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| 91 | A GarageBand app for creating textbooks. That's the latest speculation about what Apple plans to announce at a big education-related media event scheduled for Thursday.
So far, Apple has given no word about what will be announced at the event, which will be held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, aside from the connection to education. Reports on the Web are now indicating that, according to unnamed sources, the company intends to release new tools for the creation of textbooks and other e-publications.
Support of ePub 3?
Some reports have previously indicated Apple could announce support for the ePub 3 e-book publishing format, which allows a wider range of interactive multimedia. The company currently supports the ePub 2 standard for its iBooks, with HTML 5 extensions for some kinds of multimedia. In addition to being limited, the extensions can create compatibility problems with other e-book platforms.
As Apple continues to dominate the tablet category that it virtually invented, there has been speculation for some time whether the company would help to reinvent textbook publishing, since textbooks are heavy, hard to keep updated, and pricey. The iPad is selling well in educational institutions, and is being used for training in businesses.
GarageBand is cited as a model for what some observers are expecting on Thursday, because it is a widely available Mac tool that makes music creation readily accessible to a wide range of users.
Of course, Apple has a long track record of transforming existing content spaces or creating new ones by providing tools and a platform, such as in desktop publishing, music listening and creation, film editing, and smartphone apps.
In addition to e-textbook development and distribution, new tools could also take advantage of the revolution in social networking, creating virtual dorm room study sessions from groups of remote users.
'Ripe for Digital Destruction'
Feeding the anticipation... newsfactor.com » | | 92 |  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter announced Thursday that it would begin restricting Tweets in specific countries, renewing questions about how the social media platform will handle issues of free speech as it rapidly expands its global user base.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 93 | Apple is breaking records with its earnings, but it's also getting some bad publicity in the wake of a New York Times report that painted a picture of the workers in China who assemble iPhones, iPads and other devices, often in harsh labor conditions.
Specifically, The New York Times cites employees who work excessive overtime, in some cases seven days a week, and live in crowded dorms. The paper also reports workers who claim they stand so long that their legs swell until they can hardly walk, as well as advocacy group reports that Apple's suppliers have improperly disposed of hazardous waste and falsified records and have little regard for worker health.
CEO Cook Speaks Out
Apple CEO Tim Cook responded to the Times reports in an e-mail to employees that was obtained by 9to5Mac.
"As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values. Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple's values today, and I'd like to address this with you directly," Cook wrote.
"We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don't care is patently false and offensive to us. As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It's not who we are."
Cook said Apple inspects more factories every year, raising the bar for its partners and going deeper into the supply chain. He stressed that the company has made a "great deal of progress" and improved conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers. He said he was convinced that no one in industry was doing as much as Apple in this regard.
"We will continue to dig deeper, and we will undoubtedly find more issues," Cook wrote. "What we will not do -- and never... newsfactor.com » | | 94 | Video calling on computers, mobile phones and tablets is no longer the novelty it was even a few years ago. But such calls remain a rarity on your television. Never mind that some newer, connected smart TVs provide video-calling options. Or that in recent years companies such as Cisco and Logitech have introduced set-top options for turning your living room TV into a gigantic video phone. Video calls on the TV have barely registered with consumers. Too expensive. Not good enough. Some combination of the two.
Even so, I've always appreciated the idea behind using the TV for video calls. The screen on your TV is likely the largest and best display in your house. And consider how appealing it might be for the entire family to congregate in front of a camera to show off the newborn to out-of-town relatives, rather than having everyone try to crowd in front of a PC's webcam.
Enter Silicon Valley newcomer Tely Labs. With its compact TelyHD Skype-compatible set-top box that recently went on sale, the company believes it can succeed where others have failed. Inside the nearly a foot-long black box is a wide-angle high-definition camera, four noise-canceling microphones, a pretty powerful dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, and Android software. In other words, it has the guts of a computer, which suggests some interesting possibilities down the road.
For now, though, this is mostly about video calling via Skype. In my tests, TelyHD delivered generally acceptable but uneven video quality, even after I swapped one test unit for another. The box is capable of delivering high-definition video up to the 720p standard, though I certainly never mistook the pictures I saw for a supercrisp HD series on network television. You need a robust Internet connection of at least 1 Mbps (upstream and downstream) to achieve... newsfactor.com » | | 95 | The very idea of psychotherapy seems to defy the instant-access, video screen blur of popular digital culture.
Not for long, if some scientists have their way. In the past few years researchers have been testing simple, video-game-like programs aimed at relieving common problems like anxiety and depression. These recent results have been encouraging enough that investigators are now delivering the programs on smartphones -- therapy apps, in effect, that may soon make psychological help accessible anytime, anywhere, whether in the grocery store line, on the bus, or just before a work presentation.
The prospect of a therapy icon next to Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja is stirring as much dread as hope in some quarters. "We are built as human beings to figure out our place in the world, to construct a narrative in the context of a relationship that gives meaning to our lives," said Dr. Andrew Gerber, a psychiatrist at Columbia University. "I would be wary of treatments that don't allow for that."
The upside is that well-designed apps could reach millions of people who lack the means or the interest to engage in traditional therapy and need more than the pop mysticism, soothing thoughts or confidence boosters currently in use.
"That is what makes the idea so promising," said Richard McNally, a psychologist at Harvard whose lab recently completed a study of 338 people using a simple program accessible on their smartphones. "But there are big questions about how it could work, and how robust the effect really is."
The smartphone study is only one of the most recent tests of an approach called cognitive bias modification, or C.B.M., that seeks to break some of the brain's bad habits. The theory is straightforward. Consider people with social anxiety, a kind of extreme shyness that can be physically disabling. Studies have found that... newsfactor.com » | | 96 | A new smartphone app is going to make it a lot easier for investors who follow the advice of "buy what you know." But some question whether the tool is telling them what they really need to know.
TD Ameritrade, a leading brokerage firm, [is adding] a new function to its mobile app allowing investors to scan UPC bar codes on any product and instantly see what company makes it, get stock information about that company and buy the stock on their smartphone. It will launch first on iPhone and iPad, and soon after, on devices running the Android operating system that have a camera.
The technology aims to bring Wall Street trading data to individual investors when they're at retail stores, when some do their research. For instance, an investor who noticed a consumer product that's nearly out of stock or selling well at a retail store could scan the item, see who makes it and place a trade without ever sitting in front of a computer.
Some of the best-performing stocks are companies that make "products that people on Main Street consume every day," says Nicole Sherrod of TD Ameritrade.
The move comes as more online brokerages roll out features to appeal to investors who use their smartphones to conduct trades.
Online brokerages garner much of their revenue from trading commissions when investors buy and sell. Mobile trading, which still only accounts for less than 10% of trades at TD Ameritrade, is one of the fastest growth markets as more people use mobile devices to conduct personal business, says TD Ameritrade's Steve Quirk.
"It's a growing percentage," says Patrick O'Shaughnessy of Raymond James. "They're taking (mobile trading) more seriously." It's an interesting tool that could appeal to investors, says David Lo of J.D. Power & Associates.
Yet some aren't so sure the additional information is... newsfactor.com » | | 97 | With Apple sending out invitations for a new product launch on March 7 in San Francisco, the iPad watchers are once again starting to speculate not only about features, but a new pricing paradigm -- including what happens to the iPad 2.
Apple was not immediately available for comment on the launch, but based on the photo in the invitation, it appears to be a new iPad with an ultra high-definition display. The invitation didn't offer specs -- or pricing -- but some industry watchers would expect to see Apple follow the footsteps of pricing models it adopted after multiple versions of the iPad and iPod entered the market.
"What I'd like to see is the existing iPad 2 remain on the market potentially at a lower price point," said Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis. "Even a small drop in price would certainly help. Some of the markets Apple has been talking about, like education, would benefit from a lower price entry point."
Subsidizing 3G
Greengart suggested that Apple could drop the price of the iPad 2 as low as $399 instead of starting it at the standard $499 for the entry-level model. Even a $50 drop in the price point could be a motivator for some customers, and in fact Best Buy has already lowered the price of the iPad 2 by $50.
"It's not that $500 is that expensive if you are comparing the iPad to other computing products. But still, Apple is pushing the iPad into a lot of different places and there are a lot of applications that make the iPad the most versatile tablet on the market," Greengart said. "At the same time there are people who are priced out of a $500 iPad. If Apple can maintain its margins while lowering its price, it would certainly be... newsfactor.com » | | 98 | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Internal Revenue Service's new software system for handling electronic tax returns has experienced problems during the tax filing season, angering some taxpayers whose refunds have been delayed.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 99 | Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson is readying a major restructuring of the company he just took over. That restructuring may include laying off thousands of people.
So says a report in The Wall Street Journal's AllThingsD blog. Reporter Kara Swisher cites multiple sources inside and outside the company in her story, which suggests these sweeping changes could be announced by the end of March and focus on Yahoo's large products organization and other lagging divisions.
"This is yet another reorganization for Yahoo. It's far from clear whether these cuts and any related restructuring will help get the company back on the path toward competitiveness and growth," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.
"It's one of those I'll believe it when I see it situations. Investors arguably want to see some 'shock therapy.' But how many times can you shock patient before killing it?"
Looking for Investors
Yahoo could not immediately be reached for comment, but AllThingsD reported Yahoo had hired Boston Consulting Group to help the company focus on growth areas and prepare for a more profitable future. Thompson has already made some other major moves since he came on board in January, including putting on hold talks about selling Yahoo's Asian assets and suing Facebook for patent infringement.
The tech industry can take some hints from Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock's letter to shareholders on Feb. 7. In it, he discusses some of the actions Yahoo is taking to increase shareholder value and position the company for growth.
"We have engaged with potential investors and reviewed proposals concerning an equity investment in the company, although at this time there have not been any proposals which have been deemed by the committee to be attractive to our shareholders," Bostock wrote. "We are also in active discussions with our partners in Asia regarding the possibility of... newsfactor.com » | | 100 | IBM on Thursday released the results of its X-Force 2011 Trend and Risk Report -- and there is some good news and some bad news.
First the good news. The X-Force 2011 Trend and Risk Report revealed a 50 percent decline in spam e-mail compared with 2010, more diligent patching of security vulnerabilities by software vendors, and higher quality of software application code. However, attackers have countered with an increase in automated shell command injection attacks against Web servers.
"The most surprising result to me has been the two- to three-fold increase in shell command injection attacks. I would not have predicted that particular attack vector would grow so much in popularity at this stage of the game," said Tom Cross, manager of Threat Intelligence and Strategy for IBM X-Force.
"X-Force believes that this activity may be an adaptation to the fact that Web site operators are working to fix SQL Injection vulnerabilities and may be missing shell command issues that are also lurking within their Web applications."
A Mixed Bag of News
For years, SQL injection attacks against Web applications have been a popular vector for attackers of all types, IBM said. SQL injection vulnerabilities allow an attacker to manipulate the database behind a Web site.
As progress has been made to close those vulnerabilities, IBM reports some attackers have now started to target shell command injection vulnerabilities instead. These vulnerabilities allow the attacker to execute commands directly on a Web server. IBM said Web application developers should pay close attention to this increasingly popular attack vector.
Back to the good news. There was a 39 percent decline in the availability of exploit code. And although some security vulnerabilities are never patched, in 2011 this number was down to 36 percent from 43 percent in 2010. IBM also witnessed a 50 percent... newsfactor.com » | | 101 | As every business and many consumers know, information is power. And, once again, there's a public struggle between Facebook and some of its users over who controls that power.
The stimulus for this most recent firestorm is a revision by the company of its Privacy Policy. Last week, Facebook published its proposed changes for the site's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which describes its relationship with its users, including privacy issues.
The company said in a statement that "many of the changes are administrative," such as replacing the term Privacy Policy with Data Use Policy, but the revisions are not going over well with some users.
'I Reject the Changes'
The proposed statement draft was posted with the intention of receiving user comments for up to one week, but that was enough time for a significant number of thumbs-down opinions from users in the U.S. and elsewhere.
For instance, more than 30,000 members of the German-language Facebook site all delivered the same, single sentence in their native language, which translated as "I reject the changes."
One concern is the revised language describing what information is available to which apps. The relevant line currently reads, "When you use an application, your content and information is shared with the application." The proposed revision reads, "When you or others who can see your content use an application...."
To some users, that raises alarms about apps installed by friends being able to read your information. Facebook replies that their current policy already allows this, and that the new wording is simply intended to make the policy as clear as possible. The company noted that users can go into Privacy Settings and control whether apps have access to their information.
Another bone of contention is simply that the word "privacy" is being replaced by references to "data use," but Facebook and others... newsfactor.com » | | 102 | Employers who ask prospective employees for their logons to Facebook and other online sites and services are getting pushback -- from Facebook. On Friday, the social-networking giant said that it's "a violation of Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to share or solicit a Facebook password."
The response from Facebook follows an Associated Press story earlier this week that described how some governmental agencies and companies were requiring the logons as part of the interview process.
Possible Liability for Companies
In one example cited by the news service, an African-American security guard with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services was asked for his logon information during a reinstatement interview in 2010 when he returned from a leave of absence.
The guard, Robert Collins, said he was told the Human Resources department wanted to check his private profile information for any possible gang affiliations, and he complied because he "needed the job to feed my family." The American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint, and the department revised its policy, asking interviewees instead to log on to their private profiles during the interview.
Some organizations are asking not only for Facebook logons, but, as the city of Bozeman, Montana does, for logons for e-mail, other social-networking sites, and other accounts.
In another form of the practice, some organizations ask that a human resources employee, such as the interviewer, be friended and thus given access to a private profile.
For example, there are reports that student athletes in various colleges are being required to "friend" a coach or compliance officer, in order to get access to their private info and posts.
'Unreasonable Invasion of Privacy'
In the Facebook statement, Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan noted that a company that seeks such information could be opening itself up to claims of discrimination if, for instance, it... newsfactor.com » | | 103 | The Federal Trade Commission's final report on online privacy, released Monday, could have a major impact on how advertising and other user-based activities work on the Web. The first wave of reaction to this potentially groundbreaking initiative features largely cautious support from consumer and privacy groups, as well as criticism from some industry organizations.
The report, a final version of a preliminary one released in December 2010, calls on Congress to pass "baseline privacy legislation" that will protect personal data to a greater extent than it is now. The specific recommendations include support for the "Do Not Track" browser header, stronger federal legislation, and protections governing online data brokers.
'Creates Strong Guidelines'
Among other things, the report proposes that consumers be able to opt out of user tracking, similar to the current "Do Not Call" registry for phone solicitations. It also calls for "short, meaningful disclosures" that would allow mobile customers to have more information about the data being collected about them.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a leading advocate for online privacy, said in a statement that the report "creates strong guidelines for protecting consumer privacy choices in the online world." It also noted that the FTC acknowledged "important steps" taken by industry consortia like the Digital Advertising Alliance, as well as the World Wide Web Consortium's effort to create standards to govern user tracking.
Some industry observers have criticized the voluntary approach exemplified by the DAA, in part because only a portion of the ad industry are members of the organization and subscribe to its guidelines.
The EFF voiced a note of caution that some efforts could be focused more on Do Not Target, rather than the larger Do Not Track. The distinction, also raised in a dissenting opinion by FTC Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch, is between a company serving targeted ads, and a wider... newsfactor.com » | | 104 | The number three wireless carrier is working hard to catch up to its rivals in offering high-speed, long-term evolution (LTE) data transfer for its devices, and service is already up and running in some small markets.
But analysts say it will be some time before LTE becomes standard for high-speed data on smartphones.
"LTE is going to take some time to fully get into customer use," William Ho of Current Analysis told us. "Carriers are using handsets as the means to transition users to the more efficient LTE network."
Small Town Testing
Large-scale LTE service will roll out for Sprint Nextel customers around mid-year, with service in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, Baltimore and Kansas City, ultimately covering 120 million people by year's end. But service is already active in some very small markets.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Kanakee, Illinois, a town of 27,537, located 60 miles from Chicago, is one such market where Sprint is ironing out the LTE kinks.
Sprint is no doubt feeling the heat to have the network ready in time for the next iPhone release from Apple, expected this summer. The new version is widely believed to be LTE-capable since the latest iPad tablet, released last month, is also LTE-equipped.
Sprint is also promising enhanced 3G service to prevent speed degradation when customers leave 4G-enabled areas with LTE devices.
"Sprint is investing in its CDMA network," said Bob Azzi, Sprint senior vice president for Network in a recent statement. "We continue to deploy multi-mode base stations across Sprint's nationwide cell sites and are expecting improvements in voice quality, signal density and data speeds."
Sprint already uses a slower standard, WiMax, which it also calls 4G for some devices like HTC's EVO 4G LTE, shown above. The new phones that will be LTE-enabled include Samsung's Galaxy Nexus and LG's Viper.... newsfactor.com » | | 105 | Apple's rivals are quick to say how much better, faster, cheaper or more popular their smartphones, computers and tablets are.
Yet when it comes to working conditions in the Chinese factories that build these competing products, Apple's electronics rivals have been silent lately.
In recent months, Apple has come under heavy scrutiny for working conditions in the overseas factories it uses, specifically those of Foxconn, the Taiwan contract manufacturer of electronics.
Amid criticism that it had not been vigilant enough, Apple announced it would use the Fair Labor Association, an independent auditor, to review the manufacturing plants it uses and to identify publicly factories where worker abuses had taken place.
Apple, no paragon of communication, has been publishing reports of the practices of its vendors since 2007, and, after numerous requests by advocacy and news organizations, it eventually shared the names of 156 direct suppliers.
It has pledged to go "deeper into the supply chain" in its own published audits.
Over the space of a week, I asked Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Microsoft and others about their reports on labor conditions. Most responded with a boilerplate public relations message. Some did not respond.
The answer from Barnes & Noble, the maker of the Nook e-reader, was typical. Mary Ellen Keating, a senior vice president, said only, "We don't comment on our supply chain vendors."
Lenovo e-mailed a general report on sustainability. Samsung, which sells more cellphones than Apple, gave no response.
Although some technology companies, like Microsoft, share some information about their audits, none go into detail about the violations they find inside specific facilities.
Microsoft, which says it works with the Fair Labor Association to perform worker surveys, says it conducts regular audits of its supplier factories and takes "corrective action" where necessary. The reports are made public, but they are summarized.
Amazon, maker of the Kindle e-reader, declined to comment specifically... newsfactor.com » | | 106 | (Reuters) - Not everyone is happy with the campaign being waged against AOL Inc by activist hedge fund Starboard Value -- namely some of the other top shareholders of the fallen Internet icon.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 107 | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's stellar quarterly results are helping convince skeptics on Wall Street that a bout of intense spending is beginning to pay off for an Internet retailer trying to transform itself into a technology company.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 108 | Cheer up, aficionados of real BlackBerry keyboards. Even though a preview earlier this week of Research In Motion's new BlackBerry 10 operating system featured a touchscreen keyboard, the company now insists that it will not turn its back on physical ones.
Some alarm could be justified over the possibility that all your thumb-experience with actual keys could go to waste in the next generation of BlackBerry smartphones. On Tuesday, when RIM previewed its new OS at a Blackberry conference in Orlando, the touchscreen keyboard was front and center, while the physical one was absent from the discussion.
'Just Plain Wrong'
To assure nervous BlackBerry users who might have wondered whether all was going to be virtual, CEO Thorsten Heins made a point on Wednesday of saying that RIM will not abandon physical keyboards.
Heins said the new BB10 product line of smartphones will include models with physical keyboards, as well as virtual ones. In his words to news media at the Orlando conference, Heins said "it would be wrong -- just plain wrong" to drop actual keyboards, since a real keyboard has been part of the brand.
To make sure the message got across, RIM spokeswoman Tenille Kennedy similarly confirmed that the company was not abandoning the physical incarnation.
In addition to the fact that a physical keyboard was not shown with the BB10 OS, RIM-watchers recall that the company has a recent history of missing the boat. After some years as the king of business phones, for instance, RIM ignored the growing wave of flashy new Android and Apple smartphones, even as its software steadily slipped behind the curve.
The dilemma is how to address the new, without losing the value of the old. At the same time that there are clearly some devoted fans of the traditional BlackBerry -- President... newsfactor.com » | | 109 | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A Northern California jury on Monday found that Google Inc infringed upon Oracle Corp's copyrights on the structure of part of the Java software programming language, in a high stakes trial over smartphone technology.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 110 | With some 900 million user accounts, Facebook would seem to be the perfect venue for advertisers. The question is, despite the amount of time people spend logged on, posting updates, chatting with friends and sharing pictures, how much does the advertising that has made Facebook a multibillion-dollar concern in a short eight years really move products?
Not enough, the nation's leading automobile manufacturer has apparently concluded. In its case, paid advertising on the world's biggest social network hasn't justified the cost.
$10 Million Campaign
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that General Motors was pulling its ads for cars on Facebook, while continuing to use free pages to publicize its products. The paid advertising had reportedly amounted to $10 million.
The decision may reflect a mindset of "why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" That could be troubling on some level for the Mark Zuckerberg-founded company as it heads toward an initial public stock offering Friday that hinges on future profitability and revenue growth. The company could be valued as high as $100 billion.
"GM's move is certainly likely to give other advertisers pause, especially given the company's heft, its reputation for advertising savvy and its remarkable return from the grave," Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, told us.
"There have also been numerous similar situations in the past, where an initially hot Internet property cooled swiftly -- in some cases, by Antarctic proportions -- when exposed to close scrutiny."
One example, King said, was Second Life, the virtual world created by Linden Research in 2003 that allows users to interact through avatars.
Virtual Showrooms Didn't Pay
"At one point, the site's fast growth and its popularity among the technology elite made it a go-to venue for numerous vendors and manufacturers, many of which built virtual 'showrooms' to market and advertise their goods," King... newsfactor.com » |
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