While no successor to Theresa Gattung has yet been named, Telecom Chief Financial Officer Marko Bogoievski has been very much to the fore with his NetCo suggestion -- that is, that a new, independent company could be created to control the local loop. "NetCo" would be cooperatively owned by all major ISPs, with maybe even the government having a share, says Marko.

The CFO's immediate goal is obvious: to put forward an idea with big enough bang to head-off the government's proposed operational separation of Telecom into retail, wholesale and network divisions before the end of this year -- the latter two potentially very heavily regulated.

Rivals immediately complained that it was no good if NetCo only had control of local loops and their swathes of crusty old copper. To gain their cooperation, it would also have to include some degree of control of backhaul (Telecom's main network). Otherwise, Telecom's monopoly pricing would simply be transferred from the local loop to backhaul charges.

Still, I like the shape of Marko. He speaks more plainly than Theresa, and seems to be under no illusions about the way technology (and his company's local line voice call revenue) is heading. He's also seems willing to compromise, now saying that the (still theoretical, of course) NetCo would control much of the backhaul network.

To get the all-important PC World endorsement (assuming he even wants the top job), Mr Bogoievski would have to back away from some of his delinquent thoughts on Telecom's Australian assets, and advocate ploughing more of the Yellow Pages dough into the company's New Zealand broadband infrastructure. But so far, as Telecom NZ's new figurehead over the past couple of months, the kid's doing OK.

Posted by Chris Keall at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Google has overtaken Microsoft as the world's most-visited web franchise, says internet traffic monitor comScore Network.

If you count all Google's sites, from Google.com to the likes to Google.co.nz to YouTube.com, the search giant clocked 528 million unique visitors in March, a 5% month-on-month increase.
March marks the first time Google has topped comScore's global chart.

Microsoft's network of sites was a smite behind on 527 million visitors, a 3.7% month-on-month increase.

This week's Economist has a lengthy article on Google vs Microsoft vs Yahoo. It covers all the usual bases (will Google Apps undermine Office? etc). But there is one paragraph that pithily puts things into financial perspective:

"For MSN the picture is even bleaker [than Yahoo]. Its parent, Microsoft, is in a different position from Yahoo!, since online advertising is still minuscule next to its revenues from software, expected to be over $45 billion this year. Yet online advertising is crucial to Microsoft's growth, says Sarah Friar, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, since it is perhaps the only new market large enough to be "needle-moving" for such a big firm. But so far Microsoft is failing. By Ms Friar's estimates, Google will make operating profits of over $5 billion this year, growing at a rate of 36% for the next three years; Yahoo! will make $3 billion in operating profit, growing by 20% a year; and Microsoft's online businesses will lose $2 billion this year and even more in the next two years."

Posted by Chris Keall at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

NZBC's Chris Bell tries out Symantec's Live Chat support here. Maybe I'll give it go and find out why CCapp.exe crashes all the time.

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 3 )

After around 8.30pm each evening, Maori Television morphs into an analogue of Australia's SBS, screening various arthouse films and general documentaries. Tonight at 8.30pm there's a doco that looked promising in trailers: In the Realm of The Hackers (2003), a well-regarded ABC (as in Aussie ABC) dramatic reconstruction about two disaffected teens in late 80s Melbourne who stole a restricted computer security list. The pair broke into some of the world's most (supposedly) secure systems, and soon had the US Secret Service and FBI on their tails. Seems well worth checking out.

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

Yes, you read right. At a Friday appearance in Beijing, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced a $US3 "Student Innovation Suite" that will include Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Microsoft Math 3.0, Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office and Windows Live Mail desktop.

What's the catch, you wonder, as you gently stroke your fingers along your $1000 shrinkwrapped copy of Vista Ultimate?

Well, the ultra-low-cost suite will only be supplied directly to governments in "low and middle income countries" (as defined by the World Bank; I checked, we don't qualify). The governments will then supply the software directly to pupils.

Bill says Microsoft wants two billion customers by 2015, and providing a low-cost suite is one way to reach the developing world punters needed fill-out the ranks of potential buyers. It gels nicely with the $US100 notebooks scheduled under the One Laptop Per Child programme, too, which you can read more about in May NZ PC World.

I'd also add that it's a good, constructive way to beat back rampant piracy around Asia and the developing world. I'm sure lots will find conspiracy theories and malevolent undercurrents (hello, Juha!). But I'm saying: nice one, Bill.

Microsoft also announced it would loan money to five additional countries under its Partnerships for Technology Access programmes -- Argentina, Botswana, Chile, China and Egypt -- so their governments in turn can provide affordable PCs to small businesses and communities.

Plus a slew of education and employment initiatives, including 200 "Innovation Centers" around the developing world to help local governments with education and job creation, a $US250 million Partners in Learning programme to help governments distribute its new low-cost suite, and a major partnership with the Asian Development Bank. Read about them here.

Posted by Chris Keall at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Okay campers. We can argue til the cows come home about historical stats. But the latest retail sales figures from the world's biggest market, compiled by researcher NDP, show Sony's PlayStation2 maintaining the lead it held over the Christmas boom-time:

US CONSOLE SALES, MARCH 2007
Console: units sold
Sony PlayStation2: 280,000
Nintendo Wii: 259,000
Microsoft Xbox 360: 199,000
Sony PlayStation 3: 130,000

US HAND-HELD SALES, MARCH 2007
Hand-held: units sold
Nintendo DS: 508,000
Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP): 180,000

In dollar terms, Sony and Microsoft are almost exactly level in the new console war, by dint of the PlayStation3 being much more expensive than the Xbox 360.
But the real winner is ... everybody. Competition is expanding the whole market. NDP says sales of consoles, games and accessories rose a stunning 33% year-on-year to reach $US1.1 billion for March.

Posted by Chris Keall at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

It's that time of year again, when you can vote in the Oscars of the internet, The Webby Awards. Ironically, the Webby Awards website is not particularly attractive or easy to navigate. Still, it's quite an interesting exercise to browse through the nominees in each category, which were whittled down from an original 8000 from 60 countries. Featured sites include our own NZHerald.co.nz, which received an honoree award as one of the top 12 porn sites - sorry, newspaper sites. Winners will be announced April 27.

Posted by Chris Keall at 4:57 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Today's NZ Herald has a story on My Story, an NZ On Air-funded series of two-minute shows about groovy young people that will screen on C4, then be made available to Vodafone customers for $0.20 an episode (in a similar multiplatform manner to Afterworld, canvassed yesterday).

It may have been cleaned up by the time you read this, but as I post, the Herald's story ends with a link to a site called My Story ... which is in fact a series of hardcore porn links. Kids, ask your parents first.

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )

If you've had your fill dumb skateboarding accidents and loneygirl15, check out a new animated sci fi series on YouTube called Afterworld. It's made by a team of A-list Hollywood and broadcast TV people, and appears in weekly installments (there've been 10 so far).

The animation is quite basic, mimicking a graphic novel as people stay static backgrounds move against them. But it's a natty little story about a guy who travels to New York, only to find the city mysteriously deserted (yes, there is a bit of a Lost vibe).

Sony Pictures International TV has just bought the rights, and is shopping the series around mobile phone companies, amongst others, so make sure you catch it free on YouTube before Afterworld moves to cellular and your friendly phone company puts it on pay-per-view.

Posted by Chris Keall at 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

Why is it that nothing draws ferocious reader comments like console stats? Anyhow, you're obviously after another does of lies, damned lies and statistics, which today come in the form of some global numbers from Nielsen Net//Ratings (which I'm pulling from the April 2 issue of Red Herring):

91 percent
Growth in web traffic to Nintendo.com, 2006-2007

47 percent
Growth in web traffic to Xbox.com, 2006-2007

-8 percent
Decline in web traffic to PlayStation.com, 2006-2007

These stats are a measure of each platform's momentum, rather than overall visitors. And they're not measuring the number of customers who play online. Still, it's worth adding, as I've previously noted, that Microsoft NZ has been aggressive in promoting online gameplay, and claims half the 35,000 local Xbox 360 buyers have joined Xbox Live.

Sony Computer Entertainment NZ has told me that New Zealand's broadband infrastructure is just too lousy, and they're going to wait for it to get better before pushing online options.

Wii's online options are pretty weak and by no means central to Nintendo's strategy at present. Still, the company recently jumped to a new NZ distributor, Softprint, which I'm expecting to be a lot more proactive than its predecessor on all fronts.

Posted by Chris Keall at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

With the arrival of the PlayStation3, all three foes in the latest console war are finally onsale in NZ. Here's how their global fight is shaping up:

Xbox 360: The Microsofties have got off to an excellent start, reaching their target to move 10 million Xbox 360s during the console's first year or so onsale (it was first released in the US in November 05). Gates & co. self-imposed the 10 million target, saying that was what the 360 needed to gain critical mass in the broader fight against the supermassive installed base of PlayStation2s (which number around 100 million).
Here, the Xbox 360 sold a very respectable 35,000 units during its first year and - very impressively - by Microsoft's count more than half those punters signed up for Xbox Live. For the latest on the NZ-release of the HD-DVD add-on, click here.

Nintendo Wii: The Wii takes the prize for fastest-selling console. Since its November 06 release an astonishing 6 million have sold. Sure it doesn't have the Xbox 360 and PS2's stunning graphics and high def DVD player support, but then again the big-guns have nothing as fun and original as the Wii's wand-like, motion-sensitive wireless controller that can, for example, be used as a tennis racket during Nintendo's tennis game. And priced at less than half the competition, it's cheap enough to buy on top of your PS3 or Xbox 360.

PlayStation3: It's been a slow start for Sony, with the PlayStation3 selling 2 million units since its November release (including 7000 pre-sales in NZ; online options aren't being actively promoted here). However, the critical factor has been parts shortages that first delayed the launch, then kept PS3s relatively scarce (and, at $1200, easily the most expensive contender). Don't write off Sony just yet, however. PS3 is a cheap way to get a Blu-Ray DVD player, and Blu-Ray is that standard that will win the Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD war.

Moreover (if I may use a word like "moreover" in a blog), the venerable PlayStation2 outsold all-comers in the US and Japan during the Christmas season just gone, moving more units than PlayStation3, Xbox 360 or Wii. Specifically, Americans bought 1.4 million PlayStation 2s during December. The Xbox 360 sold 1.1 million units, the Nintendo Wii 604,000 and the PlayStation3 491,000. Why the big numbers for the PS2? It's the games, stupid.

Posted by Chris Keall at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 6 )

The International Journal of Cancer has published a study of 3044 people which, says the March 12 issue of Forbes, finds "that mobile phone use doesn't significantly increase the incidence of brain cancer. [The study] was the latest of many dismissing the dangers of a radiation-emitting object held to the ears of a billion people."

In the US, the Federal Communications Commission mandates that when you're talking on your cellphone, your body absorbs no more than 1.6 watts of power per kilogram. By contrast, standing in direct sunlight your body absorbs around 3 watts per kilogram.

Like me, you probably aren't immediately aware of how many watts your body is absorbing from your mobile (I also try not to weigh myself) but the FCC has a link to various cellphone manufacturers websites here, most of which list specific absorption rate (SAR), though usually you have to dig to find it.

Checking the SAR section of Nokia's website (which includes models sold in New Zealand), I see that my official work phone, a low-end, meat-and-potatoes, txt-and-call Nokia 6235 is well under the 1.6 watts/kilo margin (it's officially rated at 0.63W/kg).

However, as we move up the food chain to mobiles with 3G and/or multimedia, there's also more wattage to be absorbed by your body. Nokia's all-singing, all-dancing N91, creeps up to 0.67W/kg - but that's still well under the FCC's limit.

And the FCC guideline seems to be working. Michael Thun of The American Cancer Society told Forbes: "Over time there have been 16 studies looking at this issue, and most have found no relationship between cellphone use and increased risk."

So all seems well?

Not according to one Dr George Carlo of a nonprofit US organisation called the Science and Public Policy institute. During the 1990s, says Forbes, the major cellphone companies paid Carlo $US28 million to research the potential dangers of electromagnetic radiation emissions. However, when he concluded that mobiles could affect pace makers and increase cancer risk, the cellphone companies disputed his results and let him go. He continues to campaign vigorously against them.

Currently Carlo is a pretty isolated figure in the scientific community, and Forbes notes that he collects some pretty hefty fees for his consultancy work, including $US10,000 in a recent instance to reassure scenary-conscious residents of a posh suburb that proposed cellular stations (so ugly!) would create harmful emissions (Carlo wants all wireless networks converted to fibre optic). So it's easy to be cynical. Still, as mobiles, and the networks they run on, continue to get more and more powerful, it's an issue to keep an eye on.

Posted by Chris Keall at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )

As we mull the news that Microsoftie Charles Simonyi will soon become the first blogger in space, it seems an opportune time to reflect on just how big, or small, stuff in our universe can be.

Use this animation on Nikon's website to browse from quark to galaxy and beyond (twirl your scroll wheel to accelerate).

Back in the here and now, click below to read a report from our sister publication Network World on Simonyi's space mission.

And to read his space-blog - once he starts posting from the International Space Station - head for Charles in Space.

Billionaire ex-Microsoft developer set for space travel
By Michael Cooney
Network World

It's a long way from helping Microsoft write Word and Excel that's for sure.
Next month, billionaire software developer Charles Simonyi, will become the fifth civilian to fly in space when he rockets to the international space station aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-10 capsule. He will be joined by Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov and return to Earth 11 days later with the systems current orbiting crew -- Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and Spanish-born U.S. astronaut Miguel Lopez-Alegria, according to reports. Simonyi is spending more than US$20 million for the trip.
Stanford Phd. grad Simonyi was hired by Xerox PARC during what many consider to be its most productive period, working with Alan Kay , Butler Lampson and Robert Metcalfe. He started work for Microsoft in 1981 and oversaw the development of Word and Excel, as well as Excel's predecessor Multiplan. He left in 2002 to co-found, with business partner Gregor Kiczales, a company called Intentional Software. This company markets the intentional programming concepts Simonyi developed at Microsoft Research.
According to an Associate Press story, Simonyi learned computer basics on a clunky, Soviet-era computer called Ural-2. When he takes to space he will take a paper-tape memento from that first computer.
After beginning training in Russia last fall, Simonyi, like the other space tourists before him, has had to learn to walk and breathe in a cumbersome space suit, use special gas masks, practice helicopter rescues in case of a water landing and other tasks. The hardest thing of all, he told the AP, has been spinning in a high-speed rotating chair to help train against dizziness in space -- along with learning some Russian. Now that he is finished training, he says he is sure the trip will go without a hitch.

"My mother is very worried but very understanding, and I think we'll be all right," he later told the AP in an interview.

At the station, he will conduct a number of experiments, including measuring radiation levels and studying biological organisms inside the space station.

Simonyi follows in the footsteps of Dennis Tito , Mark Shuttleworth, Gregory Olsen and Anousheh Ansari -- as space flight tourists who have traveled to the international space station aboard Russian rockets in trips brokered by the U.S.-based company Space Adventures Ltd.
Like all crew members on the orbiting station, Simonyi will be able to phone relatives, write e-mails, contact his support team and even write a blog. He also plans to treat five crew members to a gourmet dinner, including wine-roasted quail, duck breast and rice pudding -- specially prepared by [by Martha Stewart! CK] to be consumed in space.

Posted by Chris Keall at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

One of the trampers saved over Easter said his cellphone had run out of juice, but he recharged it by sitting it in the sun for a while. It gained enough power for him to send a txt, leading rescuers to the location of him and his companion. Am I the only one who found this curious? It doesn't seem physically possible. Somebody please leave a comment to tell me what I'm missing.

Googling around, the only fact I could find was that leaving a battery in the sun usually damages it.

Incidentally, I also stumbled on rather a good New York Times article about extending battery life, which goes beyond all the obvious tips. You can read it here. The solar chargers and wind-up portable generators it mentions are distributed in New Zealand by Anyware.

Posted by Chris Keall at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )

It's democracy, innit? IT minister David Cunliffe has announced a website where any mug can have their say on the government's "consultation document on the operational separation of Telecom".

Cunliffe says the Telecommunications Amendment Act, which was passed in December last year, was a response to New Zealand's poor showing on international broadband league tables.
Section 2A of the new law calls for the operational separation of Telecom into wholesale, retail and network services divisions.

The aim is to get operational separation (as opposed to more extreme commercial or structural separation alternatives) sorted and announced by mid-way through this year. The discussion document is a step along the way.

You can link to the document, and find out how to add your comments here:
www.med.govt.nz/telecommunications/operational-separation

Posted by Chris Keall at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

... if a certain product doesn't arrive at PC World Towers.

As keen readers will know, I've been trying to buy a coffee machine online, a team reward from our Dear Leader following a go-go Xmas and new year for PC World on newsstands.

Ferrit listed our desired model, but for some reason couldn't sell it directly so flicked me on to Noel Leeming's website. A confirmation email said the order would take 10 days. That was back on March 15.

At one point (actually a Saturday), someone, swallowing their name, left a message asking me to call an 0800 number to confirm my email confirmation. I called the number to find it was the main Bond & Bond switchboard (Bond & Bond and Noel Leeming being part of the same mash), which directly sent me to voice mail hell, with no option anything like confirming internet orders. I finally reached a baffled receptionist who sent me back to the automated phone tree.

I subsequently emailed to re-re-confirm my order, explaining I'd failed in my allocated phone mission. A reply said the PC World crew's new coffee machine was indeed on its way. But now, on April 4, we're still waiting.

We're caffeine starved, and we're mad as hell.

Least I sound too bitter and deranged, I'll leave you with a story of a Kiwi site getting e-commerce right. On Tuesday I ordered a Go-Go Bag from Merino Kids. On Wednesday it arrived by courier. Not that I needed it, but I was also given a tracking number to follow the progress of my delivery via the courier's website.

When I previously purchased from Merino Kids, around six months ago, I asked the women who run this fast-expanding company if they were happy driving the business from their Ponsonby home office. Yup, they had the tech sorted, and they had (at the time) never even heard of Ferrit, let along thinking of hosting their wares there.

Now if only they'd expand to selling coffee machines as well ...

Posted by Chris Keall at 6:16 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )

Last year I took issue with market researcher IDC, which said digital camera sales would flatten then fall. Not wishing to chop my own parsley, but I said rubbish - for among other reasons that sales of DSLR models were bound to zoom. The reason: simply looking around me at a bunch of 30 and 40-something co-workers who had never bought an SLR camera during the days of film, but whose gadget-crazed PC tendencies, spilling over into the photographic realm, had them drooling over Digital SLRs.

Today, cheerfully ignoring its previous predictions, IDC released its digital camera stats for 2006. Turns out it was a boom year. Check out the numbers:

* Digital camera sales grew 15% worldwide, reaching 105.7 million units
* The key boost came from pricier DSLR cameras, sales of which jumped by 39% to 5.3 million units

In the overall worldwide digital camera market, the Top 5 market-share chart goes like this:
1. Canon - 18.7% (up from 17.4% in 2005, when it was also number one)
2. Sony - 15.8% (from 15.2% in 2005, when it was also number 2)
3. Kodak - 10% (a stiff drop from 14.2% in 2005, reflecting a conscious move to higher-end, more lucrative models)
4. Olympus - 8.6% (from 9.8% in 2005)
5. Samsung - 7.8% (bursting into the Top 5 with a big jump from the 3.8% it registered in 2005).

The worldwide D-SLR market said pretty much even-Stevens, shaking out like this:

1. Canon - 46.7%
2. Nikon - 33%
3. Sony - 6.2%
Olympus - 5.9%

Posted by Chris Keall at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

I wasn't impressed with some of Telecom's proposals for the $2.24 billion proceeds from its Yellow Pages sale, including a special dividend or a share buy-back. Yet another alternative to the obvious - NZ broadband investment - is raised in today’s NZ Herald: recapitalising Telecom's stake in one of its Australian investments. Noooooooooo!

I wish that were an April Fool's joke. Sadly it's not ... but to restore your humour, Annabel's collected some of the funniest online Fools' sites here.

Posted by Chris Keall at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )