Google decouples Gmail from Android

SOFTWARE COBBLER Google is showing the first signs of frustration with its Android operating system, having removed Gmail from the list of Android's core applications.

In issuing an update for Gmail, Google has made it possible to update the email client without having to wait for a new version of Android to be released.

In the past major updates of Gmail were tied to Android releases. However with the number of Android versions growing and handset manufacturers and mobile operators taking their time releasing updates, Google has started offering the Gmail application as a free download on the Android Market.

The new policy, however, only applies to those who are already running Android 2.2 and this has angered those customers who have been left stranded on old version of the OS. In fact, even some users already on Android 2.2 are complaining that they cannot see the Gmail 2.3 application in the Android Market.

We had no problems finding, downloading and installing Gmail 2.3 on a Nexus One, however, but then that is Google's favoured device.

The update is relatively minor with the most visible change being better navigation through email 'threads'. Though the update itself is minor, Google's decision to treat what is undoubtedly one of the core applications in Android as if it is a third party downloadable application says a lot about the state of fragmentation in Android devices.

Although more handsets are shipping with the latest version of Android, many who purchased handsets even just a year ago are still stuck on Android 1.6 with no updates in sight. As we reported back in March, the fragmentation of Android devices is resulting in users being frustrated with varying user experiences between devices.

The situation has not been helped by manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony Ericsson and even HTC being slow to release updates to their devices. When coupled with mobile operators' efforts that largely have been to bungle update roll-outs, apparently Google decided it had to take action.

Google's decoupling of applications is a good thing for Android users, who will no longer be reliant on handset manufacturers and mobile operators, the firms that want to flog handsets, to get updates. The only remaining problem for users will be getting Android 2.2 in the first place.

Oracle Growth Plans Worry Rivals and Customers

SAN FRANCISCO — Each year, Oracle’s presence looms over this city for a week, during the company’s Open World customer conference. About 41,000 people arrived this week to discuss business software in fine detail and talk over beers. Stretches of downtown streets closed and gave way to makeshift tents housing coffee stands, bars, Lego play areas and candy buffets.

Enlarge This Image

Tony Avelar/Bloomberg News

Lawrence Ellison, Oracle’s chief, says bundling software and hardware improves performance and saves customers money.

Enlarge This Image

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Oracle’s Open World conference drew 41,000 people to San Francisco this week to discuss business software and have some fun.

Enlarge This Image

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In hiring Mark Hurd, former chief at H.P., Oracle added an executive who had run a major computer server business.

But Oracle’s annual takeover of San Francisco pales against its larger ambitions — to supply just about all the technology, software and hardware, that businesses might need. This sweeping agenda has rattled the nerves of customers, who fear that Oracle has its own best interests, not theirs, at heart. The worry is that instead of saving money, customers will end up paying more over the long term, and that Oracle, already known for its aggressive tactics, will use its strong position in software to gain even more leverage over a larger array of products.

Companies have long used Oracle’s software to keep track of their most prized information. For Oracle, this resulted in sales of $26.8 billion last year and hints of an annual revenue goal of $100 billion. Over the last five years, Oracle has acquired a staggering 66 companies, most of which were software makers that provided expertise in niche areas.

This year, it bought Sun Microsystems, a hardware maker, signaling its intention to dominate the data centers of businesses by controlling more of their technology purchases. It is a prospect that its traditional partners and, more important, its customers, find unnerving.

“It’s freaking terrifying for some people,” said Jason Carey, a database software developer for a credit services company.

Maureen Miller, who oversees technology infrastructure work for the National Science Foundation, put it this way: “We are becoming an all-Oracle shop, but not by choice. They bought every company we deal with. And we don’t tend to want to put all of our eggs in one basket.”

Lawrence J. Ellison, Oracle’s chief executive, argued that the company’s new strategy would benefit customers. “If you want to go faster and you want a system that is more reliable, you have to be willing to spend less,” he said in his opening pitch at this week’s event, while extolling the virtues of linking hardware and software. But customers are skeptical, and pushing back.

Oracle built its business by dominating the database market, providing the central repositories of crucial information that businesses must maintain and use to complete transactions. This has given it an unrivaled position of power when dealing with customers. Capitalizing on such an edge, Oracle’s sales representatives have earned a fearsome reputation as hard-line negotiators determined to squeeze customers.

But through its acquisition spree, Oracle moved well beyond the database and into business software, buying up the important products that companies use to keep track of their technology infrastructure, employees, sales, inventory and customers.

With Sun, Oracle has found a way to sell customers hardware bundled with all that software in a fashion similar to that of its main database rival, I.B.M. Oracle executives say they can build better, faster, cheaper products this way by engineering complete systems rather than requiring customers to cobble together the parts.

It is akin to the Apple model of limiting choice and controlling the crucial pieces in a computer, as opposed to the PC model, where the Windows software from Microsoft can run on hundreds of different machines.

Later this year, Oracle also plans to give select customers access to a product suite called Fusion. This arrives after five years of work and will unite many of the products Oracle has acquired into a single software platform — one that will combine functions found in rival products from companies like SAP, I.B.M., Microsoft and Salesforce.com.

But customers are objecting to Oracle’s moves. For example, some of Sun’s largest former customers consist of the large Wall Street players, and they pushed back this year when Oracle moved to limit their choices around the Sun technology. Oracle ultimately gave in to their pleas, reaffirming deals that would let Hewlett-Packard and Dell offer prized Sun software on their hardware.

“Customers will always gripe about giving too much control to any one company,” said Israel Hernandez, director of software research at Barclays Capital.

Like it or not, many of the largest technology companies — H.P., I.B.M., Cisco Systems and Oracle — have made their data center conquest plans clear. Oracle now competes directly with its partners H.P. and Dell, as does Cisco, the networking specialist, through its move into computer servers. Meanwhile, H.P., once one of Cisco’s closest allies, has begun a major assault in the networking arena.

“We will see more concentration because that’s where the marketing is going,” Mr. Hernandez said.

At least Oracle has the courtesy to assuage customer’s nerves for one week through its Open World largess.

The downtown tents covering parts of Howard and Mason Streets house alcohol-soaked evenings sponsored by Fujitsu, fully stocked candy bars and Lego playpens where people win prizes from Google for interesting constructions. People also dine inside the tents on 59,000 lunches said to have an eco-friendly touch with 60 percent of the food coming from within 100 miles of the city.

Just outside the tents, show attendees can pick up a Services Serum smoothie at the Dell-sponsored juice bar and then relax on white leather lounges. Or people can look past the white-gloved guards to sneak a peek at the America’s Cup trophy that Mr. Ellison won this year.

But the main party will take place on Wednesday night, when Oracle will bus people to a series of concerts held on Treasure Island, which sits between San Francisco and Oakland. The headlining acts include the Black Eyed Peas, Don Henley and the Steve Miller Band.

Six acts will perform on two stages surrounded by amusement rides, four laser systems, 150,000 cocktail napkins, mounds of food and 12 searchlights beaming into the sky. Typically, a few brave female souls will dance near the music stages, while hundreds of male database gurus sip free drinks and ogle.

“I don’t know if any of the customers or the nerds that show up care that much about the fancy production,” said Christine Stamper, who paid $1,800 to attend the conference and runs her own software consulting business in Portland, Ore. “It’s a little goofy.”

Ms. Stamper said she hoped to learn the latest and greatest about Oracle’s products.

“That they have stayed healthy and grown has meant that I could make an entire career out of this,” she said.

This month, Oracle hired Mark V. Hurd, the former chief executive of H.P., as a co-president. Analysts viewed the hiring as a positive for Oracle as it looks to expand. At H.P., Mr. Hurd oversaw the largest computer server business around and ran the world’s largest technology company.

“As Oracle continues to grow, we need people experienced in operating a $100 billion business,” noted Safra A. Catz, Oracle’s other co-president, at the time of Mr. Hurd’s hiring.

The $100 billion total would put Oracle in the same class as H.P. and I.B.M.

“I read that statement as a signal that Oracle intends to get aggressive and pursue growth,” Mr. Hernandez said. “It implies a step up in mergers and acquisitions.”

Such talk only makes already weary Oracle customers more anxious. And San Francisco officials must wonder if the city could survive the demands of an Oracle four times its current size.

Yahoo Again Cuts Into Google's Share Of Search Market

Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) continued to boost its slice of the Web-search market, taking market share from sector giant Google Inc. (GOOG) again in August, according to data released by an industry researcher.

According to monthly data from comScore Inc. (SCOR), Google still sat comfortably atop Web-search rankings, garnering 65.4% of U.S. core searches, down 0.4 percentage points from July. Meanwhile, Yahoo added 0.3 percentage points to its share of the market, bringing it to 17.1%. Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Bing engine added 0.1 percentage point to its cut of the market, bringing its share to 17.1%.

Overall, users made nearly 15.7 billion searches in August.

ComScore has shifted how it reports its data after Yahoo's "contextual searches" skewed results in June. While comScore's definition of a search included the traditional search-box query type of searches, it also included some automatic search results that pop up without a user entering a specific query. Now, the group is measuring U.S. explicit core searches, which exclude contextual searches that don't reflect any intent by users

Intel Reveals Sandy Bridge Processor Details

Intel says laptops and desktops powered by the company's next-generation microarchitecture, which merges graphics and x86 cores on a single die, will be available early next year.

Codenamed Sandy Bridge, the 32-nanometer processor, which goes into production later this year, will also be the first to support new vector graphics. Details of Sandy Bridge were released Monday at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.

of virtualization, and why it's good for a CIO to fail.

The Sandy Bridge architecture marks the second generation of Intel's Core processor family, which include the Core i3, i5 and i7 chips. Computer makers are expected to ship laptops and desktops running Sandy Bridge chips early next year, Dadi Perlmutter, executive VP and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, said during his keynote.

"Our upcoming second generation Intel Core processor family represents the biggest advance in computing performance and capabilities over any previous generation," Perlmutter said in a statement. "In addition to offering these features inside Intel-based laptops, we plan to scale these advances across our server data center and embedded computing product portfolio."

Sandy Bridge is the first Intel microarchitecture to combine the graphics processor and x86 cores in a single die. Previous architectures had the graphics chip embedded in the motherboard.

The new design boosts performance by allowing the CPU and graphics to share the same resources, such as cache and memory reservoir, according to Intel. While upping performance, the new architecture also is more energy efficient than previous generations.

Other firsts in Sandy Bridge include Intel's new Advanced Vector Extension to the x86 instruction set. AVX is expected to improve processors' performance in handling floating-point intensive calculations in general applications that process images, video and audio, and in engineering applications that provide 3-D modeling and analysis, scientific simulation, and financial analytics.

Sandy Bridge, which will replace Intel's current 45-nanometer microarchitecture, codenamed Nehalem, will go head-to-head with rival Advanced Micro Devices's new core designs scheduled for release next year. Codenamed Bulldozer and Bobcat, the new architectures also combine the CPU and graphics cores on a single die. Bulldozer is aimed at high-performance desktops, workstations and servers, while Bobcat is targeted at low-power laptops and small-form factor desktops.

Perlmutter on Monday also demonstrated at IDF a dual-core, next-generation Xeon processor running a two-socket server. Chips based on the 32-nanometer architecture are scheduled for production in the second half of next year. Processors built for two-socket servers and workstations will run 8 cores and 16 threads per processo

Nokia Launches New Symbian Smartphones, Software Tools

Nokia Corp. (NOK) Tuesday launched three new smartphones to join its flagship N8 model, and announced upgrades to its developer tools as it looks to regain ground lost against rivals in the high-end phone market.

The world's biggest handset maker announced details of the E7, C7 and new C6, alongside the N8, at its annual Nokia World event, all based on its new Symbian operating platform, which Nokia said has more than 250 new features and improvements compared with the old system.

"Today our fight back to smartphone leadership shifts into high gear," said Niklas Savander, Nokia's executive vice president for markets.

Nokia has lost ground against rivals like Apple Inc. (AAPL) with its iPhone and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. (RIMM), as well as smartphones based on Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android platform. The new models come just days after Nokia appointed a new chief executive, Stephen Elop, and the head of its mobile solutions unit resigned, adding further uncertainty to the company.

The N8 flagship smartphone, with 12 megapixel camera and High-Definition video capabilities, was described by Nokia as "the ultimate entertainment smartphone and the world's best camera phone." The company said it had received the highest-ever demand for online pre-orders for the device and has signed up 100 operators to offer it, including Vodafone Group PLC (VOD). It will be priced at EUR370, excluding taxes and subsidies.

The E7, priced at EUR495 before taxes and subsidies, is aimed at business users and features a slide-out Qwerty keyboard and a four-inch touchscreen display, as well as enhanced security features. The C7 is a social-networking smartphone with a three-and-a-half-inch screen and will sell for EUR335. The smaller C6 touchscreen phone has social networking and entertainment features and will sell for EUR260.

"Our new family of smartphones introduced today feature the all-new Symbian OS, rewritten to be faster, easier to use, more efficient and more developer friendly," Savander said. "Despite new competition, Symbian remains the most widely used smartphone platform in the world," Savander said.

All the models are expected to be available for delivery in time for the key Christmas period and will have access to Nokia's updated Ovi Store and free access to Ovi Maps, Nokia's navigation application.

At the same time, Nokia said it had improved its software development tools, Nokia Qt Software Development Kit and Series 40 Touch and Type SDK, to make it easier to develop applications for Symbian-based phones and updated its Ovi Store.

"Our announcements will certainly bring more great apps to Nokia products, especially our new family of Symbian smartphones announced today," said Purnima Kochikar, vice president for Forum Nokia. "We have made it much simpler, removed obstacles and made it more lucrative for people to build apps for our phones," Kochikar said.

Apple the Most Valuable Company in the World? Bet on It.

Apple will become the most valuable company in the world. Bet on it. In fact, go out and sell all your personal belongings, liquidate your 401(k), and buy Apple stock with every last dollar you own.

OK … on second thought, I wouldn't advise that -- it's a bit rash. But there are ample reasons to believe that the company's rise is just starting and that Apple will continue blowing past expectations.

Big Oil, meet Big Phone
You've heard the standard "bullish" reasons before: Apple has $45 billion in cash and trades at only 12 times forward earnings when netting out cash.

Yet investors are rightfully nervous about the stock. It went from the brink of irrelevance to the top of the tech world in less than a decade. It built its $236 billion market cap by selling to consumers, a notoriously fickle crowd. Investors have been burned in this area before; they watched Motorola rise to prominence only to be cut down to size as its designs lost favor. People are afraid to hear that "it's different this time." For many, avoiding Apple is the safer play.

This changes everything … again
Well, it truly is different this time. I'll give you four reasons that the iPhone, and smartphones in general, are a whole new ballgame.

1. Software is the new kingmaker
Apple went into one of the most hypercompetitive markets in the world and created a product that was technologically years ahead of all its competitors. It entered a market that everyone knew would have vast potential -- hence the reason telecoms such as Verizon and AT&T built out massive data networks to support smartphones -- and Apple still managed to destroy a powerful group of competitors.

How? By virtue of a sea change within the mobile industry. The only difference between older "feature phones" -- you know, like that old flip phone sitting in your closet -- was hardware. The mobile companies loaded their own software onto the phones and pretty much controlled the software experience.

Technology notebook: Google's doodle leaves users puzzled

For a dozen years, Google Inc. has been occasionally swapping its everyday logo for a "doodle," a sketch celebrating holidays, inventions, artists and sporting events, and showcasing designs from contest-winning students.

Usually, Google makes it clear what's being celebrated, using the doodle as a lure to teach Web surfers more about the topic -- artist Nam June Paik on his birthday, for example, or the history of China's lantern festival, to pick just two of more than 300 past designs.

But Google had left Tuesday's doodle a mystery, prompting people to speculate about the meaning of this mass of blue, red, yellow and green bouncing balls that skitter across Google.com as if allergic to the mouse pointer before settling into the familiar logo pattern.

Google's official statement says merely that "today's doodle is fast, fun and interactive, just the way we think search should be."

Adding to the intrigue, the company also tweeted on Twitter, "Boisterous doodle today. Maybe it's excited about the week ahead."

Football fans flock to video games

Thursday marked the kickoff of the 2010 NFL season, and along with it, a renewed interest in fantasy leagues and video games that let Monday-morning quarterbacks feel as if they're part of the action.

The perennial champ of the genre, Electronic Arts Inc.'s "Madden," has already made its debut this year as a free Facebook application.

An underdog contender, Quick Hit Inc., has joined the fray with "Quick Hit NFL Football." It lets players pick an NFL team and coach it through the season.

Quick Hit's game came out in beta test form last October, but without the official NFL teams, logos, uniforms and other touches. By January it had racked up 1 million users; the company will only say players now number "in the millions."

Both "Quick Hit NFL Football," a standalone game played in a Web browser, and "Madden NFL Superstars," the Facebook game from EA, are part of a growing trend of online games that are free to play but sell extra, optional items for small amounts of money.

Quick Hit's updated game brings color commentary from former longtime Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher, plus the ability to pay a few bucks extra to snag famous players or playbook additions. There are only five current NFL players available to add to rosters, the most Quick Hit could include based on its licensing agreements. People can choose among more than 100 past "legends" to round out their teams.

Is there room for 2 top dogs Oracle?

As co-president at Oracle Corp., ousted Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Mark Hurd will have to adapt to a new role playing second fiddle to one of Silicon Valley's most domineering bosses -- Larry Ellison.

Although the two men have been pals for several years, working together may test their friendship given that they have both been accustomed to being the top dog. Ellison, in particular, has never left any doubt who's calling the shots at the business software juggernaut that he co-founded 33 years ago.

"Larry is well-known for his strong personality, and there is always a possibility of a personality clash with Hurd," said Kaushik Roy, an analyst with Wedbush Securities.

Airports Aren't the Only Place to Find Companies Selling X-Ray Scanners

While debate continues in the United States over whether whole-body imagers now being used at airports to detect weapons violate privacy rights and even create potential health risks, manufacturers of the technology are opening deeper opportunities for themselves elsewhere that could make the controversial machines an even bigger part of everyday life.

A Massachusetts-based company claims that government agencies here and abroad have purchased hundreds of its van-mounted X-ray devices that reveal the contents of passing vehicles without authorities relying on a manual search to find human stowaways, secret compartments full of narcotics or bomb ingredients.

An executive of American Science & Engineering told Forbes privacy writer Andy Greenberg late last month that the X-ray scanners are most popular with the Defense Department, a fact borne out by federal contracting data. Troops face insurgent bomb architects in Iraq and Afghanistan capable of stymieing the world's most powerful armed forces with crude, MacGyver-style explosives, so vehicle X-ray technology in a place like Baghdad makes sense.

But marketing vice president Joe Reiss said they're also being snapped up by law enforcement officials here, another fact supported by public records, which list at least five major federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security as purchasers of the equipment, in addition to the Pentagon. "This product is now the largest selling cargo and vehicle inspection system ever," Reiss boasted to Forbes.

Drilling deeper, the transcript of a February earnings conference call shows that company CEO Anthony Fabiano told investors AS&E had sold its first vehicle X-ray scanner "to a state government for law enforcement applications. That's a U.S. state." Additional details are scant.

The same privacy defenders who refer to full-body airport scanners as "virtual strip searches," like Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, are asking similar questions about whether the common use by law enforcement of so-called Z Backscatter Vans would comply with the Constitution.

Video depicting vehicle X-ray scanners in operation.

Airport scanners see underneath the clothing of travelers, and for that the government needs a warrant, Rotenberg argues. Like other probing surveillance technologies, penetrating vehicles at random regardless of whether the driver and passengers are believed to have done anything wrong turns the legal notion of probable cause on its head. The machines are also able to store images long-term, unlike what the Transportation Security Administration has promised of full-body systems.

According to Forbes:

Even airport scans are typically used only as a secondary measure, [Rotenberg] points out. 'If the scans can only be used in exceptional cases in airports, the idea that they can be used routinely on city streets is a very hard argument to make.' The TSA's official policy dictates that full-body scans must be viewed in a separate room from any guards dealing directly with subjects of the scans, and that the scanners won't save any images. Just what sort of safeguards might be in place for AS&E's scanning vans isn't clear, given that the company won't reveal just which law enforcement agencies, organizations within the [Department of Homeland Security], or foreign governments have purchased the equipment.

Specific privacy protections may indeed be elusive. But it's wrong to suggest no paper trail exists to tell a larger story about how much business AS&E is doing with the U.S. government. Available public records are maddeningly inconsistent and critical information is often missing, such as what the government actually purchased.

What we can say conservatively is that since 2004, AS&E has inked deals with agencies in Washington for its mobile X-ray machines totaling at least $188 million, a figure that includes things like maintenance agreements and technical training. Much of that spending comes from the military. However, the Homeland Security Department in the last two years has signed $33.3 million in contracts covering at least 42 scanners for its U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The exact quantity of machines may be higher.

One $19 million pact for two-dozen vehicle X-ray scanners was made possible with President Obama's economic stimulus program, and homeland security officials planned to use them on the border.

The State Department bought another 30 mobile X-ray vehicles for $26 million, many of which were then deployed in Mexico for drug war and border security purposes, records show. The feds acquired five backscatter vans last year valued at $4.6 million that were donated to the Mexican government as part of the Merida Initiative, an effort launched in 2008 to aid the nation's southern neighbor in combating organized crime and drug traffickers.

There is no equivalent contracting database to view purchases among state and local governments, so it's difficult to tell how vigorously law enforcement officials at that level may be pursuing X-ray vans. But certainly the use of similar technologies by county sheriffs and metro police is growing at a rate that agitates privacy activists, for example, license-plate readers and speed cameras.

It is the case that AS&E shares are publicly traded on Wall Street, which means further details about its earnings are contained in various disclosure forms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Its last annual filing shows that the global company's business with U.S. taxpayers has steadily increased over the last three years accounting for 63 percent of total sales during the 2010 fiscal year.

AS&E also markets other products to government officials, such as inspection equipment for mail and cargo in addition to full-body imagers. Purchasing data show that the manufacturer overall has stacked up contracts with federal agencies here since 2000 worth more than $760 million, its other clients ranging from the FBI and the Treasury Department to FEMA and the Secret Service.

Some of its income stems from cash handed out for government-sponsored research into X-ray and inspection technologies, for which AS&E has been awarded nearly $29 million since 2008 alone, according to SEC filings.

The company eschews privacy worries surrounding its vehicle X-ray scanners arguing that they don't detail human forms the way airport imagers do, and the intent is to see what's inside a car or truck, not single out individuals by identity, race or gender. So far, groups like EPIC and the American Civil Liberties Union haven't mounted any significant public campaign against scanner vans and demanded restrictions on their use in the United States. But that may be due to the fact that much of the attention now is focused on airport imagers.

The same goes for Congress where key lawmakers are instructing senior leaders at DHS to consider using alternative airport scanners with enhanced privacy protections and to convene a panel of medical experts who can determine whether radiation emitted by some of the machines threatens human health.

Senators like Republican Susan Collins of Maine, part of a group in Congress pressuring DHS on body imagers, aren't making related demands when it comes to the government looking inside your trunk without opening it.

Mobile Phone Tracking

A lot οf people out thеrе аrе really against mobile phone tracking аnd tο a сеrtаіn extent I саn understand thаt. thіѕ kind οf technology саn tear lives apart аnd рυt people behind bars, thе second option іѕ a gοοd thing οf course. јυѕt bесаυѕе thеrе аrе negatives іt dοеѕ nοt mean thеrе аrе nοt аlѕο postives.

Criminals

whеn іt comes tο chasing аftеr criminals thе main thing tο thіnk аbουt іѕ chasing thеm down rіght?. Police саn actually talk tο network providers аnd іf thеу know thе numbers thаt thеу аrе using thеу саn very easily track thе phone. a lot οf criminals out thеrе аrе actually nοt very clever аt аll аnd wіll nit thіnk tο drop thеіr οld phone аnd gеt a nеw one, thіѕ іѕ hοw police manage tο catch a lot οf thеm out whісh іѕ grеаt. A lot οf criminals аrе found using thіѕ method, a crazy one tο find thе dumbest οf people.

Cheaters

Although strictly illegal іn many countries οf thе world, things such аѕ mobile phone tracking аnd vehicle tracking аrе used tο hеlр partners find out whаt thе οthеr person іѕ doing behind thеіr backs. thе qυеѕtіοn tο аѕk here іѕ, аrе thеу staying аt work late οr οff wіth someone еlѕе?? One οf thе best ways tο find out іѕ tο actually gο аnd take a look fοr yourself bу inserting tracking devices over thеіr property.

Thе main issue wіth thіѕ method іѕ іf уου аrе found tο bе wrοng аnd уουr partner finds out уου аrе going tο bе putting ѕοmе serious strain οn thе relationship аnd аll οf thаt spy equipment wіll bе thе еnd οf уου. If thеу dο nοt find out аnd уου аrе wrοng thеn уου аrе still going tο hаνе a lot οf guilt οn уου ѕο уου wіll hаνе tο tеll thеm.

All іn аll, mobile phone tracking іѕ something well worth doing bυt уου hаνе tο know уου аrе being rіght аbουt using іt!

Intel will showcase mobile chip, graphics technology at its annual developer forum

Michael Lloyd/The OregonianIntel software chief Renee James, who works in Hillsboro, addressed the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco last year. She'll keynote again on Tuesday.

Intel has some explaining to do.

The chip maker surprised and puzzled the tech industry last month with its $7.7 billion purchase of security software company McAfee, then disappointed investors by warning that its third-quarter revenues will come in below expectations.

Despite record financial results last quarter, Intel's stock is sagging near its lowest point of the year. The company's microprocessors have been shut out of the hottest gadgets, notably the iPhone and smart phones based on Google's Android operating system.

Industry watchers wonder whether the venerable tech company, which continues to dominate the chip market for PCs and corporate servers, may be vulnerable in a new era of mobile computing.

Intel will address many -- but not all -- of those questions this week at its Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. Intel uses the annual showcase to tout its new ideas directly to the people who design and build computers, and to promote Intel-led initiatives to steer the future of computing.

Though Intel's headquarters are in the Bay Area, its biggest operating hub is in Oregon, where the company has 15,000 employees, more than any other company.

Two of Intel's top Oregon executives will deliver keynote addresses this week. Software chief Renee James will tout an ecosystem of mobile apps, and Justin Rattner, chief technology officer, will highlight Intel's long-range vision.

"I think Intel is kind of under the gun from the investment community and everyone else to show a new growth path," said Jim McGregor, who follows Intel for the research firm In-Stat.

"You have to have something beyond PCs and servers," he said.

To that end, Intel plans to showcase its Atom microprocessor this week, a low-power, customizable chip now powering a class of ultramobile computers known as netbooks.

Intel will show off other uses for Atom at IDF, notably the forthcoming Google TV.

Apple dumped Intel from its latest version of Apple TV in favor of a design by ARM Holdings. But Google's much-heralded initiative puts Atom at the center of a device that would stream video from across the Web straight into your TV.

It's the biggest consumer electronics win for Intel in years, and the chip giant plans to make the most of it with a series of smart TV workshops and demonstrations at IDF. Intel indicated last week that some versions of the device will start shipping this month.

Other uses for Atom, too, in forthcoming tablet computers, embedded computers inside everything from consumer gadgets to industrial equipment.
Intel boosted its mobile prospects considerably last month with a deal to buy the wireless chip division of Infineon, the German semiconductor company. The $1.4 billion acquisition gives Intel ownership of communications chips in the iPhone and other devices.

Even so, smart phones aren't going to be a focus of Intel's pitches this week. The company hasn't gotten a big win in that space yet and likely will keep its powder dry 'til next year, when it expects several smart phones will hit the market using a new version of Atom.

Neither does Intel expect to say much about its McAfee purchase, the biggest in its history. Intel already has said it plans to incorporate security software in its chips, and won't elaborate until the deal closes and the first chips incorporating new security software appear next year.

One area that Intel says it will emphasize, starting with Chief Executive Paul Otellini's keynote address Monday morning, is a new class of microprocessor called Sandy Bridge due late this year.

Intel researchers in Hillsboro have been steadily crafting smaller, more robust microprocessors. That's made room on the chip for more robust graphics capabilities on the chip itself, instead of as a separate component.

Earlier this year, Intel postponed plans for its own graphics chips after development of a new technology called Larrabee proved disappointing.

The new design isn't as robust as a stand-alone graphics processor, made by rival chip makers AMD and Nvidia. But Intel believes Sandy Bridge's graphics capabilities will be adequate for many computing needs, and the company plans to make its capabilities a centerpiece of IDF

Is Apple's Ping a Haven for Spammers?

It seems Apple is getting into the social networking business, God help them. Among the other life changing products rolled out at this week's semi-annual Apple fanboyfest was "Ping," a service that lets you see what music the other 160 million people using iTunes like and recommend.

This is, apparently, what remains of Lala.com, a cool and innovative music-based social network Apple snapped up last December and quietly shuttered in May.

Ping is barely out two days the door, and already it's already beset with controversy. First, there was that embarrassing public spat between Apple and Facebook prior to the announcement.

For whatever reason, Steve Jobs would not agree to the "onerous terms" demanded by Facebook (which he declined to enumerate), so Ping went out the door without any integration with the world's largest social network whatsoever. But not before Apple had created press materials boasting about how you could log into Ping via Facebook Connect or find fellow Pingers on Facebook.

I guess Steve and Mark Zuckerberg aren't Facebook friends anymore.

Now the problem is more practical: Turns out that Ping is a spammer-scammer's heaven. By all reports, Ping users are getting dinged with the same kinds of URL-baiting comment spam we've grown so fond of elsewhere on the blogosphere.

Sophos Security blogger Chester Wisniewski asks quite rightly why Apple couldn't see this coming:

"Most of the security industry has been pointing out the migration of spam from an email-only venture to blog/forum comments, Facebook, Twitter and other Web 2.0 platforms. But apparently Apple didn't consider this when designing Ping, as the service implements no spam or URL filtering. It is no big shock that less than 24 hours after launch, Ping is drowning in scams and spams."

What's odd, says Wisniewski, is that Apple is filtering Ping for other offensive material (such as nude profile photos), but it forgot about spam. Or maybe Apple believes its users truly are the Chosen People and that, like malware, spam simply doesn't touch them. It's probably just those Windows iTunes Untouchables that are having the problems.

(Full Disclosure: I moved out of the Apple ecosphere when my iPod Mini gave up the ghost several years ago. I have not been back. The whole notion of living inside a closed box Apple has created (even with DRM-free music) just irks the hell out of me. So iTunes has no allure for me. Your mileage may vary.)

PC World's Nick Mediati steps through Ping's limited privacy settings. Unfortunately, there appears to be no easy fix for the comment spam.

Welcome, Apple, to the wild world of social media. We wish you and your Ping users luck -- you're going to need it.

Nokia N8 release date 23rd September

Confusion and mystery has surrounded the Nokia N8, ok, mainly confusion, but now it seems the wait is over.

Nokia itself has inadvertently revealed that the Nokia N8 will be available online from 23 September. In buying up Ad Word space from Google the company has revealed that us Brits should be able to get our hands on the much heralded smartphone from Nokia's website, a whole week before it's general release.

The Nokia N8 has been arriving slowly and amidst some confusion over its release date, with the arrival being pushed back further and further then finally brought forward. With its anodised aluminium case, 12MP camera and HDMI-output the N8 is to be the flagship of Nokia's smartphone range and also the first standard-bearer of Symbian

Confusion and mystery has surrounded the Nokia N8, ok, mainly confusion, but now it seems the wait is over.

Nokia itself has inadvertently revealed that the Nokia N8 will be available online from 23 September. In buying up Ad Word space from Google the company has revealed that us Brits should be able to get our hands on the much heralded smartphone from Nokia's website, a whole week before it's general release.

The Nokia N8 has been arriving slowly and amidst some confusion over its release date, with the arrival being pushed back further and further then finally brought forward. With its anodised aluminium case, 12MP camera and HDMI-output the N8 is to be the flagship of Nokia's smartphone range and also the first standard-bearer of Symbian

Nokia launches dual-SIM sets

NEW DELHI: Finland-based Nokia on Monday announced its foray into the dual-SIM mobile phone segment with the launch of two new handsets, a move aimed at strengthening its market share in the country.

The Indian handset market, which was once dominated by the likes of Nokia, Samsung and LG, has seen homegrown brands such as Micromax, Spice, Karbonn and Zen giving tough competition to the global giants with feature-rich phones and ultra-low prices.

"Entry-level consumers need dual SIMs for various reasons, including economising time and costs, improving efficiency and for increased convenience. To address these consumer requirements, Nokia has launched these two devices that offer multiple SIM capabilities with a balanced feature set and relevant innovations at affordable price points," Nokia executive vice-president (mobile phones) Mary McDowell told reporters here.

The Nokia C1, which is priced at Rs 1,999, comes with flashlight, FM radio and call divert feature to ensure that users don't miss a call from either of the two SIMs. However, the handset can only be used for voice and SMS. The Nokia C2, which will be available later this year, will allow users to access services like Ovi Life Tools and Ovi Mail. It will also have a music player and support micro- SD cards of up to 32 GB.

Announcement on Evolving the AMD Brand Portfolio

The personal computer is rapidly evolving … from yesterday’s productivity tool to today’s essential information, communication and entertainment resource. Seemingly overnight, virtually any PC user is at once a photographer, video producer, author and publisher, with a voracious appetite for HD video quality content.

Knowing that people have changed how they are using PCs, we are responding by changing how we help design personal computers as well the way we market them. And the industry is taking notice. For example:

· Our “VISION Technology from AMD” initiative, launched less than a year ago, has been integral to the tripling of our notebook design wins this year over last. The VISION Technology message is simple: when you want a visually superior PC, you should look for the VISION sticker – it’s that easy. VISION is tiered to allow consumers to easily self-qualify based on the activities they want to do on their computer.

· Over the past nine months, we introduced the industry’s only complete family of DirectX 11 graphics products– enabling the world’s most vivid PC experiences. As a result, AMD recently regained market share leadership in what has become a booming discrete graphics business. Additionally, Apple’s recently refreshed iMac and Mac Pro computer lines feature AMD graphics.

· Recently we demonstrated our first AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units or APUs - and we expect to begin shipping our low power “Ontario” product later this year.

· Finally, with Intel subject to ongoing governmental scrutiny as to its compliance with antitrust enforcement orders entered against it in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, AMD’s customers and partners have the freedom to make purchase decisions without fear of retribution.

AMD is on a roll, with Vision Technology - a refreshingly new usage-based marketing approach - as well as renewed leadership in the increasingly important discrete graphics market, and the upcoming launch of our first AMD Fusion products, engineered to reignite a whole new round of innovation in the IT and CE world. Now, in consultation with customers and enthusiasts worldwide, we are transitioning our ATI product family to the AMD brand later this year. This move will allow us to speak with one voice and focus our brand efforts, a very real benefit when striving to increase brand awareness on a global scale.

We may be saying goodbye to the brand, but the spirit of ATI lives on – in our AMD Radeon™ and AMD FirePro™ graphics products, our VISION Technology platforms and soon, in every AMD Fusion APU.

Intel acquires Infineon wireless technology business

$1.6 billion move gives leg up into smartphone business

Intel has announced that the company is to acquire the wireless silicon business from Infineon for $1.4 billion.

The move boosts Intel's technology portfolio for the smartphone market which has generally opted for non-Intel CPU and GPU offerings and in the process gains most major mobile phone manufacturers as a client thanks to the broad adoption of Infineon hardware components.

One such Infineon customer is Apple, with the iPhone utilising technology components from the Intel-acquired vendor. Fox Business TV asked Intel CEO Paul Otellini what he thought Steve Jobs thought of the move. “Steve was very happy. The industry was abuzz that this business unit was on the market, and there were a number of competing companies for it," said Otellini.

"The key thing is the technology they have today, the customer connections they have today, and where the technology in general is going. We look forward to a period in the not so distant future where all of these functions can be on a single chip."

"Intel has great capabilities and applications processors today, but bringing in the capabilities for 3G and ultimately LTE (Long-term Evolution) onto the chip, that makes a lot of sense to us from an economic and power standpoint."

Microsoft Raises Price of Online Gaming on Xbox Live

Microsoft will increase the price of a subscription to its Xbox Live online gaming service later this year, it said Monday.

Via the Major Nelson blog, the Xbox 360 maker announced that a one-year Xbox Live account will now cost $60 instead of $50 effective November 1.

The prices of one- and six-month subscriptions will also increase, as will certain subscription plans in Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

The fee increase comes as “no surprise” to Electronic Entertainment Design and Research analyst Jesse Divnich.

“When originally launched in 2002, a Gold subscription cost the same as an AAA video game, ($50)” he said in an email. “When taking into account for inflation… and the additional services available to Gold subscribers in 2010, such as ESPN, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Last.fm and Video Kinect, a $10 price increase still represents an incredible value to consumers.”

Blackberry row: India will not risk national security for technology

NEW DELHI, Friday 27 August 2010 (Bernama) -- As a solution elude monitoring of data transmitted through Blackberry phone, Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology Sachin Pilot said India believes along with many other countries, that the device's strong encryption represents a threat to national security.

"These concerns have been addressed in other parts of the world, I see no reason why the Indian government and agencies should take any risk at all as far technology is concerned," Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted Sachin as saying to reporters here on Friday.

However, Sachin said that the Indian government will not shut down Blackberry services.

"The government has asked the Blackberry phone maker RIM to provide access to "master key" to decipher message sent over its system by Aug 31 or face ban on its data services," he said, adding to solve this issue soon.

Blackberry is a smartphone that allows users to send and receive data like e-mail through servers located overseas and the smartphone maker has a subsriber base of one milion in India.

The Home Ministry told the Telecom Ministry that if the security concerns is not addressed, then the service should be stopped immediately. On Thursday, smartphone maker RIM offered to work with India to resolve security issues on its Blackberry smartphones and repeatedly insisted that it could not hand the key to decipher messages sent over its system since it is not in possession of that key.

Instead, in its offer to India, the company said it would "lead an industry forum focused on supporting the lawful access needs of law enforcement agencies while preserving the legitimate information security needs of corporations and other organisations in India."

RIM had said that company does not have a master key to gain access to encrypted corporate information.

Japan develops 'touchable' 3D TV technology

TOKYO — A Japanese research team said Thursday it had developed the world's first 3D television system that allows users to touch, pinch or poke images floating in front of them.

"It is the first time that you can feel images in the air," said Norio Nakamura, senior scientist with the research team at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.

"You can have the sense of touch like poking a rubber ball or stretching a sticky rice cake" when manipulating images, he told AFP by telephone.

The technology changes the shape of three-dimensional images in response to "touches", aided by cameras that monitor how the fingers move, Nakamura said.

It is not known when the technology will be put to practical use but its creators see it being used to simulate surgical operations and in video game software allowing players to experience the sensation of holding weapons or sports equipment.

It could even use scanned images to supplement existing realities, said Nakamura.

"This technology could create a virtual museum where visitors, including vision-impaired people, can put their hands on valuable sculptures that are usually untouchable," Nakamura said.

Make Phone Calls using Google's Gmail

Good news for Gmail users! Now they will be able to call directly from their Gmail to home phones and mobile phones. Sounds like Google joined the direct competition with Web calling service Skype and operators such as AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications.

Google Inc. officially announced the implementation of the service in its email and iGoogle. Before, Google had offered computer-to-computer voice and video chat services on its Gtalk and email. But such new service Google Talk VoIP comes as an excellent offer to the Gmail users who are going for other web calling services.

Making a call through the service is quite easy and in typical Goggle fashion, but works like a normal phone. The users need to click on the "call phone" option in their chat buddy list in Gmail and type in the number or enter a contact's name, as the new VoIP chat feature is integrated with your Google address book.

According to the analysts, the service Google Talk VoIP would likely to stand as a threat to the Skype and other traditional operators, who are providing calls to home phones from computers at low rates. With the service of the Google, US Gmail users will be more benefited who are making more international calls.

Further, Google has promised to allow free calls to US and Canadian phones from Gmail for the rest of this year and would charge low rates for calls to other countries.

Nokia 5250 cheapest touchscreen phone

Nokia’s Symbian-based 5250 phone is one of the cheapest touchscreen smartphones as it is priced just at €115 (US$145) and it certainly the lowest priced handset from the company. But with such a low price, the customers do not get all the features.

Launched about a year ago, the 5250, the earlier version, comes with a 3.2-inch display and support for A-GPS (Assisted GPS) and HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) mobile broadband at 3.6M bps (bits per second).

The new low cost phone 5250 will allow the users to have a 3G connection A-GPS. The touchscreen is also smaller at 2.8 inches.
The new phone, however, comes with an FM radio, a free copy of Guitar Hero 5 Mobile and a music player on the home screen.

Users can also access e-mail, Facebook and other social networks from the home screen, it said. The low-cost smartphone will compete with mid-tier products based on proprietary operating systems from the likes of LG and Samsung in the prepaid segment.