Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Some technology analysts, along with some of the most influential computer makers in the world, say yes. Optical disc drives take up precious space in our ever-shrinking gadgets, and the ability to stream music or movies on demand has made CDs and DVDs less essential.

The disc drive’s spin into obscurity may have started swirling faster last week.

Apple’s new iMac, its flagship desktop computer, was released Friday. For the first time, it has no disc drive. This marks a trend that has already begun on some laptops, like Apple’s MacBook Airs, and of course with mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

“Over time, an optical disc will be as much of an historical curiosity as a floppy disk,” said Michael Gartenberg, a tech-industry analyst with research firm Gartner Inc.

According to Apple, where sleeker, thinner designs are always en vogue, dumping the disc drive was a no-brainer.

“These old technologies are holding us back,” Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of marketing, told CNN sister publication Time. “They’re anchors on where we want to go. We find the things that have outlived their useful purpose — our competitors are afraid to remove them. We try to find better solutions — our customers have given us a lot of trust.”

If the company’s track record on such things holds, the optical drive may be doomed. The original Mac dumped the 5-inch disk for a 3.5-inch floppy, and the first iMac was one of the first desktops without a floppy disk drive.

“It’s clearly a long-term trend, but Apple’s always been aggressive about making moves like this sooner as opposed to later,” Gartenberg said.

The company’s tiny Mac Mini, for the record, has been disc drive-free since last year.

Sony has already announced that it will stop making optical drives itself. And the release of Microsoft’s Windows 8, an operating system that works on disc-free smartphones and tablets as well as laptops and PCs, suggests that computing giant would be well positioned for such a move as well.

For some users, Web habits have already begun trending away from actions that require external media.

CDs? There’s music streaming or digital downloads. DVDs? Netflix, Amazon or a host of other online movie sites. Video games? There’s digital distribution like Steam and, increasingly, downloads from the major console and game makers.

“As personal cloud services become ubiquitous and broadband speeds increase, there’s very little reason for many consumers to use an optical drive on their computer going forward,” Gartenberg said.

There are always USB ports available on the occasion that an external device is needed (Apple, for what it’s worth, offers an external optical disc drive for $79).

Much as Google has with its Google Drive service, Apple has embraced cloud computing with its iCloud offering, which lets users store documents, photos, music and movies on Web-based servers. A move to the cloud could mean internal storage is less of a concern for users going forward.

Combined with advances in “solid state” internal storage and quicker broadband speeds that make downloads and streaming less painful, a post-DVD era could grease the skids for Apple and its competitors to make increasingly thin, light and inexpensive computers.

Witness the new Chromebooks, laptops that run Google’s Chrome system, that rely almost exclusively on the cloud and sell for around $250.

To be sure, the transition may be rough on some users.

“For those who still own DVDs and want to watch them on their computers, the iMac isn’t the ideal solution,” Fortune’s JP Mangalindan wrote in a review of the new iMac. “Sure, there’s a $79 external SuperDrive that connects via USB cable, but that means shelling out extra for — let’s face it — a feature that still comes standard on most PCs. It also means messing with the iMac’s minimal-looking setup.”

But like it or not, folks who still pop in a disc may not have long to keep doing so.

“While it may be too early to say for certain that the optical drive is absolutely dead,” wrote Chris Pirillo, founder of blogging network Lockergnome, “it is certainly showing all the early warning signs of a technology that is past its prime.”

<span class="articleLocation”>(Reuters) – Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) reported on Monday a first-quarter profit that beat Wall Street expectations as the dominant video rental service added 2 million new U.S. streaming subscribers, and its shares soared 24 percent.

Netflix shares rose to $216.62 in after-hours trading, after closing at $174.37 on Nasdaq.

For January through March, Netflix recorded $19 million in net income, excluding a loss for retiring debt, and adjusted earnings per share of 31 cents. The results topped Wall Street analysts’ average forecast of 19 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company said it signed up 2 million new customers for its $8-a-month U.S. streaming service, the largest part of its business, with a total of 29.2 million members. In February, Netflix generated buzz with the release of the series “House of Cards,” a political drama starring Kevin Spacey that marked a big push into original content.

“The launch of ‘House of Cards’ provided a halo effect on our entire service,” Netflix Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings and Chief Financial Officer David Wells said in a letter to shareholders.

Investors pushed shares higher in response to the subscriber numbers as well as higher profit margins from the U.S. streaming business, said BMO Capital Markets analyst Edward Williams. The domestic streaming contribution margin increased to 20.6 percent. “You had solid subscriber growth,” Williams said.

Netflix said it added 1 million streaming subscribers in its markets outside the United States, which include Canada and parts of Europe and Latin America, bringing the global total to 36 million. It said it would launch the service in a new European market in the second half of 2013.

The company also said it would offer a new plan for $11.99 a month to allow four simultaneous streams from the same account, instead of the current limit of two. It expects less than 1 percent of members to sign up for it.

Revenue for the quarter was $1.0 billion, up 17 percent from a year earlier.

Netflix projected it would add up to 880,000 U.S. streaming subscribers in the current quarter, slightly more than the same period a year ago, helped by the May 26 release of one-time Fox TV comedy “Arrested Development.”

Before its financial results were announced on Monday, Netflix shares had climbed 80 percent this year. Most of the gains came in January after Netflix reported better-than-expected growth over the 2012 holiday season.

Many Wall Street analysts are still on the fence about Netflix. Nineteen of 35 analysts rate Netflix “hold,” nine rate it a “buy,” and six recommend “sell.”

Some analysts have said they wonder if Netflix will grow fast enough to pay the costs of its international expansion and its bills from Walt Disney Co (DIS.N), Time Warner Inc’s (TWX.N) Warner Bros, CBS Corp (CBS.N) and other Hollywood studios that provide it with movies and TV shows to stream to subscribers over the Internet.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Bernard Orr)

<span class="articleLocation”>(Reuters) – Toshiba Corp and SunEdison, a unit of U.S.-based MEMC Electronic Materials Inc, have agreed to build solar power plants in Japan, the Nikkei said.

SunEdison will sell the power generated at these plants, the paper said.

Toshiba expects 270 billion yen ($2.75 billion) in orders for construction of power-plant-related facilities by fiscal year end, the business daily said, adding the Japanese company is in talks to build four or five megasolar plants.

Renewable energy sources have found more favor in Japan after the introduction of a new energy law that took effect on July 1, 2012 as the country phases out nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

The new law requires utilities to buy all electricity output from solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and small-sized hydro power plants at preset rates for up to 20 years.

(Reporting by Mridhula Raghavan in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)

The Egg Chair by Arne Jacobsen. The Eames Lounge Chair by Charles and Ray Eames. The Barrel Chair by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe.

Some of the most iconic works by the world's leading architects and designers have been chairs. Just why is the chair – and not the table or the cabinet – such a favourite item for this group?

Currently they have programmed the material to expand at 70C (158F). They are now working on a chair where the foam at the surface heats at 35C.

This means that the top layer of foam will be heated by simply sitting on it, and will therefore mould to suit the body of the sitter. Plugging the chair into the mains will return it to its original shape.

The studio is aiming to use the SMPU for shoes and bags, and is working with car manufacturers interested in creating more flexible interiors for cars, but need the chair to experiment and refine the material and process.

"It's like a symbolic blueprint," says Mr de Smet.

The relatively small scale of chairs can also make them good products to introduce bigger ideas and concepts to the public, and that is why they have been a favourite of architects.

Architecturally trained designer James McBennett is a proponent of the "digital to physical manufacture" concept, where the digital design of a product can be sent to a local manufacturer for production and assembly.

"You send a file to anywhere in the world and it gets manufactured on demand," Mr McBennett explains.

This is a concept that is still new to the public despite its familiarity in the worlds of architecture and design.

Mr McBennett was part of a team at JDS Architects who designed a ski jump for the town of Holmenkollen in Norway. The drawings for the ski jump were created by the team in Denmark. The files were then downloaded, printed and assembled on site.

Now keen to spread this idea into the mainstream, Mr McBennett acknowledges that there needs to be a more accessible and affordable way to involve the public.

He is the co-founder of the online platform Fabsie, which aims to publicise the concept.

Their first product is a chair made from three pieces of plywood that slot together. Called This Stool Rocks, it is easy to assemble and cheap to produce.

"I think it'll be difficult to get someone to buy a downloadable house right now," he says. Chairs are a small and affordable way to attract public interest.

"I think people need to get used to an idea on a small level first," he says.

Many industrial designers find chairs useful for testing out the practical and aesthetic aspects of a new idea.

"You can actually say that the design has failed or has done well because it has to support somebody's weight," says industrial designer Greg Saul, of the Diatom studio.

"It's also something that lives in plain sight all the time so it should be aesthetically pleasing as well."

Mr Saul wants people to be more involved in the design process, which will allow customisable products.

The chair is the first product Diatom is using to test this concept with the public, with the aim of extending it to other forms of furniture.

The Sketch Chair allows users to adjust the design of the chair to suit their needs and preferences before the pieces are cut and assembled.

Chairs are not just effective for introducing the public to new or different concepts.

Designers and architects also use chairs as a medium to test out ideas in their own circles.

Having grown chairs from crystals, made them from paper and baked bread into chairs, Tokujin Yoshioka has helped designers such as Carl de Smet and Greg Saul think differently about the potential of ideas and materials.

The Japanese designer spends much of his time creating products for brands such as Swarovski, Lexus and Cartier.

For Mr Yoshioka, creating chairs is an essential part of his own design and experimentation process, and helps him see where his work can go next.

"The chair is a product which is closely connected to the human body," Mr Yoshioka says. "Sitting is always such an essential function, so it expresses universality."

As chairs have a particular function, he says it is a challenge to do something new with them, and that is why they are good for pushing the boundaries of ideas.

Mr Yoshioka aims to test entirely new methods and ideas when he designs a chair.

For example, his Honey Pop chair is made of paper and folds out into shape. While a simple idea it still has to fulfil the requirements of a chair while being made of paper.

The Venus chair was made from natural crystals that Yoshioka grew in an aquarium. The project explored his interest in the intersection between nature and design.

He is currently working on a chair made from ten pieces of thread, having been inspired by spider webs.

Mr Yoshioka needs to make chairs to explore where he can go next.

"A chair is not just for sitting on," he says.

Story By: by Scott Neuman

What had earlier been widely billed as the largest cyberattack in history, causing Web-wide disruptions for Internet users, appears on closer inspection to have been not quite so dramatic as first thought. But what did it mean for the innocent bystander sitting at his or her computer?

Probably not much, as it turns out — particularly if that bystander’s computer wasn’t in Europe.

First, a little background: The type of cyberattack publicized Wednesday and Thursday is, almost by definition, a limited affair. Although it originates from multiple sources and locations, it typically converges like an artillery attack on a single target.

A story at Mashable has a nice, concise definition of the attack, known as a distributed denial of service attack or DDoS:

“In a common DDoS attack, hackers use thousands of computers to send bogus traffic at a particular server in the hopes of overloading it. The computers involved in DDoS attacks have often been previously infected with malware that gave a hacker control of the machine without the legitimate owner’s knowledge. Hackers use malware (often sent via email spam) to amass large networks of infected computers, called ‘botnets,’ for DDoS operations and other purposes.”

Martin Libicki, a researcher at RAND who has studied cyberattacks, compares it to a concert letting out.

“You’ve got all these people filling the streets all at once,” he says. “If you happen to be in the same area at the same time, you’re going to have a hard time getting through.”

In other words, even though botnets can be recruited from all over the world — and, for the record, Libicki thinks at least some of them in the Spamhaus attack were probably located in the U.S. — it’s mostly a local phenomenon. Since, in this case, one major likely source of the attack and its target were both in Europe, most or all of the Internet congestion occurred there.

Alastair MacGibbon, of the Centre for Internet Security at Canberra University in Australia, calls the alleged Cyberbunker attack just another “old school denial of service attack.”

“There’s much more sophisticated ways you can damage the Internet,” MacGibbon told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Contrast that to the Stuxnet virus that reportedly did physical damage Iran’s nuclear facilities.

According to Bruce Schneier, who writes a blog on cybersecurity, Stuxnet can take control of “small embedded industrial control systems that run all sorts of automated processes: on factory floors, in chemical plants, in oil refineries, at pipelines — and, yes, in nuclear power plants.”

Libicki says while it’s conceivable that a DDoS attack could be designed in such a way as to have wider impact, “that’s still an untested proposition.”

“If you want to turn out the lights, a DDoS attack isn’t going to do it. If you want to steal money, a DDoS attack isn’t going to do that either,” he says. “If you really want to do damage, you’re going to need something more involved.”

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia may try to end anonymity for Twitter users in the country by limiting access to the site to people who register their identification documents, the Arab News daily reported on Saturday.

Last week, local media reported the government had asked telecom companies to look at ways they could monitor, or block, free internet phone services such as Skype.

Twitter is highly popular with Saudis and has stirred broad debate on subjects ranging from religion to politics in a country where such public discussion had been considered at best unseemly and sometimes illegal.

Early this month, the security spokesman for Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry described social networking, particularly Twitter, as a tool used by militants to stir social unrest.

The country’s Grand Mufti, Saudi Arabia’s top cleric, last week described users of the microblogging site as “clowns” wasting time with frivolous and even harmful discussions, local newspapers reported.

“A source at (the regulator) described the move as a natural result of the successful implementation of (its) decision to add a user’s identification numbers while topping up mobile phone credit,” Arab News reported.

That would not necessarily make a user’s identity visible to other users of the site, but it would mean the Saudi government could monitor the tweets of individual Saudis.

The English-language daily and sister paper to the Saudi-owned pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, did not explain how the authorities might be able to restrict ability to post on Twitter. Both newspapers belong to a publishing group owned by the ruling family and run by a son of Crown Prince Salman.

Internet service providers are legally obliged to block websites showing content deemed pornographic.

One of the big investors in Twitter is Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of King Abdullah who also holds significant stakes in Citi Group, News Corp and Apple through his Kingdom Holding Company.

The country’s telecom regulator, Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) did not immediately responded to requests for comment on the report. Last week it did not comment on the report it was seeking to restrict Skype use.

A spokeswoman for Kingdom Holding said Prince Alwaleed was not available to comment.

“There are people who misuse the social networking and try to send false information and false evaluation of the situation in the kingdom and the way the policemen in the kingdom are dealing with these situations,” said Major General Mansour Turki, the security spokesman, at a news conference on Mar 8.

At a separate interview with Reuters this month, Turki argued that a small number of supporters of al Qaeda and activists from Saudi Arabia’s Shi’ite minority used social media to stir wider sympathy for their goals and social unrest.

However, he also argued against banning the site.

Two weeks ago one of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent clerics, Salman al-Awdah, who has 2.4 million followers on the site, used Twitter to attack the government’s security policy as too harsh and call for better services. He warned it might otherwise face “the spark of violence”.

Two leading Saudi human rights activists were sentenced to long prison terms this month for a variety of offences including “internet crimes” because they had used Twitter and other sites to attack the government.

Some top princes in the monarchy now use Twitter themselves and Crown Prince Salman, King Abdullah’s designated heir and also Defence Minister, recently opened an official account.

(Reporting By Angus McDowall; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Editor’s note: Daniel Burrus is a leading futurist on tech trends and innovation. He is the author of six books, including the New York Times best seller Flash Foresight.

Here are six key technological developments that will revolutionize the smartphone over the next decade.

3-D display

Your smartphone will have a 3-D display and a 3-D web browser, and you won’t need special glasses to view it. So instead of just viewing web pages on your smart phone, you’ll be able to go into environments (or stores or showrooms) and maneuver around in them, just as you do on devices like the Xbox.

Alternatively, you’ll be able to see things sticking out from the screen, again without the special glasses. So the 3-D web on your smartphone will be a game-changer for business.

More from Mobile World Congress: 5 things to watch for at MWC 2013

Biometric security

Rather than have to remember numerous passwords, you will be able to access data and sites on your smartphone using multiple biometric authentications. Advanced screen resolution and sensors on the phone will make this possible.

For example, when you touch the screen, it will recognize you based on your fingerprint. In addition, your phone’s front-facing camera will use facial recognition to identify you. Everyone’s voice is unique, so voice recognition will also be part of the identification/security process.

How you handle the phone — your keystrokes and touch/maneuver patterns — are also unique. The number of biometrics used will depend on the level of security you want based on what you are doing. For example, if you’re accessing your Facebook account, you may only want one biometric for authentication. However, if you’re doing a high-level security activity (such as banking via your smartphone), you’ll likely want to use multiple biometrics.

Wireless payments

Your smartphone will become your wallet. Credit cards are easy, but e-wallets are easier. Currently, Google has a mobile wallet that works with Citi MasterCard, and in the future it will work with other credit cards. It is secure and enables you to make payments with your smartphone.

In the near future, as every financial service firm gets into mobile payments, you will move very quickly from a leather wallet to a smartphone wallet. One example of an enabling technology is NFC — near-field communications chips — which are being built into smart phones as you read this article. They allow for secure and easy payment, so be ready for it.

Read related: How Samsung is out-innovating Apple

Personal concierge

Your ultra intelligent agent will get smarter. The first ultra intelligent agent was Apple’s Siri. As Siri-like agents advance, they will turn into personal assistants and will be able to search the web for you and bring back focused, highly relevant information based on how long you have used your e-agent and how well it knows you.

In other words, your ultra intelligent agent will know your preferences, your likes, and your needs and will automatically compile, present, and share what’s pertinent to you.

Additionally, your ultra intelligent agent will have a face when you are looking at the screen and a personality that you choose. You’ll even see celebrities licensing the rights to their digital likeness and personality to be used as ultra intelligent agents.

No more screens

Some of your smartphones will be screen-less. The traditional smartphone with a screen will not go away, but you will have an option for a screen-less smartphone. This will be a very popular and highly adopted smartphone because without the screen, you get rid of much of the need for a big battery.

Think of the screen-less smartphone like the little piece of jewelry people wore on the old “Star Trek” TV show. The screen-less smartphone will be touch and voice activated. When you tap it, you’ll be connected to your ultra intelligent agent, which is part of a super computer in the cloud. Whatever you need, your ultra intelligent agent will be able to verbally give you the information, such as turn-by-turn directions, reading your email to you and so on.

Read related: Waste or worth? $10,000 smartphone

Hyper-connectivity

Your smartphone will interface with smart surfaces. We are already seeing the beginning of using touch and voice-operated intelligent screens as tabletop computers that can access the internet. Simply by placing your smartphone on these surfaces, the two will link together. Additionally, your ultra intelligent agent will flow from your smartphone to the screen.

This is just a small sampling of what we’ll see for future smartphone technology. All of these advancements are in their early stages today. So keep in mind that if it can be done, it will be done. The question is, who will be first?

A Silicon Valley-based software firm, Intertrust Technologies, claims Apple's entire product line infringes security-related patents.

It is suing over the alleged violation of 15 patents, on products including iPhones, iPads, Mac computers, iTunes and App Store.

Intertrust is partly owned by Sony and Philips, and develops security software for digital content.

Apple has not yet issued a comment to the BBC.

It is the latest patent-related case against the technology giant.

"Apple makes many great products that use Intertrust's inventions," said Intertrust's chief executive Talal Shamoon in a statement.

"Our patents are foundational to modern internet security and trusted computing and result from years of internal research and development.

"We find it regrettable that we are forced to seek court assistance to resolve this matter."

Intertrust filed its claim in the US Federal Court in the Northern District of California.

The company is represented by law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan – the same one representing Samsung in its patent design suit against Apple.

It is not the first time Intertrust has made a claim against a technology firm over intellectual property. In 2004, it won a $440m (£290m) settlement from Microsoft.