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San Francisco - Iona Technologies is offering technology to link Microsoft applications with systems from Oracle, IBM and others.

Key to the arrangement is the launch of Artix Connect for WCF (Windows Communication Foundation). The product extends connectivity with legacy applications from within the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment. Users can integrate Microsoft applications with platforms from BEA, IBM, Oracle, Tibco and CORBA applications.

Back-office legacy systems are wrapped behind WSDL interfaces. A .Net developer can connect with Java or CORBA without needing custom adapters or new code generation, Iona said.

“Microsoft's strategic commitment to interoperability and open software fits well with Iona's heritage of making software work together,” said Eric Newcomer, CTO of Iona, in a statement released by the company. “Through these efforts, Microsoft is recognizing and helping Iona and others to deliver high-quality interoperability solutions for today's heterogeneous IT environments. Over the past 18 months, we have worked closely with Microsoft product management to ensure Artix Connect for WCF delivers the kind of seamless interoperability our customers require.”

Artix Connect for WCF will ship in May, Iona said.

NEW YORK - U.S.-traded shares of China Unicom fell Wednesday after a downgrade from a Deutsche Bank analyst who says the mobile phone carrier will need about three years to catch up to its “larger and better regarded competition.”

In a note to investors in Asia, Alan Hellawell downgraded the company’s shares to “Sell” from “Hold.” He said the stock’s recent strength comes mainly from a premium it may receive in selling its CDMA network. CDMA, or code division multiple access, is a wireless standard used in the U.S. and South Korea.

Following the transaction, Hellawell expects a “costly game of catch-up investment to prove largely futile cast against (rival China Mobile’s) continuing dominance.”

China Unicom’s American Depositary Shares fell $1.06, or 4.8 percent, to close at $21.11 Wednesday. In the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $13.71 and $25.13.

WASHINGTON - When antitrust regulators decided last week to allow the nation’s only two satellite radio companies to become one, they put forth an unexpected argument — that the two companies largely do not compete with one another.

That may be true, but it’s not what government regulators intended.

Justifying its decision, the Justice Department said customers of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. generally stick to one service once they have signed up, because if they want to switch, they have to buy a new radio. XM’s receivers don’t get Sirius signals, and vice versa.

When the Federal Communications Commission approved rules that created the business in 1997, it insisted that the two licensees “certify” that their radios would receive both services. The rule was meant to promote competition by making it easy for consumers to switch between satellite radio providers.

“At the very least, consumers should be able to access the services from all licensed satellite DARS (digital audio radio service) systems and our rule on receiver inter-operability accomplishes this,” the FCC’s 1997 decision reads.

Eleven years later, that goal has been all but abandoned. Subscribers to XM buy one type of radio, subscribers to Sirius buy another. Auto makers install one system or the other, depending on which company they have an exclusive contract with.

The failure to deploy radios that work with both systems was cited by the Justice Department as part of its justification to clear the merger.

It said “there has never been significant competition” between the companies for customers who already subscribed to one of the services. While the companies “made some efforts” to develop an interoperable radio, it said, “no such inter-operable radio is on the market and that such a radio likely would not be introduced in the near term.”

Gene Kimmelman, vice president for federal and international affairs for Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, accused the government of failing to protect consumers.

“If the DOJ truly believes the failure to develop an inter-operable radio is diminishing competition between XM and Sirius, it should be promoting aggressive steps to market that inter-operable radio rather than allow the two companies to combine into a monopoly,” he said.

Thomas O. Barnett, assistant attorney general for antitrust at the Justice Department, told The Associated Press that the interoperable radio issue was a part of the investigation, but he declined to pass judgment on what the companies’ FCC obligations were.

“We focused on what was actually happening in the marketplace and what was likely to happen in the marketplace going forward,” he said.

“The parties did in fact develop an inter-operable radio and my understanding is they have one,” he continued. “But there’s a difference between developing something and market acceptance of something.”

The companies subsidize the cost of equipment, which reduces the upfront cost to subscribers. An inter-operable radio might lead to a more expensive radio, Barnett said, and it would be unclear who would subsidize the cost.

The $5 billion buyout of XM by Sirius still needs approval from the FCC, which prohibited a merger when it granted satellite radio operating licenses in 1997. The companies argue that the prohibition was a “policy statement” rather than a “binding commission rule.”

The companies say that ample competition is provided by other forms of audio entertainment, including “high-definition” radio, Internet-based radio stations and even devices like Apple Inc.’s iPod, an argument the Justice Department found convincing.

The FCC has the authority to block the sale or impose conditions on pricing or program offerings.

Mel Karmazin, who would assume the role as chief executive officer of the merged company, told a House subcommittee that the two companies have spent $25 million and successfully developed an inter-operable receiver, but manufacturers are not interested in making it.

“We’ve developed it, we’ve lived up to our license. There’s not a question,” he said.

There is nothing in the license that says the company has to subsidize such a radio and bring it to the market. And to expect the companies to have done that on their own isn’t realistic, Karmazin said.

“The reason we will not subsidize it today (is) because it’s possible that Sirius would subsidize an inter-operable radio which would result in XM getting a subscription,” Karmazin told Rep. Ed Markey, R-Mass., chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Internet. “It doesn’t make any sense for us to subsidize a radio where we don’t get a subscription.”

It is uncertain when the FCC will act on the merger, and the agency declined to comment for this story.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said when the companies announced the merger that “the hurdle here, however, would be high” for the companies to receive approval because of the agency’s no-merger rule. The companies will have to demonstrate that “consumers will be clearly better off with both more choice and affordable prices.”

On Nov. 2, the agency sent extensive requests for documents to both companies, including a request for them to “provide a description of all efforts to develop and commercialize inter-operable satellite radio receivers and any difficulties in such development and commercialization.”

Through the end of 2007, Washington, D.C.-based XM reported 9 million subscribers and New York City-based Sirius reported 8.3 million subscribers.

WASHINGTON - The battle over patent reform, a sleepy sounding subject that affects new, cheaper medicines, Chinese counterfeits and BlackBerry addicts, has always sent high-tech companies and drugmakers to their respective corners.

But now organized labor is getting in the fight, using its lobbying muscle to stop — or at least shape — proposed changes to patent law.

Spurred by concern about overseas piracy of U.S. goods, unions have stepped up their opposition to patent reform legislation pending in the Senate. The AFL-CIO and the Change to Win coalition, a group of seven unions that includes the Teamsters, argued in separate letters recently that proposed reforms to the patent system would make it easier for competitors in China and India to counterfeit U.S. products and send more U.S jobs overseas.

Labor’s opposition puts Senate Democrats who support the measure in a tight spot. Patent reform is a top priority for another Democratic constituency: high-tech companies such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Cisco Systems Inc.

The patent bill, sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would make the first significant changes to the U.S. patent system in more than 55 years. It has deeply split the business community and ignited intense lobbying.

Computer and Internet companies gave $1.3 million, 57 percent of their total federal contributions, to Democratic candidates in 2007-2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Their contributions are dwarfed by organized labor, which has given more than $24 million in the same period, 90 percent to Democratic candidates.

Labor’s opposition has “captured lawmakers’ attention,” said Robert Lindefjeld, a patent attorney at Jones Day, because they have demonstrated a link between the otherwise complex and obscure issue of patent reform and jobs. In an effort to placate unions and other opponents, Leahy and other senators are scrambling for a compromise.

A Senate aide, who requested anonymity, said, “There’s a lot of interest groups involved … It’s difficult to address everyone’s concerns so that they’re 100 percent happy with the outcome.”

The compromise proposal could be released as soon as this week, several lobbyists said. The House approved its version of the bill last September.

One of the most contentious issue is the calculation of damages in patent infringement suits. High-tech companies, whose products may include hundreds of patented parts, want awards more closely tied to the specific patent that was infringed, rather than to the entire value of the product.

Opponents say that would reduce damage awards and make it easier to infringe patents. One possible compromise in the works would give judges more discretion to provide guidance to juries on calculating damages.

The unions oppose the current damages provision and a measure that would require the publication of patent applications within 18 months of submission, which they fear would make it easier for overseas competitors to copy U.S. inventions.

They received an unlikely boost last fall when a Chinese official, Yongshun Chen, a former judge, was quoted in the Chinese press as saying reform legislation “favors the infringers and burdens patentees more.”

Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO’s industrial unions council, said Chen’s comments “confirmed suspicions” that the legislation would lead to more counterfeiting of U.S. goods.

U.S. manufacturers have long complained about counterfeit auto parts and other manufactured goods from China. The Bush administration filed a complaint last year at the World Trade Organization charging China with lax enforcement of intellectual property rights.

In a statement last month, the AFL-CIO’s executive council said it is “ironic that, at a time when our nation is pressing China to upgrade its protection of intellectual property … the United States would actively consider steps that could undermine the effectiveness of our patent protections.”

Supporters of the bill, however, say they are confident that unions’ concerns will be addressed and that the Senate will vote on a compromise bill this month or next.

Mark Holston, Hewlett-Packard’s general counsel, said Tuesday the company is one of the largest U.S. patent holders and wouldn’t support legislation that weakens patent protection.

Baugh and other union representatives say they will reserve final judgment until they see the compromise.

“We look forward to taking a close look at the new bill and working with Sen. Leahy to ensure that our concerns … are addressed,” Jim Hoffa, general president of the Teamsters, said in an e-mailed statement.

Intel took the wraps off five new Atom processors for pocket-sized Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai. The chipmaker is so upbeat on the new technology's prospects that CEO Paul Otellini said the Atom may become as important to Intel as the Pentium was in the mid-90s.

“Its product promise is to bring the Intel architecture at very high performance but ultra low power into new usage models, to bring the Internet into your pocket, to bring low-cost PCs into emerging markets with new price points,” Otellini said. “All this is enabled by the Intel Atom. It truly is a revolutionary product.”

A Rich User Experience

The Atom's unique micro-architecture has been designed from the ground up to deliver high performance-per-watt efficiency while maintaining full compatibility with the chipmaker's Core 2 Duo instruction set, which includes support for hyper-threading and virtualization technologies.

Once the new chips are deployed in next-generation portable video players, navigation devices, converged tablets and other MID products, consumers will gain unrivaled abilities to communicate, entertain, access information and be productive, Intel executives said.

“Mix in the incredible innovation coming from our fellow device makers and software vendors, and we will change the way consumers will come to know and access the World Wide Web,” said Intel Senior Vice President Anand Chandrasekher. “These forthcoming MIDs, and some incredible longer-term plans our customers are sharing with us, will show how small devices can deliver a big Internet experience.”

Formerly code-named Silverthorne, the tiny fan-less Atom can clock at speeds of up to 1.86 GHz, which Intel claims makes it the world's fastest processor that uses less than 3 watts of power. By contrast, Intel's mainstream mobile Core 2 Duo processors for laptops conform to thermal design power (TDP) specifications in the 35W range.

The Atom also fully supports Intel's enhanced SpeedStep technology for multi-core processors, which allows software to dynamically change the chip's clock speed, thereby conserving battery power. The end result will be a rich user experience with fast Web page downloads and support for the latest Web technologies such as Adobe Flash and JavaScript, Intel executives said.

Broadband on the Go

Intel's latest Atom Centrino technology mates the Atom processor with a single-chip Controller Hub capable of delivering a PC-like multimedia experience on pocket-sized devices. For example, Intel's three new Hub chips will enable 3-D graphics as well as high-definition video at both 720p and 1080i resolutions. In addition, the new chipsets offer a combination of PC and handheld I/O capabilities such as PCI Express, USB Host and Client, and SDIO.

The Atom Centrino chipset, initially dubbed the “Menlow,” also will enable handheld devices to wirelessly connect to the Internet while maintaining average power consumption rates of 160 to 220MW as well as run at idle power rates of just 80 to 100MW. Even better, Intel says the new technology will eventually give device manufacturers the opportunity to integrate a range of wireless connectivity options, including Wi-Fi, WiMAX and cellular data.

Intel also announced that it expects to deliver its next-generation Centrino 2 processor technology in June. Formerly code-named “Montevina,” Centrino 2 integrates a processor and other components that are about 40 percent smaller than what Centrino offers today, and will be Intel's first platform to offer an integrated Wi-Fi and WiMAX wireless-access option, said Executive Vice President Dadi Perlmutter.

NEW YORK - In a modern equivalent of flashing your headlights to warn other motorists of police speed traps, you can now warn fellow drivers with a cell phone or personal digital assistant about speed traps, red-light cameras and other threats to ticket-free driving.

And as you approach a known threat, you’ll get an audio alert on your mobile device.

The developer of Trapster, Pete Tenereillo, said the system, which requires punching in a few keys such as “pound-1″ to submit information to Trapster’s database, should comply with laws banning talking on cell phones.

Tenereillo insisted he isn’t encouraging motorists to break the law or drive dangerously, saying drivers who speed are bound to do so anyway.

And he said police officials he’s talked to haven’t complained about the service because it inevitably encourages drivers to slow down. (The International Association of Chiefs of Police did not respond to requests for comment.)

The free service can automatically detect location using mobile devices’ GPS capabilities or tap their Wi-Fi and get location from a database run by Skyhook Wireless. (Skyhook sends trucks up and down streets to scan for home wireless routers or commercial hotspots and record the unique identifying code and location of each.)

Information about red-light cameras and where police tend to operate speed traps is kept in Trapster’s database indefinitely. Information about active speed traps is kept for an hour, with the idea that officers may move on.

Users can choose the types of cameras or traps for which they want alerts.

To discourage pranksters and law-enforcement officials from flooding the system with bogus locations, users can rate others on the accuracy of their contributions, and those getting better ratings will carry more weight.

Trapster can be used with about 10 different wireless platforms, including Nokia Corp.’s smart phones, devices using Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile and BlackBerry units from Research In Motion Ltd.

LAS VEGAS - As more and more people drop their landlines, the wireless industry faces a challenge: poor cellular coverage within the home.

To tackle it, they’re looking at selling customers boxes that in essence give them cell towers within the home. To put it another way, the devices make their cell phones work like cordless phones, connecting to a home base station.

These so-called femtocells — “femto” is a scientific term for something very small — look much like Wi-Fi routers, which have become a common household appliance.

But are customers ready to bring another electronic box into the house?

Femtocell vendors at the CTIA Wireless industry show in Las Vegas this week say “yes” — because the devices solve a lot of problems for carriers.

“It’s so much to their benefit to get these into people’s homes that they’re going to subsidize these things,” said Paul Callahan, vice president of business development for Airvana Inc. The Chelmsford, Mass., company makes femtocells that are being tested by several carriers around the world.

Not only do femtocells improve coverage indoors, where the carrier has a hard time reaching, they reduce traffic on regular, outdoor cellular towers. Perhaps best of all, the carrier doesn’t have to pay to carry the traffic from the femtocell to its network, because the device plugs into a home broadband connection. The so-called “backhaul” traffic, which carries calls from a cellular tower to the wired network, is a major part of the cost of operating a wireless network.

Airvana reports tremendous interest from carriers, yet few of them are talking publicly about femtocells.

Sprint Nextel Corp. is the only carrier that is conducting more than a small trial with the technology, but even it is only selling them in Denver, Indianapolis, and Nashville, Tenn. They cost $49.99 to buy; another $15 a month gives a customer unlimited calls from the home.

Sprint spokeswoman Emmy Anderson said customer feedback has been positive and there haven’t been any issues with interference between the femtocells and towers. When it launched the program last year, Sprint said it was planning to take the offer nationwide this year, but it hasn’t announced any specific plans to do so.

One holdup has been that early femtocells, like those Sprint is using from Samsung Electronics, don’t support the data speeds of third-generation cellular networks. But Airvana, Samsung, Motorola Inc. and Alcatel-Lucent all showed 3G femtocells at CTIA Wireless.

Cost also is an obstacle. Current models go for around $200 (meaning Sprint must be subsidizing the units substantially). But Airvana’s Callahan believes that by next year, the cost will have come down substantially as more suppliers get into the market.

Another potential hurdle for femtocells is that there’s a competing technology that doesn’t require another box in the house. T-Mobile USA is selling phones that can use either cellular networks or Wi-Fi, which many broadband households have already, and if they don’t, they’re cheap to buy because it’s a high-volume product. The technology, called Unlicensed Mobile Access, has traction among overseas carriers as well. The drawback of UMA is that it requires phones with Wi-Fi.

The two major U.S. carriers that are trying out ways to boost in-home reception are Sprint and T-Mobile, neither of which has a landline business. Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that the largest cell carriers, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, are lagging in this field.

“They’re afraid that by deploying these femtocells, at least where they have a landline footprint, they might be putting their landline business at risk,” Golvin said.

But that business is at risk anyway — a lack of femtocells may make cellular subscribers keep their landlines for another year or so, but not for long, Golvin added. He thinks the real opportunity is for landline phone companies to bundle femtocells with DSL. Indeed, French electronics maker Thomson has said it is building an Airvana femtocell into a DSL modem.

Managing femtocells can be complex for carriers, because they need to interact gracefully with the rest of the network and hand over calls that are in progress to other cells when the subscriber leaves the home while talking on the phone. Access control is another part of the puzzle — some people don’t want their neighbors to freeload on their femtocell, which can only handle four to six simultaneous calls.

But Airvana said that carriers are showing strong interest by soliciting proposals from femtocell vendors, and that 2009 should be a big year for the technology.

“It’s not an issue of (carriers) questioning the business model — it’s ‘How fast can you do it?’” said David Nowicki, vice president of marketing at Airvana.

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http://www.sprintenterprise.com/airave/

http://www.airvana.com

T-Mobile HotSpot AtHome: http://www.theonlyphoneyouneed.com/

SEATTLE - Microsoft Surface, the software maker’s coffee-table shaped touch-screen computer, will make its debut as a marketing tool in a handful of AT&T Inc.’s wireless stores April 17.

The Surfaces — 22 in all — are programmed to recognize eight of AT&T’s wireless phones. When a customer places one or more phones on the table, information about features pops up. Shoppers can also zoom around AT&T’s coverage map and learn about calling plans by moving their hands across the screen.

The machines are intended to help salespeople, not replace them, AT&T said.

Microsoft Corp. unveiled Surface last May, and said the Windows Vista-based machines would first appear in T-Mobile USA stores and properties owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. and Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. Those partners planned to have Surface running by November, but later delayed the launch by several months.

Mark Bolger, senior director of marketing for Surface, said those companies are still working on software appropriate for their own brands and locations. He said all three plan on deploying Surface this spring.

But AT&T got there first, with creative help from Avenue A/Razorfish, a design studio Microsoft acquired when it bought aQuantive last year.

“We saw that announcement and immediately began discussions with Microsoft,” said Andy Austin, a director of retail customer experience at AT&T. “Obviously I cannot speak to other launch partners, but we are very happy to be their first launch partner.”

One of the perks of putting Surface into stores fastest, Austin said, was some influence over design. AT&T’s units have a brushed-metal base rather than the black shiny finish early models had.

Apple Inc.’s iPhone, which also uses touch technology, will not be one of the phones that work with Surface. Austin would not comment on whether AT&T approached Apple about the prospect.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - The world's biggest computer chip makerIntel unveiled on Wednesday a set of tiny “Atom” processors it says will give mobile devices desktop computing power.

Energy-sipping Atom chips coupled with graphics technology will be built into sleek “smart phones” and other “mobile Internet devices” (MIDs) that fit in people's pockets, according to the US company.

Atom processing combined with innovation from device manufacturers and software makers “will change the way consumers will come to know and access” the Web,” Intel promised.

“Today is a historic day for Intel and the high-tech industry,” Intel senior vice president Anand Chandrasekher said in a written release.

“These forthcoming MIDs, and some incredible longer-term plans our customers are sharing with us, will show how small devices can deliver a big Internet experience.”

Atom chips with speeds as fast as 1.86 GHz enable quick downloading of Internet pages and playing of rich video and audio files, according to Intel.

Intel's five new chips are described as energy misers, drawing less than three watts of electricity while they work.

The processors should foster “a new class of next-generation” Internet-based portable video players and navigation devices, Intel predicts.

Gadgets embedded with Atom chips will be on the market by August, according to Intel.

San Francisco - After an operator started selling a service that lets parents control the Web sites their kids access on their phones, the service provider noticed something unusual: The third most popular category of Web content being accessed by phones monitored by the service were job hunt sites.

“We were convinced there must have been a problem because kids aren't looking at those sites,” said Simeon Coney, vice president of business development for AdaptiveMobile, the company that offers the monitoring technology to operators.

But then AdaptiveMobile figured out that the operator had broadly advertised the service as one that blocks adult content on handsets. Companies noticed and started buying the service to restrict access to sites by employees. The mobile workers were visiting the job sites.

AdaptiveMobile launched its Policy Control Framework monitoring service for the North American market at the CTIA conference Tuesday in Las Vegas. It's already being used outside of North America.

Mobile operators that want to offer the service to users must implement AdaptiveMobile's product in their networks. AdaptiveMobile's technology then monitors Web traffic to and from phones and can block traffic that doesn't meet set rules.

If an operator sells the service to parents, they can log on to a Web page to set rules for their children's cell phone use. AdaptiveMobile has created packages of Web sites appropriate for different age groups. Parents can choose one of the packages and add or delete sites from it.

In addition, parents can set time frames during which kids can access the Web from their phones. They can also restrict other basic communications, including phone calls and text messages to and from certain numbers.

In the U.S., a tier two operator is in the process of rolling out the service, but AdaptiveMobile wouldn't reveal the operator's identity. Some operators in other regions charge a monthly fee for the service while others give it away as part of family plan packages, Coney said.

While enterprise use of the service has so far been by chance, that could change. “We're in discussions with operators about bringing this out to the corporate markets,” he said.

Enterprises are starting to recognize that they want more control over employee use of mobile phones, he said. Most employees know that their laptops and PCs at work are monitored by IT administrators, but they often know that their mobile phones aren't, opening the door for possible abuse, he said.