Thunderbird 2.0 roars out of Mozilla

THE popular open source development community Mozilla has released its Thunderbird 2.0 free and open email client, adding new features that include email tagging.

The organization says the free email client has better features – a main one being email tagging – improved security and better privacy provisions. From its first day of release, it is available in 30 different languages.

Mozilla chief executive Mitchell Baker, who is a keynote speaker at the CeBIT Keynote Series on May 1 at the Darling Harbour convention and exhibition centre in Sydney, says the new Mozilla Thunderbird is “personalisable” and customisable than the previous version.

“Thunderbird 2 has powerful new features and proven security, delivering an improved email experience to users worldwide,” said Thunderbird’s lead engineer at Mozilla Scott MacGregor.

“In Thunderbird 2, we incorporated the proven benefits of tagging to email. Tagging initially gained popularity on blogs, photo and link-sharing sites as an intuitive way to organize online information so users could easily find desired content, MacGregor says in a statement about the release.

The software is available for Windows, Mac and Linux clients.

Mozilla said the messaging tagging feature would make it much easier for users to track and search email. The user can create their own tag (like From Mum, or This Weekend) or use default tags like Important, or To Do.

Another strong new features is the message history navigation that is similar to the web browsing history. Users can move backwards or forwards through their messages and easily browse through their message history.

For more Open CeBIT news, click here.

IT boom continues as PC market surges

WORDWIDE shipments of personal computers grew by about 10 per cent in the three months to the end of March according to two new research reports, signaling the underlying strength in the ICT sector.

A Gartner report found global PC sales surged 8.9 per cent to total 67 million units in the fourth quarter. IDC put growth at 10.9 per cent to 58.9 million units, far exceeding its forecast of 8.5 per cent.

As a bell-weather, the industry has traditionally looked to the PC shipment reports to understand the underlying health pf the ICT sector, as well as a reliable indicator of the strength or otherwise of economic investment.’

IDC said it expected strong growth would continue for the next two years.

IDC found growth was stronger in the portable PC market than the desktop commercial PC space.

“The strong first quarter is a good indicator of the health of the industry,” said IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker director Loren Loverde.

“The United States and Japan didn't grow much in the first quarter, but solid gains elsewhere and a boost from Vista brought us back to double-digit growth,” she said.

“The key market drivers – portable adoption and consumer demand – continue at a healthy clip, and commercial replacements should contribute more in coming quarters.

“Growth is likely to stay in double-digits over the next two years although it will be concentrated in portables and international markets.”

Gartner said the Asia Pacific region overtook the US in total shipment volumes for the first time in the first quarter.

HP capitalised on the strong growth in the consumer and portables market, boosting its own unit shipments by 28 per cent for the quarter and growing its market share to 19.1 per cent.

Dell has continued to struggle with a slow US market and a current internal restructure. Overall shipments for the year declined 6.9 per cent, though it did manage to boost non-US sales.

Both research groups said the launch of Microsoft Vista operating system in January would have had very small impact on the growth of global PC shipments.

For more Office Automation news, click here.

NICTA spin-off leaves Australia

THE first tech start-up to be spun our of the federally funded research agency NICTA has been a mixed success for the organisation – the company has good technology that attracted customers, but it has also left Australia for good.

Open Kernel Labs was established as a commercial entity in Australia just nine months ago, the result of research work at NICTA’s Embedded, Real-Time and Operating Systems Research Program.

OK Labs (as it is called) has now moved on, establishing its corporate offices – including business development and field application engineering functions in the US as it headquarters.

The company said research and development functions would remain in Australia.

OK Lab’s product, OKL4 is an advanced microkernel and “supports a structured approach to building trusted and secure systems, and is being successfully deployed in a number of commercial consumer mobile devices,” the company said.

In a statement, NICTA chief executive Dr David Skellern did not express disappointment at the company’s operations heading offshore.

“With the incorporation of OK, NICTA can claim another success of its program to commercialize technology developed at its resource-rich development labs,” Dr Skellern said.

“OK is the first spin-out of NICTA to be incorporated in the United States and the company begins its commercial life with a revenue stream as well as strong interest from large global companies.”

Secure, reliable and trustworthy embedded systems software for mobile and consumer electronics requires strong, hardware-enforced protection boundaries around system components, enforced by a trustworthy microkernel.

OKL4 was initially developed under the direction of Dr Gernot Heiser, the chief technology officer and co-founder of OK. Dr Heiser is also professor of operating systems at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and a program leader at NICTA

With additional input from early customers, the open source community and PhD candidates at UNSW, this team has produced the highest performing microkernel operating system available today, he said.

For more Export Alley news, click here.

Hacker cracks Mac OS security

A HACKER has won a US$10,000 (A$12,000) prize at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver after managing to break into a Macintosh computer running OS X.

Conference organisers said they had set up the contest to highlight potential risks of the Mac systems.

The competition had originally been planned as a challenge just for CanSecWest attendees through its onsite wireless network. But when 3Com subsidiary TippingPoint stumped up the cash prize they decided to put the two target machines online and open the context to everyone.

Few details of the hack have been released, and the hacker/prize-winner has not been named, although it is understood they are not at the conference.

“One OSX box has been owned! At this point all we can say is there is an exploitable flaw in Safari which can be triggered within a malicious web page,” according to the CanSecWest web site.

“Of course all of the latest security patches have been applied. Technical details will be forthcoming as the winner works out the release. There is still one more Mac to go (the same flaw cannot be used again, but other Safari bugs are allowed),” it said.

“Just to review the rules, the first box required a flaw that allows the attacker to get a shell with user level privileges. The second box, still up for grabs, requires the same, plus the attacker needs to get root.”

Apple released a security patch late last Thursday (soon after the conference began) or 25 vulnerabilities which attendees thought might be more than a coincidence.

For more IT Security news, click here.

DoubleClick-Google draws privacy groups fire

THREE high-profile privacy and civil liberty groups in the US have lodged a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission in a big to halt the Google acquisition of DoubleClick, citing deep concerns about its consumer impact.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Center for Digital Democracy, and the US Public Interest Research Group joined forces to file a complaint, lodge an injunction against the acquisition and to request an FTC investigation.

“Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick will give one company access to more information about the Internet activities of consumers than any other company in the world,” the complaint reads.

“Moreover, Google will operate with virtually no legal obligation to ensure the privacy, security and accuracy of the personal data that it collects.”

The groups say the proposed acquisition ill “create unique risks to privacy and will violate previously agreed standards for the conduct of online advertising.”

Further, the groups say that even as separate entities, neither Google nor DoubleClick have taken adequate steps to safeguard the personal information they already collect.

Google and DoubleClick announced last week the companies had reached agreement – subject to approval – for the US$3.1 billion (A$3.7 billion) acquisition.

The deal has already attracted criticism from competitors Microsoft and Yahoo! Microsoft released a statement soon after the deal was announced saying a single Google/DoubleClick entity would control too much of the online advertising market and called on regulators to investigate the deal.

But it is the public interest groups that may present the biggest barriers to the two online advertising giants.

EPIC has already tangled with DoubleClick, having complained to the FTC in 2000 about DoubleClick’s planned practice of merging names and personal details with anonymous web surfing activity – and selling the result to national database marketing company.

The three groups say Google has already expressed an intention to merge data from Google and DoubleClick databases to profile and target internet users. They say this will have a direct impact on 233 million internet users in North America, 314 million users in Europe and more than 1.1 billion users worldwide.

The complaint says Google has a history of non-compliance with Federal privacy guidelines, and has been reluctant to tell users precisely what it does with their private information – in particular its tracking of web visits in connection with their IP address.

Google currently stores uts users’ search activity in connection with their IP address indefinitely, something the company does not disclose on its Privacy Policy Highlights (and something 89 per cent of its users are completely unaware of, according to a 2006 survey).

For more Digital Content news, click here.

BlackBerry outage highlights mobile dependence

THE 24-hour outage at Research In Motion (RIM) in the US, the company that runs the BlackBerry email service, has highlighted just how dependent business users are on the mobile data.

For many users, the outage represented a nightmare: It’s not for nothing that the Blackberry is known by its most ardent fans as the ‘CrackBerry’. For email addicts, the mobile device means uninterrupted, on-the-go email 24/7.

And there were some lessons in crisis management for RIM. The service went don for 24 hours last week, and it took the company two days to respond publicly to the outage in any way. Its customers, meanwhile, were left to climb the walls and tear their hair out as email anxiety set in.

RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie says the company is now working to make sure the outage never happens again. He said the company took a while to respond publicly because it was focused on remedying the problem.

Ultimately, the company announced the outage had been caused by the addition of a new storage feature to the service that had not been adequately tested.

Mr Balsillie said the outage like the one experienced at RIM were “very rare” these daya in the context of modern software platforms and said it was extremely unlikely to happen again.

“It wasn't a capacity issue, it wasn't a security issue. It was an outage overnight when there was an upgrade,” he said.

“I think it's pretty likely that the systems are in place that this kind of thing, as incredibly unlikely as it is to happen, is all the more unlikely to happen again,” he said.

There are about 8 million subscribers to the mobile email service in the US, with one million users added in the first quarter. The company expects to add more than million additional users in the three months to he start of June.

BlackBerry-based mobile email is marketed in Australia by Telstra Mobile, which was not affected by the outage.

For more Wireless news, click here.

Google moves to sort YouTube copyright mess

GOOGLE has announced it is working on a tool that will let big content owners like television networks and movie studios more quickly remove their copyrighted material from the YouTube website.

Development of the “Claim Your Content” tool has taken on greater sense of urgency since media giant Viacom sued Google’s YouTube ubsidiary.

Claim You Content would appear as a tool button on web pages alongside video material uploaded by users to let content owners lodge complaints to get copyrighted material removed from YouTube faster.

Google chairman and chief executive Eric Schmidt said the tool would let the content owners automate the take-down process.
“It is not a filtering system and doesn't block downloads; it makes it much quicker for us to remove copyrighted content,” Mr Schmidt said.
It is not clear whether the measures outlined by Google will be enough to placate Viacom, which earlier this month launched a US$1 billion (A$1.2 billion) lawsuit against YouTube for breaches of copyright.

Google acquired YouTube in a stock-swap deal for US$1.6 billion last year.

Viacom has complained YouTube leaves the onus for copyright protection on the content owners, rather than YouTube as publisher.

YouTube communications chief Julie Supan said the new tool does not itself identify copyright material, because it can’t identify what copyright material the content owners want on YouTube, and the material it doesn’t.

Rather, the company is testing identification technology that helps content owners more identify and locate their content on YouTube, and then give them the ability to either request the material be removed or to leave it up for promotional and marketing purposes, she said.

For more Digital Content news, click here.

Google tightens search ad grip, profit soars

INTERNET search giant Google boosted profits in first quarter by nearly 70 per cent, continuing its domination of the paid search segment.

While Yahoo! this month announced a profit slide – despite a still health share of search users – Google posted net income for the quarter of US$1 billion (A$1.2 billion), compared to US$595 million for the year ago quarter.

Revenue jumped to US$3.7 billion compared to US$2.3 billion for the first quarter last year.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said the strong revenue and profit result reflected the strength of the company’s core search and ad sales business, and the fact that it had successfully built on its partnership program in the past year.

“We continued to expand our worldwide footprint, adding important new partners and growing our platform to increase our ability to deliver targeted and measurable ads” Mr Schmidt said.

“The ongoing expansion of our network allows us to improve the user experience through new opportunities and programs.”

Revenues from outside of the United States totaled US$1.71 billion, representing 47 per cent of total revenues in the first quarter of 2007, compared to 42 per cent in the first quarter of 2006 and 44 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Google’s Golden Goose remains its search advertising revenue. According to research group eMarketer, Google owns about 75 per cent of the total search ad market in the US, compared to Yahoo’s 16 per cent.

The company is now seeking to diversify its revenue spread by applying its search expertise into other advertising areas. In the past month the company has signed agreements with satellite television and networked local radio stations to place advertising using more targeted advertising techniques.

Google has also announced a plan to buy online display advertising specialist DoubleClick for US$3.1 billion, though the deal is facing some opposition from competitors and privacy groups saying it gives the company too much market power.

For more e-Marketing news, click here.

G9 lodges FTTN proposal with competition regulator

THE G9 consortium of phone companies has lodged draft access proposals for its planned national Fibre-to-the-Node (FTTN) broadband network with the competition regulator.

The consortium said the so-called Special Access Undertaking lodged with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) was the next concrete step toward building a competitive broadband fibre network in Australia.

The G9 members are AAPT, iiNet, Internode, Macquarie Telecom, Optus, PowerTel, Primus, Soul and TransAct. It said the proposal would deliver consumers greater choice and better prices than what is currently available, and what would be available from a Telstra FTTN network.

The proposal outlines access costs for establishing a Fibre Access Network Operating Company (FANOC), and sets out the wholesale pricing model for network access.

The network would initially reach about four million households and businesses and then be progressively rolled-out to densely populated regional centres like Newcastle and Townsville.

Those regional areas not currently served by exchange infrastructure would then be served as priorities allowed.

The G9 proposal is for an average price for access seekers of between $21 and $24. This reflects the cost structure of a range of products from basic access at $15.00 to high speed broadband access at $45.00.

The proposal does not rely on a taxpayer contribution from the Federal Government and would instead be financed through domestic and international equity and debt markets.

Internode managing director Simon Hackett said the companies had been working with financial services giant Investec and had confirmed “building a high speed broadband network is an attractive and viable commercial opportunity in its own right.”

“Taxpayers funds are not required to support this commercially viable broadband network,” Mr Hackett said.

“Our focus has always been on a high speed broadband network plan that will bring broadband competition and choice to Australians,” Mr Hackett said.

“This proposal is in stark contrast to Telstra’s plans,” Optus chief executive Paul O’Sullivan said.

“Our proposal offers Australia fair and reasonable pricing and promotes competition which will drive greater broadband choices for consumers, Mr O’Sullivan said.

For more Telecommunications news, click here.

Microsoft in China research joint venture

The world’s largest software company, Microsoft, has linked with Chinese PC maker Lenovo to set up research facility in Beijing, the first time the company has entered an R-D-based joint venture.

The investment, which is though to be worth several million US dollars annually to both companies, will involve about 40 engineering staff from Lenovo, with an expected similar number from Microsoft providing technical training and support.

The 50-50 joint-venture partners will share any intellectual property produced by the organizations.

It is thought the venture will focus on new consumer device technology, particularly in the mobile device market.

The companies will share a facility on the Lenovo campus in Beijing.

Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie said the two companies would target opportunities in the consumer and mobile markets like digital photography, digital media and the internet.

Unsurprisingly, the development will also centre on products that build on top of Microsoft platforms.

“Today's announcement signifies another step in Microsoft's continuing efforts to build stronger collaborations with local partners, and foster a flourishing innovation ecosystem in China,” Mr Mundie said.

The announcement comes on the eve of a Microsoft-hosted Government Leaders Forum in Beijing, which was due to start last Thursday and Friday.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates will address the leaders forum, along with Mr Mundie and senior vice-president for emerging segments market development Orlando Ayala.

For more Future Parc news, click here.

Dell lets users keep buying Windows XP

PC maker Dell Computer is to let customers in the US decide between Microsoft’s pre-loaded Windows Vista and its predecessor Windows XP when they purchase new machines.

When Vista was launched in January, Dell started shipping all home PCs with the new operating system. But customer demand for the older operating system has changed the company’s mind.

Dell digital media manager Lionel Menchaca said the idea to continue shipping XP had been raised on its IdeaStorm customer website.

The company had previously said it would continue offering XP to small business customers, and when home users’ responded with demand for the older operating system, Dell changed its plans, Mr Menchaca said on the official Dell blog.

But so far the new plan only applies to US customers. Mr Menchaca said the company had yet to decide whether to extend the plan to overseas markets.

The decision to allow shipment of XP-based machines comes just weeks after Dell announced plans to ship systems pre-loaded with the open source Linux operating system.

For more Office Automation news, click here.

CA accuses founder Charles Wang of fraud

BUSINESS software maker CA has accused its founder Charles Wang of corporate fraud and will pursue the former chief executive through the courts for damages.

A special litigation committee of the CA board of directors has recommended that the claims against Mr Wang be “vigorously pursued by CA using outside counsel”.

The claims relate to accounting irregularities over many years that ultimately led the company – then known as Computer Associates – to a US$2.2 billion restatement of its financials. Criminal charges were then laid against senior executive management.

The special committee litigation committee was formed in early 2005 by the CA board as a response to on-going criminal and civil suits related to the financial restatement.

The committee says in its report that it had investigated “a massive accounting fraud perpetrated by the company’s senior-most executives from as far back as the late 1980s through 2001, and their cover-up of that fraud, which lasted through 2004.”

At the core of the investigation was an accounting practice called the “35-day month” that the company used to inflate its revenue numbers for any given reporting period.

The special litigation committee also recommended that it use the courts to have “special releases” – or immunities from prosecution – that had been granted to Mr Wang in 2000 and 2003 be set aside.

The also committee said it had reached a binding agreement with former chairman and chief executive Sanjay Kumar under which he will pay CA US$15.25 million (A$18.3 million). This is in addition to the US$52 million that Mr. Kumar will repay to CA’s shareholders as part of his criminal restitution proceedings.

Kumar was late last year sentenced to 12 years jail for his role in the fraud. In announcing the further US$15.25 million settlement, the CA committee said that following Kumar’s restitution agreements with government, he has no material assets left.

The litigation committee makes a series of other recommendations to sue other senior executives, most notably former chief financial officer Peter Schwartz.

Mr Wang has said he would defend himself, laying the blame for the financial fraud at the feet of Kumar.

“I find it hard to understand how the Special Litigation Committee could believe the information they were given was credible, when their sources are those who perpetrated the crimes at issue and then lied about them to both internal company investigators and the government," Mr Wang said in a prepared statement reported by Reuters.

Mr Wang had stepped down as CEO in 2000 and retired as chairman of the CA board in 2002.

The special litigation committee recommended that all claims against its current executive vice-president of products Russell Artzt, saying it had uncovered no evidence that he had directed or participated in the “35-day month” scheme.

It reached an agreement, however, under which Mr Artzt is to pay the company US$9 million, being the value of executed share options.

For more Business Software news, click here.

Export experts tout the global IT opportunity

INFORMATION technology was an ideal platform to serve as an “additional strong engine” for growing the Australian economy, according to global commercialisation expert Isaac Shariv.

With a strong and innovative development community in Australia, low set-up costs for tech start-ups, and relatively short time-to-market for IT products and services, developing global technologies should be a national priority, Dr Shariv said.

“It would be good for Australia if the economy was a lot more diversified.”

Having joined the Sydney University’s Business Liaison Office as director last year, Dr Shariv is an expert in taking innovative products to market and extracting maximum commercial value from developments – something Australian researchers have sometimes struggled to do successful.

Before joining Sydney University Dr Shariv was chief executive of Yeda Research and Development Company, the commercial arm of the Weisman Institute of Science in Israel. He

“More than any other filed, IT has the potential to generate hundreds of new companies that will grow and take over global markets from their Aussie headquarters, and bring wealth back home,” he said.

Dr Shariv, who holds a PhD in Physics, will discuss commercialisation strategies for the Australian market as a speaker at the Cebit Connect Keynote series at the CeBIT Australia conference and exhibition at Darling Harbour from May 1-3.

He said the presentation would include case studies of how companies that started as nothing more than novel concepts could be taken by passionate entrepreneurs – and some small amount of seed investment – to become global IT companies.

Despite Australia’s seeming poor track record in commercialising new technologies, Dr Shariv is upbeat about what can be achieved in this country.

Meanwhile, the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) has committed its biggest presence ever at CeBIT Australia, conducting 20 seminars on various aspects of overseas opportunities over the three-day event.

The seminar series is one of three strands to the Austrade presence at the show. In addition to Export Alley – which is a special stand to give small, innovative Australia companies a low cost option to get to CeBIT and get in front of potential buyers – Austrade will also host an “International Business Lounge.”

The International Business Lounge is an area where Austrade officials will provide business matching services, to ensure that local companies and overseas visitors get a chance to meet.

Twelve business development managers from 12 different Austrade missions around the world will attend CeBIT, with eight bringing delegations from the country missions.

Business development managers will attend from Austrade offices in Mexico City, Kuala Lumpur, Auckland, Santiago, Jakarta, Port Moresby, London, Prague, Dubai, Cairo, Osaka and New York.

For more Export Alley news, click here.

Google applications target the enterprise

SOFTWARE as a Service has emerged as one of the most fiercely contested sectors of the IT industry, and it is search giant Google that is most aggressively going after the market.

Google used its search prowess as its entry service into enterprises – and small and medium-sized businesses – but stretched this primary platform into a much broader range of applications.

Search has been a focal point of the Google battle with Microsoft. But it is Google’s launch into office productivity software services that will be an even more brutal stoush.

CeBIT Australia will feature a presentation by Google Enterprise vice-president and general manager Dave Girouard at its CeBIT Connect Keynote Series who will outline how Google has already positioned itself in the enterprise market and map its future plans.

Girouard is responsible for all aspects of Google’s enterprise business, including sales marketing, product development and customer support.

Google Enterprise has an already large and growing business in providing enterprise search solutions – hardware and software combinations that companies use within content management systems to keep track of documents and other data.

The Google Enterprise products leverage the company’s core strength in search, supercharges it with specialist hardware, and puts it inside the enterprise firewall.

But Google Enterprise is now well down the path of launching its productivity software applications for the enterprise market. These began with web-based email and calendaring, and have moved to word processing and spreadsheets (the heartland of the Microsoft Office franchise.

The company this week also announced it would launch a web based application similar to Microsoft’s PowerPoint program. The company said it would offer two versions of the software in the coming months – including a US$50 per user per year version.

The new presentation software will be a part of Google Docs and Spreadsheets offering which the company has been rolling out in parts over the past year.

Girouard will provide a broad ‘world view’ of the way Google Enterprise products are being presented to market, outlining some of the areas where the company thinks there is an opportunity to innovate.

For more Web Applications news, click here.

IP bingle as senior Chinese delegation heads to CeBIT

FEDERAL Trade Minister Warren Truss has threatened to complain to the WTO about intellectual property protection in China less than two weeks before a senior Chinese information technology delegation arrives in Australia.

Deputy Minister Lou Qinjian from the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) will lead a group of eight senior ministry officials, joining a second group of senior executives from Chinese firms in a delegation from the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce (CECC) to the CeBIT Australia conference and exhibition at Darling Harbour in Sydney from May 1-3.

Minister Lou and the MII delegates will conduct high-level meetings with the officials from the Department of Communications, IT and the Arts, and the NSW government.

Both MII delegates and the CECC will also conduct closed-door meetings with members of the Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (AEEMA).

But the Chinese arrive in Australia just as Trade Minister Warren Truss said government is considering joining the United States in lodging complaints with the World Trade Organisation over the intellectual property protection issues in China.

Mr Truss told the ABC last week the US was clearly becoming more aggressive in its trading relationship with China and that Australia may join the US in its complaint to the WTO.

The Minister is in Beijing this week and will meet with China’s Commerce Minister Bo Xilai. He will also co-chair the High-level Economic Cooperation Dialogue (HECD) with the chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission.

Mr Truss will also attend the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference and participate in a panel on Accelerating Asian Growth: Evolution of the Asian Economic Community.\

Styled as an Asian Davos, the BFA is a forum for senior government, business and academic representatives to debate major economic, social and environmental issues facing Asia.

Intellectual property in China is a hot topic right now, and the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) is organising a series of seminars to be held in Australian capital cities in May.

Austrade has partnered with IP Australia to present the ' View in 2007: Intellectual property and new markets in China' seminars in Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth starting on May 7.

For more e-Government news, click here.

Second US state bans RFID chipping

A SECOND state in US has passed laws specifically banning the use of radio frequency ID (RFID) implanted in humans, such is the concern that if it’s not outlawed, someone might actually propose doing.

North Dakota Governor John Hoeven last week signed into law a two sentence bill that effectively forbids anyone from compelling someone else to have an RFID chip implanted under the skin. Wisconsin passed a similar law in 22006.

California currently has a bill before its state house that would outlaw the practice. The issue hasn’t gained much profile in Australia.

The law in North Dakota does not prohibit people getting a chip implant voluntarily. There remain applications like in the military, where soldiers can get chipped so they can be more easily tracked – and possibly so emergency medical records can be stored in-body.

The law has already attracted critics as not going far enough. Reports from the US say the law is took vague and could easily side-stepped. For example, some say the law only addresses RFID being injected under the skin, even though RFID tags can be attached in a variety of ways including swallowing.

The law doesn’t define what constitutes a person being forced to have an implant, critics say. For example, would it be considered force if a person was denied access to a government service if they didn’t get an implant? Or if they were given financial inducements.

For more RFID news click here.

Sun opens storage software to developers

SUN Microsystems is to donate a brace of storage hardware and software technologies to the open source community in a move it says signals the commoditisation of the storage

The storage technologies will be available for access to storage developers within the OpenSolaris community – allowing the community to combine OpenSolaris with hardware from any source to create compelling storage solutions at a fraction of the price of traditional proprietary storage vendors.

Sun’s chief open source officer Simon Phipps is expected to offer details of the plan when he presents at the Open CeBIT conference on May 3 at the Darling Harbour in Sydney. Mr Phipps’ presentation is titled “The Zen of Free.

Sun said it was seeking to take the lead in creating a community-driven software development platform through OpenSolaris.org to speed-up time to market for storage application development for improving customer datamanagement and archiving needs.

“Just as free and open source code has changed the way server and desktop operating systems are developed, evaluated and deployed, today marks a big step in repeating this model for storage software technology,” Sun executive vice-president for software Rich Green said.

“Sun is taking the lead in changing the market by enabling the creation of compelling low-cost storage solutions via the free and open availability of open source software, including Solaris, on commodity hardware from a wide-range of vendors including HP, Dell, IBM, and Sun,” Mr Green said.

Sun also announced the previously Sun-only flexible administration features of Solaris ZFS will be donated to OpenSolaris.

ZFS is a dynamic file system which simplifies management and adds functionality.

For more Data Storage news click here.

Google tightens grip on online ad market

GOOGLE continues to shift away from its search origins, tightening its grip on the electronic advertising market through the acquisition of DoubleClick for US$3.1 billion (A$3.7 billion).

Google walked away as the winner from a fierce three-way bidding war for DoubleClick between Google and its rivals Microsoft and Yahoo.

The US$3.1 billion cash deal nearly triples the US$1.1 billion DoubleClick commanded when it was taken private in 2005 by San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman and Friedman.

Google enterprise vice-president and general manager Dave Girouard is a keynote speaker at the CeBIT Connect Keynote series on May 1.

Google was already the largest internet advertising company in the world, with the DoubleClick deal further cementing that role as an advertising giant.

In addition to leveraging the DoubleClick corporate rolodex of ad advertisers, advertising agencies and advertising buyers and publishers, the company will use DoubleClick technology to expand beyond simple text ads into multimedia formats.

Google immediately moved to reassure users that the acquisition would not change the company’s policy of ensuring a clear distinction between sponsored links, advertising and search results.

In a statement posted to the company’s corporate blog, Google product management vice-president Susan Wojcicki told users the company had “tirelessly pursued, the idea that serving relevant unintrusive ads would best serve our advertisers in the long term” and that goal would not change.

“Sponsored information served by Google has always been, and will always be, clearly distinguished from objective content available via our search results and across our partner network,” Ms Wojcicki said.

“We want you to find the information that you are looking for—be it in an ad or elsewhere—quickly and without hassle. We know that our collaboration with DoubleClick will serve and advance this goal,” she said.

Google co-founder and technology president Sergey Brin said in a statement that it remained the company’s intention “to make Internet advertising better – less intrusive, more effective, and more useful.”

“Together with DoubleClick, Google will make the internet more efficient for end users, advertisers, and publishers.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said “DoubleClick's technology is widely adopted by leading advertisers, publishers and agencies, and the combination of the two companies will accelerate the adoption of Google's innovative advances in display advertising.”

For more e-Marketing news click here.

Europe takes off as internet destination

NEWLY-installed Human Services Minister Chris Ellison has moved quickly to soothe Access Cards opponents as government prepares for a second shot at getting the smartcard proposal through the Senate.

After failing to get its original enabling Access Card legislation through the Senate in March, Government has committed to redrafting the bill to take into account concerns from both sides of the chamber.

Senators rejected the first bill, saying it lacked detail, particularly around the specific privacy and data security measures that would be put in place to ensure protection of citizens’ private information.

Government has promised a better consultative process with both the public and parliamentarians.

Senator Ellison was appointed to the Human Services portfolio in early March, taking over from Ian Campbell, who had resigned after getting caught in by political crossfire over his having once met with disgraced former Western Australian Premier Brian Burke.

Having had a month to get acclimatised to the portfolio, Senator Ellison last week again started the process of selling the Access Card.

Talking to ABC Radio in Brisbane, Senator Ellison did not stray from the familiar message the Government has pushed for the past year. But he acknowledged there remained public nervousness about the smartcard project, with the Access Card being simply an ID card in the eyes of critics.

“It's not an Australia Card, and I want to make that very clear; we've said that in the legislation,” the Minister said. “This can only be required for accessing Government services.”

“I think it's a great initiative. It will crackdown on welfare fraud. It will make it easier to deal with the Commonwealth Government in accessing benefits. And it will provide greater security for the individuals' identity and to guard against identity theft.”

Senator Ellison said the privacy protections on the card were adequate. “In relation to the privacy aspect, we have the technology to quarantine the areas of information such as Medicare information being kept separately and apart from Centrelink information, which will be kept apart from Veterans Affairs information (etc).”

Once the Access Card was passed by the parliament, Government would embark on a “very significant” communications campaign to make sure the public understands how the implementation of the card will be carried out, Senator Ellison said.

For more Smart Card news click here.

Infosys still riding the crest of outsourcing wave

INDIA-based IT services giant Infosys Technology has reported a full year profit boost, riding out in front of the ongoing global outsourcing boom.

The company said it was enjoying the strong growth created by continued global demand among developed economies for lower cost offshore technology services.

“Our revenues grew by around US$1 billion (A$1.2 billion) this year,” said Infosys chief executive and manging director Nandan Nilekani.

“The global IT services industry continues to show strong growth with exciting opportunities and Infosys is well positioned to take advantage of this,” he said.

The company reported revenues of US$863 million for the quarter to the end of March, up 45.5 per cent compared to the year-ago quarter.

Infosys’ per share earnings on its ADRs (American Depository Receipts) jumped 64 per cent to 46cents, while net income for the quarter climbed 70 per cent.

The company said its full-year revenues were up 44 per cent to US$3.1 billion.

Infosys expects revenues to increase by about 30 per cent in the 2008 financial year to just over US$4 billion.

The company increased employee numbers by nearly 3,000 during the quarter to the end of March, and now employs 72,200 staff world wide.

IN a planned succession move, Infosys said Mr Nilekani would resign as chief executive effective from July22 to become co-chairman. He will be replaced by the company’s current president and chief executive officer, S. Gopalakrishnan.

For more IT Service news click here.

Real-time 3D medical imaging a reality

A breakthrough collaboration with the renowned Mayo Clinic and IBM say it has exploited parallel computing architecture and memory bandwidth to dramatically speed up the processing of 3D medical images.

The research partners said the use of parallel architectures and exploits allowed highly technical image processing at fifty times faster than using a standard processor configuration.

The advance significantly improves image registration – the computer-enhanced process of aligning two medical images obtained on different days or by using different imaging devices – in three-dimensional space.

With the images properly aligned over one another, the process lets a radiologist more easily detect structural changes, such as the growth or shrinkage of tumours.

The results were presented in a joint presentation by the Mayo Clinic and IBM at the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging in Washington over the weekend.

“This alignment of images both improves the accuracy of interpretation and improves radiologist efficiency, particularly for diseases like cancer,” Mayo radiology researcher Dr Bradley Erickson said.

Through porting and optimisation of Mayo Clinic's Image Registration Application on the IBM BladeCenter QS20 'Cell Blade,' the application produced image results fifty times faster than the application running on a traditional processor configuration.

By running the application faster, physicians will be able to make quicker diagnoses and begin appropriate treatments for patients more promptly.

“This is all about taking technology innovation, collaborating with our customers, and applying it to help them directly benefit their patients,” said, IBM Next Generation Computing’s Shahrokh Daijavad.

“This improvement with the application running on Cell, will achieve two things – allow for Mayo's doctors and radiologists to achieve in seconds what used to take hours, which in turn will significantly decrease the wait time and anxiety for a patient waiting on news from the doctor,” Daijavad said.



For more e-Health news click here.

Truss talks tough on China’s IP record

JUST as Australian Trade Minister Warren Truss stepped into a growing fight between the US and China over intellectual property, Austrade has announced a series of seminars for Australian companies on protecting IP rights in China.

Mr Truss said last week that Australia was considering joining the US in lodging complaints against China with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over IP infringements.

Mr Truss will travel to China this week to co-chair a meeting of the Economic Cooperation Dialogue, and to meet with China’s Commerce Minister.

Austrade said last week that it had teamed with IP Australia to host ‘View in 2007: Intellectual Property and new markets in China’, a seminar series that will provide exporters with updated perspectives on IP from experts direct from the coalface in China.

The day-long seminars will be held through May at various locations around the country, including Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Speakers will include Mr Truss, as well as Australia’s senior Trade Commissioner to China Peter Osborne, Rouse and Co International manager Anna Booy, and Day Consultants founder Mark Day.

Exporters will also be able to network with speakers and get their questions answered by representatives from Austrade, IP Australia, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Attorney General's Department as well as Australian exporters with current in-market experience.

Meanwhile, one of the nation’s most powerful business lobbies, the Australian Industry Group has backed Mr Truss statement on joining the US in complaining about China to the WTO.

“A lack of enforcement arrangements against IP infringement in China is a critical issue faced by Australian companies in their dealings in China,” Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout said.

“As a member of the multilateral trading structure, China must meet its WTO commitments on IP and this issue, along with China's undervalued currency, has been central to all the discussions with China over recent years.”

“(The Australian Industry) Group has also suggested to the Australian Government that a consultative mechanism be established now so that IP infringement matters can also be addressed at senior administrative government levels in the context of the Australia-China FTA negotiations,” she said.


For more Export Alley news click here.

GLOBAL satellite provider IntelSat to stop unauthorized use of platform

GLOBAL satellite provider IntelSat says it is working with the Sri Lankan Government on ways to stop the unauthorized use of one of its satellite platforms by the Tamil Tigers secessionists.

Agence France Presse last week revealed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a group listed by the US State Department as a terrorist organization, had illegally used an IntelSat platform to broadcast radio and television news overseas.

Intelsat officials, including technical experts, had met with the Sri Lankan Ambassador to the United States Bernard Goonetilleke to discuss the steps the company was taking to halt the unauthorised use of its satellite.


“Intelsat does not tolerate terrorists or others operating illegally on its satellites,” the company’s general counsel Phillip Spector said.

“Since we first learned of the LTTE's signal piracy, we have been actively pursuing a number of technical alternatives to halt the transmissions,” Mr Spector said.

“We are clear in our resolve to ending this terrorist organisation's unauthorised use of our satellite.”

Tamil Tiger rebels have been fighting for a separate Tamil homeland in the northest of Sri Lanka and have been listed as a terrorist group by the US since 1997.

IntelSat and the Sri Lankan Embassy said the transmissions by the LTTE were a violation of both US and Sri Lankan law.

Following the discussion, Ambassador Goonetilleke said, “I am satisfied that Intelsat is taking these unauthorized transmissions very seriously, and believe it would do all that it can to stop the terrorist transmissions. I am confident that Intelsat will continue to cooperate with Sri Lankan authorities in this matter.”

For more Satellite and Boradcasting news click here.

Software AG buys webMethods for growth

GERMAN systems software and Service Oriented Architecture specialist Software AG has acquired webMethods, one of the surviving darlings of the original dotcom boom.

The acquisition, worth US$546 million (A$655 million) in cash, makes the combined entity one of the largest providers of business process management and SOA software.

Buying webMethods was a major step in Software AG’s recently announced strategic goal to more than double its revenues to Euro1 billion (A$1.6 billion).

The companies said the deal brings together complementary industry strengths and minimal customer overlap. The companies would give eachother immediate and mutual access to additional customer segments, particularly in financial services, manufacturing and the public sector.

Software AG and webMethods have a combined customer base of more than 4,000 organisartions and 100 partners in complementary geographies around the world.

Specifically, the acquisition will double Software AG’s customer base in the critical North American market.

“Combining our product portfolio and sales team with those of webMethods gives us a major foothold in the critical North American market,” Software AG chief executive Karl-Heinz Streibich said.

“WebMethods’ Fabric product family combined with Software AG’s Crossvision SOA suite will provide an end-to-end SOA solution that allows our combined client base to more effectively create, manage and govern their business processes,” Mr Streibich said.

For more Office Automation news click here.

Spending grows as telco’s look to IPTV

WIRED communications infrastructure spending will rise in 2007 to its highest level since 2002, with most of the additional global spend attributable to new IPTV investment.

California-based research group iSuppli says telecommunications companies will spend nearly US$41 billion on equipment this year, a modest rise of 1.6 per cent.

The growth in total equipment spending is small, and represents a slowdown compared to the 10.7 per cent increase in 2006 and 8.3 per cent in 2005.

But with telco revenue growth expected to increase on ly marginally this year, iSuppli says spending increases have been directed at new revenue opportunities.

“The major reason for the slowdown is focused spending and a ‘pay-as-you–grow’ strategy among telcos,” according to iSuppli’s principal analyst for IPTV, broadband and digital home, Steve Rago.

“The marginal increase in 2007 spending is being driven largely by telcos’ purchases of equipment to deploy Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services. iSuppli estimates $9 billion will be spent on IPTV-related communications equipment in 2007.”

The major motivation for companies to invest in IPTV infratstructure is the flagging fortunes of the their core voice communications businesses, Mr Rago said.

The telecommunications companies have been losing an average of 4 per cent annually from their subscriber base, and more than 4 per cent per year from voice revenue, he said.

The phenomenon is universal, with no region and no telecommunications company unaffected.

“The telcos hope their massive investments in IP broadband networks and IPTV will pay dividends in terms of a new source of revenue from providing video and other multimedia services to consumers,” Mr Rago said.

Global IPTV subscribers will soar to 105.8 million in 2011, rising at a stunning 98 per cent compound annual growth rate from 3.4 million in 2006, iSuppli predicts. To serve this huge base, the telcos’ IPTV budget will have to grow to account for 20 per cent of their total capital spending by 2011, including networking equipment, software and customer premises equipment.

For more IPTV news click here.

Kathmandu cranks supply chain with Pronto

ADVENTURE equipment retailer Kathmandu has bought ERP software from Australian supply chain specialist Pronto Software as part of a major national and international expansion plan.

With more than 50 retail outlets throughout Australia, New Zealand and the UK, Kathmandu has aggressive plans under new shareholders Goldman Sachs JB Were and Quadrant to grow the company’s retail network to more than 80 stores in the next three years.

After a lengthy evaluation and review process, the company selected the Pronto-Xi to overhaul its point of sale and back office retail functions.

Kathmandu group information systems manager Bryan Moore said the company had outgrown its existing system, making it difficult to use the system to grow the company further.

“There were shortfalls in our CRM and promotions management, and combined with an overall lack of integration, it was time to consider an improved solution,” Moore said.

The new system, its real-time POS and inventory transaction processing would help the company to improve customer service while keeping alid on costs.

Moore said Pronto’s newly-added Alert Intelligence tools would be especially useful in managing costs.

“As we grow we’re adopting a ‘management by exception’ style, where we can be alerted to and manage specific business situations across the company in a timely manner,” Mr Moore said. “Alert Intelligence will definitely support this change.”

“For example, if there is a stock outage, we can be alerted to it straight away via an email with a hyperlink to the stock details. Alert Intelligence can also instantly notify staff as they serve a ‘Summit Club’ member whose next purchase qualifies them for a reward – which is the type of business and customer advantage that PRONTO-Xi can deliver,” he said.

For more Supply Chain news click here.

NZ payments firm pushes mobile payment market

THE global trend toward customers using their mobile phone to make purchase payments will continue to see strong growth, according to New Zealand mobile payment specialist GFG Group.

Newly-appointed GFG Group chief executive Grant Halverson, a former regional director for financial services giant Citibank, says the global payments market was still growing rapidly, although it had become more fragmented.

Halverson said GFG Group was well positioned to take a big chunk of the mobile payments sector, one of the fastest growing areas of the payments market.

GFG's software lets payments be made securely from mobile phone in the same way as a credit card or or EFTPOS card. The software was originally developed for a mobile phone company in the Philippines – Smart Communications – and is now being sold into other country markets.

Vodafone New Zealand acquired the software for its first entre into electronic mobile payments. The Vodafone Hotlink service lets its customers use their phone to top up prepaid or account balances directly from a their bank account.

The company has more recently made a multi-million dollar sale to a consortium of North American telecommunications companies, and it is in the process of negotiating sales with telco’s in the Middle East, India and other parts of Asia.

What makes the GFG Group software interesting is the way it has converged its breakthrough mobile technology with its established cards-based payment management software. The combination of the two in effect creates a virtual bank account operated by mobile phone.

The technology has created huge interest in the retail sector and among telco’s. And in the developing economies with not much of a fixed line phone network and low use of bank accounts, the system gives people access to the bank-level payments capabilities through thee phone.

“Having a Java-based Card product is critical because that means speed to market for new products,” Halverson said. “Likewise a proven mobile payments product is critical, because mobile payments is probably the largest single new growth opportunity in the global payments market – particularly outside the developed countries.”

“The paradox is that it’s really only a smaller player such as GFG which can be sufficiently fast moving and innovative and can be in the right place at the right time with the right products. And that’s key to why GFG is such an exciting opportunity,” he said.

For more Retail IT News click here.

Myth busted! Male online dominance a nonsense

THE myth that the internet is a male dominated arena where women fear to tread has been debunked, with new US research showing more women than men on the internet, and that women do more while they are online.

Market research firm eMarketer estimates there are currently about 97.2 million female internet users, making up 51.7 per cent of the online population. About 90.9 million men are active online in the US – 48.3 per cent of the internet population.

By 2011, the eMarketer projects 109.7 million US females will be active online, amounting to a steading 51.9 per cent of the total.

The company says internet usage by females has probably surpassed that of males for some time, and points to other research that have also concluded there are more women online than men (Edison Media Research, comScore Media Metrix.

The University of Southern California’s Annenberg School Centre for the Digital Future reported in 2006 that for first time in the six years the school had measured internet usage, females had surpassed males.

It found 78.4 per cent of females aged 12 or above go online, compared to 76.7 per cent of males – while female usage since 2000 had jumped 12.4 per cent, compared to just 3.2 per cent for blokes.

eMarketer warned that researchers that only measure the adult population were still finding that a greater percentage of men go online than women. But the overwhelming trend among younger girls, having grown up with the internet, is to feel as at home online as the young males.

eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson thinks that current trends will shape future internet demographics and usage.

“For girls who have grown up with technology there is no significant gender gap in internet usage, and the rise of activities that are particularly appealing to young females, such as social networking, will result in even greater usage,” Ms Williamson said.

For more e-Commerce & e-Finance news, click here.

Microsoft delays Windows Server virtualisation

MICROSOFT has pushed back the release of the first public beta of its Windows Server virtualisation software – a project code-named Viridium – citing problem meeting internal targets for performance and scalability.

The company had previously said the virtualisation software beta would be released in the first half of the year. The schedule has now slipped six months and will be released in the second half.

Microsoft virtualisation strategy general manager Mike Neil made the announcement via the Windows Server Division blog. He also announced a delay in shipping the Virtual Server 2005 R2 Service Pack 1, which will now ship in Q2 having missed its Q1 schedule.

The announcement would have no impact on shipping dates for the long-awaited ‘Longhorn’ Windows release.

“Up front, it’s important to know that Windows Server “Longhorn” remains on schedule for beta 3 will be this half and RTM in the second half,” Mr Neil wrote in the blog.

The primary drivers (for delaying release of the beta of Windows Server virtualization) are around meeting our internal goals for performance and scalability,” Mr Neil wrote.

“In an IT environment of ever-growing multi-core processor systems, Windows Server virtualization is being designed to scale across a much broader range of systems than the competition.”

He said Windows Server virtualisation will be able to support up to 64 processors, more than any other product on the market.

“We still have some work to do to have the beta meet the “scale up” bar we have set,” Mr Neil wrote. “Also, we’re tuning Windows Server virtualization to run demanding enterprise IT workloads, even I/O intensive workloads, so performance is very important and we still have some work to do here.”

For more Business Software, click here.

Salesforce adds content management system

HOSTED application specialist Salesforce.com has added a content management service as part of a dramatic expansion of its platform for managing and sharing business information.

The new Apex Content is a major extension of the Salesforce platform and is based on technology developed at San Francisco-based collaboration developer Koral, which Salesforce acquired in March.

Salesforce ContentExchange is the first service that lets customers manage documents and other unstructured data on demand as easily as they manage their structured data within the existing Salesforce CRM applications.

“Salesforce Content represents a decisive step towards our vision of managing all information on demand,” Salesforce.com chairman and chief executive Marc Benioff said.

“With Salesforce Content, we not only manage a company’s traditional structured information, but their unstructured information as well,” he said.

Benioff said the company revolutionised the sales force automation (SFA) market in 1999 by removing the cost and complexity associated with client/server software like Siebel. It now wanted to the same in the content management sector by extending the on demand software model and Web 2.0 innovations throughout the enterprise.

The Saleforce Content would compete with platforms like EMC Documentum and Microsoft SharePoint platforms, he said.

Salesforce ContentExchange will help companies store, share, find and manage the business information that currently lives in documents, emails and HTML – while keeping all users and content in sync.

Salesforce ContentExchange will take the best concepts of Web 2.0 applications such as community participation, tagging, recommendations, subscriptions, and an AJAX user interface and apply them to enterprise content management.

For more CRM news, click here.

GS1 Australia offers free support services

PRODUCT numbering authority GS1 Australia is to offer a series of free support services to companies who are migrating to the new GS1net system which will be available from the end of August.

GS1 Australia says it is also making GS1 Professional Services consultants available at reduced fees to the hundreds of Coles and Metcash suppliers who synchronise their data today on EANnet.

Others in the EANnet community are examining resources and timelines to ensure they are fully GS1net operational before EANnet shuts down for good in March next year.

GS1 Australia will offer free support through their Client Services unit. This includes access for up to two supplier representatives to a GS1net group training session, a documented impact statement, gap analysis and data porting from EANnet to GS1net, a data validation service and a GS1net Ready Steps guide.

However, for current EANnet users who require additional and more focussed support, GS1 Australia has said that for a limited time and at a special price GS1 Professional Services consultants would fully execute the migration process for moving from EANnet to GS1net.

The GS1 Professional Services team has the system experience and the product-specific conversion tools to help everyone in the EANnet user community to migrate from EANnet to GS1net, with significant business benefits in terms of a speedier migration, cost avoidance and cost reduction.

GS1net contains many improvements and new features. GS1net users will find it faster and easier to manage than previous versions, both reducing the cost of ownership and maximising return on investment.

The most significant difference between the old EANnet and new GS1net is the seamless integration between it and the Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN). This allows accurate data to be securely shared around the world between suppliers, wholesalers, logistics operators, retailers and other data recipients.

The new GS1net platform is also considerably easier to manage as it uses globally compliant standards that now bring Australian suppliers into global alignment.

GS1 Australia is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to providing local businesses with assistance and support to implement global GS1 standards for supply chain efficiency.

The organisation will exhibit at CeBIT Australia at the Darling Harbour Convention and Exhibition Centre from May 1 to May 3, providing demonstrations of the new GS1net technology and advice on how to migrate from the present EANnet data synchronisation service.

GS1 Australia is one of more than one hundred GS1 organisation located in countries around the world. In November 2005, GS1 Australia joined the GDSN and put into place a migration plan for alignment to this global standard.

The next phase was for GS1 Australia to deploy a new platform, known as GS1net. This development work ensures that GS1net not only meets the requirements for participation in the GDSN, but also delivers all the item and pricing functionality that the Australian and New Zealand communities depend on today.

For more Point of Sale news, click here.

Coonan moves to reassure angry ISPs

COMMUNICATIONS Minister Helen Coonan has moved to bolster government’s Broadband Guarantee scheme to make sure smaller, regional ISPs don’t miss out on subsidies.

The changes follow complaints by South Australian regional ISPs that had complained that they had already invested in regional infrastructure but would have been denied access to funding under the new scheme.

“These arrangements will give broadband providers clarity regarding the new program and should speed up the rollout of further high speed broadband to consumers to complement the upcoming $600 million Broadband Connect Infrastructure Program,” Senator Coonan said.

Under new guideline announced by the Minister last week, providers that had built broadband infrastructure under the Broadband Connect program but had not claimed subsidies for connecting customers under that program will be able to apply to register that infrastructure under both the transitional period – up until July 2007 – and the full Australian Broadband Guarantee program to mid June 2008.

This change creates an incentive for providers in these circumstances to immediately participate in the Australian Broadband Guarantee rather than waiting for the full program, Senator Coonan announced.

This should mean that consumers in these areas will receive a wider choice of broadband services sooner. It will also allow further time for providers to recoup their investment on new networks.

The incentive payment for non-ADSL broadband services will be increased from $1100 to $2750 for Providers who build new infrastructure in areas that will not be covered by projects funded under the Broadband Connect Infrastructure Program.
Further details of the arrangements are included in the attached industry fact sheet. Full details will be made available in the coming weeks with the release of the full Australian Broadband Guarantee Guidelines and amendments to the transitional period Guidelines.

“These new provisions ensure that consumers are not disadvantaged as a result of new broadband networks being caught between the two phases of the Australian Broadband Guarantee,” Senator Coonan said.

“We particularly wanted to ensure that a number of important projects in South Australia were properly accommodated under the program,” she said.

The changes announced this week follow a complaint by South Australian science and IT Minister Paul Caica, who met with Senator Coonan in a bid to save eight state-funded wireless projects that had been put at risk by changes federal funding.

Senator Coonan confirmed that projects in the Coorong Region, the Yorke Peninsula and the Barossa & Light Region would be eligible to apply for funding under the Australian Broadband Guarantee.

Other regional projects in areas that will not be covered by the Broadband Connect Infrastructure Program are likely to benefit from the higher subsidies for wireless broadband.

Guidelines for the full Broadband Guarantee program are expected to be announced by the end of the month.

For more Networking news, click here.

Bellon IP video intercom wins export success

AN elegant voice and video over IP-based intercom solution for in-building security develop by Sydney innovator Beltronics Longreach has won export support in the Middle East and US markets.

The Bellon system uses Internet Protocol (IP) and works over structured cabling, which is a standard feature in all new development projects like the condominiums, apartment blocks and gated communities that for part of the target market for the product.

Beltronics founder and sales director Brian Rodrigues said the Bellon system, which is to be showcased at the CeBIT Australia exhibition and conference at Sydney’s Darling Harbour from May 1-3, is the first of its kind in the world.

Mr Rodrigues said Bellon was the first video intercom system that uses the standard Ethernet wiring platform combined with the Power-Over-Ethernet 802.3af standard.

By using TCP/IP protocols for all communications, the Bellon system is able to operate on the same network infrastructure and alongside other network devices, like IP-based access control and CCTV systems.

One of the major advantages Ethernet, and using the power over Ethernet feature is that it is known for its stability, he said.

“All current door entry intercom systems utilise proprietary cabling systems that can make the electronics sensitive to voltage fluctuations, especially during electrical storms,” Mr Rodrigues said.

“Our system is significantly more reliable because it operates on the Ethernet, which has been proved to be a very reliable and robust network platform.”

The Bellon system was first launched one year ago, and the company will unveil new stainless steel device at CeBIT.

Beltronics Longreach has already appointed Adelaide-based Clipsal as its Middle East distributing, and the system is being trialled in a number of building projects there. Trials are also underway at Greenfield sites in the US.

Thought the company has targeted new developments as its primary market, it has also enjoyed success in Australia with institutions like hospitals and public sector utilities like railways that have bought the system to use for secure building access over existing network infrastructure.

The Bellon products and Beltronics Longreach are members of the Australian Technology Showcase, a national initiative of state governments and the Commonwealth that aims to foster and highlight innovative technology companies.

For more VoIP & IP Comms news, click here.

Viacom snubs Google, hugs Yahoo

MEDIA giant Viacom has signed an exclusive multi-year partnership with Yahoo! Under which the search company will provide sponsored search and contextual ad services to 33 Viacom broadband sites.

The ads for Viacom sites including MTV.com, VH1.com. Nickelodeon.com and Comedycentral.com will be powered by Yahoo’s newly launched search marketing system known as Panama.

The companies said the partnership may later extend to all 140-odd Viacom sites.

It seems likely that Viacom’s present dispute with Google – the company is suing Google’s YouTube unit for US$1 billion for copyright infringements – may have pressed the company closer to Yahoo.

Certainly Yahoo seems to think so. Even in the official announcement, Yahoo chairman and chief executive Terry Semel couldn’t resist taking a slightly veiled shot at Google’s copyright troubles.

“Viacom is a global leader in entertainment that shares Yahoo!’s commitment to connecting users to the content, products and services for which they are looking while respecting copyrights and other intellectual property rights at the same time,” Mr Semel said.

“Aligning Viacom’s popular brands, leading content and large audience with Yahoo!’s more targeted, relevant advertising, marks the beginning of a powerful and engaging partnership between our two companies.”

Viacom chief executive Philippe Dauman said Yahoo had made “impressive strides” with its new search marketing system and that the relationship with Yahoo could be expected to grow over time.

Viacom is understood to have held talks with both Google and Microsoft before deciding to partner with Yahoo.

Yahoo provides search marketing services to advertisers in 22 countries. Its new search marketing system – currently only available in the US – is designed to deliver even more relevant sponsored search and contextual ad results.

Viacom is the number-one online entertainment destination and the 11th most-popular overall destination on the Web.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

For more e-Marketing news, click here.

Gloves come off in FTTN campaign

A GROUP of 11 telecommunications and internet companies have joined forces to counter what they say is an orchestrated Telstra campaign of misinformation on broadband, competition and regulation in Australia.

The companies – AAPT, Austar, iiNet, Internode, Macquarie Telecom, Powertel, Primus Telecom, Telarus, TransACT, WestNet and Unwired – have sent a letter of complaint to the consumer watchdog asking it to investigate whether the Telstra campaign represents misleading and deceptive conduct.

The complaint to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission details a series of instances, including a media release, a teleconference and an email to customers where it says Telstra “has simply not told the whole truth.”

“Telstra is pushing the false impression that Australia’s regulatory regime somehow ignores its costs and legitimate business interests,” the group said in a statement.

“This is not the case, and if past performance is any indicator, Telstra is on a rampage to force both sides of politics to weaken the Trade Practices Act so it can increase prices.”

Calling themselves T4, the group has launched an education campaign called Tell the Truth Telstra that targets MPs, regulators and the public with what it call “the facts behind the state of broadband and telecommunications regulation in Australia.”

The T4 group has launched a web site at tellthetruthtelstra.com.au to counter some of the claims coming out of Telstra’s own campaign web site, nowwearetalking.com.au.

“As the nation debates the future of broadband, it is time to set the record straight about communications services in this country and the central role of competition in satisfying consumer demand.

“With an election looming, Telstra has turned up the volume and strayed a long way from the facts,” said the T4 group.

The group says that since government introduced competition in Australia, competitors had pioneered innovations like internet access for home and business, capped plans for mobile, and fast broadband using ADSL2+ and 3G services.

It says that “time and again” Telstra has only introduced new services and lower prices when it was forced to match the competition.

“Now Telstra is acting as though it can hold the country to ransom – positioning itself as the only company that can deliver Fibre-to-the-Node (FTTN) and demanding to be allowed to increase prices before it will do so.

“The regulator has told a Senate hearing that Telstra had ‘walked away from upgrading its network to a FTTN because it could not get a green light to artificially inflate the price for existing broadband services in order to be able to justify charging higher prices for access to the new network’.

“Pretty much everyone but Telstra is united in the desire to create better broadband through effective competition rather than watered-down regulation,” the group spokesman said.

For more Telecommunications news, click here.

Microsoft patches ‘critical’ Windows security flaws

MICROSOFT has issued five software patches for security problems found in it Windows operating system, including a “critical” flaw in its new Windows Vista operating system.

The company also released a patch for another critical security flaw identified in its Microsoft Content Server platform, warning that the problem could allow hackers remote control of the system.

Five of the six bugs reported in the routine monthly Microsoft Security Bulletin for April were rated as critical, recommending that users update their software immediately.

The bulletin also rated the security hole identified in a Windows Vista messaging function as critical. The problem could lead to hackers taking over a machine, and users should be patched immediately.

“Critical” is the most serious of Microsoft’s four-level security rating system and is defined by the company as “a vulnerability whose exploitation could allow the propagation of an Internet worm without user action.”

Though the security patches were published part of Microsoft’s regular monthly release of fixes, the company last week broke the routine to issue an emergency fix for a problem found in Windows cursor animation files that was being widely exploited by hackers.

Microsoft has also reported that the cursor animation fix, which applied to all current Windows, including Vista, caused problems with some third-party software programs, in particular those related to audio files.

For more IT Security news, click here.

Palm to launch Linux smartphone

AFTER broadening its product line to include a Windows-based Treo smart phone last year, mobile specialist Palm says it will also release a device based on the Linux platform.

Speaking to analysts in New York this week, Palm chief executive Ed Colligan said the company had been developing the new Linux platform in the background for several years.

Mr Colligan said the Linux OS would be released later this year, and would run existing Palm applications.

Analysts reacted positively to the announcement saying the company had been hamstrung in recent years because it did not control the PalmOS operating system.

Palm spun off its OS operations as a separate company and recently paid US$44 million for a permanent license to use the software. PalmOS is now called Garnet.

The new Linux platform held the promise of allowing the company to get new product to market faster while lowering costs.

Mr Colligan told the analysts the mobile computing market was about to experience the next wave of growth as it moved into the mass market and that its new platforms – including Linux – positioned Palm to capitalise on that growth.

It is not clear how the announcement affects the immediate takeover rumours that have persisted about Palm. Wall Street has been buzzing in recent weeks with talk that Palm may be acquired, either by a device company or a private equity firm.

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HP cranks inkjet print speeds

HEWLETT-Packard has unveiled a swag of hardware and software printing products, including two colour inkjet-based multifunction office devices it says can print up to 70 pages per minute.

The company said its HP CM8060/CM8050 Colour MFPs are the first to use the HPs new EdgeLine technology, which the company said brings to market a powerful new engine to based on its $1.4 billion (A$1.7 billion) investment in scalable printing technology.

HP says the new multifunction devices gives enterprise and SME tools to improve productivity and cut costs through high-speed performance, reliability, excellent output and intuitive useability.

HP Imaging and Printing Group executive vice-president Vyomesh Joshi said the Edgeline technology would transform the industry, “providing customers a multifunction printing solution with unprecedented ease of use that can improve productivity and lower colour operating costs by up to 30 per cent.”

The company also unveiled Web Jetadmin 10, a major upgrade to HP’s printing fleet management software solution, as well as a new HP Universal Print Driver 4.0 for Windows, which is compatible with Windows Vista.

HP said it was aiming to capture a significant portion of the US$147 billion enterprise printing market which it has pursued with renewed vigour since October last year when it first announced the Edgeline technology.

The company claims the total market opportunity for Edgeline Technology is expected to be more than US$30 billion by 2009. The CM8060 and CM8050 Colour MFPs announced yesterday are designed for the customers who print in high-volume and offer the combined benefits of ink and laser in a single device.

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