News : Reuters Technology Week

The latest in food-fuel and new technology helps decipher the Dead Sea scrolls. Plus, paraplegics get a chance to walk. Fred Katayama

News : Sony launches thinnest LCD TV

The Bravia ZX1 measuring 9.9 millimetres deep is one example of the evolution of flat panel TVs being revealed at the Berlin IFA trade fair.

TV technology is proving to be one of the main themes at the fair, with Philips and LG also highlighting advances in the viewer experience.

Matt Cowan reports.

News : GeoEye signs deal to provide imagery to Google

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - GeoEye Inc on Thursday said it will provide imagery from its new $502 million high-resolution GeoEye-1 satellite to Google Earth and Google Maps after the spacecraft is launched on September 4.

GeoEye spokesman Mark Brender said the Google logo was on the first stage of the Delta II rocket that will launch the new satellite, which will provide the highest resolution commercial color imagery available on the market.

"Google is interested in collecting the highest quality satellite imagery available and as a symbol of this commitment has agreed to put the company logo on the first stage of our launch vehicle," Brender said.

He said Google did not have any direct or indirect financial interest in the satellite or in GeoEye, nor did it pay to have its logo emblazoned on the rocket.

If all goes well with the launch, GeoEye's new satellite will be the world's highest resolution commercial earth-imaging satellite, offering images at .41 meters resolution in black and white and 1.65 meters in color.

Under current government rules, the company can only offer the public half-meter images.

Google spokeswoman Kate Hurowitz said Google would begin receiving half-meter resolution imagery from the new satellite after 45 to 60 days, during which the company will make sure all the satellite's systems are up and running.

"The combination of GeoEye's high-resolution, map-accurate satellite imagery from GeoEye-1 and Google's search and display capabilities provides users with access to rich, interactive visual image maps of the Earth," Hurowitz said. She gave no details on the financial terms of the agreement.

Google already uses imagery collected by another high-resolution GeoEye satellite, IKONOS, as well as imagery from other sources, including GeoEye's main rival, Digital Globe, which plans an initial public offering this year.

DigitalGlobe launched its new high-resolution satellite, WorldView-1, in late 2007, which offers half-meter resolution and can collect up to 750,000 square kilometers (290,000 square miles) of imagery each day, albeit only in black and white.

Google will continue to use imagery from other providers, but GeoEye will provide its imagery exclusively to Google, not any other on-line mapping websites, Brender said.

GeoEye, which went public in September 2006, has expanded dramatically over the past five years, quadrupling its work force and reporting large revenue and profit increases.

Its shares were hammered in recent months on news of a delay in the launch of the new satellite, which was originally planned in April, and given a slump in orders from the Pentagon's National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

But GeoEye Chief Executive Matthew O'Connell said the launch of GeoEye-1 should help spur U.S. government orders and buoy the company's shares. He predicted strong growth over the next five years, bolstered by growing commercial, global and government demand for satellite imagery.

GeoEye's shares closed 2.4 percent higher at $23.18 on Thursday, up sharply from a low of $16.05 in May, but still well below a 52-week high of $37.37 in January.

(Editing by Gary Hill)

News : MySpace overtakes Yahoo in display ad views

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc has lost its lead of the U.S. market for online display advertising to MySpace and its parent company News Corp's Fox Interactive Media and MySpace, new industry data shows.

Fox Interactive's collection of sites, led by MySpace, drew 56.8 billion advertising views in June, compared with Yahoo's group of sites which had 53.1 billion, according to data from Web audience measurement firm comScore this week.

But while the statistic marks the rapid growth of MySpace in terms of advertising viewership, analysts say the social network site has struggled to draw top-dollar ad rates relative to Yahoo, known for attracting premium advertising rates.

"Social media gets all these ad impressions but not necessarily get the dollars," said Colin Gillis, analyst at Canaccord Adams. MySpace's cost per thousand (CPM) page views are significantly lower than that of Yahoo, he said.

A MySpace executive said it is closing the gap with rivals such as Yahoo, Time Warner's AOL and Microsoft Corp's MSN after the revamp of its home page in June, which has drawn in big-name sponsors such as Sprint and Wendy's.

"Our CPMs have grown significantly," Jeff Berman, MySpace president of sales and marketing, said of June's growth spike. "Category by category, year over year, we're up double digits."

According to comScore data for advertising impressions, June was the first month that Fox Interactive has surpassed Yahoo, which saw ad views dip by around 12 percent from May.

While it may be too soon to say that MySpace has overtaken Yahoo for good, comScore data shows that Yahoo's share of the display market has been trending down since July of 2007.

Yahoo questioned comScore's measurement methodology.

"We believe there could be issues with the measurement that could be misrepresenting Yahoo and we are reviewing comScore's methodology and working with them to resolve these issues," Spokesman Adam Grossberg said in a statement.

ComScore spokesman Andrew Lipsman countered that Yahoo's month-on-month drop in display ad view was an "organic decline" unrelated to any changes in the firm's measurement methods.

Yahoo has often championed its leadership in Web display advertising -- based on comScore data -- even as it lost ground to Google Inc's dominant lead in search advertising. Yahoo agreed in June for Google to supply it with ad services to run alongside Yahoo's own Web search system.

Richard Greenfield, analyst at Pali Research said the redesign of the MySpace home page earlier this summer created a more compelling advertising proposition for brand marketers such as Sprint and Wendy's.

"It shows how the redesign is allowing MySpace to reach far beyond the 'social media' advertising category and to target far larger portal advertising budgets," said Greenfield in a blog posting for investors. He said this was a negative omen for big portals like Yahoo as well as MSN and AOL.

News : EU blocks WTO investigation into high-tech tariffs

GENEVA (Reuters) - The European Union on Friday blocked a World Trade Organisation (WTO) investigation of its duties on high-tech imported goods such as satellite boxes, flat-panel computer monitors, and digital scanners and printers.

Washington asked for a WTO panel to examine the tariffs Brussels imposes on products the United States believes should get duty-free treatment under the Information Technology Agreement reached in 1996.

The EU invoked its right to block that first-time request for a panel, as is permitted under WTO rules. If the United States submits a second request at the next Dispute Settlement Body meeting on September 23 the panel will be set up automatically.

In a statement, Brussels said the products listed in the U.S.-brought dispute were new and "objectively different" from the categories of high-tech goods enumerated in the 1996 accord.

It argued that amendments to that list should be negotiated amongst the accord's 71 signatories, not through WTO litigation.

Washington estimates that worldwide exports of the products covered by the dispute, made by companies like Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Canon (7751.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), total more than $70 billion.

Japan and Taiwan are supporting the U.S. panel request, and other electronics exporters such as China, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines have also shown interest in the dispute.

(Reporting by Laura MacInnis; editing by Tony Austin)

News: Microsoft buys ciao.com to boost e-shopping search

By Georgina Prodhan

LONDON (Reuters) - Microsoft has agreed to buy Greenfield Online, owner of popular European price comparison website ciao.com, for about $486 million to boost its Internet search and e-commerce business in Europe.

Microsoft, whose $47.5 billion bid to buy Yahoo earlier this year failed after a long battle, said on Friday the acquisition -- the latest in a series -- should help it build a more consumer-friendly, results-oriented search engine.

"We call it 'instant answers'," said John Mangelaars, head of Microsoft's consumer and online business in Europe. "I hope it's getting very clear that we've very serious about EMEA," he added, speaking to Reuters by telephone.

Internet search is dominated by Google, which has 62 percent of the global search market and 79 percent in Europe, according to Web usage tracker ComScore.

Microsoft has a 2 percent market share in Europe and 9 percent worldwide, behind both Google and Yahoo. In Europe, Microsoft is also outranked by online auction site eBay and Russia's Yandex.

But Mangelaars said buying ciao.com was an important step in Microsoft's attempt to distinguish itself by providing search results more useful to consumers, particularly shoppers, than those thrown up by a Google search.

For example, results of a Microsoft search for a particular camera model could include which prices were available from which retailers, and maps of where those retailers were, rather than just links to the manufacturer's and retailers' websites.

The acquisition follows those of Norwegian enterprise search company Fast for about $1.2 billion early this year and shopping-and-auction site jellyfish.com for an undisclosed sum last year.

CASH BACK

Caio.com is active in seven European countries and attracts 19.6 million unique visitors per month in Europe, more than twice as many as rival kelkoo.com, according to ComScore, thanks to its large network of members who contribute product reviews.

To attract more users, Microsoft also plans to reward consumers who buy products through its shopping sites by giving them cash back, extending a trial started in the United States a few months ago.

"Google's trying to do all your search needs. What Microsoft is doing with this kind of acquisition is saying: 'We're going to be very good at the commercial side of search, the shopping'," said Forrester principal analyst Rebecca Jennings.

Herve le Jouan, ComScore's managing director, Europe, agreed. "Doing this shopping thing, I think, is a good move," he said, but cautioned that acquisitions alone would never bring Microsoft close to Google's market share in search.

"Nobody is able to compete right now with Google so there is nobody to buy to compete with Google," he said.

Microsoft's Mangelaars acknowledged the distance Microsoft had to cover, especially given the commercial edifice rapidly being built by online advertisers whose models depend on Google's particular view of the Web.

"It's a race," he said, "but we also believe it's very early days in search technology."

Microsoft's offer of $17.50 per share betters an earlier proposal by media-focused U.S. buyout firm Quadrangle Group to acquire the company for $15.50 a share, and represents a slight premium to Greenfield's closing price of $17.25 on Thursday.

On August 26, Greenfield had said it had received a $17.50 per share offer but did not reveal from whom. The latest offer represents a premium of about 10 percent over Greenfield's closing share price on August 25.

Microsoft said it had agreed to sell Greenfield's main business, which surveys consumer opinion online and sells the results to market researchers, to an unnamed financial buyer.

The companies expect both deals to close during the fourth quarter of 2008. Completion of the Greenfield sale to Microsoft does not depend on Microsoft's disposal of the online survey business, the two companies said.

(Additional reporting by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty in Bangalore; Editing by Quentin Bryar and Sue Thomas)

News : Panda birth captured on video

The birth of a Giant Panda baby is captured on video in what is being celebrated as Japan's first successful birth by an artificially inseminated panda in 20 years.

Giant Panda Tan Tan was the star of Kobe's Oji Zoo on Tuesday (August 26) after giving birth to Japan's first baby panda in 20 years to be born as a result of artificial insemination.

Narrowly avoiding walking on her 23-24 centimetre cub, 12-year-old Tan Tan who had a still-born just last summer, finally figured out how to grab the wriggling white baby with her jaws and bring it closer so it could suckle.

The cub has not yet been named and its sex has not yet been confirmed.

The zoo expects the baby panda to make its public debut after three months and it will eventually be returned to China from where it parents came from.

Including the newest addition, there are ten Giant Pandas in Japan -- all on lease or born from other pandas on lease from China for joint research of breeding and preservation purposes.

News : Obama nominated by acclamation

Democrats nominated Sen. Barack Obama as their presidential candidate in a historic first for a black American, sending him into battle against Republican John McCain.

Obama's one-time opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton, formally asked delegates to suspend a roll call vote of states and approve his nomination by acclamation.

News : Mystery Chinese iPhone worker becomes Internet star

CANBERRA, (Reuters) - A Chinese factory worker has become an Internet sensation after a picture of her smiling and flashing a peace sign to a co-worker testing an Apple iPhone stayed on the phone that was sold to a man in Britain.

Photos of the unidentified, smiling woman were posted on the Apple discussion website MacRumours.com by a customer identified as "markm49uk" from Kingston-upon-Hull and quickly posted around other sites.

"Not sure if this is or is not the 'norm' but I just received my brand new iPhone here in the UK and once it had been activated on iTunes I found that the home screen (the screen you can personalize with a photo) already had a photo set against it!!!!" he wrote.

"It would appear that someone on the production line was having a bit of fun - has anyone else found this?"

Some people voiced concern that the woman could now lose her job while others joked on the website that they were considering returning their phones because they did not come loaded with a photo.

"I think its a kind of personal touch. It's nice. Maybe every phone that gets a full quality test should have its tester's picture taken and left on there. And the working conditions look pretty good," wrote one.

Taiwanese company Foxconn assembles the iPhones for Apple in Shenzhen in southern China but calls to the company by Reuters went unanswered.

However Foxconn spokesman Liu Kun told the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong that the woman had been identified but her details would not be released. She had also been assured by her bosses that her job was safe.

Liu said the photos were taken in the testing department as part of a normal procedure and only one phone was known to be affected so far.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, editing by Miral Fahmy)

News : Web news aggregators rise despite papers woes

By Robert MacMillan

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Local newspapers may be faced with hard times, but the ability to get news on a mobile device is flourishing, with several outlets providing context that helps explain particular stories' places in the larger universe of world events.

The need for this becomes more apparent when you consider the thousands of newspapers, broadcasters, wires, and blogs around the globe. Until recently, few sites tried to make it easier for you to negotiate through the thicket.

That is important as more readers get their news in bites while on the go. Many breeze through stories, updates and opinions using notebook computers or smart phones like Blackberry or SamsungApple's iPhone and iPod Touch pocket computer, or Research in Motion's Electronics's Instinct.

These websites, dubbed "aggregators," cull together news from famous sources like the BBC as well as some otherwise unknown outlets.

Here is a sample of some of the most interesting and accessible English-language sites that distribute news, and what makes them worth a visit.

* Daylife's (http://www.daylife.com) reason for being is less about presenting news from many sources gathered on one website. Rather, it allows other news publishers aggregate news on their own sites, said partner and new media blogger Jeff Jarvis says. Nevertheless, the site exhorts readers to dig in, giving them photos, timelines and other accessories that Jarvis says provides "an analysis of the body of news."

* Newser (http://www.newser.com), started by Vanity Fair media columnist Michael Wolff, tells readers that "You can't follow 100 news sources, but we can." Its hook is human editors who search for and present the news, similar to old-fashioned print newspaper editors.

* Topix (http://www.topix.com) is a bit of a new media lab for Gannett, McClatchy and Tribune, the three U.S. newspaper publishers that own it. Topix presents news stories based on the ZIP code or town name that you enter at the top of its home page. The site then presents local news with an often lively (and profane) list of comments.

* Google News (http://news.google.com) and Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com) are two of the most well known stops because they are the products of the popular online search engines and Internet networks.

Both divvy up news according to topic and allow people to search for results. (A hint for easier searching: book-end your search terms with quotation marks. Finding a story about "Reuters" or "The New York Times" without using quotation marks will produce stories written by those news outlets, not stories about them.)

* "RSS" feeds allow readers to keep up with breaking news by telling them when something happens, rather than requiring them to refresh the websites they follow throughout the day.

The upside is that they can be habit-forming after learning how to use them. The downside is learning how. "RSS" means "Really Simple Syndication," but for casual Internet users who don't use terms like RSS in cocktail party chatter, they are not always easy to set up.

One easy RSS service is Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com). Also try NetVibes, and Google's Google Reader.

* NewsCred (http://www.newscred.com)-- like another popular site, Digg (http://www.digg.com) -- lets users rank articles. However, whereas Digg ranks them by popularity, NewsCred ranks stories by credibility.

Founder Shafqat Islam, a former project manager for financial systems at Merrill Lynch, told Reuters he and his partner Iraj Islam tailored the site toward less technologically inclined users.

"We wanted to create a news-aggregating site where it's just as simple as clicking on the logos of your favorite websites. It's for mainstream news readers, not early adopters or techies," Shafqat Islam said.

One other important point: even though most of the articles on NewsCred are in English, it does offer links to some other languages, and Islam said they plan to expand to coverage in in-demand languages like French, Italian and Spanish.

News : iPhone security flaw exposes private data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A security flaw in Apple Inc's (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) iPhone allows unauthorized users to gain easy access to private contacts and e-mails even when the device is locked, but the company said a fix is on the way.

Popular technology blog Gizmodo and an online forum run by the Mac Rumors site showed that it took only three taps to gain access to locked iPhones, which run the latest 2.02 iPhone software.

A spokeswoman said in an e-mail that Apple was aware of the problem and was readying a software update to fix it. In the meantime, she recommended users set the iPhone's "Home" button to open up the phone's iPod music collection rather than the phone's "Favorites" menu.

The spokeswoman did not say when the software update would be made available.

The flaw could be seen as a momentary setback in Apple's ambitious plans to compete against Research In Motion (RIM.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), whose BlackBerry smartphone has become a standard issue device in corporate businesses around the globe.

Earlier in August, technology research firm Gartner issued a report that said iPhone's software had met Gartner's minimum requirements for business support, although some issues persisted. The author of the report, Ken Dulaney, was not immediately reachable.

Last week, Apple released a software update for the iPhone that reportedly helped fix problems connecting to faster third-generation (3G) wireless networks, after receiving a flurry of online complaints from customers around the world.

Apple, which started selling the new 3G iPhone on July 11, has said it expected to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.

(Reporting by Kenneth Li; Editing by Derek Caney)

News : Robotic suit helps paraplegics walk

Israeli company develops remote-controlled suit that enables paraplegics to walk.
ReWalk, Argo Medical Technologies' robotic suit, allows people who are paralysed below the waist to stand, walk, climb and descend stairs.
The system consists of motorised leg supports, body sensors, a computerised control box and rechargeable batteries.
The user picks a setting, then leans forward to activate the body sensors and set the robotic legs in motion.
Michelle Carlile-Alkhouri reports.

News : Dead Sea Scrolls to go digital on Internet

By Joseph Nasr

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Scientists in Israel are taking digital photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls with the aim of making the 2,000-year-old documents available to the public and researchers on the Internet.

Israel Antiquities Authority, the custodian of the scrolls that shed light on the life of Jews and early Christians at the time of Jesus, said on Wednesday it would take more than two years to complete the project.

For many years after Bedouin shepherds first came upon the scrolls in caves near the Dead Sea in 1947, only a small number of scholars were allowed to view the fragments.

But access has since been widened and they were published in their entirety seven years ago.
Using powerful cameras and lights that emit no damaging heat or ultraviolet beams, scientists in Israel have been able to decipher sections and letters in the scrolls invisible to the naked eye.
The scrolls, most of them on parchment, are the oldest copies of the Hebrew Bible and include secular text dating from the third century BC to the first century AD.
A team of specialists has taken 4,000 pictures of some 9,000 fragments that make up the scrolls, which number 900 in total. A few large pieces of scroll are on permanent display at the Israel Museum.
"We are able to see the scrolls in such detail that no one has before," said Simon Tanner, a digital expert from King's College London, who is in charge of data collection.
Scientists hope the advanced imaging technology will also help them better preserve the scrolls by detecting any deterioration caused by humidity and heat.
(Editing by Tony Austin)

News : TiVo tying up with Entertainment Weekly

(Reuters) - Digital video recorder maker TiVo Inc is set to enter into an agreement with Time Warner's Entertainment Weekly that will allow its users to automatically record shows suggested by the magazine's staff, the Wall Street Journal said.

TiVo expects to make the announcement on Wednesday, the paper said.
The alliance is part of a push by TiVo to differentiate itself from digital video recorders offered by cable companies, which have managed to find a bigger audience.

The financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed, the paper said.
(Reporting by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty in Bangalore; editing by Sue Thomas)

News : Ericsson venture must do better Sony CEO

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Sony's (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) joint venture with cell phone maker Ericsson (ERICb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) must do better, Sony's chief executive was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Asked whether Sony is planning to end its Sony Ericsson joint venture, Howard Stringer told German newspaper Die Welt: "It's certainly been a difficult year but buying out a partner is never an easy thing."
Sony lowered its group net profit forecast for the year to March by 17 percent, citing a slump at Sony Ericsson and weakening prospects for its electronics division amid tough price competition.
"We have to work together again as we did two years ago. Or the joint venture will have to find its own solution," Stringer said.
He added that it was hard for a company to be as nimble as possible when it works in a joint venture.
"You're always engaged in discussion and negotiation. We and Ericsson are always discussing ways of making Sony Ericsson as successful as it possibly can be," he said.
(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

News : Tiananmen Square celebrations

Thousands of residents and tourists pack into Beijing's Tianamen Square to celebrate a successful Olympic games.

News : Kidnap victims tracked by satellite

Wealthy Mexicans are spending thousands of dollars to implant tiny transmitters under their skin so they can be tracked if they're kidnapped.

Soaring abduction rates in Mexico have prompted hundreds of people to invest in a chip which is injected into the body and can be traced via satellite.

Between 2004 and 2007 kidnap rates jumped by almost forty per cent placing Mexico alongside Iraq and Colombia as one of the worst countries for abductions.

Liz Kennedy reports.

News : Human exoskeleton suit helps paralyzed people walk

By Ari Rabinovitch

HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - paralyzed for the past 20 years, former Israeli paratrooper Radi Kaiof now walks down the street with a dim mechanical hum.

That is the sound of an electronic exoskeleton moving the 41-year-old's legs and propelling him forward -- with a proud expression on his face -- as passersby stare in surprise.

"I never dreamed I would walk again. After I was wounded, I forgot what it's like," said Kaiof, who was injured while serving in the Israeli military in 1988.

"Only when standing up can I feel how tall I really am and speak to people eye to eye, not from below."

The device, called ReWalk, is the brainchild of engineer Amit Goffer, founder of Argo Medical Technologies, a small Israeli high-tech company.

Something of a mix between the exoskeleton of a crustacean and the suit worn by comic hero Iron Man, ReWalk helps paraplegics -- people paralyzed below the waist -- to stand, walk and climb stairs.

Goffer himself was paralyzed in an accident in 1997 but he cannot use his own invention because he does not have full function of his arms.

The system, which requires crutches to help with balance, consists of motorized leg supports, body sensors and a back pack containing a computerized control box and rechargeable batteries.

The user picks a setting with a remote control wrist band -- stand, sit, walk, descend or climb -- and then leans forward, activating the body sensors and setting the robotic legs in motion.

"It raises people out of their wheelchair and lets them stand up straight," Goffer said. "It's not just about health, it's also about dignity."

EYE CONTACT

Kate Parkin, director of physical and occupational therapy at NYU Medical Centre, said it has the potential to improve a user's health in two ways.

"Physically, the body works differently when upright. You can challenge different muscles and allow full expansion of the lungs," Parkin said. "Psychologically, it lets people live at the upright level and make eye contact."

Iuly Treger, deputy director of Israel's Loewenstein Rehabilitation Centre, said: "It may be a burdensome device, but it will be very helpful and important for those who choose to use it."

The product, slated for commercial sale in 2010, will cost as much as the more sophisticated wheelchairs on the market, which sell for about $20,000, the company said.

The ReWalk is now in clinical trials in Tel Aviv's Sheba Medical Centre and Goffer said it will soon be used in trials at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute in Pennsylvania.

Competing technologies use electrical stimulation to restore function to injured muscle, but Argo's Chief Operating Officer Oren Tamari said they will not offer practical alternatives to wheelchairs in the foreseeable future.

Other "robot suits", like those being developed by the U.S. military or the HAL robot of Japan's University of Tsukuba, are not suitable for paralyzed people, he said.

(Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Mary Gabriel)

News : Webcast still a go for ABC News

By Paul J. Gough

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Rumors of the demise of ABC News' pioneering Web newscast have been greatly exaggerated.

ABC News confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the 2-year-old Webcast is alive and well amid an overall revamp that includes the addition of a blog.

The 15-minute Webcast, with "World News" anchor Charles Gibson, is available live on ABCNews.com and via an iTunes podcast soon after it's produced at 3 p.m. EDT weekdays. It differs from its rivals in that it's produced specifically for the Web, three hours or so before the "World News" telecast.

It's regularly one of the top video newscasts on iTunes, with about 600,000 daily downloads. But it has been difficult to determine how many people who download it actually watch, which has provided an advertising challenge. That led to reports this year that the news division would dump the webcast, something ABC News execs say was never even considered.

The network is pressing ahead, believing that it's the right thing to do and finding a lot of value with the technology, which enables webcast viewers to watch the show front to back as well as to jump to the stories they're most interested in.

"It's really geared toward the digital audience that wants to be the ultimate decider of what order they watch it," "World News" executive producer Jon Banner said.

On Monday (August 25), "World News" is unveiling a redesigned Web site that includes a "World Newser" blog, frequent contributions from senior staff and a daily contribution by Gibson.

"What it really is, is a one-stop shop for news fanatics about what's happening right now in the country and the world," Banner said. "It's our view of things."

Beginning Monday (August 25), the blog will include Gibson's musings from the Democratic National Convention. The anchorman said that he initially had some misgivings.

"I've been reluctant about a blog, not for any other reason that I worry that they become a little self-serving and somewhat narcissistic," he said. "I've resisted it in the past. I'm not sure I won't fall into the same trap."

Gibson said he's going to be guided by the truth and promises to be "pretty frank." He isn't going to shy away from airing some of the broadcast's "dirty laundry," if that's what strikes him to write about.

"If I think we screwed up (on the broadcast), I'm going to say that," Gibson said. "If we left out something out of a piece that we shouldn't have, I'm going to say that too."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

News : mtvU to launch U.S. campus guides online network

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Viacom Inc's mtvU college cable network will launch an online network of campus guides, aiming to be the "Citysearch" of university life.

Working with college newspapers and Zvents, a local Internet search and advertising network, mtvU has created sites that offer listings for everything from local night life to bus and dining room schedules, an executive said.

"We're simplifying students' experience and providing national, regional and local advertisers a powerful connection to this hard to reach audience," said Stephen Friedman, general manager of mtvU.

The notoriously fickle young adults and college crowd seen as the next generation of big media consumers is big business for programmers and a core target for MTV.

The news follows on the heels of the decision by News Corp's Fox to air the premieres of its television series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" and "Fringe" on television and over the Internet at the same time for students viewing on college campuses only.

MTV Networks, which has dominated youth programming for decades was seen losing some ground to Internet start-ups in recent years.

mtvU, a division of MTV Networks that broadcasts on 750 college campuses in the United States, is now moving more aggressively to make its programming and services more integral to its audience's everyday life.

The online campus guides aim to be a "one-stop shop" destination for college students, Friedman said in a phone interview.

mtvU will launch 25 guides on Tuesday at colleges including Northwestern University, University of Texas at Austin and University of Pennsylvania.

Working closely with local college papers, the company is also in discussions with some to potentially launch print versions of the guides, Friedman said.

By the end of 2008, mtvU will launch a total of 50 daily guides.

(Reporting by Kenneth Li; Editing by Andre Grenon)

News : Nokia unveils 2 new multimedia phones

By Tarmo Virki

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) unveiled two new high-end phone models, the N79 and the N85, as the world's top cellphone maker battles against increasing competition from the likes of Apple (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Samsung (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

The news lifted shares in Nokia more than 2 percent on Tuesday as it reassured investors the company was on track to refresh its offering for the key Christmas sales period.

"Nokia sailed through first half of the year with little changes in its phone portfolio. Now the portfolio renewal has started and this should boost profitability," said Pohjola analyst Hannu Rauhala.

Newer and more expensive models usually have higher profit margins than older and cheaper phones.

The N79 and N85 models will go on sale in October. Both new phones, upgrades of Nokia's older models, will have 5 megapixel cameras and pre-loaded games.

The N85 will retail for 450 euros ($662), excluding operator subsidies and taxes, and the N79 will go on sale for 350 euros.

Nokia, which controls 40 percent of the global cellphone market, has an even higher market share among the most expensive phones, helped by the success of its flagship N95 model.

"All manufacturers are trying to sustain or extend their high-tier device portfolios because of the higher margins they offer," said Ben Wood, research director at CCS Insight.

"Furthermore in saturated markets, in Western Europe and North America replacement sales depend on offering consumers something compelling over and above voice and text," Wood said.

Since last year Nokia's leading position has been under attack from sleek touch screen models from LG Electronics (066570.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Samsung and Apple.

Nokia is set to come out with its first touch screen phone, codenamed "Tube", this year.

Shares in Nokia were 2.7 percent higher at 17.78 euros by 7:37 a.m. EDT, outperforming a firmer DJ Stoxx European technology shares index.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki, editing by David Cowell)

News : The future in frame

A new phase of converged devices appears to be upon us, judging from the technologies on display at the 2008 Playbite show in London.

A photo frame equipped with Near Field Communications, a compact camera with GPS-enabled geo-tagging functionality and podcasting device that partners with Apple's latest iPods were a few of the notable devices on show at the annual technology showcase.

Matt Cowan reports.

News : For sale: Olympic venues

Foreign investors compete to buy rights to Olympic sports venues and capitalise on China's zeal for sport

Sports promoters seek big profits in the world's most populous nation.

Tara Joseph-Hui reports.

News : Earthquake hits southwest China

At least three people have been killed and 100 more injured after an earthquake hit southwest China.

The 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck on Thursday night in Yingjiang county in southwest China, bringing down houses and cutting electricity supplies across the region.

At least 120,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes as concerns are raised about possible aftershocks.

Liz Kennedy reports.

News : Internet to the rescue for work-bound viewers

By Lucy Hornby

BEIJING (Reuters) - Huge numbers of Chinese are turning to the Internet to watch the Olympics at work, as bosses stop them from watching the Games on television.

Half of the respondents in an online survey by marketing firm Carat China admitted watching the Olympics at work via the Internet. Internet live streaming or replays of events rose on weekdays, when work interfered with televised Olympics events.

Television was still the medium of choice for online respondents, over 90 percent of whom watched the Games on TV, versus 80 percent who also watched online.

"Consumers have turned to the Internet for Olympic information in large numbers," said Seth Grossman, communication planning director for Carat in Shanghai.

China has the most Internet users in the world, although home connections are often slow or cut off easily.

The 2008 Games are well on their way to becoming the most-watched in history, reaping record audiences for U.S. broadcaster NBC, according to the International Olympic Committee.

Like Chinese, Americans are also watching the Games at work, although online viewership in the U.S. noticeably peaks at lunchtime.

A Nielson online survey showed higher numbers accessing Olympic information online on weekdays than on weekends, with Yahoo Inc's Olympic site, the favorite, averaging 4.7 million visitors a day and a site run by NBC, official broadcaster of the Olympics, averaging 4.3 million visits.

The favorite events for Chinese viewers have been:

- The extravagant opening ceremony attracted 965 million viewers, mostly on state-run China Central Television, or CCTV.

- A preliminary basketball game between China and the U.S. enthralled 378 million.

- The men were outscored by the Chinese women's volleyball team, who captured well over 400 million viewers in each of their matches against Cuba, the U.S. and Poland.

- Table tennis is widely popular, with the men garnering 478 million viewers in the group final and the women, 443 million.

The figures are based on estimates of all people who watched all or part of the event from data compiled by CSM Media Research and Carat.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

News : Verizon, Google close to mobile search deal

(Reuters) - Mobile service provider Verizon Communications Inc. is nearing an agreement with Google Inc. on a wide-ranging partnership, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation.

The deal under discussion would make Google the default search provider on Verizon devices and give it a share of ad revenue, the paper said.

The deal is not yet final and the two sides are still negotiating on key issues, such as Google's desire to save information from user cellphone searches, it added.

The online search giant has reportedly been in talks with the number-two U.S. mobile carrier over a possible alliance for almost a year now.

Verizon and Google are hoping to conclude the discussions in the next few weeks and the mobile carrier eventually wants to put the Google search bar on the home screen of its phones, the paper said.

Both Verizon and Google were not immediately available for comments.

Google had crossed swords with U.S. wireless operators such as Verizon late last year when it successfully lobbied with the U.S. government, forcing operators to open up access to their networks ahead of the spectrum auction.

The company is rapidly extending its reach beyond pay per-click Web search ads into a variety of new markets, including telecommunications and online video. The first phones based on Google's much-anticipated Android mobile operating system are expected to hit the market around Christmas.

(Reporting by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty in Bangalore; editing by Sue Thomas)

News : iPhone launches in India minus hysteria of the West

By Tony Tharakan

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Apple Inc.'s hugely popular 3G iPhone made its debut in India on Friday, but with a price tag of $700 there was none of the mass hysteria that marked its launch in the United States, Europe and parts of Asia last month.

At about three times the U.S. retail price, and twice the monthly salary of white-collar middle managers, the phone may still find buyers among affluent young professionals who are snapping up iconic brands and luxury items and helping fuel the Asian giant's trillion dollar economy.

A midnight launch in the Indian capital drew a small but enthusiastic crowd to Vodafone Essar, one of the two retail distributors in India, at the city's Connaught Place commercial district.

In Jaipur, capital of the desert state of Rajasthan, the local Maharaja was seen waiting in line at midnight.

Local television showed onlookers jostling for a glimpse of the phone at a mall in Gurgaon on the outskirts of the capital while retailers took out adverts for it on the front pages of some of India's biggest newspapers.

"I can't wait to show it off at school, it's way better than having a PlayStation, said Rudra Khurana, a 14-year-old Delhi high school student, standing next to his beaming father.

India is the world's fastest-growing wireless market and with nearly 300 million subscribers is the second-largest market for such services after China.

MILLIONS OF CUSTOMERS A MONTH

Operators have been adding more than 8 million customers a month, but most of them are low-paying users, who use their phone just for calling and not for data and multimedia services.

The country's new rich, however, flaunt new mobiles as symbols of status and success and smuggled iPhones have been available in the black market in India for months.

"Indians tend to buy the most fancy cell phones, and the iPhone has a massive fan following everywhere," said Pinaki Mishra, head of retail & consumer practice at Ernst & Young.

"It is seen as a status symbol, an aspirational product, so you can expect to see not just the rich, but also tech-savvy youngsters and people in small towns buying it."

Sanjay Kapoor, Airtel's president for mobile services, said the company received more than 200,000 pre-bookings for the new iPhone before prices were announced.

The phone sells for as little as $199 in the U.S., with customers often buying mandatory data-service plans. India's top mobile operator Bharti Airtel and third-ranked Vodafone Essar are selling the 8GB model for around 31,000 rupees ($716) even though 3G services are not yet available.

Nishant Arya, a 22-year-old entrepreneur, said he bought six iPhones, one for himself and the others as gifts for his friends.

"We can't change phones on a daily basis. We have to keep the future in mind and 3G will come to India soon," he said.

The first version of the iPhone was snapped up by 270,000 people within days of a June 2007 U.S. launch. Analysts expect it could draw as many as 10.5 million buyers worldwide this year.

But in India, not everyone shared the excitement.

Observing the hubbub at the store, its entrance festooned with red balloons and a live band playing inside, an autorickshaw driver looking for passengers asked: "What's the big deal?"

The iPhone was also launched in Singapore on Friday with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, Southeast Asia's largest telecoms firm, the first to sell it.

($1= 43.41 rupees)

(Additional reporting by Devidutta Tripathy in New Delhi, Rina Chandran and Shilpa Jamkhandikar in Mumbai)

(Writing by Alistair Scrutton; Editing by David Fox)

News : Surf the Web at 30,000 feet

American Airlines' new inflight, broadband service has launched.

For 12-dollars and 95-cents per flight, passengers can surf the net, check email and instant message.

The service is available on non-stop flights from New York to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami.

Sasha Salama reports from New York.

News : Music games rock at German fair

Gamers check out the latest digital innovations at Europe's largest annual computer games fair.

Computer games fans are flocking to the Games Convention in the eastern German city of Leipzig to see what games companies have developed in the past 12 months.

Music looks set to be a major theme at this year's fair.

Joanna Partridge reports.

News : Pokemon World Champion crowned

Hundreds gather in Florida to try to win the World Championship of Pokemon.

The players ranged in age from 6 to 62 and competed in the Pokemon trading card game World Championships in several divisions.

Contestants came from nearly 30 countries for a chance to be crowned world champion of Pokemon and to take home $7,500 in prize money.

News : Internet users fear iTunes blocked in China

BEIJING (Reuters) - The downloading of music for iPod players has hit a mysterious glitch in China, stumping scores of users and raising fears the government has blocked Apple's iTunes site over pro-Tibet lyrics, analysts said on Thursday.

Since Monday, more than 60 people have posted messages in an Apple Inc discussion forum complaining that they could not download songs for use on Apple's iPods.

Their complaints follow the release of The Art of Peace Foundation's new album "Songs for Tibet", a compilation of tunes about the rights of ethnic Tibetans in China's mountainous southwest.

Tibet, which Communist troops entered in 1950, suffered violent rioting in March, which led to anti-government demonstrations across Tibetan areas of China, deeply embarrassing Beijing just months before the Olympic Games.

In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde published on Thursday, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, accused Chinese troops of opening fire on protesters in eastern Tibet on August 18, adding that he had unconfirmed information that 140 people were killed.

IT analysts in China said on Thursday that Beijing has probably severed the music selection function of the iTunes site. China is known for using technology to block Web pages that contain politically sensitive content.

"The possibility of a block is high, and I'd say it should be due to a content issue," said Liu Bin, associate director of the Beijing consulting firm BDA, after he tried to connect to the iTunes site.

The core URL "seems to be stopped on the China side" but worked when accessed from abroad, said Danny Levinson, CEO of a digital direct marketing company in Shanghai.

Apple acknowledged an iTunes access problem on Thursday but declined to explain. "We've seen the situation but can't offer any more information," Apple's Beijing publicist Yuna Huang said.

A flap over an iPod product warranty and questions about a contractor's treatment of Chinese workers hurt the company's reputation in China in 2006.

(Reporting by Ralph Jennings; Editing by Valerie Lee)

News : Satellites track Mexico kidnap victims with chips

By Mica Rosenberg

QUERETARO, Mexico (Reuters) - Wealthy Mexicans, terrified of soaring kidnapping rates, are spending thousands of dollars to implant tiny transmitters under their skin so satellites can help find them tied up in a safe house or stuffed in the trunk of a car.

Kidnapping jumped almost 40 percent between 2004 and 2007 in Mexico according to official statistics. Mexico ranks with conflict zones like Iraq and Colombia as among the worst countries for abductions.

The recent kidnap and murder of Fernando Marti, 14, the son of a well-known businessman, sparked an outcry in a country already hardened to crime.

More middle-class people also are also seeking out the tiny chip designed by Xega, a Mexican security firm whose sales jumped 13 percent this year.

The company injects the crystal-encased chip, the size and shape of a grain of rice, into clients' bodies with a syringe. A transmitter then sends signals via satellite to pinpoint the location of a person in distress.

Cristina, 28, who did not want to give her last name, was implanted along with seven other members of her family last year as a "preventive measure."

"It's not like we are wealthy people, but they'll kidnap you for a watch ... Everyone is living in fear," she said.

The chips cost $4,000 plus an annual fee of $2,200.

Most kidnappings in Mexico go unreported but independent analysts say there were 6,500 abductions last year, many of them "express kidnapping" where the victim is grabbed and forced to withdraw money from automatic cash machines.

GROWTH INDUSTRY

Official statistics show 751 kidnappings in Mexico last year but most abductions go unreported and the crime research institute ICESI says the number could have been as high as over 7,000 in 2007.

Xega, based in the central Mexican city of Quererato, designed global positioning systems to track stolen vehicles until a company owner was kidnapped in broad daylight in 2001. Frustrated by his powerlessness to call for help, the company adapted the technology to track stolen people.

Most people get the chips injected into their arms between the skin and muscle where they cannot be seen. Customers who fear they are being kidnapped press a panic button on an external device to alert Xega which then calls the police.

"Before, they only kidnapped key, well-known economically successful people like industrialists and landowners. Now they are kidnapping people from the middle class," said Sergio Galvan, Xega's commercial director.

President Felipe Calderon has come under heavy pressure in recent weeks to stamp out violent crime. He is to host a high-level meeting on Thursday of security chiefs and state governors.

Outside of Mexico, U.S. company Verichip Corp uses the same kind of implants to identify patients in critical condition at hospitals or find elderly people who wander away from their homes.

But Xega sees kidnapping as a growth industry and is planning to expand its services next year to Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.

(Editing by Vicki Allen)

News : Palm unveils Treo Pro to battle BlackBerry

By Sinead Carew

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Palm Inc unveiled a Treo smartphone Wednesday based on Microsoft Corp software to compete for business users against rivals such as Research In Motion's BlackBerry.

The new Treo Pro will be sold by Vodafone Group Plc and 02 in Europe in September, and by Telstra in Australia, Palm said.

In the United States, Palm does not have an agreement with a carrier to sell the phone, but it said enterprise demand is growing for unlocked phones that can work on any network.

CL King analyst Lawrence Harris noted, however, that the Treo Pro's price tag of $549 is high without the subsidies typically offered by carriers to lock in subscribers.

"Given the pricing and lack of carrier sponsorship in the U.S., we believe initial sales of the Treo Pro will be limited," said Harris, adding that only 21 percent of Palm revenue came from international sales in its fiscal year 2008.

The Treo Pro is Palm's second phone with Wi-Fi, a short range wireless technology that could boost Web speeds in weak cell phone reception areas, and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology that supports features such as directions.

Palm said the use of Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 software would help it compete with RIM's BlackBerry Bold, a high-speed phone that goes on sale in Canada this week and is expected to be launched in the United States later this year.

"We've chosen to partner with Microsoft to compete effectively with RIM," said Brodie Keast, Palm senior vice president for marketing, but he added that there was plenty of room for both companies to grow in the smartphone market.

"Even with the growth in this market, 90 percent of the market doesn't have a smartphone. It doesn't make sense to fight over the 10 percent," said Keast in a telephone interview. "We want to reach out to people who don't have a smartphone, not people who already love RIM."

Keast said it was likely that more Palm devices would include Wi-Fi in the future as there is growing demand for alternative connectivity in areas where phone reception is weak, or when users want faster speeds to download big files.

"Going forward for premium, fully featured devices, Wi-Fi is a requirement," he said.

Keast said Palm was on track to come out with a new phone software platform aimed at consumers in the first half of next year, and that this would put it in more direct competition with the iPhone from Apple Inc.

He said he does not see the iPhone, which now supports corporate e-mail, as a direct competitor to the Treo Pro.

Palm shares were down 13 cents, or 1.7 percent, at $7.67 on Nasdaq in midday trading.

(Editing by Brian Moss)