USA TODAY - Application developers see iPhone as way to get noticed

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By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY

Phanfare co-founder and CEO Andrew Erlichson has seen his future, and it's on the iPhone.

The Internet photo-sharing service recently informed 300,000 registered users of the new strategy, which ties in its website with a new Phanfare Photon application for Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and iPod Touch.

"The iPhone represents the beginning of what we believe will be a convergence between smartphones and point-and-shoot cameras," Erlichson told customers in an e-mail that also encouraged them to buy an iPhone.

Savvy software developers such as Erlichson are trying to stake a claim for early prominence in the mobile economy, where it's still a bit easier to get noticed than on the Web. The size of the market (about 1 billion phones sold annually) and the cool factor of the iPhone, makes it a desirable place to make a splash.

"The iPhone has the largest install base with the highest level of functionality," says Steven Echtman, CEO of HearPlanet, a free travel audio tour service that launched in early January. Other platforms have larger numbers of subscribers, such as Windows Mobile and BlackBerry, but users aren't as likely to add lots of new applications, he says, because Apple makes it easier via its App Store.

HearPlanet has been downloaded more than 50,000 times.

Where the action is

The iPhone is "the platform of the moment," says Mike McGuire, an analyst at Gartner. "Apple has sucked all the oxygen out of the room, and developers want to be where the action is."

Google's Android was envisioned as a similar platform with thousands of potential applications, but it hasn't yet caught on, says McGuire, and Palm is looking for a comeback with its new Pre phone and operating system in late spring. "For now, it's the iPhone," he says.

Apple's App Store has about 15,000 applications available up from just over 500 when it launched in July. Apps are available for a fee, or free. Downloads have surpassed 500 million.

The best-selling applications have been games. Also in the mix are utilities (dictionaries, restaurant guides) and time-wasters (games that simulate the sounds of bodily functions or drinking beer).

While most are from up-and-coming entrepreneurs, many established players are there as well, including MySpace, Facebook, eBay and USA TODAY.

The online radio service Pandora is iPhone's most popular music application. About 40% of new Pandora subscribers come from the iPhone daily, and they are listening to as much as 100 minutes of music at a pop, says Pandora founder Tim Westergren.

New listeners

In just six months, Pandora has picked up 3 million new listeners from the iPhone. "This whole thing has been a huge shock to us," he says. "Much bigger than we expected."

Pandora owes much of its success to being on the App Store from day one.

"It's getting really crowded out there," Westergren says. The challenge for newcomers is "how to get attention and light up grass-roots interest so you can show up on the charts."

Most iPhone owners find new applications by scrolling lists at the App Store, where Apple publishes rankings of top sellers in various categories.

"People fight really hard to make the list," says British developer Mark Terry, whose Band music application has been at the top of the charts since its July debut. "If you're No. 102, you don't exist."

When the App Store launched, many applications sold for $4.99 to $9.99.

But in an effort to make the charts, developers began cutting prices, Terry says: "Anything to get ahead. One hundred apps are released daily. That's like 100 albums by no-name bands."

Terry's $3.99 Band program down from $9.99 originally lets you play virtual piano, guitar, drum and bass on the iPhone.

i.TV, based in Palo Alto, Calif., made the chart easily when it launched its free app in late October. The "what's on" guide to TV, movies, your Netflix queue and more has been downloaded 2 million times. It made Apple's top five chart "because there was nothing like it," CEO Brad Pelo says.

"You have to deliver an app that gets buzz in the blogosphere," he says. "This is what my phone does that yours doesn't. This is why you need my app."

Pelo sees the iPhone as the new living room remote control, an essential device to be in your lap as you watch TV, answer e-mail and try to decide what to watch or where to go.

To Erlichson, mix his Phanfare with the Photon application and the iPhone becomes a "connected camera."

Sure, it's a way to entice folks to spend $54.95 a year for Phanfare's Web-based service, but he believes more folks will enjoy the ability to access their photo collection from anywhere.

"It's the beginning of a new era, where computers give way to more purposeful devices that are easier to use," he says. "This is clearly a seminal event. Apple has raised the bar, and everybody is racing to catch up."

Website address: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2009-01-20-phanfare-Inernet-photos-iphone_N.htm

Reuters - Steve Jobs's cancer may have recurred: doctors

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Steve Jobs's cancer may have recurred: doctors

Friday, Jan 16, 2009 10:57PM UTC

By Anupreeta Das

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Pancreatic cancer experts say they are puzzled by what is ailing Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs, because it is not clear how serious his health problems are or how directly they relate to his bout with cancer.

Last week, Jobs said he had an easily treatable "hormonal imbalance" that was robbing his body of the proteins it needs. Then, on Wednesday, the 53-year-old CEO said his problems were "more complex" than originally thought, and he would take a medical leave of absence for six months.

Doctors who have not treated Jobs say they can only speculate without hard information, but they said the tumor he was treated for in 2004 could have spread to another organ or resurfaced in the pancreas, requiring surgery or other treatment.

Jobs could also be coping with side effects of that surgery that can be treated easily, they said.

In 2004, Jobs was treated for a rare type of pancreatic cancer called an islet-cell, or neuroendocrine, tumor. Such tumors can be benign or malignant, but they usually grow slowly and are far less deadly than most pancreatic tumors.

The American Cancer Society estimates that 37,680 Americans get pancreatic cancer each year, but few get islet-cell tumors of the kind Jobs had. The tumors are easily removed surgically but recur in roughly half of patients, said Dr. Roderich Schwarz, a cancer surgeon at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Dr. Clay Semenkovich, an endocrinologist at Washington University in St. Louis, said in a telephone interview, "(Jobs) may have a new mass that's substantially altering his physiology and causing him to lose weight."

WEIGHT LOSS

The pancreas -- a spongy organ the size of a large banana -- produces enzymes used in digestion.

Islet-cell tumors can cause over-secretion of hormones including insulin into the bloodstream, wreaking havoc on digestion and leading to drastic weight loss.

Semenkovich said that could explain Jobs' "hormonal imbalance," but added that the limited information made it hard to say for sure.

Apple's cryptic missives on Jobs' health have not deterred speculation -- sparked by his gaunt appearance at an Apple event in June 2008 -- that his cancer has returned.

But his drastic weight loss could have other, less ominous explanations, doctors said.

Jobs' surgery in 2004 is likely to have been the so-called Whipple procedure -- an extensive and complicated operation that involves several organs besides the pancreas, doctors agree.

Weight loss is a common side effect, since a partial pancreas may not be able to effectively aid in the digestion of proteins, carbohydrates and fats.

"If an operation removes 30 to 50 percent of the pancreas, you're missing cell mass that produces juices that aid digestion. It could lead to weight loss and fatigue," Schwarz said in an interview at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference on gastrointestinal cancers in San Francisco.

"SIMPLE AND STRAIGHTFORWARD"?

Jobs may also have insulin deficiency, which would result in diabetes, doctors said. They added that treatments for these side effects are indeed "simple and straightforward," as Jobs has said.

Schwarz said patients who lack digestive enzymes can take enzyme capsules to aid digestion, and they are effective fairly quickly.

That would not explain why Jobs would need six months of medical leave.

Joseph Kim, a cancer specialist and surgeon at the City of Hope medical center near Los Angeles, said patients whose cancers recur in nearby organs, usually the liver, can be treated using less-invasive procedures than surgery. Cancers can be cut out or burned, and the recovery takes only a few days, he said.

In Jobs' case, "we're probably talking about something more complicated, like surgery," that would take longer, Kim said. Surgery on patients with recurrent islet-cell tumors can be "extremely difficult, if not risky," he added.

Semenkovich said Jobs may need new surgery, and that six months is a reasonable time for preparation, surgery and recovery, given his weight loss. "Surgery in somebody who has lost a lot of weight is a risk," and recovery could take longer, he said.

(Editing by John Wallace)

NYTimes.com: Can Apple Fill the Void?

This page was sent to you by:  bombastic4000@gmail.com TECHNOLOGY   | January 16, 2009 Can Apple Fill the Void? By BRAD STONE Many point to the talent available at Apple as reassurance as Steve Jobs takes a medical leave of absence from the company. But others are looking at the company's history with worry. 1. Personal Health: New Thinking on How to Protect the Heart 2. Op-Ed Columnist: He’s Leaving. Really. 3. Preoccupations: A Sisterhood of Workplace Infighting 4. Well: The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating 5. 18 and Under: Making Room for Miss Manners Is a Parenting Basic »  Go to Complete List Advertisement Slumdog Millionaire Winner of 4 Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture- Drama. Directed by Danny Boyle. Now Playing Click here to view trailer Copyright 2009  The New York Times Company | Privacy Policy

Reuters - Cloaking device may make cell phone static vanish

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Cloaking device may make cell phone static vanish

Thursday, Jan 15, 2009 7:34PM UTC

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new light-bending material has brought scientists one step closer to creating a cloaking device that could hide objects from sight.

Beyond possible military applications, it also might have a very practical use by making mobile communications clearer, they said on Thursday.

"Cloaking technology could be used to make obstacles that impede communications signals 'disappear,'" said David Smith of Duke University in North Carolina, who worked on the study published in the journal Science.

Smith was part of the same research team that in 2006 proved such a device was possible.

He said the new material is easier to make and has a far greater bandwidth. It is made from a so-called metamaterial -- an engineered, exotic substance with properties not seen in nature.

Metamaterials can be used to form a variety of "cloaking" structures that can bend electromagnetic waves such as light around an object, making it appear invisible.

In this case, the material is made from more than 10,000 individual pieces of fiberglass material arranged in parallel rows on a circuit board.

The team, which included Ruopeng Liu of Duke University and T.J. Cui of Southeast University in Nanjing, China, in lab experiments aimed microwaves through the new cloaking material at a bump on a flat mirror surface. That prevented the microwave beams from being scattered and made the surface appear flat.

Smith said the goal was not to make something visible disappear. Cloaking, he said, can occur anywhere on the electromagnetic spectrum.

"Humans 'see' using visible light, which has wavelengths just under a micron (a millionth of a meter). But cell phones and other wireless devices 'see' using light that has a wavelength on the order of many centimeters," Smith said in an e-mail.

He said objects can block the "view" of these devices, making mobile phone communications more difficult.

"You might have two or more antennas trying to 'see' or receive signals, one being blocked by the other," he said. "You could imagine adding cloaks that would make one antenna invisible to the next, so that they no longer interfered."

Smith said the notion of a device that makes objects invisible to people is still a distant concept, but not impossible.

"This latest structure does show clearly there is a potential for cloaking -- in the science fiction sense -- to become science fact at some point," he said.

While the study's funders included Raytheon Missile Systems and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Smith said the technology is not intended to replace "stealth" technology.

"Just about all technologies that have any application, naturally have potential in military applications," he said.

"If this has an impact on communications applications, even commercial, those same applications presumably exist in defense contexts."

(Editing by Maggie Fox and Vicki Allen)

Reuters - Shortwave radio still packs an audible thrill

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Shortwave radio still packs an audible thrill

Wednesday, Jan 14, 2009 8:29PM UTC

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Somewhere on a lonely mountaintop on a starry night, or maybe in an apartment on a bustling city block, someone is channeling the whole world onto a mobile device. It's not a phone; it's a shortwave radio.

A staple form of broadcasting in many parts of the world since the 1920s and 1930s -- shortwave in North America has been mostly a hobby for decades.

Now that the Internet is a fixture in many homes in the United States and Canada, there are few practical reasons to buy a shortwave radio. Thousands of stations that once were available only on the shortwave band are online.

Shortwave also is distinctly old fashioned, cast against the shadow of the annual Consumer Electronics Show, which was held in Las Vegas earlier this month. The mother of gargantuan gadget fests featured shortwave radio makers, but the action these days revolves around digital audio devices.

The contrast is stark: iPods and satellite radios are slim and pocket-sized, while shortwaves are throwbacks, typically as square as a textbook and just as serious looking.

So why bother with shortwave?

It's easy and cheap -- and fun. You can hear and learn things that you would never find even if you work your search engine like a mule. From Swaziland to Paris to Havana, shortwave broadcasters can surprise an adventurous listener more than any MP3 playlist.

"You tune carefully, twist the radio from side to side, and there's still a bit of a 'Hey, I made this happen!' sort of thing," said Harold Cones, retired chairman of the biology and chemistry department at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia.

It's also magic. Shortwave radio enthusiasts acknowledge the thrill -- the romance, in a way -- of going out at night and snaring news, music, odd bleeps, religious zealots and other broadcasts from the wild sea of frequencies in the sky.

In aural terms, the Internet wins. Shortwave by nature sounds dirty: Its signals whoosh from clouds of static and are subject to the whims of sunspots and atmospheric disturbances.

But when you hear voices over the noise and squeal, and realize you are hearing Mongolia, live, there is a warmth and a human connection that are hard to find on the Web.

Shortwave also can deliver news faster than you might find it online, and in places where your other devices don't work, said Ian McFarland, a former host and writer at Radio Canada International.

"It's more portable than a computer, especially if you ... don't have a laptop and you don't happen to have a hot spot on your favorite beach," he said. Batteries also keep them going a long time when the power goes out.

On a serious note, shortwave stations often resist many government attempts to jam them.

"Shortwave is unfettered by intermediaries so it's pretty much always there," said Lawrence Magne, publisher of the Passport to World Band Radio (http://www.passband.com).

GETTING STARTED

You can find shortwave radios at a variety of Web retail and auction shops like Amazon, Universal Radio, The Shortwave Store, Grove Enterprises or even National Public Radio.

Bob Grove, at Grove Enterprises in Brasstown, North Carolina, also offers a handy beginner's guide (http://tinyurl.com/8rq3bt).

You could drop thousands of dollars on a radio, but units such as the Eton E100 (http://tinyurl.com/8x5q9o) generally range from $50 to $250. A perfectly serviceable radio sells for as little as $30, but more expensive models are better at pulling in fainter signals.

Listening is best an hour before and after sunrise and sunset -- and away from urban areas -- because of atmospheric conditions and because many broadcasters in distant lands are gearing up their broadcasts.

Try searching for distant shortwave signals, identify the station, write to them and get a "QSL Card," the broadcaster's acknowledgment that you made contact.

For die hards, listening to shortwave can make hours go by in a dream. For others, its an acquired taste -- Bob Grove said his wife is "partially tolerant."

"I've had radio equipment in my car in the past, and I have learned not to turn it all on when we were going on a date somewhere."

(To find a partial English-language list of what's on shortwave, try RadioShack (http://tinyurl.com/6texnw) or C.Crane (http://tinyurl.com/yjfcrq)).

(Reporting by Robert MacMillan; editing by Richard Chang)

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Portfolio Mobile - TV.com Just Might Be a Contender

TV.com Just Might Be a Contender





Ars Technica reports: A month after launching a major site redesign,
TV.com announced on Monday new content partnerships with studios like
Sony Pictures Television, MGM, PBS, and Endemol USA. The move adds more
than 1,000 new TV episodes from shows like Californication and Dead Like Me to TV.com's established community, making it a more powerful force to reckon with for the likes of Hulu and even YouTube.




TV.com's catalog now tops out at around 38,000 videos from over 19,000 shows, ranging from current, popular series like Dexter and Brotherhood to classics like Bewitched, The Addams Family, and even Ken's old favorite, T.J. Hooker.
"With the layering of this content, TV.com continues its mission to be
a place for entertainment, information and community," Senior Vice
President and General Manager of CBS Interactive Entertainment and
Lifestyle Anthony Soohoo said in a press release.





Indeed, TV.com's established community is what gives it a leg up on new
challengers to the throne, such as Hulu, the NBC and FOX joint venture
which Ars Technica dubbed 2008's best piracy-reduction program.


Before CBS redesigned TV.com, it enjoyed 16 million monthly unique visitors who stopped by to check TV schedules, post in forums, read industry news, and participate in polls. In contrast, Hulu saw 24 million uniques last October. But after launching a cleaner, more mature site design last month that introduced full-length content while maintaining a high emphasis on community, TV.com says it saw an 18 percent increase in unique visitor traffic and a 17 percent increase in time spent on the site.



The new design takes an unapologetic page (or three) from Hulu's design book, but features things like a shoutbox on the front page, polls and ratings for each episode, and a wealth of information and trivia about each show and its stars.

"It's not enough today to just rebroadcast television shows online," Soohoo continues in the press release, firing a shot across the bows of Hulu and the many competitors in the mainstream online video space. "People go online for the community interaction and no one is better at building thriving online communities around content than TV.com."

It is a bit early to tell, but Soohoo may have a point. If everyone from TV.com, to Hulu, and even Sling.com are drawing from virtually the same catalog of mainstream content, the battle for eyeballs will be fought with weapons like great forums and content integration. TV.com already had an established community with lots of extra information and media to keep visitors engaged. With CBS actively bulking up TV.com's content catalog, it is likely to turn into a serious player in a rapidly evolving market.




Also on Ars Technica:Sony CES 3D Tech Already OutdatedObama's FCC Pick Hailed by ReformersChina Online Porn Crackdown


Related Links
Hulu Closes In on YouTube -- Fast
First Bytes: Hulu, YouTube, Blip.tv, WSJ.com, EMI, Intel
How Hulu Stole the Momentum from Joost





(c) 2007 Portfolio. Powered by mLogic Media, Crisp Wireless, Inc.

Reuters - Kazakh PM tells ministers "get blogging"

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Kazakh PM tells ministers "get blogging"

Monday, Jan 12, 2009 3:10PM UTC

ASTANA (Reuters) - Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov Monday told his ministers to start personal blogs to get them closer to the people of the former Soviet state.

"I have opened a blog on the government website," Masimov told a government meeting. "So I order all ministers... to start personal blogs where people will be able to ask you questions that you must answer."

Masimov started his own blog last week with an introductory post that has already received 152 comments, some of which were complaints about the quality of tap water in villages. He has since ordered the cabinet to investigate the criticisms.

About 14 percent of the steppe nation's 16 million people have Internet access, according to official data. Many users complain of growing censorship and domestic media rarely question state policies.

Kazakhstan, which has been singled out by Western rights activists for its lack of press freedom, has vowed to step up the pace of liberal reforms before it takes over the chairmanship in 2010 of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Europe's top democracy watchdog.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev, a former communist party boss, has ruled Kazakhstan with an iron fist since 1989. He has never been elected in a vote judged free and fair by OSCE monitors.

(Reporting by Raushan Nurshayeva; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Nick Vinocur)

CNN - Report: U.S. rejected Israeli plea to attack Iran

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Report: U.S. rejected Israeli plea to attack Iran

President Bush rejected several Israeli requests last year for weapons and permission for a potential airstrike inside Iran, the author of an investigative report told CNN.

Israel approached the White House in early 2008 with three requests for an attack on Iran's main nuclear complex, said New York Times reporter David Sanger. His article appears in the newspaper on Sunday.

According to Sanger, Israel wanted specialized bunker-busting bombs, equipment to help refuel planes making flights into Iran and permission to fly over Iraq to reach the major nuclear complex at Natanz, the site of Iran's only known uranium enrichment plant.

The White House "deflected" the first two requests and denied the last, Sanger said.

"They feared that if it appeared that the United States had helped Israel strike Iran, using Iraqi airspace, that the result in Iraq could be the expulsion of the American troops (from Iraq)," he said.

Bush, instead, persuaded Israeli officials to not proceed with the attack by sharing with them some details of covert U.S. operations aimed at sabotaging Iran's nuclear ambitions, Sanger said.

The ongoing operations are designed to undermine Iran's ability to produce weapons-grade fuel and designs it needs to produce a workable nuclear weapon, the newspaper said.

"We know that the U.S. has been trying to conduct covert industrial espionage, if you will, against Iran's nuclear program for many years," said CNN's Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr. "[They have been] going to the suppliers, going other places; trying to make sure that things get messed up, if you will; that parts may not be what they should be; that certain processes may not work right. Anything that they can do to jam the work to delay the program."

Sanger said he based his report on conversations with intelligence officials, none of whom would speak on the record because of the topic's sensitivity.

"I suspect the Bush administration probably isn't going to comment very much on the details of this story, given the nature of this kind of intelligence operation and the sensitivity of the relationship with Israel," he said.

Sanger said President-elect Barack Obama, who said during the campaign he wants to engage in dialogue with Iran, now inherits the operation.

"He has got to figure out how to square the circle of having direct talks with the country while these are going on, or he could elect, I imagine, to modify this program or suspend it," Sanger said.

In his first post-election news conference, Obama said a nuclear-armed Iran would be "unacceptable." He also said he would help mount an international effort to prevent it from happening.

Iran maintains its nuclear program is for energy purposes only. It has been engaged in an escalating war of words with Israel, whom it accuses of trying to destabilize the republic.

Israel has said it will not rule out military action to halt Iran's nuclear aspirations.

Reuters - Nokia stops production of only WiMax device

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Nokia stops production of only WiMax device

Thursday, Jan 08, 2009 4:18PM UTC

HELSINKI (Reuters) - The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia said on Thursday it had ended production of its only mobile device using the U.S.-centered WiMax technology, another blow for the struggling wireless technology.

WiMax has been competing for the status of next generation mobile technology, but has largely lost the battle to Long-Term Evolution (LTE).

"We have ramped down the N810 WiMax Edition tablet. It has reached the end of its lifecycle," said a Nokia spokesman. Nokia unveiled the model only nine months ago, while usually even the most trendy models have a shelf life of well over a year.

Canada's Nortel Networks Corp has said LTE will be the most likely upgrade path for about 80 percent of the world's existing mobile phone providers, with others going for WiMax.

Nokia did not rule out introducing further WiMax phones in the future.

"We will continue to follow the technology and its evolution," the spokesman said.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)