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In a press release, ITAA president and CEO Phil Bond said, “The global reach of CSIA, with its Brussels office, will bring valuable new perspective and resources to ITAA’s own Information Security program and complement our work with the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA).”

John W. Thompson, chairman and CEO of Symantec, used part of his keynote address Tuesday at RSA 2008 to announce the merger of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance and the Information Technology Association of America.

CSIA includes the top security providers and seeks to influence security policy in the U.S. and the European Union; ITAA is a much larger policy group. He said “this will give CSIA a bigger platform and a stronger voice on these critical public policy issues and the ability to work with governments and key stakeholders around the world.”

(Credit: CNET Networks)

At 24, I represent the first generation to see the rise of portable music players. I remember when the headphones to my first Sony Walkman cassette player might as well have been glued to my ears. Since then, I’ve been addicted to personal, portable audio and I fear that I, along with the rest of my generation, will soon experience severe hearing loss due to years and years of listening to loud music through headphones. Professor Harvey Dillon of the Hearing Australia program says his general rule of thumb is if “people have to raise their voice or actually shout at you to make themselves understood while you are listening to music in your ears, then that is loud enough to be potentially damaging.” As a self-professed audiophile, I take every opportunity to listen to my music. It moves along a boring work day, drowns out crazies on the subway, and helps put me to sleep at night. Some days, I feel like I spend more time with my headphones in than out. I also listen to a lot of different kinds of music, from hip-hop to metal to classical to Disney, but no matter what the genre, I must admit that I crank up the volume to the highest possible level to experience the bliss of surround sound. It sounds like my days of listening to music might be numbered…

This happens at least once a day…I’m at my desk, typing up a review or blog post on my computer, when all of a sudden someone sneaks up behind me and unintentionally make me jump 10 feet in the air with a simple tap on the back. How do I allow this to happen? Am I deaf? Well, not right now, but it’s quite possible that I might be if I continue to constantly blast music out of my Princess Leia headphones.

But what about these new noise-cancelling and inner ear-canal headphones that are starting to pervade the industry? I wonder if those particular types of monitor earphones pose a greater danger than the over the ear style? Either way, my future doesn’t look very bright. Are there any Millennials out there who have already started to experience hearing loss? I’d love to hear other opinions on how these listening trends will affect our health down the line.

A recent report out of Australia titled “Is Australia Listening?” reported 70 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 34 experience a constant ringing in their ears, which can be a symptom of permanent damage to the ear canal. The report goes on to claim that 76 percent of young adults in Australia listen to music through headphones on portable MP3 players, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a higher number in relation to the United States.

“Justin…Justin…JUSTIN!!!”

In GPL v2, those who ran open source software in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) environment, and modified the open source code, were not required to return the changes back to the community….For me, this has always been one of the worst risks for open source oblivion. If you can take and you do not give back, defeating the copyleft concept, you kill open source. The ASP loophole is the cancer of open source….

Eben Moglen gave a fascinating keynote at last year’s Open Source Business Conference, advocating that developers shouldn’t become someone else’s “free lunch.” He made the point that copyleft licenses like the GPL ensure that developers and their downstream adopters meet on equal terms under such licensing.

Finally, that’s true again. About time.

One of open source’s biggest failings has been to extend its relevance into the Software as a Service world. The OSI has finally corrected this with the approval of the Affero GPL.

Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of mobile open-source company Funambol, has been the most ardent crusader for development and approval of a license like the AGPL. In a blog posting, he talks through the importance of the AGPL, and identifies perhaps its biggest opponent: Google.

Now we just need developers to understand that using GPL v3 instead of AGPL v3 is just dumb. Your software is going to be used as a service, if not today, in a few years. Yes, YOUR software. Everything is going to be used as a service, even word processors… They can take it and do not give any changes back to your community.

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Google’s strongest argument against the AGPL was that they “simply wouldn’t use code licensed under the AGPL” if people restricted (opened up) their code under a SaaS-savvy copyleft license. For those of us who believe the SaaS world should play by the same rules as everyone else, this was a cause for celebration, not alarm.

“Though mobile broadband access is currently used by about 1 percent of the total U.S. Internet population it is poised for significant growth over the next few years,” Serge Matta, senior vice president of ComScore, said in a statement. “As consumers increasingly demand and depend on portable Internet access, the demand for mobile broadband should continue to increase.”

American workers apparently are getting more comfortable accessing the Web via their cell phones and PDAs.

The study defined mobile broadband as connections based on cellular networks using a PC card, built-in adapter, or connections tethered via a cell phone or PDA, rather than via Wi-Fi hot spots.

Verizon and Sprint accounted for the majority of the mobile broadband market last year, according to ComScore.

The number of mobile devices accessing the Internet via wireless broadband skyrocketed 154 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared with the same period in 2006, according to research released Tuesday by ComScore.

The study also found that mobile broadband had a higher presence on work computers (59 percent) compared with home or personal computers (41 percent).

At the Mix ‘08 show here, the company talked about its
Mac, Linux, and mobile-phone compatibility and brought out customers like Hard Rock Cafe, NBC, and AOL to talk about how they are using the technology. It also showed Silverlight running on the newest compatible device–Nokia’s smartphones.

LAS VEGAS–Microsoft is looking to position its Silverlight Web technology as the coolest kid in school–one that is both popular and gets along with everyone.

Microsoft’s Scott Guthrie also alluded to support for Apple’s
iPhone, saying Microsoft wants Silverlight running on “anything that has an SDK (software development kit).”

(Credit:
Dan Farber/CNET News.com)

Scott Guthrie, general manager in Microsoft’s Developer Division, addresses the crowd at Mix '08.

It’s all part of Microsoft’s aggressive pitch to Web developers, a clear acknowledgment that Microsoft faces a tough battle to win the hearts and minds of those who build Web sites and applications.

The Hard Rock Cafe catalogued over 2 billion pixels’ worth of images as it took its rock gear collection online with Silverlight.

(Credit:
Dan Farber/CNET News.com)

In the Hard Rock Cafe example, the restaurant and hotel chain used the technology to showcase its massive, 70,000-piece collection of rock artifacts. “This is 2 billion pixels,” said a representative of the company who built the site for the Hard Rock.

The Hard Rock Cafe arrived at Mix 08 to show how it is using Silverlight to show its 70,000 pieces of rock and roll history online.

(Credit:
Dan Farber/CNET News.com)

AOL showed off a new version of AOL Mail, while NBC touted its plans to use Silverlight to bring more than 2,200 hours of video both live and on-demand.

“I know today you have many amazing technology choices,” Ray Ozzie said in his introductory comments. “But I’d like you to bet on us because I think together we can create extraordinary experiences.

But Jobs is uniquely talented and a master of total product design. Handset manufacturers come up with dozens of phone designs per year, but haven’t been able to duplicate the user experience of the iPhone. You could say the Nokia N95, the HTC Touch, and other smartphones have similar capabilities, but they don’t match the slickness, pinching, and other capabilities of the Apple device despite its flaws (no 3G network and inaccessible battery, for example). The iPhone is also part of a family of personal devices that will become even more integrated.

In the post I wrote about Rich Miner of Google saying that the Android mobile software stack will gain more users than the
iPhone, several people commented. The general consensus is that Apple is the BMW of the personal computer industry and is the standard for innovation that its competitors, with far more market share, follow. Android is a non-factor.

The iPhone will continue to be the BMW or Lexus of mobile devices, with modest share and lots of profit and envy from other mobile device makers. However, Apple could stumble, failing to keep up the rapid pace of innovation, but I wouldn’t count on it as long as Jobs is in the house.

On other hand, it would be interesting to see what developers could do if Apple open sourced the iPhone software. The mobile Web experience is the new center of attention and R&D spending in the tech industry. Google’s Android will be a good test case. If Android were to become successful, due to its openness and developer community, Apple would feel the heat. An army of smart developers with Google behind it could create a next-generation mobile Web operating system and application platform that challenges Apple far more than the current set of incumbents.

Throwing open-source Android into the mix could give mobile device makers a better platform to take on the iPhone, but they will be mostly competing with each other for market share.

Microsoft has made progress with its
Windows Vista operating system, and its OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) have created slicker PCs and laptops to run the software, but the Macintosh is still considered a superior product overall.

Apple’s tightly bound software and hardware provides unique differentiation in a world of mostly undifferentiated PCs and mobile devices. RIM’s Blackberry also has had success by controlling its entire product.

The challenge for Apple is to keep coming up with proprietary products that fuel its business model, which is based on innovation and R&D around both hardware and software. Since Steve Jobs returned to Apple, the company has had a series of hit products that don’t dominate markets (with the exception of the
iPod) but appeal to an elite and influential minority. Even Apple’s advertising makes the marketing from competitors look tedious and uninspired.

Jobs is clearly making the right choice for now not to license the Mac, iPhone, or iTunes software to hardware makers. Getting into a battle for OEMs with Microsoft, Google, Symbian, RIM, and Palm, etc. is a losing strategy at this juncture. The best mobile operating system and user experience doesn’t necessarily win the deals, even with Steve Jobs as the chief negotiator. Microsoft is extremely capable in working with OEMs and developers, which is a key factor in building out a platform.

Systems like this are never going to be winners for companies like EA. For every copy of one of its games that it successfully keeps from being illegally copied, it’s going to lose a good customer who’s beyond annoyed at the way the system works and the way they feel they’re being treated.

Over on Techdirt Thursday morning, there’s a report about some angry PC users of Electronic Arts games.

If they’re already doing that, they might want to consider seeking additional guidance. Because as the Sony rootkit scandal and other DRM PR nightmares have shown, users do not want to be controlled in this way. And they vote with their wallets.

To be sure, software companies feel they have to fight tooth and nail to avoid being robbed due to the ease with which many programs can be copied. But it seems they would do well to run their antipiracy/DRM systems by their PR departments–or, if they’re doing that already, then some outside consultants–to make sure that the systems aren’t going to alienate their user bases.

The gamers are upset, according to a post in the Mass Effect forums, because EA is apparently implementing a new Internet-based digital rights management system, known as SecuROM, that they find onerous, intrusive, and inconvenient.

Further, SecuROM seems to limit the number of times a game can be installed to three.

Then, it seems, if the key cannot be verified, SecuROM will attempt to do so for 10 more days. If, after that period, it still cannot be verified, Techdirt writes, the game will be locked down.

Techdirt writes that a new version of SecuROM being employed by EA “is causing controversy due to an online verification system connected to its CD key. The system requires a connection to the Internet during installation to check (that) the CD key is valid, and then registers the key with the users’ computer. After this the game will try to re-check the CD key every 5-10 days to ensure it hasn’t since been found posted on a forum, or used in some form of piracy.”

On the eve of the
CTIA I.T. & Entertainment tradeshow here, Nokia announced it will embed Microsoft Exchange Activesync on all Nokia phones that use the S60 Symbian operating system. As a result, 43 different models of Nokia phones will have easy access to Microsoft corporate email. Nokia will also add the Microsoft Exchange support to all new N-Series and E-Series phones that hit the market in the future.

What’s more, most of Nokia’s phones that will offer the embedded e-mail software are not sold through carriers in the U.S., which means they aren’t subsidized. And with price tags in the range of $450 to $950, Nokia smartphones could be out of reach of some U.S. consumers, especially when all four of the major U.S. carriers offer subsidized BlackBerry’s for around $100.

Now Microsoft’s ActivSync software will be automatically available for 80 million of Nokia’s already shipped devices, and it will be available as a standard feature on all new Nokia N-Series and E-Series phones. Having the software embedded on the phone or as an automatic software update makes setting up corporate email access on a Nokia phone so easy that most people can do it themselves without the help of their IT department, said Bill Plummer, vice president of sales and go-to-market for Nokia Americas.

SAN FRANCISCO–Nokia took aim at smartphone rival Research in Motion Tuesday with plans to expand the number of devices that will automatically be capable of accessing Microsoft corporate e-mail.

Until this announcement Nokia offered Microsoft email support as a download for only a handful of devices. But the feature wasn’t well publicized, and it was somewhat difficult to download.

The enhancement is a big deal, especially in the U.S., where Nokia has not made significant traction in the smartphone market. Instead, Research in Motion has dominated the smartphone category in the U.S. with its BlackBerry devices.

The integrated Microsoft email support will now make Nokia a more appealing choice for corporate users. But winning over corporate customers may still be difficult. Nokia rivals such as Palm and Motorola , already have ActiveSync available on their smartphones, and BlackBerry continues to beat these companies. Apple has also introduced Microsoft ActiveSync for its iPhone users.

Nokia N81

I wanted to repost this reader response to my Monday blog about a slowdown in venture capital funding for Web 2.0 start-ups.

“tehrani625″ as he or she is called, comes off as thoroughly unimpressed with the status quo and says it’s time to go beyond the conventionally stale thinking about social networks. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Of course, isn’t that pretty much the promise (or threat?) of OpenSocial plus the social graph API? (Apropos, check out Rafe Needleman’s interview with Google’s David Glazer on the future of OpenSocial.)

“I am bored of all the new social networks it would be nice if some one took something like open id and attached a friends list and then you would manage the thing from a central home page. That would give all the social aspects you need. Because you would add the various apps kinda like a face book page. Then it would connect to a storage service and some sort of email service. Then you would have all your games synced to this account.”

“It would be nice to have an account and then not have to create an account every time I want to post on a certain forum. But that’s just what I think. It would also be nice to have integration into ones cell phone with a reasonable access fee instead of the $5 you have to pay on Verizon and then some and you don’t even get mobile web. If anything it would be nice to have better more available virtual words that are more usable.”

“You would create an avatar that would work with all the virtual world services. Then you would have all your other type of productivity apps attached. So then everything would be integrated. So if you make a document on your computer and it auto syncs to the online service and is automatically added to your online word processor. All these services are available but all of them are all over the place. Why can’t they all be integrated? More or less.

Nokia says the concept device demonstrates handset features that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering, including flexible materials, transparent electronics, and self-cleaning surfaces.

Even though Morph is still in early development, Nokia believes that certain elements of the device could be used in high-end Nokia devices within the next seven years. And as the technology matures, nanotechnology could eventually be incorporated into Nokia’s entire line of products to help lower manufacturing costs.

The new concept phone is part of an online display presented in conjunction with the “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibition underway through May 12 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The device, which is made using nanotechnology, is intended to demonstrate how cell phones in the future could be stretched and bent into different shapes, allowing users to “morph” their devices into whatever shape they want. Think Stretch Armstrong for cell phones. Want to wear your cell phone as a bracelet? No problem, just bend it around your wrist.

(Credit:
Nokia)

(Credit:
Nokia)

Nokia and the University of Cambridge are showing off a new stretchable and flexible mobile device of the future called Morph.

“Nokia Research Center is looking at ways to reinvent the form and function of mobile devices,” Bob Iannucci, chief technology officer for Nokia, said in a statement. “The Morph concept shows what might be possible.”