By Kevin Parrish - Source : Tom's Guide

In one brief statement by Goldman Sachs analyst Matthew J. Fassler, Best Buy saw drops in share value at the mention of the upcoming Nintendo DSi gaming unit and its capability to play downloadable games.

According to BusinessWeek (story), Fassler told investors that the DSi, capable of downloading games straight onto its recordable SD card, is a "tangible early threat" to other portable systems that rely on cartridge-type slots. Of course, Sony’s PSP system already has this capability, allowing players to purchase PSP-specific games and movies via the PlayStation Store.

So why would the looming release of the Nintendo DSi pose any threat to the likes of Best Buy, Circuit City and even Wal-Mart? Because Nintendo will launch the DSi Store along with the new portable unit, offering games to purchase and download, leaving retail outlets out of the loop. While it’s entirely possible that many future DSi games will be too large to download, currently retail chains depend of revenues generated by consoles using physical media.

"While content will be limited at first, we believe it will likely ramp very quickly," Fassler wrote of the availability of games at the Nintendo store.

While the thought of purchasing and downloading games may be alluring, some fear the worst when it comes to game piracy. Team 17 studio director Martyn Brown (Worms series) confessed his concerns to gamesindustry.biz (story), claiming that the inclusion of the SD card input might amplify piracy issues already running rampant on the DS Lite.

"Adding an SD slot makes a bunch of sense for downloadable content given the way things are going," Brown told the website. "I just hope they’ve done something to counter the mass piracy that exists via the R4 on the Lite. It scares me that with an SD card input, that might leave it even wider open that it was on the original device."

Currently Nintendo aims to launch the new DSi platform in Japan this November 1, costing gamers around $180 bucks (¥18,900). The newest DS system features a 0.3 megapixel camera, an on-board browser (finally), WiiWare compatibility, the additional DSiWare download service and more. nintendo reports that reworked versions of Brain Age and Brain Age 2 will be the first titles to purchase and download via the Dsi Store,

Analyst Michael Pachter (with Wedbush Morgan) speculates that Nintendo needs to bring the price down to the current $129 Nintendo DS price tag in order for it to sell well. "The upgrade is not a ’must have,’ and is instead a ’nice to have,’" he told Edge Magazine (story). "My guess is that we’ll see a discontinuation of the current DS Lite model by 2010, and the DSi will replace it entirely."

Unfortunately, for North American consumers, that won’t happen for quite a while. Nintendo plans to release the DSi console sometime next year. In the meantime, retail outlets may want to consider some type of bargaining ploy in order to get a piece of the DSi pie.

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By Aaron Heibert - Source : Tom's Hardware

In the first successful U.S. investigation into distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS), two European individuals have been indicted for allegedly cyber attacking two Web sites.

One of the two individuals, a man named Axel Gembe, 25, of Germnay is said to be the programmer behind ‘Agobot’, a well known malicious software program that is used to create what is called a ‘botnet’ – a network of compromised systems used for a distributed attack.

Along with Gembe, a 24-year-old named Lee Graham Walker of Bleys Bolton, England was indicted Thursday by a grand jury in Los Angeles, California on one count of conspiracy and one count of internationally damaging a computer system.

Gembe and Walker were allegedly hired by Jay R. Echouafni, owner of Orbit Communication, a Massachusetts-based company that sells home satellite systems, to carry out DDoS attacks. The attacks were directed at two of Orbit’s direct competitors Web sites – Rapid Satellite of Miami, Florida, and Weaknees of Los Angeles, California.

As a result of the attacks, Weaknees’ business came to a halt for two weeks in October 2003, costing the company roughly $200,000 in loses according to the Department of Justice (DoJ). Rapid Satellite also suffered similar damages.

Echouafni currently remains at large while another man, Paul Ashley, who prosecutors describe as Echouafni’s associate, has already completed a two year prison sentence for his role in the conspiracy.

Walker is accused of helping maintain Gembe’s botnet. According to the indictment, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was used to discuss ways to make the code behind the botnet more powerful and damaging to target websites. During a DDoS attack, computers infected with the botnet code are directed to send out large amounts of data traffic to the targeted sites – this eventually causes the site become unavailable due to overloading.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Apple has denied rumors that surfaced this morning about Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs suffering a heart attack early today.

A poster on CNN’s iReport, a community designed to give regular Joes a chance to report news they feel people need to know about. CNN promises to put the most urgent and compelling stories on it’s website and Steve Jobs having a heart attack would most definitely be one of them.

AlleyInsider contacted Apple regarding the report that Steve had been rushed to hospital with chest pains and was told by Katie Cotton Katie Cotton, Vice President of Worldwide Communications, "It is not true."

While any story turning out to be a farce is bad press for a site, the news of Job’s “heart attack” came just after Bloomberg killed him off with the accidental posting of the CEO’s obituary. The obit from Bloomberg followed widespread speculation that Steve Jobs’ health was not quite what it used to be. Following a gaunt-looking Jobs at WWDC and considering his history with sharing his illnesses with the public (news of his pancreatic cancer was not released until after Jobs’ had been treated), many were already suspicious that Apple founder was ill and just keeping quiet. The iReport on CNN read as follows:

“Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath. My source has opted to remain anonymous, but he is quite reliable. I haven’t seen anything about this anywhere else yet, and as of right now, I have no further information, so I thought this would be a good place to start. If anyone else has more information, please share it.”

While we’re all for stories getting the recognition and column space they deserve, bogus stories is one of the reservations many people had about iReport when it was first announced. The report was removed shortly after 10 a.m. this morning.

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By Kevin Parrish - Source : Tom's Guide

According to Sony, the current economic crisis plaguing the entire globe isn’t hurting the sales of its PlayStation 3 and PSP consoles.

In fact, the company probably foresees itself rolling in mounds of cash, as both units are selling faster than expected. Sony believes that the PlayStation 3 and PSP will actually meet full-year sales targets, maybe even bringing the company out of the red if all go according to plan. But according to recent numbers generated last month, the boost in sales is still not enough to take on rivals Microsoft and Nintendo.

However, in a recent interview, Jack Tretton, Chief Executive of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said that sales are actually 30 percent greater than anticipated for its fiscal year. He believes that this boost stems from the inclusion of the Blu-ray disc player as well as a high demand for video games. He predicts that 10 million units will be sold by March 2009.

"We are in good shape for that number worldwide," he said in an interview. "We are tracking at 100 percent up over last year ... about 30 percent ahead of where we should be. So sales could slow down and we will still hit our number."

While his outlook sounds positive, sales numbers generated last month in Japan show that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 actually outsold the PlayStation 3 on Sony’s home turf. In the four weeks leading up to September 28, Japanese consumers lapped up 53,547 Xbox 360 consoles, whereas Sony only sold 33,071 PlayStation 3 units. However, the popularity with Microsoft’s American-based console may stem from recent price drops of the Arcade and Elite models as well as the release of Square Enix’s Xbox 360 exclusive action/RPG, Infinite Undiscovery.

Sony also faces stiff competition from Nintendo in the coming months. Not only is the Nintendo Wii outselling both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, Nintendo looks to release its latest handheld gaming system — the new DSi featuring a built-in camera — in Japan on November 1. Sony will already have a jumpstart with the release of the PSP-3000, hitting Japanese store shelves October 16, sporting a built-in microphone and an advanced LCD panel. Currently the Nintendo DS Lite is outselling Sony’s PSP console nearly two-to-one.

Despite anticipated sales in the upcoming months, will Sony be able to deliver both consoles during the holiday season? "I’d say we are able to meet somewhere between 80-90 percent demand, based on how things are trending," Tretton said. Yesterday Nintendo announced that consumers will have better luck finding the Wii console this year as compared to the shortages faced during the previous holiday season, however did not rule out any shortages.

Still, with the global economy taking a huge nosedive, it looks as if the gaming industry is impenetrable, and Sony is patting itself on the back with the PlayStation 3 and PSP. After all, both consoles have multiple uses, thereby targeting the movie buff, the music lover, and the gamer all in one package. "I think people are going to question every dollar that they spend, but they are going to look for value in return," he said. "The entertainment value ... with PlayStation 3 compares very favorably to other entertainment choices."

Will the economic woes help the sales of Sony’s consoles? So far, current market numbers indicate that consumers see a better value with the Nintendo Wii and DS consoles.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

The Copyright Royalty Board yesterday denied the National Music Publishers’ Association’s request for an increase in royalty rates for music sold online.

The National Music Publishers’ Association was this week seeking to increase the royalty rates for artists from 9 cents to 15 cents for each track purchased from online music stores. The news was not well received.

iTunes charges 99 cents a song, with the recording industry accounting for 61 cents, 9 cents going to the artists and the remainder going into Apple’s pocket. Apple claims the 29 cents the company makes per song is barely enough to maintain the iTunes store, let alone make a profit.

Vice President of iTunes, Eddy Cue told the Board in a statement submitted last year that if Apple’s online music store was forced to absorb any increase in royalty rates, it would “increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss – which is no option at all,” which would mean no more iTunes at all. “Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably,” he added.

Whether this was an empty threat or not, we may never know. The CRB’s decision to keep digital royalty rates where they are means iTunes will remain open for business. Jonathon Potter from the Digital Media Association, which represents online music stores (including Apple), said that keeping the current rates will help the growth and innovation of digital services and retailers for several more years.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Now that Blackberry is giving its a market a little more wiggle room and introducing a smartphone that’s geared at both work and play, it’s not surprising to see other companies try and pull off the same feat. What is surprising, is when that company is HP.

According to the Wall Street Journal, which cites “people briefed on the plan,” the company will soon be launching a smartphone. Surprise number one out of the way, these folks say it will hit Europe in two months time, but wait, there’s more; this phone from HP, a company known to be all corporate, will also be marketed at consumers.

So aside from this news being completely left of field, what else do we know? The WSJ reports that the phone will be the next device in the company’s line of iPaq devices that the company has been selling for the last six years or so, however, previous units were targeted at businesses and not sold through retail stores.

We can only assume that HP, like everyone else, sees the cash cow in marketing smartphones outside of the corporate market because, shocker, it’s not just the suits who send emails. Although, competing with the likes of the iPhone 3G, which has been trying to get it’s foot in the corporate door all summer, the Blackberry, which RIM is now turning into a social/business phone and HTC’s soon to be released G1, we can’t see the next iPaq making much of a splash unless it’s really, really pretty. There’s an ample amount of smartphones on the market already, so an attractive UI and an innovative design will at least give it a leg up. Shallow times we’re living in.

Read the original report on the WSJ

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Skype President, Josh Silverman has responded to yesterday’s report that the company’s Chinese branch, TOM-Skype is monitoring user chats and in some cases, storing user data on insecure servers accessible by the public.

A report released this week by Canadian researchers alleges TOM-Skype monitors users Skype chats, scanning for certain words. The report also claimed that messages found to contain certain words were uploaded to an insecure, publicly accessible sever. Skype spokesperson, Jennifer Caukin said in a statement to the WSJ the idea the Chinese government “might be monitoring communications in and out of the country shouldn’t surprise anyone.” However she also said that the company was concerned to hear about the “apparent security issue,” and once they informed TOM about it, they fixed the flaw.

In a post on the official Skype Blog, president Josh Silverman detailed the company’s position on the issue. Silverman explained that as a communications company in China, TOM, like any other, has established procedures to meet local laws and regulations including the requirement to monitor and block instant messages containing certain words deemed "offensive" by the Chinese authorities.

He goes on to explain that in April 2006, Skype publicly disclosed that TOM operated a text filter but said that it was the company’s understanding that it was not TOM’s protocol to store chat messages and was inquiring as to why the protocol changed.

Silverman goes on to reiterate the point that the insecure server issue was a concern and had been solved and said the company would be addressing the “wider issue” of the messages being stored in the first place and reassured Skype users as to who was affected.

“It’s important to remind everybody that the issues highlighted in yesterday’s Information Warfare Monitor / ONI Asia report refer only to communications in which one or more parties are using TOM software to conduct instant messaging,” said Silverman. “It does not affect communications where all parties are using standard Skype software. Skype-to-Skype communications are, and always have been, completely secure and private,” he added.

Read the full blog post here.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Democratic Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, has launched an iPhone application designed to help supporters connect with other voters and keep them up to date on how things are progressing in the Obama camp.

The 2008 presidential elections have seen a lot of firsts, one of these being the fact that this election has seen more online activity from both supporters and campaigners than ever before.

A recent report from Pew Research Center For The People and The Press showed that 46 percent of all Americans have used the Internet as a source for political news and to share their opinions and views about the presidential elections, compared to 31 percent of Americans in 2004. Research also showed that Obama supporters were more likely to gather political information and updates about the elections via the internet than those backing John McCain.

The Obama08 application includes features such as up to date news from the campaign, video, photos and a the ability to point you in the direction of your nearest campaign office. Perhaps the most interesting of tools the the “Call Your Friends” function designed to help you organize your contacts by key battleground states. The idea is you call people you already know and keep record of who’s voting Obama and help spread the word to vote for Barack Obama in November.

Bringing the election to the iPhone is a smart move from Obama and not something McCain is likely to mimic when research shows not all that many McCain supporters are using the internet to keep up to date on the elections. Whether they plan on bugging their friends about voting or not, every Obama supporter in the country is likely to download the application for the sake of solidarity, which in turn will mean plenty of publicity for the democratic party.

Read the official announcement on the Obama site and blog

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

According to a recent report on Forbes.com, one particular iPhone application is stepping on the toes of the Kindle ebook reader. So much so, speculation suggests the app will outsell Amazon’s one trick pony device by the end of the year.

Stanza is an iPhone application developed by Lexcycle, a company based in Portland, Oregon. The app is an ebook reader which allows users to read public domain books downloaded from the internet. The app has been downloaded from Apple’s App Store a reported 395,000 times and with an estimated additional 5,000 installs per day Stanza is expected to outdo the Kindle’s estimated sales figure of 380,000 units in 2008. Not so great considering the App store only opened in July and the Kindle has been available since last November.

Supporting a whole range of formats (Amazon Kindle, Mobipocket, Microsoft LIT, PalmDoc, Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format, HTML, and PDF), MacNN reports that Lexcycle hopes to to sell books through Stanza with a portion of revenue going to publishers, imitating the Kindle. So why are people opting for Stanza over the Kindle?

For a start, the iPhone does the three things Apple feels everyone sees as a necessity: Phone, internet, mp3 player. Phone calls, mobile browsing and music are all mandatory and any of the third party applications available from the App Store are extras you can add on if you want them. If you want Tetris, you can have Tetris, if you don’t, no one is going to try and sell it to you. The Kindle does one thing and some think that’s where it falls down. Sure, a lot of people want to buy a device that will save them lugging around a dozen books at a time but that potential market will always be dwarfed by an existing market where thousands are already using the device for who knows how many other things and can simply add books in at no extra cost.

That said if you think the Kindle will hold it’s own against the iPhone, you’re not alone and to an extent, that may be true. It has a bigger screen and while it might not be as easy on the eyes compared to the iPhone, many people feel that the extra screen space is worth carting around a separate device because it feels more like reading a book than a really, really long email. Stanza might be free but we’re willing to bet there’s more than one person who started out with Stanza and upgraded to a Kindle after they got used to reading a novel on an electronic device. Who knows, maybe Stanza will boost Kindle sales?

While there are those who believe Stanza is the Kindle Killer and those who think Kindle will hand onto what is arguably a niche market, the former make the fair point about availability. Stanza can be downloaded by anyone who can access the App Store, the Kindle offers internet through Sprint’s EVDO network and so is so far only available in the states — not great when you’re competing with the iPhone.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Apple and Google stocks fell for the second time yesterday, despite clawing back numbers lost during a sharp drop earlier in the week.

On Monday the $700 billion bailout was rejected and at close of business, many of the major names in the technology industry had taken a huge hit stocks-wise. Apple stocks had fallen 18 percent, Google shares dipped to below $400 for the first time in two years, dropping 11.6 percent and Microsoft fell 8.7 percent.

Several companies including Apple, Research In Motion and Google saw stocks rise again on Tuesday resulting in speculation that the market would see a rebound; Apple rose by 5 percent with RIM seeing an increase of 10 percent and Google, 8 percent.

These hopes of a market rebound, or at least hopes that the global economic crisis would have less of an effect on the tech industry were dashed yesterday when companies were again hit by sharp falls in stocks. Google, Apple, Yahoo!, Sun, Ebay and Adobe fell 5.15 percent, 8 percent, 8 percent, 7.74 percent, 8.15 percent and 7.61 percent respectively.

At the end of the week however, the House approved of a revised $700 billion bailout that was less harsh on taxes and interest rates.

Read more about these companies’ financial shortcomings on VentureBeat

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By Kevin Parrish - Source : Tom's Guide

Nintendo reports that consumers should have no troubles locating a Wii console this holiday season.

While Nintendo remained tight-lipped on whether consumers would face Wii shortages again this year, the company pressed in a PR released today that the amount of consoles available from October to December would be considerably higher than the same time period last year. Nintendo also reassured consumers that the portable Nintendo DS Lite handheld system would also see a significant rise in available units beginning this month as well.

“We have new games and new experiences for every kind of player this holiday season, and that will certainly fuel increased interest in Wii and Nintendo DS,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “While there’s no way to gauge total demand for our hardware systems, we’re trying to satisfy as many of those players as possible.”

Up until this month, consumers found it difficult to locate the Nintendo Wii system. Retail outlets such as Toys-R-Us, Best buy and Circuit City have had trouble keeping the console in stock; once the shipments arrive, they’re quickly shuffled across the checkout counters. During the 2007 holiday season, the console seemed all but extinct, with retail outlets such as GameStop offering rain checks and promises of a delivery after Christmas. Some critics argued that the unavailability of the console was purely a marketing ploy to raise anticipation and consumer demand.

Currently the Nintendo Wii outsells Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 since its November 2006 launch, with more than 11 million units sold in North America alone. Nintendo recently announced a few new titles hitting store shelves this holiday season including Wii Music, Animal Crossing: City Folk and various Wii Ware titles. The Wii Speak channel, set to hit the console’s dashboard on November 16, will allow Wii owners to speak to up to three other people online using the Wii Speak microphone (sold separately for $29.99).

This week Nintendo also revealed a few upcoming titles from its 2009 lineup including a new Punch-Out!! and Sin & Punishment 2 for Wii, and Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and Mario & Luigi RPG 3 for Nintendo DS.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Google has Google News-ed its blog search function to make it easier for people to see blogs relevant to their search.

Google announced today that the company is adopting the same search technology it uses for Google News Blogs. Google Blog Search before was pretty straightforward — it was Google, for blogs. Google is touting the new Blog Search as a homepage makeover but we think they deserve a little more credit than that.

The updated Blog Search now groups related blog posts from across the web into groups, with separate categories for Top Stories, Politics, US, World, Business, Technology, Video Games, Science, Television, Movies, Entertainment and Sports. We tried out the service and so far, it seems pretty decent. One set back is that it’s only available in English but according to the official Google Blog, support for other languages will be added in the coming months.

Many are pegging Google Blog Search as a Techmeme killer and in our opinion, this is a little extreme. Sure, it’s pretty much a Techmeme that covers everything else, as well as technology, but we’re nearly positive Techmeme will keep it’s own user base next to Google’s.

Techmeme is dedicated to technology and already sees high traffic from those looking to keep up with the latest tech news. A lot of people will stick with Techmeme because they like the idea of all resources going toward indexing tech news. Not to say they won’t pick up Google Blog Search as well, but we doubt they’ll be ditching Techmeme just yet.

Check out blogsearch.google.com and let us know what you think.

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By Michael Brown - Source : Tom's Guide

Vudu, Inc., the folks who brought you the Vudu Box and movie-download service, have announced a new video format that they claim offers better image and sound quality than any other on-demand service.

Dubbed HDX, the new format is supposedly optimized for 40-inch and larger HDTVs video projectors in home theaters. Pixel resolution (1080p) and frame rate (24 frames per second) remain the same as Vudu’s HD format movies, but HDX films will be encoded using Vudu’s new TruFilm technology.

TruFilm consists of four elements: “Psychovisual processing,” which Vudu maintains improves picture quality by enhancing details and removing artifacts in dark regions of the picture. “Color gradient processing” which is designed to tune the picture for display on LCD and plasma televisions, and “statistical variable bitrate” is supposed to encode the film using more or less compression depending on the complexity and degree of motion in each frame. The last element, “film grain preservation,” is designed to match the optical texture of the original film. This last claim is particularly interesting in light of the fact that Vudu’s source material is not film but an uncompressed digital file provided by the studio.

Vudu tells us that movies encoded in HDX format will undergo much less compression, a fact that should definitely improve image quality over the firm’s current HD offerings. Most critics maintain that Vudu’s HD movies look much better than DVD, but that they’re not as impressive as Blu-ray. Less compression, of course, translates to higher bit rates and longer download times on all but the fastest broadband connections.

While Vudu’s standard- and high-definition movies stream over the Internet at bit rates of 2Mb/sec and 3.7Mb/sec, respectively, HDX movies will stream at 9.5 Mb/sec. If your broadband connection can’t keep up with those bitrates, the start of the movie will be delayed until a sufficient portion of the film has spooled to the Vudu’s internal hard drive.

Vudu has encoded 65 of the HD films in its library to HDX and intends to convert the balance—as well as all new HD releases—over time.

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By Michael Brown - Source : Tom's Hardware

EVGA has announced a new motherboard based on Nvidia’s popular nForce 790i SLI chipset. The EVGA 790i SLI FTW Digital PWM supports DDR3 memory, a 1,600MHz front-side bus, PCI Express 2.0, and—according to EVGA—a bevy of electronic, mechanical, and BIOS features to facilitate aggressive overclocking.

Digital power management is this socket-775 board’s primary claim to fame. EVGA maintains that giving the user precise control over how the high-voltage power line is stepped down to the required processor core voltage will provide increased stability while overclocking (the PWM acronym in the $340 board’s name stands for pulse width modulation; we can guess what FTW stands for). EVGA claims that their use of solid-state capacitors and 100-percent ferrite-core chokes should also improve the board’s signal-to-noise ratios in extreme overclocking situations.

The 790i Digital PWM will also allow experienced overclockers to disable Vdroop from within the BIOS. Vdroop is a design feature inherent to Intel’s CPU architecture; it protects the CPU from voltage spikes as the processor swings between light and heavy workloads. EVGA maintains that Vdroop can be a problem for aggressive overclockers. If you increase the core voltage to 1.5 volts, for example, Vdroop might overcompensate during one of these workload swings and cause voltage to the core to momentarily sag to 1.4 volts, causing the system to become unstable. With Vdroop disabled, according to EVGA, voltage flowing to the core should remain relatively constant. EVGA reasons that overclockers will equip their rigs with improved cooling solutions and better-quality power supplies, factors that they believe render Vdroop unnecessary.

Those interested in achieving the benefits of overclocking without the risk of blowing up their computer, on the other hand, will appreciate the noob-friendly features in EVGA’s BIOS, including a collection of pre-validated voltage settings that will deliver five to 25-percent overclocking without risk.

And for those who prefer to benchmark their components without mounting everything inside a case, the motherboard features power-on and reset buttons right on the PCB; the power-on button even has an integrated hard drive activity LED. Another button will reset the board’s CMOS values. Other hardware features on the motherboard include the presence of two 1GB NICs, nine SATA ports, 10 USB 2.0 ports, an onboard LED for displaying POST codes, and four DIMM slots to accommodate up to 8GB of DDR3 memory running at up to 2GHz in dual-channel mode.

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