Microsoft to drop some Mac software
Microsoft will stop developing a version of its Windows Media Player for Apple Computer's Macs and will instead offer free technology that lets people play Windows Media files using Apple's own software.
The New York Times reports (13 January) that the company decided to stop developing the Mac version so it could focus on efforts for Vista, the new version of Microsoft's Windows operating system that is due out later this year, said Tim Harader, a senior business development manager with Microsoft's Windows digital media division.
Microsoft said it would continue to offer the current version but would not make any more improvements to it. The software maker has signed a deal with Telestream to offer a free plug-in that will let people play Windows Media video and audio files using Apple's QuickTime player.
The newspaper reported that because Microsoft's media player for Macs has not been updated for quite some time, Mr. Harader said the quality of some Windows Media files could be better if people used the plug-in and QuickTime.
{mospagebreaktitle=US video game sales up 6%}US video game sales up 6%
Sales of the video game industry in the United States rose 6 percent last year, helped by a 42 percent gain in software for portable devices.
Bloomberg News reports in The New York Times (14 January) that sales of games for portable machines reached U$1.4 billion, pushing industry sales to a record US$10.5 billion in 2005 including hardware, software and accessories, according to the NPD Group, a research firm.
Games for consoles like Xbox from Microsoft and the Sony PlayStation 2 fell 12 percent.
The previous record for industry sales was US$10.3 billion in 2002, says Bloombergs.
{mospagebreaktitle=600,000 Xbox 360 game units sold in US: group}600,000 Xbox 360 game units sold in US: group
Microsoft has sold 600,000 of its new Xbox 360 video game consoles in the United States since its November launch, an analyst for market researcher NPD Group has said.
In a 13 January New York Times report, Reuters reports that the Xbox 360 debuted to much fanfare on 22 November in North America. Since then it has been in short supply. Analysts, video game publishers and retailers have said shipments during the key holiday season fell short of expectations.
Reuters says that Microsoft said in a statement that its challenge has been to meet consumer demand for the Xbox 360. The company, which did not comment on the NPD numbers, said its manufacturing facilities are running at full capacity and that a third manufacturer will come online next month.
Microsoft confirmed its target of selling between 4.5 million and 5.5 million Xbox 360 consoles during the current business year, which ends 30 June, 2006.
The Reuters/NYT report also said that Sony, the world's biggest video game console maker, and Nintendo are preparing to ship their next-generation machines in 2006.
The NPD Group measures nearly two-thirds of retail sales in the United States and makes projections for the remainder of the year.
{mospagebreaktitle=US agency website insecure}US agency website insecure
In the US., the General Services Administration last week shut a web site for government contractors after a computer industry consultant reported that he was able to view and modify corporate and financial information submitted by vendors.
The New York Times reports (13 January) that the security flaw, which could have permitted contractor fraud, was reported to the agency's inspector general on 22 December, but almost three weeks passed before the system was taken offline last Wednesday.
The General Services Administration is the federal agency responsible for procuring equipment and services, including computer security technology, making the lapse all the more striking.
According to the NYT., the agency said it believed that the flaw had not been exploited by intruders or by authorised users.
The Web site, called eOffer, was introduced in May 2004 to let companies respond electronically to requests for proposals for computer technology services and products.
Computer security consultants said the flaws could have had consequences ranging from corporate espionage to bid tampering. They also said the agency now faced the challenge of verifying the accuracy of contracting data.
{mospagebreaktitle=Sales down 15%, Lucent cuts revenue forecast}Sales down 15%, Lucent cuts revenue forecast
Lucent Technologies, the US's biggest telecommunications equipment maker, has said that sales in the last three months of 2005 fell more than 15 percent and it lowered its full-year revenue forecast.
The New York Times reports that the company said weaker demand in the United States and China had pushed sales down to US$2.05 billion in the October-December period, compared with US$2.43 billion in the previous quarter.
Lucent also reduced its sales target for this fiscal year, which began 1 October, to unchanged or growth in the low-single digits, from mid-single digits. The company, which plans to report earnings on 24 Jan., said it expected revenue in the second half of the fiscal year, April to September, "to be significantly higher than the first half of the year."
According to the newspaper, though Lucent did not say which products sold more slowly, industry analysts said the company had been hurt by weaker demand for new wireless equipment. Lucent is the primary provider for Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, two American companies that have been spending heavily to upgrade their networks so consumers can send and receive data faster.
{mospagebreaktitle=Nikon to stop making most cameras using film}Nikon to stop making most cameras using film
The Nikon Corporation, the Japanese camera maker, said Thursday that it would stop making most of its film cameras and lenses in order to focus on digital cameras.
The New York Times reports (13 January) that the company, based in Tokyo, is the latest to join an industrywide shift toward digital photography, which has exploded in popularity. Rivals like Kodak and Canon have already shifted most of their camera production into digital products.
Nikon said it would halt production of all but two of its seven film cameras and would also stop making most lenses for those cameras. The company will halt production of the film camera models "one by one," though it refused to specify when.
According to the newspaper, a company spokesman said Nikon made the decision because sales of film cameras have plunged. In the most recent fiscal year ended March 2005, Nikon said that film camera bodies accounted for 3 percent of the 180 billion yen (US$1.5 billion) in sales at the company's camera and imaging division. That is down from 16 percent the previous year.
By contrast, sales of digital cameras have soared, the company said, jumping to 75 percent of total sales in the year ended March 2005, from 47 percent three years earlier. Scanners and other products account for the remainder of the division's sales.
The NYT reports that Mr. Abe said the announcement might trigger a brief revival in sales of film cameras, as film photography buffs rush to buy the cameras before production stops. The decision may also help make film cameras a popular nostalgia item in second-hand markets like eBay.
{mospagebreaktitle=Apple's 1st computer with Intel chips}Apple's 1st computer with Intel chips
Apple Computer has introduced its first Macintosh computers using chips from Intel, several months ahead of schedule.
The New York Times reports (11 January) that Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, unveiled a new iMac computer and a new notebook computer called the MacBook Pro at Macworld Expo, a highly anticipated annual event at which the company usually shows off new products and initiatives.
Mr. Jobs also revealed that Apple's revenue for the quarter ended 31 Dec. jumped 63 percent, to US$5.7 billion. The figure easily beat Wall Street's expectations, as sales of the iPod portable music player more than tripled compared with the holiday quarter in 2004. Revenue for that quarter was US$3.5 billion.
The newspaper reported that Mr. Jobs said the company sold 14 million iPods during the holiday quarter, up from 4.5 million during the 2004 holiday season. Perhaps more surprising was the news that Apple sold 1.25 million Macintosh computers in the quarter, up from 1.05 million in 2004, despite the worries of some analysts that consumers would delay their purchases. Sales at Apple's retail stores rose to about US$1 billion, Mr. Jobs said.
According to the NYT., Apple's decision to incorporate the Intel chips months ahead of time came as a surprise. Last June, the company said it was abandoning IBM's Power PC processor line, which it had used for 14 years, as well as chips from its other major supplier, Freescale Semiconductor. The move was considered a watershed announcement in an industry that has long considered Intel an ally of Microsoft, Apple's giant rival.
Mr. Jobs has said that the Intel chips would allow Apple to make faster and more versatile computers and media devices than it could have with its previous chip suppliers.
The newspaper reported that Mr. Jobs also introduced an update of Apple's iLife suite of software that is intended to make it easier to create, edit and distribute online photographs, movies, podcasts and other digital content. The company also introduced a new device to allow iPod users to listen to FM stations.
The announcements were in keeping with Apple's broader strategy of building on the success of the iPod with new hardware and services in the growing realm of digital media.
Mr. Jobs said the entire Macintosh line would be converted to Intel chips by the end of this year, a move that analysts say could help take market share from Windows-based personal computers.
{mospagebreaktitle=Apple shares hit record high on Intel news}Apple shares hit record high on Intel news
Apple Computer shares leapt to an all-time high last Wednesday, boosted by its decision to use Intel microprocessors to help it grab a bigger share of the desktop PC market.
Apple is tapping not only the latest chip technologies that rival makers of Windows-based computers will use but also the vast marketing power that Intel, the world's largest semiconductor company, delivers.
Apple unveiled its first two machines with Intel's Core Duo -- an iMac and new laptop -- on Tuesday and said it would not thwart users who would seek to run Microsoft's Windows operating system on the machines. With Intel processors inside the new Macs, their owners could run Microsoft Windows and software designed for it at full speed.
The move to Intel chips will boost Apple's sales and erase the perception that Macintosh computers lag behind Windows-based PCs in performance, analysts said.
{mospagebreaktitle=America online buys video search service developer}America online buys video search service developer
Furthering its efforts to focus on internet video, America Online has said that it had acquired Truveo, a private Silicon Valley company that runs a search engine for video clips. AOL did not disclose the value of the purchase, but an executive briefed on the transaction said the price was around US$50 million.
The New York Times reported that Truveo will be integrated into AOL's existing video search, which is based on technology from Singingfish, a company AOL acquired in 2003.
Truveo's index of 1.8 million video clips will be added to AOL's existing 2.5 million clips. There is little overlap between the two, said Kevin Conroy, an executive vice president in the media networks unit of AOL, which is part of Time Warner.
The newspaper reports that building a search engine for video has proved to be much more difficult than for web pages, but adds that Truveo has found an automated way to run these video players and create an index of the video clips that they contain. It specialises in updating its index from mainstream publishers, making it particularly useful for finding current news clips.
The NYT says that the leading Web search engine, Google, has taken a completely different approach to video. Rather than trying to find video on other sites, it is asking publishers to upload video to be played from Google's site.
{mospagebreaktitle=Deal between ABC and BBC}Deal between ABC and BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation has announced that it will make about 40 video news clips available daily in the United States and Canada for internet and cellphone subscribers through a deal with ABC News.
The Associated Press reports in the New York Times that BBC News producers will choose segments on top world and British news, along with topical items like entertainment, business and technology news. ABC, which is part of the Walt Disney Company, did not say when it will begin offering the clips, nor did it disclose pricing details.
{mospagebreaktitle=Blackberry gets Google Talk and Google Local}Blackberry gets Google Talk and Google Local
Blackberry mobile email devices will be equipped for instant messaging, local search and maps from Google, Google and Blackberry producer Research In Motion said on Thursday.
Reurters reports in The New York Times that Google Talk allows users to send and receive instant text messages with other Google Talk members. The service will be available for download onto a Blackberry device this spring.
Immediately available is a software download of Google Local for mobile, which enables Blackberry users to view maps and satellite imagery, find local businesses and get driving directions on their Blackberry handsets.
Both applications will be free to download, RIM said.
Reuters says that Blackberry is the world's leading brand for mobile corporate email and is diversifying its offering in response to emerging strong competition from companies such as Nokia and Microsoft, which have just launched much cheaper mobile email services of their own.
Google, in turn, is the world's leading internet search company but a latecomer in instant messaging, where it lags Time Warner's AOL, Microsoft, Skype and Yahoo.
{mospagebreaktitle=Online shoppers turn to Google for search: report}Online shoppers turn to Google for search: report
Online shoppers picked Google as their search engine of choice this December while making their holiday Web purchases, according to a report issued on Wednesday.
Reuters reports in The New York Times that internet measurement firm Hitwise found that 11.1 percent of all December shopping-related visits originated with Google, a 28 percent jump over last year. But online auction giant eBay was the biggest driver of traffic to shopping sites, generating more than 13 percent of retail traffic.
Search engines Yahoo! Search and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Search drove 4.05 percent and 0.79 percent of retail visits, respectively.
According to Reuters, online retail giant Amazon.com, which is the second most visited online shopping site after eBay, generated only 0.75 percent of visits to other shopping retailers, Hitwise found.
Some 18.3 percent of all visits to shopping and classified web sites originated with search engines.
Hitwise found that eBay, Amazon.com, Google's online shopping site Froogle and Shopzilla's BizRate were the four most popular online shopping sites originating from Google in December, representing 18.1 percent of the traffic to retailers generated by Google.
{mospagebreaktitle=IBM, Sony, Toshiba extend partnership}IBM, Sony, Toshiba extend partnership
The partnership among IBM, Sony and Toshiba that produced the vaunted Cell microprocessor is being extended for another five years to focus on advancing chip designs at extremely small scales.
The Associated Press reports in The New York Times that the companies planned to announce that their next joint research project will aim toward chips with features smaller than 32 nanometers -- 32 billionths of a meter.
According to AP., today's chips generally are built with components as small as 90 nanometers, though 65-nanometer-based chips are emerging. It's part of the microprocessing industry's constant fight to wring performance improvements and cost efficiencies out of ever smaller chips.
Other efforts in the 30-nanometer range are already occurring, including a partnership between IBM and Advanced Micro Devices (Research into molecular computing is aiming even smaller, toward chips with features that might operate in the space of 2 to 3 nanometers.)
AP reports that Lisa Su, a vice president in IBM's semiconductor research and development center, said this partnership is different because of Sony's and Toshiba's expertise with the specific needs of chips for consumer devices.
The Cell chip already produced by the IBM-Sony-Toshiba pact packs eight processors. With its powerful graphics capabilities, Cell is the heart of Sony's upcoming PlayStation 3 video game system and next-generation Toshiba TVs, but it has yet to win much wider acceptance.
{mospagebreaktitle=TV coming to in-flight internet service}TV coming to in-flight internet service
Airline passengers will soon be able to watch live television on their laptops through Connexion by Boeing's in-flight internet service.
Reuters reports in The New York Times that beginning 23 Jan., passengers who buy blocks of internet access on the nine foreign airlines that currently offer Connexion's service will also be able to watch programs broadcast on BBC World, CNBC, Eurosportnews, and either EuroNews or MSNBC.
Airlines like JetBlue Airways and Frontier Airlines offer similar programming viewable on TV screens on the backs of passengers' seats.
The Report says that under new pricing announced last Wednesday, access to Connexion's high-speed internet service will cost US$26.95 for up to 24 hours beginning 31 Jan., Connexion currently charges US$29.95 for six hours of internet access or more. Hourly pricing also is available.
The TV service will not cost passengers any extra.
Reuters says that the airlines that currently carry Connexion's service are: Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Japan Airlines, Singapore Airlines, All Nippon Airways, China Airlines, Korean Air, Asiana Airlines and El Al Israel Airlines.
{mospagebreaktitle=Study: teens optimistic about innovation}Study: teens optimistic about innovation
Teenagers have some seemingly high expectations about what technology might bring over the next decade, according to a new Massachusetts Institute of Technology study.
The Associated Press reports in The New York Times that, or example, 33 percent of teens predicted that gasoline-powered cars wilfl go the way of the horse and buggy by 2015. Just 16 percent of adults agreed.
Meanwhile, 22 percent of teenagers predicted desktop computers will become obsolete a decade from now, while only 10 percent of adults agreed.
According to AP., adults, on the other hand, were far more certain about the demise of the landline telephone by 2015 (45 percent made that prediction) than teenagers (17 percent).
The teens queried also said new inventions -- over any time frame, not necessarily by 2015 -- can solve such global problems as unclean water (91 percent), hunger (89 percent), disease (88 percent) and pollution (84 percent). Adults were less optimistic about hunger, with 77 percent saying technology will play an important role.
AP says that Merton Flemings, who heads the Lemelson-MIT program that conducted the survey, said he was encouraged that teenagers believe science and technology may hold answers to our biggest issues.
{mospagebreaktitle=European tech giants developing search engine}European tech giants developing search engine
Quaero is billed as Europe's answer to Google, but it has a lot to live up to. The awkward word -- which means ''to search'' in Latin -- is unlikely to flash across the continent's computer screens anytime soon.
The Associated Press reports in The New York Times that, so far Quaero is just a scattering of top tech minds in labs across France and Germany, working on what they hope will be the world's most advanced multimedia search engine.
According to AP., Quaero epitomises European ambitions -- especially for French President Jacques Chirac -- of creating alternatives to US technological prowess. But facing off against super-rich, super-talented US companies may prove daunting for the cumbersome consortium of European companies and public agencies hatching Quaero.
AP says that designers insist that Quaero will not just be a search engine but a set of tools for translating, identifying and indexing images, sound and text.
The technology would work with all platforms -- computer desktops, mobile devices and even televisions -- and be sold to television companies, filmmakers, post-production facilities and anyone who creates or uses audiovisual content, according to France's electronics giant Thomson.
AP reports that details are scant. None of the key players -- including Thomson, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom -- would comment on cost.
Quaero is hardly the first attempt to develop a compelling alternative to Google, which has emerged as one of the world's best known -- and most valuable -- companies just seven years after its inception in a Silicon Valley garage, reports AP.
The AP report says that even US technology powerhouses like Yahoo and Microsoft haven't been able to erode Google's dominance, even after spending tens of millions of dollars to improve their search engines. Through November, Google held a 40 percent share of the US search market, up from 35 percent in the previous year, according to comScore Media Metrix. Google's lead outside the United States is believed to be even larger.
{mospagebreaktitle=Fujitsu spending US$1 Bln on new chip plant}Fujitsu spending US$1 Bln on new chip plant
Japanese electronics conglomerate Fujitsu has said on it would spend 120 billion yen (US$1.05 billion) to build a new microchip plant at its manufacturing complex in Japan to meet growing demand.
Reuters reports in The New York Times that Fujitsu's capacity expansion comes at a time when growth in global chip demand is expected to pick up over the next few years.
The new plant, located in central Japan's Mie prefecture and set to start output in April 2007, will process 300-mm wafers to make system chips with a circuitry width of 65 nanometers.
According to Reuters, the large wafers can yield more than twice as many chips as the standard 200-mm variety, helping chip makers slash production costs and offer competitively priced products.
Reuters says that Fujitsu plans to invest 120 billion yen in the plant in the two years to March 2008 to bring the plant's wafer processing capacity to 10,000 units a month.
Global microchip demand will likely expand 8.0 percent in 2006 and 10.6 percent in 2007, after estimated growth of 6.6 percent in 2005, according to industry group World Semiconductor Trade Statistics.
{mospagebreaktitle=Microsoft warns of critical Windows security flaws}Microsoft warns of critical Windows security flaws
Microsoft last week warned users of its Windows operating system of two ``critical'' security flaws in its software that could allow attackers to take complete control of a computer.
The Register reports that the world's largest software maker issued patches to fix the problems as part of its monthly security bulletin. The problem mainly affects the Windows operating system.
The warning came after the company made a patch available earlier than expected to fix a different critical flaw in the Windows operating system.
Computer security experts and Microsoft urged users to download and install the patch available at www.microsoft.com/security.
Microsoft defines a flaw as ``critical'' when the vulnerability could allow a damaging Internet worm to replicate without the user doing anything to the machine.
{mospagebreaktitle=France Telecom warns of sales slowdown}France Telecom warns of sales slowdown
Shares in France Telecom (FT) were on the slide last week after the giant telco warned that it was unlikely to generate as much cash this year as it had predicted.
The Register reports that, in a statement issued by FT., the company blamed "accelerated technological changes, competitive pressure and the regulatory environment" for its decision to confirm that growth continues to slow.
According to The Register, this means that, like other traditional telcos, FT is being hit by the growth in broadband telephony services (VoIP), increased competition from rivals and cuts in call termination rates imposed by regulators.
Last year, FT predicted that revenues would grow by around three to five per cent but has now downgraded that figure to between two to three per cent.
