802.11r now a published IEEE standard

The newest Wi-Fi protocol, 802.11r, which has become the de facto "Wireless VoIP standard", is now a published standard of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards board.

802.11r has been in the works since 2004, with the express purpose of developing a Wi-Fi connection that can quickly pass between access points. A go-ahead for publishing the final draft of the standard was given by the 802.11r task group last January.

Devices supporting 802.11r will be able to hand over connections in approximately 50 ms, just under half the time it takes to swap connections on other standards -- to say nothing of the time it takes to authenticate the connection securely.

Enterprises with wireless VoIP networks have had to improvise solutions because of this difficulty in re-connection, with varying results. In general, however, "VoIP Roaming" has been a concept lying in wait.

As we have seen with municipal Wi-Fi, deployments of 802.11 wireless routers are costly and work best on a smaller scale. It is therefore unlikely that 802.11r will ever be turned into a widespread VoIP network outside of the enterprise setting.

The Wi-Fi standard that enables more throughput for general-purpose devices, 802.11n, was proposed not long after 802.11r. Though it has been approved conceptually, a final draft of that standard still awaits publication by the IEEE's 11n task group (TGn). Version 5 of the draft was approved by a 90% majority of IEEE voting members just last month; but there's a version 6 on the horizon, and now the final publication of 11n may not come sooner than November 2009. In the meantime, many devices supporting 802.11n have already reached wide commercial distribution.

WiMAX patent pool

Next-generation FireWire finalized, but USB 3.0 will be faster

Standards board execs recommend ISO 29500 appeals be rejected

Rogers adjusts data plans for iPhone, BlackBerry Bold

With the BlackBerry Bold now available, Rogers, Canada's leading carrier has decided to extend its iPhone 3G promotional data plan until next month, while adjusting other plans.

Rogers Wireless' data plans came under almost immediate criticism after the iPhone 3G's launch on July 11, for what many saw as overpriced data rates. The company later adjusted those plans to appease its detractors.

As part of those adjustments, the company also announced a promotional plan for $30 per month that allowed for the transfer of 6 GB of data. It was set to expire on August 31, but the company has now decided to extend it until the end of September.

The move may not have as much to do with continuing the strong sales of the iPhone 3G in Canada as much as it may be designed to attract more customers for the more recently released BlackBerry Bold. That device was launched on the Rogers network last week.

Along with the extension of the promotion, the company will introduce revised plans for data. A 500 MB plan will cost users $25 per month, and include three months of unlimited usage. Another will allow 1 GB for an additional $5 per month. Rogers says the new plans will debut October 1.

Customers will be able to use the data plans for "tethering," which allows connection to a laptop for use as a modem.

Research has shown that 95% of Rogers customers used less than 500 MB per month, while only one percent of customers used more than 1 GB of data. No doubt, Rogers' new plans likely are in reaction to this discovery.

BlackBerry rumor mill takes a page from Apple

RIM’s Lazaridis on why Qwerty’s still working

Is BlackBerry Bold really having iPhone 3G-like issues?

T-Mobile to offer iPhone in Germany for as little as one euro

More HTC Dream details revealed through FCC

Creators of rejected App Store comic book appeal for rating system

After its 'Murderdrome' comic book was rejected by Apple's iPhone App Store, Infurious Comics this week appealed to Web site visitors support its request to Apple for a rating system similar to one already used on iTunes.

The App Store turned down the comic book earlier this week, claiming that it violated a section of an SDK agreement which states: "Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.) or other content or materials that in Apple's reasonable judgment may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users."

On the Infurious Web site, however, comic strip co-creator Paul Jason Holden has been suggesting inconsistency between the App Store and iTunes, arguing that iTunes currently allows user downloads of R-rated films that included South Park, Reservoir Dogs, and Two Smoking Barrels, for example.

"Here at Infurious, we would love to work with Apple to ensure a content rating system can be put in place to allow material that is no more offensive than many of the R-rated films available to download on iTunes," Holden wrote on his company's blog Monday. "Please leave a comment committing your support to us -- we'll forward all of these to Apple, so that we can ensure that not only Murderdrome, but that any comic submitted to Apple doesn't fall foul of the same censorship."

When BetaNews visited the site early Friday evening, Infurious had received more than 130 user comments on its site, mostly supporting its cause.

Though the Infurious Web site continues to run early episodes, the Murderdrome project has been placed on temporary hold, according to Holden. Instead, it's now focusing on other titles "which will be more Apple friendly," he said, in a Q&A with TechRadar UK, also cited by Infurious.

"Longer term, I'm hoping Apple will see the very public need for some sort of ratings system and we can bring Murderdrome to everyone who's clamoring for it!"

Shaolin temple kick starts online store

ITunes access returns to China following block

Napster challenges iTunes by opening its own MP3 store

Analyst: Over 100 new handsets, including 3G, on tap for Q4

The economy might be rocky, but one analyst says mobile device makers will still be releasing a total of over 100 new cell phone models in the second half of 2008 alone -- and about three-quarters of those will be 3G network-capable.

Vendors such as Nokia, HTC, RIM, Samsung, Motorola, LG, and Palm have been prepping the phones for the back-to-school and December holiday seasons, said Matt Thornton, an analyst at Avian Securities, in an interview with BetaNews this afternoon.

"The background for that isn't as healthy as it's been," the analyst acknowledged. But while the current "tough economic patch" is a definite hindrance, especially in developed nations, Thornton foresees further growth of the mobile device market throughout the year.

Also this week, Gartner Group released its own report foreseeing continued market growth through 2008, despite a perceived slowdown in mature markets. According to Gartner, worldwide mobile phone sales rose 12% during the second quarter of this year, from April through June, on a year-over-year basis.

"But actually, I found Gartner's numbers to be a bit low for the second quarter," Thornton said, also pointing to manufacturers' statistics he's received that are more in the 16% ballpark for the entire year.

The third quarter of this year has already seen the launches of Apple's iPhone 3G, RIM's BlackBerry Bold, and Palm's Treo Pro and 800w.

In an Avian Research report, Thornton predicts that HTC's Dream -- a touch QWERTY slider device that will likely run Google's Android platform -- will ship as expected in the fourth quarter.

A few of the other phones now on track for the last quarter of the year include RIM's Thunder, Kickstart, and Javelin devices; Sony-Ericsson's Xperia; Nokia's 5800 Tube, 7510 Supernovia, N79, and N85; Samsung's KC910; and Motorola's Alexander, Atila, and Ischia devices.

Among all of these mobile vendors, Motorola is the most challenged right now, according to Thornton. "It's be a tough battle for Motorola. They're coming from behind, and they don't have much of a presence in emerging markets. But they've gotten new leadership, and they're re-setting their strategy," he told BetaNews.

Beyond the often mentioned introduction of mobile phones into emerging markets, Thornton pointed to another factor he sees as fueling growth.

Specifically, as North American mobile networks become more 3G-capable, many users are now transitioning from voice-only phones to devices capable of giving robust support for both data and voice.

"Northern Europe's already been at 3G and above for a while now," the analyst observed. "The average consumer doesn't even know or care about 3G." Later, he conceded that many consumers have heard about 3G through Apple's iPhone 3G ad campaigns. "But 3G isn't making any huge difference in their decision to buy," he contended.

What consumers do care about, he believes, is the ability to combine voice calling with Internet-based offerings such as e-mail and Web browsing -- and this functionality is now becoming much easier to deploy in the US and Canada due to the capabilities of current phones and networks.

Also according to Avian's report, some 35 of the mobile phones planned for release in the second half of the year will step beyond 3G enablement into the arena of "converged devices," including phones built on platforms such as Windows Mobile.

More than 1 billion PCs now in use worldwide

Analysts: Consumers, businesses want phones with more ‘features’

DivX to find its way to more handsets, courtesy of AMD

Lower income Tennessee residents to get free cell phones

Microsoft buys a shopping service for $486M, but will only keep part

Microsoft today took another step in its strategy to beef up Live Search versus Google and Yahoo, unveiling a complicated deal to buy Greenfield Online and its subsidiary Caio, a European-based online price comparison and shopping site.

Under the agreement, Microsoft is offering $486 million for Greenfield. But in a related move, Microsoft today claimed to have secured a buyer for Greenfield Online's Internet survey solutions, the business that forms the heart of Greenfield Online.

Just last week, media firm Quadrangle offered about $426 million for Greenfield Online, a fact which raises the distinct possibility that Quadrangle is the mystery buyer of Greenfield's Internet survey arm.

The acquisition of Caio -- a property that Microsoft intends to keep -- is expected to bring new merchant customers along with new technology to Microsoft.

Consistently ranking a distant third in analyst ratings of the online search and ad markets, Microsoft has been using buyouts and a variety of other mechanisms in concerted attempts to catch up to industry leader Google and runner-up Yahoo.

In June, the numbers of searches on Microsoft's sites leaped 15%, according to comScore's numbers, during a month when Microsoft conducted a massive ad campaign for its Windows Live Search Club games and Windows Live Search Cashback Program.

Earlier in August, Microsoft reportedly named Jeff Kelisky -- inherited through Microsoft's recent acquisition of Multimap -- to be general manager of a new business unit tying together MSN's shopping site, Cashback, and other search-related entities.

Cashback -- a discount program for shoppers who buy products spurred by Live Search searches -- entered beta in May.

As of June, 680 merchants and 200,000 registered users were already using Cashback, said Colleen Healy, director of investor relations, during a conference call with analysts that month.

Also during the call, Microsoft CFO Christopher Liddell acknowledged that Microsoft is pouring more of its financial resources into online services.

"We've increased organic investments in operating expenses, driven in particular by a deliberate decision to invest more aggressively in our online services strategy," Liddell said.

Although Microsoft's bid to buy Yahoo failed resoundingly earlier this year, the company has been busily buying up many smaller players in the search and advertising space.

In recent months, for instance, Microsoft closed the acquisitions of FairCast, a vendor with technology to help in the purchase of online tickets at low prices, and Navic Networks, which develops tools for delivering targeted ads to TV set-top boxes.

Industry observers have differed sharply, however, over whether Microsoft should keep spending so much of its money on search, advertising, and other aspects of online services.

AOL talks with Microsoft, Yahoo heat up: source

Yahoo may revisit News Corp if AOL dims: source

Microsoft’s Live Search homepage adds background image with clickable spots

Fahrenheit 451: Microsoft burns its Live Search Books effort

WB network returns as Web site

Deceased television network The WB has been resurrected, at least on line, emerging from beta as an ad-supported streaming TV show repository.

Launched in beta last May, The WB.com features full episodes of programs such as Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville, Everwood, Friends, and The O.C.

Episodes of classic Warner Bros. shows will be updated every Monday, and a good deal of content has been made immediately available. Twenty-one episodes of the Babylon 5 season 1 have been posted in their entirety, and 22 episodes of Mad TV series 12 are available.

In addition to "back episodes" of established shows, The WB.com features Web exclusive short-form episodic content like "Whatever Hollywood," and "A Boy Wearing Makeup," in keeping with the motif and style of programming that used to appear on The WB TV prior to its amalgamation with UPN in the fall of 2006 to form The CW.

The site also features WB-related games and downloadable gimmicks (wallpapers, buddy icons, etc.), and the Adobe Premiere Express-powered WBlender, which lets users remix and generally mutilate Warner Bros. TV content.

Certainly the most unique part about The WB.com are the soon-to-be-available full-length Web-based shows such as Sorority Forever, which bears a strong resemblance to a high-budget commercial, featuring none other than YouTube star Jessica Rose, a.k.a. "Lonelygirl 15."

Yahoo may revisit News Corp if AOL dims: source

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 now slated for August

Skyfire Beta 0.6 heats up pocket screens

Paid Google ad appears to state McCain picked Lieberman

A Google AdWords ad first spotted by BetaNews contributor Sharon Fisher, along with ads for the McCain campaign that have appeared today on BetaNews and elsewhere through Google, appear on first glance to have spoiled McCain's VP pick.

Groups of politically-minded bloggers, including the DaniWeb IT community, have been noting today a peculiar jump today in the number of online ads, appearing in BetaNews and elsewhere, showing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain alongside former Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman.

One of the members of that community is our frequent BetaNews colleague and analyst Sharon Fisher, who brought to our attention this afternoon what appeared to be a paid Google AdWords ad, linking directly to Sen. McCain's campaign Web site, along with this phrase: "Senator Lieberman Joins McCain's Team. Learn Why You Should Join!"

Was this an inadvertent leak, by way of a poorly timed Google AdWords campaign, stating that McCain had chosen Lieberman as his running mate? A representative of the McCain campaign who did not wish to be identified, told BetaNews this afternoon that he, too, was able to pull up the AdWords link on Google, and that the ad itself appeared to be a legitimate one.

However, he noted, it appeared to have been launched after Lieberman officially joined McCain's campaign effort last February, helping to organize a division of the campaign called Citizens for McCain. Lieberman currently serves in the US Senate as an independent, having dropped his Democratic party affiliation in his last bid for re-election to the Senate in 2006.

The AdWords ad links to the URL, JohnMcCain.com/lieberman. When Sharon first brought the ad to our attention at 3:10 pm EDT, clicking on this link took us to the McCain campaign's home page. By 3:30, the link was not resolvable, bringing up a custom 404 page. Then at 3:50, the link was redirected to citizens.johnmccain.com, which is indeed the home page for the Citizens for McCain effort.

Successive tries to pull up the AdWords ad on Google since 3:50 pm have failed.

Actors paid to line up for iPhone launch in Poland

Google Gadgets for Linux appears

Google adds privacy link, avoids trouble

The ‘Watch Video’ link in Google Search is conspicuously missing

IE8 Beta 2 adds standards mode, suggestions, 'Web slices'

Download Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for Windows Vista from FileForum now.

Validating all indicators since Monday that a revamped beta was ready for public eyes, Microsoft lifted the lid on Beta 2 of Internet Explorer 8 this afternoon, offering the first glance at some very competitive new features.

With every intention of evening up the score with Firefox 3, Microsoft opened up its public beta process for the first edition of IE8 to contain a full list of new features. Beta 1 (which was launched back in March) concentrated on making the engine work and rendering pages properly; now it's Beta 2's turn to dazzle the public.

"We looked very hard at how people really browse the Web. We looked at a lot of data about how people browse and tried a lot of different designs in front of many kinds of people, not just technologists," reads a blog post from IE General Manager Dean Hatchamovitch this afternoon.

To that end, IE8 will work to "one-up" Firefox in a number of regards, including a completely revised, color-coded tab bar that resembles something that's only in the "laboratory" stage at Mozilla. "IE8...takes into account that there are often relationships between new tabs that users open, and the browser can make it a lot easier to figure out which tabs go with which," Hatchamovitch wrote.

In addition, users will see the first real-world tests of a concept called Web slices. It's a kind of hybrid between a Web site and an add-on, where a branded service can perform a little function on the side or in the background, on the user's behalf. Perhaps Wikipedia can look up the name of someone the user has found on a site, or Amazon can check on the availability of a book title the user has found elsewhere.

The slices feature depends on major Web sites' willingness to embed functionality into their main Web pages that "teaches" IE8 how to integrate these new functions into the user's suite of commands. Some of slices' functionality is also being integrated into the search bar, as participating Web sites will now be able to "suggest" resolutions or completions to user queries, often including thumbnail images accompanying the text. This too appears to be an effort to "one-up" Firefox 3.

As Microsoft confirmed yesterday, the InPrivate privacy envelope will also be tested here for the first time. This will enable a user to switch IE8 into a mode where no details of his personal session is recorded permanently on the system, and all data regarding that session is wiped from both memory and hard disk on exit.

What Microsoft had been calling "standards mode," referring to IE8's new deference to rendering pages in accordance with instructions set forth by standards bodies rather than with how IE6 chose to render them, is being premiered in IE8 Beta 2 as "compatibility mode." Apparently in full awareness of potential problems this may cause, Microsoft actually preceded announcements of Beta 2's availability to the press today with a warning about what we might see.

"Because you're actively engaged in developing and maintaining websites, Microsoft wants to make you aware of a display issue related to Internet Explorer 8," the warning read. "Upon initial release, browsing in default Internet Explorer 8 Standards mode may cause content written for previous versions of Internet Explorer to display differently than intended. To enable existing content to display as expected, Microsoft is providing a compatibility tag that you can add to sites that might be affected. This tag instructs Internet Explorer 8 to display site content as if it were in Internet Explorer 7. This option helps ensure that existing content will continue to display seamlessly in Internet Explorer 8 without requiring any additional code changes."

That tag shows up alongside the new address bar as an icon with either a whole or a broken page, representing the "compatibility" status of the active Web page.

BetaNews will be actively testing IE8 Beta 2, of course, and we'll let you know what we find as soon as we can.

Download Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for Windows XP from FileForum now.

6:50 pm EDT August 27, 2008 - Well, there's some bad news...at least for us. BetaNews doesn't exactly look too good in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2's default rendering mode, which in its current parlance is called "Compatibility View turned off."

Compatibility View is the browser's rendering system for producing pages in the style that Internet Explorer 6 (carried on by IE7) might expect. It's represented in the browser by a "broken page" button that's up by default (after installation), and which can be depressed by the user to turn this mode on.

We also found InPrivate viewing mode not to be a persistent item on the screen, as we first believed based on Microsoft's description yesterday, but instead a command in IE8's new Safety menu. When this mode becomes active, then the InPrivate indicator appears in the status bar; otherwise, it's absent.

More importantly, perhaps, InPrivate browsers are separate windows that are spawned by the main IE8 process. You can run a private and a non-private browser window simultaneously.

We also successfully invoked IE8's new color-coded tabs feature. Here, tabs belonging to pages that are spawned by other pages (for instance, by middle-clicking on a hyperlink) will be represented by like-colored tabs. This way, you know which pages are associated with what sites or site groups.

Apple iPhone ad banned

Microsoft turns to users for new wave of Xbox games

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 now slated for August

Beta release of Office Outlook Connector adds calendar syncing

More indications of Apple iPod refresh September 9

The buzz from analysts who have begun to speak out about what they expect to see during an Apple event that for now has only been rumored, lends new credence to the theory that iPods could be revamped as soon as 9/9.

JupiterResearch analyst Mark Mulligan says he would like to see Apple start to offer pre-loaded content, and like many analysts, continued to beat the drum for an iTunes subscription offering.

"Don't just play the Rhapsody/Napster game and offer portable rentals for ten dollars a month," Mulligan argued. Instead, the service should be inexpensive and allow for permanent downloads within the offering.

He also suggested some unique possibilities, such as an option for a pay-as-you-go subscription that could last for short periods, and including music videos within the mix as well.

Over the weekend, Digg founder Kevin Rose claimed on the This Week in Tech podcast Monday that he had been informed that Apple is preparing to refresh its music players for the holidays.

On Saturday, Rose gave the same prediction for his blog, pointing to a revamp to the entire iPod line. Specifically, the nano would see the biggest change: Its shape would revert to something similar to the iPod Minis, but with a significantly larger screen.

Another aggressive move would be "significant" price drops in order to put the iPod line closer to the $199 iPhone 3G. Software updates would arrive for the iPod touch, and the company is said be ready to ship the 2.1 update for the iPhone soon afterward.

Rose's statements also bolster claims by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster early this month, who said in a research note that he expected a refresh to the iPod line along with a possible update to its MacBook line. As if to confirm Rose's predictions, more leaks have appeared on Alibaba and iDealsChina, where silicone cases that match the shape of Rose's image of the iPod are being sold, or are about to be sold.

The Digg founder's track record in predicting Apple's future moves has been mixed. While he has often broken information early, such as some early details surrounding the iPhone, he hasn't always been 100% accurate.

Along with the hardware, Apple would push the next major 8.0 update to iTunes. It would include several updates, one of which would apparently scan your music and recommend content, similar to the "Just for You" feature of the iTunes Music Store.

Dell tests music player to renew iPod battle: report

Napster challenges iTunes by opening its own MP3 store

Vista users greeted with an unexpected surprise: MobileMe

Time may be running out for a 64-bit Vista-based ZoneAlarm

Download ZoneAlarm Pro Beta 8.0.020.000 for Windows XP and 32-bit Vista from FileForum now.

The difficulty for third-party developers to produce security software for the most feature-rich Vista kernel continues to this day, and a lack of news from ZoneAlarm suggests it could persist well into next year.

At one time, ZoneAlarm was among the single most downloaded pieces of software, of any category whatsoever, in the entire world. But for well over a year after Microsoft's release of the 64-bit version of Windows Vista, whose kernel includes significant upgrades for security purposes, there still is no 64-bit edition of the ZoneAlarm firewall that works on Vista.

And the product's current manufacturer, Check Point Software Technologies, remains as secretive and as cryptic as some of the stealthy packages its own products hunt down, as to when a 64-bit Vista edition is forthcoming, or even if there will be one this year.

For months, the official word from the company had been that such an edition would be released "in 2008," and the only official tailoring of that message shifted that target to "the end of 2008." Then Check Point unveiled its latest Zone Alarm Pro 8.0 beta on Monday...without the 64-bit version.

Last week, in response to the latest inquiry from a user, among threads in Check Point's forums that are now over a year old, a forum moderator responded that there are "plans for a beta test version for 64-bit in four months."

If that's the case, and the public beta for a 64-bit ZoneAlarm and ZoneAlarm Pro 8.0 truly is set to begin in late December, then based on the company's recent history with betas (the cycle for 7.0 lasted six months), a true Vista edition might not be ready until next summer.

But in a response to BetaNews' inquiry yesterday, Check Point spokesperson Heather Haas would not confirm the forum moderator's version of the timetable, nor provide any other details. "We are continuing to work on development of a 64-bit version of ZoneAlarm, but we do not have a release date set," Haas told us.

The delay continues to be a severe problem for Check Point, if the forum threads are any indication. Retailers continue to stock ZoneAlarm as a firewall for Windows XP and Vista, and indeed, it does work on 32-bit Vista. But some users only come to discover their computers came with 64-bit Vista pre-installed, once their newly purchased firewalls display the bad news during setup.

ZoneAlarm's marriage with Vista has never been on solid ground. In the beginning, it was one of many security programs that had difficulty cooperating with even the new 32-bit kernel; and last February, the 32-bit Vista edition found itself defeated by Vista Service Pack 1.

Some of ZoneAlarm's competitors have faced similar trouble with building a 64-bit Vista edition. For example, Online Armor -- which has received highest recommendations from both third-party firewall tester Matousec Security (PDF available here) and Computerworld editor Scot Finnie, is only rated now for use with Windows XP. Like ZoneAlarm, Online Armor has a free general purpose version (downloadable from FileForum) and a commercial edition. But the XP support limitation is not something that's readily discernable from the manufacturer's Web site.

But a 64-bit firewall is not altogether impossible to build. The latest firewall from Comodo, rated as a close #3 by Matousec (PDF available here) and a close second by Finnie, has commercial-grade features that it gives away entirely for free -- its commercial bundle includes anti-virus. BetaNews has been experimenting with Comodo Firewall Pro (downloadable from FileForum) on one of our 64-bit Vista-based production systems, with nothing but good news to report so far.

Meanwhile, ZoneAlarm 7.0 has found itself lately slipping down the scale of functionality, failing on 22 tests in Matousec's suite last June (PDF available here), and scoring a 63% in its overall test battery. This compared to 95% for Comodo, 98% for Online Armor (albeit on XP only), and 99% for Outpost Firewall Pro (64-bit shareware downloadable from FileForum).

While some FileForum users continue to praise ZoneAlarm and ZoneAlarm Pro for being easy to configure, others have begun taking it to task for having to be constantly configured, and some for having a relatively difficult time being uninstalled. If Check Point intends to catch up with competition that may have surged ahead in the firewall field, it may need to go ahead and launch its 64-bit beta with whatever it's got, in a matter of weeks if not days.

Free software great and small

Murdoch says News Corp, Yahoo tie-up very unlikely

ZoneAlarm Pro misidentifies Yahoo Messenger as a Trojan…again

Windows XP SP3 official release delayed, but download still available

ITunes access returns to China following block

After having lost complete access to iTunes for nearly a week, for reasons that may have had to do with the music store featuring an album supporting Tibetan freedom, users in China report they can download music once again.

The first reports of connectivity issues surfaced on Monday, in timing that seemed to coincide with iTunes' release of a pro-Tibet album. While access to that particular album still appears to be restricted, the rest of the store returned this week.

Confirmation of both iTunes' block, and the subsequent lift, was given by Apple. However, the Cupertino company has declined to elaborate further about its nature or cause, leaving that to speculation.

Since there is no iTunes Music Store in China, residents must use the stores of other countries in order to download music. Thus, it is harder for the Government to exert control over the content within. Nonetheless, individual iTunes entries have unique URLs regardless of what country's portal is being used to access them; and apparently Chinese ISPs are now blocking access to these specific URLs, rather than to iTunes as a whole.

Art of Peace Foundation, the group behind Songs for Tibet, claimed its album was released to test the Chinese on their commitments to free speech. As part of its bid for the Olympic Games, China agreed to relax its controls on the Web. It briefly attempted to bypass these requirements early on by censoring some foreign news sites, however criticism forced it to reverse its stance. So far the Chinese government has refused to comment on the block.

A Chinese government Web site which talks about Internet issues did make mention of the pro-Tibet album on August 8. In an article on China.org.cn, the album's release "ignited strong indignation among Chinese netizens," the state-run Web site reads.

"Some say they will boycott all Apple products from now on, including the popular iPhone, which is not available in China since negotiations among Apple, China Mobile and China Unicom broke down," the article claims, without citing any actual sources.

Dell tests music player to renew iPod battle: report

Pro-Tibet album may be behind China iTunes block

Napster challenges iTunes by opening its own MP3 store

NBC appears to be courting Apple once again

Could Obama's VP pick have triggered millions in SMS traffic?

If you do the math, using the best estimates available to you about text messaging (SMS) usage in the US, the results could be staggering: A single news announcement may mean a small windfall for telcos.

If Sprint's early estimates are accurate and if they're reflective of other carriers' traffic on the day Sen. Barack Obama announced his running mate, the resulting flow of text message traffic on the nation's networks could theoretically have generated more than $118 million in extra revenue for the nation's cell phone carriers.

Here's how the theory works: Analytics service Nielsen Mobile announced yesterday afternoon that, based on the billing activity of sampled customers, it believes some 2.9 million people were recipients of the 3am text message from the Obama campaign, announcing Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate.

That's actually not a lot of people. As the telecommunications industry trade group CTIA estimates, based on December 2007 sampling, some 48.1 billion text messages are sent by Americans every month. For the average day, that's about 1.58 billion SMS messages; so the Obama blast by itself would have only represented two tenths of one percent of the entire day's SMS traffic on US networks, for August 23.

That's not the bump Sprint reported, however. It says its SMS traffic levels ballooned to 250% of normal, which would have accounted not just for the initial blast, but for all the response from people who may not have been aware their phone also had a "talk" feature.

If you apply that 250% boost figure to the CTIA estimates (again, assuming Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and others received similar traffic boosts), that means some 3.95 billion text messages may have been processed that day, for about 2.37 billion extra messages on that subject alone.

With estimates of the average price per US-based SMS message at $0.05, that means $118.6 million in extra traffic may have been generated, perhaps in just a few hours' time. All this for discussion of a candidate who, after all was said and done after the final round of the Iowa Caucuses in January, could only muster less than one percent of caucus voters.

2:45 pm EDT August 26, 2008 - Nielsen Mobile Director of Insights Nicholas Covey told BetaNews this afternoon that he believes the 250% traffic boost figure may, in the end, only apply to the segment of the SMS network where Sen. Obama's "short code" messages were being trafficked.

"This makes a substantial difference in terms of the total carrier revenue that could potentially be attributed to this text message campaign," Covey wrote us.

Mozilla launches Snowl messaging prototype

So you think SMS is dying? Think again.

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Online pizza ordering becomes a billion-dollar industry

Twitter cuts off tweets by SMS in the UK over costs

Intel works on wireless laptop battery recharging

The groundwork may have been laid by Nikola Tesla for wireless transmission of electricity, but Intel is putting it to good use through a new effort to charge a laptop in much the same manner.

At the Intel Developer's Forum in San Francisco this week, a demonstration was shown where researchers were able to power a 60 watt light bulb from an energy source that was three feet away. About 75% of the power from the source was retained.

Researchers based their tests on work done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last year. In the simplest terms, the transmission of electricity occurs through the use of two resonant objects of the same frequency. This allows the transmitted power to react strongest with those objects.

They were able to transmit the power at a distance of seven feet, although apparently with less efficiency. Similar technologies, known as power induction, are already fairly widely used. A current example would be Philips' Sonicare electric toothbrushes, which don't have contacts but which draw their power charge through induction, just by sitting in contact with the base.

(More on MIT's system -- called WiTricity -- including a more complex explanation of how it works, can be found here.)

Intel's system is similar, though it uses two electric coils to transmit the power over a short, though measurable, distance. Any device operating on the same frequency would then be able to draw power from the source.

Conceivably, furniture manufacturers could embed these coils within tables. This way, charging a compatible device would be as easy as placing it on or near the table, for example.

Still, Intel's technology still appears to be years away from mass production. Some of the considerations to still be worked out include how to prevent the electromagnetic fields from interfering with other components within the devices, or anything else.

Intel teases shape-shifting programmable matter

Hybrids make some noise

Gigabyte’s low-cost Atom-powered portable gets a name

New iPhone app makes it a wireless storage device

More HTC Dream details revealed through FCC

The latest FCC filings indicate the HTC Dream will be roughly the same length as the iPhone 3G, although slightly thinner.

An iPhone 3G measures in at 115.2 millimeters by 61.2 millimeters: the Dream will be 115 mm by 55 mm, according to documents that were available for a time through the FCC's Web site. No doubt HTC's Dream, widely believed to soon become the first "Googlephone," will likely be thicker than the iPhone since it will include a slide out QWERTY keyboard.

Reports continue to indicate that T-Mobile is set to be the first carrier for the Android-based HTC Dream, likely being announced next month with an October launch. The Dream's launch may also be set to coincide with T-Mobile's 3G rollout, which is rumored to be coming to about two dozen cities on October 1.

Indeed, the Dream is a 3G device, as well as bringing Wi-Fi/UMA capabilities, and GPS to the mix. T-Mobile is said to have a three month exclusive on the device, and will begin a multi-million dollar advertising campaign next month, according to Tmonews.

Data from HTC's filings with the FCC, obtained by BetaNews through its Web site, indicate it will be a quad-band GSM device, and will come in either a black or white color. Bluetooth 2.0 support with EDR is also included.

Pricing on the device is expected to be $149 during a special pre-sale to current customers, although the retail price should be $199 with a two year contract when it releases publicly, putting it on par with the iPhone 3G.

Unlike the iPhone plans, however, either possible option may come with some type of messaging bundle; for iPhone users, messaging carries an additional fee.

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Nintendo sued for controllers again

A Maryland company has sued Nintendo, alleging that the Wii's controller infringes upon four of the company's patents.

Earlier this year a small Texas company called Anascape sued Nintendo for the designs of its Wii classic and GameCube controllers, two peripherals especially popular at that time because of the game Super Smash Brothers: Brawl. That company walked away with $21 million after Nintendo lost the patent appeal.

Now, another US company has sued the Japanese video game maker for controller designs, but this time for the Wii's iconic Wiimote. Rockville, Maryland's Hillcrest Laboratories has sued Nintendo for patent infringement and filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission over the Wiimote's design.

The company holds four patents for a three-dimensional, motion-sensitive pointer that affects on-screen actions, filed in 2004.

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Is CDMA cell phone technology already dead? Analysts disagree

In separate reports issued this week, one prominent analyst firm proclaimed the impending death of CDMA cellular technology, while another touted its resurgence. So which is it?

Analyst firm Dell'Oro Group has declared CDMA -- for many years a widely used mobile communications standard, especially in North America -- already "dead."

Scott Siegler, a mobile infrastructure analyst at Dell'Oro, bases these claims on a slowdown in spending on CDMA by Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless, as these wireless operators pour more investments into higher capacity GSM technologies.

"As a result of this contraction in North America, North America's share of the CDMA market fell to [an] approximately two-thirds share, from [an] over three-quarters share in the second quarter last year. Growth in Asia Pacific, particularly in India, helped to offset these declines," Siegler said.

"However, we believe the region will experience declines in the second half of the year, as we expect [operators in the Asia Pacific] to begin to focus more capital toward their GSM networks."

In complete contrast, ABI Research analyst Khor Hwai Lin suggests that the investment of CDMA operators in GSM types of technologies such as EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B really represents an upgrade to existing CDMA networks.

"The increased support for LTE from incumbent CDMA operators does not imply the imminent death of EV-DO Rev. A and B, because LTE is addressing different market needs than 3G (third generation) [wireless]," said the ABI analyst.

Like WiMAX, and HSPA+, LTE is regarded as a fourth generation (4G) wireless technology. "HSPA+ will contest with LTE and mobile WiMAX in the mobile broadband space," according to Jake Saunders, ATI's Asia-Pacific VP.

As previously reported in BetaNews, in the North American market, Sprint, Clearwire, and five investment partners are now making heavy investments into WiMAX, too. Verizon Wireless and AT&T are doing likewise with LTE.

Yet in any case, some mobile equipment manufacturers don't seem to believe that CDMA is on its way out any time soon.

This week, for example, China-based ZTE introduced a "full-featured CDMA AWS flip phone" into the US market. Meanwhile, Motorola rolled out a "Push-To-Talk Over Cellular (PoC) solution," describing the new technology as bring "optimized for CDMA 1.x networks equipped with EV-DO Rev. A data capability."

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Is BlackBerry Bold really having iPhone 3G-like issues?

Research In Motion launched its newest BlackBerry, the Bold, in Canada yesterday. Reviewers who have hastily compared it to Apple's iPhone have been asked by RIM to remove a side-by-side review comparing browsing speed between the two devices.

The Bold, or BlackBerry 9000, runs on an Intel XScale 624 MHz processor, has an HVGA 480x320 display and offers UMTS (2100, 900, 850MHz), GSM (1900,1800,900,850MHz), GPRS, EDGE and HDSPA , as well as Wi-Fi connectivity and GPS. There is also 1 GB of on-board memory for storage of files, and 128 MB of flash memory for applications.

In Canada, the device is available through Rogers and costs $399 with a three-year contract.

RIM's launch was delayed for battery life issues, and resulted in a less-than-hyped rollout. However, thanks to a video on Mobile Computer that compared the Bold's full Web browsing speed to the Apple iPhone, discussion about the device has elevated.

In the video, the two browsers loaded identical pages, but the iPhone ran laps around the Bold. Astute readers pointed out that during the test, the iPhone was actually loading the pages from its Wi-Fi connection, while the Bold was relying on its 3G and EDGE connection.

An independent user's test of his new BlackBerry Bold, showing page loading times -- while nothing particularly speedy -- still faster than in a UK magazine's comparison with the iPhone 3G. Note the Wi-Fi indicator remains active throughout.

A Bold owner responded with his own video of the Blackberry on Wi-Fi performing much faster than the Mobile Computing video showed. RIM then demanded the site pull the origninal comparison video, on the grounds that it was an unjust portrayal.

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'Contractor error' suspected in $12,000 FEMA phone hack

FEMA is now investigating a hack attack against its voice mail system that racked up $12,000 in international calls, with preliminary evidence indicating that "contractor error" was probably involved.

Debbie Wing, a spokesperson with the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, told BetaNews today that the government agency -- which is part of the US Dept. of Homeland Security -- first noticed "inappropriate" calling patterns on Saturday, August 16.

The unauthorized calls to the Mideast and Asia were placed through FEMA's voice mail system in Emmittsburg, MD. Wing said she didn't know, though, whether the calls began on Saturday or some time prior.

After becoming aware of the calls, FEMA staff notified the agency's security operations center. The agency immediately starting blocking all international calls, as well as monitoring all long distance calls, from FEMA's National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Wing said.

The spokesperson confirmed that FEMA recently installed a new PBX voice mail system. Preliminary evidence from an internal investigation still in progress points to involvement of "contractor error" or some other type of user error, she said.

"This will not happen again. We've taken steps to make sure that our entire telecommunications system is in a secure state," BetaNews was told.

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Apple's iPhone 3G gets ho-hum response in Poland and India

Mobile service provider Orange Poland this week hired actors to help "warm up" reception to Apple's latest phone. Meanwhile, in India, a new iPhone 3G costs the US equivalent of $712 -- another indicator of barriers in some emerging markets.

Although earlier launches of Apple's iPhone 3G created big stirs in the US, northern Europe, and Japan, in a later wave of rollouts this week, the reaction has been more ho-hum in countries like India and like Poland -- a place where actors actually got paid to stand in line.

Wireless operator Orange Poland has openly admitted to hiring actors to pose as avid iPhone customers, as a marketing ploy to help "warm up" the rollout in Poland, according to accounts in the foreign press and international wire services.

The price of the iPhone 3G and the availability of both Internet access and 3G wireless networks all appear to be factors that could impact adoption of Apple's phone in emerging markets.

"Not just Apple, but its partners in India -- Bharti Airtel and Vodafone -- will have to play their roles to perfection for their customers to enjoy the iPhone," says a report in the Economic Times of India.

"India is amongst the few markets where the partner telcos are spending huge sums training thousands of their employees to activate the iPhone. This [is] because, unlike their western counterparts, Indian customers cannot be expected to activate the phone online," according to the Indian newspaper.

"Low Internet and PC penetration is a roadblock here; and even amongst those in metros and large cities who own PCs, only a small minority have Apple's iTunes on their systems. The other catch is slow Internet speeds which can frustrate users attempting to download iTunes."

Poland seems to be facing some of the same problems. As of December 2007, only 36.6% of Poland's residents had any Internet access at all, according to numbers compiled by Internetworldstats.com. That compares with 66.4% for the UK and 88% for Norway, for instance.

Meanwhile, although some Americans have been willing to pay something in the $1,000 neighborhood on eBay for an iPhone, many residents of poorer nations are likely to be hard-pressed to buy an iPhone 3G even from wireless operators.

In India, where the overall cost of living is much lower than in Western countries, but pricing from operators is much higher, initial popularity of Apple's phone is limited mainly to affluent professionals and children in families with inherited wealth, according to other reports.

"It's official. Vodafone will sell the 8 GB 3G iPhone for 31,000 rupees ($712) and the 16 GB model for 36,100 rupees ($828). And this for a 3G model when India does not even have 3G services yet," wrote a blogger for Reuters India.

"The price of the 8 GB model in the US is $199 and $299 for the 16 GB model. So is buying the iPhone in India worth it or will the grey market rule? Who will buy the new iPhone? All those who had pre-booked? The ones who want to get the latest gizmo on day one of its official launch in India or the geeks who cherish anything Apple?"

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Pro-Tibet album may be behind China iTunes block

Users of Apple's music store in China have been reporting problems downloading music since the beginning of the week.

Chinese authorities have not directly confirmed blocking iTunes. Requests for comment have gone unanswered, or reporters have been told officials had no information on the block. However, the timing of this latest blockage seems to coincide with the release of a pro-Tibet album by the Art of Peace Foundation, which was released on Sunday.

Users across several threads in Apple's support forums are reporting issues. The first reports came in Monday, and seem to be widespread.

"I'm in Beijing as well and my iTunes store just stopped working around the 19th. This is insanely frustrating seeing as I use it almost everyday," one user reported. "I am having the same problem here in Nanchang," another thread indicates.

Forty Olympic athletes reportedly downloaded the album in solidarity with the group, with some even downloading it once they arrived in Beijing, the Foundation said. Although Chinese iPod and iPhone owners have had access to iTunes, it doesn't actually provide them with music, though it does provide iPhone users with apps. So users often find themselves logging onto overseas stores or even other services in order to download music.

Apple did confirm that some were having problems with access within China, but declined to comment further. Users reportedly complained on Apple sites in China that the ban hurt users more than it did iTunes.

BetaNews does not have a correspondent in China; however, this afternoon, we tested some verified iTunes URLs with a service from WebSitePulse created expressly to determine whether a URL is accessible from Shanghai. The service gauges response times from servers based in Shanghai and Seattle, Washington. Our tests seemed to indicate the iTunes pages we chose were not blocked, as of 3:55 pm EDT Friday afternoon.

Art of Peace is a group founded on the principles of the exiled Tibetan leader, the 14th Dalai Lama. It has been a strong critic of China's oppressive regime, and its efforts to control the flow of information both within and outside its borders.

Songs for Tibet - The Art of Peace includes songs by Sting, Alanis Morrissette, John Mayer, Moby, Dave Matthews, and others. It also includes a 15-minute message from the Dalai Lama.

Representatives for the group said they believe the release of the album may be to blame for the block, although they don't have any direct proof. It's quite possible though: China has shown to be quick in blocking anything having to do with the mountain country and the struggle of Tibet.

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UK law firm looks to begin prosecuting file sharers

Davenport Lyons has been working with the music industry in the UK to sniff out P2P users. Now it will ask the UK courts to force ISPs to release information to identify them.

The firm is looking to identify about 7,000 individuals in total. Representatives said they will seek an order from the High Court Wednesday, and will use the information to launch civil suits against those individuals.

Swiss company Logistep assisted in the identification of the individuals by IP address, which will be provided to the court as part of the request for an order.

Davenport Lyons has already had some success in prosecuting cases. Most recently, a British woman was ordered to pay nearly £16,100 ($30,200 USD) in fines for the trading of video game files over P2P networks.

As many as 25,000 others may be prosecuted for game piracy by the firm, with offers to settle by paying a £300 ($563 USD) fine before it goes to court. The first 500 who ignore the actions would be the part of the first wave of lawsuits.

Gamemakers Atari, Topware Interactive, Reality Pump, Techland, and Codemasters are being represented by Davenport.

The firm also has used its legal muscle in controversial cases where people with open wireless networks were prosecuted for illegal downloads over their networks, even if the networks themselves did not materially participate in the trading.

"Illegal file-sharing is a very serious issue resulting in millions of pounds of losses to copyright owners," partner David Gore said. "As downloading speeds and Internet penetration increase, this continues to be a worldwide problem across the media industry which increasingly relies on digital revenues."

UK record labels and the government are already working together to send out letters to the most prolific file sharers, in a program that began last month.

Critics of Davenport Lyons and the entertainment industry were quick to dismiss the recent game decision, noting that the defendant never appeared in court, as well as the prosecution strategy.

"Davenport Lyons picked on six individuals who didn't mount a defense, and so far, they have default judgments from four of them at least. Many of those that responded and denied the claims, just as we previously reported, have been left alone," TorrentFreak said on Wednesday.

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Analysts: Consumers, businesses want phones with more 'features'

Customers are now buying more costly cell phones with features such as GPS, Bluetooth, and music enablement, not just in the US but worldwide, according to recent research by two industry analyst firms.

According to a new study from analyst firm NPD, mobile handsets sold in the US during the second quarter of this year were, "by and large, more feature-rich than those sold the year prior." Meanwhile, demand is increasing throughout the world for handsets with features such as GPS, touchscreen, and multimedia, concurs a study by IDC released at the end of July.

Tracking retail sales only, the NPD Group reported this week that 28 million mobile handsets were sold in the US during the second quarter of 2008, a 13 percent drop since the same quarter the year before. Beyond that, the 28 million figure represented the third consecutive quarter of sales declines.

But US consumers paid an average price of $84 for new cell phones during the quarter, an increase of 14% over last year, says NPD.

Smartphone sales comprised 19% of total mobile phone sales, as opposed to 10% the year before. About 28% of handsets sold during the quarter had QWERTY keyboards, in comparison to 12% in 2007. A total of 81% of these phones were Bluetooth-enabled, in contrast to 69% last year; and 65% were music-enabled, rather than 45% in 2007.

Meanwhile, IDC -- which bases its numbers on manufacturers' shipment figures -- has reported shipment of 42.9 million phones to the US market for the second quarter of 2008, an increase of 6% over the same quarter in 2007. On a worldwide basis, manufacturers' shipments rose at almost the same margin, stepping up 5.6% to a total of 306 million phones for the second quarter of this year, according to IDC statistics.

Worldwide demand for features in phones is rising, IDC says. "This also goes for hotly contested emerging markets, where vendors are introducing phones that offer features in addition to voice telephony. Reception towards these devices has been warm, and as we head into the holiday quarter, demand for these and other devices will no doubt increase," according to Ramon T. Llamas, an IDC senior research analyst.

At the time of another IDC report issued just last April, Llamas had predicted that demand for low-cost phones without advanced features would continue through the end of 2008 in some emerging markets.

The new figures from IDC also suggest that, as unit sales to US retail outlets decline, sales of mobile phones to US businesses and government agencies could be on the uptick, helping to bridge the gap for vendors.

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Apple gives MobileMe subscribers more free time

Subscribers who have remained with MobileMe through its continued growing pains will be rewarded with another 60 days free, bringing the total free time to 90 days.

To be eligible for the new extension, customers must be enrolled members by midnight Tuesday. Those who have already enrolled will see their free trial periods extended another 60 days.

Apple will begin issuing the extensions Tuesday, which will be applied to all accounts within the next few days.

For those who signed up with MobileMe on its launch date, trials that should have ended in September will now end in December, giving these users a total of five free months of service.

"The transition from .Mac to MobileMe was rockier than we had hoped," the company said in a notice to users this morning. "While we are making a lot of improvements, the MobileMe service is still not up to our standards."

It appears as if Apple intends to be aggressive in ensuring MobileMe's success isn't scuttled by these problems so early in its life cycle, even going as far as to take a financial hit to appease its customers.

Steve Jobs has also spoken to the subject, going as far as to send out an internal e-mail acknowledging the service's issues, and making changes to the management structure to make Apple more responsive to problems.

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Pandora: Last gasp for Internet radio can't be further prolonged

Since March 2007, when the Copyright Royalty Board exacted a per-performance, per listener fee on streaming online services, pundits have declared a deathwatch on Internet radio. Recently, Pandora's founder expressed the same dire outlook.

This weekend, Pandora founder Tim Westergren told the Washington Post that his service is nearing the point where shutting down is the only feasible option. Despite the fact that Pandora is among the top 200 most popular United States Web sites (and climbing), and that the Pandora iPhone application is among the App Store's 10 most downloaded, Westergren said his company is still losing money.

Pandora is losing so much that, as Westergren said, "The moment we think this problem in Washington is not going to get solved, we have to pull the plug because all we're doing is wasting money." Almost 70 percent of Pandora's revenue goes to paying royalties, he added.

And Westergren knows he's not alone in it. "This is like a last stand for webcasting," he told the Post. Indeed, as the Copyright Royalty Board's decision last year will more than double the per-play fee (from $0.0008 per play to $0.0019 per play) by 2010 if a deal is not reached to change the situation.

Terrestrial radio, conversely, does not have to pay performance royalties. The traditionally held belief is that it serves as a benefit to labels and artists by boosting sales of recorded media, and is therefore exempt from paying per performance. But the Performance Rights Act (HR 4789) seeks to change this. If this act were to pass, an annual fee would be put upon terrestrial commercial radio broadcasters comparable to the one satellite broadcaster Sirius XM must pay.

SoundExchange, the group representing labels and artists, has expressed its view that the legislative discussion should center around what it considers to be fairness -- that radio should be subject to the same brand of royalty regulations as other forms of broadcast.

Groups like the Free Radio Alliance oppose the idea behind HR 4789, calling it a tax on stations by record labels that have "struggled to adapt to a new digital world."

While it is ironic that representatives from a style of broadcast over 100 years old should call record labels into question for their antiquated notions of royalty collection, the stalemate between the two is killing Internet Radio.

If HR 4789 passes, smaller broadcasters worry that they will be forced to consider closure due to the new expenses their stations would face. On the other hand, if it does not pass and terrestrial radio remains exempt, Internet broadcasters will continue to have to pay inflated royalty charges and find some way to offset the cost by increasing advertising revenue.

Competing legislation introduced last year would cap Internet radio royalty rates at 7.5% of revenue, which beats 70%. But legislation that competes with that would use the terrestrial royalty rate as a benchmark for the Internet royalty rate. As long as the terrestrial royalty rate is zero, this third competing bill will go nowhere. And as long as it goes nowhere, the 7.5% cap bill will also go nowhere.

In any event, the interest of the listener -- which is frequently cited as the impetus for keeping services free -- appears secondary to maintaining a system where everyone gets paid.

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Skyfire Beta 0.6 heats up pocket screens

Upstart mobile browser Skyfire this weekend rolled out its Beta version 0.6 to select testers in the US, using the Olympic craze to highlight the browser's native support of Microsoft's Silverlight.

Skyfire's default page provides a link to NBC Universal's glut of Olympic content, and no Silverlight plug-in needs to be installed, giving users almost immediate access to hours of video content. Add to this the browser's full support for Adobe's Flash, and Skyfire opens the user's handset to hundreds of hours of free video from Google Video, YouTube, Hulu and other content providers that deal in Flash.

While videos typically run at a very reduced frame rate, they are still highly watchable. In BetaNews tests, Silverlight videos ranged from slideshow slowness to nearly TV-quality speed, audio was never interrupted. YouTube ran comparably to a broadband-connected computer nearly every time.

The browser experience is very Opera-like, returning shrunken full pages that are navigated with a magnifying frame. Page rendering speeds in BetaNews tests this afternoon were comparable to Opera on the same handset (Windows Mobile 6 T-Mobile EDGE network). Skyfire has also drawn comparison to Safari on iPhone, but differs in that video rendering does not take place in-phone and depends heavily upon the reliability and speed of the user's chosen network.

Working with this beta, it becomes obvious that Skyfire is designed more for touchscreen devices, because of the awkward nature of free-floating cursor navigation with a joystick. Many times, an item a user may want to click is very difficult to mouse over. It's very easy to miss text hyperlinks, so tapping the joystick to try to zero in on links becomes a frequent hassle.

Skyfire supports Nokia S60 3rd Edition, and Windows Mobile 5 and 6. Both versions can work on touch- and non-touch-enabled devices. Signups for the private beta require a United States phone number in addition to the requisite supported device.

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TSA-approved laptop bags: $220+

The US Transportation Safety Administration's recent relaxation of rules on removing laptops from luggage at airport checkpoints, carried an announcement of soon-to-be available TSA pre-approved bags. This fall, we should see the first.

"The Checkpoint Flyer" by Tom Bihn adheres to TSA guidelines as presented in the group's five-month design challenge. To achieve this, it integrates a protective laptop sleeve into a messenger-style bag that allows the two to be separated for scanning in "less than three seconds" (re-attachment times were not included).

Tom Bihn is taking pre-orders for the Checkpoint Flyer and expects to ship by mid-September.

Other companies that participated in the TSA challenge will be releasing their products in the fall as well. Skooba Design, which has already revealed pre-production designs for its "Checkthrough" model, plans to be ready to ship in October, but has not yet disclosed its prices. Mobile Edge launched its ScanFast checkpoint-friendly designs in July, which pre-order for $99.99, and will ship on September 30. These represent the lower end of the pricing scale for checkpoint-safe laptop transport.

Luggage manufacturer Briggs and Riley, which released its SpeedThru laptop cases in July, makes this important note: "TSA does not approve the products of any manufacturer...it is the responsibility of the manufacturer to determine that the bag provides a clear X-ray image, thereby being checkpoint friendly."

A worthwhile consideration for travelers looking to purchase any of this new luggage is that, ultimately, it is still up to the discretion of the security screener whether your luggage will pass.

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Android phone may have Google ads, but no Exchange support

With Google still touting the first Android phone for late 2008, reports state the forthcoming HTC "Dream" phone might lack support for Microsoft Exchange, and further, that it will come with Google's advertising software pre-installed.

After showing a primitive prototype of the initial Android phone at CES in January, Google gave demos of features in May that included a new interface and menu structure, a built-in compass, a port of the Pac-Man game, and access to Google Maps. One blogger who viewed the phone in May, Vincent Nguyen, exclaimed at that time, "The HTC Android Dream phone is a worthy competitor to the [iPhone] 2.0."

Over the past few days, however, Moe Tanabian, senior principal at IBB Consulting, has given a fuller account to BusinessWeek magazine, pointing to a feature set that might not seem as favorable to everyone.

For one thing, HTC Dream phone users who want to receive push e-mail will need to resort to the Google-owned Gmail service. It's unclear right now whether the phone will support Exchange, according to BusinessWeek.

Also, Google's online platform will serve up ads to customers aimed at meeting location and interests, as provided by the phone, Tanabian said. Reportedly, however, users will only get the ads if they opt in for receiving them -- and it's possible that users who do opt in will be able to buy the phone at a lower price and pay lower monthly service fees, too.

On the other hand, the phone will reportedly have access to a forthcoming App Store from T-Mobile, somewhat along the same lines as Apple's store for third-party iPhone applications.

Tanabian is also predicting that more software applications might be available for the Dream than for the iPhone, reasoning that T-Mobile is likely to place fewer restrictions on software developers around applications.

The Dream phone will also feature a trackball for one-handed navigation, and the analyst believes that its phone screen will be bigger than the iPhone's.

In the future, the Android-enabled phone might also hook into T-Mobile's Hotspot @Home service, for unlimited Wi-Fi-assisted calling from the phone or office, according to the analyst.

Google confirmed to BetaNews in June that some of its Android partners have been publicly articulating plans to ship Android-based phones in the fourth quarter of this year. This would peg release at somewhere between October and December. Officials of HTC and T-Mobile have each issued statements to that effect.

Citing unnamed sources, a report in The New York Times late last week said that Google, HTC, and T-Mobile hope to officially announce the first Android-based phone in September -- so as to get a good jump on the holiday season -- but that they can't release the phone until the FCC certifies that the HTC device and Google software meet network standards.

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GraphOn adds Google to lengthening list of lawsuit targets

In the latest of a barrage of lawsuits against various and sundry operators of "automated and network-automated databases," Web development company GraphOn is now hauling Google into court on allegations of patent infringement.

In a complaint filed in US District Court in Texas, GraphOn is charging that Google's Base, YouTube, Blogger, Sites, and AdWords services violate a total of four patents the company now owns.

Also cited in a still unresolved suit by GraphOn against Yahoo, CareerBuilder, eHarmony, Match.com, and IAC/Interactive Corp., the four patents include US Patents No. 6,324,538 (also known as "the '538 patent"), 7,028,034 ("the '034 patent"), 7.269,591 ("the '591 patent"), and 6,850,940 ("the '940 patent").

In a third action -- which ended in a settlement in January of this year -- GraphOn sued AutoTrader.com for allegedly infringing on the '538 and '940 patents.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit over patents for firewall and other network security technologies -- filed by GraphOn against Juniper Networks in August of last year -- is still pending.

GraphOn claims to have garnered ownership of the '538 and '940 patents -- together with "applications that resulted in the '034 and '591 patents" and "intellectual property, other patents, and other patent applications" -- through its buyout of Network Engineering Software (NES) back in 2005.

Some critics, though, are suggesting that the GraphOn patents are exceedingly broad. The '538 patent, for example, covers such operations as "providing an HTML front-end entry process associated with the Web server;" creating a personal homepage for an owner; and "providing a Web server coupled to a computer network having a database operatively disposed within and accessible on [a] network."

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Former Apple counsel settles options backdating charges

Apple's former general counsel will pay the US Securities and Exchange Commission some $2.2 million in fines to settle charges related to the Cupertino company's stock options scandal.

SEC officials said Nancy Heinen's fine was comprised of $1.6 million in what it called "ill-gotten" gains, plus interest, and a $200,000 penalty. The former executive is one of two from the company to agree to pay fines. Like former Apple CFO Fred Anderson -- who was fined $3.5 million -- Heinen is neither admitting nor denying guilt.

As part of her punishment, she would not be permitted to serve as an officer at any public company for a period of five years, nor practice law in cases before the SEC for three years.

Heinen was charged in 2007 with manipulating dates on option grants in 2001 and 2002 to make them appear as if they were granted earlier. This action would make the options more valuable for the recipient. Though he was under investigation for a time, CEO Steve Jobs was later cleared.

Investigations into the stock options backdating practice at Apple were closed this year, so its unlikely any more charges will be brought against current and former executives. Another company Jobs was involved in, Pixar -- which has since been acquired by Disney -- is still under investigation.

Apple has declined to comment on Heinen's settlement.

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Netflix admits it's experiencing shipping delays

11:00 am EDT August 15, 2008 - In what many are calling Netflix's biggest service disruption yet, the movie rental-by-mail company's shipping system has still not returned to full functionality, with at least 2.5 million subscribers affected.

As of Thursday evening, Netflix still had not returned to fully functional distribution after almost four days of intermittent service. The company's representatives have disclosed neither the scope of the disruption nor the precise cause, saying only that it is of "significant" size and that technicians are working to have operations fully restored as soon as possible.

On the official Netflix blog yesterday evening, spokesman Steve Swasey wrote, "There's no guarantee at this point that our shipping operations will be fully restored by tomorrow."

The initial shipping delay was reported on Tuesday and reported in the company's blog to have been mostly resolved on Wednesday. Apparently, though, problems continued into this morning, when e-mails like the one pictured below were sent out.

Naturally, the blog is filled with disgruntled customers airing their complaints. One such commenter called the telephone support team which the user typically finds helpful, "offensively standoffish concerning this issue."

This is the second delivery delay in under five months. In March, a site malfunction caused shipments to be held up longer than usual.

The Netflix streaming service remains unaffected.

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Google India could be ordered to break one blogger's anonymity

A construction equipment company in Mumbai, India, has asked that country's high court to order Google India to disclose the identity of "Toxic Writer," a blogger who made defamatory remarks about its mining project in Mozambique.

According to the original complaint filed by Gremach Infrastructure Equipments and Projects Ltd., the ninth paragraph of a blog entry entitled "toxic fumes" contained defamatory material that amounted to a smear campaign against it. However, because the blog post was taken down on an interim order from the Bombay High Court, the actual text is unavailable and even some cached copies cannot be retrieved.

Still, some cached replies contain information as to the subject matter within the contentious blog.

An unnamed source from Gremach has been quoted as suspecting "corporate rivalry behind the hate campaign." Indeed, the blog post began: "Here's what somebody from the steel sector has sent me: As an employee of an Indian steel maker using the blast furnace route, we too are keenly watching the developments in Mozambique in order to secure our..."

The post reportedly goes on to describe an investor whose investments were tied up in Germach's rapidly falling stock, as the manufacturer allegedly diverted funds to a company called Austral Coke. Germach's stock price has dropped in value from Rs 500 ($11.90) to Rs 86 ($2.00) per share as of closing bell yesterday.

A reply entitled, "Gremach Investor Don't Fear" posted by a user named Chinu on February 11, 2008, reads in its entirety:

I am Employee of Gremach Infrastructure. I bought the shares at Rs. 440. But i don't have any Fear because technically stock is very Strong. Mr Toxic Writer we have already launched Police FIR against your mail , Your Computer and your ID is access by Cyber Crime Department. Now your time is finished now it's a game of 5 days.

This reply corroborates reports that Gremach had first contacted Mumbai Police to find the blogger's identity before taking legal action. Google was given four weeks to disclose the name of the blogger in the order issued by Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud, but has yet to do so. The case will be heard again within the next two weeks.

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Yahoo names Chapple, Biondi to board, but what happens next?

New Yahoo board member Frank Biondi has a knack for being at the center of a firestorm. So the fact that Carl Icahn successfully got Biondi on board this morning, probably means a new storm is on the horizon.

There are now three of Icahn Partners' ranks serving as members of the Board of Directors of Yahoo. Carl Icahn himself will assume the seat vacated by outgoing member Robert Kotick, and former Viacom and Universal chief Frank Biondi and former Nextel founder John Chapple will add to the board's membership. Yahoo made the news official this morning.

But will their contributions be meaningful to the company, beyond the obvious lighting of a candle for possible, future, maybe would-be partner Microsoft? Let's take a look at the goings-on at other companies to which these gentlemen have contributed their advice and direction, since the days they joined.

Frank Biondi joined the board of directors of biotechnology company Amgen in 2002. Its major products include cancer-fighting drugs, and one of its current rivals in the colon cancer drug field is ImClone -- a familiar sounding name to anyone who followed the Martha Stewart scandal in 2003. Yes, that's the company that was at the center of an insider trading scandal. Carl Icahn holds a 14% stake in ImClone; and over the past few months, rumors have crept up once again that Icahn is interested in brokering a merger deal. Those rumors have been fueled by recent news that pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb is also interested in ImClone.

Prior to Motorola's decision to divide its assets, Icahn was instrumental in setting up an alternate proxy slate of directors who would help give him a stronger say in changing the direction of that company, and was ready to sue Motorola to make it happen. Among the four directors Icahn planned to nominate was Frank Biondi.

Back in 2003, cable provider Cablevision launched (literally) an ambitious effort to vault itself into a competitive position against Dish Network and DirecTV in the satellite services business. It orbited its own private satellite, and named the service Voom.

"Foom" might have been more appropriate. Although Cablevision always had plans to launch Voom as a majority-owned spinoff, the fact that it never attracted many customers meant it never really got the fuel to ignite its second stage. The ongoing failure, for a time, pitted that company's existing board of directors in direct combat with their own chief executives -- Charles Dolan and his son Tom -- over an agreement that would have enabled the Dolans to purchase Voom from their own company and spin it off themselves.

With the board in shambles and Voom a catastrophe, the Dolans recruited an entirely new board of directors. Leading its ranks were Liberty Media chief John Malone, and Frank Biondi.

Since that time, Cablevision made an odd decision to enter the struggling newspaper business, outbidding News Corp. and others for the New York tabloid daily Newsday. With that paper faring no better than its counterparts in recent days, shareholders are scratching their heads. In one of the more unusual responses a company in Cablevision's position has taken of late, it launched what is being called a "listening tour," holding informal meetings around the country with major stockholders in an attempt to get their opinions as to what the company should do now.

Of course, Biondi's reputation with deal-making precedes his involvement as a director on public companies' boards, as the man who beat Barry Diller in the deal that merged Paramount with Viacom in 1994.

If Biondi's involvement with companies, with or without Icahn, has been about putting things together and taking them apart again, Chapple has been more about making quiet decisions and making things work. He actually hasn't appeared all that interested in being a smaller part of a bigger organization; when his McCaw Cellular and his Nextel were acquired by AT&T and Sprint, respectively, he didn't hang around for very long afterward.

Chapple seems more comfortable with first-stage investments; for instance, he's currently a director with a Scottsdale-based firm called Telesphere Networks. It received another $10 million in private equity funding just last June, and its key product involves VoIP trunking -- a way to integrate SIP-based voice-over-IP into existing enterprise PBX systems.

So while Icahn's strategy with Yahoo does appear to involve making a merger deal happen, with Microsoft or with somebody -- otherwise, why bring in Biondi? -- there may also be a serious interest in righting the ship, assuming one agrees with Icahn that it's off-course. Though Chapple is also known to be a Microsoft favorite, he is a genuine advisor who has a track record of providing direction and guidance, though mainly with smaller startups these days.

What we can assume at this point is that the chess pieces are in position for the next stage of the big game with Yahoo. What we don't know for certain is the identity or strategy of the player on the opposite side of the table.

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Reports: Apple set to fix iPhone 3G connectivity in update

Apple may attempt to alleviate what iPhone 3G users have perceived to be connectivity problems by way of a software update instead of a recall, which would take a significant chunk from its profits.

Earlier in the week, Swedish engineering magazine Ny Teknik reported on tests from unnamed iPhone 3G users showing its signal sensitivity was well below levels specified in 3G standards. That report indicated that there may be a hardware issue somewhere between the antenna and the amplifier. If either or both parts aren't operating properly, it could lead to poor connectivity and slower speeds.

Apple's support forums have seen a significant number of complaints including a higher than normal amount of dropped calls, as well as few or no "bars" indicating a very poor signal. Anecdotal tests show that other 3G devices in the same location had a better signal reception and were not experiencing the same problems. The iPhone's connectivity issues aren't localized to the US and AT&T either: Similar problems were reported in Canada, Japan, Great Britain, and elsewhere.

Nomura financial analyst Richard Windsor surmised that these problems could be caused by what he termed an "immature" chipset produced by Infineon. BusinessWeek lent weight to that theory on Thursday, citing two sources as saying the Infineon chip was indeed to blame, but that the issue could be addressed by the iPhone 2.1 software update.

But iSuppli analyst Francis Sideco added that there could be an issue with the radio frequency transceiver or baseband, which would mean that update would need to be bigger. In all cases, neither Apple nor its partners are acknowledging any specific problems.

According to BusinessWeek's sources, the Infineon chip was programmed by Apple to generate a higher quality 3G signal than was actually required. Thus, if a signal was not as strong in a particular area, the phone would revert back to the slower GPRS and EDGE networks.

Why Apple may have done this is something that was not explained. Perhaps Apple may have wanted to provide the best 3G experience possible, and felt that allowing the phone to attempt to connect to 3G towers in fringe areas may have not been a good solution.

Several news sources report that the 2.1 update may be less than a month away.

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Lower income Tennessee residents to get free cell phones

The maker of a popular pre-paid cell phone today announced a program that will give low income Tennessee residents free cell phones and mobile service on a year-to-year basis.

Called SafeLink Wireless, the project is being led by the Tennessee Department of Safety, TracFone Wireless, and local nonprofit organizations. Eligible households will receive a free cellular handset with 60 or more minutes of airtime a month plus unlimited access to emergency services (911). Handsets will support standard cellular features such as voice mail, SMS, call waiting, as well as international calling.

As a mobile virtual network operator, TracFone uses AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Alltel, US Cellular and Claro's networks. Sending text messages is free with a number of TracFone handsets, and since talk time is measured in "units" instead of minutes, certain models deduct 30%-50% of a single unit per text. SafeLink Wireless has not disclosed which handset will be distributed to eligible families.

The inaugural "ribbon cutting" will take place on Friday morning on the State Capitol steps in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Twitter cuts off tweets by SMS in the UK over costs

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Twitter cuts off tweets by SMS in the UK over costs

It appears as if Twitter was unable to reach agreements with UK carriers to keep costs of its SMS tweets down. While users will still be able to send updates to a phone number, they will no longer be able to receive them on phones.

With Twitter's text option, a user's blog update could turn into dozens of text messages depending on who is following that particular user, which the Twitterer was not paying any additional fee for.

"That's because we've been footing the bill," co-founder Biz Stone wrote yesterday in a post to the company blog. "When we launched our free SMS service to the world, we set the clock ticking. As the service grew in popularity, so too would the price."

Stone said that even with limits of 250 received messages per week, it will cost the company $1,000 per month per user to continue sending out texts. Simply put, for any large service, it can become prohibitively expensive to offer some type of texting option.

Twitter's change, announced today, does not affect its cell phone update services in the US, Canada, and India, where the company was able to establish relationships with carriers in order to keep SMS services sustainable. It does affect those elsewhere and not necessarily in the UK who may have been using their phones to receive text updates.

The service simply couldn't continue to bear the burden of each tweet's cascade effect. Twitter said that it would continue to negotiate with carriers in other portions of the Americas, as well as elsewhere across Europe, Asia, China, and Australia, to allow for receipt of tweets via text.

Users of the service are not happy with the sudden move, and expressed their displeasure through posts to its Web site.

"Really annoying that DMs won't arrive by SMS anymore," Taptu community leader Vero Pepperrell wrote. "Twitter canceling its text messages in the UK is a massive blow for journalists who could receive updates on the move," UK-based tech journalist Paul Bradshaw quipped.

In a attempt to quell some displeasure, the company said in the near future that it will be debuting new SMS numbers throughout Europe. However, this would just make it cheaper for users to text in their updates, rather than make a long-distance call to the UK.

Twitter has recommended that users send and read updates over its mobile Web portal, as well as use Cellity for Java-enabled phones, TwitterBerry for BlackBerrys, or Twitterific for the Apple iPhone.

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Attacks continue on Russian and Georgian Web sites, but who's to blame?

Armed conflict between Russia and Georgia has been paralleled by what many in the media have classed a "cyberwar," where Georgian Web sites have been crippled by DDoS attacks and defacements.

As Georgian government sites were rendered inaccessible this week, Poland, Estonia, and the United States hosted mirrors to provide supplementary outlets for information. Polish president Lech Kaczynski's official site says, "Along with military aggression, the Russian Federation is blocking Georgian Internet portals."

Though the attacks were traced to servers in both Russia and Turkey, the Russian government has denied involvement in the action, citing several of its own Web services that have also succumbed to DDoS attacks.

The denial of service attacks against Georgia bear a remarkable similarity to those that took place against Estonia in 2007. These attacks, due to their scope, were also suspected to have been orchestrated by the Russian government, but no evidence could be provided to substantiate any accusations.

In July, 300 Lithuanian sites were compromised and defaced by pro-Russian hackers in response to the Lithuanian ban on Soviet symbols, such as the hammer and sickle of the old Communist Party. This act was preceded by appeals on Russian forums, according to The Baltic Course, that called for hackers to unite against Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania as well as Ukraine.

"All the hackers of the country have decided to unite, to counter the impudent actions of Western superpowers. We are fed up with NATO's encroachment on our motherland, we have had enough of Ukrainian politicians who have forgotten their nation and only think about their own interests. And we are fed up with Estonian government institutions that blatantly re-write history and support fascism," the message stated.

Those attacks, according to Lithuanian security researchers, came from compromised French and Swedish hosts.

The Estonian cyberattacks in 2007 and the current ones against Georgia are now regarded as the two of the biggest organized service attacks in history. Unfortunately, no firm evidence has been presented that implicates any single organization in either action.

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In-car wireless Internet to become a reality with Chrysler

An EV-DO-enabled hotspot will be installed as an option in 2009 models of Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge vehicles, as well as some earlier models, the auto maker announced yesterday.

Chrysler itself will not install the Mopar-produced devices direct from the factory, instead it would be made available at the dealership. The new router will be mounted in the trunk much like CD changers and satellite radio receivers already are, and hardwired into the car's electrical system. Users will be able to use Wi-Fi at distances from the car comparable to current home-based wireless routers.

The cost of the device is expected to be $499, and it would be available beginning August 25. Installation of the device should be approximately $35 to $50. In addition, there will be a $35 activation fee and a $29 monthly fee for service. As with a standard EV-DO data connection, download rates should fall between 400 to 600 Kbps on average.

The devices will be supplied to the car dealers from Autonet Mobile, which already has been providing a similar service in rental cars from Avis. There, renters can use the service for $10.95 per day. The Internet service, called "uconnect web," will be maintained by Autonet, and includes functionality that would actually redistribute lost packets so that users would never lose connections.

This is believed to be the first Internet service deal with an automobile manufacturer. Autonet Mobile CEO Sterling Pratz said that youth is the primary demand for in-car Internet -- especially with the continuing rise of chat and instant messaging.

Another in-car service offering is planned for next year through a partnership with electronics manufacturer Delphi, although specifics have not been given.

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New iPhone app makes it a wireless storage device

With a multitude of applications now available from the App Store, few stand out. Vieosoft's DataCase may be one of those that does.

The $6.99 app was released on Monday, and essentially leverages the flash memory of the iPhone as a wireless storage device. Currently the application supports Microsoft Office, PDF, Text, image, HTML, audio, and video file transfer.

Support for iWork documents is not available in the initial version.

For transferring files to the device, DataCase adds two folders, a "drop box" where files are placed from the computer to be synced when placed within it, and a "shared files" folder that would allow for the sharing of files when connected to the wireless network.

Users can delete and view files transferred from the iPhone, and it features Apple File Protocol Transfers and Bonjour support, as well as FTP and HTTP connections. To allow for the organization of files, users can split the storage space up to 16 different volumes.

DataCase also allows users to back up files transferred using the program via the backup function that occurs during sync.

While the process is pretty much automatic within Mac OS X, users of Windows will need to connect to the device via FTP or HTTP. Those addresses to connect can be found at the bottom of the application's main screen.

Tests by BetaNews showed that the connections were reliable, and transfer was pretty much painless once the user elected to make the Drop Box folder viewable and browsable via the settings menu for that folder.

As others have reported, we did experience some problems once the application was closed and reopened.

Generally, however, response on iTunes seems to be positive, with the application receiving four and a half stars across 84 reviews.

"After all the garbage that has been piling up here lately it's great to see another awesome and useful app finally make it to the App Store," reviewer mangaphreak wrote.

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Microsoft to stop boxed sales of Money

Although it has been offering its financial suite in a downloadable version for quite some time, beginning with the 2009 version of Money Plus, it will no longer be sold through retail channels.

Microsoft pointed to the fact that last year's sales of its Money personal finance software outpaced in-store sales for the first time in the products history, and more than 50 percent of sales of Money now come from online downloads.

Product manager Chris Jolley said that the "time feels right" for such a shift, and that new efficiencies would be realized across all fronts. Shifting to an all-download model is better for the environment, he added. He also noted the changing attitudes of consumers.

"Today's consumers want instant gratification, and last year's sales percentages show that the immediacy of the download appeals to a large number of customers," he said.

He also pointed out that Microsoft's computer sales partners have asked for flexibility in distribution. "Online distribution means they can provide more inventory of our products, but require less physical space to manage inventory," Jolley explained.

Microsoft is one of the first to take a major application to be sold completely online -- typically such strategies are used by smaller companies who have less capital to spend on packaging and distribution.

So far, most major software developers that utilize an online distribution channel, also sell through typical retail channels. Examples include the tax preparation services offered by both Intuit and H&R Block, TurboTax, and TaxCut, respectively.

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Commercial antivirus software rendered useless in hours

At the Race To Zero contest at DEFCON 16 in Las Vegas last weekend, seven sample viruses and three sample exploits were reverse engineered to the point where they could bypass anti-virus software. The task took one team just over two hours.

Race to Zero is a contest where a series of malicious code samples are given that must be modified to be able to circumvent five anti-virus engines, each sample more difficult than the last.

The contest began with the 20-year-old DOS virus Stoned, then followed with Netsky, Bagel, Sasser, Zlob, Welchia, and Virut.

Exploits included three Microsoft vulnerabilities: one for Word, the Vista animated cursor vulnerability, and the SQL database 2000 engine flaw or "Slammer" Worm. The Word exploit was later discarded from play because few contestants actually had a vulnerable version of Windows 2000 to test upon.

A major motivation for holding the contest was to show just how weak signature-based anti-virus software is and how quickly it can be bypassed. Signature-based anti-virus is the original technique that blocks programs that match known malicious signatures, based on pattern matching. While non CPU-intensive, it has reached the point where many consider it obsolete.

In the security community, however, this is a well-covered point, and some -companies already have moved toward more behavior- and rule-based programs.

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Apple claims $30 million in iPhone software sales

CEO Steve Jobs said that nearly 60 million applications have been downloaded, generating about $1 million in sales per day for the company.

Obviously with an average selling price of 50 cents -- and the minimum charge for an application being 99 cents -- a large portion of iPhone applications downloaded through the Apps Store have been free. Even so, the number is quite impressive.

Sales of third-party applications could reach $360 million in the first year alone, Jobs told The Wall Street Journal. With the 30 percent cut that Apple takes, that would mean $108 million in revenues. He also sounded quite confident that sales would accelerate.

"Who knows, maybe it will be a $1 billion marketplace at some point in time," he mused, saying he had not seen anything like this in his career.

Much of the revenues -- $9 million -- went to the top ten developers. Sega led the pack with its Super Monkey Ball game, generating $3 million in revenues for the company across three million downloads.

Another popular title was the free drug-reference app Epocrates, which was downloaded by 125,000 people, one fifth of them doctors. The company, which shares the app's name, said it was its most successful launch of any mobile device to which it has ported a game.

Jobs also gave the first official word that iPhone 3G does indeed include code within its firmware that would allow the company to "blacklist" applications. He however argued that it was necessary to protect its customers.

He seemed to suggest that it would only be used if an application is found to be malicious after the company had approved it. In the interview, he called it "irresponsible" not to have some kind of protection at all. However, he did not specifically identify the "kill switch," as it has been dubbed, as the specific feature discovered by researcher Jonathan Zdziarski last Thursday, which some have doubted could actually serve that function.

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IAC spinoffs begin early trading tomorrow

Common stock in five companies formerly under the IAC (InterActive Corp.) banner, owners of Ask.com and Match.com, will begin "when-issued" trading on the open market tomorrow under five new stock symbols.

This is the realization of an announcement by the holding company made in November 2007, when it made public its intent to spin off its properties Home Shopping Network (HSN). Ticketmaster, Interval Leisure Group (a real estate and timeshare company), and Lending Tree.

Following that announcement, IAC looked to be grooming search engine provider Ask.com for the position of paramount importance among its properties. The CEO of IAC, Scott Garrell, moved into the position of President at Ask.com, while the CEO position was assumed by Match.com's Jim Safka.

The "New IAC" includes Ask.com, Match.com, Citysearch, Shoebuy.com, ServiceMagic, Evite, Gifts.com, Pronto, CollegeHumor, Zwinky, GarageGames, and RushmoreDrive.

The LendingTree spinoff includes RealEstate.com, Domania, and iNest; the Home Shopping Network spinoff will include Cornerstone Brands, Smith+Noble, Ballard Designs, and Travelsmith.

Interval Leisure Group includes CondoDirect and VacationSource, and Ticketmaster's spinoff includes TicketsNow, GetMeIn, Paciolan, Ticnet, and LiveDaily.

"When-Issued" status is a condition on securities authorized for purchase but not yet issued, but the spinoffs become official on August 21, and regular trading begins.

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Yahoo tweaks advertising policies in response to Congress

Last week, Congress sent letters to Internet platform providers expressing concern over targeted advertising. Now those letters have resulted in action from at least one company, which will now enable users to opt-out.

As part of its new privacy policy announced this afternoon, Yahoo will give its users a choice as to choose whether to opt-out of the company's targeted advertising across its properties. It is already offering its users an option to opt-out of similar ads served by third-party networks.

Yahoo global public policy chief David Hantman announced the new policy as part of its response to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which sent out letters on August 1 to Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, and AOL.

"We want our users to receive ads that are relevant to them -- ads they value. Ads valued by our users are inherently valuable to our advertisers as well, thus enabling a vibrant ecosystem that allows Yahoo to develop and offer more content and services to our users for free due to advertising," Hantman explained.

"However, we understand that there are some users who prefer not to receive customized advertising so we want to offer them transparency and choice about the options that are available to them."

Beginning in August, consumers will be able to use the new opt-out feature, which will be accessible through a "privacy center" link that appears on pages throughout its networks. The feature will also be advertised within a public service campaign Yahoo has been running throughout its ad network to educate users on targeted advertising.

The Commerce Committee requested responses from the Internet ad leaders to a set of 11 questions revolving around the subject of targeting ads to specific users. The congressmen were looking for answers as to how the companies engage in the practice and to what extent, as well as with regard to address privacy and legal concerns.

Responses were due Friday. Although it is not known who else may have responded to the Committee's queries, Yahoo is the first to publicly acknowledge that it is making changes as a result of those concerns.

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Ubuntu attracts the lion's share of LinuxWorld's smaller crowds

Download Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 3 from FileForum now.

Even though attendance was a bit sparse during this year's LinuxWorld Conference & Expo when compared to previous years, the Canonical booth -- where the latest Ubuntu Linux software was being shown off -- still managed to draw a crowd.

Each Ubuntu presentation and training session throughout the three days of LinuxWorld was heavily attended, especially compared to similar sessions elsewhere where relatively few attended. Ubuntu and Linux in general have, Canonical representatives claimed, have finally matured as a technology, rendering the need for an extravagant technology show no longer necessary.

Branching away from regular Ubuntu, there now is Ubuntu Server Edition Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Mythbuntu, Edubuntu, and Ubuntu Mobile Edition, with further permutations likely.

Ubuntu had a hectic week during LinuxWorld, with several different partnership announcements throughout the week.

The biggest Ubuntu announcement was its deal with IBM, announced during day one. Ubuntu signed an agreement with IBM so the two companies can work together to try and move the consumer industry more towards a "Microsoft-free world."

The Open Collaboration Client Solution -- consisting of Lotus Symphony, Lotus Notes, and Lotus Sametime -- can now be used with Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Novell SUSE Linux distributions. Trying to get the IBM-supported software running in Ubuntu before the announcement oftentimes proved to be a headache, while OpenOffice and Abiword are both free and easy to install in Ubuntu.

Canonical will distribute Lotus Symphony through its Web services before the end of August, the company said during LinuxWorld.

Later, Canonical announced a partnership with Alfresco Software, who makes the Alfresco Labs 3 content management platform. Ubuntu will implement a pre-built version of Alfresco Labs 3 in its software repository.

Ubuntu also is working with Unison, which provides telephony, e-mail, and instant messaging in a single server platform. The Unison client previously only operated on Windows-based machines, but the provider has ecently released a Linux client public beta version.

Finally, the Yahoo Zimbra Desktop will also be introduced into the Ubuntu Partner Repository, so Ubuntu users will have facst access to Yahoo Mail, Gmail, AOL mail and other e-mail accounts that are IMAP or POP enabled.

Ubuntu distributed its two latest editions, version 8.04.1 LTS (Hardy Heron) and Kubuntu 8.04. Hardy Heron has been the most popular Ubuntu release to date, with the Wubi Windows-based installer a welcome addition. Wubi is able to install Ubuntu on the same partition used by Windows, without actually partitioning or formatting it.

Canonical is the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, which owns the Ubuntu brand and offers paid commercial support to users.

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Apple pulls $1,000 App Store 'gem' after eight downloads

Armin Heinrich, the developer of the 'I Am Rich' application that sold for $999.99 and does essentially nothing, isn't sure why his submission was pulled from the App Store as it was done without warning.

Eight people are said to have downloaded the program, including six in the US, one in Germany and another in France during the day it was live. Using the App Store's revenue split, Heinrich would have made nearly $5,600 in revenues from an program that essentially does nothing.

Loading up the program simply does one thing: it displays a glowing gem on a black background. You could reportedly make some changes to the gem that appears but that was about it.

Apple initially approved the application on Tuesday, however pulled it on Thursday. Heinrich said that he wasn't informed of why I Am Rich was pulled, as Apple never contacted him. Similarly, the company was not speaking to the media on its reasoning either.

Questions abound as to why Apple would have even allowed the application through in the first place. The $999.99 fee is highest a developer can charge in the App Store, and Apple is believed to check every submission for various standards of quality.

It's obvious that the price far outpaced I Am Rich's functionality in this case.

A screenshot of a purported review that was circling the web may have contributed to Apple's actions. "This is not a joke. I need someone to help me with this scam," reviewer Lee5279xx writes. He tried to get the charge reversed after 'jokingly' purchasing the application, but "no one could get in touch with Armin Heinrich, or Apple to help me with this."

Obviously, I Am Rich is no joke.

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IBM VP urges open source devs to make Linux less like Windows

If Linux is going to make bigger inroads on the desktop, developers need to stop cloning Microsoft Windows and instead produce more unique user interface designs, according to Bob Sutor, IBM's VP of open source and standards.

Sutor made these remarks today at the Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas, a day after IBM issued the latest in an eight-year series of Linux announcements, joining at LinuxWorld with Linux distributors Red Hat, Novell, and Canonical in an initiative to build "Microsoft-free PCs for business."

The VP delivered his recommendations around more creative Linux user interfaces as part of a series of predictions about the future of Linux in the next decade. If developers are building applications for the traditional PC desktop, they are better off copying Apple Macintosh concepts about design and usability, Sutor maintained.

Over the next ten years, he said, Linux will become less focused on x86 PCs, anyway, with more opportunities emerging in cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS). PCs will become less significant as devices, and user interfaces will also be needed for mobile phones and other smaller machines used for accessing the Web.

Sutor also predicted today, for example, that "green" initiatives will help drive greater Linux adoption, and that Linux could see greater acceptance in the future among SMBs, which tend to be more interested in purchasing "solutions" as a whole than OS, applications, and hardware separately.

On the other hand, he said, if Linux hasn't been adopted within any specific vertical industry over the next decade, it's likely that Linux will never experience much use within that specific industry.

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Do-it-yourself phone manufacturer declares its independence tomorrow

Could cuts in telcos' 'terminating rates' be passed on to consumers?

Users who want to lower their cell phone bills could be in for a treat -- or maybe not -- if the FCC responds favorably to a petition filed jointly by the nation's top three wireless providers, backed by powerful industry groups.

In their petition to the US Federal Communications Commission, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and Verizon Wireless -- along with the CTIA, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), the VON Coalition, and other parties -- are mutually seeking uniformity around, and reductions in, the carrier "terminating rates" which service providers charge each other for helping to carry one another's traffic over networks.

The coalition is asking the FCC to initially clarify "the regulatory requirements associated with the fastest growing segment of the communications industry -- Internet Protocol-based technologies."

But the petition also requests the FCC to issue two rulings. One would state that IP-based voice services, if regulated at all, should be subject only to federal jurisdiction. The other would establish "uniform compensation rules" applicable to all traffic exchanged on the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

Quite significantly to carriers -- and possibly, to subscribers, too -- the petitioners are recommending that the new rules "ultimately should result in uniform terminating rates for all carriers at a level below existing inter-carrier compensation rates."

Specifically, the filing is looking for a rate no higher than seven cents per minute of use.

Yet if AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and the other petitioners do get their way with the FCC, it still remains to be seen whether any of the savings gained will be passed along to wireless subscribers.

In recent months, some users have shown their impatience with mobile service providers by hauling carriers into court about a couple of other types of billing items: early termination fees (ETFs), and charges assessed by some carriers for incoming SMS/MMS text messages.

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Openmoko to publish 'open' phone recipes, after dealing with NDAs

Openmoko has finally decided to release the full schematics for its open source, "build-your-own" phones, apparently after the removal of stumbling blocks surrounding non-disclosure agreements for GSM chips.

About a month after shipping its own Neo FreeRunner phone, Openmoko today rolled out plans to post the compete inner workings of that phone and its predecessor, the Neo 1973, on its Web sites at Openmoko.com and Openmoko.org, for use under a Creative Commons (CC) license.

No specific date has yet been set for releasing the schematics, though. In a statement, Openmoko said merely that the files will be posted "in due time."

Also for use under a CC license, Openmoko has already published CAD files aimed at helping developers change the look and feel of the phone case to meet the needs of various vertical markets, for instance.

Not surprisingly, however, some users have wanted full recipes for the Neo 1973, which is now discontinued, and/or the new FreeRunner, which sold out less than one week after its launch on July 4.

"Call me stupid, but I can't find the complete hardware schematics for the Neo1973. Where are they? I'm not just looking for chip data sheets. I am looking for the entire schematics of the phone," wrote one developer in an Openmoko user forum, back in mid-2007.

Yet publication of the full schematics seems to have been delayed by NDA issues, some of them related to GSM chip sets.

"Alas, the powers that be are still reluctant to let us release [the full schematics]. In fact, some of the material there is under NDA, so we won't be able release that in any case. (For example, GSM chipset details.)," responded Werner Almesberger, Openmoko architect, in answer to the user's question.

"The plan is currently to get permission to release the schematics for the debug board (which, after all, is specifically designed to be extended by hardware-savvy users), and then work on doing the same with a simplified version of the Neo1973 schematics," Almesberger wrote at the time.

"'Simplified' could mean to just have a big white box for the GSM chipset, showing only the signal and power inputs and outputs, but not what's going on inside. Not that this would be overly exciting. The details still have to be worked out, but we keep on nagging."

In a statement from LinuxWorld in San Francisco released today, Openmoko said that u-blox AG, Switzerland, maker of the GPS chip in the Openmoko phones, has now endorsed Openmoko's publication of the complete schematics for the GPS chip in the Neo FreeRunner.

"The schematics now document how the GPS chip is wired in the system, providing vital information for developers who want to leverage the GPS functionality for new designs involving the Openmoko phones," according to the statement.

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Toshiba doubles its embedded flash capacity to catch up with Samsung

Thumb drives and portable music players may continue their rapid capacity increase, thanks to #2 flash supplier Toshiba introducing 32 gigabit chips this fall. It's a big gamble, though, for a catch-up player in a declining market.

Just 16 months after the company said it was ready to begin sampling 16 gigabit (Gb) NAND flash memory for embedded devices, using its 56-nanometer lithography process, Toshiba announced late this morning that it would begin sampling 32 Gb embedded flash devices using its 43-nm process in October.

While Toshiba is playing the news as a kind of acceleration of Moore's Law, the fact is, there's a lot more driving Toshiba's motives than just upholding one of Intel's core principles. Flash market leader Samsung had announced it had developed a 40-nm process for fabricating 32 Gb NAND as long ago as September 2006. Those chips are already going into Samsung's solid-state drives.

According to hardware industry analyst iSuppli, Toshiba has been closing the gap with Samsung, making considerable progress throughout 2007. But that gap was actually huge to begin with: Samsung earned 74% more revenue than Toshiba in NAND flash sales in 2006, but 51% more in 2007.

Just a few days ago, iSuppli warned that conditions in the overall memory market were returning to their dismal status of previous years, where supply outpaces demand, inventories swell up, and prices melt down. DRAM prices in the third quarter of this year could decline by as much as 10%; and a much welcomed price rally in NAND this last spring ended up fizzling out.

One potential strategy for fixing this problem could be helping resellers and OEMs to flush out their existing inventories, and suffer the short-term consequences, with the promise of higher-grade, better performing products not far down the pike. That could be part of Toshiba's incentive, besides simply saving face.

One of the key technologies that is enabling this doubling of capacity is multi-level cell (MLC), where the old binary bits we thought would always form the core of computer memory are replaced with multi-state entities. With each new state an MLC cell can represent, capacity is improved by a power of two: thus, 8 Gb NAND in 2006, 16 Gb in '07, and 32 Gb in '08.

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LinuxWorld shows off the latest data center-in-a-truck

Talk about your portable servers. Rackable Systems brought its ICE Cube Modular Data Center to LinuxWorld, demonstrating how companies can literally ship their data centers from city to city, even overseas, in cool comfort.

SAN FRANCISCO (BetaNews) - Self-contained, fully portable, modular servers are becoming more popular because they help reduce data center costs, and these all-in-one data centers can be moved from location to location with ease. Over the past few years, at least two companies have created their modular centers in shipping containers that can be transported by road, rail or air.

Rackable Systems' ICE Cube modular data center has a maximum density of 28 racks of servers, for up to 1,400 units of storage. Each system is fanless to help save power and reduce overall energy costs, only water and power are needed to get ICE Cube fully functioning. ICE Cube currently supports Intel Xeon dual- and quad-core processors, along with IBM's BladeCenter T and BladeCenter HT server families.

The current ICE Cube does not have solar power support, so if power is unavailable in a certain area, a power source and chiller can be deployed in a separate ICE Cube container.

During a recent test of ICE Cube in the Pacific Northwest, Rackable's engineering team evaluated the condensation sensors inside the storage container. The rain and moist air caused chaos when the doors to the container were left open, and the sensors immediately picked up on the moisture and alarms were triggered, Rackable ICE Cube demonstrators told BetaNews. In case of condensation, the sensors will alert engineers while drip pans at the bottom of each rack will collect the moisture.

Rackable recently reached an agreement with IBM to resell BladeCenter servers for the data center, offering customers another choice when it comes to equipping the shipping container. A wider variety of hardware offerings allows Rackable to help widen its reach of possible clients interested in purchasing an ICE Cube away from Internet and cloud-based services to other markets.

Mobile servers are becoming increasingly important because they can be deployed much faster than regular data centers, and can be redeployed more easily than regular server farms. They also can be stored in untraditional locations; for example, it's possible to deploy a shipping container server on top of a rooftop or in an empty parking lot. Uses of these servers range from cloud computing and web-scale computing to high-performance computing and data warehouses, and the demand for such projects continues to grow.

The ICE Cube currently competes with Sun Microsystems' Modular Datacenter S20, better known as Project Blackbox. It can hold up to eight racks for 320 RU total, and 40 RU per rack.

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Three new IBM / Linux partnerships aimed at a ‘Microsoft-free’ world

Oracle boosts its own Linux with ‘templates’ to aid virtualization

Three new IBM / Linux partnerships aimed at a 'Microsoft-free' world

At the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco this week, IBM strengthened its ties with the open source community by announcing partnerships with Canonical, Red Hat and Novell.

SAN FRANCISCO (BetaNews) - IBM hopes adding its software to distributions of Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Suse Linux will help consumers transition to become "Microsoft-free."

Specifically, IBM is working to ensure its Open Collaboration Client Solution, including Lotus Symphony, Lotus Notes, and Lotus Sametime, operate with the three Linux distributions.

Canonical confirmed during the show that it will distribute Lotus Symphony through its own Web services before the end of the month. Red Hat and Novell are expected to follow suit.

Because of the high hardware demands of Windows Vista, Linux software makers have a unique opportunity to work with hardware manufacturers to release PCs and notebooks running Linux and other open source software, IBM said during LinuxWorld. This gives companies considering upgrades to their product offerings -- especially for the holidays -- an opportunity to select a well supported Linux distribution with low hardware requirements compared to Vista.

The Ubuntu booth on the show floor at LinuxWorld also has one IBM stand where an IBM employee is stationed, demonstrating Lotus Symphony operating on Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS. The representative at the booth said that IBM doesn't anticipate an immediate impact, but hopes that the alliance will be able to slowly steal users away from Microsoft.

As part of the tenth anniversary of its involvement with Linux, IBM also launched its first certified open source software designed for Linux-based supercomputers. The latest high-performance computing open source software will be used with the Roadrunner project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory -- until just a few months ago, the world's fastest supercomputer.

Open-sourcing the software will enable the community at large to contribute code samples for the project, and will also be able to test new features and find bugs, IBM said during a press conference.

The new stack will be available first for IBM Power6 processors, but will be expanded to IBM Power 575 supercomputers and IBM x86 platforms over the next few quarters.

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Oracle boosts its own Linux with 'templates' to aid virtualization

In a realm where a "server" is no longer one box with one processor, it isn't always practical to keep reinstalling the same applications for multiple servers. Today, Oracle is proposing a unique solution, involving "templates."

Oracle's server virtualization software, known as Oracle VM, is targeted at supporting server consolidation and systems integration by enabling Oracle and non-Oracle applications, designed to run on different operating systems, to share the same underlying operating environment.

At LinuxWorld today, Oracle unveiled a series of four templates for its server virtualization software, including one for its own Linux distribution, Oracle Enterprise Linux. These templates will save time and money for customers in deploying a full software stack by providing pre-configured images of enterprise software, said Monica Kumar, Oracle's senior director of Linux and open source product marketing, in an interview with BetaNews.

Aside from the template for Oracle Enterprise Linux, the first set includes templates for Oracle Database 11g, Oracle Enterprise Manager, and version 8 of Siebel CRM, a product owned by Oracle since its buyout of Siebel.

Oracle also plans additional VM templates, but the company hasn't decided yet whether VM will use any OS other than Oracle Linux as the underlying virtualization platform, or whether templates will be offered for other OS, Kumar said. "Right now, we're just focusing on Oracle Enterprise Linux," BetaNews was told.

In 2006, Oracle decided to start offering its own flavor of Linux, which is based on open source code from Red Hat Software, an Oracle partner for many years beforehand. At the same time, Oracle launched a Linux customer support program dubbed "Oracle Unbreakable Linux." The move drew considerable controversy, and some industry analysts voiced concerns at the time that tweaking or "forking" of the code by Oracle would produce incompatibilities between the two Linux distributions.

"[But] Oracle Enterprise Linux is fully compatible with Red Hat Linux. It's just like Red Hat, really, but minus the logos and trademarks. We just take the source code and strip that off," Kumar contended.

"An indication of our momentum is that we now have thousands of [Linux] partners. A lot of them support Red Hat, too," she told BetaNews.

Also at LinuxWorld, Oracle announced new partners and certifications on the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Support Program. The new Oracle partners include SGI, 3PAR, ActiveState, Bakbone, FalconStor, Likewise Software, Mellanox Technologies, SteelEye Technology, Inc., Quest Software, Tripwire, TeamQuest, Trusted Computer Solutions, Voltaire, Zeus and Zmanda.

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Bertlesmann bows out of Sony BMG for $1.2 billion

The German publisher has sold its 50 percent stake in the joint music publishing venture, although it plans to retain the catalog rights to certain acts within Europe.

Under Sony management, the Sony BMG publishing group will change its name to Sony Music Entertainment Inc. (SMEI), and would become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony. The Japan-based company will continue to use Bertlesmann-owned Arvato Digital Services for up to six years for its distribution needs, it said this morning.

Tuesday's deal culminates a month of speculation over Bertlesmann's future with the joint venture -- one that was set to expire in August 2009. The music publisher is also coming off a lackluster quarter, with sales down six percent year-over-year.

"Music has been a vital and vibrant part of Sony's culture for over twenty years," Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer said. "This acquisition will allow us to achieve a deeper and more robust integration between the wide-ranging global assets of the music company and Sony's products, operating companies and affiliates."

With the Sony BMG catalog completely under its control, Sony would have an impressive stake in the industry, as it also controls Arista, Columbia, Epic, J Records, Jive, and RCA Records among others.

Bertlesmann is not getting out of the music rights business, however. It will retain the rights to about 200 artists in Europe, which would fall under the BMG brand. Their music will still be distributed under the Sony Music banner, however.

"The many new distribution paths are causing an increase in the demand for music use rights," the company's financial chief Thomas Rabe said. "In view of this fact, we believe that building a business for the management and exploitation of such rights in Europe is an attractive proposition."

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FastBack backup service to move beyond Windows, says IBM

IBM will also offer its FastBack enterprise-class backup service not for just Windows but for other operating environments over time, according to a company product manager in an interview with BetaNews.

John Conner, an IBM product manager for both TSM and TSM FastBack, wasn't able to specify which platforms yet when talking with us. "But we're looking at Linux, Solaris, and AIX, for instance," noted Conner, who is product manager for both TSM and TSM FastBack.

IBM's TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager) FastBack is its new storage back-up product based on technology obtained through its FilesX acquisition. The company released FastBack only 90 days after its acquisition of FilesX in April during a recent storage company buying spree. Enabled with continuous data protection (CDP) and file-level blocking, FastBack is designed to provide managed back-up among both SMBs (small to medium-sized business) and distributed enterprises, Conner said.

He predicted that in enterprise settings, the product will be used right now largely for remotely administered implementations at branch offices.

Currently, TSM FastBack supports disk-enabled backup and "near-instant" recovery of Windows-based file servers and applications that include Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and IBM's DB2 database, for example.

FastBack replaces an earlier product from Tivoli, known as TSM Express, observed Lauren Whitehouse, a senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group, in another interview.

"[But] TSM Express was a file-based, batch-style backup more reliant on tape media," the analyst told BetaNews. "There is nothing truly unique about FastBack. There are other solutions like it in the market. [Yet] IBM has a strong brand, worldwide channel, and large customer base that it can leverage with FastBack."

Conner told BetaNews that IBM Tivoli views EMC and Symantec as among its top competitors in the storage market. He added that IBM plans deeper integration for FastBack -- as well as for technology garnered through recent acquisitions of Diligent, Softek, and Arsenal Digital -- into IBM's TSM line-up.

"There could be other applications of FastBack -- such as in IBM BCRS's online backup solution, [based on the] acquisition of Arsenal Digital. Deduplication from Digilent could be applied," Whitehouse suggested, referring to a process in which multiple logical copies of files are represented by single physical copies. "Replication capabilities from Softek could be interesting," she added.

TSM FastBack can be purchased either alone or as part of the TSM FastBack Center, which also includes two related software products: Fastback for Microsoft Exchange, and FastBack for Bare Machine Recovery.

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Apple's fix for major DNS security hole finally arrives

Nearly three weeks after Microsoft patched its Windows operating system to protect against attacks exploiting a flaw within the DNS system, Apple has delivered its own fix.

The DNS flaw, discovered by security researcher Dan Kaminsky, allows attackers to divert traffic to Web sites of their choice through an issue with BIND, software that powers DNS servers.

While a random transaction ID is produced to initiate the communication, certain setups cause the number of possibilities to decrease, thus making guessing the correct ID easier. Kaminsky even said there was a way to guess correctly in only a couple tries.

Microsoft's response was near immediate, as was Linux distributor Debian's. For unknown reasons, however, Apple did not fix the problem at the time of disclosure, and the exploit code's accidental leak late last month made action all the more necessary.

While Kaminsky was scheduled to detail the issue at the annual Black Hat conference on July 24, the exploit code appeared on the Internet a day earlier.

Microsoft saw the issue as so important that it took the unusual step of reminding customers of the patch on July 25. The company also acknowledged the existence of exploit code at that time.

For Apple customers, the DNS fix is available for Mac OS X v10.4.11, Mac OS X Server v10.4.11, Mac OS X v10.5.4, and Mac OS X Server v10.5.4. Users can download the security update through Apple's Web site or use the Software Update feature within the operating system.

In addition to the DNS patch, Apple also fixed a Microsoft Office file issue where a problem with QuickLook could lead to code execution, according to an advisory.

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Congress' probe of target advertising expands to 33 companies

Microsoft and Google are among those who have received letters from four members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee expressing concerns over their online advertising methodologies.

The letter asks the companies to respond by Friday to eleven questions revolving around the subject of targeting ads to specific users, based on behavior or other disseminated factors. The congressmen are looking for answers as to how the companies engage in the practice and to what extent, as well as with regard to address privacy and legal concerns.

"As you may know, questions have been raised regarding the applicability of privacy protections...to such practices, and whether legislation is needed to ensure that the same protections apply regardless of the particular technologies or companies involved," the letter reads (PDF available here).

It is signed by Commerce Committee Chair Rep. John Dingell (D - Mich.), ranking member Joe Barton (R - Texas), as well as Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee Chair Rep. Edward Markey (D - Mass.), and ranking member Cliff Stearns (R - Fla.).

"Privacy is a cornerstone of freedom. Online users have a right to explicitly know when their broadband provider is tracking their activity and collecting potentially sensitive and personal information," Markey said in a statement.

Other than Microsoft and Google, AOL and Yahoo were sent letters. In addition, cable companies were sent notices including Bright House, Cox, Comcast, and Time Warner, and telecommunications companies were not immune: AT&T, Qwest, and Verizon were also targeted.

Congress voted last week to adjourn for the summer recess, ironically one week after it had moved up its original vote for adjournment by one week.

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Next-generation FireWire finalized, but USB 3.0 will be faster

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recently approved IEEE 1394-2008, a faster version of the standard known to most simply as FireWire and used for connecting PCs with digital video devices or external hard drives.

"The new standard includes all of the amendments, enhancements and more than 100 errata which have been added to the base standard over the last 12 years," IEEE chair of the working group Les Baxter said in a statement. "This update provides developers with a single document they can rely upon for all of their application needs."

Specifically, the new classification will help increase the speed of FireWire from its current maximum of 800Mbit per second (with FireWire 800) to up to 3.2Gbit per second. Along with the S3200 that offers 3.2 Gbps transfer rates, the IEEE also approved S1600, which will offer 1.6 Gbit/sec. IEEE 1394 will eventually be scaled up to 6.4Gbit/sec, the organization indicated.

Both interfaces can be used with existing FireWire 800 cables, easing the migration for users of the current standard.

FireWire has been popular among Sony and Apple products, but most of the PC industry still relies on USB to help power devices and transfer data. Even with the anticipated speed increase, it's still highly unlikely that FireWire will be widely adopted.

Still, the format's backers say that after being published in 1995, more than 500 million IEEE 1394 ports have been manufactured.

The IEEE expects FireWire 3200 to roll out in October. Products with the new standard will not go on sale immediately, manufacturers will need to implement the technology into future products. Apple is largely expected to be the first company using FireWire 3200.

The October launch is absolutely crucial because the Intel-backed USB 3.0 is expected to arrive by the end of 2008, bringing with it a maximum speed of 4.8Gbps. USB 2.0 offers speeds of 480Mbit per second, which still gave manufacturers a use for FireWire 800.

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Apple's latest headache: some iPhones developing cracks

Posters to Apple's support forums are complaining of what appears to be a defect in the iPhone 3Gs casing, which is causing hairline cracks.

It appears from a search of the initial thread in question that the cracks are most commonly appearing around the headphone jack, ringer switch, and volume controls.

That could suggest the manufacturing process may be causing some type of weakness near these areas, and put under regular use, the defects appear in the form of small cracks.

Affected iPhone 3G users say that in some cases the cracks have become more numerous. It is not clear if the cracks will grow over time, although the issue is enough to raise the ire of iPhone buyers who have had the new device for less than a month.

"Does Apple not stress test anything any more? They make these incredibly beautiful products, but what good is beauty if it's going to crack, scratch, turn yellow, have the paint peel off, etc with normal and even delicate every day use," poster Charles Laine lamented.

While initially it seemed as if the problem was isolated to owners of the white model, it now appears that cracks are occurring on the black version as well. The reason why it may not be noticed as often is due to the color hiding the cracks better, some have surmised.

Getting the iPhone replaced has led to mixed results. While some Apple retail locations and partners are replacing the phones at no cost, at least one customer in Canada was told the cracks would be ruled "customer abuse" and he would be charged the full replacement value.

It is also being reported that Apple Geniuses are turning customers away because the cracks are not a known issue and only cosmetic, according to one blog post.

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FCC finds Comcast in violation of net neutrality rules for BitTorrent blocking

The Federal Communications Commission has concluded its vote on Comcast, finding the cable operator in violation of net neutrality rules by a margin of 3-2, but it will not issue fines.

Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, as well as Republican chairman Kevin Martin were reported earlier this week to have voted in favor of taking action against Comcast for secretly degrading or blocking peer-to-peer traffic -- specifically that used by BitTorrent.

The FCC served Comcast with a cease-and-desist order, demanding it end its throttling of BitTorrent traffic, and requiring the cable provider inform subscribers of its traffic management policies. For its part, Comcast said it hasn't been throttling or blocking traffic since March, and only did so to protect the integrity of its network.

FCC Chairman Kevin Marin said, "Consumers deserve to know that the commitment [to stop arbitrary blocking] is backed up by legal enforcement."

This is the first ever violation of net neutrality rules, and details of the case will not be available for some time. Dissenting commissioner Robert McDowell, however, believes this ruling will be "doomed" in appeal.

Comcast Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Government Affairs Sena Fitzmaurice today issued a statement regarding the FCC's ruling, saying: "[We] believe that the Commission's order raises significant due process concerns and a variety of substantive legal questions.  We are considering all our legal options and are disappointed that the commission rejected our attempts to settle this issue without further delays."

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Toyota developing a Segway-like transportation device

Better known for its automobiles, Toyota is now planning to move into the personal transport business with the "Winglet," scheduled to become available in the early part of the next decade.

The devices seem to share a lot in common with the Segway, which pioneered the category with its Human Transporter. In fact, the design of Toyota's "L" Winglet model looks quite similar.

In addition to the "L," Toyota is developing two other models, the "S" and the "M" (ostensibly corresponding to small, medium, large), which are shorter and appear to have different intended uses. The "M" model is shorter and looks designed for younger rides, while the "S" appears to be a "hands-free" device -- like a Segway without a handle.

Internal sensors will monitor the user's position on the Winglet and allow for steering using shifting of body weight, much like the Segway operates. In addition, the Winglet will have a similar stability mechanism to ensure a rider does not fall off the device. Of course, we all know that this is not necessarily the case, as so aptly demonstrated by President Bush in 2003.

Initial tests of the practical use of the Winglet will begin in the fall at Central Japan International Airport, and Laguna Gamagori, a seaside marine resort. Toyota researchers will be looking at the device's usefulness for mobility. This will be followed by tests of the Winglet's use in crowds and non-owners reactions to the device in 2009 in the Tressa Yokohama shopping complex in Yokohama City.

No specific date has been given for the Winglet's expected commercial release, if Toyota succeeds in bringing the transporter to market.

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Bill to ban in-flight mobile phone calls goes to House

Bill to ban in-flight mobile phone calls goes to House

A bill that calls for a ban on all in-flight cellular voice calls will be put up for vote before the full House of Representatives after being approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee.

Chairman of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Peter DeFazio (D-OR.) introduced HR 5788, or the HANG UP (Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace) Act in April of this year, and it was approved in the Transportation and Infrastructure committee on Thursday.

DeFazio presents the bill (PDF here) not so much as a safety measure, but rather one of convenience for travelers.

"With airline customer satisfaction at an all time low, this is not the time to consider making airplane travel even more torturous. Polls show the public overwhelmingly doesn't want to be subjected to people talking on their cell phones on increasingly over-packed airplanes," he says

DeFazio continued to explain that not only is it an annoyance, but potentially an added cost to passengers. Since in-flight Internet access is still a nascent onboard feature, it could be exploited by struggling airlines seeking to add revenue.

"In-flight voice communication poses a potential revenue source for airlines both because they could charge passengers to sit in a non-talking section and charge people to use their phones," he said. "The HANG UP Act, would ensure that financially strapped airlines don't drive us towards this noisome disruption in search of further revenue."

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Yahoo tries to make Delicious bookmarking site more mainstream

Yahoo's social bookmarking site Delicious (formerly del.icio.us) has received its long-awaited user interface overhaul, which the company hopes will attract more mainstream users and make the site less niche.

Since acquiring del.icio.us in late 2005, Yahoo has gradually moved the service into a more accessible realm. It has also been moved from its clever, but easy to mis-type .us domain to the much simpler Delicious.com.

The site's layout has been changed to improve uptake in new users, while maintaining essential elements for existing users. Yahoo has also announced increased overall speed through a "new infrastructure that makes ever page faster," and the search engine has also been refined to quicken searches.

The redesigned interface change breaks Delicious into navigation tabs: Home, Bookmarks, People, and Tags.

Unfortunately, the debut of the redesigned site lacks a certain degree of "punch" for several reasons. First, there has been an invitation-only preview site in place since last year, and detailed synopses of the redesign have existed for just as long. Also, Delicious' founder Joshua Schachter resigned from his post at Yahoo only a matter of weeks before this launch after it had been repeatedly delayed.

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