Got dial-up and don't want to give it up? You're not alone.
An estimated 10 percent of Americans are surfing the net via dial-up connections, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
And a lot of those people apparently see no compelling reason to change. The report indicates that those users are not itching to make a change to a speedier broadband connection in large part because, they say, broadband is too expensive.
Of this dial-up group, 35 percent cited the cost issue, while 19 percent say nothing will ever prompt them to change. Another subset--14 percent--say they're still on dial-up because broadband is not available in their neighborhoods
The Associated Press, in its posting on the report, cited this assessment by the report's author, John Horrigan: "That (resistance to change) suggests that solving the supply problem where there are availability gaps is only going to go so far."
The survey collected information from 2,251 U.S. residents, between April 8 and May 11.
Earlier this week, AOL said it would be raising the subscription fee for its dial-up service by 20 percent, starting at the end of July.
UPDATE:To include mention of a report that Facebook valued itself at $3.75 billion.
SAN JOSE, Calif.--What is Facebook really worth?
One of the burning questions in the technology business during the past year also played a major role in the dispute between social networks ConnectU and Facebook, according to documents obtained by CNET News.com.
Some interesting details about Facebook's valuation were revealed in partially redacted court records released Wednesday by federal district judge James Ware. The documents were a transcript of a June 23 hearing in the case, which Ware had closed to the public. The judge released the redacted transcripts after CNET Networks, parent company of News.com, objected to the closing and launched an effort to have relevant documents unsealed.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
(Credit: Facebook)ConnectU, founded by brother Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra, filed suit against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 and accused him of stealing their business plan. The two sides reached a settlement, but ConnectU's side tried to pull out of the deal after alleging that Facebook fraudulently misrepresented the value of its stock. Ware disagreed and last week ordered that the settlement be enforced. That means Facebook is nearing the end of the ConnectU case.
But what the transcripts show was just how much Microsoft inadvertently influenced the proceedings.
Last fall, Microsoft paid $240 million to acquire a 1.6 percent share of Facebook. The day that news of the deal broke, headlines screamed that Facebook was worth $15 billion based on Microsoft's investment.
Analysts said all along that the money Microsoft paid was more a reflection of the company's need to strengthen ties to Facebook than what Microsoft thought the company was really worth. Judging from the transcripts, the Microsoft money may have gotten ConnectU's founders seeing dollar signs. But it shouldn't have, according to statements made during the June 23 hearing by Facebook attorney Neel Chatterjee.
The value of Facebook shares
As part of the settlement, Facebook agreed to give ConnectU's four principals--Narendra, the brothers Winklevoss, and their father, Howard Winklevoss, who had invested in ConnectU--an undisclosed amount of cash and Facebook stock. In exchange, ConnectU's principals agreed to give Facebook all the stock they held in ConnectU. The settlement was essentially an acquisition.
In a statement to the court, a small portion of which was redacted, it's obvious that Chatterjee wanted to make clear that Microsoft's investment in Facebook had little in common with ConnectU's deal. The transcript indicates that ConnectU received common stock while Microsoft received preferred stock.
"ConnectU didn't get that and they knew they weren't getting that," Chatterjee said. "What Microsoft got out of the deal...are fundamentally different than what ConnectU is getting, or the principals of ConnectU, which was subject to the fair-market valuation."
Chatterjee pointed out that Facebook provided ConnectU with fair-market valuations it obtained when it considered using stock for other partnerships. But he also noted that if ConnectU wanted to know what Facebook was worth it could have obtained its own "independent appraisal," which it did not do before agreeing the the settlement.
Getting an accurate Facebook valuation was not why ConnectU had sought to challenge the settlement, said the company's attorney, David Barrett. ConnectU argued that the settlement was unenforceable for several reasons, the first being that Facebook withheld vital information.
"The point is that (Facebook's) duty is to disclose all material information," Barrett said, noting that Facebook is a privately held company but comes under security laws when selling shares. "If they decide to engage in a private trade of their stock, they do have to disclose material information."
Specifically, Barrett said that Facebook's board of directors obtained an evaluation of their company's worth following the Microsoft sale but before the settlement was reached. ConnectU claimed that Facebook never handed over that valuation. The transcript of the hearing didn't reveal the amount of Facebook's valuation.
But on Thursday, The New York Times' Brad Stone reported that in a transcript from a June 13 case management conference, that figure was revealed: "one-quarter of its apparent value based on Facebook's public press releases." That would put the price of Facebook at $3.75 billion.
As Stone points out that valuing private companies is not exact and we'd have to wait until someone actually plunks down real money for Facebook in an acquisition or in a public offering of the company's stock.
In any case, Chatterjee, Facebook's attorney, told the court he suspected that the reason ConnectU's founders had changed their mind about the settlement was because of a dispute with the company's former law firm, Quinn Emanuel. The reality of legal fees "was affecting the economics in some way they don't like," Chatterjee said.
Lawyers from Quinn Emanuel have filed a lien against ConnectU's settlement money, and appeared before Ware on Wednesday to request that he not release any of the company's funds until they got paid.
CNET News.com's Caroline McCarthy contributed to this report.
SAN JOSE, Calif.--The public will be allowed a peek at some of what was said last week during a settlement hearing in the long-running legal dispute between ConnectU and Facebook.
James Ware, a U.S. district court judge, barred reporters and the public from attending the June 23 hearing in San Jose, Calif. He also put many of the documents in the case under seal. CNET Networks filed an objection to Ware's decision last week.
On Wednesday, Ware said he would release a redacted copy of the transcript from the June 23 hearing and allow a magistrate judge to decide on whether some of the other sealed documents should be released. What was redacted is still unclear, according to CNET lawyers who were at Wednesday's hearing.
Facebook has agreed to pay ConnectU's founders cash and stock as part of the terms of the settlement, but the exact amounts have not been released.
The case began in 2004, when ConnectU's founders alleged in a lawsuit that the idea for Facebook was originally theirs, and accused Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of ripping off their business plan and their code while they all attended Harvard.
Zuckerberg denied the allegations. The case dragged on until the two sides reached a settlement earlier this year that called for Facebook to pay cash and stock to ConnectU's founders. ConnectU later tried to back out after it said it had obtained important new information.
Some of that information was unearthed by a computer forensics expert hired by ConnectU who located instant-message logs belonging to Zuckerberg.
But Ware decided there was no reason to throw out the settlement. The purpose of Wednesday's hearing was to figure out how the settlement would be paid and take care of other legal loose ends.
Prior to the judge's decision about releasing some of the sealed documents, Facebook's lawyers objected, arguing that some of the information included Facebook's source code, proprietary trade secrets, financial information, and communications between Facebook employees and their family and friends.
Roger Myers, the attorney representing CNET, told the court that before documents should be sealed in this kind of legal proceeding, the parties had to prove that they would suffer a "competitive harm."
"They have the burden of proof," Myers told the court.
Ware said he wanted to protect the privacy enjoyed by parties who are in mediation. He said he had promised ConnectU and Facebook that their discussions would not be part of the public record and he would have to go back on his word: "The integrity of the court is an issue," Ware said.
Myers, from the San Francisco law firm of Holme Roberts & Owen, wasn't altogether happy with the judge's decision to redact information from the transcript.
"It's not clear what he's going to redact," Myers said later. "Whether we think the redactions go too far, it's going to be hard to say until we see them. I think he's going to redact what was said in the mediation...In the documents that were filed with respect to the proposed judgment that includes a copy of the term sheet of the settlement, the only thing that was redacted was financial information: how much money was going to be paid and how much stock was going to be given.
"It sounds like he's (going to redact more than that) in the transcript," Myers continued. "We think that goes too far...There's hundreds of documents filed under seal. We think that most of them should not have been sealed. There's some things that (Facebook) can keep confidential, like their source code and trade secrets but they've gone way overboard here."
As for Zuckerberg's IM logs, Myers said: "Those should not have been sealed. There's been no showing made that would justify keeping that information under seal, so those should be released."
After the discussion about unsealing documents ended, Ware turned to address a third-party claim on some of ConnectU's settlement money. Before ConnectU co-founders Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra can pocket the money and stock Facebook agreed to pay to settle the case, they have to pay off their former lawyers.
Lawyers representing Quinn Emanuel, the law firm that once represented ConnectU, made every attempt to persuade the judge not to disperse the settlement money and stock before they've been paid.
The legal spat is winding down between Mark Zuckerberg and the former college classmates who accused him of stealing Facebook's business plan from them.
The two sides will be in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday to iron out the details of a settlement between Facebook and ConnectU, founded by Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra.
The three ConnectU founders claimed in a lawsuit filed in 2004 that Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder, stole ConnectU's code and business plan while all four were students at Harvard University.
ConnectU tried to back out of the settlement after a computer-forensics expert it hired discovered some of Zuckerberg's instant-messaging logs that the company claims is relevant to the case.
Once it obtained the logs, ConnectU accused Facebook of fraud and asked the judge to throw out the settlement. One of the reasons ConnectU gave was that Facebook never disclosed that it had altered the value of its common stock not long before February's settlement was reached.
Facebook, which is not publicly traded, did not deny that it had altered its valuation, and the judge in the case found nothing in Facebook's actions to be fraudulent.
As for what was revealed in Zuckerberg's IM logs, we don't know because the court has prevented the public from gaining access to much of the information in the case.
Indeed, the only fireworks left in the dispute might come from a third party: CNET Networks, parent company of News.com. CNET objected to U.S. District Judge James Ware's decision to close the courtroom for a June 23 hearing between Facebook and ConnectU and is pursuing a request to have the court unseal documents related to the proceedings. (CNET Networks has since been acquired by CBS in a deal that closed Monday.)
The reason for barring the public appears clear. Facebook doesn't want to reveal financial information, the content of Zuckerberg's IM logs, and the terms of the settlement. case. As my colleague Declan McCullagh wrote in a recent blog, the term "under seal" appears at least 234 times in the official court docket.
McCullagh wrote: "Not only should the courtroom not have been closed, but any audio recording or transcript of the proceedings should be released."
Updated 1:12 p.m. PDT to reflect that the hearing session has ended.
SAN JOSE, Calif.--A hearing in a dispute between Facebook and ConnectU wrapped up early Monday afternoon with no ruling, after the federal judge overseeing the matter had closed the proceedings to the public and the press.
U.S. District Judge James Ware plans to issue a ruling before too much time has elapsed, attorneys involved in the matter said as they left the courthouse here following the hearing, which lasted somewhat less than two hours.
Reporters from CNET News.com, the San Jose Mercury News, and Bloomberg had objected to the courtroom being closed, which is uncommon in federal civil cases, and asked for a delay so their attorneys could be present. Ware rejected the request, saying he would "set up a time to make objections."
"I've made a judgment that it could be beneficial to the court" to conduct at least the first portion of the hearing "in a closed courtroom," Ware said Monday morning.
A lawsuit between ConnectU and Facebook was settled earlier this year. ConnectU now says Facebook, the most popular social network in the world, entered into the settlement fraudulently. Therefore, it says, the case must be reopened.
The beef stems from allegations by ConnectU's founders that Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg stole their business idea in 2003, when the founders were students at Harvard University.
Many documents in the case have been filed under seal, including instant messages reportedly sent by Zuckerberg to colleagues at Facebook.
Behind the MediaSmart Connect's fold-down front panel is a USB port and a slot for an optional removable hard drive.
(Credit: HP)Hewlett-Packard's line of MediaSmart TVs includes the built-in ability to stream digital media from your home network and the Internet straight to their screens. But for the vast majority of us who don't own an HP TV, the company will soon have a second option: the MediaSmart Connect. The little black box connects to your home network (via its built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi or wired Ethernet) and streams a wide variety of digital audio, photo, and video files--including content from compatible Internet services (including Live365, Vongo, CinemaNow, and MovieLink).
The MediaSmart Connect should be able to pull digital files from any UPnP and DLNA compliant storage devices on your home network--beyond standard Windows PCs, that includes network attached storage devices such as HP's own MediaSmart Server and Media Vault. It can also double as a Windows Media Center Extender when interfacing with Media Center-enabled versions of Windows Vista--allowing the streaming of live or recorded TV at HD resolutions. The MediaSmart Connect doesn't have any on-board storage, but users can use the box to pull compatible media straight from an HP Pocket Media Drive (found on the company's PC desktops) or a standard USB flash drive.
The MediaSmart Connect will be available later this summer for $349, and is now available for preorder. (If it looks familiar, it's because HP has been teasing us with it since January's Consumer Electronics Show.) It'll include a learning remote that can control up to four other devices, an HDMI cable, and a $20 CinemaNow coupon. To drum up publicity for the product's launch, HP is offering a trade-in program where 100 people can exchange their old digital media adapter for the MediaSmart Connect. The company is also teaming with Microsoft to offer a series of four online "webinars" to demonstrate the product's features over the next few weeks. Feel free to check them out, but don't be surprised if you're just getting an infomercial for the product in question.
We'll be doing a detailed hands-on review of the MediaSmart Connect once we get a final production sample in July. (Also on deck: the similar Linksys DMA2200.) Until then, the floor is open: do you have any interest in the MediaSmart Connect, or in Windows Media Center Extenders in general? Is the whole idea of streaming media in the home just a niche market that will never go mainstream? Or would you prefer to go with an Xbox 360, which handles nearly all of the same media streaming functions, and adds game playback to boot?
Google engineering director David Glazer, right, talks to Matt Waddell at the Campfire One event at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Behind him is the skull of a T. Rex skeleton.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Maybe it was because Google preaching to the social-networking choir, or maybe it was the toasty campfires and hot cocoa, but demonstrations of Google's new Friend Connect service seemed generally well received Monday night.
Google executives showed off the technology, a Google-hosted application that designed to let Web site coders easily add social features to their sites, at the company's third Campfire One event at the company's headquarters here. Previous debuts at the events were of two other significant developer-oriented software technologies, OpenSocial and App Engine.
Program manager Mussie Shore gave the central demonstration sprucing up a guacamole-lovers' site with the ability to let users join as members, comment, post photos, rate recipes, and spread word of those activities to contacts on existing social-networking sites LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, or hi5.
Ingrid Michaelson webmaster Jenny Begin and Nat Brown, CTO of iLike, show Friend Connect enhancements they made to the Ingrid Michaelson Web page.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)Google Friend Connect employs several more-or-less standard networking technologies--OpenSocial as a foundation for richer Web applications; OpenID to handle login chores; OAuth to let users approve the grafting of new branches onto their existing social networks such as Facebook. It's yet another option in the complicated and fast-changing set of alliances and standards efforts in the social-networking domain.
Attendees I spoke to generally waxed positive about it. And Don MacAskill, Chief Executive of photo-sharing site SmugMug, said he'd be interested in trying it out.
In his demo, Shore picked some social applications from an online catalog, tweaked minor parameters such as background color, clicked a button to generate a few lines of JavaScript, copied it into his Web page, and exercised the new features on the revamped Web site.
Program manager Mussie Shore demonstrates Friend Connect. Key to the process is the 'generate code' button that produces some JavaScript that can be copied into a Web site.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)
Shore touts the benefits of Friend Connect.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)
The crowd settles in at Google's third Campfire One event in the Googleplex courtyard.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)
The Googleplex by night. Yes, the roof is crooked.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)Adobe Systems plans by the end of May to unveil the latest version of Acrobat Connect Pro, which can handle Web conferencing as well as conduct corporate trainings and manage academic courses.
Web conferencing is increasingly being touted as a "green" tool that reduces the costs and carbon emissions of business travel.
Users of Connect can chat during online meetings, which can be recorded and archived with audio, video, and transcripts of chats intact. Among the unique features are whiteboarding tools and the capability for groups of users to separate into virtual breakout rooms. There's also integration with third-party IM applications.
Audio recording options allow precise controls for presentations.
(Credit: Adobe)Connect can work in any Flash-enabled Web browser. There's no need, for instance, to enable Java or to monkey with administrator privileges.
Adobe AIR enables Flash presentations from Connect to be played on the desktop away from the browser, which could come in handy for business travelers who fly frequently. The files can also be viewed on Flash-enabled mobile phones.
Adobe Presenter, also receiving an update, adds a tab of functions to Microsoft PowerPoint 2007. It lets users create presentations rich with audio, video, and animations, which can be integrated with Acrobat Connect.
Adobe says it has 72 percent of the market share for "eLearning". Among the competitors to Connect--which starts at $42 per month--are WebEx, which Cisco Systems bought last year, and LiveMeeting, which Microsoft is selling to direct retailers.
(Credit:
iRobot)
It's not quite Rosie yet, Mr. Brooks, but we'll concede that the company you founded is a step closer to The Jetsons world of communications.
iRobot is expected to unveil this ConnectR communications robot, aka a physical avatar, at DigitalLife 2007 on Thursday.
(Credit:
iRobot)
The ConnectR for $499 is a robot you control on your behalf from anywhere in the world using a Web-based application. With a VoIP speakerphone and one-way video, it allows you to carry on a conversation as if you are right in the room. You can also control where it goes.
The video camera mounted on the ConnectR allows the user to have wide-angle views and zoom in close enough to read text.
Think of it as a really advanced VoIP speaker/videophone that can move around the room.
ConnectR works over a local wireless network that the robot finds and prompts the owner to choose upon setup. Visitors are required to enter a unique access code in order to inhabit the ConnectR, but homeowners can also control access to the robot with a privacy button.
Sony's years-long effort to promote its Atrac audio encoding format appears to be coming to an end.
Sony's known for creating proprietary formats rather than adopting formats developed elsewhere. Many other companies--Microsoft in particular--do the same thing, but Sony sometimes seems to cling to its technologies long past the date where it makes business sense. Sony invented Atrac for its MiniDisc, but as MP3 players became popular, Sony tried to push the format into the new world of discless players. Those first Sony portable players didn't support MP3. This helped a down-on-its-luck company with no consumer electronics experience to take the portable music market away from the company that invented the Walkman. By the time Sony began rolling MP3 support into its portable players in late 2004, Apple's iPod had a huge lead.
Sony Connect, the company's online music service, was plagued by problems: The first version of the service suffered from a poor interface, and a relaunch plan was jammed by immature technology and internal politics. But it was also a legacy of Sony's lock-in strategy--like Apple (and more recently, Microsoft), Sony wanted its store to work only with its players and software (SonicStage). Hence, Connect sold files in the Atrac format. Instead of achieving lock-in, this merely helped Sony's portable music products achieve irrelevance.
Earlier this summer, rumors surfaced that Sony was going to kill the service, but then Sony quashed those rumors. Now, continuing a recent trend started with Sony Ericsson phones and seen with some other Sony players, Sony announced a new line of video Walkmans that will not support Atrac, but will support MP3, Windows Media Audio and AAC. And as Engadget reports, the company quietly acknowledged that it's phasing Sony Connect out by next year.
