Apple Pulls App To Make iPhone a Roving Hotspot

Mark Long, newsfactor

"We're trying to get ahold of Apple right now," said Nullriver spokesperson Maksim Rogov in an e-mail. "Until we hear from Apple, it's hard to say what the real reason is, because if it was AT&T, well, AT&T is not the iPhone service provider outside the U.S."

Not On AT&T's List

Wireless carriers are understandably not happy about programs such as Netshare because they allow users to bypass their cellular networks and avoid data-access fees.

"The iPhone is not intended to be used as a tethering device and we have no plans to offer separate tethering plans for it," said AT&T spokesperson Wes Warnock. "We offer LaptopConnect cards that you can use to access our wireless data network. Those cards offer typical download speeds as high as 1.7 Mbps."

Warnock noted that AT&T wireless provides tethered access for a monthly fee on smartphones from LG, Motorola, Nokia, RIM, Samsung and others, but the iPhone is not on the carrier's list of supported devices. "For customers looking for a smartphone with tethering capability, we have many other options," Warnock said.

Developer Mystified

Some media outlets were quick to suggest that Nullriver had come under pressure when its Netshare product description was cleared from the Web site earlier today. But Nullriver says it is as mystified as everyone else as to why its application was pulled.

Nullriver says it is currently trying to get Netshare back on the App Store.

"Sorry to all the folks that couldn't get it in time," Rogov said. "We're hoping we'll get some feedback from Apple tomorrow. At the very least, I would hope Apple will allow it in countries where the provider does permit tethering."

The fact that Netshare made even a brief appearance on the App Store surprised industry observers. To keep IT administrators from worrying about rogue applications ending up on iPhones in enterprise environments, Apple had promised to thoroughly vet the applications it offers before making them available for download.

Given its recent woes with its MobileMe subscription service, Apple has once again raised questions about how prepared it is to successfully market the iPhone worldwide. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for further information.

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China Lifts Some Internet Restrictions in Face of Pressure

Jennifer LeClaire, newsfactor

ChinaOlympic Games

Human-rights group Amnesty International reports that its site is accessible, but other politically sensitive sites are still blocked. The Chinese government did not issue a formal statement explaining its decision to open up access, and did not say whether such access is permanent.

"Following discussions the IOC has held with the organizers of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on the difficulties experienced this week in accessing some Web sites, the IOC is pleased to see that the issues are quickly being resolved," the International Olympic Committee said. "The media should be seeing a noticeable difference in accessibility to Web sites that they need to report on the Olympic Games."

On Again, Off Again, On Again

Internet censorship is standard for China's citizens, but China vowed seven years ago to allow journalists unfettered access during the Olympics. On Wednesday, the IOC and the Chinese government confirmed that reporters covering the Olympic Games would not be able to access sites China deems politically sensitive.

The IOC and China both came under fire. On Friday, the IOC began to try to repair the damage.

"The IOC has always encouraged the Beijing 2008 organizers to provide media with the fullest access possible to report on the games, including access to the Internet, knowing this is important for them to do their job," the organization said. "This access has always been assured by BOCOG [the Beijing Olympic organizing committee] and the Chinese authorities, and the IOC is pleased to see these are assurances being upheld."

What Happens After the Olympics?

Reporters Without Borders reported that its Web site, which has been blocked in China since 2003, can now be accessed at the Olympic press center in Beijing and in other parts of the capital, and in Shanghai.

"This is good news, of course, but it continues to be unacceptable that the Chinese government can decide, according to its mood, which Web sites are censored and which are accessible," Reporters Without Borders said. "And how long will these sites be available to the 253 million Chinese Internet users, who continue to be subject to massive online censorship?"

Reporters Without Borders also noted that the partial lifting of the censorship demonstrates the Chinese government is not completely insensitive to pressure. Leslie Harris, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, agreed. The world, she said, needs to keep the pressure on.

"I have no expectation that China is going to fully open up its firewall, but this is an indication that if the world pays serious attention to this issue on a regular basis, and governments incorporate this issue into their trade negotiations and human-rights statements, we might be able to make some progress," Harris said. "We just need to focus on this beyond the Olympics. We can't just leave the Chinese people behind."

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Yahoo's board wins big endorsement by shareholders

Jerry
Yang

Shareholders representing nearly 76 percent of Yahoo's 1.38
billion outstanding shares gave solid favorable votes to all
nine of the company's current directors, in what represents a
ringing endorsement of their tough stance with Microsoft Corp
in this year's talks on a full or partial merger.

(Reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Braden Reddall)

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Lawmakers demand info on Web tracking practices

By JOELLE TESSLER, AP Business Writer

In an expanding inquiry into the state of consumer privacy on the Internet, House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders sent letters Friday to more than 30 companies, demanding to know whether they track where their users go online and use that information to deliver personalized advertising.

Among the companies receiving the letters were Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp., AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp., Qwest Communications International Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Time Warner Inc.'s AOL unit and Time Warner Cable Inc. The companies were given a week to respond.

The letters build on an earlier probe by the committee into "deep packet inspection" technologies, which can track where people go and what they do on the Internet.

The committee already has been investigating Embarq Corp., an Internet service provider based in Overland Park, Kan., that has been testing technology to track the online behavior of its customers and then serve up targeted ads based on their presumed interests. And both the House and Senate Commerce Committees have been looking into a small Silicon Valley startup called NebuAd Inc., which developed personalized-ad technology that Embarq and other Internet service providers have used.

But the latest letters broaden the inquiry to encompass much bigger and better-known players on the Internet. The letters seek details on how many consumers have been tracked, whether those people have been notified and whether they were given the option to "opt out" of it. The committee also wants to know how the collected information is used and how it is gathered — for example, whether the companies aggregate data from different online applications.

Ari Schwartz, vice president of the Center for Democracy & Technology, a civil liberties group, said he is optimistic that the congressional inquiries could lead to general privacy legislation that would safeguard consumer data gathered both online and offline.

"It's important for Internet users and American consumers in general to understand what information is being collected about them and how it's being used," he said.

The letters were signed by Michigan Democrat John Dingell, chairman of the committee; Joe Barton of Texas, its top Republican; Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey, who chairs the panel's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet; and Cliff Stearns of Florida, the subcomittee's top Republican.

"Privacy is a cornerstone of freedom," Markey said in a statement. "Online users have a right to explicitly know when their broadband provider is tracking their activity and collecting potentially sensitive and personal information."

Several companies contacted by the committee said they intend to respond to the letter. In a statement, Yahoo added that its approach to advertising allows it to provide free, personalized content that consumers want as well as ads relevant to them.

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Yahoo directors re-elected by wide margin

YahooMicrosoft Corp

Each of the nine directors got at least 78 percent of the shareholder votes cast, Yahoo announced Friday after its annual meeting.

One of the incumbent directors, Robert Kotick, plans to resign next week to make room for activist investor Carl Icahn.

About 85 percent of the shareholders supported Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and nearly 80 percent supported Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock. Those two men steered the failed negotiations over the failed $47.5 billion takeover bid by Microsoft.

Yahoo shares fell 9 cents Friday to finish at $19.80, well below the $33 per share that Microsoft offered before withdrawing the bid in early May after Yang demanded more.

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Microsoft Calls Firefox Competitor To Windows

By J. Nicholas HooverInformationWeek

MicrosoftSecurities and Exchange Commission

"The Windows operating system faces competition from alternative platforms and new devices that may reduce consumer demand for traditional personal computers," the report warns, noting the possibility that software as a service and mobile devices could decrease the relevance of traditional PC operating systems. "Competitors such as Mozilla offer software that competes with the Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of Windows products. User and usage volumes on mobile devices are increasing around the world relative to the PC."

Firefox has been a success story against Internet Explorer, continually increasing its share against Microsoft's market browser for the last few years. But the fact that it's now seen as a threat to Windows is more evidence than ever that Firefox has made it. More importantly, it shows that Microsoft is aware of its own important balancing act as the company strives to maintain its relevance and dominance in the services era.

Microsoft has been spending billions on huge new data centers around the world, as recently as last month announcing a new one in Iowa. It's making major investments in search and advertising, has expanded consumer services, and has begun rolling out business services and will likely announce plans later this fall to compete with companies like Amazon in utility computing services.

"The ability to combine the power of desktop and server software with the reach of the Internet represents an opportunity across every one of our businesses," the company said. "As we continue to build out our services platform, we will bring a broad range of new products and service offerings to market that target the needs of large enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses, and consumers."

Still, Microsoft makes it clear in its report that much of the increase in revenue the company has seen in the last two years has continued to come from Windows. Preinstalled Windows copies account for more than 80% of Microsoft's client division's revenues, and more PCs sold around the world means more Windows copies sold as well. Microsoft characterized Windows Vista adoption in the last year as "widespread."

Whether that means Microsoft's operating systems are continuing to be well accepted is another matter entirely. Microsoft has begun embarking on a new marketing strategy for Vista 18 months after it was released, trying to convince people that they should buy it despite early criticism. It also recently lashed out at Forrester Research for what it said were "schizophrenic" reports on Vista's adoption rate.

In other competitive notes, Microsoft leaves Citrix off a long list of competitors to its server and tools business, which includes both Windows Server and Microsoft's Visual Studio development tools. Citrix increasingly competes with the group's virtualization products and isn't listed despite VMware's presence. Microsoft and Citrix have had a long partnership around Citrix Presentation Server, which is now known as XenApp.

Microsoft continues to up the ante in research and development, spending $8.2 billion in fiscal 2008. That's a 14% increase over the previous year's $7.1 billion investment, which itself represented 14% more than 2006. Still, all that spending doesn't represent all of Microsoft's investment in new technology, as the company spent $8.8 billion in 21 acquisitions last year, including $5.9 billion on advertising giant aQuantive and $1.3 billion on enterprise search company Fast Search & Transfer.

See original article on InformationWeek

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Sun Releases JavaFX Preview

By Antone GonsalvesInformationWeek

Sun MicrosystemsWeb developmentplatformAdobe's FlexMicrosoft's Silverlight.

In general, JavaFX and the competing platforms are used to build applications that run in a browser, but have functionality similar to applications running natively on a PC. JavaFX applications are written to standard application programming interfaces for Java runtime environments widely deployed on desktops, notebooks, and mobile phones.

The latter capability is one of JavaFX's key advantages, according to Sun.

"Only the Java platform is pervasive enough to allow developers to build and deploy RIAs [rich internet applications] across desktops and browsers on more than 800 million PCs, as well as billions of mobile phones and devices," Ken Wallich, VP of JavaFX at Sun, said in a statement. "JavaFX builds upon this foundation to deliver immersive and rich presentation capabilities to the existing Java platform."

The JavaFX Preview, released Thursday for download, is meant to help early adopters become familiar with the platform and is not meant for commercial applications. The components of the platform are a software development kit, the NetBeans 6.1 integrated development environment with integrated JavaFX plug-in, the Java Runtime Environment 6 Update 10 Beta, and Project Nile.

Project Nile is a tool that makes it possible to export art created in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator into the same assets directory used by JavaFX developers. As a result, developers get easy access to the art, and changes to the graphics are automatically updated in applications.

The JavaFX SDK includes a compiler and runtime tools and 2-D graphics and media libraries, as well as tutorials, API documentation, and sample code.

The first version of JavaFX will be for developing applications that can run in browsers and on the desktop. That version is expected to ship in the fall. The first version for mobile phones is scheduled to ship next spring.

See original article on InformationWeek

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