News : Vonage: We Will Survive Post-Injunction

Calling the turmoil following a Friday verdict banning it from using VoIP technology patented by Verizon an "overreaction," Vonage said Monday that it was confident it would be able to win on appeal, but investors are worried.

US District Judge Claude Hilton issued an injunction Friday after dismissing arguments by Vonage that it was in the public interest to not enforce such an action, siding with Verizon's claims of 'irreparable harm.'

Vonage will get a stay of two weeks to allow the company to further press its argument against an injunction, and appeal the entire patent infringement case, Hilton said.. The ruling will be signed at the time he rules on the stay.

The surrounding fallout caught Vonage off guard, and it worked hard Monday to calm the market and assure its investors that the company would continue to operate even in face of an injunction.

"To paraphrase Mark Twain, the rumors of Vonage's death have been greatly exaggerated," CEO Mike Snyder said in a statement. "The fact is we've been preparing for this verdict and the possibility of an injunction for months."

Vonage said it expects Hilton to sign a permanent injunction, and will immediately file for a stay with the Court of Appeals. In addition, the company will appeal the jury verdict against it as well.

"We are optimistic the trial court judge will stay the injunction," Vonage Chief Legal Office Sharon O'Leary said. "Once the case is up on appeal, we are confident that the appellate court will overturn the verdict based on the faulty claim construction of the patents involved."

Two out of every five cases are overturned in the appeals court when issues of flawed claim construction are brought in front of it, she added, saying the entire process could take years to decide.

News : AT&T: One Million Interested in Apple's iPhone

AT CTIA WIRELESS 2007 AT&T's Chief Operating Officer Randall Stephenson told attendees of CTIA Wireless Tuesday that the company had received some 1 million requests to be notified when the iPhone becomes available. While the company is not taking advance orders for the phone, expected to retail for $499 and $599 for the 4 and 8GB models respectively, it has an option on the site to leave an e-mail address to be contacted when it becomes available.

"One million people have asked us to call when this phone is available," he said. The company plans to begin selling the iPhone in June, and has signed a multi-year exclusive deal with the company which could bring several additional models to the carrier over the next few years.

News : Apple: Leopard Will Ship on Time

It seems as if Apple is determined to not take a similar route as Windows Vista with its next-generation operating system, code-named "Leopard."

The company took the unusual step on Friday of responding directly to speculation by the Taiwan technology publication DigiTimes that its newest operating system was delayed, saying it was on track to deliver Leopard in the spring.

Normally, Apple declines to comment on speculation surrounding its products. However, it told JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg Friday that DigiTimes' report was incorrect.

"The rumor mill is wrong again," Gartenberg mused. The paper had claimed the delay was caused by a desire by Apple to enhance the dual-boot support within Mac OS X. However, the publication has often been wrong in speculating about the Cupertino company's future moves.

American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu also downplayed the report, saying his checks showed that Leopard was nearing completion, and should be released in the spring, or during the company's June quarter.

"Our sources indicate that Apple's latest beta build has made noticeable improvements in stability and functionality from previous builds, and that Apple is likely one or two upcoming builds away from reaching 'final candidate' stage to be released for manufacturing," AppleInsider reported him as saying.

Wu expressed concern however on the so-called "top secret" features within Leopard, saying the company should soon publish them so they could be adequately beta tested before release.

News : Apple TV Begins Shipping

Apple said Wednesday that it had begun shipments of its Apple TV product, aimed at solidifying its hold on the digital entertainment industry, and expanding its presence into the living room. The device was originally scheduled for release last month, but the company said development had taken longer than expected and pushed the release back in late February.

The device acts as a link between iTunes on the computer and a user's big-screen television by using a preexisting Wi-Fi network. For faster transfer, the device would use 802.11n technology. It includes a 40GB hard drive to store the information locally to the device, negating the need to download it before each viewing.

News :Microsoft Investigating Xbox Live Hackings

Microsoft is investigating claims made on several Internet forums that hackers are breaking into customer's Xbox Live accounts and using their accounts to purchase premium content and steal personal information, the company confirmed in a statement to the press on Wednesday. Saying "security is a top priority," it will look into any report of hacking it receives.

Gamers had been complaining that the Redmond company has not taken their complaints of break-ins seriously, either telling them to complain to their credit card companies or claiming they could not do anything about the problem. It is currently unclear as to how hackers are gaining access to the accounts, however some are speculating users are being tricked into giving enough of their personal information to facilitate a break-in.

News : Microsoft, Google Join OpenAjax Alliance

What is fast becoming one of the computing industry's most diverse consortiums of competitors will meet tomorrow at IBM's offices in New York, for the first time with Microsoft as a contributing member. The OpenAjax Alliance is seeking to develop a standard specification for Asynchronous JavaScript, which can now also count Google among its ranks, after having co-founded the Alliance but having held out on its decision to officially join...for reasons some speculate may have had to do with Microsoft.

For all intents and purposes, Google and Microsoft are AJAX, with Google having led the way in promoting the concept of JavaScript code that isn't bound to browser-based events. The freely distributed Google Web Toolkit (GWT) provided most Web developers' first introduction to document object models that could be amended on the fly. Microsoft came along not long afterward with its betas of "Atlas," which have since been pulled in under the ASP.NET umbrella.

News : Wii Continues Sales Dominance in February

Nintendo's Wii outsold all other next-generation consoles in February, the NPD Group reports, further solidifying its second place market share among new consoles in the US. Meanwhile, PS3 sales continue to lag.

It was not all bad news for Sony, however. Sales of its PS2 are still strong, selling 295,000 units during the month. This was about the same as its performance in January, when it sold 299,000 consoles.

The Wii sold 335,000 units in February, a drop of 23 percent from the previous month. Xbox 360 came in second with 228,000, down 22 percent. However, the PS3 showed the biggest drop with some 127,000 consoles sold, falling some 49 percent.

Sony's obvious sales problems with the PS3 are beginning to lend credence to reports that the consoles are beginning to sit on shelves while consumers opt for the cheaper Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii.

A sales associate of an EB Games location in central Pennsylvania told BetaNews that since February, the location's stock of PS3's had either stayed the same or grown, whereas new shipments of Wiis -- few and far between - would sell out within hours.

Overall, the Xbox 360 still maintains a considerable lead in the US, with 5.1 million consoles sold, with the Wii selling 1.9 million and the PlayStation 3 1.1 million units.

Microsoft says it is satisfied with its position, and that the biggest challenge for it now is to expand the market, much like Sony has done with the wildly successful PlayStation 2.

News : Blu-ray: We'll Replace DVD in Three Years

Blu-ray is aiming to replace the DVD format within three years, and is practically claiming victory at the CeBIT technology show in Germany.

The European chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association says that by the end of that period, Blu-ray would be the only next-generation format left. It pointed to the launch of the PlayStation 3 as a major impetus for the format's eventual supremacy.

A little over 1.8 million PS3's have been shipped in the US and Japan, and the console is set to launch in Europe next week with about 1 million consoles available. HD DVD has conceded that it is being outsold in hardware by a five-to-one margin.

However, it disputes claims by the BDA that it is also losing the battle in software, saying disc sales are pretty much even. Likely a lot of Blu-ray's recent sales have to do with a promotion allowing PS3 owners to get a free disc.

HD DVD seems to have the upper hand in Europe, with smaller studios migrating to the format, although Sony disputes this as a sign of trouble. Rather, they say hardware availability in the region is hindered by the fact that there are only two Blu-ray players available in Europe.

To combat Blu-ray head on, two of HD DVD's biggest backers -- Toshiba and Microsoft -- are directly assisting smaller studios in migrating to HD DVD. Of the majors, five out of eight studios only support Blu-ray, as opposed to one only supporting HD DVD, Universal.

News : Microsoft to Pay Business for Using Live Search

If you can't get people to use your product for free, you can always pay them to.

Microsoft is now offering to pay businesses through service or training credits if they get their employees to use its Live Search product at work. The amount of the payment would be based on the number of search queries served.

While many may view this as a sign of desperation from a company whose search share badly lags behind that of competitors Google and Yahoo, Microsoft is attempting to spin it in a different way.

Currently Google serves about half of all search queries, followed by Yahoo that serves about 24 percent. Microsoft has around an 8 percent search share, Neilsen//NetRatings reports.

The company claims that feedback gained from the program would be used to improve Live Search for enterprise use. However, at the same time the program could raise the company's search share, thus allowing the company to sell more advertising and highlight its other related products.

Furthermore, there is a good chance that if employees become accustomed to using Live Search at work, those habits would carry over to their home use of search engines.

Upon registration, a company would receive a $25,000 credit, and then would be eligible for up to $10 per computer annually for Live Search usage. Companies would also be required to mandate that their users use IE7 while at work.

This could result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings for companies with thousands of computers, who traditionally may spend millions on Microsoft products.

"This could work, but it could sure backfire," John Battle of Searchblog wrote Thursday after being alerted to the program.

"How would you feel if, to save a few bucks, the CIO and CFO dictates that you now have to use IE7 preset to Live Search? I can imagine a backlash where usage of Firefox goes way up in large corporations so as to avoid that "Browser Helper Object" installed in IE 7," he continued.

News : Viacom Lawsuit Accuses YouTube of Outright Piracy

In its lawsuit against Google and its YouTube subsidiary which came to light yesterday, Viacom not only alleges that YouTube is guilty of massive copyright infringement by allowing its users to post unauthorized content without restrictions or filtering, but the corporation goes one step further: It accuses YouTube of actually reproducing and posting some unauthorized content itself.

"YouTube itself publicly performs the infringing videos on the YouTube site and other websites," Viacom's lawsuit proclaims. "Thus, YouTube does not simply enable massive infringement by its users. It is YouTube that knowingly reproduces and publicly performs the copyrighted works uploaded to its site."

The lawsuit goes on to contend that access to copyright-infringing content is a cornerstone of YouTube's and Google's business plan for the site, and may be promoting that access in order to drive traffic. The claim mirrors the successful allegation of MGM and other studios in their pursuit of P2P service Grokster, from which they emerged victorious after proving to the US Supreme Court that access to illegal content was part of Grokster's promotions and its business plan.

But the reproduction allegation goes one step further than the Grokster case: It directly implies that YouTube's own people are behind the reproduction of illegal content. Later, the suit acknowledges that users are responsible for the initial posting, effectively stopping Viacom short of accusing YouTube of uploading the content in the first place. But after users upload videos, YouTube reproduces them in order that they may be downloaded, and that reproduction in and of itself, Viacom contends, infringes upon its rights.

In an uncharacteristic manner for Google, it has only been responding to this lawsuit in dribs and drabs. The company late yesterday issued statements to selected news sources, including this: "We are confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders and believe the courts will agree. YouTube is great for users and offers real opportunities to rights holders: the opportunity to interact with users; to promote their content to a young and growing audience; and to tap into the online advertising market. We will certainly not let this suit become a distraction to the continuing growth and strong performance of YouTube and its ability to attract more users, more traffic and build a stronger community."

To other sources, Google issued this statement: "YouTube has become even more popular since we took down Viacom's material. We think that's a testament to the draw of the user-generated content on YouTube. We've been very successful forging thousands of successful partnerships with content owners -- like Warner Music, Sony/BMG, Universal Music, BBC, and the NBA -- interested in finding new audiences for their programming."

For some organizations, YouTube spokespersons have peppered these remarks with additional comments; and some other organizations appear to have received permutations of these statements, or else didn't cite them in their original form. For Reuters, however, Google associate general counsel Alexander Macgillivray did make a longer statement, in so doing referencing a clause of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which protects services from liability when their technology is being used by others for illegal purposes, without the knowledge or participation of the services' proprietors.

"Here there is a law which is specifically designed to give Web hosts such as us, or... bloggers or people that provide photo-album hosting online...the 'safe harbor' we need in order to be able to do hosting online," Macgillivray told Reuters, the "safe harbor" phrase referring to Section 512 of the DMCA.

Subsection (a) of Section 512 is perhaps most important. It holds a party harmless from liability if its service was used to transfer unauthorized material from a person who doesn't work at the service, using an automatic process that human beings aren't controlling at the service end, and that's made available to others automatically and intermediately without a replication process taking place in-between, and without the content changed in between. But Subsection (b) is important too, since it holds a service harmless if all this exchange of illegal content takes place without the service provider's direct involvement or knowledge.

Viacom's attorneys obviously read the DMCA. Their allegation that YouTube replicates the content on the way to availability, using a process that human beings are directly involved with, with the full knowledge of YouTube's proprietors, highlights three key exemptions in Section 512 for which Viacom contends YouTube doesn't qualify.

But Google's attorneys are also citing Section 512 in their own defense, saying it protects companies who learn about copyright infringements on their services only after they happen, once they take immediate steps to remedy the problem. Among such steps, Google contends, is YouTube's invitation for rights holders to report violations to YouTube in writing.

Even then, Viacom's suit contends, the YouTube policy asks for specific URLs of infringing videos; but once access to the video through the infringing URL is blocked, conceivably that same video or copies of that same video may still be accessed through other URLs.

YouTube supporters have taken up the slack today, arguing vehemently on CNBC, CNN, and elsewhere that media companies such as Viacom should simply come to terms with the fact that their content is going to be shared in bits and pieces on services such as YouTube; and if YouTube were to "go down," something else would take its place because the need to share is just that strong.

As Washington attorney Doug Mataconis writes for his blog The Liberty Papers this morning, possibly the worst thing that could happen to Viacom now is if it eventually wins this lawsuit.

"Viacom is mostly likely on the right side of the law, but much like the music companies that brought down Google, they may end up being on the wrong side of public opinion," states Mataconis. "YouTube is immensely popular, and it seems clear that neither Viacom nor any other television network suffers any real financial harm if, say, a three-minute clip from last week's The Colbert Report is posted on YouTube. If anything, they get a promotional bonus from it."

But late yesterday, Dallas Mavericks owner and HDNet chairman Mark Cuban posted his opinion to his personal blog, clearly in support of Viacom, and arguing against the notion that user-based uploads of clips are effective promotions for watching the full show.

"Some of those who are so self absorbed in net culture and have no idea how the real world works," Cuban writes, "might think that all of this leads to more viewing and consumption. Maybe it does...There are definitely situations where it could help a show gain viewers and increased sales of DVDs. All of which has nothing to do with whether Viacom or any content provider should let users upload video.

"I have a secret for you," he continues. "It's easier for end users to upload video to YouTube and Google Video. It's easier for the content owner to do the same thing... If Viacom wants to put up snippets, scenes, mashups, mockups, quarter, half or full episodes of anything they own, there is nothing to stop them. It's their choice. If they are smart, they will fill every Gootube Server they can reach with their content in a manner that drives viewers back to Viacom properties. They will experiment with every option, including those that engage and involve their viewers, to see what works and what doesn't work and what makes them the most money. Why not? Google is paying for all the bandwidth...There is absolutely no value to a media company in letting users actually upload video."

News : Microsoft Expands Xbox Live to Windows

Microsoft continued to build on the success of its Xbox platform by extending it's popular Live gaming platform to Windows PCs. The service would debut on May 8, and would connect gamers on both platforms together.

"Shadowrun" will be the first PC and Xbox 360 title to allow gamers on either platform to play one another in a single environment starting in June, although the Vista version of "Halo 2" due May 8 will permit person-to-person matches across either platform.

"UNO," which has become a popular Xbox Live Arcade title, is slated for release later in the year.

In a humorous twist, Microsoft's Live naming convention has forced the company to give the new service an odd name: "Games for Windows -- Live," with the double hyphen meant to signify that the office is not a Windows Live service, but a different type of "Live" service altogether.

Gamers would be able to use their "gamertags" between either platform, and maintain a single list of achievements. The service for Windows PCs would be available in every country where Xbox Live is currently available.

"The benefits of expanding Xbox LIVE to Games for Windows titles is twofold: We're bringing together two communities that share a passion for playing online games, and we're enhancing the online experience for PC gamers who have long desired seamless game and voice connectivity," Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment chief Peter Moore said.

Certainly, the cross-platform tie-in highlights an area where Microsoft is in a league of its own. Neither Sony nor Nintendo produce PC versions of their games, and both companys' online services are currently seen as inferior to that of Microsoft's.

There will be no additional charge for the PC functionality, and a single Xbox Live subscription would cover both platforms.

News : How Do You Intercept a Text Message?

Retail giant Wal-Mart fired an employee Monday for eavesdropping on phone calls and intercepting text messages between the company's media-relations staff and a New York Times reporter. How do you intercept a text message?

Turn your own cell phone into a surveillance gadget. There are a few ways to do this. One method, phone cloning, lets you intercept incoming messages and send outgoing ones as if your phone were the original. If both phones are near the same broadcast tower, you can also listen in on calls. To clone a phone, you have to make a copy of its SIM card, which stores the phone's identifying information. This requires a SIM reader that can read the card's unique cryptographic key and transfer it to another phone. (Warning: This is super illegal, but there are still sites that show you how.) The problem with cloning is that it only lets you intercept messages sent to one phone number. Plus, you need physical access to the target phone to make it work—something Wal-Mart's technician probably didn't have.

It's also possible to intercept unencrypted or poorly encrypted messages directly as they're broadcast over cellular channels. (If the network uses sophisticated encryption, you might be out of luck.) To steal messages with your phone, you would need to upload illegal "firmware" onto your phone. This essentially turns your phone into a radio and allows it to pick up all the texts broadcast on a given channel—instead of limiting you to the ones addressed to you. You'd also need to know the network for the target phone—Verizon, Cingular, T-Mobile, etc.—and you'd have to make sure that both your phone and the target are within range of the same base station. This method isn't too expensive since you don't need much more than a computer, a phone, and some firmware that any serious techie could find online for free.

News : Google Earth Highlights Destruction

While Google Earth has primarily been touted for its uncanny ability to take users on a tour of the world's most beautiful sights right from their desktop, a new feature added Monday highlights the immense destruction human beings leave in their wake.

Environmental advocacy group Appalachian Voices has joined to Google to deliver a special interactive layer for Google Earth that tells the stories of over 470 mountains that have been destroyed from coal mining, and its impact on nearby ecosystems. Separately, the World Wildlife Fund has added the ability to visit its 150 project sites using Google Earth.

News : MySpace News Service Appearing Imminent

Almost a year to the day following the acquisition by Fox Interactive Media of startup social news aggregation service Newroo, the company appears to be gearing up to integrate it with a certain service it acquired since that time. After a blog post last week in which celebrated former local TV news director Terry Heaton cited industry insiders as revealing FIM's intention to preparing to launch a MySpace news portal around Newroo technology in the second quarter, FIM officials this morning - very clearly and ostentatiously - declined comment.

This as the parent company's careers site today actively advertises for positions such as a software engineer for its Newroo Labs project, describing it in the same paragraph with MySpace as providing "social interaction and communication around user's personal interests relating to news."

When Newroo was acquired last year, it was serving as an online news aggregation service similar in principle to Google News, except that members were capable of contributing to the dissemination process. As a result, Newroo members' customized pages could contain not only selectable content by subject or context, but also active discussions related to those subjects.

FIM's purchase of Newroo was celebrated in some quarters, and criticized in others, for having pre-empted any venture capital backing for Newroo, which would have presumably substantiated its takeover value. Did FIM know what it was getting and what it's getting into, analysts asked?

Apparently, the answer to both questions is "yes," as indicated by this citation from Heaton's blog, which appears to have come from FIM promotional material: "MySpace users previously had to leave the site to find comprehensive news, gossip, sporting news, etc. With MySpace News, we bring the news to them!"

Heaton, whose blog addresses local television producers and newspaper editors, wrote last week, "Now it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this is not good news for those of us in the news business, unless we view it as another way to get our content onto yet another platform." The implication here is similar to some of the early comments at the time Google News was announced: Somebody else's platform could be capitalizing on true news producers' content, and at the producers' expense.

As it turned out, many online news sites actually rely on Google News for as much as one-third of their incoming traffic. In some cases, more readers reach an online article via Google News' front page than from the article publisher's own home page. The convenience of a centralized provider is the key to its success.

However, since MySpace attracts a far younger audience, the characteristics of the readers its news service will direct to news providers' sites may be somewhat different. From a research perspective, Heaton believes, it may be helpful for local news providers to inexpensively determine what type and flavor of news younger readers prefer.

But there's an implication that this "flavor" could bleed into online news content and subtly adjust the way it's edited and produced, in a parallel fashion to how many sites carefully adjust the phraseology of their articles' headlines to help weight them amongst Google News' aggregator. If general news sites started openly fishing for MySpace News' audience, imagine how their headlines could become fine-tuned yet again.

News : EU Consumer Protection Targets iTunes

On the eve of the announcement of a new Europe-wide consumer protection program, whose stated aim is to ensure consumers' ability to return products purchased online for refunds if they're not satisfied - regardless of what country they were purchased from - the lead architect of that program, EU Commissioner Meglena Kuneva, hinted to the German newsweekly Focus that Apple's iTunes service could be directly impacted.

One possible cause for consumer dissatisfaction may be the realization that music tracks purchased from iTunes are not portable across all digital devices or CD players. Last January, officials in Norway (not an EU member) declared iTunes illegal in that country for a multitude of reasons, the alleged non-interoperability of the underlying system being just one of them.

Another was the fact that Apple does not give iTunes customers any redress - a way to "return" downloaded material with which they're dissatisfied, for a refund. Consumers could become dissatisfied after learning of iTunes tracks' non-interoperability, only after they downloaded them.

The Norwegian government has given Apple until October 1 to change iTunes to comply with that country's interoperability laws - a ruling that does not appear to have Apple's engineers working overtime at present. But even if Apple could comply with that directive, it would still need to begin offering customers a way to receive refunds, perhaps within a 30-day term - what's being called a "cooling off period."

It's this kind of term which was ostensibly the subject of Kuneva's Focus interview, published this morning; though previews of the interview published online focused primarily on her iTunes stance. Reuters' translation from Focus' German-language online preview (her spoken language was probably English, not her native Bulgarian) of today's printed interview cites Kuneva as saying, "Do you think it's fine that a CD plays in all CD players but that an iTunes song only plays in an iPod? I don't. Something has to change."

But a later reference to the same interview, not circulated by Reuters but appearing in this morning's Xinhua Daily, directly attributes the something that must change not to iTunes' DRM, but to Apple's lack of a refund policy. The Focus preview quotes Kuneva as adding (translating from German), "To that end, we need a general period during which consumers may revoke their purchases, in order to get prices to level out [with those of competitors] and sales contracts to become more uniform."

Some news sources which failed to translate the entire interview today either praised Kuneva for championing the general anti-DRM cause, or took her to task for having failed to champion the cause nearly enough.

Last November, Commissioner Kuneva was granted responsibility for consumer protection. Her purview includes regulation of online commerce. Citing the startling statistic that only 6% of EU citizens shop online across borders, last month Kuneva announced a program aimed at the development of a single, uniform policy for redress that would alleviate consumers' fears that their grievances will not be heard due to their country of origin.

Such a policy would apply not only to EU member countries but to Web sites based in other countries -- including the US -- that include Europeans as their customers. Apple's iTunes would be one of the largest of those firms. Kuneva's recommendations for this policy are expected to come in the form of a "Green Paper" to the EU Parliament in Brussels tomorrow.

Digital rights management is not among the items in Kuneva's purview. So although her personal views on DRM are now clear, if tomorrow's Green Paper is open-ended on the subject of how it is that customers are expected to "return" downloaded music tracks with which they're dissatisfied, the policy she outlines could actually end up requiring some form of DRM (perhaps not necessarily a proprietary one) to enable redress to work electronically.

For instance, vendors such as Apple may be allowed to revoke the rights of users to listen to tracks which they "returned." For such a revocation policy to be feasible, a DRM system would need to be capable of rendering tracks useless after the so-called "cooling off period" has expired.

So while the effectiveness of Commissioner Kuneva's advocacy against DRM is being prematurely debated in the popular press, her Green Paper could actually present Apple and others with a potential payoff not for eliminating DRM, but for improving it. We'll know more early tomorrow morning.

News : VMware ACE Beta to Ease Management

VMware has launched a beta of product that allows IT administrators to centrally manage and control virtual machines installed on PCs on their network.

Called VMware ACE, the application would allow the administrator to create a PC environment, package it into a virtual machine, and then deploy it to any managed or unmanaged endpoint.

"IT administrators need tighter desktop control and management because they are tasked with supporting increasing numbers of workers who use equipment over which they have no control," enterprise desktop platforms chief Jerry Chen said in a statement.

"It's like handing out a secure, controlled laptop without the cost and hassle of provisioning new hardware."

In addition to the remote deployment feature, ACE also includes a feature called Pocket ACE, which allows users to place a virtual machine on just about any storage device, plug it into a PC with the software, and access the saved virtual machine from anywhere with a network connection.

The VMware ACE Management Server would additionally be a useful tool for IT administrators, as it would allow them to make blanket changes to all virtual machines on a network from a single console.

The software is expected to be generally available in the second quarter of this year, however the beta is available immediately for download. VMware said pricing for the final version would not be announced until the final version ships.
Add a Comment

News : AOL Updates 'Cayman' WebMail Beta

AOL pushed an update Monday to the beta site for its WebMail product, code-named "Cayman." Changes in this refresh focused on enhancements to the overall look and feel of the application, as well as performance improvements. A more streamlined interface has been introduced that will allow for quicker navigation as well as the option to either read messages inline or pop-out as they currently do.

In addition, updates were made to the Side Panel feature, allowing the user to easily e-mail and IM contacts with just one click, as well as view upcoming events and to-do items. AOL said it planned to add more functionality as the beta progresses. The new version is available for testing from the AOL Beta site.

News : Xbox Gets Bigger Live Games, Memory Card

Microsoft plans to allow Xbox Live Arcade games to use more space, announcing it had increased the official size limit from 50 to 150 megabytes. In addition, the company also announced a larger memory card with a capacity of 512MB.

The unit will be priced at $49.99 USD, and comes preloaded with the Xbox Live Arcade game "Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved" for a limited time. The original 64MB version will drop in price to $29.99 USD.

Using the memory card, Xbox 360 users would be able to download exclusive content from the 45,000 retail kiosks Microsoft has, and utilize eight times the space to store gaming content.

The increased size limit for Xbox Live Arcade games is aimed at allowing developers to continue to create newer and more intensive games for Microsoft's console.

"Our focus is on continuing to provide developers with an environment that allows for the creation of cost-efficient games and that nurtures an artistic and creative approach to game development," Xbox Live head Chris Early said.

At the Game Developers Conference held this week in San Francisco, Microsoft also plans to show off some of the newest Xbox Live Arcade titles. They include music game "Boom Boom Rocket" by EA, Sierra Online's "3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures," Klei's "Eets: Chowdown", Rare's "Jetpac Refueled," and Zen Studios' "Pinball FX."
Add a Comment

News : Verizon Brings CBS, ESPN, Fox Mobile, MTV and NBC to Mobile TV

After ditching Apple’s iPhone two years ago and after bringing YouTube content on mobile phones, Verizon announced the debut of a new service that will bring TV shows on a phone near your ear.

Two years ago, Verizon said no to Apple when the Cuppertino-based company got a little too greedy. Apple reportedly wanted a percentage of the monthly cell phone fees, decision making power over how and where iPhones could be sold, and control of the relationship with iPhone customers.

In a somewhat compensatory initiative, Verizon later brought YouTube’s content on the mobile phones of Verizon Wireless’ V CAST subscribers in the United States.

Now the same subscribers will also get TV content, with channels like CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN, Fox Mobile, MTV, NBC 2Go, NBC News 2Go and Nickelodeon available at launch, and others to follow soon.

Verizon will offer V CAST Mobile TV for the moment to only 20 Midwestern and Western markets, charging between $15 and $25 a month for the initial lineup of programs from the first eight televisions.

Thus, Verizon becomes the first U.S. carrier to deliver a service that streams television to mobile phone using MediaFLO’s network, which has a capacity of 20 channel.

Read More

News : YouTube to Add Three BBC-Branded Channels

The BBC has beaten ITV to the goal line in signing a content deal - the terms and length of which have not been disclosed - with YouTube, the streaming video division of Google. Starting today, YouTube has begun offering three new BBC-branded channels containing sharable clips from BBC programmes (spelled here using the Queen's English), though it appears this morning that these clips will be mostly promotional.

The main BBC channel will be classified as a "public service" - which is an important distinction, because the BBC is not a private corporation. It receives its funding from license fees collected by the British government from citizens, so any BBC enterprise that would overtly feature commercial advertising might come under scrutiny by subscribers, and under fire in Parliament.

So this main channel will walk a fine line, showing brief "making of" and "behind the scenes" videos, interviewing stars from BBC shows, and presenting more perennial feature reports from BBC News correspondents. Viewers will be directed to online addresses where they can download entire programs online, though these addresses will likely be from the BBC's own servers, and the pool of authorized downloaders will probably be restricted to those already paying their license fees.

A BBC News channel will feature as many as 30 clips per day, though most likely arranged out of sequence, and not edited together with continuity like a BBC "bulletin." But it's the third channel that will raise some eyebrows among Britons: The BBC Worldwide channel will feature six-minute excerpts from programs, chained together with commercials ("adverts") in-between. And it will be viewable worldwide, which means UK viewers will be watching ads on a BBC service.

In keeping with its long-standing tradition of objectivity (recent scandals about war coverage notwithstanding), the first to point out the controversy was the BBC itself. "The deal is likely to be controversial with other media companies," BBC News writes this morning, "who have accused the BBC of straying from its licence-fee funded public service remit and moving too far into commercial web ventures."

Critics would also probably include services that didn't sign the deal with YouTube first.

BBC News also notes that YouTube is typically "riddled with pirated film and music clips," but rather than take a more aggressive, American-style approach - hunting down and suing the uploaders of unauthorized material - the BBC's director of future media, Ashley Highfield, said the corporation will actually reserve the right to replace pirated clips shared by individuals with original clips of the same material. This way, the same content is being shared, but this time without the clandestine air.

Variety.com reports this morning that the BBC will receive a percentage of revenue from ads that supplement its YouTube channels' pages.

News : Verizon Wireless V CAST TV Goes Live

Thursday marked the beginning of Verizon Wireless' V CAST mobile TV service in twenty US markets, utilizing Qualcomm's MediaFLO mobile TV network. With the aim of giving potential competitors such as DVB-H and mobile IPTV a run for their money, this extension to Verizon's existing V CAST service will be capable of broadcasting standard TV-quality programming to specific handsets, namely the Samsung SCH-U260 and soon the LG VX9400.

The 20 initial markets on Verizon's list are as follows: Norfolk/Richmond, Virginia; Jacksonville, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana; Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; St. Louis, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; Indianapolis, Indiana; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota; Wichita, Kansas; Omaha/Lincoln, Nebraska; Colorado Springs and Denver, Colorado; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Tucson, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; Palm Springs, California; Portland, Oregon; Seattle and Spokane, Washington. More major markets are purported to be added before the end of the first quarter.

V CAST channels include special just-for-phone versions of popular CBS, NBC and FOX programs, as well as live feeds from MTV, Comedy Central, ESPN, and Nickelodeon. Customers who wish to subscribe to the service should expect to pay an additional USD$15 per month.

Qualcomm's MediaFlo service has also been adopted by AT&T/Cingular, which is finalizing plans to launch its own MediaFLO service later this year.

News : Windows Live Games Beta Signup Begins

Today Microsoft extended an invitation for individuals to participate in a beta test of its new Windows Live Games online community, which will allow PC gamers to connect with Xbox users over the Live gaming network.

Microsoft's window of opportunity for signup (forgive the pun) is limited. To be considered, users will have to fill out a very brief eight question survey. Those selected will be contacted in the coming weeks, and additionally will be entered in a prize drawing.

News : Calif. Document Format Bill Could Test Microsoft's Openness Claim

A bill introduced last week in the California state legislature would make it state law next year for all state agencies to create, preserve, and archive their digital documents using an XML-based file format, and to be able to receive new documents in XML-based formats as well. The bill does not mention any format specifically, though observers believe it refers indirectly to OpenDocument Format (ODF).

However, with Corel having promised last November to implement Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) in its next edition of WordPerfect Office, and with an announcement on that edition believed to be imminent, there may be no barriers left that would specifically exclude OOXML from being adopted by the State of California, should bill AB 1668 pass.


The bill would indeed stipulate that state workers must create documents using the XML-based format, not just archive them. So Microsoft Office 2003 and older versions would have to be replaced on or before January 1, 2008; and conceivably, existing documents might need to be translated on or before that time - a process which for other states generally takes far longer than twelve months.

In listing the criteria the State would have to apply in choosing an XML-based format, the bill prescribes that format must be interoperable, fully published, royalty-free, sponsored by an open industry organization, and implemented by multiple vendors. Up until now, OOXML has been all of these things except the latter.

But even after OOXML becomes one of the optional formats for WordPerfect Office users (ODF is another), there could still be if not a roadblock, then at least a stumbling block, for OOXML ahead: While ECMA International has already approved OOXML as an open standard, and is working to acquire fast-track status for its ultimate approval by the International Standards Organization, which would limit time for debate over its adoption to five months.

Last month, however, the ISO acknowledged it had received objections to fast-track status for OOXML by 19 member countries. Microsoft's and ECMA's deadline for responding to those objections passed yesterday.

Among the comments from individuals and organizations that ISO has thus far received include several that state adoption of Office Open XML would violate ISO rules, claiming it was developed by a single company. However, ECMA lists 11 other companies besides Microsoft as having contributed to the standard, including Apple, Intel, Novell, Toshiba, the British Library, and the Library of Congress.

Regardless of how the ISO chooses to handle those objections, the Open Forum Europe industry group is on record as objecting to the process by which Microsoft and ECMA were given time to respond in the first place, citing a lack of transparency. "We believe that bearing in mind the number and extent of the concerns raised worldwide, this date is unrealistic," reads an entry on the Alliance's Web site posted last month. "What process do ISO intend to follow which facilitates this evaluation and allow transparency of the debate?"

Without fast-track status, member nations could debate the worthiness of OOXML for the next few years, after which time, the next version of Microsoft Office might ironically be imminent. If the debate lasts beyond California's 1/1/2008 deadline - assuming the bill passes - then the Legislature might find itself arguing over whether ECMA is a large enough organization to qualify as "an open industry organization with a well-defined inclusive process for evolution of the standard."

News : Calif. Document Format Bill Could Test Microsoft's Openness Claim

A bill introduced last week in the California state legislature would make it state law next year for all state agencies to create, preserve, and archive their digital documents using an XML-based file format, and to be able to receive new documents in XML-based formats as well. The bill does not mention any format specifically, though observers believe it refers indirectly to OpenDocument Format (ODF).

However, with Corel having promised last November to implement Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) in its next edition of WordPerfect Office, and with an announcement on that edition believed to be imminent, there may be no barriers left that would specifically exclude OOXML from being adopted by the State of California, should bill AB 1668 pass.


The bill would indeed stipulate that state workers must create documents using the XML-based format, not just archive them. So Microsoft Office 2003 and older versions would have to be replaced on or before January 1, 2008; and conceivably, existing documents might need to be translated on or before that time - a process which for other states generally takes far longer than twelve months.

In listing the criteria the State would have to apply in choosing an XML-based format, the bill prescribes that format must be interoperable, fully published, royalty-free, sponsored by an open industry organization, and implemented by multiple vendors. Up until now, OOXML has been all of these things except the latter.

But even after OOXML becomes one of the optional formats for WordPerfect Office users (ODF is another), there could still be if not a roadblock, then at least a stumbling block, for OOXML ahead: While ECMA International has already approved OOXML as an open standard, and is working to acquire fast-track status for its ultimate approval by the International Standards Organization, which would limit time for debate over its adoption to five months.

Last month, however, the ISO acknowledged it had received objections to fast-track status for OOXML by 19 member countries. Microsoft's and ECMA's deadline for responding to those objections passed yesterday.

Among the comments from individuals and organizations that ISO has thus far received include several that state adoption of Office Open XML would violate ISO rules, claiming it was developed by a single company. However, ECMA lists 11 other companies besides Microsoft as having contributed to the standard, including Apple, Intel, Novell, Toshiba, the British Library, and the Library of Congress.

Regardless of how the ISO chooses to handle those objections, the Open Forum Europe industry group is on record as objecting to the process by which Microsoft and ECMA were given time to respond in the first place, citing a lack of transparency. "We believe that bearing in mind the number and extent of the concerns raised worldwide, this date is unrealistic," reads an entry on the Alliance's Web site posted last month. "What process do ISO intend to follow which facilitates this evaluation and allow transparency of the debate?"

Without fast-track status, member nations could debate the worthiness of OOXML for the next few years, after which time, the next version of Microsoft Office might ironically be imminent. If the debate lasts beyond California's 1/1/2008 deadline - assuming the bill passes - then the Legislature might find itself arguing over whether ECMA is a large enough organization to qualify as "an open industry organization with a well-defined inclusive process for evolution of the standard."

Google News : Google says advertisers face minimal click fraud

REUTERS[ THURSDAY, MARCH 01, 2007 10:30:03 AM] SAN FRANCISCO:

Google Inc, on Wednesday disclosed data showing that while its pay-per-click Web advertising system is under regular attack from fraudsters, virtually all such tricks are automatically detected; rebuffing critics who say its online ads are a magnet for fraud.

Click fraud can occur when Web site publishers attempt to trick Google's ad system into counting ads never seen by real users, or when competitors use automated programs to create fake clicks, driving up charges per click and rivals' ad rates. Invalid clicks also regularly occur if consumers click on an ad then instantly click the back button to exit the ad. Google discounts both.
Financially, what this means for Google is that its computers automatically reject up to 10 per cent of potential advertising billings. At current revenue levels, every percentage point of invalid clicks the company forgoes costs Google $100 million in lost revenue, the product manager said. Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google's product manager for trust and safety, said in an interview that, on average, up to 10 per cent of pay-per-click activity is invalid, and in some cases fraudulent, but that its computers automatically detect virtually all such problems, meaning advertisers pay nothing.
The percentage of invalid clicks actually identified by customers is 0.02 per cent of all clicks, he said. Consumers click billions of times each month on text and other types of ads that run on Google.com and affiliated Web sites. "There is a great deal of misinformation that was put out in the course of the last year," Ghosemajumder said.
The Google official acknowledged that the search ad system which is the company's crown jewel -- producing virtually all Google's $10.6 billion in revenue last year -- is under regular attack by the advertising equivalent of SPAM. Such attacks, and audience fluctuations generally, he said can cause invalid click rates to vary, but have never amounted to problems adding up to anything greater than single-digit percentages in any quarter for as long as Google has run ads. Criticism of Google's core revenue producing system reached a peak early last year when various industry groups and critics published statistics showing double-digit rates of click fraud, with some figures running 30 per cent or higher of all clicks. Google, which says its keeps key parts of its search system secret to prevent manipulation by bad actors, responded by cracking down on sites that abused its groundrules and redoubling efforts to educate advertisers about its system. It also settled a US class action lawsuit last March that had accused Google and other Web search advertising services of failing to police their ad systems against fraud. Google agreed to pay up to $90 million in potential claims.
"The biggest challenge Google faces is really a restoration of trust," advertising industry veteran Kevin Lee said. "Google was a little lax early on (about the problem). They admitted that by choosing to settle a lawsuit, instead of fighting it.
" Lee is co-founder and executive chairman of Did-it.com, a search marketing agency who helps advertisers such as D&B, Cingular, Register.com and Crucial Memory. Cingular spend around $200 million on search ads each year. "Those of us who have been paying close attention to campaigns for sometime had most of this information," he said.
They are becoming more transparent, but the reality is that Google was already pretty vigilant. One factor that explains why some critics see such high rates of fraud is that some highly desirable keyword searches come under heavy attack at moments, while, on average, Google is correct in saying the threat of such attacks is minimal.
Click Forensics Inc, which provides click fraud detection services to advertisers, estimates that, industry wide, around 14 per cent of all Web ad clicks in the second half of 2006 were suspicious and should not be billed to advertisers. Ghosemajumder acknowledged that advertisers -- who receive detailed data from Google on the results of any ad campaign, may suffer periods where half of all clicks are invalid, and other times when the rate of invalid clicks is minimal.

News : RIAA to College Students: Settle Now

The RIAA said Wednesday that it had sent some 400 letters to individuals at 13 universities offering an opportunity for students accused of piracy to settle with the recording industry. Although the RIAA is not specifying the settlement amount, it is said to be significantly less than what the group would sue for in court.

Over the next several months, the organization expects to send hundreds more settlement offers. According to the RIAA, letters this month were sent to students at schools such as Arizona State University, North Carolina State University, Ohio University, Syracuse University, Amherst, University of Southern California, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and University of Texas, Austin, among others.