Dell developing pocket Web gadget: report

Dell Inc, the worlds No.2 PC maker, is developing a pocket-sized device for tapping into the Internet, the Wall Street Journal said citing people familiar with the company's plans.

The gadget would run on Google Inc's Android software, the people told the paper.

According to the paper, two people who saw early prototypes described the device as slightly larger than Apple Inc's iPod Touch, which is similar to the iPhone but does not have cellphone capabilities.

Another person who was briefed on the company's plans told the paper that Dell may begin selling the device later this year, though this person said the plan could be delayed or scrapped entirely.

A Dell spokesman declined to comment to the paper on any plans for the product category.

Dell may use chips based on designed licensed from ARM Holdings PLC, people familiar with the company's plans told the paper.

Dell could not be immediately reached for a comment by Reuters.

(Agencies)

Roaming phone charges to fall in EU from Wednesday

Making a telephone call, sending a text message or reading emails on a mobile phone from across the European Union will cost less from Wednesday.

The tariff cuts, which complete a European Union ruling from 2007, were proposed by the EU's executive arm at the end of 2008 and won approval by the European Parliament and member states.

Following the new price curbs, which take effect on July 1, it will be up to 60 percent cheaper to send mobile phone text messages while traveling in the EU or to surf the Web by laptop.

"All Europeans making calls or sending texts with their mobiles can experience the EU's single market without borders. The roaming rip-off is now coming to an end," EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding said in a statement.

Operators will be allowed to charge customers a maximum of 11 euro cents (15 U.S. cents) per roamed text message (SMS), excluding sales tax, compared with current prices of about 28 cents.

As of July 1, prices for making a roamed mobile call will be capped at 43 euro cents per minute versus 46 cents previously, and at 19 cents, down from 22 cents, for calls received abroad.

The caps will further fall to 39 cents for calls made and 15 cents for calls received while roaming from July 1, 2010 and to 35 cents and 11 cents from July 1, 2011.

Downloading data while roaming will cost a maximum of 1 euro per megabyte from Wednesday at the wholesale level compared with about 1.68 euros today.

Operators must also introduce per-second billing after 30 seconds for roamed calls made and from the first second for calls received abroad.

Until now, consumers paid up to 24 percent more than the time actually used making or receiving calls.

The European Commission wants to end "bill shock," when business travelers or holidaymakers return home to huge charges for checking emails or surfing the Web while away by introducing a cut-off mechanism once the bill reaches 50 euros.

The GSM Association, which represents major mobile operators, has said the latest measures -- when they were introduced -- were unnecessary and that data prices were already falling.

(Agencies)

Cybercrime spreads on Facebook

Cybercrime is rapidly spreading on Facebook as fraudsters prey on users who think the world鈥檚 top social networking site is a safe haven on the Internet.

Lisa Severens, a clinical trials manager from Worcester, Massachusetts, learned the hard way. A virus took control of her laptop and started sending pornographic photos to colleagues.

鈥淚 was mortified about having to deal with it at work,鈥?said Severens, whose employer had to replace her computer because the malicious software could not be removed.

Cybercrime, which costs US companies and individuals billions of dollars a year, is spreading fast on Facebook because such scams target and exploit those naive to the dark side of social networking, security experts say.

While News Corp鈥檚 MySpace was the most popular hangout for cyber criminals two years ago, experts say hackers are now entrenched on Facebook, whose membership has soared from 120 million in December to more than 200 million today.

Scammers break into accounts posing as friends of users, sending spam that directs them to websites that steal personal information and spread viruses. Hackers tend to take control of infected PCs for identity theft, spamming and other mischief.

Facebook manages security from its central headquarters in Palo Alto, California, screening out much of the spam and malicious user-targeted software to make Facebook a safer place to surf than the broader Internet, but criminals are relentless and some break through Facebook鈥檚 considerable filter.

The rise in attacks reflects Facebook鈥檚 massive growth. Company spokesman Simon Axten said that as the number of users has increased, the percentage of successful attacks has stayed about the same, remaining at less than 1 percent of members for five years.

But ultimately Facebook says its members are responsible for their own security.

鈥淲e do our best to keep Facebook safe, but we cannot guarantee it,鈥?Facebook says in a warning in a section of the site on the terms and conditions of use, which members might not bother to read.

鈥淧eople implicitly trust social networking sites because they don鈥檛 understand the real threats and dangers. It鈥檚 like walking down the street and trusting everybody you meet,鈥?said Randy Abrams, a researcher with security software maker ESET.

(Agencies)

DELL may release Android gadget

BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhuanet) -- Rumors are rife that Dell the number 2 computer manufacturer in the world may be set to launch itself into the mobile phone market, again.

It will not be the first time Dell has attempted to stake its place in a lucrative by highly competitive market. But each of the last three times the company has failed to tread water.

Many technological experts and commentators are skeptical that the manufacturer will fair any better this time.

The proposed pocket sized internet capable device is widely believed expected to run on Google鈥檚 Android software. According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) two prototypes have been seen one built on a similar design to the popular Apple iPhone, though neither device was said to be capable of making phone calls.

There are suggestions the device may be launched later in 2009. But one source told the WSJ the plans to build the device may be shelved or scrapped altogether.

(Agencies)

Sony struggling as Walkman hits 30th anniversary

A Sony Corp's employee walks by a special display commemorating the Walkman's 30th anniversary that opens Wednesday, July 1, 2009, at Sony Archive building in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

Sony Corp.'s employee Rumi Yamaguchi smiles in front of a special display commemorating the Sony Walkman's 30th anniversary that opens Wednesday, July 1, 2009, at Sony Archive building in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

Sony Corp. employee Rumi Yamaguchi looks at Sony Walkman products including the first Walksman, top shelf, second from left, at a special display that opens Wednesday, July 1, 2009, commemorating the handy music player's 30th anniversary at Sony Archive building in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

When the Sony Walkman went on sale 30 years ago, it was shown off by a skateboarder to illustrate how the portable cassette-tape player delivered music on-the-go 鈥?a totally innovative idea back in 1979.

Today, Sony Corp. is struggling to reinvent itself and win back its reputation as a pioneer of razzle-dazzle gadgetry once exemplified in the Walkman, which Wednesday had its 30th anniversary marked with a special display at Sony's corporate archives.

The Japanese electronics and entertainment company lost 98.9 billion yen ($1.02 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 鈥?its first annual loss in 14 years 鈥?and is expecting more red ink this year.

The manufacturer, which also makes Vaio personal computers and Cyber-shot cameras, hasn't had a decisive hit like the Walkman for years, and has taken a battering in the portable music player market to Apple Inc.'s iPod.

Sony has sold 385 million Walkman machines worldwide in 30 years as it evolved from playing cassettes to compact disks then minidisks 鈥?a smaller version of the CD 鈥?and finally digital files. Apple has sold more than 210 million iPod machines worldwide in eight years.

There is even some speculation in the Japanese media that Sony should drop the Walkman brand 鈥?a name associated with Sony's rise from its humble beginnings in 1946 with just 20 employees to one of the first Japanese companies to successfully go global.

"The Walkman's gap with the iPod has grown so definitive, it would be extremely difficult for Sony to catch up, even if it were to start from scratch to try to boost market share," said Kazuharu Miura, analyst with Daiwa Institute of Research in Tokyo.

Miura believes Sony can hope to be unique with its PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable video game consoles, but it has yet to offer outstanding electronics products that exploit such strengths.

The Nikkei, Japan's top business newspaper, reported recently that Sony set up a team to develop a PSP with cell-phone features. But Miura said the idea was nothing new, since the iPhone, another Apple product, has gaming features, and Sony isn't likely to have such a product soon.

Earlier this year, Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer announced a new team of executives and promised to bring together the hardware electronics and entertainment content divisions of Sony's sprawling empire 鈥?an effort that he said will turn around Sony and restore its profitability.

But Stringer, and his predecessors, have been making that same promise for years.

When the iPod began selling like hotcakes several years ago, a Japanese reporter asked Shizuo Takashino, one of the developers of the original Walkman, why Sony hadn't come up with the idea. Afterall, the iPod seemed like something that should have been a trademark Sony product.

Takashino had been showing reporters the latest Walkman models, which played proprietary files. Sony has been criticized for sticking to such proprietary formats. One major reason for the iPod's massive popularity was that it played MP3 files, which are widely used for online music and compatible with many devices.

In a special display at Tokyo's Sony Archive building, opening Wednesday to commemorate the Walkman's 30-year history, an impassioned Akio Morita, Sony's co-founder, speaks to employees in a 1989 video to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Walkman.

"We can deliver a totally new kind of thrill to people with the Walkman," said the silver-haired Morita, proudly wearing a gray factory-worker jacket and surrounding himself with dozens of colorful Walkman machines. "We must make more and more products like the Walkman."

Morita acknowledges in the video that the Walkman doesn't feature any groundbreaking technology but merely repackaged old ones 鈥?but did so in a nifty creative way. And it started with a small simple idea 鈥?enjoying music anywhere, without bothering people around you.

The original Walkman was as big as a paperback book, and weighed 390 grams (14 ounces). It wasn't cheap, especially for those days, costing 33,000 yen ($340).

But people snatched it up.

Other names were initially tried for international markets like "soundabout" and "stowaway." Sony soon settled on Walkman. The original logo had little feet on the A's in "WALKMAN."

Many, even within Sony, were skeptical of the idea because earphones back then were associated with unfashionable, hard-of-hearing old people. But Morita was convinced he had a hit.

The archival exhibit shows other Sony products that have been discontinued or lost out to competition over the years 鈥?the Betamax video cassette recorder, the Trinitron TV, the Aibo dog-shaped robotic pet.

The Walkman exhibit, which runs through Dec. 25, shows models that are still on sale, some about the size of a lighter that play digital music files.

Also showcased are messages from Morita and his partner Masaru Ibuka, who always insisted a company could never hope to be a winner by imitating rivals but only by dashing stereotypes.

"All we can do is keep going at it, selling our Walkman, one at a time," said Sony spokeswoman Yuki Kobayashi. "Thirty years is a milestone for Sony. But we hope the Walkman won't be seen as just a piece of history."

(Agencies)

Facebook plans to simplify privacy settings

(File photo)

Facebook is overhauling its privacy controls over the next several weeks in an attempt to simplify its users' ability to control who sees the information they share on the site.

Privacy has been a central, often thorny issue for Facebook because so many people use it to share personal information with their friends and family and beyond. But as the 5-year-old social networking service has expanded its user base and added features, its privacy controls have grown increasingly complicated.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said Wednesday that the new settings will give people greater control over what photos, updates and personal details they share with their friends, family and strangers on Facebook and, eventually, the wider Internet.

To make the settings easier, Facebook is consolidating its existing six privacy pages and more than 30 settings onto a single privacy page. It will also standardize the options for each setting so the choices are always the same, something that hasn't always been the case.

That means that for various pieces of content, users will be able to click on a lock icon to choose whether to show it to everyone, only their friends, friends of friends, members of professional or school networks or people on a customized list.

Previously, users had to navigate page after page to exclude, if they want, bosses or co-workers from seeing their photo albums, status updates or shared links. And because the privacy settings were dispersed on different pages, even after making a profile visible to friends only, the photos on that profile could remain public.

Facebook's chief privacy officer, Chris Kelly, said in a conference call with reporters that the changes don't have anything to do with advertising or the information Facebook is going to make available to advertisers.

Rather, he said, the site wants people "to be able to share information with as many or as few people as they choose."

One of Facebook's most notable privacy mishaps was a tracking tool called "Beacon," which in late 2007 caught users off-guard by broadcasting information about their activities at other Web sites, including their purchase of holiday gifts for those who could see the information. The company ultimately allowed users to turn Beacon off.

Other changes, too, have often met with user uproar. Earlier this year Facebook let its users vote on the site's guiding principles after tens of thousands joined online protests over who controls the information they share on the site.

To prevent another backlash, Facebook will gradually roll out the latest changes. Facebook will start by testing them out on small groups of users and tweak the final version of the controls based on feedback. Facebook said it would take more than three weeks to reach every user.

"They are learning how to listen carefully to their users," said Jules Polonetsky, co-chairman and director of the Washington-based Future of Privacy Forum and former chief privacy officer at AOL. He added that Facebook has learned from the past that suddenly making big changes, whatever they are, has not been the most effective approach.

The privacy changes come as Facebook tries to become a broadly used destination, competing not just with other social networks like Twitter and MySpace but also more established hubs like Google and Yahoo.

To do this, Facebook needs its 200 million-plus users to share content and interact with more people than their close friends and families.

"To be lots of things to lots of different kinds of people," Polonetsky said, Facebook needs to give its users, who come from different cultures, age groups and career levels, more control over what they share on the site.

The site will soon let users assign different privacy settings to each piece of information they make available, including photos, contact information and work info, as well as status updates, links and photos.

In another big change, the site is also getting rid of its regional networks. Facebook said those separate zones have led to too much confusion over which information can be widely seen or kept relatively private. In the past, someone who joined a New York network, for example, could inadvertently make personal information available to everyone else in that network, including complete strangers.

Facebook will continue to have social networks related to schools and work.

(Agencies)

YouTube doubles video file size to 2G

Video-sharing site YouTube announced on Wednesday that it was doubling the size limit for uploads to its website to allow users to post more high-definition (HD) video.

YouTube, in a blog post, said the size limit for uploads to the site was being doubled -- from one gigabyte to two gigabytes.

"The increase means you can upload longer videos at a higher resolution as well as large HD files directly from your camera," YouTube said.

"The changes allow you to share links directly to the HD version of your video, as well as embed the HD version on your blog or website," it said.

HD video is increasingly popular but the higher resolution results in larger files.

A YouTube spokesman told AFP that while file size for individual videos was being increased to two gigabytes, the 10-minute length restriction for videos posted on the site remains in place.

(Agencies)