Sunday, December 30, 2007

Microsoft to Heat Up Battle vs. Flash in '08

Every good general knows that even the biggest army is useless if you can't get it on the battlefield.
Microsoft and Adobe will both experience a version of this dilemma in 2008, as they wrangle for market and mind share in the burgeoning RIA (rich Internet application) space, according to close observers of the companies.
"They both have their own power positions," said Forrester Research analyst Jeffrey Hammond, citing Flash's installed base, which has been pegged in the 90 percent range.
Microsoft's Wild Card
"The one place that Microsoft holds a wild card is with developers. There still are not that many Flex developers out there," Hammond added, referring to Adobe's toolset for RIA applications. The company is also developing the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), which lets Web developers build RIAs that can run on the desktop.
Of course, Microsoft's worldwide legions of programmers don't pose a great advantage if not enough users install Silverlight, its cross-platform browser plug-in for RIA applications.
"They need to get Silverlight on 70 to 80 percent of the Internet-connected machines," said Greg DeMichillie, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft.
Internet Explorer Can Help
One of the quickest ways to do that would be to ship the next version of Internet Explorer with Silverlight already embedded. But Hammond said this is unlikely, because doing so would likely prompt cries of outrage from competitors and perhaps antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft.
Microsoft has instead has tried to seed usage of Silverlight through other tactics, such as getting high-traffic Web sites like NBA.com to use it. That in turn compels site visitors to install the plug-in.
Silverlight 1.0 focuses largely on streaming media and therefore has more relevance for consumer-facing projects than enterprise IT shops.
That all changes with the next version, which is expected in beta form early next year. "Silverlight 2.0 is where it gets interesting," Hammond said.
The next release includes a subset of Microsoft's .NET Framework, meaning the company's vast base of developers can program against it using familiar .NET languages as well as tools like Visual Studio.
The company has also aimed at Adobe's sweet spot -- graphic design applications -- with its Expression line of products.
No Problem For Adobe
Adobe, on the other hand, may not have an adoption problem for its plug-in, and already has won the hearts and minds of graphic designers everywhere, but is not nearly as strong in tools as Microsoft.
"The biggest thing Adobe needs to bring FlexBuilder up to date with modern developer tools," said DeMichillie. "I would say they are two years behind Visual Studio."
"The other thing not to underestimate is the value of Microsoft's programming languages," he added. "C# and VB -- they are real programming languages," he said. "[Adobe's] ActionScript has certainly grown up in the last year or two, but you won't find people building industrial-strength applications with it."
No Threat From Other Competitors
While a wealth of smaller companies and startups have crowded the RIA platform space, DeMichillie said he expects only Adobe and Microsoft will emerge as true players.
"When you build a platform you need so many pieces," he said. "The other player trying to do this is Sun [with its JavaFX platform], but I don't think they have all the pieces."
Hammond is somewhat more conservative. He also sees Adobe and Microsoft as the eventual leaders, but joined by between five and 10 smaller RIA vendors.
For all the gamesmanship that is sure to unfold between Microsoft and Adobe in 2008, there is an overarching issue the firms must overcome, DeMichillie said: Convincing corporate developers that user interface development is just as important as the mainline systems that power their organization's core business processes.
"Their biggest problem is the backlog of applications they've got to build," DeMichillie said.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

New security rules for batteries on planes

If you don't want to lose your spare lithium batteries for your camera, notebook or cell phone, you might want to pack carefully for your next flight.
New rules from the Transportation and Security Administration that take effect on January 1 ban travelers from carrying loose lithium batteries in checked baggage. Passengers are allowed to pack two spare batteries in their carry-on bag, as long as they're in clear plastic baggies.
Fortunately, you don't have to worry about the batteries that are already installed in the devices you're bringing. The TSA has said it's safe to check in items like a laptop or iPhone that already have the batteries in place.
The agency said that loose lithium batteries not installed in devices pose a fire risk to passenger planes. Recently, the National Transportation Safety Board could not rule out the possibility that lithium batteries started a fire in a plane at the Philadelphia National Airport last year, according to the Associated Press.
If you do plan on bringing spare batteries in your carry-on bag, be aware of some other rules: You can only bring batteries with an equivalent of up to 8 grams of lithium content. (Most batteries for cell phones and laptops meet this requirement.) And for lithium metal batteries, whether carried as a spare or installed in a device, batteries are limited to 2 grams of lithium metal.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Wal-Mart Cancels Movie Download Service

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc quietly canceled its online video download service less than a year after the site went live, a company spokeswoman said on Thursday.
Wal-Mart shut down the download site after Hewlett Packard Co discontinued the technology that powered it, Walmart.com spokeswoman Amy Colella said in an e-mail. She added that it will not look for another technology partner.
HP spokesman Hector Marinez said the company decided to discontinue its video download-only merchant store services because the market for paid video downloads did not perform "as expected." He noted that the Internet video business remains uncertain and is changing rapidly.
Wal-Mart will continue offering physical DVDs for sale at its stores and online, but would not continue the online downloads business, said Colella, who declined to disclose the number of downloads sold on the site.
A message at www.walmart.com/videodownloads said the service was stopped on December 21 and Wal-Mart offered no refunds for the downloaded videos.
Videos purchased on Walmart.com can be played using the Microsoft Windows Media Player or the Wal-Mart Video Download Manager, but cannot be transferred to a computer other than the one used to download them, according to the site.
The giant retailer's foray into online video downloading began in February and was hailed by media industry experts as a "game changer" that could introduce millions of DVD buyers to the practice of downloading.
Wal-Mart was the first major retailer to partner with all of the major Hollywood movie studios and TV networks to offer downloads the same day titles were released on DVD.
Wal-Mart's attempt at downloading came two years after it pulled out of online DVD rental and directed its subscribers to Netflix Inc, and months after it protested Walt Disney Co's move to sell movies on Apple Inc's iTunes online music store at below-retail prices.
Download sales equaled about 1 percent of the $24.5 billion in DVD and home video sales and rentals in 2006, but industry experts expect downloads to grow to 10 percent within a decade.
The news of the Wal-Mart download service's demise comes on the same day that reports surfaced of an agreement between News Corp's Twentieth Century Fox and Apple to offer the first movies for rent at the iTunes store.
Shares of Wal-Mart closed down 1.3 percent, or 61 cents, at $47.77 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Sony officially quits rear-projection TV production

Remember how we told you that Sony, like so many others, is quitting the rear-projection TV business? Well, they finally decided to officially announce as much today, stating that come February its three RPTV plants would quit production of the sets and the company would focus its energy henceforth on LCD and OLED (huge surprise there).

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Convert Firefox into a text-only browser

Posted by Dennis O'Reilly
Last week I described how to use a simple Javascript to determine the age of a Web page. The only problem: if the page has any dynamic elements that update automatically when the page loads (and these days most Web pages do), the script shows the current time and date.
For pages without auto-update content, type javascript:alert(document.lastModified) into the address bar and press Enter to see a window pop-up with the date and time of the page's last update. I'm still looking for a way to find out how recently specific content on a Web page was updated.
As I was looking for such a method, I stumbled upon a great Firefox add-in from Chris Pedericks called the Web Developer Toolbar. As the name implies, the free toolbar is intended to help Web designers test their pages, but it can also be used to show only the text of Web pages, which often makes them easier to read--and to print out.
After you download the toolbar, click Options and check Persist Features. Next, click CSS*Disable Styles*All Styles. Now click Images*Disable Image*All Images. Lastly, click Disable*Disable JavaScript*All JavaScript. You'll see only the page's text, and perhaps a couple of broken-image place markers. Be warned, however, that the results are rarely pretty.
In addition to making the pages easier to print, the text-only versions are also much easier to scan for specific information. (Note that you can retain much of the page's original formatting--minus images--by keeping CSS enabled.)

Monday, December 24, 2007

Aptera: The 'Wingless Bird'

When Steve Fambro got bored building robots at a San Diego genetics company, he figured he could help keep his brain busy by building a kit airplane in his spare time. But his wife deemed the hobby too dangerous, so Fambro decided to build a car instead, one with low emissions and absurdly high mileage. Called the Aptera (Greek for "wingless"), the machine now exists as a working prototype. It has 2.5 seats, three wheels, weighs a feathery 1,500 pounds, and Fambro says his company will put the Aptera into production next October.
Specs may change between now and autumn 2008, but the current numbers look like this: 300 mpg, a price tag below $30,000, and 0-60 acceleration of 11 seconds (about a second slower than the Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid). The Aptera will come in two versions: the all-electric Typ-1e; and the series-hybrid Typ-1h, with a small onboard gasoline engine capable of recharging the battery. According to Fambro the all-electric Aptera is expected to go roughly 120 miles on a full charge, while the series hybrid will travel 600 miles on a full battery and a full tank of gas — the equivalent of 300 mpg.
Discuss: Do you think consumers will embrace the Aptera as they did the Toyota Prius when this new vehicle hits the streets next year? Why or why not? Voice your opinion!
High Mileage + High DesignFambro isn't trying to keep his inspiration source a secret. His MySpace page shows him beside a single-seat plane with a striking resemblance to his automotive creation. This sleek minimalism is what Jason Hill and his design firm (known simply as "11") brought to the Aptera.
Hill was scooped up by Mercedes right after graduating from Pasadena's Art Center College of Design. When he started his own firm 14 years later, Hill was doing special projects for Porsche. And when Fambro approached him with the first incarnation of the Aptera, Hill said "Let me at it."
Hill and his firm were entrusted with not only evolving the fiberglass bird into a consumer-friendly car, but also creating a complete user experience with its own brand identity. Ecological considerations were high on the list, and Hill readily incorporated flooring made from 100 percent recycled soda bottles, as well as seat, door, and overhead fabrics from post-industrial recycled sources.
The Aptera's roof houses a strip of solar cells that serve double duty. In hot weather they power the parked car's air conditioner, keeping the interior cool for when the driver returns. The same solar system also helps charge the central battery, adding supplemental power.
Since the majority of an automobile's energy is spent displacing air and hauling its own weight, a light and slippery design is vital. Hill helped smooth and lighten the Aptera by replacing the side mirrors and rear window with rear-facing cameras that display on three dashboard monitors. The already sleek package is rounded out with slick aesthetic touches, including a glowing exterior logo and accelerator/brake pedals embossed with plus and minus signs.
Fighting the Safety StigmaAlthough Asian automakers have taken an early lead when it comes to greener cars, American automotive ingenuity is catching up fast. The spark, though, isn't coming from Detroit, but from comparatively microscopic startups fueled by Silicon Valley capital. One of Aptera's key investors is Idealab, better known for software than cars. Jumping into the game with Detroit's big hitters is no small thing, so these nimble companies are finding ways to fast-track their projects.
One favored method is to make three-wheeled vehicles that technically classify as motorcycles. Unburdened from the DOT's myriad safety criteria, small companies can proceed with far fewer hurdles. Makers of the ZAP! Alias, VentureOne and Carver One electric cars are all pursuing three-wheeled success.
Read: Electric Vehicles From ZAP!
But doubts about safety and road-worthiness are a common criticism from both consumers and competitors. Speaking at the brainy Gadgetoff conference, the co-founder of Tesla Motors, Martin Eberhard, showed video of the $100,000 Tesla electric Roadster in successful crash tests. Eberhard quipped that this is the difference between a product like his, and a "three-wheeled imaginary car that would never be safe on the highway."
View Pictures: Tesla Roadster
Aptera founder Fambro insists his vehicle is not an overgrown motorcycle, and that it's every bit as safe as a comparable car. Within its fiberglass shell is a steel and aluminum safety cage inspired by Formula One racecars, and the Aptera's airbags are encased within its seatbelts. The Aptera also has a particularly wide wheelbase to provide stability, a 45-inch front crumple zone, and a cockpit that sits higher off the road than you'd expect, giving better visibility. Fambro says the Aptera has "performed beautifully" in computer-based crash tests. Next comes the real thing.
Step Right UpFor early adopters wanting to reserve an Aptera, the company is accepting $500 refundable deposits (they've received 400 to date). The financial commitment will guarantee a customer dibs on the first round of vehicles, and will also help Aptera judge which powertrain is more desirable.
If the Aptera comes to life, an all-electric and highway-ready car for under $30,000 will certainly change the game. Fambro and Hill are dead-set on seeing the Aptera through to commercial reality. "It's not just a show car that a manufacturer puts out and then you never see again," says Hill. "The Aptera is 90-percent production ready."
Jacob Gordon is a freelance writer, a blogger for TreeHugger.com, and producer of TreeHugger Radio. He can be reached at jacob@treehugger.com.
In the market for a new car? MSN Autos is pleased to provide you with information and services designed to save you time, money and hassle. Click to research prices and specifications on any new car on the market or get a free price quote through MSN Autos' New-Car Buying Service.
NewUsed
Make:AcuraAston MartinAudiBentleyBMWBuickCadillacChevroletChryslerDodgeFerrariFordGMCHondaHummerHyundaiInfinitiIsuzuJaguarJeepKiaLamborghiniLand RoverLexusLincolnLotusMaseratiMaybachMazdaMercedes-BenzMercuryMINIMitsubishiNissanPontiacPorscheRolls-RoyceSaabSaturnScionSubaruSuzukiToyotaVolkswagenVolvo
Model:
Category:Passenger CarsLuxury CarsSports CarsSport UtilitiesVans & MinivansPickup TrucksHybrid Vehicles
mmInitializeEx(document.getElementById('findacar'), '', '', 'Make:', 'Model:', 'true', 'true');

Related Content
Hybrid TechnologiesThis company takes cars people already love and electrifies them.
Fuel-Saving Tips
Fuel-Efficiency and Tradeoffs
The Ethanol Myth
Read more green-related articles
advertisement
Advertisementvar inDapIF=true; var inDapMgrIf=true;window.setTimeout("document.close();",30000);\n\n'));" frameBorder=0 width=300 scrolling=no height=250>Advertisementvar inDapIF=true; var inDapMgrIf=true;function startTimer(){if (event.srcElement.readyState == "complete") {parent.verifyDapResize(1);window.setTimeout("document.close();", 2000);}}'));" frameBorder=0 width=0 scrolling=no height=0 allowTransparency>

In addition to getting fuel economy of 300 mpg, the Aptera has green features such as recycled interior fabrics, LED lighting, and solar panels that run the air conditioning even when the car is off.

Design details such as an eternally glowing exterior logo and these clever pedals give the Aptera a techno attitude.

Jason Hill and 11, his California design firm, crafted not only the body and interior of the Aptera, but also a conceptual retail store where the car might be sold.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Get your PlayStation ROMs ready: psx4iphone now available

ZodTTD has made good on a promise to release their psx4iphone app to the public just a handful of days after announcing the project, meaning that the iPhone could very well end up taking a slot beside the PSP as a premier destination for portable PlayStation gaming. We're still not entirely convinced that the transition from PlayStation controller to touchscreen is going to be an easy one, though we're pretty sure hardcore gamers have overcome even greater obstacles in the past in the name of emulation. The package is being billed as a 0.1 release, meaning that it may not be the most solid build in the world -- but then again, it's not like you're getting your PlayStation jollies from Sony Ericsson any time soon, right?

Saturday, December 22, 2007

IBM Offers Free E-Mail Search Tool

IBM has created a free semantic e-mail search engine aimed at users of the company's Lotus Notes software and Microsoft Outlook.
The engine, called IBM OmniFind Personal Email Search (IOPES), allows users to search their mail based on concepts, such as dates and phone numbers, according to IBM. It also allows searchers to define their own concepts.
Once the software is installed, it indexes and analyzes the user's e-mail store. Searches are conducted through a browser interface that delivers results through a stripped-down, Google-like interface.
Users can enter simple keyword-based queries or ones using basic natural language constructions. For example, to find e-mails from a friend named Mark Smith, you could simply enter "from Mark Smith."
But to find only the e-mails Smith sent in a certain month, a query might be constructed as "Mark from January 2007." You could find his phone number by typing "Smith's phone number."
The results don't show a list of e-mail headers or display the messages in full. Instead, the software extracts the passage it believes contains the right answer, and highlights what it deems to be the specific information requested, such as a phone number.
Users can also search for attachments, with search results providing direct links to the documents in question.
E-mail is a good target for developing a semantic search engine because users frequently repeat certain phrasings and words and repeatedly exchange the same type of information. "There is a fairly large number of things that are so e-mail specific," said Shivakumar Vaithyanathan, the project's technical lead.
Researchers in a number of IBM labs worked on the project for the past year and a half, according to Vaithyanathan. The product has been quietly available on the company's alphaWorks site for a couple of months, but only now is IBM attempting to drive widespread adoption, according to a spokeswoman.
"To be able to solve all these problems in some meaningful way, we want some feedback," Vaithyanathan said.
IBM also released the tool internally to its employees and said it has received mostly positive responses.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Dangerous Reasons To IPO

There's been some indication that the IPO market is beginning to open up again, what with profitless firms like NetSuite having successful offerings. At about the same time that was happening, Danger filed to go public as well, but perhaps for all the wrong reasons. Like NetSuite, Danger is losing money. However, the story of Danger is an instructive one, and it's surprising that the firm is trying to go public. Reading between the lines, it feels like Danger is trying to go public more as a desperation play to stay in business, rather than as part of a plan for strategic growth. Danger, of course, launched its HipTop/Sidekick device way back in 2002 to much fanfare. I bought one the first day it was available, and used it for more than three years. It really was one of the first useful mobile devices for being able to do things like web surfing. However, while the company did an amazing job in designing the device, it made a series of strategic mistakes that have since limited the company's business chances. First, it took an early investment from T-Mobile. Initially, this might sound like a good idea for a device maker looking to have its device offered by a mobile operator -- and, indeed, T-Mobile offers the Sidekick. The problem was that almost no one else wanted to go near it, as they didn't want to help out a rival operator's investment. Danger picked up a few smaller operators, but never could get the device out to a large enough audience. The second big mistake was in closing off the device. Early on, it didn't even have a developer kit for developers. Once it did, many developers had already moved on to other things. On top of that, Danger/T-Mobile still controlled which apps were available. You couldn't go around Danger/T-Mobile to load whatever app you wanted. That also turned off developers who knew they couldn't just write an app and push for viral adoption. They had to go through the gatekeeper. It certainly made the device a lot less useful. Whereas for other popular platforms there were tons of apps available, Danger had a very limited supply. While the company built up a modest following, in part by getting famous young celebrities to carry the device (which backfired a bit when Paris Hilton's got hacked), many other devices eclipsed Danger's devices and the company has done little to push its way back into the discussion. It basically just bet on having a really cool design and continually making minor updates to that design. That was strong enough to keep the company afloat, but it's still losing money, not growing very fast, and still incredibly reliant on T-Mobile for a huge chunk of its business. It's certainly not a particularly compelling IPO story -- and it feels like an IPO out of desperation for new capital, rather than an IPO of a company that is growing and has strategic plans in place for the use of a capital influx. Perhaps the folks at Danger saw an opening in a market that's warming up to IPOs, but it wouldn't be surprising at all to later hear that the company ends up pulling the IPO.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Google goes viral with privacy message on YouTube

Google is using its YouTube video site as a forum for explaining its privacy practices to the millions of consumers who use its products every day.
The company launched a Privacy Channel on YouTube about two months ago.
The videos aren't professionally produced; they are made by Google engineers, product managers, and Google public relations representatives using a handheld video camera, according to Victoria Grand, a manager of public affairs, who came up with the idea.
Googlers were wondering "how do we communicate with users about privacy and what is the best medium?" she says. "YouTube is a scalable platform that will let us get our messages out there."
The videos do a good job of explaining technical subjects, with the on-camera Googlers speaking plainly and using whiteboards for illustrating concepts. Rather than using actors or slick-looking "suits," the talent is Googlers casually sitting in their offices, on beanbags, in hallways, and otherwise looking as if it's just another day at the office.
Some of the new videos posted this week show how to control privacy settings in specific Google products, including Blogger, Calendar, Docs, and Picasa, as well as how to chat "off the record" using Google Talk and how to make it so your phone number doesn't show up Google's search engine.
It's hard to judge how successful the videos are, or will be. Grand says the first privacy video had about 50,000 page views in the first three weeks--no competition for the hand-holding otters--but still not bad.
Feedback from viewers in the comments area is mixed. Some people praise the company for trying to explain some of the more arcane privacy topics to consumers and asking for translations of the videos into Spanish and Portuguese, and others cynically note that the government can override some of the privacy measures when it wants to get access to data.
To any who would accuse Google of creating videos to disseminate propaganda, Grand responds that the chief purpose is to inform consumers, which is part of the company's mission of being transparent about its privacy policies.
After watching the videos, people "will be more empowered to use the privacy settings in our products," she says.
This video campaign is a smart move on Google's part, especially given all the scrutiny Internet search and advertising companies are under with regard to consumer privacy.
But there's still likely to be debate among privacy advocates about the content of the videos and even complaints that Google's privacy practices need to be improved for consumers instead of merely explained.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Windows XP Service Pack 2

License Type: FreePrice: FreeDate Added: May 2007Operating Systems: Windows XP Requirements: Windows XP Home, Windows XP ProfessionalDownloads Count: 241511Author: Microsoft
It's an unsafe world out there for Windows-based computers. Microsoft wants to address the problem with its new megapatch, Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. It's an unsafe world out there for Windows-based computers. Microsoft wants to address the problem with its new megapatch, Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. Does it succeed? Not entirely. But the big fix does so much to close security holes and to make protecting your PC simpler that it's still an essential upgrade.
This giant patch--the biggest single update since Windows XP itself was released--promises to cure many of the known security ills that have befallen XP since it debuted in late 2001, and to preemptively put a stop to a still-unknown number of others.
But it's not just a big security fix; SP2 makes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networks easier to navigate, adds new features to Tablet and Media Center PCs, and updates XP's multimedia components. It all comes in a 220MB package that (at press time, when we saw only the Release Candidate 2 beta version) installs in under an hour over broadband.
--Paul Thurrott

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Ad-Aware 2007 Free

License Type: FreePrice: FreeDate Added: Aug 2007Operating Systems: Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista File Size: 18698KBDownloads Count: 14718260Author: Lavasoft
This free antispyware program with a solid scanning engine has a significantly improved UI. Lavasoft's Ad-Aware Free includes better detection of adware and malware, a scanning engine that goes easy on your PC's system resources, and a snazzy new interface. The updates apply to all three versions of Ad-Aware, which now go by the names Ad-Aware 2007 Free, Plus, and Pro.
In my evaluation of Ad-Aware 2007 Free, I found that the program lived up to its promise of cutting scan time on my PC; for me, this time went down from 7 minutes to 4 minutes. Harder to test was the program's new ability to seek and delete rootkits and other threats that burrow deep into your PC. For that, I take Lavasoft's word when it says earlier versions of Ad-Aware weren't equipped to handle today's threats.
Also new is the program's new interface, which is available in all three versions. Finding tools and tweaking configuration have been made much easier.
Premium Versions Deliver More
A big advantage of the Plus version, which costs $27, is the real-time protection of your system that nips adware, spyware, and malware problems in the bud before they become serious. Though real-time protection isn't new for the Plus and Pro versions, this feature may still convince you to upgrade.
Note: Existing users of Ad-Aware Plus and Pro will be able to upgrade to the new versions for free.
Conclusion In my limited testing, Ad-Aware 2007 Free is a solid post-infection tool. If you don't want to pony up the money to purchase real-time protection with Ad-Aware Plus or Pro, I recommend this free version as a utility that savvy users shouldn't be without. However, as threats become more sophisticated, the real-time protection available with the Plus and Pro versions should be a strong consideration.
--Tom Spring

Monday, December 17, 2007

Study: More Americans search Google for themselves

NEW YORK — More Americans are Googling themselves — and many are checking out their friends, co-workers and romantic interests, too.
In a report Sunday, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said 47% of U.S. adult Internet users have looked for information about themselves through Google or another search engine.
That is more than twice the 22% of users who did in 2002, but Pew senior research specialist Mary Madden was surprised the growth wasn't higher.
"Yes it's doubled, but it's still the case that there's a big chunk of Internet users who have never done this simple act of plugging their name with search engines," she said. "Certainly awareness has increased, but I don't know it's necessarily kept pace with the amount of content we post about ourselves or what others post about us."
About 60% of Internet users said they aren't worried about the extent of information about themselves online, despite increasing concern over how that data can be used.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Google News Corp Pew Internet Googling
Americans under 50 and those with more education and income were more likely to self-Google — in some cases because their jobs demand a certain online persona.
Meanwhile, Pew found that 53% of adult Internet users admit to looking up information about someone else, celebrities excluded.
Often, it's to find someone they've lost touch with. But looking up information about friends, relatives, colleagues and neighbors also was common.
Although men and women equally searched for online information about themselves, women were slightly more likely to look up information about someone they are dating.
In many cases, the search is innocuous, done to find someone's contact information. But a third of those who have conducted searches on others have looked for public records, such as bankruptcies and divorce proceedings. A similar number have searched for someone else's photo.
Few Internet users say they Google themselves regularly — about three-quarters of self-searchers say they have done so only once or twice. And most who have done so consider what they find accurate. Only 4% of Internet users said embarrassing or inaccurate information online resulted in a bad experience.
Pew also found that teens were more likely than adults to restrict who can see their profiles at an online hangout like Facebook or News Corp.'s MySpace, contrary to conventional wisdom.
"Teens are more comfortable with the applications in some ways, (but) I also think they have their parents and teachers telling them to be very careful about what they post and who they share it with," Madden said.
The telephone survey of 1,623 Internet users was conducted between Nov. 30 and Dec. 30 last year and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

GameStop selling Wii rain checks

NEW YORK — To deal with frustration among holiday shoppers hunting for its Wii game console, Nintendo and retailer GameStop are launching a rain check program.
"We expect this to be a great way for consumers who desperately want a Wii to have something to put under the tree," Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said Friday.
RELATED STORY: Wii is a gift that keeps on giving to Nintendo
The rain checks will be available at the regular Wii system price, $249.99, on Dec. 20 and 21, and will entitle buyers to get the Nintendo console before Jan. 29. Fils-Aime said "many tens of thousands of rain checks" would be available.
GameStop regularly takes deposits on hot software titles before they launch, which means it has the infrastructure to deal with rain check program, Fils-Aime said. The company is working with other retailers, like Wal-Mart Stores and Best Buy, to push out inventory from the supply chain to shelves as quickly as possible before Christmas, he added.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Xbox Nintendo Wii Sony Playstation NPD Group Japanese company Gamestop Fils
The Wii has been a startling success for the Japanese company, selling more than 6 million units in the U.S. since it was launched a little over a year ago. In November alone, 981,000 were sold in the U.S., according to NPD Group. That compares to 770,000 Microsoft Xbox 360s sold, and 466,000 Sony PlayStation 3s.
However, Wii sales have been constrained by supply, with units selling out minutes after going on store shelves. Nintendo has repeatedly denied rumors that it's creating an artificial shortage by not increasing production to match demand.
"I get personal calls from people wanting to know why we don't just manufacture more. Believe me, if it were that easy, we would," Fils-Aime told reporters and analysts on a conference call Friday.
"Production depends on components from a wide array of suppliers. If only one can't increase their capacity, then we can't increase ours," the executive said.
After Nintendo raised production twice since April, production for the worldwide market is now at 1.8 million Wiis a month. Fils-Aime held out no hope of an imminent increase.
"We'll keep producing at that level for quite a while," he said. "When will we finally meet demand? There is no way to answer that question until we finally meet it."
Nintendo's American arm is based in Redmond, Wash.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Making GPS more like the movie version

NEW YORK — In one high-tech thriller after another, the hero attaches a tiny tracking device on the villain and follows him as blinking dot on a computer screen. In real life, this kind of technology would be great for tracking pets or kids, even packages or luggage — anything that tends to wander. But it doesn't really exist.
There are GPS devices, of course, but strap a half-pound GPS collar to a dog and you'll realize it's far from Mission Impossible. GPS-enabled cellphones are becoming more common, but they have problems, like accuracy indoors, and they aren't cheap.
A Utah company, S5 Wireless, is looking to bring reality closer to the movies, with small, cheap chips that can be powered by a single battery for up two years and tracked indoors and outside, over long distances.
For instance, an S5 chip could go into a dog collar, complete with a battery, in a package about the size of a stick of gum that costs $3 to $4 to make. When the battery runs down, it's time to buy a new collar.
The same concept could be applied to a kid's backpack, with an antenna running through the strap.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Carter GPS Utah company
"It's like a poor man's LoJack or OnStar," said David Carter, S5's chief executive.
The drawback to the technology is that unlike the Global Positioning System, which is quite literally global, S5's technology would only work where the company has a network of stations to receive S5 signals. S5 is planning to start building those in some major U.S. cities next year.
What the chips do is basically GPS in reverse. GPS satellites operated by the Air Force send signals to receivers in devices like car navigation systems. Those receivers need a line of sight to the sky, so they work only outdoors, and are fairly power-hungry.
By contrast, the S5 chips send radio signals that will be picked up by receivers S5 plans to build. By measuring the difference in the time the signal takes to arrive at three different receivers, S5 can compute the location of the sender to within about 30 feet outdoors, or 45 feet indoors. The same principle can be used for locating some cellphones in an emergency but is much less accurate. LoJack equipment also sends radio signals from a stolen car, but it uses a lot of power and is expensive compared to S5's chips.
"The thing that struck me the most is that their solution allows for very good indoor coverage," said Belgium-based analyst Dominique Bonte, who covers GPS technologies for ABI Research.
Bonte said the weakness of GPS indoors vexes those who want to provide location-based services, like cell-phone messages advertising sales at nearby stores.
Companies like Intel have experimented with using Wi-Fi hotspots in known locations to fill gaps in GPS. Some GPS devices incorporate motion sensors that estimate the user's location based on movement after the GPS signal is lost.
"There's a lot of activity, a lot of companies, and of course a lot of venture capital which is being made available for those kinds of initiatives," Bonte said. "There is a big belief that whoever comes up with something that's cheap, that works and is available will hit the jackpot there."
To gain a foothold, S5 will give away the designs for its chips, letting anyone make their own or incorporate the functions into existing chips, like those in cellphones. It plans to make money by charging for the location service, though at low rates, around $1 a month, Carter said.
S5's technology isn't ideal for navigation devices, since the chip doesn't know where it is. It couldn't, on its own, plot its position on a map the way a car navigation system does. Instead, it is S5's data center that knows where the chip is.
If you're tracking a dog — or a villain — that's not an issue. The dog doesn't need to know where it is, but the S5 network can tell you via Web browser or cellphone where it is.
Apart from pets and kids, Carter envisions the system being used to track valuable equipment on construction sites and in hospitals, much like LoJack protects cars.
If you don't trust FedEx and UPS to track your package, you could slip a tracking device into it before you ship it, and you'll know where it is. The company has also received grants from the Department of Homeland Security to study the use of its chips in tracking shipping containers. S5 chips could even be built into cellphones to supplement GPS chips where reception is weak, like indoors.
As a bonus, S5 chips could transmit small amounts of data generated by other devices. For instance, a diabetes patient's glucose meter could be monitored remotely.
S5 plans to piggyback on existing cell-phone towers and antennas in building out its network, though officials would not say how much they expect the build-out to cost. To pinpoint a chip's location, S5 needs three receivers within the signal's range, about a mile in cities, Carter said. The company plans to cover "several" major cities next year and 35 cities within three years.
That's a tall order, but the venture's main backer lends it credibility. Billionaire Craig McCaw, who founded one of the country's first cell-phone companies, is S5's majority investor. He also backs wireless broadband provider Clearwire Corp.
S5 hasn't announced any build-out partners yet.
Remarkably, S5 plans to use free, unlicensed spectrum in the 900 megahertz band, which is already crowded by cordless phones. Steve Chacko, S5's director of product marketing, likened the feat of picking up those signals from miles away to extracting a needle from a haystack. But he said sophisticated low-power radio technology makes S5's plan viable. Its transmissions won't interfere noticeably with other devices using the spectrum, he said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Watch out for the 'evil twin' when using public Wi-Fi

For the modern nomadic worker, few things are more enjoyable than heading to a cafe, ordering a cappuccino and firing up the laptop to get some work done. As far as anyone you're e-mailing knows, you're at the office.
Unfortunately, few things expose your work to greater security risks than latching onto a public Wi-Fi service. Most people don't realize the risks, and even fewer have the ability to perform the geeky tasks that would fix it.
Computer criminals can "sniff" the traffic in a cafe, or set up a fake hot spot that you might innocently log into. When that happens, watch out: Everything you type goes directly to the host computer, known as an "evil twin." In that scenario, as soon as you get into your online bank account, the evil twin is ready to grab the password.
The best advice for avoiding those situations is to tap only into wireless connections that you trust. Be wary of connections with names such as "free public wifi." Ask at the cafe for the name of its network. Even then, be aware that someone sitting next to you could have set up a network with the same name, such as "Starbucks," that you could tap into unwittingly.
Most security-savvy travelers assume the worst and don't do anything that could cause trouble if it fell into the wrong hands.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Symantec Images Internet video Joe Raedle
"Every packet that goes out over the Internet is observable" by a tech-savvy hacker, says Brett Levine of San Francisco.
Nonetheless, Levine, a vice president at Internet video start-up Dovetail, remains a dedicated cafe worker. He spoke from Hong Kong, at the end of a business trip in which he communicated with "nothing but my laptop. The only connections I've had were in hotel lobbies or cafes. I'm sitting here with my ramen noodles."
He just makes sure that every e-mail he sends is encrypted. And if he's doing anything sensitive online, he makes sure the site is secure.
For instance, if a website starts with "https" in the address bar instead of the standard "http," the site is most likely more secure. "Https" is the standard that banks and online trading firms use.
"If you're on a wireless network, assume it's public," says Alex Stamos, vice president of professional services at iSec Partners, a software security consulting firm in San Francisco and Seattle. "If you're trading stocks, you should be very careful and make sure you're going over the 'https' link."
Once you're over "https," you generally are safe, though there are caveats, says Zulfikar Ramzan, a senior principal researcher at Symantec (SYMC) in Cupertino, Calif. "What 'https' guarantees to you is that whoever is receiving your traffic is receiving it encrypted. But that doesn't guarantee that it goes to the right person."
Take care in small cafes
Dave Zaytsev, a co-owner of Goliath Security in Chicago who works as a consultant for identity-theft protection company LifeLock, warns that the risks are greater in small, local coffee shops than in chains such as Panera Bread, which advertise their secure networks.
"The corporate places are locked down pretty decent," Zaytsev says. "The mom-and-pop places that are just trying to compete, like Joe's Coffee, they don't have consultants. They just go to Best Buy, buy a Linksys router and have a friend set it up."
Zaytsev has tested some cafes for local television stations' consumer news segments and has often been able to see files stored on individuals' laptops. He's also done "man in the middle" attacks, in which he scans the traffic in a cafe, then steals people's usernames and passwords. (The people in his tests were all willing dupes, he says, usually interns at the TV station.)
If you can use your company's "virtual private network," or VPN, you can feel fairly safe. VPNs create secure "tunnels," in which all online communication is encrypted at both ends. But simply using a top security suite from Symantec, McAfee (MFE), Trend Micro or others won't protect you in a cafe situation. The companies say that while those programs will protect you from viruses and even phishing scams, they can't save you from traffic that you've sent over the open Internet.
"A security suite will protect you if you did end up at a bad site that tried to install malicious software on your machine, but not if you give your credit card to someone else," says Symantec's Ramzan.
***

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Best 2007 video games for kids

Looking to buy a child a video game for the holidays? We've got you covered. After reviewing the new releases in 2007, here's our list of best video games for kids ages 3 to 16.
The key to finding that perfect game is to know what systems the recipient owns, and then to factor in the child's age and interests. All of the games on our list are rated E, E+10, or T by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board so that you don't have to worry about inappropriate content.
For the youngest gamer (ages 6 and under)
For the under-6 crowd, it is important that games talk to the player, since many of these children can't yet read. Here are four that do.
'Guess How Much I Love You' DVD storybook game
Snap TV Games (www.snaptvgames.com), for TV with DVD, $25
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Nintendo Galaxy Mario Nintendo Entertainment System Adventure Nancy Drew Super Mario Bros Disney Interactive
• Best for ages 3 to 6
Not only does this game read Sam McBratney's beloved classic book, "Guess How Much I Love You," but it also animates all the beautiful illustrations and provides simple games for kids to play using the DVD remote.
'Animal Genius'
Scholastic (www.scholastic.com), for the Nintendo DS, $30
• Best for ages 5 to 10 (Rated E)
As one of the few DS games that talks to you, "Animal Genius" helps kids become animal experts, as they learn facts by playing four different animal games. Kids will also help place 25 animals in their correct habitats.
'JumpStart World Kindergarten'
Knowledge Adventure (www.knowledgeadventure.com), for Windows PCs, $10
Best for ages 5 to 6 (Rated E)
Kids explore an enchanting 3-D world, while going on missions to solve problems. The game is filled with talking animal friends and educational games, and as kids master the content, new vibrant areas open up. (Also good is "JumpStart World First Grade" and "JumpStart World Second Grade.")
'Leapster Game: Scholastic Get Puzzled'
LeapFrog (www.leapfrog.com) and Scholastic (www.scholastic.com), for the Leapster, $19
• Best for ages 5 to 8
Kids play through more than 300 puzzles that teach logical thinking. They are cheered on by a group of zany characters, including talking heads and cute monsters.
For kids ages 7 to 10
'Super Mario Galaxy'
Nintendo (www.nintendo.com), for the Nintendo Wii, $50
• Best for ages 7 and up (Rated E)
Mario is off to explore out-of-this-world environments in this best-ever Mario game for the Nintendo Wii. The game offers a two-player cooperative mode.
'Drawn to Life'
THQ (www.thq.com), for the DS, $30
• Best for ages 7 and up (Rated E)
A platform puzzle game reminiscent of the Mario series, but with an important creative twist: you draw your own heroes, their weapons and other objects in the world.
'Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure'
Capcom (www.capcom.com), for the Wii, $40
• Best for ages 7 and up (Rated E)
Little pirate boy Zack and his whirly-gig sidekick Wiki star in this fantastic puzzle adventure that makes great use of the Wii remote. A gem.
'Hannah Montana: Music Jam'
Disney Interactive (www.disneyinteractive.com), for the DS, $30
• Best for ages 8 to 14 (Rated E)
Join Hannah Montana to help her learn how to play guitars and drums. The game turns the DS into a guitar and drum set and enables you and your friends to jam to create music together.
'Snapshot Adventures: Secret of Bird Island'
IWin Inc. (www.iwin.com), for the PC, $20 (only available by download)
• Best for ages 6 and up
An outstanding mystery adventure where you become a wildlife bird photographer. This unique game is perfect for families looking for a gentle mystery.
For kids ages 10 & up
'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'
Electronic Arts (www.ea.com), for the Wii, Sony PlayStation 2, PS3, Microsoft Xbox360, PCs, DS, Nintendo Game Boy Advance and Sony PlayStation Portable, $20 to 40.
• Best for ages 10 and up (GBA and DS rated E, all rest E+10)
A great way to relive the movie and explore the massive castle of Hogwarts. Playing it on the Wii lets your remote become your wand — a truly magical experience.
'Rock Band Special Edition Bundle'
MTV Games (www.mtv.com/games), for PS3, Xbox360, and PS2, $160 to $170
• Best for ages 10 and up (Rated T, for lyrics)
Grab some friends for a fabulous cooperative rhythm gaming experience. The Bundle comes with a guitar controller, collapsible drum set controller and microphone to use as your band tries to master over 50 rock hits. Great family fun.
'Mario Strikers Charged'
Nintendo (www.nintendo.com), for the Wii, $40
• Best for ages 10 and up (Rated E+10)
Mario and his gang take to the soccer pitch to play some of the wildest games ever imagined. Madcap fun for up to four players.
'Nancy Drew: Legend of Crystal Skull'
Her Interactive (www.herinteractive.com), for PCs, $20
• Best for ages 9 and up (Rated E)
You become literary sleuth Nancy Drew to solve a spooky case set in a cemetery in New Orleans. Great puzzles, cinematic setting and a compelling mystery combine to deliver a top-notch PC game.
Gudmundsen is the editor of Computing With Kids magazine (www.ComputingWithKids.com). Contact her at gnstech@gns.gannett.com.

Monday, December 10, 2007

IMAX digital projectors will go in 100 AMC theaters

TORONTO (Reuters) — IMAX, the giant-screen movie-maker, said Friday it signed a deal to install digital projection systems at 100 AMC Entertainment multiplex theaters in the United States.
It said the first 50 will begin in July 2008, with the rest scheduled for roll-out over the following two years of the joint venture.
Mississauga, Ontario-based IMAX, whose shares are 25% off March peaks, said the deal is projected to double its commercial footprint in North America.
Kansas City, Missouri-based AMC, which filed for an initial public offering in September, operates 358 theaters with 5,128 screens in six countries.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Reuters AMC IMAX Corporation

Sunday, December 9, 2007

JetBlue to offer some in-flight Wi-Fi for e-mail, messaging

NEW YORK — Discounter JetBlue Airways (JBLU) will begin offering on Dec. 11 limited in-flight broadband Wi-Fi service, making it the first U.S. carrier to offer passengers an Internet connection.
The free service lets passengers send and receive e-mail or instant messaging on BlackBerrys and laptop computers.
JetBlue's service will start small: just one Airbus A320. But the airline plans to roll it out to the rest of its fleet on an undetermined schedule. As owner of the wireless spectrum on which the system operates, JetBlue also plans to sell the service to competitors.
Live TV, the JetBlue unit that operates the system, is rolling it out in partnership with Yahoo (YHOO) and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM). Users can send and receive e-mail from any type of account on two models of BlackBerry, 8820 and 8320. Laptop users are limited to using only Yahoo e-mail and Yahoo's instant messaging application. The companies haven't signed exclusive deals, and JetBlue may opt to include other popular web-based e-mail accounts in the future, such as Hotmail or Gmail.
During a news media test flight on Wednesday, the service failed to start for about 20 minutes once the aircraft cleared the required altitude for electronic devices. Users can also expect several minutes of disconnection when the aircraft flies over spots where transmission is being relayed from one ground tower to the next.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Jetblue JetBlue Airways Internet connection By Mark Lennihan, AP Livetv
One reporter had difficulty composing and sending e-mail from his Yahoo account, even though he was able to reply to incoming e-mails. E-mails he sent from a BlackBerry provided by JetBlue never reached his intended recipients even though the device confirmed that they were sent. Another reporter had difficulty receiving and replying to e-mails in her Yahoo account.
Nate Quigley, CEO of LiveTV, acknowledged that the system is a work in progress. He said software upgrades will be made to work out the kinks. JetBlue chairman and founder David Neeleman, a self-described "Crackberry addict," was aboard the test flight and declared the service "pretty cool."
JetBlue has been hinting about offering the service since June 2006, when LiveTV bought a small portion of the wireless spectrum abandoned by Verizon Airfone, which used it for the now-defunct seatback phones.
Because of its spectrum's bandwidth limits, the carrier has said it'll limit its offering to the Internet services that are most desired by business travelers: e-mail and instant messaging. Business traveler Scott McKain of Indianapolis says the ability to access e-mail would make a big difference in his choice of airlines, "even more than frequent-flier miles or other perks."
In-flight Internet access is off to a halting start worldwide. Last year, aerospace giant Boeing (BA) cited slow sales to airlines in closing its Connexion by Boeing division. It had provided broadband service to a handful of foreign carriers. Now, a half-dozen smaller technology companies are jockeying to offer it to airlines.
American Airlines (AMR) and Virgin America are working with Colorado-based AirCell to offer the service in 2008. Alaska Airlines (ALK) has signed with a California technology firm, Row 44, to begin the service starting in 2008. Southwest (LUV) has also said previously it hopes to launch the service next year.
Unlike its on-board TV service, JetBlue's Wi-Fi connection doesn't rely on satellites. Instead, it uses an antenna on the aircraft to transmit signals to about 100 ground cell tower stations. The aircraft antenna connects to the server on board. Three Wi-Fi connecting points on the aircraft sends and receives data to and from the server. Without satellites, the service is limited to mostly over land. Due to federal regulations, it can only be turned on once the aircraft clears 10,000 feet.

Friday, December 7, 2007

MP3 players pack new features

Chances are, someone on your Christmas list wants an MP3 player. Manufacturers have been busy. New models boast vivid color screens for viewing pictures and videos. Some even have touch screen controls.
Wireless connectivity is becoming increasingly common. In fact, some players are beginning to look like all-in-one media powerhouses.
You may find all of this confusing, so I've put together a list of the most-wanted players.
IPod Touch
Apple's latest iPod will top many wish lists this year. The Touch is available in 8-gigabyte ($299) and 16GB ($399) models.
The Touch features a 3.5-inch touch-sensitive glass screen in lieu of buttons. It connects to the Internet via built-in Wi-Fi.
There's a full-featured Web browser for surfing the Net. You can even watch videos on YouTube.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Youtube Kim Komando Sandisk Wifi Archos
The Touch plays photos, videos and music. You can download songs from Apple's iTunes directly onto the player. Unfortunately, the Touch does not work with subscription music services.
If you need more storage, there's the iPod classic with 80GB ($249) or 160GB ($349) of storage. There's also the iPod Nano with 4GB ($149) or 8GB ($199) of storage.
Microsoft Zune
Microsoft recently revamped its Zune player, adding new 4GB ($150), 8GB ($200) and 80GB ($250) models.
The 80GB Zune's 3.2-inch screen is slightly smaller than the Touch's. Also, it is not touch-sensitive. But the clear, bright screen trumps the display on many players. There's also an FM radio.
In addition, the Zune has built-in Wi-Fi. You can use it to synchronize with your computer wirelessly, but you can't use Wi-Fi to surf the Internet.
Like the Touch, the Zune handles videos, photos and music. It is compatible with Microsoft's Zune subscription service.
SanDisk Sansa Connect
SanDisk's Sansa Connect ($150) has 4GB of storage. This can be expanded using MicroSD cards.
At 2.2 inches, the Connect's screen is relatively small. This is a drawback if the recipient wants to watch videos. Like the Zune, the Connect does not have a touch-sensitive screen.
The built-in Wi-Fi also lets you listen to Yahoo Music's LaunchCast Internet radio. You can also browse through photos on Yahoo's Flickr photo-sharing site. You can't synchronize the Connect via Wi-Fi or surf the Web.
The Connect works with popular subscription services. In fact, you can download music from Yahoo Music Unlimited directly to the player.
Archos 605 WiFi
The Archos 605 WiFi is larger than most media players. That's because it has a large, 4.3-inch touch-screen. The player can also be controlled via buttons down its side.
The player comes in 4GB, 30GB, 80GB and 160GB models. Prices range from $200 to $400.
You can surf the Web using the 605's built-in Wi-Fi. However, you must buy the Web Browser plug-in ($30) to do this. You can use it to watch videos on sites like YouTube.
The 605 can also play videos streamed from your computer. It can also download music and videos from the Archos Content Portal.
The 605 supports a wide variety of music formats. Archos claims it plays more formats than other players. It also plays music from subscription sites. It supports photos, videos and PDF files.
The Archos will record television with the optional DVR Station ($100).
Kim Komando hosts the nation's largest talk radio show about computers and the Internet. To get the podcast or find the station nearest you, visit: www.komando.com/listen. To subscribe to Kim's free e-mail newsletters, sign up at: www.komando.com/newsletters. Contact her at gnstech@gns.gannett.com.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Post office seeing red over Netflix envelopes

Those red DVD mailers Netflix uses are a huge pain in the butt for postal workers. In a report out this week, the Postal Service says it has to manually process 70% of Netflix's DVD envelopes because they jam up the mail machines.
And here's government bureaucracy at its finest. Normally the Postal Service would charge Netflix for having a "nonmachineable" mailpiece. But this kind of envelope isn't discussed in the official "Mail Manual," so the Postal Service can't classify it as nonmachineable.
So the Postal Service has had to suck it up and hand-process Netflix envelopes. That's added $41.9 million in labor costs over the past two years and will add $61.5 million over the next two, the service estimates.
No more. The Postal Service's Inspector General wants Netflix to make its envelopes easier to process or pay a 17-cent surcharge for each one. Netflix says it will redesign its mailer to avoid the fee. A spokesman spins the issue to note that the company actually saves the post office money by going to the post office to get returned discs. Netflix is entitled to have the discs delivered because it pays for first-class postage.
Netflix mails 1.6 million DVDs a day.
Citi analysts said that if Netflix has to pay the surcharge, monthly operating income per subscriber would fall by two-thirds, from $1.05 to 35 cents. Citi reiterated its "sell" rating on Netflix.
Investors shrugged off the mini-drama yesterday. Netflix shares rose 18 cents to close at $23.93.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

N.J. college makes GPS mobiles mandatory

MONTCLAIR, N.J. — It was after 1 a.m. on a Sunday when college freshman Amanda Phillips arrived at the train station. She was nervous about walking alone in the dark to her dorm at Montclair State University.
So Phillips activated a GPS tracking device on her school-issued cellphone that would instantly alert campus police to her whereabouts if she didn't turn it off in 20 minutes. After a five-minute walk, she safely reached her dorm room, locked the door behind her and turned off the timer.
"I think this is a great idea. It makes me feel a lot safer. And it's not even that expensive," said Phillips, an 18-year-old from Delaware.
Had she not turned the device off, an alarm would have sounded at the campus police station, and a computer screen would have displayed a dot with her location, along with her photo and other personal details.
Montclair is one of the first schools in the U.S. to use GPS tracking devices, which along with other security technology are increasingly being adopted on campuses in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre last spring.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Virginia Tech Sprint GPS GPS tracking Montclair State University Rishi Montclair State
Students can use the timer, or, in an emergency, activate the GPS technology to instantly alert police.
"Maybe they're hiding and are hurt. Maybe they wouldn't want to talk because they're hiding behind a desk and the gunman's in the room. They'd have a better chance of being located," said campus police Sgt. Paul Giardino.
So far, not many students are using the feature. The university, which has 13,000 undergraduates, said the timers get turned on only about five to 10 times a week.
In the little more than a year that the system has been fully operational, the alarms have gone off only about once per month, and it was a false alarm every time, usually because someone forgot to turn off a timer.
Giardino said the false alarms aren't nuisances — they are training opportunities for the 32-member police force. "I can get my guys to get out and learn how to handle these," he said.
Two years ago, well before Virginia Tech, Montclair State made the cellphones mandatory for all first-year students living in dorms at the largely commuter school in suburban New York City. Now, all new full-time undergraduates — whether they live on campus or off — are required to buy them. About 6,000 students have them now.
Karen Pennington, vice president for campus life, said she and others on campus wanted to use the phones for instruction — letting professors take instant polls in class, for instance — and for safety as well.
While students praise the safety features, some grumble that the phones are mandatory and that they must be bought through the school for $210 per semester, on top of tuition and fees totaling more than $7,600 a year.
The phones come with free, unlimited text messaging, the capability to read campus e-mail, free calls after 7 p.m. and free calls to other Sprint phones, but only 50 minutes per month of anytime talking. Students must pay extra to add minutes. And though students pay by the semester, the phones work year-round.
The university contracted with the New York-based upstart Rave Wireless for the safety technology and Sprint for the cellphone service. Montclair State said it is not making money on the deal. It said the total cost is around $2 million per year — almost exactly what the school collects from students to fund it.
Sprint added cell towers so that virtually every inch of the campus gets service.
Raju Rishi, co-founder of Rave, said Montclair State was the first to use the safety feature, called Rave Guardian. A half-dozen other schools, including nearby Fairleigh Dickinson University and the University of North Carolina, now use similar systems, Rishi said.
Rishi said campus police are not monitoring the movements of students who don't turn on the GPS feature. "There's no Big Brother," Rishi said. "You need a subpoena to locate somebody against their will."
Security on Campus, a King of Prussia, Pa.-based advocacy group, gave Montclair State an award for the innovation. The group's vice president, Catherine Bath, said the technology will probably become more widespread.
"When I'm out walking my dog at night, I would love to have one of these," she said.
Associated Press Writer Geoff Mulvihill in Mount Laurel contributed to this article.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Yahoo, eBay team up in online auctions

TOKYO — Yahoo Japan and eBay agreed Tuesday to team up in online auctions, planning services for next year that will make it easier for consumers to buy things over the Internet from the U.S. and Japan.
The move marks a return to Japan of eBay, which pulled out of the market in 2002, never able to compete against the domination of Yahoo here.
Yahoo said by March, Japanese will be able to bid for items up for sale on eBay through the Yahoo auction site in Japan. By the middle of next year, similarly, a site will be set up that will allow Americans to buy Yahoo Japan auction items through the eBay site.
The deal will facilitate "cross-border trading" and invigorate the online auction market, Yahoo said in a statement. In online auctions, consumers put up items they want to sell and get offers through the Internet from prospective buyers.
"We are excited to partner with Yahoo Japan in providing Japanese users with localized site designed to enable them to shop on the eBay marketplace with ease and convenience," eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman said in a statement.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Japan Japanese Yahoo Ebay.com Meg Whitman Japanese business
EBay and Yahoo Japan — collaborating for the first time — also launched a separate website called Sekaimon, which means "global shopping" in Japanese.
The online Sekaimon site will translate items on listed on eBay into Japanese and help with payments, shipping and customs clearance for Japanese shoppers, both sides said. Revenue from Sekaimon will be shared, they said, while not disclosing the terms.
Under the collaboration, Americans using eBay will be able to more easily buy Japanese goods popular abroad, such as "manga" comic books, CDs, and products that feature Japanese animation characters and other mascots, it said.
Also, some products are cheaper online abroad than in Japan, and consumers will be able to compare prices for the best deals.
Last year, Internet powerhouses Yahoo and eBay announced a wide-ranging alliance in the U.S., helping defining the battle lines against rivals Google, Microsoft and AOL. Yahoo and eBay said will draw upon each other's strengths in online advertising, payments and communications. Since then, they have collaborated in advertising, online payments and other areas outside of Japan.
The news, initially reported in the business daily The Nikkei, sent shares of Yahoo Japan climbing Tuesday morning. The stock closed unchanged at 54,300 yen ($493), as it remains unclear how much Japanese business the effort will be able to attract.
Yahoo Japan has more than 15 million auction items listed on any given day, while eBay, the world's biggest online auction site, boasts 248 million registered users. Yahoo Japan is 41% owned by Japanese mobile carrier and broadband services company Softbank Corp. and 33% owned by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo Inc.
The online auction markets in both countries are growing, Yahoo said. In Japan, it's up about 27% from a year ago to an estimated 4 trillion yen ($36.4 billion) and in the U.S., it's up 21% to more than $172 billion.
Although Japanese already can shop online on overseas sites, and vice versa, the agreement will make it easier by bridging language and other barriers.
The tie-up may be expanded, both sides said.
Lorrie Norrington, head of eBay's international operations, said the deal may be expanded in the future to other businesses. Besides the online auction, eBay owns the PayPal online settlement service and Skype, an online telephony service.
Yahoo Japan President Masahiro Inoue said the companies may pursue a capital tie-up, although Tuesday's deal doesn't involve such mutual investments.
"We will diligently work together to create a new auction experience for Japanese consumers while ensuring that we provide a healthy and secure online experience," Inoue said.
The 2002 withdrawal from Japan was a rare defeat for San Jose, Calif.-based eBay, which entered the Japanese market in 2000. But it had just 25,000 items listed for sale. At that time, eBay said it hoped to return to the world's second-largest retail market when the timing was right.
That's a reversal from eBay's domination elsewhere. Yahoo closed its online auction service for North America earlier this year, after nearly nine years.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Gibson displays guitar that tunes itself

TOKYO — A new electric guitar from Gibson comes with robotics technology that allows the instrument to tune itself in a matter of seconds.
The technology, developed in partnership with German company Tronical, allows the guitar to recognize pitch and use its processor and six motors on its tuning pegs to tighten the strings accordingly.
Gibson Guitar Corp. claims it's the world's first guitar with such self-tuning robotics technology, and that it's particularly useful for beginners, who tend to find tuning the instrument properly a headache.
The Gibson Les Paul guitar model with Blue Silverburst finish goes on sale globally Dec. 7 for 308,700 yen (US$2,780; euro1,880) in Japan, and US$2,499 in the U.S. The self-tuning feature added an extra 100,000 yen (US$900; euro600) to the price tag.
The guitar comes preset with six types of tuning for the guitar's strings, which are used to play different kinds of music. But it can also remember a totally original tuning by recognizing the sound of the strings it picks up on its microphone.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Japan Tokyo Gibson Les Paul
The way it works is simple.
You pull a knob on the guitar, turn it to the kind of tuning you want, which shows up as a blue light on the knob, such as "E" or "D." You then push the button back in.
The electric signals travel up the strings to the tuning pegs, which begin turning by themselves with a whirl of a motor. It's powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
U.S. guitar-maker Gibson plans to sell 4,000 of the first batch of limited edition "robot guitars" worldwide. Ten% of the sales are expected to be in Japan, said Yasuhiko Iwanade, president of Gibson Guitar Corp. Japan.
"Robots are very popular in Japan. So this is something that matches the developments here these days. It's a technology that Japanese can understand," he said.
It may offer the robotics feature in other models in the future, officials said.
Gibson, based in Nashville, Tennessee, boats a history of innovating the guitar, and robotics fit right in with that legacy, Iwanade said.
Japanese musician Ichiro Tanaka tuned and played the guitar in a demonstration at Gibson's Tokyo office Monday. He said it's handy for professional musicians who may use special tuning for one song in a concert because he won't have to lug around an extra guitar.
"It's more than just convenience. It's a feature I really appreciate," said Tanaka.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.