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Google Releases Data Cleanser

2010-11-11T20:51:00.000-08:00

Google has updated and re-released open-source software for cleaning, analyzing and transforming data sets, now called Google Refine.

The software, originally called Freebase Gridworks, came with Metaweb, a company Google purchased in July.

Google Refine is a collection of tools that could come in handy when wrangling useful information from a data set, particularly ones that have data inconsistencies.

This desktop application can, for instance, find all the variant spellings of a word in a data set and replace them with the appropriate term. This process, called normalization, is nothing new. But normalizing data usually requires writing code that is specific to one data set, noted Christopher Groskopf, a developer for the Chicago Tribune.

"The genius of Gridworks is that it is generic enough to work for a wide variety of data sets without the need to write any code at all. Even better the resulting operations are portable, so the process used to clean up 2009′s data can be repeated for 2010," Groskopf wrote in a blog post.

The software contains a number of other tools as well. It includes an expression language that can be used to analyze a set of data. Filters can be used to isolate subsets of data, which then can be analyzed or changed through a set of transform commands.

The software works with plain text files, the data in which can be split into different columns by the use of commas. Results can exported back out in the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format, which can then be easily transformed into HTML tables or other formats.

The software can work with up to a few hundred thousand rows per data set, depending on the user's computer memory. And unlike most spreadsheet software, this software can interactively transform large subsets of data, the company asserted.

Google said this week that it has added several new features to the software, officially called Google Refine 2.0, including the ability to link records to other databases, and a number of new transformation commands and expressions.

The non-profit government watchdog organization ProPublica has used this software to aggregate data from seven different data sets to show how pharmaceutical companies pay doctors to recommend certain medications.

Facebook finds loophole in Google's ban, rivalry escalates

2010-11-09T16:51:00.000-08:00

Google is all about transparency, unless Facebook is involved. Google recently decided to cut off Facebook’s access to its Gmail clients, citing the social networking site’s refusal to share its own information. Previous to this ban, Facebook users were able to instantly add Gmail contacts on Facebook to their Friends, a service no longer provided.

Add to this a recent partnership allowing rival search engine Bing to include Facebook profiles in its search results, and you can imagine there’s some tension between Google and Facebook.

But if Facebook is anything, it’s resourceful. Today the site rolled out a link under the “Find Friends” tab, allowing users to directly download load their Gmail contacts. Under the tab, there’s an option labeled “Other Tools” where you can choose the “Other Email Service.” Go ahead and enter your Gmail address, only to be told there are no results – but you’ll also see a link that lets you download your Gmail contacts as a CSV file. This is what you can then upload to Facebook with one click – and voila, all your Gmail contacts on Facebook are available.

It looks like the workaround is staying put. “We’re disappointed that Facebook didn’t invest their time in making it possible for their users to get their contacts out of Facebook. As passionate believers that people should be able to control the data they create, we will continue to allow our users to export their Google contacts,” a spokeswoman for the company commented.

Facebook declined to make an official comment, but platform engineer Mike Vernal from the company wrote on TechCrunch today, criticizing Google for saying one thing and doing another. He accuses the company of “being open when its [sic] convenient,” and saying “E-mail is different from social networking because in an e-mail application, each person maintains and owns their own address book, whereas in a social network your friends maintain their information and you just maintain a list of friends. Because of this, we think it makes sense for e-mail applications to export e-mail addresses and for social networks to export friend lists.”

Vernal closes by saying, “We strongly hope that Google turns back on their API and doesn’t come up with yet another excuse to prevent their users from leaving Google products to use ones they like better instead.”

While users will remain able to upload their Gmail contacts (an issue very little people actually seem concerned with), look out for what promises to continue to be an escalating rift between the two Internet giants. Get ready for a host of little more than snide press releases and catty insults.

BP to sign exploration deal with Chinese company: report

2010-11-07T16:33:00.000-08:00

LONDON (AFP) – British oil giant BP is set to sign a major exploration deal with China's biggest offshore oil and gas producer when Prime Minister David Cameron visits Beijing next week, a report said on Saturday.

Sky News said BP was hoping to conclude an agreement with state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to explore an area of the South China Sea, where the two companies have already worked together.

A BP spokesman refused to comment on the report.

AFP/File – A British Petroleum sign is seen at a station. The BP is set to sign a major exploration deal with China's

Cameron, accompanied by four of his top ministers, starts a two-day visit to China on Tuesday during which he will meet President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao for talks which are expected to focus partly on energy issues.

BP is seeking to rebuild its international reputation after the disastrousoil spill from a well it operated in the Gulf of Mexico.

The company said this month the spill will cost it 40 billion dollars after ramping up its estimate by almost a quarter.

Cable subscribers flee, but is Internet to blame?

2010-11-06T14:42:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK – TV subscribers are ditching their cable companies at an ever faster rate in the past few months, and many of them aren't signing up with a satellite or phone competitor instead.

Their willingness to simply go without pay television could be a sign that Internet TV services such as Netflix and Hulu are finally starting to entice people to cancel cable, though company executives say the weak economy and housing market are to blame.

Third-quarter results reported this week by major cable and satellite TVcompanies show major losses, but don't settle the question of what's causing them.

If "cord-cutting" in favor of Internet video is finally taking hold, that has wide-ranging implications. Consumers who use the Internet to get their movies and TV shows bypass not just the cable companies, but the cable networks that produce the content. The move could have the same disruptive effect on the TV and movie industries as digital downloads have already had on music.

AP – FILE - In this Feb. 2, 2009 file photo, a Time Warner Cable truck is parked in New York. Time Warner

A few weeks ago, the CEO of phone company Verizon Communications Inc. likened cord-cutting to what started happening to the local-phone companies five or six years ago, when people started giving up their landlines in favor of relying solely on their cell phones.

"The first thing when that happens is you deny it," Ivan Seidenberg said. "I know the drill. I have been there."

On Thursday, Time Warner Cable Inc.'s chief operating officer, Landel Hobbs, said the company doesn't see evidence of people dropping cable in favor of the Internet. He said the biggest subscriber losses have been among people who don't have cable broadband services; high-speed Internet — from cable or a competitor — is key to watching video online. These people seem to be going to satellite or giving up on pay TV entirely.

On the theory that college students might be among the first to drop cable TV, the company looked at changes in subscriber figures in college towns such as Austin, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio. They weren't out of line with previous years, and they corresponded to the level of student enrollment, he said.

"We'll continue to monitor cord-cutting, but haven't found evidence where you might expect to see it," Hobbs told analysts on a conference call.

Time Warner Cable lost 155,000 video subscribers in the July-September quarter, compared with 64,000 a year ago.

The only larger cable company, Comcast Corp., reported last week that its subscriber loss more than doubled in the third quarter, to 275,000. Comcast said many of those leaving had taken advantage of low introductory rates that the company offered last year when the analog TV broadcast network was shut down.

Of the satellite companies, DirecTV gained subscribers and Dish Network Corp. lost them. On a conference call Friday, Dish CEO Charlie Ergen said the Internet was making itself noticed as a competitor.

"You know, my kids think I'm crazy for being in the pay-TV business because they don't pay for TV. They don't pay for movies," Ergen told analysts.

The country's eight largest publicly traded pay-TV companies, representing about 85 percent of the subscriber total, had reported their results for the third quarter by Friday. These cable, phone and satellite companies showed a combined gain of 66,700 video subscribers, or a 0.3 percent increase at an annualized rate, about a third the growth of the population.

The figure was a slight recovery from the seasonally weak second quarter, when they gained just 12,400 subscribers. But it's far short of the 401,300 subscribers gained a year ago.

Missing from the tally is the third-largest cable company, Cox Communications, which is privately held and doesn't report subscriber counts publicly. If it lost cable subscribers at the same rate as Comcast and Time Warner Cable, the nine largest pay-TV companies had zero net gain for the latest quarter and lost subscribers in the second.

Cable companies have been losing video subscribers for some time, but they have been compensating by upgrading basic subscribers to more expensive digital tiers, as well as adding broadband and phone subscribers.

However, both Time Warner Cable and Cablevision Systems Corp. lost digital video subscribers in the third quarter. Both added record-low number of phone subscribers, as years of growth are coming to an end.

Meanwhile, Netflix Inc.'s streaming service has become so popular that it is now the largest source of U.S. Internet traffic during peak evening hours, according to Sandvine Inc., a Canadian company that supplies traffic-management equipment to Internet service providers.

A variety of gadgets can send Netflix's streams to the living room TV, including game consoles and the $99 Apple TV box. Many high-end TVs now come with the built-in ability to play Internet content.

Thomas Clancy Jr., 35, in Long Beach, N.Y., canceled the family's Cablevision subscription this spring. He said he has been happy with Netflix and other Internet video services since then, even though there isn't a lot of live sports to be had online.

"The amount of sports that I watched certainly didn't justify a hundred-dollar-a-month expense for all this stuff. I mean, that's twelve hundred dollars a year," Clancy said. "Twelve hundred dollars is ... near a vacation."

But Clancy — who has no relation to the thriller writer — is also an example of the hurdles cord cutters face. He uses an Internet-connected Blu-ray player to get Netflix movies to the TV. And he pulls a cable from his computer to the TV for Internet content Netflix doesn't have. Clancy owns a computer consulting firm and is tech-savvy enough to do all that. Most people wouldn't know how.

Cablevision wanted to raise Clancy's Internet bill when he canceled TV service. That would have made cord-cutting less attractive, but he happens to live in an area where Verizon provides Internet service at speeds that are comparable with the best cable has to offer. He got a better deal from Verizon and switched to that provider.

Most people who have the technological skills to take advantage of Internet video find that the selection of movies and shows isn't broad enough to make the jump worth it, Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett said.

On the other hand, poor people have an excellent motive to cut cable and simply replace it with an antenna or nothing at all, he said.

"The price of cable TV has risen to the point where it's simply not affordable to lots of lower-income homes. And right now there are an awful lot of lower-income homes," Moffett said. "The evidence suggests that what we're seeing is a poverty problem rather than a technology phenomenon."

In addition, high unemployment means fewer new households, as kids are probably delaying moving out of their parents' houses, or people move in with roommates. That can reduce the number of households that pay for TV.

Cable companies would like to get low-income customers back with cheaper cable packages, but their hands are tied. Content providers such as The Walt Disney Co. and News Corp. won't license their channels one by one, so subscribers have to take big, expensive channel packages, or very basic ones, which offer little beyond what's available with an antenna.

Content providers now get billions of dollars in fees from cable service providers, and they want to make sure that whatever new industry model comes along, they'll get paid. It's not obvious yet that Internet video will let them sustain their profit levels.

Six companies create the content that consumes 85 percent of U.S. viewing hours, Moffett said. "Until they get on board, the train's not leaving the station."

Perfect storm for GOP: Obama base stays home, white voters defect

2010-11-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

Like converging thunderstorms, two distinct trends collided Tuesday night to power the Republican Party to the largest midterm gains for either party since 1938.

The portions of the electorate that remained loyal to President Obama and Democrats - particularly minority voters and young people - did not show up in anywhere near the numbers they did in 2008. And among the voters who did show up, Democratic candidates suffered crippling defections among white voters, particularly independents, seniors, and those without a college education, according to the national network exit poll of House elections.

The long-anticipated enthusiasm gap manifested itself in force Tuesday: The exit poll found that Republicans equaled Democrats as a share of the electorate; just two years ago, Democrats outnumbered Republicans as a share of all voters by 40 to 33 percent. That shift reflected the declining participation of some of the Democrats' best groups and a surge among those favoring Republicans.

Young people, who cast 18 percent of the ballots in 2008, dropped to just 11 percent. That was a slightly larger falloff than is typical in midterm elections. Likewise, the falloff between the minority share of the vote in 2008 and Tuesday night was the largest decline between a presidential and the subsequent midterm election in at least the past two decades. Two years ago, minorities cast 26 percent of all ballots in the presidential election; this year that number fell to 22 percent. Both groups largely stuck with Democrats - but their impact was severely diluted by their declining turnout.

Meanwhile, seniors, who represented one-sixth of voters in 2008, soared to fully 22 percent - their largest share since at least 1992. And nearly three-fifths of them backed Republican House candidates. Among white seniors, that number rose to over three-fifths.

Overall, the national exit poll measuring preferences in House races put the Republican vote among whites at a jaw-dropping 60 percent, up sharply from 53 percent in 2008. Democratic candidates attracted only about 35 percent of the vote among white men and women without a college education and college-educated white men. Following patterns evident in Obama's approval rating, the only segment of the white electorate that didn't collapse for Democrats were college-educated white women. But even they tilted slightly toward the GOP.

The stampede toward the GOP among blue-collar whites was powerful almost everywhere. In heartland states such as Arkansas, Ohio, Indiana, and even Illinois, Democrats were routed among college-educated whites, too, the exit polls found. But along the coasts - in such states as Delaware, California, and Connecticut - Democrats did a better job of holding college whites, especially women. That was critical to their Senate victories in those states. The exception to that coastal pattern was in Pennsylvania. Republican Pat Toomey attracted more of those suburban voters and, crucially, remained competitive in the Philadelphia suburbs (which two years ago gave Obama a crushing margin of nearly 200,000 votes); that helped power Toomey's narrow victory over Democrat Joe Sestak. In Colorado, which shares many cultural characteristics with the coastal states, strong support among college-educated whites in metropolitan areas such as Denver and Boulder allowed Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet to remain in a tight race with Republican challenger Ken Buck despite Buck's massive advantage among noncollege whites, especially in the state's rural areas.

Overall, Tuesday had the feel of a parliamentary election in which individual candidates had only limited ability to separate themselves from the national tide. Put another way, the name on the back of the jersey mattered less than the color on the front.

Particularly in the House, Democrats from all segments of the party were swept away. The Democratic House losses were greatest in the sorts of places that have been most skeptical of Obama from the outset. Democrats representing districts that voted for John McCain in 2008 were routed: Republicans appear to have gained at least three-fourths of the 48 seats now held by Democrats in that category.

In a geographic reflection of Obama's weakness among blue-collar white voters, a partial count showed that Republicans captured the seats of at least 35 House Democrats in districts where the percentage of whites with a college degree lags the national average of 30.4 percent. House Democrats elected in 2006 and 2008, when George W. Bush's weakness allowed the party to expand deep into traditionally Republican terrain, also suffered heavy losses. Geographically, Democrats were especially hard hit through the border states and industrial Midwest: The party lost five House seats in Ohio, five in Pennsylvania, three in Tennessee, two in Indiana, and at least three in Illinois. Meanwhile, Republicans captured governorships in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio, flipped Senate seats in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois, and easily held an open Republican seat in Ohio.

But the election's blast radius extended well beyond those highly-vulnerable categories. Besides the freshman and sophomore Democrats, the election also claimed veteran House leaders such as Ike Skelton of Missouri, Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania and John Spratt of South Carolina. While the House losses were greatest in downscale blue-collar districts, Democrats also lost white-collar suburban seats in New Jersey, New Hampshire, and the Philadelphia suburbs, and failed to carry the suburban seat vacated by Mark Kirk, the successful GOP Senate challenger in Illinois. Those losses also extended the Democrats' vulnerability beyond swing states to reliably blue states that have been cornerstones of the party's coalition since the 1990s, including New York. There, the party dominated statewide races, but lost a stunning five House seats, mostly through economically squeezed upstate districts. Few Democrats anywhere Tuesday night could feel entirely sheltered from the storm.

Obama: Appeals for common ground, yet jabs GOP

2010-10-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON – Whatever the outcome of Tuesday's election, it's time to put aside partisanship, President Barack Obama is telling Democrats and Republicans.

Yet his appeal for unity includes a jab at GOP leaders in the House and Senate for comments that the president said were troubling.

House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio "actually said that 'this is not the time for compromise,'" Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. The president added that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky "said his main goal after this election is simply to win the next one."

AP – President Barack Obama walks to board Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland outside Washington

The address was released shortly before Obama left Washington for a day of campaigning in Philadelphia, Bridgeport, Conn., and Chicago. The three states have competitive House and Senate races, as does Ohio, where the president will hold a rally Sunday in Cleveland.

"I know that we're in the final days of a campaign," Obama said in his weekly address. "So it's not surprising that we're seeing this heated rhetoric. That's politics. But when the ballots are cast and the voting is done, we need to put this kind of partisanship aside — win, lose or draw."

Voters angry and anxious about the economy and joblessness are expected to take their frustrations out on Democratic lawmakers Tuesday, possibly putting Republicans back in control of the House and maybe even the Senate.

Boehner's comment that "this is not a time for compromise" came during a recent interview on a conservative radio show. He was trying to rebut a GOP senator's suggestion that repealing the health care law was not in the party's best interest. Republicans have pledged to try to repeal the health care law or undo important parts of it.

In the same interview, Boehner said he'd welcome Obama's involvement in working toward Republican goals.

McConnell expressed his desire to have a Republican in the White House. He said in a published interview that the "single most important thing" Republicans want is to help Obama become a one-term president.

Tuesday's results aside, Obama said both parties should be able to agree on steps to promote economic growth and hiring.

"Whatever the outcome on Tuesday, we need to come together to help put people who are still looking for jobs back to work," he said.

In the weekly Republican address, Boehner said Obama has failed to deliver the change he promised. The man who likely would become House speaker if Republicans win control of the chamber also promoted party pledges to cut spending and keep taxes at current levels.

"This is a new way forward that hasn't been tried in Washington yet," Boehner said. "It's a break from the direction in which President Obama has taken our country. And frankly, it's also a break from the direction in which Republicans were headed when Americans last entrusted us with the reins of government. The American people are in charge, and they deserve nothing less."

iPhone 4 for Verizon is ‘fait accompli,’ Fortune claims

2010-10-29T16:35:00.000-07:00

Yet another major publication is coming forward claiming confirmation that the long-rumored Verizon iPhone is real. But don't get your hopes up for an iPhone 4 that's compatible with the carrier's soon-to-be-launched 4G network.

In its lengthy profile of Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg, Fortune says it has confirmed that Verizon will get the iPhone in early 2011—indeed, it's a "fait accompli," claims the magazine, although neither Apple nor Verizon will go on the record and say so.

Fortune says that Verizon will get its "own version" of the iPhone 4 (sorry, no surprise iPhone 5 quite yet) and that it'll run on the carrier's existing 3G network—disappointing news for anyone hoping that the new iPhone would support Verizon's budding 4G LTE data network, which is set to go live in a few dozen U.S. markets before the year is out.

Don't expect a dual-mode GSM/CDMA "world phone" either, Fortune adds, although the story suggests that Verizon FiOS subscribers might get their own iPhone app for live TV streaming.

Rumors about an iPhone on Verizon are nothing new, but the flames have been fanned in recent weeks by articles in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

And then there's the fact that Verizon Wireless just began selling the iPad (bundled with the MiFi Wi-Fi hotspot) in its retail stores, a clear sign that relations between Apple and Verizon have been warming up.

Indeed, Verizon has apparently been courting Apple since before the iPhone even launched. Fortune says Verizon's Seidenberg pleaded his case before Steve Jobs as early as the spring of 2007, a few months before the original iPhone went on sale, asking Jobs why Verizon was "in your doghouse" as far as the iPhone was concerned. The answer: because an iPhone compatible with Verizon's CDMA network wouldn't function on worldwide GSM carriers. (AT&T runs a GSM cellular network.)

Well, uh ... isn't that still the case? Yep, it is, but apparently Jobs had second thoughts about Apple's "one phone for the world" strategy after AT&T's network began buckling under the pressure of all those data-hungry iPhones. He told Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam in a follow-up call that Apple had "missed something" in its earlier discussions with the carrier, Fortune reports.

So, are you convinced by the latest reports of a Verizon iPhone, or will you believe it when you see it? And if Verizon does get the iPhone, will you switch to the "can you hear me now" network?

A Walkman Obit: Remembering the portable player

2010-10-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK – The Walkman, the Sony cassette device that forever changed music listening before becoming outdated by digital MP3 players and iPods, has died. It was 31 years old.

Sony announced Monday that it has ceased production of the classic, cassette tape Walkman in Japan, effectively sounding the death knell of the once iconic, now obsolete device.

The Walkman is survived by the Discman (still clinging to life) and ironic music listeners who think using a Walkman in this day-and-age is charmingly out-of-touch.

AFP/File – This picture taken in 2009 shows the first model of Japanese electronics maker Sony's stereo cassete

It will continue to be produced in China and distributed in the U.S.,Europe and some Asian countries. Digital Walkmans are also being made with models that display lyrics and have improved digital noise-canceling technology.

Still, if you're looking to chisel a date in the Walkman's tombstone, then Oct. 25, 2010, is as good as any. For many, that it's taken this long is surprising: "They were still making those?" Perhaps Oct. 23, 2001, the day the iPod was launched, is the better date of expiration.

But none of the success of Apple's portable music players would have ever happened without the cassette Walkman. Some 220 million have been sold since the first model, the TPS-L2, debuted in July 1979. (It retailed for $200.) At the time, transistor radios were portable, but there was nothing widely available like the Walkman.

It was developed under the stewardship of Sony founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka. Morita insisted the device not be focused on recording but playback, a relatively odd notion at the time.

Originally called the "Soundabout" in the U.S., the Walkman was an immediate sensation and a revolution in music listening.

Foremost, it was portable. Music no longer needed to be something that one experienced sitting in a room, but could be blasted on the bus, pumped while jogging on a beach or played softly while studying.

By turning the volume up, anyone could be tuned out.

The detached teenager with foam earphones slouched in the back seat or bobbing his head in the elevator became an indelible image of the `80s. (The first Walkman did have an orange "hot line" button to lower the music and increase the microphone so you could hear someone talking to you.)

Music, previously listened to in a room with shag carpeting and a stereo, was cast into the world, made a part of daily life. Pink Floyd could join a walk in the park, Public Enemy could soundtrack a commute.

More than portability, it fostered a personalization to music, a theme the iPod would also highlight in those early dancing silhouette ads. A big reason there's so much nostalgia for the Walkman today is because it eliminated any separation from music. It felt like an appendage, which is perhaps why some (with questionable fashion instincts) clipped theirs to their belt.

The Walkman was also the father of the mixtape, an offspring that nearly trumps the progenitor. For the first time, music was something you could make yours by arranging it and swapping it.

For those young and unfamiliar with this process, making a mixtape typically entailed gathering songs by the Cure and Depeche Mode, labeling the tape with care and awkwardly giving it to a love interest in homeroom.

The Walkman didn't disappear so much as it was improved upon. Sony continues to use it as a brand, but the company long ago ceded hipness and style to Apple. The iPod will likely one day befall a similar fate, and another generation will gasp in joined wistfulness.

When it comes to music and how we hear it, we're all romantics.

Gold prices fluctuate wildly

2010-10-24T20:06:00.002-07:00

Domestic gold prices have fluctuated wildly in recent days and currently stand at VND33.13 million per tael.

In HCM City, SJC gold prices are VND33.03-33.1 million per tael to buy in HCM City while the selling price is VND10,000 higher than in Hanoi.

Compared to October 13, SJC gold prices have increased by VND530,000 per tael.

Meanwhile, on the world market, gold prices were listed at US$1,377.3 per ounce. In the New York market, the gold price for December delivery shows an increase US$23.80 per ounce or 1.8 percent to settle at US$1,370.50 per ounce while the gold price for October delivery has already climbed to US$1,369.50 per ounce.

The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust said that its holdings remain at 1,287.33 tonnes.

Verizon iPhone Rumor Won't Die

2010-10-23T16:51:00.000-07:00

Gasp, another Verizon iPhone rumor surfaced this week.

Two hiring firms are posting jobs for thousands of customer service reps for a "major wireless cell phone service retailer," across the United States, according to CNET and others.

Could the increase in staffing be in preparation for a January release of the Verizon iPhone? Maybe.

A few additional "help wanted" ads give a clue.

Apple Insider points out a few new positions will offer technical support for "personal computers and portable devices like MP3 players and smartphones."

The iPhone certainly fits the bill.

In addition, the hiring companies have ties to Verizon and one works with Apple.

A source told the Augusta Chronicle that a call center in Georgia will double its number of employees by the end of November. The source also said that Teleperformace has ties "all major cell phone providers," but wouldn't reveal which carrier the new hires will serve.

The Verizon iPhone rumor came back with a vengeance earlier this month when "people familiar with the matter" told the Wall Street Journal that Apple plans to start mass producing a special iPhone for Verizon by the end of 2010. The device would reportedly be available in the first quarter of 2011.

If a special iPhone lands on Verizon's shelves, it stands to reason the carrier would need support staff to help anxious customers with billing questions and so forth, but it might be a bit of a stretch to say this is a smoking gun.

Regardless, it's nice to see that thousands of people can get customer support jobs that pay $10 an hour in this bum economy.

How's that for a stimulus package, United States? Maybe that's why President Obama met with Steve Jobsthis week.

iPhone 4 sells out in second launch

2010-10-22T19:48:00.001-07:00

VietNamNet Bridge – VinaPhone and Viettel’s second round of Apple iPhone 4 imports sold out quickly around the country, barely scratching the surface of demand for the trendy cell phone.

The two providers launched the sales quietly to prevent the chaos that marred the first launch. They delivered phones by contacting directly with customers who had ordered via websites.

Nguyen Thu Hong, a representative of VinaPhone, said the telecom provider offered only 120 phones in HCMC and 130 in Hanoi over the weekend. VinaPhone invited customers to come and pick up their new phones at its stores.

Viettel, meanwhile, distributed 250 phones to selected stores and to the customers who made orders. “Some provinces received only one or two units each,” a Viettel representative told theDaily.

The two enterprises have yet to announce timing for the next shipment and said Apple wasn’t providing them with many so they would again only be accepting orders online for the next release.

The representative said Vietnam is still a potential market for the smart phone and a large volume of customers will order for the next launch. “In my opinion, iPhone 4 distributors initially can sell 7,000 to 8,000 units each month and 5,000 to 6,000 phones later,” the Viettel staff said.

The telecom providers launched the first iPhone 4 imports in Vietnam on September 30 with 1,000 units sold out the same morning. Many people joined long queues in front of stores at 5:00 a.m. but were still too late to buy the popular gadget.

VietNamNet/SGT

Amazon 3Q profit jumps 16 percent, but costs rise

2010-10-21T17:07:00.000-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO – Amazon.com Inc. saw earnings grow in the third quarter as shoppers bought more goods and services, yet costs also rose because the company is having to build new centers to fulfill those orders. Shares fell in extended trading.

For the July-September quarter, Amazon earned $231 million, or 51 cents per share — 3 cents more than what analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected, on average. That compares with a profit of $199 million, or 45 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 39 percent to $7.56 billion, higher than the $7.36 billion analysts expected. It was $5.45 billion a year ago, a quarter that doesn't reflect the November purchase of shoes and apparel retailer Zappos.

Amazon reported Thursday that revenue from its largest sales category, electronics and other general merchandise, jumped 68 percent to $3.97 billion. Revenue from books, CDs, DVDs and other media grew 14 percent to $3.35 billion.

AP – In this Oct. 18, 2010 photo, an Amazon.com package awaits delivery from UPS in Palo Alto, Calif. Amazon.com

The Seattle-based company, which has never given precise details about sales of its Kindle electronic reader, said that a larger number of its latest Kindle device was ordered in the first 12 weeks it was available than in the same amount of time after any other Kindle launch. The newest Kindle, which was priced more cheaply at $139 and uses Wi-Fi to wirelessly download content from Amazon's Kindle Store, was released during the quarter.

Amazon said that its combined fulfillment, technology and content and marketing costs rose 47 percent to $1.36 billion. Its fulfillment costs climbed 46 percent to $680 million.

In a conference call with reporters, Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak said costs rose because of 13 centers Amazon has opened or will open this year to fill customer orders, both for its own retail business and for its business of filling orders for other sellers.

The company's marketing spending also jumped, climbing 62 percent to $241 million. Amazon, which generally focuses on advertising online, has been branching out by running commercials for the Kindle.

Amazon has cemented its position as the e-commerce leader by offering lower prices than other retailers both on and off the Web, and it clearly isn't planning to change this to make up for higher expenses.

"The way we think about pricing is we want to make sure we have great prices on a year-round basis, in all the categories and all the geographies we offer, and that's something we work hard to do," Szkutak said.

For this quarter, Amazon predicted revenue will total $12 billion to $13.3 billion - a range that would indicate 26 percent to 40 percent growth over last year's fourth quarter.

Analysts were looking for $12.3 billion in revenue.

But Amazon also indicated that its operating income could fall as much as 24 percent to $360 million or rise as much as 18 percent to $560 million in the quarter, which means expenses are still likely to rise.

Larry Witt, a Morningstar Inc. analyst, said the level of expenses for both quarters puts a damper on things.

"They're still growing fast, but people are probably getting anxious to see operating leverage," he said.

Amazon's stock fell $6.47, or 3.9 percent, to $158.50 in after-hours trading after the release of results. The shares had finished regular trading up $6.30, or 4 percent, at $164.97.

Sharp quake rattles southern NZ city

2010-10-18T17:44:00.000-07:00

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – An earthquake rattled the southern New Zealand city of Christchurch on Tuesday, cutting power and phone service and sending some residents running into the streets just weeks after a more powerful quake caused extensive damage.

New Zealand's geological agency GNS Science said Tuesday's magnitude 5.0 quake was centered six miles (10 kilometers) southwest of the city and just five miles (nine kilometers) below the surface.

AP – A young boy takes advantage of warped road to skateboard on in Paiapoi, 20km south of Christchurch

Buildings shook and objects tumbled from shelves when the quake hit about 11:30 a.m. (22:30 GMT Monday), emergency services said.

Electricity and phone service were cut to several parts of the city, and a number of buildings in the city center were evacuated following the shake, civil defense officials said.

The temblor was one of hundreds of aftershocks that have hit the city since a magnitude-7 quake on Sept. 4 that wrecked thousands of homes, tore up farmland but did not kill anyone.

St John Ambulance spokesman Chris Haines said there were no reports of any quake-related injuries, but the service received several panic calls following the aftershock.

Riccarton Browsers Garden Cafe owner Flick Holmes said the shallow earthquake was "very scary" and seemed to last about 20 seconds.

"It definitely was a very big one. Everything rocked. Just when you think you're getting used to it, (another) goes," she said.

Police said a suburban shopping mall was evacuated as a precaution after reports of some roofing collapsing.

"This was very loud, very strong shaking. All our china is smashed in our kiosk," said Fiona Fidow at the Cupcake Collection shop in Westfield Mall in suburban Riccarton.

"The mall has been evacuated. Quite a few people are crying and hysterical. There are a lot of frightened people," she told the "Stuff" news web site.

Christchurch resident Shirin Namjou said she was driving on a suburban street when the aftershock hit.

"My car was being shaken around and the traffic lights were moving side to side. It was one of the strongest ones we have felt," she said.

About 300 workers were evacuated from a construction site at Christchurch International Airport, while the airport itself was closed briefly so engineers could check its runways for cracks.

One Christchurch resident reported some fresh cracks had appeared in his house, while others reported crockery being broken and books tumbling from shelves.

GNS Science said four other, smaller aftershocks also hit the region Tuesday morning.

Prime Minister John Key told reporters on Monday that 50,000 homes in the city needed major repairs, with some 1,200 houses likely to be demolished and rebuilt.

These homes were located where quake damage to the land meant major remedial work was needed. Repairing land torn open by the magnitude-7 quake would take two years to complete, he said.

A "very small number," of perhaps 20 homes were not be able to be rebuilt on their original sites, Key added.

Officials earlier estimated the full bill for Christchurch's quake damage could reach 4 billion New Zealand dollars ($2.9 billion).

FACT CHECK: Obama's education claims missing facts

2010-10-17T15:55:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says almost every chance he gets that Republicans would cut education spending by 20 percent if their party wins control of Congress in the Nov. 2 elections. He also says they would repeal a new college tuition tax credit.

But as Obama makes these assertions to draw contrasts between the parties and give voters a reason to keep Democrats in power on Capitol Hill, he's leaving out some important facts.

Take his claims about the Republican campaign plan, the Pledge to America.

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EDITOR'S NOTE — An occasional look at assertions by public officials and how well they adhere to the facts.

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Obama says Republicans would pay to keep a set of expiring tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans by cutting spending on education, an area where he's investing billions of dollars from kindergarten through college.

AP – FILE - In this Sept. 28, 2010 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the backyard of a home in

"And when you ask them, well, how would you pay for some of this stuff, they don't really have good answers," Obama said Sept. 28 in Albuquerque, N.M., shortly after Republicans released the plan. "But one way they would pay for it is to cut back our education spending by 20 percent and eliminate about 200,000 Head Start programs, and reduce student aid to go to college for about 8 million students."

He's argued the point almost daily since then, from discussions on the economy in voters' back yards to statements in the sunny White House Rose Garden.

But the GOP plan doesn't say that. A search of the document doesn't find the word "education" anywhere in its 48 pages.

The White House says the claim is based on an analysis by the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities of the Republicans plan's proposal to return federal spending to 2008 levels. A White House spokeswoman says the administration also crunched the numbers.

The think tank says such a reversal would require immediate cuts of 21 percent, or $101 billion, in spending on programs unrelated to national security or veterans. The center chose education as an example and said a cut that size would trim more than $8 billion from K-12 funding, on top of cuts by state and local governments.

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for the House Republican leadership, said the analysis is faulty. While the pledge calls for deep spending cuts, it doesn't specify where they should be made, he said.

At a campaign event Tuesday night in Washington, Obama said the tuition tax credit "could be repealed if Republicans take over. They've already proposed to cut education spending by 20 percent."

The American Opportunity Tax Credit, worth $2,500 a year, was included in the $814 billion economic stimulus bill Obama signed into law last year. The tax credit is available for the 2009 and 2010 tax years, but is scheduled to expire at the end of this year because of how the law is written. Obama on Wednesday called on Congress to make the credit permanent.

So how does a law that is expiring in just over two months get repealed by a party that's not in power?

The White House says it would be repealed if Republicans make good on a promise to end the stimulus.

Liz Oxhorn, a spokeswoman for the stimulus program, said that if Republicans get their way they'd have to immediately freeze stimulus spending. Oxhorn said that if all stimulus spending were halted "today," there would be no money to pay the tax credit next year when students and families who are now spending on tuition and other college costs would claim the credit on their 2010 income tax returns.

But it's not that simple. Republicans don't have enough votes now to freeze the stimulus; if they did, they could have ended the program already.

To end the stimulus, Republicans first must win control of the House and Senate on Nov. 2, then wait until a new Congress convenes in January before taking steps to fulfill any of the Pledge of America promises.

French workers take to the streets as fuel blockade bites

2010-10-16T12:32:00.000-07:00

PARIS (AFP) – French trade unions staged another massive day of protest Saturday to defend their right to retire at 60, as strikes in the key refining sector threatened to cut off fuel supplies.

Although government estimates of the turnout at the rallies suggested the movement might be losing steam, unions warned that strikes are spreading to more businesses and that a new nationwide protest would be held Tuesday.

Tension has been building since record demonstrations earlier this week with strikes in refineries cutting off fuel supplies to Paris airports and with high school students joining older workers to condemn pension reform moves.

AFP – People demonstrate in Paris as part of a national day of mass rallies against pension reform.

According to the interior ministry, 825,000 people took to the streets of towns and cities across the country on Saturday, the lowest official total since protests against President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan began in September.

Unions estimated the turnout at "around three million", arguing that the numbers were around the same as a previous protest on a Saturday two weeks earlier, and labour leadersinsisted the campaign would go on.

"The movement is taking root and growing in terms of the number of companies hit by various forms of strike as in the number of employees taking part in the action," the powerful CGT union said in a statement.

Sarkozy's works and pensions minister, Eric Woerth, insisted however that there had been a "significant drop-off" in the number of people taking part from the 1.2 million the government said had marched on Tuesday.

"There were, nevertheless, still lot of protesters. That underlines the government's duty to explain this reform better," he said.

Labour wants to force Sarkozy into backing down on his plan to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, which is in the final days of its journey through a parliament in which the right wing leader enjoys a comfortable majority.

"We're prepared to demonstrate under the snow if it takes that long," Airbus worker Stephane Thibault, 37, told AFP at a demonstration in the southern city of Toulouse.

"We're mobilised, everyone seems motivated. With right-wing governments, we know you have to resist," he said.

OPEC maintains oil output quota

2010-10-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

VIENNA (AFP) – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has agreed to keep its official oil production target at 24.84 million barrels a day, OPEC president Wilson Pastor-Morris of Ecuador said on Thursday.

"No change" to output, Pastor-Morris told reporters at the end of OPEC's ministerial meeting in Vienna.

Saudi Arabia Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi also confirmed the widely-expected decision, adding that it had been taken "because the market is good."

AFP/File – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has agreed to keep its official oil production target

The oil market registered little reaction to the decision, with Brent North Sea crude for November delivery remaining close to 85 dollars a barrel in London trade after solid gains in recent days.

Ahead of the meeting, and mindful that a spike in prices could harm a slowing global economic recovery, OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia said it was happy for crude to stay around 70-80 dollars, where it has been for much of the past year.

OPEC has kept its official output target steady since the start of 2009 following hefty cuts aimed at boosting prices.

It meets periodically to set output with a view to supporting its members' revenues and oil sector investment.

Vietnam's major coffee exporter seeks domestic listing

2010-10-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

HANOI - Thai Hoa Vietnam Group Co, one of Vietnam's largest coffee export companies, has sought license to list shares on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the exchange said on Wednesday.

The Hanoi-based joint stock company, which is capitalized at VND550 billion (US$28.2 million) and fully owned by domestic investors, has sought to list all of its 55 million shares, the exchange said in a statement.

Thai Hoa Vietnam is among the country's biggest coffee export companies, along with Vinacafe, Intimex and Simexco.

Vietnam is the world's second-largest coffee producer after Brazil and ranks the first in production of robusta beans. Its output from the 2010/2011 harvest is forecast to rise more than 2 percent to 19.77 million bags, a Reuters poll found on Tuesday.

One of Thai Hoa's affiliates, An Giang Coffee, listed on the Hanoi exchange in January 2009.
The Hanoi market's index closed up 0.48 percent at 120.39 points on Wednesday, having fallen 28.4 percent so far this year.

Windows Phone 7 London: a few first impressions

2010-10-11T15:03:00.001-07:00

At the Windows Phone 7 launch event in London today, all four (or five, depending on how you count) UK networks had a presence, as did Samsung, HTC, and LG. All three companies will have handsets available on
October 21st. Relative cellphone newcomer Dell will also have a handset available at launch.

Across the world, HTC announced five handsets: HD7, 7 Mozart, 7 Surround, 7 Trophy, and 7 Pro. The HD7, 7 Mozart, and 7 Trophy are launching in the UK on the 21st, and the 7 Pro should arrive early next year.
Company representatives said that the final phone, the 7 Surround, may or may not see a UK launch.

The HD7 will be exclusive to O2, the Mozart will be exclusive to Orange, and the Trophy will be exclusive to Vodafone. HTC gave no indications of which carriers would receive the Pro.

HTC's lineup

As is going to be a recurring theme with Windows Phone 7 handsets, the phones were more similar than they were different. The HD7 had a glorious 4.3" screen, and the Mozart had an 8 megapixel camera. Aside from that, there was little to significantly differentiate the models. All of them felt solid, though the two smaller phones felt uncannily light.

What HTC does do to differentiate is bundle applications. Each HTC handset is preloaded with a bunch of HTC-developed custom applications. There's HTC's now familiar weather software, a post-it note-taking program, audio and photo enhancing programs, and a stock ticker program. All can be pinned to the home screen, or accessed via HTC's hub application.

The HTC hub

Adding a kind of cine camera appearance using the Photo Enhancer

Apart from apps, another area that the hardware companies can differentiate is the camera application. Though the basic operation of the camera is standard across all the phones, companies can add their own effects and processing; for example, they can offer different metering modes, ISO ratings, or autofocus modes, and they can include special effects. HTC, for example, has a solarize feature.

HTC's phones all included Dolby Mobile and SRS Surround audio processing, which should in principle make them better for listening to music and watching videos than any of their competitors.

LG is launching its Optimus 7 exclusively with Vodafone. There was no word on whether the 7Q—the same phone but with a hardware keyboard—would launch, or if so, when it would launch.

By Peter Bright

What are air curtains?

2010-10-09T23:22:00.000-07:00

Air curtains are aerodynamically designed air blowers generating a laminar stream of air with sufficient quantity (cfm) and speeds (velocity) to offer the desired environment protection through open doorways / service hatches. Generally, installed atop the opening to give a vertical air draft all across the opening from top to bottom. However, there can be exceptions wherein door side mounted vertical installations may be advisable to offer a horizontal air barrier.
More Details

N-series circular shape, low to moderate velocity+cfm air curtains models. Available from 2'-6'.

High velocity & CFM side mounted flame proof motor unit

http://www.acmeaircurtain.com/?gclid=CMbDzOjQx6QCFcMDHAodNTjqDA

Oil falls below $81 as markets await jobs report

2010-10-09T11:47:00.001-07:00

SINGAPORE – Oil prices slipped below $81 a barrel Friday in Asia as investors looked to a key monthly jobs report for clues about the strength of the U.S. economy.

Benchmark oil for November delivery was down 76 cents to $80.92 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost $1.56 to settle at $81.67 on Thursday.

AFP – The setting sun is reflected in London's Canary Wharf on September 4, 2009. OPEC is seeing evidence

Analysts estimate the U.S. economy likely added a net total of 75,000 private sector jobs in September, but that an equal number of temporary Census jobs were lost, leaving the unemployment rate slightly higher at 9.7 percent from 9.6 percent in August.

"There's much uncertainty in the market at the moment with everyone waiting to see what the jobs report says," Sander Capital Advisors said. "We could see a further pull back in the price of oil to close out the week."

In other Nymex trading in November contracts, heating oil rose 0.22 cent to $2.254 a gallon and gasoline was steady at $2.11 a gallon. Natural gas held at $3.614 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude fell $1.18 to $82.25 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

By ALEX KENNEDY

Hundreds of companies told to register prices

2010-10-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

HCMC – The Ministry of Finance has announced on its website a list of more than 150 companies that are required to register prices for their products in compliance with a circular on price stabilization.

The listed companies must register with the authorities the prices of their products, including imports in accordance with Circular No.122/2010/TT-BTC issued on August 12, and are obliged to stick to the registered prices.

In the list, there are seven companies providing dairy products for children under six, including FrieslandCampina Vietnam, Nestlé Vietnam Ltd., Mead Johnson Nutrition Vietnam and Meiji Vietnam.

The list also comprises many manufacturers of cement, steel, liquefied petroleum gas, chemical fertilizer, plant protection chemical, veterinary medicine, salt, and sugar, and service providers like seaports and aviation.

The ministry said it had made the list of the companies and sent announcements to them before the circular took effect on October 1.

The full list is available on the ministry’s website athttp://www.mof.gov.vn/portal/pls/portal/docs/1080266.DOC.

Earlier, Nguyen Tien Thoa, director of the ministry’s Price Management Department, was quoted on the Government’s website in September as saying that the circular did not contradict the country’s commitments to the World Trade Organization. The comment was made after foreign-invested companies and some ambassadors to Vietnam complained that the price management regulations would discourage investors.

Obama sends foreclosure docs bill back to Congress

2010-10-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has rejected a bill that the White House fears could worsen the mounting problems caused by flawed or misleading documents used by banks in home foreclosures.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that Obama is sending a newly passed bill back to Congress to be fixed because the current version has "unintended consequences on consumer protections." The bill would loosen the process for providing a notary's seal to documents and allow them to be done electronically.

President Barack Obama walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington

Obama will not sign a bill that would allow foreclosure and other documents to be accepted among multiple states. Consumer advocates and state officials had argued the legislation would make it difficult for homeowners to challenge foreclosure documents prepared in other states.

The White House said Thursday it is sending the bill back to Congress for revisions, and that the administration would work with lawmakers on it.

O. Max Gardner, a consumer lawyer in Shelby, N.C., said the bill would have made the problems with foreclosure documents worse. That's because mortgage companies would have been able to mass-produce documents and affix a digital version of a notary's seal rather than one on paper.

"They could process more foreclosure cases with improper and invalid documents and make it more difficult for consumers to try to fight," he said.

Obama used a rare "pocket veto" — a tactic for killing a bill that can be used only when Congress is not in session. It essentially takes effect when the president fails to sign a bill within 10 days. Obama has yet to issue a traditional veto during his presidency; he has used a pocket veto once before, in December 2009, to address what amounted to a technicality on a defense spending bill.

A furor has been growing as mounting evidence has surfaced that mortgage lenders have been evicting homeowners using flawed court papers. State and federal officials have been ramping up pressure on the mortgage industry over concerns about potential legal violations.

By ALAN ZIBEL and BEN FELLER

US cherry growers eye Vietnam

2010-10-06T05:04:00.002-07:00

Vietnam’s expanding middle-class has prompted moves by US cherry growers to target this emerging South East Asian market.

Northwest Cherry Growers has announced plans to increase its presence in Vietnam through a programme to promote cherries, and educate retailers on keeping fruit fresh, following a recent trade mission to the region.

Northwest Cherry Growers’ president BJ Thurlby told the Capital Press that Vietnam has a larger middle-class than numbers show, and imports into the region increased 10-fold in the previous year.

“With no training or promotions, Northwest cherry exports to Vietnam increased from 1,000 to 10,000 20-pound (9.1kg) cartons from 2009 to 2010,” he said. “With training and promotions, and Vietnam's buying power, the number could be 100,000 cartons in five or six years,” he added.

China and Vietnam are viewed as great potential markets because of their large populations and expanding middle classes that have buying power and want quality US produce.

“Every market helps when the Northwest is producing cherry crops of up to 20.5m cartons,” said Mr Thurlby

Speaking to Asia Fruit Magazine earlier this year Mr Thurlby said Asia continues to be the shining star in Northwest Cherry Growers’ export programme.

“This year we will ship close to 1.9m 20Ib-equivalent cartons to Asia,” he said in August. “Shipments to China and Hong Kong have been strong relative to the reduced crop, with shipments to the mainland increasing significantly during the last part of July and into August.”

Mr Thurlby took part in a two-week trade mission that ended 23 September and included 100 delegates from Washington agricultural and non-agricultural industries.

iPhone vs. Android: The Smart-Phone Wars Rage On

2010-10-05T17:44:00.000-07:00

It's possible to sum up the tech industry's engine of progress in four words: Apple vs. everybody else. That's been true for a quarter-century in the personal-computer realm, where the Apple product in question is the Mac and everybody else consists of Windows PC makers. And now it's happening with smart phones, a product category increasingly defined by intense competition between Apple's iPhone and the gaggle of manufacturers who have embraced Google's Android software.

Unlike the Mac-PC wars, the battle between the iPhone and Android is in its early stages. Both Apple and Google and its hardware partners are trying to dominate the market in exactly the right way: by building the best possible phones. Consumers benefit whether they buy an iPhone or an Android handset from a company such as HTC, Motorola or Samsung.

Android is clearly spurring Apple to step up its already impressive game. Since June, it has given iOS, the software that powers the iPhone, one sweeping overhaul and one smaller but meaningful update. It plans to deliver another fairly significant new version in November, with features like built-in printing capabilities. That's a shift from past Apple practice, which involved cramming nearly every meaningful improvement into one yearly megaupgrade. It's also reminiscent of Android's evolution over the past 12 months, during which Google has released versions 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2.

Apple may be moving more quickly than ever, but it's still uniquely responsible for what Steve Jobs has called "the whole widget." It designs the iPhone hardware, it writes the software, it provides the default services for buying music and movies. Even the central processor inside the iPhone 4 is an Apple product. The result is the smoothest, most consistent experience to be found on any smart phone. It's no coincidence that the one aspect of the phone that it has the least control over — the AT&T network — is the one that provokes the most grumbling among iPhone users.

Ultimately, deciding to buy an iPhone is all about buying into Apple's vision of the one perfect smart phone. Android, by contrast, is about finding the right smart phone for you. Want a phone with a real QWERTY keyboard or a jumbo-size screen? Sorry, iPhone no can do — but Android can. You can even get Android with a slide-out keyboard and a big screen. Or — if you're willing to commit to a two-year contract — one that costs a penny.

Android users also get another kind of flexibility that matters just as much: the ability to pick a carrier. Every big U.S. wireless provider offers multiple Android models, removing the Hobson's choice created by the iPhone's AT&T exclusivity. (For now, Verizon has the best, broadest selection.)

It's hard to overemphasize the significance of Android's pan-carrier pervasiveness. I have pals who defiantly tell me they couldn't care less about the iPhone unless it becomes available on Verizon — but they remind me of their utter disinterest so frequently that I know it's gnawing at them. I advise these folks not to wait. They can buy themselves a Droid Incredible, Droid X, Droid 2 or Samsung Fascinate. All solid phones, all available right now.

Phones that run Android 2.2 match most of the iPhone's key features and add some distinctive benefits of their own. (I'm particularly fond of Google Maps' spoken turn-by-turn driving directions and the built-in support for the Google Voice telephone service.) And yet, I do issue one major caveat to would-be Android owners: no Google-powered phone comes anywhere near matching the overall polish of the iPhone. At times, Android feels like an operating system built by nerds for nerds — it confronts users with unintelligible error messages and requires more taps to accomplish common tasks than an iPhone does, even though Android phones have four standard buttons to the iPhone's one.

The standard Android interface is so iffy that some makers of Android phones slather their own look and feel on top, such as HTC's Sense and Samsung's TouchWiz. It helps, but only a little — and it also contributes to the Android platform's generally erratic personality. So does the fact that many Android phones don't ship with the latest version of the operating system; when updates are made available for a particular phone, it's on the carrier's schedule rather than Google's.

Then there's the Android Market, the counterpart to Apple's slick, streamlined iPhone App Store. Google's version still has a flea-market-like feel, and it doesn't seem quite finished — why else would it quote app costs from international developers in their local currency rather than yours?

Like many people, I instinctively bristle at the degree to which Apple micromanages the App Store. (Even after recently clarifying and loosening the acceptance process, it bans entire categories of programs and reserves the right to nix ones for violating rules that haven't been invented yet.) Actually using the App Store always calms me down: the iPhone still has the most apps, the best apps, the most innovative apps. The more laissez-faire ecosystem of third-party Android apps is improving literally every day in terms of both quality and quantity, but it has a long way to go.

People who seek my smart-phone buying advice often ask me what I've chosen for myself. The truth is that I'm commitment-phobic: I own and use both an iPhone 4 and a Verizon Droid. I've been known to say that strapping them together with a rubber band would produce the perfect smart phone. I'm kidding, but only sort of — and I can't wait until further competition between Apple and the Android camp makes it easy to settle on one phone, no massive compromises required.

By Harry McCracken

IT firms fail to invest in R&D

2010-10-04T00:45:00.000-07:00

Staff at an information technology company work at the Da Nang Software Park, which opened earlier this year. Most Vietnamese IT firms have failed to make adequate investment in research and development. (Photo: VNS)

Most Vietnamese IT firms have failed to make adequate investment in research and development due to limited financial capacity and a lack of skilled personnel, said HCM City Computer Association chairman Chu Tien Dung.

In the past 10 years, firms focused on creating IT products to meet short-term market demands rather than properly investing in research and development (R&D), Dung said.

Domestic IT businesses that took on outsourcing work from foreign partners found it difficult to make sufficient investment in R&D because most of them were small and medium-sized, said Vietsoftware chairman of the board Tran Luong Son.

Some of the companies realised the importance of R&D but due to insufficient financial capacity, their R&D investment had yet to bring satisfactory results, he said.

While investing in R&D seems to be difficult for small IT firms, several larger enterprises have invested in R&D, resulting in new production technologies and unique products that have played a decisive factor in sharpening their competitiveness.

TMA Solutions, a large software outsourcing company, recently opened its first R&D centre in the Quang Trung Software Park in HCM City to expand its business in training, mobile service and business solutions.

Chairman of TMA Solutions Nguyen Huu Le said the company accepted outsourcing contracts from foreign companies over the past 12 years and also executed R&D projects under contracts with foreign partners.

“To date, TMA has accumulated good experience in innovation technologies from these projects and we can produce many items in Viet Nam,” he said.

Mobile provider Viettel also established an R&D centre to develop new telecommunication equipment. The company has developed a USB with integrated 3G, the VT1000-3G, and plans to put it on the market by the end of the year.

CMC Group has also announced that it will set aside US$2 million to research or acquire new technology.

Establishing R&D centres in Viet Nam, however, still faced tax barriers and difficulties with equipment testing procedures, Le said, adding that it took his company three years to complete all relevant procedures.

Le suggested the Government should offer incentives for R&D projects.

Dung agreed. He said that Vietnamese ICT companies were seeing big opportunities in technology transfer from global IT companies as they move their R&D centres to Viet Nam to cut costs.

Several local outsourcing companies have seen a chance to receive R&D centres from foreign partners. The centres brought comprehensive technology and increased profits for local outsourcing companies, he noted.

To encourage more enterprises to shift to R&D, Dung suggested the Government rethink its tax policy for ICT companies that invested in R&D projects or R&D labs.