NewsFactor Business

Apple Files Patent for Mobile Social Networking

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:27:29 -0500

Apple is tapping into the social arena with plans to launch a social-networking application. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has filed a patent with the U.S. Patent & Trade Office describing a social-network application dubbed iGroups.

The application for patent, made available on Thursday, reveals that Apple is working on an ad-hoc social network that would enable users to communicate with one another without using a central access point or mobile-device networks such as Bluetooth's personal area network (PAN) or piconet (an ad-hoc computer network that links a group of devices using Bluetooth technology).

Instead, iGroups would enable users to use the Bluetooth-enabled devices to communicate by setting the devices to a Token Exchange mode.

Targeted Content

While set in this mode, all device owners or group members within a geographic range of one another would be able to broadcast and receive tokens. Tokens can be exchanged using a communication link within limited range.

The tokens received by members are stored locally on the device or sent to a trusted service operating remotely on a network such as Apple's MobileMe.

"In some implementations, the tokens can be stored with corresponding time stamps to assist a trusted service in matching the tokens with tokens provided by other devices," writes Apple in its patent application. "The trusted service can perform an analysis on the tokens and time stamps to identify devices that were colocated at the geographic location at a given contact time, which can be determined by the time stamps."

Members would then be able to set up accounts with the service by registering through a portal or web site managed by the trusted service.

User interfaces, filters and search engines would let users search and manage groups. The groups can be used with various applications, including calendars, address books, e-mail, and instant messaging.

Apple...

Samsung Seeks Double-Digit Sales Growth

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:05:52 -0500

Samsung Electronics predicted a strong 2010 as economic expansion in advanced and large developing economies gains speed and said it is aiming for double-digit sales growth from last year's record high.

The world's largest manufacturer of flat screen televisions and second-biggest seller of mobile phones held its annual shareholders meeting Friday, where it also reveled in its status as a force in world business.

"Our financial standing is on a global level," Samsung President and CEO Choi Gee-sung told shareholders. "We have become a world class company."

Over the past decade Samsung has become one of the world's top technology companies in both consumer electronics and some of the key components that go into them.

The Suwon, South Korea-based company is also the world's largest manufacturer of computer memory chips and liquid crystal displays. It ranks behind Finland's Nokia Corp. in mobile phones.

Choi said that the global economy was likely to build on momentum from the second half of last year when it benefited from government stimulus measures put in place to bolster growth following the 2008 financial crisis.

"In particular, the advanced countries such as the U.S. and EU are likely to see a plus, or a positive, growth and the newly emerging countries, including BRICS, will accelerate their growth rate," he said, referring to Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Regarding sales, Choi said that Samsung will adjust to what he called exchange rate "uncertainties" by working to reduce costs and gain further "market dominance," an apparent reference to increasing market share.

"We hope to see a two-digit growth compared to year 2009" sales, he said, referring to percentage change.

Samsung racked up record sales of 136.29 trillion won, or $120.48 billion at current exchange rates, in 2009 on a consolidated basis -- which includes the performance of its overseas and domestic subsidiaries excluding financial businesses.

Samsung --...

MyScreen Cell-Phone Advertising Rewards Users

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:06:12 -0500

Mobile advertising comes in many flavors: text-message promotion alerts, banner ads on iPhone and Android applications, and sponsored links on mobile-friendly Web sites.

But one company, headed by a former Nokia executive in Miami -- is betting it has found a way that will really get your attention -- by taking over the whole screen with an ad after every call. The service is called MyScreen, and it's done trials with companies like McDonald's, BMW, Paramount, Calvin Klein and Ticketmaster.

"When we started to show this to advertisers and carriers, they immediately took the message that this is the only way today that they can deliver a brand experience in a non-intrusive way to consumers," said CEO Maurizio Angelone, the former head of Nokia's Latin American division.

Angelone said having the whole screen is a compelling sell because it's hard for advertisers to get a message across in a tiny banner ad, or by sending a text message, "which is not something the consumer is very happy to get without any reward."

With MyScreen, the whole phone screen will show an advertisement every time a user hangs up on a call. A user can hit a key to learn more, or close it by hitting the end call button again.

MyScreen is headquartered in Toronto but has offices in Miami. It just made a deal with Latin America's largest mobile operator, America Movil, headed by Carlos Slim, to launch the advertising service with carriers in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. MyScreen also made a deal to launch in Turkey with mobile carrier Turkcell, scheduled to start in the next few weeks.

MyScreen reported it has secured $1.5 million in advertising commitments. Data from the Mobile Marketing Association shows adoption could be good for the company in Latin America, as 65 percent of cell...

Secure PowerPoint Presentations Against Theft

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:18:45 -0500

LockLizard is pleased to announce a new approach to PowerPoint security: delivering high level copy protection for PowerPoint presentations enhanced by converting to Flash (SWF) format.

New PowerPoint protection features include encryption and DRM controls that prevent PowerPoint presentations from unauthorized copying, modifying, sharing, screen grabbing, printing, saving and unauthorized distribution, all without the use of passwords. Publishers can also expire and revoke presentations at any time.

"Existing password based protection systems are known to be flawed, and have had their day," says Charles Richmond, Flashguard's product manager. "There are hundreds of password crackers on the Internet (many free of charge) that will break the password protection on many formats, PowerPoint being just one, in seconds. PowerPoint password security only provides a mere fig leaf of protection and should not be used for any commercial purposes.

Also, by converting PowerPoint to Flash you also get the advantages of adding both MP3 audio and MP4 video (PowerPoint only allows you to embed a link to an external MP3/MP4 file), and SWF files (PowerPoint forces you to enable insecure ActiveX), to your PowerPoint presentations all within a single file. Thus you can get much more functionality and security by this approach."

LockLizard Flashguard has significant appeal to training course providers, who can now take realistic steps to protect what is very expensive development work for them before distributing it electronically. So trainers can afford to develop, or transfer many more courses that achieve the potential for user interaction than was possible with the more static approaches in both PowerPoint and PDF presentations. And without giving them away.

Using Flashguard, publishers can now achieve realistic control over who views their secure PowerPoint presentations, how long they can be viewed (for a certain number of days, a number of views, a...

SunGard Addresses Five Myths About Business Continuity

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:12:36 -0500

Without a business continuity program in place, even a minor disruption to systems, facilities or other key resources can potentially halt operations, impact customers or harm the financials of an organization, according to SunGard Availability Services.

"It is essential for organizations to understand how an unplanned outage would impact their business and know the steps they need to take to respond effectively," said William Hughes, director, Consulting Services BC/DR practice, Center of Excellence, at SunGard Availability Services. "You have to take a holistic view of not only threats to availability but also threats to your business continuity program's continued viability."

"A business continuity program should be built around realistic situations and assumptions, and incorporate preventive and reactive measures. It also should have a built-in means to drive continual improvement and focus beyond just continuity planning -� also addressing organizational awareness and preparedness. Some organizations, unfortunately, may have misplaced confidence in their preparedness which could lead to weaknesses being exposed at the worst possible time -� during a business outage or disaster," said Mr. Hughes.

In advance of Business Continuity Awareness Week, which takes place March 22 to 26, SunGard Availability Services explores five business continuity myths and the lessons organizations can learn from them. The business continuity myths are:

It's all about natural disasters. While natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, garner the bulk of attention, industry research shows power failures, IT hardware, software and network outages and human error are much more likely to cause business disruption. The lesson for organizations is they need to be prepared for all potential causes of business disruption. More often than not, it will be a "quiet catastrophe" related to hardware or process failure that, over time, generates the most significant threat to your business continuity.

We have a plan, so we are ready. Creating...

Court Airs Dirty Laundry from Viacom-Google Battle

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:39:45 -0500

The Viacom-Google battle over YouTube's alleged copyright infringement has been going on mostly behind the scenes for years. But court documents made public this week shed some light on the unfolding drama.

Viacom filed suit against Google in 2007 for allegedly allowing users to upload more than 100,000 videos clips containing copyrighted Viacom content, including parts of shows from MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon. The suit, which seeks $1 billion in damages, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Now the court is making documents public. Revelations include a Google claim that Viacom employees posted clips on YouTube and complained about YouTube hosting them. The documents also reveal Viacom's unsuccessful bid for YouTube in October 2006. Google won the bidding wars and paid $1.65 billion for the video-sharing site.

"Google beat out Viacom, and Viacom has had sour grapes ever since," said Ilan Barzilay, a litigator at Seyfarth Shaw in Boston. "As far as immediate impact on these things on the lawsuit, this isn't going to mean much. The parties are filing motions and the court will be addressing issues on summary judgment. The court may or may not ultimately decide the case on summary judgment or may cue it up for trial, which would be a circus."

Built on Infringement?

As Viacom sees it, YouTube was "intentionally built on infringement." In a published statement, Viacom said there are countless internal YouTube communications demonstrating that YouTube's founders and its employees intended to profit from that infringement.

"By their own admission, the site contained 'truckloads' of infringing content and founder Steve Chen explained that YouTube needed to 'steal' videos because those videos make 'our traffic soar'," Viacom said. "Google bought YouTube because it was a haven of infringement. Google knew that YouTube's popularity depended on infringing materials, with several...

HTC Vows To Fight an Apple Lawsuit

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:00:59 -0500

HTC Corp., the Taiwanese cell phone maker sued by Apple for patent infringement, said Thursday it will defend itself against charges that it lifted iPhone technology.

In his first public comment on the suit, HTC chief Peter Chou said the company "disagrees with Apple's actions," though he did not go into specifics.

Apple says HTC's phones -- several of which use Google Inc.'s Android mobile operating software -- infringe on 20 of its patents. The patents cover technology like iPhone two-finger screen recognition, which allows users to perform multiple functions on the gadget.

The suit, filed earlier this month, served as a warning to rivals that Apple Inc. is ready to aggressively defend its technology amid intensifying competition in the smart phone market. Phones based on Google's Android software have emerged as a major threat.

In his statement Thursday, Chou avoided addressing Apple's claims directly. He said, "HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done."

He added, "We will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible."

McLaren To Build High-Performing Sports Cars

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:26:59 -0500

Formula One car maker McLaren unveiled plans on Thursday to build a range of commercial sports cars in Britain, using race technology to take on other high-end European manufacturers such as Ferrari and Porsche on the highways.

McLaren is banking on renewed spending after the global economic downturn to bolster demand for its first offering, the MP4-12C, which will go on sale in late 2011 with a hefty price tag of between 125,000 ($191,127) and 150,000 pounds.

"Following any recession, there's a resurgence," McLaren Automotive Chairman Ron Dennis said at the company's headquarters -- and new factory site -- in Woking. "We intend to catch that wave."

"Our volumes are very much linked to how we see the recovery," he added.

The company aims to make up to 1,000 of the 12C cars next year, with up to 40 percent being sold in North America.

It will compete with the Ferrari 458 Italia, priced at around 170,000 pounds, and Mercedes SLS AMG at around 145,000 pounds.

McLaren's investment in a 40-million pound production facility south of London, due to begin work on the first car next spring, is also a boost for Britain's waning car manufacturing sector.

"At a time when the U.K. is rebalancing the economy away from the past two decades' over-concentration on financial services, we stand alongside other high-tech manufacturing and engineering companies, committed to securing Britain's global leadership, and securing a sustainable economic future," Dennis said.

This is not the first time McLaren has built a road car, but it is the first time the company has made its own vehicle in the "core sports car" market, defined as selling for 125,000-200,000 pounds.

McLaren built its first road car, the McLaren F1, 15 years ago, but only 107 were built, of which 64 were road cars and the rest racing cars.

The company said the MP4-12C...

CEO Shakeup at Barnes & Noble

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:47:22 -0500

Barnes & Noble changed CEOs Thursday, elevating the president of its Web site to lead the company, a surprise move that highlights the importance of digital books to the bookseller's future.

The company said former CEO Steve Riggio will stay on as vice chairman and be actively involved with the company.

New CEO William Lynch helped launch the company's electronic book store and oversaw the introduction of its electronic book reader, the Nook. The company is counting on the technology to boost sales and ward off intense competition from online retailers, discount stores and rival e-readers such as Amazon.com's Kindle.

The impending launch of Apple's Ipad tablet computer is also crowding the e-reader field. Barnes & Noble, which offers its e-reader software across a host of platforms including laptops and most mobile devices, said last week it will also make it compatible with the Ipad.

Lynch, 39, has served as president of Barnes & Noble's Web site since February 2009.

"In just a year, he has put our e-commerce business back on its fast-growth track and has helped us quickly establish the company as a major player in the rapidly growing e-book and digital content arena, securing important partnerships with major technology companies," Steve Riggio said of his successor in a call with analysts.

Lynch said he will work to develop both retail and online businesses.

"Although the stores will be just a part of the offering, they will remain a key driver of sales as we expand our multichannel relationships with our customers," he said during the call.

Barnes & Noble is under pressure from shareholders as sales at its stores flag. Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle has blamed company management.

In February, Barnes & Noble blocked an attempt by Burkle, whose Yucaipa Cos. holds a 19 percent stake in the company, to amass more shares.

Steve Riggio is...

Verizon, AT&T, Google in a Broadband Speed Race

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:00:21 -0500

The race to provide ultrafast broadband is on. In May, Cleveland will become a test bed for a service, spearheaded by Case Western Reserve University, that lets residents of more than 100 homes download data at about 1 gigabit per second. In February, Google said it plans an ultra-high-speed broadband network covering as many as 500,000 users. "The purpose of this project is to experiment and learn," Google said in a blog introducing the idea. "Network providers are making real progress to expand and improve high-speed Internet access, but there's still more to be done." The U.S. government's National Broadband Plan, released on Mar. 16, also urges that speedier broadband be more extensively deployed.

The plans by Google and Case Western may add to pressure on the largest broadband providers such as Verizon Communications, AT&T, and Comcast to accelerate their own deployments and could create a windfall for the makers of networking equipment, analysts say. "Pre-Google announcement, it would have been five years" before such speeds became common, says John Mazur, a principal analyst at Ovum, a telecom market researcher. "Post-Google announcement, it could be sooner."

A download speed of 1 gigabit per second [Gbps] is 20 times faster than top speeds Verizon offers consumers and more than 256 times faster than the speeds available to the average broadband subscriber. Broadband providers are trying to meet a surge in demand for video and other services delivered over networks, sometimes wirelessly. Global data traffic may increase fivefold by 2013, according to Cisco.

Government Goals

The National Broadband Plan proposes that the Defense Dept. make 1 Gbps connections available on select military bases. It also wants American schools, hospitals, and government buildings to have access to such connections by 2020. The plan outlines measures designed to create more broadband providers through auctions of airwaves needed...