Europe expected to require keeping of phone-call data

The European Parliament is expected to approve legislation today that would require telecommunications companies to keep details on their clients' phone calls, faxes and e-mail messages for six months to two years to help combat terrorism.

The New York Times reports (13 December) that the legislation, written in September, is coming up for a vote in record time. Though it generally takes a year to 18 months to bring a law to a vote, the countries that make up the union back the legislation, which comes in the wake of terrorist attacks in London last summer and Madrid last year.

That speed, however, alarms telecommunications companies, which say the public has not had enough time to consider the implications of the law.

The newspaper says that the momentum for the data retention law began after the Madrid train bombings a year and a half ago, when phone and internet records were used to track terrorists.

But in July, when bombers attacked the London subway system, Britain had just begun its six-month stint in the presidency of the European Union. The attacks made the data-retention law one of the British government's top priorities during its term at the helm of Europe. The wording of the legislation toughened considerably.

According to the NYT., the companies that would have to save the data say that would be highly expensive. They and civil libertarians also say the law would trample privacy rights, which are safeguarded under the European Convention on Human Rights.

The version of the law that Parliament will vote on was written by Britain. It would require phone companies to keep information like the time of phone calls or fax transmissions, the phone numbers of incoming and outgoing calls and the duration of the calls for at least two years. Details of e-mail activity would have to be stored for a minimum of six months.

Under existing Europe-wide data protection laws, companies are permitted to store this information only as long as it is needed for billing purposes, usually a month or two.

{mospagebreaktitle=Toshiba to delay HD DVD player launch}Toshiba to delay HD DVD player launch

Japan's Toshiba said on Tuesday it will delay the year-end Japan launch of its next-generation HD DVD players to address copy protection issues, potentially undermining its advantage as the first supplier to put such machines on the market.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (13 December) that the Japanese company had said in September the domestic launch might be postponed until after December. A spokesman for Toshiba said it would continue to push for a US launch in the first quarter of 2006, most likely some time between February and March.

Toshiba said in a statement it would not launch the products until the last details on copy protection management systems, called AACS, or advanced access content system, were finalised.

According to the Reuters report,Toshiba and Sony, leading rival camps, have waged a three-year battle to have their different standards adopted for the new DVDs, which promise much greater capacity for high-definition movies. Toshiba, along with NEC and Sanyo Electric, has been promoting HD DVD, while Sony and Matsushita Electric Industrial, the maker of Panasonic brand products, have been developing a technology known as Blu-ray.

The Blu-ray DVD group said in November it planned to roll out a high-definition disc format in spring 2006, and that members of the consortium led by Sony would unveil specific launch plans at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.

{mospagebreaktitle=Microsoft Xbox 360 sales start slow in Japan: study}Microsoft Xbox 360 sales start slow in Japan: study

Microsoft sold less than half of the estimated 159,000 Xbox 360 consoles that were available in stores in Japan in its first weekend of sales, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (123 December) that only about 62,000 units were purchased on 10 and 11 December 10, according to an independent study by Enterbrain, which publishes leading Japanese game magazine ``Famitsu.''

That was also less than half the 123,000 units Microsoft sold of its previous generation Xbox in the first three days of sales in February 2002.

The Reuters report says that Microsoft originally planned to release the 3-D fighting game at the same time as the Japan launch, but has now postponed it until 29 December.

Enterbrain reported that some stores had customers who canceled pre-reserved Xbox 360s, while others asked to reserve a console for purchase when ``Dead or Alive 4'' comes out.

According to Reuters, Microsoft has been struggling to gain ground in Japan against local rivals Nintendo and Sony, whose PlayStation 2 console is the global best seller.

The world's biggest software maker sold fewer than 500,000 of its original Xbox consoles in Japan, where Sony is estimated to have an 80 percent market share.

But, says Reuters, Xbox 360 still has the advantage of being the only next-generation console available for the next few months while Sony and Nintendo prepare to launch their PlayStation 3 and Revolution consoles next year.

Of the games that were released at launch, ``Ridge Racer 6'' by Namco Ltd. (7832.T) was the most popular, followed by Microsoft's own ``Perfect Dark Zero,'' according to Enterbrain.

{mospagebreaktitle=Microsoft, MCI plan PC-to-phone service}Microsoft, MCI plan PC-to-phone service

Microsoft and MCI said Monday they'll soon offer a service that lets customers place calls from their personal computers to regular phones.

The Associated Press reports (13 December) that the service will permit only outbound calls at first, even as rivals Yahoo and America Online allow instant messaging users to receive calls from conventional phones as well as to call out.

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, and MCI, the telecommunications provider being acquired by Verizon Communications, said they will begin a test run of the service in the United States this week. Broader availability is set for the first half of next year.

AP says that the service will use technology from Teleo, a small startup Microsoft acquired in August. Teleo's internet telephony software lets people make voice calls by clicking on phone numbers appearing on a web pages.

It's the latest offering to use Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, technology. Calls are broken into data packets that get routed over the internet, an approach that is cheaper and more efficient than the traditional circuit-switched phone system.

The AP report says that last week, Yahoo announced it would add computer-to-phone calling capabilities to its instant-messaging service, after a similar retooling of the rival AOL Instant Messenger service from Time Warner earlier.

Microsoft and MCI's new service, which the companies have dubbed ''MCI Web Calling for Windows Live Call,'' will allow users of MSN Messenger, Microsoft's instant messaging service, to call land lines or cell phones. Microsoft said it was working to add additional capabilities, including inbound calls.

According to AP., customers will sign up for the computer-to-phone calling service through its new Windows Live Messenger software, which will eventually replace MSN Messenger, and buy prepaid calling time from MCI in US$5, US$10 and US$25 blocks. MCI will handle account management, customer service and billing.

The latest versions of MSN Messenger and other instant messaging programs already let people talk to each other from computer to computer.

AP says there are also low-cost internet phone providers like Skype, acquired by internet auction house eBay in October, which give away software that lets people talk for free over the internet using computers and microphones.

{mospagebreaktitle=About 400M people now book flights online}About 400M people now book flights online

About 400 million passengers around the world are now booking their flights over the internet each year, a decade after the technology was first inaugurated, a technology firm owned by airlines said Monday.

The Associated Press reports (12 December) that the airline industry is now saving an estimated US$1.2 billion a year by not having to pay flight reservation fees for the tickets sold online, said SITA Information Networking Computing.

The company said British Midland Airways, now known as bmi, started using its first online booking engine in December 1995. The system allowed passengers to search for low fares across a date range, book two-for-one companion fares and pay online.

But usage was limited because only 16 million people had any experience of using the internet at the time.

AP says that SITA noted that the technology had extended beyond airlines. Among non-airline users is Amtrak, the US passenger train service, ''which recorded a new internet booking record in the run-up to Thanksgiving,'' it said.

Amtrak received 17,269 bookings on 21 Nov., the first time in the history of Amtrak.com that daily bookings exceeded the 17,000 mark.

{mospagebreaktitle=HP unveils virtual conference rooms}HP unveils virtual conference rooms

Hewlett-Packard has jumped into the business of providing the technology -- and building the rooms -- for large companies to hold virtual face-to-face meetings regardless of the distance between participants.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times that HP's Halo Collaboration Studio offers a nearly immersive environment where people can see each other, talk and collaborate remotely as if they were in the same room. The underlying network, built and serviced by HP, minimises delays and never crosses the public internet.

Developed in partnership with DreamWorks Animation SKG LLC, the rooms are targeted at large corporations that are looking to cut down on the amount of time and money spent flying people to different locations. Each room costs roughly US$550,000 with an US$18,000 per month fee though the charges vary with the number ordered.

{mospagebreaktitle=Firms count the cost of security threats}Firms count the cost of security threats

Security threats soared during 2005, along with the risk of financial losses, but a new report shows that companies still aren't heeding the warnings.

The Register reports (13 December) that, according to the State of Information Security 2005 report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and CIO Magazine, not only are security-related events up 22.4 percent on last year's figures, but the number of organisations reporting financial losses as a result of the attacks is also surging. Twenty-two percent of companies said they had been hit financially, compared with last year's 7 per cent.

But despite the growing security threat to businesses, only 37 per cent of respondents have a security plan in place, with only 24 per cent saying that they expected to develop one in the coming year. However, organisations with a chief information security officer (CISO) or chief security officer (CSO) fare a little better, with 62 per cent implementing a security plan.

The Register reports that the study shows that more companies are employing a CISO or CSO, with 40 per cent of respondents in the survey having one on the payroll compared with 31 per cent in 2004. Security spending is slightly increasing to compensate for the growing threat, accounting for 13 per cent of an organisation's IT budget this year, compared with 11 per cent last year.

According to the publication, malicious hackers are the top culprits to carry out the attacks, with 63 per cent of events attributed to them compared with 66 per cent last year. However, the number of employee-related attacks is also up, at 33 per cent compared with 2004's 28 per cent. Former employees remain a likely source of the security threats, representing 20 per cent of events.

Meanwhile, computer viruses still top the charts as the most common type of attack, rising to 59 per cent of attacks from 53 per cent the previous year.

The Register says the study showed that privacy issues delivered mixed results, with 17 per cent of respondents employing a chief privacy officer. More organisations also said they kept inventory of all third-party use of their data this year than in 2004 - 26 per cent compared to 16 per cent in 2004. However, some areas received a "could do better" rating, including posting the organisation policy on the company website. The number of companies providing employees with privacy training also slipped from 75 per cent in 2004 to 58 per cent.

More than 30 Irish companies took part in the survey, which surveyed around 8,200 chief executives, chief financial officers, vice presidents, directors of IT and information, CISOs and CFOs from 63 countries. A broad range of industries were surveyed, including manufacturing, financial services, government and education sectors.

{mospagebreaktitle=Intel to sell US$1.4bn debt}Intel to sell US$1.4bn debt

Intel is to raise US$1.4 billion in a special bond issue, the company has said.

The Register reports (13 December) that the privately transacted offer will be made only to institutional investors since it centres on bonds, called debentures, that are not secured with company assets. Intel will sell the debentures now then buy them back in 2035 on terms to be negotiated with whoever buys the bonds first.

The purchaser will be looking to get back the sum spent plus a return on the 30-year investment - or at least the prospect of a sufficient return to tempt a further buyer some time in the future.

According to The Register, Intel said it will use the money for general corporate purposes, but added that it may also use the proceeds to buy back stock on the open market.

{mospagebreaktitle=HarperCollins will create searchable digital library}HarperCollins will create searchable digital library}

In the latest move in the battle between publishers and search engines, HarperCollins Publishers has said it would create its own digital library of all of its book and audio content and make it searchable by consumers on the internet.

The New York Times reports (13 December) that web users will be able to search the HarperCollins archive via search engines like Google and Yahoo or the specialised programs of retailers like Amazon.com.

The move is intended to allow HarperCollins, a unit of the News Corporation, to maintain control over digital content rather than cede that control to other companies, Jane Friedman, chief executive, said.

According to the newspaper, rather than give copies of books to search services like Google for those companies to scan as it currently does, HarperCollins would keep the material on its own computers, and users would be pointed there by the search engine, Ms. Friedman said. The company expects to have at least part of the service operating by the middle of next year.

In the end, the development is not likely to make much difference in what consumers see, said Brian Murray, group president of HarperCollins. Currently, the Google Book Search site returns anywhere from a few lines to a few pages of a particular book's contents, depending on whether the book is under copyright and whether the publisher participates in its program. That's not likely to change.

The NYT reports that HarperCollins might offer consumers access to more of a book on its own site. HarperCollins said that all of its publishing companies around the world would participate in the program.

Other large publishers, like Random House, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann, have long been digitising all of their new content for in-house use, as well as many older books that remain in print, reports the NYT.

{mospagebreaktitle=Honda's ready for office chores}Honda's ready for office chores

Japan's third-biggest auto maker, known for its cutting-edge robot technology, introduced on Tuesday a second-generation Asimo, the now-familiar humanoid robot, that can also push a cart weighing up to 10 kg (22 lb), walking straight, sideways or backwards with it. Now, the five-year-old droid is ready to take on simple office work, greeting visitors and fetching refreshments.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (13 December) that, with more joints and flexibility of movement, Asimo can now also grip and carry a tray of drinks, placing it safely on a table.

Demonstrating its latest tricks through video footage, Honda showed the 130 cm-tall (4.25 feet) Asimo addressing a mock visitor by name and showing her to a conference room, all the while maintaining a steady and natural distance from the guest.

The Reuters report says that behind the seemingly simple tasks are a myriad advanced sensor, image and voice recognition and other technologies that Honda says will be applied to its core automotive business to improve safety and other features.

The bubble-headed droid can also run twice as fast as a prototype unveiled last December, at 6 km (3.7 miles) an hour.

{mospagebreaktitle=Dutch church bids for sex.eu}Dutch church bids for sex.eu

A Dutch Full Gospel Church was seconds too late to bid on sex.eu, the most sought after domain name using the European Union's own top level domain.

The Register reports (13 December) that the church Volle Evangelie Gemeente Rehoboth in Eersel, close to the Belgian border, was one of the first applicants for the domain name, according to the database of EURid, the European body responsible for registering .eu domain names. The church offered several hundred euros to obtain the domain name for a website where sex would be promoted "the way God wanted it", according to Chris Vermeulen of the church.

According to the report, Sweden's Yellow Register On Line AB - which also applied for travel.eu, music.eu, buy.eu, dvd.eu, search.eu, online.eu, sell.eu and find.eu - was the first applicant for sex.eu. Third was an optician from Lilbourne, UK. Andrew Ian MacNab applied for sex.eu several times, each time changing his name slightly. In total there were 232 applications for the domain name.

The Register says that the application is still pending. Trademark holders and public bodies are the first to apply for registrations during the so called sunrise period, which started last Wednesday. Holders of company or business names will have to wait until 7 February.