Pc News

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Microsoft hires CEO of Ask.com to head Web unit

Software giant Microsoft Corp. said on Friday it hired away Steve Berkowitz, the chief executive of rival Internet company Ask.com, to head Microsoft's own Internet business.

Effective May 8, Berkowitz succeeds David Cole, a 20-year Microsoft veteran, who is set to begin a one-year leave of absence, Microsoft said in a statement. He had outlined his plans in a memo to employees in February.

Berkowitz is credited in the industry with orchestrating the turnaround of Ask.com, the Web search and media business acquired by Barry Diller's conglomerate, IAC/InterActiveCorp, for $1.85 billion 13 months ago.

Under his leadership, Ask, originally known as Ask Jeeves, enjoyed a revival in its audience and market share gains in the highly competitive Web search business over the past year.

Berkowitz was named the senior vice president of Microsoft's recently formed Online Business Group, which brings together the operations of Microsoft's MSN Internet business unit with other consumer businesses within Microsoft.

The group includes MSN.com, MSNTV and MSN Internet Access programming, advertising sales, business development, and marketing for Live Platforms, MSN and Windows Live, with responsibility for generating greater advertising sales.

Microsoft's Online Business Group competes against rivals such as Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news), Time Warner Inc.'s AOL unit and Ask.com.

Berkowitz will report to Kevin Johnson, co-president of Microsoft's platforms and services unit, Microsoft said.

He propelled Ask Jeeves into the contemporary Web search market with the acquisition of Teoma in 2001. He led the redesign of Ask, made the site easier to use by removing pop-up and banner ads and providing greater context on searches.

Revenue more than doubled under his leadership.

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Google and Yahoo results show more room for ad growth

The two top Internet search engine companies proved last week there is still plenty of room for advertising growth, though Google's dominance marks a major advantage over Yahoo, according to analysts.

The health of the Internet advertising market shone in the results that Google and Yahoo released and allayed fears the high-flying companies would get stuck in neutral. Shares in both companies rose on the news.

"The results this week show there is room in the market for both a Yahoo and a Google," Denise Garcia, an analyst with WR Hambrecht+Co. in New York said on Friday.

But Garcia said Google is positioned to continue to capture the majority of growth in the Internet search market, which represents the largest share of the Internet advertising market, at 41 percent.

Yahoo's results met Wall Street expectations on strong demand for online graphical ads and a 15 percent to 20 percent rise in traffic to its Web search system, which company executives said showed that it had held rival Google at bay.

And while Google returned to form by once again blowing past analysts' forecasts with a 79 percent jump in revenue as it took a greater share of the overall search market, analysts said demand is strong enough to support several major players.

Google has grown two to three times faster than the estimated 30 percent increase estimated by the trade group Internet Advertising Bureau in the overall market in 2005.

The health of the Internet advertising market should spread to smaller Internet advertising stocks, Garcia said in a report.

AQuantive Inc., Digitas Inc., Marchex Inc. and ValueClick Inc. are expected to report their quarterly results this week and into May.

"We expect these companies to experience similar top-line growth as they are fueled by the same industry dynamics," she wrote.

The torrid growth has spurred eBay to consider a partnership with Microsoft or Yahoo, as Google takes direct aim at the Web auction company's business with an online classified service.

The Wall Street Journal reported that eBay, a major buyer of Web search keyword advertising, is talking to Yahoo and Microsoft, as well as Google, about forming an alliance that could create a windfall for the winning partner.

Quoting unnamed sources, the Friday story said eBay has been in talks with all three since last year about a deal whereby eBay could increase advertising spending with a chosen partner, provide that partner with data on eBay customers, and feature advertising from the partner alongside eBay auction listings.

"I see this more as eBay trying to bolster their negotiating position when they have to go back to the table with Google," Jan Klein, a professor of technology management at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey said. Klein is a former telecoms analyst at Morgan Stanley.

"The history of alliances and joint ventures is that they just don't last," he said.

EBay declined to comment on whether it was engaged in talks on a potential advertising pact with either Microsoft, Yahoo or Google.

Spokesman Hani Durzy said that eBay is in constant conversation with all three about aspects of their business, as eBay is major buyer of keyword advertising from the three Web search providers.

Google also declined to comment on the report.

"EBay is a valued partner and we look forward to a long, successful relationship," Google spokesman Steve Langdon said.

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Online contest lets "L Word" viewers plot action

Should "The L Word's" Bette confront Cari while Alice finds her heart broken, or would a true confession by Alice risking the demise of Dana make for better melodrama?

Showtime Networks, in conjunction with entertainment services company FanLib, is letting viewers of the lesbian cable drama make those decisions, and more.

Fans have a chance to wrest control of the plot from its writers -- while getting some online notoriety of their own -- by crafting their own scenes according to parameters set by series scribe Ariel Schrag. Participants read, judge and discuss each other's work, all of which was entered in a contest that ended last week and resulted in a "fanisode," the first fan-written script for an existing show.

Many popular shows inspire fans to create their own scenes and post them to community Web sites, a phenomenon referred to as fanfic. Showtime is unusual in sanctioning and even encouraging this activity.

"They're going to do it whether we invite them to or not in this interactive culture we live in," said Ilene Chaiken, creator and executive producer of "The L Word." "From the beginning, the audience claimed the show and felt like they owned it."

The project also kept fans engaged between seasons, she added, and Schrag's guidelines ensured that followers didn't stray into inappropriate territory.

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The Print Shop: Answers to Your Photo Printing Questions

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In this second installment of our special look at your printer questions answered by the vendors themselves, I move on to photo-related issues. These include questions about all-in-ones that print onto CDs and DVDs, minimizing photo edge cropping, and printing slides and gallery-quality prints.

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If you've got questions about how to prevent ink smears, which multifunction printers support legal-size paper, which printers have 64-bit drivers, and wireless networking options, read Part 1, "Printer Makers Answer Your Urgent Questions."


Note that some questions and responses in this column have been edited for brevity.


If you'd like to see what PC World thought of many printer models, click on any of the following links to see a list of printers we've reviewed from that company: Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, Oki Data Americas, Ricoh, Samsung, and Xerox.


Now let's look at the responses to your questions concerning professional and recreational photo printing.

Your Questions
Which Printers Can Produce Gallery-Quality Prints?
Which Multifunctions Can Print Directly Onto CDs and DVDs?
Can You Fine-Tune the Edge Settings on Photo Prints?
Is There a Printer That Can Print Slides From Digital Images?
Which Printers Can Produce Gallery-Quality Prints?

I have been looking for a printer that is capable of printing large giclée prints of my watercolors. Which printers can create giclée prints and at what resolutions?--M. Thomas, Centerville, Massachusetts


Upshot: "Giclée" refers to high-resolution, large-format prints made with fade-resistant inks, often for commercial art sales. Below you'll find suggestions from the vendors I spoke to, but other companies such as Kodak and ColorSpan also offer commercial giclée printing solutions.


You might also want to read my March column on professional photo printers.


Brother: Brother does not offer giclée printers.


Canon: The imagePROGRAF iPF5000 is capable of printing at 2400 by 1200 dots per inch. This would be our only recommendation.


Dell: Dell doesn't offer giclée models.


Epson: When looking for a printer that can produce giclée prints, Epson suggests you choose an inkjet with 100-percent pigment-based inks; only pigment-based inks produce the longevity required to sell fine-art watercolor prints. Choose a printer that can load and handle fine-art media. Watercolor paper can be relatively thick, so you need a printer that can handle media up to 1.5mm. Also, check service groups and online user forums and communities to see what printers have been successful in the fine-art market for a number of years. Epson is one vendor that has been a leader in the giclée market; Epson's Stylus Photo R2400 and Stylus Pro 4800, Stylus Pro 7800, and Stylus Pro 9800--used with our UltraChrome K3 ink--are all ideal choices for wide-format giclée prints.


HP: The HP Designjet 5500 printer is our recommendation for giclée prints. It provides fast printing that's ready to sell or distribute. New production print modes deliver professional image quality at speeds of 100 square feet per hour for glossy and 189 sq ft/hr for coated media; 569 sq ft/hr printing using maximum speed mode.


Lexmark: Lexmark does not not manufacture giclée printers.


Oki Data Americas: Oki Printing Solutions does not currently offer this technology.


Ricoh: Ricoh does not offer giclée printers.

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Samsung: PC World did not receive a response to this question.


Xerox: Xerox does not have an office business-class printer that is capable of giclée prints. That level of printing would typically take place in a professional printing setting and would be available in a production-level printer.

Return to question index.

2. Which Multifunctions Can Print Directly Onto CDs and DVDs?
I recently got a new multifunction printer, but this one doesn't have the ability to print directly on DVD or CD. I was told at the dealer that Epson has the only license, currently, but that they expect vendors such as Canon and others to be adding that feature in the near future. Any info on this at your end?--B. Larsen, Tustin, California

Upshot: I couldn't determine if Epson has the only "license" to print directly onto CDs and DVDs, but as you'll read below, it does look like it's the only vendor offering printers with this feature.

Brother: Brother does not offer multifunction devices with the ability to print on CDs or DVDs.

Canon: There are no immediate plans to add CD and DVD printing to a Canon product. However, consumers can produce high-quality CD prints by purchasing high-quality CD labels and printing from a Canon printer. These prints tend to be much sharper as the paper is of a higher quality than the paper on a printable CD.

Dell: Not applicable to Dell printers.

Epson: Epson was the first and still is the only consumer inkjet printer manufacturer in the U.S. to include CD/DVD printing on its printers. Current models include the Stylus Photo R220 and Stylus Photo R340 inkjets, and the Stylus Photo RX700 multifunction printer.

HP: HP offers a variety of alternative solutions for CD and DVD printing. Our CD/DVD Tattoos allow consumers to create personalized, adhesive, super-glossy, color labels with their inkjet printer. HP also has LightScribe technology that allows for silk-screen-quality images to be placed onto discs using an HP CD/DVD burner.

Lexmark: Currently, Lexmark laser and inkjet multifunction printers are not capable of printing directly onto CD/DVD media. However, our inkjet products can generate CD/DVD labels.

Oki Data Americas: Our digital color multifunction printers and printers can print onto CD or DVD labels, but not discs.

Ricoh: Ricoh products don't offer this feature.

Samsung: PC World did not receive a response to this question.

Xerox: Xerox does not currently offer a product that prints directly onto CD/DVD discs. However, we offer CD/DVD label media for many of our printers and multifunction devices, along with an applicator tool to apply the labels accurately to the disc. See the Xerox Web site.

Return to question index.

3. Can You Fine-Tune the Edge Settings on Photo Prints?
What I find very annoying with most printers is their tendency to crop your carefully designed image by perhaps 5mm or more. Surely with all this existing dpi and page loading accuracy, they do not need be so crude in handling borderless prints. It would help if there was a decent option to fine-tune the edge settings so that we could offset any manufacturing slop in the paper guides.--D. Pincott, Auckland, New Zealand

Upshot: This issue appears to affect inkjet printers, which generally deliver the best-quality photo prints. It appears that the imaging software can sometimes be to blame, but the explanations and suggestions below might also shed some light on the matter.

Brother: In order to print a borderless photo, it is necessary for the machine to do some cropping. This can be minimized by using a good photo editing program that shows you how the print will actually look.

Canon: There is currently no standard solution that will prevent all cropping, although many common cropping issues can be handled in Easy-PhotoPrint and Easy-PhotoPrint Pro drivers, depending on the size of the print and of the image.

Dell: In order to produce a borderless print, Dell's inkjets allocate 2mm of space around the edges to ensure there is no white spacing visible around the border of the photo.

Epson: When printing borderless pictures, it is necessary to print over the edge of the page. However, Epson printer drivers do allow the user to fine-tune the amount of borderless expansion.

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HP: Most printers do have some level of "overspray" to maximize the quality of the print right up to the edge of the page. Whether there is control over the amount of overspray or not is typically a function of the printer driver. We do provide user accessible control of this overspray in some of our drivers. For example, for the Photosmart 8250 printer, you would click Properties in the main printer pop-up window. This takes you to a multiple-tab window, one of which is labeled Advanced. In the Advanced tab is a line item called Printer Features, and under that line item is Overspray. The default is Automatic, which is underlined. If you click on Automatic, it offers a drop-down list that includes Automatic and Change. If you click on Change, it pops us a window with a slider that allows you to adjust the overspray, with the default being at maximum overspray. Adjusting to less overspray will cause the driver to shrink the size of the overspray, thus putting more of the picture on the printed page.

Lexmark: Unfortunately, this is a camera-image-to-photo-size issue. The image size taken does not always size perfectly to common photo dimensions (i.e., 4 by 6 inches, 5 by 7 inches, etc). When printing borderless photos, the software must crop the image slightly to assure it takes up the correct photo size (i.e., 4 by 6 inches) without distorting or changing the ratio of the photo. Our laser printers do not offer cropping capabilities, and thus this question doesn't apply to them.

Oki Data Americas: At this time, we don't offer borderless or edge-to-edge printing. Our products and solutions are used mostly by businesses where there is less of a need for photo printing. Our customers are more focused on reliability, productivity, and performance in their printing products.

Ricoh: Ricoh products don't offer borderless printing.

Samsung: PC World did not receive a response to this question.

Xerox: Xerox does not offer inkjets meant for photo printing.

Return to question index.

4. Is There a Printer That Can Print Slides From Digital Images?
I take stereo pictures using a pair of Sony digital cameras, manipulating the images with PokeScope software. The easiest and least complicated way for the ordinary viewer to see them is as a pair of mounted slides in a hand viewer. I can understand the difficulty of printing slides but wondered if any company has solved the problems at a reasonable cost.--R. Dring, Nottingham, England

Upshot: None of the vendors I contacted currently offer this capability in any printer model. Oki Data's response gives one indication as to why.

Brother: Brother does not offer a product with slide printing capability.

Canon: Unfortunately, not with Canon.

Dell: Not applicable to Dell printers.

Epson: Epson does not currently offer a printer that can print slides from digital images.

HP: PC World did not receive a response to this question.

Lexmark: At this time, Lexmark printers do not offer slide printing capabilities.

Oki Data Americas: Oki Printing Solutions does not currently offer this feature because doing so would require at least a 6000-dots-per-inch resolution and $9000+ price point.

Ricoh: Not offered by Ricoh.

Samsung: PC World did not receive a response to this question.

Xerox: Xerox does not offer a printer for slide printing use.

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Spam Slayer: Biggest Spam Hassles Solved

Fraud Alert: Interested in tracking your tax return online? The Internal Revenue Service allows you to track your refund at its Get Refund Status site. Beware of any e-mail that claims you're due a refund or offers a way to check your refund status online. There are reports of e-mails circulating pretending to be from the IRS that sport links to Web pages that ask for your Social Security number, credit card number, or sometimes even the PIN numbers for ATM cards.

You've got spam questions, I've got answers. Each month my inbox is brimming with great questions from inquiring readers who want to know how to combat spam. This month I answer the most common and puzzling spam questions from the Spam Slayer mailbag.

Reporting Spam

Complaining about spam brings a certain satisfaction. Many readers ask where they can complain--and if anybody is listening to their gripes.


The Federal Trade Commission allows you to file complaints online and asks that you forward the spam message you are complaining about to spam@uce.gov. The FTC says it doesn't take action on individual complaints. Rather, it collects thousands of complaints and uses them to identify and go after the most abusive spammers.


Another organization that accepts spam complaints is SpamCop, which says it determines the origin of spam e-mail and reports it to the relevant Internet service providers. Be advised, however, that SpamCop is a commercial service that also sells a spam filtering service for $3 per month. By joining the SpamCop army of people who report spam you may be helping the company fight spam for its customers, but don't expect a price break for the commercial service.

Best Ways to Stop Spam

Spam is an equal-opportunity annoyance. Every day new Internet users are discovering just how annoying it is. So the next most popular question I get is: "Help! Could you recommend a good spam filter?"


There are a lot of great, reasonably priced spam filters. For a close look at the latest offerings, read "Inbox Tamers," which offers a good primer on a variety of spam filters.


Personally, I like Firefox's free Thunderbird e-mail client. It does a great job of filtering out crud and adapting to my e-mail likes and dislikes.


If your spam load is considerable, and you use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, you may want to take a look at Sunbelt Software's IHateSpam or Cloudmark Desktop (formerly called SpamNet), both of which we've reviewed and liked.

Help: My E-Mail Is Considered Spam

Many readers are stumped by AOL's anti-spam policy. They complain that the service is blocking legitimate e-mail by labeling it spam. The problem goes something like this: Someone who doesn't use AOL tries to send e-mail to an AOL member. But AOL labels the message as spam and it is blocked--never to make it into AOL's network. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix to this problem.


Because AOL has so many members, it is the ultimate spam magnet--and consequently has one of the most restrictive spam filters. The company says it blocks, on average, 2 billion spam messages each day before e-mail even reaches members' in-boxes.


AOL says that if it is blocking your e-mail, it's either because you are sending e-mail from a server or ISP unknown to AOL, you have violated AOL's unsolicited bulk e-mail policies, or members have complained that you're sending spam.


Don't bother complaining to AOL by e-mail, because your e-mail is being blocked. You can review AOL's policies in detail on its Postmaster.info page. You could also call AOL's Postmaster Hotline to ask to be removed from its Block List. You can reach the Postmaster Hotline at 703/265-4670 or 888/212-5537.


You also should be careful about what you write in an e-mail message. Excessive use of profanity and using words typically found in junk e-mail (like free and mortgage) might trigger a spam filter to block your missive.

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The Mystery Behind Gibberish Spam

We've all seen cryptic e-mail messages--you know, those e-mails full of nonsense words in the subject line and message body. Sometimes the e-mail contains nothing but funny-looking characters that don't look like letters. What is behind these mystery messages?


What looks like gibberish may be one of two things. Unintelligible text in a subject line or body of an e-mail is likely spam written in a foreign language. Often e-mail software chokes on foreign characters. Not able to convert foreign characters, e-mail programs display them as boxes, upside-down question marks, sun symbols, and many others.


There is no sure-fire way to block this type of spam. You might try to copy typical junk characters from one message and paste them into your e-mail software's filter rules.


Random nonsense text in e-mail subject lines like "Hello v13uopn9tt5n22 Yes U can!" and misspelled words are also designed to trick spam filters. By using misspelled words, like "best m0rtgage qu0te!s," spammers hope to evade filters that use keywords to identify spam.

Is My PC a Zombie? (And What's a Zombie, Anyway?)
Today, more than 80 percent of all spam worldwide comes from zombie PCs, experts say. Zombie PCs are computers that have been infected by malicious code that allows spammers to use them to send e-mail. And these computers could be owned by anyone--businesses, universities, and average users

Quite often zombie PCs are associated with botnets. The word botnet typically refers to a group of zombie PCs. The term zombie PC refers to one of the PCs in a botnet, though in some cases a zombie PC may not be tied into a botnet.

You can reduce your PC's risk of becoming a zombie by installing a personal firewall and antivirus software, and keeping your copy of Windows up-to-date. For a list of free antivirus and firewall tools, go to "101 Fabulous Freebies" and scroll down to the section on security.

You should also be aware that a Trojan horse may have disabled firewall or antivirus software that usually launches automatically. To make sure that your security apps are still running, try to launch them yourself.

Symptoms of a zombie PC include a suddenly sluggish broadband connection, excessive hard drive activity, an unresponsive mouse or keyboard, or bounce notifications in your inbox from people you never tried to contact. But these symptoms do not guarantee that your PC is a zombie.

Read my June 2005 column, "Slaying Spam-Spewing Zombie PCs," for more tips.

Using Members-Only E-Mail
Fed up and frustrated with spam, many people often ask if there is a way to segregate the e-mail they receive from their friends from all the other e-mail and spam they get. The idea is that e-mail from friends is important, so why risk having it get lost in a sea of crud in one huge inbox folder.

Here is how to do this in Outlook Express: First, create a "Safe Mail" or "Friends" folder. Then right-click on Local Folders and select New Folder. Next, select Tools, Create Rules from Message, and pair your address book and any other trusted e-mail addresses with your Safe Mail or Friends folder. In theory, spam will never make it into your Safe Mail folder--only messages from senders in your address book.

This trick also works with Outlook, Netscape, and various other e-mail programs.

Someone Hijacked My E-Mail Address
At least once a week I receive an e-mail from a dumbfounded reader wondering how someone is sending spam with their e-mail address on it. Another burning question: Why they are getting undeliverable mail notices for e-mail they did not send?

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to prevent someone from sending spam using your e-mail address as the return address--just as you can't stop someone from mailing a letter using your street address as the return address. The good news is that spammers usually borrow an e-mail address for a short time and move on to another victim quickly.

To be sure a virus isn't camped out on your PC and using your account to send e-mail, you should update and run antivirus software. Worms and Trojan horses sometimes pull data from address books and "spoof" the e-mail address and subject line of a message so it appears to come from you. Spoofed e-mail that fakes your address as the sender goes out to hundreds of e-mail addresses. Some of those e-mail addresses don't exist, and messages are bounced back to the address listed as the sender: you.

Spoofing a return address is illegal. Online retailer Amazon.com has filed 11 lawsuits against online marketers in the U.S. and Canada, alleging that they misuse the Amazon name when sending e-mail advertisements. Earthlink shut down the notorious Buffalo Spammer after he sent 825 million messages in a year using a spoofed reply e-mail addresses.

Unmasking the Spammer
For many people, deleting the spam they get is just not enough. While you may never be able to tell who sent the e-mail to you, most of the time you can determine what computer was used to send you spam. Armed with this information, you can complain directly to the Internet service provider that the spammer used.

To sleuth out a spammer's IP address you need to examine the e-mail header information. Most e-mail clients hide header information, however. To view header information in Outlook or Outlook Express, for example, right-click the message subject line and select Properties, Details.

Now work your way from the bottom of the e-mail header up and keep a keen eye out for the first instance of the phrase "Received: from." This line reveals the IP address of the mail server that actually sent the e-mail.

Next you'll have to perform an IP lookup at a site like Sam Spade or Network Solutions to see who owns that IP address. That's who you report the spam to.

Good luck and happy spam hunting.

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AT&T to offer movies over Internet

AT&T Inc. said on Wednesday it will offer its high-speed Internet subscribers a movie delivery service in partnership with Starz Entertainment Group, a unit of Liberty Media Corp..

Vongo, the service from Starz, will feature a co-branded AT&T and Vongo Web site at http://www.att.vongo.com with a 14-day free trial to AT&T high-speed Internet subscribers.

Vongo, which was unveiled earlier this year, offers subscribers unlimited access to more than 1,500 movie and video selections as well as live, streaming Starz TV channel for $9.99 a month.

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Microsoft Makes Using Pirated Office Software More Difficult

Microsoft has introduced a new program that will test to see if customers have a genuine version of its Office productivity suite, according to the company.

The move is part of Microsoft's continued efforts to prevent software piracy and the distribution of counterfeit copies of its software.


Microsoft launched a pilot of the Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) program in seven languages, including Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Greek, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Russian and Spanish, according to Microsoft. The program will determine if pilot users have a genuine installation of Microsoft Office installed on their computers.


The company declined to disclose where the pilot users are located and how many there are, according to a statement from its public relations firm Waggener Edstrom. Microsoft will expand OGA beyond the pilot phase at some point in the future, but declined to say exactly when.

Pilot Program

OGA is part of Microsoft's Genuine Software Initiative (GSI), which is directed at reducing software counterfeiting and piracy. Microsoft already put in place Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) as part of this initiative in July 2005.


WGA automatically checks that customers using Windows Update, Microsoft Update for Windows and the Microsoft Download Center have a legitimate version of the Windows operating system before they can download updates or new content from those services. So far, more than 150 million PCs have participated in WGA, the company said.

Verification Problems

At the time of WGA's launch, the program met with mixed reviews from customers because of a flaw that identified some versions of Windows as counterfeit when they were actually genuine copies. Because of this, the automated verification feature was immediately hacked so users could avoid running the program when using Microsoft update services. Microsoft has since repaired the flaws.


Microsoft has increased its efforts in recent years to fight software piracy and the counterfeiting of its software products. In addition to the GSI, the company has been working with hardware vendors to fight piracy and counterfeiting in countries that are prone to software piracy, such as China.

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New Nokia Phones Focus on Photos, Videos

Nokia today introduced three new additions to its Nseries line of mobile phones as well as services and software designed to encourage customers to use the devices to shoot and share video and photos.

At the very high-end is the N93, a phone designed around video capture. Users can shoot MPEG-4 VGA videos at 30 frames per second and later burn the videos to DVD on their PCs using Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 software for Windows XP.


The software, included when customers buy the phone, allows them to edit their videos and apply transitions and effects to the video, according to Nokia. N93 customers also get Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.0 software for adjusting photos that are transferred to PCs.


The N93 has a 3.2 megapixel still camera with optical and digital zoom. Dedicated keys on the handsets activate the zoom and flash and switch between still and video capture, Nokia said. The N93 operates on Wi-Fi and 3G networks.


Along with the N93, Nokia also launched Nseries Studio, an interactive online community for people who shoot video with their N93s. Initially, the site will feature short films shot by well-known figures including actor Gary Oldman using the N93. Within a few months, however, the site will also feature films taken by anyone, the company said.


The Finnish manufacturer also introduced the N73, which features a 3.2 megapixel camera, integrated stereo speakers, digital music player, and FM radio. Both the N73 and N93 are based on the Symbian OS and run S60 3rd Edition Software.


At the low end, Nokia introduced the N72, with a 2 megapixel camera, music player, and FM radio. The phone is designed for markets including the Middle East, China, Indonesia, and Russia and operates on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) networks.

Included Apps

Users of all three new phones will find software preloaded within the camera application allowing them to easily upload photos to Flickr, the photo sharing Web site that was bought by Yahoo last year. Users can also add comments to the photos that they upload to the site from the phones.


Nokia already offers its own Lifeblog software to some of its phone users, allowing them to take photos and audio clips, organize the files on their PCs and upload them to an online blog. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and Samsung Electronics also offer mobile blogging applications.


The N93 will cost an unsubsidized $619 and is expected to be available in July. At the low end, the N72 will cost an unsubsidized $395 and will start selling in June. The N73 will be priced between those two phones and will hit the shelves in July.


Nokia said it has sold 5 million Nseries phones since launching the product around a year ago.

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Media firms work to stay ahead of online consumers

Big media companies must keep finding ways to reach on-the-go users and make money doing it to stay relevant in an online marketplace that values convenience and novelty, the leaders of three of the largest U.S. media and tech companies said on Wednesday.

In a wide-ranging discussion on tech trends at the Milken Institute's 9th Annual Global Conference, Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger, News Corp Inc. President and Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin and AOL Chairman and Chief Executive Jonathan Miller agreed; standing still while users find ways -- legal or not -- to obtain the content they want is not an option.

"I think anyone who loses is anyone who tries to protect their traditional business. I think you've got a bad 10-15 years ahead of you if you try to do that," Chernin told conference-goers.

Chernin said the U.S. government should help facilitate the spread of broadband technology to bring "very backward" U.S. broadband adoption into line with Asia.

"We should have a government policy that addresses it," Chernin said. "You're already seeing certain products in certain areas (in Asia) that are much more advanced than we are.

I think you will see products come out of those areas that are really innovative that should be coming out of the U.S."

While consumers' desire for home-grown content and social networking has grown with the rise of sites like MySpace.com and YouTube.com, so has their demand for branded content, Iger and Chernin said.

"What's both exciting and frightening is the pent-up demand for video products," Chernin said. "We did a survey and more than 90 percent of (users') favorite material on (video sharing site) YouTube.com is copyrighted material (from studios)."

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Disney to test new interactive ads on abc.com

Walt Disney Co. will try a new type of advertising when it begins showing prime-time ABC television shows on the Web, using a single, interactive ad during each break rather than the flurry of short spots that are the norm on network TV.

Ten major advertisers have delivered new interactive online commercials as part of Disney's two-month test of whether consumers will watch ads if they can download hit TV shows on abc.com for free.

The test, which starts May 1, offers streaming video of "Desperate Housewives," "Alias," "Commander in Chief" and "Lost" about 12 hours after each episode airs on the East Coast.

The company charged advertisers only for the cost of setting up the online player and may actually lose money if the site becomes wildly popular, Alan Ives, vice president of interactive sales for ABC, said on Tuesday.

Disney asked major ad agencies to recommend advertisers who "are willing to push the envelope" for the test, Ives said.

The company had no problem finding advertisers once news of the trial hit the press, he said. The companies, including AT&T Inc, Cingular, Toyota Motor Corp., Ford Motor Co., Procter & Gamble Co., Unilever Plc, General Electric Co's Universal Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures, turned in their ads about two weeks ago.

"It's a new and different ad model," Ives said. "We got some pretty creative stuff. If you had unlimited time and interactivity to get your message across, what would you do?"

Each online episode will kick off with a 10-second sponsorship message from a single advertiser and will feature one commercial from that sponsor per commercial break, Ives said.

[Rasputin]

Motorola, Cisco Scrap Dual-mode Phone Plans

Motorola and Cisco Systems stopped development of a planned dual-mode cellular and Wi-Fi phone recently in favor of phones that would allow multiple devices to work with any vendor's enterprise IP (Internet Protocol) phone switch, a Motorola executive said today.

The companies announced a partnership last July with plans to develop a device and release it in early 2006. The aim of the project was to let enterprise employees use one phone both outside and inside the office, with calls smoothly shifting over to a wireless LAN in the office and to the cell network when a user went outside. Typical office phone features, such as dialing by extension within the enterprise, would be built in.


Dual-mode phones are a key component of fixed-mobile convergence, which could benefit both enterprises and consumers with lower cellular bills and better indoor coverage. Mobile operators stand to lose cellular airtime but could use the phones to build comprehensive communications offerings and keep subscribers loyal.

New Focus

The Motorola-Cisco partnership remains, but development has ended on the planned product, which never had a formal name, according to John DeFeo, Motorola corporate vice president of enterprise products.


"It just simply took too long to get it moving," DeFeo said. "The market is moving very fast." Among other things, the industrial design of the device and the wireless LAN radio to be used in it were too old to make for an appealing product, he said. The development process involved coordinating product road maps between the two companies and working with mobile operators that would offer the phones, DeFeo said.


The planned device was intended as a successor to the CN620, a phone jointly developed by Motorola, Symbol Technologies, and Avaya that was never produced in commercial volumes, DeFeo said. Unlike the CN620, it would have been fully interoperable with Cisco's CallManager IP PBX (private branch exchange) and wireless LAN gear.


Motorola's new approach will be to develop a single platform that can be used for any dual-mode device the company wants to make and will work with IP PBXes from all vendors, DeFeo said. He would not say when the first products based on that platform would be available. Motorola wants to branch out to many devices in order to support the same type of roaming capability for applications such as instant messaging, push-to-talk and location-based services, he said.

[Rasputin]

Trojan Freezes Computer, Demands Ransom

A new kind of malware circulating on the Internet freezes a computer and then asks for a ransom paid through the Western Union Holdings money transfer service.

A sample of the Trojan horse virus was sent to Sophos, a security vendor, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant. The malware, which Sophos named Troj/Ransom-A, is one of only a few viruses so far that have asked for a ransom in exchange for releasing control of a computer, Cluley said.


The new Trojan falls into a class of viruses described as "ransomware." The schemes had been seen in Russia, but the first one appeared in English just last month.


"It is a new kind of malware with a particularly nasty payload," Cluley said.


It's unclear how the Trojan is being spread, although Sophos is investigating, Cluley said. Viruses can be spread in several ways, including through spam or a so-called drive-by download that exploits a browser vulnerability when a user visits a malicious Web site.

PC Frozen, Files at Risk

Once run, the Trojan freezes the computer, displaying a message saying files are being deleted every 30 minutes. It then gives instructions on how to send $10.99 via Western Union to free the computer.


Hitting the control, alt, and delete keys will not affect the bug, the virus writer warns. Sophos provides further details at its Web site.


The virus writer even offers tech support, Cluley said. If the method of unlocking the computer doesn't work after the money is sent, the virus writer promises to research the problem and includes an e-mail address.


Last month, a Trojan emerged that encrypts a user's documents and then leaves a file demanding $300 in exchange for the password to access the information. Victims were instructed to send money to one of 99 accounts run by e-gold, a company that runs a money transfer site.


The password, however, was contained on the infected computer. Sophos cracked it and publicly released it.