Dead Sea Scrolls come to life on the Web

Discovered in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have been available for viewing only in a museum in Israel...until now.

Thanks to some expert digital photography and a project set up by Google, high-resolution photos of five of the seven original Dead Sea Scrolls can now be seen online. The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls Web site offers a peek into the distant past, allowing people to view and examine the scrolls in fine detail.

Photographed by digital photographer Ardon Bar-Hama, the images contain as many as 1,200 megapixels, according to Google, so that people can zoom in to get a detailed view of the historic manuscripts.

Opening the page for one of the scrolls, such as The Great Isaiah Scroll, greets you with a description of the scroll, its history, and its meaning. Clicking on the photo of the scroll itself zooms in so that you can not only read the words but also feel the texture and age of the parchments themselves. Zooming it far enough even reveals some of the cracks, tears, and holes that have invaded the paper over the past 24 centuries.

You can easily scroll from one page to another or to a specific page. Hovering your mouse over any section of the parchment displays the specific verse you're reading. Clicking on that verse then provides an English translation of the ancient Hebrew text.
The scrolls are supposed to be searchable through Google's standard search engine, according to the company. Googling Dead Sea Scrolls followed by a specific verse should bring you to that verse's location in the photograph of the scroll. But when I tried this, I received just a series of standard search results with no link to the scroll.

The prospect of bringing the Dead Sea Scrolls to digital life came about last year when Google was asked to photograph the manuscripts for a project with The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, home to the actual scrolls.

Concerns were naturally raised about the vulnerability of the scrolls to photography after having been exposed to light and air for so long. Using his own unique method for capturing sensitive documents, photographer Ardon Bar-Hama was able to take pictures of the scrolls in a quick one-shot process, thereby protecting them from long exposure to the elements.

Written sometime from the third century to the first century BCE (Before the Common Era), the seven scrolls were uncovered in a series of caves near the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956. The scrolls themselves "offer critical insights into life and religion in ancient Jerusalem," according to Google, "including the birth of Christianity."

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Amazon's press event, Wed. 7 a.m. PT (live blog)

After months of rumors, Amazon's big reveal is finally upon us. The Internet retailing giant has scheduled a Wednesday morning press conference in New York--but it has provided no additional information.

Odds are that we'll see the long-rumored Amazon tablet (which may or may not be called the Kindle Fire); possibly a refresh of the e-ink Kindle; and maybe some additional software and services to bolster those presumed new hardware devices (a streaming-video application would be a natural fit for the tablet, especially now that Amazon keeps bolstering available content to compete with Netflix).

CNET will be covering the press conference live. David Carnoy will be live-blogging from the event in Manhattan, and Buzz Out Loud will doing a special live simulcast from San Francisco with Molly Wood, Brian Tong, Stephen Beacham, and Bridget Carey. Join us right here on Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. PT/10 a.m. ET for our complete coverage.

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A translation of Apple's iPhone event invite

Despite its usual brevity, Apple's event invite this morning leaves a lot to chew on.It goes without saying that the tag line "Let's talk iPhone" spells out that we'll be seeing the new phone from the company. The question is if there will be two new phones, something Apple's never done.

Also unclear is whether Apple plans to skip an update to its iPod line ahead of the holiday season, and if the "let's talk iPhone" tag line might also be talking about the much-rumored enhancements to Apple's Voice Control technology.

We'll know all there is to know come a week from today, when Apple's even kicks off at 10 a.m. PT sharp. In the meantime, here are some things to glean from the invite.
One phone, two phone?

On the invite, there's a missed call/voice mail icon, but it's just a number one. That would suggest we'll be getting just one new device, as opposed to two--a rumor that's been kicking around for years, but has picked back up in recent months in the lead up to a new device.
A Deutsche Bank analyst in June said that Apple was working on a two-phone configuration that would include a new, high-end model, along with a slightly improved iPhone 4 model for release this year. Evidence suggesting that might be the case surfaced a few days later, with a screenshot of a white plastic iPhone 4 model on Vietnamese site Tinhte--the same outlet that got ahold of the iPhone 4 ahead of its official unveiling.

More recently, there have been murmurs of two iPhone model offerings as part of deals being worked out with Chinese carriers, which are expected to stock the new iPhone when it's released. Confusing matters, there was also a high-profile report from J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz saying a new iPhone would be joined by a lower cost, souped up iPhone 4 model, and last year's iPhone 4 model, which would be sold alongside one another, giving Apple a three iPhone lineup. And former Vice President Al Gore certainly didn't help things last week, making mention of "new iPhones" arriving next month.

Following the invite send-out, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster weighed in on the matter, stating that the firm did not believe Apple would release two devices, and instead would be launching an iPhone 5, while selling older devices at a discount.
"We do not expect a low-end iPhone," Munster wrote in a note to investors. "Rather, we expect Apple to continue with a lead device (iPhone 5) that carriers sell subsidized for $199/$299 along with a previous generation device (iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S) for $99."
That matches up well with Apple's past iPhone sales strategy, which includes selling the 3G and 3GS alongside newer models of the device.

Whither iPod?
Of special note is the complete lack of mention about the iPod. Over the past several years Apple has held an event in September to take the wraps off a new line of devices, though the star of the iPod line continues to be the iPod Touch, which is effectively an iPhone without the phone.

The truth of the matter is that the iPod took a backseat to the iPhone as soon as it was announced, and the downward sales trend as a percentage of Apple's total revenue hasn't shown any signs of turning back up in the other direction.

Nonetheless people are still buying the media players, with the company selling 7.54 million iPods in its third quarter (the most recently reported quarter, Apple finished up its fourth quarter last week), a 20 decline from the same quarter the year before. That's compared to the 20.34 million iPhones it sold during the same quarter, which was a 142 percent gain year over year.

What more can Apple really do with the iPod though? Its models have gotten whittled away each year with slight tweaks and improvements, however in recent years Apple's been stuck juggling designs. That includes a return to button form with the iPod Shuffle after it's awkward buttonless design, and a complete overhaul of the Nano to move to a touch-screen design, while cutting features like video recording that were once highly-touted.

Apple's also run up against a wall with the iPod Touch, trickling down features from the iPhone as it gets its updates, but not enough to make the device more appealing than the iPhone itself. There's also the issue of having to time those iPod Touch releases with the iPhone's release, something that could be easier if a Touch update is simply rolled into next week's event.

Voice Control 2.0?
The double entendre du jour, the "Let's talk iPhone" tagline can be read beyond the obvious to suggest Apple plans to take the wraps off its long-rumored reboot of Voice Control. That's the voice recognition software that's shipped on the iPhone since the iPhone 3GS, and made its way into iPods as well.

The rumor mill's gone into overdrive about this in recent months, with reports from TechCrunch earlier this year that claimed Apple was working on a partnership with Nuance that would build advanced voice technologies into iOS 5, and presumably some extras for the next iPhone. Yet when iOS 5 debuted in June, the voice features were nowhere to be found.

More recently, reports from 9to5Mac have posted screenshots of a microphone icon sitting in the iOS software keyboard, while suggesting that the feature will let users launch apps, and navigate around the phone with their voice.

The rumor was of special interest given Apple's acquisition of Siri in April of last year, a company that mixes natural language processing, semantic Web search and speech recognition to translate voice queries into Web search based tasks. Before being acquired by Apple, the company created an application that could make use of voice commands and do things like book a taxi, or make restaurant reservations.

The move is highly expected given that Apple's been left in the dust by Google when it comes to advancing the voice-recognition technology on its mobile devices. As part of an update to its Android OS last January, Google added voice-recognition technology into Android's keyboard to let users transcribe voice into messages and Web searches, as well as use specific commands to launch applications. By comparison, Apple's Voice Control has remained largely unchanged since its introduction in 2009.

Stay tuned for details of our live coverage of the event next week. We'll be there and will be bringing you the news as it happens.

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Is Apple's App Store a cellular data hog?

It's no secret to iPhone and iPad users that watching movies and listening to streaming audio consumes the bulk of their wireless data plans, but what may surprise them is how much data they eat up looking for and downloading apps from Apple's iTunes App while on the go.

Onavo compiled a report of the apps that consume the most data on iOS devices.

A recent report from Onavo, which has developed an app for tracking data usage on iOS devices, indicates that simply looking for and downloading apps from Apple's iOS App Store can chew up about 13 percent of all data consumed in a monthly data plan.

The company analyzed 8 terrabytes of data it has gathered anonymously from iPhone and iPad users who have downloaded its app. While it comes as little surprise that the No. 1 data hog on the iPhone and iPad is streaming data and audio, usage of Apple's iOS App Store came in third place right behind Web browsing.

According to the report, the App Store accounts for more than 13 percent of all iPhone data usage in the U.S. each month. Three quarters of that data comes from downloads, while 24 percent is attributed to searches within the App Store.

Watching movies and listening to streaming music services, such as Pandora, accounted for about 35.3 percent of data consumed. And Web surfing ate up about 17.1 percent of usage.
Another surprising tidbit is that Facebook, which many people might assume consumes a good chunk of a monthly data plan, wasn't even in the top five apps that consumed data. After video and audio streaming, Web surfing, and Apple's iOS App Store, Google Maps consumed 8.3 percent of data, while e-mail consumed about 4.0 percent of total data. Facebook ate up only 2.8 percent of the total data for the month.

Other services that also didn't consume a high percentage of data in a monthly plan, according to this report, include voice over IP services and YouTube.
"VoIP sounds data-heavy, but actually most VoIP providers manage their data very effectively," Onavo said in its press release.

And even though streaming movies can eat up a good chunk of a monthly data plan, YouTube does a good job of compressing video for mobile users, making it one of the more efficient streaming services, Onavo said.

Onavo's report is interesting because it sheds some light on how real wireless subscribers are using their data plans. Understanding which applications are used most often and consume the most data is very important for consumers as wireless operators eliminate unlimited plans in lieu of usage-based data plans.

"Most people are blissfully unaware the App Store is hoovering up their data plan," Guy Rosen, co-founder and CEO of Onavo said in a statement. "iPhone users should be much more careful when downloading their Angry Birds--it's something best done at home, within the safety of Wi-Fi."
An Apple spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Onavo's report.
AT&T, which had the exclusive contract to sell the iPhone in the U.S. until February this year, was the first major wireless operator in the U.S. to move to a tiered offering for its smartphone customers. Verizon Wireless, which began selling the iPhone in February, discontinued its unlimited data service for new smartphone subscribers in July.

T-Mobile USA still offers an "unlimited" data plan, but it has begun limiting how much data its subscribers can use by slowing down service after customers hit a monthly usage threshold. AT&T has adopted this same plan for smartphone subscribers grandfathered into its unlimited data plan. And as Sprint is rumored to be getting the iPhone 5 when it's launched next month, there are some who speculate the carrier may ditch its unlimited data plan to ensure it can handle the anticipated traffic load associated with the iPhone.

Wireless operators that have put these data caps in place say that only a small percentage of their users actually exceed the defined limits. And data from companies, such as Validas, which tracks smartphone subscribers' data usage, backs up these assertions. In fact, most wireless subscribers are over-paying for data. And wireless operators say usage-based data plans are necessary to ensure that a small minority of customers don't consume more than their fair share of resources.

But one thing is clear, usage is increasing. Validas issued a report this summer that said Verizon Wireless customers have increased their usage by 150 percent over the past year. AT&T subscribers have increased usage by about 116 percent. What may be unclear and confusing to smartphone wireless subscribers, however, is what applications are actually eating up that data. Onavo executives say that is a key question that they can help consumers answer.

"Data addiction has taken hold across America, with U.S. smartphone users spending $55 billion a year," Rosen said. "Our monthly reports shine a light on where this money is going, so people can make informed choices about their data usage and save money."

Onavo has developed apps for the iOS devices as well as for the Google Android operating system. Primarily, these apps track and record how much data individual users are consuming. And they provide subscribers with the data in easy to read formats. The iPhone app also compresses certain types of data to help wireless subscribers conserve their data plans.

The app is available for iOS and Google Android devices. But the iPhone and iPad apps, which were developed before the Android app, also compress certain data to help subscribers' conserve bandwidth.

Based on the data from its first report, which included only usage from iOS users, Onavo came up with five tips to help consumers cut their mobile data bills.

Tip 1: Don't shop on the go
The App Store is one of the major drivers of mobile data--download your songs and apps at home over Wi-Fi, which is not counted in your monthly data usage plan. And Onavo experts say you save as much as 10 percent of your data.

Tip 2: Switch e-mail to manual
When e-mail is set to "push" your device is constantly checking for new e-mails and downloading them automatically. Change your settings to "manual" and get e-mails only when you want them.

Tip 3: Use mobile Web sites
Many Web sites have a mobile version which use much less data. Instead of www. try typing m. before the address instead.

Tip 4: Compress your data
Download a free app, such as Onavo, which can compress your data. The company claims it can save users as much as 80 percent of your data usage. You could also download and use a different browser, such as Opera Mini browser which automatically compresses Web pages.

Tip 5: Stream and download movies only when in Wi-Fi The biggest data hog is streaming videos. So instead of watching a movie over a 3G or 4G wireless network, make sure you're in a Wi-Fi hot spot.

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T-Mobile unveils Samsung Galaxy S II, HTC Amaze 4G

T-Mobile USA today showed off what are likely to be its flagship phones for the rest of the year: Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S II and HTC's Amaze 4G.

Both phones will be available on October 12, with the Amaze 4G selling for $259.99 and the Galaxy S II selling for $229.99, with both prices coming after a $50 rebate and a two-year contract.

The two smartphones are the first to run on T-Mobile's newly upgraded network, which the company says is faster than most consumers' home Internet connection. While T-Mobile lacks the spectrum to build a true 4G LTE network, it has instead put its resources behind an upgraded version of HSPA technology that delivers a higher connection speed.

Because of the faster connection, T-Mobile calls its network 4G, putting it on the same level--marketing-wise--as Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel. Cole Brodman, chief marketing officer of T-Mobile, said the phones should be able to average speeds at around 8 megabits per second, and peak speeds of 20 megabits per second--faster than the standard home DSL or cable connection.
T-Mobile has been aggressively cutting prices and putting out a number of affordable handsets in an effort to revitalize customer growth. The carrier is the fourth-largest player in the country and has dealt with several quarters of subscriber losses, partly due to the lack of eye-catching handsets, but also as a result of uncertainty caused by AT&T's planned takeover of the company.
In the second quarter, T-Mobile lost 50,000 net customers, largely due to the loss of 281,000 net contract subscribers, seen in the industry as the most lucrative segment.
Brodman, however, remained upbeat about T-Mobile's prospects.

"There's no better time to be a T-Mobile customer," he said in an interview with CNET today.
He said 75 percent of its device sales are now smartphones, and nearly a third of its base of customers use smartphones now.

T-Mobile's version of the Samsung Galaxy S II.

"We're seeing a rapid shift to the smartphone at T-Mobile," he said.
T-Mobile embarked upon a strategy to go after customers who have yet to move to a smartphone, a segment the company calls "affordable adopters" or "smartphone intenders."
"They want mobile technology, but are concerned by the ongoing costs and confused by the complexity," Brodman said.

That means competing against a broad swath of the industry, contradicting AT&T's argument that it doesn't consider T-Mobile competition. Brodman said his strategy affects all carriers, although he wouldn't outright dispute AT&T's claim.
"We fight against multiple fronts," he said. "We can't afford to compete against just one carrier."

Brodman reiterated that he believed the AT&T,T-Mobile merger would go through.
In the meantime, the company is trying to prop itself back up through a better selection of phones. The Galaxy S II is a variant of the original Galaxy S II that hit overseas markets. Sprint sells its own version, also known as the Epic 4G Touch, and AT&T's will hit the U.S. market next week.

The phone uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core chip, features a 4.52-inch Super Amoled display, and uses the Gingerbread variant of Android. Brodman said the phone is designed to be a media powerhouse, with shows and movies taking advantage of the handset's sharp screen.

The Amaze, meanwhile, will also have a Qualcomm dual-core processor and comes with HTC's Sense user interface. The device will be able to capture full high-definition video with its 1080p HD video recorder, features a 4.3-inch screen, and Gingerbread as well. In addition, the phone will have near-field communications capabilities, allowing it to eventually use a mobile-payment system at retail stores and New York cabs.

Brodman said the phone is intended for people who want to stay connected to their social networks.

In addition, T-Mobile said it plans to sell the Sonic 4G Mobile HotSpot in October.

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Heads up! NASA satellite descends toward fiery doom

NASA's decommissioned Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, out of gas and out of control, is not descending toward re-entry as rapidly as expected, officials say, likely delaying the satellite's kamikaze plunge to Earth by a few hours, to late Friday or early Saturday.

Experts expect more than two dozen chunks of debris to survive re-entry and hit the ground in a 500-mile-long footprint somewhere along the satellite's orbital track. But given the bus-size 6.3-ton's satellite's trajectory and the vast areas of ocean and sparsely populated areas UARS passes over, experts say it is unlikely any falling debris will result in injuries or significant property damage.
Additional radar tracking is required to pinpoint when--and where--the satellite will make its final descent.

A chart showing the latest predicted entry point for the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, based on data from U.S. Strategic Command. Because of uncertainty about the satellite's behavior as it approaches the discernible atmosphere, the timing of the re-entry could change by several hours either way.

"As of 10:30 a.m. EDT on Sept. 23, 2011, the orbit of UARS was 100 miles by 105 miles (160 km by 170 km)," NASA said in a brief update. "Re-entry is expected late Friday, Sept. 23, or early Saturday, Sept. 24, Eastern Daylight Time. Solar activity is no longer the major factor in the satellite's rate of descent. The satellite's orientation or configuration apparently has changed, and that is now slowing its descent.

A subsequent update from U.S. Strategic Command, which operates a global radar network used to monitor more than 20,000 objects in low-Earth orbit, predicted the satellite would re-enter sometime around 11:34 p.m. EDT Friday as the spacecraft flies over the southern Indian Ocean. But the prediction was uncertain by several hours and at orbital velocities of 5 miles per second, just 10-minutes of uncertainty translates into 3,000 miles of uncertainty in position.

For comparison, some 42.5 tons of wreckage from the shuttle Columbia hit the ground in a footprint stretching from central Texas to Louisiana when the orbiter broke apart during re-entry in 2003. No one on the ground was injured and no significant property damage was reported.
Tracking data is expected to improve as the day wears on, and subsequent updates should be more precise.

The centerpiece of a $750 million mission, the Upper Atmosphere Research satellite was launched from the shuttle Discovery in September 1991. The solar-powered satellite studied a wide variety of atmospheric phenomena, including the depletion of Earth's ozone layer 15 to 30 miles up.

The long-lived satellite was decommissioned in 2005 and one side of its orbit was lowered using the last of its fuel to hasten re-entry and minimize the chances of orbital collisions that could produce even more orbital debris. No more fuel is available for maneuvering and the satellite's re-entry will be "uncontrolled."

Nick Johnson, chief scientist with NASA's Orbital Debris Program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, told reporters last week he expects most of the satellite to burn up as it slams into the dense lower atmosphere at more than 17,000 mph. But computer software used to analyze possible re-entry outcomes predicts 26 pieces of debris will survive to impact the surface in a 500-mile-long down-range footprint.
"We looked at those 26 pieces and how big they are and we've looked at the fact they can hit anywhere in the world between 57 north and 57 south and we looked at what the population density of the world is," he said. "Numerically, it comes out to a chance of 1-in-3,200 that one person anywhere in the world might be struck by a piece of debris. Those are obviously very, very low odds that anybody's going to be impacted by this debris."

For comparison, some 42.5 tons of wreckage from the shuttle Columbia hit the ground in a footprint stretching from central Texas to Louisiana when the orbiter broke apart during re-entry in 2003. No one on the ground was injured and no significant property damage was reported.

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Blockbuster Movie Pass no Netflix killer

Anticipation was high that Dish Network would unveil a streaming video service through Blockbuster that would compete--and even possibly undercut--Netflix, which isn't exactly feeling the love right now. Instead, Dish announces a bundle of streaming videos; DVDs and games by mail; and access to premium movie channels--but only to Dish customers.

So those of you looking to leave Netflix in righteous anger over the way the company has treated you in the recent months might want to pause for a moment, because Blockbuster Movie Pass is no viable alternative. In hindsight, we probably shouldn't have expected too much. I mean, can we really rely on Dish, a company that depends on consumers paying a regular monthly fee for cable channels, to provide an answer to the growing horde of cord cutters?
"More Americans are demanding an easier way to view their video," Dish CEO Joe Clayton said during the company's presentation today.

Clayton is correct, but Blockbuster Movie Pass isn't the answer.
Essentially, it's a souped up Dish package. While I don't debate it's an attractive one, I doubt Dish's press conference would have garnered the media and consumer interest that it did had people known in advance what it was. We were looking for something radically different from Dish, but we got an incremental new service plan instead.

The package, which costs $10 a month for existing Dish subscribers or is free for a year to new Dish subscribers paying $39.99 a month or more, will be a boon to the 14 million existing customers and may attract some new consumers. But it's cold comfort for the vast majority of Americans who aren't Dish customers. That's particularly the case for consumers in major metropolitan areas such as New York, where satellite service isn't a legitimate option.
A Dish executive said during the conference that consumers still prefer to pay for this kind of service as an add-on to traditional pay-TV service. That kind of thinking misses out on the growing market of consumers who no longer feel that way--a segment that has been largely responsible for Netflix's explosion in popularity. Netflix, in comparison, has 25.6 million customers, but expects to lose nearly 2 million customers in the third quarter.
That Netflix is in the most vulnerable position it's been in for years makes this even more of a missed opportunity for Blockbuster and Dish. Dish has been taking advantage of Netflix's tarnished reputation, and said during the conference that it had signed up 500,000 Blockbuster subscriptions over the past 30 days. But it could have pressed the advantage even harder if it launched a legitimate competitor. The service also could have greatly expanded its potential customer base--something Dish badly needs.

The disappointment was apparent in some of the questions and the chatter during the presentation. More than one question involved Dish's plans to launch a service for non-Dish customers.

Dish executives hinted at a Blockbuster streaming service available to everyone. They said such a service was still in the works, and that they would save the details for a later event.
I'm not holding my breath.

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Facebook changes creeping out some customers

At the F8 conference yesterday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off some of the most drastic changes ever made to the company's service. And though Zuckerberg is excited by those changes, many folks across the Web aren't so quick to celebrate.

The fear among some users relates to what some say could become a potentially worrisome privacy situation on the social network, led by Timeline and changes to Open Graph.
Timeline provides users with a way to view "the story of your life," according to Zuckerberg, including a collection of all the "stories" uses have shared on Facebook over the years, as well as the pictures they've posted and the applications they've used.
Facebook's updated Open Graph will make the social network far more "sticky." Zuckerberg said users will have the ability--thanks to Timeline and a new addition, Ticker--to see what a friend is doing, like watching a movie on Netflix or listening to a song on Spotify, and engage in that same activity from within the social network. The Facebook CEO said he believes the improvements will help create "a completely new class of social apps" that will let users share every single facet of their lives on the social network.

"All those activities people perform with these apps--listening to a Bjork tune, reading about same-sex marriage laws, cooking Arroz con Pollo, running four miles, donating to Amnesty International--will be stored permanently and made accessible (if the user allows it) on a greatly enhanced profile page that will essentially become a remote-control autobiography," Wired's Steven Levy wrote about the update.
It's that concept of Facebook becoming an "autobiography" that's scaring some folks.
"Is there any way I can upload my browser history, bank statements, and medical records to Facebook?" Twitter user @adrianshort asked today. "Might as well do this properly."
Those sentiments were echoed earlier today by CNET commenter "OneAmazedHuman" who said that the social network's additions are making some people consider leaving the site.
"Frankly, after this last round of messing around with Facebook, there are a whole lot of us thinking seriously about dumping it," OneAmazedHuman wrote. "[I] hate everything they threw at us lately. What happened to 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it?'
"Facebook is getting too intrusive and sneaky," OneAmazedHuman continued. "If I can find another place to play Scrabble, I'm probably out of there. I can live without it nicely. When it was fun, it was fun. It isn't that anymore. Thanks, Zuckerberg. Why didn't you just create something new to mess around with and leave Facebook as is?"

However, there are some people who have already left Facebook because of the changes. One Twitter user, @qwghlm, tweeted earlier today that "after F8 last night, I decided to finally quit Facebook." CNET commenter "JamesOnTheWay" said that he too dropped Facebook and has moved over to Google+.

Drastic measures aside, there are some who are taking a wait-and-see approach to Facebook's changes. Twitter user @JulesHanna tweeted yesterday that the F8 presentation "reinforced my belief that Facebook's becoming the operating system of the human Web. Brilliant, yet alarming in its implications."

Though the outcry over Facebook's changes is strong, the company has survived such complaints in the past. In 2009, following a major redesign of the site, the social network was hit hard by users who complained about the changes. At the time, a Facebook app that polled users on their thoughts about the changes found that hundreds of thousands of users were upset by the move. And like now, many of those folks said that they would leave the social network.
That said, at that time, Facebook had more than 175 million users. At the F8 conference yesterday, it was revealed that Facebook now has over 800 million members worldwide. So if those departures did, in fact, occur, they certainly weren't crippling to the social network.
Also playing into Facebook's favor this time around, there isn't near-universal outcry over the changes like there was in 2009. In fact, there are some people that are quite pleased with the company's modifications.

"Got my new Facebook timeline looking good," Twitter user @angelarenee09 tweeted today. "Love these fun changes!"
So, while that might just be one opinion, it's quite clear that in the social world, everyone has a different idea of what's good and bad. And Facebook--for better or worse--is learning that all over again today.
Facebook did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment on user reaction to the changes.

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Google Wallet opens for business

Google Wallet, which will allow people to tap or swipe their phones to pay for things, officially launches today on its first smartphone, the Samsung Nexus S offered on Sprint Nextel.

While several other companies, including credit card giants Visa and American Express, as well as mobile wireless carriers, have also announced plans to launch their own digital wallets, Google is the first to take its digital wallet to market.
Citibank, MasterCard, and Sprint are the initial launch partners for the service. What this means for users is that, initially, virtually the only credit cards that will work with Google Wallet are Citibank MasterCards. Google is also offering a Google Prepaid MasterCard as well, a workaround for people who may not have a Citibank MasterCard. People who want to use this card can preload money from other credit cards onto the Google prepaid card. And then they can make purchases using the phone.

Sprint is the first official carrier partner since it is the carrier offering the Nexus S 4G. But as other Android smartphones equipped with NFC (near-field communications) technology come on the market, other devices on other carriers will eventually be able to use the service too.
Google also said today that it has licensed NFC technology from other major credit card companies: American Express, Visa, and Discover. This means that upcoming versions of Google Wallet will support those credit cards as well.

"In the future, our goal is to make it possible for you to add all of your payment cards to Google Wallet, so you can say goodbye to even the biggest traditional wallets," said Osama Bedier, vice president of payments at Google.

Google hasn't said how long it will before it expands the Google Wallet offering beyond its initial launch partners. For consumers to load other credit cards, Google will also have work out agreements with various payments that issue the credit cards. John Partridge, president of Visa, said in an interview that it would likely be a matter of months before all the necessary work is completed to put a Visa credit card in Google Wallet.

"What has to happen next is that the banks have to have to agree to give access to their payment credentials," he said. "Those discussions are already under way. But in terms of logistics, I'd say it's a matter of months. Not a long period of time."
Google announced the new virtual payment system in May.

How it works

The way Google Wallet works is simple for users. There is a chip embedded in the phone that uses NFC technology, which allows for secure communication between devices at very short distances.
MasterCard has PayPass terminals at more than 144,000 merchants throughout the country, including in New York City taxi cabs. And Google Wallet should work on all of them. MasterCard has included a free app as part of the Google Wallet experience that helps customers locate PayPass terminals.

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Who stole Netflix's mojo?

Even if you believe that splitting Netflix into two services and raising prices is the right plan for the company in the long term, the moves in the near term have many subscribers asking whether managers value them.

"Reed is the visionary, and Barry was the balanced business guy. Barry was to Reed like Steve Ballmer was to Bill Gates."
--Michael Pachter, analyst

Many Netflix users are outraged for the second time in the past three months. CEO Reed Hastings offered an apology last night in a letter to customers as well as in a video message for the way the company announced a price increase in July. He didn't say he was sorry for the actual price hike, and more importantly, he also said Netflix was splitting itself into two separate services. The new Netflix will be involved in streaming video over the Web exclusively, while the other service, called Qwikster, will oversee DVD by mail.
Some analysts and customers argue that Netflix has made plenty of other missteps in the past several months. The company couldn't close a licensing agreement with Starz, the pay-TV service that owns Web distribution rights to content from Sony Pictures and Disney. That means Netflix's streaming library will offer even fewer films from the top Hollywood studios. Much of Hollywood is lukewarm about Netflix's business model and the company has struggled to acquire streaming rights for popular films.

Then, last week Netflix acknowledged that it was overly optimistic about how the price increase would affect subscriber numbers. Netflix announced two months ago that it would break up a popular hybrid subscription plan that enabled users to rent DVDs as well as provide access to the company's streaming-video library, all for $10 a month. Many customers were angered when Netflix said beginning this month it would split movie streaming and DVD rentals into two separate plans, each costing $8 per month.

That meant for former hybrid users the price went from $10 to $16 each month if they wanted to continue receiving discs and streaming. Netflix underestimated the reaction. Last week the company said that 1 million fewer U.S. subscribers will be around in the third quarter than it initially predicted in July. This marks the first time that Netflix will see a drop in subscribers in sequential quarters in four years.

Nothing, though, is as damaging to customer relations as the latest decision to "complicate" the Netflix experience, says Michael Pachter, a financial analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. The simplicity of ordering a disc or watching a movie via the Web streaming service for one low price is one of the reasons Netflix's service was so attractive to consumers. Now, Hastings has done away with that.

Hastings said in his letter to customers: "A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated."
Pachter said: "This tells me that you won't have a connection between the sites. That means at Qwikster you're not going to know what's available for streaming at Netflix and you will have to make two trips to find out. The first rule for marketers is don't make things more complicated for consumers. This is like if Amazon removed the 1-click buying button. This is the dumbest mistake I've seen the company or really anybody make in a long time...it's a joke."
Wow. That anybody is calling Netflix "dumb" is astonishing. This is a company that has seemingly had stardust sprinkled over it for much of the past decade. Hastings and his management team chased much larger traditional rental services Blockbuster and Movie Gallery into bankruptcy. Instead of standing pat with their DVD-by-mail service after their triumph, managers leaped into online streaming well before competitors. The service has seen explosive growth the past two years. Wall Street rewarded Netflix by sending the stock to $304 a share in July.
But as of today, the stock is down more than half that. In midday trading, Netflix shares were down 4.8 percent, or $7, to $147. How did this happen? Why does the company seem to be suddenly stumbling? What changed?

Here's one place to look: Outside observers note that the management team that was largely unchanged for a decade and helped forge all the victories over Blockbuster and rivals has lost some key members in the past year. First, Barry McCarthy, the company's chief financial officer, left in December and was replaced by David Wells. Ken Ross, Netflix chief of worldwide corporate communications, retired and was succeeded in January by Jonathan Friedland, who was previously senior vice president of corporate communications at Disney.

Certainly, Wells and Friedland are well-respected but all the indications are that the departures of McCarthy and Ross are being felt.
According to insiders, Hastings listened and respected McCarthy's judgment, and the former CFO often used his clout to stand up to the CEO when he thought he was wrong. McCarthy did not respond to interview requests.
"Reed is the visionary, and Barry was the balanced business guy," Pachter said. "Barry was to Reed like Steve Ballmer was to Bill Gates."
McCarthy's influence might have helped the company avoid the recent goof on its subscriber projections for the third quarter. He didn't oversee that kind of data crunching but he might have had a say in how it was presented and when. This is the kind of thing he would have studied closer, said insiders. Those with knowledge of the company's processes said the company made the predictions public though managers had based them on insufficient data and study. This is basic blocking and tackling for the company. In the past, Netflix has won praise for its ability to use the information it collects on users to help it make smart moves.
A mistake like that is something that insiders say McCarthy might have helped prevent.
After 11 years at Netflix, McCarthy had also earned respect and trust on Wall Street and with the company's major investors. He might have helped soften the blow to the company's stock from some of these setbacks.

As for the change in tone in Netflix's communications to customers, Hastings acknowledged in his post last night that the company's message about the price hike, delivered via a blog post from a mid-level manager and that offered little explanation or insight, was wrong.
"When Netflix is evolving rapidly," Hastings said in his letter to customers last night, "I need to be extra-communicative. This is the key thing I got wrong. In hindsight, I slid into arrogance based upon past success."
But who is supposed to help Hastings sound the right tone with customers? It used to be Ross, but now it is Friedland. That said, it can't be forgotten that regardless of what kind of job they're doing or what McCarthy or Ross would have done differently, Hastings has always held the final say on big decisions, say insiders.
So, the past three months have been a rough patch for Netflix but it was probably unrealistic to expect that the company's attempt to usher in a completely new way to rent videos would occur without some bumps. Acquiring streaming rights for sought after movies and TV shows was always going to be harder than obtaining DVDs, which the company could buy from a multitude of other retailers and sources whenever the studios tried to limit Netflix's ability to obtain them.
To stream content, however, there is no way around the studios.
But Hastings has shown for the better part of a decade that he's one of the most creative thinkers and strategic planners in the tech sector and if anybody can pull off the breaking up of Netflix services and operate a successful streaming subscription offering, it's him.
We can't forget that the online video sector is brand new and its development has a long way to go. There's still plenty of time for Hastings to pull the company out of this rough patch.

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Obama/Air Force One flight plan shows up on blog

As tomorrow's September 11 anniversary dominates headlines and a former Air Force One pilot recalls his nervousness during the attacks, Japan is in damage-control mode over the posting of President Obama's flight plan to an air traffic controller's personal blog.

Japan's Transportation Ministry said today that an air traffic controller at the Tokyo International Airport at Haneda could be charged for leaking national secrets, the New York Times reports.

In November, during a visit to Asia by President Obama, the controller posted detailed flight plans for Air Force One--plans usually kept secret--along with information about an American military drone that was taking radiation readings near the earthquake-hobbled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Japanese officials said they learned of the leak Monday.


President Obama meets with staff in the conference room aboard Air Force One in April 2009.


The controller apparently posted the 12 pages of information simply to show his friends, the Times reports, in what seems to be yet another example of someone displaying remarkable cluelessness as to the sensitivity of data and the public nature of the Web.

Earlier this week, a prestigious hospital confirmed that a spreadsheet containing private patient data had wound up online as, it seems, a component of a student's homework assignment. And the Times points out that the flight plan leak recalls an episode in 2007 when a Japanese Navy officer copied classified data about a U.S. radar system and handed it out on CD-ROMs to classmates at his naval school.

The flight plan data, which contained numerical information and a map and has since been removed, was likely unintelligible to the layperson, the Times reports.

But with the specter of September 11 currently looming large, the news could rattle a few nerves. CBS' "Early Show on Saturday" ran an interview today with former Air Force One pilot Mark Tillman, who talked about his fears at the time of the terrorist attacks.

"I was very concerned," Tillman told the show's anchors. "Obviously, I've got the president of the United States on board, so obviously, you have to assume that we are a target."

Citing Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, the Times says Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who's scheduled to meet with President Obama this month, may offer a personal apology for the leak.

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Adobe's good WEEK

This is typically the time of year when Apple breaks out its latest crop of iPods and updates to its iTunes software. Now all signs point to Apple gearing up for the launch of its next iPhone instead. Given that, it's worth briefly turning our attention to Adobe, which had a particularly good week on Apple's platforms.

Let's start off with Adobe's Flash, which continues to not run on Apple's iOS hardware. Despite that hurdle, Flash-derived game Machinarium this week hit the No. 1 spot in Apple's paid apps category on the App Store. The $5 title, which was originally launched on Adobe Flash, was recompiled for Apple's iOS, giving gamers a chance to play a game they couldn't in the browser that ships on the iPad.

Adobe also updated its Flash Media Server software this week, adding support for Apple's iOS. As David Meyer explains over on ZDNet, the software now lets broadcasters stream Flash video content in Apple's HTTP Live Streaming format, so it will work on iPhones, iPads and iPods. Worth noting is that the technology is only good for video content, and not things like Flash-based sites and games, where products like iSwifter, Skyfire, and Photon can fill in the gaps using a similar streaming-based approach.

Finally, there's Adobe Premiere, which the company says has seen a sales pick-up following Apple's introduction of Final Cut Pro X in June. In a press release covering its announcements at the IBC Conference in Amsterdam this week, Adobe said it has seen 45 percent growth of its Creative Suit 5.5: Production Premium product on the Mac. Adobe attributed that gain to the Final Cut switcher program it introduced in July that gives Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer users a 50 percent discount for switching.

Read on to find out all of this week's big Apple news and rumors, and to check out my answers to your Apple-related questions.


Apple news of the week

SF police launch probe into iPhone prototype search
A representative for the San Francisco Police Department told CNET this week that the department has started an internal investigation into how officers assisted two Apple security employees in the July search of an SF home for a lost phone prototype.


Cava22, the San Francisco tequila lounge where an apparently unreleased iPhone went missing, sparking a hunt by Apple internal security.

Apple's Hong Kong store to open soon
Apple is expected to open up its first store in Hong Kong later this month. The 20,000-square-foot store is located in the city's International Finance Center Mall.

Apple begins charitable matching program for employees
Apple this week began a new charity program, matching employee contributions to nonprofit organizations dollar-for-dollar, up to $10,000 a year per employee. According to an internal memo captured by Macrumors, the new program begins next week.

Deutsche Telekom begins offering iPhone 5 reservations
In an unusual move, European carrier Deutsche Telekom this past weekend started offering customers a way to reserve the iPhone 5--that is, as long as they didn't call it that by name when asking for a reservation. Apple, of course, has not officially announced the device.

Germany's ban on Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 upheld
A German court banned the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 for infringing on Apple's patents. Apple won a preliminary injunction seeking similar ends last month, and this week's decision marks a more permanent ban. Samsung has said it will appeal the ruling. In related news, Apple sued Samsung in Japan this week, seeking a ban on its Galaxy S and S II smartphones, and the Galaxy Tab 7 tablet.

Apple tops J.D. Power rankings in smartphone customer satisfaction
For the sixth consecutive time, Apple's smartphones ranked highest in customer satisfaction, according to a survey by J.D. Power and Associates. Apple scored 838, ahead of Samsung, which pulled 718 and also managed to top the ranks in feature phones (or non-smartphones).

Apple rumors of the week

Is this the first public photo taken by an iPhone 5?
A photo of a plate of sushi taken by an Apple engineer made waves this week, shortly before being pulled down. Spotted by mobile news site Pocketnow, the photo was posted to Flickr and identified as being taken on an iPhone 4, but its EXIF data painted a slightly different picture, with specs that matched up to a camera with a larger sensor. The assumption then is that it was captured with the camera of Apple's next iPhone, which is expected to sport an 8 megapixel sensor, up from the iPhone 4's 5-megapixel camera.

Sprint iPhone to get unlimited data plan? Building on reports from last month that Sprint would be getting Apple's next iPhone, Bloomberg chimed in this week with a report saying the device will be eligible for Sprint's unlimited data plan. As my colleague Roger Cheng argues, this could be a limited time offer based on what other carriers have done after getting the device.

Apple's Thunderbolt Display, announced in July, is reportedly on its way to retail stores.

Apple's Thunderbolt Displays on the way to retail stores?
In an unverified report, Macrumors this week said Apple has started to ship its 27-inch Thunderbolt Display to its stores and resellers, hinting that its release is imminent. The $999 display, which replaces Apple's LED Cinema Display line, was originally unveiled in July alongside a handful of other hardware updates. It was the only one of the bunch that wasn't immediately available at the time.

Apple cooking up an "X" overhaul to Logic Pro?
Japanese Apple tracking site Macotakara this week reported that the next version of Logic Studio, Apple's professional audio suite, will get a similar treatment to what the company did with Final Cut Pro X. That includes integrating previously separate applications, while selling others on their own. Logic Studio saw its last update in July 2009.

Apple put $800 million bid on Dropbox, report claims
Noting that its information is "gossip that isn't perfectly sourced," Business Insider says Apple was one of two companies that put down an offer to acquire file storage and sync service Dropbox ahead of its latest round of funding. Apple's upcoming iCloud service arguably competes with Dropbox in some areas, but the idea of it being acquired opens up an interesting "what if?"

Apple thinning the battery for the iPad 3?
This week the Taiwan Economic News reported that battery suppliers Simplo technology and Dynapack International Technology had cooked up a battery that was thinner, lighter, and longer-lasting than the iPad 2's battery, and that's expected to be used in Apple's next tablet. If past launches are any indication, that device should be rolling out early next year.


This week in Apple history

This week in 2003, Apple sold its 10 millionth song on the iTunes Music Store. That benchmark came four months after the store's launch. What was the song? Avril Lavigne's "Complicated." Apple would go on the following month to release a version of iTunes for users on Microsoft's Windows operating system, and announce that it had sold another 3 million songs.

Last February, Apple's music store served up its 10 billionth song sold. The company rewarded buyer Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Ga., with a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

Reader question of the week

Jenny H. asks:

"Laptop or iPad for high school student use? I have two children within a year of each other and they want iPads for school use, and I see them as entertainment devices. They say they are educational devices. Is this accurate? I want to put the right technology in their hands and consider this a crucial platform-inaugural. Please advise. All over the Web there is no tool I can find that will allow me to compare the two directly."

There are definitely two sides to this argument, and there are good points on both. My honest advice is to go with a laptop, since Mac OS X is far better at multitasking than iOS currently is.

If the main use of the machine is for taking notes, writing papers, and things like Web browsing and chatting, Mac OS X does a better job at letting you do them concurrently. Though iOS has certainly become more capable of the juggling act, it's not quite as polished.

On the flip side, some high schools have begun implementing textbook programs through eBooks, as well as outfitting their students with Apple's iPad. The thing is, these schools are picking up the cost of the device, like Woodford County High in Woodford County, Ky., which distributed iPads to 1,250 of its students last month.

As for giving the two devices hands-on time, your best bet is to go to a retail store that carries display models of both.

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Welcome to Challengers, a blog about the next big things

Out with the old. In with the new. That's been the way of the personal technology industry for as long as there's been a personal technology industry. (I cut my computing teeth on Radio Shack's TRS-80--a personal computer that helped render the original personal computer, MITS' Altair, obsolete in the late 1970s.)

It's also the beat I'll cover here in Challengers. This blog is focused on new things--companies, products, services, and technologies--that aim to go head-to-head with established ones. I'll explore what makes them different and, in theory at least, better. And while I'm not in the business of making predictions, I will ponder the new arrivals' odds of success. (For every one that changes the world, there are scads more that never live up to their creators' expectations--anyone remember Iomega's Pocket Zip or the FlipStart PC?)

I've written about technology for a couple of decades now, and for most of that time I've followed CNET--as a reader and, for many years, a competitor. It feels great to finally see my name on the same page as that red logo. (These days, I also run my own site, Technologizer, and contribute to Time and AllBusiness.com.) See you again soon, and frequently. In the meantime, I'd love to know which emerging innovations you're most excited about--and which ones you think don't stand a chance.

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Sprint offers the most data bang for the buck

If you're a heavy data user, Sprint offers the most bang for your buck, according to a study released today.

For $1, you get 12.5 megabytes of data, which breaks down to 8 cents per megabyte, by far the best among the national carriers. Surprisingly, T-Mobile offers the worst deal at 4.3 megabytes for every dollar spent, or 23 cents per megabyte.

That's based on a study of "real world" prices conducted by Validas, which provides automated wireless bill analysis and reduction services to consumers and companies.

AT&T, meanwhile, came in second at 5.6 megabytes for every $1 spent, or 18 cents per megabyte, while Verizon Wireless offered 5 megabytes per data, or 20 cents per megabyte.

The study looked at how much, on average, a customer spent on a smartphone data plan and looked at how much data was consumed at each carrier. Sprint got the best stats because more of its customers are on a higher-speed 4G network: a faster connection means more data consumed. The carrier also offers attractive data rates and a completely unlimited plan, which has liked drawn in heavy users.

Sprint doesn't offer the best prices on an absolute prices. For that, you would have to go to T-Mobile, which has been slashing its smartphone plans as it seeks to win back customers. But on a per-megabyte basis, you end up getting more value from Sprint.

Since last year, AT&T has used a usage-based pricing system, which limits how much data can be used without paying overage fees. Verizon switched to a similar model in July.

T-Mobile doesn't have limits on data usage, but has long employed a practice called throttling, which limits a person's connection speed when data consumption hits a certain level.

AT&T and Verizon have both changed their own policies to allow for the throttling of excessive users.

Beyond Sprint, Validas notes that the prices are high largely because the connection speed for wireless service is so slow. Consumers would use more data if they were able to.

"It's not that people don't want to use the data--it's that they're hampered by slow network speeds," the report says.

The other carriers are starting to catch up. Verizon Wireless deployed its faster 4G LTE network late last year, and began selling smartphones for the service earlier this year. The study based its usage and plans on the first half of the year, where there were likely too few Verizon 4G customers to move the needle. AT&T plans to launch its own 4G LTE network in the coming weeks.

For Sprint, the combination of an unlimited data plan and a reasonable smartphone plan gives it an attractive combination to sell to customers. Just as long as they keep that unlimited plan going.

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WidgetPad Introduces Web-based Open-Source Development Environment for iPhone Widgets

WidgetPad Inc., a provider of collaborative developer environments for hybrid Web-based mobile applications, has announced WidgetPad for iPhone. WidgetPad for iPhone helps developers easily create native applications using standard Web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript, and distribute them as stand-alone applications via the Apple iTunes store. WidgetPad is a collaborative, open-source environment that will allow thousands of developers to share source code and learn from each other.

WidgetPad takes the complexity out of creating native applications and eliminates the need to learn platform-specific API sets and tools, by taking advantage of emerging new standards, such as HTML5. Available through the Web via a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, WidgetPad for iPhone allows developers to create fully interactive, media-rich mobile applications. These applications can leverage all of the iPhone’s advanced hardware capabilities (GPS, accelerometer, compass, etc.) by simply accessing WidgetPad.com through standard browsers – Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Some key features of WidgetPad for iPhone include:
- Editing: Source code editing for JavaScript, HTML 5 and CSS (with syntax highlighting)
- Resource management: Uploading of various resources (image, sound, and other JavaScript and CSS files) and project management
- Code Sharing and Forking: Automatic sharing of all public projects
- Secure cross-domain scripting: Easily create mash-up applications with existing Web services accessing Web-service APIs over the domain boundary securely
- Application previewing: Run the application on a PC/Mac browser without the iPhone (Safari compatible)
- Publishing: Developers can choose to publish applications to iPhone either via a generic WidgetPad client (free), or as their own branded applications (free or paid)



WidgetPad Development Environment

Upcoming versions of WidgetPad will allow developers to seamlessly port applications to other smartphone devices such as the Palm Pre and Blackberry. The basic version of WidgetPad for iPhone, which is free, allows developers to distribute their applications to iPhone users via a generic WidgetPad client (also free). The source code of those “public” applications will be automatically shared among other developers (MIT license), creating a great learning and collaborative environment for developers. The premium version of WidgetPad for iPhone, available later this year, allows developers to create “private” projects and distribute stand-alone applications to the Apple iTunes store.

For more information about WidgetPad for iPhone and to instantly start developing hybrid applications for the iPhone, visit www.widgetpad.com.

WidgetPad Inc. is a provider of collaborative developer environments for hybrid Web-based mobile applications. The company’s development environment allows Web developers to easily and cost-effectively create hybrid web applications for smartphones and mobile devices, such as iPhone, Palm Pre and Google’s Android devices. The company was founded by Satoshi Nakajima and Yuichiro Masui. Nakajima is the creator of the world’s first CAD application for the personal computer, and a defining force behind the architecture for Microsoft Windows 95 and the creation of Internet Explorer 3.0. Masui is a contributor of various open source projects, such as PukiWiki, and played a leadership role in building Ruby on Rails community in Japan. WidgetPad is based in Bellevue, Wash.

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Google want to own or organize information

No doubt that Google decision to acquire Zagat gives its local business strategy a nice boost.

But it's not without some tension. Google, which likes to think of itself as the great organizer of the world's information, is increasingly owning important chunks of it. And that raises questions about whether the company will give the information it owns preferential treatment over information owned by others.

"This is exactly why Google is on the hot seat for antitrust," said Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court, an activist and frequent thorn in Google's side. "This is when the search engine becomes the find engine."

It's not an academic point. Fears about Google playing favorites with its properties have emerged before, and even tripped the company up. Last year, competitors in the air travel business raised those concerns when Google announced plans to buy ITA Software, which provides travel information to various Web sites. Companies such as Expedia, Kayak and Hotwire worried that Google could have created rival Web sites and not given them information necessary to compete. That led federal regulators to step in and require Google to continue licensing ITA's travel technology to competitors for five years on "reasonable and nondiscriminatory" terms before approving the $700 million deal.

Google declined to discuss the potential conflict for this article, instead pointing to a blog post announcing the deal by Marissa Mayer, its vice president of local, maps, and location services. In that post, Mayer writes that "Zagat will be a cornerstone of our local offering."

So where does that leave rival sites that also review restaurants such as Yelp, with whom Google has tangled before? It's unclear. Google has consistently said it won't tweak algorithms to favor its businesses. And right now, if you search, say, "Thai food Chicago," Yelp's data is the first result that pops up on Google.

If Zagat displaces Yelp on that search and other similar ones in a few months time, it will undoubtedly raise questions. That's the peril of owning information when you dominate the business of organizing it as well.

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Yahoo! Up For Sale?

The big tech news yesterday was that Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo, was fired. Today the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Yahoo! is a possible takeover target (when weren’t they a takeover target). As Business Insider puts it,”That’s the equivalent of sticking a FOR SALE sign on the lawn.” Yahoo! may have missed their opportunity back in 2008 when Microsoft made the play to acquire them.

Obviously, Yahoo! has been one of the top upstream providers for domain parking and many large portfolios have relied on their feed over the years including Kevin Ham and Frank Schilling. Parking companies like Skenzo, Parked.com and TrafficZ also rely heavily on Yahoo!.

The continued uncertainty about the future of Yahoo! can not be good news for anyone in the space.

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What is the Best SEO Method?

My Best SEO Method

Now, I don't consider myself an SEO expert by any means. However, I do have many articles that rank highly in Google's SERP's (search engine results pages). Therefore, based on my own personal experience and the success I've had with article syndication, in my opinion, the best SEO method is to create and distribute quality, relevant content.

You see, if you create and distribute quality, relevant content, your website will get linked to by quality websites. And if your website gets linked to by quality websites, your search engine ranking will increase. And isn't that the whole point of SEO to begin with - increased search engine ranking?

The Panda Update

Just to be clear, when I talk about search engine ranking, I'm not talking about "PageRank", Google's 0-10 logarithmic toolbar which is nothing more than a "superficial beauty contest" vanity tool - very much out-of-date, and does NOT have a direct impact on a site's ranking. No, I'm referring to where your pages rank in Google's SERP's.

And if the recent Panda update has taught us anything at all, it's that Google is committed to "taking out the trash." And if you produce garbage content, eventually one of Google's algorithm changes is going to punish you.



Link SEO

In fact, this is what Google said about the recent Panda update:

"This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on. It is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that's exactly what this change does." (Source: Google Blog)

Ya Gotta Have Pride

But it's not just Google that has a problem with garbage content. Many Internet users despise the low-quality content that permeates the Internet as well. That said, you shouldn't create quality content just to please Google or visitors to your website. Creating quality content should be a matter of personal and professional pride.

Because just like the products and services you sell are a direct reflection of you, so too is the content on your website. There are many marketers who consider the content on their site unimportant - little more than filler. The content is just there to take up space. It has no goal and serves no real purpose.

That's a fatal mistake. The content on your site should have a purpose. If it doesn't have a purpose, then why is it even there? And you can bet, if I'm asking that question, so is Google. Remember what I just said about your content being a reflection of you and having personal and professional pride?

Create Useful Content

Always make sure the content on your site is useful, informative, interesting and/or entertaining. If it isn't, visitors are unlikely to return or refer your site to others - depriving you of valuable word-of-mouth exposure. Also, make sure your content is well-written. It doesn't have to be a journalistic masterpiece, but it shouldn't be an embarrassment either - like it was written by a 3rd grader.

If you don't write well, reputable and professional content writing services like Nicole Beckett's PremierContentSource.com, can write content for you at a reasonable cost.

A Word About Keywords

Since this article is about SEO, I would be remiss if I didn't discuss keywords. When interspersing keywords throughout your pages, be careful not to repeat them so often they looked forced. Overdoing it with keywords (known as keyword stuffing) will make your content read unnaturally, and will lead to an unpleasant reading experience for your readers.

In addition, if search engine spiders discover too many of the same keywords on your pages, you will likely be penalized for spamming. This will adversely affect the search engine ranking of your pages. It might even get your site blacklisted, if a pattern of keyword stuffing is detected on your site.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

In closing, you have a choice. You can either create garbage content that belongs outside on the curb waiting to be picked up and disposed of by Google's waste management algorithm truck, or you can create quality, relevant content that is useful and helps people.

Because if you focus on consistently creating quality, relevant content, regardless of what other SEO methods you choose to implement, they will only be enhanced.

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Adventure PHP Framework (APF) 1.11 released

The APF team is proud to anounce the new website together with the 1.11 stable release.

Revision 1.11 serves a reworking of the form support on the basis of taglibs. Now generic definition of validators and filters on the basis of the observer pattern is supported and forms can be customised to own needs more easily.

The OR mapper GenericORMapper already added in the release 1.9 was extended with tools to automatically setup and update a database. Now the developer can completely concentrate on the development of the logic of the application since the storage of the objects is completely managed by the mapper.

Part of the performance optimisations of the releases were optimisations in the core of the frameworks and the reworking of the integrated BenchmarkTimer. It now supplies the developer with a better graphic representation of the measurements to find hot-spots within an application. Thus, an application can the optimally prepared for operation.

With appearance of the release 1.11 the support for PHP 4 was announced discontinuation and the compatibility with PHP 5.3 was improved. In the coming version 1.12 lies the focus on the extension of the new form support and the reworking of the configuration component.

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ShiftEdit – Web Based IDE

ShiftEdit is a new online IDE built around ExtJS and Mozilla Skywriter.

Philosophy behind the project:

Screenshot of ShiftEdit - Web Based IDE

“The web-based IDE is one of the final frontiers of apps ported to the web. I would like to be able to develop from any computer or operating system and have the same experience without having to install software or create site definitions.” – Adam Jimenez
These are some of the main features:

Code editor
The editor component is based on Mozilla’s Bespin. It has support for:

Syntax highlighing for HTML/ CSS/ JS and PHP
Block tabbing
Undo/ Redo
Line Numbers
Jump to line
+ It’s very fast
(S)FTP support
There is a built-in FTP explorer which support FTP and SFTP.
You can create/ rename/ delete files and folders. You can also set file permissions.

Find/replace
Find and replace works across current or all open files. You can do text searches or regular expression searches.

Revision History
File revisions are stored whenever you save a file. You can then look back through past revisions and view a diff comparison.
You can then restore to an earlier version. Very useful if you or a colleague breaks something!

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HP TouchPad screen can now support Android

The HP TouchPad is now capable of running Android with full use of the touch screen, thanks to the technical team at TouchDroid.

Hard at work porting Android over to HP's discontinued but much-in-demand tablet, the TouchDroid techs were able to create the necessary drivers to coax Android 2.3.5 to run on the TouchPad and let people tap into the touch screen.

Unveiling a video (also seen below) showing off the team's progress, a TouchDroid developer demonstrated how he could fluidly and smoothly tap and move his finger around a TouchPad running Android with no delays or skips. He even demoed Android's multitouch feature, moving five fingers and then ten fingers across the screen.

Though TouchDroid is currently using Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread on its demo tablet, its ultimate goal is to support the current flavor of Honeycomb or even the upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich on a TouchPad. The team seems to be making quick progress as a little more than two weeks ago, its developers were still trying to drum up a TouchPad that they could use for testing.

The latest development also follows a conflict among some of TouchDroid's members over soliciting money to buy TouchPads, an issue that actually split the group into two teams now working separately.

In addition to TouchDroid, another group called CyanogenMod is striving to port Android to the HP tablet. As of late August, the CyanogenMod team had succeeded in running Android on the TouchPad but had yet to build support for the touch-screen drivers.
HP's TouchPad has been a hot commodity since the company announced a few weeks ago that it was pulling the plug on the tablet. To sell off existing inventory, HP lowered the price to $99 for the 16GB version and $149 for the 32GB model, from $499 and $599, respectively. That fire sale ignited a flurry of buyers, causing HP and other retailers to quickly run out of available stock.

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HTC sues Apple using Google patents

HTC fired another legal salvo against Apple, but this time it's armed with patents it received from Google, according to Bloomberg.

HTC employed nine patents that originally came from Palm, Motorola, and Openwave Systems, which Google bought within the past year, Bloomberg said, citing U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records. Google transferred the patents to HTC on September 1.

The latest lawsuit marks Google's strongest show of support for its Android partners. Apple has levied multiple lawsuits against Android supporters including HTC, Motorola Mobility, and Samsung Electronics in a bid to halt their momentum in the increasingly cutthroat smartphone market.

HTC filed the lawsuit in the federal district court in Delaware using the patent originally issued to Motorola. It also amended a complaint with the ITC using patents issued to Openwave and Palm.

"HTC will continue to protect its patented inventions against infringement from Apple until such infringement stops. We believe that we have an obligation to protect our business, our industry partners and our customers, who love using our products," Grace Lei, HTC's general counsel, said in an e-mailed statement to CNET.

Apple reiterated its statement from the original lawsuit.
"We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours," according to a company representative.

HTC previously filed three rounds of lawsuits and complaints in the courts and ITC, with the last one alleging Apple illegally used HTC's patents related to WiFi capabilities for multiple devices and technology used to combine a phone and personal digital assistant.

Google had initially left many of its partners hanging early on, leaving many to fend for themselves in their own individual suits. But it has more recently has taken steps to offer better protection. Last month, it agreed to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion to get access to its patents, which it said would provide protection for all Android users.

HTC has enjoyed success as an early support for Android. The company created the first Android smartphone, the G1, and has seen its profile rise over the past few years. The company was also the first target of an Apple lawsuit related to Android, and is among the most deeply entrench in the various lawsuits and complaints.

HTC is also seen as the Android partner with the weakest patent portfolio. The company has attempted to shore up its position with various acquisitions, including the purchase of S3 Graphics. S3 holds patents that it claims Apple is infringing upon.

Google's willingness to supply HTC with patents for protection could hint that it may eventually take its own direct action against Apple. So far, the two companies have been fighting through proxies and partners.
"This intervention on Google's part increases the likelihood of direct litigation by Apple against Google," said Florian Muller, a consultant in intellectual property cases and publisher of the Foss Patents blog site. "Apple may hold patents that could affect Google beyond Android."
Openwave, meanwhile, has increasingly become a player in the wireless legal battles. Last week, the company took aim at Apple and Research in Motion, claiming the two companies infringed on its intellectual property in a lawsuit filed in Delaware and a complain filed with the ITC. Openwave specifically claimed that virtually all of its iOS products infringed on its patents, which related to Web browsing, cloud computing, wireless networking and offline e-mail.

Technology companies have increasingly used the courtroom as a second front in the smartphone and tablet wars. In particular, many have filed complaints with the U.S. International Trade Commission, which typically goes through the review process faster and can potentially bar products from being shipped into the U.S. The ban, however, has never been leveled on a company, since the threat is high enough to spur a resolution.

The potential reward of a licensing agreement, and the slowdown of a competitor, is enough to go through the trouble.

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SF police launch probe into iPhone search

SAN FRANCISCO--Police here have begun looking into what role officers played in a search by Apple for a missing unreleased iPhone.

Lt. Troy Dangerfield, of the San Francisco Police Department, told CNET today that an internal investigation has begun into determining how officers assisted two Apple security employees in their July search of a home in the Bernal Heights neighborhood for the handset.

A week ago, CNET reported that members of the SFPD and the two Apple employees showed up to the home of Sergio Calderon and started questioning him. Apple had gone to police for help after an employee lost possession of the handset at a San Francisco tequila bar. Apple told police that it had electronically tracked the phone to the Bernal Heights address where Calderon resides.
Calderon told SF Weekly following CNET's story that when police arrived, he told them he had no knowledge of the phone or its whereabouts. He did, however, acknowledge being at Cava 22 the night the phone went missing. A source close to the investigation said police asked to search the house and told Calderon that if he declined they would return with a search warrant. Calderon then consented.

Dangerfield confirmed that police participated in the search, but according to Dangerfield, the officers never entered Calderon's home. After Calderon agreed to the search, the policemen stepped aside and allowed Apple to go through his house, car, and computer.
SFPD Chief Greg Suhr told the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday that it isn't uncommon for police to assist private investigators. "The reason we do civil standby is to make sure there isn't a problem," Suhr said, according to the Chronicle. "Whatever conversations the (Apple) employees had with the resident, I can't say."
An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Reached outside his home on Tuesday, Calderon declined to discuss the specifics of the incident. He told CNET that he's "talking to an attorney," but didn't specify the reasons for the discussions.

Criminal defense attorneys in San Francisco say that some of the allegations are worrisome if true. According to Calderon's statements to SF Weekly, he suggested that "officers" tried to intimidate him and his family into cooperating with the search. They asked whether everyone living in the house was in the United States legally.

Police aren't supposed to try to obtain permission to search a home by putting someone under duress, said Ginny Walia, of Ginny Walia Law Offices.

Calderon also claims that the Apple security personnel entered his home without identifying themselves as Apple employees. He told SF Weekly that he was under the impression that the group on his doorstep were all police officers. He said he would not have allowed the two Apple employees to conduct the search had he known they were not police officers.

John Runfola, a criminal defense attorney in San Francisco, said that police must be transparent about the facts of a search and not identifying who was performing the search wouldn't be lawful if proven true. However, both Runfola and Walia said that because the phone was not found and nothing was taken, there might be little recourse for Calderon outside of filing a complaint with the police.

To pursue some kind of civil suit against the police Calderon would have to show some kind of loss as a result of the search, the lawyers said.
As for SFPD's internal investigation, it is typical in these sorts of inquiries to talk to all the parties involved, Dangerfield said. He said that the department could seek to interview Calderon.

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The Net must fight back to regain our trust

Trust is tremendously valuable, but unfortunately supplies are running a bit short on the Internet right now.

We've all heard about Trojan horse malware that poses as software you might want to run, phishing scams that send fake e-mail purporting to be from your bank, and identity thieves who can siphon away your money. But an unpleasant new variety of faith-undermining behavior has shown up twice now in recent months: bogus versions of the digital certificates that enable encrypted communications on the Net.

How does a bogus certificate hit you where it hurts? Think of the Web sites you trust, the ones with the traditional closed-lock icon that signifies a secure connection. Fake certificates, in combination with changes to the way in which data is routed around the Internet, can be used to steal passwords and intercept e-mail from use of those sites.

The problem is that there are hundreds of organizations called certificate authorities (CAs) that issue certificates, and those organizations may be vulnerable to attack. The certificate authority worry is very real: In March, Comodo issued fake certificates after a successful attack, and in August DigiNotar issued 531 fake certificates for Google, Facebook, Twitter, the CIA, and more. Some security experts expect more use of fake certificates, too.

In other words, we're running into a breach of trust not just for Web sites, but for the organizations set up to to tell us whether we can trust Web sites.

That's a particularly corrosive type of doubt to have in the back of your mind: it's systemic, with the potential to undermine faith broadly, not just hurt the reputation of one particular site.

The utility of trust
Trust is tremendously useful. It increases the efficiency of transactions, saving time by not requiring every little detail to be verified in advance.

It can be hard to establish trust, though. Here's a case in point from my recent move to France: my bank required a phone bill with my new address to prove that I really had moved, and my phone company required a bank statement with my new address before it would give me a subscription. (The situation was more complicated, to be fair, but that procedural deadlock was one very real aspect.)

Once the trust is established, though, future transactions get easier. For example, my bank now will send me a replacement debit card or an older bank statement with little fuss.
The bank's process is very formal, but I think systems of human interactions naturally incorporate trust more organically. Perhaps it's human nature, in which we evolved to give others the benefit of the doubt to some degree. Perhaps it's that a system with a certain amount of trust is more efficient and spreads more quickly to other people.

The problem is that it's easy to get ahead in the short run if you're willing to abuse trust. The September 11 attacks took advantage of some built-in goodwill in pilot training, aircraft security, and air traffic control. Other examples of abuses: fabricated news stories, fraudulent scientific results, investment funds that are actually Ponzi schemes, and the patron who stiffs the restaurant. If everybody skipped out on paying bills, you can bet that all restaurants would demand payment in advance, but for now, we generally get the flexibility of being able to add dessert and a coffee onto the bill at the end of the meal.
Happily, human systems repair themselves because overall the advantages of trust are pretty high, too. The stock market, airline industry, news media, scientific research community, and restaurant business all have surmounted plenty of trust-based challenges.

Hidden tax on the Net
What worries me about the Internet is that it operates at a massive scale and with greater automation. Even though the overall Net will keep on humming, a large number of individuals could suffer. Consequently, we're seeing a gradual rise in technical countermeasures. That means a tax on the Net's use, one way or another.

Here's one example: I use Google two-factor authentication, and it's a pain. For one thing, I have to have my phone around to provide a verification code when I log into my account from a new browser. Given that I have two phones, two tablets, three computers, and at least a dozen browsers in regular use, that's a lot of work.

Just as inconveniently, two-factor authentication means I have to generate passwords for apps that use Google services--Gmail and Google+ on my Android phones and tablet, Mail on my Mac and iPad, Chrome settings and iTunes-Google sync, and more.
I've thought about ditching two-factor authentication on many occasions, but each time I ponder the risks and leave it on.

Likewise, my bank makes me jump through hoops to sign on--but in today's world I grit my teeth and put up with it. When I sign up for new services, I worry that I'm adding one more potential way that some identity thief or fraudster will find a way into my life.
Browsers, the gateway to the Web, are on the front lines of this battle. There are encouraging signs here that browser makers are getting more serious.

Google has modified Chrome so that for particular domains such as Gmail, it will only use certificates from a short list of certificate authorities it deems solid. That won't stop all abuse, but it was useful enough to flag the DigiNotar problem.

Browser makers are also making it harder for add-ons to add themselves without user permission, asking difficult questions about balancing new features' utility and risk. More broadly, Google is pushing the use of secure Web connections, not just for Gmail but also for search.

No longer naive
This isn't the first time trust took a hit on the Net, of course, and computing systems continuously evolve away from their early, naive designs. Gone are the days when it was possible to break into servers with the username "guest" and an empty password, as described in Cliff Stohl's 1989 book "The Cuckoo's Egg."

The trouble is that the Internet is increasingly essential to school, business, politics, and our personal lives. The damages of breaches of trust are worse than ever.

It's great that the Net's technologists are responding. But there's no miracle cure here, and malicious hackers are advancing the state of the art at the same time. Governments and armed forces, not just thieves, are getting involved as cyberwar becomes just a facet of ordinary war.
It's a great time to be on the Net, and I'm confident that ultimately it will withstand this current hit to its trustworthiness. But the time being, I'm keeping the annoying, heavy-duty Google authentication.

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