US busts Google, Apple, Intel over secret employee poaching pact
You've heard of the government's "Do Not Call" list aimed at shutting down unwanted telemarketers—but did you know that many tech companies have a "Do Not Cold Call" list aimed at shutting down competition? The US Department of Justice today announced a lawsuit—and a proposed settlement—over just such behavior at Google, Adobe, Apple, Intel, Intuit, and Pixar.
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Sony Ericsson goes Android, leaves Nokia as only big Symbian fan
A spokesperson for Sony Ericsson says that the company has no plans to build new Symbian-based smartphones. Much like Motorola, which restored its competitiveness by dropping Symbian and its own in-house Linux effort in favor of Android in 2008, Sony Ericsson appears to be committed to Google's mobile operating system.This reflects the general trend of declining interest in Symbian among handset makers. The last major remaining ally of the Symbian platform in the smartphone market is Nokia, which recently launched new Symbian^3 products and intends to use the platform on budget midrange handsets as it transitions to Linux-based MeeGo for high-end smartphones. Sony Ericsson will remain a member of the Symbian Foundation, an organization that was founded to facilitate vendor-neutral collaboration around the platform. It's possible that Sony Ericsson could eventually start using Symbian again if the foundation succeeds in its efforts to modernize the platform.
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Is that Bill Gates staring back at you from Outlook 2010?
One of the new things in Outlook 2010 is the "People Pane." At the bottom of e-mail windows (both the inbox view and individual messages), the People Pane is a panel that can show recent e-mail from a contact, any appointments that you have with them, and a few other bits and pieces of information.It's a neat little feature, especially when used in tandem with the Outlook Social Connector (part of Outlook 2010, and available as a download for Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007). Making the Outlook Social Connector work is not quite as convenient as it should be; actual connections to social networking sites use providers that have to be installed separately—on its own, the OSC doesn't really do anything. But once you have the providers installed, the People Pane can show even more information—LinkedIn status updates, new photos posted to Facebook, that kind of thing.
The People Pane in action
That isn't just anyone's silhouette, however. Our eagle-eyed editor-in-chief, Ken Fisher, noticed that the silhouette has a striking resemblance to one William H. Gates III. Quite how he noticed this is anybody's guess—we suspect he has a framed picture of the Microsoft founder and philanthropist mounted on his wall.
And it's not just any old picture of Bill Gates that some cheeky Outlook developer has used. Oh no. It's a picture from one of the man's finest moments. It's the picture taken in Albuquerque, New Mexico, way back in 1977, when he was arrested for a driving offense, the exact nature of which is lost to the sands of time. It's the man's mug-shot.
Bill Gates was apparently a lousy driver. Just as well—he doesn't need to drive his own car these days
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Marvell's tri-core ARM chip has near-PS3-level graphics
Yesterday, Marvell announced a whopper of a processor—the ARMADA 628. While most of the coverage so far has focused on the three A9-class processor cores, the craziest feature of this chip is its on-die GPU. The 628's GPU can push 200 million triangles per second (MT/s); for some perspective, compare the Playstation 3's GPU at 250MT/s This GPU, plus the three Sheeva PJ4 cores, means that you can put console-caliber gaming performance—1080p graphics and all—in a handheld. Given the amount of hardware on this new chip, it's complete overkill for a smartphone. But as a tablet or handheld gaming part, you could do some really fantastic things with this. Let's take a look under the hood.
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Networks diss iTunes rentals, embrace Netflix instant streaming
The new Apple TV has been delayed into October, but Apple has already rolled out its new iTunes TV show rental service with the iTunes 10 update. Disney/ABC and Fox are on board with the new 99¢ TV episode rental service while other broadcast and cable networks have criticized the service, leery of "devaluing" their content with low prices. Yet some of those same networks are willing to offer their content via Netflix instant streaming for fixed fees.During a Goldman Sachs investor conference in New York this week, a number of media executives expressed concern that Apple's 99¢ price point is too low. "The 99¢ rental is not a good price point," Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said. "It doesn't work for us." Viacom operates several cable networks, such as MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon.
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Judge puts hammer down on Hurt Locker P2P subpoena
A federal judge in South Dakota this week quashed a US Copyright Group subpoena targeting an ISP in his state. Why? Jurisdiction, and a fax machine. Regional Internet service provider Midcontinent wasn't amused when it received, by fax, a subpoena on August 9 that demanded Midcontinent turn over the name, address, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and MAC addresses of several “Doe” defendants accused of pirating the film The Hurt Locker. But instead of interacting with the Washington, DC court that issued the subpoena in the first place, Midcontinent instead went to its local federal court, the US District Court for the Southern Division of South Dakota.
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Tight budgets mean hard choices for science funding
This week, Nature has an article written from a rather exceptional perspective: inside the deliberations that go on when grants are given out to researchers. In this case, in return for keeping the proceedings anonymous, the American Cancer Society allowed a Nature reporter access to the deliberations of a panel of expert reviewers (called a study section) that determines which grants get funded. As with many government granting agencies, the ACS has been receiving far more grants to review in recent years, meaning that the percentage of grants funded has dropped considerably. The report provides a window into a key step of the scientific process that the public rarely gets to see; fortunately, the journal has made it open access. Over the last decade, the ACS has had to deal with a largely static budget, meaning that the number of grants that are distributed has been relatively constant, even as the cost of running a lab has gone up and a continuous flow of researchers has entered the field. Although the ACS is a private charity, the tensions it faces are fairly widespread. With the exception of stimulus funding, most government science agencies have faced budgets that have roughly kept pace with inflation, at best. The net result of all of this is that the percentage of grants that are approved for funding has declined significantly over the past decade, which has made the competition for funding fierce.
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Verizon confirms the future of 3G data is tiered
If you thought Verizon was immune to tiered data plans on its 3G network, think again. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg told investors on Thursday that the company was preparing to roll out new plans within the next four to six months, with limits on different tiers depending on how much data customers want to use. This definitely looks like the future of 3G data pricing, though 4G plans will likely remain limitless—at least until a critical mass of customers get on board. Verizon's comments follow AT&T's decision to ditch its unlimited 3G data plan earlier this year. Though current customers can continue to milk their $30 monthly unlimited plans for as long as they continue to use the same device on the same account, the new plans have 200MB and 2GB limits for $15 and $25 per month, respectively. AT&T argued that the new plans were a way to introduce lower data pricing and make it accessible to more customers, but heavy data users were quick to note that the price per gigabyte was quickly skyrocketing. (Sprint also caps its 3G network usage at 5GB per month.)
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Microsoft reverses course: IE9 won't require Windows 7 SP1
Yesterday we reported that Internet Explorer 9 on Windows 7 would have Service Pack 1, due in the first half of next year, as a prerequisite—a surprising move, given that companies are often cautious about rolling out new service packs. Microsoft has now changed its public position: Service Pack 1 won't be required to run the new browser.When Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9, will it require Windows 7 Service Pack 1?Internet Explorer 9 will require a number of patches before it can run; Microsoft has made many fixes to the Direct2D and Media Foundation APIs that the new browser heavily depends on. These fixes will be incorporated into Service Pack 1. However, standalone updates are also available, and the browser will install these if necessary.
No. Internet Explorer 9 will install on systems that have either Windows 7 RTM or Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed.
Today's new answer
This process should be familiar to anyone who has used the Platform Previews or the beta; those install the hotfixes if necessary.
When Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9, will it require Windows 7 Service Pack 1?There will still be some benefit to having the Service Pack installed, though; it will allow Internet Explorer 9 to install without a system reboot.
Yes. Internet Explorer 9 will require Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1). Therefore, organizations must plan, pilot, and deploy Internet Explorer 9 as part of or after a Windows 7 SP1 deployment.
Yesterday's answer
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PS3 firmware kills third-party adaptors, 3D requires lossy audio
Sony has a problem with unauthorized, third-party controllers. You see, they could explode. They are very dangerous things. The latest update for the PlayStation 3 adds support for 3D Blu-ray playback, but it also removes support for these contraband devices. There is a slight problem with this, however, as gamers are upset that many devices no longer work with their hardware.The affected hardware? Adaptors allowing PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 controllers to work on the hardware, as well as some devices that connect via USB. There are two possibilities here: Sony no longer wants these devices to work properly, or this is a bug that will be fixed with (sigh) future updates.
Another interesting tidbit: to play 3D Blu-ray discs you'll be forced to use lossy audio. "When playing back a 3D BD with a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, the PS3 will output DTS," Blu-ray.com reports. "When playing back a 3D BD with a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack, the PS3 will output Dolby Digital. This affects both PCM output and bitstreaming (available on slim consoles only)." It's hard to get too upset about this one: the PlayStation 3 continues to improve and adapt as a Blu-ray player, and only audiophiles will notice the change in audio, much less care.
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New FCC white space rules: inside the Satanic details
The other shoe has dropped at last on the Federal Communications Commission's plan to unleash unlicensed broadband, or "white space" gadgets, on the rapidly evolving high-speed Internet device market. The FCC has released its Second Memorandum Opinion and Order, which ties the knot on about half a dozen sticky wicket issues related to the gizmos—most notably whether they should be required to use spectrum sensing devices as well as geo-location and databases to avoid interfering with TV stations.The answer is no. But we thought we would take a closer took at why the FCC made this call. Rest assured, if the cliche about the devil being in the details is true, Old Scratch is dancing the Macarena on this one. Let's follow some of the Commission's logic here, which will be sure to face at least a few revisions down the line.
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HP Slate video shows all that's wrong with Windows 7 on tablets
Engadget has posted a YouTube video purporting to show HP's forthcoming Slate—the Intel-powered, Windows 7 PC in an iPad-like form factor. What the video really shows is a smart piece of hardware that's let down by the software running on it.Read the comments on this post
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3D on your smartphone, sans glasses: it's coming
The 3D user interface, like the pre-iPad tablet computer, is one of those long-heralded solutions that has yet to really find its problem. But whether we're ready for it or not, the same kind of glasses-less 3D found in Nintendo's 3DS handheld is coming to a smartphone near you. The 3D effect will be great for games and movies, but it's not clear that it should be used for anything else. So-called parallax barrier screen designs from Sharp and Master Image, which can deliver a good-looking 3D image without requiring the user to don any kind of special eyewear (i.e., "autoscopic 3D"), cost in the neighborhood of $15 to add to a smartphone-sized screen. That's not a lot of money, given how good the 3D effect is—I saw one in action at the Scaleform booth on the floor of NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference, and it looked very good. These are going to be a hot item when they start hitting the market.
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Microsoft takes PC vs. Mac trolling to Facebook
Microsoft has launched a PC versus Mac campaign on Facebook, via its Windows Australia account. The page is under its own "PC or MAC" tab, where users can try to pick who the PC user is based on uploaded pictures, and then share their results with their Facebook friends.
There's even an option to upload your own photo and fill out a "PC or Mac personality survey" for others to guess "where your allegiances lie." In addition to the usual questions, the survey asks what you associate with (cocktails or beer, safety or risks, folder or "scruncher," texting or calling, dj or bands, voyeur or performer) as well as five yes or no "have you ever" questions (borrowed someone else's ID, forgotten mother's day, "wagged" school, gone skinny dipping, or snuck into a cinema without paying). Some of the answers are used on the main page when your picture is paired with another's so that users can pick who the PC user is, while the rest live in your profile.
Every week there is a HP Pavilion dv6-3030TX Notebook and a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium you can win for describing in 25 words or less "How you would use a Windows 7 laptop to get off a desert[ed] island."
Microsoft's plan is to break the stereotype that Apple started with its "Get a Mac" campaign that ended a couple of months ago (i.e., PC user = older business type, Mac user = young and cool). Last month, Microsoft added a PC versus Mac section to its Windows 7 website, and is now taking the trolling to Facebook.
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Dell's tiny Zino HD HTPC gets quad-core and Blu-ray options
Dell announced on Thursday that it has updated its small-form factor Inspiron Zino HD home theater PC with AMD Athlon processors. The tiny machine may not be a Mac mini in size, but it offers a wider range of options for a lower price.Though the Zino HD starts at a family friendly $299, all you get is a CD/DVD combo drive, integrated graphics, no WiFi, and a 2.3GHz single-core AMD Athlon II. All models come packed with multiple USB ports, eSATA, HDMI, VGA, Gigabit Ethernet, analog audio in/out, SPDIF, and a 4-in-1 media card reader, so connectivity is covered. With an HDMI cable and an HDTV, you could have a so-so HTPC set up pretty quickly.
If you're looking for a supercharged set-top box, though, you'll want to spring for the loaded model, with a 1.7GHz quad-core Phenom II, Blu-ray combo drive, 6GB of RAM, 802.11n WiFi, 750GB hard drive, and a 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5450. Toss in the wireless keyboard and mouse, IR remote, and 1TB drive option, and you're looking at closer to $900. Still, all that is packed into an 8 x 8 x 3.5" case, and if you don't like black we suppose you could always spring for the silver, red, or blue for an extra $40.
The new Dell Inspiron Zino HD is available to order online now, and Dell said that it will be available in limited configurations at retail this weekend.
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Stuxnet worm attacks industrial targets, could be aimed at Iran
Security researchers have uncovered some unexpected behaviors in a piece of malware called Stuxnet. The worm exploits a number of zero-day vulnerabilities in order to propagate itself over Windows networks, but it also targets embedded software developed by Siemens that runs in industrial equipment. The worm could be used to disrupt factories and other industrial environments.Researchers have found that the highest concentration of Stuxnet infections is located in Iran. That discovery, coupled with the very high level of sophistication exhibited by the malware, has led some researchers to speculate that it was crafted by a major government body with the aim of disabling Iran's nuclear power plant.
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LinkedIn integrated with Windows Live, Facebook chat hits Hotmail
Microsoft has started rolling out multiple updates for the web services complementing Windows and Office. Over the last few months, the software giant has been regularly updating these services, but the number of features just announced implies today's releases are not a coincidence. Read the comments on this post
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Outed! Senate staffers, anti-gay slurs, and IP addresses
Will they never learn? It has been more than four years—a geologic era in Internet time—since Wikipedia investigated Congressional staffers for mucking about with politicians' entries on the site. (One change, emanating from a House computer, altered Rep. Eric Cantor's bio to say that he "smells of cow dung.")That investigation revealed that the lure of online anonymity proved too strong for many working on Capitol Hill, as more than 1,000 edits had been made to politicians' Wikipedia pages just in the preceding six months—and that was just from the House!
Wikipedia knew this, of course, by running the IP addresses of the posters and seeing which belonged to the block of addresses controlled by the House and Senate. In the midst of all this were the tens of thousands of high-profile lawsuits filed by the RIAA over file-swapping, which also relied on IP addresses to identify users. You might think, after enough major stories about "IP addresses" hit the news wires, everyone in political life would be aware that "anonymity" on the Internet is limited.
But someone in Sen. Saxby Chambliss' (R-GA) office didn't get the memo. In the aftermath of this week's failed vote on the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, someone named "Jimmy" registered an account at the gay news blog Joe.My.God. just to say, "All Faggots must die."
Your standard Internet troll? Not exactly, since in this case the site's operator, Joe, posted Jimmy's IP address, and it wasn't long before it was resolved back to Chambliss' office (and it appears to be a district office back home in Georgia). At that point, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution swung into action, snagging the confirmation from Chambliss' office that "it was indeed the source of a highly publicized homosexual-bashing slur on an Internet site" and that "it has not discovered exactly who was behind the slur, and has turned the matter over to the Senate Sergeant At Arms."
Two of the top six Google results for "Saxby Chambliss" now concern the comment, and Google News shows major coverage of the story in the media.
Once upon a time, such crass remarks would have gone no further than the office water cooler; now, they echo around the country. And all thanks to the humble IP address.
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Apple, startup go to trial over "Pod" trademark
Apple is scheduled to go to trial with a startup to fight over a three-letter word: Pod.The trademark battle centers on independent entrepreneur Daniel Kokin, founder of startup Sector Labs, and his video projector in development called Video Pod. Apple had previously filed oppositions against Kokin’s usage of “Pod,” alleging that it would cause customers to confuse it with Apple’s iPod products.
Wired.com originally reported on the early developments of Kokin’s trademark battle with Apple in early 2009, and now the two parties are finally set to go to trial over the next month.
“My team started working on the Video Pod in 2000, and it took us years to go from prototype to funded,” Kokin said. “At that time, Apple didn’t even enter our minds as a competitor. Now it’s 2010 and I still don’t think Apple is interested in video projection, but I’m supposed to rename our product because Apple also uses ‘pod’?”
This trademark fight is nothing personal: Apple has historically filed oppositions against small tech-related businesses attempting to use “Pod” in their product names. Names that have come under fire include MyPodder, TightPod, PodShow, and even Podium. Sector Labs is the only company to go to trial with Apple over using the “Pod” branding.
Ana Christian, Kokin’s lawyer, says the fight is about more than allowing small businesses to use “Pod” in their product names. She noted a trend in the tech industry, in which large corporations have been attempting to assume ownership of ordinary words. For example, Facebook recently filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Teachbook over usage of the word “book.” Other companies have also aggressively defended trademarks on common words, such as Microsoft with the word “windows.”
“I’m trying to look at it on the big picture,” said Ana Christian, lead counsel representing Sector Labs. “What I’m hoping to do with this case is to really reach a lot broader of an audience and make it so entrepreneurs and small businesses can use the English language as they see fit in branding their products.”
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Apple and Sector Labs are undergoing a paper trial, in which each party has 30 days to gather and present evidence in paper form, to be submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Apple filed its 873-page paper [pdf] on Sept. 20, and Sector Labs’ testimony begins Oct. 18.
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Verizon CEO throws wet blanket on iPhone rumors
Though rumors about the possibility of Apple launching a CDMA-compatible iPhone on Verizon have been picking up steam lately—our own sources have told us that an LTE-capable iPhone has been in testing in Boston for several months—Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg suggested Thursday that it might not be coming in January as many had hoped.Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference in New York, Seidenberg made no mention of an iPhone model being made to work on Verizon's current EVDO/CDMA network. Instead, he "hoped" that Apple would consider making an iPhone to work with its nascent LTE 4G network.
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Einstein's time dilation apparent when obeying the speed limit
General and special relativity are two of the more mind bending theories in modern science. According to them, space and time are a singular entity that is warped by mass, where measurements completely depend on how the person doing the measuring is moving. People generally believe that relativity has no effect in everyday life, since it's generally discussed in terms of things going very fast or objects in highly warped spacetime.This belief is not entirely true—GPS equipment would not work if the times measured by the satellites were not corrected for time dilation that arises from the rapid motion of the satellites relative to your car. In general, though, most people go about their day without experiencing any ill- (or odd-) effects due to relativity. However, it turns out that, if you can measure accurately enough, the effects of relativity are indeed all around us.
Using the most accurate clocks in existence, a team of researchers at NIST in Boulder, CO have shown that relativity all around us—even on everyday lab scales. The team used an optical "quantum logic clock" that is based on an electron's oscillations between the 1s and 3p quantum energy levels of an 27Al+ ion. A pair of these clocks—each of which will lose less than one second every 3.7 billion years—were tethered together by a special optical cable connecting two adjacent labs. The clocks were then manipulated so that time dilation occurred.
The first experiment had one clock moving relative to the other, a situation that is used to introduce the concept of time dilation to introductory physics students—faster moving clocks will tick away more slowly. In this case, one clock's ion was put in motion relative to the other, and the frequency shift that resulted was measured. Even when the clocks were moving apart at 22.4 miles per hour, it was possible to observe a change in frequency of approximately 45x10-17. This is exactly in agreement with the predictions of special relativity.
A lesser known consequence of general relativity is that time will move slower in a stronger gravitational field. On Earth, one implication of this is that a clock on the second floor of an office building will move faster than one on the first floor. Using the ultra-precise clock setup, the NIST researchers tested this as well. One of the optical clocks was placed about a foot above the other and measurements were taken. They found a fractional frequency change of (4.1±1.6)x10-17; plugging this number back into relativity's formulas produced an equivalent height differential gave 14.5±5.9 inches, a result that nicely bracketed the 12 inch difference in the experimental setup.
Science, 2010. DOI: 10.1126/science.1192720
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Poll Technica: What mobile OS do you run? Any plans to switch?
Back in the early days of Ars Technica—you know, when we had a black background and were really concerned about how to overclock a Celeron—the biggest debate was operating systems. Did you run Windows, Mac OS, Linux, or even BeOS? Today, operating systems are still a hot topic, but one could argue that the really interesting debate is happening in the mobile space.In today's Poll Technica, we want to know what OS your mobile phone runs. Not only that, we're curious as to what OS your next phone will rock. Does Windows Phone 7 intrigue you? (At least two of us in the Orbiting HQ plan to snag Windows Phone 7 handsets once they're available.) Are you happily ensconced in Apple's vertically integrated universe? Does Android rock your world? We want to know.
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T-Mobile: we don't care about weed, txt service broke agreement
T-Mobile says it had every right to begin blocking texts from a company sending information about medical marijuana, because the company was allegedly using the service in ways that the carrier never approved. T-Mobile made this argument to a federal judge in response to a lawsuit filed late last week by EZ Texting, saying that it not only sent texts about medical marijuana under the guise of news about bars and clubs, it also promoted marketing programs for religious groups, restaurants, real estate, and software developers—none of which were approved by T-Mobile.EZ Texting's lawsuit said that the company had been providing information about medical marijuana to users via its short code, 313131. The company severed its relationship with the marijuana websites on September 9, however, despite believing that it was "acceptable under all applicable laws and regulations." That didn't stop T-Mobile from blocking the short code on September 10, which told EZ Texting that it could regain access to the carrier's network by creating a completely new connection to T-Mobile—a task that the texting company said would take "approximately six months and create significant, needless expense for EZ Texting."
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FCC Commish: No need for net neutrality; we have white spaces!
Critics of US broadband want one of two things: "open access" rules that would create greater ISP competition of the kind that actually existed in the early 2000s or, barring that, net neutrality rules to keep ISPs from abusing their market power. But according to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, we don't need either policy—white space devices make both approaches unnecessary.At today's monthly FCC meeting, the five commissioners voted unanimously to approve final rules governing unlicensed broadband using empty TV channel—"WiFi on steroids" as Google's Larry Page once called it. The vote was a love-fest. What a terrific idea! What a terrific chairman! What an example of bipartisan consensus!
But McDowell also used his speech on the issue to take a sly shot at Chairman Julius Genachowski, a (one-time?) proponent of tough net neutrality rules. The white space vote shows that "neither open access nor net neutrality rules need be mandated by the government, he said, before looking over at Genachowski with a grin. The chairman can therefore take net neutrality "off his plate."
It was funny—McDowell being the only commissioner who can actually tell a joke—but he's quite serious. In McDowell's view, opening up the empty TV channels is a way to promote ISP competition while still keeping the government away from intruding into private business decisions.
White space devices will provide a "competitive alternative to existing broadband providers," he argued, and noted that the unlicensed nature of the newly free spectrum should lead to faster real-world deployments than a spectrum auction.
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