James Williams

Ever since its launch this summer, Google Voice has presented carriers with some potentially thorny issues. Google Voice was designed in part to make it easier for users to change mobile carriers without sacrificing their phone numbers and also to give users several add-on features that are not offered by carriers. The biggest potential pitfall for carriers is that widespread adoption of Google Voice could render their networks "dumb pipes" that don't offer users any value-added services. For example, Google Voice can provide simultaneous ringing for both landline and wireless devices using the same phone number and it can serve as a hub for SMS as it lets users send text messages from any of their devices or even right over the Web on their computer.

However, America's top two wireless telcos this week indicated that they had no problem supporting Google Voice on their networks. Net neutrality proponents such as the media advocacy group Free Press have met Google Voice with enthusiasm, as they think it could give users the ability to seamlessly switch carriers if their current carrier is too restrictive of what they can and cannot use on their mobile devices. During a joint press conference with Google on Tuesday, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said that all Verizon phones based on the open-source Android platform would give users access to the Google Voice application. How Google Voice could change the wireless industry Although AT&T didn't mention Google Voice specifically as an application that it would allow onto its network, it's very likely that Google Voice will soon be available to iPhone users since it doesn't present the direct threat to cellular service revenues that other VoIP applications and services do. AT&T, meanwhile, said Tuesday that it was changing its tune and allowing iPhone users to utilize VoIP applications such as Skype on the AT&T 3G network. The reason for this is that when you make a call using Google Voice, it initially goes through the standard public switch telephone network to the Google cloud, where it is then sent out as a VoIP call.

But even if Google Voice won't harm carriers' ability to charge users for cell phone minutes, Gartner analyst Peggy Schoener does think it could harm carriers' profitability if users come to rely upon it for services. "It is a threat to their business model to some degree," she says. "But right now the demand for openness is trumping that. So while Google Voice will enable users to save money on typically expensive long-distance calls, it won't be an alternative to using up minutes from your standard wireless carrier in the way that Skype is. Carriers are looking at how the world is shaping up and they have to demonstrate openness and cooperation with industry newcomers." FCC action in the background While neither Verizon nor AT&T will say it out loud, one factor in their decision to allow Google Voice onto their networks could be the more active approach that the Federal Communications Commission has taken this year under new chairman Julius Genachowski. More recently, Genachowski has also proposed new network neutrality rules that would bar carriers from blocking or degrading lawful Web traffic and that would force carriers to be more open about their traffic management practices. For example, this summer the FCC asked Google, Apple and AT&T to explain why the Google Voice application was not yet been made available for the iPhone. ABI Research analyst Jeff Orr thinks that the government's more aggressive stance toward regulating the wireless industry has been a key factor in the telcos' decision to allow Google Voice on their networks despite whatever misgivings about the application they may have. "I think that they're looking at the talk going around at the FCC looking for net neutrality, and they figure that they'll need to back off and pick the battles they want to fight," he says. "By allowing Google Voice and other VoIP applications onto their networks they say to the FCC that they can monitor their own practices and that there's not a need for legislation mandating net neutrality." Schoener agrees that FCC action is part of the reason why carriers are showing more openness on their networks right now, but she also thinks that carriers are being forced by market trends to embrace more openness as well.

For instance, the past decade has seen large Internet companies such as Google and Skype become major market players with the clout to push for net neutrality regulations. "There's not a direct cause and effect between the FCC's actions and the carriers' decisions," she says. "But the FCC's stance is a part of the current trend that openness is better, and the telcos figure they can be better off in the long run if they embrace it rather than playing hardball."

Lotus Software GM Bob Picciano has grown tired of the "hot wind" blowing out of Redmond carrying claims that Exchange is displacing Notes and is singling out CEO Steve Ballmer and COO Kevin Turner as the main culprits spreading "ridiculous and fabricated" information. They are still utilizing capabilities from other aspects of the Lotus portfolio," said Picciano. Exchange alternatives: Front ends and back endsA look at Exchange 2010 "Microsoft is making claims in the marketplace around 4.7 million people have exchanged e-mail from Notes to Exchange and that is just a ridiculous fabricated figure," said Picciano, who took the reins at Lotus in 2008. "Every time they sell a [client access license] they count that as a competitive migration." "People need to recognize that Kevin Turner and Steve Ballmer have blown a lot of hot wind from Washington and there is not much substance or truth to what they are espousing in the marketplace," Picciano said. "They were so bold as to say there are entire countries that have migrated off of Notes and that is utterly ridiculous." Picciano says all the talk has "got me pretty worked up that they would be so bold to make such erroneous statements and not be challenged." The Lotus Software GM says many of the reference companies cited by Microsoft when it made its "4.7 million people" comment in July "are still licensing Lotus Notes technology and still utilizing e-mail and applications from Lotus. At Microsoft's annual meeting this summer for financial analysts, Turner heaped on more numbers during his presentation at the event. "We've taken out almost 13 million Lotus Notes [seats] the past three years. … Now, the thing that I would tell you is there's still 15 — we count — there's still 15 million out there." He cited SharePoint Server as the "fastest-growing, hottest product in the history of Microsoft," and pegged it as a catalyst in the fight against IBM. Picciano said the counter was last week's news that U.S. Bank was replacing Microsoft's SharePoint platform by standardizing on the Notes 8.5 client and would roll out Lotus Connections social networking tools, the Sametime real-time platform and Lotus Quickr, which is IBM's alternative to SharePoint.

He said PNC Bank and Continental Tire are joining U.S. Bank in getting rid of Microsoft's Exchange, Office and SharePoint. On Tuesday, Picciano threw out his own numbers saying a total to 15,421 companies have picked IBM over Microsoft since 2008 in the worldwide integrated collaborative environment market as defined by IDC. In addition, Picciano says customers are expanding their investment in Lotus software and he cited as examples Accenture, BASF, Chrysler, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Continental AG, Finishline, General Motors, GlaxoSmithKline, Gruppo Amadori, KBC Bank, Nationwide, Novartis, Phillips Electronics and PNC Bank. In January, Picciano said more than 12,000 new companies in 2008 bought their first Notes/Domino licenses. People understand what Kevin's motivation is and the prancing around in front of partners and talking about this. And he said half of the Fortune global 100 are Notes/Domino users. "It's important to put [Microsoft's claims] into perspective and call it what it is, a bunch of fabrication," Picciano said. "Kevin is feeling that he is under a bit of pressure.

It's duplicitous and overshadows the real truth." Follow John on Twitter.

Micron Corp. today introduced what it claims to be the industry's highest endurance, highest capacity multi-level cell (MLC) and single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory. To achieve higher performance for transactional databases and other I/O-intensive applications, enterprises often short stroke their hard disk drives, which limits the number of tracks accessed by the read/write to those on the outer edge of a drive platter. The technology, which is used for building solid-state drive products, is aimed at enterprise-class companies that want to boost performance of I/O-hungry applications, while maintaining the longevity they get with hard disk drives. The technique increases performance, but in turn, it cuts drive capacity by as much as 90% and dramatically increases hardware costs.

The six-fold performance increase translates into 30,000 write cycles on Micron's new MLC Enterprise NAND - and 300,000 write cycles on its SLC NAND flash. Solid-state drive technology offers greater performance and capacity over serial-attached SCSI or Fibre Channel drives, but so far it has been mainly limited to longer-lasting and higher performing SLC flash, which is far more expensive than MLC. Micron said that by using its 34-nanometer lithography technology to increase density, it has also been able to increase write performance - or the number of writes/erase cycles that can be sustained over the flash memory's life - six-fold on its MLC product and three-fold on the SLC flash memory. Normally, MLC NAND can sustain an average of 5,000 write/erase cycles, with a maximum of 10,000 write/erase cycles. Micron's 32Gbit MLC and 16Gbit SLC enterprise flash chip technology can be configured into multi-die, single packages enabling densities of up to 32GB for MLC and 16GB for SLC. "This isn't a solid state disk (SSD) drive announcement," said a Micron spokeswoman. "Right now we're working with equipment manufacturers and SSD manufacturers to design products around this. SLC flash natively can sustain up to 100,000 write cycles. You could also put these chips directly on a computer's motherboard." Micron expects to begin volume production of the new 32bit NAND flash technology in early 2010. "The use of advanced NAND flash is required to achieve broad SSD adoption in enterprise applications," said Steffen Hellmold, vice president of business development at SSD controller manufacturer SandForce Inc. "We are very excited to work with Micron and enable cost effective, reliable, high-performance SSD solutions that support stringent enterprise lifecycle requirements."

Analysts split today in their take on recent reports that Apple's long-rumored tablet will stress the device's e-book capabilities, saying that the company's plan for the "iPod Touch on steroids" would depend on the price tag. It certainly will be an e-reader, that will be part of its ecosystem, but that won't be all it is." Gottheil, who six months ago touted the idea that Apple would deliver a tablet best described as an "iPod Touch on steroids," stuck to that reasoning today. "It will use the iPhone OS, or a modified version of it," Gottheil said, echoing something iLounge.com said it heard from a reliable source this week. Earlier this week, the popular gadget blog Gizmodo cited unnamed sources who claimed that Apple was in talks with several media companies, including the New York Times , to negotiate content deals for its unannounced-but-expected tablet. "[Apple isn't] just going for e-books and mags," Gizmodo's Brian Lam wrote Wednesday. "They're aiming to redefine print." Not so fast, said one analyst. "It's more than just an e-reader," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research who follows Apple's moves. "It's an application platform, it's a game and social gaming platform. The App Store, which Apple said this week had delivered its two billionth application, is crucial to the tablet's success, said Gottheil, which means that the device will be more than a one-trick pony. "Apple will market it as 'one more thing' nested inside 'one more thing'," Gottheil said, a move possible because of the App Store's broad library. "They'll [cast] it as able to do several increasing cool things." Gottheil's reasoning relies on the $800 price he expects Apple to slap on the tablet, a price tag much too high for a media reader-only device. "I don't think Apple has any particular interest in just creating another Kindle," he said, referring to Amazon's $489 Kindle DX . "Apple enjoys skimming the top of the market by making something hot and getting a nice margin out of it." Brian Marshall, a Wall Street analyst with Broadpoint AmTech, had a much different take, largely because of his price expectations. "I think $500 is the price," said Marshall today, adding that he agreed with Gizmodo that the tablet will focus on its e-reader capabilities. "I actually think that's how they'll promote it," he added. "They'll pitch [e-books] as a big segment, but they'll also say, 'We're gonna do this in color and much better than the Kindle'." Amazon's Kindle DX features a 9.7-inch grayscale display; according to reports out of Taiwan, component suppliers building parts for the expected Apple tablet are assembling 9.6-inch color, touch-enabled screens.

Most analysts have pegged the first half of 2010 for a tablet rollout, although some have proposed that Apple will craft a two-stage introduction, as it did with the iPhone in 2007, by announcing the hardware several months in advance of availability to give developers time to create applications or tweak existing iPhone programs for the larger device.

The Federal Aviation Administration today said it would streamline the environmental review part of permit applications for the launch and/or reentry of reusable suborbital rockets to help bolster a fledgling commercial space market. The PEIS would eliminate repetitive discussions of recurring issues and focus on issues that are ready for decision…specific to a particular launch. At the heart of the ruling is a document used to outline and determine the potential environmental consequences of issuing experimental permits known as the Processing of Experimental Permit Applications (PEIS). NetworkWorld Extra: Top 10 cool satellite projects The idea as the FAA explains it: Because the PEIS presents information and analysis common to reusable, suborbital rockets, the FAA could choose to tier environmental documents from the PEIS to focus on environmental impacts specific to an applicant's proposed experimental operations.

Individual launch operators would be required to coordinate with site operators to gain access to a site. From the FAA ruling: "The PEIS considers activities associated with the launch and reentry of reusable suborbital rockets, including pre-flight activities, flight profile (takeoff, flight, and landing), and post-flight activities. In addition, the launch operators would be required to apply to the FAA for an experimental permit, which would require an individual safety and environmental review. The general suborbital rocket designs addressed in the PEIS include vehicles resembling conventional aircraft-30 to 140 feet long with unfueled weight of up to 9,921 pounds; vehicles resembling conventional rockets-6 to 33 feet long with unfueled weight of up to 5,500 pounds; and vehicles that hover—up to 20 feet in length or diameter with unfueled weight of up to 4,400 pounds. The PEIS examines the potential environmental impacts of issuing an experimental permit for the operation of reusable suborbital rockets anywhere in the U.S. and abroad, and the potential site-specific impacts of permitted launches from seven FAA-licensed commercial launch sites: California Spaceport, California; Mojave Air and Space Port, California; Kodiak Launch Complex, Alaska; Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Virginia; and Space Florida." NetworkWorld Extra: 10 NASA space technologies that may never see the cosmos The FAA said it prepared the PEIS with cooperation from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the US Air Force and said that its ruling does not propose site- specific environmental mitigation measures. "Rather, launch operators would be expected to implement site-specific mitigation measures that are consistent with those currently employed by the eight launch facilities addressed in the PEIS. Additional site-specific mitigation measures could be developed and presented in the site-specific documents that would tier from the PEIS." Reusable launch vehicles or rockets are one of the key technologies for the future of commercial space flight.

The FAA also assumes the total rocket fuel capacity of a reusable suborbital rocket not to exceed 11,00lbs. The Review of United States Human Space Flight Plan Committee report said that commercial services to deliver crew to low-Earth orbit are within reach. "While this presents some risk, it could provide an earlier capability at lower initial and life-cycle costs than government could achieve. The study of reusable launch vehicle or RLVs will focus on identifying technologies and assessing their potential use to accelerate the development of commercial reusable launch vehicles that have improved reliability, availability, launch turn-time, robustness and significantly lower costs than current launch systems, NASA stated. A new competition with adequate incentives to perform this service should be open to all US aerospace companies." NASA recently said it would partner with the US Air Force Research Laboratory to develop a technology roadmap for use of reusable commercial spaceships. The study results will provide roadmaps with recommended government technology tasks and milestones for different vehicle categories. NASA said its Commercial Crew and Cargo Program looks to develop and demonstrate safe, reliable, and cost-effective capabilities to transport cargo and eventually crew to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station.

NASA also recently said it would offer $50 million in stimulus money to further develop private commercial spacecraft. The aerospace consultancy Futron recently said that as much as $1.5 billion may be up for grabs for commercial space operation in the next ten years.

A federal judge's rejection of a proposed settlement by TD Ameritrade Inc. in a data breach lawsuit marks the second time in recent months that a court has weighed in on what it considers to be basic security standards for protecting data. In September 2007, Ameritrade announced that the names, addresses, phone numbers and trading information of potentially all of its more than 6 million retail and institutional customers at that time had been compromised by an intrusion into one of its databases. U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco yesterday denied final approval of a settlement that had been proposed by TD Ameritrade in May to settle claims stemming from a 2007 breach that exposed more than 6 million customer records . In arriving at his decision, Walker said the court didn't find the proposed settlement to be "fair, reasonable or adequate." Rather than benefit those directly affected by the breach, Ameritrade's proposed settlement is designed largely to benefit the company, Walker wrote in his 13-page ruling.

The stolen information was later used to spam its customers. The company also offered to retain the services of an analytics form to find out whether any of the data that had been compromised in the breach had been used for identity theft purposes. As part of an effort to settle claims arising from that incident, Ameritrade this May said it would retain an independent security expert to conduct penetration tests of its networks to look for vulnerabilities. The company also said it would give affected customers a one-year subscription for antivirus and antispam software. He described the additional security measures that Ameritrade proposed in the settlement as "routine practices" that any reputable company should be taking anyway. It was these offers that the judge dismissed as too meager.

Penetration tests provide a reliable way for companies to detect the sort of security weaknesses that led to the Ameritrade breach, Walker said. The two "very temporary fixes do not convince the court that the company has corrected or will address the security of client data in any serious way, let alone provide discernable benefits," he noted. But "as a large company that deals in sensitive personal information, penetration and data breach tests should be routine practices of TD Ameritrade's department that handles information security," he wrote. A TD Ameritrade spokeswoman said the company would provide its response to the judge's ruling soon. In August, the federal court for the Northern District of Illinois, denied a request by Citizens Financial Bank to dismiss a negligence claim brought against it by a couple.

The case is the latest to illustrate a growing willingness by courts around the country to consider claims of negligence and breach of contract brought by individuals against companies for failing to protect sensitive data. The two had claimed that Citizens' failure to implement two-factor user-authentication measures had resulted in the theft of more than $26,000 from their home equity line of credit. Such rulings are relatively rare in consumer lawsuits against companies that suffer data breaches involving the potential compromise of credit card data and personal information. The judge hearing the case allowed the claim to move forward, saying there was a reasonable basis to show that the bank had not moved quickly enough to implement stronger user authentication measures as it should have. Until recently, courts have tended to reject such lawsuits mainly on the grounds that consumers suffer little financial harm from such breaches.

A case before the Maine Supreme Court is testing whether consumers can seek restitution from merchants for the time and effort involved in changing payment cards and bank accounts after a data breach. They have also held that consumers can't seek damages for any potential injury that could stem from any future ID theft that might result from such breaches.

A Beijing court has ruled that Microsoft violated a Chinese company's intellectual property rights in a case over fonts used in past Windows operating systems, state media said Tuesday. Microsoft plans to appeal the case, a company representative said in a statement. The Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court this week ordered Microsoft to stop selling versions of Windows that use the Chinese fonts, state broadcaster CCTV said.

The ruling comes as Barack Obama visits China for his first time as U.S. president. A U.S. business association this week appealed to Obama for further efforts to protect intellectual property rights in China, where pirated copies of DVDs and computer software including Windows are widely sold on streets and in bazaars. The visit has brought renewed focus on tensions over piracy and the trade of high-tech products between the countries. Microsoft originally licensed Zhongyi's intellectual property more than a decade ago for use in the Chinese version of Windows 95, according to Zhongyi. Microsoft agrees with the court that the key in the two cases is a dispute over the scope of licensing agreements, the Microsoft representative said.

Zhongyi argues that agreement applied only to Windows 95, but that Microsoft continued to use the intellectual property from Windows 98 to Windows XP. The court reportedly also ruled that Microsoft's use of a Chinese input system from Zhongyi did not violate any licensing agreements. But it disagrees with the ruling on the coverage of the agreements, which it believes also include its use of the fonts, the representative said. Pirated versions of Windows 7 were on sale in one Beijing bazaar weeks before the software officially went on sale last month. Windows XP is the most widely used OS in Chinese offices and homes, but countless users run pirated copies. Microsoft offers Windows 7 in China for a lower price than in developed markets, and often labels its software "legal" to differentiate it from the pirated versions common in the country.

Windows 7 Home Premium costs 699 yuan (US$103) in China, compared to $199.99 in the U.S.