Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Are Investors Finally "Getting" Microsoft? - DailyFinance

The opportunity Microsoft (NAS: MSFT) offers investors in search of growth and income isn't new. Microsoft has consistently underperformed relative to its rivals, and investors have shied away in droves as a result. The past six months, the stock price appreciation Apple (NAS: AAPL) , IBM (NYS: IBM) , and Oracle (NAS: ORCL) shareholders, among others, have enjoyed are like salt in the wounds of Microsoft owners.

Some believe it's too early to declare that Microsoft is definitively back in all its former glory, but it's time even the most negative of naysayers start taking notice. The reasons are many: The first release of a full-blown update to its stale Windows OS, the opportunity Microsoft's new OS presents in the smartphone arena, its initial foray into producing tablet computers, and new cloud computing wins are the latest reasons for optimism.

What it all means
In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, CEO Steve Ballmer was his usual, unbecoming self. When asked about early sales numbers of Microsoft's new Surface tablet, Ballmer stated, "Numerically there's not really much that's interesting to report. If you were to call the retailers, they would say, 'Hey, off to a very good start.' We're out of stock a lot of places on touch [screen] machines." Um, thanks. Microsoft bears would quickly suggest that's another way of saying, "Things aren't going well." But if you follow Microsoft, you know that's vintage Ballmer.

There is some data regarding surface tablet sales results. Launch-day pre-orders of surface sold out within the first 24 hours. Also, word is deliveryÃ‚Â on at least some of the pre-orders for the new Microsoft tablets wasdelayed, but we don't know why. Microsoft had an initial run of three to five million surface tablets produced. We'll need to wait and see whether the pre-orders continued to exceed supply after the initial launch date.

The Oct. 31 announcement of a $9.8 million contract with the Environmental Protection Agency to implement its cloud solution, Microsoft Office 365, isn't going to set the world on fire. With about $75 billion in annual revenues, $10 million or so is less than a hiccup. However, the partnership with Lockheed Martin to, "Take EPA to the Cloud" is indicative of Microsoft's long-term commitment to an exploding marketplace.

There's a reason IBM and Oracle in particular have joined Microsoft in aggressively attacking the opportunity the cloud offers. According to Forrester Research, cloud computing will generate $241 billion in annual revenues by 2020. And along with Microsoft, the cloud is part of what makes IBM and Oracle solid investment opportunities both now and long term.

Windows Phone 8 is yet another chance for growth heading into 2013, and smartphone manufacturers Nokia, Samsung, and HTC will begin rolling out the new products in November -- just in time for the holidays. For iFanatics, anything that puts a dent into iPhone sales, particularly as they accounted for nearly 50% of Apple revenues in the recently announced quarter, is disconcerting. Will Apple crumble suddenly? Of course not, but serious competition in device sales with so many eggs in one basket warrants keeping an eye on.

The integration capabilities of the new Windows 8 OS products is yet another opportunity to explore as investors consider Window 8's success going forward. The revenue-generating possibilities of seamlessly tying together the functionalities of Microsoft users' smartphones, desktop, and mobile computing devices is certainly intriguing.

And now, the envelope please
After two days of interrupted trading due to Sandy, Microsoft investors wasted no time buying: It's up about 1.5% at the open. In my opinion, yes, the new product releases and continued commitment to burgeoning technologies is the impetus for a slow but steady change in investor sentiment, and rightfully so. This should be the first of many increases in Microsoft share prices in the mid to long term.

Why? Because Microsoft is (again) becoming a force in the world of innovative computing solutions, and the timing couldn't be better if you want price appreciation and like the sound of a 3.2% dividend yield.

It's been a frustrating path for Microsoft investors, who've watched their company fail to capitalize on the incredible growth in mobile over the past decade. However, that's changed, and the company is looking to make a splash in this booming market. In this brand-new premium report on Microsoft, our analyst explains that while the opportunity is huge, the challenges are many. He's also providing regular updates as key events occur, so make sure to claim a copy of this report now by clicking here.

Microsoft Sued Over Windows 8 Tiles - eWeek

Microsoft's new Windows 8 tiling feature is being challenged in a patent-infringement lawsuit filed by a Maine-based company that doesn't sell any products or services.

Microsoft has been hit with a patent-infringement lawsuit regarding its new Windows 8 operating systems, just days after the debut of Windows 8 on Oct. 26 and Windows Phone 8 on Oct. 29.

The lawsuit, filed Oct. 30 by Portland, Maine-based SurfCast, alleges that Microsoft infringes on its U.S. Patent No. 6,724,403 dating back to the 1990s for the "tiling" concepts used in the new Windows 8 operating system that is now being used in PCs, Surface tablets, laptops and smartphones.

"We developed the concept of Tiles in the 1990s, which was ahead of its time," Ovid Santoro, CEO of SurfCast, said in a statement on the company's Website. "Microsoftâ€™s Live Tiles are the centerpiece of Microsoftâ€™s new Operating Systems and are covered by our patent."

The 10-page lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Maine, says that the patent, called â€œSystem and Method For Simultaneous Display of Multiple Information Sources,â€ was issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office April 20, 2004, to Santoro and co-inventor, Klaus Lagermann. Both men assigned their rights to the patent to SurfCast, according to the lawsuit.

The four-count lawsuit argues that Microsoft directly and willfully infringed SurfCast's patent through its new Windows 8 products and that by selling the operating systems, it will induce its customers, partners and others to also infringe on SurfCast's patent. SurfCast alleges that Microsoft "had knowledge of the '403 patent at least as early as April 21, 2009."

SurfCast also alleges that Microsoft will continue such patent infringements through its Windows Store, where users can "search for or browse thousands of apps, all grouped in easy-to-find categories" that also used the tiles-based system. "Microsoft also instructs developers how to write applications that, when downloaded through the Windows Store and used on an Accused Product, directly infringe one or more claims of the '403 patent," the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit asks the court to rule that Microsoft has directly infringed the '403 patent and to order that Microsoft "account for and pay to SurfCast all damages caused to SurfCast" due to the alleged infringements.

One of SurfCast's attorneys, Benjamin Piper of Preti Flaherty Beliveau & Pachios, declined to comment on the lawsuit Oct. 31.

In an email, a Microsoft spokesman said the company is "confident we will prove to the court that these claims are without merit and that Microsoft has created a unique user experience."

So what is SurfCast and where did it come from?

The company's sparse Website includes no products or services that it markets to any users. What the Website does include, however, are several statements about its business and its founders and directors.

"SurfCast designs Operating System technology and has four issued patents with additional applications pending," according to the site's home page. "SurfCast designed a new concept referred to as 'Tiles.' Tiles can be thought of as dynamically updating icons. A Tile is different from an icon because it can be both selectable and liveâ€"containing refreshed content that provides a real-time or near-real-time view of the underlying information. Tiles can provide dynamic bookmarkingâ€"an at-a-glance view of the current status of the program, file, or content associated with it. Tiles enable people to have all their content, applications, and resources, regardless of whether on their mobile device, tablet, computer, or in their Cloudâ€"visualized persistentlyâ€"dynamically updating."

The company says its four patents were issued in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2011.

The company's listed founders and directors and their former and current affiliations include Jim Cannavino of IBM and Perot Systems; Bob Carberry of IBM; David Charters of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Partner Capital and D Group; and Michael Cohrs of Deutsche Bank and the Bank of England. Also listed are Tom Dechaene of Deutsche Bank Venture Capital, KBC Group NV, Agenus and Transics; patent co-founder Lagermann of IBM and Cisco; and patent co-founder Santoro of Deutsche Bank Venture Capital and Red Herring magazine.

Patent-infringement lawsuits, when filed by companies that don't sell their own products or services, typically are referred to as "patent troll" cases involving businesses set up to acquire patents that can later be pursued in legal cases against larger companies with deep pockets.

And one of the problems in such cases, said Rob Enderle, principle analyst with Enderle Group, is that companies like Microsoft often lose one of their main defensive strategiesâ€"the countersuitâ€"because the opponent has no products or services that can be challenged.

"Given the number of former IBM people that are involved with [SurfCast], it still could be a patent troll company," said Enderle. "It could have been formed just to do this and get a couple million dollars out of Microsoft. I don't see any products that they are selling."

Another factor that makes Enderle suspicious is that SurfCast "waited so long to do something about" the alleged patent infringements, since Microsoft has been working on Windows 8 and publically revealing its makeup for a while.

If going after Microsoft's money is the primary aim of the lawsuit, then SurfCast could be up against quite a battle, he said. "Companies like Microsoft are very good at fighting these things and they could run them out of money to fight it," he said.

"It kind of smells to me like itâ€™s a patent troll case, like a bunch of guys who got together and thought they'd get some money," said Enderle. "But it doesn't sound like it's going to end well for these guys. They are going after one of the top three companies that have this kind of patent-claim fighting experience on the planet. If this is the company that you cut your teeth on, holy crud."

Apple Shake-Up Could End Real-World Images - New York Times

Apple Shake-Up Could End Real-World Images

Whether they realize it or not, all of those who swipe a finger down from the top of the iPhoneâ€™s screen to check for notifications are bearing witness to a big sore point within Apple.

Jonathan Ive, second from left, who will oversee the look of Appleâ€™s software, is said to have criticized the images in the companyâ€™s mobile software.

The iBooks app has animation that simulates the turning of a real page.

The fine linen texture to this iPhone background is a look that Steve Jobs encouraged.

There, behind a list of text messages, missed phone calls and other updates, is a gray background with the unmistakable texture of fine linen.

Steven P. Jobs, the Apple chief executive who died a year ago, pushed the companyâ€™s software designers to use the linen texture liberally in the software for the companyâ€™s mobile devices. He did the same with many other virtual doodads that mimic the appearance and behavior of real-world things, like wooden shelves for organizing newspapers and the page-flipping motion of a book, according to people who worked with him but declined to be named to avoid Appleâ€™s ire.

The management shake-up that Apple announced on Monday is likely to mean that Apple will shift away from such visual tricks, which many people within the company look down upon. As part of the changes, the company fired Scott Forstall, the leader of Appleâ€™s mobile software development and a disciple of Mr. Jobs. While Mr. Forstallâ€™s abrasive style and resistance to collaboration with other parts of the company were the main factors in his undoing, the change also represents the departure of the most vocal and high-ranking proponent of the visual design style favored by Mr. Jobs.

The executive who will now set the direction for the look of Appleâ€™s software is Jonathan Ive, who has long been responsible for Appleâ€™s minimalist hardware designs. Mr. Ive, despite his close relationship with Mr. Jobs, has made his distaste for the visual ornamentation in Appleâ€™s mobile software known within the company, according to current and former Apple employees who asked not to be named discussing internal matters.

This may seem like little more than an internal disagreement over taste. But Apple venerates design like few other companies of its size, and its customers have rewarded it handsomely as a result. Appleâ€™s decisions can influence how millions of people use and think about digital devices â€" not only its own but those made by other companies that look to Apple as a standard-setter in design.

Axel Roesler, associate professor and chairman of the interaction design program at the University of Washington, says Appleâ€™s software designs had become larded with nostalgia, unnecessary visual references to the past that he compared to Greek columns in modern-day architecture. He said he would like to see Mr. Ive take a fresh approach.

â€œApple, as a design leader, is not only capable of doing this, they have a responsibility for doing it,â€ he said. â€œPeople expect great things from them.â€

Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, declined to comment.

Appleâ€™s customers do not seem to have serious qualms about the design choices the company has made as they continue to buy iPhones and iPads at a healthy clip. But within the circles of designers and technology executives outside Apple who obsess over the details of how products look and work, there has been a growing amount of grumbling in the last year that Appleâ€™s approach is starting to look dated.

The style favored by Mr. Forstall and Mr. Jobs is known in this crowd as skeuomorphism, in which certain images and metaphors, like a spiral-bound notebook or stitched leather, are used in software to give people a reassuring real-world reference.

In contrast, Microsoft, not known as a big risk-taker, has been praised recently for taking greater creative risks in the design of its software than Apple has. It has come up with a visual style that is now used throughout its computer, mobile and game products. It relies heavily on typography and sheets of tiles that provide access to programs and are updated with photos and other online information. It is not yet clear whether this approach will be a hit with people who do not spend time thinking about design.

Bill Flora, a former Microsoft designer who created the earliest prototypes of its new visual style, said Apple had not been innovative enough in the design of its software. â€œI have found their hardware to be amazing and sophisticated, and I have found their software to be kind of old school,â€ said Mr. Flora, who now has his own design firm, Tectonic, in Seattle. â€œTheir approach really wasnâ€™t what I was taught as a designer in design school.â€

Even internal critics of Appleâ€™s software designs say that some references to physical things are still useful. The trash bin on the Mac, for example, is a much-used metaphor for deleting files, one that is unlikely to go away soon. There is also a function in the new Passbook app that runs deleted loyalty and payment cards through something resembling a paper shredder. Some Apple designers see that as a good way of reinforcing the idea that potentially sensitive information has been wiped from the device.

But Apple causes conniptions among designers when its visual metaphors seem outdated or downright archaic. Appleâ€™s Podcasts app for its mobile products displays a reel-to-reel tape machine, a product probably few people under 40 have ever seen.

Appleâ€™s use of textures representing physical materials is also often ridiculed. In addition to linen, Apple has found opportunities to decorate the borders of its software, including the Calendar app on the iPad and the Find My Friends app on the iPhone, with a tan faux-animal skin that some critics have sarcastically called Corinthian leather, after the upholstery used in Chrysler cars in the 1970s.

The allusions to the past also affect how certain parts of its software function. Its iBooks application organizes electronic books on a set of wood-grained shelves, and the books are thumbed through with a page-turning animation. Some designers see that and similar functions in Appleâ€™s software as silly throwbacks to the past, plopped into advanced devices.

â€œItâ€™s like putting horses in front of a car, basically,â€ said Dr. Roesler of the University of Washington.

Handing decisions about software design over to Mr. Ive, who is known almost entirely for his work in hardware, could be risky. One former Apple employee who worked in software for several years said he had never seen Mr. Ive in a meeting and suggested that Mr. Ive would have to work to win credibility among Mr. Forstallâ€™s loyalists. This person declined to be named discussing internal matters because he did not want to antagonize Apple.Â

But those who know him expect Mr. Ive â€" known to friends and colleagues as Jony â€" to waste little time in putting his own stamp on the look of the companyâ€™s software, including iOS for mobile devices and OS X for Macs.

â€œYou can be sure that the next generation of iOS and OS X will have Jonyâ€™s industrial design aesthetic all over them,â€ said a designer who works at Apple but declined to be named as he is not allowed to speak publicly. â€œClean edges, flat surfaces will likely replace the textures that are all over the place right now.â€

A version of this article appeared in print on November 1, 2012, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Apple Shake-Up Could Mean End to Real-World Images in Software.

Apple Shake-Up Could Mean End to Real-World Images in Software - New York Times

Apple Shake-Up Could Mean End to Real-World Images in Software

Whether they realize it or not, all of those who swipe a finger down from the top of the iPhoneâ€™s screen to check for notifications are bearing witness to a big sore point within Apple.

Jonathan Ive, who will oversee the look of Appleâ€™s software, is said to have criticized the images in the companyâ€™s mobile software.

The iBooks app has animation that simulates the turning of a real page.

The fine linen texture to this iPhone background is a look that Steve Jobs encouraged.

There, behind a list of text messages, missed phone calls and other updates, is a gray background with the unmistakable texture of fine linen.

â€œApple, as a design leader, is not only capable of doing this, they have a responsibility for doing it,â€ he said. â€œPeople expect great things from them.â€

Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, declined to comment.

â€œItâ€™s like putting horses in front of a car, basically,â€ said Dr. Roesler of the University of Washington.

A version of this article appeared in print on November 1, 2012, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Apple Shake-Up Could Mean End to Real-World Images in Software.

Apple's Cook fields his A-team before a wary Street - Reuters

By Poornima Gupta

SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:31pm EDT

Oct 31 (Reuters) - Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook's new go-to management team of mostly familiar faces failed to drum up much excitement on Wall Street, driving its shares to a three-month low on Wednesday.

The world's most valuable technology company, which had faced questions about a visionary-leadership vacuum following the death of Steve Jobs, on Monday stunned investors by announcing the ouster of chief mobile software architect Scott Forstall and retail chief John Browett -- the latter after six months on the job.

Cook gave most of Forstall's responsibilities to Macintosh software chief Craig Federighi, while some parts of the job went to Internet chief Eddy Cue and celebrated designer Jony Ive.

But the loss of the 15-year veteran and Jobs's confidant Forstall, and resurgent talk about internal conflicts, exacerbated uncertainty over whether Cook and his lieutenants have what it takes to devise and market the next ground-breaking, industry-disrupting product.

Apple shares ended the day down 1.4 percent at 595.32. They have shed a tenth of their value this month -- the biggest monthly loss since late 2008, and have headed south since touching an all-time high of $705 in September.

For investors, the management upheaval from a company that usually excels at delivering positive surprises represents the latest reason for unease about the future of a company now more valuable than almost any other company in the world.

Apple undershot analysts targets in its fiscal third quarter, the second straight disappointment. Its latest Maps software was met with widespread frustration and ridicule over glaring mistakes. Sources told Reuters that Forstall and Cook disagreed over the need to publicly apologize for its maps service embarrassment.

And this month, Apple entered the small-tablet market with its iPad mini, lagging Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc despite pioneering the tablet market in 2010.

Investor concerns now center around the demand, availability and profitability of new products, including the iPad mini set to hit stores on Friday.

"The sudden departure of Scott Forstall doesn't help," said Shaw Wu, an analyst with Sterne Agee. "Now there's some uncertainty in the management."

"There appears to be some infighting, post-Steve Jobs, and looks like Cook is putting his foot down and unifying the troops."

Apple declined to comment beyond Monday's announcement.

Against that backdrop, Cook's inner circle has some convincing to do. In the wake of Forstall's exit, iTunes maestro Eddy Cue -- dubbed "Mr Fixit", the sources say -- gets his second promotion in a year, taking on an expanded portfolio of all online services, including Siri and Maps.

The affable executive with a tough negotiating streak who, according to documents revealed in court, lobbied Jobs aggressively and finally convinced the late visionary about the need for a smaller-sized tablet, has become a central figure: a versatile problem-solver for the company.

Ive, the British-born award-winning designer credited with pushing the boundaries of engineering with the iPod and iPhone, now extends his skills into the software realm with the lead on user interface.

Marketing guru Schiller continues in his role, while career engineer Mansfield canceled his retirement to stay on and lead wireless and semiconductor teams. Then there's Federighi, the self-effacing software engineer who a source told Reuters joined Apple over Forstall's initial objections, and has the nickname "Hair Force One" on Game Center.

"With a large base of approximately 60,400 full-time employees, it would be easy to conclude that the departures are not important," said Keith Bachman, analyst with BMO Capital Markets. "However, we do believe the departures are a negative, since we think Mr. Forstall in particular added value to Apple."

TEAM COOK

Few would argue with Forstall's success in leading mobile software iOS and that he deserves a lot of credit for the sale of millions of iPhones and iPads.

But despite the success, his style and direction on the software were not without critics, inside and outside.

Forstall often clashed with other executives, said a person familiar with him, adding he sometimes tended to over-promise and under-deliver on features. Now, Federighi, Ive and Cue have the opportunity to develop the look, feel and engineering of the all-important software that runs iPhones and iPads.

Cue, who rose to prominence by building and fostering iTunes and the app store, has the tough job of fixing and improving Maps, unveiled with much fanfare by Forstall in June, but it was found full of missing information and wrongly marked sites.

The Duke University alum and Blue Devils basketball fan -- he has been seen courtside with players -- is deemed the right person to accomplish this, given his track record on fixing services and products that initially don't do well.

The 23-year veteran turned around the short-lived MobileMe storage service after revamping and wrapping it into the reasonably well-received iCloud offering.

"Eddy is certainly a person who gets thrown a lot of stuff to 'go make it work' as he's very used to dealing with partners," said a person familiar with Cue. The person said Cue was suited to fixing Maps given the need to work with partners such as TomTom and business listings provider Yelp.

Cue's affable charm and years of dealing with entertainment companies may come in handy as he also tries to improve voice-enabled digital assistant Siri. He has climbed the ladder rapidly in the past five years and was promoted to senior vice president last September, shortly after Cook took over as CEO.

Both Cue and Cook will work more closely with Federighi, who spent a decade in enterprise software before rejoining Apple in 2009, taking over Mac software after the legendary Bertrand Serlet left the company in March last year

Federighi was instrumental in bringing popular mobile features such as notifications and Facebook integration onto the latest Mac operating system Mountain Lion, which was donwloaded on 3 million machines in four days.

The former CTO of business software company Ariba, now part of SAP, worked with Jobs at NeXT Computer. Federighi is a visionary in software engineering and can be as good as Jobs in strategic decisions for the product he oversees, a person who has worked with him said.

His presentation skills have been called on of late, most recently at Apple annual developers' gathering in the summer.

Then there's Ive, deemed Apple's inspirational force. Among the iconic products he has worked on are multi-hued iMac computers, the iPod music player, the iPhone and the iPad.

Forstall's departure may free Ive of certain constraints, the sources said. His exit brought to the fore a fundamental design issue -- to do or not to do digital skeuomorphic designs. Skeuomorphic designs stay true to and mimic real-life objects, such as the bookshelf in the iBooks icon, green felt in its Game Center app icon, and an analog clock depicting the time.

Forstall, who will stay on as adviser to Cook for another year, strongly believed in these designs, but his philosophy was not shared by all. His chief dissenter was Ive, who is said to prefer a more open approach, which could mean a slightly different design direction on the icons.

"There is no one else who has that kind of (design) focus on the team," the person said of Ive. "He is critical for them."

FCC Details Storm-Related Cellphone Problems - New York Times

F.C.C. Details Storm-Related Cellphone Problems

WASHINGTON â€" For all of the modern communications that keep people connected, cellphones rely on an age-old technology that has repeatedly demonstrated its own instability during emergencies â€" electricity.

Interactive Graphic

Photographs

Power systems failures throughout the Northeast have been the main culprits in the shutdown of more than 20 percent of the cell tower sites in 10 states, causing millions of lost calls on Wednesday, government and industry officials said.

Slow progress was made in restoring some services. Federal Communications Commission officials said that the percentage of cell tower sites not working in the storm-damaged areas declined â€œby a few percentage pointsâ€ as of Wednesday morning, down from about 25 percent on Tuesday.

Wired broadband and cable television systems remained out of service for â€œwell under 20 percentâ€ of homes in hurricane-affected areas, the F.C.C. said, down from 25 percent on Tuesday.

But widespread power outages as well as wind damage and submerged equipment continue to affect users of wireless and wired communications services.

â€œThe crisis is not over,â€ Julius Genachowski, chairman of the F.C.C., said Wednesday. â€œOver all, the condition of our communications networks is improving, but serious outages remain, particularly in New York, New Jersey, and other hard-hit areas.â€

The commission will â€œcontinue to expect the unexpected,â€ Mr. Genachowski said, and neither the F.C.C. nor mobile phone companies were able to say how long it would take to restore full service.

Verizon Wireless said Wednesday that 6 percent of its cell sites remained down in storm-affected areas, although all of its switching and data centers â€œare functioning normally.â€ T-Mobile issued a statement saying that roughly 20 percent of its network in New York City was out of service, as was up to 10 percent of its network in Washington.

Sprint and AT&T declined to specify the status of their systems on Wednesday. All of the companies said they were working to assess and repair the damage.

To help maintain service AT&T and T-Mobile said on Wednesday that in the affected areas of New York and New Jersey, their customers would be able to use the networks of both companies, decreasing the likelihood of failed calls.

In a statement, T-Mobile USA said that when customers of both AT&T and T-Mobile place calls, the calls would be carried by whichever network is available in the area. Both networks use similar technologies, so switching between them will be seamless, and there will not be an additional charge, the company said.

Officials also said that 911 services were restored in the few areas where it was interrupted during the storm. David Turetsky, chief of the F.C.C.â€™s public safety and homeland security bureau, said calls to 911 â€œare able to be received everywhere at 911 centers.â€

Some of the incoming calls are being rerouted to other service centers and â€œa limited numberâ€ of centers are receiving calls without knowing where the caller is located, Mr. Turetsky said, which means that public safety officials have to rely on the caller to provide accurate information about where the emergency is.

F.C.C. officials declined to identify where the affected 911 centers were located, or which phone companies were responsible for servicing them.

Customers of wireless phone companies have come to expect service to either be unavailable or jammed during emergencies, a situation that has repeated itself since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and through numerous natural disasters.

But industry officials say that while mobile phone networks are designed to handle very high call volumes, no system can handle infinite traffic, just as freeways are jammed at rush hour.

â€œEvery time we bring more spectrum to market, our growth in usage seems to outpace it,â€ said Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice president for regulatory affairs at CTIA-The Wireless Association, an industry trade group.

Edward Wyatt reported from Washington, and Brian X. Chen from New York.

A version of this article appeared in print on November 1, 2012, on page B4 of the New York edition with the headline: F.C.C. Details Storm-Related Cellphone Problems.

Can This Exec Fill Scott Forstall's Shoes at Apple? - DailyFinance

After 15 years at Apple (NAS: AAPL) , iOS chief Scott Forstall is on his way out in a massive management change announced earlier this week intended to boost collaboration within the company. Forstall rose through the ranks but made enemies along the way, particularly among the executive ranks. Steve Jobs always had a fondness for him and thus protected him, but those days are in the rearview mirror.

Forstall has led the development of iOS from the get-go, the operating system that powers the iDevices that are of paramount importance to Apple's success. The disproportionate weight that these gadgets carry relative to overall results cannot be overstated.

Source: SEC filings.

Just the iPhone and iPad combined have generated trailing-12-month sales of $112.9 billion, which comes out to 72% of total TTM sales. With the father of iOS being shown the door, those are big shoes to fill.

Three's company
Within upper level management, Forstall's responsibilities are now being chopped up among three other execs: Jony Ive of industrial design, Eddy Cue of Internet services, and Craig Federighi of Mac software. Ive will now provide direction for human interface, while Siri and Maps are going to Cue's jurisdiction. However, the bulk of iOS development is now being rolled into Federighi's department, even though he's a relative newcomer to the top.

Early last year, Apple's senior VP of Mac software Bertrand Serlet left the company. He was widely viewed as the father of OS X and actually left a day before the operating system he built enjoyed its tenth birthday. Like Forstall, both Federighi and Serlet came to Apple through its acquisition of NeXT, the same deal that brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded. Federighi left Apple, only to return in 2009.

Source: Apple.

When Serlet stepped down in March 2011, Federighi, then just a regular VP, succeededÂ him and has played an integral role shipping OS X verions Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion. It wasn't until just two months ago that Federighi was promoted to upper-level management, adding a "senior" to his VP title and now bumping elbows with the rest of the Apple elite.

As such, Federighi is now subject to SEC reporting requirements and filed a Form 3, an initial statement of beneficial ownership. It showed that he was the happy recipient of a 75,000 restricted stock unit, or RSU, grant to welcome him to the new role, adding to the 61,250 RSUs he already had and 8,000 shares held directly at the time. Since then, some of these RSUs from older grants have vested, and he subsequently surrendered some for tax liabilities. Including direct shares and RSUs, he now has a stake of about 140,000 shares -- almost $85 million based on Friday's close.

Federighi! Federighi! He's our man! If he can't do it... Apple's screwed
Both iOS and OS X are now under the same umbrella: Federighi's. That's a lot of responsibility for an exec that's only been around since 2009, after a hiatus. Although, having both operating systems under the same roof should accelerate the broader trend we've been witnessing in computing where desktop and mobile operating systems are converging.

Microsoft (NAS: MSFT) is taking that notion to the extreme, since Windows 8, Windows RT, and Windows Phone 8 all share a common interface and a technical foundation and distinguishing between them can be rather confusing for the average consumer. Still, it's happening, and consumers had better get used to it.

In recent years, Apple has continued to bring iOS features to OS X, so consolidating the teams makes some sense. Federighi has a strong background, working at NeXT before spending 10 years at Ariba, including as CTO. Software is a key aspect of Apple's strategy, especially when it comes to iOS, and the pressure will be on for him to continue pushing innovation.

If Federighi can't do it, Apple's screwed.

With the near-term uncertainties created by the shake-up, now's as good a time as any to read up on Apple's long-term fundamentals and itsÂ biggest opportunities. The Motley Fool has laid it all out for current or prospective shareholders in a new premium research service all about Apple. Get started byÂ clicking here.Â

Telecommunication firms restore service bit-by-bit after Sandy - Reuters

Wed Oct 31, 2012 5:17pm EDT

* AT&T, T-Mobile USA sign wireless roaming agreement

* Sprint, AT&T say making progress in network improvements

* Verizon Wireless offers free charging for all cell phones

By Sinead Carew and Diane Bartz

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Telecommunications companies said they were working to restore services on Wednesday after floods and power outages from Hurricane Sandy affected mobile phones, internet, home phones and television in the U.S. Northeast.

Rivals AT&T Inc and T-Mobile USA said they agreed to open their networks to each other's customers in New York and New Jersey to help their coverage as a result of the storm.

Verizon Communications Inc said it was still focusing its efforts on restoring services for its landline services below 39th Street, where it said "conditions are bleak."

The New York-based company, which had flooding in three central offices that hold key telecom equipment, said it spent the last day pumping water out of its buildings and bringing in portable generators to power the building.

It said that flooded basements had damaged some generators and fuel pumps but that its voice switches and data equipment located on higher floors were not damaged.

Sprint Nextel Inc, the No. 3 U.S. wireless provider, and AT&T, the No. 2 wireless service, said they were making progress in improving their wireless services.

The number of wireless broadcast towers that are out of service in Sprint's network is declining, according to spokeswoman Crystal Davis.

"We are getting the sites back up and running. We are working aggressively," Davis said but noted that it was too soon to release numbers. However, the company said that workers are unable to access cell sites in some flooded areas.

FLOODING, POWER LOSS, DEBRIS

AT&T said it could not say how much the pact with Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA would improve its coverage.

"The vast majority of our cell sites in the Northeast are online and working," AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said but he noted that the company is still having issues.

He said that "flooding, power loss, transportation and debris all pose challenges," in areas that were hard-hit in New York City and New Jersey.

Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon and Vodafone Group Plc said that more than 94 percent of its cell towers between Maine and Virginia were up and running.

It is still working to restore services at sites that are offline in New York City and northern New Jersey.

"As power and connectivity conditions have improved over the last 24 hours, we have seen some improvement to wireless service in Lower Manhattan and elsewhere in the Metropolitan area," Verizon Wireless said.

Verizon Wireless and Sprint both use the same network technology. Neither company had any immediate comment when asked whether they have had any discussions about forging an agreement similar to the network roaming agreement forged by AT&T and T-Mobile USA.

NO POWER TO CHARGE PHONES

Along with spotty coverage many people in New York City were having trouble finding a power source to charge their phones because of electricity outages in large portions of the city.

Verizon Wireless said it is offering free cellphone charging to customers of any operator who come into its stores in the hurricane region. It is working on delivering mobile charging stations to hard-hit areas such as New York City.

The Federal Communications Commission had said on Tuesday that about 25 percent of cell sites were out of service and it warned that wireless service could get worse before it gets better due to power outages.

On Wednesday afternoon, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said conditions were improving but that "serious outages remain, particularly in New York, New Jersey and other hard-hit areas."

The regulator said there were still some problems with emergency calls that it had referenced on Tuesday.

Some emergency 911 calls were still being re-routed to other 911 call centers, and were arriving without data showing police or firefighters where the caller was located, David Turetsky, the head of the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau said in a call with reporters.

CABLE SERVICES DISRUPTED

Cable operators Cablevision Systems Corp, Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable also said they were having service problems.

Time Warner Cable said that while it has had no reports of significant damage to its network it is hard to assess the situation because many of its customers have no power.

It said it has crews ready to go to affected neighborhoods once power has been restored to examine any local damage and begin repairs.

Cablevision, which had been due to report earnings Nov. 1, said on Wednesday that it rescheduled the release to Nov. 6 "due to the recovery efforts underway following Hurricane Sandy."

The day before Cablevision had said it faced widespread service interruptions primarily related to loss of power and that it was working on service restoration.

Canaccord Genuity analyst Tom Eagan expects Cablevision to incur "significant storm-related costs" in the current quarter. The company had booked $20 million of costs related to Hurricane Irene, which hit the U.S. Northeast in 2011, Eagan said in a research note.

Comcast, whose headquarters is in Philadelphia and serves East Coast states, said it had nothing new to report on Wednesday. It had said on Tuesday that service should be restored as power comes back.

Why Apple (and You) Might Miss Scott Forstall - Wired

Photo: Jon Phillips/Wired

Apple announced Monday that iOS chief Scott Forstall would be leavingÂ the company. While most commenters seem happy to see him go, itâ€™s worth noting that Apple is parting ways with one of the people who turned it into the worldâ€™s most powerful tech company.

Forstall was reportedly difficult to work with, according to The New York TimesÂ (hey, so was Steve Jobs)Â and even refused to sign an apology letter penned by CEO Tim Cook over the Maps debacle. News of his departure was met by â€œquiet jubilationâ€ by some at Apple, according to other reports.Â And with Jony Ive now in charge of the look and feel of products Apple-wide, some are hoping this means a move toward more streamlined, elegant UIs for Apple and the end of the silly skeuomorphic design that Forstall reportedly preferred, like the fake stitching and leather of so many iOS apps.

But Forstall was about way, way more than just the look of Calendar and Contacts. And to focus only on those would be to ignore some landmark innovations he helped shepherd to market during his 15 years at Apple, projects that fundamentally changed both desktop and mobile computing. Hereâ€™s a look at his five greatest contributions.

Bringing Unix Support to the Mac

Before Apple acquired NeXT and used its operating system to revamp its own, Mac OS was based entirely on code developed at Apple.

Starting in 2000 with Mac OS X, Appleâ€™s desktop operating system has been Unix-based. Why is this significant? Many developers were already familiar with the Unix operating system. With a Unix base, coders could use standard Unix commands in the command line, there was greater code portability, and Mac OS X got all of the associated benefits of Unix. For example, Unix is architected in a modular fashion, which can be beneficial when it comes to system security.

Mac OS X Leopard

Wired staff writers playing with Photobooth.

After beginning his career under Steve Jobs at NeXT as one of the chief architects of the NeXTSTEP operating system, Forstall continued on to Apple to lead development of Mac OS X.

Forstall was fully responsible for Mac OS X beginning in 2006 and was responsible for the release of OS X Leopard in October 2007. It contained more than 300 improvements over its predecessor, OS X Tiger, including support for 64-bit applications and the backup service Time Machine.

Even more importantly, Leopard introduced Photobooth. And we all know how that has enhanced and enriched our lives. (Even Steve Jobs took some time to have some fun with Photobooth).

The Aqua User Interface

The original UI for Mac OS X, called Aqua.

Scott Forstall spearheaded the Aqua User Interface, the graphical UI that has graced Mac OS X since it debuted at MacWorld in January 2000.

Although the look evolved over the years, from translucent pinstripes to brushed metal to the gradient gray color scheme weâ€™ve seen since OS X Leopard, two of its key features have persisted: gummy-like buttons (like the ones for closing a program window) and a dock for quickly launching and multitasking between applications.

At its unveiling at MacWorld, Steve Jobs said of the UI, â€œOne of the design goals was when you saw it you wanted to lick it.â€

A Touch-First Mobile Operating System

The iPhone wasnâ€™t the first touchscreen device or even the first smartphone. But Apple did pioneer an industry-changing touch-first operating system, iOS, and Forestall led the team that developed it.

Forstall talked about what it was like rethinking the computing experience in his testimony during the Apple v. Samsung trial in early AugustÂ â€œOne of [the challenges of developing iOS] was everything we dealt with before was based on mouse and keyboard, and here we were changing the entire user interface to be based around touch,â€ Forstall said. â€œWe had to rethink everything about what big controls would be, knowing where you are in the document, knowing when you reach the listâ€¦. Every single part of every device had to be rethought for doing touch.â€

Android?

â€œI will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Appleâ€™s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,â€ Jobs said when the first batch of Android smartphones landed in 2010. â€œIâ€™m going to destroy Android, because itâ€™s a stolen product. Iâ€™m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.â€

Apple has since repeatedly insisted that Googleâ€™s copied iOS. â€œYouâ€™re stealing all the value weâ€™ve created,â€ senior VP of marketing Phil Schiller said of design copycats in the industry.Â Even Windows Phoneâ€™s Joe Belfiore got in on the action at Mondayâ€™s Windows Phone 8 launch.Â â€œ[The phone interface] was standardized by Apple and the iPhone and really it was copied by Android,â€ Belfiore said.

If Android did copy iOS, well then by extension, we have Forstall to thank for the worldâ€™s two most popular mobile operating systems. Thanks, Scott!

Posted by Dexter Scofield at 3:00 PM No comments:
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Former Apple SVP Scott Forstall, Skeuomorphs, and Windows Live Tiles - Techzone360

OK, we all know that all good things come to an end. So when did Scott Forstallâ€™s good thing with Apple come to an end?

Most of the media has its money on Forstall refusing to sign the now famous Apple apology letter for the companyâ€™s failure to deliver the highest quality possible for its iOS 6 Map App with which the company replaced Google Maps.

It is certainly believable that Forstall got on the wrong side of Tim Cook with that one on several levels.

Another side â€" and this one probably has many Apple employees on its side â€" is that Forstall was the singular voice that kept insisting that Apple follow a â€œskeuomorphicâ€ design paradigm. What the heck does this mean? Art imitating life. Life imitating art? Think, for example, of auto hubcaps that imitate old fashioned wheels with spokes (ugh!). Think of those Apple design elements that do the same.

The most obvious within iOS is the wood grain look and feel of the iBooks bookcase.

The severity of the break â€" full removal rather than a mere pushing aside and subtle shifting of responsibilities â€" suggests perhaps it was a matter of both issues. Forstall was also, despite his fairly entertaining stage presence, apparently unloved by his colleagues, and Forstall apparently had a fair measure of disdain for some of them as well.

This probably was the final nail in the departure coffin.

Forstallâ€™s responsibilities have now been scattered among two or three other Apple SVs â€" who these responsibilities went to is not all that important â€" the next release of iOS will be the only measure of failure or success on this front and that is what matters.

We only have one question. Will these new execs-in-charge-of-iOS be paying attention to all the cool new things Microsoft is doing on the Windows 8 and Win Phone 8Â UI/UX front? They had surely better be doing so! No skeuomorphism there â€" just Live Tiles and plenty of UI innovation.

A Windows 8 Interlude

When Windows Phone 7 first launched in 2010, two things became immediately evident: First, what was then referred to as the â€œWindows Metro UIâ€ (the use of â€œMetroâ€ was recently dropped due to trademark issues) was clearly a potential mobile UI game changer. It wasnâ€™t quite yet what it has become today â€" but Microsoft did not drop the ball on it â€" they have indeed possibly created a UI game changer â€" on every possible hardware front, not solely on the mobile front.

Second, Joe Belfiore â€" the godfather of all things Windows Phone â€" first became familiar to most of us that day. The day of the formal WP7 launch Steve Ballmer fell entirely flat, but Belfiore saved the day with an energetic, appealing and winning demo of the new Metro UI and its possibilities.Â

This past Monday, during WP8â€™s coming out party, there was Belfiore once again, now showing off the first real possibilities of the new â€œWindows 8 style interfaceâ€ and its live tiles â€" there is huge promise there. In fact, it is clear that the potential we saw back in 2010 has been attained, and that thereâ€™s plenty of room for innovation.

By the time 2015 rolls around, the competitive edge may very well have shifted dramatically back in Microsoftâ€™s direction.

Nokia no doubt made the right choice in moving to Windows Phone, although the company has other issues we believe should lead to Nokia-Hewlett-Packard M&A action. Nokia, by the way, also happens to hold the key patent to creating multi-user accounts on smartphones â€" something that, along with other significant patents Nokia holds, may prove to be quite valuable to Nokia WP8 innovation.

There is a patented reason why the new Android Jelly Bean 4.2 supports multiple user accounts on tablets but not on smartphones.

Back to Apple and Forstall

Weâ€™ve been arguing for some time now that Apple needs to return to powerful innovation and needs to leave litigation behind. It may very well be that Tim Cook has come around to fully understanding that as much as the current crop of iPhone 5, iOS 6 and iPad products continue to win the day, their shelf life is very likely coming to an end. Apple needs a new innovation homerun, and perhaps Cook sees Scott Forstall and his collection of issues noted earlier as a roadblock to hitting that innovation homerun.Â

This is where we place out money on the Forstall exit. Apple needs to innovate and Microsoft looks to us to be on the verge of an innovation roll. We believe Cook sees the same thing. Not necessarily for today â€" but in thinking ahead to 2015.

Last week, when Cook was asked what he thought of the new Microsoft Surface, he claimed that he had heard it was a confused and compromised product (we stress that he â€œheard thisâ€ as he also noted he hadnâ€™t played with it directly). That is exactly the kind of statement that can come back and haunt a CEO (such as when Steve Ballmer was famously quoted as say â€œAndroid is just a press releaseâ€), and we believe Cook may have a sense of the future being a haunted one if Apple fails to innovate in a big way â€" a game-changing way.

Forstall simply ran out of innovation (which meant his collection of issues could no longer be overlooked). Cook clearly knows that hardware captures the eye first, but it is the OS (and the apps it leads to) that keeps users coming back.

Edited by Braden Becker

FCC Describes 911 and Cellphone Problems - New York Times

F.C.C. Describes 911 and Cellphone Problems

WASHINGTON â€" Cellphone calls in the Northeast region were continuing to fail Wednesday because one-quarter of the transmission sites in areas ravaged by Hurricane Sandy were knocked out and many of those are not expected to come back online for several days at least, government officials said.

Interactive Graphic

Photographs

The Federal Communications Commission also said â€œa small numberâ€ of 911 service centers â€" the sites that receive emergency calls and link them with first responders â€" also were out of service after the storm, the second time in recent months that 911 service has suffered weather-related failures. Many emergency calls were rerouted, officials said, to call centers that survived the storm.

â€œOur assumption is that communication outages could get worse before they get better,â€ Julius Genachowski, the F.C.C. chairman, told reporters in a conference call Tuesday afternoon. â€œI want to emphasize that the storm is not over,â€ he said, referring to both the weather and the facilities.

AT&T declined to specify the status of its systems on Wednesday. All of the companies said they were working to assess and repair the damaged networks.

Some of the emergency calls that were affected by the storm were rerouted to new 911 service centers without electronic location information, which tells the operator where the call originated. This means public safety officials must rely on callers for details about where an emergency was occurring, Mr. Genachowski said.

F.C.C. officials declined to identify where the affected 911 centers were located, or which phone companies were responsible for servicing them.

Roughly one-quarter of the residents of the 10 states that were affected by the storm also lost cable television and broadband Internet service, killing most or all of the connections that millions of consumers were relying on for information.

Few radio broadcasters were affected by the storm, said David Turetsky, the chief of the F.C.C.â€™s public safety and homeland security bureau. Three stations received F.C.C. permission to broadcast at higher power levels, and one station relocated its transmissions on the broadcast spectrum because of damage to its radio tower.

The F.C.C. activated its disaster reporting information system during the storm, a voluntary system through which wireless, landline, broadcast, satellite and cable TV companies can report the status of their systems. Based on those reports, and its own on-the-ground assessments, the F.C.C. knows where the problems are and which companies are responsible for addressing them, but officials declined on Tuesday to make that information public.

In its manual for use of the disaster system, the F.C.C. says that the information â€œis sensitive for national security and/or commercial reasonsâ€ and therefore will be treated as â€œpresumptively confidential.â€

Similar storm-related 911 failures have been the subject of previous F.C.C. scrutiny. The commission is currently in the middle of a formal inquiry into the causes of widespread failures of 911 networks in June resulting from the derecho, a violent wind and thunderstorm.

â€œFrom isolated breakdowns in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania to systemic failures in Northern Virginia and West Virginia, it appears that a significant number of 911 systems and services were partially or completely down for several days,â€ the F.C.C. said in statements related to that inquiry.

Roughly one million people in Northern Virginia were affected by 911 failures in June, which primarily occurred in systems managed by Verizon. Company officials said before this weekâ€™s storm that they had made a number of improvements to their emergency systems and backups that would help them maintain service during the storm.

The commission collected public comments on the 911 failures over the summer, but it has yet to report its findings.

Brian X. Chen contributed reporting from New York.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Apple Shake-Up Could End Real-World Images

A version of this article appeared in print on November 1, 2012, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Apple Shake-Up Could Mean End to Real-World Images in Software.

Apple Shake-Up Could Mean End to Real-World Images in Software

A version of this article appeared in print on November 1, 2012, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Apple Shake-Up Could Mean End to Real-World Images in Software.

F.C.C. Details Storm-Related Cellphone Problems

A version of this article appeared in print on November 1, 2012, on page B4 of the New York edition with the headline: F.C.C. Details Storm-Related Cellphone Problems.

Bringing Unix Support to the Mac

Mac OS X Leopard

The Aqua User Interface

A Touch-First Mobile Operating System

Android?

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F.C.C. Describes 911 and Cellphone Problems

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