Energy, wealth and wildlife: Wyoming looks for harmony

PINEDALE, Wyoming (CNN) -- Call it modern horse-trading. Balancing the nation's energy needs with its interests in protecting wildlife and habitats.

The practice is playing out in Wyoming, where energy companies pumped 2.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from the ground last year -- produced in 20 of the state's 23 counties. That's enough gas to heat every home in Michigan for seven years.
And good-paying jobs, public works projects and money for higher education have benefited Wyoming.
But there's a trade-off: Wildlife populations are taking a hit.
Populations of the West's iconic mule deer are down where drilling is prevalent; the sage grouse, a bird which conservationists consider a harbinger of how other wildlife are faring, has seen adult populations plunge near gas rig sites.
If grouse aren't surviving, biologists say, that means bad news for animals like antelope, bighorn sheep and pygmy rabbits.
Five years ago, there were about 10,000 wells spread across Wyoming. By the end of 2007, the federal Bureau of Land Management estimates that 30,000 wells will be pumping natural gas. Watch a bird's eye view of a natural gas field »
Companies such as Shell, EnCana, BP and Questar operate the rigs.
"The West is the last unexploited frontier for gas reserves in the U.S.," said Fadel Gheit, an Oppenheimer and Co. senior energy analyst. "Market prices are skyrocketing. We've drilled the Gulf of Mexico down to Swiss cheese."
But Gheit concedes, "It's not good for the environment, no question."
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On a June morning, standing in the middle of one of Wyoming's largest gas fields, Brian Rutledge, a wildlife biologist and the executive director of the Audubon Society of Wyoming, surveys acres of endless sage brush and rigs in the distance.
"These lands are some of the last vestiges of the American West we have, home to hundreds of species who won't survive if their habitat is fragmented by rigs," he said. "Once it's gone, it's gone. A boom goes bust eventually."
"We have to ask ourselves, 'Is getting cheaper gas now worth the future cost to the land?' "
Recent studies have shown the sage grouse and mule deer are in jeopardy, their habitat hurt by gas drilling, biologists say. Power lines are convenient places for raptors and other grouse predators to perch. Rigs sit on sagebrush, the grouse's primary food source. And loud activity disrupts the grouse's mating rituals.
Mule deer are down by 42 percent in areas where drilling is prevalent, according to a 2006 study conducted by independent ecologists and biologists and paid for by gas corporation Questar.
Gas corporations are required to perform wildlife analysis of lands where they intend to drill. Between 2001 and 2005, University of Montana biologist David Naugle attached radio collars to birds in and outside gas fields in northeast Wyoming.
He found as much as an 80 percent reduction in adult birds inside the Powder River Basin, a hot spot of gas production.
Matt Holloran performed his doctoral thesis at the University of Wyoming on the effect of gas drilling on the grouse on the Pinedale Anticline.
"It's getting worse over time," said Holloran, now a senior ecologist with a private conservation firm.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opted not to classify the bird as endangered in 2005. But a representative said the recent numbers are alarming and the agency may move to reassess the decision. See a sample of endangered species around the country »
So concerned by the grouse's dwindling numbers, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal called a summit on the bird last month, drawing hundreds of conservationists, scientists and gas industry executives.
"We have a bull's-eye on our back," Freudenthal said. "I see it as an imbalance. The BLM has one objective and that is drilling. It wasn't always this way. There used to be some concern for habitat preservation, and I'm worried that's gone out the door."
Freudenthal's comments were echoed in more than 90,000 letters the public submitted to the BLM in June objecting to the agency's plan to allow 8,000 more gas wells on 1.6 million acres in a field near Pinedale.

Endeavour moves to launch pad

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Space shuttle Endeavour arrived at its launch pad early Wednesday for a flight to send teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan and six crewmates to the international space station.

It's been a nearly five-year wait for Endeavour, and the shuttle has nothing on Morgan: She's been waiting 22 years.
In 1985, Morgan was picked as Christa McAuliffe's backup to become the first teacher in space under a special NASA program.
Then the shuttle Challenger carrying McAuliffe exploded shortly after liftoff in 1986, and Morgan returned to teaching. In 1998, she was selected as a full-fledged astronaut.
On her first mission, set for August, Morgan will operate the shuttle's robotic arm, coordinate the transfer of cargo and talk from space to students at three schools, if the mission is extended.
The shuttle crew will also deliver a new truss segment, 5,000 pounds of cargo and fix a gyroscope which helps control the station's position.
"It has a little bit of everything," said Matt Abbott, lead shuttle flight director.
Endeavour's 3.4-mile journey aboard the massive crawler-transporter from the Vehicle Assembly Building took seven hours, getting the shuttle to its launch pad shortly after 3 a.m. It was a day late because the weather had nixed plans to move it early Tuesday.
Its launch is scheduled for August 7 as NASA's second shuttle flight this year.
The last time Endeavour was at the launch pad was in November 2002, before its launch on a construction mission to the space station. It was the last shuttle flight before the Columbia disaster killed seven astronauts and grounded the space shuttle program for 2 ½ years.
Endeavour has since undergone a major tune-up. The shuttle's structure was inspected for corrosion. Filter and seals were replaced. More than 1,900 thermal blankets were examined, and two windows were replaced with thicker panes.
"We're really excited to have Endeavour fly again," Kim Doering, NASA's deputy manager of the space shuttle program, said Tuesday. "Obviously, having brand new belts and hoses and having just checked the structure and replaced all the tiles -- they're brand new -- makes this a very nice vehicle to climb on to."
Endeavour also has a new system which allows power from the space station to be transferred to the shuttle while docked. If the new system works properly, the 11-day mission will be extended by an extra three days.

U.S. buyers snap up iPhones from coast to coast

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Brandon Saunders, 16, had been saving his allowance and birthday money for months to get one of Apple Inc.'s coveted iPhones.
He waited in line with his 70-year-old grandmother for about eight hours Friday in front of a San Antonio AT&T store and left sunburned but grinning, shopping bag in hand.
"It's worth it," he said. "It's like Christmas in June."
The teen was among the first to get his hands on the coveted gadget from Apple, joining throngs destined to become braggarts of and guinea pigs for the latest must-have, cutting-edge piece of techno-wizardry.
Apple is banking that its new, do-everything phone with a touch-sensitive screen will become its third core business next to its moneymaking iPod music players and Macintosh computers.
The doors of East Coast Apple and AT&T stores opened promptly at 6 p.m. EDT with cheers from employees and eager customers. Stores farther west followed suit as the clock struck 6 in each time zone. In San Francisco, customers sang "Auld Lang Syne" following a countdown, as if heralding a new era in telecommunications. (Watch people wait at a New York Apple store to be the first to own an iPhone )
Patrons at the Apple store in Palo Alto, California, were treated to a very brief appearance by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. He momentarily posed for pictures before leaving.
"I'm glad it's over," said Carlos Sanchez, 19, at Apple's Fifth Avenue store in New York City, clutching shopping bags containing two iPhones -- the maximum allowed per person. "I don't have to sleep outside anymore."
Techies, exhibitionists and luminaries -- even the co-founder of Apple and the mayor of Philadelphia -- were among the inaugural group of iPhone customers.
The handset's price tag is $499 for a 4-gigabyte model and $599 for an 8-gigabyte version, on top of a minimum $59.99-a-month two-year service plan with AT&T Inc., the phone's exclusive carrier.
Customers ready to get started
Because Apple designed a new way for customers to activate the cell phone service from AT&T, by logging onto Apple's iTunes software from their computers, many buyers headed straight home to christen the device.
In Newton, Massachusetts, Khu Duong, 30, said he was excited but "afraid to open it. You want to sit down and relax."
Fellow customer Nick Seaver, 21, couldn't wait. He flipped open his Mac laptop right in the mall and paid $5 to use the wireless network and activate it. But because his current service contract with Verizon was set to expire the next day, Seaver got a computer message from iTunes that he would have to wait 24 hours before his iPhone worked.
Will all the waiting have been worth it? For many, it didn't seem to matter.
"I just love getting new stuff," said retiree Len Edgerly, who arrived at 3 a.m. Friday to be first in line outside an Apple store in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "It's the best new thing that's come along in a long time. It's beautiful."
Even Steve Wozniak, the ex-partner of Jobs, showed up at a Silicon Valley, California, mall at 4 a.m. aboard his Segway scooter. He helped keep order in the line outside the Apple store.
The other customers awarded the honorary first spot in line to Wozniak, who planned to buy two iPhones on Friday even though he remains an Apple employee and will get a free one from the company next month. He said the device would redefine cell phone design and use.
"Look how great the iPod turned out," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "So who wants to miss that revolution? That's why there's all this big hype for the iPhone."
A bumpy beginning for some
Apple's media blitz wasn't without its glitches.
On NBC's "Today" show, co-host Meredith Vieira ran into problems trying to get the iPhone to work, laughing that "this is why gadgets drive me crazy."
With a team of Apple representatives hovering off-screen, Vieira was supposed to receive a call from co-host Matt Lauer in London. The iPhone -- billed by Apple as the most user-friendly smart phone ever -- displayed the incoming call, but she couldn't answer it.
Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined to comment.
The gadget, which Jobs has touted as "revolutionary," has been the focus of endless anticipatory chatter and has been parodied on late-night TV. Since its unveiling in January, the expectation that it will become yet another blockbuster product for Apple has pushed the company's stock up more than 40 percent.
Apple has set a target of selling 10 million units worldwide by 2008, gaining roughly a 1 percent share of the cell phone market. It's expected to go on sale in Europe later this year and in Asia in 2008.
In addition to the cost of the phone, for those currently using another cellular provider, there's also the cost of switching carriers.
Some bullish Wall Street analysts have predicted sales could hit as high as 45 million units in two years.
"That's nuts," said Rob Enderle, an industry analyst with The Enderle Group. "Over-hyping this thing just puts it at risk of being seen as a failure.
"Apple will break [sales] records for a phone of this class," he said, "but selling tens of millions of units so quickly is going to be tough. First-generation products always have problems that you don't know about until the product ships."
More likely, Enderle and other analysts said, Apple will grow iPhone sales by refining its models and improving the software features -- much as it did with the iPod, which has fueled record profits for the company.
But unlike its foray into digital music players, Apple faces competition in cell phones from deep-pocketed, well-established giants, such as Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc.
Apple has not disclosed how many iPhones were available at launch. But analysts expect them to sell out by early next week -- between sales rung up at retail stores and online through Apple's Web site, which has been a major distribution outlet for other Apple products.

Google wants U.S. help fighting censorship

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Once relatively indifferent to government affairs, Google Inc. is seeking help inside the Beltway to fight the rise of Web censorship worldwide.
The online search giant is taking a novel approach to the problem by asking U.S. trade officials to treat Internet restrictions as international trade barriers, similar to other hurdles to global commerce, such as tariffs.
Google sees the dramatic increase in government Net censorship, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, as a potential threat to its advertising-driven business model, and wants government officials to consider the issue in economic, rather than just political, terms.
"It's fair to say that censorship is the No. 1 barrier to trade that we face," said Andrew McLaughlin, Google's director of public policy and government affairs. A Google spokesman said Monday that McLaughlin has met with officials from the U.S. Trade Representative's office several times this year to discuss the issue.
"If censorship regimes create barriers to trade in violation of international trade rules, the USTR would get involved," USTR spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel said. She added though that human rights issues, such as censorship, typically falls under the purview of the State Department.
While human rights activists are pleased with Google's efforts to fight censorship, they harshly criticized the company early last year for agreeing to censor its Web site in China, which has the second-largest number of Internet users in the world.
The company defends its actions, saying the Chinese government made it a condition of allowing Chinese users access to Google Web pages. China has an Internet firewall that slows or disrupts Chinese users from accessing foreign uncensored Web sites.
Censorship on the rise
Censorship online has risen dramatically the past five years, belying the hype of the late 1990s, which portrayed the Internet as largely impervious to government interference.
A study released last month by the OpenNet Initiative found that 25 of 41 countries surveyed engage in Internet censorship. That's a dramatic increase from the two or three countries guilty of the practice in 2002, says John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, who helped prepare the report.
China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, India, Singapore and Thailand, among others, are increasingly blocking or filtering Web pages, Palfrey says.
Governments "are having more success than the more idealistic of us thought," acknowledges Danny O'Brien, international outreach coordinator at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Still, even government filtering isn't always successful. In a brutal regime like Iran, which filters Web content, there are nearly 100,000 bloggers, making Farsi "one of the most blogged languages in the world," says Palfrey.
Google's YouTube has become a common target for thin-skinned rulers. Turkey in March blocked the video-sharing site for two days after a complaint that some clips insulted Turkey's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Thailand continues to block YouTube after several videos appeared in April, criticizing the country's monarch.
Bloggers in Morocco said in late May that they could not access YouTube shortly after videos were posted critical of that nation's treatment of the people of Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco took control of in 1975. A government spokesman blamed a technical glitch.
Law school paper may have sparked idea
One likely source for Google's censorship idea is a paper written two years ago by Timothy Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School, who argues that downloading a Web page hosted in another country effectively imports a service.
Drawing on that concept, Google envisions using trade agreements to fight back. The negotiated pacts would include provisions guaranteeing free trade in "information services." As is true of most trade pacts, the provisions would call for arbitration if there are violations.
The U.S. has a trade agreement with Morocco and began negotiating one with Thailand in 2004, although those talks were suspended early last year after a military coup.
Columbia's Wu said the trade pact approach is likely to be more effective when governments are guilty of blocking entire Web sites or applications, such as Internet phone-calling, than when they filter specific content.
Under World Trade Organization rules, countries can limit trade for national security or public moral reasons, Wu said, exceptions that authoritarian governments would likely cite when filtering politically sensitive material.
The company's trade initiative reflects Google's increasing acceptance of the value of federal lobbying. The company didn't hire a lobbyist until 2003, according to public filings, but paid the high-powered Washington-based Podesta Group $160,000 last year to work on Internet free-speech, tax and other issues.
Effort seems sincere
Human rights groups say Google's censorship efforts seem sincere, albeit motivated by bottom-line incentives.
"Free expression is a unique selling point" for a company like Google, O'Brien said. Filtering and censorship "diminishes the value of their product."
Yet last month at the company's annual meeting, Google's board recommended investors vote against a shareholder resolution urging Google to renounce censorship.
The resolution was defeated, although Google is already acting on some of the proposal's ideas, including working with other technology leaders, such as Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., to develop a set of principles on how companies should respond to censorship and other human rights violations when doing business abroad.
Human rights advocates, academics and corporate social responsibility groups are involved in the project, announced earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Google's global growth efforts continue. YouTube said Tuesday that it plans to expand into nine other countries, including Brazil, France, Spain and Poland, offering local-language Web sites and highlighting videos of domestic interest.
In China, where Google is the No. 2 search engine behind the domestically based Baidu.com, the company said in April it will increase its investment as it works to create more content of interest to Chinese users.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Fathers and kids bond playing video games

(AP) -- When Will Nickelson and his daughter want to spend some quality time together, they fire up Nintendo Co.'s Wii and play a few rounds of "Wii Sports" or "Mario Party 8."
"It's kind of difficult picking a game for a 7-year-old girl, but she really likes to beat her dad at bowling," says Nickelson, 30, a stay-at-home dad from Huntsville, Alabama.
He's certainly not alone.
The generation that grew up with "Pac-Man" and "Pong" are now having children of their own. And across the nation, fathers and their kids are finding the virtual worlds of video games a popular place to bond.
Many fathers say the games bring them closer to their kids by providing a safe, convenient way to stay in touch and talk to their children on their own terms.
A national survey released last year by the Entertainment Software Association, a video game industry group, found that 35 percent of parents play video games, of which 80 percent play with their children. Mothers, too, were part of the study.
Though he considers himself a lifelong gamer, Nickelson said the time spent with his daughter, Sara, matters much more than the games themselves.
"It's more of a chance to have time with her," he said. "Being a divorced dad, I don't get the time that I would like with her. It's just fun to sit down together and try to have fun together."
Sara says the friendly competition doesn't hurt, either.
"I like the Wii baseball because it's just so fun because I always beat him," she said. "Sometimes I beat him at Wii bowling. He gets kind of mad."
One expert said video games equalize the physical size differences between fathers and their kids. That means children often have the edge in a video game, and they may feel more willing to communicate.
"You're on the kid's turf," said Dr. Arminta Jacobson, director of the Center for Parent Education at the University of North Texas. "Anything that's fun between fathers and their kids I think is a really good thing."
But Jacobson also warned that limits are necessary because video games don't encourage reflective thinking skills, language development, social skills or physical activity.
"Fathers could set aside a time each week to play video games but also set aside times to read, take walks and just talk," she said.
Some dads have made a career out of video games and parenting.
"This is a way to bond for the people who don't go out in the sun so much," joked Andrew Bub, a father of two whose Web site, Gamerdad.com, reviews video games from a parent's perspective. "Taking an interest in what your kids do will always make you a better parent. And, you'll have a better idea about what to buy them for Christmas."
For Guy Buckmaster, a marketing director in Clearwater, Florida, gaming with his six children began in the late 1990s with "Diablo II: Lord of Destruction."
He still plays with them about two nights per week on another game, "Guild Wars," where they can chat, hash out personal issues _ and yes -- defeat others in online computer battles.
"It's allowed me to be a continuing influence and provide guidance in their life, and that's important to me," said Buckmaster, 55. "This has been an instrument that is unparalleled."
At John Idler's home in Moorestown, New Jersey, a dining room has been converted into a gaming center with three computers linked to the Internet, so he and his sons can play online PC games while sitting side-by-side.
It's also right next to the TV room, so the whole family can still talk, even if his non-gaming wife and daughter would rather watch television.
He said the fun of video games is certainly part of the lure, but it's really just an excuse to spend time together.
"How many parents complain they don't have anything to talk about with their kids? It may be geek talk, but we're still communicating," he said. "How many parents sit down and do things on a consistent basis with their kids? I think it's a great way to share some time."
One of his sons, 19-year-old Matthew Idler, plans on keeping video games a family tradition for years to come.
"It will be something I do with my kids when I have them," he said, "and my dad will be invited to play with us, of course."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Google to digitize Big Ten school books

STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Twelve major universities will digitize select collections in each of their libraries -- up to 10 million volumes -- as part of Google Inc.'s book-scanning project. The goal: a shared digital repository that faculty, students and the public can access quickly.
The partnership involves the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, which includes the University of Chicago and the 11 universities in the Big Ten athletic conference (yes, there are 11): Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin.
"We have a collective ambition to share resources and work together to preserve the world's printed treasures," said Northwestern Provost Lawrence Dumas.
The committee said Google will scan and index materials "in a manner consistent with copyright law." Google generally makes available the full text of books in the public domain and limited portions of copyrighted books.
Several other universities, including Harvard and California, already have signed up to let Google scan their libraries.
But Google still faces a lawsuit by the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild over its plans to incorporate parts of copyrighted books.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Apple iPhone available June 29

NEW YORK (AP) -- Apple Inc.'s highly anticipated iPhone will be available June 29 in the U.S., according to TV commercials broadcast Sunday and posted on the company's Web site.
The combination cell phone, media player and wireless Web-surfing device will retail for $499 and $599, depending on configuration. It will be offered exclusively in the U.S. by AT&T Inc.'s wireless division, formerly known as Cingular.
The iPhone, which sports no keypad but instead a touch-sensitive screen, was unveiled with great fanfare in early January by Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
He said it would appear in stores in June but gave no specific date.
Sunday night's ads showed off several of the gadget's features and ended with the pronouncement that the phone will be available "Only on the new AT&T" and "Coming June 29."
Tom Neumayr, an Apple spokesman, confirmed the June 29 sale date. An AT&T spokesperson did not immediately return a phone call.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Robot grooves to its own beat

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A Japanese robot twists and rolls to music from an iPod in an intricate dance based on complex mathematics, a technology developers say will enable robots to move about spontaneously instead of following preprogrammed motions.
Tokyo-based venture ZMP Inc.'s 14-inch long Miuro robot -- which looks like a white ball wedged between two halves of an egg -- wheels about in time with music from the iPod player that locks into the machine.
At a demonstration in Tokyo on Thursday, the 11-pound Miuro pivoted about on a stage in time to beats of a pop music track played through its speakers. The dance wasn't preprogrammed, but generated by the robot itself.
Scientists involved in the robot's development believe the technology could lead to robots capable of spontaneous motion. Miuro uses algorithms, or mathematical rules, to analyze music and translate the beats into dances, said ZMP President Hisashi Taniguchi.
"We aim to create a new form of life that moves freely and spontaneously in ways human beings can't predict," Taniguchi said. "We're hoping to turn Miuro into the ultimate virtual pet."
Unlike older Miuros, which hit stores last August, the prototype is fitted with software based on what scientists call chaotic itinerancy, a mathematical pattern similar to the movements of a bee circling from flower to flower as it collects nectar.
That allows the new Miuro to act spontaneously and unpredictably -- "just like a child playing," said Tokyo University researcher Takashi Ikegami, who developed the software.
Other improvements will let users set the Miuro like an alarm clock so it wheels into the bedroom and blasts music at a certain time. Future versions of the Miuro will also use built-in sensors to seek out people to play tunes to, Taniguchi said.
ZMP has already shipped 500 units of the original Miuro, which isn't equipped with the intelligent software but instead responds to a remote-control handheld manipulator.
The 108,800 yen ($895) original Miuro can also receive wireless signals from a personal computer to play iTunes and other stored digital files. Separately sold options add a camera that beams images to PCs or lets owners control their Miuros by mobile phone.
Miuro, short for "music innovation based on utility robot technology," is only on sale in Japan. ZMP did not give a date for the release of the prototype.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Google defends data policy

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- Google will tell Brussels it needs to hold on to users' search data for up to two years for security and commercial reasons after being warned it could be violating European privacy laws by doing so.
The world's top Internet search engine on Friday said it would respond by June 19 to a letter from a European Union data protection advisory group expressing concern it was keeping information on users' searches for too long.
"The concern of EU law is that a company that collects data on its customers should keep it as long as it is necessary, but not longer," Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
With every search, Google gathers information about a customer's tastes, interests and beliefs that could potentially be used by third parties such as advertisers, but the company stresses it never passes it on.
Google last week received a letter from the Article 29 working party, a group of national advisory bodies that counsels the EU on privacy policy, which asked the company to justify its data retention practices.
"I will tell the working party that Google needs to hold on to its log database to protect itself and the system from attacks and refine and improve the effectiveness of our search results," Fleischer said.
He said Google, at its own initiative, had decided in March to limit the time it kept engine search information to between 18 and 24 months. The company previously had no set time limit.
He called on rivals Yahoo! and Microsoft to clarify their data retention practices and policies.
"Will the working party focus on other players in the industry?" Fleischer asked.
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Citywide Wi-Fi struggles to reach users

(AP) -- Adam DuVander likes to surf the Internet from his laptop wherever he happens to be -- at home, a coffee shop or a neighborhood park. He has been able to do so in recent years thanks to wireless hotspots set up by networking activists in Portland, Oregon.
So when Portland announced it would try to blanket the entire city with similar Wi-Fi technology, the Web programmer and blogger got excited -- until he tried using it.
"For me ubiquitous access means I don't have to base my life around wherever my office is," DuVander said. "I tried it out as soon as I could and found that it wasn't for me. The quality of the connection is not up to my standards."
Blame physics and the use of a short-range technology designed for smaller quarters, not citywide deployments.
Simply put, signals don't travel far or penetrate building walls well.
That's fine for a coffee shop. The equipment is indoors, as are its users. That's also fine for a park. There are enough users concentrated there to justify installing lots of wireless antennas.
But it wouldn't be economical to place an access point inside every home and on every street lamp.
Portland's contractor, MetroFi Inc., is putting roughly 25 access points per square mile, so that users would generally be no farther than 500 feet from the nearest one, said Logan Kleier, the city's manager for the Unwired Portland project.
Cutting that distance in half, to 250 feet, would require about four times as many access points, because they need to be installed in all four directions.
"The network cost gets completely out of whack," he said. "The business model breaks in its entirety."
Network operators, meanwhile, are recommending signal boosters for as much as $150 to get indoor coverage. Many people in Portland and elsewhere plan to stick with their existing DSL or cable provider instead.
An emerging technology called WiMax -- promising much longer ranges -- might be able to blanket a larger area more easily than Wi-Fi can. Sprint Nextel Corp. already has announced plans to offer WiMax service in several cities by next year, with initial deployments this year in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.
But Wi-Fi still has its advantages. It's been around longer so the technology is stable and equipment relatively cheap.
And although Wi-Fi continues to evolve -- an industry group will soon start certifying products under its emerging, faster "n" flavor -- devices made tomorrow will likely work with networks built today. On the network side, some equipment can be upgraded by pushing new software remotely, said Esme Vos, an expert on municipal Wi-Fi systems.
Regardless of the specific wireless technology, though, wired services remain a better choice over wireless for many basic needs. Wired networks are generally faster and have fewer security risks. Prices for DSL, in particular, have dropped.
Wireless networks are good as backups during emergencies and away from home, but "it's very hard to have a wireless network compete as a primary connection," said Dave Burstein, editor of the industry newsletter DSL Prime.
"Where you have a choice, DSL or cable compared to wireless, you are going to go for DSL or cable unless it's ridiculously overpriced."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

MySpace will turn over names of sex offenders

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- MySpace.com will provide a number of state attorneys general with data on registered sex offenders who use the popular social networking Web site, the company said Monday.
Attorneys general from eight states demanded last week that the company provide data on how many registered sex offenders are using the site and where they live. MySpace initially refused, citing federal privacy laws.
MySpace obtained the data from Sentinel Tech Holding Corp., which the company partnered with in December to build a database with information on sex offenders.
"We developed 'Sentinel Safe' from scratch because there was no means to weed them out and get them off of our site," said Mike Angus, MySpace's executive vice president and general counsel.
Angus said the company, owned by media conglomerate News Corp. had always planned to share information on sex offenders it identified and has already removed about 7,000 profiles out of a total of about 180 million.
"This is no different than an offline community," he said. "We're trying to keep it safe."
Angus said the company had also made arrangements to allow law enforcement to use the Sentinel software directly.
MySpace is owned by media conglomerate News Corp.
Attorneys general in North Carolina, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania asked for the Sentinel data last week.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper's office said in a statement the information could potentially be used to look for parole violations or help in investigations.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Inventor: Camera phone evolution has only just begun

SANTA CRUZ, California (AP) -- The chilling sounds of gunfire on the Virginia Tech campus; the hateful taunts from Saddam Hussein's execution; the racist tirade of comedian Michael Richards.
Those videos, all shot with cell phone cameras and seen by millions, are just a few recent examples of the power now at the fingertips of the masses. Even the man widely credited with inventing the camera phone in 1997 is awed by the cultural revolution he helped launch.
"It's had a massive impact because it's just so convenient," said Philippe Kahn, a tech industry maverick whose other pioneering efforts include the founding of software maker Borland, an early Microsoft Corp. antagonist.
"There's always a way to capture memories and share it," he said. "You go to a restaurant, and there's a birthday and suddenly everyone is getting their camera phones out. It's amazing."
If Kahn feels a bit like a proud father when he sees people holding up their cell phones to snap pictures, there's good reason: He jury-rigged the first camera phone while his wife was in labor with their daughter.
"We were going to have a baby and I wanted to share the pictures with family and friends," Kahn said, "and there was no easy way to do it."
So as he sat in a maternity ward, he wrote a crude program on his laptop and sent an assistant to a RadioShack store to get a soldering iron, capacitors and other supplies to wire his digital camera to his cell phone. When Sophie was born, he sent her photo over a cellular connection to acquaintances around the globe.
A decade later, 41 percent of American households own a camera phone "and you can hardly find a phone without a camera anymore," said Michael Cai, an industry analyst at Parks Associates.
Market researcher Gartner Inc. predicts that about 589 million cell phones will be sold with cameras in 2007, increasing to more than 1 billion worldwide by 2010.
Mix in the Internet's vast reach and the growth of the YouTube generation, and the ubiquitous gadget's influence only deepens and gets more complicated. So much so that the watchful eyes on all of us may no longer just be those of Big Brother.
"For the past decade, we've been under surveillance under these big black and white cameras on buildings and at 7-Eleven stores. But the candid camera is wielded by individuals now," said Fred Turner, an assistant professor of communications at Stanford University who specializes in digital media and culture.
The contraption Kahn assembled in a Santa Cruz labor-and-delivery room in 1997 has evolved into a pocket-friendly phenomenon that has empowered both citizen journalists and personal paparazzi.
It has prompted lawsuits -- a student sued campus police at UCLA for alleged excessive force after officers were caught on cell-phone video using a stun gun during his arrest; and been a catalyst for change -- a government inquiry into police practices ensued in Malaysia after a cell-phone video revealed a woman detainee being forced to do squats while naked.
On another scale, parents use cell-phone slideshows -- not wallet photos -- to show off pictures of their children, while adolescents document their rites of passage with cell phone cameras and instantly share the images.
One of the recipients of Kahn's seminal photo e-mail was veteran technology consultant Andy Seybold, who recalled being "blown away" by the picture.
"The fact that it got sent wirelessly on the networks those days -- that was an amazing feat," Seybold said.
Kahn's makeshift photo-communications system formed the basis for a new company, LightSurf Technologies, which he later sold to VeriSign Inc. LightSurf built "PictureMail" software and worked with cell phone makers to integrate the wireless photo technology.
Sharp Corp. was the first to sell a commercial cell phone with a camera in Japan in 2000. Camera phones didn't debut in the U.S. until 2002, Kahn said.
Though Kahn's work revolved around transmitting only digital still photographs -- video-related developments were created by others in the imaging and chip industries -- his groundbreaking implementation of the instant-sharing via a cell phone planted a seed.
"He facilitated people putting cameras in a phone, and he proved that you can take a photo and send it to someone with a cell phone," Seybold said.
Kahn, 55, is well aware of how the camera phone has since been put to negative uses: sneaky shots up women's skirts, or the violent trend of "happy slapping" in Europe where youths provoke a fight or assault, capture the incident on camera and then spread the images on the Web or between mobile phones.
But he likes to focus on the technology's benefits. It's been a handy tool that has led to vindication for victims or validation for vigilantes.
As Kahn heard the smattering of stories in recent years about assailants scared off by a camera phone or criminals who were nabbed later because their faces or their license plates were captured on the gadget, he said, "I started feeling it was better than carrying a gun."
And though he found the camera-phone video of the former Iraqi dictator's execution disturbing, Kahn said the gadget helped "get the truth out." The unofficial footage surreptitiously taken by a guard was vastly different from the government-issued version and revealed a chaotic scene with angry exchanges depicting the ongoing problems between the nation's factions.
Kahn also thinks the evolution of the camera phone has only just begun.
He wouldn't discuss details of his newest startup, Fullpower Technologies Inc., which is in stealth mode working on the "convergence of life sciences and wireless," according to its Web site.
But, Kahn said, it will, among other things, "help make camera phones better."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Google unifies search results

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (Reuters) -- Google Inc. said on Wednesday it is combining its different Web search services into one "Universal Search" service that will present Web sites, news, video and other results on one page.
The move, a significant overhaul of Google's most-used function, will take effect on Wednesday and be improved over time, executives told reporters at the company's "Googleplex" headquarters.
"I think of it as a pretty natural evolution, with the one interesting thing being the video side of it," said Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with Global Crown Capital.
"The thing everyone is wondering right now is what will an advertiser be willing to pay for a video link," Pyykkonen said. "From the advertiser standpoint, I think they will be interested in how to hook their customer better."
Universal Search means that standard Google searches will draw results from separate properties covering books, local information, images, news, and video, said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search and user experience.
"It's breaking down the silos of information that have been built up. It's a broad, long-term vision that will unfold over the next few years," Mayer said. "We are really excited about what Universal Search could evolve to in the future."
The combined search includes any site indexed by Google's services. On the video side, for example, it will include YouTube, Google Video and independent sites like Metacafe.com.
Mayer did not directly discuss advertising plans, but she indicated the new service could open the door to more relevant ads on search result pages, which accounted for roughly half of the $10.6 billion in revenue Google did last year.
"For us, ads are (search) answers as well. I would hope that we can bring some of these same advances, in terms of richness of media, to ads," Mayer said.
In addition, the company is introducing new navigation features at the top of every Google page that let users to quickly hop between its different properties.
For example, users of Google's e-mail service, Gmail, can jump instantly to search, calendar, documents, and other services, according to a demonstration at the briefing.
The company also is preparing a translation service that converts queries into other languages, allowing a user to comb a broader swath of the Web, Google's Vice President of Engineering, Udi Manber, said at the event.
The technique will translate queries in any of a dozen languages into English, find additional search results, then automatically translate those back into the language of the original query. This will give users in any supported language a broader view of information on the Web.
"That by itself will open the whole Web to different languages," Manber said.
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Google: 10 percent of sites are dangerous

Google is warning Web users of the increasing threat posed by malicious software that can be dropped onto a computer as a Web surfer visits a particular site.
The search giant carried out in-depth research on 4.5 million Web sites and found that about one in 10 Web pages could successfully "drive-by download" a Trojan horse virus onto a visitor's computer. Such malicious software potentially enables hackers to access sensitive data stored on the computer or its network, or to install rogue applications.
Google's report (PDF: The Ghost in the Browser: Analysis of Web-based Malware), published last week, said the rise in Web-based malicious software has been aided by the increasing role that the Internet plays in everyday life, along with the ease in setting up Web sites.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said Google is highlighting a worsening trend and "a considerable problem" for businesses and individual Web navigators.
An average of 8,000 new URLs containing malicious software emerged each week during April, Cluley said, adding that the notion that such software resides only in the darker corners of the Internet is very outdated. Seventy percent of Web pages hosting rogue software are found on legitimate sites targeted by hackers, according to Sophos.
To place malicious software on Web sites, hackers are manipulating Web server security, user-posted content, advertising and third-party widgets, Cluley said. "They used to spread malware by e-mail attachment. What they do now is spam out URLs."
Cluley warned businesses that they "cannot protect users by restricting what sites they go to. You need to start protecting your Web access as well as your e-mail gateway."
Tim Ferguson of Silicon.com reported from London.

Study: iPods can make pacemakers malfunction

CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) -- iPods can cause cardiac implantable pacemakers to malfunction by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart, according to a study presented by a 17-year-old high school student to a meeting of heart specialists on Thursday.
The study tested the effect of the portable music devices on 100 patients, whose mean age was 77, outfitted with pacemakers. Electrical interference was detected half of the time when the iPod was held just 2 inches from the patient's chest for 5 to 10 seconds.
The study did not examine any portable music devices other than iPods, which are made by Apple Inc.
In some cases, the iPods caused interference when held 18 inches from the chest. Interfering with the telemetry equipment caused the device to misread the heart's pacing and in one case caused the pacemaker to stop functioning altogether.
The study was held at the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute at Michigan State University. The results were presented at the Heart Rhythm Society annual meeting in Denver.
Jay Thaker, lead author of the study and a student at Okemos High School in Okemos, Michigan, concluded that iPod interference can lead physicians to misdiagnose actual heart function.
Thaker, whose father is an electrophysiologist and whose mother is a rheumatologist, said he asked his dad about a potential interaction between pacemakers and iPods.
"We looked online but didn't see anything. Then, one of his patients asked him if there would be a problem, so (my father) put me in touch with Dr. Krit (Jongnarangsin)," Thaker said in a telephone interview.
Jongnarangsin, a long-time friend of Thaker's father, is the senior author of the study and an assistant professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Michigan.
"Most pacemaker patients are not iPod users," Jongnarangsin said. For that reason, he said, it is unclear how often iPods cause misdiagnosis.
"This needs to be studied more," Jongnarangsin added.
Thaker said he is interested in doing a similar study about how implantable cardioverter defibrillators, known as ICDs, are affected by iPods.
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The supermarket of the future

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Standing in a long line at the grocer soon might get you through the checkout faster.
That's because a British company has designed a system to track and predict the movements of supermarket shoppers using thermal imaging. A computer analyzes data from infrared cameras, then advises when and where additional cashiers are needed.
"The idea is that the more pleasant the checkout experience, the more you will buy," said Nick Stogdale, senior sales manager for InfraRed Integrated Systems' SMARTLANE product. The system is being tested by two U.S. chains.
The SMARTLANE was one of many new food-related technologies on display at this week's Food Marketing Institute show, where speed, ease, sanitation and a touch of theater ruled.
Take the case of rotisserie chicken, one of the most popular items in the fast-growing prepared foods category: The latest crop of chicken roasters -- those ubiquitous ovens that endlessly twirl crisp, golden chickens at grocers across the nation -- are designed not just to cook, but also to capture your attention with good looks and funky design.
Hence, the Multisserie, an upright, clear cylindrical oven by Netherlands-based Fri-Jado that spins the chickens on end, like a giant top. "We try to bring a very high show element to it," marketing director Ernst Goettsch said Sunday.
The same thinking also influenced the design of Montreal-based Hardt's Inferno Rotisserie, which offers a crowd-pleasing self-cleaning function that looks like a sprinkler gone wild.
"The more a supermarket can do to create a show or to create a restaurant-style experience, the more sales they make," said Michael Griffin, a vice president of sales for Hardt.
For those who prefer their food slightly pixelated, food industry analyst Phil Lempert has teamed with Kraft Foods and the National Grocers Association to launch a virtual supermarket in the online fantasy world known as Second Life.
Though visitors to Phil's Supermarket can't actually buy groceries, they can guide their avatars (online parlance for a user's digital personification) through the store to explore products, watch cooking demos and see the latest food and health news.
The idea is to help people navigate the real world of food by letting them "pre-shop," accessing nutritional data and other information on various products, previewing a showcase of just-launched items or scoring coupons.
"The average consumer only spends 22 minutes food shopping," said Lempert, who launched the site Monday. "That's not a whole lot of time to see new products. But what I hear from consumers is that they want to hear about what's new and exciting."
Lempert expects to have 100,000 products on the site by the end of summer. Visitors can "taste" many of the products, then offer reviews. How meaningful those reviews are, of course, depend on whether users have tried the product in the analog world.
Beyond wanting to know more about their food, consumers also want to know more about its safety.
On display this week are products such as G & K Services' line of ProSura clothing. Intended for food service workers such as meat cutters and chefs, these clothes are like hand sanitizer you can wear.
Though the clothing resembles the white cotton garments common to butcher shops and professional kitchens, ProSura products have chlorine chemically bonded to the fibers, claiming to kill microbes that touch them.
G & K marketing manager Christine Fischer says that for many companies this level of sanitation probably isn't necessary, but they see it as a way of demonstrating to customers that they are willing to spend extra to ensure the safety of their food.
And spending on sanitation might be smart money. According to a Harris Poll Online released Monday by FMI, just 66 percent of consumers feel at least somewhat confident in the safety of supermarket food, down from 82 percent in 2006.
The food industry has been hit by a number of recent food safety problems, including E. coli in spinach and melamine contamination of pet food and animal feed, and FMI spokesman Bill Greer says the study reflects that.
Which means business could boom for companies such as PureCart, which makes a sort of disinfecting car wash for shopping carts. But despite consumer concerns, PureCart president Jim Kratowicz says products such as his still have a tough sell.
That's because even though consumers want clean carts, companies worry about sending the wrong message.
Consumers might wonder, "What are grocers telling me? They're telling me they have dirty carts," he said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NYC cabbies not sold on touch-screens

NEW YORK (AP) -- To taxi officials, the touch-screen monitors popping up in cabs help passengers make the most of the 13 New York minutes spent on an average ride.
Passengers can pay by credit card -- no more fumbling for cash and tip. As a cab heads through Greenwich Village, for example, passengers can find ads and reviews for neighborhood bars and restaurants. They can also view news stories and an electronic map of their cab's progress.
The monitors are now in 200 city cabs as an experiment, but a plan to put them in all 13,000 cabs has angered many drivers. They see the technology as an expensive imposition that would cost them money and allow taxi owners and officials to check up on them.
The issue has a delicate history: A 2003 experiment with touch-screen television in taxis ended within months, amid passenger antipathy. And the drivers' group leading the opposition to the monitors notes that it carried out a crippling one-day taxi strike over other issues in 1998.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission is scheduled Thursday to consider an October 1 deadline for all of the city's cabs to start installing the systems.
"This project is nothing short of revolutionary and evolutionary for the taxi industry," Taxi and Limousine Commissioner Matthew W. Daus wrote in a recent agency newsletter.
The commission called for the technology while approving a 26 percent fare increase in 2004, and the agency argues that both riders and drivers stand to benefit.
The credit-card option is expected to prove popular with customers in what is now a mostly cash, $1.8 billion-a-year business. Officials say it could translate to bigger tips and more fares from riders short on cash.
The global positioning system in the technology will also automate required record-keeping and give drivers crucial information about traffic or lost items. If a customer reports losing a wallet, for example, the taxi commission could send alerts to drivers in the neighborhood where the customer was dropped off to be on the lookout.
The commission has approved tests of four systems and may endorse them for sale within days. Taxi owners would choose from the four systems, at a maximum three-year cost of $7,200 for equipment and various fees, although commission officials expect the cost will be far less in many cases. Vendors say advertising can offset at least some of owners' costs.
Objecting drivers have raised concerns about the costs of the hardware, credit-card fees and potential working time lost if the systems need repair. Some worry that the global-positioning system will be used to track their movements, although the taxi commission says it will record only the pickup and drop-off points and fare, which drivers already are required to log.
"It's trampling on our constitutional rights, and it will cut deeply into our income," said Bill Lindauer, who drove a cab for 30 years and is a member of the organizing committee of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a drivers' advocacy group with more than 7,000 members.
The alliance held a rally in March to protest the new systems, and Lindauer said this month that the group was exploring legal and political avenues for trying to block the plan.
But some drivers embrace the technology, which came free for those who offered their cabs as proving grounds.
Cesar Norena, a 17-year taxi driver testing a system made by Englewood, New Jersey-based TaxiTech, says passengers have made liberal use of its features, and he believes the credit-card option will boost business.
"People really like it," he said, "and as a driver, I really like it, too."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Hacker accesses students' personal information

COLUMBIA, Missouri (AP) -- A computer hacker accessed the Social Security numbers of more than 22,000 current or former students at the University of Missouri, the second such attack this year, school officials said Tuesday. The FBI is investigating.
University officials said campus computer technicians confirmed a breach of a database last week by a user or users whose Internet accounts were traced to China and Australia.
The hacker accessed personal information of 22,396 University of Missouri-Columbia students or alumni who also worked at one of the system's four campuses in St. Louis, Kansas City, Rolla or Columbia in 2004.
The hacker obtained the information through a Web page used to make queries about the status of trouble reports to the university's computer help desk, which is based in Columbia. The information had been compiled for a report, but the data had not been removed from the computer system.
In January, a hacker obtained the Social Security numbers of 1,220 university researchers, as well as personal passwords of as many as 2,500 people who used an online grant application system.
The university is contacting people affected by the latest breach and providing instructions on how to monitor their credit reports and other financial records for suspicious activity, officials said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Apple seeking end to music copy restrictions

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The last time Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs took on major recording companies, he refused to budge on his 99-cent price for a song on iTunes.
As a new round of talks ramp up this month, however, Jobs has opened the door to higher prices -- as long as music companies let Apple Inc. sell their songs without technology designed to stop unauthorized copying.
Jobs contends that would "tear down the walls" by allowing consumers to play music they buy at Apple's iTunes store on any digital music player, not just the company's iPods.
Although most of the major labels insist that safeguards are still needed to stave off online piracy and make other digital music business models work, one company has already struck a deal with Apple.
Last month, Britain's EMI Music Group PLC, home to artists such as Coldplay, Norah Jones and Joss Stone, agreed to let iTunes sell tracks without the copy-protection technology known as digital-rights management. The DRM-free tracks cost 30 cents more than copy-restricted versions of EMI songs and feature enhanced sound quality.
The other major labels -- Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi's Universal Music Group, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG -- will be watching closely to see how the unrestricted EMI tracks sell.
"At this point, no one can ignore Apple or what Apple wants, given its position in the marketplace," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Jupiter Research. "The fact that they were able to do this deal with EMI puts more pressure on some of the other labels to follow suit."
For their part, at least two of the recording companies will ask Jobs to sell a wider variety of content in digital bundles of songs, videos and other multimedia, according to two recording company executives familiar with their companies' plans. They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the confidential nature of the negotiations.
Apple already sells some bundled tracks, but the music companies hope expanding those offerings will boost online revenue and help offset lagging CD sales.
Apple and the recording companies declined official comment on their negotiations.
Four years ago, the majors bought into Jobs' one-price-fits-all vision and agreed to such licensing terms at a time online music services were failing to attract significant interest from music fans.
Since then, the popularity of Apple's iPods has swelled and the sleek devices now dominate more than 70 percent of the digital music player market, by some estimates.
While studies have suggested that only a fraction of the music on most iPods is actually purchased on iTunes, the service has ridden the iPod's coattails and helped cement its position as the top-selling online music service and one of the biggest music retailers overall.
That's given Apple considerable leverage in its dealings with the recording industry.
Last year, the main issue that dominated iTunes licensing talks was pricing, as some of the big music companies urged Jobs to entertain charging more for some songs than others.
The dispute percolated for months, but Jobs didn't budge, not wanting to complicate iTunes' simple pricing scheme for singles.
Eventually, the music companies each agreed to one-year deals, which expire this spring.
Now, Apple is facing pressure in Europe to license its brand of DRM technology to rivals, so consumers can play the music they buy on iTunes on any digital music player, not just iPods.
Critics of the recording industry have argued for years that the labels are alienating customers by placing copy restrictions on legal music downloads, especially as many CDs have been sold without them.
The technology behind such measures differs, depending on the retailer and the music device. Apple, for example, has its own version, called FairPlay, that only works with iPods, making it cumbersome for consumers to transfer songs they bought across other portable digital devices. Likewise, DRM systems used at other online stores won't work with iPods.
Many music fans who don't want to deal with the hassle simply turn to online file-sharing networks to download no-strings tracks for free.
The recording industry has argued that copy protection software itself is not what makes some songs incompatible with some digital players, but the fact that there are different versions of the technology in use. The music companies have called on Jobs to license out FairPlay to makers of rival devices.
Jobs has countered that the best way to get rid of technological barriers is for record labels to strip the copy safeguards from their music. He defends keeping FairPlay closed, saying that if it was widely available, it would become easier for hackers to figure out how to bypass it.
No matter what, Apple plans to continue selling standard, copy-restricted versions of songs for 99 cents each. With the EMI deal, Apple will this month start selling $1.29 premium tracks that are not only DRM free but also of higher quality, compressed at twice the usual bit rate.
John Heard, an iTunes user in Santa Monica, said he would jump at the chance to buy no-strings download, even if it costs more.
"If I have the choice between something that doesn't have copy protection or it does, I'm always going to choose the thing that doesn't have copy protection," said Heard, 28, a television producer who spends about $300 a year on music, almost all on iTunes.
Buying a better-sounding track is appealing to David Sholle, 54, of Long Beach, a college professor who has purchased several hundred songs from iTunes.
"I'd be willing to pay for that," he said.
Anticipating a more competitive market, other companies are looking to break into online music sales. Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. first approached the major recording companies 18 months ago about launching an online music store.
A recent meeting prompted speculation that Amazon might begin selling unrestricted MP3s and other music downloads as early as this month. The company has declined to comment.
David Pakman, president and CEO of eMusic, said the elimination of copy protection could help his company mine the rare, catalog recordings owned by major labels but not typically available on iTunes.
EMusic already sells music from independent labels in the MP3 format and boasts some 300,000 subscribers.
Pakman believes the major record labels will also eventually relent on requiring copy restrictions.
"We really think the market is breaking our way," Pakman said. "A noteworthy major will probably take some steps in this direction later this year."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Americans Divided on Gadget Use

(NEW YORK) — A broad survey about the technology people have, how they use it, and what they think about it shatters assumptions and reveals where companies might be able to expand their audiences.
The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that adult Americans are broadly divided into three groups: 31 percent are elite technology users, 20 percent are moderate users and the remainder have little or no usage of the Internet or cell phones.
But Americans are divided within each group, according to a Pew analysis of 2006 data released Sunday.
The high-tech elites, for instance, are almost evenly split into:
• "Omnivores," who fully embrace technology and express themselves creatively through blogs and personal Web pages.
• "Connectors," who see the Internet and cell phones as communications tools.
• "Productivity enhancers," who consider technology as largely ways to better keep up with their jobs and daily lives.
• "Lackluster veterans," those who use technology frequently but aren't thrilled by it.
John Horrigan, Pew's associate director, said he started the survey believing that the more gadgets people have, the more they are likely to embrace technology and use so-called Web 2.0 applications for generating and sharing content with the world. "Once we got done, we were surprised to find the tensions within groups of users with information technology," Horrigan said.
Many longtime Internet users, the lackluster veterans, remain stuck in the decade-old technologies they started with, Horrigan said. That a quarter of high-tech elites fall into this category, he said, shows untapped potential for companies that can design next-generation applications to pique this group's interest.
The moderate users were also evenly divided into "mobile centrics," those who primarily use the cell phone for voice, text messaging and even games, and "connected but hassled," those who have used technology but find it burdensome.
Mobile companies, he said, can target the mobile centrics with premium services, especially once faster wireless networks become available.
The Pew study found 15 percent of all Americans have neither a cell phone nor an Internet connection. Another 15 percent use some technology and are satisfied with what it currently does for them, while 11 percent use it intermittently and find connectivity annoying.
Eight percent — mostly women in the early 50s — occasionally use technology and might use more given more experience. They tend to still be on dial-up access and represent potential high-speed customers "with the right constellation of services offered," Horrigan said.
The telephone study of 4,001 U.S. adults, including 2,822 Internet users, was conducted Feb. 15 to April 6, 2006, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

'Monitor Queen' of Malaysia gives computers a new life

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- In her native Malaysia, Mary Tiong developed a reputation for selling leftover computer monitors for a large manufacturer behind the industry's best-known brands. She earned a nickname: The Monitor Queen.
From her new base in Pittsburgh, Tiong continues to move large quantities of monitors. But now, she ships thousands of discarded models with computers back to Malaysia, where they are rebuilt and sold in poor countries, mostly in Southeast Asia.
Tiong, 41, says her company, Second Life Computer Remanufacturing, has environmental and philanthropic goals: It helps stem a rising tide of electronic waste in the United States and fulfills a need for basic computer equipment in the developing world.
But she hopes to expand her operations by establishing a training program to teach local students how to rebuild aging computers, which often can be used for office work, Web surfing and e-mail -- and saved from the scrap heap.
The program would create jobs and demonstrate that "somebody's junk is another person's treasure," Tiong said.
Her office is in a small warehouse jammed with monitors and PCs wrapped in plastic and stacked on wooden pallets. The computers and monitors, some plucked from U.S. classrooms, law offices or pharmacies, might have been donated to or purchased by Tiong for $10 or less a piece.
"But I know that if you can make it work and get somebody to use it, the value is much better than a few dollars," she said.
Since 2005, Tiong's firm has sent 35 shipping containers to remanufacturing facilities in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, Malaysia. One container holds as many as 2,000 computers, or between 800 and 1,000 monitors.
In Malaysia, workers test and repair the equipment, perhaps cracking open computers to replace parts or polishing monitor tubes and repainting their plastic cases in bright hues.
In many cases, the devices are returning to their country of origin -- Malaysia. Tiong, who was born in Malaysia's Sarawak state on Borneo Island, says that gives her a unique perspective on the discarded technology.
"Because I'm from Asia ... I know where they come from," she said.
After working as a distributor for the Taiwanese electronic parts maker Lite-On Technology Corp., Tiong began traveling on her own to the United States in 1998. She bought containers loaded with monitors and shipped them back to Malaysia, where she had a factory that rebuilt or refurbished them. She then sold the equipment to customers in Singapore, Russia and Papua New Guinea.
The following year, Tiong began dealing in computers as well, buying old PCs in Atlanta, Georgia, Boston, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California, among other cities. In 2000, she expanded to suppliers in Australia and, in 2004, to Canada.
She came to Pittsburgh in 2004 and formed Babylon Industries, the parent company of Second Life Computers. She said her company's revenue fluctuates, but that it probably averages about $500,000 annually.
The units are sent to schools and other customers in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Argentina; Tiong's distributors are hoping to tap into markets in Peru and South Africa. Some equipment is sold at minimal cost -- less than $100 -- to rural villagers, she said. Some have been refurbished in Pittsburgh and donated to local schools.
Jim Rapoza, chief technology analyst for the publication eWeek, said "getting rid of old equipment is a big issue" for many businesses.
"Usually, you can't find anyone interested in buying this stuff," though the pace of computer technology has slowed enough that slightly older machines are still useful for many tasks, including Web surfing and e-mail, he said.
Tiong tries to avoid recycling -- destroying the machines or breaking them down for parts -- saying her mission is to restore them so they can be used by people who are unable to afford the latest technology.
She is not alone. Many U.S.-based groups collect and refurbish computers and send them abroad, according to Rob Zopf, vice president of operations at the National Cristina Foundation, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based group that distributes donated computers to schools and charities across the country.
"The other side of the issue is there are people who collect equipment here in the U.S. (and) send it overseas in the name of reuse, although they're really sending it as a way of disposing of e-waste in a much less environmentally friendly way than one might like by taking components we might not want in our landfills and giving them to the Third World," he said.
Second Life says on its Web site that less than 1 percent of its refurbished equipment, 2 percent of its remanufactured equipment and 5 percent of its recycled equipment goes to the landfill. Tiong said little is wasted because even small parts, such as chips, can be reused.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Review: 'Spider-Man 3' video game a blockbuster

(CNN) -- With the video game version of "Spider-Man 3" and its theatrical counterpart hitting the United States on Friday, we're not just seeing the continuation of a hugely successful movie franchise.
We're seeing the continuation of a video game franchise that's hugely successful in its own right.
"As popular as 'Spider-Man' is in the movie world, he's as popular in the video game world," says Bryan Intihar, Previews Editor for the video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly.
Activision's video game versions of the last two "Spider-Man" movies have grossed a staggering $462 million in the United States, according to market research firm NPD.
That's almost $100 million more than what the "Spider-Man 2" movie took in at the box office.
Usually, Intihar points out, you only see video game legends like "Grand Theft Auto" or "Halo" pulling those kinds of numbers.
The "Spider-Man" games have won commercial and critical kudos for their mostly faithful re-creations of the movies, and for a unique "open environment" that allows players to fight bad guys and swing through a dizzyingly accurate virtual recreation of Manhattan.
Activision's Neven Dravinski also credits the cooperation his "Spider-Man 3" team received from the movie's director, studio and stars (most of the film's cast, including, Tobey McGuire, do voice work for the game).
Dravinski says early in the film's production the gamemakers were able to see storyboards and initial special effects shots from some of the "Spider-Man 3" film's more memorable action sequences, including Peter Parker's nighttime aerial battle with the Green Goblin and Spider-Man's subway confrontation with Sandman. (Watch "Spider-Man 3: The Game" merge movie, video game )
Both sequences are featured in the game.
"Thankfully," Dravinski says, "we were able to see a lot of these sequences early and get a sense of what [the filmmakers] were doing."
The new "Spider-Man 3" game includes enhanced powers and new combat moves for Spidey; a bigger and more lifelike rendering of Manhattan; and storylines that diverge from the movie, including Spidey's battles against three elaborate street gangs that threaten to take over parts of New York (think "Spider-Man" meets "The Warriors").
Sure, the "Spider-Man" games can never match the popular action shooters for edge-of-your seat, pulse-pounding thrills (Spidey's gaming appeal has always been more "Wee!" than "Wow!").
But their re-creations of some well-loved movies, and of one well-loved character, may be what set them apart.
Still bleary-eyed after having unveiled the game at "Spider-Man 3" movie premieres in London, England, and Japan, Activision's Dravinski brightens at the memory of the reception the game got from fans. "At every premiere, I was the most popular guy because every kid, and every 40-year-old kid, would be like: 'Oh, my God -- Spider-Man!' "
It's that kind of international enthusiasm that makes for successful video game franchises.

Couple uses MySpace in adoption search

TAYLOR, Michigan (AP) -- A Michigan couple who spent five years trying to conceive has turned to MySpace.com in search of birth parents so they can adopt a child.
Sherry and Karl Dittmar already have a biological son and two adopted sons, but they also want a little girl.
"Dear birthmother," their MySpace posting begins. "We cannot imagine how difficult making an adoption plan for your child must be. ... Thank you for including our profile in your search for the right family to raise your baby."
The MySpace page had not drawn any offers of a baby by Wednesday morning, although the couple got a lead on a pregnant teen who was considering adoption, Sherry Dittmar told The Associated Press. She said she had received more than 1,700 messages since Monday alone.
"It's crazy," said the 31-year-old homemaker.
It was not clear if others had used the social site, popular primarily with young people, to find pregnant women considering adoption. Other Web sites specifically about adoption also post hopeful adoptive parents' profiles.
On the Web site, the Dittmars urged prospective birth parents to choose them.
"We would be thrilled to welcome a baby girl ... to our home," their posting says. "We hope you feel our family is the right family for your child."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Digg mobbed by its own crowd

(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- "Letting users control your site can be terrifying at first," said Kevin Rose, the cofounder of popular news-aggregator site, Digg, told Business 2.0 Magazine recently.
But yesterday, Rose learned just how terrifying it can really be. Thousands of users rose up in protest over the site's decision to ban articles and comments that contained a 16-digit code that can be used to crack anti-copying technology on HD-DVDs.
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After users bombarded the site with more articles containing the offending code, Digg decided to yield to the power of the crowd.
Digg founder Kevin Rose announced on his blog that the site had changed its stance and has re-instated the offending articles after reading thousands of comments from angry users complaining about censorship.
Can HP revolutionize the DVD?
"You've made it clear," Rose writes. "You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won't delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be." Rose added, "If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying."
The trouble started when lawyers for the format's digital rights management technology sent cease and desist letters to Digg, warning the site that that making the code public violates the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
Digg began removing articles and comments that contained the code, but then the site was met with a furious backlash, as users began flooding the site with stories containing the code.
At one point, the top ten tech stories on Digg were stories that mentioned the banned code, and the torrent of posts temporarily crashed Digg's servers.
Digg at first defended its decision to remove stories containing the code, saying it was only obeying the law. Jay Adelson, the site's CEO, wrote in a posting to users, "Whether you agree or disagree with the policies of the intellectual property holders and consortiums, in order for Digg to survive, it must abide by the law." But by the end of the day when user protests reached a fever pitch, Digg decided to reverse course.
As Digg told Business 2.0 last December when he gave readers advice about how to succeed in business: "It's about allowing users to define the site and police the site themselves."
Yesterday, following his own advice turned out to be harder than Rose might have imagined.
Tom McNichol is a senior writer at Business 2.0 Magazine. Read his blog at The Other End of the Telescope.

Google expands personalization with iGoogle

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (Reuters) -- Google Inc. is stepping up efforts to allow its users to personalize how they search the Web, moving beyond the one-size-fits-all approach to search it already offers.
Officials told reporters at Google's Silicon Valley headquarters on Monday of moves to allow users to share their own writings, photos, lists and other creative efforts, as well as to give consumers personalized views of the Web through use of their geographical location and search history.
The world's top provider of Web search services is bringing together the more idiosyncratic approach to finding information on the Internet under the umbrella term "iGoogle," the new name for its enhanced personalized home page services.
"We want to personalize the traditional notion of search," Sep Kamvar, lead engineer for the personalization push, told reporters. "I am an eclectic person. But everyone is. We can't go about designing products for the average person."
Reinventing the classic Google.com home page -- with its simple, uncluttered design -- the company is introducing features that range from colorful new Web page designs to helping users publish their own creative content.
Google is borrowing or reinventing ideas that have already become popular features on many social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Bebo and Photobucket, where users are encouraged to share their own creative work with friends.
To help users create personalized features on iGoogle, the company introduced "Gadget Maker," which allows any user who knows how to upload a photo and fill out a simple Web form to publish their content without knowing computer coding.
Google introduced seven templates for creating personalized "gadgets" -- publishing features -- that include tools for publishing photos, sending virtual greeting cards or creating personal profiles or lists of favorite songs or films.
"I look at personalized search and I think it is one of the biggest advances we have had in the last couple of years," Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president in charge of search and user experience, told a news briefing.
Google's personalized home page, introduced two years ago, offers users the ability to choose from thousands of regularly updating Web features on one page. Tens of millions of users have signed up so far for the personalized approach to search and they are some of Google's most active users, Mayer said.
Last week, Google introduced the ability for users to refer back to their personal Web search history over the past several years. The history feature is optional and only for users who give permission to Google to store their Web surfing activity.
Google officials were asked whether users might be shocked to see how much information Google stores on searches.
"Web history tells the user what we (Google) know about you," Mayer replied. "You actually have full insight into what we know," she said, adding that users can delete any personal information they do not want to be recorded from searches.
Google is moving cautiously to avoid the mistakes of a decade ago, when the first wave of Web portals used personalization features on their sites to help marketers target ads rather than giving the user greater control.
"At some point we will turn our attention to advertising," Mayer said, but stressed that iGoogle will remain non-commercial for the foreseeable future.
Google is also introducing a geographic aspect to search results based on the location that users select as their home location on Google Maps.
Users who accept this option will see Google search results that are tailored to their location, so a search for "pizza" will return links to nearby pizza restaurants, not just the most heavily visited pizza sites across the Web.
The company is also expanding the number of countries and languages in which it will offer personalized search services.
This week, iGoogle personalized Web search will be available in 40 countries and 26 languages, up from 22 nations and 15 languages where personalization is now offered, said Jessica Ewing, the product manager for iGoogle.
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.