The Technophilez

Yahoo is counting on user adoption of its new mobile search and content platform to boost ad inventory and create broader mobile reach for advertisers. Along with promoting the new Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0 application to its huge online audience, the publisher hopes pre-bundling of the app on devices from Samsung and Motorola will also grow market share. The publisher's new wireless search service has also been designed to speed up information gathering for users in the hopes of boosting usage.

"With Go 2.0, we're now going to be able to grow the client [application] inventory," said Yahoo Senior Director of Global Mobile Products Ojas Rege. The company will now offer display ads targeted based on content and behavioral data, or targeted to specific carriers. No new advertisers are running ads in conjunction with the platform launch, Rege added, mentioning Pepsi as a recent mobile advertiser.

Yahoo will also continue selling sponsored mobile text listings, now through its oneSearch service, which will be the default search technology for the new platform as well as its other mobile Web and SMS services. Rather than listing Web links to traditional sites, the search service offers up category-specific data based on keyword searches. The content platform, now in beta, allows users to toggle from one content-specific area to another, accessing customized information and RSS feeds, and providing search results relevant to that category.

"The mobile search experience has to be completely different than the PC search experience," said Rege.

Indeed, recognizing the need to provide quick bits of information with minimal click-through, the new search service provides users who enter terms like "Broncos" or "Beyonce" with data on sports scores or celebrity break-ups instead of just links to sports or entertainment news sites.

"Applications like [Yahoo's] make mobile content easier to find," said Christine Overby, principal analyst at Forrester Research. "One of the reasons we find a dearth of [mobile ad] campaigns in the U.S. is it's so difficult for consumers to find things either on their phone or their network."

According to a mobile marketing paper published by Forrester last month, 11 percent of U.S. mobile consumers use the mobile Internet.

Go 2.0's segments content areas into categories including News, Sports, Finance and Entertainment. The Local section offers city guides and rated business listings, along with local news, weather and traffic. In addition to e-mail and SMS messaging, the platform also integrates Flickr, Yahoo's photo-sharing and management service, allowing users to tag and post photos from their phones to their Flickr accounts.

Besides promoting the mobile services to its Web audience, Yahoo has set up several distribution partnerships. Samsung will pre-load the new search service and content platform on mobile phones around the world, and Motorola will pre-install the Go 2.0 application in its mobile devices this year. Yahoo has also extended its relationships with Nokia and Blackberry maker Research In Motion, making the platform available to Blackberry and Nokia device users in 2007. In addition, oneSearch will be the exclusive search provider for Opera mobile browsers.

Mobile Marketing Association Executive Director Laura Marriott likens the approach to Microsoft's software distribution partnerships. The relationships "might help drive early adoption" by users, she added.

Yahoo also aims to derive revenue from its mobile offerings through alignments like the one it announced late last year with Vodafone; the U.K. wireless carrier is using Yahoo as its exclusive mobile display ad provider.

Samsung and Yahoo rival Google are also pairing up to promote Google mobile applications in Samsung phones this year. Selected handsets will include Google Maps and Gmail applications, and enable easy access to Google search. Google offers a mobile version of its AdWords text link ads.

When it comes to mobile advertising, "It's still too early to give a clear advantage to any one company, even a company with a brand as strong as Yahoo," said Forrester's Overby.

Lee Hancock, founder and CEO of mobile content provider go2, takes the increasingly competitive state of his industry as a promising sign. "I think the competition is very healthy….It will ultimately result in enhanced content to end users because the advertising business model will encourage a lot of competition in the marketplace," he said.

Las Vegas (NV) - While we are just noticing a greater adoption of the first-generation high-definition media formats and a new wave of 50 GB Blu-ray will be shipping in the first quarter of this year, we have spotted the next generation of Blu-ray at CES.

TDK previewed a massive 200 GB Blu-ray disc, which the company claims has enough room to store approximately 18 hours of high-definition video (encoded at 24 Mbps). The company did not say when such media may be commercially available.

Also on display are 8cm Mini Blu-ray discs, which have a capacity of 16.5 GB by using a single-layer recording material structure. The Blu-ray minis will be available in BD-R and BD-RE formats. Complementing the TDK lineup are thermal and inkjet printable BD-Rs that will begin shipping in the second quarter of 2007.

 

Gadget and technology website ‘Engadget’ has published information on what looks to be an upgraded version of the Xbox 360. It is said to feature a less energy hungry 65nm processor, instead of the Xbox 360’s 90nm processor, a 120Gb hard drive (instead of the paltry 20Gb hard drive now shipped) and an HDMI port for single-cable connection to the latest HDTVs for 1080p output.

Codenamed ‘Zephyr’, Engagdet reports that a Microsoft insider claims we’ll all be seeing it very ‘soon’. While that’s not very specific, it might mean that we’ll see it during Bill Gates’ CES Keynote speech and on the show floor at CES itself, or it might mean it’ll come sometime in the next couple of months.

Whether or not the new design will feature a quieter operation and a quieter DVD drive is as yet unknown, as is the question of whether or not Microsoft will bite the bullet and install an HD DVD drive directly into the unit itself.

A 120Gb hard drive would be instantly double the size of the PS3’s 60Gb hard drive, but what would be even better still is if users could plug in their own external hard drives through the USB connectors and also save data there, or play video content that’s been transferred across.

There’s also no word on whether or not Microsoft will introduce new controllers that might feature some kind of motion sensing like the PS3 and the Wii.

Microsoft has a tough balancing act here, as they need to improve the Xbox 360 to make it an even more attractive competitor to the PS3 and the Wii, without adding new features that will allow games to be created that can’t be played on the original Xbox 360.

It’s important to remember, after all, that this is not the ‘next’ Xbox to succeed the 360. It’s just slated to be a revised version, much like Sony released the slim-line PS2, which was dramatically smaller than the much larger original PS2 console.

As the war of next-generation optical format rages on, Warner Bros decided to come up with its own solution. According to media reports, Warner Bros plans to unveil at the Consumer Electronics Show a DVD disc, called Total Hi-Def (Total HD) that would make it possible to play a movie in either a HD DVD player or Blue Ray player.
"The Total High-Definition Disc allows consumers to fully embrace high-definition viewing," Ron Sanders, President of Warner Home Video said in a statement Thursday. "Warner Bros. was a force in creating the current market dominance of the standard DVD, and we hope that THD will make it easier for the average consumer to enjoy this next level of technology."

Warner Bros didn’t release any details about their Total HD solution and also is still unclear if the company would license the technology to rival studios.

Also, Warner Bros has filled a patent for another invention could actually mean the premature ending of the HD DVD vs. Blu Ray war, which Sony and Toshiba have been fighting for quite some time

Movies on a DVD are stored at different depths depending on the technology. Blu-ray discs store information only 0.1 millimeter from the surface while HD-DVD discs store it at 0.6 millimeters.

But three Warner Bros. employees have come up with a new idea. By using reflective films, the inventors say their disc would enable the lasers to read the top layer and "see through" to the lower one if necessary. Additional information also could be stored on the other side of the disc.

The three men, two of whom are engineers, have filed a patent for a disk called "multilayer dual optical disk", which would have one layer of data in the standard CD or DVD format, a second layer able to play one high-capacity format and a third layer for the competing high-capacity format.

"A data disc consists of several layers, including at least one layer conforming to a first format, and a second layer conforming to a second format," the patent stated. "The formats can include CD, DVD, HD and BD formats and the layers may be physical, logic or application layers."

Also, LG is preparing to take CES by surprise and has announced it will present a player that is capable of playing both formats. But it remains to be seen if the end of format war will mean dual players or dual discs or another solution.

The era of permanent internet connectivity comes a step closer next week when Autonet Mobile launches its new wireless service that turns any car into a WiFi Hotspot at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company also plans to announce an agreement with a world leading car rental company to offer a portable, wireless Internet service by the end of the first quarter. With the first Wireless Broadband Mobile Network, Autonet Mobile is bringing a new Internet media center to vehicles by letting passengers check email, surf the web, game or communicate via any WiFi-enabled device. The service is optimized for the in-car experience, and is specifically designed to work on 95 percent of U.S. roads, regardless of driving conditions or location. Simply plug the unit into a cigarette lighter or standard wall plug and go. The Autonet Mobile Unit is priced to retail at US$399 with a monthly service charge of US$49 and turns your car into a secure mobile hotspot, allowing multiple WiFi-enabled devices to connect, and giving passengers unparalleled access to data, music, games, chat, and anything else they might like to access in their second home--the car. Moreover, the device can easily be removed from the car and put into a small bag. Thus, users can shuttle between the car and a residence, hotel or vacation spot, extending the usability of the Autonet Mobile Service beyond the car. For business travelers, families on vacation or couples on the go, bringing connectivity out of the car and into the hotel room is an additional benefit.

Autonet Mobile's patent pending TRU Technology enables seamless Internet connectivity so that passengers stay connected while driving. TRU Technology provides intelligent, dynamic automatic session management between high/low speed networks, producing a reliable user experience. The Autonet Mobile Service ensures a secure, broadband-level connection to any WiFi-enabled device within close proximity to the vehicle.

"We live in a car centric society and our Autonet Mobile Service is directly addressing the communications needs of today's drivers and passengers," said Sterling Pratz, CEO of Autonet Mobile. "Today, 40 percent of all SUVs and station wagons come equipped with media centers, supporting music and DVD's, yet, do not support today's connected lifestyle of the Internet, e-mail and social media. We are putting the connected lifestyle in the car with an easy to use service for executives and families on the go."

According to Dave Whetstone, wireless industry veteran and co-founder of Virgin Mobile USA, "The auto industry has been searching for a practical in-vehicle Internet solution for almost a decade. Autonet Mobile's unique approach has been optimized around the specific challenges of keeping laptops, UMPC's, gaming devices and other WiFi enabled devices connected while driving. The Autonet service will help to fill consumers' insatiable need to stay connected, even while on the road."

 Astronomers have spied a small black hole nestled in the middle of a packed star cluster, a region not typically thought to be very black hole-friendly.

About 10 times more massive than our Sun, the black hole was found inside a globular cluster in the elliptical galaxy NGC 4472, located some 50 million light-years away from Earth in the Virgo Cluster.

A black hole is an object whose mass is so concentrated that nothing, not even light, can escape the strong pull of its gravity from within a certain distance.

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Microsoft has just announced two additional paths to enter the Halo 3 multiplayer beta, one of which confirms news we previously reported about gaining entry through the purchase of the upcoming action title Crackdown.

Microsoft has set up the "Rule of Three," which icludes the original registration process via www.halo3.com, the Crackdown method and now people who meet these two criteria – hopefuls must play Halo 2 for 3 hours consecutively over Xbox LIVE, starting Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007, at 12:01 a.m. EST. and then be among the first 13,333 to register at http://www.halo3.com.

The "Rule of Three" program is currently planned for gamers in the 50 United States (includes District of Columbia) age 17 years and older who have access to an Xbox 360 Pro console or an Xbox 360 Core console with hard drive, a valid Xbox Live Gold subscription and the "Halo 2" game.

More info about the "Rule of Three" program will be available in the coming weeks on www.halo3.com.

For gamers who want to go the Crackdown route, the game hits store shelves in the U.S. on Feb. 20, Asian territories on Feb. 22 and European markets on Feb. 23.

The Halo 3 multiplayer beta, which is a pre-release version of the multiplayer experience of Halo 3, is scheduled for availability in spring 2007 exclusively on Xbox 360. The beta also represents an opportunity for gamers to participate in the testing and refinement of the multiplayer gameplay of Halo 3, the most anticipated game of 2007. Through the resulting feedback, Bungie Studios will be able to further hone the end result of "Halo 3."

When Crackdown hits retail, marked boxes of Crackdown will include an invite to participate in the coveted Halo 3 multiplayer beta program when it becomes available. When the Halo 3 multiplayer beta surfaces in spring 2007, owners of Crackdown with access to an Xbox 360 Pro console or an Xbox 360 Core console with hard drive and a valid Xbox Live Gold subscription simply need to load their copy of Crackdown into Xbox 360 and use the disc as a key to download the beta from Xbox Live Marketplace and join the battle in Halo 3 multiplayer.

 In December, Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios completed the first of three ways for North American gamers to participate in the Halo 3 multiplayer beta, by registering at http://www.halo3.com. Gamers who were selected from this initial opportunity will be contacted in January. 

 A cross-site scripting vulnerability revealed in Google's Gmail was swiftly patched ove the holiday weekend, while the opening salvo in January's Month of Apple Bugs proves to be significant for both Mac and Windows users.

Apple's QuickTime software has a highly serious bug that could leave Windows and Mac users open to attacks by malicious websites, according to a project aimed at disclosing Apple bugs throughout January.

The QuickTime flaw launches the Month of Apple Bugs (MOAB), which follows on from efforts such as the Month of Kernel Bugs and the Month of Browser Bugs. The bug was discovered by LMH, a MOAB organizer who hasn't disclosed his name.

The flaw affects any Windows or Mac OS X bug with QuickTime Player version 7.1.3 installed; previous versions are also probably vulnerable. The problem lies in the way QuickTime handles addresses beginning with "rtsp://", and can be exploited to create a stack-based buffer overflow using HTML, Javascript or a QTL file, LMH wrote.

The attack can execute malicious code and take over a system. "Exploitation of this issue is trivial," LMH wrote. He supplied a working exploit, which makes the problem all the more dangerous.

The problem hasn't been patched yet. Possible workarounds include uninstalling QuickTime and disabling the rtsp:// handler.

Secunia and FrSIRT both agreed the bug poses an immediate threat.

Meanwhile, Google Inc. fixed a cross-site scription vulnerability over the weekend that would have allowed Web sites to harvest information from Gmail contact lists, a problem that could have let spammers collect reams of new e-mail addresses.

For an attack to work, a user would have to log into a Gmail account and then visit a Web site that incorporates JavaScript code designed to take contact information from Gmail.

Proof-of-concept code was publicly posted. The JavaScript code used a capability that Google used to integrate addressing with other services including its video download site and online office productivity suite.

Google appears to have fixed the problem within 30 hours of being notified, wrote Haochi Chen, a blogger who tracks the company on his blog. A Google spokeswoman in London confirmed on Tuesday morning the problem was fixed.

While the biggest newsmakers over the last two months may have been Nintendo and Sony, Microsoft held its own during the holiday shopping season, with a well-established stock allowing the Xbox 360 to be the unit sales winner during the final two months of 2006.

The Wii was the defined winner over the PS3 in terms of units sold. NPD, a market analyst group, estimated that nearly 1.8 million Wii consoles were sold since its launch on November 19, outpacing the PS3's 750,000 units. However, the Xbox 360, which Amazon recorded as the top selling gift item of 2006, beat them both. NPD suggests that two million of Microsoft's next-gen system were sold during the same November/December timeframe.

Attributed to the Xbox 360's higher sales could be the lack of supply for both the Wii and PS3. Nintendo probably underestimated the high demand for its console, while Sony had well known production problems with the PS3. Now, however, the Wii is still near impossible to find on store shelves, while the PS3 is now easily accessible at many big box stores across the country.

With its one-year head start, the 360 is expected to own the market share leader category for a while before Nintendo or Sony has a chance to challenge Microsoft's console. Total units for the 14-month reign of the new Xbox are in the area of 10 million, according to Microsoft's last month projections.

Sony owned more than 50% of the market share in the last console cycle, but the new round poses a problem for the entertainment conglomerate, with buzz and praise for the Wii and Xbox 360 outpacing what was originally seen for the Gamecube and Xbox. Sony's slow start also means that the company is on an uphill battle from the beginning, and signals what could be a complete shake-up from what was seen in the last generation.

According to today's estimates of NexGen Wars, a website that tracks game console sales, Sony has sold about 854,000 PS3s and Nintendo about 2.2 million Wiis since launch. Microsoft is estimated to have about 9.4 million Xbox 360 units in the market.

A lawsuit claims that Apple Computer Inc. has created an illegal monopoly by linking iTunes music and video sales to its iPod players.

The company says the suit, filed in July, centres on Apple's use of a copy-protection system that prevents iTunes music and video from playing on rival devices. As well, songs bought elsewhere aren't easy to play on iPods.

It marks the latest in a series of problems facing Apple.

The online iTunes Music Store had a breakdown on Dec. 26 after the site experienced soaring downloads after Christmas. Consumers were faced with error messages and long delays.

Apple officials still can't explain why some people experienced 20-minute delays to download a song. The situation was corrected by Dec. 29.

Apple commands about 75 per cent of the market for downloaded music, but analysts predict rival services will start to eat up Apple's portion of the market in 2007.

Separately, Apple is facing a securities lawsuit accusing the company and some of its current and former employees of improperly backdating stock-option grants, failing to properly account for them and making false financial statements.

The manipulation itself isn't illegal, but securities laws require companies to disclose the practice in its accounting and settle any charges that may result.

The company initiated an inquiry, and its audit and finance committee cleared CEO Steve Jobs of misconduct and said he did not benefit from the grants.

Apple says its internal review has been handed over to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, and that it has responded to their "informal requests" for documents and additional information.

 

VIA has announced its latest addition to its mini-ITX product lineup—the EPIA EX-series. The new EPIA EX series is powered by VIA’s CX700M2 single-chip chipset. The CX700M2 is paired with a VIA C7 processor to deliver a low power and small x86 consumer electronics platform with average operating power consumption hovering around 13.6 watts.

Delivering support for HDTV is an integrated VIA UniChrome Pro II graphics core. The UniChrome Pro II graphics core features hardware decoding acceleration for MPEG-2/4 and WMV9 video formats. It appears to lack hardware acceleration support for H.264 and VC-1 though. Nevertheless, the UniChrome Pro II graphics core is paired with an HDTV encoder too. The HDTV encoder supports resolutions of 720p and 1080i.

VIA has packed the EPIA EX-series with plenty of video outputs as well. Video outputs include composite, S-Video, component and DVI video outputs. There’s also an additional LVDS header for greater video output capabilities. Audio capabilities are limited with the EPIA EX-series though. While it features the 8-channel capable VIA Vinyl VT1708 high definition audio codec, VIA limits audio output to a single set of stereo RCA output jacks.  The EPIA EX-series features coaxial and optical S/PDIF outputs as well.

Other notable features of the EPIA EX-series include 1393a, two SATA 3.0Gbps ports and 10/100Mbps Ethernet with a Gigabit Ethernet option.

Expect the EPIA-EX series to arrive in two speed grades—1GHz and 1.5 GHz. The 1.0 GHz model will feature passive cooling while the 1.5 GHz model has an active cooling solution.

It is unknown when the EPIA EX-series will hit retail, though it will be on display at next year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The doughty Mars rovers will celebrate their third anniversary on the Red Planet with new software that will make them smarter and more independent. 

Spirit and Opportunity will have improved image processing capabilities that will help them search out dust devils and other weather patterns. A new navigation system will allow the rovers to spot hazards and figure out how to avoid them without help from controllers on Earth.

Until now, if the rovers encountered an obstacle, all they could do was back up and try a different direction. Sometimes the rover could not find a solution, said John Callas, the project manager for the Mars Exploration Rovers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

"With this new capability, the rover could find its way through a maze," he said.

The twin rovers continue to defy all expectations for their longevity. When Spirit landed on Jan. 3, 2004, and Opportunity followed three weeks later, experts hoped they would last through their planned mission of 90 Martian days, which are 37 minutes longer than Earth days.

Their key discoveries include uncovering evidence that water was once abundant on the surface of Mars in at least one region.

Opportunity also found a series of exposed rock layers showing that wind-blown dunes came and went while the water table fluctuated. Spirit spotted dust devils forming and moving across the arid surface.

As they begin their fourth year of work, Spirit has lost the service of one of its six wheels but remains mobile. Opportunity is looking for a path into Victoria Crater, where it could sample exposed layers of rock.