Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Microsoft to release IE 8 beta 1 in first half of 2008

Microsoft plans to release the first beta of the next version of Internet Explorer in the first half of 2008, and said Wednesday that IE 8 has passed a key Web standards test that ensures the browser won't "break" the Web.
IE8 has passed the "Acid2 Browser Test" from the Web Standards Project, which shows whether a browser renders a Web site in a certain way. If the browser renders the site correctly, it means the browser supports certain accepted Web standards.

Microsoft posted a video about the browser passing the test on its Channel 9 Web site.

Microsoft developed IE before some Web standards such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) were developed, and so older versions don't support some current standards. Developers would write applications to work with IE rather than to support Web standards, since the browser was the de facto standard for surfing the Internet for so many years. Microsoft also was lax in updating IE to meet the demands of Web standards, since there was little competition in the browser market for years.

With the release and subsequent popularity of open-source browser Mozilla Firefox three years ago, a browser's need to stay current with Web standards once again moved to the forefront. When Microsoft developed IE7, released in October 2006, the company had good intentions and decided to improved support of Web standards with the new release.

However, Web sites that were created for older versions of IE didn't work properly on IE7. Microsoft hopes to remedy this problem so the situation is not repeated with IE8, according to an IE Blog posting attributed to Dean Hachamovitch, a Microsoft general manager on the IE team.

"With respect to standards and interoperability, our goal in developing Internet Explorer 8 is to support the right set of standards with excellent implementations and do so without breaking the existing Web," according to the blog posting.

Hachamovitch said Microsoft is taking a cue in lessons learned from making improvements to CSS in IE7 that "made IE more compliant with some standards and less compatible with some sites on the Web as they were coded." The key design goal for IE8, he said, is compatibility with existing Web sites and Web standards supported in other browsers to provide a premium user experience.

"As a developer, I’d prefer to not have to write the same site multiple times for different browsers," according to Hachamovitch's post. "Standards are a (critical!) means to this end, and we focus on the standards that will help actual, real-world interoperability the most. As a consumer and a developer, I expect stuff to just work, and I also expect backwards compatibility. When I get a new version of my current browser, I expect all the sites that worked before will still work."

Microsoft said the final release of IE8 depends upon feedback received from the beta process.

Oracle's earnings soar

Robust software sales pushed Oracle's second-quarter net income up 35 percent compared to the same period last year, to $1.3 billion, or $0.25 per share, the company said Wednesday.
Total revenue grew by 28 percent to $5.3 billion, Oracle said.

Excluding one-time charges, Oracle's reported earnings per share were $0.31, beating forecasts of $0.27 per share from analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

Oracle logged major gains in new license revenue for applications, which rose by 63 percent, and for database and middleware products, which saw a 28 percent increase. The company saw services-based revenue grow by 22 percent to $1.2 billion over last year.

"Obviously, we had another great quarter," Oracle's president and CFO, Safra Catz, said during a conference call with analysts on Wednesday. The numbers represent Oracle's "fastest growth rate in more than a decade," according to Catz.

She noted that Oracle thrived even amid the widespread financial turmoil that has resulted from the subprime mortgage meltdown, an outcome she chalked up to the company's "broad, highly diversified customer base, both by industry and geographically."

CEO Larry Ellison added that Oracle is finding new business by targeting vertical industries that may not be using packaged software like the kind Oracle sells. "Some of these verticals are almost green fields in terms of modern software," he said.

The company's president, Charles Phillips, echoed Ellison. "We think we're very early on in this strategy," he said. "We're still selling in the verticals who are building applications. We're trying to convince them to buy packaged applications."

The executives also honed in on Oracle's competitors, chiefly SAP, which is now targeting small- and medium-sized companies with its Business ByDesign on-demand ERP software.

"We've elected not to go into the [SMB] market because we don't see any synergy," Ellison said.

Phillips said Oracle has managed to snare business from a string of SAP customers this year, crediting in part the business intelligence software that Oracle gained through its acquisition of Hyperion Solutions. "That's a product that's been key for getting into many, many SAP accounts," he said.

Talk turned at one point to Oracle's unsuccessful bid this year to buy BEA Systems for $6.7 billion. BEA's board of directors rejected Oracle's offer, deeming it too low.

Catz indicated that Oracle believes a deal can't be made at this time. "We've been out there with our offer and it just doesn't seem like that is possible with that board," she said.

Talk at one point also turned to Oracle's 11g database, which the company launched to much fanfare earlier this year. "I think our database business will continue to grow in double digits. If the world database market is growing in single digits, we should certainly grow faster than the market," Ellison said.

Shares of the company's stock were up about 6.5 percent to $22.11 on the earnings news in after-hours trading.

Wi-Fi mesh lights up Mecca for Hajj

The millions of pilgrims in Mecca this week for the Hajj, an annual gathering of Muslims, can stay connected thanks to a temporary Wi-Fi mesh network covering a large part of the city.
Hajjis, as the pilgrims are called, come to the city in Saudi Arabia from around the world for several days of religious rituals. More than 2 million gather each year. A network of about 70 meshed routers from Tropos Networks has been set up to provide free Internet connectivity, according to Denise Barton, director of marketing at Tropos. Users only have to register before using it. Barton believes it is the first public Wi-Fi network set up for the Hajj.

Mesh networks are well-suited to temporary deployments because they need fewer fixed-line connections than do traditional Wi-Fi systems. Packets can hop from one router to another until they reach one that's connected to a landline. The technology has also been used for permanent municipal Wi-Fi networks, including the one Google had built with Tropos equipment in its hometown of Mountain View, California.

Saudi Arabia's Communications and Information Technology Commission appointed an Internet service provider, Bayanat Al-Oula, to provide the temporary network. It was rolled out in less than 60 days with no help from Tropos personnel, Barton said. Aptilo Networks, a wireless-management software and services company based in Stockholm, is running the network as a managed service from its offices in Malaysia. This also helped Bayanat get the infrastructure up and running quickly, said Per Knutsson, Aptilo's co-founder and director of product development. Aptilo is handling user authentication, security, customer-support calls and other features, as well as setting up the portal visitors use to register for the network.

Aptilo and Tropos are no strangers to temporary Wi-Fi networks. Aptilo has managed systems for large sporting events, and in 2004 Tropos built a network in downtown Redwood City, California, for a high-profile murder case. The trial of Scott Peterson, who was convicted of killing his wife and their unborn child, drew massive public and media attention. The county court where the trial took place set up a temporary network with five surveillance cameras and five meshed routers for its own security needs and for reporters who descended on the area for several months.

The Mecca network is made up of Tropos 5210 mesh routers, which use IEEE 802.11a for mesh connections and can support users with 802.11a, b and g devices, Barton said. Such networks typically require between 20 and 40 routers per square mile, she said.

Many small companies look to bid in 700MHz auction

The upcoming 700MHz spectrum auctions by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission have drawn bid applications from giant companies including Google and AT&T. But a number of small companies and individuals have submitted bid applications as well.
Late Tuesday, the FCC announced that it had accepted bids from 96 applicants and has another 170 applications that are incomplete for the auction of highly coveted spectrum that can be used for voice or wireless broadband service.

Some of those applicants may not complete their applications. In the FCC's advanced wireless services auction in 2006, 252 organizations submitted applications, and there were 168 qualified bidders.

It's typical that several initial applicants will bow out before they have to submit deposit payments, said analyst Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates. "When it comes to putting down earnest money, many [applicants] back away or can't get the money," he said.

Applicants have until Jan. 4 to pay their deposits or resubmit their applications for the auction, which begins Jan. 24.

The FCC designed the auction in an effort to attract small bidders. Up for sale is 62MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band, now occupied by U.S. television stations. In late 2005, Congress passed legislation requiring U.S. TV stations to move to all-digital broadcasts and abandon analog spectrum between channels 52 and 69. The deadline for TV stations to end broadcasts in the 700MHz band is February 2009.

The spectrum is broken up into five blocks, with three of the five blocks divided into small geographic areas. A 12MHz block of spectrum called the A block is divided up into 176 small geographic areas, called economic areas, as is the 6MHz E block. The 12MHz B block is broken up into 734 local areas called cellular market areas. Bidders can win multiple regional or local licenses.

But the chances of small companies winning significant amounts of spectrum is "pretty slim," Gold said. "Any areas with significant population densities will bring in the big boys, who seek revenues from a mass market," he said. "I suppose some smallish rural areas may be of less interest to AT&T [or] Verizon, but these guys want true countrywide networks, so they will likely bid there anyway."

Several unfamiliar names are among the prospective bidders who submitted incomplete applications:

-- Office of Spectral Ecology, listed as an unincorporated association, with one board member, based in Montreal.

-- Dragon Arch, listed as a corporation based in New York City.

-- FaithFone Wireless, a Phoenix wireless carrier launched in September 2006. FaithFone is a self-described "purpose-driven Christian mobile phone company, offering a cell phone service combining faith and family content." FaithFone's wireless service offers daily devotionals, Bible passages and a prayer of the day through text messaging.

-- The Navajo Department of Information Technology.

-- Part-15.org, a nonprofit organization for users of unlicensed wireless spectrum.

Smaller companies, with annual revenue of less than US$15 million, that have submitted complete applications include:

-- Grain Spectrum, based in Sarasota, Florida, a minority-owned company focused on building wireless networks for government users.

-- GreenFly, a mobile services provider founded in 2006 and based in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.

-- Xpressweb Internet Services, an Internet service provider based in Kanab, Utah.

The auction, expected to raise more than US$10 billion, is likely to last several weeks. Many spectrum experts call the 700MHz band "beachfront" property because it can carry wireless broadband signals three to four times farther than some other spectrum bands.

Since early December, applicants have been in an FCC-mandated quiet period. The FCC spectrum auction rules prohibit collusion on bidding plans.

Microsoft, Google, Yahoo settle gambling charges

Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have agreed to pay a total of $31.5 million to resolve claims that they promoted illegal gambling, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
Microsoft will pay $21 million, Google will pay $3 million and Yahoo will pay $7.5 million, the DOJ said in a news release. The three companies neither contest nor admit that they promoted illegal online gambling by running advertisements for gambling Web sites between 1997 and this year.

The settlements stem from an investigation into illegal online gambling by U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway of the Eastern District of Missouri, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. Hanaway's office indicted the founder of Betonsports.com, 10 other people and four companies on charges of racketeering, conspiracy and fraud in a crackdown on online gambling on June 1, 2006.

Hanaway filed a new indictment against Betonsports, three other companies and 12 people on June 28 of this year.

Unregulated online gambling is illegal in the U.S., the DOJ said. The three companies were accused of procuring participants via the advertisements they ran for illegal activity. Those actions fall under the U.S. aiding and abetting statute, the agency said.

The Microsoft settlement includes a $4.5 million fine and a $7.5 million contribution to the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The company also agreed to create a $9 million online advertising campaign, focused on young people, saying that online gambling is illegal under U.S. law. The campaign will run for three years, beginning in early 2008, the DOJ said.

Yahoo has paid $3 million to the U.S. government, and it will provide $4.5 million worth of online advertising to a public-service campaign designed to inform users that operators and participants in online or telephone-based sports and casino-type gambling in the U.S. may be subject to arrest and prosecution.

"These sums add to the over $40 million in forfeitures and back taxes this office has already recovered in recent years from operators of these remote-control illegal gambling enterprises," Hanaway said in a statement. "Honest taxpayers and gambling industry personnel who do follow the law suffer from those who promote illegal online behavior."

Google said, in a statement, that it has cooperated with the investigation. "While we did not admit any wrongdoing, the Department of Justice has advised that online gambling is illegal in the United States and ads to promote it are improper," the company said. "Google voluntarily discontinued running such ads, which were a very small part of our AdWords business, in April 2004."

Yahoo said it stopped running ads for gambling sites "years ago," according to a statement. "After the U.S. Attorney’s Office contacted Yahoo with its concerns, we worked cooperatively over several years to reach this settlement," the company said.

Microsoft was preparing a statement Wednesday afternoon.

Microsoft offers work-around for IE security patch problems

Microsoft has offered a technical work-around for Internet Explorer users who have found their browsers crashing after installing a recent set of security patches.
Last Tuesday, Microsoft issued a critical security update for its browser software, fixing bugs in the browser. But soon after, users began reporting that IE would crash while visiting certain Web sites. These users would be forced to restart the browser after receiving an "Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and must close" message.

Microsoft now says that the problem is not widespread and affects certain custom installations of Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP, Service Pack 2.

Customers who experience this problem can fix it by making changes to the Windows registry, described in this Knowledge Base article.

Microsoft did not say what kind of customization would cause the bug, and company representatives were not immediately available for comment.

Some newsgroup users are speculating, however, that the issue may be related to antivirus software. Symantec and McAfee users who have been experiencing the problem have been able to resolve the issue by uninstalling the security update and then uninstalling their antivirus software, installing the update and then reinstalling their AV products, said Frank Saunders, a Windows user who has been following discussion of the issue.

The Internet Explorer patch associated with this problem -- MS07-069 -- is considered to be the most important of last week's updates because it fixes four critical vulnerabilities in the browser.

Apple update fixes freezing MacBooks

A software update is now available for Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro systems.

The update addressed an issue that caused the keyboard to freeze. Reports indicate that the Intel-based models running Mac OS X Leopard were affected, with keyboard freezes lasting for up to a minute, or more.
In its notes about the MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.1 Apple says: "This update addresses a responsiveness issue on MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook computers. Some MacBook and MacBook Pro systems may occasionally experience a temporary suspension of keyboard input which can last a minute or longer. The Mac OS X 10.5.1 update is required before installing the MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.1."

NetSuite raises estimated IPO price yet again

NetSuite on Wednesday boosted the estimated price range for its IPO (initial public offering) for the second time in just two days, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The range now stands at US$19 to $22, after NetSuite raised it to $16 to $19 on Tuesday.
The hosted business software company initially set the range at $13 to $16.

NetSuite is running the IPO as an online auction, in the same fashion of search giant Google, rather than following the traditional route of having underwriters set the price.The stock is expected to be priced after the stock market's close Wednesday. It will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "N."

NetSuite, which sells a line of hosted business software, is putting up 6.2 million shares of common stock. The company said Wednesday it believes it will net about $115.9 million from the IPO after expenses.

NetSuite has said it plans to use proceeds from its IPO to pay off an $8 million balance on a line of credit with Tako Ventures, an entity controlled by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, and to possibly make acquisitions.

Ellison controls about 60 percent of NetSuite's outstanding stock -- some 31.9 million shares.

NetSuite said Wednesday that Ellison has now completed the transfer of those shares into a holding company, NetSuite Restricted Holdings. The move is meant to "effectively eliminate" Ellison's voting power and avoid potential conflicts of interests, NetSuite said.

Cisco hires environmental guru for green efforts

Cisco has hired one of the founders of the ‘Green Grid’, Paul Marcoux, to be its new environmental guru.
The Green Grid, is an industry consortium - of which Cisco is a contributing member - dedicated to improving data center power efficiency through the use of agreed metrics. Marcoux was APC's director of education and training.

He now becomes a VP of engineering in the Cisco Development Organization (CDO), and is responsible for driving green initiatives both inside Cisco, and externally with customers and the market.

The company has also announced its ‘greenest office,’ its new St. Louis regional headquarters, built to meetLEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) criteria for environmental friendliness and energy efficiency.

The building's construction featured tracking and recycling of old materials during tear out, installing new materials with recycled content and using environmentally friendly paints and furniture. There are individual workstation task lights to reduce energy consumption. The building is also powered by renewable energy.

John Moses, who heads the HQ, said it is the first of many LEED-certified offices which Cisco will build in the next few years as part of Cisco CEO John Chambers' Carbon to Collaboration initiative. The Cisco head committed to reduce Cisco's greenhouse gas emissions from air travel by 10 percent during fiscal years 2007 and 2008.

The idea is to use videoconferencing, with Cisco's TelePresence high-definition IP product enabling face-to-face real-time meetings between colleagues and partners without the need to travel.

Showing the way, Moses said: ""If we can reduce one flight to Chicago and back, that will help us reduce our carbon emissions. These technologies really can help us cut costs, reduce air travel and reduce our overall carbon emissions."

TelePresence has been on the market for a year and there are 100 customers deploying it in over 40 countries. Charles Stucki, VP and GM of the TelePresence Systems business unit, said: "Cisco TelePresence is the fastest-growing new product category in Cisco history."

MIT students power supercomputer with bicycles

A team of ten MIT students powered a supercomputer for twenty minutes by pedalling bicycles. They duly claimed the world record for human-powered computing (HPC).
They powered a SiCortex SC648 supercomputer with a Linux cluster of 648 CPUs and almost 1TB of main memory in a single cabinet. The system is low-powered and draws 1,200 watts without needing special power supplies or cooling.

An SC648 chip, with six processors on it, draws around 8 watts of power, which compares to a typical notebook computer CPU needing 100 watts, according to SiCortex CEO John Mucci. Other supercomputers draw tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of watts.

The ten cyclists pedalled their bikes, set on stands, with the wheels driving dynamos to generate direct current power which was converted into the alternating current needed. The supercomputer modelled a nuclear fusion reaction.

A spokesperson said that the human-powered session produced more computations than took place in the first 3,000 years of civilization. He also said that more arithmetic calculations were computed than were done on the entire earth up to 1960.

The MIT team was highlighting the need for sustainable energy supplies, competing for a Google prize and also for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. Google and a bike company have sponsored an Innovate or Die contest with contestants having to use bike power and post a video of their submission on Google-owned YouTube to win US$5,000 for the team and a specialized bike for each member. Five members pedalled for the Google prize and a ten-member team pedalled for the Guinness Book of Records entry.

Microsoft, Viacom agree to $500M advertising pact

Microsoft and entertainment broadcaster Viacom have agreed to a five-year deal to share content and partner on advertising initiatives, the companies announced Wednesday.
It's the latest agreement between content and technology companies seeking to make money by mixing premium content with advertising on the Web. The two companies valued the deal at US$500 million.

Microsoft will have a nonexclusive license to use TV programs and other content from Viacom, which owns MTV Networks, Comedy Central, BET (Black Entertainment Television) and Paramount Pictures, among others. The content will appear on Microsoft's MSN Web site, as well as through its Internet-connected XBox 360 games system.

Viacom will also use Microsoft's Atlas AdManager digital advertising technology for its U.S. Web sites. The technology came from Microsoft's $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive Inc., which was completed in August. AdManager can serve graphical and video ads on Web sites and has ad reporting and management features.

Microsoft will also have an exclusive right to sell some display advertising inventory on Viacom's sites, and both companies will share the revenue.

Microsoft and Viacom previously worked together on MTV's Urge digital music store, which was closed in August after low interest.

In March, Viacom filed a $1 billion suit against Google's YouTube video service for displaying clips the network owns that were posted by users without permission.

Orkut worm demonstrates vulnerability of service

Google's Orkut social networking site appeared to have been hit by a relatively harmless worm, but one that demonstrated the continuing vulnerability of Web applications.
Some Orkut users received an e-mail telling them they had been sent a new scrapbook entry -- a type of Orkut message -- on their profile from another Orkut user.

They only had to view their profile to become infected by the worm, which added them to an Orkut group, "Infectados pelo Vírus do Orkut," wrote the blogger Kee Hinckley on his site TechnoSocial.

The name of the group, in Portuguese, roughly translates to "infected by the Orkut virus." Orkut is popular in Brazil, as well as India, but has not caught on as well outside those countries compared to MySpace and Facebook.

The description of the group reveals that the worm was designed to show Orkut could be dangerous to users even if they do not click on malicious links, Hinckley wrote. The worm apparently did not try to steal any personal data.

The worm was also noted by Orkut Plus, a site that offers Orkut security tips, and discussed in Google's Orkut help group.

At one time the infected group was adding new members at a rate of 100 per minute, and had reached a few hundred thousand members, according to various postings, but the problem appears now to be fixed, Hinckley wrote.

Orkut's scrapbook feature allows people post messages that contain HTML code, but it may lack a filter to strip out malicious JavaScript, Hinckley wrote.

"It does not appear at first glance that the worm does anything more dangerous than pass itself on to one or more of your friends," he wrote. "I think it unlikely that it would be able to steal your password, although it could potentially access other private information."

New mobile approaches got a reality check

The past year may have been a wireless dream come true if you're a fan of the iPhone and more open handsets and networks, but it was a nightmare for some major new alternatives to traditional mobile services.
Municipal wireless networks, WiMax and MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) began the year buoyed by high hopes before each faced a reality check. In each case, business woes at one company were just part of the reason.

The recent growth of wireless in many forms helped to generate excitement and investment for new technologies in 2006 and early 2007. Municipal wireless networks seemed like a new channel to deliver ubiquitous high-speed Internet access without waiting for traditional carriers to step up. WiMax, possibly an alternative to 3G and Wi-Fi, finally had a marquee customer. And MVNOs promised to deliver complete cellular services, including phones, targeted to specific kinds of consumers.

But as it turns out, it's not so easy to flip the wireless world upside down.

As the year began, San Francisco reached a deal with EarthLink for one of the most hotly anticipated municipal wireless networks in the world, one in which Google would provide a free citywide service in addition to EarthLink's paid offering. As in EarthLink's deal for a Philadelphia network, the city would pay nothing. Meanwhile, leaders in Silicon Valley were planning an even bigger network, spanning 1,500 square miles and multiple technologies.

Politics kept the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from approving the EarthLink plan for months, until the service provider delivered some bad news of its own. In April, EarthLink said it would focus on both the municipal networks it was already committed to and to driving up usage in large cities rather than seeking out new deals. The San Francisco project's future got blurry. Then, in August, the company said it wouldn't invest any more money in its free-to-cities business model. A shrinking dial-up business and other problems were forcing big cuts at EarthLink.

"We will not devote any new capital to the old muni Wi-Fi model that has us taking all of the risk by fronting all of the capital, then paying to buy our customers one by one," President and CEO Rolla Huff said. By November, EarthLink was considering "strategic alternatives" for the Wi-Fi business, an indication that it may be sold off. The Philadelphia network is going forward but has drawn fewer than expected subscribers. Meanwhile, backers of the Silicon Valley network were left searching for a new builder and operator after their first choice couldn't attract enough financing, even in the heart of the IT industry.

Municipal wireless turned out to have one big technology problem -- it required more access points than expected -- which worsened its business problem: Where would the money come from? Analysts say the key now is to find areas that lack other broadband alternatives or get cities to sign up for services themselves. Telscape Communications, a mobile operator focused on the U.S. Hispanic market, is negotiating to buy a municipal Wi-Fi network in Tempe, Arizona, that has 1,000 access points and only 500 subscribers. The company hopes to use better marketing and some combination of cellular and Wi-Fi voice services to make it a success.

WiMax has been promoted as Wi-Fi with a wider reach for several years, and its big opportunity came in August 2006, when Sprint Nextel chose the technology as what it called its "fourth-generation" network. Vendors including Intel, Motorola, Samsung and Nokia piled on, and it looked like the high manufacturing volume that would drive down WiMax prices was finally on its way. The network would reach 100 million U.S. residents by the end of 2008, Sprint said.

In July this year, the carrier announced it would team up with wireless data provider Clearwire to jointly fund and market the WiMax service, called Xohm, and allow roaming between the two networks. Sprint would build 65 percent of the network, Clearwire the other 35 percent, each covering some cities the other couldn't reach. However, the companies gave the same target: 100 million people by the end of 2008.

Then Sprint CEO Gary Forsee, a backer of the estimated US$5 billion WiMax plan, was forced out of the struggling carrier. A few weeks later, the Clearwire deal was off, with the companies saying they couldn't reach final agreement on its details. And Sprint said it was reviewing its WiMax plans and would say more in early 2008. As the year's end approached and new Sprint CEO Dan Hesse took over, it wasn't clear what his take on the project might be.

Sprint's soft launch of WiMax in Chicago and the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area went ahead before the end of the year as planned, and the carrier said it still plans commercial service in the first half of 2008. But WiMax is starting to generate more interest for emerging markets than for advanced economies, including from Cisco Systems, which acquired Navini Networks in January. The company said its main focus with WiMax is to get broadband widely deployed in countries that don't have enough wired infrastructure.

The uncertainty surrounding Sprint and its plan is affecting the image more than the reality of WiMax, said IDC analyst Godfrey Chua.

"It's not problems with the technology, it's problems with the company," Chua said. "The momentum we're seeing behind WiMax in the rest of the world continues."

Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), which resell mobile capacity from established carriers, pulled in a lot of investment money in 2006 but suffered some high-profile failures in 2007.

At the end of July, youth-focused Amp'd Mobile shut down after it attracted nearly 200,000 customers in less than two years but failed to collect enough of the revenue it was due. In September, Disney said it would shut down its specialized service for families by the end of the year and look to offer its features through an established carrier. Helio, a money-losing joint venture of SK Telecom and EarthLink, stayed afloat thanks to $270 million of added investment from SK after EarthLink decided the MVNO game was too rich for its blood.

MVNOs and their supporters often didn't realize what an uphill battle they faced, according to analysts. They needed to build up in months the kinds of billing systems and distribution networks that traditional carriers had taken years to refine, and frequently they fell short. Meanwhile, trying to make a profit by buying minutes and bytes from another carrier and reselling them is hard even for a well-run company, analysts said. The foggy future at Sprint, which provides the underlying network for most MVNOs in the U.S., cast yet another cloud over the business.

GreatCall, a startup that launched the Jitterbug service for older cell-phone users last year, learned these lessons the hard way. The company changed billing companies twice before finding a provider that worked, said Arlene Harris, Jitterbug's founder, chairman and chief strategy officer. It also struggled to get funding, especially after other MVNOs started folding.

The service now has "tens of thousands" of subscribers and is growing, Harris said.

"Everything is working well," Harris said. "But I have to tell you, it's been very hard."

SugarCRM offers biggest upgrade yet

SugarCRM has released the 5.0 version of its open-source customer relationship management software following a long period of development and testing.
Sugar 5.0 features improvements in three main areas, according to the company: a new on-demand architecture designed to improve security; tools that let nontechnical users build custom modules; and an AJAX e-mail client that is compatible with any server that supports the POP3 protocol. The release also delivers upgraded dashboarding capabilities.

The software went through three beta cycles and was tested more than 30,000 times by members of SugarCRM's open-source community, said Chris Harrick, senior director of product marketing for the Cupertino, California, company.

Harrick said the open-source development model allows software to be vetted far more thoroughly than it can through an in-house quality testing team.

In-house teams "serve their purpose. They do a good job and they're hard-working people. But [open-source provides] the wisdom of the crowd," he argued.

Harrick downplayed the fact that it took three betas to achieve a release-worthy product. "I think it's really a result of our development process. We iterate quickly and get it out there," he said.

The company has created a Flash demo that walks through the new features in detail.

China Martens, an analyst with the 451 Group, said SugarCRM is looking to land larger enterprise customers with the 5.0 release.

"This is the most substantial kind of project they've done. ... it was really crucial for them to try and get this right," Martens said.
"We think it's good, but the bottom line is we want to see bigger users for Sugar until we get really excited," she added.

In a space crowded by seemingly similar CRM offerings, SugarCRM has tried to differentiate itself partly through fostering a user-friendly image, according to Martens. The company's attitude, according to Martens, is, "Forget about the technical guys, we're Sugar and you can configure us. We're friendly."

SugarCRM Professional in on-demand form costs US$40 per user per month.

Google Toolbar flaw opens door for phishers

Google is working to fix a bug in the Google Toolbar that could allow criminals to steal data or install malicious software on a system, a security researcher warned Tuesday.
The flaw lies in the mechanism Google Toolbar uses to add new buttons on the browser. Because the toolbar does not perform adequate checks when new buttons are being installed, a hacker could make his button appear as though it was being downloaded from a legitimate site when in fact it came from somewhere else. By spoofing the origin of the toolbar button, an attacker could download malicious files or launch a phishing attack against the victim, wrote security researcher Aviv Raff in a blog post on the issue.

Raff has posted proof of concept code, showing how such an attack would work with the Internet Explorer browser. A Google spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday that the company is working to fix the problem.

The attack requires many steps. First, the victim would have to be tricked into clicking on a Web link that would then pop up a window asking the user if he wants to install a custom button on his toolbar. Because of the flaw, this alert could look like it was downloading the button from a legitimate site such as Google.com, even if it were not. Once the button was installed on the toolbar, the victim would then have to click on it, and finally agree to download and run an executable file for the malicious software to be installed.

Because the user would have to go through so many steps in order to fall victim to the attack, the bug isn't a critical one, said Marc Maiffret, an independent security researcher. "While it is interesting, it's probably a low threat compared to other flaws out there," he said via instant message.

Still, it was sloppy work on Google's part to miss such a simple attack, he said. "They should definitely assess how it slipped through the cracks," he said.

This is not the first obvious Google flaw that Raff has found. Last month, he showed how a simple Web programming error on the Google.com Web site could allow attackers to launch what's known as a cross-site scripting attack.

Because Google's programmers didn't properly check the HTML generated by the Google search engine, Raff was able to create a specially crafted Google link that, when clicked by the victim, would trick the browser into running unauthorized scripting code. This type of link could be used to steal the victim's Google account or conduct phishing attacks, Raff said

This error was fixed by Google just hours after Raff notified the company of the problem, but a demo of the flaw being exploited can be seen online.

700MHz auction draws Verizon, Chevron

AT&T and Verizon Wireless want to go up against other current mobile operators and some possible future competitors, including Google, in next month's auction for 700MHz wireless spectrum around the U.S.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday released lists of accepted and incomplete applications for the auction, in which it will sell licenses to frequencies that are set to be vacated by analog TV stations. It has accepted 96 applications and reported 170 as incomplete. The latter need to be completed by Jan. 4.

AT&T and Verizon are not surprise entrants but are the country's biggest mobile operators. If either carrier won a portion of the spectrum that has been designated for use by any device and any service, it would have to open up its network more than any big U.S. operator ever has. Verizon has already unveiled part of a plan to further open its network.

They were on the list of incomplete applications, along with smaller mobile operators Alltel and MetroPCS. Cable operator Cox Communications, an archrival of the telecommunications giants, is also preparing an application. And cellular technology giant Qualcomm, which is already building a mobile entertainment network on vacated TV channels, is also gearing up to bid. Would-be bidders with incomplete applications have until Jan. 4 to complete their paperwork.

Google earlier this year offered to participate in the auction in return for the FCC imposing open-network requirements. The booming Internet company's involvement could drive up bids all around, helping the government reap its hoped-for US$10 billion payday for the spectrum. Google's application has already been accepted, the FCC said Tuesday. So has that of Towerstream, a wireless broadband provider to businesses.

One surprise applicant yet to complete its papers is oil giant Chevron.

Participation by Chevron in the auction comes “out of the blue,” said analyst Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates. However, oil companies and utilities are big wireless users, so he can see why Chevron might be interested.

Chevron, like Google, is unlikely to actually build a network, though, he said. “I can see them potentially winning but then becoming landlords, renting it out,” he said. For both companies, that decision wouldn’t be based on the cost of building a network but on the experience required: Neither company has any history of constructing and operating a wireless network, a complicated undertaking.

Also Tuesday, the agency extended the Dec. 28 deadline for upfront payments in the auction to Jan. 4 and pushed back a mock auction until Jan. 22. The auction itself is set to begin Jan. 24.

Nancy Gohring, in Seattle, contributed to this report.

Microsoft releases Dynamics CRM 4.0 to manufacturing

Targeted mainly at its VAR (Value Added Reseller) channel, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Version 4.0 was released to manufacturing this week.
Version 4.0, code-named Titan, will be available in several versions: an on-premises application, a partner or VAR-hosted version plus a version of Dynamics hosted by Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live, the Microsoft-hosted deployment.

All versions will share a single code base and the hosted versions use a multi-tenant architecture.

Addressing its new upgrade message to its VAR channel, Microsoft officials said Version 4.0 includes an upgraded version of multi-tenant that will support multiple customers per server.

Other upgrades include a choice of 25 languages and support for multiple currencies and embedded BI capabilities, including an ad hoc reporting wizard that will allow nontechnical users to create custom reports.

Version 4.0 will also integrate with Microsoft's unified communications platform, Microsoft Office Communications Server, along with its presence and location features.

Although Microsoft will offer to host a version on its Live platform, the channel is the backbone of its strategy, according to most industry analysts.

Josh Greenbaum, principal analyst at Enterprise Applications Consulting said that the Microsoft channel is so strong in the SMB market that it is the envy of all the other software vendors.

"Everyone is trying to steal Microsoft channel partners. If you are an enterprise ISV there is no better and more mature channel than Microsoft," Greenbaum said.

Microsoft and Novell have the two oldest legacy channels in the industry, and Greenbaum called them, "the nuts and bolts wizards."

In a prepared statement, Microsoft said it relies on its strong network of partner companies to bring technology to customers in the SMB marketplace, claiming over 400,000 partners.

Dynamics CRM 4.0 is expected to be available in the first quarter.

IE, Gmail bugs allow hijacking of accounts on public PCs

Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer (IE) browser has an unpatched vulnerability that could let hackers hijack, then access, Google Inc. Gmail accounts, a California security company warned Monday.
IE, said Santa Clara-based Cenzic Inc. in an alert issued Monday, contains an unspecified cached files bug that when combined with a cross-site request forgery flaw in the Web-based e-mail service, exposes Gmail account sign-ons and lets others access those accounts and any messages or file attachments there.

Although not a bug that can be leveraged remotely -- an attacker must have local, physical access to the PC -- as Cenzic pointed out in its alert, there are scenarios where that's not a limitation. "These vulnerabilities could be exploited such that all users of a shared computer, who use Internet Explorer and share a user account -- a common practice at computer kiosks in a library or Internet cafe -- could be vulnerable," said Cenzic.

Gmail contributes to the overall vulnerability because its URLs display attachments when viewed using the "View Source" command, the warning went on. IE, however, sports "improper use of caching directives [and] incorrect access checks on cached Internet Explorer files."

Together, the bugs could conceivably let someone at a public PC hijack any Gmail log-on credentials that had been entered on the machine since the IE cache had last been purged. IE deletes the contents of its cache only as new files are added -- and the oldest are deleted -- or when the user explicitly instructs the browser to clear the cache using the "Delete Browsing History" command.

Microsoft denied that IE even has a bug. "Microsoft has thoroughly investigated the claim and found that this is not a product vulnerability," said a company spokesman in an e-mail Tuesday morning. "In the scenario in question, an attacker would need authenticated access to the system in order to modify files located in the cache. With that level of access, an attacker could install malicious programs that would have more impact than the scenarios described."

While true, that did not address Cenzic's scenario; by design, public PCs such as those in libraries, schools or Web cafes do not require authentication to access. Microsoft was not available for clarification.

Google did not immediately respond to questions about Gmail's part in the threat.

MPAA wins copyright case against TorrentSpy

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New Sprint chief Hesse faces a big inbox

New Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse has lots of choices as he takes over the ailing mobile carrier and looks for problems to start solving.
Sprint, the third-biggest wireless operator in the U.S., is losing subscribers as it keeps working through the merger of Sprint and Nextel, which occurred in 2005. On Tuesday, Sprint announced Hesse is taking over immediately for Gary Forsee, who was forced out by the company's board in October. Hesse, 54, previously led Embarq, the local wireless carrier Sprint spun off as part of the Nextel deal.

Sprint needs to both distinguish itself from competitors and get its own house in order, according to mobile industry analysts.

"They couldn't go on without someone who's willing to set a direction," said Avi Greengart of Current Analysis. Sprint could try to compete with Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless on price, or with more flexible terms of service, or bring out more innovative devices, but it's failed so far to choose, according to Greengart.

"Their brand right now doesn't stand for anything," he said.

One thing the Sprint name has been associated with recently is disappointing customer service. Reporting on the quarter ended Sept. 30, the company blamed accelerating customer "churn" to other carriers in part on longer help calls and waits for those calls. The introduction of simplified bills, expected to continue until the middle of 2008, boosted the number of those calls, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Sprint also noted new handsets at rival carriers, clearly a reference to AT&T's Apple iPhone.

Meanwhile, thanks to about 700,000 subscribers quitting the aging Nextel network, Sprint's subscriber base as a whole declined by a net 337,000 in the quarter. The carrier said it had about 54 million subscribers on Sept. 30.

What could most set Sprint apart is also its biggest gamble, the WiMax wireless broadband network it plans to build across the U.S. at an estimated cost of US$5 billion. Though the WiMax network is likely to be in place first, set to reach 100 million people by the end of 2008, Sprint's main rivals plan to have their own high-speed data offerings using a similar technology, LTE (Long-Term Evolution). And WiMax won't fix Sprint's long-overdue need to harmonize its cellular operations, currently split between CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and Nextel's older iDEN technology, Greengart said.

If it goes ahead with WiMax -- interim CEO Paul Saleh said this month the business might be spun off -- Sprint will have to convince skeptical investors it's making the right move, said Yankee Group's Phil Marshall. It will also need to find a way for WiMax to truly complement the cellular business, Marshall said. So far, Sprint has painted WiMax as a mobile service distinguished from its conventional voice offerings by the promise of an any-application, any-device model. A better plan would be to push WiMax as an alternative to wired broadband that's bundled with Sprint's cellular service, Marshall said.

However, in the short term, Hesse just needs to get the company to run its existing businesses better, Marshall said. Cleaning up customer service would be one key move, he added. Judging from Hesse's previous performance -- he once headed AT&T Wireless -- the new CEO is qualified to do this, according to Marshall.

"He's very pragmatic and systematic in his management style," Marshall said.

Congress slow on tech issues in '07

No one is calling 2007 a banner year for the technology industry in the U.S. Congress.

Congress passed a handful of bills on many tech vendor and trade group wish lists, but in several cases, they represented partial victories.
"This Congress so far has a record of neglect on technology issues," said Representative Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, whose party lost the majority in Congress in the November 2006 elections.

Goodlatte isn't an impartial observer, but members of the tech community also acknowledge that Congress has been slow to act on tech issues this year. Still, not everyone was expecting great things from a Congress that had to reorganize after the change in party control.

It's too early to judge this session of Congress, which continues through 2008, said Kevin Richards, federal government relations manager at cybersecurity vendor Symantec. "I think we have a lot of interest [from lawmakers], and this has the potential to be a tech-friendly Congress," Richards said.

Members of the tech community point to some success in Congress this year:

-- Congress passed the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science Act, which became law in August. The America Competes Act allocated US$43.3 billion for research and math- and science-education programs.

-- Congress approved a free-trade agreement with Peru in December, the only such agreement approved this year. Some labor and environmental groups opposed some free-trade agreements, but the pacts are "imperative" for tech vendors, said Sage Chandler, senior director of international trade for the Consumer Electronics Association.

The CEA, which launched a campaign against "protectionism" in October, said every trade agreement is important to its members. Upcoming free-trade agreements coming before Congress include Columbia, Panama and South Korea. A handful of CEA members are already doing business in Peru or would like to and between 2000 and 2006 U.S. consumer-electronics exports to Peru increased by 12 percent, Chandler said.

"Without the ability to sell into foreign markets and get components from foreign markets, our companies aren't going to be able to employ Americans," she said.

Some successes the tech community can point to, however, were partial victories:

-- Congress, in late October, passed a seven-year extension to a moratorium on access taxes and other taxes unique to the Internet. But many tech groups and lawmakers had pushed for a permanent tax ban, arguing that it was needed to foster Internet and broadband growth.

Opponents of a permanent ban successfully argued that it would remove a check on Internet service providers attempting to include other services, such as VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol), in the tax ban. In addition, some lawmakers argued that a permanent ban could cripple the ability to pay for services.

But some lawmakers argued Congress should've gone farther. The House of Representatives, which in the past has approved permanent extensions, this year passed a four-year extension and "had to have the Senate show them the way to a better seven-year extension," Goodlatte said. The "ultimate goal" should be a permanent tax moratorium, he said.

-- The Senate in December passed a one-year extension to a research and development tax credit for U.S. companies. The Temporary Tax Relief Act, which the House approved Nov. 9, extends the tax credit, which covers 20 percent of qualified R&D spending. But many tech groups have called on Congress to permanently extend the R&D tax credit, which has been extended a dozen times since 1981.

Supporters of an expanded tax credit argue that the U.S. has fallen behind other nations in its R&D support. Once the most generous with R&D tax breaks, the U.S. by 2004 fell to 17th out of the 30 nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

But the tax break comes with a price tag of about $7 billion a year, and Congress has been reluctant to extend the program long term. Some government watchdog groups have called the R&D tax credit corporate welfare.

But tech groups have said the R&D tax credit helps keep high-paying tech jobs in the U.S. And companies have a hard time mapping out their R&D when the credit keeps expiring, said Symantec's Richards. "The on-again, off-again nature of the credit makes it impossible for companies to do the long-term planning that's needed," he said.

In many other areas, Congress failed to act on legislation many tech groups called for:

-- Patent reform: Many large tech companies said their top priority was for Congress to pass a wide-ranging patent reform bill that would make it more difficult for patent holders to sue and collect massive infringement awards. The House of Representatives in September passed the Patent Reform Act, which would allow courts to limit patent damage awards if a patented invention is a small piece of a larger product. Among other things, the bill would also allow a new way to challenge patents within one year after they've been granted.

Supporters of the bill, including Microsoft and IBM, argued that it's too easy for patent holders who have no intent of marketing an invention to sue large companies and collect multimillion-dollar damages when a small piece of a technology product is found to infringe. "There are people who now just hold patents to sue and not to innovate," said Symatec's Richards.

Another important piece of the bill would limit where patent holders could file lawsuits, Richards said. Many patent holders file lawsuits in the patent-friendly U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, even though neither the patent holder or the accused infringer is located there.

Opponents, including pharmaceutical companies, some small technology vendors and inventors, have successfully stalled the bill in the Senate. They say the bill severely weakens the power of patents.

Senate leaders say they will tackle the bill again in January. Opponents will continue to pressure lawmakers, said Ronald Riley, president of the Professional Inventors Alliance, which has enlisted the support of some labor unions.

Opponents have talked about finding candidates to run against lawmakers who support the bill, Riley said. "We will have an all-out onslaught on the legislation," Riley said. "We think we will have to make an example of some legislators."

-- H-1B visas: Another top priority of many tech vendors has been an expansion of the H-1B visa program for skilled foreign workers. The current yearly cap is 65,000 visas, with exceptions for an additional 20,000 graduate students, but in recent years, the cap has been filled before the year begins.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates testified before a Senate committee in March, saying the U.S. should not shut out talented workers. "We have to welcome the great minds of this world, not drive them out of this country," Gates said. "These employees are vital to American competitiveness."

But U.S. tech worker groups such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA (IEEE-USA) have opposed a higher H-1B cap, arguing that companies use the program to hire foreign workers for less money than unemployed U.S. workers would receive. An H-1B increase to 115,000 was part of a comprehensive immigration bill in the Senate, but that bill stalled over a contentious debate about illegal immigration.

-- Data breaches: A handful of data breach notification and cybercrime bills stalled as Congress focused on other issues. The House approved two antispyware bills, one that created penalties of up to five years in prison for some spyware-like behavior. But the Senate didn't act on the bills, in part because there are concerns that the second spyware bill would preempt tougher state laws.

-- Net neutrality: Many consumer groups and Internet-based companies continued to call on Congress to pass a net neutrality law, which would prohibit broadband providers from blocking or slowing competitors' Web content. However, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has included some net neutrality rules in an upcoming spectrum auction, and both Verizon Wireless and AT&T have recently pledged to allow outside content and devices on their mobile-phone networks.

Congress has also examined tougher penalties for copyright infringement, but hasn't moved legislation forward. With the change in party control, some things have been delayed, and "that was fine with us," said Art Brodsky, spokesman for Public Knowledge, a consumer-rights group that has opposed tougher copyright penalties.

Some observers expect Congress to be more active on tech issues in 2008. It will be an election year, and it will be hard for controversial legislation to move forward, but many tech issues aren't partisan, Goodlatte said.

Passing some tech-related legislation would show some progress, he said. "I would think that the Democratic leadership, in the miserable lack of success they've had in passing legislation this year, would be looking for a new approach in the new year," he said.

Privacy groups: FTC has obligation in Google deal

Two privacy groups are stepping up the pressure on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, saying the agency has an obligation to consider privacy concerns as it prepares to rule on the antitrust implications of Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick.
The executive directors of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) repeated their call for the FTC to impose privacy conditions if it approves the merger. It appears that an FTC decision on the $3.1 billion acquisition is "imminent," said Jeffrey Chester, CDD's executive director.

FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz in October suggested the FTC's review of the deal had to be about competition questions, not privacy, but Chester disagreed during a press conference on Tuesday. One of the FTC's main duties is to protect consumer privacy, and the merger of the number one search provider with the number one ad server raises serious privacy questions, he said.

Google's contention that there are no major privacy concerns is "absurd on the face of it," Chester said. DoubleClick says it serves 8 billion online ads and processes 964 gigabytes of Web server log files each day, he said.

"It would be a violation of trust, in effect abuse of their own role, in not addressing an issue of such concern as the data-collection apparatus within the ever-growing behemoth," Chester said. "If they're really the agency to protect consumer privacy, they will act to protect privacy. If they fail to act to protect privacy, they have basically put up a flag to American consumers saying, 'We surrender your data.'"

Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich repeated Google's position that the merger would have positive effects.

"This acquisition is good for consumers, advertisers and Web site publishers, and we continue to be confident that it will be approved," he said. "I would also point out what the FTC itself has said about privacy not playing a role in its review of the deal."

Last week, the two groups asked FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras to recuse herself from the decision on the merger, saying her husband works for a law firm that is advising DoubleClick on the deal in the U.S. Majoras declined Monday to recuse herself, saying that her husband isn't directly involved in the DoubleClick deal and that the Jones Day law firm is advising the company only before European regulators.

An FTC spokesman wasn't immediately available for comment.

Chester and EPIC executive director Marc Rotenberg repeated their calls for Majoras to recuse herself. Jones Day's Web site, until recently, said it was advising DoubleClick on the deal in the U.S. as well as Europe, they said.

But the most important step the FTC can take is to impose privacy conditions on the merger, Rotenberg said. The case for a privacy review "is very clear," he said.

Chester agreed. "Are they concerned about Americans' privacy, or are they going to give Google a pass?" he said.

'Atlas' tools extend Lotus Connections

IBM on Tuesday released Atlas, a software toolset that provides advanced search and analysis functions for its enterprise social networking product, Lotus Connections.
"Atlas looks at the data within Connections and does some visualizations of the information," said Chris Lamb, senior product manager. "The main point is that it is a way to visualize the social data from a line-of-business perspective and a personal level."

The Atlas suite contains four components dubbed My Net, Find, Reach and Net.

The Net component provides a view of groups that have formed within an organization due to work on similar projects, IBM said. The point is to help users find ways to improve communications among various nodes throughout the company. My Net provides a similar view, but focuses on a user's personal network.

Atlas also includes Reach, a dashboard-like tool that helps users "navigate the six degrees of separation that divide them from a colleague," as an IBM statement describes. The purpose is to help workers more quickly connect with people in the organization who have a particular skill set or area of knowledge.

The last component is Find, which can provide search results that leverage social networking-related data, such as blogs and reporting structures, according to IBM.

Atlas and Lotus Connections fit into an ambitious push by IBM around social collaboration in enterprises.

A growing number of people use multiple networks and would like to easily move their profile data between them. Without providing specifics, Lamb said IBM is moving to address the problem.

"That's something that we're looking at, how we aggregate that," he said. "There will be some announcements around the Lotusphere time frame." Lotusphere is scheduled for Jan. 20-24 in Orlando, Florida.

IBM is selling Atlas through its Software Services for Lotus group. Lamb declined to provide specific pricing information.

Facebook watchers offer advice against data leaks

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Analyst: Apple TV leads pack in emergent industry

Apple's Apple TV leads the pack in terms of internet video delivery devices, though market growth has been stymied by lack of available content and the cost of entry, a report claims.
ABI Research also notes that market development has also been limited by competition from cable and satellite services, and lack of clear communication as to what benefits such solutions offer users.

Things may change next year, the analysts said. They believe that solutions like the Apple TV will see shipments of 1.2 million in 2008.

"Since this category first emerged in 2004-2005 with the debut of Akimbo's public internet VoD product, vendors of these products have struggled with a number of hurdles that have so far made this market relatively unsuccessful," said research director Michael Wolf.

"The high cost of these devices, their reliance on the home network, the need for consumer self-installation, and the scarcity of content have all contributed to their lack of commercial success."

However, increased availability of content should help the market grow, the analyst said. Making high definition films available online and the evolution (and explosion) of user generated content should also help promote such services.

Despite competition from existing services, and the gradual addition of on-demand content from service providers, Wolf notes: "We believe that there is a possibility of a break-out success among these new entrants if they can create compelling content offerings, make consumer installation and management incredibly easy, and offer both the hardware and content at compelling pricing. We believe one way to achieve this is by incorporating some premium content using advertising support."

NetSuite raises IPO price range

NetSuite has raised the estimated price range for its IPO (initial public offering) to $16 to $19, from the original $13 to $16.
The company made the disclosure in a document filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company is following the lead of Google in conducting an online, auction-style IPO, instead of having underwriters set the price. The auction opened on Dec. 10 and NetSuite said at the time it expects the stock's price to be finalized on Wednesday.

NetSuite, which sells a line of hosted business software, is putting up 6.2 million shares of common stock. NetSuite expects to net about $98.4 million after expenses from the IPO, it said in the filing. That estimate assumes the stock will price at $17.50.

Scott Sweet, managing director of IPOBoutique.com, said he was "not surprised" by NetSuite's move.

Sweet, whose firm tracks the IPO market and offers advice to investors, said he is hearing a "very strong buzz" around the NetSuite auction.

"I still expect that it will likely price above the revised range, based on demand and the potential for NetSuite's ERP product," he said.

NetSuite has said it plans to use money generated by the IPO to pay off an $8 million balance on a line of credit with Tako Ventures, an entity controlled by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, and to possibly make acquisitions.

Ellison controls about 60 percent of NetSuite's outstanding stock, which works out to about 31.9 million shares. He plans to put those shares into a "lockbox" limited-liability company, a move that would "effectively eliminate" his voting control and thereby avoid potential conflicts of interest, NetSuite has said.

Sprint Nextel names Dan Hesse CEO

U.S. mobile operator Sprint Nextel has appointed Dan Hesse as president and CEO. He replaces Gary Forsee, who resigned in October.
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Forsee left as Sprint Nextel fought to retain market share in the face of its two larger rivals, AT&T and Verizon Wireless. The company struggled with integrating the disparate customer bases of its two constituent parts, not least because the Sprint and Nextel wireless networks are based on different technologies.

Sprint Nextel's directors already know Hesse: he most recently served as chairman, president and CEO of Embarq, a company formed from the local telecommunications division of Sprint following that company's 2005 merger with Nextel.

Before that, he held the same roles at Terabeam, a wireless carrier, following a number of years at the head of AT&T Wireless.

Hesse will now join the Sprint Nextel board of directors, although unlike Forsee he will not be its chairman. That honor will remain with James Hance, who took the post following Forsee's departure, the board said Tuesday.

Sprint's two cellular networks serve around 54 million customers, and it also has licenses to build a national WiMax network, leaving it with something of an identity problem. Hesse will have to balance the needs of these networks as he sets out a new strategy for the company.

Clinton staffers banned from liberal New Hampshire blog

Less than a month before the first presidential primary in New Hampshire, a liberal blog in the Granite State has banned six usernames traced to an IP address belonging to Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign, because those using the names failed to disclose that they are affiliated with the campaign.
The Blue Hampshire blog traced two usernames to the IP address, along with four usernames that had registered with the blog within minutes of one another that were used to recommend a pro-Clinton post noted Dean Barker, managing editor of the blog, last week.

"Paid campaign staff are welcome in this community, but are asked to disclose their affiliation to a campaign, either through their signature line, a disclosure statement on a diary or even in the choosing of a user name," Barker wrote on the blog. "The fact that all the users mentioned above came from a Clinton campaign IP, but did not register with campaign email addresses and avoided making comments or diaries, instead only recommending pro-Clinton diaries strikes us as gaming the system."

The Clinton campaign did not respond to a Computerworld request for comment but told Blue Hampshire that the comments on the blog were not part of an orchestrated effort, but the product of "overeager staffers and volunteers."

"While initial acts like these are very small, when a community starts to sense there is no enforcement of the norms of the site, a slow slide into anarchy inevitably begins," Barker added. "Team Clinton is the subject of this post, but it is meant to be a warning shot across the bow of all campaigns. It is the fact that we do manage to have civilized discussions here among opponents that makes this line worth drawing."

One user on the blog, registered as Elwood, noted that there is a noticeable difference between "organized dirty campaign tricks and half-witted acts by volunteers and staffers." The Clinton staffers who commented on Blue Hampshire fall into the second category, Elwood claimed.

"If a campaign operative simply comes to a site like this and registers openly and makes his/her case openly she or he will be much more effective," Elwood wrote on the blog.

However, another user on the site, MBair, noted that there is a difference between one user promoting content that is supportive of a candidate and someone trying to "fake out other members of the community" by pretending they are someone they are not.

"That's exactly what's going on here," MBair wrote. "These users are not members of the community. If they want to start blogging and writing diaries, then sweet, the more the merrier. If they want to do it from a Clinton campaign machine then that's their business and anyone here would be extremely petty to fault them for it. But how do you even know that this isn't one person with a bunch of sock puppets? That's not cool as far as I'm concerned."

This is not the first time a candidate has grappled with the blogosphere. In February, John Edwards faced a firestorm of criticism over the religious comments made by two bloggers from his staff. The bloggers later left the campaign.

Microsoft security update cripples IE

Microsoft Corp. confirmed Monday that it is investigating reports that a security update for Internet Explorer issued last week has crippled some users' ability to get on the Web with the browser.
Users started posting messages to multiple Microsoft support newsgroups almost immediately after Microsoft released the MS07-069 security bulletin on Dec. 11, saying that they were unable to connect to the Internet, either because IE refused to open or because when it did open, it could not reach various sites.

"About 60% of the time, I would get an 'Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and must close' dialog," reported Bill Drake on the Windows Update newsgroup. Others echoed those comments on IE-specific forums, noting that both IE6 and IE7 balked at loading, or while loading, some pages, particularly home pages, on both Windows XP and Windows Vista machines.

Harold Decker, operations manager at San Diego-based Gold Peak Industries NA Inc., started fielding calls from users last Wednesday morning as soon as people hit the office. "I stopped everyone who hadn't installed the update from installing it, after four PCs out of 14 had the problem," said Decker, who manages a total of 35 Windows XP SP2 machines. "We're a pretty plain shop; all our systems run Windows XP SP2 and IE6," said Decker. "But some kept crashing. It seemed limited to the window that was opened, and changing the home page to something simple, like a blank page, gave a better success rate."

Decker cited numerous brand-name sites that workers at Gold Peak couldn't reach without crashing IE, including Federal Express' and Lowe's Home Improvements.

Microsoft said it is on the case. "Our customer service and support teams are investigating public claims of a deployment issue with Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-069," Microsoft's Mark Miller, director of security response, acknowledged in an e-mail. "If necessary, Microsoft will update the Knowledge Base article associated with MS07-069 with detailed guidance on how to prevent or address these deployment issues," Miller added.

Other users on the support forums weren't much help, except to suggest uninstalling last Tuesday's security update. That's what Decker did. "We uninstalled [MS07-069] and have had no problems since then," he said.

Google dips its toe into user-generated profiles

Google Inc. over the weekend quietly announced Google Profiles, which provide a way for users of various Google products like Google Maps and Google Reader to offer information about themselves to other users.
The announcement got some bloggers twittering about a possible future foray by Google into social networking. A Google Profile will initially include basic points, like a user's name, photo and location, and can include other information, like a person's profession.

"You control what goes into your Google Profile, sharing as much (or as little) as you'd like," Google noted on a Web page with a brief description about Google Profiles. "Use multiple Google products? Soon your Google Profile will link up with these as well."

Anyone can see a user's profile, the site noted, and if a user includes his full name in a profile, it may be returned in Google search results for that name.

The new Google Profiles are already available in Google Maps and Google Reader and will be added to other Web applications, noted Ionut Alex Chitu, in a post at the Google Operating System blog.

"It is not a stretch to see that these profiles are the perfect host for your activity streams, and your public activities could become a part of the profile (uploading photos to a photo album, bookmarking Web pages, posting a new blog post)," Chitu wrote.

Sepideh Saremi, a blogger at search engine optimization company Reprise Media, noted that this move, combined with Friday's announcement that Google Reader has been linked to the Google Talk chat feature in Gmail to help users better share content with friends, shows that Google is moving closer to building a social network.

Google is chipping away at rival Facebook by "leveraging the dependency Google users have on Google products and building a social network that integrates these products," Saremi wrote.

"Facebook, which tends to annoy its finicky user base by rolling out features that don't necessarily have the user's best interest at heart, should also look to Google when it wants to implement changes to its site," Saremi added. "Google is rolling out its own social features methodically, explaining them clearly, and respecting their user base by saying they will make changes per user feedback. Google's evolving social network platform will absolutely rival Facebook, and probably sooner than anyone realizes."

Apple patches keep coming: Mac OS, Safari beta fixed

Apple kept its rush of year-end security patches coming Monday, issuing a flurry of fixes for its Mac OS X operating system and the test version of its Safari browser.
Monday's patches included a whopping 31 updates for the Apple operating system. The Mac OS X patches fix components ranging from the Address Book and iChat software to under-the-covers operating system components such as ColorSync, the IO Storage Family, and the Perl, Python and Ruby programming languages.

Most of these flaws theoretically could be exploited by attackers to run unauthorized software on the Mac, although some of them had other security implications, such as allowing an attacker to gain access to sensitive information or download files to the computer without authorization.

These updates are for the Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 operating systems, known as Tiger and Leopard, respectively.

Apple also released a minor update to its Safari 3 beta code, which runs on Windows as well as Mac OS X, fixing a cross-site scripting security problem that affects Windows users.

The patches come just days after Apple released a major update to its QuickTime media player and a Java security fix for the Mac OS X 10.4 operating system, code-named Tiger. The QuickTime flaw was particularly serious, as it had been exploited by online criminals since early December.

With hackers and security researchers now paying more attention to Apple's products, the company's security team has been working overtime on bug fixes this year. Monday's patches were Apple's 35th and 36th security updates this year. In 2006, the company released just 22 sets of patches for its products.

CS3, Acrobat push Adobe to strong finish for fiscal 2007

Software maker Adobe reported a strong financial finish to its 2007 fiscal year, with revenue up 23 percent for the year and 34 percent for the fourth quarter on sales of its Creative Suite 3 (CS3) and Acrobat software, the company said Monday.
For its fourth quarter ended Nov. 30, Adobe reported record revenue for a three-month period of US$911.2 million, compared with $682.2 million for the same time period last year. Revenue beat estimates from analysts polled by Thomson First Call, who were expecting the company to bring in $837 million in the quarter.

For the fiscal year ended at the same time, Adobe reported revenue of $3.16 billion, also a record for the company, compared with $2.58 billion last year. Adobe's net income for the quarter was $222.2 million, a 21 percent increase over the $183.2 million reported in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006. For the year, net income was up 43 percent at $723.8 million, compared with $505.8 million in fiscal 2006.

Diluted earnings per share (EPS) for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 were $0.38, slightly above the company's own range of $0.35 to $0.37, and a 27 percent increase over diluted EPS of $0.30 for the same period last year. Diluted EPS for the year was $1.21, a 46 percent increase over EPS of $0.83 in 2006.

A strong end to fiscal 2007 is fitting for what turned out to be a banner year for the publishing and design software vendor. The company released CS3, a combination of its own graphics creation products and Web design and multimedia tools that it acquired from Macromedia. It is the first real blend of the two companies' complementary technologies in one suite.

CS3 so far has been well-received by the creative Web and production design community that has been loyal to both Adobe and the former Macromedia for years, making Adobe the leader among those customers. However, this position also inspired more competition in 2007, most notably from software giant Microsoft, which came out with its Expression suite to rival CS3, as well as new cross-browser software called Silverlight to compete with Adobe's ubiquitous Flash multimedia technology.

2007 also saw longtime Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen step down at the end of the fiscal year. He made the move as part of a planned transition and so he could pursue other career endeavors. Shantanu Narayen, former president and COO, is now chairman and CEO of the company.

Adobe on Monday also provided estimates for its first quarter of fiscal 2008, which ends in February. The company expects revenue between $855 million and $885 million and EPS between $0.34 and $0.36 for the quarter. For fiscal 2008, the company reiterated its target annual revenue growth rate of about 13 percent, which it previously announced.

Report: Intel-backed group to win Japan WiMax license

A consortium led by Japanese telecommunications company KDDI and backed by Intel will receive one of two WiMax licenses to be awarded soon by the Japanese government, a report said Tuesday.
The group, called Wireless Broadband Planning, and one led by rival carrier Willcom will be recommended by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Friday to a panel charged with selecting the groups to win the licenses, said the Tuesday morning edition of The Nikkei newspaper. The panel is expected to follow the ministry's recommendations.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications could not immediately be reached for comment.

Intel owns a 17.65 percent stake in Wireless Broadband Planning. The stake is matched by East Japan Railway and Kyocera, and all three sit behind leading shareholder KDDI, which has a 32.26 percent stake.

The WiMax services will operate in the 2.5GHz band and will be capable of providing data service at up to 20M bps (bits per second) to terminals travelling at up to 100 kilometers per hour, according to the Japanese government.

Japan's cell phone carriers have been testing WiMax for some time, and Tuesday's report, if confirmed, will mean that market leader NTT DoCoMo and number three-ranked Softbank probably will have to lease networks from KDDI or Willcom if they are to offer competing services.

KDDI is Japan's number two cellular carrier. It had 29 million subscriptions to its CDMA2000 (Code Division Multiple Access) cell phone service at the end of November this year, according to official figures. Willcom, which uses the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) technology to offer a data-centric service, had 4.6 million subscriptions.

In contrast, NTT DoCoMo had 53 million subscriptions, and Softbank had 17.4 million subscriptions. Both carriers operate WCDMA (Wideband CDMA) networks.

Cognos puts BI on Nokia and Windows Mobile phones

Cognos said Monday that its Cognos 8 Go! Mobile business intelligence software now supports Windows Mobile 6 smartphones, as well as Nokia Eseries and Nseries devices running S60 3rd Edition on Symbian OS.
The software works with Cognos' core BI (business intelligence) platform and can automatically reformat reports for various types of devices.

The Canadian firm had already developed support for Research in Motion's BlackBerry smartphones.

Cognos' move to support more mobile platforms is logical, according to David O'Connell, senior analyst with Nucleus Research in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

"They're going mobile. They've been doing it for a while," O'Connell said. "Basically, the more platforms you can put BI on, the more people you have adopting it, so there's more ROI."

Anastasia Valentine, product manager for Cognos, said the firm made the new clients in response to market interest. Customer interest in Windows Mobile 6 centered in the U.S. and the Asian-Pacific region, while European customers desired support for Nokia devices, she said.

While the new products are fine-tuned for each platform, they are identical feature-wise to the BlackBerry client, according to Valentine.

Support for one of this year's hottest mobile devices, Apple's iPhone, isn't yet on Cognos' docket.

Despite the iPhone's explosive popularity, its immediate value to enterprises has been questioned. Forrester Research recently issued a report listing reasons why IT departments shouldn't support it, at least for now. Those warnings include the device's lack of support for push e-mail and its cost, Forrester said.

Valentine said Cognos isn't seeing much customer demand for iPhone support, adding that the company is also keeping an eye on Google's Android mobile development platform.

A "starter pack" for Cognos' mobile BI software, which includes a server-based license, licenses for 25 users and one year of support, costs $31,000, Valentine said.

Symantec readies Norton 360 update

Symantec is just weeks away from shipping a test version of the next major update to its Norton 360 desktop security-and-backup software, with the product expected to ship by the end of March.
Norton 360 version 2.0 will include new Web security and identity-theft protection features as well as a "smart firewall" that will use behavior-based analysis techniques to identify emerging threats. These security features are already shipping with Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2008 product, but Norton 360 will have a few tweaks designed to make it easier to administer as well.

For example, the software can now be used to back up data to new types of devices such as iPods or Blu-ray drives, said Mark Kanok, a senior product manager with Symantec. "We changed up a couple of things to make it a little more accessible and give the advanced users more control," he said.

The new browser protection feature, formerly code-named Canary, blocks Web sites from installing malicious software via the browser, known as a drive-by download. These types of attacks are becoming increasingly common, security experts say.

New Firefox and Windows registry cleanup and features are also planned.

Norton 360 v.2 will also include the Symantec Online Network for Advanced Response (SONAR) technology, which identifies new forms of malware by analyzing its behavior, as well as the Norton Identity Safe software, designed to protect against phishing attacks.

Pricing for the Norton 360 v.2 will remain unchanged, at US$79.99 for a 3-PC license, Kanok said. The new beta will ship by early January, at the latest, he said.

Qualcomm buys noise-reduction company

Qualcomm made a clear statement about its vision for future mobile devices on Monday by buying SoftMax, a provider of noise-reduction algorithms.
SoftMax's technology works with multiple microphones to suppress background noise, separate the speaker's voice from that noise and cancel echoes, all to make voice calls more intelligible. The battle for better sound was stepped up recently when Motorola delivered a system called CrystalTalk, with a similar aim, in its Razr2 line of phones.

The SoftMax Signal Separation technology broadens Qualcomm's toolset for devices including mobile phones, Bluetooth headsets, voice over Internet Protocol phones and notebooks, according to a company statement. It consumes less battery life, processing power and memory than alternatives, the company said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Qualcomm was not immediately able to provide more details of its plans for SoftMax.

SoftMax already has deals with mobile operator SK Telecom and with communications chip maker Broadcom, which is embroiled in a fierce legal battle with Qualcomm over various patents. Qualcomm may have acquired SoftMax as much for its engineers and intellectual property as for its current products, said analyst Will Strauss of Forward Concepts.

Similarly, Qualcomm acquired wireless broadband vendor Flarion last year just for its team and OFDMA (orthogonal frequency-division multiplex access) technology, Strauss said. That company's intellectual property is expected to be valuable as OFDMA technologies including WiMax and LTE (Long-Term Evolution) become widely adopted. In addition, it would have been hard to simply recruit top-notch talent in a field as obscure as noise reduction, Strauss said. Qualcomm is probably looking both to integrate SoftMax's algorithms in its own single-chip systems for devices and to license them to other hardware vendors, Strauss said.

Privately held SoftMax is based in Qualcomm's hometown of San Diego and was founded in 1998 by scientists from The Salk Institute and from the University of California at San Diego, where Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs is a former professor and endowed the Jacobs School of Engineering in 1997.

FTC settles with Web-based seller of phone records

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has settled a complaint with a Web-based company it accused of selling people's telephone records without permission, the agency said Monday.
The settlement with CEO Group, doing business as Check Em Out, bars the company and its operator Scott Joseph from marketing or selling phone records, and it requires the company to give up US$25,000 of its profits from selling phone records. Selling phone records to third parties is illegal under federal law, the FTC had charged.

The FTC in May 2006 filed complaints in U.S. court against five Web-based companies that obtained and sold confidential phone records to third parties. In addition to the settlement with CEO Group, the FTC has settled two other cases and obtained a default judgment against a fourth company. The complaint against the fifth company is still active.

The FTC's complaints came after complaints from privacy groups and members of the U.S. Congress about pretexting, when someone obtains a telephone customers' records without permission under false pretexts. In many cases, companies offering phone records over the Internet were calling telephone carriers and pretending to be the targeted customer. In September 2006, Hewlett-Packard revealed it had been spying on some of its board members and journalists in an attempt to uncover the source of boardroom leaks, and HP officials later said their investigators had used pretexting to obtain phone records.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 prohibits customers' phone records from being disclosed unless "upon affirmative written request by the customer." The FTC charged the five Web-based companies of engaging in unfair business practices.

The settlement with CEO Group prohibits it from obtaining, marketing or selling consumer phone records or other consumer personal information except where allowed by law, the FTC said in a news release. The settlement, approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, includes a judgment of $222,381, the amount the company earned by selling phone records, but the defendants said they were able to pay only $25,000. If the court finds that the defendants misrepresented their finances, the entire amount will be due, the FTC said.

Filing reveals that Cognos went to IBM first

Cognos executives first approached IBM in the months leading up to IBM's pending $5 billion deal to buy the company, not the other way around, according to a document Cognos submitted Friday to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The filing was prepared for Cognos shareholders in advance of the Jan. 14 vote on the sale.

The details it provides of the negotiations between IBM and the company stand in contrast to past statements made by Rob Ashe, the Canadian business-intelligence software maker's CEO, who at one time stressed the company's game plan was to become the top independent BI vendor in the market.

But clearly, those ambitions weakened as the space saw a dramatic consolidation in 2007, with SAP AG scooping up Business Objects and Oracle buying Hyperion.

In fact, Cognos talked with potential suitors as far back as the middle of last year, according to the filing. The vendor said a firm it identified only as "Company X" approached it about a possible acquisition on July 19, 2006, but those discussions eventually broke down, according to the filing, which does not reveal Company X's price-per-share offer.

Negotiations ceased on Nov. 20, 2006, and Cognos subsequently reached out to IBM in December 2006 to gauge its interest, according to the filing. "While our board of directors had not determined that a sale of Cognos was the most desirable outcome, it believed that IBM's interest was of relevance in considering any strategic alternative in the event that Company X or other potential acquirers approached us," it states.

Company X attempted to restart talks with Cognos on Dec. 6 but refused to raise its offer, according to the filing.

Ashe then met on Jan. 8 with Ambuj Goyal, general manager of IBM's information management division, and Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Software Group.

Cognos entered a confidentiality agreement with IBM on Jan. 31, and executives from the two companies met a second time on Feb. 2.
Talks continued throughout the year, but revolved around partnership opportunities until Sept. 21, when Goyal and David Johnson, IBM's vice president of corporate development, called Ashe "on an unsolicited basis, and expressed IBM's interest in acquiring Cognos," the filing states.

The two firms spent the next several weeks haggling over a price for Cognos. IBM's initial offer was $50 to $52 per common share in cash, but Cognos deemed it insufficient, according to the filing

Following a series of back-and-forth negotiations, IBM raised its price to $57. Cognos did not accept, but said it would proceed based on a $58-per-share offer, the filing states.

IBM agreed, and the firms eventually signed the deal on Nov. 11.

A Cognos spokeswoman said Monday that the company would not comment on the filing. Shares of the company were trading at about $57 midday.