Blackberry Storm 2 due in September, has WiFi

Richi Jennings watches rumors that Research In Motion and Verizon are already preparing a "BlackBerry Storm 2," which will include Wi-Fi. Not to mention Error'd...

Steven Grady has a tasty rumor for all you crackberry fanbois:

According to a source very close to the issue, Verizon has given the go for RIM to release the BlackBerry Storm 2 in September of this year. The followup to the groundbreaking Storm that was released last year as the first touchscreen Blackberry, SlashGear has been told that the new Storm 2 addresses one of the biggest criticisms of the first smartphone and of Verizon devices in general, in that it will support WiFi.
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The original Blackberry Storm debuted as Verizon’s challenger to the iPhone, remains one of their flagship devices. With the release of Blackberry App World, the Storm is in an even better position to make a dent in Apple’s market share. The launch of the Storm 2 with WiFi and an improved touchscreen could draw both consumers and business users alike in to Verizon.

Ice bridge ruptures in Antarctic

An ice bridge linking a shelf of ice the size of Jamaica to two islands in Antarctica has snapped.

Scientists say the collapse could mean the Wilkins Ice Shelf is on the brink of breaking away, and provides further evidence of rapid change in the region.

Sited on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula, the Wilkins shelf has been retreating since the 1990s.

Researchers regarded the ice bridge as an important barrier, holding the remnant shelf structure in place.

Its removal will allow ice to move more freely between Charcot and Latady islands, into the open ocean.

The ice bridge has splintered at its thinnest point

European Space Agency satellite pictures had indicated last week that cracks were starting to appear in the bridge. Newly created icebergs were seen to be floating in the sea on the western side of the peninsula, which juts up from the continent towards South America's southern tip.

Professor David Vaughan is a glaciologist with the British Antarctic Survey who planted a GPS tracker on the ice bridge in January to monitor its movement.

He said the breaking of the bridge had been expected for some weeks and much of the ice shelf behind was likely to follow.

"We know that [the Wilkins Ice Shelf] has been completely or very stable since the 1930s and then it started to retreat in the late 1990s. But we suspect that it's been stable for a very much longer period than that," he told BBC News.

"The fact that it's retreating and now has lost connection with one of its islands is really a strong indication that the warming on the Antarctic is having an effect on yet another ice shelf."

While the break-up will have no direct impact on sea level because the ice is floating, it heightens concerns over the impact of climate change on this part of Antarctica.

Over the past 50 years, the peninsula has been one of the fastest warming places on the planet.

Many of its ice shelves have retreated in that time and six of them have collapsed completely (Prince Gustav Channel, Larsen Inlet, Larsen A, Larsen B, Wordie, Muller and the Jones Ice Shelf).

Separate research shows that when ice shelves are removed, the glaciers and landed ice behind them start to move towards the ocean more rapidly. It is this ice which can raise sea levels, but by how much is a matter of ongoing scientific debate.

Such acceleration effects were not included by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) when it made its latest projections on likely future sea level rise. Its 2007 assessment said ice dynamics were poorly understood.

Dell launches purported MacBook Air killer

Dell Inc. on Tuesday is finally expected to launch the mysterious Adamo, a "luxury" laptop that could be the PC maker's response to ultrathin laptops, including Apple Inc.'s stylish MacBook Air.

Adamo has a light and ultraslim design that makes it easy to hold with a few fingers. It measures 0.65 in. at its thinnest point, and weighs around four pounds, with a 13.4-in. screen.

With prices starting at around $2,000, it isn't targeted at typical buyers, said John New, senior product marketing manager at Dell.

"It's for an affluent crowd, and somebody who's fashion-forward, style-conscious, who wants to project an image of success and style," he said. "They probably have a fine watch and nice, name-brand accessories, and we want this to be one of them."

The laptop uses new technologies that could make it a speedy machine -- it runs on an ultralow-power Intel processor, supports DDR3 memory and includes SSD storage. A battery built inside the laptop provides about four to five hours of runtime per charge.

Speculation around Adamo heated up late last year when observers suggested Dell was building a laptop as a response to Apple's MacBook Air. The rumor was confirmed when the laptop was shown to the press at the International CES in January. Dell did not reveal its specifications at the time, saying Adamo was being shown to squash impending rumors about its existence.

Adamo is heavier and may be bigger than the MacBook Air, but it provides Dell an entrance into the ultraportable market to compete with offerings such as Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Voodoo Envy. In particular, Dell could face an uphill battle against Apple, which has a leg up with impressive designs and a loyal customer base that allows it to charge a premium for products.

The Dell Adamo laptop adds a luxury line of products that may be the PC maker's response to ultra-thin laptops, including Apple's MacBook Air.

Taking a veiled jab at Apple, Dell's New said that Adamo sacrificed size to bring more practical functionality -- like the inclusion of an Ethernet port -- rather than skimp on finer details. Apple has been criticized for not including an Ethernet port in the MacBook Air.

"You could do this exercise to make something superthin," New said. "We want to make sure we deliver performance and value and it's not just a fluffy purchase."

Dell has a history of fairly boring designs, but the PC maker has been aggressive about changing that, said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at market research firm The NPD Group Inc.

"While not everything has been a success, I think their colors and patterns on notebooks have resonated well, and they have been steadily improving the design appeal of their products," Baker said.

FAQ: What iPhone 3.0 means to you??????

If it's March, it must be time for Apple Inc. to start beating the iPhone drum.

That's the quick analysis of yesterday's preview of the next generation of Apple's iPhone software, which will add a slew of features -- some that users have been yelping about since Day One -- to the popular smartphone and its iPod Touch cousin.

Last year, Apple introduced iPhone 2.0 at a March 17 event, then followed that several months later with the iPhone 3G and the money-making App Store. That's what everyone's expecting this time around, too: Get the software in developers' hands now, then delivery new hardware this summer.

iPhone 3.0 has too much to offer to cover in just one FAQ; this story will play out for months, just like last year's iPhone 2.0. But we wanted answers to a few questions right away. So here goes:

When do I get iPhone 3.0? On Tuesday, Apple got no more specific than "this summer" for the public release of the upgrade, although developers in the iPhone program were able to download a beta yesterday, as well as the supporting SDK (software developers kit).

Last year, when CEO Steve Jobs -- who didn't attend Tuesday's preview, since he's still on medical leave -- announced iPhone 2.0, he said it would launch in "late June." In reality, Apple launched the upgrade, as well as the new iPhone 3G hardware, on July 11.

We're betting on a similar timetable for iPhone 3.0. Most analysts, for example, peg the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which will probably take place in early June, as the platform for Apple's inevitable-at-this-point introduction of one or more new iPhone models, with availability some weeks after that.

How much will the upgrade cost me? iPhone owners, including those holding first-generation iPhones, will be able to upgrade to 3.0 free of charge, said Apple. People with an iPod Touch -- first or second generation -- will have to fork over $9.95 for the update, however. The latter price is in line with past Apple practice and stems from the company's approach to accounting, which distributes iPhone revenue over the 24-month life of a network contract but drops all iPod Touch sales directly into the bottom line.

Speaking of the iPod Touch, Apple for the first time gave out a number for the its installed base: 13 million. That's less than the 17 million iPhones Apple has sold, but still impressive -- and a nice arguing point for those, including Jobs, who have pitched the Touch as Apple's answer to Windows-based netbooks.

OK, now that I know when and how much, what's in iPhone 3.0? A lot, according to Apple and analysts. "This is clearly a significant development in the iPhone," said Mike McGuire, a Gartner Inc. analyst, in an interview Tuesday after Apple's preview.

Apple said iPhone 3.0 will include more than 100 end-user additions and enhancements, but it spelled out just a fraction of them yesterday during the 90-minute event. It also claimed that iPhone 3.0 boasts more than 1,000 new APIs for developers, who can use them to create new types of third-party applications, add functionality to existing apps or communicate with iPhone and iPod Touch hardware accessories.

What's the biggest new feature? Your mileage may vary, of course, but the early consensus seems to be that the addition -- finally -- of copy and paste is the biggest deal for users.

"Frankly, I wasn't sure we would ever see cut and paste," said McGuire, who, like his colleague Van Baker, tagged it as the top addition.

With iPhone 3.0, you'll be able to cut or copy text from one application on the device, then paste it elsewhere in that app, or into another. To select a block of text, you double-tap, then slide a finger across the desired text; a bubble offering Cut, Copy and Paste options appears above the selected text. To paste, double-tap at the insertion point and pick Paste.

You can also copy and paste photos, as well as select multiple photos -- also a first on the iPhone -- to paste into an e-mail message.

Very nice. What else? Also tops on most lists is the new Apple app-wide search -- dubbed "Spotlight" to match the integrated search within Mac OS X -- that will let you search through Mail, Calendar, Notes and iPod on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Previously, the only available search was in Contacts.

If you're rooting through your in-box and a search doesn't find what you're looking for locally, the app will ping the IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) server and look for it there.

However, the tool cannot search through e-mail message content, as can Spotlight on a Mac (or Windows' built-in search tool on that platform).

Will iPhone 3.0 let me run more than one application at a time? I want to keep my IM open and still do other stuff, for cryin' out loud. Sorry, you're out of luck.

But Apple has finally added push notification to the iPhone. "You know, we're late on this one," said Scott Forstall, Apple's senior vice president of iPhone software, tacitly admitting that Apple punted on the feature last fall.

Push, which mimics background processing, has the iPhone pinging Apple's servers to see if there are, for example, new messages waiting for your instant message client. Push consumes some of your precious battery power, but much less dramatically than true multiple application processing, claimed Forstall.

m greedy. Give me more of the good stuff. You got it:

• Apple has added landscape mode to key iPhone apps, including Mail, Notes and SMS.
• You can now sync Notes via iTunes to a Mac or Windows PC, though Apple didn't provide any details on how that will work, and what it will exactly sync with on the desktop end.
• MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), the standard that lets most other cell and smartphone owners send and receive photos, contacts and other information phone-to-phone, is coming to the iPhone 3G, but not the older first-gen model, in 3.0. No word, naturally, on what extra charges carriers will ding you to do that, however.
• True turn-by-turn navigation will be possible with iPhone 3.0, Apple said yesterday. Using CoreLocation technology -- the technology that debuted in January 2008 as part of a firmware update -- third-party developers will be able to craft software that provides turn-by-turn directions. Those developers will have to license their own maps, however, since those in Google Maps are out of bounds.
• New Bluetooth-based peer-to-peer connectivity will let applications "discover" other nearby iPhones and iPod Touches running the same app, then create an ad-hoc network and connect everyone. Game makers will jump on this, said Garter analyst Van Baker.

Any game changers in iPhone 3.0? The one addition consistently cited by analysts is the new "In App Purchase" feature, which iPhone 3.0 supports via a variety of APIs and back-end restructuring of the App Store.

As Apple explained it, the new feature lets developers charge users for after-market purchases, such as subscriptions to content, additional content or enhanced functionality. Developers, said Forstall, have been crying for the ability to ditch the single-purchase model of Apple's App Store. Obviously, it also gives them a way to get more money out of you and me.

"This will be hugely important to game makers," said Baker. "And if Amazon doesn't build a Kindle store into their iPhone Reader, I'll be very surprised."

Expect content providers, including newspapers and magazines -- both struggling with not only the recession but also the decline of print -- to take to the iPhone now that subscriptions are possible, said Gartner's McGuire. "That's today's big takeaway," he said Tuesday.

In App Purchase will also add significant revenues to Apple, which takes a 30% cut of all App Store revenue, said Baker. "This is going to drive the amount of revenue in the App Store, because the apps will get more expensive as they get more robust," he said.

Hold on a moment... apps will cost more after iPhone 3.0 comes out? That's Baker's view. "Most apps are in that 99 cents to $1.99 range, but with In App, I can see apps going for $10, $15, even $20," he said.

I have one of the first-generation iPhones. Do I get everything in iPhone 3.0 Nope.

According to Apple, the older hardware doesn't support MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) and stereo Bluetooth A2DP. There may be other features in the upgrade that won't work on the original iPhone, but Apple has only mentioned those two omissions.

What didn't make it into iPhone 3.0? Every iPhone owner has a wish list of the things the gizmo can't do, and although Apple crossed off some items on those lists, it left others untouched.

Background processing -- a feature that would allow multiple applications to run simultaneously, as they commonly do on a computer -- didn't make the cut. Long requested, background processing makes unreasonably greedy demands on the battery, said Apple yesterday. According to its tests, running multiple apps at the same time -- to, for instance, keep an instant messaging client always active -- would decrease the phone's standby time by 80%, a huge hit.

Instead, Apple decided to finally implement the push notification system that it had in a developer build of the iPhone software last fall, but then pulled before releasing it to the public. Push, said Apple, only decreases standby time by about 20%. "I think they have a reasonable argument here," said Gartner's McGuire.

Another feature that many want is "tethering," which turns the iPhone into a portable hot spot, letting you reach the Web from a laptop via the iPhone's data connection.

Tethering rumors have surfaced regularly. Last November, for example, AT&T Mobility's CEO, Ralph De La Vega, said his company would have a tethering solution "soon" for iPhone users.

During a Q&A with the press yesterday, Forstall noted that tethering is built into iPhone 3.0, but he said users will have to wait for the mobile carriers to implement the feature on their end.

Also a no-show: Video capture, which several analysts had predicted would debut this time. Looks like stills are still all you get.

Ballmer: IBM-Sun deal could help Microsoft

A union between IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc. would give Microsoft Corp. a competitive advantage while IBM worked to incorporate Sun's copious assets into a combined company, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer said today.

"We have a lot of competition with IBM, and I don't think it will change strategically," he said during an appearance in New York. "I think it gives them a year or two where all they're doing is digesting it. I relish that year."

Ballmer commented on a possible IBM-Sun deal, reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, at the 2009 Media Summit during a keynote in which he responded to questions from BusinessWeek Editor in Chief Steve Adler.

Microsoft's CEO called a purchase by IBM a good "exit strategy" for Sun shareholders, but he questioned why IBM might want to purchase Sun. The company has a complex product portfolio that includes a range of hardware and software products, many of which overlap with IBM's existing portfolio.

"I think you pick up a lot of stuff when you buy Sun," Ballmer said. "I think you have to decide if you want everything."

Microsoft has long been a competitor of both companies, but less so with Sun as the company has floundered over the past several years. Microsoft and IBM compete on a range of business software products, including middleware, application development infrastructure, database technology, and collaboration and workgroup software.

Microsoft's most famous association with Sun is a bitter seven-year antitrust lawsuit over the Java software programming language. The two companies resolved the suit in April 2004, with Microsoft paying Sun $2 billion to license Java.

As for the possibility of more acquisitions in Microsoft's future, Ballmer said the company will likely make "10, 15 or 20" small acquisitions -- which he characterized as sub-$500 million and which he said don't necessarily even need his approval -- in the foreseeable future. But Microsoft will probably continue its traditional strategy to keep acquisitions under $1 billion for the same reason he thinks IBM will struggle with absorbing Sun -- big acquisitions are extremely complex, he said.

An exception to that rule: Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid to purchase Yahoo last year, which so far has been unsuccessful, was also on the discussion table.

Ballmer reiterated his stance that Microsoft is open to some kind of search deal but not a full acquisition. Though they have spoken on the phone, Ballmer said he has not met face-to-face with Yahoo's Carol Bartz to discuss such a deal since she took over as CEO in January.

"I'm sure when it's appropriate we'll have a chance to sit down and talk," Ballmer said. "I've known Carol for years. She's very straightforward, no question about it; she's very friendly, and when she makes up her mind, when she's ready, we'll have a real discussion [about a deal] because she is that kind of person."

Ballmer also stopped short on acknowledging that a new search engine Microsoft is testing internally, called Kumo, will indeed be the next iteration of Live Search, though he hinted that it's likely the case.

Microsoft confirmed earlier this month that it was testing Kumo, long rumored to be the new brand for its Live Search engine and a major update based on technology Microsoft purchased from San Francisco start-up Powerset last June. Powerset developed semantic search-engine technology that attempts to understand the full meanings of phrases people type in while searching, returning results based on that understanding.

"I think we could use a set change, as they say in organizational behavior classes," Ballmer said of Microsoft's Live Search product and search strategy in general. "When we're ready to announce one, we will; whether it's called Kumo -- that's an interesting name."

Microsoft's share of Internet searches has lagged far behind Google Inc.'s, despite its making significant investments in its online services business to better position itself to generate online advertising revenue.

According to research by comScore, in February Microsoft's share of searches in the U.S. hit a 12-month low, at 8.2%; Google had 63.3% of U.S. search queries, and Yahoo had 21% during that month.

Ballmer acknowledged that Google has an even larger market share outside of the U.S. "We still have a lot of work to do," he said. "It's a challenge, but also an opportunity.

Review: Internet Explorer 8 is new and improved -- is it back on top?

nternet Explorer 8 has shipped in its final version and is ready to take on its rivals. This latest version of Microsoft's browser leapfrogs its closest competition, Firefox 3, for basic browsing and productivity features -- it has better tab handling, a niftier search bar, a more useful address bar, and new tools that deliver information directly from other Web pages and services. IE8 has also been tweaked for security and includes a so-called "porn mode," new anti-malware protection, and better ways to protect your privacy.

This final version differs little from last January's RC1 release, aside from some speed improvements and bug fixes. What follows is a comprehensive review of all the ways that IE8 differs from IE7. If you've abandoned Microsoft's browser for a rival, you may -- or may not -- want to return.

Improved tabs and address bar

For basic browsing, the biggest improvement in IE is its tab handling, which is exemplary. It's the kind of feature you may not notice much at first, but it's one that goes a long way toward making your browsing life far easier.

If you commonly use multiple tabs, you'll particularly welcome the way IE handles them. When you open a new tab from an existing page, the new one opens directly to the right of the originating one, and both tabs are given the same color. That way, all related tabs are automatically grouped and color-coded. If you open a new tab from a page that is already part of a group, it will open at the far right of the group, rather than just to the right of the originating tab. It will also be color-coded.

This subtle change in tab behavior may have a major effect on your productivity. For example, if you write a blog and need to preview it before posting, the preview page typically opens in a new tab. Previously, and with other browsers, the tab opened all the way on the right -- often several tabs away from the originating tab -- and switching between the two was often confusing. With color-coding and grouping, it's far easier to switch between related tabs.

It's easy to move a tab between groups -- just drag it, and it becomes part of the new group, taking on its color. Right-click on any tab to control its entire group -- that includes closing the group, closing all tabs except for those in the group, and ungrouping the chosen tab from the group. You can also perform actions on any individual tab from the right-click menu. It would have been nice to be able to reopen an entire tab group, but that feature isn't here.

Also welcome is the new (for IE) ability to reopen tabs. To reopen the last tab you've closed, you press Ctrl-Shift-T. To see a list of recently opened tabs and choose which to open, you right-click any tab, select Recently Closed Tabs, and pick the one you want to open

In IE8, you can perform actions on an entire group or individual tabs, such as closing a group or reopening closed tabs.

New tabs open showing multiple links (allowing you to open pages you've recently closed), an InPrivate Browsing session (more commonly called "porn mode") and an "Accelerator" that lets you grab content from a Web page (more on this later). You can also perform certain tasks, such as sending e-mail with a Web-based service, or do a search.

Opening a new tab brings you a page that lets you reopen closed tabs, browse in InPrivate mode, or use the "Accelerator."

Each tab is isolated from the others, so if one tab crashes, the entire browser doesn't go down. You can then restore the crashed tab, and when you do, it reloads with the information that had been in it when it crashed, such as a partially written e-mail. And if you were watching a video, the video will start playing at the point the tab crashed, not at the beginning of the video.