News : Pod tries to save fellow dolphin

Korean scientists unveil video of wild dolphins trying to save a member of their pod in the Sea of Japan.

Scientists of the Cetacean Research Institute spotted about 20 dolphins separated from a big group of 400 dolphins during their research in the Sea of Japan.

Neena Dhaun reports.

News : A transport revolution?

Half-motorbike, half-bicycle - an Austrian inventor says his creation, the "ErockIT", is a cool electric vehicle.

"ErockIT" riders have to pedal to get the bike going, and the faster they pedal, the faster the motor goes.

The bike can reach speeds of up to 80 kilometres, or almost 50 miles, per hour and its inventor says it could revolutionise transport.

Joanna Partridge reports.

News : Ballmer says Microsoft not immune from global crisis

By Tarmo Virki

OSLO (Reuters) - Microsoft (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday the global financial crisis will sap consumer and business spending, affecting all companies, including his own.

"Financial issues are going to affect both business spending and consumer spending, and particularly ... spending by the financial services industry," Ballmer told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference in the Norwegian capital.

"We have a lot of business with the corporate sector as well as with the consumer sector and whatever happens economically will certainly effect itself on Microsoft," he told Reuters.

"I think one has to anticipate that no company is immune to these issues," he said, but declined to be more specific.

Wall Street analysts, on average, expect the Redmond, Washington-based company to generate an 8 percent rise in revenue to just under $15 billion in its first-quarter ending in September.

"There are parts of our every business which are probably 'safe' in the sense that it's not like our business would go to zero," he said in an interview.

"On the other hand, when businesses have less money -- they can borrow less money, they can spend less money -- that can't be good. When consumers feel the economic pinch, house prices come down. That can't be good," Ballmer said.

Microsoft shares rose 2.9 percent to $25.73 at 11:17 a.m. EDT in a broader U.S. market rebound following a sharp slide on Monday.

But Ballmer's comments weighed on the shares of German software maker SAP AG (SAPG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which fell 2.0 percent and were among the heaviest fallers in Germany's DAX index .GDAXI.

Investors may take Ballmer's remarks as an indication that Microsoft's revenues could be hurt by the continuing financial crisis, a trader said.

"By extension, these fears have worked their way over to SAP," the trader added.

"TRUST" IN U.S. LAWMAKERS

Ballmer said he believed the U.S. Congress would soon help stabilize the situation after rejecting a $700 billion bank bailout plan on Monday.

"I trust that before the end of the week we have some resolution, at least in the U.S. Congress, that will help to stabilize the situation. We need that. I hope we get that," he said.

"I have to believe that some of the issues also face the European banks and I trust that the European Central Bank will be as intelligent as it needs to be around that," he said.

World stocks fell on Tuesday after the rejection of the U.S. bank rescue package, although European and U.S. markets later recovered.

Bad mortgage debt has hit U.S. banks and insurers, prompting government bailouts to avoid a breakdown in the financial system.

NO MICROSOFT PHONE

Ballmer said Microsoft plans to stick with charging handset makers licensing fees for using its mobile operating system, despite free offerings from Google (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

"We are doing well, we believe in the value of what we are doing," Ballmer told Reuters in an interview.

The pressure on Microsoft's high licensing fees has increased over 2008 with Google rolling out free Android technology and Nokia offering to buy out others from Symbian and take also its software royalty-free.

He said there was no reason to expect Microsoft to enter the mobile phone making business, like some analysts forecast.

"I do not anticipate us building a phone," Ballmer said.

(Additional reporting by Wojciech Moskwa in Oslo and Tyler Sitte in Germany; editing by Paul Bolding, Elaine Hardcastle)

News : Norway consumer body challenges Apple over iTunes

OSLO (Reuters) - A Norway consumer agency said it aims to take computer group Apple to court over what it calls unfair barriers to playing music from the iTunes music store on devices other than Apple's iPod.

Consumer Ombudsman Bjoern Erik Thon told Reuters he hoped other countries would follow the Norwegian example and file their own cases against the U.S. computer giant.

Thon said on Tuesday that iTunes -- Apple's online store for music downloads -- had not met its demands to change its digital rights management (DRM) system to make its music available for all music players.

"I want them to make their services interoperable so that you can play music bought on iTunes on other devices, including mobile phones," Thon told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Apple's attorney in Norway declined to comment, and Apple officials did not respond to repeated phone messages and emails.

"The consumer's freedom of choice in the online music market is an important right," he said in a statement on Monday.

A dialogue with iTunes over the past two years had led to some improvements in contract terms for downloading music, but on the main issue of availability of iTunes music on devices other than iPod "there has not been much movement," Thon said.

Thon's office, which is an independent government agency, has worked together with consumer protection bodies in Scandinavia, Germany and France to put pressure on iTunes.

"Next we will try to gather a number of countries to support this case, although this case will be brought in front of the Norwegian Market Council and handled according to Norwegian law," Thon said.

The council serves as a court for consumer complaints.

"It is important to show that we have a broad alliance of consumer bodies backing us, and if we win this case, I hope they will follow in our footsteps and take action," he said.

The consumer ombudsman said that consumers must be able to choose which music device they wish to use to listen to music bought from iTunes.

"It's a consumer's right to transfer and play digital content bought and downloaded from the Internet to the music device he himself chooses to use," Thon said and added: "iTunes makes this impossible or at least difficult, and hence, they act in breach of Norwegian law."

iTunes has until November 3 to respond, before the case goes to the Market Council, the ombudsman said.

(Reporting by John Acher; Editing by Andrew Callus)

News : Film studios, RealNetworks battle over DVD copying

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Technology company RealNetworks and major film studios on Tuesday squared off in a legal battle over a new product allowing consumers to make computer copies of DVDs that the studios claim is illegal.

RealDVD, a software product from RealNetworks subsidiary RealNetworks Home Entertainment Inc, allows users to create a copy of a DVD for their computer's internal or portable hard drive.

RealNetworks said RealDVD gives consumers the ability to do with movie or TV show DVDs what they already do with music CDs, and RealDVD eliminates the hassle of searching for a missing DVD or dealing with a scratched and unplayable disc.

The company also said its product allows customers to view DVDs while traveling with a computer.

But the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents Hollywood's major film and TV studios, disagreed and its member companies sued RealNetworks seeking a temporary restraining order to stop it from selling RealDVD software.

"RealNetworks' RealDVD should be called StealDVD," Greg Goeckner, executive vice president and general counsel for the MPAA, said in a statement.

"RealNetworks knows its product violates the law and undermines the hard-won trust that has been growing between America's movie makers and the technology community," he said.

But the company argues RealDVD has built-in encryption to prevent saved copies of DVDs from being shared or stolen.

"We are disappointed that the movie industry is following in the footsteps of the music industry and trying to shut down advances in technology rather than embracing changes that provide consumers with more value and flexibility for their purchases," RealNetworks said in a statement.

The Seattle, Washington-based company said it planned to file its own lawsuit on Tuesday seeking a declaratory judgment against DVD Copy Control Association Inc, Disney Enterprises Inc, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp, NBC Universal Inc, Warner Bros Entertainment Inc and Viacom Inc, in U.S. District Court in northern California."

RealNetworks seeks a ruling that RealDVD complies with its DVD Copy Control Association's license agreement.

The MPAA's suit accuses RealNetworks of violating the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act by circumventing the copyright protection technology built into DVDs. The MPAA contends the law supersedes fair-use protections that RealNetworks said apply to its RealDVD.

Disney Enterprises is part of The Walt Disney Co, Twentieth Century Fox is owned by News Corp, NBC Universal is run by General Electric Co, and Warner Bros Entertainment Inc is part of Time Warner Inc.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte, Richard Chang)

News : Glowing tributes to Paul Newman

Sep 28 - Tributes have been flooding in for the actor Paul Newman who died on Friday after a long battle with cancer.

The cinema legend passed away at his home in Westport, Connecticut, surrounded by his family and close friends. He was 83.

Local residents mourned his death and Lissy Newman, one of his five daughters, called him an "awesome guy" whose "spirit will be with us forever and ever and ever".

Sonia Legg reports.

News : The brains behind a blade runner

By Adam Cox

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - If it sounds far-fetched for a man without lower legs to become one of the fastest runners on the planet, how about typing by just thinking the words or staying sporty well into old age?

Such prospects motivate work at Ossur, the Icelandic group behind the prosthetics that vaulted double-amputee Oscar Pistorius into the limelight with his bid to compete in the Beijing Olympics.

Besides producing carefully adapted artificial limbs to change the lives of disabled people, the world's only major listed prosthetics maker is also looking ahead to the day when robotics and neuroscience can change those of many more.

"What we should do is compare to the real body," Ossur's Chief Executive Jon Sigurdsson told Reuters. "And then we see that there is a long way to go. It is a very humbling experience to try to imitate God."

With market capitalization of about $431 million, the company is small in the field of medical equipment, but positioned for growth.

Hilmar Janusson, its head of technology, envisions a day when prostheses can be controlled by our nerves rather than by systems such as the computer keyboard.

What is needed -- Janusson almost makes it sound easy -- is a grasp of the signals running through our nervous system. "As soon as we start to understand, and basically de-code it into something, then things will happen very, very quickly," he said.

It's a goal to date pursued in the academic world. In May, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine reported how a monkey wired up with microelectrodes could use brainpower to direct a robotic arm to pluck a marshmallow from a skewer and stuff it into its mouth.

In the meantime, Ossur is gaining plenty of attention from its work with Pistorius.

THE FIRST BIG STEP

The South African, dubbed the Blade Runner because of the pair of carbon-fibre blades on which he sprints, won three gold medals in the Paralympics after failing to achieve the qualifying time for the main games.

Born without a fibula in either leg, he has become a symbol of perseverance, while the Cheetah Flex-Foot product he runs on sparked a debate about what constitutes an unfair edge in sport.

Janusson said the Flex-Foot may look nothing like human anatomy, but from a biomechanical perspective it is actually similar. The big difference: human feet are more efficient.

"We now know that the whole body is a spring that is loaded and you don't waste a joule of energy," he said.

Ossur did not invent the Flex-Foot. That was an American man named Van Phillips, himself an amputee. Ossur bought his firm in 2000 and has since fine-tuned the product.

The company knows the world it supplies. Sigurdsson says of the 220 or so staff in Reykjavik, half a dozen are amputees. Its founder, Ossur Kristinsson, was born without a foot and wears a prosthesis.

Janusson said remarkable progress has been made toward helping someone who has lost a limb lead a more normal life.

"For below-knee, we're probably replacing up to 50-60 percent," he said. "We're pretty good below-knee. And there is no reason for below-knee amputees not to participate fully. Above-knee, we're down to 20-30 percent."

Arms are tougher. "Maybe 3-4 percent," he said.

To achieve that remaining 96 to 97 percent will require progress on many fronts, including a better understanding of the nervous system and advances in tissue engineering, where scientists work with cells to replace biological functions.

The big breakthrough may not be all that far off, according to Yoky Matsuoka, a specialist in robotics and neuroscience at the University of Washington, who is working to control arms and hands by nerve signals.

"I think we are already witnessing the beginning of the big step," she said of the prospect of de-coding the nervous system. "Of course, a complete decoding and perfectly natural control may not happen in our lifetime."

Matsuoka expects scientists will certainly get to the point where a person could manipulate an object by thinking. "Spinning a pen or crumpling a paper at human speed may be a bit harder. Having enough sensory feedback to replace a surgeon's hand may take even longer," she said in an email interview.

ONE OF A KIND

Ossur -- whose main competitor in the prosthetics field is unlisted Otto Bock of Germany -- has generated investor interest in its niche, as well as in its more esoteric ideas.

"The only problem is it's the only listed company in its field," said Haraldur Yngvi Petersson, an analyst at Icelandic bank Kaupthing.

Petersson is one of just four analysts who cover the company, but he notes that unlike most Icelandic groups, Ossur has some foreign investors, including fund manager Fidelity.

The analyst is enthusiastic about products such as Rheo knee and Proprio foot which, aided by computer technology, adapt to the way a person walks and moves.

"I would say that we are just now starting to see real revenue potential," Petersson said of them.

Shares in Ossur, are down a little more than 25 percent from a lifetime high in 2006. But they are still double what they were worth in 2004.

The company does not pay dividends, preferring to pour money into research and development. Sales reached $93 million in the latest quarter, more than 40 percent from prosthetics, when the company reported net income of nearly $4 million. Bracing and support products make up the biggest share of revenues.

But Janusson, the technology chief, is also energized by simpler issues. He talks about a day, for example, when people wounded by landmines can get state-of-the-art prostheses at little cost.

He points to the switch to digital watches from wind-ups in the 1970s. Initially, the digital ones were expensive but as technology progressed, they became the stuff of dollar stores.

He believes prostheses one day could be used to help a much broader portion of the population. Allowing the elderly to stay active, for instance, could extend life itself.

"Everyone in the profession would agree with me, that the level of activity makes a difference in how long you live," Janusson said.

(Editing by Sara Ledwith)

News : Theaters, studios near deal for digital projection

By Carl DiOrio

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A consortium of the nation's top movie-theater chains will announce within two weeks a $1 billion-plus financing agreement with four major studios to equip more than 15,000 screens nationwide with digital-projection systems during the next three years.

Universal, Paramount, Disney and Fox -- with financing backing from JPMorgan Securities -- are expected to announce the funding of systems to be rolled out by New York-based Digital Cinema Implementation Partners. Regal Cinemas, AMC Entertainment and Cinemark formed DCIP more than a year ago, but it has taken until recently to get a majority of the major studios to sign off on so-called virtual print fee (VPF) agreements to fund the digital rollout.

Under the deal, studios will pay a majority of the roughly $100,000 per system in hardware and installation costs to install digital-cinema equipment in theaters operated by the biggest theater chains. That will facilitate not only digital projection in the converted auditoriums but potentially 3-D exhibition as well, if the theater owners take on the extra, more modest expense for 3-D installations on their own.

Through VPFs, studios agree to pay for several years' sums equal to the print costs they would have incurred had the auditoriums not been converted to digital projection. Eventually, digital distribution will save studios millions annually.

Warner Bros. and Sony aren't expected to be on board with the DCIP agreement by the time it's announced. But they likely also will agree to consortium VPFs before long, according to a source familiar with the studio discussions.

DCIP chief and exhibition vet Travis Reid was unavailable for comment. But it's broadly expected that DCIP will announce a deal with the first four major studios sometime before the October 13 start of the ShowEast convention of theater owners in Orlando, Florida.

One lingering concern sure to stimulate lots of talk at the conference is the question of how regional circuits and mom-and-pop exhibs will pay for their digital conversions. Some have suggested that smaller-fry exhibitors could be driven out of business unless they somehow manage to clamber onto the digital bandwagon.

In addition to representing a gateway technology for 3-D exhibition, digital projection facilitates the implementation of TV-like advertising on movie screens. Regal and other chains are already reaping big boosts in revenue by using such ads to supplement or replace old-fashioned advertising slide shows.

Digital cinema has been considered an inevitable development in movie exhibition for years. Haggling between the studios and theater owners has stalled a big rollout of movie-quality equipment. Regal, in the meantime, spent heavily to install more basic digital projectors to show commercials before feature presentations in its theaters.

The looming DCIP agreement is expected to result in the installation of upward of 3,000 digital systems in its first year of implementation. Those are likely to be sprinkled among major and midsize markets nationwide.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

News : Nintendo to launch camera, music-capable DS

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co Ltd plans to launch a new model of its DS handheld machine that can take pictures and play music by the end of the year, the Nikkei business daily said on Sunday.

The move would pit the top-selling portable game gear with Apple Inc iPod and camera-embedded cellphones in general.

The price for the new machine, which will also be equipped with advanced wireless communications functions, is expected to be below 20,000 yen ($189) in Japan, compared with 16,800 yen for the current model, the Nikkei said.

The Wii game console and DS have been Nintendo's twin growth engines, helping its share price to grow more than three-fold over the past three years.

The DS far outsells Sony Corp's rival machine, PlayStation Portable (PSP), globally.

But in Japan, the PSP's unit sales exceeded the DS's in five consecutive months through July, according to game magazine publisher Enterbrain, in a potential sign of slowing momentum for the current DS model.

Nintendo officials were not immediately available for comment.

($1=105.97 Yen)

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

News : Google's anti iPhone

Google in collaboration with T-Mobile and HTC, debuted the G1, a smartphone intended to take on the iPhone.

The phone is the first to carry the new Google Android operating system and includes familiar Google services such as Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube.

Diane King reports from New York.

Featured Speakers:

Rich Miner, Group Manager for Mobile Platforms, Google

Maggie Reardon, Senior Writer, CNET Networks

News : China's first walk in space

China has successfully completed its first spacewalk in an exercise that is seen as key to China's goal to build an orbiting space station.

Astronaut Zhai Zhigang completed the 15 minute spacewalk after clambering out of China's Shenzhou VII space craft.

Zhai wore a Chinese-made spacesuit that is thought to have cost 4.4 million U.S. dollars.

The event was broadcast live on national TV.

News : MySpace takes on iTunes

MySpace music makes it debut hoping to give iTunes some real competition.

The long awaited MySpace Music is joining forces with the major music labels to take on industry leader iTunes. Bobbi Rebell reports.

SOUNDBITE:

Tom Anderson, President, MySpace

Caroline McCarthy, Staff Writer, CNETnews.com

News : MySpace Music launch disappoints excluded indie labels

By Yinka Adegoke

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The launch of MySpace Music ran into controversy on Thursday after the leading independent music trade body complained that its small music label members had been shut out and treated like second class citizens.

The new music site opened shop with millions of free songs for streaming and paid downloads, but without agreements covering hundreds of labels representing well-known artists like Franz Ferdinand, Tom Waits, Arctic Monkeys and Bjork.

MySpace Music is a joint venture between News Corp's MySpace and the four major music companies: Vivendi's Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music, Warner Music Group and EMI Music.

Each major has a small minority stake proportional to its U.S. music sale market share. Revenue from the site will be largely supported by advertising, which will be shared with labels and artists.

MySpace Music and some top independent labels, meanwhile, have failed to come to an agreement on terms, resulting in the exclusion of a number of popular artists from the site.

Merlin, the independent labels global rights agency whose member labels include Koch, Beggars Group, Tommy Boy and Domino, said it was "disappointing" that MySpace launched without a deal with its members.

Merlin is seeking an agreement similar to that struck by the majors labels. This includes an ad revenue-supported licensing agreement and a stake in the MySpace Music proportional to Merlin's 9 percent market share in the U.S. This would make it equal or bigger than EMI, the smallest of the four majors.

Chief Executive Charles Caldas said if the indie labels signed a deal only pertaining to ad revenue they would fail to share in the growth of the MySpace Music business, which their artists would potentially fuel.

The major labels, on the other hand, would benefit from that growth, as well as ad revenue, he said.

"Whilst Merlin continues our negotiations, we remain extremely concerned that with MySpace Music the major record labels are acting not only as competitors, but through their equity stakes in the venture, as the clients/end user as well," Caldas said in a statement.

A Merlin spokesman later said the indie labels had been treated like "second class citizens".

In a statement MySpace said a deal is on the table for Merlin: "We have offered a relationship with Merlin that provides equal opportunities to Merlin's Labels and Merlin's artists that we have provided to all labels and artists.

MySpace Music did reach a licensing agreement with independent digital music distributor The Orchard, which carries 1.3 million tracks. But The Orchard did not get a stake in the business.

The Orchard Chief Executive Greg Scholl said the fact his company had not taken a stake in MySpace had allowed him to negotiate for "more aggressive" advertising share rates than the major labels. He also said taking an equity stake in MySpace Music was not a priority for his business.

"If any independents get equity I'm confident my clients will get a stake. The real issue should be profit sharing," said Scholl, whose company's clients include small labels like Shanachie, Gut Recordings and Greensleeves.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke)

News : Hole in Adobe software allows free movie downloads

By Daisuke Wakabayashi

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A security hole in Adobe Systems Inc software, used to distribute movies and TV shows over the Internet, is giving users free access to record and copy from Amazon.com Inc's video streaming service.

The problem exposes online video content to the rampant piracy that plagued the music industry during the Napster era and is undermining efforts by retailers, movie studios and television networks to cash in on a huge Web audience.

"It's a fundamental flaw in the Adobe design. This was designed stupidly," said Bruce Schneier, a security expert who is also the chief security technology officer at British Telecom.

The flaw rests in Adobe's Flash video servers that are connected to the company's players installed in nearly all of the world's Web-connected computers.

The software doesn't encrypt online content, but only orders sent to a video player such as start and stop play. To boost download speeds, Adobe dropped a stringent security feature that protects the connection between the Adobe software and its players.

"Adobe is committed to the security of all of our products, from our players to our server software. Adobe invests a considerable amount of ongoing effort to help protect users from potential vulnerabilities," it said in a statement.

Adobe said it issued a security bulletin earlier this month about how best to protect online content and called on its customers to couple its software security with a feature that verifies the validity of its video player.

An Amazon spokesman said content on the company's Video On Demand service, which offers as many as 40,000 movies and TV shows on its Web site, cannot be pirated using video stream catching software.

However, in tests by Reuters, at least one program to record online video, the Replay Media Catcher from Applian Technologies, recorded movies from Amazon and other sites that use Adobe's encryption technology together with its video player verification.

"Adobe's (stream) is not really encrypted," said Applian CEO Bill Dettering. "One of the downfalls with how they have architected the software is that people can capture the streams. I fully expect them to do something more robust in the near future."

HOW IT WORKS

The free demo version of Replay Media Catcher allows anyone to watch 75 percent of anything recorded and 100 percent of YouTube videos. For $39, a user can watch everything recorded.

One Web site -- www.tvadfree.com -- explains step-by-step how to use the video stream catching software.

Amazon.com's Adobe-powered Video On Demand service allows viewers to watch the first two minutes of a movie or TV show for free. It charges up to $3.99 to rent a movie for 24 hours and up to $14.99 to download a movie permanently.

Amazon starts to stream the entire movie during the free preview -- even though it pauses the video on the Web browser after the first two minutes -- so that users can start watching the rest of the video right away once they pay.

"It's the traditional trade-off, convenience on the one hand and security on the other," said Ray Valdes, analyst at research group Gartner.

However, even if a user doesn't pay, the stream still sends the movie to the video catching software, but not the browser.

Amazon's Video On Demand is the Web retailer's answer to declining sales of packaged movies and TV shows and the growth in demand for digital content that can be viewed and stored on the Internet.

Unlike Amazon, videos from Hulu.com, NBC.com and CBS.com are already free although the TV programs are interrupted by commercials. However, the stream catching software separates the commercials and the program into two separate folders, so people can keep the programs without the advertising.

Hulu.com, a video Web site owned by News Corp's Fox network and General Electric Co's NBC Universal, was the big networks' answer to YouTube, the popular video-sharing Web site where many users began uploading TV shows and other content owned by media companies.

The networks scrambled to post videos on their own sites in a bid to capture another stream of advertising revenue from a growing audience, but they have struggled with how best to show commercials which fund the programing when played on the Web.

YouTube, which started the online video boom before being bought by Google Inc for $1.65 billion in November 2006, has also struggled to cash in on its popularity even though its user base continues to mushroom.

DESTROYING BUSINESS MODELS

One possible solution would be to protect the video with a digital rights management (DRM) system. A Seattle-based company called Widevine Technologies has a DRM system that can encrypt online videos using Flash.

"The fundamental problem here is that Adobe's lack of technology is not allowing the business models to be preserved," said Widevine Chief Executive Brian Baker.

The lack of content protection, according to Baker, threatens all the business models used today to fund video on the Web.

Apple Inc, which sells movies and television shows at its online iTunes store, uses its own DRM technology called FairPlay, but it only works for video bought on iTunes.

Forrester analyst James McQuivey said he doesn't believe the video stream catching technology will entirely derail the advertising-supported business model used by the networks for online video.

"It's too complicated for most users," said McQuivey, noting that file-sharing services like BitTorrent already exist but only a small percentage of people use them.

"People want something easy to find and easy to use."

(Editing by Peter Henderson, Richard Chang)

News : Poverty pledge criticised

World leaders meeting at the United Nations in New York have renewed their pledge to help African nations tackle poverty and improve future development.

Leaders from African governments have criticised wealthy nations for failing to meet their promises of increased aid.

The U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said not one African country was on track to meet all of the aims agreed in the Millennium Development Goals which was set in 2000 to halve global poverty by 2015.

Liz Kennedy reports.

News : Japanese banks go shopping

Japanese financial institutions snap up troubled U.S. assets.

In the latest trend surrounding the global credit crisis, large Tokyo banks buy pieces of troubled U.S. banks.

Nomura Holdings is to buy Lehman Brothers Asia operations, while Mitsubishi UFJ is taking up to a 20 percent stake in Morgan Stanley..

Tara Joseph-Hui reports.

News : WTO to review Japan compliance to memory chip ruling

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization (WTO) set up a panel on Tuesday to examine whether Japan has complied with an earlier verdict ordering it to scrap duties on South Korean memory chips.

The WTO's Appellate Body ruled in November last year that Japan must remove its 27.2 percent countervailing duties on imports of South Korean dynamic random access memory chips.

After the two countries failed to agree on a timetable for Tokyo to implement that ruling, a WTO arbitrator in May set a September 1 deadline for the policies to be adjusted.

But South Korea told the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) that Japan had only reduced its duties to 9.1 percent -- not enough, in Seoul's view.

"Despite its earlier promise to comply with the DSB's ruling, Japan has instead engaged in delaying tactics in order to maintain an illegal countervailing duty on imports from Korea for as long as possible in contravention of the DSB's ruling," South Korea said in a statement to the WTO.

Japan said on Tuesday that it had implemented the WTO ruling and was ready to defend itself before a compliance panel.

The case originated in the 2002 bail-out of Hynix Semiconductor Inc (000660.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world's second largest memory chip maker. Japan, whose Elpida Memory Inc (6665.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), competes with Hynix, imposed the duties because it said the bail-out amounted to a state subsidy.

(Reporting by Jonathan Lynn)

News : Amazon spills (some) beans on the Google phone

Posted by: Paul Thomasch

Thanks Amazon! The online retailer put out a release this morning with some juicy details about Google’s new mobile phone — even as we’re still waiting for the official unveiling later today.

So, here’s what they say about the phone…

“The T-Mobile G1 is the world’s first Android-powered mobile phone in an exclusive partnership with Google. The T-Mobile G1 combines full touch-screen functionality and a QWERTY keyboard with a mobile Web experience that includes the popular Google services that millions have enjoyed on the desktop, including Google Maps with StreetView, Gmail, YouTube and others. ”

Amazon, which has a deal with Google related to the phone, also says that the phone will have “one-touch access” to Google Search and will allow access to Android Market, “where customers can find and download unique applications to expand and personalize their phone to fit their lifestyle.”

More details will be coming, including pictures. So stay tuned. While you do, read why some experts say the phone won’t be a game changer.

Keep an eye on:

• NBC Universal will present a sweeping new study this week showing that audiences recall advertisements far more clearly when they are run on both TV and the Internet, findings that could change the way commercial time is bought (Reuters)
• Online movie rental company Netflix has signed agreements with the CBS Corp and Walt Disney Co’s Disney Channel that will allow current season episodes of a number of TV shows to be streamed at Netflix (Reuters)
• Time Inc’s “Life” magazine is being brought back as part of a joint venture that will launch a Web site offering photos (NY Post)

(Photo: Reuters)

News : Google’s Android phone . A first look

Posted by: Franklin Paul

Here’s Google and T-Mobile’s image of their long-awaited T-Mobile G1 phone. We’ll add some of our own pictures as they come in. Stay tuned.

News : Huge diamond could break records

Miners in Lesotho, southern Africa have found one of the world's largest diamonds, a near-flawless white gem weighing nearly 500 carats.

The company who own the diamond said it has the potential to yield one of the largest flawless D colour round polished diamonds in history.

The Letseng mine where the diamond was found, is one of the most productive mines in history.

Four of the world's 20 largest rough diamonds have been found at the mine, including the three largest found this century. The world's largest diamond is the Cullinan, discovered in South Africa in 1905.

It weighed more than 3,100 carats before it was cut into more than one hundred separate gems, many of which are part of the British crown jewels.

Hayley Platt reports.

SOUNDBITES:Diamond Expert Of WWW International Diamond Consultants, Neil Buxton.

News : End of an era on Wall Street

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs give up their status as investment banks to protect them from the storm that has seen their rivals destroyed.

After the collapse of Bear Sterns, firesale of Merrill Lynch and liquidation of Lehman Brothers, they were the only two remaining top investment banks on Wall Street.

In exchange for much tighter regulation by the Federal Reserve, the banks have transformed themselves into bank holding companies with greater access to central bank reserves but without their previous leverage.

Meanwhile, the Republican and Democrat U.S. presidential candidates focused on the economy during Sunday rallies as markets wait for the $700 billion rescue plan to be approved by Congress.

Stefanie McIntyre reports.

News : Lesotho mine yields one of world's largest diamonds

LONDON (Reuters) - Miners in the southern African kingdom of Lesotho have found one of the world's largest diamonds, a near-flawless white gem weighing nearly 500 carats, mining group Gem Diamonds said on Sunday.

The diamond was discovered in the Letseng Mine on September 8, the company said in a statement. It has been analyzed by experts in Antwerp and found to weigh 478 carats, with very few inclusions and of outstanding color and clarity.

"It has the potential to yield one of the largest flawless D color round polished diamonds in history," the company said.

Letseng is one of the most productive mines in history -- four of the world's 20 largest rough diamonds have been found at the mine, including the three largest found this century.

Before it is cut into gems it is hard to value the diamond, but a spokesman for Gem Diamonds said a similar weight stone with lesser-quality color and clarity had recently sold for $12 million (around 5.5 million pounds).

"Preliminary examination of this remarkable diamond indicates that it will yield a record breaking polished stone of the very best color and clarity," Clifford Elphick, the chief executive of Gem Diamonds, said in a statement.

The minister for natural resources in Lesotho, an impoverished mountain kingdom in eastern South Africa, praised the productivity of the mine, one of the highest in the world at more than 3,000 meters (10,000 feet).

"Once again Letseng has proved its ability to produce extraordinary diamonds and continues to place Lesotho at the forefront of diamond producing countries," Monyane Moleleki said in a statement.

Letseng is 70 percent owned by Gem Diamonds and 30 percent owned by the government of Lesotho.

The world's largest diamond is the Cullinan, discovered in South Africa in 1905. It weighed more than 3,100 carats before it was cut into more than one hundred separate gems, many of which are part of the British crown jewels.

(Reporting by Luke Baker; Editing by Mariam Karouny)

News : Web problems hit release of al Qaeda 9/11 video

By Firouz Sedarat

DUBAI (Reuters) - An al Qaeda video marking the anniversary of the September 11 attacks has appeared on the Internet more than a week late due to technical problems.

The delay of the much-touted 87-minute video, caused in part by the main Islamist websites crashing, has thwarted al Qaeda's yearly celebration of its attacks on U.S. cities in 2001.

Parts of the video -- a compilation of documentary footage and messages by al Qaeda leaders -- were aired on September 8 by Al Jazeera television, which did not say how it obtained it.

But the full version hit websites on Friday, eight days after the anniversary.

On it, senior al Qaeda commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazid vowed that Western forces in Afghanistan would face "more large-scale attacks ... where they least expect it" and called for militants in Pakistan to step up their fight.

"In order for jihad in Afghanistan to continue and be victorious, you must stand with your Mujahideen brothers in Afghanistan and ... strike the interests of Crusader (Western) allies in Pakistan," said Abu al-Yazid, a commander of al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan.

A suicide car bomber attacked the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Saturday, killing at least 40 people and starting a fire that swept through the hotel.

Al Qaeda has marked the anniversary of September 11 in the past with releases including a tape on September 7 last year in which its leader, Osama bin Laden, appeared on video for the first time in nearly three years, addressing the American people.

It was unclear why the websites normally favored by al Qaeda had gone down. By Saturday, the two most popular were still out of action.

TONGUE-IN-CHEEK

Some suspected they had been targeted by hackers. India's Hindustan Times pointed the finger at intelligence websites that track militant sites on the Internet, which responded in tongue-in-cheek fashion.

Rusty Shackleford of My Pet Jawa (www.mypetjawa.mu.nu) denied his web group was behind any cyber-attack on the websites. "But if I was responsible I'd deny it," he said.

Aaron Weisburd of www.internet-haganah.com wrote: "The actual reasons for this are not known to me (and I would say that even if I actually knew what was going on)."

When less popular Islamist websites managed to post links to the video -- which includes a "last will" recording by one of the September 11 hijackers -- downloaders noted that the password given to them was wrong.

This further delayed the release and unnerved al Qaeda sympathizers, one of whom wrote: "May God bless you my brothers, but the password is wrong."

The video also showed al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri accusing predominantly Shi'ite Muslim Iran of taking part in a Western "crusade" against Islam.

The closure of the Sunni websites coincided with a widespread cyber attack which shut down some 300 Shi'ite sites, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said. Fars blamed this on hardline Wahhabi Sunni hackers in the United Arab Emirates.

Hackers calling themselves Group XP took responsibility for defacing the website (www.sistani.org) of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's highest Shi'ite authority. The group said the Shi'ite sites were attacked for "offending Sunnis".

Visitors could push a button to see U.S. humorist Bill Maher making fun of Sistani's religious edicts on a television show segment posted on youtube.com.

(Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

News : McAfee to pay $465 million for Secure Computing

BOSTON (Reuters) - McAfee Inc (MFE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world's No. 2 security software maker, said on Monday it plans to buy Internet security company Secure Computing Corp (SCUR.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for $465 million in cash.

The move gives McAfee a suite of software, services and hardware products to protect hackers from getting past the perimeters of computer networks.

McAfee is already the No. 2 provider of anti-virus software. Symantec Corp (SYMC.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is the largest.

Santa Clara, California-based McAfee will pay $5.75 per share of Secure Computing's common stock, representing a 27 percent premium to the San Jose, California company's closing price of $4.52 on Friday.

Secure Computing shares were quoted at $5.59 in pre-market trade.

The companies expect the transaction to close at the end of the fourth quarter of this year.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Derek Caney)

News : Comcast details changes for managing Web traffic

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Comcast Corp has provided U.S. regulators details of how it plans to change the way it manages Web traffic over its high speed Internet network without blocking any applications or content.

The move comes after the Federal Communications Commission voted last month to uphold a complaint that Comcast had violated the regulator's open-Internet principles by hindering peer-to-peer traffic from applications such as BitTorrent.

Comcast said on Friday that under the plan designed to give all users their "fair share" of bandwidth it would focus on managing the traffic of customers who are using most bandwidth when the network is congested.

It said it will use software on its network to determine if particular subscribers have been the source of high volume of traffic and will temporarily give traffic from those subscribers a lower priority status.

It said that when a subscriber's traffic is assigned a lower priority status its traffic could be delayed if the network is congested but would not be delayed if there is no congestion.

Comcast said it expect to have the new traffic management system in place across its network by the end of December.

U.S. Internet service providers such as Comcast have been overwhelmed by the rapid growth of online services including peer-to-peer applications as well as online video, music downloading and photo-sharing, and are seeking ways to cost-effectively avoid network congestion.

Comcast, which has more than 14 million high-speed Internet subscribers, had previously said it was changing its network management practices to ensure all Web traffic is treated essentially the same.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Anshuman Daga)

News : Luxury brands cash in online

Innovative fashion websites combine editorial with retail to boost e-tailing profits.

Cindy Martin reports.

SOUNDBITES:

Amy Molyneaux, Fashion Designer for PPQ

Nick Robertson, CEO Of ASOS

Tom Chapman, Managing Director and Founder of Matches

Lauretta Roberts, Editor Of Drapers Fashion Journal

News : Wall St. fallout hits Main St.

The financial crises and subsequent government bailouts will cost businesses and families across the U.S., not just bankers on Wall Street.

The auto industry is one of the many sectors that could also be hit hard. Manoush Zomorodi reportsSOUNDBITES:

Ben Garber, Moody's

Prof. John Coffee, Columbia University

News : "Guitar Hero" lines up new acts

DENVER (Billboard) - With the much-anticipated "Rock Band 2" now on store shelves, rival franchise "Guitar Hero" is sneaking into the news on several fronts.

Most recently, Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash let it slip to Rolling Stone that "Guitar Hero" is working on a Jimi Hendrix special edition akin to what it did with Aerosmith. Metallica is another band previously identified as heading for its own "Guitar Hero" title. Both are expected after the holiday release of "Guitar Hero: World Tour."

Additionally, "Guitar Hero" publisher Activision reportedly is mulling a subscription service for adding downloadable songs to the game. Both the "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" franchises allow gamers to purchase either individual tracks, three-song packs or full albums via their game consoles and download them to play via the game.

Currently, all are a la carte options, but according to comments made by Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith during an analyst event, the company may offer a monthly fee good for a set number of songs.

Reuters/Billboard

News : Locust study could end car crashes

African locusts could provide clues to improve car traffic safety.

Car manufacturers Volvo are now using scientific findings about the African Locust to improve road safety.

Volvo hopes to be able to transpose the locust's unique characteristics onto a computer chip and use it in their car's safety system.

Hayley Platt reports.

News : Refresh and fresh funds for Zemanta

The Slovenian start up company which was among the winners of the inaugural Seedcamp competition continues to generate buzz in the blogging space.

In the UK to help mentor European technology entrepreneurs at the second Seedcamp competition, the team behind Zemanta is rolling out a new service meant to generate more relevant results through its 'recommendation engine' for bloggers.

The Ljubljana-based company is also continuing to win over influential backers.

Reuters Technology Correspondent Matt Cowan reports.

News : Google's U.S. share of Web search reaches 63 percent

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc extended an already wide lead in the U.S. Web search to 63.0 percent share of the market in August, its biggest monthly gain in five months, a report said on Thursday.

Yahoo Inc, the No. 2 player in the U.S. Web search market saw its share of the business drop 0.9 percent to 19.6 from July while Microsoft, the No. 3 U.S. player, slipped 0.6 percent to 8.3 percent, according to comScore Inc.

IAC InterActiveCorp's Ask.com grew 0.3 percent to retain its fourth-place ranking while Time Warner Inc's AOL edged up 0.1 percent to 4.3 percent, according to August monthly data published by the market research firm said.

Google's growing share of Web search and, by extension, its even larger role in the related market for Web search advertising, has lead rivals and some industry trade groups to complain to competition regulators in the United and Europe.

ComScore estimates that the number of searches performed by U.S. Web surfers on the five top search engines was virtually unchanged at 11.75 billion searches compared with July. The figure excludes searches users perform for mapping, local directory information or user-generated videos, it said.

(Reporting by Eric Auchard, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

News : Yahoo begins radical home page overhaul

By Eric Auchard

SUNNYVALE, California (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc is moving ahead on Thursday with a radical redesign of its home page -- the most heavily trafficked site on the Web -- making changes that give users a personalized view of the wider Web.

The Internet media giant is under the gun to deliver on year-old promises to transform Yahoo from a network of more or less insular properties into "starting points" that help consumers quickly navigate their way to the rest of the Web.

"We are going to put what matters to you most at your fingertips," said Tapan Bhat, the senior vice president in charge of "front doors" -- the main destinations at Yahoo, including Yahoo.com, MyYahoo and the Yahoo toolbar.

The new Yahoo home page features a tab on the left hand column of the page with sophisticated links to the user's 10 or 20 favorite sites. It functions as an alternative to navigation methods like bookmarks, link bars or browser tabs, he said.

In its simplest sense, Yahoo is blending the broadcast, editorially-controlled view that Yahoo.com has long offered with the personalized, self-selected view of information that the company's MyYahoo service has long offered. It mixes things users know they want, with the serendipitous or unexpected.

"For the first time, we are going to marrying those two to take the best of both," Bhat promised.

The changes, which Yahoo is testing on only a small group of users initially, will lead to a full-scale overhaul later. Two years ago, the last such redesign of Yahoo.com took up to six months to fully implement, the Yahoo executive said.

The makeover of Yahoo.com marks the company's 14-year evolution from the Web's pioneering directory of sites to an index of links to a search navigation tool to a complex media destination site.

A spokeswoman said Yahoo planned to invite a random sample of its users amounting to less than 1 percent of audience. The tests will be conducted in Britain, France, India and the United States, Bhat said.

The new home page relies on slick personalization technology that allows users who have signed into their Yahoo account to see when new information arrives not just on Yahoo sites, like e-mail or news, but off-Yahoo on sites such as eBay Inc auctions or Google Inc's Gmail service.

Instead of whisking people to these sites, users can see a preview of the information while staying on the home page, which allows them to quickly navigate across a range of their favorite sites. The Yahoo home page attracts around 100 million U.S. users a month and 300 million worldwide, Bhat said.

Yahoo is relying on new technology it calls the Content Optimization Knowledge Engine to help its computers determine what the most engaging content may be to a specific user, then serve it up based on their prior surfing habits. Relevant ads tied to users' particular interests are delivered as well.

SLOWLY MOVING THE MOUNTAIN

Yahoo is moving carefully with this personalized approach in the knowledge that less than 15 percent of its user base subscribe to its existing MyYahoo personalization service.

"It is a leaner look, it is more user friendly," said Caroline Dangson, an analyst with market research firm IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts, who was briefed on the changes.

But Dangson said the collective judgment of IDC researchers is that Yahoo has made a series of very exciting announcements over the past year, but has been slow to deliver on any of its promises to open up and transform how its sites function.

The more than 500 million or so monthly users of Yahoo properties have little if nothing to see of these ambitious plans to date. "These are announcements. But when does this really roll out?" Dangson asks of the new home page design.

And while Yahoo moves carefully so as not to anger its base of hundreds of millions of visitors, many of its biggest rivals have made sweeping changes in their own sites, Dangson said.

These include Microsoft Corp's MSN, Time Warner Inc's AOL, Facebook and News Corp MySpace, everyone it seems, except Google, Dangson said.

Some of those makeovers have frustrated users who prefer "classic" versions of their favorite sites, she said, adding to the caution of Yahoo, which attracts some of the biggest audiences on the Web to Yahoo.com, Yahoo News and Yahoo Mail.

The real test of the success or failure of the Yahoo home page redesign will only come when the company opens up Yahoo.com to let independent developers create their own applications to work on Yahoo.com, Dangson said. That where Google, Facebook and MySpace all are further along, she said.

Separately, in a bid to shore up morale within a company that has been besieged by competition, a tough advertising market and the so far unwonted takeover gestures of Microsoft, Yahoo has introduced a campaign to encourage employees to dress in purple -- the company's primary color -- at work.