Google's license to operate Google.cn site still in limbo

Jul 01, 2010 06:24 am | IDG News Service

Chinese officials have not said whether they will renew Google's operating license, which expired yesterday

The status of Google's China-based website, Google.cn, remains in limbo as the search engine giant waits to see if China will renew the company's operating license.

The Internet Content Provider license for the site, which must be reviewed by the government annually, went up for renewal yesterday. And without such a license, Google.cn could no longer operate as commercial site.

The main issue at hand is Google's refusal to censor its search results, which has angered Chinese officials.

Google.cn was previously used as a search engine geared for mainland China that featured censored search results and complied with Chinese laws. But in March, Google closed down the site and instead redirected all traffic to its uncensored Hong Kong search engine at Google.com.hk.

To placate officials and gain renewal of its operating license, Google decided to stop redirecting search traffic from China to its Hong Kong page. Now when users visit Google.cn, they will instead see a link to Google.com.hk.

As offices closed late Thursday afternoon, Google spokeswoman Jessica Powell said the company had yet to hear back from the Chinese government. Phone calls to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which regulates the operating licenses, were not answered.

Thursday also saw the blocking of a Google search function in China. Google Suggest, which provides probable searches as a user types in a query, was blocked for part of the day. But by Thursday afternoon, Google had indicated that its web search services were fully or mostly accessible.

While Google continues to wait for a decision, many users of the search engine in China hope the outcome won't affect their daily Internet search habits.

College students in Beijing noted that Google can act as a major study aid, especially when it comes to researching English language materials. Tsinghua University student Zhang Li, 27, said other Chinese search engines like Baidu -- which is the most used search engine in China -- produce less effective search results.

As for Google's move to provide uncensored search results, Zhang said, "I don't think Google was wrong, but I don't think the Chinese government was wrong either," she said. "Some information should be controlled right now. It can't be all open."

Others like Beijing Forestry University student Zhang Meng, 22, said one major reason he uses Google is because it offers uncensored information. "The government doesn't always allow you to understand the truth of what's happening," Zhang said.

But other Internet users say Google's presence in China is still limited. 35-year-old Wang Juan, who works in education, said most people in the country still opt to use Chinese search engines. A former Google user, Wang himself switched over to Baidu because his friends and customers all use it.

"If I can't use Google, it won't impact my life at all," he added.

Coinciding with the operating license issue is Google not getting a place on a Chinese government list of companies that will be able to offer Internet mapping services pending approval.

The State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping released a list naming 23 domestic companies to be granted a license to provide the online mapping services. Major companies like Baidu, search engine provider Sohu and e-commerce site Alibaba, made the list.

Top 10 companies to work for in India

The 2010 edition of 'India's Best Companies To Work For' by The Economic Times has ranked the top 10 companies in India on the basis of management, facilities, infrastructure, growth prospects, etc. After interviewing CEOs, HR heads and employees to gauge what it takes to be the best company to work for, this study reports on how companies have nurtured their human capital in the face of the downturn, while taking some bold initiatives to maintain growth.

Check out the 10 best companies to work for -:

1) Google India: Located in Bangalore and founded in 1998, Google India's main work is in Online Search, Online Advertising & Online Applications. You cannot pinpoint at one thing that makes Google one of the best places to work for. It is a combination of values and operating principles to make the work more enjoyable and encourage innovations. Commitment towards finding talented people is not solely based on ranks and percentage, but on the inclusion of those who have a sense of mission and derive massive satisfaction from their work.

2) Make MyTrip: Located in Gurgaon and founded in 2000, this company's main work target is booking airline tickets, hotels, bus and rail ticket and holiday packages. The immense sense of empowerment at MakeMyTrip is drawing in top talent by the droves. For one, Amit Somani, the company's Chief Products Officer, has no hang-ups about leaving Google to join MakeMyTrip.

3) Intel Technology India: Located in Bangalore this IT giant was founded in 1988, this firm has also tried to ingrain a culture of being open and direct. It is very serious about having an open-door policy and reaching out to seniors is the norm. Coupled with periodic feedback mechanisms, this keeps every Intellite on the ball.

4) Marriot Hotels: Located in Mumbai, one of the best names in hospitality ranks 4th in the best place to work for in India because the company's employee policy rests on three main legs: an open-door policy, empowerment and fairness.

5) NetApp India: Set foot into NetApp India's headquarters in Bangalore and chances are ping-pong balls would be zooming past your head, this is a place definitely not for those who consider their work-life as part of a calibrated approach. Also you will never find people rarely complaining about pay and not getting a fair share of profits.

6) American Express: Founded in 2006 in Gurgaon and specializing in financial services, Amex has been working to building a Gen Next workplace as its 'ecosystem for the future', which is young, vibrant and diverse in the true sense.

7) NTPC: Located in Delhi with an employee strength of 24,708, the Rs 49,478.86-crore power major employs about 25,000 die-hard loyalists, who take pride in the 35-year-old brand and its empowerment attributes. It is one of the best public enterprises to work for.

8) PayPal India: Located in Chennai and specializing in e commerce, PayPal, which is a part of eBay, believes in empowering technologists, especially women. There is a dedicated group named 'eBay Women in Technology.'

9) Ajuba Solutions: Located in Chennai and specializing in Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management, this BPO believes in 'inspired people, inspired results'. Named after the hindi word of miracle, the company tries to live by its credo of "working wonders for our clients and employees.

10) SAS Institute: Located in Mumbai, this company offers a stress free environment and is flexible enough to give employees option to work from home.

CIBC buys card portfolio from Citigroup MasterCard business

CIBC said Monday it has signed a deal to buy a $2.1-billion credit card portfolio from Citigroup’s Canadian MasterCard business.

The portfolio includes accounts associated with co-branded Petro Canada (TSX:SU) credit cards that offer the Petro Points rewards program.

“This acquisition is directly aligned with our strategy to grow our core Canadian operations,” CIBC president and chief executive Gerry McCaughey said in a statement.

“With our scale, platform and operating synergies, combined with our expertise in credit cards, we are confident this transaction furthers our strategic growth objectives.”

The deal is expected to be accretive to CIBC’s earnings during the first year following its closing, the bank said.

Under the agreement, prior to closing, non-performing accounts will be removed from the acquired portfolio and from Broadway Credit Card Trust, which has securitized certain Citibank MasterCard receivables.

CIBC (TSX:CM) said it was its third transaction since early March including the acquisition of the remaining 50 per cent of CIT Business Credit Canada and the purchase of a minority stake in Bermuda-based the Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Ltd.

Nitish plays perfect host to Pranab, talks business

Hosting a lunch or dinner by politicians is often seen as the perfect platform for a change in political equations.

However, the luncheon meeting between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Congress leader and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Patna today came as a damper for those who were expecting Kumar to do a Naveen Patnaik in the run-up to the state assembly polls.

Just two days after Kumar cancelled a dinner for the BJP brass to convey his disapproval about an advertisement featuring him with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the luncheon meeting between Mukherjee and Kumar was seen as a possible platform that could change the equations in Bihar.

While Kumar played the perfect host to Mukherjee — following a meeting with the chiefs of public sector banks to take stock of the performance on the credit deposit ratio — the two leaders maintained a distance in public. The meeting was also attended by chief ministers and officials from eastern and north-eastern states.

The only time the two leaders were seen interacting in an informal way was when the chief minister was trying to convince Mukherjee to try out local delicacies, including litti chokha and baked fish and Mukherjee sticking to his choice of dishes.

Mukherjee was received at the airport by Deputy CM and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi. When the cavalcade reached the chief minister's secretariat, the CM welcomed the senior leader and escorted him to the conference room.

According to people who were present in the meeting, Mukherjee listened to the chief ministers and CMDs of banks — their grievances and replies — very patiently. "Though they sat side-by-side, not for once did the two show signs of getting close or sharing a word between themselves. It was business as usual," said an official. Sushil Kumar Modi was all along by Kumar’s side during the entire event.

During a press conference after the event, Mukherjee refused to answer questions regarding the state government’s criticisms of the central policies. However, in reply to a question on the demand of a special-category status to Bihar, he said: "This will be decided by the Planning Commission. So, I am not in a position to comment on that. But, I am fully aware that a special package for Bihar had been articulated."

According to informed sources, Mukherjee had called up Kumar before the planning of this event. During the call, the CM was reportedly asked by the finance minister whether Kumar could schedule this conference in Patna and be free to attend the meet.

Kumar had obliged the senior leader by postponing his Pravas Yatra. "He enthusiastically agreed to organise this meeting and also postponed the yatra that was to be held today," the source said.

Jobs to developers: Stick with the winning team

Steve Jobs made his case to developers at WWDC on Monday.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

SAN FRANCISCO--Facing growing competition from Google Android and an amassing army of appealing smartphones, Steve Jobs played defense Monday.

At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference where Jobs introduced the iPhone 4, he also spent a good amount of time selling his already popular platform to his audience of developers. More so than at past iPhone developer events, Jobs was careful to spend time talking about how the App Store approval process works, how much money there is to be made from iAds, his device's market share and reach, and the potential for growth that they have by placing their creations in the App Store.

Why? It could be that he's feeling the heat. The App Store is a huge success and a model for the industry but has also gotten some flack lately with the growing perception of iOS as a "closed" system because of Apple's strict control of what kind of apps are allowed and the recent Adobe Flash flap. Apple's desire to control its platform has drawn the sometimes-public frustration of developers. Plus, Google has been making a case for why its free, open-source Android OS is a viable option for mobile app creators.

Jobs threw a lot of numbers out there, mostly to remind developers that even though other smartphone makers are catching up to and even surpassing the iPhone in some ways, that it's the App Store's reach and size make for a bandwagon that's worth riding for a long time.

iOS by the numbers
Jobs started off by illustrating the App Store's reach, through iOS devices including the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Later this month, Jobs said Apple expects to pass a major milestone for its mobile platform.

Jobs demonstrates the iPhone's reach in the U.S.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

"We will sell our 100 millionth iOS device," he said. That includes iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads. And in case the developers in the audience weren't clear on what he meant, he underscored that point: "There is definitely a market for your applications."

That's pretty obvious already, what with 8,500 iPad apps after two months on sale, plus 250,000 iPhone apps. He emphasized the giant lead his platform has over competitors when he revealed that there have been 5 billion apps downloaded total from the App Store.

Jobs also addressed iPhone market share (No. 2 after RIM with 28 percent) and mobile browser market share: the iPhone is No. 1 with 58.2 percent. "That's 2.5 times as much as Android's 12.7 percent. This may help you put things in perspective," he said, to some laughs. He cited Nielsen data for both, which contradict some statistics that came out a few weeks ago that showed Android sales had surpassed iOS device sales during the first quarter of 2010.

Follow the money
While Jobs mentioned his competition, he wasn't nearly as overt as Google was at its developer conference two weeks ago when it took repeated jabs at Apple. Jobs was at least subtle in his few digs at Apple's chief frenemy, like when he quoted one of the developers behind the popular Elements iPad app. The app's creator apparently told Jobs that they earned more on the iPad app sales in one day than five years of Google ads on the product's Web site.

The money issue came up more than once, and Jobs clearly sees iAds, which debuts in July, as a major advantage his platform has over others.

Jobs said his "favorite statistic" about the App Store is related to what developers get out of putting their apps on his store: to date, he said, Apple has paid $1 billion to developers. Seventy percent of app sales goes to developers (the other 30 percent going to Apple).

He also played up his devices' reach into customers' wallets: "There are 150 million (credit card) accounts hooked up to the App Store, iTunes, and iBookstore. "That's the most of any store on the Web...So people are ready to buy your apps."

The iAd advantage
But direct sales to consumers are not the only way to make money for developers. Apple thinks it's come up with the easiest way to help even developers of free games make some kind of profit from their efforts. That's where iAds comes in. Though Jobs is always in marketing mode when he speaks to the press or the public, he was more obvious about it Monday, giving the devs in the audience the hard sell on his ads platform. More than once he said that it is Apple's goal "to help our developers earn money."

Jobs specifically highlighted the way iAds keep users from leaving an app if they click on a banner ad but instead stay within the app. He also stressed the ease of using iAds: Apple sells the ads, developers just need to place the ads in their apps, and they'll get 60 percent of what Apple takes in for the ads. He also listed the names of big-name brands they already have on board (Nissan, GE, Campbell's, Best Buy, Geico, and others), emphasizing, "These are high-end brands."

Together, iAds has $60 million worth of ad inventory already sold for the year. "Our goal," he said again, "is to help you earn money."

What wasn't said but was implied is that while Android may have a wide variety of formats for in-app ads, with iAd, Apple is going to make it easy as possible for developers. And with the reach of its platform, Apple will be able to bring in big-name advertisers who will pony up a lot of money.

One of Apple's main appeals to advertisers, content providers, and gadget shoppers has always been the premium experience it offers. It's been like that for the Mac, the iPhone, the iPod, and more recently, the iPad. Now that the iPhone has some competition, we'll see if developers too will continue to buy into that.

Muglia on Google, Azure, and the future of Windows Server

Although he's presided over the expansion of Microsoft's server business, Bob Muglia is ready to help companies move away from that same server software.

Well, he is at least as long as those businesses are moving to the Microsoft cloud-based services that are replicating the software that, at one point, ran only in a company's own data center.

Muglia

(Credit: Microsoft)

In an interview, the president of Microsoft's server and tools business talked about the shifts to the cloud, Google's role in the enterprise and the future of Microsoft's server products, including the next version of Windows Server, which he said will be a major update.

Here's an edited transcript of our conversation.

You mentioned that Microsoft is pretty much doing everything for the cloud first. Does that mean that over time on-premises customers are actually going to be getting technology that's somewhat older, for better and for worse?
Muglia: Well, I think the way to look at it is that we're able to use the cloud to do a lot more of our early validation than we've ever been able to do before. You know, you see us with labs, you know, Live Labs and things like that, being able to take ideas and put them up in the cloud. More and more what you'll see is the beginning of our beta processes will be run for new things up in the cloud, because our ability to get feedback from customers is so much more rapid if customers don't have to deploy the infrastructure themselves. So, there's a set of things that we can do, which will help to reduce our cycle time, and bringing new features to market.

I mean, in general our products run on two- to three-year cycles, and it very often takes customers at least that long to deploy them. I actually think the cloud will expedite customers' ability to get our software and our innovations, even if they run it themselves, because it will shorten our cycle for delivery, and also I think customers as they see these things available in the cloud will have a better understanding of the advantages they can get if they deploy it themselves. So, I actually don't think it slows down things at all for our customers that choose on-premises.

How much more will the next version of Windows Server resemble Azure?
Muglia: We're not talking a lot about the next version of Windows Server today, but I think what you'll see is... that the learnings that we have from Windows Azure will be pulled back into Windows Server, just like there's features in Windows Server and SQL Server that are being pulled up into Windows Azure and SQL Azure. (Windows Server head) Bill Laing works in (Azure development chief) Amitabh (Srivastava)'s group, and those guys are talking every day. So, there's a lot of cross-pollination.

We hear a lot about this term, private cloud, meaning taking a cloud-like infrastructure and deploying it in one's own data center, taking the idea of a public cloud and having a completely private version of that replicated in someone else's data center. I guess I'm kind of curious what are you hearing the most demand from customers for when they say private cloud.
Muglia: Well, you know, one of the things we've learned is that customers have different views of the term private cloud. And so what we've been talking about is customers' ability to build their own clouds in their own data centers or for partners to be able to build clouds.

But fundamentally we do see a great deal of demand for that, because customers have some very reasonable concerns about their ability to control the environment, and they often have security concerns. So, for many circumstances having a customer build their own cloud is what absolutely makes sense for them, and we're supplying them with the tools and products they need in the form of Windows Server, System Center, and SQL Server to build their own clouds.

Is the current version of Windows Server, is that well enough set up to do the private cloud or do you need something that more closely resembles Azure but can be used on-premises?
Muglia: Well, remember Windows Azure is designed to run at a scale of tens of thousands of servers. Really no customer is running at that kind of scale. So, there's definitely capabilities in Azure that are interesting, but frankly they go beyond what most customers -- really what all customers would need to build their own cloud and their own data center.

Windows Server and Hyper-V are very much structured to be able to build your own private cloud, absolutely. The area where we see probably the greatest set of evolution happening is in System Center, and let me give you some examples. We will evolve System Center to have capabilities like self-service so that departments, business units within an organization can provision their own instances of the cloud to really virtual machines within the cloud to run their own applications.

I know there's not too much you're going to say about the next version of Windows Server, but is it fair to say you guys are still on a major release, minor release cycle? So, that means we should be due for a major release the next time?
Muglia: There's no question we're due for a major release of Windows Server, no question.

Anything more you can say about it in terms of timing or features?
Muglia: No. The only thing I'll say is just like with Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, we worked on a common schedule and a common thing with our friends in the client team, and we're still doing that.

In your keynote you talked about both the responsibilities and the opportunities of the cloud. Certainly there's plenty of vendors out there that are bringing a lot of the capabilities of the cloud. How do you feel that Google and others are doing on the responsibility side of that equation?
Muglia: I think they have some things to learn about being an enterprise player. Google has clearly demonstrated a set of behaviors that have led enterprise customers to have concerns about, for example, will Google keep and maintain the privacy of information, of data that's put inside the Google cloud? I mean, Google has been very, they've been all over the map on that one.

Steve Jobs Kicks off Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2010

Apple kicked off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address by CEO Steve Jobs. This years WWDC sold out in a record eight days to over 5,000 developers.

The five-day event running from June 7 to June 11, is focused on providing advanced content for skilled developers across five key technology tracks: Application Frameworks; Internet & Web; Graphics & Media; Developer Tools; and Core OS. Apple engineers will deliver over 100 solutions-oriented technical sessions and labs. WWDC 2010 gives an incredibly diverse community the opportunity to connect with thousands of fellow iPhone, iPad and Mac developers from around the world.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

Apple sets sales, profit records for non-holiday quarter

It turns out Apple doesn’t need any product launches to help drive record financial results. On Tuesday, the company unveiled its financial results for the fiscal second quarter, setting record totals for revenue and profit for a non-holiday quarter.

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Apple reported sales of $13.5 billion and a profit of $3.07 billion for the three-month period ended March 27. Sales improved 49 percent from the $9.08 billion Apple tallied in the year-ago quarter, while profits rose 90 percent from $1.62 billion a year ago. (Note that the year-ago numbers have been adjusted as Apple has adopted new accounting rules in the way it counts iPhone revenue.)

“The strong momentum we experienced in the holiday quarter continued in the March quarter,” Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer told analysts during a Tuesday conference call to discuss the company’s figures.

The company reported earnings per share of $3.33, up 86 percent from last year’s adjusted total of $1.79. Analysts were expecting Apple to earn $2.45 a share, according to Thomson Reuters.

“We are thrilled with the record March quarter results and the momentum of our business,” Oppenheimer said.

Apple’s strong revenue and profit came during a three-month period in which the company had no major product releases. The company’s high-profile iPad launch happened a week after its fiscal second quarter ended, while last week’s MacBook Pro overhaul was the first change to Apple’s Mac lineup since the company introduced new iMacs, a unibody MacBook, and updated Mac minis last fall.

Nevertheless, Apple executives credited strong Mac sales—the best figures ever for the usually quiet March quarter, in fact—and record iPhone sales for the company’s stellar showing. “Our very strong performance was due primarily to more than doubling in iPhone sales and strong momentum of Mac products,” Oppenheimer said.

Mac “momentum”

Apple sold 2.94 million Macs during the second quarter—a 33 percent increase from the same period last year. This quarter’s higher Mac sales were particularly noteworthy, as sales of Macs had actually dipped in the year-ago quarter.

Sales jumped for both desktops and laptops in 2010. For the quarter, Apple sold a little more than 1.14 million desktops, an increase of 40 percent from last year’s quarter. Laptop sales rose 28 percent to just under 1.8 million units.

Oppenheimer noted that the 33-percent growth in Mac unit sales outpaced the overall growth of the market. Research firm IDC has the personal computer market growing at 24 percent, according to Oppenheimer.

And once again, Apple made the claim that roughly half of Mac sales in Apple’s retail stores go to users who “have never bought a Mac before.”

iPhone sales skyrocket

If Apple executives were pleased with the Mac’s performance during the second quarter, they were downright giddy about how many iPhones the company sold. Apple says it sold 8.75 million iPhones, an improvement of 131 percent over last year. Oppenheimer noted that growth rate was more than three times the growth of the overall smartphone market projected by IDC.

Executives credited the continued expansion of the iPhone for the phone’s strong growth rate. All told, the iPhone is now available from 151 carriers in 88 countries.

Apple signed up new carriers and countries during the quarter, said Oppenheimer, citing the addition of Vodafone as a service provider in the UK and Ireland as one of eight carriers added in key countries around the globe. But the company also saw strong performances from its existing carrier partners, chief operating officer Tim Cook told analysts.

When an analyst asked Cook if Apple would consider making the iPhone available to any carrier in any country rather than continuing exclusive deals with carriers, Cook’s response suggested that Apple was carefully measuring both of those options while not making any dramatic leaps.

“Over the past year, we have moved a number of markets from exclusive to non-exclusive. In each case, unit growth has accelerated and market share has improved,” Cook said. “But that doesn’t mean… that formula works in every single case. That’s our learning so far, that’s the result we’ve seen so far, but we think very carefully about each of these at the country level to conclude what’s in our best interests.”

Cook also cited “staggering” growth rates for the iPhone in market around the world. Asia-Pacific saw a 470-percent growth rate, while units grew 183 percent and 133 percent in Japan and Europe, respectively.

iPod dips, iPod touch grows

The picture wasn’t so robust for the iPod. Apple sold 10.89 million music players during the quarter, a 1 percent dip from the 11.01 million it sold a year ago.

Nevertheless, the higher-end iPod touch continues to be a source of strength for Apple’s music-player business. The company says it sold 63 percent more iPod touches than it did during the same period last year. That helped revenue from the iPod business climb 12 percent to $1.86 million despite the otherwise flat overall unit sales.

Things were decidedly more robust with the iTunes Store, which brought in $1.1 billion in revenue for the quarter. That marked the strongest quarter ever for Apple’s online multimedia and application retail arm, according to Oppenheimer. In February, the company passed the 10 billion download mark for music, while App Store customers have downloaded 4 billion applications for their iPhones and iPod touches. The App Store now boasts more than 185,000 applications, Oppenheimer said, with 3,500 of those optimized to run on the newly shipping iPad.

iPad talk

Because the iPad didn’t hit retail shelves until April 3, it wasn’t included in the second-quarter numbers. However, Apple’s latest mobile device was a constant presence during Tuesday’s earnings announcement. When analysts weren’t asking questions about the iPad, Apple executives were talking about demand for the new product.

“It has shocked us, the level of demand,” Cook told analysts.

Apple says that it sold 500,000 iPads during the first week of the device’s availability. The tablet has proven so popular in the U.S. that Apple pushed back the international launch until the end of May. Earlier Tuesday, Apple announced that 3G-enabled iPads would arrive in the U.S. on April 30.

“We’re obviously thrilled with the sales of the iPad,” Cook told analysts during Tuesday’s conference call. “It’s far exceeded our expectations.”

Other announcements

On the retail front, revenues from Apple’s stores rose 22 percent from the year-ago quarter to $1.68 billion. Apple sold 606,000 Macs through its stores, up 38 percent from last year.

Apple ended the quarter with 286 retail stores, including new ones in the UK and Germany. That’s consistent with Apple’s goal of half its new store openings in 2010 taking place outside the U.S. The company is planning on having 25 stores open in China by the end of 2011.

Apple has $41.7 billion in cash and short- and long-term securities. That compares to $39.8 billion at the end of the December quarter.

The quarter ahead

For the current third quarter, Apple has told analysts to expect sales to range between $13 billion and $13.4 billion. The company expects to earn between $2.28 and $2.39 a share. That compares to consensus analyst estimates of $12.97 billion in sales and earnings of $2.70 a share. In the third quarter of 2009, Apple reported adjusted $9.7 billion and earnings per share of $2.01.

“We are very confident in our new product pipeline and are excited about the months ahead,” Oppenheimer said.

In a tidbit that’s sure to tantalize Apple followers, Oppenheimer’s guidance to analysts also suggest a new product is in the works for the third quarter. Oppenheimer told analysts that gross margin would fall to 36 percent for the quarter, with about 25 percent of that decline coming from the company’s iPad rollout. The rest, Oppenheimer said, would come from a stronger U.S. dollar, the launch of the new MacBook Pros, the beginning of the education buying season and an “unannounced product transition.”

Updated at 1:56 p.m. PT to include Apple’s guidance for the fiscal third quarter.
Updated at 2:58 p.m. PT to include more information from Apple’s analyst call, including Mac sales figures.
Updated at 3:22 p.m. PT to include more details about iPhone and iPod touch figures.
Updated at 3:40 p.m. with more details on Apple’s retail figures and the iPad.

Lenovo tablets, smartbooks delayed for Android

(Credit: Lenovo)

A pair of the most-anticipated mobile computers from this year's CES show were Lenovo's U1 Hybrid and Skylight smartbook. Both ran a custom widget-based Linux OS (sometimes also called Skylight), and were powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU. But since then, both devices seem to have fallen off the map, and now we think we know why. Both systems are getting a software overhaul, jumping to the Android platform in search of better performance and more usability.

We've been hearing for some time that both systems were being tweaked far beyond their original expected Spring 2010 debuts, and more recently, that Google's Android was being considered as a replacement OS. That now appears to be Lenovo's official line, as we've heard, and other news sites are also reporting, that the versions of the Skylight and U1 Hybrid we got our hands on at CES will never see the light of day. Our understanding is that the Skylight will almost definitely be reworked with Android, whereas the future of the U1 Hybrid, with its clever detachable tablet screen, is more up in the air.

The Lenovo U1 Hybrid. (Credit: CNET/Scott Stein)

Back in January, we got to use both devices, and though we liked the hardware and design, the software experience was definitely lacking. The interfaces looked great, but performance was slow and stuttered. A the time we chalked it up to the devices' early prototype status, but apparently Lenovo was never able to get them to work as smoothly as expected. And with the Apple iPad redefining consumer expectations of tablet and app-driven devices, the bar was set even higher.

What this means for the future of the consumer tablet market and the still largely hypothetical smartbook market remains to be seen. We still think both systems have a lot of potential, and if they need Android to complete the picture, we're all for it.

New York native Dan Ackerman, a former radio DJ turned journalist, has written about technology and music for publications including Spin, Blender, The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today. He hosts the weekly Digital City podcast and the New York edition of Editors' Office Hours. Dan's new album, Tales Out of Night School, is available now. E-mail Dan.

Government relaxes visa norms for IT cos

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Indian governmenet relaxes visa norms for IT cos

NEW DELHI: In a major relief to over $60-billion IT industry, the Manmohan Singh government has relaxed employment visa norms for the sector allowing companies to hire foreign nationals as per their requirements. This effectively removes the ceiling of 20 such employees per company.

The ministry of external affairs has circulated new guidelines to all missions abroad informing them of the relaxation in procedures for IT and ITeS companies.

“It (the relaxation in norms) addresses concerns of the country’s IT and ITeS industry related to the employment visas,” said Raju Bhatnagar , vice president (BPO and government relations), Nasscom.

Technology companies that sponsor foreigners to work here will need to give a declaration that the skilled worker has been hired for and IT or ITeS company or to work in a Software Park of India or and special economic zone dedicated to information technology or an IT unit in a multi-product zone.

On the other hand, the foreign worker being sponsored will have to give a declaration to the effect that his annual salary is in excess of $25,000 per annum. The salary cap is being introduced to ensure only highly skilled workforce comes into the country, a government official said.

Last year, the labour ministry had, in consultation with the home ministry, introduced a number of changes in the visa rules after it found that there were thousands of Chinese workers, including low-skilled ones like cooks and masons, employed in power and steel projects being executed by Chinese contractors.

Do Facebook's new privacy settings let it off the hook?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes the stage Wednesday morning at a high-profile press conference he called to talk about privacy controls.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

There was a distinct tension in Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's rhetoric as he unveiled major changes to the massive social network's much-maligned member privacy controls in a press conference on Wednesday.
On one hand, he said that the demand was there from concerned members and lawmakers to do something about confusing privacy settings and changes to how members' data is used in the wake of its F8 developer conference. On the other, he repeatedly insisted that the social network's nearly 500 million users do, in fact, want to share information rather than keep things as private as possible.
Facebook's new privacy controls, which will be rolling out "over the next few days or weeks" according to Zuckerberg, may very well quell some of the fears that members have had about how the company handles the vast amount of personal data stored on its servers. A post on the Facebook blog details them in full: As expected, the centerpiece of the changes is a single page for setting Facebook information visible to just friends, friends of friends, or the Web at large.
Crucial to this is Facebook's acknowledgment that on a member's profile, not all information is equal with regard to sensitivity. "When we went through our December privacy transitions, we asked everyone to make all their information open to everyone," Zuckerberg said, referring to the last round of changes to its privacy policies late last year.
"There are really big buckets of information that should be available to each field (on the new privacy settings page)." For example, he said that personal contact information is something that members will probably want to restrict to their friends. Photographs would presumably be shared with friends of friends. Twitter-like status updates about eating cheeseburgers, meanwhile, could go out to the Web at large.

A screenshot of Facebook's new privacy controls page.

(Credit: Facebook)

By the numbers, a lot has been done. Previously, there were 50 settings that members would have to tweak in order to make all information private; now, it's more like 15. The number of Facebook "privacy center" pages has dropped from 13 to eight. There's even a way to opt out of all Facebook Platform third-party activities entirely (though, it should be said, not advertisers). It's unlikely that many members will do this, considering the fact that it would block so many of the services that have kept Facebook members addicted to the site (like the popular game Farmville) as well as Facebook-powered log-ins on third-party Web services. But it's a sign that the pressure really was mounting, and Facebook knew it had to do something.
But the announcement was nevertheless tinged with a hint of, "Are you sure?" Zuckerberg dropped all sorts of factoids that pointed to members' desire to share more information rather than be closed off; he claimed that members are more likely to be fearful of the persistent false rumor that Facebook will start charging for subscriptions than of privacy issues, and that a drop in its algorithm-calculated word-of-mouth reputation following F8 was actually due to a change in the News Feed that displayed fewer updates from Facebook's wildly popular games.

"We are really going to try to not have another backlash."

--Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Whether members do, in fact, want to be more public than private, there are a few issues that still may plague Facebook once the privacy changes have gone live. The first is that much of the hullabaloo surrounding Facebook's recent changes wasn't necessarily the changes themselves, but how easily and willfully the company could make a major turnaround in user experience. Some members still may not trust the company out of a concern that this could happen again all too easily. True, Zuckerberg assured in the press conference that "we are really going to try to not have another backlash" and that "this is the end of the overhaul that we're doing." But this may not thoroughly convince concerned users.

Second, though some privacy groups have already released statements to express their approval ("Facebook is finally friending privacy again," the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California cheerfully asserted in a press release, and the Progress and Freedom Foundation called the new tools "powerful" and said "Facebook has employed a potent weapon to deal with marketplace apprehensions: self-regulation"), there has not yet been word on whether D.C. lawmakers, like a coalition of concerned senators or the Federal Trade Commission, will agree with them. Some critics have said that rather than being opt-out, sharing data with third parties on Facebook should be opt-in in the first place. Considering how much this would undermine the power of Facebook's developer platform, it's unsurprising that Facebook doesn't want to do this.Third, Facebook has officially been thrown onto a big international stage with regard to privacy and security, and anything it does in the future that puts its integrity or safety in question will become a major story whether its privacy controls are a success or not. It was far more of a story than it would have been a year ago when Facebook investor Jim Breyer's account was compromised by a hacker, or when user data was sent to advertisers in what Facebook says was an accidental leak. What would have been a niche security-news story, particularly if Facebook patched the problem quickly, is now of global interest.
"I started Facebook when I was 19 and it's amazing to look back at how it has evolved," Zuckerberg, who recently turned 26, wrote on the company blog. "There have been a lot of changes over the years as we've continued to innovate, and I appreciate that you have all stuck with us. Each time we make a change we try to learn from past lessons, and each time we make new mistakes too. We are far from perfect, but we always try our hardest to build the best service for you and for the world."
At the very least, he seems to be well aware of the fact that he sure isn't in college anymore.

Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. 

New clue to anti-matter mystery

A US-based physics experiment has found a clue as to why the world around us is composed of normal matter and not its shadowy opposite: anti-matter.

Anti-matter is rare today; it can be produced in "atom smashers", in nuclear reactions or by cosmic rays.

But physicists think the Big Bang should have produced equal amounts of matter and its opposite.

New results from the DZero exeriment at Fermilab in Illinois provide a clue to what happened to all the anti-matter.

Continue reading the main story

Many of us felt goose bumps when we saw the result

Stefan Soldner-Rembold DZero co-spokesperson

This is regarded by many researchers as one of the biggest mysteries in cosmology.

The data even offer hints of new physics beyond what can be explained by current theories.

For each basic particle of matter, there exists an anti-particle with the same mass but the opposite electric charge.

For example, the negatively charged electron has a positively charged anti-particle called the positron.

But when a particle and its anti-particle collide, they are "annihilated" in a flash of energy, yielding new particles and anti-particles.

Similar processes occurring at the beginning of the Universe should have left us with equal amounts of matter and anti-matter.

Yet, paradoxically, today we live in a Universe made up overwhelmingly of matter.

Unexplained result

Researchers working on the DZero experiment observed collisions of protons and anti-protons in Fermilab's Tevatron particle accelerator.

They found that these collisions produced pairs of matter particles slightly more often than they yielded anti-matter particles.

The results show a 1% difference in the production of pairs of muon (matter) particles and pairs of anti-muons (anti-matter particles) in these high-energy collisions.

"Many of us felt goose bumps when we saw the result," said Stefan Soldner-Rembold, one of the spokespeople for DZero.

"We knew we were seeing something beyond what we have seen before and beyond what current theories can explain."

The dominance of matter in the Universe is possible only if there are differences in the behaviour of particles and anti-particles. 

Physicists had already seen such differences - known as called "CP violation". But these known differences are much too small to explain why the Universe appears to prefer matter over anti-matter.
Indeed, these previous observations were fully consistent with the current theory, known as the Standard Model. This is the framework drawn up in the 1970s to explain the interactions of sub-atomic particles.
Researchers say the new findings, submitted for publication in the journal Physical Review D, show much more significant "asymmetry" of matter and anti-matter - beyond what can be explained by the Standard Model.
If the results are confirmed by other experiments, such as the Collider Detector (CDF) at Fermilab, the effect seen by the DZero team could move researchers along in their efforts to understand the dominance of matter in today's Universe.
The discovery presages results expected from another experiment, called LHCb, which is based at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva.
LHCb was specifically designed to shed light on this central question in particle physics.
Commenting on the latest findings, Dr Tara Shears, a particle physicist at the University of Liverpool who works on LHCb and CDF, said: "It's not yet at the stage of a discovery or an explanation, but it is a very tantalising hint of what might be."
Dr Shears, who is not a member of the DZero team, added: "It certainly means that LHCb will be eager to look for the same effect, to confirm whether it exists and if it does, to make a more precise measurement."

Yahoo acquires Associated Content to bolster local news

Yahoo has bought a user-generated news site, Associated Content, in a bid to better connect with its users.
The web giant hopes the deal will create "avenues for advertisers to engage with consumers".
Associated Content has more than 380,000 contributors who receive a market-determined fee for stories they write.
The deal means Yahoo may be able to bolster its traditional news content with independently produced material.
Crowd sourced news Luke Beatty, Associated Content founder, said: "Combining our crowd sourced content with Yahoo's distribution, world class editorial team and online marketing leadership will accelerate our growth".
The site, which calls itself "The people's media company", says it offers content on more than 60,000 topics, ranging from product reviews, through how-to advice, to very local news.
It has proved to be a popular destination for web surfers, with more than 16 million unique users per month, according to comScore.
Associated Content is one of a range of upstarts, such as rival Demand Media, which pay a share of revenue to contributors who produce content for which there is demand on the web.
Yahoo hopes the deal will help bring its advertisers together with relevant local news and information from Associated Content.
The portal has struggled in the last few years, losing advertising revenue to rivals including Facebook and Google.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but media reports indicate the price tag for Associated Content was around $100m (£70m).

Spanish judge who indicted bin Laden suspended

The Spanish judge who became an international hero by going after Augusto Pinochet and Osama bin Laden was suspended Friday for allegedly abusing his authority by investigating what is arguably Spain's own biggest unresolved case: atrocities committed during and after its ruinous Civil War.

The punishment could effectively end Judge Baltasar Garzon's career.

The unanimous decision by a judicial oversight board, the General Council of the Judiciary, was made during an emergency meeting about Garzon, said its spokeswoman, Gabriela Bravo.

Supporters chanted, cheered and clapped later as Garzon emerged from the nearby National Court, where he works. He hugged co-workers and appeared to be holding back tears before getting into a bulletproof limousine and riding away.

Garzon, 54, famous worldwide for his cross-border justice cases, has been removed from his post pending his trial on charges of knowingly going beyond the limits of his jurisdiction in 2008 by investigating the execution or disappearance of more than 100,000 civilians at the hands of supporters of Gen. Francisco Franco during the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War or in the early years of the Franco dictatorship.

Until Garzon acted, there had been no official probe of such atrocities, which were covered by an amnesty granted by Spain's Parliament in 1977, two years after Franco died, as the country moved toward reconciliation.

Spain's current Socialist government, which has generally been supportive of Garzon, said it respected the judiciary watchdog's decision but insisted he is innocent until proven guilty. "The process is not over," Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said.

Some say Garzon's legal woes also have resulted from anger about the way he operated. Fellow judges accustomed to discretion in the judiciary system appeared to be fed up with his aggressive, headline-grabbing style and his status akin to that of a rock star among his most fervent fans, many of them living overseas in areas such as Latin America.

Garzon's critics also said he had a spotty record in winning convictions in high-profile cases and sometimes cut procedural corners.

The judge is under investigation in two other cases as well: one involving money that a Spanish bank paid to sponsor human rights seminars he gave while on sabbatical in New York a few years ago, and another in connection with jailhouse wiretaps he ordered as part of a probe targeting the conservative opposition Popular Party.

The panel that suspended him Friday is made up of political appointees and deeply divided along party lines.

Garzon was indicted last month by the Supreme Court in the civil war case, and this week the court threw out a final appeal that could have spared him from going on trial soon. The judicial oversight body then had no choice but to suspend Garzon.

Even though the decision was widely expected, many in Spain are treating it as marking the end of Garzon's career, regardless of what the verdict in the trial might be. Garzon's lawyer, Gonzalo Martinez-Fresneda, said as much a few weeks ago.

Earlier this week, Garzon requested a leave of absence from his post at the National Court to accept a job offer at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. This was seen as an effort to shield himself from suspension.

A subcommittee of the judiciary board met Friday evening to see if the suspended Garzon can be allowed to take up that job without resigning from his post in Madrid but it postponed a decision.

As the group deliberated, some 500 people gathered outside the National Court to protest the suspension, blocking traffic and chanting slogans against fascism and in support of the judge and justice for the victims of the Franco repression.

Garzon shot to fame after having Pinochet arrested while the aging former despot was visiting London in 1998, and trying in vain to have him extradited to Spain for trial over torture and other abuses committed during his dictatorship in Chile. With that he was credited with ushering in a new era in international law.

Garzon also indicted bin Laden in 2003, and Spanish colleagues took on cases involving abuses in such faraway places as Tibet and Rwanda.

As a result, Garzon's name became synonymous with the concept of universal jurisdiction -- the idea that some crimes are so heinous they can be prosecuted anywhere. But extraditions have been rare, and there has only been one conviction, that of an Argentine "dirty war" suspect in 2005.

And after receiving complaints from countries targeted in such Spanish probes, such as Israel, Spain changed its law last year so that these cases now require a clear link to Spain, such as Spanish victims.

On Friday, human rights groups lamented how Garzon is being treated.

"Judge Garzon's suspension will be mourned by human rights activists around the world. Garzon helped to deliver justice for atrocity victims abroad, and now he's being punished for trying to do the same thing at home," said Reed Brody, legal counsel for Human Rights Watch.

Garzon has denied any wrongdoing in the civil war case and said his probe was legitimate. He said Franco-era crimes amounted to crimes against humanity.

If convicted in the civil war court case, Garzon would not face jail time, but he could be removed from the National Court for up to 20 years.

Garzon did not speak publicly Friday. But the day before, at a Latin American human rights conference, the clearly crestfallen judge said: "One does not face complex decisions with optimism but rather with calm, with that calm that comes with knowing I am innocent."

"As a man who respects the law, all that is left for me is to take on tomorrow's decision by exercising my defense," he said.

Microsoft releases Office 2010 productivity suite to businesses

Microsoft Corp, the Redmond based software giant has introduced its Office 2010 suite for businesses, however, retail buyers have to wait until 15 June.

At present, the company has released two editions of Office 2010, called as Standard and Professional Plus, which would be available only to organisations with a volume licensing agreement.

It is reported that these editions are already available to the firms with a Software Assurance (SA) agreement since 27 April. Firms without SA can now buy through Microsoft resellers.

Unlike Microsoft Office 2007, the new suite is available only in three editions viz. Office Home and Student, Office Home and Business and Office Professional.

According to Microsoft, Office Home and Student will be available for £109.99 strictly for non-commercial use, while Office Home and Business, costs £239.99, feasible for small businesses. For businesses, the company has released Office Professional edition, which includes all the apps and technical support for £429.99.

Analysts predict that the new suite will help Microsoft to compete with Google in the online apps market.

Google admitted wrongly collected data over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks

Google has admitted that from the past three years it has wrongly collected information of the people, which have sent over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks. This issue came into limelight when German authorities asked to audit the data and they took photos viewed on Google maps.
Viewing these data, it was found out that Google has been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open networks. The admission will increase concerns about potential privacy breaches. It came into news that as soon as this problem came into the eyes of the Google they start collecting Wi-Fi information and segregated the data on its network.

Google has now been asking a third party to review their software which caused the problem and examine them precisely and what data had been gathered. Google in recent past has been failed to maintain people trust on them. It also signifies that how unprotected Wi-Fi networks are present today.

Himanshu Sethi / ITvoir Network.

Wipro and Jainam Win Symantec 2010 APJ Partner Awards

 

Two Indian channel partners including Wipro and Jainam Technologies are the recipients of Symantec Corporations 2010 Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) Partner Awards. This announcement was made at the inaugural Symantec Partner Engage 2010 Conference in Sanya, China.Wipro received the Symantec APJ Partner Innovation Award and Jainam Technologies was declared the APJ Security Partner of the Year. Wipro won the award for successfully demonstrating the value proposition of the Symantec storage portfolio to enterprises across large and mid-market segments.

Jainam Technologies was recognized for achieving a high number of Symantec security accreditations and displaying a consistent performance across the complete Symantec security portfolio.Symantec is focused on helping our partners in India maximize their sales opportunities and accelerate their profitability. Both, Wipro and Jainam have displayed commitment towards meeting customer needs by becoming their trusted advisors. We hope that this recognition continues to nurture excellence. They have performed consistently during tough economic conditions, by adding value to the customers, said Vineet Sood, head channels and alliances for India, Symantec.

The Symantec Partner Awards have been established to recognize channel partners that have demonstrated innovative delivery of services and solutions to customers during the past year and acknowledge their dedication and commitment to selling Symantecs security, availability and systems management solutions.

The criteria of selection is based on overall performance in revenue, deal registration, technical and marketing investments, customer service excellence and certification.

\"As an end-to-end IT service provider, Wipro aims to provide customers with the highest level of service, delivery and expertise across technologies and platforms. This recognition by Symantec acknowledges our efforts as experts in Symantec solutions and services. We look forward to our association growing stronger in the years to come,\" said Vice President, Infrastructure Technology Solutions, Wipro Infotech, Vikas Srivastava.

Symantec is a global leader in security solutions and to receive a regional recognition in this domain is a matter of honor for the Jainam team. We value Symantecs investment in training and tools for the channel and look forward to continued mutual success through this year, said Mehul Doshi, chief consultant and CEO, Jainam Technologies.