Electric outlet can be wireless link

The common electric socket will serve as your home's connection to broadband with a new chip developed by Matsushita Electric -- doing away with all the ethernet cables or the hassle of hooking up to a wireless network device.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (29 September) that products are still being developed, but gadgets embedded with the chip from the Japanese manufacturer of Panasonic products can hook up to a broadband network by plugging into the common electrical outlet, company officials said Thursday.

The AP report says that's because the Osaka-based company has come up with technology to use electric wiring in the home to relay not just electricity but also data.

The technology has been around for some time -- including in the United States -- but Matsushita's system is unique in that it delivers fast-speed broadband information at up to 170 megabits per second, which is faster than ethernet, said AP.

AP reports that in the future home envisioned by Matsushita, people will be able to download and watch high-definition movies in any room of the house that has an outlet. Attach a special device made by Matsushita into a socket and all you have to do is plug your TV or other gadgets into a socket for instant connection to broadband, which allows for faster transmission of online information than dial-up telephone connections.

The Eastman Kodak Company, which has missed its earnings targets for three quarters, said yesterday that earnings were likely to be disappointing for the rest of the year.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (29 September) that at a three-and-a-half-hour meeting yesterday, Kodak executives tried to assure analysts that by 2008, the digital business will be humming along, Kodak will have regained the investment grade credit rating it lost this year and any revenue from its conventional film business will be a bonus.

AP says that the film business is fast becoming a stepchild at Kodak. Bernard Masson, who runs the consumer imaging business, will retire 1 January, and his group will be split in two. The digital unit will maintain a direct sales force and continue to seek new products, but the film unit will reduce its product line and will sell primarily through distributors.

According to the report, Kodak has spent much of the year putting out fires. Quality problems, software installation difficulties and declining laser printer sales dragged down earnings in its health imaging business. While it made too few digital radiography machines to meet demand, Kodak produced far more digital cameras and home printers than it expects to sell in the fourth quarter.

Although Kodak expected its digital revenue to grow 36 percent this year, it conceded that digital earnings would fall short of the US$275 million to US$325 million it once predicted.

The creator of the popular online file-swapping software BitTorrent has lined up US$8.75 million in financing from a venture capital firm in a bid to build his software into a commercial distribution tool for media companies.

The Associated Press reports (28 September) in The New York Times that Bram Cohen created BitTorrent in 2001 as a hobby after the dot-com crash left him unemployed. Since then, it has become a favorite tool for computer users to swap large files -- particularly movies and other video -- because it grabs bits from various computer users simultaneously as they send and receive a file. That speeds up transfers.

Cohen said the financing from Doll Capital Management demonstrates the capital firm's belief that ''BitTorrent will become the ideal platform for both independent publishers and the world's leading media companies alike,''

AP reports that more than 45 million people use the BitTorrent software, according to Cohen.

As a result, web sites that host torrents -- markers that point the way to other users sharing a given feature film, software or other file -- have become targets of entertainment industry lawsuits in recent months.

More than 60 percent of Americans who use the internet at home now do so with a high-speed connection, a new study finds.

The Associated Press reports (28 September) in The New York Times that that's a jump from 51 percent a year ago. Nielsen/NetRatings says 86 million internet users surfed the web on home broadband connections in August.

AP says that according to the survey, broadband use has grown steadily in the United States as prices fall and more video and other bandwidth-intent materials are available online.

''This continuing increase in broadband use is an essential step in a maturing Internet industry,'' said Charles Buchwalter, the research firm's vice president of client analytics. Broadband users tend to spend more time and money online, he said, reports AP.

Meanwhile in India, an trade group said the country will fall far short of its goal of getting 2 million broadband connections by year's end. The government says there were 530,000 broadband connections at home and work at the end of August.

Amitabh Singhal, president of the Internet Service Providers Association of India, blamed poor service, frequent disruptions and slow speeds, noting that most of the high-speed connections are only nominally broadband and no better than dial-up speeds most of the time, reports AP.

Samsung Electronics, the world's top memory chip maker, unveiled a US$33 billion investment plan on Thursday to add eight fabrication and one R&D line to a semiconductor plant in South Korea by 2012.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (29 September) that Samsung, lifted by the investment, expects its semiconductor sales to reach US$61 billion in 2012, more than treble the US$17.5 billion in sales in 2004, the company said in a statement.

Samsung said the aggressive investments should enable the company to meet new demand.

Memory chip makers have huge capital spending requirements as production moves to finer circuitry technology that makes chips smaller and helps cut manufacturing costs.

According to the Reuters/NYT report,the lines would be added to Samsung's Hwaseong semiconductor plant, south of Seoul and nearby Kiheung, its main semiconductor fabrication site.

The Reuters report says that, of the eight new fabrication lines, four would be designed for higher capacities using a 300mm or larger wafer unit, Samsung said. One of the lines is now under construction and will be introduced in the first half of 2006.

According to Reuters, Samsung did not give annual breakdowns of the investment and a spokeswoman said the US$33 billion plan did not represent all of the company's investment plans in chips. For 2005, Samsung has allocated 6 trillion won investment in the semiconductor business.

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer each earned US$1 million last year, an 11 percent raise over the previous fiscal year, Microsoft reported in a regulatory filing Wednesday.

The Associated Press reports (28 September) in The New York Times that Gates, the software company's chairman, and Ballmer, its chief executive, each earned a salary of US$600,000 and a bonus of US$400,000 for the company's 2005 fiscal year ended June 30.

Ballmer also received US$6,300 in matching 401(k) contributions and US$2,773 in other benefits. Gates received US$2,469 in other benefits, the company said.

The AP/NYT report says that, for the current fiscal year, the company said in a separate filing that the executives will earn base salaries of US$620,000 and will be eligible for bonuses of up to 120 percent of their salaries.

In its proxy statement, the company also disclosed that Gates owned 9.55 percent of Microsoft shares, while Ballmer owns 3.85 percent.

According to Forbes magazine, Gates is the world's richest man, worth an estimated US$51 billion. Ballmer is worth an estimated US$14 billion, the magazine said.

Three weeks after introducing the pencil-thin iPod Nano portable music player, Apple Computer is reportedly ready to respond to complaints about defective screens.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (28 September) that The Wall Street Journal reports Apple will offer to replace the screens that cracked too easily. Users have been posting complaints on the internet about cracked screens and scratched cases.

According to the report, Apple has high hopes for the Nano music player designed to replace the iPod mini and the product, which sells for about US$200 and up. It has received largely favorable reviews.

A spokesman for Apple tells the Journal that the problem has affected less than 0.1 percent of the devices shipped.

Last quarter, Apple sold more than six million iPods, the market's leading portable music player, reports AP in the NYT.

Crackers this week claimed to have successfully ripped out the latest Sony PlayStation Portable firmware and replaced it with an earlier version of the code containing fewer anti-piracy features.

The Register reports (28 September) that the procedure exploits a recently discovered buffer overflow exploit which allows code to be incorporated into image data. When the PSP attempts to display the picture, it writes data beyond the space reserved for the image and into memory used by executable code. The code inserted into the picture file is then run.

According to The Register, the software, posted on the internet yesterday, forces the PSP to run Sony's firmware 1.5 updater, replacing firmware 2.0 with the older code.

One poster joyfully claimed the console is now "wide open".

The report says that numerous postings on PSP-cracking websites claim the procedure works despite a system crash most of the way through the installation process. Some posters have even claimed to have re-applied firmware 2.0 successfully and downgraded to firmware 1.5 a second time, again without a hitch.

The Register says that Sony released the PSP's firmware 2.0 this summer, first in Japan and later in the US. The consumer electronics giant launched the handheld games console in Europe on 1 September, and all European machines sold through official channels since then also include firmware 2.0.

Legislators in Peru have approved a hotly contested bill sanctioning use of open source software by government and levelling the playing field for start-ups against Microsoft.

The Register reports (29 September) that the Peruvian Congress has passed a bill that prohibits any public institution from buying systems that tie users into any particular type of software or that limits "information autonomy". Public institutions are also barred from having a pre-determined preference for either proprietary software or open-source software.

According to The Register, the bill is the product of three years' work from its chief sponsor, Congressman Edgar Villanueva. During that time, there have been claims of all kinds of pressure on Peru to kill the bill. This ranged from the ominous - official US disapproval - to the generous: a US$500,000 donation to the Peruvian school system by Microsoft's chief software architect, Bill Gates, on a visit to the country in 2002.

Google's boycott of News.com appears to have ended quietly, less than three months after company executives told the technology news site that they would stop speaking with its reporters for a year.

The Associated Press reports (29 September) in The New York Times that Google CEO Eric Schmidt granted an interview this week to News.com's Elinor Mills, the reporter whose article in July about privacy issues raised by Google's search engine apparently offended the company.

AP says that for her July story, Mills went looking for details on Schmidt to illustrate the kind of information available through Google. She noted in the piece that his net worth was US$1.5 billion, that he donated US$25,000 to the Democratic National Committee and that he had attended the Burning Man counterculture festival.

The Sanyo Electric Company widened its forecast for losses for the current year on Wednesday and said it would speed up cost cuts under a three-year plan as sluggish sales of consumer electronics and components continue to chip away at earnings.

The Associated Press reports (29 September) in The New York Times that the company, based in Osaka, Japan, said it expected a net loss of 140 billion yen (US$1.24 billion) in the year ending 31 March, 2006, worse than the 92 billion yen (US$812 million) loss it had previously forecast.

Sanyo also outlined long-awaited details of a plan for revival that called for selling the company's Tokyo office building and 68 sales offices throughout the country, along with other real estate. Sanyo will also sell or speed up the sale of four factories and achieve two-thirds of 14,000 planned job cuts by February.

The AP/NYT report says that the company will also stop making VCR's and DVD players and recorders. Instead, it will focus on high-definition DVD technology.

The plan will save 170 billion yen (US$1.5 billion) over three years, the company said.

Nokia, the world's mobile phone leader, said on Wednesday No. 1 US mobile service Cingular Wireless will sell Nokia's top-of-the line computer phone and Blackberry e-mail pager.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (29 September) that the deal with Cingular gives Nokia's 9300 line of phones a leg into the US market, where rival Palm Treos and Blackberry phones from Canada's Research In Motion (RIM) are in hot demand among business professionals.

The report says italso helps raise the profile of Finland's Nokia in a region where it trails Motorola, the No. 2 maker of mobile handsets worldwide, but the leading US supplier.

Nokia's 9300 phone, which was introduced earlier this year and is part of a line that has long been available in Europe, is sleeker and more compact than a bulky predecessor nicknamed ''the brick.''

Google said Wednesday that it has signed an agreement to develop up to 1 million square feet on a NASA research center in the heart of Silicon Valley.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (29 September) that the development is part of a partnership between Google and the NASA Ames Research Centre in Mountain View. The company and government agency will work together to develop data management and computing tools, as well as promote entrepreneurial initiatives in outer space.

Google's announcement didn't provide details about what it might build at NASA Ames, but the company has made it clear that it needs more office space to accommodate its rapidly growing work force.

AP says in the NYT report that during the past two years, Google has been adding an average of four new employees per day, expanding its payroll to nearly 4,200 workers through June. Through June, Google employed just under 4,200 workers, nearly three times more than two years ago.

The report says that the NASA research centre is just a few miles from Google's current headquarters -- a leased campus known as the ''Googleplex'' that spans 915,000 square feet.

According to AP, Google has plenty of money to build another campus, having just raised US$4.17 billion in a recently completed stock offering to boost its cash holdings to US$7.1 billion.

LG will be the first company to commercialise a portable fuel-cell system for notebook computers within a year, the company has pledged.

The Register reports (28 September) that, developed by LG subsidiary LG Chem, the fuel cell comprises a reaction vessel and removable 200cc methanol fuel reservoir. Together, they can generate 25W of power for more than ten hours. The cell itself lasts for more than 4000 hours - eight times longer than competing products, LG Chem claimed.

Designed for notebooks, the fuel cell will also be able to power handheld devices such as portable media players and mobile phones, LG Chem said, by connecting to their USB ports.

According to The Register, however, LG Chem's prototype isn't exactly compact, as the company's photos show. It said the fuel-cell unit weighs under 1kg.

LG is looking to develop other units, capable of generating between 5W and 50W, so there's clearly the prospect of much smaller devices down the line.

The Register reports that the company said the global market for fuel cells is likely to hit US$600 million next year, rising to US$1.9 billion by 2010.

Toshiba is also pursuing the fuel-cell market, but doesn't expect to have product on the market until 2007, says The Register.