Technology Ride

Video: Latest iPhone 3G unlocking progress update from iPhone Dev

2008-11-30T08:54:00.005-08:00

Video: Latest iPhone 3G unlocking progress update from iPhone Dev

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 11/20/08

The iPhone Dev Team last night released some further updates on their progress in unlocking the iPhone 3G with their software. The video below at first glance seemed confusing to me and reminded me of the classic Matrix screensaver fortunately the second part of the video explained what was going on!

The iPhone Dev Team updates on us and explains thus far they have managed to achieve the following:

Unsigned code execution on 3G baseband
Reverting 01.45 baseband to previous versions
Patching of static text (the AT&V demo)
Injection of AT routines (the task list demo)
Injection of background tasks (this demo)

The next step they hope to overcome is override the baseband code that enforces the carrier lock.

Watch the video below…

Not a very long way to go now!

The video above is available for download, if you're interested, hit the link below…

[via iPhone Dev]

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Video: Latest iPhone 3G unlocking progress update from iPhone Dev

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Latest iPod Touch Nano concept has dual removable controllers

2008-11-30T08:54:00.003-08:00

Latest iPod Touch Nano concept has dual removable controllers

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 11/20/08

Designed by Isamu Sanada the iPod concept features a 2.8-inch touchscreen display, a 3.5mm headphone jack and also dual dock connectors next to the removable game controller.

As you can see this iPod touch nano concept is stuffed with a dual removable game controller. Apple's next generation of iPods have been in the pipeline for some time now, patents have been filled but nothing has come out on the other side. While iPod touch nano is only a dream for Apple fans and nothing more than image disclosers have really come about – seeing this iPod touch nano concept, we can take the liberty to state that when touch nano is actually delivered, it could bear a resemblance to this… or not?

[via Techeblog]

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Latest iPod Touch Nano concept has dual removable controllers

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Gallery: Nokia N96 vs N85

2008-11-30T08:54:00.001-08:00

Gallery: Nokia N96 vs N85

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 11/21/08

You will probably remember seeing another similar gallery where we featured the Nokia N95 vs the N85 it raised a few mixed comments and questions about whether or not the N85 was actually more superior than the N95. Now we have for you another comparison, N95's successor: N96 gets compared to the N85, see what you think!

[via Generation Phonehouse]

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Gallery: Nokia N96 vs N85

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World’s thinnest speakers made by the Chinese using nanotechnology

2008-11-30T08:53:00.011-08:00

World’s thinnest speakers made by the Chinese using nanotechnology

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 11/21/08

The latest technology trend spotlight were placed on Chinese researchers at Tsinghua University this week as they have developed super thin carbon nanotubes, 1/1,000th the width of a single human hair, capable of transmitting music and sounds. In laboratory tests, the researchers mounted a thin CNT film onto two electrodes to form a simple loudspeaker. The speaker produced sound with the same excellent quality as conventional loudspeakers, but without magnets and moving components. They also demonstrated that the flexible film could be used just as effectively to play music from an iPod. With such attractive features and functionalities, these latest results and finds in nanotechnology will definitely make it the next most sought after technology to be used in the consumer electronics market, so watch this space!

[via TechLime]

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World's thinnest speakers made by the Chinese using nanotechnology

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Sagem announces sim cards with built in GPS

2008-11-30T08:53:00.009-08:00

Sagem announces sim cards with built in GPS

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 11/21/08

This week, Sagem the mobile firm which not everyone knows alot about, announced that they have managed to embed a whole GPS receiver into a traditional sim card. This is extrememly exciting news, because the result of this technology would mean it could be possible in the future to bring GPS functionality into any phone. I suppose now the next step is the need to have a GPS software or application which could be globally supported in order to be able to exploit this further.

Here's a quick quote from our source, find out more from the link below!

The primary purpose of A-GPS SIM is to provide accurate positioning information of the phone to emergency services in case of an emergency call as required by E112 and E911 legislation in the EU and the U.S. respectively. In addition to this, it can support generic location-based services such as navigation, 'find a place or person' services, location-aware games, and many more.

[via cellular-news]

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Sagem announces sim cards with built in GPS

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Video: New Zune ads

2008-11-30T08:53:00.007-08:00

Video: New Zune ads

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 11/21/08

Check out some new Zune ads which were released just earlier this week!

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Video: New Zune ads

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iPhone firmware 2.2 released, here are some details…

2008-11-30T08:53:00.005-08:00

iPhone firmware 2.2 released, here are some details…

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 11/21/08

As we mentioned earlier last week, firmware 2.2 for both iPhone 2G (first generation) and 3G is now out and available for download.

For those who don't plan on jailbreaking or unlocking their iPhones, going straight ahead for the update will give you the following new benefits to your iPhone:

Enhancements to Maps
- Google Street View*
- Public transit and walking directions
- Display address of dropped pins
- Share location via email
Decrease in call setup failures and dropped calls
Enhancements to Mail
- Resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching of email
- Improved formatting of wide HTML email
Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes application (over Wi-Fi and cellular network)
Improved stability and performance of Safari
Improved sound quality of Visual Voicemail messages
Pressing Home button from any Home screen displays the first Home screen
Preference to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard Settings

However, if you are planning on jailbreaking or unlocking your iPhone or have already done so for ANY of the previous firmware releases, we suggest you hold back for just a bit, because the current supporting softwares for jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone 2.1 do not yet support the latest firmware 2.2.

We expect further updates regarding the above issue to be available very soon!

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iPhone firmware 2.2 released, here are some details…

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Weekly Roundup

2008-11-30T08:53:00.003-08:00

Weekly Roundup

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Sharon on 11/22/08

Just a summary of our posts and gadget and tech news of this week.

Here are a few more interesting articles around the blogosphere:

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

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Weekly Roundup

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Roundup of jailbreaking, unlocking the iPhone 2.2 2G and 3G…

2008-11-30T08:53:00.001-08:00

Roundup of jailbreaking, unlocking the iPhone 2.2 2G and 3G…

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 11/23/08

Just a day or so after its release the latest iPhone OS firmware / software version 2.2 has been jailbroken by the iPhone Dev Team's PwnageTool 2.2 and QuickPWN 2.2. Like we mentioned earlier, the iPhone Dev Team was bound to release their iPhone 2.2 jailbreak / unlock solution soon, but this time, it was unexpectedly quick!

Please be aware that firmware 2.2 jailbreaking / unlocking DOES require abit more attention than previous releases, any false moves could result in permanent, irreversible consequences (such as not being able to unlock your iPhone 3G in the near future!).

Please, please read carefully, we have illustrated a few scenarios and we hope you read through all this before going ahead, if in doubt, ask questions!

Note:

The new Pwnage Tool 2.2 is not available to Windows users but only QuickPwn 2.2
- Here is the bittorrent link:
  - http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/4527189/QuickPwn22.zip.4527189.TPB.torrent
- If the above link isn't working, try any of the mirrors below:
Latest Pwnage Tool 2.2 and QuickPwn 2.2 are both available to Mac OS users
- Pwnage Tool 2.2:
- QuickPwn 2.2:

Before you read further, please quickly be aware of the following main points:

iPhone 3G users, you have to update your iPhone 3G using Pwnage Tool if you plan to someday unlock your iPhone 3G
Using the iPhone Dev Team's latest Pwnage Tool will give you an end result of a Pwnage Tool-based iPhone 2.2 OS jailbreak which the team believes is the only way to preserve your iPhone's older baseband firmware

What the heck is baseband and why should I care about it on my iPhone 3G?

The 'baseband' is the generic name given to the internal components of the iPhone that handle the phone calls and Internet access. This 'baseband' is a tiny and unique independent computer system that runs inside your iPhone, it is separate to the main system that handles the applications (such as email and google maps) and it talks to the main part of the phone over an internal communications network. Think of it like a cable modem or other peripheral that is attached to your home PC that needs occasional updates. When a software update is released and presented to you within iTunes the baseband is sometimes updated (to fix bugs or add new features). The 2.2 update for the iPhone 3G contains such an update, so running the vanilla updater straight away with iTunes will reprogram and update the baseband.

As we mentioned in the bullet point above, it is absolutely crucial at this point that if you have the iPhone 3G, you don't plug it into iTunes and automatically agree to iTunes when it prompts you to update to firmware 2.2. We can't stress this hard enough, you must update your iPhone's firmware to version 2.2 using PwnageTool if you ever want to even dream about unlocking your iPhone 3G in the near future.

I have iPhone 3G, I'm not bothered about unlocking and just want to jailbreak…

If you are a loyal and happy O2 or AT&T customer and don't think you will ever need to unlock your iPhone but just want to jailbreak so that you can download lots of neat applications off Cydia. All that you need to do is click agree to update to firmware 2.2 via iTunes then use the latest version of QuickPwn, version 2.2 to jailbreak your iPhone's firmware 2.2.

I bought an iPhone 3G (from Asia for example) that was already manufacturer unlocked…

We got asked this by a reader for the last firmware. If this is you, we now know that you don't need to worry about anything. Your iPhone was destined to be unlocked and won't lock itself up after restoring or updating or upgrading using iTunes. So all you need to do is jailbreak if that is what you want, use QuickPwn 2.2.

I have the iPhone 2G (first generation), which tool should I use?

The iPhone 2G is the simpler of the two, it is no longer a difficulty for the iPhone Dev Team, it can be unlocked and jailbroken with no problems at all, the instructions below also applies to the iPhone 2G.

Will this work for the iPod Touch?

For first generation iPod Touch, yes just like the iPhone 2G, your iPod can be jailbroken to install Cydia apps. For second generation iPod Touch, your device is currently unsupported.

Instructions

Now for the all important, crucial part. The following steps will take you through the process so that your iPhone 3G's baseband is preserved for any possible future iPhone 3G unlock solutions. The below instructions also apply to unlocking and jailbreaking the iPhone 2G.

Download the iPhone 2.2 OS firmware to your desktop:
- iPhone 2.2 OS - iPhone 3G
- iPhone 2.2 OS - iPhone 2G
Download Pwnage Tool 2.2, (Pwnage Tool is not available for PC Windows):
- PwnageTool 2.2- Mac OS X torrent file
- PwnageTool 2.2 - Mac OS X direct download
Now that you've downloaded Pwnage Tool, click it to start it up
Select Expert Mode
Select your iPhone version, iPhone 3G or iPhone
Click Next
Allow Pwnage Tool 2.2 to find the iPhone 2.2 OS firmware that you downloaded to your desktop
Select the iPhone 2.2 OS firmware
- The iPhone 2G's firmware 2.2 filename is iPhone1,1_2.2_5G77_Restore.ipsw
- The iPhone 3G's firmware 2.2 filename is iPhone1,2_2.2_5G77_Restore.ipsw
Now click Next
Select the General category
Click Next
General Settings:
- If you are using your iPhone on a contract with your carrier or network you must uncheck the box next to Activate
- If you don't have a legitimate iPhone contract with your carrier, you will need to ensure that the box next to Activate is checked, this will make your iPhone or iPhone 3G for use on an official iPhone carrier's network
- Change root partition size to 1000MB
Now keep clicking Next until you get back to the Build screen
Now select Build
Click Next
Save the custom restore file to your desktop and this file should be named iPhone1,1_2.2_5G77_Custom_Restore.ipsw
Wait for PwnageTool 2.2 to build your custom iPhone firmware 2.2 file
When asked if the iPhone has been Pwned before, be honest and choose the appropriate option
Now connect your iPhone
Follow directions to enter into the Restore Mode, remember the trick is to press the power button slightly before pressing the home button!
If you followed the directions correctly, you will then be given a blue window, now click on OK
You will see I Can Haz Success, now quit Pwnage Tool 2.2
Now start and go into your iTunes
- You will be told your iPhone needs to be restored
- Click OK
Now here is a crucial part, make sure you hold down on options key on your keyboard while you click restore
Now choose the iPhone1,2_2.1_5F136_Custom_Restore.ipsw from your desktop and click open
The next part is to wait and can take up to a few minutes, be patient!
After some more waiting, you will be told that your iPhone has been restored, click on OK
Now disconnect your iPhone after iTunes recognises it, you can now restore the backup of your iPhone's data
Congratulations, all done!

Any comments will be appreciated, comments usually replied within 48 hours, we hope everything works out ok for you! We'll be keep this guide updated, so come back soon!

With help from iPhone Hacks, iPhone Dev, IntoMobile, QuickPwn…

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Roundup of jailbreaking, unlocking the iPhone 2.2 2G and 3G…

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Video: BlackBerry Storm and iPhone 3G browser comparison

2008-11-30T08:52:00.005-08:00

Video: BlackBerry Storm and iPhone 3G browser comparison

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 11/24/08

You will remember we recently featured a video review of the BlackBerry Storm, here's a another video which is quite interesting, comparing the BlackBerry Storm's browser with that of the iPhone 3G's (Safari). The BlackBerry Storm has a clickable touchscreen which is probably one of my favourite feature on the RIM phone although the major issue I have with it is the lack of WiFi.

Whilst the iPhone 3G does have WiFi and fancy Apple patented drag to zoom functionality, etc… As you will know Safari isn't the most stable app on the iPhone, nevermind being the perfect browser.

Video below…

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Video: BlackBerry Storm and iPhone 3G browser comparison

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Gallery: LG Prada II KF900 and bluetooth watch

2008-11-30T08:52:00.003-08:00

Gallery: LG Prada II KF900 and bluetooth watch

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 11/24/08

As you will know, along with the launch of the LG Prada II also known as KF900 last week. LG also unveiled a very cool bluetooth watch which links with the phone, making the Prada II much more manly-er phone than its predecessor.

If you perhaps by any chance missed this news, we recommend you visit our friends at TechChee who have thoroughly described the news regarding its launch.

For now, we'd just like to showcase you some further images of both these new gizmos from LG:

[via Crave]

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Gallery: LG Prada II KF900 and bluetooth watch

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Gallery: Unboxing Dell Inspiron Mini 9

2008-11-30T08:52:00.001-08:00

Gallery: Unboxing Dell Inspiron Mini 9

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 11/24/08

Hey folks, some exciting things have been going on here at GadgetLite today. We're in the middle of unboxing the brand new Dell Inspiron Mini 9 (Vodafone version) which we received for a review over the weekend (thanks Chris for sending it in so promptly!).

Because our new best friend is the Vodafone version this means it has the 8GB SSD and not the 16GB SSD which you can order directly from Dell UK. Though if you're into netbooks, you may have heard that those in the US can now have the option to upgrade their SSD up to 32GB for just $100, which is an absolute bargain and would make this ultra lightweight netbook even more appealing!

Here are some pics so far, you will notice that we haven't yet taken any pictures of the netbook with the lid opened up, that's because we're saving them for our upcoming review, so stay tuned!

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Gallery: Unboxing Dell Inspiron Mini 9

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Times Square, NY showcases the world’s largest LED display

2008-11-30T08:51:00.009-08:00

Times Square, NY showcases the world’s largest LED display

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 11/26/08

If you're travelling or live in NY city, let me tell you just how jealous I am. The world's largest LED display, which wraps around the Walgreens building, has now been turned on in Times Square, NY. It's comprised of a mix of 13 60″ plasma TVs and over 12 million individual LEDs arranged in diagonal panels, that is alot!

[via Gizmodo]

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Times Square, NY showcases the world's largest LED display

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Video preview: Need for Speed Undercover Highway Battle Trailer

2008-10-27T01:45:00.003-07:00

Sent to you by Sharath via Google Reader:

Video preview: Need for Speed Undercover Highway Battle Trailer

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 10/19/08

EA have unveiled the online modes in Need for Speed Undercover, including the all-new multiplayer mode, Cops and Robbers. This visceral team-based mode pits two teams of four players against each other in the ultimate battle-royale.

How will it be played? The aim is for robbers to pick up the package and take it to the drop-off point while the cops attempt to prevent the delivery. Each game consists of two rounds giving the players the chance to play as cops and robbers. Up to eight players will also be able to prove their driving prowess in sprint and circuit multiplayer race modes.

Need for Speed Undercover is being developed by Black Box in Vancouver, B.C., and is slated to be in stores in North America on November 18 and in Europe on November 21. The game will be available for Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, and Wii as well as the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, Nintendo DS, PSP (PlayStation Portable) handheld entertainment system, PC and mobile.

Here's a sneak preview:

[via TecheBlog]

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Video preview: Need for Speed Undercover Highway Battle Trailer

Tags: Playstation, PSP, Xbox, Playstation 2, Xbox 360

Motorola Krave ZN4 user interface

2008-10-27T01:38:00.003-07:00

Video review: Motorola Krave ZN4 user interface

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 10/20/08

You've seen some of the pictures and features of the upcoming latest touchscreen phone Krave ZN4 from Motorola, now we've found a few videos demonstrating what you will expect from Motorola's new UI which will be appearing in the ZN4…

This one demonstrates the messaging interface which has pretty fancy function and looks alot like an iPhone:

Web browsing, offers portrait and landscape view, but nothing special to note:

Camera and photos management, the ZN4 does offer more camera and photo functions than the iPhone but it's not exactly amazing:

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Video review: Motorola Krave ZN4 user interface

Tags: Motorola, touchscreen, Krave ZN4, photos, user interface

Unboxing the latest Panasonic Toughbook 8 series R8, W8, T8, Y8, F8

2008-10-27T01:38:00.001-07:00

Unboxing the latest Panasonic Toughbook 8 series R8, W8, T8, Y8, F8

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Sharon on 10/20/08

Folks at Akihabara have received the latest Panasonic Toughbook F8 Business Rugged Laptop. Although it looks nothing like what you would call slim, they have found it to be surprisingly lightweight. Currently, the SRP is between $2,099 to $2,499.

It does have some fancy, outstanding features, as you can see in the gallery below, it comes in a variety of sizes and two of the larger ones have got its DVD drive 'built-in' and opens like a vent, which makes me think that could be a great way to prevent it from overheating! It also has a rather awkward looking handle which allows users to carry it like a suitcase. More pictures in the gallery below…

[via Akihabaranews]

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Gallery: Unboxing the latest Panasonic Toughbook 8 series R8, W8, T8, Y8, F8

Tags: rugged laptop, R8, Panasonic, 8 Series, unboxing

Latest suitcase folding bike now on sale!

2008-10-27T01:37:00.001-07:00

Latest suitcase folding bike now on sale!

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Sharon on 10/22/08

This is one of the latest conceptual suitcase folding bike on the market, which has actually been put into production and now on sale! Very rarely do concepts become reality like the backpack bike concept which we featured earlier. But this one is different, the suitcase folding bike is made of alloy and weighs only 8-9 kg, which is not bad if you know your bikes.

The company claims it takes only 10 second to open or to fold away. The size is so small that it can be easily carried on the bus or into shops and stores.

Check out the following video of how it works.

Here are some more details:

The vehicle used magnesium alloy die-casting molding, sturdiness and durability.

Folded, the bike will become an angular the suitcase, and the use of environmental friendly, in the transportation or storage, not angular collision themselves or others.

The unique design of baggage drawbars, folded state, can be used as drawbars to drive the bike in the cycle, half of drawbars can be pulled out as a luggage rack use.Tugs unique design.

The unique handle design, easy on or off.

Light weight, vehicle only 8-9 KG.

Small size, only 0.039 M3 vehicle.

Pate unique to the brakes, reducing the braking action of decomposition can improve braking efficiency, extended security warning time, Cycle more secure.

PU foam-free high inflatable tires, can be completely free from leakage problems.

The unique saddle quick system, which folded more convenient.

The unique saddle freedom lifting system so that the saddle height adjustment become very easy.

The unique foldable leading to fold more human.

The unique built-in speaker system returned to its port after.

The unique pedal folding system.

The new water-basket design and bike design.

[via HappyBicycle]

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Latest suitcase folding bike now on sale!

Tags: suitcase bike, HappyBicycle, design

Video: Hands on, first look at the latest BlackBerry Storm

2008-10-27T01:28:00.005-07:00

Video: Hands on, first look at the latest BlackBerry Storm

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 10/22/08

You may have seen some of the very attractive pictures of the new RIM BlackBerry Storm within our quick review, now here's a first look, hands on video of the new flagship. Though I'm an iPhone user, I do think there are a few features which make the BlackBerry's first full touchscreen smartphone special, like horizontal sms typing (without needing to pay for an additional app), copy and paste feature and the neat clock feature when docked.

Check out the video and see for yourself, love to hear your comments!

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Video: Hands on, first look at the latest BlackBerry Storm

Tags: SMS, smartphone, RIM, BlackBerry, touchscreen

Latest USB gadgets: Lap computer desk with built-in speaker and fan

2008-10-27T01:28:00.003-07:00

Latest USB gadgets: Lap computer desk with built-in speaker and fan

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 10/22/08

Do you not like sitting still at your desk when it comes to chatting or even doing work with your computer? Perhaps you fancy a change and would rather have your laptop in front of you while at the same time watching TV in the living room, this latest gadget might be able to help. The lap USB powered folding computer desk features a built-in speaker system for your laptop or portable audio device as well as two quiet fans that will keep your computer cool.

Powered by a USB connection to the computer, the 2.1-channel amplifier drives two 5-watt speakers and a 10-watt subwoofer.

Two quiet, integrated fans positioned under the keyboard spin at 1500 rpm to keep the laptop cool even with extended use. Buttons on the desk handle speaker volume and muting as well as turning the fan on and off independently.

Constructed of durable, lightweight ABS, the desktop surface is angled 15°, an ideal position for typing while you are seated in bed. Folds flat for easy transportation or storage.

The Lap Computer Desk is currently available online from Hammacher Schlemmer for $99.95, click here for more details.

[via GeekAlerts]

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Latest USB gadgets: Lap computer desk with built-in speaker and fan

Tags: desk, usb, computer

Google Android source codes officially released!

2008-10-27T01:28:00.001-07:00

Google Android source codes officially released!

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 10/22/08

Well the world is coming to an end as we all know it, that is if you're not a Google Android fan. That's because Google Android source codes are now officially available to anyone (you, me, hackers, anyone!).

Released yesterday and one day ahead of the official launch of the first Google Android based phone: T-Mobile G1 (which is today), the availability of the source means alot. It means that the famous platform could be exported off to almost any device that you can think of. It's a complete embedded Linux package and we've already seen it running on various devices like the N810. The video below just reinforces to you the message that the Android Team is trying to get out to everyone, their aim and why they think Android will be successful, here's the download link if you can't wait to get started!

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Google Android source codes officially released!

Tags: T-Mobile, source codes, Android, linux package, G1

iPhone game app: Virtual Villagers coming to the iPhone soon!

2008-10-27T01:27:00.003-07:00

iPhone game app: Virtual Villagers coming to the iPhone soon!

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 10/24/08

If you have enjoyed the three different PC versions of Virtual Villagers like I have in the past, you may be excited to know that it's iPhone version is out soon.

Virtual Villagers is a real-time game of life where you have to manage a lost tribe of people on their island. The game carries on itself even when your computer is switched off. For those who have played before may realised that the villagers are easily starved to death when you have left them for a long time. With the mobile version, you can now keep an eye on them anytime you wanted. Watch this quick clip…

The mobile version is currently available in some other mobile phone. We are expected this will be up for sale on App Store fairly quickly.

[via TouchArcade]

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iPhone game app: Virtual Villagers coming to the iPhone soon!

Tags: mobile version, Apple, gallery, applications, Virtual Villagers

Latest news: RIM announces app store for BlackBerry smartphones

2008-10-27T01:27:00.001-07:00

Latest news: RIM announces app store for BlackBerry smartphones

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 10/24/08

RIM have finally announced this week two major distribution initiatives for BlackBerry smartphone applications at the BlackBerry Developer Conference. A new online application storefront and a new on-device application center will help application developers and carriers reach millions of BlackBerry smartphone users worldwide and will provide consumers with greater choice, enhanced application discovery and an easy method for managing installation, upgrades, and purchases.

This news probably comes as no surprise, as we have already learnt that the new BlackBerry Storm will be running on various apps and these applications had to come from somewhere. I hope this also answers one of the question our reader pointed out regarding support for YouTube, flash, etc. With RIM developing a massive app store for their latest and upcoming smartphones, even if they won't be supported, I'm sure developers interested will be looking into that in no time.

Much like Apple's iTunes App Store, RIM plans to launch the application storefront in March 2009, in which BlackBerry application developers can begin submitting their applications and content for inclusion in the storefront in December 2008. The storefront will allow developers to set their own prices for applications and developers will retain 80 percent of the revenue generated from their applications.

RIM is also working with its carrier partners to provide carrier-customized, on-device application centers to help foster after-market application downloads. The BlackBerry application center will allow each carrier to offer a convenient catalog right on the device where a customer can discover and download applications. RIM has already worked with carriers successfully to provide this type of on-device distribution system for individual software applications, such as the popular Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones application.

The new BlackBerry application center will allow a carrier to build on that success with a broader catalog and provide customers with a convenient and easy method to purchase and download applications.

[via Pocket-lint]

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Latest news: RIM announces app store for BlackBerry smartphones

Tags: smartphone, application centers, RIM, news, BlackBerry

Geeky gadgets: Pocket Cinema Projector, enjoy 50-inch movies in your room!

2008-10-27T01:26:00.003-07:00

Geeky gadgets: Pocket Cinema Projector, enjoy 50-inch movies in your room!

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Sharon on 10/24/08

If you enjoy big screen, you may be interested in this 'Pocket Cinema'. This latest technology piece of kit is a small device (5.5cm x 12.5cm) which can project pictures and movies from your gadgets on to the walls or screens. It has got a USB slot and a SD card slot which means it will support most devices like iPhones, iPods, digital cameras, PSPs, memory cards and mobile phones. It features a built-in stereo speakers, 1GB internal memory and it is capable of projecting a 50 inches image onto your wall.

Although it doesn't give you the plasma quality like most distant projectors, it's a great way to show off your geeky resourcefulness at parties and functions, movie nights while on the move and even business presentations.

[via GeekAlerts]

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Geeky gadgets: Pocket Cinema Projector, enjoy 50-inch movies in your room!

Tags: cinema projector, pocket projector, usb, gallery

Video: Latest Apple MacBook reviewed

2008-10-27T01:26:00.001-07:00

Video: Latest Apple MacBook reviewed

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Sharon on 10/24/08

Remember the unboxing pictures of the latest Apple MacBook we featured last week? Tom from Stuff have now passed on to us a video review of the new Macbook they received. It really is a beautiful, luxurious laptop which just further reinforces the message that Apple is trying to get at. They don't intend on compromising any of their computers' quality so that prices may be lowered, which seems to be the opposite of what many are doing in the face of the recent credit crunch.

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Video: Latest Apple MacBook reviewed

Tags: computer, Apple, Mac, credit crunch, MacBook

Portable computer gadgets: MIU unveils third generation HDPC

2008-10-27T01:25:00.001-07:00

Portable computer gadgets: MIU unveils third generation HDPC

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 10/24/08

Mobile Intelligent Ubiquitous aka MIU has unveiled the third generation of its Hybrid Dual Portable Computer (HDPC). The new model offers a 4.1 inch TFT display (800 x480 resolution), a 2.4 inch AMOLED internal display (320 x 240 resolution), ARM processor for menial tasks, Intel Atom processor, Windows CE operating system and DMB navigation capability.

As you can see this gadget looks more like a mobile phone than a computer, though I would not want to argue with anyone regarding the absolute definition of 'portable computer' these days. The latest product from MIU has been scheduled to be released in Korea for $500. However, there is no word on the release date at this time, so in the mean time, here's a quick video…

[via Pocketables]

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Portable computer gadgets: MIU unveils third generation HDPC

Tags: computer, HDPC, MIU, Windows CE

Featured freeware: Launchy, the open source keystroke software launcher

2008-10-27T01:10:00.001-07:00

Featured freeware: Launchy, the open source keystroke software launcher

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Editorial Staff on 10/27/08

Just a simple hotkey combo away, Launchy is a handy tool that lets you open nearly any program, file, folder, or Web site on your system with just a few keystrokes.

Enter the first few letters of a file or program and Launchy's small, skinnable interface automatically displays the rest of the name. You simply press Enter to open or launch it. If the displayed name isn't the item you want, a few seconds later the tool displays a drop-down list with other likely candidates from which you can choose.

Configuring Launchy is as easy as using the tool itself and it can be directed to look only at specific directories if need be. Easy to master, it performs without a hitch and could easily replace the Start menu or Windows Explorer - as long as you know the name of what you're looking for.

Download Launchy, check out some cool plugins and skins as well as tips and tricks from the link below, after the video…

Here's an official description…

Launchy is designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager. Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes.

[via Launchy]

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Featured freeware: Launchy, the open source keystroke software launcher

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Latest gadgets: Bluetooth stylus pen with built-in headset…

2008-06-03T12:13:00.002-07:00

from GadgetLite - *Latest* gadgets and *technology* news... by Gad

Check out this, just recently featured what looks to be just like any ordinary stylus pen is in fact equipped with built-in speaker and microphone, a very clever idea indeed!

Here are some of its features:

Technology standard: Bluetooth V2.0 and EDR
Support for iPhone (Bluetooth Handfree)
Chipset: BlueCore 4-audio
Supported Profiles: Headset and Handsfree profile
Additional function: Stylus
Transmitter power: Class 2
Wireless frequency: 2.4 to 2.480GHz
Sensitive: <-75dBm
Transmitter distance: 10m
Supports last number, answer, reject, end and call functions
Charger Output: 5V DC
Working voltage: 3.7V
Battery: rechargeable Li-polymer
Charging time: 2 to 5 hours
Talking time: 3 hours
Standby time: 90 hours
Headset size: 112×14×11 mm
Headset weight: 11g

It comes with headphones and also is charged using USB, all this is included for a total price of $30 over at Brando.

[via GeekAlerts]

Why should you switch from Firefox to Opera…

2008-06-03T12:13:00.001-07:00

from GadgetLite - *Latest* gadgets and *technology* news... by Gad

I’m a huge fan of Firefox and have been using it almost since it was first introduced, I like the add-ons, themes, its look and good stability, there’s also a huge community of people using it on the web as well. However, recently we talked about the Acid 2 test, a test which examines how well the browsers out there perform in terms of html and also css, etc… As you will remember, from the results, out of the six browsers that were tested, only Opera and Safari passed. The fact that Firefox didn’t pass didn’t really influence me that much at the time and I just kept using it, however, just yesterday I read that the latest Opera, Opera 9.5 beta2 actually out performs Firefox by a considerable margin.

Here’s what Opera does well:

“Every page loads faster and this is something measurable even without having to use a stopwatch”
Opera uses 30% less RAM when the same number of tabs are opened
Visible wise, the scrolling page function in Opera is much more smoother when compared with other web browsers
Opera’s built-in e-mail client features improved responsiveness
Supports cutting edge Web standards and the upcoming web developer tools
Syncs your bookmarks and Speed Dial between your computers and mobile phone
A tiny minor feature is that the browser lights up tabs and query buttons, when you pass the mouse over them =)

I think in my view, Acid 2 tests don’t bother me, all the sync for bookmarks / Speed Dial isn’t my kind of thing neither, but RAM consumption is (because I’m still using Windows XP on a rather old aged pc) and for that reason I might give it a try.

If you’re interested in relieving some of the pressure your browser gives your pc, feel free to give Opera a try, click here for the download page.

[via OnSoftware]

Lamborghini Reventon unboxing pics, must see!!!

2008-06-03T12:09:00.000-07:00

Lamborghini Reventon unboxing pics, must see!!!

from GadgetLite - *Latest* gadgets and *technology* news... by Gad

Last year in September, we talked about the Lamborghini Reventon and what a special car it would be when it kicks into production. So special that a very limited quantity of just 20 will be produced, that number I think even restricts Top Gear from getting their hands on the car to be honest!

Now that the car(s) have began production, it’s even more special, only one of the 20 Lambos be dealt with through a car dealership just like what anyone would do in order to get a car. The pics below shows the first Reventon, number 1 out of 20 and also the only one to be bought through dealership, in this case, it was in Las Vegas. I think all the others will go straight to their owners from factory after being made because of pre-orders.

This last picture is actually quite funny, don’t know why the police were also involved! Their supervision was needed or were they there also for the glorious moment? This car is so precious, I would hate to be the one driving it, what do I do if I get abit of dust over its hood???

[via Autoblog]

Latest designs: The Ripple Faucet is not your typical bathroom sink…

2008-06-03T11:59:00.002-07:00

from GadgetLite - *Latest* gadgets and *technology* news... by Gad

Check out the Ripple Faucet, I’m sure from what you see, you will agree that this is no ordinary sink! Not even the fanciest hotels I’ve been in have got anything similar to this. You might wonder what a faucet is, well a faucet is a device for regulating the flow of a liquid from a reservoir such as a pipe or drum. From the picture you will agree that the Ripple Faucet is certainly a design filled with posh elegance integrated cleverly with a tiny bit of LED technology.

The faucet’s visual system is comprised of the ripple interface surface, two channels from which water flows and a metal ball that sits on top of the rippled surface which is used to control the faucet. By using this cleverly designed method, moving the metal ball away from the center increases flow and moving around the circles controls the temperature!

As you can see it’s equipped with LED underneath it, this has been tuned so that intensity and color of the LED are lit up according to the flow and water temperature.

Under the ripple surface there is an array of sensors and electromagnets that provide tactile feedback to the user as she moves the ball to discrete points on the surface.

I’m sure with a sink (or ‘faucet’) like this in your home, anything next to it will look nicer, even just a plain bar of soap! Visit Touch360 for more info using the link below…

[via Touch360]

Latest technology from Samsung: 82″ Ultra definition LCD TV…

2008-06-03T11:59:00.001-07:00

from GadgetLite - *Latest* gadgets and *technology* news... by Gad

Check this out, I’m well impressed by Samsung’s latest creation, shall I say ultra definition? This tele has a staggering 82-inch size LCD screen, 120Hz, it’s QuadHD and is able to deliver a resolution of 3840 x 2160! It’s said that two more variations of it will be available. One of them will be an 82-inch ‘e-board’ with multi-touch screen designed to replace whiteboards and projectors. And the other one will be a DID (Digital Information Display) which will be perfect for providing 3D imagery. Pricing and availability have not yet been announced…

SEOUL, KOREA – May 19, 2008 – Demonstrating its world leadership in display technologies, Samsung Electronics Co. will exhibit innovative new products ranging from large-screen LCD panels for televisions and digital information displays, to the most advanced mobile products, at the Society for Information Display (SID) International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition on May 18-23.

At SID 2008, Samsung will unveil the industry’s first 82-inch LCD TV panel with ultra-definition (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) resolution at a 120Hz refresh rate. It displays ultra-definition (UD) resolution at 120 frames per second, minimizing the blurring that is experienced at 60Hz. A red/green/blue LED backlight has been added to raise true color saturation to 150 percent, based on the NISC standard of 100 percent.

“This 82-inch LCD is large enough to cover all viewing angles with ultra-definition resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate that will allow viewers to watch motion pictures as if they are really in them,” said Sang Soo Kim, executive vice president of the LCD Technology Center at Samsung Electronics. “It is the optimal display for future TVs.”

Samsung will also introduce an 82-inch “e-board” with a multi-touch screen, which is a product that is destined to replace whiteboards and beam projectors. It was created using a 60Hz UD LCD panel and is the largest panel of its kind with a multi-touch screen. At the same time, UD resolution is built-in to deliver the very best digital information display.

Additionally, Samsung will exhibit a multi-view digital information display (DID) that delivers 3D images without requiring special glasses. The company is confident that this display can establish a new niche market apart from other DIDs previously introduced.

A 40-inch full-HD LCD TV panel will also be showcased that operates with only two source driver ICs, instead of the normal combination of six source drivers and three gate drivers. This breakthrough lowers production costs and will make LCD TVs affordable to many more consumers.

Finally, Samsung will introduce a 15-inch LCD with “blue phase mode,” and 2.3-inch e-paper that uses electrodes made from carbon nanotubes for enhanced “fold-ability.” Visitors will be able to view these and other products, such as a multi-tasking monitor with 16:9 aspect ratio and environment-friendly panels for TVs at the Samsung SID booth.

For more information, please visit Samsung Electronics at booth 508 at the 2008 SID International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Latest technology: Will e-paper replace traditional newspapers???

2008-06-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

from GadgetLite - *Latest* gadgets and *technology* news... by Gad

As we all know it Epson is one of the world’s leading firm in consumer products like printers and photocopiers. And rightly so, Epson has now taken the first step in producing a product (not just a concept) much better than the likes of electronic e-book readers that may just possibly replace our daily news reads in the future.

You will see why I say so just from looking at this image…

The fact that the quality of it is so incredibly good, you can barely tell it’s not paper! With a size of 13.4-inch (A4-size), its pixels count is 3104 × 4128 and definition achieves as high as 385ppi.

The new electronic paper was developed by combining electrophoretic electronic ink of E Ink Corp and a low-temperature polycrystal Si-TFT of Seiko Epson. The TFT was formed on a glass substrate. Its contrast ratio is 10:1 and reflectance is 40%.

Epson believes the future market will focus on selling electronic paper, I agree this is great for the environment, but there will always be people who like to get hold of an actual piece of paper and be able to fold it, it’s that ‘tactile feedback’ that the e-paper may not be able to offer. Plus with the increase in the use of RSS feeds and newsreaders, etc… will there still be a place for newspaper in the future?

Latest gadgets: Vision Tracking System Camera Car - it’s a R/C car…

2008-06-03T11:53:00.000-07:00

This R/C car has a hefty name: Vision Tracking System (VTS) Camera Car, the reason for that is because it’s no ordinary toy. The VTS Camera Car, as you can tell from its name, puts you on the spot as though you were driving it at its level. How does it do it? Well the driver sitting on the car actually has a camera-equipped head and by putting on some VGA resolution goggles, you will experience the thrill that he has to go through (controlled by you!).

What’s more, these cyclops-looking goggles transmits sound and if you rotate your head, he does the same as well, talk about getting put on the spot!

Very unique idea indeed, but the VTS Camera Car may be too expensive for the average geek, costing £600!

Interested? You might want to watch this video…

Microsoft Surface multi-touch technology enhances Windows 7 on video…

2008-06-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Surface multi-touch technology enhances Windows 7 on video…

via GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news... by Gad on 5/30/08

Remember the video of the Microsoft Surface PC which we showed earlier last year? If you were impressed with that, then you will be even quite excited to see the same multi-touch technology applied in the same fashion on to a laptop running the next version of Windows: Windows 7.

Julie Larson-Green from Microsoft demonstrated at the recent D6 Conference saying that Microsoft is using part of the multi-touch technology from the Surface PC to enhance Windows 7. The operating system the demonstration is running on is a Dell Latitude XL with Windows 7.

This demonstration is basically showing how Microsoft Surface could enhance Windows experience on future computers, Windows 7 to be specific. As most will know by now, Windows 7 is expected to arrive in 2010 (click here to catch up), but what are the chances of laptops / PC monitors with multi-touch functionality becoming a popular, widely used product by 2010? The answer is probably not very likely, but the fact that Microsoft has demonstrated that they can already apply this technology to laptops, I reckon it shouldn't be too long before household PCs become like those in the Minority Report!

Enough of me rambling, here are some of things that were mentioned during an interview with two of Microsoft's most important people, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer…

Windows 7 is apparently months away, due late in 2009.

Walt asks Ballmer if he's worried about the next iteration of Mac OS X, which will likely be released before Windows 7. Is there a risk that the work you're doing now with multi-touch will look dated when Apple (AAPL) releases its next OS?
Ballmer says he's confident Microsoft will have fantastic Windows 7 PCs, regardless of what Apple's got on the market. "There's a lot in Windows 7, and our goal is to produce fantastic PCs with our hardware partners."

The conversation turns to Windows 7, which Microsoft hasn't said too much about. Clearly, the company has learned from the media beating it took over the defeatured and perennially delayed Windows Vista. Indeed, in a post to the Windows Vista blog today, Microsoft's Chris Flore noted that Microsoft is being very careful about releasing details about Windows 7. "What is a little different today is when and how we are talking about the next version of Windows," Flore wrote. "So, why the change in approach? We know that when we talk about our plans for the next release of Windows, people take action. As a result, we can significantly impact our partners and our customers if we broadly share information that later changes. With Windows 7, we're trying to more carefully plan how we share information with our customers and partners. This means sharing the right level of information at the right time depending on the needs of the audience."

[via AllThingsDigital]

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

'In the right place at the right time'

2008-06-03T00:21:00.000-07:00

'In the right place at the right time'

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Owen Gibson on 5/25/08

Although Google's motto is "don't be evil", the setting couldn't more closely resemble a Bond villain's lair. Amid rolling Hertfordshire countryside, a country house hotel is playing host to the company's Zeitgeist conference. Inside, shifty-looking men in dark suits whisper into their sleeves as they co-ordinate the arrival of luminaries including Gordon Brown and Queen Rania of Jordan. Journalists are not allowed to walk around unaccompanied. And everything is decked out in the obligatory upmarket dotcom dressing - predominantly white, with the odd discreet Google logo. Free smoothies and Green & Black's chocolate are available.

Only Google would go to so much trouble to gather business executives from around the world in one place to talk global economics and green issues, when almost all of them look as though they'd rather be staring at their PCs and munching pizza. The YouTube founder and chief executive, Chad Hurley, is the exception - polite, down-to-earth and diffident but no stereotypical geek. Dressed casually but stylishly, he has a slightly earnest manner that betrays the fact that the next 12 months are crucial for YouTube, which was formed just over three years ago and sold to Google 21 months later for $1.65bn. Either it will capitalise on its position as the leading video website on the internet, or it will be remembered as nothing more than a transitional footnote.

Hurley, who has a worrying tendency to drift into corporate argot, is convinced it will be the former. His ambition is for YouTube.com to become a global "super distribution hub" - the means by which video content is distributed globally on PCs, mobile phones or TVs. The other big question is whether he and his co-founder, Steve Chen, both worth hundreds of millions of dollars before they turned 30, will stick around to make it happen.

"It's been a great relationship with Google. It has given us the freedom to continue to focus on users and create a product that would work for them and keep them engaged," enthuses Hurley. "It's also given us time to really work on the advertising opportunities that are going to work not only for the online community, but for advertisers and partners as well." He is acutely aware that the site has to start making serious money. And, with lawsuits from MTV-owner Viacom, the FA Premier League and Elvis Presley's estate looming, this will also be the year in which YouTube either solves its copyright and licensing issues for good or is sunk by them.

Sponsorship deals

Having developed a thriving, vibrant community - and defied those naysayerswho said it would implode under the pressure of lawsuits and users drifting off in search of the next online fad - the next step is to make money out of them. Put simply, the site must bring in enough cash to satisfy its new licensing deals, pay out to some of its most popular users under a scheme that allows them to share its revenues, and still contribute to Google's bottom line.

"They've given us a lot of independence. We've kept separate offices, they really push us to make our own decisions. We've been able to launch in 20 different countries since the acquisition and scale the infrastructure around the world," says Hurley. YouTube's phenomenal growth shows no sign of slowing - 10 hours of video are uploaded every minute and hundreds of millions of videos are viewed every day. But now Google is eyeing it to deliver the next stage. That will mean more contextual advertising around videos, but also more clever pop-up video advertising within them and sponsorship deals between brands and some of YouTube's most popular uploaders. Beyond that, it's clear he hopes to bring in big money through sponsored links of the kind that proved such a goldmine for Google.

"What people miss in the broader strategy of how we work into Google's plans is that we see a great opportunity for people to elevate or promote individual video content," he says. "We're going to give people the tools and the ability to promote a single video against our video catalogue search in the same way as they do in Google." Just as YouTube has levelled the playing field in content, he claims, so it will provide revenue streams not only for the big media players but also for nascent talent. "All the tools are going to allow everyone to participate. If you're an independent film-maker, you have just as much chance to promote your content as the traditional studios."

A happy alignment of different stars, such as widespread broadband and cheap camera-phones, made YouTube's phenomenal growth possible. It exploded thanks to the kind of silly user-generated content played ad nauseum to baffled broadcasting industry executives in 2006 (teenagers lip-synching to pop hits, exploding bottles of Diet Coke, etc), and a huge library of archive clips on just about any subject you could think of.

Now, insists Hurley, we are seeing those who have grown up with the YouTube revolution - video bloggers, independent film-makers, comedians - using it to bypass traditional broadcasters altogether and becoming much more sophisticated in their contributions. "People are starting to understand that - in terms of what the power of video can provide and the scale and the global footprint the YouTube service can provide. That's what sets us apart from our competitors."

Contrary to some predictions, its audience continues to grow. The latest figures from Nielsen Online show it had 11.6 million unique users in the UK during April, a 46% rise on last year. One of YouTube's best early moves was to allow its videos to appear throughout the web, on blogs and rival sites. Now Hurley says he wants to take that further, using its technology to power other websites and opening it up to developers. The vast majority of traditional media companies, he argues, have come round to the value of YouTube. Once they realised they were not necessarily in competition with it and could use the site to reach audiences they couldn't get to elsewhere, they have become far more enthusiastic about its potential, he says. The BBC, for example, is using YouTube to drive viewers to its iPlayer.

But there are still those significant hurdles. YouTube's business model relies on leaving it to copyright-owners to identify their own material, making use of fingerprinting technology and other tools to take it down if they want it removed. If that is successfully challenged, it could fatally undermine the site. He expresses some frustration at those who won't play ball. It's "kind of ironic" that they are not going after YouTube's rivals, he says, claiming they are not making similar efforts to help identify unlicensed content.

Tabloid headlines

He treads more carefully when it comes to YouTube's unsavoury offerings. Happy-slapping, glorifying gang culture, cyber-bullying - there isn't a week that goes by without YouTube content being called to account by tabloid headlines. "Whenever you're the leader in any industry, you get more headlines. The majority of the content on the site is appropriate," he insists. "We've been around a little more than three years and we've learned a lot in that time."

It is not just broadcasters who see YouTube as a route to an audience who are otherwise difficult to reach. On the day we meet, Gordon Brown has become the latest politician to join the YouTube club, awkwardly asking for questions on his new channel. Meanwhile, in the US, the looming presidential contest will be the first YouTube election. "People want to see something authentic. If it's too polished and highly produced, people might not trust it as much," Hurley says. "If it's grainy, if it's coming from a webcam, if it's someone standing there and talking their mind or sharing their thoughts, people trust it much more."

When asked about his personal fortune, Hurley reminds me that he and Chen went through the same experience at PayPal. When it was bought by eBay in 2002 for $1.54bn, the pair walked away with more than enough to invest in their next venture. "We weren't the founders of that company, but we were there, and we got the benefit of seeing it succeed. We were surrounded by a lot of people in a similar situation. Whether it's [Google founders] Larry or Sergey or other people like Mark Zuckerberg [Facebook], these people are basically friends. We're all coming from these simple ideas. We were all really lucky to be in the right place at the right time."

Hurley is either incredibly lucky or very talented. Most likely, a bit of both. At university he ditched computer science for graphic design. And it is his ability to straddle the worlds of technology, media and marketing that perhaps explains his success. He and Chen will stay at YouTube for a good while yet, he says, insisting it's his passion for the business, not filthy lucre, that keeps him motivated. "We're not sticking around because we need to. Financially, we could leave whenever we want. But it is seeing this vision through, having a chance to define some of these ideas and these markets. That's what is really driving us."

Curriculum vitae

Age 31

Education Twin Valley High School, Elverson, Pennsylvania; Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Career

2002-04 User interface designer, PayPal

2005 Consultant for several technology companies. Co-founds YouTube 2006 Founders sell YouTube to Google for $1.65bn

Phoenix ends 420m-mile journey and begins search for signs of life on Mars

2008-06-03T00:04:00.000-07:00

Phoenix ends 420m-mile journey and begins search for signs of life on Mars

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Aidan Jones on 5/25/08

Nasa's Phoenix Mars lander touched down on the Red Planet early this morning, in a mission that may yield evidence of primitive life amid the permafrost.

Mission controllers faced a tense wait as the £212m probe plummeted through the thin Martian atmosphere and used a heat shield, parachutes and jet thrusters to slow its descent from an entry speed of 13,000mph to just 5mph on landing, in what was dubbed "seven minutes of terror".

The craft, the first mission to Mars for four years, touched down at 12.53am, ending a 420m-mile, 10-month journey since it was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The touchdown, the first soft landing by a spacecraft on legs on Mars for more than 30 years, was greeted with shouts and applause back at mission control.

Speaking ahead of the landing, Peter Smith, the mission's lead investigator from the University of Arizona, Tucson said: "If we get the signal all the way to the surface we'll be very happy and there's going to be tremendous cheers."

Using a robotic arm, the rover will pierce the topsoil of the Martian northern polar region, and for the first time take ice and mineral samples from beneath the surface to see if the planet could sustain life.

Water is known to exist on Mars as vapour in the atmosphere and as ice below the surface, but there is currently no water on the planet's surface. However previous Nasa explorations have revealed canyons and shallow lakes, suggesting water flowed billions of years ago.

Scientists believe that bacterial spores could lie dormant in cold, dry and airless conditions for millions of years, potentially reactivating when conditions change.

The first images were expected to take two hours to be beamed back to earth.

A British team from Imperial College London contributed to the mission, providing 10 tiny silicon discs, etched with a pattern of pits and pins designed to hold on to grains of soil and act as slides for the two onboard microscopes.

Speaking before the touchdown, team leader Dr Tom Pike, who previously worked at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: "As we dig we're going to see what's been laid down by a series of arctic winters. We're not looking for the signatures of life at this stage, we're looking to see if the paper is there to write the signature on. What Phoenix could show is the potential for life, and that's a very interesting result on its own."

The success of the Phoenix landing is a major boost to Nasa's longterm Mars exploration programme, which aims to establish if life has ever existed on the planet and detail the geology and climate, ahead of a pioneering human exploration.

Nasa has not had a successful powered landing since the twin Viking landers in 1976. The last time the space agency tried was in 1999 when the Mars Polar Lander, angling for the south pole, crashed after prematurely cutting off its engines. The Mars rover missions used parachutes and airbags for their landings.

Backstory

There have been 40 attempts to reach Mars but two-thirds of them have ended in failure, the majority losing contact en route, burning up on entry or being dashed to pieces on attempting to land. Soviet missions Marsnik 1 and Marsnik 2, designed to fly past the planet, fell to Earth shortly after being launched in 1960. Two years later the Soviet Sputnik 22 probe exploded, and the first successful flyby was not until 1964 when the US Mariner 4 returned pictures of the dusty red landscape. The first successful landing took place in 1976 when US twin Viking landers touched down, took soil samples and tested them for signs of life. A Russian mission ended in failure when the launch vehicle blew up in 1996. Japan's single attempt to reach Mars failed in 1998 because of problems with its propulsion system. In 1999 Nasa lost three missions. In 2003 the European Space Agency's Beagle 2 probe disappeared before landing.

Netbytes: Hey, are you Worthy?

2008-06-03T00:03:00.002-07:00

Netbytes: Hey, are you Worthy?

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Jack Schofield on 5/26/08

What if women ruled the world? Would Oprah Winfrey's face be on banknotes? Would Sex and The City's Carrie Bradshaw run the Pentagon? Would racing cars be pink? Would the electric chair have cushions? You can imagine the possibilities, or you can go to the Worth 1000 site and see them in glorious colour, thanks to the modern phenomenon known as Photoshopping. With Adobe's digital manipulation program, or something similar, people can make realistic images of almost anything.

Worth 1000 - named because a picture is worth a thousand words - holds a continuous stream of Photoshopping competitions. It sets themes and members do their creative best. Visitors comment and vote so the best rise to the top and the worst are culled. The result is usually a gallery of one or two dozen images that are well worth seeing. The site has been public since January 1, 2002, so there are now hundreds of thousands of them.

"If Women Ruled" is a typical theme, and Worth 1000 has five galleries based on that idea. Of course, "if X ruled" allows for endless variations. What if dogs ruled? We've also enjoyed the rule of babies, Canadians, cowboys, geniuses, goths, hackers, hippies, little girls, mime artists, pimps, pirates, rednecks, the Amish, the dead, and even Trekkies.

Celebrities are another great source of material, and galleries of what celebrities would look like if they had a sex change or went bald have been republished in newspapers. Advertisements, classic paintings (or "Ren") and popular movies are also grist to the mill. Worth 1000 is where you can see Ron ("Is your wand not working like it should?") in an advert for Wizagra, while Hermione features on the Official Harry Potter Home Pregnancy Test kit ("Works like magic"). Click on Galleries and look for Harry Potter Everything in the index under H.

Lots of entries are based on familiar paintings such as American Gothic, the Mona Lisa, Edvard Munch's The Scream, and Van Gogh's room in Arles. Just add an iPod, a TV set, or a copy of Playboy. Although Photoshopping is the core of Worth 1000, the site also runs competitions for photography, multimedia and text. There are tutorials and competitions for beginners, and "head to heads". There's the option to pay (in site credits) to enter some contests for the chance to win a jackpot. Companies can also offer cash prizes if they want a new logo design, for example.

You have to register to get the best out of Worth 1000, otherwise you can't see the images full size. Also, registering lets you add pictures to a favourites list, so you can find them again. Even better, you can see who else favourited the same pictures, and then look at thumbnails of all their favourites. This can be a quick way to find the sort of images you like.

Of course, while you can spend a lot of time looking at images on Worth 1000, it can take even longer to produce them. But everyone is welcome to have a go.

Triumphant return to the Red Planet

2008-06-03T00:03:00.001-07:00

Triumphant return to the Red Planet

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Ian Sample on 5/26/08

At first, the probe checked itself over, taking snapshots of its dusty feet and freshly unfurled solar arrays, ensuring all was present and correct following its 422m-mile journey and high-speed descent on to the northern plains of Mars in the early hours of yesterday.

Then the real work began. The robotic arm flexed and swivelled, bringing the camera up and around to gaze at the alien landscape. Two hours later, Nasa's mission controllers had been sent the first pictures ever to be taken within the arctic circle of the red planet.

The $420m (£212m) Phoenix mission, which settled on Mars at 00.53 BST yesterday, represents a major milestone in Nasa's exploration of the solar system and its search for evidence of life elsewhere. Not since the Viking landers touched down in 1976 has a probe landed softly on the planet, using rocket thrusters to slow its descent. More significantly, Phoenix is expected to become the first spacecraft to touch water on another planet.

At Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California last night, the final moments before landing were tense, but at every step the Phoenix probe matched or exceeded expectations. As it hurtled into the atmosphere, engineers foresaw a communications blackout as the searing plasma around the probe's heat shield blocked their radio link. When the moment came, the probe kept in touch all the way down, settling at a near-perfect 0.25-degree angle in the Vastitas Borealis, an ancient plain near the north pole.

"In my dreams, it couldn't have gone as perfectly as it did," said Barry Goldstein, the project manager on the Phoenix mission. "I'm in shock. Never in rehearsal did it go so well."

Yesterday, Nasa engineers began analysing the first of the images, some showing the intriguing polygonal patterns that scar the Martian arctic. One of the probe's mission tasks is to dig beneath the frigid surface to collect water ice and soil, which will be analysed by the probe's onboard laboratory. Mission controllers will be looking for signs of organic compounds in the water that could indicate that the now harsh environment was once hospitable, and even habitable.

"We see the lack of rocks that we expected, we see the polygons that we saw from space, we don't see ice on the surface, but we think we will see it beneath the surface," said Peter Smith, the principal investigator on the mission at Arizona University.

The landing marks the US space agency's first return to Mars since its twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, touched down in January of 2004.

"This is the first chance we have had to actually collect and analyse water on the Red Planet," said Keith Mason, head of Britain's Science and Technology Facilities Council.

"If we find water ice below the Martian surface we may also be able to find evidence of past life on the planet."

Over the next eight days, the probe will continue to take measurements of the Martian atmosphere and soil before using its two-metre-long robotic arm to dig down to what lies beneath. Onboard cameras and a weather station will record information about the probe's changing environment as night turns to day and the Martian seasons turn. The mission is expected to last three months, after which the arrival of winter will see light levels fall too low to replenish the Phoenix probe's batteries.

"We're all so relieved that Phoenix has managed to land safely," said Tom Pike, head of the UK Phoenix team at Imperial College London. "The descent and landing phase of the mission is one of the most tricky and hazardous. It's great to have made it down in one piece and now we can get to work uncovering more of the Red Planet's secrets."

The London team developed tiny silicon sheets that will hold dust and soil samples for the probe to examine with high-resolution microscopes.

Another of the probe's tasks is to monitor changes in the polar weather and how it interacts with the land and atmosphere above. In the arctic summer on Mars, scientists believe water vapour is released from ice at the polar caps and into the atmosphere.

David Catling, a scientist on the team from Bristol University, said: "Our priority now is to find out if there is ice below the dirt and whether it got there recently, or it is a frozen remnant from an ancient time when liquid water may have rippled across this part of Mars."

As the name suggests, the 350kg Phoenix probe arose from the embers of previous Mars missions, themselves failed or shelved in 1999 and 2001, but useful for their spare parts, from which the spacecraft was put together.

Viacom spat with Google over YouTube intensifies

2008-06-03T00:03:00.000-07:00

Viacom spat with Google over YouTube intensifies

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Jemima Kiss on 5/27/08

Viacom's $1bn lawsuit against popular video sharing site YouTube has escalated further, with parent company Google filing court papers in the US claiming the case could threaten the free exchange of online information.

Google submitted new court papers to a New York judge on Friday that said the firm "goes far beyond its legal obligations in assisting content owners to protect their works".

Making service providers liable for the actions of their users would, said Google's lawyers, "threaten the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment and political and artistic expression".

Under the terms of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, service providers are protected if they act swiftly in cases of reported copyright infringement.

While Google claims to have abided by the DMCA, Viacom alleges that YouTube's business model relies on "a vast library of copyrighted works" and that it struggled to keep count of unauthorised clips on the site.

The case, which was initiated by media giant Viacom in March last year, describes YouTube as part of an "explosion of copyright infringement" online.

Viacom last month claimed the site hosted 150,000 clips of its shows, including MTV Unplugged, South Park and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Shows from Viacom subsidiaries including MTV and the Comedy Central have been watched "an astounding 1.5bn times" on YouTube, according to the company.

Industry pundits have predicted that the case will end with an out-of-court settlement, while others have discussed the increasing conflict between those seeking to protect copyright and advocates of the internet as an open communications medium.

Mike Masnick, a copyright expert on TechDirt, said media companies still thought of the internet as a content platform, whereas internet companies saw it as a communications medium.

"That's a problem for anyone who comes from a world of broadcast media, and it creates all sorts of problems for copyright law that is designed mainly to protect a broadcast-style media," he wrote on TechDirt today.

"The DMCA ... puts the onus on the communicator not to be breaking someone's copyright, leaving the communications platform out of it.

"Hopefully, the court will recognise the reality that the internet was always a communications platform, and it's just the broadcast media who are trying to force it to act more like a broadcast system," Masnick said.

· To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.

· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

Colao's inheritance: maturing markets and tough regulators

2008-06-03T00:02:00.003-07:00

Colao's inheritance: maturing markets and tough regulators

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Richard Wray on 5/27/08

There is unlikely to be a dramatic change of strategy at the world's largest mobile phone company with the promotion of Vittorio Colao - after all, he has sat on the board since his return to the fold in 2006.

But he faces some serious challenges as competition and regulators force down prices in Vodafone's European markets and some of its emerging markets mature. Cost-cutting is likely to play a major role in these regions over the coming years, raising the prospect of job losses. In the search for revenue growth, meanwhile, Vodafone is rapidly running out of globe.

Yesterday's annual results showed good growth, with revenues up 14.1% at a slightly better than expected £35.5bn and profits before financial charges up 10% at £13.2bn. The company also generated a whopping £5.5bn of cash.

Outgoing chief executive Arun Sarin stressed yesterday that "my disappearance, in my judgment, does not affect our ability to execute the strategy. There's enough momentum in the business that my leaving at this stage does not cause the company to slow down."

He was right. The company is slowing down all by itself.

Vodafone said yesterday that it expects revenues for the coming year to come in at £39.8bn to £40.7bn, which is like-for-like growth - excluding acquisitions - of 5% to 6%. That forecast was better than many in the City had expected but does mean the company's growth will be lower than last year's 6.5% like-for-like growth.

One of the main reasons is that prices are expected to decline 10% to 15% annually over the next few years across many of Vodafone's operations because of intense competition as markets mature and as a result of increasing regulatory price caps.

In Europe, for instance, regulators have already had a go at international voice roaming and are turning their attentions to text and mobile internet roaming prices. The cost of calling a mobile phone from another network or fixed-line phone is also set to fall as regulators from the UK to Italy clamp down on so-called mobile termination rates.

To deal with these pressures, Vodafone is hoping to persuade people to make more calls and use their phone for more than just talking. For the first time ever, mobile data revenues in Europe went over £5bn last year as consumers texted furiously, surfed the web on their phones and plugged their laptops into mobile broadband.

Coupled with its move into the residential broadband market in countries such as the UK and Germany, Vodafone is becoming more of a content business than just an operator of access pipes. The choice of Colao, who spent two years in the media business (which Sarin reckons was a good "training ground"), will raise talk that Vodafone wants to get further into the content market.

Colao said yesterday there is certainly a lot of opportunity for cooperation with media owners as the internet and mobile phones converge. "There are going to be a lot of things that we as an industry and we in Vodafone can do together with the leading media players to enable the transition to the converged world," he said.

In Vodafone's eastern European, Middle East, Africa, Pacific and Asia (EMAPA) business, meanwhile, markets are maturing. The Czech Republic and Egypt, for instance, are coming close to saturation point. In fact, stripping out the "go-go" markets of India and Turkey, Vodafone's EMAPA region recorded 19.5% revenue growth in 2005/6, 21.1% growth in 2006/7, but just 14.5% last year. Even finance director Andy Halford had to admit that growth had come down with a "thunk".

Of course, including India and Turkey, revenue growth in EMAPA was 22.1% last year. As a market, Turkey is fast maturing but India will remain strong for several years. The problem for Colao is where to go next.

Vodafone had a brief and disastrous spell in Latin America before dumping its business in Mexico after one of that country's regular economic collapses. Going into South America would bring the company into contact with some very large and powerful players - not least O2 owner Telefónica - so that door is probably closed.

Vodafone's ambitions in Africa, meanwhile, have been frustrated by the collapse of the takeover negotiations in which its South African partner was involved, which would have resulted in Vodafone buying out its mobile business.

Since then, Africa's largest mobile phone operator, MTN, has come up for sale. It has operations spanning South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda, as well as several countries in the Middle East. Its original suitor - India's Bharti Airtel - has pulled out, to be replaced by another Indian suitor, Reliance Communications, but Vodafone reckons MTN's £19bn price tag is too high and has no plans to bid. Sarin yesterday suggested the board's plan is to pick up any other assets that come up for sale in Africa and wait for further opportunities to for "bulking up a little more".

There are some other Asian opportunities but the real excitement in that area is China. Vodafone has a very small stake in China Mobile, which is adding an eye-watering 7 million customers a month, and is watching the government's restructuring of the market with interest. But the company, at least according to Sarin, is likely to stick with China Mobile for the medium term "just because it is such a high-performing company", which puts paid to Vodafone's ability to get more involved.

The last part of the global jigsaw is the North American market and again Colao has little room for manoeuvre. Its joint venture with local partner Verizon Communications (Verizon Wireless) is doing very well, especially compared with some of its rivals who are actually losing customers - but is not paying Vodafone any money while it pays down its $20bn debt. Sarin has been forced to justify keeping the stake and Colao is likely to be asked the same question.

In fact there was a lot of second-guessing during Sarin's time. Asked yesterday whether he felt vindicated, he responded: "The key is to have the tenacity to stay the course and you have to be really confident that you are doing the right things." Those are words that Colao would do well to heed.

Sarin leaves Vodafone under his own terms

2008-06-03T00:02:00.002-07:00

Sarin leaves Vodafone under his own terms

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Richard Wray on 5/27/08

Arun Sarin is making a surprise early exit from the chief executive's job at Vodafone after five years in which he has suffered boardroom whispers about his management style, seen off a shareholder revolt over strategy, resuscitated the company's operations in Europe and secured a vital place in the booming Indian market.

He will be replaced by Vittorio Colao, seven years his junior, who first joined the company in 2000 when it bought a stake in the Italian operator - now Vodafone Italy - that he ran. After an eventful two-year stint running RCS MediaGroup, one of Italy's biggest publishing companies, he rejoined Vodafone in 2006 as deputy chief executive.

Colao was tipped as being groomed for the chief executive's post, but Sarin stressed that internal and external candidates had been interviewed after he told chairman Sir John Bond, just after Christmas, that he wanted to retire at this year's annual meeting on July 29.

"When I came here five years ago, I had a certain set of things I wanted to do and I feel like I have done them," Sarin said.

Part of that "set of things" was to put a new management team in place to replace the old guard who served under his predecessor, Sir Christopher Gent. He also focused on costs within Vodafone's core European operations, in the face of declining prices as a result of regulation and fierce competition.

But his tenure has, at times, been troubled. After the expansionist Gent, who clinched the largest hostile takeover in UK corporate history when he snapped up Mannesmann in the days of the dotcom boom, Sarin was expected to focus on what the firm already owned.

But soon after he arrived he was embroiled in the multibillion-dollar auction of AT&T Wireless. Though the company was ultimately snapped up by Cingular in a deal that has since soured, Sarin's perceived indecision coloured the market's perception of him for years.

Any deal with AT&T Wireless would have meant selling Vodafone's half-share in its US joint venture Verizon Wireless. There have been grumblings about the future of that stake ever since and they came to a head last year when a group of dissident shareholders under former Marconi boss John Mayo tried to use Vodafone's annual meeting to force the board to sell out. They were comprehensively defeated.

When Sarin made his own first big acquisition - buying Turkish operator Telsim for £2.6bn - just over a year after the AT&T Wireless debacle, analysts balked at the price tag. Sarin has since been proved correct in his assessment of the business and it has become one of the engines of the company's international growth.

Gent, meanwhile, resigned his honorary position as life president of the firm in 2005 after a whispering campaign against Sarin carried out through the pages of the national press.

Sarin has also taken some tough decisions. After attempts to revive Vodafone's Japanese operation he eventually decided to sell out. That was a U-turn, but freed him to trade a 10% stake in India's largest mobile phone company for control of Hutchison Essar, which has become one of the fastest-growing areas of the business.

Sarin said yesterday that he has enjoyed his time at Vodafone "enormously" but reckons it is time to take a break. "I am 53½ and what is clear to me is I would like to take a little sabbatical. I have been working since 1978. But if you ask me am I going to just retire, I think I have one more thing left in me."

Colin Pillinger: Britain should be leading the search for life on Mars

2008-06-03T00:02:00.001-07:00

Colin Pillinger: Britain should be leading the search for life on Mars

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Colin Pillinger on 5/27/08

The triumphant landing of the Phoenix craft on Mars is a tribute to the team of engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California - one of whom, Peter Smith, was a colleague of mine on the Beagle 2 mission to the planet in 2003. Using the Mars reconnaissance orbiter, they selected an excellent place to land, and were able to use thrusters to hit the spot safely and softly.

But it's also a tribute to the perseverance of Nasa, which has launched missions to the planet every 26 months. They have built at least 23 orbiting spacecraft, and have now had three successful landings. They've had a policy of following the water, the essential element of life. We have known for 200 years that Mars has polar caps, which could have contained a mixture of water and carbon dioxide. Nasa has seen, from orbit, where the most likely places are for water to be found; they have also identified minerals that appear to have been deposited from water. But though the orbiters can suggest water is present - from radar signals and an abundance of hydrogen - they haven't been able to identify water unambiguously. That's why Nasa has had to send a lander.

It is, though, very difficult to steer a craft towards the poles - orbiting around the equator is far easier - so the Phoenix mission has landed at a site which is, in relative terms, as far north as Greenland. The pictures beamed back so far show no obvious signs of snow or ice, but the craft's robotic arm can reach up to two metres, and dig a trench, in the hope that there is permafrost to be found below the surface.

I'm 99% certain they will find water. And, if so, they will also be able to identify the salts within it, and whether they are suitable for micro-organisms to live on. They'll be able to clearly answer whether this place could be suitable for life to evolve. They are also going to check for organic molecules. I really hope they find them. Though we have found carbon on meteorites on earth, nobody has ever discovered a single atom of carbon on Mars - other than the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

And this is where the mission's limitations could set in. The measuring equipment they have on board won't be able to tell if any carbon is biological (ie, living carbon) or simply the debris of meteorites that may have crashed on the planet.

I can't help feeling frustrated, because the Beagle 2 mission would have been able to make this distinction. The Phoenix design is based on a craft that crash-landed in 1999, and building Beagle technology into this mission simply wasn't feasible in the planning time they had. After the 1999 loss, Nasa simply shrugged their shoulders, learned their lessons, and got on with the next mission. With Beagle, the British government and the European Space Agency sighed a collective "oh dear," and stopped there. There was no reason why another Beagle mission couldn't have worked, but they seemed to lose the will to go on.

As it is, the next European mission will not be until 2015, by which time it may feel out of date (and there's a chance it may not happen). It will cost €1.5bn, six times more than the current Nasa mission. That's why I get frustrated, because it proves this is not a question of money: a Beagle mission would have been even cheaper than Nasa's, so the ESA could easily have tried again.

We had enough time to have launched another mission last year, ahead of Nasa, and with instruments capable of identifying every carbon atom in all its forms - to detect whether life exists, or has ever existed.

We could have solved the question all humanity really wants answered: are we alone? If we could show that life on Earth was not unique, the discovery would be on a par with Copernicus saying the Earth went round the sun. It would bring a fundamental shift in the way we all think about ourselves.

Nasa have another spacecraft, set to launch in 2009, that will be carrying a much more sophisticated instrument on a car-sized, roving module. With their findings from Phoenix, they will be able to choose a suitable landing spot and give themselves a much better chance of answering whether there is, or was, life on Mars. These are big stakes. If a British mission had made this breakthrough, it would have inspired our whole country: we'd have kids wanting to take up science, which is what so many people want; and we would have sent a message to the world that Britain, once the dominant power over the seas, is now a space-faring nation.

As it is, Britain and Europe chose shortsightedness over scientific endeavour. Their inaction must go down as a huge missed opportunity.

· Colin Pillinger is the principle investigator for the Beagle 2 Mars project, part of the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission; he was talking to a Guardian journalist c.t.pillinger@open.ac.uk

Yahoo starts lawsuit against spammers

2008-06-03T00:02:00.000-07:00

Yahoo starts lawsuit against spammers

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Mark Sweney on 5/27/08

Yahoo is taking legal action against spammers for sending emails purporting to be from the internet company telling recipients they have won a lottery in a scam designed to get personal information from web users.

The company has launched a lawsuit against Yahoo Lottery Spammers for "unlawfully sending email messages to internet users for the purpose of deceiving them into believing that they have won a lottery or prize offered by Yahoo".

Yahoo Lottery Spammers' email scam, a widespread practice commonly known as phishing, attempts to get internet users to reveal personal information such as passwords or credit card information by mimicking a legitimate communication from a well-known company.

"The unauthorised use of Yahoo's trademarks is misleading, fraudulent, and has actually confused, misled, and deceived the public," said Joe Siino, senior vice-president of global intellectual property and business strategy for Yahoo.

"Yahoo will vigorously enforce its intellectual property rights and will not tolerate lottery hoax emails," Siino added.

The company added in a statement: "The spammers willfully masqueraded as Yahoo and sent emails claiming that the recipient had won a lottery, prize or other award from Yahoo.

"Yahoo does not offer any such awards and has no affiliation or any connection with the spammers or their email communications."

The company's lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in New York City, follows a record payout of $230m to MySpace in a legal judgment earlier this month over junk messages sent to its members by "Spam king" Sanford Wallace and business partner Walter Rines.

John Kremer, vice-president of Yahoo Mail, said: "Yahoo is 100% committed to protecting our users from fraudulent email messages and this lawsuit sends a clear message to spammers.

"We are going after individuals who have attempted to negatively impact the email experience for consumers across the internet. Through our continued litigation efforts, our top goal and priority is to further protect Yahoo Mail users and the public from this type of fraudulent activity."

· To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.

· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

Victor Keegan: Books are thriving despite the internet

2008-06-03T00:01:00.002-07:00

Victor Keegan: Books are thriving despite the internet

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Victor Keegan on 5/28/08

Books are one of the oldest industries, yet they have been hardly affected by the digital revolution. Publishers just go on commissioning and editing them in their own sweet time as if nothing had happened. In an age when your blog could be out of date in minutes, publishers seem happy to leave months, even years, between the manuscript being presented and going on sale. The curious thing is that it doesn't seem to be doing them any harm at all. UK book sales have risen in volume every year for the past five years, including a 6% increase last year. No wonder book publishers are not baying about illegal downloads like the film and music industries.

There may even be a link between digitisation and the onward march of books. The pain of reading on screen may be increasing the joy of enjoying books in their centuries-old format. I recently read an entire volume on my laptop: an excruciating experience. It involved holding the machine at different angles to prevent my neck from creaking while trying to manipulate the two keys needed to move to the next screen and regularly having to press another key to rekindle the backlight. Never again. It is an altogether better experience to read books on a dedicated device such as Sony's e-reader, Amazon's Kindle or the more versatile Linux-based iLiad. They can be read easily in bright sunlight, the print size can be increased and you can download a new tome when you have finished an old one. But they are too expensive and have been slow to catch on in the UK.

Unlike publishing, book distribution has been revolutionised by Amazon and abebooks.com, one of the sites that sells old books and has given a lifeline to secondhand bookshops that can now trade on the internet. It has also greatly reduced the chances of coming across an unexpected bargain because bookshop managers can see what others are charging online.

Books have also been slow to form Facebook-style communities, even though what you read is often the biggest thing you have in common with others. This is now changing, but is still a bit of a minority sport. When I last wrote about it a year ago, librarything.com was the market leader with only 200,000 members while goodreads.com had only 125,000. Goodreads has now moved decisively ahead of librarything and shelfari with more than a million members according to alexa.com. This is huge growth compared with a year ago but small beer compared with the number of people reading books. Some 51% of Goodreads members are in the US with only 3% in the UK and, curiously, 17% in Iran. These sites are really good even if you only use their basic function of cataloging the books you are reading complete with ratings: you simply type in the first few words of the title and everything is pulled up including a cover picture from a database. You can also see what your friends are reading or form local groups.

You don't have to read a book to enjoy it: you can have it read to you. The market leader by an unhealthy distance is audible.com, now owned by Amazon. When I last inquired, it had more than 90% of the market, which may help to explain why its prices are so high in a digital age when the cost of producing extra copies is almost zero. Khaled Hosseini's excellent A Thousand Splendid Suns costs $28 at audible, far more than for a paperback. It badly needs fresh competition of the kind that silksoundbooks.com provides, where you can download Julie Christie reading Madame Bovary (admittedly out of copyright) for £7.95. If that is too much then you can download a text-only version of out-of-copyright books at the venerable gutenberg.org, which now claims 3m downloads a month. The current best seller (or rather non-seller) is volume one of The Outline of Science by J Arthur Thomson, followed by the first volume of the Manual of Surgery. Who said the internet was all about dumbing down?

vic.keegan@guardian.co.uk

The greatest internet sports games of all time

2008-06-03T00:01:00.001-07:00

The greatest internet sports games of all time

via guardian.co.uk Technology on 5/27/08

You get bored at work, we get bored at work; the difference is, we don't get sacked for playing these games. Not yet, anyway.

Collected below are some of our favourite games on t'internet, so get stuck in and putt, kick, or skate your way to the JobCentre.

If you know something we don't, send a link to your favourite online (sports) game to sports.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk (with a few lines telling us why it's so good) and we'll add them to our list - vigorous quality control guaranteed, reader.

Our latest finds

Denise Lewis Heptathlon: While it is not the most covert operation (bashing the B and N keys for all your worth) and is likely to cause debilitating finger cramps, this old style arcade game is maddeningly addictive.
P45: *****

Stunt Dirt Bike: A mix of impressive acceleration and chronic problems with staying vertical make this the Didier Drogba of internet sports games. Much more popular around the office though.
P45 rating: ****

Pinch Hitter 2: Take a strange large-headed boy from hitting balls in his backyard to the major league. With hour upon hour of practise of course.
P45 rating: ***

Sidering knockout: A old style beat 'em up with energy bars and combo moves. Take your humble slugger up through ranks and finally earn a title fight.
P45 rating: ***

Cat with a bow golf: Ah, golf. Funny trousers, silly terminology and a cat firing itself at a target with a bow and arrow. A good walk ruined.
P45 rating: ****

Trick hoops challenge: This one is all about showing off with the most outrageous attempts at the basket, if you can get it in off the wall you are far better than us.
P45 rating: ***

And the full catalogue...

CRICKET

Stick Cricket: Takes a while to get the knack of, but worth the effort for the first time you knock Dennis Lillee out of the ground.
P45 rating: ****

Slog Cricket: You are the bat! Pretty simple. Until it gets quite hard.
P45 rating: ***

FOOTBALL

Bumperball: "It's football, but in bumper cars, on an ice rink," writes Nathan Jones. "What is there not to love?" Erm ...
P45 rating: ***

Football Agent: Buy! Sell! Be the Mr 10% and rake in enough cash to buy a mansion. Tough, but in a good way
P45 rating: ****

Roby Baggio's Free-Kick Game: An old classic. We've found the trick is swinging the ball in Bolton-style for the onrushing centre-forward, rather than going for spectacular Baggioesque finishes.
P45 rating: ***

Super Soccer: Finally a football game which doesn't involve posing as a faded star playing keepy-uppy. Sadly, despite reading the instructions three times, we're rubbish at it. Hours must be spent perfecting our skills, clearly.
P45 rating: ***

Hat-trick: This is a slow burner - register your team, develop your youth squad, make transfers, all in aid of winning the 16 week league. Could cut your working day by hours.
P45 rating: ****

Volley Challenge 07/08: Pick your team, play a season, and make your striker hump the ball over the crossbar. Over and over again.
P45 rating: ***

RUGBY

Game of 3 Halves: A kind of Sensible Rugby, but with three of your fellas taking on an entire team of opposition. And a streaker. And a sheep.
P45 rating: ***

GOLF

Mini Putt 2: The graphics on this aren't as good as Electrotank, but the gameplay is better. We suggest organising an office championship (our best score is 33, by the way)
P45 rating: *****

Crazy Golf: See if you can resist the temptation to give it a whack and hope for the best.
P45 rating: ***

Driving Mad: Driving in the Tiger Woods sense, not Kimi Raikkonen, this is another game which sets you simple targets and even tells you you're great when you're not [like us]. Bonus points for taking down the odd pigeon, too.
P45 rating: ***

Golf Drive: Apparently it's a "relaxing game of golf the prehistoric way". Very tricky, but very nice graphics and takes a bit of thought.
P45 rating: ****

Pandaf Golf: Slightly insane, very annoying sound effects, but rather addictive all the same. "This one is a definite candidate for rapid P45 delivery. Once you have finished the 100 or so levels you can make up your own layouts!" squeals Mark Bermingham, probably clapping his hands, too.
P45 rating: ****

TENNIS

Table Tennis: Rob Bentham reckons "it's really addictive, and sounds great as well". We reckon it might be a little infuriating.
P45 rating: If self-confessed temp Rob is anything to go by, ****

Tennis Ace: "I think this is the best tennis game - it has a practice option and three levels of difficulty too. Nice umpiring too!" says Bryan Coleman. Be warned, you'll be a lot better in training than in the match ...
P45 rating: ***

Rong: It's ping-pong Jim, but not as we know it. Rather ridiculously addictive
P45 rating: *****

The Optus tennis challenge: Keepy-uppy with a tennis ball, essentially - but pity the poor souls with time enough on their hands to notch up high scores of close to 2000.
P45 rating: ***

BOWLING

League Bowling: Enjoyably retro.
P45 rating: ***

Super Bowling: Ego-boostingly simple to play. Get that swerve on
P45 rating: ****

WINTER SPORTS

Snowboarding: We would like to say this game is, like, totally rad dude. But we've no idea how to retain control.
P45 rating: ***

PUB SPORTS

Lightning Break: Easy controls, simple objectives, endlessly entertaining.
P45 rating: ****

First2zero virtual darts: Pick an overweight, cartoon dartsmith and toss your 'arras at the treble 20, simple. The only game that involves less effort than real darts.
P45 rating: ***

Blast Billiards: Ian Gale calls this "a fiendishly addictive way to waste an hour or three at work." Even though we're shamefully useless at this game, we're inclined to agree. And they've added side spin options in the later versions, for anyone who just needs more control
P45 rating: *****

EQUESTRIAN

Steeplechase Challenge: There's something deeply retro about this one. The secret is in judicious use of the whip and perfect timing in the jump.
P45 rating *** (***** if your betting syndicate is rumbled)

MOTOR SPORTS

Drag Racing: Sadly, no 15st blokes hotfooting it on heels here. But sneaking a win on the line in a Honda Civic is enjoyment enough.
P45 rating: ***

OLD SCHOOL

3-D Pong: Just when you thought pong couldn't get any better, they go and make it 3D. So hard you will inevitably spend hours of company time playing it.
P45 rating: ****

MISCELLANEOUS

OK, so these are not strictly sports. But they should be.

Crash Test Dummy Olympics: There's not much to these events, but getting them right is infuriatingly tough. A guaranteed time-waster.
P45 rating: ***

Escapa: This has got office tournament written all over it. You are a red square trying to escape the accelerating wrath of some blue squares. Get anywhere near 20 and you're doing well. 19.966 since you ask.
P45 rating: ***

Yeti Sports: All the Pingu smacking fun you can handle, on one site. Repetitive, but strangely pleasurable.
P45 rating: ***

Why are MMOs having a population crisis?

2008-06-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

Why are MMOs having a population crisis?

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Alexander Gambotto-Burke on 5/28/08

In the real world, overpopulation is a serious concern. The 6.6 billion people on this planet are draining natural resources, and in all areas - except Europe, apparently - the problem is expected to get worse in the next half-decade. In online worlds, however, overpopulation is more of a goal than a crisis.

While Blizzard's unstoppable World of Warcraft (WoW) has seen an exponential growth in its subscriber base since 2004 - it now rests at around 10 million - two of its closest rivals, Lineage and Lineage II, have much smaller (1 million each) user bases. And most of the other notably successful Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) plateau at (and slowly decline from) the 200,000 to 500,000 mark. In these worlds, people don't use the resources - they are the resources, and if their attention drifts, the virtual world tends to languish.

Going back to WoW

Some of this can be attributed to WoW's success. The game's critical esteem and massive subscriber-base promise a very consistent and well-maintained MMO experience, so it's little surprise that when a smaller MMO's subscriber-base declines, WoW's inflates. "We see a lot of MMOs like that, where they get two-to-three months of a good reaction, and then their player-base disappears," says Flying Lab Software chief executive Russell Williams. "Where? Well ... they go back to WoW!"

For the majority of MMOs released after WoW, this rings true. After being released in 2006, Turbine's hyped and well-reviewed Dungeons & Dragons Online declined from 90,000 subscribers to 50,000 within a few months. A year later, SOE's Vanguard: Saga of Heroes lost 80,000 subscribers after its 120,000 peak in a similar amount of time. Other big-budget MMOs - 2006's Auto Assault, notably - can't even garner enough users to keep running for more than a year.

Is this simply because WoW is better than everything else on offer? Perhaps, but Williams believes it's actually because the market is too homogenised. As chief of Flying Lab's new MMO, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Williams is striving to introduce a new and original experience into the market (pirates and naval combat), because he sees that as the key to success. "When we started," he reveals, "we thought, 'Hmm, you know, there's a lot of fantasy out right now, and there's more coming.' And we wanted to do something a little bit different to what everybody else was doing. Unless you're going to go head-to-head with WoW - which is a crazy strategy - you'll invariably lose. You're always following, because odds are there's somebody who's been doing it even longer than you, with more money at their disposal. Do something fresh, and you can be the right product at the right time."

Pirates has only been live for several months, so subscription figures aren't a reliable indicator as to whether the game is going to float, but they're certainly extremely promising. As for Williams' philosophy? Results are mixed. City of Heroes, Second Life and slow-but-steady EVE Online all support the notion that different approaches to the MMO formula - in this case, superhero mythology, social sandbox mechanics, and economically driven sci-fi, respectively - lead to greater distinguishability and commercial presence.

These titles have around 100,000 to 200,000 active subscribers each, and while that's certainly not going to be impacting WoW's sales anytime soon, it's enough to keep the developers in the black. For other leftfield efforts - The Sims Online, The Matrix Online, and, again, Auto Assault - being different has led to buyer confusion and commercial failure.

Still, despite these high-profile catastrophes, many agree with Williams. For example, Raph Koster, lead designer of Ultima Online (the first mainstream MMO), Star Wars Galaxies and others. "If I could give any advice to a startup MMO developer," he laughs, "it would be: 'Stay the heck away from building another WoW!' One of the interesting things that's happened to the market is that we've had many, many WoW-style games, and the gameplay hasn't evolved dramatically. It's been streamlined, but it hasn't changed anything fundamentally. And one of the things we really don't want in this market is having it come to being a battle of polish. That's a bad place to be.

"So how do you do that to WoW? It's a very difficult challenge, because they spend so much time, and so much money, getting it to that stage where it's going to cost you as a competitor a lot just to achieve parity. And even then, that might not mean you succeed, so you've basically set a giant pile of money on fire."

Koster contends that back when the market was smaller, and its two biggest players were Ultima Online and EverQuest - similar in theme, radically different in gameplay - a greater level of diversity was permitted in new MMOs. "But now," he laments, "the vast majority of the market is held by the EverQuest/WoW-style games. Large budgets aren't going to other sorts of virtual worlds, and there are a lot of other sorts of virtual worlds to be made. And after seeing the market failure of Jumpgate or Auto Assault, or any of these more niche-targeted games, it breeds conservatism. So if I were going to give advice to a developer, I would say: why don't you make a truly kickass virtual world environment - make it a game or whatever it is, but make it something else. Bring in a new market!"

Undocumented millions

Interestingly, there is a massive MMO market that's largely undocumented by the mainstream press - browser-based online worlds such as Dofus, MapleStory, and RuneScape all have playerbases that number in the millions. And given the low-cost, high-convenience nature of these games (from both the developers' and players' perspectives), there's much less overhead than with their retail peers. Koster, motivated by the huge success of these smaller worlds, has created his own solution: Metaplace, a service that facilitates both the creation and online publication of user-made virtual worlds.

"Metaplace is designed so that virtual worlds can become essentially ubiquitous," he says. "They can go on any webpage; anyone can set up a virtual world on their own, so they can really become part of the daily fabric of the web. And so some of the hopes there are is that when we do that, we will get greater diversity, and more variety, and we'll explore new kinds of gameplay and social play.

"We have a markup language that is our equivalent to HTML, and just like HTML, anyone can write a browser for it that is a client. And different clients can in fact render the virtual world in different ways. So, you could have a mobile client, and a first-person 3D client. Then we have a generic server that doesn't make assumptions about what kind of virtual world is running there. It might be a WoW, it might be A Tale in the Desert, it might even be Tetris. And sitting on top of all this is a YouTube-style service that indexes, rates, and reviews all the worlds, and you can log into them from that website."

If nothing else, Koster's service allows users fed up with WoW's dominance the chance to have a go at it themselves. Having only been a part of our cultural fabric since 1997, the MMO as a concept is quite young. Ultimately, subscribers will decide which approach to online world design is most compelling.

As the market expands, it's increasingly likely that there will always be a single dominant MMO distantly ahead of the rest - simply because the social nature of MMOs requires large numbers of players, and players will naturally gravitate towards the world with the highest population. But as shown above, that's hardly a sign that other worlds won't prosper. Just don't hold your breath for an overpopulation crisis.

How the London Olympic Games means City power shortage

2008-06-03T00:00:00.001-07:00

How the London Olympic Games means City power shortage

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Pete Warren on 5/28/08

When the UK won its bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, Tony Blair was jubilant - but he probably little thought that he was shackling the City of London, the UK's top money earner, by denying it access to the national grid.

How? Put simply, demand for the cabling to provide power for the computer centres the industry relies upon has outstripped supply. The City has been told there can be no more computer centres until after the Games.

Before the Olympics was factored in, the picture was bleak; add the sports jamboree, and a system that was creaking has almost come to a halt. Despite massive demand, within the past two years only two data centres - Stockley Park and an extension to Telehouse - have been given the go-ahead by EDF Energy, which supplies power to the south-east of England.

The City of London has a power demand of 1,000MW which is expected to rise by 80% over the next 5-7 years, while the Docklands has a power demand of 250MW, which is expected to rise by 90% over the same period. Many companies claim that political prioritisation has occurred aimed at ensuring the Games' success and risking the success of the UK's finance sector.

"People in the data-centre industry are saying that they have been told the Olympics are going to get priority for power infrastructure," said Steve Wallage, managing director of data centre analysts BroadGroup. "We've been trying to get power elsewhere but we are being told by EDF that they've got to find out what the power needs of the Olympics are," said Alex Rabbetts, managing director of Migration Solutions.

The power demands of the Olympics are not yet known, according to the London organising committee. "A study to assess the overall Games' power demand is currently being undertaken by LOCOG and the ODA." According to industry rumours, the Olympics is likely to need 400MW and will generate its own power.

Olympic-sized problems

The problem is the sheer size of the Olympic project, which needs more than 100km of electrical cabling and the building of more than 100 substations, which is bleeding the UK of the scant specialist labour that can put in the infrastructure.

"EDF don't have the ability to physically upgrade the network and provide the system for the Olympics," said Ian Bitterlin, international sales director for the power company Chloride. "There is a nationwide shortage of electrical engineers because it is not a fashionable job."

But rumours still abound about EDF refusing to provide new connections to the grid - rumours denied by the government and the power company. "The Olympics are a key priority, but not at the expense of other sectors of the economy," said a spokesman for the Department for Culture Media and Sport.

Still, the power supplies for the Olympics are going in and power in the Docklands and the City is not. The situation is so dire that at Data Centres Europe, a conference organised by BroadGroup in London last month, one City data centre manager asked delegates if they knew influential people in EDF so that he could "jump the queue" of companies waiting to be told that they will get access to power.

"The reasons for the power shortage range from the Olympics to the need to upgrade the system generally," said Chris Crosby, vice-president of Digital Realty, the largest provider of data centres in the world. "There is the potential now for London to go technology-dry because of the lack of power. If you add in the mayor's office's proposals on CO2 emissions, soon there could be no data centres in London." A spokesman for new London mayor Boris Johnson said that the administration was still "bedding in" and had yet to take a position on the power infrastructure demands of the Olympics or CO2 plans.

No power to the people

Those companies that are not bound by regulations to stay close to the financial markets are moving either outside of the M25, or further afield to Birmingham, the north of England or the Isle of Man, while others are leaving the country.

Nonessential computing functions such as backups are being moved away, everything else is on short rations. "In Europe over 85% of those that have revenues over €1bn(£796m) now have two data centres; some have more," said Crosby. "One issue is the shortage of power and the expense of it because of connection costs, another is the sheer length of time it takes to sort power out if you do find somewhere. In London everything takes 8-12 months longer than anywhere else."

As a result of the power-connection crunch, companies wishing to expand their data centres in the Docklands and the City have been told by EDF that there can be no more data centres. A spokesman for EDF said: "We advise all our customers to give us as much advance notice as possible as soon as they are aware that their power needs are going to increase significantly."

Telehouse, which is currently running the computer network for the Beijing Olympics, has been allowed to expand. It is also, coincidentally, to supply the server space for the 9,000-plus servers that will be needed for the 2012 Olympics.

"We have got short-term capacity and long-term capacity," said Bob Harris, Telehouse's Technical Services director. "We have been talking to EDF since 2001." According to him, once the Olympics is catered for, there will still be space for another 20,000 servers for business.

"The only problem with that is that it's a drop in the ocean in terms of the demand," said Migration Solutions' Rabbetts, who provides server space to big business. "One of our clients, a household name in the UK, has three 12,000 server sites alone."

Icann makes a very British compromise over net policing

2008-06-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Icann makes a very British compromise over net policing

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Richard Sarson on 5/28/08

The internet is currently unpoliced. The nearest it has to a governing body is the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) of stakeholders - carriers, ISPs, academics, civil society, governments and international organisations - which is more like a parliament than an executive.

The IGF meets once a year and deals with topics such as: openness (the free flow of ideas and information); security (protecting users and networks); e-criminals (child abusers etc); cultural and linguistic diversity; and issues of access, particularly in the developing world. It takes no votes and makes no decisions but advises bodies that run the internet day-to-day, such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).

The IGF was set up in 2005. At this time, there were several sets of would-be lawmen, all with very different ideas of how the internet should be governed.

Some, such as the US, saw the internet as too fast-moving, amorphous and international to be able to police properly or bureaucratically. Other governments, such as China, disagreed. They recognised the economic benefits of the internet, but wanted to build great firewalls around their countries, which were censored mercilessly.

Many countries, particularly developing nations, were unhappy that the US had so much online clout. They saw Icann, originally set up as an offshoot from the US Department of Commerce, as a tool of western colonialism. They wanted to see it administered by the United Nations in a top-down fashion.

Time for a change

The clash between these various attitudes came to a head at a fractious UN-backed World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in 2005, which was called to deal with the digital divide between the internet-rich and internet-poor countries of the world.

Kofi Annan, then secretary general of the UN, conceded that although the US had exercised its internet oversight "fairly and honourably, a change was necessary" - that is, to spread the governance across the world. However, he made it clear that the UN itself had no desire to "control or police the internet".

Most countries breathed a sigh of relief, because UN bureaucracy would have induced instant paralysis. Nick Thorne, a diplomat at the Tunis summit, said the IGF was devised as "a fix to stop the bad guys controlling the internet". It would also make the internet less-US-centric. All parties accepted this compromise, albeit reluctantly.

The first IGF meeting was in October 2006 in Athens, and the second in November 2007 in Rio de Janeiro. In December this year, it will meet in Hyderabad, India. In Athens, there was much national posturing and grandstanding in the plenary sessions. Not much was achieved. However, at Rio, the 1,600 delegates avoided the plenaries but attended the workshops, which dealt with matters like the sexual abuse of children, the infrastructure of an expanding internet, overcoming digital exclusion, and helping less-developed countries build up their internets.

Malcolm Harbour, a delegate from the European Parliament, found that the best thing to come out of Rio was that people from different countries engaged with one another, and realised that models of competition and structure were not necessarily relevant.

Perhaps because the IGF is a rather British-style compromise, the UK internet community takes it very seriously. The British delegation to Rio was among the largest, and unlike other countries, included several parliamentarians, among them Alun Michael - who, as minister at the DTI, led the UK delegation to the Tunis summit in 2005.

He put forward the idea of forming "dynamic coalitions" of stakeholders from different countries to solve internet problems. In 2007 at Rio, for example, the UK children's charity NCH got in touch with Amnesty International to explore the conflict that sometimes occurs between child protection and free speech.

Michael is beefing up the British contribution to the IGF still further by creating a UK IGF. His aim is to attract a wider set of UK stakeholders - particularly from industry - to work together to make the internet a safer place, and to participate in the Hyderabad forum. To stimulate interest in the forum, the UK internet domain name registry, Nominet, is sponsoring a Best Practice Challenge for UK companies, with an awards ceremony in July. In the autumn, the UK forum will come together to decide on a stance for Hyderabad.

Thinktank

Emily Taylor of Nominet, who sits on the IGF's advisory board, believes that "national IGFs give the opportunity for the grassroots in each country to contribute to what otherwise would be rather rarified and sterile discussions at the annual IGF jamborees". This will turn the IGF from a "talking shop" into a "thinktank".

She wants to attract the people who are "actually doing the internet", to achieve and disseminate practical results before the IGF's five-year term runs out and its work is evaluated. This approach is attracting attention in other countries and Taylor has been invited to present a joint workshop on these local processes with colleagues from Brazil, Finland and France at Hyderabad. The European parliament, which sent five MEPs to Rio, is also supportive.

Taylor believes that the IGF is already having an effect on Icann, and the other bodies involved in the governance of the internet. They are becoming more global, and are using the IGF to get a wider participation in their own processes.

Not everybody agrees with the IGF approach. The US government did send a delegation to Rio, but takes a hands-off free-market attitude to the internet. Its only concern is the infrastructure: to get broadband to as many people as possible.

This is particularly pressing, as estimates show that by 2015, internet traffic will be 50 times what it was in 2006, fuelled by HD video and YouTube. So far, the US government has not pushed anti-spam or anti-pornography legislation. Bizarrely, the only thing it regulates is online gambling.

Recently, there have been arguments in Washington about whether "net neutrality" should be enshrined in law. This debate is concerned with whether ISPs or carriers should be allowed to charge different rates to different customers. And, later this year the US government will complete a review of Icann and e-governance. It will be fascinating to see whether the official American view will become more robust.

Civil libertarians on both sides of the Atlantic criticise the IGF for dealing only with trivia, while avoiding the "big difficult issues" of the internet: openness, free speech, human rights. They forget that the IGF was created specifically to avoid the divisive and intractable debates that threatened to wreck the Tunis summit.

Michael finds it more useful "to take practical cooperative steps rather than a theoretical approach, and that's what will get us away from the traditional conflicts". Very low key, very pragmatic, very British.

Second contractor drops out of £12bn NHS computer upgrade

2008-06-02T23:59:00.004-07:00

Second contractor drops out of £12bn NHS computer upgrade

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Richard Wray on 5/28/08

The government's £12.7bn upgrade of the NHS's IT systems suffered yet another setback yesterday as the programme's contractor in the south of England, Fujitsu, had its £896m contract terminated.

With the project already over budget and far behind schedule, the withdrawal of Fujitsu is likely to add further delays. There are now only two main contractors left on the world's largest non-military IT scheme, which began with four. US-based Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) runs the programme in the north, Midlands and east of England; BT runs it in London and has built the nationwide infrastructure.

A spokesman for BT said last night the company would consider taking on Fujitsu's work if the opportunity arose. When the fourth contractor, Accenture, abandoned the NHS project two years ago, its estimated £2bn workload was picked up by CSC.

Parliament's spending watchdog warned this month that the whole programme would not be completed for at least another six years, putting it four years behind schedule. The National Audit Office said plans for a national digital record of the medical files of 50 million patients might not come to fruition until 2015.

Some parts of the programme have been proceeding well - every hospital has equipment to digitally store and transmit x-rays. But implementation of the national programme at a local level has been patchy.

In the south, Fujitsu has been installing patient records software developed by US-based Cerner. The system has crashed twice in the past month, according to reports. It started using Cerner's software three years ago after dumping its initial supplier, America's IDX, because the company kept missing deadlines.

Another software supplier, iSoft, got into such trouble it was eventually bought out by Australia's IBA Health.

Arch-rivalry reignited as Cable & Wireless makes a grab for dotcom casualty ...

2008-06-02T23:59:00.003-07:00

Arch-rivalry reignited as Cable & Wireless makes a grab for dotcom casualty Thus

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Richard Wray on 5/28/08

Cable & Wireless has made an opportunistic grab for its smaller Glasgow-based rival Thus, a move that will reignite the bitter rivalry between one of the telecoms industry's longest-serving executives and one of its most maverick figures.

C&W's chairman, Richard Lapthorne, approached Bill Allan, chief executive of Thus, this week with an offer that traders believe was pitched at about 150p a share. Such an offer would value Thus at about £275m - a fraction of the £4.5bn the company was valued at during the heady days of the dotcom boom, when it briefly made an appearance in the FTSE-100 index.

C&W confirmed yesterday that it had made "a preliminary approach" to Thus after the firm's share price started to rise.

In response, the Scottish company said that it remained "confident" in its ability to succeed on its own but admitted: "The board remains focused on delivering maximum value for shareholders and will evaluate any proposal from any third party against the value that the company can deliver as an independent group."

Traders hope C&W's decision to go public with its tentative approach will flush out other bidders, with AT&T suggested as potentially interested. There have been persistent rumours that the American company wants to get back into the UK telecoms market, having retrenched after the dotcom crash.

However, analysts believe C&W is the only viable bidder for Thus, which has been seen as a takeover target ever since it floated nine years ago, and say that the Scottish company's board will struggle to retain independence. It has suffered a series of profit warnings over the years and its share price has plunged so low the firm carried out a 10-for-one share consolidation.

Analysts at Investec branded Thus's recent annual results, which showed revenues up 8% to £576m and pre-tax losses reduced to £2.7m from £15m, as "unexciting". Thus has never made more cash than it spends and never paid a dividend.

C&W's advisers are hoping to bring the Thus team to the table for formal talks but any negotiations are likely to be heated as there is no love lost between the bosses of the two businesses.

Thus's chief executive is a telecoms veteran. The 53-year-old spent most of his career with C&W and ran its international businesses before joining Thus in 1999. He has since made no secret of his views on how he thinks C&W should be run.

When C&W made an offer for the bombed-out Energis in 2005, Thus made a dramatic last-ditch effort to snatch control of the business with an £800m cash and shares offer that took the market totally by surprise. Energis's owners - its creditors - rejected the approach and plumped for the lower deal from C&W.

At the time Energis was run by John Pluthero, who went on to take the top job at C&W as executive chairman. Seen by many in the industry as a maverick, the C&W boss has little time for Allan.

Thus, formerly Scottish Telecom, was floated on the stockmarket in November 1999 in a move that raised £1bn for its former parent, ScottishPower, and valued the business at £2.5bn.

It joined the FTSE-100 index the following year at the same time as Freeserve, the internet service provider run by Pluthero at the time.

Jack Schofield: There is no substitute for giving people a real choice

2008-06-02T23:59:00.002-07:00

Jack Schofield: There is no substitute for giving people a real choice

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Jack Schofield on 5/28/08

Microsoft surprised a few people last week by announcing that it would add full support for the rival Open Document Format to Office 2007. Support for ODF, Adobe PDF and Microsoft's XPS will feature in Office's Service Pack 2, expected next year. Users will be able to set ODF as the native format for reading and writing documents.

Focusing on what customers need, Microsoft is supporting ODF 1.1, which isn't an ISO standard, and says it will support version 1.2, which is expected to become the next standard. In addition, Microsoft will join the Oasis ODF technical committee, and the AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management) committee, which is preparing PDF 1.7 for ISO standardisation. It is also working with Ecma to make XPS an open standard. (XPS is built into Windows Vista.)

Of course, Microsoft already supports ODF - which was originally developed as part of Open Office, aka Sun's Star Office - in Microsoft Office, via its sponsorship of open source translators. This effort will continue, for three reasons. First, the translators will still be used by earlier versions of Microsoft Office. Second, they can be used by other software developers to enhance their own applications. Third, Microsoft wants Office users to have a choice of ways to save ODF files. If they don't like Microsoft's native implementation, they can use the open source translator, or Sun's ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office.

We're therefore heading for a situation where both Microsoft Office and Open Office can save files in both ODF and Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML), both ISO-approved standards. As Jerry Fishenden, Microsoft UK's national technology officer, said: "People can now use the office supplier of their choice with the file format of their choice without some of the emotional debate." Obviously, Microsoft thinks it can win if power, productivity, accessibility and backwards-compatibility are considered: ie, value for money, not just price. As Microsoft's Office interoperability expert, Gray Knowlton, wrote on his blog: "From a pragmatic standpoint, adding ODF to Office allows us to refocus Office on product capabilities rather than a debate about file formats."

But there's more to it than that. By opening up and standardising its Office file formats, Microsoft is responding to pressure from the European Commission's anti-trust regulators and, for example, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which are in favour of standardisation on principle. (So am I, and have been for decades. I don't use, and never have used, Microsoft's doc format.)

Whether this will deflect the EC's anti-Microsoft "not a vendetta" is another matter. As Clare Boothe Luce observed: "No good deed goes unpunished." Whether it will also deflect what independent XML expert Rick Jelliffe has called "the rabid anti-OOXML misinformation campaign" is also another matter. It has been, frankly, disgusting. Since IBM was busy adding OOXML support to products, some of it also looks hypocritical.

But I shall miss sarcastically agreeing with the gullibles who trot out the "One Document Standard" slogan, ignoring PDF, HTML, RTF and more? Yes, there should only be one ISO standard, and that one was adopted in 1989 (ISO 8613 Open Document Architecture). "So," I reply, "why do we need ODF? We already have an ISO document standard that hardly anyone uses."

Trying to beat people up with an ISO stick is pathetic. It's no substitute for giving customers a viable choice.

'We are listening to Microsoft', says Yahoo boss

2008-06-02T23:59:00.001-07:00

'We are listening to Microsoft', says Yahoo boss

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Reuters on 5/29/08

Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang said on Wednesday that a potential merger with Microsoft has a "tremendous amount of power" but that valuation and issues beyond price have so far derailed a deal.

Speaking at the D: All Things Digital conference of high-tech industry leaders, Yang publicly detailed his thinking about potential deals with Microsoft and rival Google.

The Yahoo co-founder declined to comment on the status of current discussions with Microsoft, saying only "Microsoft has a lot of interest in buying the company, and we are listening."

Earlier this month, Microsoft walked away from a proposal to acquire Yahoo for $47.5bn (£24.09bn), or $33 per share, after Yahoo rebuffed its offer, saying it would only settle for $37 a share.

In an interview with technology reviewer Walt Mossberg, Yang said a merger with Microsoft would involve a variety of issues beyond price and discussions had never thoroughly explored such non-price hurdles, including regulatory issues.

Yahoo president Susan Decker, appearing alongside Yang on stage, said that price had always been the biggest barrier to reaching agreement on a deal with Microsoft

Technophile: Asus Eee still best value subnotebook

2008-06-02T23:59:00.000-07:00

Technophile: Asus Eee still best value subnotebook

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Jack Schofield on 5/28/08

Asus is now selling a new version of its hit mini-notebook with a bigger 8.9 inch screen and Microsoft Windows XP installed. Both were things I've wanted since I first reported the UK unveiling of the Linux-based 7-inch Eee PC in October. Sadly, I didn't get the third thing I wanted: a better keyboard. Still, people who don't depend on fast touch-typing, or who have small fingers, may find it's good enough.

Until you open it up, the PC900 - which retails at £329 - looks identical to the original PC700. However, once you get it going, the bigger screen - which measures 7.7 by 4.5 inches - makes a big difference. Running Windows XP, you get 1024 by 600 pixels in 32-bit colour. This is wide enough for sites such as Guardian.co.uk and Yahoo without sideways scrolling, though of course, there's not much depth. (The original Eee PC shipped with an 800 by 480 pixel screen.)

Windows XP Home SP2 loaded from power-on in about 35 seconds, and performance was generally snappy with the 900MHz Intel Celeron (no Atom, yet) and 1GB of memory (up from 512MB). My PC900 came preloaded with Microsoft Works, Sun's Star Suite 8 (based on Open Office), Skype, and a mini DVD player. There was still 1.6GB free on the C drive (ie, the 4GB of Flash memory on the motherboard) and 6.3GB free on D (an 8GB mini-card), making 8GB free in all.

Other features include a much improved Elantech multi-touch pad (for zooming and scrolling), 1.3 megapixel camera, better speakers, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet, an SD card slot, external monitor port and three usable USB ports, so it trounces an Apple Air.

The USB ports come in handy if, like me, you already have lots of Windows peripherals such as external DVD writers, card readers and hard drives. These also solve the problem of loading Windows-only software onto a "driveless" PC.

On the downside, I found the PC900 tended to tip over easily, presumably due to the weight of the screen. It can be annoying if you use it on your knees. Also, battery life seems somewhat poor. I was getting just over 2 hours, with Wi-Fi switched on. I'd need at least one extra battery, at around £45.

Still, you expect some compromises with ultraportable PCs, and while the PC900 is more expensive than the 2GB PC700, many users will find the extra features justify the extra cost. It's a great second PC for travellers and students, or a starter machine for kids.

Pros: Small and light; great screen; nippy; a good value portable

Cons: Small keyboard, tends to tip over; disappointing battery life

eeepc.asus.com

Watchdog accuses BBC chiefs of breaching licence as website overspend hits £36m

2008-06-02T23:58:00.002-07:00

Watchdog accuses BBC chiefs of breaching licence as website overspend hits £36m

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Tara Conlan, Mark Sweney on 5/29/08

BBC chiefs were accused of presiding over a "cocktail of overspending and budget mismanagement" yesterday after it emerged that the website bbc.co.uk went almost £36m over budget in a single year.

A review of the site, published by the BBC Trust, showed that the BBC's UK web operations cost £110m - about 48% above the £74m budgeted.

The BBC Trust, the corporation's governance and regulatory body, branded the incident a "serious breach" of bbc.co.uk's service licence.

The review also revealed that if the BBC's management, led by director general Mark Thompson, is given the green light by the trust later this year for a further £39m investment in its online services, the real cost of bbc.co.uk will have nearly doubled to almost £150m within two years.

Yesterday the BBC Trust said it would not sign off the extra £39m unless executives showed by November that they had "improved management controls" of bbc.co.uk's finances.

The report said the reason for the 48% rise in costs last year was "the current management structure of bbc.co.uk" after restructuring of the BBC's online operations gave divisions such as sport and news more control of their web activities. This meant that £29.4m in costs, such as staff wages, was "misallocated" to other budgets within the BBC, rather than to bbc.co.uk.

Don Foster, the Lib Dem spokesman on culture, media and sport, said: "This report is a damning indictment of the management of bbc.co.uk. A cocktail of overspending and budget mismanagement has led to this huge increase. Not only has the BBC lost track of a phenomenal sum of money, but this mismanagement will now directly impact on the future development of this popular service."

Patricia Hodgson, a BBC trustee, blamed the "arcane nature" of the corporation's internal financial reporting and said it was "clearly not acceptable".

The trust said the incident was a "serious breach" of bbc.co.uk's service licence, which it issues as a remit for each of the corporation's TV, radio and online outlets.

The trustees acknowledged that the fast-changing nature of the internet made it difficult for bbc.co.uk to be financially accountable. But they said: "We believe this problem should have been identified sooner and appropriate action taken."

The report pointed out that as recently as January, BBC executives had predicted that bbc.co.uk would be only about 5% over budget for the financial year 2007-08.

In fact, the trust had discovered last December that the website's budget had been blown by 48%. "Our review has found that financial oversight has not been sufficiently effective, such that the true level of spending on the service has only become known as a result of this review," the trust said.

Hodgson admitted that the overspend by bbc.co.uk would affect other BBC divisions, saying: "Overall budgets will be adjusted in other departments."

The trust's head of performance, Mark Wakefield, said six months of consultation had revealed that overall, bbc.co.uk's 16.5 million monthly users were happy with the service. He said the website should not take on online rivals such as Google and become an external search engine.

Hodgson also said that despite submissions from commercial rivals, the trust was not recommending closing parts of the BBC's online network.

Mark Wood, ITN's chief executive, said that while the trust had "expressed good intentions, we cannot see how these can practically translate into action."

He said: "We are alarmed at the extent of the BBC's website funding and its ambition in the dotcom world. This is a massive distortion of the marketplace and a real threat to British innovation in the web world. Commercial vendors cannot hope to compete at this level of funding ... there is also a real threat to plurality in the media landscape."

A BBC management spokesman said: "We accept the trust's conclusions that our processes and management controls were not adequate for a pan-BBC service straddling multiple cost centres.

"This is regrettable and we recognise the need to address this."

bbc.co.uk failing to guide users through internet, trust finds

2008-06-02T23:58:00.001-07:00

bbc.co.uk failing to guide users through internet, trust finds

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Mark Sweney on 5/29/08

bbc.co.uk is failing in its role as a "trusted guide" to the internet, funneling users to commercial websites, with click-through rates declining despite a boom in traffic to the corporation's website, according to the BBC Trust.

The trust's review of bbc.co.uk's service licence and remit, published today, has also called for a review of the corporation's external internet search function, questioning its validity in the face of competition from commercial rivals such as Google.

bbc.co.uk's service licence states that it should act as a "trusted guide" to the internet, "guiding users to the wider web and linking to external websites with high public value".

However, the BBC Trust said it was "disappointed" to see findings that showed that in July 2007 there were just 4.6m click-throughs by UK users from bbc.co.uk to external websites, with an overall pattern "trending downwards".

The volume of click-throughs from some of the most visited parts of the bbc.co.uk - news and sport - declined in 2007 compared to the previous year.

BBC management argued that the pattern could be explained because bbc.co.uk is now used as more of a "destination" than "as a means of navigating the web" by users.

However, the BBC Trust said that comments from the public consultation and research "suggest that the ineffectiveness and inaccessibility of the links is the main factor preventing greater usage".

"We believe that effective external linking is a key way in which the BBC can manage the risk of becoming a 'dominant gateway service' identified in the [Philip] Graf review [of bbc.co.uk in 2004]," the trust said.

"We believe this risk is still very much alive... We also believe that the BBC has a role in linking users of bbc.co.uk to external sites which provide content and services which contribute to the BBC's public purposes."

The trust said it now expects click-through measurement to be part of bbc.co.uk's regular performance reporting.

"We are [also] not convinced that BBC management's ambition to be 'part of' the web rather than 'on it' by embedding BBC content on other sites, such as YouTube, plays any role in acting as a 'trusted guide' to the wider web," the BBC Trust added.

"Rather, this is mainly a way of marketing BBC content to those who might not otherwise access it."

The BBC Trust also found that bbc.co.uk's internal search engine "is not effective and its usage is declining".

Referrals from the internal search engine declined from 24% of total bbc.co.uk traffic to 19% between the last quarter of 2006 and the same period last year, the trust noted.

"We support an improvement to this offering, which does not appear to meet user expectations at present," it said.

The BBC Trust also called for a review of the need to provide an external internet search capability.

It questioned "whether the BBC should have a role in providing mainstream web search" and said it was "asking management to take a decision on the future of this function following this review".

"We are not convinced that this is a role the BBC can or should play, except for possibly in limited and well-defined areas such as children's."

The trust cited figures of low levels of usage for the BBC's web search service - about 3 million monthly users, compared with 28 million for Google and 6 million each for Yahoo, MSN and Ask.

"In the context of a web search market which has become increasingly commercially attractive, we have considered whether there is a role for a public service engine," said the BBC Trust.

"We asked for additional information on the BBC's intended role in web search from BBC management and understand that its future is being debated and that there are currently no plans to develop it."

· To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.

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NHS ends key contract in computerised medical records project

2008-06-02T23:58:00.000-07:00

NHS ends key contract in computerised medical records project

via guardian.co.uk Technology on 5/29/08

The multi-billion pound scheme to computerise the medical records of every patient in England has suffered a further blow after the NHS fired one of the project's key suppliers, it emerged today.

The £12.7bn project - already four years late - has already faced repeated criticism over the delays and fears about the security of patients' information.

The latest setback for the project, which will create a single electronic records system for patients, comes with the termination of Fujitsu's £896m, 10-year contract for installing the system in the south of England.

The move came after 10 months of renegotiations of the deal between the Japanese-owned services company and Connecting for Health, the NHS IT programme, broke down.

The termination of the contract could cost Fujitsu around £300m.

The total cost of creating the electronic patient records system is estimated at £12.7bn.

While the programme has repeatedly been delayed, tough contracts with IT suppliers have prevented costs from spiralling out of control.

However, these contracts have been the cause of tension between the programme and its suppliers.

A Fujitsu official told the Financial Times that talks had broken down because the programme had demanded more flexibility in delivery of the services, costing more.

The company wanted either more money or a return to the original contract.

A spokeswoman for Connecting for Health said: "Regrettably, and despite [the] best efforts by all parties, it has not been possible to reach an agreement on the core Fujitsu contract that is acceptable to all parties.

"The NHS will therefore end the contract early by issuing a termination notice. Work has started immediately on planning the necessary arrangements."

Fujitsu is the second IT firm to leave the project. In 2006, Accenture - which was responsible for delivering the system to the north and north-east of England - quit key parts of the programme.

The Conservative shadow health minister, Stephen O'Brien, said the government's attempts to "ram through a top-down, centralised, one size fits all NHS supercomputer system" had come "crashing down".

"This is £12.7bn of taxpayers' money now at risk, and the intended result is already four years behind schedule, not to mention the impact on patients and NHS staff," he added.

A spokeswoman for the Patients' Association said the termination of Fujitsu's contract was further proof that the NHS IT programme was misconceived.

She said the problem with the scheme was that the government seemed to want it to control all information about patients.

"We wouldn't be in this mess if patients had something like a bank card which stored their own medical information," the spokeswoman said.

"Nobody seems willing to entrust patients with their own records and, until they do, we're going to continue to have this kind of nonsense."

Earlier this month, the National Audit Office, the public spending watchdog, said the government had seriously underestimated the challenges involved in creating the electronic patient record system.

The IT programme involves four main projects - a centralised electronic medical record system for 50 million patients; an online "choose and book" system for booking hospital appointments; electronic prescriptions, and fast network links between NHS organisations.

It is expected to link more than 30,000 GPs in England to nearly 300 hospitals.

In March, the government defended the system and insisted it could produce more than £1bn in savings by 2014.

Scientists move a step closer to mind-reading

2008-06-02T23:57:00.003-07:00

Scientists move a step closer to mind-reading

via guardian.co.uk Technology by James Randerson on 5/30/08

Scientists have developed a method for reading a person's mind using brain scans.

Once it has been trained on an individual subject's thoughts, the computer model can analyse new brain scan images and work out which noun a person is thinking about - even with words that the model has never encountered before.

The model is based on the way nouns are associated in the brain with verbs such as see, hear, listen and taste. The research will inevitably raise fears that scientists could soon be able to read a person's mind without them realising.

The researchers have dismissed this idea pointing out that their model needs to be trained on each new individual before it will work. Also, the scanning requires the subject to lie very still in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner - massive bulky machines that use extremely powerful magnets.

Fooling a would-be Big Brother scientist would be easy, said team member Dr Tom Mitchell of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "All you need to do to give us trouble is to jiggle your head, or just think about lunch instead of the word on the screen," he said.

More importantly, the research is a great advance in scientists' understand of how words are coded in the brain.

"The paper establishes for the first time that one can predict the pattern of neural activity associated with thinking about many different nouns, from the verbs that co-occur with that noun," said Mitchell. "It can't yet decode arbitrary thoughts, but it does well on a multiple-choice test with two choices."

The team scanned the brains of 9 volunteers using functional MRI as they viewed 58 nouns such as body parts, vehicles and vegetables. The scanning technique detects increases in blood flow in the brain when different regions are activated.

The team then categorised the nouns using an electronic database of texts that contained more than a trillion words. They were looking for how often each of the nouns appeared together with simple verbs such as push, run, fear and open.

Next they matched this pattern of co-occurrence with the brain scan patterns and found that the brain does something similar. "The meaning of an apple, for instance, is represented in brain areas responsible for tasting, for smelling, for chewing. An apple is what you do with it," said Prof Marcel Just, who led the study.

To test the model, the researchers showed the volunteers two new nouns which were also subjected to the same textual analysis. The model then predicted what it expected the brain scans for those nouns to look like.

By comparing these with the real scans it guessed which of the nouns the person was really looking at. The model was correct 77% of the time, significantly better than chance.

"Philosophers, psychologists, linguists and others have debated for centuries how the brain organises and represents meaning. But they were hampered in debating these issues because they lacked experimental data," said Mitchell.
"[We have] established for the first time a direct connection between how a word is used in a large collection of typical language, and the neural activity the brain uses to represent the word's meaning."

News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch praises US presidential candidate Barack O...

2008-06-02T23:57:00.002-07:00

News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch praises US presidential candidate Barack Obama

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Jemima Kiss on 5/30/08

News Corporation chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch has used his newly acquired technology conference D6 to throw his weight behind "rock star" Barack Obama's presidential campaign, as well as giving his views on the Wall Street Journal.

Murdoch made critical comments about the number of journalists involved in editing at the Wall Street Journal, which became part of the News Corp empire when he bought parent company Dow Jones in December, saying that every story seemed to be edited by "8.3 people".

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal D6 conference in Carlsbad, California, Murdoch was asked by veteran tech correspondent Walt Mossberg if he had played a part in the New York Post's endorsement of Obama.

"Yeah," he replied, candidly. The select audience of entrepreneurs and digital business executives at the conference earlier this week cheered, as can be seen in the accompanying video.

"We're on the verge of a complete phenomenon," Murdoch said. "Politicians are at an all-time low and are despised by 80% of the public, and then you've got a candidate trying to put himself out above it all. He's become a rock star. It's fantastic.

"There are a lot of problems. The education system in this country is a total disgrace."

Murdoch heaped praise on Obama, saying he was a "highly intelligent man with a great record at Harvard", but stopped short of a full personal endorsement because he wanted "to meet him personally".

"The Obama phenomenon and undoubtedly the recession and everyone getting hurt... the average American family today is really financially hurting and that all bodes well for him," he said.

"He may not carry Florida because the Jewish people are suspicious of him, and so are Hispanics. But he'll probably add Ohio and others. He will probably win."

Despite saying he was a friend of John McCain, Murdoch said the Republican presidential nominee had "a lot of problems".

"McCain has been in congress a long time and you've got to make too many compromise," he said.

"What does he really stand for? He's a patriot - he's a friend of mine and a really decent guy - but he's unpredictable.

"[He] doesn't know much about the economy and - I say this sympathetically - I think he has a lot of problems."

Murdoch said Hillary Clinton was in the race because her husband was pushing her to continue, but Obama would not want to make her number two in a new administration, because he would want to break with the past.

Addressing Mossberg and his Wall Street Journal colleague Kara Swisher, Murdoch criticised the paper's editorial processes.

"There are things we do that can be changed and made better," he said.

"We'll have more reporters wherever we need them. But every story at the moment in the Journal is, on average, touched or edited by 8.3 people. I'm serious," Murdoch added.

"Everybody who goes to it says what about this or what about that - and people don't have time for that.

"There's not a story you can't get all the facts in in half the space. I'm not talking about your column Walt - relax."

Murdoch defended the decision to keep subscription access to the WSJ website, saying: "We have 2,000 great journalists, and if we can't fashion a valuable site, there is something wrong with us.

Asked if newspapers and magazines had a future in print, Murdoch said he was neutral but predicted a decline in editorial quality.

"I don't care if it's printed, on the web, on mobile or whatever. Look at the last six months - the average newspaper is down 10 to 30% in advertising revenue and those are problem margins. They have made every economy possible in production but not in journalism," he added.

"Now they have to turn to journalism and they are going to deteriorate tremendously."

Murdoch also confirmed that News Corp has held informal discussions with both sides during the aborted recent $47.5bn (£24bn) Microsoft takeover bid for Yahoo.

Looking relaxed and focused, Murdoch said Microsoft was right to be worried about the threat from Google and its "bright, ambitious people", and should get back around the negotiation table with Yahoo.

Microsoft, he said, needed to do whatever it took to get Yahoo back to the table, just as News Corp had when it started takeover talks with MySpace in 2005.

Viacom was "three days away from closing the deal," said Murdoch, who promptly offered MySpace's parent firm $50m more than the rival media giant to clinch the takeover.

The audience laughed when Murdoch insisted that Fox News, his US right-wing TV channel, was balanced.

"Fox gives both sides that the others haven't done in the past," he said.

· To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.

· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

Cost of broadband looks set to rise

2008-06-02T23:57:00.001-07:00

Cost of broadband looks set to rise

via guardian.co.uk Technology by Richard Wray on 5/30/08

The cost of broadband looks set to rise after Ofcom announced that it plans to review the prices that BT charges its rivals to gain access to its lines in order to provide internet access and fixed line telephony.

Announcing a consultation that will take until the end of the year, the regulator admitted today that "the evidence we have reviewed to date suggests that there is likely to be a case for some increases in the charges" that BT levies.

If BT is allowed to increase its prices the companies- including BT's own retail arm - that rely on its network to run their services are likely to have to increase their own prices, ending the recent boom in cheap broadband services.

Ofcom's plans drew scorn from Carphone Warehouse, whose TalkTalk operation uses lines provided by BT's Openreach unit to provide its "free" broadband service but still make a profit.

"Of course Openreach should be able to make a fair return," TalkTalk said in a statement. "But that return should not be at the expense of innovation and customer choice and value."

BT has maintained for some months that its Openreach unit - which was set up to deal with local phone lines after intense negotiations with Ofcom - is not making enough of a return on its investment.

Openreach allows BT's rivals to lease its local copper lines - a process known as local loop unbundling - or take over full billing control of a customer's line through a product called wholesale line rental. BT, however, has been lobbying hard for some of these prices to be increased.

The price of renting out a BT line under local loop unbundling - which is used by companies such as Carphone Warehouse and Tiscali - has already increased recently by £1.69 a year to £81.69 and TalkTalk warned that any further increase "is unjustifiable given the current poor levels of service".

"TalkTalk has already put further network expansion on hold, and we believe other local loop unbundling operators will slow their move to next generation networks if prices are increased".

"We believe it is too early for Ofcom to start changing the rules ... while Openreach remains inefficient. Consumers have benefitted greatly from competition in this market and allowing Openreach to increase prices would be a retrograde step," TalkTalk added.

Ofcom, however, is mindful of the government's desire to see the UK remain in the upper echelons of the global broadband league, which means companies - especially BT - will need to invest in the next generation of super-fast telecoms networks which could cost billions of pounds to build.

Ofcom said in its consultation document that "Openreach and other communication providers are facing important decisions including those relating to potential investment in unbundling further local exchanges and other new infrastructure investment."

But the regulator added "we will also need to consider the impact of any changes on competition and on consumers, particularly bearing in the mind the benefits that the current regime has brought to consumers over the past two years in terms of new services, choice and reduced retail prices."