Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
OT: Your not moving again are you? Charles Lindbergh has nothing on you.
Pickle
OT: EU approves Nokia/Siemens merger
Merger will not significantly harm competition, commissioners find
Iain Thomson, vnunet.com 15 Nov 2006
Nokia and Siemens have been given the go-ahead to merge their networking divisions, making the combined group one of the largest communications providers in the world.
The deal, announced in July, will merge Nokia's networks business group and Siemens' carrier operations into a new company called Nokia Siemens Networks.
The new entity will have a Nokia chairman and a Siemens chief financial officer, and ownership will be split equally between the two partners.
"The European Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it," the EU's executive body said in a statement.
"The main competitive impact of the proposed transaction would be in the mobile network equipment sector, since Nokia has few activities in fixed-line telecoms."
Nokia Siemens Networks will handle one in five of all European calls. The deal will make the new venture the second biggest mobile equipment player and third in fixed infrastructure sales behind Ericsson and Alcatel.
"We believe this decision by the European Commission is a key milestone in obtaining all the relevant approvals for the transaction," said Simon Beresford-Wylie, the merged company's new chief executive.
"While there are notifications still pending in some countries, based on this decision we are optimistic that the merger can be closed within the timetable anticipated by both parties."
Thanks, Ispro. This seems like an ideal topic for this board, but, oh well.
Pickle
Cisco, Microsoft effort called a small step for NAC
Interoperability gains by Cisco and Microsoft could be only small steps forward, because they center on consolidation around agent protocols, not around the frameworks themselves
http:/www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;666370504;fp;4194304;fpid;1
John Fontana (Network World (US online)) 13/09/2006 09:02:04
Last week's long-awaited first pass at a display of interoperability between network access control components from Cisco and Microsoft only underscores the complexity of the task that remains and the need to involve more vendors, experts say.
The good news, they add, is that the cooperation building between these industry giants should benefit most those organizations that have built their infrastructures around Microsoft and Cisco products.
"The interoperability is important based on who the players are, but it is hard to get excited about two vendors patching together their proprietary hardware and software," says Andrew Braunberg, senior analyst for information security at Current Analysis. "We are no closer to open standards for network access control."
Openness is being pushed by the Trusted Network Connect (TNC) group, which is working on a set of open NAC specifications within the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) industry association, and by the IETF's Network Endpoint Assessment (NEA) working group. Microsoft is a member of both groups and says it plans to focus more on those efforts after completing its initial work with Cisco. Cisco is not a member of TCG, but does work within the NEA.
At IDG's Security Standard conference last week, the companies put on a demonstration involving integrating Cisco's Network Admission Control (C-NAC) and Microsoft's Network Access Protection (NAP) frameworks. They also released a white paper and announced plans for a private beta later this year.
"They have some form of interoperability, but you still end up with a proprietary architecture that is tied down to their business interests," says Steve Hanna, co-chair of the TNC group, which in May released the final specifications for building an open standards-based NAC system. Hanna says the goals are adoption, greater functionality and compatibility, and compliance testing.
Observers say interoperability gains by Cisco and Microsoft are only small steps forward, because they center on consolidation around agent protocols used to provide data on the health of network endpoints, not around the frameworks themselves.
In fact, the two vendors specifically pointed out that customers would have to deploy the Cisco Secure Access Control Server (ACS) and the Microsoft Network Policy Server (NPS) for the initial interoperability release.
"It's always 'add all these things together and it will be interoperable,' which is really just them saying 'you must install two separate policy servers to do the job that one was able to handle previously,'" says Joel Snyder, a senior partner with consulting firm Opus One and a member of the Network World Lab Alliance. "It just complicates things at a time when they could have gotten simpler," he adds.
Snyder says one good outcome may be simplicity on the client side, with Microsoft taking responsibility for the client-side agent and APIs.
The two vendors say a single agent, which will ship with the Vista client operating system and Longhorn Server, will operate across the Cisco and Microsoft platforms and be used by third parties to tie their systems into the architecture. Cisco will continue to develop its Trust Agent to support non-Microsoft platforms, and Microsoft will make available APIs so third-parties can develop cross-platform agents.
"We still think this admission control is in its early days," says Mark Ashida, general manager of Windows Networking at Microsoft. He says Microsoft plans to offer licensing on all the protocols in the NAP architecture. "We are working on a licensing program to recreate the NAP implementation."
Ashida bristles at the notion that Microsoft's NAP is a closed architecture, citing standard protocols that it takes advantage of such as RADIUS.
"I feel strongly that among the many things I have seen at Microsoft, this is about the most open," he says. "And through licensing we want to make it more open, but it is not open source."
Cisco officials concur that the Microsoft relationship is a work in progress, but say the fact they have licensed each other's protocols will provide flexibility in meeting customer demands down the road.
"This means if customers come to Cisco and say, we want your RADIUS server to support these NAP features, then we can build that in," says Bob Gleichauf, vice president for the security technology group at Cisco. He says future development will head towards policy. "You are going to see a lot of companies innovating around policy controls, and over time you will see a richness of development in that area."
While that may be the future, observers say what customers have now from Cisco and Microsoft is white-paper-thin until Microsoft ships Vista and Longhorn.
"We are at a point where we have some interesting ideas on paper," says Rob Ayoub, industry analyst for network security with Frost & Sullivan. "We are still a long way from productizing all this."
And he says those products will complicate the picture further, because NAC contains a lot of pieces that network administrators have never seen before. "If you are completely a Cisco and Microsoft shop, this might work OK, but if you have other pieces, that is where the real challenges will come in."
Separately and within their own architectures, however, Cisco, Microsoft and the TNC group are making progress in solidifying their NAC platforms.
Next week, Interop Labs will hold the second of its two NAC tests on the three architectures at the fall Interop conference in New York. In May's first round of testing, all three platforms showed interoperability with third-party products designed specifically for their architectures.
For the next round, Cisco is coming in with a partner community of nearly 100 and nearly 1,000 customer deployments, and Microsoft is bringing solid partner support despite delays in Vista and Longhorn. TNC for its part has realized strong vendor uptake across its range of NAC specifications.
Rememebr SKS has been downplaying revenues over the past month or so in his presentations. This is still the very beginning. Any large dips and I am adding.
Pickle
OT: Nokia Signs Contract with U.S. Army and Department of Energy
By Anuradha Shukla
TMCnet Contributing Editor
E-mail this page to a friend Order reprints online Print this page Trackback - Pingback Bookmark this page Free magazines Free newsletters RSS-XML alerts
Nokia (News - Alert) will expand Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL) GSM/EDGE network to support its efforts to evaluate commercial wireless technology for government applications.
The agreement marks the expansion of Nokia’s existing relationship with INL as it’s primary networks vendor. In addition to GSM radio equipment and services, including theMSC Server System, Nokia will also provide an extensive range of installation, training and care services, including Spare Parts Management services.
The deliveries will take place in the second half of 2006, and the system will be installed at the Laboratory’s Critical Infrastructure Test Range facility in Idaho.
Lynda Brighton, projects lead at the Idaho National Laboratory expects Nokia’s GSM/EDGE network to give a high-quality and dependable platform to test commercial wireless technology so that they can effectively support federal projects.
“Nokia has made significant inroads within the government sector with its portfolios of radio and core network equipment and services,” said Bob Fennelly, director of Government Systems, Networks, Nokia in a press release.
He continued: “This expansion of our work with the INL demonstrates Nokia’s ability to successfully provide its high-quality technologies for government applications, and we look forward to continued collaboration with the facility.”
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory is a science-based, applied engineering national laboratory dedicated to developing technologies and solutions in nuclear energy, national and homeland security, and science and technology.
Nokia has also announced a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the U.S. Army to evaluate Nokia technology in the areas of PCS, WCDMA3G ,GSM, WiMAX and advanced wireless networking protocols for potential military and defense applications.
Bob Fennelly, director of Government systems, Networks, Nokia said the agreement will increase Nokia’s capabilities to provide its advanced technologies to large U.S. government communication projects.
The five year project beginning in the fourth quarter of 2006 consists of a series of tests, demonstrations, experiments and exploratory exchange efforts. The devices and systems to be to be evaluated in the project will enable the deployed forces to access high- capacity throughput to support Command, Control, communications, and Intelligence information flow.
OT: Barge, come and get it! Xbox 360 Teams With CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting, UFC and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment to Digitally Deliver TV Shows and Movies to Gamers
Monday November 6, 9:28 pm ET
Xbox 360 will become first gaming console to offer downloads of over 1,000 hours of TV shows such as 'CSI,' 'Robot Chicken' and 'South Park,' and movies such as 'V for Vendetta' and 'Nacho Libre.'
REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced agreements with CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. (TBS Inc.), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment to bring an initial lineup of over 1,000 hours of hit TV shows and movies to Xbox 360(TM) gamers in the U.S. by the end of the year. Furthermore, Xbox 360 will be the first gaming console to bring standard and high-definition TV shows and movies via digital distribution over the Internet directly to the consumer.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO )
Beginning Nov. 22, on its first anniversary, Xbox 360 will be the first gaming console in history to provide high-definition TV shows and movies directly to gamers in their living rooms. Xbox 360 gamers will have access to the full-length TV shows as downloads to own and movies to rent via download from the Xbox Live® network, the worldwide leader in online distribution of high-definition gaming and entertainment content. This announcement also brings with it several additional "firsts":
* For the first time, consumers will get an integrated gaming and
entertainment experience on a gaming console that includes downloadable
high-definition TV shows and movies. This new full-length content adds
to the ever-expanding number of choices gamers have on their Xbox 360,
whether they want to play games or play a movie on a disc or as a
download in high definition or standard definition.
* For the first time CBS will deliver high-definition download-to-own TV
shows including "CSI," "Jericho," "Numb3rs" and remastered "Star Trek"
episodes; gamers can buy them and watch them repeatedly.
* For the first time on any platform, NASCAR.COM will deliver download-
to-own condensed versions of select NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races from
"Race Rewind."
* For the first time, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will make 50 of
its most intense fights available for download as well as select
episodes from the original season of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality
series.
"This groundbreaking announcement is a win for everyone," said Peter Moore, corporate vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. "It connects our partners with one of the most coveted audiences in entertainment today, and provides even greater value to our Xbox Live community, allowing them to enjoy the games and entertainment they want, when they want it."
The initial lineup of TV shows available for download to own and feature films available for download to rent will include a growing catalog of popular hits. Examples of content that will be available on the network by the end of year include the following:
* "Robot Chicken" and "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" from Adult Swim
* "CSI," "Survivor" and "Star Trek" from CBS
* Emmy and Peabody award-winning "South Park" and "Chappelle's Show" from
COMEDY CENTRAL
* "The Real World" and "Pimp My Ride" from MTV
* "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "SpongeBob SquarePants" from
Nickelodeon
* "Skyland" and "The Nicktoons Network Animation Festival" from Nicktoons
Network
* "M:i:III," "Nacho Libre" and "Jackass: The Movie" from Paramount
Pictures
* "Carpocalypse" and "Raising the Roofs" from Spike TV
* "Race Rewind" provided by NASCAR.COM
* Select episodes of the original season of "The Ultimate Fighter"
reality series and the "UFC: All Access" shows from the UFC
* "Breaking Bonaduce" and "Hogan Knows Best" from VH1
* "The Matrix," "Superman Returns" and "Batman Forever" from Warner Bros.
Home Entertainment
Xbox 360 gamers can access Xbox Live Marketplace with a free Xbox Live Silver membership and a broadband connection. More information about the content available on Xbox Live Marketplace can be found at http://www.xbox.com/marketplaceentertainment .
About Xbox 360
Xbox 360 is the most powerful video game and entertainment system, delivering the best games, the next generation of the premier Xbox Live online gaming network and unique digital entertainment experiences that revolve around gamers. Xbox 360 is expected to have a catalog of 160 high-definition games by the end of 2006 and to be available in nearly 40 countries by the end of 2007. More information can be found online at http://www.xbox.com/xbox360 .
About Xbox Live
Xbox Live is the first and only unified online entertainment network seamlessly integrated throughout the entire console experience, making it easy for people to find the friends, games and entertainment they want from the moment they power on their Xbox 360 system. Xbox Live connects millions of members across 25 countries to enjoy hundreds of multiplayer games, downloadable games via Xbox Live Arcade, free and premium playable game demos, music videos, and movie trailers, as well as new game levels, characters and vehicles for all their favorite retail games. More information can be found online at http://www.xbox.com/en-us/live .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox Live are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Support From Digital Entertainment Partners
"CBS is very pleased to be the first broadcast network to provide programs for the Xbox 360 game console, which marks a new and innovative way to distribute and monetize CBS's world-class content in the digital space. Backed by the formidable marketing power of Microsoft, this platform also offers great potential to recruit new and younger viewers to our Network programming and creates added opportunities for our existing viewers to remain engaged with their favorite program."
-- Nancy Tellem
President
CBS Paramount Network Television
Entertainment Group
"Xbox Live Marketplace provides a truly unique opportunity to connect the core audience with movies that really resonate with them such as 'Jackass: The Movie' and 'M:i:III.' The gaming community is fully engaged with online entertainment, and this is just the beginning of what we will provide to this fan base."
-- Thomas Lesinski
President
Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment
"We are thrilled to be part of this launch and bring some of our most popular and targeted programming, including Adult Swim's 'Robot Chicken' and 'NASCAR.COM,' to this platform direct to gamers via Xbox Live on Xbox 360 as part of their online gaming and entertainment experience. Partnering with Xbox Live represents the ideal environment to extend the relevant Adult Swim and NASCAR.COM brands and reach our fans in the coveted 18-34 demographic."
-- Dennis Quinn
Executive Vice President
Business Development
TBS Inc.
"When gamers are taking a break from playing 'Gears of War,' I can't think of a better way to keep the adrenaline flowing than with some high- impact UFC fights. For the first time ever, the original season of our hit reality series 'The Ultimate Fighter' will be available for digital download, plus many UFC fights will also be available for download to Xbox 360 in HD."
-- Dana White
President
UFC
"Warner Bros. has been aggressively pursuing a strategy of getting our content to consumers when and where they want it. This is a fantastic opportunity to reach the gaming world with our rich menu of content including next-generation formats."
-- Simon Kenny
President
Warner Bros. Digital Distribution
Great Find, Taxi!
These guys are connected! CREDANT Technologies Reports Record-setting Third Quarter Fueled by Increase in Demand to Protect Laptops and Handheld Devices
Tuesday, 10 October 2006
CREDANT dramatically increases lead in mobile data protection market purchases from Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), the world’s largest semiconductor company, one of the largest insurance companies in the U.S. and Japan, one of the largest banks in California, and one of the country's top three providers of automobile and homeowners insurance
DALLAS – October 10, 2006 – CREDANT Technologies, a leading provider of mobile data protection solutions, today announced another record quarter, with strong growth in the Americas fueled by regulations and the increase in concern about protecting the privacy of data stored on laptops and handheld devices. The aggressive adoption of CREDANT Mobile Guardian, led by record-setting sales into the government, insurance, and financial markets, fueled the company’s increase in revenue bookings by 72% over last quarter and almost 400% over the same quarter in 2005. CREDANT now has 278 clients, including more than 22 Fortune 100 companies that represent over 2.8 million cumulative product licenses sold.
According to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, more than 33 million Americans have become potential victims of laptop, computer or thumb drive theft since February 2005. Driven by the demand to encrypt personal and financial data stored on mobile devices, especially laptops, 86% of the third quarter revenues were for Windows PC platforms. Unlike older approaches to encrypting data, CREDANT’s patented policy-based Intelligent Encryption technology does not create security holes or add overhead during the normal operational, support and data recovery processes because the operating system and program files are not encrypted. The CREDANT solution not only reduces the external threat to the privacy of data stored on any mobile device if lost or stolen, it also minimizes the internal threat of data being exposed on laptops or desktops when routine maintenance is performed.
“Quarter after quarter, 2006 has been a record-setting year for CREDANT. What sets CREDANT apart as the market leader in mobile data protection, is our vision, innovation and ability to deliver a holistic solution,” said Bob Heard, founder and CEO of CREDANT. “Combining that innovation with a world-class team, and by building partnerships with other leaders within their industry, and trusted relationships with customers, we’ve achieved unparalleled success.”
New CREDANT customers in the third quarter include two Fortune 500 companies. The world’s largest semiconductor company purchased CREDANT’s Shield to secure its Windows Mobile 5 handheld devices worldwide. One of the largest insurance companies in the U.S. and Japan chose CREDANT Mobile Guardian to protect the privacy of data on the laptops of its independent affiliates and agents because it was the only solution that enabled the company to ensure that company data was encrypted, but did not interfere with other applications used by the independent agent.
Adding to the list of new clients, CREDANT welcomed one of the largest banks in California, the country's third-largest provider of automobile and homeowners insurance, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), University of California - Davis, and numerous industry leaders in financial services and healthcare. CREDANT’s growth is measured not only in the number of new customers and strong quarter-over-quarter revenue growth, but by customer satisfaction. The increase in additional purchases by existing customers included the U.S. Army Medical Command which purchased 40,000 additional licenses, and the U.S. Army.
In September 2006, CREDANT Technologies was positioned in the “Leaders Quadrant” of Gartner’s Mobile Data Magic Quadrant report for 2006. (For a full report, go to www.credant.com ). According to Gartner, “leaders” are vendors who are performing well today, have a clear vision of market direction and are actively building competencies to sustain their leadership position in the market.
Banner Quarter for CREDANT’s Partner Program
* CREDANT’s partnership with Dell and Envoy delivered significant results in the third quarter. Joint selling between Dell, Envoy and the CREDANT team resulted in securing one of the leading financial and business advisors to mid-corporate businesses, as a customer
* New reseller partners signed in the third quarter include Insight Software Spectrum, STI Group, AccessIT, Stack Computer, VeiligMobiel (Netherlands), headTechnology (Europe), and Randtronics (Australia).
-more-
* New resellers are quickly ramping up to add new customers. Insight Software Spectrum Information added as a customer, one of the top providers of processing and software services and products, primarily to mutual funds, insurance providers, banks, and other financial services. AccessIT added one of the premier global private equity firms.
* Continued momentum with Microsoft and customer demand culminated in CREDANT’s announcement of support for Windows Mobile 5 with the September release of CREDANT Mobile Guardian Group Edition version 2.0.
CREDANT also announced the results of its 2006 annual survey on mobile data breaches. The objective of the survey was to find out if organizations are prepared for future breaches. What the survey uncovered is that 88% of respondents know that large amounts of personally identifying data resides on employees’ mobile devices yet less than 20% of firms surveyed have implemented encryption. The report, which received national coverage on CNBC, is available to help organizations’ better understand the obstacles they need to overcome to ensure the privacy of sensitive data.
This is something that Cuban has been pushing in terms of bypassing theaters and going to straight to the home.
Verizon, Intel collaborating on PC games for TV
Thu Nov 2, 2006 8:38am ET
NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Telecommunications company Verizon Communications (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and chipmaker Intel Corp. (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday announced a new service enabling consumers to play personal computer games on their television sets.
They said Verizon's Games on Demand service will enable users to play personal computer games on their television by using computers with Intel's Viiv technology, which helps connect the PC to the TV.
OT: NTT DoCoMo, Intel to Enable OS Selection on Cell Phones
By Martyn Williams
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 2:58:23 PM PST
NTT DoCoMo and Intel will publish a set of specifications that will allow users to load a second operating system onto their cell phones. The specifications add a second, open domain to the cell phone's architecture that is different from the default domain containing the basic operating system. This will enable users to install an additional operating system or applications in the second domain and switch to them using a controller in the phone, Masanori Goto, a spokesman for NTT DoCoMo said.
Most of the Japanese carrier's handsets are based on the Symbian or Linux operating systems, but phones built to the new specifications would be able to run other operating systems, such as Windows Mobile or additional applications, said Goto.
The controller, which handles switching between the two domains, will ensure that basic call functions continue to be available while the second domain is active so that users don't miss any calls.
The specifications, which NTT DoCoMo have dubbed "OSTI" (open and secure terminal initiative), are primarily aimed at benefitting corporate customers who might want to supplement the phone's basic software with customized applications. It will also be possible to set a security policy for the handset's second domain.
OT: Cisco's Meetinghouse Acquisition Yields Fruit
10/23/2006 -- Cisco Systems Inc.'s acquisition of the former Meetinghouse yielded fruit last week as the networking giant announced version 4.0 of its Cisco Secure Services Client, software that provides access control for wired and wireless networks alike.
It's a stepping stone deliverable for Cisco -- mostly because it anticipates other technology moves that haven't yet come to pass, said Steven Schuchart, a senior analyst for enterprise infrastructure with consultancy Current Analysis.
"The new Cisco Secure Services Client 4.0 offers customers a supplicant with both wired and wireless capabilities that far outstrip internal Windows clients as well as Cisco's own Cisco Trust Agent," he wrote. "[It] will one day be a product that can provide all NAC services as well as future NAC enhancements, but for today, the product is an 802.1X supplicant that does not provide posture assessment."
On the other hand, Schuchart noted, the new Secure Services Client does demonstrate that Cisco has more than made good on its acquisition of Meetinghouse. "The Cisco Secure Services Client 4.0 is the direct result of the acquisition of Meetinghouse. Cisco is showing its customers extremely strong commitment to the NAC concept, not only by purchasing Meetinghouse, but also by moving so quickly to assimilate Meetinghouse's software into the Cisco ecosystem," he pointed out. He noted, for example, that the Cisco Secure Services Client 4.0 draws extensively from Meetinghouse's expertise in client-side 802.1X security software.
All the same, Cisco's new Secure Services Client is more of an interim step than a milestone deliverable. Its lack of posture assessment capabilities, in particular, is worrisome. "The Cisco Secure Services Client 4.0 does not contain posture assessment capabilities at this time. This is a concern, as clients that want posture assessment as well as a Cisco wireless supplicant will need to run Cisco Secure Services Client 4.0 as well as Cisco Trust Agent," Schuchart concluded. "Customers may not understand why Cisco purchased Meetinghouse when the company already had its internally produced Cisco Trust Agent. Competitors will also use it as a way to attack Cisco in terms of technology creation, with a 'buy your way to the top' argument." -Stephen Swoyer
OT: Nokia claims ground in digital music battle
HELSINKI (Reuters) — Consumers are increasingly snapping up mobile phones with built-in music players, and sales far outstrip shipments of dedicated MP3 music players, the world's top handset maker Nokia said in an interview.
"The technology is completely ready, and the change in consumers' habits has started. The best evidence is our sales number. We are selling huge amounts," Tommi Mustonen, director at Nokia's multimedia unit told Reuters in an interview.
Mustonen said the company aimed to sell 80 million music devices this year, up from 46.5 million in 2005.
Nokia is not alone. The world's fourth-largest handset maker Sony Ericsson has benefited in recent quarters from strong sales of a line-up of Walkman music-playing handsets, of which it sold 15 million in its first year.
By contrast, Apple sold 8.7 million iPods in the July to September quarter, making it the world's most popular music player, but the volume still lagged far behind music phones.
Mustonen said two out of three consumers whose phones can play digital tracks already use it for that purpose.
Nokia does not see Apple, with its iPods and iTunes service, as a competitor, at least not before the U.S. firm's expected iPhone hits the shelves, Mustonen said.
"The comparison with iPod is wrong; it is a single purpose device, and it is not connected," Mustonen said, adding that Apple was moving in the same direction with the possible launch of an iPhone, according to media and financial analysts.
"Then you can compare us," Mustonen said.
"I believe our rivals are companies which make multimedia computers," he said, adding that music downloading sites bore a close relationship to the gadgets they connect to.
The music business is also seen surging, with Forrester Research forecasting the European mobile phone music download market growing to $857.5 million (674 million euros) in 2011 from nil in 2004.
Nokia music store
Nokia launched last week a sales campaign offering Mission Impossible videos on memory cards for its N93 models. Mustonen said various campaigns were also possible in music, but the company had no plans to start selling music on memory cards.
"The world is going the other way, not towards physical distribution, but to digital."
Nokia finalised its $60 million acquisition of U.S.-based digital music distributor Loudeye Corp. earlier this month.
Loudeye aggregates rights and content from major labels and hundreds of independent labels and currently offers licensed catalogue and complete media for over 1.6 million tracks.
"This enables us to offer full service to consumers starting from the device to the content," Mustonen said.
Nokia is widely expected to come out with its own music shop next year.
Nokia has stepped up a gear on the acquisition trail after its new Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo took over in June. It has agreed to spin off its mobile networks infrastructure unit and dropped a planned phone-making venture with Sanyo.
Kallasvuo has said Nokia is set to strengthen its multimedia and enterprise units through acquisitions.
Finally, RECOGINITION by the Market. Traction has snow tires. EOM
NTT has a lot of tenticles. The fact that Wave is a part of it speaks to possibilities/potential whatever they might be going forward. I am particularly interested in the data integrator/ mobile arms of NTT.
Pickle
China Mobile to Deploy Network Access Control with Juniper Networks
Infranet Controller to Deliver End-to-End, Granular Network Protection
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Juniper Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:JNPR) today announced that China Mobile, one of China’s leading mobile services providers, will later this year deploy Juniper Networks Infranet Controller (IC) 4000 appliances to secure access to its corporate networks. The IC 4000 combines identity-based policy and endpoint intelligence to provide real-time visibility and policy control for China Mobile’s network regardless of endpoint type, location or status.
“The IC 4000 appliances will secure China Mobile’s entire network infrastructure, including the corporate LAN and groupware applications for billing, operations, e-mail and file sharing used by staff and business partners,” said Eric Yu, Juniper’s vice president of Greater China. “The appliances simplify the rollout of a comprehensive access system with detailed authentication, authorization and auditing (AAA) capability to a large number of users with easy manageability. The Infranet Controller also provides tools to help ensure compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley security requirements, which is critical to China Mobile’s public listing on the New York Stock Exchange.”
Juniper Networks’ Infranet Controller appliances help to control access, prevent threats, ensure compliance, and deliver real-time network services. They offer endpoint and identity-based controls, and support both client-host and network-based enforcement of dynamically configured firewall and IPSec policies. The Infranet Controller obviates the need for client pre-installation with the ability to dynamically download the Infranet Agent if required (an agentless access method is also possible, for situations such as guest device usage), which assesses the endpoint’s security state and collects user identity information. This information is relayed back to the Infranet Controller which seamlessly integrates security state information with the enterprise’s existing AAA infrastructure to create a role-based policy for the session. These policy decisions can be enforced at a very granular level both by the client host and throughout the network by China Mobile’s existing array of Juniper Networks firewall/VPN appliances, which are designed to communicate with the Infranet Controller and perform computationally intensive security functions without compromising throughput. Unique to the Infranet Controller is its ability to establish an encrypted tunnel session between the user device and the Juniper Networks firewall/VPN appliance to secure user traffic, providing additional protection against man-in-the-middle attacks. The endpoint security state is regularly checked throughout the session to ensure that the device remains compliant. If the endpoint security state changes, the information is relayed to the Infranet Controller, and the user’s roles and resources access can change.
“Organizational networks must evolve along with today’s growth in user and device diversity,” said Simon Newstead, Juniper Networks’ emerging technologies director for Asia Pacific. “Juniper’s network access control solutions allow companies such as China Mobile to accommodate a wide range of users and endpoint devices, allowing access to business critical resources in a timely and reliable manner.”
About Juniper Networks, Inc.
Juniper Networks develops purpose-built, high performance IP platforms that enable customers to support a wide variety of services and applications at scale. Service providers, enterprises, governments and research and education institutions rely on Juniper to deliver a portfolio of proven networking, security and application acceleration solutions that solve highly complex, fast-changing problems in the world's most demanding networks. Additional information can be found at www.juniper.net.
OT: NTT DoCoMo-HP collaboration bridges cellphones, sensor networks
Posted : 18 Oct 2006
NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. are working together on a new application platform that will interconnect cellphone systems and sensor networks. The collaboration is also eyeing the development of a prototype of a new middleware platform. Designed to work with sensor networks in homes and businesses, the Sensor Network Middleware Platform enables interactive communication between those networks and mobile phones.
The middleware is equipped with an interface that works with various transmission methods and enables data exchange between mobile phones and sensor networks. Software using this middleware is installed on both sensor networks and mobile phones, enabling phones to access the sensor networks directly, across a variety of transmission methods.
The phones can then be used to pull data or even control devices connected to it. The middleware also allows designers to develop applications and devices compatible with any sensor network, regardless of the transmission method it employs. This technology is expected to be useful for a range of services, enabling seamless connections between mobile phones and crime-prevention equipment, home appliances, IC tag readers and other devices.
An experimental implementation was built on DoCoMo's testbed platform. The two companies will continue with technology testing and product validation. DoCoMo also looks at further standardization of the platform in cooperation with the Peer-to-Peer Universal Computing Consortium (PUCC) 2.
Founded in December 2004, PUCC is a standards body involved in the development and manufacture of peer-to-peer network systems and related devices, addressing issues of interoperability between such devices. As of September, it has 23 members, including corporations, universities and a non-profit organization.
Jacksonville please.
I will take the Broncos. Thanks!
DRM,
I never see this knid of movement after a dog and pony show. WAVX was oversold as Wavemaster pointed out last week, but this smells of big news. We shall see next week.
Pickle
This must be HP or big Govt contracts coming VERY soon. This is a strong move we have seen as volume has built this week.
Pickle
I will take the Patriots.
I will pick the Cowboys to win.
Sheldon, again, great digging. Air Force seeems to be closer to being on the cutting edge than given credit for.
Pickle
Baltimore Ravens will win.
Philadelphia - Pickle Power
New NFC Trial In China To Test Over-The-Air Downloads
Mobile handset maker Nokia and the merchant acquiring arm of Chinese banking card organization UnionPay have announced the launch of a trial in Shanghai allowing users to download a loyalty application over the air to their contactless, NFC, phones.
It’s the second trial in China of handsets complying with Near Field Communication technology, following the launch in late June by Nokia and other parties of a contactless transit ticketing and e-cash application loaded onto about 100 phones in the southeastern port city of Xiamen.
But the Shanghai trial, which has not yet been widely announced, will be the first NFC pilot anywhere in which users can download the application over the mobile network to a secure chip embedded in the phones, Card Technology has learned.
This secure chip is connected to a separate NFC chip in the Nokia model 3220 handsets. The 50 users in the trial will then be able to redeem their loyalty points for purchases in the Shanghai No. 1 Yaohan Department Store. The loyalty program stores points on a server and resembles a prepaid debit program that consumers would use to make purchases, a spokeswoman at the Consumer Solutions unit of Nokia Ventures Organization Asia tells Card Technology. “The process of this trial is similar to a bank debit or credit card; (The) next step is to go for (NFC) trials with actual bank cards,” she says.
Card Technology reported late last month that Joseph Zheng, director of NFC consumer solutions based in China for Nokia, said he expected several more NFC pilots to launch in China before the end of the year, including one testing over-the-air downloads of applications. He also said he expects a limited rollout of NFC phones to begin before year’s end in China.
Among the parties in China said to be interested in putting their applications onto the contactless handsets are transit operators offering both ticketing and retail e-cash service and such payment card organizations as China UnionPay, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa International. China’s giant mobile network operator China Mobile also is evaluating the technology, and its Fujian provincial branch is involved in the first NFC trial in Xiamen, along with Nokia, the E-Tong Card Co. and Netherlands-based Philips Semiconductors. China Mobile, however, is not an active partner in the Shanghai pilot. But Card Technology has reported the China Mobile branch in the large port city of Guangzhou is rumored to be planning a pilot along with the Yang City transit and retail payment card scheme.
Over-the-air downloads are considered vital to the business case for NFC phones because banks, transit operators and other service providers could then send new services, tickets, e-cash and related updates to phones already in the pockets of their customers.
Nokia and Germany-based smart card vendor Giesecke & Devrient plan to form a joint venture this year to operate a fee-based service to securely download applications and other data and code to NFC phones. It was unclear whether the Shanghai trial would use G&D’s OTA platform, which it announced developing earlier this year for MasterCard Worldwide’s PayPass contactless payment application.
For the two- to three-month Shanghai trial, which launched Aug. 1, Nokia says users will enter their China UnionPay loyalty card numbers and PINs into their handsets. The phones will then connect via the mobile network to a server, which will verify the information and download the loyalty "card" onto the handsets, says Nokia. (2006-08-02)
Good Stuff Ispro. Look at links!
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.insight-intl.com/&sa=X&am....
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.insight-intl.com/&sa=X&am....
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.insight-intl.com/&sa=X&am....
http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://shm-consortium.renesas.com/jpn/&prev=/searc....
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.insight-intl.com/&sa=X&am....
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.insight-intl.com/&sa=X&am....
http://www.emblix.org/english/etop.html
Secure identity begins at home - Intel identity platform targets PCs
By Martin Banks
Published Friday 23rd June 2006 09:28 GMT
Security White Papers - Download them free from Reg Research
If your digital identity is going to mean anything, it has to be secured, and Shelagh Callahan of Intel's Systems Technology Lab thinks that has to start on your PC. She compares the state of identity today to early car designs, each with a different way of starting the engine; today every car has a key and you just have to find the ignition.
"With identity, not only do we not know where to put the ignition key, we don't even know there is a key. We want to make the platform understand what a key is and how you can use it. The intent is to make platforms as capable to understand identities in the future, as they are currently able to understand devices - to know what they are, how to 'load' them, how to find and associate resources, how to delete them, how to establish policy for them and so on."
SPONSORED LINKS
UK Jobs @ Jobsite
Learn appraisal techniques from The Register's training library
At Rackspace We're built to handle highly-customised hosting environments - Click Here
You're good, You're very good - Jobsite, The best people for the job
Too many passwords, over-used identifiers that quickly lose any security they had (how hard is it to find your mother's maiden name?), poor privacy; the way we work with identity on our PCs is full of problems and it isn't flexile enough to actually do what we want it to. "I must know exactly who you are and how to find you but you must be able to be anonymous and I must be able to prove I'm not snooping. How can you be both strongly authenticated and anonymous?"
Single sign-on doesn't solve things, Callahan says. "With most solutions I have to give up control to get sanity." And you'll never get one single sign-on. "Intel won't federate with Amazon or with my local utility company." The only things all the services and suppliers have in common are you - and the devices you use.
The idea of the identity-capable platform is to authenticate to the platform itself on your device, rather than to a remote service. That avoids interception problems; you aren't broadcasting your biometrics or your smartcard authentication. You can prove who you are without handing over the credentials you use to prove it.
Callahan talks about a secure partition on your PC using the Trusted Platform Module chip. You authenticate yourself to the partition using a fingerprint reader, swipe card, mobile phone SIM or other secure methods and the partition provides your identity to remote sites and services, via web services being developed by the Liberty Alliance. There's no need for a site to deploy a Liberty Federation infrastructure to use ICP identities.
As well as authenticating you to services that need to know who you are, the identity platform can authorise you for services that need to know what you're allowed to do but not who you are. It can also introduce one person, service or device to another, again via web services.
If you travel, getting one bill for data connections from your mobile operator is simpler and often cheaper than paying for every hotspot individually - Callahan's team has worked on a prototype system where your mobile phone SIM gives you access to hotspots on your laptop. So if you want to set up a Wi-Fi account using the same identity as your mobile phone, the identity provisioning system can create a new identity that corresponds to the existing identity, using the TPM to lock the credentials to the platform for security. There will also be tools for linking identities (you might want to link a credit card identity to a membership identity so it gets renewed automatically), deleting identities and transporting them to other devices you use.
Services trust the platform because they trust that it's accurate and secure; the platform can assert how trustworthy it is by disclosing which secure method you've chosen to use. For users to trust it they have to be in control of where it identifies them, so there are policies for controlling who can use the authenticated identity claims you provide and what they can use them for.
"To the service providers the platform can act as a full partner in the infrastructure's identity strategy. And for the end user, their platform can safely store their personal information and they can more easily choose what they wish to disclose and to whom," Callahan says. The platform can also store preferences and metadata connected to an identity.
Callahan sees the identity platform inside the PC becoming part of the identity metasystem that Microsoft's Kim Cameron and others are arguing for. Identity selection technologies like Microsoft's CardSpace (formerly InfoCard) could use the platform as a way of storing and authenticating your Information Cards, as could the connection manager for your network association or an identity provider like your ISP, bank or enterprise IT team.
"The identity-capable platform is a strong complement to identity infrastructure, not competition for it," she says. "It is not about providing applications and services, but it is about making sure applications and services (including operating system level applications and services) can depend on consistent, standards-based support of identity functions."
Multi-core chips and virtualisation make it easier to switch from thinking about multi-tasking to envisioning a PC with different partitions and platforms providing secure, isolated services, whether that's identity, the network connection or a third-party maintenance service. The combination of partitions and services is behind all of Intel's current platforms like ViiV and vPro - although the identity platform is still a research project rather than something planned for a specific Intel release. ®
I believe SKS must have requested and received permission from his customers (primarily Dell and Gov't) to reveal the details he shared with us on the CC. This was something much different than we have heard in the past. Much more detail shared in an effort to shed light on the iceberg.
Pickle
Thanks, UncleverName!!
Shipping announced in the Fall in conjunction with Spec release. Must be a customer pipeline already firmed up.
pickle
Sorry to keep going, but cannot go to sleep. SKS said that if any security software company wants to get inside a Dell computer they must first cut a deal with Wave. And that included a couple of multi-billion dollar companies. WOW!!!
SKS was awesome in discussing goverment business which appears to be happening now. Millions of seats with no competition. This was the best call ever. Spouting forecasts and dollars left and right. This was a man who knows his company is about to hit the BIG TIME!!
Pickle
SKS was very confident and vocal regarding government business. The Air Force alone being 530,000 active desktops. Holy cow Batman!!
Pickle
OT: Visa Says ATM Breach May Have Exposed Data
Tuesday June 20, 10:43 pm ET
By Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer
Visa Acknowledges ATM Security Breach Has Exposed More Consumers to Potential Mischief
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Visa USA on Tuesday confirmed an ATM security breakdown has exposed more consumers to potential mischief, the latest in a long line of lapses that have illuminated the often flimsy controls over the personal information entrusted to businesses, schools and government agencies.
The latest breach dates back to February when San Francisco-based Visa began notifying banks of a security problem affecting a U.S.-based contractor that processed automated teller machine transactions.
Visa, one of the nation's largest issuer credit and debit cards, publicly acknowledged the trouble Tuesday in response to media inquiries prompted by Wachovia Bank's decision to replace an untold number of debit cards issued to its customers.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia issued the card replacements last week as an antifraud measure, said bank spokeswoman Mary Beth Navarro. She declined to explain the circumstances that triggered the action after several months.
Visa also gave out few details about the incident. Thousands of banks have issued millions of debit cards bearing the Visa logo.
In a statement, Visa said it is working with its member banks and authorities "to do whatever is necessary to protect cardholders."
Under Visa's policy, consumers aren't held liable for any unauthorized purchases made with their cards.
Visa's security headache is hardly isolated.
In recent years, a wide ranges of businesses and bureaucrats have fumbled away Social Security numbers and other sensitive information that could be used to tap into the finances and credit records of unwitting consumers.
In one of the most far-flung breaches to surface so far, the Social Security numbers and other personal information of 26.5 million U.S. military veterans was stolen last month when an employee took some digital data to review at home.
Visa has encountered security problems with other contractors besides the ATM processor that triggered the February alert.
CardSystems Solutions Inc., a payment processor used by both Visa and rival MasterCard International Inc., suffered a lapse that exposed up to 40 million credit and debit card accounts to potential abuse between August 2004 and May 2005. The thieves are believed to have grabbed data from a small fraction of those accounts.
Visa and Wachovia weren't even the only major financial services companies owning up to security breaches on Tuesday.
Equifax Inc., one of the nation's three major credit bureaus, said a company laptop containing employee names and Social Security numbers was stolen from an employee who was traveling by train near London.
The theft, which could affect as many as 2,500 of the Atlanta-based company's 4,600 employees, happened May 29 and all employees were notified June 7, spokesman David Rubinger said.
Employee names and partial and full Social Security numbers were on the computer's hard drive, though Rubinger said it would be almost impossible for the thief to decipher the information because it was streamed together.
"It would be very difficult to link this information and determine they were actual Social Security numbers in the first place," he said.
No other employee information was on the computer, he said, and there was no customer data on the computer.
Equifax's breach was similar to another one involving a laptop containing the Social Security numbers and other personal data of 13,000 District of Columbia employees and retirees.
That computer was stolen last week from the Washington home of an employee of ING U.S. Financial Services, according to officials with the company, which administers the district's retirement plan.
The laptop was not password-protected and the data were not encrypted, officials have said.
AP Business Writer Harry R. Weber in Atlanta contributed to this story.
Thanks, it was not linking up until I tried an hour ago. Very happy to listen.
Pickle
okpnv, what I am doing wrong. I am clicking on the link and I go to the page but there is not a follow-up link to initiate the presentation. Help!!
Pickle
The Digital Redemption
Can Morgan Freeman persuade Hollywood to stop worrying and love the Internet?
Morgan Freeman held court at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, mesmerizing a crowd of 900 fans with his lanky, world-weary presence and his trademark gravelly voice. He spoke about his roles in Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Million Dollar Baby. But when it came time for questions, aspiring filmmakers in the audience had one topic in mind: ClickStar.
ClickStar is an unlikely joint venture between chip giant Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) and Freeman's tiny production company, Revelations Entertainment. It aims to distribute films over the Internet, in many cases soon after they arrive in theaters. Freeman's next film is 10 Items or Less, a comic tale of a famous actor who learns about real life after he is abandoned in a strange neighborhood. ClickStar will show it two weeks after the movie premiers in theaters this fall.
Tapping Freeman's celebrity pals, ClickStar also has signed up the actor and director Danny DeVito to create a documentary "channel" on the site--Jersey Docs. Freeman hopes to have eight celebrity channels (including his own) when the ClickStar site is launched later this year, letting each star own equity in his or her channel and use it to recommend films, post blogs and champion new filmmakers.
Yet for decades Hollywood has been notoriously averse to disruptive new technologies. This is the industry that feared the advent of television and later tried to get the U.S. Supreme Court to ban VCRs; more recently it used lawsuits to vanquish the Replay digital recorder.
"Hollywood is not to be depended on for this kind of thing," says Freeman, 69, who has decades of experience nudging fretful Hollywood executives into gambling on risky projects. "Entertainment has always been led around by the nose by technology, and there's no reason for it," he says. "It's ludicrous to think that this new technology is going to come along and we're just going to bury it because we're afraid."
But Freeman threatens sacrosanct turf: the exclusive window that studios give theaters before pushing a new film out to DVD, pay-per-view, cable and beyond. Today's studio-backed download sites, CinemaNow and MovieLink, offer downloads once a film hits the local video store, typically waiting three to six months after a film's theater debut to better protect box office and DVD sales. MovieLink, with 1,700 titles and 1 million downloads per year, is owned by big studios like Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) and Warner Brothers. Lion's Gate, Blockbuster (nyse: BBI - news - people ) and Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) are investors in CinemaNow, with 2,600 films, which does similar business.
Freeman's next film, made for $10 million and financed partially by Intel, has completed filming but hasn't yet been shopped to distributors and theater owners. Neither group is likely to eagerly embrace the notion of shortening the duration for theaters to sell popcorn to fans showing up for a new Morgan Freeman flick.
Worries about digital piracy pose another hurdle. The Motion Picture Association of America argues that DVD piracy and bootleg copies covertly videotaped in theaters deprived Tinseltown moguls of $3.8 billion last year (never mind that thieves who watch free or cheap knockoffs may never have been willing to pay list price to see the original).
Freeman is betting on Intel technology, coupled with Microsoft's software for managing digital rights, to overcome the doubts. He is a bit miscast as an evangelist for the high-tech world. He spends much of his free time at his 120-acre ranch in Clarksdale, Miss. and uses his computer mostly for "playing solitaire without having to shuffle the cards." For technical support he calls his partner in Revelations, Lori McCreary, one of the few Hollywood suits with friends at Intel and a degree in computer science.
McCreary first hooked up with Intel execs at Cannes in 1998. She helped them understand the cost of special effects, and Intel pushed new standards that now let filmmakers churn out cheap effects on desktop computers. "We know microprocessors, and she knows entertainment," says Kevin Corbett, head of Intel's Digital Home Group. "So we can get together and solve problems."
McCreary and Freeman had spent many long lunches discussing their frustration with the glacial pace of the Show Biz bureaucracy and the industry's fear of change. In 2004 they started including Intel's Corbett in their talks. Intel built a $100,000 digital "home" at Revelations' offices in Santa Monica, Calif., tapping the production skills of McCreary. The mock home is laid out like a movie set, with a living room, bedroom, kid's room, even a neighboring house. Visitors see how a movie on ClickStar can be downloaded to a computer, then sent to various TV sets, laptops and portable media players.
Freeman gives tours of the home to his closest colleagues, wooing and wowing the likes of Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard and Danny DeVito. "I didn't understand every little detail of the chips," DeVito says, "but I wanted to know how I could fit into this as a content provider."
ClickStar is meant to prod Hollywood farther into the digital age. Last year Revelations and Intel each pitched in $5 million to start the venture, enough to set up the Web site, rent server space and outsource billing and content management.
Intel also contributes an undisclosed sum to a ClickStar-related fund that will buy "worldwide broadband rights" for films not yet made, targeting fledgling works that get overlooked by the major studios. The download service gives Intel a chance to show off its new Viiv platform, which lets a user move video around the home. Intel hopes Viiv will help usher in a new era of media servers and boost flagging PC sales. That could take a while. So far it hasn't been proven that film downloads can turn a profit; MovieLink, extant since 2002, has yet to make it into the black.
Fully 36% of America's 112 million households now have broadband Internet access, making them ClickStar-ready. Zapping a film to your PC can take as little as 20 minutes by cable modem, but so far only 2.5 million homes use PCs in the living room to watch television, says research firm IDC. It says that could rise to 3.9 million next year. Installing a Viiv system to send PC films to a TV set could cost $1,000 per home.
Freeman's fantasy is that ClickStar will stir big download demand in two years, but he knows that audiences will determine the outcome. "This could die miserably," he allows. "Worst case scenario: No one ever goes."