebook is world's fourth most trafficked website

2009-08-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

Social networking website Facebook continues its rapid rise and has already become the fourth most trafficked website in the world, technology blog TechCrunch has reported.

In June this year, Facebook attracted a total of 340 million unique visitors globally, trailing only Google, Microsoft and Yahoo sites, the report said, citing latest results from market research firm comScore.

According to the report, Facebook grew 157 percent in the past year alone, gaining 208 million visitors. The social networking website surged past Amazon in August last year in terms of worldwide unique visitors. In the first half of this year, it beat eBay, AOL and Wikimedia Foundation sites.

Facebook still has some way to go before it catches up to Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, each of which has between 240 million and 500 million more monthly global unique visitors.

Facebook itself officially acknowledged in July that it now has 250 million active registered users worldwide.

5 tips for blogging your way to success

2009-08-07T11:56:00.001-07:00

Chances are, your blog is not going to land you a book or movie deal like Julie Powell or make you a superstar like
Perez Hilton.

But it can bring you personal satisfaction, give you an outlet for expression, help you connect with others and even assist you with leveraging a business. Along the way, you may even come across a little fame. Here's how:

• Blog about what you are passionate about, said Jennifer McLean of blog search engine Technorati. Coming up with fresh and interesting content is easier. And if you're only blogging for money or fame, readers will pick up on it, she said.

• Make sure you post frequently, said Gretchen Rubin, who blogs about happiness. "That is a sign of vitality on a blog." And have a clear idea of what you are blogging about. Blogs do better when you have a focus.

• If you are an aspiring author, show that you have a loyal following, said Brooke Warner, senior editor at Seal Press. "When someone says I get 25,000 unique visitors a month, we pay attention," she said. "They have readers and either their story or writing is really good."

• Develop your unique voice. Powell, who blogged about cooking all the recipes in a Julia Child cookbook, had a "unique hook — nobody else had done that," said Ellen Gerstein, vice president of marketing for John Wiley & Sons. She also brought a lot of humor to her blog.

• Spend time on marketing, said Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net, a blog with tips for bloggers. With millions of blogs afloat on the Web, writing posts isn't enough to attract followers, he said. Focus on writing guest posts for other blogs or networking, for example.

Clean cause: Now, Twitter for shitters in India

2009-08-07T11:53:00.001-07:00

Shit is not a dirty word. After all, we spend six months to three years on the toilet seat in a lifetime . It is about time we cut through the crap and give 2.6 billion people on the planet a chance do the same. That’s exactly the aim of Twitter for Sh-tters , which is using the power of the current darling of social networking , Twitter, to raise money for building toilets in India.

The idea is simple. Every day, Twitter users like you and me around the world, are asked to spend the day tweeting to try and get their followers to donate. With every $400 raised, Wherever The Need, an NGO based in the US, UK and India, builds an eco-sanitation toilet for Indians, 660 million of whom still defecate in the open.

Apart from the money raised, the bigger purpose of Twitter for Sh-tters (T4S) is to make people, especially the youth, talk about sanitation, says David Crosweller, UK director of Wherever The Need (WTN). T4S has ‘‘ daily dumpers’ ’ who can tweet about ‘‘ whatever crap they want’ ’ to take this long-avoided topic and, pardon the expression, step right into it.

‘‘ The thinking behind the T4S campaign was that if we could start young people talking about the benefits of sanitation then, in the midterm , it may become less of a taboo subject and we may actually be able to start having a sensible debate,’’ explains Crosweller.

And it is more than just talking about toilets. There are 16 different aspects that sanitation and water affect . One of the main concerns is mortality from intestinal illness — Unicef says 1,000 Indian children under five die of diarrhoea and other sanitation-related diseases every day. Sanitation brings other benefits too like general improvement in health, better agricultural output and a massive saving — ‘‘ India could save at least $3 billion per year by installing eco-sanitation toilets’ ’ — in national balance of payments.

Shit, it seems, is really serious business. Which is why Dave Prager started blogging about it. What started with Poop Report, ‘‘ your number one source for your number two business’’ , ended as a book published two years ago. And Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of Sulabh International, made an award-winning career by building more than 1.2 million household toilets and 6,500 community toilet blocks that serve 15 million people in India since 1973.

Despite these efforts, according to the 2001 Census, only 18% Indians use toilets. About 78.4% of the rural and 13.6% of the urban population still practices open defecation. Remember the famous scene in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ where the young protagonist jumps into a swamp of shit? To avoid such scenes in reel and real life, the UN has set a millennium development goal of halving the number of people who currently have no access to basic sanitation facilities by 2015. Will you give a shit?

Hacker attacks silence Twitter, slow Facebook

2009-08-07T11:51:00.001-07:00

Twitter and Facebook said they suffered service problems from hacker attacks on Thursday, raising speculation of a coordinated campaign against the world's most popular online social networks.

Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, was knocked down by a malicious attack that prevented people from accessing its website for several hours on Thursday.

Facebook members saw delays logging in and posting to their online profiles, which the social networking site said was related to an "apparent distributed denial of service attack."

Facebook was working with Twitter and Internet search company Google Inc to investigate further, said a person familiar with Facebook but who was not authorized to speak to the press.

Speculation swirled on the Internet that other social networking sites had also come under attack, after relatively lesser-known site LiveJournal said it too had been targeted by hackers on Thursday. But those rumors could not be confirmed.

The incidents follow a wave of similar cyber attacks in July that disrupted access to several high-profile U.S. and South Korean websites, including the White House site. South Korea's spy agency said at the time that North Korea might have been behind the attacks.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said on Twitter's blog that the site was the victim of a denial-of-service attack, a technique in which hackers overwhelm a website's servers with communications requests.

"We are defending against this attack now and will continue to update our status blog as we continue to defend and later investigate," Stone wrote.

A separate Twitter status Web page said later on Thursday that the site was back up, but that Twitter was continuing to recover from the attack.

Google said in an emailed statement that it was in contact with some non-Google sites that were impacted by Thursday's attacks to help investigate.

"Google systems prevented substantive impact to our services," the statement said.

ANTISOCIAL ATTACKS

Motives for denial-of-service attacks range from political to rabble-rousing to extortion, with criminal groups increasingly threatening to hobble popular websites that don't pay demanded fees, according to security experts.

Twitter's newfound fame makes it an easy target for hackers, said Steve Gibson, the president of Internet security research firm Gibson Research Corp.

Twitter, which lets users publish short, 140-character messages to groups of online "followers," is one of the fastest-growing Internet companies.

The number of worldwide unique visitors to the Twitter website reached 44.5 million in June, up 15-fold year-over- year, according to comScore data.

Security experts said a single group could have been behind the problems on Twitter, Facebook and the other sites as hackers evolve their ability to attack multiple sites at once.

"History would tell us that it's probably the same attacker or group of attackers that is launching both attacks," said Kevin Prince, the chief technology officer of security services provider Perimeter eSecurity.

A representative for blogging website LiveJournal said the site was also affected by a cyber attack for about one hour on Thursday morning.

While the company "can't be 100 percent sure that it was the same attacks as on Twitter, Facebook, et al, it would be a huge coincidence if they

aren't tied to one another," said LiveJournal representative Tim Smith.

A denial-of-service attack on Twitter would be particularly effective since "it's going to be very visible to a huge population of people who have now, to some degree, become dependent on this next-generation, real-time service," said Gibson.

Some Twitter users appeared to be taking the incident in stride.

"It's just an annoyance. Remember Twitter was down in 2007 and 2008 all the time," said Robert Scobble, a commentator on the technology industry who boasts 93,000 "followers" on Twitter, referring to a period when Twitter's rapid traffic growth occasionally led to several service disruptions.

For lawyer Zabi Nowald, it was just another day -- Twitter or no Twitter -- as he headed to work in downtown Los Angeles with a laptop in one hand and a Blackberry in the other.

"None of my friends do Twitter; none of my employers do," said Nowald, 27. "It affects my life zero. I lost something I never had."

Microsoft Finalizes Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 Code

2009-07-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

Microsoft on Wednesday finalized the code for its Windows 7 client OS and Windows Server 2008 R2, sending both products to manufacturing on schedule.

outlined in a blog post Tuesday how its various sets of customers can get the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) version of the client OS either August 6, 7, 16, or 23, depending on who they are.

As far as Windows Server 2008 R2's RTM goes, Microsoft's partners will get the code in the next few days, according to a blog post by Microsoft.

Customers with enterprise agreements and volume-licensing agreements will get it sometime in September, followed by the general availability of both Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 on Oct. 22, Iain McDonald, general manager of the Windows Server division, said in an interview Wednesday.

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are built on the same kernel and networking stack, but that doesn't mean Microsoft expects all customers to upgrade to both of them and deploy them together, he said.

To some customers it will make sense to do so, but if it's not part of a company's upgrade cycle to move to both systems it won't be the end of the world, McDonald said. "I want them on our platform more than I need them on our latest version," he said.

However, there are some features of Windows 7 that will run better if deployed on its complementary server release, McDonald said. One example of such a feature is Direct Access, which allows someone working independently of a corporate network to turn on a Windows 7 PC and have it automatically connect to a corporate network without deploying any application or signing in to the connection, he said.

There are some key differences between the latest Windows client and server releases and the previous release cycle. It's the first time since the Windows NT server release and the Windows 2000 client OS release that Microsoft has not doubled the requirements of the hardware systems the OSes run on, McDonald said.

"We did some things behind the covers to make things run great and pulled these off without the need to double the system requirements," he said, something people will particularly notice with Windows 7.

Microsoft also looped partners into the feedback and testing process of both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 sooner than ever before, a move that could be particularly important to the adoption of the client OS.

Windows Vista, the current Windows client release, was skipped by many business customers and also took a hit in the consumer market due to the emergence of netbooks as a popular replacement to the full-sized PC. Windows Vista did not run well on netbooks, which run XP or Linux.

Philip Osako, director of product marketing for Microsoft OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partner Toshiba, said Windows Vista's performance on netbooks was not considered as Microsoft was building that OS. However, with Windows 7, Toshiba tested the performance of the OS on netbooks as well as full-sized PCs, and Microsoft took the company's feedback under serious consideration.

Microsoft also specifically added new features to Windows 7 based on feedback from Toshiba and other partners, which should bode well for its adoption, Osako said.

For example, Toshiba advised Microsoft that since many people were still running Windows XP, the company should include a feature in the OS to ensure application compatibility between that OS and Windows 7, he said. As a result, Microsoft created the Virtual XP mode feature of Windows 7 that allows older Windows applications to run on Windows 7 as if they were running on XP, Osako said.

Google offers Moon’s 'guided tour'

2009-07-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

Google marked the 40th anniversary of the first human footstep on the moon by adding virtual lunar exploration to its free online Earth map and imagery service.

The moon joins Earth, Mars, and Sky in an options list in an upper tool bar on the main Web page at earth.google.com. Aspiring lunar explorers will need Google Earth 5.0 software, which can be downloaded free.

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the first person to walk on the moon, joined Google, X Prize Foundation, and NASA officials in Washington, DC, for the launch of Moon in Google Earth.

"Forty years ago, two human beings walked on the moon," said Moon in Google Earth product manager Michael Weiss-Malik.

"It's now possible for anyone to follow in their footsteps. We're giving hundreds of millions of people around the world unprecedented access to an interactive 3D presentation of the Apollo missions."

Moon in Google Earth meshes "Street View" style panoramic photographs and NASA video taken on the surface of the moon to create a virtual moonscape.

Apollo programme astronauts Jack Schmitt and Aldrin provided narration for online lunar tours.

"This tool will make it easier for millions of people to learn about space, our moon and some of the most significant and dazzling discoveries humanity has accomplished together," said X Prize Foundation trustee Anousheh Ansari, the first female private space explorer.

"I believe that this educational tool is a critical step into the future, a way to both develop the dreams of young people globally, and inspire new audacious goals."

Moon incorporates images taken during Apollo missions and pictures from satellites.

Along with tours of the moon's surface, Google Earth's new feature shows "human artifacts" left there by space missions.

"We're excited to be a part of this latest chapter in Google's efforts to bring virtual exploration of the moon to anyone with a computer," said NASA Ames Research Center director Pete Worden.

The center is near Mountain View, California-based Google and has been collaborating with the Internet titan under the auspices of a Space Act Agreement signed in late 2006.

"With Google Earth, young explorers around the world can bounce around the galaxy in Sky, fly to Mars and now visit the moon from wherever they may be," Ansari said. "Outer space doesn't seem so far away anymore."

Yahoo Home Page Gets a New Look

2009-07-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

Yahoo today launched what some are calling a significant overhaul to its home page. Yahoo says the new home page is designed to help you stay on top of what is going on in your world, and on the rest of the planet. What the search company has really done, however, is tweaked its old design and added some new, more flexible features that just might pull more users into its sphere. This includes adding more personalized features and the ability to pull a wide range of third-party services into Yahoo in ways that weren't previously available.

Here's what's new:

My Favorites
The most significant change is in Yahoo's right-hand column, which has been renamed My Favorites. Under the old home page, this column was filled with Yahoo services including games, shopping, Yahoo personals and other features. The new design allows you to choose from a wide range of third-party sites and services, including Facebook, news sites, and e-Bay. Yahoo has also moved Yahoo Mail, Messenger, and other Yahoo service over to the "My Favorites" section. When you hover over any of these widgets, a display pops up with an advertisement and your information.

For me, the best functionality came with the Facebook widget. The widget is a full-functioning mini-Facebook, and looks a lot like the mobile version of the social network. It includes your full news feed, and links to your 'Events & Birthdays,' Profile, and Friends list. If you pull your cursor off the pop-out widget, the service will disappear after a second or two. A similar Facebook feature can also be embedded in your iGoogle account.

App Maker
In addition to the more than 65 widgets you can place on your new Yahoo homepage, you can also make your own. Just click on 'Add' at the bottom of the My Favorites list, and then at the very top of the widget list you can enter the Web address for anything you want to keep track of and give it your own name. If the import is successful, you now have a new widget on your home page.

Trend Setter
Taking its cue from Twitter's Trending Topics, Yahoo now features the current top ten favorite searches. The Trend Setter box is located on the top left of the home page, where users used to access their e-mail, messenger, games and weather under the old design.

Personalized News
The news tabs have moved down a bit, but now have a local news section. Just type in a U.S. City or Zip and Yahoo delivers news from local news outlets.

PC To Mobile Sync
This feature isn't available yet, but Yahoo says that soon your Yahoo mobile page will match the edits you've made on the desktop version.

Sprint '4G' Hits Atlanta, Vegas, Portland In August

2009-07-21T14:28:00.000-07:00

Not too surprisingly, Sprint's "4G" phone buildout is largely going to ride on the back of their spun-off Clearwire mobile WiMax venture. Sprint will essentially operate as an MVNO on the Clearwire network, offering a lot of gear that provides CDMA/EDGE, Mobile WiMaxm and Wi-Fi connectivity. Of course that means the Sprint next-gen broadband markets are likely going to mirror Clearwire's existing footprint, with networks commercially available in Atlanta, Las Vegas (which officially launched today), Portland and Baltimore.

With that in mind, it wasn't too surprising to see Sprint announce this morning that their faster 4G service will first be made available in Las Vegas, Portland and Atlanta starting in August after it first popped up in Baltimore last fall. According to Sprint, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Honolulu, Philadelphia and Seattle will also see service this year. A few smaller markets you may have heard of will come online in 2010, like Boston, New York and DC.

While Sprint's EVDO service currently has a 5GB monthly limit, the company website insists the new service will be "unlimited." That word has been abused enough in this industry for users to be skeptical until they see more serious deployment. As for speed, Sprint says that the service will "deliver peak downlink speeds of more than 10 Mbps and average downlink speeds of 3-6 Mbps." Last December Sprint announced the availability of the U300 modem, which provides users with data access to both their EVDO and Mobile WiMax networks.

With Comcast also planning to offer wireless broadband powered by Clear, there's going to be an awful lot of re-branding, cross-purpose marketing and co-habitation going on in next few months. That could wind up confusing consumers -- and will seriously test the new Clearwire network. All of this hinges on how quickly Clearwire can get things deployed -- the operator is promising deployment to 80 markets over the next eighteen months.

Intel Slashes Price Of SSDs

2009-07-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

The price drop is the result of Intel moving the product line to a 34-nanometer manufacturing process for NAND flash memory used in solid-state drives.

Intel on Tuesday introduced its next-generation solid-state drives at a price that's 42% less than the previous models.

The price drop is the result of Intel moving the product line to a 34-nanometer manufacturing process for NAND flash memory used in SSDs from the 50-nm process used in making the previous generation. Also as a result of the shift, the die size of the memory is smaller and the engineering design more advanced, the chipmaker said.

"Our goal was to not only be first to achieve 34-nm NAND flash memory lithography, but to do so with the same or better performance than our 50-nm version," Randy Wilhelm, VP and general manager of the Intel NAND Solutions Group, said in a statement.

The Intel SSDs for mobile PCs come in two sizes, 2.5 inches and 1.8 inches, and offer either 80 GB or 160 GB of storage. The 2.5-inch drive is called the X25-M and the smaller is the X18-M.

Intel launched the 34-nm X25-M on Tuesday and expects to release the smaller model later in the quarter. Compared to the 50-nm version, the new X25-M offers a 25% reduction in latency and faster random write input/output operations per second, according to Intel. The SSD will also support Microsoft Windows 7 with a firmware update to be released later. Windows 7 is scheduled to ship in October.

The new X25-M and X18-M can replace current models in systems without modifications. They are also drop-in compatible with similar size hard-disk drives. The X25-M is available in quantities of 1,000 for $225 and $440 for the 80-GB and 160-GB models, respectively. The previous prices, announced in February, were $390 and $765, respectively.

Samsung Marine B2100 mobile comes for Rs7030

2009-07-20T11:56:00.000-07:00

This is the perfect phone for sportspeople, intrepid explorers and people working in demanding, noisy environments such as farmers, engineers or foremen. Packing in the hardiest durable features, the B2100 lends itself to suit any lifestyle and almost any condition.

Embodied in a slim, 0.7inch case, the B2100 is the slimmest submersible phone to be released on the market to date; quite an achievement when ticking off the rest of the technical spec-sheet of this sturdy and affordable phone.

The most notable feature of the B2100 is its resilience to water, shock and dust. The water-submergible features allow the B2100 to remain water resistant for up to one meter for half an hour. If this phone is put in a glass of water, it will still ring and remain fully functional once removed.

This can be partly attributed to its urethane casing which also gives the phone a comfortable grip and enables the handset to withstand harsh outdoor environments. The B2100 has an IP57 rating which rates its resistance to water and dust, the phone also displays a hardy resistance to bumps, scrapes and scuffs and provides the perfect outdoor mobile experience. Adaptable for even the toughest environments including blowing rain, salt fog, and extremely hot and cold temperatures, this phone is the perfect travel companion for adventure-seekers and those working in tenuous conditions.

The rugged handset is fitted with outdoor-friendly features such as loud external speakers, and noise cancellation which functions through a dedicated microphone. It also sports an impressive LED flash light - a necessary accessory for power-failures at home, outdoors and in the work-place. Samsung Mobile also throw in a free FM radio and camera with the LCD screen display which measures 120 x 160.
Features:

1. Expandable up to 8GB memory
2. Bluetooth
3. USB aid
4. Decent external speakers
5. 1.3Megapixel Camera
6. FM radio
7. Music player
8. Camcorder
9. Quick flash light
10. Battery backup offering up to 9.5 hours talk time.

Gateway LT2000 Netbook Sports 10.1-Inch Screen

2009-07-20T11:32:00.000-07:00

Gateway this morning extended its LT series to include its first Intel-based netbook. The LT2000 opts for familiar specifications with a 10-inch display, 1.6GHz Atom, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive, most of which help bring down the price significantly from the faster, larger LT3100. It does inherit the more expensive system's multi-touch trackpad to scroll using circular motions or to swipe through documents using two fingers.

The portable is outfitted with a webcam and a card reader but has a 3-cell battery that lasts for a strictly typical 3 hours of battery life. Gateway will sell the LT2000 in stores later today and is counting on price as a selling point, with black and red versions both selling for $300.

Microsoft releases code for Linux drivers

2009-07-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

Microsoft, which has been at odds with the Linux community over the years because of intellectual property issues, said on Monday it has released 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux kernel community.

Available for inclusion in the Linux tree, the code includes three Linux device drivers; it will be available to both the Linux community and customers. The drivers will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 virtualization software or Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V. Code will be offered under the GNU General Public License 2.

[ About two and a half years ago, Microsoft forged a Linux partnership with Novell that still generates controversy. ]

"We are seeing Microsoft communities and open source communities grow together, which is ultimately of benefit to our customers," said Microsoft's Sam Ramji, senior director of platform strategy in the company's Server and Tools organization, in a statement released by the company. "The Linux community, for example, has built a platform used by many customers. So our strategy is to enhance interoperability between the Windows platform and many open source technologies, which includes Linux, to provide the choices our customers are asking for."

"Today's release would have been unheard of from Microsoft a few years ago but it's a prime example that customer demand is a powerful catalyst for change," said Ramji.

Indeed, Microsoft has been involved in ongoing disagreements with open source advocates, with Microsoft claiming open source projects like Linux violate 235 Microsoft patents.

Ramji also cited the current economic climate as a driving force. "Many companies are turning to Microsoft more frequently to help them succeed in a heterogeneous technology world because we understand that reducing complexity is a key factor to reducing cost. We are seeing interoperability as a lever for business growth," Ramji said.

In a statement, the executive director of the Linux Foundation saw Microsoft's effort as validation of open source.

"We see the move by Microsoft to submit its device driver code to the Linux kernel as a validation of the open source development model and the GPLv2 license," said Executive Director Jim Zemlin. "Even if a bit overdue, we applaud Microsoft for recognizing the value of collaboration in order to compete in today's IT market."

An industry analyst concurred that the move was precedent-setting.

"This is a logical but precedent-setting decision for Microsoft. Credit Microsoft for recognizing the reality that a sizable portion of its customer base was going to be running Linux and Microsoft side by side in virtualized environments, so it would be important to be competitive on an interoperability front," said Stephen O'Grady, analyst at Redmonk.

"For all of its logic, however, this is a move that would have been inconceivable a few years ago, meaning that the glasnost of Microsoft vis a vis open source continues," O'Grady said.

Continuing a recent mantra of accommodations for open source, Tony Hey, corporate vice president of the external research division at Microsoft Research, will address the O'Reilly OSCON (Open Source Convention) audience in San Jose, Calif. this Thursday about the company's commitment to open access, open tools and interoperability in the "heterogeneous world of research," according to a statement from the company. Hey will discuss tools for scientists to process and analyze massive amounts of data to accelerate scientific discovery.

Microsoft also is highlighting on Monday its ongoing investment in optimizing PHP on Windows Server and the Microsoft SQL Server database. The company has had work ongoing on a SQL Server driver available for PHP to support more native features in SQL Server 2008. Microsoft also has partnered with PHP tools vendor Zend Technologies to boost PHP.

Verizon Defends Exclusive Handsets, Except for Small Carriers

2009-07-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

Verizon Wireless is defending AT&T’s right to keep the iPhone to itself.

The company today announced a policy that it says will give small wireless carriers more access to phones that Verizon had the exclusive rights to sell. From now on, when Verizon strikes a deal with a manufacturer for exclusive sale of a handset, it will let any carrier with fewer than 500,000 customers sell the phone after six months.

There has been increasing interest in Congress over whether wireless carriers are hurting consumers by shutting out rivals from hot phones. Of course, the hottest phone right now is Apple’s iPhone, which is sold only by AT&T in the United States.

It may not be a consumer issue. Much of the political pressure on the issue is coming from smaller wireless carriers that worry that they are being shut out from all the cool phones by a giant carrier.

Verizon’s move, announced in a letter to Representative Rick Boucher, the Virginia Democrat who is chairman of a crucial telecommunications subcommittee, appears to address the concerns of the small companies while preserving the right of big carriers to offer handsets their rivals can’t.

The letter defends these arrangements:

Exclusivity arrangements promote competition and innovation in device development and design. We work closely with our vendors to develop new and exciting devices that will attract customers. When we procure exclusive handsets from our vendors we typically buy hundreds of thousands or even millions of each device. Otherwise manufacturers may be reluctant to make the investments of time, money and production capacity to support a particular device.

In other words, please don’t make Apple sell us the iPhone because we want to have the next cool phone and keep it from AT&T.

Google Creates Calendar Labs, Graduates Tasks

2009-07-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

Summer is when new apps graduate out of Google's labs and beta programs into the real world.

Google announced Tuesday that it would shift its Tasks feature out of Google Labs into a standalone feature. Tasks is the first feature to graduate from the Labs site, according to a Google spokesman.

Google is also announcing a new tool that will make it easier to switch from Lotus Notes to Google Apps, following an effort with Fairchild Semiconductor last month, in conjunction with moving several of its Google Apps, including Gmail, out of beta.

Many of Google's products began life as beta projects or components of its Labs offerings, the latter of which has served as an incubator for several projects created by Google's "20-percent" program, which encourages its employees to develop their own, self-managed projects. At this point, Google's highest-profile Labs effort is Gmail Labs, which houses efforts to access Gmail offline, and preview services like YouTube and Picasa directly inside an email.

On Tuesday, Google also announced Calendar Labs, a Labs section for its Google Calendar portion of Google Apps. One of the more interesting portions for the Labs announcement, according to the Google spokesman, is that Google is releasing a Google Calendar API to let developers add on features and gadgets into the Calendar platform. Google usually releases APIS to let developers take Google information and integrate it into third-party apps; Google's approach with its Calendar Labs is the opposite.

Apple blocks Palm Pre with iTunes update

2009-07-15T19:37:00.000-07:00

Apple Inc. has updated it's iTunes software to block use with the Palm Pre device. The recently-released device was compatible with the iTunes software, letting users organize media with the software just as they would with an iPod. An Apple spokesman commented that this update, "disables devices falsely pretending to be iPods, including the Palm Pre." Palm responded by reminding Apple who the real target of this change is.

"Apple's move is a direct blow to their users, who will be deprived of a seamless synchronization experience," Palm spokeswoman Leslie Letts said. She recommended that users stick to the older versions of iTunes or consider other music applications to organize the media.

Jon Rubinstein, a former Apple exec who played a big part in the iPod, became Palm's executive chairman in October 2007. The Pre has touch-screen control features like the iPhone. The recent awarding of a patent to Apple in January covering certain multi-touch functions may affect Palm and other companies eventually.

Unique ID card to end duplicate identity, says Nilekani

2009-07-15T19:31:00.000-07:00

Nandan Nilekani, chairperson of the newly set-up Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) to provide each Indian an identity card, said Monday a major problem at present is duplicate identity in many of the government systems, leading to fraud.

The new authority would help end ID card duplication by creating a network of verification and authentication, Nilekani, co-founder of IT major Infosys, told reporters after meeting Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.

'A major problem today with identity is that many (government) systems have lot of duplicates leading to fraud,' he said.

Yeddyurappa facilitated Nilekani on his new assignment. Nilekani quit the Infosys co-chairman's post as also from the company's board on July 9 following his appointment as head of the UIAI.

The UIAI would create a national database of Indian residents. It would use bio-metrics, fingerprints and other methods necessary to ensure people have a unique number. This would end the problem of duplicates, he added.

On the time the authority would need to complete the process, Nilekani said: 'First I have to find an office.'

A hunt is on at Delhi for office premises for the new authority, which will function under India's Planning Commission, which is headed by the prime minister.

Nokia's India Music Store Being Tested

2009-07-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

Nokia has started testing its online music store in India, with plans to launch services to consumers before the end of this year.

"Right now our own people are testing the site, and we will go live as scheduled in the second half of this year," a spokeswoman for Nokia said on Wednesday.

The music download service will be initially available only against vouchers issued to customers at the time of buying handsets and other equipment from Nokia, the spokeswoman said.

Allowing consumers to pay online to download music will require the site to have a payment mechanism. This will be possible only after Nokia's joint venture with Indian partner, HCL Infosystems, starts handling the online payments, the spokeswoman said. By Indian rules, online retailing requires a company that has an Indian partner, she added.

Nokia said in January it was setting up a joint venture with HCL to offer mobile value-added services such as navigation, music and other entertainment to Indian consumers.

A number of companies, including mobile phone service providers, are now offering online music downloads in India.

Nokia has signed up a number of top music labels in the country. On its beta site it currently features music from a number of labels including T-Series, Times Music, and Universal Music India. "The store will help promote legal music," the spokeswoman said.

Nokia said on its India music store site that its service uses Microsoft DRM (digital rights management) technology.

Microsoft To Open Retail Stores Near Apple's This Fall

2009-07-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

Microsoft fired a new salvo in its ongoing war with Apple by promising to open new Microsoft retail stores close to Apple Stores.
Kevin Turner, Microsoft COO, said during Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference that his company plans to open some retail stores "right next door to Apple Stores" this fall, Reuters reported.

Microsoft said in February that it planned to open a chain of retail stores.

One of its first moves in that push was to hire former DreamWorks Animation and Wal-Mart executive David Porter to fill its newly created position of corporate vice president of retail stores. His hire was effective Feb. 16.

Porter is a 25-year veteran of Wal-Mart. His boss, Turner, spent nearly 20 years at Wal-Mart.

Apple currently has 211 stores in 41 states in the U.S., in addition to a number of stores in the U.K., Japan, Canada, Italy and other countries. A complete list of Apple Stores in the U.S. can be found by clicking here.

Microsoft and Apple have been firing shots at each other in an effort to gain consumer mind share.

In addition to strategizing on retail stores, the two have been hitting each other in advertisements, including Apple's ads featuring John Hodgman as PC and Justin Long as Mac in Apple's "Get a Mac" campaign and Microsoft's more recent "I'm a PC" campaign.

Google gives Voice to mobiles

2009-07-15T19:12:00.000-07:00

Google has expanded the reach of its Voice telephony service.

The company said on Wednesday that the Google Voice beta would be offered to users running both the Blackberry and Android operating systems. The addition will allow users to place outgoing calls on the handsets from their Google Voice numbers.

The company has also set up a mobile version of the Talk site for handset users not running either of the supported platforms.

Google hopes that by adding built-in support for the service, it can make the process of calling from a mobile easier.

"Previously, to place a call using Google Voice, you had to dial your own Google Voice number from your cell phone or use the Quick Call button online," explained developers Vincent Paquet and Marcus Foster on a company blog post.

"With this new mobile app, you can make calls and send SMS messages with your Google Voice number directly from your mobile phone."

Google first launched the Voice service in March as a replacement for GrandCentral, a telephony startup which Google acquired in 2007 and developed into a beta service.

Sony Ericsson Cyber-Shot C905 Review

2009-07-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

The 8.1 Megapixel Cyber-Shot camera is the best feature of the Sony Ericsson C905, that is already on the market in Europe. Today, AT&T is launching the C905 in the U.S, making it the highest resolution camera phone ever from this carrier. We have played with it. The device looks like a Cyber-shot camera on one side and like a phone on the other side, and it is thicker than my Blackberry Curve. 8 Megapixel camera phones are not common in the US market, the N86 will soon be available globally, there's no word on the LG Renoir hitting our shores any time soon (I love this one) and hopefully the new Samsung Pixon 12 (12 MP) will be available here after its launch in the UK next month.

Key features

8.1 megapixel camera with face detection, autofocus, xenon flash, active lens cover and GPS tagging

BestPic captures seven successive photos in one click, Smart Contrast compensates for areas that are too bright or dark, red-eye reduction, image stabilizer, dedicated camera keys and shortcut

160 MB internal memory, Memory Stick Micro (M2) - 2GB M2 in box - up to 16 GB

USB cable for:
- file transfer and synchronization with PC using Windows Media Player
- printing with PicBridge compatible printers

2.4-inch scratch-resistant mineral glass display, QVGA (240x320)

Built-in GPS with A-GPS function, AT&T Navigator software

Tri-band UMTS/HSDPA (3.5G)

Applications: AT&T Video Share, video recording, AT&T Music, FM radio, Mobile Email, AT&T Navigator and instant messaging. With AT&T Video Share, consumers can share their experiences in real-time streaming video (only possible with Video Share enabled devices).

Phone Basics (good)
I quickly checked the phone sound quality by calling AT&T customer support and the sound was good, the voice was loud enough and clear with a medium volume. Dialing a number is quick and easy, the keys are wide and the touch is comfortable. The backlit keyboard is useful for placing a call in low light conditions, in a club for example. Dialing a contact is not as easy, I had to get to the address book and type the first letter of the name to get there, that's the downside of not having a qwerty keyboard that would allow typing the contact name directly.

Physical Design (ok)
Basically the phone looks like a digital camera but it is a bit too bulky and heavy, we could blame it on the great 8 MP camera that may (not sure) need this extra space and weight. However, the fluid form factor and the stainless steel look (mostly made of plastic) gives some style to this thick phone and for this size (4.1x1.9x0.7 inches, 4.8 oz) , I would like to get a larger and better display with touch capability... The lens cover is easy to move using the thumb, and the camera button is exactly like the one on a regular digital camera. I regret the lack of a standard 3.5mm audio jack , I could not use my regular earphones to listen to music. The only connector is proprietary (photo above), thanks to Sony Ericsson (as usual), you will need an adapter to connect your earphones. The user interface is ok for a regular phone, not great for a high-end phone.

Camera (very good for a phone)
The key feature is the 8 MP camera, so I spent some time testing it. The smart contrast may not give the expected result, when tested with a flash and in low light conditions, it overexposed the picture. I shot three scenes with my BlackBerry Curve 8900 and with the C905 at the highest resolution, see the pictures below. The full-size ones can be seen in our Flickr account.

The Sony Ericsson's shutter lag is way shorter than my Blackberry thus it delivers a very good shot of moving cars, in low light condition, that's awesome! The Curve provides a poor result in comparison.

In addition, the color balance is incomparably more accurate with the C905 without any tuning prior to shooting.

Unlike the Smart Contrast option, the Photo Fix feature works pretty well and enhances the image quality by adding contrast to an underexposed photo.

Battery Life and Charging Time (ok)
On the spec sheet when using the UMTS/HDSPA network the phone has up to 4 hours talk time and up to 360 hours Standby time. The battery ran out of power after 10 hours and a half in standby, shooting roughly 40 high resolution pictures, half of them with flash. It takes two hours to get the device fully charged.

Entertainment section, media files and applications (good)
The Entertainment section has a well designed user interface and it is very simple to synchronize the media files with the PC using the provided USB cable and Windows Media Player (photo above). I did not need to configure anything. The auto-rotate display works only in the Multimedia menu (photo in gallery above).

I quickly tried several interesting applications including the Yellow pages (slow but great UI - photo below), MobiTV (5 minutes subscription left): video streaming was not that fluid with poor video quality, good enough for watching trailers and short videos (photos), XM radio (could not use it due to a lack of subscription), Where application portal (cool location based applications, subscription required after trial period) and the Application Store.

Messaging , IM and Social Networking and Web Browsing (basic)
I was disappointed by the absence of Gmail as a supported provider in the Mobile Email menu, and I did not find a way to set up my POP email as well, I guess it is not supported. AIM, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger are available (no Google Talk). Overall the phone is slow, especially to load emails from my Yahoo account, however, web browsing speed was ok. I would like to see a better integration of Social networking: the Facebook client is not provided by default here, unlike in the N97 and the Sidekick, for example, where users can access it directly from the phone's home page. The new Sony Ericsson W518s is supposed to offer the feature... Sony Ericsson is offering only one key feature per phone, how about market dilution?

Conclusion
The Sony Ericsson is a good basic phone with a killer camera and well integrated multimedia features. Messaging is ok as long as you have an account among the limited number of providers embedded in the phone.

At $179.99 (with a 2-yr contract), the pricing seems a bit high for a phone that is not a smartphone, although ultra-mobile photographers would be willing to pay extra for the camera quality. For the same price, customers could be attracted by a smartphone with slightly inferior photo capabilities like the Nokia E71x, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 or even the iPhone. That said, all of them will end up being more expensive in the long run, because of their data plans.

The Sony Ericsson will be available in Ice Silver only starting from July 19th, in AT&T stores or at www.wireless.att.com, complete specifications on the product page.

Microsoft, Targetting Google, Announces Office 2010

2009-07-15T18:12:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, Microsoft released a "technical preview" of the next-generation Office Suite, Office 2010. While the software giant specifically pointed out that the suite's feature set will most likely grow before launch, this preview was fairly complete. The CRN Test Center's Samara Lynn recently outlined the new elements included in Office 2010 here.

One feature that has been publicized but not available for evaluating yet is Office 2010's Web applications. In a roundabout way, this brings to mind the recent launch of Bing, Microsoft's revamped search site, which replaced Live Search. Although not its first attempt, Bing was the company's latest effort to challenge open-source advocate Google at what it does best.

Last week, Google Apps finally dropped its seemingly permanent beta status and is now an official contender to Office, offering Web versions of applications designed to give users similar functionality to the traditional office suite. Coincidentally, this week Microsoft announced that online versions of Office 2010 applications will be offered for free.

Presumed to be abridged, less-functional versions of applications within the full suite, Office 2010 Web apps is clearly another shot across Google's bow and proves that Microsoft likes a challenge. It is probably also a sign that Redmond executives are coming to the realization that the Internet is the company's only hope for survival.

Google has been considered the de facto search site for years now and, while many have tried, it has always been able to hold its own in that area. Google apps were built with the company's knowledge of the Web, its users and the nontraditional approach to making money from "the cloud." Although never a contender to the full Office suite, it was (and is) a good, free alternative with enough functionality for the typical user.

On the other hand, Microsoft clearly has the upper hand of experience when it comes to business productivity programs. With decades of Office versions behind it, the company has built a virtual empire on the suite's applications. What is unknown yet is how trimmed-down those applications will be when they make their Web-based appearance.

But this contest doesn't have the apples-to-apples playing field of Bing vs. Google. Branching out, Microsoft is taking what it knows well -- productivity applications, and dabbling in Google's area of expertise -- the online community. When Office 2010 Web apps finally make an appearance, will they have anything extra to offer Google app users above and beyond the Office 2010 name? Obviously the limit on features will level the playing field, so implementation and user interface will ultimately play a part in deciding the champion of this round in the competition.

Windows 7 preorders begin in the UK, France, and Germany

2009-07-15T17:43:00.000-07:00

Today residents in the UK, Germany, and France have the opportunity to preorder Windows 7 upgrade versions of both Home Premium and Professional editions (read: no deal for Ultimate) for significantly reduced prices. The deal lasts until August 14 but Microsoft emphasizes that this date can only be taken into consideration while remembering the phrase "while supplies last." The software giant refused to reveal how many copies it was allowing to be sold at the reduced rates.

Here's the list of retailers that are offering the preorder deal (online only).

UK: Comet, PC World, Argos, Amazon, Tesco, Littlewoods, Micro Anvika, Currys, Dixons, Staples
, ebuyer.com, play.com, John Lewis, Misco, and DABS

France: Auchan, Boulanger, Carrefour, Cora, Darty, FNAC, Geant Casino, Hyper U, Media Saturn, Rue Du Commerce, CDiscount, Surcouf, Conforama, Leclerc, Virgin, Office Dépôt, Top Office, Pixmania, LDLC, Matériel.net, Grosbill, and Amazon

Germany: Mediamarkt, Saturn, Expert, EP/Medimax, Euronics, Amazon, Conrad, Otto, Notebooksbilliger, Neckermann, Wave, Atelco, Arlt, K&M, Avitos, Home of HW, and Cyperport

Only some retailers had a prominent banner of the offer on their homepage (chances are you'll have to do a product search for "Windows 7" to the two products). The Microsoft Store is also offering the deals in the three countries: the UK, France, and Germany. For whatever reason, at publishing time the Germany store was not showing the preorder deals. Furthermore, high demand unfortunately took the online store down for some time and Microsoft was forced to put up the following error message:

Due to the eagerly anticipated Windows 7 pre-order offer we're experiencing a higher level of demand on our website than usual. This means you can't access the site right now and we're sorry about that. We'll be back up and running as soon as we can so please try again soon to get your hands on a copy of Windows 7!

Last month's Windows 7 pricing announcement was overwhelming, to say the least. So to reiterate, the pricing for the preorders that start today is as follows:

UK: Windows 7 Home Premium (£49.99) and Windows 7 Professional (£99.99)

France and Germany: Windows 7 Home Premium (€49.99) and Windows 7 Professional (€109.99)

These upgrade versions can be purchased by both XP users and Vista users. Once preordered, your copy of Windows 7 will arrive on or after the day of general availability, October 22, 2009. If you have Windows XP, you'll have to perform a clean install and will have to do the backup process yourself. If you are moving from 32-bit to 64-bit, you'll have to do a clean install. If you are moving to a version that is lower on the food chain (from Ultimate to Professional or Home Premium, or from Professional to Home Premium), you will have to perform a clean install.Otherwise, the upgrade installation will take care of everything.