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NEW YORK - Sprint Nextel Corp. has finally rounded up the financial backing it needs to build a faster wireless network. But for consumers and the electronics industry, speed may be the least important thing about the new network.

Though specifics are scant, everything points to the new network breaking with the current model of the U.S. wireless industry, where carriers both operate the service and sell the devices that use it.

Right now, when you buy a Sprint phone, you use it on the Sprint network, and Sprint picks the applications, like TV services, that come with the phone.

Sprint has indicated the new network will be run on an “open access” basis, where anyone with a compatible device can connect it.

If everything works well, this could lead to a proliferation of cell phones, Web tablets, computers, TV set-top boxes, GPS devices and gadgets we haven’t even dreamt of. Manufacturers will be free to make gadgets that can ride on the network, without striking a deal with the carrier first.

Rather than buying a cell phone with a monthly minute plan, you could be buying a device that gives you unlimited use of voice-over-Internet services like eBay Inc.’s Skype.

“That’s the real power of having this open access — it unleashes innovation,” said Bob Williams, who tracks telecommunications for the Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports.

For example, Nokia Corp., not Sprint, will be selling the first portable gadget that’s likely to be available for the network. It’s a Web tablet that looks like an oversize iPhone and costs about $500.

You’ll buy it without a contract, and when the WiMax network is available, the device will tell you, much like a laptop will alert you when Wi-Fi is available. You’ll then have the option to sign up for an Internet plan through the Web browser.

There could be quite a few more payment options here than we’re used to from wireless providers, who generally only have monthly data access plans. We might get the option to buy service by the day, or even by the Web page, which could make viable devices that only occasionally need to connect to the network, like GPS navigation devices you use only when driving, or alarm clocks that download a podcast every morning.

And speaking of buying access, you may not even be buying it from Sprint, or from the joint venture called Clearwire that will be operating the network. As made clear by the announcement Wednesday, the cable companies that are putting up much of the money for the buildout will be buying wholesale access to the network and will be reselling that under their own brands, bundling it with cable service.

Google Inc., another investor, will also have thumb in the pie: Clearwire will support phones that run Google’s Android operating system, which aims to extend the company’s dominance in Internet search and advertising to mobile devices.

Clearwire won’t be completely revolutionary: Some open network features are available in some form or other today.

For instance, Amazon.com Inc.’s e-book reader, the Kindle, uses Sprint’s current cellular network to download books, but the user doesn’t need to know that. Amazon pays Sprint for access to the network, and no Sprint subscription is necessary. The cost of using the network is baked into the price of a book download.

But Amazon had to work with Sprint to create its device, and a company with lesser resources might not be able to follow in its footsteps. For now, there’s no competing wireless e-book reader.

In another example of partial openness on existing wireless networks, you can buy a “SIM” chip from AT&T or T-Mobile USA and plug it into any compatible device, like a cell phone you bought overseas, to get onto their networks. But the carriers want the customer relationship, so you have to deal with them to get service.

When it comes to the Kindle, Amazon, not Sprint, owns the customer relationship and handles customer care. That’s a model we can also expect on the WiMax network. The device manufacturer or the retail service provider, like the cable company, will be the point of contact for the consumer, rather than the network operator.

While giving up customer service means a loss of control for Sprint, it could also work to its advantage, since it is struggling to provide customer service that measures up to the other providers.

“Not to quote ‘Me and Bobby McGee,’ but there is a remarkable freedom in having not much to lose,” Williams said. “There’s no question that Sprint is having its problems.”

Naturally, Sprint won’t leave all its problems behind with the WiMax network. There are questions about how well its signal will penetrate indoors, for instance. Those are important questions, particularly because some of the first products to be available for the network will be large modems intended to provide home computers with an alternative to wired broadband.

And the Clearwire venture might even be beaten to the punch when it comes to open access.

Verizon Wireless has promised to open up its existing network starting late this year to devices that pass a short technical qualification process. Given the very tight control that Verizon Wireless has hitherto exercised over its network, that effort has been met with some skepticism. But if it lives up to its promises, it could be a strong competitor.

In any case, the wireless industry is likely to look quite different a year from now.

San Francisco - CodeGear, the development tools unit of Borland Software, has been acquired by Embarcadero Technologies.

Embarcadero said the deal combines the market leaders in development tools and database tools. The $30 million transaction is expected to close in 30 to 60 days.

“CodeGear is a recognized leader with a loyal developer community and established global channels,??? said Wayne Williams, CEO of Embarcadero Technologies, in a statement released by the company. “By incorporating its strong product portfolio, Embarcadero will be positioned to expand into new markets and develop cutting-edge products that are a quantum leap for the industry. The combination of our companies will unlock enormous potential for our customers and partners.”

The acquisition is expected to make Embarcadero the world's largest independent software provider, Embarcadero said.

“Today's announcement is great news for our CodeGear customers, employees, partners, and the community at large,” said Jim Douglas, CEO of CodeGear, also in a prepared statement. “This will give us the resources to be even more aggressive and focused on our core products and markets.”

CodeGear offers Java and Windows developer tools, such as the JBuilder Java tool and Delphi for Windows. The company also has gotten into the Ruby on Rails development tools space.

CodeGear was spun out of Borland in 2006, after Borland deciding to focus on the application lifecycle management space but could not find a buyer for its tools group, which was then made into a wholly owned Borland subsidiary. The IDE market that had been Borland's forte had begun to suffer from commoditization.

The new entity will operate as Embarcadero Technologies, although it has not been established yet whether the CodeGear name goes away.

In addition to the $23 million purchase price, Borland will retain CodeGear accounts receivables estimated to have an approximate value of an additional $7 million.

San Francisco - Capabilities to integrate workflows between software developers and artists are being developed for NetBeans, Sun's open source IDE, Sun Vice President James Gosling said this week.

Speaking at the CommunityOne conference in San Francisco on Monday, Gosling cited work going on to integrate workflows “between engineers and artists.” Interviewed later in the week, Gosling said functionality is being developed on multiple fronts, including a capability to import items from applications such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Artists could build something that would be moved seamlessly back and forth into application development projects.

Gosling cited a trend in which software shops have both developers and artists. “One of the things that's interesting about the way a lot of these shops have gone is they've got two camps of people. They have the people who went to art school and the people who went to computer science classes,” he said. There is not much overlap between these two groups' skill sets, although artists know scripting well, Gosling added.

“We're still working on a bunch of stuff with NetBeans to try to sort of integrate the workflow of these folks,” Gosling said. Without this integration, artists and developers work separately and then may find out they are not on the same page with a project, he explained.

It is not certain yet when these workflow functions would be fitted into NetBeans. Gosling said he did not know if the fruits of this effort would be ready for a planned NetBeans 7 upgrade. Sun this week shipped version 6.1 of NetBeans.

Rival Microsoft has a strategy in which it enables developers and designers to work together through the Visual Studio development platform and the Expression toolset for designers.

Also at CommunityOne, a Red Hat official detailed plans to integrate OpenJKD into the Fedora Linux distribution via the Iced Tea project. OpenJDK, which constitutes the open source release of Java, would be installed by default on Fedora 9, said Thomas Fitzsimmons, a software developer at Red Hat.

Fedora 9 is slated for release on May 13.

Although SAP has slowed down the rollout of its on-demand ERP (enterprise resource planning) offering Business ByDesign, that decision has given the company more time to implement its in-memory database technology into the software, said SAP's co-founder Hasso Plattner during a keynote address Wednesday at SAP's SAPPHIRE conference in Orlando.

“I believe so vehemently in the future of in-memory databases– like Steve Jobs believes in the iPod,” he said. In-memory databases boost performance because storing data in memory allows it to be accessed much faster than from a disk.

Business ByDesign is using a hybrid model to handle data, with both a relational database component and the in-memory database, which is now about 90 percent implemented into the hosted offering, Plattner said. The technology is capable of retrieving 1 billion pieces of data in less than a second, he claimed.

In addition, SAP's in-memory database has significant compression capabilities, he added. “For a 20 gigabyte relational database, we probably need only a 1 gigabyte [in-memory] database.”

However, the practice of multi-tenant software-as-a-service– which sees a single instance of software serving a number of customers, purportedly driving down costs– does not mesh well with in-memory databases, according to Plattner. If you put multiple companies in one in-memory database, the performance goes down, he said.

“[Other companies] say, 'We do multi-tenant. They say it's cheap. Yeah, it's cheap– like cheap housing in the Bronx,” he said. “What we can do with that in-memory database is unbelievable. This is better than to go with the cheapest possible disk device and spread the data over it.”

As for Business ByDesign, the company had initially planned to reach US$1 billion in revenue and 10,000 customers for Business ByDesign by 2010, but said last week it will take 12 to 18 months longer to attain those goals. Plattner's comments represent a new angle in SAP's messaging around the slowdown, as other executives have said the decision was made to ensure the company can turn enough of a profit on the offering.

BOSTON - Trying to boost the output of its research labs, Hewlett-Packard Co. wants to get more help from scientists in universities.

HP and other technology companies already collaborate with academics all the time. But HP’s new research director, Prith Banerjee, believes his company’s school partnerships would produce better results if they were more organized.

So under a program beginning Wednesday, Banerjee is creating a more formal structure, with HP acting somewhat like a government agency making a grant. HP will solicit applications from university researchers, then fund dozens of projects for up to three years. Each grant would cover the cost of a graduate student researcher.

Patents from the work done at universities could stay in the schools, but HP would have first crack at licensing the technologies. Or the resulting intellectual property could be made freely available to anyone, as IBM agreed to do in 2006 when it established its own agreement for all university collaborations.

IBM research spokesman Steven Tomasco also pointed out that his company has formally doled out grants to academics for a long time. “HP is just catching on to this idea?” Tomasco said.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP is the world’s largest technology provider by revenue and spends $3.6 billion annually on research and development. But most of that is incremental product development. For research into further-off ideas in computing, HP’s labs have 600 people, funded with about $150 million a year.

In comparison, IBM employs 3,300 researchers and spent $6.2 billion on R&D last year, though it won’t reveal how much went to each category.

Banerjee took over HP Labs last year and pursued an overhaul, cutting some projects to focus on fewer but bigger bets in such fields as molecular-scale circuits, content management and network-based “cloud” computing. Achieving those goals quickly, he said, will require broader input from academia.

“I am really trying to get the best minds in the world,” he said.

Sprint and Clearwire have agreed to form a joint venture that will bring wired broadband speeds to mobile users starting as early as late 2008. The new venture combines all the spectrum licenses owned by the two companies into a new firm called Clearwire; Sprint will retain its cellular business and third-generation (3G) data network. The new venture is valued at $12 billion, which includes an infusion of over $3 billion in cash from Google, Intel, and several cable operators.Both companies had separately charted paths to roll out mobile WiMax, a flavor of mobile broadband that's only been deployed in scattered places around the world, and is about two years behind earlier predictions for widespread deployment. The technology isn't monolithic like Wi-Fi, where all Wi-Fi devices are supposed to work together (more or less). Rather, there are many flavors of WiMax, including ones that can carry 10 to 20 Mbps downstream.Sprint and Clearwire's WiMax rollout will likely offer speeds well above 5 Mbps; some reports put the peak rates at 8 to 15 Mbps, which is perhaps optimistic for an individual user, but might be reasonable for a pool available to all users in a given “cell” of coverage. Pricing isn't set, but Sprint expected to have production networks in place this summer, which was delayed to fall, ironically because they lack enough network backhaul to carry the high-bandwidth service from their cellular base station towers!The joint venture and Sprint have both signed deals with all the various partners, which will allow Sprint to resell WiMax access, and the new Clearwire to resell 3G service on Sprint's existing network. Cable operators will be able to resell Sprint voice, 3G, and WiMax, which allows them to have a quintuple play (voice, data, and video over cable, plus mobile voice, and mobile data). Intel and Google have an option to resell service if they choose.We'll start seeing WiMax adapters everywhere by 2009. Intel has been a backer of WiMax since they decided that existing cellular 3G plans wouldn't accomodate their needs as early as 2004. They will build Centrino designs that have WiMax and Wi-Fi built in. Companies like Motorola, Samsung, Zyxel, and others are committed to building residential and business fixed receivers, and laptop and desktop adapters, like PC Cards and ExpressCards. The new operation estimates that 120 to 140 million people will be able to get their service by 2010, at which time AT&T and Verizon should start rolling out their 4G flavor, LTE (Long Term Evolution), which should offer comparable speeds. This increased competition among mobile broadband coupled with true broadband speeds that compare to today's wired services should force real price competition and improved customer service.Â

Some laptop adapters will support both Sprint's current 3G service and Clearwire's 4G WiMax, allowing the fastest speeds as the WiMax network is built. Without dual cards and the cross-selling deals between Sprint and Clearwire, WiMax would likely never have had a chance in the U.S.

Microsoft placed a bigger bet on Zune this week, as it announced enhancements it hopes will solidify Zune as “the company's all-in-one digital entertainment brand.” The Zune brand includes digital audio players, software, and an online music store.

One approach the company is using to battle Apple's market-dominating iPhone is to add more social value. Christ Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Zune, said that “consumers want more than the traditional transactional model of an online music store plus portable device.” Instead, he said, they want a “new experience centered on music discovery,” which helps expose them to music they may not have tried and offers a variety of ways to buy.

Friends' Recommendations

According to a recent study commissioned by Microsoft, more than half of consumers said they didn't have enough time or didn't know where to look to find new music and, as a consequence, ended up wasting money on music they didn't really like. But 89 percent said they would trust a recommendation by a friend or a family member.

As part of the solution to this dilemma, Microsoft is adding more functionality to its Zune online music community. In the past, for instance, members have received a free, customizable Zune Card, which contains a brief listing of their favorite songs that they can share with friends.

In previous incarnations, the card has lived on the Web, but with newly released software updates the cards are now portable and can be more easily shared. With a Zune Pass subscription, for instance, users can now listen to their friends' favorites, with no commitment other than the monthly subscription fee of $14.99 monthly.

TV Show Downloads

New updates to the Zune online music community also include syncing Zune Cards to a Zune device, which allows them to get updates on what their friends are listening to. If Zune Pass has the song, the track is automatically available to a subscriber's device for listening. If the user is a nonsubscriber, only the album information and artwork is available. The track can then be purchased with one click.

Other updates allow users to add their name, location and biography to their profile in the Zune music community, rate and review artists and albums, add “badges” that show if they are really passionate about a song, and see what Windows Live Messenger contacts — who are also Zune users — are listening to. New features include automatic updating of playlists, browsing videos by genre and series, and editing album and track information.

On a related front, Microsoft is also updating the Zune online video store with downloads of popular TV shows from Comedy Center, MTV, NBCUniversal, Nickelodeon, Starz Media, and VH1. There are more than 800 episodes of TV shows available to download and watch on the portable device, including South Park, SpongeBob SquarePants, Battlestar Galactica, and Robot Chicken.

San Francisco - Parallels Desktop for Mac will be made available as part of the Microsoft Expression Professional Subscription.

The move means Mac users will be able to use Microsoft's Expression Studio to design desktop and web-based graphical interfaces. The partnership strengthens the Parallels/Microsoft partnership by providing even deeper support for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft applications running in Parallels virtual machines.

Parallels Desktop for Mac enables users to run Windows on any Intel Mac. In excess of 1,000,000 copies of the software have been sold so far.

“Including Parallels Desktop for Mac in the Microsoft Expression Subscription gives designers a valuable tool for working across platforms,” said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. “It is further evidence of the productivity benefits that our virtualization software offers customers, and strengthens our ongoing partnership with Microsoft.”

Wayne Smith, group product manager of Expression Studio at Microsoft said: “This combination opens up Microsoft software products to Mac-based designers, which will widen the options for those wanting to design for the Microsoft platform including Silverlight.”

The Microsoft Expression Professional Subscription will be available from Microsoft in June 2008 and will cost $999.

In addition to the Parallels Desktop for Mac software, the Expression Professional Subscription includes: Expression Studio; Visual Studio 2008 Standard; Office 2007 Standard; Windows XP SP2; Windows Vista Business Edition; Pre-configured virtualized server environments.

Macworld UK

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department said Wednesday it will spend $5 million to create 43 new jobs for prosecutors targeting online sexual predators of children.

The assistant U.S. attorney positions are being funded through the government’s Project Safe Neighborhood program, which aims to protect youngsters from online abuse and exploitation. The jobs will be distributed among 93 federal prosecutors’ offices nationwide, focusing on where the need is greatest.

Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip announced the positions in brief visits to Charlotte, N.C., and Lexington, Ky., among those cities which will receive a new prosecutor.

“Anyone who uses the Internet to prey on children will become the primary target of law enforcement,” Filip said in a statement.

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire on Wednesday announced a $14.5 billion initiative to combine their wireless broadband businesses and form a new wireless communications company.

Named Clearwire, the new company will focus on expediting deployment of the first nationwide WiMAX network to provide widespread mobile broadband.

WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is designed to provide wireless connections over long distances and is faster than today's 3G networks. With embedded WiMAX chipsets in laptops, phones, PDAs, mobile Internet devices and consumer electronics equipment, WiMAX is expected to allow users to wirelessly access a range of multimedia applications such as live videoconferencing, recorded video, games, large data files, and more — anywhere in the network coverage area.

Sprint and Clearwire also announced that Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks have agreed to invest $3.2 billion into the new Clearwire.

Sprint will have the largest stake in the new company at 51 percent. Current Clearwire shareholders will own approximately 27 percent, and the investors will have approximately 22 percent as a group.

The Power of the Mobile Internet

The new Clearwire expects to offer mobile wireless Internet services on new devices that integrate WiMAX chipsets and an open architecture.

“We've made an excellent start developing XOHM WiMAX services. Contributing those advances to a strongly backed new company — in which we'll hold the largest interest — provides Sprint with additional financial flexibility and allows Sprint management to leverage and focus on our core business,” said Dan Hesse, president and CEO of Sprint.

Hesse said the agreements allow the new company and its investors to bundle and resell Sprint's third-generation wireless services, strengthening distribution while reducing complexity and enhancing cable relationships.

Enviable Support

The new Clearwire has enviable support from its partners. Google will work with the new company on an open Internet business protocol for mobile broadband devices. Clearwire will support Google's Android mobile platform in future voice and data devices offered to customers.

“Google is a firm believer in supporting new ways for people to access the Internet,” Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt said. “We believe that its planned WiMAX network will increase the ability for users to get high-speed broadband anytime, anywhere.”

Intel will work with manufacturers to embed WiMAX chips into Intel Centrino 2 processor laptops and other Intel-based mobile Internet devices, and will market the new company's services in association with Intel's performance notebook PCs.

“This agreement is a historic step forward for WiMAX, as it represents the first nationwide deployment of a next-generation mobile broadband Internet in the U.S.,” said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. “The agreement also signifies growing industry support for WiMAX. Given its flexibility, coverage and speed, WiMAX will enable the mobile Internet and is already opening doors to a host of new and exciting applications, devices and business models around the world.”

Overcoming WiMAX Challenges

There is clearly demand for mobile broadband, according to Michael Gartenberg, a wireless analyst at JupiterResearch, but there are also clear challenges. The bottom line, he said, is the new Clearwire has to find a business case that makes sense in the face of global deployment hurdles.

“There is the question of whether the WiMAX initiative can avoid some of the early difficulties Wi-Fi experienced. It was difficult to set up. There were operability issues. There was interference,” Gartenberg said. “If it really becomes a wide-open network that doesn't change anyone's individual use in order to benefit everyone, then it's interesting.”

There is also a question of whether consumers will be willing to pay for new WiMAX-enabled devices and whether handset makers are willing to install WiMAX chips when Wi-Fi is so ubiquitous.

“At the end of the day, Sprint is going to have to compete with the mobile broadband companies to some extent and with other carriers with cable offerings to some extent,” Gartenberg said. “There are a lot of challenges out there, but certainly this looks like a good set of partners to at least get the WiMAX possibilities going.”