Science and Technology News

Companies Google should buy in 2010

2009-12-31T15:25:00.000-08:00

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in September that the search leader will buy up one company a month in 2010. Here's a look at some of the leading contenders.

Twitter

What it is: A microblogging social network sensation that has taken the world by storm 140 characters at a time.

Why Google should buy it: With more than 60 million unique users a month, Twitter is one of the most popular and fastest growing social networks on the Web, according to comScore. Google's first foray into social networking, Orkut, didn't exactly take off, and its newest attempt, Google Wave, hasn't yet won over skeptics. Social network users spend more time online than the average Web user, and Google's advertising partners are keen to take advantage.

Why Google shouldn't buy it: Twitter's business model has yet to be determined, and they don't sell ads. Twitter also has had several security lapses recently. And because Twitter is such a hot brand, Google could face intense regulatory scrutiny if it bought the company.

Will it happen? A remote possibility. If a company can make money from Twitter, it's probably Google, but the jury's still out on whether social networks will ever be profitable.

Digg

What it is: Digg is a Web site that displays the Web's most popular content based on how many users share or "digg" an article or video.

Why Google should buy it: Unlike Yahoo and Aol, Google does not produce its own content, but it makes money by driving people to others' Web sites. That matches up perfectly with Digg's business model, including obvious synergies with Google News. It also plans to launch a feature in 2010 that shows what users are "digging" in real time.

Why Google shouldn't buy it: Digg isn't exactly the hottest Web property anymore. With Facebook and Twitter practically taking over the Internet, Digg lost heavy amounts of traffic in the past two months, tumbling 15% in November.

Will it happen? Probably. Two months of traffic declines don't mean the end has come, and live digs could help revitalize the brand.

Jumptap

What it is: Jumptap is a mobile advertising company that targets users with contextual ads.

Why Google should buy it: Google acquired AdMob, a rival mobile ad company, in November, and the move was widely praised as Google makes a big push into mobile. Like AdMob, Jumptap would offer Google its own array of international advertising and publishing partners. It could hurt rival Microsoft, which analysts say is in danger of missing the boat on mobile. Since most analysts view mobile phones as the next frontier for Web browsing and advertising, Google could use its muscle to corner the market before it explodes.

Why Google shouldn't buy it: The AdMob purchase hasn't been approved yet, and it is already facing some heat from government regulators. Buying up another big mobile advertising firm would probably raise more eyebrows in Washington.

Will it happen? Don't bet the house, but it could happen. With Google acquiring AdMob, a deal with Jumptap is a little less likely, but putting a nail in Microsoft's mobile coffin would give Google's board room a big reason to smile.

Yelp

What it is: The local business review site lets users give their opinion about restaurants, museums and other attractions around cities and towns.

Why Google should buy it: As more people use the mobile Web to help them make decisions about where to go, there is a growing market for local businesses to advertise online. Yelp is the most successful company so far to tap into the local market. A marriage between the two companies would help Google improve its social networking capabilities and it would open the door to partnerships with a huge number of local businesses that want to advertise.

Why Google shouldn't buy it: Yelp may be asking for too much. A more-than $500 million deal was reportedly agreed to, but Yelp pulled out at the last minute.

Will it happen? A good bet. A number of analysts think that Yelp broke the deal after the story leaked, hoping to get a higher bid from another potential suitor. But in the end, Google will probably win out.

Cellfire

What it is: Cellfire is a digital coupons company that allows users to access coupons on their mobile phones based on their location.

Why Google should buy it: Digital coupons aren't so different than the text ads that Google displays on its search results pages that offer deals and discounts. A deal for Cellfire could help Google's advertising partners bring their marketing tools to the physical world of supermarkets and stores. That could be a good deal for Google, its partners, and consumers.

Why Google shouldn't buy it: Digital coupons are cool, but not everyone is embracing them. Procter & Gamble recently ended what it called a digital coupon "experiment," and other advertisers and companies have yet to sign on.

Will it happen? Seems like it. If digital coupons take off, Google could strike advertising gold with a company like Cellfire. If not, it probably won't need to invest too much to buy it.

Yandex

What it is: The "Google of Russia," Yandex is the largest Internet company and leading search Web site in Russia and its surrounding countries.

Why Google should buy it: Like Baidu in China, Yandex has relegated Google to a distant second in another fast-growing market, Russia. Yandex's search engine has been able to master the wildly complex Russian language much better than Google's engine, so the quality of Google's Russian language results leaves much to be desired. And Yandex is eagerly looking to expand to the United States, building an office in Mountain View, Calif. close to Google's headquarters.

Why Google shouldn't buy it: Yandex won't come cheap, and since it is a mature business, it may be getting a little late for Google to scoop it up.

Will it happen? Wait 'till next year. The financial crisis hurt Yandex's ability to launch an initial public offering, and a financial white knight may be an attractive alternative. But Yandex will probably will want to see how it performs in the global markets before it will listen to deals.

Google Nexus phone to debut Tuesday?

2009-12-31T15:15:00.000-08:00

Google's much-anticipated new phone, the HTC-designed Nexus One, could make its debut next week.
Google has scheduled a press event for Tuesday, January 5 at its Mountain View, California, headquarters. Though the company hasn't mentioned Nexus One, the invitation mentions Android, Google's mobile operating system for phones, and the company is widely expected to show the device that has had smartphone industry watchers buzzing for weeks.
The invitation-only event will be held two days before the Consumer Electronics Show begins in Las Vegas and just one day before many CES exhibitors have scheduled major press conferences.
It's a move straight out of the Apple playbook. In January, 2007, Apple famously upstaged CES when it unveiled the first iPhone at an event in San Francisco -- even as most technology journalists and executives were huddled in Las Vegas for the trade show.
Google hasn't commented about Nexus One. But recent online leaks suggest the Nexus One will be a GSM-device with a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi connectivity, accelerometer and compass. It is expected to run the latest version of the Android operating system, Android 2.1.
Where Google could really innovate is how the phone is sold. The Nexus One is likely to be sold unlocked, which means consumers don't have to be tied into long-term contracts with telecom carriers.
T-Mobile, which offered the first Google phone, could provide "billing, coverage, features and rate plans," says TMONews, a blog that tracks T-Mobile.
The Nexus One could also go on sale the morning of Jan. 5, says the site, though there's no word yet on possible pricing.

Will Google offer expensive unlocked handsets in the United States -- a la Nokia -- or can it come up with a clever model to subsidize the device cost through mobile advertising or carrier support? Google's press conference next week should answer that question.

R U Buzzed? An iPhone App Can Tell You

2009-12-31T15:13:00.000-08:00

Fee iPhone Application Calculates Blood Alcohol Level and Helps Call a Cab

n time for arguably the wildest night of the year, the Colorado Department of Transportation has launched a free iPhone application to help partygoers calculate their blood alcohol levels and call a cab.

How effective are personal breathalyzers?

The app, called R U Buzzed, launched earlier this month and, according to the Wall Street Journal, has been downloaded more than 40,000 times.
The application prompts users to enter weight, gender, hours drinking and the amount of beer, wine and liquor consumed. (The calculator assumes that one drink is equal to 12 fluid ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor.)
Then it calculates and displays a blood alcohol content number. Even if you're under the legal limit of 0.08 percent, it might say "You're buzzed!" and warn you that "You could be arrested for impaired driving. Designate a sober driver."
The app includes a disclaimer that the estimates aren't accurate enough to be considered legal evidence. It also says that individuals may vary in alcohol tolerance and may be influenced by food, medication, health and psychological condition.
A GPS feature also helps users locate a taxi. But non-Coloradoans take note -- because the applications was built for the state Department of Transportation, estimates are based on Colorado law and the GPS feature may not work for out-of-staters.
The Colorado Department of Transportation also advises that the best plan is to designate a sober driver before people start drinking.
R U Buzzed is just one of about 100,000 applications available in Apple's App store.
Here is a sampling:

Virgin Atlantic App Helps Fight Fear of Flying

If a fear of flying keeps you grounded, Virgin Atlantic has a new iPhone application just for you.
Launched in partnership with developer Mental Workout, the new application is based on (and named after) the airline's Flying Without Fear course, which the company says has a 98 percent success rate.

10 best PlayStation 3 games of 2009

2009-12-16T09:25:00.000-08:00

With a slew of excellent exclusive games, the PS3 is finally hitting its stride

Sony’s PlayStation 3 hasn’t had it easy ever since it debuted in 2006, with its competition (Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360) outselling the machine sometimes by leaps and bounds. But things are really starting to look up for this powerful and feature-rich game console.
This year has seen the release of some excellent PS3-exclusive games, as well as a hefty price cut for the console and the introduction of the new PS3 Slim machine. And there are so many great PS3 games to choose from this holiday that it wasn’t easy to narrow the list down to a mere 10. But we did it.

'DJ Hero'

Rating: Teen
Price: $119.99
Like the many “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” games crowding the market today, “DJ Hero” is a rhythm game – but this one boldly struts down its own unique road.
The game comes with a specially created turntable controller, a compact and well-constructed device that won’t take up too much room in closets already overstuffed with fake plastic guitars and drum peripherals. Using the controller, players simulate the music mixing and mashing of turntable-ism. Tap colored face buttons, swish the turntable back and forth and manipulate a crossfader as you meld two songs together like the best of the beat masters.
Meanwhile, the track list is simply fantastic. “DJ Hero” is chock full of great music from the likes of David Bowie, 50 Cent, Daft Punk and Queen. This game will rock you.

'Street Fighter IV'

Rating: Teen
Price: $29.99
Fighting-game fans had a very good reason to rejoice this year, as the long-running “Street Fighter” franchise got one seriously awesome makeover and update. “Street Fighter IV” brings back the tried-and-true brawling action that gamers have grown to love, but it adds a whole lot of excellent upgrades and new flourishes.
Players can take many of the classic characters they love into the fight (Chun-Li and Ryu among them), but the game adds some butt-kicking new characters to play as well (Crimson Viper and El Fuerte, for example). Meanwhile, the visuals have been given a gorgeous, beefed-up overhaul and the combat system now includes Focus Attack, Super Combo and Ultra Combo systems.
Ultimately, what makes this game great is that it’s approachable enough for brawling newbies and yet so packed full of depth and detail that seasoned “Street Fighter” fans will enjoy duking it out for eons.

'Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time'

Rating: E10+
Price: $59.99
Ratchet and Clank – that adventure-seeking lombax and his trusty robot friend – are two of the most beloved Sony game characters. And with “Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time,” the dynamic duo returns in excellent form.
“A Crack in Time” is the sequel to two of the most recent R&C games (“Tools of Destruction” and “Quest for Booty”) and finds Ratchet setting out on a quest to save his robo-buddy Clank from the clutches of Dr. Nefarious. The game is chock-full of puzzles to solve, shooting and lots of runnin’ and jumpin’, and it tosses in some great space-flight missions to boot. Meanwhile, not only does this newest adventure look fantastic, but as the title implies, it includes some excellent time-manipulation segments to tweak your brain.
With their zany sense of humor and deep, polished gameplay, “Ratchet & Clank” games tend to be tons of good fun ... and this latest adventure is exactly that.

'Flower'

Rating: E
Price: $9.99 (download from PlayStation Network)
One of the year’s most original games can be found only for the PlayStation3. It’s called “Flower,” and as its name implies, it’s a game about ... flowers. Seriously. And yes, it’s amazing.
“Flower” begins with a single petal riding on a breeze. You send it sailing across grassy meadows, collecting petals from other flowers until you’ve become a swirling trail of petals with the power to affect the environment around you. Sometimes you bring light to the landscape, sometimes you bring color. But no matter what you’re doing, you soar through the air with an unparalleled feeling of grace.
Developed by indie favorites ThatGameCompany, “Flower” features dazzling graphics and simple controls. Tilt the PS3’s motion-sensitive controller to steer your petals where you want them to go, and push any button you like to propel them forward on the breeze. Despite its seeming simplicity, “Flower” is deeply absorbing and a testament to just how creative and inspiring video games can be.

'inFAMOUS'

Rating: Teen
Price: $39.99
Will you be a good guy or a bad guy? That’s the question this excellent, action-packed PS3 exclusive asks players.
In this game, gamers take on the role of Cole, a bike messenger given electrical superpowers during a mysterious blast that devastated the city around him. Cole is beset with tough choices from the get-go as he tries to figure out what’s happened to him and his city. That is, “inFAMOUS” gives players a choice: Be a good guy who sacrifices himself in order to do right by the troubled world around him, or be a bad guy who uses his newly found powers for his own gain. The game uses a karma system, an omnipotent score keeper that tallies your good actions and your bad ones. Cole and the environment around him change depending on the choices you make.
But no matter how you play this game, you’ll have a blast. Whether you’re exploring the open world, scaling massive buildings with ease or wielding some pretty fantastic super powers, “inFAMOUS” is a thrill to play.

'Assassin's Creed II'

Rating: M
Price: $59.99
This gorgeous and epic action-adventure game is not just beautiful to look at, but it’s a thing of beauty to play as well. An open-world game, “Assassin’s Creed II” delivers many welcome improvements over its predecessor, as well as many hours of superb gameplay and a stellar time-spanning story of assassination and intrigue.
This game’s tale moves between past and future as you play Desmond Miles, a man training to become an assassin by slipping into a device that allows him to live the life of his ancestor, a young Italian man from the 15th century who is learning to become an assassin himself. The presentation is amazing. With jaw agape, you will marvel at the stunning Renaissance-era vistas laid out before you. Meanwhile, running, leaping and scaling your way around this world is exhilarating. You’ll execute stunning acrobatics and jump into beautifully animated fights and assassinations. And it’s a real blast to use gadgets created by the young Leonardo da Vinci.

'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2'

Rating: M
Price: $59.99
War ain’t pretty and “Modern Warfare 2” makes sure players know it. Of course, when it comes to video game wars, war can be a lot of fun too, and this first-person shooter makes sure players know that as well.
The game – a sequel to the hit “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” – takes players from the slums of Rio to the caverns of Afghanistan as it weaves a tale of a world falling into conflict. This action-filled yarn has you trying to stop a bloodthirsty terrorist, defending American soil and, ultimately, stopping the entire globe from tearing itself apart.
As in previous “Call of Duty” games, the single-player campaign lets players live out this adventure from the perspective of several characters, each involved in a different aspect of the conflict. The game includes an especially controversial and bloody scene in an airport and sometimes fails as it tries to piece together a smooth-flowing story. But “Modern Warfare 2” is engaging as all get out with some amazing battles set on American soil and some truly heart-pounding segments set in Rio. War-game and first-person shooter fans will be thrilled to jump into this battle.

'Killzone 2'

Rating: M
Price: $59.99
This action-packed first-person shooter puts players into the thick of an epic, otherworldly war. Playing as Sev, a battle-hardened warrior, players are tasked with joining a team of soldiers on a mission to capture the fascist enemy leader and put a stop to his devastating advances.
The game’s graphics are nothing short of stunning, and the many weapons at your disposal are a blast to put into action. Meanwhile, the game’s pacing is chaotic and intense (and we mean that in a good way), and the massive battles are impressive to behold. Beyond that, “Killzone 2's” multiplayer is absolutely top-notch.

'Batman: Arkham Asylum'

Rating: Teen
Price: $59.99
“Batman: Arkham Asylum” is a masterpiece, plain and simple. This action-adventure game of stealth finds our hero trapped in the prison known as Arkham Asylum, along with a host of crazed killers and the Joker, who is up to some serious no good. To set things right, you’ll find yourself swooping among the gargoyles in the rafters, taking on rooms full of thugs, putting Batman’s super-cool gadgets to work and much more.
The graphics are eye-popping, the stealth action is thrilling and the fighting is so gorgeously choreographed and beautifully implemented you’ll never want to stop taking down Arkham’s many bad guys. Meanwhile the story is gripping and the voice acting is superb. There so much that’s great about this title that we could go on and on. But suffice it to say that “Batman: Arkham Asylum” is among the very best games out there.

'Uncharted 2: Among Thieves'

Rating: Teen
Price: $59.99
Pardon us for a moment as we lavish praise upon this action-adventure game. Thrilling. Gorgeous. Fun. Phenomenal. In short, “Uncharted 2” is � WOW!
From the cliff-hanger of an opening scene on through to the end, you won’t know whether you’re in the midst of a blockbuster movie or a blockbuster game. That is to say, as players take Nathan Drake on a world-hopping adventure to find a lost city and a powerful stone, the game comes together with the best kind of cinematic life complete with a superbly crafted story, excellent voice acting and refined music to boot. Whether you’re shooting, solving puzzles or climbing about the varied and often dynamic environments before you, there’s no better way to show off the power of the PS3 than to toss in this game, which is simply stunning to look at on every level. Meanwhile “Uncharted 2” brings both co-op and competitive online play to the series for the first time.
Xbox and Wii owners, eat your heart out. You won’t be able to play “Uncharted 2” on anything but a PS3.

YouTube's top 2009 videos feature eclectic cast

2009-12-16T09:13:00.001-08:00

Susan Boyle mesmerized the world on a British talent show

The year's biggest hits on the Internet's top video channel were anchored by an improbable singing sensation, a groggy boy nursing a sore mouth, a bride and groom dancing down the wedding aisle, supernatural heartthrobs and roller-skating babies.

The eclectic cast of characters starring in YouTube's most-watched videos of 2009 served as a reminder of the quirky appeal of a Web site that accepts about 20 hours of new video every minute.

The list released Wednesday marks the first time that YouTube has ranked its most-watched videos in any year since its 2005 inception.

Microsoft Hopes To Win Back Browser Market Share With Internet Explorer 8

2009-12-15T06:59:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has a lot at stake with the success of Internet Explore 8 since they lost 7 percent of their browser market to Firefox, Safari, and Chrome browsers. IE8 has been in release candidate since January of 2009 and will mostly likely be a target for criticism for similar features already existing in Firefox, Safari, and Chrome browsers.

Microsoft claims that IE8 offers some new features and hopes that they can win back some of the browser market share they lost. Here are seven new and enhanced browsing features that hopefully will win back some former Internet Explore users.

Smart Address Bar

With the Smart Address Bar, IE8's address bar is transformed into a search field of sorts. By typing a word or phrase into the address bar, IE8 searches through your browsing history, favorites and feeds to find websites related to your word or phrase. The results are based on page titles and keywords within the web address.

Tab Groups

We all know that Firefox was the first browser to come out with Tab Browsing. Microsoft hopes that they can improve Tab Browsing by organizing the tabbed browsing concept with tab Groups.

This is accomplished by organizing tabs, that were opened from the same site, next to one another and using the same tab color. These tabs can then be closed or moved as one single unit.

Web Slices

Web Slices will keep you up-to-date on information that changes often such as weather forecast, stock quotes, sports, etc. Unfortunately not all sites will be compatible with the Web Slice functionality.

Whenever there are new updates the Web Slice section, which appears on your Favorites bar, is highlighted. By clicking on it you see a preview of the latest information and by clicking through to the link you are taken to the site where you can read all the details.

Enhanced Search Box

The enhanced search box on IE8 allows users to select what search engine they want and toggle between their choices. Each search engine will then display its search results in whatever format it chooses. For example, Live Search and Google search results is a drop-down list of text links, whereas eBay and Amazon searches are listed as thumbnails with descriptions.

Compatibility View Button

Sites that are not IE8 compatible will have their text and images misplaced on the page. By selecting the Compatibility View Button, the IE8 browser would use the IE7 rendering engine. IE8 also lets users maintain a list of non-compatible IE8 sites so that they don't have to click the Compatibility View Button every time they visit these sites.

Accelerators

An Accelerator icon, in the form of a blue arrow, appears whenever a word or phrase on a page is highlighted. By clicking on the icon, a list of related services appears related to the word or phase typed in.

Users can manage and add many accelerators for various web services. For instance, Windows Live, Google and Yahoo services, Wikipedia, YouTube, etc. The list goes on and covers most popular Web services.

In-Private Browsing

When you are In-Private browsing, IE8 does not store data about your browsing session. This is accomplished by disabling your Temporary Internet Files, Web Address History, Cookies and Passwords. An In-Private" icon appears to the left of the url in the address bar whenever you are In-Private browsing and can be deactivated by simply closing the window.

Google runs TV ads to promote Chrome browser

2009-12-15T06:56:00.000-08:00

Google has floated its first US television advertisements, a campaign to promote its Web browser Chrome, which has captured just a tiny share of a market dominated by Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Google became the dominant search engine on the Web without having to advertise but it has been forced to take a different approach to build up market share for Chrome.

On Friday, Google said it would run its first ad Google Chrome, a silent 30-second spot produced in Japan, over the weekend.

"We designed a Google TV Ads campaign which we hope will raise awareness of our browser, and also help us better understand how television can supplement our other online media campaigns," Google said in a post on the company blog.

"We're excited to see how this test goes and what impact television might have on creating more awareness of Google Chrome," it added.

Google launched Chrome in September but it has failed to enjoy the spectacular success of its search engine.

Chrome is currently the fourth-ranking Web browser with a market share of 1.4 percent, according to Web research firm Net Applications.

Internet Explorer is number one with 66.1 percent followed by Firefox's Mozilla with 22.5 percent and Apple's Safari with 8.2 percent.

Google Chrome extensions to be officially released

2009-12-15T06:53:00.000-08:00

Google is expected to release its Extensions Gallery for general users of the new Chrome browser this week, possibly at the Add-On Conference on browser extensions to be held on December 11, 2009. Google is a platinum sponsor of the conference. An extensions site was unveiled a couple of weeks ago, but only for the use of developers.

The Google Extensions Gallery is expected to be similar to the Themes Gallery, with a list of available extensions and a download button for each. The gallery will be the first official release for end users. Extensions and support for them will only be available initially for Windows, but they are also expected to be available in future for the coming Mac and Linux versions.

Extensions expected to be available include SEO (search engine optimization) extensions to assist in Internet marketing, Shareaholic, a social media extension, Gmail compose, which lets you quickly compose an email through your gmail account, and Quicksearch, which speeds up searches using your favorite search engine.

Google Tasks for Chrome will give you complete control of your Google Task List and synchronize it with your Gmail Task List, and for those websites that only work correctly in Internet Explorer, a Chrome IE extension is expected to be available to let you open a tab and view the site in IE without leaving Chrome.

Trials of the developer versions of the extensions have shown they can be added or removed easily without the need to restart the Chrome browser. Since Chrome has been developed in open-source, anyone can develop extensions for it and upload them via the Google Chrome Extension Developer Dashboard.

The availability of useful extensions for the Chrome browser will mean it is more customizable and possibly a stronger rival to Mozilla Firefox. Firefox can be easily customized by its add-ons, and this is one of the major reasons it has become so popular.

Google Chrome is a free browser that runs web pages extremely fast, and a raft of useful extensions may help it to reach Google's stated of of cornering at least 10% of the browser market share.

YouTube chief says ad sales soaring

2009-12-15T06:51:00.001-08:00

YouTube's chief executive says ad sales are soaring, but there is still no word on whether the popular video-sharing site is making money.

Chad Hurley, a YouTube co-founder, spoke in Jerusalem Tuesday at a launching ceremony for a personal YouTube channel by Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Hurley refused to provide specific figures for YouTube's performance. But he says the company had "two spectacular quarters" and that the site gets more than a billion views a day.

YouTube has been unprofitable since Google bought it for $1.76 billion three years ago, but Google executives have indicated it is getting close to reaching the black.

Peres said he wants to use the YouTube channel to hear ideas from people worldwide and communicate with them directly.

©2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Google CEO joins Twitter

2009-12-15T06:50:00.000-08:00

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, who took some flak earlier this year for calling Twitter a "poor man's email system," has joined the hot micro-blogging service.

Schmidt is "tweeting" under the handle @ericschmidt, a Twitter spokeswoman said in a Twitter message on Monday.

The Google's CEO's account was activated on December 1.

Schmidt has sent two "tweets," one of which was a link to an opinion piece he wrote last week in The Wall Street Journal, and has amassed nearly 7,500 followers in less than a week.

Schmidt made his disparaging remark about Twitter at the Morgan Stanley Technology conference in San Francisco in March but quickly backed away from the description in later comments, saying: "We admire Twitter."

"We think Twitter did a very good job of exposing a whole new way to communicate," he said.

Twitter's potential as a real-time search engine has sparked recurring bouts of speculation that Google may be interested in buying the company.

Twitter, which allows users to pepper one another with messages of 140 characters or less, has seen a dizzying surge in popularity since it was launched in August 2006.

Super-Earths found around sunlike stars

2009-12-15T04:26:00.000-08:00

Discoveries raise hopes of finding habitable planets like our own

A computer simulation shows temperature patterns in the global atmospheric flow on the extrasolar planet known as 61 Vir b, which is so hot it glows.

Four newfound planets orbiting two nearby stars add weight to the promise of detecting habitable worlds within the next few years, researchers said today.

Two of the extrasolar planets are considered super-Earths, more massive than Earth but less massive than Uranus and Neptune. Spotting true Earth-sized planets is challenging with current technology, but the presence of super-Earths suggests finding a world like ours is just a matter of time, researchers say.

"These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars," said study team member Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away."

The astronomers are not sure if the super-Earths are rocky like our own world or if they have some other composition.

The team found the new planet systems by combining data gathered at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in New South Wales, Australia. They inferred the existence of the planets by noting the worlds' gravitational effects on the parent star's orbit. This method is called the radial velocity, or wobble, technique.

The objects have not been photographed.

Three of the exoplanets orbit the star 61 Virginis, which is virtually a twin of the sun and lies 28 light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. (At this time of year, Virgo can be seen rising a few hours before the sun.)

The researchers estimated the minimum mass of each planet as: 5.1 Earth masses for 61 Vir b, 18 Earth masses for 61 Vir c, and 23 Earth masses for 61 Vir d, according study team member Chris Tinney of the University of New South Wales.

"So the smallest one is in the super-Earth mass range, and is the first planet like this to be found around a sunlike star," Tinney told SPACE.com.

Other super-Earths have been found around stars that are cooler and redder than the sun, he said.

Tinney added, "This is exciting, because it demonstrates the ability of our team to find planets at these interesting, small masses around solar-mass stars. If we want to one day find habitable planets that are really like the Earth in systems that are really like ours, then those are the sorts of stars we need to be able to find low-mass planets around."

Australian government to introduce Internet filter

2009-12-15T04:24:00.000-08:00

Australia plans to introduce an Internet filtering system to block obscene and crime-linked Web sites despite concerns it will curtail freedoms and won't completely work.

Adopting a mandatory screening system would make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among the world's democracies. Authoritarian regimes commonly impose controls. China drew international criticism earlier this year with plans to install filtering software on all PCs sold in the country.
The government said Tuesday it will introduce legislation next year for the filter system to help protect Australians, especially children, from harmful material on the Internet. Critics say it will not prevent determined users from sharing such content, and could lead to unwarranted censorship by overzealous officials.
Communication Minister Stephen Conroy said the government would be transparent in compiling its blacklist of Web sites, but did not give details.
Conroy said the Australian filter was among a number of new measures aimed at strengthening online protection for families. It aims to block material such as child pornography, bestiality, rape and other sexual violence, along with detailed instructions about committing crimes or using illicit drugs.
Such material is already banned from publication on Australian sites, but the government currently has no control over it being accessed on servers overseas.
Conroy conceded it may not be completely successful.
"The government has always maintained there is no silver bullet solution to cyber-safety," he said in a statement. But, "it is important that all Australians, particularly young children, are protected from this material."
Critics say illegal material such as child pornography is often traded on peer-to-peer networks or chats, which would not be covered by the filter.
"The government knows this plan will not help Australian kids, nor will it aid in the policing of prohibited material," said Colin Jacobs, vice chairman of Electronic Frontiers Australia, a nonprofit group that seeks to promote online

"Given the problems in maintaining a secret blacklist and deciding what goes on it, we're at a loss to explain the minister's enthusiasm for this proposal," Jacobs said in an online posting.
The group is concerned the blacklist of sites to be blocked by the filter and the reasons for doing so would be kept secret, opening the possibility that legitimate sites might be censored.
Conroy's announcement coincided with the release of a report on a monthslong trial that found Internet service providers were able to block a list of more than 1,300 sites selected by the government without significantly hampering download speeds.
Telstra, Australia's largest Internet service provider, said blacklisting offensive sites using a filter system was feasible as long as the list was limited to a defined number of Web addresses, but that no single measure would make the Internet 100 percent safe.
"The blocking of a blacklist of sites is one element of the multifaceted approach that is required to create a safer online environment," Telstra Director of Public Policy David Quilty said.
Jacobs said smaller Internet service providers would likely struggle to pay the costs of imposing the new filters. Conroy said the government would help providers implement the filters, without going into details.
The filter would not likely not be in place before early in 2011.
Countries such as Egypt and Iran impose strict Internet controls, and bloggers have been imprisoned. China has a pervasive filtering system.
Controls in democracies that value free speech are less strict, though Internet providers have at times blocked or taken down content deemed to be offensive.
Canada, Sweden and Britain have filters, but they are voluntary. In the United States, Pennsylvania briefly imposed requirements for service providers to block child pornography sites, but a federal court struck down the law because the filters also blocked legitimate sites.
©2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The best holiday iPhone apps

2009-12-15T04:22:00.000-08:00

Check out some of our favorite picks that will let you keep track of your spending and eating — and help you make a drink or two.

The holiday season can be stressful: the shopping, the spending, even the parties can be incredibly stressful.
Luckily, all you Apple (AAPL) iPhone users have more than 100,000 apps to help your holiday season go a little smoother. Yes, there's the obvious "Better Christmas List" app or the “Asking Santa” app, but maybe before it gets too close to the yuletide cheer, you should make a trip to the iTunes app store. That'd be one way to make the trip to your in-laws a little more bearable. All in all, a happy app holiday!
Make your shopping experience easier — and more affordable
Everyone's trying to find the best deals this time of year. And besides tackling someone on Black Friday or being glued to your laptop on Cyber Monday, you can look for apps that can help your shopping. Try Red Laser, priced at $1.99. All you do is take a picture of a product barcode, and it'll recognize the product and search for prices on Google (GOOG) and TheFind. So instead of buying something marked-up, you can see where you can get the item for the cheapest.
Stop using a checkbook and start using an app
There are more than enough apps to help you keep track of your finances. Mint.com, for instance, has caused a small revolution in the iPhone and digital community, showing you how much you're spending and how much you’re actually making. Mint.com is like having a digital version of your loving, but overbearing, scolding mother living in your inbox and iPhone. But for the holidays, try BudgetCare for $1.99. It's especially tailored for individual transactions. So this way if you just want to track your holiday expenses, it's a bit easier to sort through.
I'll be home for Christmas…on Wednesday at 5:32 p.m.
Many of us will be traveling for the holidays, and let's face it, we might enjoy the in-flight movie, but what we all care about is our destination — and whether we'll be home in time to make the holiday festivities. So rather than being preoccupied, you can stay occupied by checking your flight status in real-time with FlightTrack. For $4.99, you can check whether you'll have any delays, if they've switched gate numbers or if you just want to see which other planes are flying in the air with you.
Eggnog, anyone?

So you're finally home and you're in charge of drinks. No fear! Here comes (the free) Mixologist: Drink Recipes to the rescue! You've got almost 8,000 recipes at your disposal. Pick the liquor, pick the spritzer and shake it up–your iPhone, that is. And then you can pick up the real shaker and be the life of the party! This is one holiday app that keeps on giving.
Watch those calories!
Now that the party has really gotten started, it's easy to get stuck eating hundreds of obligatory holiday feasts. That really doesn't do much for your diet though — nor your pant size. So maybe it's best not to completely pig out and use an app that'll give you a handle on your eating. With livestrong.com's $2.99 Calorie Tracker app, you can search a food item, add it to your database and then you can search for the appropriate workout to burn those calories you just added to your system. Might as well get a head start on that New Year's resolution.
Let's make some Christmas cards
And no holiday would be complete unless you took some crazy photos and made them your Christmas card for next year. But why wait until next year, when you can dress them up and send them now? For $2.99, you can take a picture of your holiday antics, lay some Grinch illustrations on top of the faces you and your nephew are making and then send those greetings out to your loved ones right away. Who said the Grinch ruined Christmas?

Nine ways of looking at a Google phone

2009-12-15T04:20:00.000-08:00

Google (GOOG) announced on its mobile blog Saturday what dozens of staffers had already leaked: the company has given employees around the world free handsets running its Android mobile operating system. The idea, according to the official report, is to have Google's own people test various advanced features and offer feedback to the company's designers — a process known in the business as "dogfooding" (as in "eating your own dogfood").
Not surprisingly, given Google's financial clout and the power it wields over the Internet, the experiment has launched a storm of speculation about what it means. As we sort through the theories, we count at least nine ways of looking at the Google phone:

Google is in the process of designing an unlocked cellphone that it plans to sell directly to the public online — bypassing the mobile carriers and brick-and-mortar retailers — sometime next year. This is the line TechCrunch took first and the Wall Street Journal has picked up, citing unnamed sources "familiar with the matter." This theory underlies much of the theorizing that follows.
Google has watched with dismay as smartphone makers tweak the Android OS to suit their needs, fragmenting the software ecosystem and scaring off developers. "By putting its stake in the ground," writes GigaOm's Om Malik, "the company is hoping that it doesn’t make the mistake that Microsoft made by dragging its feet in releasing Zune and ceding the market to Apple’s iPod."
Apple (AAPL) has finally met its match in a competitor that has the resources, the partners and the staying power to challenge the iPhone. This, finally, is the real iPhone killer.
The iPhone, despite the failure of AT&T's (T) network to keep up with bandwidth demands in high-profile urban markets, continues to sell like crazy. Google realizes it has to move fast or the game will be lost.
A Google phone sold without a subsidy from the mobile carriers would be prohibitively expensive — at least $400, and probably more like $500 or $600, according to Ian Betteridge's back of the envelope calculations. (See his comments here.) A carrier like T-Mobile (DT) could sell the same phone for a fraction of the price.
Google could subsidize the phone out of its own pocket, perhaps giving it away for free to drive more traffic to its revenue-producing ads — a strategy that's worked for nearly every other project in Google Labs.
If Google were to try to sell a smartphone below cost, the company would be facing a 21st century version of the Microsoft (MSFT) antitrust trials, and the start of a long, slow decline.
Google is about to alienate the very hardware manufacturers it's counting on to carry the Android flag. Why would customers buy a Motorola (MOT) Droid, for example, when they could get the official Android smartphone from Google?
Google has no intention of making its own hardware. The so-called Google phone is actually the HTC Passion (AKA Bravo), an Android 2.1 smartphone set for U.S. release by T-Mobile in January. The "dogfooding" exercise is exactly what Google said it was — a way to test a bunch of advanced Android features on a friendly user base before they go public.

NASA launches infrared telescope to scan entire sky

2009-12-15T04:18:00.000-08:00

NASA launched a new telescope into space on Monday to scan the cosmos for undiscovered objects, including asteroids and comets that might threaten Earth.

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, spacecraft will employ an infrared camera to detect light- and heat-emitting objects that other orbiting telescopes, such as the Hubble, might miss.

WISE launched Monday at 9:09 a.m. ET aboard a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The launch was postponed from Friday because of a problem with the motion of a booster steering engine.

The unmanned WISE will spend the next nine months in orbit, 326 miles above the Earth, mapping the universe in infrared light. Its lens eventually will cover the whole sky 1½ times, snapping a picture every 11 seconds.

"The last time we mapped the whole sky at these particular infrared wavelengths was 26 years ago," said Edward "Ned" Wright of UCLA, the principal investigator of the mission. He was referring to WISE's predecessor, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, which launched in 1983 and discovered six comets.

"Infrared technology has come a long way since then," Wright said. "The old all-sky infrared pictures were like impressionist paintings -- now, we'll have images that look like actual photographs."

Watch video of the launch

The solar-powered WISE will not be the first infrared telescope in space. Two others -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory -- also catalog images of the universe, although both focus on specific celestial objects instead of surveying the entire sky.

Mission leaders expect WISE to find hundreds of asteroids and comets with orbits that come close to crossing Earth's path. By measuring the objects' infrared light, the telescope also should help determine their size and composition -- data that may help astronomers learn how often Earth can expect to be struck by a hurtling asteroid.

"We can help protect our Earth by learning more about the diversity of potentially hazardous asteroids and comets," said Amy Mainzer, deputy project scientist for the $320 million mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

WISE also will be looking for dim stars called brown dwarfs and millions of far-away galaxies that are shrouded in dust and often can't be seen in visible light.

Watch a video about the mission

Data taken by WISE will be downloaded by radio transmission four times per day to computers on Earth, which will combine the many overlapping images into an atlas covering the entire celestial sphere -- complete with a list of all the detected objects.

The rocket is expected to cross the California coastline shortly after liftoff and head south, out over the Pacific Ocean. About five minutes later, the "fairing" covering the telescope was expected to split open like a clamshell and fall away.

At about 55 minutes after launch, the spacecraft is expected to reach its final orbit and separate from the rocket. Engineers expected to pick up a signal from WISE anywhere from about one to 10 minutes after separation.

Last-minute Web sites to save your holiday

2009-12-14T13:36:00.000-08:00

’Tis the season to procrastinate, but the Internet is here to help

Well, look at that, you’ve done it again. The holidays are here and you are behind in everything — gifts, cards and even coming up with a plan to deal with the season’s inevitable pitfalls and finding company for the winter blues. Never fear, the Internet is here to save you. Of course, when it comes to the inevitable nightmare that is the airline industry, you’re on your own, suckers. But the World Wide Web does offer easy solutions that, most importantly, don’t involve going to the mall.

Amazon
www.amazon.com
Well, duh. One of the first e-shopping meccas is still one of the best when it comes to last-minute purchase. First, there’s the infinite selection. Why bother battling the shopping malls for that in-demand toy when you can doubtlessly find it on Amazon. Meanwhile, the shipping and delivery page lists the drop-dead holiday shipping deadlines and all applicable fees — no rude surprises at check out. And if you’re stumped on what to buy, Amazon’s gift guide is one of the most frighteningly accurate on the Web — well, at least if you’re shopping for a stereotype. Browsing categories include gender, age, relationship and price ranges.

Etsy

www.etsy.com
They say the best gifts are the ones you make yourself. But if you haven’t got a creative bone in your body, why not buy that unique gift from someone who does? Etsy, “an online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade,” offers an endless number of amazing crafts from all manner of craftspeople to fit any taste and price range, and gift guides to help you choose. From handmade soaps shaped like hoiday lights ($8 per set of 5) to a taxidermied "unicorn"
($975 or best offer), there is something for everyone. “But I’m running out of time!” you say? Etsy allows you to search its stores by ZIP code. If you’re lucky, you can sweet talk your local craftsperson into a quick ship or pick-up-in-person scenario.

Kodak Gallery

www.kodakgallery.com
If you’re like me, you have yet to order your customized holiday cards featuring your herd of rescue pugs (let alone line those little fat bags up for the photos). Kodak Gallery is an intuitive, easy-to-use, customized card site that allows you to upload your photos and design your cards using a large variety of templates covering a range of price points. While you’re there, why not slap those holiday photos on a mug or a T-shirt for a last-minute stocking stuffer? If you’re really cutting it close, the site offers both rush shipping (for an extra fee) and pickup from participating Target stores.

RetailMeNot.com

RetailMeNot.com
Avoiding the nightmare crowds isn't the only perk that comes with doing your holiday shopping online. You can also find a bevy of "hidden" discounts for many retail sites at your fingertips. Web sites that offer "coupon codes" - those numbers you place in the special offer field during checkout - have proliferated in the past few years, so much so that there is simply no reason to buy anything online without checking them first. RetailMeNot.com is one of the better organized of these sites, offering up-to-date discount information for major and minor retailers both online and off. There's also an active online community for those who love shopping so much, they want to talk about it too. Don't scoff -- a quick drop in in the forum chats can cue you into to a hot item you didn't even know you needed.

Zipcar

www.zipcar.com
So you’re all grown up, with a college degree and a real job — but Mom and Dad still aren’t over the time you dinged the Monte Carlo back in high school. If you’re home for the holidays and you want to go out on your own but don’t want the hassle or expense of a full-on rental car, check out Zipcar. The service allows you to rent a car by the hour or day, and includes gas, insurance and reserved parking. You can even play the big shot by grabbing a BMW for the day. It’s not perfect — some users complain about restrictive policies — so as always, read the fine print before you hand over your credit card.

www.couchsurf.com

The CouchSurfing Project

www.couchsurfing.com
So you’re home for the holidays — but so is every annoying person to whom you’re related. Need a break from the crowd you know all too well? Check out the CouchSurfing Project, “a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit” and meet somebody new. This free hospitality network boasts more than 780,000 members in 232 countries and territories, so odds are pretty good there’s an open sofa in your hometown. The online commmunity features profiles, a vouching and references network and a credit card verification system. For the cautiously shy, the site offers extensive tip guides from couch surfing veterans — everything from tips for solo women (or men), families, gays and lesbians, vegans, and of course, how to be a good guest (hey, maybe you can share that one with your relatives).

Yelp

Yelp
Whether you need a last minute place to eat with out-of-town visitors, or just a destination to hang out with other humans when you're stuck in town alone, Yelp can help. Though it started in 2004 basically as shopping and services customer review site, Yelp has since expanded to include many local bar and restaurant listings, as well as entertainment suggestions for many major cities in the United States. The site is free to use and is available as a mobile phone application. Reviews and recommendations from Yelp's growing community will help guide your way to what's right (or isn't right) for your family, or just you.

Google Trike is ready for your close-up

2009-12-14T13:28:00.000-08:00

Not your grandpa's trike. Dan Ratner rides the Google Street Trike. The senior mechanical engineer on Google’s Street View team came up with the trike idea to help with mapping. “We wanted to keep all the same functionality that you can find on the Google Street View car, but put it on a smaller package."

Sure, it seemed creepy at first … maybe even creepy still. But there’s no denying that Google Street View, a function of Google Earth and Google Maps, is also wicked cool. Giving a whole new meaning to “I can see my house from here,” Google Street View provides 360-degree horizontal and 290-degree vertical views of streets all over the planet via a few clicks on your keyboard.

Until recently however, if your house — or any other location — happened to be located down an alley or street too narrow for a Google Street View car — those camera-equipped autos combing the globe for images — it remained out of the Internet's pictures. Thanks to the Google Street View Trike, introduced to the public via a pick-the-next-location contest, that could soon change.

“This mechanical masterpiece consists of three bicycle wheels, a mounted Street View camera and a specially decorated unit with imaging and GPS technology,” gushes Google’s press release announcing the contest. Users were invited to vote for nominees in six categories: parks and trails, university campuses, theme parks and zoos, pedestrian malls (e.g., outdoor shopping areas, boardwalks), landmarks and sports venues (e.g., golf courses, racing tracks, stadium grounds). The winners in each category, to be announced later this month, will be mapped by the Google Trike.

Craigslist exec: eBay CEO changed his mind

2009-12-14T13:24:00.000-08:00

(AP) -- The CEO of Craigslist says he had decided not to do business with eBay in 2004 before being asked to meet with eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman.

James Buckmaster said Monday he changed his mind about eBay based on assurances Whitman gave him, and eBay went on to buy a 28 percent stake in Craigslist.
Buckmaster said Whitman eased his fears that eBay wanted control of Craigslist and said eBay was happy with a minority stake. He said Whitman, now running for California governor, also said she would find a graceful way to end the relationship if things didn't work out.
Buckmaster was testifying in an eBay lawsuit claiming that Craigslist officials improperly acted to dilute eBay's minority stake after a falling out in 2007.
©2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Pandemic toolkit offers flu with a view

2009-12-14T13:23:00.000-08:00

As communities brace for rising wintertime influenza cases, scientists are developing a mathematical and visual analytic toolkit to help health officials quickly analyze pandemics and craft better response strategies.

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have created a Pandemic Influenza Planning Tool to model the spread of a disease through various age groups and geographic populations. It also allows decision-makers to carefully assess the benefit of their decisions for different scenarios in advance.
"No single approach provides an optimal strategy when battling the spread of a pandemic," said Robert Brigantic, PNNL operations research scientist, "But, the use of this tool can allow health officials to more accurately predict how a disease might evolve when various mitigation strategies are applied."
These results could be valuable in developing an aggressive preventive strategy and deciding how best to use limited resources.
Brigantic's tool allows officials to easily evaluate potential response options by manipulating modeling parameters and running different simulations. For instance, officials could assess closing schools to decrease disease spread, initiate preventative media campaigns, or evaluate distributing antiviral medications to easily evaluate potential mitigation approaches.
In late September, PNNL demonstrated an early prototype of the tool during a Walla Walla County, Wash., Pandemic Influenza emergency exercise. Officials simulated an H1N1 Swine Flu outbreak and used the tool to predict resource needs and shortfalls, such as the loss of critical staff and lack of hospital beds.
"The tool illustrated how essential services can fail when critical employees became ill," said Gay Ernst, director of emergency management in Walla Walla County. "Visualizing possible disease progression enables us to consider how many critical personnel may be unavailable at one time and plan accordingly."
To help users also understand and visualize the effects of potential scenarios, PNNL teamed with Purdue University to add a visual analytic element to the toolkit called PanViz. It allows decision makers to visually track a simulation of spreading influenza on a video monitor. Users can toggle on and off various decision measures and visually see and examine the impact of those modifications and how they may alter the spread of the outbreak over time across counties in a state.

PNNL has demonstrated the planning tool during its development to Washington State Public Health as well as emergency officials in Los Angeles County and in Indiana. Researchers are improving the system's infectious disease modeling capabilities by making underlying algorithms more sophisticated and precise. Including more mitigation strategies and incorporating input from public health and emergency management experts is a priority as developers enhance the model.
This work was originally developed under a $50,000 subcontract with Purdue University to create the Pandemic Influenza Planning Tool for use by Indiana state as part of its pandemic influenza planning exercises. If additional funding is secured, Brigantic hopes to expand the model capabilities to see how additional social-distancing actions, such as telecommuting, cancelling social events and imposing quarantines might influence the virtual spread of a pandemic. He also envisions incorporating additional social modeling and behavioral responses.
Brigantic and his team are also conducting related modeling and simulation analysis for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to establish effective and efficient screening of passengers arriving on international flights for pandemic influenza.

Brussels welcomes Oracle's concessions in Sun bid

2009-12-14T13:22:00.000-08:00

The European Commission, in a statement, said its discussions with Oracle had been "constructive."

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes "is optimistic that the case will have a satisfactory outcome, while ensuring that the transaction will not have an adverse impact on effective competition in the European database market," the EU's executive arm said in a statement.

"Today's announcement by Oracle of a series of undertakings to customers, developers and users of MySQL (open source database) is an important new element to be taken into account in the ongoing proceedings," the commission underlined.

The commission is particularly impressed by Oracle's extension for up to five years of the terms and conditions of existing commercial licenses.

"Oracle has engaged in constructive discussions with the European Commission regarding the concerns expressed by the Commission about the Oracle/Sun Microsystems transaction," the California technology firm told AFP.

"In particular the maintenance of MySQL as a competitive force in the database market."

MySQL is a data management system used in millions of business networks worldwide.

Oracle promised to continue to support, develop and provide MySQL technology.

"The geographic scope of these commitments shall be worldwide and these commitments shall continue until the fifth anniversary of the closing of the transaction," Oracle said in a response detailing specifics of the vow.

The 5.17-billion-euro (7.57-billion-dollar) deal for Sun, a one-time Silicon Valley star and developer of the popular Java programming language, was approved by Sun shareholders in July and the US Department of Justice in August.

Computing with a wave of the hand (w/ Video)

2009-12-13T17:25:00.000-08:00

The iPhone’s familiar touch screen display uses capacitive sensing, where the proximity of a finger disrupts the electrical connection between sensors in the screen. A competing approach, which uses embedded optical sensors to track the movement of the user’s fingers, is just now coming to market. But researchers at MIT’s Media Lab have already figured out how to use such sensors to turn displays into giant lensless cameras. On Dec. 19 at Siggraph Asia -- a recent spinoff of Siggraph, the premier graphics research conference -- the MIT team is presenting the first application of its work, a display that lets users manipulate on-screen images using hand gestures.

Many other researchers have been working on such gestural interfaces, which would, for example, allow computer users to drag windows around a screen simply by pointing at them and moving their fingers, or to rotate a virtual object through three dimensions with a flick of the wrist. Some large-scale gestural interfaces have already been commercialized, such as those developed by the Media Lab’s Hiroshi Ishii, whose work was the basis for the system that Tom Cruise’s character uses in the movie Minority Report.

But “those usually involve having a roomful of expensive cameras or wearing tracking tags on your fingers,” says Matthew Hirsch, a PhD candidate at the Media Lab who, along with Media Lab professors Ramesh Raskar and Henry Holtzman and visiting researcher Douglas Lanman, developed the new display. Some experimental systems — such as Microsoft’s Natal — instead use small cameras embedded in a display to capture gestural information. But because the cameras are offset from the center of the screen, they don’t work well at short distances, and they can’t provide a seamless transition from gestural to touch screen interactions. Cameras set far enough behind the screen can provide that transition, as they do in Microsoft’s SecondLight, but they add to the display’s thickness and require costly hardware to render the screen alternately transparent and opaque. “The goal with this is to be able to incorporate the gestural display into a thin LCD device” — like a cell phone — “and to be able to do it without wearing gloves or anything like that,” Hirsch says.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid36804639001?bctid=55998893001

The Media Lab system requires an array of liquid crystals, as in an ordinary LCD display, with an array of optical sensors right behind it. The liquid crystals serve, in a sense, as a lens, displaying a black-and-white pattern that lets light through to the sensors. But that pattern alternates so rapidly with whatever the LCD is otherwise displaying — the list of apps on a smart phone, for instance, or the virtual world of a video game — that the viewer never notices it.

The simplest way to explain how the system works, Lanman says, is to imagine that, instead of an LCD, an array of pinholes is placed in front of the sensors. Light passing through each pinhole will strike a small block of sensors, producing a low-resolution image. Since each pinhole image is taken from a slightly different position, all the images together provide a good deal of depth information about whatever lies before the screen. An array of liquid crystals could simulate a sheet of pinholes simply by displaying a pattern in which, say, the central pixel in each 19-by-19 block of pixels is white (transparent) while all the others are black.

The problem with pinholes, Lanman explains, is that they allow very little light to reach the sensors, so they require exposure times that are too long to be practical. So the LCD instead displays a pattern in which each 19-by-19 block is subdivided into a regular pattern of black-and-white rectangles of different sizes. Since there are as many white squares as black, the blocks pass much more light.

The 19-by-19 blocks are all adjacent to each other, however, so the images they pass to the sensors overlap in a confusing jumble. But the pattern of black-and-white squares allows the system to computationally disentangle the images, capturing the same depth information that a pinhole array would, but capturing it much more quickly.

LCDs with built-in optical sensors are so new that the Media Lab researchers haven’t been able to procure any yet, but they mocked up a display in the lab to test their approach. Like some existing touch screen systems, the mockup uses a camera some distance from the screen to record the images that pass through the blocks of black-and-white squares. But it provides a way to determine whether the algorithms that control the system would work in a real-world setting. In experiments in the lab, the researchers showed that they could manipulate on-screen objects using hand gestures and move seamlessly between gestural control and ordinary touch screen interactions.

Of the current crop of experimental gestural interfaces, “I like this one because it’s really integrated into the display,” says Paul Debevec, director of the Graphics Laboratory at the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, whose doctoral thesis led to the innovative visual effects in the movie The Matrix. “Everyone needs to have a display anyway. And it is much better than just figuring out just where the fingertips are or a kind of motion-capture situation. It’s really a full three-dimensional image of the person’s hand that’s in front of the display.”

Indeed, the researchers are already exploring the possibility of using the new system to turn the display into a high-resolution camera. Instead of capturing low-resolution three-dimensional images, a different pattern of black-and-white squares could capture a two-dimensional image at a specific focal depth. Since the resolution of that image would be proportional to the number of sensors embedded in the screen, it could be much higher than that of the images captured by a conventional webcam.

Enlarge

Darkening all but the central pixel in a 19-by-19 block turns an array of liquid crystals into a pinhole camera; but a pattern of black-and-white rectangles of different sizes passes much more light while providing a way to computationally disentangle overlapping images. Diagrams: Matthew Hirsch, Douglas Lanman, Ramesh Raskar, Henry Holtzman

Raskar, who directs the Media Lab’s Camera Culture Group, stresses that the work has even broader implications than simply converting displays into cameras. In the history of computation, he says, “intelligence moved from the mainframe to the desktop to the mobile device, and now it’s moving into the screen.” The idea that “every pixel has a computer behind it,” he says, offers opportunities to reimagine how humans and computers interact.

“It’s kind of the hallmark of a lot of Ramesh’s work,” says Debevec. “He comes up with crazy cameras with the guts hanging out of them and strange arrangements of different mechanics in something that at first you’re wondering, ‘Well, why would you do that?’ No one quite does things the way that he does because no one else thinks the way he does. Then you start to understand it and you realize that there’s actually a very interesting new thing happening.”

Philips electronic skin technology enables new chameleon-like ambience designs

2009-12-13T17:24:00.000-08:00

The technology has the potential to be used in the future for larger area ‘e-wallpapers’ where you can adjust the color of your wall or smart windows to regulate the daylight coming through your window.

Philips’ e-skin technology is based on its previous work with electronic paper (e-paper). E-paper looks like conventional paper and the bright wash of color it generates uses the ambient light for rendition, just like conventional paint, so no backlight is needed. Which means that the vividness of the color is maintained, even in bright outdoor conditions.

Enlarge

Philips e-skin technology features a gradient of grey levels from a highly transparent optical state (left) to full black (right). This enables future applications like smart windows. Photo: Philips

Enlarge

Similar to paper, Philips e-skin has a paint-like appearance. Photo: Philips

Recently, Philips successfully realized a simplified, yet advanced version of its e-paper technology: e-skin. Since it is less complicated and less expensive to realize, it enables new applications. And because e-skin makes use of the ambient light, it is an inherently energy-efficient system, making it particularly suitable for application in portable devices as well.

“The first applications using the technology could be e-skins for small devices such as MP3 players or cell phones. However, the technology is highly scalable,” says Kars-Michiel Lenssen, Principal Scientist at Philips Research. “In the future it will be possible to use e-skins to bring new color and a new aura or ‘vibe’ to much larger equipment.

Philips Research will present its work at the International Display Workshops 2009 in Japan, which is held from December 9-11. IDW '09 will integrate thirteen workshops and a topical session in specialized fields playing important roles in information display activities.

Enlarge

A full-color e-skin could be created from two layers, each with two colors of ink. Here, only the yellow and magenta inks are showing making the pixel appear red. Photo: Philips

Source: Philips

Texting, tweeting ought to be viewed as GR8 teaching tools, scholar says

2009-12-13T17:23:00.000-08:00

The impact of text messaging on the decline of formal writing among teens has been debated in pedagogical circles ever since cell-phone ownership became an adolescent rite of passage in the mid-2000s. But according to a University of Illinois expert in media literacy, not only are critics who argue that texting is synonymous with literary degradation wrong, they also often overlook the bigger role that texting and its distant cousin, "tweeting," could play in education and research.

Carol L. Tilley, a professor of library and information science at Illinois, says that schools and libraries should consider embracing texting and tweeting as a means of engagement rather than simply outlawing it.

"I think if you're an educator or librarian looking for new ways of to reach out to teens and tweens, then texting is one possibility," Tilley said. "Over 70 percent of teens have a cell phone, so I think it's a viable alternate means of engaging with that age group."

When used as a tool for ubiquitous learning, text messaging and tweeting wouldn't be tools of distraction, but a means of engagement for this generation of gadget-obsessed teens.

"Teachers could send reminders about assignments, links to study guides or updates on their progress grading major projects by text or by tweet," Tilley said. "If they're away at a conference or need to use a sub for a day, they could use Twitter to stay in contact with their class without having to physically be there."

Students could text reference questions to school librarians without having to ask for a hall pass or having to wait until lunch, Tilley said, and librarians might tweet about new materials added to their collections.

Texting and tweeting could be seen as continuing the tradition of play and economy in language, which Tilley argues is good preparation for more formal writing assignments - provided, of course, that the use of emoticons and text-speak don't spill over into their final drafts.

"Young people learn about the importance not only of argumentation but also how to deliver a certain message to an audience, especially given the limitations of the medium itself," she said. "From an educational standpoint, that helps students become more in tune with language."

Tilley said that Twitter, the popular micro-blogging site that lets users tweet
text-based messages that can't run longer than 140 characters, is actually easier to integrate into instruction than text messaging because "you can broadcast tweets to a wider audience than texts."
"In terms of strategies for creative or critical writing, having a limited number of characters to work with opens up all sorts of cool ways to play with the medium," she said.

For example, an English teacher could take a famous character from a novel and ask students to tweet from that character's perspective.

"It's a good way to get into the psychology of the character," she said.

Teachers could also challenge students to craft micro-stories complete with a climax and a denouement in 140 characters. Tilley noted that the flash-fiction genre has a distinguished lineage: the famously laconic Ernest Hemingway once wrote a story using just six words - "For sale: baby shoes, never worn" - and is said to have called it his best work.

Tilley argues that most educators make the faulty assumption that text messaging and tweeting are akin to formal writing. According to a recent Pew survey, teens view texting not as writing or as a distraction from "real" communication, but on par with informal conversation.

"People have always spoken informally in short-hand codes," she said. "With text messaging, you're using your thumbs to tap out letters on a device you ordinarily use to talk to someone else with. So it's obviously more conversation than formal correspondence, especially since it allows for that almost instantaneous back-and-forth volley of messages."

Since texting can be thought of as closer to a dialogue than a formal piece of prose, Tilley said you can't expect the same level of polish and grammatical correctness to texts or tweets.

"Texting is also dependent on context, interpersonal dynamics and how you construct your messages, rather than the actual content, in some cases."

In their efforts to turn cell phones into contraband, Tilley said that teachers and librarians might be fighting a losing battle.

"Texting can be a lot more surreptitious than an actual phone call, where you have to hold the phone up and speak into the receiver," Tilley said. "So just because you can't have cell phones in a lot of schools and libraries doesn't mean students won't try to text on the sly."

Despite the pervasiveness of cell phones among teens, Tilley said the statistics are mixed as to whether adolescents are actually using Twitter. One of the reasons could be a lack of access to a computer.

"I see an increase in the number of teachers who expect word processed assignments even though they may not provide in-class time for students to use a computer," she said. "If a student doesn't own a computer, where are they going to go? They may be able to go to the public library, but there's often a wait and then a time limit for computer usage."

Although teachers and librarians have to be aware of the varying levels of access that students have to technology, Tilley said educators should also proactively seek new avenues of access for those vulnerable populations.

"If teachers and librarians can help students be a part of that social context, students will benefit because it keeps the digital divide from widening even further," she said.

But there's also the "cool" factor to consider: By the time teachers get around to bringing something new into the classroom, it's already passé.

"There's always that danger when embracing something in a school setting that you kill it for the students," Tilley said. "But helping kids understand the social and contextual role that texting plays in their lives I think is one possible justification. If there are ways educators can incorporate it in providing homework support or building dialogue out of school hours, then I think it could be a useful communications tool."

India 3G auction to be held on schedule: minister

2009-12-13T17:21:00.000-08:00

"The ministry has not changed the auction date" set for January 14, Telecommunications Minister A. Raja said in New Delhi on the sidelines of a communications industry event.

The statement came after the ministry missed a deadline earlier in the week for issuing invitations to take part in the auction to allow 3G service, fuelling media speculation the sale could be postponed.

The ministry said afterward the invitation to take part in the auction was "being fine-tuned" and would be issued soon.

The auction has already been delayed twice.

Asked about the number of 3G slots to be auctioned, Raja replied that a senior panel of ministers "will decide on the number of slots."

The defence ministry has said it is unable to release some of the airwaves needed for the auction, which could reduce the number of slots up for sale.

On Thursday, the Press Trust of India reported the government had only sufficient spectrum to sell 3G licences to three private operators rather than the four originally planned.

Slots have already been awarded to state-run telecom firms MTNL and BSNL.

The government has said it aims to raise 250 billion rupees (5.38 billion dollars) from the sale of pan-India 3G spectrum and Wimax wireless broadband.

It hopes to use the money to help plug a fiscal deficit that is the biggest in nearly two decades.

The auction is set to put India's mobile phone market -- the fastest growing in the world -- on track for a new level of wireless telephony, experts say.

Third-generation mobile services would allow high-speed Internet, video downloads and other sophisticated media services on cellular telephones.

US, Russia begin talks on cyberspace security: report

2009-12-13T17:18:00.000-08:00

The United States has begun talks with Russia and a UN arms control committee about strengthening Internet security and limiting military use of cyberspace, The New York Times reported.

Citing officials familiar with the talks, the newspaper said US and Russian officials have different interpretations of the talks, but the mere fact that the Washington is participating represents a significant policy shift after years of rejecting Russia’s overtures.

Officials argue the administration of President Barack Obama realized that more nations were developing cyberweapons and that a new approach was needed to blunt an international arms race, the report said.

Viktor Sokolov, deputy director of the Institute of Information Security in Moscow, said the Russian view was that the US position on Internet security had shifted perceptibly in recent months, according to the paper.

Sokolov characterized this new round of discussions as the opening of negotiations between Russia and the United States on a possible disarmament treaty for cyberspace, something Russia has long sought but the United States has resisted, the report said.

"The talks took place in a good atmosphere," The Times quoted him as saying. "And they agreed to continue this process. There are positive movements."

However, a State Department official, who requested anonymity, disputed the Russian characterization of the US position, the paper noted.

While the Russians have continued to focus on treaties that may restrict weapons development, the United States is hoping to use the talks to increase international cooperation in opposing Internet crime.

The United States believes that strengthening defenses against Internet criminals would also strengthen defenses against any military-directed cyberattacks, according to The Times. An administration official said the United States was seeking common ground with the Russians.

The United Nations discussions are scheduled to resume in New York in January, and the two countries also plan to talk at an annual Russia-sponsored Internet security conference in Garmisch, Germany, ther paper said.

Absence of evidence for a meteorite impact event 13,000 years ago

2009-12-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

The woolly mammoth was one of the large mammals that became extinct in North America at the onset of the Younger Dryas approx. 13,000 years ago. Credit: Image of Woolly Mammoth at the Royal BC Museum, Victoria, British Columbia courtesy Wikipedia Commons

An international team of scientists led by researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have found no evidence supporting an extraterrestrial impact event at the onset of the Younger Dryas ~13000 years ago.

The Younger Dryas is an abrupt cooling event in Earth's history. It coincided with the extinction of many large mammals including the woolly mammoth, the saber toothed jaguar and many sloths. This cooling period is generally considered to be the result of the complex global climate system, possibly spurred on by a reduction or slowdown of the thermohaline circulation in North America. This paradigm was challenged two years ago by a group of researchers that reported finding high iridium concentrations in terrestrial sediments dated during this time period, which led them to theorise that an impact event was instead the instigator of this climate shift.

A team led by François Paquay, a Doctoral graduate student in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) decided to also investigate this theory, to add more evidence to what they considered a conceptually appealing theory. However, not only were they unable to replicate the results found by the other researchers, but additional lines of evidence failed to support an impact theory for the onset of the Younger Dryas. Their results will be published in the December 7th early online edition of the prestigious journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The idea that an impact event may have been the instigator for this cooling period was appealing because of several alleged impact markers, especially the high iridium concentrations that the previous team reported. However, it is difficult for proponents of this theory to explain why no impact crater of this age is known. "There is a black mat layer across North America which is correlated to the Younger Dryas climatic shift seen in Greenland ice cores dated at 13 thousand years ago by radio carbon," explains Paquay. "Initially I thought this type of layer could be associated with an impact event because concentration in the proxies of widespread wildfires are sky high. That plus very high levels of iridium (which is one indicator used to indicate extraterrestrial impact events). So the theory was conceptually appealing, but because of the missing impact site, the idea of one or multiple airburst arose."

To corroborate the theory, Paquay and his colleagues decided to take a three-pronged approach. The first was to replicate the original researchers data, the second step was to look for other tracers, specifically osmium isotopes, of extraterrestrial matter in those rocks, and the third step was to look for these concentrations in other settings. "Because there are so many aspects to the impact theory, we decided to just focus on geochemical evidence that was associated with it, like the concentration of iridium and other platinum group elements, and the osmium isotopes," says Paquay. "We also decided to look in very high resolution sediment cores across North America, and yet we could find nothing in our data to support their theory."

The team includes American, Belgian and Canadian researchers. Analysis of the sediments was done both at UHM and in Belgium, using the same sediments from the same interval and indepedently did the analysis work and got similar results. Both the marine and terrestrial sediment records do not indicate that an impact event was the trigger for the transition into the Younger Dryas cold period. "The marine and terrestrial record both complement each other to support this finding," concludes Paquay. "That's what makes the beauty of this study."

More information: This research will be presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall 2009 Meeting in San Francisco.

The genius brothers behind Google Wave

2009-12-13T15:01:00.000-08:00

Lars and Jens Rasmussen were broke and jobless -- with only $16 between them -- when they made it big in the Web world by selling their idea for Google Maps.

Years later, after finding cushy employment at Google Inc., the Rasmussen brothers flew in May from Sydney, Australia, to California where they would debut their sophomore product, a Web application called Google Wave, which they say, quite audaciously, will kill e-mail and forever change online communication.

But their lives didn't depend on its success -- not like before.

Strange as it may seem, that worried them.

With Google Wave, the Danish brothers are trying to recreate the kind of near-ruin stress they experienced when they came up with the product that made them wildly successful.

In doing so, they're trying to prove that innovation, a somewhat magical and ethereal happening, can be engineered just like software.

But, as they prepared to take the stage to unveil Google Wave at a Web developers' conference in San Francisco, their faith in that hypothesis started to slip.

Was Wave too ambitious? Would the glitches come back? Was it too soon?

Were they under enough pressure?

And, worst of all: Would they become one-hit wonders?

A case of nerves

The night before Wave's big debut at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, Lars Rasmussen laid in bed from 2:30 to 5 a.m.

It wasn't restful sleep.

His wife, Yarima, caught him practicing his pitch for Wave during the fretful slumber. He waved his hands in the air as if he were pointing at a projection screen. She knew he hadn't been sleeping in months as he prepared Wave for this presentation.

Video: Behind the scenes with Wave

Video: Google Wave explained

The next morning at the conference, Lars stood offstage, trying to calm his nerves by listening to Eminem on an iPod while a co-worker gave him a glowing introduction.

"The engineering leadership behind what you're about to see is the work of two brothers and an amazing engineering team with them," said Vic Gundotra, a Google vice president of engineering. He spoke in a coolly excited tone, like that of a school guidance counselor.

"Those two brothers are Lars and Jens Rasmussen. You might remember those names because those were the same amazing people that did another magical app, called maps ... Google Maps."

The stage at the conference had a game-show feel to it: A big logo -- all vertical stripes, just like "The Price is Right" -- served as a backdrop to two Jeopardy-looking podiums in the center of the stage.

Lars looked like he'd just gotten off a shift at the Gap. A microphone headset was stuck to his ear and he wore jeans and an untucked blue T-shirt with the Google Wave logo on it.

He fidgeted with a water bottle, opened his laptop and nervously began the biggest pitch of his life.

'Let's start a Wave'

Lars has always been the pitchman.

Jens is the quiet older brother: the eccentric, the idea guy.

When he's onto a big idea, Jens almost never writes it down. Words confine good thoughts and kill them, he says. He mulled over his idea for Google Maps for years before putting it into a written proposal.

But with Wave, he didn't have that luxury.

When the brothers joined Google together after selling Jens' idea for Google Maps, they already knew he had to come up with something new -- something bigger.

So Jens set to work. He shuttered himself in his Copenhagen, Denmark, apartment, tuned his television to MTV, watched some music videos and let his thoughts drift.

By the end of a weekend, he had come up with Google Wave, his idea for an e-mail killer.

We asked ourselves the question: What would e-mail look like if it was invented today?
--Lars Rasmussen

He sent the idea to Lars in an e-mail.

"I remember being immediately sold," Lars said. "He'll claim it took a couple of days, but that's entirely untrue."

In theory, the idea for Wave is simple. It's e-mail updated for the Internet age, Jens says.

E-mail as we know it is based on the snail-mail format: you send a message; your friend receives it. Wave makes mail collaborative and instant. When you type a message to a friend, he or she sees what you're typing as you type it. You can jump in and start drafting a reply before the initial message is complete. Wave also lets users collaborate on editable documents, called Wikis, share photos, update blogs, set appointments and chat in big groups. You can add conference calls to a Wave. A translation function called Rosy will translate chat messages between languages as you write.

Jens hopes the product's name will replace "e-mail" in English vernacular. So, after Wave's public release later this year, you might say to a friend, "Let's start a Wave" instead of "I'll send you an e-mail."

Wave is free and runs through the Internet, meaning that, like Gmail, you don't have to download a program to use it. This also makes Wave highly ambitious from a technical perspective. Lars and Jens are almost performing magic tricks with Internet browsers. Asking a developer to create a stellar piece of software that runs through the Web is somewhat like asking a composer to write a symphony on a smartphone.

The Rasmussens admit their product is confusing to explain and is trying to make a massive leap forward into uncharted technological territory.

For these reasons, Jens, the idea guy, considered proceeding more slowly with Wave's release. Maybe he and Lars should wait another year, or put off some of its more complicated features, he suggested.

But Lars is the risk-taker. And Jens folded to his vision.

The e-mail killer

On stage at the conference in San Francisco, Lars started his spiel.

"When we started this project more than two years ago, we asked ourselves the question: What would e-mail look like if it was invented today?

"And obviously there are about a million ways you can try to answer that question. What you're going to see today, Google Wave, is our attempt."

Lars struggled to explain Google Wave to the audience.

He pulled out all kinds of comparisons to try to get the message across: Wave is like mobile texting, it's like a Wiki, it's like instant messaging, it's like a blog. It's like e-mail -- well, kind of. It's something new, he said.

At first, it was difficult to tell if the audience was buying it. Some demos of Wave's features rolled by with scant reaction from the crowd.

"Don't be shy, you guys," Lars said. "If you like something, don't be shy in letting us know. We can handle any amount of applause."

Soon things started to pick up.

I do believe that you can achieve more if you're willing to take risks.
--Lars Rasmussen

When Lars typed a Wave message to Wave's group product manager, Stephanie Hannon, it showed up on both screens of their computer monitors simultaneously, character by character. When they both started typing at the same time, the streams of moving text looked like furious ants crawling around on the screen.

The audience cheered in excitement.

Twelve minutes into the presentation, Jens made his entrance, if you could call it an entrance. He looked about as comfortable as a spokesman for a hemorrhoid cream.

His job was to demonstrate the way that Wave will play back the history of a message if someone enters a conversation late.

The audience loved it. It seemed like they were going to be sold on these new ideas.

But it was still early.

"So, now that I'm caught up on this Wave, I'm just going to add my reply," Jens said.

" 'Me ... too,' " Jens said, speaking the words he was typing into a message.

"Oh!" he said, surprised.

The program had crashed.

Recipe for risk

When the dotcom bubble burst in the early 2000s, the Rasmussen brothers were laid off within weeks of each other, both from a company called Digital Fountain.

There were virtually no jobs to look for in technology. So the brothers cashed in one of their pensions, sapped bank accounts and put their lives on the line to chase a kooky idea Jens had about map-making on the Internet.

Without the risk and the pressure, they wouldn't have been able to do it, the brothers said.

"I do believe that you can achieve more if you're willing to take risks," Lars said in a recent phone interview. "There's almost a total correlation between the amount of risk you're willing to take and then the amount of stuff you then potentially can get done."

The Rasmussen brothers have done their best to recreate the high-stakes situation that produced Google Maps.

They wanted to make a stress incubator, to start a fire under their team that would propel its creativity to new heights.

This was their formula:

• Google Wave would operate as a start-up company within the corporate giant of Google.

• The 60-person Wave team would be based in Sydney, Australia, far away from Google's corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California.

• Google employees who wanted to work on Wave would have to take a risk to join the brothers, a diluted version of what the Rasmussens faced when they started Google Maps. The team took cuts to their bonus pay, with the hopes of a big payout if Wave were to succeed.

• And their project would be secret. The rest of Google's project files, codes and other documents are accessible to anyone in the company. Not Wave's.

The Rasmussens felt good about their recipe for success through risk-taking. But it also made them more nervous.

Along the way, they found another form of motivation: the fear of failure.

Just a dress rehearsal

"Did you notice how quickly it reloads?" Jens said with a laugh, trying to recover from the crash in the middle of his presentation.

Throughout the rest of the Rasmussen brothers' pitch for Wave, Jens and Lars pulled out a number of pre-planned jokes to deflect attention from the shortcomings and crashes of their fledgling product.

Lars started dancing and humming elevator music to make up for one lull in the demo, much to the horror of Yarima, his Cuban wife, who says Lars is an adroit Latin dancer.

"Inside my Wave I'm going to write 'check this out' and then I'm going to copy the link in there, and then ... I'm going to dance a little while the system spectacularly fails," Lars said, trailing off as Wave crashed again.

The brothers continued in this awkward way for what seemed like an eternity.

But when the presentation ended, the audience had loved it.

Behind the Scenes blog: The reporter on writing from afar

When Lars demonstrated Wave's ability to translate between languages, in real-time, as a person types, the audience cheered so loudly and for so long that it felt like they were calling for an encore at a music festival. At the conclusion of the show, Jens remembers the developers giving them a standing ovation, shaking their laptops above their heads.

Lars and Jens were elated.

But the May demo was only a dress rehearsal, one held in front of a friendly audience that understands Wave's technical ambitions.

The real show will come when Wave is released to the public, when Google's army of users decides if it wants to take this leap beyond e-mail with the Rasmussen brothers.

Or if they're up for that risk.

How Microsoft blew it with Windows Mobile

2009-12-13T14:54:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Windows continues to dominate the PC market with a 90 percent market-share stronghold, but when it comes to smartphones, Microsoft is getting beat up worse than a mustachioed villain in a Jackie Chan movie. Windows Mobile has lost nearly a third of its smartphone market share since 2008, research firm Gartner reports. Windows Mobile had 11 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter of 2008, according to Gartner, and last quarter Windows Mobile's market share plummeted to 7.9 percent.
Meanwhile, Apple's global market share grew from 12.9 percent to 17.1 percent, and RIM saw a rise from 16 percent to 20.8 percent, according to Gartner's figures.
It's worth noting Microsoft got a head start with Windows CE, its pocket PC OS, in 1996. Windows CE serves as the foundation for the Windows Mobile OS shipping with some smartphones today. The smartphone OS market, in fact, has existed for several years, and Microsoft was an early leader in the space. But only recently have several additional corporations stepped into this space with their own platforms.
Microsoft's biggest problem? One word: iPhone.
"It was really the iPhone that came out full-bore for a consumer perspective," said Ross Rubin, an NPD Group consumer technology analyst. "We saw app development focus on consumer applications like social networking and games.... Particularly with Apple's retail presence and advantages in that market, through design and so forth, that's where Microsoft's main challenge lies."
Many other technology observers agree that Apple receives credit for sparking the smartphone boom. The 2008 introduction of the App Store enabled third-party developers to sell their own software, further enhancing the capabilities of the iPhone. This proved a workable model, giving 40 million iPhone and iPod Touch owners the ability to choose from the now 100,000 apps in the App Store.
Meanwhile, some developers earned hundreds of thousands of dollars with hot-selling apps. Even if most developers didn't earn that much cash, the success stories helped make Apple's App Store powerfully attractive.
Apple's blockbuster success with the iPhone and its App Store compelled other tech giants to offer their own mobile platforms and app stores as well. Google, Nokia, Research In Motion, Palm and others have opened app stores and begun recruiting developers to compete.
But if Microsoft was the first player in this market, why wasn't the software giant able to replicate the success it had with PCs?
"It was theirs to lose and they lost it," said Raven Zachary, a technology analyst and owner of iPhone app development house Small Society. "They had everything they needed to execute, to do the right kinds of carrier deals to create an app store, create visual voice mail, touchscreens and so on. They've been in this space since the beginning."
To Peter Hoddie, CEO of Kinoma, which develops a mobile media browser for Windows Mobile and other platforms, a major knock against Windows Mobile isn't the OS itself, but rather the weakness of the bundled apps included with it.
"The sad part for Microsoft is that in terms of operating systems, they have a great one, and they had it long before anyone else did," Hoddie said in a phone interview. "Their first problem is the built-in apps are uninspiring, so that sets a very low bar for developers who are coming to the platform."
Hoddie compared Windows Mobile to the iPhone, whose apps he described as "beautiful," which encourages third-party developers to produce apps of similar quality.
He added that Microsoft's second problem is segmentation in the hardware ecosystem. Windows Mobile ships with several different manufacturers' hardware, including HTC, LG and Samsung. The problem? From a developer perspective, that requires coding an app for several phones with different UI styles, buttons and screen sizes. (The same problem, incidentally, has started to plague Android developers.)
That would give the iPhone another advantage: The iPhone operates on a closed system, which can only run on Apple hardware, meaning third-party developers can produce apps and games that work exclusively with the iPhone.
Therefore, despite Apple's questionable and controversial approval policy for iPhone apps, developers can code one app that works with 40 million iPhone and iPod Touch devices, which is less time consuming than developing several versions of one app for a variety of Windows Mobile smartphones. In turn, that spells out to a larger number of apps in the App Store, which enables Apple's hardware to cater to a larger and broader audience.
The inability to recognize the new smartphone audience is another one of Microsoft's flaws, Rubin said. Microsoft's mobile OS history is rooted in personal digital assistants, which were marketed toward enterprise audiences. Today, the smartphone has shifted into the mainstream as a consumer device, and yet Windows Mobile is still largely focused on enterprise features.
And even in the enterprise market, Apple's iPhone is winning. In a recent customer satisfaction survey conducted by JD Power, Apple grabbed the number 1 spot for smartphones in business. How? JD Power found that more than half of business smartphone owners reported downloading third party games for entertainment, and 46 percent report downloading travel software such as maps and weather apps.
That would suggest enterprise users are interested in mixing business with pleasure in their devices and the iPhone's wealth of choices in the App Store covers those needs.
"I would say Microsoft needs to err more on the side of going too far into the consumer segment versus trying to achieve a good balance between enterprise and consumer features at this point," Rubin said.
Despite Microsoft's recent shrinkage in the mobile OS market, it's not over for Windows Mobile. Rubin said he expects Microsoft to redeem itself with its next OS Windows Mobile 7 as it did with Windows 7 after negative reception of Windows Vista.
Microsoft declined to comment on details about Windows Mobile 7, but a spokeswoman said mobility is one of Microsoft's top investment areas, and the company's mobile strategy will not change.
"The company's mobility strategy has not changed; it is and has always been to provide a software platform for the industry," a Microsoft spokeswoman said in a statement. "The company works closely with many mobile operators and device makers around the world because people want different experiences on a variety of phones."
Leaks indicate Microsoft plans to incorporate iPhone-like touch gestures. Windows Mobile 7 is scheduled for a 2010 release.

"Microsoft believes the Windows brand is very strong, and consumers associate the Windows brand with enabling them to do what they need to do in their digital lives, at least on the PC," Rubin said. "In general with this whole Windows phone terminology, Microsoft is trying to do more to leverage what it believes is the good will value of the Windows brand."

Brace yourself for the real-time Web

2009-12-13T13:44:00.000-08:00

Real-time is a top 10 Web trend for 2010, I proposed in this column last week. Now the stage is set: Google this week launched real-time search, bringing live updates from Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and more into a scrolling pane in your Google search results.

How will the real-time trend evolve in 2010? Rapidly, no doubt. Why will it sweep the Web? Because it fuels our insatiable info-addiction.
Why real-time?
What's driving this real-time trend anyway? In large part, lowered barriers to content creation: Posting a 140-character update to Twitter is so effortless that Web users are becoming conditioned to create.
They've learned to expect a response, too: The immediate feedback provided by Facebook comments and Twitter replies is an incentive to make continued contributions.
But the real answer may be in our heads. These technologies are literally addictive, says psychologist Susan Weinschenk, fueling a "dopamine-induced loop" of seeking behavior and instantaneous reward.
New email! Unread Tweets! New comment on your blog post! Each new alert is like Pavlov ringing a bell.
Real-time search
If this new paradigm stimulates our seeking behavior, it follows that search is central to the real-time Web. Before Google entered the fray, OneRiot and Collecta stood out among real-time search engines.
The reigning champion of real-time search, however, is Twitter Search, which provides instant updates whenever new Tweets are posted. "108 more results since you started searching. Refresh to see them," implores a message below the search box. Enter the topic du jour here and you'll no doubt find yourself in one of Weinschenk's dopamine-induced loops.
This thirst for the new and novel is by no means limited to search, however: It looks set to pervade the entire Web in 2010. Let's look at a few more examples.
1. Real-time location
Foursquare, the topic of a recent column, combines real-time updates with location-based features. Every time a friend "checks in" nearby, you'll experience the same buzz as when your BlackBerry chirps for a new email.
2. Real-time news
News reading is going real-time, too. An increasing number of early adopters use the Twitter apps TweetDeck and Seesmic to manage their consumption of updates from both friends and handpicked news sources, while newcomer Brizzly is becoming a hit with info-junkies thanks to its superior Web-based interface.
Even Google Reader, the de facto service for those following scores of blogs and news sites, now provides updates in real-time for those feeds that support it.
Will our news addiction ever be sated? Oh, and don't forget that news curation is going real-time, too. See my real-time journalism article for a refresher.
3. Real-time comments
If the stories are real-time, how about the comments, too? Real-time services make blog comments work more like instant messaging: Disqus and JS-Kit provide systems to publishers that display new comments without refreshing the page. (Disclosure: Mashable uses Disqus to power its blog comments.)
4. Real-time reviews
Why wait till you get home to review that cafe or restaurant when you've got Yelp and Urbanspoon on your iPhone? Movie was awful, you say? Try Flixster.
5. Real-time auctions
Even auctions are getting the real-time treatment. While unique visitors to eBay.com are falling, newcomer StuffBuff is making auctions addictive again by turning the bidding process into a real-time chat room; the addition of a countdown timer keeps bidders on their toes.
6. Real-time collaboration
A trend within a trend: We'll be real-timing together in 2010. Google Wave, the much-hyped collaborative tool, is wiki-meets-instant-messaging-meets-email and much more. This week it opened up its limited preview to 1 million users.
Meanwhile, Present.ly and Yammer are both business collaboration platforms using the Twitter model, a stream of status updates from team members about what each is working on.
Real-time...everything!
This trend is too nebulous to capture its every facet. Suffice to say, a vast array of Web sites and applications will try to capitalize on the real-time Web in 2010, serving our need to be engaged in the moment. Serving, perhaps, but never quite satisfying.
"Do you ever feel like you are addicted to email or Twitter or texting," Weinschenk asks.

Of course you are. We all are ... and soon we'll be addicted to a whole lot more.

What's the future of an independent AOL?

2009-12-13T13:42:00.000-08:00

It was a mammoth deal that, in the heady days of the dotcom boom, seemed like a perfect union.

AOL, the Web portal for millions and arguably the most iconic name of the Internet age, would join with Time Warner, one of the world's largest media and entertainment conglomerates.
In the end, it turned out to be what some sober-minded analysts have called the worst business deal in history. On Wednesday, the uneasy marriage was to end.
That's when AOL's spin-off from Time Warner -- also the parent company of CNN -- was to become official. But on an Internet vastly bigger and more diverse than when the Time Warner deal went down in early 2000, what does the future hold for the once-dominant online hangout?
No one is predicting a return to the company's heyday in the 1990s, when its blue triangle logo was everywhere and its chirpy "You've Got Mail" greeting inspired the title of a hit Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan romantic comedy.
But some observers say there's a chance for success as a smaller and less highly visible Web player.
"What happens to AOL after the spinoff will be one of the most interesting things to watch next year, I imagine," said MG Siegler, a technology and new-media writer for the online TechCrunch network. "Not only is the company rebranding itself, but it appears to be attempting to shift its entire focus to become more of a content publisher.
"Its role as an ISP [Internet service provider], once its core, is all but dead now."
While saying they still plan to offer their best services to a dwindling base of paying subscribers -- down from more than 26 million in 2002 to about 6 million today -- AOL's leaders say they're ready for the shift.
"In terms of the vision for where we're headed, it's dramatically different than where AOL has been in the past," said Jeff Levick, AOL's president for global advertising and strategy.
The new model, he said, is focused on three areas -- publishing blogs, news and other online offerings; advertising; and refocusing on communications tools such as e-mail and its AIM instant-messenger service as ways to distribute its original content.
Of the three, advertising is the area where Levick sounds the most bullish. With Google the clear search-engine leader and sites like Facebook and Twitter strengthening their stranglehold on the social-media market, AOL sees advertising as a level playing field.
"That's where we'll really double down -- making advertising one of the core platforms and business opportunities for the company," he said. "We see this as very much of a growth category. There isn't an incumbent or one clear winner in this space."
Observers note that while many Internet users know AOL only as the e-mail account they had in the late 1990s or early 2000s, the company has other properties that aren't typically associated with its brand.
AOL-owned Mapquest has lost some business to Google Maps, but still has tens of millions of users every month.
Weblogs Inc., bought by AOL in 2005, hosts more than 75 blogs, including tech site Engadget and TV Squad, one of the Internet's most popular television blogs. Its Advertising.com, purchased in 2004, already is at the top of Internet display advertising.
And despite declines, AOL's main page remains one of the most-visited sites on the Internet. In October it remained fourth -- ahead of Facebook and behind only Google, Yahoo and Microsoft -- with 98.5 million unique users, according to comScore, which measures popularity within the digital world.

It is fairly insane that in 10 years AOL has gone from the Goliath . . . to a shadow of an Internet brand.
--MG Siegler, TechCrunch

The page itself is a nod to AOL's new direction, embracing an online world far from the insular experience it once offered its paying customers. Instead of finding a one-stop shop, AOL users can now log in to their Facebook, MySpace or Twitter accounts directly from the site.
Amazon, eBay -- even Gmail and Yahoo -- also have links on the page.
Business experts see potential for a successful shift -- if AOL is able to ride out a rough patch that in November saw the company announce plans to downsize its work force by one-third.
"They need to retain their dial-up subscribers for as long as possible, because those are free revenue," said David Joyce, a media industry analyst with trading firm Miller Tabak + Co. "There's clearly still some audience for that."
Joyce said, however, that AOL has continued to lose between 400,000-500,000 of those subscribers every quarter and the key to its success will be finding new ways to drive traffic to the properties under the AOL umbrella.
"That's the overarching strategy that they have to employ," he said. "It's been a several-year strategy shift that still has to show results."
Time Warner's stock plummeted after the merger -- from more than $99 on January 10, 2001, to about $30 on Tuesday.
The new AOL's market value, when it rolls out its own stock, has been estimated by several analysts to be up to about $4 billion.
Adam Ostrow, editor of online news blog Mashable, predicted a future in which AOL's holdings won't be thought of as AOL holdings at all.
"Ultimately, as a brand name, AOL won't be important," he said, citing properties like Engadget that already don't flaunt the affiliation. "It could become a sort of holding company where people really don't think about the name -- a media business where they're almost a faceless conglomerate that owns a bunch of stuff."
Levick wouldn't go that far, but acknowledged that having the company's name on its products won't always be important.
"The brand will reveal itself where it makes sense and brings life to the content," he said. "Consumers don't engage with great brands -- they engage with great products and great content."
The company's desire to be viewed in a new light is clear visually in its rebranding, which will be fully rolled out on Thursday.
The name will become "Aol." -- the second two letters lowercase and with a period at the end. Gone will be the blue triangle, replaced by simple white lettering that appears on constantly changing backgrounds.
"This is a turnaround -- it's a new day for AOL," said company spokeswoman Tricia Primrose. "There's a lot of work to be done, but we see tremendous opportunity in the areas we're going to be competing in."
Siegler called the spinoff a fascinating chapter in one of the Internet age's most intriguing stories.
"It is fairly insane that in 10 years AOL has gone from the Goliath that actually purchased Time Warner to a shadow of an Internet brand," he said. "But they have solid people in place now like [chairman and CEO Tim] Armstrong and [new communications president] Brad Garlinghouse who are both well-respected and have a track record of making things happen.

"It's an uphill battle, but we'll all be watching it," Siegler said. "Everyone loves a comeback story."

'Dead Space 2' vows to 'scare the daylights out of you'

2009-12-13T13:40:00.000-08:00

It was only a matter of time.
On the heels of "Dead Space's" successful debut last year, Electronic Arts has officially announced that the game series' storyline will continue with the creation of “Dead Space 2.” Hero Isaac Clarke will return to battle necromorphs with new weapons.
Visceral Games will be producing the new saga, which had been rumored for months. A press release from EA says that survival won’t be the only thing on Isaac’s mind in "Dead Space 2" – "this time, he calls the shots."
Released in October 2008, the original action-horror game won nearly 100 industry awards and received a score of 89 percent from gamerankings.com. Earlier this year EA released “Dead Space: Extraction”, a prequel story that was exclusive to Nintendo's Wii system in an effort to win over a new audience.
Executive producer Steve Papoutsis said, “Expect plot twists that will surprise you and a huge cast of twisted, disgusting monsters that are sure to scare the daylights out of you.”
“Dead Space 2” is being developed for the PS3, Xbox 360 and the PC. No release date has been announced.

'Saboteur' brings black & white to color

2009-12-13T13:38:00.001-08:00

Musical cues are often used to highlight or signify moods in games and films. Now a new video game is using color – or the lack of it – to symbolize oppression and freedom in the 1940s.

“The Saboteur” (Pandemic Studios, Electronic Arts), which hits stores today, is an action-adventure game based in Paris during the German occupation of World War II. You play Sean Devlin, a character inspired by the true story of William Grover-Williams, an English racer who joined the British special ops unit.

You’ll use a broad range of weapons, explosives and vehicles to throw the Nazis out of Paris. But it's the visual aspects of "The Saboteur" that are most interesting.

Lead designer Tom French's team made Paris black and white at the beginning of the game; color gradually bleeds in as players progress and sections of the city are liberated from Nazi control. French says it was a middle-of-the-night idea.

“We wanted to make the City of Light feel occupied [by the Nazis],” he says. “We wanted to suck the life out of it.”

French says the challenge was making black and white still look like it has depth and feel to it. Turning colors off makes everything flat, so French's team drew inspiration from the movie “Sin City” to make it look cool, he says.

If you think once you’ve ‘colored’ an area you are safe, guess again. French said Paris never gets completely colorized, and some parts turn to black and white again as the Nazi retake certain areas of the map.

“Once you take out a sniper, you never have to worry about him again,” he says. “But there is a point where the Germans take back a headquarters, turning it to black and white again.”

The design team traveled to Paris to get a firsthand look at the city and the buildings. French says they came away with a lot of information.

“I spent three hours in a cemetery imagining firefights,” he says. “We visited Resistance museums, taking pictures secretly and scribbling notes.”

They came away with more than 2,500 photos, but French believes it was worth it. “We wanted to give [Paris] an organic feeling.”

As with most games with wide-open spaces to roam, repetition of buildings can be a problem. The team used what French calls “Legos” to create buildings where they could mix and match different elements without having to create new buildings from scratch every time.

“Climb all the buildings,” French advises. “Use every square inch to make sure you experience the depth of the game.”

“The Saboteur” is available for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. It is rated M (Mature – blood, intense violence, nudity, sexual themes, strong language).

Military purchases 2,200 PS3s

2009-12-13T13:37:00.000-08:00

It seems generous grandmothers aren't the only ones purchasing PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles this holiday season. The U.S. Dept. of Defense has announced plans to buy an additional 2,200 PS3s to complement a military supercomputer cluster running on 336 PS3 systems.

The military purchase was likely encouraged by Sony's recent PS3 price cut, which brought the price of a single console down to $299.

A military justification of review document explains the decision:

Though a single 3.2 GHz cell processor can deliver over 200 GFLOPS, whereas the Sony PS3 configuration delivers approximately 150 GFLOPS, the approximately tenfold cost difference per GFLOP makes the Sony PS3 the only viable technology for HPC applications.

According to Ars Technica, Sony sells the PS3 at a loss and hopes to make back the difference by selling games and accessories.

The reason that the PS3 is a more cost-effective way to buy Cell-powered GFLOPS than, say, the Cell blades that IBM actually makes specifically for supercomputing applications, is that the consoles come with a big, fat subsidy from Sony.

However, the military isn't likely to purchase any games for these PlayStations. The justification review states the systems will run a proprietary Linux-based operating system, which probably won't be able to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

AT&T rethinks unlimited iPhone data plans

2009-12-13T13:36:00.000-08:00

Unlimited iPhone data plans and popular high-bandwidth video offerings are causing headaches for AT&T. In some saturated markets, such as New York City and San Francisco, the company's wireless network is unable to keep up with demand and transfers slow to a crawl.

According to the Wall Street Journal, AT&T's head of consumer services Ralph de la Vega blames high-bandwidth users for these network shortages, and, in a recent meeting with investors, hinted at the end of unlimited data packages.

“This is going to get fixed,” Mr. de la Vega said. “In both of those markets, I am very confident that you’re going to see significant progress.”

With about 3 percent of smartphone customers driving 40 percent of data traffic, AT&T is considering incentives to keep those subscribers from hampering the experience for everyone else, he said.

De la Vega did not elaborate on what "incentives" AT&T plans to enact, but you can bet the agenda will have more in common with data caps and speed limits than free toasters.

Bandwidth-hungry iPhones may be the cause of AT&T's network problems, but they are hardly to blame. iPhone users are forced into unlimited data packages costing at least $30 a month. I don't think AT&T has any right to complain when a few of those users fully utilize their purchase.

Who do you feel is responsible for the struggling wireless networks? AT&T, high-bandwidth users, or both?

Why Google's glad to dance to Vevo's tune

2009-12-13T13:25:00.000-08:00

Eric Schmidt's presence at a swanky music industry gathering was an illustration of how far digital technology has come and the power it has amassed.

A decade ago, the film studios and top record companies dismissed Northern Californians as a bunch of bearded dweebs who liked electronics. Five years ago, with illegal-file sharing spinning out of control, the entertainment industry looked on techies with fear and loathing, invaders to be repelled before they made off with the treasure.
It wasn't that long ago that some in Hollywood considered Google a "rogue company."
Pfft. That's all in the past. On Tuesday, at a launch party for music-video site Vevo, the Google CEO was an honored guest.
Schmidt was seated front and center in an area reserved for music industry titans and major recording stars. He rubbed elbows with singers Shania Twain and Sheryl Crow. He chatted up record producer and label exec Jimmy Iovine.

He sat and visited with Doug Morris, CEO and chairman of Universal Music Group, the largest of the four top recording companies, as well as the chiefs of Sony Music Group and EMI.
And why shouldn't they show him some respect? Not only is he at the helm of the most successful advertising company in the world and operating YouTube, the Web's No. 1 video site, but Schmidt is also helping to get Vevo off the ground.

Instead of trying to stand in the way of a music-video site that is in many ways breaking away from YouTube, Google is providing the service with technological expertise and allowing it to continue to market to YouTube's massive following.
What's that? Google booked $21 billion in revenue in 2008. How can a company like that be satisfied to play rhythm guitar in someone else's band?
At the Vevo party, Schmidt said Google couldn't be happier with the situation.

This is what he's done for over a year now, held out his hand to big newspapers, film studios, TV networks, and book publishers.
By taking a backup role in Vevo, Google sends a message that the rogue image is garbage and the company is prepared to go a long way -- even give up decision-making power -- to help partners grow their businesses. No threat here.
In many entertainment circles, that message may resonate, especially the ones where the digital revolution has laid waste. Some of the celebs at the Vevo launch were only too happy to tell Schmidt and everyone else how badly recorded music has suffered.
"We've come here to mourn the death of an old cash cow that was the music industry," U2's Bono told the audience during his speech.
"Let's hope Vevo can help salvage something that used to be amazing," said singer Mariah Carey.
If you're anti-copyright and this makes you long for the days when Google and YouTube used to wave the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the faces of Viacom, NBC Universal, and others that demanded YouTube remove unauthorized film and TV clips from its site, well, it's time to move on.
For more than a year, YouTube's strategy has been to strike partnerships with the top studios, record companies, and TV networks.
YouTube has content deals with MGM Studios, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, CBS (parent company of CNET), and all four of the major recording companies.
What probably drove Google to take a softer stance was competition. There might have been a period a couple of years ago when Google could have easily morphed into a video-on-demand service, offering feature films and TV shows and been all things Web video. But it played hardball and NBC and News Corp. successfully came up with a YouTube alternative: Hulu.
The competition between the companies to obtain premium films and shows has been fierce. After pursuing a deal to get full-length content from Disney, Google saw Disney sign with Hulu. That was a bitter blow. Google isn't used to losing.
At the same time, Netflix has jumped into the fray. The Web's top video-rental service has deals with makers of set-top boxes that enable customers to watch streaming Internet video on their TV sets. Apple has a slice of this market as well.
Meanwhile, Hulu could have tried to woo the music labels away from YouTube. Hulu could try to capitalize on any lingering distrust of Google at the labels.
Conspicuously missing from Vevo's launch party was Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman. A feud between Warner and YouTube led to Warner's content being pulled from the video site for nine months before the companies made up. But Warner has so far declined to join Vevo.
In addition, EMI recently a music-licensing deal with Hulu. EMI clips will appear on both Hulu and YouTube.

In his speech introducing Vevo, Universal Music's Morris was generous in his praise of Schmidt and Google. But the former songwriter also raised questions about who he was referring to when he said things such as "the best thing about Vevo is that it's our platform" and "no more middlemen" and "we can experiment with anything and everything we want. We don't have to ask anyone's permission anymore."

Are Internet firms afraid of the Middle East?

2009-12-13T13:19:00.000-08:00

The Middle East represents a vast, largely untapped market for Internet businesses across an audience tailor-made for maximizing online revenues, according to industry experts -- so what's holding everyone back? The sector's failure to capitalize on what, on paper at least, appears to be a perfect match for Internet start-ups hoping to exploit a vast international market with a single product, came under scrutiny this week at a major global Web conference in Paris.

In what is hoped to become a regular session at the annual LeWeb event, leading Internet entrepreneurs involved in the Arabic-speaking world shone new light on what is, outside of the region, a little understood, yet enormous slice of the World Wide Web.
The panel, including Rabea Ataya, of job site Bayt.com, Habib Haddad of Arabic search engine Yamli, and Joi Ito, Dubai-based CEO of copyright licence company Creative Commons, said ignorance and misconceptions appear to be holding back many would-be investors.
But, although they say the region represents a massively overlooked opportunity, even with Dubai reeling from debt crisis caused by recent overspending, they warned that failure to fully understand it at grassroots level could still leave companies out of pocket.
"It is a completely different universe," admitted Japanese-born Ito, who confessed he was ill-prepared when making his first ventures into the region. "I realized it is not that easy, I couldn't just email people and expect things to happen in the same way."
"It was something I realized I would never understand unless I lived there. Having moved there I realized how interesting it is."
Haddad, whose company created tools for writing Arabic on an English keyboard and for searching Arabic sites phonetically to bypass regional language variations, said his company was taken by surprise by the success of its products, until it realized the profile of its users.

Countries where Arabic is a major language

"The interesting thing about this market is that we have 400 million speakers and it's the fifth largest spoken language out there, so its a huge market -- all united by the Arab language," he said, contrasting it with the language and culture-divided European market.
"It's a huge opportunity. I think we're at a tipping point, 60 million online users, 200 million mobile users -- the numbers are amazing."
Ataya added: "We have one of the fastest-growing youngest populations in the world -- in addition to that we have the highest proportion of migrant labor in the world, and that exists in an area which has historically had limitations on movement of people."
Although some international investors appear to be waking up to the opportunities -- particularly following the wake-up call that was Yahoo's acquisition of Arab portal Maktoob in August 2009 -- the entrepreneurs pointed to almost comical misunderstandings that appear to holding some back.
"A strategic investor once visited us and we were talking about the United Arab Emirates," said Ataya. "His perception of the U.A.E. was like the United States of America -- he actually believed that the U.A.E stretched from Morocco to to Kuwait."

I can't understand why more people aren't marketing actively in the Middle East.
--Joi Ito, Creative Commons

Ito also pointed out to prejudices held by many in the West that Arab nations did not hold up to scrutiny when it came to human rights and the equality of women, claims all three candidates insisted failed to take into account the complexities of the cultures involved.
Still, they agreed there were barriers to investment, not least the individualized nature of each major Middle Eastern city's legal systems that mean though Internet products could appeal to a pan-Arab audience, implementing them profitably across the region could prove tricky.
Says Rabea, the Arab market presents itself as an almost direct contrast to the European Union, which economically and legally unites countries despite diverse languages.
"Pretty much every city state that you're in, there are a different set of legal and economic frameworks with which it operates," he said, adding that the rewards outweighed the headaches of dealing with these.
"If you are able to go and set up shop in those various Middle Eastern countries and deal with the various legal and economic frameworks, then you really have an almost an insurmountable advantage."
He added: "Beyond the language and for the most part the religious commonality, there is very little that ties the region together, but there is an affinity of culture and people believe they are somehow connected and language helps with that, and that makes a difference if you are trying to tackle this huge region.
But you really have to get down to the nitty gritty of every little area."
While Habib pointed out that advertising revenues were still relatively slim compared to other markets such as the United States, Ito expressed confidence in the region's ability to sell itself to a wider audience.

"When I wasn't in the Middle East it didn't show up on my map, now I'm there I can't understand why more people aren't marketing actively in the Middle East," he added.

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