Formation of OHA and Android Open Mobile-Device platform

On November 5 2007, several technology and wireless companies jointly announced the formation of the OHA and the development of Android, a new software platform for mobile devices that includes an operating system (OS), middleware and key applications based on the Linux OS and open-source principles.

This was quickly followed on November 12 2007, with a preliminary release of the Android SDK, as part of Google's $10 million developer challenge. This will help ensure that application and access openness is maintained on the mobile Internet as effectively as on the wired network to enable Google's ad model to spread as successfully as it has on the wired Internet; to open up the "closed" mobile industry ecosystem to Google's applications; and to enable Google to exert a strong influence over the development of the next-generation mobile OS.

Fuelling the network neutrality debate

Since the US regulator (FCC) adopted four network neutrality principles designed "to encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet," Google and other Web-centric companies have been lobbying the US Congress to codify these rules in favour of something called non-discrimination in network design between the public and private Internet.

In short, Google wants regulation to ensure that the public Internet remains free from potential discrimination and content blocking but also wants equality between the public and private Internet at no cost to customers or Web companies (in essence, no quality of service).

Looking to own both static and dynamic location information

Google has been investing heavily to develop the world's most complete storehouse of geographic and mapping data supported by innovative applications that can detect mobile devices.

Google wants to be "the most-trusted source" and the best at matching up unique geographic location-based data so it can take advantage of just-in-time advertising opportunities derived from location-aware applications and bypass device manufacturers and carriers as the gatekeepers of location data.

How Google is a threat to telcos

Google's influence and market power with key telecommunications industry stakeholders is having a significant impact on the industry, says research firm Gartner.

According to Alex Winogradoff, research vice president, Gartner, Google will continue to be a market disruptor and disintermediator, especially in the communications market. "Carriers should selectively partner with Google rather than trying to compete, especially in areas where they don't have differentiated and core assets," he said. "However, carriers should also find common ground with Google (for example, on network neutrality) and, if necessary, look for creative ways to oppose Google on issues critical to their survival."

Gartner said that coming late to the operating-system and mobile markets has not been a problem for Google and that its Android and Open Handset Alliance (OHA) activities have already had a profound effect on the mobile industry. In addition to disrupting the traditional telecom ecosystem, Google's actions are diluting the market potential and the service providers' ability to profitably monetise their investments in new markets (such as entertainment and software as a service (SaaS) applications).

The research firm highlighted six critical actions by Google that have already had, or will have, the greatest impact on the telecom industry.

Google pressured the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to set aside the "C" Block (22MHz to 11MHz in the uplink and 11MHz in the downlink within the US 700MHz spectrum auctions) as an open-access spectrum. All winning "C" Block bidders would be required to provide open access to applications (which cannot be blocked) and devices (which cannot be locked).

Google's primary motivation was to encourage the development of open broadband network platforms to ensure they will be able to deliver bandwidth-intense over-the-air services and applications.

Cyber sex: Did you know this?

Internet has changed everything around us, including sex and sexual behaviour. By adding the prefix cyber to it, Internet has given a new connotation and meaning to the activity.

Having largely blossomed in Internet chat rooms, the word cyber sex today evokes a strong dislike in some, fantasy in others, and is a nuisance to many others. Some call it fun, others term it cheating, but the fact of the matter is it still remains among the top online activities for surfers.

'Cost cutting starts at Google'

SAN FRANCISCO: Internet search giant Google Inc is known for hosting the most extravagant holiday parties in Silicon Valley, often drawing crowd
s of over 10,000 and prompting some employees to post ads for party dates on classifieds website Craigslist.

But even Google has decided to scale back its holiday celebrations this year due to a global economic downturn and an ever-expanding workforce that had grown to 20,000 in October, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Silicon Valley has few reasons to celebrate this year as companies, including Hewlett Packard Co, Yahoo Inc, Sun Microsystems Inc and Applied Materials Inc, have cut over 140,000 jobs in the last few months because of the bleak economy, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas consulting group.

Google has fared better than most tech companies, but departments at the Internet company will have smaller events this year to encourage camaraderie between employees and celebrate more economically, said the source. Team holiday activities will include spending an afternoon volunteering followed by evening social activities such as dinner parties and museum outings in San Francisco.

This is a striking difference from previous years, when Google holiday parties included ice sculptures of the company's logo, virtual reality video game stations, karaoke booths, sushi buffets and burlesque dancers.

Last year a party crowd of 10,000 spread throughout the Shoreline Amphitheater, near Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, said workers -- called Googlers. A handful used the Web to find dates.

But this year only one looked for a companion in a recent search on Craigslist. Google declined to comment on this year's change.

iPhone hurt Palm cutting jobs

SAN FRANCISCO: Struggling smartphone maker Palm Inc said that it is cutting its workforce, a move the company takes as it loses market share to
rivals Apple Inc and Research in Motion Ltd.

Spokeswoman Lynn Fox said the layoffs began this week, but she declined to say how many jobs would be cut.

Palm, which employs 1,050 workers, makes the Centro and Treo smartphones. The company's marketshare has been shrinking, with RIM's BlackBerry becoming the device of choice for the business set and Apple's iPhone a consumer phenomenon.

"The goal is to consolidate resources and focus our efforts more effectively," Fox said.

Palm has been staking its future on the launch of a yet-to-be-named operating system and device. Fox said the OS is on track to be released this year, and the device in the second half of 2009.

The company has hired top talent as it tries to right itself, poaching both chairman John Rubinstein, who helped create the iPod, and senior vice president of product development Mike Bell from Apple.

But the smartphone market seems to grow more competitive by the day. News of Palm's layoffs emerged as hundreds of people lined up at stores on Friday to buy the BlackBerry’s new touchscreen phone Storm.

According to data released by ChangeWave, only 5 per cent of companies plan to buy a Palm smartphone in the next quarter, half the figure from a year ago. By contrast, 78 per cent of corporations planned to buy a RIM device and 22 per cent an iPhone.

Last week, Goldman Sachs initiated coverage on Palm with a sell rating, citing increasing competition and marketshare losses.

DoCoMo, KTF to sell Google phone next year: report (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc and South Korean partner KTF Co will jointly develop a smartphone using Google Inc software for launch next year, the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday.

DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile phone operator, is part of a global alliance to develop phones based on Google's Android platform and has been eyeing a launch in 2009.

DoCoMo owns 10 percent of KTF and the two companies have been jointly procuring handsets to cut costs.

Smartphones, which combine the capabilities of personal computers and mobile phones, have been gaining popularity in Japan, in part led by the July introduction of Apple Inc's iPhone.

DoCoMo aims to introduce the Google phone at a price about 20 percent lower than existing smartphones, as it will save costs on software development using the Android software, the report said. Google is offering the software for free.

The new phone would be the first Google phone to be sold by Japanese and South Korean carriers.

A DoCoMo spokesman said the company had not yet decided to launch an Android-based phone next year.

Japan's second-ranked wireless carrier KDDI Corp is also in the Open Handset Alliance that includes Intel Corp, eBay, LG, Motorola, Qualcomm and Samsung.

T-Mobile has already rolled out an Android-based phone called G1, made by Taiwan's HTC Corp, featuring a tough-sensitive screen, a computer-like keyboard, and Wi-Fi connections.

DoCoMo shares were up 1.5 percent at 160,400 yen as of 0107 GMT, while KTF shares were down 0.9 percent at 27,700 won. Japan's Nikkei average was down 1.1 percent.

iPhone sex: Google application baffled by British accents (AFP)

UK-A new voice-recognition search tool for the iPhone has problems understanding British accents, leading to some bizarre answers to spoken queries, a newspaper report and users said Wednesday.

The free application, which allows iPhone owners to use the Google search engine with their voice, mistook the word "iPhone" variously for "sex," "Einstein" and "kitchen sink," said the Daily Telegraph.

Comments left by users on the application's website seemed to confirm the problem. "Awesome job google. only problem is every time I say the word 'fish' it registers as 'sex'," wrote one, identified as Kevin.

A video demonstration of the Google Mobile App on the online giant's website shows an American engineer successfully asking for pictures of the Golden Gate as well as cinema timetables and temperature conversions.

The website also includes a link to a video showing people with Irish, British and Chinese accents asking for relatively complicated searches, with apparent success.

But British iPhone owners had less luck when speaking the word "iPhone" into the application -- a Scottish user was offered a porn website after it mistook his search for "sex," the Telegraph reported.

A user from Surrey, south of London, had his request mistaken for "myspace" and "Einstein" was another option offered for "iPhone" spoken with a Kent accent, it said.

The only British accent which correctly understood the request was for a user from Yorkshire, northern England, although he was also offered "bonfire."

A Welsh accent gave the suggestions "gorillas" and "kitchen sink."

"I've got a traditional Kentish accent and the thing kept on spitting back ridiculous things," said Roger Ellinson, 26, from Maidstone in Kent, southeastern England.

"I asked it to find my nearest pizza take away and it came back with something about volcanoes," he added.

"I asked it to find my nearest pub and it gave me a link to some kind of weird dating website," said Ellinson. "I'll have to try to put on my best American accent to get it to work."

On its website, Google points out that the new voice search system "is currently available only in U.S. English."

One British user, Edward Parsons, says on the site's comments board: "This is fantastic, except for the North American accent bias.

"It actually works pretty well, but I have to disguise my (North London) accent with a terrible folksy Texan tourist voice to get results. I can see this is going to be the source of much amusement and confusion."

HP to extend holidays to cut costs

SAN FRANCISCO: Hewlett-Packard Co has notified employees that it will extend its planned one-week holiday shutdown by an additional week as a cost-cutting measure, it said.

The majority of employees will be paid during their time off, the company said.

"Shutting down during a period when many employees traditionally take vacation helps company achieve operational savings and allows employees to enjoy more time with their family," a spokeswoman said.

The global financial crisis and slowing economy have roiled the prospects for PC makers, which are scrambling to rein in costs.

Many analysts now predict that PC shipments will fall in 2009. Some analysts have said HP was better insulated than some of its competitors from the impact of the economic downturn, because of its recurring revenue streams from services and software and limited exposure to the PC market.

The company said in September it would lay off 24,600 employees following its acquisition of Electronic Data Systems.

Earlier this month HP rival Dell Inc asked employees to consider taking up to five days of unpaid vacation as it works to cut costs.

Silicon Valley was hit with a slew of layoff announcements last week from big names such as Sun Microsystems and Applied Materials Inc.

Shares of Palo Alto, California-based HP closed down $1.12, or 3.7 per cent, at $29.34 on the New York Stock Exchange.

What went wrong with Yahoo!

Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo has announced his decision to step down from his position as chief executive officer as soon as a replacement has been appointed.

Yang's departure comes after less than 18 months at the helm. Over the past few months, Yang drew intense criticism from shareholders for failing to agree an acquisition by Microsoft early this year.

Since then, Yahoo's fortunes have continued to deteriorate. A planned search deal with Google, its best hope of getting a quick boost, fell apart after regulators objected, and the company's shares have slumped as its core display advertising market has deteriorated.

So, where did Yahoo actually go wrong?

But many of its firsts have not panned out -- Yahoo was early among major companies to seize on the social network trend popularised by MySpace and Facebook, in which Web users share messages, photos and videos with select friends. But it remained too wedded to a decade-old idea of being a one-stop Web portal to embrace the new wave.

Promised changes, from new Web search advertising technology to do battle with rival Google Inc to the hiring of Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang as CEO, have failed to yield any promising changes.

Sun to boost Microsoft's Web search

SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp said that it reached a Web search deal with Sun Microsystems Inc, the latest partnership struck by Microsoft aimed at ch
ipping away at the dominance of Google Inc.

As part of this agreement, users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser who download Sun's Java technology platform will be given the option to also download the MSN Toolbar from where users can directly access the company's search engine.

Earlier this year, Microsoft also reached an agreement with Hewlett-Packard Co, the world's largest personal computer maker, to place a toolbar on new PCs in the United States and Canada starting in January.

"This deal will expose Live Search to millions more Internet users and drive increased volume for our search advertisers," said Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the Online Audience Business at Microsoft, in a statement.

Striking distribution deals are one part of Microsoft's strategy to close the gap on market leader Google. Microsoft said competition for these types of deals is intense and that the company had to outbid several rivals for the Sun deal.

Sun said the Java platform sits on more than 800 million personal computers around the world, or on 91 per cent of Internet-connected PCs worldwide. The Java Runtime Environment is downloaded tens of millions times every month, Sun said.

Google's US Web search market share reached 63 per cent in August versus a 19.6 per cent for Yahoo Inc and 8.3 per cent for Microsoft, according to comScore.

Indian IT industry is safe: Nasscom

India's IT industry does not need to worry about the current economic downturn as "we have a strong knowledge base" and the establis
hed market players here would not be affected, a top industry body official said.

"We need not worry about the slowdown in the US economy. It is all a temporary phase and very soon, the US dollar will reach a stable position," said Ganesh Natarajan, chairman of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).

Addressing a chief executives' meeting here, he said despite the global meltdown, the Indian software business is growing at the rate of 21-24 per cent every year.

He, however, urged the IT industry leaders to look beyond the US market. "Plenty of opportunities are available in Latin America, Japan, China, Europe and also in some African nations," Natarajan said.

"By 2020, India can alone fulfil the need of technical talent of the whole world. By that time the whole world would need 43 billion technocrats while India will have 47 billion surplus technocrats," he said.

He added that huge investments have to be made to train the available talent.

According to Natarajan, the estate and retail business would feel the heat of the economic downturn. "But our IT sector is safe and would continue to grow," he said.

Web addiction a 'clinical disorder'

BEIJING: China could become the first country to classify internet addiction as a clinical disorder amid growing concern over compulsive web use
by millions of Chinese, state media said on Monday.

The health ministry is likely to adopt a new manual on Internet addiction next year drawn up by Chinese psychologists that recognises it as a condition similar to compulsive gambling or alcohol addiction, the China Daily reported.

It cited psychologists involved in drafting the diagnostic manual.

China has the world’s largest online population at 253 million people, according to official figures, and is growing rapidly as computer use rises along with income levels.

But that has also fed growing concerns over compulsive internet use.

A top Chinese legislator said in August that about 10% of China’s web users under the age of 18, or four million people, were addicted to the internet, mainly to “unhealthy” online games, state media said at the time.

Recent research by internet media company InterActiveCorp showed that 42% of Chinese youngsters polled felt “addicted” to the web, compared to 18% in the US. China has tried various measures to regulate the booming online gaming market and curb Web use by teens.

In 2006, it ordered all Chinese internet game manufacturers to install technology in their games that demands players reveal their real name and identification number.

Apple, IBM spat over exec turns ugly

SAN FRANCISCO: US District Court judge in New York ordered a newly hired Apple Inc executive to stop work immediately because he might be violat
ing an agreement with his former employer, IBM.

Federal District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains ordered that Mark Papermaster "immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc until further order of this court."

Apple announced on Tuesday that Papermaster would lead the engineering teams making Apple's highly successful iPods and iPhones and that he would report directly to Chief Executive Steve Jobs. On Friday it said he would cease work for now.

"We will comply with the court's order but are confident that Mark Papermaster will be able to ultimately join Apple when the dust settles," a spokesman said.

Karas said Papermaster could submit any objections to his order by Tuesday and he set another hearing for November 18.

Papermaster had worked for IBM for 25 years. IBM said in a court filing that, before Papermaster left, he agreed to avoid working for any competitor for a year.

Papermaster's lawyers argued that forcing him "to 'sit out' of the electronics industry for a year would be incredibly damaging to his career."

They said that Apple was an "once-in-a-lifetime 'dream job'" and that Papermaster would be unable to return to IBM, given the litigation.

Papermaster also argued that there were significant differences between the two companies because IBM makes big machines for big business and Apple makes little devices for consumers.

IBM disagreed.

"Electronic devices large and small are powered by the same type of intelligence, the microprocessor," IBM argued.

Dell stalls music player launch

Dell has decided not to launch its ambitious digital music player tied to online entertainment software before the holidays, the Wall
Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Dell could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters. Earlier this year, Dell was testing prototypes of a mini MP3 player based on entertainment software called Zing, for an expected fall release, the WSJ said citing people familiar with the matter.

Dell's foray would have put it into an Apple-led market that has defied assaults.

The WSJ cited a source as saying Dell had finally decided to hold off on the music player indefinitely but to proceed with the Zing software. Zing software organises downloaded music and movies on PCs.

Dell's first foray into the music market in 2003 was a huge disappointment. It withdrew from the music-player market after its DJ Ditty player failed to make major inroads.

Internet startups to get MS aid

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft has launched a programme to help fledgling Internet companies by giving them free access to software, tech support and
introductions to its business partners around the world.

BizSpark is intended to "accelerate the success of entrepreneurs and early-stage startups" using, of course, Microsoft technology, according to the Redmond, Washington-based software colossus.

"Microsoft BizSpark is an exciting way for us to help provide business startups with the development tools, advice and exposure they need," said Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

"We look forward to working with organisations and development agencies around the globe to foster entrepreneurship and help new companies succeed."

To be eligible for the programme, companies must be privately owned; less than three years old, and have annual revenues of no more than a million dollars.

Startups must be "nominated" by BizSpark Network Partners including economic development agencies, venture capitalists, business incubators, and groups such as global nonprofit The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).

"We think Microsoft BizSpark addresses a fundamental challenge startups face: access to current, full-featured tools and technologies that help turn ideas into a thriving business," said TiE chief executive Suren Dutia.

"We are excited to be part of this new effort to propagate entrepreneurship globally, cultivating the future generation of highly successful entrepreneurs."

Consumer Reports' Top Products of 2008

During the past year, Consumer Reports' testers have rated literally thousands of products, some of which earned a near-perfect score and others which performed extremely poorly. Here is a sampling of our 100 standouts in electronics, cars, appliances, and dozens of other categories. To see Consumer Reports' full list of Top 100 products, subscribe to ConsumerReports.org.

Laptop computer
Apple MacBook Air
The lightest, thinnest notebook around, just 3 pounds and less than an inch thick. It has excellent ergonomics and a 13.3-inch display, plus a 4.5-hour battery life. It's shy on features, but hey, it's super skinny. See more on laptops from ConsumerReports.org.
Apple MacBook Air 1.6 GHz Laptop Computer
$1,379.95 - $1,644.00

Without Google's help, Yahoo's options limited (AP)

Without Google's muscle behind it, Yahoo's chances for digging out of a long slump are looking even poorer, making it appear more likely that the company will turn to Microsoft or AOL to help weather the economic downturn.

Yahoo Inc., which runs the No. 2 search engine, agreed in June to let No. 1 Google Inc. sell some of the ads shown next to Yahoo's search results. The deal was intended as a lifeline for the struggling Internet pioneer after it spurned Microsoft's rich $47.5 billion takeover bid less than a month before.

Now that Google has scrapped the Yahoo partnership rather than challenge the Justice Department over its antitrust objections to the deal, Yahoo is back where it began the year, scrambling to engineer a turnaround under a management team on shaky ground with shareholders.

Except now, the climate is much worse. The crumbling economy is discouraging advertisers from spending online, particularly on the billboard-style display ads that are Yahoo's bread and butter. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo, already adjusting, announced it would lay off 10 percent of its work force after profits plunged 64 percent in the most recent quarter.

Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang may have wrung the last drops of shareholder goodwill by betting on a Google deal instead of taking Microsoft's offer. To avoid getting pushed out by Yahoo's board, which now includes activist investor Carl Icahn, Yang is under intense pressure to boost the company's bottom line.

In an appearance Wednesday night, Yang said Microsoft Corp. would be wise to make another bid for his company, though he didn't suggest a price. Yang turned down Microsoft's offer of $33 a share in the spring, and now finds Yahoo trading around $13.

"To this day, I believe the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo," Yang said Wednesday.

Barring that, his list of options is limited, and the most obvious moves have been on the table for months.

Imran Khan, an analyst for JP Morgan, said he believes it would make sense for Yahoo to sell its search operations to Microsoft — an idea that Microsoft proposed this spring but Yahoo rejected.

The result would be cost savings for Yahoo, and more energy to focus on the display ad business. Khan estimates $1.4 billion in cost savings or, after factoring out $694 million in lost annual revenue, a net gain of $725 million. Yahoo could use the cash to buy back stock, make smart acquisitions and "more strategic, targeted head count reductions," Khan argues.

"We think continued investment in search, at the expense of display investment, has given competitors the opportunity to bite into Yahoo's leading display ad market share," Khan wrote in a recent research note.

Yahoo shareholders are still interested in some sort of Microsoft deal, and despite Microsoft's current stance that it doesn't need Yahoo to challenge Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, many industry watchers think the software maker is still interested, to a point.

Matt Rosoff, an analyst for the independent research group Directions on Microsoft, said he can't see Microsoft buying all of Yahoo, for the same reasons talks fell apart in the first place: Microsoft was hoping for a quick and painless integration, but Yahoo resisted.

Rosoff said he does think Microsoft will consider buying Yahoo's search business, but not in the next few months.

"At this point, given how the online ad market has changed and how the overall economy has changed, they might just wait for Yahoo's situation to get worse," the analyst said. Microsoft may also wait to "see what happens to Google and their revenue. Perhaps Google won't look like a threat, and Internet advertising won't quite look like such a good business."

Rosoff said he could also see Microsoft trading its MSN Web portal for Yahoo's search engine, or configuring a similar swap.

Rob Sanderson, an analyst for American Technology Research, noted that giving up its search business to Microsoft would undercut one of the pillars of Yahoo's go-it-alone strategy, that having both search and display ads will eventually pay off more than keeping just one.

So for Yahoo to benefit from selling its search engine to Microsoft, the price would have to be a lot sweeter than the $1 billion Microsoft offered last time, Sanderson said.

But Microsoft made that offer knowing Yahoo's Google partnership was in the works. Now that the deal is off the table and Yahoo's shares are foundering, the software maker has little incentive to raise its bid.

Last week, the Redmond-based software maker reiterated the message that it's no longer interested in acquiring Yahoo. The company would not address whether it would consider buying Yahoo's search operations separately.

An alternate possibility for Yahoo: acquiring at least a slice of Time Warner Inc.'s AOL. Melding two companies seen as dot-com has-beens is unlikely to yield a new powerhouse, but if Yahoo has the stomach to eliminate scores of redundant jobs, the combined company could be more efficient and profitable.

The idea is less popular with Yahoo shareholders, but such a deal could augment Yahoo's display advertising business. AOL operates Platform-A, the largest ad network in the U.S., which lets advertisers buy display ads across AOL's own sites, like gossip news source TMZ.com, and those of outside publishers like Merriam-Webster.

In September, 91 percent of U.S. Web surfers visited a page on the Platform-A network, according to research group comScore Inc. That's more than the 86 percent who visited a Yahoo ad network page or the 83 percent who landed on a Google ad network page.

However, AOL's online advertising business isn't as lucrative as Google's or Yahoo's despite its wider reach. Time Warner said AOL's ad revenue fell 6 percent in the third quarter.

On the search-advertising side, Yahoo's potential gains from an AOL acquisition are also unclear. For one thing, Google, which owns a 5 percent stake in AOL, currently operates AOL's search — presumably raking in more money than Yahoo could get if it took over.

Mark May, a Needham Co. analyst, argues that a deal between AOL would be fraught with problems, from the companies' disparate cultures to their different technology platforms.

Buying AOL could, ironically, make Yahoo a more appealing target for Microsoft, especially if the buyout goes badly. Microsoft could wait a few months, then vacuum up two competitors, which still attract large online audiences, at a bargain rate.

Yahoo does have another choice: slash costs and accept its lot as a distant second to Google. The company's recent layoff announcements indicates to Sanderson that Yahoo is more willing to do so than it was in the past.

"Their aspirations for being a huge player," he said, "were a little bit too lofty."

Firefox 3.1 will Have a Private Browsing Mode

Mozilla is adding a private browser feature to its forthcoming Firefox 3.1 release. Private browsing aims to help users make sure their Web browsing doesn't leave traces on their computers, said the function's developer, Ehsan Akhgari.

"It is very important to note that private browsing is not a tool to keep you anonymous from Web sites or your ISP or, for example, protect you from all kinds of spyware applications which use sophisticated techniques to intercept your online traffic," Akhgari said. "Private browsing is only about making sure that Firefox doesn't store any data which can be used to trace your online activities -- no more, no less."

Maintaining An Edge

According to new data from Net Applications, Firefox increased its global market share to about 20 percent last month. Since private browsing capabilities are heading to Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari, and Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla decided it needs similar capabilities to maintain its growth.

To start a private session in Firefox 3.1, the user selects private browsing from the browser's tools menu. Not much is different in the Firefox window in private browsing mode other than an unobtrusive text notification added to the title bar at the top of the window, Akhgari said.

"After all, if you're doing something online that you don't want your coworkers to know about, you don't want to raise their attention with a big sign saying 'private' as they pass by and glance over your shoulder," Akhgari said.

To close a private session, the user unchecks the same item in the tools menu. "This action discards all of the data from your private session, and will restore your nonprivate browsing session, just like it was before entering the private browsing mode," Akhgari said.

Private browsing is already available in the nightly builds that Firefox developers use to identify bugs from the previous day's work. The new technology destined for Firefox 3.1 will reach a wider audience when the browser's beta 2 release becomes available for download later this month.

In the interim, Firefox aficionados can use Mozilla's Stealther plug-in for Firefox 3.0 to surf the Web without leaving any trace of the journey on their PCs. The add-on program has already generated just under a million downloads.

Not Quite Incognito

Still, some observers think stealth browsing technology has a long way to go before it can claim to truly protect the privacy of Web surfers. Consumer Watchdog recently singled out the Incognito mode in Google's Chrome for some criticism. According to the consumer advocacy group, Incognito may actually lull consumers into a false sense of security that their actions are completely private and free from prying eyes.

"Despite users' reasonable belief that they can surf the Web anonymously when they select Incognito, Chrome continues to send some information back to Google," the nonprofit organization said. "In Incognito mode, we assume -- and Google should, too -- that the user doesn't want anyone watching or having a record of their computing, including searches."

Consumer Watchdog wants Google to provide a clear disclosure on the Google search-engine home pages so Web surfers can easily prevent communication with Google before pressing the search button or affirmatively requesting an action. The disclosure, it noted, should also be made clear throughout all Google applications -- including GMail, Google Talk, and the Google Toolbar.

"It should be a convenient, actionable feature so that the user can exercise informed choice," the group said.

VeriSign quarterly earnings beat estimates

BANGALORE (Reuters) – U.S. internet security provider VeriSign Inc (VRSN.O) reported a quarterly profit that beat Wall Street expectations on the strength at its core businesses and said it was on track to meet its full-year forecast.

But the Mountain View, California company, which is being affected by a slowdown in online advertising growth, gave a fourth-quarter revenue outlook that fell short of market estimates.

The outlook also reflects the impact of the slowing economy, Interim Chief Executive James Bidzos said in an interview with Reuters.

"We're less sensitive to the economic downturn, but we're not immune to it," Bidzos said.

VeriSign, which provides naming and authentication online services, had a strong cash position, with $650 million in cash and cash equivalents and the roughly $200 million from the sale of a unit, he said.

The company has been divesting slower-growing units and focusing on its website-naming and Internet security services.

VeriSign sold its remaining 49 percent stake in Jamba, a ringtone provider, to News Corp (NWSa.N) for about $200 million in the quarter.

Bidzos told analysts the divestiture process has slowed. He told Reuters that his company had finished negotiations for the sale of a sale of a bundle, a term VeriSign uses to group its non-core units. But it has not been able to complete the transaction because of high interest rates, he said.

It has three major bundles left, including communications. The potential sale of the non-core units is expected to strengthen its cash position.

In the third quarter, VeriSign posted a net loss of $200 million, or $1.02 a share, compared with a profit of $15 million, or 6 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 14 percent to $246.1 million.

According to Reuters Estimates, the company earned 28 cents a share, excluding items, for the latest quarter, topping analysts' consensus view of 26 cents.

Revenue at its core businesses was up 18 percent to $240 million.

"For a company to deliver 18 percent growth in this environment, it is one of the better growth stories out there in the market," Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Scott Sutherland said in a phone interview.

VeriSign shares closed down 7 percent at $19.55 Thursday on Nasdaq. The stock has lost nearly half of its value since the start of the year.

Apple's iPhone Tops BlackBerry as Smartphones Soar

Apple's iPhone is emerging as king of the corporate world as global shipments of smartphones reached a new peak. Defying speculation about a global recession, worldwide smartphone shipments climbed to just shy of 40 million units in the third quarter, according to the latest estimates from Canalys. That means smartphones now represent about 13 percent of the total mobile-phone market, up from 11 percent in the second quarter.

The iPhone 3G's introduction in July led the charge.

Apple's expansion into many countries around the globe helped the company scale to second place worldwide, outshining Research In Motion in the quarter and boasting higher shipments than all Microsoft-based smartphones combined. Nokia remained the market leader despite a sales decline.

Corporations Don't Overlook Apple

It was expected that Apple would figure among the smartphone leaders for the quarter, with a huge initial new-product shipment; it was just a question of how high it would be, according to Pete Cunningham, Canalys senior analyst. Despite RIM being nudged into third place, he said, its growth of more than 80 percent shouldn't be overlooked.

"This is also a tremendous performance, especially considering the delays it experienced in rolling out the BlackBerry Bold," Cunningham said. "Some customers will also have been waiting for the Storm to arrive. With these new products and the clamshell Pearl 8220 available in Q4, it is quite feasible that RIM will return to the number-two position."

Apple has done well in its efforts to unseat entrenched players like RIM and Microsoft Windows Mobile solutions that have owned the business market for years, said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia. But one of the most interesting aspects of the iPhone is J.D. Power's recent report that the device had the "highest satisfaction of any business device."

"There's a keyword in there: Business device," Gartenberg said. "The iPhone started off with a very strong consumer reputation and focus. Apple has done a good job positioning the device not as a business device, not as a consumer device, but as a device that appeals to individuals that are going to use it for both parts of their life."

Nokia's Disadvantage

The success of Apple and RIM, as well as fifth-placed HTC with its Windows Mobile devices, has eaten into Nokia's share of the smartphone market, according to Canalys. The research firm noted, however, that Nokia's broad portfolio of models, and the wider audience it attracts, leaves it more exposed to the trends affecting the overall handset market. Year on year, its smartphone shipments fell in the third quarter for the first time.

"Nokia is also transitioning from some very successful volume drivers, like the N95 and E65, to a number of successors, such as the flagship N96, and shipments of these new models have not yet ramped up," Canalys analyst Tim Shepherd said.

"And Nokia has taken time to bring a touchscreen product to market in the wake of the iPhone's success, despite having had the experience of producing the Series 90-based 7710 four years ago. Conversely, vendors such as HTC with its Touch Diamond have capitalized on customer demand for this type of product."

Motorola's Place in the Mix

Motorola is hanging onto fourth place in smartphones thanks largely to its Linux-based models, according to Canalys. Motorola recently announced it would move away from using the Symbian OS and focus more on Google's Android platform.

Canalys' conclusion: Competition in the smartphone space is heating up, and being able to introduce technology and user-interface enhancements quickly is critical.

"You also need to be able to integrate them seamlessly into the device to provide a great total user experience. And that means having sufficient control of development of the operating system, which Apple and RIM clearly have already," Shepherd said. "Nokia's acquisition of Symbian should help it in this regard, regardless of what other Symbian Foundation members choose to do."

5 strategies to save online when holiday shopping

NEW YORK – Shopping online used to be about convenience. This holiday season, make it about saving money.

As worries about a recession spook spending, retailers are nudging shoppers to Web sites with promises of steep discounts. That's in contrast to past years, when ordering gifts online was touted as a way to save time and circumvent crowded malls.

"Everything's taking a back seat to price. Retailers are very conscious of what consumers are going through," said Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for Shop.org, the online unit of the National Retail Federation.

Getting the most out of sales will mean knowing your options, however. So before you embark on your holiday shopping, keep these five points in mind.

1. GET IN ON THE DEAL

Dealnews.com publishes an annual Black Friday Guide, a roundup of price-checked deals, promotions and online specials. The guide covers categories including electronics, toys and apparel.

CyberMonday.com, a unit of Shop.org, aggregates online holiday sales from 600 companies. Shop.org gets a percentage of sales made through the site.

Another way to find out about deals? Try opening those pesky e-mails from retailers. They often include coupon codes and alerts to online-only deals, said Kurt Peters, publisher of Internet Retailer.

The trade publication's recent survey of 174 Web retailers, including those that operate stores, found nearly half were boosting the number of monthly e-mails they send compared to a year ago.

2. WHEN & WHERE TO BUY

Major retailers generally post all in-store holiday deals online as well, said Dan de Grandpre, founder and editor-in-chief of dealnews.com.

Some retailers even post Black Friday sales online a day early on Thanksgiving, he said. And the biggest discounts may be available yet sooner.

Once brick-and-mortar stores advertise their Black Friday deals in newspaper circulars in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, online-only stores such as Amazon.com immediately start trying to beat the offers, de Grandpre said.

For select doorbuster items on Black Friday, however, you may have to rise early and head to the mall with the rest of the pack.

If you still have shopping to do after Black Friday, many retailers have online sales on the "Cyber Monday" after Thanksgiving weekend.

Cyber Monday sales vary. Some may last a week, others may feature a different item or category each day for a week and yet others might have deep discounts on items for just a few hours. Last year, 28 percent of online retailers had partial day sales, according to Shop.org.

3. ONLINE-ONLY STORES

Before buying gifts at major chains, check online retailers such as Overstock.com, Amazon.com and Buy.com, which often offer the same or similar products for cheaper.

Some lesser-known online retailers de Grandpre suggests: NewEgg.com, 6pm.com and SmartBargains.com.

If you find a deal at an online retailer you're not familiar with, de Grandpre suggests checking with the Better Business Bureau at bbb.org. The group rates businesses based on the volume of customer complaints it gets and how quickly businesses respond to them.

If a business has an "unsatisfactory" rating, it may be your cue to click away.

Other sites to check up on retailers include bizrate.com and resellerratings.com.

A point to keep in mind when buying online is to stick to your shopping list. Many online retailers try go for the up-sell at check out, suggesting other items or package deals.

4. TAXES

Online retailers collect sales taxes only from customers in states where they have a physical presence, whether it's a store, their headquarters or a warehouse.

If there's no physical presence in your state, then a sales tax isn't collected. The easiest way to find out if you'll be taxed is to put items in your basket and get a price tally before checking out.

The savings on sales taxes can be considerable on big-ticket items, so many consumers chose to go online for certain purchases, according to Craig Shearman, with the National Retail Federation. The group supports federal regulation that would require all merchants to collect sales taxes, regardless of whether they have a physical presence in a state.

5. SHIPPING & WRAPPING COSTS

Most retailers plan to offer shipping deals this season, but the terms of the deals may differ from last year, according to Shop.org. One-fifth of retailers surveyed say they're passing higher shipping costs on to customers by requiring them to spend more to qualify for free shipping. Another 11 percent plan to cut back on unconditional free shipping.

That means mailing gifts yourself may be cheaper. If your package is particularly heavy, though, a flat shipping rate may benefit you. If a company offers a gift-wrapping option, that could save a few dollars too.

Carefully weighing shipping and wrapping costs "save $5 or $10 with every gift," said Davis of Shop.org.