Quick Change in Strategy for a Bookseller

  

In the movie “You’ve Got Mail,” Tom Hanks played the aggressive big-box retailer Joe Fox driving the little bookshop owner played by Meg Ryan out of business. 

Twelve years later, it may be Joe Fox’s turn to worry. Readers have gone from skipping small bookstores to wondering if they need bookstores at all. More people are ordering books online or plucking them from the best-seller bin at Wal-Mart.
But the threat that has the industry and some readers the most rattled is the growth of e-books. In the first five months of 2009, e-books made up 2.9 percent of trade book sales. In the same period in 2010, sales of e-books, which generally cost less than hardcover books, grew to 8.5 percent, according to the Association of American Publishers, spurred by sales of the Amazon Kindle and the new Apple iPad. For Barnes & Noble, long the largest and most powerful bookstore chain in the country, the new competition has led to declining profits and store traffic. After the company announced last week that it was putting itself up for sale, Leonard Riggio, Barnes & Noble’s chairman and largest shareholder, who has declared his confidence in the company’s future, hinted that he might make a play to buy the company himself and take it private.

Web Plan Is Dividing Companies

In an emerging battle over regulating Internet access, companies are taking sides. 

Facebook, one of the companies that has flourished on the open Internet, indicated Wednesday that it did not support a proposal by Google and Verizon that critics say could let providers of Internet access chip away at that openness.
Meanwhile an executive of AT&T, one of the companies that stands to profit from looser regulations, called the proposal a “reasonable framework.”
Most media companies have stayed mute on the subject, but in an interview this week, the media mogul Barry Diller called the proposal a sham.
And outside of technology circles, most people have not yet figured out what is at stake.

Profit Climbs at Cisco, but Sales Forecast Falls Below Expectations

Cisco Systems, the computer networking equipment maker, reported stronger quarterly earnings on Wednesday as its customers continued to catch up on delayed purchases, but its chief executive said the company was seeing signs of the economic recovery slowing down.

Tech Talk Podcast: Net Neutrality

On this week’s New York Times Tech Talk podcast,  Brian Stelter, a Times media reporter, drops by to chat about Internet access regulation with J.D. Biersdorfer and Bettina Edelstein. The so-called net neutrality plan of Google and Verizon would exempt wireless and some other online services from rules for maintaining open access to the Internet, and Mr. Stelter says that while the two companies  appear to be staking out their ground now, other wireless carriers and media companies are watching and waiting as the Federal Communications Commission looks at ways of regulating broadband.

TwitPic’s Creator Has a New Project, Heello

Before Noah Everett started TwitPic, a photo sharing service for people who use Twitter, he had bigger plans in mind: he wanted to build tools that made the Web an easier place to work.

Facebook Breaks With Google on Net Neutrality

When Google teamed up with Verizon on Monday to announce a set of proposed rules to govern Internet access, Google’s former allies in the years-long campaign for net neutrality were among its most vocal critics.
A slew of public interest groups that, along with Google, are part of the Open Internet Coalition, slammed the company for putting together a proposal that they said betrayed net neutrality principles. Other Internet heavyweights that are part of the coalition, like Amazon and eBay, appeared to be concerned with Google’s compromise, but were less vocal about it.

Netflix to Pay Nearly $1 Billion to Add Films to On-Demand Service

At a cost of nearly $1 billion, Netflix said on Tuesday that it would add films from Paramount Pictures, Lions Gate and MGM to its online subscription service.

 
It was a coup — albeit a costly one — for Netflix, which knows it needs to lock up the digital rights to films as customers stop receiving DVDs by mail and start receiving streams via the Internet. The deal will start Sept. 1.
Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer for Netflix, said he was essentially taking the “huge pile of money” that Netflix paid in postage for DVDs by mail — about $600 million this year — “and starting to pay it to the studios and networks.”
Wall Street analysts estimated that Netflix would pay about $900 million over the course of five years to Epix, a fledgling competitor to HBO that holds the rights to the film output of Paramount, Lions Gate and MGM. Those payments are expected to help the money-losing Epix break even in the next fiscal year.

Malware Infection Hits Russian Android Phones

The adage “Be careful what you wish for” has a modern-day counterpart: “Be careful what you download.” Especially on your mobile phone.
On Tuesday several mobile security companies were analyzing a Trojan horse that appeared on phones running Google’s Android software in Russia.

A Tool for Activists Is Simplified for the Less Tech Savvy

Software that has been hailed as a powerful tool in response to crisis has become accessible for low-tech activists. Ushahidi, a technology which allows users to create maps from data drawn from messages from cellphones, news reports and the Web, is now available through a Web-based application called Crowdmap.

Saudis Back Away From Threat to Block BlackBerry

BERLIN — The Saudi government backed away Tuesday from a threat to shut down the BlackBerry corporate messenger service in the country, citing progress in talks with operators and the maker of the device, Research In Motion,

Advertise on NYTimes.com South Korean Police Raid Google Office

SEOUL — The South Korean police raided the offices of Google Korea on Tuesday as part of an investigation into whether the company had illegally collected and stored personal wireless data.
The U.S. search titan is already facing lawsuits and investigations in several countries in connection with private wireless data collected for its Street View service. Street View, which was started in 2006, allows users to view panoramic street scenes on Google Maps and take virtual walks through cities.

Web Plan From Google and Verizon Is Criticized

SAN FRANCISCO — Google and Verizon on Monday introduced a proposal for how Internet service should be regulated — and were immediately criticized by groups that favor keeping the network as open as possible.

According to the proposal, Internet service providers would not be able to block producers of online content or offer them a paid “fast lane.” It says the Federal Communications Commission should have the authority to stop or fine any rule-breakers.
The proposal, however, carves out exceptions for Internet access over cellphone networks, and for potential new services that broadband providers could offer. In a joint blog post, the companies said these could include things like health care monitoring, “advanced educational services, or new entertainment and gaming options.”
The two companies are hoping to influence regulators and lawmakers in the debate over a principle known as net neutrality, which holds that Internet users should have equal access to all types of information online.
This principle is crucial for consumers and for fostering innovation among Internet entrepreneurs, Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said in a call with reporters. “The next two people in a garage really do need an open Internet,” he said.

Hewlett Took a P.R. Firm’s Advice in the Hurd Case

SAN FRANCISCO — As the career of Hewlett-Packard’s chief executive Mark V. Hurd hung in the balance, a public relations specialist convinced the company’s directors that H.P. would endure months of humiliation if accusations of sexual harassment by a company contractor against Mr. Hurd became public.

 

But even after following the specialist’s advice, the company has not escaped criticism.
According to a person briefed on the presentation, the representative from the APCO public relations firm even wrote a mock sensational newspaper article to demonstrate what would happen if news leaked. The specialist said the company would be better served by full disclosure, even though an investigation had produced no evidence of sexual misconduct.

Advertise on NYTimes.com Skype, Going Public, Hopes for $100 Million From First Offering

PARIS — Skype, the popular Internet telephone service, said Monday that it hoped to raise $100 million in an initial public offering of stock.
The announcement — which came a few days after news of the initial offering by another Internet company, Demand Media — could help revive the market for technology offerings. Analysts have speculated that Skype’s sale, planned for the Nasdaq market, could be the biggest initial offering in the technology sector since Google went public in 2004 and raised $1.67 billion.

In a Video Game, Tackling the Complexities of Protein Folding

In a match that pitted video game players against the best known computer program designed for the task, the gamers outperformed the software in figuring out how 10 proteins fold into their three-dimensional configurations.
Proteins are essentially biological nanomachines that carry out myriad functions in the body, and biologists have long sought to understand how the long chains of amino acids that make up each protein fold into their specific configurations.
In May 2008, researchers at the University of Washington made a protein-folding video game called Foldit freely available via the Internet. The game, which was competitive and offered the puzzle-solving qualities of a game like Rubik’s Cube, quickly attracted a dedicated following of thousands of players.

My Phone Is Shouting at Me

My new smartphone is very smart indeed. And, frankly, a little insecure. It knows its own name, and it keeps shouting it at me to get my attention.
“Droid,” it says. It’s got this low, robotic voice, like a teenager making a prank call. At first, it seemed to beckon me at random times, without discretion, like when I was driving, working, or napping.
“Droid,” it would pronounce. And I’d look at it, unsure why my new Verizon “Droid X” was declaring itself. After all, none of my other material items, technology or otherwise, announces its own brand name.
“Volvo,” my car does not say. And never once has my tissue box announced “Kleenex,” establishing its trademark street cred.

Google and Verizon Announce Net Neutrality Proposal

4:09 p.m. | Updated Our article on this news has been posted.
Google and Verizon held a conference call with the news media to discuss a joint proposal on net neutrality issues. Details in our live-blogging updates below, with the most recent updates at the top.

2:07 P.M. |Wrapping Up and a Reaction

The press conference concludes. First reactions from net neutrality advocates appear to be mixed. In a statement, Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior vice president and policy director at the Media Access Project, said: “The plan raises as many questions as it answers. For example, it does not disclose the standard to be used in resolving consumer complaints. One question that the plan does definitively answer is that the non-discrimination proposal would never apply to wireless. That alone makes this arrangement a non-starter.”

Boss’s Stumble May Also Trip Hewlett-Packard

The events were billed as C.E.O. executive summit meetings, exclusive gatherings, often lasting several days, where Hewlett-Packard officials wooed top customers. When Mark V. Hurd, H.P.’s chief, appeared at them, he sometimes relied on Jodie Fisher, a 50-year-old former reality television contestant turned H.P. marketing consultant, who would introduce him to customers and keep him company.

Mr. Hurd’s relationship with Ms. Fisher, which led to his ouster last week, has put an unsavory end to one of the great executive runs in recent American business history. And it has stunted a long search by H.P.’s employees for stability and pride at the patriarch of Silicon Valley companies.
On Sunday, Ms. Fisher, who had accused Mr. Hurd, 53, of sexual harassment, disclosed her identity in a statement from her lawyer and said that she had never had a sexual relationship with Mr. Hurd. “I was surprised and saddened that Mark lost his job over this,” she said. “That was never my intention.”
Mr. Hurd, who is married, has settled the matter with Ms. Fisher for an undisclosed sum.
H.P.’s top executives on Sunday said they would no longer discuss Mr. Hurd’s situation and vowed to find a new chief executive to keep the business running smoothly. “We are not going to slow down one bit,” said Cathie Lesjak, the chief financial officer and interim chief executive.

After Drought, Hope for Shows Made for Web

LOS ANGELES — When Illeana Douglas, long active in independent film, wanted to make a show about a Hollywood actress who becomes a cog in a blue-collar wheel, she turned to the Web and to an unusual ally, Ikea.
She persuaded Ikea, the Swedish furniture maker, to be the sole sponsor of her Web video show, “Easy to Assemble,” in which she plays an employee. The most recent episodes, from October through February, drew more than 1.5 million views each month. At home late last month, getting ready for an awards festival where her show would be honored, Ms. Douglas was dressed in a yellow Ikea jumpsuit, mimicking her character.

BlackBerry Security Stance Sows Anxiety

 

The 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai heightened concerns in India over the government’s inability to eavesdrop on encrypted communications. In the United Arab Emirates, similar concerns escalated this year after a Palestinian operative was killed in a hotel in Dubai, possibly by a team from the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. 

In both countries, those concerns have crystalized into a battle with Research In Motion, the Canadian maker of BlackBerry smartphones, over whether and how their governments can gain access to messages that flow over the BlackBerry network. And the dispute has put a spotlight on the challenges faced by many governments in monitoring communications services with global reach.

Docks for Apple Gadgets Help a Business Thrive

RAHWAY, N.J. — In the 1950s and 1960s, Realtone Electronics made transistor radios, one of the must-have gadgets of the era.


Mary DiBiase Blaich for The New York Times

Ezra S. Ashkenazi, the president of SDI
Technologies, with the iA100, the company's 
first product compatible with the iPad tablet 
computer. It is to go on sale later this year for $199. 
But by the 1970s, that gold mine had played out. For the next two decades, the company survived in the electronics business by making clocks for Timex that sold in drugstores and by creatively combining devices. It made the first cassette tape player-clock radio and the first telephone-clock radio.

Sony Ericsson phones ideas rotate, flip, detachable

Not merely a clamshell flip phone design with two touch screens, half of Sony Ericsson FH body can rotate 180 degrees to pair with a different screen, creating a wide-screen computer table. Thus, users will view video, web browsing easier.

phone appear first Windows 7 Asus Phone

Also during this time, mastering information about Samsung also said the village also prepared a series of new products using the phone software Windows 7, including Cetus i917.

Today, pictures of the phone's first Windows 7 Phone Asus has appeared in Pakistan.

No confirmed information from the manufacturer Asus does however, look at pictures can be seen this phone is quite eye-catching design with external layer of metal plating is very slick. We specifications, price or ship date yet to be revealed.

Executive Leaves After iPhone Antenna Troubles

By MIGUEL HELFT

Published: August 7, 2010

Mark Papermaster, the Apple executive in charge of hardware for the company’s flagship iPhone, has left the company in the wake of widely reported problems with the antenna of the recently introduced iPhone 4.

It is not clear if Mr. Papermaster was ousted or left on his own accord.
Reached on his cellphone, Mr. Papermaster declined to comment.

E-Book Wars: The Specialist vs. the Multitasker

THE Kindle from Amazon.com is designed to let us do one thing very well: read. To survive, it must excel at this, not only by jostling to stay a nose ahead of other e-readers, but also by maintaining an enormous lead over the Apple iPad and its coming competitors. The multipurpose iPad can do thousands of things very well; used for reading book-length texts, it doesn’t excel, but it’s passable.
THE Kindle from Amazon.com is designed to let us do one thing very well: read. To survive, it must excel at this, not only by jostling to stay a nose ahead of other e-readers, but also by maintaining an enormous lead over the Apple iPad and its coming competitors. The multipurpose iPad can do thousands of things very well; used for reading book-length texts, it doesn’t excel, but it’s passable.

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Amazon

The new Kindle Wi-Fi is priced at $139. Amazon says it will not forgo profits on the device to bolster e-book sales.

Go to your Portfolio »

Last month, Amazon introduced a pair of third-generation machines — smaller, lighter and with crisper text. One has a new, lower entry price of $139. “I predict there will be a 10th-generation and a 20th-generation Kindle,” said Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive.

H.P. Ousts Chief for Hiding Payments to Friend

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Mark V. Hurd, chief of Hewlett-Packard, the computing and printing giant.

By ASHLEE VANCE

Mark V. Hurd, who turned Hewlett-Packard into the world’s largest technology company on the back of fierce fiscal discipline, has been ousted from his post for the lowliest of corporate offenses — fudging his expenses.  

H.P.’s board stunned Silicon Valley and Wall Street late Friday by announcing Mr. Hurd’s resignation as chairman and chief executive of the computing and printing giant, involving what it said was a “close personal relationship” with a contractor who helped with the company’s marketing.

Advertise on NYTimes.com H.P.’s C.E.O. Resigns After Inquiry

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Mark V. Hurd, chairman and chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, at the 2007 Oracle Open World conference in San Francisco.

By ASHLEE VANCE

Mark V. Hurd, who turned Hewlett-Packard into the world’s largest technology company on the back of fierce fiscal discipline, has been ousted from his post for the lowliest of corporate offenses — fudging his expenses.  

H.P.’s board stunned Silicon Valley and Wall Street late Friday by announcing Mr. Hurd’s resignation as chairman and chief executive of the computing and printing giant, involving what it said was a “close personal relationship” with a contractor who helped with the company’s marketing.

The Award for Virtual Reality Goes to …

By STUART ELLIOTT

The coming “Teen Choice 2010” awards show on Fox Broadcasting will have an online complement in the form of a virtual beach party. (If only Gidget were around to get some virtual sand between her toes.)
Fox is joining forces with Planet Cazmo, which creates virtual concerts, and the Mottola Company, led by the music impresario Tommy Mottola, for the promotion. It is tied to the annual presentation of the Teen Choice honors, scheduled to be broadcast by Fox on Monday from 8 to 10 p.m. (ET).

Nokia Declines to Go All In on Chips

By ASHLEE VANCE

One might think Nokia would give into the temptation.
It sees Apple vacuuming up adoration and profits. It sees Apple taking more control of the components that go into a phone. In particular, Apple has worked on building its very own chip for smartphones and tablets and has acquired chip companies at pace.

Henry Tirri, the head of Nokia’s research centers, said that building a homemade chip is too risky.

Perhaps Nokia too should be harboring silicon dreams. But Henry Tirri, the head of Nokia’s research centers, says it is not interested.
“You can do for a while an investment like Apple is doing on their own processor stack and aim for very optimized performance,” Mr. Tirri said during an interview at the company’s Silicon Valley lab. “But that is very brittle.”

Visit the Apple Store every time the world's largest

Tomorrow, 7 / 8, Apple will launch the world's largest store in the city of his Covent Garden, London (England). The first 4,000 customers will receive a T-shirt bearing the Apple logo.
Apple booth No. 2 in London will officially open at 10 am on 8 / 7. 300 service personnel familiar with green uniforms that will meet the needs of consumers. The first 400 customers at this store will receive a T-shirt in the Apple.

As vice president of retail Ron Johnson, Apple Store booth at Covent Garden is the "best" ever by Apple. This is the retailer's 300th Apple.

Designed over three floors with classic architecture, made of 1,876 bricks. Construction process of the Apple Store was close supervision and follow strict rules of the airline. Apple boss proved very pleased with this achievement. "We've got a worthwhile project, in accordance with his wishes," said Ron Johnson.

No stone decorative or stylized designs in the walls surrounding booths remain rudimentary look of each stone bricks. And this is the first Apple stores are designed second staircase, a spiral staircase and a square.

Electronics Designers Struggle With Form, Function and Obsolescence

By NICK BILTON

Nick Bilton/The New York Times The result of movable object (iPhone) meeting immovable object (pavement)

Sorry, Steve Jobs, I owe you a new iPhone.
For the past few weeks I’ve been using a loaner  iPhone 4 from Apple. As most reviewers have pointed out, the silky smooth glass front and back makes the phone an object that is a pleasure to hold.
But not to drop. An object made of glass surely needs protection, right, which is why I added a nice blue bumper to the edge of the iPhone.
I thought it would work beautifully until I dropped my iPhone on the concrete on Tuesday evening. The phone’s glass became a Humpty Dumpty look-a-like.
I’m still trying to figure out whose fault it was? Of course, I’m mostly to blame for being clumsy and dropping the phone. But is it also Apple’s fault for creating a gadget that breaks so easily?
Before the Apple fanboys tear me to shreds, this is way beyond just Apple. It’s a question for the entire electronics industry: Have designers of electronics elevated form above function? Most mobile phones, laptops, tablets and the like are just not designed to be dropped or handled too aggressively.

DailyCandy Deals Delivered to the Phone

By JENNA WORTHAM

DailyCandy, an online newsletter, keep its subscribers in the local loop on everything from new boutiques to the latest trendy food truck coming to their city. But until now, that insider information has  been delivered only via e-mail to their inboxes.

On Thursday, the company is introducing a new application for the mobile phone called DailyCandy Stylish Alerts.
But rather than just deliver details on new designers and restaurant openings to a mobile phone, said Melanie Pitson, who works on DailyCandy’s product team, the application will keep track of its users’ location and notify them when they walk by a restaurant, spa or clothing store that will be hand-picked by the DailyCandy editors.
“When a user comes in close proximity to a local happening, they will get a message to their phone telling them when, where and how to get to it,” she said.