NewsNino

JUSTICE SERVED

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:07:00 +0000

In a California court ruling on Friday, an AT&T customer who saw a reduction in his iPhone's download speed due to high usage was awarded $850 on claims that the telecom's throttling measures are unfair to consumers.

Pro-tem Judge Russell Nadel handed down the decision in favor of Matt Spaccarelli in Ventura Superior Court in Simi Vally, bringing an end to the small claims case that was filed in January which asserted that AT&T unfairly reduces unlimited data plan users' bandwidth speeds, reports the Associated Press.

The ruling could affect the roughly 17 million subscribers, or a little under half of AT&T's smartphone customer base, who pay for a so-called unlimited data plan that was first introduced alongside the original iPhone.

The nation's second-largest mobile carrier ended its all-you-can-eat plan in 2010, however the company allowed existing users to keep their unlimited service on the condition that the privilege would end if they ever opted to go with a tiered contract. In other words, an unlimited subscriber cannot return to the endless data plan if ever they choose one of AT&T's tiered options.

As smartphones grew in popularity after the launch of Apple's handset and smartphones running Google's Android OS, data bandwidth became increasingly scarce. In an attempt to stem the swelling tide of data users, AT&T and other telecoms made the decision to throttle the download speeds of the top five percent of "heavy users."

An inherent issue with the new throttling model is that an unlimited plan subscriber can see speed reductions if they are deemed to be within the top five percent of heavy users, regardless of the amount of data used. Tiered subscribers are never throttled.

In Spaccarelli's case, speed was reduced after about 1.5 GB to 2 GB of data usage during a particular billing cycle, which is far less than the identically priced 3 GB tiered plan. Currently, unlimited access to AT&T's network costs $30 per month for grandfathered-in customers, while tiered plans run $20, $30 and $50 per month for 300 MB, 3 GB and 5 GB, respectively.

According to an in-court argument by AT&T area sales manager Peter Hartlove, the carrier has the right to modify or cancel a contract if data usage is so high that it bogs down the network.

In addition, a clause in contracts signed by data users prohibits customers from joining a class action suit or jury trial, and instead must take any grievance to arbitration or a small claims court.

The agreement also claims that if a plaintiff wins an arbitration case, the minimum award from AT&T would be $10,000. Although Spaccarrelli asked for the same compensation, the small claims court judge only awarded him for $85 for each of the remaining 10 months of his contract.

Sample of AT&T's pre-throttle warning messages. | Source: Simple Mobile Review

In theory, every customer who has been throttled could potentially take the Dallas-based carrier to court if they feel that the speed reduction is a violation of rights.

AT&T's attempt to clear data congestion has been vague since its introduction in 2011, as the system is based on a sliding scale and not a set bandwidth cap. User also won't know if they are part of the top five percent until a warning message is received, and by that point they only have a few days of regular usage before seeing a reduction of speed.

Google+ to Google Voice

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:06:00 +0000

Google made a brief announcement today stating that Google Voice would be getting Google+ integration.

On the official Google Voice blog, we read that the two services will be linked by bringing information from your social Google+ circles into your Google Voice telephony account.
“To help make it even easier for you to organize your contacts, today we’re adding Google+ Circles to Google Voice,” writes Googler Tom Ford.

“Circles give you more control over how you manage your callers; for example, calls from your ‘Creepers’ circle can be sent straight to Voicemail, only your ‘College Buddies’ circle will hear you rap your voicemail greeting, or you can set your ‘Family’ circle to only ring your mobile phone.”

As Ford points out, it’s actually a highly useful integration with loads of use cases to make life easier for users of both Google-powered services.

Logged-in Google Voice users can now set up new groups, circles, and phone settings in the Groups and Circles tab on the Google Voice site.

This is just one more point in Google’s overarching plan to bring Google+ to every Google web app — or, more accurately, to unify many disparate logins and identities under a single, cohesive umbrella known as Google+. Concepts such as “circles” aren’t just for the social side of Google; they’re being included in every other relevant web app, as well.

In short, Google+ is becoming the “new mode of usage of Google” that its leaders envisioned.
“We have browsers, phones, self-driving cars, TVs,” said Google exec Bradley Horowitz in a recent VentureBeat interview. “In many ways, these products have grown up very autonomously and have veered off in different directions, and it’s clear that we can now rationalize them and make them coherent and accretive to each other.”

Amazon yanks 5,000 titles from Independent Publishers Group

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:09:00 +0000

Chicago publisher, online retailer disagreed about contract, prompting Amazon to remove company's offerings from Kindle e-bookstore

For one Chicago book distributor and publisher,Amazon.compushed just a bit too far.

Independent Publishers Group has found itself in a struggle with the world's largest online retailer over terms of its contract. Failing to reach an agreement, Amazon on Monday pulled the plug on 5,000 of the company's titles, removing those offerings from its Kindle e-bookstore, according to President Mark Suchomel.

"They decided they didn't like the terms we offered, and we said, 'We're not going to change,' and they removed them," Suchomel said.

Print editions of its books, however, remain available through Amazon.com. Amazon officials did not return requests for comment.

In an interview with the Tribune, Suchomel declined to be more specific about the dispute, saying that "Amazon has issues with us talking too much."

But in an email published Wednesday in the online newsletter Publishers Lunch, Suchomel wrote that Amazon.com was putting "pressure" on publishers and distributors to make their terms more favorable to the Seattle-based online retailing giant.

"Our electronic book agreement recently came up for renewal, and Amazon took the opportunity to propose new terms for electronic and print purchases that would have substantially changed (book publishers) revenue from the sale of both. It's obvious that publishers can't continue to agree to terms that increasingly reduce already narrow margins," he wrote.

Suchomel told the Tribune that the e-books sold through Amazon's Kindle tablet account for about 5 percent of the company's business and wouldn't force the distributor out of business. But that also depends on whether consumers seek out its e-book titles from alternative online retailers such as BarnesandNoble.com, iTunes and Indybound.org, he said.

Independent Publishers Group, which carries roughly 50,000 titles, was founded in 1971 and is the second-largest distributor of independent books. Its digital best-sellers include "Boardwalk Empire," by Nelson Johnson, and "I'm With The Band," by Pamela Des Barres.

Suchomel said it's unclear whether the two companies will reach an agreement and resume their working relationship.

"If they want to buy our books, they can buy them. We are happy to deal with them," Suchomel said.

This isn't the first time Amazon has scrapped with an e-bookseller. Skirmishes between Amazon and publishing houses have been pretty regular for the past 18 months, said Lorraine Shanley, a New York-based publishing consultant who at one time had Amazon as a client.
. "As contracts are renewed, Amazon is going to try to institute their own discounts on more and more distributors and publishers," she said.

It's not clear how the battles between Amazon and book publishers will end, Shanley said. Amazon could find itself on the wrong side of public opinion if consumers can't find the titles they want.

But for publishers and distributors of lesser-known book titles that don't populate the best-seller lists, a fight against Amazon could prove futile, Shanley said.

Kenilworth-based author James McManus said the war between Amazon and publishing houses "blasted into his consciousness" when his book "Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker" was released in 2009.

One day, McManus said, the book was receiving "rave reviews" on Amazon's website, and a few days later it was no longer available.

MacMillan, the parent company of McManus' publisher, Picador, had a falling out with Amazon, he said, noting that the book became available again days later when the spat was settled.
When Amazon and publishers go head-to-head, the authors suffer, McManus said.
"If your books are not available on Amazon, you'll lose a lot of sales," he said.

McManus said publishers do "a lot that makes the reading experience much better."
"They need to cover their expenses and make a fair profit, and they can't do it if someone's trying to sell the book for $1 to $2 per book," he said.

T&T class-action suit means $1,000 for lucky few

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:37:00 +0000

Almost 7,000 California consumers have just hit the class-action jackpot.

All are getting a check for $1,000 or more to compensate them for overcharges on their phone bills that in most cases amounted to a fraction of that.

The money is going to folks who responded to an ad published statewide around this time last year seeking people who were AT&T residential landline customers in California between August 2001 and March 2003.

In late 2008, a federal jury found that AT&T had charged its California long-distance customers more Universal Service Fund fees than allowed during that 20-month period. It awarded $16.9 million in damages, which a district court later reduced to $10.9 million.

AT&T was ordered to set up a fund to repay victims. Instead of using AT&T records to track down customers, they were sought through newspaper and Web ads.

Anyone who responded with a valid claim before April 29, 2011, was eligible to receive somewhere between $5 and $1,000 per phone line, depending on how many people responded.

Although AT&T likely had millions of residential customers at that time, only 6,961 people with 9,045 lines submitted valid claims. As a result, starting this month each of them will get the maximum allowed -$1,000 per line.

That award far exceeds the actual damages most customers likely suffered during the 20-month period.

It is as if "AT&T has run a lottery and people who bought a ticket win," says Mark Cooper, director of research with the Consumer Federation of America.

Class-action lawsuits often get a bad rap because individuals recover such a small portion of their losses. Cases like this, where consumers get a windfall, are uncommon, says Stuart Rossman, director of litigation with the National Consumer Law Center. But they also raise questions of fairness because the vast majority of victims get nothing.

"The ultimate purpose of any class-action settlement is to find the people who have been injured and make them as whole as possible," Rossman says.

Facts of the case

While most class-actions are settled out of court for a fraction of actual damages, this one was decided by a federal jury in Kansas. It involved the fee that phone companies must pay into a federal fund to subsidize telephone service for rural and low-income customers.
Phone companies must pay a portion of their interstate revenue into the fund. During the relevant time period, the percentage ranged from 6.8 to 7.2 percent, according to Joshua Anaya, an attorney with the Utility Consumers' Action Network. (Today the contribution is 17.29 percent.)

Phone companies are allowed to recoup these fees from customers but cannot charge more than they actually paid.

Plaintiffs in this case alleged that AT&T overcharged California customers and the jury agreed. AT&T was ordered to pay $10.9 million in damages plus about $6 million in interest. After subtracting $6.2 million in attorney fees and expenses and $500,000 for the fund administrator, that left about $10.2 million for consumers.

Neither AT&T nor plaintiffs would say how many customers AT&T had during this period or how much they were overcharged on average.

Damage estimates

Cooper guesstimates that if there were 12 million households in California and half used AT&T, the dominant provider, it might have had 6 million customers. If AT&T overcharged them $10.9 million, that works out to about $2 per customer.

Even it had only 1 million customers, the average overcharge would be only $11 per customer.

"I think it's possible there are a lot of claimants whose (actual) damages are going to be in that range," says Warren Burns, a partner with Susman Godfrey, one of the law firms representing the plaintiffs.

The settlement administrator, Gilardi & Co., mailed checks for $1,000 to 5,296 individual claimants with single phone lines in early February. Additional checks will be mailed to claimants who had multiple lines in the coming weeks, Burns says.

After these payments are made, there will still be money left in the fund. "At that point, we will return to the court and ask the judge to make a 'cy pres' award to one or more charities. Cy pres is a judicial doctrine whereby undistributed funds may be distributed to worthy parties," Burns says.
The distribution plan was approved by the court. The maximum was set at $1,000 "to incentivize claims filings and get the maximum number of dollars in claimants' hands," rather than having most of the judgment distributed through cy pres, Burns says.

No attempt was made to contact customers by mail. "Due to the poor condition of the data that AT&T produced, Gilardi determined that the cost of providing individual notice might exceed $2 million" or 20 percent of the fund, Burns says.

Instead, Gilardi published ads in the biggest newspaper in each California county (including The Chronicle), set up a website, distributed a press release and developed a sponsored links program on Google.

To get a payment, customers had to send in a claim form along with an AT&T bill from the relevant time period or a statement, signed under penalty of perjury, saying they were a customer.

Gilardi did not return calls seeking comment.

Wes Nutten, a partner with Desmond, Marcello & Amster, which administers class-action settlements, says, "I have cases where every single class member has filed a claim and cases where 2 percent files a claim and everything in the middle." He says the response rate is always worse when you rely solely on advertising than when you notify potential victims by direct mail.

Even if the AT&T case missed a lot of victims, "it's not all about compensation of class members for the harm they suffered. It's also about punishing the wrongdoer," Nutten says.
Maybe so, but Cooper wonders whether "it would have been better to spend the $2 million" tracking down customers so the remaining $8 million was delivered "to a much larger class."

Tax impact

Burns says payments of $1,000 will not be reported to the IRS but payments over that amount will be.

"Gilardi has advised us that the checks for $1,000 do not trigger a reporting requirement under IRS rules and we have relied on their advice. This is because the reportable portion of the amount relating to prejudgment interest (roughly one-third of the amount) does not meet IRS reporting requirements," Burns says. "In contrast, for claimants with multiple lines, the prejudgment interest portion exceeds the reporting threshold. Hence, we have requested that those claimants fill out a W-9 form and return it to us before we distribute their checks."

If Gilardi does not receive a form in time, it will withhold some of the payment for taxes.
John Roth, a senior federal tax analyst with CCH, says that whether or not the payment is reported to the IRS, part of it is likely taxable. People who receive them should check with their tax preparer. He warns that researching the settlement could cost up to $250, which would eat into the windfall.

Chrome for Android won’t ever get Flash

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:57:00 +0000

Chrome for Android may have set its sights on being the default browser on your Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone, but you’ll have to make do with no Flash Player support if you give in to the new beta’s allure. Having announced that its Flash Player mobile plans were over back in

November, Adobe has confirmed that Chrome for Android does indeed arrive too late for a plugin of its own. That’s despite Android 4.0 already having Flash Player support in the native browser.

Flash Player for ICS was released near the end of 2011, Adobe’s final mobile flourish before it turned its attentions to HTML5. The decision to end Flash Player development for mobile devices followed long-standing criticism of the technology, most notably from Apple founder Steve Jobs, though the proliferation of Flash content online meant that for many users it was a necessary evil.

For now, Chrome for Android is only available if you’re on 4.0, meaning it’s a small percentage – around 1-percent, in fact – who get to play with the new app. If you’re interested in porting the browser to earlier versions of Android, meanwhile, developer Al Sutton points to the direct tarball download for your tinkering delectation.

Netflix Streaming Service Comes Up Short

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:12:00 +0000

Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) in its ongoing battle to make customers happy took another hit from its streaming service.

For those interested in seeing the year’s top 100 box office movies, this isn’t a venue offering a lot of choices.

According to a TNL.net post, Netflix offered five of 2011′s top 100 movies on its streaming service. This compares to its 10 movies offered in 2010.

Looking at Netflix’s competition, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple’s iTunes (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Vudu fared the same with numbers of offerings in the mid-40s. These three pay-for-view options appear to have access to the same movies and their prices to rent average between $3.99 to $5.99.

In addition to their greater number of top 100 movies,the three companies also saw less declines of their offerings year over year than Netflix. Coming in second is Amazon with three less movies and the remaining services with two.

So what does this mean for Netflix? It appears the company’s streaming service is moving more toward a TV-network model with its recent trend of producing original content.

Google Pulls the Plug on Businesses

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:05:00 +0000

In its continuing effort to bring focus to its operations, Google said it will shutter a half-dozen businesses--including Picnik, the photo-editing service that the company acquired less than two years ago.

Since the middle of last year, Google's been on a slashing binge, cleaving under-performing and peripheral businesses from its portfolio. In October, it announced plans to kill its Buzz social network. In July, it discontinued Google Labs. And in June, it pulled the plug on Google Health.

Google vice president of product management Dave Girouard said in a blog post that the latest round of cuts comes as the company works to build better services into the company's user experience.

"That means taking a hard look at products that replicate other features, haven't achieved the promise we had hoped for or can't be properly integrated into the overall Google experience," Girouard wrote.

Picnik is probably the best-known of the services Google is killing. The company bought the online photo editing service in March 2010, and plans to end the service on April 19. Instead, Google plans to offer photo editing "across Google products," Girouard wrote. It's already building some basic photo features into its Google+ social network, a likely spot for some Picnik services.

Picnik users can download a zip file of their creations through Picnik Takeout or copy them to Google+. And until its demise, Picnik's premium service is free, and its premium subscribers will receive full refunds.

Google is also dropping its Social Graph application programming interface. The API was designed to give developers tools to use information about public connections between people.

"The API isn't experiencing the kind of adoption we'd like, and is being deprecated as of today," Girouard wrote, noting that it will be fully retired on April 20.

Google is also closing Google Message Continuity, an email disaster recovery product for corporate customers that launched in December 2010. Instead, Google will be pushing its Google Apps business.

Google Sky Map, an app created by a handful of Googlers in its Pittsburgh office, will be open-sourced in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University. Needlebase, the data management platform picked up in the ITA Software acquisition last June, will go away, possibly integrated into Google's other data-related initiatives. And the company is closing its client-hosted web analytics product, Urchin Software, instead focusing on its online product.

Google: Larry Page's First Earnings Disappointment as CEO

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:17:00 +0000

Google’s Larry Page delivered his first disappointing quarterly results as chief executive officer after his push into mobile advertising and weakness in Europe trimmed growth in revenue from online advertising.

Shares fell as much as 10 percent in extended trading yesterday after Google reported fourth-quarter sales, excluding revenue passed on to partner sites, of $8.13 billion, falling short of the $8.41 billion average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Profit before certain costs was $9.50 a share, missing the $10.50 average estimate.

Page, CEO since April, is exiting poorly performing businesses while expanding in new areas, including the mobile Web to lessen reliance on traditional search. While that’s helping boost sales, it also crimps the amount of money Google can collect from advertisers because ads viewed on handsets are considered less valuable than those on a computer screen.

“Google looks more mortal this quarter,” said Colin Gillis, analyst at BGC Partners LP in New York. “A lot of what Larry Page is doing is a lot more tolerable to investors when the business is firing on all cylinders.”

The average price Google gets when users click on an ad slumped 8 percent last quarter. Growth was also hampered as demand weakness in Europe dragged down the euro and eroded the value of overseas revenue.

“Google is not invincible,” said Herman Leung, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group in San Francisco.

Europe Weakness

Google shares tumbled to as low as $573 in extended trading after the report. They had gained 1.1 percent to $639.57 at the close in New York. The stock climbed 8.7 percent last year.

International sales made up 53 percent of revenue in the quarter, down from 55 percent in the third quarter, Mountain View, California-based Google said. Online ad sales in Europe increased about 5 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with a 20 percent increase in the first half of last year, said Clay Moran, an analyst at Benchmark Co. in Delray Beach, Florida.
Search-based advertising spending in Europe rose 14 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with a 22 percent jump in the U.S., according to IgnitionOne Inc., a digital-marketing company.
Google’s net income rose to $2.71 billion, or $8.22 a share, compared with $2.54 billion, or $7.81 a share, a year earlier.

Operating expenses rose to $3.38 billion, or 32 percent of revenue, in the recent period. In the year-earlier quarter, operating costs equaled 30 percent of revenue, Google said.

‘Major Concerns’

“One of the major concerns here is, given the performance on the top line, what does the margin picture look like going forward?” said Ken Sena, an analyst at Evercore Partners Inc. in New York, who rates Google shares “overweight.”

The number of total clicks on ads rose 34 percent during the quarter, Google said.
The company has been working to offer customers more options in mobile and display advertising. Google also has been investing in its search engine to improve the quality of results and maintain its market-share lead over Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)’s Bing.

In December, Google’s share of U.S. searches rose to 65.9 percent from 65.4 percent the previous month, according to ComScore Inc. Microsoft had 15.1 percent of searches, up from 15 percent, while Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) accounted for 14.5 percent.

Google is betting it can maintain its dominance in search by offering faster, more personal query results. Last year, Google rolled out the “Instant Pages” feature, which aims to cut the time of searches for users by about 2 to 5 seconds.

Personalized Results

Earlier this month, Google introduced “Search, Plus Your World,” intended to give users more personalized search results by tapping content from the Google+ social-networking service. The search service lists items that users may have put on Google+ or related results from friends’ posts on the social site, which competes with Facebook Inc. The Google+ service now has 90 million users, more than double the amount in October.

Still, Google’s efforts to attract users have drawn regulatory scrutiny. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is focusing on whether Google unfairly ranks search results to favor its own businesses and increases advertising rates for competitors, a person familiar with the matter said in August.

More recently, the FTC expanded its antitrust probe of Google to include scrutiny of Google+, two people familiar with the situation said last week.

Google, which also develops the Android operating system for smartphones and tablets, has been using acquisitions in the past few years to build up its services for display ads, which features images, videos or animation, and ads on mobile devices.

Android, Display Gains

Last year, Google announced it was buying AdMeld Inc., which offers services to Internet publishers to manage display ads, and in 2010 the company bought AdMob Inc., which specializes in advertising on mobile phones.

Page, speaking on a conference call, said he was pleased with company’s performance. Google is on pace to generate $5 billion in sales from display-based ads a year, and there are now about 250 million devices that sport the Android operating system.

“I’m very happy with our results,” Page said. “Google had a very strong quarter.”

You and Google +

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:55:00 +0000

What do you do on Google +? Why do you like it?

Rakia Reynolds, principal at Skai Blue Media : (Philadelphia, Pa.)
My company has done research on Google+ and how it can benefit our clients. We regularly follow the progress of the Beta platform; however, we have refrained from establishing branded platforms on it. We see a plethora of future benefits for businesses in terms of customer relationship management , however, we have decided to let the platform mature a bit before we build anything into it.

We are using our observations of Google+ and its users to expand on our social media strategy. We plan to utilize Google+ ’s analytics, as well as the video platform for hosting virtual events, Q&A sessions and webinars.

Lindsey Pollak , author of "Getting from College to Career" and LinkedIn global spokesperson: (New York, NY)

So far I'd describe myself as a lurker on Google+. I've set up a profile and some circles and I'm following the updates to see what new features are being added. As someone who recently switched a large part of my business to Google Apps, I'm watching closely.

Tom Cannon, co-founder and CEO of BungoBox: (Orlando, Fla.)

Google +, at this point, seems to be very misunderstood by many, including me. Of course, as with all new social frontiers, companies and individuals must stake claim on this virtual real estate before others do. With that said, we have a corporate page on Google +, and I have a personal profile on Google +.

However, we rarely utilize Google + for any particular reason. I utilize Google + mostly to +1 content on the Web. It seems as though Google’s search algorithm gives a preference to content derived from Google + or interacted with via +1.

For example, when searching the name of an individual, Google seems to give preference to individuals who have a Google profile. When searching topics, Google seems to give preference to those articles that have been indicated as +1. This is a very interesting dynamic with regards to search and social. Google, in essence, is trying to influence social interaction by leveraging the power of its search tool. I think if this is true, then over time marketers could have a greater influence over organic search results on Google. I believe that social should have a major influence over search. In order for Google to maintain the integrity of search results it will be difficult for them to be a major player in the social space. Inevitably, I believe Google + will fall short of the long-term vision. To be successful in social Google will inevitably have to make an acquisition of an established platform.

Insecure Android a myth, Motorola exec says

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:03:00 +0000

It's a myth that Android isn't secure and is difficult for IT managers to control, a Motorola Mobile executive said in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show here.

Christy Wyatt, general manager of Motorola's recently-created enterprise business unit, said the company has recently started licensing security and management tools designed to bring virtual private networks, encryption and other protections to the Android platform to make it secure.

Motorola gained the security technology with its acquisition of 3LM, a maker of Android security and device management tools last year.

Other makers of Android-based devices, such as HTC and Sony, have struck agreements with Motorola to license the 3LM software, which will make Android more amenable to enterprise customers, Wyatt said.

While Wyatt wouldn't disclose the cost of a business 3LM console and server, she contended that it's not expensive.

Wyatt conceded that Android has faced skepticism from IT managers accustomed to security protections included in the Research in Motion BlackBerry Enterprise Server. "We have to get Android as a whole at a stable and secure place and once Android is behind the firewall [with 3LM],that helps," she said.

"There's a lot of mythology around Android and whether it's secure or not," she said. "IT needs hardware encryption and support for certifications and VPN."

Because Research in Motion has had a hard year with network outages, slow rollouts of new smartphones and financial worries, many in IT face the task converting some existing BlackBerry users to other smartphones platforms -- chiefly Android and Apple's iOS, Wyatt said.

"BlackBerry has been helping us in many ways, with outages and [more]," she said. "We hear people using Android saying they want to stay on Android and iPhone saying they want to stay on iPhone, but BlackBerry users say they might not want BlackBerry when they get another phone."

Meanwhile, the so-called consumerization of IT trend has led to workers who never received a company-issued BlackBerry to use a personal device for business voice and data needs. Many IT organizations used to providing support for 1,000 BlackBerry users might suddenly find they must support 30,000 smartphone users on a variety of platforms, Wyatt noted.

IT managers are also worried about controlling the data usage of workers, to keep costs down, she said.

Motorola's Android phones have for a year included a data management tool that can set policies on data usage. For example, the tool would let managers set a policy requiring that downloads, such as a movie, be done on Wi-Fi rather than 3G or 4G wireless, Wyatt said.

Currently, it's not possible to separate personal data usage from business use on Android devices, but capability is coming, Wyatt said.

Today, generic Android provides IT managers the ability to remotely wipe data from lost or stolen phones, an ability that could "create a lot of issues" for users who don't want to lose precious personal items as family photos, she noted. The 3LM tools do allow partitioning of personal and corporate data, which allows workers using personal smartphones to keep such data, Wyatt said.

Wyatt said she also believes corporate IT shops will be pleased that Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha recently called for fewer models of Motorola smartphones to be unveiled in 2012.

"Diversity costs money and to have to test an app on 30 models of phones instead of 10 models," she said. "Fewer models helps us with updates and testing and configuration and that applies to corporate IT."

Wyatt has been at Motorola for six years and previously handled OS licensing at Palm. She said her enterprise division is small, but wouldn't reveal how many workers she supervises. In her group are software developers as well as enterprise sales and marketing professionals.

Yahoo to name new CEO

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:52:00 +0000

Yahoo is poised to name PayPal President Scott Thompson as chief executive after firing former CEO Carol Bartz in September, website AllThingsD reported, citing sources close to the situation.

Former Web powerhouse Yahoo is undergoing a strategic review as it struggles to compete with newer heavyweights Google and Facebook. It has been run by interim CEO and former chief financial officer Tim Morse since Bartz's departure.

Thompson has been running PayPal, the online payments unit of eBay, since early 2008, and was previously its chief technology officer. PayPal processed $29 billion in payments in the third quarter of 2011.

Both Yahoo and PayPal declined to comment on the AllThingsD report on Wednesday.
Yahoo, whose services include mail, search, news and photo-sharing, was a Web pioneer that grew rapidly in the 1990s but has been struggling to maintain its relevance and advertising revenues in the face of competition from newer rivals.

In 2008, Yahoo rejected an unsolicited takeover bid from Microsoft worth about $44 billion. Its share price was subsequently hammered during the global financial crisis and its current market value is about $20 billion.

Co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down in late 2008 after being severely criticized by investors for his handling of the bid. The company cut thousands of jobs and later agreed an advertising and search partnership with Microsoft.

Recently, Yahoo has been discussing slashing its stakes in China's Alibaba Group and its Japanese affiliate as part of a share deal worth about $17 billion, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Alibaba has also hired a Washington lobbying firm in a sign that the Chinese e-commerce company would be willing to make a bid for all of Yahoo in the event that talks to unwind their Asian partnership fail.

Anonymous denies Stratfor hack

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:38:00 +0000

Cyber activists associated with Anonymous have denied executing a hack and extract operation against Stratfor, a US-based security think tank.

The hackers - who may be linked to Sabu of LulzSec fame - managed to steal Stratfor's confidential client list and mined over 4,000 credit card numbers, passwords and home addresses.

"The Stratfor hack is not the work of Anonymous. Stratfor is an open source intelligence agency, publishing daily reports on data collected from the openInternet. Hackers claiming to be Anonymous have distorted this truth in order to further their hidden agenda, and some Anons have taken the bait," the group claimed in an onlinecommuniqué.

"The leaked client list represents subscribers to a daily publication which is the primary service of Stratfor. Stratfor analysts are widely considered to be extremely unbiased. Anonymous does not attack media sources."  

According to Anonymous, Stratfor has been deliberately misrepresented by "these so-called Anons" and portrayed in false light as a company which engages in activity similar to HBGary.   

"Sabu and his crew are nothing more than opportunistic attention whores who are possibly agent provocateurs... As a media source, Stratfor's work is protected by the freedom of press, a principle which Anonymous values greatly. This hack is most definitely not the work of Anonymous," the group added.

For its part, Stratfor confirmed the above-mentioned hack and extract operation by issuing the following statement:

"On December 24th an unauthorized party disclosed personally identifiable information and related credit card data of some of our members. We have reason to believe that your personal and credit card data could have been included in the information that was illegally obtained and disclosed.

"Also publicly released was a list of our members which the unauthorized party claimed to be Stratfor's 'private clients.' Contrary to this assertion the disclosure was merely a list of some of the members that have purchased our publications and does not comprise a list of individuals or entities that have a relationship with Stratfor beyond their purchase of our subscription-based publications.

"We are also working to restore access to our website and continuing to work closely with law enforcement regarding these matters. We will continue to update you regarding the status of these matters."

Netflix Must Not Want You to Sign Up for DVD Delivery

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:21:00 +0000

Unable to kill its DVD business by separating out into Qwikster, Netflix seems to have stumbled on a new strategy to wean new customers off their shiny disc addiction: make it pretty much impossible to find a way to sign up for a subscription. When Netflix realized it had made a mistake separating out its DVD and streaming services under two names -- Netflix and Qwikster -- it claimed it understood the value of of both services united. That doesn't feel accurate. It still wants to push members away from the "dying" $1 billion dollar business of delivering red envelopes full of movie goodness because when it recruits new members or urges quitters to come back, Netflix doesn't really mention the "old fogey disc" part. Those determined to give Netflix their money to rent DVDs face a truly challenging hunt through its website.

We were pointed to this Netflix conspiracy by AllThingsD's Peter Kafka, who posted the following "please come back" e-mail, noting that Netflix only pushes its streaming arm.

To clarify: That $7.99 price refers to Netflix's unlimited streaming package. Note how it reads: "Instantly watch...." DVD delivery costs another $7.99 a month. But beyond forgetting to publicize a $1 billion part of the business, Netflix also makes it hard for first-time customers to sign up for DVDs, and nearly impossible to gift a DVD subscription.

Here's what we mean. We tried to give our technophobic moms a Netflix DVD subscription for Hannukah. After clicking "give" on Netflix.com, we got the following page.

No DVD option. (See: exclamation points.)

As for those trying to gift themselves a decadent Netflix subscription, DVDs included, the website, where people tend to sign up for things, makes that difficult, too. Currently, Netflix offers a month free trial of streaming for new members. It's the only way to sign up for the service, at least that we found, which makes sense because no sane capitalist would trade a free-month of anything for a paid one. In exchange for the gratis month, Netflix asks for credit card information. Then, after those 30 days of glory, Netflix will automatically charge the subscriber for the $7.99 of unlimited streaming. If one wants DVDs one has to check a separate box, which we didn't even notice until we looked for it.

But people mindlessly signing up for a free month of streaming might miss this.
Then, say post-free month of streaming, one decides he wants DVDs because he wasn't satisfied with the sparse streaming options and heard once upon a time Netflix had a ginormous physical DVD collection. The membership automatically rolls over to streaming. A potential DVD subscriber has to go hunting on the Netflix website. That extra $7.99 for Netflix is buried under 'Your Account & Help" in the upper right hand corner and then "change plan," where someone can finally pay Netflix for something it wants.

Even after putting the two services back together, CEO Reid Hastings has made his plans clear. "DVD will do whatever it’s going to do," he said at the UBS media conference. "We’re going to try to not hurt it, but we’re not putting a lot of time and energy into doing anything particular around it." DVDs just got negged at Netflix.

Microsoft says 2012 CES tech show will be its last

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:07:00 +0000

CES 2012 will be the last CES event that Microsoft will present a keynote and display products in a booth.

The Official Microsoft blog reports that the company will no longer provide the CES keynote presentation after the 2012 event taking place in Las Vegas next month. Even more, Microsoft won't even have a booth because the company's product news milestones "generally don’t align with the show’s January timing."

"As we look at all of the new ways we tell our consumer stories – from product momentum disclosures, to exciting events like our Big Windows Phone, to a range of consumer connection points like Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft.com and our retail stores – it feels like the right time to make this transition," the company said on Wednesday.

Microsoft said that it came to this decision after thinking about when the right time and place would be to make announcements, and is the company adjusting to the changing dynamics of its customers. "After thinking about questions like these, we have decided that this coming January will be our last keynote presentation and booth at CES," Microsoft added.

Later the CEA, the organization that makes the CES event possible, responded to Microsoft's announcement with a statement of its own, reporting that both Microsoft and CEA have agreed that it was time for the Redmond company to end its fourteen-year run.

"In the fourteen years that we have invited Microsoft to deliver a keynote address at CES, the company has unveiled some great innovations, from operating systems to gaming platforms to mobile technologies," reads the statement. "Both CEA and Microsoft have agreed that the time has come to end this great run, and so Microsoft will not have a keynote at the 2013 CES."

"Microsoft has also informed us that, although their plans for the 2013 CES are not yet finalized, they will not request the Central Hall exhibit space that they have used in past years," the statement continues. "Microsoft is an important member of CEA and we wish them all the best as they evolve their plans for new ways to tell consumer stories. We also look forward to their CES keynote on January 9, 2012."

Next month Steve Ballmer will reportedly focus on Windows Phone and the company's Xbox entertainment story. The keynote won't provide any significant news, but rather serve as more of a wrap up of the strong year the company has had in the consumer sector.

Is the HTC Sensation dull enough? (geekzone)

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:39:00 +0000

Share With Friends: | | Technology - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Apple still hiring to add to iWork team, focused on web apps (macnn.com)

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:39:00 +0000

Share With Friends: | | Technology - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

How to Build a Computer from Scratch, Lesson 2: Choose and Buy Your Parts [Lifehacker Night School] (Lifehacker.com)

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 03:39:00 +0000

Share With Friends: | | Technology - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

10 Quick Fixes to Make your Windows Computer Faster

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:17:00 +0000

Your computer running Windows isn’t running in the same speed that it used to run when you first used it. It’s slower, crappy, takes a while to start and tests your patience like anything. There are many reasons for this, let’s try fixing up a few things on your slow Windows PC:

Slow Start Up
There can be a variety of reasons to Windows loading slow during start up. Go to Run, type msconfig and hit enter. Under the ‘Start Up’ tab, uncheck the unwanted programs and press OK. Things should be a bit fine the next time Windows boots.

Another program worth mentioning here is StartUp Delayer which will help in setting after how much time programs should be loaded after Windows boots. For instance, you could set your instant messenger program to load 50 seconds after Windows starts up.

Slow Loading Start Menu
If the Start Menu items are loading slowly, you can open the Registry Editor by typing in the Run menu ‘regedit.exe’ and pressing Enter. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Look for MenuShowDelay, and double click to edit the value. The lower the number specified, the faster the Start Menu will load.

Slow Right Click Context Menu
Probably the Windows Right Click menu on your computer is loading slow because too many programs added unwanted entries there. Just download this program called Mmm, install it and then modify your context menu to remove unwanted items to speed it up.

Slow Send To Menu
If the Send To menu loads slowly, you can type ‘sendto’ in the Run Dialog, and remove unwanted items in the Explorer Window that appears. This should add some speed to it.

Slow Defragmentation
The Windows Defragmenter can’t get any slower. You need to have an alternative to the Windows Defragmenter, and Defraggler is just one of the best ones available in the market. It’s free, and works like a charm and can speed up defragmentation manifold. For some alternatives, see Five Free Programs to Defragment your PC.

Slow loading My Computer Window
If the My Computer Window loads slowly, in the Explorer Window, go to Tools >> Folder Options >> View and uncheck ‘Automatically search for network folders and printers”

Slow loading Add or Remove Programs Applet
This is one of the most annoying piece of programs present in Windows, it takes ages to load if you have a considerable number of programs installed on your computer. You can either use the all-in-one CCleaner for this purpose, or get MyUninstaller that comes as a speedy replacement for Add or Remove Programs.

Slow Ending of Unresponsive Programs
If you’ve clicked on ‘End Task’ if any program is running unresponsive, you might have noticed that the program is not terminated immediately. You can alter this by going to Run >> regedit.exe >> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ and change this value to 1000.

Disable Animations and Appearance Overhauls to maximize performance
If you’re a serious performance junkie, you probably won’t bother about eyecandy. Go to System Properties in the Control Panel. Click ‘Advanced’, then ‘Performance’ and click ‘Adjust for best performance’. This might boost your PC’s performance up a bit.

Additional Tips:

- Always keep your computer clean. Remove Junk and Unnecessary registry entries. Use CCleaner for this purpose, one excellent tool that just does what it says.

- Don’t keep installing software. Install a program only if it really serves you a purpose.

- Keep as less programs as possible running on the System Tray. This essentially means reducing the number of programs that start during Windows start up.

THE MOUNTAIN LAKE FOLLY

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 13:49:00 +0000

Mountain Lake lies nearly hidden at the southern edge of the Presidio. The campsite of the Anza settlement party in 1776, it became a source of fresh water for San Francisco during the early years. Much of the lake's shoreline was buried in the 1930s to provide a freeway approach to the Golden Gate Bridge.

In the very early days of San Francisco, only two years after the argonauts of ‘49 arrived here, some enterprising gentlemen, gifted more with long purses than prophetic foresight, came to the conclusion that the city needed a water system.

They invested about $300,000 in tunneling under the hills of Mountain Lake, near the Marine Hospital, to Larkin and Pacific streets.

It was a big brick and concrete tunnel, big enough for a small man to walk through without ducking his head, and it is still there.

For a mile or more its runs under the center of Pacific street, then cuts into the hills through the Presidio reservation, and opens out within a hundred yards or less of Mountain Lake.

It is a very expensive tunnel, very well constructed, but of no utter use in all the world. Nor was it ever of any service. Shortly after its completion the whole scheme collapsed, as it should have done in its infancy.

It is a very interesting story and not known to the younger people of this generation. It was the first movement towards securing a water supply for San Francisco, and the prime movers in the scheme were John Middleton, Ferdinand Vassault, A. D. Merrifield and William G. Wood.

Of these only Ferdinand Vassault is alive today, and he is a very old, white-haired gentleman, with a remarkable facility of speech and excellent memory for one so old.

He told the story to a CALL man in the following sequence: “In 1851 I bought the eighty-acre tract in which Mountain Lake is situated,” he begins, “from Edward M. Parker, who had located there and carried on a small vegetable farm. The land lies in the rear and adjoining the Government reservation.

“Governor Samuel Purdy soon afterward became the part owner of and the representative of the whole of an undivided one-half of the tract of eighty acres.

“Major Robert Allen, then Quartermaster-General for the Pacific Coast, William G. Wood, John Middleton, A. D. Merrifield, Governor Purdy and myself then organized a company for the purpose of utilizing the water of Mountain Lake in supplying the city of San Francisco. The corporation was known as the Mountain Lake Water Company.

“June 1, 1851, we secured a franchise for building the tunnel and laying our mains. Then at a cost of $280,000 we built a big brick tunnel 5 feet by 4 1/2, interior dimensions.

“Major Allen, Governor Purdy and myself were the principal owners of both the land and the company. The surveys for the water system were made by John Morris and a noted civil engineer of that time named Hotalliog. When the tunnel was built and the surveys all completed we found that we had invested altogether $280,000. About $500,000 was still needed to complete the enterprise, and this amount we could not borrow on bonds here save at a frightening high rate of interest.

“So Nathaniel Bennett, Governor Purdy and Mr. Wood went on to New York to negotiate the loan. Through the house Horace Ketcham & Co. the loan was finally engineered at a reasonable rate of interest, and a day was set upon which the papers were to be signed and the money placed in the bank subject to our order.

“When the day arrived for the consummation of the deal Charles O’Connell, who was the attorney for Horace Ketcham & Co., after examining our franchise and act of incorporation, raised the technical point that the latter document did not empower our corporation to raise money on bonds.

“It was then agreed that the matter should stay over until the Legislature of California convened again, when the technicality should be remedied and the money loaned without further delay.

“That year the Assembly met at Vallejo and the great water-front question was brought up. There was great excitement over the settlement of this controversy and as a consequence all lesser matters were lost sight of.

“Hall McAllister, who was out here then, Mr. Wood and myself went to Vallejo to try to resurrect our forgotten cause.

“At that time I had organized a company with certain Russian officials for the purpose of bringing ice down here from Sitka. We wanted a special law passed enabling the Russian Government officials to become partners with us in the enterprise.

“In this matter we were successful and the best legal authorities on the coast assured us that in this enactment the very point raised by the attorney for Horace Ketcham & Co. was fully covered. We were satisfied with that and did not feel like asking the Legislature to duplicate its motion for our especial benefit.

“But when the New York attorney looked into the question he came to the opinion that the point he had raised was not covered at all by the Russian law.
“As so the matter of the loan dropped entirely. We had already lost a good deal of money in the water company as none of us could afford to get further involved in it the whole thing fell through.”

In 1857 John Seuslcy A. W. von Schmidt and A. Chabot organized the San Francisco Water Works. Their plan was to run off the water from Mountain Lake through Lobos Creek and carry the water down to the city in wooden flumes.

But on testing the capacity of Mountain Lake, which is the outlet of a deep spring, the found it inadequate to the demands, and the principal supply for the water system came from Lobos Creek. To this day the system founded by these men is in operation, and one may follow the course of their wooden flumes along the coast line from Lobos Creek till it passes Fort Point and is lost under the hill several miles from its source.

In 1865 Spring Valley became the successor of the San Francisco Water Works, but it still employs the Lobos Creek flumes and system.

The Mountain Lake Water Company’s project met with less favor from succeeding water-supply companies, and even its costly brick aqueduct has never been turned to account.

This fact alone seems to argue the folly of the scheme. The civil engineers of to-day smile derisively when asked for an opinion as to the utility of that tunnel or the practicability of using the Mountain Lake spring as a water supply.

Of course, the Larkin street end of the big aqueduct has been covered up long since, and the only sign left now of the pretentious water system is a grass-grown trench running from Mountain Lake about 200 yards to the mouth of the brick aqueduct.

But the mouth of the aqueduct itself is filled with tons of earth that fall over it so very long ago that to-day it is grown over with weeds and grass, and the bright yellow poppies blooming there seem to have ever grown and thrived in the outlet of a useless tunnel that cost $280,000.

Today! A part of the big brick and concrete tunnel was discovered on the Presidio of San Francisco. This is a small, but VERY cool part of San Francisco history.