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Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S : Price & Specification

2012-04-10T22:44:00.003-07:00

Specification:

-Dimensions 125 x 63 x 8.7 mm
-Weight 117 g
-LED-backlit LCD, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
-Size 480 x 854 pixels,
-4.2 inches (~233 ppi pixel density)
-Multitouch
-Scratch-resistant glass
-Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine
-Timescape UI
-Loudspeaker
-3.5mm jack
-Memory microSD, up to 32GB, 8 GB included
-Internal 1 GB (320 MB user-available), 512 MB RAM
-HSDPA, 14.4 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.8 Mbps
-Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
-Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP, EDR
-microUSB v2.0, USB On-the-go support
-Camera Primary 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels,
-autofocus, LED flash, check quality
-Video calling, touch focus, geo-tagging,
-face and smile detection, 3D sweep panorama,
-image stabilization
-Video 720p@30fps, continuous autofocus,
-video light, video stabilizer, check quality
-Android OS, v2.3.4 (Gingerbread), planned upgrade to v4.0
-Chipset Qualcomm MSM8255T Snapdragon
-Accelerometer, proximity, compass
-Stereo FM radio with RDS
-GPS with A-GPS support
-Java via Java MIDP emulator
-HDMI port
-Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
-MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player
-MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player
-TrackID music recognition
-NeoReader barcode scanner
-Google Search, Maps, Gmail,
-YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk

PRICE : RM 1 199 (Jan 2012)

Samsung Series 5 Ultra 530U 14-inch

2012-04-10T22:39:00.001-07:00

Specification:

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i5-2467M (1.60GHz)
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD7550M
Memory: 6GB DDR3 System Memory at 1,333MHz
Storage: 1TB HDD (5,400RPM) + 16GB SSD for ExpressCache
ODD: Super Multi Dual Layer
Wireless LAN: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 Dual Band 802.11abg/n (up to 300Mbps), WiDi Support

PRICE : RM2,999 (April 2012)

Nokia Lumia 710 : Price & Specification

2012-04-10T22:36:00.003-07:00

Specification:

Dimensions: 119mm by 62.4mm by 12.5mm
Weight: 125.5g
Network: WCDMA 900/1900/2100, GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
Processor: 1.4GHz single-core MSM8255
Operating system: Windows Phone 7.5 Mango
Display: 3.7-inch WVGA (800 by 480 pixels), TFT capacitive touch ClearBlack display
Memory: 512MB RAM, 8GB storage
Camera: 5-megapixel auto-focus with LED flash, video MPEG-4 720p at 30fps
Audio: MP3 player, 3.5mm audio jack
Battery: 1,300mAH
Talk time/standby time (WCDMA): Up to 7.6 hours/Up to 400 hours

PRICE : RM999 (April 2012)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus : Price & Specification

2012-04-10T22:34:00.002-07:00

SPECIFICATION:

Network: HSPA+ (HSDPA 21Mbps /HSUPA 5.76Mbps) 900/1900/2100 MHz EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Processor: 1.2GHz dual core
Display: 7-inch WSVGA (1024 x 600) PLS LCD
OS: Android 3.2 (Honeycomb)
Camera: Main (Rear): 3 MP AF with LED Flash Sub (Front): 2 MP
Codec: MPEG4, Divx, Xvid, H.263, H.264, VC-1, WMV7/8
Format: 3GP, MPEG4, WMV, AVI
Playback: 1080p Full HD
Recording: 720p HD
Audio: Codec: MP3,WMA, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, AC-3, Flac Midi(SMF), WAV, OGG
Conncectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 & 5GHz)
Sensor: Accelerometer, Gyro, Digital compass, Ambient Light, Proximity
Memory: 1GB (RAM) + 16GB Internal memory + microSD (up to 64GB)
Size: 193.65 x 122.37 x 9.96mm, 345g

PRICE : RM1,699 (Dec 2011)

HTC Radar : Price & Specification

2012-04-10T22:31:00.002-07:00

Specification:

Platform: Windows Phone OS 7.5
Display:S-LCD multi-touch capacitive touchscreen
Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass
Network: HSPA/WCDMA (900/2100 MHz), Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
Processor: 1GHz Scorpion CPU
Memory: 8GB storage, 512 MB RAM
Camera: 5MP, 2,560x1,920 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, 720p@30fps.
Forward facing camera: VGA
Connectors: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin) port
Size: 120.5mm x 61.5mm x 10.9mm (4.74" x 2.42" x 0.43")
Weight: 137 grams (4.83 ounces) with battery

PRICE : RM1,399 (March 2012)

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet : Price & Specification

2012-04-10T22:30:00.002-07:00

SPECIFICATION:

Processor: NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 (1.0GHz)

Operating System: Google Android 3.1

Display/Resolution: 10.1" WXGA (1280x800), 16:10, IPS, Corning Gorilla Glass

Video Graphics: Ultra-low power NVIDIA GeForce GPU

Memory: Up to 1GB DDR2 600MHz memory

Hard Disk Drive: 16GB/32GB/64GB SSD storage

Connectors: Full size SD card reader, Mini HDMI out, native USB 2.0 and micro-USB ports, SIM card port, microphone/headphone combo

Camera: Integrated web camera (2.0M on front/5.0M on back)

Weight: Approx. 1.65 lb (0.75kg ) with 2 cell battery

Dimensions: 264mm x 13.3mm x 189mm (WxHxD)

Battery Life: Up to 8 hours battery life (with WiFi enabled)

PRICE : RM2,199 (Feb 2012)

Lenovo IdeaPad U300s : Price & Specification

2012-04-10T22:28:00.002-07:00

SPECIFICATION:

CPU: 2nd Generation Intel Core i5-2467 (1.60 GHz up to 2.30GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, 4MB L3 Cache)
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Memory: 4GB DDR3 RAM
HDD: 128G/256GB SSD
Display: Intel HD Graphics 3000 with Built-in Visuals
Screen: 13.3-inch Ultra-Slim HD Display
Ports: 1x USB3.0, 1x USB 2.0/HDMI

PRICE : RM3,399 (FEB 2012)

Microsoft trumps Amazon, others for AOL patents

2012-04-10T06:10:00.002-07:00

NEW YORK: Microsoft trumped Amazon, eBay and other tech giants with its more than US$1bil (RM3bil) purchase of the majority of AOL Inc's patent trove.

AOL said it was selling more than 800 patents related to advertising, search, e-commerce and mobile to Redmond, Washington-based company, surprising investors with the size of the deal and sending AOL shares up more than 40%.

The sale includes technology rights from AOL's current and former businesses, ranging from Netscape, ICQ and MapQuest to CompuServe, Advertising.com and others, according to a source close to the matter.

The sale process, which AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong described as a "full-blown dynamic auction," started last fall after board approval.

Armstrong said he made a call to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer alerting him of the decision to sell the patents.

The auction included e-commerce companies Amazon and eBay, both of which have been largely absent from the recent patent wars, as well as Google and Facebook, according to the source.

Spokesmen for Google, Facebook, eBay and Amazon were not immediately available for comment.

A final buyer was selected late on April 5, Armstrong said. Technology companies in recent years have sparked a frenzy for patents, bidding up prices in a defensive move to keep competitors at bay.

The AOL deal is one of the larger patent auctions in recent times, representing roughly US$1.3mil (RM3.9mil) per issued patent, according to the source.

That compares with the bankrupt Nortel Networks patent auction last year - considered a blowout US$4.5bil (RM13.5bil) sale of its 6,000 patents - for roughly US$1.05mil (RM3.15mil) per issued patent, the source said.

The Nortel deal sparked a wave of patent sales and litigation and played a part in AOL's decision to launch a patent auction.

Google is in the process of buying Motorola Mobility Holdings for US$12.5bil (RM37.5bil) mainly for its intellectual property. Google also acted as the stalking-horse bid for Nortel Networks' wireless patents.

Microsoft was part of the group led by Apple Inc that won the Nortel patents.

Yahoo! has launched a lawsuit against rival Facebook for patent infringement involving advertising.

Surprising price tag

AOL and Microsoft are no strangers to partnerships. Last year the two companies along with Yahoo! formed an advertising alliance.

Microsoft's latest move with AOL proves it is keen on shoring up its patent portfolio.

"Investors had anticipated little to no value for the portfolio - a few hundred million at the most," said Clayton Moran, an analyst with Benchmark.

AOL said a "significant portion" of the proceeds would be passed on to its shareholders.

As part of the deal, AOL will continue to hold more than 300 patents related to key strategic areas for the company, including advertising, search, and social media, and will receive a licence to the patents being sold to Microsoft.

Also, Microsoft will be granted a non-exclusive licence to the patents AOL retains.

"We think this move is a big win for AOL in both the speed at which the sale was made and the actual amount it received," wrote Anthony DiClemente, an analyst with Barclays Research.

One of the pioneering companies during the early days of the Internet, AOL was known for e-mail and dial-up access services. It has been trying to reshape itself into a media and entertainment powerhouse dependent on advertising revenue.

Activist shareholder Starboard Value LP had pressed AOL management to pursue a patent auction, arguing the portfolio could produce more than US$1bil (RM3bil) in licensing income if properly monetised.

The deal, expected to be completed by the end of this year, includes the sale of an AOL unit, on which AOL expects to record a capital loss for tax purposes.

AOL said it expected to use about US$40mil (RM120mil) of its existing deferred tax assets - 20% of its total - to offset any ordinary income taxes resulting from the licensing of its remaining patent portfolio.

If the deal falls through, Microsoft may pay AOL a termination fee of US$211.2mil (RM633.6mil), AOL said in a regulatory filing. - Reuters

Court revives Rosetta Stone vs Google lawsuit

2012-04-10T06:10:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK: A federal appeals court revived the bulk of language-software maker Rosetta Stone Inc's trademark infringement lawsuit against Google Inc.

The opinion is the first appellate decision to address whether Google's sale of other companies' trademarks for sponsored links could give rise to liability for trademark infringement.

In a lawsuit filed in 2009, Rosetta Stone accused Google of committing trademark infringement by selling the language-software maker's trademarks to third-party advertisers for use as search keywords.

A Virginia district court had dismissed the case in 2010, finding that the sale of the keywords was not likely to confuse consumers.

But US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit overturned most of the lower court's ruling, reviving claims that Google committed direct trademark infringement and diluted the Rosetta Stone brand.

"A reasonable trier of fact could find that Google intended to cause confusion in that it acted with the knowledge that confusion was very likely to result from its use of the marks," chief judge William Traxler wrote for the three-judge panel.

Rosetta Stone accused Google of profiting by allowing rivals to purchase trademarked keywords that generate links to their sites when users enter those search terms.

Google allows advertisers to buy the top "sponsored link" ad on search result pages. Rosetta Stone argued that people searching for its products on Google were being redirected to competitors and software counterfeiters.

The language-software maker presented deposition testimony of five consumers who attempted to buy bogus Rosetta Stone software after Google started allowing use of trademarks in the text of sponsored links in 2009.

That evidence persuaded the 4th Circuit panel to revive the trademark infringement and dilution claims. The panel also cited an internal Google study finding that even sophisticated consumers were sometimes unaware that sponsored links were advertisements.

The appeals court also reinstated Rosetta Stone's trademark dilution claims. The lower court had granted summary judgment in Google's favour, finding that the Internet giant was not trying to pass off its own goods and services as Rosetta Stone's. But that fact could not defeat the dilution claims, the 4th Circuit ruled.

The panel directed the lower court to reconsider when Google first appeared to dilute the Rosetta Stone trademark, and whether that trademark was "famous" at the time.

Google and its lawyer, Margret Caruso of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

"We're very pleased with the opinion, and we think it is an important precedent," said Rosetta Stone's lawyer Cliff Sloan. - Reuters

Facebook to buy Instagram for RM3bil

2012-04-10T06:09:00.000-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook will pay US$1bil in cash and stock for Instagram, a two-year-old photo-sharing application developer, in its largest-ever acquisition just months before the No. 1 social media website is expected to go public.

The price was stunning for an apps-maker without any significant revenue, even when measured by the lofty standards of Silicon Valley, where startup valuations have soared in recent years. It highlights the rising stakes in the social networking market in which services such as Facebook need to constantly excite consumers with new features and mobile applications.

By acquiring Instagram - in a deal announced days after the startup closed a funding round that valued it at US$500mil - Facebook may also have sought to absorb a potential rival or at least prevent it from falling into the hands of a major competitor like Twitter or Google.

"Anytime you see a social platform that's growing that quickly, that's got to be cause to be nervous," said Paul Buchheit, a partner at the start-up incubator program Y Combinator and a co-founder of FriendFeed, which Facebook acquired in 2009.

"It would be better to have bought Twitter at this stage," he said of Facebook. "So if you're thinking this could be the next Twitter, it could be a smart thing to do."

Valuable app

The Instagram application, which allows users to add filters and effects to pictures taken on their iPhone and Android devices and to share those photos with their friends, has gained about 30 million users since it launched in January 2011.

Instagram says that as of the end of 2011, its users had uploaded some 400 million photos or about 60 pictures per second, suggesting the sort of activity that Facebook seeks as it tries to wring revenue from mobile devices. Instagram launched its Android app just last week, garnering more than one million downloads already.

As Instagram's popularity has shot up in recent months, the company's leadership has mulled possible strategies to expand the service into a fully featured social network - much like a photo-driven, stripped-down version of Facebook, Twitter, or even Path, a company insider said.

Instagram is "a property that would have been amazingly valuable to not just Facebook, certainly Twitter was in the hunt as well," said Lou Kerner, founder of the Social Internet Fund.

"I'm sure Google was interested as well. So to some degree an acquisition like this is both offensive and defensive. It would be a highly leveragable asset for anybody who wanted to compete against Facebook."

Instagram, with roughly a dozen employees based in San Francisco, closed a US$50mil funding round last week from investors including Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners, according to a source familiar with the matter. The funding valued the company, founded in early 2010, at US$500mil, it said.

Facebook, which is expected to raise US$5bil via the largest Silicon Valley initial public offering by May, will acquire Instagram's entire team.

"This is an important milestone for Facebook because it's the first time we've ever acquired a product and company with so many users," Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post. "We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all."

The deal, a closely kept secret at the tiny startup, is expected to close this quarter. CEO Kevin Systrom announced the transaction to Instagram employees at a 9am meeting on April 9, according to the source inside Instagram.

Taking a page from Google's book

The acquisition marks an exception in strategy for Facebook, which has traditionally bought small companies as a means of hiring coveted teams of engineers. Facebook typically discontinues the acquired company's products or builds similar versions that it integrates into its service.

Instagram, however, will not only remain running, but Facebook will build features into it as time goes by, both companies said.

Tech industry insiders were quick to draw parallels with Google's US$1.65bil acquisition of video service YouTube in 2006. YouTube retains its own offices in San Bruno, California, and largely operates independently of Google.

"Facebook is acquiring a similar company in that it's fast growing, doesn't have revenue or a business model, but has become part of the online culture," said Gartner analyst Ray Valdes.

"I would wager that almost everyone [Instagram user] is also a Facebook user, so it's not like they're expanding their market," Valdes said of Facebook. "What they're buying is traction, they're buying engagement, they're buying brand value."

Facebook, the world's No. 1 social network with more than 845 million users, is facing increasing competition. Last year, search giant Google launched Google+, a rival service that offers many of the features available on Facebook.

With its purchase, Facebook said it would continue to develop Instagram as an independent app that remains compatible with other social networking services.

"We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook," Zuckerberg wrote.

Expensive habit

While it was not immediately clear what portion of the Instagram acquisition price Facebook paid in cash, the price represents an "extraordinary" valuation, said Paul Deninger, senior managing director of investment banking firm Evercore Partners.

"There are no obvious traditional valuation metrics that justify this price," he said, though he noted that that did not mean that it would be a bad deal for Facebook.

Some tech industry observers noted that deal may dramatically ramp up the valuations on other fast-growing social media companies and app-makers - such as Pinterest - as entrenched web players seek to snap up attractive assets and bolster their social capabilities to challenge Facebook.

"It will be interesting because if Facebook has to keep buying up the hot new social network, that could get expensive after a while," said Y Combinator's Buchheit. - Reuters

The future looks smart

2012-04-09T03:20:00.000-07:00

Google's long-rumoured wearable heads-up display is taking shape - and it looks nothing like the clunky, all-enclosed headsets you might imagine.

Instead, Google's smart glasses - dubbed Project Glass - look more akin to a pair of designer glasses you might find in a high-end optical store.

"We think technology should work for you - to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don't," said Google employees Babak Parviz, Steve Lee and Sebastian Thrun in a post on the Project Glass Google+ page.

The Android-powered glasses may be the next evolution in the ongoing mobile device race and could one day replace the current generation of smartphones.

The futuristic glasses utilise a transparent display that can project information on top of what the user sees in his or her field of vision.

This augmented reality (AR) view of the world is then combined with other smart technologies such as voice recognition, GPS, optical character and image recognition and a user interface that can be controlled with head or eye gestures.

The glasses are still in the prototype stage but Google is keen to take them out into the real world to see how they function in real-life situations.

Practical applications of the glasses are almost limitless, especially if Google releases an API that would allow developers to create customised apps for the device.

The Google X team, a group that typically works on ground-breaking research projects for Google, has started talking about the glasses in the hope of gaining feedback from the public.

"A group of us from Google X started Project Glass to build this kind of technology, one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment. We're sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input. So we took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video to demonstrate what it might enable you to do," said the trio.

Before joining the Google X team Parviz had already started work on futuristic AR lens technologies at the University of Washington in Seattle. Back in 2009, while working as a bio-nanotechnology expert at the university, Parviz spoke to Relaxnews about AR contact lenses that featured integrated LEDs and circuitry.

"We are trying to build a contact lens that can show the user some computer-generated images," explained Parviz at the time. "These images will be superimposed onto what the person would normally see. So a hybrid image is perceived by the person wearing the contact lens."

"Depending on how sophisticated they get, they [AR lenses] may be used in different places," said Parviz.

"If one day lenses with high-resolution graphics are made, the possibilities are boundless." For now, you can see Google's vision of the future in a video titled "Project Glass: One day..." - Relaxnews 2012

Facebook e-commerce the next big thing?

2012-04-09T03:19:00.002-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO: A group of e-commerce startups, backed by some of the tech world's most pedigreed financiers, are betting that Facebook Inc can become an e-commerce powerhouse to rival Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc.

As the world's largest social network hurtles toward a US$5bil (RM15bil) initial public offering, it will come under more pressure from Wall Street to find new sources of profit growth and reduce its reliance on advertising, which accounted for 85% of its 2011 revenue.

Some entrepreneurs and investors increasingly think "f-commerce" - meaning e-commerce on Facebook - is the answer. Startups such as BeachMint, Yardsellr, Oodle and Fab.com are coming up with novel ways to persuade Facebook users to not just connect with friends on the social network, but to shop as well.

Backed by tens of millions of dollars from venture capital firms like Accel Partners and Andreessen Horowitz, and other big investors like Goldman Sachs, these start-ups are pushing out shopping apps, hosting online garage sales and testing out new business models on Facebook.

"e-Commerce is a huge category with very strong tailwinds and it's a natural move for Facebook," said Sam Schwerin of Millennium Technology Value Partners, which owns Facebook shares and has a stake in BeachMint.

Amazon revolutionised online shopping by crunching lots of customer and purchase data to come up with relevant, personalised recommendations. In the same vein, Facebook's combination of data, analytics and payment technology could fuel the next generation of e-commerce, Schwerin said.

Harvard MBA David Fisch, a former executive at eBay's StubHub online tickets business, oversees Facebook's e-commerce efforts, working with retailers to build social commerce businesses on the platform.

"People have always shopped with their friends; now they expect it online," Fisch wrote in a December blog. "Companies who think differently about social will find success."

Fisch declined to comment, but investors said Facebook understands the importance of having an e-commerce strategy.

"It's a big imperative for them," said Theresia Gouw Ranzetta of Accel Partners, an early backer of Facebook. "They understand it's an important strategic benefit for them to make e-commerce players successful on the platform."

Big brand stores flop

Facebook had 845 million monthly active users at the end of last year, far higher than Amazon's 164 million active accounts or the eBay online marketplace's 100 million active users.

But despite that huge base, Facebook is primarily a way to connect with friends, and not an online shopper's first destination. Big retailers including J.C. Penney, Gap and Nordstrom had previously set up stores on Facebook but shut them after generating few sales.

That has not stopped venture capital firms from pouring money into rookie companies they think have cracked the code.

There is a lot of buzz about Fab.com, which has amassed three million users who broadcast purchases via a "bought" button that advertises their shopping habits to friends.

Fab built its user base in part by offering US$5 (RM15) a month to those who agree to share their Fab purchases and favourites on Facebook. Chief executive Jason Goldberg said "tens of thousands" opted in.

BeachMint co-founder Diego Berdakin said his company had set up a live video event called StyleMint.tv last holiday season featuring a brief appearance by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's sister, Randi Zuckerberg. For about two hours, they showcased BeachMint products that people could buy with one click.

More than 50,000 Facebook users watched the show and a "huge percentage" bought something, Berdakin said, adding, "At the time, it was the biggest day in our history in terms of sales."

Yardsellr, started in 2010 by former eBay manager Danny Leffel, organises people into 3,000 communities, or "blocks," based on common interests. When someone posts a product for sale, it is sent to the news feeds of people in that block and purchases can be made with a few clicks.

Gross merchandise sales, a measure of the value of products, has been growing about 30% a month, according to Leffel. "Social commerce could be bigger than eBay," he argued.

Then there's Oodle, a start-up headed by Craig Donato, who runs Facebook's official marketplace, which boasts more than three million unique monthly users. When buyers and sellers post items, their Facebook identities are attached, giving users more confidence in the transactions, Donato said.

Making money

For now, Facebook is making money mostly by selling ads to merchants trying to target potential customers. But many experts say it is a matter of time before the eight-year-old social network will ask for a cut of shopping transactions, or seek other ways to profit.

They point to Facebook's relationship with online games developer Zynga Inc as an example. Facebook takes a 30% cut of revenue generated from the sale of virtual goods used to play Zynga games.

Gamers pay for those virtual goods using Facebook Credits, a virtual currency that could eventually be used to buy physical goods, according to some Internet entrepreneurs.

"Facebook has a huge opportunity to monetise e-commerce," said Christian Taylor, chief executive of Payvment, a startup that operates thousands of Facebook stores. "They have the infrastructure and team to pursue that."

Others downplay the potential for Facebook Credits, saying physical goods offer much thinner profit margins than virtual products.

"The 30% model is great for products with near-zero cost of goods sold," said Kevin Hartz, head of ticketing startup Eventbrite, which works closely with Facebook. "But selling a TV with thin margins, that model will just not apply."

Nevertheless, if e-commerce on Facebook takes off, many expect the social network to find a way to make money off it.

"When you build on top of a platform like Facebook, there is always the risk that the platform provider decides to change the rules later on," said Laura Valverde of Beetailer, which runs more than 3,000 stores on Facebook.

"We have seen this with Facebook Credits and games. So, once social commerce fully takes off, it will only be natural that Facebook tries to benefit one way or another from it." - Reuters

Samsung hits a high Note

2012-04-09T03:19:00.001-07:00

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics posted record quarterly profit of US$5.15bil (RM15.45bil), driven by booming sales of its smartphones and the Galaxy Note "phablet," which it hopes will show it has a flair for innovation to match rival Apple Inc.

The Note - part phone, part mini-Tablet - with a throwback stylus and screen half the size of the iPad, has sold more than five million since launching in October, and is proving a surprise money earner for the South Korean electronics giant that has a reputation as a "fast follower" rather than design leader.

"Higher-than-expected shipments of the Galaxy Note seem to have given an upside to earnings," said Lee Ka-keun, an analyst at Hana Daetoo Securities. "Note sales will increase further in the second quarter, and handset profit will grow despite a rise in marketing costs related to the London Olympics."

Samsung, which raced to the top of the global smartphone rankings last year with close to a fifth of the market, from just 3% in 2009, is set to go head-to-head with Apple this quarter with the expected launch of a revamped Galaxy S, its flagship smartphone, and Apple's next iPhone.

"They will engage in a full-fledged war," said Hana Daetoo's Lee.

The Note sits somewhere between a small Tablet and a big smartphone, and its early success illustrates that a maturing mobile device market can open up new opportunities as users and manufacturers experiment with form. Samsung has driven the Note with its marketing and distribution clout.

"We're seeing a shift in the marketplace and there's room for diversity," says Shivesh Vishwanathan, senior solutions architect at Persistent Systems.

Put together by Samsung's design chief Lee Minhyouk as a smartphone "taboo breaker," the Note increases the pressure on gadget strugglers HTC, Nokia and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion.

HTC was due to release quarterly results later on Friday that are expected to show net profit shrank by around 70% from a year ago, battered by competition from Apple and Samsung.

Samsung's January-March operating profit was 5.8 trillion won (RM15.7bil), almost double the year-ago level and above a consensus forecast of 5 trillion won (RM13.6bil) from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It also topped the preceding quarter's previous record of 5.3 trillion won (RM14.4bil). Revenue was 45 trillion won (RM122bil).

Asia's most valuable technology firm worth some US$191bil (RM573bil) released its January-March estimates on Friday ahead of detailed quarterly results due on April 27.

High-end margins

Choi Do-yeon, analyst at LIG Investment & Securities, said the bigger-than-expected jump in Samsung's first-quarter earnings, while revenue was in line with forecasts, indicated handset margins were strong.

"Handset margins are estimated to have topped 20% and profits from the division also topped 4 trillion won (RM10.9bil). This is really a blowout result and there could be more surprises in the coming quarters as other businesses such as chips show recovery," he said.

Apple had an operating margin of more than 37% in the October-December quarter.

Samsung is expected to have shipped a record 44 million smartphones in the first quarter just ended, up by almost 25% from October-December levels, according to a Reuters survey of analysts.

Chipping in

While Apple is Samsung's biggest rival in smartphones, the US company is also its biggest client, gobbling up the South Korean firm's high-end displays and microchips for its iPhone and iPad. The two are also locked in a bruising global patent war that spans about 30 legal cases in 10 countries.

Earnings prospects for memory chips, where Samsung is also a world leader, have brightened since Japan's Elpida Memory filed for bankruptcy in February, prompting its customers to switch to rivals such as Samsung and SK hynix to secure supplies of the chips used in smartphones and laptops.

Choi Sung-jae, an analyst at SK Securities, estimates contract chip prices could rise another 10%-15% in the second quarter as Apple, Dell, HP and others scramble to secure chip supplies.

"(While) 60%-70% of (Samsung's) profit came from handset sales this quarter, ... with memory chip prices rising, chips will play a big part in second quarter profits," said Kim Sung-in, a chip industry analyst at Kiwoom Securities.

Samsung shares slipped 1% in Seoul on Friday in a flat market.

The stock has risen by a quarter so far this year, and hit a life high of 1.351mil won (RM3,666) on Wednesday.

Over the same period shares in Apple have soared by more than half, taking the California-based firm's value to above US$582bil (RM1.75 trillion) - more than three times that of Samsung. - Reuters

LulzSec hacker pleads guilty in Sony breach

2012-04-09T03:17:00.002-07:00

LOS ANGELES: Accused LulzSec hacker Cody Kretsinger pleaded guilty in federal court in California to taking part in an extensive computer breach of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Kretsinger, a 24-year-old who used the moniker "Recursion," pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer in a deal with prosecutors.

LulzSec, an offshoot of the international hacking group Anonymous, has taken credit for hacking attacks on government and private sector websites.

"I joined LulzSec, your honour, at which point we gained access to the Sony Pictures website," Kretsinger told the judge after entering his guilty plea.

He testified that he gave the information he got from the Sony site to other members of LulzSec, who then posted it onto the group's website and on Twitter.

Kretsinger flew from Decatur, Illinois, to Los Angeles for the hearing, and responded to the judge's questions calmly, with his hands clasped behind his back.

He and other LulzSec hackers, including those known as "Sabu" and "Topiary," stole the personal information of thousands of people after launching an "SQL injection" attack on the website, and ultimately caused Sony Pictures Entertainment more than US$600,000 (RM1.8mil) in damages, Assistant US Attorney Eric Vandevelde said.

The plea agreement came a month after court documents revealed that Anonymous leader "Sabu," whose real name is Hector Xavier Monsegur, had pleaded guilty to hacking-related charges and provided the FBI with information on fellow hackers.

US prosecutors and the FBI filed charges last month against five other suspected leaders of the international hacking group, all of whom were members of LulzSec, for computer hacking and other crimes.

Vandevelde would not comment on whether Kretsinger was also cooperating with authorities in exchange for leniency in sentencing, or if the Sabu case affected this one in any way.

The plea agreement is under seal, although Vandevelde said Kretsinger would likely receive substantially less than the 15-year maximum sentence he faces. He could also be forced to repay any damages.

His sentencing is scheduled for July 26. Neither Kretsinger nor his lawyer would comment after the proceedings.

Anonymous and its offshoots, including LulzSec and AntiSec, focused initially on fighting attempts at Internet regulation and the blocking of free illegal downloads, but have since taken on other targets including Scientology and the global banking system.

Anonymous - and LulzSec in particular - became notorious in late 2010 when they launched what they called the "first cyberwar" in retaliation for attempts to shut down the Wikileaks website.

They attacked websites including MasterCard.com, which had tried to block payments to Wikileaks after apparent pressure from the US Government following the release of thousands of diplomatic cables. - Reuters

YouTube to rent out Paramount movies

2012-04-09T03:17:00.001-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO: Even courtroom adversaries can be partners in the nascent online movie rental business.

YouTube has announced a movie rental partnership with Paramount Pictures, despite the online video website's long-running litigation with Paramount parent company Viacom Inc.

YouTube said it would offer online rentals of nearly 500 Paramount films, including Hugo and The Godfather, to US consumers, rounding out its growing catalogue of feature-length movies.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed and it was not immediately clear why the two companies, whose parent companies have sparred in court for years, decided to put their differences aside for this licensing agreement.

Viacom is currently seeking to overturn its defeat in a landmark US$1bil (RM3bil) lawsuit in which the media conglomerate charged YouTube and parent company Google Inc with "massive" copyright infringement.

Viacom alleged in its 2007 suit that many of its programmes, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, South Park, and SpongeBob SquarePants, have been illegally uploaded on YouTube and that YouTube and Google executives knew about it but did nothing to stop it.

The case has been closely-watched as a test of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a 1998 federal law making it a crime to produce technology to circumvent antipiracy measures, and limiting liability of online service providers for copyright infringement by users.

YouTube, the world's most popular online video website, streams four billion videos every day and its users upload more than 60 hours of video to the site every minute.

Although much of the content on YouTube consists of home videos that are free to watch, YouTube has increasingly added professionally-produced content, some of it available to rent for a fee.

The Paramount deal means that YouTube now has movie rental deals with five of the six major film studios, as well as more than 10 independent film studios, giving it access to a catalogue of nearly 9,000 films.

US consumers can rent the films, generally for 24 hours or 48 hours, for anywhere from US$2.99 to US$3.99 (RM9 to RM12). - Reuters

Publisher-backed venture starts digital newsstand

2012-04-09T03:16:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK: A venture founded by five leading US publishers launched a digital newsstand for Tablet devices featuring 32 magazines including Elle, Sports Illustrated and The New Yorker.

As part of the launch - available first for Android devices running on the Honeycomb operating system and eventually for others Tablets, including Apple's iPad - Next Issue Media is offering a subscription plan for the magazines currently available.

Next Issue will eventually have up to 75 titles from its founders and intends to open up the newsstand to other publishers outside the venture.

Next Issue chief executive Morgan Guenther compares the newsstand to Netflix for magazines.

"We think it's a pretty compelling proposition for readers," said Guenther.

The monthly price ranges from US$9.99 (RM30) for access to monthly and bi-monthly magazines to US$14.99 (RM45) for total access, which includes weeklies.

Next Issue Media was founded by Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp and Time Inc as a way to address the rise in popularity of mobile smartphones and Tablet computers as reading devices and to boost digital subscriptions to magazines.

The service is available only in the United States. Readers have to download the newsstand app after choosing a plan through the Next Issue website.

In addition to the all-you-can-read offers, users can buy individual issues or get free downloads of certain titles, provided they receive the print edition. - Reuters

Windows Phone app sales still 'frustratingly low'

2012-04-09T03:15:00.000-07:00

DESPITE significant gains over the past year, Microsoft's Windows Phone platform is still dragging its feet behind rival smartphone platforms in terms of both market share and application downloads.

Market analyst ABI Research forecasts that the Windows Platform will account for just 2% of the close to 36 billion apps downloaded on smartphones in 2012. Comparatively, devices running Android and iOS will make up 86% of all app downloads for the year.

"Although Windows Phone lags behind RIM's BlackBerry and even Nokia's Symbian, we shouldn't ignore the fact that the 2% that we forecast for 2012 would be twice the share the platform achieved last year," said ABI research associate Lim Shiyang.

"Microsoft is gaining momentum, but its starting point is frustratingly low. Contrary to popular belief, this isn't really a chicken-and-egg problem of low device sales holding back the app business and the slow app business holding back the device sales. It's more complicated than that."

Slow global rollout

Low device sales are hurting app downloads on the Windows Phone (WP) platform but there are other factors at play too. Microsoft has taken a long time to roll out its Windows Marketplace app store on the global scale and has been slow to launch in-app payments - one of the major drivers for app monetisation and a model that has proven popular with consumers.

App store tracker Distimo believes that the "freemium" app business model (where applications are free to download but include in-app purchases for extra features) is one of the most important monetisation strategies.

In its end of year report for 2011 Distimo said that, "half of the revenue of the 200 top grossing apps in the Apple App Store for iPhone is now generated by freemium apps. This proportion is even higher in the Google Android Market where 65% of the revenue from the top grossing apps is generated by freemium apps."

Without in-app purchases quality applications remain behind an upfront paywall, which has proven to be a deterrent to WP users said ABI.

Where are the Tablets?

To date, there are no commercially available Tablets running the Windows Phone platform, but their arrival in the market should have a positive impact on global WP app downloads.

"The arrival of the first Windows 8 Tablets, as well as Windows Phone's upgrade to the Apollo iteration, should also give [WP app downloads] a boost," said ABI senior analyst Aapo Markkanen, "since developers can reuse their code to launch on various screen sizes."

In February 2012 Distimo reported that the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace exceeded a milestone of 60,000 active applications worldwide. In the same month, the WP7 Marketplace overtook RIM's BlackBerry App World in terms of available applications. - Relaxnews 2012

BlackBerry maker out to capitalise on rivals

2012-04-09T03:13:00.002-07:00

RESEARCH In Motion launched a new software platform that lets businesses manage smartphones made by rivals that have been devouring the BlackBerry maker's market share.

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion was launched as a "next-generation mobile device management solution" for companies faced with a growing trend of employees wanting to use their iPhones, iPads or competing Android gadgets for work.

"Organisations face pressure to allow employees to bring their own devices into the workplace," said RIM vice-president of enterprise product management Alan Panezic.

"For businesses and government, managing a mix of mobile devices on any scale is chaotic."

A strong selling point of the platform was that it promised IT managers they would be able to give Apple or Android mobile devices data control and security features that have made BlackBerry smartphones popular with companies.

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion software is available as a free download but RIM will charge companies fees based on numbers of devices being managed. - AFP/Relaxnews 2012

Yahoo! to start layoffs by cutting 2,000 staff

2012-04-09T03:13:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK: Yahoo! is about to lay off as many as 2,000 staffers - about 15% of its work force - as part of a major restructuring, according to AllThingsD news site's Kara Swisher.

Swisher has been beating the drum on these Yahoo! layoffs for some time now, which are part of a larger restructuring under new CEO Scott Thompson.

This round - yes, there are expected to be more - is reportedly going to hit on Wednesday, taking out staffers throughout the company.

The products division is expected to be hit hardest while the fate of both advertising and search are up in the air.

Yahoo! has a search partnership with Microsoft, but that has not worked out as well as the company had hoped.

It also has been losing ground in the online advertising game, which is dominated by Google and, to a lesser extent, the ascendant Facebook.

Since taking the helm in January, Thompson has been pursuing a major reorganisation to turn around the flagging Internet giant. - Reuters

PlayStation4 to arrive before next Xbox

2012-04-09T03:12:00.003-07:00

The next PlayStation console, colloquially referred to as the PlayStation4 but codenamed Orbis, is expected to arrive before the new Xbox, according to new reports.

News site VG247 cites an unnamed source in predicting that the PlayStation4 will get the jump on Microsoft's machine, at least in terms of release timing.

The Xbox 720 - again, an informal term and with the codename Durango - is to launch in time for Christmas 2013, according to information previously published by VG247, with key development studios briefed in February.

Sony is believed to be holding its own developer summits in May and June.

Nintendo's successor to the Wii, known as the Wii U, was treated to an official announcement at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June 2011, though representatives for both Microsoft and Sony have indicated that their own machines won't be subject to the same treatment at this year's event. - Relaxnews 2012

Banking, shopping and job hunting online

2012-04-09T03:12:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK: Banking and keeping track of finances, shopping and searching for jobs are the main tasks of Internet users around the globe, according to a new international survey.

Nearly 60% of people in 24 countries used the web to check their bank account and other financial assets in the past 90 days, making it the most popular use of the Internet.

Shopping was not far behind at 48%, the Ipsos poll for Reuters showed, and 41% went online in search of a job.

"It is easy. You can do it any time of the day and most of the transactions don't have fees," said Keren Gottfried, research manager for Ipsos Global Public Affairs, about banking online.

Swedes were the biggest online bankers with almost 90% of adults using e-banking. But it has also caught on in a big way in France, Canada, Australia, Poland, South Africa and Belgium, where about 75% of people bank online.

But the Germans and Britons take the top prize for shopping on the Web.

Seventy-four per cent of people in both countries have bought something online in the past three months, followed by 68% of Swedes, 65% of Americans and 62% of South Koreans.

"It is telling that the top four countries are all traditionally developed western countries," said Gottfried. "It's really been under 10 years that this technology has been around."

Almost half of people around the world have shopped online and an even bigger number, 61%, search the Web for information about products they are thinking about buying.

Online shopping was the least popular in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Hungary and Russia, where 28% or fewer people buy online.

And in an indication of how far things have changed from looking for work in the classified ads in newspapers, 41% of people said they used the Internet to search for work.

Poles were the most likely to log on to look for a job, with 61% searching online for work, followed by Hungarians, South Africans and Mexicans. But only 17% of Japanese and a quarter of South Koreans and French have chosen the Web for their job search.

Gottfried said the findings shadow very closely the number of people who said they knew someone who has lost or is looking for a job.

"For almost all of them (countries) it mirrors who has the most job anxiety," she explained.

Older people, between 50-64, with higher incomes and education were the most likely to do their banking online, the poll showed. Online shoppers were also better educated and bigger earners.

But about half of online job searchers were under 35 years old, unmarried and had smaller incomes.

Ipsos interviewed a total of 19,216 adults in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States. - Reuters

Internet Explorer makes a comeback

2012-04-09T03:11:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK: Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) is rapidly growing its market share at the expense of Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome after close to a year of decline, says Internet tracker Net Applications.

Net Applications states that IE gained 0.99% in March to reach a total of 53.83% of the global market while rival browsers Firefox and Chrome saw a slight drop of 0.37% and 0.33% over the past month respectively.

Google+ users say, "I guess this means those IE commercials are working!" while others joke that it's an "awkward moment when you see someone using Internet Explorer and immediately think less of them." - AFP/Relaxnews 2012

SanDisk sees weak demand for NAND chips

2012-04-09T03:10:00.000-07:00

BANGALORE: Flash-memory maker SanDisk Corp warned that weak demand from mobile phone manufacturers and a glut in supply that has led to lower prices are hurting its revenue and margins.

The maker of NAND chips - used as storage memory in smartphones and Tablets - has recently seen demand taper with some of its key customers scaling back orders.

Smartphones and Tablets have caused a boom in NAND production, but SanDisk's customers have not all done equally well from the explosion in mobile gadgets.

"Anybody who is not a Samsung or an Apple is burning through some (mobile) handset inventory," RBC Capital Markets analyst Doug Freedman said.

"Until we get the PC market, Tablet market and handset market back buying, we'll see an oversupply situation."

SanDisk's weak outlook mirrors warnings from rival Flash-memory makers, who have also blamed weak prices and demand for their disappointing results.

Late last month, Micron Technology said it was facing persistently low prices for memory chips and posted a wider loss.

Toshiba Corp, Japan's biggest chipmaker, also posted a drop in quarterly sales at its electronics devices business, which includes semiconductors, hit by lower prices for memory chips.

SanDisk in January expressed concerns about weaker demand weighing on sales in the first half of this year and forecast lower-than-expected revenue for the first quarter.

The company now expects first-quarter revenue of about US$1.2bil (RM3.6bil), even lower than the US$1.3bil to US$1.35bil (RM3.9bil to RM4.05bil) range it had forecast in January. Analysts were expecting US$1.34bil (RM4.02bil), according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The Milpitas, California-based company, which is set to report results later this month, said its gross margins for the January-March quarter will come in below its prior expectations of 39%-42%, hurt by lower prices for its chips.

"SanDisk is exposed broadly to most mobile handset makers, and they even ship to Samsung but that is not barely enough to offset the shortages coming out of most mobile makers," analyst Freedman said. - Reuters

Facebook launches patent counterattack against Yahoo!

2012-04-09T03:09:00.001-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook fired back in its legal battle with Yahoo! by accusing the web pioneer of infringing 10 of Facebook's patents, according to a court filing.

The counterclaim from Facebook, filed in a San Francisco federal court, comes after Yahoo! a sued Facebook for patent infringement last month.

The duelling claims mark an expanding web of patent litigation that has already caught up the smartphone and Tablet sectors and high-tech stalwarts such as Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.

Yahoo!'s lawsuit against Facebook came at a delicate time, as the world's largest Internet social networking service is preparing for an initial public offering that could value the company at up to US$100bil (RM300bil).

Observers have said that companies are usually more vulnerable to patent suits when they are in the IPO process, as investors scrutinise the risks involved in the business.

But Facebook's counterclaim comes as Yahoo! addresses its own challenges: The web pioneer has seen declining revenue, and newly installed chief executive Scott Thompson is facing a contentious proxy fight with activist hedge fund Third Point.

Yahoo! spokesman Eric Berman said Facebook's counterclaim is "nothing more than a cynical attempt to distract from the weakness of its defence."

Five of the patents asserted by Facebook target features related to Yahoo!'s online advertising business, which Facebook pegged at 80% of Yahoo!'s 2011 revenue, according to the counterclaim.

Yahoo!'s Flickr photo sharing service infringed various Facebook patents involving the ability to connect with other users on the online service, to identify people in a photo and to generate personalised news feeds, according to the filing.

At least one of the patents asserted by Facebook - a method for tagging digital media - lists its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, as one of the inventors, according to a US Government database.

Facebook general counsel Ted Ullyot said the company had indicated that it would defend itself vigorously in the face of Yahoo!'s lawsuit.

"While we are asserting patent claims of our own, we do so in response to Yahoo!'s short-sighted decision to attack one of its partners and prioritise litigation over innovation," Ullyot said in a statement.

Yahoo! has claimed Facebook infringed 10 of Yahoo!'s patents, including several that cover online advertising technology. In its lawsuit, Yahoo! said Facebook was considered "one of the worst performing sites for advertising" prior to adapting Yahoo!'s ideas. - Reuters

Budding Google social network sets itself apart

2012-04-09T03:08:00.003-07:00

Like the strong-willed youth it is, Google's budding social network is confidently going its own way.

In an AFP interview, Google+ vice president Bradley Horowitz shrugged off Silicon Valley obsession with a Facebook rivalry and focused on the Internet titan playing to its strengths with an eye on the future.

"The way we think about Google+ is not pretending that today we can compete along every dimension of every competitor that is in a space," Horowitz said.

"The goals for Google+ are long-ranging and broad," he continued. "This is a reinvention of the consumer's relationship with Google that is going to unfold over a period of years."

The average number of people who use Google+ each month has climbed to 100 million since it opened to the public in September of last year. The figure for daily users is 50 million.

"Eventually, the 100 million users today are going to blossom into 500 million and by that time you will discover that all of your friends will be there on Google+," Horowitz predicted.

A unique Hangouts feature that lets as many as 10 people at once get together for group video chats is a huge draw at the online community.

Hangouts can be limited to invited friends or opened to anyone.

The US president, musician Will.i.am, Desmond Tutu and even the Dalai Lama have taken part in On Air hangouts in which intimate online gatherings can be openly viewed at the social network.

"We think looking somebody in the eye and communicating in the normal social way we've learned to do over millennia is important," Horowitz said. "We wanted to bring that authenticity back into the equation."

Hangouts have surprised the Google+ team. They have been used for language and music lessons. A stutterers' support group uses them for group meetings.

Hangouts are used to let bedridden people virtually explore the world.

Longtime photographer John Butterill of Canada was new to Google+ when he took a sick friend on a "virtual photo walk" using a smartphone, a professional camera, and a hangout.

Butterill hiked snowy woods near his home during a streamed hangout in which his friend saw through the camera lens and directed the shots. A video of the walk posted at the social network went viral.

"I came home from the walk and there it was being shared by everyone," Butterill told AFP. "My mouth dropped open."

The friends launched a Virtual Photo Walks page at Google+ with a mission to "walk for those who can't." Google+ users in cities around the world have signed on to act as legs and hands of people physically unable to venture out for themselves.

A photographer in Australia freshly recovered from a broken back virtually took a woman with Multiple Sclerosis on a walk to a beach in Perth.

"She said she never thought she'd hear the ocean again," Butterill said. "These people really know how to choke you up."

A photographer for nearly 40 years, Butterill insists that those directing shots get credit and rights to walk images.

"I am just the arms and legs," Butterill said. "It is like the person on the other side is holding the camera. It's just plain cool."

Virtual photo walks can go beyond picture-taking to being a way for people with disabilities to attend meetings or political events or even negotiate contracts in real time, according to Butterill.

"A soldier could take his hospitalised friend virtually to a pub for beer," he said. Butterill's vision includes taking sick children on virtual photo walks of Disneyland.

"When we brought hangouts to market we knew we had something very special, but there was no way of telling whether this would be the next Chatroulette or something more meaningful," Horowitz said.

"It is really delightful when a product you built changes people's lives and you get these heartfelt stories about how it has touched them."

Google is weaving its social network into offerings such as its search engine and online video-sharing stage YouTube for a synergy that could offset the edge given Facebook by its network of more than 840 million members.

"Google of five years ago had many magical products, but they didn't sing in harmony," Horowitz said.

"We are creating a more comprehensive user experience across all of what we are doing," he continued. "We are threading the needle very carefully to do that without spoiling the magic." - AFP/Relaxnews 2012