AT&T Sees No Threat in a Verizon iPhone

AT&T says it’s unfazed by persistent rumors of a Verizon iPhone debuting this year.

The telecom company’s CEO Ralph de la Vega said this morning during the JP Morgan investors conference that discounted plans would retain customers.

70 percent of AT&T’s subscribers are on family plans, and it would be difficult to transition multiple devices, he explained. Additionally, 40 percent of subscribers are part of corporate plans, and employers are unlikely to switch company-owned devices for a new carrier. (There is some overlap between the two types of plans.) The CEO added that “churn” rates (i.e., a measure of customers leaving) for AT&T are staying at record-low rates, so he expects that iPhone customers will remain loyal.

Verizon iPhone rumors gained heat in March when The Wall Street Journal published a story citing sources who claimed Apple was preparing to produce a CDMA-compatible iPhone in September. CDMA is the standard used on Verizon phones.

Many tech observers have wondered whether a Verizon iPhone would compel a large number of AT&T customers to switch to the rival carrier. AT&T has been the exclusive carrier for the iPhone since its release in 2007, and the touchscreen handset has been a major source of revenue for the carrier. Incidentally, many dissatisfied iPhone customers have complained about the performance of AT&T’s 3G network since the release of the iPhone 3G in 2008.

Though AT&T is likely talking tough to impress investors, I’d lean toward agreeing that a hypothetical Verizon iPhone probably wouldn’t pose great threats to AT&T for the reasons cited by de la Vega. Some peeved customers will probably switch over, while others cling on to see if the network improves as a result of people leaving. The parties who should feel nervous about a Verizon iPhone are those already offering smartphones through Verizon: HTC and Google.
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World's most prolific source of spam emails shut down

In a series of coordinated raids by Microsoft and US federal authorities, the world's most prolific source of spam emails has been shut down.

The Rustock botnet is an international network of virus-infected computers that has been taken advantage of for years by generating billions of emails each day in order to promote unlicensed online pharmacies and impotence pills.

But on Wednesday, security firms noticed email traffic from Rustock completely collapsed, according to the Wall Street Journal.

It has now been revealed that Microsoft, backed by US Marshals acting on a court order, seized servers that it's estimated covertly controlled almost a million Windows PCs.

"We think this has been 100 per cent effective," the Telegraph quoted Richard Boscovich, senior attorney in Microsoft's digital crimes unit, as saying.

The servers were rented from commercial Internet hosting firms across the Mid West, who were apparently unaware of their role in Rustock. These "command and control" servers would issue instructions to infected home and business PCs worldwide.

The criminals behind the spamming business were named in Microsoft's lawsuit only as "John Does 1-11". To get the court order, which empowered it to seize equipment and so "decapitate" the botnet, Microsoft alleged the John Does infringed its trademarks in some of their emails.

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

Facebook ‘more popular than porn with UK Internet users’

UK web surfers prefer social networking sites over pornographic ones.

According to new figures from Experian Hitwise, social networking sites are now the most popular destination for British Internet users beating pornography websites.

The Internet research company says that in January sites like Facebook accounted for 12.46 percent of all online traffic.

That's the equivalent of 2.4 billion hits or one eighth of all web visits.

In comparison entertainment websites, including pornographic ones, accounted for 12.18 percent of traffic.

It's the first time social networking has overtaken entertainment in terms of popularity.

Of those, social network site Facebook accounted for more than half, or 56 percent, of visits.

"While social networks of course compete amongst themselves for users, many of those users have a presence on multiple networks. One in every eight people leaving a social network visits another one immediately after,” the BBC quoted Robin Goad, Experian Hitwise's Research Director, as saying.

"Facebook, for example, is a key source of traffic for many smaller social networks, while almost a fifth of people leaving Twitter go on to visit another social network,” he added.

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

Just a click to all of Earth's data!

Just at the click of a mouse button, you can now get all of Earth's data, thanks to researchers who have developed a software which reveals all historical and geological information about our planet.

The free software, called GPlates1.0, developed by an international team led by Sydney University, allows anyone to easily visualise the Earth's tectonic plates, continents and oceans far back in geological time.

"It's a little bit like having Google Earth with a time slider," said Prof Dietmar Miller at the University of Sydney's School of Geosciences.

"You ask the software to show you, for example, how the supercontinent Pangaea and the large oceans surrounding it were assembled 200 million years ago. It delivers that by calculating the probable positions, orientations and motions of the tectonic plates through time," he added.

GPlates does much more than merely visualise the appearance of the Earth's surface.

Apple could face iPad 2 component shortages

Apple could face shortages of components for the iPad 2 because of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, according to a research firm.

"The aftermath of the Japanese earthquake may cause logistical disruptions and supply shortages in Apple Inc.'s iPad 2, which employs several components manufactured in the disaster-stricken country," IHS iSuppli said.

IHS iSuppli, which conducted a "teardown" analysis of the iPad 2, said the components included the battery from Apple Japan , an electronic compass from AKM Semiconductor, NAND flash memory from Toshiba, DRAM dynamic random access memory from Elpida Memory and touchscreen glass "likely" from Asahi Glass.

It said some of the suppliers were undamaged but they were likely to face logistical difficulties as well as problems getting raw materials.

"The various challenges are being compounded by interruptions in the electricity supply, which can have a major impact on delicate processes, such as semiconductor lithography," IHS iSuppli said.

Internet overseer approves .xxx domain

The internet now has its own official red-light district, where sex sites will be regulated against fraud, viruses and child porn.

ICANN, the organisation that oversees the internet, gave final approval Friday to a proposal to create a new top-level domain name on the web with the suffix .xxx, which will host only sites that feature adult content .

Porn sites will not be required to register their addresses at the new domain but are expected to do so to prevent them being snapped up by competitors. However, in order to register they have to pass an application process that's designed to ensure that their site does not engage in fraud, child pornography and malicious code that could infect users' computers with viruses.

The move gives consumers "reassurance they are more protected from the risk of viruses, identity theft, credit-card fraud and inadvertent exposure to child abuse images", ICANN said in a statement announcing the decision.

"For the first time, there will be a clearly defined web address for adult entertainment, out of the reach of minors and as free as possible from fraud or malicious computer viruses," said Stuart Lawley, chief executive of the Florida company appointed by ICANN to run the new registry.

In a statement, Lawley said that his company had already received 200,000 requests to register names on the new domain.

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

Nokia joins mobile money transfer business in India

Handset maker Nokia is the latest to join the mobile money transfer bandwagon in India. The cellphone maker along with Union Bank of India launched a mobile-to-mobile cash transfer service called Union Bank Money on Monday, which would allow any mobile users on any network to shop, pay utility bills, top-up prepaid cards using only a mobile phone.

Both Nokia and Union Bank of India said their offers would help the Indian government address its social obligation of financial inclusion, especially in rural areas.

More than 800 million people have access to mobile phones but less than half of the country's population does not hold a bank account, a UBI executive said, leaving a lot of room for growth of such initiatives. Targeting financial inclusion, more than 2 lakh Nokia retail outlets would become business correspondents, or BC, enabling consumers to open no-frill accounts, deposit and withdraw cash up to 50,000 and conduct transactions of the same value every day.

The bank plans to add disbursement of micro-loans, ticketing facilities and other government services in the near future.