Google Chairman Eric Schmidt smiles during a rehearsal of his MacTaggart lecture speech for the Edinburgh International Television Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland August 26, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/David Moir

EDINBURGH, Scotland (Reuters) - Google is "absolutely committed" to its fledgling television business and expects many more partners to join it soon, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said on Saturday.

Google TV, which allows viewers to mix Web and television content on TV screens via a browser, has received lukewarm reviews and been blocked by the major U.S. networks since its launch in the United States in October.

Schmidt told the Edinburgh television festival its lack of success so far was partly because it was a feature designed into televisions, devices which consumers tend to replace only about once every five years.

"We're absolutely committed to staying, to improving Google TV," he said, adding that new companies would be joining existing partners Sony and Logitech for the next version. Logitech makes computer mice, speakers, webcams and keyboards.

"I believe that they're both going to be on board and I believe there are many more coming. Wait shortly for an announcement," he said.

Google has long harbored ambitions to extend its $28 billion online advertising business to the television arena, where the lion's share of global ad budgets is spent.

It owns YouTube, the world's most popular online video site, but has not announced any profits from that business since buying it in 2006.

Schmidt said in a keynote speech on Friday that he expected Google TV to launch in Europe early next year.

On Saturday, he said Google had not yet resolved its differences with U.S. networks ABC, NBC and CBS, and hoped the company would not encounter similar problems for its British launch.

"We certainly have talked to them about reversing their position and we certainly hope that won't happen here," he said, adding that Google was in talks with UK broadcasters.

Like other industries disrupted by the Internet, the television industry is broadly suspicious of Google, fearing the company will steal its advertising revenues without contributing toward the high costs of programing.

Google argues that the Internet can expand the total advertising market by providing better-targeted and more effective ads that will encourage companies to spend more.

KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Google could glean valuable insights into U.S. viewing habits from the $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which it announced last week.

Motorola owns the world's largest set top box business and has close relationships with U.S. cable companies -- who have expressed concern about the acquisition.

Schmidt said he could not talk in detail about Google's plans for that business until the merger was completed, but said there were "interesting ideas" about how it could help Google's existing television business.

"We're intending to run Motorola, which would include the set top box business, as a completely separate business. That does not mean that there won't be communication between the two, and obviously sharing and knowledge sharing," he said.

Schmidt also said British Prime Minister David Cameron would be making a mistake if he tried to shut down online communications during periods of social unrest.

Cameron had asked authorities to look at the possibility of such measures in the wake of riots that tore through England earlier this month and were partly organized on Research in Motion's BlackBerry Messenger, Twitter and Facebook.

Such moves have been widely condemned as repressive when used by other countries, especially during the Arab Spring uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East.

"I think it's a mistake. I hope that's a clear answer," Schmidt said. "Whatever the problem was, which I don't really understand... the Internet was a reflection of that problem but turning the Internet on and off is not going to fix it."

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; editing by Keiron Henderson)

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HP CEO Leo Apotheker speaks to the press after delivering the keynote address at the HP Summit in San Francisco, California March 14, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Stephen Lam

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Leo Apotheker's credibility as a CEO is falling along with Hewlett-Packard's stock price.

Apotheker, who gained a reputation for sharp business acumen when he headed up SAP, thoroughly flummoxed HP shareholders last week with what some analysts have called a "value destroying" $11.7 billion deal to buy British software maker Autonomy and for sticking a for-sale sign on HP's PC division -- thus scaring off clients for the year or so it will take to decide on the division's future.

In a resounding rejection of Apotheker's grand vision, shareholders sent HP shares down almost 20 percent on Friday, wiping out $16 billion of value in the worst single-day fall since the Black Monday stock market crash of October 1987.

Since Apotheker joined HP early last November, the company has lost almost 44 percent of its value, and he has lost a significant amount of investor support.

"We wonder whether activist investors will -- and should -- begin to exert pressure on the board," said Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst with Sanford Bernstein. "If HP's results don't improve, the company will ultimately restructure its portfolio and/or replace its leadership."

Pat Becker Jr., fund manager at Portland, Oregon-based Becker Capital Management Inc, which owns HP shares, noted that Apotheker has continually failed to instill confidence in his conference calls with investors.

"Every time he has gotten on the call, the stock has gone down substantially," Becker said.

On a conference call last Thursday following the announcements on Autonomy and the PC division, Apotheker failed to fully address key questions from analysts, including why HP was paying a large premium for Autonomy. When asked about the vision for HP's PC unit, he said the decision could range from an outright sale to a spinoff to a "potential "nontransaction."

"That call -- was that an 'A' performance by a CEO on that acquisition?" asked Becker, whose firm holds HP shares.

An HP spokeswoman said the "strategic transformation" is intended to position the company for a new future and drive long-term shareholder value.

While investors applaud Apotheker's long-term plan to get out of HP's commoditized PC business, and the Palm WebOS tablet and smartphone business -- considered a capital sinkhole -- that goes with it, the $11.7 billion bill for Autonomy and haphazard articulation of the spin-off strategy left many shaking their heads.

HP's purchase price is a stunningly rich 10 times sales of Autonomy, a cloud search specialist whose revenues are equal to only about 1 percent of HP's.

HP's Personal Systems Group, which includes the PC business and the now-defunct TouchPad tablet -- faces an uncertain future, which may undermine the business and benefit Dell, whose shares ended up nearly 2 percent on Friday in a broadly weak market.

Even more worrying, HP's new strategic road map marked an about-face on several crucial fronts, signaling a lack of direction. Executives as recently as May had touted how WebOS would be on every HP product from printers to PCs. In March, they had played up the advantages of serving both consumers and enterprise.

In addition, Apotheker has been forced to slash HP's sales estimates three times since he took over last November.

IN BIG BLUE'S FOOTSTEPS

It is not the first time HP seems behind the curve. it agreed to buy Compaq in 2001 in what turned out to be a rocky merger. IBM, on the other hand, transformed itself by selling its PC arm to China's Lenovo in late 2004 and establishing its dominance in enterprise IT. HP appears to be trying to replicate Big Blue's success.

Some analysts and fund managers hold out hope that the company is at least now on the right track and can still catch up by making smart acquisitions.

"Just because they didn't make the move earlier doesn't mean they still can't skate to the where the puck is going," said Tony Ursillo, an analyst with Loomis Sayles Value Fund.

But he added, "HP has overpaid for every acquisition it has made" in the past year.

One thing that could take the sting out of the steep price tag for Autonomy is the sale of HP's PC division, which industry experts estimate could fetch as much as $10 billion.

And Apotheker did make at least one correct decision by retiring the TouchPad. Sacconaghi estimates the business lost about $250 million last quarter, or 9 cents a share.

INTERNAL DISARRAY

But the events of last Thursday have done little to build confidence in Apotheker. The afternoon of high drama kicked off with a series of rapid-fire announcements: disclosure of acquisition talks with Autonomy; confirmation a deal had been done; announcement that HP was killing its TouchPad and other WebOS devices.

HP also disclosed its results an hour earlier than scheduled, marking the second straight quarter that the company had to release earnings ahead of schedule. And in another small sign of disarray, TouchPad ads featuring "Glee" star Lea Michele continued to run on CNBC on Friday.

While HP's dire competitive position was in the making well before Apotheker's arrival, shareholders do not view the CEO's track record as impressive.

"I was skeptical coming in about whether he had the right background for the job," Ursillo said. "So far the results are not encouraging."

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Peter Lauria, Edwin Chan and Leslie Adler)

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(AFP/File) - A Sony showroom is seen here in Tokyo. Japanese entertainment titan has had the dubious honor of winning a "Most Epic Fail" award at a prestigious Black Hat gathering of computer security professions in Las Vegas.(AFP/File)

(AFP/Getty Images/File) - Showgoers try out games at a PlayStation 3 exhibit in 2009. Japanese entertainment titan Sony had the dubious honor of winning a "Most Epic Fail" award Thursday at a prestigious Black Hat gathering of computer security professions in Las Vegas.(AFP/Getty Images/File/David McNew)

The Google home page is shown on Google's latest version of the Android operating system, Honeycomb, on a Motorola Xoom tablet device following a news conference at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California February 2, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Beck Diefenbach

BOSTON (Reuters) - A mobile security expert says he has found new ways for hackers to attack phones running Google Inc's Android operating system.

Riley Hassell, who caused a stir when he called off an appearance at a hacker's conference last week, told Reuters he and colleague Shane Macaulay decided not to lay out their research at the gathering for fear criminals would use it attack Android phones.

He said in an interview he identified more than a dozen widely used Android applications that make the phones vulnerable to attack.

"App developers frequently fail to follow security guidelines and write applications properly," he said.

"Some apps expose themselves to outside contact. If these apps are vulnerable, then an attacker can remotely compromise that app and potentially the phone using something as simple as a text message."

He declined to identify those apps, saying he fears hackers might exploit the vulnerabilities.

"When you release a threat and there's no patch ready, then there is mayhem," said Hassell, founder of boutique security firm Privateer Labs.

Hassell said he and Macaulay alerted Google to the software shortcomings they unearthed.

Google spokesman Jay Nancarrow said Android security experts discussed the research with Hassell and did not believe he had uncovered problems with Android.

"The identified bugs are not present in Android," he said, declining to elaborate.

It was the first public explanation for the failure of Hassell and Macaulay to make a scheduled presentation at the annual Black Hat hacking conference in Las Vegas, the hacking community's largest annual gathering.

They had been scheduled to talk about "Hacking Androids for Profit." Hundreds of people waited for them to show up at a crowded conference room.

Hassell said in an interview late on Thursday the pair also learned -- at the last minute -- that some of their work may have replicated previously published research and they wanted to make sure they properly acknowledged that work.

"This was a choice we made, to prevent an unacceptable window of risk to consumers worldwide and to guarantee credit where it was due," he said.

A mobile security researcher familiar with the work of Hassell and Macaulay said he understood why the pair decided not to disclose their findings.

"When something can be used for exploitation and there is no way to fix it, it is very dangerous to go out publicly with that information," the researcher said. "When there is not a lot that people can do to protect themselves, disclosure is sometimes not the best policy."

Hassell said he plans to give his talk at the Hack in The Box security conference in Kuala Lumpur in October.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; editing by John Wallace and Andre Grenon)

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