Last edition of News of the World sells fast in London - Reuters

Copies of the final edition of the News of the World, alongside other Sunday papers, are displayed for sale in a newsagent in London July 10, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Luke MacGregor

By Paul Sandle

LONDON | Sun Jul 10, 2011 10:40am EDT

LONDON (Reuters)- When Rupert Murdoch, his media empire under fire over a phone-hacking scandal, swept into his London headquarters on Sunday from the United States, the message was clear.

Murdoch, sporting a white panama-style hat, sat in the front passenger seat of a red Range Rover intently reading a copy of the final edition of the best-selling newspaper he had closed only hours earlier to try to contain the spreading crisis.

"The World's greatest newspaper 1843-2011," said the front page, held up for all to see. "Thank you and goodbye."

Newspaper staff had departed, amid scenes of cheering and emotion at the same London complex, in the early hours. Many employees saw themselves as having been sacrificed by Murdoch to save his broader business interests.

But Murdoch was signaling he was not bowed. He has already made clear he has no intention of yielding to criticism and removing senior executives, nor of giving up his proposed multi-billion-dollar buyout of British broadcaster BSkyB.

The newspaper he held high had a particular symbolic significance for Murdoch. It was the first British newspaper he bought, in 1969, and the cornerstone of what became a huge media empire with political influence that, with the hacking scandal, has become the subject of much soul searching in Britain.

Admirers saw the demise of a national institution, famous for exposure of the misdemeanors of the rich, royal and famous, for its gossip and for its pictures of scantily clad women.

Critics saw in the closure a long overdue chance to cut back Murdoch's ability to influence British politicians through his global media empire.

"The specter of the old Murdoch, the one whose demise was signaled last week -- powerful, voracious and threatening -- must not be allowed to rise again from the ashes of the News of the World," said an editorial in The Observer, a rival weekly.

Copies of the last edition were selling well, said newspaper vendor Jean Natella at London Bridge Station.

"I think it's a shame because they've done a lot of good, they've riddled out a lot of, let's say, nasty people," she said. "It's unfortunate that a few people have brought it down. But they have got no choice because they condemned others so they have got to show they are accountable."

Regular reader Michael Mitchell, a revenue officer, said, "I don't think it should close; I think the people responsible should not be there."

"They have, I feel, overstepped the mark. Or they've been found out, because if this paper is doing it you can bet the majority of them are doing it as well."

Researcher Jonathan Schifferes said journalism would be disgraced for a long time as a result of the (phone-hacking) allegations, and the scandal reflected badly on Britain.

The headline of the last edition was simple and unusually low key and underneath in smaller print added: "After 168 years, we finally say a sad but very proud farewell to our 7.5 million loyal readers."

The words appeared over a montage of some of the paper's most famous front pages, most of them involving celebrities, members of the royal family and politicians.

Inside, the paper ran several nostalgic editorials charting its successes over the years, in addition to the usual fare of celebrity gossip, showbiz and other news. The only adverts the last issue carried were for charities.

The owners of News of the World made the shock decision to close the title on Thursday in the face of mounting criticism of its newsgathering techniques. [nL6E7I909T]

Claims of illegal hacking into the voicemails of stars, royals, families of soldiers killed in combat and a kidnapped girl later found murdered have engulfed parent company News Corp in scandal.

The print run for the last News of the World was bumped up to five million copies, nearly double the normal number, in anticipation of a spike in demand for the historic edition.

(Additional reporting by Mike Collett-White; Writing by Ralph Boulton and Tim Pearce; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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2010 in Review: The Year for the Mac - PC World

In 2010, iOS (Apple's mobile operating system) and iOS devices (iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad) commanded the spotlight for much of the year. And for over nine months, Mac users saw the usual computer updates from Apple, but not much else. The combination of the iOS success and the stagnant Mac led some vocal tech analysts, pundits, and even Mac users to ponder whether Apple gave a damn about the Mac anymore. Some even went so far as to declare the Mac dead.

However, Apple gave new life to the Mac in mid-October, when CEO Steve Jobs took the stage and gave Mac users a taste of what's to come during a "Back to the Mac" presentation.

To paraphrase literary icon Mark Twain, the death of the Macintosh was an exaggeration, considering what Apple has in the works. On the last day of 2010, let's take a look back at the previous 12 months, from a Mac perspective.

A sneak peek at Lion

In October, Apple announced a forthcoming version of Mac OS X: Version 10.7, code-named Lion, will have features that are inspired by iOS. According to Steve Jobs, you can think of Lion as, "Mac OS X meets the iPad."

Lion will allow you to enter a full-screen mode as you work in your apps, and if you use a trackpad, you can swipe to switch between open apps. Lion will also feature the Launchpad, a full-screen display of all your apps (think of it as an iOS-like presentation of OS X's current /Applications folder); and Mission Control, which shows a view of open full-screen apps, the Dock, and the desktop.

Apple says that Lion will be available in the summer of 2011. Pricing has not been released.

With the demonstration of Lion and how it uses finger gestures, a particular accessory could possibly become mandatory for Mac users: the Magic Trackpad. Released in July, the Magic Trackpad is basically the glass trackpad found in Apple's laptops made into a self-standing input device. Such a device can help bridge the gap in the whole Apple user expereince between Mac OS X and iOS.

Mac App Store

Of all the Mac-related announcements made in 2010, the new Mac App Store is the most significant. The Mac App Store will work similarly to the iOS App Store, providing an easy-to-access marketplace.

While software developers will be able to use the Mac App Store as a way to get their software in front of a large population of Mac users, developers will have to write software according to the Mac App Store guidelines. (On a related note, Apple decided that its Mac OS X Downloads site will "no longer offer apps" and that developers should submit software to the Mac App Store.) There's also a concern that the Mac App Store would lead to the Mac becoming a closed system, like iOS.

We won't have to wait much longer to see the effect of the Mac App Store on the Mac marketplace. The Mac App Store will open on January 6, 2011, in 90 countries.

Small laptop makes huge impression

The MacBook Air had become the forgotten machine in Apple's Mac lineup. Then in October 2010, Apple introduced the 11-inch MacBook Air, and it immediately became Apple's newest darling. The smallest Mac portable Apple has ever created features a full-size keyboard, an impressive 1366-by-768-pixel display, and flash storage to help provide a dramatic performance boost over the previous 13-inch MacBook Air.

Most importantly, the MacBook Air gave many longtime customers what they've been waiting for: a true heir to the legendary 12-inch PowerBook. Now, road warriors don't need to compromise with an iPad, or lug around excess weight and size with a MacBook or a 13-inch MacBook Pro. The 11-inch MacBook Air is the ultraportable that's long been missing from Apple's lineup.

Apple also updated the 13-inch MacBook Air with a new graphics processor and flash memory. The flash memory helped the 13-inch MacBook Air outperform the current 13-inch 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro in our tests.

The MacBook and MacBook Pro lines saw dramatic changes before 2010, so the changes to those machines this year were simple refreshes. Apple did introduce Intel's Core i5 and Core i7 processors to the MacBook Pro line in the 15- and 17-inch models-expect to see faster Core i5 and i7 processors in the MacBook line in 2011. Perhaps we'll even see the 13-inch MacBook Pro's Core 2 Duo processor replaced by a Core i5.

Mac mini makeover

On the desktop, Apple's smallest machine, the Mac mini, was redesigned with an aluminum case that made the Mac mini even smaller than its predecessor. It also features a new plastic hatch that you can easily open to make memory upgrades. Apple also reduced the number of Mac mini models available, offering only one standard configuration model.

The iMac continues to offer the best bang for your buck among Apple's Mac lineup. Apple's all-in-one computer now has discrete ATI graphics chips, and the Core 2 Duo processors were phased out in favor of Core i3 and Core i5 processors in the standard configurations. Apple also added a flash-storage drive, build-to-order (BTO) option that can help boost the iMac's performance.

The iMac's aluminum case design was introduced in 2007. Could it be due for a major change in 2011? Besides the iMac becoming thinner and lighter, the basic design concept of the case works well, so it may not change much. The dramatic changes will probably be inside the case, where we could see the iMac taking a cue from the MacBook Air-flash storage could replace the hard drive completely, instead of being a BTO option. That is, if the price of flash storage in larger capacities drops enough to make this feasible.

The Mac Pro was refreshed in August. In addition to four-core and eight-core models, Apple now offers a 12-core Mac Pro. The Mac Pro continues to offer a combination of performance and expandability that's ideal for demanding users.

Mac software

iLife '11 was finally released in October, and it's well worth the upgrade if you are an iMovie, GarageBand, or iPhoto user. iWeb and iDVD had no new features, however.

Speaking of no new features, 2010 went by without a major update for Final Cut Studio. According to reports, the Final Cut development team was reshuffled, but Apple declared that it is still dedicated to the professional video-editing software suite. What's really going on with Final Cut is anyone's guess. Apple tends to make announcements for Final Cut around the time of the National Association of Broadcasters Show, so April is the time to be on the alert.

There are signs that Apple is still interested in its pro apps. A major update for Logic Pro and Logic Express was released in October. And in the spring of 2010, Apple released Aperture 3.

iWork also spent 2010 without a major update, though Apple did ship iWork for iPad. iWork has made its way through the rumor mill, however, with speculation that iWork '11 will be the marque software suite featured in the Mac App Store when it opens on January 6, 2011.

Jobs is alive and well

All this talk about the death of the Mac made us almost forget that it wasn't long ago that Steve Jobs was facing his own mortality. In 2009, Jobs took a leave of absence from Apple and had a liver transplant, which left many doubting whether Jobs could continue as Apple's CEO.

But in 2010, Jobs was back in full force. He appeared on stage giving keynotes, though he now lets others perform the deep-dive into products. He checks his e-mails from the general public, and replies in a terse style that's become a signature of the Apple CEO. He makes public appearances to promote organ donation. He's having coffee with other CEOs. And he even has time to take a jab or two at competitors and products that don't follow in The Apple Way.

Jobs led Apple to record profits and sales in 2010 and the company seems poised and ready for the new year.

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Gawker Hack Exposes Ridiculous Password Habits - PC World

Whew! Is it just me, or is it getting tough to keep track of all the info spilled via this week's massive Gawker hack?

The please-don't-call-it-Gawkergate Gawker hacking story sprung up over the weekend, when a group known as "Gnosis" apparently made its way into the servers of Gawker Media. Gawker Media, if you aren't aware, is a publication group that runs gossip blog Gawker (no big surprise there) along with a slew of other websites like Lifehacker, Gizmodo, and Jezebel.

Long story short, the hackers danced away with boatloads of secrets, including the e-mail addresses and passwords of more than a million Gawker users (and some Gawker staff members, too). Now, we're getting a glimpse at just how absurdly poor some of those passwords were.

The data-diving crew from The Wall Street Journal analyzed some of the hacked Gawker data in order to find trends in people's password selections. They looked at a sample of 188,279 passwords that was decrypted and made public.

Among the most common passwords they found in the list:

• "123456." This was actually the most popular password of all. As far as I can tell, this indicates one of two things: (a) Lots of people are careless about security; (b) Lots of Gawker accounts belong to Elmo.

• "password." The second most popular password in the list. Evidently, some folks interpret the "Password" prompt as a CAPTCHA field.

• "lifehack." Did someone order an extra-large helping of irony?

• "qwerty." When in doubt, just run your fingers across the keyboard.

• "monkey." One of the more curious items in Gawker's password database. I blame Peter Gabriel.

• "letmein." When you think about it, it really is quite impressive: After all these years, this computing classic is still in style.

• "trustno1." Right. Especially people who use passwords like "trustno1."

• "passw0rd." Oh, do you see what they did there? It's like "password," but not. Good one.

• "cheese." Mmm...cheese. What were we talking about, again?

Ah, yes -- passwords. Perhaps the most surprising twist in all of this is that Gawker's staff didn't do much better. According to Forbes, 15 Gawker staffers had passwords consisting of common words (or "slight variations thereof"). One staff member reportedly used his own name followed by the number "1."

If you aren't sure why any of these scenarios are troubling, please smack yourself in the face (gently -- we don't need any lawsuits here). Then go read up on basic password hygiene, or just grab a utility like LastPass, named one of PCWorld's "Best Products of 2009." It'll generate complex passwords for you and store them securely in the cloud.

Curious if you're among the registered Gawker users whose info has been exposed, by the way? Slate.com has created a handy tool to search the database for your username or e-mail address. If you find yourself listed, check out these tips for some suggestions on what to do next.

And for the love of cheese, never make your password "password" again.

JR Raphael is a PCWorld contributing editor and the co-founder of geek-humor site eSarcasm. You can find him on both Facebook and Twitter.

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The best tablet out there? Wait for it ... - Tulsa World

It's nigh impossible to keep up with all the touch-screen computers that have hit or will hit shelves ever since the iPad kicked off the craze earlier this year. And since most of these new tablets are running Android, it's looking like the Apple vs. Google smart phone war has spread to a different front.

Much has been already been said about the Samsung Galaxy Tab ($400-$650), currently the flagship Android tablet, so I thought it would be most interesting to do a full-on comparison between it and the iPad ($500-$830).

Let's start with the form factor. At first glance, there's little difference: Both are rectangles dominated by a touchscreen. The iPad has Apple's traditional single physical button, while the Galaxy has Google's familiar four.

But the iPad has a 10-inch screen, while the Galaxy is just seven. That might not seem like a big difference on paper, but the iPad looks like a behemoth compared to the Galaxy. So which is better?

Really, it depends on what you want to do with it. While the screen quality of both is good, obviously video on the iPad is much more impressive. The extra size gives you more room to use the iPad's touchscreen as a traditional, 10-finger keyboard when trying to get some serious work done, while the Galaxy's is much more cramped.

Then again, the iPad is significantly heavier than the Galaxy. It's not by much, but that extra weight makes a big difference during extended web-surfing sessions or when reading

a book. Unless you invest in some kind of stand or prop, the Galaxy is much more comfortable in the long term.

Galaxy also has a rear-facing camera with flash, as well as a front-facing camera for video chat. The current version of the iPad doesn't.

As for the content of the Galaxy, it's very much an Android, running the latest version of the system. It's got the exact same layout, the exact same use of widgets, the exact same pull-up menu, you name it.

In fact I couldn't really find anything that's changed significantly from the transition to phone to tablet. That isn't a huge problem, as the Android setup works fine for tablets as is. The many thousands of handy Android apps work just as well on the tablet as they do on the phone.

Then again, the iPad launched with many small tweaks to the operating system to take advantage of its size and move it beyond "fine." Its e-mail client can display messages, a list of mail and options simultaneously, while Android still makes you access one at a time.

And Apple's App Store was revamped to make it easy to find apps tuned for the iPad - smart phone apps look a little grainy when running on tablets. There are tablet-specific Android apps trickling out, but good luck trying to find them, as Android's app store doesn't filter between smart phone and tablet apps.

I should also point out that Apple's weird jihad against Flash - the widely used program that powers most video and browser games on the net - is an even bigger blemish on the iPad than the iPhone, since the tablet just begs you to consume media. The Galaxy runs Flash just fine, though popular TV site Hulu blocks itself.

As it stands now, the iPad is a more fully featured and compelling product than the Galaxy. Then again, the Galaxy can be cheaper, and it's more portable. I'm also sure the iPad and Android will continue to evolve and make for better tablets, so it might be worth waiting to see what comes down the pipeline.

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Will Verizon Pay to Keep the iPhone Out of Competitor's Hands? - PC World

Rumors suggest that Verizon may pay a premium to keep the hot-selling iPhone away from its competitors T-Mobile and Sprint. In other words, they want to keep it exclusive to themselves and AT&T, and this may have helped Apple to get the terms it wanted from Verizon for the (still-rumored) Verizon iPhone.

"We are hearing that [Verizon] does not want iPhone, the hottest selling smart phone, available on T-Mobile USA and/or Sprint and may be willing to pay for exclusivity to itself and AT&T," Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu wrote Monday in a "report to clients," according to Fortune magazine.

Wu's report, based on information gleaned from "industry and supply channel sources," indicates that not only is Verizon willing to pay extra to keep the iPhone exclusive, but that the deal's economics are "likely to be favorable" to Apple, and "similar to that offered by AT&T."

Wu notes that this is important, because many people have been concerned that "VZ iPhone economics could be less favorable given the strength of Android and higher cost of components, particularly those associated with CDMA.

Wu suggests Apple's hand was strengthened by the 14.1 million iPhones sold last quarter and the market share gains made by AT&T in the last two quarters. What's more, he asserted that Google's Android platform has started to "lose some of its luster" for Verizon.

Sources also told Wu that Verizon may be looking to get its hand in on the iPhone deal, because it does "not have high hopes" for the upcoming BlackBerry 6 OS, according to Apple Insider. Verizon reportedly believes that the release of the new OS will not have a "material impact" on BlackBerry sales.

It's been predicted that a Verizon iPhone would spark a significant migration of AT&T users to Verizon. A Credit Suisse study released in September, for example, forecasted 23 percent of AT&T subscribers would bolt to Verizon if the carrier started offering the iPhone.

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Art Prof Lets World Peer Through His Surgically Embedded 3rd Eye - TechNewsWorld

For the next year, Wafaa Bilal, an assistant art professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, will record his life through still images taken at one-minute intervals by a camera surgically attached to the back of his head.

The photos will be sent to an art museum in Qatar which commissioned the work.

Bilal is known for controversial art projects, and this latest one has stirred up the faculty and staff at NYU.

His project could be seen as one type of "sousveillance" -- the recording of an activity from the perspective of a participant.

Bilal had three titanium plates implanted under the skin in the back of his head at a body modification shop. The plates each have a post attached that sticks out through the skin when it's sewn back over the plates.

A 10-megapixel color digital camera measuring one inch by two inches was then screwed on to the posts.

The camera will regularly snap images, and the photos will be transmitted to his server via a cell phone worn on his body. Ultimately, they'll be sent to the Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar, which commissioned the project, called "The Third I." The museum, which will open Dec. 30, will display a live stream of the photos.

"No doctor wanted to do this, so piercing was my next best option," Bilal told TechNewsWorld. "It was done safely."

Bilal has already seen some fallout from his efforts. NYU asked him to cover the camera with a lens cap while he was on university property, in order to protect the privacy of staff and students. He has agreed to do so.

That might put a crimp in his ambition to document his life minute by minute for the next year, but Bilal has come up with a solution -- blank images tagged with the time,, date and GPS location will be sent back to his server when the camera lens is capped.

Apparently several acquaintances have taken him off their guest lists for future gatherings because of the camera as well.

Further, as can be imagined, Bilal has trouble when trying to sleep -- he can only sit up, propped up by pillows.

Bilal has racked up a bit of a reputation for himself with his projects.

Earlier this year, he reportedly received over 100,000 tiny tattoos on his back to commemorate those killed in the war in Iraq, where he was born.

The project, titled "... and Counting," consisted of his getting the names of Iraqi cities tattooed on his back along with 5,000 red dots to represent American military personnel killed there and 100,000 dots in UV ink to represent the official death toll for Iraqi citizens. The entire procedure was streamed live on the Web.

In 2007, his dynamic installation "Domestic Tension" had him sit in front of a paintball gun, with cameras streaming this over the Web 24 x 7.

A 2008 project, titled "Virtual Jihadi," consisted of a video game into which he inserted an avatar of himself as a suicide bomber hunting then-president George W. Bush.

Is Bilal really a publicity hound?

"I am nothing if not a storyteller," Bilal said. "All of my work to date has been concerned with the communication of public and private information to an audience so it may be retold and distributed. The stories I tell are political dramas."

Bilal's latest project may be thought of as a type of sousveillance. The term was coined by Steve Mann to describe the recording of an activity from the perspective of a participant.

Mann's a professor in the University of Toronto's department of electrical and computer engineering. He worked at MIT, where he was one of the founding members of the Wearable Computers Group in the MIT Media Lab.

Dec. 24 was denoted World Sousveillance day in 2001. Sousveillance by citizens of a state has been credited with exposing problems such as electoral misdeeds or election fraud. For example, voters in Sierra Leone and Ghana used mobile phones to check electoral malpractice and voter intimidation during elections in 2007.

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MIT: Light Speed Now a Bottleneck in Fastest Networks - PC World

With global networks carrying complex time-sensitive data, the speed of light is actually becoming a significant source of latency, researchers have found.

While today's fiber optics-based networks can shuttle data around the world at the speed of light -- momentarily slowed only by routing and switching -- the vast geographic distances data has to travel can be a factor of delay, especially when the information itself is generated so quickly by computers and is useful only within a very short time period. At least one industry, finance, is starting to chafe at this limit.

"For high frequency trading, light propagation delays are in many cases are the single largest limiting factor to taking advantage of arbitrage opportunities quickly," said study co-author Alexander Wissner-Gross, who a research affiliate of the MIT Media Laboratory and the founder of the Enernetics research consultancy.

As a result, the researchers recommend high frequency trading firms, as well as any organization that deals in complicated time-sensitive global interactions, take a hard look at where they locate their data centers. In other words, location really does matter.

"By positioning an intermediate node, there is the potential to partially skirt that light-speed delay," Wissner-Gross said.

The MIT work was recently published in the Physical Review E scientific journal. The subject, as well as the paper itself, will be the topic of one talk at the High Frequency Trading World conference, being held this week in New York.

High Frequency Trading (HFT) is the financial industry's short-hand term for how they use computers to analyze the market and rapidly buy and sell shares of stocks and other financial instruments. Such firms rarely refine their trading to only a single exchange, so by necessity they route information around the globe to different exchanges.

"There are many types of transaction that fundamentally depend on sources of information from multiple places around the earth," said study co-author Cameron Freer, who is a mathematics researcher at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (and was at MIT when the paper was written). Some finance firms, for instance, may trade against momentary price discrepancies between the London and New York exchanges.

Typically it takes about 50 milliseconds to send a message from New York to London. Placing a server in between the two could cut the speed of communication in half, Wissner-Gross reasoned, which may be enough time to take advantage of some momentary pricing discrepancy. The hyper-competitive finance industry will continue to cut transaction times wherever possible, which will make light-speed delays more pronounced in the years to come, the paper argues. Light travels at 299,792,458 meters per second, or about approximately 186,282 miles per second.

"As financial trading moves to higher frequencies , it will be more and more useful to organize both networks and the computers that sit on them in unique geographic ways that take advantage of the geographic positions of various stock exchanges in order to coordinate light speed trading between them," Wissner-Gross said.

The researchers came up with a general formula that an organization can use to derive the best location to sit in between multiple sources of information. They did not take into account delays inherent in networking due to equipment latencies, assuming an organization could factor these numbers into their own equations.

Using this formula, the researchers also triangulated the best locations in the world for locating servers that do high frequency trading across 52 exchanges worldwide. A few of the prime locations include spots in the middle of the ocean, or in small countries with as-of-yet underdeveloped communications infrastructures.

Ultimately, this sort of work may bring about new data center hotspots around the globe, the researchers predict. "Geography may be viewed as a new type of natural resource," Wissner-Gross said.

Freer maintains that this work would have implications for other organizations in addition the hyper-fast financial market.

"Any application where it is important for you to coordinate in multiple locations in a low latency way, and the reason you need those latencies because situations can change rapidly at those locations. Our treatment is quite flexible and deals with a large class of systems that are fluctuating in multiple locations and where coordination is necessary," Freer said.

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com

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Verizon's 4G Network: The Details - PC World

Verizon Wireless officially announced the roll-out plans for its 4G LTE high-speed wireless data network today, and none too soon: The LTE era starts this Sunday in thirty-eight metro areas. All Things Digital's Ina Fried has more specifics, and Greg Kumparak of MobileCrunch lists the launch cities.

The facts that caught my eye:

Verizon is charging $50 a month for 5GB of data, and $80 for 10GB; as a current customer of its 3G data service, that strikes me as a decent deal, since I'm paying $60 for 5GB of pokier 3G service.Two USB modems will be available, for $99 each on contract after rebates; they'll double as 3G modems when 4G service isn't around.It sounds like 4G phones won't show up until mid-2011 (there goes any last remaining possibility of a 4G Verizon iPhone in early 2011).

What I really want is a 4G MiFi mobile router that I can use with a laptop, an iPad, a smartphone, and any other Wi-Fi device; I assume that one is in the works. Hope that it arrives before too long-and that there's a way for me to upgrade from my 3G MiFi without spending a fortune.

For more smart takes on technology, visit Technologizer.com. Story copyright © 2010, Technologizer. All rights reserved.

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Verizon's LTE Pricing May Trigger 4G Rate War - PC World

Verizon Wireless is undercutting its own 3G plans with pricing for the LTE network scheduled to go live on Sunday, possibly marking the beginning of a fight to capture high-speed wireless subscribers.

The LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network will be commercially available starting Sunday in 38 U.S. cities and more than 60 airports. It will run about 10 times as fast as Verizon's 3G network, according to the carrier. At launch, there will be just one device on sale for access to the network, a USB dongle from LG Electronics for US$99.99 after rebate with a two-year contract.

Data plans for the network will start at $50 per month, with a 5GB cap on downloads. That's $10 less per month than Verizon charges for 3G plans with dongles, and it matches the company's rate for 3G service on laptops and netbooks with built-in 3G modems.

Technically, LTE is a more economical technology for serving data to customers, because it makes more efficient use of radio spectrum than 3G does. But that's probably not what's behind Verizon's pricing, industry observers said.

"It appears to me that their pricing is aimed at getting as many subscribers as possible locked in, using their service, and into contracts before competitors can roll out their networks to match Verizon's growing footprint," said Dan Hays, a partner at management consulting company PRTM. The carrier also wants to shift as many subscribers as possible to a single network, Hays said, though the 3G infrastructure is expected to remain for several years.

Verizon already has at least two national competitors for fast mobile data services being advertised as "4G." Clearwire's WiMax network is in 68 markets, and T-Mobile USA has launched its next-generation network in more than 80 markets. Though designed primarily for mobile use, the LTE offerings may also compete with wired broadband in some areas, Hays said.

But ultimately, the main target is AT&T, the nation's other dominant mobile operator. Verizon's archrival doesn't plan to offer LTE until next year, though it will deploy HSPA+, the same technology T-Mobile is advertising as 4G, in the meantime. In a blog entry on Wednesday, AT&T CTO John Donovan said HSPA+ will deliver speeds comparable to initial LTE networks, a clear reference to Verizon.

As carriers roll out their new networks, competition will put strong pressure on service pricing, analysts said.

"I anticipate a price battle, for sure," said Tolaga Research analyst Phil Marshall. "Price is what these guys are going to be focused on to try to drive demand to their networks."

Verizon's competitive needs are the subscriber's boon, at least for now, Hays said. He expects the aggressive pricing to continue for at least six to 12 months. However, LTE is unlikely to remain cheaper than 3G in the long term, he said.

The superior speed of the network also complicates the pricing picture. Verizon says its LTE network will offer downstream speeds of 5M bps (bits per second) to 12M bps and upstream speeds of 2M bps to 5Mbps. At roughly 10 times the speed of its 3G EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) network, LTE may lead subscribers to use it as they would a wired connection, using video or other applications that may have been frustratingly slow on 3G, said analyst Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates. If they do, the 5GB cap on Verizon's least-expensive plan may come into play.

Clearwire claims that average mobile users on its WiMax network, which is advertised at an average speed of 3M bps to 6M bps, consume more than 7GB per month. Under Verizon's cheapest plan, that would activate overage charges of $10 for each extra gigabyte, so the service would cost about $70 per month. For a comparable mobile plan, which shifts the user over to Sprint's 3G network when they leave the WiMax coverage area, Clearwire charges $55 per month with no cap. That company had its own response to Verizon's announcement.

If the idea of having no limits on downloads is appealing, however, that prospect may not last either, Gold believes.

"Everyone is going to have to go to a metered plan," Gold said. "Wireless is a commodity that gets used up."

Verizon had hinted that LTE would bring dramatically new pricing plans, but those were not in evidence with Wednesday's announcement. In addition to the $50 plan with a 5GB cap, there will be an $80 plan with a 10GB cap. Additional data use beyond those caps will cost $10 per gigabyte. Both devices that Verizon described during the announcement, both of which will be USB modems, are being offered with contracts. As with its 3G data plans, customers will be able to buy the LG modem for the full retail price of $249.99 and then pay the regular per-month rate without committing to a two-year contract, spokeswoman Brenda Raney said.

The initial LTE plans are similar to Verizon's existing offerings for mobile data, but neither Gold nor Hays was surprised that the carrier didn't make more significant changes. New methods of charging for mobile data, such as different plans based on the speed of the subscriber's link, would bring new challenges for network management, Gold said. "I don't think they want to go down that path," he said.

Verizon didn't announce any entry-level plans with smaller gigabyte allowances on Wednesday, which surprised Gold. He expected an option for about $30 aimed at getting more consumers to try out LTE. "Price does matter to people in this space, especially if you're a casual user," Gold said.

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What Google's NFC Android Phones Will Mean For You - PC World

Grab your hoverboards, gang: The next generation of Android phones is on the way, and it's going to feel a bit like something out of Back to the Future II.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave us a sneak peak at what's in store for Android's newest handsets during a session at the Web 2.0 Summit on Monday (video here). In addition to providing a few new clues about the hotly anticipated Android Gingerbread release, Schmidt revealed that upcoming Android devices would include support for something called Near Field Communication.

Near Field Communication -- better known by its acronym, NFC -- uses a combination of hardware and software to let you essentially turn your phone into a wallet. Future Android phones will have NFC chips built in, Schmidt said, and the Android Gingerbread release will provide the software needed to allow them to function.

So what's this NFC stuff all about, and how will it actually work with Google Android smartphones? Here's a quick primer on what you can expect.

Google's NFC Android phones will let you make contact-free payments.

One of the primary ways NFC will be used within Android will be as a mobile payment system, Schmidt says. Thanks to the chips' short-range wireless capabilities, an NFC-enabled smartphone will allow you to simply wave your device in front of a retailer's sensor and have your purchase immediately placed onto your credit card or banking account. It's something Schmidt refers to as a "tap and pay" method of purchasing -- and its impact could be enormous.

"This could replace your credit card," he says.

Google's NFC Android phone-based payments should be secure.

Schmidt and others contend that having your payment system on your phone is actually more secure than carrying it around on a piece of plastic, as it provides a greater level of authentication. And rather than imprinting your account number on a easily readable card, an NFC-enabled device keeps it encrypted and password-protected inside the phone.

"The credit card industry thinks that the loss rate is going to be much better. They're just fundamentally more secure," Schmidt says.

Google's NFC Android phones will allow you to retrieve information.

Google's NFC-enabled Android phones won't only be about commerce: The systems will also allow you to "check in" with sensors around a city to instantly load information onto your device.

During his demo, Schmidt tapped a phone to a specially marked Google Places placard. It immediately caused location information to pop up on his Android handset. The same principle could be used to exchange information with retailers or other smartphone users.

Google's NFC Android phones could work as keys.

A Swedish company is currently testing the use of NFC-enabled smartphones as hotel keys. As reported by PCWorld earlier today, the system lets guests "check in and receive [their] key directly onto their mobile phones" before ever setting foot in the building. Similar usages have been envisioned for ticket processing -- and all of this is likely only the tip of the iceberg.

"People don't understand how much more powerful these devices are going to be," Schmidt says.

Of course, it's too soon to know exactly what other usages might appear. Even Schmidt himself admits the idea is simply too new to predict what types of applications Google and others will invent.

NFC technology isn't just for Android.

While Google's NFC vision is taking center stage right now, other smartphone companies are taking steps toward implementing the technology, too. Nokia has said it plans to have NFC-ready Symbian phones on the market by next year, and rumors have pointed to Apple quietly developing an iPhone-based NFC implementation for some time.

America's mobile carriers are getting on-board with NFC as well. Earlier today, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile announced the formation of a joint mobile commerce network that'll be structured around NFC technology. The network, called Isis, will encourage retailers to provide NFC support in their businesses.

Ultimately, that retailer support may be key to NFC's success. No matter how many phones offer NFC and how cool it seems in theory, if stores don't have the sensors to enable mobile payments, it won't do much good in the real world.

Still, the first steps are underway, and the next few years hold plenty of potential. Or, to borrow a phrase from a certain wise scientist: Great Scott! The future looks bright.

JR Raphael is a PCWorld contributing editor and the author of the Android Power blog. You can find him on both Facebook and Twitter.

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Security Update 2010-007 Patches Mac OS X 10.5 - PC World

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Software & ServicesOffice HardwareSecurityServers & StorageCell Phones & MobileOperating SystemsNetworking & VOIPVirtualizationSoftware / Services Security Update 2010-007 Patches Mac OS X 10.5 More… Facebook Twitter Digg Print By Dan Moren, Macworld

Apple on Wednesday released Security Update 2010-007, bringing the same security patches included in the recent Mac OS X 10.6.5 release to Macs running 10.5 Leopard client or server versions.

Similar Articles:Apple, Adobe Patch Critical BugsApple Releases Mac OS X 10.6.5Adobe Chides Apple for Mac Update with Stale Flash FixesApple Previews Upcoming Mac OS X LionApple Software Releases Include Java Updates, ProKit FixesApple Releases Mac Pro Firmware UpdateApple Smashes Patch Record With Gigantic Update

Among the more prominent fixes included in the update is a fix for a bug in Apple Type Services which could allow the downloading of a maliciously crafted font file to lead to arbitrary code execution. That bug, originally caught by security firm Core Security, was similar to a vulnerability in Apple's iOS that allowed hackers to jailbreak devices running that software. Apple patched the flaw in an iOS update

In addition to fixing the font bug, 2010-007 brings an updated version of Adobe's Flash Player plug-in--numbered 10.1.102.64--which patches a number of security vulnerabilities, some of which could lead to arbitrary code execution. Patches are also included for a number of holes in QuickTime, Time Machine, Safari RSS, Quick Look, and several of OS X's other underlying systems.

The Leopard client version of Security Update 2010-007 weighs in at 240.74MB while the server version is 448.10MB. If you're running an eligible system, the relevant update should appear in Software Update--otherwise you can download them from Apple's support download Website at the links above.

For more Macintosh computing news, visit Macworld. Story copyright © 2010 Mac Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.

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