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US users of Sony’s Reader range of ebook readers will soon be able to download the latest news from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post to their device, Sony has confirmed.

The Japanese electronics giant has signed an exclusive deal with News Corporation, owned by Rupert Murdoch, to give Reader users subscription-based access to publications through the ebook reader.

A monthly subscription to the Wall Street Journal will cost users $14.99, while access to the New York Post is priced at $9.99 per month. Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal, said that they would be earning a more favourable slice of revenue than the 30 per cent cut typically offered by Amazon to content providers.

Sir Howard Stringer, Sony’s chief executive, said the company believed the move would help it compete more closely with Amazon’s Kindle, the most popular ebook reader in the United States. “We obviously fell behind Amazon, but it’s a long war, a long race,” he said.”We’ll win the hardware war.”

According to analysts at Forrester Research, Amazon’s Kindle accounts for about 60 per cent of the US ebook reader market, with Sony’s Reader range enjoying a 35 per cent market share. Sales of digital reading devices are expected to double to six million in 2010.

But Sir Howard suggested that Sony would resist the temptation to turn the Reader in to a multi-function device. Apple is rumoured to be launching a tablet-style computer early next year that will double as an ebook reader, and other companies are said to considering building ebook functionality in to phones and laptops.

“The consumer will tell us if this format is comfortable and helpful and convenient and all those things before you start ploughing on a thousand apps, or making the ‘Vaio Reader’,” he said. “I think there is plenty of audience to go around. I think it will be interesting to see if this is the reader of choice, particularly for older audiences who don’t need a million other applications. There is a whole generation that may learn to love this. We might as well let them find out.”

Sony has not yet indicated whether subscription-based access to newspaper and magazines would be available in other countries where its Reader range is sold. It is likely that its US-only Daily Edition ebook reader, which can download books wirelessly over the 3G mobile phone network, would need to be launched in other territories first before subscription-based access could be rolled out.

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Every now and again the FCC will publish a document that will completely ruin the surprise launch of an upcoming product. And sometimes companies do a much better job of covering their tracks by requesting the FCC hide some of the good stuff behind a confidentiality agreement. It looks like HP is taking the latter approach with two new products that sort of, kind of showed up on the FCC web site recently.

Basically, the FCC has listed test reports for two cryptically named HP products. One is described as a tablet, while the other is a netbook. There are no model numbers that seem to correspond with HP’s usual naming conventions. And all pictures of the devices have been hidden away behind confidentiality agreements, leaving just a few arcane test reports and FCC labels for us to peruse.

Wireless Goodness figures the tablet is the upcoming HP TouchSmart TM2. But it’s not clear if the netbook is the upcoming HP Mini 210 we’ve been hearing so little about or something else. What we do know is that both computers will be available with Qualcomm’s Gobi2000 wireless chipset which supports GPS and worldwide 3G data connections. There’s no way to know whether this is a standard or optional feature.
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A consortium including TelstraClear, Fujitsu and Transfield Services has taken Meridian Energy’s ICT business from Telecom and its subsidiary Gen-i.

TelstraClear will deliver all telecommunications services to the electricity generator, as part of an ICT infrastructure support services  partnership with  IT provider Fujitsu.

TelstraClear will provide: Fixed and mobile communications including data, video, fixed voice, mobile voice, internet services; VoIP telephony; and internet security services by its specialist security unit, DMZGlobal.

Fujitsu will provide full support services for all of its desktops, servers, datacentres, telemetry, networks, carrier services and service desk for the next five years.

The contract includes an opportunity to renew for another two plus two year period.

The transition of services to TelstraClear and Fujitsu is expected to start in early 2010.

Meridian chief executive Tim Lusk says the new delivery model confers major benefits. “It allows significant cost reductions without compromising service standards,” he says.

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IBM said Thursday that it opened a research lab in Hong Kong dedicated to developing products and services for the cloud computing market. At the outset, the lab will dedicate resources to supporting IBM’s online LotusLive offering.

IBM currently counts more than 18 million users of LotusLive, which offers Web-based access to e-mail, instant messaging, calendaring, and other collaboration tools. The service starts at $3.00 per month, per user.

IBM said the Hong Kong center will research and develop best practices around various issues related to cloud computing, including security, privacy, and reliability. The lab is co-located with IBM’s existing China Development Laboratory, which employs more than 5,000 developers.
“As the first cloud computing laboratory in Hong Kong to serve as a global resource for cloud-based collaboration services, the laboratory marks a milestone for IBM and for the information technology industry in Hong Kong,” said Dominic Tong, IBM’s general manager for Hong Kong/China, in a statement.

“The opening of the laboratory demonstrates Hong Kong’s advantage as a global hub for world-class information technology and online services and we are delighted that it aligns with the government’s agenda of developing Hong Kong into a center of excellence in innovation and technology,” said Tong.

Attendees at an event marking the lab’s opening included Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang, Commerce and Economic Development Secretary Duncan Warren Prescod, and IT Legislative Councilor Samson Tam.

IBM estimates the market for cloud, or hosted, computing products is growing 28% annually, and will increase from $47 billion in 2008 to $126 billion in 2012.
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Cisco Systems Inc. CEO John Chambers is openly admitting that Hewlett-Packard Co. is becoming more of a competitor.

Everyone knows this. It’s just that Cisco has tended to skirt the topic. When asked about increasing competition with HP or IBM Corp. Cisco officials tend to emphasize that a lot of big companies end up being both partners and competitors at different phases in time — which is true.

But giving introductory remarks at the company’s financial analyst conference today, Chambers noted that some partners “will become competitors or will get closer to us.”

And HP? “You’re going to see some players like HP be a competitor,” Chambers said, tossing grammar around like a true Valley legend.

As for the other category — companies becoming closer friends — Chambers listed several examples including EMC Corp. That’s a nod to the tightening of Cisco’s partnership with that company and VMware Inc. in cloud computing.

Cisco brought itself into the server market — into HP’s house — by launching an all-in-one data center package called the Unified Computing System. It’s possibly in response to this that HP has decided to acquire 3Com Corp.

Cisco typically doesn’t talk about the competition in detail.

“We don’t spend time talking about competitors. I know you want me to talk about HP; you want me to talk about Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. ,” Chambers said. “If you’re reacting to what a competitor does, you’re looking out the rearview mirror. You’re three to five years behind.”
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We last heard about Sony’s Mofiria vein authentication system in February and then poof, nothing more on the tech.  That is until today.  Sony is set to release the FVA-U1, which is based on the Mofiria technology and plugs into any USB enabled device that can accept the necessary security protocols.  The FVA-U1 will launch December 18th and cost Y30,000 ($350 US).

Vein identification, as opposed to finger print scanning is the next evolution in biometric security since it is far more difficult to replicate and requires, from my understanding, that the finger or person be alive – no more chopping the hand off Mr. Terrorist.
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