Peter Nowak, Financial Post
Published: Thursday, December 28, 2006
There's a battle going on to connect your living room to the Internet, and it is about to intensify as two tech titans -- Microsoft Corp. and Apple Computer Inc. -- gear up for the next round of their decades- long rivalry.
But it's not just the next chapter in this classic feud. The fight for the connected living room -- in which television, movies, games, music and the Internet will all be downloaded to your TV screen -- looks to forever change the way people consume entertainment at home.
"It's really going to be a Goliath battle," says John Ruffolo, national leader for Deloitte & Touche's technology, media and telecommunications practice. "Whoever wins, it's going to be the great big business opportunity for the next number of years."
The main driver of the Internet's move from the den to the living room is video, in the form of paid television and movie downloads. It's a trend that started in 2006 and is expected to blast off in 2007, with retailers including Amazon.com and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also getting in on the trend.
A report last week by U.S. market research firm NPD Group expects paid video downloads to double or triple in the next year. Strategy Analytics sees the market growing to US$1.4-billion in 2007 from US$298-million in 2006, and rising to nearly US$6-billion by 2010.
"2007 will be remembered as the year in which online sales of pre-recorded video finally became a real business," says Martin Olausson, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics' broadband media and communications service. "Just like with music, online delivery of video content is now emerging as a viable and increasingly important distribution channel for content owners."
While such video services are typically available only in the United States so far, they are expected to migrate north once the business models prove themselves over the next year.
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft is in the driver's seat with its Xbox 360 video-game console and associated online subscription service, Xbox Live. The console, launched a year ago, is aimed primarily at gamers, but Microsoft is increasingly talking it up as a full, Internet-connected multimedia machine. It is capable of wirelessly connecting with a person's PC and streaming the media on it to the television.
Xbox Live, meanwhile, has been offering online gaming for some time, but this year added television downloads in the United States for between US$2 and US$3 an episode, along with other video content, including free music videos and movie trailers. Two weeks ago, Microsoft took the long-expected step of adding movie rental downloads in standard and high-definition formats, ranging from US$3 to US$4 each, to Xbox Live's U.S. offerings.
The company says Xbox Live has four million subscribers worldwide (it does not break down numbers by country) and is projecting six million by the end of June. Microsoft expects to have sold 10 million Xbox 360 consoles by the end of this year, with about two-thirds of those connected to Xbox Live. So far, more than 70 million pieces of content have been downloaded since the 360 launched, a number Microsoft expects will grow significantly in 2007.
Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Computer also got in on the action in 2006, and plans to accelerate its move into the living room in the coming year. In May, the iPod maker introduced television episodes for US$1.99 each to its online iTunes store and in September added full movies for US$12.99.
Chief executive Steve Jobs also in September announced a device tentatively called "iTV," to be released in the first quarter of 2007. The device will wirelessly connect the television in the living room with the computer in the den and is expected to allow users to access iTunes from their TVs.
Apple says it has sold more than 1.5 billion music tracks and tens of millions television episodes and movies through iTunes. Analysts estimate it has about 90% of the paid video download market and is therefore well-positioned for the coming boom.
Yet, dozens of telecommunications and technology companies have for years tried and failed to connect the living room to the Internet, so why is it taking off now?
NPD says increased levels of broadband access, powerful and fast computers with DVD writers, portable video devices and file-sharing services are combining to make Internet video consumption easier. Better wireless broadband connectivity is also saving consumers from having to run wires between their den and living room.
Microsoft is one of those firms guilty of trying and failing with its Windows Media PC, which came out before the technology was ready, Mr. Ruffolo says.
"They were coming out with this concept, but the basic infrastructure wasn't really there. Everything is now ready from a technological perspective, whereas five years ago Microsoft was premature."
The original Xbox, the predecessor to the 360, was the software company's first real attempt at cracking the living room. When the Xbox was released five years ago, it was obvious it was about more than just video games. It differed from its peers by virtue of having a hard drive and broadband port, meaning it was designed to connect to the Internet, download content and store it. The Xbox was instantly dubbed a "PC in disguise."
Its successor, the 360, has a wireless broadband connection and high-definition graphic ability, which means it's tailor-made for downloadable video content, Microsoft says.
"People are on their couches looking to be entertained. Gaming is a big part of that, but it can be so much more," says Jason Anderson, marketing manager of Xbox Canada. "It's time to broaden."
Despite Microsoft's head start, however, it's Apple that is being seen as the force that will drive the explosive growth of the Internet in the living room. While the Xbox 360 requires some technical know-how to connect wirelessly, Apple has built its reputation on making easy to-use, aesthetically pleasing products, a fact that is particularly obvious in its dominance of the music-player market with the hugely successful iPod. If Apple's iTV is as easy to use as the iPod, consumers could flock to downloading television episodes and movies from iTunes.
Apple is a secretive company that rarely comments about its future products, and declined to talk about its iTV device for this article.
It's not all Microsoft and Apple, however, as Sony Corp. also wants a piece of the pie. Its recently launched Play- Station 3 video game console has all the same features of the 360 -- hard drive storage, broadband connectivity and high-definition graphics -- and in addition lets users surf the Web and check their e-mail. Sony also says it has two advantages over Microsoft and Apple: the Japanese company has its own extensive movie and music content, and it can offer interactivity with its Play Station Portable handheld device.
"The ace we have up our sleeve at this point is that they can't replicate our 10- year heritage of making great games," says Matt Levitan, marketing manager of Sony Computer Entertainment Canada. "So although [Apple]may be able to provide something that can download or view movies or songs, we also have the game-play element on [the PSP], which is something they can't really address."
Sony's online presence is in its infancy, but the company plans to integrate its various offerings. For example, consumers will be able to download movies or music from Sony's online store to their PS3, then access the stored media with their PSP from any wireless Internet hotspot in the world.
Analysts tend to discount Sony as a serious player, despite the fact it is still the market leader in video games, and peg it as a company in disarray. Its content ownership and diversity as a company
could also actually prove to be a disadvantage.
"I don't think it's provided any sort of cost or business advantage to Sony," Mr. Ruffolo says. "Frankly, the evidence is there that it might actually be a liability. It's not in their core competency. If you speak to the folks at Sony in Japan, do they really know how to run a movie business? Can they run a music studio?"
Another serious player could be San Jose, Calif.-based networking company Cisco Systems Inc., which currently makes digital television receivers through its Scientific Atlanta subsidiary for cable firms. The company is planning to release a cable bypass box that will allow consumers to download television and movies. Cisco's advantage is that it actually builds and understands the broadband connections necessary for the delivery of all the content, analysts say.
"Cisco actually might be the scariest of the three. They are a scary company because they get the critical aspect of this -- it's the pipe," says California based technology analyst Rob Enderle of The Enderle Group. "Cisco is heavily versed in that back-end infrastructure and they know how to tune that."
Mr. Enderle says Cisco is not likely to go it alone, however, and will more probably market its service as an enhanced broadband offering in partnership with telephone companies.
Ironically, the Internet-connected living room is a competitive threat to cable and telephone companies alike. Both types of providers are increasingly getting into offering on-demand, digital, high-definition video over their high-speed Internet networks. Phone and cable providers are finding it disingenuous that companies such as Microsoft and Apple are using their own networks to compete against them, so they are taking steps to slow them.
BCE Inc., for example, recently announced its broadband subscribers will be billed according to how much they download, a move analysts say is clearly designed to slow Internet video consumption.
In the end, the battle for the Internet connected living room will come down to whoever has the best business model, Mr. Enderle says.
Pay-per-view services generally have not done well, and some sort of all-you can-eat download subscription services are sure to emerge over the next year. Microsoft may have the early advantage, he says, but "it's not an extreme advantage."
Mr. Ruffolo, meanwhile, says it's a bad idea to give too much credit to Apple based on its success with the iPod.
"People have been dismissing Microsoft in the last year or two, but I never count those guys out."
pnowak@nationalpost.com
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Next-gen turns on ‘Gears,’ Wii
In the accompanying stories, our most frequent video-game reviewers name their favorites of the year.
1. “Gears of War” (Xbox 360). The best next-generation game to date. Extraordinary graphics and strong enough to ease the wait for Halo 3.
2. “Superman Returns” (Xbox 360, Xbox, PS2, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance). For no other reason than it’s the first Superman video game to not completely stink. The graphics on the next-gen version could be better, but it makes up for it with fun gameplay and easy use of all of Supe’s powers. Just flying around Metropolis is a game in itself.
3. “Madden 07” (Xbox 360, Xbox, PSP, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, PS2, Nintendo GameCube, PC). For football gamers, it will always be a must-have. The current-generation version outshines the next-gen version with better controls, gameplay and more options.
4. “NHL 07” (Xbox 360, Xbox, PS2, PSP, PC). The Xbox 360 version is the first sports game on a next-gen console that is, hands down, better than its current-gen counterpart. The game speed is fast and realistic (unlike most next-gen sports games).
5. “MVP 06 NCAA Baseball” (Xbox, PS2). The best baseball game on the market, period. Gameplay is quick; controls are smooth. Even the ping is authentic. It’s a shame EA lost the rights to make MLB games, because this game outshines any pro baseball game competition, current or next-gen.
– David Betancourt
1. “Oblivion” (PC, Xbox 360, PS3). Easily the best role-playing game ever and possibly the best overall title, Oblivion is the only game to create a massive living world that looks gorgeous to boot. The non-player characters are so real; it’s almost like a massively multiplayer game, only without all the idiots breaking character. In fact, my only complaint is that having all the responsibilities to the game’s various factions comes a little too close to mirroring the stresses of real life.
2. “Hitman: Blood Money” (PC, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360). Most shooters rate you by the body count you rack up, but the ideal assassin here can slip past electronic security efforts and an army of guards, eliminate the target and leave without anyone noticing. Part MacGyver and part murderer, antihero Agent 47 raises killing to an art form, but only in the hands of an intelligent player. And three words describe the ultimate assassination mission the game closes with: the White House.
3. “Company of Heroes” (PC). This gets my nod for best real-time strategy game this year. Excellent voice acting, beautiful graphics, a fully destructible environment, difficult missions, a great World War II setting and exciting gameplay make every level thrilling as you push Able Company from the beaches of Normandy to Berlin.
4. “DarkStar One” (PC). A big fan of non-linear gameplay, I was overjoyed to find this simulation game, which opens the universe for exploration in a spaceship that you can upgrade in different ways, making it anything from a speedy fighter to a lumbering battle cruiser. DarkStar One lets you set your own career path as well, from a peaceful trading merchant to a bloodthirsty mercenary.
5. “Star Wars: Empire at War” (PC). Considering LucasArts has tried for years to make a real-time strategy game based in the “Star Wars” universe, this deserves special mention because the creators finally got it right. Forget “Rebellion,” “Force Commander” and “Galactic Battlegrounds” (all failures), and jump right to “Empire at War.” A great mix of beautiful fleet space combat and ground missions, the game will have you conquering planets and trying to rule or liberate the galaxy. The recently released “Forces of Corruption” expansion pack adds pirates as a playable army and further expands the game world.
– John Breeden II
1. Nintendo Wii. No gaming system is likely to expand video games to the mass market more than Wii. Despite the weird name, it’s the most accessible game platform out there, thanks to its motion-sensor controls that entice gamers to get off the couch and physically get into the games. The included Wii Sports games alone make this $250 system worth the price.
2. “Guitar Hero II” (PlayStation 2). A game aimed at the non-traditional gaming audience, this sequel allows anyone to become a virtual rock star. The key to this rhythm-based game’s success is the guitar controller, which is just plain fun to use. The soundtrack of more than 55 hard-rocking songs and two-player cooperative support is like selling out Madison Square Garden.
3. “Gears of War” (Xbox 360). There are many reasons to buy an Xbox 360, but none better than Epic’s sci-fi shooter Gears of War. This game introduces a new franchise for Bill Gates’ company and revolutionizes online multiplayer gaming with four-on-four skirmishes that include guns with chain saws on the tip.
4. “Brain Age” (Nintendo DS). This game franchise has been helping sell Nintendo’s dual-screen gaming device to both hard-core and casual gamers. These games train your brain to think better in fun and innovative ways. Play these and you will get smarter.
5. “Resistance: Fall of Man” (PlayStation 3) Insomniac Games’ first-person shooter shows the potential of the PlayStation 3. Set in an alternate-universe 1952, players engage aliens and hybrid enemies using World War II-era weapons and high-tech gadgets.
– John Gaudiosi
1. “Gears of War” (Xbox 360). With its breathtaking visuals, hard-core action and brilliant multiplayer option, Gears of War is the reason to own an Xbox 360. After you let your chain saw rip through your first bad guy, it’ll make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
2. “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas” (Xbox 360). This latest in the venerable franchise takes tactical shooters to the next level. Don’t let the game’s difficulty deter you; you’ll get better as you go. Saving hostages has never been this much fun.
3. “Need for Speed Carbon” (Xbox 360 and PS3). Once again, EA has created the ultimate in racing games. New cars, new tracks and new competition – it’s all about speed, baby, and Carbon takes it to you. Canyon races are the bomb!
4. “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” (Nintendo Wii). Our hero, Link, is back, and his magical land of Hyrule has never looked so good. Coming to the Wii brings new control dynamics that put players right smack into the action. This truly is a magical title.
5. “Resistance: Fall of Man” (PS3). Easily the best game on the PS3, Resistance has players taking down the evil chimeras that have overtaken Europe. Fantastic graphics, superb audio and multiplayer games with more than 40 players – that’s right, 40 players. Good times.
– Tom Ham
1. “Gears of War” (Xbox 360). The best next-generation game to date. Extraordinary graphics and strong enough to ease the wait for Halo 3.
2. “Superman Returns” (Xbox 360, Xbox, PS2, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance). For no other reason than it’s the first Superman video game to not completely stink. The graphics on the next-gen version could be better, but it makes up for it with fun gameplay and easy use of all of Supe’s powers. Just flying around Metropolis is a game in itself.
3. “Madden 07” (Xbox 360, Xbox, PSP, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, PS2, Nintendo GameCube, PC). For football gamers, it will always be a must-have. The current-generation version outshines the next-gen version with better controls, gameplay and more options.
4. “NHL 07” (Xbox 360, Xbox, PS2, PSP, PC). The Xbox 360 version is the first sports game on a next-gen console that is, hands down, better than its current-gen counterpart. The game speed is fast and realistic (unlike most next-gen sports games).
5. “MVP 06 NCAA Baseball” (Xbox, PS2). The best baseball game on the market, period. Gameplay is quick; controls are smooth. Even the ping is authentic. It’s a shame EA lost the rights to make MLB games, because this game outshines any pro baseball game competition, current or next-gen.
– David Betancourt
1. “Oblivion” (PC, Xbox 360, PS3). Easily the best role-playing game ever and possibly the best overall title, Oblivion is the only game to create a massive living world that looks gorgeous to boot. The non-player characters are so real; it’s almost like a massively multiplayer game, only without all the idiots breaking character. In fact, my only complaint is that having all the responsibilities to the game’s various factions comes a little too close to mirroring the stresses of real life.
2. “Hitman: Blood Money” (PC, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360). Most shooters rate you by the body count you rack up, but the ideal assassin here can slip past electronic security efforts and an army of guards, eliminate the target and leave without anyone noticing. Part MacGyver and part murderer, antihero Agent 47 raises killing to an art form, but only in the hands of an intelligent player. And three words describe the ultimate assassination mission the game closes with: the White House.
3. “Company of Heroes” (PC). This gets my nod for best real-time strategy game this year. Excellent voice acting, beautiful graphics, a fully destructible environment, difficult missions, a great World War II setting and exciting gameplay make every level thrilling as you push Able Company from the beaches of Normandy to Berlin.
4. “DarkStar One” (PC). A big fan of non-linear gameplay, I was overjoyed to find this simulation game, which opens the universe for exploration in a spaceship that you can upgrade in different ways, making it anything from a speedy fighter to a lumbering battle cruiser. DarkStar One lets you set your own career path as well, from a peaceful trading merchant to a bloodthirsty mercenary.
5. “Star Wars: Empire at War” (PC). Considering LucasArts has tried for years to make a real-time strategy game based in the “Star Wars” universe, this deserves special mention because the creators finally got it right. Forget “Rebellion,” “Force Commander” and “Galactic Battlegrounds” (all failures), and jump right to “Empire at War.” A great mix of beautiful fleet space combat and ground missions, the game will have you conquering planets and trying to rule or liberate the galaxy. The recently released “Forces of Corruption” expansion pack adds pirates as a playable army and further expands the game world.
– John Breeden II
1. Nintendo Wii. No gaming system is likely to expand video games to the mass market more than Wii. Despite the weird name, it’s the most accessible game platform out there, thanks to its motion-sensor controls that entice gamers to get off the couch and physically get into the games. The included Wii Sports games alone make this $250 system worth the price.
2. “Guitar Hero II” (PlayStation 2). A game aimed at the non-traditional gaming audience, this sequel allows anyone to become a virtual rock star. The key to this rhythm-based game’s success is the guitar controller, which is just plain fun to use. The soundtrack of more than 55 hard-rocking songs and two-player cooperative support is like selling out Madison Square Garden.
3. “Gears of War” (Xbox 360). There are many reasons to buy an Xbox 360, but none better than Epic’s sci-fi shooter Gears of War. This game introduces a new franchise for Bill Gates’ company and revolutionizes online multiplayer gaming with four-on-four skirmishes that include guns with chain saws on the tip.
4. “Brain Age” (Nintendo DS). This game franchise has been helping sell Nintendo’s dual-screen gaming device to both hard-core and casual gamers. These games train your brain to think better in fun and innovative ways. Play these and you will get smarter.
5. “Resistance: Fall of Man” (PlayStation 3) Insomniac Games’ first-person shooter shows the potential of the PlayStation 3. Set in an alternate-universe 1952, players engage aliens and hybrid enemies using World War II-era weapons and high-tech gadgets.
– John Gaudiosi
1. “Gears of War” (Xbox 360). With its breathtaking visuals, hard-core action and brilliant multiplayer option, Gears of War is the reason to own an Xbox 360. After you let your chain saw rip through your first bad guy, it’ll make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
2. “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas” (Xbox 360). This latest in the venerable franchise takes tactical shooters to the next level. Don’t let the game’s difficulty deter you; you’ll get better as you go. Saving hostages has never been this much fun.
3. “Need for Speed Carbon” (Xbox 360 and PS3). Once again, EA has created the ultimate in racing games. New cars, new tracks and new competition – it’s all about speed, baby, and Carbon takes it to you. Canyon races are the bomb!
4. “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” (Nintendo Wii). Our hero, Link, is back, and his magical land of Hyrule has never looked so good. Coming to the Wii brings new control dynamics that put players right smack into the action. This truly is a magical title.
5. “Resistance: Fall of Man” (PS3). Easily the best game on the PS3, Resistance has players taking down the evil chimeras that have overtaken Europe. Fantastic graphics, superb audio and multiplayer games with more than 40 players – that’s right, 40 players. Good times.
– Tom Ham
Google Blog Search outpaces Technorati
Technorati may have been crowned king of blog searches ever since blogs started to make it big, but new market share numbers suggest that the popular blog search site could be taking the back seat to Google's Blog Search. Web market share analysis firm Hitwise says that, according to their numbers from last week, Google Blog Search has finally surpassed Technorati in web traffic—Google Blog Search now accounting to 0.025 percent of all web traffic and Technorati accounting for 0.023 percent.
Google launched its Blog Search service in September of 2005 and has been running it alongside Google's own Blogger Blog Search ever since—the latter of which was sharing roughly the same amount of traffic as Technorati for much of this year. That was up until October, when Google Blog Search got linked up with the popular Google News service, causing a 168 percent surge in market share for Google Blog Search. Google Blog Search now receives about 60 percent of its total traffic from Google News, according to Hitwise.
Although the difference in market share is currently rather small, the difference in demographic between the two is not. While only 10 percent of Technorati's audience is composed of 18-24 year olds, it seems that a whopping 34 percent of Google Blog Search's audience is made up of the highly-coveted age group. Google News's overall audience, by comparison, is only 15 percent 18-24 year olds. "This could indicate that the younger users of Google News are much more likely to click on the 'search blogs' link than the older users," said Hitwise's LeAnn Prescott.
Since the surge in October, Blogger Search's market share lost out to Google's fairly quickly (as would be expected). Now, with Technorati's drop in traffic, Google Blog Search has eked out its first win—for now. With such frequent ups and downs in traffic, it wouldn't be too surprising to see Technorati overtake Google (and Google overtake Technorati again; wash, rinse, repeat) a few more times over the coming months before one emerges as the clear leader once again. However, if a recent rumor is to be believed about Technorati and PR firm Edelman splitting up in the near future, Technorati could in fact see some difficult times ahead.
Google launched its Blog Search service in September of 2005 and has been running it alongside Google's own Blogger Blog Search ever since—the latter of which was sharing roughly the same amount of traffic as Technorati for much of this year. That was up until October, when Google Blog Search got linked up with the popular Google News service, causing a 168 percent surge in market share for Google Blog Search. Google Blog Search now receives about 60 percent of its total traffic from Google News, according to Hitwise.
Although the difference in market share is currently rather small, the difference in demographic between the two is not. While only 10 percent of Technorati's audience is composed of 18-24 year olds, it seems that a whopping 34 percent of Google Blog Search's audience is made up of the highly-coveted age group. Google News's overall audience, by comparison, is only 15 percent 18-24 year olds. "This could indicate that the younger users of Google News are much more likely to click on the 'search blogs' link than the older users," said Hitwise's LeAnn Prescott.
Since the surge in October, Blogger Search's market share lost out to Google's fairly quickly (as would be expected). Now, with Technorati's drop in traffic, Google Blog Search has eked out its first win—for now. With such frequent ups and downs in traffic, it wouldn't be too surprising to see Technorati overtake Google (and Google overtake Technorati again; wash, rinse, repeat) a few more times over the coming months before one emerges as the clear leader once again. However, if a recent rumor is to be believed about Technorati and PR firm Edelman splitting up in the near future, Technorati could in fact see some difficult times ahead.
Ford US cars to get bluetooth, Microsoft operating system
DETROIT (MarketWatch) -- Ford Motor Co. (F) will unveil next month a hands-free Bluetooth wireless system and in-vehicle operating system developed by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) as an option for its entire Ford brand lineup. The system will integrate some of the features of a personal computer into a car's cockpit, according to sources familiar with the auto maker's plans.
The move is Ford's latest attempt to spruce up its U.S. product portfolio and follows the company's recent decisions to expand satellite radio offerings and introduce features such as connection jacks for Apple Computer Inc.'s (AAPL) iPod music player. The new system, to be dubbed "Sync," will allow for hands-free cellphone communication and other wireless information transfers inside the car, including the ability to receive email.
In many cases, the technology will be integrated into a navigation system. The technology is based on Microsoft's automotive operating system, which has been under development in recent years.
Ford's Sync system will debut next year as an option on at least two Ford brand models that are to be refreshed in 2007 - the Focus and Five Hundred sedans, according to one source briefed on the company's plan. The auto maker plans to offer the system as an option on the entire Ford brand lineup, including trucks, starting in the 2008 model year, according to that source. Eventually, the Lincoln and Mercury divisions are expected to have the option.
Ford and Microsoft will jointly announce the Sync initiative at the Detroit auto show and the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas during the week of Jan. 10, according to multiple sources. A source said Ford views the announcement on the same scale as a new vehicle announcement and sees the availability of the Sync system as a major competitive advantage over close rivals.
Ford spokeswoman Sara Tatchio declined. Microsoft spokesman Chris Elliott said the company has been working with Ford on certain technologies and will have an announcement at the Detroit auto show. Elliott declined to discuss specifics.
While the Sync system is complex, it will share attributes with Bluetooth wireless technology that is integrated in Ford products built in Europe, where certain hands-free phone use laws are enforced. Various Ford competitors also utilize Bluetooth.
Microsoft started an automotive unit 10 years ago and in 2004 struck a broad development deal with Italy's Fiat SpA (FIA) related to in-car computing. A source close to Microsoft said the company has turned in a spotty performance when it comes to Bluetooth technologies and that the Ford deal could help spur Microsoft's efforts.
The drive to install more and more electronic features in cars has sparked debate in the auto industry concerning the amount of distraction that drivers encounter in the cockpits of their cars.
The move is Ford's latest attempt to spruce up its U.S. product portfolio and follows the company's recent decisions to expand satellite radio offerings and introduce features such as connection jacks for Apple Computer Inc.'s (AAPL) iPod music player. The new system, to be dubbed "Sync," will allow for hands-free cellphone communication and other wireless information transfers inside the car, including the ability to receive email.
In many cases, the technology will be integrated into a navigation system. The technology is based on Microsoft's automotive operating system, which has been under development in recent years.
Ford's Sync system will debut next year as an option on at least two Ford brand models that are to be refreshed in 2007 - the Focus and Five Hundred sedans, according to one source briefed on the company's plan. The auto maker plans to offer the system as an option on the entire Ford brand lineup, including trucks, starting in the 2008 model year, according to that source. Eventually, the Lincoln and Mercury divisions are expected to have the option.
Ford and Microsoft will jointly announce the Sync initiative at the Detroit auto show and the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas during the week of Jan. 10, according to multiple sources. A source said Ford views the announcement on the same scale as a new vehicle announcement and sees the availability of the Sync system as a major competitive advantage over close rivals.
Ford spokeswoman Sara Tatchio declined. Microsoft spokesman Chris Elliott said the company has been working with Ford on certain technologies and will have an announcement at the Detroit auto show. Elliott declined to discuss specifics.
While the Sync system is complex, it will share attributes with Bluetooth wireless technology that is integrated in Ford products built in Europe, where certain hands-free phone use laws are enforced. Various Ford competitors also utilize Bluetooth.
Microsoft started an automotive unit 10 years ago and in 2004 struck a broad development deal with Italy's Fiat SpA (FIA) related to in-car computing. A source close to Microsoft said the company has turned in a spotty performance when it comes to Bluetooth technologies and that the Ford deal could help spur Microsoft's efforts.
The drive to install more and more electronic features in cars has sparked debate in the auto industry concerning the amount of distraction that drivers encounter in the cockpits of their cars.
Digital downloads hit the charts
The singles chart, once an essential fixture in every teenage life, is poised to undergo one of the most significant transformations in its 40-year history.
From tuesday, chart position will no longer be pegged to the existence of a physical product in the form of a CD single or seven-inch vinyl release.
Instead, digital downloads, which outstripped physical sales for the first time earlier this year, will dictate the risers and fallers in the Top 40. This means that any song available on the internet - including "golden oldies" - could top the charts.
Experts said that old tracks revived for television advertising campaigns and films but not re-released could well appear in the charts again - such as the post-punk soundtrack to the Sofia Coppola movie Marie Antoinette which included New Order, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure.
The aim is to make the charts more representative of what consumers are actually buying and re-inject a sense of excitement into an institution that was looking past its sell-by date after years of declining single sales.
While downloads have been included in the chart make up since 2005, they have only been counted if there was also a physical product.
But the success of artists like Gnarls Barkley, Lily Allen and the Arctic Monkeys, who built chart success on the back of their internet popularity, has convinced the Official UK Charts Company (OCC) to act.
From Tuesday, all download sales will count - including album tracks and even old numbers given a new lease of life by use in advertising or a film. It should mean the charts are less dominated by the tastes of teenage girls.
Steve Redmond, the OCC's director, described it as a dramatic development in the history of the official charts.
"For the past 54 years, a single was a track selected by a record company to be pressed on plastic and distributed to stores on a particular date.
"From now on, a single can be any track currently available as a download - even an album track or a golden oldie - as well, of course, as the established physical formats of CD, DVD, seven and 12-inch vinyl."
The new ruling changed the nature of a single and put the consumer in the driving seat, he said.
"Literally any track can be a hit - as long as it sells enough."
The bid to boost the market comes after a turbulent few years for the music industry.
From the 1970s until the end of the century, sales remained relatively static at around 70m, with new movements generating such as punk and Britpop generating their own excitement and sales spikes.
But the singles market went into free-fall at the end of the century. Between 1999 and 2004, it crashed to around half the total of its heyday, because of illegal downloading and filesharing sites.
The industry fought back, offering a range of new, legal and paid-for digital services. As a consequence, legal downloads have risen from 5.8m in 2004 to 50m in 2006, accounting for 60 per cent of the overall market and 80 per cent of back catalogue sales, although the decline in physical sales looks set to continue.
Gennaro Castaldo, of the record store HMV, said they believed that every track should be accessible to customers. But they feared that the shift to downloads would mean some singles would not be available and some labels might want to phase out physical sales altogether.
However, the resurgence of the seven-inch market, up to 2m this year, showed there was demand.
"One reason we don't believe that physical sales will disappear is because enthusiasts continue to want to own a single or album."
Steve Kincaid, of Virgin Megastores, said they believed the changes were "a positive move forward, as they clearly reflect consumers' buying habits".
It was important that the charts moved with the times. But he said: "There is still an incredible demand for a physical single when the right artist comes along. Leona's X Factor single is the most obvious and recent example of this, but there have been others throughout the year and it is important that the physical market is catered for."
From tuesday, chart position will no longer be pegged to the existence of a physical product in the form of a CD single or seven-inch vinyl release.
Instead, digital downloads, which outstripped physical sales for the first time earlier this year, will dictate the risers and fallers in the Top 40. This means that any song available on the internet - including "golden oldies" - could top the charts.
Experts said that old tracks revived for television advertising campaigns and films but not re-released could well appear in the charts again - such as the post-punk soundtrack to the Sofia Coppola movie Marie Antoinette which included New Order, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure.
The aim is to make the charts more representative of what consumers are actually buying and re-inject a sense of excitement into an institution that was looking past its sell-by date after years of declining single sales.
While downloads have been included in the chart make up since 2005, they have only been counted if there was also a physical product.
But the success of artists like Gnarls Barkley, Lily Allen and the Arctic Monkeys, who built chart success on the back of their internet popularity, has convinced the Official UK Charts Company (OCC) to act.
From Tuesday, all download sales will count - including album tracks and even old numbers given a new lease of life by use in advertising or a film. It should mean the charts are less dominated by the tastes of teenage girls.
Steve Redmond, the OCC's director, described it as a dramatic development in the history of the official charts.
"For the past 54 years, a single was a track selected by a record company to be pressed on plastic and distributed to stores on a particular date.
"From now on, a single can be any track currently available as a download - even an album track or a golden oldie - as well, of course, as the established physical formats of CD, DVD, seven and 12-inch vinyl."
The new ruling changed the nature of a single and put the consumer in the driving seat, he said.
"Literally any track can be a hit - as long as it sells enough."
The bid to boost the market comes after a turbulent few years for the music industry.
From the 1970s until the end of the century, sales remained relatively static at around 70m, with new movements generating such as punk and Britpop generating their own excitement and sales spikes.
But the singles market went into free-fall at the end of the century. Between 1999 and 2004, it crashed to around half the total of its heyday, because of illegal downloading and filesharing sites.
The industry fought back, offering a range of new, legal and paid-for digital services. As a consequence, legal downloads have risen from 5.8m in 2004 to 50m in 2006, accounting for 60 per cent of the overall market and 80 per cent of back catalogue sales, although the decline in physical sales looks set to continue.
Gennaro Castaldo, of the record store HMV, said they believed that every track should be accessible to customers. But they feared that the shift to downloads would mean some singles would not be available and some labels might want to phase out physical sales altogether.
However, the resurgence of the seven-inch market, up to 2m this year, showed there was demand.
"One reason we don't believe that physical sales will disappear is because enthusiasts continue to want to own a single or album."
Steve Kincaid, of Virgin Megastores, said they believed the changes were "a positive move forward, as they clearly reflect consumers' buying habits".
It was important that the charts moved with the times. But he said: "There is still an incredible demand for a physical single when the right artist comes along. Leona's X Factor single is the most obvious and recent example of this, but there have been others throughout the year and it is important that the physical market is catered for."
Microsoft to Special Bloggers: Freebie Vista-Loaded Laptop
I looked on the front door porch. Nada. Ditto for the back door. I was looking for the Acer Ferrari laptop loaded with Vista and Office 2007 that Microsoft was sending to a long list of select bloggers.
Bass's Special List
With all my bad-mouthing of Microsoft, you might not be surprised to hear that I'm not on any of its lists--except that very special one that starts with a capital "S" and ends with a "t." I was put on that list in 1995 after making what were called "disparaging" remarks. It happened at PIBMUG, the users group I ran. Microsoft was there to show off Win 95 to the group's 2000 members. I was on stage doing the intro. The microphone wasn't working and a Microsoftie fiddled with it for a few minutes. When I got sound, I glibly said, "wow, that's the best tech support I've ever had from Microsoft." Wrong comment, I know, but I couldn't help myself. I've happily remained on the list ever since.
The Laptop Deal
The free laptops, according to 18-year old Long Zheng, a blogger living in Australia, aren't gifts, but review units to help bloggers become familiar with Vista. Recipients have options: Keep the computer, return it, or donate it to charity.
I don't know any of the bloggers on Zheng's list except for Ed Bott. Ed worked here at PC World eons ago. I know Ed and he's an ethical, by-the-book, straight arrow kinda guy. He has a different (and lengthy) take on the laptop business.
Ed's bottom line is the same as mine: We can't be bought or influenced.
My Vista Plan
While you're partying and watching football games, I'm going to take my time and install Vista on my old production PC.
I thought it would be good to install Vista on a squeaky clean machine. So I also asked TigerDirect if I could use a brand-new Venture VX2 Systemax PC for a little over a month. (FYI: It comes with an invoice. I have the option to ship it back in 45 days or pay the invoice.) It's a $2000 machine with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66-GHz 1066FSB, Intel D975XBX 2KR S775 ATX motherboard, 2GB PC6400 800-MHz DDR2 RAM (see PC World test report), a 500GB RAID 0 Stripe SATA drive, and an ATI Radeon X1950 512MB video adapter (see test report).
I'll give you my impressions after I get back from the Consumer Electronics Show in a few weeks.
Quick aside: I've used lots of Systemax PCs in the last few years as a result of TigerDirect's annual Build Your Own PC Race. I compete with 25 other journalists to build the PC the fastest; win or lose, the fully loaded computer is handed over to a school of their choice. They've all been top-notch computers, ones I'd be happy to own. I know these rigs intimately, because for the last seven years, I've been the support person for the organization receiving the PCs.
I have to run. I think I hear the dogs barking at the DHL truck.
Bass's Special List
With all my bad-mouthing of Microsoft, you might not be surprised to hear that I'm not on any of its lists--except that very special one that starts with a capital "S" and ends with a "t." I was put on that list in 1995 after making what were called "disparaging" remarks. It happened at PIBMUG, the users group I ran. Microsoft was there to show off Win 95 to the group's 2000 members. I was on stage doing the intro. The microphone wasn't working and a Microsoftie fiddled with it for a few minutes. When I got sound, I glibly said, "wow, that's the best tech support I've ever had from Microsoft." Wrong comment, I know, but I couldn't help myself. I've happily remained on the list ever since.
The Laptop Deal
The free laptops, according to 18-year old Long Zheng, a blogger living in Australia, aren't gifts, but review units to help bloggers become familiar with Vista. Recipients have options: Keep the computer, return it, or donate it to charity.
I don't know any of the bloggers on Zheng's list except for Ed Bott. Ed worked here at PC World eons ago. I know Ed and he's an ethical, by-the-book, straight arrow kinda guy. He has a different (and lengthy) take on the laptop business.
Ed's bottom line is the same as mine: We can't be bought or influenced.
My Vista Plan
While you're partying and watching football games, I'm going to take my time and install Vista on my old production PC.
I thought it would be good to install Vista on a squeaky clean machine. So I also asked TigerDirect if I could use a brand-new Venture VX2 Systemax PC for a little over a month. (FYI: It comes with an invoice. I have the option to ship it back in 45 days or pay the invoice.) It's a $2000 machine with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66-GHz 1066FSB, Intel D975XBX 2KR S775 ATX motherboard, 2GB PC6400 800-MHz DDR2 RAM (see PC World test report), a 500GB RAID 0 Stripe SATA drive, and an ATI Radeon X1950 512MB video adapter (see test report).
I'll give you my impressions after I get back from the Consumer Electronics Show in a few weeks.
Quick aside: I've used lots of Systemax PCs in the last few years as a result of TigerDirect's annual Build Your Own PC Race. I compete with 25 other journalists to build the PC the fastest; win or lose, the fully loaded computer is handed over to a school of their choice. They've all been top-notch computers, ones I'd be happy to own. I know these rigs intimately, because for the last seven years, I've been the support person for the organization receiving the PCs.
I have to run. I think I hear the dogs barking at the DHL truck.
Today's kids: NASA is irrelevant
Saw this story about modern kids, who happen to think NASA isn't very cool. But there weren't any actual survey results in the story, so I dug a little deeper. Here's a report on the survey with more findings.
They're not good for the space agency:
• 51 percent of 18-to-25 year-olds regard NASA as "irrelevant or very irrelevant"
• 72 percent believe that money spent on NASA would be better spent elsewhere
• 27 percent expressed some doubt that NASA went to the Moon, with 10 percent indicating that it was "highly unlikely" that a Moon landing had ever taken place.
• Only 28 percent were able to answer basic questions about the International Space Station, including information about its location (Near Earth Orbit), the number of crew aboard (two at the time of the survey) -- and 32 percent were completely unaware that there is an ISS.
What's NASA going to do about it? Spin. Spin. Spin.
At an October workshop attended by 80 NASA message spinners, young adults were right up there with Congress as the top two priorities for NASA's strategic communications efforts.
Tactics encouraged by the workshop included new forms of communication, such podcasts and YouTube; enlisting support from celebrities, such as actors David Duchovny (X-Files) and Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation); forming partnerships with youth-oriented media such as MTV or sports events such as the Olympics and NASCAR; and developing brand placement in the movie industry.
I can already see it happening: NASA will have a reality TV show to select the first lunar and Mars astronauts. Bleh.
I honestly could care less about NASA's public image in regards to funding. As evidenced above, today's kids don't know much about space. Moreover, the money's going to continue to roll in because the agency's centers are so widely distributed that politically the funding pressure will always be there.
But if NASA's not a cool place to work — and clearly it isn't right now — then the bright young minds are going to continue to go into biomedicine and the private sector, rather than build tomorrow's rockets.
They're not good for the space agency:
• 51 percent of 18-to-25 year-olds regard NASA as "irrelevant or very irrelevant"
• 72 percent believe that money spent on NASA would be better spent elsewhere
• 27 percent expressed some doubt that NASA went to the Moon, with 10 percent indicating that it was "highly unlikely" that a Moon landing had ever taken place.
• Only 28 percent were able to answer basic questions about the International Space Station, including information about its location (Near Earth Orbit), the number of crew aboard (two at the time of the survey) -- and 32 percent were completely unaware that there is an ISS.
What's NASA going to do about it? Spin. Spin. Spin.
At an October workshop attended by 80 NASA message spinners, young adults were right up there with Congress as the top two priorities for NASA's strategic communications efforts.
Tactics encouraged by the workshop included new forms of communication, such podcasts and YouTube; enlisting support from celebrities, such as actors David Duchovny (X-Files) and Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation); forming partnerships with youth-oriented media such as MTV or sports events such as the Olympics and NASCAR; and developing brand placement in the movie industry.
I can already see it happening: NASA will have a reality TV show to select the first lunar and Mars astronauts. Bleh.
I honestly could care less about NASA's public image in regards to funding. As evidenced above, today's kids don't know much about space. Moreover, the money's going to continue to roll in because the agency's centers are so widely distributed that politically the funding pressure will always be there.
But if NASA's not a cool place to work — and clearly it isn't right now — then the bright young minds are going to continue to go into biomedicine and the private sector, rather than build tomorrow's rockets.
Samsung announces new, thinner microchip
Samsung Electronics Co. said in a statement Wednesday it has developed a one-gigabit mobile DRAM chip that is 20 percent thinner and uses less power than its predecessor.
Samsung said the new mobile memory chip stacks up two 512-megabit chips and uses about 30 percent less power.
"Samsung plans to mass produce the new device beginning in the second quarter of 2007 at a time when demand for high-density 1-gigabit mobile DRAM is expected to be very high," said the press release.
The new semiconductor can be utilized for a wide range of advanced handset applications as well as for digital still cameras, portable media players and portable gaming products, the company said.
DRAM stands for dynamic random access memory. DRAM chips are most widely used in personal computers.
Samsung is the world's largest memory chip maker and a top producer of consumer electronics, including flat-screen televisions, mobile phone handsets, MP3 players and laptop computers.
Samsung said the new mobile memory chip stacks up two 512-megabit chips and uses about 30 percent less power.
"Samsung plans to mass produce the new device beginning in the second quarter of 2007 at a time when demand for high-density 1-gigabit mobile DRAM is expected to be very high," said the press release.
The new semiconductor can be utilized for a wide range of advanced handset applications as well as for digital still cameras, portable media players and portable gaming products, the company said.
DRAM stands for dynamic random access memory. DRAM chips are most widely used in personal computers.
Samsung is the world's largest memory chip maker and a top producer of consumer electronics, including flat-screen televisions, mobile phone handsets, MP3 players and laptop computers.
Geeks need video games
A REPORT prepared by a bunch of shrinks claims that people find computer games addictive if they have a deep-rooted psychological reason to play.
According to the journal Motivation and Emotion, shrinks at the University of Rochester said that people enjoy video games because they are satisfying at a fundamental psychological level.
The best games are those that relate to the real world. The driving force that draws people to games was not fun but instead a sense of achievement, freedom and even social connectedness.
University of Rochester motivational psychologist Richard Ryan said gamers felt the best about their experience when the games they played produced positive outcomes in scenarios related to the real world.
Too much fun and fantasy and they will get bored apparently.
More here.
According to the journal Motivation and Emotion, shrinks at the University of Rochester said that people enjoy video games because they are satisfying at a fundamental psychological level.
The best games are those that relate to the real world. The driving force that draws people to games was not fun but instead a sense of achievement, freedom and even social connectedness.
University of Rochester motivational psychologist Richard Ryan said gamers felt the best about their experience when the games they played produced positive outcomes in scenarios related to the real world.
Too much fun and fantasy and they will get bored apparently.
More here.
Friday, December 29, 2006
TOP ONE: Protecting polar bears: Your e-mails
(CNN) -- Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne says polar bears are no match for global warming. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service has proposed listing polar bears as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, but a decision on the listing isn't expected for a year.
We asked CNN.com readers if they thought the government's plans go far enough to protect polar bears. Here is a selection of their responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity.
Denise Daly of Manteca, California
I firmly agree that polar bears should be on the threatened species list. Yes, I believe global warming is a danger to polar bears. It is hugely our fault that global warming is melting their home away. The government's plans do not go far enough. We all need to tackle this global warming issue.
Pam Lewis of Lincoln, Nebraska
I think the public and the government need to do whatever it takes to protect all of the wildlife that is threatened by global warming, development, etc. As a nation, we are encroaching on land that is native to wildlife, with the animals suffering. These animals are God's creatures and have just as much right to be here as we do. We need to protect their land and quit taking over it, so they will survive and be here for future generations to enjoy.
Barbara Waters of Arlington, Texas
Polar bears, arctic fox, seals -- all Arctic wildlife will lose if our politicians don't come to grips with the stark reality that global warming is real and not a democratic political agenda. There are signs everywhere of global warming. The polar bears will definitely take a hit, as will all other Artic wildlife.
Joanna York of Los Angeles, California
Global warming is a definite danger to polar bears (as well as our entire planet) and their habitat is melting. Some have drowned due to the icebergs being too soft to hold them and their cubs. Our government's plans are inadequate; we must do more to ensure the polar bears' existence for the decades to come.
Ed & Barbara Swanson of Northbrook, Illinois
Our unwillingness to sacrifice, even to the smallest degree, to protect our natural, priceless and irreplaceable gifts will eventually rob our children and generations to come of much of the grandeur of nature. This latest threat to a seemingly indestructible master of its domain is a stunning example of what is at the end of the road we are now traveling.
Linda Fedele of Victor, New York
It is unconscionable to allow the earth's environment to degrade to the point of a serious threat to any of earth's creatures. For the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to say that "the broader aspects of global warming are beyond the scope of the Endangered Species Act" and that they therefore can't address this problem sounds like bureaucratic baloney to me. Please do something to save the polar bears. Surely our world is more important than profits for government and corporate interests.
Mireia Naharro Martin of Aberdeen, New Jersey
Indeed, I am always very sad when watching news or learning that our natural habitat is threatened. I think that people and the political environment are not aware of that at all. It is very sad that in the United States the cause and purpose is measured against the economic impact that doing the right thing can have. But what if finally human beings destroy our precious world? Ultimately, we are destroying ourselves!
Gary Lefko of Nunn, Colorado
Humanity is finally waking up to the effects of global warming. I am saddened and disheartened it has taken this long for us -- the "intelligent" species -- to realize. Let's hope we have the time to reverse the fortunes of the beloved polar bear and many other species (including human) to save them and us from our foolish actions.
Paul Reinstein of Los Angeles, California
Yes, I'm afraid the train has left the station, and the caps are going to melt, and in a hundred years, the only large animals left are going to be in zoos, behind bulletproof glass, or in farms being prepared to be cooked and put under glass. The average person will be eating rats and cockroaches and drinking very questionable water from lakes and springs with names that don't Google very well. The good news is that SUVs will continue to be available and that human body parts with genetics custom matched to your specifications will enable those who can afford it to live longer than your wildest dreams.
Jeff Blowers of Fort Worth, Texas
To not save some of the most majestic creatures on this planet is horrible. We have demonstrated that we can do it with the bald eagle, now it should be the polar bears' turn. And, the byproduct of this is that we might also save our planet by helping to stop the global warming, which contributes to the death of our polar bear population.
Carolyn Flint of Joyce, Washington
The reality of global warming and the human contribution to its progress are now almost universally accepted. We only have one planet that is able to sustain the kind of life we know about. I hope we learn to take care of this one before we learn how to travel to another. If we cannot keep this one clean and safe for the ecosystems necessary to sustain life, we don't deserve to use our current poor stewardship on another one.
Susan Lafferty of South Pasadena, California
There is irrefutable evidence that global warming is drastically changing the Earth's environment. We're heading toward a mass extinction if nothing is done, and soon. The polar bears are just the first of what could be many species, including our own, who will suffer.
The PlayStation 2 Still Rocks
Sony's PS2 is likely to outsell newer consoles such as the PS3—not just this year but next
by Kenji Hall
In December video game maker Square Enix Co. began running prime-time TV ads in Japan featuring battle scenes from its new adventure game Seiken Densetsu 4, or Legend of the Sacred Sword. Every 30-second spot ended with a familiar logo: PlayStation. But the game isn't played on Sony Corp.'s (SNE) new PlayStation 3 console. It's for the PlayStation 2.
This might seem an odd time to launch an ad blitz for a game designed for the PS2, which has been around since 2000. The PS3, after all, was just introduced this fall and offers richer graphics with more lifelike action. But despite all the hype surrounding the PS3, its predecessor is likely to outsell it for two more years. "The PS2 will have legs well into 2008," says Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. And while Nintendo Co.'s Wii console is getting most of the industry buzz, and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) has racked up big sales in its year on the market, some say the PS2 might even beat out each of those offerings in 2007. "The PS2 probably has the capacity to sell more than any other gaming" console, says Simon Jeffrey, chief operating officer at game maker Sega of America (see BusinessWeek.com, 12/28/07, "Sega Games the Systems").
The PS2 already owns the industry's all-time sales record. As of last March, Sony had shipped more than 103 million units worldwide. In the year ending in March, 2007, Sony expects to sell an additional 11 million—and just 6 million PS3s. In the following year, Sony will likely ship another 11 million PS2s vs. 7 million PS3s, according to research by rating agency Standard & Poor's (MHP).
The PS2's direct rivals, Microsoft's original Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube, are no longer in production. So why is the PS2 doing so well this late in life? For starters, it's cheap. Sony has cut the PS2's price to about $130, down from a high of $300, to entice casual gamers and kids. And with continuing sales and so many PS2 consoles in living rooms worldwide, there's plenty of demand for new titles. "All the media focus is on next-gen consoles and games, but a lot of the software companies will make a substantial portion of their earnings by selling [older] games," says Erik Whiteford, marketing director at California game maker 2K Sports.
FAMILY FARE
To keep sales growing, software makers are tweaking their PS2 efforts. In the console's early days, hard-core gamers were its main audience, but those diehards are now moving on to the PS3. So makers are beefing up offerings of family-oriented titles, kids' games, and movie tie-ins. Square Enix next spring plans to sell Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix Plus, a collaboration with Walt Disney Co. (DIS) Around the same time, Paris-based Ubisoft will unveil Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to coincide with the release of a film in that series. And Sega (SGAMY) is working on a game based on a film from Philip Pullman's story The Golden Compass, due before the holidays in late 2007. While some of these will be available for other platforms as well, game makers have no plans to discontinue PS2 titles.
Nor is Sony in any hurry to kill the PS2. The launch of a new console always puts game makers in the red, and the PS3 is no exception. With delays and production snafus for the machine, Sony's game unit is expecting a $1.7 billion loss this fiscal year. The PS2, meanwhile, long ago turned profitable as component prices have plunged and development costs have been written off. Even at $130 a pop, Sony earns about $8 on each PS2 it sells, compared with an estimated loss of $250 per PS3. (Nintendo is believed to break even on the Wii, while Microsoft takes a loss on the Xbox 360.) And Sony will rake in some $1.4 billion this year from license fees paid by game makers and sales of its own game titles for the PS2 and its predecessor, the PSOne, Goldman, Sachs & Co. (GS) estimates. So it's clear Sony will want to milk the PS2 for all it's worth.
by Kenji Hall
In December video game maker Square Enix Co. began running prime-time TV ads in Japan featuring battle scenes from its new adventure game Seiken Densetsu 4, or Legend of the Sacred Sword. Every 30-second spot ended with a familiar logo: PlayStation. But the game isn't played on Sony Corp.'s (SNE) new PlayStation 3 console. It's for the PlayStation 2.
This might seem an odd time to launch an ad blitz for a game designed for the PS2, which has been around since 2000. The PS3, after all, was just introduced this fall and offers richer graphics with more lifelike action. But despite all the hype surrounding the PS3, its predecessor is likely to outsell it for two more years. "The PS2 will have legs well into 2008," says Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. And while Nintendo Co.'s Wii console is getting most of the industry buzz, and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) has racked up big sales in its year on the market, some say the PS2 might even beat out each of those offerings in 2007. "The PS2 probably has the capacity to sell more than any other gaming" console, says Simon Jeffrey, chief operating officer at game maker Sega of America (see BusinessWeek.com, 12/28/07, "Sega Games the Systems").
The PS2 already owns the industry's all-time sales record. As of last March, Sony had shipped more than 103 million units worldwide. In the year ending in March, 2007, Sony expects to sell an additional 11 million—and just 6 million PS3s. In the following year, Sony will likely ship another 11 million PS2s vs. 7 million PS3s, according to research by rating agency Standard & Poor's (MHP).
The PS2's direct rivals, Microsoft's original Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube, are no longer in production. So why is the PS2 doing so well this late in life? For starters, it's cheap. Sony has cut the PS2's price to about $130, down from a high of $300, to entice casual gamers and kids. And with continuing sales and so many PS2 consoles in living rooms worldwide, there's plenty of demand for new titles. "All the media focus is on next-gen consoles and games, but a lot of the software companies will make a substantial portion of their earnings by selling [older] games," says Erik Whiteford, marketing director at California game maker 2K Sports.
FAMILY FARE
To keep sales growing, software makers are tweaking their PS2 efforts. In the console's early days, hard-core gamers were its main audience, but those diehards are now moving on to the PS3. So makers are beefing up offerings of family-oriented titles, kids' games, and movie tie-ins. Square Enix next spring plans to sell Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix Plus, a collaboration with Walt Disney Co. (DIS) Around the same time, Paris-based Ubisoft will unveil Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to coincide with the release of a film in that series. And Sega (SGAMY) is working on a game based on a film from Philip Pullman's story The Golden Compass, due before the holidays in late 2007. While some of these will be available for other platforms as well, game makers have no plans to discontinue PS2 titles.
Nor is Sony in any hurry to kill the PS2. The launch of a new console always puts game makers in the red, and the PS3 is no exception. With delays and production snafus for the machine, Sony's game unit is expecting a $1.7 billion loss this fiscal year. The PS2, meanwhile, long ago turned profitable as component prices have plunged and development costs have been written off. Even at $130 a pop, Sony earns about $8 on each PS2 it sells, compared with an estimated loss of $250 per PS3. (Nintendo is believed to break even on the Wii, while Microsoft takes a loss on the Xbox 360.) And Sony will rake in some $1.4 billion this year from license fees paid by game makers and sales of its own game titles for the PS2 and its predecessor, the PSOne, Goldman, Sachs & Co. (GS) estimates. So it's clear Sony will want to milk the PS2 for all it's worth.
Demand Surge Slowed iTunes Site During Holiday Rush
A massive surge in traffic Free How-To Guide for Small Business Web Strategies - from domain name selection to site promotion. to Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) Latest News about Apple iTunes Music Store, driven by sales of new iPods bogged down the store's performance on Christmas and the following day.
Users reported slow downloads and other issues with the music store on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Some single songs reportedly took as much as 20 minutes to download -- compared to a few seconds under usual circumstances -- and others requests to buy songs could not be fulfilled at all.
Popular Gift
The surge in traffic was driven by new iPod owners and those who received gift cards to the iTunes store.
Apple did not return a call seeking comment on the store's performance, but it is possible the site bogged down because of a four-fold increase in traffic.
Web research firm Hitwise said Wednesday that traffic to the iTunes store was up 413 percent on Christmas Day compared to the same day a year ago. Traffic to the Apple Store, where the company sells iPods as well as computers, was up 110 percent. The store was the fourth most-visited site on Christmas Day, Hitwise said.
"For the third holiday season in a row, the iPod has been the must-have Christmas gift," said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise. "Competitive offerings have not yet succeeded in capturing the attention of music listeners, and the surge in visits to the Apple Store shows that iPod owners are also engaged in filling and accessorizing their new devices."
Too Zune to Tell
The increase in traffic to the iTunes and Apple sites is more remarkable given that overall, Hitwise is reporting just a 5.9 percent increase in visits to retail sites during the holiday season.
Apple's newest iPod rival, Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Latest News about Microsoft Zune, saw its own traffic surge, with visits to Zune.net increasing more than 1,000 percent on Christmas Day compared to a week before. Still, Hitwise said the iTunes store had 30 times as many visitors as Zune.net.
If its site was briefly overwhelmed by traffic, Apple can take some solace in knowing it was far from alone this holiday season. On the Monday after Thanksgiving, so-called Cyber Monday, a site set up by the online arm of the National Retail Federation was deluged with hits. A few days later, Overstock.com Latest News about Overstock.com was hammered with traffic when it put the "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" movie on sale for $9.99 for a limited time.
For many retailers, such delays can be deadly. "If one store can't deliver a positive online shopping Free Download - Look Who's Driving the Next Generation of e-Commerce experience, then a competitor's site is just a click away," said William Agush, vice president of marketing Email Marketing Software - Free Demo at Web performance monitoring firm Gomez. He added that shoppers would abandon a site offering poor performance for a rival even if prices were higher and even if it had positive associations with the brand.
Captive Audience
For Apple, however, the stakes are likely not as high as for other retailers. Whereas customers at Overstock can click to eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) Latest News about eBay or Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) Latest News about Amazon.com for similar merchandise, Apple has a captive audience in its iPod user base.
The only digital downloads that can be played on iPods -- without hacking or workarounds -- are those purchased at the iTunes Music Store, though users can rip songs from CDs to add to their iPod-friendly libraries.
"Apple shows no signs of losing momentum," JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg told MacNewsWorld. Even with the Zune and other challenges, such as a growing number of MP3-playing smartphones, he added, "the iPod should not lose significant market share in the next 12 to 18 months."
Longer-range, many analysts still believe newer models will emerge that will challenge Apple's pay-per-song and device-specific approach. For now, however, the captive audience will likely take any short-term delays in stride. By Wednesday, the iTunes site appeared to be bug-free again.
Users reported slow downloads and other issues with the music store on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Some single songs reportedly took as much as 20 minutes to download -- compared to a few seconds under usual circumstances -- and others requests to buy songs could not be fulfilled at all.
Popular Gift
The surge in traffic was driven by new iPod owners and those who received gift cards to the iTunes store.
Apple did not return a call seeking comment on the store's performance, but it is possible the site bogged down because of a four-fold increase in traffic.
Web research firm Hitwise said Wednesday that traffic to the iTunes store was up 413 percent on Christmas Day compared to the same day a year ago. Traffic to the Apple Store, where the company sells iPods as well as computers, was up 110 percent. The store was the fourth most-visited site on Christmas Day, Hitwise said.
"For the third holiday season in a row, the iPod has been the must-have Christmas gift," said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise. "Competitive offerings have not yet succeeded in capturing the attention of music listeners, and the surge in visits to the Apple Store shows that iPod owners are also engaged in filling and accessorizing their new devices."
Too Zune to Tell
The increase in traffic to the iTunes and Apple sites is more remarkable given that overall, Hitwise is reporting just a 5.9 percent increase in visits to retail sites during the holiday season.
Apple's newest iPod rival, Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Latest News about Microsoft Zune, saw its own traffic surge, with visits to Zune.net increasing more than 1,000 percent on Christmas Day compared to a week before. Still, Hitwise said the iTunes store had 30 times as many visitors as Zune.net.
If its site was briefly overwhelmed by traffic, Apple can take some solace in knowing it was far from alone this holiday season. On the Monday after Thanksgiving, so-called Cyber Monday, a site set up by the online arm of the National Retail Federation was deluged with hits. A few days later, Overstock.com Latest News about Overstock.com was hammered with traffic when it put the "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" movie on sale for $9.99 for a limited time.
For many retailers, such delays can be deadly. "If one store can't deliver a positive online shopping Free Download - Look Who's Driving the Next Generation of e-Commerce experience, then a competitor's site is just a click away," said William Agush, vice president of marketing Email Marketing Software - Free Demo at Web performance monitoring firm Gomez. He added that shoppers would abandon a site offering poor performance for a rival even if prices were higher and even if it had positive associations with the brand.
Captive Audience
For Apple, however, the stakes are likely not as high as for other retailers. Whereas customers at Overstock can click to eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) Latest News about eBay or Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) Latest News about Amazon.com for similar merchandise, Apple has a captive audience in its iPod user base.
The only digital downloads that can be played on iPods -- without hacking or workarounds -- are those purchased at the iTunes Music Store, though users can rip songs from CDs to add to their iPod-friendly libraries.
"Apple shows no signs of losing momentum," JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg told MacNewsWorld. Even with the Zune and other challenges, such as a growing number of MP3-playing smartphones, he added, "the iPod should not lose significant market share in the next 12 to 18 months."
Longer-range, many analysts still believe newer models will emerge that will challenge Apple's pay-per-song and device-specific approach. For now, however, the captive audience will likely take any short-term delays in stride. By Wednesday, the iTunes site appeared to be bug-free again.
Media, tech cos probe possible high-def DVD hack
By Gina Keating
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The companies behind an encryption system for high-definition DVDs are looking into a hacker's claim that he has cracked the code protecting the new discs from piracy, a spokesman for one of the companies said on Thursday.
A hacker known as Muslix64 posted on the Internet details of how he unlocked the encryption, known as the Advanced Access Content System, which prevents high-definition discs from illegal copying by restricting which devices can play them.
The AACS system was developed by companies including Walt Disney Co., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Sony Corp. to protect high-definition formats, including Toshiba's HD-DVD and Sony's Blu-ray.
Muslix64 posted a video and decryption codes showing how to copy several films, including Warner Bros' "Full Metal Jacket" and Universal Studios' "Van Helsing," on a popular hacker Internet blog and a video-sharing site.
The hacker also promised to post more source code on January 2 that will allow users to copy a wider range of titles.
A spokesman for one of the AACS companies, who declined to have the company identified, said they were aware of it and were looking into the claims, but would not elaborate.
The vulnerability could pose a threat to movie studios looking for ways to boost revenue as sales of standard-format DVDs flatten. In 2005, U.S. DVD sales generated some $24 billion for the movie industry.
If the encryption code has been cracked, then any high-definition DVD released up to now can be illegally copied using the Muslix64 "key," according to technology experts.
Jeff Moss, organizer of Defcon, the world's largest hacking convention, said in an interview that Muslix64 appears to have found a real breach in the encryption system.
"Everybody is talking like it worked, and apparently it's not that hard," said Moss, whose annual convention draws thousands of security researchers, government workers and hackers. "This will be the first trial run of how this (AACS) is going to work whenever a compromised player comes out."
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, a UK-based technology expert and author of Internet blog PC Doctor, wrote in a Thursday posting on technology site ZDNet.com that Muslix64's source code "seems genuine enough."
He said the hack would not necessarily make much of a difference in the battle for supremacy between the new HD DVD and Blu-ray formats.
"What's interesting here is that while this hack might give HD-DVD a temporary advantage amongst enthusiasts who want to backup discs ... in the long run it won't give either format an advantage because both HD-DVD and Blu-ray use the now cracked AACS," he wrote.
Warner Bros. is a unit of media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. and Universal Studios is part of NBC Universal, controlled by General Electric Co..
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The companies behind an encryption system for high-definition DVDs are looking into a hacker's claim that he has cracked the code protecting the new discs from piracy, a spokesman for one of the companies said on Thursday.
A hacker known as Muslix64 posted on the Internet details of how he unlocked the encryption, known as the Advanced Access Content System, which prevents high-definition discs from illegal copying by restricting which devices can play them.
The AACS system was developed by companies including Walt Disney Co., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Sony Corp. to protect high-definition formats, including Toshiba's HD-DVD and Sony's Blu-ray.
Muslix64 posted a video and decryption codes showing how to copy several films, including Warner Bros' "Full Metal Jacket" and Universal Studios' "Van Helsing," on a popular hacker Internet blog and a video-sharing site.
The hacker also promised to post more source code on January 2 that will allow users to copy a wider range of titles.
A spokesman for one of the AACS companies, who declined to have the company identified, said they were aware of it and were looking into the claims, but would not elaborate.
The vulnerability could pose a threat to movie studios looking for ways to boost revenue as sales of standard-format DVDs flatten. In 2005, U.S. DVD sales generated some $24 billion for the movie industry.
If the encryption code has been cracked, then any high-definition DVD released up to now can be illegally copied using the Muslix64 "key," according to technology experts.
Jeff Moss, organizer of Defcon, the world's largest hacking convention, said in an interview that Muslix64 appears to have found a real breach in the encryption system.
"Everybody is talking like it worked, and apparently it's not that hard," said Moss, whose annual convention draws thousands of security researchers, government workers and hackers. "This will be the first trial run of how this (AACS) is going to work whenever a compromised player comes out."
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, a UK-based technology expert and author of Internet blog PC Doctor, wrote in a Thursday posting on technology site ZDNet.com that Muslix64's source code "seems genuine enough."
He said the hack would not necessarily make much of a difference in the battle for supremacy between the new HD DVD and Blu-ray formats.
"What's interesting here is that while this hack might give HD-DVD a temporary advantage amongst enthusiasts who want to backup discs ... in the long run it won't give either format an advantage because both HD-DVD and Blu-ray use the now cracked AACS," he wrote.
Warner Bros. is a unit of media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. and Universal Studios is part of NBC Universal, controlled by General Electric Co..
TOP NEWS: Top Searches For 2006
Google: Bebo, MySpace, World Cup, MetaCafe, RadioBlog, Wikipedia, Video, Rebelde, Minonova, Wiki
Yahoo: Britney Spears, WWE, Shakira, Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, American Idol, Beyonce Knowles, Chris Brown, Pamela Anderson, Lindsay Lohan
MSN: Ronaldhino, Shakira, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Harry Potter, Eminem, Pamela Anderson, Hilary Duff, Rebelde, Angelina Jolie
AOL: Weather, Dictionary, Dogs, American Idol, Maps, Cars, Games, Tattoo, Horoscopes, Lyrics
Poor Britney Spears. First the criticism of her parenting skills. Next, the divorce. Then the chastising by her fans for her wild antics with Paris Hilton.
And now, for the first time in 5 years, her dominance over the top search terms for the year has ended. The pop star only appeared in Yahoo and Live Search's top lists. She was nowhere to be found on Google, Ask.com or even AOL! In 2004, she topped every list, with Paris Hilton (who only made 2 engines this year as well) hot on her trail. So what happened? What changed? And what can we learn from it for our marketing efforts in 2007.
For many marketers, this is our favorite time of year. Aside from the holiday shopping blitz and the major campaigns, the end of the year gives us a chance to reflect on last year's trends and to predict trends for the new year. And search terms are a great tool to help in this task; search is the perfect cultural barometer. It not only tells us what people were interested in the past year, but how their interest manifested. It paints a detailed picture of user behavior online, and how it's changed from previous years. It illustrates how the internet itself has evolved over the year-and lets us know what direction to expect for the next year.
This year we have top search data from Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, AOL, Live Search (formerly MSN) and Lycos -See Chart-. Overall, the data shows a new and developing internet; comparatively, the data explains the growth of each engine-and migration of users to and from each.
Take Google. According the most popular search engine, 2006 was the Year of the Brand. Six of their tops ten terms were the names of major web sites: Bebo, MySpace, MetaCafe, RadioBlog, Wikipedia and Mininova. While this data certainly verifies the popularity of the above sites, it illustrates much more. The Google search bar has finally replaced the address bar as the navigation tool of choice for the average internet user. The browser is more likely to type your company name into Google-the default search engine on many new computers-instead of using your full URL. Some users even enter your entire URL into the search bar instead of the address bar.
To many advertisers, this isn't new; witness the rise of "dot-net" TV ads for gambling sites and the controversy over bidding on competitor names in Pay Per Click advertising. Google's Top Gainers for 2005 also included brand names for six out of ten terms. Google Suggest top words for the each letter of the alphabet reveals 16 brands out of 26 letters. To marketers to whom this comes as a surprise, take note: Control your brand. When a potential client or customer is looking for your company, make sure they get to your site instead of a competitor's or-worse-a complaint site. Don't assume that because the users know who you are that they will get to you.
Google's list reveals a couple more interesting notes. The emergence of terms outside of the U.S. mainstream, like World Cup and Mexican soap opera Rebelde, points to the power of non-U.S. searches and the Spanish-speaking internet population. The change in terms over the past two years also reveals a lot. In 2004, Google's top terms were made up entirely of celebrities and basic internet activities, like chat, mp3s and games. In 2005 and 2006, the list started to fill up with brands-with the exception of two internet activities: wiki and video. Neither activity is a surprise considering its popularity this year, but the fact that those two remained (and others like chat and games dropped out) points to a more and more technical crowd. After all, these searchers weren't just searching for Wikipedia, but for other wikis as well.
The lack of basic internet activity terms also shows that more basic internet users are moving away from Google to other engines. And the engine that seems to be picking the most of those users up, possibly due to its smart TV advertising campaign, is Ask.com. Ask.com's top search list is dominated by basic internet activities and needs, including dictionary, games, cars, food, song lyrics, poems, baby names and music. AOL search, which is powered by Google, also had a top search list comprised of basic internet activities: weather, dictionary, dogs, maps, cars, games, tattoo, horoscope, lyrics. This was a big departure for AOL, which usually has a list filled with celebrity and entertainment-related searches.
Entertainment searchers, it seems, migrated to Yahoo, where they have always held the top terms, and to Live Search (formerly MSN), which hasn't before released U.S. yearly search data. Both were dominated, as usual, by attractive female singers: Britney Spears, Shakira, Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton (she did become a singer this year), Hilary Duff and Beyonce Knowles. Actresses Pamela Anderson, Angelina Jolie and Lindsay Lohan also made the two lists-though none, I surmise, for their actual acting ability (no offense intended). Male singers Eminem and Chris Brown edged their way in as well.
There were some differences between Live Search and Yahoo! The engine formerly known as MSN skewed a bit Spanish this year, with searches for Shakira, soccer star Ronaldhino and Rebelde topping the list. American Idol popped on Yahoo vs. Harry Potter on Live Search, ostensibly identifying MSN Live users as somewhat more literary. Notably missing from all search engines were any U.S. sports, which usually feature in Yahoo's list. Lycos, a minor search engine still holding on, showed the broadest (and least interesting) list of top terms, including brands, basic internet activities and entertainment. This nice mix means no real grouping of users at the engine, just some stragglers still using the dying engine.
So what did happen to Britney Spears? Did she become less popular? After all, she did top Yahoo's list-and she was one of the top "People Searches" in all the other engines. No: people still searched for her; what changed was how and where they did. 2006 became the year that fully defined the engines. New users splintered off from Google to Ask.com and the new, free AOL. Live Search, the default home page in Internet Explorer, picked up the non-technical, entertainment oriented crowd from AOL. Yahoo stayed the same, catering to entertainment, celebrity and music junkies, although they seem to be losing ground in sports and news, possibly to dedicated portals. Live Search and Google showed the important of globalization and the Spanish-speaking internet public.
Google has transitioned from search engine to something else: a start page for the internet, a new form of navigation. URLs came about so that users wouldn't have to remember strings of numbers. In the Google age, all you have to remember is the brand and Google does the rest.
So Britney is fine-and popular-online. Searchers wanting celebrity news are finding her on Yahoo and Live Search. Searchers learning how to buy her mp3s for themselves (or, more likely, their children) are finding her through Ask.com and AOL. Google users already know what they want; they are listening to 163 of her songs on RadioBlog.
Until December 2007, Happy New Years and Happy Searching.
Yahoo: Britney Spears, WWE, Shakira, Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, American Idol, Beyonce Knowles, Chris Brown, Pamela Anderson, Lindsay Lohan
MSN: Ronaldhino, Shakira, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Harry Potter, Eminem, Pamela Anderson, Hilary Duff, Rebelde, Angelina Jolie
AOL: Weather, Dictionary, Dogs, American Idol, Maps, Cars, Games, Tattoo, Horoscopes, Lyrics
Poor Britney Spears. First the criticism of her parenting skills. Next, the divorce. Then the chastising by her fans for her wild antics with Paris Hilton.
And now, for the first time in 5 years, her dominance over the top search terms for the year has ended. The pop star only appeared in Yahoo and Live Search's top lists. She was nowhere to be found on Google, Ask.com or even AOL! In 2004, she topped every list, with Paris Hilton (who only made 2 engines this year as well) hot on her trail. So what happened? What changed? And what can we learn from it for our marketing efforts in 2007.
For many marketers, this is our favorite time of year. Aside from the holiday shopping blitz and the major campaigns, the end of the year gives us a chance to reflect on last year's trends and to predict trends for the new year. And search terms are a great tool to help in this task; search is the perfect cultural barometer. It not only tells us what people were interested in the past year, but how their interest manifested. It paints a detailed picture of user behavior online, and how it's changed from previous years. It illustrates how the internet itself has evolved over the year-and lets us know what direction to expect for the next year.
This year we have top search data from Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, AOL, Live Search (formerly MSN) and Lycos -See Chart-. Overall, the data shows a new and developing internet; comparatively, the data explains the growth of each engine-and migration of users to and from each.
Take Google. According the most popular search engine, 2006 was the Year of the Brand. Six of their tops ten terms were the names of major web sites: Bebo, MySpace, MetaCafe, RadioBlog, Wikipedia and Mininova. While this data certainly verifies the popularity of the above sites, it illustrates much more. The Google search bar has finally replaced the address bar as the navigation tool of choice for the average internet user. The browser is more likely to type your company name into Google-the default search engine on many new computers-instead of using your full URL. Some users even enter your entire URL into the search bar instead of the address bar.
To many advertisers, this isn't new; witness the rise of "dot-net" TV ads for gambling sites and the controversy over bidding on competitor names in Pay Per Click advertising. Google's Top Gainers for 2005 also included brand names for six out of ten terms. Google Suggest top words for the each letter of the alphabet reveals 16 brands out of 26 letters. To marketers to whom this comes as a surprise, take note: Control your brand. When a potential client or customer is looking for your company, make sure they get to your site instead of a competitor's or-worse-a complaint site. Don't assume that because the users know who you are that they will get to you.
Google's list reveals a couple more interesting notes. The emergence of terms outside of the U.S. mainstream, like World Cup and Mexican soap opera Rebelde, points to the power of non-U.S. searches and the Spanish-speaking internet population. The change in terms over the past two years also reveals a lot. In 2004, Google's top terms were made up entirely of celebrities and basic internet activities, like chat, mp3s and games. In 2005 and 2006, the list started to fill up with brands-with the exception of two internet activities: wiki and video. Neither activity is a surprise considering its popularity this year, but the fact that those two remained (and others like chat and games dropped out) points to a more and more technical crowd. After all, these searchers weren't just searching for Wikipedia, but for other wikis as well.
The lack of basic internet activity terms also shows that more basic internet users are moving away from Google to other engines. And the engine that seems to be picking the most of those users up, possibly due to its smart TV advertising campaign, is Ask.com. Ask.com's top search list is dominated by basic internet activities and needs, including dictionary, games, cars, food, song lyrics, poems, baby names and music. AOL search, which is powered by Google, also had a top search list comprised of basic internet activities: weather, dictionary, dogs, maps, cars, games, tattoo, horoscope, lyrics. This was a big departure for AOL, which usually has a list filled with celebrity and entertainment-related searches.
Entertainment searchers, it seems, migrated to Yahoo, where they have always held the top terms, and to Live Search (formerly MSN), which hasn't before released U.S. yearly search data. Both were dominated, as usual, by attractive female singers: Britney Spears, Shakira, Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton (she did become a singer this year), Hilary Duff and Beyonce Knowles. Actresses Pamela Anderson, Angelina Jolie and Lindsay Lohan also made the two lists-though none, I surmise, for their actual acting ability (no offense intended). Male singers Eminem and Chris Brown edged their way in as well.
There were some differences between Live Search and Yahoo! The engine formerly known as MSN skewed a bit Spanish this year, with searches for Shakira, soccer star Ronaldhino and Rebelde topping the list. American Idol popped on Yahoo vs. Harry Potter on Live Search, ostensibly identifying MSN Live users as somewhat more literary. Notably missing from all search engines were any U.S. sports, which usually feature in Yahoo's list. Lycos, a minor search engine still holding on, showed the broadest (and least interesting) list of top terms, including brands, basic internet activities and entertainment. This nice mix means no real grouping of users at the engine, just some stragglers still using the dying engine.
So what did happen to Britney Spears? Did she become less popular? After all, she did top Yahoo's list-and she was one of the top "People Searches" in all the other engines. No: people still searched for her; what changed was how and where they did. 2006 became the year that fully defined the engines. New users splintered off from Google to Ask.com and the new, free AOL. Live Search, the default home page in Internet Explorer, picked up the non-technical, entertainment oriented crowd from AOL. Yahoo stayed the same, catering to entertainment, celebrity and music junkies, although they seem to be losing ground in sports and news, possibly to dedicated portals. Live Search and Google showed the important of globalization and the Spanish-speaking internet public.
Google has transitioned from search engine to something else: a start page for the internet, a new form of navigation. URLs came about so that users wouldn't have to remember strings of numbers. In the Google age, all you have to remember is the brand and Google does the rest.
So Britney is fine-and popular-online. Searchers wanting celebrity news are finding her on Yahoo and Live Search. Searchers learning how to buy her mp3s for themselves (or, more likely, their children) are finding her through Ask.com and AOL. Google users already know what they want; they are listening to 163 of her songs on RadioBlog.
Until December 2007, Happy New Years and Happy Searching.
Microsoft Says No Favorable Coverage Expected In Laptop Giveaway
Recipients encouraged to disclose receiving the expensive computers, which were intended to solicit "valuable feedback" from the influential tech bloggers, says company
By Antone Gonsalves
InformationWeek
Microsoft and Advanced Micro Devices sent expensive laptops as gifts to select bloggers who review technology as part of an effort to solicit "valuable feedback" from the influential writers in the blogosphere, not to encourage favorable coverage, Microsoft says.
The giveaway, which started last week, has sparked a debate among tech bloggers as to the motive for handing out the top-of-the-line Acer Ferrari laptops, valued at more than $2,200. While some called it a bribe, others believed it was OK to receive the expensive gift, as long as the blogger disclosed receiving it.
Microsoft said in a statement e-mailed late Thursday that the recipients were told they could keep the computers, give them away, or send them back. They were also encouraged to disclose receiving the gifts, which were pre-loaded with Windows Vista and were powered by an AMD Turion 64-bit processor. Vista, a major upgrade of Microsoft's operating system, is scheduled to ship to consumers late next month.
"Microsoft sent out machines loaded with Windows Vista to bloggers to encourage them to experience the product and to solicit their valuable feedback, offering full disclosure that no editorial commentary was expected as a condition of acceptance," the company said.
Microsoft chose recipients based on their level of influence within the blogosphere, a company spokeswoman said Friday. Some of the bloggers receiving the laptops wrote on technology related to specific areas that were a focus of Vista, such as online video or photography.
Blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick, director of content at pre-launch startup SplashCast, reported Thursday that Microsoft and AMD were asking recipients to send back the laptops following the negative publicity. The Microsoft spokeswoman, however, said that wasn't the case, explaining that an e-mail sent to recipients from a company employee had been misinterpreted.
The giveaway was first reported by Microsoft blogger Long Zheng. The report was later posted on the popular technology Web site Slashdot under the headline, "Microsoft Bribing Bloggers With Laptops."
Because of the controversy, San Francisco blogger Scott Beale said he would sell the laptop on eBay and donate the proceeds to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit group focusing on privacy and free speech on the Internet.
"I'm not really the right person to do a proper review of Windows Vista, and at this point, it is still unclear why I was even selected to receive it," Beale said in his blog.
However, blogger Mauricio Freitas, who lives in New Zealand, saw no problems with keeping the machine. "I maintain my independence by making it clear which companies are sponsoring this review unit," he said.
By Antone Gonsalves
InformationWeek
Microsoft and Advanced Micro Devices sent expensive laptops as gifts to select bloggers who review technology as part of an effort to solicit "valuable feedback" from the influential writers in the blogosphere, not to encourage favorable coverage, Microsoft says.
The giveaway, which started last week, has sparked a debate among tech bloggers as to the motive for handing out the top-of-the-line Acer Ferrari laptops, valued at more than $2,200. While some called it a bribe, others believed it was OK to receive the expensive gift, as long as the blogger disclosed receiving it.
Microsoft said in a statement e-mailed late Thursday that the recipients were told they could keep the computers, give them away, or send them back. They were also encouraged to disclose receiving the gifts, which were pre-loaded with Windows Vista and were powered by an AMD Turion 64-bit processor. Vista, a major upgrade of Microsoft's operating system, is scheduled to ship to consumers late next month.
"Microsoft sent out machines loaded with Windows Vista to bloggers to encourage them to experience the product and to solicit their valuable feedback, offering full disclosure that no editorial commentary was expected as a condition of acceptance," the company said.
Microsoft chose recipients based on their level of influence within the blogosphere, a company spokeswoman said Friday. Some of the bloggers receiving the laptops wrote on technology related to specific areas that were a focus of Vista, such as online video or photography.
Blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick, director of content at pre-launch startup SplashCast, reported Thursday that Microsoft and AMD were asking recipients to send back the laptops following the negative publicity. The Microsoft spokeswoman, however, said that wasn't the case, explaining that an e-mail sent to recipients from a company employee had been misinterpreted.
The giveaway was first reported by Microsoft blogger Long Zheng. The report was later posted on the popular technology Web site Slashdot under the headline, "Microsoft Bribing Bloggers With Laptops."
Because of the controversy, San Francisco blogger Scott Beale said he would sell the laptop on eBay and donate the proceeds to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit group focusing on privacy and free speech on the Internet.
"I'm not really the right person to do a proper review of Windows Vista, and at this point, it is still unclear why I was even selected to receive it," Beale said in his blog.
However, blogger Mauricio Freitas, who lives in New Zealand, saw no problems with keeping the machine. "I maintain my independence by making it clear which companies are sponsoring this review unit," he said.
Microsoft's Vista: New operating system, same flaws
New York (dpa) - Computer security experts in California and Russia have found a series of flaws in Microsoft's Windows Vista, undercutting the software giant's claims that the new operating system is the company's most secure ever.
The most serious flaw involves a faulty piece of software underlying Internet Explorer 7 that could allow hackers to take over any computers that visit a rogue website set up to exploit the flaw.
Another security breach centres on code that allows users to upgrade their privileges on a computer, potentially allowing them to install unauthorized programmes.
The reports come just a month after Microsoft first released Vista to corporate customers. It is due to release the next generation operating system to consumers next month.
In a posting on its website, Microsoft said it was aware of the vulnerabilities but believed that there was only a low probability that they would be exploited.
"Currently we have not observed any public exploitation or attack activity regarding this issue," wrote Mike Reavey, operations manager of the Microsoft Security Response Centre. "While I know this is a vulnerability that impacts Windows Vista, I still have every confidence that Windows Vista is our most secure platform to date."
The most serious flaw involves a faulty piece of software underlying Internet Explorer 7 that could allow hackers to take over any computers that visit a rogue website set up to exploit the flaw.
Another security breach centres on code that allows users to upgrade their privileges on a computer, potentially allowing them to install unauthorized programmes.
The reports come just a month after Microsoft first released Vista to corporate customers. It is due to release the next generation operating system to consumers next month.
In a posting on its website, Microsoft said it was aware of the vulnerabilities but believed that there was only a low probability that they would be exploited.
"Currently we have not observed any public exploitation or attack activity regarding this issue," wrote Mike Reavey, operations manager of the Microsoft Security Response Centre. "While I know this is a vulnerability that impacts Windows Vista, I still have every confidence that Windows Vista is our most secure platform to date."
What were we looking for online in 2006?
CELEBRITIES, SAYS YAHOO! The giant search engine’s list of the top 10 search terms in 2006 included Britney Spears, Shakira, Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, Pamela Anderson, Lindsay Lohan, Chris Brown…
Social networks and Mexican soaps, according to Google, Bebo and MySpace, two of the fastest growing social networking sites of 2006, topped Google’s list of searches.
Music/ video searches and other web 2.0 stuff came in close behind—MetaCafe (video), Radioblog (streaming radio), Mininova (audio, video, photo downloads; a great BitTorrent site), with both Wiki and Wikipedia on the list in testimony to the world’s most popular unofficial encyclopaedia. The World Cup showed at number three, and Mexican soap opera Rebelde popped up at number eight in the Google rankings.
The weather, dogs, maps, cars, tattoos, horoscopes and other human-type stuff, according to AOL. Their list featured no celebrities, unless you count the hit music talent-spotting show American Idol and nothing related to web 2.0. The classic AOL user is clearly a do-loving dictionary user fixated on the weather.
What the world wanted to watch, according to Clipblast!, were videos about croc hunter Steve Irwin, Borat, the World Cup (with Zidane’s notorious head-butt lending itself to a hundred mashups), Al Zarqawi, bad stand-up comedy and Mel Gibson videos.
Dogpile, my favourite maverick search engine, had a brilliant search list for 2006. Dogpile users were interested in Prehistoric Web stuff like e-cards, game cheats, music lyrics, but also in web 2.0 phenomena like MySpace. They were the only users to have “poetry” up there in the top 10 list.
Why do these lists vary so much? It makes sense that Google users would be more plugged into the technical side of the web, but why wouldn’t AOL’s wholesome, middle American demographic be interested in the same celebrities who apparently obsess Yahoo! users?
A key problem is that search engines filter out the two things that humans online consistently search for—porn, and other search engines. The real top 10 videos of 2006 are churned out by people like BigMama_Houston2006 or KinkyChickenTales in Ludhiana (yes, he exists) or Robothumping17 from Tokyo.
Many search mavens speculate that one of the most frequently searched for terms on Google is Yahoo! (and vice versa). Once you filter out porn and search, everything else that appears on your list is highly speculative.
What’s really wrong with these top 10 search lists, though, is that they’re in English. Take Google’s admittedly cool list, for example, allow for the inclusion of the top searches in China — and the picture changes.
“Translation software”, “machinima” (the use of computer game imagery in film and art, at its simplest) and “website for Chinese novels/ video and audio” skew the “normal” Google stats, while “censorship” rates much higher than Chinese female singer Zhou Bhichang and Britney Spears combined.
Add Indian searches to Yahoo!’s list, and watch Sania Mirza and Salman Khan knock Paris Hilton and co off the charts. We also searched for “wikipedia”, “cricket” and “go air”, incidentally.
Perhaps it’s best to stick with Dogpile’s list of the least popular questions on search in 2006: “What do snails eat?” (not fish poop, the Net tells me helpfully) and “Why is the sky blue?” It also includes the plaintive “Why can’t we be friends?”
I pity the poor soul who keyed this in; his responses include Amazon’s page on war music, a gung-ho article on employee management and communication and free ringtones. No wonder we’re still out there at a dozen search engines, searching in vain for the keys to our very own kingdoms.
Social networks and Mexican soaps, according to Google, Bebo and MySpace, two of the fastest growing social networking sites of 2006, topped Google’s list of searches.
Music/ video searches and other web 2.0 stuff came in close behind—MetaCafe (video), Radioblog (streaming radio), Mininova (audio, video, photo downloads; a great BitTorrent site), with both Wiki and Wikipedia on the list in testimony to the world’s most popular unofficial encyclopaedia. The World Cup showed at number three, and Mexican soap opera Rebelde popped up at number eight in the Google rankings.
The weather, dogs, maps, cars, tattoos, horoscopes and other human-type stuff, according to AOL. Their list featured no celebrities, unless you count the hit music talent-spotting show American Idol and nothing related to web 2.0. The classic AOL user is clearly a do-loving dictionary user fixated on the weather.
What the world wanted to watch, according to Clipblast!, were videos about croc hunter Steve Irwin, Borat, the World Cup (with Zidane’s notorious head-butt lending itself to a hundred mashups), Al Zarqawi, bad stand-up comedy and Mel Gibson videos.
Dogpile, my favourite maverick search engine, had a brilliant search list for 2006. Dogpile users were interested in Prehistoric Web stuff like e-cards, game cheats, music lyrics, but also in web 2.0 phenomena like MySpace. They were the only users to have “poetry” up there in the top 10 list.
Why do these lists vary so much? It makes sense that Google users would be more plugged into the technical side of the web, but why wouldn’t AOL’s wholesome, middle American demographic be interested in the same celebrities who apparently obsess Yahoo! users?
A key problem is that search engines filter out the two things that humans online consistently search for—porn, and other search engines. The real top 10 videos of 2006 are churned out by people like BigMama_Houston2006 or KinkyChickenTales in Ludhiana (yes, he exists) or Robothumping17 from Tokyo.
Many search mavens speculate that one of the most frequently searched for terms on Google is Yahoo! (and vice versa). Once you filter out porn and search, everything else that appears on your list is highly speculative.
What’s really wrong with these top 10 search lists, though, is that they’re in English. Take Google’s admittedly cool list, for example, allow for the inclusion of the top searches in China — and the picture changes.
“Translation software”, “machinima” (the use of computer game imagery in film and art, at its simplest) and “website for Chinese novels/ video and audio” skew the “normal” Google stats, while “censorship” rates much higher than Chinese female singer Zhou Bhichang and Britney Spears combined.
Add Indian searches to Yahoo!’s list, and watch Sania Mirza and Salman Khan knock Paris Hilton and co off the charts. We also searched for “wikipedia”, “cricket” and “go air”, incidentally.
Perhaps it’s best to stick with Dogpile’s list of the least popular questions on search in 2006: “What do snails eat?” (not fish poop, the Net tells me helpfully) and “Why is the sky blue?” It also includes the plaintive “Why can’t we be friends?”
I pity the poor soul who keyed this in; his responses include Amazon’s page on war music, a gung-ho article on employee management and communication and free ringtones. No wonder we’re still out there at a dozen search engines, searching in vain for the keys to our very own kingdoms.
Lotus Notes 7.0.2 finally out for OS X
We're not really sure how many of you were waiting with bated breath for that Universal Binary version of Lotus Notes (actually, for any version of Lotus Notes) for Mac OS X, but if you have, your wish has finally been granted. IBM has released Lotus Notes 7.0.2 this week, just days before the end of the year (just like they promised).
This release of Lotus Notes will finally bring the age-old (and we really mean that... age... old) enterprise app to the Mac once again, allowing OS X users to IM, use RSS (*gasp!*), and e-mail with the monster application. 7.0.2 comes with an "improved" user interface, calendaring, and collaboration controls.
Lotus Notes 7.0.2 for OS X is priced at $101 per user and now runs natively on both Intel Macs and PPC-based machines. I've been avoiding writing this post for almost an entire day now because of the incredible dryness of Lotus Notes, so maybe some poor, lost Lotus users out there will find some joy in it and make my life worthwhile again.
New Samsung Fuel Cell Dock Powers Laptop for a Full Month
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Fuel cell-based notebooks are nothing new to frequent readers of DailyTech. In early June, we reported on Toshiba's early efforts with a fuel cell notebook dock that was able to power a Portege notebook for 10 hours. In October, the company showed off an updated version of its fuel cell dock -- this time with a smaller fuel cell stack that was confined within the footprint of the host notebook.
Samsung is taking fuel cell technology for notebooks to the next level by showcasing a new DMFC (Direct Methanol Fuel Cell) dock that can power a Q35 ultraportable notebook for 8 hours a day for a full month. According to Samsung press release, the fuel cell has an energy density of 650Wh/L and total energy storage of 1,200Wh.
Samsung has also made many improvements to its fuel cell system that reduces noise levels. The new systems has noise levels comparable to current notebook computers which gives Samsung an edge over competing fuel cell designs.
Fuel cell technology has come a long way during the past year. Just last month SAIT and Samsung SDI showed off a prototype fuel cell battery charger that weighs just 5.3 ounces. Likewise, Nokia envisions that fuel cell-powered mobile phones are just a few years away.
Microsoft patent claim sparks firestorm of controversy
On June 21, 2005 when the Redmond, WA based Microsoft filed for a patent on RSS (Really Simple Syndication) it is likely they did not expect such a backlash 18 months later when the claims, published on the US Patent and Trademark Office website, were noticed by thousands on the web.
Related or not, the date of the patent filing is just three days before the company announced it planned to build support for RSS into Internet Explorer 7, and into what we now know as Microsoft Windows Vista.
Once word of the patents spread users, and the techno-elite alike, began to call for their removal and denouncement of the filed claims. Dave Winer one of the inventors of RSS as you know it today made this comment on his site Scripting News, “Today I received a link to a patent granted to Microsoft, where they claim to have invented all this stuff. Presumably they're eventually going to charge us to use it. This should be denounced by everyone who has contributed anything to the success of RSS.”
That is exactly what happened, as blogs around the web took aim and ranted about the false claim. The comments on most blogs center on how Microsoft stole the rights to RSS and are attempting to claim them as their own. Not true said Nick Bradbury on his blog, “But before the geekosphere goes into "patent attack mode," let's take a breather and think about why this patent was filed. For example, quite often companies file patents just to protect themselves from lawsuits. There are plenty of sleazebags who file patent applications on obvious ideas, and then wait for someone like Microsoft to infringe those patents.” He goes on to say, “So I'm not going to jump on the "Microsoft is evil" bandwagon about this (yet). However, Microsoft clearly did not invent all the ideas claimed in this patent, so some clarification would be appreciated from Microsoft's RSS team (several of whom are listed in the patent as inventors).”
In response to the story and the controversy, that surrounds it, Sean Lyndersay Program Manager Lead for RSS at Microsoft made these comments; “First, these patents describe specific ways to improve the RSS end-user and developer experience (which we believe are valuable and innovative contributions) -- they do not constitute a claim that Microsoft invented RSS. We have always fully acknowledged the innovators and supporters of RSS, like Dave Winer, Nick Bradbury and many others, and I can say, without hesitation, that I and my colleagues personally have the deepest respect for their invaluable contributions.” As for the filing of the patent and why it was the right thing to do he mirrors Nick Bradbury by saying, “Finally, as a number of commenters have noted, we are far from the only company to apply for patent protection in this space. Other companies, including Apple and Google, have apparently also applied for patents. Applying for a patent on your innovation is common industry practice, and one which, by incenting and protecting the companies and people involved, encourages everyone to contribute to the community.”
Users took notice on his wording with the use of “your innovation” meaning that the improvements were infact built on what was already property of Microsoft. The patents filed claim that Microsoft did not invent RSS, but only the related technology. Users worry, with the patent approval and the shape of the US Patent office that Microsoft will one day start to charge users to use RSS.
No matter how you look at it, the scope of the patent is broad, and the wording is shifty at best, with claims to technology and code that have long existed before the patents were filed. No word yet on how this will affect the RSS community and open source community concerning the code and technology used. Microsoft has made no further comments and a spokesperson from them said Microsoft does not generally make public statements about pending patents.
Related or not, the date of the patent filing is just three days before the company announced it planned to build support for RSS into Internet Explorer 7, and into what we now know as Microsoft Windows Vista.
Once word of the patents spread users, and the techno-elite alike, began to call for their removal and denouncement of the filed claims. Dave Winer one of the inventors of RSS as you know it today made this comment on his site Scripting News, “Today I received a link to a patent granted to Microsoft, where they claim to have invented all this stuff. Presumably they're eventually going to charge us to use it. This should be denounced by everyone who has contributed anything to the success of RSS.”
That is exactly what happened, as blogs around the web took aim and ranted about the false claim. The comments on most blogs center on how Microsoft stole the rights to RSS and are attempting to claim them as their own. Not true said Nick Bradbury on his blog, “But before the geekosphere goes into "patent attack mode," let's take a breather and think about why this patent was filed. For example, quite often companies file patents just to protect themselves from lawsuits. There are plenty of sleazebags who file patent applications on obvious ideas, and then wait for someone like Microsoft to infringe those patents.” He goes on to say, “So I'm not going to jump on the "Microsoft is evil" bandwagon about this (yet). However, Microsoft clearly did not invent all the ideas claimed in this patent, so some clarification would be appreciated from Microsoft's RSS team (several of whom are listed in the patent as inventors).”
In response to the story and the controversy, that surrounds it, Sean Lyndersay Program Manager Lead for RSS at Microsoft made these comments; “First, these patents describe specific ways to improve the RSS end-user and developer experience (which we believe are valuable and innovative contributions) -- they do not constitute a claim that Microsoft invented RSS. We have always fully acknowledged the innovators and supporters of RSS, like Dave Winer, Nick Bradbury and many others, and I can say, without hesitation, that I and my colleagues personally have the deepest respect for their invaluable contributions.” As for the filing of the patent and why it was the right thing to do he mirrors Nick Bradbury by saying, “Finally, as a number of commenters have noted, we are far from the only company to apply for patent protection in this space. Other companies, including Apple and Google, have apparently also applied for patents. Applying for a patent on your innovation is common industry practice, and one which, by incenting and protecting the companies and people involved, encourages everyone to contribute to the community.”
Users took notice on his wording with the use of “your innovation” meaning that the improvements were infact built on what was already property of Microsoft. The patents filed claim that Microsoft did not invent RSS, but only the related technology. Users worry, with the patent approval and the shape of the US Patent office that Microsoft will one day start to charge users to use RSS.
No matter how you look at it, the scope of the patent is broad, and the wording is shifty at best, with claims to technology and code that have long existed before the patents were filed. No word yet on how this will affect the RSS community and open source community concerning the code and technology used. Microsoft has made no further comments and a spokesperson from them said Microsoft does not generally make public statements about pending patents.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Windows Vista security flaw uncovered
However, many security analysts say the possible threat from the glitch is low, as it would require a hacker to have physically had access to a system before he could exploit the security hole. In other words, a widespread remote attack would be very unlikely, according to the results of an investigation from Microsoft.
The flaw would normally not even be newsworthy, but has significance becuse "it's the first reported vulnerability that also affects Vista," said Mikko Kypponen, chief research officer for security firm F-Secure. The glitch could also potentially affect older Windows operating systems, and is the kind of thing that is fixed with Microsoft's monthly security updates. No legitimite attacks have yet been reported as a result of the new flaw.
Windows Vista, which Microsoft touts as the most secure operating system it has ever released, was released to business consumers on November 30. It had originally planned to be available for everyone for the holiday shopping season, but internal problems caused the consumer release to be pushed back to 2007. Many consumers who purchased a Windows PC in the last two months of 2006 are eligible for a free upgrade to Vista.
The mass market release of the software is currently scheduled for January 30, 2007, with various versions ranging in price from $200 to $400, or $100 to $260 for upgrading customers.
The flaw would normally not even be newsworthy, but has significance becuse "it's the first reported vulnerability that also affects Vista," said Mikko Kypponen, chief research officer for security firm F-Secure. The glitch could also potentially affect older Windows operating systems, and is the kind of thing that is fixed with Microsoft's monthly security updates. No legitimite attacks have yet been reported as a result of the new flaw.
Windows Vista, which Microsoft touts as the most secure operating system it has ever released, was released to business consumers on November 30. It had originally planned to be available for everyone for the holiday shopping season, but internal problems caused the consumer release to be pushed back to 2007. Many consumers who purchased a Windows PC in the last two months of 2006 are eligible for a free upgrade to Vista.
The mass market release of the software is currently scheduled for January 30, 2007, with various versions ranging in price from $200 to $400, or $100 to $260 for upgrading customers.
Console yourself these holidays
Before the buying spree gets seriously curbed by Uncle Tito, check out the latest advances in console technology, coming to a retailer near you soon. Or in the case of the Xbox 360, right now…
Every Christmas there has to be some sort of must-have which is foisted upon the unwitting world. As things get more technology-oriented, and as we become more accustomed to being connected, it’s not a bicycle, a scale-electric or Airfix which is dominating the minds of our kids (it’s always handy to blame these fixations on the kids). No, this holiday, it’s console wars that we have to look forward to.
The contenders are Microsoft with its Xbox0, on which it got first-mover advantage with a pre-holiday launch, Sony with its long-awaited Playstation 3, and Nintendo with its bizarrely monikered Wii. (I’m just popping out for a Wii, darling).
Which to choose may depend on your (I mean your KIDS, of course) existing collection of games, your affinity or lack thereof for the vendor, and of course, on the vitals of the console. That includes specs, pricing and capability for connectivity.
PlayStation 3:
Sony was ‘the Boss’ with the PlayStation 1 and 2. PlayStation 3 moves closer to being a proper PC, with the premium edition equipped with an internal 60 GB Serial ATA 2.5" hard drive (20 GB in the standard package), IEEE 802.11b/g and Bluetooth connectivity and wired gigabit Ethernet.
As implied, this means online gaming to snaffle up yet more bandwidth. It is powered by a Cell processor, developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, which is vaunted as a leap forward for supercomputing. Since Sony is advocating its Blu-Ray DVD technology, PS3 includes this as well.
It is also backwards-compatible, able to handle your old favourites from the PS 1 and 2, and has at present, some 15 new titles to choose from. Pricing on release in some (mainly Asian and Pacific) countries in November was around US$800; expect the PS3 here around March 2007. This, then, is some consolation for the post-party blues.
Microsoft Xbox:
Microsoft has a habit of making lucrative markets its own, or trying to in any event (with the notable exception of the information security field, to date.) So it is that it entered the console market with its Xbox, which is Khoisan for ‘Watch Out Sony’.
While PS3 has just been launched, The Beast of Redmond has already sold over 10 million consoles and has reached our shores well in time for the madness of the holidays. It is specced with a 20GB HDD, a serious 3-core processor also made by IBM, packs a progressive scan DVD drive, a 100 Mb/s RJ45 Ethernet port and three USB 2.0 ports.
Being Microsoft, the Xbox is supported by Xbox Live Marketplace, where you can download plenty of additional stuff, while the machine integrates nicely with your MS-powered home PC network for video or audio streaming. Doing that wirelessly will require the purchase of an additional adapter, though – but you can buy the Xbox today for around R3500.00. A fair library of titles is available.
Nintendo Wii:
Wii aren’t too sure when this console will arrive, but as of now it seems it is a case of ‘coming soon’ to South Africa – suffice to say, it is, ahem, all systems go in most other parts of the world.
The Wii follows on from the GameCube; the intention with Wii Willie Winkie is that it will ‘break down the barriers between the gamer and the non gamer.’ – so it promises easier to play and more generally appealing games. It’s a lot cheaper than the Sony and Microsoft consoles at around US$250, has around 33 titles available at present (and most games are priced around $50..).
Spec-wise, the wee (it is the size of three DVD boxes) Wii shows that it is in a different market segment to the heavyweights – it packs a processor which, again, is from IBM, takes proprietary 8 or 12 cm disks and does not have a hard drive. It does offer Wifi connectivity, however, and two USB 2.0 ports.
Do you care who will ‘win’ the console race? Probably not as much as you care that you will have some super cool options for your, ahem, for Sonny Jim’s stocking.
Every Christmas there has to be some sort of must-have which is foisted upon the unwitting world. As things get more technology-oriented, and as we become more accustomed to being connected, it’s not a bicycle, a scale-electric or Airfix which is dominating the minds of our kids (it’s always handy to blame these fixations on the kids). No, this holiday, it’s console wars that we have to look forward to.
The contenders are Microsoft with its Xbox0, on which it got first-mover advantage with a pre-holiday launch, Sony with its long-awaited Playstation 3, and Nintendo with its bizarrely monikered Wii. (I’m just popping out for a Wii, darling).
Which to choose may depend on your (I mean your KIDS, of course) existing collection of games, your affinity or lack thereof for the vendor, and of course, on the vitals of the console. That includes specs, pricing and capability for connectivity.
PlayStation 3:
Sony was ‘the Boss’ with the PlayStation 1 and 2. PlayStation 3 moves closer to being a proper PC, with the premium edition equipped with an internal 60 GB Serial ATA 2.5" hard drive (20 GB in the standard package), IEEE 802.11b/g and Bluetooth connectivity and wired gigabit Ethernet.
As implied, this means online gaming to snaffle up yet more bandwidth. It is powered by a Cell processor, developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, which is vaunted as a leap forward for supercomputing. Since Sony is advocating its Blu-Ray DVD technology, PS3 includes this as well.
It is also backwards-compatible, able to handle your old favourites from the PS 1 and 2, and has at present, some 15 new titles to choose from. Pricing on release in some (mainly Asian and Pacific) countries in November was around US$800; expect the PS3 here around March 2007. This, then, is some consolation for the post-party blues.
Microsoft Xbox:
Microsoft has a habit of making lucrative markets its own, or trying to in any event (with the notable exception of the information security field, to date.) So it is that it entered the console market with its Xbox, which is Khoisan for ‘Watch Out Sony’.
While PS3 has just been launched, The Beast of Redmond has already sold over 10 million consoles and has reached our shores well in time for the madness of the holidays. It is specced with a 20GB HDD, a serious 3-core processor also made by IBM, packs a progressive scan DVD drive, a 100 Mb/s RJ45 Ethernet port and three USB 2.0 ports.
Being Microsoft, the Xbox is supported by Xbox Live Marketplace, where you can download plenty of additional stuff, while the machine integrates nicely with your MS-powered home PC network for video or audio streaming. Doing that wirelessly will require the purchase of an additional adapter, though – but you can buy the Xbox today for around R3500.00. A fair library of titles is available.
Nintendo Wii:
Wii aren’t too sure when this console will arrive, but as of now it seems it is a case of ‘coming soon’ to South Africa – suffice to say, it is, ahem, all systems go in most other parts of the world.
The Wii follows on from the GameCube; the intention with Wii Willie Winkie is that it will ‘break down the barriers between the gamer and the non gamer.’ – so it promises easier to play and more generally appealing games. It’s a lot cheaper than the Sony and Microsoft consoles at around US$250, has around 33 titles available at present (and most games are priced around $50..).
Spec-wise, the wee (it is the size of three DVD boxes) Wii shows that it is in a different market segment to the heavyweights – it packs a processor which, again, is from IBM, takes proprietary 8 or 12 cm disks and does not have a hard drive. It does offer Wifi connectivity, however, and two USB 2.0 ports.
Do you care who will ‘win’ the console race? Probably not as much as you care that you will have some super cool options for your, ahem, for Sonny Jim’s stocking.
Wikipedia-like search engine in development
The founder of Wikipedia, the user-edited online encyclopedia, is developing a Wiki-based search engine to compete with established commercial search engines from Google and Yahoo.
Jimmy Wales announced plans to develop the search engine, to be named “Wikiasari,” or “Wikia,” for short, in a Dec. 23 online posting.
The Wikimedia Foundation of St. Petersburg, Fla., which manages the Web site Wikipedia.com, emphasizes that the search engine project is not associated with the foundation.
Wales said that current search engine technology, using complex algorithms to complete searches, is “broken.”
“It is broken for the same reason that proprietary software is always broken: lack of freedom, lack of community, lack of accountability (and) lack of transparency. Here, we will change all that,” Wales wrote.
Wales promotes Wikia as “a new kind of search engine, which relies on human intelligence to do what algorithms cannot.” He invited members of the Wiki community to help design the Wikia search engine, which he described as “an open-source alternative for Web search.”
He cited open-source search projects as Nutch and Lucene as related efforts that can help in the development of Wikia.
Wikipedia is maintained with donations from users. The foundation filed its first financial statement Nov. 21, listing just over $1 million in assets for the year ended June 30.
While Wikipedia began mostly as a resource on technology issues, it has expanded to cover more general topics. And although its populist mission is to let users edit content, it has had to correct some embarrassing inaccuracies. Most notably, it let stand for four months in 2005 a posting identifying newspaper publisher John Seigenthaler Sr. as involved in the assassinations of President John F. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in the 1960s. It removed the posting only after Seigenthaler objected.
Wales and the Wikimedia Foundation did not respond to requests for comment.
Jimmy Wales announced plans to develop the search engine, to be named “Wikiasari,” or “Wikia,” for short, in a Dec. 23 online posting.
The Wikimedia Foundation of St. Petersburg, Fla., which manages the Web site Wikipedia.com, emphasizes that the search engine project is not associated with the foundation.
Wales said that current search engine technology, using complex algorithms to complete searches, is “broken.”
“It is broken for the same reason that proprietary software is always broken: lack of freedom, lack of community, lack of accountability (and) lack of transparency. Here, we will change all that,” Wales wrote.
Wales promotes Wikia as “a new kind of search engine, which relies on human intelligence to do what algorithms cannot.” He invited members of the Wiki community to help design the Wikia search engine, which he described as “an open-source alternative for Web search.”
He cited open-source search projects as Nutch and Lucene as related efforts that can help in the development of Wikia.
Wikipedia is maintained with donations from users. The foundation filed its first financial statement Nov. 21, listing just over $1 million in assets for the year ended June 30.
While Wikipedia began mostly as a resource on technology issues, it has expanded to cover more general topics. And although its populist mission is to let users edit content, it has had to correct some embarrassing inaccuracies. Most notably, it let stand for four months in 2005 a posting identifying newspaper publisher John Seigenthaler Sr. as involved in the assassinations of President John F. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in the 1960s. It removed the posting only after Seigenthaler objected.
Wales and the Wikimedia Foundation did not respond to requests for comment.
Christmas iPods Lead To iTunes Delays
So many Americans got iPods during the holiday season that owners had to put up with delays on the iTunes Internet store as they searched for new music.
As people across the United States rushed online to fill up their new iPods with music from the Web site, they encountered delays up to 20 minutes, the Detroit News reported.
Macworld magazine editor Dan Frakes said such delays are typical of the busy holiday season. He recommended new iPod users draw from their current musical collection in the meantime.
"Three-hundred and sixty-four days of the year iTunes works fine, but you had tens of thousands of people who just got new iPods, all trying to connect to the iTunes store and download songs at the same time," he said. "Your best bet is to rip CDs from your own collection now and wait a few days to download from iTunes."
Customer service operators at Apple, which makes iPods and operates iTunes, has also experienced heavy demand, the newspaper said.
Microsoft patent claim sparks firestorm of controversy
On June 21, 2005 when the Redmond, WA based Microsoft filed for a patent on RSS (Really Simple Syndication) it is likely they did not expect such a backlash 18 months later when the claims, published on the US Patent and Trademark Office website, were noticed by thousands on the web.
Related or not, the date of the patent filing is just three days before the company announced it planned to build support for RSS into Internet Explorer 7, and into what we now know as Microsoft Windows Vista.
Once word of the patents spread users, and the techno-elite alike, began to call for their removal and denouncement of the filed claims. Dave Winer one of the inventors of RSS as you know it today made this comment on his site Scripting News, “Today I received a link to a patent granted to Microsoft, where they claim to have invented all this stuff. Presumably they're eventually going to charge us to use it. This should be denounced by everyone who has contributed anything to the success of RSS.”
That is exactly what happened, as blogs around the web took aim and ranted about the false claim. The comments on most blogs center on how Microsoft stole the rights to RSS and are attempting to claim them as their own. Not true said Nick Bradbury on his blog, “But before the geekosphere goes into "patent attack mode," let's take a breather and think about why this patent was filed. For example, quite often companies file patents just to protect themselves from lawsuits. There are plenty of sleazebags who file patent applications on obvious ideas, and then wait for someone like Microsoft to infringe those patents.” He goes on to say, “So I'm not going to jump on the "Microsoft is evil" bandwagon about this (yet). However, Microsoft clearly did not invent all the ideas claimed in this patent, so some clarification would be appreciated from Microsoft's RSS team (several of whom are listed in the patent as inventors).”
In response to the story and the controversy, that surrounds it, Sean Lyndersay Program Manager Lead for RSS at Microsoft made these comments; “First, these patents describe specific ways to improve the RSS end-user and developer experience (which we believe are valuable and innovative contributions) -- they do not constitute a claim that Microsoft invented RSS. We have always fully acknowledged the innovators and supporters of RSS, like Dave Winer, Nick Bradbury and many others, and I can say, without hesitation, that I and my colleagues personally have the deepest respect for their invaluable contributions.” As for the filing of the patent and why it was the right thing to do he mirrors Nick Bradbury by saying, “Finally, as a number of commenters have noted, we are far from the only company to apply for patent protection in this space. Other companies, including Apple and Google, have apparently also applied for patents. Applying for a patent on your innovation is common industry practice, and one which, by incenting and protecting the companies and people involved, encourages everyone to contribute to the community.”
Users took notice on his wording with the use of “your innovation” meaning that the improvements were infact built on what was already property of Microsoft. The patents filed claim that Microsoft did not invent RSS, but only the related technology. Users worry, with the patent approval and the shape of the US Patent office that Microsoft will one day start to charge users to use RSS.
No matter how you look at it, the scope of the patent is broad, and the wording is shifty at best, with claims to technology and code that have long existed before the patents were filed. No word yet on how this will affect the RSS community and open source community concerning the code and technology used. Microsoft has made no further comments and a spokesperson from them said Microsoft does not generally make public statements about pending patents.
Related or not, the date of the patent filing is just three days before the company announced it planned to build support for RSS into Internet Explorer 7, and into what we now know as Microsoft Windows Vista.
Once word of the patents spread users, and the techno-elite alike, began to call for their removal and denouncement of the filed claims. Dave Winer one of the inventors of RSS as you know it today made this comment on his site Scripting News, “Today I received a link to a patent granted to Microsoft, where they claim to have invented all this stuff. Presumably they're eventually going to charge us to use it. This should be denounced by everyone who has contributed anything to the success of RSS.”
That is exactly what happened, as blogs around the web took aim and ranted about the false claim. The comments on most blogs center on how Microsoft stole the rights to RSS and are attempting to claim them as their own. Not true said Nick Bradbury on his blog, “But before the geekosphere goes into "patent attack mode," let's take a breather and think about why this patent was filed. For example, quite often companies file patents just to protect themselves from lawsuits. There are plenty of sleazebags who file patent applications on obvious ideas, and then wait for someone like Microsoft to infringe those patents.” He goes on to say, “So I'm not going to jump on the "Microsoft is evil" bandwagon about this (yet). However, Microsoft clearly did not invent all the ideas claimed in this patent, so some clarification would be appreciated from Microsoft's RSS team (several of whom are listed in the patent as inventors).”
In response to the story and the controversy, that surrounds it, Sean Lyndersay Program Manager Lead for RSS at Microsoft made these comments; “First, these patents describe specific ways to improve the RSS end-user and developer experience (which we believe are valuable and innovative contributions) -- they do not constitute a claim that Microsoft invented RSS. We have always fully acknowledged the innovators and supporters of RSS, like Dave Winer, Nick Bradbury and many others, and I can say, without hesitation, that I and my colleagues personally have the deepest respect for their invaluable contributions.” As for the filing of the patent and why it was the right thing to do he mirrors Nick Bradbury by saying, “Finally, as a number of commenters have noted, we are far from the only company to apply for patent protection in this space. Other companies, including Apple and Google, have apparently also applied for patents. Applying for a patent on your innovation is common industry practice, and one which, by incenting and protecting the companies and people involved, encourages everyone to contribute to the community.”
Users took notice on his wording with the use of “your innovation” meaning that the improvements were infact built on what was already property of Microsoft. The patents filed claim that Microsoft did not invent RSS, but only the related technology. Users worry, with the patent approval and the shape of the US Patent office that Microsoft will one day start to charge users to use RSS.
No matter how you look at it, the scope of the patent is broad, and the wording is shifty at best, with claims to technology and code that have long existed before the patents were filed. No word yet on how this will affect the RSS community and open source community concerning the code and technology used. Microsoft has made no further comments and a spokesperson from them said Microsoft does not generally make public statements about pending patents.
Linksys announces iPhone family of Voice Over IP solutions
The iPhone family of handheld devices harnesses the power of the Internet to enhance voice communications, integrate compelling information services, and deliver access to multimedia. In short, Linksys iPhones voice solutions and products give consumers the ability to do more with their phone than talk.
'As the next generation of handheld devices, Linksys iPhone voice solutions and products are changing the way people communicate with their friends, family and colleagues. They enable compelling internet services, allow consumers to know when their contacts are available for calls, and offer access to personal content like music, movies and live video cameras.'
said Mohammad Hoda, Regional Manager for Middle East and North Africa. 'The development of the iPhone family demonstrates our flexibility in selecting the right partnerships, feature sets, and product designs to exceed the demands of even our most connected customers to whom the Internet is no longer a destination, but an inextricable part of their lives.'
Enhanced Communication
Voice applications are at the core of the iPhone family. However, with iPhone handheld devices, consumers can do more than just dial a phone number and wait to see if someone answers on the other end. Products in the iPhone product line integrate popular communication clients, like Skype and Yahoo! Messenger with Voice, to help enable real-time presence features that can allow consumers to see when their friends and family are online and ready to receive a call. With products in the iPhone family, callers can toggle between the free VoIP calling options available from Skype or Yahoo! and traditional landline service with the click of a button.
Information Services
As the first product to couple Yahoo! Messenger with Voice and access to Internet services like Yahoo! Local Search and weather forecasts, the Dual-Mode Cordless Phone for Yahoo! Messenger with Voice (CIT310) has given consumers access to information in a convenient and timely manner. They no longer have to pick up a printed phone book, or go to their computer to find a phone number. By programming the phone with a local zip code, people can search for local business information directly from their phone and then effortlessly place a call to the business with one click. In addition, a weather search setting permits quick access local weather forecast.
'Providing consumers the ability to use Yahoo! services to search for local businesses, check weather and have full access to their Yahoo! Messenger Contact List on the Linksys dual-mode iPhone was an important step as the convergence between Web services and handsets continues to advance,' said Jeff Bonforte, senior director of Real Time Communications, Yahoo!, Inc.
Multimedia Content
The iPhone product family also includes products like the Wireless-G IP Phone (WIP330) that integrate the popular standards-based SIP VoIP protocol. Consumers can use the WIP330 to access music, photos, and streaming video from sources on the Internet so they can combine the product with wireless video cameras like the Linksys Wireless-G Compact Video Camera (WVC54GC), to create a real-time home monitoring solution.
Freedom from the PC
Launching today, the latest iPhones products help free consumers from the requirement of an always-on PC to make calls over the Internet. The iPhone Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit for Skype (CIT400) embeds the popular communications client into a cordless phone base station that is attached directly to the home network via Ethernet, making it easy to place calls to other Skype users, mobile phones, or landlines without turning on a computer. The iPhone Wireless-G Phone for Skype (WIP320) makes Skype portable by integrating it into a Wireless-G handset, allowing consumers to place calls from anywhere they can connect to a wireless access point.
Both new iPhones products allow free or inexpensive voice calls in addition to real-time contact list access and presence information that lets the user know if the intended call recipient is available. The new phones also support popular Skype calling services, such as SkypeOut, SkypeIn, and Skype Voicemail.
"Each generation of phone offerings from Linksys has offered Skype users increased flexibility in how they make calls," said Gareth O'Loughlin, director of hardware product management for Skype. "We're thrilled to work with Linksys and give users even more options to use Skype off the PC - whether at home, at work or on the move.'
'As the next generation of handheld devices, Linksys iPhone voice solutions and products are changing the way people communicate with their friends, family and colleagues. They enable compelling internet services, allow consumers to know when their contacts are available for calls, and offer access to personal content like music, movies and live video cameras.'
said Mohammad Hoda, Regional Manager for Middle East and North Africa. 'The development of the iPhone family demonstrates our flexibility in selecting the right partnerships, feature sets, and product designs to exceed the demands of even our most connected customers to whom the Internet is no longer a destination, but an inextricable part of their lives.'
Enhanced Communication
Voice applications are at the core of the iPhone family. However, with iPhone handheld devices, consumers can do more than just dial a phone number and wait to see if someone answers on the other end. Products in the iPhone product line integrate popular communication clients, like Skype and Yahoo! Messenger with Voice, to help enable real-time presence features that can allow consumers to see when their friends and family are online and ready to receive a call. With products in the iPhone family, callers can toggle between the free VoIP calling options available from Skype or Yahoo! and traditional landline service with the click of a button.
Information Services
As the first product to couple Yahoo! Messenger with Voice and access to Internet services like Yahoo! Local Search and weather forecasts, the Dual-Mode Cordless Phone for Yahoo! Messenger with Voice (CIT310) has given consumers access to information in a convenient and timely manner. They no longer have to pick up a printed phone book, or go to their computer to find a phone number. By programming the phone with a local zip code, people can search for local business information directly from their phone and then effortlessly place a call to the business with one click. In addition, a weather search setting permits quick access local weather forecast.
'Providing consumers the ability to use Yahoo! services to search for local businesses, check weather and have full access to their Yahoo! Messenger Contact List on the Linksys dual-mode iPhone was an important step as the convergence between Web services and handsets continues to advance,' said Jeff Bonforte, senior director of Real Time Communications, Yahoo!, Inc.
Multimedia Content
The iPhone product family also includes products like the Wireless-G IP Phone (WIP330) that integrate the popular standards-based SIP VoIP protocol. Consumers can use the WIP330 to access music, photos, and streaming video from sources on the Internet so they can combine the product with wireless video cameras like the Linksys Wireless-G Compact Video Camera (WVC54GC), to create a real-time home monitoring solution.
Freedom from the PC
Launching today, the latest iPhones products help free consumers from the requirement of an always-on PC to make calls over the Internet. The iPhone Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit for Skype (CIT400) embeds the popular communications client into a cordless phone base station that is attached directly to the home network via Ethernet, making it easy to place calls to other Skype users, mobile phones, or landlines without turning on a computer. The iPhone Wireless-G Phone for Skype (WIP320) makes Skype portable by integrating it into a Wireless-G handset, allowing consumers to place calls from anywhere they can connect to a wireless access point.
Both new iPhones products allow free or inexpensive voice calls in addition to real-time contact list access and presence information that lets the user know if the intended call recipient is available. The new phones also support popular Skype calling services, such as SkypeOut, SkypeIn, and Skype Voicemail.
"Each generation of phone offerings from Linksys has offered Skype users increased flexibility in how they make calls," said Gareth O'Loughlin, director of hardware product management for Skype. "We're thrilled to work with Linksys and give users even more options to use Skype off the PC - whether at home, at work or on the move.'
Korean-Developed Fuel Cell ‘Can Run Laptop for a Month’
Korean experts have developed a new fuel cell allowing laptops to remain up and running for a month without external power source. Samsung Electronics on Wednesday announced it developed a 1,200-watt-hour fuel cell for notebook computers in collaboration with Samsung SDI and the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology and installed it in its Sense Q35 model. Assuming a laptop runs for eight hours a day five days a week, the fuel cell can operate it for a month.
Fuel cells use state-of-the-art energy-generating technology that sparks a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen won through the electrolyzation of water to produce electricity. Samsung Electronics also developed a small fuel cell that enhances the portability of laptops. The cell can operate a laptop for 15 hours with around 100 cc of fuel, less than the size of a paper cup. Kim Heon-soo, Vice President of Samsung's Computer Division said the development has advanced the time to commercialize fuel cells for a notebooks by a year, adding the firm will spearhead efforts to introduce fuel cells into the market by the end of next year, when all safety standards are established.
Fuel cells use state-of-the-art energy-generating technology that sparks a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen won through the electrolyzation of water to produce electricity. Samsung Electronics also developed a small fuel cell that enhances the portability of laptops. The cell can operate a laptop for 15 hours with around 100 cc of fuel, less than the size of a paper cup. Kim Heon-soo, Vice President of Samsung's Computer Division said the development has advanced the time to commercialize fuel cells for a notebooks by a year, adding the firm will spearhead efforts to introduce fuel cells into the market by the end of next year, when all safety standards are established.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Jimmy Wales, founder of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is planning to build an online commercial search engine that would compete with Google and Yah
New York (dpa) - Computer security experts in California and Russia have found a series of flaws in Microsoft's Windows Vista, undercutting the software giant's claims that the new operating system is the company's most secure ever.
The most serious flaw involves a faulty piece of software underlying Internet Explorer 7 that could allow hackers to take over any computers that visit a rogue website set up to exploit the flaw.
Another security breach centres on code that allows users to upgrade their privileges on a computer, potentially allowing them to install unauthorized programmes.
The reports come just a month after Microsoft first released Vista to corporate customers. It is due to release the next generation operating system to consumers next month.
In a posting on its website, Microsoft said it was aware of the vulnerabilities but believed that there was only a low probability that they would be exploited.
"Currently we have not observed any public exploitation or attack activity regarding this issue," wrote Mike Reavey, operations manager of the Microsoft Security Response Centre. "While I know this is a vulnerability that impacts Windows Vista, I still have every confidence that Windows Vista is our most secure platform to date."
The most serious flaw involves a faulty piece of software underlying Internet Explorer 7 that could allow hackers to take over any computers that visit a rogue website set up to exploit the flaw.
Another security breach centres on code that allows users to upgrade their privileges on a computer, potentially allowing them to install unauthorized programmes.
The reports come just a month after Microsoft first released Vista to corporate customers. It is due to release the next generation operating system to consumers next month.
In a posting on its website, Microsoft said it was aware of the vulnerabilities but believed that there was only a low probability that they would be exploited.
"Currently we have not observed any public exploitation or attack activity regarding this issue," wrote Mike Reavey, operations manager of the Microsoft Security Response Centre. "While I know this is a vulnerability that impacts Windows Vista, I still have every confidence that Windows Vista is our most secure platform to date."
Wikipedia Founder Plans Search Engine
Jimmy Wales, founder of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is planning to build an online commercial search engine that would compete with Google and Yahoo.
The search engine, code-named Wikiasari, would combine open source technology and human intervention to deliver more relevant results than the algorithm-based systems used today, Wales said Tuesday. "Human intelligence is still the best thing we have, so let's let humans do what they do best, and computers do what they do best." Wikiasari combines the Hawaiian word for quick, "wiki," with the Japanese word "asari," which means "rummaging search."
Relevance remains a challenge in online search, since machines can only take a roundabout approach in determining the ranking of results delivered to people's queries. For example, Google's automated system considers the number of links to a Web site in determining whether it's closer to the top or bottom of results.
Wales plans to combine the user-based technology behind nonprofit Wikipedia with open source Web-search software called Nutch, which is part of the Apache Lucene project. The latter has developed a full-featured text search engine written in Java.
Wales doesn't know how his search engine would combine human intelligence and technology. "We really haven't determined how all of this is going to work," he said.
However, Wales believes the time is right, given the availability of what he considers solid open-source technology. "The time is right, because we actually have some tools available to start building something interesting," he said.
Wikipedia depends on user contributions in building an online encyclopedia. Registered users can add any item or edit items already posted. The site works on the idea that the collective knowledge of the masses is better than a system run by editors and expert contributors. Wikipedia, however, has had its problems with erroneous postings, which are corrected as soon as site operators are notified.
Wales hopes to launch his search engine within two years. Development would be funded by his for-profit company Wikia Inc. Its investors include Bessemer Venture Partners and Amazon.com.
Wales hopes to make money with his search engine through online advertising. Text ads related to search queries and delivered with results have become a multibillion-dollar market, with Google the clear leader.
However, whether Wales can capture even a thin slice of the market against tech leaders like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, or even smaller search engines like Ask.com, remains to be seen.
The search engine, code-named Wikiasari, would combine open source technology and human intervention to deliver more relevant results than the algorithm-based systems used today, Wales said Tuesday. "Human intelligence is still the best thing we have, so let's let humans do what they do best, and computers do what they do best." Wikiasari combines the Hawaiian word for quick, "wiki," with the Japanese word "asari," which means "rummaging search."
Relevance remains a challenge in online search, since machines can only take a roundabout approach in determining the ranking of results delivered to people's queries. For example, Google's automated system considers the number of links to a Web site in determining whether it's closer to the top or bottom of results.
Wales plans to combine the user-based technology behind nonprofit Wikipedia with open source Web-search software called Nutch, which is part of the Apache Lucene project. The latter has developed a full-featured text search engine written in Java.
Wales doesn't know how his search engine would combine human intelligence and technology. "We really haven't determined how all of this is going to work," he said.
However, Wales believes the time is right, given the availability of what he considers solid open-source technology. "The time is right, because we actually have some tools available to start building something interesting," he said.
Wikipedia depends on user contributions in building an online encyclopedia. Registered users can add any item or edit items already posted. The site works on the idea that the collective knowledge of the masses is better than a system run by editors and expert contributors. Wikipedia, however, has had its problems with erroneous postings, which are corrected as soon as site operators are notified.
Wales hopes to launch his search engine within two years. Development would be funded by his for-profit company Wikia Inc. Its investors include Bessemer Venture Partners and Amazon.com.
Wales hopes to make money with his search engine through online advertising. Text ads related to search queries and delivered with results have become a multibillion-dollar market, with Google the clear leader.
However, whether Wales can capture even a thin slice of the market against tech leaders like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, or even smaller search engines like Ask.com, remains to be seen.
2006 in review: Videogames
Bret Dawson
Special to the Star
Today is Boxing Day and you are spending the morning reading the paper instead of braving the crowds at an electronics superstore, so presumably a) you found everything you were hoping for under the tree, or b) your children did, or c) you found a way to opt out of this year's orgy of videogame consumerism. Congratulations to you.
Opting out of videogame consumerism is tough most years, but in 2006 it was nearly impossible. This was the year when the young Xbox 360 finally began showing up in stores in significant quantities, and it was the year when the PlayStation 3 and the Wii made their public debuts. Ever since the eruption of hype that was the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) trade show in Los Angeles in May, the Battle of the Consoles was the videogame story of the year.
Here's the funny thing. a business story about a horserace for market share – in the entertainment section. Sorry about that. In fact, we spent nearly the entire year talking about whether the PS3 would win, or whether the Xbox 360 would win, or whether the Wii put Nintendo back in first place. Why?
"It's a high-interest category. It's like having a favourite flavour of soft drink," says Ron Bertram, Nintendo of Canada's vice-president and general manager. "Gamers invest lots of hours playing. They have strong opinions."
"I was a gamer long before I worked in the industry," says Matt Levitan, marketing and PR manager for PlayStation Canada. "First I was an Atari guy and then I was a (Sega) Genesis guy. That's what makes our industry so unique: people are passionate. It's easy to get carried away."
Yes, it is easy to get carried away. But you are not allowed to find that sort of talk interesting unless you hold stock in one of the console makers, and even if you do, you are still not allowed unless you know the material and marketing costs behind each machine.
Seriously, you are not allowed. Three large electronics companies have game machines for sale. Chances are very slim that any of them is headed for bankruptcy. So what if we forget about the market-share horserace for a while, and instead talk about what happened in gaming itself in 2006?
Well, many new games arrived in stores. A few were inspired. Several were good. Many of them were boring and stupid. Unforgivably many were sequels. That much has been standard every year for more than a decade.
So, okay, maybe games themselves are no place to go looking for trends. Maybe the horserace really was the story of the year. But why should you care about who wins the fight for market share?
"Market share is important," says Jason Anderson, head of marketing for Xbox Canada, "because that kind of critical mass affords us the ability to offer great exclusive games."
An exclusive game is one that is available for one machine but not for the others. Halo is an exclusive, and so are all the Mario titles, so is Gran Turismo.
A really great exclusive is called a "system seller," because its appeal is powerful enough to make gamers buy a $300-plus machine they would have otherwise ignored, just for the privilege of a 12-hour play experience.
So, to paraphrase Anderson, market share is important because if you have it, you can persuade a hot game developer to make titles exclusively for your system, which will give you a library that persuades more people to buy your system. It is a virtuous circle, at least as far as a console maker is concerned. It also makes the horserace more important than you might think.
This holiday season, each of the three console makers insisted it was above the horserace. Microsoft told us the Xbox 360, with its global install base of nearly 10 million machines, already had an unstoppable lead. Sony said the PlayStation 3, with its built-in high-definition Blu-ray movie player, would be the centre of digital entertainment in the networked home and far more than just a game player. Nintendo said it was bowing out of high-tech competition and would instead concentrate on selling the Wii to the majority of the population that currently believes videogames are for weenies.
Most of that was insincere. All three horses are galloping as fast as they can.
Nintendo's Bertram: "Our strategy is to compete in the existing gamer market. But also to expand that market."
Sony's Levitan: "First and foremost, the PS3 has to be a games player. You never want to alienate the gamer."
Microsoft's Anderson: "For the consumer who only buys one (console), our goal is to be that one."
Behind the counter at Game Shack in the Atrium on Bay, Luigi Vaccaro has the perspective of someone who has seen many races like this one, and is still interested. He currently owns an Xbox 360 and a Wii.
"I'm into shooters and I like to play online (on the 360)," he says. "The Wii is almost like virtual reality. In Rayman, you have to throw a cow by swinging the remote around above your head." He says he hasn't yet found a reason to buy a PS3. Still: "I have to try everything. I'm one of those spenders who can't stop.
"Back then, it was Nintendo versus Sega. Today it's the same. I'll just be happy if neither Nintendo nor Sony goes bankrupt."
The key thing here, and what makes the horserace important, is that each console maker has a point of view: a brand image that informs everything it does. The Xbox 360 is good at high-definition pictures and it does play DVDs, but its real selling point is online play. The PS3 is a beast of a computer and will probably boast the best visuals of this generation, along with the smartest virtual enemies. The Wii is a party machine that works best with eight friends and a keg.
The console that winds up leading the pack will make its parent company rich, certainly, but it will also have the power to shape gaming at large. A win for the 360 will mean a win for online play and trash-talking into a headset at opponents half a continent away.
A win for the Wii will mean smaller development budgets and fewer titles that appeal to the hardcore and more titles about swinging cows over your head.
A win for the PS3 will be a win for the status quo: gaming as a largely solitary activity that pits players against ever more sophisticated artificial intelligence.
The horserace mattered because everybody talked about it, sure. But it really mattered because all that chatter was really a conversation about the future of the medium. The creative (and maybe even artistic) choices game developers will make over the next five years hang on it. Maybe it's okay if you couldn't help picking a side.
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