Android phones outsell iPhone 2-to-1, says research firm

Google's OS powers 44% of smartphones sold in U.S. last quarter; Apple's iOS far behind

Android-powered smartphones outsold iPhones in the U.S. by almost 2-to-1 in the third quarter, a research firm said today.

Analysts explained the Android boom by pointing out the plethora of manufacturers that equip their smartphones with Google's mobile operating system, and highlighting their availability on all the major U.S. carriers.

"We started to see Android take off in 2009 when Verizon added the [Motorola] Droid," said Ross Rubin, the executive director of industry analysis for the NPD Group. "A big part of Android success is its carrier distribution. Once it got to the Verizon and Sprint customer bases, with their mature 3G networks, that's when we started to see it take off."

According to NPD's surveys of U.S. retailers, Android phones accounted for 44% of all consumer smartphone sales in the third quarter, an increase of 11 percentage points over 2010's second quarter. Meanwhile, Apple's iOS, which powers the iPhone, was up one point to 23%.

Research in Motion's (RIM) portion of the smartphone pie was 22% for the third quarter, down six percentage points from 2010's second quarter.

RIM's decline is easy to explain, said Rubin. "That's also related to the carrier distribution, which is difficult to underestimate," he said, noting that the carriers that now sell loads of Android phones are the same ones that have traditionally been major suppliers of RIM's BlackBerry.

RIM introduced its newest smartphone, theBlackBerry Torch 9800, in August. The handset is available only through AT&T, the U.S. carrier that also has an exclusive deal with Apple to sell theiPhone.

"That's why the Torch at AT&T isn't doing much to hold back the Android onslaught," Rubin said. "It's only on AT&T."

Kevin Restivo, an analyst with IDC, echoed Rubin's reasoning for Android's surge. "It's the collective growth in sales of HTC and Motorola," he said.

The trend has been building throughout the first half of the year, both Restivo and Rubin said.

In the first six months of 2010, Android accounted for 30.8% of all smartphone sales in the U.S., up from just 4.6% in the first half of the year before, said Restivo, citing IDC data. Apple's iOS, on the other hand, slipped from 21.1% in the first half of 2009 to 19.8% in the first six months of 2010.

RIM's sales share plummeted during the same period, falling from 51.4% in 2009 to 35.5% this year.

"Android has made its mark on the smartphone market, irrespective of what quarter we're talking about in 2010," said Restivo. IDC has not yet compiled its third-quarter sales estimates by operating system.

Apple will have a tough time matching Android smartphone sales until it breaks free of the exclusive partnership with AT&T, Rubin argued. "It's difficult for them to compete in market share leadership with just one carrier," he said.

Rumors that Apple will soon offer the iPhone to other U.S. carriers, primarily Verizon, pop up on a regular basis. Last month, the Wall Street Journalreported that Apple would add Verizon to its U.S. carrier stable early next year, a timeline that Brian Marshall of Gleacher & Co. said his sources confirmed.

Rubin offered another reason for Android's strong sales.

"The story for Android in 2010 is that, for most manufacturers and carriers, there really hasn't been any alternative," Rubin said. Microsoft's Windows Mobile faded badly this year, and its Windows Phone 7 has yet to appear on handsets in the U.S. And AT&T has Apple's iOS locked up for now. That left Android as the default OS for what Rubin called "modern" smartphones.

"Multiple manufacturers [with Android phones] provide more consumer choice in the marketplace," said Rubin.

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Google Claims U.S. Excluded It From Contract

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SAN FRANCISCO — Google is suing the Interior Department, claiming it considered only Microsoft products and not Google Apps when buying e-mail and collaboration software for its 88,000 employees.

The suit, filed Friday in the United States Court of Federal Claims by Google, contends that by considering only Microsoft products, the government was “unduly restrictive of competition.” The suit said the department violated the Competition in Contracting Act, which requires such bidding to be competitive.

Google is searching for its second act beyond search, including with applications that compete with Microsoft’s word processing, spreadsheet, e-mail and other office productivity products.

In the suit, Google describes many instances in which it tried to pitch its tools to the Interior Department, but says that the government ultimately limited the contract, which is worth up to $59.3 million, so only Microsoft products were considered.

Google seeks to block the department from buying any of the software until it allows competitive bidding.

Google Apps are cloud-based tools, meaning that people use the software through the Web. In September, Google said 30 million people at businesses, schools and other organizations used Google Apps. It is making only a small dent in Microsoft’s sales of Office software.

Some organizations have raised concerns about the security and reliability of Web-based software. In July, Google introduced Google Apps for government, which pass federal security standards and ensure that government e-mail and calendar data is stored only on servers in the United States.

Governments including the State of Wyoming and the city of Los Angeles use Google Apps. “In cases like Los Angeles and Wyoming, those were open and competitive bid processes and we beat Microsoft fair and square, and taxpayers have saved millions of dollars along the way,” said Andrew Kovacs, a Google spokesman. He declined to comment on the lawsuit specifically.

Microsoft, which last week won a major software contract from New York City, declined to comment. Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, also declined to comment.

BY CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

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Blekko: The Newest Search Engine

Yes, Google is great, but Blekko, which relies on human input, may be better.

Blekko.com, a new search engine that uses human input to help it sort out the world, is getting a lot of press today, including a lot of "Another search engine, who needs it? Google is better." send-offs. Yes, Google is the greatest search engine as of now, but that doesn't mean it cannot be beaten by some new algorithm or a better idea. Blekko is going for a better idea.

Blekko, in fact, adds so much weird dimensionality that out of all the recently hyped search engine ideas, such as www.cuil.com, I find it the most interesting. I do not say this often.

The first thing I do, of course, with a new engine is search for myself. I do not do this because I'm vain, but because I know exactly what should appear and in what order. Most writers, like myself, with a high-profile on the Internet use this same trick to see if a search engine is any good. Blekko nails the search. When I search for myself, one of the following items should appear at the top of the search: my blog at dvorak.org/blog and channeldvorak.com. After that, I expect to see links to my short bio, my wiki entry, PCMag, Mevio, Marketwatch, NoAgendashow, or other newer sites where I'm active. Google nails this every time. Yahoo always used to screw it up completely. Bing mostly nails it except for adding oddball links that have nothing to do with me. Most low-budget wannabees just make a mess with old links that have lingered for a decade.

Anyway, after it passed the initial screening, I tried to put it to work. Unlike other search engines, Blekko has added these odd little sublinks right under the link title to tag, seo, links, cache, ip, chatter, and spam.

Breakdown:

Tag – While this is nothing that Google cannot copy, it would be interesting to see if it actually does copy the idea. The tag link allows registered users of the system to add important tags that may apply to the site. This would be useful for future site users, but has the potential to be abused by both users and site owners. We'll see how far it gets.

SEO – This is fabulous information for site owners. It's essentially search-engine optimization information like ranking, inbound links, crawl stats, and more. You can compare sites and have a lot of time-wasting fun. Fantastic.

Links – This is a listing of the main sites that link to the page. Amusing.

Cache – This is a cache of the site which is useful if the site goes down. Google has already made this an important feature. It takes boatloads of computers to do this right.

IP – This shows the IP address under which the site is operating. When you click on it, you see other sites which use the same IP. This is a real eye-opener, to say the least.

Chatter – This seems to be a Twitter-like feature that allows you to tell others what you are up to regarding the site you are visiting.

Spam – This allows logged-in users to tag a site as spam. This would help eliminate many of the commercial sites that clog up search results. But it could also be abused. We'll see how this works out.

And tools hidden from view, which I expect to appear as additional features, are: dup, which shows duplicate content on the site; rss, which takes you directly to the RSS feed; site, which gives a site search; and similar, which shows similar sites. All of these seem to be useful and direct tools.

By: John C. Dvorak

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Facebook Says Data Broker Bought User IDs

Facebook on Friday said that an unspecified data broker had been paying Facebook developers for user identification numbers (UIDs) and that it has suspended a number of Facebook developers -- less than a dozen -- for six months as punishment.

The company said that no private user data had been sold -- Facebook does not consider UIDs to be private even though they can be used to track individual users -- and it said that the UIDs transferred were not used to access private data.

"Facebook has never sold and will never sell user information," said Facebook engineer Mike Vernal in a blog post. "We also have zero tolerance for data brokers because they undermine the value that users have come to expect from Facebook."

Facebook does not have to sell user information since most Facebook users give their information away to Facebook developers when they choose to use Facebook applications.


Facebook did not name the data broker that had paid for UIDs, but Vernal's blog post said that the company had also reached an agreement with RapLeaf, "the data broker who came forward to work with us on this situation." As part of the agreement, RapLeaf will delete UIDs in its possession and refrain from future activities involving Facebook, directly or indirectly.

The acknowledgement comes following a Wall Street Journal investigation last month that found popular Facebook apps revealed UID numbers. UID numbers can be used to determine a Facebook user's name and possibly other information. The principal privacy risk is that UIDs can be used to associate a Facebook identity with actions outside of Facebook.

In response to that investigation, Facebook put forward a plan to enable the optional encryption of UID numbers. The company has published a technical outline and solicited feedback from developers. It maintains that the additional issue of information exposed through HTTP Referer headers must be addressed by a broad range of technology companies.

The company also said that it is tightening its policies about how UIDs can be used, stored, and transmitted.

By Thomas Claburn

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Discovery gets green light for launch Wednesday

Discovery gets green light for launch Wednesday

Space shuttle Discovery and six astronauts got a green light today for the planned launch Wednesday of the fleet leader's final flight, an International Space Station outfitting mission.

The 18-story spaceship and its crew remain scheduled to blast off from Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A at 3:52 p.m. ET Wednesday, the middle of a 10-minute opportunity to set sail for the international outpost.

"Right now we're not tracking any issues that would prevent launch," said NASA Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach. "Nothing that's going to hold us up."

The weather forecast for Wednesday looks good. Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer with the U.S. Air Force's 45th Space Wing Weather Squadron, said there is a 70% chance conditions will be acceptable for launch. The only concerns are the possibility of low-level clouds or rain showers within 20 nautical miles of the Shuttle Landing Facility.

The weather on Thursday is expected degrade on Thursday. A cold front is expected to sweep over theFlorida peninsula, bringing a chance of low-level clouds, showers and possibly isolated thunderstorms into the Cape Canaveral area.


NASA flight rules prohibit launching when low-level clouds might obscure the view of the three-mile shuttle runway in the unlikely event of an emergency landing. Rain showers could damage the orbiter's fragile heat-shield tiles, and thunderstorms could trigger destructive bolts of lightning in flight.

The front is expected to pass through the area Thursday evening and the weather for Friday is expected to be better. There is a 70% chance of acceptable weather on Friday.

NASA must launch the shuttle by Nov. 7 or delay the flight until a short opportunity in early December. A new NASA analysis shows the agency might be able to make an attempt on Nov. 8. But as it stands, the sun angle on the station between Nov. 8 and Nov. 23 will be such that the outpost could not generate enough electricity or dispel enough heat to support a docked shuttle. Then a Soyuz crew is scheduled to depart the station on Nov. 29, leaving just three people onboard the outpost.

So the next opportunity would be Dec. 1 through Dec. 5. However, the Discovery mission includes several sortie science experiments that are to be performed on the station and then returned to Earth on Discovery. With only three station crewmates onboard the outpost, it's questionable whether the experiments could be carried out.

Traffic at the station then picks up with the arrivals of two Russian progress cargo carriers and space freighters from Europe and Japan. The next shuttle launch opportunity, as a result, would be Feb. 27, currently the launch date for the last flight of Endeavour.

By Todd Halvorson,

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Xbox Kinect To Crush PlayStation Move?

When it comes to the advanced controller wars, Microsoft's Xbox Kinect system could outsell Sony's PlayStation Move by a considerable margin in the crucial, holiday shopping season, according to a market watcher.

IDC, in a study released Monday, predicted Microsoft will sell between 2.5 million and 3 million Kinect sensors for Xbox 360 in the fourth quarter. IDC expects Sony to sell between 2 million and 2.25 million PlayStation move systems.

PlayStation Move allows gamers to interact with on-screen action through a handheld wand equipped with special sensors, while Kinect allows users to play completely hands free.

"While it doesn't appear Kinect or Move will be this year's Tickle Me Elmo, millions of additional U.S. households will be enjoying motion-based gaming this holiday season," said Lewis Ward, research manager for IDC's video game industry advisory service, in a statement.

Sony released the Move system late last month, and is offering a bundle that includes Sports Champions and the PlayStation Eye camera for $99.

Microsoft recently unveiled a slew of games for Xbox Kinect that will debut when the system launches on Thursday. The most high-profile title on the list is "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 1 The Videogame." From Electronic Arts, the $49.99 game gives players the chance to assume the character of the famous boy wizard.

Also launching on or around Kinect's Nov. 4 release date are Kinectimals (Frontier Studios), which lets players interact with on screen zoo animals, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved (Ubisoft), which provides exercise routines with the help of a virtual, on-screen trainer, and Kinect Sports (Rare), which lets users play simulated soccer, bowling, volleyball, and other games.

Kinect Joy Ride (Big Park) is billed as the world's first hands-free racing game, and Dance Central (MTV Games) allows players to groove to tunes by artists like Lady Gaga, No Doubt, M.I.A., and more.

Microsoft plans to introduce a $299 Kinect bundle that includes a new, slimmed down 4GB Xbox 360 console equipped with the Kinect sensor bar. The package also features Kinect Adventures, an exploration game designed to take full advantage of the Kinect technology. The company also is offering a $399 bundle that features a 250GB console with Kinect and the Kinect Adventures game.

Additionally, Microsoft will make the Kinect sensor bar available as an add-on for existing Xbox 360 consoles, at a price of $149, including Kinect Adventures.

The Kinect bar features a camera, audio sensors, and motion-sensing technology that tracks 48 points of movement on the human body. That means players can control on-screen action simply through physical gestures and verbal commands. The sensor bar is designed to plug directly into the Xbox 360 console

.By Paul McDougall ,

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Video game violence case goes to Supreme Court

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The Supreme Court will rule on California's ban on the sale of violent video games to minors. The state says the games are a bad influence on young people, but the industry cites free-speech rights.

One version of the video game "Postal 2" features an easily angered "postal guy" with dark glasses and a high-powered rifle. He wanders through town killing everyone he sees, leaving them bloody and mutilated. A trip to the library turns into carnage of mass shootings and blazing fires.

Another features young girls being struck by a shovel as they beg for mercy. The player can then pour gasoline over them, set them on fire and urinate on them.


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Despite admittedly being disturbed by what he saw in "Postal 2," a federal judge struck down, on free-speech grounds, a California law that would forbid the sale or rental of such grossly violent video games to those younger than 18.



On Tuesday, when much of the nation is focused on the midterm elections to Congress, the Supreme Court will hear California's appeal and debate whether the states can restrict the sale of violent games to children and teenagers.

Video games, immensely popular with children and teens, now reach into two-thirds of American households, according to the video game industry. Many games put players into a fantasy drama of good versus evil.

The state's lawyers have argued that the games are getting ever more realistic in their graphics and sound, and that they can immerse the young in an evil world of intense violence, torture, burning and mayhem.

They also cited research that found a link between regular viewing of violent games and feelings of aggression.

The California law defines a "violent video game" as one that involves "killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being" in a way that "appeals to a deviant or morbid interest" and has no "serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value." Violators would face a $1,000 fine. Parents, of course, would be free to purchase such a game for a child.

Industry lawyers said this definition was not clear.

It is "very vague, and it's impossible to tell which games it would apply to and which it would not," argued Ken Doroshow, general counsel for the Entertainment Software Assn., a trade organization representing game publishers.

"For example, it covers games that have a 'morbid interest to minors.' What does that mean? By a 17-year-old? By a 5-year-old? The statute doesn't say," he said.

The state also relied on a 1968 Supreme Court decision that said states may restrict the sale of pornography to minors, even if the same material were protected as free speech for adults.

If the 1st Amendment permits restricting the sale of Hustler magazine to teenagers, why can't sales of "morbidly" violent video games be restricted as well, the state's lawyers asked.

"I'm a big believer in the 1st Amendment, but this is a narrow issue involving sales. We regulate the sale of alcohol and cigarettes to kids because it's in their best interest. Parents need some help," said Jim Steyer, founder of nonprofit Common Sense Media in San Francisco and a leading champion of the law.

Defenders of the video games called the state's attempted crackdown the "latest in a long history of overreactions to expressive new media." From comic books and dime-store crime novels to movies, rock music and the Internet, each new media triggered fears that teenagers would be dreadfully harmed, they argued.

The industry also said its rating system warns parents and retailers about games that are inappropriate for minors.

Media lawyers also worry that a ruling upholding state regulation of video games could open the door to regulating other media.

"Rather than run afoul of the law, the creators will self-censor," Doroshow said. "This is what the 1st Amendment is designed to protect against — a chilling effect on speech."

The case is being closely watched by entertainment and media companies that fear they might be next.

The Motion Picture Assn. of America, in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, warned that the law would have "a dramatic chilling effect on the motion picture industry" if it was deemed constitutional by the court.

"If the court's reasoning is not confined to the particular medium of video games, state and local governments could attempt to impose similar restrictions on depictions of violence in other media, including motion pictures," the brief stated.

Attorneys for 11 states — including Illinois, Florida, Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia — joined in support of California, indicating they would consider similar laws if California's is upheld.

In recent years, as lawmakers began to move toward regulating violent or explicit games, the industry aggressively stepped up its voluntary system of ratings and recruited major retailers such as Wal-Mart and Toys R Us to help enforce them by requiring purchasers of games labeled Mature to show proof of age.

Last year, the industry took in an estimated $10 billion from the sales of video games, according to Wedbush Securities. The figure does not include sales of games downloaded from the Internet, which the California law does not govern.

Lawyers for the video game industry, acknowledging that movies are a major source for games, could not resist trying to tweak Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, their main adversary in the appeal, Schwarzenegger vs. Entertainment Merchants Assn.

"Several video games have been based on 'The Terminator,' " they said. They pointed out that the film was part of "a popular movie series in which petitioner Schwarzenegger portrayed an android-like creature sent back in time as part of a future war between humans and computers."

By David G. Savage and Alex Pham

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Rebellious Coders Home In on Apple TV Hacks, App Store

Rebellious Coders Home In on Apple TV Hacks, App Store

Apple calls the Apple TV a “hobby” because it isn’t a big seller. But for a bustling community of hackers, jailbreaking and tinkering with the set-top box is the real hobby.

The recent release of the second-generation Apple TV is revitalizing a group effort to crack open the set-top box and expand on its capabilities with third-party software. In the next month or two, the rebellious coders say they hope to open an underground app store for the device, just as hackers did for the popular iPhone before Apple opened its official App Store.

“The Apple TV has been jailbroken for less than a month, and the amount of progress that’s been made on [hacking] it so far is absolutely phenomenal,” said Scott Davilla, a programmer who is working to get the Boxee TV platform running on the Apple TV.

Apple’s original Apple TV was cracked years ago, but there was relatively low enthusiasm in modifying the device because of some nagging technical hurdles. Hacking the first Apple TV required using a “patch stick” — installing software on a bootable USB drive that broke through the set-top box’s restrictions — and not all USB flash drives booted properly. Also, interest in modding the original Apple TV waned over time: Hacking the device’s software required a Mac running an older version of the Mac OS X operating system (10.4.7), and later versions of OS X broke software used to test Apple TV apps on a desktop computer.

However, this time around, the Apple TV jailbreak community, called Awkward TV, believes that hacking Apple’s set-top box will be much more popular and energetic. This is thanks largely to the fact that the second-generation Apple TV runs iOS, the same mobile operating system that powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Hacking the device will be much easier for users: The Apple TV requires connecting with a computer by a USB cable and running existing jailbreak software to break its restrictions, just like users did with the iPhone. (In other words, the annoying patch-stick method is no more.)

And besides, hackers can’t resist the allure of modifying a $100 device into the set-top box of their dreams — a path that carries much less risk than, say, tampering with a pricier Mac Mini or a less aesthetically pleasing Windows PC.

Also, a major difference to the new Apple TV hacking scene is that many of these coders have been making apps for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch — so now, the community is much bigger, diverse and more experienced. A lot of the groundwork has already been laid by iOS jailbreakers, and third-party apps served through the underground app store Cydia should be compatible with the device.



“Everything is kind of coming full circle,” said Kevin Bradley, an Apple TV programmer who works under the handle [bile]. “The old Apple TV is kinda sputtering and dying because it’s a 4-year-old product. Now you have all the people who have done amazing stuff on the iPhone working with us, and it’s made our jobs for the Apple TV a thousand times easier…. I think some really amazing things could come out of this.”

Indeed, the Cydia community is already working on an interface to launch the Cydia app store directly on the Apple TV’s main menu. Also, the “grandfather” of Apple TV hacking Jim Dovey (better known by the hacker handle AlanQuatermain), is working on a software development kit for programmers to code and test special Apple TV apps.

Dovey said he’s especially excited about the potential for hacks to take advantage of AirPlay, an Apple feature that will enable iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch to wirelessly stream content from audio or video apps to the Apple TV.

“I’d be very interested in the possibilities of using AirPlay video to treat an AppleTV as an attached screen in my iPhone, iPad or even Mac apps,” Dovey said.

Already, owners of the new Apple TV can hack their device to run an early version of Bradley’s software, NitoTV, a media player that promises to support every media format. That makes the Apple TV seem weak: It only plays a few iTunes-compatible formats, such as H.264-encoded MPEG-4 videos.

Bradley is also working to get some of his old Apple TV hacks working on the new system, such as an app that enables you to play Super Nintendo on the Apple TV, and an app that allows you to order a pizza.

The Awkward TV community is compiling a list of potential capabilities that could be unlocked with Apple TV hacks, such as playing Flash videos, connecting a TV tuner for recording, or hooking up a CD/DVD player for playing discs.

What are some Apple TV hacks you’d like to see once an unauthorized app store opens? Suggest and vote on ideas in the Reddit widget below, and maybe your wish will come true.

by  Brian X. Chen

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Apple Sues Motorola over Multitouch in Android Phones

Apple sues Motorola for infringing on patents related to multitouch and other access technologies in its Android smartphone lineup. Motorola had sued Apple earlier this month

Apple fired back at Motorola for what it alleges is an infringement on patents for multitouch and other touch-screen-related technologies the rival phone maker employs in its popular Android smartphone lineup.

Three weeks after Motorola sued Apple over smartphone-related patents, Apple filed two suits in the U.S. District Court in Wisconsin, alleging Motorola handsets such as the Droid, Droid X and Droid 2 infringe on six patents dealing with ways users access the handsets.

Apple is seeking damages and wants the court to halt Motorola from selling its Droid phones. Patently Apple details the lawsuits here.

The Droid devices, sold by Verizon Wireless, have helped Google's Android platform top 20 percent market share in two years. They've also helped loose Motorola from the phone sale doldrums, boosting the company to a $109 million profit in the recently closed quarter.

Motorola said it will contest the lawsuits, the latest in a series of legal skirmishes between Apple and other smartphone makers. The suits are part of Apple's bid to slow Android's speedy rise in the market.

Apple launched its popular iPhone in 2007 with some solid innovations in multitouch technology, including the practice of using two fingers to pinch and zoom on the phone.

The iPhone, for which Apple has filed many patents, has grown to capture 25 percent of smartphone market share in the United States.

Apple sued HTC in March, alleging the phone maker infringed on 20 patents, including interface, hardware technologies used in HTC's handsets, including Android-based devices.

HTC fired back, suing Apple for infringing on five patents, and requesting that the International Trade Commission prevent Apple from selling its iPhone, iPod and iPad devices in the United States. Apple would file a second suit versus HTC in June.

Microsoft got in on the Android-suing action earlier this month, suing Motorola for violating nine patents related to technologies in its Android handsets.

That came months after HTC agreed to pay Microsoft royalties related to the use of smartphone technologies in its Android phones.

Perhaps as a pre-emptive strike for legal action related to Android phones from Apple, Motorola sued Apple for infringing on Motorola patents in technology used in the Apple iPhone, iPad, iTouch and certain Mac computers.

Motorola filed its complaints in the United States and with the International Trade Commission

By: Clint Boulton

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TECH CHRONICLES - Promoted Tweet ads

TECH CHRONICLES - Promoted Tweet ads

Twitter Inc. on Monday began expanding its Promoted Tweets advertising program to include ads dropped into the timelines of some Twitter members.

The San Francisco micro-blogging service said it is rolling out the ads to some of the Twitter members who use the third-party social media client HootSuite.

According to AdAge magazine, Twitter advertisers Virgin, Starbucks and Red Bull have signed on to try the new ads, short Twitter messages that appear with the label "promoted by." Although still experimental, Promoted Tweets is a major component of the company's plans to capitalize on its growing reach - Twitter has more than 175 million members around the world.

Twitter spokesman Matt Graves said in a blog post that the company in April outlined plans to roll out Promoted Tweets gradually, starting with linking them to searches on its main website.

The test through HootSuite, which has 900,000 users, is the next step, Graves said.

"As we have done since the beginning of our Promoted product efforts, Twitter is taking a deliberate and thoughtful approach to this test," Graves wrote. "We're carefully looking at how Twitter users react to and engage with Promoted Tweets in the timeline."

"During this testing period with HootSuite, we will experiment with where and when Promoted Tweets are shown in the timeline. Not all HootSuite users will see Promoted Tweets and those who do may see different Promoted Tweets in different places in their timeline," he said.

The ads will appear based on "several signals," including the list of Twitter members that a user follows, Graves said.

by Benny Evangelista

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Samsung Galaxy Tab Costs Less To Make Than Rival IPad

Samsung Electronics Co.'s (SSNHY, 005930.SE) Galaxy Tab's combined materials and production costs total $214.57, according to a breakdown by iSuppli, costing "significantly less" than the technology researcher's estimate for the 3G version of the rival iPad.

ISuppli said the reduced cost is largely the result of Galaxy's smaller and lower resolution display when compared with Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) blockbuster tablet, the iPad, which costs an estimated $264.27 to manufacture.

"Instead of matching up with the iPad on a feature-by-feature basis, the Galaxy Tab really is [a] larger version of Samsung's Galaxy 5 smartphone," said Andrew Rassweiler, principal analyst for iSuppli. He said while the Galaxy is less expensive to produce than the iPad 3G, it also makes for a product that "lacks the same usability."

The Galaxy's screen resolution, size and technology are not at the same level as the iPad, a "critical difference," according to Rassweiler

Still, the device does contain some features not found in the iPad, including a gyroscopic Microelectromechanical Systems sensor, likely for use in gaming.

ISuppli estimates the cost of the display/touch subsystem in the Galaxy costs $57; making it the most expensive component of the device, although less than the iPad's $98. That component was followed by the memory subsystem, which cost $51, while numerous mechanical and electromechanical components costs $15.22.

Last week, Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) announced it planned to sell the Galaxy for a third less than rival Verizon Wireless, saying it would sell the device for $399.99 in exchange for a two-year commitment to a data service plan. Verizon Wireless--a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and Vodafone Group PLC (VOD, VOD.LN)--had said it would sell the device for $599.99, but offered a prepaid data plan without the requirement of a contract. Both will begin selling the device later this month. -By John Kell

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ViewSonic's 10-inch tablet boots Windows and Android

ViewSonic's 10-inch tablet boots Windows and Android

ViewSonic is making a 10.1-inch tablet that will come with both Windows Home 7 Premium and Google's Android 1.6, and can boot with either operating system, pairing an unlikely duo -- Microsoft and Google -- on the same device. Though some laptops and netbooks dual-boot Windows along with simple, energy-saving Linux OSes, this may be the first true Windows/Android hybrid tablet.

The ViewPad 10 will cost $629, and be available in the first quarter of the new year, ViewSonic said. Another tablet, the ViewPad 7 -- with a 7-inch screen -- is more like the current crop of Android tablets, with no Windows, just the most recent version of Android, 2.2. It will cost $479 and be available late this year.

"With access to the universe of Android apps, our new ViewPads are perfectly suited for enjoying digital entertainment and social media. Office productivity is also a snap with robust Web-browsing functionality," said Jeff Volpe, vice president and general manager for ViewSonic Americas, in a press release.

The 10.1-inch Wi-Fi-only tablet will use an Intel Atom 1.66GHz processor, have 1 GB of memory, a 16 GB solid-state hard drive and expandable microSD slot.

The tablet -- with the closet current competitor being the 9.7-inch iPad from Apple -- is "ideally designed to view Flash-based content and Office programs with Windows, and for an optimized mobile entertainment experience with Android," ViewSonic said.

Apple does not use Adobe Flash for viewing of Web sites, videos and animations, using HTML 5 instead. Apple CEO Steve Jobs contends there are security issues with Flash, and that it is too much of a drain on mobile devices' battery power. Also, only Android devices running 2.2 (or later) can access Flash, so the Android portion of the 10-inch ViewPad will not support it either at launch.

The 10.1-inch tablet will have a 1.3-megapixel webcam with built-in microphone, so it can be used for videoconferencing, ViewSonic said. Screen resolution will be 1024-by-600 pixels, and the capacitive multi-touch screen will use an LED backlit panel.

The 7-inch model is the most similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which has the same-size screen and is being offered by T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint, all starting this month. In fact, unlike its larger sibling, it will come with cellular connectivity (probably unlocked, for use with certain data plans from T-Mobile and AT&T), and will include Google's mobile suite of apps, including access to the all-important App Market. (The ViewPad 10 will have none of this, according to the press release.)

At Verizon, for example, the Tab costs $600 plus a minimum of $20 a month for a data plan. At T-Mobile and Sprint, the Tab costs $399, but the monthly data plans differ. New T-Mobile customers, for example, pay $30 for 200 MB of data, or $50 for 5 GB, a month; at Sprint, the month data cost is $30 for 2 GB and $60 for 5 GB.

The ViewPad 7, with an 800-by-480 WVGA LCD screen, two built-in cameras, the first a 3-megapixel, auto-focus camera in the rear and a 0.3 megapixel camera in the front for videoconferencing. Its battery life will be "up to 10 hours," ViewSonic says, comparable to that of the iPad.

"The result is the ultimate device for connected fun and multitasking -- in a compact size easier to carry than a netbook and with better media performance than a smart phone," the company said in its statement.

By Suzanne Choney

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Microsoft clarifies Silverlight role

Microsoft Clarifies Silverlight Role

Silverlight still has a bright and promising future with Microsoft, the company's servers and tools division chief, Bob Muglia, wrote in a blog post on Monday, aiming to quell rumors to the contrary.

"Make no mistake; we'll continue to invest in Silverlight and enable developers to build great apps and experiences with it in the future," Muglia wrote.

With the post, Muglia was responding to the reaction to an earlier interview he had done with ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley, in which he described Silverlight primarily as a development platform for Windows Phone 7. He downplayed its cross-platform capabilities, characterizing HTML5 as the tool of choice for cross-platform developments instead.

"Our strategy has shifted," he said in that interview.

Microsoft had originally developed Silverlight as a platform for building Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). An alternative to Adobe Flash and Flex, Silverlight could be used to build applications that would run, with the aid of a plug-in, across different browsers, and would offer capabilities that HTML itself could not provide.

But Foley, and others, had noted Silverlight's low profile at the company's Professional Developers Conference (PDC), held last week in Seattle. There, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer only mentioned it once during his keynote speech, while at the same time praising HTML5's cross-platform capabilities. Also, the PDC itself did not have that many sessions devoted to Silverlight.

For many, this lack of a presence was just the latest and most definitive signthat Silverlight's future itself was in jeopardy.

Not helping matters was the fact that Microsoft has not announced a release date for the next version of Silverlight, version 5. In a series of widely read blog posts and Twitter updates, Web designer Scott Barnes, a former Silverlight product manager, has speculated that Silverlight is losing favor within Microsoft itself, perhaps due to the fact that its cross-platform compatibility could be a threat to the Windows dominance of the desktop.

Forrester Research analyst Jeffrey Hammond said the reaction to the ZDNet interview was "a tempest in a teapot." On Twitter, within a matter of a few hours, "It went from 'our strategy is shifting' to 'Silverlight is dead,'" he said.

In his blog post, Muglia attempted to dispel the gloomy rumors. He described Silverlight as Microsoft's platform for building Web-based applications that can run across different Microsoft platforms, either on the desktop or on a mobile device. "The purpose of Silverlight has never been to replace HTML, but rather to do the things that HTML (and other technologies) can't, and to do so in a way that's easy for developers to use," he wrote.


Even before Muglia's blog posting, analysts were skeptical of the idea that Microsoft was killing off Silverlight.

"Silverlight is extremely important for Microsoft, because it may be Microsoft's best way to take the native client development for Windows forward to a Web architecture," said IDC analyst Al Hilwa, who oversees application development software.

Hilwa noted that when Microsoft released Silverlight, the company did not expect that such a wide range of mobile platforms would be available within a few years. "We have a world with many more platforms and form factors," he said. Now, Microsoft would probably not be interested in porting Silverlight to all these platforms, though Silverlight still makes sense for bridging different Windows platforms, Hilwa said.

"There are still a lot of Web applications deployed inside of enterprises that are running on Windows platforms," Hammond said. "Those organizations that have large libraries of .NET applications will continue to use Silverlight, because it represents an easier way to deploy those applications compared to a full .NET client."

by  Joab Jackson

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