World mobile subscribers top 2 Billion: study

The number of mobile phone subscribers in the world has surpassed the 2 billion milestone Wireless Intelligence, an information service set up by industry body GSM Association and consulting firm Ovum, said on Sunday.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (18 September) that the bulk of the new growth now is coming from large, less well-developed markets such as China, India, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa, Wireless Intelligence said in a statement.

The largest mobile phone maker, Finnish Nokia, said last month it expects the 2 billion mark to be reached in the October-to-December quarter and 3 billion by 2010.

``The total number of mobile connections is now equivalent to nearly a third of the estimated world population of 6.5 billion,'' Martin Garner, director at Wireless Intelligence, said in a statement.

The Reuters/NYT report says that Nokia, which sold 31.9 percent of all phones in the second quarter, according to researchers Gartner, is followed by US Motorola with 17.9 percent of the market and Korean Samsung Electronics with 12.8 percent.

Computer hackers seeking financial gain rather than thrills or notoriety are increasingly flooding the internet with malicious software code, according to a semi-annual report issued on Sunday.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (19 September) Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report said during the first half of 2005 the number of new viruses targeting Microsoft Windows users jumped 48 percent to nearly 11,000 compared to the previous six months as hackers used new tools and a growing sophistication to create malicious code.

The latest report by the world's biggest security software maker also found that viruses exposing confidential information made up three-quarters of the top 50 viruses, worms and Trojans, up from 54 percent in the last six months of 2004, reports the NYT.

The newspaper also reported that Symantec also said an increasing amount of menacing software allowed spam to be relayed automatically from computer to computer. These so-called ``Trojan'' programs can download and install adware to display pop-up ads in a user's Web browser.

More so-called robot, or ``bot'' networks, which are created when a hacker illegally gains control of a large number of computers, are now available for sale or rent in the underworld of the internet, Symantec said, reports the newspaper.

The report added that as financial rewards increase, attackers will likely develop more sophisticated and stealthier malicious code that will attempt to disable antivirus, firewalls, and other security concerns.

The newspaper reported that Vincent Weafer, a security expert at Symantec, said early generations of cybervandals tended to unleash viruses as a way to bolster their reputations in the murky hacker world but now the motivation has turned to financial gain using more targeted malicious software.

The number of headline-grabbing viruses has slowed since the Blaster worm outbreak in 2003, which targeted Microsoft software and devastated hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide.

Instead, there is now a surge in people trying to gain control over a network of computers to launch attacks as well as a growing number of phishing scams that trick users into clicking onto a web site that contains infected code, he said.

The newspaper says that Symantec saw an average of 10,532 active bot network computers per day, an increase of more than 140 percent over the prior six months.

It also said phishing messages grew to an average 5.70 million messages a day from 2.99 million.

Forget voice calls. That cell phone in your pocket is well on its way to becoming a remote control for your life, says Associated Press in a report in The Nedw York Times (18 September).

The AP/NYT report says that ''smart'' handsets are already being used by busy executives to retrieve important documents from office computers halfway across the globe. They're handling e-mail, programming set-top boxes and keeping an eye on the home surveillance system.

Tourists lost in some foreign capitals can now, with a GPS-equipped cell phone, get their bearings using on-screen maps. Commuters crossing town can tap into the same tools to avoid traffic jams and reroute in mid-journey.

The AP report says that cell phones have far outpaced personal digital assistants as the electronic device favored by consumers -- 187.7 million people, or 65.4 percent of the US population, own cell phones, according to the Yankee Group, which has stopped tracking sales of handheld computers that lack cellular connectivity, calling them irrelevant.

Software makers, keenly mindful of the trend, are coming up with new ways to lend mobile handsets some of the prime functions of a personal computer, says AP.

AP says that phones that double and triple as digital music players, personal organisers and cameras are just the beginning. A number of mobile applications making their debut at the DEMOfall conference, a showcase of tech innovation that begins Monday in California, point the way to a world where the cell phone is a key to greater efficiency.

According to the report, one such program comes from EasyReach, a startup that is jumping into the remote document-retrieval space. EasyReach founder John Stossel says it's the first software that enables users of smartphones such as Palm's Treo, which boast computer-like operating systems, to search their PCs by keyword. Punch a few more buttons and EasyReach users can e-mail retrieved documents to whatever address they choose.

In addition, EasyReach enables a user to search multiple desktop PCs on which EasyReach's software has been installed.

The software works on any mobile device equipped with an internet browser -- regardless of the operating system, and a native application is available for the BlackBerry, made by Research in Motion. And while many competitors' products only work on certain handhelds or Java-enabled phones, EasyReach says its software is designed to support the devices of any wireless carrier worldwide, reports AP in the NYT.

Terry Sempel, chief executive of Yahoo! told British TV execs in Cambridge last week that his company offered them their best chance of making money from their archives.

The Register reports (19 September) that Sempel told delegates at the Royal Television Society conference that online video search was a way "to monetise some of the stuff that's lounging around in warehouses and hasn't made a dime in years", according to Reuters.

The report in The Register says that Sempel said Yahoo! will commission its own content but it would need a personality to make it distinct from existing broadcast material. The firm recently announced it employed Kevin Sites, a video reporter who made his reputation in Iraq.

Semel forecast that advertising money will continue to move away from TV and onto the internet.

According to The Register, Yahoo and Google are currently battling for the hearts, minds, and content, of broadcasters. The BBC has shown more enthusiasm than most for putting its archive online.

Britain is once again 'top of the bots' with the world's highest proportion of known bot-infected computers.

The Register reports (19 September) that, in the first half of 2005, the UK has almost a third (32 per cent) of all bots - virus-infected, zombie PCs under the control of hackers and used for malicious purposes such as identity theft and spam distribution. Britain also topped the chart in the second half of last year with a lower 26 per cent rating.

According to the publication, the statistics, taken from Symantec's Global Internet Threat Report for the period January to June 2005, are based on the number of PCs worldwide that are known to be infected with bot agents, such as the infamous Agobot worm. Bot network activity has increased from below 5,000 bots per day in December 2004 to an average of 10,352 during this reporting period.

LogicaCMG is paying 930.3million euro  (£630.6m) for French reseller Unilog and will issue shares to pay for it.

The Register reports (19 September) that LogicaCMG will buy 32.3 per cent from "certain members of the management of Unilog and others for a total of 255.4million euro in cash and the issue of 19, 572, 703 new Consideration Shares.".

The combined company will have 27,000 employees and would have had turnover of just over 2billion euro in 2004. The merger will make the new company number four in France and a top-ten player across Europe. Directors forecast "synergies" of £19million for the year ending 31 December 2007, says The Register.

The six major Hollywood studios, hoping to gain more control over their technological destiny, have agreed to jointly finance a multimillion-dollar research laboratory to speed the development of new ways to foil movie pirates.

The New York Times reports (19 September) that the new nonprofit consortium is to be called Motion Picture Laboratories - MovieLabs for short - and will begin operation later this year.

The newspaper says that, according to Hollywood executives involved in its establishment, MovieLabs will have a budget of more than US$30 million for its first two years. The idea arose out of Hollywood's contention that the consumer electronics and information technology industries are not investing heavily or quickly enough in piracy-fighting technology.

The lab is modeled after CableLabs, which since 1988 has spearheaded pivotal innovations in the cable television industry - hastening the adoption of fiber optics, cable modems, telephony and digital video. Hollywood's version will begin with a more modest mandate, said Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America. It will focus principally on piracy prevention, though it will be given some flexibility to expand its mission later, he said.

The NYT report says that the initial projects planned for MovieLabs include studying these problems or devising these solutions:

- Ways to jam camcorders being used inside movie theaters, or to project movies with flickering images that are invisible to the eye but will appear on unauthorised video recordings.

- Network management technologies to detect and block illegal file transfers on campus and business networks.

- Traffic analysis tools to detect illegal content sharing on peer-to-peer networks.

- Ways to prevent home and personal digital networks from being tapped into by unauthorised users, while not preventing consumers from sending a movie to more than one TV set without having to pay for it each time.

- Ways to link senders and receivers of movies transmitted over the Internet to geographic and political territories, to monitor the distribution of movies and prevent the violation of license agreements.

James N. Gianopulos, co-chairman of 20th Century Fox, which led the studios in pushing for MovieLabs, said it would ideally fill in what he said were gaps in research on content protection left by consumer-electronics companies and Silicon Valley. That, in turn, would encourage Hollywood to embrace new ways of delivering movies to consumers - making those new vehicles more marketable.

This August, MSNBC.com drew the most visitors of any news web site, receiving 26.6 million unique hits, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

A report in The New York Times (19 September) says that the MSNBC site has been first among news sites four times since March by this measure, beating stalwarts like the web sites of CNN and The New York Times. (Ranked by raw page views, MSNBC.com was third this August, below CNN.com and Yahoo News. The difference in rankings suggests that CNN.com and Yahoo News readers view more pages per visit, but the MSNBC site gets more visitors over all.), says the newspaper.

The NYT says that Bill Mitchell, editor of Poynter Online, praised the site's blogs and a feature to see before-and-after pictures of New Orleans. "They're using all the multimedia and reporting tools that are out there," he said.

US sports fans already invest considerable emotion and angst in professional athletes. Now they can take that obsession a step further, trading on the pros' performance in an online electronic market, according to a report by Associated Press in The New York Times (19 September).

AP says that if the new internet venture succeeds, it'll be a whole new ballgame for the gambling-driven pastime of fantasy sports, which already has up to 20 million players.

Launching Monday, ProTrade will treat professional athletes like stocks to be bought and sold, initially in a theoretical currency. Cash prizes will be awarded to the most successful investors.

The value of a blue-chip quarterback such as Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts will be determined by a community of traders competing to identify players most likely to contribute to the success of their real-life teams. In this bottom-line approach to sports, teams are known as investment portfolios and the real-life athletes get their own ticker symbols. Manning's symbol is PMANN, AP repots.

The AP/NYT report says that ProTrade initially will be confined to trading NFL players, but the company expects to add the NBA and major league baseball after working out licensing agreements.

At the outset, basically for the first half of the NFL season, no actual money will be exchanged in Protrade's market; each participant will get a virtual stake of 25,000 coins to invest. ProTrade will hold all the entry fees in escrow and then distribute jackpots, minus a 2 percent to 3 percent commission, to league participants who generate the best investment return. ProTrade hopes to make money from those commissions and advertising on the site.

According to AP, the potential target audience is huge. About 15 million to 20 million people already compete in traditional fantasy sports leagues, including myriad competitions waged through such Web sites as Yahoo.com.

In the United States, Glam.com, a fashion site scheduled to make its debut today after nearly two years in development, is of a genre not heard from since the heady days of the dot-com bubble: a so-called vertical portal offering articles, user-to-user dialogue and merchandise, all within the confines of a narrow topic, comments the New York Times in a 19 September report.

And, says the newspaper, the topic is fashion, of all things - a choice that at first glance seems ill-suited to attract internet consumers whose main obsession is knocking US$10 off an airline ticket, and equally unlikely to tempt the millions of women who remain perfectly happy thumbing through their Vogue and InStyle magazines.

But, according to the NYT, analysts and executives said Glam.com stood a fighting chance, partly because no one had been willing to jump on this particular grenade for years, and because this time around the grenade might not actually explode.

In essence, Glam.com is an online fashion magazine in which every item can be purchased via a couple of clicks. Products range from US$16 Benefit lipstick to US$1,500 Jimmy Choo handbags arrayed across several categories, including trends, celebrity styles and noteworthy products. The editorial team is headed by Carl Portale, previously a publisher of Elle magazine, and includes a stable of former fashion magazine editors and contributors, reports the newspaper.

The newspaper says that the site provides a Shops section for those who require no inspiration before clicking off to selected offerings from, say, Bergdorf Goodman or Neiman Marcus. It also serves up interactive tests on subjects like what to wear to a formal party or how to dress to project a sexy look.

Upscale fashion advertisers and retailers, many of whom have engaged in few internet initiatives until now, said they liked Glam's editorial approach because it helped them retain the blush of exclusivity while also allowing customers easy access to their products.

The NYT reports that while advertisers laud the site's editorial approach, they also give it high marks for solving a nagging technology problem: how to let users buy items easily. Web sites related to fashion magazines, like shopvogue.com from Advance Media and ShopEtc.com from Hearst, have over the last year offered links to goods advertised in their magazines, but users are often left off at the home page of an advertiser's store rather than being linked directly to the item, and without knowing whether the item is in stock.