WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal court has upheld regulations that require cable TV companies to make channels they own available to satellite TV providers and other rivals on equal terms. Friday’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia leaves in place the Federal Communications Commission “program access” rules. The ruling marks a setback for Cablevision Systems Corp. and Comcast Corp., the cable companies that had challenged the rules in court. Comcast has nonetheless pledged to extend those rules to the local NBC and Telemundo stations it would control as part of its proposed combination with NBC Universal. Comcast is seeking FCC and Justice Department approval to buy a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from General Electric Co.
March 12, 2010 | Posted in
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” stole the show at the Game Developers Choice Awards. The high-octane PlayStation 3 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog won five trophies at the Game Developers Conference ceremony Thursday, including game of the year. “Uncharted 2,” which casts players in the role of globe-trotting treasure hunter Nathan Drake, was also honored Thursday evening for best writing, audio, technology and visual art. “It”s one thing to have an idea,” said art director Robh Ruppel, “but you really need a great crew to make a game.” “Uncharted 2″ foiled fellow game of the year nominees Rocksteady Studios’ “Batman: Arkham Asylum,” Ubisoft Montreal’s “Assassin’s Creed II,” From Software’s “Demon’s Souls” and BioWare’s “Dragon Age: Origins.” The unstoppable PlayStation 3 exclusive previously nabbed three prizes at December’s Spike TV Video Game Awards, including game of the year. Selected by a jury of game creators, the Game Developers Choice Awards honor the best games of the past year. The 10th annual ceremony was hosted by “Deus Ex” and “Epic Mickey” lead designer Warren Spector. The show was capped off with the debut teaser trailer for “Deus Ex: Human Revolution,” the third installment in the futuristic role-playing game franchise. Other winners at the Moscone Convention Center ceremony included 5th Cell’s word-happy puzzler “Scribblenauts” for best handheld game and innovation, Rocksteady Studios’ stealthy “Batman: Arkham Asylum” for best game design, Runic Games’ fantasy outing “Torchlight” for best debut game and thatgamecompany’s free-flowing “Flower” for best downloadable game. “Think about what you can do to affect the people around the world, not just for entertainment or distraction but something that’s deeper and more meaningful,” “Flower” designer Jenova Chen told the crowd of game makers during his speech. John Carmack, the id Software co-founder and lead programmer of such games as “Doom” and Quake,” was awarded the lifetime achievement award. Gabe Newell, Valve Corp. co-founder, won the pioneer award and used his speech to tease the upcoming sequel to “Portal.” Jerry Holkins, Mike Krahulik and Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade received the ambassador award. Earlier in the evening, several trophies were handed out at the 12th annual Independent Games Festival Awards. Pocketwatch Games’ “Monaco” won the top honor, taking home the $20,000 Seumas McNally grand prize for best independent game as well as the award for excellence on design. Other indie winners included Cactus’ “Tuning” and PlayDead’s “Limbo.” — On the Net: http://www.gamechoiceawards.com http://www.igf.com
March 12, 2010 | Posted in
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BEIJING (AP) — Lenovo Group expects wireless Internet products to account for up to 80 percent of its sales within five years as it pursues expansion in faster-growing emerging markets, CEO Yang Yuanqing said Friday. Lenovo, the world’s fourth-largest personal computer maker, jumped into the mobile Internet market in January with the unveiling of a smart phone and two Web-linked portable computers. “Mobile Internet is very important,” Yang said in an interview. “Even today, notebook sales already are higher than desktops. Mobile Internet products are going to be 70 to 80 percent of our sales … within three to five years.” Yang said Lenovo plans this year to focus on promoting mobile Internet and sales in emerging economies in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Lenovo, based in Beijing and Morrisville, North Carolina, was hit hard by the global crisis, which prompted its core corporate customers to slash spending. It suffered three losing quarters before rebounding to a profit in the second half of last year. Yang said Lenovo’s longer-term strategy, dubbed “protect and attack,” calls for building up its dominant presence in China. The country accounts for nearly half of Lenovo’s global sales but it faces competition from industry leaders Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc., which are creating products tailored to Chinese customers. In the latest quarter, Lenovo said sales in India and other emerging markets rose 52 percent over a year earlier, far ahead of the 13 percent sales growth reported for the United States and Western Europe. Lenovo, which acquired IBM Corp.’s PC unit in 2005, says its global market share last year rose to 9 percent, its highest level to date. Yang said Lenovo has no plans for foreign acquisitions but is ready to look at any deals that fit its strategic plans. Corporate spending on computers has yet to rebound but companies are expected to step up purchasing in the second half of this year, Yang said. He said he could not foresee when global PC sales might recover to pre-crisis levels. “I’m not an economist,” he said. “Even for economists, it’s difficult to forecast.” — On the Net: Lenovo Group: http://www.lenovo.com
March 12, 2010 | Posted in
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SEATTLE (AP) — U.S. retail sales of video games declined 15 percent in February, hurt in part by an ongoing decline in sales of music games and lower sales of the Wii system. Americans spent $1.26 billion on video game systems, software and accessories during the month, down from $1.48 billion a year ago, market researcher NPD Group said Thursday. February isn’t generally a big month for the video game industry, which still makes much of its money during the holiday season. Even so, several high-profile titles launched during the month, including “BioShock 2,” the follow-up to Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.’s popular sci-fi shooter, and “Dante’s Inferno” from Electronic-Arts Inc., both appealing to hardcore video game fans. “I had expected the industry to perform somewhat better this month,” said NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier in a statement. Sales of individual games have declined for more than a year, hurt by a combination of the economic downturn and fewer launches of hit games. Even with “BioShock 2″ at the top of the best-seller list, game software sales fell 15 percent from the same month a year earlier to $624.4 million. “Dante’s Inferno” editions for Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 snagged the No. 8 and No. 9 spots. Analysts say faltering demand for the once blazingly popular casual games like “Guitar Hero” and “Wii Fit” have also dragged down game sales. Jesse Divnich, an analyst at Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, said that’s to be expected. “These are volatile categories,” Divnich said. “Once you own a ‘Wii Fit,’ you don’t need another ‘Wii Fit.’” The amount of money people spent on gaming systems sank 20 percent to $426.4 million, in part because the number of Nintendo Wii systems sold in the quarter plunged 47 percent. Nintendo said last month it was facing a shortage of consoles after the holidays. Competitors fared better in unit sales, though. Sony, which also warned of shortages, saw PlayStation 3 unit sales jump 31 percent. Microsoft sold 9 percent more Xbox 360 systems, grabbing the top spot among the console makers for the first time since “Halo 3″ was released in September 2007, NPD’s Frazier said. In a statement, Sony said tight inventory is still crimping sales. Microsoft has not complained of supply problems. — AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in New York contributed to this report.
March 12, 2010 | Posted in
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SEATTLE (AP) — U.S. retail sales of video games declined 15 percent in February, hurt in part by an ongoing decline in sales of music games and lower sales of the Wii system. Americans spent $1.26 billion on video game systems, software and accessories during the month, down from $1.48 billion a year ago, market researcher NPD Group said Thursday. February isn’t generally a big month for the video game industry, which still makes much of its money during the holiday season. Even so, several high-profile titles launched during the month, including “BioShock 2,” the follow-up to Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.’s popular sci-fi shooter, and “Dante’s Inferno” from Electronic-Arts Inc., both appealing to hardcore video game fans. “I had expected the industry to perform somewhat better this month,” said NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier in a statement. Sales of individual games have declined for more than a year, hurt by a combination of the economic downturn and fewer launches of hit games. Even with “BioShock 2″ at the top of the best-seller list, game software sales fell 15 percent from the same month a year earlier to $624.4 million. “Dante’s Inferno” editions for Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 snagged the No. 8 and No. 9 spots. Analysts say faltering demand for the once blazingly popular casual games like “Guitar Hero” and “Wii Fit” have also dragged down game sales. Jesse Divnich, an analyst at Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, said that’s to be expected. “These are volatile categories,” Divnich said. “Once you own a ‘Wii Fit,’ you don’t need another ‘Wii Fit.’” The amount of money people spent on gaming systems sank 20 percent to $426.4 million, in part because the number of Nintendo Wii systems sold in the quarter plunged 47 percent. Nintendo said last month it was facing a shortage of consoles after the holidays. Competitors fared better in unit sales, though. Sony, which also warned of shortages, saw PlayStation 3 unit sales jump 31 percent. Microsoft sold 9 percent more Xbox 360 systems, grabbing the top spot among the console makers for the first time since “Halo 3″ was released in September 2007, NPD’s Frazier said. In a statement, Sony said tight inventory is still crimping sales. Microsoft has not complained of supply problems. — AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in New York contributed to this report.
March 12, 2010 | Posted in
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter can now let the world automatically know your whereabouts as well as your thoughts and activities. A new feature unveiled Thursday gives Twitter users the option of including their location with the assorted musings posted on the Internet messaging service. Locations won’t be included unless users turn on the tracking tool. The technology, which shadows people through Web browsers, can be turned off at any time. Twitter is responding to the growing popularity of other Internet services, such as Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt, that broadcast people’s locations. Facebook is expected to join the trend soon, too. Many of Twitter’s 73 million worldwide users already mention their location in their messages, or tweets. But that wastes precious space because tweets are limited to 140 characters. Location sharing is becoming so prevalent that a Web site called Please Rob Me recently launched as a reminder that burglars can mine the information to help pinpoint places where nobody’s home. Twitter is advising its users to be careful about when and how they use the new location tool. Persuading people to share their locations could help Internet services sell more advertising to companies looking to sell products and services in certain neighborhoods at a specific time. Twitter’s tracking tool is designed to work seamlessly with two Web browsers: Chrome and Firefox 3.5. The Internet Explorer browser requires downloading Google Inc.’s Gears software.
March 12, 2010 | Posted in
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter can now let the world automatically know your whereabouts as well as your thoughts and activities. A new feature unveiled Thursday gives Twitter users the option of including their location with the assorted musings posted on the Internet messaging service. Locations won’t be included unless users turn on the tracking tool. The technology, which shadows people through Web browsers, can be turned off at any time. Twitter is responding to the growing popularity of other Internet services, such as Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt, that broadcast people’s locations. Facebook is expected to join the trend soon, too. Many of Twitter’s 73 million worldwide users already mention their location in their messages, or tweets. But that wastes precious space because tweets are limited to 140 characters. Location sharing is becoming so prevalent that a Web site called Please Rob Me recently launched as a reminder that burglars can mine the information to help pinpoint places where nobody’s home. Twitter is advising its users to be careful about when and how they use the new location tool. Persuading people to share their locations could help Internet services sell more advertising to companies looking to sell products and services in certain neighborhoods at a specific time. Twitter’s tracking tool is designed to work seamlessly with two Web browsers: Chrome and Firefox 3.5. The Internet Explorer browser requires downloading Google Inc.’s Gears software.
March 12, 2010 | Posted in
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — VeriSign Inc., whose technology is key to allowing Internet users to access Web sites with names ending in “.com” and “.net,” plans to spend more than $300 million over the next decade to upgrade its systems. The upgrades will allow VeriSign’s machines to handle up to 4 quadrillion requests per day from computers trying to reach those sites. That’s a thousand times more lookups than the 4 trillion per day that the company can currently handle. Ken Silva, the company’s chief technology officer, said Thursday that the latest changes are needed to keep up with ballooning Internet traffic and with spikes in usage caused by major news events and computer attacks. Traffic volume is expected to soar along with the expansion of technologies such as Internet-connected televisions, navigation systems and video streaming. VeriSign is in two big businesses that are critical to the functioning of the Internet but both remain largely out of the public’s view. The most recognizable business involves selling “certificates” that Web sites can use to tell Web browsers that they are using encryption to protect data passing between a user’s computer and the Web site’s servers. That’s important for banking and e-commerce sites in protecting customers’ data. VeriSign is one of several large vendors of such Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates. VeriSign also operates the registry of all “.com” and “.net” domain names. That means it’s responsible for ensuring that Internet users can reach sites registered with those names. When someone enters a Web address into a browser, the traffic doesn’t go directly to servers operated by that Web site. It often has to go through servers operated by VeriSign and other companies to translate the written name, such as verisign.com, into a numeric Internet Protocol, or IP, address that computers can understand. The last major infrastructure upgrade VeriSign announced was in 2007, when the company said it would spend more than $100 million to boost capacity tenfold by 2010. The amount represented about a quarter of the total $373 million VeriSign spent in those three years on all its capital expenditures. Last year the VeriSign, which is based in Mountain View, earned $245.6 million on revenue of $1.03 billion.
March 11, 2010 | Posted in
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — VeriSign Inc., whose technology is key to allowing Internet users to access Web sites with names ending in “.com” and “.net,” plans to spend more than $300 million over the next decade to upgrade its systems. The upgrades will allow VeriSign’s machines to handle up to 4 quadrillion requests per day from computers trying to reach those sites. That’s a thousand times more lookups than the 4 trillion per day that the company can currently handle. Ken Silva, the company’s chief technology officer, said Thursday that the latest changes are needed to keep up with ballooning Internet traffic and with spikes in usage caused by major news events and computer attacks. Traffic volume is expected to soar along with the expansion of technologies such as Internet-connected televisions, navigation systems and video streaming. VeriSign is in two big businesses that are critical to the functioning of the Internet but both remain largely out of the public’s view. The most recognizable business involves selling “certificates” that Web sites can use to tell Web browsers that they are using encryption to protect data passing between a user’s computer and the Web site’s servers. That’s important for banking and e-commerce sites in protecting customers’ data. VeriSign is one of several large vendors of such Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates. VeriSign also operates the registry of all “.com” and “.net” domain names. That means it’s responsible for ensuring that Internet users can reach sites registered with those names. When someone enters a Web address into a browser, the traffic doesn’t go directly to servers operated by that Web site. It often has to go through servers operated by VeriSign and other companies to translate the written name, such as verisign.com, into a numeric Internet Protocol, or IP, address that computers can understand. The last major infrastructure upgrade VeriSign announced was in 2007, when the company said it would spend more than $100 million to boost capacity tenfold by 2010. The amount represented about a quarter of the total $373 million VeriSign spent in those three years on all its capital expenditures. Last year the VeriSign, which is based in Mountain View, earned $245.6 million on revenue of $1.03 billion.
March 11, 2010 | Posted in
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NEW YORK (AP) — Repressive regimes have stepped up efforts to censor the Internet and jail dissidents, Reporters Without Borders said in a study out Thursday. China, Iran and Tunisia, which are on the group’s “Enemies of the Internet” list, got more sophisticated at censorship and overcoming dissidents’ attempts to communicate online, said Reporters Without Borders’ Washington director, Clothilde Le Coz. Meanwhile, Turkey and Russia found themselves on the group’s “Under Surveillance” list of nations in danger of making the main enemies list. Although Zimbabwe and Yemen dropped from the surveillance list, that was primarily because the Internet isn’t used much in either country, rather than because of changes by the governments, Le Coz said. Reporters Without Borders issued the third annual report ahead of Friday’s World Day Against Cyber Censorship, an awareness campaign organized by the Paris-based group. Le Coz said repressive regimes seemed to be winning a technological tussle with dissidents who try to circumvent online restrictions. She said some U.S. technology companies have been aiding the regimes by selling equipment and filtering software that could be used for such censorship. One sign of hope: Google Inc.’s public threats to leave China if the Silicon Valley powerhouse cannot reach a deal that lets the company offer search results there free of censorship. “A year from now, I would be happy to tell you that Google opened the path,” Le Coz said. “That’s a bit idealistic.” In fact, she worries that more democratic nations would be joining the list. Australia is among the countries under the group’s surveillance for its efforts to require Internet service providers to block sites that the government deems inappropriate, including child pornography and instructions in crime or drug use. Critics are worried that the list of sites to be blocked and the reasons for doing so would be kept secret, opening the possibility that legitimate sites might be censored.
March 11, 2010 | Posted in
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