Palm is facing deep challenges to compete with Apple's iPhone, while Research In Motion's BlackBerry also seems set to lose market share to the device, at least in the consumer market, an analyst reports
Needham & Co. analyst Charles Wolf has commenced coverage of Palm and RIM, and notes both companies face challenges as iPhone wins hearts and minds in the consumer and enterprise markets.
Palm faces the deepest challenge. Wolf warns the company has "lost its way". The lack of a new OS release in five years means the company is increasingly reliant on in-development products to regain its lost market lead.
"Neither is likely to be introduced until late in the year. Even then, it's an open question whether they'll be successful. We're initiating coverage with an under perform rating," Needham & Co. said.
Wolf also believes that Apple's iPhone may take market share from both competing firms once it introduces new enterprise-friendly features in June. RIM will see some impact in its core enterprise markets, while the expected diversity of third-party iPhone applications will hammer Palm's place in the consumer market.
"We believe BlackBerry's supercharged growth in this [consumer] market could slow materially when far more versatile applications developed for the iPhone begin to appear in the second half of the year," Wolf warned.
The analyst does note that this triptych of smartphone developers still hold a great lead on most competitors, because other firms (such as Motorola or Samsung) are tied to Microsoft's Windows Mobile system, which Needham & Co. calls "a non-starter in the consumer world".
The introduction of Google's Android platform for mobile phones may change the game once again, the analyst said, as it will offer a more extendible base OS than Windows Mobile to competing firms.
Despite it all, Wolf notes that Apple changed the smartphone industry when it chose to launch iPhone, describing the market as "totally disrupted" by the product's introduction.
"The iPhone is a game changer, weaving together a wide array of computer-like functions," he explained. "Given the choice between a BlackBerry and iPhone, we believe a material percentage of consumers will opt for the iPhone once exciting applications for the phone begin to proliferate in the second half of the year. BlackBerry sales should continue to grow but at a materially slower rate than they would have in the absence of the iPhone."
Research In Motion's market leadership is based entirely on the incompetence of the competition, the analyst also said: "RIM's competitors until quite recently were simply inept. Their failure stemmed less from their ability to design sleek phones than in their choice of an operating system on which to run them," he explained.
The analyst rates Palm shares as under-perform, while RIM takes a hold rating pending the effects of June's release of iPhone Software 2.0.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Opera previews mobile browser for Google Android
Opera on Thursday added Google's Android to the list of platforms that can run its mobile browser.
Opera released a technical preview of its Opera Mini browser for Google's mobile OS and middleware on its Web site, the company said Thursday. The company also released a software development kit for the platform.
Developers can test the browser and share feedback about it that will be considered before Opera releases a beta version, which it will do once it collects feedback from the community.
In a company blog posting, Opera's Developer Relationship Manager Chris Mills explained why the company decided to create a version of its mobile browser for Android and the particulars and challenges of writing the code.
According to the post, Opera considered the "cool factor" in providing a browser for Google's much-ballyhooed mobile platform, but also wanted to give users and developers the broadest possible choice for deploying its browser.
Because Android is so new and there is not yet hardware available for it, however, Opera developers ran into some challenges in creating the software, he said.
Mills said that because the platform is comprised of "a very fresh set of APIs," there is not much information available on the Web about it, and the community, while helpful, is still in its nascent stage of developing. "Sometimes it is difficult to find an answer if something during development is not going very well and you have questions," he wrote.
Not having access to hardware that will run the platform makes it "impossible to say how fast Opera Mini will run on real devices," Mills added.
Google introduced Android last November; it includes a mobile OS, middleware and applications for mobile devices. So far HTC, Motorola, Samsung and LG are among handset providers that have committed to building devices for Android, and Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and AT&T are among the carriers who will offer service on Android handsets.
According to Opera, more than 40 million people use Opera Mini. Other mobile platforms that can run the browser include Symbian OS, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, BlackBerry OS, Samsung's SHP and Motorola's P2K.
Opera released a technical preview of its Opera Mini browser for Google's mobile OS and middleware on its Web site, the company said Thursday. The company also released a software development kit for the platform.
Developers can test the browser and share feedback about it that will be considered before Opera releases a beta version, which it will do once it collects feedback from the community.
In a company blog posting, Opera's Developer Relationship Manager Chris Mills explained why the company decided to create a version of its mobile browser for Android and the particulars and challenges of writing the code.
According to the post, Opera considered the "cool factor" in providing a browser for Google's much-ballyhooed mobile platform, but also wanted to give users and developers the broadest possible choice for deploying its browser.
Because Android is so new and there is not yet hardware available for it, however, Opera developers ran into some challenges in creating the software, he said.
Mills said that because the platform is comprised of "a very fresh set of APIs," there is not much information available on the Web about it, and the community, while helpful, is still in its nascent stage of developing. "Sometimes it is difficult to find an answer if something during development is not going very well and you have questions," he wrote.
Not having access to hardware that will run the platform makes it "impossible to say how fast Opera Mini will run on real devices," Mills added.
Google introduced Android last November; it includes a mobile OS, middleware and applications for mobile devices. So far HTC, Motorola, Samsung and LG are among handset providers that have committed to building devices for Android, and Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and AT&T are among the carriers who will offer service on Android handsets.
According to Opera, more than 40 million people use Opera Mini. Other mobile platforms that can run the browser include Symbian OS, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, BlackBerry OS, Samsung's SHP and Motorola's P2K.
IBM to buy FilesX for data protection software
IBM has signed an agreement to buy FilesX, a storage software company in Haifa, Israel, and Newton, Massachusetts, it announced Thursday. Terms of the deal, which IBM said will close shortly, were not disclosed.
FilesX's technology centers on continuous data protection and "nearly instant" data and application recovery for enterprises and branch offices running Windows environments.
Following the sale's close, FilesX's software will become part of IBM's Tivoli Storage Manager product line and be complementary to Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files, which IBM aims at SMBs and individuals, IBM said.
The acquisition will "reinforce IBM's mid-market strategy by adding a simple and easy to use full data protection solution -- one that also is attractive to enterprise remote offices and departmental situations," said Al Zollar, general manager of Tivoli software, in a statement.
The purchase also appears to tie into IBM's ongoing Information on Demand push, which has seen the company pull together a flock of data management, access and analysis software in part through a relentless series of acquisitions.
FilesX has more than 100 customers in the U.S. and Israel, according to IBM.
FilesX's technology centers on continuous data protection and "nearly instant" data and application recovery for enterprises and branch offices running Windows environments.
Following the sale's close, FilesX's software will become part of IBM's Tivoli Storage Manager product line and be complementary to Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files, which IBM aims at SMBs and individuals, IBM said.
The acquisition will "reinforce IBM's mid-market strategy by adding a simple and easy to use full data protection solution -- one that also is attractive to enterprise remote offices and departmental situations," said Al Zollar, general manager of Tivoli software, in a statement.
The purchase also appears to tie into IBM's ongoing Information on Demand push, which has seen the company pull together a flock of data management, access and analysis software in part through a relentless series of acquisitions.
FilesX has more than 100 customers in the U.S. and Israel, according to IBM.
When roses won't do, e-mail a fragrance with NTT
After satisfying the senses of sight and sound through video streams and music downloads, NTT Communications aims to tap into the sense of smell with a new system that allows users to send fragrances from their cell phones.
When roses won't do, e-mail a fragrance with NTT
ITworld 4/10/08
Martyn Williams and Chiara Castañeda, IDG News Service
Bookmark and Share
After satisfying the senses of sight and sound through video streams and music downloads, NTT Communications aims to tap into the sense of smell with a new system that allows users to send fragrances from their cell phones.
A trial of the service will take place later this month during which users will be able to select and send certain fragrance recipes to an in-home unit that is responsible for concocting and releasing the various fragrances. Each holds 16 cartridges of base fragrances or essences that are mixed to produce the various scents in a similar way that a printer mixes inks to produce other colors.
Transforming the mood of room with a new scent is quite easy with this technology.
The first step is to choose a scent from the multitude of fragrance recipes available through an I-mode site on a cell phone. Once chosen the instructions on how to make the scent are then transmitted to the fragrance device through infrared from the phone, and from there the scent is quickly mixed and emitted.
On this topic
Toshiba shows prototype home control robot
Gates: Next decade will bring huge software advances
Microsoft's cutting edge on display at TechFest
Get practical tips, IT news, how-tos, and the best in tech humor.
If distance is an issue, the other option is to send the instructions to the device via an e-mail message. The message is intercepted by a home gateway unit that is latched to the home’s broadband connection and sends the instructions to the fragrance device at home. Using this method users can set the time and date of fragrance emission, so one can come home to the relaxing scent of lavender, for example.
There's even room for creating customized scents, which can be shared with other users through the fragrance "playlist" on the Web site.
The technology is not only limited to creating a pleasant-smelling workplace or home. NTT also sees it as a way to enhance multimedia content. For example, instead of just sending an image of a bouquet of roses to a friend, one can boost the experience by sending the fragrance as well.
NTT hopes the fragrance emitter will cost about ¥20,000 (US$195) when eventually launched commercially. Cartridge refills should cost about ¥1,600 it said.
NTT Communications believes that fragrance is the next important medium for telecommunications, as more value is placed on high sensory information. Through a company sponsored Internet survey, NTT found that 56 percent of people polled use aromatherapy or believe that it has positive benefits.
"Aromatherapy can reduce stress and help you relax, and to be able to control smell implies one has the power to manipulate feelings as well," said Akira Sakaino, from NTT Communications' Net Business Division.
NTT has been developing this technology, which it calls "kaori tsushin," since 2004, and has collaborated with various outfits to test the service.
Applications have ranged from fragrance rooms in hotels in Tokyo and Osaka to aroma advertising through digital signage, where fragrances were made to match audio-visual content, located in pubs, parking lots and railway stations around Tokyo.
The fragrance communication mobile service test will take place from April 10 to 20 and involves 20 monitors who are tasked to give feedback on the service.
Martyn Williams is Tokyo bureau chief for the IDG News Service.
If distance is an issue, the other option is to send the instructions to the device via an e-mail message. The message is intercepted by a home gateway unit that is latched to the home’s broadband connection and sends the instructions to the fragrance device at home. Using this method users can set the time and date of fragrance emission, so one can come home to the relaxing scent of lavender, for example.
There's even room for creating customized scents, which can be shared with other users through the fragrance "playlist" on the Web site.
The technology is not only limited to creating a pleasant-smelling workplace or home. NTT also sees it as a way to enhance multimedia content. For example, instead of just sending an image of a bouquet of roses to a friend, one can boost the experience by sending the fragrance as well.
NTT hopes the fragrance emitter will cost about ¥20,000 (US$195) when eventually launched commercially. Cartridge refills should cost about ¥1,600 it said.
NTT Communications believes that fragrance is the next important medium for telecommunications, as more value is placed on high sensory information. Through a company sponsored Internet survey, NTT found that 56 percent of people polled use aromatherapy or believe that it has positive benefits.
"Aromatherapy can reduce stress and help you relax, and to be able to control smell implies one has the power to manipulate feelings as well," said Akira Sakaino, from NTT Communications' Net Business Division.
NTT has been developing this technology, which it calls "kaori tsushin," since 2004, and has collaborated with various outfits to test the service.
Applications have ranged from fragrance rooms in hotels in Tokyo and Osaka to aroma advertising through digital signage, where fragrances were made to match audio-visual content, located in pubs, parking lots and railway stations around Tokyo.
The fragrance communication mobile service test will take place from April 10 to 20 and involves 20 monitors who are tasked to give feedback on the service.
When roses won't do, e-mail a fragrance with NTT
ITworld 4/10/08
Martyn Williams and Chiara Castañeda, IDG News Service
Bookmark and Share
After satisfying the senses of sight and sound through video streams and music downloads, NTT Communications aims to tap into the sense of smell with a new system that allows users to send fragrances from their cell phones.
A trial of the service will take place later this month during which users will be able to select and send certain fragrance recipes to an in-home unit that is responsible for concocting and releasing the various fragrances. Each holds 16 cartridges of base fragrances or essences that are mixed to produce the various scents in a similar way that a printer mixes inks to produce other colors.
Transforming the mood of room with a new scent is quite easy with this technology.
The first step is to choose a scent from the multitude of fragrance recipes available through an I-mode site on a cell phone. Once chosen the instructions on how to make the scent are then transmitted to the fragrance device through infrared from the phone, and from there the scent is quickly mixed and emitted.
On this topic
Toshiba shows prototype home control robot
Gates: Next decade will bring huge software advances
Microsoft's cutting edge on display at TechFest
Get practical tips, IT news, how-tos, and the best in tech humor.
If distance is an issue, the other option is to send the instructions to the device via an e-mail message. The message is intercepted by a home gateway unit that is latched to the home’s broadband connection and sends the instructions to the fragrance device at home. Using this method users can set the time and date of fragrance emission, so one can come home to the relaxing scent of lavender, for example.
There's even room for creating customized scents, which can be shared with other users through the fragrance "playlist" on the Web site.
The technology is not only limited to creating a pleasant-smelling workplace or home. NTT also sees it as a way to enhance multimedia content. For example, instead of just sending an image of a bouquet of roses to a friend, one can boost the experience by sending the fragrance as well.
NTT hopes the fragrance emitter will cost about ¥20,000 (US$195) when eventually launched commercially. Cartridge refills should cost about ¥1,600 it said.
NTT Communications believes that fragrance is the next important medium for telecommunications, as more value is placed on high sensory information. Through a company sponsored Internet survey, NTT found that 56 percent of people polled use aromatherapy or believe that it has positive benefits.
"Aromatherapy can reduce stress and help you relax, and to be able to control smell implies one has the power to manipulate feelings as well," said Akira Sakaino, from NTT Communications' Net Business Division.
NTT has been developing this technology, which it calls "kaori tsushin," since 2004, and has collaborated with various outfits to test the service.
Applications have ranged from fragrance rooms in hotels in Tokyo and Osaka to aroma advertising through digital signage, where fragrances were made to match audio-visual content, located in pubs, parking lots and railway stations around Tokyo.
The fragrance communication mobile service test will take place from April 10 to 20 and involves 20 monitors who are tasked to give feedback on the service.
Martyn Williams is Tokyo bureau chief for the IDG News Service.
If distance is an issue, the other option is to send the instructions to the device via an e-mail message. The message is intercepted by a home gateway unit that is latched to the home’s broadband connection and sends the instructions to the fragrance device at home. Using this method users can set the time and date of fragrance emission, so one can come home to the relaxing scent of lavender, for example.
There's even room for creating customized scents, which can be shared with other users through the fragrance "playlist" on the Web site.
The technology is not only limited to creating a pleasant-smelling workplace or home. NTT also sees it as a way to enhance multimedia content. For example, instead of just sending an image of a bouquet of roses to a friend, one can boost the experience by sending the fragrance as well.
NTT hopes the fragrance emitter will cost about ¥20,000 (US$195) when eventually launched commercially. Cartridge refills should cost about ¥1,600 it said.
NTT Communications believes that fragrance is the next important medium for telecommunications, as more value is placed on high sensory information. Through a company sponsored Internet survey, NTT found that 56 percent of people polled use aromatherapy or believe that it has positive benefits.
"Aromatherapy can reduce stress and help you relax, and to be able to control smell implies one has the power to manipulate feelings as well," said Akira Sakaino, from NTT Communications' Net Business Division.
NTT has been developing this technology, which it calls "kaori tsushin," since 2004, and has collaborated with various outfits to test the service.
Applications have ranged from fragrance rooms in hotels in Tokyo and Osaka to aroma advertising through digital signage, where fragrances were made to match audio-visual content, located in pubs, parking lots and railway stations around Tokyo.
The fragrance communication mobile service test will take place from April 10 to 20 and involves 20 monitors who are tasked to give feedback on the service.
Yahoo to test Google search ads
Yahoo will test displaying Google search ads in a small number of its search engine queries, a move likely to be interpreted as the latest in a series of Yahoo maneuvers to resist Microsoft's acquisition attempt.
The test, expected to last up to two weeks and be limited to up to 3 percent of Yahoo search queries in the U.S., is specifically for Google's AdSense for Search service. In other words, Yahoo would be acting as one of the Web publishers that carry pay-per-click text ads from Google. The ads will appear only in Yahoo.com.
Yahoo noted that "the testing does not necessarily mean that Yahoo will join the AdSense for Search program or that any further commercial relationship with Google will result." Yahoo will not comment on the nature or timing of any potential relationship with Google.
Microsoft, whose acquisition offer was rejected by Yahoo's board in February, on Saturday said it will launch a proxy fight to attempt a hostile takeover if Yahoo doesn't agree to the acquisition in the next three weeks.
On Wednesday, Microsoft blasted the Google-Yahoo announcement, saying that a broad outsourcing deal would inevitably run into regulatory trouble because it would give Google more than 90 percent of the search advertising market.
"This would make the market far less competitive, in sharp contrast to our own proposal to acquire Yahoo. We will assess closely all of our options," said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, in a statement.
"Our proposal remains the only alternative put forward that offers Yahoo shareholders full and fair value for their shares, gives every shareholder a vote on the future of the company, and enhances choice for content creators, advertisers, and consumers," Smith said.
Google has a share of between 70 percent and 75 percent of U.S. search ad spending, and Yahoo has about 15 percent, said Karsten Weide, an IDC analyst. If Yahoo fully outsourced its search ads, Google would have a monopoly in this segment of the market, but such a deal wouldn't give Google a monopoly on overall ad spending, he said.
With Yahoo's search business, Google's share of the U.S. online ad spending would have been around 36 percent in 2007's fourth quarter, Weide said. This could be an argument against antitrust concerns, along with the fact that Yahoo would likely get most of the money per click, and that while Google rules search advertising, it is a minor player in other online ad segments, like display ads such as banners, he said. Still, it's clear that a search ad outsourcing deal would attract a lot of regulatory attention.
Beyond the regulatory issue, this deal wouldn't be good for Yahoo in its attempts to compete broadly against Google, he said. Yahoo should have its own search ad business, Weide said.
"The question is: Is this real? Is Yahoo seriously considering replacing [its search ad system] with Google's?" Weide said. "Or is Yahoo doing this merely to annoy Microsoft and drive Microsoft away from its acquisition attempt? It's not clear."
Eric Goldman, assistant professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law, points out that the potential outsourcing deal again brings up the often-discussed issue of how to delineate the relevant online ad market that would be impacted. Should the regulatory bodies narrow their focus to the online search ad segment, expand it to the overall online ad market, or open it up widely by considering the ad market in general, including radio, TV, print and the like?
"I'm torn about this," said Goldman, who is also director of the university's High Tech Law Institute. While Google leads in search advertising, there are plenty of opportunities for competitors to come up with a system that puts Google's dominance at risk by offering ad targeting that gives advertisers a better return on investment, he said. On the other hand, scale is also key, and Google has a massive distribution network, which it can use to trump competitors that offer better ROI results, Goldman said.
The announcement was first reported Wednesday afternoon by The Wall Street Journal, quoting anonymous sources. A broader agreement to outsource its search ads to Google could let Yahoo increase its cash flow, because Google ads generate more revenue per search, the Journal reported, referring to a consensus belief among financial analysts and Yahoo investors.
Since Feb. 1, when Microsoft made its US$44.6 billion offer, Yahoo's CEO Jerry Yang and the members of Yahoo's board have been reportedly trying to come up with an alternative deal. In addition to this Google plan, Yahoo has also held discussions with AOL, News Corp. and Disney, according to various reports in the past two months.
Should Yahoo enter into this deal with Google, it would be an acknowledgement that it has failed to attain its goals in search advertising, despite numerous efforts, including a significant upgrade of its system called Panama.
It's not clear what would happen to Yahoo's search marketing division, which runs the company's search advertising, in the event that Yahoo outsourced this business to Google. For Microsoft, it clearly wouldn't be palatable to have an agreement of this sort bundled in with its acquisition of Yahoo.
Google reiterated Yahoo's announcement, saying the deal is a limited test and doesn't necessarily mean that Yahoo will join the AdSense for Search service.
The test, expected to last up to two weeks and be limited to up to 3 percent of Yahoo search queries in the U.S., is specifically for Google's AdSense for Search service. In other words, Yahoo would be acting as one of the Web publishers that carry pay-per-click text ads from Google. The ads will appear only in Yahoo.com.
Yahoo noted that "the testing does not necessarily mean that Yahoo will join the AdSense for Search program or that any further commercial relationship with Google will result." Yahoo will not comment on the nature or timing of any potential relationship with Google.
Microsoft, whose acquisition offer was rejected by Yahoo's board in February, on Saturday said it will launch a proxy fight to attempt a hostile takeover if Yahoo doesn't agree to the acquisition in the next three weeks.
On Wednesday, Microsoft blasted the Google-Yahoo announcement, saying that a broad outsourcing deal would inevitably run into regulatory trouble because it would give Google more than 90 percent of the search advertising market.
"This would make the market far less competitive, in sharp contrast to our own proposal to acquire Yahoo. We will assess closely all of our options," said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, in a statement.
"Our proposal remains the only alternative put forward that offers Yahoo shareholders full and fair value for their shares, gives every shareholder a vote on the future of the company, and enhances choice for content creators, advertisers, and consumers," Smith said.
Google has a share of between 70 percent and 75 percent of U.S. search ad spending, and Yahoo has about 15 percent, said Karsten Weide, an IDC analyst. If Yahoo fully outsourced its search ads, Google would have a monopoly in this segment of the market, but such a deal wouldn't give Google a monopoly on overall ad spending, he said.
With Yahoo's search business, Google's share of the U.S. online ad spending would have been around 36 percent in 2007's fourth quarter, Weide said. This could be an argument against antitrust concerns, along with the fact that Yahoo would likely get most of the money per click, and that while Google rules search advertising, it is a minor player in other online ad segments, like display ads such as banners, he said. Still, it's clear that a search ad outsourcing deal would attract a lot of regulatory attention.
Beyond the regulatory issue, this deal wouldn't be good for Yahoo in its attempts to compete broadly against Google, he said. Yahoo should have its own search ad business, Weide said.
"The question is: Is this real? Is Yahoo seriously considering replacing [its search ad system] with Google's?" Weide said. "Or is Yahoo doing this merely to annoy Microsoft and drive Microsoft away from its acquisition attempt? It's not clear."
Eric Goldman, assistant professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law, points out that the potential outsourcing deal again brings up the often-discussed issue of how to delineate the relevant online ad market that would be impacted. Should the regulatory bodies narrow their focus to the online search ad segment, expand it to the overall online ad market, or open it up widely by considering the ad market in general, including radio, TV, print and the like?
"I'm torn about this," said Goldman, who is also director of the university's High Tech Law Institute. While Google leads in search advertising, there are plenty of opportunities for competitors to come up with a system that puts Google's dominance at risk by offering ad targeting that gives advertisers a better return on investment, he said. On the other hand, scale is also key, and Google has a massive distribution network, which it can use to trump competitors that offer better ROI results, Goldman said.
The announcement was first reported Wednesday afternoon by The Wall Street Journal, quoting anonymous sources. A broader agreement to outsource its search ads to Google could let Yahoo increase its cash flow, because Google ads generate more revenue per search, the Journal reported, referring to a consensus belief among financial analysts and Yahoo investors.
Since Feb. 1, when Microsoft made its US$44.6 billion offer, Yahoo's CEO Jerry Yang and the members of Yahoo's board have been reportedly trying to come up with an alternative deal. In addition to this Google plan, Yahoo has also held discussions with AOL, News Corp. and Disney, according to various reports in the past two months.
Should Yahoo enter into this deal with Google, it would be an acknowledgement that it has failed to attain its goals in search advertising, despite numerous efforts, including a significant upgrade of its system called Panama.
It's not clear what would happen to Yahoo's search marketing division, which runs the company's search advertising, in the event that Yahoo outsourced this business to Google. For Microsoft, it clearly wouldn't be palatable to have an agreement of this sort bundled in with its acquisition of Yahoo.
Google reiterated Yahoo's announcement, saying the deal is a limited test and doesn't necessarily mean that Yahoo will join the AdSense for Search service.
Europe rejects plan to criminalize file-sharing
The European Parliament rejected attempts to criminalize the sharing of files by private individuals, and threw out the idea of banning copyright abusers from the Internet, in a plenary vote Thursday.
The vote was close, with 314 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voting in favor of an amendment to scrap what many consider draconian and disproportionate measures to protect copyright over the internet, and 297 voting against the amendment.
"The vote shows that MEPs want to strike a balance between the interests of rights holders and those of consumers, and that big measures like cutting off Internet access shouldn't be used," said Malene Folke Chaucheprat, a European Parliament spokeswoman, shortly after the vote.
The report isn't legally binding, but it could help thwart efforts by France, which has already adopted such measures, to push the issue at a European political level.
France's so-called Oliviennes strategy to combat copyright abuse includes a "three strikes and you are out" approach: offenders lose the right to an Internet account after being caught sharing copyright-protected music over the Internet for a third time.
France takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union in the second half of this year and many observers, including the U.K.-based Open Rights Group, expect it to push for E.U.-wide rules similar to its own.
The report is significant because it "signifies resistance among MEPs to measures currently being implemented in France to disconnect suspected illicit filesharers," the Open Rights Group said in a statement.
The record industry was disappointed with the vote. "One badly drafted, rushed through amendment was adopted which is in contradiction to the rest of the text," said Frances Moore, executive vice president of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), in a statement.
"If the aim of the report is to protect creative content, including in the online environment, we should be looking at all options available in the fight against copyright theft. Instead, this amendment suggested discarding certain options before there is even a proper debate," the IFPI said.
But the Open Rights Group argued that criminalizing copyright abuse by individuals eager to build their media library and not profit from copyright-protected material is draconian and inefficient at tackling illegal file sharing.
"As the European Parliament have recognized today, [the measures] are disproportionate, they lack consumer safeguards and they won't stop illicit filesharing," the Open Rights Group said.
The vote was close, with 314 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voting in favor of an amendment to scrap what many consider draconian and disproportionate measures to protect copyright over the internet, and 297 voting against the amendment.
"The vote shows that MEPs want to strike a balance between the interests of rights holders and those of consumers, and that big measures like cutting off Internet access shouldn't be used," said Malene Folke Chaucheprat, a European Parliament spokeswoman, shortly after the vote.
The report isn't legally binding, but it could help thwart efforts by France, which has already adopted such measures, to push the issue at a European political level.
France's so-called Oliviennes strategy to combat copyright abuse includes a "three strikes and you are out" approach: offenders lose the right to an Internet account after being caught sharing copyright-protected music over the Internet for a third time.
France takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union in the second half of this year and many observers, including the U.K.-based Open Rights Group, expect it to push for E.U.-wide rules similar to its own.
The report is significant because it "signifies resistance among MEPs to measures currently being implemented in France to disconnect suspected illicit filesharers," the Open Rights Group said in a statement.
The record industry was disappointed with the vote. "One badly drafted, rushed through amendment was adopted which is in contradiction to the rest of the text," said Frances Moore, executive vice president of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), in a statement.
"If the aim of the report is to protect creative content, including in the online environment, we should be looking at all options available in the fight against copyright theft. Instead, this amendment suggested discarding certain options before there is even a proper debate," the IFPI said.
But the Open Rights Group argued that criminalizing copyright abuse by individuals eager to build their media library and not profit from copyright-protected material is draconian and inefficient at tackling illegal file sharing.
"As the European Parliament have recognized today, [the measures] are disproportionate, they lack consumer safeguards and they won't stop illicit filesharing," the Open Rights Group said.
Fujitsu to monitor data center heat with optical fiber
Fujitsu is looking to optical fiber to help increase efficiency in the cooling of large data centers. The company has developed a prototype monitoring system that can measure the temperature in up to 10,000 points using a single optical fiber connected to a measuring device.
It works by sending pulses of light down the fiber, which is laid around the data center and through the server racks, and measuring the minute amount of light that is sent back down the line due to Raman scattering, said Fumio Takei, a research fellow at Fujitsu who has been working in the system.
The intensity of the light varies depending on the temperature so this can be used to estimate the temperature along the fiber while the time it takes to come back can be used to measure the distance from the start of the fiber. Combining the two together means that the temperature can be estimated at numerous points along the fiber.
The basic idea isn't new and fiber optic cables have been used for some time to monitor the temperature of things like tunnels, but the resolution of the system has never been precise enough to be useful in a data center, said Ei Yano, president of Fujitsu's device and materials laboratory.
The Fujitsu system is accurate to within half a degree Celsius and one meter. The temperature range that can be measured is between -10 degrees and 300 degrees Celsius.
In a demonstration at the company's research and development laboratory here near Tokyo a fiber was strung around a small server room and displays showed temperature read-outs for each rack starting at 32.4 degrees at the bottom of the rack and rising steadily -- 33.9, 34.1, 34.4 and 35.9 -- to 37.8 degrees at the top.
Fujitsu said the system can be used with fiber optic cables up to 10 kilometers long and at one-meter resolution that means approximately 10,000 points can be measured.
The company hopes to commercialize the system sometime in 2009. There is no word on price but Yano said such a system isn't likely to be cheap but comparably good value for a 10,000-point measurement system.
As computers get more powerful the amount of heat generated by them is increasing making datacenter cooling an increasingly difficult job. The new technology should be able to help better employ cooling systems so hot areas are more efficiently cooled and less power wasted.
An added benefit is that the system relies solely on light and not electrical measurements so stringing the cable close to servers won't cause interference.
It works by sending pulses of light down the fiber, which is laid around the data center and through the server racks, and measuring the minute amount of light that is sent back down the line due to Raman scattering, said Fumio Takei, a research fellow at Fujitsu who has been working in the system.
The intensity of the light varies depending on the temperature so this can be used to estimate the temperature along the fiber while the time it takes to come back can be used to measure the distance from the start of the fiber. Combining the two together means that the temperature can be estimated at numerous points along the fiber.
The basic idea isn't new and fiber optic cables have been used for some time to monitor the temperature of things like tunnels, but the resolution of the system has never been precise enough to be useful in a data center, said Ei Yano, president of Fujitsu's device and materials laboratory.
The Fujitsu system is accurate to within half a degree Celsius and one meter. The temperature range that can be measured is between -10 degrees and 300 degrees Celsius.
In a demonstration at the company's research and development laboratory here near Tokyo a fiber was strung around a small server room and displays showed temperature read-outs for each rack starting at 32.4 degrees at the bottom of the rack and rising steadily -- 33.9, 34.1, 34.4 and 35.9 -- to 37.8 degrees at the top.
Fujitsu said the system can be used with fiber optic cables up to 10 kilometers long and at one-meter resolution that means approximately 10,000 points can be measured.
The company hopes to commercialize the system sometime in 2009. There is no word on price but Yano said such a system isn't likely to be cheap but comparably good value for a 10,000-point measurement system.
As computers get more powerful the amount of heat generated by them is increasing making datacenter cooling an increasingly difficult job. The new technology should be able to help better employ cooling systems so hot areas are more efficiently cooled and less power wasted.
An added benefit is that the system relies solely on light and not electrical measurements so stringing the cable close to servers won't cause interference.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Europe mulls six-month limit for search engine data storage
Search engine companies may be set for a clash with European regulators over how long personal data related to searches should be retained.
Europe mulls six-month limit for search engine data storage
IDG News Service 4/8/08
Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service, London Bureau
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Search engine companies may be set for a clash with European regulators over how long personal data related to searches should be retained.
On this topic
FTC settles with TJX, LexisNexis
Analyst: Money will fuel mobile spying programs
Microsoft offers way to share data with social networks
The Case and Criteria for Combining Application Acceleration and Security
Get practical tips, IT news, how-tos, and the best in tech humor.
A new report from the European Commission's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party recommends that personal search data should be discarded after six months, despite the fact most search companies are retaining data much longer.
The report looked at how data handling by search engines complies with European regulations such as the Data Protection Directive.
Search data can be used to build a profile of a person's interests, relations and intentions, even if some identifying information is removed, the report said. The collection of data en masse by search engines has considerable privacy implications, it said.
The report, available on the Web site of the Dutch Data Protection Authority, recommends that search engine data should be either deleted or irreversibly made anonymous after it no longer serves a purpose, a period that should not exceed six months.
Beyond that period, search engines "must demonstrate comprehensively that it is strictly necessary for the service," the report said.
The report also rejected defenses by search engine companies that longer data retention periods help improve the service or to better security.
"After the end of a search session, personal data could be deleted, and the continued storage therefore needs an adequate justification," the report said. " However, some search engines seem to retain data indefinitely, which is prohibited."
The data collected by search engines can include a host of details, including IP (Internet protocol) address, search terms, data and time of the search as well brand of browser, operating system and language used.
The report takes aim at some of the biggest Internet players such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.
Google said on Tuesday it has reacted to concerns over search data, saying it was the first company to anonymize its search logs. It also changed the expiry times of data files it places on PCs, known as cookies, which allow for example a person to stay logged in to a Web site or for the site to remember particular preferences.
"Protecting users' privacy is at the heart of all our products," said Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy council, in a statement.
Yahoo said it was reviewing the working party's report, adding it is committed to providing clear comprehensive privacy policies. Microsoft could not be immediately reached for comment.
All three companies retain some search data longer than six months, which could eventually put them at odds with the Commission. The working party report will be used by the Commission as it studies data protection.
Jeremy Kirk is London correspondent for the IDG News Service
Europe mulls six-month limit for search engine data storage
IDG News Service 4/8/08
Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service, London Bureau
Bookmark and Share
Search engine companies may be set for a clash with European regulators over how long personal data related to searches should be retained.
On this topic
FTC settles with TJX, LexisNexis
Analyst: Money will fuel mobile spying programs
Microsoft offers way to share data with social networks
The Case and Criteria for Combining Application Acceleration and Security
Get practical tips, IT news, how-tos, and the best in tech humor.
A new report from the European Commission's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party recommends that personal search data should be discarded after six months, despite the fact most search companies are retaining data much longer.
The report looked at how data handling by search engines complies with European regulations such as the Data Protection Directive.
Search data can be used to build a profile of a person's interests, relations and intentions, even if some identifying information is removed, the report said. The collection of data en masse by search engines has considerable privacy implications, it said.
The report, available on the Web site of the Dutch Data Protection Authority, recommends that search engine data should be either deleted or irreversibly made anonymous after it no longer serves a purpose, a period that should not exceed six months.
Beyond that period, search engines "must demonstrate comprehensively that it is strictly necessary for the service," the report said.
The report also rejected defenses by search engine companies that longer data retention periods help improve the service or to better security.
"After the end of a search session, personal data could be deleted, and the continued storage therefore needs an adequate justification," the report said. " However, some search engines seem to retain data indefinitely, which is prohibited."
The data collected by search engines can include a host of details, including IP (Internet protocol) address, search terms, data and time of the search as well brand of browser, operating system and language used.
The report takes aim at some of the biggest Internet players such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.
Google said on Tuesday it has reacted to concerns over search data, saying it was the first company to anonymize its search logs. It also changed the expiry times of data files it places on PCs, known as cookies, which allow for example a person to stay logged in to a Web site or for the site to remember particular preferences.
"Protecting users' privacy is at the heart of all our products," said Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy council, in a statement.
Yahoo said it was reviewing the working party's report, adding it is committed to providing clear comprehensive privacy policies. Microsoft could not be immediately reached for comment.
All three companies retain some search data longer than six months, which could eventually put them at odds with the Commission. The working party report will be used by the Commission as it studies data protection.
Jeremy Kirk is London correspondent for the IDG News Service
Researcher: Web page can take over your router
On Tuesday, researcher Dan Kaminsky will show how a Web-based attack could be used to seize control of certain routers.
Researcher: Web page can take over your router
IDG News Service 4/8/08
Robert McMillan, IDG News Service, San Francisco Bureau
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On Tuesday, researcher Dan Kaminsky will show how a Web-based attack could be used to seize control of certain routers.
On this topic
Researchers: GSM mobile security on the ropes
Insider actions and the fight against network threats
RFID-hack hits 1B digital access cards worldwide
Formulating a wireless LAN security policy
Mobile Insecurity: A practical guide to threats and vulnerabilities
Wireless LAN policies for security and management
Get practical tips, IT news, how-tos, and the best in tech humor.
Kaminsky has spent the past year studying how design flaws in the way that browsers work with the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) can be abused in order to get attackers behind the firewall. But at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, he will demonstrate how this attack would work on widely used routers, including those made by Cisco's Linksys division and D-Link.
The technique, called a DNS rebinding attack, would work on virtually any device, including printers, that uses a default password and a Web-based administration interface, said Kaminsky, who is director of penetration testing with IOActive.
Here's how it would work. The victim would visit a malicious Web page that would use JavaScript code to trick the browser into making changes on the Web-based router configuration page. The JavaScript could tell the router to let the bad guys remotely administer the device, or it could force the router to download new firmware, again putting the router under the hacker's control.
Either way, the attacker would be able to control his victim's Internet communications.
The technical details of a DNS rebinding attack are complex, but essentially the attacker is taking advantage of the way the browser uses the DNS system to decide what parts of the network it can reach.
Although security researchers had known that this type of hack was theoretically possible, Kaminsky's demo will show that it can work in the real world, said David Ulevitch, CEO of DNS service provider OpenDNS. "I'm always a fan of when something that's theoretical gets made real, because it makes people act," he said.
On Tuesday, OpenDNS will offer users of its free service a way to prevent this type of attack, and the company will also set up a Web site that will use Kaminsky's techniques to give users a way to change the passwords of vulnerable routers.
The attack "underscores the need for people to be able to have more intelligence on the DNS," Ulevitch said.
Although this particular attack takes advantage of the fact that routers often use default passwords that can be easily guessed by the hacker, there is no bug in the routers themselves, Kaminsky said. Rather, the issue is a "core browser bug," he said.
Router makers have known for some time how their default passwords can be misused by attackers. Three months ago, hackers showed how a similar attack could be launched, exploiting a flaw in the way Universal Plug-and-Play works on PCs.
Cisco tries hard to discourage Linksys customers from using routers with default passwords, said Trevor Bratton, a company spokesman. "One of the first things that our setup software does is change that default name," he said. "So anyone who does as we ask with the initial setup will be prompted to change that."
The problem is that home users rarely follow this advice, Kaminsky said. "The vast majority of home users have a device with a default password," he said.
Bob McMillan is Senior writer for the IDG News Service.
Researcher: Web page can take over your router
IDG News Service 4/8/08
Robert McMillan, IDG News Service, San Francisco Bureau
Bookmark and Share
On Tuesday, researcher Dan Kaminsky will show how a Web-based attack could be used to seize control of certain routers.
On this topic
Researchers: GSM mobile security on the ropes
Insider actions and the fight against network threats
RFID-hack hits 1B digital access cards worldwide
Formulating a wireless LAN security policy
Mobile Insecurity: A practical guide to threats and vulnerabilities
Wireless LAN policies for security and management
Get practical tips, IT news, how-tos, and the best in tech humor.
Kaminsky has spent the past year studying how design flaws in the way that browsers work with the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) can be abused in order to get attackers behind the firewall. But at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, he will demonstrate how this attack would work on widely used routers, including those made by Cisco's Linksys division and D-Link.
The technique, called a DNS rebinding attack, would work on virtually any device, including printers, that uses a default password and a Web-based administration interface, said Kaminsky, who is director of penetration testing with IOActive.
Here's how it would work. The victim would visit a malicious Web page that would use JavaScript code to trick the browser into making changes on the Web-based router configuration page. The JavaScript could tell the router to let the bad guys remotely administer the device, or it could force the router to download new firmware, again putting the router under the hacker's control.
Either way, the attacker would be able to control his victim's Internet communications.
The technical details of a DNS rebinding attack are complex, but essentially the attacker is taking advantage of the way the browser uses the DNS system to decide what parts of the network it can reach.
Although security researchers had known that this type of hack was theoretically possible, Kaminsky's demo will show that it can work in the real world, said David Ulevitch, CEO of DNS service provider OpenDNS. "I'm always a fan of when something that's theoretical gets made real, because it makes people act," he said.
On Tuesday, OpenDNS will offer users of its free service a way to prevent this type of attack, and the company will also set up a Web site that will use Kaminsky's techniques to give users a way to change the passwords of vulnerable routers.
The attack "underscores the need for people to be able to have more intelligence on the DNS," Ulevitch said.
Although this particular attack takes advantage of the fact that routers often use default passwords that can be easily guessed by the hacker, there is no bug in the routers themselves, Kaminsky said. Rather, the issue is a "core browser bug," he said.
Router makers have known for some time how their default passwords can be misused by attackers. Three months ago, hackers showed how a similar attack could be launched, exploiting a flaw in the way Universal Plug-and-Play works on PCs.
Cisco tries hard to discourage Linksys customers from using routers with default passwords, said Trevor Bratton, a company spokesman. "One of the first things that our setup software does is change that default name," he said. "So anyone who does as we ask with the initial setup will be prompted to change that."
The problem is that home users rarely follow this advice, Kaminsky said. "The vast majority of home users have a device with a default password," he said.
Bob McMillan is Senior writer for the IDG News Service.
Microsoft to resume Vista 'endless reboot' update Tuesday
Microsoft Monday said it would resume automatic distribution of a Windows Vista update on Tuesday that two months ago sent some users' PCs into an endless wave of reboots.
The company assured users ahead of the release that it has fixed the problem and it is safe to download the update, one of two prerequisites needed before Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) can be installed. Besides re-releasing the update for automatic download and installation, Microsoft will also issue a fix to prevent reboots from overwhelming the PC.
"These two updates should now install seamlessly through Windows Update, in the proper order, so those of you with [Windows Update] set to 'install updates automatically' who haven't already installed the [Servicing Stack Update] don't have to take any further action," said an unidentified company employee on the Microsoft Update team's blog.
On Feb. 12, Microsoft began pushing the Servicing Stack Update (SSU) and one other prerequisite to Vista users as the final stage of a two-month process of preparing the operating system for the release of SP1. Within days, however, users flooded Microsoft's support newsgroups with tales of stymied updates and locked-up computers. When these users switched off their machines to regain control, the systems rebooted endlessly.
Microsoft yanked the SSU from automatic distribution as a short-term solution, although it left it on the Windows Update servers.
Without SSU installed, users have been unable to download SP1 through Microsoft's update service. The lack of SSU, however, was just one of several reasons why many users grew frustrated over their inability to download and install the long-awaited service pack when it was posted last month to Windows Update.
The company also revealed more information today about the root cause of the reboot snafu. "SSU has special code to check whether there are any pending reboots or other updates to install," said the blog post. "If it sees either of these circumstances, it prevents the install from starting.
"During our investigation, we discovered that there were a few unknown and rare events during the middle of the installation of the update that could cause the update to think it needed a reboot to complete the installation. If this happened, the system entered a repeating reboot loop."
As it has previously, Microsoft today downplayed the extent of the problem, saying that "several million customers installed the updates successfully" while only "a few customers" lost control of their PCs to the reboots.
The pre-SSU update to be released Tuesday should prevent the PC from rebooting during the subsequent SSU install, Microsoft said.
Tuesday is also Microsoft's general security update day for the month. According to a notification published last week, the company will unveil eight security bulletins tomorrow to patch Windows, Office and Internet Explorer.
The company assured users ahead of the release that it has fixed the problem and it is safe to download the update, one of two prerequisites needed before Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) can be installed. Besides re-releasing the update for automatic download and installation, Microsoft will also issue a fix to prevent reboots from overwhelming the PC.
"These two updates should now install seamlessly through Windows Update, in the proper order, so those of you with [Windows Update] set to 'install updates automatically' who haven't already installed the [Servicing Stack Update] don't have to take any further action," said an unidentified company employee on the Microsoft Update team's blog.
On Feb. 12, Microsoft began pushing the Servicing Stack Update (SSU) and one other prerequisite to Vista users as the final stage of a two-month process of preparing the operating system for the release of SP1. Within days, however, users flooded Microsoft's support newsgroups with tales of stymied updates and locked-up computers. When these users switched off their machines to regain control, the systems rebooted endlessly.
Microsoft yanked the SSU from automatic distribution as a short-term solution, although it left it on the Windows Update servers.
Without SSU installed, users have been unable to download SP1 through Microsoft's update service. The lack of SSU, however, was just one of several reasons why many users grew frustrated over their inability to download and install the long-awaited service pack when it was posted last month to Windows Update.
The company also revealed more information today about the root cause of the reboot snafu. "SSU has special code to check whether there are any pending reboots or other updates to install," said the blog post. "If it sees either of these circumstances, it prevents the install from starting.
"During our investigation, we discovered that there were a few unknown and rare events during the middle of the installation of the update that could cause the update to think it needed a reboot to complete the installation. If this happened, the system entered a repeating reboot loop."
As it has previously, Microsoft today downplayed the extent of the problem, saying that "several million customers installed the updates successfully" while only "a few customers" lost control of their PCs to the reboots.
The pre-SSU update to be released Tuesday should prevent the PC from rebooting during the subsequent SSU install, Microsoft said.
Tuesday is also Microsoft's general security update day for the month. According to a notification published last week, the company will unveil eight security bulletins tomorrow to patch Windows, Office and Internet Explorer.
Amazon Web Services has another outage
Amazon's cloud computing service was down on Monday morning for more than an hour, following an outage on its hosted storage service two months ago.
While Amazon appears to have learned some lessons since the previous outage, the incidents underscore the immaturity of the services, an analyst said.
"In terms of Amazon, what you need to know is that this is very new," said Phil Shih, an analyst with Tier 1 Research, a division of The 451 Group. "It's not something they've perfected. Because of this, we don't advise anybody to use this for anything mission-critical."
Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud is a Web service that offers hosted computing. Users can quickly scale up or down the amount of processing power that they need, based on their changing requirements.
On Monday at around 2 a.m. Pacific Time, the first EC2 customer reported problems accessing the service on Amazon's Web services forum. Others quickly chimed in.
Within 15 minutes, an Amazon employee acknowledged reading about the problems and said the company was investigating them. That note, and subsequent messages at regular intervals, seemed to placate some customers. "Not all doom and gloom," one person wrote on the forum. "It should be noted that [Amazon Web Services] are keeping us up to date... 10 out of 10 for communication. Bravo!"
That's a very different type of response than customers had after the S3 outage in mid-February, when some users were quite angry at a lack of acknowledgement and information from Amazon about the outage, which lasted for as long as three hours.
At 3:21 a.m. Pacific Time on Monday, the first customer posted a note saying that the EC2 service was back up. Others followed. On the forum, Amazon said it would post more details about what caused the problem, but hadn't by Monday afternoon. An Amazon spokesman said he was working to get answers to questions about the outage.
Still, improvements in communication don't change the reliability of the services. Shih recommends that companies only consider using Amazon's Web services for small internal development products, where a company can absorb the risks and potential downtime.
But that recommendation could change in the future. "Do I expect them to raise their game and get better over time? Absolutely," Shih said. "They're pouring resources into this, and they're serious about it."
While these types of outages are a black eye for Amazon, they likely don't cost the company in terms of service level agreement payouts, Shih said. Late last year, Amazon created an SLA that lets companies apply for credits in the event of an outage. "Most people won't bother to get their money back," Shih said. "It's such a small amount, and it requires more paperwork to get the credit." But an SLA is something Amazon has to offer in order for companies to consider it a true enterprise-class service, he said.
While Amazon appears to have learned some lessons since the previous outage, the incidents underscore the immaturity of the services, an analyst said.
"In terms of Amazon, what you need to know is that this is very new," said Phil Shih, an analyst with Tier 1 Research, a division of The 451 Group. "It's not something they've perfected. Because of this, we don't advise anybody to use this for anything mission-critical."
Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud is a Web service that offers hosted computing. Users can quickly scale up or down the amount of processing power that they need, based on their changing requirements.
On Monday at around 2 a.m. Pacific Time, the first EC2 customer reported problems accessing the service on Amazon's Web services forum. Others quickly chimed in.
Within 15 minutes, an Amazon employee acknowledged reading about the problems and said the company was investigating them. That note, and subsequent messages at regular intervals, seemed to placate some customers. "Not all doom and gloom," one person wrote on the forum. "It should be noted that [Amazon Web Services] are keeping us up to date... 10 out of 10 for communication. Bravo!"
That's a very different type of response than customers had after the S3 outage in mid-February, when some users were quite angry at a lack of acknowledgement and information from Amazon about the outage, which lasted for as long as three hours.
At 3:21 a.m. Pacific Time on Monday, the first customer posted a note saying that the EC2 service was back up. Others followed. On the forum, Amazon said it would post more details about what caused the problem, but hadn't by Monday afternoon. An Amazon spokesman said he was working to get answers to questions about the outage.
Still, improvements in communication don't change the reliability of the services. Shih recommends that companies only consider using Amazon's Web services for small internal development products, where a company can absorb the risks and potential downtime.
But that recommendation could change in the future. "Do I expect them to raise their game and get better over time? Absolutely," Shih said. "They're pouring resources into this, and they're serious about it."
While these types of outages are a black eye for Amazon, they likely don't cost the company in terms of service level agreement payouts, Shih said. Late last year, Amazon created an SLA that lets companies apply for credits in the event of an outage. "Most people won't bother to get their money back," Shih said. "It's such a small amount, and it requires more paperwork to get the credit." But an SLA is something Amazon has to offer in order for companies to consider it a true enterprise-class service, he said.
AMD announces layoffs, drops revenue forecast
Advanced Micro Devices on Monday said it plans to lay off 10 percent of its work force by the third quarter of 2008 in an effort to cut costs.
AMD currently has 16,800 employees worldwide, said Drew Prairie, an AMD spokesman. The layoffs will take place across business units around the world, he said.
"It's an action that will help create a better cost structure and help us return to profitability," Prairie said.
As a result of the layoffs, AMD expects to take restructuring charge of an undetermined amount in the second quarter of 2008.
The company also lowered its revenue expectations for the first quarter of 2008 is "due to lower than expected sales across all business segments," it said in a statement. AMD is predicting quarterly sales of US$1.5 billion, a 22 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2007.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial originally predicted net revenue of $1.61 billion.
The company will address these issues further on April 17, when it announces financial results for the quarter.
AMD has been struggling since acquiring graphics vendor ATI in 2006, reporting five consecutive quarterly losses due mostly to charges connected with the acquisition. AMD reported a net loss of $1.772 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007, which was higher than revenue of $1.770 billion. The net loss included charges of $1.675 billion mostly related to AMD's acquisition of ATI in 2006.
During a conference call announcing the fourth quarter results, AMD Chief Financial Officer Mario Rivet said the company hopes to return to profitability by the second quarter of 2008.
AMD currently has 16,800 employees worldwide, said Drew Prairie, an AMD spokesman. The layoffs will take place across business units around the world, he said.
"It's an action that will help create a better cost structure and help us return to profitability," Prairie said.
As a result of the layoffs, AMD expects to take restructuring charge of an undetermined amount in the second quarter of 2008.
The company also lowered its revenue expectations for the first quarter of 2008 is "due to lower than expected sales across all business segments," it said in a statement. AMD is predicting quarterly sales of US$1.5 billion, a 22 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2007.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial originally predicted net revenue of $1.61 billion.
The company will address these issues further on April 17, when it announces financial results for the quarter.
AMD has been struggling since acquiring graphics vendor ATI in 2006, reporting five consecutive quarterly losses due mostly to charges connected with the acquisition. AMD reported a net loss of $1.772 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007, which was higher than revenue of $1.770 billion. The net loss included charges of $1.675 billion mostly related to AMD's acquisition of ATI in 2006.
During a conference call announcing the fourth quarter results, AMD Chief Financial Officer Mario Rivet said the company hopes to return to profitability by the second quarter of 2008.
Samsung committed to torch relay despite protests
Samsung Electronics says it remains committed to its sponsorship of the Olympic torch relay despite large protests in London on Sunday that dogged the progress of the torch through the city.
"We understand there are concerns among consumers, customers and even internally within Samsung," said Louis Kim, a spokesman for Samsung in Seoul. He said Samsung has no control over the route of the torch or the cities it visits. "Just like the spectators we are trying to embrace the Olympic Games," he said.
Thousands of people turned out to see the Olympic torch and among them were a sizable number who were protesting China's human-rights record and its treatment of people in Tibet.
To enable the torch to travel through the city without interruption, a protective ring of Chinese security staff supplemented two rings of local police but at several points people managed to get close to the torch. At one point a protestor managed to grab the torch for a moment before being wrestled to the ground by police.
By the end of the day there had been 37 arrests by police involving incidents related to the relay.
On Monday the torch relay moved on to Paris and on Wednesday it is due to travel through San Francisco.
"We have to watch carefully but the torch will continue to travel until the end of the international relay," said Kim.
Television pictures from Paris show hundreds of mainly pro-Tibet protestors along part of the torch relay route and some clashes with police. Several arrests have reportedly been made. Perhaps most symbolically, the Olympic torch has been extinguished during the Paris leg, according to several reports from the city.
Samsung is one of a handful of major sponsors of the Olympic Games. It began sponsoring the torch relay at the 2004 games in Athens and will continue to do so until the 2016 games.
"We understand there are concerns among consumers, customers and even internally within Samsung," said Louis Kim, a spokesman for Samsung in Seoul. He said Samsung has no control over the route of the torch or the cities it visits. "Just like the spectators we are trying to embrace the Olympic Games," he said.
Thousands of people turned out to see the Olympic torch and among them were a sizable number who were protesting China's human-rights record and its treatment of people in Tibet.
To enable the torch to travel through the city without interruption, a protective ring of Chinese security staff supplemented two rings of local police but at several points people managed to get close to the torch. At one point a protestor managed to grab the torch for a moment before being wrestled to the ground by police.
By the end of the day there had been 37 arrests by police involving incidents related to the relay.
On Monday the torch relay moved on to Paris and on Wednesday it is due to travel through San Francisco.
"We have to watch carefully but the torch will continue to travel until the end of the international relay," said Kim.
Television pictures from Paris show hundreds of mainly pro-Tibet protestors along part of the torch relay route and some clashes with police. Several arrests have reportedly been made. Perhaps most symbolically, the Olympic torch has been extinguished during the Paris leg, according to several reports from the city.
Samsung is one of a handful of major sponsors of the Olympic Games. It began sponsoring the torch relay at the 2004 games in Athens and will continue to do so until the 2016 games.
Motorola, Icahn reach agreement on board
Motorola and Carl Icahn have reached an agreement that ends the activist investor's long battle to install members on Motorola's board and break up the company.
Two people Icahn has backed for the board will be nominated to it, and one will be seated immediately, the company and Icahn said in a statement Monday. In addition, Motorola agreed to seek input from Icahn regarding the spinoff of the company's handset division and the search for a leader of that unit. As part of the deal, all pending litigation between Motorola and Icahn will be dismissed.
Icahn owns about 6.4 percent of Motorola. He has been pressuring the wireless network and handset maker for several months, at first waging an unsuccessful battle for shareholders' proxy votes to get elected to the board himself. He also has argued that Motorola would be worth more broken up than as a whole. Icahn attacked while Motorola was suffering weak financial results after profits from its popular Razr handset faded and it failed to come up with another hit phone.
The pressure may have succeeded. CEO Ed Zander stepped down late last year, and last month the company announced plans to separate the handset division from its enterprise and home network units in 2009. Motorola would become two companies, each with its own stock. The plan still needs some approvals.
William Hambrecht, founder, chairman and CEO of financial services firm WR Hambrecht + Co., and Icahn investment funds managing director Keith Meister, will be nominated for the board at the company's 2008 Annual Meeting of Shareholders as part of the deal announced Monday. Meister also was appointed to begin serving on the board immediately. Hambrecht and Meister are allowed to communicate with Icahn about the board's activities, subject to certain confidentiality rules, according to the statement.
Icahn invests broadly and has a reputation for using his ownership of large stakes in various companies to bring about changes. Last year he demanded that BEA shareholders be allowed to vote on Oracle's proposal to buy the enterprise software maker. The deal passed a special shareholder vote last week. In 2005, he told Time Warner to reverse its troubled 2000 acquisition of AOL. It never did.
Two people Icahn has backed for the board will be nominated to it, and one will be seated immediately, the company and Icahn said in a statement Monday. In addition, Motorola agreed to seek input from Icahn regarding the spinoff of the company's handset division and the search for a leader of that unit. As part of the deal, all pending litigation between Motorola and Icahn will be dismissed.
Icahn owns about 6.4 percent of Motorola. He has been pressuring the wireless network and handset maker for several months, at first waging an unsuccessful battle for shareholders' proxy votes to get elected to the board himself. He also has argued that Motorola would be worth more broken up than as a whole. Icahn attacked while Motorola was suffering weak financial results after profits from its popular Razr handset faded and it failed to come up with another hit phone.
The pressure may have succeeded. CEO Ed Zander stepped down late last year, and last month the company announced plans to separate the handset division from its enterprise and home network units in 2009. Motorola would become two companies, each with its own stock. The plan still needs some approvals.
William Hambrecht, founder, chairman and CEO of financial services firm WR Hambrecht + Co., and Icahn investment funds managing director Keith Meister, will be nominated for the board at the company's 2008 Annual Meeting of Shareholders as part of the deal announced Monday. Meister also was appointed to begin serving on the board immediately. Hambrecht and Meister are allowed to communicate with Icahn about the board's activities, subject to certain confidentiality rules, according to the statement.
Icahn invests broadly and has a reputation for using his ownership of large stakes in various companies to bring about changes. Last year he demanded that BEA shareholders be allowed to vote on Oracle's proposal to buy the enterprise software maker. The deal passed a special shareholder vote last week. In 2005, he told Time Warner to reverse its troubled 2000 acquisition of AOL. It never did.
New attack targets ActiveX bugs
Hackers are using a new multiple-attack package composed of seven ActiveX exploits, many of them never seen in the wild before, said a security company on Friday
Fewer than half of the flawed ActiveX controls have been patched.
The attack framework probes Windows PCs for vulnerable ActiveX controls from software vendors Microsoft Corp., Citrix Systems Inc. and Macrovision Corp., as well as hardware makers D-Link Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Gateway Inc., and Sony Corp., said a Symantec Corp. researcher.
"What's interesting about this attack is that there are so many vulnerabilities in one attack that have not been seen in the wild previously," said Symantec's Patrick Jungles, who wrote an analysis of the multi-strike package for customers of the company's DeepSight threat service.
According to Jungles, visitors to compromised Web sites are redirected by a rogue IFRAME to a malicious site serving the package. The attack pack tests the victim's PC for each ActiveX control, detects whether a vulnerable version of a control is installed, then launches an attack when it finds one.
Bugs in ActiveX, a Microsoft technology used most often to create add-ons for the company's Internet Explorer (IE) browser, have always been common, but so many serious flaws have been disclosed of late that some security experts have recommended users do without them.
The seven exploited in the package outlined by Jungles are a mix of old and brand-new flaws. For example, Microsoft's own ActiveX vulnerability -- a bug in IE's Speech API (application programming interface) -- was disclosed in June 2007, while the vulnerability in the Citrix Presentation Server Client control harks back even further, to December 2006. Others, such as the ActiveX bugs in D-Link's security Webcams and in Sony's ImageStation, are much more recent, having been revealed in February.
Four of the seven ActiveX flaws -- those in the D-Link, Gateway, Sony and Macrovision products -- have not been patched, said Jungles.
Assuming the exploit framework succeeds in compromising a PC, the hackers drop a Trojan on the machine that turns it into a spam-spewing zombie; the Trojan includes a rootkit component to mask the malware from anti-virus scanners.
Symantec added that while the initial IP address that sent users to the malicious site was no longer infected with the IFRAME code, other addresses were redirecting users.
"The list of IPs involved in the exploitation is by no means comprehensive," said Jungles, "because the nature of the exploitation indicates that several other sites are likely forwarding victims." The IFRAME code, he continued, had been found embedded in the legitimate sites' HTML and was at times distributed via online advertisements; DNS poisoning, he said, was also suspected.
Jungles' report recommended that users apply patches, when they're available, and set the "kill bit" on those ActiveX controls which have not yet been updated by their makers.
Fewer than half of the flawed ActiveX controls have been patched.
The attack framework probes Windows PCs for vulnerable ActiveX controls from software vendors Microsoft Corp., Citrix Systems Inc. and Macrovision Corp., as well as hardware makers D-Link Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Gateway Inc., and Sony Corp., said a Symantec Corp. researcher.
"What's interesting about this attack is that there are so many vulnerabilities in one attack that have not been seen in the wild previously," said Symantec's Patrick Jungles, who wrote an analysis of the multi-strike package for customers of the company's DeepSight threat service.
According to Jungles, visitors to compromised Web sites are redirected by a rogue IFRAME to a malicious site serving the package. The attack pack tests the victim's PC for each ActiveX control, detects whether a vulnerable version of a control is installed, then launches an attack when it finds one.
Bugs in ActiveX, a Microsoft technology used most often to create add-ons for the company's Internet Explorer (IE) browser, have always been common, but so many serious flaws have been disclosed of late that some security experts have recommended users do without them.
The seven exploited in the package outlined by Jungles are a mix of old and brand-new flaws. For example, Microsoft's own ActiveX vulnerability -- a bug in IE's Speech API (application programming interface) -- was disclosed in June 2007, while the vulnerability in the Citrix Presentation Server Client control harks back even further, to December 2006. Others, such as the ActiveX bugs in D-Link's security Webcams and in Sony's ImageStation, are much more recent, having been revealed in February.
Four of the seven ActiveX flaws -- those in the D-Link, Gateway, Sony and Macrovision products -- have not been patched, said Jungles.
Assuming the exploit framework succeeds in compromising a PC, the hackers drop a Trojan on the machine that turns it into a spam-spewing zombie; the Trojan includes a rootkit component to mask the malware from anti-virus scanners.
Symantec added that while the initial IP address that sent users to the malicious site was no longer infected with the IFRAME code, other addresses were redirecting users.
"The list of IPs involved in the exploitation is by no means comprehensive," said Jungles, "because the nature of the exploitation indicates that several other sites are likely forwarding victims." The IFRAME code, he continued, had been found embedded in the legitimate sites' HTML and was at times distributed via online advertisements; DNS poisoning, he said, was also suspected.
Jungles' report recommended that users apply patches, when they're available, and set the "kill bit" on those ActiveX controls which have not yet been updated by their makers.
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