Google hopes to take on Microsoft using resellers

Web search leader Google Inc took another step on Wednesday toward direct competition with Microsoft Corp by recruiting IT resellers to market its Web-based applications to business clients.




From the end of March, authorized resellers will be able to sell, customize and support premium versions of Google Apps, which includes word processing, spreadsheets, calendars and email.

Google Apps is broadly similar to Microsoft's top-selling Office package except that Apps is completely Web-based and is part of Google's push into so called 'cloud computing' or software-as-a-service. Microsoft said in October it is also looking at adding Web-based features for its Office applications.

Since it launched Google Apps in February 2007, Google has only sold directly to business users over the Web. Analysts said the move to work with third parties is necessary if Google hopes to compete seriously with Microsoft or IBM.

Microsoft, which is the world's largest software company, sells more than 95 percent of its software through more than 440,000 third party resellers, according to Gartner Research, and intends to spend around $3 billion on managing those sales channels in 2009.

By comparison Google has so far only dipped its toe in the water, but sees a great opportunity after running trials with more than 50 resellers in 25 countries. It also has a 9-month old relationship with Salesforce.com Inc.

"We feel that Google has had limited success in winning customers with a singular sales channel," said Tiffani Bova, an analyst at Gartner Research, who estimates Google has around 200,000 Premier customers.




IT resellers typically sell services such as Web hosting, setting up servers and backing up data, as well as software to hundreds of thousands of end user businesses of all sizes.

"This is a chance for those types of companies to get into the cloud computing revolution," said Dave Girouard, president of enterprise at Google.

To win over new resellers, Google said partners will buy the Premier Edition at a 20 percent discount and keep the recurring revenue for the lifetime of their customer relationship.

The search leader already offers a basic package of Google Apps for free to consumers, prompting some industry watchers to see it as a major threat to Microsoft's profitable "Office" business.

But Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst at Nucleus Research, said Google is a long way from hurting Microsoft.




"We've seen in the applications space that Google is a strong email competitor, but so far it is only a complement to Office -- not yet a replacement," she said.

Google's move to offer applications is part of a wider drive to diversify its revenue base, which has been completely dominated by hugely profitable search advertising technology.

As the advertising market comes under pressure from a slowing global economy, investors will likely be paying more attention to Google's small but growing businesses.

`American Idol' back with new tune for season 8

Dave Della Terza enjoys kicking "American Idol" around on his Web site that encourages viewers to vote for the most awful contestant.




But even Della Terza is rooting for television's top-rated show when it returns for its eighth season Tuesday. The two-hour debut airs at 8 p.m. EST on Fox.

"Last year really bored me. The show seemed really desperate. I want it to go back to being the good, cheesy fun it was," said Della Terza.

The singing contest remained TV's No. 1 program last season but saw a dip in viewership, averaging about 28 million weekly viewers vs. the previous year's nearly 31 million weekly average.

That represents a smaller loss than suffered by many other shows in what proved to be a lackluster 2007-08 season, one disrupted by a writers guild strike. It's also impressive stability for a veteran series.

Those behind "American Idol" express confidence that its drawing power remains intact, but they're tweaking the formula to freshen it and keep the downward trend to a minimum.

Executive producer Ken Warwick concedes the ratings probably will "drop a bit" again this season. But a major overhaul was not considered, he told a teleconference.

"There were no panic changes," Warwick said. "It wasn't, `Oh, my God, we've dropped 7 percent. What are we going to do to change the whole show?' This wouldn't have been on TV for eight years if it wasn't doing it right."

Fox is banking on the show, which last year helped make it TV's most popular broadcast network for the first time with a strong finale in which David Cook bested runner-up David Archuleta.




Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., also is betting on the show's continued popularity: The theme park is opening an American Idol Experience attraction next month, allowing visitors to sample the show.

Loyal viewers who tune in this season will easily spot differences in the formula and faces — most notably with a new judge, Grammy-nominated songwriter-producer Kara DioGuardi, joining the original trio of Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul.

Cowell, the show's acerbic driving force, takes the role of tiebreaker when the panel locks on whether to keep or dump a contestant. He's both singing DioGuardi's praises but reserving judgment on how her addition will pan out.

"She's written hit songs. She has an opinion, which is very, very important. She talks a lot," Cowell said — and he means as a compliment.

That said, "the panel has a unique chemistry," Cowell added. "I genuinely don't know until I watch the show ... whether this is a good thing or a bad thing."

Della Terza regards DioGuardi with a skeptical eye, and ear.

"She's a really prolific songwriter ... but she's written some terrible songs," he said, singling out former "Idol" contestant Katherine McPhee's "Open Toes," a paean to open-toe shoes, and tunes for Paris Hilton and Ashlee Simpson.




Other changes afoot on "American Idol" include the return of wild-card selections by the judges, allowing them to give contestants snubbed by viewers a second chance, extended Hollywood auditions with singers who survive the early cuts, and behind-the-scenes peeks.

Cowell is looking forward to more contestant backbone, which he says is on display in the taped audition episodes that open the season.

"Where I think we got a little bit stuck last year (was) it was kind of like battle of the blondes, and they all looked the same. ... This year, there seems to be more personality. They're definitely standing up for themselves more, which I like," he said.

Google developer site being used to distribute malware

Google's free code-hosting Web site for developers is being used to distribute malware, a security researcher said on Friday.




Google Code is a place where programmers can host projects and code. Along with the legitimate code are links to fake videos that direct users to download a missing codec, said Dave Marcus, director of security research for McAfee Avert Labs. The codecs turn out instead to be password-stealing Trojan horses and programs geared toward stealing financial information for identity fraud, he said.

"They're using it as a way to send out links or as a place to house their links and redirects because it's Google and obviously it gets highly ranked in the index," he said. "The bad guys look for services like this as a way to push out code."

A Google spokesman said the company has removed malware-distributing projects from Google Code and search results.




"Google works hard to protect our users from malware. Using Project Hosting on Google Code, or any Google product, to serve or host malware is a violation of our product policies," the spokesman said in a statement. "Using automated tools, we actively work to detect and remove sites that serve malware from our network. We have removed many of these projects from Google Code and from our search results. Additionally, we'll continue to explore new ways to identify and eliminate such content."

The problem is similar to one that was found to be plaguing Microsoft's MSN Spaces site a year ago and continues to occur there, according to a McAfee Avert Labs blog posting.

Broadcasts to mobile devices to start in 22 cities

TV stations in 22 U.S. cities announced Thursday that they will start broadcasting their signals this year in a format designed to be received by mobile devices like cell phones, MP3 players, GPS units and in-car entertainment systems.




Unlike current mobile TV services, the broadcasts would most likely be free, and would provide access to local news, weather and traffic updates. The broadcasts could also fill an important role in emergencies like hurricanes, since they can be received by portable devices and don't jam up under load like cell-phone networks.

But will there be any gadgets on the market that can receive those signals? That's less clear, since there are no firm launch dates for compatible products.

As with other launches of new broadcasting services, there's a "chicken-and-egg" conundrum, said Mark Aitken, director of advanced technology for the Sinclair Broadcasting Group Inc. Without broadcasts, there is no market for devices. Without devices, there is no one to broadcast to.

"Broadcasters have come together and said 'We'll be the chicken,'" Aitken said. "We'll put services out there without devices."

Though their marketing plans are not firm, manufacturers did show off prototype devices at the International Consumer Electronics Show here on Thursday that were able to receive trial broadcasts from two local stations. LG Electronics Inc. of Korea, a major partner in developing the broadcast technology, showed off two prototype cell phones and a portable DVD player. Kenwood Corp., Delphi Corp. and Visteon Corp. are developing car-based receivers.




In getting cell phones with TV receivers into the hands of consumers, broadcasters face a substantial obstacle: the cellular carriers. The largest, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, sell phones that are compatible with a rival mobile broadcasting system run by Qualcomm Inc. It provides 10 channels for $15 per month.

The Open Mobile Video Coalition, the mobile TV broadcaster group, said it has had discussions with the carriers, and expects there to be deals with at least some of them.

The 22 markets where "Mobile Digital TV" will be rolled out this year cover 35 percent of U.S. households, the OMVC said. New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Washington and Atlanta are the largest participating markets. In total, 54 commercial network affiliates have committed to launching broadcasts. Another nine PBS affiliates are considering joining them, the OMVC said.

Mobile devices are unable to receive conventional digital TV broadcasts, which are designed for stationary antennas. But the OMVC is far from alone in tackling this problem, particularly when it comes to reception in cars.

Audiovox Corp. announced at the show that it will make an in-car receiver for Qualcomm's MediaFLO service. The receiver that will work with existing in-car entertainment screens will be available in eight to 10 months for less than $500, the company said.

There are 20 million U.S. cars with such screens, according to Hauppauge, N.Y.-based Audiovox.

AT&T and RaySat Broadcasting Corp. said they will start marketing a satellite TV system called CruiseCast for cars this spring, providing 22 TV channels and 20 radio stations for about $28 per month. It requires a bowl-shaped antenna with a suggested retail price of $1,300.




Lastly, Alcatel-Lucent and ICO Global Communications Ltd. were at the show to talk about their hybrid satellite-terrestrial broadcasting system, which can broadcast up to 15 channels to somewhat smaller antennas. They're hoping for a commercial launch next year, said Olivier Coste, head of Alcatel-Lucent's mobile broadcast division.

The satellite-based systems have the advantage of nationwide coverage, which terrestrial systems can't match. On the other hand, satellite systems won't have local channels that are useful to drivers.

The Polaroid camera is back, in digital

A strange little ritual used to go along with Polaroid cameras. The shooter would grab the print as it came out of the camera and wave it in the air, as if that would stimulate the chemicals and make the picture appear faster. It didn't. Yet it felt dumb to just stand there, waiting for the picture to develop.

Polaroid stopped making film packs last year, so this little piece of tech culture will soon be just a memory. But just as the film-based Polaroid camera is fading away, along comes its digital replacement.

That's right: Polaroid was set to announce Thursday at the International Consumer Electronics Show that it is introducing a digital camera that produces prints right on the spot. You can even call them "instant" prints, but they take nearly a minute to appear, so they're only as "instant" as the old film prints.

Essentially, the $200 PoGo is a camera that contains a built-in color printer. It produces 2-by-3 inch photos by selectively heating spots on specially treated paper. It has nothing to do with the old chemical Polaroid process, but the prints convey some of the same Pop Art charm: They're grainy and the colors are slightly off, with faces tending toward a deathly blue-green.

The camera is a successor to a standalone printer Polaroid put out last summer, designed to connect to camera phones and digital cameras. When I reviewed it, I noted that if Polaroid combined the printer with an image sensor and an LCD screen, it would be a resurrection of the instant camera. It turns out that's exactly what Polaroid was working on.

Unfortunately, you'll have to wait to get your hands on the camera: Polaroid says it will go on sale in late March or early April.

The camera is a fun product, and people who have been lamenting the death of the Polaroid will find solace in it. Its prints can be peeled apart to reveal a sticky back, which makes them easy to paste on fridges, doors, books, computers, cell phones and other surfaces you want to personalize. For a colleague's going-away party, I took a photo of him, printed out a couple of copies and pasted them on soda cans for an instant "commemorative edition."

The PoGo also has crucial advantages over the old film cameras. You can look at what you shot on the LCD screen, then choose whether you want to print it. You can produce multiple prints of an image, or print something you shot some time ago.

The standalone printer and the new camera use the same paper, which costs $5 for a 10-pack, or $13 for a 30-pack. It's expensive compared to inkjet paper, but about a third of the price of Polaroid film (there are still stocks in stores). No ink or toner is needed.

Despite its high points, The PoGo has the feel of a first-generation product, with noteworthy shortcomings.




As a camera, it's primitive. It doesn't have auto-focus, just a switch for infinity or close-up shots. The resolution is five megapixels, far below that of cheaper compact cameras. Neither of these things matter much for the quality of the prints, which are small and of low resolution anyway, but they do matter if you want to use the digital captures for other purposes.

Like some other cheap digital cameras, there's a substantial lag from the time you press the shutter to when the picture actually is taken, making it nearly impossible to capture action or fleeting expressions.

The prints are narrower than the image captured by the sensor, so you can't print the exact image you see on the screen. Substantial slices are trimmed from the top and bottom of the image to produce the print. In the default shooting mode, the camera doesn't warn you about this effect. You can crop images you've shot, zooming in on parts of them, but there is no way to reduce the size of the image to fit it all on the print.

The life of the rechargeable battery is limited, because of the energy needed to heat up the prints. You can get a bit more than 20 prints on one charge if you do them in one sitting. If you make a print only now and then, you'll get fewer on a charge, because the camera will need to heat up the print head every time. (The old Polaroid cameras didn't have battery problems, because most of them had batteries built into the film packs — a brilliant design. But enough nostalgia.)

None of these flaws are fatal. If you don't like the way the PoGo works as a camera, you can shoot pictures with another camera that uses an SD memory card, then move the card over to the PoGo and print the pictures. But if that's what you plan to use the camera for, you might as well buy the $100 PoGo Instant Mobile Printer, which is slightly smaller. It doesn't take memory cards, but will connect to other cameras with a USB cable.

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The camera is much simpler to use than the printer, and it fits the bill for those who want to recapture the simple, spontaneous spirit of Polaroid shooting. Sadly, Polaroid declared bankruptcy in December because of troubles at its parent company. That puts the future supply of PoGo printer paper in question, but Polaroid is still operating, and it appears it will continue for the foreseeable future. In any case, it's likely the portable printing technology will live on, because what it does is unique.

Apple cuts copy protection and prices on iTunes

Apple Inc. is cutting the price of some songs in its market-leading iTunes online store to as little as 69 cents and plans to make every track available without copy protection.




In Apple's final appearance at the Macworld trade show, Apple's top marketing executive, Philip Schiller, said Tuesday that iTunes song prices will come in three tiers: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. Record companies will choose the prices, which marks a significant change, since Apple previously made all songs sell for 99 cents.

Apple gave the record labels that flexibility on pricing as it got them to agree to sell all songs free of "digital rights management," or DRM, technology that limits people's ability to copy songs or move them to multiple computers. Apple had been offering a limited selection of songs without DRM, but by the end of this quarter, the company said, all 10 million songs in its library will be available that way.

While iTunes is the most popular digital music store, others have been faster to offer more songs without copy protection. Amazon.com Inc. started selling DRM-free music downloads in 2007 and swayed all the major labels to sign on in less than a year.




Schiller also announced that iPhone 3G users will be able to buy songs from the iTunes store using the cellular data network. Previously, iPhone users could shop for tunes when connected to a Wi-Fi hot spot.

The iTunes changes marked the highlights of Schiller's run as a stand-in for CEO Steve Jobs, who used to make Macworld the site for some of Apple's biggest product unveilings, such as the iPhone. Apple said last month that Jobs would not address the throngs this time because the company plans to pull out of Macworld next year.

Apple shares slipped $1.18, 1.3 percent, to $93.40 in afternoon trading.

Schiller got a warm welcome from the attendees — who packed the convention hall despite the pall cast over the industry by the economic downturn — especially at the start of his talk, when he thanked them for showing up despite Jobs' notable absence. He ran seamlessly through his 90-minute presentation, getting applause and oohs from the audience, varying little from the format of slides and demos established by Jobs. And like Jobs, he gushed about Apple's products being the best in the world.

"Phil did an exceptionally good job in representing Apple," said Tim Bajarin, president of technology analyst group Creative Strategies Inc.

Lower iTunes prices were Apple's only nod to the recession — and an oblique one at that, as record labels have been asking for years to set varying song prices. Rather than an inexpensive new Mac to lure budget-conscious buyers, Schiller unveiled a new $2,800 Macbook Pro laptop with a 17-inch screen and the sleek aluminum casing the company debuted with the super-thin Macbook Air.




He also unwrapped new versions of two software packages for Macs, including the iLife multimedia programs. For instance, iPhoto '09 can recognize faces and sort photos based on who's in them. GarageBand '09 includes videotaped, interactive music lessons given by Sting and other musicians. Apple added more professional video editing features to iMovie '09.

Apple's answer to Microsoft Corp.'s Office productivity suite, called iWork, also got a makeover, including zippy new ways to add animation between slides in the Keynote presentation software. And Apple unveiled a "beta" test version of a Web site for sharing documents, iWork.com. Unlike Google Inc.'s online documents program, however, Apple's version does not allow people to edit documents in a Web browser.

Apple said the thin new 17-inch aluminum-cased Macbook Pro, which joins an existing 15-inch model, will start shipping at the end of January. Perhaps the biggest twist is the laptop's battery, which is designed to last longer on each charge — up to seven or eight hours — and work after more charges than older batteries. But like Apple's iPod and the super-slim Macbook Air, the battery will be sealed inside and the owners won't be able to remove and replace it themselves. Instead, they'll have to spend $179 to have an Apple store expert swap in a new one.




Jobs' decision not to attend Macworld sparked a new round of fears that the CEO, a survivor of pancreatic cancer who has seemed gaunt in recent appearances, was in worsening health. To put the questions to rest, Jobs said Monday he is getting treatment for a hormone imbalance that caused him to lose weight, and urged Macworld attendees to relax and enjoy the show.

And after the Tuesday keynote, in which nothing purely new was disclosed, the company's decision to substitute veteran salesman Schiller for master showman Jobs seemed even less questionable.

Malaysia mulls 'cyber court' to handle Internet crimes

Malaysia is considering establishing a "cyber court" to deal with the increasing number of crimes related to the Internet and blogging, a report said Tuesday.

Communications Minister Shaziman Abu Mansor said more than 30 Internet-linked cases had been submitted to the country's attorney general in the past three years.

"If in future if we cannot cope any more due to too many cases, we may need to have a cyber court," he said, according to the official news agency Bernama.

Shaziman said police were investigating one case of a blog that allegedly published offensive content on Islam and the Prophet Mohammed, under the name of a Muslim Malay woman who has denied her involvement.

Malaysia's mainstream media is tightly controlled by the government, which has expressed frustration over its inability to rein in blogs and Internet portals, which have become popular alternative news sources.



Since last year it has taken action against several online figures, including detaining the nation's most popular blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin under a tough security law that allows for detention without trial.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has ranked Malaysia 124 out of 169 on its worldwide press freedom index.

The iPhone 3G Unlock

Online forums have been filling up with the cries of iPhone 3G users worldwide. You can thank The Dev Team for that. The group's latest iPhone hackery came in the form of an beta unlock tool for 3G devices two days ago. And while the instructions are easy enough to allow anyone to rip the AT&T exclusivity off of their mobile device--we've even given you a step-by-step guide for unlocking your iPhone 3G--not all has been well in the iPhone 3G world as of late. We've counted two iterations of the Dev Team's unlocking tool thus far, each promising to fix issues, errors, and does-not-work problems that have been plaguing would-be unlockers over the past 48 hours.


We've searched through countless forum posts, angry criticisms, and pleas for assistance to come up with the best methods for getting that unlock to stick. Before we give you the tips, you'll want to hit up The Yellowsn0w Report to check out the general status of the iPhone 3G unlocks and your carrier of choice. If a lot of people are striking out with your carrier, you might be out of luck. But if there's confusion--or better yet, a large number of successful unlocks--then you'll want to turn to one of the two following methods for getting the 0.9.4 beta unlock (as of this article's writing) to stick on your iPhone. These come courtesy of Lostfaith over at the Modmyi forums, who did a painstaking job of tracking down these seemingly arcane techniques: