Nokia picks China to launch new cheap phones

The world's largest handset maker Nokia launched three new phone models on Thursday, unveiling the handsets in China as it targets new clients in fast-growing emerging markets.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (30 March) that Finnish Nokia and its rivals like Motorola are looking for growth in markets like China, India, Russia and Brazil as most consumers in Europe and the United States already have mobile phones.

Nokia expects the world to have 3 billion mobile subscribers in 2008, compared with just more than 2 billion now, says Reuters.

``As around 80 percent of this growth will come from new growth markets, the importance of these markets will continue to increase,'' Nokia said in a statement, adding it expects the Asia-Pacific region and China to account for 50 percent of the next billion subscribers.

Reuters reports that all three new models, the Nokia 1112, 2310 and 2610, are expected to hit shops in the April-June quarter.

{mospagebreaktitle=Justices question eBay patent arguments}Justices question eBay patent arguments

According to a Reuters report in The New York Times (30 March) US Supreme Court justices showed little inclination on Wednesday to scale back the rights of patent holders, sharply questioning arguments made by a lawyer representing online auctioneer eBay.Several of the justices expressed skepticism during oral arguments about eBay's contention that a federal appeals court had made it too easy for patent owners to get injunctions barring the use of their technologies.

The closely watched case has become part of a wider struggle involving the software and pharmaceutical industries over the future of the US patent system, reports Reuters
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The report says that Chief Justice John Roberts also took issue with eBay's argument. He said the appeals court ``was just reflecting the reality that in a typical case, (an injunction) is what happens.''

Reuters says that EBay was found to have infringed on two e-commerce patents that MercExchange said were key to eBay's ``Buy it Now'' feature, which handles fixed-price scales. But a US District Court refused to issue an injunction and awarded MercExchange monetary damages instead.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which hears most patent case appeals in the US courts, reversed the decision, citing legal doctrine that gives patent holders the right to an injunction ``absent exceptional circumstances,'' reports Reuters.

{mospagebreaktitle=Microsoft updates e-mail protection}Microsoft updates e-mail protection

Microsoft is releasing new versions of its software packages for safeguarding and archiving e-mails and other corporate messages.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (30 March) that Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services, which was known as FrontBridge Technologies before Microsoft acquired that company, comprise of four products that can help companies do things like minimise spam and viruses and archive messages for legal and regulatory requirements.

The revamped product line will be available 1 April in most countries.

According to the AP., the products are offered as a service over the internet, rather than as software that companies have to install. Web-based offerings are growing in popularity because they can be cheaper and easier for customers to deploy and less cumbersome for software makers to update. Microsoft, which makes most of its money from desktop-bound software like Windows and Office, is trying to make inroads into that field.

{mospagebreaktitle=Another delay for .xxx domain}Another delay for .xxx domain

Plans to approve the creation of a controversial .xxx top-level domain (TLD) at an ongoing meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in New Zealand have been dashed, according to reports.

The Register reports (30 March) that United Press International says the US Commerce Department has raised objections to the domain, expressing concerns about the mechanisms for running the domain put forward by the domain's proposed operator, ICM Registry. The Dominion Post first reported the story.

ICANN first considered and refused an application for the .xxx suffix five years ago. But in 2004 a non-profit entity called the International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR) submitted another application for the domain.

According to The Register, the group intends the .xxx domain, which would be run by ICM Registry, to cater for responsible adult-orientated websites. It hopes the domain will help to protect children from exposure to internet porn, while also having a positive impact on adult entertainment through voluntary efforts of the industry.

The publication says that ICANN gave preliminary approval for the adults-only label in June 2005, but immediately faced a storm of criticism. Members of ICANN's Government Advisory Committee advised the ICANN Board by letter that there was a "strong sense of discomfort" about the proposed domain, and that some governments were intending to contact ICANN directly about their concerns.

{mospagebreaktitle=OSDL fires up open source welfare program}OSDL fires up open source welfare program

Linus Torvalds' Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) has announced the creation of a Fellowship Fund that will provide financial support for software developers working on Linux and open source projects lacking the financial resources to get their job done.

The Register reports that allocations will be determined by OSDL's board of directors, who OSDL said will judge priorities and levels of financial commitment.

According to the publication, there's no word yet on the fund size, which is still being determined, although a spokesperson told The Register the Fellowship Fund has received backing from "major software companies" who wished to remain anonymous.

The Register says that Stuart Cohen, OSDL chief executive, said in a statement the Fellowship Fund would help spur adoption of Linux and open source software. He said OSDL's "neutrality" put it in a position to fill "specific gaps in open source development."

{mospagebreaktitle=Groups help businesses with security plan}Groups help businesses with security plan

In the US., help is on the way for small business owners who want to improve their ability to protect data, acccording to a report by The Associated Press in The New York Times (29 March).

The Council of Better Business Bureaus is teaming up with the Privacy and American Business think tank on an educational program to help small businesses lower their vulnerability to viruses and hacking.

The program, called ''Security and Privacy Made Simpler,'' includes free, easy-to-read security and privacy tool kits, with separate kits focused on customer and employee data protection.

{mospagebreaktitle=Venezuela promotes open source as Microsoft Alternative}Venezuela promotes open source as Microsoft Alternative

In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez, long critical of big transnational companies, is promoting free open-source software as an alternative to market-dominating Microsoft.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (29 March) that Venezuela's science and technology ministry recently held the Latin American Free Software Installation Fair, an event promoting the use of the open-source Linux operating system and other nonproprietary programs over Microsoft's Windows.

Groups of Linux users have been organising similar events in other Latin American countries, including Argentina and Colombia, and the Venezuelan government has signed on as a promoter.

According to the AP report, the technology ministry said the fair is part of Venezuela's move toward ''technological sovereignty, and taking advantage of knowledge for building national scientific independence.''

Chavez, a vehement critic of the capitalist system, issued a decree in 2004 ordering all the country's public institutions to actively move toward open-source alternatives, hoping to save millions of dollars, reports the AP.

{mospagebreaktitle=Study: S.Korea not 'most-wired' country}Study: S.Korea not 'most-wired' country

Because of its high prevalence of broadband access, South Korea is often considered the world's ''most-wired'' nation. But a new study of international internet usage offered evidence that people in other countries are even more connected, reports The Associated Press in The New York Times (29 March).

The AP report says that when pollsters for Ipsos Insight recently asked 6,500 people in 12 countries whether they had used the internet in the past month, 68 percent of South Koreans said yes. That ranked No. 4, behind Japan (89 percent), Canada (72 percent) and the United States (71 percent).

Amongst Asia's fastest-rising economies, China had a rate of 50 percent, while India showed just 15 percent -- though Ipsos researchers only queried people in urban areas in those countries.

AP says that the report showed that South Korea also didn't own the top slot in time spent online. The survey found that Korean internet users, on average, were online for 12.7 hours each week, behind those in China (17.9 hours a week) and Japan (13.9). Canadian Web surfers clocked 12.3 hours each week and Americans were fifth at 11.4, followed by Mexicans at 9.2.

The Ipsos report came a day after the World Economic Forum ranked the United States tops in its ''networked readiness index,'' which measures everything from math and science education to the diffusion of various technologies. Singapore was second, followed by Denmark and Iceland, the AP reports.

{mospagebreaktitle=Drops in US cellular fees to slow: Telco}Drops in US cellular fees to slow: Telco

In the US., the price of cellular phone calls should decline more slowly in 2006 than in recent times as the duration of phone calls expands less rapidly, a top executive at Sprint Nextel said on Wednesday.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (29 March) that US operators have driven down the price of mobile phone calls in recent years as they tried to win new customers or steal each other's subscribers in the fiercely competitive market, which had as many as six national operators at one point.

But as increases in the amount of time customers spend on the phone slow, operators will likely be less aggressive in lowering their prices this year, according to Len Lauer, chief operating Officer of Sprint, the No. 3 US cellphone service, reportas Reuters.

``There will be some price declines, but I think it will be a little more restrained than previous years,'' Lauer told investors at a Bank of America conference here, as reported by Reuters.

According to the report, while the average customer monthly cellphone minutes of use had increased as much as 35 percent a year in recent years, Lauer expects an industry growth rate between 10 percent and 16 percent this year, says Reuters.

Reuters also reported that Ovum estimated that average US mobile phone call prices have dropped about 72 percent to about 6.5 cents a minute, down from about 24 cents a minute in 2001.

{mospagebreaktitle=Judge denies Microsoft subpoenas against rivals}Judge denies Microsoft subpoenas against rivals

A District Court in California on Wednesday quashed an attempt by Microsoft to force Sun Microsystems and Oracle to provide documents in its battle with the European Commission.

But, Reuters reports in The New York Times (29 March) that judges in New York and Boston are still considering similar requests against IBM and Novell,respectively, as Microsoft fights against possible fines of up to 2 million euros a day for failing to carry out sanctions imposed by the Commission, lawyers for one of the companies said.

A European Commission hearing officer, Karen Williams, had rejected Microsoft's for a number of documents, ruling they were confidential. So Microsoft got US courts to issue subpoenas, which were challenged.

Reuters says that Microsoft had asked the Commission to turn over communications between the companies and the Commission, a ''Monitoring Trustee'' in the case and a technical adviser to the Commission.

{mospagebreaktitle=Apple offers way to limit iPod volume}Apple offers way to limit iPod volume

Apple Computer said on Wednesday it introduced a software update for its market-leading iPod that lets parents set maximum volume limits on the device, as concerns grow that loud music played through earphones might risk hearing loss.

Reuters reports in The New York Tiumes (29 March) that the software update, which is available as a free download for the iPod nano and fifth generation iPod, gives users the ability to set volume caps on the iPod and lock it with a combination code, Apple said.

The move follows a class action lawsuit that was filed against Apple in a federal court in California in January, which claimed that iPods could cause hearing loss because they have the capacity to produce sounds in excess of 104 decibels and up to 115 decibels.

Reuters says that the National Institute of Health said earlier in March that more research is needed to determine whether portable music players like the iPod increase the risk of hearing loss, in response to a lawmaker's request for a review of the issue.