Countries agree: no change to Icann control

Representatives from the United States and nations that had sought to break up some of its control over the internet reached an accord on Tuesday night that leaves the supervision of domain names and other technical resources unchanged. They agreed instead to an evolutionary approach to internet management.

The New York Times reports (16 November) that the accord, a document of principles that delegates from more than 100 countries worked out after more than two years of sometimes fiery argument, also established a new international forum intended to give governments a stronger voice in Internet policy issues, including the address system, a trade-off that the Americans were willing to accept.

The text of the document is to be approved at a United Nations summit meeting on information-age issues that is about to begin in Tunis.

The newspaper says that American delegates who had been working on the document celebrated the outcome. Only in September, the European Union had made a well-received proposal to put some of the American powers under a new agency. And in the prelude to the talks that resumed this week, increasing pressure had been brought on the Americans to share their authority.

The United States maintained that diluting the authority of the body that now manages the internet address structure, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, known as Icann, could jeopardise the stability and security of the global network. Icann is a California-based nonprofit group that is answerable to the US Commerce Department.

{mospagebreaktitle=Vodafone issues profit warning, and shares drop}Vodafone issues profit warning, and shares drop

Facing fierce competition in Europe and poor results in Japan, the Vodafone Group has warned that its profit margins would narrow through early 2007.

The New York Times reports (16 November) that Vodafone, the world's largest mobile phone service company, issued its cautionary statement as it announced lower earnings for the latest six-month period.

Vodafone said that compared with the period a year earlier, organic profit margins, after interest and taxes, for the fiscal year ending in March would be in the "flat to 1 percent lower range," leaning toward the lower end.

For the fiscal year ending in March 2007, the company also predicted narrowing profit margins as well as "slightly lower" revenue growth than it had anticipated for fiscal 2006.

According to the newspaper, the warning unnerved the markets, even though the company increased its dividend 15 percent, for a payout of roughly £1.4 billion (US$2.4 billion), and increased its share buyback program by £2 billion (US$3.5 billion) for a total of £6.5 billion (US$11.3 billion).

The NYt reports that Vodafone's cautions signaled a tumultuous period ahead for telecommunications companies in Europe, analysts said. Major mobile phone providers are gearing up for battle in markets where they are already big players, as high penetration levels in Western Europe make it increasingly difficult to add market share.

{mospagebreaktitle=AMD raises profit forecast}AMD raises profit forecast

Advanced Micro Devices expects its operating profit and earnings per share to improve significantly in 2006, its chief financial officer has said.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (16 November) that the company expects its chips for business server computers to help increase sales, but it also expects consumer devices to become more important, a trend noted in the industry as it widens its traditional focus on computers.

The financial officer, Robert J. Rivet Sr., said at the company's financial analysts' meeting that he expected its shipments of microprocessors in 2006 to increase at double the projected industry growth rate of 10 percent, led by server sales.

Mr. Rivet also projected gross margins next year of 51 percent to 57 percent.

Reuters also reports that, on a sustained basis, he said, he thought Advice Micro Devices could achieve an operating profit margin of 18 percent to 24 percent.

{mospagebreaktitle=Microsoft expects solid Xbox 360 debut}Microsoft expects solid Xbox 360 debut

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has said he expects successful launches of the Xbox 360 game console in the United States, Europe and even in Japan -- the stronghold of its archrival Sony's blockbuster machine PlayStation.

``We have very strong momentum, particularly in the northern parts of Europe, United States, Australia ... I know for sure, 100 percent, we will do much better in Japan than we did with Xbox 1,'' Ballmer told a news conference in Tokyo, where he was helping to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Microsoft's Japan unit, reports Reuters in The New York Times (16 November).

The newspaper reports that while Xbox competes almost evenly with Sony's PlayStation 2 in the United States, in Japan it runs a distant third behind Sony and Nintendo's GameCube.

Microsoft will be the first of the three major companies to launch a new console when the Xbox 360 hits store shelves in North America on 22 November. Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Revolution are expected sometime later in 2006.

Reuters says in the NYT report that the world's largest software maker plans to launch Xbox 360 on 2 December in Europe and 10 December in Japan.

According to the Reuters report,Microsoft convinced some of Japan's hottest creators, animators and musicians to create games for the new Xbox, including Final Fantasy's original producer, Hironobu Sakaguchi, and publisher Square Enix.

Microsoft is aiming to sell 2.75 million to 3 million Xbox 360 units in the first 90 days after the launch date, says Reuters.

{mospagebreaktitle=Intel aims to boost mobile chip share}Intel aims to boost mobile chip share

Intel has said on it aims to reach a double-digit share in the market for chips used in mobile phones within the coming years.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (16 November) that Intel, the world's biggest chipmaker, declined to give a figure for the company's current market share, but analysts have said the figure is in the low single digits.

The Reuters/NYT report says that analysts Signals Ahead forecast that Intel would have an 8.1 percent market share by 2009 in the baseband chip market for WCDMA, a successor to current GSM mobile technology, trailing Nokia, Qualcomm, Freescale Semiconductor and Ericsson Mobile Platform.

Intel has targeted the mobile market as a growth area.

{mospagebreaktitle=CD's recalled for posing risk to PC's}CD's recalled for posing risk to PCs

The global music giant Sony BMG yesterday announced plans to recall millions of CD's by at least 20 artists - from the crooners Celine Dion and Neil Diamond to the country-rock act Van Zant - because they contain copy restriction software that poses risks to the computers of consumers.

The New York Times reports (16 November) that the move, more commonly associated with collapsing baby strollers, exploding batteries, or cars with faulty brakes, is expected to cost the company tens of millions of dollars. Sony BMG said that all CD's containing the software would be removed from retail outlets and that exchanges would be offered to consumers who had bought any of them.

A toll-free number and e-mail message inquiry system will also be set up on the Sony BMG Web site, sonybmg.com.

Neither representatives of Sony BMG nor the British company First 4 Internet, which developed the copy protection software, would comment further.

According to the NYT., Sony BMG estimated last week that about five million discs - some 49 different titles - had been shipped with the problematic software, and about two million had been sold.

The newspaper says that market research from 2004 has shown that about 30 percent of consumers report obtaining music through the copying and sharing of tracks among friends from legitimately purchased CD's. But the fallout from the aggressive copy protection effort has raised serious questions about how far companies should be permitted to go in seeking to prevent digital piracy.

{mospagebreaktitle=Google aims for classified ads business}Google aims for classified ads business

Google is poised to enter the highly competitive classified advertisement business, posing a threat to online and traditional businesses in that field.

The New York Times reports (16 November) that On Tuesday evening, Google, the dominant Web search site, was planning to introduce a service called Base, which it said was intended to permit internet users to upload files and other information to Google's servers and make them searchable by category.

According to the newspaper, currently Google displays the results of queries as a simple list, ranked by relevance. Google Base would allow searchers to pull up information organised by any subject. Google, however, has not said how it will display information organised into groupings, like homes, cars or jobs. Initially, the service will be free.

During an interview at Google headquarters last week, Salar Kamangar, Google's vice president for product management, said the new service was experimental and cautioned against viewing it as a imminent assault on the classified advertising business because it could be used in far broader ways.

The NYT  says that, still, several industry executives and analysts said they believed that Google Base was an aggressive first step in a series of maneuvers that would position the company as a powerful player in the US$100 billion annual market for classified advertising.

{mospagebreaktitle=Windows server thrashes Novell's Linux: Register}Windows server thrashes Novell's Linux: Register

Windows is more reliable than Novell's Linux and easier to manage, according to Microsoft-funded research carried out by Security Innovation.

The Register reports (16 November) that the research simulated two IT departments, one running Suse Linux from Novell and one running Windows Server 2000. It found the Linux system required an eye-watering 187 patches while Windows needed just 37.

Ashim Pal, Microsoft's chief Linux basher, told the Register: "Windows is more reliable over time and the time to provision (getting systems up and running) is 40 per cent less than Linux."

The publicaton says that researchers followed the imaginary IT departments over the course of a year as they moved from Windows Server 2000 to Windows Server 2003 and from Suse Enterprise Linux 8 to Suse Enterprise Linux 9.

In that period the Novell system suffered 14 "critical breakages" while the Windows system suffered none.

According to The Register, in effect, the Suse set-up was impossible to administer - the actions taken to keep system running meant the terms and conditions of the contract with Novell were broken so any warranty would have been null and void.

{mospagebreaktitle=Toilet-disposed mobiles menace Helsinki's sewers}Toilet-disposed mobiles menace Helsinki's sewers

More and more mobile phones are turning up in the sewage system of the Helsinki Metropolitan area, according to Helsinki Water, which serves over one million households.

The Register reports (16 November) that it is not known if the phones are purposely or accidentally disposed of, but with 4.8 million mobile users in Finland, it's reasonable to expect a certain number of toilet-related mobile incidents.

The publication says that Helsinki Water didn't supply exact numbers, but dropping mobiles down the toilet is pretty common elsewhere too. In the UK alone, as estimated 600,000 mobiles are flushed every year.

According to The Register, as mobile phones get smaller and smaller, this number will undoubtedly increase, although dropping a cell phone down the pan is still only number six on a list of mobile phone accidents compiled by Swedish retailers.

{mospagebreaktitle=Offshoring fears hit US college computing enrolments}Offshoring fears hit US college computing enrolments

Scare stories about the offshoring of IT jobs to locations such as India are discouraging US students from studying computing, according to Yogesh Gupta, CA's chief technology officer.

"Media hype about jobs moving offshore is leading to a drop in computer science course enrollments. This will lead to a dearth of qualified people over the medium term," Gupta told The Register in a 16 November report.

Gupta blames lack of confidence in post graduation jobs for a drop in computer course enrollment of between 50-60 per cent over recent years, reports The Register.

The publication says that Gupta, who studied for his first engineering degree in his native India and sits on the board of several US universities, said the growth in the number of people employed in the IT sector is been overshadowed by publicity about the transfer of support and development work overseas.