The Dawn of Newspaper Media

In early 2009 President Barack Obama said: "I know that every newspaper and media are currently fighting hard for a survival to response to the global media changes. Some may just fight to remain exist. Your success as a media industry is also very important to the success of our democracy".

The financial crisis which started in the US has now spread worldwide to become a global economic crisis, reducing newspapers revenues and profits and causing bancruptcy to some. The decline in newspaper revenues is also as a result of the growth of online media, particularly the growth of multimedia services. The new multimedia technology enabled the convergence of media technology, telecommunication and computer. Technology has also affected the people's lifestyle. News and information are fast and readily obtained through the Internet, television, radio and handphone, PDA and netbooks that are getting smaller, cheapr, more sophisticated and smaller year after year.New innovations are regularly introduced in the multmedia technology, causing increasing decline in the conventional information dissemination through newspaper media.

In the past 6 to 7 years during the reign of President Bush, newpapers and media had not done good job to bring honest information to the people of America and the world, because they had received large advertising and campaign revenues from the Bush Administration, and forgot to tell the truth about the impeding war in Iraq that that had caused death to hundred of thousands of innocent people and destruction to houses, buildings, infrastructures and culture. The same conventional newspapers and media also forgot to prepare for the impeding battle against new multimedia technology, and they now cought by surprise.

US and Russia differ on a Treaty for Cyberspace

June 28, 2009

By JOHN MARKOFF and ANDREW E. KRAMER

The United States and Russia are locked in a fundamental dispute over how to counter the growing threat of cyberwar attacks that could wreak havoc on computer systems and the Internet.

Both nations agree that cyberspace is an emerging battleground. The two sides are expected to address the subject when President Obama visits Russia next week and at the General Assembly of the United Nations in November, according to a senior State Department official.

But there the agreement ends.

Russia favors an international treaty along the lines of those negotiated for chemical weapons and has pushed for that approach at a series of meetings this year and in public statements by a high-ranking official.

The United States argues that a treaty is unnecessary. It instead advocates improved cooperation among international law enforcement groups. If these groups cooperate to make cyberspace more secure against criminal intrusions, their work will also make cyberspace more secure against military campaigns, American officials say.

“We really believe it’s defense, defense, defense,” said the State Department official, who asked not to be identified because authorization had not been given to speak on the record. “They want to constrain offense. We needed to be able to criminalize these horrible 50,000 attacks we were getting a day.”

Any agreement on cyberspace presents special difficulties because the matter touches on issues like censorship of the Internet, sovereignty and rogue actors who might not be subject to a treaty.

United States officials say the disagreement over approach has hindered international law enforcement cooperation, particularly given that a significant proportion of the attacks against American government targets are coming from China and Russia.

And from the Russian perspective, the absence of a treaty is permitting a kind of arms race with potentially dangerous consequences.

Officials around the world recognize the need to deal with the growing threat of cyberwar. Many countries, including the United States, are developing weapons for it, like “logic bombs” that can be hidden in computers to halt them at crucial times or damage circuitry; “botnets” that can disable or spy on Web sites and networks; or microwave radiation devices that can burn out computer circuits miles away.

The Pentagon is planning to create a military command to prepare for both defense and offensive computer warfare. And last month, President Obama released his cybersecurity strategy and said he would appoint a “cybersecurity coordinator” to lead efforts to protect government computers, the air traffic control system and other essential systems. The administration also emphasizes the benefits of building international cooperation.

The Russian and American approaches — a treaty and a law enforcement agreement — are not necessarily incompatible. But they represent different philosophical approaches.

In a speech on March 18, Vladislav P. Sherstyuk, a deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, a powerful body advising the president on national security, laid out what he described as Russia’s bedrock positions on disarmament in cyberspace. Russia’s proposed treaty would ban a country from secretly embedding malicious codes or circuitry that could be later activated from afar in the event of war.

Other Russian proposals include the application of humanitarian laws banning attacks on noncombatants and a ban on deception in operations in cyberspace — an attempt to deal with the challenge of anonymous attacks. The Russians have also called for broader international government oversight of the Internet.

But American officials are particularly resistant to agreements that would allow governments to censor the Internet, saying they would provide cover for totalitarian regimes. These officials also worry that a treaty would be ineffective because it can be almost impossible to determine if an Internet attack originated from a government, a hacker loyal to that government, or a rogue acting independently.

The unique challenge of cyberspace is that governments can carry out deceptive attacks to which they cannot be linked, said Herbert Lin, director of a study by the National Research Council, a private, nonprofit organization, on the development of cyberweapons.

This challenge became apparent in 2001, after a Navy P-3 surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter plane, said Linton Wells II, a former high-ranking Pentagon official who now teaches at the National Defense University. The collision was followed by a huge increase in attacks on United States government computer targets from sources that could not be identified, he said.

Similarly, after computer attacks in Estonia in April 2007 and in the nation of Georgia last August, the Russian government denied involvement and independent observers said the attacks could have been carried out by nationalist sympathizers or by criminal gangs.

The United States is trying to improve cybersecurity by building relationships among international law enforcement agencies. State Department officials hold out as a model the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, which took effect in 2004 and has been signed by 22 nations, including the United States but not Russia or China.

But Russia objects that the European convention on cybercrime allows the police to open an investigation of suspected online crime originating in another country without first informing local authorities, infringing on traditional ideas of sovereignty. Vladimir V. Sokolov, deputy director of the Institute for Information Security Issues, a policy organization, noted that Russian authorities routinely cooperated with foreign police organizations when they were approached.

This is not the first time the issue of arms control for cyberspace has been raised.

In 1996, at the dawn of commercial cyberspace, American and Russian military delegations met secretly in Moscow to discuss the subject. The American delegation was led by an academic military strategist, and the Russian delegation by a four-star admiral. No agreement emerged from the meeting, which has not previously been reported.

Later, the Russian government repeatedly introduced resolutions calling for cyberspace disarmament treaties before the United Nations. The United States consistently opposed the idea.

In late April, Russian military representatives indicated an interest in renewed negotiations at a Russian-sponsored meeting on computer security in Garmisch, Germany.

John Arquilla, an expert in military strategy at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., who led the American delegation at the 1996 talks, said he had received almost no interest from within the American military after those initial meetings. “It was a great opportunity lost,” he said.

Unlike American officials who favor tightening law enforcement relationships, Mr. Arquilla continues to believe in cyberspace weapons negotiations, he said. He noted that the treaties on chemical weapons had persuaded many nations not to make or stockpile such weapons.

The United States and China have not held high-level talks on cyberwar issues, specialists say. But there is some evidence that the Chinese are being courted by Russia for support of an arms control treaty for cyberspace.

“China has consistently attached extreme importance to matters of information security, and has always actively supported and participated in efforts by the international community dedicated to maintaining Internet safety and cracking down on criminal cyber-activity,” Qin Gang, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said in a statement.

Whether the American or Russian approach prevails, arms control experts said, major governments are reaching a point of no return in heading off a cyberwar arms race.

MySpace will cut 67% of Its International Staff

June 24, 2009
By Robert Clark
telecomasia.net

Struggling social networking site MySpace has announced it will cut two-thirds of its international staff and close four offices outside the US.

The announcement comes a week after it said it would eliminate 30% of all staff.

Under the new arrangements, London, Berlin and Sydney are the company’s new international hubs.

MySpace China, which is locally-owned, and its Japan JV are not affected.

The site lost $89 million for its parent company, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., in the latest quarter, while rival Facebook has just overtaken it for the first time in terms of monthly visitors.

In the last two months News Ltd has appointed former Facebook COO Owen Van Natta as CEO and ex-AOL exec Mike Jones as COO.

“As we conducted our review of the company, it was clear that internationally, just as in the US, MySpace’s staffing had become too big and cumbersome to be sustainable in current market conditions,” Van Natta said in a statement.

LTE will dominate 4G, but INTEL will continue to support WiMAX

June 19, 2009
By John C. Tanner
CommunicAsia Show Daily

LTE looks set to dominate 4G, but Intel said it’s not backing down on Wimax and that it still has a role to play in mobile broadband development.

With most of the world’s cellcos committed to LTE proponents argue that Wimax is a niche player in the 4G story that will never achieve the scale of GSM.

“The answer is not in the technology, but the business model and the economies of scale, and Wimax simply cannot compare to the scales that HSPA has already achieved and will build on with LTE,” said Alan Hadden, president of the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) at the Next Generation Broadband Forum summit at CommunicAsia.

Later in the day on an LTE/Wimax panel, however, Garth Collier, Intel’s Asia/Japan MD for Wimax, said Intel doesn’t expect the world to go fully Wimax, but it will have its place, and Intel will continue to champion it.

“We’re pragmatic about this, of course, but this directive is from the CEO: we’re not blinking on Wimax,” said Collier.

Collier added that Wimax has had its trial by fire over the last few years with standards and rollouts. “A lot of that has been doing what LTE’s going to be doing as well - sorting out standards, testing, network trials and deployments. We’ve gone through that learning curve.”

ABI Research vice president Jake Saunders told the Show Daily that Wimax still has a strong pitch to make, especially with greenfield players that would otherwise never get a 3G license.

“They’ve still got about a two-year window to build up a sustainable business case,” he said, though he added that devices will be crucial to that equation.

In the meantime, while Wimax and LTE sport technical similarities on the RAN side with OFDMA, they’re less likely to come together in the core any time so on.

Asked if the industry might see structural separation for Wimax and LTE, with branded RANs connected to a common LTE/SAE core, Collier said the Wimax Forum isn’t really looking at it, and plans to have end-to-end certification for Wimax ready in the next 12 months.

Takehiro Nakamura, director of NTT DoCoMo’s radio system group and chairman of 3GPP TSG-RAN, said that the 3GPP has been discussing interworking between LTE and Wi-Fi, which could also include Wimax.

But, he added, “the status so far is not that good. It could happen in the future but it depends on deployments from operators.”

ARIN and CAIDA Announce Survey Results on IPv6 Penetration and Adoption Plans

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), with the help of the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA), surveyed 1100 people across the world to gather data regarding current and future use of IPv6. Results suggest that interest in IPv6 is growing, although activity is more likely to occur in research and education networks or those serving government needs than in the for-profit (and generally low-margin) commercial sector.

IP addresses are the unique numbers computers and other electronic devices use to identify themselves and pass information over the Internet. With only 15% of the prevalent IPv4 address space left available for allocation through Regional Internet Registries such as ARIN, the global Internet community is taking urgent action to ensure continued access to essential network services by implementing a newer version of addressing called IPv6.

Most survey respondents indicated that their reasons for getting IPv6 address space are to be "ahead of the game" or to make sure IPv6 is supported in their products. Other motivations for supporting IPv6 include customer demand, research, and government mandate.

Respondents acknowledge remaining hurdles to deploying and supporting IPv6 technology. According to the survey, hurdles are slightly less likely to be network-level technical issues and more likely to be either lack of application support or user demand. Other obstacles noted included: limited IPv6 expertise; lack of support from transit providers and vendors; and upgrade costs.

Despite these hurdles, around 50% of respondents said they plan to work toward full IPv6 adoption. ARIN President and CEO Raymond A. Plzak said, "We're excited to see discussion and activity surrounding IPv6 adoption throughout the world, at all levels in all sizes of organizations. We will continue working with the Internet community to assist however possible."

Added Dr. Kimberly Claffy, Director and Principal Investigator at CAIDA, "It is great news that we're starting to establish a baseline history of IPv6 penetration across the world. The data collected from this survey will further support ongoing research on IPv6 issues."

About the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

ARIN is a nonprofit corporation that provides services related to the provision of Internet number resources -- IPv4, IPv6, and Autonomous System numbers -- in its service region, which includes Canada, many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands, and the United States.

About the Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA):

CAIDA is a collaborative undertaking among organizations in the commercial, government, and research sectors aimed at promoting greater cooperation in the engineering and maintenance of a robust, scalable global Internet infrastructure.

SOURCE American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

Japan Pay-TV and Broadband Sector Report

Table(s) / Data included in file:
Pay-TV & Broadband Historicals and Projections (2002 - 2018)
Cable, DTH, IPTV, ARPU and Subscription Fees
Analog / Digital Subs
ARPU and Sub Fees
HDTV, SDTV, PVR, VOD Subs
HDTV, PVR, SDTV Sub Fees
Penetration by Platform
Total Advertising
TV Advertising
Pay-TV Advertising,
Content Spends
TV Channel Ad Sales
TV Channel Sub Fees
Broadband Subs, ARPUs (Cable, Telco, Wireless)
VOIP Telephony

Operator Profiles incl. P&L
Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM)
Sky Perfect JSAT
Japan Cable Net
Nippon Telegraphy and Telephone Corporation (NTT)

Malaysian Advertising Expenditure gain +3% in April 2009

According to gross, rate-card based data from Nielsen Media Research (NMR), Malaysian adspends for TV and print media (~90% contributors to the total pie), grew 2.7% Y/Y in April 2009, but were flat on a monthly basis.

Print gross spends were marginally below flat (-0.2%), something of an improvement after six consecutive months of significant decline. The partial improvement was due to growth at Malay dailies, though numbers at English and Chinese language newspapers remain weak.

TV gross spends were up ~7% Y/Y, boosted by decent gains for Media Prima stations (+5.5% in aggregate), while TV1 and TV2 were up more than 20% in aggregate.

IPTV gaining momentum in Japan

IPTV Getting Serious in Japan

IPTV is finally picking up pace, bolstered by a refocused NTT and others such as K-Opticom, as well as regulatory approval for HD terrestrial broadcasts over fiber broadband networks.

IPTV users numbered only 0.55 mil. at end-2008 but are likely to grow to 1.05 mil. by end-2009 and 1.6 mil. by end-2010, according to projections from Media Partners Asia (MPA), boosted by competitive bundling and discounted price structures from the likes of NTT.

Cable and satellite platforms owned by J:COM (4817.T) and Sky Perfect JSAT (9412.T) continue to dominate with ~70% market share in pay-TV, but subscriber growth over their cable and satellite networks is slowing at a significant pace. A recent monthly decline in subs at J:COM has served as a wake-up call for its management as it looks to re-ignite subscriber growth with new sales and content strategies. Sky Perfect JSAT is looking to HD expansion to boost subscriber growth.

HIKARI TV gaining Criticl Mass

Hikari TV Gaining Critical Mass

NTT’s IPTV service, branded Hikari TV and operated by NTT Plala, has surpassed our forecasts and beat company targets with more than 700,000 users at end-May 2009. Company management expects this number to grow to 1.1 mil. by March 2010, at which point the Hikari TV business could turn breakeven with profits flowing from 2011 onwards.

Hikari TV had 550,000 users at the end of March this year.

Close to 60% of Hikari TV customers are opting for the “Oeuchi-Plan” at a monthly fee of ¥3,675/US$39. Subscribers to this plan get more than 50 pay-TV channels and free access to a video-on-demand (VOD) library of over 5,000 titles, as well as, for FTTH/NGN broadband users in Tokyo and Osaka, HD terrestrial channels.

The other ~40% of users either buy basic tiers of 10 TV channels plus free VOD and HD terrestrial at ¥2,625 per month or 53 channels plus subscription VOD. The services are aggressively bundled with NTT's broadband FTTH services, which is adding ~2.5 mil. net new subs per year. NTT's video services are offered at a discount to market leaders such as J:COM.

Next up: HD DVRs, part of a bid to repliacate J:COM's growing success with HD DVR STBs as well as more BS content. Management also intend to improve churn, currently averaging 10 - 20,000 users per month because of retail buy through.

Android set for score of handsets, but risks fragmentation

Google watches carefully over its creation's early steps

By Wireless Watch

Posted in Mobile, 7th June 2009 07:02 GMT

Free whitepaper – Opening new doors with HD Video and Telepresence

This week's Computex show in Taiwan has thrown the spotlight on new device formats such as netbooks, and the role that Linux hopes to take in those, which suggests Android could ride that wave soon. And on the other side of the world - at Google's annual developer conference in California - the message was rammed home, though the head of mobile platforms, Andy Rubin, admitted there was a danger of fragmentation.

In some ways, form factors like netbooks may be a better short term option for an immature system like Android, since it is rather less challenging than a smartphone on the software and multimedia front, but while Sony Ericsson is waiting for a more evolved version of the OS, Google still says there could be as many as 20 Android phones on the market by year end.

Enhancements for Android

Despite the focus on Linux netbooks in Taipei, Google was more engaged in convincing developers its store could rival Apple's and Nokia's, and its OS could challenge Symbian even in high end smartphones. Indeed, it refused to confirm reports that it has set up a group to work on Android for netbooks, even though some vendors like Acer are already promising netbooks running the OS. However, as Sony Ericsson has made clear with its decision to wait until release 2.0 to launch Android phones, we need to see this upgrade and some heavy duty multimedia capabilities before handsets based on the platform will get into the superphone league.

However, the conference saw Google highlighting the enhancements it plans to make Android go head-to-head with Symbian, and becoming more responsive to demands from the broader mobile developer community.

Android 2.0 is codenamed Donut and appears to be targeted at a wider range of devices than the current version, as it will support QVGA, HVGA and WVGA resolutions. This takes it beyond the 320 x 480 HTC phones and suggests MIDs or tablets that can display an entire web page on a mobile screen – lending further weight to the assumption that Android will soon turn up in netbooks.

Developers were out in droves to hear about Android, and as EETimes points out, one reason for their interest – and a warning signal to Microsoft – is the price. "You get a solid operating system, browser and GSM stack for free," said an engineer from Garmin, which plans a navigation-oriented Android phone (as opposed to $8 to $15 per handset for a WinMo license).

Though Android is very much a work in progress – and contrary to many open source ideals, nearly all the work is being done by a small and tightly controlled Google team of about 65 people – it is already considered more sophisticated than other mobile Linux environments, according to many developer attendees.

Google representatives variously said there would be 16, 18 or even 20 smartphones this year, and Rubin said that the devices would be made by eight or nine different manufacturers.

Although the US has led the drive to Android so far, with China Mobile about to launch a version of the HTC Magic soon too, Rubin thinks Europe will be the driving force. He said fierce competition in the region would drive operators to create “highly distinctive versions” of the Android phone, emphasizing the way that the software platform supports cellcos' need to design their own branded user experiences rather than being subservient to the vendors.

Filling up the app store

There are now about 4,900 applications available for Android, and Rubin explained there are three broad models for the app store. One, vendors can download Android for free and provide access to the apps, but not Google software such as Gmail. Two, they can sign a distribution agreement to include Google apps on the phone. And three, the 'Google Experience' will allow manufacturers to use the Google logo on the phone, but have no say over the applications available. He said most of the phones set for launch this year would use option two.

To boost the store further, especially as Ovi Store launches (and gets over its initial and embarrassing technical hitches), Google is looking for new ways to lure programmers. Nokia has run developer contests and all the stores are talking up their particular revenue share deals, but Google has taken a leaf from American Idol and is offering hard cash.

---

The second Android Developer Challenge (ADC2) was announced at the developer conference - entries for ADC2, using the current Android version, 1.5 or Cupcake, will compete for three top prizes in each of 10 app categories. There will also be an additional cash prize for the top three programs across all categories. The 'best in show' pot is $250,000, with $150,000 and $125,000 for the overall second and third placed products. The top place in each category gets $100,000. The Idol twist is an element of consumer participation.

Anyone with a Cupcake device – which currently means a Vodafone/HTC Magic, though Samsung and HTC/T-Mobile are close behind – can download and rate any of the competing apps in two rounds of judging, says CNET. Users' votes will account for 45% of the grand total and the Google-selected judges' panel for the rest.

Fragmentation risk

Google is trying to strike a difficult balance between the potential anarchy of a truly open source environment, and the closed platform of Windows or Apple. It is putting itself in clear control of the Android agenda, while encouraging its own and third party developers to pursue their own projects, and open sourcing all the results.

Although some open source purists complain at the level of control the search giant exerts, and its sometimes poor communication with developers, it knows that an over-open approach could lead to fragmentation, the problem that has held back both Java and Linux on mobile devices.

Rubin acknowledged the danger of losing the advantage of a unified developer platform with the resulting huge target market for apps, as IMS Research analyst Chris Schreck highlighted the issue in a research note. Schreck says fragmentation resulting from the proliferation of devices will become a problem for the whole Android ecosystem, including developers, mobile operators and manufacturers – in fact, anyone developing custom user interfaces or proprietary software for the open source platform.

This will be a key feature of the platform, since operators and vendors want to differentiate and brand themselves with their own user experience, and see Android as a flexible platform to support this. The Open Handset Alliance, the alliance of companies supporting Android, will license one particular form of Android to each OEM or cellco, which in turn will split into multiple incompatible strains on the platform itself, Schreck said. That would increase support costs, reduce economies of scale and force developers to tweak apps for different variants.

“The idea of open source is to spread the cost of platform maintenance and evolution across the entire open source community and all the participants in the OHA, rather than having specific OEMS and MNOs having to bear the cost of making their own version of the platform entirely themselves,” Schreck told Telephony.

Other open source OSs like Symbian and LiMo have license conditions that require any changes to the code to be contributed back to the managing group, though this can slow down development and some companies will be unwilling to share their intellectual property. Rubin indicated that it was in the interests of operators and vendors to ensure fragmentation did not occur, though the creation of Android-based platforms by the likes of China Mobile suggests it may have to take a harder line in future.

Apple adds 'S" to iPhone 3G

AT&T shafts American fanbois

By Rik Myslewski in San Francisco

Posted in Mobile, 8th June 2009 20:44 GMT

Free whitepaper – Opening new doors with HD Video and Telepresence

WWDC Apple unveiled its updated iPhone today, and the only real surprise was its name: the iPhone 3G S.

Well, that and a new Voice Control application, plus the fact that the rest of the world will get the new iPhone 3.0's internet tethering and MMS capabilities before US iPhone users. AT&T won't offer MMS until "later this summer," and there was no mention at all of AT&T support for tethering.

AT&T lags behind the rest of the world in both these respects, considering how dozens of service providers in dozens of countries will support both features at launch. We can only assume that there is perhaps some hardball being played between AT&T and Cupertino's negotiating team.

Apple has decided to ride the iPhone 3G momentum for the foreseeable future, keeping the name of the new iPhone essentially the same and its look identical.

This focus was apparent in an ad for the iPhone 3G S shown during today's keynote at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, hosted by the company's SVP for Worldwide Product Marketing, Phil Shiller. The ad's central joke hinged upon the similarity of the new 3G S to the popular 3G.

Status-conscious current iPhone users won't be shamed by trotting out their iPhone 3Gs in polite company, since they appear identical. They will, however, miss out on a set of new features:

Speed: Schiller presented the lead improvement of the 3G S as its speed - in fact, he explained, that's what the "S" stands for. Although he declined to name specific processor, GPU, and I/O hardware in support of his claims, he said that the overall speed improvments would be in the 2X range.

He did, however, note that the 3G S takes advantage of OpenGL|ES, and that it will be ready for 7.2 megabit-per-second HSDPA whenever carriers upgrade their service to that emerging standard.

He also noted that Apple's testing showed the 3G S to perform the SunSpider (http://www2.webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0.9/sunspider.html) benchmark in 15 seconds, compared with the an iPhone 3G running iPhone Software 2.2.1's 126 seconds and the 3G running Software 3.0's 43 seconds. Note, though, that SunSpider tests only the performance of the JavaScript engine.

Camera: As expected, the 3G S will have an improved camera. It's rated at 3 megapixels, though it's unclear as yet whether that figure is simply Apple's marketing department dumbing down the 3.2 megapixel spec often mentioned during the new iPhone's rumor phase.

The camera's "hardware and software improvements," according to Schiller, will provide auto focus, auto white balance, auto exposure, and improved low-light performance. Macro focus to 10 centimeters is also supported.

The iPhone 3G S's camera app will include a nifty "tap to focus" feature that will adjust the camera's focus and exposure to the portion of the image you tap on - focus on an object in the foreground by tapping on it, for example, or on an object in the background or anywhere in between.

Video: Video is also - finally - supported, at 30 frames per second for VGA resolution, while retaining the auto focus, white balance, and exposure of the camera. Rudimentary video trimming is provided in the camera app, as well as one-click uploading to email, MMS, MobileMe, and YouTube.

Voice Control: The 3G S includes a Voice Control app that looks - in a demo, at least - to be rather comprehensive. Holding down the main button for a second or two launches Voice Control, wich displays a wave form of the sounds the 3G S hears, and a translucent, horizontally scrolling listing of the commands it's ready to receive.

Those commands include playing calls by speaking a name in the 3G S's Address Book or by dialing by number, playing tunes on the 3G S by artist name or playlist, and asking the phone what song is currently playing. For users who have found the iTunes Genius playlist to be of any value, the 3G S can also be asked to create a Genius list based on the currently playing song.

Compass: Also as expected, the 3G S will include a digital compass that can either simply tell you which direction you're facing or work with Google Maps to orient a map in that direction. The APIs for the compass functionality will be open to iPhone 3.0 software developers, as will the APIs for the new camera's capabilities.

Battery life: Schiller claimed that the 3G S - despite its souped-up hardware - will have better battery life than the 3G. Video playback, for example, will increase from seven to ten hours, and audio from 24 to 30. Wireless broadband using 3G, however, will remain at 5 hours max for both the 3G and the 3G S.

Pricing and availability: The 3G S - in both black and white - will be available in the US for $199 at 16GB and $299 at 32GB beginning on June 19th, along with Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. Other countries will roll out quickly, reaching 80 countries by August 9th. The iPhone 3G's price drops to $99 for the 8GB configuration immediately. ®

China blocks Twitter, Flickr ahead of anniversary

China blocks Twitter, Flickr ahead of anniversary

Chinese authorities have stepped up censorship ahead of the sensitive June 4 anniversary, blocking popular sites such as Twitter and directly censoring some foreign media. Authorities cut off Twitter, Hotmail and Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, from 5pm Tuesday, the UK Telegraph reported. Access to Flickr, Blogger, livejournal and Huffington Post has also been denied, according to Fox News. In recent days, subscribers to The Economist magazine, the Financial Times and South China Morning Post found Tiananmen-related pages ripped out, the Telegraph said. BBC viewers found the screen turned black on any reference to the event. Google said access to YouTube in China had been restricted for several weeks. China has the world’s most intensive system of internet censorship. Operating in tandem with traditional state control of the media and with the police, it involves heavy filtering of internet gateways, active scrutiny by tens of thousands of cyber-police, registration of all internet users, and “self-censorship” by internet firms. The wave of heavy censorship reflects the nervousness of the ruling Communist Party over the events in 1989, when leaders called in the army to clear demonstrators from Tiananmen Square. No official figure has been released, but as many as 2,000 civilians are reported to have died in the massacre. Official government spokesman Qin Gang said yesterday: “The party and the government long ago reached a conclusion about the political incident that took place at the end of the 1980s and related issues.”

Preparing to Sell E-Books, Google Takes on Amazon

June 1, 2009

By MOTOKO RICH

Google appears to be throwing down the gauntlet in the e-book market.

In discussions with publishers at the annual BookExpo convention in New York over the weekend, Google signaled its intent to introduce a program by that would enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers through Google. The move would pit Google against Amazon.com, which is seeking to control the e-book market with the versions it sells for its Kindle reading device.

Google’s move is likely to be welcomed by publishers who have expressed concerns about Amazon’s aggressive pricing strategy for e-books. Amazon offers Kindle editions of most new best sellers for $9.99, far less than the typical $26 at which publishers sell new hardcovers. In early discussions, Google has said it will allow publishers to set consumer prices.

“Clearly, any major company coming into the e-book space, providing that we are happy with the pricing structure, the selling price and the security of the technology, will be a welcome addition,” said David Young, chief executive of Hachette Book Group, which publishes blockbuster authors like James Patterson, Stephenie Meyer and Nicholas Sparks.

Google’s e-book retail program would be separate from the company’s settlement with authors and publishers over its book-scanning project, under which Google has scanned more than seven million volumes from several university libraries. A majority of those books are out of print.

The settlement, which is the focus of a Justice Department inquiry about the antitrust implications and is also subject to court review, provides for a way for Google to sell digital access to the scanned volumes.

And Google has already made its 1.5 million public-domain books available for reading on mobile phones as well as the Sony Reader, the Kindle’s largest competitor.

Under the new program, publishers give Google digital files of new and other in-print books. Already on Google, users can search up to about 20 percent of the content of those books and can follow links from Google to online retailers like Amazon.com and the Web site of Barnes & Noble to buy either paper or electronic versions of the books. But Google is now proposing to allow users to buy those digital editions direct from Google.

Google has discussed such plans with publishers before, but it has now committed the company to going live with the project by the end of 2009. In a presentation at BookExpo, Tom Turvey, director of strategic partnerships at Google, added the phrase: “This time we mean it.”

Although Google generates a majority of its revenue from ad sales on its search pages, it has previously charged for content. Three years ago, it opened a Google video store, and sold digital recordings of N.B.A. games as well as episodes of television shows like “CSI” and “The Brady Bunch.” This year, Google said it might eventually charge for premium content on YouTube.

Mr. Turvey said that with books, Google planned to sell readers online access to digital versions of various titles. When offline, Mr. Turvey said, readers would still be able to access their electronic books in cached versions on their browsers.

Publishers briefed on the plans at BookExpo said they were not sure yet how the technology would work, but were optimistic about the new program.

Mr. Turvey said Google’s program would allow consumers to read books on any device with Internet access, including mobile phones, rather than being limited to dedicated reading devices like the Amazon Kindle. “We don’t believe that having a silo or a proprietary system is the way that e-books will go,” he said.

He said that Google would allow publishers to set retail prices. Amazon lets publishers set wholesale prices and then sets its own prices for consumers. In selling e-books at $9.99, Amazon takes a loss on each sale because publishers generally charge booksellers about half the list price of a hardcover — typically around $13 or $14.

Mr. Turvey said that Google would probably allow publishers to charge consumers the same price for digital editions as they do for new hardcover versions. He said Google would reserve the right to adjust prices that it deemed “exorbitant.”