New Zealand Geek

BOISE - Travis Dryden spent his childhood listening to his parent's records. And then he left them behind with the other detritus of his pre-college years to be sold for pennies at a yard sale.

Lured by the portability of cassette tapes, the iridescent gleam of compact discs, then the miniaturised wonder of MP3 players - who needed the fragile, antiquated technology of an LP?

As it turns out, Dryden did.

Now, like thousands of other reborn vinyl addicts, he scours record stores around the country, trying to get those lost records back.

"I abandoned a lot of my collection, unfortunately," Dryden said. "I started at record stores, thrift stores, garage sales and estate sales. When I travel for business I seek out record stores and thrift stores at the cities I visit."

Right now, Dryden said, his collection is small with only about 500 albums. But it might as well be 50,000 - as co-founder of the Vinyl Preservation Society of Idaho, a rapidly growing group in Boise, Dryden gets the opportunity to listen to selections from thousands of records at the organisation's monthly meetings.

The group started last year with a handful of people. They brought CDs, MP3s and records, meeting in each their homes to talk and listen to music. Again and again, Dryden said, the group found themselves choosing the warm hum of the turntable over the cold precision of digital formats.

"We found our love of vinyl overtook the others," he said. "We knew there had to be others like us."

They were right. Word spread about the group that gathered to listen to vinyl, and Dryden and his brother Chad spent three months coming up with the structure that would form the skeleton of the Vinyl Preservation Society. Eight months later, the group has more than 100 members. And Dryden hopes to see chapters spring up around the nation, and eventually the world.

At a recent meeting Dryden said a typical member "is just someone who can embrace a Pink Floyd song followed by Bobby Darin. It's mercurial, it's a big social experiment, and it's probably the only place you can stand up and play a piece of music you had nothing at all to do with creating and people will honestly clap for you."

The Boise group isn't alone in its love of vinyl. Coffee houses and lounges in cities like Portland, Oregon, are featuring vinyl record listening sessions. Stores like Urban Outfitters are selling portable record players. Last fall Amazon.com started a

vinyl-only section.




July 19, 2008

PS3 (G)

Pros: A highly realistic tennis sim, play as a pro or create your own. Massive shot control, fast and addictive.

Cons: A hard learning curve for newbies, but there's a school to help.

Verdict: Too realistic for arcade-style Wii Tennis players, but thumbs up for serious fans.




July 18, 2008

The United States Congress waded into the escalating fight over the future of Yahoo yesterday, demanding to know whether the internet company's advertising partnership with Google, intended to keep Yahoo out of the clutches of Microsoft, raises antitrust concerns.

Testifying before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees yesterday, executives from the three companies painted very different pictures of an agreement that will allow Google to sell some of the ads displayed alongside search results on Yahoo's website. While Microsoft said the deal would limit competition and raise prices in the online advertising market, Yahoo and Google insisted it would benefit consumers and advertisers.

The stakes are high for Yahoo. It has embraced the partnership with its rival Google as an alternative to a US$47.5 billion ($61.56 billion) acquisition offer from Microsoft. But that decision to reject Microsoft has spawned a showdown with shareholders and activist Carl Icahn, who is trying to overthrow Yahoo's board and CEO Jerry Yang. If Washington somehow scuttles the partnership with Google, Yahoo could find itself under even more pressure to head into some kind of deal with Microsoft after all.

Yahoo and Google say Congress has little power to actually stop the arrangement, but lawmakers can use the bully pulpit to raise concerns about the deal.

Indeed, some of them turned up the heat by asking whether the Google partnership would further weaken Yahoo and cement Google's dominance in online advertising.

House Judiciary chairman John Conyers asked whether the partnership would be more anti-competitive than a Microsoft purchase of Yahoo. And Herb Kohl, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, said Congress needed to explore "whether this agreement will reduce Yahoo to nothing more than the newest satellite in the Google orbit".

Microsoft's general counsel, Brad Smith, noted that Google already controls at least 70 per cent of the market for advertising tied to search results. The Yahoo partnership, he said, would let Google control up to another 20 per cent of this market - reducing choices, pushing up prices for online advertisers and potentially compromising consumer privacy.

"Never before in the history of advertising has one company been in a position to control prices on up to 90 per cent of advertising in a single medium," Smith said.

"Not in television, not in radio, not in publishing. It should not happen on the internet."

- AP




July 18, 2008

Intel, the world's biggest chipmaker, reported a 25 per cent increase in second-quarter profit and gave a sales forecast that topped analysts' estimates after demand grew worldwide for personal computer processors.

Net income climbed to US$1.6 billion ($2.07 billion), or 28c a share, from US$1.28 billion, or 22c, a year earlier, Intel said. Sales rose 9.1 per cent to US$9.47 billion.

Chief financial officer Stacy Smith said he was seeing strong demand globally and had not felt any impact from a slowing US economy. The outlook signals that technology may be holding up better than housing and financial markets. Intel also expects shipments of more-profitable laptop processors to overtake those of desktop-computer chips for the first time this year.

"The fact that they are maintaining guidance and said they see no slow-up in demand is very positive," said Michael Shinnick, a portfolio manager at First Source Bank in South Bend, Indiana. "We are getting data that the tech sector is doing better than other sectors in this economy."

Third-quarter sales will be US$10 billion to US$10.6 billion, Intel said. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had estimated sales of US$10.01 billion.

Chief executive Paul Otellini sped up the introduction of new products last year, helping the company win market share from Advanced Micro Devices, Intel's only remaining competitor in computer processors. Otellini, 57, is now focusing on returning to double-digit sales growth by expanding outside the PC chip market.

The year-earlier results included a tax benefit of 3c a share. Intel in April projected sales of between US$9 billion and US$9.6 billion.

Intel, whose results serve as a bellwether for computer demand, ushered in the earnings season for US technology companies. Microsoft, IBM, Google and AMD will report results this week.

Intel's gross margin, the percentage of sales remaining after deducting production costs, was 55.4 per cent last quarter, up from 53.8 per cent in the previous three months. The company had forecast a margin of 56 per cent.

The margin will be about 58 per cent in the third quarter, Intel said. Gross margin is the only profit measure Intel projects.

- BLOOMBERG




July 18, 2008

SYDNEY - To help kick off the Pope's public tour of Sydney today the pontiff has sent a message of inspiration to World Youth (WYD) pilgrims.

Pope Benedict XVI has gone high-tech, using the advances of mobile phones to SMS thousands of young pilgrims with a daily message.

Today's message, due to go out around 10am (AEST), will be the following: "The Holy Spirit is the principal agent of salvation history: let him write your life history 2! - BXVI."

As part of the Catholic festival, Telstra has provided the service and has erected eight temporary base stations to allow young pilgrims to send text messages to family and friends.

Four giant digital "prayer wall" screens have also been erected at the Sydney Opera House, the Domain, Darling Harbour and Randwick Racecourse.

Pilgrims who sign up will also be able to send a message to the giant prayer walls.

Telstra mobile customers can subscribe to the free service by texting the word "Pope" to 0400 405 111 to receive the daily messages.

- AAP




July 18, 2008

LOS ANGELES - One word sums up the announcements made by the Big Three gaming companies at the E3 this week: more.

During their flashy press conferences, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony all announced plans for more games, more sequels, more exclusives, more connectivity and more ways for gamers to use their systems for stuff other than gaming.

Such an escalation in enhancements is undoubtedly good news for existing owners of the Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 consoles, as well as their handheld counterparts.

However, the upgrades may leave the systems feeling less distinct than ever before. Similar features and comparable accessories could confuse financially strapped consumers looking to power up this holiday season.

Microsoft kicked off E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Centre with a ceremony pitching the Xbox 360 as family friendly.

Perhaps the biggest announcement was a redesign of the console's interface, which will allow users to create avatars that can interact with each other and play select games online. The Wii has had that feature - called Miis - since its 2006 debut.

Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata unveiled an add-on for its Wii Remote and new games at E3. Photo / AP



The parallels only begin there. Microsoft flaunted Lips, a new sing-along game similar to Sony's popular SingStar franchise.

Unlike SingStar, this karaoke game developed by iNiS enables wannabe singers to croon their pre-existing tunes from MP3 players with a microphone that's motion sensitive, a feature that's been a hallmark of the Wii.

The next day at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Nintendo unveiled WiiSpeak, a "community microphone" that attaches to the top of the console's sensor bar and will allow users to vocally chat.

The WiiSpeak accessory will cost US$29.99 and be available to American consumers later this year. Both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 already feature voice chat capabilities and their own headset microphones.

Nintendo teased the news that new entries in the decades-old Mario Bros and Zelda franchises were currently in development. And for the first time, Nintendo will bring the Animal Crossing series to the Wii with Animal Crossing: City Folk later this year. The cutesy open-world game will boast a bigger playing field and an online auction house selling virtual items.

"You're able to just do all the things you love to do in Animal Crossing but even more," said Cammie Dunaway, vice president at Nintendo.

Later, Sony debuted its long-awaited video download service for the PlayStation 3. Standard and high definition videos from such studios as MGM, Fox, Lionsgate and Disney can be downloaded and watched on the console and transferred to Sony's PlayStation Portable handheld system. Rentals cost $2.99 to $5.99 while purchases range from $9.99 to $14.99.




July 18, 2008

SEATTLE - A sanctioned version of Scrabble for Facebook, released this week by video game maker Electronic Arts, boasts animated graphics and true-to-the-board-game design.

But underneath its flashy exterior, the new Scrabble's features are very similar to those of its wildly popular but unauthorised competitor, Scrabulous, created by Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, from Calcutta, India.

And that makes me wonder whether lots of people will switch unless, as threatened, Scrabble rights holders Hasbro and Mattel shut Scrabulous down for copyright infringement.

When I fired up the official Scrabble game, my first thought was: There goes my favourite office time-waster.

Where Scrabulous uses text links and muted colours - giving me the illusion, at least, that my co-workers won't notice when I'm playing - Scrabble employs rich reds and blues and sends digital replicas of the game's iconic wooden tiles dancing across the screen.

The two versions - both of which are free - offer most of the same bells and whistles. They each have a built-in instant-messaging application, a dictionary for looking things up and a list of Scrabble's precious elements: valid two-letter words. Scrabble's design is more polished, though, which helped one of my opponents discover features he didn't know existed in Scrabulous, such as an archive of completed games.

Beyond the bolder, more professional look, Scrabble's designers added numerous cosmetic touches that set it apart from the minimalist, two-dimensional appearance of Scrabulous.

The Scrabble tile rack is much larger, and it's easier to rearrange letters by dragging them with the mouse. Buttons to shuffle or alphabetise the tiles are big and easy to identify, as opposed to the tiny, unlabeled dots that serve as buttons on Scrabulous.

When I play Scrabulous, I have a hard time remembering what the blue and red squares mean - double letter? Triple word? Scrabble cuts the guessing with labels like "DL" for "double letter," though it veers from the board game's traditional design by adding green and orange squares for more clarity.

It took several turns for me to get used to so much motion on my screen - Scrabble's designers seemed to animate everything they could think of. Buttons come to life when the mouse passes over. Letter tiles sit charmingly crooked when I place them on the board, then straighten themselves out when I click "Play."

At best, the legit Scrabble saves time and mouse clicks, as when my opponents' moves magically appear on screen without my having to reload the page.

But sometimes the animation just slows things down. For example, Scrabble shows me how many points potential words are worth as I fiddle around on the screen. But then, when I play the word, it ponderously sends the tiles into another little jig as it totals each one's worth. As one opponent put it, "I don't feel like I need a rotating star to make me feel good every time I play a word."

My early Scrabble opponents - all fellow journalists and Scrabulous addicts - disagreed on whether the authorised version advanced the game. One called it impressive and predicted the mass defection of Scrabulous players, while another called it hideous and hard to look at.

That doesn't bode well for Scrabble's popularity while Scrabulous is still on the scene. While I can't predict a winner in this matchup, Scrabble won't be any fun unless a critical mass of my Facebook friends are playing with it, too.






July 18, 2008

Nintendo unveiled Wii MotionPlus at the E3 Media and Business summit yesterday.

The accessory plugs into the base of the Wii Remote and will provide more intuitive motion controls.

Wii MotionPlus is scheduled for release in spring and will come packaged with Wii Sports Resort, which will feature beach-themed activities such as frisbee throwing and jet skiing.

The company also showed off music simulator Wii Music and the WiiSpeak room microphone, which will come with Animal Crossing: City Folk.

Games announced for the Nintendo DS include Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades.

- AP




July 18, 2008

GPS chip maker Rakon said today it would form a joint venture with the owners of Chinese based Timemaker Crystal Technology Limited (Timemaker).

Rakon will hold a 70 per cent share in the JV and will also take a 40 per cent share in Timemaker for an undisclosed sum.

"We explored a number of different options to expand Rakon's manufacturing capability in China and determined that partnering with Timemaker was the best means of establishing a successful facility," Rakon managing director Brent Robinson said.

Timemaker is the world's leading manufacturer of high specification quartz crystal blanks, which is the key component in crystal resonators.

Production of these blanks is technically demanding and labour intensive. High specification quartz crystal resonators and oscillators that form vital parts in global position systems are dependent on the quality of the crystal blank.

Rakon said it remained committed to its New Zealand manufacturing base and stressed that its move into China was not a move out of New Zealand.

Rakon will maintain the capability to manufacture quartz blanks in Auckland, but it has been outsourcing the manufacturing of high volume production for many years, Mr. Robinson said.

"Timemaker has been our preferred partner for this because of their exceptional quality and professionalism, which makes them a good match for Rakon.

"With Timemaker we have a partner on the ground in China who knows the industry and technology, which is a huge benefit"

He said Rakon's investment in Timemaker allows it to take greater control of its supply chain.

Plans for the Chinese operations were at an advanced stage and Rakon expects to begin construction in the fourth quarter of this year with production to start in late 2009.

The Chinese facility will focus on manufacturing quartz crystals resonators and Temperature Compensated Crystal Oscillators (TCXOs) for high-end and high-volume consumer applications, including the rapidly emerging GPS cellular phone market.

Timemaker would continue to focus on supply high specification quartz blanks to its global customer base.

"China is the centre for manufacturing consumer electronics and we expect significant growth there in the coming years as mobile phones, GPS and other applications become even more prolific," Mr Robinson said.

Over the next five years Rakon plans to invest between $45 million and $70m in China to meet market growth. The timing and amount of investment will depend on the speed of market growth and Rakon's success in capturing it.

Mr Robinson said Rakon had recently expanded its Auckland manufacturing plant to accommodate the growth it had been experiencing.

"The instalment of a fifth crystal line in our clean room and the commissioning of our next generation TCXO test system are significant investments in our future here," he said.

Its Auckland facility would continue to develop as a centre for innovation and development and will spearhead the manufacturing of new products and technology, he added. Rakon shares closed yesterday at $2.60. They have fallen from $5.50 in November.

- NZPA




July 18, 2008

LOS ANGELES - A tough little blob must splash colour over a town wallowing in gray. Bug-eyed rabbits do a dance routine. And then there's the "perfect equine farm" of wild horses for little girls to tame and train.

These video games don't sound like anything that would grab a teenage boy's attention, and that's the point. They are part of an important expansion of the video game industry as it works to pull in women, girls and other demographics and cement its place as mainstream entertainment.

A year ago at the E3 Media and Business Summit here in Los Angeles, Nintendo declared that anyone can be a gamer, and that the company would break down the divide between hardcore players and those just beginning to dabble in interactive entertainment. While the divide still exists, games for people who don't fit into the stalwart category of 18-to-34-year-old men are a fast-growing segment of the $18 billion ($23.63bn) US video game market.

Analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan estimates that five years ago, up to 90 per cent of gamers were the core audience of young men. Today, it's more like 60 to 70 per cent.

To be sure, much of the focus in the video game industry is still on games like the upcoming Fallout 3, set in a post-apocalyptic Washington, DC, where players can kill the enemy in "ridiculously violent ways," as its executive producer, Todd Howard of Bethesda Softworks, put it.

But big companies like Nintendo, Microsoft, Electronic Arts Inc. and Ubisoft Entertainment SA have realised the enormous growth potential of mass-market games. A quarter of Ubisoft's worldwide sales of $1.5 billion came from its "casual games" business in the most recent fiscal year - casual games often being the industry's extremely broad term for everything other than what the young male demographic wants. This was the first year the company measured casual games as a separate division, said Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing.

To try to reach more girls, Ubisoft offers its Imagine series, which lets 6- to 14-year-old girls play fashion designer, rock star or figure skater. Ubisoft also has Horse Riders, in which players can create a farm of wild horses.

It's unlikely to get any love from gaming blogs and reviewers, but if Ubisoft's past games for girls are any indication, it will at least make the company some money.

Game companies that have long been selling to teenage boys now want to rope in not only their sisters but also their kid brothers and parents. No company has been as successful in this as Nintendo, which has sold more than 10 million of its $250 Wii consoles in the US since its late 2006 launch, despite widespread supply constraints.




July 18, 2008

Vodafone has sold out its first shipment of the new iPhone 3G.

Controversial pricing plans for the phone, which went on sale in New Zealand before other countries at midnight last Thursday, did not put off thousands who paid up to $1129 to be among the first to get their hands on the desirable device.

Vodafone spokesman Paul Brislen would not reveal exactly how many handsets were sold, but said it was "in the thousands."

Website Apple Insider, in an analysis of iPhone global sales, put New Zealand's figure at 3,000 over the weekend.

A delay was expected between when the stock ran out and when Vodafone was able to resupply the iPhone 3G, but Brislen says a "surprise shipment" has arrived and shop shelves are now being replenished to meet strong demand.

"We were literally down to one store," he told nzherald.co.nz this morning.

"But the box has arrived, which we weren't expecting, so the good news is that stores will be resupplied today - it's happening as we speak."

The iPhone pricing plans announced last week created a flood of complaints over data prices.

In order to buy an 8GB iPhone for the much-hyped $199, consumers must sign on to a two-year deal at $250 per month. There are several other plans with different pricing structures.

Apple announced on Tuesday that it had sold a massive one million iPhone 3G handsets in three days - it took 74 days to reach that milestone with the release of the first iPhone, which launched just over a year ago.

It has sold about six million generation-one iPhones, and intends to sell 10 million worldwide by the end of this year.

The phone, which combines a high-end MP3/video player, internet device and cellphone, is now available in 21 countries. It goes on sale in France today.




July 18, 2008

Facebook users were exposed to possible identity theft this week when the social networking site accidentally published THEIR personal information.

IT security specialist Sophos says that information belonging to many of Facebook's active users was inadvertently publically revealed as the site rolled out its new profile design.

Sophos consultant Graham Cluely says the slip-up by the website during a public beta test left birth date information visible - even if the member had requested it be kept confidential.

"I was shocked to see people's full date of birth revealed, even though I knew they had their privacy set up correctly to supposedly hide the information," said Cluley.

"It's essential that users of social networks should have confidence that their privacy will be protected - and it's especially important with information like your date of birth, which can be a golden nugget for a committed identity thief."

Sophos has published a video on its YouTube channel, demonstrating the security hole.

Cluley informed Facebook of the security mistake, and says it now appears to have been fixed.

Cluley says he informed Facebook as soon as he discovered the flaw, which now appears to have been fixed.

"It's good that Facebook fixed the problem - but can people feel confident that this kind of mistake won't happen again in future?" he asked.

"My advice to Facebook users would be, even if your date of birth is set to be non-visible, change it to a made-up date in case this kind of blunder happens again. Facebook and other social networking websites need to be more careful about protecting their members' data, or risk losing users."

A Sophos investigation into identity theft last year found that 41 per cent of Facebook users would divulge personal information like email addresses and their birth dates to a complete stranger.

- NZ HERALD STAFF




July 18, 2008

SUNNYVALE - Yahoo has sent a letter to shareholders in which it called Microsoft's actions in its dance to acquire all or part of the internet company "stupefying."

The letter from Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and Chief Executive Jerry Yang also hammered investor Carl Icahn, Microsoft's partner in the latest acquisition offer, for his lack of knowledge about the internet business. It said the latest offer from "the odd couple" serves "only their very narrow special interests."

The missive marked the latest bit of acrimony to surface in Yahoo's scramble to maintain control of its board.

Icahn, a billionaire, has nominated a slate of candidates to oppose Yahoo's current nine directors in an Aug. 1 shareholder vote at the Sunnyvale-based company's annual meeting.

In attempt to avoid the showdown, Icahn and Microsoft teamed up with a buyout offer that Yahoo rejected. The terms are complex, but the deal would have involved splitting the company, with Microsoft taking the search engine and Icahn overseeing Yahoo's remains.

As part of their proposal, Microsoft and Icahn also wanted Yahoo to pay a special dividend of $4.50 per share and sell the company's Asian holdings - two options that Yahoo said it's considering doing on its own in an attempt to boost its stock price.

Yahoo shares gained 29 cents, or 1.3 per cent, to $22.77 in yesterday's late afternoon trading. Microsoft had orally offered in early May to buy Yahoo in its entirety for $33 per share only to withdraw the bid after Yahoo sought $37 per share.

The two rivals have been intermittently negotiating and bickering for the past two months, with Icahn chiming in as he tries to broker a deal between Yahoo and Microsoft.

Much of the letter expanded upon Yahoo's previous criticism of Microsoft and Icahn.

Yahoo says that it would accept $33 per share now, but that Microsoft no longer is willing to put that much money on the table. Instead, Yahoo contends Microsoft is hoping to buy the entire company or its search engine at a "bargain basement" price if Icahn seizes control of Yahoo's board.

"Microsoft's flip flops and inconsistencies over the past five months are so stupefying that one can only conclude that Microsoft was never fully committed to acquiring Yahoo," the letter said.

Yahoo also reiterated its belief that it would be mistake to entrust its internet franchise to Icahn because he is a technology neophyte with no concrete business plan other than working out a deal with Microsoft.

"We believe you cannot count on Microsoft to bail out Mr. Icahn's misguided agenda, at least not on terms that are in the best interests of Yahoo stockholders," the letter said.

Icahn, who owns a 5 per cent stake in Yahoo, has said the board is more interested in protecting its jobs than evaluating the merits of selling its online search operations to Microsoft.

- AP




July 18, 2008

BRUSSELS - European Union regulators sent more antitrust charges to chip maker Intel yesterday, claiming the company has deliberately squeezed rival AMD out of the market.

The European Commission said it added three new charges to its case against Intel, and warned it may order Intel to change its behaviour under threat of large fines that can total 10 per cent of yearly global revenue. Intel's 2007 sales were US$38 billion.

Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said the new charges reflected no major changes to the July 2007 set of charges of monopoly abuse.

The company said in a statement that its conduct "has always been lawful, pro-competitive and beneficial to consumers." It claimed that the EU seemed to be supporting AMD's view that Intel should stop price discounts that have lowered prices for customers.

AMD had no immediate comment.

Intel, based in Santa Clara, California, is the world's biggest chip maker, selling more than three-quarters of all microprocessors that run computers using Microsoft's Windows operating system. AMD is its only real rival.

The EU says below-cost or predatory pricing may be good for shoppers in the short term, but ultimately harms them by killing off rivals that would offer more choice and set a faster pace for innovation.

The EU executive accused Intel of giving a major personal computer retailer - Germany's MediaMarkt AG - substantial rebates in return for it selling only Intel-based computers.

It said Intel also paid a manufacturer to delay an AMD range of x86 central processing units, or CPUs, and gave rebates to the same company in return for buying all its laptop CPUs from Intel.

The EU said Intel's behaviour was part of a coordinated strategy to exclude AMD or limit its access to the market. Intel has eight weeks to respond and can seek a hearing to put its defence to European regulators.

Regulators previously have accused Intel of selling chips below average cost to strategic server customers - such as governments and universities - when bidding against AMD-based products.

Officials claimed last year that Intel's abusive behaviour started in 2003 - two years after the EU opened an antitrust investigation triggered by an AMD complaint - and went on for approximately three years, the Commission said.

That covers a period when AMD managed to take market share from Intel after the 2003 launch of microprocessors that outperformed Intel's chips. Intel fought back successfully in 2006 by rolling out its Core microprocessors.

In the EU's view, the problem is pricing, not market share. Under each of the three charges Intel would be breaking antitrust law by unfairly shutting out AMD from the market, the EU said. Together each action reinforced the others to form a "single overall anticompetitive strategy" that damaged the rules of fair play, the commission said.

It says AMD, based in Sunnyvale, California, took its complaints to regulators because it had not managed to win in the marketplace. AMD has racked up more than US$4 billion in losses over the last six quarters and is cutting 1,600 workers, or 10 per cent of its global work force.

The US Federal Trade Commission in June asked both companies to supply information on possible antitrust problems in the microprocessor market.

South Korean regulators fined Intel US$25.4 million last month, saying the semiconductor giant had used hefty rebates to persuade Samsung Electronics Co. and other South Korean computer makers not to use AMD-made CPUs.

AMD also has filed a civil lawsuit against Intel in US District Court in Delaware that is scheduled to go to trial in 2010 and could mean billions of dollars in damages if AMD wins.

Intel has repeatedly denied breaking any laws.

- AP




July 18, 2008

BRUSSELS - Eight out of 10 websites selling mobile phone ring tones and graphics are tricking consumers with hidden fees or false advertising for free products, the EU said.

The EU's consumer affairs commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, said a Europe-wide investigation showed up shoddy sales practices such as hiding the true cost of downloads or not telling customers they are signing up for a subscription.

"It's clear that consumers have been ripped off," she said.

She said she is telling national governments to go after crooked traders.

Ring tones - usually aimed at teenagers - make up almost a third of mobile content in Europe, racking up €691 million (US$1.1 billion) in sales last year, the EU said.

With 495 million handsets, there is just over one mobile phone per person across the 27-nation bloc.

The European Commission checked some 500 websites, finding that 80 per cent broke consumer advertising rules. It took action after receiving complaints from shoppers unhappy at being forced into subscriptions or extra charges.

"To be safe buying these services, check the fine print every time and make sure you are not signing up for more than you bargained for," Kuneva warned consumers.

- AP




July 18, 2008