IT Technology

Toyota plans Prius with solar panels

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:12:00 +0000

Toyota plans to install solar panels on the roof of the next generation of Prius hybrid cars, according to a report in Monday's edition of the Nikkei newspaper.

The panels, which are expected to begin appearing on the high-end version of the gasoline-electric hybrid car as early as next spring, will supply part of the 2 to 5 kilowatts needed to power the air conditioning, MarketWatch cited the Japanese business daily as reporting. Kyocera will reportedly supply the panels.

The move would make Toyota the first major automaker to incorporate a solar-power generation system into a mass-produced car.

Prius was introduced in 1997 and has since sold more than 1 million vehicles worldwide. The car was redesigned in 2003, and a third generation has been widely expected to appear soon.

Apple MacBook: Change is in the Air

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:11:00 +0000

The Apple MacBook Air has been a ground-breaking first-generation product (in my opinion). So, what will Apple do to top it when an update comes later this year? There are some telling indicators already. This is what I expect--and hope for--as a user.

(Credit: Apple)

First, a disclaimer. I am not an Apple fanatic. The MacBook Air is the first Apple product I have ever used for more than a few days. For well over a decade, I have been wedded to Wintel (Windows-Intel) laptops.

Before I dive into upcoming features, I should also mention that I have been extremely pleased with the Air and have used it almost daily for the last four months. But I would be remiss if I didn't say it is overpriced, as all subnotebooks are.

• Overpriced but still an amazing design Apple made a very studied decision to exclude certain features. This makes the Air an Air. Apple could have included more ports and a little more of this and pinch of that--but then it would have been just another subnotebook.

So, I expect Apple to maintain the uniqueness of the Air for the next refresh.

But improvements are always welcome. And here are a few things that potential buyers can expect to see when a new Air is rolled out.

Apple has begun to give us hints of things to come. A $500 price cut for the solid state drive (SSD) model is one of the biggest indicators so far.

• A bigger, better solid state drive The next Air will offer drives that range in size to more than 100GB. A likely offering would be 128GB from vendors like STEC. (Samsung supplies the current SSD.) Intel and Micron Technology can't be ruled out. Their drives will come in 80GB and 160GB capacities.

These SSDs will also likely use multiple-level cell (MLC) technology, in contrast with current drives that use single-level-cell (SLC). MLC allows higher-capacities but presents power and data reliability challenges, which suppliers claim to have overcome.

• Processors Invariably, all notebooks get upgraded with better processors and graphics. I think the Air's current performance is superb for a subnotebook. I have owned many subnotebooks over the years and anemic performance can render them practically unusable as an everyday machine. But I haven't had this problem with the Air (see note at bottom).

Intel's upcoming 45-nanometer "Montevina" (Centrino 2) low-power offerings should make this experience even better. Though an initial Montevina refresh is slated for July 14, low-power versions won't appear until this fall. Intel refers to these as SFF (small form factor) processors. They will come in high-performance, low-voltage, and ultra-low-voltage variants.

SFF Montevina processors will range from 25-watt (2.4GHz) to 17-watt (1.86GHz) to 10-watt (1.2GHz). The current Intel processor used in the Air is rated at 20 watts at 1.8GHz.

Whether Apple chooses one of these or opts for something not currently on the Intel roadmap of course remains to be seen.

• Graphics Graphics will get upgraded. Montevina will come with Intel's GMA X4500 graphics, which Intel has said repeatedly will be three times faster than current X3100 integrated graphics.

• Battery Insufficient battery life is a problem that plagues all subnotebooks. It has often been suggested that Apple include a removable battery (for easy replacement), but that could compromise the ultraslim design. Having said that, I have been pleased with the battery life compared with other notebooks I have owned.

Hazarding a guess at other features such as upgraded hard disk drives, better screens, and external extras like a docking station is too speculative (and the latter would also compromise the design), so I'll refrain from making any predictions.

But the Air shouldn't change too much. With a simple performance upgrade, it would be an even more remarkable computer.

(Note: No, the Air is not as fast as a 14-inch Hewlett-Packard 6910P, for example, but no PC maker can squeeze that kind of performance into a Air-like form factor.)

ISPs prepare for video revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:09:00 +0000

Video may have killed the radio star, but it doesn't have to kill the Internet.

That is if Internet service providers can figure out how to keep up with the video-driven bandwidth demand on their networks. Peer-to-peer technology provider BitTorrent says it can help.

Video consumes more network resources than any other media distributed on the Web. Even poor-quality video from YouTube eats up more bandwidth than e-mail, music downloading, and voice over IP services. And when you throw full-length high-definition video into the mix, you're talking about even more bandwidth. Depending on the compression used, a single HD video stream can eat up 20 megabits per second worth of bandwidth.

And as consumers subscribe to faster and faster broadband connections at home and sites like YouTube and Hulu come online offering all kinds of video choices, more people are watching video on the Web. According to ComScore Video Metrix, Americans are currently watching upward of 10 billion videos online a month. By the end of 2007, online viewers averaged more than one video a day.

This is just the beginning. ABI research forecasts the number of viewers who access video via the Web will nearly quadruple in the next few years, reaching at least 1 billion in 2013.

This summer's Olympic Games in Beijing marks the first real test of online video as NBC embarks upon the most ambitious online video project ever. NBC plans to offer 3,600 hours of live programming from Beijing, which translates to about 212 live hours for each of the 17 days of the Olympics. The majority of this viewing will be delivered online.

All this video is great for viewers, who are able to pick and choose what they watch and when. But for Internet service providers like the phone companies and the cable operators, it represents a massive challenge. Some providers, such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable, are testing out new ways to deal with "bandwidth hogs" or individual users who use an inordinate amount of bandwidth.

Last month, Comcast began testing a new system that will throttle back or slow down traffic during times of congestion for heavy bandwidth users. The new system was developed after Comcast faced stark criticism for singling out and slowing down peer-to-peer traffic.

Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable, which says it faces the same capacity headaches, also began testing a new billing system that charges customers who exceed their limit for uploading and downloading material.

P2P as a solution, rather than a problem
Eric Klinker, chief technology officer for BitTorrent, which has commercialized the peer-to-peer technology, says that what the cable operators are doing is a good start. But more can be done to help operators deal with the onslaught of video.

"I think what Comcast and Time Warner Cable are doing is a great first step. It gets ISPs out of the business of deciding which applications are important and which aren't. But there are enhancements to the peer-to-peer protocol, in particular, that can make it easier on all ISPs."

--Eric Klinker, CTO, BitTorrent,

For one, peer-to-peer protocols, such as BitTorrent, which are often cited as major headaches for network operators because of the big file transfers they enable, need to be utilized rather than singled out as a source of the problem, he said.

"I think what Comcast and Time Warner Cable are doing is a great first step," Klinker said. "It gets ISPs out of the business of deciding which applications are important and which aren't. But there are enhancements to the peer-to-peer protocol, in particular, that can make it easier on all ISPs."

Peer-to-peer technology has gotten a bad rap for years. Since the days of file-sharing networks like Napster, which allowed people to exchange songs on their computer hard drives with others on the Internet, peer-to-peer technology has been demonized in the press. But the truth is that peer-to-peer technology actually allows large files like videos to be distributed more efficiently. And as more video makes it way onto the Web, it's increasingly being used. In fact, peer-to-peer traffic accounts for about 43 percent of all traffic on the Internet, according to a recent study by the network management company Sandvine.

The way peer-to-peer works is that when a user requests a video, the peer-to-peer network queries other users in the network and takes pieces of the file from different peers and sends it to the user requesting the file. This distributed architecture means that content owners don't have to assemble large and expensive data centers. It also means that a content distributor doesn't have to pay for expensive high-speed links to serve up an entire file from a single server farm.

That said, peer-to-peer protocols in the wild can eat up lots of bandwidth because peers on the network can silently and continuously upload pieces of files from their computers all day and all night, seeding dozens or hundreds of file requests. And because upload capacities are generally much slower than downloads, it can create bottlenecks and capacity crunches on the last mile of service providers' networks. For network operators that are already capacity-constrained, this phenomenon can dramatically affect performance for all users.

The enhanced version of peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer companies, such as BitTorrent and Pando Networks, have recognized this problem and have been working with service providers, such as Verizon Communications, Comcast, and others to come up with solutions. Verizon and Pando Networks have been working on a project called P4P, which advocates ISPs share information about their network topography and use an enhanced version of peer-to-peer to locate peers in close proximity to the file request. Getting files locally can help reduce the expense associated with carrying peer-to-peer files over long distances.

BitTorrent, whose founder created one of the most popular peer-to-peer protocols used today, has also been working on a solution. The company has developed its own enhancement to the peer-to-peer protocol that tells peer-to-peer applications to stop seeding the network with content when the network is congested.

For example, if a teenager starts playing an online video game at the same time his mother makes a voice over IP phone call and his little sister is downloading music from iTunes, the protocol will tell the peer-to-peer movie application that is running in the background on their family computer to stop uploading bits of the Spider-Man movie that had been ordered from an online movie rental service and is now stored on a hard drive in their home. Instead, the network will search for the content on another peer that is on a network that is less congested.

"If there is contention in the network, my application will back off," Klinker said. "And it will automatically and seamlessly find someone else in the network to complete uploading that content. The video quality is never disrupted, and the user never knows where the content is coming from."

BitTorrent has already tested the enhancement with more than 10 million users and it's currently working with the Internet standards body, the Internet Engineering Task Force, to standardize the technology so that other peer-to-peer companies can embed it in their software client.

Klinker said that new technologies, such as the one developed by his company, as well as efforts on the P4P enhancements will help ISPs manage and control their networks so that even more video can make it to the Web without crippling the infrastructure delivering it.

And once service providers learn how to harness peer-to-peer, they will be able to develop business models that reap the benefits of the technology. For example, Comcast, Verizon, or any other TV provider could add peer-to-peer software to the set-top boxes sitting in their customers' living rooms to create a distributed peer-to-peer movie network. Instead of serving up on-demand movies from their own servers sitting in expensive-to-run data centers, these TV providers could leverage the content already stored on their customers' set-top hard drives.

"The cable and phone companies are already spending capital to put set-tops in everyone's home," Klinker said. "They could use that same hardware as part of their content distribution model. Then the user pays the electrical bill. And they pay for the bandwidth. It's just much more efficient."

Klinker said a solution, such as this one, requires a slightly different business model from BitTorrent's current business model. But he said that it's something the company is investigating.

"It's interesting enough that we're in discussions and testing some scenarios with ISPs," he said. "In general, service providers move slowly. So nothing will happen overnight. But I think we'll see some interesting changes within the next three years."

iPhone 3G launch day is Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:05:00 +0000

You've got to wonder whether Apple and AT&T are excited or worried about a repeat of last year's iPhone mania.

Even though a few people have already started lining up outside Apple's Fifth Avenue store in New York, the buzz surrounding Friday's launch of the iPhone 3G has been far less prevalent on our shores this year than last year, when I thought I was going to lose my mind writing about Apple's first mobile phone.

That makes some sense, since, in many ways, the iPhone is old news. But a new activation process could mean that Apple and AT&T will have to deal with a different kind of buzz: the grumbling of potential iPhone customers in long, slow-moving lines.

The new model is expected to appeal to a wider audience than the first iPhone did because of the lower barrier to entry presented by the $199 price tag and the faster networking connection that will suck in those of us who couldn't imagine trying to surf the Web on an EDGE chip.

When and where does the iPhone 3G go on sale?

In the United States, you'll be able to buy the iPhone 3G starting at 8 a.m. local time on Friday, July 11, at your local Apple or AT&T retail store. If you're outside the States, it depends; some countries, such as the United Kingdom, are launching on the 11th but at slightly different times, while others are waiting a week or two.

Is there going to be a long line like last year?

Probably. The lines might not stretch as long as they did last year, but lines for Apple products and shows aren't so much about the products or events themselves; many times, people view the line-waiting experience as a community gathering of like-minded souls who want to be a part of something Apple-related.

I'm sure that there are people who will want to be able to say they were first to buy both the original iPhone and the second-generation model, just as there are people ruing the fact that they missed out on all the fun of the original "iPhone Day."

At least a few people will camp out for the chance to buy the iPhone 3G on day 1.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)

It looks like there 's going an additional twist this year, at least in New York. Over the holiday weekend, a publicity-minded group of environmental activists decided to use the iPhone launch to promote their own causes. It's an election year, too; will we see McCain and Obama activists promoting their candidate in front of a captive audience? Who knows.

No matter who's in the crowd, the launch experience this time around is going to be very different, however, because Apple and AT&T are requiring iPhone buyers to activate their iPhones in the store--and because of the morning start time.

Why are the companies requiring in-store activation? That's not what my friend/sister/cousin/third baseman had to do last year when she bought an iPhone.

Apple and AT&T spoiled iPhone customers last year with the at-home activation policy that allowed them to rush into the stores, buy the iPhone, and activate it later in the comfort of their homes: a few glitches notwithstanding. In-store activation is a standard operation for most new phones, however, and it's going to be the way the iPhone 3G is released to the world.

There is one main reason for this: AT&T wants to cut down on the number of iPhones that are bought for the sole purpose of unlocking them and reselling them overseas, so it's going to make sure that people commit to a two-year contract with early-termination fees before they take the phone home.

In addition, Apple appears to have taken the extra step of "bricking" all iPhone 3Gs before they arrive at retail stores, so the phones have to be both "unbricked," or essentially turned on, as well as activated to run on AT&T's network.

That sounds like it's going to take a while.

It probably will. Last year, the at-home activation scheme allowed Apple to admit iPhone shoppers into its stores 25 at a time, and it meant that store employees just had to hand out iPhones and swipe credit cards. You could have walked into the downtown San Francisco Apple store last year an hour after the iPhone went on sale at 6 p.m. and picked up a unit without having to wait in line for a few days.

Apple employees get ready to welcome the first iPhone shoppers inside the downtown San Francisco store last year.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News.com)

This time, store employees will have to sign up new customers for AT&T's service, do a credit check, go over the paperwork for the new two-year contract, explain the early-termination fees, and go through the physical process of both unbricking and activating the iPhone 3G.

That could take anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes per customer, depending on the nature of the transaction; current AT&T customers will probably find it faster than new customers will. The companies have likely given this some thought, and will no doubt put their employees through some intense training in the days ahead of the launch. But, as they say, they play the games for a reason.

I still want one, anyway. How much is this going to cost me?

It depends. If you bought an original iPhone, or if you're a brand-new AT&T customer, the iPhone 3G will cost you $199 for the 8GB model or $299 for the 16GB model--far cheaper than the opening price last year. If you're a current AT&T customer but you don't have an iPhone, the price you pay depends on whether you are eligible to purchase another subsidized phone.

Generally speaking, the longer you've been with AT&T using your current phone, the more likely you are to be eligible for the upgrade price, but check with your local representative to be sure. If you're not eligible for the upgrade price, you'll pay $399 for the 8GB model and $499 for the 16GB model.

This time around, you'll also have the option of buying an iPhone without having to commit to two years of service from AT&T. That option is pricey, however: $599 for the 8GB model, or $699 for the 16GB model.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog notes that at those prices, you could buy the regular model for $199, fork over the activation fees, pay for one month of service, cancel that service, and fork over the early-termination fees and still save money as compared to buying the $599 model. You'd still have to unlock your iPhone 3G in order to make it useful at all, however, and whether that will be as easy to do with this model as it was with the original remains to be seen.

No, I meant, how much is it going to cost me over the long run?

You've got several options for monthly plans, but in short, it's going to cost more than the original iPhone did on a monthly basis. The combination voice-and-data plans are running at least $10 more a month than the original plans, and perhaps more, depending on your addiction to text messaging.

How many iPhone 3Gs will sell in the first weekend? Last year, Apple sold 270,000 in just two days.

(Credit: Apple)

So if I want an iPhone 3G, will I have to line up to ensure that I get one this month?

Last year, there was enough supply to make it most of the way through the first weekend, before the iPhone became really hard to find. This year, expect something similar. Apple hasn't shipped an original iPhone since the middle of May, giving itself plenty of time to start building up the supply of iPhone 3Gs.

With no online-ordering option available--at least in the U.S.--your only option will be to visit an Apple or AT&T store, if you want an iPhone 3G. What will those stores look like on Friday morning? This is hard to predict for stores in urban areas like New York and San Francisco.

If everybody freaks out about the in-store activation process and decides to wait a few weeks, it could be really easy to get an iPhone 3G on Friday. If everybody thinks that the concerns about the lines are overblown and heads to a store on Friday, the activation process could ensure that you're in for quite a wait. Those of you in smaller cities and towns probably won't have the same issue, but your local stores probably won't get as many iPhones as the big guys, either.

Don't be surprised to see long lines outside Apple and AT&T stores during the day on Friday. The interesting question this time around is whether iPhone 3G early adopters can waltz into the stores with the same ease as last year, or whether "iPhone Day: The Sequel" resembles the wait for "It's A Small World" at Disneyland.

Mobile firms hit roaming deadline

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:38:00 +0000

Mobile phone firms have reached a deadline to cut the price customers are charged for sending text messages in member countries of the European Union.

The price of using data on phones while abroad - including internet access - must also be slashed, the EU has said.

Failure by the companies to reach an agreement may see legislation brought in that would force them to change the way they charge customers, the EU says.

Details of whether or not a deal has been reached are due later.

EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding is not expecting the firms to have agreed to sufficiently lower their roaming charges.

Last week, the European Commission unveiled plans to lower the cost of mobile phone calls by reducing the fees operators charge each other for using their networks.

Europe's telecoms watchdog published guidelines for laws to harmonise call termination fees across the EU by 2011.

Currently, 27 national authorities regulate fees charged by an operator for handling calls from another.

Brussels said consumers ended up losing out because of variations in cross-border fees.

Operators have until 2011 to abide by the new regulations, which the commission estimated would make calls 70% cheaper.

PS3 owners delight at XMB

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:37:00 +0000

the in-game Cross Media Bar (XMB) for PlayStation 3 will be a reality on 2 July.

The lack of in-game XMB - so that gamers can check friend requests, send messages while still playing a gamer - has been one of the biggest gripes of PS3 owners since it launched.

But the feature will be introduced in the next firmware upgrade to the PlayStation.

Perhaps more importantly, the PS3 is introducing the idea of virtual "trophies", which represent your success in different games. These trophies will be on display to your friends.

Sound familiar? They should; trophies are a lot like Achievements on the Xbox 360.

And it's no surprise that Sony is introducing this feature: Achievements have been one of their truly innovative features of Xbox Live.

Super Stardust HD is the first game to implement trophies, with first-party titles like Buzz, LittleBigPlanet, Motorstorm Pacific Rift and Resistance 2 to follow.

Google Yahoo ad deal faces probe

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:36:00 +0000

A formal antitrust investigation into a deal struck between Yahoo and Google over search advertising is set to be launched by the US Justice Department.

The Washington Post said investigators will also demand documents from other large internet and media companies.

Together Google and Yahoo claim nearly 80% of the web search market and agreed to give antitrust authorities 100 days to look at the deal before going ahead.

Yahoo had called it an $800 million (£400m) annual revenue opportunity.

It's now thought that a formal investigation could signal that the Justice Department may have found some cause for concern with the partnership which would allow Google to provide some search advertising for Yahoo.

Lawyers familiar with similar investigations told the Washington Post that the kind of legal requests being issued by the Justice department - "civil investigative demands"- are not used for routine matters.

"It doesn't mean they have drawn any conclusions," Peter Guryan told the Post. He is a partner with law firm Fried Frank and formerly an antitrust lawyer in the Justice Department. But "it is a significant step beyond a request for voluntary information"?

"It demonstrates that the DOJ clearly has questions."

There has been no comment from either Google or Yahoo.

We all suffer

There has been concern by critics that a Google and Yahoo pairing could result in a monopoly in internet advertising if the agreement is given the go ahead.

Recently a coalition of 16 American civil rights and rural advocacy bodies called on regulators to investigate any online advertising and search partnership between the two companies.

Gary Flowers of the Black Leadership Forum told the BBC at the time "We all suffer in such mega mergers."

In a letter to the Justice Department he and the rest of the coalition argued that Yahoo and Google combined would result in "a possible future in which no content could be seamlessly accessed without Google's permission."

Politicians were also wary of the pact and heads of key sub committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate reiterated their intentions to look into the arrangement.

Last month Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang visited Washington to allay fears that the partnership would impact competition within the online search advertising industry.

The Google Yahoo collaboration does not need up front approval from the US antitrust authorities as the two companies are not merging.

However, the government could challenge the deal in court if it came to the conclusion that it would restrain competition between them.

Government launches data mash-up

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:34:00 +0000

The UK government has launched a competition to find innovative ways of using the masses of data it collects.

It is hoping to find new uses for public information in the areas of criminal justice, health and education. The Power of Information Taskforce - headed by cabinet office minister Tom Watson - is offering a £20,000 prize fund for the best ideas.

To help with the task, the government is opening up gigabytes of information from a variety of sources.

Good sense

This includes mapping information from the Ordnance Survey, medical information from the NHS , neighbourhood statistics from the Office for National Statistics and a carbon calculator from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

None of the data will be personal information, the government is keen to stress.

Mr Watson is hoping to attract a wide range of people from "the technology community we already work with, to hard-core coders to adolescents in their bedroom".

He admits that throwing open public data could be a risk but he believes that it will yield results.

"If someone comes up with a great idea we will make a prototype and then hopefully a fully-fledged piece of technology that will make peoples' lives better," he said.

"I strongly believe in co-design and in the digital age it makes sense to work with citizens to make public service better," he added.

To help inspire ideas the team behind the idea has put dozens of examples of innovative ways of reusing public information on its Taskforce wiki.

FixMyStreet offers place to lodge problems such as graffiti

These include a website which maps crimes around the UK, the FixMyStreet website, which allows users to alert other to litter, vandalism and graffiti in their local environment, and the prototype RateMyPrison, which invites those who visit friend and families in jail to comment on the experience.

Technology commentator Bill Thompson was one of the first to see the Show Us a Better Way website, which details the competition.

"It's great to see a government department with enough sense to realise that it doesn't have all the good ideas," he said.

"There are terabytes of expensively accumulated information sitting in databases, but it goes unused and unexploited because of restrictive licenses and lack of awareness," he added.

The government will evaluate the ideas over the course of the summer.

Virgin rapped on broadband speeds

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:31:00 +0000

A complaint lodged by BT about the speeds of Virgin Media's broadband service has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The challenge centred on its advertisement Hate to Wait?, which ran in the national media and featured download times for songs and TV shows.

BT argued that Virgin's usage caps meant that downloads during peak times would be slower than advertised.

The ASA has agreed and ordered Virgin to make it clear that speeds will vary.

Confusing megabits

In its adjudication it said that the advert did not make it clear that customers on Virgin Media's lower speed packages would be able to download TV shows at the speeds advertised only during off-peak hours.

It ruled that Virgin Media needed to clarify that download times would be restricted during peak hours.

Virgin Media argued that, for users of its M 2Mbps (megabits per second) package, a TV show downloaded during peak hours would take only a few minutes longer to download.

But it did admit that users would be subject to its so-called traffic management system, which caps data usage during peak hours.

It said that the issue would affect only users of the 2Mbps service.

Customers on its L 4Mbps package could download 60 songs and/or two TV shows before reaching caps while those on the XL 20Mbps package could download 614 songs or nine TV shows before their speeds would be subject to caps, Virgin said.

"We believe our Hate to Wait? campaign provided a simple and transparent comparison between broadband speeds for consumers looking to choose between Virgin Media's M, L and XL broadband packages," Virgin Media said in a statement.

On a secondary issue, Virgin admitted that it wrongly used the term "megabits" when referring to the size of the files being downloaded and agreed to change it to the correct "megabytes" term.

It also agreed to amend the ad to reflect the fact that it would take some customers longer to download a TV show than stated.

Very competitive

The issue of so-called traffic throttling, where internet service providers place limits on the amount of data users can download, has become more pertinent with the growth of video-sharing sites and TV catch-up services such as the iPlayer.

In the US some providers are banning access to file-sharing sites such as BitTorrent and in the UK the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is in talks with providers, including Virgin Media, about banning heavy users of file-sharing sites.

"ISPs are responding to the growth of online video services and capping is also a way of migrating customers onto faster and more expensive tariffs," said James Garlick, analyst with Screen Digest.

Virgin Media believes traffic-throttling is vital to ensure a good service.

"Our traffic management policy helps ensure the majority of customers receive the quality of service they expect from our fibre-optic broadband product by managing demand from the heaviest users at certain times of the day," said a spokesman for Virgin Media.

The broadband arena in the UK has become hugely competitive and the ASA has received a steady stream of complaints, sometimes from consumers but often from rival providers, about the speeds of both fixed and mobile broadband.

"There are lots of factors which affect speed. Consumers are concerned about it but often it is competitors keeping an eye on each other," said a spokesman from the ASA.

Ballmer and Gates bid farewell with tears

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:50:00 +0000

On his final full day at Microsoft Corp., Bill Gates went on stage to reminisce with his longtime friend Steve Ballmer, and neither man could hold back tears as Ballmer handed Gates a large scrapbook as a farewell present.

conference room and meandered through moments in Microsoft's history. They stopped to get in a few good digs at IBM Corp., whose first personal computers were loaded with Microsoft's DOS operating system before IBM adopted its own operating software and their relations strained.

"They went off with OS 2, we were left with good old Windows, and sure enough the David versus Goliath story came out with the right ending," said Gates, eliciting laughter from the crowd of 830 Microsoft employees.

Gates, who founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975, admitted that Microsoft has faltered along the way, and certainly isn't perfect today.

"When we miss a big change, when we don't get great people on it, that is the most dangerous thing for us," Gates said. "It has happened many times. It's OK, but the less the better."

Gates, who will remain Microsoft's chairman on a part-time basis, said he would still take on Microsoft projects picked by Ballmer and two other executives who have assumed most of his day-to-day tasks, Craig Mundie and Ray Ozzie.

One of those will be Web search, where Microsoft lags far behind Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. in market share. With an acquisition of Yahoo now again apparently off the table, Gates threw his weight Friday behind a strategy of assembling a team of smart people and combining Microsoft's own breakthroughs with what competitors are already doing.

"Search is the place where people probably really think, will Microsoft ever do anything there? We'll be the very best," Gates said. "That is in full motion."

Gates also reinforced his intent to stay out of the company's day-to-day affairs.

"I do think with my not being here full time there is some opportunity that people will really step up. There's somewhat of a vacuum created there," he said. "I have got to get out of the way, and let that new thing step in there."

The most poignant moments came when Gates dropped out of technology prognostication mode — the coming switch to using ink, voice and gesture to interact with computers, for example — and shared candid and sometimes self-effacing banter about his early days with buddy Ballmer.

Freshman year at Harvard, Gates said, "I was in this dorm up at Radcliffe, where the anti-social math types hung out. I belonged there."

He was introduced to fellow freshman Ballmer by a mutual friend. On their first outing together, they went to the movies to see an unlikely back-to-back showing of "Singing in the Rain" and "A Clockwork Orange."

Ballmer, who has famously danced and jumped around stage at conferences, described a similarly silly and uninhibited Gates that evening.

"So we come back from the movie, we're kind of dancing, we're both kind of playing Gene Kelly, and some guy wrestles me to the ground in our dorm," Ballmer said. It fell to Gates, who hardly qualifies as burly, to fend off the fellow student.

Ballmer also gave Gates grief about leaving for vacation in the middle of Ballmer's job interview, and forgetting to pack a tie for their first meeting with IBM.

Gates, playing up his absent-minded professor side, cracked up the employees in attendance — they won a seat at the event in a lottery — when he said Microsoft was so central in his life that he often found himself driving to its campus even when he was supposed to be headed somewhere else, like delivering his kids to school.

When it came time for Ballmer to make his public farewell to Gates, he joked about the inevitable inadequacy of a thank-you gift, and presented him with a large scrapbook embossed with Gates' signature. Then, the tears came.

"We've been given an enormous, enormous opportunity. And Bill gave us that opportunity," Ballmer said, his face reddening. "I want to thank Bill for that."

As the employees rose to their feet, Gates swiped at tears of his own.

Husband of YouTube Star "mortified" by publicity

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:48:00 +0000

A Broadway producer whose wife found YouTube fame after posting monologues about their failed, high-society marriage described himself in court on Friday as "mortified" and "violated" by the experience.

Philip Smith, 76, president of the Shubert Organization, is suing his wife, British actress Tricia Walsh Smith, 49, for divorce on the grounds that the videos, which have been viewed more than four million times, constitute spousal abuse.

"I'm basically a very private person. I've made an effort not to be exposed to the press," said Smith. "That was my first experience with YouTube. I was absolutely mortified and shocked. Here was my life being spread out on a TV."

"I felt violated in every sense of the word," he said.

In the videos, several of which were taped in the couple's swank Park Ave. apartment, Walsh Smith accuses her husband and his daughters of conspiring to evict her from the apartment, and says she discovered her husband hoarding Viagra even though they never had sex.

Walsh Smith testified on Tuesday that she believed a public spectacle was her only recourse to avoid being left penniless She also testified that she has been paid more than $88,000 in fees for giving interviews about the case.

When asked by his lawyer if he would ever consider reconciling with Walsh Smith, Smith did not hesitate.

"Absolutely not, under no conditions," he said. "I can no longer trust her, impossible. I wouldn't close my eyes and go to sleep in front of her."

Reuters/Nielsen

EMI sues Hi5, VideoEgg over user-uploaded videos

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:47:00 +0000

Some people might be embarrassed if their friends found an old copy of Mr. Big's "To be with you" or Paula Abdul's "Cold hearted (snake)" stashed away in their CD collection. But not EMI. They own those songs, and they want the world to know it.

The music giant is suing social-networking site Hi5, video advertising start-up VideoEgg, and 10 unnamed defendants for allegedly infringing on the copyrights of those and hundreds of other pop throwbacks.

The lawsuit alleges that Hi5 users have uploaded and disseminated hundreds of music videos the company owns rights to. VideoEgg is on the hook because it's a former partner of Hi5, and those allegedly infringing videos were uploaded to its servers. (On May 31, VideoEgg stopped hosting videos uploaded by the public and refocused efforts on its ad network, prompting rumors that the company was on its way out.) The lawsuit doesn't say much of anything about who the 10 John Does are.

The companies had attempted to work out some kind of deal for more than a year, a source told TechCrunch, but those efforts eventually failed.

NBC offers wide online access for Beijing Olympics

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:45:00 +0000

NBC is making more than 2,200 hours of live competition from Beijing available online, giving Olympic junkies more action than they could ever devour in a day.

After barely tipping its toe in the digital world during past Olympics, the network will dive into the deep end: live blogging, 3,000 hours of highlights on demand, daily recaps and analysis and even fantasy league gaming. That's in addition to the 1,400 hours of coverage planned on six television networks, more than the combined total of every previous Summer Olympics.

NBC's digital plans, however, have angered media outlets that worry the company is being heavy-handed in enforcing its rights to exclusive Olympic access.

The network launched NBCOlympics.com in 2000, but then it offered only still pictures and schedule information to drive viewers to its television coverage. A limited package of highlights from Athens was available in 2004, but those visiting the NBC site were required to enter a credit card number, even though they weren't charged, and that drove away traffic.

NBC quietly experimented by beaming live over the Internet the hockey gold-medal game from the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. The change in scope to what it is offering this year is staggering.

"We're excited about what we are putting into the fingertips of the Olympics fan," said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics. "We think it will generate a tremendous amount of engagement. We think it will generate more television viewership."

That's the danger for a TV network that offers so much online content: that people will turn off the TV in favor of the computer. Zenkel said there was worry in the past as NBC increased the level of events available on television that saturation would drive down viewership, but it turned out not to be the case.

The Associated Press has an agreement with NBC to distribute video links to the network's content online.

The computer coverage will also play a clear secondary role to TV. No events that are scheduled to be televised will be available online until after they are seen on TV, said Perkins Miller, senior vice president for digital media at NBC Sports.

The Web site will offer a full TV viewers' guide, track medal standings and give real-time results. It will have bios of more than 10,000 athletes, NBC said.

"It's not that we aren't nervous," Zenkel said. "It's not that we haven't taken an enormous amount on. But we're up to it and we're going to perform as we always have in the past."

There's been some brewing tension about the rights of other media organizations to cover the event; NBC paid $3.5 billion to the International Olympics Committee to televise the five Olympics through Beijing. Other TV networks have a limited window in which to show Olympics highlights, but no video of Olympic events is permitted to be shown on any Web site besides NBCOlympics.com.

NBC has allowed video of Olympic trials events to be shown on other Web sites, but each site is required to link to NBCOlympics.com. All of that video must come down Aug. 7, the day before the Beijing Games start.

That's going to limit the ability of Swimming World magazine, which has a heavy online component, to offer material to its users, said Brent Rutemiller, the magazine's publisher. He's also upset that limits have been placed on where other organizations can interview athletes, and that they were extended to coaches and officials.

Zenkel said NBC was being fair to other organizations.

"NBC is the organization that paid a very significant rights fee for the exclusive rights to the Olympics and for that, the exclusivity will be protected," he said. "But it's not to the detriment of the Olympics fan. In fact, it's to their benefit."

Lightweight Video Camera Showdown

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:43:00 +0000

Expensive video cameras can take a backseat. A new generation of lightweight products is making it easier to shoot video and upload it instantly to the Web. Pure Digital Technologies' Flip Mino and DXG's DXG-567V video cameras fit into the pocket and can be held in two fingers. Video from the cameras can be uploaded to Web sites like YouTube in about a minute. Another thing that may fit in the pocket is Optoma's Pico Projector, an ultramobile projector that connects to an iPod or other device and beams blown-up videos on the wall.

Flip Mino

Pure Digital Technologies' tiny Flip Mino takes a page from the iPod's design. My friend, a tourist who carried it for a day shooting video around San Francisco, fell in love with it instantly, but was put off by its US$179.99 price tag.

The Mino has a 1.5-inch LCD screen and a no-nonsense interface that makes shooting video a breeze. Pressing one button records, stops or plays back a video. The camera weighs 3.3 ounces (93 grams), according to the company, though it felt a little heavier.

It shoots excellent video in low-light conditions, but as night approached it became less usable. It comes with software to upload video directly to YouTube, MySpace and AOL.

It runs on a lithium-ion rechargeable battery and can shoot about an hour of MPEG-4 video at a 640-by-480 pixel resolution. The device doesn't include an AC adapter and recharges only by plugging its USB port into a computer. That is a big drawback because it means you need a PC with you every time you want to recharge the battery. Plans to offer an AC adapter as an accessory are under consideration, a company spokeswoman said.

The camera works with the Macintosh and Windows operating systems.

The price tag may be off-putting to some, but if you need a lightweight video camera, this is for you. Pure Digital's previous video cameras-- like the Flip Ultra-- have been very popular, so you won't go wrong with this product.

Mino Me

DXG's DXG-567V HD camcorder is another good device for shooting quick video snippets. It shares similarities with Flip Mino on price and features, but some differences set them apart. The DXG device records video at a higher resolution, but it has no internal storage-- an SD card must be purchased separately to save video. However, an SD card could save more video than the 60 minutes of video storage the Flip Mino allows.

The DXG camera has a 2-inch LCD and records video at a 1280-by-720 pixel resolution. It runs on rechargeable AA batteries and comes with a dock to recharge them. It connects to a PC via a USB port, and included software will then upload videos directly to the Internet.

Priced at $179.99, the camera is for people who want a lightweight device to shoot video for the Web and other purposes, a company spokeswoman said. It is available in blue, pink, red and black.

Optoma's ultramobile projector

Optoma, which manufactures projectors, said last week it would introduce a "Pico-based" projector that will be smaller than most smartphones.

The projector connects to devices such as iPods, smartphones and digital cameras, from which it can beam images onto a wall or other surface. The projector, which weighs about 4 ounces, uses LED technology to project "colorful and vivid" images, the company said.

Who needs such a thing? It will bring a larger-than-life experience to images and video on mobile devices, which usually have small screens, the company said.

The product is set to ship worldwide in 2009. Pricing hasn't yet been announced.

A La Fresh approach to dirty

For clean freaks, La Fresh's $9.99 Tech Pack contains wet, dry and antibacterial tissues to clean devices, screens and lenses. The tissues are good for GPS (global positioning system), cell phones, laptops and other products, La Fresh says. The product is available on La Fresh's Web site.

Sony Will Offer News, Weather, Video Through PlayStation

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:42:00 +0000

In addition to keeping up with battles on alien planets, PlayStation 3 will soon be able to help you stay current with planet Earth. On Thursday, Sony Computer Entertainment President Kazuo Hirai announced both Life with PlayStation, a service that allows users to see current news and weather around the world through a spinning-globe menu, and a PS3 download service for movies, music and TV shows.

A Spinning Globe

Life with PlayStation will "bring unique content centering on two axes, place and time," Hirai said.

The interface includes a globe that the user can spin, showing different parts of the planet. News headlines and weather conditions related to indicated cities can be accessed via the globe, and Sony reportedly has said the globe will also feature weather-satellite images of cloud patterns. No release date for Life with PlayStation was set.

Hirai also said Sony intends to add the capability for users to store their own photos and movies according to where and when they were recorded, and then also use the globe -- plus some sort of selector for time -- to find them.

But personal movies are not the only movies PS3 intends to offer. Hirai also confirmed that the long-expected movie-download service for PS3 will be launched this summer in the U.S., with later dates in Japan and Europe.

An official announcement is expected at the big E3 trade show in July. The service would compete with Video Marketplace on Microsoft's Xbox 360, Apple's iTunes Store movie service, and others. At the moment, no agreements have been announced with any major studios -- other than an expected deal with the company's own Sony Pictures.

'Trojan Horse'

The download service is also expected to roll out to other consumer-electronics devices, including computers, Bravia LCD TVs, mobile phones, and portable video players. There are some reports indicating the downloaded content can be moved from one device to another.

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with JupiterResearch, noted that these moves by Sony are "about the evolution of the game console into something more." He pointed out that Sony, as well as Microsoft and Nintendo, have been talking for quite a while about using their advanced game consoles as an entertainment hub.

Gartenberg described this approach as resembling a Trojan horse, because people are currently buying the consoles to play games, not to watch movies or news. Even once a console is in the house, he noted, normal behavior patterns "are not to flip on the PlayStation to check the weather."

But he noted that, "historically, these things start slowly," and Sony might be able to encourage different patterns of behavior over time. Ultimately, he said, it's about content, and "if you can't deliver content, people will go elsewhere."

Firefox aims for download record

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:34:00 +0000

Version 3 of the popular Firefox web browser is going on general release on 17 June.
Wide take-up of the new version would further boost the market share of the browser which is currently used by about 15% of net users.
With the release, Firefox developer Mozilla is attempting to set a record for the most downloads over 24 hours.
"It's a global effort to make history," said Paul Kim, head of marketing at Mozilla.
Net gains
The attempt to break the record will begin at 1800 BST.
"There is actually no record for the greatest amount of software downloaded in one day, so for 24 hours from the moment we push the bits live, that's when the countdown starts," he said.
Mr Kim said Mozilla had no specific target for the number of downloads it would like to achieve on the day but racking up five million would be "awesome".
By comparison, Firefox 2.0 registered 1.6 million downloads on the day it was made available on 24 October, 2006. More than 1.3 million people have pledged to download the new version on 17 June.
New features in Version 3 include automatic warnings when users stray onto webpages booby-trapped with malicious code.
Also in Version 3 will be "Smart Location Bar" that lets people return to places they have visited even if they have not bookmarked them or cannot remember the full web address.
Firefox 3 will work with Windows 2000, XP and Vista and some non-Windows operating systems including Linux.
Mozilla is not alone in marking the release of the new software. According to the Mozillaparty website more than 566 celebrations are planned for when the software becomes available.
Market battle
Firefox first appeared in early 2004 and since then has steadily eroded Microsoft's hold on the web browsing world.
Although firm statistics are hard to gather Firefox is currently thought to be used by about 15-17% of web users.
In some territories the percentage of Firefox users is far higher. For instance, according to market analysis firm OneStat, 27.23% of German web users browsed the web with Firefox in February 2008. Most of the rest (67.63%) used Internet Explorer (IE).
"Firefox is making very steady encroachment in to the market," said Adam Vahed, managing director of OneStat UK partner Apache Solutions. "It's a very serious contender to the world domination of IE."
He expected there to be great interest in Firefox 3.0 because most users of the browser tend to upgrade to the latest version as soon as it comes out.
By contrast, he said, many people were still using very old versions of IE. According to browser stats gathered by Chuck Upsell about 35% of IE users are on version 7 and 35% use version 6.
Mr Vahed said Firefox was generally popular with more "tech-savvy" web users and they turned to it because using it meant more webpages appeared as their designers intended.
"It's still very much the case that Firefox is way ahead of IE when it comes to standard compliance," he said.
IE's lack of compliance with web standards can make some webpages look very odd, he said.
But, he added, IE7 was better at respecting standards and IE8 is expected to go further.
The second test or "beta" version of IE8 is due in August. The improved standards compliance means that anyone using it might find that pages tailored to work with the quirks of IE7 will now seem broken.