The Apple strategy tax
In episode 6 of the now-defunct StackOverflow podcast, former Microsoft employee Joel Spolsky talked about one of the many things that holds back large companies like Microsoft.Spolsky: But synergy…there are also negative synergies. In the case of Microsoft they call it "strategy tax." Where, like, the Internet Explorer team is not allowed to fix the DHTML editor because it might compete with Word. So they’re forced to make that continue to be bad.I've been thinking about the concept of a "strategy tax" while watching Apple's latest round of App Store policy changes. Competition between divisions within a large company has, at various times, been lauded as a best practice. But danger lurks on both sides of the issue. Too much internal competition can lead to a lack of focus, with divisions pulling in all directions at once, causing the company as a whole to stand still. Allowing too little internal competition, as in Spolsky's Microsoft example, results in the absurd situation where a company handicaps its own products.
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Google engineers help good sites harmed by search result cleanup
When Google updated its algorithm late last week to weed out low-quality content factories from the top of search results, the changes didn’t sit well with all.Many of the most well-known sites that pop-up in search results despite having little good information, including Associated Content and Mahalo, were downgraded, according to an analysis by independent SEO software firm Sistrix.
But other content manufacturers weren’t. For instance, Demand Media, a content factory that churns out hundreds of web pages and videos daily, was hardly affected.
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Battlefield 3 first footage: the humans move like humans
EA's Battlefield 3 event was everything wonderfully terrible about being someone who writes about games. I waited in line, herded like a cow until I put on a name tag, was shown the open bar and was handed a piece of meat on a stick to eat until the game was shown. The crush of people was fantastic, EA seemed to have underestimated the amount of people who would be interested in the game. At one point they separated those who were press and those who weren't, those without a press badge were asked to leave the main floor, and they had to be content with a lesser seat while still enjoying the free drinks."Ears plugs are not a bad idea," I was told before the trailer began. There is a reason they wanted those of us who wrote about games on the floor, it was part of the sound system, bashing the bottom of our feet with the rhythmic sound of gunshots and explosions. My ears began to ring instantly. The screen was large and the graphics were overwhelming. We learned nothing about the game.
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Feature: Jack of three trades, master of one: Ars reviews the Motorola Atrix 4G
The Motorola Atrix 4G has a lot on its plate, given that a core part of its job description is that it must interface with other gadgets, including a webtop computer made specially for the occasion, known as the "lapdock." Like many other recent smartphones, the Atrix also has an availalbe media dock accessory that will allow it to (eventually) stream HD video in all its 1080p glory to any display that takes HDMI input or has DLNA support.
While we were very excited about the concept of a phone that could by turns wear three hats (webtop, large-scale media device, phone) it turns out that we liked the Atrix best when it was working alone, for better and for worse. We put the Atrix, the lapdock, the media dock, and all possible combinations thereof through our rigorous review process, and found that while we like—even love—the phone and the idea of the webtop, the execution of the latter isn't quite there yet.
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Internet Explorer share surges, Firefox wanes based on new CIA data
The February browser market share numbers are in, and it looks like it was a good month for Internet Explorer, but a bad one for Firefox. Internet Explorer is up 0.77 percent to 56.77, Firefox is down 0.99 percent at 21.74.
These gains were partly attributed to a change in Net Applications' calculations. The company uses demographic data from the Central Intelligence Agency to construct its estimates; the different measures it makes in different countries are scaled to take into account different population sizes and levels of Internet penetration. With the new CIA data, Western Europe—where Firefox has its highest usage rates—now represents a smaller share of the global Internet audience. This change should give Internet Explorer a one-off boost at Firefox's expense.
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Switching biofuels could do a double-whammy on climate change
Biofuel crops have the potential to offset the world's reliance on fossil fuels, increasing energy security and decreasing the risk of climate change. However, the choice of crops and target fuel can radically change their impact, as issues like fertilization and ease of processing come into play. But, as a paper released by PNAS points out, these aren't the only things that change when you shift the crop. The paper suggests that switching from corn to a perennial grass can alter the water cycle and sunlight absorption so dramatically that it will have a larger impact than the carbon emissions that biofuels avoid.The researchers involved take advantage of some recent field work—literally, in a field—in which corn was planted side-by-side with a perennial grass that has been suggested as a potential biofuel stock, miscanthus. The results led them to model the switch to a perennial crop very simply: take the default values in an existing model (they used the Weather Research and Forecasting Model), and expand them by a month at each end. In other words, miscanthus (or another perennial grass, like switchgrass) would turn green earlier in the year, and last a bit later into the autumn.
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Congressmen, Facebook go back and forth over personal data sharing
Facebook reiterated its plan to make users' addresses and phone numbers available to third-party developers in a letter (PDF) to US Representatives Ed Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX). The company wrote that it doesn't require users to grant developers access to the data, but it's still mulling additional measures to make sure users know what they're getting into before they sign their information over.Facebook announced in January via its Developer Blog that it would soon make it easier for companies to use an API to get users' personal information, such as their home addresses and phone numbers. Developers who choose to do so are required to adhere to Facebook's Platform Policies, which forbid them from misleading or spamming users, and users still have to give each app permission to access the information before it becomes available to anyone.
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Supreme Court: AT&T can't keep bad behavior a secret
The Supreme Court decided (PDF) today that AT&T can't keep embarrassing corporate information that it submits to the government out of public view; “personal privacy” rights do not apply to corporations. “We trust that AT&T will not take it personally” concluded the ruling. The debate started back in 2004, when AT&T realized that it may have been collecting too much government cash as part of the E-rate program that provides broadband access to schools around the country. The FCC launched an investigation, and AT&T turned over reams of documents, eventually settling the matter by paying the government $500,000 and pledging to fix its oversight problems.
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Flowing in the wrong direction: Ars reviews Pixeljunk Shooter 2
The first Pixeljunk Shooter was a surprise. A creative, challenging, and fun twin-stick shooter that put the focus on physics and puzzle solving, it managed to stand out in a sea full of seemingly similar downloadable titles. The sequel no longer has the benefit of surprise, but instead builds on the first game with plenty of new ideas. Some work well; others don't. With a drastic difficulty spike and a disappointing second act, Pixeljunk Shooter 2 manages to fall short of its predecessor.Read the comments on this post
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Humble Bundle creator on Ars' influence and why Linux is important
The Humble Bundles were both huge hits, ultimately bringing in over $3 million in combined revenue. The smaller games released on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, combined with a lack of DRM and the ability to pay whatever you like, created the perfect storm. During his talk at the Game Developers Conference, Jeffrey Rosen even brought up how Ars Technica gave them the nudge needed to finish the first bundle.Read the comments on this post
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Dems push for Congressional investigation of HBGary Federal
Embattled HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr quit his job yesterday as the prospect of a Congressional investigation loomed. A dozen Democrats in Congress asked various Republican committee chairs to launch probes of HBGary Federal's idea for a "reconnaissance cell" targeting pro-union organizers. HBGary Federal was hacked last month by Anonymous after Aaron Barr believed he had unmasked much of the group's leadership—and Barr's entire cache of corporate e-mails was made public. Those messages revealed that Barr had joined up with two other security firms, Palantir and Berico, to pitch the powerhouse DC law firm of Hunton & Williams on an idea to go after union-backed websites who opposed the US Chamber of Commerce. The scheme, if adopted, would have cost the Chamber up to $2 million a month.
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Ars at GDC: the audio edition
We're going to try something a little difference during this year's Game Developers Conference: every day Gaming Editor Ben Kuchera is going to sit down and record a short audio message with a few notes on what he's seen, what he thinks of it, and some other stories from the show.If you can't listen, don't worry: all the big details will be making their way into the "official" stories throughout the week, but this is a good way to hear about all of the cool stuff at GDC. In this first podcast, Ben will be talk about who he met on the plane, what games he's looking forward to seeing, and why he may not make it out of his hotel alive.
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Liveblog: Apple's March 2 iPad event
March is upon us, and that means we're gearing up to do live coverage of Apple's latest media event in San Francisco. What's expected out of this event? Apple hinted heavily in its invitation that some new iPad news is on the way, and many believe the company plans to release an updated version of its iOS tablet. Whether that updated version will be a major makeover or a speed bump in the same package is up for debate, though. Apple is said to be adding a front- and rear-facing camera to the device for use with FaceTime. It will also likely be thinner and lighter.
This is the time of year Apple usually gives the press a sneak peek into the next major version of iOS, so we're keeping our fingers crossed for new details on the software front.
Whatever ends up happening, Senior Apple Editor Jacqui Cheng will be on the scene to bring you the updates as they happen. The event is set to take place at 10am PST (GMT-0800) on Wednesday March 2, 2011 (see it in your timezone).
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Random House caves on agency e-book pricing, may join iBooks soon
Monster publishing house Random House has finally given in over the so-called "agency model" e-book pricing and will begin implementing the pricing changes on Tuesday, March 1. The agency model is a shift away from the traditional wholesale model, though the publisher plans to stick to the old way when it comes to physical books. The move will not only shift the pricing power back to the publisher, but will also open the door for joining Apple's iBooks as well.Under the wholesale model, publishers like Random House would sell a certain number of books to a reseller (such as Amazon) for a set price, then the reseller would set its own price on each book. This works out well for the sale of physical books that have to be shipped, but not so much for e-books, where are infinite copies. The agency model, by comparison, allows publishers to set their own prices for e-books and give 30 percent of the sale price to the reseller.
A number of publishers stood up to Amazon last year in a push for agency model pricing for electronic books, and ended up winning. As a result, the average prices of e-books have gone up a bit from the once-typical $9.99, though others (including some of Random House's own titles) are currently sold for less than that.
"Going forward, Random House will set consumer prices for the eâ€books we publish, and we will provide retailers with a commission for each sale," Random House said in a statement. "The agency model guarantees a higher margin for retailers than did our previous sales terms. We are making this change both as an investment in the successful digital transition of our existing partners and in order to give us the opportunity to forge new retail relationships."
One of those new relationships is likely to be iBooks, Apple's answer to Amazon's Kindle Store. Random House is the last iBooks holdout of the major publishers, largely because Apple requires its publishers to function under the agency model. Other major publishers, including Harper-Collins, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster, have already gotten on board, so it makes sense that Random House will too. It's possible that Apple might even welcome Random House to iBooks during its March 2 media event.
The American Booksellers Association issued a statement applauding Random House's decision. "We have believed from the beginning that the agency model is in the best interest of not only the book industry, but the consuming public as well," ABA CEO Oren Teicher said. "We appreciate the careful and thoughtful deliberation Random House has brought to this issue, and applaud their decision to adopt agency pricing."
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Hands-on: Google Cloud Connect for Office not ready for prime time
Google Docs, the online suite of productivity applications, has long offered collaborative, cloud-based sharing and editing of office-type documents. A new add-in for Microsoft Office, Cloud Connect, now extends the reach of that online offering to the world of traditional desktop applications.The add-in, for Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 (both 32- and 64-bit versions) enables cloud syncing and collaborative editing of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. In doing this, it is competing head-on with Microsoft's own collaboration features found in Office 2010, SkyDrive, and SharePoint. Microsoft has promoted collaborative editing as one of the major features of Office 2010, and both companies clearly think that this model of concurrent editing is going to become increasingly common. We took a look at Google's plug-in against Office 2010's native collaboration features to see if it's all it's cracked up to be.
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Canister lets you add water (or bodily fluids) to recharge batteries
SiGNa Chemistry Inc. is launching a hydrogen-producing cartridge, the mobile-H2â„¢, that will work with a portable, pocket-sized fuel cell charger to provide instant power for cell phones and other mobile devices. You simply add water to the cartridge, and the device will charge depleted batteries on the go. For further convenience, any water will do (even waste water). Unlike solar battery chargers, you don’t need to worry about getting enough sunlight. According to its press materials, these cartridges provide a steady level of power from beginning to end.This sounds a bit like magic, but it actually involves some well-known chemistry. SiGNa’s hydrogen cartridge technology is based on the combination of sodium and silicon in the form of sodium silicide (NaSi). Normally, sodium metal reacts violently with water to produce hydrogen gas. SiGNa has found a technique to take full advantage of the reducing power of sodium without the safety concerns.
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Allofmp3 clones, Baidu top US list of "notorious" IP infringers
The document in question admits that one of the scofflaws mentioned no longer exists. And the anti-piracy survey concedes that another, Taobao, is making real efforts to improve. But that didn't stop the United States Trade Representative from putting these Internet sites on its new "Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets," released on Monday."The review we are announcing today shines a light on examples of many offending markets, and highlights an opportunity to work together with our trading partners to curb illicit trade and expand legitimate commerce in creative and innovative industries," declared USTR's Ron Kirk upon the report's release.
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Feature: Virtualization in the trenches with VMware, Part 2: Storage, networking, and blades
In part one of this series, we looked at selecting an enterprise virtualization platform, and at some of the benefits gained. Now we're going to look at some of the challenges involved in selecting hardware to run it on, and in the process we'll discuss storage, networking, and servers/blades.The real challenge here is not so much using and managing the hardware that you already have, but picking new technologies to ensure that you get the appropriate price/performance ratio, the necessary support options, and the needed availability and recoverability. You must also ensure that your choices will be sustainable for at least two years, if not three or more. Finally, there's the very real consideration of power usage and heat dissipation, as the hosting industry has been moving toward charging based on power and heat instead of physical space usage for a number of years now. But first, a quick primer on storage.
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Defining Internet "freedom": Ars interviews Senator Al Franken
Since winning election to the US Senate in 2008, Al Franken (D-MN) has become one of that chamber's top net neutrality defenders. With the House uninterested in compromise on the issue, the real push to gut the FCC's existing net neutrality order will take place this year in the Senate.
Last week, Franken and three other senators drafted a letter in which they blasted the House for trying to "defund" the FCC's net neutrality enforcement. House Republicans "claim to stand for freedom," the letter says (PDF). "But the only freedom they are providing for is the freedom of telephone and cable companies to determine the future of the Internet, where you can go on it, what you can attach to it, and which services will win or lose on it."
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Asteroids could have delivered ammonia to the early Earth
In the wake of Stanley Miller's classic experiments, it seemed that one aspect of the origin of life was sorted out: the Earth's early atmosphere could easily produce some of the chemicals that are typical of modern life, providing a healthy supply of building blocks for the first pre-biotic chemistry. One of the components of Miller's experiments, however, was ammonia, a nitrogen bonded with three hydrogens; since his time, questions have been raised as to whether the early atmosphere could have contained any ammonia whatsoever. Now, an analysis of material in an Antarctic meteorite suggests that ammonia could have been delivered to the Earth from outer space. Nitrogen makes up the largest fraction of the Earth's atmosphere, but it's largely present as the unreactive N2 molecule. To participate in most biochemical processes, that molecule has to be reduced, which typically involves bonding to hydrogen or carbon. In Miller's time, the newly formed Earth's atmosphere was thought to promote chemical reduction, and thus would provide a healthy supply of ammonia. In more recent decades, however, views on the early Earth have shifted, and it's now thought to have been chemically neutral, and might even have a tendency towards oxidation, the opposite reaction. That has left researchers considering alternate sources for biochemical precursors.
One possible source includes extraplanetary delivery, with organic molecules arriving from space. Abundant organic materials have been found on some comets and a few types of meteors, but many of these are complex, stable end products, not the simple precursor molecules that could feed into early biochemistry. This is especially true of the most famous carbon-rich meteorite, the Murchison.
In the new paper, the authors look at a different class of meteorites found in Antarctica. These contain a collection of accessible components that include ammonia and amino acids, but also a large mix of insoluble organic molecules that have been tough to characterize. To get around this, the authors put the material in water, and then treated it with heat and high pressures, which released a great deal of ammonia. This suggests that the potential contribution of these meteorites to the early Earth's biochemistry is much larger than earlier work would have shown.
"An abundant exogenous delivery of ammonia, therefore, might have been significant in aiding early Earth’s molecular evolution toward prebiotic syntheses," the authors conclude, saying it "would make a reasonable case for exobiology." That's a pretty loose definition of exobiology, which generally refers to the process of life forming somewhere other than the Earth. But it does place an emphasis on the potential role of materials and processes that aren't inherent to our planet. This isn't the first paper to point that out; another recent study indicates that the impact of a comet on the atmosphere can produce lots of reduced nitrogen. It seems possible that life originated on Earth, but may have needed an assist from the rest of our solar system.
PNAS, 2011. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1014961108 (About DOIs).
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PS3 shipments halted in Europe as Sony, LG fight over Blu-ray patent
Sony's court troubles currently involve more than just tracking down hackers. According to a report from the Guardian, shipments of PlayStation 3s are being confiscated by European customs officers as Sony fights a patent battle with LG over Blu-ray.The ruling, which was handed down in the Netherlands, calls for all new PS3 shipments going into Europe to be confiscated for at least the next 10 days. A further extension could potentially mean that not only will new consoles not make it into Europe, but existing ones could be taken off of retail shelves.
The report claims that tens of thousands of consoles were seized in the Netherlands last week. The ban centers on a patent dispute between the two companies concerning the Blu-ray technology used in the PS3. If Sony is found to be violating LG's intellectual property, it could potentially be forced to pay substantial compensation, likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars range.
Neither company has publicly commented on the situation.
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ICANN: No government veto over controversial top-level domains
Less than two weeks away from ICANN's conference in San Francisco, representatives from the organization's Government Advisory Committee have rejected a US Department of Commerce proposal that would give GAC members veto power over new domain endings. The Department of Commerce plan would have allowed governments to object to a generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) "for any reason." On top of that, "if it is the consensus position of the GAC not to oppose objection[s] raised by a GAC member or members, ICANN shall reject the application," the proposal added.
Critics like information studies Professor Milton Mueller of Syracuse University warned that the provision would let individual governments scrap gTLDs like .humanrights or .gay.
But the GAC's scorecard on recommendations to ICANN proposes government "advice" rather than veto power over gTLDs. Here's the text of the proposal:
At the beginning of the Initial Evaluation Period, ICANN will provide the GAC with a detailed summary of all new gTLD applications. Any GAC member may raise an objection to a proposed string for any reason.If ICANN's Board takes an action on gTLDs "not consistent" with the GAC's advice, "the Board will provide a rationale for its decision," the draft suggests. ICANN's Board will hold a public meeting in San Francisco on March 18. The GAC and the Board are holding a pre-San Francisco conference in Brussels today.
The GAC will consider any objection raised by a GAC member or members, and agree on advice to forward to the ICANN Board.
GAC advice could also suggest measures to mitigate GAC concerns. For example, the GAC could advise that additional scrutiny and conditions should apply to strings that could impact on public trust (e.g. '.bank').
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Republicans: No compromise possible on net neutrality
The recently installed Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH), has no intention of finding any compromise on network neutrality. If he can't override the new rules, he will work to defund their enforcement. And if that doesn't work, he will continue railing against a "government takeover of the Internet" in speeches until something gets done. Boehner gave his first speech outside of Washington DC as Speaker of the House yesterday, appearing at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville Tennessee. The speech moved quickly from a discussion of that morning's sermon text (“No man can serve two masters”) to a discussion of God's love of humility to an assertion that America was founded on said humility and that this in turn led to the freedoms that Americans enjoy.
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3DS launches in Japan: handheld sells out, already hacked
Dedicated portable gaming devices may have some stiff competition these days, but that hasn't stopped Nintendo from launching the 3DS in Japan. With less than half a million units for sale and a somewhat paltry launch line-up, how did the handheld fare? Quite well, actually.Read the comments on this post
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White iPad available immediately? We'll know on Wednesday
We're just two days away from Apple's March 2 media event, which is widely expected to bring updates to the iPad. In typical pre-event fashion, leaks and rumors continue to make their way through the grapevine, leading some to believe that the next-gen iPad will not only be available in white, it may be available to customers almost immediately after the event.
iPhone repair shop iFixYouri (via 9to5 Mac) claims to have gotten its hands on an iPad part directly from Shenzen that hints the device will come in white, just like the white iPhone 4 that has yet to make an appearance. The part is the bezel (also known as the digitizer) that frames the display on the front of the device; the front appears to be painted white, while the back is black. The bezel also features a small hole at the top, which is believed to be for a front-facing camera that will be included in the next iPad.
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