Apple executives continue to refer to their Apple TV set-top box business as a “hobby” — which is a polite word for “failure”. Time for that to change: If Steve Jobs wants to make a serious run at owning our living room’s “digital hub”, then Apple TV needs a serious overhaul, ASAP.

Why now? Because even though the industry is still nascent, the Internet-connected living room is becoming more of a realistic proposition. And the market is quickly getting more crowded.

Yesterday, LG announced it would begin selling a Blu-ray player in September that can play Netflix (NFLX) streaming movies — and other digital content — for “well under” $500. Wednesday, Dell (DELL) showed off a sexy new mini computer, starting at $499, with a built-in HDMI port for hi-def TVs and an optional Blu-ray drive. So on and so forth.

Suddenly, Apple TV has lost most of whatever edge it may have had. It can play iTunes movies, and YouTube videos, and… well, that’s about it. Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster estimates Apple has sold 2.6 million Apple TVs since spring 2007, which sounds high to us. But now matter what the number is, Apple TV isn’t a mainstream product. So how can Steve Jobs change that?

Open it up, by adding the Web.

We realize the company likes controlling as much of the user experience as possible and boxing people in to Apple-supplied media. That’s helped make Apple products among the most useful and elegant in the consumer electronics industry. But the Apple TV is too confined. It should be more like Apple’s Mac mini, which some serious home theater-types actually do use in their living rooms.

What does this mean? Add a Safari browser with all the plugins you’d need to watch videos from Hulu, MLBTV, NBC, ABC, Fox, etc., listen to audio from Muxtape, Last.fm, Pandora, and other sites that aren’t too directly competing.

In theory, this also means that Apple is is inviting iTunes competitors like Netflix (NFLX) or Amazon (AMZN) onto its box, since they offer browser-based video services of their own. But better to have to compete for space on your own platform than have a platform no one uses.

Add an optional Blu-ray drive.

When Apple last updated the Apple TV in January, the the next-gen disc format war was just ending, which meant it was too late to add a Blu-ray DVD drive. But the DVD format isn’t going away for a while — at least for another 5 years or so. An Apple TV with an optional Blu-ray drive could replace the DVD player in every living room. An Apple TV without one is a compromise — there just aren’t enough movies on iTunes to make digital delivery a feasible, primary option today. Don’t forget that TVs have a finite number of hi-def ports, and the cable/satellite box — which Apple will increasibly compete with — is taking up one of them.

That’s it. For now at least — let’s not get ahead of ourselves. AppleTV doesn’t need too many features, and it doesn’t need to be a full-fledged PC. It just needs to make our TV-watching experience better, by adding as many video sources as possible, in one nicely designed package. What do you say, Steve?

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If you had been listening to Facebook app developers over the last couple of months, you would have heard a lot of doomsday scenarios for their apps and/or the site itself once the redesign launched. But we’re now two weeks past the redesign’s unveiling — and far as we can tell, there still hasn’t been an apocalypse. Just to make sure we weren’t missing anything, we polled some of the site’s most prominent developers:

• RockYou founder Jia Shen tells us that while he’s not sure what long-term effects the changes may have on his company and its apps, he likes the way the redesign looks. And he hasn’t heard any negative feedback from his users yet.
• Social Gaming Network’s CEO Shervin Pishevar told us that he’s ‘very happy with the redesign’ — especially the new Wall feed.

• Blake Commagere, the creator of the Vampires , Zombies, and Werewolves apps, said that his users love the new design. So far, he hasn’t seen any impact on his apps’ performance.

Our metrics look really good. I wouldn’t say that I have confidence to say that that’s how it will look two weeks from now. We’re just sitting back and watching.

Keith makes a valid point — it’s too early to tell how the redesign will affect applications’ ability to grow, which is what most developers were worried about when the new design was first previewed earlier this year. We’ll make another point — the redesign was always going to be most pain for new apps that haven’t been established already.

But the bottom line is that none of these developers have had to drastically change their business plan to adapt to the new profile. And none of them are saying that they expect to see a drop-off in user engagement as more people adopt the new look.

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Beyond that, little else is expected to happen. To wit, new minority board member, Carl Icahn, who unsuccessfully tried to broker a deal between Yahoo and Microsoft, is skipping the event.

Yahoo’s annual investor meeting on Friday will be a magnet for discontent over the company’s failure to reach a merger deal with Microsoft and complaints about the company’s past performance.

But any real action to reshape Yahoo’s course is likely to take
place only af…

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Tags: google, search, informasjon, ip, track

No piece of software is immune to defects, which is why it’s important to use tools that help find and fix bugs.

That’s the idea with the new Linux 2.6.26 kernel, which is providing the Linux ecosystem with an integrated kernel debugger to help improve the open source operating system.

The 2.6.26 kernel continues the relentless release cycle of Linux kernels adding new features and driver support that help expand the operating system’s capabilities.

“The most surprising change was the addition of KGDB after discussions on kernel debuggers had gone on for a while,” Dr. Gerald Pfeifer, director of inbound product management at Novell, told InternetNews.com. “This will prove very useful in handling some hard support situations and nicely complements the KDB kernel debugger that Novell has been shipping for years.”

KGDB is the new Linux source level debugger and enters the mainline Linux kernel despite the past objections of Linux founder Linus Torvalds. Eight years ago, Torvalds wrote in a Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) post: “I don’t like debuggers. Never have, probably never will.”

Torvalds had argued that not having a kernel debugger forces people to think about their development problems on a different level than with a debugger. In his view, there is a greater degree of understanding about the overall nature of the program and how it operates.

Though Torvalds is still the leader of Linux and the person that releases mainline Linux kernel releases, the effort counts a variety of kernel developers who also get things added like KGDB. A recent study from the Linux Foundation noted that there are over 1,000 developers working on the Linux kernel representing over 100 corporations.

Among those contributing to kernel development is Linux vendor Red Hat. Rik van Riel, senior software engineer at Red Hat told InternetNews.com that for him the KGDB debugger is a key improvement to Linux 2.6.26. As well, van Riel applauded the PAT (Page Attribute Table) feature, which allows for better support of graphics hardware.

Novell’s Pfeifer explained that PAT support for x86 (define) systems allows for setting memory attributes at page level granularity, which opens more possibilities for further optimizations.

The 2.6.26 kernel follows the 2.6.25 kernel which debuted in April ges+in+New+Linux+and introduced a long list of new driver and support features. The 2.6.26 changelog has a similarly long list of driver support improvements.

“One thing that I was reminded of reading through the detailed set of changes is the impressive amount of newly contributed or updated drivers, demonstrating the breadth of hardware that Linux supports – more than any other operating system,” Novell’s Pfeifer said. “I think it’s worth highlighting the increasing stability and richness of wireless support here in addition to the usual network, storage and audio drivers, and there is also ever growing support for tuners and other multimedia drivers.

Source: Reuters

Palm on Monday introduced a new high-end Treo mobile phone, hoping to challenge the BlackBerry’s dominance with business users.

But its debut fell in the shadow of the launch of Apple’s debut of its new, less-pricey iPhone, which sold more than 1 million units over the weekend.

Shares of Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) closed down nearly 2 percent after Palm unveiled its 800w smartphone, available for $250 after signing up for a service contract with its wireless carrier partner Sprint (NYSE: S), and a $100 rebate.

By contrast, Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 3G sells for about $200, nearly half the price of its previous version. Apple’s stock closed up 0.75 percent.

The lower price has spurred iPhone rivals to keep prices low, such as Samsung Electronics recently introduced “Instinct” — also available via Sprint — which is set at $130 after rebate.

“Despite recent price cuts in the smartphone sector, the new Treo is priced at $249.99 with a two-year contract, making the 800w model one of the most expensive smartphones offered at Sprint,” said Lawrence Harris, an analyst with CL King & Associates, in a client note.

Smartphones like the Treo, iPhone and Research in Motion’s (NASDAQ: RIMM) Blackberry Curve — which sells for $149 after rebate according to Sprint’s Web site — offers features such as a high-speed Internet connection and access to e-mail and documents.

The new Treo comes with a full keyboard, which the iPhone lacks. Both have Wi-Fi wireless Internet capability, satellite navigation systems and built-in digital cameras.

Palm executive Brodie Keast told Reuters that the Treo is primarily meant to take on the Blackberry’s dominance among business users, although he acknowledges that the iPhone has drawn a lot of attention.

But, he says there remains a lot of room for growth in the smartphone market.

“It’s also a very large market,” he said. “We don’t need to defeat RIM or Apple in order to succeed.”

Shares of Palm fell 11 cents to $5.42 on NASDAQ.

Source: Routers

Britain’s telecom company BT (NYSE: BT) plans to invest 1.5 billion pounds ($3 billion) to roll out superfast broadband to up to 10 million U.K. homes by 2012, enabling services such as videoconferencing and interactive gaming.

The group said it would suspend its share buyback program from July 31, given the strategic priority of the broadband investment, but remains committed to its dividend.

It will also make the fiber network available to other Internet service providers (ISPs), such as Carphone Warehouse and BSkyB, through wholesale to ensure the broadband market remains competitive.

Those ISPs, which have put their copper lines into BT’s networks in recent years to give them more control over pricing, could also decide to repeat this process with fiber.

The program is Britain’s largest ever investment in superfast broadband, which will deliver speeds of up to 100 megabytes per second.

The fiber will be linked to the street cabinet — and in some cases, such as the Olympic village for the 2012 Games — directly to the premises.

Homes linked to a fiber-to-the-cabinet network will receive initial speeds of up to 40 megabytes (MB), but BT expects this to increase to 60MB with new technologies. Those on a fiber-to-the-premises network will see speeds of up to 100MB.

“Broadband has boosted the U.K. economy and is now an essential part of our customers’ lives,” Chief Executive Ian Livingston said in a statement.

“We now want to make a step change in broadband provision, which will offer faster speeds than ever before,” Livingston said. “This is a bold step by BT and we need others to be just as bold.”

“We want to work with local and regional bodies to decide where and when we should focus the deployment,” he added. “Our aim is that urban and rural areas alike will benefit from our investment.”

BT noted a supportive and enduring environment was “essential” for the investment, which adds about 1 billion pounds to its existing expenditure plans for fiber deployment, to take place.

It expects the initial investment will result in around 100 million pounds of incremental capital expenditure in each of the 2008/09 and 2009/10 financial years, with the remaining incremental spend of 800 million pounds being spread over the subsequent three years.

Analysts welcomed the announcement, which they said had been mostly expected, although shares in BT were down 2.3 percent at 197 pence at 0815 GMT, in an overall lower market.

“This phased rollout is very much in line with our expectations, and provides clarity on capex needs whilst reaffirming dividend guidance,” analysts at Investec said in a note to clients.

“With much of the spend back-end weighted we see little change to near-term EPS forecasts and cash flows.”

Analysts at Morgan Stanley said the investment would also help protect BT from competition from cable group Virgin Media (NASDAQ: VMED), which is rolling out faster broadband speeds.

Source: Routers

The $20 million prediction encompasses the advertising value of the product’s release into the Australian market, rather than the simply amount of revenue it accumulated.

Apple has not released actual data about iPhone sales during the past few days, so Ibis examined a number of different issues to predict this figure.

“We looked at the whole host of factors that would affect the number, including extra sales staff, staff security, and additional product transport,” said Mark Ganz, Industry Manager at IbisWorld.

“Apple is very secretive when it comes to numbers, so it was quite a difficult one to calculate. The thing that really complicates the model is the varying prices and contract models, so we had to take a bit of a median view.”

Ganz said the iPhone carriers were only allocated 80,000 devices between the three of them, and the subsequent demand after those units sell out will further fuel the economic impact.

The launch is also expected to spur growth in the mobile market as a whole, not only for iPhone sales but for other 3G devices.

“I think the iPhone does will boost awareness for 3G in Australia and help give momentum for customer transitioning from 2G to 3G,” said Ganz.

“When you look at the telecommunications market, mobile replacement is currently 40 percent. I think it’ll increase to possibly as much as 50 percent in the near feature.”

During the next several months, Ibis predicts the iPhone will have even greater impact on the Australian economy and increase mobile telecommunications revenue almost 5.4 percent to $15 billion.

“$20 million was just for Friday, it’s just a drop in the ocean of the economy. We don’t know when that initial allocation is going to be sold out, but as they get restocked, the ongoing benefits to economy will be higher,” said Ganz.

“It’s a great positive for the industry, and we think the demand outstrips supply at the moment. There will be a lot of shortages, so Apple with really benefit from not having to discount prices to match demand and from locking down customers into long contracts.”

Source: ITNews

Secure Computing is warning of a new Trojan in the wild that is infecting multi-media files on a victim’s hard disk.

The initial infection happens from a pirate software site better known as a Warez site, where users go looking for an illegal crack or serial key to run copy-protected software.

According to Secure Computing’s security advisory, when trying to play back the infected files, the user is fooled into believing a codec is needed to play back the content.

When downloading the advertised fake codec, the user will install the malware instead which embeds malicious content into multimedia files such as MP3, WMA music files, WMV video files and others.

Eric Krieger, country manager for ANZ at Secure Computing told SC that one of the infected MP3 files includes music from 70′s rock group Queen’s Greatest Hits album.

“The bottom line is you shouldn’t be looking to download the codec, that’s the major thing, and once you have it installed it injects the command and causes the WMP to redirect,” said Krieger.

When the user plays any infected files, no sign of compromise will show up and they will never know they’ve been infected, warned Secure Computing.

When a user then shares a file via email or a P2P site, those infected multimedia files are then transferred to someone else.

“It’s not a Windows issue, it’s an MP3 issue and you need to update your anti-virus signature to stay protected. It’s just something that users have to be aware of,” said Krieger.

Source: ITNews