Microsoft, partners to challenge Apple iPod: Gates

Microsoft and its hardware partners will continue to develop new digital media devices aimed at challenging the dominance of Apple Computer's ubiquitous iPod music player, Chairman Bill Gates said on Friday.

Reuters reports Gates as saying: ``I don't think what's out on the market today is the final answer. Between us and our partners, you can expect some pretty hot products coming out over the next few years.''

The Microsoft founder praised Apple's iTunes music store and said the software giant was talking with hardware partners to create media devices that can be less expensive and easier to connect and can handle pictures and video better.

According to Reuters, Gates said the market share for digital music players compatible with Microsoft software is around 20 percent, a figure that is lower than he would like.

Microsoft's strategy has been to allow various device manufacturers to create players that would be compatible with its software, arguing that it offered consumers more options.

However, BusinessWeek reported last week that Microsoft is mulling its own media device in an effort to cut into Apple's nearly 70 percent US market share.

Reuters says that Gates did not disclose any plans for a Microsoft-branded device and alluded often to working together with partners for future media devices.

{mospagebreaktitle=BlackBerry maker promises backup gear soon}BlackBerry maker promises backup gear soon

Research in Motion has said that it would soon release backup software that would keep its BlackBerry wireless e-mail service working even if a federal court in the US shuts down the current system.

The New York Times reports (10 February) that the announcement comes two weeks before a federal district court will begin hearings on a request by NTP, a patent-holding company, to ban the sale and use of most BlackBerries in the United States. The ban would apply to everyone except government and emergency workers.

According to the NYT report, Jim Balsillie, the chairman and co-chief executive of RIM., said in a statement that RIM's new software "provides a contingency for our customers and partners and a counterbalance to NTP's threats." Mr. Balsillie added,

The newspaper says it is not the first time RIM has said it has a fallback system in abeyance. Analysts have questioned how well such a system would work, how difficult it might be to install and whether it would be free of patent complications.

Last week RIM committed itself to distributing the new software, but added that it was still being tested. The company did not provide details on how the new system would operate, how it would avoid NTP's patent claims or even when distribution would begin.

The NYT reports that in its statement, RIM said it would begin shipping the software to corporate servers and would also include it in new handsets for American customers along with the current software.

The company is hoping that existing BlackBerry owners will be excluded by the court from any injunction. If they are not, they would need to download and install the new software, RIM said.

The newspaper's report says that the new software would not be activated right away, and even new handsetst would continue to run on the current system. But if an injunction were imposed, RIM said it would switch users and corporate servers to the new software by remote control from its headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario.

{mospagebreaktitle=Oracle in talks to consume three open source darlings - report}Oracle in talks to consume three open source darlings - report

Oracle is in talks to buy three open source companies in a strategy that would potentially reinforce the company's middleware against low-priced competitors, according to a report in BusinessWeek.

The Register reports (10 February) that the database and applications giant is talking to JBoss, Zend Technologies and Sleepycat Software about deals that could exceed US$600 million, the magazine reported.

The Register reports that according to BusinessWeek,JBoss is seeking up to US$400 million and Zend could settle for US$200 million, while no figure was given for Sleepycat. Rumors of an Oracle and JBoss deal have circulated for awhile, but BusinessWeek is the first to claim all three companies are targets.

Any acquisitions would follow a 12-month buying spree that saw Oracle snap up US$18 billion worth of vendors of varying sizes, spanning enterprise applications, databases and single sign-on software. The deals were intended to deepen Oracle's technology footprint and expand its customer base.

The Register says that one primary target in Oracle's 2005 acquisition spree was SAP, who Oracle whishes to unseat as the world's largest supplier of business applications.

According to the publication, by making the open source deals, Oracle would rip a page from IBM's strategy of surrounding its own middleware products with open source software that leads the way to the company's full suite of proprietary products. This strategy is designed to help ensure that license and service revenues from products go to IBM rather than competitors.

{mospagebreaktitle=Google:research to make handwritten docs. searchable}Google:research to make handwritten docs. searchable

Google is funding research aimed at making handwritten documents searchable. The Dublin City University project is a rare external collaboration for Google, which in the past has preferred to simply buy in the expertise it needs.

The Register reports (10 February) that computer scientists are adapting technology originally developed to recognise objects like cars and people in video. Team leader Professor Alan Smeaton told The Register: 'We stumbled upon the idea of using the algorithms for handwriting.'

According to the publication, when the system is given an example of a word in someone's handwriting, it can then search through documents written by that person and find other instances, adapting to variation in style. The approach has already been successfully tested on George Washington's personal diaries - every appearance of the word "battle" can be quickly accessed, for example.

The Register reports that the researchers say before now this kind of material has only been accessible in digital libraries one page at a time, which is slow and cumbersome, or is kept behind closed doors.

Google has provided enough funding for the team at Dublin, and its partners at the Universities of Buffalo and Massachusetts to work on the problem for at least a year

{mospagebreaktitle=Yahoo! accused of second Chinese dissident case}Yahoo! accused of second Chinese dissident case

Yahoo! has been accused of assisting Chinese authorities for a second time to apprehend a Chinese dissident.

The Register reports (10 February) that Li Zhi was given an eight-year jail sentence in December 2003 for "inciting subversion" over comments criticising official corruption posted on online discussion groups. The case against Li (a 35-year-old ex-civil servant from Dazhou in south west China) was based on data supplied by Yahoo!'s Hong Kong subsidiary, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

According to the publication, last year, Yahoo! was criticised over similar accusations that it bent over backwards to help Beijing gather evidence that led to the imprisonment of reporter Shi Tao for "divulging state secrets", by forwarding an email about the risks of referring to the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests to foreign websites.
According to Reporters Without Border, 49 cyber-dissidents and 32 journalists are in prison in China over internet postings criticising Chinese authorities.

The Register reports that a Yahoo! spokeswoman told the AFP that it was "rigorous" in its procedures and "only responded with what we were legally compelled to provide, and nothing more". Chinese authorities are not required to provide reasons for data requests, she added.

{mospagebreaktitle=Vonage flags $250m IPO}Vonage flags $250m IPO

Vonage is looking to raise US$250 million as part of an IPO, the US-based VoIP outfit revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The Register reports (10 February) that the cash will be used to fund the continued marketing of the service, which boasts some 1.4 million subscribers.

According to documents lodged with the SEC, the broadband telephony outfit lost US$190 million in the first nine months of last year on the back of revenues of US$174 million, The Register reports.

{mospagebreaktitle=Intel shipping quad-core server chip in '07}Intel shipping quad-core server chip in '07

Intel expects to ship its first processor with four cores in early 2007, a top executive said on Friday, as the world's top chipmaker races to win back market share.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (10 February) that Intel also expects to sell 60 million dual-core chips this year, accounting for about a quarter of total processor sales, chief technology officer Justin Rattner told reporters.

The new chip, called Clovertown, bundles four processors in a single package, allowing computers to process data more quickly or run more applications at the same time, while using less power than a single-core design.

According to Reuters, Clovertown is aimed at server computers that run corporate networks and host web sites on the internet. It will be sold in servers with sockets for two processors, meaning the computers could have as many as eight cores for crunching data.

Intel recently launched a chip with two cores on the same die, replacing one that was essentially two single-core chips stuck together and was viewed as a quick-fix attempt to catch up with rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Reuters says that AMD's dual-core product has helped the company grab market share from Intel, especially in the market for servers. While Intel has about 85 percent of the overall PC market, its share of servers has slipped to about 75 percent or less, according to estimates from market research firms.

{mospagebreaktitle=South Koreans visit Intel with questions}South Koreans visit Intel with questions

South Korean regulators have questioned some of Intel's employees as part of an investigation of its marketing and rebate programs, the company has said.

The Bloomberg News reports in The New York Times (10 February) that officers from the Korea Fair Trade Commission were following up on an investigation begun in June when the agency requested documents related to local marketing practices, a spokesman for Intelsaid.

The Bloomberg reports says that Intel is facing an antitrust lawsuit in the United States based on a complaint filed last June by a rival, Advanced Micro Devices. European regulators investigating antitrust claims have also raided Intel offices, and the Japanese Fair Trade Commission last year told Intel to remove a clause from its contracts requiring PC makers to use its chips exclusively.

{mospagebreaktitle=Oracle will lay off 2,000 employees}Oracle will lay off 2,000 employees

Business software maker, Oracle, said late last week that it would lay off about 2,000 employees, or more than 3 percent of its work force, as it tried to improve profit from its recent US$5.85 billion takeover of Siebel Systems.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (10 February) that Oracle inherited 4,700 Siebel workers in the acquisition, but most cuts will be concentrated among employees on the company payroll before the deal closed last week, the Oracle chief executive, Lawrence J. Ellison, told analysts during a conference call.

About 90 percent of Siebel's customer support, engineering and sales staff would be retained, Mr. Ellison said. After the layoffs, Oracle will employ about 55,000 workers worldwide.

{mospagebreaktitle=US FTC to hold high-tech issue hearings}US FTC to hold high-tech issue hearings

In the US.,the Federal Trade Commission will host hearings this fall on emerging technologies being exploited by internet spies and identity thieves.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (10 February) that the FTC last held similar hearings in 1995, when the technology to create now familiar problems such as spyware and spam was still in its infancy.

An FTC spokeswoman said the new hearings would probably include issues such as spyware, spam, radio frequency identification -- which tracks goods through a computer chip embedded in a tag -- and identity theft.

AP reports that the FTC spokeswoman said the hearings would include business, technology, academic and law enforcement experts.