Google told by EC to play ball or face a trial

The European Commission is warning Google to change its search methods or the company will be forced into court over antitrust issues.
Google has been given an ultimatum by the European Commission: straighten up or we'll take you to court.
The search giant has been under the microscope of the EC over complaints that it has stifled competition in the search market by favoring its own businesses. Several companies have alleged that Google purposely tweaks its search results so that its own sites appear before those of potential rivals.
Up until now, the EC been in no rush to launch formal charges against Google. But now the war of words has been ramped up a few notches.
Joaquin Almunia, the European Commission's head of competition, has given Google a deadline of July 2 to change its search results and ad rules or face a trial and the possibility of a hefty fine, says the Guardian. The deadline and threats were spelled out in a letter sent to Google in light of concerns over the company's dominant position in Europe.
A spokesman for Google told cnet simply that "we continue to work cooperatively with the European Commission."
But the company was a bit more detailed in a statement to the Guardian:
"We operate in over 100 countries around the world, and the Internet is disruptive by its nature. It's understandable that our business should attract scrutiny and sometimes complaints in a few of those countries. We're always happy to answer questions authorities may have about our business."
A Google spokesman also suggested that "we've been co-operating with [the EC's] investigation and that issues can be solved through conversation," the Guardian added.
Almunia has indicated a willingness to settle with Google to avoid a courtroom showdown, but his patience now appears to be wearing thin.
Google is also facing similar antitrust woes in other countries.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has hired hotshot attorney Beth Wilkinson to determine whether the company has violated antitrust laws in the United States.
Some experts believe the FTC is using Wilkinson's reputation as a tough litigator to force Google to settle or wind up in court.

Nano-SIM design gets green light -- but did Apple win?

According to ETSI, it has finally come to an agreement on the Nano-SIM standard. The only issue is, it didn't say which company won.
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) announced today that its committee has come to an agreement on the Nano-SIM standard. There's just one issue: the organization didn't say which technology was chosen.
According to ETSI, its Smart Card Platform Technical Committee agreed to a new form factor for the SIM card, called the "fourth form factor." The form factor, better known as the "Nano-SIM," will be 40 percent smaller than the current, smallest SIM cards, but will be backward-compatible with existing SIM designs.
The Nano-SIM had become a lightning rod of controversy over the last several months as Apple decided to take on Nokia, Research In Motion, and Motorola to deliver its own technology for the standard. The initial vote to determine whether Apple's technology or that from the other companies would become the standard was scheduled to be held in March, but ETSI decided to delay it so it could "achieve a broad industry consensus."
 
The Nano-SIM will be much smaller than these SIM cards.

To improve its chances of winning the vote, Apple reportedly moved to "significantly" increase its voting power earlier this year by registering six European subsidiaries with the ETSI. According to ETSI rules, any subsidiary with 8 billion euros or more in revenue is allowed up to 45 votes. At that time, Nokia had the most votes in its corner with 92.
In an apparent attempt to ease tensions for the first vote, Apple reportedly offered ETSI member companies the option to use its Nano-SIM standard at no charge. However, in order to receive the freebie, the companies would have been required to offer the "same terms in accordance with the principle of reciprocity" on all industry standards they might own.
Based on the events that followed, Apple's counterparts apparently shunned the offer. Earlier this month, RIM, Nokia, and Motorola instead tried a compromise of their own by unveiling a new design for its Nano-SIM that incorporated many -- but not all -- of the features found in Apple's option. It's not clear if Apple responded favorably to the compromise, thus paving the way for today's vote to go to the other side.

RIAA: Google takedown numbers misleading

Google imposes an artificial limit on the amount of requests a copyright owner can make, which means the data it provides on infringing sites is off, the music industry group says..

The Recording Industry Association of America has claimed that Google's transparency report detailing takedown requests of copyright material is misleading, because the search giant limits the number of notices a company can make.
Google's statistics, since July 2011, show that Microsoft made the largest total number of takedown requests of any company, asking for a total of 2,544,209 URLs to be removed from Google's search results, which contained files or links to BitTorrent files that the company believed to be infringing on its copyrights.
The RIAA fell to third on the list, with 439,546 URLs targeted, behind NBC Universal at 1,054,843.
However, the RIAA believes that this score is misleading. The organization's executive vice president of antipiracy, Brad Buckles, wrote in a blog post this week that the data doesn't represent the total number of infringing Web sites found in Google's search results, because Google imposes an "artificial limit" on the amount of requests a copyright owner can make.

What could Apple have up its sleeve for WWDC?

A new version of iOS and new apps for maps and photo sharing may be among the items announced at this month's developers conference, says a Sterne Agee analyst.
 
Apple will likely unveil a new lineup of Macs at its upcoming WWDC, but one analyst thinks the bigger news will be in the software arena.
The iPhone maker is expected to announce iOS 6 at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off June 11, says Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu. Apple announced iOS 5 at last year's WWDC, though the OS didn't reach the market until October.
A new Maps app also has the analyst and other Apple watchers buzzing. Based on industry checks, Wu sees a new in-house Maps app replacing the current Google Maps on all iOS devices. The new app will tap into the power of 3D, offering users the ability to view 3D versions of various locales.
"From our understanding, it is internally developed and will be radically different and better than existing Maps from others," Wu said. "We hear the key reason why [Apple] decided to do this is that it believes it can deliver a much better user experience in Maps, not to mention provide further differentiation for its mobile devices business."
Reported details and photos of the new Maps app have already leaked onto the Internet, courtesy of blogging sites BGR and 9to5Mac. One photo in particular clearly displays an option to switch to 3D mode.
Also on track for WWDC may be enhancements to the iOS camera and photo apps, according to Wu. Users can currently use the Photo Stream feature to share photos via iCloud, but many still rely on third-party apps such as Instagram, the analyst said. The new features would enable better sharing directly through the built-in photo app.
But the new Macs will be nothing to sneeze at. Wu expects the full lineup of Macs to benefit from an overhaul.
The iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and potentially the Mac mini and Mac Pro will likely be upgraded to Intel's Ivy Bridge chipset, offering better performance and superior graphics.
And speaking of graphics, several Mac models are expected to follow their mobile counterparts by sporting high-definition Retina displays.

Asus, Acer, Toshiba to unveil Windows 8, RT tablets

Windows tablets from Asus and Toshiba at Computex should tell us more about the progress of Windows RT.

A Texas Instruments-based Windows RT tablet. To date, all Windows tablets running on ARM chips have been behind glass.

(Credit: Brooke Crothers)

Asus, Acer, and Toshiba will roll out a mix of tablets based on both Windows 8 and Windows RT at the hardware-centric Computex trade show next week, according to Bloomberg.
Windows 8 will run on chips from Intel, while Windows RT is powered by ARM chips from Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments.One Asus tablet uses an Nvidia chip, said Bloomberg. CNET reported earlier in the month that Asus and Lenovo are expected to bring out Windows RT tablets built around Nvidia Tegra 3 chips.
A Windows RT-based Toshiba tablet is using Texas Instruments' silicon, according to Bloomberg.
This jibes with what sources have told CNET. Only a handful of Windows RT devices will be released initially from vendors such as Asus, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, and possibly Hewlett-Packard, as Microsoft wades slowly into new Windows waters. Windows RT is the first mainstream desktop-class Microsoft OS to run on ARM processors.
One of the burning questions is whether conference goers will actually be able to use the devices. To date, Windows RT tablets displayed at trade shows and conferences have been inaccessible -- always encased in glass.
Acer, meanwhile, will show a Windows 8 device running on top of an Intel chip, according to Bloomberg. And Asus will show off a second device based on an Intel chip.

We don't have to be stuck in the past. Applications don't have to work the way they've always worked. At least ARM on mobile devices forces efficiency of code. It's good that it requires applications to be re-written with a new mind set.

If somebody really needs x86 power apps, I'm sure somebody can really find a netbook or ultrabook to meet one's need. I'm sure Android and Windows will very quickly run to a competitive device that runs x86, if competitive. What's the difference between an ARM app and an x86. Can't the software be exactly the same if the interface is the same (e.g. mouse and keyboard)?

Whats the difference in ARM and x86 apps???
Take a look. ARM apps have about 10% of the functionality of their x86 counterparts. Usually less!
I get what your saying about code efficiancy, and the x86 platform being bound by legacy restrictions in its instruction set. But seriously, ARM is just as bound by its RISC architecture. It will always take many instructions to perform an instruction that an x86 processor can acomplish in one, and the biggest factor... Intel.
Intel are several generations ahead in their fabrication technology than any other comercial fab plant on the planet. For years they have been pushing the bounds of Moors Law, and they have only recently switched their focus to low power portable devices.
Intels relentless "Tick/Tock" cycle is now pushing the boundries in this direction. 22nm fabtech. 3D transistors. 15nm fabtech.
It is very hard to compete with this. Ask AMD.
Once upon a time, if you wanted to make the fasted desktop computer in the world you would have been using AMD silicon.
In the future, if you want the fastest and most energy efficient tablet, you will be using Intel.
Any questions?

Intel is still several generations behind on power management. Latest ARM SoCs have fifteen to twenty power domains that are actively switched based on current processor load and usage.

There are also fully asynchronous ARM designs that allow each core to dynamically ramp clock rates based on software loads.

Current Intel SoC designs are lacking in both of these areas.