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	<title>All About Gadget &#187; black</title>
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		<title>Google&#039;s Schmidt sees more partners for Google TV</title>
		<link>http://www.allaboutgadget.com/googles-schmidt-sees-more-partners-for-google-tv/</link>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 28 Aug 2011 11:55:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Selers</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[ 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 By Georgina Prodhan EDINBURGH, Scotland &#124; Sat Aug 27, 2011 12:07pm EDT 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) ]]></description>
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		<title>Analysis: HP - Dial &quot;M&quot; for mayhem</title>
		<link>http://www.allaboutgadget.com/analysis-hp-dial-m-for-mayhem/</link>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 21 Aug 2011 21:46:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Peter Drew</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[ 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 By Poornima Gupta SAN FRANCISCO &#124; Sun Aug 21, 2011 4:23pm EDT 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) ]]></description>
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		<title>A Sony showroom is seen here in Tokyo. Japanese entertainment ...</title>
		<link>http://www.allaboutgadget.com/a-sony-showroom-is-seen-here-in-tokyo-japanese-entertainment/</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Aug 2011 03:39:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Selers</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[ (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) ]]></description>
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		<title>Showgoers try out games at a PlayStation 3 exhibit in 2009. ...</title>
		<link>http://www.allaboutgadget.com/showgoers-try-out-games-at-a-playstation-3-exhibit-in-2009/</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Aug 2011 03:39:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Selers</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[ (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) ]]></description>
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		<title>Security expert warns hackers can attack Android</title>
		<link>http://www.allaboutgadget.com/security-expert-warns-hackers-can-attack-android/</link>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Aug 2011 10:18:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Peter Drew</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[ 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 By Jim Finkle BOSTON &#124; Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:16pm EDT 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 ) ]]></description>
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		<title>Kids and hackers, oh my! DefCon adds kids track (AP)</title>
		<link>http://www.allaboutgadget.com/kids-and-hackers-oh-my-defcon-adds-kids-track-ap/</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:15:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Peter Drew</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[ LAS VEGAS &#8211; Fewer things seem out of place at the rough-hewn DefCon hacker convention than a swarm of kids. For 18 years, hackers &#8212; and the computer security experts who track them &#8212; have gathered at DefCon, one of the largest and longest-running conferences of its kind, to share information about breaching and securing computers and other devices. This year's DefCon featured what some hardcore attendees might consider to be a startling sight: children. For the first time, DefCon included discussions and tutorials for budding hackers, ages 8 to 16. Some 60 kids showed up. Over two days, they met prominent hackers, Homeland Security officials and NSA security experts. They also listened to talks on the history of hacking and lectures on cryptography. Some of the convention's hotly contested competitions were geared toward children, as well. One contest covered lock-picking techniques to be used in the event they forget their locker combination. The kids were encouraged to find security vulnerabilities in popular technologies, from video games to computer hardware. Children were required to have a parent with them. Many parents who brought their kids are longtime DefCon attendees who said they were excited about the bonding opportunity. Rey Ayers, 42, an information security specialist for a utility company in the San Francisco Bay area, has attended DefCon for the past four years. He brought his son, Xavier, 14, who has been tinkering with computers for years and already has two information technology certifications. Ayers said it was important to introduce his son to the hacker community, adding that they've talked extensively about the difference between ethical and unethical hacking. "I see it in him &#8212; he feels like he belongs to a clan, to a group. I'm really proud," Rey Ayers said in an interview. "I can see he has the excitement in his eyes." Xavier, his backpack decked out in new pins with hacker logos, said he's trying to follow in his dad's footsteps. The conference has given them new ideas to explore. The two look forward to finding vulnerabilities in wireless networks together when they get home to Vallejo, California. Xavier, who hacks mostly with his dad, said he hoped to meet some kids his age at the conference who might become his hacking pen pals. "I feel like a community here &#8212; it's like I'm not the only kid," Xavier said. The emergence of the DefCon kids' conference comes as hackers are making headlines around the world. Though the general public often associates hacking with criminality, the engineering culture of the technology mainstream has always embraced people who explore the boundaries of what can be done with computers and other gadgets. Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak, the co-founders of Apple Inc., have said they considered themselves "hackers" when they created the first Apple computers in the mid-1970s. Recent hacker attacks, however, play into stereotypical definitions of hackers. On Saturday, for instance, the hacker group Anonymous broke into 70 U.S. law enforcement websites, illustrating the growing threat from criminal hackers. DefCon and its more-polished relative, the Black Hat technical security convention, drew thousands of people here in Las Vegas. They came for the revelry and intense discussion of new vulnerabilities in devices ranging from mobile phones to insulin pumps and critical infrastructure. Black Hat, which is an industry sponsored event and costs up to $2,500 to enter, had more than 6,000 attendees. Vendors and executives in suits were there to schmooze and strike deals until Black Hat ended on Thursday. DefCon, which ended Sunday, costs $150 to enter. Organizers stopped counting the number of attendees after they sold 10,000 badges on the first day. Most attendees wore t-shirts and shorts. One popular annual pastime at DefCon involves trying to identify undercover federal agents. DefCon ended Sunday. This year many attendees rallied around a hacker named "Barkode" who has a blood disease and needs an urgent bone marrow transplant. Volunteers running a blood drive on site offered free mohawks to all donors. Conference organizers said the drive was so successful that extra supplies were needed to handle the donations. Wolfe and Behr Crouse of Conroe, Texas proudly sported mohawks. Wolfe, 11 and Behr, 8 outlined the family hacking hierarchy. "He's the hacker, I'm the lockpicker. I get him in the building," Behr said. So how long has he been a lockpicker? Less than a day, his mother laughed. He got the bug after picking locks with some success at DefCon. The boys' parents, Rick and Kirsten, are both techies. They came to DefCon to introduce their boys to the culture. Rick has attended for the past three years. He said he wanted Wolfe and Behr to see the constructive applications of hacking. "The technology itself isn't good or evil &#8212; it's what you do with it," Rick Crouse said. Kirsten Crouse added that they wanted to show examples of math and science in action to convey the importance of doing well in school. "It's an amazing opportunity for the kids to see what the options are out there," she said. Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook ]]></description>
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		<title>Google, Microsoft goes public with patent spat (AP)</title>
		<link>http://www.allaboutgadget.com/google-microsoft-goes-public-with-patent-spat-ap/</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:01:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Selers</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[ NEW YORK &#8211; Tech heavyweights Microsoft and Google are acting like a couple of feuding starlets in a public online spat over &#8212; wait for it &#8212; patents. It's not the first time Microsoft and Google have gone at each other's throats, nor is it likely the last. But with Twitter and blog posts, the dispute is playing out in public in a way that wasn't possible in 2005, when lawsuits over an employee Google hired from Microsoft revealed the bitter rivalry between the two. Now, Google is accusing Microsoft, Apple and others of launching a "hostile organized campaign" against its Android operating system, which runs smartphones that compete with iPhones, BlackBerrys and Windows-based mobile devices. At issue are thousands of patents from Novell Inc., a maker of computer-networking software, and Nortel Networks, a Canadian telecom gear maker that is bankrupt and is selling itself off in pieces. Last month, a consortium that includes Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd. prevailed over Google Inc. with a $4.5 billion cash bid for the Nortel patents. Google lost out after a strange bidding process that included what published reports said was an offer for a billion times the mathematical constant "pi." "Their response seems to be to whine about the process," technology analyst Rob Enderle said. Enderle was referring to a scathing blog post by Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond, who wrote on Wednesday that Microsoft was banding with others to acquire "bogus patents" to make sure Google can't get to them. "They want to make it harder for manufacturers to sell Android devices," Drummond wrote. "Instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation." Not so fast, says Microsoft, which brought the feud to Twitter. There, Microsoft's communications chief, Frank Shaw, posted an image of an email from Google's general counsel, Kent Walker, declining to join Microsoft in the consortium to bid for the patents. The email was sent to Microsoft's own general counsel, Brad Smith, who also chimed in. Smith wrote to his 2,000-plus Twitter followers that "Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no." Shaw offered a reason in another Twitter post: "Why? BECAUSE they wanted to buy something that they could use to assert against someone else." Enderle says it's no secret that Microsoft and Google don't like each other. Microsoft has banded with another Google rival, Facebook, to include data from the online social network in Microsoft's search engine, Bing. Google can't do that because Facebook erected barriers preventing Google's search engine from indexing all the data on its network. And earlier this year, Microsoft complained about Google to the European Commission in its first formal antitrust complaint against a rival. Microsoft accused Google of abusing its dominance of online search and advertising. Then there was the 2005 incident, in which, according to court documents, Microsoft's boisterous CEO, Steve Ballmer, threw a chair and vowed to "kill" Google in an obscenity-laced tirade over the online search leader's hiring of Kai-Fu Lee. Lee helped develop Microsoft's MSN Internet search technology, including desktop search software rivaling Google's. He left the company that July after Google offered him a $10 million compensation package. He has since left Google, too. So far, the patent feud has lacked obscenities, at least in public. But the verbal tirade continued Thursday when Drummond updated his blog post to say that Microsoft is trying to divert attention from the real issue and push a "false `gotcha!'" instead. "Microsoft's objective has been to keep from Google and Android device-makers any patents that might be used to defend against their attacks. A joint acquisition of the Novell patents that gave all parties a license would have eliminated any protection these patents could offer to Android against attacks from Microsoft and its bidding partners," he wrote. Enderle says Google needs to grow up, and part of that process is that "they've got to get through the whining stage." Google had the chance and refused to participate. Now, it is calling the process unfair, Enderle said, "which is something you can do as a little company but probably not when you yourself are a multinational." Google did not immediately respond to a message for comment. Microsoft's Shaw didn't have a comment beyond what he tweeted. Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook ]]></description>
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		<title>RIM to cut 11 percent of workforce</title>
		<link>http://www.allaboutgadget.com/rim-to-cut-11-percent-of-workforce/</link>
		<comments>http://www.allaboutgadget.com/rim-to-cut-11-percent-of-workforce/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Jul 2011 14:29:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Selers</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[ A man holds a BlackBerry PlayBook during the Research In Motion (RIM) annual general meeting of shareholders in Waterloo July 12, 2011. Credit: Reuters/ Mike Cassese TORONTO &#124; Mon Jul 25, 2011 9:39am EDT TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd plans to cut about 11 percent of its workforce to slash costs as it struggles to compete against Apple Inc and Google Inc. The announcement of 2,000 job cuts on Monday came a month after the Canadian company revealed that it would reduce headcount for the first time in a decade. One analyst said the job cuts were slightly deeper than expected but were key to RIM's recovery from a slump triggered by product delays and intense competition from Apple's iPad and iPhone as well as devices powered by Google's Android software. RIM's U.S.-listed stock, already near multi-year lows, was down as much as 2 percent before the market opened. It was trading down 1.8 percent at $27.40 on the Nasdaq just before the open. "This is not totally unexpected. I think the size of (the cuts) is a little bit bigger than what they were intimating before," said Jefferies &#038; Co analyst Peter Misek. "I think this is obviously realigning the cost structure to a new growth, or sales, reality." RIM said one-time charges from the job cuts were not included in its outlook for the second quarter or for the full year, and it would explain the financial impact of the cuts when it reports second quarter results on September 15. RIM said the job cuts are "a prudent and necessary step" for its long-term success. "Cost-cutting is unlikely to change the competitive position for the company" or accelerate RIM's revenue growth, BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis said. Job cuts would help if the company were moving downstream toward entry and mid-market phones, but in such a case even 11 percent job cuts wouldn't be enough, he said. If RIM was still chasing the high-end market for smartphones, it shouldn't be focused on trimming expenses, but on executing more effectively, Gillis said. The BlackBerry maker also announced a string of changes to executive responsibilities and, in the latest departure, said Chief Operating Officer Don Morrison would retire. Morrison, currently on temporary medical leave, was departing after more than 10 years at the company. A stream of senior RIM executives have defected lately, including two who left for rival Samsung Electronics in a month. RIM said when it reported fiscal first-quarter results last month that it would cut jobs to stay competitive, but it gave no details at the time. The job cuts bring RIM's headcount to about 17,000 people. Misek, who has an 'underperform' rating on RIM's stock, said one to watch was when RIM would adopt its new QNX operating system on its smartphones. "I think the key here, more than ever, is when do their products launch and what kind of reception will they have and most importantly, when will QNX come in. We don't think those answers are here yet," he said. (Reporting by S. John Tilak , Euan Rocha in Toronto, Aftab Ahmed in Bangalore; editing by Janet Guttsman and Frank McGurty) ]]></description>
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		<title>Havana&#039;s small community of Twitterati meets IRL (AP)</title>
		<link>http://www.allaboutgadget.com/havanas-small-community-of-twitterati-meets-irl-ap/</link>
		<comments>http://www.allaboutgadget.com/havanas-small-community-of-twitterati-meets-irl-ap/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 02 Jul 2011 18:55:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Peter Drew</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.allaboutgadget.com/havanas-small-community-of-twitterati-meets-irl-ap/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ HAVANA &#8211; A few dozen members of Cuba's small but growing Twitter community have met in real space for the first time. They got to put unfamiliar faces with familiar user names, and they commiserated about the woeful Internet access on an island that has the second-worst Web connectivity rate in the world. Gathering at a downtown Havana pavilion Friday, Cuba's Twitterati wrote their online handles on name tags emblazoned with the Cuban flag and the hash tag used to organize the event, TwittHab. One by one they introduced themselves, told of their history with social media and compared numbers of followers. "Many of us didn't know each other. This is about stepping out from behind the 'at' symbol," said "alondraM," who was only identifying herself by her username. Next to her, "cuba1er.plan," a.k.a. Alejandro Cruz, said Cubans like him are increasingly using social media to share interests and information. Their ranks are still relatively sparse because Cuba lags far behind the rest of the world in connectivity, besting only the Indian Ocean island chain of Mayotte, according to a report by the consulting firm Akamai Technologies Inc. The decades-old U.S. economic embargo has left Cuba without a hardwired connection to the rest of the world, and the island relies on slow, costly satellite service. The Twitter users expressed hope things will soon speed up now that an undersea fiber-optic cable to Venezuela has arrived in Cuba. It could go online this month. For now, plodding dial-up is about the only option &#8212; and even those accounts have historically been hard to get and prohibitively expensive for most Cubans. The government says it must use its limited bandwidth carefully and gives priority to usage with what it deems a social purpose. Cuba's National Statistics Office reported last year that just 2.9 percent of islanders said they had direct Internet access, most through their schools and workplaces, though that number doesn't reflect the black market sale of minutes on dial-up accounts. The real figure is more likely between 5 percent and 10 percent, said Ted Henken, a professor of sociology and Latin American studies at Baruch College in New York who has traveled to Cuba frequently and is writing a book on social media and civil society on the island. It all creates unique challenges for tweeters in Cuba. For one thing, their local audience is relatively small. Also, cost and availability limit how much time they can spend connected. And while Twitter is popular in other nations among smartphone-toting technophiles, limitations here mean most Twitter interaction happens on computers. When users here want to send a tweet from the field, they send a cellphone text message to an overseas number that converts and posts it, said Mario Leonart, a 36-year-old from Villa Clara known online as "maritovoz." It's expensive: $4 for the initial setup, plus $1 per tweet. Send 20 tweets and you've already equaled Cuba's average official monthly salary. Some get around that by hitting up followers abroad when they start to run low on funds, Henken said, citing the case of one tweeter he monitors. "Like most Cubans he doesn't have a whole lot of money to be able to do this, but he tweets all the time," Henken said. "So he must have this feedback from people who follow him, because they put money in his account." Nevertheless, Henken said, Twitter's immediacy and the fact that Cubans are learning to take it mobile are creating an incipient "new narrative" that at least has the potential to challenge state domination of information. "Just like in the rest of the world, it can be used as a form of pushing back against the mainstream media &#8212; and, of course, in Cuba the mainstream media is the official government media," Henken said. "So it does act as a corrective on what's happening or gives another version of events." For a little more than an hour Friday, the tweeters talked about strategies for staying connected and dreamed aloud about having Internet in their homes. The event was organized by Leunam Rodriguez, a 26-year-old radio station employee who has been tweeting for just a few months. Rodriguez, who doesn't fall into either the pro- or anti-government camps, pitched the meet-up as an apolitical gathering. But when the venue was moved from a pizzeria to the Cuba Pavilion, Yoani Sanchez, known internationally for her blog writings opposing the government, complained that the meeting had been "kidnapped" by officialdom. Ultimately she skipped both the gathering and the handful of tweeters who met at the pizzeria. Rodriguez denied that the site change was politically motivated. "I've said that I don't belong to any organization. I'm just a Cuban," he said. Henken said tweeting in Cuba will involve politics, no matter what individual tweeters might want. "I think Twitter is political even when it's not political," he said. "The (Cuban) system is very monolithic; therefore even if you use Twitter to promote a sewing circle ... it's political because it is unfiltered." Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook ]]></description>
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		<title>Comcast&#039;s $4.4B Olympian bid a bold online bet (AP)</title>
		<link>http://www.allaboutgadget.com/comcasts-4-4b-olympian-bid-a-bold-online-bet-ap/</link>
		<comments>http://www.allaboutgadget.com/comcasts-4-4b-olympian-bid-a-bold-online-bet-ap/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 12 Jun 2011 21:04:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Selers</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[ LOS ANGELES &#8211; NBC lost more than $200 million the last time it showed the Winter Olympics, and it's bracing for similar losses in London next year. So, plenty of people scoffed when the network bid $4.4 billion &#8212; nearly a billion more than runner-up Fox &#8212; for the U.S. rights to carry the four games through 2020. Yet the price may prove right. The growth of Internet video and opportunities under NBC's new owner, Comcast Corp., should help cut losses significantly and perhaps make the Olympics profitable after the London Games. There's also an intangible promotional benefit to NBC. Consider this: Even at a loss, the Olympics generate huge audiences. About 185 million people saw some of the Olympics in Vancouver last year. The struggling broadcaster can promote new shows to those viewers as it tries to dig out of fourth place. NBC didn't pay all that much for the Olympics, considering that TV rights fees for other major sports such as Pac-12 college basketball have been doubling or tripling. For the 2014 and 2016 games, it's paying about the same as it has been. For the final two games in the deal, NBC is paying just 19 percent more. Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne called NBC's deal an "Olympic win at the right price." He said NBC should be able to cut its Olympic losses in half after London, as long as viewership doesn't change and advertising rates keep improving. Beyond that, NBC can create more ad opportunities by tapping sports channels added to the NBCUniversal family when Comcast took control in January. One is the Golf Channel &#8212; convenient for Comcast as golf joins the Olympics in 2016. Another is Versus, which Comcast is positioning as a competitor to ESPN, another Olympic bidder. NBCUniversal will have about 20 channels and more than 40 websites to cover the games. By contrast, it used five channels and one website in 2010, when it was controlled by General Electric Co. The Olympics coverage can also help Comcast get higher fees from other cable TV companies such as Time Warner Cable Inc. to carry those channels in their lineups. "It does not take too much to move it across the finish line in terms of getting more in the black," said Matthew Harrigan, an analyst with Wunderlich Securities. NBC should also benefit from sponsorship packages developed by the U.S. Olympic Committee two years ago when the advertising market looked grim. One such package creates a direct connection between the USOC, NBC and the sponsors &#8212; in this case, Citigroup, TD Ameritrade and a home-improvement company that still hasn't been determined. As part of the deal, the sponsors are committed to buying ads on NBC, giving the network a head start in selling commercials. Because NBC will get rights for at least nine more years, the USOC will be in a better position to make such long-term ad deals, USOC marketing chief Lisa Baird said. One unknown is how fast Comcast can increase revenue from online viewing. For the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, NBC ran an unprecedented 2,200 hours of coverage over the Internet. For some fans it still wasn't enough. The network was pilloried, for instance, for waiting more than half a day to televise the men's 100-meter final so it could show Usain Bolt's record-breaking run in prime time. Starting with the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia, NBC plans to carry every single event live in some format or another. It will repackage the best events for U.S. television audiences when evening arrives. Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBC Sports Group, told reporters last week that technology is changing so rapidly that the deal gives NBC the ability to exploit the games on every platform "now known or to be known or still to be conceived." Comcast has been steadily rolling out its Xfinity TV software, which allows subscribers to watch shows on different devices and over the Web. Comcast will likely try to use that to make more money from the games. Networks also have been increasing the amount of video ads accompanying online shows. Analysts believe Comcast has plenty of time and the right combination of channels, websites and subscribers to start cutting its losses in 2014. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said he's confident the games will be profitable, helped by new technology and the long-term nature of the deal. Even for a company that made $3.6 billion in net income last year, losing $200 million every few years is not a strategy for success. The intangible value it gets for promoting NBC shows may have been a deciding factor in its bid. NBC, for instance, can use the Summer Games to promote promising new dramas or comedies on its fall lineups. That's similar to the way CBS launched its reality show "Undercover Boss" to audiences immediately after the Super Bowl last year. There's no good estimate on how much NBC shows might benefit from the promotional boost. Its competitors had less reason to seek it out. Almost every U.S. home already has The Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN. It's the market leader in getting fees from cable, satellite and other TV service providers. The boost to Disney's ABC network wasn't deemed enough to justify paying more, according to a person with knowledge of the bid. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the network was not releasing details of the proposal. News Corp.'s Fox, meanwhile, is already the leader in attracting viewers aged 18 to 49 &#8212; the group most sought by advertisers. That's partly because of its enduring hit, "American Idol." Ahead of its takeover, Comcast promised government regulators that it would invest to rebuild NBC. Carrying the Olympics fits with that strategy. "The Olympics are a ratings builder for all other TV shows," said sports agent Brant Feldman, managing partner of American Group Management. "NBC is a fourth-place network right now, but if you assume the programming is going to get better in the future, then the Olympics can be a jumping board to all that other viewership." ___ AP National Writer Eddie Pells in Denver and Sports Writer Rachel Cohen in New York contributed to this report. Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook ]]></description>
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