Facebook profile pictures wanted for display at the Louvre

One of the Facebook profile pictures that could soon be featured in an exhibition at the Louvre, the Met or London's National Portrait Gallery.) (YouTube.com/ProfilePictureExhib)Has anybody ever you that your Facebook profile picture is a work of art?

If a new collaborative arts project spearheaded by a team of Londoners proves successful, it could actually become one.

The creators of The Profile Picture Exhibition are working to get portraits of today's world citizens hanging alongside those of historical figures at The Louvre in Paris, The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and London's National Portrait gallery.

"Museums need to know that the world has changed, along with its portraits, and ours are frankly way better," says the narrator of the project's video as photographs of people dressed in costumes posing outrageously and making duck-faces flash across the screen.

"Each one of our profile pics is a statement about who we are," he continues. "It's finally time we claimed our space in art history."

All three institutions have accepted the proposition, according to CNET -- under one condition: The project's Facebook group must first reach one million members.

Once it does, "every single person" who joined the group will have their mug on display at one of thee museums, promise the creators Ben Beale and Rory Forrest in their video.

As a gesture of appreciation, when the group hit 1000 members the duo hosted an exhibition to display each member's profile photo at The Department of Coffee and Social Affairs in London.

Ben Beale and Rory Forrest with portraits of the first 1000 members of their Profile Picture Exhibition Facebook group, on display at a coffee shop in London. (The Profile Picture Exhibition / Facebook)

"If our profile pics can be considered art, the profile picture phenomenon has to be the biggest art movement of all time," Beale told CNET. "A truly humbling thought." Ben Beale and Rory Forrest, the duo behind the initiative, guarantee in the video that when they reach their total "

The group has approximately 2,300 members.

What are your thoughts? Are Facebook profile photos suitable for display in a national gallery or museum? Would you be excited to have your face on display at the Louvre?

Are Facebook profile photos suitable for display in a national gallery?

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B.C. woman sues Apple over iPhone data

A B.C. woman is suing Apple Inc. alleging the company has violated the privacy and security of users of its iPhones, iPads and iPods that are using the iOS4 operating system.

Amanda Ladas, of Surrey, has filed the lawsuit under the Class Proceedings Act in Supreme Court of B.C. Ladas's claim alleges that in addition to the violation of security and privacy, Apple has "engaged in deceptive acts or practices" that entitle her and anyone who joins the suit "to aggravated, punitive and/or exemplary damages."

Ladas said in a release Tuesday that she is concerned that, without her permission, anyone with moderate computer knowledge can find out where she's been.

According to a report by digital forensics technologist Francis Graf, whose report is filed with the lawsuit, Ladas's iPhone 4 contains location data, going back approximately one year, which was easily accessible using free tools readily available on the internet.

Ladas claims that she did not consent to having her information tracked, collected and stored when she purchased and activated her iPhone.

Owners of Apple products can use more up-to-date operating systems, such as iOS5, released in October 2011 and iOS6, which was released in September.

It is estimated that there are between two to seven million users of Apple devices in Canada using the iOS4 operating system, including Ladas and her son, the release says.

None of Ladas's claims have been proven in court.

Apple Inc. has not yet filed a response to the claims Ladas has made.

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Google launches latest Nexus smartphone, tablet

Google is cramming a few more gadgets on to already crowded holiday shopping lists.

The devices include the latest in Google's line of Nexus smartphones and a larger version of the 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet, which the company began selling in July. It's also adding cellular capabilities to the Nexus 7 and doubling the capacity of existing models.

The Nexus 4 smartphone is being made by LG Electronics Inc. and features a minor update to Google's Android operating system, which now powers more than 500 million devices worldwide. A more comprehensive makeover, known as Key Lime Pie, is expected next year. The version of Android affected by these changes is known as Jelly Bean.

The larger Nexus tablet is being made by Samsung Electronics Co. and features a display screen that measures about 10 inches diagonally, about the same size as Apple Inc.'s top-selling iPad.

With these additions to its product lineup, Google joins a procession of companies selling a gamut of sleek and powerful computing devices in different shapes and sizes. Some are smartphones and others are tablet computers, but they all aim to cater to people's growing interest to have easily portable devices that can be used to connect to the Internet, take pictures, watch video, play games and read books, magazines and newspapers.

Google's Nexus devices will be competing with gadgets from such companies as Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Barnes & Noble Inc., Samsung and Microsoft Corp. Microsoft released a new tablet called Surface last week and launched new software for phones on Monday.

Key shopping season

The array of phones and tablets hitting the market underscores how much mobile computing is shaking up the technology industry. The shift has undercut sales of desktop and laptop computers, decreasing the amount of revenue that Microsoft gets from licensing Windows and hurting companies such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. that make the machines.

Although Android has ensured that Google's search engine and other services play a prominent role in mobile computing, Google also is experiencing some short-term pain because the advertising rates on phones and tablets so far haven't been as high as the prices on desktops and laptops. Advertising accounts for most of Google's revenue.

Google's introduction of a larger tablet comes less than a week after Apple announced it's making a smaller, less expensive iPad, with a 7.9-inch display, to compete with the Nexus 7 and Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire. The iPad Mini will be available in stores Friday.

Some analysts have questioned whether consumers will balk at the iPad Mini's $329 price for a device with 16 gigabytes of storage. Google is widening the price difference between the iPad Mini and its smaller tablet by cutting $50 off the price of a comparable, 16-gigabyte Nexus 7, to $199.

Rival tablets

The 8-gigabyte version, which had sold for $199, will be discontinued. A Nexus 7 with 32 gigabytes of storage is being introduced for $249 in an apparent effort to discourage even more people from buying the iPad Mini. The cheapest Nexus 7 is still pricier than the Kindle Fire, which starts at $159 for a no-frills model.

The Nexus 7 tablets will continue to be sold at Google's Play store online as well as such retailers as GameStop, Office Depot, Office Max, Staples and Wal-Mart.

Analysts estimate Google has sold several million Nexus 7 tablets so far. Google declined to disclose how many units have shipped. The tablet "has been an amazing success," said Hugo Barra, Android's director of product management. "We had to work extra hard to meet demand."

Nexus 7 owners have been buying and looking at so much content on the tablet that Google decided to create a larger version with Samsung, Barra said. The Nexus 7 is made by AsusTek Computer Inc.

The Nexus 10 tablet with 16 gigabytes of storage will sell for $399. That's $100 less than the comparable version of the latest iPad, though the older iPad 2 is still available at that price. The Nexus 10 goes on sale in Google's online store Nov. 13.

Both the Nexus 10 and the new Nexus 7 models will allow multiple users to create separate personal profiles on the devices by using different account names and passwords.

The Nexus 4 phone boasts a 4.7-inch screen, larger than Apple's recently released iPhone 5 and just slightly smaller than Samsung's flagship phone, the Galaxy S III. A 16-gigabyte model of the Nexus 4 will sell for $199 with a two-year contract to buy phone service and Internet access from T-Mobile. A contract-free version is available for $299 with 8 gigabytes of storage and $349 for the 16-gigabyte model. Google is touting the Nexus 4's wireless charging capability as a major selling point.

Windows enters competitive space

Microsoft entered the tablet fray last week with the Surface. The initial model runs Windows RT, part of the Windows 8 family of operating systems. Microsoft has radically redesigned Windows to appeal to people who want the utility of a personal computer coupled with the convenience of smaller mobile devices that rely on touch controls. More than 1,000 PCs and other devices are expected to run on Windows 8.

Microsoft launched its version of Windows 8 for smartphones in San Francisco at an event Monday that included an appearance by actress Jessica Alba. Google had hoped to upstage Microsoft's celebration by rolling out its latest gadgets at an event a few hours earlier in New York, but that got canceled because of Hurricane Sandy. The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., instead released details about the devices in a blog post.

Besides adding more hardware to its online store, Google is expanding its music library to include Warner Music Group's catalog. Warner had been the only holdout among the major music labels when Google began selling music a year ago to compete with Apple's iTunes stores. The company also said it will begin selling music in Europe beginning Nov. 13.

The Android update includes a feature called Gesture Typing, which tries to anticipate what words a user wants to enter as they are entering text. The guesses are based on an analysis of typical sentence structures and users' past entries.

Another new feature called Photo Sphere stitches together 360-degree pictures of rooms and landscapes. The high-resolution photos created with this tool are similar to the shots shown in Google's Street View feature in its online maps.

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Hurricane Sandy's effect spiked by full moon

A full moon occurring this afternoon will make tides higher than normal along North America's East Coast, leading to stronger potential storm surges and even more possible damage from Hurricane Sandy as it hits land.

The moon reaches its full phase at about 3:50 p.m. ET on Monday, meaning that the gravitational force affecting tides will be at its greatest. The storm surge is expected to occur with high tides this evening.

"The largest immediate threat to life will be with storm surge of one to three metres in height occurring with higher-than-normal tides as we are close to a full moon," CBC meteorologist Jay Scotland said Monday.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned of storm surges even higher than those that occurred during Hurricane Irene in 2011.

"We're talking about surges that we have not seen before," Cuomo said, urging anyone left in Lower Manhattan to leave the area immediately.

"With the moon in its full phase, high tides on Earth will rise about 20 per cent higher than normal." NASA spokesman Rob Gutro wrote Sunday.

"The full moon will add more power to the already intense storm surge of Hurricane Sandy, which is already expected to reach heights of six to 11 feet (1.8 to 3.3 metres) in parts of Long Island Sound and New York Harbor."

Next high tides

High tides along the Atlantic coast occur about twice a day, with the next one forecast by windfinder.com for 9:06 p.m. ET in New York City.

The next high tides for Port Lorne, N.S., on the Bay of Fundy — an area known for the world's highest tides — occur at 12:23 p.m. AT Monday and again shortly after midnight, at 12:48 a.m. AT Tuesday.

While the moon may be full, it's not at, or even near, its "perigee," or point closest to Earth. That would have made matters even worse for coastal communities, according to U.S. meteorologist Joe Rao, who was cited by CBS News.

In New York Monday, Metropolitan Transit Authority chairman Joseph Lhota also cautioned that electronic switches and wiring in the city's subway system would be much more severely damaged by incoming sea water than by conventional rainwater or flooding.

"Our subway system and salt water do not mix very well together," he told a joint media conference with Cuomo and other authorities.

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Apple executives to exit in shakeup

Apple Inc. announced the departure of two senior executives late Monday — an unusual shakeup for the world's biggest publicly traded company, apparently aimed at ending strife between several of its leaders in the post-Steve Jobs era.

Scott Forstall, senior vice president for iPhone and iPad software, and John Browett, senior vice president of retail operations, will both leave the company, Apple said in a release. Their responsibilities will be distributed among other managers.

Apple said the changes were intended to "encourage even more collaboration" between its hardware, software and services teams. Tensions between Forstall and other senior executives had been building for some time, the New York Times reported at its website.

The retail team, which runs the company's Apple stores, will report to chief executive Tim Cook until a replacement can be found for Browett, who joined the company earlier this year.

Apple didn't say why Browett and Forestall were leaving, but both have presided over missteps this year.

Browett cut staffing hours at Apple's retail stores, a move the company reversed and acknowledged as a mistake.

Forstall's division launched a software update in September that replaced Google Maps with Apple's first mapping application. It quickly drew unfavorable comparisons to the software it was replacing, and Apple apologized.

While Browett's departure is immediate, Forstall will remain as an adviser to Cook until he leaves, Apple said. His responsibilities will be divided among other Apple veterans such as Jony Ives, Eddy Cue, and Craig Federighi.

Roles distributed

Forstall joined Apple in 1997 with the company's purchase of Steve Jobs' NeXT startup. Apple credits him as one of the original architects of Mac OS X.

Federighi, who is now in charge of the Mac OS, will add iOS development to his responsibilities, Apple said.

Ive, who often appears in Apple advertising and is the chief designer behind the distinctive look of Apple hardware, will take responsibility for the look and feel of Apple's software.

And Cue, head of Apple's online services and iTunes, will assume responsibility for Maps and Siri, the "virtual assistant" application on the iPhone and iPad.

Apple stores sell more per square foot than any other chain in the U.S., yet they account for just 12 per cent of Apple's overall sales. They're positioned as ambassadors for Apple's brand and products, and provide customers with an easy way to access in-person technical support.

With files from The Associated Press

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New Windsor-Detroit bridge threatens endangered species

Canada's public works department said the construction of a new international border crossing in Windsor, Ont., poses a threat to two endangered plants.

Dense Blazing Star. (Ojibway Nature Centre)

The department said it's launching an effort to relocate the species before construction of the Detroit River International Crossing in west Windsor ramps up next summer.

It said at least 277 Dense Blazing Star plants and 180 Willow Leaf Aster ramets will be moved between November 2012 and May 2013.

It said the plants will be relocated to the eastern side of Lake St. Clair, near Chatham-Kent.

Willow Leaf Aster. (Sierra Club Canada)

Earlier this month, the Harper government announced in its latest omnibus bill it will exempt the new Windsor-Detroit bridge from major Canadian environmental laws.

The Conservatives introduced the Bridge to Strengthen Trade Act as a part of the omnibus budget bill tabled in the House of Commons.

Once passed, bridge construction would be immune to laws governing permits, approvals and authorizations, including the Environmental Assessment Act and the Species at Risk Act.

With files from the Canadian Press

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Windows users in no hurry to change, poll suggests

Microsoft bills Windows 8 as a "re-imagining" of the personal computer market's dominant operating system, but the company still has a lot of work to do before the makeover captures the imagination of most consumers, based on the results of a recent poll by The Associated Press and GfK.

The phone survey of nearly 1,200 adults in the U.S. found 52 per cent hadn't even heard of Windows 8 leading up to Friday's release of the redesigned software.

Among the people who knew something about the new operating system, 61 per cent had little or no interest in buying a new laptop or desktop computer running on Windows 8, according to the poll. And only about a third of the people who've heard about the new system believe it will be an improvement (35 per cent).

Chris Dionne of Waterbury, Connecticut, falls into that camp. The 43-year-old engineer had already seen Windows 8 and it didn't persuade him to abandon or upgrade his Hewlett-Packard laptop running on Windows 7, the previous version of the operating system released in 2009.

"I am not real thrilled they are changing things around," Dionne said. "Windows 7 does everything I want it to. Where is the return on my investment to learn a new OS?"

Microsoft usually releases a new version of Windows every two or three years, but it's different this time around. Windows 8 is the most radical redesign of the operating system since 1995 and some analysts consider the software to be Microsoft's most important product since co-founder Bill Gates won the contract to build an operating system for IBM Corp.'s first personal computer in 1981. Microsoft is hoping the way Windows 8 looks and operates will appeal to the growing number of people embracing the convenience of smartphones and tablets.

The consumer ambivalence, however, was even more pronounced when it came to Microsoft's new tablet computer, Surface, which was built to show off Windows 8's versatility. Sixty-nine per cent of the poll's respondents expressed little or no interest in buying a Surface, which Microsoft is hoping will siphon sales from Apple Inc.'s pioneering iPad and other popular tablets such as Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire and Google Inc.'s Nexus 7.

The results indicate Microsoft still has work to do to create a bigger buzz about Windows 8 and help consumers understand the new operating system's benefits, even though the company provided several previews of the software at various stages in the final 13 month leading to its release. But the information apparently resonated mostly with industry analysts, reporters, technology blogs and gadget geeks.

Microsoft is in the early stages of an estimated $1 billion marketing campaign that will include a siege of television commercials to promote Windows 8 to a wider audience.

Wish you could go back

That still might not be enough to sway longtime Windows users such as Mary Sweeten. She is 75, and not eager to learn the nuances of a new operating system. She, too, is comfortable with her current desktop computer running on Windows 7.

"I am not technologically savvy like all these young kids," said Sweeten, who lives in Camdenton, Missouri. "I like something I am used to and can get around on without too much trouble. Sometimes when you get these new (systems), you wish you could go back to the old one."

Windows 8 represents Microsoft's attempt to adapt to a technological shift that is empowering more people to use smartphones and tablets to surf the Web and handle other simple computing tasks. The revamped system can be controlled by touching a device's display screen and greets users with a mosaic of tiles featuring an array of dynamic applications instead of the old start menu and desktop tiles. In an effort to protect its still-lucrative PC franchise, Microsoft designed Windows 8 so it can still be switched into a desktop mode that relies on a keyboard and mouse for commands.

Microsoft felt it had to gamble on a radical redesign to fend off the competitive threats posed by Apple, which has emerged as the world's most valuable company on the strength of its iPhone and iPad. Google Inc. is a threat, too. It has used its 4-year-old Android operating system to become an influential force in the mobile computing movement.

Microsoft deeply entrenched

Despite the growing popularity of smartphones, Microsoft remains deeply entrenched in people's lives. The poll found 80 per cent of respondents with personal computers in their homes relied on earlier versions of Windows versus only 12 per cent that operate on Apple's Mac system.

Windows is even more widely used in offices, but 90 per cent of companies relying on the operating system are expected to hold off on switching to the new operating system through 2014, according to a study by the research firm Gartner Inc.

Jim Beske of West Fargo, North Dakota, won't be waiting long to install Windows 8 on the home computer he bought a year ago. He already has seen how Windows 8 works in his job as a network engineer, and he considers it to be a nice improvement.

"They have made it much simpler," Beske, 43, said. "I don't know about the tiling so much; that's something I think younger people will like more. But once people get in front of it, I think they will understand it."

Windows 8 also could appeal to consumers who still don't own a home computer. The AP-GfK survey found 22 per cent of all adults fall into this category, including 30 per cent with households whose incomes fall below $50,000 annually.

Beske is among a growing group who use both Microsoft and Apple products. Besides his Windows computer, he also loves his iPad.

No hurry to upgrade

Most survey respondents liked both Apple and Microsoft. Fifty-nine per cent said they had favourable impressions of Apple versus 58 per cent for Microsoft.

Tequila Cronk of Herington, Kansas, is more of a Microsoft fan because she considers Apple's prices to be a "rip-off." At the same time, she can't justify buying a Windows 8 computer when her desktop and laptop computers at home are running fine on the earlier versions of the system.

"We will upgrade, but I am not going to rush out and buy a new computer just because it's got a different operating system," Cronk, 26, said.

Windows 8's release came at a perfect time for Hector Gonzalez of Kissimmee, Florida. He is so frustrated with the performance of his 3-year-old laptop running on Windows 7 that he is considering buying a MacBook laptop. But now he plans to check out the array of new Windows 8 laptops and may even consider buying a Surface tablet to supplement the iPad that he bought for his teenage daughters.

"Anything that is new, it's worth taking a look at," Gonzalez, 35, said. "That's the way technology is. There is always something new to replace everything else."

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Dragon space freighter splashes down safely

An unmanned Dragon freighter carrying a stash of precious medical samples from the International Space Station parachuted into the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, completing the first official shipment under a billion-dollar contract with NASA.

The California-based SpaceX company successfully guided the Dragon down from orbit to a splashdown a several hundred kilometres off the Baja California coast.

"This historic mission signifies the restoration of America's ability to deliver and return critical space station cargo," Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and head of SpaceX, said in a statement.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden praised the "American ingenuity" that made the endeavour possible.

Several hours earlier, astronauts aboard the International Space Station used a giant robot arm to release the commercial cargo ship 410 kilometres up. SpaceX provided updates of the journey back to Earth via Twitter.

The supply ship brought back nearly 907 kilograms of science experiments and old station equipment. Perhaps the most eagerly awaited cargo is nearly 500 frozen samples of blood and urine collected by station astronauts over the past year.

Launched 3 weeks ago

The Dragon is the only delivery ship capable of returning items, now that NASA's shuttles are retired to museums. Atlantis made the last shuttle haul to and from the station in July 2011.

SpaceX — more formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — launched the capsule three weeks ago from Cape Canaveral, full of groceries, clothes and other station supplies. Ice cream as well as fresh apples were especially appreciated by the station residents, now back up to a full crew of six.

It's the second Dragon to return from the orbiting lab; the first mission in May was a flight demo. This flight is the first of 12 deliveries under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.

"It was nice while she was on board," space station commander Sunita Williams said as the Dragon backed away. "We tamed her, took her home and, literally and figuratively, there's a piece of us on that spacecraft going home to Earth."

She added to the SpaceX flight controllers in Hawthorne, California: "Congratulations Hawthorne and thank you for her."

Transport to Texas

The Dragon will be retrieved from the Pacific and loaded onto a 30-metre boat that will haul it to Los Angeles. From there, it will be transported to McGregor, Texas.

The medical samples will be removed as quickly as possible, and turned over to NASA within 48 hours of splashdown, according to SpaceX. Everything else will wait for unloading in McGregor.

A Russian supply ship, meanwhile, is set to blast off this week. It burns up upon descent, however, at mission's end. So do the cargo vessels provided by Europe and Japan.

SpaceX is working to transform its Dragon cargo craft into vessels that American astronauts could fly in another four or five years. Until SpaceX or another U.S. company is able to provide rides, NASA astronauts must rely on Russian rockets to get to and from the space station.

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UN atlas ties climate change to spread of disease

The two UN agencies for health and weather services have created a new "atlas" of scientific data that they say offers fresh evidence of the links between climate change to outbreaks of meningitis, malaria and other diseases.

The World Health Organization director-general says the manual, which includes maps, tables and graphs, provides a practical guide to "climate-sensitive diseases" that decision-makers and leaders can use as a tool for prevention.

Malaria, dengue and malnutrition are sensitive to climate and are expected to worsen as the climate changes, the World Health Organization says. (Katrina Manson/Reuters)

Dr. Margaret Chan told reporters Monday in Geneva that 80 per cent of the infectious diseases currently found in humans have come from animals — and the scientific research for managing disease in ecosystems has been "underutilized."

World Meteorological Association Secretary-General Michel Jarraud says the atlas is meant to spread information buried in the agencies' technical documents.

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Opening courts to social media proposed by panel

A group of judges and other members of the justice system is proposing a set of national guidelines that would throw the courts wide open to the use of social media.

There currently exists a patchwork of policies among provinces — some have no policy at all — and the Canadian Centre for Court Technology's proposed guidelines go further than them all.

It is suggesting that anyone attending an open court hearing be allowed to use electronic devices set to silent or vibrate mode unless the presiding judge specifically rules otherwise. The user would bear the onus of abiding by any publication bans.

It's an attempt to create a standard set of rules for courts across the country at a time when judges are grappling with how to handle the still relatively new phenomenon of services such as Twitter and Facebook.

Like it or not, they are here to stay and growing numbers of people depend on them for information, said Stephen Bindman, who was part of the court technology centre's committee that drafted the guidelines.

"Public confidence in the judicial system is critical to the proper administration of justice," he said at the centre's conference in Montreal. "We saw this as a further means of advancing the open court principle."

British Columbia and Saskatchewan both brought in new policies last month allowing "accredited journalists" and lawyers to use electronic devices in trial courts, with Saskatchewan even specifying that they may tweet from the courtroom.

Many provinces allow anyone to use such devices in appeal courts, as fears about witnesses and juries are largely moot there. Nova Scotia expressly allows tweeting from its Appeal Court, but not from the lower courts by anyone without the judge's permission.

Ontario has seen judges in several high-profile cases attempt to tackle the issue, but still there is no provincewide policy. Tweeting was allowed at the trial of former Ottawa mayor Larry O'Brien, who was ultimately acquitted of influence peddling. It was allowed in London, but only in an overflow courtroom, at the trial of Michael Rafferty, who was convicted of abducting, sexually assaulting and murdering eight-year-old Victoria Stafford. It was banned outright in Kingston at the so-called honour killing trial of the Shafia family.

When discussing the guidelines the committee concluded that though there are risks to allowing social media in courts — disruption to the proceedings, violating publication bans and security of witnesses — practicality, as well as the open courts principle, steered them away from an outright ban.

'A little out of step'

The reality is that if tweeting is not allowed inside the courtroom, journalists will just step into the hallway to do it, making them miss potentially important evidence and context as well as causing disruptions, said Bindman, himself a former journalist.

"A prohibition that requires users step outside to push the send button makes courts seem a little out of step with modern reality," he said. "Better the devil you can see than the devil running outside every few minutes."

Lynn Smith, a judge of the B.C. Supreme Court who retired last month, said they decided to allow the use of social media only for lawyers and accredited members of the media because it minimizes the risk a publication ban will be violated. When members of the public attend a court hearing they would not necessarily ask if there are publication bans in place, she said.

"There's always a risk, but it probably tends to mitigate it a little more than if it didn't exist if you restrict members of the public," she said. "It's an incremental step. By permitting accredited journalists and counsel now to use the devices in the courtroom we can see what happens."

The phrase "accredited" journalist has the potential itself to cause problems. Amid a growing number of online news outlets, alternative media publications and blogs, the notion is drifting into a grey area.

Blogger turned down in B.C.

The B.C. courts tried to head off any disputes about who was deemed accredited by putting the issue right to journalists. The court formed a committee of newspaper and broadcast journalists in the province and they were given the task of deciding who to accredit, based on questions such as whether the applicants subscribe to an ethical code of conduct. If the committee recommends the court accredit a journalist, that person must also then read a document about the law on contempt of court and publication bans.

But the policy is just a few weeks old, and already Smith could cite at least one instance in which an independent blogger applied to be accredited and was turned down.

Bindman suggested journalists should be considering whether tweeting, sending snippets of information no more than 140 characters long, is adding value to their reporting at all.

"I didn't think their job was to deliver a transcript of the day's proceedings," he said. "I thought they were supposed to apply their education, training, expertise and knowledge to the evidence they hear then distill it in to a readable, interesting, accurate summary complete with context that provides the big picture.

"I fear that Twitter turns journalists into mere stenographers."

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China blocks NYT website over Wen story

The New York Times website has been blocked in China by government censors after it published a story speculating on the massive family wealth of Premier Wen Jiabao.

In a 4,700-word story published Friday, the newspaper said family assets worth about $2.7 billion US had been amassed in a series of investments, mostly after Wen rose to senior positions starting in 2002.

The wealth is nominally in the hands of Wen's relatives, the paper said.

The Chinese-language version of the New York Times's website, which has been made unavailable in China by government censors. (NYT)

"A review of corporate and regulatory records indicates that the prime minister's relatives — some of whom, including his wife, have a knack for aggressive deal making — have controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion."

Chinese censors also blocked the Times's Chinese-language site that carried a translated version of the story. Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a press briefing that the report "blackens China and has ulterior motives."

Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said the paper hoped access to the sites could soon be restored.

In a move suggesting it had anticipated China's reaction, the Times made a Chinese-language version of the story available for download in PDF format, making distribution more likely, the Voice of America website reported.

The Times named Wen's 90-year-old mother, who left a life of poverty behind her, his children, and his former wife and other relatives as owners of some of the assets involved. Some of them, the story said, "have a knack for aggressive deal making."

New leadership

And some of their businesses have received abnormal financial backing from state-owned companies, including phone company China Mobile.

Next month, the Chinese Communist Party is expected to name a new generation of leaders, the Times reported, but the selection process has already been hurt by scandal with the downfall of Bo Xilai, the Chongqing party boss, who was vying for a top position.

Wen Jiabao is expected to step down as prime minister in March at the end of his second term, the Times story said.

It added:

"Political analysts say that even after leaving office he could remain a strong backstage political force. But documents showing that his relatives amassed a fortune during his tenure could diminish his standing, the analysts said."

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Windows 8 and Surface: 10 things to know

Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system and much-anticipated Surface tablet go on sale this morning — two closely linked efforts the company is banking on heavily to help it stay relevant in a rapidly evolving and increasingly mobile world.

Windows 8 has been designed from scratch to work with both traditional computers and the touch screens popularized by smartphones and tablets.

The Surface comes equipped with Windows RT, a mobile version of Windows 8 that runs on less-powerful tablet processors.

Overall, the new operating system is considered a big risk for the venerable software company, which is no longer the dominant force it once was in the technology industry. Despite more than a decade of trying to carve out mobile market share, starting with its Pocket PC, then Windows Mobile and Windows Phone operating systems, Microsoft is virtually invisible in phones and tablets — markets that are currently owned by Apple and Google's Android.

A Microsoft Surface tablet PC with the optional add-on keyboard is displayed during its launch event with Microsoft Windows 8 in New York. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

Windows 8 is a concerted effort by the company to leverage its desktop and laptop computing strengths and make it a bigger player in the mobile computing arena. With PC sales sagging and mobile gadgets claiming an increasing share of hardware sales, Microsoft must become a viable competitor in smartphones and tablets if it's to survive over the long term in the operating system market.

The concept behind the unified Windows 8 operating system — one that works the same way across phones, tablets and computers — is the current holy grail of technology, sought after by all the major OS competitors. The first one to make a popular unified operating system will likely be able to control, or at least greatly influence, the direction of computing into the forseeable future.

Microsoft, for its part, provided journalists in New York with two days of demos of its new operating system and tablet this week. Over that time, some of the pluses and minuses of its quest toward software unification became clear.

Five upsides of Windows 8 and Surface

A Samsung tablet computer running Windows 8 was one of the devices shown at the launch of Microsoft Windows 8 in New York. (Richard Drew/AP)

Interface: At the heart of Windows 8 is Metro, the slick interface optimized for touchscreens. Rather than the standard Windows desktop, where icons represent various applications and files, the new interface features square and rectangular coloured tiles set on a sideways-scrolling carousel. Some of the tiles are "live," which means they rotate and display information. The photo tile, for example, runs a miniature slideshow.

It's a dynamic interface that incorporates the swipes, pinch-to-zoom and other gestures popularized by Apple on its iPhone and iPad. Windows 8, however, does this in a way that feels unique and is equally fun to use.

Touch is simply a better way to navigate and browse most of the non-work applications that people are now using with photos, videos and music. While touchscreens haven't been popular with traditional mainstream computers, they can work quite well in certain situations. A so-called all-in-one computer with a touchscreen but not necessarily a mouse and keyboard can be a good fit in the kitchen, for example, where you might want to watch streamed video or listen to music while washing dishes.

Many of the new Windows 8 machines available for the retail launch of the operating system have touchscreens. It's not all about touch, though. The Metro interface also works well with a mouse, or with the trackpad on older computers that don't have touchscreens.

For users who want the classic Windows layout, it can be accessed with a simple tile push. That way, you can quickly launch into more work-focused applications that require a keyboard and mouse — Excel or Word, for example.

Device variety: Windows 8 is designed to be a flexible platform for hardware makers, enabling them to produce traditional desktops or get creative with designs that leverage the touch interface.

Microsoft's own Surface device, for one, is somewhere between a tablet and a laptop once its Touch Cover magnetic keyboard is attached. Other manufacturers are using Windows 8 in everything from straight-up tablets to desktop computers to ultrabooks and even, like Lenovo's Yoga, devices that can change between the various form factors.

Microsoft says more than 1,000 Windows 8 devices are scheduled to be launched over the next year. Some of those are going to experiment with shapes and sizes; some will inevitably flop, but others have the potential to invent entirely new computer concepts. Might a laptop that transforms into a flat table-top computer finally take off?

Office: Windows 8 and Surface are designed specifically to be used for work as well as play, unlike competing tablets that put an emphasis on entertainment apps and media playback. Microsoft says it designed the Surface to be a productivity tool for professionals as well as a consumer device (one of the reasons for the optional keyboard/cover).

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer says Windows 8 'does bring together the best of the worlds — PC, tablet, work and play.' (AP Photo)

Microsoft has purposely refrained from releasing any significant support for its key Office applications — Word, Excel and PowerPoint — on competitors' platforms, though. It looks like the company has kept those capabilities for itself to make its own devices the obvious choice for people looking for good productivity tools.

The Surface tablet comes bundled with Office 2013, Microsoft's latest suite of productivity applications.

Ports galore: The Surface features a number of ports, including USB, video and a separate power plug. Microsoft says the dedicated power port allows the device to be fully charged within two hours. It was impossible to test that at the demos, but if true, that's significantly faster than other tablets.

The USB plug gives the tablet a huge advantage over the iPad, the Surface's main competitor. With it, Microsoft says its tablet is compatible with more than 420 million peripherals, from printers to keyboards.

That's going to enable some interesting apps, particularly when it comes to gaming. Video games have proven to be big hits on tablets, so attaching an Xbox controller, for example, will allow game developers to take their products to a level that more closely approximates console experiences.

Low upgrade cost: At $39 for people upgrading from previous Microsoft operating systems, Windows 8 is a relatively affordable upgrade.

Moreover, the company says that most computers currently running Windows 7 will not only be able to handle Windows 8 just fine, they'll also work better. Windows 8 will improve the battery life and boot-up time of those older machines by more than 30 per cent.

Again, it was tough to verify those claims in the short demo time provided, but if true, they're both welcome upgrades.

Five downsides:

Lack of apps: The Surface is launching with about 10,000 apps, many of which won't be available in Canada. Apple, on the other hand, has more than 270,000 applications optimized for the iPad.

Microsoft executives downplay this disadvantage by suggesting that competitors' numbers are overblown. Apple's app store, for example, counts many apps twice — once for the free preview version and again for the paid version.

No matter how you count them, though, Apple has far more apps, and numbers do ultimately matter. The larger the total number of apps, the more likely it is that there will be applications for niche users. Specialized professionals — such as cinematographers or doctors — have many apps available to them through Apple, but a much more limited selection through other competitors. Taken together, those many niche apps give Apple a huge user base, which translates into more app developers designing for the iPad. It's a self-perpetuating cycle.

Further to that, Microsoft is also missing several key apps at launch. There's no Facebook or Twitter app, for example. Executives say that missing those apps is no big deal since these popular social media networks can be accessed via a web browser. That's also true, but users have come to expect apps for tablets, and they also tend to want a more simplified and streamlined experience on mobile devices than what they get on their desktops.

Price: The basic Surface with 32 gigabytes of storage is selling for $499. While that's double the storage of Apple's similarly priced basic iPad, it's still likely too high a price, since no tablet maker yet (other than Apple) has been able to sell in high volumes at that price point. Other tablets have found success when priced between $200 and $300.

Microsoft hopes the Surface's office productivity capabilities make it worth the higher sticker price to prospective buyers, but for professional users the tablet's cost actually goes up another $120 since the Touch Cover keyboard is extra. With fewer apps available and a lower-resolution screen than the iPad, the Surface is going to have a tough time enticing buyers to shell out that much.

Ergonomics: Curiously, with the Surface being pitched as a productivity device, there's a looming question mark as to how comfortable the Touch Cover keyboard is going to be to use over an extended period of time. It's no secret that typing on a touch screen is murder, but is doing so on a flat keyboard with no palm rests any better?

You can plug in a regular keyboard via the USB port if you choose, but the drawback is that a full keyboard would make the Surface less portable, negating some of the advantages of having a tablet rather than a notebook in the first place.

Productivity power users: It's great that Windows 8 lets you convert back to the standard Windows desktop when you want to do some serious work, but that raises the question: What if office work is mostly what you do?

Indeed, productivity power users — the people who use Excel and Word all day on, say Windows 7 machines — don't have much reason to upgrade to Windows 8. It's a great interface for media consumption and perhaps communication, but the operating system itself doesn't provide many work benefits.

Differentiation: While Windows 8 offers manufacturers different input options to design around, from keyboard to touchscreen, Microsoft is maintaining a relatively tight grip over what device makers can do with Windows 8 itself. In contrast, manufacturers have gravitated to Android because they can change the look and feel of the operating system and how people navigate, allowing a lot of differentiation between competing products.

Microsoft's control over the the operating system means Windows 8 devices are likely destined to look and work in much the same way. While some will experiment with the hardware, there are only so many ways to vary it and still have it work well with Microsoft's standard software. That will likely limit the amount of variation among Windows 8 devices, and drive manufacturers to put more emphasis on popular designs that compete mainly on price.

That's good news for consumers from a cost point of view. The worry for the industry, however, is that there'll be a repeat of what has happened with PCs, where there's very little that manufacturers can do to innovate and really stand out from each other beyond trying to include interesting bundled apps.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

China blocks NYT website over Wen story

The New York Times website has been blocked in China by government censors after it published a story speculating on the massive family wealth of Premier Wen Jiabao.

In a 4,700-word story published Friday, the newspaper said family assets worth about $2.7 billion US had been amassed in a series of investments, mostly after Wen rose to senior positions starting in 2002.

The wealth is nominally in the hands of Wen's relatives, the paper said.

The Chinese-language version of the New York Times's website, which has been made unavailable in China by government censors. (NYT)

"A review of corporate and regulatory records indicates that the prime minister's relatives — some of whom, including his wife, have a knack for aggressive deal making — have controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion."

Chinese censors also blocked the Times's Chinese-language site that carried a translated version of the story. Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a press briefing that the report "blackens China and has ulterior motives."

Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said the paper hoped access to the sites could soon be restored.

In a move suggesting it had anticipated China's reaction, the Times made a Chinese-language version of the story available for download in PDF format, making distribution more likely, the Voice of America website reported.

The Times named Wen's 90-year-old mother, who left a life of poverty behind her, his children, and his former wife and other relatives as owners of some of the assets involved. Some of them, the story said, "have a knack for aggressive deal making."

New leadership

And some of their businesses have received abnormal financial backing from state-owned companies, including phone company China Mobile.

Next month, the Chinese Communist Party is expected to name a new generation of leaders, the Times reported, but the selection process has already been hurt by scandal with the downfall of Bo Xilai, the Chongqing party boss, who was vying for a top position.

Wen Jiabao is expected to step down as prime minister in March at the end of his second term, the Times story said.

It added:

"Political analysts say that even after leaving office he could remain a strong backstage political force. But documents showing that his relatives amassed a fortune during his tenure could diminish his standing, the analysts said."

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Opening courts to social media proposed by panel

A group of judges and other members of the justice system is proposing a set of national guidelines that would throw the courts wide open to the use of social media.

There currently exists a patchwork of policies among provinces — some have no policy at all — and the Canadian Centre for Court Technology's proposed guidelines go further than them all.

It is suggesting that anyone attending an open court hearing be allowed to use electronic devices set to silent or vibrate mode unless the presiding judge specifically rules otherwise. The user would bear the onus of abiding by any publication bans.

It's an attempt to create a standard set of rules for courts across the country at a time when judges are grappling with how to handle the still relatively new phenomenon of services such as Twitter and Facebook.

Like it or not, they are here to stay and growing numbers of people depend on them for information, said Stephen Bindman, who was part of the court technology centre's committee that drafted the guidelines.

"Public confidence in the judicial system is critical to the proper administration of justice," he said at the centre's conference in Montreal. "We saw this as a further means of advancing the open court principle."

British Columbia and Saskatchewan both brought in new policies last month allowing "accredited journalists" and lawyers to use electronic devices in trial courts, with Saskatchewan even specifying that they may tweet from the courtroom.

Many provinces allow anyone to use such devices in appeal courts, as fears about witnesses and juries are largely moot there. Nova Scotia expressly allows tweeting from its Appeal Court, but not from the lower courts by anyone without the judge's permission.

Ontario has seen judges in several high-profile cases attempt to tackle the issue, but still there is no provincewide policy. Tweeting was allowed at the trial of former Ottawa mayor Larry O'Brien, who was ultimately acquitted of influence peddling. It was allowed in London, but only in an overflow courtroom, at the trial of Michael Rafferty, who was convicted of abducting, sexually assaulting and murdering eight-year-old Victoria Stafford. It was banned outright in Kingston at the so-called honour killing trial of the Shafia family.

When discussing the guidelines the committee concluded that though there are risks to allowing social media in courts — disruption to the proceedings, violating publication bans and security of witnesses — practicality, as well as the open courts principle, steered them away from an outright ban.

'A little out of step'

The reality is that if tweeting is not allowed inside the courtroom, journalists will just step into the hallway to do it, making them miss potentially important evidence and context as well as causing disruptions, said Bindman, himself a former journalist.

"A prohibition that requires users step outside to push the send button makes courts seem a little out of step with modern reality," he said. "Better the devil you can see than the devil running outside every few minutes."

Lynn Smith, a judge of the B.C. Supreme Court who retired last month, said they decided to allow the use of social media only for lawyers and accredited members of the media because it minimizes the risk a publication ban will be violated. When members of the public attend a court hearing they would not necessarily ask if there are publication bans in place, she said.

"There's always a risk, but it probably tends to mitigate it a little more than if it didn't exist if you restrict members of the public," she said. "It's an incremental step. By permitting accredited journalists and counsel now to use the devices in the courtroom we can see what happens."

The phrase "accredited" journalist has the potential itself to cause problems. Amid a growing number of online news outlets, alternative media publications and blogs, the notion is drifting into a grey area.

Blogger turned down in B.C.

The B.C. courts tried to head off any disputes about who was deemed accredited by putting the issue right to journalists. The court formed a committee of newspaper and broadcast journalists in the province and they were given the task of deciding who to accredit, based on questions such as whether the applicants subscribe to an ethical code of conduct. If the committee recommends the court accredit a journalist, that person must also then read a document about the law on contempt of court and publication bans.

But the policy is just a few weeks old, and already Smith could cite at least one instance in which an independent blogger applied to be accredited and was turned down.

Bindman suggested journalists should be considering whether tweeting, sending snippets of information no more than 140 characters long, is adding value to their reporting at all.

"I didn't think their job was to deliver a transcript of the day's proceedings," he said. "I thought they were supposed to apply their education, training, expertise and knowledge to the evidence they hear then distill it in to a readable, interesting, accurate summary complete with context that provides the big picture.

"I fear that Twitter turns journalists into mere stenographers."

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Windows 8 and Surface: 10 things to know

Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system and much-anticipated Surface tablet go on sale this morning — two closely linked efforts the company is banking on heavily to help it stay relevant in a rapidly evolving and increasingly mobile world.

Windows 8 has been designed from scratch to work with both traditional computers and the touch screens popularized by smartphones and tablets.

The Surface comes equipped with Windows RT, a mobile version of Windows 8 that runs on less-powerful tablet processors.

Overall, the new operating system is considered a big risk for the venerable software company, which is no longer the dominant force it once was in the technology industry. Despite more than a decade of trying to carve out mobile market share, starting with its Pocket PC, then Windows Mobile and Windows Phone operating systems, Microsoft is virtually invisible in phones and tablets — markets that are currently owned by Apple and Google's Android.

A Microsoft Surface tablet PC with the optional add-on keyboard is displayed during its launch event with Microsoft Windows 8 in New York. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

Windows 8 is a concerted effort by the company to leverage its desktop and laptop computing strengths and make it a bigger player in the mobile computing arena. With PC sales sagging and mobile gadgets claiming an increasing share of hardware sales, Microsoft must become a viable competitor in smartphones and tablets if it's to survive over the long term in the operating system market.

The concept behind the unified Windows 8 operating system — one that works the same way across phones, tablets and computers — is the current holy grail of technology, sought after by all the major OS competitors. The first one to make a popular unified operating system will likely be able to control, or at least greatly influence, the direction of computing into the forseeable future.

Microsoft, for its part, provided journalists in New York with two days of demos of its new operating system and tablet this week. Over that time, some of the pluses and minuses of its quest toward software unification became clear.

Five upsides of Windows 8 and Surface

A Samsung tablet computer running Windows 8 was one of the devices shown at the launch of Microsoft Windows 8 in New York. (Richard Drew/AP)

Interface: At the heart of Windows 8 is Metro, the slick interface optimized for touchscreens. Rather than the standard Windows desktop, where icons represent various applications and files, the new interface features square and rectangular coloured tiles set on a sideways-scrolling carousel. Some of the tiles are "live," which means they rotate and display information. The photo tile, for example, runs a miniature slideshow.

It's a dynamic interface that incorporates the swipes, pinch-to-zoom and other gestures popularized by Apple on its iPhone and iPad. Windows 8, however, does this in a way that feels unique and is equally fun to use.

Touch is simply a better way to navigate and browse most of the non-work applications that people are now using with photos, videos and music. While touchscreens haven't been popular with traditional mainstream computers, they can work quite well in certain situations. A so-called all-in-one computer with a touchscreen but not necessarily a mouse and keyboard can be a good fit in the kitchen, for example, where you might want to watch streamed video or listen to music while washing dishes.

Many of the new Windows 8 machines available for the retail launch of the operating system have touchscreens. It's not all about touch, though. The Metro interface also works well with a mouse, or with the trackpad on older computers that don't have touchscreens.

For users who want the classic Windows layout, it can be accessed with a simple tile push. That way, you can quickly launch into more work-focused applications that require a keyboard and mouse — Excel or Word, for example.

Device variety: Windows 8 is designed to be a flexible platform for hardware makers, enabling them to produce traditional desktops or get creative with designs that leverage the touch interface.

Microsoft's own Surface device, for one, is somewhere between a tablet and a laptop once its Touch Cover magnetic keyboard is attached. Other manufacturers are using Windows 8 in everything from straight-up tablets to desktop computers to ultrabooks and even, like Lenovo's Yoga, devices that can change between the various form factors.

Microsoft says more than 1,000 Windows 8 devices are scheduled to be launched over the next year. Some of those are going to experiment with shapes and sizes; some will inevitably flop, but others have the potential to invent entirely new computer concepts. Might a laptop that transforms into a flat table-top computer finally take off?

Office: Windows 8 and Surface are designed specifically to be used for work as well as play, unlike competing tablets that put an emphasis on entertainment apps and media playback. Microsoft says it designed the Surface to be a productivity tool for professionals as well as a consumer device (one of the reasons for the optional keyboard/cover).

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer says Windows 8 'does bring together the best of the worlds — PC, tablet, work and play.' (AP Photo)

Microsoft has purposely refrained from releasing any significant support for its key Office applications — Word, Excel and PowerPoint — on competitors' platforms, though. It looks like the company has kept those capabilities for itself to make its own devices the obvious choice for people looking for good productivity tools.

The Surface tablet comes bundled with Office 2013, Microsoft's latest suite of productivity applications.

Ports galore: The Surface features a number of ports, including USB, video and a separate power plug. Microsoft says the dedicated power port allows the device to be fully charged within two hours. It was impossible to test that at the demos, but if true, that's significantly faster than other tablets.

The USB plug gives the tablet a huge advantage over the iPad, the Surface's main competitor. With it, Microsoft says its tablet is compatible with more than 420 million peripherals, from printers to keyboards.

That's going to enable some interesting apps, particularly when it comes to gaming. Video games have proven to be big hits on tablets, so attaching an Xbox controller, for example, will allow game developers to take their products to a level that more closely approximates console experiences.

Low upgrade cost: At $39 for people upgrading from previous Microsoft operating systems, Windows 8 is a relatively affordable upgrade.

Moreover, the company says that most computers currently running Windows 7 will not only be able to handle Windows 8 just fine, they'll also work better. Windows 8 will improve the battery life and boot-up time of those older machines by more than 30 per cent.

Again, it was tough to verify those claims in the short demo time provided, but if true, they're both welcome upgrades.

Five downsides:

Lack of apps: The Surface is launching with about 10,000 apps, many of which won't be available in Canada. Apple, on the other hand, has more than 270,000 applications optimized for the iPad.

Microsoft executives downplay this disadvantage by suggesting that competitors' numbers are overblown. Apple's app store, for example, counts many apps twice — once for the free preview version and again for the paid version.

No matter how you count them, though, Apple has far more apps, and numbers do ultimately matter. The larger the total number of apps, the more likely it is that there will be applications for niche users. Specialized professionals — such as cinematographers or doctors — have many apps available to them through Apple, but a much more limited selection through other competitors. Taken together, those many niche apps give Apple a huge user base, which translates into more app developers designing for the iPad. It's a self-perpetuating cycle.

Further to that, Microsoft is also missing several key apps at launch. There's no Facebook or Twitter app, for example. Executives say that missing those apps is no big deal since these popular social media networks can be accessed via a web browser. That's also true, but users have come to expect apps for tablets, and they also tend to want a more simplified and streamlined experience on mobile devices than what they get on their desktops.

Price: The basic Surface with 32 gigabytes of storage is selling for $499. While that's double the storage of Apple's similarly priced basic iPad, it's still likely too high a price, since no tablet maker yet (other than Apple) has been able to sell in high volumes at that price point. Other tablets have found success when priced between $200 and $300.

Microsoft hopes the Surface's office productivity capabilities make it worth the higher sticker price to prospective buyers, but for professional users the tablet's cost actually goes up another $120 since the Touch Cover keyboard is extra. With fewer apps available and a lower-resolution screen than the iPad, the Surface is going to have a tough time enticing buyers to shell out that much.

Ergonomics: Curiously, with the Surface being pitched as a productivity device, there's a looming question mark as to how comfortable the Touch Cover keyboard is going to be to use over an extended period of time. It's no secret that typing on a touch screen is murder, but is doing so on a flat keyboard with no palm rests any better?

You can plug in a regular keyboard via the USB port if you choose, but the drawback is that a full keyboard would make the Surface less portable, negating some of the advantages of having a tablet rather than a notebook in the first place.

Productivity power users: It's great that Windows 8 lets you convert back to the standard Windows desktop when you want to do some serious work, but that raises the question: What if office work is mostly what you do?

Indeed, productivity power users — the people who use Excel and Word all day on, say Windows 7 machines — don't have much reason to upgrade to Windows 8. It's a great interface for media consumption and perhaps communication, but the operating system itself doesn't provide many work benefits.

Differentiation: While Windows 8 offers manufacturers different input options to design around, from keyboard to touchscreen, Microsoft is maintaining a relatively tight grip over what device makers can do with Windows 8 itself. In contrast, manufacturers have gravitated to Android because they can change the look and feel of the operating system and how people navigate, allowing a lot of differentiation between competing products.

Microsoft's control over the the operating system means Windows 8 devices are likely destined to look and work in much the same way. While some will experiment with the hardware, there are only so many ways to vary it and still have it work well with Microsoft's standard software. That will likely limit the amount of variation among Windows 8 devices, and drive manufacturers to put more emphasis on popular designs that compete mainly on price.

That's good news for consumers from a cost point of view. The worry for the industry, however, is that there'll be a repeat of what has happened with PCs, where there's very little that manufacturers can do to innovate and really stand out from each other beyond trying to include interesting bundled apps.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Woody Harrelson pushes tree-free paper plan

Actor Woody Harrelson has played every character from a gullible bartender to an irascible porn publisher to the drunken hero in The Hunger Games, but in real life he wants to be a paper industry revolutionary who saves forests from chainsaws.

Harrelson, on the phone from Atlanta, Ga., where he's filming the sequel to The Hunger Games and reprising his role as the heavy drinking Haymitch Abernathy, says his support of Manitoba-based Prairie Pulp and Paper Inc., is not an act.

Prairie Pulp and Paper Inc., produces paper made from waste wheat straw and Harrelson said he wants to get in on the movement that will see North America's first non-wood pulp-and-paper mill set up in Manitoba.

Jeff Golfman and Woody Harrelson appear in this undated handout photo. Harrelson is the frontman for a plan to convert agricultural crop waste into paper in Canada. He says making paper from trees is barbaric. (Canadian Press)

"When we build a plant there in Manitoba, it's going to be 100 per cent wood free … really from agricultural waste," said Harrelson, a two-time Academy Award nominee. "I'd like to see a revolution in the paper industry and I think this is an important part of that process."

Prairie Pulp and Paper has commissioned an environmental study that concludes the company's recently launched Step Forward wheat-based paper has the least amount of environmental impact among North American copy papers, including 100 per cent recycled paper.

Step Forward paper, currently made in India with 80 per cent waste wheat straw and 20 per cent wood fibres, has been available at more than 330 Staples stores across Canada since last summer.

Of the seven categories studied, Step Forward was found to have the lowest environmental impacts with regards to non-renewable energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, wastewater volume and aquatic acidification.

Vancouver-based Offsetters was commissioned by Prairie Pulp and Paper Inc. to conduct the environmental study.

James Tansey, president of Offsetters, said straw-based copy paper is an innovative product that uses waste wheat straw from the agriculture industry and transforms it for use in papermaking.

"We feel confident putting our brand on their claims," said Tansey.

Offsetters was the first official supplier of carbon offsets in the history of the Olympics during Vancouver's 2010 Winter Games.

Harrelson, known for his strict vegan diet and support for anything that involves hemp, said he wants to save trees, which is why he supports making paper from waste wheat because it doesn't involve logging forests.

"I'd like to see it get to the point where we never use trees to make paper because to me it's just a barbaric way to make it," he said. "It'd be nice to just stop using the forest. I hope people don't lose their jobs or can transition into other jobs, but to me, we've taxed the forest enough."

'I'd like to see it get to the point where we never use trees to make paper because to me it's just a barbaric way to make it.'—Woody Harrelson

Prairie Pulp and Paper president Jeff Golfman said his $500-million project could employ 300 people and require between 300,000 and 400,000 tonnes of straw each year.

"This is a huge step forward for our project and for the prospect of making paper in Manitoba that would support Manitoba farmers. We're very excited to be where we are right now," he said in a statement.

Canopy, a Vancouver-based not-for-profit environmental organization, has been supporting the development of a straw-paper industry in North America for more than a decade.

Last year, Canopy helped publish a limited edition straw-paper version of Margaret Atwood's In Other Worlds, her collection of science-fiction stories.

Canopy says 90 per cent of logging in Canada occurs in old growth forests and roughly 50 per cent of what's cut goes into paper production. Canopy says making paper from leftover straw can protect forests and create new revenues for farmers and new green jobs in rural communities.

But The Forest Products Association of Canada, the voice of Canada's wood, pulp and paper producers, said the forest industry has made huge strides when it comes to environmental sustainability and continues to explore more improvements.

Forest products industry worth $57B

Canada's forest products industry is worth $57 billion annually and directly employs 230,000 Canadians in 200 communities.

The association's environmental director, Bob Larocque, said the industry strives to use every piece of timber it harvests, including using wood chips to make paper and turning bark and wood residues into biomass energy that is sold on the electrical power grid.

Some forest operations are turning tree sludges into biogas that powers their mills, he said.

"We're very proud that we don't waste anything," said Larocque. "We use every part of the tree that we harvest. We're really becoming more like a bio-refinery, an integrated industry."

Larocque said he hasn't personally studied straw-based paper, but cautioned that paper needs wood fibres to ensure strength and quality.

There's also questions about the availability of waste wheat to make the paper, he said.

"I think it's going to be a niche product," said Larocque.

Harrelson said he expects the forest industry to protect itself but is convinced wheat-based paper "is an idea whose time has come."

He said he started supporting environmental causes in the 1980s when he was part of the cast of the hit TV comedy Cheers.

He said he attended an American Oceans event on behalf of fellow Cheers cast member Ted Danson, and was hooked.

"I've always felt a strong connection to nature," said Harrelson.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Windows 8 and Surface: 10 things to know

Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system and much-anticipated Surface tablet go on sale this morning — two closely linked efforts the company is banking on heavily to help it stay relevant in a rapidly evolving and increasingly mobile world.

Windows 8 has been designed from scratch to work with both traditional computers and the touch screens popularized by smartphones and tablets.

The Surface comes equipped with Windows RT, a mobile version of Windows 8 that runs on less-powerful tablet processors.

Overall, the new operating system is considered a big risk for the venerable software company, which is no longer the dominant force it once was in the technology industry. Despite more than a decade of trying to carve out mobile market share, starting with its Pocket PC, then Windows Mobile and Windows Phone operating systems, Microsoft is virtually invisible in phones and tablets — markets that are currently owned by Apple and Google's Android.

A Microsoft Surface tablet PC with the optional add-on keyboard is displayed during its launch event with Microsoft Windows 8 in New York. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

Windows 8 is a concerted effort by the company to leverage its desktop and laptop computing strengths and make it a bigger player in the mobile computing arena. With PC sales sagging and mobile gadgets claiming an increasing share of hardware sales, Microsoft must become a viable competitor in smartphones and tablets if it's to survive over the long term in the operating system market.

The concept behind the unified Windows 8 operating system — one that works the same way across phones, tablets and computers — is the current holy grail of technology, sought after by all the major OS competitors. The first one to make a popular unified operating system will likely be able to control, or at least greatly influence, the direction of computing into the forseeable future.

Microsoft, for its part, provided journalists in New York with two days of demos of its new operating system and tablet this week. Over that time, some of the pluses and minuses of its quest toward software unification became clear.

Five upsides of Windows 8 and Surface

A Samsung tablet computer running Windows 8 was one of the devices shown at the launch of Microsoft Windows 8 in New York. (Richard Drew/AP)

Interface: At the heart of Windows 8 is Metro, the slick interface optimized for touchscreens. Rather than the standard Windows desktop, where icons represent various applications and files, the new interface features square and rectangular coloured tiles set on a sideways-scrolling carousel. Some of the tiles are "live," which means they rotate and display information. The photo tile, for example, runs a miniature slideshow.

It's a dynamic interface that incorporates the swipes, pinch-to-zoom and other gestures popularized by Apple on its iPhone and iPad. Windows 8, however, does this in a way that feels unique and is equally fun to use.

Touch is simply a better way to navigate and browse most of the non-work applications that people are now using with photos, videos and music. While touchscreens haven't been popular with traditional mainstream computers, they can work quite well in certain situations. A so-called all-in-one computer with a touchscreen but not necessarily a mouse and keyboard can be a good fit in the kitchen, for example, where you might want to watch streamed video or listen to music while washing dishes.

Many of the new Windows 8 machines available for the retail launch of the operating system have touchscreens. It's not all about touch, though. The Metro interface also works well with a mouse, or with the trackpad on older computers that don't have touchscreens.

For users who want the classic Windows layout, it can be accessed with a simple tile push. That way, you can quickly launch into more work-focused applications that require a keyboard and mouse — Excel or Word, for example.

Device variety: Windows 8 is designed to be a flexible platform for hardware makers, enabling them to produce traditional desktops or get creative with designs that leverage the touch interface.

Microsoft's own Surface device, for one, is somewhere between a tablet and a laptop once its Touch Cover magnetic keyboard is attached. Other manufacturers are using Windows 8 in everything from straight-up tablets to desktop computers to ultrabooks and even, like Lenovo's Yoga, devices that can change between the various form factors.

Microsoft says more than 1,000 Windows 8 devices are scheduled to be launched over the next year. Some of those are going to experiment with shapes and sizes; some will inevitably flop, but others have the potential to invent entirely new computer concepts. Might a laptop that transforms into a flat table-top computer finally take off?

Office: Windows 8 and Surface are designed specifically to be used for work as well as play, unlike competing tablets that put an emphasis on entertainment apps and media playback. Microsoft says it designed the Surface to be a productivity tool for professionals as well as a consumer device (one of the reasons for the optional keyboard/cover).

Microsoft has purposely refrained from releasing any significant support for its key Office applications — Word, Excel and PowerPoint — on competitors' platforms, though. It looks like the company has kept those capabilities for itself to make its own devices the obvious choice for people looking for good productivity tools.

The Surface tablet comes bundled with Office 2013, Microsoft's latest suite of productivity applications.

Ports galore: The Surface features a number of ports, including USB, video and a separate power plug. Microsoft says the dedicated power port allows the device to be fully charged within two hours. It was impossible to test that at the demos, but if true, that's significantly faster than other tablets.

The USB plug gives the tablet a huge advantage over the iPad, the Surface's main competitor. With it, Microsoft says its tablet is compatible with more than 420 million peripherals, from printers to keyboards.

That's going to enable some interesting apps, particularly when it comes to gaming. Video games have proven to be big hits on tablets, so attaching an Xbox controller, for example, will allow game developers to take their products to a level that more closely approximates console experiences.

Low upgrade cost: At $39 for people upgrading from previous Microsoft operating systems, Windows 8 is a relatively affordable upgrade.

Moreover, the company says that most computers currently running Windows 7 will not only be able to handle Windows 8 just fine, they'll also work better. Windows 8 will improve the battery life and boot-up time of those older machines by more than 30 per cent.

Again, it was tough to verify those claims in the short demo time provided, but if true, they're both welcome upgrades.

Five downsides:

Lack of apps: The Surface is launching with about 10,000 apps, many of which won't be available in Canada. Apple, on the other hand, has more than 270,000 applications optimized for the iPad.

Microsoft executives downplay this disadvantage by suggesting that competitors' numbers are overblown. Apple's app store, for example, counts many apps twice — once for the free preview version and again for the paid version.

No matter how you count them, though, Apple has far more apps, and numbers do ultimately matter. The larger the total number of apps, the more likely it is that there will be applications for niche users. Specialized professionals — such as cinematographers or doctors — have many apps available to them through Apple, but a much more limited selection through other competitors. Taken together, those many niche apps give Apple a huge user base, which translates into more app developers designing for the iPad. It's a self-perpetuating cycle.

Further to that, Microsoft is also missing several key apps at launch. There's no Facebook or Twitter app, for example. Executives say that missing those apps is no big deal since these popular social media networks can be accessed via a web browser. That's also true, but users have come to expect apps for tablets, and they also tend to want a more simplified and streamlined experience on mobile devices than what they get on their desktops.

Price: The basic Surface with 32 gigabytes of storage is selling for $499. While that's double the storage of Apple's similarly priced basic iPad, it's still likely too high a price, since no tablet maker yet (other than Apple) has been able to sell in high volumes at that price point. Other tablets have found success when priced between $200 and $300.

Microsoft hopes the Surface's office productivity capabilities make it worth the higher sticker price to prospective buyers, but for professional users the tablet's cost actually goes up another $120 since the Touch Cover keyboard is extra. With fewer apps available and a lower-resolution screen than the iPad, the Surface is going to have a tough time enticing buyers to shell out that much.

Ergonomics: Curiously, with the Surface being pitched as a productivity device, there's a looming question mark as to how comfortable the Touch Cover keyboard is going to be to use over an extended period of time. It's no secret that typing on a touch screen is murder, but is doing so on a flat keyboard with no palm rests any better?

You can plug in a regular keyboard via the USB port if you choose, but the drawback is that a full keyboard would make the Surface less portable, negating some of the advantages of having a tablet rather than a notebook in the first place.

Productivity power users: It's great that Windows 8 lets you convert back to the standard Windows desktop when you want to do some serious work, but that raises the question: What if office work is mostly what you do?

Indeed, productivity power users — the people who use Excel and Word all day on, say Windows 7 machines — don't have much reason to upgrade to Windows 8. It's a great interface for media consumption and perhaps communication, but the operating system itself doesn't provide many work benefits.

Differentiation: While Windows 8 offers manufacturers different input options to design around, from keyboard to touchscreen, Microsoft is maintaining a relatively tight grip over what device makers can do with Windows 8 itself. In contrast, manufacturers have gravitated to Android because they can change the look and feel of the operating system and how people navigate, allowing a lot of differentiation between competing products.

Microsoft's control over the the operating system means Windows 8 devices are likely destined to look and work in much the same way. While some will experiment with the hardware, there are only so many ways to vary it and still have it work well with Microsoft's standard software. That will likely limit the amount of variation among Windows 8 devices, and drive manufacturers to put more emphasis on popular designs that compete mainly on price.

That's good news for consumers from a cost point of view. The worry for the industry, however, is that there'll be a repeat of what has happened with PCs, where there's very little that manufacturers can do to innovate and really stand out from each other beyond trying to include interesting bundled apps.

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China blocks NYT website over Wen story

The New York Times website has been blocked in China by government censors after it published a story speculating on the massive family wealth of Premier Wen Jiabao.

In a 4,700-word story published Friday, the newspaper said family assets worth about $2.7 billion US had been amassed in a series of investments, mostly after Wen rose to senior positions starting in 2002.

The wealth is nominally in the hands of Wen's relatives, the paper said.

The Chinese-language version of the New York Times's website, which has been made unavailable in China by government censors. (NYT)

"A review of corporate and regulatory records indicates that the prime minister's relatives — some of whom, including his wife, have a knack for aggressive deal making — have controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion."

Chinese censors also blocked the Times's Chinese-language site that carried a translated version of the story. Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a press briefing that the report "blackens China and has ulterior motives."

Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said the paper hoped access to the sites could soon be restored.

In a move suggesting it had anticipated China's reaction, the Times made a Chinese-language version of the story available for download in PDF format, making distribution more likely, the Voice of America website reported.

The Times named Wen's 90-year-old mother, who left a life of poverty behind her, his children, and his former wife and other relatives as owners of some of the assets involved. Some of them, the story said, "have a knack for aggressive deal making."

New leadership

And some of their businesses have received abnormal financial backing from state-owned companies, including phone company China Mobile.

Next month, the Chinese Communist Party is expected to name a new generation of leaders, the Times reported, but the selection process has already been hurt by scandal with the downfall of Bo Xilai, the Chongqing party boss, who was vying for a top position.

Wen Jiabao is expected to step down as prime minister in March at the end of his second term, the Times story said.

It added:

"Political analysts say that even after leaving office he could remain a strong backstage political force. But documents showing that his relatives amassed a fortune during his tenure could diminish his standing, the analysts said."

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Soyuz makes 'flawless' docking at space station

The Russian Soyuz spacecraft made a "flawless" docking at the International Space Station orbiting the Earth Thursday.

The arrival occurred right on schedule at 8:35 a.m. ET. Next up — once the seal between the ISS and the arriving spacecraft has been checked for leaks — will be the transfer of three arriving crew at about 10:35 a.m.

Two Russian flight engineers and one American are aboard the Soyuz: Oleg Novitskiy, Evgeny Tarelkin and Kevin Ford.

They will join Cmdr. Suni Williams (U.S.) and flight engineers Aki Hoshide (Japan) and Yuri Malenchenko (Russia), who have been aboard since July 17.

NASA described today's docking as "flawless."

It said Wednesday that crewmembers on the orbiting laboratory have been conducting routine maintenance and research, getting ready for the departure of the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft on Sunday.

The Dragon arrived Oct. 10 at the space station, becoming the first commercial resupply mission to reach it.

Also on the schedule is a spacewalk Nov. 1 to repair what has been described as a radiator ammonia leak.

The Russian spacecraft surged into clear skies over the Central Asian steppe on Tuesday.

"I spoke with the astronauts after they reached orbit," Russian Space Agency chief Vladimir Popovkin said. "They feel well. Everything went fine, despite the windy conditions."

The crew will face what may be the heaviest workload in the 12-year history of the space station over its first week.

Of the three in Tuesday's takeoff, only Ford has flown in space before. He spent two weeks as pilot of the space shuttle Discovery in 2009 on a mission to transport scientific equipment to the space station.

Tuesday's launch took place in unseasonably warm conditions and afforded the small crowd of space officials, well-wishers and family members of the astronauts at the viewing platform a clear sight of the rocket disappearing into the distance.

Burst of applause

Within a few seconds of the launch, the first set of booster rockets detached as planned in a puff of smoke and fell to earth leaving a streak of black fumes in its wake.

An announcer informed the crowd of the craft's progress over a loudspeaker. After nine minutes, he announced the Soyuz had reached orbit, prompting a burst of applause for the successful start to the mission.

Televised footage showed the soft toy hippopotamus mascot dangling over the crew floating in weightlessness.

The crew will have been packed into the cramped Soyuz for 48 hours before finally docking with the space station.

For the first time since 1984, the manned takeoff took place from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome's launch site 31.

The pad that is normally used for such missions-- the one where Yury Gagarin became the first human to travel into space in 1961, is being modernized. Site No. 1, better known as Gagarin's Start, was last overhauled in 1983.

With files from The Associated Press

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Cellphone billing errors routine, telecom watchdog finds

A telecom watchdog group says routine errors on cellphone bills continue to be a major headache for consumers, who often complained they were charged too much.

A report by the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services finds consumers also say they weren't given discounts or credits promised or their contracts didn't reflect the services they thought they were getting.

The non-profit group helps settle disputes between consumers and telecom service providers.

It handled almost 11,000 complaints for 2011 to 2012, a 35 per cent increase from the previous year.

The complaints included wireless, local phone and long distance and Internet services.

For the last three years, complaints about cellphone services have made up more than half of the telecom services complaints, a hot button issue for consumers.

"The No. 1 complaint is what I will call routine billing errors related to regular service," said commissioner Howard Maker, who released his annual report Thursday.

"Wireless tends to be a complaint generator," Maker said.

Little accountability

Maker said a national code of conduct for Canada's wireless providers should eventually help lower complaints.

"We think it will set minimum standards for service provider conduct and will clarify rights and responsibilities."

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has asked Canadians to help draft the code because consumers have said their monthly contracts are confusing and the terms and conditions can vary greatly from one wireless company to another.

This year, more than 60 per cent of the complaints to Maker's watchdog group were about wireless services, which face numerous technological changes, he said.

"I often think the technology guys and the marketing guys get ahead of the customer service folks. So it's difficult for the customer service folks to convey all of the information that consumers need in a timely way and in an accurate way."

Maker also noted that his group solved 90 per cent of the complaints it received and said sometimes the solutions were glaringly obvious.

Some of the solutions were so simple that "you kind of scratch your head" and wonder why customers couldn't get any satisfaction, he said.

"We see so many complaints that could have been avoided, in our view, with a little extra care provided by the service provider at first instance."

Confusing contracts

The second-biggest complaint was clauses in consumers' cellphone contracts, known as terms of service, which includes such things as early termination fees, the report said.

That underscores that consumers need to understand their contracts, Maker said.

The watchdog group also received complaints about lost smartphones and if consumers needed to keep paying their monthly contracts.

Consumers aren't off the hook and need to be aware of their responsibilities and options, Maker said.

"Losing your device is not a basis to stop paying your monthly fees," he said.

"Although we understand customers' frustration with having to pay for a service that they can no longer use, the physical protection of a customer's device is not the service provider's responsibility," the report adds.

The report also found that local telephone service and Internet service were No. 2 and No. 3 in generating complaints.

The main complaint with these services, again, was billing errors, Maker said. Complaints about Internet services also include disputes about usage caps.

Maker said 178 telecom service providers and brands participate in the group's dispute resolution process.

The group is an independent, industry-financed body established by the federal government to resolve consumer complaints against telecom companies.

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Microsoft Windows 8 aims at tablets

Microsoft is holding a major launch event for Windows 8 in New York City today, ahead of Friday's retail release of the new operating system.

The company faces market worries about the big changes it's asking its millions of consumer and corporate customers to accept with the radically redesigned operating system.

Windows 8 will tie together the company's operating systems for PCs, tablets and smartphones with one icon-centred look. The start menu is out, and a series of touch-screen controlled icons, or "tiles," is in.

The familiar Windows desktop is still available through one of the tiles, and most programs will open in that environment. But since the start button is gone, users will have to flip back and forth between the desktop and the tile screen.

Technology writer Peter Nowak will be tweeting for CBCNews.ca from the Microsoft event today starting here at 10:30 ET.

Plenty of advice

There's also potential for confusion because there's one version of Windows 8, called "Windows RT," which looks like the PC version but doesn't run regular Windows programs. It's intended for tablets and lightweight tablet-laptop hybrids.

Microsoft has had preview versions of Windows 8 widely available since February and has been on the receiving end of plenty of advice as a result.

Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial, is optimistic about Windows 8, pointing out that it's snappy and runs well on PCs with limited processing power, making it suited for compact, tablet-style machines. But he also notes that through Microsoft's history, roughly every other operating system release has been a letdown.

Intel Corp. makes the processors that go into 80 per cent of PCs, and has a strong interest in the success of Windows.

Huge step

CEO Paul Otellini said Oct. 16 that when the company has let consumers try Windows 8 on expensive "ultrabook" laptops with touch screens, "the feedback is universally positive." But he told analysts that he doesn't really know if people will embrace Windows 8 for mainstream PCs.

This logo was used from 2001 to 2006 for the Windows XP operating system. (Microsoft)

The new version is a huge step forward from where Microsoft began with Windows in 1985. Then, it was a "shell" wrapped around the underlying MS-DOS operating system.

That evolved into Windows 3.0 and 3.1 in the early 1990s — taking advantage of more powerful microprocessors — and then into Windows 95 and 98. Several controversial versions followed.

Windows XP was by far Microsoft's most successful consumer product. It was based on the company's resilient business operating system, Windows NT, and eventually overtook NT as a widely used business system.

Subsequent versions included Windows 2000, Vista, and Windows 7.

There will be several versions of Windows 8:

Windows 8

Like its predecessors, Windows 8 will run on computers with processing chips made by Intel Corp. or Advanced Micro Devices Inc. There's a basic version designed for consumers and a Pro version for more tech-savvy users and businesses. The Pro version has such features as encryption and group account management. Large companies with volume-licensing deals with Microsoft will want Windows 8 Enterprise, which has additional tools for information-technology staff to manage machines.

Windows RT

For the first time, there will also be a version running on lower-energy chips common in phones and tablets. That version will run on tablets and some devices that marry tablet and PC features. While tablets with Windows 8 can run standard Windows programs, the RT devices will be restricted to applications specifically designed for the system. Borrowing from Apple's playbook, Microsoft is allowing RT to get applications only from its online store, and apps must meet content and other guidelines.

Windows Phone 8

While Windows 8 and RT will be out Friday, the phone version won't be available until an unspecified date this fall. Microsoft has an event on it Monday and may announce more details then. Nokia Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. already have announced plans for new Windows phones.

You can get Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 only by buying devices with the software already installed, while Windows 8 can be purchased as an upgrade as well.

With files from The Associated Press

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