New Mac Mini, iPod Hi-Fi system cuts need for CD storage

Sun

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple Computer Inc. on Tuesday introduced a speaker system for its iPod music players and a revamped Mac Mini computer that will let users access music, video and photos across their home networks.

The new Mac Mini includes Apple’s Front Row software, already found on the newest iMacs, so users can connect the computer to their televisions and control music, videos, or photos with a remote.

An added feature of the Front Row software will let users locate and share media content from other computers within a local wireless network. This means a user can play songs or stored TV shows that are pulled off a computer in another room in the house.

The new Mac Mini looks much like its previous incarnations but is the first to include Intel Corp. chips. Apple said the $599 US model that has a single-core chip operates up to three times faster than its predecessor. A higher-end, $799 model that has two computing engines in one processor runs about five times faster, Apple said.

With the $349 iPod Hi-Fi system, users can dock their portable players into the speakers and use a remote control to operate it from afar. That means there’s no longer a need for a cabinet full of CDs, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said in a presentation at company offices.

“It’s home stereo reinvented for the iPod age,” he said.

The iconic iPod player has fuelled Apple’s growth in recent years and led to a booming industry of accessories ranging from speakers to clothing, as well as an increasing number of cars that come equipped with iPod-ready stereo systems.

Apple’s new boom-box-like speaker system will compete with its accessory partners, but senior vice-president Phil Schiller said Apple will continue to support members of the “iPod economy.” He said there’s enough room in the market for a range of products.

“It’s all about the iPod lifestyle,” Schiller said in an interview.

Apple has become the pacesetter for digital media products, and its shares have more than doubled in the last year. Apple has sold more than 42 million iPods since its 2001 debut.

Shares of Apple fell $2.50, or 3.52 per cent, to close at $68.49 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock’s 52-week range is $33.11 to $86.40.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

TECHVIBES SHOW I Future is about speed, capacity, broadband mobility, audience told

GILLIAN SHAW
Sun

Avoiding traffic jams took a high-tech twist Tuesday with the launch of a new service that will deliver a bird’seye view of Vancouver intersections straight to your cellphone or mobile device.
   The free service delivers video images updated every three minutes from 30 traffic cameras around Vancouver. It’s the brainchild of a group of former Motorola cellphone experts who have turned their talents into a new company, Inception Software Technology Inc. to make remote video surveillance mobile.
   Fittingly, the company debuted its offering at Techvibes Massive Technology show and conference in Vancouver, where 175 exhibitors were giving credence to keynote speaker David Neale of Rogers Communications, whose message was that IP — Internet protocol — is everywhere.
   “It’s all about speed, it’s about capacity, it’s about faster services,” Neale, Rogers’s vicepresident of service development, told delegates. “It is about having broadband mobility wherever you go.”
   From the wireless service provider FatPort’s BizSpot service launched at the show Tuesday to transform offices into wireless hubs, to outdoor enthusiast Scott Burchett’s solar powered backpacks that can recharge iPods and cellphones on the remotest mountain peaks, Techvibes was all about a wired and wireless world of Internet access.
   Inception Software’s newly launched CelVu.com is focused on the corporate security surveillance market with starter kits that include wireless cameras, a network video recorder and a year of service retailing for close to $3,000.
   While security surveillance is the company’s commercial focus, president Chris Scholefield said the mobile traffic monitoring service was launched to raise awareness of the technology.
   “Our intention is that before people set out, they can use their cellphone to check traffic congestion,” he said, pulling up a screen on his BlackBerry that offered three views of West Georgia west of Broughton in downtown Vancouver.
   On the security side, the cameras can be mounted in homes, offices, or any facility, allowing owners a virtual view through their cellphone or mobile screens. While Scholefield said the BlackBerry is drawing the most interest as the device of choice for monitoring the cameras, the service works with Treos, pocket PCs, cellphones and other mobile devices that allow for the delivery of video.
   The cameras, which can track everything from what your kids are doing while you’re not home to whether thieves are clearing out all the computers from your office, record the video with files that are archived up to seven days.
   Scholefield said for security companies with guards investigating alarms, the technology is a safeguard. “This way they can see what’s going on before they go in.”
   For Scott Burchett, realization that IP anywhere would simply not work if batteries die, and his frustration at failing to find a solution to keep devices powered while they’re unplugged, led him and Paul Andrews to form Burchett Andrews Distribution — www.badinc.ca — which focuses on portable solar power charging options for the marketplace, such as a solar powered backpack.

Province

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Expert: Cellphones, PDAs ‘are also likely targets’

Jim Jamieson
Province

Apparently, nothing is sacred.

Technology writer Andy Walker predicts that malicious hackers are on the verge of writing insidious computer code that will target, amongst other devices and platforms, Apple’s iconic iPod.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Province yesterday, Walker said the recent reports of the first worm written for Apple’s OS X operating system simply point to a wider proliferation of so-called malware as virus writers look farther afield for platforms to infect.

He warned that devices such as PDAs and cellphones will also be under greater threat.

“Apple has been bragging about having the most secure operating system, but there’s no free lunch in security,” said Walker, a Toronto-based journalist and broadcaster, who has just published Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Security, Spam, Spyware and Viruses.

“I think somebody is trying to make a point, but they also may smell an opportunity if sales ramp up with Apple going to the Intel chip. Apple would be a great place to experiment because the iPod is so strongly linked to the operating system. I think the honeymoon is over for Apple.”

Walker said the attraction of the iPod is its dominant position in the MP3 player market (78 per cent) and the fact it also works in the much larger Windows world.

“Can you imagine looking at the latest episode of Lost and having some video ad come on?” he said. “Or getting audio spam when you’re listening to a song you downloaded. What a great way to sneak in adware.”

But Walker said Microsoft Corp. is also heading into a crucial period in terms of its own battered reputation regarding security to its flagship product, the Windows XP operating system. The much- delayed launch of XP’s successor, Vista, is due out this fall and Walker said the new OS must be airtight.

“Microsoft is running scared right now,” said Walker, whose next project is a book on Vista. “Windows and Office are what pay the bills at Microsoft, so if it’s not secure it’s going to be their undoing.”

Walker speculated that if Microsoft stumbles, Google will offer competition in the space, if not with a Google OS then some sort of all-encompassing technology.

Walker says the minimum precautions for safe computing are software for anti-virus and anti-spyware, making sure your firewall is turned on and updating your operating system as often as possible. Other key rules are not opening unsolicited e-mails and avoiding filesharing networks.

“If you ignore the potential problems, you could potentially suffer financial damage,” he said.

Walker‘s comprehensive but accessible book also suggests free alternatives to most types of security software.

“Computer security problems are not your fault, so you shouldn’t be forced to pay a lot of money to fix them,” he said.

© The Vancouver Province 2006

 

Lowell Conn
Sun

– GPS GIANT RETURNS

In 2004, Pioneer Electronics hit critical and consumer paydirt with its AVIC-N1 multimedia entertainment and GPS system.

Two years later, the company returns to the well with Part Three in the series, the AVIC-N3, comprising a 6.5-inch touch-screen monitor, DVD/CD/MP3 player and an enhanced GPS system. The product comes with two DVDs packed with data for Canada and the United States.

The retractable screen complements a detachable control panel with 10-character display, 64 megabytes of internal memory and 11 million points of interest. The device also arrives XM- and Sirius-satellite radio ready and is compatible with Pioneer’s iPod interface adapter and features a rear-camera input.

There’s little functionality in the entertainment and navigational sphere that this puppy doesn’t include. There’d be an AVIC-N3 in every North American vehicle if not for the hefty price tag and crazy demand ensuring it’ll be sold out by most retailers for quite some time.

$2,075; visit www.crutchfield.com for details.

– INTERNATIONAL HUE

The Blaupunkt Los Angeles MP74 CD/MP3 player features a motorized detachable fold-down face with animated display, it will play every type of music format you’ll ever need.

The device comes with a remote control and features compatibility with the iPod. A built-in file browser lets users scroll through MP3 files by name. The five-band equalizer adjusts 31 different frequencies while storing three tone curves. But the name of the game with this high-end item is customization.

The MP74 features two sets of four-volt pre-amp outputs alongside a mono output for a subwoofer. Rounding out the package are 24 FM and 18 AM presets.

$530; visit www.blaupunkt.com for details.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

Aoife White
USA Today

BRUSSELS — A group of Microsoft rivals filed a complaint with the European Commission, alleging its business practices threatened to deny real choice among competing software products.

The European Committee for Interoperable Systems — which includes IBM, Oracle, RealNetworks, Nokia and Sun Microsystems — said it was asking EU regulators to end practices that reinforced Microsoft’s existing monopolies and extended its market dominance into current and future product markets.

“We are at a crossroads,” the group said in a statement. “Will one dominant player be permitted to control those conditions, or will the rules that guarantee competition on the merits prevail, to the benefit of all?”

Microsoft said the companies were responding to innovation with litigation.

“We have come to expect that as we introduce new products that benefit consumers, particularly with the kind of breakthrough technologies in Office 12 and Windows Vista, a few competitors will complain,” it said.

The complaint mentions Microsoft’s Office software suite, which packages word processing, spreadsheet and office management tools.

Microsoft described ECIS as a front for IBM and other rivals who constantly tried to use regulatory complaints to their business advantage.

The group also includes smaller software companies such as Norway’s Opera which makes a Web browser, and two Linux operating system businesses — Red Hat Inc. and the upstart Linspire, which was forced to change its name from Lindows after Microsoft sued for trademark infringement.

ECIS’ complaint targets areas not covered by the EU’s 2004 antitrust ruling, which found Microsoft had abused its position as a market leader by bundling media software into its near-ubiquitous Windows desktop software and squeezing rival media players out of the market.

The group’s chairman Simon Awde said strong antitrust law enforcement seemed to the only way to stop “the sustained anti-competitive behavior of Microsoft.”

“The limits on Microsoft practices established in European antitrust law, most notably by the Commission’s 2004 decision, now need to be rapidly and broadly enforced,” he said in a statement.

In March 2004, the EU ordered Microsoft to offer a version of Windows without the Media Player software, to share communications code with rivals and pay a record 497 million euros ($613 million) fine.

Microsoft’s legal challenge against the ruling will be heard by the Court of First Instance, the EU’s second-highest court, in late April.

ECIS is one of two industry groups planning to give evidence to support the Commission in the case. Several high-profile rivals — such as Novell and RealNetworks — dropped out of the legal battle after striking deals with Microsoft.

Sun

Apple Computer Inc. has resorted to a poetic broadside in the inevitable cat-and-mouse game between hackers and high-tech companies. The maker of Macintosh computers had anticipated hackers would try to crack its new OS X operating system built to work on Intel Corp.’s chips and run pirated versions on non-Apple computers. So, Apple developers embedded a warning deep in the software in the form of a limerick.

“Your karma check for today:

There once was a user that whined

His existing OS was so blind

He’d do better to pirate

An OS that ran great

But found his hardware declined.

Please don’t steal Mac OS!/Really, that’s way uncool.

Apple Computer, Inc.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

Michael Liedtke
USA Today

SAN FRANCISCO — Google criticized the Bush administration’s demand to examine millions of its users’ Internet search requests as a misguided fishing expedition that threatens to ruin the company’s credibility and reveal its closely guarded secrets.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company delivered its indignant critique Friday in a 25-page brief that marked its initial legal response to the U.S. Justice Department’s attempt to force the online search engine leader to comply with a 6-month-old subpoena.

The Justice Department has until Feb. 24 to respond to the papers that Google filed Friday. A hearing for oral arguments is scheduled March 13 before U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Jose, Calif.

The case has attracted widespread attention because the Justice Department’s demand to peek under the hood of the Internet’s most popular search engine has underscored the potential for online databases becoming tools for government surveillance.

Hoping to revive an online child protection law that has been blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Justice Department wants a random list of the search requests made by the millions of people who visit Google during any week.

The government believes the search requests will help prove that Internet filters aren’t strong enough to prevent children from accessing online pornography and other potentially offensive websites.

Yahoo, Microsoft’s MSN and Time Warner’s America Online already have provided some of the search engine information sought by the Justice Department. All three companies say they complied without relinquishing their users’ private information.

But Google has steadfastly refused to hand over the requested information, a defiant stance that the company reaffirmed in a brief that depicts the Bush administration as heavy-handed snoops and technological rubes.

In one particularly scathing section, Google’s lawyers ridiculed the government’s belief that a list of search requests would help it understand the behavior of Web surfers.

“This statement is so uninformed as to be nonsensical,” the lawyers wrote.

Although the Justice Department says it doesn’t want any of the personal information, Google contends its cooperation would set off privacy alarms and scare away some of the traffic that has driven its success.

“If users believe that the text of their search queries into Google’s search engine may become public knowledge, it only logically follows that they will be less likely to use the service,” Google’s lawyers wrote.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is opposing the Bush administration’s effort to revive the online child protection law, also filed a brief Friday in support of Google.

“This subpoena is the latest example of government overreaching, in which the government apparently believes it can demand that private entities turn over all sorts of information about their customers just because the government asserts that it needs the information,” the ACLU’s lawyers wrote.

Google also said it doubts the government would be available to shield the requested information from public scrutiny. The company maintains the data sought by the government could provide its rivals and website operators with valuable insights about how its search engine works.

As it battles the Justice Department, Google is cooperating with China’s Communist government by censoring some of the search results that the company produces in a country that restricts free speech.

That odd juxtaposition has caused civil rights activists to applaud Google for defying the U.S. government while the champions of human rights and free speech jeer the company for bending to China’s will.

Software giant takes aim at BlackBerry’s large customer base

Province

OTTAWA — Microsoft Corp. is taking dead aim at Research in Motion’s popular BlackBerry device with a new wireless e-mail system that will run on smart phones made by Motorola Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

The world’s biggest software firm unveiled the operating system, called Windows Mobile 5.0, at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona yesterday. Major wireless carriers such as Cingular Wireless and Vodafone Group have signed on to offer the phones.

The system, which will be compatible with Microsoft’s popular Exchange server, will “push” e-mail messages to the phones in much the same way as RIM’s software sends e-mails to the Blackberry.

RIM has posted stellar growth in recent years by jumping to the front of the wireless e-mail market and racking up lucrative fees from carriers and corporate customers to install the company’s e-mail software. At the end of its latest quarter, the company had 4.3 million BlackBerry subscribers.

But the cloud over the company has grown darker in recent weeks as a patent dispute with U.S. firm NTP Inc. comes to a head. A U.S. federal judge will decide later this month whether the Blackberry will be shut down south of the border.

Meanwhile, big competitors such as Nokia and upstarts such as Good Technology have been developing their own e-mail software to supplant RIM’s moneymaker. Industry observers had been expecting a new Microsoft offering for months, said Research Capital analyst Nick Agostino.

“It didn’t just come out of the blue. Actually, it was a little behind schedule,” he said. “For Microsoft, this will certainly help validate [their technology] and push the market.”

The software giant is hoping the technology will help extend wireless e-mail beyond top executives to the corporate rank and file.

“We’re at the tipping point of seeing exponential growth in this area,” Pieter Knook, Microsoft’s senior vice-president for mobile and embedded devices, told The Associated Press.

But he acknowledged, in a separate interview with Bloomberg News, that it could take more than a year before Microsoft overtakes RIM in terms of subscribers.

To promote the phones, Microsoft plans to launch a print and outdoor advertising campaign geared to business travellers in Germany, France, Spain, Britain and the United States.

© The Vancouver Province 2006

Ericsson tapped to supply new technology

Province

TORONTO — Rogers Communications Inc. said yesterday it has awarded Ericsson Canada the contract to supply wireless network technology that will be faster than anything currently operating in this country.

Financial terms of the contract weren’t disclosed.

The Toronto-based company that owns Rogers Wireless, Rogers Cable and a host of other businesses, disclosed last week along with its latest financial results that it will deploy its next-generation network sooner than anticipated.

Yesterday, Rogers said its long-time supplier — the Canadian subsidiary of Swedish telecom equipment vendor LM Ericsson — would supply the UMTS/HSDPA network (Universal Mobile Telephone System/High-Speed Packet Access.)

Rogers Wireless president Rob Bruce said the new technology will be eight to 10 times faster than the EDGE (Enhanced Data for Global Evolution) network that Rogers has deployed to cover 94 per cent of Canada’s populated areas.

“More importantly, it will be leap-frogging the competition, delivering speeds of 1 1/2- to two-times faster than the new EV-DO networks that Bell and Telus have recently been touting,” Bruce said in a phone interview yesterday.

“Customers, we think, will see the same kind of quantum increase in utility and benefit that they did when they moved from dial-up on their computers to high-speed Internet.”

The HSDPA wireless network, working with new hardware that customers will have to get, will enable new applications such as video conferencing, interactive multi-player gaming, and dynamic content to navigate the mobile Internet.

The company expects that by the end of 2006, there will be five to seven HSDPA-enabled devices on the market for its customers, including two AirCards — made by Sierra Wireless for use in laptops — and three to five handsets.

Rogers Wireless, Canada’s largest cellphone company since it acquired the Fido network in late 2004, said it will begin deploying the UMTS/HSDPA technology immediately for first commercial launch in the fall.

© The Vancouver Province 2006