Privacy chief wants mandatory reporting

SHAKEN by a series of significant data breaches in the UK, Australian Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis has renewed calls for mandatory reporting of security breaches at Australian companies and government agencies.

Ms Curtis's call for mandatory reporting was made in a 786-page submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s (ALRC) review of Australian privacy law.

“While reporting would need to be proportional to the severity of the breach, it would provide organisations with a strong market incentive to adequately secure their databases,” Ms Curtis said.

“It would also give people an opportunity to take any necessary steps to protect their personal information.”

Ms Curtis also called for powers that would allow the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to conduct privacy performance assessments on private sector organisations in special circumstances to ensure they were in compliance with data protection regulations.

Other recommendations in the submission included maintaining a principles-based and technology neutral approach to privacy, to provide flexibility and responsiveness to change.

Ms Curtis also urged lawmakers to minimise exemptions to from the Privacy Act.

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French police move to Ubuntu

THE French Gendarmerie Nationale, or paramilitary policy force, has dumped Microsoft Windows in favour of the Linux distribution Ubuntu, making it one of the largest administrations in the world to move to open source.

Reports from the Solution Linux Conference 2008 in Paris say the gendarmerie will progressively move its 70,000 desktops using Windows XP to the Ubuntu distribution of open source Linux.

The plan marks the final phase of the gendarmerie’s move away from Microsoft, a process that started in 2005 when it switched from using the Microsoft Office productivity suite to the free OpenOffice open source offering.

The reports from Paris quote Colonel Nicolas Geraud, the deputy director of the gendarmerie’s IT unit, saying the administration will transfer 5,000 to 8,000 PCs to Ubuntu this year, then 14,000 to 15,000 a year over the next four years so that its entire fleet of desktop is Linux-based by 2013-2014.

Colonel Geraud said the change was made for three reasons: to reduce reliance on a single supplier; to give the gendarmerie control of its own operating system; and to reduce IT costs.

The gendarmerie abandoned Internet Explorer and Outlook in 2006, moving instead to Mozilla’s open source Firefox and Thunderbird browser and email client.

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ACS appoints new chief executive

THE Australian Computer Society has appointed West Australian technology professional Kim Denham as its new national chief executive, replacing the long-serving chief Dennis Furini.

Ms Denham has more than 20 years experience in the ICT industry in roles across both government and the private sector.

ACS national president Kumar Parakala said Ms Denham had been “an outstanding ICT ambassador,” particularly for women in the ICT sector.

“She has a passion for the industry, and her insight into the pressing issues affecting ICT such as careers, globalisation and professionalism is impressive,” Mr Parakala said.

“Kim is an energetic and talented ICT professional with experience working within a broad range of industry and stakeholder groups,” he said.

Ms Denham, who is the first female CEO of the society, said her focus would be on the growth of both the ACS and the broader technology industry.

“We can be extremely competitive on the world’s stage, but greater recognition and collaboration from the business community and the Government is what’s required to allow our sector to flourish,” she said.

Ms Denham has more than 20 years experience in ICT, including management roles with Ericsson Australia, West Australian Newspapers, Tourism Western Australia and CSBP Limited. She was a finalist in the 2006 Telstra Business Women’s Awards in WA and has worked on various boards, panels and steering committees, including the ACS WA Branch.

Ms Denham takes over from acting-CEO Sam Burrell, who stepped up from the role of general manager when Mr Furini left the organisation after eight years at the helm in the middle of last year. Mr Burrell remains in the role of general manager.

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ERG loads $250m lawsuit canon

PERTH-based smartcard specialist ERG is not giving up without a fight, and may now launch a $250 million damages claim against the NSW state government over the Tcard public transport ticketing debacle.

Chairman Colin Henson said the company was considering legal action over what it describes as “the NSW Government’s unlawful termination of the Tcard contract.” ERG said it had so far identified losses associated with the termination to be approximately $250 million.

The company is now squaring off against the NSW Government, which itself has threatened to sue ERG to recover $95 million of taxpayer funding.

Mr Henson said in a statement that the government had been a difficult partner to work with, and that the project was characterised by a lack of leadership and disinterest by Transport Minister John Watkins and senior bureaucrats.

He said the ERG subsidiary handling the project – Integrated Ticketing Solutions Limited (ITSL) – had presented the Government’s Public Transport Ticketing Corporation (PTTC) with a plan last November that could have seen the Tcard system rolled out over the next 18 months.

“The program was backed by an independent, reputable Sydney based Project Management consultant specifically engaged to assess the program,” Mr Henson said.

“Despite the quality of the program, apart from superficial comment and questioning, the Government and the PTTC chose to ignore it. This is typical of the lack of communication and co-operation shown by the PTTC and the Government since the contract with ITSL/ERG was signed in 2003.”

“It needs to be remembered that ERG has successfully delivered similar programs with cooperative Government departments in cities all around the world (including San Francisco, Singapore, Hong Kong, and other cities much larger than Sydney), and many of ERG’s current project customers have provided references supporting the company,” he said.

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EU backs downloader privacy

THE European Union’s top court has backed the privacy rights of internet users, ruling that content owners cannot demand that ISPs hand over the personal information of users suspected of illegal downloading.

The Brussels-based Court of Justice ruled that even where an IP address was suspected of illegally downloading copyrighted material, record labels and film companies could not demand that the telecommunications carriers’ hand over details of that users’ name and address.

But it said EU member states could, if they felt it necessary, introduce laws that would oblige telco’s to hand over personal information in civil cases.

The decision relates to case involving the Spanish communications giant Telefonica.

An anti-piracy group called Promusicae had applied through the Spanish courts for an order that Telefonica hand over the identities and physical address of customers whose IP address and date and time of connection were known.

According to Promusicae, those persons were using the KaZaA file exchange program and providing access in shared files of personal computers to content that belonged to its industry members.

Telefonica had argued that under Spanish law, it was only allowed to share personal data in cases involving criminal prosecution or matters of public safety or security.

The Court points out that the present reference for a preliminary ruling raises the question of the need to reconcile the requirements of the protection of different fundamental rights, namely the right to respect for private life on the one hand and the rights to protection of property and to an effective remedy on the other.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, an anti-priacry group, said the recording industry would continue its enforcement campaign against internet piracy, despite the ruling. It applauded the courts ruling that member states could still compel telcos to hand over personal data.

“Copyright theft on the internet is the single biggest obstacle to the growth of the music business today, IFPI chairman and chief executive John Kennedy said in a statement.

“The European Court has confirmed the need to have effective tools to tackle piracy. The judgment means that music rights owners can still take actions to enforce their civil rights, and it has sent out a clear signal that Member States have to get the right balance between privacy and enforcement of intellectual property rights and that intellectual property rights can neither be ignored nor neglected.”

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VMware disappoints, gets hammered

STOCK market darling VMware has taken a share price beating after announcing disappointing fourth quarter results, prompting investors to flee in the face of competition from Microsoft and others.

The stock lost more than 30 per cent of its value, wiping US$11 billion ($12.3 billion) off shareholder value.

VMware, a virtualisation specialist, listed last year in the biggest IPO since Google went public in 2004. VMware stock immediately soared.

The company has been a pioneer in the virtualisation market, growing revenues to more than US$1.3 billion in the past decade and helping corporate datacenters to drastically reduce power costs and hardware overheads in the process.

But reports in the US say investors have been spooked by less than stellar fourth quarter results amid fears that industry giants like Microsoft, Oracle and Citrix Systems have now turned an eye to virtualisation and will continue to squeeze VMware performance.

VMware reported fourth quarter revenue of US$412 million, an increase of 80 per cent over the year-ago quarter, but slightly below company forecasts.

What appears to have spooked the market is its forecasts. The company says it expects revenue to grow 50 per cent in 2008, somewhat lower than the consensus analyst view of growth between 55 per cent and 57 per cent.

VMware president and chief executive Diane Greene downplayed the more serious entry of others into virtualisation market, saying the company had a market lead and deeper channel relationships that any competitor.

“VMware executed at a remarkable pace in 2007 as customer interest and partner attention increased several fold,” Ms Greene said. “As others begin to enter the market, VMware and our partners are continuing to broaden and deepen our highly reliable end-to-end virtualisation solutions.

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SonyEricsson ramps download service

MOBILE phone giant SonyEricsson has signed distribution deals with ten major record labels, boosting the number of tracks available through its mobile download service to more than five million.

The company announced at the MIDEM conference in Cannes its strategic plans for the PlayNow arena operated by the company.

The partnerships with 10 of the largest international and regional record labels included Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, EMI, The Orchard, IODA, The PocketGroup, Hungama, X5 Music, Bonnier Amigo and VidZone.

Sony Ericsson is currently negotiating further deals with a host of regional labels to further broaden the variety of music available and bring more localised content direct to the consumer.

The PlayNow service was launched in February 2004 as the easiest way to pre-listen and then purchase polyphonic ringtones directly to your phone. Since launch, the scope of the service has expanded to include MP3 ringtones, games, full music tracks, themes and wallpapers.

The service has proved a hit with consumers and is now available in 32 countries around the world, with annual free and premium having reached more than 200 million.

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Intel boosts Green Power stocks

CHIP-MAKER Intel has moved to boost its Green credentials by becoming the largest corporate buyer of Green power in the United States.

The US Environmental Protection Agency latest Green Power Partners Top 25 list puts Intel in the number one position.

Intel also announced yesterday that it would purchase more than 1.3 billion kilowatt-hours a year of renewable energy certificates as part of a broad plan to reduce its impact on the environment.

The company said it hoped the record-setting purchase would help stimulate the market for green power, which should lead to additional generating capacity and ultimately, lower costs.

Renewable energy certificates, or RECs, are the “currency” of the renewable energy market and are widely recognised as a having credible and tangible environmental benefits.

Intel's REC purchase includes a portfolio of wind, solar, small hydro-electric and biomass sources.

“We have a long history of commitment to the environment and energy efficiency is an important consideration in everything we do, from building transistors to designing microprocessors and running our factories,” said Intel president and chief executive Paul Otellini.

Mr Otellini, who is also a member of the Copenhagen Climate Council, a global group of leaders working to achieve an effective global climate treaty at next year's UN Environmental Summit in Copenhagen, said the renewable purchase was just one part of a multi-faceted approach to protect the environment.

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Firefox grabs more IE marketshare

MOZILLA’S open source browser Firefox has taken another big chunk of marketshare from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, according to the latest report from French research group XiTiMonitor.

The report says Firefox’ share of the Europe market climbed 5 per cent in the 12 months to December, giving it 28 per cent of the overall browser market.

In Oceania, which includes Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, Firefox performance is even stronger, claiming 31.1 per cent of the browser market – up from 29.7 per cent in November.

By region, internet users in Oceania are more likely to use Firefox than any other region. The 31.1 per cent Firefox market share in Oceania compared to the Mozilla browser’s 21 per cent in North America, 20.2 per cent in South America and 16.5 per cent in Asia.

For a single country market, Finland leads the world in Firefox users, with more than 45 per cent of the market.

Firefox’ growth in market share has come at the expense of Internet Explorer – which is still the commanding market leader at 66.9 per cent.

More interesting is the successful upgrade conversion rate of Firefox compared to Internet Explorer. Less than half of Internet Explorer site visits are performed with the latest version of the browser, while 93 per cent of all Firefox visits are done with Firefox 2, the latest version.

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Newspapers’ online readership surge

JUST as the closure of The Bulletin magazine ended a 120-year publishing run, some good news has finally arrived for traditional media.

Newspaper web sites – as opposed to online newspapers – in the United States are enjoying a readership surge, suggesting that traditional media is handling the transition from paper to web.

A new report from Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America found the average monthly audience figures for newspaper web sites grew by more than 3.6 million in 2007 to 62.8 million.

The numbers represented an increase of more than six per cent over the previous year. They are not staggeringly large numbers, but an improvement publishers have seized as good news regardless.

“Newspapers continue to successfully transform themselves into multimedia companies, offering unparalleled content that reaches an audience growing in both size and sophistication,” said NAA president and CEO John F. Sturm.

“Newspapers’ expanding print and digital portfolio offers value to advertisers by providing a targeted, comprehensive menu of choices for today’s discriminating consumer. As our industry’s transition accelerates, it is clear consumers recognize newspapers as their trusted source of information in an increasingly digital environment.”

For the year’s fourth quarter, 39 per cent of all active web users visited newspaper web sites, with visits averaging 44 minutes a month. Users generated more than three billion page impressions on average, a 7.3 per cent increase over the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch has told the World Economic Forum in Davos that plans to make the Wall Street Journal online free would not include all of the newspaper’s content.

Mr Murdoch said that while information that users can get “more or less as a commodity on different sites about finance” would be free on the WSJ site.

But the more specialist information, and the more specialist insights from the Journal about business and finance would remain a part of a subscription service.

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Delayed NSW Tcard finally collapses

NEARLY ten years after embarking on a plan to build an integrated ticketing system for all public transport, the NSW Government has scrapped its controversial Tcard project after countless delays and cost overruns.

Transport Minister John Watkins said government was cancelling its contract with Integrated Transit Solutions Ltd, the wholly-owned subsidiary of smartcard firm ERG that had been building the system.

After missing a series of project milestones, the cancellation of the ITSL contract had been largely expected, with Mr Watkins having warned to company late last year.

The collapse of the $370 million project puts the Government plans to give travelers a single ticket to cover all public transport back on the drawing board. Mr Watkins has already hinted Government will tender again, seeking new suppliers for the project.

Reports in Sydney say Government has already taken a $10 million bond posted by ITSL when it was awarded the contract in 2003, and that the government would also pursue the company through the courts to recover tax-payer funds that had been sunk into the project.

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EU clears IBM-Cognos merger

European competition regulators have given the green light to IBM’s US$5 billion (A$5.7 billion) acquisition of Canada-based business intelligence software developer Cognos.

The European Commission yesterday ruled the acquisition would not significantly impede effective competition.

The Commission examined the effects that the proposed merger would have on the business analytics sector and its various sub-divisions.

“In each instance, the Commission found that the horizontal overlap between the parties' activities would not give rise to competition concerns, since the parties' combined market share would be moderate,” the Commission said in a statement.

“The combined IBM/Cognos entity would continue to face several strong competitors and customers would find sufficient alternative suppliers of such software products,” it said.

The Commission's investigation found no significant risk that the merged entity would be able to close off competitors from the market.

IBM's and Cognos' positions in their respective segments of enterprise application software (EAS) would not provide sufficient incentives to prevent standalone business analytics software vendors from integrating with their EAS platforms.

The acquisition is expected to be completed during the current quarter. Cognos employs 4,000 people globally and generated revenue last year of just under US$1 billion.

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Cyber criminals move beyond Windows

ORGANISED criminals involved in cyber attacks aimed at stealing IDs and money are moving beyond Windows, and are for the first time knocking loudly at the doors of Macintosh and Linus-based systems, experts warn.

Tech security and control firm Sophos has published in its Security Threat Report 2008 found Apple was a significant target of criminal hackers in 2007, and that the threat would expand in 2008.

While Malware for Macs has been seen before, the Sophos reports that malicious code seemed for the first time to have been written by financially-motivated hackers who saw an opportunity.

“No-one should underestimate the significance of financially-motivated malware arriving for Apple Macs at the end of 2007,” Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley said.

“Although Macs have a long way to go in the popularity stakes before they overtake PCs, particularly in the workplace, their increased attractiveness to consumers has proven irresistible to some criminal cybergangs.,” Mr Cluley said.

The Sophos' Threat Report also reveals that the wider use of new mobile technologies and wi-fi enabled devices, like the iPhone and iPod Touch, may be opening up new vectors of attack for hackers.

Flaws have been found in the mobile email program and Safari browser installed on such devices. But while uptake remains limited cyber-criminals are unlikely to exploit these avenues on a major scale in the near future. However, as personal wi-fi devices grow in popularity, the risks will no doubt increase.

Sophos experts also said that the low cost ultra-mobile PCs, such as the popular Linux-based ASUS EEE laptop, will gain the attention of the cyber underworld as sales continue to grow.

“The ultra-mobile ASUS EEE laptop, like many others, comes pre-installed with Unix, making it automatically immune to the vast majority of spyware and malware attacks,” Mr Cluley said.

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Hollywood hails Vic pirate bust

HOLLYWOOD movie production houses have hailed a Victorian Police operation that netted the largest ever haul of pirated DVD’s ever found in Australia.

The Victorian Police operation, conducted in conjunction with the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), the local anti-piracy lobby, seized more than 250,000 copied DVDs and 100 DVD-R burners.

The operation shut down the largest known piracy operation in Australia.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the industry lobby represent Hollywood studios, applauded the action.

“The Australian authorities have done it again … their aggressive enforcement efforts send a clear message that piracy will not be tolerated,” said the MPAA’s Asia-Pacific senior vice-president Mike Ellis. “We congratulate them on another successful raid and look forward to working with them on the next one.”

Last November, AFACT joined the MPAA’s Operation Blackout, an aggressive anti-piracy enforcement initiative scheduled to run until the end of January in 13 countries Asia-Pacific countries including Australia.

Operation Blackout is focused on the prevention of illegal camcording of newly released titles in cinemas, internet piracy, and the continued production, distribution and sale of pirated DVDs.

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Whitman steps down from eBay

MEG Whitman, one of the original commercial warriors of the online world and a genuine industry legend, is to step down as president and chief executive of auction house eBay at the end of March.

She will be replaced by John Donahoe, currently president of eBay Marketplaces, which accounts for more than 70 per cent of the company’s global revenues.

When Ms Whitman joined eBay in March 1998, the company was a US-only online auction house with just 30 employees and 500,000 registered users – and revenue of $4.7 million. Today, the company has hundreds of millions of users worldwide, more than 15,000 employees and nearly US$7.7 billion in revenue.

“With humor, smarts and unflappable determination, Meg took a small, barely known online auction site and helped it become an integral part of our lives,” eBay founder and chairman Pierre Omidyar said.

In addition, eBay announced that Rajiv Dutta, currently the President of PayPal, has been named Executive Vice President of eBay and will also replace Mr Donahoe as President of eBay Marketplaces. Mr Dutta has also been elected to the eBay board.

Dutta is a 10-year eBay veteran who has previously served as the company’s chief financial officer, and president of Skype, eBay’s communications business. Since July 2006, Mr Dutta has successfully led PayPal to achieve more than US$65 billion in payment volume and three consecutive quarters of accelerating revenue growth.

Scott Thompson, PayPal’s current chief technology officer, will replace Mr Dutta as president of PayPal.

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Carr reviews R&D support programs

LESS than three months into the job, the Rudd Government has moved to review its research and development support programs, opening the door to an increase in the R&D tax concession rate.

Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Minister Kim Carr yesterday announced a broad review of the Australian ‘national innovation system’, to be headed by consultant and CSIRO board member Terry Cutler.

Senator Carr said the review would look at ways to streamline government assistance, possibly reducing the number of different federal R&D support initiatives and eliminating duplication with State government programs.

Senator Carr is a long-time advocate of the Commonwealth’s 125 per cent R&D tax concession as a means of driving innovation and improved productivity in Australia, and the review presents the first opportunity to introduce such a change.

“This review represents a watershed opportunity for the development of ideas that will ensure Australia reaches its full potential as a dynamic, internationally competitive and prosperous nation,” Senator Carr said.

“In particular, we need to find ways to increase innovation performance across the economy, to ensure that business has better access to new ideas and new technologies and to bridge the divide between industry and research,” he said.

Senator Carr said that central to the review would be to examine the bewildering array of government innovation and industry assistance programs.

“At last count there were 169 programs in Australia, across all levels of government, aimed at supporting innovation,” Senator Carr said.

“The review will allow the Rudd Government to work with the States and Territories to streamline these programs, reducing fragmentation and improving effectiveness.

The committee conducting the reviews includes BHP Billiton technology vice-president Dr Megan Clark; Macquarie Bank and Telstra director Catherine Livingston; and Commonwealth Chief Scientist Dr Jim Peacock.

Senator Carr also announced a review of the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) program as part of a broader review of the national innovation system. The review will identify areas to further promote and encourage investment and collaboration between research and industry.

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Yahoo to cut hundreds of jobs

JUST months after returning to run the company he co-founded Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang is getting ready to fire hundreds of employees as the internet pioneer seeks to find a way out of a deep financial malaise.

Reports in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and major wire services all point to the lay-offs being announced next week. It is expected to be the biggest round of redundancies at Yahoo since 2001 following the dotcom bust.

The Associated Press quotes analysts in the US saying the company will slice about 5 per cent of staff from its 14,000-strong workforce – or 700 employees.

The analysts say Mr Yang is under intense pressure to cut costs at Yahoo in order to boost profits and improve the company’s flagging share price. He is also expected to restructure the firm, improving the competitiveness of its online advertising services, and to improve traffic flows to its main portal.

While Yahoo has not been losing money during its current struggles, it has not performed to the satisfaction of Wall Street with its share price being punished as a result.

Investors have been especially unhappy with the its performance relative to Google, the now dominant online search and advertising company.

The Yahoo layoffs are expected to be announced next Tuesday.

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Google attacks EU over DoubleClick

GOOGLE has gone on the front foot in a bid to have its proposed US$3.1 billion takeover of internet advertising firm DoubleClick approved by the European Union, attacking the EU over its handling of the acquisition.

Reports from Europe say the company is deeply unhappy that members of the European Parliament are trying to have privacy issues around the handling of personal information considered by EU competition regulators.

Google maintains privacy and information handling issues are not the purview of competition regulators, and are an entirely separate issue.

The US regulator, the Federal Trade Commission, approved the deal in December after more than six months of consideration.

At that time, Google chairman and chief executive Eric Schmidt said the FTC ruling sent a clear message that the proposed takeover posed no risk to competition.

The company is clearly miffed that some European parliamentarians, together with privacy advocates, are pushing privacy and information handling issues into the competition deliberations.

Reports from Europe say the privacy advocate contend that the volumes of data collected by Google routinely as part of its business gave the company a competitive advantage, and that privacy and competition could not be separated as issues.

After a European Parliament hearing to consider the impact of the internet on personal privacy issues heard from a series of privacy advocates, Google’s global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer went on the attack, according to wire reports.

“People (are) trying to take a privacy case and shoehorn it into a competition law review ... I can understand that people continue to peddle this theory in Europe after having lost in the United States,” Mr Fleischer said.

In its decision, the FTC said in a written opinion that privacy concerns played no role in its merger review.

At the time, Google’s Mr Schmidt acknowledged the FTC opinion, but added that Google was committed to user privacy.

“For us, privacy does not begin or end with our purchase of DoubleClick,” Mr Schmidt said. “We have been protecting our users' privacy since our inception, and will continue to innovate in how we safeguard their information and maintain their trust.”

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Microsoft outlines virtualisation plans

MICROSOFT has outlined plans to accelerate development of its virtualisation technology offerings, acquiring privately-held Calista Technologies and expanding its partnership with Citrix Systems.

The company announced the completion of its Calista acquisition at its Virtualisation Deployment Summit in San Jose yesterday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

San Jose-based Calista was founded in 2006 and has been pioneering next-generation desktop virtualization. Its product aims to provide richness and responsiveness of locally-executing desktops while preserving the security, management and cost benefits of a centralised computing model.

The company claims to be the only desktop platform that provides a user interface and cost per desktop to support broad adoption. The core of Calista’s technology is a patent-pending Virtual GPU (graphics processing unit) technology that improves user experience, but more importantly increased the number of users per server – dramatically lowering per user costs.

Microsoft Server and Tools Business senior vice-president Bob Muglia said few customers were using virutalisation technology – less than 5 per cent – because it was too costly and too complex.

“We believe Microsoft’s comprehensive approach – from desktop to datacentre – is unique to the industry by delivering solutions that address virtualisation at the hardware, application and management levels,” Mr Muglia said.

“Our approach is not only one of the most comprehensive … (but) also one of the most economical. This combination brings a big strategic advantage and cost savings to customers,” he said.

Microsoft and Citrix announced an expanded alliance to deliver a set of virtualisation solutions to address the desktop and server virtualisation needs, working together to deliver and market joint solutions with Windows Server 2008.

The companies plan to co-market new client computing offerings with the next generation of Citrix Presentation Server and the Citrix XenDesktop products, both based on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Optimised Desktop solutions, and managed by Microsoft System Centre.

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Opel pays $65m for Wimax spectrum

JOINT-venture regional broadband provider OPEL has shelled out US$65 million to acquire Austar’s 2.3GHz and 3.5GHz spectrum to set up its national WiMAX voice and internet service.

OPEL is the joint-venture company between Optus and Elders which won $958 million in Federal funding last year to assist the construction on a broadband network covering rural and regional Australia.

Access to the Austar licensed spectrum will allow the OPEL Venturers to build a state-of-the-art WiMAX network which will keep pace with the developments in international standards.

The OPEL network will ensure that regional Australians have access to a broad range of world's best broadband access technologies including WiMAX and ADSL2+.

The OPEL venture has been incredibly quiet since it was awarded the Federal funding last year. Even the $65 million acquisition of critical spectrum from Austar went unannounced (it was left to Austar to trumpet the sale.)

The awarding of the funding has been fraught with controversy and is now the subject of a Federal Court case between Telstra and Government.

The funding had consisted of $600 million Broadband Connect Infrastructure Program funding which the joint venture bid for. But it also included an additional $358 million in additional funding to extend the regional network that Telstra has cried foul over – saying it wasn’t given a chance to bid for the extended network.

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IBM, SAP to join forces

LONG-time technology collaborators IBM and SAP will launch their first joint software product in the fourth quarter, a platform that integrates IBM’s Lotus Notes with SAP Business Suite.

Code-named Atlantic, the software would result in a new style of applications that presents information and data in the context of users familiar with the Lotus Notes desktop.

“IBM Lotus and SAP have thousands of mutual customers who have been asking for the functionality that Atlantic software will provide,” said IBM Lotus Software general manager Michael Rhodin.

“The majority of IBM's top 100 customers also use SAP solutions. We're creating a richer collaboration environment,” he said.

SAP's efforts to better integrate its software with platforms like Lotus Notes is part of a strategy to make SAP products more user-friendly and accessible to more of the employees at companies where it is deployed, increasing its user base.

“This agreement is great example of how SAP enables our customers to empower their users by providing easy access to SAP business processes and data through productivity tools and user interfaces of their choice,” said SAP chief technology officer, Vishal Sikka.

Currently planned for inclusion in the first release of project Atlantic is support for SAP workflows, reporting and analytics, and the use of roles from within the Lotus Notes client.

In addition, tools are planned to be included to extend and adapt these roles and capabilities, and to leverage collaborative and offline capabilities inherent in Lotus Notes and Domino products.

The initial release is planned to ship in the fourth quarter of 2008 and will be sold by both companies.

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Israel cranks electric car with Renault

THE Israeli Government has signaled the clean car market is its next technology target market, signing an incentive-laden deal with the Renault-Nissan Alliance to build electric cars.

Israel has extended tax incentives to cover zero emission vehicles, and has provided incentives to Project Better Place, which is building a world-first national Electric Recharge Grid Infrastructure to support the cars.

The solution framework comes in response to the Israeli State’s challenge to the auto industry and its supply chain to migrate the country’s transportation infrastructure to renewable sources of energy.

The Renault vehicles are not hybrids – the will run entirely on electricity for all finctions and would provide a similar driving performance to a standard 1.6 litre gas engine.

The alliance with Project Better Place has put forward a business model in which for the first time in the electric vehicle business the ownership of the car is separated from the ownership of the battery.

Consumers will buy and own the car and subscribe to the energy, including the use of a battery on a kilometers-driven basis.

California-based Project Better Place plans to deploy a massive network of battery charging spots. Driving range will no longer be an obstacle, because customers will be able to plug their cars into charging units in any of the 500,000 charging spots in Israel. An on-board computer system will indicate to the driver the remaining power supply and the nearest charging spot.

The Better Place Project is the brain child of former SAP number two Shia Agassi.

The Renault Nissan Alliance said Israel was the perfect market to start a worldwide effort toward electric cars, with 90 per cent of car owners driving less than 70 kilometres per day – and all major urban centres being less than 150kms apart.

Along with Project Better Place, Israel would become the first illustration of the Alliance’s commitment to mass-market zero-emission vehicles all over the world.

The Renault Nissan Alliance is a combination of the French and Japanese car makers. Renault owns 44 per cent of Nissan, while Nissan owns 15 per cent of Renault.

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Number of internet users in China

THE number of internet users in China has jumped to more than 210 million, and the nation will surpass the US this year as the largest single online community.

The Chinese registration organisation, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) reported that the number of net users grew 53 per cent in the past year from 137 million.

The official Xinhua News Agency said this means China is just 5 million users behind the United States.

China still has a lot of room to grow, Xinhua said the country has an internet penetration rate of just 16 per cent – about the level Australian penetration was at a decade ago. In the US, about 75 per cent of Adults are online.

The rate of computer ownership in China also remains low. The main access point for the internet in China remains Cybercafes, whereas in the US 93 per cent of users have access to the net through home computers.

The CNNIC has also reported the numbers of blogs in China had grown to nearly 73 million at the end of November, with the number of bloggers measured at 47 million.

The organisation said blogging was a fast growing phenomenon. A year ago there were just 17.5 million bloggers – meaning 30 million new bloggers had joined the blogosphere in just 12 months.

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Yahoo saddles up OpenID 2.0

INTERNET giant Yahoo! has announced its support for the OpenID 2.0 digital identity framework for all of its 248 million active registered users worldwide.

The OpenID service means that a Yahoo can use their Yahoo ID to register with any other site using OpenID 2.0, eliminating the need to create many separate IDs and log-ins for different web sites.

The initial OpenID service will be available for public beta on January 30. Web sites that accept OpenID 2.0 will be able to add a simple “Sign-in with Your Yahoo! ID” button to their login pages that will make it even easier for their users.

“A Yahoo ID is one of the most recognisable and useful accounts to have on the internet and with our support of OpenID, it will become even more powerful,” said Yahoo executive vice-president for platforms and infrastructure Ash Patel.

“Supporting OpenID gives our users the freedom to leverage their Yahoo! ID both on and off the Yahoo! network, reducing the number of usernames and passwords they need to remember and offering a single, trusted partner for managing their online identity,” Mr Patel said.

OpenID is an open, decentralised, free framework for user-centric digital identity, which eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites. OpenID is still in the adoption phase, but is becoming more popular as large organisations like AOL, Microsoft, Sun, Novell and others begin to accept and provide OpenIDs.

Today it is estimated that there are over 120 million OpenID-enabled URLs with nine thousand sites supporting OpenID logins.

“Today’s announcement by Yahoo supporting OpenID is the realisation of three years of hard work from this extremely passionate community of developers,” said Scott Kveton, chairman of the OpenID board of directors. “I have never met a more committed set of people focused on doing “the right thing” all the time.”

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Conroy postpones CDMA closure

TELSTRA will keep its CDMA mobile phone network operational for at least three months longer than its planned January 28 closure after the Rudd Government said it was unhappy with its replacement network.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said it was not yet possible to “declare equivalence” between the CDMA coverage and the Next G network that replaces it – a condition of allowing Telstra to shut down the ageing CDMA system.

“I have notified Telstra today that at this point in time I am not in a position to declare equivalence between the Next G network and the CDMA networks,” Senator Conroy said.

“Telstra will provide me with advice within two weeks on how they will address the issues that have been identified, and report to me on the rectification to enable me to reconsider this matter.

“Telstra have advised me that this can be done by 28 April. This seems reasonable.”

Senator Conroy said that a report from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) had found that while the coverage footprint of the Next G network was the equivalent of the CDMA system, some Next G handsets did not provide equivalent coverage.

“I appreciate that Telstra has been very active in working with customers affected by this situation, including exchanging handsets in genuine cases where this is required to give them equivalent coverage,” Senator Conroy said.

“I have made it clear to Telstra that it should continue to do everything possible to ensure that customers are using the correct Next G equipment. This should include replacing handsets at no financial penalty in genuine cases.”

Telstra Country Wide Group Managing Director Geoff Booth accepted the decision to postpone the CDMA closure and welcomed Senator Conroy ruling that the Next G Network provided equivalent network coverage footprint to the outgoing CDMA network.

“We have been on a path to resolve customer issues by 28 January and we were confident we would meet our deadline,” Mr Booth said.

“The Minister has made a different assessment but we are very pleased that he has given us a clear goal for closure, a process to get there, and a clear message to CDMA customers that they need to move quickly.”

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Microsoft finds Excel security hole

SOME older versions of the ubiquitous Microsoft Excel spreadsheet can be exploited by hackers to take control of people’s computers, Microsoft has warned in an official security bulletin.

The company said it had only very recently become aware of the issue and said at this stage the risk to users was “limited” because the malicious code was not in wide circulation.

“At this time, we are aware only of targeted attacks that attempt to use this vulnerability,” the company said in a scheduled Security Advisory said.

The company has not decided whether to issue a patch for the vulnerability.

“Microsoft is investigating the public reports and customer impact. Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect our customers. This may include providing a security update through our monthly release process or providing an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft has continued to fill its most senior executive ranks with new blood from outside of the company announcing the appointment of a senior Disney executive as Microsoft chief information officer.

Tony Scott, who was a senior vice-president and CIO at Disney, will take charge of the Microsoft 4,000-person global information technology organisation that manages critical technology systems supporting the company’s worldwide sales, marketing and services efforts, as well as enterprise systems and applications for all corporate processes.

Mr Scott will officially assume the new role at Microsoft in February and report to Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner.

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Google throws money at world’s problems

GOOGLE corporate culture dictates that with adequate resources, human intellectual capacity is capable of overcoming seemingly impossible challenges.

The company this week expanded its philanthropic efforts by tipping more than US$29 million (A$33 million) in a series of core projects targeted at global problems like climate change, poverty, and energy renewables.

Through its philanthropic arm Google.org, the company announced five initiatives that use ICT to improve lives.

The resources come from a commitment by Google's founders to devote approximately 1 per cent of the company's equity plus 1 per cent of annual profits to philanthropy, as well as employee time. The result is that Google.org currently has assets valued at about US$2 billion.

The first initiative involves technology to help predict and prevent crises. This includes community-level software that helps leaders understand coming problems, like food or energy shortages.

The second program involves ICT as a foundation for improvement of public services – from education to utilities. The third project involves efforts to lower transaction costs for SMEs, something that will give small companies better access to larger financial markets.

The final programs involve the cross-Google initiative that has set a goal to develop one gigawatt of renewable energy that is cheaper than coal within years, not decades. The last is funding for a plug-in vehicle initiative.

“These five initiatives are our attempt to address some of the hard problems we as a world need to face in the coming decade,” said Google.org executive director Larry Brilliant.

“We have chosen them both because we think solving them will make a better, fairer, safer world for our children and grandchildren – and the children and grandchildren of people all over the world – but also because we feel that these core initiatives fit well with Google's core strengths, especially its innovative technologies and its talented engineers and other Googlers, who are really our most valuable assets,” Dr Brilliant said.

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NextG not up to scratch: Farmers

MORE than 70 per cent of farmers in New South Wales say the soon-to-be-closed CDMA mobile phone network is more reliable than the Next G services that replaces.

The NSW Farmers’ Association says a survey of its members found 71 per cent had concerns about the Next G service.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy will next week decide whether to allow Telstra to switch off the CDMA network, which is used extensively in rural and regional Australia.

The CDMA network is scheduled to be turned off on January 28 – but only if government is satisfied that the Next G mobile coverage is the “equivalent or better” than the service it replaces.

Association president Jock Laurie said farmers still had concerns with aspects of the Next G network, including call drop outs, handset performance, car-kit reliance, poor and unreliable reception and Message Bank problems.

“The Association has passed on the survey results to the National Farmers’ Federation, who are in discussions with the Federal Government regarding farmers’ feedback on Next G,” Mr Laurie said.

“People in rural communities rely on their mobile phones as a safety mechanism to be able to call for help in the event of an emergency – so the network must be reliable,” Mr Laurie said.

“A common problem reported by Members was calls going straight to Message Bank despite the handset indicating there was a signal,” Mr Laurie said.

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Telstra puts legal squeeze on Conroy

IF the Rudd Government thought Telstra was going to take some of the heat out of its legal battle over the Coalition’s awarding of Commonwealth money to a competitor, it must be disappointed.

Telstra has confirmed it will continue legal action to force the disclosure of documents used by the Howard Government to justify the awarding of $958 million to the Optus/Elders (Opel) joint-venture to build broadband infrastructure in regional Australia.

The company has simply switched the focus of court action from former Communications Minister Helen Coonan – with whom the company had a poisonous relationship – to the new Minister, Stephen Conroy.

Telstra said yesterday it would write to Senator Conroy and ask him to cut short the court action by voluntarily releasing the documents that would explain how the decision to award the business to Opel was made.

The company said it would proceed with plans to appeal to the Federal Court a lower court decision that denied it access to the documents.

“Telstra first took this legal action based on the principle that governments should act transparently and be accountable when they spend taxpayers' money,” Telstra group managing director for public policy and communications Phil Burgess said in a statement.

“We also believe that Telstra shareholders, who are also taxpayers, deserve to know how a commercial rival was given such a large taxpayer-subsidised benefit despite the existence of a competitive market in mobiles.”

The move comes exactly seven months since he announcement by the then Government that it would fund the OPEL wireless broadband network for regional Australia.

“Seven months later OPEL has no management, no carrier license, no confirmed spectrum and no settled technology platform. It is, in every sense, a phantom network offering phantom services to phantom customers,” Dr Burgess said.

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Melb Uni cranks up ‘Super-Broadband’

THE University of Melbourne has participated in the construction of ground-breaking “super-broadband” research tool that is up to 250 times faster than today’s internet systems.

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Victorian Premier John Brumby were among those who watched the first showing of the next generation ultra-resolution visualisation being carried over a super-broadband link between Melbourne Uni and the University of California San Diego (UCSD).

The demonstration was an initiative of the high-profile Australian American Leadership Dialogue (AALD).

The platform is set to revolutionise the way Australia interacts with the rest of the world, allowing real-time, interactive collaboration across the globe, and combining high-definition video and audio with the sharing of ultra-resolution visualisations.

In the last two months, the University of Melbourne has constructed a massive 96 million pixel ‘OptIPortal’ visualisation wall – known affectionately as the ‘OzIPortal’ – constructed from 24 x 30 inch LCD screens. (By comparison, a standard PC can show about 1-2 million pixels.)

Unique in Australia, the OptIPortal facility brings together two individual concepts – ultra-resolution visualisation walls and high definition video collaboration technologies creating a powerful new tool enabling collaborative research across great distances in real time with participants visually exploring massive data sets.

Bringing the OptIPortal and gigabit-per-second super-broadband networking together is the cutting-edge expertise of two of the world’s leading telecommunications research units – the University of Melbourne School of Engineering’s Centre for Ultra Broadband Information Networks (CUBIN) and the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), which is a partnership between UCSD/University of California Irvine.

“This technology is a powerful communication tool which will push new boundaries for higher education and research in Australia,” said Melbourne University vice-chancellor Glyn Davis.

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Google targets Unis for AdWords

SEVEN Australian universities have signed up for a Google-sponsored online marketing program that uses AdWords to give students hand-on experience of e-marketing.

Student groups in the Google Online Marketing Challenge are given US$200 (A$220) to spend on Google AdWords advertising, and then work with a local business to devise effective online marketing campaigns.

The students outline a strategy, run the campaign, assess their results and provide the business with recommendations to further develop their online marketing. They will have three weeks to mastermind the strategy and pit their marketing minds against thousands of students worldwide who are also taking part in the global program.

About 600 students from the seven Australian Universities are involved in the program.

“Online advertising is now an essential business requirement, yet, businesses tell us there are not enough people in the workforce with online advertising experience,” Google marketing manager Deepak Ramanathan said.

“Universities are ideal places for students to learn the practical skills needed in the workforce, so following demand from professors and students across the world we joined forces to develop this Online Marketing Challenge,” he said.

Participating universities from Australia include the University of New South Wales, Australian National University, Griffith, the University of Western Australia, the University of Western Sydney, Victoria University, and Edith Cowan Uni.

During the three-week period, the different student groups will have to submit two competition reports, one before they begin the Challenge and one after the campaign has ended. Entries will be judged by an international panel of professors and winners will be chosen based on the success of the campaigns and quality of the reports.

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Oracle acquires BEA, finally

ORACLE has taken another step in march toward domination of the business software market, acquiring BEA Systems after a lengthy struggle for US$8.5 billion (A$9.67 billion).

The deal brings to an end month of acrimony between the companies, after BEA had rebuffed earlier bids from Oracle. It also brings to more than US$35 billion the amount that Oracle has spent on acquisitions over the past three years.

The California-based Oracle has acquired in recent years PeopleSoft and Siebel among dozens of other smaller business software companies.

Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison said the addition of BEA products and technology would enhance and extend Oracle's Fusion middleware software suite.

“Oracle Fusion middleware has an open ‘hot-pluggable’ architecture that allows customers the option of coupling BEA's WebLogic Java Server to virtually all the components of the Fusion software suite,” Mr Ellison said.

“That's just one example of how customers can choose among Oracle and BEA middleware products, knowing that those products will gracefully interoperate and be supported for years to come,” he said.

Mr Ellison said its combination with BEA gave the company a leadership position “at every level of the software stack.”

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Sun acquires MySQL US$1b

SUN Microsystems has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Swedish open source database pioneer MySQL for US$1 billion (A$1.1 billion).

Sun said the acquisition gives the company a leg-up in the enterprise IT market, including the US$15 billion enterprise database market.

The announcement also reaffirms Sun’s position as one of the largest commercial open source contributors in the web economy.

“Supporting our overall growth plan, acquiring MySQL amplifies our investments in the technologies demanded by those driving extreme growth and efficiency, from internet media titans to the world's largest traditional enterprises,” Sun chief executive officer Jonathan Schwartz said in a statement.

“This announcement boosts our investments into the communities at the heart of innovation on the internet and of enterprises that rely on technology as a competitive weapon,” Mr Schwartz said.

MySQL corporate deployments include Facebook, Google, Nokia, Baidu and China Mobile. The acquisition will bring synergies to Sun that will change the landscape of the software industry by driving new adoption of MySQL's open source database in more traditional applications and enterprises.

The integration with Sun will greatly extend the commercial appeal of MySQL's offerings and should also improve its value proposition with the addition of Sun's global services organisation.

“Sun's culture and business model complements MySQL's own by sharing the same ideals that we have had since our foundation – software freedom, online innovation and community and partner participation,” said MySQL chief executive Marten Mickos.

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Apple launches ultra-thin notebook

APPLE has used the annual Macworld convention in San Francisco to lift the veil from its new Next Big Thing – the “world’s thinnest notebook” known as the MacBook Air.

And Apple chief executive Steve Jobs says the company has been able to produce the super slim-line packaging without trashing useability or performance.

The MacBook Air measures just 0.4cm (0.16-inches) at its thinnest point, while its maximum height of 1.9cm (0.76-inches) is less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks.

“We’ve built the world’s thinnest notebook – without sacrificing a full-size keyboard or a full-size 13-inch display,” Mr Jobs said.

“When you first see MacBook Air, it’s hard to believe it’s a high-performance notebook with a full-size keyboard and display. But it is.”

MacBook Air has a 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display, a full-size and backlit keyboard, a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing, and a spacious trackpad with multi-touch gesture support so users can pinch, rotate and swipe.

The machine is powered by a 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache, and includes as standard features 2GB of memory, an 80GB hard drive, and the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi technology.

The MacBook Air is positioned to bridge the gap between Apple’s entry-level notebooks and its high performance machines. It is priced in the US from about US$1800, but will be released in Australia at the somewhat higher A$2,500.

The MacBook Air will be available in Australia through regular Apple resellers in February.

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Apple steers iTunes to movie rentals

APPLE hopes the spectacular success of its iTunes music business can be replicated in the online movie rental market, using MacWorld to announce distribution agreements with all of the major Hollywood studios.

Users in the US will be able to rent movies from US$2.99 (A$3.40) and watch them on Macs or PCs, Apple TV or even iPod and iPhone devices.

The service features rentals from 20th Century Fox, Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios, Sony Pictures, MGM, Lionsgate and New Line Cinema.

The iTunes Movie Rentals service requires a valid credit card with a billing address in the country of purchase. iTunes Movie Rentals are available in the US only and are US$2.99 for library titles and US$3.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced just one dollar more with library titles at US$3.99 and new releases at US$4.99.

Apple says it will offer more than 1,000 titles by the end of February.

The announcement has long been anticipated, but it still had an impact on the share price of rental competitors. Share in US rental giant Blockbuster plunged 17 per cent after Apple chief executive Steve Jobs outlined the plan in a speech to Macworld.

“iTunes Movie Rentals instantly brings great movies from all the major studios directly to your iPod, iPhone, TV or computer – without having to drive to the video store or wait for DVDs to arrive in the mail,” Mr Jobs said.

iTunes’ legendary ease of use, et cetera et cetera.

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CD slump, EMI chops 2,000 jobs

THE UK-based music label EMI has announced a massive restructuring, with plans to sack 1,500 to 2,000 staff as the company tries to come to grips with the digital economy.

EMI Group chairman Guy Hands said the changes were a fundamental reshaping of the company’s Recorded Music division to reflect the changing nature of the industry.

The company is struggling in an industry where global sales of recorded music have fallen 20 per cent since 2000.

And though the company says it will put in place a plan to open new revenue streams like enhanced digital services. It also wants to improve its relationship with artists, based on transparency and trust.

But Mr Hands has been accused by one of its biggest selling artists, Robbie Williams – who has sold more than 70 million albums – of behaving like a “plantation owner”. Williams says he is “on strike” over the way he says the company treats artists.

The restructuring involves a lot of consolidation and old-fashioned cost-cutting. It would let the group “capture significant efficiencies.” The company will fire between 1,500 and 2,000 staff.

“We have spent a long time looking intensely at EMI and the problems faced by its Recorded Music division which, like the rest of the music industry, has been struggling to respond to the challenges posed by a digital environment, Mr Hands said.

We believe we have devised a new revolutionary structure for the group etc etc blah blah, he said.

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Pipe confirms new submarine fibre

BRISBANE-based telco Pipe Networks has confirmed it will proceed with a $200 million investment in a new fibre-optic submarine cable link between Sydney and the Pacific communications hub of Guam.

Called PP-1, the cable will include a spur connecting Madang in Papua New Guinea. The cable represents a significant boost to Australia’s international broadband capacity, as the main trunk of PPC-1 will be a 2-pair fibre cable capable of delivering 1.92 Terabits of data per second.

Pipe Networks managing director Bevan Slattery told the 2008 Pacific Telecommunications Council conference in Hawaii that the project was a significant expansion of the company’s core business as an independent network infrastructure builder, owner and operator.

Foundation customers who can be identified at this time include VSNL, Telikom PNG, iiNet, Internode and Primus. Other domestic and international customer contracts and counterparties cannot be disclosed due to confidentiality restrictions.

“Foundation customers of PPC-1 are the real champions of competition. These customers are leading the drive for change. They wanted a change from the same old overpriced bandwidth product available for the past 8 years,” Mr Slattery said.

“All Australians will benefit from their vision and belief that the days of paying too much money for too little bandwidth had to end,” he said.

iiNet CEO Michael Malone said the bottleneck in internet access in this country has been in the international links, not in the access network.

“This project signals the first entirely new cable delivered to Australia in eight years and will deliver more capacity for bandwidth-starved Australians,” Mr Malone said.

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Booing IBM stuns Wall Street

IBM has stunned Wall Street with much stronger than expected returns for its fourth quarter, with exceptional growth in international markets.

The company reported fourth quarter revenue of US$28.9 billion (A$32.1 billion), a massive 10 per cent increase over the year-ago quarter.

For the full-year, Big Blue revenue grew 8 per cent to US$98.8 billion.

The company will not release a detailed summary of its Q4 numbers until later this week. But chairman and chief executive Sam Palmisano flagged international markets generally, and the fast growing BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) specifically as a driver.

“The broad scope of IBM’s global business – led by strong operational performance in Asia, Europe and emerging countries – drove these outstanding results,” Mr Palmisano said.

“IBM is well-positioned as we begin 2008 as a result of our global business reach, solid recurring revenue stream and strong financial position. We are on track to achieve our long-term earnings-per-share roadmap objective in 2010.”

The weak US dollar helped IBM’s results. The company said its revenue growth would have been a still exceptionally strong six per cent had it not been for currency favourable fluctuations.

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EU opens new Microsoft probe

ANTITRUST regulators in the US have Microsoft in their sights again, opening two new investigations over alleged infringements of competition rules.

One complaint relates to interoperability issues, with a European standards committee saying Microsoft does not adequately disclose interoperability information on a wide range of products ranging from its Office suite to its .NET framework.

In a statement, the European Commission said that in its Microsoft judgment of September last year, the Court of First Instance had confirmed principle that must be respected by dominant companies as regards interoperability disclosures.

The complaint by the European Committee for Interoperable Systems says Microsoft is alleged to have illegally refused to disclose interoperability information.

The Commission's investigation will focus on Office, .NET and other product areas, and will include an investigation of whether Microsoft's new file format Office Open XML, as implemented in Office, is sufficiently interoperable with competitors' products.

The second area where proceedings have been opened is in tying of separate software products following a complaint by the open source browser, Opera. Microsoft is alleged to have engaged in illegal tying of its Internet Explorer product to its dominant Windows operating system.

The complaint alleges that there is ongoing competitive harm from Microsoft's practices, in particular in view of new proprietary technologies that Microsoft has allegedly introduced in its browser that would reduce compatibility with open internet standards, and therefore hinder competition.

Microsoft said it would cooperate fully with the investigation. “We are committed to ensuring that Microsoft is in full compliance with European law and our obligations as established by the European Court of First Instance in its September 2007 ruling,” the company said in a statement.

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Sustainability key to ICT future: AIIA

INDUSTRY sustainability issues related to ICT skills must become a central focus in 2008 if Australia is to keep a healthy technology sector, according to the peak industry lobby, Australian Information Industry Association.

AIIA chief executive Sheryle Moon said that while environmental sustainability was the focus of media attention – and an important touchstone for the industry – technology needed to look at a broader concept of sustainability.

There were clear threats to the sustainability of the ICT industry, most of which were driven by three factors: falling ICT student enrolments, an increasingly competitive labor market, and the imminent retirement of the baby boomer generation, Ms Moon said.

While the reduction of ‘power in and carbon out’ is the focus of world media, the ICT industry needs to think more laterally about sustainability to remain economically viable and intellectually relevant, she said.

“Traditional ideas about sustainability are becoming too limiting as ICT enters a business era that is being slowly depleted by an industry brain-drain,” Ms Moon said.

“Retaining skills must become an integral part of the way that we think about environmental design in ICT, alongside all the things that we usually think of when we consider sustainable industry practice.”

“Foremost as an industry, ICT will need to address the health of our workplaces to attract and retain the skills that are needed in the future.”

Job stress and poor management practices have become all too common in modern business. These issues are strong drivers of absenteeism and significant factors in high staff turnover, she said. The ICT industry cannot afford this.

“Designing healthier workplaces will mean a return to the age-old management principles of establishing trust, communicating a clear vision, and setting goals and objectives that align with both corporate and individual values,” Ms Moon said.

“We cannot afford to sit idly by while problems that we have long been aware of eat into our most valuable resource, the skilled workforce. 2008 must become the year of the sustainable workplace,” Ms Moon concluded.

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IBM unveils green retail platform

IBM has launched a suite of technologies and services aimed squarely at improving both the energy efficiency as well as operational efficiency of retail stores.

Called the Green Retail Store portfolio, the suite includes high performance point of sales systems, blades servers, and system management software that drive deployment of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly retail systems from the front of store to the back office.

IBM says retailers were always looking for ways to differentiate and build customer loyalty – and that consumers were showing a preference for environmentally responsible retailers.

The core of portfolio is a SurePOS 700, the number one selling point of sale system in the world, which offers a choice of three energy-efficient processors that help reduce power consumption by 36 per cent and more.

A large retailer considering replacement of 5,000 terminals with new units operating at 33 per cent more energy efficiency can reduce annual energy cost for POS terminals alone by US$131,000 (A, or nearly US$1 million over the average seven-year life of newly deployed IBM machines.

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NY investigates Intel sales practice

NEW York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has launched an instigation of chip-maker Intel amid concerns the company had violated anti-trust laws by coercing customers to exclude its rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Cuomo served Intel with a wide-ranging subpoena seeking documents and information on the company and its relationship with some customers.

“Our investigation is focused on determining whether Intel has improperly used monopoly power to exclude competitors or stifle innovation,” Mr Cuomo said. “We will also look at whether Intel abused its power to remove competitive threats or harm competition in violation of New York and federal antitrust laws.”

Similar antitrust allegations have been examined by authorities in Europe and Asia and resulted in formal actions, including a cease and desist order, against Intel.

The subpoena served on Intel seeks documents and information concerning Intel’s pricing practices and possible attempt to exclude competitors through its market domination. Specifically it seeks to find whether Intel penalised customers for making purchases from a competitor, or if it made improper payments to customers to keep them from buying a competitors product.

AMD’s executive vice-president for legal affairs Tom McCoy welcomed the investigation.

“New York State’s decision, based on its findings to date, to open a formal investigation of Intel’s anticompetitive business practices is good news for computer buyers in NY and throughout the United States,” Mr McCoy said.

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Carr moves on Research Council

ONE of the nation’s best known ICT industry research executives Professor Arun Sharma has been appointed to the Australian Research Council’s new advisory body as government moves to give researchers greater independence.

Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Minister Kim Carr said the appointment of the ARC advisory council was the first stage of Federal Labor’s election promise to restore independence to the Australian Research Council.

Prof Sharma is deputy Vice-Chancellor for research and commercialisation at the Queensland University of Technology and has played a leadership role in ICT research and development in Australia.

Prof Sharma was involved in the founding of National ICT Australia (NICTA) and was the inaugural director at the NICTA Sydney research laboratory. Prior to that, he had been head of the prestigious School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of NSW>

He was also involved in the founding of the Cooperative Research Centre for Smart Internet Technology and has been on the ICT Sector Advisory Committee of the CSIRO.

Senator said the appointment of the advisory committee would improve the independence of research in Australia. The committee is so far comprised of six appointees from a variety of disciplines from ICT, pharmaceuticals, physics and the humanities.

“Research is not a political plaything to be toyed with at the whim of the Government,” Senator Carr said.

“Research is a matter of vital national importance, the outcomes of which have a significant impact on Australia’s ongoing prosperity and standing in the world,” he said.

“It is our responsibility to seek and respect the views of those individuals most able to provide valuable insight into the issues faced by researchers and shape an environment that will deliver the best possible results for all Australians.”

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Microsoft’s Raikes to retire

Microsoft Business Division chief Jeff Raikes, a member of the company’s three-man Senior Leadership Team, is to retire from Microsoft after a nine month transition that began this week.

Along with Microsoft chairman and chief technology officer Bill Gates and chief executive Steve Ballmer, Mr Raikes was responsible for developing and guiding Microsoft’s cire business strategy.

The company said it had hired Juniper Networks former chief operating officer Stephen Elop to take over at Microsoft Business Division president, starting at the end of January.

Mr Elop will assume responsibility for the Information Worker, Microsoft Business Solutions and Unified Communications businesses – all previously run by Raikes.

The Server and Tools business will continue to be run by senior vice-president Bob Muglia, but instead of reporting through Raikes will report directly to Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft said Raikes would continue to serve for the next nine months on the Senior Leadership Team to ensure a smooth transition of responsibility.

The appointment of Mr Elop does not represent some kind of generational change. He is 44 compared to Mr Raikes’ 49. But the appointment is a huge step for Microsoft, and represents a fresh set of eyes – and ideas – and the most senior level of management.

While at Juniper Networks, a leading provider of high-performance network infrastructure and a valued Microsoft partner, Mr Elop was responsible for all the company’s product groups, corporate development, global sales and service, and marketing and manufacturing organisations.

Before Juniper, Mr Elop, served as president of worldwide field operations at Adobe Systems, where he was responsible for Adobe’s global sales organisation and all customer-facing functions. He joined Adobe following the 2005 acquisition of Macromedia, where he was president and chief executive.

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OLPC spin-off seeks US$75 laptop

THE former chief technology officer of the One Laptop Per Child project has set up a spin-off company that aims to produce a laptop for just US$75 (A$84).

Mary Lou Jepsen was the founding CTO of the OLPC project. She has set up a company called Pixel Qi, which is pursuing the $75 laptop, while also aiming to bring sunlight readable, low-cost and low-power screens into mainstream laptops, cellphones and digital cameras.

Pixel Qi is currently pursuing the $75 laptop, while also aiming to bring sunlight readable, low-cost and low-power screens into mainstream laptops, cellphones and digital cameras.

Spinning out from OLPC enables the development of a new machine beyond the XO (the OLPC framework), while leveraging a larger commercial market for new technologies, beyond just OLPC. Pixel Qi believes prices for next-generation hardware can be brought down by allowing multiple uses of the key technology advances.

Pixel Qi said it plans to sell OLPC its products at cost, while also selling the sub-systems and devices at a profit for commercial use.

“I believe that looking at computers in a new, holistic, systemic way, with a clean-sheet approach to computer design - rather than incrementally increasing the horsepower of the CPU - is critical to bringing computing and Internet access to more than the 1 billion affluent who now are its beneficiaries,” Ms Jepsen said on her web site.

“The key is a new generation of low-cost, low power, durable, networked computers, leveraging open-design principles,” she said.

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New Laser blows away plasma, LCD

ARGUMENTS about whether gigantic LCD television screens deliver better picture quality than gigantic plasma TV screens may soon be consigned to the history of irrelevance.

Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America has debuted a new laser television category at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, unveiling a large-format LaserTV that delivers as much as twice the color of current high-definition televisions.

The LaserTV category represents a big milestone in Mitsubishi's bid to lead the large-format, high-definition television space.

The company has a rich history in the market, having introduced large-format and high-definition television innovations in the big screen category from its 1978 introduction of the world's first 50-inch rear projection TV, to the first 35-inch color TV, and more recently the first 1080p DLP HDTV.

Mitsubishi said it had harnessed its leadership in precision laser technology to produce laser-powered television, delivering a colour range not seen in home entertainment before.

Current generation HDTVs display less than 40 per cent of the color spectrum that the eye can see. Laser technology produces twice that range, the company said. Laser beams are ale to provide the widest range of rich, complex colors, along with the most clarity and depth of field.

“Mitsubishi has delivered significant technology innovations in the large-format television arena, and the debut of LaserTV further strengthens our position and track record for HDTV leadership,” Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America marketing vice-president Frank DeMartin said at the unveiling.

“LaserTV technology creates a portal to an intensely real and vivid world – beyond ordinary flat TV. It's a true dimension experience,” Mr Martin said.

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Pipe readies submarine cable

ASX-listed telco Pipe Networks is readying plans to announce its ambitious submarine cable project linking Australia with the Pacific communications hub Guam.

Called Project Runway, the $200 million plan aims to massively boost Australia’s international capacity – a move that will ultimately reduce broadband costs to consumers in Australia.

The Pipe Pacific Cable 1 (PPC-1) will use Guam as its offshore landing point because the US island is a major hub, with high capacity links to the US west coast, Japan and other parts of Asia.

Brisbane-based Pipe yesterday suspended trading of its shares on the Australian Stock Exchange pending a major announcement regarding the Sydney-Guam fibre link.

“The reason for the trading halt is that the company is preparing to make an important announcement relating to Project Runway, a planned international fibre-optic cable between Sydney and Guam, which is likely to affect the company's share price but cannot be released immediately,” Pipe’s company secretary Malcolm Thompson wrote to the ASX.

The Pipe Networks board last month gave its formal approval to the legal and financial structure of Project Runway. It also said the company was now in a position to execute some outstanding sales agreements, with which it now had “sufficient customer commitments to proceed with Project Runway.”

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Kapor to leave open source group

THE US-based Open Source Applications Foundation (OSAF) has announced a major funding restructure and revealed that its founder and primary financial contributor Mitchell Kapor plans to leave the organisation.

Mr Kapor, who was the founder of PC software pioneer Lotus Development, will step down from the OSAF board later this year. The organisation will also cut its paid staff numbers from its present 27 to just ten full-time employees.

OSAF chief executive Katie Capps Parlente – who will take Mr Kapor’s seat on the board – said the organisation was at a crossroads following the release of its Chandler group collaboration software.

“The next phase of the project is about growing the user base, building the community, and diversifying our funding sources,” Ms Capps Parlente said on a blog.

“OSAF has been primarily funded by one person up to this point, Mitch Kapor. Our goal going forward is to modify our organisation and our funding model to grow into a publicly supported community project, not propelled by one individual,” she said.

“I will be leading the next phase of the project, and Mitch will be winding down his role on the project. Mitch will provide transitional financial assistance to support the organisation through 2008.”

Chandler is an open source, standards-based calendar and task manager built around small group collaboration and a core set of information management workflows modeled on Inbox usage patterns.

Users manage and share calendars, tasks, messages, and notes with the Chandler Desktop application and with the Chandler Hub web application.

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Broadcom targets open source VoIP

COMMUNICATIONS chip-maker Broadcom and open source developer Trolltech have entered a partnership that aims to create a multimedia VoIP development platform based on Linux.

The companies say they will create a platform for original equipment manufacturers wanting to produce next-generation multimedia VoIP products.

The partnership will combine Broadcom’s VoIP technology with Trolltech’s upcoming Qtopia software, which lets broadband devices offer a “feature-rich” graphical user experience with exceptional voice and video quality.

The companies said the VoIP platform gives OEMs integrated software that will allow for faster time-to-market for next generation IP phones.

Broadcom and Trolltech say the partnership will provide the technology platform that will ultimately support tens of millions of phone users.

“Our Qtopia software is the foundation for 10 million plus consumer electronic devices worldwide so this partnership with Broadcom will enable their customers to build customised next generation IP and mobile devices with robust voice, video, web and multimedia features,” Trolltech chief executive Haavard Nord said.

Qtopia is a software application platform and user interface for embedded Linux devices that has been optimised for Broadcom’s BCM1103 VoIP processors and its VideoCore II multimedia co-processor.

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Farmers call to action on CDMA

THE National Farmers Federation has made an urgent call to its members for feedback on coverage in the bush of Telstra’s new 3G network – and stands ready to fight the CDMA closure if coverage proves patchy.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy will make a decision by January 21 on whether to allow Telstra to close its CDMA network – which is used predominantly in rural and regional areas.

Telstra wants to shut the network down on January 28. But Telstra’s licensing conditions state that the company must continue to operate the CDMA network until its 3G coverage is “equivalent or better” that CDMA.

Senator Conroy this week received a report on Telstra 3G network coverage from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). He says he still wants to hear feedback from users before making the decision.

The issue is shaping to be the first big test of Senator Conroy since the election. On the one hand, Telstra is applying pressure to be allowed to switch off CDMA because it will save the company millions.

On the other, the NFF – and people in regional areas generally – are wary of the switch, and are already annoyed that the consultation process has been hampered by a lack of 3G network hardware.

As late as last month, the NFF was lobbying Government to force Telstra to keep the CDMA network operational. It is a conducting a new survey of its membership to see things had improved.

“Realistically, farmers haven’t had much time to get, and test, the new hardware to know whether 3G is up to scratch – especially with the Christmas period and other priorities... i.e. for those farmers able to get a crop during the current drought, they’ve been busy harvesting,” the NFF said in a statement.

“We are now re-surveying farmers – through our member organisations – to assess not only 3G coverage, but the service, given the new hardware is now available.”

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Web 2.0 hacks on the increase

SOCIAL engineering and Web 2.0 attacks are fast becoming the most serious security threats on the internet, according to global security experts Grisoft, makers of the AVG security products.

“In 2008, Internet users are likely to see more sophisticated attacks as organised cybercriminals step up their efforts to steal digital assets from social networking site users,” Grisoft chief research officer Roger Thompson.

“Social networks are particularly vulnerable because they rely heavily on hyperlinked content, information sharing and the trust of their participants,” Mr Thompson said.

“From the attacks on Facebook and the Major League Baseball Web site to the Alicia Keys’ sites, it’s clear over the past year that incidence of online threats is accelerating.”

Viruses made up about 15 per cent of the threat landscape in 2007, consistent with Grisoft predictions at the end of 2006. But it was phishing scams, backdoor worms, trojans, keyloggers, spyware, adware and other web-based exploits that comprised the majority of threats, the company said.

Mr Thompson said web exploits and web-based social engineering attacks will be among the biggest security threats to users this year.

“Viruses will continue to be a threat, but we’ll also see an explosion of exploits through social engineering and Web 2.0 attacks in 2008,” he said.

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Yahoo unveils new mobile interface

YAHOO! founder Jerry Yang used a keynote address at the giant Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas to describe a corporate vision that puts mobile technology at the heart of Yahoo’s plans.

Mr Yang unveiled Yahoo! Go 3.0, an early beta of the company’s flagship, all-in-one mobile platform. The Go 3.0 interface promises open access to vast array mobile “Widgets” from all over the web.

To reinvigorate the company in its on-going battle with Google, Mr Yang said the company planned to focus on being the preferred “starting point for anything and everything users need online.”

That meant pouring resources into opening “the Yahoo experience” to any device, anywhere and any time.

“To be the best starting point, it's clear that we need to open the Yahoo! experience to any device or user. Mobile is a perfect example since more consumers are soon expected to come and go from the Net via their phones rather than desktops,” Mr Yang said.

“We're committed to creating the best and richest mobile experience for all consumers - making it extremely personalized to their individual style and needs while opening up the Yahoo! mobile platform to allow anyone to participate.”

Yahoo! Connected Life executive vice-president Marco Boerries called Yahoo Go 3.0 a game-changing mobile development.

“This new open environment provides consumers with a highly-compelling user experience and robust, personalised starting point to the mobile internet,” Mr Boerries said.

“We are providing users with increased control over their experiences as well as increased choice in getting the content and services they want while on the go.”

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Strong growth for outsourcing market

THE worldwide outsourcing market will continue to grow at a healthy 8.1 per cent in 2008, while the Australian market will expand at a more modest 4.7 per cent to A$10.9 billion for the calendar year.

But despite the strong market acceptance of outsourcing practices, Gartner warned customers that hiring outside ICT expertise was not without complications.

“Although organisations often have fundamentally sound procurement departments to initiate outsourcing contracts, for many, their IT sourcing strategies and governance structures are still immature, lacking altogether, or misaligned with enterprise objectives,” said Gartner research director Kurt Potter.

“Because they lack the basic building blocks for successful vendor management, expected cost savings and other benefits are difficult to obtain,” Mr Potter said. “In extreme cases, the lack of needed trust and control to optimise the outsourcing relationship results in deal failure.”

Although outsourcing continues to grow, publicly reported IT outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO) contract values decreased overall by 50 per cent worldwide in 2007, Gartner said.

Companies are outsourcing more, but electing to use a multi-provider strategy and more deals are simply smaller in size, with many of these deals not large or ground shaking enough to report.

“In 2008, we expect to see some early adopters of multisourcing to consolidate around fewer providers to reduce their service integration costs and harvest the benefits of better relationship management with fewer strategic suppliers,” Mr Potter said.

In 2007, Australia enjoyed a buoyant economy resulting in outsourcing business growth for the many multinational and local as well as offshore service providers who have a growing in presence in Australia, according to Gartner research vice-president Jim Longwood.

“Australia is a mature market in terms of outsourcing, where enterprises are now signing second- and third-generation deals. In 2007, they moved toward more-selective outsourcing and multisourcing deals, where incumbent service providers usually retain core infrastructure services and specialist providers take over peripheral services. The business process outsourcing (BPO) market for back-office functions also started to take off, mainly in the transportation, telecommunications and financial services sectors,” said Mr Longwood.

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Mozilla appoints new CEO

OPEN source luminary Mitchell Baker has stepped down as chief executive of Mozilla Corporation, effective immediately, but says she will continue as both chairman and an employee of the company.

Ms Baker is a much-loved personality in the open source community and has helped steer efforts toward the creation of open source browsers to compete with Microsoft Internet Explorer since the early days of Netscape.

Mozilla Corporation is best known for its open source Firefox browser, which had a spectacularly successful 2007 and now boasts more than 125 million users worldwide.

Ms Baker said she was handing the CEO role to John Lilly, Mozilla’s current chief operating officer.

“John Lilly is the right person to guide the maturation of Mozilla,” Ms Baker said. “John has been instrumental in developing an organisation that is both embedded in Mozilla and open-source DNA and that can function at the extremely high degree of effectiveness that our setting requires.”

As CEO, Mr Lilly would focus on the product, technology and execution of the Mozilla, while Ms Mitchell would focus on bringing Mozilla goals and mindshare to affect change in related aspects of internet development – such as standards and interoperability, treatment of data, and use of market mechanisms to support public benefit organisations.

“I will remain an active and integral part of MoCo (Mozilla Corp),” Ms Baker wrote on her blog.

“I've been involved in shipping Mozilla products since the dawn of time, and have no intention of distancing myself from our products or MoCo. I'll remain both as the Chairman of the Board and as an employee,” she said.

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Eye-Fi wins Last Gadget Standing

A low-power memory card that automatically downloads photos wirelessly from a camera to a PC has won the prestigious Last Gadget Standing competition at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The Eye-Fi card beat nine other finalists in the Yahoo-sponsored competition at the world’s largest consumer technology show.

The Eye-Fi card, which cost just US$100 (A$113), has 2GB of memory and uses WiFi technology to send pictures to computers – letting the user avoid the hassle of plugging in cables and playing with upload software.

Other finalists in the Yahoo! Last Gadget Standing competition included the innovative A$499 Asus Eee PC, the tiny laptop running Linux and a suite a open applications and web tools, and Dash Express, an internet-connected GPS mapping system that delivers real-time traffic information.

But the consumer innovation that seemed closest to taking the crown from Eye-Fi was a gutter-cleaning robot known as Looj from home robotics firm iRobot Corporation.

The annual Last Gadget Standing competition is a live event where ten gadgets slug it out for consumers' affection. At the standing-room-only competition, each of the finalists is given a four minute window to demonstrate their products to the live audience, who then vote for the gadget they felt would make a difference in their lives.

“The experts always have a platform to give their opinions, but Last Gadget Standing gives the consumers a voice on what's going to emerge as our next gadget idol,” said Robin Raskin, Yahoo Tech writer and competition spokesman said.

“Last Gadget Standing winners represent the products that people believe will be relevant to their lives for years to come, and not simply disappear once CES is over.”

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EU targets health as ICT growth market

THE Brussels-based European Union has identified eHealth as a high-value potential market for European companies and will enact key policies to accelerate development in the sector.

The EU has given eHealth a Lead Market Initiative (LMI) classification, meaning the world’s biggest market is now committed to action through key policy instruments to speed up market development of fast growing products and services in the sector.

The LMI status will green-light a series of public sector programs to assist the accelerated development of eHealth – while mindful of not interfering with competitive forces.

eHealth was one of six areas granted LMI status. The others were in protective textiles, sustainable construction, recycling, bio-based products and renewable energies.

The LMI initiative calls for the urgent coordination of policy through ambitious action plans for these markets, to rapidly bring visible advantage to Europe’s economy and consumers.

An action plan for eHealth for the next two years will include legislative changes to foster innovation; public procurement in the area will be encouraged; standardisation programs will begin to be put in place.

An EU report found that without significant reforms, including better use of eHealth, health expenditure is expected to increase from 9 per cent of GDP at present to around 16 per cent by 2020 in response to an 'ageing' Europe.

Despite substantial research and development investments in eHealth, ICT investment in this area has lagged behind that in other service sectors.

Technical and organisational solutions often fail to be taken up because the market is strongly fragmented between different social security systems, a lack of interoperability between the various systems and lack of legal certainty.

Standardising various information exchange formats, for instance and certifying of interoperable systems should effectively overcome the interoperability barriers. Other measures within the framework of the LMI are clarification and guidance for applying the legal framework, networking of public procurers, as well as information of users, doctors.

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Apple scraps European iTunes policy

APPLE has sidestepped a potentially costly battle with European competition regulators, announcing it will charge the same amount for iTunes music throughout the European Union.

The company has instead set up a possible showdown with record labels in the UK over wholesale pricing.

Apple has been charging about nine US cents per song more for music on its UK iTunes store compared to the standard prices its charges for iTunes music across the rest of Europe.

The European Commission had begun an investigation of the pricing differences after it received a complaint from the UK consumer protection organisation Which?

Apple announced yesterday that within six months it will lower the prices it charges for music on its UK iTunes store to match the already standardized pricing on iTunes across Europe.

It said it would now reconsider its continuing relationship in the UK with any record label that does not lower its wholesale prices in the UK to the pan-European level within six months.

Commenting on the outcome, European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said “The Commission is very much in favour of solutions which allow consumers to benefit from a truly Single Market for music downloads.”

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Microsoft acquires FAST search specialist

MICROSOFT has bid more than US$1.2 billion (A$1.35 billion) to acquire publicly-listed Norwegian search specialist Fast Search & Transfer (FAST), a 42 per cent premium over its latest trading price.

Founded in 1997, FAST builds search solutions for the corporate markets aimed at helping companies sift through massive databases of corporate documents.

It also sells search solutions for companies to help customers navigate around corporate web sites.

The FAST board of directors has unanimously recommended that shareholders accept the offer, which is expected to be completed during the second quarter.

“Enterprise search is becoming an indispensable tool to businesses of all sizes, helping people find, use and share critical business information quickly,” said Microsoft Business Division president Jeff Raikes.

“Until now organisations have been forced to choose between powerful, high-end search technologies or more mainstream, infrastructure solutions,” Mr Raikes said. “The combination of Microsoft and FAST gives customers a new choice: a single vendor with solutions that span the full range of customer needs.”

FAST has a deep talent pool and is respected throughout the technology industry for its expertise in best-in-class, high-end search solutions – benefits Microsoft can exploit through its worldwide customer reach and global partner network.

“This acquisition gives FAST an exciting way to spread our cutting-edge search technologies and innovations to more and more organisations across the world,” FAST chief executive John Lervik said.

“By joining Microsoft, we can benefit from the momentum behind the SharePoint business productivity platform to really empower a broader set of users through Microsoft’s strong sales and marketing network. It validates FAST’s momentum and leadership in enterprise search.”

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