Iran Goes to War ... With Google

A war is brewing between Iran and Google, culminating in the complete shutdown of the Internet behemoth's Gmail service -- and the country's announcement of plans to create a first-of-its-kind national e-mail service, a local journalist says.

A war is brewing between Iran and Google, culminating in the complete shutdown of the Internet behemoth's Gmail service -- and the country's announcement of plans to create a first-of-its-kind national e-mail service, a local journalist says.

The Gmail shutdown -- and a clampdown on Internet access overall -- comes amid widespread demonstrations against the Iranian government surrounding Thursday's 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Iran blocked access to the Internet in December ahead of protests on National Students Day, as well.

A local journalist, whose identity is being withheld for his protection, told FoxNews.com that the Iranian government has been angrily eyeing Google for the eight months, since the company's June 18 launch of Google Farsi -- a site that translates Web pages from English into Persian, making the entire Internet available to Iranians.  read more....

IBM announces massive NAS array for the cloud

IBM announced an enterprise -class network attached storage (NAS) array today that is capable of scaling to 14 petabytes under a single name space.           

The array, called SONAS (Scale Out Network Attached Storage), is targeted at mid- and large-size enterprises. The rack-sized array is built in part on hardware and software developed for IBM's supercomputing systems.

IBM said the system can offer enterprises access to billions of files in support of cloud computing architectures. "IBM SONAS addresses one of the key promises of Cloud computing, which is to provide access to information anywhere at any time," the company said in a statement.

"SONAS will allow an organization to snap-in resources seamlessly as information requirements increase, but it also provides the capability to scan up to a billion files of data in a matter a matter of minutes," the company said.

Terri McClure, an analyst with market research firm Enterprise Strategy Group, said there has been continued interest in commodity-based scale-out platforms in the data center that is driven by the long-term aftershocks of  more........

Microsoft gives a glimpse of Windows 8

The Google-cached version of a January 31 blog on MSDN, entitled, "What's in store for the next Windows?" provided a limited glimpse of what to expect. The OS also was referred to as Windows.next.

[ InfoWorld columnist Randall C. Kennedy offered up predictions on Windows 8 last year. ]

"The minimum that folks can take for granted is that the next version will be something completely different from what folks usually expect of Windows -- I am simply impressed with the process that Steven [Sinofsky, president of the Microsoft Windows and Windows Live Division] has set up to listen to our customers needs and wants and get a team together than can make it happen," the post, from a member of the Windows update team, said.  more.......

Microsoft Bing Grabs Search Share from Google, Yahoo

Microsoft in January nabbed 11.3 percent of the searches in the United States, grabbing market share from market leader Google and sinking search rival Yahoo. comScore claimed Google notched 65.4 percent of U.S. searches, down from 65.7 percent through December 2009. Yahoo claimed an even 17 percent of the market, down from its 17.3 percent share from December. Each month that Yahoo slides in search places greater importance on the company's deal to let Bing power its search results on the back end. In this arrangement, Microsoft will take ownership of Yahoo's search and boost Bing's search share to 28 percent of the market.

Microsoft recorded 11.3 percent of the searches in the United States for January, grabbing market share from market leader Google and sinking search rival Yahoo, according to comScore.

Google notched 65.4 percent of U.S. searches, down from an all-time high of 65.7 percent through December 2009, the researcher found. No. 2 search provider Yahoo claimed an even 17 percent of the market, down from its 17.3 percent share from December.

Taking the broader view, Microsoft gained 330 basis points of search since it launched Bing in June, an "impressive accomplishment," according to BroadPoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter.   

"Overall, the trends continue to be very strong for Bing, and remain very bad for Yahoo," Schachter wrote in a Feb. 9 research note. "Investors hoping that tonight's data would show stabilization for Yahoo will be disappointed...Unfortunately for Yahoo, we still do not see a bottom for its potential share loss."

January marked the twelfth consecutive month of share loss for the struggling search engine, which commanded 17.5 percent in November 2009, 18 percent in October and as much as 20.4 percent in November 2008.

Schachter added that while the impact to Yahoo's net revenue and earnings per share may be mitigated by the idea that the declines are coming from less profitable distribution queries, the downslide will continue to impinge the perception of the company.  more..........

Facebook Must Tell Google to Buzz-Off (Or Else)

To protect itself from Google, Facebook content must never appear in any form as part of any Google product. Not ever, and Facebook should make the announcement today. (You can see our visual tour of Google Buzz here).

Here's why: If Google Buzz is ever connected to Facebook, it will be the beginning of the end for today's #1 social network.

As a Facebook user, the last thing I need in my life is another social networking service. I have lots of friends--business and personal--on Facebook. It plays an important role in my home and work life. What I don't need is for my friends to start dividing themselves into Facebook users and Buzz users.

I want all my friends on just one service.

Just as Google, Amazon, and eBay have become dominant in their markets, almost to the exclusion of all competitors, Facebook has become America's social network. We do not need another one and Google will someday regret trying.

Google is simply too late to the game and given its failed history in social networks--Orkut, anyone?--there is little reason to predict success beyond the power of Google's name.

For Buzz to succeed, it needs Facebook content. By denying it, Facebook can help secure its future and help wall off Google.

Given Google's modus operandi, Buzz will manage to somehow strip revenue from any social network that it allows it to connect. Eventually there will be just Google. Don't believe me? Sit back and watch.  more.....

Avatar sequel, DVD release ignite Rupert Murdoch's cash-flow dreams

VANCOUVER — While Aussie-American magnate Rupert Murdoch bemoans how the Internet allows surfers to plunder his newspapers' content for free, he's absolutely giddy about the stunning success of James Cameron's Avatar.

The News Corp. chairman owns Fox, the prime force behind the movie, which has the biggest gross (unadjusted) of all time, at more than $2 billion US. When adjusted for inflation, Avatar falls far behind the box office champ, Gone With The Wind.

Still, it's good news for Murdoch, who's made no secret he's smarting over technological challenges to his print properties, which include the Wall Street Journal and the Times of London.

And the press baron says he's looking forward to future Avatar revenue streams through a DVD release.

"We certainly plan to release the DVD as soon as possible," he told analysts during a conference call. "But it is continuing, for a great period it seems, in the cinemas."  more..........

Shuttle Blasts Off for Space Station

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The space shuttle Endeavour thundered into orbit before dawn Monday morning, briefly turning darkness into daylight.

It was the second effort to get the Endeavour off the ground, 24 hours after clouds over the launching pad scrubbed Sunday’s attempt.

Clouds again encroached, but there were enough holes to allow the Endeavour to lift off on schedule at 4:14 a.m., a bright streak rising to the northeast along the East Coast. It was the 130th launching of a shuttle and probably the final night launching as the program winds down and ends after four more flights.

“What a beautiful launch we had this morning,” William H. Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, said in a news conference.

The Endeavour is carrying the last major piece of the International Space Station. Two of the shuttle’s crew members, Nicholas J. M. Patrick and Lt. Col. Robert L. Behnken of the Air Force, will conduct three spacewalks to install a 23-foot-long, 15-foot-wide Tranquility module.

The module includes a seven-windowed dome, or cupola, that will offer panoramic views of Earth and space. The viewing area, large enough for two astronauts, will be used to control the station’s 60-foot-long robotic arm and to observe other activities outside the station.  more.....

IBM's 100GHz Transisitor !!!!

IBM might have fallen from the spotlight of  the computer world, but it remains an integral figure in its innovation.  And to prove this, behold: IBM has announced it successfully developed a graphene transistor that is clocked at an insanely fast 100 GHz.  Needless to say, this is the fastest transistor ever made and silicon might just have lost its spot as the number one semiconductor.

     The best silicon transistors have only managed to make to 40 GHz, and it is becoming exceedingly difficult to continue down the current path without some sort of breakthrough.  It looks like graphene will be IBM’s answer to this dilemma and with good cause. Not only is it much faster, but IBM used the same silicon fabrication techniques in order to make it.  This removes a major hurdle to transitioning to graphene.

Still, this is only the early stages of the process. As with all technological breakthroughs, it will be some time before it trickles its way down to personal computing. Nevertheless, it has been a good week for technological breakthroughs.

Amazon rethinking Kindle in the wake of Apple iPad

Amazon is being forced to rethink many of the design decisions of its Kindle e-book reader after the introduction of Apple's iPad.

The New York Times reported that Amazon assimilated multitouch screen maker Touchco into its Kindle engineering team last week; since then, it reports the Kindle group has posted over 50 job openings for positions related to hardware design.

Among the job postings is a Hardware Display Manager position, which asks that applicants "know the LCD business and key players in the market." Up to this point, Amazon has touted the Kindle's quirky e-ink screen as a major feature, promoting its readability and power savings that enable the device to coast for days without charging it.

If the next Kindle moves to conventional LCD screen technology, it will enable Amazon to keep up with the iPad in terms of displaying color, animation, and video. An LCD would also be required to support a touch interface, as e-ink isn't responsive enough to respond to touch gestures; the display lags even with the existing button controls.   more....

US publishers smile again as Kindle rivals emerge

NEW YORK — US book publishers are smiling again, after years of watching digital versions of their titles sell for below what they thought they were worth.

Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. stable includes publisher Harper-Collins, could hardly contain his glee during an earnings call last week."Without content, the ever larger and flatter screens, the tablets, the e-readers and the increasingly sophisticated mobile phones would be lifeless," Murdoch said. "Without content these ingenious and wonderful devices would be unloved and unsold."
One new arrival in particular has Murdoch and other publishers excited -- Apple's iPad tablet computer, which doubles as a full-color e-reader of books, newspapers and magazines.

"We're at a happy point, not just with Apple, but with Barnes & Noble and the 'Nook,' the 23 devices that have been launched, and Google Books seems to be just around the corner," a source in the publishing industry said.

"Now we have that many more distribution outlets coming," said the source, who requested anonymity out of fear of antagonizing Amazon, which may be facing competition but remains the undisputed e-book leader.  more