HIGH TECH COMPUTER NEWS

T-Mobile investigates possible security breach

noreply@blogger.com (High Tech) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:29:00 +0000

T-Mobile USA is looking into claims that a hacker has broken into its data bases and stolen customer and company information.

Someone anonymously posted the claims on the security mailing list Full Disclosure on Saturday. In that post, the hacker claims to have gotten access to "everything, their databases, confidential documents, scripts and programs from their servers, financial documents up to 2009."

The poster said he had offered the information to T-Mobile competitors, but they supposedly didn't show any interest. Now he says he is offering the information to the highest bidder.

T-Mobile issued a statement that the company is looking into the matter.

"The protection of our customers' information, and the safety and security of our systems, is absolutely paramount at T-Mobile," the company said. "Regarding the recent claim, we are fully investigating the matter. As is our standard practice, if there is any evidence that customer information has been compromised, we would inform those affected as soon as possible."

Some security experts were skeptical of the claims.

"The way this data has been offered is not the way the Underground Economy usually works," said Steve Santorelli, a former Scotland Yard detective who is director of global outreach at security research firm Team Cymru. "Such a highly public offer certainly tends to suggest that this is a hoax or a scam. Many things don't add up: for example, if you'd spent the time to get all this data, surely you'd have a buyer lined up or at least the connections to discretely find a buyer. Now that 'the cat's out of the bag,' the data is worth significantly less on the open market as T-Mobile will be able to put countermeasures in place such as changing passwords."

Kelly Todd, chief communications officer at the Open Security Foundation, said there wasn't enough information publicly available to determine at this time whether the breach is legitimate or not.

"At initial glance I'd say a list like that could be legitimate," he said. However, "I would have to question their comment that they had contacted T-Mobile competitors...You'd think that in order to cover their tracks they would want to take a different route than to contact the competitors."

T-Mobile has had three prior data breaches recorded on the DataLossdb.org site, which the Open Security Foundation runs. In 2005, a teenager was able to get phone numbers of celebrities who use the service; in 2006 a laptop was reported lost that contained social security numbers and addresses of about 45,000 T-Mobile customers; and in October 2008 a disc was reported lost that contained data on about 17 million T-Mobile customers, according to Todd.

CNET News' Elinor Mills contributed to this report.

Intel funds mobile WiMax effort in Japan

noreply@blogger.com (High Tech) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:28:00 +0000

The venture capital arm of chipmaker Intel has announced an investment in Japanese WiMax company UQ Communications, which intends to provide coverage to most of Japan by 2012.

Intel Capital announced the $43 million investment on Sunday. Intel has long been a prime backer of the wide-range wireless technology, which it says has been deployed to varying extents in 135 countries.

"Intel Capital's investment in UQ Communications is one of our most significant commitments in developing the WiMax ecosystem around the globe," Intel Capital president Arvind Sodhani said in a statement. "UQ's WiMax deployment in Japan is a spectacular example of technology innovation being put to work."

UQ, whose network went live in February, is deploying the mobile variant of WiMax. The fixed version is already being offered in some areas of the U.K., but deployment of the mobile version--a candidate for the title of "4G"--is being held up by a lack of available spectrum.

When it goes to auction, the bulk of this spectrum--in the so-called "3G expansion band" around 2.6GHz--is expected to go to providers of rival technology LTE, but it is possible that some will be bought by a provider of mobile WiMax.

LTE has the backing of most of the incumbent mobile industry, but deployments are expected to lag behind mobile WiMax by a year or two.

David Meyer of ZDNet UK reported from London

Apple bashes Windows 7, talks Snow Leopard

noreply@blogger.com (High Tech) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:28:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO--While Microsoft is trying to position Windows 7 as an exciting new version of the operating system, Apple on Monday tried to characterize it as the same old Windows.

In a keynote speech at the Worldwide Developer Conference here, Apple's Bertrand Serlet said the underpinnings of Windows 7 include the same complexities that have been in the past versions of the operating system.

"That's Windows 7," he said. "Fundamentally, it's just another version of Windows Vista."

Bertrand Serlet speaking at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Serlet tried to draw a contrast between Windows and what Apple is doing with Snow Leopard, the next version of its own operating system. "We've come at it from such a different place."

But while his rhetoric suggested a fundamental difference, Serlet actually characterized Snow Leopard in some of the same ways--as a better version of the existing Leopard operating system.

"We love Leopard," he said. "We are proud of Leopard."

The goal of Snow Leopard, he said, was really "to build a better Leopard."

There are other similarities between what Apple's and Microsoft's efforts. Among the new features in Snow Leopard is a feature that adds the Expose window--previewing feature to the Dock--not unlike the Aero Peek feature that Windows 7 has as part of its new task bar.

In fairness, there are some key differences between what Apple is doing with Snow Leopard compared to what Microsoft is doing with Windows 7.

Windows 7 is largely focused on improving the look and performance of the core Vista engine, while Snow Leopard goes more under the hood, aiming to better handle 64-bit processing and multicore capabilities.

Apple is also trying to boost its Windows compatibility story by adding Exchange server capability to Snow Leopard. According to Apple, all the user has to do is fill in an e-mail address and password, and the software will "auto-detect" the Exchange Server and make the user's calendar and mail available in Mac OS X's iCal and Mail programs.

The biggest pressure from Apple, though came on the pricing front. Serlet said that Apple will ship Snow Leopard in September and charge just $29 for Leopard owners to upgrade.

Microsoft has hinted that it will offer a cheaper upgrade for Vista users to move to Windows 7, but has not announced details.

Apple: Next Mac OS X unlocks chip power

noreply@blogger.com (High Tech) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:27:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO--Apple wants Mac OS X to do a better job dealing with the new directions that Moore's Law has taken computer chips.

At its Apple Worldwide Developer Conference here, Craig Federighi, vice president of Mac OS engineering, shed light on technology called Grand Central Dispatch that's designed to make Mac OS X 10.6, called Snow Leopard, take better advantage of multicore processors and graphics processors.

Power play at Apple's WWDC 2009.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Computer chips for years improved in performance through faster clock speeds, but processor engineers ran into problems with chips consuming inordinate amounts of power and producing inordinate amounts of heat. In addition, the faster clock speeds sometimes meant chips just idled faster because memory access speeds couldn't keep up.

The new direction: multicore processors that put multiple processing engines on the same chip. The problem with the approach, though, is that PC software typically had been written to run with one thread of instructions at a time. Multicore processors work best when software does many things at the same time, which is much harder to program.

Grand Central Dispatch is designed to address that problem for software developers, making it easier to program multithreaded software, use operating system services, and tune program executions.

It also improves how Mac manages those threads, Federighi said. For example, when running Apple's Mail app, today's Leopard OS uses about the number of threads when busy as when idle.

"When it's busy, it uses more threads to take advantage of multicores. When idle, all those threads go away, giving back resources to the system," Federighi said. "When you apply that to every application, you get a big win in performance and responsiveness."

Graphics chip power
The new Mac OS X also is designed to support a programming technology called GPGPU--general-purpose graphics processing unit--which lets a graphics chip run some computing jobs in addition to its ordinary job displaying graphics.

To make its GPGPU technology work, Apple uses OpenCL, a C-like programming technology that has the support of graphics chipmakers Nvidia, AMD's ATI, Intel, and others.

Graphics chips aren't good for every sort of computing task, but they are good for mathematical calculations--including they physics calculations often needed in video games that simulate flowing fabrics, bouncing balls, and other real-world actions.

Mac OS X will be available in September with an upgrade price of $29, a big notch less expensive than the $129 price of earlier upgrades.

Apple also is working to support 64-bit x86 processors, now the prevailing standard. One big advantage of 64-bit processors is support for more than 4GB of memory; Federighi also touted faster mathematical processing such as the doubled speed of fast Fourier transforms.

Apple has been gradually making its operating system fully 64-bit. "Snow Leopard is final stage where all the major system applications are written in 64-bit mode," Federighi said.

Sprint breaks its sales record with Palm Pre

noreply@blogger.com (High Tech) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:27:00 +0000

print Nextel executives said Monday that the launch of the much anticipated Palm Pre on Saturday hit a new sales record for the company.

Neither Sprint nor Palm is discussing specific sales figures, but Tim Donahue, vice president of business marketing for Sprint, said that the launch exceeded the company's expectations.

(Credit: CNET )

"We experienced our best one day of sales and single weekend sales for any phone we've launched in our history," he said. "We sold out of the device over the weekend in most of our store locations. And it happened at a much faster rate than we had planned on. "

While the crowds that showed up on Saturday morning to buy the Pre at Sprint stores and other retail locations where the phone was offered were small in number compared to the crowds that have gathered for the past two iPhone launches, analysts are calling the launch of the Pre a success. A J.P. Morgan report estimated that more than 50,000 phones were sold in the first two days the phone was available. The Wall Street Journal cited analysts who said that between 50,000 and 100,000 Pres had been sold.

Now Sprint and Palm must wait to see if the momentum will continue. Donahue said the company plans to replenish inventory at retail stores as quickly as Palm can get the devices shipped. Customers can sign up to be on a waiting list for devices and will be notified when a phone is available. Donahue said that these lists should help the company direct new phones to locations with the highest demand. But he admitted there could be shortages and delays in getting the Pre into customers' hands.

"I'll be honest," he said. "There will be constrained inventory for some time. And there will be spot shortages for the foreseeable future."

But Donahue said the company will do everything it can to sell as many Pres as it can. Still, it will be interesting to see how well the Pre continues to sell now that Apple has just announced the next-generation iPhone, which will be outfitted with new processing guts to give it more power and speed. The iPhone 3G S will come with 16GB of storage for $199 with a two-year contract and a 32GB version that will sell for $299 with a two-year contract. Apple is also releasing a big software upgrade. The 3.0 OS is loaded with new features for old and new iPhone users. The latest versions of the iPhone and the software upgrade will be available next week.

In addition to the new phones and new software, Apple also slashed the price of its 8GB iPhone 3G to $99, which could put pressure on the Pre. Sprint is offering the Pre, which also has 8GB of storage capacity, for $199 with a $100 mail-in rebate.

Even though the Pre has an impressive touch screen that is similar in function to the iPhone, it may actually compete more with Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices than the iPhone. The Pre's physical keyboard and the phone's ability to handle multiple functions at once, much like a computer can, make it a good device for business users, Donahue and other executives have said.

But Donahue stops short of calling the device a BlackBerry-killer. After all, Sprint also sells quite a lot of those too.

"When you look at our customer base, the lines are blurred today versus five or 10 years ago," he said. "Subscribers use their phones for business as well for personal use. It isn't an either/or situation. And here is a device that I think is the best crossover device for business and personal use in the marketplace today."

One thing is for certain, Palm and Sprint are banking on the phone's success. For Palm, the Pre offers a chance to get back into the smartphone game. And for Sprint, the Pre provides a window of opportunity to attract new customers and retain old ones with a cool device that will show off the new and improved Sprint network.

Can Apple beat the too-expensive rap?

noreply@blogger.com (High Tech) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:25:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO--The big knock on Apple--whether or not it's always been accurate--is that its products are more expensive than most of its competitors.

But in the keynote speech Monday that opened Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, it became clear the company is tackling the price question head on.

The best example of this new attitude is the decision to keep the 8GB iPhone 3G, but sell it at $99. That was the most aggressive price move it made Monday. But Apple was price conscious in other ways, too: It upgraded its 13-inch unibody MacBook to specs worthy of its more high-end MacBook Pro line, while also reducing the price. The MacBook Pro 15-inch and MacBook Air also received price cuts. And Apple didn't stop there. The new Mac OS X 10.6, known as Snow Leopard, will cost current Mac OS X 10.5 owners just $29 to upgrade when it becomes available in October.

The price cuts on the MacBook lineup and the iPhone 3G are clearly intended to bring more "switchers" over to the Mac and iPhone platforms. And it shows that Apple is acutely aware of the financial problems facing potential new customers. But will it work?

There are two things that lowering the price of the iPhone to $99 does: It broadens the potential base of people who can now afford the iPhone. It also kneecaps Palm. The $199 8GB Palm Pre has been touted as a potential "iPhone killer," or at least a very nice alternative to Apple's device. But the Pre is now $100 more than the comparable device from Apple. That could make the decision very easy for people who are on the fence.

But this isn't just about Palm. It's about all the other phones that are currently sub-$100 right now, too. As of the beginning of the year, Apple owns just under 11 percent of the smartphone market, and that could increase exponentially now. In order to figure out just how much a price cut from $199 to $99 on the 8GB version will affect consumers, the best example is what happened when Apple cut the iPhone from $399 to $199 last year. That was also a 50 percent price reduction.

Apple watcher and Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster notes that the price cut last year tripled the sales of the device, from 4.7 million iPhones sold in the three quarters before the price cut, to 15 million iPhones sold after the release of the $199 iPhone 3G. There are other factors of course: greater visibility for the iPhone after a year of being on the market, people who had been holding out for a 3G version of the phone, and more availability in international markets. But Munster says demand in the U.S. alone increased 100 percent with that price cut.

Whether Apple can repeat this is going to be determined by a number of factors. Of course, the economic environment isn't the same as it was a year ago, plus far more people have iPhones already, and there are more smartphones on the market now.

In any case, the decision on price shows Apple is being aggressive, and it makes a statement about the kinds of customers it is courting.

The same is true of its pricing approach to the Snow Leopard upgrade. While there are plenty of flashy new tweaks to the operating system, they're just that: tweaks. The updated OS is not a monumental change from Leopard, which is why Apple likely went with the easier-to-stomach and surprisingly low upgrade fee for current Leopard users of $29. (When Leopard was introduced, it cost $129).

Jab at Redmond
The move also clearly puts pressure on Microsoft vis a vis Windows 7, which will start shipping in October. Microsoft executive Bill Veghte told CNET News last week that Microsoft is considering whether to offer a lower-cost Windows 7 upgrade for Vista users--and hinted as much in a speech earlier on Monday. A leaked Best Buy memo says the retailer plans to pre-sell Windows 7 upgrades for $50. However, it is unclear if that is a promotional price; Microsoft has yet to publicly detail its plans.

That wasn't the only jab at Redmond during the presentation. Some were more subtle than others (Like Bertrand Serlet's remark about "Windows 7 is just another version of Vista.") Microsoft has worked hard to make the choice of buying a Mac or a PC about the price--just witness its series of I'm a PC ads that send moms, kids, aspiring actresses, and college students searching for inexpensive laptops at retail stores. Apple, however, has never really engaged on the issue of pricing--the company's messaging on Macs has always been to position it as "the best computer" period. But the aggressive pricing on Mac laptops revealed at WWDC today shows that Microsoft (and Hewlett-Packard, and Dell, and Sony, etc.) has Cupertino's attention.

Prices were cut across the board, from the newly introduced 13-inch MacBook Pro to the MacBook Air. The 13-inch now starts at $1,199 and 15-inch at $1,699, though both received upgrades to battery life, the screen technology, and a new SD card slot. The MacBook Air price was the biggest change: It now costs $1,499 for the low-end Air and $1,799, down from $2,499, for the high-end version packed with a 128GB solid-state drive.

Apple is obviously hoping to rejuvenate its Mac sales. While the overall market for computers has dropped steeply, Apple's sales have fallen but not as drastically. Its market share stands at about 7.5 percent, but sales for February and April this year were both trending at about a 4 percent to 16 percent declines in unit growth from the same time a year prior. Price cuts across the board could definitely get people to shop again.

Track traffic while on the go for Memorial Day

noreply@blogger.com (High Tech) — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:06:00 +0000

Memorial Day is one of the busiest traffic days of the year. No matter where you're going, you're likely to get caught in traffic. But if you're looking to find a way to escape it, you've come to the right place. We've found a variety of apps and sites that can be accessed from your mobile phone or GPS device that provide you with all the traffic data you need to stay away from busy roads. But remember: you shouldn't use these apps while you drive. So either try these out in the passenger seat or hand them off to your travel companion while you cruise down the road.

Traffic-tracking tools

Commuter Feed makes you rely on Twitter friends to find traffic.

(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET)

Commuter Feed If you can access Twitter from your mobile phone, Commuter Feed will be helpful. The site is a network of Twitter users that communicate bad traffic areas with the rest of the community. Whenever they see a backup or an accident, they update the site with its location. It's not a huge community, so finding traffic in smaller areas will be tough. But if you're in a big city and you can access Commuter Feed while on the go, I think you'll be happy with what you find.

Google Maps Accessing Google Maps' traffic data takes no time if you have a mobile phone, like the iPhone or T-Mobile G1. Once you find the area you're looking for, you can click the "traffic" button above the map. The tool will then color-code streets based on the amount of traffic at the time. Green means you won't need to worry about traffic. Red means you will. It covers most areas in the U.S. It's a great tool.

Live Maps Microsoft's Live Maps features outstanding traffic data. Similar to Google Maps, Live Maps displays traffic in streets in most areas across the U.S. You can even export the map to your GPS device. Mobile phone users who have the mobile version of Live Search installed can choose an area (most major metro areas are currently supported) and see how traffic is at any time. Unfortunately, only BlackBerry and Windows Mobile users can download the mobile version of Live Maps.

Mobile Millennium Mobile Millennium is a free public traffic-information system that uses speed and position information gathered from GPS-equipped cell phones. Users can download the software onto their device and see how traffic is in their area. Unfortunately, Mobile Millennium only works on a select number of phones -- so far, mostly BlackBerry devices and Nokia smartphones -- so not everyone will be able to use it.

MSN Direct shows traffic data on the Garmin Nuvi.

(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET)

MSN Direct MSN Direct is a neat tool for your GPS device. If you have a Garmin Nuvi that supports MSN Direct, you can pay $50 per year or a one-time payment of $130 and have access to real-time traffic no matter where you go. MSN Direct will display traffic around you. You can then direct your GPS device to find an alternate route on those roads that have less traffic. It's not available in every small town across the U.S., but it covers enough cities that I think you'll be happy with it.

Traffic The Traffic app for the iPhone is extremely useful. It uses your iPhone's GPS to determine traffic on the roads around you. Since it displays that information over a Google Maps integration, you should be able to find your way around the heavy traffic areas without much trouble. It costs $1.99 in the Apple App Store.

Traffic.com Although Traffic.com is specifically designed for you to check traffic before you go on a trip, it will send you alerts via text message when you're traveling. Once you sign up for the site, you can route your trip. You can then choose to be alerted to any changes in traffic along your route for the days you will be traveling. The service sends you a text message with the update. It won't reroute you, but it will tell you that the roads you're approaching are getting backed up. The site is free to use, but standard text-messaging rates will apply.

TrafficGauge You can access the TrafficGauge mobile site from your cell phone and track traffic as you travel. You can also use its Facebook app or install it on your desktop. It tracks traffic wherever you go. But there's one issue: it's only available in select cities. So far, TrafficGauge can only be used in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and a handful of other U.S. metro areas.

Traffic View lets you see more than markers.

(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET)

TrafficInfo TrafficInfo is an iPhone app that lets you see how traffic is on certain streets in a few cities across the U.S. If you live outside a major U.S. city, you probably won't find much use for TrafficInfo. But if you do live in a major city, the app will give you a listing of all the streets in a particular area and their traffic status. Unfortunately, you won't be able to view traffic over a map, so it might be difficult to decide where to go. But since TrafficInfo is free, it might be worth trying out before you spend money on paid alternatives.

Traffic View If you want to see more than markers on a map, the Traffic View iPhone app is for you. It provides you with up-to-date traffic information in major metro areas across the U.S. When you click on one of the markers, it loads a traffic camera from the area. So, if you want to see how traffic is on Fifth Avenue in New York City, you can click on the respective marker and Traffic View will display a real-time video of the street. Like Traffic, all those markers are placed over a Google Maps display, so you can find your way around trouble areas. Traffic View costs $1.99 in the Apple App Store.

The Top 3

If you're in a hurry and you want to find the best apps before you leave, here you go:

1. Google Maps

2. MSN Direct

3. Traffic.com

Microsoft warns of SharePoint bug

noreply@blogger.com (High Tech) — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:04:00 +0000

Microsoft warned on Friday of a significant bug in the latest version of its SharePoint portal product.

The bug, in a service pack update to the product, improperly activates an expiration date, so SharePoint will expire as though it were a trial installation 180 days after the service pack is deployed.

Microsoft says the bug will not affect SharePoint performance until the ersatz expiration date passes. The company also said customer data will not be affected, even if the product does expire but that it will render SharePoint inaccessible for end users.

Microsoft says a manual fix is out now and that it's working on rolling out an automatic fix. More details on the bug and what steps customers can take to fix it are available on the company's Web site.

AMD says Intel-only deal struck at Apple in 2005

noreply@blogger.com (High Tech) — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:03:00 +0000

An Advanced Micro Devices executive claims that Intel and Apple cut a deal in 2005 that made Intel an exclusive supplier of processors to Apple, preventing AMD from gaining Apple business.

No AMD CPUs are currently used in Apple computers.

(Credit: Apple)

The claim, made in a phone interview with Tom McCoy, AMD's senior vice president of legal affairs, earlier this week, holds that Intel has had a longstanding deal to be Apple's sole supplier of microprocessors. To date, Apple has not used an AMD central processing unit (CPU) in any of its products. Currently, only Intel CPUs populate Apple's laptop, desktop, and server lineups.

This assertion by AMD comes in the wake of the EU decision last week to fine Intel $1.45 billion for violating antitrust legislation. Last week's EU decision centered on whether Intel used illegal tactics to deny processor business to AMD at PC makers.

McCoy said that a deal was struck when Apple moved from the PowerPC (IBM-Motorola) chip architecture to the x86 (Intel-AMD) architecture. The transition was announced by Steve Jobs at the Worldwide Developers Conference in 2005.

"They made a deal when they were porting over from PowerPC to x86 as to how much Intel was willing to pay for that port. My guess is that Intel asked for and won exclusivity in return for the help that they gave Apple to port," McCoy said.

McCoy continued: "That deal will not be exclusive forever and when that exclusivity is over, I'm sure they (Apple) will choose on the merits. We'll have a chance to compete for Apple's business when Apple is ready," he said. Intel denies this allegation.

Though McCoy did not make any direct charge of illegal activity regarding such a deal, the assertion is not that far removed from charges made in the July 2005 AMD complaint against Intel. AMD, in that filing, cited Dell, among other examples of exclusive Intel deals with PC makers. "In its history, Dell has not purchased a single AMD x86 microprocessor despite acknowledging Intel shortcomings and customer clamor for AMD solutions, principally in the server sector...Dell has been and remains Intel-exclusive. According to industry reports, Intel has bought Dell's exclusivity with outright payments and favorable discriminatory pricing and service." (Note: Dell, in 2005, offered no AMD-based products, though it does today.)

Whether the deal is exclusive doesn't in itself constitute a legal argument, according to Joshua D. Wright of the George Mason University School of Law, who has written about the EU decision in a blog, "Truth on the Market." "Under Section 2 of the Sherman Act, a plaintiff must show that the exclusive dealing arrangement harmed competition in the form of higher prices, lower output, or reduced innovation," Wright said, responding to an e-mail query.

Addressing the Apple case, Wright said that by granting exclusivity or a large share of their business, "Apple and others are able to play Intel and AMD off each other to get higher rebates. These rebates are ultimately passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices. That's a critical part of the equation here. In other words, when Apple makes a decision whether or not to accept Intel's offer of higher rebates plus exclusivity versus whatever it is that AMD offers, it weighs these different aspects of competition (quality, price, rebate, exclusivity). It is making a decision on the merits of the total competitive package," he said.

Intel says the original Apple decision was, in fact, based on the merits. "Intel won the business based on the merits of its technology and product road maps, which included superb mobile processors and our 45nm Hi-k-based processor roadmap," Intel spokeswoman Claudine Mangano said in response to an e-mail query. "What has resulted from this decision is tremendous product and market innovation. If Intel technology did not perform well and our product road map was not strong, customers would go elsewhere," she said.

The transition was not trivial, according to Intel. "The decision was a large undertaking and a multiyear effort given the customer was porting to a new architecture," she said.

Apple declined to comment on this story.

Analysts agree that the transition from PowerPC to x86 was a formidable undertaking.

"Intel put a significant amount of resources into helping Apple make that transition," said Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat. "There are different ways you could do this. In terms of product pricing, charging for engineering resources, or maybe even--'this is our agreement to provide you with these products in exchange for the engineering,'" he said. McGregor added that AMD may not have had the wherewithal to take on the transition. "I don't know if Apple could even have gone to AMD. Because I don't know if AMD would have had the resources to do that."

Marion Morales, vice president of IDC's semiconductors research program, said Apple is fiercely independent and, generally, picks suppliers with Darwinian rigor. "Apple is notorious for not being very loyal," he said. "They are always changing suppliers around. Whoever offers the better technology," according to Morales.

"For example, they're using Samsung for the (ARM) processor that's now in the iPhone," Morales said. "But it won't surprise me when they replace that with something that's better. And when you look at the processor itself, they're designing the processor and using Samsung as a foundry (factory)," he said, underscoring the fact that Apple emphasizes internally developed technology and de-emphasizes external suppliers, even large companies like Intel and Samsung.

Morales continued. "Maybe at this point in time Apple is only using Intel. But if they had a chance to use someone else that's better, they would," he said.

The Intel-Apple relationship has had its ups and downs. Though Apple extolled the virtues of Intel's architecture after its transition to Intel in 2006 and continued this in January 2008, for example, when it introduced the MacBook Air--which, at the time, used a special Intel processor--the two companies were not so chummy in October of last year when Apple announced a refresh of its MacBooks, replete with Nvidia chipsets that displaced Intel silicon.

Apple has also acquired chip company PA-Semi, which is expected to design silicon for Apple's iPhone or other consumer electronics devices.

Cartier sues Apple, then withdraws suit

noreply@blogger.com (High Tech) — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:01:00 +0000

It's been a busy 24 hours for Apple and Cartier lawyers.

Luxury watchmaker Cartier on Friday sued Apple for trademark infringement because of a pair of applications available on its App Store. By Saturday, however, Cartier decided to withdraw the suit, The Wall Street Journal reported.

(Credit: Digitopolis Game Studio)

At the heart of Cartier's infringement claim was a pair of apps called Fake Watch and Fake Watch Gold Edition. The apps are made by Digitopolis Game Studio, which interestingly enough, was not named in the lawsuit.

Filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the lawsuit claimed the applications give people the ability to tell time on the iPhone and iPod Touch with a display that simulates famous wristwatches.

Jonathan Lagarenne, Cartier's lawyer, said the lawsuit would be withdrawn because the company was satisfied that Apple had removed the apps from the store.

Representatives from Apple were not immediately available for comment.

Facebook, Think settle trademark dispute

noreply@blogger.com (High Tech) — Sun, 24 May 2009 04:56:00 +0000

Facebook and Think Computer have settled a dispute over whether the former actually owns the term "facebook."

Under the settlement announced late Friday, Think has agreed to abandon its efforts to get the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the trademark issued to Facebook in 2006.

The story behind the dispute between Think and Facebook is a long, convoluted one. But according to the joint statement, Think founder Aaron Greenspan attended Harvard with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg earlier this decade. In 2003, Think released HouseSystem, a Web-based student portal that included a section called "The Universal Face Book" or "The Face Book." At launch, the statement said, HouseSystem didn't include member profiles because of security concerns. Think added profiles after Zuckerberg launched Facebook in 2004, the statement said.

"Aaron and I studied together at Harvard and I've always admired his entrepreneurial spirit and love of building things," Zuckerberg said in the statement. "I appreciate his hard work and innovation that led to building houseSYSTEM, including the Universal Face Book feature. At school, I was even a member of houseSYSTEM. We are pleased that we've been able to amicably resolve our differences."

Greenspan likewise offered courtesies in the statement. "I am glad that my contributions have been recognized by Facebook. Mark has built a tremendous company at Facebook, and I wish them continued success in the future," he said.

Greenspan, who wrote a self-published book called "Authoritas: One Student's Harvard Admissions and the Founding of the Facebook Era," had contended that the terms "facebook" and "face book" were generic terms that couldn't be trademarked. He wasn't seeking the trademarks himself but wanted them invalidated because of problems advertising his book with Google AdWords. Greenspan has also claimed ownership for the idea behind Facebook.

The amount of the settlement was not released. But last summer, one-time Harvard rival ConnectU settled a dispute with Facebook over whether Zuckerberg stole ConnectU's code and business plans for a social network. That lawsuit, which was particularly messy, apparently was settled for $65 million in cash and Facebook stock.

Facebook originally was started as a social-networking site solely for Harvard students. It is now one of the most popular social-networking sites in the world.

News of the latest settlement comes on the heels of the announcement that a Facebook tell-all book will hit store shelves in July.

In related news about Facebook's corporate side, The Wall Street Journal cites unnamed sources who say Russian investment group Digital Sky Technologies wants to invest $200 million in the company "at a $10 billion valuation for the company's preferred stock."

Apple warns of static shock from iPhone, iPod

noreply@blogger.com (ALI REZA DARBEHANI) — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:07:00 +0000

iPhone and iPod users may experience a "small and quick" shock via their earbuds due to a buildup of static electricity, Apple warned Monday.

People listening to one of the devices in extremely dry air are most at risk of receiving a static electricity shock through the ear buds, according to a warning posted on Apple's Web site. The post likened the condition to the discharge that occurs when a person drags his or her feet across a carpet then gets a shock by touching a door knob.

However, Apple asserted that this condition did not necessarily indicate that Apple's equipment was malfunctioning.

"This condition is not limited to Apple hardware and static can potentially build up on almost any hardware and could be discharged using any brand of earbuds," Apple said.

Apple's warning didn't mention what prompted the company to issue the warning, but a discussion thread on the company's support site showed a few users had voiced concern about the condition.

"Maybe it's just me but for a couple of weeks now my earphones are delivering little electric shocks into my ears," wrote one reader. "I just wonder if anyone else is going through this issue."

Apple made several suggestions in the warning on how to remedy the condition when indoors, including the use of a humidifier to raise the moisture level of the air, hand lotions to moisturize dry skin, or an anti-static spray. The site also recommends users wear clothes made of natural fibers instead of synthetic fibers. When users are outdoors, Apple suggests users keep their device in a bag or a case to keep it out of the wind and refrain from frequently removing it from pockets as the rubbing may cause static buildup.

Report: Microsoft to unveil Kumo search engine next week

noreply@blogger.com (ALI REZA DARBEHANI) — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:06:00 +0000

Microsoft will demonstrate its long-awaited next-generation search technology, code-named Kumo, next week at the D: All Things Digital technology conference, according to reports.

Both The Wall Street Journal and the All Things Digital blog (both owned by News Corp.) are citing unnamed sources saying Kumo will make its official public debut at the conference.

In response to an e-mail seeking confirmation of the reports, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company has nothing new to announce at this time.

For the past two months, Microsoft has been running an internal test of the search technology. However, some of the design changes that are part of that update are now in limited public testing, as one user seemed to discover last week (see screenshot below).

Kumo, a name sources say is not final, is expected to include more than just changes to the look of Microsoft's search engine. Among the expected enhancements is the inclusion of semantic search technology Microsoft got as part of last year's purchase of Powerset.

The software giant has a considerable game of catch-up to play as it has continued to trail Yahoo and Google despite years of investment. According to March numbers from Nielsen Online, Microsoft had 10.3 percent of the U.S. search market, as compared to 15.8 percent for Yahoo and 64.2 percent for Google. (Coincidentally, numbers for April were the same.)

Staff writer Ina Fried contributed to this report.

This search result for Zune, seen on Live Search by enthusiast Ryan Rea, bears a significant resemblance to the Kumo prototype that Microsoft has been testing internally. (Click for larger version)

(Credit: Ryan Rea (aka volvoshine))

Webware 100 Winners!

noreply@blogger.com (ALI REZA DARBEHANI) — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:51:00 +0000

Welcome to the 2009 Webware 100! Below you'll find 100 Web apps in 10 categories voted to be the best of the best by Webware readers and users of the apps themselves.

Be sure to also see the new 11th category, Editors Choice, for a list of 12 products that we feel merit inclusion in this year's awards program, even if they weren't big enough to win the popular vote.

Congratulations to the winners of the Webware 100!

Facebook members hit by another phishing scam

noreply@blogger.com (ALI REZA DARBEHANI) — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:17:00 +0000

In what's just the latest Facebook phishing scam, hackers on Thursday broke into accounts and sent e-mails to friends urging them to log on to fake Facebook sites, according to new reports and anecdotes from members.

The social-networking site is in the process of cleaning up from the hack and is blocking compromised accounts, Reuters reported. "Victims were directed to log back in to the site, but actually logged into the one controlled by the hackers, unwittingly giving away their passwords," Reuters said, adding that the fake domains include www.151.im, www.121.im and www.123.im.

Facebook did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking confirmation and information about the hack. The number of users affected remains unknown, but a Facebook spokesman told The New York Times it "is not widespread and is only impacting a small fraction of a percent of users."

In addition to the scam, Facebook security made the news Thursday in relation to upcoming plans for "verified apps" on the site. Under this program, Facebook will review developer apps for a $375 fee to make sure they fit security and transparency standards, and will award a graphic badge to apps that make the cut.

HP laptop batteries recalled for overheating

noreply@blogger.com (ALI REZA DARBEHANI) — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:16:00 +0000

After two reports of flaming laptop batteries, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Thursday that Hewlett-Packard is voluntarily recalling 70,000 lithium-ion batteries that shipped with several models of its HP and Compaq laptops.

HP's Pavilion dv9500 is one of 21 HP laptops affected by Thursday's battery recall.

The recall affects nine models of HP Pavilions, nine models of Compaq Presarios, two models of HPs, and one HP Compaq laptop model sold between August 2007 and March 2008. For the full list, see the CPSC's site.

There were two separate reports of batteries that "overheated and ruptured, resulting in flames/fire that caused minor property damage" but no injuries, according to the CPSC report.

HP is instructing consumers who may be part of the recall to remove the battery from their notebook and contact HP to find out if theirs is affected. HP says it will provide a free replacement battery. For more information, see HP's Battery Replacement Program site.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP is the world's largest computer vendor, and like many of its peers in the industry has been part of several similar battery recalls. The most recent incident involved 100,000 Sony-made batteries faulted for overheating late last year. HP had sold 32,000 of the affected batteries in its laptops. But that was tiny by comparison to the massive recall caused by Sony batteries in 2006.

Pirated Windows 7 RC builds botnet

noreply@blogger.com (ALI REZA DARBEHANI) — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:14:00 +0000

A pirated version of Windows 7 Release Candidate infected with a Trojan horse has created a botnet with tens of thousands of bots under its control, according to researchers at security firm Damballa.

The software, which first appeared on April 24, spread as quickly as several hundred new bots per hour, and controlled roughly 27,000 bots by the time Damballa took over the network's command and control server on May 10, the firm said Tuesday.

The pirated software was spread via popular piracy sites and online forums, Damballa said.

The software is primarily designed to download and install other malicious packages under a "pay-per-install" scheme, under which the botmasters are paid based on the number of other pieces of malware they cause to be installed, Damballa said.

Infected installations are continuing to appear at a rapid rate, according to the company.

"We continue to see new installs happening at a rate of about 1,600 per day with broad geographic distribution," Tripp Cox, Damballa's vice president of engineering, said in a statement. "Since our takedown (of the command and control server), any new installs of this pirated distribution of Windows 7 RC are inaccessible by the botmaster."

However, the botmaster still controls the existing installations, Damballa said. The infected systems are mainly concentrated in the U.S., with 10 percent, and the Netherlands and Italy, with 7 percent each.

Windows 7 RC has been used as a lure by other malware distributors since its launch on May 5, according to security experts. On Monday, Trend Micro said it found the Trojan horse TROJ_DROPPER.SPX masquerading as a copy of the release candidate.

Botnets are one of the most serious threats on the Internet, according to security experts, and are typically used to carry out denial-of-service attacks or phishing schemes or to send junk mail. Last month, SecureWorks researcher Joe Stewart suggested that technology was not enough to stop botnets, arguing that the IT industry should look to new law-enforcement measures.

The legitimate version of Windows 7 RC is available from Microsoft's Web site.

Matthew Broersma of ZDNet UK reported from London.

Making the Sims into neighbors you can relate to

noreply@blogger.com (ALI REZA DARBEHANI) — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:10:00 +0000

In its biggest campaign yet for its biggest franchise, Electronic Arts is making The Sims video game a little more sociable.

The Sims lets players choose characters and create lives for them, selecting everything from when they sleep to what their bathroom looks like ("Sims" is short for "simulated"). Introduced in 2000, and updated in 2004, it became the best-selling line of PC-based video games in the world.

In The Sims 3, which goes on sale June 2, there are new features.

Previously, players could choose what Sims looked like; now they can choose their personality traits--neurotic, vain, loves to cook and so on. "What they want from life is determined by their personality traits," said Benjamin Bell, the game's executive producer.

"We really felt like the ability to create human beings, to give them a soul if you will, was really exciting, so we wanted to come up with some ways that people could define the personalities of their character," Bell said.

And while the characters lived in a single household in earlier versions, they now live in a town. The game supplies characters that also live in the town, but players can create new citizens, change the existing ones, or remove them and replace them with, say, replicas of the cast of "Lost" to see what it is like to live next door to them.

Electronic Arts executives wanted the marketing campaign to showcase the new features of The Sims 3, and to get people who might not play the game to understand what it was about.

The focus of the marketing is online, and beginning Friday, Electronic Arts will begin offering three ways for consumers to play with Sims characters on the Web.

There will be a free trial available at Sims3.com and at the Sims 3 fan page on Facebook, meant for people who have never played the game before.

Another option, called SimFriend, lets visitors to the Web site pick a Sim pen pal from among 120 characters, and that pen pal will send e-mail messages. For example, a Sim might send a message asking what type of dinner she should cook for her boyfriend, and the fan picks from options like "Cook an elegant meal." The e-mail chain would continue, tailored to the Sim's personality and skills.

"If the Sim happens to be a kleptomaniac chef, the response you get back might be, 'Thanks, I went and stole food today,' when what you're expecting is 'Thanks, I just had lunch,' " said John Buchanan, senior director of worldwide marketing for the Sims line at Electronic Arts.

The third option is called SimSidekick. A fans chooses from 6 characters on the Web site, and an image of the character that is chosen floats on top of the browser as the fan moves around the Web.

The character has site-specific responses to sites that Electronic Arts has chosen, like MTV.com, YouTube, and Twitter. On Twitter, for instance, where the mascot is a bird, a flock of bluebirds descends on the character, and, depending on its personality, the character will jump, wave his or her hands, or respond in some other way.

On other sites, the SimSidekick software looks for the category of the Web site, like travel or news, and the character responds appropriately, acting like a sports fanatic on a site like ESPN.com, or looking like he's searching for something on Google.com.

The effort is reminiscent of what Skittles, the Mars candy brand, did this year with its Web site, showing a floating Skittles graphic on top of the browser that took visitors to the brand's photos on Flickr or product pages on Facebook.

Sims characters will also come to life on the Viacom sites MTV.com, VH1.com and AddictingGames.com, a game site, on June 2. Characters will move around text and graphics on pages of the sites. The game will also be promoted through an iPhone sampler application, available now (the full game will be available for purchase and play on the iPhone or iTouch on June 2; a Macintosh version will also be available then). Freestyle Interactive in San Francisco, part of the Isobar division of Aegis, worked on the digital advertising efforts.

But measuring whether these efforts are a hit or a flop is a challenge for Electronic Arts, which, like other marketers, hasn't quite determined how to assess social media advertising. As Microsoft marketing executive Mich Mathews said at the annual 4A's advertising conference last month, a result like 100,000 views of a YouTube video doesn't mean very much. "I would confess, though, we look at it: 'Is that a good number or not a good number?' " she said.

Buchanan said that Electronic Arts would look closely at Web site traffic, advance sales and game sales, along with monitoring how consumers were reacting to the game in online discussions. "We'll be able to get closer to measuring what's working and not working, but there's still a little bit of art in identifying performance in the new media space, versus being all science," he said.

In print and television, the ads will emphasize the new features of The Sims 3. Along with the town setting and the personality traits, it will be the first time that players can minutely adjust features like the squareness of a character's chin, the depth of its eyes, or its weight. The campaign's tagline is "Let There Be Sims."

"It's referring to the fact that there are almost little people that live in your computer, and because of these new personalities and traits, they have a life of their own and do what they want," said Aaron Allen, a creative director at Wieden + Kennedy, which created the print and television ads. One TV ad shows a house on fire and people stealing a television--to appeal to the subset of Sims players known affectionately as deviants--and then, for the romantics, a couple finding one another.

"The Sims is all about the characters, and it's characters that are written into the game and characters you create, and every interaction you have, you get a different response," said Ian Schafer, the chief executive of the digital-marketing firm Deep Focus, which did not work on the campaign. "That's the beauty of the game, and that's the beauty of the campaign," he said.

Verizon Netbook to hit stores this weekend

noreply@blogger.com (ALI REZA DARBEHANI) — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:05:00 +0000

Verizon Wireless will start selling Netbook computers from Hewlett-Packard starting Sunday, the company said in a statement released Thursday.

As previously reported by the Boy Genius Report, the HP Mini 1151NR Netbook will be priced at $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and will require users sign a two-year service agreement for wireless broadband services.

Verizon Wireless will begin selling the HP Mini 1151NR Netbook on Sunday.

(Credit: Verizon Wireless)

Verizon is sticking with its current 3G wireless pricing. But it has increased the amount of data downloads per month for its lowest tier of service. Now subscribers will be able to get the $40 a month plan with 250 Megabytes of data per month. Previously, the $40 a month plan only offered 50 MB of data downloads per month. The overage charge on this plan has been reduced to 10 cents per megabyte over the limit. Previously, the company charged 25 cents per megabyte for overages.

The $60 a month plan will still offer a maximum of 5GB of data, but Verizon has reduced the overage price to 5 cents per megabyte over the 5GB limit, instead of the 25 cents it previously charged.

Verizon is also offering a Mobile Broadband DayPass for $15. This day pass gives users access to the Internet for 24 hours and can be purchased for any Verizon certified mobile device that is purchased at full retail price without a monthly service plan, the company said.

The modifications to the data plan are a sign that Verizon is trying to add more value to its wireless broadband service. But at these hefty prices, many consumers may still find the price of the two-year service contracts too stiff.

With the current pricing, Verizon Netbook users can expect to spend $1,160 to $1,640 during the life of the contract for the service and Netbook, depending on which plan they choose. (This doesn't include taxes or fees.) HP's Mini 1000 Netbooks only cost about $300 without a 3G service contract.

Verizon Wireless's international data plan is even more expensive. The device can access wireless broadband on both CDMA and GSM wireless networks in more than 175 destinations worldwide, the company said. And with a SIM card, GlobalAccess customers can sign up for one of two service plans.

They can get the GlobalAccess Monthly plan, which costs $130 a month for 100 MB worth of data downloads per month in more than 30 select international destinations. This same plan allows for 5 GB of downloads per month in the U.S. and Canada. All other destinations are charged pay-per-use rates.

The second option for globetrotters looking to stay connected with their Netbooks is the Global Access Pay Per Use plan, which allows subscribers of the $60 a month mobile broadband plan in the U.S. to get special rates on international usage. The Pay Per Use rate is $0.002 per kilobyte in Canada, $0.005 per KB in Mexico, and $0.02 KB in more than 175 other destinations.

At steep prices like these, Verizon may find more success letting consumers buy their own Netbooks and signing them up for individual $15 day passes.

Microsoft confirms Windows 7 coming this year

noreply@blogger.com (ALI REZA DARBEHANI) — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Microsoft confirmed on Monday that it is planning to release Windows 7 this year, in time for the holiday shopping season.

"We are tracking well to a Windows 7 holiday," Microsoft Senior Vice President Bill Veghte said in an interview. Veghte plans to make a similar statement in a speech Monday at Microsoft's TechEd event in Los Angeles. As recently as January, Veghte was saying publicly that such a release was not a sure thing.

At the event, Microsoft is also announcing it plans to wrap up work on an update to its server operating system--Windows Server 2008 R2--at the same time it finishes Windows 7 on the desktop side. Microsoft issued a release candidate for the server operating system last month, alongside the near-final version of Windows 7.

For months now, Microsoft's official position has been that Windows 7 would ship by January 2010--the three-year anniversary of Windows Vista's mainstream launch. However the software maker has been aiming and planning for a 2009 release all along, as we noted last fall.

Computer makers have been indicating privately--and in a few cases publicly--that things have remained on track. But, with memories of Vista's delays fresh in its mind, Microsoft continued to hedge its bets.

Early feedback from the Windows 7 release candidate, which came out late last month, convinced Microsoft it could commit to a 2009 launch, Veghte said.

Veghte said Microsoft has seen the needed step-function drop in the number of crashes being experienced with the release candidate as opposed to the beta version.

"You know pretty quickly if you've got any big gotchas," he said. "You can get a pretty good sniff pretty quickly."

Equally important, Veghte said the company has seen the needed level of partner support. He noted that the first couple of companies have gotten Windows 7 logo certification. Among that first group are some graphics chip vendors--a big change from Vista in which limited graphics support was among the many compatibility headaches experienced by early adopters.

Veghte did not provide a specific time for launch or when the code would be finalized. However, he said that typically the ecosystem needs anywhere from nine to 14 weeks from the product being declared final to be ready for launch.

At TechEd, Veghte also plans to show a demo of how Office 2010 will take advantage of some of Windows 7's features. For example, Office will make use of a feature called "Jump Lists," which allow users to quickly take action directly from the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. From Outlook's Jump List, for example, users will be able to start a new message, create a contact, or schedule a meeting with two clicks.

Those that have both products will also be able to drag an Office file from a Jump List directly into an e-mail, a big time-saver.

A technical preview of Office 2010 will kick off in July, with those at TechEd among the first to get to try out the software.

Animation tricks create modern 'Star Trek' Enterprise

noreply@blogger.com (ALI REZA DARBEHANI) — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:59:00 +0000

ILM visual effects and animation teams had to employ some of the latest tricks in the industry to make the new "Star Trek" film feel both realistic and true to the classic franchise. Among the biggest challenges was updating the Starship Enterprise for 2009.

(Credit: Industrial Light & Magic)

SAN FRANCISCO--For Paul Kavanagh, the animation supervisor on the new "Star Trek" movie, one technical element of the film was particularly challenging.

During live-action filming, director J.J. Abrams had done something unusual: In a bid to incorporate a shaky, handheld effect, Abrams would frequently sit behind the camera and literally tap on the back of it with his fingers. But "Star Trek" is jam-packed with computer graphics, and for Kavanagh, it was imperative to find a way to replicate the effect of that finger tapping, even in the purely digital sequences. Not to do so, he said, would have created a visual inconsistency that threatened to disrupt the audience's experience.

Back at Industrial Light & Magic, where Kavanagh works, he considered several ways to solve the problem. He talked to the people in ILM's motion-capture department, who showed him a number of 3D mo-cap cameras and techniques, but he felt those were too time-consuming and expensive.

Still, the mo-cap folks had another technology that was both simple and cheap: an orientation sensor that could be plugged into a computer with a simple USB connection and used to record motion. So Kavanagh and his animation team figured out that if they tapped on a desk while filming scenes with CG cameras--on-screen camera viewers that incorporate realistic lenses--and layered the motion from the orientation sensors underneath, they could get the same effect as Abrams got with live-action.

"J.J. did come down to visit us, and he loved it," Kavanagh recalled. "He definitely wanted the same kind of handheld look, but (what we did) was a big surprise for him. He loved that the look carried across the shots."

As you might imagine, "Star Trek" is a feast of effects and animation. According to ILM's Roger Guyett, the film's visual effects supervisor, it has a full hour of visual effects in all. "Every aspect of (the effects has) to be planned and thought through," Guyett said. "It's easy to underestimate the amount of work that goes into creating" an entire world.

Yet Abrams wanted a very tactile feel to the movie, Guyett said, and that meant filming as much as possible and adding in visual effects, rather than relying entirely on CG. "It was closer to the model of the original 'Star Wars' movie"--building actual sets that audiences can react to--"not filling in all the blanks (with CG) later on."

For example, when considering how to create a shuttle hangar, Abrams decided he wanted an actual set, rather than crafting it digitally. That meant finding a suitable space and then lighting it to match the look and feel of the rest of the film.

One benefit of that, Guyett said, is that it helped the actors to have a real set to work on, because they had to imagine less. "You've got actual wind blowing in your face," he said, rather than having to act like there's wind.

For Guyett and his team, another big challenge was figuring out how to handle a massive amount of destruction in the film.

For example, he said, they had to bring photo-realism to the way two colliding spaceships would fall apart. But the physics involved in something like that happening in space are far different than they would be inside the Earth's atmosphere. Similarly, the team needed to figure out how to realistically show what the explosion from a missile hitting the Enterprise would look like.

"The rules of physics aren't the same" in outer space, Guyett said. "Explosions behave in a different way."

Making the physics of an explosion in space look right was no easy task. But Guyett said one of the biggest advantages of working at ILM is that the company is rife with "geniuses" who he can consult with on just about any kind of scientific conundrum.

"You can e-mail a guy," Guyett said, "and say, 'When a ship explodes in space, what actually happens?'"

Then, because of ILM's latest tools--which accurately model the way gravity, or the lack of it, would affect an explosion in space--the filmmakers can find a way to make it look as close as possible to what the in-house science experts say it should.

Guyett explained that ILM's computers allow teams like his to simulate happenings like a nuclear explosion on film and not have it be prohibitively expensive. Just four or five years ago, he said, such a thing wouldn't have been possible. As an example, he said that creating a crash sequence in "Men in Black" had been very expensive because it involved breaking up a costly model. On top of that, they'd had only one chance at getting the shot. But back then, he added, doing it in CG wouldn't have worked because the technology didn't yet exist to get the physics right.

Another challenge, Guyett said, was finding a way to update iconic "Star Trek" elements for a 2009 film without upsetting hard-core Trekkies.

For example, he said that he and Abrams had labored endlessly to try to create a transporter effect. "It's a very iconic thing in the 'Star Trek' world," Guyett said. "It's a sound that everyone knows."

One problem they had to solve was that the transporter ended up looking different on each of the different sets were used in the film. "So we'd just have to adjust it (each time)," Guyett said. "The seemingly smaller challenges can take the longest to figure out."

In animating the new "Star Trek" film, animation supervisor Paul Kavanagh crafted a unique hybrid team of animators interested in camera work and camera department people interested in animation. Each member of the group would be given responsibility for working on individual shots.

(Credit: Industrial Light & Magic)

For animation supervisor Kavanagh, working on "Star Trek" presented the chance to do something he'd never done before: create a single working group of animators interested in camera work and people from the camera department interested in animation, and let individuals take responsibility for individual shots.

"We haven't tried that before at ILM," Kavanagh said.

He explained that for his eventual team, "Star Trek" was start-to-finish crunch time. They had to work on 860 shots in less than six months, and sometimes Abrams would toss in wild cards by deciding to change the story during sequences, and ask the animation department to do their own pre-visualization, something the director is usually in charge of.

In the past, it would have taken too much time, but because Kavanagh had created his hybrid working group, they were up to the task. "The benefits that came from it is that we came up with new camera techniques for all-CG shots," he said.

One of Kavanagh's favorite sequences is one in which Captain Kirk is banished to an ice planet and ends up in a battle with a beast known as a polarilla.

Crafted in CG and meant to be a hybrid of a polar bear and a gorilla, the polarilla was the animation team's responsibility, and Kavanagh said it was up to them to find a way to both breathe life into the creature and give it character.

He said they did a number of animation tests on the polarilla, trying to find the best creatures to base it on from a series of reference sources, including the BBC's Motion Gallery, YouTube, and visits to the San Francisco Zoo. In the end, they decided it would run like a polar bear, but have the rear quarters and hanging knuckles of a gorilla. It would also feature the weight of a grizzly bear.

In the sequence, however, they had to animate another creature, known as Big Red, a lobster/crab hybrid that jumps up through the ice to challenge the polarilla for the chance to attack Kirk.

Big Red "was fantastically fun to animate," Kavanagh said of the beast, which has 120 eyes in the back of its head.

As the chase sequence evolves, he recalled, they had to figure out how Big Red would reach out to grab Kirk's leg, as spelled out in the script. But because the creature's mouth was "so long," the animation team felt it didn't work to have it grab Kirk with its arm.

"We thought, what if its tongue is what grabs Kirk's leg?" Kavanagh said. "We had to figure out how that creatively looks. And that's really the fun part of the job."

They decided to have it slip and slide, Kavanagh said, but no so much "that it looks comical.

It seems that in the end, that was a challenge that both Guyett's visual effects team and Kavanagh's hybrid animation team had to tackle. But in updating "Star Trek" for 2009, will true Trekkies recognize the latest iteration of the franchise?

Judging by the mostly enthusiastic reviews, the answer seems to be yes. But Guyett's less interested in reviews than whether he did his job.

"Oh yeah," he said. "There are nods to the history of the series, what has happened and what will happen....But we just made it contemporary."

Microsoft files for debt offering

noreply@blogger.com (ALI REZA DARBEHANI) — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:58:00 +0000

Microsoft on Monday filed to issue debt that could see the company raising billions in additional capital.

The filing, which was made with the Securities and Exchange Commission, doesn't specify an amount to be raised.

In September, Microsoft's board authorized the company to issue up to $6 billion in debt. It has already issued $2 billion in short-term debt, known as commercial paper. Given that, Microsoft could potentially issue $4 billion as part of the new debt offering, which is structured as a three-part offering, with varying maturity dates.

The company did not specifically say what it would do with the money, offering a boilerplate statement that it would use the money "for general corporate purposes, which may include funding for working capital, capital expenditures, repurchases of our capital stock and acquisitions."

Microsoft declined to comment in more detail on how it would use the money.

Naturally, though, the filing prompted speculation that Microsoft might have its eye on an acquisition target, with Reuters naming business software giant SAP as one possibility. The two companies had merger talks several years ago.

Some Holocaust denial groups disappear from Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (ALI REZA DARBEHANI) — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:57:00 +0000

Following a concerted campaign by Dallas attorney, Brian Cuban, brother of entrepreneur Mark Cuban, Facebook appears to have begun to take down some of the Holocaust denial groups about which Brian Cuban complained.

Brian Cuban pointed to five specific groups.

As of 8:30 a.m. PDT Monday, "Holocaust: A Series of Lies", "Holohoax," and "Holocaust is a Myth" were still live.

The Holocaust Memorial in Stuttgart

(Credit: CC MobileStreetLife/Flickr)

However, "Based on the facts...there was no Holocaust" and "Holocaust is a Holohoax" appear to have been taken down.

TechCrunch on Monday also weighed in on the issue, with a headline echoing last week's Q&A with Facebook spokesperson, Barry Schnitt here at Technically Incorrect.

In the Q&A, Schnitt drew a distinction between Holocaust denial and another recent Facebook controversy, images of breastfeeding. Michael Arrington's headline puts it in stark terms: "Jew Haters are Welcome at Facebook as Long as they Aren't Lactating."

I am waiting for confirmation from Facebook and, perhaps, a statement as to whether the site has, indeed, reconsidered its position of last week, which was that it was better to have these groups out in the open, even if their ideas were "controversial," rather than removing them from Facebook.

Cuban has called for Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to personally comment on the situation, but it remains to be seen if that will happen.

Dish Network results climb despite subscriber loss

noreply@blogger.com (ALI REZA DARBEHANI) — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:56:00 +0000

Things were looking up for satellite TV provider Dish Networks in the first quarter of 2009, with sales and earnings on the rise, the company reported Monday.

Sales grew 2.1 percent to $2.91 billion for the quarter ended March 31 versus $2.84 billion for the same quarter in 2008. Earnings climbed to $313 million, or 70 cents a share, up from $259 million, or 58 cents a share a year ago.

Results were better than expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who predicted a profit of only 56 cents a share. Dish said the gains came from subscriber revenue as well as equipment sales to both customers and third parties.

Despite the gains, the Englewood, Colo.-based company saw a drop in the number of subscribers. A net total of about 94,000 people exited the satellite TV service during the first quarter, leaving Dish with a little more than 13.5 million customers. The company blamed the subscriber loss on a number of factors, including the sluggish economy and aggressive competition. The end of a distribution deal with AT&T this past January also hurt as that had boosted the number of subscribers by 17 percent for 2008.

Dish's outlook for 2009 is also uncertain. In its report, the company expressed concern over potential risks such as lower consumer spending, a continued loss of subscribers, and increased competition. Dish faces a more competitive playing field, not just from fellow satellite provider DirecTV, but also from cable and phone companies offering low-cost TV service.

Results were also less stellar for EchoStar, which Dish spun off last year. For the first quarter, EchoStar lost $645,000, or 1 cent per share, vs a profit of $5.7 million, or 6 cents per share, from a year ago. Sales dipped to $480 million, down 13.5 percent from $555 million in 2008's first quarter. Dish is dependent on EchoStar as its equipment supplier and would have to scramble to find new sources were EchoStar no longer able to meet its needs.

Do Google's carbon offsets add up to much?

noreply@blogger.com (ALI REZA DARBEHANI) — Fri, 08 May 2009 03:37:00 +0000

Google, a company that runs power-hungry data centers, employs thousands of people, and operates a corporate jet, said on Wednesday that it was carbon neutral for the past two years. How so? Offsets.

The idea of a carbon offset is to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions of a company or person by investing in a project that reduces emissions from the atmosphere.

Google sees offsets as an imperfect method for lowering their total carbon footprint, among other efforts. To detractors, offsets are essentially greenwashing when companies do little more than buy offsets to meet their environmental sustainability goals.

There are many routes an offset purchase can go: wind energy farms, siphoning off methane from landfills, or making buildings more energy efficient. There's an entire industry around offsets, which can be voluntary--as Google has purchased--or regulated in countries that have climate change regulations.

Without offsets, a company--no matter green--would have a hard time claiming to be carbon neutral simply because energy consumption means pollution. Achieving carbon neutrality is complicated by the fact that there isn't universal agreement on how to account for a company's carbon emissions: should it include just a company's operations or also its supply chain and end use of its products?

Even hard-core climate activists see offsets as problematic. Climate advocate Joseph Romm, who writes for the Climate Progress blog, calls them "rip-offsets."

The problem ultimately comes down to how effective offsets are in actually reducing emissions, he says. Offset claims are very difficult to verify, and doing a lifeycle analysis of an offset project--what is the exact net reduction of a landfill methane project?--are very easy to fudge, according to Romm.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office last August published a report saying it's particularly difficult to ensure "additionality." In other words: does a purchased offset truly represent an greenhouse gas reduction above and beyond business as usual. For example, some offsets were tied to a company that was already forced to capture methane to meet existing environmental rules.

Where's the beef?
So is Google being cavalier (or worse, disingenuous) by purchasing carbon offsets? It's impossible to say exactly what its motives are, but it's clear people there have thought this question through.

In a post on Wednesday, Google Green Energy Czar Bill Weihl said that the search giant's efforts to reduce data center energy consumption and to advocate for renewable energy were the meat of its climate mitigation activities. Offsets were done to reach neutrality, "not as a substitute for real action."

In addition, the company took the step to verify through a third party that the offsets were "additional," or projects that were done above business as usual.

Judged by non-governmental organizations such as ClimateCounts, Google is a leader in climate change in the Internet industry. It was outscored by companies in other industries, but Google gets points for actually measuring its carbon footprint and taking steps to reduce it.

Google.org has invested in a number of renewable energy companies in solar, wind, and enhanced geothermal. It has a plug-in electric initiative fueled by one of the largest corporate solar arrays at its headquarters. And it's nudging into home energy monitoring software while it lobbies for energy policies to support renewable energy and smart-grid technology.

In his post, Weihl summed up Google's view on offsets:

"The best way to reduce our corporate footprint is to not use electricity in the first place. Google will continue to reduce our emissions directly by building and designing some of the world's most efficient data centers as well as using on-site renewable energy to power our facilities. Over the last five years, we have eliminated over half the emissions we would have produced in the absence of these critical measures. Offsets serve to neutralize the rest. In the future, we will continue to drive for improvements in energy efficiency and to find affordable sources of renewable energy," he said.

Obviously, a large technology-intensive enterprise like Google will have a far heavier footprint than many other businesses. Even though it's not giving out a specific number on total emissions, Google appears to be doing a rigorous accounting, including everything from electricity to employee travel and server manufacturing in its total footprint.

And unlike most companies, it's done the math on offsets as well. Offsets will likely continue to be controversial, but at least Google isn't shying away from the debate and is confessing to the flaws of carbon offsets.