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Study: VoIP services inferior to PSTN
Internet-based telephone services are still very inferior to traditional phone connections in reliability and sound quality, according to an extensive study that judged Vonage and AT&T CallVantage best among the top providers.
The Associated Press reports (14 July) that The Associs ted Press reports in The New York Times (1 July) that Keynote Systems, known for measuring the performance of popular Web sites, also found that the reliability of Voice-over-Internet phone service is significantly affected by the provider of the high-speed internet line used to dial a call.
Time Warner Cable and MCI's UUNET business service scored highest on reliability. Keynote found little variance in audio clarity among the broadband providers,
The AP report says that the study was based on 154,000 calls placed in May and June using six leading internet phone services, or 22,000 each, and seven providers of high-speed internet connections.
Vonage, for example, posted the best score for service reliability with just 80 out of 100 possible points, but that was four times better than the worst of the six service providers. Likewise, AT&T CallVantage took the top ranking for audio clarity with a score of 82, or twice as high as the worst performer.
According to the AP/NYT report, disruptions in the ability to make or receive a call was a key problem, the study found.
Keynote said service availability ranged from 99.4 percent of the time to as low as 94.8 percent, meaning that for customers of the worst performers, one out every 20 call attempts failed.
AP reports that the other internet phone services tested were Verizon VoiceWing, Packet8, Lingo and SkypeOut, the premium version of Skype for calls to a traditional phone rather than another Skype user.
Samsung, LG nudge wireless - VoIP calling
Internet telephone service tiptoed a few more steps into the wireless realm on Tuesday as Skype and Boingo unveiled a service to enable Voice-over-Internet calls over Wi-Fi hot spots, while Samsung and LG announced plans to develop mobile phones that combine cellular and Wi-Fi technologies.
The Associated Press reports (14 July) that Skype Zones, costing US$8 per month, allows laptop users to make phone calls using Skype Technologies's popular internet phone services whenever they're near one of Boingo Wireless's 18,000 transmitters in public locations such as coffee shops, airports and hotels.
Calls using Skype's basic computer-to-computer service, which bypasses the public telephone network, will remain free. Skype Technologies will still charge extra for calls dialed to a regular phone number or received from a regular phone number.
The AP/NYT report says the fee for Skype Zones does not include access to the internet and e-mail, which still costs $22 a month for unlimited usage from Boingo. But compared with the Internet package, where there are extra roaming charges in certain countries, the Skype service includes free access to all of Boingo's hot spots in about 40 nations.
Also Tuesday, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics of Korea both announced deals to use a new hybrid wireless technology from Kineto Wireless to develop mobile phones that can pass a call from a cellular network to a Wi-Fi network without interrupting the connection.
The AP report says that Samsung is licensing the technology to develop new mobile phones, while LG said it will be collaborating with Kineto on new hybrids. The companies did not say when they expect to introduce the new phones.
The new technology, known as UMA for Unlicensed Mobile Access, is designed to provide better call quality indoors, where cellular signals turn weak and short-range Wi-Fi signals are strong. UMA also may lighten the load on crowded cellular networks by allowing carriers to divert phone calls from their towers.
IPod sales give Apple 75% jump in revenue
Showing continued strong growth of its popular iPod digital music player and impressive personal computer sales in the United States, Apple Computer reported quarterly earnings on Wednesday that far outpaced the expectations of financial analysts.
The New York Times reports (14 July) that Apple said net income for its third quarter, ended 30 June, rose to US$320 million, or 37 cents a share, from US$61 million a year ago, or 8 cents a share, adjusted for a stock split.
The newspaper says the results surpassed the consensus forecast of analysts, which was 31 cents a share. Moreover, revenue increased 75 percent to US$3.5 billion, from US$2.01 billion during the quarter in 2004.
Apple reported sales of 6.1 million iPod music players. IPod revenue was US$1.1 billion for the quarter, an increase of 16 percent quarter to quarter and of 343 percent from year to year. The company also pointed to a strong start for the latest version of its Macintosh OS X operating system, named Tiger, which sold more than two million copies during its first quarter of availability, with revenue of more than US$100 million.
The NYT reports that Apple said that sales of Tiger and other software programs contributed significantly to its unexpectedly high gross margins: 29.7 percent for the quarter, up from 27.8 percent a year ago.
The report adds that the chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer, also said that quarterly sales of Macintosh computers had reached a four-year high, with 1.18 million systems shipped, and that the company had sold 495,000 notebook computers, a record.
Apple said on Wednesday that it believed that it was winning back market share among education customers in the United States. It shipped 34 percent more computers to higher-education customers than a year earlier, and 15 percent more computers to elementary and secondary schools.
Sony sales hit iPod in Japan
Sony has a new lineup of digital music players that are slicing into the popularity of Apple Computer's iPod device in Japan.
Reuters reports in The New York Times (14 July) that Apple is still squashing Sony in Europe and North America, where the iPod has achieved iconic status and a big selling point is the availability of iTunes, an easy-to-use music downloading service that has not yet been launched in Japan.
The report says that while Apple remains the top seller of hard drive players in Japan, there has been a decisive momentum swing in the Japanese market, with Sony securing the top position for memory-type players in both May and June, knocking Apple and its iPod shuffle device into second place.
Translating that success overseas will not be easy, but boosting sales in Japan is an important first step for Sony as it tries to reclaim the lead in the portable audio market it helped pioneer with the Walkman cassette player 26 years ago, reports Reuters.
Launched worldwide in March and April, Sony's new lineup of music players includes several models equipped with flash memory chips able to store 256, 512 megabytes or 1 gigabyte of data, and two players with hard disk drives, says the Reuters/NYT report.
Several low-cost Asian makers are also fighting for a piece of the market, which researcher In-Stat predicts will nearly quadruple to 104 million units a year by 2009.
Among the top players are Singapore's Creative Technology, South Korea's Reigncom's iRiver, and Rio, owned by D&M Holdings.
AMD's profit exceeds predictions of analysts
Advanced Micro Devices defied Wall Street's predictions and posted a profit of 3 cents a share on Wednesday, its first profitable quarter in nine months, as strong sales of its microprocessors offset pricing pressure in its troubled memory chip division.
The New York Times reports (14 July) that AMD., the second-largest chip company behind Intel, reported net income of US$11.3 million and revenue of US$1.26 billion for the second fiscal quarter, which ended 26 June 26. That compares with a profit of 9 cents a share on revenue of US$1.26 billion in the period a year ago.
The company said it had experienced its greatest growth in microprocessors used in servers and notebook computers.
The newspaper reports that AMD's second-quarter sales, while flat compared with a year earlier, increased 3 percent over the first quarter of this year. Gross margins increased to 39 percent, from 34 percent, largely because of stronger sales of microprocessors, as the average selling price rose 6 percent during the second quarter. Microprocessor chip sales, which account for three-fifths of the company's total, increased 38 percent from the second quarter of 2004, to US$767 million.
According to the NYT report, AMD and Intel have been racing to develop chips based on dual-core technology, which places two processing engines on a single piece of silicon for faster performance. Both companies began shipping dual-core processors in April, and computers based on the new technology are now starting to reach customers.
But while AMD has scored numerous customer wins in the last few months, it remains a distant second to Intel, which commands more than 80 percent of unit sales and 90 percent of the revenues in the market for x86 microprocessors.
Microsoft and Marvel online game deal
Microsoft said on Thursday it won exclusive rights to develop and publish multiplayer online games starring Marvel Enterprises's super heroes, including Spider-man, the X-men and the Hulk.
Reuters reports in The New York Times (14 July) that the deal covers massively multiplayer online (MMO) game titles developed for Microsoft's upcoming Xbox 360 gaming console and published by the software giant's game studio.
The report says that the deal is Marvel's first MMO pact. The first title is expected in 2008.
The MMO deal is Microsoft's first for a console, although the company has previously had MMO deals for the PC.
MMO games allow players in various locations to compete. Such game play is popular with PC gamers in Asia. Some analysts estimate that as many as 2 million people are MMO game players
Online capabilities will be central to new game consoles and Microsoft sees MMO games as a large opportunity. The Xbox 360, Microsoft's next-generation game console, is due out this fall (US). The company launched Xbox Live, a fee-based online console gaming network, in November.
US Court upholds AT&T verdict against Microsoft
A US appeals court on Wednesday upheld a lower court decision that Microsoft was liable for infringing on an AT&T patent for converting speech into computer code in copies of Windows sold overseas.
Reuters reports in The New York Times (1 July) that the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals said that the world's largest software maker was liable for the unauthorised distribution of codec technology, used to compress speech signals into data, in copies of Windows overseas.
Last year, Microsoft settled most of the telephone company's outstanding claims, and both agreed to appeal the unresolved issue over the distribution of the technology overseas, which Microsoft said it was not liable for.
Carphone's TalkTalk offers free UK-Ireland calls
TalkTalk, the fixed-line phone service of mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse Group, said its Irish and British customers could now call each other for free in its first zero-cost international offer.
Reuters reports in The New York Times (1 July) that customers in the UK and Ireland with TalkTalk, which claims more than 1 million customers in Britain, will be able to make unlimited free calls at any time -- forever.
Carphone, which also offers its TalkTalk service in France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, said it was hoping to extend its international free calling.
The Reuters/NYT report says that TalkTalk, which has won a reputation for aggressive UK marketing as it builds market share in one of the Europe's most competitive markets, has promised to give customers 1,000 pounds (US$1,767) if phone bills are not cheaper than those of the UK's dominant fixed-line supplier, BT Group.
Opera web to support BitTorrent transfers
The Opera web browser will soon support a file-transfer tool commonly associated with online movie piracy. Christen Krogh, vice president of engineering at Opera Software ASA in Oslo, Norway, said the decision was driven partly by Opera's own distribution woes; its servers were jammed when it launched a new version of the browser in April.
The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (1 July) that Opera said it isn't trying to encourage piracy but considers the tool, BitTorrent, more efficient for transferring large, legitimate files such as Linux, and now Opera, software.
The AP report says that BitTorrent works by assembling a complete file from multiple users who are sharing it. As you finish downloading one chunk, your copy becomes immediately available to others looking for the same chunk. This system reduces load on a central server and ultimately means speedier downloads.
Because BitTorrent has proven resistant to some of the countermeasures the entertainment industry has taken to sabotage file-sharing, it has replaced programs like Kazaa as the tool of choice for so-called peer-to-peer file-sharing.
The AP/NYT report says that the upcoming Opera 8.0.2, now available in a test version, will try to make BitTorrent downloads seamless, just like any other download using HTTP or FTP for transfers. The exception is the appearance of a warning that users will be sharing content they receive.
Opera is used in 2 percent of all US Web-browsing, behind the industry-leading Internet Explorer from Microsoft and browsers based on Mozilla, according to WebSideStory.
Orange UK launches smart phones
Mobile phone network Orange this week launched its much-anticipated SPV C550 and SPV M500 smart phones, a week after the company posted details of the handsets on its website.
The Register reports (14 July) that the C550 will be promoted under Orange's Great for Music label - no surprise given the HTC developed handset's focus on music playback, with separate Play/Pause and track-skip controls.
According to The Register, the phone comes pre-loaded with Orange's own Music Player application, which links through to the network's 300,000-track music download store, part of its Orange World WAP portal. The songs are encoded in the iTunes-like but more efficient AAC Plus format, but the C550 can also play MP3 and WAV tracks, along with MPEG 4 video.
The report says that the device contains a 1.3 megapixel digicam with 4x digital zoom. The screen is a 64,000-colour job. Orange is bundling a 128MB MiniSD card for extra data storage - the phone contains 32MB of RAM. It also offers Bluetooth wireless connectivity, and is a tri-band (900/1800/1900) GSM/GPRS device.
PalmOne regains old name
Palm is now Palm again. When the Nasdaq market opens for business later today, the company's stock will be traded under the PALM symbol, The Register reports (14 July).
The Register says that while the company's web site had been updated with the new logo, the homepage's title still said "PalmOne, formerly Palm".
The publication says that Palm retained its name from its foundation in 1995 through its subsequent acquisition by US Robotics and laterby 3Com. The name was dropped in favour of PalmOne when the company was split in twain, one part becoming PalmSource and focusing on the operating system, the other bit concerning itself only with the hardware.
In May this year, PalmOne acquired PalmSource's share in the holding company both firms co-founded to retain the rights to the Palm name. PalmSource has a licence to use the name for four more years, after which it will have to renegotiate or change its name - it's likely to do the latter, particularly since the Palm OS itself will by then have become Linux.
Holders of Sprint and Nextel back merger
The Sprint Corporation's US$35 billion acquisition of Nextel Communications was approved Wednesday by shareholders of both companies, advancing a deal that would create the nation's No. 3 wireless company, behind Cingular and Verizon.
The New York Times reports (14 July) that the new company will have more than 40 million wireless customers and US$40 billion in annual revenue.
The newspaper says that for the deal to be completed, the two companies must now receive regulatory approvals from the Federal Communications Commission and from the Justice Department, as well as from the 18 states where Sprint's local phone division operates.
Ebbers jailed for 25 years
Bernie Ebbers has been sentenced to 25 years behind bars for his part in the US$11bn (£5.8bn) fraud at US telco WorldCom, according to AP,reports The Register.
The sentence was handed down today by in New York.
Prosecutors had pressed for Ebbers, 63, to be jailed for life for orchestrating what they called "the largest securities fraud in history" back in 2002.
The AP report in The Register says that Ebbers' defence asked the judge to be lenient and to take into account Ebbers' heart condition and his past charitable works.
Ebbers was found guilty of masterminding the fraud in March. Following eight days of deliberation, a Manhattan federal jury returned guilty verdicts on charges of conspiracy, securities fraud, and seven counts of filing false reports.
TransFlash becomes MicroSD
The SD Association (SDA), the organisation that oversees the SD memory card format, has formally taken on board the TransFlash specification and renamed it MicroSD.
The Register reports (14 July) that TransFlash was developed by memory card specialist SanDisk - and has been adopted by some of the mobile phone world's biggest players, including Samsung, Motorola, LG and Kyocera.
MicroSD cards are 1.5 x 1.1 x 0.1cm, and available to date in capacities of up to 256MB. SanDisk yesterday said it will ship "the world's first" 512MB MicroSD card next month and also promised a 1GB card by the end of the year and a 2GB version early in 2006, reports The Register.
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