Nasuni founder and CEO Andres Rodriguez says that he is targeting mid-sized companies interested in cloud storage, but are held back by the prospect of exposing confidential data or by latency issues. The company's NAS file server is currently in beta and available for free. The final product is expected to be generally available in spring, and Nasuni expects to be charging about $250 per month.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Network World 

Related Articles:
SMBs do better virtualization, says VMware 
DISA opens cloud computing platform to production use
VMware unveils Amazon-like cloud offering

This public announcement comes in the wake of accusations from Google that it has been the target of a "highly sophisticated and targeted" attack originating from China. Since the accusation, the Chinese government has been waging a public-relations campaign on hacking in order to discredit the allegations from Google.

Of course, the topic of who has the most hackers is a tricky one to address. China's state media has fired back that the United States is being hypocritical, since the country itself is the center of many hacking activities. Ironically, a report we ran two weeks back on cyberattacks against critical infrastructure saw the United States as the biggest threat (ahead of China) in a poll of the IT professionals manning critical hardware.

So what effect will the closure of Black Hawk Safety Net have? Alan Paller, who is the director of research at the SANS Institute, thinks the impact will be limited. "Sadly, the tack they [China] took is just a whack-a-mole exercise." Paller added that other hackers will simply take their place.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at ZDNet UK
- check out this article at The Wall Street Journal

Related Articles:
Google attack, just the tip of the iceberg
Cyberattacks against critical infrastructure a constant occurrence
U.S. protesting China cyberattacks
China fingered in cyberattacks on U.S. government

Well, Microsoft has investigated, and the software giant is now saying that there is no problem with Windows 7. Windows division President Steven Sinofsky has written the details in a blog posting earlier this week, noting that the battery warnings are in fact accurate.

Sinofsky wrote, "To the very best of the collective ecosystem knowledge, Windows 7 is correctly warning batteries that are in fact failing and Windows 7 is neither incorrectly reporting on battery status nor in any way whatsoever causing batteries to reach this state. In every case we have been able to identify the battery being reported on was in fact in need of recommended replacement."

And of course, both Windows XP and Windows Vista don't have the capability to check for battery degradation, and hence will never flash the "Consider replacing your battery" warning.

What many users are not aware of is that the lithium-ion batteries that we use are prone to degradation even without any use. In fact, the degradation starts the moment the battery leaves the factory. And yes, this means that the shrink-wrapped battery you got from that great warehouse sale could be a dud. In fact, this is precisely the reason why I recommend users to charge their lithium-ion batteries often.

For more on this story:
- check out this blog at MSDN Blogs
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at Ars Technica 

Related Articles:
Microsoft investigates Windows 7 battery life complaints
Windows 7 battery life worse than XP
A behind-the-scenes look at Windows 7 changes
Hello, Windows 7

The earlier settlement, in which rival company McAfee was also involved, stipulated that both companies would, among other conditions, agree to "provide electronic notification to consumers before and after renewal of the subscriptions." The lawsuit alleged that Symantec failed to notify the plaintiff, Kenneth Elan of Port Washington, N.Y., over the impending auto-renewal of subscription fees. The company has yet to respond to the lawsuit at the moment.

For more on this story:
- check out the article at Computerworld 

Related Articles:
AV-Comparatives ranks the top proactive antivirus scanners
Symantec identifies top rogue security software
Symantec and McAfee in heated race

So what exactly happened? Product Manager for Flash Player, Emmy Huang elaborated in the company blog, "The mistake we made was marking this bug for 'next' release, which is the soon-to-be-released Flash Player 10.1, instead of marking it for the next Flash Player 10 security dot release."

While the company says that the vulnerability does nothing more than cause the browser to crash, it is mind-boggling how such an error could have slipped through the cracks, and for so long. For now, the problem has been fixed in the beta of Flash Player 10.1, though it has no release date at this point, unfortunately.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Network World
- check out this blog at Adobe

Related Articles:
Adobe ranks second on buggiest software list
Adobe Flash CS5 supports 'exporting' native iPhone apps
Adobe buys Omniture for $1.8 billion

Nelson works at Microsoft, and is the host of the Cloud404 Blog (http://blog.cloud404.com). His expertise and education is in incident response, computer forensics, and security architecture. He recently outlined a variety of reasons to go to the cloud. Here are a few:

• Lack of time or expertise (including security) to build and maintain an in-house solution.
• Seeking the advantage/speed of new features that are released quickly
• It's cheap (either free, or subscription fees)

There are other reasons, too; chief among them is security. Using the cloud can provide a cheaper, more efficient way to repair a security hole, Nelson says.

"From an architectural perspective, there are questions pertaining to the performance and manageability of cloud-based resources, and if the focus should be on 'private clouds' (locally hosted resources that use similar patterns and practices related to cloud computing) rather than'‘public clouds,'" he writes.

For more on cloud computing:
- see Craig Nelson's blog

Related Articles:
IBM to offer enterprise services around cloud computing 
Cybersecurity, cloud computing will top IT spending list 
IBM launches cloud computing internally, sells architecture externally 

There are a whole lot of "chiefs" out there who never dip their toe in areas that would make their job sing. A recent column from StorefrontBacktalk explains that the most important characteristic for a CIO these days is to be a good sales person, convincing those around and above him or her exactly what is needed for the IT shop at this moment in time.

"Knowing technology is basically the entrance fee. I strongly believe that project management is the number-one skill to get you into middle management (manager and director) and that sales is the number-one skill to get you into an executive position," writes Todd L. Michaud on StorefrontBacktalk.com.

"My advice to anyone looking to climb the ladder: Use multiple ladders. Make sure that you spend time managing projects and being involved in sales and marketing," he adds.

The bottom line: No one knows how to do your job better than you do. Just be flexible about it and ready to try new things at all times.

For more on how to be a CIO:
- see this Storefrontbacktalk.com article

Related Articles:
Should CIOs blog?
Mistakes CIOs make when managing vendors
The best paid CIOs 

"There are events that are broad-spectrum cultural events like the Super Bowl and some holidays where you see a lot of video viewing and people posting comments about the game and their favorite commercials," Palo Alto Networks spokesman Chris King, told Computerworld.

"With Facebook and Twitter, there's a lot of interaction. You're marrying the discussion with video sharing. The first thing people think about is whether their organization is experiencing a productivity hit, but there's massive bandwidth consumption too, because people are watching all these videos," King added.

King suggests sending out an email asking workers to stay off social networks, especially during peak times like on Monday, except for business use.

For more on Super Bowl Monday:
- see this Computerworld.com article

The 60,000 square-foot center built in a renovated warehouse in the Research Triangle Park, N.C., includes thousands of sensors to monitor temperature, humidity, air flow and circuits. The data center will be supporting cloud platforms.

Big Blue also is adopting policies to reduce energy usage. For heating, IBM will start at 75 degrees and inch its way up over time instead of following an older recommendation to start the heat at 77 degrees.

"What we tried to do here is have a data center that is more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent than anything we have done before," Joe Dzaluk, IBM's vice president of infrastructure and resource management at the Global Technology Services division, tells Computer World.

The IBM data center could well be the model for other big companies that are building their own data centers to deal with increased demand for these facilities and running them efficiently to keep the cost down.

For more on IBM's new data center:
- check out this Computerworld.com article

Related Articles:
Data centers: Growth or stagnation?
Study: Understaffed data centers rampant 

Pike Research forecasts that utility companies will invest more than $21 billion in cybersecurity over the next five years to protect the so-called smart grid. There are a variety of programs in the works to help these investments along including stimulus money from the Department of Energy.

Any company can put up firewalls against hackers and train their staff to prevent security leaks, but if the security on the electrical system fails, it still could cause a massive problem. So when you survey your cybersecurity protections, remember to think about the source of the juice that keeps your systems humming, too. You may be powerless to prevent a cyberattack at the source of the power, but it might be useful to consider an alternate electrical source of power in the event of an outage.

For more on utilities and cyberprotection:
- see this InformationWeek.com article

Related Articles:
DHS probes power grid threat 
Congress rethinks power grid cybersecurity 

The defendant was identified as Yongcai Li, the owner of a technology company in China.

Li was arrested in January 2009 while visiting Las Vegas and was sent to Los Angeles for prosecution. He pleaded guilty last fall to a count of trafficking in counterfeit goods and was sentenced Jan. 25.

Prosecutors said he procured the fake gear in China and then sent it to co-conspirators in the United States.

The case is one of a series of crackdowns on fake Cisco goods since 2005. The FBI has said it has seized more than $78 million worth of counterfeit equipment in more than 400 seizures. But it's hardly a dent in a growing problem in the United States, as counterfeiters are flourishing as they lure unknowing buyers with an offer of cheap brand-name goods.

Counterfeit gear often contains lower-performing components. Some security experts see counterfeit goods as a growing threat to network infrastructure. Be careful what you buy. If it comes with a low pricetag, ask why.

For more on the Cisco case:
- see this PCworld.com article

Related Articles:
Navy bought counterfeit computer chips

In essence, this allows PHP programmers to enjoy the huge performance boost only possible in C++ even as they continued working with the popular scripting language as they have in the past. At the back end, a rewrite of a number of common PHP Extensions was also done in order to take advantage of these performance optimizations.

Facebook engineer Haiping Zhao, highlighted the scale of the problem encountered by Facebook. Noting how scripting languages are less efficient in CPU and memory usage, Zhao was quoting as saying, "Because of this, it's been challenging to scale Facebook to over 400 billion PHP-based pages views every month." 

Well, the team took two years to write over 300,000 lines of code to create HipHop for PHP. The project has had a "tremendous" impact on Facebook, achieving an average reduction in CPU utilization of 50 percent, which is a very substantial number. In the spirit of PHP's open source roots, the team has released the fruits of their labors under the same license.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at eWeek 

Related Articles:
Facebook working to improve PHP?
Facebook scam catches up to FCC chief
Is Facebook a major social engineering threat?
NSA uses Facebook, too
Facebook users thrown off site

In a Computerworld article, Medina said that "it doesn't appear that the IE flaw is subject to patching because it encompasses design features related to how IE and Windows Explorer handle zone elevation, HTML code and MIME types."

Workarounds involved a list of configurations such as setting "IE Network Protocol Lockdown" mode, adjusting the security on Intranet Zones to "high" and disabling Active Scripting. Honestly, I'll just as soon recommend that users switch from Internet Explorer to something with less pervasive security problems. Do you agree?

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld 

Related Articles:
Chrome 4 opens the door to third-party extensions
Microsoft issues emergency patch for Internet Explorer
Firefox 3.7 should see vast speed improvements
Google Chrome is now No. 3 browser
Microsoft confirms new Internet Explorer vulnerability

The server side of things will also see Intel launching new Westmere-EP six core chips. The Westmere-EP will be offered under the Xeon brand name and will come with a new instruction set to enable them to perform faster data encryption and decryption of AES (Advanced Encryption Standard). New power management techniques will also mean that idle cores can be selectively shut down to conserve power.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at ZDNet Blog
- check out this article at PC World 

Related Articles:
Report: ARM processors will outsell Intel in mobile PCs in 2013
Intel unveils 32-nm family of processors
Intel to launch next-generation processors
FTC sues Intel over stifling competition
Intel demonstrates 48-core processor

Of course, isolated complaints of battery life issues have surfaced as early as June. This is the first time though that Microsoft has admitted to something being amiss, much less that the company is actively looking into it.

In a forum posting, a Microsoft manager, Anthony Mann, says that Microsoft is investigating the issue with its hardware partners.  Mann noted that the problem "appears to be related to system firmware. We are working with our partners to determine the root cause and will update the forum with information and guidance as it becomes available."

Personally, I have experienced a drastic reduction in the battery runtime with my Sony laptop immediately after upgrading to Windows 7. However, the problem went away after I installed the (Windows Vista) drivers over my vanilla Windows 7 Enterprise installation. Has anyone else experienced battery life problems with Windows 7?

For more on this story:
- check out the article at Microsoft Watch
- check out the article at eWeek 

Related Articles:
Windows 7 battery life worse than XP
A behind-the-scenes look at Windows 7 changes
Hello, Windows 7

The large number of security flaws will see IT teams responsible for managing servers going on high alert this month, noted Don Leatham, Sr. Director of Solutions & Strategy, Lumension. This is because all the major Microsoft operating systems appear to be affected, including Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Leatham wrote, "They are facing critical patches for the three most common server platforms in Microsoft environments including: Windows Server 2003 with three critical vulnerabilities, Windows Server 2008 with two critical vulnerabilities and Windows 2008 R2 with two critical vulnerabilities."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at eWeek 

Related Articles:
Microsoft issues emergency patch for Internet Explorer
Six security patches in November, says Microsoft
Microsoft plug-in for Firefox patched
Adobe to push out new Acrobat security patches today

Until now, many companies have been relying on finding the latest vulnerabilities, not reaching back to old and supposedly well-understood ones. But the finding sets the stage for companies to do another inventory of their systems, looking for cracks that may have been left in place for years.

Are you one of these companies? And would it be worth your while to patch your system to prevent an opening?

The most common vulnerability discovered during Tustwave's penetration tests involved the management interfaces for web application engines such as WebSphere and ColdFusion. Amazingly, in many cases, the management interfaces were accessible directly from the Internet and had little or no password protection.

There is some good news out of this survey. It means that companies will not have to provide expensive fixes to a problem easily and more cheaply solved.

For more on old vulnerabilities:
- see this CIO.com article

Related Articles:
The 10 most terrifying IT breaches of 2009
11 hidden security threats
Cost of data breaches gets higher

Two University of Cincinnati professors writing in the Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency management say that too many establishments downplay the danger of cyberattacks because they haven't experienced one. "The general population must be engaged as active security providers, not simply beneficiaries of security policy, because their practices often create the threats to which government responds," say Richard Harknett and James Stever of the school's political science department.

The problem is that anyone can get on the Internet without any training, sort of like driving without a driver's license. Without knowing even simple precautions of PC security, it's easy to fall prey to the bad guys surfing the Internet looking for a vulnerable site.

"Most users remain unaware that not only is their computer data vulnerable, but that their insecure access to cyberspace can be exploited by others turning them into unwitting agents of coordinated cyber threats [both criminal and disruptive attacks],"they say. "Cybersecurity must become a national civic responsibility."

Many people don't recognize an attack when they see one or a more menacing threat that can taken their systems down. That goes for individuals and for companies as well.

 The answer, of course, is training. And if you do not have a strong training session embedded into your system, you are leaving your site vulnerable every step of the way.

For more on better security protections:
- see this CIO.com article

Related Articles:
Training your employees on the cheap
Shouldn't software training be free

A new Bureau of Labor Statistics report found that the average IT wages sank to $87,300 after the dot-com bust in 2002, and by mid-2009, it had recovered only to $105,000. Nevertheless, the bureau reported a slow, steady pay growth since the 1990s. The average salary has grown 27 percent since 1998, from $83,100 to $105,500.

"We can't forget what 2000 was like," said Amar Mann, the labor bureau economist who co-wrote the report, noting that in the early part of that year, valley workers were cashing out their stock options. "It was a crazy time with massive amounts of venture capital being poured into the valley, and huge run-ups in the Nasdaq. In real terms, Silicon Valley workers are better off now in their wages than they were in 1998."

What does this signal for the future? We're not really sure. Salaries are no longer climbing the way they had in the past.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of essential tech jobs such as security that continue to grow. The situation in tech-rich Silicon Valley may be more volatile than the rest of the country where IT jobs are not as vulnerable to changing tides.

For more on Silicon Valley wages:
- see this San Jose Mercury News article

Related Articles:
Security clearance salaries level off
Survey: Tech's high-end salaries shrinking

Your company is probably in its infancy on the blogosphere, or maybe you have a few forward-thinking executives who took to the social networking tool and have made it their own. But the latest advice from CIO.com finds that executives at all levels are embracing a new technique that didn't even exist just a couple of years ago.

Among the success stories:

• John Halamka CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Chief Information Officer at Harvard Medical School. He supports "3,000 doctors, 18,000 faculty, and 3 million patients." He posts everyday at 3 a.m.
• Martin Marietta Materials' CIO Chuck Musciano's writes "The Effective CIO" blog. He's also scrolling Twitter updates on his blog site.

And here are some tips on whether you should blog:

• You feel a strong need to write.
• You market your blog and invite comments. You tweet, put it on Facebook and take note of feedback and comments.
• You're willing to link to other thoughts and ideas from outside your organization.

We say, try it out. If it doesn't work, you can abandon it. But the verdict is already in for many companies: It's a tool worth investing in, and it doesn't cost a lot of money.

For more on whether to blog:
- see this CIO.com article

Related Articles:
Should the Pentagon keep the troops from blogging?
Foreign attacks hit blogs

The research company downloaded 2 million tweets from about 50,000 users over the last few months of 2009. By the end of last year, there were 75 million user accounts. But the study found that the rate of new users dropped about 20 percent below July's peak rate.

The survey also concluded that 25 percent of the accounts have no followers and 40 percent of accounts have never sent a single Tweet. Even more alarming: Only about 17 percent of registered Twitter accounts sent a Tweet in December 2009.

If you are working on your company's Twitter account, don't be too alarmed. The program still reaches millions of people, but it's important to keep an eye on the next great social networking tool. Jump on it before it is too late.

For more on Twitter's popularity:
- see this Wall Street Journal blog

Related Articles:
Twitter becomes a security risk
Hackers hit Twitter again
Paid Twitter coming your way

What are you supposed to do when you have the bad luck of getting a boss who cannot help you do the best job you can or get to the next level on your career path? Believe it or not, you are not at a dead end. It is possible to get ahead even when your boss is unwilling or unable to support your ambitions.

Here's some advice from the experts, according to a CIO.com article:

• Take matters into your own hands. Start working on auxiliary issues within your team.
• Do your own networking. Reach out to other teams to find out what they are up to and how you could be part of their project.
• Be clear on what you have to offer in your drive to get ahead. 
• Ask for what you want.
• Stay friendly with the problem boss even if you think it's hard to even look him or her in the eye.

We're not even talking about the boss who isn't competent or the one who has a bad temper. How about the one who plays favorites, often picking the wrong IT worker to do the job?

I have a friend who once worked in an intolerable IT situation. Her boss was a very nice guy but didn't really know what he was doing. As a result, she was at the office until 10 p.m. every night, trying to do what the boss irrationally wanted. It was tedious and tiring. After a while, the folks further up the ladder realized he was a problem and transferred him to a new, less onerous job.

He was happy. So was my friend who began working with a new boss, a better manager and someone helping her move along on her own career path. Hope you get that lucky.

For more on dealing with a difficult boss:
- see this CIO.com article

Related Articles:
CIOs must be great leaders, not managers
Data center managers look for relief

The list includes Gmail, RapidShare, Skype, and Facebook credentials, all of which can be exploited for financial gains. And when the value of stolen credit card data and other information is added up, Kaspersky Researcher Dmitry Bestuzhev said that hackers can "easily" rake in $1,000 worth of data from a single hacked computer.

For more:
- here's the Computerworld article

Related Articles:
Hackers use Opera as defense against other cybercriminals
Hackers use Twitter to control botnets
Hackers hit Twitter again
Hackers dramatize Facebook's flaws

So what is the GWS based on? No one knows precisely, though available clues point toward it being a web server customized from the ground up and built on top of Linux, which is heavily modified itself. In a separate report, Google has been identified as accounting for 6 percent of all Internet traffic. You can find Netcraft's January 2010 Web Server Survey here.

For more on this story:
- here's The Register article

Related Articles:
WSJ editor: Google is an Internet parasite
Google Chrome is now No. 3 browser
Google founders giving up control
Google hints at enterprise version of Nexus One smartphone

In a blog post, Google Apps Senior Product Manager Rajen Sheth downplayed the move, noting that "many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers."

Users can continue using the affected browsers to access the sites. However, Google cautioned that "newer features may not be available and some features may even stop working."

For more on this story:
- here's the eWeek article 

Related Articles:
Google founders giving up control
Google brings shared folders to Google Docs
Google Chrome is now No. 3 browser
Google Chrome Frame makes IE less secure, says Microsoft

While there might be disagreements as to the precise nature of improvements that Facebook might have done to PHP, the consensus is unanimous that even minor improvements will yield major benefits for the major Web player with their thousands of servers.

And where its speed is concerned, practically everyone seems to agree that PHP is slow, including Jeff Cogswell, editor of Ziff Davis Enterprise's DevSource, who said "in the past I did a lot of work with PHP, and I was constantly fighting with the fact that PHP was SLOOOOOW, which wasn't a surprise when you look at the architecture of the engine."

For more on this story:
- here's the SD Times article
- here's the eWeek article

Related Articles:
Facebook scam catches up to FCC chief
Is Facebook a major social engineering threat?
NSA uses Facebook, too
Facebook users thrown off site

To prove their point, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) created a tool called Panopticlick. At the moment, the Panopticlick Web site has collected more than 500,000 browser fingerprints to date when I visited. Indeed, I ran the test on the site, and it told me that my Chrome browser configuration is unique based on its database of fingerprints.

Pertaining to information found in the browser user string alone, Peter Eckersley, an EFF staff technologist wrote that "on average, only one person in about 1,500 will have the same User Agent as you." For users who want to maintain a higher degree of anonymity, the best non-disruptive solution appears to involve switching to a mobile browser.

The EFF noted that "Current versions of the iPhone, Android and Blackberries do not vary much with respect to plugins, installed fonts or screen size." I suppose you could count it as an additional selling point for the Apple iPad or the Fusion Garage JooJoo tablet.

For more on this story:
- here's the Computerworld article 

Related Articles:
White House changing its mind about cookies
Fed cookie proposal causing indigestion
Opinions on federal website privacy plans differ

The session was designed to get industry input before the FTC drafts its proposals setting a framework for how consumer information is collected and used on the web. The implicit message is that the more the industry does voluntarily, the less need there will be for onerous federal regulation.

The FTC has been vocal in asserting that privacy policies of companies are not clear or accessible enough to protect consumers, and it has been questioning whether online data is being used appropriately. The privacy issue is no small matter, of course. Consumer data and personal information is collected, sold and bandied about with little oversight and control. It's the free market and makes for good business, but there are serious risks for consumers if the data is misused.

Hoping to deter regulators, the advertising industry has agreed on a standard icon--a little "i"--that it will add to most online ads that use demographics and behavioral data as a warning to consumers.

For more on online privacy:
- see this Forbes magazine article

Related Articles:
Facebook's new privacy policy
Fed cookie proposal causing indigestion

All that is well and good, but unemployment remains very high, the national debt is soaring and credit remains tight. "Until these factors start to turn around, exuberance about an economic recovery will rightfully be tempered," CompTIA vice president Tim Herbert told InformationWeek.com.

InformationWeek .com vice president and Editor-in-Chief Rob Preston argues that without a more robust recovery, the appearance of a tech revival may be just an illusion and a short-lived phenomenon.

"The information technology industry isn't just a creator and enabler of economic growth; it leverages that growth like no other industry, as IT is embedded in every single business sector," wrote Preston. "So implicit in the bullish IT forecasts of CompTIA, Forrester, and others is this reality: Get the economy in order, or the IT recovery doesn't stand much of a chance."

For more on the IT economy:
- see this InformationWeek.com article

Related Articles:
IT key in recession recovery
Goldman Sachs sees IT spending recovery

A "State of the Data Center" report by security firm Symantec found that 50 percent of IT executives polled said their data centers are understaffed. That breaks down as 16 percent who said their data centers are extremely understaffed, and another 34 percent who called their data centers somewhat understaffed.

If the cutbacks were not bad enough, the survey found that IT executives view data centers as becoming harder to manage, with more applications, data and increasingly demanding service-level agreements. They also said they are looking to find additional ways to save money, perhaps at the expense of staff.

The survey involved data center specialists in 1,780 enterprises worldwide, each with at least 1,000 employees. A majority of companies surveyed said they have been hit both by budget constraints and problems finding enough qualified applicants. The survey found that 31 percent of those surveyed reduced their staffing levels in 2009, making up for the shortfall by training employees to do new tasks and by resorting to automation of other jobs.

The Symantec survey also discovered that mid-sized enterprises (those with 2,000 to 9,000 employees) are adopting new technologies much faster than the largest enterprises to compensate for the loss of staff.

For more on data center issues:
- see this NetworkWorld.com article

Related Articles:
Data Centers: Growth or stagnation?
Will the cloud kill the data center?

The study said consumers in their "Affluent Suburbia" category, the wealthiest of the company's 12 demographic categories, were 43 percent more likely to fall victim to identity fraud as the average credit applicant. The study defined Affluent Suburbia as "the wealthiest households in the U.S., living in exclusive suburban neighborhoods and enjoying the best everything has to offer."

Individuals in the "Upscale America" category, defined as "college-educated couples and families living in metropolitan sprawl, earning upscale incomes that provide them with large homes and very comfortable, active lifestyles," were 22 percent more likely to become victims of identity fraud than the average credit applicant, reports DarkReading.com.

The Experian study suggests that identity thieves and others looking to make your life miserable are smart, and may be targeting victims by their neighborhoods and by their activities.

For example, some attackers were found to target users by their hobbies and interests. Users who displayed an interest in tennis were 85 percent more likely to have been victims of identity fraud than users who didn't, Experian found. Consumers who were interested in foreign travel were 70 percent more likely to be victims.

As a business using IT, it's important to remember who these targets are because some of your customers may fit right into the target areas. Not only could your systems be hacked, but the smart ID thief could be looking for the richest clients in your database.

For more on ID theft targets:
See this DarkReading.com article

Related Articles:
ID thieves hard at work in '09
Products prevent identity fraud
ChoicePoint pays $275,000 fine for data breach

BlackBerry users would not have to manually enter passwords, or change passwords routinely, to unlock their secured devices. What's more, IT administrators would know corporate devices are better protected. But reporter Al Sacco writes in CIO.com that fingerprint readers and associated technologies don't always work as intended. You may have to run you finger over the scanner repeatedly to get it to work, he notes, and sometimes users can lock themselves out of their machines after too many failed scan attempts.

This can turn out to be a burden for IT departments. Sacco said the Blackberry technology may be first-rate, but he also notes it is possible that it "could prove to be more trouble than it is worth" for IT professionals.

For more on Blackberry:
- see this CIO.com article

Related Articles:
Woman foils fingerprint tech to enter Japan
FBI-DoD: Fingerprints so old school

The survey found that 70 percent of human resources respondents in the U.S. had rejected job applicants because of information found through an online search. But among consumers, only seven percent believe online data has affected their efforts to get hired--an obvious disconnect and indication of a need for greater understanding that online postings can be dangerous.

Peter Cullen, chief privacy strategist at Microsoft, told Informationweek.com that job applicants should expect human resources professionals to conduct online searches. He said the extent to which online research has become formalized in corporate policy should prompt people to revisit their assumptions about privacy and online reputation.

The survey found that while 63 percent of the consumer respondents expressed concern about the impact of their online reputation on their lives, less than half said they consider their reputations when they post online and the vast majority don't believe that online information affects their ability to get a job.

On the flip side, Cullen said "having a positive online reputation can be just as influential [as having a negative one]."

"What we hope people take away from this research is that an online reputation is not something to be scared of; it's something to be proactively managed. That means not just removing (or not posting) negatives, but also building the online reputation that you would want an employer (or friend or client) to find," Cullen said in a blog posting.

Job seekers should give this survey and their own online conduct some serious thought.  As we well know, there is a second life online, with people of all ages and backgrounds sharing their positive and unflattering aspects of their lives through social networks, micro-blogging, photos and videos.

For more regarding your online persona:
- see this Information Week article
- see this Computerworld article

Related Articles:
Protect your online reputation
Where to turn to clean up your online reputation

For their troubles, merchants will find it easier to shift liability away from themselves in the event of fraudulent usage. Unfortunately, the general way of implementing 3DS involves the use of iframes in HTML, which effectively prevents users from ascertaining the validity of the site. This is detrimental as it exposes users to possibility of man-in-the-middle attacks. In addition, the use of static passwords is also prone to phishing methods by scammers.

Don't expect the situation to change anytime soon, though. As noted by one of the researchers, Steven J. Murdoch, "Most banks have chosen to go for passwords than anything better...Passwords are really cheap."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Ars Technica
- check out this article at PCWorld 

Related Articles:
Symantec: Call center worker in India may have sold credit card data
Biggest hacking case ever sends security warning
Heartland settles with American Express

The survey was commissioned by security vendor McAfee and involved the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Critical installations could be electrical grids, telecommunications networks, water and sewage plants or operational control systems such as SCADA in the U.S. (supervisory control and data acquisition). 

What proved to be interesting in this study was the naming of the United States as the biggest threat (36 percent), with China coming in a close second (33 percent). 100 of the survey's respondents were based in the United States, with 50 respondents each from countries such as Japan, China, Germany and France.

Casting the study into the spotlight were recent revelations by search giant Google and other companies of sophisticated and coordinated attempts to penetrate their corporate networks. Once the domain of movie flicks, the increasing use of information technology in infrastructure is opening up a window of vulnerability into critical installations. And what's the scariest part of the current situation? Well, only 57 percent of respondents will say that their organization updates and patches their software on a regular basis.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Network World
- check out this article at Wired 

Related Articles:
Google attack just the tip of the iceberg
U.S. protesting China cyberattacks
China fingered in cyberattacks on U.S. government

Where lithium-air technology is concerned, IBM believes that it has the potential to achieve 10 times the energy densities of current lithium-ion batteries. IBM says this is "because [lithium-air batteries] use air that's pulled into the battery as needed, rather than store a second reactant inside the cell."

Lithium-air technology remains controversial mainly due to its cost and the fact that lithium is highly flammable. Of course, the same could be said of normal lithium batteries. For now though, the challenge of moving the technology into a viable product are formidable, so don't expect to see a finished product soon.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Network World

Related Articles:
Lithium-air batteries could pack 10-times the energy
Taiwanese researchers to make lithium-ion batteries safer
HP claims 24-hour battery life for notebook
US Cellular will do a battery swap for free
Virus used to build a better battery

According to Don Debolt, California's director of threat research, attackers are using software to automatically query for the most popular keywords to inject into commandeered websites. He cautioned that site operators should ensure that their content management system is up-to-date, saying, "We found that it's a very systematic and programmatic process right now."

For more on this story:
- check out the article at CNET News 

Related Articles:
Is Apple set to release a multimedia tablet?
Elusive tablet PC a touch away
Might businesses be the real target of an Apple tablet?

So what can users expect from 802.16m? For one, it will be backward compatible with the existing 802.16e WiMAX standard. As such, upgrade costs and disruptions are expected to be kept to a minimum. Beyond that, 802.16m will cover the same 31 square-mile area, though transfer speeds are expected to be significantly boosted over the current speeds of 3.7Mbps and 5Mbps. Indeed, WiMAX forum vice president Mohammad Shakouri noted that the goal of the new WiMAX standard is to create average downlink speeds of "more than 100Mbps" to users.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Network World

Related Articles:
Intel's new Moorestown platform to support HSPA
Top vendors form WiMAX patent alliance
Sprint lowers WiMAX pricing plan
Sprint introduces WiMAX routers
WiMAX tablet finally arrives as Clearwire launches another market

At IBM's Zurich Research Laboratories in Switzerland, researchers have figured out how to store 29.5 billion bits per square inch, which translates to a cartridge capable of holding around 35 terabytes of data. That's more than 40 times the capacity of cartridges currently available, and several times more than a hard disk of comparable size.

We're not suggesting that you rush to the store to recreate the past but this new magnetic medium could be an alternative especially if the price is right. And so far, it seems to be. IBM researchers say that solid state drives cost between $3 and $20 per gigabyte. Tape, however, costs less than a cent per gigabyte.

Of course, there's a bigger issue of just how long any of this storage technology can last. So far, it seems that paper outlasts them all. But, geez, who still uses paper?

For more on magnetic tapes:
- see this MIT Technology Review article

Related Articles:
How to curb non-stop data growth
Disaster hits when online storage centers close

This week's Computerworld outlines 11 hidden security threats that could turn your IT shop on its head. The biggest message from this list: Don't let it happen on your watch. Make sure your employees read this list and keep it in mind. It may save you lots of headaches and heartburn.

Here are some from the list:

• Watch out for shortened URLs now being used by a lot of tweets and plenty of other electronic messages. Shortened URLs give no hint of destination so they can be exploited to send you to a malicious location.
• Check your Facebook privacy setting to give you extra protection.
• Never include your birthday, hometown or high school on your social network site because the information could be used to access your secret accounts.
• Don't accept friend requests from strangers. Need we say why?
• Do business with companies you trust.

Don't forget: Trust but verify.

For more on hidden threats:
- see this Computerworld article

Related Articles:
Security breaches are no joke
Biggest hacking case ever sends security warning

The crime occurred last November when unknown hackers based in Romania and Italy depleted more than $800,000 from the company's account. About $600,000 was subsequently recovered but Hillary wanted the rest of the money repaid.

In a lawsuit, Hillary said the bank did not have adequate security measures to prevent the breach. But the bank turned around and sued back, claiming that legitimate Hillary credentials were used to siphon off the bank account.

The outcome of this legal tussle may spell trouble for banking institutions or it could be a big victory for them as IT breaches continue to plague financial institutions more than other sectors.

For more on this lawsuit:
- see this ComputerWorld article

Related Articles:
The 10 most terrifying IT debacles of 2009
Hacking is top cause of IT breaches
The high cost of data breaches just got higher

The survey by CareerBuilder of 5,000 respondents found that 4 out of 10 believe they don't fit in with their co-workers. According to the report, the IT sector ranked in the top five for jobs where workers feel disconnected and put off by their co-workers

"Today's workplace is made up of many different types of people and sometimes behavior can come across as being crazy or inappropriate for the office," CareerBuilder Vice President Rosemary Haefner said in a statement.

Could it be the stress or the age of the workers--young, that is? Could it be the working hours and the constant fear of cutbacks? Could it be not enough supervision or maybe there's too much?

Here are just a few examples of bad behavior chronicled by eWeek.com:

• Eating the cheese off the pizza box at a company meeting
• Chewing tobacco and spitting it into empty soda bottles.
• Bringing a baby sippy cup to a meeting and drinking out of it.
• Cleaning fingernails using a counterpart's business card while sitting in their office.

These examples are too good to be made up. And it clearly telegraphs the message: "Human resources...we have a problem." It's important to identify where the problem is coming from, and more importantly to stop it, according to HR executives.

For more on workers misbehaving:
- see this eWeek.com article

Related Articles:
Can Gen Y pros weather the recession?
IT jobs are rebounding

The 2010 CyberSecurity Watch Survey finds that CIOs are thinking about the low-hanging fruit--hackers, insiders and foreign entities. The survey, sponsored by Deloitte, says that the biggest damage comes from attackers from nation-states and organized crime. And executives should be focusing on these criminals more than the more obvious culprits.

The question really becomes this: Just how much money should you throw at this problem? It depends on how much you have, what's stored in your databases and what kind of damage these big attacks could cause.

It's not an easy issue to tackle every day, but if you don't have cybersecurity at the top of your list, you should put it there right now.

For more on this survey:
- see this cnet.com article

Related Articles:
Cybercrime targets small businesses
Is security eating up your IT budget?
Maintaining security is a continuous effort 

The key to ARM's success appears to be the proliferation of "always on" devices that users are demanding--an area where ARM has a strong reputation. In fact, ARM recently unveiled their new Cortex-A5 MPCore processor in October 2009, which promises better performance with higher energy efficiency.

Of course, Intel is not sitting still either. The company is reportedly developing 32-nanometer variants of its popular Atom processor to compete with current ARM processors. At the end of the day, Intel remains the dominant player of high performance processors that are used to power desktops and laptops.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at eWeek 

Related Articles:
Research: ARM-based processors to dominate ultra-mobile device space
Battery stamina versus performance; which would you consider more important?
Lenovo hopes smartbook will bridge the gap
Portable PC sales up, while desktop sales are flat, says IDC

Researcher Kevin Pedretti says, "Our focus is to create a more flexible supercomputer environment for users, without sacrificing performance or scalability." In addition, the ability to make use of virtualization could also mean that simulations and number crunching would no longer be limited to the operating system that the supercomputer is based on.

For now, the researchers are conducting their tests using virtualization software developed for the HPC computing environment, which the researchers say is more suitable for high-performance computing.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Network World

Related Articles:
SMBs do better virtualization, says VMware
IBM announces security software for virtual servers
Gartner: Budget cuts increases the chance of server failures
Intel unveils new microserver concept

I was surprised by the sheer breadth of the extensions available when I recently switched from Firefox to the then beta of Chrome 4. Even putting aside its unmatched JavaScript performance, Chrome is acknowledged as one of the fastest browsers around in terms of webpage rendering and general responsiveness.

In addition, the latest stable iteration of Google Chrome comes with 1,500 new features compared to the previous version. Bookmark sync with other Chrome browsers is now built-in, as well as a number of APIs and support relating to HTML5 and WebSockets, among other web standards.

Existing users should find themselves upgraded over the week, though they can also check for updates manually. In the meantime, new users can also download Google Chrome here. Unfortunately for Mac OS X and Linux users though, the stable release is only available for Windows--for now.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at Google Chrome Blog 

Related Articles:
Google's Chrome defies hackers
No rush to move Chrome in the enterprise
Google Chrome is now No. 3

Downplaying the breach, developer Roger Dingledine explained, "It appears the attackers didn't realize what they broke into--just that they had found some servers with lots of bandwidth." For now, fresh identity keys have been created to replace the compromised ones, though users will need to upgrade to version 0.2.1.22 or later in order to use the refurnished servers.

Tor is a popular software tool designed to allow users to maintain the privacy of their online activities by protecting against traffic analysis. For now, the project says it has taken steps to harden systems to prevent this from reoccurring.

For more on this story:
- check out the article at The Register 

Related Articles:
A plea in the massive Heartland breach case
Data exposed on NYSE server
The high cost of data breaches just got higher
Organized crime heads to cyberspace
What to do after a data breach

Still, hearing it from an enterprise storage solutions maker is quite another matter entirely. Of course, Yoshida also rightly pointed out that the lifespan of 100,000 writes that SLC flash memory currently yields in current enterprise storage products "may not be adequate" to make flash a complete replacement for hard disks at this stage.

Other non-volatile storage technologies that are currently in development might yet bring about breakthroughs related to dramatically improving the number of write cycles though.

When all is said and done, the demise of hard disk drives will probably be a long process. With a 10-to-12-years development road map already drawn out, computer makers are also striving to improve performance. This ranges from the use of various technologies such as striping and utilizing a global cache to improve the efficiency of spinning disk drives.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Network World

Related Articles:
SanDisk ships solid-state drives for netbooks
The future belongs to solid-state drives
Samsung: Solid-state drive prices will match that of hard disk drives
SanDisk launches news SSDs for ultra low-cost PCs
Samsung starts mass producing 128GB SSD

Taken on a case-by-case basis, it doesn't sound like much. In 2009, data breach incidents costs U.S. companies $204 per compromised customer record compared to $202 in 2008.

It's not that simple. There are other factors, according to Ponemon, including loss of business, legal fees and the importance of a customer disclosing the breach to its own customers.

The most expensive data breach event in the 2009 survey cost one company nearly $31 million to resolve. The least expensive one was $750,000, the report said.

"In the five years we have conducted this study, we have continued to see an increase in the cost to businesses for suffering a data breach," said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. "With a variety of threat vectors to contend with, companies must proactively implement policies and technologies that mitigate the risk of facing a costly breach."

For companies trying to save money, that means you can pay now or pay later. You can spend money to secure your system or pay out when the system is breached. Neither is a very pleasant choice.

The year 2010 is not expected to be an exception to the increasing number of data breaches. This time around, experts say, it's imperative to protect your systems rather than hope you will avoid an attack.

For more on the Ponemon study:
- see this PCWorld.com article
- and see the complete study

Related Articles:
The 10 most terrifying IT debacles of 2009
Security breaches are no joke
Cybersecurity, cloud computing top IT spending list
The underpaid cybersecurity job

Here are a few points from GovInfoSecurity.com to consider if you are concerned about hackers from China:

• Determine your risk, and remember there is no patch available to protect you against this risk.
• Evaluate your vulnerabilities. Can your employees take computers overseas? Are your employees accessing your system from overseas?
• Are you a well-known brand like Google that would give Chinese hackers a big win if they compromised your system?

For more on thinking about China:
- see this GovInfoSecurity.com article

Related Articles:
U.S. protests China cyberattacks 
China fingered in cyberattacks on U.S.

These days, it's important to protect your password at every step of the way. InfoWorld.com has a few tips on how to create a secure password that cannot be hacked.

• Never pick a password that has anything to do with you personally.
• Don't use real words. Make a few up.
• Mix letters, upper and lower case, numbers and symbols to create the best word such as jOx12$#.
• Take this advice seriously and make sure your staff does, too.

For more on safe passwords:
- Check out this InfoWorld.com article

Related Articles:
Drowning in passwords 
Police your passwords

Every new IT project has a variety of questions to answer before heading to the starting gate. Chief among them are how will it impact the company's cash flow and how will it impact sales?

One of the biggest challenges for CIOs is to make sure the cash flow stays solvent. Before signing off on a new project, make sure it brings in money, rather than choking it off, according to CIOupdate.com.

Like a CFO, a CIO must remain cautious about plans. Ask if there are cheaper ways to handle the project such as outsourcing. Find out if it can be delayed. Don't just spend the money without knowing for sure what the benefits are. And evaluate how a technology project will affect cash flow for up to 24 months.

You know the drill. But make sure the lessons you have learned in the last year of austerity will be applied across the board to make your IT shop sing not sting from the pain of not enough planning.

For more on CFO behavior:
- see this CIOupdate.com article

Related Articles:
CIOs face IT worker exodus after recession 
Survey: CIOs gunning to open spending floodgates

"I thought it would be interesting to share these conversations more widely with a website, in the hope of getting more people thinking and learning about the issues I think are interesting and important. So, welcome to the Gates Notes," his introductory page says.

In an interview with CNET, Gates said he misses having the same kind of web presence he had at Microsoft. He's planning to post three times a week on a variety of issues from education, to the swine flu pandemic, to the earthquake tragedy in Haiti.

Like other well-known officials and persona, Gates is taking his message to the public. For example, President Obama, has a weekly YouTube address to the public. Federal CIO Vivek Kundra has a regular blog and countless other professional and public figures are making their voices heard through social media.

Gates is no stranger to Internet interactions, that's for sure. His launch of gatesnotes.com comes a day after he joined Twitter and quickly collected hundreds of thousands of followers.

Although Gates has left Microsoft's executive ranks, he's still deeply embedded in the company. His website is a personal project with the help of his personal staff.

What Gates has to say will definitely have an impact no matter what outlet he uses.

For more on gatesnotes.com:
- see this cnet.com article

Related Articles:
The last goodbye from Bill Gates 
Gates comes to D.C. for a final visit
What's next for Bill Gates 

They're selling 5 million shares of Google over time to prevent a major one-time impact on the stock market.

The strategy means Page and Brin will control less than half the voting power of Google shares by the time their plans are completed. And other stockholders will have a bigger say in the company that changed the way the Internet works.

But like everything this duo does, there is a method to their madness. A statement from Google explains it this way: "They are both as committed as ever to Google and are integrally involved in our day-to-day management and product strategy. The majority of their net worth remains with Google."

The two young entrepreneurs currently control 59 percent of the voting power of Google's stock. By the time their plan is completed, they will control 48 percent of the voting power of Google's stock.

Don't expect to see big changes at this titan. If anything, there will be more diversity in ideas and direction. Page and Brin, however, still have the power to get what they want from the shareholders despite the downsizing of their powerbase.

Just because these two young founders are giving up control doesn't mean that Google won't be rolling out plenty of innovative tools to take the IT world to new and better heights.

For more on Google's founders:
- see this cnet.com article
- see this CNN article
- see this from SFGate.com

Related Articles:
Google wants to speed up the Web experience
WSJ editor: Google is an Internet parasite

A report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association released last week finds an alarming trend: Venture capitalists invested the lowest amount in technology companies since 1997.

Some investment advisers think that's a good trend because there was too much money in the system. Do you? Here are the numbers from the report:

In 2009, venture capitalists invested $17.7 billion in 2,795 start-ups--37 percent less cash and 30 percent fewer deals than in 2008. Internet companies took a big hit as investment declined 39 percent.

There was only one exception: Twitter, which raised $100 million, one of the 10 biggest venture deals on '09.

But there were many more negative signs. Silver Spring Networks, which sells energy-efficiency technology to utilities, lost more than 50 percent of its investments. And that's just one example.

It's no surprise that it was a bad year. Venture capitalists stumbled badly with the economic downturn that started in Q3 '08 like everyone else did. Predictions are that this decline will continue in 2010.

For more on the decline in venture capital:
- see this New York Times article
- see this WSJ article
- see this CNN article

Related Articles:
Shrinking venture capital deals impact IT
Number of Venture IT deals drops to 10-year low 
Startups feel the squeeze

Wolfgang Kandek, the CTO of Qualys highlighted the significance of an out-of-order update. Kandek wrote, "An out-of-band release causes additional work for IT administrators that are tasked with addressing operating system vulnerabilities and have been feeling the strain of keeping updated the growing number of software packages that attackers are increasingly targeting."

In a surprising twist, Microsoft has also admitted that this vulnerability could also be exploited via malicious Office documents. Jerry Bryant, a program manager with the IE group confirmed that, "We are also aware that the vulnerability can be exploited by including an ActiveX control in a Microsoft Access, Word, Excel or PowerPoint file."

To protect against this vector, Bryant recommends that customers disable the use of ActiveX Controls in Microsoft Office.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at SC Magazine
- check out this article at Computerworld

Related Articles:
Microsoft confirms new Internet Explorer vulnerability
Mega Patch Tuesday coming next week
Google Chrome Frame makes IE less secure, says Microsoft

To be made available as a limited beta in February, the Kindle Development Kit (KDK) will include sample code, documentation and a simulator to help developers test on the 6-inch Kindle, as well as the 9.7-inch Kindle DX.

Anticipated programs might range from word games, to travel guides, and will be made available at the Kindle Store later in the year. An important piece of information here would be how revenue would be split. In the case of the KDK, revenue share is expected to follow a 70:30 formula, with the larger component going toward the developer.

Where data transferred by the application is concerned, the bandwidth comes free if the application uses less than 100KB per month.  Anything beyond that will be charged at $0.15 per MB, to be passed on to the customer as a monthly charge.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at eWeek
- check out this article at Wired 

Related Articles:
Uproar over move by Amazon to forcibly remove purchased eBooks
Kurzweil to demo Blio eBook reader at CES
Forrester confirms eBook reader price must drop substantially
Barnes & Noble introduces Nook: Wireless, color eBook reader
IREX eBook reader boasts powerful partners

Sean Glynn, chief marketing officer at Credant referred to the regulatory situation in the United Kingdom, "This could now cost a company up to [$811,000] with new powers given to [the U.K.'s] Information Commissioner's office to fine companies who have not sufficiently protected customers details under the Data Protection Act."

Beyond regulatory fines, the other concern has to do with the leakage of personal details that are inevitably stored on these devices.  In the wrong hands, these data could result in identify theft, which could result in financial loss or great inconveniences.

The obvious solution here is to employ the use of encrypted USB drives--though preferably one whose security is not broken. Use of software encryption will also work, though not storing data that will result in a data breach in the first place is probably the best solution of all.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld

Related Articles:
More flash drive firms admit to security flaws
Kingston admits to insecure USB drives
New Pogoplug to support mobile devices
Defense Department to eventually allow limited use of flash drives

According to the director of Firefox, Mike Beltzner, the JavaScript performance has been improved, and is now faster by about 12 percent. Browser performance is clearly something that the team has worked hard on; compared to Firefox 3.5, pages can load up to 20 percent faster. In addition, overall tweaks and the implementation of asynchronous script loading also means that the Firefox experience should feel snappier overall.

From a security point of view, the most important feature is probably its new built-in protection against out-of-date plugins. Users are warned if an outdated plugin is found, and prompted to install relevant patches with just a mouse click. Together with another enhancement designed to stop software vendors from silently installing Firefox add-ons, the new browser is solidly set as a must-have upgrade.

For more on this story:
- check out the article at Computerworld
- check out the official release notes

Related Articles:
Firefox 3.7 should see vast speed improvements
Expect Firefox 3.6 to arrive only in 2010
Firefox 3.5 passes 5 million downloads in one day
Roadmap for Firefox 3.6 unveiled

In a sobering statement, NRO says, "With less than 10 percent of the entire IPv4 address range still available for allocation to RIRs, it is vital that the Internet community take considered and determined action to ensure the global adoption of IPv6."

IPv6 supports 2 to the power of 128 addresses, even trying to articulate the number in anything other than numeric notations is difficult; it has not stopped some from trying to say the IPv6 number though. At the end of the day, IPv6 is the solution that was created to succeed IPv4, and should have adequate space for a very long time indeed.

Unfortunately, deployment of IPv6 has progressed at a snail's pace, despite being available since the mid-1990s. One can always hope for a faster transition, though with nary a plan or a recognized organization to coordinate, one can only hope.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Network World

Related Articles:
Are you ready for IPv6?
IPv6: A hit with Google
Vendors slow to embrace IPv6
First comprehensive survey of IPv6 reveals negligible usage

Expect Google to make waves that extend far beyond its own App Planet event. Google CEO Eric Schmidt is keynoting Mobile World Congress, and the rumor mill indicates his appearance will coincide with the release of the Nexus Two, a follow-up to the digital services giant's first branded Android smartphone--this one is said to boast a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, with Motorola on board as manufacturing partner. Android should cast a large shadow throughout next week--analysts anticipate a host of device announcements from companies including Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung, HTC, Dell and Alcatel.

But the spotlight--and the pressure--is likely to fall most directly on Microsoft. The status and scope of the oft-delayed Windows Mobile 7 is the big question heading into Mobile World Congress--while some sources have reported the software giant will formally announce the revamped OS during Mobile World Congress 2010, others indicate it is now on hold until 2011. Although conventional wisdom suggests WinMo will mutate into a multimedia platform integrating Microsoft's Zune media player and Xbox Live gaming support, the software giant remains tight-lipped, promising only a significant announcement at its Feb. 15 press conference. And no matter how big, the news still might be too little, too late for the beleaguered operating system.

Whatever happens next week, FierceDeveloper will be in Barcelona to document it all. Be sure to join me and my FierceWireless colleagues Sue Marek and Mike Dano for our exhaustive live coverage from Mobile World Congress 2010. See you in Spain. -Jason

For more on AppFund:
- read this release

Related articles:
After Apple's iPad snub, what now for Adobe Flash?
Apple's iPad debut generates more criticism than excitement

AT&T will award $10,000 in cash to the winner in each of the four categories. For more details on the free AT&T Developer Program, including access to the AT&T SDK, technical whitepapers, webcasts, and more, click here.

For more on Open Call--Apps for All:
- read this release

The KDK site notes that developers should be able to modify existing Java applets and J2ME software to port over to Kindle. In addition, developers can include other third-party software libraries as long as they imported to the same binary archive file as the application. "At this time, the KDK enables you to build active content that runs on the Kindle 6-inch and Kindle DX 9.7-inch devices," the FAQ notes. "The Kindle client applications for other platforms do not currently support Kindle active content."

For more on the Kindle developer beta program:
- read this Amazon Web Services Blog entry

Related articles:
Amazon to release SDK for Kindle content
Amazon Kindle goes international, gets price cut
Forecast: Kindle to represent 10 percent of Amazon sales within five years
Amazon promises Kindle content across more devices

Nearly half of subscribers that do not currently use the mobile Internet plan to start using it before the end of 2010, according to one study. In that same time period, current users of mobile data services plan to more than double their data usage. The number of subscribers browsing the Web on a mobile device increased 34 percent year-over-year in 2009, with the non-traditional mobile user demographics of teens and senior citizens leading the charge, increasing by 45 percent and an amazing 67 percent, respectively.

The increases in mobile data and smartphone adoption as tightly intertwined. Mass-market adoption in one area drives usage gains in the other. Smartphones provide unprecedented access to the mobile Internet. New mobile Internet users will demand smarter mobile devices to enrich their online experiences. Increasingly, even feature phones are including standards-compliant Web 2.0 mobile browsers, providing a greatly improved Web browsing experience to the more than 80 percent of U.S. mobile phone users without smartphones.

How do mobile developers cater to mass-market smartphone users? Mobile content and data services for smartphones succeed when they cater to broad audiences by streamlining usability, minimizing the network footprint and personalizing the user experience. Mobile developers target the new demographics of iPhone moms, teens, seniors and personal-use. Make it extremely simple for these users to get started and get online with their smartphones.

Here are my top four tricks for designing smartphone apps for the masses:

1. Streamline usability. Make the user experience easy for the mass market. Make it impossible for the user to misuse the application. Test your app with actual human subjects who span multiple demographics.

2. Minimize network footprint. Optimizing the use of mobile bandwidth allows a smartphone app or Web experience to scale to millions of users without clogging mobile radio or WiFi networks. The smartphone may be limitless, but its communication network is still constrained.

3. Personalize the user experience. Adapt Web and application content to target the smartphone model and to react to user behavioral patterns. Use a mobile device database to recognize the device and adapt content to best fit the display size, processing power and user input methods. (Especially, a smartphone app must optimize its user experience for software and hardware keyboards, which can radically affect the user input experience.) Architect your smartphone app to react to user behavior by surfacing dynamic and relevant content that is appropriate for unique users.

4. Adapt to your audience. Use mobile analytics to measure mobile application performance in relationship to consumer demographics. Iteratively improve your application to appeal to your actual and target users.

Gail Rahn Frederick is a mobile software architect, mobile Web enthusiast and instructor of standards-based mobile Web development. At Medio Systems, she leads a mobile software team developing discovery, analytics and search products for operators and publishers. Gail's new book, "Beginning Smartphone Web Development," was released by Apress in December 2009.

Previous page

My stereotype crumbles as more and more mobile users upgrade from feature phones to smartphones. This year, mass-market consumers are stampeding into the smartphone ecosystem. 2010 is the year when "anyone with a touchscreen" is using their shiny, new smartphone to consume mobile data services. Clever mobile developers recognize the exploding smartphone user base as an unparalleled opportunity to simplify the usability of mobile Web and native applications and provide personalized experiences to suit all kinds of smartphone users.

One fascinating example of an emerging smartphone user demographic is the "iPhone mom." First uncovered by a mobile advertising company, about 25 percent of iPhone users are "iPhone moms," college-educated mothers who use their smartphones for store locating, comparison shopping, managing shopping lists, couponing, scheduling and downloading games and entertainment apps. More than half of "iPhone moms" allow their children to use their iPhones (another gold star for Apple's utterly simple and usable the iPhone interface).

Why the sudden explosion of smartphone users? Barriers to mass-market smartphone adoption are being eliminated left and right by mobile network operators, smartphone OEMs and mobile developers:

• Plummeting prices and generous operator subsidies make smartphones affordable to more consumers. Witness the Motorola Droid Eris, an Android smartphone available online and on-contract from Verizon Wireless for under $100.
• Flat-rate data plans provide consumers with predictable and budget-able monthly smartphone usage costs. T-Mobile USA's Even More Plus plans provide unlimited voice, data and messaging with no contract for $80 per month.
• Easy-to-learn user interfaces of modern smartphone operating systems make smartphones less daunting to newbie consumers. The Apple iPhone is an iconic example of a smartphone whose skyrocketing adoption is due to an extraordinarily consumer-friendly user interface. Palm webOS and Google Android are also well-suited for mass-market consumers.
• Touchscreens and Qwerty keyboards (and other must-have hardware features) are persuading users to upgrade to smartphones. A Gartner study of second quarter 2009 handset sales reported smartphone sales growth of 27 percent, while total handset sales fell 6 percent.
• Smartphones provide access to catalogs of useful, cool and fun mobile apps that are aren't available on feature phones.

Mass-market adoption of smartphones still faces at least one important barrier--a significant knowledge gap. One survey of mobile subscribers found that nearly half of customers want to buy a smartphone but simply don't understand how to use them. In my opinion, this data implies that mass-market smartphone adoption will be strongest for the devices that are simplest to operate. Android, webOS and iPhone will win here. The traditionally business-oriented BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and S60 operating systems must adapt or risk alienating mass-market consumers focused on personal smartphone use. BlackBerry currently has a 2-to-1 user advantage over the iPhone, but this advantage will diminish in 2010 unless BlackBerry improves its consumer appeal.

Simultaneously, the amount of mobile subscribers using and expected to start using mobile data services is growing exponentially...Continued

Next page

The iPad is not the sole Apple device excluding Flash support, of course--in March 2008, Apple CEO Steve Jobs contended the iPhone requires a media player more robust than the existing Flash mobile solution. That's almost complimentary compared to what Jobs reportedly had to say about Flash during a town hall meeting with Apple employees soon after the iPad premiere: Citing a source in attendance, Wired reports Jobs dismissed Adobe as "lazy" and added that Apple doesn't support Flash because it's so buggy. Jobs went on to blame Flash as the culprit behind most Mac crashes, and said that the platform is facing extinction as the world moves to HTML5.

For all of the consumer outcry over Apple's refusal to support Flash, the company is faring better than ever, selling sold 8.7 million iPhones in the first quarter alone--100 percent year-over-year unit growth. Given Jobs' attitude, it seems safe to assume Flash is never coming to the iPhone platform, so where does that leave Adobe? As longtime Silicon Valley insider John Gruber points out on his Daring Fireball blog, Flash penetration shrinks with each iPhone OS-based device Apple sells: "What's Hulu going to do? Sit there and wait? Whine about the blue boxes? Or do the practical thing and write software that delivers video to iPhone OS? The answer is obvious," Gruber writes. "Hulu doesn't care about what's good for Adobe. They care about what's good for Hulu. Hulu isn't a Flash site, it's a video site. Developers go where the users are."

And it seems like everyone is going to HTML5. Apple rival Google has publicly endorsed the specification on multiple occasions--at last year's Mobile World Congress event, the web services giant's vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra hailed HTML5 as one of the three critical components of the modern mobile web browser, and in December, Google gave it credit for boosting Gmail mobile loading speeds. The New York Times reports Google-owned YouTube is currently trialing the format for select videos, as is another video-sharing site, Vimeo.com. "We received a tremendous amount of feedback from our users saying that they wanted to have HTML5 as an option for their videos," says Andrew Pile, Vimeo's vice president for product and development. The NYT adds that video sharing sites like Flickr and Blip.tv plan to experiment with Flash alternatives in the months ahead as well. Whichever direction Apple and Google pursue, the rest of the industry inevitably follows--a shift that could leave Flash behind for good. -Jason

Even prior to the iPad's official launch, developers across multiple platforms expressed overwhelming interest in creating applications for the product according to a study conducted by software solutions provider Appcelerator. Ninety percent of Appcelerator's developer partners indicate they are "very interested" in building an iPad app within the year, with balanced representation from iPhone and Android developers on the mobile side and PC, Mac and Linux developers on the desktop side. Developers say they are most likely to create business and productivity apps for the tablet, followed in descending order by entertainment, social networking, education and games--by contrast, games is the leading category in Apple's App Store, followed by entertainment, books, education and travel. "Some respondents wrote that with a rumored built-in camera, the Apple Tablet could spur new growth in video conferencing and video social networking," Appcelerator notes. "Many developers see the classroom as a huge opportunity, while the larger screen interested others in business scenarios, especially in the areas of finance and medical applications."

Before official iPad specs were announced, 77 percent of developers said they are very interested in the device's database/storage features--75 percent indicated strong interest in multi-touch gestures and another 75 percent pointed to its native user interface, followed by multitasking (72 percent) and wireless networking (70 percent). "With multitasking and wireless networking will come an explosion in messaging apps that break free of the iPhone's prior limitations of a single application only being able to run in the foreground," Appcelerator contends. "Multi-touch gestures and a new native Tablet interface will give rise to new ways to share and interact with media or learning applications. Expect immediate and massive experimentation with these new capabilities to create more engaging, tactile, and connected experiences that sit between the extended use case of desktop/laptop applications and the immediate gratification use case of mobile."

For more on the iPhone SDK 3.2 beta:
- read this release 

Related articles:
How expectations and rumors crushed the iPad    
Apple accelerates the App Store approval process

• Feb. 15: Vodafone 360 Developer Conference, Developer Day hosted by Motodev
• Feb. 16: BlackBerry Developer Day
• Feb. 17: Sony Ericsson Creation Day; Google Android Developer Lab
• Feb. 18: WIPJam Application Developer Conference

In related news, winners of the sixth annual International Mobile Gaming Awards will be announced at Mobile World Congress on Feb. 15. More than 150 entries from 36 countries will compete, with an international panel naming the year's 25 best new mobile games. According to the IMGA, 60 percent of all award entries were iPhone applications, compared to 16 percent last year.

For more on App Planet:
- read this release

To qualify for a Palm Hot Apps Program award, the application must be available to webOS users through Palm distribution programs between prior to May 31--all eligible apps must originate via the Palm webOS SDK or Ares Integrated Development Environment (not the webOS Plug-In Development Kit), and all apps must be available for download from an official Palm webOS distribution program (i.e., App Catalog Distribution, Web Distribution or Beta Distribution).

The Palm App Catalog virtual storefront currently boasts more than 1,300 webOS-based applications, according to data released by webOS School--paid apps outnumber free apps roughly three to one. By comparison, Apple's rival App Store presently offers more than 140,000 iPhone and iPod touch applications.

For more on the Palm Hot Apps Program:
- read this release

Related articles:
Palm App Catalog finally tops 1,000 webOS apps
Paid apps go live on Palm Pre

Zemlin goes on to defend Linux projects and products that exemplify the platform at is most innovative, among them Android-based smartphones like the Droid and the Nexus One, Moblin-based netbooks and tablets currently in development, and Nokia's Maemo effort. "The issue is that while all of these are incredible efforts, Steve Jobs is hardly standing still," Zemlin writes. "We have to do better." He adds that in the weeks ahead, the Linux Foundation will announce "big news" on its plans to restore the platform's luster.

For more on Zemlin's Linux assessment:
- read this Linux Foundation blog entry

Related articles:
Microsoft's Bach predicts Linux will lose mobile OS race
Nokia debuts first Linux smartphone

The challenge facing Amazon is the same one looming in front of all of Apple's rivals: How to lure developers away from the iPhone, especially with the promise of the Apple tablet on the horizon. Amazon does not report Kindle sales totals, although analysts project the number sold at between 1.5 million and 2 million--by contrast, Apple announced Monday that it sold 8.7 million iPhones and 21 million iPods in Q1 2010 alone. Jeff Smith, CEO of Smule--the startup behind App Store bestsellers including I Am T-Pain and Ocarina--tells BusinessWeek that while it might cost 10 percent of the original development outlay of an iPhone app to fashion a new version for the tablet, it would probably cost as much as another 70 percent to rewrite the software for the Kindle. Developing for Amazon would essentially mean "rethinking how I design applications from the start," Smith adds.

But the biggest obstacle facing Amazon could be the quirks inherent in the Kindle concept. As the Kindle Development Kit homepage points out, Kindles are not smartphones: Users don't pay a monthly wireless fee or sign up for an annual service contract. Which means Kindle applications must be priced to cover the associated costs of downloads and ongoing usage--according to Amazon, that translates to content delivery fees of 15 cents per megabyte. (Applications smaller than 1MB that use less than 100KB per user per month may be offered free to consumers--Amazon will cover any wireless costs associated with delivery and maintenance.) On top of that, Kindle applications will face an upper size limit of 100MB; apps larger than 10MB will not be delivered over-the-air, meaning consumers must instead download content from the Kindle Store to a computer and transfer the app to their Kindle via USB. For niche developers and content providers like educational software designers and comic book publishers, the chance to reach the core Kindle demographic could be a game-changer, but most programmers may have to change up too much of their own game to make the opportunity worth pursuing. -Jason

For more on the Pocket God milestone:
- read this release

With the web buzzing about the SDK post, Microsoft on Monday issued the following statement: ""On Friday, January 22nd Microsoft prematurely posted a version of an upcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK to a public facing Web page. While the SDK was not announced or promoted, it was discovered and generated questions from the community. The beta SDK has since been removed and will be reposted once final testing has been conducted. We apologize for any inconvenience."

The WinMo 6.5 SDK snafu seems likely to fuel increased speculation over Microsoft's mobile roadmap and the long-promised release of Windows Mobile 7. While some sources report the software giant will formally announce the revamped OS during February's Mobile World Congress 2010 event in Barcelona, others indicate it is now delayed until 2011.

For more on the WinMo 6.5 SDK release:
- read this ZDNet article

Related articles:
Microsoft to discontinue Mobile2Market program
Microsoft adopting chassis strategy for Windows Mobile 7

Microsoft's Windows Marketplace for Mobile product manager Mihir Rao responded directly to the Windows Mobile Developer Center thread, stating that Microsoft completed its first round of payouts in December and plans a second round this month. According to Rao, there appears to be confusion around Dashboard status updates indicating whether a developer is eligible for payout, suggesting that some programmers are currently ineligible due to missing bank or tax information, or because the $200 threshold has not been met. However, multiple developers responded to Rao's post to report their Dashboard has read "Eligible for revenue payout" since last fall.

"I see my explanation of the ‘Eligible for revenue payout' status has raised more questions than it has answered," Rao wrote in a post dated Jan. 21. "I am going to get some more details on this particular dashboard status to provide further clarification. I will post back with more details by the end of this week, so stay tuned."

For more on the Windows Marketplace payment delays:
- read this Ars Technica article

Related articles:
Windows Marketplace extends to WinMo 6.0 and 6.1
Microsoft adds online app sales to Windows Marketplace

On the flipside, IDC forecasts Linux and Palm's webOS shipments will struggle throughout the forecast period. Shipments of Linux-powered devices are expected to trend down due to greater emphasis on the Android platform, although some vendors will continue to support the platform--as for webOS, IDC believes the operating system will grow steadily, but will ultimately capture only narrow market share as a result of limited deployment and operator availability.

For more on the IDC forecast:
- read this release

Related articles:
Android explodes into the consumer consciousness
Over half of Android developers dissatisfied with app profits

The email does not expand on Microsoft's decision to shut down the Mobile2Market effort. Calls to Microsoft were not returned prior to press time.

Related articles:
Microsoft adopting chassis strategy for Windows Mobile 7
Can Microsoft woo iPhone developers to Windows Mobile?

But some experts question whether existing mobile advertising concepts and approaches are on the right track. The doubters are said to include Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who believes "mobile ads suck" according to BusinessWeek, citing a source familiar with Jobs' thinking. So Apple reportedly is exploring new approaches to mobile advertising in the wake of its recent agreement to acquire mobile ad network Quattro Wireless, plotting ways to exploit consumer data to better serve mobile advertisements. Insiders say Apple's efforts seek to make ads more relevant to consumers, factoring into the equation data like purchases and downloads from iTunes and the App Store as well as geo-location. "[Apple] could also use the iPhone's capabilities in creative ways--say, having someone shake the device to win a rebate the same way they do to roll dice in games," the report notes.

Despite Gartner's app store revenue projections for the year ahead, more than half of developers are pessimistic about their immediate financial outlook. A new Mobile Entertainment Forum study examining the state of the U.S. mobile content value chain reports that among 100 respondents from 80 companies spanning across the mobile entertainment landscape, 42 percent said they expect at least a 20 percent revenue increase in 2009, and 58 percent anticipate comparable revenue growth in 2010--app developers are less optimistic than any other industry segment the MEF polled, with only 48 percent believing revenues will increase 20 percent or more this year. MEF Americas chairman Jim Beddows theorizes developers have serious doubts about the longterm viability of current marketplace conditions: "The explosion of app stores and applications continues to feed consumer demand, but it's still not proven whether there's a sustainable revenue model," he said in an interview with FierceDeveloper. Nor is it proven that mobile advertising is the solution to those concerns, but if not, then what is? -Jason

The Apple tablet and the role the iPhone OS will play on the device have been the subject of months of speculation. Late last year, Silicon Alley Insider reported some Apple developer partners were asked to prepare new, higher-resolution versions of their applications for a January demonstration: "They've told select developers that as long as they build their apps to support full screen resolution--rather than a fixed 320x480--their apps should run just fine," a source said. In addition, French website Mac4Ever is reporting some developers have already gotten their hands on a new iPhone 4.0 SDK beta including a simulator that promises to simplify adapting iPhone applications to different screen resolutions.

For more on the iPhone 4.0 speculation:
- read this Fox News article

Related articles:
Apple field testing next-generation iPhone?
iPhone developers mad as hell, not going to take it anymore
Apple releases iPhone SDK 3.1.2

During the recent Consumer Electronics Show event in Las Vegas, Verizon Wireless said it is "on the cusp" of launching V Cast Apps, originally slated to go live in late 2009. Verizon Wireless director of business development Todd Murphy did not offer a specific launch date, but said the storefront would initially be available across five of the operator's BlackBerry smartphones: The Storm 1 and 2, the Curve 1 and 2, and the BlackBerry Tour. "We're just waiting for that inflection point" of enough quality applications, Murphy said, adding "We believe that when we put this out into the marketplace, it will have a significant impact." Murphy said Verizon Wireless currently counts about 3,500 developers registered in the VDC program.

For more on V Cast Apps' progress:
- check out the Verizon Developer Community website

Related articles:
Verizon Developer Community membership soars in first month
Mobigloo wins Verizon's Apply Your Ideas contest

• "HTC Hero and Motorola Droid, both on Android, have a Homescreen with movable Homescreen widgets; however, each has one multi-panel homesceen page, whereas Symbian Foundation has independent unique pages
• "Palm Pre's WebOS eliminates Exit commands, but instead of saving state and releasing memory it keeps applications running
• "iPhone has a flattened application library; however, it is displayed to the user exclusively as a manually organized grid, whereas the Symbian Foundation application library is an alpha-ordered list with multiple filtered views."

The Nokia proposal is available for download now on the Symbian Developer Community forum, which also calls for questions, comments, suggestions and requests related to the document.

For more on the Symbian^4 proposal:
- visit the Symbian Developer Community forum

Related articles:
Nokia reaffirms commitment to Symbian
Nokia planning just one Maemo phone in 2010

Specifically, de la Vega said AT&T wants to help developers by reducing all the fragmentation that makes mobile app development so expensive and difficult. De la Vega said AT&T will strengthen its smartphone portfolio by supporting all the various mobile operating systems. He said the carrier would help developers sell more apps by supporting all the major OEM app stores, and by offering apps to consumers who own mid-level wireless devices (not smartphones). Finally, de la Vega said the firm will strengthen its app developer program and continue to invest in its network.

AT&T plans to launch five exclusive smartphones that support Google's Android operating system (see related story here) from Dell, Motorola and HTC, and it also will launch two devices running Palm's webOS operating system. Those webOS devices will be exclusive to AT&T and will be announced later this year.

Regarding app stores, de la Vega said the company will support all app stores from the major OEMs, and will provide technical support for those app stores. In addition, AT&T customers who buy apps from Nokia's Ovi storefront will be billed directly through AT&T.

But perhaps the most surprising news from AT&T was that it will use Qualcomm's BREW MP platform to allow consumers with mid-level messaging devices to buy applications. "We want to make apps available to a bigger segment of the market," de la Vega said. He added that by 2011, AT&T expects 90 percent of new AT&T messaging devices to sport the BREW MP platform.

A new AT&T SDK is available for the BREW platform. And BREW MP will be backward compatible, making it easier for existing BREW developers to transition to BREW MP.

AT&T currently supports Java applications for feature phones.

According to David Christopher, the chief marketing officer of AT&T Mobility, the company also is developing a new storefront strategy, call the App Center, which will focus on discoverability and offer direct-carrier billing. Specifically, AT&T is offering a 70/30 revenue share for all new contracts.

For more:
- see this release
- see this Ovi release

Related articles:
Rumor Mill: Is Motorola making AT&T's first Android phone?
Rumor Mill: AT&T prepping Android assault
AT&T declines Moto's Android advances?
Report: AT&T may launch Dell Android phone in 2010

The Unofficial Apple Weblog reports that iTunes Connect, the portal developers use to submit their iPhone and iPod touch applications, was offline from Dec. 23 to Dec. 28. What happened during that blackout period is anyone's guess--this is Apple, after all--but whatever Steve Jobs' elves did to improve the app submission protocol, the results speak for themselves. At least one startup, Atomic Cactus, tells TUAW that its new puzzle game Artilect earned Apple's stamp of approval in less than 12 hours, while its previous submissions took two to three weeks to run the gauntlet. "Today at 4:00 am I submitted for approval our latest app, which isn't exactly a ‘fart app' (it's a pretty polished puzzle game with OpenFeint)," Atomic Cactus developer Yuri writes. "As of 1:30 pm today, the app is in the App Store."

In related news, the App Store exceeded the 3 billion download benchmark last week--the latest milestone came less than four months after the store surpassed 2 billion downloads, a moment that itself arrived roughly five months after consumers downloaded the first billion iPhone and iPod touch applications. "Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months--this is like nothing we've ever seen before," Jobs said in a self-congratulatory press release. "The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon." It's posturing, of course, but if the App Store is indeed solving the problems that have caused developers so many headaches in the past, Jobs might be speaking the truth. -Jason

• Eco/Being Green: Apps that help to save the planet.
• Productivity: Apps to simplify users' lives and improve efficiency, e.g. utilities, business or personal finance applications.
• Life Improvement: Apps that positively affect the daily lives of citizens in developing nations.
• Entertainment: Music applications, multimedia and games.

Forum Nokia will team with Sesame Street producers Sesame Workshop on an education subcategory within the Life Improvement category to encourage developers to create applications that emphasize early literacy. Sesame Workshop will offer insight during the judging process and collaborate with select developers to further enhance relevant projects, encouraging programmers to create educational applications and even utilize the Sesame Street characters when appropriate.

More details on Calling All Innovators 2010 are available here. Submissions will be accepted between Feb. 1 and May 18.

For more on Calling All Innovators 2010:
- read this release

FlyCast will release a preview of appMobi to select developers on Jan. 22--for information on participating in the preview, click here. The ecosystem will open wide on March 1.

For more on appMobi:
- read this release

Related article:
FlyCast opens mobile platform to content providers

Sprint launched the open service enabler program in late 2008 with Veriplace and WHERE--last summer, the operator added Alcatel-Lucent, Loc-Aid and Useful Networks. The open service platforms guard the privacy and security of Sprint subscribers while offering third-party mobile, web, WAP, SMS and widget developers a more consistent method to build applications that incorporate customers' location information to deliver customized information and services.

In related Sprint news, the carrier said its Developer Sandbox program now includes both iDEN and CDMA capabilities, meaning programmers can now create and test applications for the Nextel and Boost Mobile brands. Sprint Developer Sandbox, launched in mid-2009, features tools to enable more efficient creation of location-based services, messaging apps and related solutions--the initiative is open to all Sprint registered developers, and provides access to network, handset and product capabilities.

For more on Sprint's latest developer efforts:
- read this release

During a wide-ranging press conference here on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show here, Palm said its webOS developer program is now "open for business." Previously the company had only been working directly with a select group of developers. Palm also announced a new distribution deal with wireless heavyweight Verizon Wireless, as well as upgraded versions of its Pre and Pixi devices. (See related story here.)

"We look forward to working with you (developers)," said Katie Mitic, Palm's senior vice president of products, in announcing the company's developer efforts. She said Palm's App Catalog currently holds around 1,000 apps (whereas market leader Apple counts fully 100,000 apps in its own digital storefront) but Mitic said Palm "expects that to grow even more, and faster."

Palm's developer program splits app revenues 70/30 (developer/Palm), after applicable taxes. The membership-based program has a $99 annual fee, which the company said will be waived for developers who opt to distribute open source Palm webOS apps on the Web.

During the company's press conference, Mitic highlighted a number of Palm efforts aimed at exciting developers to its smartphone platform. Specifically, she detailed Palm's new $1 million Hot Apps bonus program, which will run Feb. 1 through May 31. The program will award $1 million to the most successful applications distributed during this timeframe. The developers of the top free and paid applications each will earn a $100,000 bonus; in addition, 40 developers will receive $10,000 (20 each for free and paid), with 400 developers awarded $1,000 (200 each for free and paid).

Separately, Mitic hyped the company's webOS Plug-in Development Kit, which she said enables new functionality such as 3D games. Indeed, EA Mobile showed off 3D versions of its "Sims 3" and "Need For Speed" games running on the Pre.

Finally, Mitic said Palm will open up its database of webOS applications data, thereby allowing third parties to access app descriptions, ratings, stats and screen shots. The goal, Mitic said, was to allow app developers the freedom to promote and distribute their apps as they see fit.

"We give developers freedom and choice with how they take their applications to market," she said, a possible knock at iPhone maker Apple, which has come under fire for its tight control over its iTunes App Store. "We're taking a completely new approach to application distribution. ... That's better for everyone."

Despite Palm's efforts to tout its webOS platform--which is first announced a year ago at the 2009 CES show here--a few major players in the industry remain unmoved. Christopher Dean, chief strategy officer for Skype, said webOS is the only major smartphone platform that Skype does not yet plan to support. Dean said webOS does not have enough momentum behind it to make it worthwhile for Skype to invest in the platform.

For more:
- see Palm's announcement

Related articles:
Upgraded Palm Pre, Pixi headed to Verizon this month
Report: Verizon launching Palm Pre, Pixi at CES
Top Palm investor dismisses takeover talk

Verizon first announced its application store intentions in July, and at the time promised to launch it by the fourth quarter of last year. However, Verizon's Murphy indicated the carrier needed to delay the launch to ensure that the store contained enough applications to make it worthwhile.

"We're just waiting for that inflection point" of enough quality applications, Murphy said during a Verizon developer event here on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show. Added Murphy: "We believe that when we put this out into the marketplace, it will have a significant impact."

Murphy said the carrier currently counts 3,500 developers registered into its program, and "thousands" of application "concepts" for its store.

Further, Murphy promised the application storefront would initially be available for BlackBerry devices, and would launch on Windows Mobile devices in the "middle of the year." Murphy declined to provide a launch window for Verizon's VCast Application Store for Android phones, but did note the app store is heading to Verizon Android phones.

Interestingly, and perhaps unintentionally, Murphy offered a jab at Apple and its trailblazing app store by noting that Verizon's storefront effort would focus on "quality, not quantity." Apple's App Store recently passed the 100,000-app mark, a number that dwarfs app store efforts by the likes of Android and BlackBerry.

Related articles:
Verizon Wireless to launch VCast Application Store in Q4
Verizon Wireless introducing VCast Apps store in Q4
Verizon: No registration or testing fees for new app store

ChangeWave forecasts that Motorola's Droid stands to benefit most from consumer demand for Android devices--in fact, 13 percent of shoppers say they plan to purchase a Motorola smartphone in the next three months, a 12-point jump over September 2009 and the handset maker's first increase in a ChangeWave consumer smartphone survey in three years. In addition, 9 percent of prospective smartphone buyers are now eyeing HTC devices, up from 5 percent in the previous survey, corresponding with the November release of the Droid Eris. Word of mouth is also working in Android's favor, with 72 percent of current Android users telling ChangeWave they're very satisfied with their smartphone, behind iPhone users at 77 percent but well ahead of BlackBerry (41 percent), Palm OS/webOS (33 percent) and Windows Mobile (25 percent).

Not all Android purchases are looming in the immediate future--it appears that a large number of consumers received Android devices over the holidays as well. Mobile application analytics provider Flurry reports Android Market app downloads increased 22 percent between November and December, with downloads to Droid units up 93 percent on Christmas Day over previous Fridays last month. In all, the Droid now accounts for 49 percent of all Android Market downloads, followed by the myTouch 3G at 18 percent, the HTC Hero at 17 percent and the G1 at 16 percent. Flurry adds that Apple's App Store download volume is still more than 13 times greater than Android Market--regardless, Android has made enormous strides over the past year, and that trend will continue in 2010. -Jason

Simonson goes on to state that Nokia's resurgence will hinge on "redefining mobilization of all aspects of the office," with a pronounced emphasis on context, citing its 2009 agreement with Microsoft to integrate Microsoft Office software into upcoming Symbian smartphones. "By 2011, our efforts will start producing results, as we will be at par with Apple and RIM in smartphones," Simonson continues. "Not only we draw level with them, we will also win the war because, in addition to email, we will be adding content, chat, music, entertainment and several other features, which will soon become very critical for success of any company in this space. Another crucial factor that will play a large role in our success is that we have the power of an open operating system coupled with the open distribution model that is not restricted by geographical or technology boundaries. Look at our targets for any segment of our devices for 2010--they are all 2 to 10 times that of any of our competitors."

Simonson adds that Nokia's revival also will depend on its global scale and reach. "Through an open system we are encouraging innovation," he says. "We are helping more people--I mean, developers who produce applications for our system--make money. They stand to make more money with us because, our OS is used not just by Nokia, but several other handset makers since it an open system. Next, their apps will be used across the world, as our reach is unmatched and therefore, we present them with the biggest audience to sell their products. An open system enables us to work faster at beating competition in the pockets we are not doing too well, by doing things differently."

For more on the Simonson interview:
- read this Economic Times article

Related articles:
Nokia planning just one Maemo phone in 2010
Sizing up Nokia's Ovi Store five months on
Nokia targets web developers via WRT plug-ins

In late December, Palm released version 1.3.5 of the Mojo SDK, promising Pre user enhancements including an improved App Catalog download experience, multiple simultaneous application downloads and improved battery life in areas with poor network coverage. "At CES in January, we'll be celebrating Palm's move out of its early access program and showcasing our full production developer program and the many ways Palm is innovating in this area," Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said during the firm's investor conference call last month. "We clearly recognize that having a critical mass of apps is important... After we open the door to all interested developers, we expect to have thousands in very short order."

For more on the Palm App Catalog benchmark:
- read this TechCrunch article

Twitter's revamped Developer Site promises to consolidate existing communications channels and tools into a single destination while adding tools including new reference documentation, search, API console, API status dashboard (external monitoring service) and clearer documentation of policies. "We are investing heavily in this area and will continue to improve the tools and content for the ecosystem to make sure that you have everything you need to get started and for continued support," Sarver adds. Twitter also is planning a two-day developer conference dubbed Chirp, scheduled to take place in San Francisco sometime this year.

For more on Twitter's developer efforts:
- read this Twitter Development Talk message

Related articles:
Twitter now profitable thanks to search agreements
Twitter targeting 2010 as its ‘revenue year'

In early December, Flurry reported the iPod touch accounts for about 40 percent of all iPhone OS-based devices sold worldwide--moreover, the firm contends that the portable media player may boast even greater long-term strategic value than its smartphone sibling, because it's building a loyal consumer base among teens and pre-teens representing the next generation of iPhone users. "When today's young iPod touch users age by five years, they will already have iTunes accounts, saved personal contacts to their iPod touch devices, purchased hundreds of apps and songs, and mastered the iPhone OS user interface," Flurry notes. "This translates into loyalty and switching costs, allowing Apple to seamlessly ‘graduate' young users from the iPod touch to the iPhone." As of June 2009, the iPhone accounted for 57 percent of application user sessions tracked by Flurry--the iPod touch represented 31 percent, and Android devices were responsible for 10 percent. As of late November, total user sessions increased across all three devices, with the iPhone accounting for just 50 percent of sessions on average--the iPod touch's share of user sessions grew to 35 percent, followed by Android at 14 percent.

For more on the App Store's December growth spurt:
- read this Flurry blog entry

Related articles:
Study says iPod touch users slower to upgrade mobile OS
AdMob: iPod touch ad requests triple

That's not all. "Starting with Android 1.6, devices can have different screen densities and sizes," writes Google software engineer Raphaël Moll. "There are several devices out there that fall in this category, so make sure to adapt your application to support different screen sizes and take advantage of devices with small, low density (e.g QVGA) and normal, high density (e.g. WVGA) screens. Note that Android Market will not list your application on small screen devices unless its manifest explicitly indicates support for ‘small' screen sizes. Make sure you properly configure the emulator and test your application on different screen sizes before uploading to Market." Moll also reminds developers that all Android 2.0 devices will upgrade to 2.0.1 before the end of the year, recommending updates for applications using features specific to 2.0.

While the stated objective of Moll's post is "to provide [developers] with the tools and information to make it easy for you to target specific versions of the platform or all the versions that are deployed in volume," the Device Dashboard nevertheless paints a sobering portrait of an Android ecosystem that's splintering off in an increasing number of directions. Insiders even suggest that one of the motivating factors behind Google's rumored development of its own branded Android smartphone is to guarantee a consistent user experience across its applications. For now, developer interest in Android remains strong: According to data released by applications tracker AndroLib, Android Market added 3107 new applications in November, and 2732 new apps so far this month. But with so many new Android devices in all shapes and sizes expected in 2010, the question isn't whether the platform will grow too big for developers to ignore--it's whether it will grow too big for them to manage. -Jason

P.S. Please note FierceDeveloper will be on publishing hiatus until Tuesday, Jan. 5. Have a memorable and safe holiday season, and see you back here in 2010.

"We have an aggressive webOS software roadmap in place and we'll continue to deliver enhancements to our user experience on a regular basis. This includes investing heavily to make webOS a preeminent development platform," Rubenstein said, according to PreCentral.Net. "At CES in January, we'll be celebrating Palm's move out of its early access program and showcasing our full production developer program and the many ways Palm in innovating in this area. We clearly recognize that having a critical mass of apps is important. Today, the Palm App Catalog has over 800 apps from our early access partners. Almost 10 times the number of apps we had in our last earnings call. After we open the door to all interested developers, we expect to have thousands in very short order."

Rubinstein also touted webOS as a platform uniquely positioned to leverage the migration of content and communications to the cloud. "In particular, our over-the-air software update capability is a powerful way to continue to evolve and improve our products even after they're in customers' hands. Since the launch of the Pre, we've provided eight over-the-air webOS updates and each has included a wide variety of new functions, improvements, and fixes--ranging from things like support for new Synergy partners such as LinkedIn and Yahoo to improvements in email and messaging to enhanced security measures for the enterprise. Our 1.3.1 update was made available to webOS users in mid-November and within just one week it was installed by 70 percent of our userbase. This tells us that consumers are quickly learning to appreciate and look forward to this Palm capability."

In related Palm news, the company said its Ares mobile application development platform is now in open beta, promising a complete set of integrated software creation tools hosted entirely within the browser in an effort to reduce the barriers restricting web programmers from shifting their attention to the mobile segment. Writing on the Palm Developer Network Blog, Palm Developer Community manager Chuq Von Rospach notes that Ares features a drag-and-drop interface builder, a robust code editor, a visual debugger and built-in source control integration. Ares is optimized for Safari version 4 and higher, Chrome version 3 and higher and Firefox version 3.5 and higher.

For more on webOS 1.3.5:
- read this PreCentral.Net article

Related articles:
Palm dumps Windows Mobile in favor of webOS
Palm to release webOS SDK, allow legacy apps

"What's it all mean?" Chitika asks. "Well, despite its hype, iPhone OS 3.0 had very little to offer iPod Touch users. Push notifications? MMS? Tethering? Essentially useless on a device that relies on WiFi for a connection. iPod Touch users are essentially asked to pay for copy/paste, in-app purchases, and the ability to buy a segment of the latest apps from the app store."

For more on Apple mobile OS usage:
- check out the Chitika website

Related articles:
Youth movement driving iPod touch app usage
AdMob: iPod touch ad requests triple

Despite growing consumer interest in mobile applications, ABI expects revenues from app sales will decline by 2013 as competition forces downward pressure on prices. Another trend to watch: An increase of free and advertiser-supported applications rivaling premium apps, typified by the launch of the free Google Maps Navigation turn-by-turn service.

For more on the ABI Research forecast:
- read this release

Related articles:
The App Store hits 2 billion downloads
Droid's debut galvanizes Android app development

To its credit, Microsoft has admitted its mobile missteps. Speaking in October at a private breakfast in Boston, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company understands it must make significant strides with the long-in-gestation Windows Mobile 7 operating system, adding "We know we have to kill on that one." At the recent Connect! technology summit in London, Microsoft UK head of mobility Phil Moore was also candid in assessing the firm's struggles: "We're still playing catch-up," he admitted. "When Apple came on to the scene a couple of years ago, it threw away the rulebook and reinvented it. We unfortunately don't have that luxury. It's true--Apple caught us all napping. It launched something that was very iconic, new and unseen with a very good user interface." Moore then dropped a bombshell, admitting Windows Mobile 7 has been pushed back to late 2010. "It is definitely coming," Moore added. "You're going to see a lot more on Windows Mobile 7. Giving the enterprise users and consumers what they want will be part of Windows Mobile 7. You'll get flexibility on a much easier touch UI."

Given how much the mobile landscape has changed in the last 12 months, it's impossible to imagine how much further the industry will evolve in the year ahead, and even tougher to imagine where Windows Mobile 7 will fit into the equation when it finally does arrive. Microsoft has already said WinMo 7 is its last shot at a comeback--how could the project veer so far off schedule? Because no matter how innovative or user-friendly the OS turns out to be, a Q4 2010 release seems like too little, too late. Asked in a recent interview with The Washington Times what keeps him up at night, Google CEO Eric Schmidt responded "I'm always worried about Microsoft. The position they have with Windows and Office is so profoundly powerful." With Windows Mobile 7 out of the picture, something tells me Schmidt's resting a lot easier right now. -Jason

A few weeks ago, Stern also said he'd been approached by terrestrial radio executives who want him to work for them. Radio giant Clear Channel recently told Bloomberg BusinessWeek it might be interested in hiring Stern.

By disclosing these negotiations, Stern may be trying to up the pressure on Sirius to offer him another lucrative deal. Sirius currently pays Stern, his agent and his staff $100 million a year to air Stern's radio show on Sirius exclusively. But in the years since that contract came into effect, Sirius's growth has slowed. And its renewed focus on financial performance may forbid writing another large check.

So, if he wants to make as much money in the future, Stern may, indeed, have to look elsewhere. 'American Idol' would certainly offer a lot of money -- and tons of exposure.

The release marks the conclusion of the huge effort to turn Symbian, the most commonly used smartphone software, from a proprietary operating system only available to developers at companies like Nokia into an open-sourced one, accessible to programmers around the world. Symbian engineered the move as rival Google made a splash with Android, a rival open-source mobile operating system that's gaining steam. By 2012, Android will surpass Windows Phone and the iPhone to become the world's No. 2 most popular mobile operating system behind Symbian, according to Gartner. As rival software gained market share, support for Symbian began to flag. Symbian hopes the new, open-sourced software will help reverse the slide. "We'll see proliferation of converged devices based on Symbian happen this year," says Larry Berkin, general manager for Symbian in the U.S.

In the series, 11 gamers from across the country will compete "in grueling physical and mental challenges to win a position as a game tester at SCEA and a $5,000 signing bonus, all under the scrutiny of a panel of judges, including actor/comedian and diehard gamer Hal Sparks," according to Sony. The Tester, which was designed by some of the same people who gave us TV reality series Rock of Love and The Surreal Life, will be available for download on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable.

"The Tester will follow contestants over eight episodes as emotions run high, alliances form and they battle with brain and brawn," according to Sony's press release. "While donning giant slingshots, paintball guns, and human hamster balls, contestants will be put to the test in a series of elimination challenges shaped around the skills necessary to be a game tester, including dexterity, communication skills and mental prowess." Cast members range in age from 22 to 36 years old and include a student, a paramedic and a used car salesman. Check out the trailer right here.

The move is a nod to the fact that many gamers play games rather than watch television nowadays. But, like the rest of us, they enjoy reality TV shows -- particularly when those series follow their fellow gamers.

Chances are, selling Leap won't be easy, however. As Michael Nelson, an analyst at Nelson Alpha Research, points out in his Feb. 1 note, "We believe an acquisition by AT&T or Verizon is unlikely, owing to significant regulatory hurdles associated with the companies' high market share at 30% and 32% respectively." A deal would mean major divestitures.

The most likely buyer, MetroPCS, has long resisted merging with Leap. The two companies' cultures differ, and its management had been known to exchange potshots during a prior merger attempt.

Moreover, the combination would basically bring together two companies that are struggling to grow and prosper. In the first nine months of 2009, Leap's losses mounted. Metro is in the black, and growing, but that may change. Amidst rising competition, both companies have been aggressive on pricing, and Metro's financials could suffer as a result. "We expect no free cash flow generation in 2010 and note that next year's free cash flow generation will be highly dependant on how far the company can cut capital spending," Pali Capital analyst Walter Piecyk wrote in a Jan. 14 note.

Leap has other options: A private-equity investor could take an interest in Leap, or facilitate a Leap-Metro merger. A foreign telco could buy Leap to gain a toehold in the U.S. market.

Yet, some vendors failed to benefit from this dramatic growth spurt. Take Motorola. The company reported yesterday that while its smartphone shipments increased in the fourth quarter, the company's overall unit sales dropped, and its market share declined from 4.7% of the global market in the third quarter to 3.7% in the fourth. Motorola expects further shipment declines in the first quarter of this year. Based on IDC numbers, Motorola clearly underperforms the market.

Nokia, on the other hand, has done well. The company, which also reported on Jan. 28, announced it has gained some market share. Clearly, even as the market begins to rise, it's not lifting all boats, though.

In a press release detailing the e-commerce giant’s solid all-around performance in the fourth quarter of 2009, CEO Jeff Bezos says, “Millions of people now own Kindles.” So, assuming that at least two million people have bought the device, and that each paid at least $259 – the cost of the least-expensive Kindle – Amazon now has a business worth more than $500 million in sales. Not bad for a product that’s a little more than two years old.

Amazon spokeswoman Mary Osako declines to specify whether the word “millions” was deliberately pluralized in the release. “We’re letting the quote stand for itself,” she says.

The size of the Kindle market has been the subject of much guesswork, since e-books are such a new and promising business. In 2008, Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney came up with a method of estimating sales based on a filing from Sprint, the former wireless carrier for all Kindles, and estimated 500,000 that year. Forrester Research recently estimated that 2.5 million Kindles have been sold, based on consumer surveys.

In other parts of the world, paying for multiple mobile devices is already commonplace. In Italy, people often own several phones, one for calling and one for messaging. And Americans should follow suit. In a few years, each American will own four or five mobile devices, each of them requiring a voice or a data plan, figures wireless expert Chetan Sharma.

A small percentage of Americans already pays for service for several mobile devices. Amazon's Kindle e-reader comes with wireless connectivity to AT&T's network priced in. Some consumers pay monthly charges for data cards, allowing them to connect their laptops to wireless networks. The iPad, which some analysts expect to sell 5 million units in its first year, could push the idea of paying for service for non-phone devices into the mainstream. If the iPad takes off, that is.

That, in turn, could lead to the introduction of family plans for devices, an idea analysts have talked about for years. A carrier might sell you a pool of wireless minutes and data access to be used by your stable of three or four wireless devices, such as a tablet, a gaming console, a car navigation system and your phone.

Clearly, as Americans snap up more wireless gadgets that require wireless plans, carriers stand to benefit, big time. Their costs in pushing these gadgets to consumers should be low: The devices' manufacturers will do the heavy lifting of marketing and selling the gadgets in their stores. The devices won't necessarily have to be subsidized; AT&T won't subsidize the iPad, Jefferies analyst Jonathan Schildkraut says in a Jan. 27 note. The carriers will likely have to share service revenues with the manufacturers, though, and those service fees may be smaller than regular phone charges. But even those fees could drive the carriers' growth for years to come, Sharma says.

The iPad is designed to access the same applications available for
iPods and the iPhone on Apple's popular App Store. There's even
software that will automatically re-size existing applications for
better viewing on the larger screen.

But even Jobs, during his presentation in San Francisco, wondered
aloud whether Apple has what it takes to establish a third category of
products between smartphones and laptops. He says yes, but it's not that clear.

One reason is because there was no immediate word on any of the
rumored subscription content deals with Hollywood and other content
providers that might make the iPad a must-have gadget that moves beyond niche
markets such as education, health and graphics arts.

Much has been made about Apple's attempts to revive the markets for various forms of media, but little was said at the Apple event to clarify just how the iPad will do that.

Jobs' announcement of Apple's foray into the electronic book market also
left questions about the price of the books and whether consumers will
be able to seamlessly sync them among Apple devices.

The challenge for Apple is whether it can convince the millions of
consumers who already own an iPhone or iPod Touch, or are content with
their notebook computers, that it's worth shelling out at least
$499--the base price for six model categories -- for a larger
touch-screen machine. The iPad offers 10 hours of battery life even
when playing video, which should help. And the touch display helps distinguish the iPad from Apple's MacBook notebook computer lineup as well as Windows-based notebooks and netbooks.

Apple did strike what should be a consumer-pleasing deal with its
wireless carrier partner AT&T to offer two data plans, one for $14.99, the other for $29.99 unlimited monthly data. Combined with built-in Wi-Fi and free access to AT&T's national Wi-Fi hotspot network, the plans could make the iPad an all-around mobile device.

As expected, Apple announced it had struck deals with five of the major
book publishers to create its own store for downloading books in
electronic form. But many rival makers of mobile devices, including
Amazon's Kindle family and Sony's Reader ebooks, include mobile
broadband connections in the purchase price.

Early adopters enamored with all things Apple will flock to the iPad. But until Apple gets developers to create more iPad-specific applications that showcase the hardware, it may face the same mainstream consumer apathy that has plagued other tablet-specific devices created over the past decade by its rivals.

Yet, whether Sprint's aggressive marketing has paid off is debatable. "The astronomical growth in ad spending by Sprint is not translating into increased gross additions," Moffett writes. "Sprint accounted for 26% of Big Four ad spending, but just 14% of Big Four post-paid gross additions." While Sprint is struggling to retain its subscribers, Verizon Wireless, which actually slashed its ad spending 7% last year, has managed to grow its customer base. While ad spending by U.S.'s six largest wireless carriers declined steadily throughout 2008, it jumped 4.3% last year, Moffett estimates.

What's clear is that carriers' ad spending no longer translates into subscriber gains. As Sprint has kept losing subscribers over the past several years, many analysts blamed that on lower advertising spending by the company. Well, now that Sprint has ramped that spending up, it's not helping as much as hoped.

As of Jan. 14, a number of eBayers were peddling these smartphones for a much more realistic $300 or so, and I've even seen a price as low as $212. There were more than 300 Nexus One devices listed for sale. By comparison, the site offered 1,519 listings of iPhone 3GS devices that were also not tied to a carrier contract. Some of the more reasonably priced Nexus One offerings have garnered more than 10 bids; I'd counted a total of about 100 bids for the phones that were listed today.

The take-away: When the iPhone, for example, came out, it took expense and some effort for people to unlock it prior to selling it via eBay. So the iPhone typically sold for a premium to the retail price for weeks after coming out (with the exception of damaged iPhones). Nexus One discounts -- on new, undamaged phones -- seem to have arrived much more quickly. And it's unlikely resellers will be able to make an extra buck. I wouldn't expect to see an extensive resale market for the Google phone.

The relatively low number of bids may also indicate low interest in the device from shoppers from other countries. Google plans to make the phone available in other countries later in the year. Currently, the smartphone is only available in the U.S., and I suspect most of the people bidding for it on eBay live elsewhere.

The appointment likely signals Skype's increasing determination to make further inroads into mobile, where it's not had as much traction as hoped. Several years ago, Hutchison Whampoa began offering 3 Skypephone. Skype has also made the service available as an application consumers can download onto some of the most popular smartphones, such as the iPhone. But Skype is yet to conquer mobile phones in a big way.

Flint may help change that. While at Sony Ericsson, he'd overseen the launch of popular phones like the Walkman line. And he may have the industry contacts and expertise necessary to launch more Skype-branded phones, and to get the software onto more handsets directly at the factory. He may also be able help Skype to make its software and its business model more attractive to handset makers and their carrier customers.

What's more, Flint also has connections and experience with consumer electronics other than mobile phones, having worked in marketing for Sony. Those connections could come in handy now: All consumer electronics, including digital photo frames, cameras and even televisions are getting connected to the Web. And Flint may be able to help Skype get onto more consumer electronics gear, wireless (as is increasingly the case) as well as hooked onto the Internet via cables.

At first glance, that may not seem like much. Apple sold 1.6 million iPhone 3GS devices in the first week. Motorola sold 250,000 Droid handsets in the first week they became available last November. But here's a difference: iPhone carrier AT&T and Droid carrier Verizon Wireless have spent hundreds of millions of dollars promoting the devices in their TV ads, on the radio, and online. Google and its partners, T-Mobile USA and HTC, have spent virtually no money on advertising the Nexus. Google has promoted the phone on its search page. For a phone promoted and sold exclusively online, Nexus One has likely done quite well.

The unit volume may also have been affected by some stumbles, as Google and its partners figure out the best way to sell phones online. Some Nexus buyers have complained of confusing customer service and other issues. Some potential buyers may be waiting for Google and its partners to iron out the wrinkles before snapping up the device.

Sony and Microsoft plan to challenge rival Nintendo's dominance of the current console generation with add-ons they hope will deliver a more sophisticated take on motion control than the motion-sensing technology in the three-year-old Wii. But Fils-Aime, in an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, said: "We are confident the Wii home entertainment console has a very long life in front of it."

The Japanese videogame maker is betting that upcoming installments of its franchise hits Metroid Prime and Super Mario will reinvigorate the red-hot sales that kept the console in short supply for the first two years of its life.

Nintendo in October issued its first profit warning in six years as sales slowed sharply and the strength of the Yen, relative to the currencies of the U.S. dollar and other countries where it sells its products, sapped profits.

Industry watchers and analysts have been speculating for months that Nintendo is prepping an update to the Wii that offers more sophisticated high-definition gaming. Sony, which already has HD gaming on its PlayStation 3, this year also plans to release software that will allow PS3 owners to watch movies and play games in 3-D. The PS3 has seen a surge in sales after Sony cut the price of its base model and introduced a slimmer version of the game system.

Nintendo on Jan. 13 hoped to counter recent moves by Sony and Microsoft to transform their consoles from gaming consoles into home entertainment platforms by announcing that it will let members this spring stream Netflix movies and TV episodes to the televisions via the Wii console.

To watch content, Wii users will need a special "instant-streaming" disc that Netflix will mail out to members who request a copy. They will then be able to use the Wii's motion controller to navigate through their Netflix account and pick what they want to watch.

Microsoft has long offered the ability to stream Netflix through the Xbox 360 as part of a premium service plan in its Xbox Live online platform, while Sony recently began delivering the same service under similar conditions to the Nintendo agreement.

With the outcome of this generation's console wars still very much in doubt as each manufacturer races to up the ante, many analysts believe it's only a matter of time before Nintendo is forced to add new technology instead of new software to the Wii.

Fils-Aime suggested no such announcement would be make at the upcoming Game Developers Conference in March in San Francisco but did not elaborate on the type of announcements Nintendo will make at the annual gaming confab, the E3 Expo, in mid-June.

Zimbra, which has more than 55 million users, lets VMware sell Web-based e-mail and calendar software that’s used by companies including H&R Block, Bechtel, and General Electric’s India division for use by their own workers. Internet Service Providers including Comcast and NTT Communications also offer Zimbra e-mail to their subscribers.

The acquisition, VMware’s second in five months, continues its trajectory toward building a portfolio of software that’s broader than the virtualization software for servers that’s propelled the company to a projected $1.97 billion in 2009 sales, according to a Bloomberg News estimate. Last August, VMware paid $420 million to buy SpringSource, a maker of programming tools for Java developers.

VMware hopes to use its programming tools and the new Zimbra e-mail software to create additional demand for its core virtualization software, which improves the efficiency of computer servers, says Chief Operating Officer Tod Nielsen. “We view this as a first step toward moving up the stack” toward more software applications.

Nielsen, VMware Chief Executive Paul Maritz, and Executive Vice-President Richard McAniff are all former executives at Microsoft, whose Windows Server products compete with VMware’s software. VMware is employing a strategy similar to the one Microsoft used to dominate the desktop computing market, adding software applications that can create demand for an underlying system. “Paul and I learned the West Coast offense,” says Nielsen. “We’re now at a new team, and there are some plays that work well.”