Nikon India today announced the new Nikon 1 imaging system. This series includes two models- the Nikon 1 J1 and the Nikon 1 V1. The Nikon 1 J1 is an advanced camera with interchangeable that lets user capture pictures and High Definition (HD) movies. The camera features an electronic viewfinder (EVF), 4 interchangeable lenses, continuous shooting and auto-focus system.
The name itself was inspired by the idea of developing a completely new camera system that would be a leader in the digital age by starting from "0", and giving birth to "1".
Nikon 1 J1 features new hybrid Autofocus (AF), Motion Snapshot mode, Smart Photo Selector which automatically capture image and is capable of recording recording Full HD 1080p movies simultaneously.
The Nikon 1 V1 has a magnesium alloy body and features 1.4 million dot high resolution EVF. The V1 also features a microphone and a Multi-Accessory Port for attaching SB-N5 compact speed light, or the GP-N100 GPS module.
The Nikon 1 J1 with 10-30mm VR kit lens will be available at a price of Rs. 29, 950, while the Nikon 1 V1 with 10-30mm VR kit will be available at Rs 43, 950.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Oracle investor sues co's Board
An Oracle Corp investor sued the company and members of its board of directors on Thursday for allegedly trying to "stonewall" a whistleblower lawsuit that ultimately resulted in a $200 million settlement.
The lawsuit filed by investor Jordan Weinrib in Delaware state court said the defendants, including Oracle CEO Lawrence Ellison and other past and present members of the company's board of directors, breached their duty to shareholders by engaging in prolonged litigation over the whistleblower's allegations, which the defendants allegedly knew to be true.
"The board forced the government to expend additional resources litigating the action when the board knew the company was in a significant liability position and that additional litigation would certainly raise the ultimate price of settlement," Weinrib said in the complaint.
The settlement in question was the result of a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2007 by Oracle's former senior director of contract services, Paul Frascella, who accused the company of violating price-reduction clauses in federal contracts covering $775 million in goods, extending discounts to commercial clients without doing the same for government buyers.
The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in the lawsuit in 2010. In 2011, Oracle paid more than $200 million to settle the lawsuit, including interest and payments for the whistleblower, the largest of its kind under the federal False Claims Act.
"Despite substantial evidence of wrongdoing, Oracle's board of directors did not admit that these acts had occurred, enact remedial measures and negotiate a resolution that involved a small payment," Weinrib said in the complaint. Instead, by litigating the case, Oracle drove up the ultimate settlement price, harming taxpayers and shareholders alike, Weinrib said.
Weinrib is seeking an unspecified amount in damages on behalf of shareholders. A spokesman for Oracle did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
The lawsuit filed by investor Jordan Weinrib in Delaware state court said the defendants, including Oracle CEO Lawrence Ellison and other past and present members of the company's board of directors, breached their duty to shareholders by engaging in prolonged litigation over the whistleblower's allegations, which the defendants allegedly knew to be true.
"The board forced the government to expend additional resources litigating the action when the board knew the company was in a significant liability position and that additional litigation would certainly raise the ultimate price of settlement," Weinrib said in the complaint.
The settlement in question was the result of a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2007 by Oracle's former senior director of contract services, Paul Frascella, who accused the company of violating price-reduction clauses in federal contracts covering $775 million in goods, extending discounts to commercial clients without doing the same for government buyers.
The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in the lawsuit in 2010. In 2011, Oracle paid more than $200 million to settle the lawsuit, including interest and payments for the whistleblower, the largest of its kind under the federal False Claims Act.
"Despite substantial evidence of wrongdoing, Oracle's board of directors did not admit that these acts had occurred, enact remedial measures and negotiate a resolution that involved a small payment," Weinrib said in the complaint. Instead, by litigating the case, Oracle drove up the ultimate settlement price, harming taxpayers and shareholders alike, Weinrib said.
Weinrib is seeking an unspecified amount in damages on behalf of shareholders. A spokesman for Oracle did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
T-Mobile cutting 1,900 call centre jobs
Cellphone carrier T-Mobile USA Inc said Thursday that it is cutting 1,900 jobs nationwide as it consolidates its call centers in an effort to reduce costs and remain competitive.
Seven of its 24 call centers will be closed by the end of June. About 3,300 people work at the centers slated to be shuttered, but T-Mobile said it plans to hire up to 1,400 people at the remaining 17 centers.
The call centers slated for closure are in Allentown, Pa.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Frisco, Texas; Brownsville, Texas; Lenexa, Kansas; Thornton, Colo. and Redmond, Ore.
The company said that workers whose jobs are eliminated will have a chance to transfer to the remaining call centres.
"These are not easy steps to take, but they are necessary to realize efficiency in order to invest for growth," Philipp Humm, T-Mobile CEO and president said in a statement.
T-Mobile, based in Bellevue, Washington, is the smallest of the four national carriers and is dealing with steep subscriber loses, resulting in fewer calls to its call centers.
In last year's fourth quarter, T-Mobile lost a net 802,000 subscribers on contract-based plans, which are the most lucrative. It is the only national carrier not offering the iPhone, the popular Apple Inc. device now carried by all three of the company's larger rivals.
In addition, a $39 billion bid by AT&T Corp to take over T-Mobile was thwarted last year by antitrust concerns.
T-Mobile said it will restructure other parts of its business during the second quarter. That includes plans announced previously to modernize its network, add new technology and hire more sales staff. The company employs about 36,000 people.
It announced in February that it will revamp its wireless data network this year, making it compatible with iPhones and other smartphones.
Seven of its 24 call centers will be closed by the end of June. About 3,300 people work at the centers slated to be shuttered, but T-Mobile said it plans to hire up to 1,400 people at the remaining 17 centers.
The call centers slated for closure are in Allentown, Pa.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Frisco, Texas; Brownsville, Texas; Lenexa, Kansas; Thornton, Colo. and Redmond, Ore.
The company said that workers whose jobs are eliminated will have a chance to transfer to the remaining call centres.
"These are not easy steps to take, but they are necessary to realize efficiency in order to invest for growth," Philipp Humm, T-Mobile CEO and president said in a statement.
T-Mobile, based in Bellevue, Washington, is the smallest of the four national carriers and is dealing with steep subscriber loses, resulting in fewer calls to its call centers.
In last year's fourth quarter, T-Mobile lost a net 802,000 subscribers on contract-based plans, which are the most lucrative. It is the only national carrier not offering the iPhone, the popular Apple Inc. device now carried by all three of the company's larger rivals.
In addition, a $39 billion bid by AT&T Corp to take over T-Mobile was thwarted last year by antitrust concerns.
T-Mobile said it will restructure other parts of its business during the second quarter. That includes plans announced previously to modernize its network, add new technology and hire more sales staff. The company employs about 36,000 people.
It announced in February that it will revamp its wireless data network this year, making it compatible with iPhones and other smartphones.
New telecom operators adding users despite uncertainty
New telecom operators, led by Uninor and Sistema Shyam (MTS India), continue to add new subscribers in February notwithstanding the uncertain environment after the Supreme Court judgement cancelling 122 2G licences.
Uninor, a joint venture between Unitech and Norway-based Telenor, registered the maximum growth of 6.04 per cent in additions as it added 2.34 million users in the month. Its total user base was at 41.14 million.
According to the GSM users data released by Cellular Operators of India today, all operators added 8.77 million new users in February to take the country's GSM user base to 656.86 million.
In January, GSM operators had added 8.44 million new users taking the total to 648.08 million.
Another new operator Videocon, which added 0.34 million new subscribers, posted the second highest growth rate of 5.97 per cent in February. The user base of Videocon stood at 6.19 million.
CDMA player MTS India said it added 0.23 million new customers, taking its user base to 15.43 million.
Idea Cellular added maximum number of users at 2.58 million taking its subscriber base to 110.70 million.
However, state-run BSNL failed to add even a single new subscriber for the month. Its user base stood at 93.42 million.
Telecom major Bharti Airtel added 1.82 users as its total subscriber base was at 178.77 million. It had a market share of 27.22 per cent.
Vodafone Essar, with a 22.75 per cent market share, added 0.83 million new subscribers during the month, taking its subscriber base to 149.44 million in February.
Aircel added 0.79 million customers taking its subscriber base to 63.25 million, whereas MTNL added 38,757 new users taking its base to 5.53 million in February.
Both Etisalat and Stel, which have expressed their intentions to exit business after their licenses were cancelled by the Supreme Court, did not add any new user.
Circle-wise, the highest number of additions were in Maharashtra which saw 1 million new users being added in February.
GSM is the leading standard for mobile telephony systems in the world. The other technology platform on which telcos offer services is CDMA, where players such as Tata Teleservices (TTSL), RCom and Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL) are the main operators.
TTSL and RCom offer both GSM as well as CDMA services.
Uninor, a joint venture between Unitech and Norway-based Telenor, registered the maximum growth of 6.04 per cent in additions as it added 2.34 million users in the month. Its total user base was at 41.14 million.
According to the GSM users data released by Cellular Operators of India today, all operators added 8.77 million new users in February to take the country's GSM user base to 656.86 million.
In January, GSM operators had added 8.44 million new users taking the total to 648.08 million.
Another new operator Videocon, which added 0.34 million new subscribers, posted the second highest growth rate of 5.97 per cent in February. The user base of Videocon stood at 6.19 million.
CDMA player MTS India said it added 0.23 million new customers, taking its user base to 15.43 million.
Idea Cellular added maximum number of users at 2.58 million taking its subscriber base to 110.70 million.
However, state-run BSNL failed to add even a single new subscriber for the month. Its user base stood at 93.42 million.
Telecom major Bharti Airtel added 1.82 users as its total subscriber base was at 178.77 million. It had a market share of 27.22 per cent.
Vodafone Essar, with a 22.75 per cent market share, added 0.83 million new subscribers during the month, taking its subscriber base to 149.44 million in February.
Aircel added 0.79 million customers taking its subscriber base to 63.25 million, whereas MTNL added 38,757 new users taking its base to 5.53 million in February.
Both Etisalat and Stel, which have expressed their intentions to exit business after their licenses were cancelled by the Supreme Court, did not add any new user.
Circle-wise, the highest number of additions were in Maharashtra which saw 1 million new users being added in February.
GSM is the leading standard for mobile telephony systems in the world. The other technology platform on which telcos offer services is CDMA, where players such as Tata Teleservices (TTSL), RCom and Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL) are the main operators.
TTSL and RCom offer both GSM as well as CDMA services.
New Apple iPad in wi-fi trouble?
Apple's new iPad has trouble picking up and holding on to wi-fi signals, say users.
A thread on Apple's official forums has 144 posts from angry users, and has been read by 5,000 people, Daily Mail reported Thursday.
"This is a problem Apple - you need to fix it," says one user.
"The laptop wifi reception is as strong as it gets, but the iPad only registers a weak signal. Anyone else having similar problems? Any suggestions?" Daily Mail quoted one user as saying.
Other Apple launches have been blighted by similar problems, including the original iPad and some models of iBook, the newspaper said.
The news comes as users complain that a hidden "upgrade" to the new machine has meant that many older "Smart Covers" - the magnetic covers used by Apple which turn on the machine automatically when opened - won't work.
The problem is particularly bad with third-party covers made by companies other than Apple, but older official Apple covers also fail to work, the paper added.
Google imagines environment-aware mobile adverts
If you have ever stood in the rain wondering where the nearest umbrella shop is, then the latest Google patent may interest you.
The search giant has secured intellectual rights to a system that would serve ads based on environmental conditions.
Google said forward-looking patents were useful for its portfolio, but it had no current plans to act on it.
But privacy advocates have warned it could set a dangerous precedent.
Spying device?
The patent, first reported by PC World magazine, potentially paves the way for a mobile phone fitted with sensors that would allow it to record data such as temperature, humidity, light, and sound or air composition, which would trigger relevant adverts.
"Advertisements for air conditioners can be sent to users located at regions having temperatures above a first threshold, while advertisements for winter overcoats can be sent to users located at regions having temperatures below a second threshold," explains the patent document.
The patent would allow Google to search offline data as well as online
Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International, is not impressed.
"Not content with collecting vast amounts of information from your online activities, it seems Google are looking to start exploiting the offline space as well. Patents like this may never come to fruition, but they force us to ask ourselves: how many aspects of our lives will advertisers try to exploit, and where will it end?
"This is an attempt to turn our devices into personal spying devices, just so a company can try to sell you a coat on a cold day."
Google was keen to put the patent in context.
"We file patent applications on a variety of ideas that our employees come up with. Some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don't. Prospective product announcements should not necessarily be inferred from our patent applications," said a Google spokesman.
'Minority Report'
Patents are the new battlefield for tech firms, and as well as seeking to gain as many device-specific patents as possible, many are also lodging forward-thinking ideas to future-proof themselves.
Andrew Alton, a patent lawyer with law firm Urquhart-Dykes and Lord, said it was a logical extension of Google's context advertising.
"There are elements of things from the film Minority Report happening in the real world but this is just an extension of context-based advertising. It is what Google does anyway - combining people's past history with search results or searches based on GPS location," he said.
He said that such "blue sky patents" were becoming increasingly popular with firms.
"Lodging patents on stuff you are already doing puts you behind the times. To guess what will happen next, to step back and look at the next generation of products that puts you in a dominant position," he said.
"If you spend money on research and development of new products, the costs may be massive but getting licensing rights when someone else invents it is free money for firms," he added.
The search giant has secured intellectual rights to a system that would serve ads based on environmental conditions.
Google said forward-looking patents were useful for its portfolio, but it had no current plans to act on it.
But privacy advocates have warned it could set a dangerous precedent.
Spying device?
The patent, first reported by PC World magazine, potentially paves the way for a mobile phone fitted with sensors that would allow it to record data such as temperature, humidity, light, and sound or air composition, which would trigger relevant adverts.
"Advertisements for air conditioners can be sent to users located at regions having temperatures above a first threshold, while advertisements for winter overcoats can be sent to users located at regions having temperatures below a second threshold," explains the patent document.
The patent would allow Google to search offline data as well as online
Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International, is not impressed.
"Not content with collecting vast amounts of information from your online activities, it seems Google are looking to start exploiting the offline space as well. Patents like this may never come to fruition, but they force us to ask ourselves: how many aspects of our lives will advertisers try to exploit, and where will it end?
"This is an attempt to turn our devices into personal spying devices, just so a company can try to sell you a coat on a cold day."
Google was keen to put the patent in context.
"We file patent applications on a variety of ideas that our employees come up with. Some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don't. Prospective product announcements should not necessarily be inferred from our patent applications," said a Google spokesman.
'Minority Report'
Patents are the new battlefield for tech firms, and as well as seeking to gain as many device-specific patents as possible, many are also lodging forward-thinking ideas to future-proof themselves.
Andrew Alton, a patent lawyer with law firm Urquhart-Dykes and Lord, said it was a logical extension of Google's context advertising.
"There are elements of things from the film Minority Report happening in the real world but this is just an extension of context-based advertising. It is what Google does anyway - combining people's past history with search results or searches based on GPS location," he said.
He said that such "blue sky patents" were becoming increasingly popular with firms.
"Lodging patents on stuff you are already doing puts you behind the times. To guess what will happen next, to step back and look at the next generation of products that puts you in a dominant position," he said.
"If you spend money on research and development of new products, the costs may be massive but getting licensing rights when someone else invents it is free money for firms," he added.
After 6 years, Twitter has 14 crore users
Twitter on Thursday revealed that over 140 million active users make 340 million tweets everyday. The company disclosed the figure in an official blog posted after it completed six years of operations .
"At last check, there are more than 140 million active users and today we see 340 million Tweets a day. That's more than 1 billion every 3 days. Howeverconcisely, it turns out there's plenty to say," the company said. Twitter is a microblogging website where users cannot post a message bigger than 140 characters. However, this limit has been one of the reasons why the service has grown so rapidly as it allows people to post quick and concise thoughts in real time.
In the blog, Twitter revealed that the idea of the website was born when @jack (Jack Dorsey, the company's current executive chairman) sketched out his notion in March 2006. "No one could have predicted the trajectory of this new communication tool (then)... Now it seems that there are as many ways to express yourself in 140 characters as there are people doing it," Twitter said on the blog.
"At last check, there are more than 140 million active users and today we see 340 million Tweets a day. That's more than 1 billion every 3 days. Howeverconcisely, it turns out there's plenty to say," the company said. Twitter is a microblogging website where users cannot post a message bigger than 140 characters. However, this limit has been one of the reasons why the service has grown so rapidly as it allows people to post quick and concise thoughts in real time.
In the blog, Twitter revealed that the idea of the website was born when @jack (Jack Dorsey, the company's current executive chairman) sketched out his notion in March 2006. "No one could have predicted the trajectory of this new communication tool (then)... Now it seems that there are as many ways to express yourself in 140 characters as there are people doing it," Twitter said on the blog.
Samsung seeks killer design to shed "copycat" image
When Samsung Electronics rushed its first smartphone to market in a panicky response to the smash-hit debut of the Apple iPhone, some customers burned the product on the streets or hammered it to bits in public displays of disaffection.
Complaints ranged from dropped calls and a clunky touchscreen to frequent auto rebooting and a dearth of applications.
"It was just awful," said Kim Sang-uk, 27, who bought the Omnia in late-2009 just before starting his first job. "I just wanted to throw it away, but couldn't because I was on a 2-year contract. It was the kind of phone where you'd say 'no', even if someone gave it to you for free."
Samsung Mobile President JK Shin admitted it was a tough time. The company had seen a 1 trillion won profit in its telecom sector in the first quarter of 2010 halved in the following quarter after Apple Inc's latest iPhone took the market by storm.
"We were facing a really serious crisis," Shin said later.
Soap vs. perfume
Yet on the 9th floor of Samsung Electronics headquarters in Seoul housing the mobile division's design center, Lee Minhyouk said he was not feeling the heat. Samsung Mobile's vice president for design and his team were already working on its next smartphone, the Galaxy, and this would be truly a worthy opponent to the iPhone.
Samsung has sold 44 million Galaxy units since its launch in June 2010 on its way to displacing Apple last year as the world's top-selling smartphone maker. Its success evolved from the Omnia, said Lee, who at 40 is the company's youngest senior executive.
"Without Omnia and Samsung's previous models, there would have been no Galaxys. There's a design link among these products," he said in an interview at his office. "They shouldn't be viewed as fragmental design. They share our deep deliberation on technology, colour and design language."
Samsung's chequered entry into the smartphone market is emblematic of the South Korean conglomerate's strengths and weaknesses.
Its strategy has always been to be the "fast executioner", the first in the market with a copycat product when a new opportunity is presented. But it is not known as a great innovator or a company like Apple that can literally create a new market with an iconic product.
To become a truly innovative company, Samsung needs to explore the art, as well as the science, of what it does, critics say.
"Samsung is like a fantastic soap maker," said Christian Lindholm, chief innovation officer of service design consultancy Fjord based in Finland. "Their products get you clean, lathers well. However, they do not know how to make perfumes, an industry where margins are significantly higher. Perfume is an experience. Perfume is meant to seduce, make you attractive and feel good. You love your perfume, but you like your soap."
Designing something people can love is an art, which requires risk taking and is based more on experience than data. "Samsung needs to learn to lead more. They analyze all creativity to death, they lack self confidence," Lindholm said.
"Korea has to leap into the experience industry," she added. "I think they have only five years before they are the new Japan, outmaneuvered by the Chinese who are quickly learning the soap business."
Evolution vs. creation
Lee's office atmosphere and his comments seem to reinforce an image of a company whose culture leans more to evolution than big-bang creationism.
His design sanctum looks much like any other Samsung department, a Dilbert sprawl of desks and cubicles with framed aphorisms from the founding family on the walls: "Be with Customers" and "Create Products that Contribute to Humanity" and also this one: "Challenge the World, Create the Future".
The office may lack the exotic art, exercise balls and creative toys of Silicon Valley decor, but Lee and his team are borrowing some start-up techniques for tapping the design muses.
Lee, who has acquired the moniker of "Midas" for his golden touch with the Galaxy series, h as travelled to Brazil's Iguazu Falls and the ancient city of Cuzco in Peru for inspiration. Samsung sends the design team on such trips across the world to stoke their imaginary fires.
Images or emotions they pick up on these trips can be "naturally expressed in design languages or lines and colours", said Lee, who started out designing cars for Samsung's failed auto joint venture with Renault in the 1990s.
The design process can also be more mundane, he adds.
"Designing is just part of your life. You study, do some research on future trends and experience stuff you haven't done before. All this stuff interacts to create a new design."
If money was the answer to innovation then Samsung Electronics would certainly rank among the best in the world. Samsung spent 10 trillion won on research and development in 2011.
Indeed, the annual Bloomberg BusinessWeek survey of most innovative companies ranks Samsung 11th on its list of top-50 most innovative companies, though it trails local rival LG Electronics in 7th and Sony in 10th.
Part of Samsung's design philosophy is to leverage the conglomerate's ability to manufacture inhouse the components in its products, including microchips and flat screens - an advantage over Apple for instance, which has to outsource most of that.
Samsung readily acknowledges it has yet to attain Apple's innovative spark. And Lee concedes he is no match - yet - for Jonathan Ive, the genius designer behind the distinctive look and feel of Apple's range of phones, tablets and other must-have consumer gadgets.
By most accounts, Ive's success at Apple stemmed from his close personal relationship with Steve Jobs - a classic marriage between gizmo-maker and entrepreneur.
Lee, who said he has never met Ive, has a more corporate relationship with top managers at Samsung. He believes, however, that paradigmatic breakthroughs are a matter of the right product coming at the right time.
"I might not be at (Ive's) level yet, but I believe Samsung will produce such iconic products one day. It's not just effort that makes it possible for a new product to be a massive hit. It also has to be timely, and technology should be ready to make a certain design a reality."
Apple aptitude
That Samsung might eventually wind up with some Apple aptitude has to worry company executives at its Cupertino, California headquarters.
Samsung and Apple are locked in an escalating global patent battle, as they jostle for top position in the booming smartphone and tablet markets. Apple fired the first salvo in April last year, arguing Samsung had "slavishly" copied its iPad and iPhone. Since then both have taken legal action against each other in several countries claiming patent infringements.
Lee takes personal affront at the copycat charge.
"I've made thousands of sketches and hundreds of prototype products (for the Galaxy). Does that mean I was putting on a mock show for so long, pretending to be designing?"
"As a designer, there's an issue of dignity. (The Galaxy) is original from the beginning, and I'm the one who made it. It's a totally different product with a different design language and different technology infused."
And a different marketing approach. While Apple has a simple product line-up for the iPhone and iPad, Samsung has bombarded the market with varieties of the Galaxy, the Wave phone, which uses Samsung's own 'bada' platform, and most recently with a phone-tablet.
Lee sees no harm in this tweaking-rather-than-innovating approach, saying it plays to the company's corporate strengths.
Samsung's vertically integrated structure allows it to use prototype components and new technology developed elsewhere in the company in the design lab. The company has overseas design labs to help uncover consumer trends in the various global markets in which it competes.
Designers have to be integrators, researching user behaviour, discovering what's happening in the market, as well as searching for a unique aesthetic, Lee says.
"As a designer, my job is to blend new functions and technology with aesthetic beauty, as far as possible."
"There are different teams studying new technology trends, working on future design trends and Samsung's own design identity, and they're all regularly exchanging ideas with designers."
Fab-let?
Lee's latest project - a follow-up to the Galaxy model called the Note - is a mini-tablet and phone, with a throwback stylus. Although it looks huge compared with a standard phone, its pinpoint apps and high definition screen should please those using it for video and gaming.
The phone-tablet - or phablet - has sold more than 2 million units since its October launch, and was a crowd pleaser at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.
Lee said the design risk with the note was "breaking a taboo" about keeping handsets small enough to fit easily in your hand.
"But smartphones are more about entertainment. The Note was created by simply breaking that taboo and focusing more on the new functions that smartphones require."
Handsets are now Samsung's biggest earner - bringing in 8.3 trillion won in operating profit last year - and the group's confidence has grown in tandem with its fattening patent book - it registered over 5,000 patents last year alone.
"We were told so many times until the early part of last year that Samsung is not good at software. We're not hearing that as often any more," Samsung Chief Executive Choi Gee-sung said at the CES event in Las Vegas.
Late last month, Choi went further and told reporters at the world's biggest annual mobile show in Barcelona that Samsung would not unveil its new Galaxy model at the Mobile World Congress for fear of rivals copying it.
Yet there's not one software engineer or designer among the 17 Samsung Fellows, Samsung Group's inhouse equivalent of the Nobel prize winners to reward those making a significant contribution to its success. Lee hopes his time will come.
Complaints ranged from dropped calls and a clunky touchscreen to frequent auto rebooting and a dearth of applications.
"It was just awful," said Kim Sang-uk, 27, who bought the Omnia in late-2009 just before starting his first job. "I just wanted to throw it away, but couldn't because I was on a 2-year contract. It was the kind of phone where you'd say 'no', even if someone gave it to you for free."
Samsung Mobile President JK Shin admitted it was a tough time. The company had seen a 1 trillion won profit in its telecom sector in the first quarter of 2010 halved in the following quarter after Apple Inc's latest iPhone took the market by storm.
"We were facing a really serious crisis," Shin said later.
Soap vs. perfume
Yet on the 9th floor of Samsung Electronics headquarters in Seoul housing the mobile division's design center, Lee Minhyouk said he was not feeling the heat. Samsung Mobile's vice president for design and his team were already working on its next smartphone, the Galaxy, and this would be truly a worthy opponent to the iPhone.
Samsung has sold 44 million Galaxy units since its launch in June 2010 on its way to displacing Apple last year as the world's top-selling smartphone maker. Its success evolved from the Omnia, said Lee, who at 40 is the company's youngest senior executive.
"Without Omnia and Samsung's previous models, there would have been no Galaxys. There's a design link among these products," he said in an interview at his office. "They shouldn't be viewed as fragmental design. They share our deep deliberation on technology, colour and design language."
Samsung's chequered entry into the smartphone market is emblematic of the South Korean conglomerate's strengths and weaknesses.
Its strategy has always been to be the "fast executioner", the first in the market with a copycat product when a new opportunity is presented. But it is not known as a great innovator or a company like Apple that can literally create a new market with an iconic product.
To become a truly innovative company, Samsung needs to explore the art, as well as the science, of what it does, critics say.
"Samsung is like a fantastic soap maker," said Christian Lindholm, chief innovation officer of service design consultancy Fjord based in Finland. "Their products get you clean, lathers well. However, they do not know how to make perfumes, an industry where margins are significantly higher. Perfume is an experience. Perfume is meant to seduce, make you attractive and feel good. You love your perfume, but you like your soap."
Designing something people can love is an art, which requires risk taking and is based more on experience than data. "Samsung needs to learn to lead more. They analyze all creativity to death, they lack self confidence," Lindholm said.
"Korea has to leap into the experience industry," she added. "I think they have only five years before they are the new Japan, outmaneuvered by the Chinese who are quickly learning the soap business."
Evolution vs. creation
Lee's office atmosphere and his comments seem to reinforce an image of a company whose culture leans more to evolution than big-bang creationism.
His design sanctum looks much like any other Samsung department, a Dilbert sprawl of desks and cubicles with framed aphorisms from the founding family on the walls: "Be with Customers" and "Create Products that Contribute to Humanity" and also this one: "Challenge the World, Create the Future".
The office may lack the exotic art, exercise balls and creative toys of Silicon Valley decor, but Lee and his team are borrowing some start-up techniques for tapping the design muses.
Lee, who has acquired the moniker of "Midas" for his golden touch with the Galaxy series, h as travelled to Brazil's Iguazu Falls and the ancient city of Cuzco in Peru for inspiration. Samsung sends the design team on such trips across the world to stoke their imaginary fires.
Images or emotions they pick up on these trips can be "naturally expressed in design languages or lines and colours", said Lee, who started out designing cars for Samsung's failed auto joint venture with Renault in the 1990s.
The design process can also be more mundane, he adds.
"Designing is just part of your life. You study, do some research on future trends and experience stuff you haven't done before. All this stuff interacts to create a new design."
If money was the answer to innovation then Samsung Electronics would certainly rank among the best in the world. Samsung spent 10 trillion won on research and development in 2011.
Indeed, the annual Bloomberg BusinessWeek survey of most innovative companies ranks Samsung 11th on its list of top-50 most innovative companies, though it trails local rival LG Electronics in 7th and Sony in 10th.
Part of Samsung's design philosophy is to leverage the conglomerate's ability to manufacture inhouse the components in its products, including microchips and flat screens - an advantage over Apple for instance, which has to outsource most of that.
Samsung readily acknowledges it has yet to attain Apple's innovative spark. And Lee concedes he is no match - yet - for Jonathan Ive, the genius designer behind the distinctive look and feel of Apple's range of phones, tablets and other must-have consumer gadgets.
By most accounts, Ive's success at Apple stemmed from his close personal relationship with Steve Jobs - a classic marriage between gizmo-maker and entrepreneur.
Lee, who said he has never met Ive, has a more corporate relationship with top managers at Samsung. He believes, however, that paradigmatic breakthroughs are a matter of the right product coming at the right time.
"I might not be at (Ive's) level yet, but I believe Samsung will produce such iconic products one day. It's not just effort that makes it possible for a new product to be a massive hit. It also has to be timely, and technology should be ready to make a certain design a reality."
Apple aptitude
That Samsung might eventually wind up with some Apple aptitude has to worry company executives at its Cupertino, California headquarters.
Samsung and Apple are locked in an escalating global patent battle, as they jostle for top position in the booming smartphone and tablet markets. Apple fired the first salvo in April last year, arguing Samsung had "slavishly" copied its iPad and iPhone. Since then both have taken legal action against each other in several countries claiming patent infringements.
Lee takes personal affront at the copycat charge.
"I've made thousands of sketches and hundreds of prototype products (for the Galaxy). Does that mean I was putting on a mock show for so long, pretending to be designing?"
"As a designer, there's an issue of dignity. (The Galaxy) is original from the beginning, and I'm the one who made it. It's a totally different product with a different design language and different technology infused."
And a different marketing approach. While Apple has a simple product line-up for the iPhone and iPad, Samsung has bombarded the market with varieties of the Galaxy, the Wave phone, which uses Samsung's own 'bada' platform, and most recently with a phone-tablet.
Lee sees no harm in this tweaking-rather-than-innovating approach, saying it plays to the company's corporate strengths.
Samsung's vertically integrated structure allows it to use prototype components and new technology developed elsewhere in the company in the design lab. The company has overseas design labs to help uncover consumer trends in the various global markets in which it competes.
Designers have to be integrators, researching user behaviour, discovering what's happening in the market, as well as searching for a unique aesthetic, Lee says.
"As a designer, my job is to blend new functions and technology with aesthetic beauty, as far as possible."
"There are different teams studying new technology trends, working on future design trends and Samsung's own design identity, and they're all regularly exchanging ideas with designers."
Fab-let?
Lee's latest project - a follow-up to the Galaxy model called the Note - is a mini-tablet and phone, with a throwback stylus. Although it looks huge compared with a standard phone, its pinpoint apps and high definition screen should please those using it for video and gaming.
The phone-tablet - or phablet - has sold more than 2 million units since its October launch, and was a crowd pleaser at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.
Lee said the design risk with the note was "breaking a taboo" about keeping handsets small enough to fit easily in your hand.
"But smartphones are more about entertainment. The Note was created by simply breaking that taboo and focusing more on the new functions that smartphones require."
Handsets are now Samsung's biggest earner - bringing in 8.3 trillion won in operating profit last year - and the group's confidence has grown in tandem with its fattening patent book - it registered over 5,000 patents last year alone.
"We were told so many times until the early part of last year that Samsung is not good at software. We're not hearing that as often any more," Samsung Chief Executive Choi Gee-sung said at the CES event in Las Vegas.
Late last month, Choi went further and told reporters at the world's biggest annual mobile show in Barcelona that Samsung would not unveil its new Galaxy model at the Mobile World Congress for fear of rivals copying it.
Yet there's not one software engineer or designer among the 17 Samsung Fellows, Samsung Group's inhouse equivalent of the Nobel prize winners to reward those making a significant contribution to its success. Lee hopes his time will come.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
London's iconic buses are back
London's iconic double-decker buses have gotten an update that looks uncannily like the past.
Seven buses with an open hop-on hop-off platform at the rear hit downtown streets on 20 February, running on route 38, between Victoria Station and Hackney, an east London neighbourhood.
Between the 1950s and 2000s, royal red double deckers sported distinctive open platforms in the rear. But in 2005, authorities took that Routemaster model out of service, replacing it with versions that only have an entrance at the front.
The city also added so-called “bendy", or articulated, buses, because they could carry more passengers, thanks to hinged midsections. But locals loathed the replacement vehicles. A common complaint was that the extended length of the buses snarled traffic on many narrow, twisting streets. So the city pulled that design off the streets in 2011, leaving regular double-decker buses in service and shipping the bendys off to other cities in the United Kingdom that have more spacious streets. Officials then ran a design competition to see if a better bus could be invented. The design that won, by Thomas Heatherwick and Wrightbus, restored the open rear platform.
The revived Routemaster design adds a second staircase to speed up passenger movement. It also claims to get a low 12 miles to gallon thanks to energy efficient engines and interior-heating systems. That efficiency means it produces 40% fewer emissions than the current double deckers, which run on diesel.
The success of this design depends on the outcome of this spring's mayoral election. If candidate Ken Livingstone defeats current mayor Boris Johnson, he may kill the new Routemasters, which are Johnson's pet project and cost about £1.3 million each, significantly higher than more prosaic models. A Johnson victory, on the other hand, may mean that hundreds of the buses are put into services within the next few years.
In the meantime, original 1950s buses with the open platform in the rear are still in service on parts of route 9, running between Trafalgar Square and Kensington, and route 15, running between Trafalgar Square and Tower Hill. Check the Transport for London website for route maps and schedules that say "heritage".
The other New Orleans soundtrack
While some tourists worry that the “real” New Orleans music-scene is made up of only never-ending jazz venues, in reality, the musical city’s voice and beat manifest in a staggeringly diverse set of genres. Indeed, New Orleans would not be the birthplace of jazz if it had not blended the other musical traditions that already had deep roots here.
Related article: Living in New Orleans
Many people seem to think that jazz is moody music played with brass instruments. But in New Orleans, “brass” is a genre in and of itself, a rocking, danceable sound that is definitely not what you listen to while reading Albert Camus in a coffee shop. New Orleans brass is dynamic; older bands may sound like the Dixieland-style Big Band orchestras from the early 20th Century, while younger bands frequently blend in hip hop and R&B.
Check out the Soul Rebels at Les Bons Temps Roule (4801 Magazine Street; 504-895-8117) on Thursday nights, and Rebirth brass band at the Maple Leaf on Tuesdays, to have all your preconceptions about brass music blown out of the water. Both of these bars are relatively near Tulane University, in leafy, lovely neighbourhoods. Other venues in this area include Neutral Ground, a coffee shop that doubles as a singer-songwriter stage, and Carrollton Station, a bar that features similar sounds plus plenty of college rock.
In downtown New Orleans, near the city’s emerging arts and warehouse district, seeing a band at the Circle Bar (1032 St Charles Avenue; 504-588-2616) is like watching a show played in your living room. But because it is so small, the Circle regularly books singer-songwriters and indie talent that the bigger clubs pass up. Chickie Wah Wah, near the Mid-City neighbourhood, offers a similar-sized venue and similar line-up of independent talent that is much beloved by local music connoisseurs.
If you intend to stay in the French Quarter, check out One-Eyed Jacks, consistently one of the best rock music venues in the American South. Local and international talent regularly take the stage, and it also hosts a fantastic regular burlesque revue. Walk 10 minutes from Bourbon Street towards Frenchmen Street (arguably the best place in the world to listen to jazz music) and you will find the Dragon’s Den, which usually looks (and sounds) like the set of a Metallica video. The Den always has a crazy line-up, and regularly hosts all styles of metal and dubstep nights. Just across the street is Maison, where the jazz line up is supplemented by plenty of local dance DJs and indie rock talent. Nearby, d.b.a serves up some of the most diverse musical offerings in town and has a great beer menu to boot.
Head north of here to St Claude Avenue in the Bywater neighbourhood, an emerging part of town where artists have been drawn by cheap rent. The Bywater is packed full of music venues: the Saturn Bar (3067 St Claude Avenue; 504-949-7532) regularly hosts punk shows; the Hi Ho lounge (2239 St Claude Avenue; 504-945-4446) has Monday bluegrass jam sessions and bluegrass, folk, country and rock concerts throughout the week; and at BJs (4301 Burgundy; 504-945-9256) you can catch the blues-y rock tunes of King James and the Special Men on Monday nights. Just around the corner is Vaughan’s (4229 Dauphine Street; 504-947-5562), where local legend Kermit Ruffins tears up some trumpet-funk-brass fusion sounds on Thursday nights.
For a unique New Orleans evening, head to Club Fusion on AP Tureaud Avenue to hear bounce – a New Orleans-born style of dance music that mixes hip-hop, call-and-response and a high dose of synchronized dancing.
Do not forget large venues like Tipitina’s (go to the Uptown location, not the more touristy version in the French Quarter), a New Orleans classic hotspot, and of course, the Rock ‘N’ Bowl, where you can get in some time on the lanes before catching regular zydeco shows, rock, rap and yes, jazz – because seriously, do not come to New Orleans without hearing some jazz.
Related article: Living in New Orleans
Many people seem to think that jazz is moody music played with brass instruments. But in New Orleans, “brass” is a genre in and of itself, a rocking, danceable sound that is definitely not what you listen to while reading Albert Camus in a coffee shop. New Orleans brass is dynamic; older bands may sound like the Dixieland-style Big Band orchestras from the early 20th Century, while younger bands frequently blend in hip hop and R&B.
Check out the Soul Rebels at Les Bons Temps Roule (4801 Magazine Street; 504-895-8117) on Thursday nights, and Rebirth brass band at the Maple Leaf on Tuesdays, to have all your preconceptions about brass music blown out of the water. Both of these bars are relatively near Tulane University, in leafy, lovely neighbourhoods. Other venues in this area include Neutral Ground, a coffee shop that doubles as a singer-songwriter stage, and Carrollton Station, a bar that features similar sounds plus plenty of college rock.
In downtown New Orleans, near the city’s emerging arts and warehouse district, seeing a band at the Circle Bar (1032 St Charles Avenue; 504-588-2616) is like watching a show played in your living room. But because it is so small, the Circle regularly books singer-songwriters and indie talent that the bigger clubs pass up. Chickie Wah Wah, near the Mid-City neighbourhood, offers a similar-sized venue and similar line-up of independent talent that is much beloved by local music connoisseurs.
If you intend to stay in the French Quarter, check out One-Eyed Jacks, consistently one of the best rock music venues in the American South. Local and international talent regularly take the stage, and it also hosts a fantastic regular burlesque revue. Walk 10 minutes from Bourbon Street towards Frenchmen Street (arguably the best place in the world to listen to jazz music) and you will find the Dragon’s Den, which usually looks (and sounds) like the set of a Metallica video. The Den always has a crazy line-up, and regularly hosts all styles of metal and dubstep nights. Just across the street is Maison, where the jazz line up is supplemented by plenty of local dance DJs and indie rock talent. Nearby, d.b.a serves up some of the most diverse musical offerings in town and has a great beer menu to boot.
Head north of here to St Claude Avenue in the Bywater neighbourhood, an emerging part of town where artists have been drawn by cheap rent. The Bywater is packed full of music venues: the Saturn Bar (3067 St Claude Avenue; 504-949-7532) regularly hosts punk shows; the Hi Ho lounge (2239 St Claude Avenue; 504-945-4446) has Monday bluegrass jam sessions and bluegrass, folk, country and rock concerts throughout the week; and at BJs (4301 Burgundy; 504-945-9256) you can catch the blues-y rock tunes of King James and the Special Men on Monday nights. Just around the corner is Vaughan’s (4229 Dauphine Street; 504-947-5562), where local legend Kermit Ruffins tears up some trumpet-funk-brass fusion sounds on Thursday nights.
For a unique New Orleans evening, head to Club Fusion on AP Tureaud Avenue to hear bounce – a New Orleans-born style of dance music that mixes hip-hop, call-and-response and a high dose of synchronized dancing.
Do not forget large venues like Tipitina’s (go to the Uptown location, not the more touristy version in the French Quarter), a New Orleans classic hotspot, and of course, the Rock ‘N’ Bowl, where you can get in some time on the lanes before catching regular zydeco shows, rock, rap and yes, jazz – because seriously, do not come to New Orleans without hearing some jazz.
Mail containing suspicious powder sent to US Congress
Two officials of the US Congress have received letters that contained a "suspicious powdery substance", following which officials sent out a warning cautioning other staffers to be on the lookout.
In an email to Congressional offices, Senate Sergeant at Arms Terry Gainer warned staffers to be on the lookout for letters containing "a suspicious powdery substance", Xinhua reported citing the Hill newspaper, which specialises in reporting the Congress.
The email said a Senate state office and a house district office received threatening mail on Tuesday that contained the substance.
The names of the lawmakers whose offices were targeted were not disclosed.
Gainer said the letters were tested and the enclosed substance found to be harmless.
But there were threats of more letters to come, the report said.
Gainer said his office was working closely with both federal and local law enforcement officials in an investigation into the incident.
Recently, a Moroccan terror suspect was arrested for plotting an attack near the Capitol.
In an email to Congressional offices, Senate Sergeant at Arms Terry Gainer warned staffers to be on the lookout for letters containing "a suspicious powdery substance", Xinhua reported citing the Hill newspaper, which specialises in reporting the Congress.
The email said a Senate state office and a house district office received threatening mail on Tuesday that contained the substance.
The names of the lawmakers whose offices were targeted were not disclosed.
Gainer said the letters were tested and the enclosed substance found to be harmless.
But there were threats of more letters to come, the report said.
Gainer said his office was working closely with both federal and local law enforcement officials in an investigation into the incident.
Recently, a Moroccan terror suspect was arrested for plotting an attack near the Capitol.
Sachin Tendulkar must quit ODIs, say 57% in TOI poll
After former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, is it time for the world's greatest run-maker to bid adieu to one-day cricket? As many as 57% of respondents in a TOI online poll have answered with a 'yes', indicating that the public anger over Team India's dismal performances Down Under also extends to Sachin Tendulkar's poor ODI form.
The poll went online on TOI's website on Tuesday afternoon and by 9.30 pm on Wednesday, almost 47,000 people had responded. The question asked was, 'Should Sachin retire from ODIs?' While 19,127 voted 'no' (41%), as many as 26,813 votes were polled in favour of the question. Around 2% (817) people were undecided.
The surprising results came a day after Sachin's former opening partner Sourav Ganguly had hinted that the maestro should reconsider his ODI future and concentrate on Test cricket.
Ganguly said it was up to Tendulkar to decide if "he's still good enough to play in the ODIs". The former Indian skipper said, "I think Sachin deserves to decide on his own if and when to leave international cricket or one-day cricket... I don't think the selectors have got the right to ask him to go."
The poll went online on TOI's website on Tuesday afternoon and by 9.30 pm on Wednesday, almost 47,000 people had responded. The question asked was, 'Should Sachin retire from ODIs?' While 19,127 voted 'no' (41%), as many as 26,813 votes were polled in favour of the question. Around 2% (817) people were undecided.
The surprising results came a day after Sachin's former opening partner Sourav Ganguly had hinted that the maestro should reconsider his ODI future and concentrate on Test cricket.
Ganguly said it was up to Tendulkar to decide if "he's still good enough to play in the ODIs". The former Indian skipper said, "I think Sachin deserves to decide on his own if and when to leave international cricket or one-day cricket... I don't think the selectors have got the right to ask him to go."
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz's 155th birth anniversary: Google pays tribute with a doodle
Wondering what is that electromagnetic wave that greets you on opening the Google home page? It is Google's doodle marking 155th birth anniversary of German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz.
Hertz through his experiments proved that electricity can be transmitted via electromagnetic waves. It was this discovery that later paved the way toward development of wireless telegraph and radio. In fact, the unit of frequency of a radio wave is called hertz in honour of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz.
Hertz's findings expanded on theory of light put forth by British physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1884. Hertz measured Maxwell's waves and showed how the velocity of radio waves is equal to the velocity of light. He also calculated the electric field intensity and polarity.
Through his experiments, Hertz expanded the field of electromagnetic transmission. He proved how radio waves can travel through different types of media, which later helped in the development of radar technology.
Hertz was born in Hamburg, then a sovereign state of the German Confederation, into a prosperous Hanseatic family. He studied science and engineering in the German cities of Dresden, Munich and Berlin. In 1880, Hertz completed his PhD from the University of Berlin.
Google doodles are the decorative changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists and scientists. The first Google doodle was created by Larry Page and Sergy Brin in the year 1998 to mark the celebrations of the Burning Man Festival. Google currently has over 1000 doodles.
Hertz through his experiments proved that electricity can be transmitted via electromagnetic waves. It was this discovery that later paved the way toward development of wireless telegraph and radio. In fact, the unit of frequency of a radio wave is called hertz in honour of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz.
Hertz's findings expanded on theory of light put forth by British physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1884. Hertz measured Maxwell's waves and showed how the velocity of radio waves is equal to the velocity of light. He also calculated the electric field intensity and polarity.
Through his experiments, Hertz expanded the field of electromagnetic transmission. He proved how radio waves can travel through different types of media, which later helped in the development of radar technology.
Hertz was born in Hamburg, then a sovereign state of the German Confederation, into a prosperous Hanseatic family. He studied science and engineering in the German cities of Dresden, Munich and Berlin. In 1880, Hertz completed his PhD from the University of Berlin.
Google doodles are the decorative changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists and scientists. The first Google doodle was created by Larry Page and Sergy Brin in the year 1998 to mark the celebrations of the Burning Man Festival. Google currently has over 1000 doodles.
Indian school in Bahrain to get 600 Aakash tablets
Students of an Indian school in Bahrain will soon get the world's cheapest tablet computer 'Aakash', developed by India's Human Resources Development Ministry.
Class 12 students of the Indian School Bahrain will get a tablet each soon, executive committee chairman of the school Abraham John has said.
He said that about 600 Aakash laptops will be made available to the students.
"Students will be able to enhance their knowledge, improve their projects and correspond with teachers and experts as they learn and expand their vision," John told Bahrain's Gulf Daily News.
"The laptops will help in more positive output in examinations and help students make informed decisions, especially in their careers," he said.
He said that the first consignment will be distributed to class 12 students and followed by class 11. "The distribution is in line with Indian government's directives," he said.
The Aakash is a low-cost tablet computer with a 7-inch touch screen priced around USD 35. It was launched in New Delhi on October 5, 2011.
The device was developed as part of the HRD ministry's aim to link 25,000 colleges and 400 universities in an e-learning programme.
Aakash was developed in two versions by British-Indian company Datawind. The advanced model is Akash Ubislate 7, while the less advanced version is for lower level students.
Class 12 students of the Indian School Bahrain will get a tablet each soon, executive committee chairman of the school Abraham John has said.
He said that about 600 Aakash laptops will be made available to the students.
"Students will be able to enhance their knowledge, improve their projects and correspond with teachers and experts as they learn and expand their vision," John told Bahrain's Gulf Daily News.
"The laptops will help in more positive output in examinations and help students make informed decisions, especially in their careers," he said.
He said that the first consignment will be distributed to class 12 students and followed by class 11. "The distribution is in line with Indian government's directives," he said.
The Aakash is a low-cost tablet computer with a 7-inch touch screen priced around USD 35. It was launched in New Delhi on October 5, 2011.
The device was developed as part of the HRD ministry's aim to link 25,000 colleges and 400 universities in an e-learning programme.
Aakash was developed in two versions by British-Indian company Datawind. The advanced model is Akash Ubislate 7, while the less advanced version is for lower level students.
Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Hewlett-Packard sign privacy pact
Six of the world's top consumer technology firms have agreed to provide greater privacy disclosures before users download applications in order to protect the personal data of millions of consumers, California's attorney general said on Wednesday.
The agreement binds Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Hewlett-Packard -- and developers on their platforms -- to disclose how they use private data before an app may be downloaded, Attorney General Kamala D. Harris said.
"Your personal privacy should not be the cost of using mobile apps, but all too often it is," said Harris.
Currently 22 of the 30 most downloaded apps do not have privacy notices, said Harris. Some downloaded apps also download a consumer's contact book.
Google said in a statement that under the California agreement, Android users will have "even more ways to make informed decisions when it comes to their privacy."
Apple confirmed the agreement but did not elaborate.
Harris was also among US state lawmakers who on Wednesday signed a letter to Google CEO Larry Page to express "serious concerns" over the web giant's recent decision to consolidate its privacy policy.
The policy change would give Google access to user information across its products, such as GMail and Google+, without the proper ability for consumers to opt out, said the 36 US attorneys general in their letter.
EU authorities have asked Google to halt the policy change until regulators can investigate the matter.
Can and will sue
California's 2004 Online Privacy Protection Act requires privacy disclosures, but Harris said few mobile developers had paid attention to the law in recent years because of confusion over whether it applied to mobile apps.
"Most mobile apps make no effort to inform users about how personal information is used," Harris said at a press conference in San Francisco. "The consumer should be informed of what they are giving up."
The six companies will meet the attorney general in six months to assess compliance among their developers. But Harris acknowledged "there is no clear timeline" to begin enforcement.
The attorney general repeatedly raised the possibility of litigation at some future time under California's unfair competition and false advertising laws if developers continue to publish apps without privacy notices.
"We can sue and we will sue," she said, adding that she hoped the industry would act "in good faith."
There are nearly 600,000 applications for sale in the Apple App Store and 400,000 for sale in Google's Android Market, and consumers have downloaded more than 35 billion, said Harris.
There are also more than 50,000 individual developers who have created the mobile apps currently available for download on the leading platforms, she said.
These figures are expected to grow. She said an estimated 98 billion mobile applications will be downloaded by 2015, and the $6.8 billion market for mobile applications is expected to grow to $25 billion within four years.
The agreement binds Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Hewlett-Packard -- and developers on their platforms -- to disclose how they use private data before an app may be downloaded, Attorney General Kamala D. Harris said.
"Your personal privacy should not be the cost of using mobile apps, but all too often it is," said Harris.
Currently 22 of the 30 most downloaded apps do not have privacy notices, said Harris. Some downloaded apps also download a consumer's contact book.
Google said in a statement that under the California agreement, Android users will have "even more ways to make informed decisions when it comes to their privacy."
Apple confirmed the agreement but did not elaborate.
Harris was also among US state lawmakers who on Wednesday signed a letter to Google CEO Larry Page to express "serious concerns" over the web giant's recent decision to consolidate its privacy policy.
The policy change would give Google access to user information across its products, such as GMail and Google+, without the proper ability for consumers to opt out, said the 36 US attorneys general in their letter.
EU authorities have asked Google to halt the policy change until regulators can investigate the matter.
Can and will sue
California's 2004 Online Privacy Protection Act requires privacy disclosures, but Harris said few mobile developers had paid attention to the law in recent years because of confusion over whether it applied to mobile apps.
"Most mobile apps make no effort to inform users about how personal information is used," Harris said at a press conference in San Francisco. "The consumer should be informed of what they are giving up."
The six companies will meet the attorney general in six months to assess compliance among their developers. But Harris acknowledged "there is no clear timeline" to begin enforcement.
The attorney general repeatedly raised the possibility of litigation at some future time under California's unfair competition and false advertising laws if developers continue to publish apps without privacy notices.
"We can sue and we will sue," she said, adding that she hoped the industry would act "in good faith."
There are nearly 600,000 applications for sale in the Apple App Store and 400,000 for sale in Google's Android Market, and consumers have downloaded more than 35 billion, said Harris.
There are also more than 50,000 individual developers who have created the mobile apps currently available for download on the leading platforms, she said.
These figures are expected to grow. She said an estimated 98 billion mobile applications will be downloaded by 2015, and the $6.8 billion market for mobile applications is expected to grow to $25 billion within four years.
Sudden cardiac death: Time of day link found in mice
How the time of day can increase the risk of dying from an irregular heartbeat has been identified by researchers.
The risk of "sudden cardiac death" peaks in the morning and rises again in the evening.
A study published in the journal Nature suggests that levels of a protein which controls the heart's rhythm fluctuates through the day.
A body clock expert said the study was "beautiful".
The inner workings of the body go through a daily routine known as a circadian rhythm, which keeps the body in sync with its surroundings. Jet lag is the result of the body getting out of sync.
As the chemistry of the body changes throughout the day, this can impact on health. US researchers say they have identified, in mice, how the time can affect the risk of sudden cardiac death, which kills 100,000 people a year in the UK.
'Insights'
They identified a protein called kruppel-like factor 15 (Klf15), which was controlled by the body clock and whose levels in the body went up and down during the day. The protein influences ion channels which control heart beat.
Genetically modified mice which produced too much Klf15 and those which produced none at all both had an increased risk of developing deadly disturbances in cardiac rhythm.
Prof Darwin Jeyaraj, from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, said: "Our study identifies a hitherto unknown mechanism for electrical instability in the heart.
"It provides insights into day and night variation in arrhythmia susceptibility that has been known for many years."
There are important differences in the way that human and mouse hearts work, so it is unknown whether the same mechanism exists in people.
Fellow researcher Prof Mukesh Jain said: "We are just scratching the surface. It might be that, with further study, assessment of circadian disruption in patients with cardiovascular disease might lead us to innovative approaches to diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment."
Dr Michael Hastings, from the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology, told the BBC: "It's a great paper, it gives a beautiful molecular mechanism which explains a phenomenon that's been kicking around for a long time."
He said translating the findings into medicine was all about "targeting the most vulnerable stage" such as slow-release blood pressure drugs, which become active first thing in the morning when the risk is highest.
The risk of "sudden cardiac death" peaks in the morning and rises again in the evening.
A study published in the journal Nature suggests that levels of a protein which controls the heart's rhythm fluctuates through the day.
A body clock expert said the study was "beautiful".
The inner workings of the body go through a daily routine known as a circadian rhythm, which keeps the body in sync with its surroundings. Jet lag is the result of the body getting out of sync.
As the chemistry of the body changes throughout the day, this can impact on health. US researchers say they have identified, in mice, how the time can affect the risk of sudden cardiac death, which kills 100,000 people a year in the UK.
'Insights'
They identified a protein called kruppel-like factor 15 (Klf15), which was controlled by the body clock and whose levels in the body went up and down during the day. The protein influences ion channels which control heart beat.
Genetically modified mice which produced too much Klf15 and those which produced none at all both had an increased risk of developing deadly disturbances in cardiac rhythm.
Prof Darwin Jeyaraj, from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, said: "Our study identifies a hitherto unknown mechanism for electrical instability in the heart.
"It provides insights into day and night variation in arrhythmia susceptibility that has been known for many years."
There are important differences in the way that human and mouse hearts work, so it is unknown whether the same mechanism exists in people.
Fellow researcher Prof Mukesh Jain said: "We are just scratching the surface. It might be that, with further study, assessment of circadian disruption in patients with cardiovascular disease might lead us to innovative approaches to diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment."
Dr Michael Hastings, from the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology, told the BBC: "It's a great paper, it gives a beautiful molecular mechanism which explains a phenomenon that's been kicking around for a long time."
He said translating the findings into medicine was all about "targeting the most vulnerable stage" such as slow-release blood pressure drugs, which become active first thing in the morning when the risk is highest.
'Third of UK postcodes' have slow broadband speeds
A third of homes in the UK have broadband speeds well below the national average, according to research from price comparison site uSwitch.
While half of addresses get broadband speeds of 6.7Mbps or above, a third struggle to get speeds above 5Mbps, 1.7m speed tests found.
The East Sussex village of Winchelsea was the slowest, with an average speed of 1.1Mbps, according to uSwitch.
Hereford was the slowest city, with average speeds of 3.1Mbps.
The government wants to see super-fast broadband as the gold standard in most UK homes, and has pledged to make the UK the fastest broadband nation in Europe by 2015. By that time, it also promises to make sure that all homes have speeds of at least 2Mbps.
The uSwitch data - based on 1.68 million speed tests carried out over the last six months - suggests that there could still be some way to go.
"Britain might be riding the wave of a super-fast broadband revolution, but for 49% who get less than the national average broadband speed, the wave isn't causing so much a splash as a ripple," said Julia Stent, director of telecoms at uSwitch.
"And what's really surprising is the number of cities and towns such as Hereford and Carlisle that are suffering from slow broadband speeds, dispelling the view that it's just rural areas and small towns that have issues with their broadband," she added.
Other towns and cities to offer average broadband speeds of below 5Mbps include Kilmarnock (3.2Mbps), Dumfries (3.6Mbps), Canterbury (4Mbps) and Shrewsbury (4Mbps).
Fast pipes
The government has provided £530m to help local councils fill in the UK's blackspots. Cumbria, which has several areas in the top 10 slowest postcodes, received the biggest amount, with more than £17m to cope with its 96% of homes eligible for subsidies.
Councils will have to put some of their own money towards the costs, and some have been slow to get the projects off the ground.
For those in well-connected postcodes, the news is much better.
Both Virgin Media and BT have recently turned up the speed dial on their broadband services.
Virgin announced that broadband with speeds of up to 100Mbps was now available to 10 million homes, while BT pledged to offer some homes speeds of up to 300Mbps by 2013.
While half of addresses get broadband speeds of 6.7Mbps or above, a third struggle to get speeds above 5Mbps, 1.7m speed tests found.
The East Sussex village of Winchelsea was the slowest, with an average speed of 1.1Mbps, according to uSwitch.
Hereford was the slowest city, with average speeds of 3.1Mbps.
The government wants to see super-fast broadband as the gold standard in most UK homes, and has pledged to make the UK the fastest broadband nation in Europe by 2015. By that time, it also promises to make sure that all homes have speeds of at least 2Mbps.
The uSwitch data - based on 1.68 million speed tests carried out over the last six months - suggests that there could still be some way to go.
"Britain might be riding the wave of a super-fast broadband revolution, but for 49% who get less than the national average broadband speed, the wave isn't causing so much a splash as a ripple," said Julia Stent, director of telecoms at uSwitch.
"And what's really surprising is the number of cities and towns such as Hereford and Carlisle that are suffering from slow broadband speeds, dispelling the view that it's just rural areas and small towns that have issues with their broadband," she added.
Other towns and cities to offer average broadband speeds of below 5Mbps include Kilmarnock (3.2Mbps), Dumfries (3.6Mbps), Canterbury (4Mbps) and Shrewsbury (4Mbps).
Fast pipes
The government has provided £530m to help local councils fill in the UK's blackspots. Cumbria, which has several areas in the top 10 slowest postcodes, received the biggest amount, with more than £17m to cope with its 96% of homes eligible for subsidies.
Councils will have to put some of their own money towards the costs, and some have been slow to get the projects off the ground.
For those in well-connected postcodes, the news is much better.
Both Virgin Media and BT have recently turned up the speed dial on their broadband services.
Virgin announced that broadband with speeds of up to 100Mbps was now available to 10 million homes, while BT pledged to offer some homes speeds of up to 300Mbps by 2013.
Dell misses analyst estimates
Dell Inc forecast fiscal first-quarter revenue below Wall Street's expectations, stoking fears the PC industry has not fully emerged from its downturn and sending the company's shares more than 4 per cent lower.
The world's No. 3 personal computer maker projected sales would be down 7 per cent this quarter from the previous quarter, when it posted revenue of $16 billion. That translates into about $14.9 billion, below the average forecast for roughly $15.2 billion.
Dell's fiscal fourth quarter earnings also came in below Wall Street's view as strength in its corporate business unit was offset by the weakness in the division that caters to public businesses.
Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden said profit margins for the quarter were hurt by a combination of weakness in US public spending, discounting of the leftover inventory of its previous generation phones and the lingering impact of the Thailand flood on its product mix.
"We just didn't get the mix of drives that we wanted and it really forced us to sell less configured lower-end systems and prevented us from accessing higher margin more highly configured systems," he said.
Gladden said he expected the hard-disk drive issues to continue this year.
PC makers have grappled with slackening demand as mobile devices such as Apple Inc's iPad erode market share, while a shortage of hard drives after flooding in Thailand crimped supply.
Investors were disappointed by the "lack of the upside in the quarter," ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall said. "It's going to take a little bit of time for Dell to turn around the tanker ship."
"They have $65 billion revenue and it takes a long time to move the needle to more strategically relevant revenue sources and we are just not seeing signs of progress yet," he said.
Dell has been trying to boost profit margins by getting out of low-margin businesses and focusing on being a one-stop-shop for business customers.
For fiscal 2013, the company said it expects non-GAAP earnings per share to exceed $2.13.
Enterprise business shines
Revenue in Dell's fiscal fourth quarter was up 2 per cent at $16 billion, in line with the average analyst estimate of $15.96 billion according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company posted a net income slide of 18 per cent to $764 million, or 43 cents a share, for the period, down from $927 million, or 48 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, it earned 51 cents a share, a penny below the 52 cents expected.
Dell's large-enterprise business held up well, increasing sales 5 per cent in the quarter to $4.9 billion, as corporations continued to upgrade aging hardware.
Gladden told Reuters that he expects business spending in Dell's enterprise unit to continue to be strong this quarter.
Dell's public business generated revenue of $3.9 billion, which was down 1 per cent from a year ago due to weakness in the United States and Western Europe while Dell's sales to consumers fell 2 per cent over the same period.
Dell's gross margin rose to 21.1 per cent from 20 per cent a year earlier.
The shares of Dell, which vies with market-leading Hewlett Packard Co, slid to $17.36 in extended trading after closing on Nasdaq at $18.21.
The world's No. 3 personal computer maker projected sales would be down 7 per cent this quarter from the previous quarter, when it posted revenue of $16 billion. That translates into about $14.9 billion, below the average forecast for roughly $15.2 billion.
Dell's fiscal fourth quarter earnings also came in below Wall Street's view as strength in its corporate business unit was offset by the weakness in the division that caters to public businesses.
Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden said profit margins for the quarter were hurt by a combination of weakness in US public spending, discounting of the leftover inventory of its previous generation phones and the lingering impact of the Thailand flood on its product mix.
"We just didn't get the mix of drives that we wanted and it really forced us to sell less configured lower-end systems and prevented us from accessing higher margin more highly configured systems," he said.
Gladden said he expected the hard-disk drive issues to continue this year.
PC makers have grappled with slackening demand as mobile devices such as Apple Inc's iPad erode market share, while a shortage of hard drives after flooding in Thailand crimped supply.
Investors were disappointed by the "lack of the upside in the quarter," ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall said. "It's going to take a little bit of time for Dell to turn around the tanker ship."
"They have $65 billion revenue and it takes a long time to move the needle to more strategically relevant revenue sources and we are just not seeing signs of progress yet," he said.
Dell has been trying to boost profit margins by getting out of low-margin businesses and focusing on being a one-stop-shop for business customers.
For fiscal 2013, the company said it expects non-GAAP earnings per share to exceed $2.13.
Enterprise business shines
Revenue in Dell's fiscal fourth quarter was up 2 per cent at $16 billion, in line with the average analyst estimate of $15.96 billion according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company posted a net income slide of 18 per cent to $764 million, or 43 cents a share, for the period, down from $927 million, or 48 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, it earned 51 cents a share, a penny below the 52 cents expected.
Dell's large-enterprise business held up well, increasing sales 5 per cent in the quarter to $4.9 billion, as corporations continued to upgrade aging hardware.
Gladden told Reuters that he expects business spending in Dell's enterprise unit to continue to be strong this quarter.
Dell's public business generated revenue of $3.9 billion, which was down 1 per cent from a year ago due to weakness in the United States and Western Europe while Dell's sales to consumers fell 2 per cent over the same period.
Dell's gross margin rose to 21.1 per cent from 20 per cent a year earlier.
The shares of Dell, which vies with market-leading Hewlett Packard Co, slid to $17.36 in extended trading after closing on Nasdaq at $18.21.
Russia shuts 9,000 child porn websites
Russia has shut down more than 9,000 internet pages of child pornography in 2011, senior official said in a conference.
"Some 20,000 complaints from citizens and organizations were processed by the League last year," Denis Davydov, the executive director of the Safe Internet League said yesterday.
He said most complaints, some 19,000, were against the circulation of child pornography. "Over 9,000 pages of child pornography were closed after we turned to the law enforcement bodies last year." Davydov added.
Complaints against narcotics propaganda rate second (637 complaints). "After the protests of the Safe Internet League, hazardous contents were removed from 164 cites," Davydov said.
As many as 18 criminal proceedings were instituted last year on the basis of the information the Safe Internet League had supplied.
"Some 20,000 complaints from citizens and organizations were processed by the League last year," Denis Davydov, the executive director of the Safe Internet League said yesterday.
He said most complaints, some 19,000, were against the circulation of child pornography. "Over 9,000 pages of child pornography were closed after we turned to the law enforcement bodies last year." Davydov added.
Complaints against narcotics propaganda rate second (637 complaints). "After the protests of the Safe Internet League, hazardous contents were removed from 164 cites," Davydov said.
As many as 18 criminal proceedings were instituted last year on the basis of the information the Safe Internet League had supplied.
Longest organ donor chain links 60 people in US
The world's longest chain of organ donations has been completed in the US, with 30 patients receiving a kidney from 30 living donors.
The chain connected people who had wanted to donate a kidney to a family member or friend, but were incompatible, with a suitable stranger.
Their loved one then received a kidney from someone else along the chain.
The complicated process lasted for four months and involved 17 hospitals across 11 states.
It started in August with a man called Rick Ruzzamenti, a 44-year-old electrician from California who decided he wanted to donate a kidney to a stranger.
It ended in December with 46-year-old Don Terry, of Joliet, Illinois, who has Type 2 diabetes and was at risk of dying of renal failure.
Because he had been unable to find a suitable donor within his family, Mr Terry had been put on a transplant waiting list and told it could take as long as five to 10 years.
A diabetes patient on dialysis typically does not have a long life expectancy and Mr Terry worried that he might not live to see his 50th birthday.
"What bothered me the most was the possibility of leaving family members like my mom and dad by themselves, and having them see their son pass away from an excruciating disease," he said.
'Love the stranger'
Mr Ruzzamenti's kidney was taken to New Jersey, to help a man whose own family wanted to donate but could not provide a suitable match.
The process continued until it reached the last donor in the chain - a 59-year-old California woman.
Her kidney was removed at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and flown to Loyola in Chicago to be given to Don Terry.
Mr Terry was unable to keep the chain going because his only sibling, a brother, is dead, and his elderly parents were unable to donate for medical reasons.
Following the surgery, Mr Terry, who is now back at work, said: "I think I have more energy now than I had when I was in my 20s.
"I have made it my life's mission to make people aware of kidney chains."
Mr Ruzzamenti told ABC News: "There's some virtue to being kind and helpful to your family and friends but that's easy.
"If the world can be kind and love the stranger and be as kind to them as to their family and friends, world problems would be solved."
Among the others who took part in the chain were Paulette Behan of West Chicago, and her younger sister, Sunni Stupka of Baldwyn, Mississippi.
Ms Behan needed a kidney transplant, but Ms Stupka's kidney did not match her immune system.
"It broke my heart," Ms Stupka said. "I felt like a failure, like I had let her down."
But thanks to the chain, Ms Behan received a kidney from a donor in Pittsburgh who matched her. In return, her sister donated a kidney to a matching patient in California.
Doctors hope that more donations like this record-breaking one can take place.
Dr John Milner, a transplant surgeon at Loyola University Medical Center said: "This is the best way for patients with incompatible donors to be transplanted quickly with the best results."
Around 400,000 Americans with kidney failure currently undergo daily dialysis, and 4,500 die each year while waiting for a transplant.
The first pooled kidney transplants in the UK took place in 2009.
The transplants involved a donor and recipient couple, who were known to each other but incompatible for transplantation, so were paired with two other donors and recipients in the same situation.
The chain connected people who had wanted to donate a kidney to a family member or friend, but were incompatible, with a suitable stranger.
Their loved one then received a kidney from someone else along the chain.
The complicated process lasted for four months and involved 17 hospitals across 11 states.
It started in August with a man called Rick Ruzzamenti, a 44-year-old electrician from California who decided he wanted to donate a kidney to a stranger.
It ended in December with 46-year-old Don Terry, of Joliet, Illinois, who has Type 2 diabetes and was at risk of dying of renal failure.
Because he had been unable to find a suitable donor within his family, Mr Terry had been put on a transplant waiting list and told it could take as long as five to 10 years.
A diabetes patient on dialysis typically does not have a long life expectancy and Mr Terry worried that he might not live to see his 50th birthday.
"What bothered me the most was the possibility of leaving family members like my mom and dad by themselves, and having them see their son pass away from an excruciating disease," he said.
'Love the stranger'
Mr Ruzzamenti's kidney was taken to New Jersey, to help a man whose own family wanted to donate but could not provide a suitable match.
The process continued until it reached the last donor in the chain - a 59-year-old California woman.
Her kidney was removed at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and flown to Loyola in Chicago to be given to Don Terry.
Mr Terry was unable to keep the chain going because his only sibling, a brother, is dead, and his elderly parents were unable to donate for medical reasons.
Following the surgery, Mr Terry, who is now back at work, said: "I think I have more energy now than I had when I was in my 20s.
"I have made it my life's mission to make people aware of kidney chains."
Mr Ruzzamenti told ABC News: "There's some virtue to being kind and helpful to your family and friends but that's easy.
"If the world can be kind and love the stranger and be as kind to them as to their family and friends, world problems would be solved."
Among the others who took part in the chain were Paulette Behan of West Chicago, and her younger sister, Sunni Stupka of Baldwyn, Mississippi.
Ms Behan needed a kidney transplant, but Ms Stupka's kidney did not match her immune system.
"It broke my heart," Ms Stupka said. "I felt like a failure, like I had let her down."
But thanks to the chain, Ms Behan received a kidney from a donor in Pittsburgh who matched her. In return, her sister donated a kidney to a matching patient in California.
Doctors hope that more donations like this record-breaking one can take place.
Dr John Milner, a transplant surgeon at Loyola University Medical Center said: "This is the best way for patients with incompatible donors to be transplanted quickly with the best results."
Around 400,000 Americans with kidney failure currently undergo daily dialysis, and 4,500 die each year while waiting for a transplant.
The first pooled kidney transplants in the UK took place in 2009.
The transplants involved a donor and recipient couple, who were known to each other but incompatible for transplantation, so were paired with two other donors and recipients in the same situation.
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