Google embeds indoor Street Views in search results

Google has added indoor Street View results to general searches, allowing you to see if the ambiance of that downtown restaurant matches the online review. Google began mixing indoor business Street Views in search results this week for those companies that have supplied the Google with panoramic interior imagery.

The 360-degree tours inside businesses and shops are not actually taken with Google Street View cameras. They are panoramic photos taken by "Google Trusted Photographers," who charge businesses to take them, stitch imagery together, and publish the virtual tours on Google Maps.

These indoor Street Views use the same controls as their roadside counterpart, but are so far only available in the U.S., U.K, Australia, New Zealand, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Canada.

The tours were available since September through Google Maps, and now they will also show in Google Search results. When you search for a business, you will see on the right side a panel with photos of the business, its location on a map and a new "See inside" tag that takes you to the 360-degree tour of the premises.

The interface for the tours is just like the controls for Street View imagery, where you can zoom in, pan around a room or move through the building. The interior tours are particularly useful when you have to pick between restaurants, or check out shops ahead of your vacation.

Business owners outside the countries where Google is running its Trusted Photographer scheme can also upload their photos on Google Maps, but users won't be able to walk around the shops like with the indoor Street Views.

Meanwhile, you'll be able to use Google Maps to track Santa's journey around the world.

Read more »

EC: Samsung may have abused FRAND patents

Samsung's efforts to seek injunctions against Apple for standards-essential patents in the mobile phone market may be an abuse of its dominant position and a violation of European Union antitrust rules, the European Commission said Friday.

The commission, in releasing a statement of objections to Samsung's patent conduct, said it was concerned that Samsung was seeking injunctions on patents where Apple is willing to negotiate a license on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms. The objections released Friday represent a preliminary position from the commission.

"Intellectual property rights are an important cornerstone of the single market," Joaquín Almunia, the commission's vice president for competition policy, said in a statement. "However, such rights should not be misused when they are essential to implement industry standards, which bring huge benefits to businesses and consumers alike."

Earlier in the week, as the commission readied its objections against Samsung, Samsung announced that it would withdraw all its injunctions against Apple in European countries.

Samsung gave a commitment in 1998 to license its patents considered essential to certain telecommunication standards on FRAND terms. However, Samsung filed several lawsuits in a number of European countries in 2011, asserting that some of its competitors' products, including Apple devices, infringed on patents it considered essential for mobile communications devices, and sought injunctions preventing distribution of the products in Europe.

Samsung said it was studying the commission's objections. The company "will firmly defend ourselves against any misconceived allegations," Samsung said in a statement provided by an outside public relations group. "Samsung is confident that in due course the Commission will conclude that we have acted in compliance with European Union competition laws."

The Samsung patents being examined by the commission relate to the European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute's (ETSI) 3G UMTS standard, an industry standard for mobile and wireless communications.

A statement of objections is a formal step in commission investigations. The commission informs the companies involved, the companies can reply in writing and request an oral hearing.

Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.

Read more »

Facebook's $1 message test opens inboxes to strangers

For a small number of Facebook users, a buck is now all it takes to get a message into someone's inbox, even if the recipient isn't a friend.

The experiment seems enabled in part by Facebook's new policies, which remove the capability to block messages from people you aren't friends with. Under this policy, the main Inbox is reserved for messages from friends, or for other messages that Facebook's algorithms deem important. Everything else is routed to an "Other" section.

In the test, users can pay $1 to make sure their messages land in the Inbox, rather than the Other section. Facebook thinks this could be the best way to deliver important messages from non-friends while keeping spam out of the Inbox.

"For example, if you want to send a message to someone you heard speak at an event but are not friends with, or if you want to message someone about a job opportunity, you can use this feature to reach their Inbox," Facebook wrote in a press release. "For the receiver, this test allows them to hear from people who have an important message to send them."

Facebook says the test only works between individual users in the U.S., and users will have no more than one message per week routed from their Other folder to the Inbox.

Where's the benefit to Facebook?

The timing of the experiment is certainly odd, given that Facebook is already dealing with blowback from its own privacy policy changes, as well as Instagram's new terms of service (which have now been rescinded in response to user backlash).

While this doesn't sound like it would be a huge revenue source for Facebook, as a way to solve messaging it seems like a kludge. Besides, regular email has worked just fine for the scenarios Facebook describes--no dollar required.

The immediate concern with $1 messages is that it could open the door to spam or other unwanted messages--for instance, harassment from an ex-boyfriend or bullying students--even if that's not Facebook's intent. And now that there's no way to prevent non-friends from sending messages, there's no way for users to opt out of getting paid messages.

The experiment reminds me of Facebook's promoted posts, which let users pay $7 to send their status updates to the top of friends' news feeds. It's a quick-and-dirty solution, rather than one that users will love.

Read more »

Facebook launches Poke app, reinventing feature

Facebook has reinvented its Poke feature with a new standalone iOS app that lets you send messages, photos and videos to your friends on the social networking service that disappear within 10 seconds of someone opening them.

While it might have been a while since any of your friends on Facebook have used the feature, now you can check out the app released Friday.

Supposedly coded with help from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Poke joins a handful of other standalone Facebook apps, including Instagram, Messenger and Camera.

Poke is similar to another popular app called Snapchat, which also erases messages once they're viewed and has millions of users who send roughly 50 million messages a day.

Poke lets you send a 120-character note, take a photo and annotate it with doodles or words or make a short video. You can also choose how long recipients can view your message -- 1, 3, 5 or 10 seconds.

Apps like Snapchat and Poke certainly have utility for some people, especially considering how much trouble a person can get into if the wrong kind of message surfaces beyond its intended audience.

Consider former CIA Director David Petraeus, who recently resigned because of sexually charged emails discovered by the FBI, or New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, who was accused of sending a lewd picturevia Twitter to a college student in Washington state.

While a Poke message recipient can take a screenshot to preserve a particular communication, the app smartly alerts a sender when someone does so as well as gives instructions about what they can do about it.

The app's help center also links to information about what to do if an adult is making a minor uncomfortable as well as guidance regarding nude photo requests.

"If you ever see something you're uncomfortable with, you can click the gear menu and report it," Facebook wrote in a blog post.

Facebook seems to be keen on amping its messaging capabilities and also on Friday announced that it was testing a capability that lets people pay $1 to deliver a note to someone's inbox, even if that person isn't a friend.

Read more »

After claiming Verizon attack, hacker and the spoils disappear

Hours after boasting about the theft of 3 million records from Verizon Wireless, the hacker claiming responsibility for the attack and the purloined data posted to Pastebin have disappeared from the Web.

A search for the hacker's Twitter handle, @TibitXimer, produced a "Sorry, that page doesn't exist!" message.

Meanwhile, the data claimed to belong to Verizon Wireless appears to have been removed from Pastebin, a popular site for hackers to post stolen data.

Verizon Wireless is denying that the file that was posted to the Internet contained information from its customers. "We have examined the posted data and we have confirmed that it is not Verizon Wireless customer data," Verizon spokesperson Alberto Canal told ZDNet. "Our systems have not been hacked."

The hacker later revised his story about the origin of the data, telling ZDNet the data was from Verizon FiOS files, not Verizon Wireless.

Old hack?

Security researcher Adam Caudill, who viewed the data before it disappeared from Pastebin, wrote on Twitter that the information was posted months ago to the Internet. "The file that's going around is one of the files that we discussed back in August," he tweeted. "Nothing new."

"It's part of a set of files that was posted in August; I strongly suspect it's a telemarketing file or similar," he added.

ZDNet broke the theft story on Saturday, reporting that a hacker had posted 300,000 database entries belonging to Verizon Wireless.

The hacker told ZDNet that he'd breached the Verizon database on July 12 and downloaded an estimated 3 million records containing names, addresses, mobile serial numbers, the opening date of each account, and account passwords.

The hacker added that he decided to post a portion of the pilfered information to Pastebin because Verizon had not fixed the vulnerability since the hacker had exploited it.

Although sympathetic with the hacktivist collective Anonymous, the Verizon hacker told ZDNet he had no affiliation with that organization.

Verizon spokesman Canal confirmed to ZDNet that a breach had taken place months ago and had been reported to law enforcement authorities.

Many of the details about the incident claimed by the hacker were incorrect or exaggerated, he added. All customers affected by the incident were notified at the time, and safeguards were taken to protect their data and privacy.

Twitter tries to tame boasts

It's believed that Twitter suspended the hacker's account after learning about his claims.

Twitter has been fighting its "dark side" for years with mixed success.

It has also attempted to add more transparency to enforcement actions it takes on members' accounts. For example, Twitter launched a new policy in November calling for takedown messages to be posted to a member's tweet feed when one of their tweets had been removed for an alleged copyright violation.

Before the policy change, such tweets just disappeared from a feed stream without explanation, making it more difficult for whomever posted the tweet to challenge the takedown.

Read more »

Craig Mundie takes new role at Microsoft, will retire in 2014

Craig Mundie has left his role as Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer to become senior adviser to the CEO, as he winds down before retirement.

Mundie had led strategy since founder Bill Gates stepped down from full-time work at the company in 2006.

Ina Fried of All Things D first reported the move Monday morning, noting that it was announced in an internal memo from CEO Steve Ballmer on Dec. 14, which also included news that Mundie plans to retire in 2014.

Chief Technical Strategy Officer Eric Rudder has taken over most of Mundie's former duties, including overseeing Microsoft research.

Mundie, who will turn 65 in 2014, joined Microsoft in 1992 in the consumer platforms division, where he managed production of Windows CE. Before then, he had co-founded Alliant Computer Systems, which filed for bankruptcy in 1992, and previously was director of Data General's advanced development facility at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

"Over his career, Craig has brought great value to the groups and initiatives he has started and overseen and now brings that wealth of experience to his new role," Ballmer said in the email, according to All Things D. "Craig has also been instrumental in building relationships with governments and policymakers around the world."

Mundie has been the company's primary technology-policy liaison to the U.S. and other governments, according to his biography on the Microsoft website, which was updated Dec. 17 to reflect his new role. Mundie has particularly focused on China, India and Russia in the liaison role, and also served on the U.S. National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee and the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age. President Barack Obama appointed Mundie to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in April 2009.

As senior adviser, Mundie works on "key strategic projects within the company, as well as with government and business leaders around the world on technology policy, regulation and standards," according to his biography.

Read more »

Windows 8's uptake falls behind Vista's pace

With just a week left in the month, Windows 8's usage uptake has slipped behind Vista's at the same point in its release, data from a Web measurement company showed.

According to Net Applications, Windows 8's online usage share through Dec. 22 was 1.6% of all Windows PCs, an uptick from 1.2% of November. Windows 8 publicly launched on Oct. 26.

At the same two-month mark in Vista's release timetable, that OS accounted for 2.2% of all Windows systems, double the month prior.

Net Applications measures operating system usage by recording the specific operating system and version used by the machines of visitors to approximately 40,000 sites it monitors for clients.

The slowdown in uptake of Windows 8 and its poor performance compared to Vista is a troubling sign for the new operating system. Vista has been labeled a rare Microsoft failure, in part because it was adopted by far fewer customers than either its predecessor, Windows XP, or its successor, Windows 7.

Vista's online usage share peaked in the fall of 2009 at 20.3% of all Windows systems.

While there are nine days of Windows 8 data for December still to be released by Net Applications -- including Christmas, when a substantial number of Windows 8 PCs may have been given as gifts, and thus not included in the online estimates -- the new OS would have to record an amazing usage jump during December's final week to put it on par with Vista's 2007 pace.

By Computerworld's calculations, Windows 8's share of all Microsoft-powered PCs would have to leap to 4% in December's final week to equal Vista's second-month total. To give an idea of the magnitude of that required fourth-week increase, Net Applications said that Windows 8's share of all Windows PCs for the week ending Dec. 22 was 1.7%, and for the week ending Dec. 15, was 1.6%.

Net Applications' statistics continue to corroborate data from others that show Windows 8 has not generated the PC sales "pop" historically seen after the launch of a new Microsoft OS. In late November, the NPD Group said that in four weeks surrounding Windows 8's Oct. 26 debut, 21% fewer PCs were sold to U.S. consumers than during the same period in 2011.

Newer NPD numbers, cited by the New York Times last weekend, said U.S. consumer sales of Windows machines from late October through the first week of December were down 13% compared to the same stretch last year.

And even if Windows 8 makes a showing strong enough this month to match Vista, it will continue to have difficulty keeping pace: By the end of Vista's third month, it accounted for 3.3% of all copies of Windows. To equal that, Windows 8 would have to double its current share by the end of January 2013.

Windows 8's uptake trajectory fell behind Vista's for the first time this month. Note: Windows 8's usage share is through Dec. 22 only. (Data: Net Applications.)

Windows 8's uptake was even more sluggish when compared to Windows 7, the 2009 operating system that has flourished as much as Vista flopped.

By the end of its second month of availability, Windows 7 accounted for 6.2% of all Windows machines, or nearly four times that of Windows 8 as of Dec. 22.

At this point, it looks virtually impossible for Windows 8 to do as well as its immediate predecessor, at least in the short run: At the end of Windows 7's third month -- analogous to Jan. 31, 2013 for Windows 8 -- it had gained another two percentage points to end with an 8.2% share of all Windows systems.

In fact, Windows 7 continued to gain share in December, according to preliminary numbers from Net Applications. Through Dec. 22, Windows 7's usage share of all personal computers was 45.6%, or nine-tenths of a percentage point higher than at the end of November.

To put that in perspective, Windows 7 gained more than twice the share through Dec. 22 than did Windows 8.

Windows 8's failure to stay abreast of Windows 7 or even Vista is not hard to explain, said analysts, who have been predicting a weak reception for the new operating system, blaming a weak economy, the OS's confusing dual user interfaces, enterprise upgrade fatigue after migrating to Windows 7, and competition from rivals' tablets -- including Apple's iPad, Amazon's Kindle and Google's Nexus -- for customers' technology dollars.

Neither Vista nor Windows 7, of course, had to face competition from tablets.

And that, experts have said, is paramount. Because Windows' success is directly tied to the number of new PCs sold, sluggish system sales caused by defections to tablets translates into a slow-down in operating system's uptake.

And people, whether consumers or enterprise workers, are increasingly turning to tablets -- virtually all of which run a non-Microsoft OS -- as their preferred mobile device, reducing sales growth of Windows notebooks and generally stretching everyone's PC refresh cycle. Research firm IDC, for instance, recently raised its 2012 tablet sales forecast to 122 million devices, up 72% from 2011.

Earlier this year, IDC said that total worldwide PC shipments would reach 367 million in 2012, less than 1% above 2011's 364 million.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His email address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.

See more by Gregg Keizer on Computerworld.com.

Read more about windows in Computerworld's Windows Topic Center.

Read more »

Toshiba to launch 20-megapixel image chip for digital cameras

Toshiba is preparing a 20-megapixel image sensor for digital cameras that it says will be the highest resolution of its kind.

The Tokyo-based firm said the new chips will be able to support capturing 30 frames per second at full resolution. They will also be able to shoot video at 60 frames per second at 1080P or 100 frames at 720P.

Toshiba said it will begin shipping samples of the new CMOS chips from next month, with mass production to begin in August of 300,000 units monthly. Toshiba is best known in components for its NAND flash memory, which it develops with partner SanDisk, but is also a major manufacturer of LSI and other semiconductors.

Digital point-and-shoot cameras are steadily falling in price, squeezed between brutal competition among manufacturers and the increasing threat of smartphones and mobile devices. While the number of pixels a camera can capture is not always a direct measure of the overall quality of its images, it is a key selling point to consumers.

The image resolution of top-end smartphones now often meets or exceed that of digital cameras. The Nokia 808 PureView launched earlier this year has a 41-megapixel image sensor.

The Japanese manufacturer said it has increased the amount of information pixels in the new chip can store compared to its previous generation of CMOS, producing better overall images. It has also reduces the size of pixels - the new 20-megapixel version has individual pixels that measure 1.2 micrometers, down from 1.34 micrometers in its 16-megapixel product.

CMOS, or complementary metal-oxide semiconductor, sensors contain rows of electronic pixels that convert light into digital signals, as well as on-chip processing technology that can enhance images or speed transfers.

Toshiba says its goal is to achieve a 30 percent market share in CMOS sensors for digital cameras in the fiscal that ends in March of 2016.

Read more »

Apple gives Tim Cook 51 percent salary rise, but his total compensation drops 99 percent

Apple CEO Tim Cook received compensation totalling US$4.17 million in 2012, down 98.9 percent on last year -- although his 2011 compensation of $378 million consisted mostly of a one-off stock grant, worth $376.2 million at the time.

Cook's salary, on the other hand, rose 50.8 percent, to $1.36 million, and his additional incentive payments more than tripled, to $2.8 million, the company revealed in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday.

His predecessor, Steve Jobs, famously took an annual salary of just $1. He received no additional incentive payments, although Apple picked up the tab for his private jet, paying $1.1 million from 2008 through 2010.

Apple's compensation committee considered that Jobs was amply compensated by the growth in value of Apple's stock, of which he held around 5.5 million shares. Its grant of 1 million restricted stock units (RSUs) to Cook on Aug. 24, 2011 was an attempt to motivate him in a similar way. Half the shares will vest in 2016, five years after he became CEO, and the other half in 2021, assuming he is still with the company.

Jobs' holding of Apple stock was dwarfed by his stake in Walt Disney Co., of which he owned around 7 percent as a result of his sale of animation studio Pixar to the company. That reportedly netted a 2011 dividend payment of $82.8 million for the trust fund to which he bequeathed his shares.

Overall, compensation by stock price has been good for Cook. His one-million-share holding is now worth around $515 million, up 36 percent over the last 16 months, based on Friday's stock price.

That, though, is nowhere near the $705 high Apple shares hit on Sept. 21, the day the iPhone 5 went on sale. Since then, Cook has made a paper loss of $190 million.

The stock price decline was triggered, in part, by disappointment that the new iPhone did not exceed the numerous rumors about its capabilities, and also with dissatisfaction with the new mapping application that Apple included in iOS 6. Its poor performance prompted Cook to issue a rare public apology, and led to the departure of Apple software chief Scott Forstall, once seen as a contender for the role of CEO.

To get Apple's stock back on an upward track, Cook will have to deliver more inspiring products than the iPad Mini -- perhaps including an Apple TV. There are signs that Apple may be moving to extend its TV offering beyond the diminutive AppleTV set-top box and the sale of TV show episodes through iTunes. Earlier this month, Cook described TV as "an area of intense interest," a stark contrast to his predecessor's dismissal of it as a "hobby."

Peter Sayer covers open source software, European intellectual property legislation and general technology breaking news for IDG News Service. Send comments and news tips to Peter atpeter_sayer@idg.com.

Read more »

Apple drops bid to add Samsung Galaxy S III Mini to patent lawsuit

Apple has dropped its patent-infringement accusations against the Galaxy S III Mini, a mid-market Android smartphone that Samsung Electronics says it is not selling in the U.S.

In a filing in the U.S. District Court for Northern California on Friday, Apple said it would withdraw its request to include the Galaxy S III Mini in a patent infringement case against Samsung that is set for trial in 2014. On Nov. 23, Apple had asked to add the Mini and five other recently released Samsung products to its complaint, which originally was filed in February. The case is one of many in an ongoing set of disputes between the two companies in several countries.

When Apple asked to add the Mini to its case, the phone was expected to be released in the U.S. soon. Samsung subsequently filed an opposition to that request in which the South Korean company said it was not selling the Mini in the U.S.

In its filing on Friday, Apple said the Mini apparently was available for sale in the country, because its attorneys had bought multiple Minis from Amazon.com's U.S. online store and successfully had them shipped to addresses in the U.S. The company also said it appeared the device was still on sale at Amazon on Wednesday.

However, Apple wrote that because Samsung had represented it wasn't "making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing the Galaxy S III Mini in the United States," it would drop the patent allegations against the Mini.

Apple's move may rely on Samsung staying true to its statement. Apple withdrew its allegations "without prejudice," reserving the right to make the accusations again "if the factual circumstances change."

Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is stephen_lawson@idg.com

Read more »

iOS app revenues still four times higher than Android, but Play store growing fast

A new report from mobile app analytics firm App Annie shows that, while revenues for iOS apps are still four times higher than those of Android apps, the gap is beginning to close, thanks to spiking sales in the Google Play store.

The report is the first of a monthly series that the company will make publicly available via its blog.

MORE MOBILITY: Exclusive: Nokia seeks to block sale of some RIM products

SMARTPHONE HISTORY: The smartphone is 20 years old, believe it or not

According to the report, Google Play's revenue jumped by nearly 18% during the month of October, while the App Store saw a decrease of 0.7%. Apps on iOS, however, still bring in about four times the amount of money that Android apps do. In terms of free downloads, the gap is just 12% in favor of iOS.

The picture is changing on a country-by-country basis, as well, App Annie reported. For the first time, the U.S. was not the biggest nation in terms of Google Play revenue, as the top spot went to Japan. The latter country has seen Android app revenues shoot up by a factor of 10 this year, claiming 29% to the U.S.'s 26% in the latest figures. America still far exceeds any other single country in terms of iOS revenue, however, at 33% to second-place Japan's 14%.

The Asian market is quickly becoming a bigger contributor to the growth of mobile apps in general, and Android apps in particular, according to the report. The top three publishers by revenue on the Google Play store in October are all based in Japan, and just two of the top 10 companies on the list were not from either Japan or South Korea. Four Japanese companies made the revenue top 10 for iOS as well.

Part of what's driving this growth, App Annie says, is the popularity of mobile gaming. Nine of the 10 biggest-selling publishers on both iOS and Android were game companies. However, different types of games were popular on each platform -- Western-built strategy and casino games dominated on iOS, while Asian-made brain games and other casual titles were more popular on Android.

Beyond the gaming sector, the most noteworthy discovery made by App Annie may be that productivity apps are selling briskly on both iOS and Android -- a further indication that BYOD and enterprise mobility issues will only grow in importance in the near future.

The full report can be found here.

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.

Read more about anti-malware in Network World's Anti-malware section.

Read more »

OLPC cancels XO-3 tablet, downplays need for new hardware

One Laptop Per Child has cancelled plans to release its XO-3 tablet, although technology from that project could still be used in other products, OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negroponte said.

"The XO-3 is by no means gone. It may emerge in its constituent parts rather than as a whole," Negroponte said via email.

OLPC started off in 2005 as a laptop project and is well known as a hardware innovator, with its first XO-1 laptop being praised for its unique and environmentally friendly design. The XO-3 cancellation comes as OLPC officials say the organization could de-emphasize the focus on hardware design in the long run in favor of education projects.

The nonprofit group announced plans for the XO-3 tablet in 2009 and showed early samples at CES earlier this year. The tablet was supposed to ship earlier this year for US$100, but it was delayed while OLPC finalized the design and sought partners to manufacture the XO-3. The tablet was meant to be a low-cost computing tool for students in developing countries.

The XO-3 was originally priced at $75 and that triggered a backlash, in part because critics said the price was unrealistic. OLPC didn't plan to have the product manufactured itself, as it did with the XO-1 laptop, which too was delayed and eventually shipped at double its promised $100 price tag.

The XO-3 design is still available, and it is more likely that companies use some of the tablet's key technologies, such as flexible power input and charging efficiency, said Ed McNierney, the chief technology officer at OLPC.

"There's a lot of decent tablet technology out there -- it's really a question of putting things together in the right package for the children we're trying to serve," McNierney said in an email. "The Nexus 7 is nice, too, and a more kid-friendly size, and there are other good examples."

The tablet shown at CES had a rugged body, an 8-inch screen and included optional technologies such as a solar charger and support for satellite Internet. It used a display from Pixel Qi that conserves battery life by using ambient light to brighten the screen.

OLPC's priority has always been education and the need to design its own complete hardware systems "may go away," Negroponte said. Tablets are an important learning tool for children, but companies may be able to ruggedize existing low-cost products for use in schools, he said.

"We had to build the [XO-1] laptop, but we do not have to build the tablet," Negroponte said, adding that, "the need for OLPC may morph into something else."

OLPC also designed a hybrid laptop-tablet called the XO-4 Touch, which includes some of the XO-3's features. That product is still scheduled to ship early next year. The XO-4 resembles the original XO-1 laptop but has a touchscreen that can swivel around and fold over the keyboard to make an e-reader.

As an alternative to the XO-3, Negroponte is not opposed to buying low-cost tablets and distributing them to schools. Tablets from companies such as Motorola, which have been deployed as an educational tool in developing countries, have shown good power management and no breakage in rugged environments.

"I am surprised how good they are, as they were not designed for [the] environment," Negroponte said.

Experiments have shown that tablets have made basic learning and computing easier, he said.

"The amazing result is that the kids are showing all the precursors of reading," Negroponte said.

OLPC will continue with hardware design on the XO-4 and beyond for the simple reason that there are now nearly 3 million XO devices around the world, McNierney said.

"That means two things: ongoing support for the existing customers, and ongoing engineering to keep the design current. Existing customers need additional units, spare parts, etc. and that need won't go away," McNierney said.

Components also must be refreshed every 18 to 24 months to keep using readily available parts and to keep the price down.

"That doesn't mean, of course, that OLPC needs to be the organization to do those things in the long run. That's the nice part of being a nonprofit; we do things -- like design hardware -- when no one else is stepping up to do them. If someone else can do them, we can stop," McNierney said.

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com

Read more »

Facebook loosens ties with Zynga

Facebook and Zynga have loosened their ties in an amended agreement that does away with most of Facebook's exclusive rights to Zynga games, but also permits Facebook to develop its own games from March next year.

The social networking company, however, said it did not plan to develop its own games. "We're not in the business of building games and we have no plans to do so. We're focused on being the platform where games and apps are built," it said in an emailed statement on Thursday.

In a regulatory filing on Thursday, Zynga said the amendments, which among other things remove the requirement that Zynga show advertisements served by Facebook and offer Facebook Credits as payment on its games sites such as Zynga.com, would be in effect until May 13, 2015.

Zynga's use of the Facebook platform with respect to Zynga sites will also be governed solely by Facebook's standard terms and conditions for game developers, thus ending the games developer's special relationship with Facebook, which was a sore point with other developers.

"We have streamlined our terms with Zynga so that Zynga.com's use of Facebook Platform is governed by the same policies as the rest of the ecosystem," Facebook said in its statement. "We will continue to work with Zynga, just as we do with developers of all sizes, to build great experiences for people playing social games through Facebook."

The amended agreement also eliminates the requirement that Zynga use the Facebook platform as its primary non-Zynga platform to launch social games, and removes the need for Zynga to use the Facebook platform as the exclusive means of login for games not hosted on the Facebook site, the social networking website said in its filing.

Under the amendments, however, any social game launched by Zynga will generally be available through the Facebook website concurrent with, or shortly following, its availability on another social platform or a Zynga property.

The requirement does not however apply to Zynga mobile games, social games owned and operated by a third party, social games that cannot be launched on the Facebook web site due to technical limitations, and any downloadable social games or any Zynga games launched in China or Japan, according to Zynga's filing.

A third-party social game offered on Zynga websites will also have to be offered to Facebook if the game is acquired by Zynga. If Facebook allows real money gambling games on the Facebook web site in countries where Zynga has real money gambling games, Zynga will subsequently launch such games on the Facebook web site, if certain conditions are met.

The Zynga filing states that Facebook "will no longer be prohibited from developing its own games," which gave rise to speculation that the social network may be planning its own games to compete with Zynga and other developers.

Zynga reported in the third quarter that 84 percent of its quarterly revenue was generated from the Facebook platform, down from 93 percent a year earlier.

In its quarterly report in October, Zynga had listed among its risk factors the possibility that "high-profile companies with significant online presences that to date have not developed social games, such as Facebook, Google Inc. and Microsoft Corporation, may decide to develop social games." The games company said it was investing in its Zynga platform, mobile and other platforms, and also in integrating and operating some of its games on additional platforms, including Google+, Mixi and Tencent.

John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address is john_ribeiro@idg.com

Read more »

Sony sells 160,000 PS Vitas in first week of US holiday season

Sony sold over 160,000 PlayStation Vitas during the opening week of the holiday shopping season in the U.S., a key test for its flagship handheld game.

The Vita launched in December 2011 in Japan, but several months later in most other markets, so the next few weeks will mark its first holiday season in much of the world. The Vita is increasingly competing not just with Nintendo's portable 3DS console, but with the growing armada of tablets and smartphones on the market, many with high-resolution screens and multi-core processors.

Sony has already downplayed its expectations for its portable game consoles. The company slashed its annual sales target for the Vita and previous generation PlayStation Portable to 10 million earlier this month, 17 percent lower than its previous goal.

In its first three weeks of sales in Japan last year, the PlayStation Vita racked up an impressive 500,000 sales.

Sony also said its PlayStation 3 game console performed well during the opening week of the U.S. holiday retail season. The company sold 525,000 consoles from Nov. 18 to Nov. 24, including various game bundles.

Sony aims to sell 16 million PS3s this fiscal year worldwide, including a slimmed-down version released earlier this year.

The company's game division, Sony Computer Entertainment, said that total sales from Nov. 18 to Nov. 24 were up 9 percent compared to a year earlier, a figure that combines consoles, game software and peripherals.

Sony said it sold out of several bundle packs that include games along with consoles, including a Vita bundles that include Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified, and Lego Batman 2, which sold out during the week.

In addition to its traditional game console business, Sony is also pushing heavily its online gaming network. The company has also begun rolling out its fledgling gaming platform for Android-based phones, PlayStation Mobile, which certifies third-party devices and games to provide a "PlayStation-like" gaming experience to users on their existing hardware.

Read more »

Adidas Heads to the Cloud to Control IT Spending

Adidas Latin America decided to implement cloud-based procurement software to improve internal compliance and consolidate spending management. The company is a regional subsidiary of theAdidas Group sporting goods empire, which includes brands such as Adidas, Reebok and Rockport.

Procurement at $1.4 billion Adidas Latin America was complex--involving different currencies and languages--and disjointed. Some countries had developed homegrown procurement solutions; others had paper-based processes.

"If we were a small organization, that might have continued to work," says Adidas Latin America's head of IT Christian Bader. "But we were growing fast, and we weren't getting the visibility we needed."

Seeking to improve internal audit compliance and streamline spending, Bader evaluated several spending-management solutions and decided on Coupa for its multinational support, total cost of ownership, integration with the ERP system, and capacity for customization.

By opting for a hosted system, Bader was able to fully implement Coupa in Panama--where the company's Latin American operations are based--in six weeks earlier this year. Bader started with the country that had the most advanced procurement processes already in place and adopted an 80-20 attitude. "You will never cover all the cases you need to handle in one system," Bader says.

"We wanted to address the most common processes and keep it simple." Cash advances for travel, for example, will not be done in Coupa. "I'd rather leave it out than blow up the whole system to get it in," Bader says. Next up is Chile, where there was no software in place, so the implementation will take longer, one department at a time, starting with human resources. Later this year will come Argentina, Peru, Brazil and finally Mexico--simply because they were already deep into a massive warehouse management system implementation. IT is managing the introduction of the cloud-based system remotely from Panama City, keeping the cost of the project low. Bader opted to add on Coupa's business intelligence tool, the Spend Optimizer, so employees can see on their own how much they're spending and on what.

"We shifted the ownership and workload [associated with that] from finance, which should not have to do it, to the people actually doing the procurement," Bader says. Soon, Adidas Latin America will centralize its spending management and consolidate its business with certain vendors, leading to lower costs.

Adidas Latin America's complex account structure made integration between Coupa and SAP difficult. "It created a lot of stress, but we solved it," says Bader. "We should have addressed it before we started the project, but we were moving too fast."

But change management was the biggest challenge. "Our experience, especially in Latin America, is that you have to get the buy-in of the full organization, from the warehouses to marketing to HR to IT," says Bader, a German who joined the Latin American subsidiary in 2004. Bader held town meetings to address doubts and concerns.

"You can't just go out there and force it," he says. "Especially in Brazil--forget it! You have to do this with them and take the time to convince them, or you will fail."

Stephanie Overby is regular contributor to CIO.com's IT Outsourcing section.

Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline, on Facebook, and on Google + .

Read more about cloud computing in CIO's Cloud Computing Drilldown.

Read more »

Apple starts selling thinner, higher-priced iMacs

More than a month after Apple unveiled new all-in-one desktops, the company today started selling its redesigned iMacs.

The 21.5-in. iMac, with standard configurations prices at $1,299 and $1,499, will ship in one to three days from ordering. The larger 27-in. iMac, which costs $1,799 and $1,999 for its two models, can be pre-ordered starting Friday, but won't ship for two to three weeks, Apple's online store showed.

The new desktops are $100 more than their predecessors.

Apple introduced the new desktops on Oct. 23, but said then that the computers would not ship for weeks. The same week, CEO Tim Cook acknowledged the delays, saying then that iMac supplies would be "constrained for the full quarter in a significant way."

The delays were unprecedented for Apple. Since the new iMacs' Oct. 23 unveiling, Apple has had none to sell on its online store, having also pulled the previous generation from the market. Only remaining inventories of the older models -- which were introduced in May 2011 -- were available at Apple's retail stores and those of its authorized resellers.

The most innovative addition to the new iMacs was "Fusion Drive," an option that combines 128GB of flash storage with a standard platter-based hard drive of between 1TB and 3TB. The hybrid drive significantly speeds up some chores, such as starting the iMac and opening often-used applications.

Apple charges an additional $250 for the option when fitted with the 1TB drive that comes standard with each iMac. To boost Fusion Drive to a 3TB drive costs $400: $250 for Fusion, an extra $150 for the move from 1TB to 3TB. The lowest-priced 21.5-in. iMac cannot be configured with Fusion Drive.

Analysts have said that Fusion Drive is likely composed of a Seagate platter hard drive and an SSD, or "solid-state drive" provided by Anobit, an Israeli company that Apple acquired in December 2011 for a reported $500 million.

The new iMacs feature Intel's "Ivy Bridge" 2.7GHz, 2.9GHz or 3.2GHz quad-core Core i5 processors, 8GB of memory, 1TB hard drives, and Nvidia graphics chipsets with 512MB of RAM. The desktops also shun optical drives -- Apple's been dumping the drives from systems as it rolls out new designs, leaving only the non-Retina MacBook Pro laptops and the low-volume Mac Pro tower with built-in DVD/CD drives -- and retained the previous models' screen sizes and resolutions.

While the 21.5-in. iMac has long been the best-selling desktop in the U.S., the line faces increased competition from Windows all-in-ones, said Steven Baker, an analyst with the NPD Group.

"Windows desktops have done well all year, with all-in-ones accounting for 20% to 30% of [Windows PC] retail sales," said Baker in a Thursday interview. "They make great touch devices."

Windows 8, Microsoft's new operating system, emphasizes touch capabilities. Apple's iMacs are not touch sensitive.

The new iMacs can be ordered today from Apple's online store; the 21.5-in. model is available today at Apple's retail stores. A 27-in. iMac ordered Friday will purportedly ship between Dec. 14 and Dec. 21.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com.

Read more about macintosh in Computerworld's Macintosh Topic Center.

Read more »