US may challenge Google's acquisition of ITA Software

The US Justice Department is preparing a potential court challenge to Google Inc's planned acquisition of ITA Software , a travel-software company that powers some of the most popular Internet airline-ticket search and booking sites, according to a media report.

"The Justice Department is laying the groundwork for a potential court challenge to Google's acquisition of a travel-software company," The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Justice Department staff lawyers have begun preparing legal documents for use in a possible court challenge to the USD 700 million deal for ITA Software, the report said adding that no decision to proceed has been made.

Federal antitrust lawyers have been examining whether Google, with its dominant Web-search engine, would gain too much sway over the online travel industry by acquiring ITA, which powers flight-comparison sites including Kayak.com, SideStep.com and Hotwire.com, among others, as well as Bing, the Internet-search engine owned by Microsoft Corp.

According to the publication, the government is expected to make its decision later this month or in early February, whether it would seek to block that deal, which announced in July.

"While we continue to cooperate with the Justice Department's review, we are ultimately confident that this acquisition will increase competition," the report quoted a Google spokesperson as saying.

In the ITA matter, Microsoft, Kayak and Expedia Inc , which owns Expedia.com and Hotwire.com, have expressed concerns to the Justice Department about the deal, arguing that combining the top web-search company with the top airfare-search firm would give Google an unfair competitive advantage, the report noted.

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WikiLeaks pays US soldier $15,100 legal fee for leaks

Whistle-blower website Wikileaks has donated $15,100 to the legal defence fund of the US soldier accused of providing it with the digital trove of secret diplomatic cables sent to and from American embassies across the globe.

The legal defence fund of Private Bradley Manning, charged with the disclosure of thousands of classified documents, has received the money from the website as part of its pledge to bear a substantial part of the financial burden of the soldier's defence, the Guardian reported.

Manning, who faces 52 years in prison, is expected to face a preliminary military procedure ahead of a court martial in March.

He was arrested last May in Iraq, where he was stationed on intelligence duties, and has been kept in solitary confinement for the last five months in a military jail in the US.

WikiLeaks' slow response in coming to the financial aid of its alleged source has long been a cause of frustration for his supporters.

In the past, the Bradley Manning Support Network has indicated that WikiLeaks had promised to pay up to $50,000 in legal fees, although that offer was reduced to $20,000 in December and the payment ended up being $15,000.

Part of the problem may be explained by WikiLeaks' own financial difficulties as a result of Visa, MasterCard and PayPal cutting off its accounts after pressure from the US government.

The support network calculates that the legal fund needs to have at least $115,000 to fight a vigorous defence. Including the WikiLeaks donation, it has collected more than $100,000.

Jeff Paterson , a member of the support network's steering committee, said the financial target had almost been met so the focus of the campaign would switch from fund raising to publicising what the treatment of Manning, which he said was inhumane.

"Internationally, people are speaking out against the unjust imprisonment of Bradley Manning, who is accused of acting out of moral conviction," Paterson was quoted as saying.

Manning is being held in solitary confinement under a prevention of injury order despite having been cleared by a military psychologist earlier this year.

David House , a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher who is allowed to visit Manning, has reported a steady deterioration in his condition.

The startling disclosure of over 250,000 embassy cables leaked recently caused major embarrassment to the US government.

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YouTube Helps South Korean Band Branch Out

Last August, a popular South Korean pop group called Girls' Generation made its first trip to Japan and, to the surprise of its managers, sold out an arena. The secret formula for the debut: a Japanese language song—and some business assistance from YouTube.

Weeks ahead of the concert, the group's recording label, SM Entertainment Inc., placed a video of the Japanese-language song on YouTube and allowed fans to copy and re-post it on any website, driving radio requests and online chatter.

It was part of SM's new online video strategy. Last year, instead of hosting its videos itself, it began distributing video of its acts on Google Inc.'s YouTube and using the service's copyright detection technology to block illegally uploaded video and sell ads against its own authorized clips. Its two biggest competitors in South Korea, YG Entertainment and JYP Productions, and about two dozen smaller labels have done the same thing.

Long used by U.S. media companies, YouTube's video-management features are gaining traction in emerging markets where local content producers are seeking a cheap way to reach overseas audiences and create demand for its artists without having to open offices or partner with labels in other countries. U.S.-based Google and YouTube often aren't the biggest search engine or online video outlet in Asian countries, but they're well known enough that consumers surf them to look for content that's not promoted by local search engines.

The South Korean music industry's embrace of the company is also an attempt to earn money from and gain information about its content that consumers are distributing online. YouTube's three-year-old system for spotting duplicates of protected material, known as Content ID, gives entertainment producers more choices for dealing with consumers sharing their content. A television studio or record label, for instance, can decide to block an illegally uploaded video, monitor how it's used and watched or place advertisements on it, spliting revenue with YouTube.

Microsoft has best month for Xbox despite shortage

Microsoft Corp notched its best ever month for the Xbox in December, selling 1.9 million of the game consoles, helped by its new Kinect hands-free system and the latest in the blockbuster 'Fable' and 'Halo' game series.

But the world's largest software company, which launched its latest Xbox 360 console in 2005, lost out to Nintendo Co' Ltd's Wii in the key holiday shopping month, according to figures from retail research firm NPD Group. Sony Corp's PlayStation was third.

Microsoft said high demand for the Xbox and Kinect add-on unit caused shortages in stores over the holiday period and forced it to accelerate delivery of units to stores that were meant to be sold in January and February.

As a result, the company expects shortages of both the Xbox console and the Kinect add-on for the next two months.

Microsoft said last week it has sold more than 8 million Kinect units over November and December, the first two months on the market, beating its target of 5 million.

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Thousands of Kennedy documents go online

Thousands of documents, photos and even recorded phone conversations of President John F. Kennedy are going online and available to a whole new generation of high-tech armchair historians.

The online digital archive of the 35th U.S. president was unveiled on Thursday by the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston.

Now, instead of having to travel to Boston, historians and the general public alike will have online access to 200,000 document pages, 1,200 individual telephone conversations, speeches and meetings and 1,500 photos.

"For young people today, if it isn't on the Internet, it doesn't really exist," said library director Tom Putnam. "I hope this brings him alive to a new generation of Americans. (It offers) a fuller sense of the man."

It took four years to digitize the artifacts, photos and videos, and the process is ongoing, said Putnam. He called the collection "the largest and most sophisticated digital presidential archive in the nation."

A team of nearly two dozen people scanned Kennedy's professional and personal records and tagged all key data, Putnam said.

Four major technology firms were involved. EMC Corp. donated high-speed storage, Iron Mountain contributed secure computing facilities, AT&T provided hosting and networking for the new collection and Raytheon spearheaded project management.

The digital archives ensure that important documents are backed up electronically in high resolution, should anything happen to the physical records, Putnam said.

The Kennedy library website typically garners 3 million hits a year, a number Putnam said he expects to increase substantially after the launch of the digital archives.

A previous special exhibit about the historic moon landing and Kennedy's efforts to advance the space program saw 8 million hits in a matter of days, he said.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

iPhone application on emerging markets

Mirae Asset Financial Group on Thursday launched an 'Emerging Market Experts' iPhone application that will provide content and information focused on emerging markets .

The application will allow users to benefit from highly developed capabilities of the iPhone and iPod touch user interface to access information. The application gives readers access to content both offline and in air plane mode.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Gee Pee in talks for tech sharing

Gee Pee Infotech , a 300-crore low-cost cellphone maker, plans to enter into technology partnerships with Chinese and Taiwanese wireless chipset suppliers - Spreadtrum, LongCheer and MTK - as it finalises plans for a 1000-crore cellphone manufacturing unit near Kolkata .

"We are in advanced discussions with Spreadtrum, Long Cheer and MTK to ink technology sharing pacts. They will help us design and assemble the cellphones at our proposed telecom park in West Bengal. We are yet to take a final call on whether the chipsets will be sourced from all three or just a single supplier," said Bijay Agarwal , managing director and founder of Kolkata-based Gee Pee Infotech.

Currently, the company sources cellphones from a clutch of original equipment manufacturers based in Shenzhen, China , and markets them here under the Gee Pee brand. It claims to be the first homegrown phonemaker to unveil the `full function touch phone'.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

RIM gives India access to Messenger services

Blackberry maker Research in Motion said it has given Indian security agencies a key to enable access to its eponymous messenger and public email, but reiterated its inability to provide access to its corporate email services.

RIM has been involved in a three-year battle with Indian security agencies, which are demanding access to BlackBerry communications, citing national security threats.

The Canadian company, which was facing a January 31 deadline for the two services, however, denied that it had entered into any agreement with the Indian government regarding its enterprise email services, and said any suggestions that "it was somehow enabling, or planning to enable, access to data transmitted through BlackBerry Enterprise Services was both false and technologically infeasible".

ET had reported last week that RIM had provided encryption keys for its Messenger and Internet services, while adding the Canadian company had sought time till January 2013 to address security concerns associated with its corporate email services.

The Indian government is yet to take a call on RIM's stance on its corporate email services, which intelligence agencies fear could be used by terrorists, since these communications cannot be detected.

RIM reiterated that neither it nor wireless carriers on whose networks RIM's services are run have access to encryption keys to its corporate email services. "No changes can be made to the security architecture for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (corporate email) customers since, contrary to any rumors, the security architecture is the same around the world and RIM truly has no ability to provide its customers' encryption keys," the company said in its customer update.