Gregarius » BetaNews.Com

BetaNews.Com (13 non lus)

Dell changes its Windows vs. Linux netbook strategy, plans new subsidized model

Publié: mai 13, 2009, 11:22pm CEST par Jacqueline Emigh

By Jacqueline Emigh, Betanews
Rolled out last night at a press event in New York City, the Mini 10v "companion netbook" offers some but not all of the same features as the slightly pricier Inspiron Mini 10 "media netbook," according to DK Ray, product marketing manager.
The new Inspiron Mini 10v is the first netbook from Dell to be available for Windows and Linux simultaneously, and it won't be the last. Up to now, Dell has released the Windows XP flavors before the Ubuntu Linux editions. Going forward, though, Dell will ship all future netbooks on the same OS, Ray divulged, in a meeting with Betanews at the event.
Dell's increasing emphasis on Linux is a bit surprising, given that a number of observers lately have pointed to Windows' growing domination on netbook platforms industry-wide.
Ray also told Betanews last night that, within the next few months, a wireless carrier partner will announce plans to sell a subsidized version of the Mini 10, a fuller-featured model introduced in February with initial pricing of $349 from Dell.
But Ray wouldn't spell out whether Dell's partner on the Mini 10 would be AT&T, a company already selling different netbooks from Dell, Acer, and LG. "But it will be something like that," Betanews was told.
In comparing Dell's two latest netbooks during a demo last night, Ray referred to the TV-enhanced Mini 10 as a "media netbook," and the cheaper 10v as a PC "companion netbook." Both models come with a 120 GB or 160 GB hard drive, a touchpad, support for multiple wireless networks, and a keyboard that's ultra large for a netbook, for instance.
"But here's what you get for the extra $50," Ray elaborated. The Mini 10's sensors for multitouch gestures are absent from the 10v. So is the edge-to-edge glass in the Mini 10's display. Instead of the 10v's plastic casing, the 10 comes in magnesium, a ruggeder substance still uncommon in netbooks.
Most of the other differences revolve around video entertainment. Where the 10 is equipped for "embedded local TV," the 10v isn't. The 10 provides an HDMI port, in contrast to the 10v's VGA port.
Dell has also cut costs on the 10v by using an Intel Atom N processor in place of the 10's pricier Atom Z processor, which offers optional 720P hi-def video support plus longer battery life.
The Linux edition of the 10v ships with Ubuntu Linux 8.0.4. "We'll continue to improve with the software used on the Linux side," Ray told Betanews.
Also at the event, Dell showed off its latest laptop and desktop PC models, along with gaming gear from Alienware and "family-focused" software from Cozi. An Alienware rep noted that the gaming hardware arm will be making a product announcement at the E3 conference next month.
Dell's software partner Cozi is now beta testing Facebook integration with its Journal "mini-blogging" feature, said Robbie Cape, CEO and co-founder, during another interview. Integration with Twitter and e-mail is likely to follow next year, Cape added.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Adobe delivers a patch for JavaScript-related PDF vulnerability

Publié: mai 13, 2009, 11:01pm CEST par Angela Gunn

By Angela Gunn, Betanews
Adobe this week delivered a patch for a highly critical PDF vulnerability that's been hanging open since late April -- 14 days of potential mayhem, but a lot faster than their previous month-long delay on a critical-level hole earlier this year.
Though Adobe has denied knowledge of exploits in the wild for the problem, which stems from a JavaScript memory corruption error, at least one security firm says they're out there if you look. Speaking to SCMagazineUS.com, a representative of Arizona-based Lumension says the firm has spotted infected PDF files on China-based Web servers.
Tuesday was a trifecta of sorts for big updates, to the consternation of some IT managers scrambling to patch everything that needs patching. Microsoft's usual Patch Tuesday collection included one critical-level patch this month (in a set of 14 patches addressing various PowerPoint glitches), while Apple moved OS X 10.5.7 and Safari 3.2.3 as well as the year's second security update, addressing a whopping 67 issues.
The updates to Reader and Acrobat are available for the 7,8, and 9 Windows versions (through 9.1), and for the 8 and 9 versions on Macintosh and Unix; a second vulnerability related specifically to the Unix version of Adobe Reader. A patch for Mac versions of Reader 7 and Adobe 7 should be available before the end of June.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Intel CEO: The exclusivity and loyalty of OEMs are up for bids

Publié: mai 13, 2009, 10:26pm CEST par Scott M. Fulton, III

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews
This morning's ruling by the European Commission essentially finding Intel guilty of illegally tying rebates to exclusivity agreements, and other practices, is said to be a 500+ page document that as of now remains under seal. But the EC's characterization of its ruling today paints a picture of a dominant market manipulator that made exclusivity deals with at least five major global PC producers and Germany's largest PC retailer, making them offers they couldn't refuse that kept AMD from competing on an equal playing field.
"Not all rebates are a competition problem -- often they will lead to lower prices for consumers in the long term as well as the short," stated EC Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes in a press conference this morning in Brussels. "But the Intel rebates in this case were a problem because of the conditions that Intel attached to its rebates. Moreover, the Commission has examined closely whether an efficient competitor could have matched these rebates. These conditions, to buy less of AMD's products or to not buy them at all, prevented AMD from competing with Intel on the merits of its products. This removed the possibility of genuine choice for consumers and undermined innovation."
But in his response to reporters on behalf of his company early this afternoon, East Coast time, Intel CEO Paul Otellini suggested that the EC investigators essentially saw what they wanted to see, and by overlooking key facts, ignored the basic principles by which the computer product market operates in Europe. Without saying so in explicit language, and without naming any of Intel's own customers, Otellini adeptly countered that the business environment that leads to exclusivity deals was set up by those customers. Specifically, he did say that manufacturers auction off their sales, and the winner of those auctions effectively cancels out the loser, achieving exclusivity by default.
"On occasion, we'll sell a combination of microprocessors and other chips at a price which is more favorable than if people bought the products independently," Otellini told reporters. "They have the right to buy the products independently, they have the right to mix-and-match products. But we believe that, relative to our CPU chipset pricing, there's no harm nor foul there. On the rebates, it's a simple volume discount kind of environment. We bid for business under a number of conditions, some of which are trying to meet competition. Our customers put business up for bids, we bid on it, AMD bids on it, and when you have a market which is principally supplied by two players, when one company wins, the other, by definition, will lose the business. And so I think this is really just a matter of competition at work, which is something I think we all want to see, versus something nefarious."
Otellini later went on to describe customers -- presumably including Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo (the PC market successor to IBM), and NEC -- as being particularly savvy market players who set up the conditions for the market in which AMD and Intel both play. By implication, he said that if any of these customers end up buying 80% or more of their CPUs from Intel, it's because it wanted to, and because that much of its business was up for bids.
Notice, the CEO commented, that none of the manufacturers named by the European Commission this morning were actually complainants in the case. One reporter asked, could that be because they were afraid to comment -- afraid to lose Intel's business? Otellini dismissed the whole idea as ridiculous, saying, "As to our customers, it's absurd to think that we would not sell product to someone who happened to not like a particular comment or term or whatever. This is a very competitive business, our customers are in most cases larger than Intel. Our customers have incredible buying power, and are excellent negotiators. So on the face of it, your scenario is absurd."
Otellini said he had not yet seen the 500+ page ruling handed down by the EC, so he was baffled at how it could have reached an amount for the fine of €1.06 billion. If that's supposed to represent harm to the consumer, he said, he can't figure out how that aligns. "It's hard to imagine how consumers were harmed in an industry which has lowered the cost of computing by a factor of 100 during the term of this case," he said. "And at the same time that happened, AMD claims that it's more vibrant than ever. So I don't see either evidence of consumer harm or competitor harm happening here."
Soon after Otellini's press conference, AMD Vice President for Advanced Marketing Pat Moorhead spoke with Betanews. We asked Moorhead, how would the European CPU market have been different had Intel not engaged in this conduct?
"I believe that there would be an impact on innovation, I believe there could be an impact on price, and also an impact on people's choice," Moorhead told Betanews. But is there a realistic dollar value that AMD or anyone has been able to pin to this impact, we continued -- knowing that AMD's civil suit against Intel in a Delaware court is ongoing, and that AMD seeks damages there. "I actually think the EU put a dollar figure on it the best they can. Does that represent the exact damages to the consumer? I don't know," he responded. "But if you think about the fact that there's a 50% price delta between us and Intel, if you look at the fact that they've just been convicted of using monopolistic power, using bribery and coercive measures, to block us out, I think it's pretty safe to say that its impact on prices could have been pretty amazing.
"I think it would be very different, in terms of the amount of innovation, the amount of money that AMD could have reinvested into its R&D," continued AMD's Moorhead. "Now, OEMs set the pricing for the end systems, but if you look at the 50% differential between our products and Intel's microprocessors, it's not too difficult for me to assume that prices would be different as well. And there has been a lot of innovation, and I think there is no artificial barrier of how far innovation can go. If we can all agree that, without competition, there isn't innovation and there are higher prices, you put that monopolistic practice in there, and it's not going to go as fast as it would have gone."
Next: How much change will the PC market actually see?
How much change will the PC market actually see?
We presented Moorhead and AMD Communications Director John Taylor with Otellini's statement of just minutes earlier, painting the CPU market as being driven by manufacturers whose loyalties have price tags that dominant players, by the EC's definition, are better able to satiate than others. While both declined to knock down the Intel CEO's illustrations entirely, Moorhead asserted there's a big difference between volume pricing -- which Otellini said was the only dynamic in play during the relevant period of the EC's investigation -- and exclusionary pricing, which gives customers huge price breaks in exchange for exclusivity. However it was that these deals were entered into, he told us, the EC determined that they were in fact made, and that Intel is in fact responsible.
"Who knows how far prices would have fallen had Intel played fairly?" Moorhead asked rhetorically. He went on to cite the count of the EC ruling where HP declined a majority of AMD's offer of free CPUs, in order not to interfere with its existing deal with Intel. "You can't get cheaper than free," he said. At one point during today's Intel press conference, a reporter asked Otellini whether he felt consumers would be less inclined to purchase Intel-based products. "It's hard to imagine that the dynamics of competition would change," he responded. "Most customers buy from both suppliers today. Most customers buy more or less from each supplier depending on the quality of the products, the competitiveness of the products, and the pricing. That dynamic hasn't changed in my career at Intel, which is 35 years, and I don't expect it to change. I don't think a customer is going to put him- or herself at a disadvantage by buying inferior or more costly products just to try to walk lines that maybe are artificial."
AMD's Pat Moorhead, though, believes that Intel is now permanently marked. Like an ex-convict, it now has to check in with EU authorities periodically to have its behavior monitored. And that stain may extend to its business deals in the US and elsewhere, he said: "If someone steals from his neighbor, it still makes that person a thief, even though he didn't steal from your house."
From this point, AMD's John Taylor believes that customer and even press perception of AMD will be fairer and more even-handed. "It's not AMD that has to change," he repeated a few times, especially after we cited Otellini more times than he might have liked. "There is [now] a virtuous cycle of fair competition and innovation. [In its absence,] it doesn't matter how hard AMD innovates; the judges will score half-a-point for every blow AMD lands and two points for every blow Intel lands. [Intel's behavior] shuts down that virtuous cycle, stands on AMD's windpipe, and caps that reward for innovation that AMD would receive, that could have been poured back into R&D."
Expecting the opposite opinion from Otellini, one reporter asked him today whether he expected PC prices could rise as a result of the ruling, partly from Intel passing on the costs of the fine (payable within 90 days of the ruling) to its customers. Repeating his notion that the fine is not officially a "cost" per se that can be transferred to consumer prices, the CEO responded, "I think they'll absolutely see a difference in the price of PCs. Certainly...prices will continue to go down. Quality goes up, performance goes up. There's nothing in this ruling that reverses Moore's law."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Opting to go one-up in virtualization, Oracle ingests Virtual Iron

Publié: mai 13, 2009, 8:37pm CEST par Angela Gunn

By Angela Gunn, Betanews
The company already has a decent hypervisor in Oracle VM, and more options on the way as the Sun buy comes to pass, but Oracle is apparently looking to upgrade its toolset. The company announced on Wednesday that it's acquiring Virtual Iron (nee Katana Technology), which offers a hypervisor with an interesting and speedy set of system tools. It's expected that those tools will be combined with the current Oracle offering.
Virtual Iron has in recent years been overtaken by big-iron (Citrix, VMWare, Microsoft) interest in the category, but the company brought some interesting policy-based and modular thinking to the table. Past and current customers include Priceline.com, Sandia National Labs, Siemens, Toyota, Hitachi and the office of the Maine Attorney General.
As Virtual Iron's offerings stand today, there's an emphasis on dynamic management, scalability and automation, with modules such as LiveMigrate, which moves virtual machines from one physical server to another without requiring a service interruption. Other on-the-fly management tools include LiveMaintenance, LiveCapacity, and LiveRecovery.
CPU and storage capacity and power-management issues are strong points for Oracle, especially with Citrix and VMware both having announced similar features in their own competitive products. The product also includes better potential integration of VMs with the rest of the server setup thanks to scriptable APIs. The management application is Web-based and "zero-touch" for the physical servers once the installation of the Virtualization manager was complete.
Testing by ESG Lab last year revealed revealed a speedy wizard-based installation process that reviewers described as "straightforward and easy," and the software got good marks overall for being simple and intuitive to use. The lab evaluation spoke favorably of Virtual Iron's support for both virtual and physical storage, along with capabilities such as snapshots, remote replication and multi-path failover, and recommended that small- and medium-sized businesses in particular would do well to look at Virtual Iron for their virtualization needs.
Terms of acquisition for the privately held Virtual Iron were not revealed. Oracle says that information on the fate of the existing Virtual Iron roadmap will be released later in the year. Barring obstacles, the acquisition should conclude this summer; meanwhile, the two companies are operating separately and support for Virtual Iron's current customers and products continues.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Clearwire aligns with Cisco for WiMAX

Publié: mai 13, 2009, 8:32pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews
Today, mobile WiMAX operator Clearwire announced that its core infrastructure provider for the Clear 4G mobile WiMAX network moving forward will be Cisco.
Scott Richardson, Chief Strategy Officer of Clearwire said, "By teaming with Cisco, one of the world's most forward-looking IP network infrastructure providers, we're building a robust and cost-efficient next-generation network that's designed specifically for delivering rich broadband services."
The plan for the two companies involves bringing mobile WiMAX to more than 80 US markets by the end of next year. Currently, Clearwire has built only a single WiMAX network of the two major deployments in the United States, and it was built on infrastructure provided by Motorola, which includes access points, gateways, and consumer premises equipment.
In fact, the very first mobile WiMAX 802.16e handoff took place in 2007 on Motorola's equipment (with WAP 400 access points.)
Even the Baltimore-based Sprint 4G network (nee Xohm) which was built using Samsung infrastructure includes consumer products made by Motorola.
Though Cisco is a networking veteran with a reputable name, it's a rookie in WiMAX equipment. The company hopes to produce its first mobile WiMAX device later this year.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Novatel portable hotspot to launch with Sprint, Verizon

Publié: mai 13, 2009, 7:11pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews
Novatel's MiFi 2200 was unveiled last December, promising a portable 3G hotspot in a package no larger than a deck of cards. The unique device is unlike previous carrier-subsidized 3G modems in that it not only includes a wireless router for sharing connections, but that it also requires no host machine for use.
The 3.5" x 2.3" x .3" device weighs only 2.05 ounces, supports up to five simultaneous Wi-Fi connections, WEP and WPA2-PSK security, and includes SPI Firewall protection. The device is battery-powered and can run for about four hours on a charge. Novatel publicly showed the device off for the first time less than six months ago at CES 2009.
Last week, Verizon announced that it will begin offering the device on May 17 for $99.99 (after a $50 rebate) and with a new two-year customer agreement. Monthly service pricing is either $39.99 for a 250 MB monthly allowance and 20¢ per megabyte overage or $59.99 for a 5 GB monthly allowance and 5¢ per megabyte overage.
Today, Sprint announced its own plans to offer the device under the name Sprint Mobile Hotspot in the first week of June. Sprint's charge for the device is identical to Verizon's, and the carrier's broadband plan with a 5 GB cap with 5¢ overage fees is also the same, but rather than offer a lower tier plan, it opts to go for a more comprehensive one called Simply Everything plus Mobile Broadband.
For $149 a month, users get the aforementioned MiFi service plan plus an unlimited text and data plan for a select Sprint 3G smartphone.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Retailers face new hurdles in their exodus to the Internet

Publié: mai 13, 2009, 6:48pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews
This Friday, May 15, the United States Census Bureau will release its revised quarterly e-commerce market estimate, in which the government looks at overall retail performance and compares it with the online retail environment. Since the turn of the millennium, e-commerce has been expected to eventually supplant on-site shopping, and has represented an increasing portion of all retail sales. That is, it did until 2008.
Because of the recession, the Census Bureau last year predicted that growth would all but cease in e-commerce. The National Retail Federation found that these predictions were mostly true, and marked a 2% decline in Internet spending in 2008, the first such decline since becoming recognized as a significant retail channel.
This is only a symptom of the overall hit retail spending has taken. President and CEO of the International Council of Shopping Centers Rene Tremblay recently said, "The 'build it and they will come' mindset that is in vogue throughout the developing world no longer applies in North America." Tremblay's group predicts that even with tax rebates, shopping in US chain stores will be down about 1% in the next month.
Today, the Commerce Department said that total retail sales fell 1.3% in March and a further 0.4% in April.
Citing a study from Forrester Research, the National Retail Federation said it expects companies to continue to shift their goals toward the acquisition and retention of Web customers, while brick-and-mortar stores will remain, for all practical purposes, on subsistence level.
During 2008, hundreds of retailers filed for bankruptcy, and about a half dozen national chains closed their doors to their physical retail shops to re-focus their attention solely upon Web-based sales.
CompUSA -- The popular computer retailer shut all but sixteen of its 104 stores, was bought by TigerDirect owner Systemax, and shifted to a position where it dealt mostly in online transactions. According to Google's Alexa, the site's page views have dropped by 5% in the last three months.
The Sharper Image -- This gizmo storefront filed for bankruptcy in 2008 after three straight years of losses and expensive litigation over its Ionic Breeze air purifiers. It may have closed all 184 of its stores in June, but it continues to exist online. The Sharper Image's online property plummeted in unique visits this year, earning 31,045 visits in April 2009 versus the 200,000 hits it achieved at the same time last year.
Linens n' Things -- After filing for bankruptcy and closing down all retail outlets last year, this housewares store lost more than 90% of its online traffic. Yesterday, the company announced that it has "re-opened" under new management and will be continuing as a solely e-commercial company.
Circuit City -- During 60-year old consumer electronics retailer Circuit City's liquidation, former competitor CompUSA cast aspersions on the company's methods. Now, however, the defunct company has sold its trademarks and Web site to the same company that owns CompUSA, Systemax. Though details of the transaction have not yet been made public, a resurrection of the brand could be quickly approaching.
No company yet has gone from being a wholly brick-and-mortar shop to a wholly virtual one and had numbers to back it up. But the deck is stacking up in favor of an upcoming boom in online business, where competition is king, and economy of scale is no longer an immediate advantage.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Hanging up now: Verizon backs out of landline business in 14 states

Publié: mai 13, 2009, 6:25pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews
In a deal valued at $8.6 billion, Verizon Communications has agreed to sell its wireline assets in Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Washington, West Virginia and parts of California to Connecticut-based Frontier Communications.
Verizon will spin off its assets into an independent business called New Communications Holdings Inc. (creatively called "SpinCo") which will then merge with Frontier's existing model in approximately one year's time. Frontier will earn 4.8 million lines and incur $3.3 billion in debt.
According to the company, this transaction turns Frontier into "the largest 'pure' rural provider of voice, broadband, and video services with more than 7 million access lines in 27 states." Less than one percent of Frontier's coverage footprint will be urban areas, and the majority will be areas with 37 households per square mile. It will enjoy the greatest expansion in the Great Lakes area and Pacific Northwest.
"This transaction is part of our multi-year effort to transform our growth profile and asset base to focus on wireless, broadband, and global IP," said Verizon CEO and Chairman Ivan Seidenberg, "Frontier knows how to run wireline communications services well and has a top-notch management team to take these properties to the next level."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
EU fines Intel $1.4B, says it paid OEMs, retailer to exclude AMD products

Publié: mai 13, 2009, 5:21pm CEST par Scott M. Fulton, III

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews
For years, the evidence against Intel with regard to its business conduct in Europe has been treated as allegation, especially by anyone in the press with any serious intent of showing fairness. As of today, at least in Europe, it's no longer an allegation: Intel cheated, says the European Commission this morning, in a decision that can best be described as the worst-case scenario for Intel coming to fruition.
This morning, the EC found that for a 62-month period beginning in October 2002, Intel paid German retailer MediaMarkt, which operates stores primarily in Germany and Russia (not an EU member), to sell Intel-based computers exclusively in its retail outlets. This based on evidence turned up during a February 2008 raid of Intel's German offices.
And in instances that were already at the heart of AMD's civil antitrust lawsuits against Intel in the US and abroad, the Commission ruled that Intel made rebates throughout the same period to five major computer manufacturers, based on conditions that are illegal under European law. It's not the rebates themselves that are illegal, the EC made clear, but rather the fact that they were tied to the recipients' keeping their promise to limit their shipments of AMD-based products in key categories from as little as 20% of their overall sales, to as little as zero.
In deference to those recipient companies, the EC this morning left out their identities with regard to specific charges. But it did reveal their names collectively, and it's the names we'd expected since AMD's 2005 civil suit against Intel began: Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and NEC. In explaining the events of Intel's misconduct, the EC referred to these companies in random order, calling them computer makers "A," "B," "C," "D," and "E."
If we piece together some of the news that happened during the relevant period, their identities may perhaps be easily sorted out. For example, according to the EC's statement this morning, "Intel made payments to computer manufacturer E provided that this manufacturer postponed the launch of an AMD-based notebook from September 2003 to January 2004." Taiwanese industry daily DigiTimes had covered the market extensively during this period. Its reporting (excerpted here) showed that Acer delayed the introduction of AMD Mobile Athlon 64-based notebooks past the period the CPUs were introduced -- September 2003 -- until after the holidays.
In a statement this morning from EC Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes, she points out that it's the behavioral stipulations that made Intel's rebates illegal: "Not all rebates are a competition problem -- often they will lead to lower prices for consumers in the long term as well as the short," stated Comm. Kroes. "But the Intel rebates in this case were a problem because of the conditions that Intel attached to its rebates. Moreover, the Commission has examined closely whether an efficient competitor could have matched these rebates. These conditions, to buy less of AMD's products or to not buy them at all, prevented AMD from competing with Intel on the merits of its products. This removed the possibility of genuine choice for consumers and undermined innovation."
Citing a case that AMD itself brings up frequently, the EC this morning mentioned how Intel offered "one computer manufacturer" millions of free CPUs only to have that offer turned down. Unfortunately, that particular manufacturer wasn't mentioned by letter, because due to the high publicity surrounding the US civil antitrust suit, we know that manufacturer to be HP.
Leading to the Commission's decision to fine Intel €1.06 billion, according to Kroes, was evidence she said pointed to Intel attempting to cover up for its conduct.
"The Commission Decision contains evidence that Intel went to great lengths to cover-up many of its anti-competitive actions. Many of the conditions mentioned above were not to be found in Intel's official contracts," she stated. "However, the Commission was able to gather a broad range of evidence demonstrating Intel's illegal conduct through statements from companies, on-site inspections, and formal requests for information."
Further comments from Intel officials are expected later this morning, and Betanews will follow up shortly afterward.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
OpenOffice 3.1 goes to bat against Office 2007 SP2

Publié: mai 13, 2009, 4:33pm CEST par Angela Gunn

By Angela Gunn, Betanews
It's almost trite to talk about OpenOffice's aesthetics, as if the best way to figure out whether the open source apps suite is competitive to Microsoft Office is to hold a beauty contest. Yes, interface matters, but it's not the only thing that matters, so let's get this out of the way:
Dear person or persons who worked on the anti-aliasing feature that makes the screen look so much nicer: Thank you. It was noticed. It is appreciated. This review required about one-third as much aspirin as usual for her review and I owe those aspirin all to you.
Let's move on. Instead, enclosed please find seven "ooh!" moments from our OpenOffice 3.1 review process -- the ones that make reviewers smile and skeptics feel warmly toward a productivity suite that's been batting in the big leagues for a while now, but only recently has acquired the sheen of a genuine all-star.
1. Hey, other people exist! Fine new file-locking and commenting features are among the most desirable changes, and should cheer those among us who would like to bring OpenOffice into our workplaces. Comments especially were a pleasure to use, and are at this point functionally equivalent to anything Microsoft has thrown at the problem of multiple-author markups. (I found it a little weird at first that comments are also searchable within a document, but the usefulness is clear right away.)
Comments are of course a Writer-specific feature; file locking, on the other hand, extends past the word processor and over to Impress (the presentation module) and Draw. (Calc allows multiple simultaneous edits but can detect conflicts.) Files can be either locked entirely or opened in read-only mode. Locking worked, to our joy, across operating systems; the file I had open on the Vista machine was successfully locked when I tried to get at it via the Mac.
2. Calc gets formulaic (in the good way). The OpenOffice team is mighty proud of sorely needed speed improvements to Calc; our tests didn't include a means of conclusively stress-testing that claim (beyond, of course, loading up a couple of really hulking spreadsheets), but it certainly seemed to move faster. We did appreciate another type of time-saving improvement, though: When you're typing data into a cell with a formula attached, Calc now pops up a box with the syntax of the formula you're using. This saved us a nonzero amount of time trying to remember what the heck we were trying to do in the cell. (Hey, every little bit counts.) An assortment of formula changes have also been added, including some that will help with certain statistical analyses.
Calc's sort function also appears to be better-behaved than we left it back in October. If you're sorting a group of entries with several equivalent sort keys, Calc resists the urge to disorder them. As with certain other specialized tweaks, this one might matter only to a few users, but if you're one of those people who doesn't like it when Sort makes unwarranted assumptions, this is a nice fix. Similarly, Calc now has the sliding-zoom-view feature that Writer gained in 3.0; it's mainly useful for adjusting your screen or your printed output, but if you need it you need it.
3. Not Drawn out. Draw is arguably the weakest module of the suite, and there's nothing here that will convince users of other graphics programs to make the jump (other than the price). But as an adjunct to Impress -- arguably the best module of the suite, and still far better at handling older or unusual file formats than its Microsoft competitor -- Draw's looking slick. Slideshow builders have plenty of backgrounds, dingbats, ruled lines, and sound effects to drop into their presentations, and as with Calc the program feels faster than it did in our 3.0 tests last year.
We also liked the decision to clean up the dragging process; when you move an onscreen object now, it's the translucent shadow that you're grabbing and shifting. Depending on your hand-eye coordination this may or may not help you with moving shapes around onscreen. We were indeed helped.
4. Chart gets smart. If we were giving awards for Most Improved OOo Module, Chart would be one of the top two contenders. The anti-aliasing makes a clear difference in results here, but the big news is the much-requested support for more flexible positioning of axes. In particular, axes can now be positioned in the middle of the page for those of us who like our data grouped in quadrants.
The program also adds some flexibility for charting datasets with missing information -- leave a gap, assume a value of zero, or extrapolate through the missing data. And users now have the option of flowing text elements bidirectionally, which should help with certain readability issues.
5. All your Base are... you know. OOo's database functionality isn't something everyone will use, any more than everyone uses Access in that other suite. Still, one wants it to behave like part of the family, and it's getting closer, with changes that make it the other contender for that Most Improved title. Most significantly, database documents can now include embedded macros and scripts -- old shoes for the other modules, but a nice step forward for Base, and for those who'd like to build database applications in it.
SQL users have a special treat in store with code highlighting -- colors for syntax, and flash for matching parentheses. Fortunately you can change those color schemes (and the fonts if you like), but the visual cues certainly make the prospect of staring down poorly typed lines of SQL much easier to bear.
6. Calc stops the sheet-renaming madness. Not every change is earthshaking, but whoever made the decision to dump the right-click-and-pop-up tab-renaming schtick for the infinitely more sensible double-click-and-type approach is a friend to all of humanity. Sometimes it's okay to be like the other spreadsheets out there. It really is.
7. My eyes... my eyes... are fine, actually. In addition to anti-aliasing to smooth out the curves and lines (most immediately noticeable when playing with Draw, obviously, but the effect was palpable throughout testing and especially helpful with certain kinds of charts), there are a few tweaks that simply made the package more enjoyable. Writer's highlighter, for instance, now acts more like a real highlighter, dropping the jarring reverse-text effects for a pleasantly muted background tint.
What's not to like? Speed, always an issue with OpenOffice, seems to have improved, but even the most fervent OOo loyalists admit that there's work to be done on that front. And this reviewer can't be the only user who wishes Oracle would welcome OpenOffice into the fold by throwing a developer at the allegedly complicated outline problem. (Comments about Navigator or the outlining function in Impress or even the new header-aware "outline level" function in Writer are directed to dev/null; it's just not the same as a tightly integrated full outlining function.)
Overall, there's no backsliding, and some pleasing advances on the collaboration front. Impress continues to be the best of the suite, but the addition of top-notch commenting functionality and cross-platform file locking raise Writer to a higher level than ever. Calc uses 3.1 to build on its genuine breakthroughs back in October's 3.0 release, and smart developer focus is fast leading Chart out of the tall grass. The months ahead will reveal a great deal about OpenOffice's future in the new Sun/Oracle world, but this strong 3.1 showing should give all parties faith that this suite's in it to win it.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
French Assembly passes 'three strikes' HADOPI law

Publié: mai 13, 2009, 1:49am CEST par Angela Gunn

By Angela Gunn, Betanews
The highly controversial French Création et Internet law, which gives ISPs there the power to block access to the Internet for anyone accused three times of illegal file-sharing, is on a collision course with the EU after winning approval in a well-attended 296-233 vote in the National Assembly. The bill previously passed the National Assembly on a rather smaller, dead-of-night 21-15 vote.
The bill is also known as HADOPI, the High Authority for Copyright Protection and Dissemination of Works on the Internet. That's the proposed organization to be charged with monitoring compliance if the bill passes into law.
The bill now moves to the Senate and to the desk of President Nicolas Sarkozy, both of whom are expected to give quick approval. The European Parliament is, however, the true court of last resort here -- and as recently as last week, nearly 90% of that body said that it would not support HADOPI's "graduated response" unless judicial oversight was put into place to manage the process.
The EU's constitution stipulates that Internet access is a fundamental human right. As it stands, the three strikes are really just accusations: There's no significant burden to prove that the accused party is indeed file-sharing, and there's no appeals process available for the accused. No judges no cease, said the EU, which last week refused a "compromise" offered by the French. And thus France girds itself for a human rights battle.
In related news, it has come to light that employees at the Ministry of Culture, which lobbied hard for HADOPI, were responsible for leaking a letter written by a citizen to his MP expressing a critical opinion of HADOPI -- resulting in his firing.
Jérome Bourreau-Guggenheim, who was head of the Web Innovation Center for broadcaster TF1, did not write his letter from his work account. Nonetheless, the letter made its way from his MP, to the Ministry of Culture, to TF1, to one of those meetings that ends with a cardboard box and a security escort. Le Point magazine cites MP Christine Albanel who describes the man's firing as vraiment regrettable.
The Open... blog, which has been diligently covering HADOPI developments, makes note of new information about the tracking software users will be required to use. It appears, among other problems, that the program may not support GNU/Linux -- interesting, since according to Red Hat's map of open-source usage, France is first in the world for both per-capita open-source deployment and open-source deployment in government itself.
The Senate vote is expected this week. (Anti-HADOPI lolcat courtesy of Flickr user tristao.)
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Android gets augmented reality for stars, check out the barcode

Publié: mai 13, 2009, 12:25am CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews
Today, Google released Sky Map for Android, a free program which uses GPS, compass, and other sensory data to label the stars, constellations, planets and other heavenly bodies when a user aims his android device at the sky, sort of a handheld extension of Google Sky, which debuted almost two years ago.
Since Sky Map doesn't require a line of sight to ascertain the user's location, the phone can be aimed in any direction, and locate constellations wherever they happen to be in space relative to the user's position. This means night or day, indoors or out, the phone can be aimed in any direction and grab any celestial data and still have the app weigh in at only 60 KB.
So far, all of the first-party apps for Android (that is, those supplied by Google) have been excellent. If your Android phone is equipped with a barcode scanner, aim it at the image below to automatically go to Sky Map in the Android Market and download it for free.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Every UK home to get a smart meter

Publié: mai 13, 2009, 12:01am CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews
By 2020, every British household could be equipped with a smart meter -- a device that will allow for a higher level of granularity in tracking a home's energy consumption, and could lead to an overall reduction in carbon waste. Last October, the UK Government announced that intended to mandate smart meters for all households and small and medium-sized business sites.
Yesterday, the Department of Energy and Climate Change's (DECC) Ed Miliband announced the government has launched a public consultation (found here) on the implementation of smart meters which will be open until August 3.
"In short, smart meters will become a cornerstone of our efficient management of energy resources as a nation and as individuals in the future," the consultation reads, "The roll out of smart meters will be a major undertaking, involving visits to over 25 million households, to replace something approaching 50 million meters. The Government recognizes that many policy, technical, and operational issues will need to be worked through before a final timetable can be settled. However, we have set an indicative target of the end of 2020 for the completion of the rollout."
By the government's preliminary estimations, the rollout will reduce carbon emissions by 2.6 million tons and save between £2.5-£3.6 billion over the next 20 years.
"This is another part of our Great British refurb," said Miliband, "The meters most of us have in our homes were designed for a different age, before climate change. Now we need to get smarter with our energy."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009