Microsoft Extends Sales Of Microsoft Windows XP


Microsoft plans to keep selling its Windows XP operating system until the end of June 2008, delaying a scheduled transition to its newer Windows Vista software by five months.

The world's largest software maker introduced Windows Vista in January with the plan to phase out sales of its predecessor, Windows XP, by January 30, 2008.

Microsoft said it decided to extend XP sales in response to feedback from computer manufacturers who said there were customers who still wanted to buy the older operating system.

Some customers have voiced displeasure with Vista due to a lack of compatibility with existing software programs and devices. The hardware requirements needed to run Vista also are a significant upgrade from many older computers.

The company downplayed any dissatisfaction with Vista, saying it is the fastest-selling operating system in the history of Microsoft. As of the end of June, Microsoft had sold more than 60 million Windows Vista licenses.

Microsoft said the top 50 consumer software applications now have a Vista-compatible version and it provides support for more than 2.2 million devices. The Windows operating system sits on about 95 per cent of the world's computers.

The Redmond, Washington-based company also said Microsoft historically makes its older operating system available to customers for two years after the new one is introduced, but it decided to shorten that period to one year with Vista.

"We were a little ambitious to think that we would need to make Windows XP available for only a year after the release of Windows Vista," said Mike Nash, a Microsoft corporate vice president.

Microsoft has forecast that XP will account for about 22 per cent of Windows sales in the current year to June with Vista comprising the remainder. The company said it plans to update this forecast when it announces quarterly results in October.

The company also said it plans to extend sales of the most basic Windows XP Starter Edition for very low cost computers in emerging markets until June 30, 2010. It had also planned to stop sales of that system in January

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Fran-Club or Fran-tasy Land, Where Fun Never Ends


Fran O'Sullivan


"Hell-loh Fran O'Sullivan!"

That throaty laugh at the other end of the telephone is disconcertingly familiar.

Damn!

This woman not only has my moniker. She's even got my trademark laugh - slightly more husky and overlaid with a delightful American drawl.

It was one of those snap moments.

Frances K O'Sullivan - "Fran" since she shrugged off "Francie" early on (like me) - is chief operating officer at the product group of Lenovo, the world's third largest PC company.

She has been in New Zealand to lecture on women and technology at the Auckland University of Technology, which is on track to become a Lenovo "think pad" university.

Fran wants to inspire more young women to follow in her footsteps by becoming an engineer. "I've had so much fun," she says.

But she's horrified to find the number of female engineering graduates is declining.

The spiel she gives youngsters is convincing.

"I say, 'can you imagine life without - your cellphone or text messaging?' All those things that weren't even invented when I went to college."

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"That's what's so much fun about engineering. You can really see - especially young girls' - eyes go 'wow! I can do that. I can make your life easier or more entertaining.' It doesn't have to be some obscure lab work that you can't talk about to your neighbour. Engineering can be real fun projects."

It was the AUT's communications adviser who first spruiked the notion of a "Fran O'Sullivan on Fran O'Sullivan" interview.

I am under orders not to give up too much of my weekends for work. But I've been intrigued about Fran O'Sullivan ever since I angled to get an appointment with Microsoft chief executive Helen Robinson this year, to be greeted with astonishment by her PA who kept insisting "we've already got a roundtable with you in the diary". Fran O'Sullivan didn't make the trip down to Auckland that time. Sadly, her husband died.

But I already knew about her. I've been following her career ever since she began to crop up when I Googled my name to find 43,700 mentions.

An earlier Fran O'Sullivan - the one who runs an Irish bloodstock business in Co Kildare - has now dropped off the international radar so we now have the brand to ourselves.

Fran O'Sullivan had also been amused by the coincidence and has read some of my articles.

Luckily for her my subjects are so far removed from the field of technology that I doubt she will ever face the need to make explanations to the SEC, or elsewhere if foolish shareholders do a Google and get suspicious she is pumping Lenovo's stock.

Fran O'Sullivan's 26-year career was launched at IBM where she was sent as an engineer on assignment to Nasa's space shuttle programme for the first launch of the space shuttle Columbia in 1981.

"I had so much fun. The astronauts were headquartered in the building I worked in. They were on sleeping schedules and would be sent home at 2 o'clock.

"There was no computer work at home then so we would go to the beach. Now with technology you're basically in touch 24/7. It was great to be part of such a big project - that first wave. Your heart swelled. It was something you were proud of."

O'Sullivan's talents were quickly recognised by IBM who earmarked her for management.

She refused initial offers stating she wanted to become lead engineer of the department but the company wouldn't take no for an answer and transferred her to Raleigh in North Carolina. "The personal computer was still in its infancy when I transferred down to IBM from Cape Canaveral.

"I went through a fast introduction to technology, the big scare in the year 2000 with Y2K, now it's into a sharemarket consolidation but we just keep innovating with new engineering features. It's just been a great ride."

Right now her focus is her job at Lenovo - a real East meets West experiment.

Lenovo, for those not up with the play, is an extraordinary story. The subsidiary of Beijing's Legend Holdings bought IBM's PC business three years ago.

BusinessWeek described the unusual deal as IBM outsourcing its PC business to Lenovo, and Lenovo outsourcing much of its management and sale to IBM.

The upshot is that Lenovo these days is nearly 40 per cent owned by public shareholders, 42 per cent by Legend Holdings, 8 per cent by IBM and 10 per cent by other tech and private equity companies.

Because the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a Chinese government agency, owns 6 per cent of Legend Holdings, effectively the Chinese Government owns about 27.5 per cent of Lenovo and is the largest shareholder.

Fran O'Sullivan was transferred again.

She describes Lenovo as a virtual reality company - operations are split between the US, Japan and China.

"From a human point of view we have zero business hour overlaps between our East Coast US and the Japan and China teams.

"We do have night call and early morning calls - but what I did for our team is say 'OK, it's part of what our jobs are. We're going to have night calls but we're going to close down on Friday at noon and have a two-and-a-half day weekend every weekend'."

There are clear business advantages to Lenovo's operational structure. "As long as you get an email off before bedtime to say 'hey we need this', when you wake up in the morning it's done. But you do have to be efficient and on your toes."

O'Sullivan's "very young" team of Chinese engineers are "very competitive and want to have the best designed and innovative products".

"It's just amazing to be getting ready for the Olympics alone providing all the computers and servers to run all the IT.

"It's a first-class engineering operation - it's pretty amazing to watch."

But Fran O'Sullivan has not managed to pick up Mandarin yet.

"I find it incredibly difficult - I am tone deaf," she says. Me too.

When we spoke last Sunday morning, Fran O'Sullivan had been up since 6am - out for a run to Auckland's Domain to see the "beautiful city".

I'd been up at a similar time, blasting loud classical music while I work out with weights.

I don't run - which is where the comparisons should end.

But no - she asks me why I don't use an IBM Think Pad instead of an HP laptop.

HP makes good business applications, I reply.

But Fran turns out to be right. A Think Pad - particularly a tablet application - is more suited to my current needs.

Fran club

You want to join the Fran Club? Here's what you have to do:

* Get up early and stay up (life's for the swift and strong).

* Take no prisoners.

* Think handsome, not pretty (life is not a beauty contest - thank God).

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Development Of Household Robots Still AT Infancy


Peter Griffin


For all the talk over the years of robots in our homes to take the chore out of everyday life, only one has been able to pull it off in any form - the Roomba.

The robotic vacuum cleaner from US company iRobot meanders around your house sucking up dirt and dust, negotiating its way around table legs and returning to its base station when it needs recharging. When I had one in my house I sprinkled flour all over the wooden floors, put the Roomba down and went out for a couple of hours. When I returned, the flour was gone and Roomba was slumbering in its cradle. The thing works, and, at $600, is reasonably priced.

It's encouraging then that the next wave come from IRobot, whose boss, Colin Angel unveiled two new robots at the Digital Life expo in New York last week.

They came with a caveat - one aimed at quashing the expectation that robots are increasingly going to take on human characteristics.

"I'm asking everyone today to say goodbye to The Jetsons, goodbye to Hollywood robots," said Angel.

"That's as likely as us going to live in bubble homes above the ground... and welcome perhaps a little boring looking, but fantastically capable robots."

The Roomba's cousin is the ConnectR, which is strikingly similar in design but with a very different purpose. It has a web camera and a Wi-Fi chip so it can be controlled using a home wireless network.

From any internet-connected computer, the ConnectR can be manoeuvred around your house, its camera displaying a colour video feed from floor level.

It's designed with security in mind - from the office or while away on holiday you can check on things back home, your controls beamed to the ConnectR over the wireless network which transfers the video feed to your internet connection. Control of the ConnectR comes via either a computer joystick, keyboard or mouse. Up to 10 people can access the ConnectR using a PIN number, taking control from their own computers. The camera can tilt, pan and zoom and the ConnectR also has a built-in microphone so you can have internet telephone conversations with people around it. The ConnectR will sell in the US next year for around US$500.

IRobot's other new creation also has a practical application. The Looj climbs into your home's gutters and scoops out silt and leaves. It is remote controlled so once you place it in the gutter you control its progress around your house from down on the ground. A much simpler device, Looj will sell for around US$100.

Angel's Jetsons remark hints at the reality of robotic technology - for the foreseeable future, robots will be employed to fulfil fairly basic functions and their design is dictated on what is required to allow them to move around and on keeping them at a reasonable price point.

Adding communications tools into devices like the ConnectR opens up a whole new world of opportunity, allowing "virtual presence" so you can virtually be in your home, even though you're at work.

More sophisticated robots perform these types of roles with more flourish and the Japanese have created numerous robots with convincing human characteristics - they've made an industry of doing so. But with that, comes a big price tag and a certain impracticality.

So far iRobot has been the only company to get robotic devices into consumers' homes in large numbers. It's done that by keeping robotics simple and within range of middle class families, an audience likely to warm to the ConnectR.

The issue then is what happens when the Roomba and ConnectR get in each other's way on the lounge floor. The Jetsons never had that problem.

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A Product Review Of Halo 3



Adding to Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, the epic saga continues with Halo 3, the amazingly anticipated sequel to the highly successful and critically acclaimed Halo franchise. In this third chapter of the Halo trilogy, Master Chief returns to finish the fight, bringing the epic conflict between the Covenant, the Flood, and the entire human race to a dramatic, pulse-pounding climax.

Game developer Bungie announced that Halo 3 will be released for Microsoft's Xbox 360 sometime in 2007. The game was revealed to the world at the Microsoft press conference held at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, CA in May 2006. To gamer's delight, the announcement was a complete surprise. The rumors have been abound for the past year, as everyone wondered when the next installment would be ready. Bungie and Microsoft did a stellar job keeping their lips sealed, and fans benefited from their first glimpse of the hallowed third and final installment.

The short presentation was delivered in real-time on the Xbox 360 using the current version of the Halo 3 game engine. That's right, no studio production video, Bungie and Microsoft delivered the real deal: what they showed at the announcement is what gamers will see when they play Halo 3 in 2007. The HDR lighting, self-shadowing, GPU-run particle system and many other effects are rumored to show up in full effect in the final game. Needless to say, the gaming community is salivating.

CJ Cowan, Bungie's director of cinematics discussed one of the most startling moments of the presentation: the return of Cortana. "Given the variety of character and story arcs at the end of Halo 2, we wanted to boil down our announcement to a few key threads. Cortana and the Chief being a galaxy apart is a situation we haven't seen before, and is something that is a powerful component to Halo 3. We are using her transmissions in the demo to give the viewer a few subtle clues to her situation and state of mind, without revealing any specifics we want to save for the game itself."

Graphically, the game closely follows in the tradition of Halo 2, although it has been upgraded to take advantage of the Xbox 360's more prodigious visual abilities. As art direct Marcus Lehto explained, "[The presentation] was intended to be an understated announcement of Halo 3 -- the tone is that of mystery and suspense -- the calm before the storm. I wanted to make sure that we reintroduced the Chief, showed that Earth was thoroughly conquered, with Covenant everywhere, and that there is a glorious, ancient artifact buried under the Earth's crust which will provide Halo 3 with the epic journey which we all want."

Taking full advantage of the power of Xbox 360, Halo 3 expands on everything that has made the franchise great, adding a wealth of technical and gameplay advancements. The game design has evolved with next-generation, high-definition visuals, enhanced A.I., an advanced real-time lighting engine, and, of course, new weapons, characters, and challenges. Halo 3 promises an unparalleled first-person shooter experience and, in the end, the most compelling and engrossing story in the franchise's history. Last, but certainly not least, Halo 3 builds upon the unique social multiplayer experience and innovative, evolving online gameplay of Halo 2. Rest assured, you'll still be able to run with your clan and battle with (or against) your buddies from coast to coast.

Product Description
Halo 3 is the third game in the Halo Trilogy and the thrilling conclusion to the events begun in Halo: Combat Evolved. Master Chief returns to finish the fight, bringing the epic conflict between the Covenant, the Flood, and the entire human race to a dramatic, pulse-pounding climax. The Covenant occupation of Earth has uncovered a massive and ancient object beneath the African sands - an object whose secrets have yet to be revealed. Earth's forces are battered and beaten. The Master Chief's AI companion Cortana is still trapped in the clutches of the Gravemind - a horrifying Flood intelligence, and a civil war is raging in the heart of the Covenant. It's all been building to this -- a desperate, final war that leads to a soul-shattering climax of epic proportions. Take control of Master Chief to defeat the Covenant and destroy the Flood to prevent the annihilation of the human race.

Lead Free Toys

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Open Source Software To Reduce Australia's $21 Billion ICT Deficit


Rodney Gedda

Australia's $21 billion ICT trade deficit could be dramatically reduced if the local industry played to its strengths and exported services using open source software, according to industry analyst Jeff Waugh.

Speaking at an open source industry roadshow in conjunction with National ICT Australia (NICTA), the flamboyant Waugh, a director of consulting firm Waugh Partners, said open source is "great" for Australia because it provides a "huge opportunity" to export services.

With ICT equipment making up the bulk of the deficit, followed by software and services, Waugh said simply taking the cost out of software imports will not have as great an effect on the imbalance of trade but leveraging Australia's large open source skills base could.

"Using open source would not yield the most savings so unfortunately that will stick around for a while," Waugh said. "But we have a huge amount of open source skills and five years ago we were the number one contributor to open source per capita."

Waugh said Europe's mass adoption of open source has changed that ratio, but Australia's pool of open source talent can be exported to the world via implementation and support services.

Waugh Partners is conducting a census on the proliferation of open source to gauge the level of adoption among local enterprises and to help businesses become more aware of its relevance.

"We think open source is good for the IT industry and innovation," Waugh said. "It has ignited competition with companies using open source to enter the industry and create new business models. It has raised the value point over just the software product itself - you have to have great integration, service and support to succeed. And it lowers the barrier to entry as you can create products built on open source to provide grander solutions."

Also speaking at the event, NICTA chief operating officer Phil Robertson said there is a growing awareness within the research community of the importance of open source.

"In quite a lot of our research work it is a critical part," Robertson said. "Open Kernel Labs built a business model around open source so we are looking at business models that can be built around open source to capture the benefits into the national economy."

NICTA is now looking to understand the uses of open source to see what is likely to happen in the future.

The census, dubbed Stand Up And Be Counted is online at http://waughpartners.com.au/research/census2007. The report will be freely available in February 2008.

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Planning Ahead Against Web Application Disaster

Mark Gibbs

On the evening of Sept. 17, one of the biggest hosting providers in the US, Layered Technologies in Plano, Texas, suffered a major security breech. Hackers managed to access the company's support database and download client data on something between 5,000 and 6,000 user accounts.

The company's notification to it customers stated that "Due to the significant amount of uncertainty in determining which accounts may have been impacted ... we are asking all of our clients to change the login credentials for all host details they have submitted in the past 2 years." Essentially, what Layered is asking their clients to do is to change every password they have.

Now nothing is known about how the hackers got in, and my guess is that we will probably never find out which is not unreasonable - why would Layered want to tell us if their staff or their system screwed up? Obviously full disclosure would be preferable because we might all learn something that would protect more people, but the realities of branding and marketing have to be dealt with ...

What this even made me wonder is how well you are prepared for such an eventuality. First, if you have customers that fall under any kind of data protection legislation then you're going to have to notify them.

This would be fine, but you've got Web applications that drive scores of business processes in your organization and you've got user accounts, database passwords, e-mail accounts, management accounts, literally hundreds of passwords that are your first line of security defense and when you change them many of your customers won't be contactable!

And there's the problem: You HAVE to change all the passwords yourself -- you can't notify all account holders and have them do it because that will take too long and it only needs hackers to gain access to one account with any management privileges to make it game over for your security. The worst situation is a compromised account that you don't know about that the hackers don't use until months after a security problem - by that time you've stopped looking for problems and if they are cunning you might not have any idea of what they are up to.

So if you have to change all of these passwords, notify all stakeholders, employees, customers, and partners do you have any idea how long it will take you? Do you have any idea of how you'll actually go about doing it?

Here's an interesting part of the problem: Many of the account holders will only be contactable in the short term via e-mail so when you reset their passwords they are going to call you. Do you have enough support staff on the phones to handle the support tsunami?

One strategy I can think of is to change your corporate Web site's home page to announce the problem and try to structure who calls you on what number: customers to one number, staff to another, and so on and try to put support effort where it is needed to try to minimize the business impact.

Of course that does suppose that you actually know where in your business processes the effort is actually needed, which is something that isn't necessarily obvious if you haven't studied it. For example, it may be that your supply line management is the key to ensuring that your business can function so those accounts need to be addressed immediately while fixing the customer accounts can be shelved for 24 hours. Or is that no more than six hours? Do you know?

Oh and how do you validate all of the people calling for password resets? Unless you have some kind of lost password reset system that you are absolutely certain isn't compromised then you are going to have to do something like ask for credit card data and social security numbers to validate the callers. Of course the hackers may have that data and "social engineering" is easy.

Obviously, what I'm talking about is disaster planning, but I'd suggest that having a Web application disaster plan is a very different context from your usual disaster plan (which, of course, you do have ... don't you?).

Whatever the cause of the breech, the scale of the problems Layered and its customers are facing is monumental and I'm betting that hardly anyone had a disaster plan in place. I wish Layered and its customers the best of luck - they're going to need it.

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US Halo 3 Sales Hits $170 Million

P-I STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

Video game enthusiasts in the United States plunked down about $170 million on copies of "Halo 3" in the 24 hours after the Xbox 360 game went on sale, Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday.

The company claimed the first-day total makes it "the biggest entertainment launch in history," topping first-day sales of the final "Harry Potter" book and the box-office opening of "Spider-Man 3." It also surpassed the $125 million in first-day sales for "Halo 2."

"Halo 3" fans preordered more than 1.7 million copies of the game, and more than 10,000 stores opened at midnight Monday to start selling, according to Microsoft.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the final installment in the series written by J.K. Rowling, sold about 8.3 million copies in the first 24 hours. The New York Times estimated those sales at nearly $170 million, because some retailers discounted the book heavily. "Spider-Man 3" took in a record $59 million in its first day.

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The Craze For Microsoft Halo 3

Microsoft began its midnight sales of Halo 3, the acclaimed alien shooter game that it hopes will widen its lead over Sony in the battle for industry dominance.

While some aficionados lined up before dawn at a Best Buy store on New York's Fifth Avenue to grab a good seat for the launch extravaganza, others took advantage of the retailer's offer to let them pay for a copy of the game and pick it up at midnight or the next day.

Alex Escobar was the first one at the store's checkout counter, turning in a receipt to pick up his advance order.

"It is worth it. It is time to finish this fight," Escobar said, echoing the tagline for a game featuring a futuristic soldier battling to save humanity from an alien onslaught.

What had been a only a modest gathering earlier in the day had swelled to a crowd of about 500 people that cheered as buyers entered the store, resembling other big consumer debuts this year, such as the last Harry Potter book and Apple's iPhone.

Halo 3 is seen as the $US30 billion video game industry's equivalent of a new Potter book and Microsoft is counting on the game to finally push its money-losing entertainment unit into profitability.

"This is a critical holiday in terms of winning the next-generation console fight versus our competition and nobody has anything to go up and match Halo"' Shane Kim, vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, told Reuters Television.

Microsoft is backing the game with a marketing blitz that includes celebrity-studded midnight sales events at some 10,000 retailers across the United States.

In New York, someone dressed as the game's armour-clad hero worked the crowd as music blared, lights flashed and event promoters handed out free goodies such as Halo t-shirts.

Gaming retail chain GameStop said the title set a record for advance orders, while Microsoft expects initial demand to surpass that for 2004's Halo 2, which racked up $US125 million in its first 24 hours.

The first two Halo games have sold a combined 15 million copies and cemented Microsoft as a serious player in a video game industry that was dominated by Sony's PlayStation 2.

Halo 3 is targeted firmly at the core Xbox audience of young males, for whom realistic combat games are a staple. It does little to widen the machine's appeal to a more casual audience that is being courted with tremendous success by Nintendo's Wii console.
"It's not necessarily going to move a lot of new systems like the first Halo did," said Dan Hsu, editor-in-chief of EGM, a gaming magazine.

"At the same time, with all the marketing blitz and hype, consumers will be out there," Hsu said, "and if they are thinking video games, they are thinking one of two things: Halo or the Wii."

Microsoft is certainly betting that the last chapter of the Halo trilogy will give a further boost to its latest console. The Xbox 360, launched in late 2005, has already enjoyed stronger sales than the pricier PlayStation 3, which critics say so far lacks any "system-seller" games.

"I was caught between buying the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but there are certain games like Madden '08 and this one that pushed me to Xbox 360," said Darnell Jefferson, 25, who was second in line at Best Buy, referring to the hit football game made by Electronic Arts .

Halo 3 will enjoy the absence of another blockbuster game, Grand Theft Auto IV, whose October debut was delayed by publisher Take-Two Interactive Software until some time between February and April 2008.

The latest Halo has drawn wide praise from reviewers for its lush settings, cinematic story and breadth of features, positive buzz that pushed Microsoft shares up as much as 3.35 per cent on Monday, their biggest one-day gain since April. The stock ended 1.5 percent higher at $US29.08 on Nasdaq.

George Garcia, 32, said he had waited in line for 12 hours and planned to stay up all night playing the game.

"I knew it would deliver," Garcia said.

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Microsoft Office For Mac To Be Released In January 2008

Microsoft said it will release three versions of its Office 2008 for Mac suite in January, with the most expensive of the bunch aimed at creative professionals overwhelmed by the task of organising their digital media files.

Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition, which includes three licenses for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage, an email/calendar/contacts program, will cost $US150, Microsoft said.

A $US400 version aimed at professionals who use Apple computers, simply called Office 2008 for Mac, includes the same programs as Home and Student, plus the ability to connect to a Windows Exchange server.

A third version, the $US500 Special Media Edition, adds features to the $US400 configuration, including Expression Media, a program that helps computer users organize and manipulate digital photos, video and other files.

Microsoft sells Expression Media, one of several new tools for graphic designers and other creative professionals, for $US299.

All three versions work on Intel-based Macs and older PowerPC machines. The software maker planned to announce the lineup and pricing Tuesday at Apple Expo in Paris, France.

Apple announced in August that it added a spreadsheet program to iWork, the company's own productivity software suite. Apple sells individual licenses for $US80 and family packs, which allow users to install the programs on five different computers, for $US100.

Amanda Lefebvre, marketing manager for Microsoft's Macintosh business unit, said Microsoft's offering is "a really robust suite compared to iWork."

For Apple users who don't want to wait until next year for Office, Microsoft is offering an upgrade program. For the price of shipping, handling and taxes - an estimated $US10 in the U.S. - the company will send a comparable 2008 suite to people who buy the Standard Edition or the Student and Teacher Edition of Office 2004 for Mac through to March 14.

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Apple Firmware Upgrade To Target Hacked iPhones

Apple has warned iPhone owners who have used unauthorized programs to unlock the cellular service feature of their handsets that they may end up with a phone that doesn't work after the company's next software update for it.

Since the iPhone debuted in June, hackers have posted a number of methods online to make it possible to use the iPhone on cellular networks other than AT&T, which is the exclusive official carrier for the iPhone.

The news will come as a blow to scores of Australian iPhone enthusiasts who have brought the $US399 phones out to Australia and hacked them so that they can work on local mobile networks.

Apple executives say they have discovered that many of those unauthorised unlocking programs cause some software damage to iPhones.

Now, a software update that Apple plans to issue later this week that will add features such as accessibility to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store may end up making the touch-screen mobile phone completely inoperable if it has been hacked into.

"This has nothing to do with proactively disabling a phone that is unlocked or hacked," Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in an interview.

"It's unfortunate that some of these programs have caused damage to the iPhone software, but Apple cannot be responsible for ... those consequences."

Launching the iPhone in London last week, Apppel CEO Steve Jobs indicated that Apple was looking at ways to beat the hackers.

"This is constant cat-and-mouse game. We play it on iPods with our digital rights management and when somebody hacks it we have to go ... and stay a step ahead," he said.

"It's the same way here, people are going to try and break in and it's our job to try and stop them."

As with any Apple product, hacking into the iPhone will void its warranty, Apple said.

Apple has sold over a million iPhones since it hit the market June 29.

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Action Figures, Activities and Amusements, Arts and Crafts, Bike, Skates and Ride-Ons, Construction, Blocks and Models, Dolls, Electronics For Kids, Games, Hot Buys, Hobbies, Kid's Furniture and Room Decor, Learning and Education, Music, Party Supplies, Play Vehicles, Preschool, Pretend Play and Dress-up, Puzzles, Sports and Outdoor Plays, Stuffed Animals and Toys, Toy Figures and Playsets

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Russians Producing Human-Like Robots



In a bid to reduce risk and improve the quality of various services like mining operations, Russian Android Robotics Corp. plans to produce androids in russia and launch them in 2008. At present it offers models that are able to imitate human movements. The given androids are already used at schools and for entertainment.

In July, 2007 the first android AR-100 Dobrynya was created in Russia. The Moscow firm Android Robotics founded in 2004 was engaged in its production. First, the company was engaged in dealer operations only, but about a year ago it started its own developments. Electronics and system software production for robots is carried out by the St. Petersburg company OmegaDigital, while the materials are supplied by the Moscow plant Computing analytic devices.

AR-100 robots are made of aluminum and plastics, their height is about 35 sm, weight – 1.5 kg. The model is able to imitate the main human movements. Designers assure robots outstrip foreign models by the battery service life. About 100 androids have already been produced.

“Our robots are used by educational institutions. The models might be programmed, assembled, disassembled, besides they might be considered as a strong incentive stimulating a child’s independent education, visualizing the process of programming, - Maria Mamykina, Android Robotics project manager tells. – For example, at large-scale exhibitions and forums. Robots can ski and dance. Talks are held to deliver robot groups abroad”. Androids will be also offered to create the unusual interior in offices and at home.

Maria Mamykina tells CNews, AR-400 is being developed at present, which is to exceed its predecessor in size and serve, first of all, as a presenter or bill board. The company hopes to present the given robot till the end of 2007.

Android Robotics does not intend to stop its developments. The company plans to develop and start producing more sophisticated robots in the near future, which will be able not only to educate or entertain but carry out various operations. Android series called I-van (which is to be launched late in 2008) is to comprise the following professions: miners, bodyguards, railwaymen, dancers. The company says nothing about the given robot price, but notes they will be both sold and rented.

The company Android Robotics consider its developments unique for Russia and at present it has no competitor among domestic enterprises. It should be noted, some firms have long been engaged in android development and production world-wide. Thus, the Japanese firm Mitsubishi has designed the android Wakamaru, which can keep up the conversation, accompany office visitors, fulfill the functions of a secretary.

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Vongo, Bringing Over 1000 Movies To You Free

Vongo subscribers have unlimited access to more than 1,000 movies and 2,500 total video selections as well as a live, streaming Starz TV channel for a monthly cost of $9.99. Select popular pay-per-view titles are also available for individual rental. In addition to Windows-based PCs, laptops and portable devices, Vongo subscribers can also transfer their Vongo content onto a TV for optimal viewing. Vongo was launched at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show and was nominated for two Emmy® Awards this past year. Vongo is currently offering a 14-day free trial and is available as a free download for everyone at

How can I download a bunch of my favorite movies on one hard drive?" Well, my movie-loving friend, the Vongo software translates a movie file that is roughly 500 to 700 megabytes, and translates it pretty well. The picture and sound quality of Vongo's files are okay -- roughly on par with watching a DVD on your computer -- and, if you can hook your computer up to a TV, you can watch your movies that way, too.

The other "way to Vongo" taps into the increasingly popular portable media player craze that is spreading via gadgets like the iRiver PMP. Downloading your Vongo files to these devices is, obviously, a little more complicated than just downloading it to your computer, but since your Vongo account allows you to download files to up to three different devices, you can do both. The only places you can't yet download your Vongo movies are to anywhere outside the United States or to a Macintosh.

A broadband or DSL connection is required to use Vongo, and 500 to 700 megabytes is not going to take an incredibly long time to download at the broadband/DSL average of 2 megabits a second, but for those who desire instant gratification, you don't have to wait until the file is finished downloading to begin watching the movie. It is certainly not as long as you might have to wait for someone to be done with a movie at your local video store, especially with the "no late fees" and "unlimited rentals with monthly payment" features that are currently en vogue.


After you download the Vongo software, you have a choice of becoming a Vongo member, and/or partaking of the pay-per-view option that the company offers. As a Vongo member, you pay a $9.99 monthly fee and can then download any movie from Vongo's current library for a predetermined amount of time. When the time limit is up, the file disappears from your hard drive. This, of course, does split users down the middle between those who would watch so many movies in a month that $9.99 is a pittance, and those who may feel obligated to watch more movies than normal to get their money's worth. Although it's not a perfect solution, whether you are a member or not, you can use the pay-per-view option to pay a single fee to download individual movie files that last 24 hours. That 24-hour period begins from the time you click "play" rather than the time you click "download," although it should be noted that, if the pay-per-view movie you download is scheduled for deletion from Vongo's playlist, the file will delete from your hard drive at that time regardless of when you click play.

Some people will find the pay-per-view option attractive simply because it does not require them to give any personal information to Vongo. However, those who are (rightly) paranoid about giving out personal information (for fear of spam or worse) can take heart. Vongo's user-friendly privacy policy includes a special feature in its member area that allows you to "opt-out" of Vongo tracking your account specifically, and have it track your activities anonymously instead.

Perhaps one of Vongo's best features is one that allows you to resume downloading a file if your computer gets disconnected for any reason. This feature is becoming more common at download sites and in browsers, just in time for the majority of internet users to switch to high-speed services that seldom lose a connection, but at least it means you don't have to restart the download when your microwave trips your circuit breaker.

Although the company's humorous commercials show people "Vongoing" in all manner of places, it should be pointed out that NewsTarget.com specifically does not condone watching movies at work; a fact that was politely explained to me when I attempted to watch a movie at my desk (for review purposes only, you understand). The brief free movie clip at the website, however, was enough to convince me of the service's status as a great way to watch movies.


Vongo System/Account Requirements:

* U.S-based internet address
* Broadband connection with a download speed of 100 kilobytes per second or higher for Pay Per View, 300 kilobytes per second or higher for Vongo Membership
* Windows Media Player 9 or higher
* One gigabyte of available hard drive space (3 gigabytes recommended)
* 700 MHz Intel Pentium III processor or greater (supports simultaneous record/playback features) 128MB of RAM
* Full Duplex sound card and speakers
* 16-bit sound card and speakers
* 65,000-color video display card set to display at 1024 X 764 or higher
* Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 or later, or Windows XP

Portable Media Device Requirements:

* Portable Media Device with Windows Portable Media Center (PMC) V.2

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