Yahoo has ended its talks with Microsoft about a deal narrower in scope than a full acquisition, Yahoo revealed on Thursday.
Instead, the company is nearing an agreement with Google involving its search advertising business, The Wall Street Journal reported. Yahoo made no mention of such a deal in a statement it issued late Thursday afternoon. Such deals are typically announced either before U.S. financial markets open in the morning or after they close at 4 p.m. Eastern time.
Yahoo said it has concluded talks with Microsoft because Microsoft was only interested in purchasing Yahoo's search business, not all of the company.
With respect to this, Yahoo's board decided "that such a transaction would not be consistent with the company's view of the converging search and display marketplaces, would leave the company without an independent search business that it views as critical to its strategic future and would not be in the best interests of Yahoo stockholders," the company said in a statement.
Microsoft on Thursday confirmed that it was not interested in rebidding for all of Yahoo, but had been seeking an "alternative transaction" that it believed would bring Yahoo shareholders more than US$33 per share, according to a statement. $33 per share had been Microsoft's previous final bid for all of Yahoo.
Microsoft said this alternative transaction remains on the table, and did not confirm that talks between it and Yahoo have concluded.
After Microsoft ended its acquisition bid for Yahoo on May 3, the companies acknowledged that they were in talks for an unspecified deal that most observers assumed involved Yahoo's search-advertising business.
Yahoo and Google had also been in talks about a search-advertising deal for several months, a deal that Microsoft cited as one of its primary reasons for ending its acquisition bid.
In April, Yahoo announced that it would test running Google ads along with its search results. Afterward, the companies said the test had gone well, but declined to provide more details on whether they would seek a longer-term, more formal, search ad deal.
Microsoft and Yahoo failed to come to terms on either a full or partial acquisition after months of on-again, off-again negotiations. Yahoo now faces the possibility of its board members being voted out by shareholders in a proxy battle spurred by billionaire investor Carl Icahn.
Icahn and Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock have been trading barbs in public letters back and forth for the past week and a half as Icahn increased public criticism of how Yahoo has mishandled its dealings with Microsoft. On Friday he told Yahoo's board to offer itself up for sale to the software giant for $49.5 billion and be done with it. Icahn also said he would seek to replace Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang if his proxy bid is successful.
In response, Yahoo's board has defended its actions of the past several months. Through this public disagreement between Icahn and Yahoo, Microsoft has remained noticeably silent, so it was never clear if the company was still interested in purchasing Yahoo for that price or any other.
Thursday's news likely will inspire more ire from Icahn, though it's not clear what he would do with Yahoo if he is successful in ousting its board but cannot find another company to purchase Yahoo.
On May 15, Icahn sent a letter to Yahoo's board announcing he is nominating 10 candidates to replace all incumbent directors at the company's shareholders meeting in July. A few days later Microsoft and Yahoo said publicly that they were both open to negotiating another deal, although not one for Microsoft to totally purchase Yahoo but instead to buy only pieces of the company.
Icahn's move and the possible shake up of Yahoo's board may have led one director, Edward Kozel, to resign on May 22. His resignation prompted Yahoo to push its shareholder meeting back to August and to operate with only nine directors until then.
Icahn's actions came after Microsoft and Yahoo failed to come to an agreement after two months of haggling on a price.
On Feb. 11, Yahoo rejected Microsoft's Feb. 1 official bid for the company of about $44.6 billion, claiming it was too low. This set about several weeks of negotiations between the companies.
During that time, Yahoo did everything it could to avoid an acquisition by Microsoft, seeking other suitors and striking the deal with Google to test Google's AdSense for Search service as one of the Web publishers that carry pay-per-click text ads from Google.
Yahoo also attempted to buy time when Microsoft threatened to mount a proxy battle for the company, which it implied it would do first in a letter to the company on Feb. 12 and later in harsher terms in a letter to Yahoo's board on April 5.
For example, on March 5, Yahoo lifted the following week's deadline for nominating directors to its board, an attempt to discourage Microsoft from trying to replace the current board with members willing to approve its Yahoo acquisition bid.
Yahoo also unveiled a flurry of product and strategy announcements in the months following Microsoft's bid, pointing out that each initiative proved it could continue go it alone as an independent company.
Microsoft eventually pushed the price it was willing to pay for Yahoo up about $5 billion, or to $33 per share, but Yahoo still wasn't happy with the price. Yahoo executives later claimed it was Microsoft that ultimately walked away from the deal the first time.
In the days that followed before Icahn mounted his proxy battle, Microsoft distanced itself from Yahoo and executives said the company was moving on. Yahoo executives, meanwhile, seemed to backpedal when it became clear board members and investors weren't happy with the deal falling through, and said they would be open to being acquired for the right price if Microsoft or another suitor came calling.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Hacker gets 41 months for running rogue botnet
A hacker who hooked up a botnet within Newell Rubbermaid's corporate network was sentenced to 41 months in prison on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Robert Matthew Bentley, of Panama City, Florida, must also pay US$65,000 restitution. He was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
Bentley could have received a 10-year sentence. He pleaded guilty to charges of computer fraud and conspiracy to commit computer fraud for using the botnet to install advertising software on PCs located throughout Europe without permission.
Newell Rubbermaid, which makes products such as Sharpie markers and plastic food-storage containers, reported their European computer network had been hacked around December 2006. At least one other European-based company also complained.
Bentley's indictment was enabled by investigations conducted by several law enforcement agencies worldwide, including London's Metropolitan Police Computer Crime Unit, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Finland National Bureau of Investigation and other local U.S. agencies.
Others who helped Bentley are still under investigation, the department said. Bentley received a commission from a company called DollarRevenue for every installation of the advertising software.
Ad software can be very difficult to remove and trigger unwanted pop-ups. Many hackers have become astute at installing the software through surreptitious means, such as exploiting software vulernabilities in a PC's operating system or Web browser.
In December 2007, DollarRevenue was fined €1 million (US$1.54 million) in the Netherlands, one of the largest fines ever levied in Europe against a company over adware. That investigation found that hackers were paid €0.15 each for installation of DollarRevenue software on computers in Europe and $0.25 for PCs in the U.S.
Robert Matthew Bentley, of Panama City, Florida, must also pay US$65,000 restitution. He was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
Bentley could have received a 10-year sentence. He pleaded guilty to charges of computer fraud and conspiracy to commit computer fraud for using the botnet to install advertising software on PCs located throughout Europe without permission.
Newell Rubbermaid, which makes products such as Sharpie markers and plastic food-storage containers, reported their European computer network had been hacked around December 2006. At least one other European-based company also complained.
Bentley's indictment was enabled by investigations conducted by several law enforcement agencies worldwide, including London's Metropolitan Police Computer Crime Unit, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Finland National Bureau of Investigation and other local U.S. agencies.
Others who helped Bentley are still under investigation, the department said. Bentley received a commission from a company called DollarRevenue for every installation of the advertising software.
Ad software can be very difficult to remove and trigger unwanted pop-ups. Many hackers have become astute at installing the software through surreptitious means, such as exploiting software vulernabilities in a PC's operating system or Web browser.
In December 2007, DollarRevenue was fined €1 million (US$1.54 million) in the Netherlands, one of the largest fines ever levied in Europe against a company over adware. That investigation found that hackers were paid €0.15 each for installation of DollarRevenue software on computers in Europe and $0.25 for PCs in the U.S.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
5 things you'll love about Firefox 3
A couple of months ago, I downloaded a beta version of Firefox 3 just to look at the new ideas Mozilla was working on. My intention was to try it for a couple days, then switch back to Firefox 2. I wasn't worried about stability (it's a browser after all -- what's the worst that can happen?). But the beta wasn't compatible with lots of my favorite extensions and who wants to live without them?
As it turns out, I'm still using a prerelease version of Firefox (they're at Release Candidate 1 now) and loving it, even without my beloved add-ons. The improvements Mozilla has made to the browser, while subtle, are so helpful that I didn't want to give them up. Here are five of my favorites.
1. Much better performance
If you've used previous versions of Firefox you've likely had this experience, perhaps frequently: you're working away, but gradually become aware that something is horribly wrong with your PC. It's sluggish and apps take forever to load. You open up Task Manager and find that Firefox is chewing up 95 percent of your CPU cycles. Once you kill the browser and start over, you're running fine again.
I can't remember the last time I've had that experience with the Firefox 3 betas. Mozilla developers borrowed some memory management tricks from the Free BSD operating system for the Windows and Linux versions of Firefox. (They say memory management on Macs already worked pretty well.) The effect is clear. The browser is much less likely to commandeer too many system resources. And Firefox's developers worked to make sure that add-ons, notorious memory thieves, don't cause problems either. They've rolled in cycle collectors that help prevent extensions from locking up RAM and not giving it back. They're also distributing tools to third-party developers that will help them build more abstemious add-ons.
2. The "Awesome Bar"
Okay, so the official name is the Location Bar, the field where you enter URLs you want to visit. But beta testers have nicknamed it the Awesome Bar and it is, well, pretty awesome. Enter text in the Location Bar and a dropdown list appears of pages from your browsing history that include that text, not just in the URL, but in the page title or the page's tag (see #4 below). The list even includes Gmail messages that include that word in the subject line. If you've already visited a Web page, there's a good chance it's useful to you. The Location Bar lets you very quickly search that useful subset of the Web.
3. Can't miss warnings
Lots of browsers have had phishing warnings before (including Firefox), but they've been wimpy. Usually they involve some part of the address bar changing color or some icon popping up near the URL. The problem is they're too easy to miss. I'm not looking at the address bar when I'm waiting for a page to load. I'm looking at the main well of the browser where the page will display.
But there's no danger of missing one of Firefox's new warnings. When you enter the URL of a suspected attack site, Firefox brings up a full-page warning. With a click, you can see a detailed explanation of why the site was blocked. Or you can just click "Get me out of here," which takes you to Firefox's start page. If you really want to live dangerously, there's a small link that lets you ignore the warning and proceed to the suspect site.
4. Better bookmarks
If you like a page, you just click the star in the Location Bar and it's a favorite. A dropdown box lets you name it, choose a folder to put it in or add a tag to categorize it. Bookmarks (and your browsing history) are now stored in a database, which means you don't have to spend so much time organizing bookmark folders. You can perform detailed searches of your bookmarks, then save that search as a special folder. Any new bookmarked page that fits the criteria automatically goes in the folder.
5. Whole-page zooming
If your eyes aren't what they used to be, it's nice to bump up the size of text on Web pages, as Firefox 2 will do. But it only changes the text size -- the other elements remain the same size. That makes for pages that look like The Incredible Hulk, with words bursting through the boxs and tabs that are supposed to contain them.
The new Firefox magnifies everything on the page equally. Everything remains in proportion, but becomes easier to read. And the next time you visit that page, it'll display at the same level of zoom.
As it turns out, I'm still using a prerelease version of Firefox (they're at Release Candidate 1 now) and loving it, even without my beloved add-ons. The improvements Mozilla has made to the browser, while subtle, are so helpful that I didn't want to give them up. Here are five of my favorites.
1. Much better performance
If you've used previous versions of Firefox you've likely had this experience, perhaps frequently: you're working away, but gradually become aware that something is horribly wrong with your PC. It's sluggish and apps take forever to load. You open up Task Manager and find that Firefox is chewing up 95 percent of your CPU cycles. Once you kill the browser and start over, you're running fine again.
I can't remember the last time I've had that experience with the Firefox 3 betas. Mozilla developers borrowed some memory management tricks from the Free BSD operating system for the Windows and Linux versions of Firefox. (They say memory management on Macs already worked pretty well.) The effect is clear. The browser is much less likely to commandeer too many system resources. And Firefox's developers worked to make sure that add-ons, notorious memory thieves, don't cause problems either. They've rolled in cycle collectors that help prevent extensions from locking up RAM and not giving it back. They're also distributing tools to third-party developers that will help them build more abstemious add-ons.
2. The "Awesome Bar"
Okay, so the official name is the Location Bar, the field where you enter URLs you want to visit. But beta testers have nicknamed it the Awesome Bar and it is, well, pretty awesome. Enter text in the Location Bar and a dropdown list appears of pages from your browsing history that include that text, not just in the URL, but in the page title or the page's tag (see #4 below). The list even includes Gmail messages that include that word in the subject line. If you've already visited a Web page, there's a good chance it's useful to you. The Location Bar lets you very quickly search that useful subset of the Web.
3. Can't miss warnings
Lots of browsers have had phishing warnings before (including Firefox), but they've been wimpy. Usually they involve some part of the address bar changing color or some icon popping up near the URL. The problem is they're too easy to miss. I'm not looking at the address bar when I'm waiting for a page to load. I'm looking at the main well of the browser where the page will display.
But there's no danger of missing one of Firefox's new warnings. When you enter the URL of a suspected attack site, Firefox brings up a full-page warning. With a click, you can see a detailed explanation of why the site was blocked. Or you can just click "Get me out of here," which takes you to Firefox's start page. If you really want to live dangerously, there's a small link that lets you ignore the warning and proceed to the suspect site.
4. Better bookmarks
If you like a page, you just click the star in the Location Bar and it's a favorite. A dropdown box lets you name it, choose a folder to put it in or add a tag to categorize it. Bookmarks (and your browsing history) are now stored in a database, which means you don't have to spend so much time organizing bookmark folders. You can perform detailed searches of your bookmarks, then save that search as a special folder. Any new bookmarked page that fits the criteria automatically goes in the folder.
5. Whole-page zooming
If your eyes aren't what they used to be, it's nice to bump up the size of text on Web pages, as Firefox 2 will do. But it only changes the text size -- the other elements remain the same size. That makes for pages that look like The Incredible Hulk, with words bursting through the boxs and tabs that are supposed to contain them.
The new Firefox magnifies everything on the page equally. Everything remains in proportion, but becomes easier to read. And the next time you visit that page, it'll display at the same level of zoom.
Retailer GameStop discontinues Zune sales
GameStop will no longer sell Microsoft's Zune digital media players in its stores once it runs out of its current inventory, the company said.
The games retailer, which started selling Zune when the player was released in November 2006, found Zune was not "working with our product mix," said GameStop Vice President of Corporate Communications Chris Olivera in an e-mail on Monday. GameStop is primarily a video game retailer.
GameStop made the decision internally to discontinue selling the product about a month ago, Olivera said. News of the decision first came out publicly on a conference call last week to discuss the company's first-quarter 2008 earnings.
In an e-mail statement from its public relations firm on Monday, Microsoft focused on other retail partnerships rather than address GameStop's decision specifically.
The company noted that Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart and other stores continue to sell Zune, and the company finds "good momentum online and at retail over the last few months, including a great response to our recent spring update."
For that spring update, Microsoft unveiled that NBC would be selling content through the Zune Marketplace, Microsoft's online store that sells content for the player. The news was significant in that it followed a spat NBC had with Apple that spurred the television network to pull its content from Apple's iTunes online music store.
Microsoft released its Zune player as a competitor to Apple's enormously popular iPod. So far, however, Microsoft has seen only marginal success with Zune, selling more than 2 million since its launch. That compares to more than 10 million iPods sold in the first three months of this year.
According to its Web site, GameStop has 5,264 stores, with 4,061 of them in the U.S. The retailer also has 287 stores in Canada, 280 in Australia and New Zealand, and 636 in Europe. The stores operate under the names GameStop and EB Games.
The games retailer, which started selling Zune when the player was released in November 2006, found Zune was not "working with our product mix," said GameStop Vice President of Corporate Communications Chris Olivera in an e-mail on Monday. GameStop is primarily a video game retailer.
GameStop made the decision internally to discontinue selling the product about a month ago, Olivera said. News of the decision first came out publicly on a conference call last week to discuss the company's first-quarter 2008 earnings.
In an e-mail statement from its public relations firm on Monday, Microsoft focused on other retail partnerships rather than address GameStop's decision specifically.
The company noted that Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart and other stores continue to sell Zune, and the company finds "good momentum online and at retail over the last few months, including a great response to our recent spring update."
For that spring update, Microsoft unveiled that NBC would be selling content through the Zune Marketplace, Microsoft's online store that sells content for the player. The news was significant in that it followed a spat NBC had with Apple that spurred the television network to pull its content from Apple's iTunes online music store.
Microsoft released its Zune player as a competitor to Apple's enormously popular iPod. So far, however, Microsoft has seen only marginal success with Zune, selling more than 2 million since its launch. That compares to more than 10 million iPods sold in the first three months of this year.
According to its Web site, GameStop has 5,264 stores, with 4,061 of them in the U.S. The retailer also has 287 stores in Canada, 280 in Australia and New Zealand, and 636 in Europe. The stores operate under the names GameStop and EB Games.
Google beefs up Mini search appliance for SMBs
Google's Mini search appliance for small and midsize businesses has grown a new set of capabilities for crawling and categorizing documents, the company announced in a blog post Tuesday.
"Almost all employees store files on shared servers so other employees can access them. The Mini is now able to securely crawl and serve these file shares," says the post by Cyrus Mistry, enterprise product manager.
The revision also introduces document "biasing," the practice of ranking the importance of related or similar pieces of information.
"Many customers have told us that they want to tell us which documents are more valuable within their own companies -- for instance, published marketing collateral is more authoritative than the first draft," Mistry wrote. "Source biasing enables users to give us URL patterns and tell us if they should be weighted higher or lower."
The Mini now also enables users to rank documents based on their age.
Finally, Google has boosted the Mini's international reach, adding support for Basque, Catalan, Galician, Greek, Hungarian, and Polish in its help files and administrative interfaces, according to the blog post.
However, the posting does not list any increase in the product's scalability. It can index up to 300,000 documents, compared to its stablemate, the Google Search Appliance, which is geared for larger enterprises and can handle up to 30 million documents.
The announcement of new features stands in contrast to a recent rumor, reported by TechCrunch, that the company planned to stop selling the product and launch a new hosted search site.
Both IBM and Microsoft offer free, entry-level search products that compete with the Mini. Pricing for the Mini begins at about US$3,000, including two years of support and the necessary hardware.
A Google spokesperson did not respond directly to a query about the TechCrunch rumor, but said the company's "commitment to the Google Mini as the search solution for small to medium-sized businesses and smaller departments of large corporations is evidenced by this announcement."
The new features were prompted by customer requests and market demand, the spokesperson said.
While the capabilities are "not groundbreaking," and high-end systems have had them for years, they "do increase the functionality of base levels of search," said Guy Creese, an analyst with Burton Group, via e-mail.
Customers wouldn't have revolted if Google hadn't added the features, according to Creese. "However, I do think it points to Google viewing the way to win in this market as giving good value for the money," he said. "While competitors are probably grinding their teeth, this is good news for the entire search market, as competing solutions will have to [improve] their feature sets as well."
The move falls in line with past practices, he added: "This is similar to what Google has done with Web analytics. In the past, free or inexpensive Web analytics [were] pretty bare-bones. However, Google Analytics has consistently added features that mean the entry-level solution is now quite full-featured."
Stephen Arnold, a search analyst who tracks Google closely, said the move shows the company has "confidence that sophisticated features are solid enough for toaster customers."
However, it is unlikely that Google plans to boost the Mini's scalability, because it wouldn't make business sense, according to Arnold.
"They never will," he said. "The logic of every box is that it has a hard limit."
"Almost all employees store files on shared servers so other employees can access them. The Mini is now able to securely crawl and serve these file shares," says the post by Cyrus Mistry, enterprise product manager.
The revision also introduces document "biasing," the practice of ranking the importance of related or similar pieces of information.
"Many customers have told us that they want to tell us which documents are more valuable within their own companies -- for instance, published marketing collateral is more authoritative than the first draft," Mistry wrote. "Source biasing enables users to give us URL patterns and tell us if they should be weighted higher or lower."
The Mini now also enables users to rank documents based on their age.
Finally, Google has boosted the Mini's international reach, adding support for Basque, Catalan, Galician, Greek, Hungarian, and Polish in its help files and administrative interfaces, according to the blog post.
However, the posting does not list any increase in the product's scalability. It can index up to 300,000 documents, compared to its stablemate, the Google Search Appliance, which is geared for larger enterprises and can handle up to 30 million documents.
The announcement of new features stands in contrast to a recent rumor, reported by TechCrunch, that the company planned to stop selling the product and launch a new hosted search site.
Both IBM and Microsoft offer free, entry-level search products that compete with the Mini. Pricing for the Mini begins at about US$3,000, including two years of support and the necessary hardware.
A Google spokesperson did not respond directly to a query about the TechCrunch rumor, but said the company's "commitment to the Google Mini as the search solution for small to medium-sized businesses and smaller departments of large corporations is evidenced by this announcement."
The new features were prompted by customer requests and market demand, the spokesperson said.
While the capabilities are "not groundbreaking," and high-end systems have had them for years, they "do increase the functionality of base levels of search," said Guy Creese, an analyst with Burton Group, via e-mail.
Customers wouldn't have revolted if Google hadn't added the features, according to Creese. "However, I do think it points to Google viewing the way to win in this market as giving good value for the money," he said. "While competitors are probably grinding their teeth, this is good news for the entire search market, as competing solutions will have to [improve] their feature sets as well."
The move falls in line with past practices, he added: "This is similar to what Google has done with Web analytics. In the past, free or inexpensive Web analytics [were] pretty bare-bones. However, Google Analytics has consistently added features that mean the entry-level solution is now quite full-featured."
Stephen Arnold, a search analyst who tracks Google closely, said the move shows the company has "confidence that sophisticated features are solid enough for toaster customers."
However, it is unlikely that Google plans to boost the Mini's scalability, because it wouldn't make business sense, according to Arnold.
"They never will," he said. "The logic of every box is that it has a hard limit."
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
UK's Tranquil PC taking orders for Atom-based home servers
Tranquil PC, a computer maker in the U.K., is taking orders for two home servers based on Intel's upcoming Atom processor, formerly called Diamondville.
The two home servers, the T7-HSAi and T2-WHS-A3i, are both based on Intel's 1.6GHz Atom 230 processor, which will be launched at the Computex exhibition in Taipei next week.
The £278 (US$550) T7-HSAi comes with 512M bytes of RAM, a 500G-byte hard disk, and Windows Home Server. The T2-WHS-A3i costs £299 and has the same basic specifications, but has room for two 3.5-inch hard disks, while the smaller T7-HSAi can hold a single 3.5-inch hard disk or two 2.5-inch hard disks.
The Atom-based systems replace earlier systems based on Via Technologies' older and less powerful C7 processor. The C7-based home servers are no longer available, although Tranquil still sells other computers based on Via processors.
The home servers are not the first products to be offered by Tranquil that use Atom, a chip designed for low-cost laptops and desktops. Last week, the company began accepting preorders for a motherboard with an Atom processor, priced at £53.
The two home servers, the T7-HSAi and T2-WHS-A3i, are both based on Intel's 1.6GHz Atom 230 processor, which will be launched at the Computex exhibition in Taipei next week.
The £278 (US$550) T7-HSAi comes with 512M bytes of RAM, a 500G-byte hard disk, and Windows Home Server. The T2-WHS-A3i costs £299 and has the same basic specifications, but has room for two 3.5-inch hard disks, while the smaller T7-HSAi can hold a single 3.5-inch hard disk or two 2.5-inch hard disks.
The Atom-based systems replace earlier systems based on Via Technologies' older and less powerful C7 processor. The C7-based home servers are no longer available, although Tranquil still sells other computers based on Via processors.
The home servers are not the first products to be offered by Tranquil that use Atom, a chip designed for low-cost laptops and desktops. Last week, the company began accepting preorders for a motherboard with an Atom processor, priced at £53.
Vodafone CEO Sarin steps down, to be replaced by Colao
Vodafone Group CEO Arun Sarin will step down from the top job at the mobile operator in July, the company said Tuesday.
Sarin will leave the CEO's chair, a position he has occupied for the last five years, on July 28 at the company's annual general meeting, Vodafone said. He will be replaced by Vittorio Colao, the group's deputy CEO.
Vodafone also announced its full-year results, posting a £6.66 billion (US$13.1 billion) net profit for its fiscal 2008, compared to a loss of £4.93 billion for fiscal 2007.
Sarin was appointed CEO of Vodafone in July 2003, after serving as a non-executive director of the company. He also did a stint as CEO of Vodafone United States and Asia-Pacific. Sarin joined Vodafone in 1999, when the company acquired AirTouch Communications, where he served as president and CEO.
"Sarin has done a very good job, but has he done everything right? Of course not," said Martin Gutberlet, analyst at Gartner.
Gutberlet gave Sarin high marks for transforming Vodafone from a pure mobile operator into more of a service provider.
Under Sarin's tenure, Vodafone continued to expand its international reach, most recently with the acquisition of Indian operator Hutchison Essar, Gutberlet said. Fixed networks are also part of Vodafone's services now, he said.
Through this expansion, the number of Vodafone subscribers worldwide increased from 120 million to more than 260 million, Vodafone said.
Sarin received a lot of credit for his frank comments about what he thinks the vendors' development plans. At the Mobile World Congress in February, Sarin said WiMax and LTE (Long-Term Evolution) should be merged into one technology. Last year, Sarin challenged vendors to develop LTE faster.
Sarin's comments, along with other pressure from companies such as NTT Docomo and T-Mobile, lit a match under the vendor community resulting in faster LTE development, Gutberlet said.
Colao previously served as head of Vodafone Italy and regional CEO for Southern Europe. He left Vodafone in 2004 to become group CEO of the Italian publisher RCS MediaGroup. He rejoined Vodafone in 2006 as CEO of Vodafone's European region before taking on his current position.
The CEO of Vodafone is one of the most important roles in the industry. The rest of the mobile operators look to Vodafone for technology leadership, according to Richard Webb, directing analyst at Infonetics.
"He has to have a very clear vision and be very vocal about it, but I don't think Vodafone would pick someone who hasn't got that," Webb said.
"Colao's biggest challenge will be to keep Vodafone from turning into a bit pipe, but that is true for all mobile operators. Colao needs a dedicated Internet approach, including areas like advertising," Gutberlet said.
Sarin will leave the CEO's chair, a position he has occupied for the last five years, on July 28 at the company's annual general meeting, Vodafone said. He will be replaced by Vittorio Colao, the group's deputy CEO.
Vodafone also announced its full-year results, posting a £6.66 billion (US$13.1 billion) net profit for its fiscal 2008, compared to a loss of £4.93 billion for fiscal 2007.
Sarin was appointed CEO of Vodafone in July 2003, after serving as a non-executive director of the company. He also did a stint as CEO of Vodafone United States and Asia-Pacific. Sarin joined Vodafone in 1999, when the company acquired AirTouch Communications, where he served as president and CEO.
"Sarin has done a very good job, but has he done everything right? Of course not," said Martin Gutberlet, analyst at Gartner.
Gutberlet gave Sarin high marks for transforming Vodafone from a pure mobile operator into more of a service provider.
Under Sarin's tenure, Vodafone continued to expand its international reach, most recently with the acquisition of Indian operator Hutchison Essar, Gutberlet said. Fixed networks are also part of Vodafone's services now, he said.
Through this expansion, the number of Vodafone subscribers worldwide increased from 120 million to more than 260 million, Vodafone said.
Sarin received a lot of credit for his frank comments about what he thinks the vendors' development plans. At the Mobile World Congress in February, Sarin said WiMax and LTE (Long-Term Evolution) should be merged into one technology. Last year, Sarin challenged vendors to develop LTE faster.
Sarin's comments, along with other pressure from companies such as NTT Docomo and T-Mobile, lit a match under the vendor community resulting in faster LTE development, Gutberlet said.
Colao previously served as head of Vodafone Italy and regional CEO for Southern Europe. He left Vodafone in 2004 to become group CEO of the Italian publisher RCS MediaGroup. He rejoined Vodafone in 2006 as CEO of Vodafone's European region before taking on his current position.
The CEO of Vodafone is one of the most important roles in the industry. The rest of the mobile operators look to Vodafone for technology leadership, according to Richard Webb, directing analyst at Infonetics.
"He has to have a very clear vision and be very vocal about it, but I don't think Vodafone would pick someone who hasn't got that," Webb said.
"Colao's biggest challenge will be to keep Vodafone from turning into a bit pipe, but that is true for all mobile operators. Colao needs a dedicated Internet approach, including areas like advertising," Gutberlet said.
Via releases laptop design as open source
Via Technologies released the hardware design for a low-cost laptop with WiMax support under an open-source license on Tuesday, a move intended to make customization easier and shorten design cycles for system makers.
The CAD (computer-assisted design) files for the OpenBook reference design can be downloaded for free and made available to anyone under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license. The terms of this license allow the CAD files to be freely copied, shared and modified.
The only requirements are that use of the design is attributed to Via and changes made to the design can only be distributed under the same license or one that has similar terms.
"We're hoping we'll get some interesting feedback, and look forward to seeing what the community thinks about this concept," said Richard Brown, vice president of marketing at Via.
The OpenBook is based on Via's 1.6 GHz C7-M processor and VX800 chipset. The design includes an 8.9-inch screen with a resolution of 1,024 pixels by 600 pixels and calls for a hard disk with a capacity of 80G bytes or more. The basic wireless module included in the design supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Optional modules include Assisted GPS (AGPS), WiMax, and support for high-speed cellular networks based on EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized), HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access), and WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access).
Other features of the 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) OpenBook include a full-size keyboard, up to 2G bytes of DDR (double data rate) memory, a 2-megapixel camera, a memory-card reader, and a 4-cell battery that offers up to three hours of life. The laptop is designed to run Windows Vista, Windows XP, or Linux, including G/OS, SuSE Linux, and Ubuntu.
The OpenBook design is similar in appearance to Everex's CloudBook Max unveiled at the CTIA Wireless exhibition in April, but the two designs are different, Brown said, pointing to subtle design changes made to suit the requirements of Sprint, the operator that commissioned the CloudBook Max.
Depending on the exact configuration, OpenBook systems will likely cost between US$500 to $800, Brown said, adding that the first products will likely hit the market during the third quarter.
Via isn't the first company to release a hardware design as open source. In March, Openmoko, a company set up by Taiwanese hardware maker First International Computer (FIC), released an open-source smartphone design, the Neo 1973. The handset, which runs Linux, supports GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) networks, and includes Bluetooth and AGPS.
Like Via's OpenBook, the Neo 1973 hardware design was released under a Creative Commons ShareAlike license.
The CAD (computer-assisted design) files for the OpenBook reference design can be downloaded for free and made available to anyone under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license. The terms of this license allow the CAD files to be freely copied, shared and modified.
The only requirements are that use of the design is attributed to Via and changes made to the design can only be distributed under the same license or one that has similar terms.
"We're hoping we'll get some interesting feedback, and look forward to seeing what the community thinks about this concept," said Richard Brown, vice president of marketing at Via.
The OpenBook is based on Via's 1.6 GHz C7-M processor and VX800 chipset. The design includes an 8.9-inch screen with a resolution of 1,024 pixels by 600 pixels and calls for a hard disk with a capacity of 80G bytes or more. The basic wireless module included in the design supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Optional modules include Assisted GPS (AGPS), WiMax, and support for high-speed cellular networks based on EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized), HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access), and WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access).
Other features of the 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) OpenBook include a full-size keyboard, up to 2G bytes of DDR (double data rate) memory, a 2-megapixel camera, a memory-card reader, and a 4-cell battery that offers up to three hours of life. The laptop is designed to run Windows Vista, Windows XP, or Linux, including G/OS, SuSE Linux, and Ubuntu.
The OpenBook design is similar in appearance to Everex's CloudBook Max unveiled at the CTIA Wireless exhibition in April, but the two designs are different, Brown said, pointing to subtle design changes made to suit the requirements of Sprint, the operator that commissioned the CloudBook Max.
Depending on the exact configuration, OpenBook systems will likely cost between US$500 to $800, Brown said, adding that the first products will likely hit the market during the third quarter.
Via isn't the first company to release a hardware design as open source. In March, Openmoko, a company set up by Taiwanese hardware maker First International Computer (FIC), released an open-source smartphone design, the Neo 1973. The handset, which runs Linux, supports GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) networks, and includes Bluetooth and AGPS.
Like Via's OpenBook, the Neo 1973 hardware design was released under a Creative Commons ShareAlike license.
Sierra Leone set for solar-powered school PC center
Plans are set to install the first computer center powered by solar energy in Sierra Leone.
The beneficiary, the Prince Of Wales (POW) Secondary School, is located less than a third of a mile from Kingtom Power Station, a major Freetown electricity distribution center, but has no power.
The Prince Of Wales Alumni Association (POWAA) branch in the U.S. state of Georgia has proposed to provide the center with new desktop and laptop computers, a solar-power system and high-speed satellite Internet access – which is the only broadband option -- for their school. The estimated total capital cost of the project is between $60,000 and $70,000.
The government-owned school was officially inaugurated by the prince of Wales in 1925, and chartered to foster science education and studies in modern languages. The POWAA in Georgia was founded in 2002 by former POW students residing in the U.S.
The alumni also plan to extend Wi-Fi capability so that students and teachers who already have their own laptops can access the Internet without going to the computer center.
The solar power basics will comprise photovoltaic (PV) panels, batteries, three charge controllers, inverters, meter and breakers. The system will require about 30 solar panels to produce a total wattage of between 5 kilowatts and 6kw.
According to POWAA President Samuel O. Atere-Roberts, the solar equipment including panels and other accessories was procured from African Energy in Arizona. Atere-Roberts said that there have been delays in shipping the equipment to the U.S., due to fluctuating costs, and that installation of the center depends on when the equipment will arrive in Freetown.
POW school principal Millicent Ogoo confirmed the plans, and said that the school is expecting laptops next week.
"We’ve been getting support from organizations but this is the first time we’ll be getting a solar power system. We are also expecting 20 laptops next week. We are very proud of the project. They have really done well. It also shows that they have concern for the school," she said.
A contract for securing the classroom that will host the new computer center has been awarded to Sky Construction in Freetown and work has started in earnest, Atere-Roberts said. He charged more donors to join the project and change history in Sierra Leone as they follow the footsteps of Myeka High School in South Africa. In 2000, Myeka overcame many logistical problems courtesy of a similar project. Pass rates at Myeka school reportedly increased from 55 percent to 69 percent.
The beneficiary, the Prince Of Wales (POW) Secondary School, is located less than a third of a mile from Kingtom Power Station, a major Freetown electricity distribution center, but has no power.
The Prince Of Wales Alumni Association (POWAA) branch in the U.S. state of Georgia has proposed to provide the center with new desktop and laptop computers, a solar-power system and high-speed satellite Internet access – which is the only broadband option -- for their school. The estimated total capital cost of the project is between $60,000 and $70,000.
The government-owned school was officially inaugurated by the prince of Wales in 1925, and chartered to foster science education and studies in modern languages. The POWAA in Georgia was founded in 2002 by former POW students residing in the U.S.
The alumni also plan to extend Wi-Fi capability so that students and teachers who already have their own laptops can access the Internet without going to the computer center.
The solar power basics will comprise photovoltaic (PV) panels, batteries, three charge controllers, inverters, meter and breakers. The system will require about 30 solar panels to produce a total wattage of between 5 kilowatts and 6kw.
According to POWAA President Samuel O. Atere-Roberts, the solar equipment including panels and other accessories was procured from African Energy in Arizona. Atere-Roberts said that there have been delays in shipping the equipment to the U.S., due to fluctuating costs, and that installation of the center depends on when the equipment will arrive in Freetown.
POW school principal Millicent Ogoo confirmed the plans, and said that the school is expecting laptops next week.
"We’ve been getting support from organizations but this is the first time we’ll be getting a solar power system. We are also expecting 20 laptops next week. We are very proud of the project. They have really done well. It also shows that they have concern for the school," she said.
A contract for securing the classroom that will host the new computer center has been awarded to Sky Construction in Freetown and work has started in earnest, Atere-Roberts said. He charged more donors to join the project and change history in Sierra Leone as they follow the footsteps of Myeka High School in South Africa. In 2000, Myeka overcame many logistical problems courtesy of a similar project. Pass rates at Myeka school reportedly increased from 55 percent to 69 percent.
RIM says it can't provide e-mail interception in India
Research In Motion (RIM) has said it is unable to give the Indian government access to messages sent by its enterprise clients over the BlackBerry service.
The BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers is specially designed to exclude the capability for RIM or any third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances, the company said in an update to its Indian customers on Monday.
For enterprise customers, the security architecture is based on a symmetric key system whereby the customer creates his own key, and only the customer possesses a copy of his encryption key, RIM said. The company does not possess a "master key", nor does any "back door" exist in the system that would allow RIM or any third party to gain unauthorized access to the key or corporate data, it said.
Further, RIM would be unable to accommodate any request for a copy of an enterprise customer's encryption key, as neither RIM nor any wireless network operator possess a copy of the key, it said.
RIM also offers a separate product for individual customers, BlackBerry Internet Service, hosted by telecommunications operators. It did not comment on that service Monday, and a spokesman was unsure whether carriers offering such a service would have access to the security keys.
The Indian government had refused to allow an Indian network operator, Tata Teleservices, to offer BlackBerry services until the government was able to intercept BlackBerry messages for security reasons. Other mobile service providers, who were already offering the BlackBerry service, were also asked to introduce measures that would allow the government to intercept and read BlackBerry messages whenever necessary.
Governments have a wide range of resources and methodologies to satisfy national security and law enforcement needs without compromising commercial security requirements, RIM said.
The use of strong encryption in wireless technology is not unique to the BlackBerry platform, and is a mandatory requirement for all enterprise-class wireless e-mail services, it added.
Government sources were not immediately available for comment. Discussions between RIM and the government continue, according to informed sources.
The BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers is specially designed to exclude the capability for RIM or any third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances, the company said in an update to its Indian customers on Monday.
For enterprise customers, the security architecture is based on a symmetric key system whereby the customer creates his own key, and only the customer possesses a copy of his encryption key, RIM said. The company does not possess a "master key", nor does any "back door" exist in the system that would allow RIM or any third party to gain unauthorized access to the key or corporate data, it said.
Further, RIM would be unable to accommodate any request for a copy of an enterprise customer's encryption key, as neither RIM nor any wireless network operator possess a copy of the key, it said.
RIM also offers a separate product for individual customers, BlackBerry Internet Service, hosted by telecommunications operators. It did not comment on that service Monday, and a spokesman was unsure whether carriers offering such a service would have access to the security keys.
The Indian government had refused to allow an Indian network operator, Tata Teleservices, to offer BlackBerry services until the government was able to intercept BlackBerry messages for security reasons. Other mobile service providers, who were already offering the BlackBerry service, were also asked to introduce measures that would allow the government to intercept and read BlackBerry messages whenever necessary.
Governments have a wide range of resources and methodologies to satisfy national security and law enforcement needs without compromising commercial security requirements, RIM said.
The use of strong encryption in wireless technology is not unique to the BlackBerry platform, and is a mandatory requirement for all enterprise-class wireless e-mail services, it added.
Government sources were not immediately available for comment. Discussions between RIM and the government continue, according to informed sources.
San Francisco's BART in talks for full Wi-Fi rollout
The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District is negotiating with a startup for a Wi-Fi network that would provide fast Internet access to riders throughout its 104-mile (167 kilometers) regional rail system.
BART would not pay anything for the network, which would be paid for by rider subscriptions and advertising, according to Wi-Fi Rail, a company based near Sacramento that says it has four patents pending on its Wi-Fi technology for predetermined paths such as railways and roads.
Municipal wireless networks have had a hard time financially, but public transit offers a daily captive audience that is growing as gasoline prices rise. Wi-Fi Rail estimates that within three years, as many as 20 percent of BART's 180,000 regular riders will subscribe to the service, according to Michael Cromar, chief financial officer of Wi-Fi Rail.
Wi-Fi Rail has been testing the system for about a year on a stretch of track in downtown San Francisco as well as on an outdoor test track. More than 9,000 people have signed up to use the system and have signed on more than 42,000 times, Cromar said.
Now BART and the company are in negotiations on the terms of a full deployment, in phases, which would take as much as two years. On Thursday, BART staff presented an update at a meeting of the transit system's board of directors.
Unlike other, established Wi-Fi providers, Wi-Fi Rail was willing to build the network, for an estimated US$20 million, at no cost to BART, the agency said. Like Sprint Nextel, which operates cellular base stations along a busy stretch of track in San Francisco, Wi-Fi Rail will have to offer wholesale capacity to other service providers to resell, said BART spokesman Linton Johnson.
The transit agency will use the wireless bandwidth to set up its in-car security cameras for live viewing, and it plans to also put screens in cars that give service information to riders, he said. BART would also receive a licensing fee from Wi-Fi Rail.
Riders will be able to use the service free with commercials that pop up every few minutes or buy a monthly subscription, Cromar said. The monthly fee would be competitive with other hot-spot services that are priced between about $20 and $30, according to Cromar. Daily and other types of subscriptions would also be offered. For that, subscribers would share between 15M bps (bits per second) and 22M bps -- both upstream and downstream -- with other riders in a car. Tests have shown no noticeable slowdown between one and eight riders on a car, he said earlier this year. In tests, the system worked on trains moving as fast as 65 miles per hour.
Riders will connect directly to a standard Cisco Systems access point on each car, which in turn will link up to the trackside network. Underground, that system will use deliberately unshielded coaxial cable, called "leaky coax," and outdoor sections of the track will be served using solar-powered parabolic antennas.
Neither side estimated how long negotiations for the full buildout would take. But once talks are concluded, the first phase of the network should be finished and paid commercial service launched in about four months, according to Cromar.
BART would not pay anything for the network, which would be paid for by rider subscriptions and advertising, according to Wi-Fi Rail, a company based near Sacramento that says it has four patents pending on its Wi-Fi technology for predetermined paths such as railways and roads.
Municipal wireless networks have had a hard time financially, but public transit offers a daily captive audience that is growing as gasoline prices rise. Wi-Fi Rail estimates that within three years, as many as 20 percent of BART's 180,000 regular riders will subscribe to the service, according to Michael Cromar, chief financial officer of Wi-Fi Rail.
Wi-Fi Rail has been testing the system for about a year on a stretch of track in downtown San Francisco as well as on an outdoor test track. More than 9,000 people have signed up to use the system and have signed on more than 42,000 times, Cromar said.
Now BART and the company are in negotiations on the terms of a full deployment, in phases, which would take as much as two years. On Thursday, BART staff presented an update at a meeting of the transit system's board of directors.
Unlike other, established Wi-Fi providers, Wi-Fi Rail was willing to build the network, for an estimated US$20 million, at no cost to BART, the agency said. Like Sprint Nextel, which operates cellular base stations along a busy stretch of track in San Francisco, Wi-Fi Rail will have to offer wholesale capacity to other service providers to resell, said BART spokesman Linton Johnson.
The transit agency will use the wireless bandwidth to set up its in-car security cameras for live viewing, and it plans to also put screens in cars that give service information to riders, he said. BART would also receive a licensing fee from Wi-Fi Rail.
Riders will be able to use the service free with commercials that pop up every few minutes or buy a monthly subscription, Cromar said. The monthly fee would be competitive with other hot-spot services that are priced between about $20 and $30, according to Cromar. Daily and other types of subscriptions would also be offered. For that, subscribers would share between 15M bps (bits per second) and 22M bps -- both upstream and downstream -- with other riders in a car. Tests have shown no noticeable slowdown between one and eight riders on a car, he said earlier this year. In tests, the system worked on trains moving as fast as 65 miles per hour.
Riders will connect directly to a standard Cisco Systems access point on each car, which in turn will link up to the trackside network. Underground, that system will use deliberately unshielded coaxial cable, called "leaky coax," and outdoor sections of the track will be served using solar-powered parabolic antennas.
Neither side estimated how long negotiations for the full buildout would take. But once talks are concluded, the first phase of the network should be finished and paid commercial service launched in about four months, according to Cromar.
TJX staffer sacked after talking about security problems
A low-level TJX employee has lost his job for speaking in public about information security problems he uncovered while working for the company.
The employee, Nick Benson, is a University of Kansas student who worked at T.J. Maxx's Pine Ridge Plaza store in Lawrence, Kansas. In an e-mail interview, he said he was fired Wednesday for violating corporate policy by disclosing proprietary information.
TJX is sensitive about information security after being the victim of a massive data theft, apparently made possible by poor security on the company's wireless networks. That breach, which compromised 94 million credit and debit card accounts, has cost the company tens of millions of dollars in legal settlements.
Benson, also known by his hacker name, Cryptic Mauler, is a frequent poster to computer security discussion groups such as Full Disclosure and the Sla.ckers.org Web forum, where he criticized the company's password policy, its server security settings, and the competence of the technicians who install firewalls at the company's stores.
"I never use anything but cash at their stores, but it's hard to sleep at night knowing the same network stores my employee information," he wrote on Aug. 22, 2007. "For all I know that information has already been picked cleaned by the hackers and [the] company could have swept it under the rug."
Although Benson didn't disclose anything that would have been news to a "vaguely smart" criminal, he did make a mistake by not disclosing the problems he'd found through the proper channels, said Robert Hansen, the CEO of Sectheory.com and owner of the Sla.ckers.org site. He first blogged about Benson's termination on Thursday.
Hansen said he felt bad for Benson, as did many of the contributors to his Web site. "He's a young guy," he said. "He didn't know the rules."
It's an all-too-common story in the information security industry, Hansen said. "When people are new to information disclosure ... they're idealistic and young and they tend to make mistakes," he said. "A good chunk of the people who sympathize with him have had almost exactly the same thing happen to them."
Benson said he reported the issues to his store manager and the company's district loss prevention manager but no immediate action was taken.
Just last week, Benson expressed concern that he might be fired for reporting the problem. "I don't want to lose my job for reporting this," he wrote. "Unfortunately anonymously reporting this will not work, since it would require me giving the store location which would then easily zero me out. "
Apparently TJX zeroed Benson anyhow, identifying him from the IP address he used to post his comments to the Web site, Hansen said.
The company met with him on Wednesday and asked him to explain all the security issues he'd found. After that, he was "fired on the spot," he said.
TJX did not return calls seeking comment for this story.
Benson said the company has threatened to take legal action against him if he talks any more about the company's security problems.
The employee, Nick Benson, is a University of Kansas student who worked at T.J. Maxx's Pine Ridge Plaza store in Lawrence, Kansas. In an e-mail interview, he said he was fired Wednesday for violating corporate policy by disclosing proprietary information.
TJX is sensitive about information security after being the victim of a massive data theft, apparently made possible by poor security on the company's wireless networks. That breach, which compromised 94 million credit and debit card accounts, has cost the company tens of millions of dollars in legal settlements.
Benson, also known by his hacker name, Cryptic Mauler, is a frequent poster to computer security discussion groups such as Full Disclosure and the Sla.ckers.org Web forum, where he criticized the company's password policy, its server security settings, and the competence of the technicians who install firewalls at the company's stores.
"I never use anything but cash at their stores, but it's hard to sleep at night knowing the same network stores my employee information," he wrote on Aug. 22, 2007. "For all I know that information has already been picked cleaned by the hackers and [the] company could have swept it under the rug."
Although Benson didn't disclose anything that would have been news to a "vaguely smart" criminal, he did make a mistake by not disclosing the problems he'd found through the proper channels, said Robert Hansen, the CEO of Sectheory.com and owner of the Sla.ckers.org site. He first blogged about Benson's termination on Thursday.
Hansen said he felt bad for Benson, as did many of the contributors to his Web site. "He's a young guy," he said. "He didn't know the rules."
It's an all-too-common story in the information security industry, Hansen said. "When people are new to information disclosure ... they're idealistic and young and they tend to make mistakes," he said. "A good chunk of the people who sympathize with him have had almost exactly the same thing happen to them."
Benson said he reported the issues to his store manager and the company's district loss prevention manager but no immediate action was taken.
Just last week, Benson expressed concern that he might be fired for reporting the problem. "I don't want to lose my job for reporting this," he wrote. "Unfortunately anonymously reporting this will not work, since it would require me giving the store location which would then easily zero me out. "
Apparently TJX zeroed Benson anyhow, identifying him from the IP address he used to post his comments to the Web site, Hansen said.
The company met with him on Wednesday and asked him to explain all the security issues he'd found. After that, he was "fired on the spot," he said.
TJX did not return calls seeking comment for this story.
Benson said the company has threatened to take legal action against him if he talks any more about the company's security problems.
Future Apple devices may be solar powered
Employees at Apple have filed a patent for integrating solar cells into portable devices by placing them underneath the layers of a touch-sensitive display, according to the filing.
Solar power could help make devices truly portable, freeing from the need for wires to connect them to a power supply.
When generating electricity from solar panels, the larger the panel the better -- but as the patent "Solar cells on portable devices" warns, after allowing space for buttons, screens and a way to hold the device, only a small area is left on most devices for solar cells.
One of the ways around that suggested in the patent is to stack a touch-sensitive layer, a display and solar panel on top of one another. That could make Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch good candidates for such a power supply, as the display occupies almost the entire face of those devices.
The use of solar powered charging in portable devices is starting to get more attention, for more immediate consumer use as well.
When Vodafone announced its plan in April to reduce its emissions of the greenhouse gase CO2 by 50 percent by 2020, it also announced plans for solar-powered phone chargers and universal phone chargers for Vodafone-branded handsets.
At the recent ITU Telecom Africa 2008 conference, Ugandan Minister for Communications and Information and Communication Technologies Ham-Mukasa Mulira talked about trials of solar-powered charging conducted there, which had showed promise.
Solar power could help make devices truly portable, freeing from the need for wires to connect them to a power supply.
When generating electricity from solar panels, the larger the panel the better -- but as the patent "Solar cells on portable devices" warns, after allowing space for buttons, screens and a way to hold the device, only a small area is left on most devices for solar cells.
One of the ways around that suggested in the patent is to stack a touch-sensitive layer, a display and solar panel on top of one another. That could make Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch good candidates for such a power supply, as the display occupies almost the entire face of those devices.
The use of solar powered charging in portable devices is starting to get more attention, for more immediate consumer use as well.
When Vodafone announced its plan in April to reduce its emissions of the greenhouse gase CO2 by 50 percent by 2020, it also announced plans for solar-powered phone chargers and universal phone chargers for Vodafone-branded handsets.
At the recent ITU Telecom Africa 2008 conference, Ugandan Minister for Communications and Information and Communication Technologies Ham-Mukasa Mulira talked about trials of solar-powered charging conducted there, which had showed promise.
Samsung shows 256GB SSD, plans launch this year
Samsung Electronics plans to launch within this year a flash memory-based solid-state disk that boasts a 256G byte capacity and high-speed interface, it said Monday.
The drive, which was unveiled in prototype form at a Samsung event in Taipei, has the same form factor as a 9.5-millimeter high 2.5-inch hard-disk drive for which it is designed to be a drop-in replacement.
Solid-state disks (SSDs) are an emerging type of storage device that use flash memory chips in place of the spinning magnetic disks used in hard-disk drives. The memory chips mean the drives are more sturdy and typically have a higher performance but the per-byte storage cost is also much higher, so they are generally more expensive. That has largely restricted them to niche applications but as flash prices come down they are expected to become more widely used.
Samsung, which is one of the world's largest makers of flash memory chips, is eager to see the drives become popular as their widespread use will represent a big new market for its chips.
The prototype drive announced by the company has a read speed of 200M bytes per second (Bps) and a sequential write speed of 160M Bps, said Samsung.
Samples of the drive will be available to customers from September with mass production due by the end of the year.
A version with a similar form factor to a 1.8-inch drive is also expected to be available in the fourth quarter of the year, the company said.
The drive isn't the first SSD launched at this capacity. Last month a competitor, U.S.-based Super Talent, began sales of a 256G byte SSD but that drive is thicker than Samsung's at 12.5 millimeters. It has a SATA I interface, which means read speeds of 65M bytes per second and write speeds of 50M bytes per second.
The drive, which was unveiled in prototype form at a Samsung event in Taipei, has the same form factor as a 9.5-millimeter high 2.5-inch hard-disk drive for which it is designed to be a drop-in replacement.
Solid-state disks (SSDs) are an emerging type of storage device that use flash memory chips in place of the spinning magnetic disks used in hard-disk drives. The memory chips mean the drives are more sturdy and typically have a higher performance but the per-byte storage cost is also much higher, so they are generally more expensive. That has largely restricted them to niche applications but as flash prices come down they are expected to become more widely used.
Samsung, which is one of the world's largest makers of flash memory chips, is eager to see the drives become popular as their widespread use will represent a big new market for its chips.
The prototype drive announced by the company has a read speed of 200M bytes per second (Bps) and a sequential write speed of 160M Bps, said Samsung.
Samples of the drive will be available to customers from September with mass production due by the end of the year.
A version with a similar form factor to a 1.8-inch drive is also expected to be available in the fourth quarter of the year, the company said.
The drive isn't the first SSD launched at this capacity. Last month a competitor, U.S.-based Super Talent, began sales of a 256G byte SSD but that drive is thicker than Samsung's at 12.5 millimeters. It has a SATA I interface, which means read speeds of 65M bytes per second and write speeds of 50M bytes per second.
China plans telecom restructuring, clears way for 3G
China announced a restructuring plan for the country's fixed-line and mobile operators on Saturday, a final step towards the long-awaited release of 3G (third-generation) mobile licenses.
The plan, long a focus of discussion among Chinese government organizations, will merge or split the operations of Chinese carriers, creating three new operators that will have both mobile and fixed-line services. At present, Chinese fixed-line operators -- which are split along geographical lines -- are not permitted to offer mobile services, while mobile operators may not offer fixed-line services.
When the restructuring is completed, China will issue 3G licenses, the government said in a statement (in Chinese) that was signed by the newly formed Ministry of Industry and Information, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Finance.
The 3G licenses may even be issued before the restructuring process is completed, said Bryan Wang, Springboard Research's Greater China country manager and director of connectivity research. "Optimistically, it could happen before end of this year," he said.
By restructuring the operators into companies that offer both types of services, the Chinese government hopes to enhance the competitiveness of local operators and clear the way for 3G licenses to be released. China has one of the world's biggest mobile markets, but will be one of the last to roll out commercial 3G services.
Under the restructuring plan, fixed-line carrier China Telecommunications (China Telecom) will acquire the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) mobile network from China United Telecommunications (China Unicom). China Telecom will also acquire China Satcom, which offers satellite-based communications services.
China Unicom will retain its GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) network and merge with fixed-line operator China Network Communications (China Netcom).
China Mobile Communications, China's largest mobile operator, will merge with China Tietong Telecommunication, which operates a national fixed-line network.
The most difficult part of the restructuring process will involve splitting out China Unicom's CDMA network and transferring it to China Telecom. "China Telecom has already set up a team for CDMA, but obviously that's a smaller team conducting some studies to understand Unicom's network," Wang said.
Growing that team will be a challenge, as some important China Unicom executives may not join China Telecom. "Unicom plans to keep all the key guys for its GSM business," he said.
The statement that announced the plan did not offer a deadline for when the restructuring will be completed, but a report by the official Xinhua News Agency estimated the process could take 12 months to 18 months.
However, Wang estimated the process may be completed sooner, perhaps "within 12 months."
The plan, long a focus of discussion among Chinese government organizations, will merge or split the operations of Chinese carriers, creating three new operators that will have both mobile and fixed-line services. At present, Chinese fixed-line operators -- which are split along geographical lines -- are not permitted to offer mobile services, while mobile operators may not offer fixed-line services.
When the restructuring is completed, China will issue 3G licenses, the government said in a statement (in Chinese) that was signed by the newly formed Ministry of Industry and Information, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Finance.
The 3G licenses may even be issued before the restructuring process is completed, said Bryan Wang, Springboard Research's Greater China country manager and director of connectivity research. "Optimistically, it could happen before end of this year," he said.
By restructuring the operators into companies that offer both types of services, the Chinese government hopes to enhance the competitiveness of local operators and clear the way for 3G licenses to be released. China has one of the world's biggest mobile markets, but will be one of the last to roll out commercial 3G services.
Under the restructuring plan, fixed-line carrier China Telecommunications (China Telecom) will acquire the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) mobile network from China United Telecommunications (China Unicom). China Telecom will also acquire China Satcom, which offers satellite-based communications services.
China Unicom will retain its GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) network and merge with fixed-line operator China Network Communications (China Netcom).
China Mobile Communications, China's largest mobile operator, will merge with China Tietong Telecommunication, which operates a national fixed-line network.
The most difficult part of the restructuring process will involve splitting out China Unicom's CDMA network and transferring it to China Telecom. "China Telecom has already set up a team for CDMA, but obviously that's a smaller team conducting some studies to understand Unicom's network," Wang said.
Growing that team will be a challenge, as some important China Unicom executives may not join China Telecom. "Unicom plans to keep all the key guys for its GSM business," he said.
The statement that announced the plan did not offer a deadline for when the restructuring will be completed, but a report by the official Xinhua News Agency estimated the process could take 12 months to 18 months.
However, Wang estimated the process may be completed sooner, perhaps "within 12 months."
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