Intel Corp. and Yahoo Inc. on Wednesday announced plans for the Widget Channel, a television application framework optimized for TV and related consumer electronics devices.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) said the channel "will allow consumers to enjoy rich Internet applications designed for the TV while watching their favorite TV programs" and will be powered by the Yahoo Widget Engine, a fifth-generation applications platform.
Widget Channel also will allow developers to use Javascript, XML, HTML and Adobe Flash technology to write TV applications and will use Intel's CE3100 chips.
Yahoo-branded TV widgets "will enable consumers to engage in a variety of experiences such as watching videos, tracking their favorite stocks or sports teams, interacting with friends, or staying current on news and information," the companies said.
"TV will fundamentally change how we talk about, imagine and experience the Internet," said Eric Kim, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the company's Digital Home Group. "No longer just a passive experience unless the viewer wants it that way, Intel and Yahoo are proposing a way where the TV and Internet are as interactive and seamless as possible.
The companies said they are also working to promote the development of "open and consistent standards necessary to grow the TV widget ecosystem."
Intel has operations in Chandler.
credit news by : bizjournals.com
Microsoft on Wednesday opened up its Photosynth 3D photo offering to the public.
Photosynth takes a collection of regular photographs and reconstructs them in a 3D environment. It could take Flickr photos of a monument like Notre Dame Cathedral from hundreds of separate accounts and compile them into one, continuous shot of the cathedral and its surroundings.
Users can install Photosynth at photosynth.com. All photos that are added to the site will be public and visible to anyone on the Internet. It is currently only available on Windows-based machines running XP and Vista, and users will have to sign up for a Windows Live ID to access Photosynth.
Microsoft first previewed Photosynth at its 2006 financial analyst meeting, several months after it acquired Seattle-based Seadragon Software, which developed technology to display large images on computers and handheld devices. Microsoft later previewed a more in-depth look at last year's TED conference.
It is "creating hyperlinks between images and it's doing that based on the content inside of the images," Blaise Aguera y Arcas, an architect at Microsoft Live Labs, said during his TED presentation. "When you do a web search for images, you type in phrases and the text on the web page is carrying lots of information [about that photograph]. What if that picture links to your pictures" via Photosynth?
"This is something that grows in complexity as people use it," he said. "Your own photos are getting tagged with metadata."
The Photosynth Web site includes a photography guide for those just getting stated as well as a downloadable video that demonstrates how to synch.
"Because Photosynth is so new, you will probably run into an occasional bug or hiccup," the Live Labs team warned in a blog post. "Whether you have a brilliant idea or find a bug, please let us know. We'll do our best to address them."
credit new by : pcmag.com
Comcast has made no final decisions on how to manage network congestion, despite news reports Wednesday that it will slow traffic for heavy users for up to 20 minutes during times of peak network use.
Comcast has been looking into new network management practices after the furor caused by an Associated Press report last October that said the cable modem service provider was quietly slowing BitTorrent P-to-P (peer-to-peer) traffic as a tool to fight network congestion.
Net neutrality advocates called on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to take action against Comcast, and early this month, the FCC voted 3-2 to prohibit broadband providers from blocking or slowing specific applications on its network.
Comcast has been conducting tests on new network management techniques since the end of May, said Charlie Douglas, a Comcast spokesman. Among the leading options is to slow all Web traffic from heavy users for up to 20 minutes during times of heavy network traffic.
When the congestion is resolved in under 20 minutes, the heavy users' traffic would be slowed for shorter times, sometimes for only a minute or two, he said. Heavy users' traffic would still move over the Internet, but it would "become de-prioritized" during times of congestion, Douglas said.
This approach would be "protocol agnostic," Douglas added. By not blocking specific applications, Comcast likely would comply with the FCC's Aug. 1 vote.
Asked why Comcast doesn't slow all users' traffic during times of congestion, Douglas said it's not fair to subscribers who aren't clogging up the pipes. "It's the heaviest of users that are directly contributing to the degradation of the service for the other people on the network," he said.
Representatives of Free Press and Public Knowledge, two digital rights advocacy groups that filed a complaint against Comcast for slowing P-to-P traffic, expressed reservations about Comcast's apparent new direction.
"It's an interesting reflection on the claim that there is a free market for broadband," said Art Brodsky, a spokesman for Public Knowledge. "If there was competition, could you slow down your best customers?"
Comcast was "dishonest" in the past about its network management practices, added Ben Scott, Free Press policy director. The broadband provider originally denied it was degrading BitTorrent streams.
"We have to be skeptical and vigilant," Scott said. "The FCC has required them to disclose all the details -- so we look forward to seeing that before we can fully evaluate. Any move that doesn't involve blocking consumers' access to the Internet is a positive step -- but we won't know for sure about this particular practice until we see the details."
On Wednesday, the FCC released the full text of its Aug. 1 order prohibiting Comcast from blocking legal Web applications. Public Knowledge and Free Press praised the order, with Scott calling it "a major milestone in Internet policy."
credit news by : pcworld.com
Yahoo's Digg-like service, Buzz, will be opening up to public contributors as of 7 p.m. PDT tonight. Since the service's launch in February, only a select 400 publishers could add new links to Buzz.
With so many submitting and rating sites out there, including the mighty Digg, Yahoo Buzz has a few advantages up its sleeve. Besides using the links submitted by contributors, Buzz's algorithms take into account search engine popularity, feeding the most popular stories to Yahoo's home page.
Making it to Yahoo's home page and getting server-melting traffic will likely create a new frenzy among Web traffic manipulators who are already pushing their luck with Digg and AOL's Propeller. Buzz wants to avoid this kind of exploitation by adding editorial discretion when determining headlines.
Another interesting feature that Yahoo brings is the possibility of adding any type of Web page to Buzz. This basically means that pages that aren't in a news or blog format could be submitted as new links on Buzz. Buzz pages could soon offer such diverse links as museum sites, Twitter messages and patent fillings alongside the select publishers' articles Yahoo favors today.
Shortly after Buzz's initial launch in February, the new service managed to overtake Digg in traffic scores, attracting nearly 7 million unique U.S. visitors. What's more, 51 percent were women, compared to Digg's 39 percent female users.
It is not clear how "clean" Yahoo is playing when bringing massive amounts of traffic to sites like Salon.com and GigaOm. It is said that Yahoo asked its select few publishers to join the company's Publishers Network, dropping their AdSense agreements with Google in exchange to buzzing-up to Yahoo's home page. It is not yet known if this rule is still applicable for the new publishers joining Buzz.
Yahoo's Buzz submit page will go live tonight. Meanwhile, you can get ready by adding the service's buttons to your site.
credit news by : pcworld.com
August 18, 2008 (Computerworld) Apple Inc. updated the iPhone's software Monday afternoon, but according to first reports posted to the company's support forum, the new 2.0.2 firmware has not fixed users' 3G reception problems.
As it did two weeks ago when it released iPhone 2.0.1, Apple gave no details of today's update contents, stating only that it included "bug fixes."
Users expecting to see a fix for long-running 3G reception issues, however, were mostly disappointed. The majority who posted messages on the subject to Apple's support forum after installing iPhone 2.0.2 said that the update had not solved their problems, which included dropped calls, weak signal strength and slow surfing speeds.
"I just finished downloading the new 2.02 software and I do not see a difference," said a user identified as "jay25cent" on the longest thread about 2.0.2 and 3G.
"I can't see any improvements," echoed "curveball," who said he lived in Sweden. "Same crappy signal."
"Still no 3G here (O2 UK) for me," added "musicvan" on the same thread. "Disappointed. So unless the 3G network is down at my so-called 100% coverage area, then nothing has changed."
Users have been complaining about 3G network problems almost since the July 11 debut of the iPhone 3G. More than 2,000 messages have been posted to the phone's support forum since then, detailing difficulties making calls from areas supposedly covered by a 3G network, and griping about weak signals and slower-than-promised data download speeds.
Although Apple has not publicly commented on users' complaints or has said whether it will come up with a software fix, some sources have claimed that the company is working on a firmware update that will solve the problems.
A few of the users who contributed in the support thread said that they believe the 2.0.2 update improved their 3G reception. "Now showing 4 bars, not 0-2, which looks better," said "vegasj."
And at least one user was just unsure. "I think there has been an attempt to correct the 3G issue but not sure if it has," said "whatsinitforme."
credit news by : computerworld.com
