Dell Latitude E6430's Battery Life Lasts More Than 30 Hours
The Huffington Post
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Though Dell says it's making tracks away from the consumer PC market, it's not out yet. One of the company's newly announced Latitude laptops offers an impressive feature that will make anyone look twice.
The device is the Latitude E6430, and it boasts a staggering battery life of 32.7 hours.
Of course, an extra battery pack is required, but 32.7 hours is still more than four times longer than the MacBook Pro can hold on a single charge.
Dell achieved the feat by using nine-cell battery along with a secondary battery, or battery slice. However, the battery itself was not the only factor in its extended lifespan. The Latitude E6430 is built around Intel's power-efficient Ivy Bridge processor; Intel told PCWorld that these next-gen chips are "faster on applications and graphics than predecessors" and can "save power through features like the ability to shut down idle cores." The 14-inch laptop also packs a solid state drive, as opposed to a typically more power-hungry spinning hard drive.
Along with the 32.7-hour battery life, the Latitude laptop can also recover 80 percent of its charge within an hour of plugging in.
The price of the business-oriented laptop has yet to be released.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Mail order home and self sufficiency
Living off the grid in a mail-order home
By Les Christie @CNNMoney May 29, 2012: 9:21 AM ET
Email Print
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- House Arc may look like an egg-shaped antidote to McMansion mania, but this small mail-order home was really designed as a way to quickly provide housing to victims of disaster.
"We wanted to see how we could produce a house that would fit into a flat packing container that could be shipped to communities in need, like New Orleans after Katrina," said architect Joseph Bellomo, who worked on the modular home for two and a half years.
The result was House Arc, a 150-square-foot structure of hollow steel tubes. Not only can the 3,000-pound modular home withstand high winds, it can also be boxed into a 120 cubic-foot freight container and shipped off to its next destination.
House Arc is designed to be put together like a piece of Ikea furniture, according to Bellomo. In other words, anyone with moderate carpentry skills should be able to assemble it. If the home is no longer needed, it can also easily be taken apart and shipped somewhere else.
See inside: Build your own eco-friendly home
The curved design is so strong because it works like an arch, spreading the weight of any load, such as the pressure of a strong wind, across the surfaces rather than allowing it to concentrate on one spot.
For Bellomo, it was important for the home to be practical yet also attractive. Disaster victims are often relegated to substandard housing conditions, packed into trailers or even tents for months after they lose their homes, he said.
Bellomo was inspired to create the modular home after he made Bike Arc, a steel-arched shelter that riders could lock their bikes into.
Watch a home built in 30 seconds
Even though House Arc has a footprint of less than 100 square feet, it's roomier inside, thanks to walls that bow out and nine-foot high ceilings.
The cozy mail-order home can also be added to a backyard to expand living space, say as a guest house. Or it could be used as a cabin in the woods.
But the cost is still high, at a base of about $55,000. However, Bellomo wants to automate the production process, which should cut the price at least by half, he said.
Options for the modular home include plumbing, ceiling fan and solar panels for the roof. At this point, customers would have to arrange for these installations themselves.
By Les Christie @CNNMoney May 29, 2012: 9:21 AM ET
Email Print
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- House Arc may look like an egg-shaped antidote to McMansion mania, but this small mail-order home was really designed as a way to quickly provide housing to victims of disaster.
"We wanted to see how we could produce a house that would fit into a flat packing container that could be shipped to communities in need, like New Orleans after Katrina," said architect Joseph Bellomo, who worked on the modular home for two and a half years.
The result was House Arc, a 150-square-foot structure of hollow steel tubes. Not only can the 3,000-pound modular home withstand high winds, it can also be boxed into a 120 cubic-foot freight container and shipped off to its next destination.
House Arc is designed to be put together like a piece of Ikea furniture, according to Bellomo. In other words, anyone with moderate carpentry skills should be able to assemble it. If the home is no longer needed, it can also easily be taken apart and shipped somewhere else.
See inside: Build your own eco-friendly home
The curved design is so strong because it works like an arch, spreading the weight of any load, such as the pressure of a strong wind, across the surfaces rather than allowing it to concentrate on one spot.
For Bellomo, it was important for the home to be practical yet also attractive. Disaster victims are often relegated to substandard housing conditions, packed into trailers or even tents for months after they lose their homes, he said.
Bellomo was inspired to create the modular home after he made Bike Arc, a steel-arched shelter that riders could lock their bikes into.
Watch a home built in 30 seconds
Even though House Arc has a footprint of less than 100 square feet, it's roomier inside, thanks to walls that bow out and nine-foot high ceilings.
The cozy mail-order home can also be added to a backyard to expand living space, say as a guest house. Or it could be used as a cabin in the woods.
But the cost is still high, at a base of about $55,000. However, Bellomo wants to automate the production process, which should cut the price at least by half, he said.
Options for the modular home include plumbing, ceiling fan and solar panels for the roof. At this point, customers would have to arrange for these installations themselves.
Two titans and OS6
Facebook iOS integration to be announced at WWDC, report says
By AppleInsider Staff
Friday, June 1, 2012 @ 04:03 PM
Text Size
Apple will reportedly include system-wide Facebook integration in the newest version of its iOS mobile operating system, adding to the current authentication and sharing capabilities offered by Twitter in iOS 5.
A report from TechCrunch claims that Apple and Facebook are on the brink of striking a deal to bring the social media giant's substantial assets to future iDevices with built-in iOS 6 integration, and the Cupertino-based company will supposedly announce the new feature at WWDC this month.
During his interview at the D10 conference on Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke of Facebook and when asked about deeper integration of the social network in iOS he teased the possibility, saying "stay tuned." The move would bring a greater level of flexibility to Apple's mobile platform, offering access to the nearly ubiquitous "Log in with Facebook" authentication method as well as system-wide sharing abilities.
Apple has previously shown interest in bringing Facebook into the iOS fold and an iOS 5.1 beta revealed that the two companies were at least working on some sort of solution.
It is thought that Facebook integration will be fashioned in much the same way as Twitter is set up in iOS 5, giving users the ability to share photos, websites and other content with friends and followers.
One major improvement to the existing Facebook iOS interface would be a more streamlined one-click sign-on to the multitude of websites and apps that offer Facebook authentication, especially beneficial especially for those programs that use the service as an exclusive means of entry. In order to sign in with Facebook in iOS 5, a user clicks on a Facebook connect button which opens the Facebook app. After agreeing to allow access to various metrics in a user's account, iOS automatically switches back to the original app. The solution is hardly ideal and is seen as more of a workaround to not having true built-in integration.
Twitter is said to remain in iOS with its capabilities fully intact and the addition of Facebook will represent another value-added feature for iDevice users.
Current implementation of Facebook Connect in iOS 5.1.1 as seen in the Readability app for iPad.
It should be noted that until Apple or Facebook makes an official announcement, the rumor remains just that and either company can back out at the last minute. A prime example of how tenuous a relationship the two companies share is Apple's Ping social music network, which was widely rumored to have Facebook support. The deal ultimately fell through due to what Apple co-founder Steve Jobs referred to as "onerous terms."
Apple's WWDC will kick off on June 11 and run through June 15.
Email Article 48 Comments
By AppleInsider Staff
Friday, June 1, 2012 @ 04:03 PM
Text Size
Apple will reportedly include system-wide Facebook integration in the newest version of its iOS mobile operating system, adding to the current authentication and sharing capabilities offered by Twitter in iOS 5.
A report from TechCrunch claims that Apple and Facebook are on the brink of striking a deal to bring the social media giant's substantial assets to future iDevices with built-in iOS 6 integration, and the Cupertino-based company will supposedly announce the new feature at WWDC this month.
During his interview at the D10 conference on Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke of Facebook and when asked about deeper integration of the social network in iOS he teased the possibility, saying "stay tuned." The move would bring a greater level of flexibility to Apple's mobile platform, offering access to the nearly ubiquitous "Log in with Facebook" authentication method as well as system-wide sharing abilities.
Apple has previously shown interest in bringing Facebook into the iOS fold and an iOS 5.1 beta revealed that the two companies were at least working on some sort of solution.
It is thought that Facebook integration will be fashioned in much the same way as Twitter is set up in iOS 5, giving users the ability to share photos, websites and other content with friends and followers.
One major improvement to the existing Facebook iOS interface would be a more streamlined one-click sign-on to the multitude of websites and apps that offer Facebook authentication, especially beneficial especially for those programs that use the service as an exclusive means of entry. In order to sign in with Facebook in iOS 5, a user clicks on a Facebook connect button which opens the Facebook app. After agreeing to allow access to various metrics in a user's account, iOS automatically switches back to the original app. The solution is hardly ideal and is seen as more of a workaround to not having true built-in integration.
Twitter is said to remain in iOS with its capabilities fully intact and the addition of Facebook will represent another value-added feature for iDevice users.
Current implementation of Facebook Connect in iOS 5.1.1 as seen in the Readability app for iPad.
It should be noted that until Apple or Facebook makes an official announcement, the rumor remains just that and either company can back out at the last minute. A prime example of how tenuous a relationship the two companies share is Apple's Ping social music network, which was widely rumored to have Facebook support. The deal ultimately fell through due to what Apple co-founder Steve Jobs referred to as "onerous terms."
Apple's WWDC will kick off on June 11 and run through June 15.
Email Article 48 Comments
Google Analytics "Content Experiments" New testing for your website
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Helping to Create Better Websites: Introducing Content Experiments
Friday, June 01, 2012 | 10:09 AM
Labels: Announcements, Content, Features
Over the last 5 years, it’s been great to see how many marketers and publishers have improved the web by using insights from Google Website Optimizer to create better site experiences. Today, we’d like to announce the release of Google Analytics Content Experiments, which brings website testing to Google Analytics.
We’re excited to integrate content testing into Google Analytics and believe it will help meet your goals of measuring, testing and optimizing all in one place. Content Experiments helps you optimize for goals you have already defined in your Google Analytics account, and can help you decide which page designs, layouts and content are most effective. With Content Experiments, you can develop several versions of a page and show different versions to different visitors. Google Analytics measures the efficacy of each page version, and with a new advanced statistical engine, it determines the most effective version. You can watch this video to learn more:
Testing and experimentation of websites may sound complicated, but we've worked hard to provide a testing tool that makes it as easy as possible:
Content Experiments comes with a setup wizard that walks you step by step through setting up experiments, and helps you quickly launch new tests.
Content Experiments reuses Google Analytics tags so that you only need to add one additional tag to the original page.
Content Experiments helps you understand which content performs best, and identifies a winner as soon as statistically significant data has been collected.
Since content testing is so important, we’ve placed Content Experiments just a click away from your regular diagnosis reports in Google Analytics.
With full integration in Google Analytics, we’ll be able to grow and evolve website experimentation tools within our broader measurement platform. Initially, you’ll be able to utilize important features like optimized goal conversions, easier tagging, and advanced segmentation in reports. We’re also working hard to release page metrics, additional goal conversion options and experiment suggestions.
Since we’re rolling much of the Google Website Optimizer functionality into Google Analytics, it’s time for us to say goodbye to the standalone tool. The last day you’ll be able to access Google Website Optimizer, and any reports for current or past experiments, will be August 1, 2012. We encourage you to start any new experiments in Content Experiments. For those of you that are new to website experimentation, we hope you’ll try out the new Google Analytics Content Experiments.
This is just the first step we’re taking to simplify website testing, and we look forward to integrating more features into the experimentation framework of Google Analytics. Content Experiments will be gradually rolling out over the next few weeks to all users. Once available in your account, you can start testing by going to Google Analytics and accessing Experiments within the Content section of your reports.
We’ll continue to have a strong network of Google Analytics Certified Partners who will be able to provide advanced support for Analytics, including Content Experiments. If you would like professional assistance in designing, implementing, or interpreting the results of a test, simply go to the Google Analytics Partner page and select "Website Optimizer" from the Specialization menu. You can also find more information in our help center. Please try out Content Experiments and let us know what you think.
Happy testing!
Posted by Nir Tzemah, Google Analytics team
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Case Study (4)
Code and Configuration (38)
Content (4)
Conversion (4)
Custom Reports (5)
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googlenew (3)
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Social (9)
Training and Events (54)
Videos (33)
Blogroll
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Cardinal Path
Google Website Optimizer Blog
Inside AdSense
Analytics Talk
The Periscopix Blog
MarketingExperiments Blog
The ROI Revolution Blog
LunaMetrics
Google Webmaster Central Blog
Google Analytics Blog - Japan
ConversionWorks
E-Nor Blog
The Conversion Room
Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik
Measuring Success
Atlanta Analytics
Analytics Pros
FutureNow
Conversion Room - JAPAC
Blast Advanced Media
Web Analytics Inside
Conversion Room - Germany
Google Analytics France Blog
inUse Insights blogg
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Books
Always be Testing (2008)
Advanced Web Metrics (2010)
Landing Page Optimizati... (2008)
Web Analytics: An Hour a... (2007)
Web Analytics 2.0 (2009)
Related Google Products
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AdWords
Google Trends
Insights for Search
Search Based Keyword Tool
Webmaster Tools
Website Optimizer
Feedback
Send us feedback
Helping to Create Better Websites: Introducing Content Experiments
Friday, June 01, 2012 | 10:09 AM
Labels: Announcements, Content, Features
Over the last 5 years, it’s been great to see how many marketers and publishers have improved the web by using insights from Google Website Optimizer to create better site experiences. Today, we’d like to announce the release of Google Analytics Content Experiments, which brings website testing to Google Analytics.
We’re excited to integrate content testing into Google Analytics and believe it will help meet your goals of measuring, testing and optimizing all in one place. Content Experiments helps you optimize for goals you have already defined in your Google Analytics account, and can help you decide which page designs, layouts and content are most effective. With Content Experiments, you can develop several versions of a page and show different versions to different visitors. Google Analytics measures the efficacy of each page version, and with a new advanced statistical engine, it determines the most effective version. You can watch this video to learn more:
Testing and experimentation of websites may sound complicated, but we've worked hard to provide a testing tool that makes it as easy as possible:
Content Experiments comes with a setup wizard that walks you step by step through setting up experiments, and helps you quickly launch new tests.
Content Experiments reuses Google Analytics tags so that you only need to add one additional tag to the original page.
Content Experiments helps you understand which content performs best, and identifies a winner as soon as statistically significant data has been collected.
Since content testing is so important, we’ve placed Content Experiments just a click away from your regular diagnosis reports in Google Analytics.
With full integration in Google Analytics, we’ll be able to grow and evolve website experimentation tools within our broader measurement platform. Initially, you’ll be able to utilize important features like optimized goal conversions, easier tagging, and advanced segmentation in reports. We’re also working hard to release page metrics, additional goal conversion options and experiment suggestions.
Since we’re rolling much of the Google Website Optimizer functionality into Google Analytics, it’s time for us to say goodbye to the standalone tool. The last day you’ll be able to access Google Website Optimizer, and any reports for current or past experiments, will be August 1, 2012. We encourage you to start any new experiments in Content Experiments. For those of you that are new to website experimentation, we hope you’ll try out the new Google Analytics Content Experiments.
This is just the first step we’re taking to simplify website testing, and we look forward to integrating more features into the experimentation framework of Google Analytics. Content Experiments will be gradually rolling out over the next few weeks to all users. Once available in your account, you can start testing by going to Google Analytics and accessing Experiments within the Content section of your reports.
We’ll continue to have a strong network of Google Analytics Certified Partners who will be able to provide advanced support for Analytics, including Content Experiments. If you would like professional assistance in designing, implementing, or interpreting the results of a test, simply go to the Google Analytics Partner page and select "Website Optimizer" from the Specialization menu. You can also find more information in our help center. Please try out Content Experiments and let us know what you think.
Happy testing!
Posted by Nir Tzemah, Google Analytics team
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Google warned to change search results or face court over antitrust issues
European commission wants to address search engine company's dominance which it says could harm competition
Joaquin Almunia, the European commission's head of competition, is concerned that Google's dominance could harm competition. Photograph: Martin Godwin/Guardian
Charles Arthur, technology editor
guardian.co.uk, Fri 1 Jun 2012 11.37 BST
Europe's antitrust chief has given Google until 2 July to offer changes in its search results and advertising rules or face the threat of going to court and potentially huge fines.
Joaquin Almunia, the head of competition policy, has written a private letter to Google in which he has set out the European commission's concerns on how Google's dominance – where in Europe it has about 90% of searches – could be harming competition.
But Almunia's letter is only one of many battles that the US company is fighting against the threat of government regulation. The US and Asia are also investigating whether it is abusing its near-monopoly in search, while in Europe, accusations that it is invading people's privacy and even snooping on online conversations are coming under scrutiny from French and German regulators.
In a statement, Google told the Guardian: "We operate in over 100 countries around the world, and the internet is disruptive by its nature. It's understandable that our business should attract scrutiny and sometimes complaints in a few of those countries. We're always happy to answer questions authorities may have about our business."
Unusually, Almunia has indicated that he is ready to deal with Google, rather than taking it to court – evidence, a Google spokesman suggested, that "we've have been co-operating with their investigation and that issues can be solved through conversation".
Yet the investigations are mounting up so rapidly that many doubt Google can escape some strictures. For the company which in 2001 adopted the motto "don't be evil" as a counterpoint to Microsoft, which was then being sued for monopolistic practices in the US and Europe, it is a strange reverse.
"What's happened is that Google's popularity and virtually unprecedented success have made it a target," says Whit Andrews, an analyst with the IT research company Gartner. "Google doesn't understand why when it provides a superior product, which it believes it operates transparently – why everybody then seems to want to stop it."
He says that "instinctively, Google believes it's providing the best search engine, and that that should indemnify it from the slings and arrows of government interference".
But it hasn't. Almunia, in his letter on 26 May to Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt, says that among his concerns are the ways that Google treats links to its own "vertical search" services – specialist topics such as shopping, news or travel – preferentially to rivals. Such complaints from a small British shopping search site called Foundem helped trigger the abuse of monopoly investigation in November 2010. It is not illegal, as such, to have a monopoly in search; but it's certainly illegal to use that to handicap rivals in other fields.
Schmidt responded last week that he hadn't seen the specifics of Almunia's complaint – but stressed that he was happy to talk to him. "He's encouraging us to have a conversation, and we completely agree. We disagree that we are in violation in general," he said in London last week.
If Almunia prevails – as he is expected to, one way or another – then Google will have to change its search results, and perhaps even give rivals in some fields star billing. That will be galling for the company as it tries to extend its hegemony across shopping, travel, and news. Yet it may be the only practical way out.
But the European commission is only the start. In France, the data protection commissioner, the CNIL, has written to Google demanding more detail about the changes in its privacy policies: "the answers provided by Google are often incomplete or approximate," tuts the CNIL, which has given it until 8 June to explain how the data it collects about users – that's pretty much everyone in Europe – is processed and how long it is stored.
In Germany, meanwhile, the district attorney in Hamburg is considering a prosecution under wiretapping laws. A key driver was a report published in April by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about Google's collection of data from wireless internet connections from homes and businesses while it was compiling its Street View picture maps in 2010 and 2011.
The Hamburg data protection commissioner discovered that Google's Street View car wasn't just collecting the names and locations of networks; it was also collecting the data being transmitted from those without password protection. Although each capture lasted less than a second, that could be enough to collect up to a megabyte of data – equivalent to a number of emails. One incriminating one in France included a married man seeking an affair, the CNIL found.
But what the FCC revealed was that the data collection was not, as Google had repeatedly insisted, a mistake; it was intentional. A Google engineer wrote the code to do it, told colleagues about it, suggested it be reviewed by lawyers (it wasn't), and when the collection was complete tried analysing it to see if there was anything Google could use for future services.
In Germany, where individual privacy is taken extremely seriously and has extra legal protections, this has triggered a long-running investigation by the Hamburg district attorney, which has not yet decided whether to prosecute Google. If they don't, then the Hamburg data protection commissioner, Dr Johannes Caspar, will be waiting. The FCC report, he says, makes any infringement worse: "We have to think about the probability of Google in this case doing something wrong, which is to store data of conversations of people via the internet. It was just decided by one employee, he talked about it and so the circle of people who knew about it was bigger. So we have to think about the responsibilities of the management of Google."
In the US, the Federal Trade Commission is investigating both Google's tweaking of vertical search to favour its own products — though Schmidt said before a US Senate hearing last September that the situation is more complicated, and that what the senators saw as favouritism of Google products was actually a confusion between price comparison sites, and product sales sites.
So is the FTC or Senate likely to pursue Google for tweaking search results to favour its own, as the Department of Justice pursued Microsoft in 1998 for insisting that Windows licences must come with Internet Explorer? "Microsoft made key errors: consumers began to perceive it as taking advantage of them. PCs cost a lot, Office cost a lot, but the operating system was becoming less important, so Microsoft became vulnerable to regulatory attack."
If the mood towards Google changes in the US – if it is felt to be taking advantage of users – a similar change might follow, but not in an election year, he suggests.
Certainly, some in the US have become disenchanted with Google: Jeffrey Katz, chief executive of Nextag, a price comparison site, told the Guardian that when Google was a young startup, he was happy to work with it; but now, he says, "they control peoples' view of the net – and it isn't a level playing field." About 90% of users never go past the first page, so anything off there is unlikely ever to be seen; while Google's products consistently feature among the top three, so they are "above the fold" of the page, not even requiring scrolling to see and click on them. "It's not accidental," Katz says. "It's undeniable. What's questionable is why more people aren't speaking up about it. Maybe they're worried about what Google will do."
He says the claim, repeatedly made, by Schmidt and other Google executives such as chief executive Larry Page, that the competition is just a click away, is "such a disingenuous statement by billionaires". He queries: "Why would the average person do that? Ask them what other search engines exist and they'll fall silent."
Andrews thinks there is more chance that European regulators will act than American ones will. "In an election year, trying to put Larry Page's head on the battlements isn't going to pay off for a US regulator unless Google makes a mistake that leaves it with a villain's role." But in Europe, he thinks the mood is different: "European citizens turn to regulators to be their conscience. It's much more likely there will be substantive action in Europe." With the clock ticking to Almunia's deadline in July, Google must hope to avert that.
Pending and playing out: the charges against Google
• European commission: the antitrust commissioner has given Google until 2 July to respond to concerns that Google favours its own products over rivals' in areas such as shopping and travel; that it copies rival sites' content to display in search results; that it bans rival advertisers from showing ads on pages it controls; and that it prevents advertisers exporting details of their campaigns with Google. If the two sides can't agree, a costly court battle will follow.
• European commission: Motorola Mobility, which makes mobile phones and set top boxes, and which is owned by Google since last week, is being investigated under antitrust rules for instigating lawsuits with Microsoft and Apple over "standards-essential" patents for technologies such as 3G and video decoding. It could face fines; Google has shown no signs of dropping the lawsuits.
• US: the Federal Trade Commission is investigating Google's hacking of the iPhone's browser to plant cookies which could track people, bypassing a setting intended to block them. It could demand a swingeing per-person per-day fine that would amount to tens of millions of dollars.
• US: the FTC is considering whether to bring a case like the EC's over "vertical search" and promotion of Google products in travel and shopping
• European Commission: the antitrust commissioner has begun investigating whether smartphones running Google's Android software, which now make up more than half of smartphone sales worldwide, give Google an unfair advantage: by default they use Google's browser and hook up to its email and calendar services.
• Germany: the Hamburg district attorney is considering whether to sue Google over collection of data from open wireless internet networks
• France: the data protection commissioner, the CNIL, is leading a Europe-wide investigation of Google's change to its privacy policy earlier this year. Google has until 8 June to respond to questions about precisely what data it processes and how long it stores it.
• Korea: the Fair Trade Commission on Monday inspected Google offices in Seoul, following complaints from two rival search companies, Daum and Naver, that Google is restricting mobile service providers and smartphone makers from putting other mobile search portals into the Android phone software before they are sold. Daum and Naver together have about 79% of the desktop search market in South Korea, compared to Google's 9%, but Android phones make up a much bigger proportion of smartphone sales.
European commission wants to address search engine company's dominance which it says could harm competition
Joaquin Almunia, the European commission's head of competition, is concerned that Google's dominance could harm competition. Photograph: Martin Godwin/Guardian
Charles Arthur, technology editor
guardian.co.uk, Fri 1 Jun 2012 11.37 BST
Europe's antitrust chief has given Google until 2 July to offer changes in its search results and advertising rules or face the threat of going to court and potentially huge fines.
Joaquin Almunia, the head of competition policy, has written a private letter to Google in which he has set out the European commission's concerns on how Google's dominance – where in Europe it has about 90% of searches – could be harming competition.
But Almunia's letter is only one of many battles that the US company is fighting against the threat of government regulation. The US and Asia are also investigating whether it is abusing its near-monopoly in search, while in Europe, accusations that it is invading people's privacy and even snooping on online conversations are coming under scrutiny from French and German regulators.
In a statement, Google told the Guardian: "We operate in over 100 countries around the world, and the internet is disruptive by its nature. It's understandable that our business should attract scrutiny and sometimes complaints in a few of those countries. We're always happy to answer questions authorities may have about our business."
Unusually, Almunia has indicated that he is ready to deal with Google, rather than taking it to court – evidence, a Google spokesman suggested, that "we've have been co-operating with their investigation and that issues can be solved through conversation".
Yet the investigations are mounting up so rapidly that many doubt Google can escape some strictures. For the company which in 2001 adopted the motto "don't be evil" as a counterpoint to Microsoft, which was then being sued for monopolistic practices in the US and Europe, it is a strange reverse.
"What's happened is that Google's popularity and virtually unprecedented success have made it a target," says Whit Andrews, an analyst with the IT research company Gartner. "Google doesn't understand why when it provides a superior product, which it believes it operates transparently – why everybody then seems to want to stop it."
He says that "instinctively, Google believes it's providing the best search engine, and that that should indemnify it from the slings and arrows of government interference".
But it hasn't. Almunia, in his letter on 26 May to Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt, says that among his concerns are the ways that Google treats links to its own "vertical search" services – specialist topics such as shopping, news or travel – preferentially to rivals. Such complaints from a small British shopping search site called Foundem helped trigger the abuse of monopoly investigation in November 2010. It is not illegal, as such, to have a monopoly in search; but it's certainly illegal to use that to handicap rivals in other fields.
Schmidt responded last week that he hadn't seen the specifics of Almunia's complaint – but stressed that he was happy to talk to him. "He's encouraging us to have a conversation, and we completely agree. We disagree that we are in violation in general," he said in London last week.
If Almunia prevails – as he is expected to, one way or another – then Google will have to change its search results, and perhaps even give rivals in some fields star billing. That will be galling for the company as it tries to extend its hegemony across shopping, travel, and news. Yet it may be the only practical way out.
But the European commission is only the start. In France, the data protection commissioner, the CNIL, has written to Google demanding more detail about the changes in its privacy policies: "the answers provided by Google are often incomplete or approximate," tuts the CNIL, which has given it until 8 June to explain how the data it collects about users – that's pretty much everyone in Europe – is processed and how long it is stored.
In Germany, meanwhile, the district attorney in Hamburg is considering a prosecution under wiretapping laws. A key driver was a report published in April by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about Google's collection of data from wireless internet connections from homes and businesses while it was compiling its Street View picture maps in 2010 and 2011.
The Hamburg data protection commissioner discovered that Google's Street View car wasn't just collecting the names and locations of networks; it was also collecting the data being transmitted from those without password protection. Although each capture lasted less than a second, that could be enough to collect up to a megabyte of data – equivalent to a number of emails. One incriminating one in France included a married man seeking an affair, the CNIL found.
But what the FCC revealed was that the data collection was not, as Google had repeatedly insisted, a mistake; it was intentional. A Google engineer wrote the code to do it, told colleagues about it, suggested it be reviewed by lawyers (it wasn't), and when the collection was complete tried analysing it to see if there was anything Google could use for future services.
In Germany, where individual privacy is taken extremely seriously and has extra legal protections, this has triggered a long-running investigation by the Hamburg district attorney, which has not yet decided whether to prosecute Google. If they don't, then the Hamburg data protection commissioner, Dr Johannes Caspar, will be waiting. The FCC report, he says, makes any infringement worse: "We have to think about the probability of Google in this case doing something wrong, which is to store data of conversations of people via the internet. It was just decided by one employee, he talked about it and so the circle of people who knew about it was bigger. So we have to think about the responsibilities of the management of Google."
In the US, the Federal Trade Commission is investigating both Google's tweaking of vertical search to favour its own products — though Schmidt said before a US Senate hearing last September that the situation is more complicated, and that what the senators saw as favouritism of Google products was actually a confusion between price comparison sites, and product sales sites.
So is the FTC or Senate likely to pursue Google for tweaking search results to favour its own, as the Department of Justice pursued Microsoft in 1998 for insisting that Windows licences must come with Internet Explorer? "Microsoft made key errors: consumers began to perceive it as taking advantage of them. PCs cost a lot, Office cost a lot, but the operating system was becoming less important, so Microsoft became vulnerable to regulatory attack."
If the mood towards Google changes in the US – if it is felt to be taking advantage of users – a similar change might follow, but not in an election year, he suggests.
Certainly, some in the US have become disenchanted with Google: Jeffrey Katz, chief executive of Nextag, a price comparison site, told the Guardian that when Google was a young startup, he was happy to work with it; but now, he says, "they control peoples' view of the net – and it isn't a level playing field." About 90% of users never go past the first page, so anything off there is unlikely ever to be seen; while Google's products consistently feature among the top three, so they are "above the fold" of the page, not even requiring scrolling to see and click on them. "It's not accidental," Katz says. "It's undeniable. What's questionable is why more people aren't speaking up about it. Maybe they're worried about what Google will do."
He says the claim, repeatedly made, by Schmidt and other Google executives such as chief executive Larry Page, that the competition is just a click away, is "such a disingenuous statement by billionaires". He queries: "Why would the average person do that? Ask them what other search engines exist and they'll fall silent."
Andrews thinks there is more chance that European regulators will act than American ones will. "In an election year, trying to put Larry Page's head on the battlements isn't going to pay off for a US regulator unless Google makes a mistake that leaves it with a villain's role." But in Europe, he thinks the mood is different: "European citizens turn to regulators to be their conscience. It's much more likely there will be substantive action in Europe." With the clock ticking to Almunia's deadline in July, Google must hope to avert that.
Pending and playing out: the charges against Google
• European commission: the antitrust commissioner has given Google until 2 July to respond to concerns that Google favours its own products over rivals' in areas such as shopping and travel; that it copies rival sites' content to display in search results; that it bans rival advertisers from showing ads on pages it controls; and that it prevents advertisers exporting details of their campaigns with Google. If the two sides can't agree, a costly court battle will follow.
• European commission: Motorola Mobility, which makes mobile phones and set top boxes, and which is owned by Google since last week, is being investigated under antitrust rules for instigating lawsuits with Microsoft and Apple over "standards-essential" patents for technologies such as 3G and video decoding. It could face fines; Google has shown no signs of dropping the lawsuits.
• US: the Federal Trade Commission is investigating Google's hacking of the iPhone's browser to plant cookies which could track people, bypassing a setting intended to block them. It could demand a swingeing per-person per-day fine that would amount to tens of millions of dollars.
• US: the FTC is considering whether to bring a case like the EC's over "vertical search" and promotion of Google products in travel and shopping
• European Commission: the antitrust commissioner has begun investigating whether smartphones running Google's Android software, which now make up more than half of smartphone sales worldwide, give Google an unfair advantage: by default they use Google's browser and hook up to its email and calendar services.
• Germany: the Hamburg district attorney is considering whether to sue Google over collection of data from open wireless internet networks
• France: the data protection commissioner, the CNIL, is leading a Europe-wide investigation of Google's change to its privacy policy earlier this year. Google has until 8 June to respond to questions about precisely what data it processes and how long it stores it.
• Korea: the Fair Trade Commission on Monday inspected Google offices in Seoul, following complaints from two rival search companies, Daum and Naver, that Google is restricting mobile service providers and smartphone makers from putting other mobile search portals into the Android phone software before they are sold. Daum and Naver together have about 79% of the desktop search market in South Korea, compared to Google's 9%, but Android phones make up a much bigger proportion of smartphone sales.
Apple sued again!
Apple sued over iOS developer program
Patent infringement lawsuit claims Apple’s iOS Developer Program infringes on a patent
By Karen Haslam | 01 June 12
Apple is being sued again, this time over the iOS developer program.
In a patent infringement lawsuit Cathas Advanced Technologies claims Apple’s iOS Developer Program infringes on a patent titled "Web-Based Design Software for Keep-Alive Boards."
The alleged patent infringements relate to “A method for electronically providing customized software to a customer… through a web interface” and “A web-based software delivery system for electronically providing customized software to a customer, comprising: a web server; and software design code located on the web server for performing the steps of: receiving a customer specification through a web interface; creating customer compatible software that meets the customer specification; and electronically providing the customer compatible software to the customer,” reports Patently Apple.
Patent infringement lawsuit claims Apple’s iOS Developer Program infringes on a patent
By Karen Haslam | 01 June 12
Apple is being sued again, this time over the iOS developer program.
In a patent infringement lawsuit Cathas Advanced Technologies claims Apple’s iOS Developer Program infringes on a patent titled "Web-Based Design Software for Keep-Alive Boards."
The alleged patent infringements relate to “A method for electronically providing customized software to a customer… through a web interface” and “A web-based software delivery system for electronically providing customized software to a customer, comprising: a web server; and software design code located on the web server for performing the steps of: receiving a customer specification through a web interface; creating customer compatible software that meets the customer specification; and electronically providing the customer compatible software to the customer,” reports Patently Apple.
A new decline? Or is it something else?
Global slowdown worsens as China cools, Europe sinks
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Reuters
Friday, Jun. 1, 2012
LONDON/SINGAPORE — Some of the world’s major economies are faltering or shrinking, with Chinese factory output barely growing and powerful European manufacturing countries falling deeper into malaise, surveys showed on Friday.
In Britain, manufacturing activity shrank at its fastest pace in three years last month as the global economic slowdown hit demand for its goods.
“It doesn’t bode well for the second quarter,” said Sian Fenner, global macroeconomist at Lloyds Banking Group.
“There is a lot of heightened uncertainty and risk in the market in the euro area, and this is playing on manufacturers’ minds.
”It could start feeding through to sentiment in the United States, although at the moment the United States is holding up reasonably well, and there are worrying signs from China.“
Signs of a faltering recovery in the United States have fed investor fears. The critical U.S. non-farm payrolls report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, follows data on Thursday that showed private employers created fewer jobs than expected last month.
Equities, the euro, sterling and growth-linked currencies all fell after Friday’s gloomy survey data.
Markit’s Eurozone Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 45.1 in May from 45.9 in April, slightly above a preliminary reading but marking its lowest level since June 2009.
It has been below the 50 mark that divides growth from contraction for 10 months. Similarly the output index fell to 44.6 from April’s 46.1, also the lowest since June 2009.
CORE CONSTERNATION
Earlier data from France and Germany, Europe’s largest economy, showed their manufacturing sectors contracted at the fastest pace in nearly three years. It was only German strength that prevented the eurozone falling into recession in the first quarter.
Italy’s factories contracted for the tenth straight month while in Spain the PMI fell below that of Greece’s, and posted the lowest reading of all the countries surveyed.
The news in Britain, linked inexorably to the fortunes of the euro zone, was little better.
The UK economy is mired in its second recession in two years and its PMI plunged to 45.9 last month, its lowest reading since May 2009 and the second-steepest fall in the survey’s 20-year history. Analysts had expected a more modest dip to 49.8.
The eurozone’s economic deterioration prompted more than a third of economists polled by Reuters this week to say the ECB will cut interest rates from their record 1.0% low before the end of the year to boost growth.
”Fundamentals certainly justify a rate cut any time soon. However, the ECB might keep some powder dry at next week’s meeting and wait for the outcome of the Greek elections – and future of the monetary union – to change its policy stance,“ said Annalisa Piazza at Newedge.
Greece, which unleashed the financial maelstrom that has ravaged the bloc, is due for a crucial second election in three weeks that may determine whether it remains a member of the currency union.
Recent Reuters polls of fund managers, economists, and money market traders have all suggested that battered Greece will still be a member of the 17-nation bloc come 2014.
CHINA STALLS
Declines in two gauges of China’s manufacturing sector were particularly worrying for investors looking to the world’s second biggest economy – the main engine of global growth in recent years – to pick up the slack created by Europe’s debt crisis and the sluggish U.S. economy.
China’s annual economic growth is expected by analysts to fall to 7.9% in the second quarter, the first dip below 8% since 2009. That could pile pressure on authorities to attempt further stimulus.
”What’s really worrying is new orders have started to shrink and inventories have started to build up at an unusually fast pace,“ said Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior economist and strategist at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong.
China’s official purchasing managers’ index – covering China’s biggest, mainly state-backed firms – fell more than expected to 50.4 in May, the weakest reading this year and down from April’s 13-month high, with output at its lowest since November 2011.
The separate HSBC China manufacturing PMI, tracking smaller private sector firms, retreated to 48.4 from 49.3 in April – its seventh straight month below the 50-mark – with the employment sub-index falling to 48.1, its lowest level since March 2009.
India’s manufacturing sector held up better, with a survey showing factories kept up a steady rate of expansion in May, with fast-rising output evened out by slowing growth of domestic order books.
The HSBC manufacturing PMI, compiled by Markit, eased marginally to 54.8 in May from 54.9 in April. It has stayed above the 50 mark for a little over three years.
Economists forecast the U.S. employment report for May to show non-farm payrolls increased 150,000, up from a paltry 115,000 in April.
Investors were alarmed by a report from payrolls processor ADP showing private employers created 133,000 jobs in May, only a slight rise from April’s tepid increase of 113,000 and below economists’ expectations for a gain of 148,000.
© Thomson Reuters 2012
Posted in: Investing Tags: China, EU Debt Crisis
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Reuters
Friday, Jun. 1, 2012
LONDON/SINGAPORE — Some of the world’s major economies are faltering or shrinking, with Chinese factory output barely growing and powerful European manufacturing countries falling deeper into malaise, surveys showed on Friday.
In Britain, manufacturing activity shrank at its fastest pace in three years last month as the global economic slowdown hit demand for its goods.
“It doesn’t bode well for the second quarter,” said Sian Fenner, global macroeconomist at Lloyds Banking Group.
“There is a lot of heightened uncertainty and risk in the market in the euro area, and this is playing on manufacturers’ minds.
”It could start feeding through to sentiment in the United States, although at the moment the United States is holding up reasonably well, and there are worrying signs from China.“
Signs of a faltering recovery in the United States have fed investor fears. The critical U.S. non-farm payrolls report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, follows data on Thursday that showed private employers created fewer jobs than expected last month.
Equities, the euro, sterling and growth-linked currencies all fell after Friday’s gloomy survey data.
Markit’s Eurozone Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 45.1 in May from 45.9 in April, slightly above a preliminary reading but marking its lowest level since June 2009.
It has been below the 50 mark that divides growth from contraction for 10 months. Similarly the output index fell to 44.6 from April’s 46.1, also the lowest since June 2009.
CORE CONSTERNATION
Earlier data from France and Germany, Europe’s largest economy, showed their manufacturing sectors contracted at the fastest pace in nearly three years. It was only German strength that prevented the eurozone falling into recession in the first quarter.
Italy’s factories contracted for the tenth straight month while in Spain the PMI fell below that of Greece’s, and posted the lowest reading of all the countries surveyed.
The news in Britain, linked inexorably to the fortunes of the euro zone, was little better.
The UK economy is mired in its second recession in two years and its PMI plunged to 45.9 last month, its lowest reading since May 2009 and the second-steepest fall in the survey’s 20-year history. Analysts had expected a more modest dip to 49.8.
The eurozone’s economic deterioration prompted more than a third of economists polled by Reuters this week to say the ECB will cut interest rates from their record 1.0% low before the end of the year to boost growth.
”Fundamentals certainly justify a rate cut any time soon. However, the ECB might keep some powder dry at next week’s meeting and wait for the outcome of the Greek elections – and future of the monetary union – to change its policy stance,“ said Annalisa Piazza at Newedge.
Greece, which unleashed the financial maelstrom that has ravaged the bloc, is due for a crucial second election in three weeks that may determine whether it remains a member of the currency union.
Recent Reuters polls of fund managers, economists, and money market traders have all suggested that battered Greece will still be a member of the 17-nation bloc come 2014.
CHINA STALLS
Declines in two gauges of China’s manufacturing sector were particularly worrying for investors looking to the world’s second biggest economy – the main engine of global growth in recent years – to pick up the slack created by Europe’s debt crisis and the sluggish U.S. economy.
China’s annual economic growth is expected by analysts to fall to 7.9% in the second quarter, the first dip below 8% since 2009. That could pile pressure on authorities to attempt further stimulus.
”What’s really worrying is new orders have started to shrink and inventories have started to build up at an unusually fast pace,“ said Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior economist and strategist at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong.
China’s official purchasing managers’ index – covering China’s biggest, mainly state-backed firms – fell more than expected to 50.4 in May, the weakest reading this year and down from April’s 13-month high, with output at its lowest since November 2011.
The separate HSBC China manufacturing PMI, tracking smaller private sector firms, retreated to 48.4 from 49.3 in April – its seventh straight month below the 50-mark – with the employment sub-index falling to 48.1, its lowest level since March 2009.
India’s manufacturing sector held up better, with a survey showing factories kept up a steady rate of expansion in May, with fast-rising output evened out by slowing growth of domestic order books.
The HSBC manufacturing PMI, compiled by Markit, eased marginally to 54.8 in May from 54.9 in April. It has stayed above the 50 mark for a little over three years.
Economists forecast the U.S. employment report for May to show non-farm payrolls increased 150,000, up from a paltry 115,000 in April.
Investors were alarmed by a report from payrolls processor ADP showing private employers created 133,000 jobs in May, only a slight rise from April’s tepid increase of 113,000 and below economists’ expectations for a gain of 148,000.
© Thomson Reuters 2012
Posted in: Investing Tags: China, EU Debt Crisis
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