SOFTWARE REPORT for EUROPE

2012-02-05T18:41:00.000Z

The study found that every £1 spent on both fixed and mobile internet access in the UK supported the creation of £5 in revenue for the rest of the digital economy.

INTERNET: UK online economy valued at £82bn

By Daniel Thomas, Telecoms Correspondent

The UK internet economy has been valued at £82bn ahead of the publication of the government green paper on communications that will help define regulation of the sector.

The digital economy is now worth almost 6 per cent of gross domestic product, according to AT Kearney, the consultancy, which it said was significantly higher than the global average. Vodafone, the mobile operator that sponsored the research, said it was a larger section of the economy than mining and utilities combined.

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The study found that every £1 spent on both fixed and mobile internet access in the UK supported the creation of £5 in revenue for the rest of the digital economy. Greater access to the web supported a wide range of applications from internet shopping to gaming and social media.

Some £45bn is generated by e-commerce and mobile commerce, while connectivity services, online search advertising and device manufacturing generate another £37bn.

The communications green paper, expected this week, will look to raise questions to be addressed in a bill on the regulation needed to build the UK internet economy. The paper is expected to focus on the role of the internet economy and in particular issues such as piracy, with the threat that the government would consider regulation alongside a voluntary code of conduct.

Other matters expected to be covered include how information is used by some of the internet’s largest groups such as Google and Facebook, media plurality and ownership, and Ofcom’s role as a regulator and consumer champion.

Read more on the link below

UK online economy valued at £82bn - FT.com

SoftwareReport: The 1st Interactive Journal, Established 1992. Full Coverage of Innovations and Developments for the Multimedia ITC, Internet, Wireless Mobile, Telecom and Broadcasting Technologies Markets

2012-02-02T17:20:00.000Z

Facebook to make its stock market debut, probably in May

Facebook reveals what makes its network tick

By Richard Waters and April Dembosky in San Francisco and Telis Demos in New York

The first close look that Facebook gave the world of its finances spoke volumes about what makes the social networking company tick.

Mark Zuckerberg, though still only 27, is firmly in control of the consumer internet phenomenon, controlling nearly 57 per cent of the company’s voting stock – nearly as much as the combined voting that Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page wield over their company.

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To judge from the idealistic tone of the founder’s letter included in the registration papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, he sees Facebook’s long-term potential as much in social as in business terms.

“Facebook was not originally created to be a company,” Mr Zuckerberg said. “It was built to accomplish a social mission – to make the world more open and connected.”

In spite of such strong echoes of Google’s 2004 IPO filing, Facebook has shown itself far more willing to play by the rules of Wall Street. Mr Zuckerberg made no repeat of the Google founders’ warning to investors that theirs was a “different kind of company”, one that would not pay attention to the usual concerns of the financial markets, such as short-term profits – a stance that contributed to perceptions of arrogance that alienated many potential Google investors.

Moreover, while the search giant thumbed its nose at the traditional Wall Street power structure by selling its shares through an auction, some of the best-known investment banks will be firmly in control when Facebook makes its stock market debut, probably in May.

Read more on the link below

Facebook reveals what makes its network tick - FT.com

2012-01-30T09:38:00.000Z

Typhon Selects Level 3 IP Services to Connect International Operations, Differentiate Service Offering

French Hosting Company to Expand Relationship with Level 3; Offers Customers Increased Global Connectivity with Level 3's Network

LONDON, Jan. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Level 3 Communications, Inc. today announced that hosting company Typhon, has selected Level 3 to provide high-speed IP services connecting Typhon's international data center operations. The new agreement expands the three-year relationship between the companies, during which Level 3 has been serving as Typhon's primary IP transit provider in Europe and the U.S.
Typhon, Level 3's original IP customer in its Telehouse 3 point-of-presence (PoP) located in Magny-les-Hameaux, will take advantage of Level 3's network capacity, resilient service and global network reach to enhance their competitive position by offering the global connectivity that hosting customers are increasingly demanding.
"As a quickly growing company that depends on customer recommendations, we needed a provider who is as keenly focused on quality of service and delivering an exceptional customer experience as we are," said Jules Vo-Dinh, co-founder and CEO of Typhon. "After working with Level 3 for several years now, we knew they would deliver that winning combination – along with the network reach and performance – and enable us to rise above the competition and better serve our customers."
In addition to IP services, Typhon also relies on Level 3 for transatlantic capacity to interconnect Typhon'sNorth America and French operation centers over a dedicated transport link.
"Because we offer IP services in all of the data centers where Typhon has operations, we can deliver the capacity that will support their growth, and the reach that will provide them with a resilient service in theirParis-area points of presence," said James Heard, regional president of EMEA for Level 3. "This agreement represents Level 3's commitment to serving hosting providers and content providers, and to helping our customers leverage the investments we've made in our network to make them more successful."
Level 3 provides service over 165,000 intercity, metro and subsea fiber route miles with presence in more than 45 countries, providing a size and depth of connectivity on a broad scale.
For more information on Level 3's advanced network and service offerings, visit www.level3.com.

2012-01-25T13:17:00.000Z

TECH: Apple's Culture of Secrecy (VIDEO) At Last Pays Off Delivering World's Record Profits

Apple's $46 billion sales set new tech record

By David Goldman @CNNMoneyTech January 24, 2012: 6:12 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Ask Siri how Apple recorded the best quarter in history for a tech company, and her answer should be: "Me."

Apple sold a stunning 37 million iPhones last quarter, twice what it sold in the same period a year ago. IPad sales doubled to a record 15.4 million. Apple moved 5.2 million Macs, the first time Apple sold more than 5 million of its PCs in a quarter. The company also sold 15.4 million iPods during the holiday quarter, which ended Dec. 31.

Apple's stellar quarter generated sales of $46.3 billion, a tech industry record. That's up 73% from a year ago, and it easily topped Wall Street analysts' $38.9 billion median forecast, according to a Thomson Reuters poll.

Apple had $127.8 billion in sales during the 2011 calendar year, putting it neck-and-neck with Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500), the nation's largest tech company. This year, Apple is on pace to become the biggest technology company in the world, measured by revenue, outpacing current global No. 1 Samsung.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said its fiscal first quarter profit rose to $13 billion, or $13.87 per share, more than double the profit Apple booked a year earlier.

It was one of the most profitable quarters ever for any U.S. company, trailing only ExxonMobil's (XOM, Fortune 500) record-setting $14.8 billion quarter from the fall of 2008, when oil prices were at an all-time high.

Apple is sitting on most of those profits. It now has $97.6 billion in cash.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer told analysts on a conference call that Apple is discussing what to do with that cash -- but he added that the company is "not letting it burn a hole in our pocket."

Apple's iPhone sales were lifted by October's launch of the iPhone 4S, the eagerly awaited successor to the iPhone 4. The Siri-powered device came out months later than its predecessors did in past years, sending pent-up demand sky-high for the phone. (Click here for a chart illustrating the iPhone's epic sales growth.)

The iPhone alone generated $24.4 billion in sales during the quarter for Apple.

The iPad also outpaced expectations. Apple's CEO Tim Cook said on the conference call that he didn't see "any effect, plus or minus" from Amazon's Kindle Fire. He said he believes that's because Amazon's (AMZN,Fortune 500) low-end e-reader/tablet is in a different category than the iPad.

The real iPad competitor, Cook said, is the PC. Tablet sales outpaced desktop PC sales during the quarter according to industry research firm IDC, Cook noted.

Apple has now sold 315 million iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices running its iOS software. The success of the company's mobile devices has led to 85 million customers signing up for iCloud, the company's new cloud storage service. Apple also said that 600,000 people have already downloaded Apple's new textbook creation app for the iPad, which was introduced last week.

"We're thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs," Cook said in a prepared statement. "Apple's momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline."

Apple Stores performed very well during the holidays, generating $6.1 billion during the quarter.

For the current quarter, Apple said it expects earnings of $8.50 per share on sales of $32.5 billion. Historically, Apple's outlook has tended to be quite conservative, so investors were cheered that Apple's forecast was more optimistic than most analysts'.

Apple CFO Oppenheimer said that he expects iPhone and iPad sales this quarter to fall a bit from holiday levels, but they will still grow year-over-year. Cook added that the company underestimated demand for the iPhone, but it is working to bring supply up to match it.

Shares of Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) rose 8% in after-hours trading.

Apple's $46 billion sales set new tech record - Jan. 24, 2012

SoftwareReport: The 1st Interactive Journal, Established 1992. Full Coverage of Innovations and Developments for the Multimedia ITC, Internet, Wireless Mobile, Telecom and Broadcasting Technologies Markets

2012-01-25T12:57:00.000Z

TECHNOLOGY: Apple's profits skyrocketing to world record level due to iPhone and iPad sales

Apple results surge past forecasts

By Chris Nuttall in San Francisco

Apple blasted past Wall Street expectations with record quarterly revenues of $46.3bn powered by the sale of 37m iPhone devices , giving the company nearly $100bn of cash in hand.

The Silicon Valley group reported record net profits of $13.06bn, or $13.87 per share, in its December quarter, well ahead of analyst expectations of $10.07 per share and Apple’s guidance of $9.30.

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Apple shares jumped nearly 10 per cent in after-market trading before slipping back for a 7.5 per cent gain at $451.94.

Wall Street had expected revenues of $38.8bn with sales of about 30m iPhones, boosted by the launch in October of the 4S model.

Apple tends to be conservative in its guidance but it missed analyst expectations for the first time in years in October, blaming the later release of the new iPhone.

Sales of models including the 4S in the December quarter were up 128 per cent on a year earlier, while Apple also sold 15.43m iPads, representing sales growth of 111 per cent.

Tim Cook, chief executive, said Apple had ended the quarter with a significant order backlog for the iPhone, despite taking a “bold bet” on demand for the new 4s.

The company said it expected revenues of about $32.5bn in the current quarter and earnings per share of about $8.50. Wall Street analysts forecast $32bn and $8.00 in earnings per share.

“Apple’s strong guidance beat [the] Street, despite its usual conservatism, illustrating strong anticipated ongoing momentum, possibly including the expected launch of the iPad3,” said Mike Abramsky, analyst with RBC Capital Markets.

Read full FT.com article on the link below

Apple results surge past forecasts - FT.com

2012-01-24T10:34:00.000Z

Rivals spar over Google+ traffic

By Richard Waters in San Francisco

Google has traded blows with a group of rivals including Facebook and Twitter as each side tries to seize the moral high ground in the increasingly bitter online social networking wars.

The search company won plaudits from human rights groups as it announced a policy change on Monday on its Google+ network that will make it easier for users to appear under pseudonyms. The more lenient approach contrasts with Facebook’s insistence on the use of “real names”, which activists claim exposes political dissidents to reprisals in some countries.

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Earlier in the day, however, Google came under fresh attack over controversial changes made to its search engine earlier this month that critics claim were designed mainly to divert traffic to its new social network, at the cost of devaluing its search results.

Facebook and Twitter, backed by MySpace and other unnamed allies, released an optional online tool designed to strip Google+ listings from Google search results, instead replacing them with listings from social sites that claim greater user interest.

The search company’s enemies also sought to turn Google’s famous promise to remain ethically pure against it, dubbing their new tool “Don’t be Evil”. Google refused to comment on the new weapon in the social networking wars, which was released on a website called Focusontheuser.org.

The battle over Google+ has turned increasingly ferocious as Google has thrown the weight of its dominant search engine behind the service. The social network reached 90m users this month, more than twice the number of three months ago, with 80 per cent visiting at least once a week, according to Google.

Read full article on link below

Rivals spar over Google+ traffic - FT.com

2012-01-09T19:18:00.001Z

SoftwareReport: The 1st Interactive Journal, Established 1992. Full Coverage of Innovations and Developments for the Multimedia ITC, Internet, Wireless Mobile, Telecom and Broadcasting Technologies Markets

2012-01-06T10:02:00.001Z

Marvell's new revolutionary ARMADA-based "Foresight Platform" powers new Google TV, offers best of television and multimedia experience for the new generation of Smart TVs, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, and beyond

LONDON and SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Representing a major breakthrough in the convergence of TV, gaming, streaming video, popular web apps and social media, Marvell a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions announced that the new Foresight Platform, powered by the Marvell® ARMADA™ 1500 HD Media System-on-a-Chip (SoC), has been designed into the next generation of Google TVs debuting at CES 2012.

Using Marvell's award-winning Qdeo™ video processing technology, the ARMADA-based Foresight Platform is designed to deliver superior 3D video, impressively rich audio, striking 3D graphics and TV-friendly Web

"The Google and Marvell teams have been working closely together to bring our combined software and chipset technologies to market to grow the Google TV ecosystem of manufacturers and devices. Marvell-powered Google TV solutions will enable powerful products to be brought to market at attractive prices," said Mario Queiroz, VP, Product Management Google TV.

For consumers, today's digital home offers an endless choice of devices and content. For OEMs and service providers, it's an all-out sprint to create offerings that perform noticeably better than competitors and at mass-market prices. The Connected TV Marketing Association (CTVMA) estimates 123 million connected TVs will be sold worldwide in 2014. Those consumers will expect access to the services they love – Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, Picasa and many more – in a lightning-fast, crystal-clear and resource-friendly package.

Powerful, energy-efficient, ultra-scalable and immensely affordable, the ARMADA 1500 contains Marvell's highest-performing ARM v6/7-compatible PJ4B SMP super-scalar dual-core CPU. The chip is designed to enable PC-like processing power to support Web browsing with support for Flash™ and other key technologies – with the aid of more than 6000 Dhrystone MIPS of computing horsepower, FPU v3.0, 512KB of L2 cache and WMMX2. The Foresight Platform is energy efficient and has advanced cell-phone like power management.

The ARMADA 1500 also contains Marvell's award-winning Qdeo video processing for state-of-the-art HD and 3D video, including scaling, noise reduction, de-interlacing, low bit-rate internet video enhancement and FRC and color/contrast enhancement. The chip offers VMeta™, a multi-format video decoder/encoder/transcoder that can decode up to two simultaneous 1080p streams as well as a host of other video formats and containers. These features make the Foresight Platform ideal for Google TV, which requires tremendous processing power for its numerous applications at a cost effective price point.

Related Links:

Product information: http://www.marvell.com/digital-entertainment/armada-1500/
Marvell media materials: http://www.marvell.com/company/press_kit/

2011-11-29T17:31:00.000Z

Texas Instruments unleashes industry's most complete small cell base station solutions with dual-mode support and comprehensive software suite

BIG performance, SMALL cells: Texas Instruments unleashes industry's most complete small cell base station solutions with dual-mode support and comprehensive software suite

2011-11-29T16:26:00.000Z

Microsoft Cloud Services Get Major Service Updates

NEW FEATURES IN MICROSOFT OFFICE 365 AND UPDATES TO SHARING IN MICROSOFT SKYDRIVE MAKE IT EASIER FOR PEOPLE TO WORK TOGETHER.

LONDON, England. Nov. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced the first major service update for Microsoft Office 365, the company's next-generation cloud productivity service for businesses of all sizes. The service will also be available to try in 22 additional markets today, including Argentina,Iceland, Indonesia, South Africa and Taiwan.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO)

"We are seeing really positive momentum for Office 365. Customers are adopting Office 365 eight times faster than our previous service, and the solution is on track to become one of our fastest-growing offers in Microsoft history," said Kurt Del Bene, president of the Office Division at Microsoft. "We are also seeing great traction with small businesses, with more than 90 percent of our early Office 365 customers coming from small businesses."

Small Businesses and Big Brands Bet on Office 365

More and more large global companies are choosing Office 365 to enable their employees and customers to work together in the cloud. In fact, more than 40 percent of the global Interbrand list of the 100 top brands use Office 365 or related cloud productivity services from Microsoft. Among the new customers are Campbell Soup Company and Groupe Marie-Claire, which have recently chosen Office 365 to reap the benefits of cloud productivity.

"Office 365 is key to our plans to propel our employees to next-generation innovation in productivity technologies, at a very rapid pace," said Joe Spagnoletti, senior vice president and chief information officer at Campbell Soup Company. "We're betting on the cloud — and Office 365 — as we prepare to build a highly collaborative workplace where employees across our global offices can all work together and communicate in a seamless fashion."

Groupe Marie-Claire, a leading fashion magazine published in more than 30 countries, will use Office 365 to modernize the company's email and collaboration capabilities, while moving away from a costly and inefficient legacy technology. Employees at Groupe Marie-Claire will be able to access email and share documents on a PC, Mac or various mobile devices with Office 365.

"We thoroughly evaluated other cloud productivity offerings in the market before choosing Microsoft. Office 365 is the right choice to help our company support the way people work today and encourage a more mobile work environment," said Philippe Chapier, IT manager for Groupe Marie-Claire. "With the service, we have the added benefit of working together with familiar tools on almost any device and can make quicker decisions when needed."

Rapid Cloud Evolution

Microsoft is also making more than 30 new updates to Office 365 to enhance collaboration and communication. For SkyDrive - Microsoft's personal cloud storage service SkyDrive works seamlessly with Microsoft Office and Office Web App to access or share documents anywhere - adding simple app-centric sharing for Office, powerful file management and easier uploads with HTML5 based largely on customer feedback. Key new features and enhancements include the following:

Support for Lync for Mac. Mac users can now use instant messaging, presence and videoconferencing through Office 365.
New SharePoint Business Connectivity Services, which allow people to connect to information in their company's critical line-of-business applications, such as customer relationship management or SAP software.
Support for Windows Phone 7.5. Starting today, people can access and update documents in SharePoint Online from anywhere using their Windows Phone.
SkyDrive gets simpler app-centric sharing for Office, powerful file management and easier uploads with HTML5. Share any Office document in one click. Work together more easily with any contact — across email services and connected networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn. Powerful tools to manage and organize files quickly. Drag and drop multiple files to upload across browsers on PC and Mac.

"Today's news illustrates how we're executing like never before in the cloud with more customers, capabilities and commitment than anyone in the industry. All this while others search for their focus," saidTakeshi Numoto, corporate vice president, Microsoft Office Division.

About Office 365 and SkyDrive

Office 365 brings together Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online in an always-up-to-date service, at a predictable monthly cost. Businesses can try it for free for 30 days by signing up at http://www.office365.com or from their local Microsoft partner. Follow Office 365 on Twitter (@Office365), Facebook (Office 365), LinkedIn (Office 365) and the Office 365 blog athttp://community.office365.com for the latest information and updates on the service.

Sign up for free at http://www.SkyDrive.com. Follow SkyDrive on Twitter (@SkyDrive), Facebook (SkyDrive) and the Inside Windows Live blog athttp://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live.

2011-11-19T12:14:00.000Z

Folding@home client can now run on supercomputers

By Joel Hruska on November 18, 2011 at 4:56 pm
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Earlier this week at the supercomputing SC11 conference, researchers from the long-running Folding@home project demonstrated a new distributed framework named Copernicus that’s designed to allow F@h to scale across geographically-dispersedsupercomputing clusters. It’s a logical step for a project that, over time, has grown to support GPUs, PS3s, and all major operating systems — but leveraging the power of an HPC cluster requires more than an OS port and a few design tweaks.

That’s where Copernicus comes in. F@h’s primary mission is to understand each step in the protein-folding process. Copernicus, in contrast, lets the user specify the desired end results, rather than a detailed, step-by-step description of how to obtain them. The Copernicus run-time, taking into account all of the available computational resources, then breaks down the desired end results into specific, efficient task packages.

Based on this diagram, my earbuds are actually proteins

As an analogy, consider balloon animals (without any creepy clown references). Folding@homefocuses on examining every fold and twist that transforms a balloon into a giraffe, a rabbit, or Optimus Prime. It also measures the mistakes that occur when a balloon doesn’t fold properly, and what the resultant mutant creature looks like.

Copernicus allows researchers to start by describing the characteristics of the balloon animal they’re looking for. The software is then designed to scale across supercomputing clusters and leverage their massive parallel processing capability to locate best-fit balloons. One of the primary challenges, according to Vijay Pande’s team, was ensuring that the software could scale effectively across wide deployments.

“It opens the door to huge crowds of people using these methods, which have matured with Folding@home,” Pande said. “This method should be able to use any supercomputer on the planet completely,” Pande said. “Strong scaling to these extremes is unusual.”

In a discussion thread in the Folding@Home forums, Pande stated that, in essence, Copernicus is Folding@home for supercomputers — but went on to note that the project’s primary goal was to “take all of the scientific methodological advances in FAH’s backend and bring it to other researchers.”

The researchers behind FAH likely wouldn’t argue with more processing power, but as of today, Folding@home has an actual output of some 9.075 x86 petaflops. The combined output of the network’s seven million-plus CPUs would put it just under the current TOP500 supercomputer,

2011-11-19T11:53:00.000Z

Sorenson Squeeze 8 Bundled With Avid Product For Video Editing Complete Solution

Christophor Rick | Posted 14 hours ago |

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Avid and Sorenson Media have expanded a partnership that will now see Avid video editing products including Sorenson Squeeze 8. It's a pretty major deal as they are two of the largest video editing software companies around. The software that Avid will have Sorenson Squeeze 8 bundled into is the new Avid 64-bit video editing systems, including Media Composer version 6, NewsCutter version 10 and Symphony version 6.

Sorenson Squeeze 8 Bundled With Avid

Directly from the Avid product interface, video content creators and editors send their video files directly to Sorenson Squeeze for encoding, with no added steps. Sorenson Squeeze 8 enables producers, filmmakers and enterprise users – along with the rapidly expanding market of web developers, videographers and other content creators who are focused on multi-screen publishing – to cost-effectively encode and transcode in the market’s most popular video formats, including Flash FLV, Flash SWF, MPEG-4, QuickTime, Windows Media, WMA, WebM and others.

Avid will bundle a base version of Sorenson Squeeze 8 in Media Composer ($2,295.00 – $2,495.00), Symphony and NewsCutter software, the latest versions of which were announced November 3, 2011. Avid customers can upgrade to the full Sorenson Squeeze 8 version for an additional cost.

Source: Sorenson Squeeze 8 Bundled With Avid Product For Video Editing Complete Solution http://www.reelseo.com/sorenson-squeeze-8-bundled-with-avid/#ixzz1e9QziHs6
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2011-11-10T13:13:00.000Z

An animated video about the rapid growth of social media and it's impact on the world.

LONDON. The great thing about social media is that it’s where the people are! Think about it. Thousands of people in your area – your potential customers – are on-line using the various social media platforms RIGHT NOW – this minute.

Incredibly, Facebook now gets more page views each month than Google; Twitter is the most brilliant tool to engage with people and millions are using it; LinkedIn provides the greatest professional networking facility there is and You Tube provides the most incredible and under utilised video platform that can sky rocket your sales if used correctly.

The fact is that together these platforms are the 21st century word of mouth. Social Media is transforming the way the world does business. In your town and your city, this week. Today. The implications are huge and the prizes are enormous for those businesses with the wisdom and foresight to get involved – properly – right now

2011-11-06T13:30:00.000Z

LONDON. The New Tab page in Google Chrome browser is what you see when you (you've guessed it) open a new tab in Google Chrome. It’s designed to get you to your favourite apps and sites as quickly as possible.

To open the New Tab page, click the icon next to the last tab at the top of the browser window.

2011-10-21T07:53:00.000Z

The technology giant continued to lose money in its online services, though online ads revenue increased 21 per cent. The company remain dedicated to monetise its Search agreement with Yahoo.

LONDON. Microsoft’s quarterly profit increased by a modest 6 per cent from a year earlier as sales of its flagship Windows operating system were depressed by flagging growth in the PC industry.

The world’s largest software company by revenues said sales in the fiscal first quarter rose 7 per cent to $17.37bn, held back by a mere 2 per cent gain on Windows to $4.87bn. The division including Office software grew by 8 per cent to $5.62bn.

Read full report here below
Microsoft reports modest gains - FT.com

2011-10-06T21:57:00.000Z

LONDON. FT.com has written here below a great account of the life of Steve Jobs, a man who contributed to create the actual myth of the Silicon Valley. His indomitable desire of independence and perfectionism combined with unbreakable stubbornness marked the gone years of rebel ‘Californisation', a style of life whose spirit and freedom soon became the desire of the world.

Jobs' determination to succeed with the new technological challenge introduced by the advent of the microprocessor in 1971, stirred up visionary debates in the Silicon Valley's ‘Home Brewers Clubs' and were diffused worldwide by their ‘Bible’, the Byte Magazine.

Apple Inc. soon posed a vital threat to the computer industry giant IBM, which soon declared defeat and accepted the battle. Steve's strenuous belief in Intellectual Property Rights refused him to come to terms with vital issues like ‘Industry Compatibility’ and ‘Usability’ eventually made the brand fall off the shelves of retailers. Steve Jobs determined principles were reiterated recently by his criticism of the usage of 're-tweeting' in Twitter as a negative attitude and a loss of individual creativity.

Apple’s Mac in 1984 was a far better product than the IBM PC. Fitted with a faster and reliable microprocessor but lacked the hardware architectural suitability for OEMs manufactures, VARs and Software Houses.

In those years, like in the Universe, all of the sudden, beside to a big star, there was a breakthrough, a burst of energy by new born Super-novas, that created a galaxy of new products each one soon to eclips the old ones. Apple and Microsoft came out from that Bang.

Steve Jobs finally completed his dream to bring his creature, Apple Inc., to be the world’s most fashionable computer brand with the last born product, the iPad, whose overwhelming success marks the final sublime achievement of a company’s long life cycle of experiences. His unrivalled product will survive him and will be his legacy.

Lucio Menin

Steve Jobs stamped his mark on more than 35 years of personal computing history, from the rudimentary but ground-breaking Apple II to the sleekness of the touch-screen iPad. In the process, he helped to instill new digital tastes in a generation and was instrumental in the reshaping of digital media and entertainment.

Read full article at FT.com here

NEW MEDIA: Mass Media groups eye reporters’ Social Media activities and audiences

2011-07-30T10:48:00.000Z

The case of Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s chief political correspondent and enthusiastic Twitter user with a loyal following of more than 60,000 people, was poached by ITV News.

LONDON. Twitter and other social media sites are creating new tensions in traditional newsrooms as broadcasters and newspapers grapple with individual reporters’ attempts to use the web to create a personal brand.

The question of who owns a professional Twitter or Facebook account was highlighted when Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s chief political correspondent and enthusiastic Twitter user with a loyal following of more than 60,000 people, was poached by ITV News.

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Within days her Twitter account’s name had switched from BBCLauraK to ITVLauraK, taking her large audience and internet credibility with her to a rival broadcaster.

ITV News said that it encourages its correspondents to engage with Twitter and that Ms Kuenssberg’s following on the site was an “additional benefit” in her hiring. The BBC said it made no attempt to keep hold of Ms Kuenssberg’s account.

Legal experts say that unless the BBC had incorporated social media into her contract, there is little the broadcaster could do to claw back the lost audience, which Ms Kuenssberg cultivated during last year’s hour-by-hour developments in the general election and coalition negotiations.

It is a tug of war between employer and employee over social networking profiles that is being played out in other industries. Accounts at LinkedIn, which hosts professional profiles and contacts, are being seized by recruitment consultancies when a headhunter quits.

Laura Kuenssberg, 60,000 followers

After joining ITV as business editor, Ms Kuenssberg transferred her tweets and followers to an ITV-branded account. The defunct BBC account now describes her as “definitely not the next political editor of the BBC ” and has just one tweet saying, “I’ll be back . . . ”.

In fashion, sports and entertainment, the millions of online devotees of a star can create untested legal issues in areas such as trademark infringement if they move to a new position.

In the mass news media, the issue is even more contentious because of the amount of new followers that can be generated by mentions of journalists’ Twitter names on screen and in print, blurring the lines between the individual reporter and the publisher.

As social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook attract hundreds of millions of visitors a month, their scale as a media platform can rival that of traditional news channels.

Read more on the link below>>

Media groups eye reporters’ Twitter fans - FT.com

TECHNOLOGY: MS Office offsets slow PC market for Microsoft - FT.com

2011-07-22T11:07:00.001Z

LONDON Microsoft rang up record fourth-quarter revenues driven by its Office software suite while Windows revenues declined in a sluggish PC market. The company also reported 30 per cent growth in its entertainment and devices division, thanks to strong sales of its Xbox 360 console, Kinect motion controller and Xbox Live subscriptions.

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Total revenues for its June quarter were $17.37bn, up 8 per cent year-on-year and ahead of analyst expectations of $17.25bn. Profits of $5.87bn, or 69 cents a share, were up more than 30 per cent and beat Wall Street forecasts of 58 cents.

Office offsets slow PC market for Microsoft - FT.com

TECHNOLOGIE: Apple consortium beats Google to Nortel patents - FT.com

2011-07-01T19:14:00.000Z

The internet company needs better intellectual-property defences for its widely used Android smartphone software

LONDON. A consortium of mobile technology firms including Apple, Microsoft and Ericsson have outbid Google for a collection of strategically vital patents from Nortel, the bankrupt Canadian telecoms equipment maker.

The group, which also includes EMC, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and Sony, paid $4.5bn in cash for more than 6,000 patents covering wireless, 4G, data networking, internet and semiconductor technologies.

Read the full article on the link below>>
Apple consortium beats Google to Nortel patents - FT.com

SoftwareReport: The 1st Interactive Journal, Established 1992. Full Coverage of Innovations and Developments for the Multimedia ITC, Internet, Wireless Mobile, Telecom and Broadcasting Technologies Markets

TECHNOLOGY: US Regulators probe Twitter’s handling of app developers. FT.com

2011-07-01T09:06:00.000Z

Developers had shifted the focus of their service away from Twitter after its change of technology direction last year.

LONDON. US regulators have begun an investigation into whether Twitter has unfairly disadvantaged other developers who had built businesses by tapping into its global audience, according to a person familiar with the review.

The study follows a turbulent period in the relations between the internet messaging service and companies that make Twitter applications and “clients”, or software for PCs and smartphones that Twitter’s members use to access the service.

Read full article on the link below
Regulators probe Twitter’s handling of app developers - FT.com

'Launch: Silicon Valley 2011' - California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom Joins Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs and Deal Makers for Fireside Chat

2011-06-06T11:38:00.000Z

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.,PRNewswire/ -- The Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE) today announced that California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom will help kick off Launch: Silicon Valley 2011, Silicon Valley's most affordable, high visibility product launch showcase for emerging technology companies, to be held on June 7, 2011. Startup America CEO Scott Case, Garage Technology Ventures Managing Director and author Guy Kawasaki, and Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Strategic and Emerging Business Development Dan'l Lewin will also address this gathering of innovators from around the world.

Founded in 1995 by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs, The Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE) is the largest and fastest growing nonprofit in Northern California dedicated exclusively to helping technology and life science entrepreneurs start and grow successful businesses. SVASE provides support and resources for entrepreneurs, from the idea through initial rounds of funding to product launch, delivered at 12 monthly events and a continually evolving web site.

Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom will participate in a discussion with Bill Reichert, Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, on his plan to jumpstart California's economy and the high tech industry's role in these efforts. An audience Q&A with the Lieutenant Governor will be part of this interactive session.

"California's fast growing technology sector continues to have a positive impact on our state's economy," said Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom. "SVASE and their showcase, Launch: Silicon Valley, have played an important role in the delivery of technology innovation and success and I look forward to speaking with these entrepreneurs and investors who are helping to drive our economy forward."

"We are honored to have such an important decision maker as Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, who truly understands the critical role of the Silicon Valley tech community, share his insights with the entrepreneurs and investors from Silicon Valley and throughout the world who make Launch: Silicon Valley such an important launch venue," said Chris Gill, President and CEO of SVASE.

Silicon Valley 2011 will feature new companies that have a product or service available as of June 7, 2011, but have not been in the marketplace for more than a few months beforehand. The 30 selected companies will present on stage for 6-minutes plus 4 minutes Q&A with the audience and a panel of VCs and Angels, with the opportunity to explain their products in more detail to the audience in networking breaks. The event will also feature an award for the "Most Likely to Succeed" in each of the six presenting categories. Presenters will be on hand to showcase their companies and products between presentations.

During the past five years, appbackr, BLADE, Data Robotics, Dayak, d.light.design, fix8, Industrial Origami, Jaxtr, JungleCents, Kongregate (acquired by GameStop), MyShape, Smaato, tenCube (acquired by McAfee), Triggit, Trooval, Truemors (acquired by NowPublic), uTest, Vizibility, Yodio, Zuora, and over 100 other startups leveraged SVASE's annual Launch: Silicon Valley event, to launch their products, raising over $130MM in venture capital, securing customers and partners along the way.

Launch: Silicon Valley 2011, to be held June 7 beginning at 8:30 a.m. at Microsoft's Mountain View Campus, is considered Silicon Valley's most affordable, high visibility platform for emerging technology companies to demo their products or services for launch into the market. This year 30 startups in cleantech, life science, mobile, next generation internet, and technology will make presentations to investors and other influencers who can help shape their success. In addition to the presentations, participants also have the opportunity to network with the audience.

Full Agenda

Who's Who Attendee List

List of partecipating launching companies

Panels: Sell Fast or Grow Big, with MySpace Entrepreneur and VP Technology Michael Cerda, Zuora Founder and CEO Tien Tzuo (a Launch: Silicon Valley alum), and GGV Capital Partner Glenn Soloman.
The Changing Face of Venture Capital, with Andreessen Horowitz General Partner John O'Farrell, SoftTech VC Founder and Angel Investor Jeff Clavier, and Garage Technology Ventures Managing Director and Entrepreneur Bill Reichert.

Launch: Silicon Valley is co-presented by SVASE, early stage venture capital firm Garage Technology Ventures and Microsoft, which will host the event at the Microsoft Silicon Valley campus in Mountain View. Additional sponsors include Cooley LLP, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Global Media Strategy communications, Mintz Levin LLP, the Band of Angels, Sand Hill Angels, Wilmer Hale LLP, the Angels Forum, The Kauffman Fellows Program, PR Newswire, Halosys Technologies, Life Science Angels, Foglifter Media, Alchemy Search Partners, Hawaii High Technology Development Corporation, LeadFormix, Link Silicon Valley, and VentureDeal.

Audience members may register at Discounted Early Bird rates at:
About SVASE

Technology - Empire under attack: Google has taken aim at one of the main pillars of Microsoft’s OS business

2011-05-12T13:05:00.000Z

LONDON. Google announced that notebook computers dubbed Chromebooks and running its Chrome OS software instead of Windows will go on sale next month.

Chromebooks give users access to applications running on the web rather than software on the computer itself, making them the first examples of what Google claims will be a new generation of machines purpose-built for the era of “cloud computing”.

Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, said companies in particular should benefit from the new style of laptops.
“The complexity of managing your computers is really torturing users,” he said. “It’s a flawed model fundamentally.”

Google said that Chromebooks made by Acer and Samsung would go on sale on June 15 in seven countries including the US and UK, and would be available to companies through an unusual subscription fee of $28 a month. No EU prices have been released yet.

Read more>>

FT.com / Technology - Google aims at Microsoft with Chromebooks

ESC Silicon Valley 2011: Xilinx's Zynq-7000 Extensible Processing Platform and World's First 28nm FPGA for Embedded Systems on Show

2011-05-03T11:41:00.000Z

Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) Silicon Valley

SAN JOSE, Calif., /PRNewswire/ -- Xilinx, Inc. is showcasing its Zynq™-7000 Extensible Processing Platform (EPP) and Kintex™-7 family, the world's first 28nm Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), this week at Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) Silicon Valley 2011 May 3-5 2011.

Through technical conference sessions, free workshops and booth demonstrations, conference attendees can learn how Xilinx can help embedded systems developers achieve the levels of performance and customization required to successfully deploy products across a wide range of end markets including: aerospace and defense, wired and wireless communications, automotive, audio/video broadcast, industrial control, test and measurement, and consumer.

Consisting of tools for software and hardware development, reference designs, IP including the MicroBlaze™ processor core, development kits, and other resources, Xilinx® Targeted Design Platforms for embedded systems provides design teams with high levels of productivity while minimizing development costs. The latest additions to Xilinx's portfolio for embedded systems include the Zynq-7000 EPP, a new class of processing platform that combines an industry-standard ARM® dual-core Cortex™-A9 MPCore™ processing system with Xilinx.

Additionally Kintex-7 FPGAs, which deliver a 2x price-performance improvement while consuming 50 percent less power compared to previous generation FPGAs, offers high-density logic, high-performance serial connectivity, memory, DSP blocks and the new Agile Mixed Signal analog interface, all to enable higher system-level performance and new levels of integration. Xilinx activities at ESC Silicon Valley 2011 will focus on introducing attendees to the latest new product offerings and their capabilities. Held in Silicon Valley, Boston and India, the Embedded Systems Conference empowers the global design engineering community with hundreds of essential technical training classes and accreditation opportunities.

For more information and to register for our events visit: http://esc.eetimes.com/siliconvalley/.

TECHNOLOGY: How paywalls are changing social media strategies by Journalism.co.uk

2011-04-13T15:16:00.000Z

Mashable has taken a look at three paywalled sites: the Dallas Morning News, the Economist and the Honolulu Civil Beat.

LONDON. It has talked to community editors on the titles about how they promote stories via social media without incurring the wrath of angry readers who follow links to then find they are blocked by a paywall.

Dallas Morning News
Travis Hudson, a Dallas Morning News web editor, manages the site’s Twitter account and Facebook fan page, where he shares both free and premium content.
Like any good social media strategist, transparency is key for Hudson.
He designates whether a link is behind the paywall when posting it on Facebook or Twitter.
The Economist
Social media helps the site reach subscribers, regular readers and new readers by the means most convenient to them, while providing an opportunity to spark discussions around the Economist’s coverage areas.
“Readers who are empowered to participate are likely to spend more time with the site, return more often and become more active advocates of our work,” [Mark Johnson, The Economist's community editor] says.
With the metered model, Johnson and other web producers can share any articles on social networks without experiencing the backlash of readers’ inability to access the site. Perhaps more importantly, they’re able to bring in more traffic.
“Referrals to the site from social networks, and the pageviews generated by such referrals, have grown almost every month since our social strategy began,” Johnson says. “Nor is this growth slowing. If anything, it’s speeding up.”
Honolulu Civil Beat
Online-only local news site the Honolulu Civil Beat is coming up on the one-year anniversary of its launch.
Though content is and always has been free through email, the site initially gave only partial access to visitors who came through social networks.
Beginning January 2011, however, all visitors can read all articles until they visit regularly enough to be asked to become a member.
“We figured, if they’re reading us that much they would be happy to become a member, and we’d be happy to have them,” says Dan Zelikman, the Civil Beat‘s marketing and community host.
There is no specific threshold number. Rather, the site runs a custom program that asks a reader to subscribe based on how often and how much he or she reads.
“Basically, if you read a couple of times a week, it will take a while before we ask you to register,” Zelikman says.

Reading access aside, the Civil Beat’s subscription model fosters community by only allowing members to comment on articles. In addition, subscribers experience the site without advertising, a perk that’s particularly popular with the community.

Mashable’s full article is at this link.

Mashable: How paywalls are changing social media strategies | Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog

Firefox 4 Beta 1: Introducing the New UI

2011-03-15T09:09:00.000Z

INTERACTIVE TV: CNN’s Twitter World Cup Coverage Wins Prestigious UK Journalism Award. In reality it's a plagerie as we did first 19 years ago

2011-02-26T04:47:00.000Z

COMMENT: Our Publishing company CSE Ltd are in reality the copyrights holders as the first TV interactive audience convergence programme was realised by us in 1992.

LONDON. CNN has just won a prestigious UK journalism award for its innovative use of Twitter to cover the 2010 World Cup. The Royal Television Society, established as the Television Society in 1927 – nine years before regular public television broadcasting even began – has acknowledged CNN in the “Innovative News” category of its annual TV journalism awards.

This television journalism award pre-dates even the popular distribution of broadcasting itself, and in recognizing a traditional media outlet’s use of new media, it has identified a convergence point between the old and the new that is re-shaping global media. CNN teamed up with Twitter during the 2010 World Cup and showed both web and TV audiences just how social media was being used during the games. They created an interactive visualization of the conversations pertaining to the World Cup on Twitter, enabling audiences to see how people were using social media to discuss the events.

The goal of Twitter Buzz was to put World Cup fans at the heart of the games’ coverage. It displayed a visualization of World Cup teams, players and topics, and the more something was tweeted, the larger its image would appear. In total, Twitter Buzz filtered through more than 11 million World Cup-related tweets worldwide.

Twitter Buzz was created in-house, and supported by CNN’s team of journalists, tech staff, designers, marketers and sales staff. By using Twitter to provide live, real-time, on-the-ground reactions to the World Cup, CNN has embraced a form of citizen journalism made possible only through Twitter and other social media. Displaying tweets in the aggregate, CNN was able to paint a picture of the general sentiment of soccer fans around the world, tapping into Twitter’s instant and pervasive social information stream.

The fact that CNN won a high-profile journalism award from an organization that nearly predates TV itself shows the way that social media is being integrated into, and is, at times, changing, traditional media and news coverage. You can check out CNN’s 2010 World Cup Twitter Buzz online.

CNN’s Twitter World Cup Coverage Wins Prestigious UK Journalism Award - AllTwitter

Mobile World Congress 2011: TI demonstrates world’s first Android development platform for Smartphones and Tablets

2011-02-15T10:37:00.000Z

Android software from TI simplifies mobile 802.15.4 radio interoperability with consumer electronics and green smart home solutions

BARCELONA, Spain /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) the industry leader in highly integrated wireless connectivity solutions, today showcased an Android 2.2 software development platform, designed to simplify the mobile device integration of the ZigBee® and ZigBee RF4CE protocol stacks. A first for the industry, mobile device manufacturers can now connect directly to the growing consumer electronics and smart home application markets. Resulting use cases enable consumers to manage commands like smart TV and set-top-box (STB) remote control features or utility management through smartphones and tablets—driving flexibility for consumers while maximizing the usability of mobile devices. Related demonstrations can be seen at Mobile World Congress 2011. For more information on TI's RF4CE solutions, visit www.ti.com/wbu_rf4ce_pr_lp. And, for more information on TI's ZigBee solutions, visit www.ti.com/wbu_rf4ce_pr_zigbeelp.

The IEEE 802.15.4 radio technology is recognized as one of today's top growing wireless protocols. RF4CE use alone in the consumer electronics industry is expected to jump from less than 10 million units in 2010 to 250-300 million units by 2015(1). Similarly, use of ZigBee connectivity in home automation solutions is expected to be in the 20-30 million units range by 2015, an approximate 35% year-over-year increase from the 2010 figure(2).

"TI is the first to offer mobile device manufacturers the immense opportunity to connect today's more than 294 million smartphones and tablets(3) to the anticipated 331 million devices in the home networking system(4) - an opportunity that is expected to grow dramatically year-over-year. The simplified integration of ZigBee and ZigBee RF4CE connectivity offered by TI enables the logical control of everything from a digital video recorder to a complex home lighting solution, a compelling experience for consumers who want more functionality from their favorite mobile devices," said Volker Prueller, marketing manager for TI's Low-Power RF products.

TI's IEEE 802.15.4 radio solution for mobile development is based on the company's CC2530 system-on-chip device, and supports ZigBee and ZigBee RF4CE applications. The solution operates in parallel with TI's WiLink™ 6.0 combo chip (WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth technology and FM radio connectivity), as well as the WiLink 7.0 combo chip (WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy technologies, GPS, and FM radio).

Availability

TI's Android software development platform for mobile ZigBee and ZigBee RF4CE applications will be available first quarter of 2011

SoftwareReport: The 1st Interactive Journal, Established 1992. Full Coverage of Innovations and Developments for the Multimedia ITC, Internet, Wireless Mobile, Telecom and Broadcasting Technologies Markets

Steve Jobs early TV appearance.mov

2011-02-13T17:35:00.000Z

INTERNET ARCHITECTURE: The rush for the last internet addresses by “Dooms Day” June 8th

2011-02-03T11:31:00.000Z

The exhaustion of internet addresses, something similar the panic over the “Millennium bug”, when computers everywhere were expected to go haywire on January 1st 2000, is about to happen in the months ahead.

LONDON. Remember the panic over the “millennium bug”, when computers everywhere were expected to go haywire on January 1st 2000, thanks to the way a lot of old software used just two digits to represent the year instead of four? Doomsters predicted all sorts of errors in calculations involving dates when the clocks rolled over from 99 to 00. In the event, the millennium dawned without incident. That may have been because of the draconian preparations undertaken beforehand. Or perhaps, as many suspected, the problem was grossly exaggerated in the first place. Certainly, the computer industry made a packet out of all the panic-buying of new hardware and software in the months leading up to the new millennium.

Well, something similar is about to happen in the months ahead. This time, the issue concerns the exhaustion of internet addresses—those four numbers ranging from 0 to 255 separated by dots that uniquely identify every device attached to the internet. According to Hurricane Electric, an internet backbone and services provider based in Fremont, California, the internet will run out of bulk IP addresses sometime next week—given the rate addresses are currently being gobbled up.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) will then have doled out all its so-called "slash-eight" blocks of addresses to the five regional internet registries around the world. In turn, the registries are expected to have allocated all their remaining addresses to local network operators by October at the latest. After that, any organisation applying for new addresses will be told, sorry, none left.

The issue is real and has been a long time in the making. The Economist first warned about it ten years ago (see "Upgrading the internet", March 22nd 2001). The problem concerns the address space of the existing version of the internet protocol (IPv4), which is only 32 bits wide. The total number of binary addresses possible with such an arrangement is therefore two raised to the power 32—or roughly 4.3 billion in decimal terms. Back in the 1980s, when the internet connected just a couple of dozen research institutes in America, that seemed like a huge number. Besides, the internet was thought at the time to be just a temporary network anyway.

But with the invention of the web in 1990 came an explosion in popular demand. It was soon clear that it was only a matter of time before the internet would exhaust its supply of addresses. Work on a replacement for IPv4 began in the early 1990s, with IPv6 finally being made available around 1998 (IPv5 was an experimental protocol for streaming audio and video that has since ceased to exist). By giving the new internet version an address space of 128 bits, the designers pretty well guaranteed that it would not run out of unique identifiers for decades, or even centuries, to come.

Two raised to the 128th power is an astronomical number. In decimal terms, it is roughly 340 billion billion billion billion—or, as Martin Levy of Hurricane Electric likes to say, “more than four quadrillion addresses for every star in the observable universe.”

That will come in handy when the "internet of things" becomes a reality (see “Chattering objects”, August 13th 2010). Already, some two billion people have access to the internet. Add all the televisions, phones, cars and household appliances that are currently being given internet access—plus, eventually, every book, pill case and item of inventory as well—and a world or two of addresses could easily be accounted for.

Apart from providing locators for every person and thing on the planet and beyond, IPv6's huge address space makes routing traffic over the internet a good deal easier. Above all, it eliminates the need for network address translation (NAT), a fudge used to extend the useful life of IPv4. NAT works by allocating a single address to, say, an organisation's gateway computer to the outside world. In turn, this public access computer allocates addresses to all the other devices on the organisation's internal network, allowing them all to share the one IPv4 address.

Dispensing with NAT improves the performance of networks and, in principle, makes them much easier to configure. It also goes some way towards re-establishing the overarching philosophy of “end-to-end connectivity” espoused by the internet's founding fathers. To allow the internet to evolve and meet the needs of unknown future applications, the designers wisely decided that all packets of data travelling over the internet should be treated equally, and delivered from a computer at one end to a computer at the other end without prejudice or interference. Over the years, things like NAT and firewalls—plus attempts to provide some form of "quality-of-service" preferences for speech and video—have eroded the internet's end-to-end principle considerably.

Though a vast improvement, IPv6 is not without its problems. The biggest is that it is simply not backwardly compatible with IPv4. To reduce the amount of processing the routing computers have to do as they direct packets of data over the internet, IPv6 was given a far simpler packet format. That speeds things up no end. Unfortunately, while the two internet versions can coexist on a single device, they have to function independently of one another as two separate networks. When a device on one needs to communicate with a device on the other, various relay services and tunnelling tricks have to be employed, with IPv6 packets getting wrapped inside IPv4 packets or vice versa.

By all accounts, the two separate internets will have to live side by side for the foreseeable future. That could mean putting up with interoperability hassles for decades—at least, in the United States. One reason is that network operators in America have invested heavily in NAT boxes and other address-saving technologies. Also, being the inventor and earliest user of the internet, America received the lion’s share of addresses before today’s rules were put in place. As a result, many large companies, universities and government agencies in the United States still have plenty of spare IPv4 addresses lying around unused. The pressure to upgrade has therefore been minimal.

That is not the case elsewhere. The biggest single demonstration of IPv6 to date was during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, when everything from live television and data feeds to security and traffic information was streamed over a vast IPv6 network. Being one of the last to embrace the internet, China has only one address for every four people. Hence the urgency in Beijing to adopt IPv6 as rapidly as possible. The same goes for Russia, South Korea and Japan. NTT, Japan’s largest telecoms firm, has been offering IPv6 services to the public since 2000.

The next showcase for the new internet technology is to be “World IPv6 Day” on June 8th. While doing all he can to help, Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet and today chief internet evangelist at Google, warns that the day could be marred by huge configuration difficulties. But the main purpose of the event is to air precisely such difficulties and get their fixes circulated.

And not before time, too. The American Registry for Internet Numbers, which allocates blocks of IP addresses to internet service providers and other network operators throughout North America, has suggested that all websites that face the public in its region be ready to support IPv6 by January 1st 2012. The aim, as The Economist has noted before, is to turn today's few islands of IPv6 computers in a sea of IPv4 into a world with a few remaining islands of IPv4 machines in a vast ocean of IPv6

(Original source: The Economist.com/Internet architecture: The Difference Engine: No more addresses)

PAPER.LI: An invention which could shake the editorial world to its foundations

2011-01-22T12:12:00.000Z

COMMENT: It could even challenge Rupert Murdoch's new digital project. It is something that happened some 500 years after Gutenberg' invention and as such the world is trembling for its consequences. May be in future the Swiss would not be blamed or joked about anymore for having invented only the cuckoo clock in their history. After nine months of existence Paper.li is along on the growth curve than Facebook or Twitter were at a similar age.

By PARMY OLSON

Tom Cruise does it. So does Stephen Fry and comedian Eddie Izzard. They’re making easy, personalized newspapers with paper.li and changing the way people read Twitter and content online. The new service organizes all the links posted each day in someone’s Twitter feed into one daily “newspaper”– and it really does look like a newspaper.

Around 100,000 people have used Paper.li since Swiss-start-up Small River launched it last spring, and around 1,000 papers are being created each day. Co-founders Edouard Lambelet and Iskander Pols are still tinkering with the service amid an explosion of users, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki recently joined the advisory board. “The traction is absolutely huge right now,” says Pols, who keeps hearing others in the industry muse,” Why didn’t I think of this?” The next step is to plug in content from other sources like Facebook.

Paper.li originally aimed to solve the problem of processing the never-ending stream of links posted on Twitter, letting you customize the content with hashtags and Twitter users whose links you like the most. Ever noticed an interesting links pop up that you really wanted to read but couldn’t (or shouldn’t) because you’re in the middle of something? It’s the story of social networking. Around a quarter of the 90 million Tweets each day contain links.

But there are other interesting consequences to. In its own simple way Paper.li makes anyone a publisher of news and interesting information, and they don’t have to write a single word. It’s why celebrities and their fans already like the service–newspapers published by celebrities like Stephen Fry can get more than a hundred thousand hits each time, according to Pols. Groups, and even towns are getting in on the act.

Pols hastens to add that Paper.li is not out to replace traditional media by aggregating content. “The links shared on the paper point back to media,” he says. “We’re not looking at hijacking content, but using it as a content-discovery tool.” As yet there are no stats on which content producers—bloggers? Traditional media?—are benefiting the most in terms of traffic.

I had a go at making my own newspaper, The Parmy Olson Daily no less, and was impressed with the results. For a start, it looks good. The newspaper can fit at least a couple dozen linked stories onto the page, showing the headline, first paragraph and photo of the Twitter user who posted it, like a picture byline.

Paper.li's co-founders, Edouard Lambelet and Iskander Pols; Source: SmallRivers

The newspaper comes complete with photos, ads from big companies like Nokia, (a company which often features in my Twitter stream), smaller Google Ads for things like paper towels and cleaning supplies (who knew) and section-links on the masthead. There’s also a section called “Media” where Paper.li helpfully embeds videos that came up in my feed today, including the ever-charming, How To Wrap A Cat For Christmas.

There are still kinks to iron out, of course. A few stray technology stories found their way confusingly into my Education section, and even when things are categorized properly it’s hard to process the content you’re looking at with just a headline and text directly underneath. The humble sub-head (or “dek” in journalistic parlance), is an important component of every newspaper story to help summarize what you’re about to read.

Paper.li hasn’t made any money yet, but rest assured Pols and Lambelet are working closely with Google Ad Sense to remedy that. The biggest risk to Paper.li is that someone else offers a similar product that works better. “Anything on the web can be easily replicated by a development team,” Pols admits. But after six months of existence, he says, Paper.li is further along on the growth curve than Facebook or Twitter were at a similar age. If it establishes itself as a familiar name, it shouldn’t need to worry.

Names You Need To Know: Paper.li - Parmy Olson - Disruptors - Forbes

SoftwareReport: The 1st Interactive Journal, Established 1992. Full Coverage of Innovations and Developments for the Multimedia ITC, Internet, Wireless Mobile, Telecom and Broadcasting Technologies Markets

CES 2011: Bye-Bye PCs and Laptops - WSJ.com

2011-01-19T03:34:00.000Z

By MIKE MALONE AND TOM HAYES

LAS VEGAS. As inflection points go, the Consumer Electronics Show that kicked off yesterday couldn't be sending a clearer signal: The era of the personal computer is drawing to a close. For an industry gathering that once showcased each new generation of desktop and laptop, this year's show is buzzing with every imaginable flavor of tablet, smart phone and mobile appliance. Welcome to the age of mobile computing.

While personal computers are not going to disappear altogether, the trend lines are clear. Gartner, the market research company, predicts that by 2013 the number of smart phones will surpass PCs, 1.82 billion to 1.78 billion. And that's not counting the tablets. Gene Munster, an analyst with the global investment bank Piper Jaffray, estimates that Apple iPad sales were 14.5 million for 2010, with another million tablets sold by competitors. Sarah Rotman Epps at Forrester Research predicts that 82 million Americans will be using tablets by 2015.

Access to the Internet—a key indicator of consumer behavior—by mobile devices also is on a strong uptick. According to a report by the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, 59% of Americans accessed the Internet on their phones last year, up from 25% the previous year. The Chinese government recently reported that nearly 300 million Chinese residents now access the Internet via mobile phones. Comcast announced on Wednesday that it would deliver cable television to the iPad and similar Android tablets later this year.

Why have smart phones and tablets succeeded when so many past challengers to the PC have failed? There are several reasons:

• Computing Power. The personal computer has hung on so long because there was no ready alternative. In the last three years, that changed. A new generation of low-power (crucial to long battery life), gigahertz-class processors, combined with high data-transmission speeds (3G, now 4G LTE), high-resolution LCD displays, and nearly a half-million new software applications have suddenly made mobile devices as good as, and in some cases even better than, their PC counterparts.

Picture: Getty Images
Convention attendees use Samsung Galaxy Tab Android tablets at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show.

• Cannibalization. The super-integration of the chips that power smart phones has enabled these do-all devices to systematically replace a bevy of other consumer standbys, from photo and video cameras to GPS devices, music players and hand-held videogame players. There is a strong undercurrent to all this: We live in the physical world, where limitations on space and attention perpetually push us toward adopting a few essential and irreplaceable devices in our lives. • Competition. In the PC industry, competition has largely been reduced to distribution efficiencies and price. But the explosive development of the smart-phone industry is fueled by wide-open rivalry between new product designs and even different visions of what the technology can become.

The arms race between feature-phone product lines adding functionality (Nokia, Motorola, et al.), secure communications devices for professionals (such as RIM's BlackBerry), visual interface-driven multi-purpose devices (Apple's iPhone and iPad), and open-system platforms for multiple hardware developers (Google's Android operating system for tablets and phones) has spurred each player to new heights. In the case of the iPhone, Apple has even created a powerful new business model, consumer-created applications, that has revolutionized the software industry and produced one of the greatest outpourings of private/corporate innovation ever seen.

• Creatives. The truism in tech is that if you want to know what's the hottest industry, watch where the smartest young people are gravitating. Today it's mobile. Millions of bright people, young and not so young, have brought their talents to the mobile world, introducing as many new software programs in a few months as were devised by the computer industry in its first half-century.

• Community. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Qik and Foursquare are making the mobile Internet increasingly more important. It's hard to share life's moments in real time if you must be tied to a desk to communicate.

• The Cloud. Data is migrating from personal computers to a global mesh of shared servers. Storing files and photos online and using Web-based email obviates the need to lug your life around with you. Access to the cloud turns a tablet or smart phone into a virtual supercomputer. Storage demands will rise dramatically, but what was once stored on PCs will be redistributed to disk drives in data servers and home and office media lockers.

• Clients. Tablets and smart phones will soon act as a sort of detachable thin client, delivering a fully operational, virtualized desktop or media center to any screen in the home, office or car. Instead of toting a laptop around, a user can simply plug one of these mobile devices into a docking station and turn any size monitor or tablet into a computer, or a TV into a media center.

• Culture. We want to be mobile, yet we still want to remain connected to the people and things we care about. Nothing currently fulfills that psychic hunger better than a fully-loaded tablet or smart phone in your pocket. There's also an inherent appeal to the culture of these devices: Compare the dry utility of a personality-free PC to the candy-colored array of app icons on the iPad user interface. Which one you would like to wake up to every day?

Mr. Malone is a journalist based in the Silicon Valley. Mr. Hayes is a vice president of Marvell Semiconductor, a manufacturer of high performance processors.

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TECHNOLOGY: Personal computer sales hit by rise of the iPad

2011-01-17T12:58:00.000Z

As growth had steadily slowed throughout last year

LONDON. Sales of personal computers are falling short of expectations, as the buzz around Apple's iPad draws consumers to alternative tablet devices.

Two new reports record disappointing shipments of PCs in the final three months of last year, as retailers stocked up for the peak shopping season, and one of the industry's most closely followed research firms has cut its predictions for PC sales in 2011.

International Data Corporation, which publishes the Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, said sales were up 2.7 per cent to 92.1 million in the quarter, below the 5.5 per cent growth expected. David Daoud, research director at IDC, said growth had steadily slowed throughout last year, as low-cost netbooks lost their allure.

"Weakening demand and competition from the iPad constrained PC shipments. Consumers are being more cautious with their purchases."

IDC had predicted a 10 per cent increase in global PC sales this year, but said that growth would no longer reach that level. The success of the iPad has prompted rivals to develop similar tablet computers, dozens of which will launch this year.

Gartner, another research firm, which also recorded lower-than-anticipated PC shipments at the end 2010, said games consoles as well as tablets were competing for consumers' attention. Mikako Kitagawa, its principal analyst said: "The bright side of the PC market during the fourth quarter was a steady growth in the professional market driven by replacement purchases. However, the PC market will face more intensified competition among consumer spending."

HP maintained the No 1 position in worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2010, though its market share fell almost a percentage point, to 18.8 per cent. Acer had a share of 12.7 per cent, with Dell on 11.6 per cent, Gartner said.

(Source: The Independent)

Technology -Senior executives lay off at Microsoft and AMD

2011-01-11T03:22:00.000Z

The mounting pressure on tech companies that thrived in the PC era, caused by a new generation of mobile devices and the rise of “cloud” computing, have led to the removal of senior executives at Microsoft and AMD.

More>>

FT.com / Technology - Executives go at Microsoft and AMD

TECHNOLOGY: Cloudy outlook as Google steps up push to rule web

2010-12-09T07:23:00.000Z

If you would like to redistribute this article please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited FT content. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6e6f0a9a-02f3-11e0-bb1e-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz17b46mMkn

Cloudy outlook as Google steps up push to rule web

By Richard Waters

Published: December 8 2010 19:16 | Last updated: December 8 2010 19:16

Google’s ambitions are so sweeping, the theatres in which its campaign is being advanced so dispersed, that it is not always easy to trace the outlines of the broader war it is fighting. Sometimes it takes simultaneous advances on a number of fronts to bring its progress into focus. This has been one of those weeks.

What other company, after all, would take public aim at not one, but three big rivals – Amazon, Apple and Microsoft – in the space of just a couple of days? Not doing any one thing well enough against formidable competitors like these could end up being Google’s biggest problem

Star Trek -like home computer

2010-11-27T19:52:00.000Z

MALWARE: ZeuS-SpyEye Merger in Progress?

2010-11-26T12:04:00.000Z

LONDON. “Rivalry” between the ZeuS and SpyEye malware families has ended with a merger of the two families. It was reported that ZeuS author Slavik or Monstr has gone underground and has given his toolkit’s source code to SpyEye author Gribodemon or Harderman.

This has prompted a lot of speculation about what will come next. Many researchers are waiting for a new malware family that will combine the features of SpyEye and ZeuS. Based on our underground research, we discovered that SpyEye’s development ground to a halt. One feature of SpyEye will be included in future versions of ZeuS to add features that are not part of the latter’s “core” functionality (e.g., more sophisticated information theft routines).

SpyEye uses plug-ins that can be added after the main toolkit has been purchased. In contrast, ZeuS previously used modules that had to be included when the toolkit was sold. Newer ZeuS versions will use plug-ins, much like SpyEye currently does. If a cybercriminal wants to add a new feature to his existing SpyEye toolkit, all he has to do for SpyEye and future ZeuS versions is to purchase a new plug-in. This previously required ZeuS users to purchase a new version.

For now, however, SpyEye and ZeuS remain separate malware families. Whether the merger pushes through or not, however, SpyEye is still growing as a threat. According to the information gathered by the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™, the number of SpyEye infections has grown since July of this year to as much as 20 times to date.

What about ZeuS’ author? We have heard rumors that he is not really retiring. He will instead create new malware (either ZeuS or entirely new families) that he will then primarily sell to high-value clients. When we do see these variants, will they be more targeted in terms of infection routine? And what are the chances that we will be able to determine that they actually came from the ZeuS author? Only time will tell.

Since news of this “merger” first came out, many security analysts rushed to gather intelligence on SpyEye. In anticipation, Gribodemon went through many underground forums and deleted his posts to cover up what he has been doing.

Trend Micro and the rest of the security industry are ready to respond to this threat. One of the more public signs of this is Roman Hüssy, the administrator of the respected ZeuS Tracker, who has opened the SpyEye Tracker, which fulfills the same function for SpyEye. This will aid both law enforcement agencies and security companies in taking down and investigating SpyEye command-and-control (C&C) servers. We at Trend Micro are also proactively monitoring the SpyEye threat and will continuously work hard to protect our product users.

Mobile Editing in Google Docs

2010-11-18T03:01:00.000Z

25 Anniversary: Windows history (Windows 1.0 - 7)

2010-11-17T02:45:00.000Z

WIRELESS MOBILE: Changes at the Symbian Foundation | Symbian Blog

2010-11-10T15:03:00.000Z

Yesterday we made an announcement that the Symbian Foundation board has decided to transition the non-profit organization to being a pure licensing body. This means there will be an immediate reduction in staff and activity and by April 2011, the Symbian Foundation will be governed by a group of non-executive directors tasked with overseeing the organisation’s licensing function.

What I want to emphasize in this news is the difference between the Symbian Foundation and the Symbian platform, as the future of the two are totally separate. The reduction of Symbian Foundation activities does not mean the end of the Symbian platform. Far from it when you look at recent metrics and realise that 2010 has been the best year ever for the Symbian platform with around 40% growth year-on-year.

When it comes to the platform, we will be working with Nokia to support the plans that they have outlined to make the Symbian platform publicly available under an alternative direct and open model. I’m confident that this process will leave the Symbian platform and its ecosystem in very good hands.

Personally, I’ve been using the Nokia N8 for a few weeks and Symbian^3 is by far the healthiest I’ve seen the platform in the ten years that I’ve been with Symbian. Others clearly agree: in the second quarter of 2010 more than 25 million Symbian devices were shipped, which is equivalent to three people getting a Symbian device every second.

We also recently celebrated Symbian’s 400 millionth device shipment in Q3 2010 and looking forward, Gartner has predicted that in 2014, over 260 million Symbian smartphones will reach consumers during that year, including our billionth device. This continued growth means that the Symbian platform will be in more phones, in more markets, and, critically, with a more varied set of consumers than any other platform.

I’d also like to take a moment to say how immensely proud I am of the work that we’ve done in the Symbian Foundation. Earlier this year we delivered the biggest open source project ever, and we did it four months ahead of schedule. We’ve also taken big steps along the second stage of the path to building a truly open platform by establishing an active, contributing, community of companies.

Unfortunately – despite these tactical successes, the fact remains that the strategy for the Symbian platform needs to change to better suit the current market environment. Luckily we have the support of major device creators who will ensure that the Symbian platform will continue to move forward unabated.

More than that we can’t say right now as we are finalizing the details, but we will continue communicating as we have more decided. For those at SEE 2010, we hope you enjoy the show and to everyone, I hope you explore the opportunities offered by the Symbian platform.

WIRELESS/ MOBILES: Symbian Foundation scales back as vendors lust after Android

2010-11-09T16:35:00.000Z

LONDON. In a press briefing this morning at the SEE 2010 in Amsterdam, the Symbian Foundation announced plans to scale back and shed most of its staff. The organization will become a legal entity that is responsible for managing Symbian licensing. Nokia will take the central role in guiding the platform's technical direction, but aims to continue making the platform available under an "alternative open model."

The foundation was established after Nokia acquired Symbian in 2008 with the aim of opening the platform's source code. Nokia hoped to work collaboratively with other Symbian stakeholders to modernize the operating system and expand adoption. The platform has moved forward, but not swiftly enough to keep pace with more modern rivals. The platform's key hardware partners have all abandoned ship and moved to alternatives like Android, leaving Nokia as the last major Symbian smartphone maker.

The failure to retain Symbian hardware vendors (and attract new ones) has obviously forced the Symbian Foundation—which relies on funding from its hardware partners—to rethink its role. When the foundation's trash-talking executive director, Lee Williams, got the boot last month, speculation emerged that the foundation would soon be shuttered. This speculation appears to be partially realized in the transition that was announced this morning. Although the foundation will continue to exist, it will not have a meaningful role in Symbian development or strategy guidance—it will just hold the trademark and other key intellectual property.

Tim Holbrow, who was previously responsible for managing the foundation's operations and finances, was named as the new executive director and will be responsible for managing the organization's transition and reducing its 100-person staff. During the briefing this morning, he explained that the foundation's governance structure made sense when there was a diverse group of Symbian stakeholders, but it is no longer appropriate in light of the foundation's declining membership. He attributes the departure of prominent hardware vendors to a "seismic change in the mobile market," which, we suppose, is a euphemism for Android eating Symbian's lunch. He aims to complete the transition by the end of March.

Nokia's senior vice president of Symbian devices, Jo Harlow, gave us Nokia's perspective on the news. She contends that the Symbian platform will remain strong despite the move to scale down the foundation. Nokia is still committed to developing Symbian and will continue to invest in the platform as it has in the past. "The platform itself doesn't depend on the existence of the foundation," Harlow said.

It's not yet clear how Symbian licensing will be impacted by the change. Harlow says that the development model will likely be open in the sense that code will continue to be made available, but Nokia hasn't entirely decided how it wants to approach that from a licensing perspective. The foundation will not have a role in governance, however.

Harlow says that the foundation's reduced role will not lead to any changes in Nokia's platform strategy. The company remains committed to S30/S40, Symbian, and the Linux-based MeeGo platform. Nokia has been gradually ramping up support for MeeGo, which the company believes is better suited for taking on the high-end market, but has not yet announced a MeeGo-based device. It's possible that such an announcement could come next week at the first MeeGo Summit. Nokia's roadmap indicates that its first MeeGo-based product will likely be ready in 2011.

Read more>>
Symbian Foundation scales back as vendors lust after Android

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INTERNET: Yahoo Web tools to demote IE6

2010-11-09T15:32:00.000Z

Yahoo is joining efforts by Microsoft, Google, and legions of developers to wean the Web of Internet Explorer 6, reducing its support for how well its Web programming tools works with 2001-era browser.

Yahoo announced the IE6 demotion last week for its Yahoo User Interface (YUI) tools, an open-source project that supplies Web developers with code modules they can use to build sophisticated sites. Yahoo, naturally, is among its users.

IE6, introduced in 2001, lacks support for many Web standards--many old ones as well as a host of important new ones--and is feeble at processing Web-based JavaScript programs essential to the new era of dynamic, rich sites. It's also more vulnerable to security threats. Although IE6 usage is gradually waning, it's still common, in part because it's built into Windows XP and hard to dislodge from corporate computing environments.

Dealing a blow to the browser, YUI developers Eric Miraglia and Matt Sweeney in a blog post said Yahoo expects to "discontinue A-grade for Internet Explorer 6, moving it to C-Grade" in the first quarter of 2011 so there's more time to focus on mobile browsers and other important new areas.

That doesn't mean that IE6 users will see broken Yahoo Web sites, starting in a few months, just that the YUI tools will only support basic functions. Here's how Yahoo puts it:

We are forecasting the transition of Internet Explorer 6 from A-grade to C-grade in the next GBS [graded browser support] update. The calculus here is simple: The proliferation of devices and browsers on the leading edge (including mobile) requires an increase in testing and attention. That testing and attention should come from shifting resources away from the trailing edge. By moving IE6 to the C-grade, we ensure a consistent baseline experience for those users while freeing up cycles to invest in richer experiences for millions of users coming to the Internet today on modern, capable browsers.

Microsoft has been trying to move people off IE6 for months, including among other things a campaign likening IE6 to spoiled milk. Google, whose business relies on browsers and suffers from the problems of old ones, is phasing out IE6 support for many of its sites.

Up and coming on the Yahoo support list are mobile browsers. In the current quarter's update of browser support, the built-in for Apple's iOS 3.x and 4.x and for Google's Android 2.2 attained A-level support. That should ease programming chores for those using YUI to reach the mobile realm.

When Microsoft releases the final version of IE9 and Mozilla releases the final version of Firefox 4, those browsers also will get A-level support, Yahoo said.

Stephen Shankland

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Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank, or contact him through Google Buzz.

BIOS: Change of 'Bios' will make PCs boot in seconds

2010-10-18T10:18:00.000Z

New PCs could start in just seconds, thanks to an update to one of the oldest parts of desktop computers.
Continue reading the main story

The Bios in modern computers dates from the earliest IBM PCs

The upgrade will spell the end for the 25-year-old PC start-up software known as Bios that initialises a machine so its operating system can get going.

The code was not intended to live nearly this long, and adapting it to modern PCs is one reason they take as long as they do to warm up.

Bios' replacement, known as UEFI, will predominate in new PCs by 2011.

The acronym stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and is designed to be more flexible than its venerable predecessor.

"Conventional Bios is up there with some of the physical pieces of the chip set that have been kicking around the PC since 1979," said Mark Doran, head of the UEFI Forum, which is overseeing development of the technology.

Mr Doran said the creators of the original Bios only expected it to have a lifetime of about 250,000 machines - a figure that has long been surpassed.

"They are as amazed as anyone else that now it is still alive and well in a lot of systems," he said. "It was never really designed to be extensible over time."

AMI is a firm that develops Bios software. Brian Richardson, of AMI's technical marketing team, said the age of the Bios was starting to hamper development as 64-bit computing became more common and machines mutated beyond basic desktops and laptops.

The Bios tells the computer what input and output devices are installed

"Drive size limits that were inherent to the original PC design - two terabytes - are going to become an issue pretty soon for those that use their PC a lot for pictures and video," he said.

Similarly, he said, as tablet computers and other smaller devices became more popular, having to get them working with a PC control system was going to cause problems.

The problem emerges, he said, because Bios expects the machine it is getting going to have the same basic internal set-up as the first PCs.

As a result, adding extra peripherals - such as keyboards that connect via USB rather than the AT or PS/2 ports of yesteryear - has been technically far from straightforward.

Similarly, the Bios forces USB drives to be identified to a PC as either a hard drive or a floppy drive.

This, said Mr Richardson, could cause problems when those thumb drives are used to get a system working while installing or re-installing an operating system.

UEFI frees any computer from being based around the blueprint and specifications of the original PCs. For instance, it does not specify that a keyboard will only connect via a specific port.

MICROSOFT unveils its Windows Phone 7 (VIDEO)

2010-10-12T01:20:00.000Z

Microsoft has sought to turn its back on more than decade of faltering performance in the mobile software business, betting heavily that it can use a new focus on design and marketing to recoup lost ground from Apple and Google.

The about-turn was on display on Monday as the software company took the wraps off a new family of smartphones based on its latest mobile software, called Windows Phone 7.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Apps will decide success of Windows Phone 7 - Oct-11

Microsoft to speed up in smartphones - Oct-07

Lex: Microsoft - Oct-04

Microsoft to offer three-screen services - Sep-21

FT Tech blog - Aug-08

A leader in the smartphone software world before the iPhone was launched three years ago, Microsoft has since seen its market share collapse to barely 5 per cent.

Its sharp decline has led Microsoft executives to warn that its broader position in a new technology world, that depends on a range of personal devices that connect to services delivered over the internet, could be damaged unless it finds a way to fight back.

Microsoft Shutting Down $280 Million Acquisition

2010-10-08T21:33:00.000Z

Microsoft is shutting down Massive, an in-game ad company it acquired for about $280 million in 2006, MediaWeek reports. Microsoft was trying to sell the company but it couldn't find any buyers.

In game advertising didn't end up being the big business Microsoft hoped. Massive was also doing work with EA at the time of the acquisition. EA ended up doing its own ad work and didn't need Massive.

Another problem -- the Xbox team didn't play nice with Massive, says MediaWeek:

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: 'Cloud will automate millions of IT jobs'

2010-10-07T16:11:00.000Z

The American software juggernaut CEO was visiting London this week. Speaking at the London School of Economics (LSE) Ballmer said: "If you ask most CEOs what is the largest expense item that they don't have a visceral understanding of, it's usually information technology. Our industry is going through quite a wave of innovation and it's being powered by a phenomenon which is referred to as the cloud."

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told an LSE audience that firms are ready to "bet their future" on the cloud
(Photo credit: Steve Ranger/silicon.com)

Ballmer said 20 to 25 million people worldwide work in the IT business, either with vendors or in-house IT departments. "There's a chunk of that, 10 to 15 per cent, whose jobs will be automated in new ways as a consequence of moving to the cloud," he added.

According to Ballmer, consumers are adopting the cloud "almost implicitly" and companies are now willing to "bet their future" on it.

Cloud computing is a broad term used to describe the delivery of applications via the internet, in contrast to the traditional model where IT departments buy, install and support applications on their own IT infrastructure. But by reducing the need for in-house IT expertise in integrating and maintaining software, the increasing uptake of cloud services could have an impact on some IT skills.

The Microsoft CEO said this increasing automation will also shift how organisations spend their IT budgets, with a decrease in IT expenditure on maintenance and an increase in spending on new developments.

"Most IT shops have a backlog of things they would like to build that is super, super long," Ballmer said.

Ballmer also defended Microsoft's own cloud offerings, saying: "I love where we are in the cloud". According to the CEO, Microsoft's strategy positions it for both public and private cloud, while its rivals are focused on either public cloud, in the case of Amazon, or private cloud, in the case of competitors such as Oracle and VMware.

Microsoft added a private cloud service to its line-up earlier this year, when it launched the Windows Azure Platform Appliance, which allows customers to run Windows Azure from their own datacentres.

(Source:Silicon.com)

SoftwareReport: The 1st Interactive Journal, Established 1992. Full Coverage of Innovations and Developments for the Multimedia ITC, Internet, Wireless Mobile, Telecom and Broadcasting Technologies Markets

Parrot to Bring Integrated Internet Access to Cars

2010-10-07T16:03:00.000Z

Various vehicle offerings available on the market today, such as Ford's integrated Sync solution, and Audi's solution based on Google technology

LONDON, PRNewswire, "One of the main challenges facing the automotive world is to obtain continuous and affordable high-quality, high-speed data connection from the carriers. Although easy universal access to the internet from cars may still be long in coming to the general public, we at Parrot have already taken major steps in that direction."

Thus remarks Eric RIYAHI, Global OEM Director at Parrot, in an interview with Frost & Sullivan, Global Growth Consulting Company, regarding recent developments in the Automotive & Transportation industry. For years, car manufacturers have sought to make ongoing connectivity in automobiles a reality. With multiple companies vying to champion this development, Parrot has distinguished itself through its recent solution offering connectivity via its Wi-Fi/3G+ Gateway.

There are various vehicle offerings available on the market today, such as Ford's integrated Sync solution, and Audi's solution based on Google technology. However, Parrot's next generation FC6100 module offers higher integration levels at lower costs. Parrot's success in the rapid combination of new connectivity with Bluetooth, USB devices, iPod, iPhone, Wi-Fi, and state-of-the-art audio expertise, has been extended to include internet connection through 3G+.

The Wi-Fi/3G+ Gateway enables the module to access the internet in 3G+ and redistribute it to the car's occupants in Wi-Fi. This allows them to connect their various devices to the internet through the gateway, facilitating usage by multiple passengers in a single vehicle, through connectivity for laptops, phones, tablets, and various other types of devices. The FC6100 module integrates the entirety of Parrot's software libraries into the Android framework, combining the best of Parrot connectivity with the most popular features offered by Android Market Apps.

These include hands-free telephony, speaker independent voice recognition, media management and acoustics, as well as mapping and POI services, yellow pages, speed camera database, and navigation. "Android is a Linux-based operating system, increasingly widespread in the Smartphone world and currently making its way into the car market," continues Eric RIYAHI. "As an open-source platform, it is heavily supported by a strong community developing an ever-increasing wealth of applications."The FC6100's interface reaches widespread standards, such as I2S, USB, WiFi, Bluetooth, UART, among others.

This comprehensive accessibility allows very simple integration in the car environment. The module also includes Bluetooth 3.0 communication, offering increased data transfer speed. This allows for the simultaneous combination of several BT use cases. Examples of this multiplicity can be seen in the following scenarios: accessing online services on the car's display via the phone, while placing a call; or placing a hands-free call while back passengers stream music from the driver's phone to their wireless headsets.

READ MORE >>
at monika.kwiecinska@frost.com,

OPENWORLD 2010 - ORACLE unveils Solaris 11, Hardware package

2010-09-28T11:17:00.000Z

LONDON - At the company's OpenWorld event in San Francisco, Oracle revealed that the next version of Oracle's Solaris Unix operating system - Solaris 11 - will be available in 2011. In the meantime Oracle will release Solaris 11 Express by the end of this year, to give customers access to some Solaris 11 technology.

Oracle's new president Mark Hurd also made an appearance at OpenWorld to unveil a new piece of high-end hardware.

The former HP CEO announced Oracle's Exadata Database Machine X2-8, a package of servers, storage and networking aimed at data warehousing or online transaction processing applications.

Hurd joined Oracle from HP in the last month, and yesterday both companies also revealed that they have settled the lawsuit that HP launched over Hurd joining Oracle.

READ MORE>
Oracle unveils Solaris 11, hardware package | Software | silicon.com

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Microsoft Updates Hotmail, Office Web Apps

2010-09-28T11:07:00.000Z

Microsoft is tweaking Office Web Apps and Hotmail, seeking to make further inroads in the consumer cloud space.

LONDON - Updates to Hotmail include Facebook Chat integration, the ability to track packages within an e-mail without needing to navigate to the shipper's Website, a new e-mail attachment size of 25MB, support for viewing Dailymotion and Justin.tv videos from within an e-mail, and subfolders for more precise mail management.

In addition to those updates, Microsoft has engaged in a rolling series of tweaks to Hotmail, much of it in response to feedback. "A few months ago, we released a reinvented Windows Live Hotmail designed around what people said they wanted," Dick Craddock, group program manager for Windows Live Hotmail, posted Sept. 23 on The Windows Blog. "We put a lot of time and effort into careful planning, but we also recognize that with any release, we can improve, so we do our best to listen closely and respond actively."

Microsoft is also rolling out worldwide Hotmail's ability to share 10GB of photos via SkyDrive. As with the other updates, however, it may take some time to reach all users.

"During the rollout, we want everything to go smoothly as new features are added," Craddock wrote, "so we will start by upgrading a small percentage of our accounts, and as the kinks are worked out, quickly roll the features out to everyone. This process will take a few weeks."

Microsoft also made updates to Office Web Apps, its cloud-based suite of productivity applications meant to compete with similar offerings from Google. In addition to rolling out Web Apps in seven more countries, the platform now allows users to embed Excel and PowerPoint documents in a blog or Website, open a Web-based document in desktop-based Office and view Excel documents on one's phone.

Thanks to Microsoft's summer updates to Hotmail, users can now open Office documents sent as an attachment in any browser—even if their PCs don't have Office installed. That feature integrates Hotmail, SkyDrive and Office Web Apps.

With iPad Mobile App Release, SortFix Unleashes Full Capabilities of Unique Sort-Search Technology Platform

2010-09-27T15:34:00.000Z

Free Application Allows Users to Quickly and Easily Conduct Complex Searches On The Move

Tel Aviv, Israel – SortFix (www.sortfix.com), an innovative search technology company, launched today SortFix Touch™, an iPad Application for its unique sort-search platform. The free application, available for download on iTunes, will allow users to refine their search query and allowing them to get more accurate results, without the need to type in extra words.

SortFix's technology improves the answers provided from search engines by employing its powerful text-analysis algorithms and distinctive, intuitive and simple SUI (Search User Interface). The platform analyzes keywords of interest within the results, listing them as “Power Words™.” The "Power Words™” are extracted in real-time, simplifying the search experience and providing the user with a dynamic alternative to traditional search methods.

"By packaging our technology into an iPad app, we are delivering significant value to our users, who will be able to use this application to continue to conduct high-level, complex searches whether they are in the office, at home or on the go," said Amir Lavi, CEO and Co-Founder of SortFix. "SortFix's SUI is ideally suited for the iPad's touch screen and we expect that it will quickly become very popular among iPad enthusiasts. Additionally, we are excited to enhance the experience of our users currently benefiting from our technology on their PCs and laptops."

The technology is available in several languages, allowing people all over the world to enjoy the simplicity and unique capabilities of the SortFix platform.

SortFix Touch™ is simple and easy to use, enhancing the ability of users to conduct complex searches quickly and efficiently, all in a specially designed interface for the iPad. With quick finger movements, iPad users can easily slide Power Words™ into place, giving them the ability to shape detailed queries in minimal time.

Through improving the interaction between the user and the search engine, SortFix's search platform allows users to generate a much longer, more detailed, individually matched, relevant and up to date query than those provided by any other search engine. The platform is interoperable with leading search engines Google and Bing, as well as YouTube and Twitter.

To watch a demo of the technology: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnsjhqzzDHk&feature=related

IE9 Beta Released. And It's Got Major Chops - Technorati Technology

2010-09-22T16:30:00.000Z

Microsoft has finally made the beta version of Internet Explorer 9 available, and thus far I'm incredibly impressed.

The latest version addresses a ton of issues that IE8 struggled with, among them HTML 5 support, tear-off tabs, Acid compliance (vastly improved with a scores of 95, which is a huge step up from previous versions, but not the 100 that Chrome, Safari and Opera score) and speed, speed, speed.

Trotted out during a live keynote from Redmond earlier today, IE9 is without question the best version of the browser yet, and this one isn't just playing catch-up, it's starting to lead. For example, prior versions of the browser didn't allow you to tear off tabs; not only is this recitified in IE9, they can be Aero-snapped to the edges of the screen.

But tabs can also be pinned to the task bar, allowing easy access to what becomes a customized version of the browser, displaying the site's icon and changing the colors of the back buttons to match the site color profile (which, buy the way, works with any site - my meat blog, The Meatist, looks great as well)

Even better, sites can choose to code jump list items for those pinned sites, as you can see in this shot from the Amazon jump list:

DEMO Fall 2010 - Low Cost Media Player Veebeam Offers Revolutionary Laptop Wireless Laptop Content Watched Over the TV

2010-09-14T10:59:00.000Z

Anything from the Internet, such Facebook photos or Youtube videos can be viewed on the TV. Veebeam is Launched In the US and Europe at $99 USD, 99 GBP, 109 EUR

SANTA CLARA, Calif. and LONDON /PRNewswire/ -- Veebeam, a wireless company dedicated to bringing Internet video content to every TV, has announced today at the DEMO Fall 2010 conference in Santa Clara, a revolutionary 1080p HD media player named Veebeam that offers the easiest, most affordable, way to wirelessly stream anything from your laptop to your TV. Internet-delivered movies, sports websites, photos and more can now be shared on any HDTV.

"Veebeam is the only product on the market that doesn't pre-define the viewer's experience. It is what we like to define as 'content agnostic' - anything from the Internet can be viewed on the TV. The market interest has been incredible - Veebeam is going to enhance home entertainment, and help people to make the most of the Internet," said Andrew Vought, Veebeam CEO, a 30-year veteran of semiconductor and technology companies.

Veebeam is a company created by the 2008 merger of Staccato Communications (San Diego, CA) and Artimi (Cambridge, UK) which team includes industry veterans with vast experience in bringing to market a wide array of consumer hardware - including wired and wireless Internet connectivity products.

Aside from being content agnostic, the device is also built on industry standard technology and works on most modern PCs and Macs. The key features are:

Easy to use

--Just plug the Veebeam antenna into a laptop's USB port and it begins streaming the desktop to the TV. Depending on what's being viewed, users can switch between the 'Screencasting' mode, best for sharing websites or photos, and the 'Play-To' mode, to enjoy highest video quality and the ability to multi-task.

Affordable

-- Starting at $99 USD/99 GBP/109 EUR, Veebeam lets users make the most of their existing HDTV and laptop.
-- Looks great - Veebeam outputs up to 1080p video. Digital media files have never looked better on an HDTV.
-- Compatible - Veebeam software works on laptops running Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Mac OSX 10.5 & 10.6.
-- Plays anything - If a PC can play it, Veebeam can play it on a TV - anything from TV shows and movies streamed on Hulu, BBC iPlayer, and YouTube, to downloaded video and personal photos.
-- Secure wireless USB - Veebeam creates a secure point-to-point wireless connection between a laptop and a TV. Wireless USB is more powerful than traditional WiFi because it offers more bandwidth, better security and less interference in an in-room environment.

Veebeam can be ordered starting today through the company's three online stores (US, UK, Europe) which are accessible through www.veebeam.com. The product is available in two versions, Veebeam SD and Veebeam HD. Veebeam HD includes the same composite A/V outputs as the Veebeam SD but also includes HDMI, Digital Audio and 2 USB ports.

SoftwareReport: The 1st Interactive Journal, Established 1992. Full Coverage of Innovations and Developments for the Multimedia ITC, Internet, Wireless Mobile, Telecom and Broadcasting Technologies Markets

IBC 2010: EUROPEAN LAUNCH FOR INMARSAT'S NEW LOW-COST MEDIA SOLUTIONS FOR SMALL BROADCASTER

2010-09-13T16:34:00.000Z

Amsterdam – (Virtual Press Office) - The new 176kbps streaming rate for Inmarsat’s award-winning BGAN service made its European debut at IBC 2010 today, alongside a range of new low-cost media solutions targeted at smaller broadcasters.

Live video link-ups using the 176kbps streaming rate, as well as BGAN X-Stream and the high-quality voice connection of the new IsatPhone Pro handheld satellite phone, are being held throughout the show on the Inmarsat stand (B45, Hall 5).

The new mid-range 176kbps streaming capability is suitable for talking head shots, low movement and relatively static backgrounds. It is compatible with existing video codec solutions and accessible through the existing BGAN hardware that many news crews are already equipped with: the Hughes HNS9201 and the Thrane & Thrane Explorer 700.

“The 176kbps streaming rate is an entry-level service for broadcasters who want to try live video streaming,” said Drew Brandy, Director of Land Mobile Services at Inmarsat. “It provides smaller broadcasters with similar broadcast capabilities to those enjoyed by the major international networks. With 176kbps streaming, the more budget-conscious broadcaster can still deliver decent quality video to their viewers at a lower price point.

“It offers an additional choice to broadcasters who don’t want to use BGAN X-Stream or our 256kbps streaming rate,” he said.

Launched last year, BGAN X-Stream™ is the world’s fastest on-demand streaming service. It offers a streaming IP data rate of at least 384kbps, with an estimated top end of 450kbps. The enhanced video quality of BGAN X-Stream has enabled broadcasters to defer, or even avoid, the need to use SNG trucks. It has been used for hundreds of live video reports in the harshest and most remote locations on the planet; from the depths of the Amazon to the top of Everest.

“Local broadcasters and network affiliates tell us that they love the BGAN X-Stream service, but it’s not suitable for their needs, either because they’re unlikely to get full use from a streaming service, or they are constrained by budget, or because their technology infrastructure is not capable of supporting a service like BGAN X-Stream,” said Brandy. “So, in addition to our new 176kbps streaming rate, we are introducing new and innovative ways to access streaming on BGAN”.

Inmarsat has developed three new propositions with its distribution partners and solution vendors:

• “Cap On Costs”, a low-capex proposition, in which the broadcaster has access to low-cost versions of the hardware and software needed to stream video; encoders, for example. This option also includes the ability to spread the capital cost over a 12-month period.

• “Hardware Lite”, a low-opex pay-as-you-go option. This does not require a long-term commitment, and can be activated on a monthly basis. In practice, it will mean that a broadcaster only needs to activate their licence – for a software encoder in the field, for instance – when a news event happens; so the broadcaster only pays for what it uses. This proposition also involves the airtime provider taking responsibility for streaming the content to the studio.

• “Pay-per-minute”, a content delivery proposition that provides a fully-managed end-to-end solution. This involves an airtime provider using its own network infrastructure to deliver a full pay-as-you-go solution; again, the broadcaster only pays for what it uses. All technological issues, including the ‘last mile’ connectivity into the studio, is managed by the airtime provider.

“These new approaches to the procurement and use of streaming services are revolutionary, and have only been possible through the close co-operation of Inmarsat and our partners and solution providers,” said Brandy. “We can help customers by leveraging our collective expertise and infrastructure, without them having to commit to large expenditure or fully understand the technology behind the live feeds. In all cases, there is minimal technological set-up from a customer’s perspective.

“And for the freelance market, this allows them to sell footage to a wide range of networks without worrying about whether they have that network’s preferred encoder. The airtime provider will take care of that part of the video streaming,” he said.

The propositions can be combined with a customer’s existing infrastructure to enhance its value; or if that does not exist, there are options for last mile connectivity, which delivers content into the studio.

“Broadcast media is a very important market for us, and we keep innovating to deliver the range of services that broadcasters need,” said Brandy. “With BGAN X-Stream, and now with the 176kbps streaming service and our new business model propositions, we have shown that Inmarsat is working hard to be the most highly-valued mobile satellite communications provider to the global broadcast industry”.

SoftwareReport: The 1st Interactive Journal, Established 1992. Full Coverage of Innovations and Developments for the Multimedia ITC, Internet, Wireless Mobile, Telecom and Broadcasting Technologies Markets

IBC 2010: TRIDENT AND ARM JOIN FORCES TO DELIVER A WEB-ENABLED SET-TOP BOX PLATFORM FOR NEXT GENERATION INTERNET TV SERVICES

2010-09-13T16:29:00.000Z

AMSTERDAM– Trident Microsystems, Inc. a leading provider of set-top box and TV semiconductor solutions, and ARM®, announced today at IBC, Amsterdam that they have brought together all the key Web 2.0 and broadcast elements on a powerful set-top box (STB) platform that can enable consumers to seamlessly view TV programming, run rich internet applications, browse websites and share content anytime and anywhere in the home. This new platform not only delivers an immersive and interactive home multimedia experience, but also allows developers and operators to target their content package offering and services to maximise ARPU and advertising revenue.

“By combining an industry-leading STB platform with the powerful Cortex™-A Series of processors, Trident and ARM bring the web-based runtime and user interface technologies traditionally found on PCs and mobile phones into the home entertainment system,” said Tony Francesca, senior vice president and general manager of the Trident Set-top Box Business Unit. “We are pleased to be the first to offer this powerful new platform and look forward to continuing to deliver the most advanced multimedia experiences into the home.”

“The integration of all the key components to enable a robust, internet media experience at home from the comfort of your sofa is a highly visible demonstration of the growing momentum behind the Cortex-A Series of processors in STBs,” said Ian Drew, EVP, Marketing, ARM. “Our leadership position in the development of high-performance, low-power multi-core technology enables ARM to provide the scalable performance demanded by next-generation consumer devices.”

This ARM/Trident initiative provides system developers with the most comprehensive platform to create solutions for internet connected STB applications. Trident has optimized its industry-first ARM-based 45nm broadcast integrated SoC family to take advantage of the high-performance ARM Cortex-A9 processor. The ARM Cortex-A9 processor provides a scalable high performance processor required to enable the streaming of high-bandwidth broadband and broadcast content into homes, while significantly improving power efficiency when compared to alternative solutions.

With the ongoing convergence among consumer electronics products, there is increased demand for the transparency of content and data sharing across different screen sizes whether at home, in the car or on the move. The ability to reuse the wide software support for the ARM Cortex-A9 processors enables activities currently going on in other segments to be reused in the STB space.

“Adobe is working with ARM & Trident to optimize the ARM JIT performance for ActionScript 3.0 which is used in the Flash Platform and provides the fundamental engine for driving our runtimes in digital home devices,” said Jennifer Carr, senior director, business Development at Adobe.

An extensive ecosystem is being developed around the internet-connected STB, including the following elements:

• Qt, which runs on the Trident STB (Cortex-A9 processor based) platform, provides a consistent user experience from mobile to home. Qt includes browser and widgets functionalities which run on top of QtWebKit, and extensive performance optimization work has been done for Qt running on ARM architectures.
• Qt is also the development framework for MeeGo and the ARM partnership has already done significant work on this platform around the ARM Cortex-A9 processor.
• Core runtime and plug in components that power the Adobe® Flash® Platform for the Digital Home have been optimized for the ARM Cortex-A9, including ActionScript 3.0 JIT.
• HTML5, a new Web 2.0 standard that incorporates features like video playback, has also been optimised for ARM and will be key for next generation Web type services.
• The Google Android operating system, designed for the ARM architecture and including an ARM Native Development Kit (NDK), ARM targeted JIT as part of the Dalvik Java application framework and support for the Adobe Flash Player 10.1 web plugin.
• Linaro, a not-for profit company, focuses on the lower software layers and provides the best tools and Linux development experience on ARM, quickening the time to market for Linux based distributions.

More at Trident Microsystems, Inc. http://www.tridentmicro.com.

ARM designs the technology . Find out more about ARM by following these links:

• ARM website: http://www.arm.com/
• ARM Connected Community: http://www.arm.com/community/
• ARM Blogs: http://blogs.arm.com/
• ARMFlix on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ARMflix

SoftwareReport: The 1st Interactive Journal, Established 1992. Full Coverage of Innovations and Developments for the Multimedia ITC, Internet, Wireless Mobile, Telecom and Broadcasting Technologies Markets

IBC 2010 miniCASTER(R) - World's First Mobile Live Pocket Size Camera for Live Web Broadcasting

2010-09-11T21:02:00.000Z

The World's First Mobile Live Encoder in Pocket Size is unveiled today

AMSTERDAM /PRNewswire/The World's first truly mobile Live TV Signal encoder in pocket size named miniCASTER(R) debuted today at the IBC in Amsterdam. miniCASTER(R) enables everybody to stream live to the Web in HDTV quality. miniCASTER(R) is compact, ultra lightweight and truly mobile due to its very powerful on-board battery. It can be connected to the Internet via landlines, cellular networks or satellite. The device encodes audio/video signals of a camcorder or a professional camera in realtime and costs are very low.

miniCASTER(R) encodes the audio/video signal of average camcorders or cameras in realtime. It uses the H.264 codec, favoured by companies like Apple, TV stations or online video platforms like Youtube.Using the codec, content produced by the miniCASTER(R) can be seen by PC users using the Flash Player but also by users of mobile devices like iPhone and iPad.

miniCASTER(R) targets Video Journalists, sport clubs, cultural venues, web-TV and TV production teams, who want to broadcast live in a very easy way, highly efficient and at low cost. The device uses the Content Delivery Network (CDN) of TV1.EU, Europe's leading platform for live streaming. The entry model with analog inputs will be priced at approx. is USD 1,300 and SDI version comes for USD 1,999. Michael Westphal , Co-Inventor of miniCASTER(R), said "miniCASTER(R) has the potential to start a small revolution like Youtube did and miniCASTER(R) could be the breakthrough for live content." Product pictures at http://www.minicaster.com/gallery

Chrome 6 Arrives, Just in Time for Cake

2010-09-04T16:13:00.001Z

Google is celebrating the second birthday of its Chrome web browser with the release of a new, improved version.

Chrome 6 arrives with an updated user interface, better syncing tools that include support for web form data and extensions, and — as should be expected with every new browser release these days — increased speed and numerous bug fixes.

If you don’t want to wait for Chrome to automatically update, head over to the download page and grab Chrome 6 for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Google’s browser is in an enviable position right now. It recently passed Safari in user share — new data from August shows the lead it snagged in June is stretching — and it’s gaining on Firefox and IE. Also, in a market where raw speed is the most important metric, Chrome is enjoying a solid reputation as the one of the fastest — if not the fastest — browser on the scene.

Chrome has also had considerable impact on how other browsers in the market look and behave since it arrived in September, 2008. It kickstarted a shift toward minimal interfaces that Firefox and Internet Explorer are mimicking. Chrome also started the trend of tightly sandboxing web browsers to improve stability and security.

If you’ve been using early builds of Chrome 6, there isn’t much here that’s new, but if you’re upgrading from the older, stable release of Chrome 5 there are quite a few changes.

Perhaps the most noticeable thing about Chrome 6 is what’s missing — almost all the toolbar buttons. Chrome has consolidated nearly everything into a new menu button to the right of the URL bar. Click it and you’ll find the browser’s most-used menu functions.

Other nice touches include a new green padlock icon in the URL bar to indicate you’re on a secure HTTPS connection, and a less-cluttered new tab page that serves as your starting point for new browsing windows.

Chrome 6 isn’t just a visual update — new features like form auto-fill make for faster checkouts at e-commerce sites and faster sign-ups on new services. Chrome can now also sync both your autofill form data and any installed extensions across all your computers.

Chrome may be celebrating its second birthday, but it isn’t resting on its laurels. The Chrome dev channel already contains an embryonic version of Chrome 7 with hardware acceleration and the new “Tabposé” feature for quickly switching between your open tabs.

This article originally appeared on Webmonkey, Wired’s site for all things web development, browsers, and web apps. Follow Webmonkey on Twitter.

Browser data from NetMarketShare, chart from Google. Browsers with less than 2 percent share have been omitted.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Intel to acquire McAfee for $7.7bn

2010-08-19T17:13:00.000Z

Intel, the US chipmaker, said on Thursday that it would acquire McAfee, the antivirus software company, in a $7.68bn deal that would enhance its ability to combat hacking and viruses as it pushes deeper into mobile computing.

The cash deal offers McAfee shareholders a 60 per cent premium above the company’s closing stock price on Wednesday. Shares of McAfee surged 57.5 per cent to $47.17 in early trading on Thursday, while Intel’s shares dropped 3.6 per cent to $18.88.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Lex: Technology sector - Jul-26

FT Tech blog - Aug-08

Intel succumbs to evolution of 4G - Aug-16

Trade group looks to limit cybercrime rules - Apr-29

The acquisition is Intel’s biggest in its history – the next largest deal was the takeover of Level One in 1999 for $2.2bn

“With the rapid expansion of growth across a vast array of internet-connected devices, more and more of the elements of our lives have moved online,” said Paul Otellini, Intel’s chief executive. “In the past, energy-efficient performance and connectivity have defined computing requirements. Looking forward, security will join those as a third pillar of what people demand from all computing experiences.”

The California-based Intel said the deal would help it to serve the security needs of customers through a combination of hardware and software as more devices such as smartphones, televisions, medical technology and cash machines go online.

McAfee, which is also based in Santa Clara, California, will become a subsidiary of Intel and report to its Software and Services Group. It had $2bn in revenues last year and employs 6,100 workers.More on the link below

FT.com / Technology - Intel to acquire McAfee for $7.7bn

AMD Spurs Software Development to Benefit from Heterogeneous Compute Architectures and APUs

2010-08-12T10:38:00.000Z

ATI Stream SDK v2.2 Enables Next-Generation Computing Experiences; Delivers OpenCL™ 1.1 Support

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AMD today announced the availability of the ATI Stream Software Development Kit (SDK) v2.2 with full OpenCL™ 1.1 support to provide developers with the tools they need to build incredible next-generation applications. By taking advantage of both CPU and GPU processing power in a given system, applications like 3D video, HD video chat and multi-display 3D gaming are possible.

A development platform created by AMD, the ATI Stream SDK v2.2 brings a wide range of tools to the developer community including support for OpenCL 1.1, in addition to Ubuntu® 10.04 and Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 5.5. This updated development platform empowers the developer community to accelerate applications on the CPU and GPU quickly and efficiently. The new version is available for download today.

The availability of the ATI Stream SDK v2.2 with OpenCL 1.1 support is a great example of how CPU and GPU technology continues to mature and usher in next-generation computing experiences, where voice, touch, gesture and facial recognition capabilities are common, everyday features. Furthermore the enhancements in the ATI Stream SDK v2.2 are especially important due to the support for OpenCL 1.1, which is integral to the forthcoming AMD Fusion family of APUs. These tools allow the developer community to take advantage of heterogeneous computing architectures both today and tomorrow.

Third parties support

German company MainConcept, is a premier provider of high-quality audio and video codec solutions which has a shared vision with AMD to support open standards such as OpenCL and their upcoming OpenCL H.264/AVC Encoder was built on ATI Stream technology and the OpenCL standard on the belief that ATI Stream-enabled GPU acceleration will be a compelling new feature.

ATI Stream SDK v2.2 delivers expanded support for operating systems, compilers, hardware and the latest industry standards, further streamlining application development and acceleration. New features include:

- Support for the OpenCL 1.1 specification, ratified in June 2010, providing developers with the ability to take full advantage of the new features OpenCL 1.1 brings

- Extended operating system support, including Ubuntu® 10.04, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 5.5

- Increased hardware support including x86 CPUs with SSE2.x or later, allowing users to run OpenCL applications on a greater variety of CPUs

Additional support

for Linux and Windows compilers, including GNU Compiler Collection 4.1 or later, Microsoft® Visual Studio® (MSVS) 2010 Professional Edition and Minimalist GNU (GCC 4.4) for Windows (MinGW)

Single-channel format support for OpenCL images, providing developers with greater flexibility to access the caches on the GPU

Support for OpenCL and DirectX® 10 interoperability increasing overall efficiency when displaying computed results to the user

Support for additional double-precision floating point routines in OpenCL kernels to enable greater computational accuracy in HPC and scientific based applications.

Resources

Download ATI Stream SDK v2.2 210275

ArcSoft Launches Its Latest File-Conversion Software — MediaConverter 7

2010-08-09T06:20:00.000Z

Turn your 2D photos and videos into 3D!

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ArcSoft, Inc., the world-leading multimedia software provider, announced today the release of a new version of its popular file converter application — ArcSoft MediaConverter® 7. Updates include enhanced device support, optimized conversion speed and quality, and can now turn your 2D photos and videos into 3D for playback on supported devices.

With ArcSoft’s Sim3D™, converting 2D videos and photos to 3D is a snap! Technology supports L/R dual-stream 3D and anaglyph 3D file formats. Converted videos can be viewed with 3D players such as ArcSoft TotalMeida Theatre 3 (Plug-in required), which supports page flip, interleave, and anaglyph modes; or, be uploaded to YouTube 3D.

In a one-step process, MediaConverter 7 downloads and transfers your favorite multimedia files and converts them into formats optimized for use on the latest popular device such as iPad, Google Nexus One, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, Motorola Milestone and many more. Other devices, such as the iPod, iPhone, PSP, Android phones, and Nokia phones are also supported.

ArcSoft’s in-house upscaling technology SimHD®, which improves image quality when upscaling videos during transcoding, is included with MediaConverter 7. With support of NVIDIA® CUDA™ and ATI® Stream™, the encoding process is 15 times faster when utilized. Settings to customize video format, resolution, and frame rate are also provided.

Additional features

•Auto sharpening and area-based resizing maintain the output quality when down-scaling the video
•CPU cores control while converting
•More popular device support, such as HTC EVO 4G, iPhone4, iPad, Nexus one, BlackBerry Bold 9700, Nokia N8 and more
•Pre-defined Smart Fit profile and advanced customization settings
•Rips audio from video files or DVDs
•Preview and export videos with subtitle (.srt)
Use MediaConverter 7 in conjunction with ArcSoft Video Downloader™ 3; a free application to help you download and share videos to popular video sharing websites.

More on MediaConverter 7 at www.arcsoft.com/intouch/amc7pr.

National Instruments Releases New High-Performance Servo Drives and Motors

2010-08-06T10:28:00.000Z

New Products Provide a Distributed Motion Solution with EtherCAT Technology

AUSTIN, Texas /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NIWeek -- National Instruments today announced new AKD Servo Drives and AKM Servo Motors that make it possible for engineers and scientists to easily build scalable, distributed motion control systems. The new products simplify setup and configuration for deploying custom motion applications to any NI real-time controller supporting NI EtherCAT technology including NI CompactRIO, PXI real-time controllers and NI industrial controllers. Additionally, National Instruments is releasing the NI LabVIEW 2010 NI SoftMotion Module that provides support for NI EtherCAT drives for simplified motion application development.

The new AKM brushless servo motors provide superior dynamic performance, are available in four different frame sizes and feature high torque, density and speed ranges. The motors use low-inertia rotors and feature low-cog, low-harmonic distortion magnetic design. The motors also are perfectly matched with NI servo drives and provide plug-and-play configuration with integrated Smart Feedback Device (SFD) technology and simplified cabling.

The new AKD Servo Drives feature simplified setup and configuration through EtherCAT technology and integration with the LabVIEW project, a feature in LabVIEW software that engineers use to group together LabVIEW and third-party files, create build specifications for executables and deploy or download files to hardware targets. The new drives deliver cutting-edge technology and performance with torque loop updates in 0.67 microseconds, and velocity and position loops at 62.5 microseconds and 125 microseconds. The AKD Servo Drives provide a solution for a wide range of applications, from basic torque-and-velocity applications to indexing to multi-axis programmable motion, using graphical system design.

The new motors and drives provide seamless integration with LabVIEW graphical programming through the LabVIEW NI SoftMotion Module to deliver graphical development for custom motion control applications. With the module, engineers and scientists can use the LabVIEW project to configure motion axis settings, test configuration, tune motors and quickly develop a custom motion application. The new version of the NI SoftMotion Module features an updated interactive configuration and a high-level function block API for increased ease of use and makes the execution of motion applications on a Windows-based system possible. In addition, the new module easily connects to the new drives and motors as well as third-party drives and motors using NI C Series drive interface hardware.

Readers can visit www.ni.com/motion to learn more about the new servo drives and motors and NI motion control software. In addition, readers also can view the NI Motion Control Bundle on www.ni.com to quickly and easily assemble a full motion control system.

SoftwareReport: The 1st Interactive Journal, Established 1992. Full Coverage of Innovations and Developments for the Multimedia ITC, Internet, Wireless Mobile, Telecom and Broadcasting Technologies Markets

Motorola Tri-radio 802.11n WLAN Access Point Awarded Leading Security Certification

2010-08-06T10:15:00.000Z

Tri-radio 802.11n WLAN Access Point Awarded Leading U.S. Security Certification . FIPS 140-2 Level 2 security validation allows Federal agencies to deploy latest wireless voice, video and data services

COLUMBIA, Md. /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Enterprise Mobility Solutions business of Motorola Inc. today announced that its AP 7131 wireless LAN (WLAN) access point was granted Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 Level 2 certification by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. Certified to meet the latest U.S. government wireless security standards, the AP 7131 provides simultaneous support for high-speed wireless voice, video and data services, self-healing mesh networking and wireless security services, delivering the throughput, coverage and resiliency required to build an all-wireless government enterprise.

FIPS validation standards were developed by the U.S. Federal government to ensure that agencies and government contractors purchase and use only validated products. FIPS 140-2 Level 2 covers the secure design and implementation of a cryptographic module, including roles, services and authentication; physical security; operational environment; cryptographic key management; electromagnetic interference/electromagnetic compatibility; self-tests; design assurance; and mitigation of other attacks.

As the industry's first tri-radio 802.11n adaptive access point, Motorola's AP 7131 is a virtual network-in-a-box, offering full wireless and wired networking in a dependent or independent mode. In adaptive mode, the AP 7131 functions as a stand-alone access point, combining the benefits of central management and site-survivability to help reduce the complexity of deployments in remote, small- and medium-size offices. In a campus WLAN switch environment, it can be centrally managed for large-scale government agency deployments.

This unique multi-mode operation is supported by the same firmware version to greatly simplify the task of building a large-scale, multi-site all-wireless government enterprise.
The AP 7131 joins Motorola's other FIPS 140-2 certified products: the RFS 7000 wireless controller, Fusion for Windows Mobile, Fusion for Windows CE, ASTRO Radio Subscriber Units and Crypt-R broadband encryption units, among others.

To get a fresh perspective on key trends in wireless networking, join Motorola technologists and industry experts on the Wireless Insights blog community.

SoftwareReport: The 1st Interactive Journal, Established 1992. Full Coverage of Innovations and Developments for the Multimedia ITC, Internet, Wireless Mobile, Telecom and Broadcasting Technologies Markets

FT.com / Technology - Google and Verizon eye web traffic deal

2010-08-05T20:58:00.000Z

Google and Verizon eye web traffic deal Google and Verizon have agreed on the outline of a plan covering key aspects of how internet services are carried over communications networks, establishing what could become a financial and operational blueprint for the next phase of the web’s development. The reverberations from the agreement, which has yet to be unveiled formally, appeared to spread quickly on Thursday, with the Federal Communications Commission calling off industry-wide talks on the same issues. The agency said it had failed to reach agreement on a “robust framework to preserve the openness and freedom of the internet”.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Gapper blog: Net neutrality - Aug-05

In depth: Google - Jul-22

Motorola and Verizon team up for TV tablet - Aug-03

Net neutrality comes back to haunt Google - Jul-13

Google to abandon ambitious ‘Wave’ project - Aug-05

FT series: Google economy - Jul-13

The arrangement between Google and Verizon would put some restrictions on the US carrier’s ability to block or degrade specific internet services, but still leave it free to charge more to give some services priority on its network, according to people familiar with the plan. It would also leave Verizon completely free to block services on its mobile network, though it would have to disclose any such moves.

Early reports of the arrangement between the largest US internet and telecommunications companies were attacked by backers of “net neutrality”, the principle that all internet traffic online should be treated equally. They claimed that it would spell the end of an open, low-cost internet and allow a handful of big internet and telecoms companies to dominate the web.

Read full story on the link below:

FT.com / Technology - Google and Verizon eye web traffic deal

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New PCs could start in just seconds, thanks to an update to one of the oldest parts of desktop computers.Continue reading the main story

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New PCs could start in just seconds, thanks to an update to one of the oldest parts of desktop computers.
Continue reading the main story