TECHNOLOGY

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsSince Palm Inc. was acquired by Hewlett-Packard ten months ago, the tech world has been expecting a WebOS-powered slate, while simultaneously wondering what would happen to Palm's critically acclaimed line of WebOS smartphones. Wednesday, HP answered all questions, by unveiling the TouchPad tablet, the Pre 3, and a new WebOS phone called Veer.Sporting the motto "Think big. Think Small. Think Beyond," each of HP's three new products touch on one of these adjectives. The TouchPad is WebOS on a big scale, the Veer pulls it down to the small scale, and the Pre 3 finally takes the line beyond the single Gigahertz CPU level. "Big"The TouchPad is a 9.7" multi-touch slate with a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, either 16 GB or 32 GB of storage, a front-facing 1.3 Megapixel video camera, 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth and optional 3G connectivity. The whole package weighs about 1.6 pounds and is about 13mm thick, the same as Apple's iPad.TouchPad is scheduled to be available "in the summer." Pricing and availability will be announced at a later date."Small"HP followed Sony Ericsson's train of thought, and took the WebOS smartphone to a smaller plane with the HP Veer. It's a WebOS smartphone with a 2.6" capacitive touchscreen and full QWERTY portrait keyboard, HSPA+ connectivity, an 800 MHz Qualcomm processor and 8GB of built-in storage, 5 megapixel camera, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, and Flash 10.1 support.Veer is expected to land some time "in the spring"with pricing and carrier availability to come before that."Beyond"The latest in the Palm Pre line is now known as the HP Pre 3, which comes in 8GB and 16GB varieties. It's got a 3.6" display, a 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, with the same amount of RAM as the Pre 2, HSPA+ and EVDO Rev. A radios, a 5 megapixel camera and forward-facing 720p video cam, bluetooth 2.1+EDR and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi.Like the TouchPad, the Pre 3 will also be available some time in the summer, with pricing and availability some time before.Naturally, the connected devices represent only a part of the total WebOS package, and HP showed off many of the cool new features that the touchstone dock technology brings to the table. The inductive charging dock now facilitates communication between multiple WebOS devices, and it actually ends up looking somewhat like Microsoft's Surface interface. For example, you can mount your TouchPad on the Touchstone, and simply place your Pre 3 over the "gesture area" of the TouchPad, and the content of your Pre 3 browser pops up on the TouchPad's screen or vice versa. Similarly, if you own both a TouchPad and Pre 3, you can answer your calls or SMS messages on the TouchPad while the Pre 3 is charging. It's an exciting spectrum of new features from the Palm camp. Unfortunately, though, it appears the proclamation I made back in October that Palm was "alive and well" has been rendered false. On all these products, there appears to be no Palm branding whatsoever, and Palm only survives as the name of HP's mobile business group responsible for the new hardware.Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsIsrael-based software maker my6sense has branched out from its mobile app roots and launched a Chrome browser extension for Twitter on Wednesday. Like the my6sense app for iOS and Android, the Chrome browser extension strives to reduce the spam and irrelevant content for Twitter users who find themselves following just a bit too many people.How many people can you follow on Twitter and not lose information? It's been a subject of discussion for years, and prompted Twitter to launch list-based filtering back in 2009. Indeed, there are many third-party applications to help users organize and filter the potential Twitter overload.Based upon all your prior behavior on Twitter (links you've clicked on, tweets you've favorited or retweeted, and your commonly-used keywords) my6sense determines what will be interesting to you. Furthermore, it deeply scans links for keywords and relevant information as well, so even if someone posts a URL-shortened link with no related text, it will look for relevant information. Naturally, not everything will be scannable by the extension, so it's not perfect.The new extension is available freely to all Google Chrome and ChromeOS users, and can be obtained at my6sense.com/twitter.Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsWednesday, Mobile loyalty card app CardStar announced it has become the first app of its ilk to partner with Groupon, the extremely hot daily deal service, and users of its iPhone and Android apps in more than 160 cities will have location-specific access to Groupon deals.CardStar lets users scan or manually enter all those shopping rewards cards into a single app, and then their smartphone's screen can be scanned at the cash register when they check out. Generally speaking, the app focuses on cards that users already have or ones that they get separately from CardStar. But with this new version of the software, users can now sign up for new cards directly through the app, and with the Groupon deal, membership isn't even required to view the daily deals."We didn't want membership to be an impediment to new users," CardStar CEO Andy Miller told us this week. "So you can see the Groupon deals available to you, even if you're not a member."If you've added the Groupon card to CardStar, a little "sales tag" appears next to the card's name whenever there's an active deal, and if you click on it, it goes to an interface within the app that's been designed to feel like the Groupon site. The app shares your location and user data with Groupon, and if you've looked at a deal, but didn't buy into it, you can go back to it later on the Groupon site and it knows that you saw it on CardStar.The last time we talked to CardStar was when they integrated their app with FourSquare, the formerly hot (and now not so much) location-based service. We asked Miller about whether these are just passing fads."Foursquare's competitors, Brightkite, Gowalla, and so on, all those guys are pivoting, but Foursquare is staying the path, they have a long uphill battle. I mean, Facebook Places is just crushing everybody," Miller said. "But Foursquare, I don't think they're toast. I think they're in a pretty great niche market." "Now you're seeing this explosion in daily deal sites, just like you did in location-based services," continued Miller. "The same thing could happen again. It'll change more after Google's Groupon clone takes root, and when Facebook unleashes facebook deals. What does that do to Groupon and LvingSocial? No one knows, but it could all converge. A lot of folks will want to be in this business."Indeed, since Groupon caught on, daily deal sites have begun springing up like weeds. In December, there were more than 200 daily deal sites in the US alone. I asked if CardStar will partner with any of them to flesh out the app's daily deal offerings."It's funny, we're announcing the partnership with Groupon today, but we actually know the guys at LivingSocial better, and we've had discussions with them. We've also talked to the company that powers AOL's deal sites and Mobile Spinach," Miller said. "At the end of the day, I think we should partner with whoever offers something unique to our users. Among all these daily deals, we're seeing a lot of overlap," said Miller. "I'm signed up for 4 cities, and I'm seeing the same content in a lot of them, they seem to all be sourcing the same deals. But as long as a service is providing original content and creating unique utilities for users, we'll check them out."Announcing a partnership with Groupon at this point in time, naturally leads to one question: What did you think of their Super Bowl ads?"I was getting texts from friends about the Groupon commercials as well as the LivingSocial commercials whenever they happened. They weren't scandals, though," Miller said. "People were just surprised at seeing them on TV at such a prime, $3 million per minute advertising time. The people who texted me obviously weren't aware of how much money these companies are making right now."Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsAs the world slowly recovers from years of economic crises, the United States remains in peril with both a massive deficit and the lingering unemployment problem. This year, Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro has emerged as one of the few industry organization leaders who has put the health of the U.S. economy as his primary focus, and he's done so with great conviction.In his CES 2011 keynote, Shapiro took the stage to sharply criticize Washington's trade policies, saying they discourage innovation and encourage senseless overspending. But most of Shapiro's vitriol was channeled into his book The Comeback: How Innovation Will Restore the American Dream, where he pulled no punches about the government's negligent partisanship and overgrowth, and how it has resulted in an economic situation that cannot be fixed by simply cutting spending or by increasing taxes. It requires strategy, method, and a serious grip on reality."We, as a nation, must agree on a strategy," Shapiro told us this week. "Germany's strategy is high-tech manufacturing, China's strategy is low-tech manufacturing, and they try to copy what others do and have all sorts of strategies around that. India's strategy is software-based, and Brazil has a protectionist strategy. But if you asked Americans what our strategy is, you'd get all kinds of different answers." "One of the jobs of a leader is to ensure that people agree upon a strategy. We haven't had that for a long time," Shapiro continued. "Kennedy articulated a strategy to be first nation in space, Reagan wanted us to be first in defense, Obama's strategy …maybe… is to be first in innovation."At least, that seemed to be the case in President Obama's State of the Union address in January, when he said the U.S. needs to "out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world."Indeed, much of what the President said in his address seemed to come directly from the CEA's Innovation Movement, which Shapiro entreats readers to join at the end of his book."Take a look at President Obama's state of the Union address," Shapiro suggested. "He basically adopted the Innovation Movement's platform, and then he's spent the last two weeks going around the country talking about innovation. There's so much similar with the content of my book that I've been bombarded with e-mails asking if the White House's speech writer is using it to compose these speeches! It's quite gratifying."Of course, Shapiro's accord with the President fizzles out from there, but it's a start.Shapiro said President Obama hasn't quite driven the point home hard enough. But what's worse, having a clearly-stated goal is only one step forward, and an easy one at that. Optimism about our global competitiveness is actually something most Americans can appreciate. The hard part is tackling problems that don't result in anyone being appeased; specifically, the national budget deficit."It's kind of a common view among the thinking people in Washington that the problem is beyond serious at this point," Shapiro said. "Nobody wants to tell the truth any more. Both parties are being rewarded for not telling the truth. Democrats say 'No problem,' and Republicans say "We can cut waste, fraud, and abuse…" but nobody is willing to say what decisions must be made.""You have to choose what you want, and you can't have a government that does everything," he said. "You can't have 50% of Americans receiving a check from the federal government, fight 2 wars, have several hundred thousand people in Europe and Korea, and also have stimulus packages, cash for clunkers, TARP, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, first time home buyer protections, and packages of lending all over the States. You can't do everything."Naturally, cutting back is a significant theme in The Comeback. But Shapiro also presents suggestions on everything from education and health care reform to energy policy improvement. Establishing national priorities is also a theme in the book, and Shapiro offers some main priorities that would contribute to the U.S. success in the long term. First, reform the H1B visa program to let the world's most innovative minds become Americans, next, complete our outstanding free trade agreements so we can improve our international business, third, reduce litigation between and against U.S. businesses and abolish "patent trolls." The best part, Shaprio pointed out, is that none of these requires any new programs or additional funds. The CEA, after all, is not in the habit of asking for money.So what can we do? The tech sector workers, the IT admins, the software developers who have increasingly come to represent America's workforce?"IT professionals have to engage in [the issues presented above] because frankly, they're smarter than the politicians who make decisions only in the short-term interest," Shapiro said. "If you're an IT person, you don't make decisions like that, applying temporary patch upon temporary patch. If our politicians are only doing quick fix patches, they will quickly destroy the system. You've just got to forego the quick fixes, and focus on the future.""People need to hold their government accountable, and force them to focus on the tough questions," Shapiro continued. "What I've been at odds with in the past few years is that we can't agree on the facts, and then we argue over the tactics….Agree on the facts, agree on the issues, and then go ahead with the solutions."Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Ed Oswald, BetanewsBoth Facebook and Google announced expansion plans on Tuesday, with the social networking site moving into the former headquarters of Sun Microsystems, and the search engine opening new offices near Los Angeles. The moves likely indicate the tech sector is poised for a recovery as the economy as a whole rebounds.Few companies have been as resistant to the economic downturn as Facebook. Just two years ago, the company moved to its current headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. But with a workforce increasing at a 50% annual rate, moving to Sun's nine-building campus in nearby Menlo Park makes sense.The social networking site has a 15-year lease on the property, with an option to buy after five years. In addition, Facebook purchased 22 acres of land adjacent to the campus that could be used for expansion. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Menlo Park officials did not offer any tax incentives to the social networking site to entice it to make the move.Following its acquisition of Sun, Oracle began moving most employees to its Redwood Shores campus. While a few Sun employees still remain, they will likely also be moved out once Facebook takes over the location in the early summer. The social networking site also plans to still use its Palo Alto location to house some employees, it said.Its Menlo Park location would be able to house about 3,600 employees.Google also is making moves, announcing Tuesday it would lease an iconic building in Venice, Calif. as part of its expansion into the city of Los Angeles. The search engine is planning to add about 6,000 employees this year, and is facing increasing competition for talent in Silicon Valley.The "binoculars building" -- designed by architect Frank Gehry and former home of the Chiat/Day advertising agency -- would be the flagship building of Google's Los Angeles campus.Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Nick PeersThe concept of taking remote control of one computer from another is nothing new -- NetMeeting predates Windows 98 -- but the goalposts keep changing and one version of Windows won't necessarily play nice with another, never mind non-Windows platforms.TeamViewer eliminates all these problems in one sweep, offering a single solution for sharing presentations, offering remote support or simply dialling home to retrieve a forgotten file or set the DVR. It works across Windows, Macintosh and Linux systens, and can even be accessed via a web browser or mobile device. Best of all, it's free for personal use.Quick and easyTeamViewer isn't just cross-platform, it's easy to set up too. The main program installer contains all the functionality you need, or you can opt for cut-down versions offering a subset of features: Quick Join for joining someone else's presentation, for example, or Host for setting up your home PC for unattended access. There's even a

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsThe shrinking cell site is definitely a theme this week, as mobile infrastructure companies make their big announcements before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. International telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent on Monday, for example, debuted LightRadio, a software-defined mobile radio and distributed base station architecture with virtualized wireless controllers and gateways.At an event in London yesterday, Alcatel-Lucent unveiled the lightRadio Cube, a tiny base station which includes a baseband radio paired with a Freescale system-on-a-chip, with signal amplifiers and passive cooling mechanisms in a single enclosure a little bigger than a Rubik's cube. This item is the cornerstone of the lightRadio network.A lightRadio network includes a Wideband Active Array Antenna, Multiband Remote Radio Head, Baseband Unit, Controller, and common management solution. None of the products have yet gone to trial, but Alcatel-Lucent expects the Wideband Active Array Antenna will be ready to test later this year, with broad product availability in 2012. More products will be added to the lightRadio family over the course of 2012, 2013 and 2014.Alcatel-Lucent yesterday said lightRadio could represent the first major shift in the cellular infrastructure that remained largely the same for decades."Traditionally, hard real-time requirements in radio communication specifications are fulfilled by Application Specific Integrated circuits (i.e. hardware)," said Ari Virtanen, CTO Finnish wireless design and development firm Elektrobit. "New, powerful general PC processors, Digital Signaling Processors and programmable gate arrays have made software implementations realistic in all kind of radio units, from high-capacity base stations to smallest handsets.""The term 'Software defined radio' (SDR) has been used for a long time already, but real products have only been released mostly within the last 10 years," Virtanen told Betanews on Tuesday. "By using software, radio development is more flexible, fixes and updates can be made more easily and cost effectively, new functionalities and features can be implemented and mobilized faster, and software code can be re-used."SEC Disclosure: Tim Conneally is an Alcatel-Lucent shareholderCopyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Ed Oswald, BetanewsThe release of the Kyocera Echo on Monday is only a small part of Sprint's commitment to 4G and Android this year, executives are saying. While declining to be specific, 70 percent of the phones released in 2011 would run on Google's mobile operating system, and at least 20 of them would be 4G-capable.Sprint was one of the first carriers to commit to 4G, announcing its plans to use WiMAX back in 2006, although the rollout did not occur in earnest until last year. The company believes its commitment to 4G is one of the reasons the carrier was able to stop hemorrhaging customers in 2010.Product development and operations chief Farid Adib told the Wall Street Journal that Sprint's equipment partners did have a "learning curve" when it came to WiMAX. This could be used to explain the slow uptick in devices even though the company's network was ready.Adib suspects those now transitioning to LTE would experience the same growing pains, which could mean Sprint could maintain its 4G advantage for a bit longer than some might expect. Indeed, announcements from the major manufacturers when it comes to LTE have been scarce.For example, it is widely expected that Apple's next generation iPhone would still be a 3G device, and its probably a smart bet that most Android devices wouldn't be LTE-capable until 2012 at the earliest.While there have been some rumblings that Sprint could eventually transition to LTE -- its subsidiary Clearwire is said to be considering the technology, and CEO Dan Hesse has hinted using the technology is a possibility -- waiting until the market for LTE matures before making a decision would benefit Sprint.Either technology though, Sprint seems committed to Android. "It's obvious the momentum is with Android," he told the WSJ.Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsWireless telecommunications leader Ericsson today announced a new cellular radio solution called AIR (antenna integrated radio) which combines the radio unit with the antenna unit for simpler installation and integration into wireless networks, with the added bonus of decreased power consumption.Generally speaking, the smaller a company can make their cell sites, the better. With smaller parts, more parts can be added, and obtaining permits and zoning clearance becomes just a little easier. This is an issue Ericsson has been confronting head on with its cell site equipment for the past few years.Ericsson says its field trials of AIR showed it could be integrated and installed into a traditional cell site up to 30% faster than other solutions due to the reduced number of connections it requires. Furthermore, the simplified cooling and reduced feeder loss resulted in a reduction of power consumption up to 42%."We are experiencing a tremendous take off in mobile broadband and the user expectations on speed and coverage are increasing the demands on the networks," said Ulf Ewaldsson, Vice President and head of Ericsson's Product Area Radio divison. "In order to cope with the future capacity demands, we have a clearly defined small cell strategy. I am proud to announce that the AIR architecture is the first stepping stone towards a heterogeneous network."Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsUh-oh, Microsoft, perhaps it's time for a new "Get the Facts" campaign. You told the world that open-source software really wasn't cheaper or as easy to manage as commercial products. Well, only about half of IT organizations believed you.Today, Gartner released findings that more than one-half of IT organizations use open-source software, based on a survey of 547 IT organizations from 11 countries. To my surprise, the survey data isn't exactly fresh, having been conducted in July and August 2010. Well, it's not like most companies change platforms very often, so perhaps six months is fresh enough. Gartner refers to open-source software as OSS.My, how times have changed. Less than 10 percent of IT organizations used open-source software five years ago. The number rose to 30 percent three-and-a-half years ago. Gartner noted a proportional drop in commercial software usage, which surely is no coincidence. Most organizations now use commercial and open-source software side by side, particularly for homegrown projects.What Gartner didn't say but I will: This presents a problem for enterprise software vendors like Microsoft. The company pushes products like Office System and SharePoint Server as platforms around which IT can develop internal software. During Microsoft's fiscal 2011 second quarter, the Business division delivered handsome results, with revenue up 24 percent buoyed by strong Office 2010 sales. However, the division's non-annuity revenue grew by 40 percent compared to just 9 percent growth for annuity contracts. Businesses purchasing this way are least likely to upgrade to the next Office version or even the one after. The break-even point between a one-off sale and annuity license is 3.5 years. Presumably then, many IT organizations aren't planning on upgrading from Office 2010 any sooner than 3.5 years, and more likely longer. The buying behavior also suggests many IT organizations aren't accepting other so-called upgrade and other "Software Assurance" benefits. Organizations buying into the annuity contract program would have more incentive to use Microsoft platforms for internal software projects.So what's the matter here? "Gaining a competitive advantage has emerged as a significant reason for adopting an OSS solution, suggesting that users are beginning to look at OSS differently -- if they can customize the code to make it unique to their company, they have created a competitive advantage," Laurie Wurster, a Gartner research director, said in a statement.It's easy to dismiss the "over half" of businesses as one-off, here-and-there projects. That's not the case. Twenty-two percent of respondents have deployed open-source software to all departments. Forty-six percent of IT organizations use open-source for specific projects or select departments. That said, only about one-third of organizations have a formal open-source policy in place. Gartner didn't say, but I will: That's good for Microsoft, Oracle and other major commercial software vendors' with active and established marketing, sales and developer support services."As external service providers emerge to support commercial offerings, OSS is and will continue to be used in both non-mission-critical and mission-critical environments," Wurster said in the statement. "With greater in-depth understanding and access to the necessary skill sets, end-user organizations will continue to find new deployment of OSS. Although a search for reducing costs by adopting OSS continues to be a major driver, with this survey we see more respondents looking at OSS as having much-greater value than simply getting something for free."What value do they get? Gartner identified the key categories where IT organizations use open-source software:Data management and integrationApplication development, integration, architecture, governance and/or overhaulBusiness process improvement or re-engineeringSecurity, risk and/or complianceData center modernization and consolidationVirtualization"Based on these results, we see that OSS components and building blocks are utilized together with internally developed software to augment and enhance existing systems through integration and automation, as well as to improve business efficiencies and security," Bob Igou, a

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsAmazon on Monday pre-released a software update for Kindle e-readers running the 3.0 software which updates the interface for magazines and newspapers, adds a quick review section at the end of each book, and adds page numbers that match Kindle books with their print counterparts.This update is very minor, and the only new feature that takes effect immediately in all content is the "before you go" review section. Here, when you reach the end of a book, you're presented with the option to review your book, or send out a tweet announcing that you just completed the book.The addition of "real page numbers" has to be added to each book individually, and we unfortunately had no books that had been numbered at our disposal to check out. Amazon is only doing this for books with a print counterpart, and so far, they have been added to several thousand books, including the top 100 best-selling Kindle books. "Our customers have told us they want real page numbers that match the page numbers in print books so they can easily reference and cite passages, and read alongside others in a book club or class," said Amazon's Kindle blog today.These minor updates, along with the with a recent revision to kindle.amazon.com which went live late last week, are further measures intended to make Kindle reading a more social activity.The update to the Kindle library page lets users make their highlights and notes browsable by friends and individuals, or the general public. For example, have a look at my notes and highlights for The Comeback by Consumer Electronics Association president and CEO Gary Shapiro. These are presented in a very simple linear fashion with any notes I added underneath as subscript. (I spoke to Mr. Shapiro about his book this evening, and we talked about some of the quotations in my highlights list, and I'll be posting a story about it tomorrow, so give it a scan!)Now that Kindle books can be loaned to other users, equally included in book clubs and classrooms, shared on a dedicated Kindle site or on social networks, the format has come a long way toward complete integration into the social bookworm's life. Now if we could just hand write in the margins…Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Fancy an iPhone in your hand that closely resembles the iconic brick-like mobile phones of the 1980s? A British accessory manufacturer found a way to fuse the two generations of tech icons by introducing a phone holder that brings in the retro feel of the then-emerging mobile phone elite usage.

By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsMan, Verizon can't ship iPhones fast enough. Apple's smartphone wheezed into the holidays eating Android's dust, according to data released today by ComScore. Only Verizon can save iPhone now, but ComScore won't record those sales, which started as preorders last week, until March.The trend is so consistent, it's getting boring to report: Apple continued its flat growth for the three-month period ending in December. Apple's smartphone share rose slightly, from 24.3 percent to 25 percent. Meanwhile, Android's US smartphone market share rose from 21.4 percent to 28.7 percent. The data is fairly consistent with December market share and growth numbers released last week by Nielsen: Flat iOS market share growth and Android rapidly rising -- 43 percent of recent purchasers chose a smartphone running Android in December. However, Nielsen put iPhone 1 percentage point ahead of Android handsets, based on operating systems. ComScore uses US mobile subscribers to measure smartphone platform market share.It's revealing that iOS market share is flat, at least compared to Android, following release of iPhone 4, which, according to Nielsen, only gave iPhone a modest bump. Verizon could be just what Apple needs to rev sales and US subscriber share, that is assuming carrier churn -- AT&T iPhone users switching to Verizon's version -- doesn't bring sideways growth while Android expands its base.Research in Motion continues to bleed share, something even more obvious in Nielsen's data. For the last three months of the year, compared to the previous three months, RIM's US subscriber share declined from 37.3 percent to 31.6 percent, according to ComScore. However, it still leads both Android handsets and iPhone.Microsoft's mobile operating system also declined during the same period, but less severely from 9.9 percent to 8.4 percent. Lost market share isn't surprising. That it wasn't more is. Sales decline ahead of Windows Phone 7's release is to be expected. The first handsets shipped midway through the forecast period.The US smartphone market is still rapidly growing, up 60 percent year over year; there were 63.2 million smartphone owners at the end of December, according to ComScore.On the hardware side, looking at all handsets not just smartphones, Samsung ranked No. 1, with its share up to 24.8 percent from 23.5 percent between the two three-month series. Samsung is having a good run with Android-based Galaxy S series smartphones, selling over 10 million from June to end of 2010. In December, I bought the Galaxy S-based, Google-branded Nexus S. Among the top five, Samsung was the only manufacturer to gain US subscriber share. Not coincidentally, Samsung also is a big Android supporter. LG, Motorola, RIM and Nokia rounded out the top five.ComScore's data is for Americans 13 and older, 234 million of which used "mobile devices" (e.g. handsets) during the three months ending in December. The data is based on mobile phone subscribers. What do people do with these devices? The majority of cell phone subscribers send text messages (68 percent), while 36.4 percent used a browser and 34.4 percent downloaded apps.Which smartphone do you use and which mobile operating system? Please feel free to answer in comments. Based on last month's informal survey, most Betanews readers aren't planning a switch to Verizon iPhone.Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

The much-awaited Nokia E7 will begin arriving in stores in select markets this week, with broader availability building up quickly in several markets.

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsKyocera Communications and Sprint on Monday unveiled a new dual-screen Android smartphone called the Echo, which uses two discrete touchscreens, unlike the other "dual screen" Android phone, Samsung's Galaxy S Continuum which is just a single touch panel broken into three independent sections.When closed, the Echo looks like a regular touchphone, but when opened, its two 3.5" touchscreens can be used to run two full screen applications simultaneously, one on each screen. Sprint has given given this the name "Simultasking," since it's a task that has heretofore not been done on Android phones. Echo can also be used in "tablet mode" and have a single application blown up to 4.7" to take up the combined screen real estate, or apps can be optimized to use each screen individually. In "optimized mode," the Echo looks quite a bit like a Nintendo DS, dividing an app's functionality into two useful parts. The dual screen "optimized mode" makes Echo look conspicuously similar to the Nintendo DS. This actually proves to make Echo an interesting counterpart to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, a smartphone designed something like the PSP Go, optimized for gaming. When apps are optimized for Echo's dual screens, designers could use the top screen to display in-game action and the bottom screen as the interactive panel. At Monday's event in New York City, Sprint and Kyocera showed off a version of The Sims optimized for the Echo.Echo has a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor with 512MB RAM, running Android 2.2. It also has 5-device Wi-FI hotspot functionality, 1GB of built in storage and support for microSD cards up to 32GB, a 5 Megapixel camera, and, of course, two 3.5" WVGA capacitive touchscreens.Sprint will be selling the Echo in the Spring for $199 with a two-year contract and $100 mail-in rebate, making this Kyocera's first flagship Android smartphone.Kyocera's first device running Android, the Zio, launched in 2010 under the Sanyo brand with Sprint MVNO Cricket. The device was aimed at the entry-level market with a "first generation" 600 MHz applications processor at a time when market leaders had moved on to gigaherz speeds and beyond. So even though the dual screen form factor is less than unique, this is still a big step for the Japanese company into the United States smartphone market.Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

The BlizzCon 2011 gaming convention will be held at the the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on October 21st and 22nd, according to an announcement from Blizzard Entertainment.

By Ed Oswald, BetanewsThese days, it's hard to tell what AOL is trying to accomplish with its acquisitions. From its purchase of Engadget and Weblogs, Inc. in 2005, to TechCrunch last September, each time the company appeared to be attempting to buy its way to the top of the digital media heap.The acquisition of Huffington Post announced early Monday morning was no different. AOL paid $315 million for the site, and put its figurehead Arianna Huffington as the president of its media division, ...

By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsThis morning I asked: "Would you pay 800 bucks for the Motorola XOOM?" The answer is a resounding "No fraking way, Jose!" A leaked Best Buy advert suggets the Android 3.0 (e.g., Honeycomb) tablet will be available on February 24 for $799.99. The price sure surprised me and incensed some of you. All I can say: The pricing won't cause Apple CEO Steve Jobs to lose any sleep over potential iPad competition. But Mobile World Congress convenes in one week, and Samsung already has hinted that the Galaxy Tab's successor will be announced there. So Jobs shouldn't blissfully dream yet."Never in a million years," writes ezryder in Betanews comments. "The right price, as noted by others, is about $300-$400. No contract. WiFi only. Because really, do you need the damn thing fully connected all the time? And even if you do, turn your phone into a hotspot and WiFi tether the thing to it. The best value right now, by far, is a rooted Color Nook -- $250, and it has a screen with the same res as the iPad, only it's 7 inches instead of 9.7 inches.""Apple set the bar," Betanews reader Larry Chapman writes via e-mail. "Anything more than that is too high." Apple offers six different iPad configurations, from $499 to $829. The single XOOM model, available through Verizon, is most comparable with the $729 iPad, although there are dramatic differences -- dual-core processor, two cameras (front and back), 1GB system memory and true multitasking, among others.Many people will ask "Why?" -- why XOOM doesn't cost less. Writing for GigaOM, Kevin Tofel gives a smart answer. Apple pre-pays for components, "likely gaining a discount as a result. Such a strategy helps in two ways. Apple can more easily manage inventory than its competitors and it enjoys cheaper component pricing to help manage device costs." Tofel identifies one reason for the strategy: Apple's $50 billion-plus cash horde. But as I explained last month, Apple's success with iPod and iPhone benefit iPad, which inherits manufacturing and distribution logistics, including existing component relationships. Apple ships volume like no competitor, which is leverage for assuring component supply and better pricing."Samsung is in a similar advantageous position because it relies on fewer companies for the components it needs to build smartphones and tablets: the company builds its own processors, displays and flash memory parts," Toffel explains. "More than half of Samsung Galaxy Tab's component price is made up of Samsung products, for example. Motorola on the other hand, is completely dependent upon other companies for nearly all of the components in its devices, and in particular, the XOOM tablet."So here's another question for you XOOM price haters: Should you blame Apple and not Motorola for XOOM pricing?"I was definitely considering the XOOM, but I think I will wait for the iPad 2 and then make a decision," Richard Guglomo writes by e-mail. "Eight-hundred dollars is way too high when the iPad is so much less expensive. The novelty of using the Honeycomb is just not that compelling." He reminisces: "I remember when I had a IMSAI S100 bus computer and bought my first memory board. It had 64 Kb of memory and was 10" by 4" and fit in a slot. I think it had 64 1Kb static memory chips. Wow have things changed.

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsEurostat, the European Union's office of statistics, Monday said that 31% of all Internet users in the 27 EU Member nations had contracted a computer virus that resulted in "loss of information or time" in the second quarter of 2010.Eurostat found that 3% of all users suffered some kind of financial loss related to phishing/pharming attacks or fraudulent credit card use, and 4% of all users reported an abuse related to personal information and privacy. On a country by country basis, Lativa (8%), The UK (7%), Malta and Austria (5%) were the worst areas for financial loss, and Bulgaria and Spain (7%) and Italy and the Netherlands (6%) were the worst areas for privacy violations. This is an interesting fact because the Netherlands also scored the highest penetration for security software with 96% of users saying they used some sort of IT security or software tools to protect their data.Overall, the presence of security tools is strong, with 84% of those in the survey reporting that they used at least some kind of protection for their PCs. Even countries that ranked the lowest still had around two-thirds of their population using security software: Estonia (65%), Romania (64%), and Latvia (62%).Eurostat released these figures in advance of tomorrow's "Safer Internet Day," which has landed on the second day of the second week of the second month of the year for the last eight years, and is arranged by Insafe, a security network co-funded by the European Commission.The EU nations that reported the lowest rate of infection by worm, trojan horse, or other computer virus were Austria (14%), Ireland (15%), Finland (20%) and Germany (22%), while the highest were Bulgaria (58%), Malta (50%), Slovakia (47%), Hungary (46%) and Italy (45%)Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsMotorola, or is that Best Buy, sure knows how to dampen enthusiasm for what should otherwise be the hottest Android tablet and iPad's strongest competitor (that is, ahead of Samsung announcing the Galaxy S successor). I'm not paying $799.99 for the Moto XOOM? Would you? Oh, yeah, there's fine print: One month Verizon 3G data to, get this, activate the WiFi.In business, pricing and perception are everything. Little does more to create unwanted negative perceptions than high pricing. In mass-marketing there are pricing thresholds that trigger sales, and these are particularly important when bringing new products to market against a successful and dominant competitor. For digital singles, 99 cents was it. For Amazon's Kindle: $139.According to IDC, in the third quarter iPad had 87.4 percent share of the global media tablet market. Less than two weeks ago, I blogged "5 things every tablet needs to succeed." Among them: Price. Early last month, IDC surveyed more than 2,200 developers, who identified price (57 percent) as their top priority for tablets. So, if not the mass-market, price matters to tablet developers at least.The iPad ranges in price from $499 to $829, with storage capacities ranging from 16GB to 64GB and some models packing only WiFi radios and others WiFi and AT&T 3G. The single XOOM model packs slightly larger display, front-and-rear facing cameras, 32GB of storage and Android 3.0 (aka Honeycomb). The pricing is from a leaked Best Buy advert, which has the XOOM going on sale February 24. Over at Boy Genius Report, Andrew Munchbach expresses others may feel: We'll admit, we're still pretty excited about getting our hands on a Motorola XOOM… but that $800 price-tag did take a little bit of wind out of our sails (and may take a little wind out of Moto's sales)."Yes, but how many hands realistically will reach for XOOM at 800 bucks? Now, Best Buy pricing may not reflect all pricing that may be available. Carrier-subsidized models might be available for less (We can only hope). So let me ask the question differently: After looking at the video above and the XOOM portable here, how much would XOOM be worth to you? What would you pay for the rocking Honeycomb-based tablet? Please respond in comments or e-mail joewilcox at gmail dot com.Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Larry SeltzerThere's a lot of confusion out there about when attacks against computers occur as a result of vulnerabilities in software as opposed to some other weakness, usually social engineering. Considerable progress has been made in protection against vulnerabilities on Windows, and we can make exploitation even harder if Microsoft can be talked into my scheme: open up Windows Update to third-party applications.My own opinion is that social engineering is far more important than vulnerabilities and has been increasing in importance. One reason for this is that vulnerabilities are a harder target than they used to be, and that's in large part because of the work Microsoft has done over the last 6 or 7 years.Microsoft still reports vulnerabilities in Windows and some of them are serious, but as far as I know, there haven't been any widely exploited vulnerabilities in Windows Vista or Windows 7. This is partly because those versions have fewer and less severe vulnerabilities than the steaming pile of crap we call Windows XP, but also because Windows Update works better and is more aggressive by default on it.As Secunia's 2010 end of year report makes clear, all the growth in vulnerabilities, including that of severity, is in third-party software. Have you ever tried to update all the third-party software on your system? It's hard, time-consuming and sometimes you don't know where to start or stop. Plus there's the whole "is this a legit update?" question.There is a way to make this better, and Microsoft can make it happen. The answer is to open "Windows Update

By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsThe Super Bowl is as much about advertising, in some respects more, than the actual game. Advertisers are paying as much as $3 million a commercial spot, which is perplexing in this era of targeted advertising on the web. Super Bowl ads hit a mass of people, more than 100 million expected for today's Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers face off, but advertisers don't know who you are. Or do they? It's a question I've been asking, following several unusual events occurring over the past 10 days or so. I'm talking about your privacy and how much less of it you have this Super Bowl Sunday than the last one and how much more advertisers will know about you by next year's playoff.I've been thinking lots more about advertising and privacy this week because of

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsFriday, the Google TV team published a couple of new design templates, as well as a still-in-beta Web UI library that Web designers can use to optimize their sites for Google TV. "While existing websites can be displayed in Google TV, the user experience isn't always ideal within the context of a living room," Steve Hines and Daniels Lee of Google TV Developer Relations Team wrote in the Google TV blog today. Blockage of such "less-than-ideal" sites could...

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsGoogle on Thursday finally launched a renewed web-based Android Market that integrates with a user's Google account and lets him shop for applications and send them to the various Android-powered devices linked to the account. This new shop marks the industry-wide trend toward comprehensive device-agnostic software shopping solutions.Amazon's Kindle store was the first major shopping outlet to take such a step. Users can shop for Kindle-formatted e-books on Amazon.com, and push their purchases to their Kindle device, regardless of whether it's a dedicated e-paper reader or a software application. ABI Research released a study on Friday which said the market for digital content will not be tied to the success or failure of any single gadget, despite the widespread misconception that a single tablet or e-reader could "win" the market."Consumers can purchase digital texts through their PCs or smartphones, in addition to buying directly through their eReaders," said Larry Fisher, research director of NextGen, ABI Research's emerging technologies research incubator. "The variety of applications that allow people to buy this digital content reassures them that they won't be tied to a single store--or device--for content."Similar to the "write once, run anywhere" ideal, the key to success in future e-commerce will be the ability to list once, buy anywhere.Using common Web development standards and handy new HTML5 capabilities, mobile network operators, OEMs, and software retailers are taking up this mantra and optimizing their storefronts to be device-agnostic websites. Though the new Web-based Android Market allows developers to post bigger photos and even videos of their applications in action, and the browsing experience is superior to the native Android Market app, the remote installation feature is by far the most important addition here. It means easier access to apps, easier purchase management, and even potentially innovative uses of the apps that are remotely installed. Imagine, for example, a user has lost his phone and doesn't have any emergency tracking devices to locate it. You could conceivably make an auto-launching homing beacon app that users could send to their phone from the Web store; or even more severe, an automatic kill pill that could sync all data back to the Google account and then wipe the phone. Because it works over the web, there's no need for a mobile device to be anywhere near the user for him to install apps on it.As Android is picked up as an embedded operating system for devices other than smartphones and tablets, this functionality could also come in extremely handy, as the device would not need a browser or a native market client to receive new applications.Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsNokia Labs today revealed a new user interface motif called "Bubbles." It's one the many odd little research projects Nokia pops out. Some of them become real products, while many others do not. But I often see lots of creativity and invention in what these Nokia researchers dream up.Nokia Bubbles is just that -- bubbles that move around the handset's display. They're essentially shortcuts to other functions, such as unlocking the phone, viewing missed calls, accessing e-mail or viewing text messages.Nokia Labs is one of the handset manufacturer's best resources, not just for research and development but marketing. The Nokia Labs website and Nokia Conversations YouTube channel are approachable, informative and fun, and c`mon these developers are so stereotypical they could be cast in any movie calling for geeks.Their announcements tend to be quite personal. For example, Pauli Asikainen explains about Nokia Bubbles: "When I invented the bubbles concept (with my friend Sami) the idea was to have a fun way to unlock the phone." I love it: "my friend Sami." He continues: "After some thinking it was obvious that bubbles can be used for many other purposes and at the same time have some fun things on your screen. Throwing the bubbles around was one of the first things we did with them. And when you have some event you want to respond to it is very easy and fast to do so."While US bloggers and journalists overly obsess about iPhone and proclaim Nokia's demise, the reality is something else. Nokia still ships more handsets than any other company -- 123.7 million in fourth quarter 2010, according to IDC, or nearly 8 times more units than Apple. Nokia's culture is refreshingly open compared to Apple. There is no open Apple beta labs operation; development is kept secret, either

By Ed Oswald, BetanewsGoogle has donated $20,000 to a yearly hacking competition to be awarded to the first researcher able to crack its Chrome browser. The Mountain View, Calif. company's move marks the first time a browser developer has contributed money to the contest.The Pwn2Own competition is in its fifth year and is held at the CanSecWest security conference. Participants are tasked with cracking a variety of other browsers too (Apple's Safari, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and Mozilla's Firefox) on computers supplied by the contest creators running Windows 7. Those that perform a successful crack win the computer it was done on as well as a $15,000 cash prize.Cracking Chrome will be hard. The browser uses what is called a "sandbox," which isolates system processes. In order for a crack to be successful, first the sandbox must be cracked, and then the exploit code itself executed.Google is offering a CR-48 netbook as a prize itself in addition to the cash award. The netbook would only be offered as a prize -- the exploit would need to be performed on the other computers offered."Kudos to the Google security team for taking the initiative to approach us on this; we're always in favor of rewarding security researchers for the work they too-often do for free," HP TippingPoint security research team manager Aaron Portnoy said. Portnoy's firm runs the Pwn2Own competition.Another portion of the contest will include hacks to popular mobile OS platforms including BlackBerry OS, iOS, and Android. Like the browser competition, a $15,000 prize and the device itself would be awarded.Registration for the contest is open until February 15. Instructions and more information can be found from HP TippingPoint's website.Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsI disagree with TechFlash's Todd Bishop, who today writes that a "wholesale shift by Nokia to Windows Phone 7 from Symbian would be a huge change, similar in magnitude to, say, Apple adopting Intel chips." Oh, no, it would be much bigger than that and way riskier. [Editor's Note: Quote corrected for transposed "by" and "to"; I make that kind of mistake all the time.]Bishop responds to yet another call for Nokia to enter an unholy operating system alliance with Microsoft or to merge -- this one from Berenberg Bank analyst Adnaan Ahmad. As the TechFlash managing editor rightly observes: "Ever since he went to Nokia, [Stephen] Elop's connection to Microsoft has been viewed as a possible prelude to a tighter relationship." Elop left Microsoft in September 2010, as president of the Business division, to become Nokia's chief executive. As I expressed nearly six months ago, Elop wouldn't be my first choice to run Nokia.Perhaps other people are thinking the same thing, because a Microsoft-Nokia mashup dominates the commentary -- like that woud be the most valuable outcome of Elop's jumping ship. Frankly, unless Elop and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had some increased partnership plan or merger in mind before the leadership change, a deal might be even less likely than before. Ballmer expects loyalty. Elop left the important Business division leadership with less than two weeks notice -- simply uncharacteristically short for an executive of high position. That bridge with Microsoft is burned, again, unless Ballmer and Elop already had an understanding.A merger would only set back Nokia, at a time when it is facing increased competition from Android smartphones, iPhone and white box and branded feature and dumb phones coming out of China. Microsoft would buy market share that it likely couldn't keep. Nokia's Symbian has already ceded the market share lead in smartphone operating systems to Android. A switch from Symbian to Windows Phone would benefit Microsoft but prove to be disastrous for Nokia. Android share gains aside, the Finnish handset maker already has too much mobile OS fragmentation without taking on another wholesale.Also, Nokia has too much invested in Symbian, particularly from its developer channel, that would likely be lost in an operating system transition. Today's loyal developers, particularly those thinking of switching major resources to Android or Apple's iOS, would have even fewer reasons not to jump platforms.Then there are the cloud services. While I'm not really impressed with Ovi, Nokia has millions of subscribers who would be displaced in a move putting Windows Live alongside or ahead of existing cloud services. That said, surely Nokia's Windows-only Ovi Suite could be tweaked to sync with Windows Phone. Even so, in an OS switch, the last thing Nokia needs to do is create cloud services confusion or brand problems.Long term, however, there are benefits to both companies -- more from a merger. Cloud-connected devices are the future of computing. A report today from All Things Digital claims that in just three weeks Intuit has had 350,000 downloads of its tax-filing app. That's a huge metaphor for the smartphone's future utility -- people filing tax returns. Merging with Nokia would likely cost customers and developers in the short term, but give Microsoft a mobile platform to build for the future -- and that could include tablets and other mobile devices. Microsoft would gain manufacturing and distribution mechanisms and global relationships it doesn't now have and the ability to offer an end-to-end software, hardware and services platform to compete with Apple, HP and Research in Motion.The problem about the future is the present. Android and iPhone are competitors that likely will reshape the mobile device industry even before Microsoft and Nokia could complete a merger. It's a tough call for Ballmer and his executive team to make. I wouldn't want to make it. Would you?Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsThursday, AT&T and Motorola announced pricing and availability of the Motorola Atrix 4G convertible smartphone. The public first recoiled at the pricetag --$199 for the phone and $500 for its notebook dock-- but the Atrix is an extremely enticing new type of gadget that could be a good solution for specific users. The main idea behind the Atrix 4G is that the smartphone acts as a "brain" that can power a notebook computer, a set top box, or stand alone as a phone. It features a dual gigaherz core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 1 GB of RAM, up to 32 GB of storage, and features the Android 2.2 operating system with special dedicated interfaces for the notebook and multimedia set top box. The notebook dock is extremely thin, light, and sturdy, with a bright and clear 11.6" display. Unfortunately, without the Atrix 4G, it's also useless, and charging $500 for an accessory that has no standalone value is unprecedented in the mobile phone business. Furthermore, for the cost that the notebook dock adds, you could get all but one of the broadband-connected netbooks that AT&T offers unsubsidized. The Atrix and its unique dockability have piqued a lot of people's interest, and the unfortunate truth of the matter is: there is no other Android solution that does what Motorola's Atrix does.BlackBerry and Windows Mobile both have the REDFLY by Celio Corp, a $199 Bluetooth "netbook" that does something similar to the Atrix and the old, unreleased Palm Foleo, but without the need for a physical dock. Back in 2009, Celio demonstrated REDFLY working with the Google G1, but unfortunately it has shown no progress since the video embedded below. In December 2009, the company tweeted that Android REDFLY was "neither fail nor scam...we are making progress and hope to have something new to demo soon," but even the company's Twitter account has only posted a couple of updates in the time since that message. We've reached out to Celio to see what happened to the prototype and if development has ceased, but they haven't yet gotten back to us.Still, short of building one yourself*, if you want a portable notebook-like solution for an Android phone, the Atrix is currently your only solution. It goes up for pre-order on February 13 and will be available at AT&T's retail stores on March 6 or earlier.*I'm in the process of trying to assemble something portable and cheap that at least duplicates the functionality of REDFLY, which I'll post a story about as soon as I can.Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Ed Oswald, BetanewsAhead of its planned investor meeting on Feburary 23, Apple is once again having to deal with questions on a succession plan. The Cupertino company might have been able to avoid a lot of publicity surrounding an effort to force it to publicly disclose its plans, but Steve Jobs' indefinite leave of absence couldn't have come at a worse time.Institutional Shareholder Services, a group that advises shareholders on how to vote on proxy ballot issues, has now said that it is advising a yes vote for the proposal. Under it, the company would be required to publicly disclose its plans for succession, and do so yearly.Apple itself is urging shareholders to vote against it, claiming it already has a "comprehensive plan" in place, and letting the public know could give its competitors an "unfair advantage." Disclosure could harm its hiring practices, as companies may try to hire away potential successors listed, and unhappy executives not on the list may leave as a result, it argues.The Central Laborers' Pension Fund is the group responsible for the proposal, and disclosed the ISS' endorsement in a press release on Thursday. "All companies should have succession planning policies and succession plans in place, and boards should periodically review and update them," the ISS said in a statement.Succession plans are already in place in other Fortune 500 companies including American Express, Verizon, and HP, supporters note. To me, this is a no-brainer, and seems more an effort on Apple's part to maintain its secretive nature.I'm not quite understanding why Apple believes these shareholders want to know who will replace Jobs. What I think people want to know is what the company's plans are should Jobs never come back -- investors are finicky folks.Apple does owe it to shareholders to have this plan laid out in public. Keeping your products secret is one thing, keeping how you would plan to maintain the continuation of your business -- considering your CEO has pretty much been the company -- is another. Apple without Jobs is a unsettling thought, and investors want to know the company won't falter once he's gone.Will this effort pass? Typically, shareholder proposals that aren't supported by the company will not. But Jobs sick once again and a high-profile group supporting it may make the shareholder meeting interesting to watch.Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010