Showing some serious teeth, the US govt's Federal Trade Commission has negotiated a proposed settlement with Sony BMG over the infamous rootkit virus incident (in which Sony BMG music CDs installed 'XCP' copy protection software onto customers' PCs without their knowledge or consent.

Background reading here).

The FTC says Sony BMG's 'rootkit' take on digital rights management (DRM) software introduced serious security vulnerabilities to its customers' PCs.

The Sony division has agreed to:

Separately, Sony BMG has also reached agreements with 41 US states requiring it to pay up to $US175 per customer for any PC damage caused.

During 2005, Sony BMG sold around 12 million music CDs loaded with its controversial rootkit DRM software. Few were sold outside the US, says the company, which has posted a list of affected CDs, plus rootkit checking and removal tools here.

The FTC will hold public hearings and decide in 30 days whether to make its proposed settlement with Sony BMG final.

Let's hope it does. Like anybody else, digital content creators have the right to protect their intellectual property. But you can't go to war with your own customers. You've got to gain their support, knowledge and consent. And, of course, you've got to get the tech right.

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Some scenes from Microsoft's Windows Vista launch at Dick Smith's Power House store in Manakau last night - wherein All Black Dan Carter became the first person in the world to buy a copy of the new OS (loaded on an HP laptop that Carter immediately donated to a Cure Kids charity auction on TradeMe. Started your bidding here). Just quietly, February NZ PC World also slipped onto newsstands last night. Check it out. It includes a 52-page bonus magazine on Vista and Office 2007.

The countdown begins.

3-2-1 ... we have Windows. Carter, centre, makes his purchase. Left: MC Pat Pilcher. Right: Microsoft NZ Marketing Director Brent Colbert.

Now that I have Vista, I just have to work out how to use it.

Ah, here are the instructions.

Don't take on an All Black: despite a vigorous effort, former TV3 sportscaster Clint Brown has to settle for being the second person in the world to buy Vista.

The crowd goes wild.

Graham Saywell, who queued in a deck chair from 8.30pm, became the first person in the world to buy a standalone copy of Vista, and (we think, our elves are still checking) - to buy a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 system plus an HP laptop signed by Dan for good measure.

Dan gets stuck into his work signing PC World posters. Actually, said posters are now just sitting in the boot of my car, but we'll think of something to do with them. You know, for the kids.

Posted by Chris Keall at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 9 )

Symantec and McAfee, the Coke and Pepsi of security software, are down in NPD's latest US retail sales rankings. CA rises, and Microsoft bursts into the category.

While still wildly dominant, Symantec slips from 76% in the fourth quarter 2005 to 67% market share for the December quarter just closed.

McAfee is still in second place, but drops from 14% to 13% (incidentally, founder John McAfee had me in tears during my first year at PC World when, as a tender young editorial assistant, I picked up the phone to hear the famously hot-blooded CEO roar down the line from the US: "I'm John McAfee and I'm going to sue you for a million dollars!" This was in relation to a typo in an antivirus group test. In the end he agreed to a clarification on our Mailbox page. It's OK, I'm over it. Hope you're enjoying your retirement, John).

CA, which has finally put its financial scandals behind it, or at least the FBI has put all the relevant staff behind bars (hi Stephen, if they let you have internet access!), zooms from 2.3% to 5.7%.

Trend Micro also had a good quarter, rising from 4.4% to 5%.

But most notable was Microsoft, whose 6-month-old OneCare security suite snaffled a respectable 4.4%.

OneCare is due to be released in New Zealand later this year (no one tracks market share figures here, unexcitingly).

Posted by Chris Keall at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

Breaking news dept:

P-Day will be March 23. Only the 60GB model will be released here, for $1199, with the 20GB model to possibly follow later in the year.

Read more about PlayStation 3 in February NZ PC World (out January 30). Or meantime here and here.

Posted by Chris Keall at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

From April, New Zealand will gain a modicum of number portability. So, for example, someone who chooses to switch to making all their local calls over Vodafone's Zuhause widget could keep their old Telecom phone number.

Will revolution follow? Not necessarily. The Economist (Jan 20) reports that in Japan number portability was introduced in October. But since then, only a modest 1 million of 100 million subscribers have jumped providers. The reason: it's not just about your phone number. If you can't take your email address with you too (and, here, a vast majority of the nation does of course have an email address with Telecom's Xtra) then it's not worth the hassle.

Sure you can buy a personalised domain name (eg chriskeall.com) that you can use to host an email address you can keep across ISPs, but that costs money, and the likes of Google's Gmail aren't recommended for business.

Meanwhile, in another broadband shocker, it turns out the ugly mish mash of McMansions along Auckland's posh Paratai Drive can't get broadband. Or so complains Jenny Gibbs in today's Herald.

The headline 'She's a millionaire and she still can't get broadband' is completely wrong-headed. The Herald should check out PC World's school zone rule: the better your school zone, the posher the neighbourhood and the more people who can afford broadband - so the worse your local exchange becomes overloaded.

As Jenny is just starting to comprehend, Telecom's 'Xtraordinaries' campaign an enthusiastic response to political pressure. It works (for Telecom), both ways: it encourages many more New Zealanders onto broadband, a goal the government has on Telecom to achieve. And, as Telecom techies have always maintained, turning off network management for 'unconstrained' full-tilt downloads was always going to mean a whole bunch of people actually got a worse broadband experience over our creaky, pre-DSL2 network - so Telecom can say to David Cunliffe: 'Nyah, nyah, told you the system couldn't stand it'.

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Legal services like iTunes accounted for less than 3% of the worldwide music download market during 2006, says research company Verdict.

Nevertheless, Apple sold a staggering 21 million iPods for the quarter ending December 31 - 50% more than last Xmas. And the average iPod buyer purchases 20 songs from iTunes.

All of which leaves Steve Jobs in a pretty perky position. This week his company announced a quarterly profit of $US1 billion, a 77% rise year-on-year.

Our friends at Verdict reckon the legal slice of the music download market is set to quadruple during the over the next five years. And then of course there's the iPhone ...

More from the stats dept: CD sales revenue is falling faster than music download revenue is rising as record companies are forced to discount slower selling discs.
And the internet is also changing the way we buy CDs: globally, 11% of discs are now ordered online via the likes of Amazon.com (and here our putative Ferrit.co.nz).

Pictured: BitTorrent co-founder and president Ashwin Navin. Or should I say Mr 97%.

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

There was an item on Breakfast this morning about a new blogsite that lets people post about alleged misdeeds by CYFs workers (and leave personal details such as the person's email address or car registration number). Unasked was whether casual bloggers - or anyone posting anything to a website, or in an email - is bound by the same libel laws as, say, me or the editor of the NZ Herald: The answer is yes: professional or amateur, we're all held to the same standard.

Posted by Chris Keall at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Well, if you squint your eyes funny as you walk past Bill Bennett's desk. With its nearly all-screen front panel, my colleague's Palm T|X looks similar to an Apple iPhone. Bill slyly added a new skin via Brighthand and, hey presto, it's the Palm iPhone. Apple lawyers, please forward your questions to Bill at Reseller News. The evidence is here.
Speaking of lawyers, it was noted over the weekend that LG's new Prada phone, which shares the iPhone's nearly-all-screen, one-button design, looks eerily similar to Apple's new wonder gadget. We'll leave their respective counsel to argue over who's copying whom. Here are some pictures to help them:

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 5 )

The Chocolate turned out to be pretty sweet last night. It's hero feature is a heat-sensitive keypad. There's no need to actually press any of the keys. Rather, you just have to glide your fingertips across the phone's buttons, which automatically sense and react to your body heat (try to press the keys with cold long fingernails and nothing happens).

Other good stuff: it's very small for a 3G Vodafone Live handset - about the size of a pack of cards and just 98g - and for a phone with a slide-down keypad it feels very robustly engineered. And it does have a very groovy look, complete with a glowing red panels (see it here). On the downside, the heat-sensitive keys were a little too sensitive for most at first. Most people at last night's preview took five or 10 minutes to acclimatise. Officially called the LG KG800, the Chocolate costs $799, and comes with a 2mP camera and 512MB miniSD card. Read a full review in our March issue's Mobile and Wireless section.

But anyhow, we're heading into the weekend, and time for some lighter reading. Although I'm as high brow as the next editor, and am a card-carry subscriber to The New Yorker and The Economist, among others, I did used to have a nasty habit on the side, slyly slipping a copy of Aussie celebrity trash mag New Weekly into my shopping trolley every Saturday ("It's for the wife").

That was until the Deputy Editor turned me on to the more immediate fix of People.com, which has now started to link to the far less polite TMZ.com, which pursues its rubbish news tenaciously, often with sneaky video or lurid photo galleries on the side, and has delivered several scoops - if indeed Britney Spears forgetting to wear underwear or Mel Gibson’s DUI photo can be considered civilisation-enhancing news.

TMZ was only created recently, incidentally, and its existence does reflect a serious trend. Time Warner (which also publishes People) used to wall off AOL.com editorial content, which was only accessible to people who paid for an ISP account with AOL (which is also owned by Time Warner). Now, as broadband thrives and AOL's mainly dial-up subscribers start to seriously wane (though it's still the US's largest ISP), it's home page's content is being made free to everyone, and is supposed to pay its way through advertising. Little kickers like TMZ are supposed to attract new visitors to the site - like chump here.

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

There have been a lot of business press stories about how, just a few years ago, Korea-based Samsung was solid but lacked any cool. Today its consumer electronics division has reached Sony-levels of brand cache, say the style police - or at least Fortune. Now Samsung's fellow Korean company LG is looking to follow the same route to hipness.

LG's quest for cool is off to a good start. A designer cellphone called the Chocolate (pictured) was a smash hit in its native Korea and the US last year, with more than 6 million sold despite a stiff price (around $NZ900). At the recent giant CES show, LG got some buzz for Shine, which repeats the Chocolate's 'slide' motif (that is, the keypad slides away when not in use), and major buzz for a combo HD-DVD/Blu-ray player - the first high def DVD player to accommodate both the rival formats (read our review in the 'Down Time' section of February NZ PC World, out January 30).

Chocolate is released tonight in NZ, so check in tomorrow for local release details.

Posted by Chris Keall at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Telecom and Vodafone have more than 3.6 million cellphone subscribers between them - which works out to a stunning 85% of our population, according to an over-excited NZ Herald. In real-terms the saturation's not quite at that level, as many people have one mobile for work and one for home, and every second teenager seems to juggle Telecom and Vodafone handsets to sneakily hop from free week-day txting to free weekend txting). Still, it's a fact that in the past year alone they've added 500,000 accounts between them. Nice growth. But check out these stats for India's total number of cellphone users, quoted in The Economist (Jan 13):

Year: subscribers in millions
2001: 5.6
2002: 10.7
2003: 28.2
2004: 47.6
2005: 75.8
2006: 136.7

136.7 million sounds a lot, granted, but it's still only around 15% of India's population ...

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Apple Computer officially shortened its name to Apple this week. Appropriate really when Macs rated nary a mention during Steve Jobs' MacWorld speech, which starred the iPhone and Apple TV. In many instances now, Apple will not even use its name but just its silver Apple logo, Nike swoosh style.

In shortening its name to reflect the way personal technology no longer centres around a desktop computer (or laptop), Apple follows in the footsteps of Dell (formerly Dell Computer). And also Hewlett-Packard, which these days calls itself only buy its initials and recently stated it wants its consumer products to have the same living-room brand recognition as Philips.

Another shape-shifter is Microsoft, which recently designed its US home page to give its Zune music player and Xbox 360 game console equal signage with its business products.

Speaking of the iPhone, a number of questions have been asked ahead of its June US release. To which I'd add, ahead of iPhone's mooted 2008 NZ debut: will Vodafone be interested in supporting the iPhone, given that Vodafone already as its own Live Music Store (which now also supports direct-to-PC downloads; so far iPhone has only been previewed in a GSM version, so Telecom is out of the picture at this point)? Certainly, when Motorola proposed launching its iTunes phone in New Zealand (a mobile created in partnership with Apple, which ran iTunes software), Vodafone gave it the cold shoulder.

More happily, Apple TV will be released here, possibly as soon as February for $498. Expect it to light up the Living Room War between PC and consumer electronics companies, and watch out for a full review in March NZ PC World.

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Amid the kafuffle over Telecom's home line rental increase (which has various Press F1ers either defending Theresa or spitting on their phone bills), there's an alternative on the way from Vodafone: Zuhause, a gadget with jacks for a standard telephone (or 4).

Already available to Vodafone's German customers (more than one million of whom have bought one), Zuhause lets even a non-techie person make cellular broadband calls via a bung old traditional analogue phone. Better, recent Commerce Commission rulings - which kick in 1 April - mean you'll be able to keep your Telecom number is you decide to move all your voice business to Vodafone's Zuhause - coupled with a regular Vodafone cellphone, 3G Broadband account, or a DSL line from recent Vodafone acquisition ihug (of course wholesaled from, cough, you-know-who).

For people who go cellphone-only, Vodafone is also promising home cellular hubs and other technology that will alert its network when you're in or around your home - and charge your cellphone calls at home rates. Vodafone also has its own VoIP softphone in the works.

The Zuhause launch is slated for around April (probably under it's English translation - 'At Home'). Pictured above left is one of the original German Zuhause boxes; which is 3G; the new and improved iteration released in New Zealand will support 3G broadband. Zuhause was recently previewed for PC World and we'll have more on the product in our March issue.

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )

Telecom has just announced an 'adjustment' to home phone line charges. Most people get a $1.85 a month increase (see table below). People in Wellington and central Christchurch though - that is, people in areas where TelstraClear offers direct competition - get a smaller increase ($1.20), further widening the gap with Telecom-only towns.

Of course, once the broadband legislation is passed, complete with its 'naked DSL' provision, none of us will be forced to pay any Telecom line rental before we can open a broadband account with the ISP of our choice ... maybe including VoIP ...

Posted by Chris Keall at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

Microsoft's new OS is off to a flying start, despite only being available to business so far, says an NDP survey. Quoted on CNET, the market researcher says Vista's December sales were 62% higher than those of Windows 2000 during its first month on release. Vista is slightly behind Windows XP's first month, but is still well positioned to storm past its predecessor, as Vista's business-only end-of-November launch was a low key affair.

Microsoft will not roll out the heavy artillery until Vista is made available to the general public at midnight, January 31 (and the time-line, incidentally, will mean a New Zealand customer will be the first to purchase a retail copy).

Meanwhile, market researcher IDC (a sister company of PC World's US publisher IDG) is predicting 20% of business PCs will be running Vista by the end of its first year onsale, compared to the 10% who ran XP after the same period.

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

I know from my inbox that a number of readers have seen the stories swirling around the internet about Rex Farrance, a US PC World editor who was shot during a home invasion yesterday. It now appears the unfortunate 'Police believe editor at PC World was involved in illegal narcotics trade' San Francisco Chronicle headline so widely emailed was based on scant information, and another example of the internet helping to fuel a bogus story. (Farrance's son is now quoted on Time magazine's website as saying the only narcotics connection was that he - the son - was growing prescription-legal medicinal marajiuana. The Contra Consta Times has a good write-up here.)

Below, US PC World Managing Editor Kimberly Brinson and other collegues remember Rex's dedication, passion and kindness.

PC World lost a treasured colleague and friend Tuesday, when Senior Technical Editor Rex Farrance was killed during a home-invasion robbery attempt. For 19 years, Rex served PC World with professionalism and a passion for accuracy.

"Rex had exactly the right temperament for the work he loved so much: He was dedicated to accuracy, fairness, and clarity, and it showed in every article he edited for PC World," said Editor in Chief Harry McCracken. "It also showed in his communications with his colleagues, whom he treated with unstinting thoughtfulness. Over the past 19 years, he was a friend and adviser to dozens of PC World editors. Millions of people who never knew his name have benefited from things he did to make our magazine and site as good as they could possibly be," McCracken added.

As news of the attack spread on Wednesday, current and former coworkers, as well as colleagues in the technology industry, shared their shock and grief.

"As a public relations person, I found Rex to be one of the best people to work with: easy to reach, returned your phone calls," said Craig Settles of Successful.com. "Though he was totally a tech guy and always knew his bits and bytes, Rex was low-key and never came off as superior. You felt comfortable talking to him about products or technology in general, and clients enjoyed meeting with him. Rex really personified the image of PC World and its role as a valuable resource."

"Rex was a stickler for details and fairness," said Ramon G. McLeod, editor of PCWorld.com. "He could spot inaccuracies in stories better than any editor I've ever worked with."

Rex was an expert on data storage technologies, but covered many products and services throughout his tenure at PC World.

He was also a dapper dresser who earned the nickname "Mr. Savile Row" around the office for the suits and sport jackets he wore, no matter how casual workplace attire became over the years. He always attached an American flag pin to his lapel. "He was a real gentleman," added McLeod.

The PC World Test Center held special regard for Rex. James Motch, manager of benchmark development, said Rex put in extra effort to get the facts right. "Rex would often come down to the lab and speak with us in person about our test results in order to make certain the results were not misinterpreted. He was always soft-spoken and friendly."

Jeff Kuta, Test Center data manager, remembered Rex as a mentor. "He was one of the first editors I worked closely with, testing CRT monitors in the 1990s. He always emphasized the importance of precision in the presentation of information. He was a consummate professional."

PC World Senior Products Editor Melissa J. Perenson said she wouldn't be the storage aficionado she is without Rex's mentoring. "Rex was such a kind-hearted, gentle, and genuine soul. He was a devoted family man, and he was always there for his friends, too. He was passionate about technology, and it showed in every aspect of what he did at PC World."

PC World Senior Editor Kalpana Ettenson remembered Farrance as unfailingly patient and kind. "I can't count the number of times I would casually knock on his door and ask 'Do you have a minute?' only to end up spending more than just a few minutes discussing how best to phrase something in a story," she said. "He was committed to making PC World stories the best they could be."

Longtime PC World Senior Copy Editor Sally Zahner agreed. "In all the years I worked with Rex, I never once saw him be anything but kind, generous, and respectful with everyone he encountered."

Rex was a fitness buff who enjoyed running and lifting weights. He fashioned a home gym for himself and swapped health tips with like-minded colleagues.

PC World Executive Editor Randy Ross shared Rex's interest in fitness and body building. "Though neither of us ever achieved the neck-like-a-fire-hydrant look we wanted, we enjoyed talking about different workout routines and nagging injuries. Even though he was about 10 years older than I, Rex had a smaller waist and could lift more than I ever could."

Shane Rau, former PC World technical editor and current PC semiconductor program manager for IDC, said he was stunned and saddened by Rex's untimely death. "He was such a very good person and colleague."

PC World Senior Editor Anush Yegyazarian considered Rex "one of the kindest, most courteous people I've ever met," and one of the most knowledgeable about technology. "He was always ready to help, and always diligent about tracking down information for articles that inevitably made them better and more accurate," she said.

Farrance lived in Pittsburg, California, with his wife. He had four adult children. Everyone at PC World will miss him terribly.

Posted by Chris Keall at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

If you're constantly in the dog house for forgetting birthdays and the like, there's all manner of software with email alerts and reminders, including the freebie Google Calendar. But for minimum fuss, try this ultra simple website that lets you set up an email to send to yourself at a future date. Futureme.org takes only seconds to use, and let's you set up an email to send to your own address (or, if you're not fussy about privacy, someone else's) on any day up until 2037.

Of course, you may not have the same email address in, say, 2010, and I'm not sure if they'll even be an internet in 2037. Still, sending a time capsule to yourself is a cute concept nonetheless.

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

"Let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap and watch porn."

- Seagate CEO Bill Watkins (pictured left) gives CNNMoney.com a candid assessment of the role his company's hard drives play in expanding Western civilisation

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Okay, so this one's a little outside the PC space, but anyone interested in technology, design or human folly should check out Boeing's new Large Cargo Freighter. Pictured above, this mutantly-modified 747 will not be commercially sold, but rather used by Boeing itself for transporting large hunks of its coming Dreamline between far-flung manufacturing partners.

The Wall Street Journal (registration required) reports:

"The craft is a standard 747 that received an extreme makeover in Taipei, Taiwan, last summer - a process that involved removing the jet's passenger cabin and signature hump, then replacing them with a cavernous cargo hold. The tail section now swings open on giant hinges that protrude from one side of the fuselage, like elbows.

Even the people who might defend it are quick to point out its lack of curb appeal. "It has to be one of the ugliest planes I've ever seen," says Boeing Vice President Mike Bair.

Posted by Chris Keall at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Still on holiday, or having trouble re-adapting to the office and looking to network with other goof-offers? Check out Geelix HUD (heads-up display), a Norwegian service that lets gamers share recorded gameplay files, and chat and share videos and other multimedia as they play. Launched last month, Geelix is still in beta, and free at this point. Any files uploaded to Geelix's servers can be shared via YouTube or MySpace. Geelix will compete against the more extablished Xfire, which boasts 5.7 million registered users worldwide.

Posted by Chris Keall at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )