After cracking the encryption system that protected DVDs in order to play the discs he had bought on a PC running Linux, Jon Lech Johansen has his sights set on liberating other audiovisual content from the format in which it is sold.
DoubleTwist, a company he co-founded in March 2007 with Monique Farantzos, on Tuesday released beta versions of a Facebook application and a PC desktop application for unlocking and managing music and video files.
Johansen achieved notoriety as 'DVD Jon' when he ended up in court for co-writing the DeCSS software that cracked the encryption on DVDs and allowed them to play on PCs running open-source media player software on Linux. Until then, they could only be watched using authorized hardware or proprietary software because their content was encrypted using the Content Scrambling System (CSS).
He followed that up by breaking a series of other DRM (digital rights management) encryption systems including FairPlay, Apple's proprietary DRM wrapper around the open AAC format music files it sells via its iTunes Store.
While Apple's iPod is not the only portable device that can play AAC files -- many Nokia phones do too -- it is the only one that can play the encrypted AAC files Apple sells. There are ways to work around Apple's DRM, including burning the files to a CD and then ripping them back into the computer in another format, but they are time-consuming.
DoubleTwist's tools, Twist me and doubleTwist desktop, are intended to make it easier to move music and video files, including those locked by Apple's DRM, from one device to another, or to share them with family and friends, the company said.
Twist me, the Facebook application, lets users of the social network site put music and video on their profile pages to share with friends.
DoubleTwist desktop runs on Windows PCs alongside Apple's iTunes, and can take legally purchased iTunes files in the DRM-protected AAC format and, on the machine authorized to play them, turn them into MP3 files that will then play almost anywhere, the company said.
The desktop software also includes tools for sharing audio and video playlists and photo albums, and synchronizing them with Nokia's NSeries, Sony Ericsson's Walkman and Cybershot phones, the Sony PSP game console and the Amazon Kindle e-reader, among other devices. In addition to AAC and MP3, it handles WMA (Windows Media Audio) and WAV audio formats, and video in MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV (Windows Media Video), AVI and the 3GP format used by mobile phones.
DoubleTwist's software may soon be obsolete, though. Digital music retailers are beginning to realize that DRM just irritates customers, and Apple now offers almost half the encrypted music in its iTunes Store in higher-quality versions without DRM, at the same price. Amazon.com, meanwhile, sells all its digital music in MP3 format without DRM, as do independent online music stores such as EMusic.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
DOJ requires Thomson to sell assets in Reuters deal
The U.S. Department of Justice will require Thomson to sell financial data and other assets in three markets in order for the company to complete its US$17 billion acquisition of Reuters Group, the DOJ announced Tuesday.
The deal, as proposed, would cause higher prices for purchases of three types of financial data used by investment managers, investment bankers, traders and other customers, the DOJ said in a press release.
Thomson has grown by acquisition in recent years. Its Thomson Financial analyst poll for earnings forecasts, which heavily monitors technology vendors, is widely disseminated online.
Under a settlement proposed by the DOJ, Thomson and Reuters must sell copies of the data contained in Thomson's WorldScope fundamentals product; Reuters Estimate, an earnings-estimate product; and Reuters Aftermarket (Embargoed) Research Database, an analyst research-distribution product. The settlement requires Thomson to sell copies of the financial datasets within 60 days, as well as provide buys with access to training and support so that the buyers can offer a competitive product.
The DOJ's Antitrust Division must approve the buyer of each set of assets under the settlement. The DOJ's Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as the first step toward reaching the settlement.
The DOJ decided that the deal would have eliminated competition between Thomson and Reuters and would have likely caused higher prices for fundamentals data, earnings-estimate data and aftermarket research reports. The DOJ called this data "vital" to users of financial data, and the two companies are among the few firms that supply the data.
The European Commission also announced the results of its antitrust investigation into the deal. The European Commission will require Thomson to sell off a fourth product, Reuters Economics (EcoWin), as a condition of the merger approval. The DOJ said it had no competitive concerns about the EcoWin product in the U.S.
Thomson announced its merger with Reuters in May. Reuters is based in London, and Thomson's headquarters are in Stamford, Connecticut.
The deal, as proposed, would cause higher prices for purchases of three types of financial data used by investment managers, investment bankers, traders and other customers, the DOJ said in a press release.
Thomson has grown by acquisition in recent years. Its Thomson Financial analyst poll for earnings forecasts, which heavily monitors technology vendors, is widely disseminated online.
Under a settlement proposed by the DOJ, Thomson and Reuters must sell copies of the data contained in Thomson's WorldScope fundamentals product; Reuters Estimate, an earnings-estimate product; and Reuters Aftermarket (Embargoed) Research Database, an analyst research-distribution product. The settlement requires Thomson to sell copies of the financial datasets within 60 days, as well as provide buys with access to training and support so that the buyers can offer a competitive product.
The DOJ's Antitrust Division must approve the buyer of each set of assets under the settlement. The DOJ's Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as the first step toward reaching the settlement.
The DOJ decided that the deal would have eliminated competition between Thomson and Reuters and would have likely caused higher prices for fundamentals data, earnings-estimate data and aftermarket research reports. The DOJ called this data "vital" to users of financial data, and the two companies are among the few firms that supply the data.
The European Commission also announced the results of its antitrust investigation into the deal. The European Commission will require Thomson to sell off a fourth product, Reuters Economics (EcoWin), as a condition of the merger approval. The DOJ said it had no competitive concerns about the EcoWin product in the U.S.
Thomson announced its merger with Reuters in May. Reuters is based in London, and Thomson's headquarters are in Stamford, Connecticut.
Process management key to SaaS, managed services
As the economy slows and as more companies look at managed services and Software as a Service (SaaS), IDS Scheer AG says business process modeling and optimization is becoming ever more strategic to businesses.
A German business process modeling (BPM) vendor, IDS Scheer produces the ARIS platform of BPM tools. It's used by consultants and partners to ease and lessen the risk of BI implementations and upgrades, and the company has relationships with the major BI vendors, including SAP, Oracle and Microsoft. IDC Scheer also has a strong SAP implementation business, and was recently named SAP's 2007 Channel Partner of the Year.
At the company's annual Americas user conference in Orlando, Thomas Volk, IDS Scheer's president and CEO, said companies are facing more pressure to change and be ready to adapt to changing business demands, but they don't always know if the proposed changes will lead to the desired results. BPM, said Volk, can help companies make the right changes.
"Processes are the key element to change because that determines how the change will happen," said Volk. "The ability to continuously improve your business...has proven to be critical to customers with the changes they are facing."
In a slowing economy long-term projects and investments that don't have an immediate ROI are often the first to go, and for companies in non-process intensive industries investing in BPM may not be seen as a priority. It's in just these situations though, said Volk, that BPM can play an important role.
"Fine-tuning your existing infrastructure and using it more efficiently without buying more IT is a good value proposition," said Volk, noting a new product from IDS Scheer can help businesses better leverage their existing infrastructure. "It looks at how do you link your IT assets with the business processes and leverage them more, so some of the investments you'd planned maybe we don't have to do anymore."
Companies are also increasingly turning to managed services and SaaS as a less risky way to upgrade their IT infrastructures, but Volk said moving to one of these models doesn't make modeling, understanding and fine tuning business processes any less important, and isn't impacting IDS Scheer's business.
"This introduces a change in the business and how you do things, and from that perspective we don't see it hindering us," said Volk. "It's another reason to make sure, when moving to a new environment, that they're actually getting the benefits and you can link the change to the result you want."
With the ARIS platform, businesses can define their business processes, examine proposed changes, and test and simulate the outcome to see what works well and what needs to be tweaked. It's important to not just look at how the business model will change, said Volk, but how the changes will impact the business from end to end, along with the underlying technologies that will need to be adapted
"All these elements are becoming more and more critical to executives and businesses," said Volk.
On the SAP side in particular, the business is changing as with SAP 6.0 the vendor changes its upgrade cadence from major upgrades to regular enhancement packs designed to be less disruptive. Jim Shepherd, a senior vice-president with Boston-based AMR Research said as companies become able to decide which enhancement packs to implement, the enhancement packs will likely be more closely linked to process improvement.
But while IDS Scheer would like process improvement to be a continuous exercise, Shepherd said for most companies that's just not the case.
"You'd like it to be continuous but the reality is process improvement tends to be in a project basis," said Shepherd.
A German business process modeling (BPM) vendor, IDS Scheer produces the ARIS platform of BPM tools. It's used by consultants and partners to ease and lessen the risk of BI implementations and upgrades, and the company has relationships with the major BI vendors, including SAP, Oracle and Microsoft. IDC Scheer also has a strong SAP implementation business, and was recently named SAP's 2007 Channel Partner of the Year.
At the company's annual Americas user conference in Orlando, Thomas Volk, IDS Scheer's president and CEO, said companies are facing more pressure to change and be ready to adapt to changing business demands, but they don't always know if the proposed changes will lead to the desired results. BPM, said Volk, can help companies make the right changes.
"Processes are the key element to change because that determines how the change will happen," said Volk. "The ability to continuously improve your business...has proven to be critical to customers with the changes they are facing."
In a slowing economy long-term projects and investments that don't have an immediate ROI are often the first to go, and for companies in non-process intensive industries investing in BPM may not be seen as a priority. It's in just these situations though, said Volk, that BPM can play an important role.
"Fine-tuning your existing infrastructure and using it more efficiently without buying more IT is a good value proposition," said Volk, noting a new product from IDS Scheer can help businesses better leverage their existing infrastructure. "It looks at how do you link your IT assets with the business processes and leverage them more, so some of the investments you'd planned maybe we don't have to do anymore."
Companies are also increasingly turning to managed services and SaaS as a less risky way to upgrade their IT infrastructures, but Volk said moving to one of these models doesn't make modeling, understanding and fine tuning business processes any less important, and isn't impacting IDS Scheer's business.
"This introduces a change in the business and how you do things, and from that perspective we don't see it hindering us," said Volk. "It's another reason to make sure, when moving to a new environment, that they're actually getting the benefits and you can link the change to the result you want."
With the ARIS platform, businesses can define their business processes, examine proposed changes, and test and simulate the outcome to see what works well and what needs to be tweaked. It's important to not just look at how the business model will change, said Volk, but how the changes will impact the business from end to end, along with the underlying technologies that will need to be adapted
"All these elements are becoming more and more critical to executives and businesses," said Volk.
On the SAP side in particular, the business is changing as with SAP 6.0 the vendor changes its upgrade cadence from major upgrades to regular enhancement packs designed to be less disruptive. Jim Shepherd, a senior vice-president with Boston-based AMR Research said as companies become able to decide which enhancement packs to implement, the enhancement packs will likely be more closely linked to process improvement.
But while IDS Scheer would like process improvement to be a continuous exercise, Shepherd said for most companies that's just not the case.
"You'd like it to be continuous but the reality is process improvement tends to be in a project basis," said Shepherd.
SaaS means a new economic model for the channel
While lots of channel partners are looking to jump onboard the software as a service (SaaS) bandwagon, if they're going to be successful one analyst says a restructuring of their relationships with clients and vendors, the skill sets of their consultants, and their revenue expectations will all have to change.
With SaaS a whole new business model is needed says Michael Speyer, a senior analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. In a recent report, Speyer wrote that as SaaS drastically changes the way businesses pay for applications, it's also affecting the business models and revenues of the SIs and VARs that bring the products to market.
"Continued SaaS adoption will require a healthy channel that can provide the sales and implementation coverage needed to reach a broader 'early majority' audience," said Speyer. "A new breed of systems integrator that specializes in SaaS delivery is emerging; bringing business models that are tailored to the economic realities of SaaS and that don't carry the baggage of traditional on-premise project delivery."
One of the challenges in adapting to SaaS centers around revenues.There will be less opportunity around license and per-seat revenue, implementation, customization, post-delivery add-ons and extensions, and project size will be smaller. On the plus side, there will be more partner opportunity around business process change management consulting, and the data integration opportunity will be unchanged.
New skill sets will also be required of your consultants. Since SaaS favors helping clients adapt their processes to the SaaS apps' embedded best practice, Speyer says getting customers to buy into this will require skilled business process and change management consultants to help build stakeholder consensus and guide the business through the change.
"As a result, the technical integration and customization services revenues shift to process transformation projects -- and into the coffers of SIs and VARs that have these consulting skills," said Speyer.
To be profitable selling SaaS to the mid market, Speyer also says SIs and VARs need to rev up their sales activity in order to maintain revenues due to the smaller revenues and shorter durations of SaaS projects, so increased focus on lead generation and sales will be key.
Toronto-based solution provider and Microsoft Gold Certified partner Legend Corp has built a thriving SaaS practice. Legend Corp. president Andy Papadopoulos says it's been a great market for his company.
The SaaS model has forced Legend to better understand its clients' needs. By working on a project basis you deal with one component at a time, says Papadopoulos, but with SaaS you need to really understand how the client runts its business, and where the pain points are.
"We find it gets us a little more intimate with our clients, and positions us more strategically with them," said Papadopoulos.
Some adjustments are necessary though, he says. Most SIs aren't provisioned for 24 by 7 service, so getting into SaaS requires SIs to create the processes and the infrastructure to support that.
There is a staffing benefit to be realized as well. With SaaS, rather than having a person dedicated to one client, that same person can service multiple clients, says Papadopoulos.
"Generally your profit on a SaaS engagement is more than on a consulting engagement, because you're able to leverage (your staff),"said Papadopoulos. "You get a little better resource utilization out of someone through SaaS."
While as Speyer notes the upfront revenue may be lower with a SaaS engagement, in addition to the employee utilization gains the fact that SaaS brings predictable, recurring revenue is a big plus for Legend Corp.
"The utopia for an SI is what we refer to as recurring revenue, where I'm getting a check every month," said Papadopoulos. "That's something any business owner would love to have, because it's predictable."
Legend Corp. still does traditional on-premise implementations in addition to SaaS, and what Papadopoulos says he likes the most about SaaS is that, when he's talking to a client, he can now offer then a second set of choices. They can build and implement the solution and train their staff on it, or they can offer it as a service for six to 12 months to keep their costs down.
"What I really enjoy about the model is that it's now a choice,"said Papadopoulos. "Our clients really like that they can make a decision, and now we're not stuck with losing an opportunity to another provider, because we can provide both choices."
With SaaS a whole new business model is needed says Michael Speyer, a senior analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. In a recent report, Speyer wrote that as SaaS drastically changes the way businesses pay for applications, it's also affecting the business models and revenues of the SIs and VARs that bring the products to market.
"Continued SaaS adoption will require a healthy channel that can provide the sales and implementation coverage needed to reach a broader 'early majority' audience," said Speyer. "A new breed of systems integrator that specializes in SaaS delivery is emerging; bringing business models that are tailored to the economic realities of SaaS and that don't carry the baggage of traditional on-premise project delivery."
One of the challenges in adapting to SaaS centers around revenues.There will be less opportunity around license and per-seat revenue, implementation, customization, post-delivery add-ons and extensions, and project size will be smaller. On the plus side, there will be more partner opportunity around business process change management consulting, and the data integration opportunity will be unchanged.
New skill sets will also be required of your consultants. Since SaaS favors helping clients adapt their processes to the SaaS apps' embedded best practice, Speyer says getting customers to buy into this will require skilled business process and change management consultants to help build stakeholder consensus and guide the business through the change.
"As a result, the technical integration and customization services revenues shift to process transformation projects -- and into the coffers of SIs and VARs that have these consulting skills," said Speyer.
To be profitable selling SaaS to the mid market, Speyer also says SIs and VARs need to rev up their sales activity in order to maintain revenues due to the smaller revenues and shorter durations of SaaS projects, so increased focus on lead generation and sales will be key.
Toronto-based solution provider and Microsoft Gold Certified partner Legend Corp has built a thriving SaaS practice. Legend Corp. president Andy Papadopoulos says it's been a great market for his company.
The SaaS model has forced Legend to better understand its clients' needs. By working on a project basis you deal with one component at a time, says Papadopoulos, but with SaaS you need to really understand how the client runts its business, and where the pain points are.
"We find it gets us a little more intimate with our clients, and positions us more strategically with them," said Papadopoulos.
Some adjustments are necessary though, he says. Most SIs aren't provisioned for 24 by 7 service, so getting into SaaS requires SIs to create the processes and the infrastructure to support that.
There is a staffing benefit to be realized as well. With SaaS, rather than having a person dedicated to one client, that same person can service multiple clients, says Papadopoulos.
"Generally your profit on a SaaS engagement is more than on a consulting engagement, because you're able to leverage (your staff),"said Papadopoulos. "You get a little better resource utilization out of someone through SaaS."
While as Speyer notes the upfront revenue may be lower with a SaaS engagement, in addition to the employee utilization gains the fact that SaaS brings predictable, recurring revenue is a big plus for Legend Corp.
"The utopia for an SI is what we refer to as recurring revenue, where I'm getting a check every month," said Papadopoulos. "That's something any business owner would love to have, because it's predictable."
Legend Corp. still does traditional on-premise implementations in addition to SaaS, and what Papadopoulos says he likes the most about SaaS is that, when he's talking to a client, he can now offer then a second set of choices. They can build and implement the solution and train their staff on it, or they can offer it as a service for six to 12 months to keep their costs down.
"What I really enjoy about the model is that it's now a choice,"said Papadopoulos. "Our clients really like that they can make a decision, and now we're not stuck with losing an opportunity to another provider, because we can provide both choices."
Intel introduces 8-core 'Skulltrail' for gamers
Chip giant Intel Tuesday launched its latest processor platform aimed at computer game enthusiasts, an eight processing-core platform that includes a choice of multi-card graphics from either ATI or Nvidia.
The new platform, formerly code-named "Skulltrail," is now being introduced as the Intel Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform. It includes two quad-core microprocessors for a total of eight-processing engines and is aimed at desktop PCs.
Computer game lovers are typically willing to pay more for performance than the average user because the graphics quality, capability and speed of games is highly tied to the quality of components in a PC.
This system is built to allow users to pay for as much performance as they want.
A single quad-core processor, the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor QX9975, costs US$1,499, while the mainboard developed for the system, the Intel Desktop Board D5400XS, runs at $649. So, a user willing to pay for two of the quad-core processors would pony up $2,998 for the processors alone, a total of $3,647 for the two processors and mainboard together, and would then still have the choice of buying multiple graphics cards - not to mention the rest of the PC and peripherals.
The components are all available now.
Gamers will gain great performance for their money. The QX9775 processors each carry four cores running at 3.2GHz, carry 12M bytes of L2 cache and a 1600MHz system bus. Intel also removed its overclocking protection system from the processors to let gamers run on overspeed if they so choose -- but the company warns that altering the clock frequency or voltage can reduce the life of the system and processor, as well as cause other potential system damage.
"Intel has not tested, and does not warranty, the operation of the processor beyond its specifications," it said in a statement.
The company is launching Skulltrail at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, which runs through Friday, in order to attract attention to the platform from developers working in 3-D animation, digital audio and high-definition video in games. Game software developers normally enjoy using as much of a system's potential as possible when writing their software code.
Several PC manufacturers that cater to the gaming market will launch desktop systems using Skulltrail over the next 30 days, including Voodoo, Velocity Micro, Vigor Gaming, Armari, Boxx Tech, Digital Storm, Falcon Northwest and Maingear, Intel said.
The new platform, formerly code-named "Skulltrail," is now being introduced as the Intel Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform. It includes two quad-core microprocessors for a total of eight-processing engines and is aimed at desktop PCs.
Computer game lovers are typically willing to pay more for performance than the average user because the graphics quality, capability and speed of games is highly tied to the quality of components in a PC.
This system is built to allow users to pay for as much performance as they want.
A single quad-core processor, the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor QX9975, costs US$1,499, while the mainboard developed for the system, the Intel Desktop Board D5400XS, runs at $649. So, a user willing to pay for two of the quad-core processors would pony up $2,998 for the processors alone, a total of $3,647 for the two processors and mainboard together, and would then still have the choice of buying multiple graphics cards - not to mention the rest of the PC and peripherals.
The components are all available now.
Gamers will gain great performance for their money. The QX9775 processors each carry four cores running at 3.2GHz, carry 12M bytes of L2 cache and a 1600MHz system bus. Intel also removed its overclocking protection system from the processors to let gamers run on overspeed if they so choose -- but the company warns that altering the clock frequency or voltage can reduce the life of the system and processor, as well as cause other potential system damage.
"Intel has not tested, and does not warranty, the operation of the processor beyond its specifications," it said in a statement.
The company is launching Skulltrail at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, which runs through Friday, in order to attract attention to the platform from developers working in 3-D animation, digital audio and high-definition video in games. Game software developers normally enjoy using as much of a system's potential as possible when writing their software code.
Several PC manufacturers that cater to the gaming market will launch desktop systems using Skulltrail over the next 30 days, including Voodoo, Velocity Micro, Vigor Gaming, Armari, Boxx Tech, Digital Storm, Falcon Northwest and Maingear, Intel said.
Microsoft stays mum on Blu-ray Disc support
Microsoft shrugged off HD DVD's demise on Tuesday, declining to say if or when it would support Blu-ray Disc for the Xbox.
Microsoft steadfastly backed HD DVD, selling an external drive for the Xbox for US$129.99. That offer was still on the U.S. Xbox Web site as of Tuesday, despite the news that Toshiba will scuttle the format. Toshiba had been the lead electronics manufacturer in a coalition of companies pushing that format but content producers have thrown their support to Blu-ray.
Microsoft's decision to make the HD DVD drive external rather than within the console "was quite a strategic move on their part," said Paul O'Donovan, principal analyst with Gartner.
However, it's inevitable that future Xbox versions, as well as other gaming systems aimed at tighter integration with entertainment systems, will incorporate Blu-ray Disc drives, said O'Donovan. The Xbox currently has a standard DVD drive.
Sony gained momentum for its Blu-ray player by putting it in its PlayStation 3 console, according to research company IDC.
The PS3's "dual roles as a gaming console and a next-generation DVD player have made it an important part of the format war," according to the report.
Prior to Toshiba's announcement, Microsoft downplayed the rumors of HD DVD's death, contending buyers are more interested in gaming functions.
"We do not believe the recent reports about HD DVD will have any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace," the company said in a statement. "It is premature to speculate but we do know from market data that HD movie playback is not a primary purchase driver for consumers buying video game consoles."
Microsoft, which started selling the external drive for $199 in late 2006, has dropped the price twice, to $179 last August finally to its current price, which varies by region.
O'Donovan agreed the company likely won't face declining sales of its Xbox gaming console. But Microsoft's greater problem may be getting rid of the external HD DVD drives in its inventory.
HD DVD is "dead and gone" now, O'Donovan said.
Microsoft steadfastly backed HD DVD, selling an external drive for the Xbox for US$129.99. That offer was still on the U.S. Xbox Web site as of Tuesday, despite the news that Toshiba will scuttle the format. Toshiba had been the lead electronics manufacturer in a coalition of companies pushing that format but content producers have thrown their support to Blu-ray.
Microsoft's decision to make the HD DVD drive external rather than within the console "was quite a strategic move on their part," said Paul O'Donovan, principal analyst with Gartner.
However, it's inevitable that future Xbox versions, as well as other gaming systems aimed at tighter integration with entertainment systems, will incorporate Blu-ray Disc drives, said O'Donovan. The Xbox currently has a standard DVD drive.
Sony gained momentum for its Blu-ray player by putting it in its PlayStation 3 console, according to research company IDC.
The PS3's "dual roles as a gaming console and a next-generation DVD player have made it an important part of the format war," according to the report.
Prior to Toshiba's announcement, Microsoft downplayed the rumors of HD DVD's death, contending buyers are more interested in gaming functions.
"We do not believe the recent reports about HD DVD will have any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace," the company said in a statement. "It is premature to speculate but we do know from market data that HD movie playback is not a primary purchase driver for consumers buying video game consoles."
Microsoft, which started selling the external drive for $199 in late 2006, has dropped the price twice, to $179 last August finally to its current price, which varies by region.
O'Donovan agreed the company likely won't face declining sales of its Xbox gaming console. But Microsoft's greater problem may be getting rid of the external HD DVD drives in its inventory.
HD DVD is "dead and gone" now, O'Donovan said.
Sybase gets into the cluster-database game
Sybase Tuesday launched its strike in the cluster-database market, releasing Adaptive Server Enterprise Cluster Edition to compete with the likes of Oracle's Real Application Clusters.
Sybase's offering is aimed at IT shops that require high availability from their data centers. It uses shared-disk clustering, where a number of ASE server instances is grouped into a cluster seen as a single system managing the same set of data. This allows application workloads to be balanced among the instances. The software automatically migrates connections if a node fails, according to the company.
Noel Yuhanna, a Forrester Research analyst covering database technologies, said Sybase has made a wise move.
"They've realized they need to innovate to stay competitive and they're doing that," he said. "I think it's a good move and makes them comparable in certain situations with Oracle RAC."
While most companies employ some type of failover technology in their data centers, it may take effect in minutes, not seconds, Yuhanna said. "Companies who want it to happen really fast, that's when shared-disk clustering can really help," he said.
"It's only about five to 10 percent of the applications in an organization that would really need that up-to-the second [performance]," Yuhanna added.
Sybase hasn't necessarily surpassed Oracle's capabilities, according to Yuhanna. Its new product might be more suitable for "smaller environments, or those that are only focused around Linux and Solaris," he said, adding that word hasn't yet circled back from customers regarding the product's performance.
David Jonker, senior product marketing manager in the ASE group at Sybase, said the company worked with 12 large companies on a technology preview version of the software. He declined to name them, and said none had agreed to speak to the media.
ASE Cluster Edition is compatible with systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5 (x86_64); Solaris 9 and 10 on SPARC (64-bit); and SUSE Linux 9 and 10 (x86_64). Sybase did not release pricing information.
Sybase's offering is aimed at IT shops that require high availability from their data centers. It uses shared-disk clustering, where a number of ASE server instances is grouped into a cluster seen as a single system managing the same set of data. This allows application workloads to be balanced among the instances. The software automatically migrates connections if a node fails, according to the company.
Noel Yuhanna, a Forrester Research analyst covering database technologies, said Sybase has made a wise move.
"They've realized they need to innovate to stay competitive and they're doing that," he said. "I think it's a good move and makes them comparable in certain situations with Oracle RAC."
While most companies employ some type of failover technology in their data centers, it may take effect in minutes, not seconds, Yuhanna said. "Companies who want it to happen really fast, that's when shared-disk clustering can really help," he said.
"It's only about five to 10 percent of the applications in an organization that would really need that up-to-the second [performance]," Yuhanna added.
Sybase hasn't necessarily surpassed Oracle's capabilities, according to Yuhanna. Its new product might be more suitable for "smaller environments, or those that are only focused around Linux and Solaris," he said, adding that word hasn't yet circled back from customers regarding the product's performance.
David Jonker, senior product marketing manager in the ASE group at Sybase, said the company worked with 12 large companies on a technology preview version of the software. He declined to name them, and said none had agreed to speak to the media.
ASE Cluster Edition is compatible with systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5 (x86_64); Solaris 9 and 10 on SPARC (64-bit); and SUSE Linux 9 and 10 (x86_64). Sybase did not release pricing information.
Microsoft scrambles to quash 'friendly' worm story
Microsoft is moving to counter some scathing comments regarding a security paper authored by researchers at its Cambridge, England, facility.
The paper, "Sampling Strategies for Epidemic-Style Information Dissemination," looks at how worms sometimes inefficiently spread their code.
The research explores how a more efficient method could, for example, be used for distributing patches or other software. The advantage would be that patches could be distributed from PC to PC, rather than from a central server.
That method would reduce the load on a server, and patches would be distributed faster. But the patches would have the same qualities as a computer worm, a generally malicious file.
Since a story about the paper appeared on Thursday in the New Scientist magazine, the paper has been roundly assailed.
"This is a stupid idea," wrote Bruce Schneier, a security expert, author and CTO of Mountain View, Calif.-based enterprise security vendor BT Counterpane, on Tuesday, before quoting a passage from the New Scientist story on his blog.
Schneier wrote that the idea of so-called "benevolent worms" comes up every few years.
However, a worm is designed to run without the consent of a user, which doesn't make it a good method of software distribution, Schneier wrote. The worm patching technique could also make the patches hard to uninstall or interrupt during installation, he wrote.
Worms designed to distribute software patches could also be hacked to distribute malicious software, wrote Randy Abrams, director of education for security vendor Eset, in his regular e-mail commentary.
Forced patching is also troublesome since some patches may not be compatible with critical software, Abrams wrote.
"Breaking into computers is a bad idea," Abrams said.
A Microsoft spokesman said on Monday that the New Scientist story is not inaccurate. However, the writer of the story "sexed" up the research paper a bit, particularly with the headline that used the phrase "friendly worms," the spokesman said.
In response to the criticism, Microsoft said it doesn't intend to develop patch worms.
"This was not the primary scenario targeted for this research," according to a statement.
The company also said it will continue to let customers decide how and when they apply security updates.
One of the paper's authors, Milan Vojnovic, said in a statement that there were no plans to incorporate the ideas into Microsoft's products. Efforts to reach Vojnovic for comment were unsuccessful.
The paper, "Sampling Strategies for Epidemic-Style Information Dissemination," looks at how worms sometimes inefficiently spread their code.
The research explores how a more efficient method could, for example, be used for distributing patches or other software. The advantage would be that patches could be distributed from PC to PC, rather than from a central server.
That method would reduce the load on a server, and patches would be distributed faster. But the patches would have the same qualities as a computer worm, a generally malicious file.
Since a story about the paper appeared on Thursday in the New Scientist magazine, the paper has been roundly assailed.
"This is a stupid idea," wrote Bruce Schneier, a security expert, author and CTO of Mountain View, Calif.-based enterprise security vendor BT Counterpane, on Tuesday, before quoting a passage from the New Scientist story on his blog.
Schneier wrote that the idea of so-called "benevolent worms" comes up every few years.
However, a worm is designed to run without the consent of a user, which doesn't make it a good method of software distribution, Schneier wrote. The worm patching technique could also make the patches hard to uninstall or interrupt during installation, he wrote.
Worms designed to distribute software patches could also be hacked to distribute malicious software, wrote Randy Abrams, director of education for security vendor Eset, in his regular e-mail commentary.
Forced patching is also troublesome since some patches may not be compatible with critical software, Abrams wrote.
"Breaking into computers is a bad idea," Abrams said.
A Microsoft spokesman said on Monday that the New Scientist story is not inaccurate. However, the writer of the story "sexed" up the research paper a bit, particularly with the headline that used the phrase "friendly worms," the spokesman said.
In response to the criticism, Microsoft said it doesn't intend to develop patch worms.
"This was not the primary scenario targeted for this research," according to a statement.
The company also said it will continue to let customers decide how and when they apply security updates.
One of the paper's authors, Milan Vojnovic, said in a statement that there were no plans to incorporate the ideas into Microsoft's products. Efforts to reach Vojnovic for comment were unsuccessful.
Apple cuts iPod shuffle price, announces 2GB model
Apple has cut the price of the iPod shuffle and introduced a new version of the product with twice the capacity of the existing model.
The company has cut the price of the 1GB version of the device to £32 (US$64) from £49. Apple also confirmed plans to introduce a 2GB model of the iPod shuffle for £45. The new model ships "later this month", the company explained.
"At just $49, the iPod shuffle is the most affordable iPod ever," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of worldwide iPod product marketing.
"The new 2GB model lets music lovers bring even more songs everywhere they go in the impossibly small iPod shuffle."
All prices are inclusive of VAT.
The company has cut the price of the 1GB version of the device to £32 (US$64) from £49. Apple also confirmed plans to introduce a 2GB model of the iPod shuffle for £45. The new model ships "later this month", the company explained.
"At just $49, the iPod shuffle is the most affordable iPod ever," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of worldwide iPod product marketing.
"The new 2GB model lets music lovers bring even more songs everywhere they go in the impossibly small iPod shuffle."
All prices are inclusive of VAT.
Report: Microsoft to launch Yahoo proxy fight
Microsoft plans to intensify its pursuit of Yahoo this week when it authorizes a proxy fight to oust Yahoo's board, meaning the 19-day old acquisition attempt will soon turn a darker shade of ugly, according to The New York Times.
The proxy fight will cost Microsoft between US$20 million and $30 million, much less than having to significantly up its offer for Yahoo, The Times reported Tuesday morning, quoting anonymous sources.
The aggressive move would be consistent with Microsoft's statements hinting that it's willing to acquire Yahoo via hostile means if necessary. Yahoo's board rejected unanimously Microsoft's offer, calling it too low.
Yahoo declined to comment about The Times' article. Microsoft didn't immediately reply to requests for comment.
On Feb. 1, Microsoft offered to pay $31 per share for half of Yahoo's outstanding shares in cash -- about $22.3 billion -- and 0.9509 of a Microsoft share for the other half. Microsoft's half-cash/half-stock offer to Yahoo was valued at about $44.6 billion at the time it was made; Yahoo's share price was $19.18 at the time.
However, the bid's value has dropped to about $41 billion as the price of Microsoft's stock has fallen from $32.60 at the time the offer was made. It was trading at $28.77 on Tuesday morning. At the same time, Yahoo's stock has surged, erasing the bid's original premium. It was trading at $29.32 on Tuesday morning.
In the proxy fight, Microsoft would hire a proxy solicitor to urge Yahoo investors to kick out board directors, The Times reported, adding that all Yahoo directors are up for nomination this year.
After investing heavily in recent years in its Internet business and failing to achieve its desired goals, Microsoft is now convinced that it must acquire Yahoo in order to compete against common rival Google, especially in search advertising, the largest online advertising market pie, and one that Google dominates.
As of the end of 2007's third quarter, Google had almost 25 percent of the U.S. Internet advertising market, up from almost 21 percent in 2006's third quarter, according to IDC. Meanwhile, Yahoo's share during this period dropped to 11.3 percent from 12.3 percent, while Microsoft's declined to 5.2 percent from 5.8 percent, according to IDC.
In search usage, Google held a commanding 62.4 percent of queries worldwide, followed by Yahoo in a very distant second place with 12.8 percent, according to comScore. Microsoft ranked fourth with 2.9 percent, after Baidu (5.2 percent).
Unquestionably, Yahoo would be a major win for Microsoft in the display ad market. In November, Yahoo ranked first in the U.S. in display ad impressions with a 19 percent share, while Microsoft came in third with 6.7 percent, after News Corp.'s Fox Interactive (16.3 percent), according to comScore. Google took seventh place with 1 percent.
However, skeptics question whether acquiring Yahoo will yield the expected benefits, considering the complexity of integrating the two businesses, cultures and technology platforms and the fact that Yahoo has had severe internal problems that have stumped its most seasoned executives. In addition, some aren't sure that a unified Microsoft/Yahoo will have a better chance to compete against Google.
Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang, who is also on the board of directors, has been urgently looking for and considering alternatives to a Microsoft acquisition soon after Ballmer and company made their bid.
Reports -- all attributed to anonymous sources in various media outlets -- have emerged in the past two weeks that Yang has held conversations with Google, AOL and News Corp., exploring various deals that would allow him to reject Microsoft's offer.
The key is that the shareholder value created by a competing deal would have to at least match the value of Microsoft's deal. Otherwise, Yahoo would make itself liable to shareholder lawsuits that alleged the board had failed to perform its fiduciary duty.
So far, as experts have analyzed the potential value to Yahoo of outsourcing its search advertising to Google, merging with AOL or selling a 20 percent stake to News Corp. in exchange for MySpace, the consensus has been that none of those scenarios comes close to matching Microsoft's offer.
The proxy fight will cost Microsoft between US$20 million and $30 million, much less than having to significantly up its offer for Yahoo, The Times reported Tuesday morning, quoting anonymous sources.
The aggressive move would be consistent with Microsoft's statements hinting that it's willing to acquire Yahoo via hostile means if necessary. Yahoo's board rejected unanimously Microsoft's offer, calling it too low.
Yahoo declined to comment about The Times' article. Microsoft didn't immediately reply to requests for comment.
On Feb. 1, Microsoft offered to pay $31 per share for half of Yahoo's outstanding shares in cash -- about $22.3 billion -- and 0.9509 of a Microsoft share for the other half. Microsoft's half-cash/half-stock offer to Yahoo was valued at about $44.6 billion at the time it was made; Yahoo's share price was $19.18 at the time.
However, the bid's value has dropped to about $41 billion as the price of Microsoft's stock has fallen from $32.60 at the time the offer was made. It was trading at $28.77 on Tuesday morning. At the same time, Yahoo's stock has surged, erasing the bid's original premium. It was trading at $29.32 on Tuesday morning.
In the proxy fight, Microsoft would hire a proxy solicitor to urge Yahoo investors to kick out board directors, The Times reported, adding that all Yahoo directors are up for nomination this year.
After investing heavily in recent years in its Internet business and failing to achieve its desired goals, Microsoft is now convinced that it must acquire Yahoo in order to compete against common rival Google, especially in search advertising, the largest online advertising market pie, and one that Google dominates.
As of the end of 2007's third quarter, Google had almost 25 percent of the U.S. Internet advertising market, up from almost 21 percent in 2006's third quarter, according to IDC. Meanwhile, Yahoo's share during this period dropped to 11.3 percent from 12.3 percent, while Microsoft's declined to 5.2 percent from 5.8 percent, according to IDC.
In search usage, Google held a commanding 62.4 percent of queries worldwide, followed by Yahoo in a very distant second place with 12.8 percent, according to comScore. Microsoft ranked fourth with 2.9 percent, after Baidu (5.2 percent).
Unquestionably, Yahoo would be a major win for Microsoft in the display ad market. In November, Yahoo ranked first in the U.S. in display ad impressions with a 19 percent share, while Microsoft came in third with 6.7 percent, after News Corp.'s Fox Interactive (16.3 percent), according to comScore. Google took seventh place with 1 percent.
However, skeptics question whether acquiring Yahoo will yield the expected benefits, considering the complexity of integrating the two businesses, cultures and technology platforms and the fact that Yahoo has had severe internal problems that have stumped its most seasoned executives. In addition, some aren't sure that a unified Microsoft/Yahoo will have a better chance to compete against Google.
Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang, who is also on the board of directors, has been urgently looking for and considering alternatives to a Microsoft acquisition soon after Ballmer and company made their bid.
Reports -- all attributed to anonymous sources in various media outlets -- have emerged in the past two weeks that Yang has held conversations with Google, AOL and News Corp., exploring various deals that would allow him to reject Microsoft's offer.
The key is that the shareholder value created by a competing deal would have to at least match the value of Microsoft's deal. Otherwise, Yahoo would make itself liable to shareholder lawsuits that alleged the board had failed to perform its fiduciary duty.
So far, as experts have analyzed the potential value to Yahoo of outsourcing its search advertising to Google, merging with AOL or selling a 20 percent stake to News Corp. in exchange for MySpace, the consensus has been that none of those scenarios comes close to matching Microsoft's offer.
New research links mobile phones to cancer
According to new research that appeared in the American Journal of Epidemiology, using a mobile phone for several hours a day increases the risk of developing cancer in the salivary gland.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University compared the mobile phone usage of 500 Israelis with the condition to 1,300 healthy adults. Those that used a mobile phone for several hours a day were 50 percent more likely to have developed a salivary gland tumor.
"Compared to other studies, the amount of exposure to radiofrequency radiation we saw here was much higher. If you like, you're seeing what could happen elsewhere 'speeded-up' in Israel," said Dr Siegal Sadetzki who led the research.
The survey also identified that users in rural areas possibly face a higher risk that those in cities, as mobile phones in areas without strong signals need to emit more radiation to work properly. However, Dr Sadetzki stressed one study was not enough to prove a link, and that further research was needed.
There have been numerous studies into mobile phones affect on our health, although none have found conclusive evidence. Last year the UK Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme released its findings of a six-year £8.8 million (US$17 million) survey into the link between mobile phones and cancer, and concluded there was no evidence that using a mobile for less than 10 years was linked to brain cancer, and mobile phone signals did not alter brain function or were not linked to cases of electrical hypersensitivity.
Ed Yong, health information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: "Mobile phones are a relatively recent invention and new research into any possible health risks is welcome. However, it's important to remember that the vast majority of studies so far have found that mobile phones do not increase the risk of any type of cancer. Even this study found no overall link between mobile phone use and salivary gland cancers even among heavy users."
Researchers at Tel Aviv University compared the mobile phone usage of 500 Israelis with the condition to 1,300 healthy adults. Those that used a mobile phone for several hours a day were 50 percent more likely to have developed a salivary gland tumor.
"Compared to other studies, the amount of exposure to radiofrequency radiation we saw here was much higher. If you like, you're seeing what could happen elsewhere 'speeded-up' in Israel," said Dr Siegal Sadetzki who led the research.
The survey also identified that users in rural areas possibly face a higher risk that those in cities, as mobile phones in areas without strong signals need to emit more radiation to work properly. However, Dr Sadetzki stressed one study was not enough to prove a link, and that further research was needed.
There have been numerous studies into mobile phones affect on our health, although none have found conclusive evidence. Last year the UK Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme released its findings of a six-year £8.8 million (US$17 million) survey into the link between mobile phones and cancer, and concluded there was no evidence that using a mobile for less than 10 years was linked to brain cancer, and mobile phone signals did not alter brain function or were not linked to cases of electrical hypersensitivity.
Ed Yong, health information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: "Mobile phones are a relatively recent invention and new research into any possible health risks is welcome. However, it's important to remember that the vast majority of studies so far have found that mobile phones do not increase the risk of any type of cancer. Even this study found no overall link between mobile phone use and salivary gland cancers even among heavy users."
Mobile broadband heads upstream
The first generation of High Speed Packet Access mobile services increased download speeds to mobile phones. Now carriers are also launching HSPA services, also known as Turbo-3G, with faster upload speeds, making the mobile office even more of a reality.
On Thursday, AT&T Wireless unveiled two new LaptopConnected HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) data cards for its wireless broadband customers.
Another carrier that has upgraded its network and recently launched a service is 3 Sweden.
"We are mainly talking to professional users. It's a really good service for people that need to send large files," said Camilla Bülow, the company's product manager for mobile broadband.
It charges a flat monthly fee of 299 Swedish kronor (US$46) for the service, aptly named Pro.
AT&T Wireless and 3 Sweden are not the only operators speeding up their networks. Around 50 carriers currently support HSUPA, according to the latest figures from GSM Association, a group representing network operators.
"Moving to HSUPA is a logical progression, and it doesn't take a substantial investment to upgrade," said David Pringle, spokesman for the GSM Association.
Heavy e-mail users aren't the only ones who have a lot to gain from faster upload speeds. In a world where consumers create more of their own content and make phone calls from the PC, and where the move to delivering software as a service is gaining momentum, faster upload speeds are becoming increasingly important.
"We are doing a lot of work around virtual desktops, and faster network speeds in both directions would improve the mobile user experience," said Peter Söderholm, field systems engineering manager at Citrix Systems Nordic.
The first iteration of HSUPA supports theoretical data rates of up to 1.4M bps. In the real world that means around 1M bps -- three to four times faster than existing networks. Next year the speed will increase to up to 5.76M bps, and carriers are getting ready for that too.
"Our network is ready for that speed, but we haven't said when we are going to upgrade," said Bülow.
For the technology to become useful, users must have compatible modems and phones. Modems are becoming more common, but mobile phones are still scarce. HSUPA products launched at last week's Mobile World Congress included Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1 and Toshiba's Portégé G810.
"The phones are a bit behind," Bülow concluded.
On Thursday, AT&T Wireless unveiled two new LaptopConnected HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) data cards for its wireless broadband customers.
Another carrier that has upgraded its network and recently launched a service is 3 Sweden.
"We are mainly talking to professional users. It's a really good service for people that need to send large files," said Camilla Bülow, the company's product manager for mobile broadband.
It charges a flat monthly fee of 299 Swedish kronor (US$46) for the service, aptly named Pro.
AT&T Wireless and 3 Sweden are not the only operators speeding up their networks. Around 50 carriers currently support HSUPA, according to the latest figures from GSM Association, a group representing network operators.
"Moving to HSUPA is a logical progression, and it doesn't take a substantial investment to upgrade," said David Pringle, spokesman for the GSM Association.
Heavy e-mail users aren't the only ones who have a lot to gain from faster upload speeds. In a world where consumers create more of their own content and make phone calls from the PC, and where the move to delivering software as a service is gaining momentum, faster upload speeds are becoming increasingly important.
"We are doing a lot of work around virtual desktops, and faster network speeds in both directions would improve the mobile user experience," said Peter Söderholm, field systems engineering manager at Citrix Systems Nordic.
The first iteration of HSUPA supports theoretical data rates of up to 1.4M bps. In the real world that means around 1M bps -- three to four times faster than existing networks. Next year the speed will increase to up to 5.76M bps, and carriers are getting ready for that too.
"Our network is ready for that speed, but we haven't said when we are going to upgrade," said Bülow.
For the technology to become useful, users must have compatible modems and phones. Modems are becoming more common, but mobile phones are still scarce. HSUPA products launched at last week's Mobile World Congress included Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1 and Toshiba's Portégé G810.
"The phones are a bit behind," Bülow concluded.
Vodafone's BlackBerries get disaster shield
Vodafone is to offer its BlackBerry customers a high availability and disaster recovery service, good news for corporates who live in fear of losing email access on the platform.
Based on Neverfail's disaster recovery technology, the Vodafone Neverfail High Availability Service for BlackBerry monitors the health of the entire email environment, including the server hardware, the network infrastructure, the application and the operating system.
If any anomalies are identified, the service should immediately take action to prevent loss of service. The service promises to operate 24/7 every day of the year.
According to Vodafone, the service will either automatically attempt to restart applications before they fail, switch over to a secondary server, or alert the IT staff so that no downtime or loss of service is experienced. Once the issue is resolved, they are automatically switched back to the main servers and neither users nor administrators are required to restart their applications. The service requires no SAN or Cluster technology, and supports LAN and WAN technology.
Vodafone BlackBerry provides users with secure access to their corporate email, as well as additional features including corporate data access, wireless email and calendar synchronization and remote address lookup. Other features include attachment viewing, enabling 'Out Of Office' and secure Internet access through your corporate environment. BlackBerry uses push technology to deliver data to remote devices via the Vodafone GPRS network. This is secured using 3DES or AES end-to-end encryption.
At the moment there are no plans to roll out the Vodafone Neverfail High Availability Service for non-BlackBerry devices. Vodafone Managed Services will work in partnership with Neverfail in the U.K. to offer customers capabilities such as continuous availability for mobile devices and communications solutions from RIM, Microsoft and IBM Lotus Notes.
"By adding Neverfail's solution into our Managed Service portfolio, we can offer enormous service expertise to protect critical parts of our customers' IT infrastructure," said Curt Hopkins, Head of Enterprise Mobility Solutions, Vodafone UK.
"Rather than just providing handsets and airtime minutes, Vodafone is offering strategic services, such as high availability, to support the entire BlackBerry platform," said Richard Ruddlesden, EMEA channel director, Neverfail.
Based on Neverfail's disaster recovery technology, the Vodafone Neverfail High Availability Service for BlackBerry monitors the health of the entire email environment, including the server hardware, the network infrastructure, the application and the operating system.
If any anomalies are identified, the service should immediately take action to prevent loss of service. The service promises to operate 24/7 every day of the year.
According to Vodafone, the service will either automatically attempt to restart applications before they fail, switch over to a secondary server, or alert the IT staff so that no downtime or loss of service is experienced. Once the issue is resolved, they are automatically switched back to the main servers and neither users nor administrators are required to restart their applications. The service requires no SAN or Cluster technology, and supports LAN and WAN technology.
Vodafone BlackBerry provides users with secure access to their corporate email, as well as additional features including corporate data access, wireless email and calendar synchronization and remote address lookup. Other features include attachment viewing, enabling 'Out Of Office' and secure Internet access through your corporate environment. BlackBerry uses push technology to deliver data to remote devices via the Vodafone GPRS network. This is secured using 3DES or AES end-to-end encryption.
At the moment there are no plans to roll out the Vodafone Neverfail High Availability Service for non-BlackBerry devices. Vodafone Managed Services will work in partnership with Neverfail in the U.K. to offer customers capabilities such as continuous availability for mobile devices and communications solutions from RIM, Microsoft and IBM Lotus Notes.
"By adding Neverfail's solution into our Managed Service portfolio, we can offer enormous service expertise to protect critical parts of our customers' IT infrastructure," said Curt Hopkins, Head of Enterprise Mobility Solutions, Vodafone UK.
"Rather than just providing handsets and airtime minutes, Vodafone is offering strategic services, such as high availability, to support the entire BlackBerry platform," said Richard Ruddlesden, EMEA channel director, Neverfail.
Unisys lays out services-led plan for datacenters
Unisys announced new servers and a suite of infrastructure management software Tuesday that are aimed at giving it a bigger role to play in customers' datacenters, where it will compete more directly with Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems.
The new hardware includes Unisys' first blade servers, the ES5000 family, due next month, and new and upgraded ES3000 midrange servers based on quad-core Intel Xeon processors. The company has also refreshed and rebranded some datacenter management software that it launched early last year.
The products continue a turnaround strategy that Unisys began in 2005. A focus on high-end servers, outsourcing and systems integration had led to financial losses, and Unisys devised a restructuring plan to enter faster-growing markets including open-source software, security and infrastructure management.
The strategy leans heavily on partners. The blade servers will be supplied by another, unnamed server vendor and tagged with the Unisys brand, while the infrastructure software includes third-party products from Enigmatic and Scalent Systems.
The strategy is to lead with services offerings to help customers build what Unisys calls a "real-time infrastructure" -- one where IT adapts quickly to business needs -- and to supplement those the hardware and software products, said Rich Marcello, president of Unisys' systems and technology group.
"This isn't just a product sell. The real-time infrastructure is relatively complicated to implement so you need a services-led strategy," he said. "Many of our competitors will talk about doing RTI but what they are doing is trying to sell you a complete stack."
Unisys' product line-up is not greatly different from that of Sun, HP and others. But its strategy differs in that it aims to capture clients through consulting and service engagements and then bring in the products they need for a project, including gear from other vendors, said Jean Bozman [cq], a research vice president with IDC.
"They're not saying their value is to deliver everything with a Unisys label. Their value is to leverage their experience with customer engagements to bring products together and make sure they all work as part of an overall solution," Bozman said.
The new infrastructure management suite piggy-backs on the trend of helping customers align their IT infrastructures to business requirements. This includes using virtualization and systems management software to reallocate computing resources to meet changing workloads.
Called the Unisys Infrastructure Management Suite it includes three parts: uAdapt, for shifting workloads between servers to get better rates of utilization; uOrchestrate, for automating processes and meeting service-level agreements; and uChargeback, which lets big companies measure server usage and charge individual departments for computing services they use, Marcello said.
Unisys announced some infrastructure management software early last year, including a home-grown product called Enterprise Orchestration. That product has been "superseded" by uOrchestrate, which is based on software from Enigmatic. UChargeback is a rebranded version of last year's Real Time Chargeback, and uAdapt is a new offering based on software from Scalent Systems.
The three products work with any hardware platform running Windows, Linux or Unix, and all are certified to run VMware's virtualization technology. UAdapt and uOrchestrate also work with Citrix Systems' Xen virtualization technology, and uChargeback will be certified for Xen shortly, a Unisys spokesman said.
The blade servers will come with "flexible I/O configuration options and advanced local and remote management interfaces," Unisys said. The company also plans to expand its high-end ES7000 line with a quad core, eight-processor server due in the second quarter. Later this year it will introduce brand new ES7000 models from a partnership with Japan's NEC.
The new hardware includes Unisys' first blade servers, the ES5000 family, due next month, and new and upgraded ES3000 midrange servers based on quad-core Intel Xeon processors. The company has also refreshed and rebranded some datacenter management software that it launched early last year.
The products continue a turnaround strategy that Unisys began in 2005. A focus on high-end servers, outsourcing and systems integration had led to financial losses, and Unisys devised a restructuring plan to enter faster-growing markets including open-source software, security and infrastructure management.
The strategy leans heavily on partners. The blade servers will be supplied by another, unnamed server vendor and tagged with the Unisys brand, while the infrastructure software includes third-party products from Enigmatic and Scalent Systems.
The strategy is to lead with services offerings to help customers build what Unisys calls a "real-time infrastructure" -- one where IT adapts quickly to business needs -- and to supplement those the hardware and software products, said Rich Marcello, president of Unisys' systems and technology group.
"This isn't just a product sell. The real-time infrastructure is relatively complicated to implement so you need a services-led strategy," he said. "Many of our competitors will talk about doing RTI but what they are doing is trying to sell you a complete stack."
Unisys' product line-up is not greatly different from that of Sun, HP and others. But its strategy differs in that it aims to capture clients through consulting and service engagements and then bring in the products they need for a project, including gear from other vendors, said Jean Bozman [cq], a research vice president with IDC.
"They're not saying their value is to deliver everything with a Unisys label. Their value is to leverage their experience with customer engagements to bring products together and make sure they all work as part of an overall solution," Bozman said.
The new infrastructure management suite piggy-backs on the trend of helping customers align their IT infrastructures to business requirements. This includes using virtualization and systems management software to reallocate computing resources to meet changing workloads.
Called the Unisys Infrastructure Management Suite it includes three parts: uAdapt, for shifting workloads between servers to get better rates of utilization; uOrchestrate, for automating processes and meeting service-level agreements; and uChargeback, which lets big companies measure server usage and charge individual departments for computing services they use, Marcello said.
Unisys announced some infrastructure management software early last year, including a home-grown product called Enterprise Orchestration. That product has been "superseded" by uOrchestrate, which is based on software from Enigmatic. UChargeback is a rebranded version of last year's Real Time Chargeback, and uAdapt is a new offering based on software from Scalent Systems.
The three products work with any hardware platform running Windows, Linux or Unix, and all are certified to run VMware's virtualization technology. UAdapt and uOrchestrate also work with Citrix Systems' Xen virtualization technology, and uChargeback will be certified for Xen shortly, a Unisys spokesman said.
The blade servers will come with "flexible I/O configuration options and advanced local and remote management interfaces," Unisys said. The company also plans to expand its high-end ES7000 line with a quad core, eight-processor server due in the second quarter. Later this year it will introduce brand new ES7000 models from a partnership with Japan's NEC.
Mozilla opens e-mail subsidiary
The Mozilla Foundation Tuesday opened Mozilla Messaging, a new subsidiary focused on developing its free, open-source Thunderbird e-mail software.
Mozilla Messaging will initially focus on developing Thunderbird 3, which aims at improving several aspects of the software, including integrated calendaring, better search, as well as enhancements to the overall user experience, the company said in a statement.
The Mozilla Foundation is best known for creating the Firefox Web browser, a potent rival to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The organization enjoys wide support in the open source community because both Firefox and Thunderbird are based on the open source development model.
Mozilla Messaging will continue using the open source model in work, maintaining a small product development team to work with contributors from around the world on Thunderbird software.
David Ascher is the CEO of Mozilla Messaging and sits on its board of directors, which also includes Christopher Beard, vice president and general manager of Mozilla Labs, and Marten Mickos, CEO of open source database vendor MySQL AB.
Mozilla Messaging is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation.
Mozilla Messaging will initially focus on developing Thunderbird 3, which aims at improving several aspects of the software, including integrated calendaring, better search, as well as enhancements to the overall user experience, the company said in a statement.
The Mozilla Foundation is best known for creating the Firefox Web browser, a potent rival to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The organization enjoys wide support in the open source community because both Firefox and Thunderbird are based on the open source development model.
Mozilla Messaging will continue using the open source model in work, maintaining a small product development team to work with contributors from around the world on Thunderbird software.
David Ascher is the CEO of Mozilla Messaging and sits on its board of directors, which also includes Christopher Beard, vice president and general manager of Mozilla Labs, and Marten Mickos, CEO of open source database vendor MySQL AB.
Mozilla Messaging is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation.
Sun ships management piece of xVM strategy
Sun is expected Tuesday to ship xVM Ops Center, a data center automation console compatible with Linux- and Solaris-based x86 and SPARC environments.
Ops Center's features include automatic installation of firmware and bare-metal operating systems; scanning and tracking of servers in a network; and patch-management tools for SUSE, Red Hat and Solaris, according to a company statement.
James Staten, an analyst with Forrester Research, said the last feature is particularly compelling, but not enough to attract a great deal of new business to Sun's platform.
"The patching mechanism they have is very impressive and works with both Linux and Solaris, but given that this is a 1.0 product the appeal will remain mainly with existing Sun customers," he said via e-mail Friday.
"It's a substantially better entry in systems management than their previous attempts, and much more open," he added.
The Ops Center codebase has already been released under the open-source GPLv3 license and is available at www.openxVM.org.
Sun previously said the first commercial version of Ops Center would be available on Jan. 8.
Oren Teich, director of product management and marketing for xVM, said the company needed additional time to make some final tweaks and improvements in areas including firmware provisioning and reporting, following requests from early beta users.
He disagreed with the notion that mainly existing Sun customers will buy the software, saying the company expects that sales will be split between current and new users. While it is a 1.0 release, code from two existing Sun products, N1 System Manager and Sun Connection, are running under the hood of Ops Center's GUI, he said. "In some ways, this is a very mature project."
Yet the first version has a key omission: support for Windows. "Although Windows support is not currently available, we're committed to offering it in the future," Teich said.
Sun is also developing xVM Server, a bare-metal, Xen-based hypervisor with support for Linux, Solaris and Windows guest operating systems.
While Sun's xVM brand stands for "the intersection of virtualization and management," according to Teich, the Ops Center 1.0 release does not feature a broad range of functionality around virtualization. This summer, Sun will release its hypervisor product and "an update to Ops Center that will have a lot of virtualization capabilities on top of it," Teich said.
The company will battle along with leader VMware, Oracle, Microsoft and an array of other vendors for a stake in the virtualization space, which analysts have pegged as remaining wide-open despite the voluminous hype around the topic in recent years.
With Ops Center, Sun will go up against IT management powerhouses such as HP and IBM.
Subscription pricing for Ops Center, with support and network-delivered services, ranges between US$100 and $350 per managed server per year.
Ops Center's features include automatic installation of firmware and bare-metal operating systems; scanning and tracking of servers in a network; and patch-management tools for SUSE, Red Hat and Solaris, according to a company statement.
James Staten, an analyst with Forrester Research, said the last feature is particularly compelling, but not enough to attract a great deal of new business to Sun's platform.
"The patching mechanism they have is very impressive and works with both Linux and Solaris, but given that this is a 1.0 product the appeal will remain mainly with existing Sun customers," he said via e-mail Friday.
"It's a substantially better entry in systems management than their previous attempts, and much more open," he added.
The Ops Center codebase has already been released under the open-source GPLv3 license and is available at www.openxVM.org.
Sun previously said the first commercial version of Ops Center would be available on Jan. 8.
Oren Teich, director of product management and marketing for xVM, said the company needed additional time to make some final tweaks and improvements in areas including firmware provisioning and reporting, following requests from early beta users.
He disagreed with the notion that mainly existing Sun customers will buy the software, saying the company expects that sales will be split between current and new users. While it is a 1.0 release, code from two existing Sun products, N1 System Manager and Sun Connection, are running under the hood of Ops Center's GUI, he said. "In some ways, this is a very mature project."
Yet the first version has a key omission: support for Windows. "Although Windows support is not currently available, we're committed to offering it in the future," Teich said.
Sun is also developing xVM Server, a bare-metal, Xen-based hypervisor with support for Linux, Solaris and Windows guest operating systems.
While Sun's xVM brand stands for "the intersection of virtualization and management," according to Teich, the Ops Center 1.0 release does not feature a broad range of functionality around virtualization. This summer, Sun will release its hypervisor product and "an update to Ops Center that will have a lot of virtualization capabilities on top of it," Teich said.
The company will battle along with leader VMware, Oracle, Microsoft and an array of other vendors for a stake in the virtualization space, which analysts have pegged as remaining wide-open despite the voluminous hype around the topic in recent years.
With Ops Center, Sun will go up against IT management powerhouses such as HP and IBM.
Subscription pricing for Ops Center, with support and network-delivered services, ranges between US$100 and $350 per managed server per year.
Timeline: HD DVD vs. Blu-ray Disc
The high-definition movie disc battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc can be traced all the way back to 2000, when companies began experimenting with using new blue lasers in optical disc systems.
Because the wavelength of blue light is shorter than that of the red lasers used in DVD, less physical space is needed to record each bit of data and so more information can be crammed onto a DVD-sized disc. This extra space was needed to store the new high-definition video and TV services that were starting to be commercialized around that time.
But what started in 2000 as technical research became a battle between the world's largest electronics companies and movie studios, with the consumer caught in the middle.
Here's a look at the major milestones from the first research:
2000
Oct. 5 -- Sony and Pioneer unveil DVR Blue at Japan's Ceatec show. The format would go on to form the basis for first-generation Blu-ray Disc BD-RE.
Nov. 1 -- Sony announces the development of Ultra Density Optical (UDO), a blue-laser optical disc format proposed to replace magneto-optical discs.
2002
Feb. 19 -- Led by Sony, nine of the world's largest electronics companies unveil plans for Blu-ray Disc.
Aug. 29 -- Toshiba and NEC propose to the DVD Forum the next-generation optical disc format that will become HD DVD.
Oct. 1 -- Prototypes of both formats are unveiled at Japan's Ceatec exhibition. Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Pioneer and JVC showed prototype Blu-ray Disc recorders while Toshiba showed a prototype under the name Advanced Optical Disc (AOD).
2003
Feb. 13 -- Licensing of Blu-ray Disc begins. Player makers pay US$20,000 to license Blu-ray while the content-protection system license carries a $120,000 annual fee and additional charge of $0.10 per player. Media makers pay $8,000 annually and $0.02 per disc for the copy protection system.
April 7 -- Sony announces its Blu-ray Disc-based Professional Disc format for data archiving applications.
April 10 -- Sony puts on sale in Japan the world's first Blu-ray Disc recorder, the BDZ-S77. It's based on a 23G-byte cartridge version of the BD-RE disc and costs ¥450,000 (US$3,815 at the time). The machine and a later model from Panasonic lack support for prerecorded movies that will launch later and prove an expensive early step into next-generation video.
May 28 -- Mitsubishi Electric joins the Blu-ray Disc group.
2004
Jan. 7 -- Toshiba unveils its first prototype HD DVD player at CES. The player includes backwards compatibility with DVD.
Jan. 12 - Hewlett-Packard and Dell put their support behind Blu-ray Disc.
June 10 -- The first commercial version of HD DVD-ROM is approved by the DVD Forum.
Sept. 21 -- Sony announces the PlayStation 3 will use Blu-ray Disc.
Nov. 29 -- Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO and New Line Cinema announce support for HD DVD.
Dec. 9 -- Disney announces support for Blu-ray Disc.
2005
Jan. 7 -- Backers of both formats promise players and movies in North America by the end of the year -- something that never materialized.
March 24 -- Talk and hope of a common format as Ryoji Chubachi, then Sony's president-elect, says: "Listening to the voice of the consumers, having two rival formats is disappointing and we haven't totally given up on the possibility of integration or compromise."
April 21 -- Sony and Toshiba begin discussions on the possibility of a single format. The talks ultimately go nowhere.
Aug. 18 -- Lions Gate Home Entertainment and Universal Music Group decide to back Blu-ray Disc.
Sept. 27 -- Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. put their weight behind HD DVD.
Oct. 3 -- Paramount Home Entertainment says it will offer movies on both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
Dec. 16 -- Hewlett-Packard decides to drop exclusive support for Blu-ray Disc and back both formats.
2006
Jan. 4 -- Bill Gates announces at CES that Microsoft will offer an add-on HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 console.
March 10 -- Blu-ray Disc-supporter LG Electronics surprises the industry with news that it's developing an HD DVD drive.
March 31 -- Toshiba launches the world's first HD DVD player, the HD-XA1. It cost ¥110,000 (US$936 at the time) in Japan.
Nov. 11 -- Sony's PlayStation 3, which packs a Blu-ray Disc drive, goes on sale in Japan.
Dec. 29 -- Hackers report success in breaking through part of the AACS copy protection that's on both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
2007
Jan. 7 -- Seeking to end the battle, LG Electronics unveils a dual-format player, while Warner Bros. shows a prototype disc that holds both an HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc layer so is compatible with players for both formats.
April 17 -- Sales of HD DVD players in North America hit 100,000 since launch.
Aug. 1 -- Microsoft cuts the price of its HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 from US$199 to US$179 and starts offering five free movies.
Aug. 20 -- Paramount and Dreamworks Animation both drop Blu-ray Disc in favor of HD DVD.
Sept. 13 -- Sony says it will use Blu-ray Disc in all high-def video recorders in Japan.
Nov. -- The price of Toshiba HD DVD players drops to US$100 with rebates as the holiday shopping season begins.
Nov. 11 -- Sony begins selling a lower cost version of the PlayStation 3.
2008
Jan. 4 -- Warner Bros. drops its bombshell: it will stop issuing HD DVD movies in the coming months and rely exclusively on Blu-ray Disc. In response the HD DVD Promotion Group cancels its CES news conference.
Jan. 6 -- Akio Ozaka, head of Toshiba America Consumer Products, says at CES: "We remain firm in the belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of consumers." In response Sony CEO Howard Stringer, with a grin on his face, says "All of us at Sony are feeling blue today."
Jan. 14 -- Toshiba cuts the price of HD DVD players with the HD-A3 seeing a retail price of US$150.
Feb. 11 -- NetFlix and BestBuy say they will phase out HD DVD.
Feb. 15 -- Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, says it will phase out HD DVD by June.
Feb. 16 -- Japanese public broadcaster NHK reports Toshiba has halted production of HD DVD players. Several additional local media reports confirm and The Nikkei business daily says Toshiba has decided to stop developing the format any further.
Feb. 19 -- Toshiba formally announces it will phase out the production of HD DVD players and recorders by the end of March. The format war is over.
(Dan Nystedt in Taipei contributed to this report.)
Because the wavelength of blue light is shorter than that of the red lasers used in DVD, less physical space is needed to record each bit of data and so more information can be crammed onto a DVD-sized disc. This extra space was needed to store the new high-definition video and TV services that were starting to be commercialized around that time.
But what started in 2000 as technical research became a battle between the world's largest electronics companies and movie studios, with the consumer caught in the middle.
Here's a look at the major milestones from the first research:
2000
Oct. 5 -- Sony and Pioneer unveil DVR Blue at Japan's Ceatec show. The format would go on to form the basis for first-generation Blu-ray Disc BD-RE.
Nov. 1 -- Sony announces the development of Ultra Density Optical (UDO), a blue-laser optical disc format proposed to replace magneto-optical discs.
2002
Feb. 19 -- Led by Sony, nine of the world's largest electronics companies unveil plans for Blu-ray Disc.
Aug. 29 -- Toshiba and NEC propose to the DVD Forum the next-generation optical disc format that will become HD DVD.
Oct. 1 -- Prototypes of both formats are unveiled at Japan's Ceatec exhibition. Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Pioneer and JVC showed prototype Blu-ray Disc recorders while Toshiba showed a prototype under the name Advanced Optical Disc (AOD).
2003
Feb. 13 -- Licensing of Blu-ray Disc begins. Player makers pay US$20,000 to license Blu-ray while the content-protection system license carries a $120,000 annual fee and additional charge of $0.10 per player. Media makers pay $8,000 annually and $0.02 per disc for the copy protection system.
April 7 -- Sony announces its Blu-ray Disc-based Professional Disc format for data archiving applications.
April 10 -- Sony puts on sale in Japan the world's first Blu-ray Disc recorder, the BDZ-S77. It's based on a 23G-byte cartridge version of the BD-RE disc and costs ¥450,000 (US$3,815 at the time). The machine and a later model from Panasonic lack support for prerecorded movies that will launch later and prove an expensive early step into next-generation video.
May 28 -- Mitsubishi Electric joins the Blu-ray Disc group.
2004
Jan. 7 -- Toshiba unveils its first prototype HD DVD player at CES. The player includes backwards compatibility with DVD.
Jan. 12 - Hewlett-Packard and Dell put their support behind Blu-ray Disc.
June 10 -- The first commercial version of HD DVD-ROM is approved by the DVD Forum.
Sept. 21 -- Sony announces the PlayStation 3 will use Blu-ray Disc.
Nov. 29 -- Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO and New Line Cinema announce support for HD DVD.
Dec. 9 -- Disney announces support for Blu-ray Disc.
2005
Jan. 7 -- Backers of both formats promise players and movies in North America by the end of the year -- something that never materialized.
March 24 -- Talk and hope of a common format as Ryoji Chubachi, then Sony's president-elect, says: "Listening to the voice of the consumers, having two rival formats is disappointing and we haven't totally given up on the possibility of integration or compromise."
April 21 -- Sony and Toshiba begin discussions on the possibility of a single format. The talks ultimately go nowhere.
Aug. 18 -- Lions Gate Home Entertainment and Universal Music Group decide to back Blu-ray Disc.
Sept. 27 -- Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. put their weight behind HD DVD.
Oct. 3 -- Paramount Home Entertainment says it will offer movies on both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
Dec. 16 -- Hewlett-Packard decides to drop exclusive support for Blu-ray Disc and back both formats.
2006
Jan. 4 -- Bill Gates announces at CES that Microsoft will offer an add-on HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 console.
March 10 -- Blu-ray Disc-supporter LG Electronics surprises the industry with news that it's developing an HD DVD drive.
March 31 -- Toshiba launches the world's first HD DVD player, the HD-XA1. It cost ¥110,000 (US$936 at the time) in Japan.
Nov. 11 -- Sony's PlayStation 3, which packs a Blu-ray Disc drive, goes on sale in Japan.
Dec. 29 -- Hackers report success in breaking through part of the AACS copy protection that's on both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
2007
Jan. 7 -- Seeking to end the battle, LG Electronics unveils a dual-format player, while Warner Bros. shows a prototype disc that holds both an HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc layer so is compatible with players for both formats.
April 17 -- Sales of HD DVD players in North America hit 100,000 since launch.
Aug. 1 -- Microsoft cuts the price of its HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 from US$199 to US$179 and starts offering five free movies.
Aug. 20 -- Paramount and Dreamworks Animation both drop Blu-ray Disc in favor of HD DVD.
Sept. 13 -- Sony says it will use Blu-ray Disc in all high-def video recorders in Japan.
Nov. -- The price of Toshiba HD DVD players drops to US$100 with rebates as the holiday shopping season begins.
Nov. 11 -- Sony begins selling a lower cost version of the PlayStation 3.
2008
Jan. 4 -- Warner Bros. drops its bombshell: it will stop issuing HD DVD movies in the coming months and rely exclusively on Blu-ray Disc. In response the HD DVD Promotion Group cancels its CES news conference.
Jan. 6 -- Akio Ozaka, head of Toshiba America Consumer Products, says at CES: "We remain firm in the belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of consumers." In response Sony CEO Howard Stringer, with a grin on his face, says "All of us at Sony are feeling blue today."
Jan. 14 -- Toshiba cuts the price of HD DVD players with the HD-A3 seeing a retail price of US$150.
Feb. 11 -- NetFlix and BestBuy say they will phase out HD DVD.
Feb. 15 -- Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, says it will phase out HD DVD by June.
Feb. 16 -- Japanese public broadcaster NHK reports Toshiba has halted production of HD DVD players. Several additional local media reports confirm and The Nikkei business daily says Toshiba has decided to stop developing the format any further.
Feb. 19 -- Toshiba formally announces it will phase out the production of HD DVD players and recorders by the end of March. The format war is over.
(Dan Nystedt in Taipei contributed to this report.)
Toshiba abandons HD DVD
Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD products, it said Tuesday, handing victory to rival high definition disc format Blu-ray Disc.
The company will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.
It will reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail markets and aims to cease the businesses altogether by the end of March.
But the Japanese electronics giant pledged to provide full product support and after-sales service for owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
Recent changes in the market prompted the decision, Toshiba said. Early this year, Warner Bros. said it would stop issuing movies on HD DVD in the coming months and rely exclusively on Blu-ray Disc. The Hollywood studio was one of three major studios remaining in the HD DVD camp, and its defection created widespread belief that the battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc was now over.
More recently, major U.S. retail chain Wal-Mart announced it would phase out the sale of HD DVD products, moving to exclusivity with Blu-ray Disc. Electronics retailer Best Buy also said it would back Blu-ray Disc, but it did not say it would stop offering HD DVD.
Warner made its decision based on consumer confusion and indifference to high definition movies, an indifference that cost Hollywood in lost revenue, it said. Wal-Mart said U.S. customers preferred Blu-ray Disc movies and hardware. Blu-ray Disc is the high definition disc format championed by Sony.
"This once again shows why incompatible and mutually exclusive formats should be avoided at all cost by the industry," said Carl Gressum, a senior analyst at Ovum. "It reduces profitability and delays customer adoption."
"The big question is, however, the impacts on Toshiba as an electronics company," he added. "It has after all bet its disc media business on HD DVD, as well as gone for HD DVD integration into some of its laptop PCs. The channel has inventory to clear, and demands from owners of HD DVD players."
Toshiba said its decision came after careful analysis of the long-term impact of continuing the format war, and said a swift decision was called for to help the high definition market develop.
The company also pledged to remain a player in the high definition market. Developing HD DVD created many assets for Toshiba and its partners, which include Microsoft, Intel, HP, and Universal Studios, the company said. Toshiba plans to work with these companies to seek future business opportunities.
The company will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.
It will reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail markets and aims to cease the businesses altogether by the end of March.
But the Japanese electronics giant pledged to provide full product support and after-sales service for owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
Recent changes in the market prompted the decision, Toshiba said. Early this year, Warner Bros. said it would stop issuing movies on HD DVD in the coming months and rely exclusively on Blu-ray Disc. The Hollywood studio was one of three major studios remaining in the HD DVD camp, and its defection created widespread belief that the battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc was now over.
More recently, major U.S. retail chain Wal-Mart announced it would phase out the sale of HD DVD products, moving to exclusivity with Blu-ray Disc. Electronics retailer Best Buy also said it would back Blu-ray Disc, but it did not say it would stop offering HD DVD.
Warner made its decision based on consumer confusion and indifference to high definition movies, an indifference that cost Hollywood in lost revenue, it said. Wal-Mart said U.S. customers preferred Blu-ray Disc movies and hardware. Blu-ray Disc is the high definition disc format championed by Sony.
"This once again shows why incompatible and mutually exclusive formats should be avoided at all cost by the industry," said Carl Gressum, a senior analyst at Ovum. "It reduces profitability and delays customer adoption."
"The big question is, however, the impacts on Toshiba as an electronics company," he added. "It has after all bet its disc media business on HD DVD, as well as gone for HD DVD integration into some of its laptop PCs. The channel has inventory to clear, and demands from owners of HD DVD players."
Toshiba said its decision came after careful analysis of the long-term impact of continuing the format war, and said a swift decision was called for to help the high definition market develop.
The company also pledged to remain a player in the high definition market. Developing HD DVD created many assets for Toshiba and its partners, which include Microsoft, Intel, HP, and Universal Studios, the company said. Toshiba plans to work with these companies to seek future business opportunities.
Tech starts week in the doldrums
The global technology industry ended last week on a down note after electronics giant Best Buy issued a profit warning and DRAM prices fell again, but the troubles may be good news for bargain hunters if they lead to lower prices.
Best Buy Friday lowered its profit expectation for its current fiscal year, which ends March 1, 2008, to earnings per share of US$3.05 to $3.10 from previous guidance of $3.10 to $3.20 due to slower after-holiday sales, the company said in a statement.
The largest electronics retailer in the U.S. expects slower sales of home theater items, MP3 music devices, and digital imaging gear than previously anticipated in the current quarter, it said. It also pointed out that video gaming sales have slowed, but blamed the trouble on inventory shortages.
The company also expects its fiscal fourth quarter same store sales to decline compared to a year ago, causing it to cut its full year same stores sales target to nearly $40 billion this year, a gain of 2.5 percent to 3 percent, compared to a prior forecast calling for 4 percent year-over-year growth.
"This is the first same store sales decline since the first quarter of 2002, (Best Buy's fiscal second quarter of 2001) and in line with the economic slowdown in 2001," said Warren Lau, research analyst at Macquarie Securities in Hong Kong.
Best Buy's troubles could be an indication of slower consumer spending in the U.S., and could raise recession fears, analysts said.
DRAM (dynamic RAM) prices are also on the decline again after hopes a nascent rebound had started early this month. Prices of the chips ticked up ahead of and during the Lunar New Year holiday, which is celebrated in China, Taiwan and elsewhere, as people in those countries bought more PCs as gifts and some companies built inventory.
But DRAM prices resumed their slide at the end of the holiday. Last week, spot prices of mainstream 1G bit and 512M bit, DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM chips that run at 667MHz fell 10 to 12 percent last week to $1.88 and $0.90, respectively, according to industry researcher inSpectrum Technology.
The price is below the cash cost for all DRAM makers and the price drop will likely continue in the first half of this year, said Lau. DRAM makers continue to churn out more and more chips in new factories, with some factories just now being finished. Bit supply growth is expected to be 80 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2008.
The DRAM glut should keep the chips cheap for a while. Market prices normally take about a month to filter down to users, according to one DRAMeXchange analyst, and users can benefit from lower prices in a few ways. PC vendors often increase the amount of DRAM per computer when prices are low, or offer additional DRAM as an incentive to buy a new PC. Also, the price of DRAM modules found in stores will fall as retailers clear out their older, more expensive inventory.
Best Buy Friday lowered its profit expectation for its current fiscal year, which ends March 1, 2008, to earnings per share of US$3.05 to $3.10 from previous guidance of $3.10 to $3.20 due to slower after-holiday sales, the company said in a statement.
The largest electronics retailer in the U.S. expects slower sales of home theater items, MP3 music devices, and digital imaging gear than previously anticipated in the current quarter, it said. It also pointed out that video gaming sales have slowed, but blamed the trouble on inventory shortages.
The company also expects its fiscal fourth quarter same store sales to decline compared to a year ago, causing it to cut its full year same stores sales target to nearly $40 billion this year, a gain of 2.5 percent to 3 percent, compared to a prior forecast calling for 4 percent year-over-year growth.
"This is the first same store sales decline since the first quarter of 2002, (Best Buy's fiscal second quarter of 2001) and in line with the economic slowdown in 2001," said Warren Lau, research analyst at Macquarie Securities in Hong Kong.
Best Buy's troubles could be an indication of slower consumer spending in the U.S., and could raise recession fears, analysts said.
DRAM (dynamic RAM) prices are also on the decline again after hopes a nascent rebound had started early this month. Prices of the chips ticked up ahead of and during the Lunar New Year holiday, which is celebrated in China, Taiwan and elsewhere, as people in those countries bought more PCs as gifts and some companies built inventory.
But DRAM prices resumed their slide at the end of the holiday. Last week, spot prices of mainstream 1G bit and 512M bit, DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM chips that run at 667MHz fell 10 to 12 percent last week to $1.88 and $0.90, respectively, according to industry researcher inSpectrum Technology.
The price is below the cash cost for all DRAM makers and the price drop will likely continue in the first half of this year, said Lau. DRAM makers continue to churn out more and more chips in new factories, with some factories just now being finished. Bit supply growth is expected to be 80 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2008.
The DRAM glut should keep the chips cheap for a while. Market prices normally take about a month to filter down to users, according to one DRAMeXchange analyst, and users can benefit from lower prices in a few ways. PC vendors often increase the amount of DRAM per computer when prices are low, or offer additional DRAM as an incentive to buy a new PC. Also, the price of DRAM modules found in stores will fall as retailers clear out their older, more expensive inventory.
Harvard Web site hacked, database on file-sharing site
One of Harvard University's Web sites appeared on Monday to have been hacked, with its contents appearing on the BitTorrent file-sharing network.
A compressed 125 M-byte file claiming to be the database for the Web site of Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is available via the BitTorrent P-to-P (peer to peer) network. The file is listed on The Pirate Bay, a Web site that indexes torrents, or small information files that coordinate the download of content from other users on BitTorrent.
The Web site for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences was offline on Monday.
A note attached to the torrent claimed the file contained a backup of the site -- including some contacts files and other files associated with Joomla, an open-source content management system -- along with other various bits. It appeared to be legitimate.
The note's writer claims the stunt is intended to demonstrate the insecurity of Harvard's server. The writer also exposed what purport to be usernames and passwords belonging to two of the site's system administrators.
"Stupid people, you don't use a secure password," read a note preceding the sensitive information.
As of Monday afternoon, the compromised file was being distributed by 11 users -- known in file-sharing terminology as "seeders" -- and was being downloaded by nine "leechers," or those downloading the files.
Harvard's media office was closed on Monday due to a national U.S. holiday.
A compressed 125 M-byte file claiming to be the database for the Web site of Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is available via the BitTorrent P-to-P (peer to peer) network. The file is listed on The Pirate Bay, a Web site that indexes torrents, or small information files that coordinate the download of content from other users on BitTorrent.
The Web site for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences was offline on Monday.
A note attached to the torrent claimed the file contained a backup of the site -- including some contacts files and other files associated with Joomla, an open-source content management system -- along with other various bits. It appeared to be legitimate.
The note's writer claims the stunt is intended to demonstrate the insecurity of Harvard's server. The writer also exposed what purport to be usernames and passwords belonging to two of the site's system administrators.
"Stupid people, you don't use a secure password," read a note preceding the sensitive information.
As of Monday afternoon, the compromised file was being distributed by 11 users -- known in file-sharing terminology as "seeders" -- and was being downloaded by nine "leechers," or those downloading the files.
Harvard's media office was closed on Monday due to a national U.S. holiday.
Opera, Firefox bug could export users' Web history
A flaw in the way the Firefox and Opera browsers handle an image file could allow an attacker to see what Web sites a person has visited.
The problem concerns how the two browsers handle a ".BMP," or bitmap, image file, according to an advisory written by Gynvael Coldwind of Vexillium.org, who posted a video illustrating the problem.
A malicious bitmap file can be created that pulls other information from the browsers' memory. Some of the information that can be captured is random, but at other times could be valuable, the advisory said.
"The harvested data contains various information including parts of other Web sites, users' favorites and history and other information," Vexillium.org said.
Using the "canvas" HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) tag supported by the browsers, an attacker can capture the data. Then, using JavaScript, the information can be sent to a remote server.
The flaw could also crash Firefox. The vulnerability affects Firefox 2.0.0.11 and previous versions of that browser as well as the beta version of Opera 9.50.
The problem concerns how the two browsers handle a ".BMP," or bitmap, image file, according to an advisory written by Gynvael Coldwind of Vexillium.org, who posted a video illustrating the problem.
A malicious bitmap file can be created that pulls other information from the browsers' memory. Some of the information that can be captured is random, but at other times could be valuable, the advisory said.
"The harvested data contains various information including parts of other Web sites, users' favorites and history and other information," Vexillium.org said.
Using the "canvas" HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) tag supported by the browsers, an attacker can capture the data. Then, using JavaScript, the information can be sent to a remote server.
The flaw could also crash Firefox. The vulnerability affects Firefox 2.0.0.11 and previous versions of that browser as well as the beta version of Opera 9.50.
Court orders whistle-blower site offline in U.S.
A California district court has shut down a controversial Web site in the U.S. that allows whistle blowers to post corporate and government documents online anonymously.
The site, known as Wikileaks.org, has been taken offline in the U.S. due to a court order from the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. However, the site remains online in other countries, including Belgium and Germany.
The order in the U.S. came after a Swiss bank, Julius Baer, earlier this month filed a complaint against the site and San Mateo, California-based Dynadot, Wikileaks' domain-name registry, for posting several hundred of the bank's documents.
Some of those documents allegedly reveal that Julius Baer was involved in offshore money laundering and tax evasion in the Cayman Islands for customers in several countries, including the U.S.
The court ordered that "Dynadot shall immediately clear and remove all DNS hosting records for the wikileaks.org domain name," according to court documents. It also said that Dynadot should prevent the domain name from resolving to the wikileaks.org Web site or any other Web site or server other than a blank park page until further notice.
A spokesman for Julius Baer could not be reached for comment Monday.
According to its Web site, the purpose of Wikileaks, founded in 2006, is to develop "an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking and public analysis."
Wikileaks has been plagued by controversy since its inception, coming under fire from institutions whose confidential documents have been posted and from critics who questioned the motives of the site's founders. Still, others have praised the site for supporting the free dissemination of information.
Wikileaks posted a press statement on its site about the U.S. order, calling it "clearly unconstitutional" and said it "exceeds its jurisdiction."
The site, known as Wikileaks.org, has been taken offline in the U.S. due to a court order from the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. However, the site remains online in other countries, including Belgium and Germany.
The order in the U.S. came after a Swiss bank, Julius Baer, earlier this month filed a complaint against the site and San Mateo, California-based Dynadot, Wikileaks' domain-name registry, for posting several hundred of the bank's documents.
Some of those documents allegedly reveal that Julius Baer was involved in offshore money laundering and tax evasion in the Cayman Islands for customers in several countries, including the U.S.
The court ordered that "Dynadot shall immediately clear and remove all DNS hosting records for the wikileaks.org domain name," according to court documents. It also said that Dynadot should prevent the domain name from resolving to the wikileaks.org Web site or any other Web site or server other than a blank park page until further notice.
A spokesman for Julius Baer could not be reached for comment Monday.
According to its Web site, the purpose of Wikileaks, founded in 2006, is to develop "an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking and public analysis."
Wikileaks has been plagued by controversy since its inception, coming under fire from institutions whose confidential documents have been posted and from critics who questioned the motives of the site's founders. Still, others have praised the site for supporting the free dissemination of information.
Wikileaks posted a press statement on its site about the U.S. order, calling it "clearly unconstitutional" and said it "exceeds its jurisdiction."
Toshiba shares surge on HD DVD talk
Investors in Tokyo welcomed news reports that Toshiba is considering pulling the plug on its HD DVD format by pushing the company's shares up 5 percent in Monday trading.
At the market close Toshiba shares were trading at ¥829 (US$7.69), up ¥45 on Friday's close. The overall market, as measured by the Nikkei 225 index, was only slightly higher on the day.
Toshiba has been ploughing money into promoting the format for the last two years to battle stiff competition from Blu-ray Disc, a rival format backed by Sony. To promote sales Toshiba has also been deeply discounting players but the last few weeks have seen HD DVD's chances of victory substantially reduced.
In January Warner Bros. said it would drop HD DVD later in the year leaving the format with only Paramount and Universal among major studios. Then last week Netflix, Best Buy and Wal-Mart all said they would soon stop selling HD DVD discs.
Japanese television reported that Toshiba has stopped production at its factory in Japan and is currently considering HD DVD's future.
Sony shares closed up 1 percent at ¥4,900.
At the market close Toshiba shares were trading at ¥829 (US$7.69), up ¥45 on Friday's close. The overall market, as measured by the Nikkei 225 index, was only slightly higher on the day.
Toshiba has been ploughing money into promoting the format for the last two years to battle stiff competition from Blu-ray Disc, a rival format backed by Sony. To promote sales Toshiba has also been deeply discounting players but the last few weeks have seen HD DVD's chances of victory substantially reduced.
In January Warner Bros. said it would drop HD DVD later in the year leaving the format with only Paramount and Universal among major studios. Then last week Netflix, Best Buy and Wal-Mart all said they would soon stop selling HD DVD discs.
Japanese television reported that Toshiba has stopped production at its factory in Japan and is currently considering HD DVD's future.
Sony shares closed up 1 percent at ¥4,900.
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