New Google service blending Gmail and Chat features

Google, the search-engine giant, is expected to disclose that it will join its instant-messaging service with its popular Gmail program, the latest indication that the company has set its sights on the broader communications industry, according to a New York Times report (7 February).

The new program, called Gmail Chat, will let Gmail users exchange text messages with others without having to log onto a separate chat program, making instant messaging simpler and more integrated with the e-mail program.

The newspaper says that from anywhere in Gmail, the user can see who is available to chat. The program will also allow users to store instant-message conversations.

But, according to the NYT., regardless of its features, Gmail Chat faces a considerable challenge if it hopes to lure users away from established instant-messaging programs like those of AOL, Yahoo and MSN, with tens of millions of users in total.

The NYT says that Gmail Chat will be able to send and receive instant messages from a small set of competitive programs, including Jabber and EarthLink, but none of the larger ones like AOL, Yahoo or MSN. The more popular instant-messaging problems do not interact, and interoperability remains the holy grail of instant messaging.

Google declined to say how many people used Gmail, saying only that there were millions. AOL's instant messenger has 53 million users; MSN's 27 million and Yahoo's 22 million.

Mr. Kamangar said Gmail Chat would be available Tuesday to an unspecified number of Gmail users, and to all users of the system by the end of February.

{mospagebreaktitle=IBM: Altering silicon's behavior to power new chip}IBM: Altering silicon's behavior to power new chip

IBM said on Monday it had developed new chipmaking methods that will allow its upcoming Power6 computer processor to run twice as fast as current versions.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (7 February) that instead of just making transistors smaller, IBM came up with a process to alter how silicon behaves by placing a layer of insulator underneath a layer of silicon less than 500 atoms thick, said Bernard Meyerson, chief technologist of IBM's technology group.

According to Reuters, IBM's advances mean its Power6 chip, due in the middle of 2007, will run at speeds between 4 and 5 gigahertz, at least double the speed of current Power chips found in server computers that run corporate networks, a company spokesman said.

The Power6 chip will compete against offerings from IBM rivals such as Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Sun Microsystems.

Reuters says that miniaturisation has allowed chipmakers to make chips faster by cramming more transistors on a single slice of silicon, to the point where high-end processors have hundreds of millions of transistors.

But the process also tends to make chips run hotter, and engineers have been trying to figure out how to keep shrinking chips down while avoiding having them frying their own circuitry, Reuters adds.

{mospagebreaktitle=Panel makers gearing up for flat tv war}Panel makers gearing up for flat tv war

Surging demand for flat televisions has Japanese panel makers stepping up investment in new plants, but they risk creating a supply glut while profit margins are likely to remain razor-thin.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (6 February) that some of the industry's weakest players such as Pioneer and Hitachi may find themselves marginalised or even pushed out of the market, unable to cut costs fast enough as TV prices tumble 30 percent a year.

According to Reuters, with global combined sales of liquid crystal displayand plasma TVs forecast to quadruple to 100 million units by 2009, according to researcher DisplaySearch, producers have no choice but to invest aggressively.

Consumers are also eagerly snapping up large flat panel TVs to replace their bulky cathode-ray tube TVs as they become more affordable.

Matsushita Electric Industrial, the top seller of plasma TVs with about one-third of the market, announced early last month it would spend 180 billion yenon the world's largest plasma display factory, more than doubling its production capacity by 2009.

Reuters says that Sharp, which leads the LCD TV market with a 19 percent share, said it would invest 200 billion yen to boost output of LCD panels. Hitachi disclosed plans to bring forward by more than a year an expansion project at its plasma factory.

Plasma and LCD TVs offer competing technologies, with plasma dominant in larger sizes, although both are growing rapidly. Plasma TV sets use tiny pockets of gases to display images, while LCDs use crystals sandwiched between glass.

According to Reuters, South Korean makers are also coming on strong, reviving memories of a similar high-tech battle in the 1990's when Samsung Electronics and others drove most Japanese companies out of the market for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips.

In fact, says Reuters, some analysts predict that LG Electronics and Samsung SDI, which together control more than half of the global plasma panel market, are in the best position to capture future demand and could see margins improve.

{mospagebreaktitle=Google imposes ban on BMW web site}Google imposes ban on BMW web site

Google has removed the German web site of BMW from its internet search index, saying that the company was redirecting users from requested information to another page selling luxury cars.

The Bloomberg News reports in The New York Times (7 February) that pages on the web site, BMW.de, included hidden software that moved visitors from a page that Google had found to another page with flashier graphics.

That practice breaks Google's guidelines, a Google engineer, Matt Cutts, wrote in a posting on his web site on Saturday.

Bloomberg reports that BMW, the world's largest maker of luxury cars, said the company did not believe that the practice manipulated Google's search engine.

{mospagebreaktitle=Cisco invests in Disney's MovieBeam spinoff}Cisco invests in Disney's MovieBeam spinoff

Cisco Systems said on Monday it has made an investment in MovieBeam, the on-demand movie service that Walt Disney spun off in January.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (6 February) that Cisco, Disney and several venture capital firms including Intel's Intel Capital, Mayfield Fund, Norwest Venture Partners and Vantage Point Venture Partners invested US$48.5 million in MovieBeam, according to a MovieBeam spokeswoman.

A Cisco spokeswoman declined to provide details of the company's interest in MovieBeam.

According to Reuters, Cisco entered the digital video market with its acquisition of Danish firm KiSS Technology, which makes a networked DVD player. It also is spending US$6.9 billion to acquire cable set-top box maker Scientific-Atlanta.

{mospagebreaktitle=Bush administration sees US$25 Bln in wireless sales}Bush administration sees US$25 Bln in wireless sales

The sale of US wireless communications licenses is projected to raise about US$25 billion between 2007 and 2009, US$7.8 billion higher than last year's estimate, according to President George W. Bush's 2007 budget released on Monday.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (6 February) that the US Federal Communications Commission is slated to start selling 90 megahertz of wireless airwaves on 29 June, an auction that Wall Street analysts have said could raise as much as US$15 billion.

Those airwaves are expected to be used for advanced mobile communications like high-speed internet and video services. Major US wireless carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless are expected to bid in the sale.

According to Reuters, the Bush budget estimated that US$9.95 billion from wireless auctions would be received in the 2007 fiscal year, which starts 1 October, 2006. It also expects almost US$12.24 billion in the 2008 fiscal year that starts 1 October, 2007.

Auctions can last weeks depending on the bidding strategies of wireless carriers, which often bid to acquire airwaves so they can expand and improve services.

Reuters says that the FCC is also expected to start selling by early 2008 wireless airwaves that television broadcasters are giving up as they move to other frequencies for their higher-quality digital broadcasts. That move is slated to be done by 17 February, 2009.

The report says that US$1.5 billion is set aside to help consumers buy converter boxes so their existing analog television sets do not go dark.

Another US$1 billion from the proceeds was allocated to a grant program that would help public safety agencies acquire new interoperable communications equipment so they can better coordinate rescue and emergency responses.

{mospagebreaktitle=Report: Big EMC says small is beautiful}Report: Big EMC says small is beautiful

The Register claims in a 6 February report that, EMC - long chided as a bully of the enterprise - wants to make nice with the little guy as evidenced by its release of a broad portfolio of new products aimed at small- to medium-sized businesses.

The Register says that SMBs can say "Hello" to the Insignia line of software and hardware. These products build on EMC's acquisitions and its expanding low-end hardware line to give customers cheaper networked storage options than in years past, says the publication.

According to the publication, the sophisticated Insignia monicker says, "We're smooth. We're gentle. We're anything but the seller of high-end, expensive hardware that large companies have made us out to be."

The report says that the Insignia line consists of a basic, low-cost version of the VisualSRM management package, an SMB edition of the eRoom collaboration software, an SMB edition of the RepliStor replication package and an SMB edition of Storage Administrator for Exchange.

Much of this software centres around EMC's existing AX100 low-end storage box that is sold in conjunction with partner Dell, says The Register.

{mospagebreaktitle=Patent 'fundamentals' questioned}Patent 'fundamentals' questioned

The UK Patent Office has called for world-wide consultation on the fundamental principles of patenting to tackle growing doubt in the efficacy of the IP approval system.

The Register reports (7 February) that the British patent system is thought to work rather well in comparison to the US, which has a reputation for awarding trivial or ridiculous patents, and the European, which is trying to rebuild its reputation after an exhausting three-year squabble over software patents.

According to The Register, the UK office has been under pressure to either give in to the lobbies behind these trends or to protect its system from being diluted by strengthening its principles.

It appears, says the publication, that the latter is the motivation both for this consultation and the wider Gowers review of Intellectual Property that was launched in December.

The Register says that reviews of the British system now will not only protect it against powerful lobbies that would have it operate differently, but would strengthen its reputation, and therefore encourage innovators at a time when patent is a dirty word. It would also strengthen the British position in any move toward a world-wide system or in negotiations in Europe.

{mospagebreaktitle=Greece rocked by mobile phone tapping scandal}Greece rocked by mobile phone tapping scandal

Eavesdroppers tapped the mobile phones of Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, cabinet ministers and security officials for about a year around the time of the Athens Olympics, according to Greek ministers.

The Register reports (6 February) that the mobile phones of approximately 100 people (whose ranks include journalists and Arabs living in Greece, as well as the country's political and security elite) were monitored after snooping software was illegally installed on the systems of Vodafone Greece, the country's second largest mobile operator.

The publication quotes a report in The Observer that says that spyware enabled phone conversations from Vodafone subscribers to be diverted to 14 'shadow' pay-as-you-go mobile phones and relayed to a recording system.