Mobile telecommunications manufacturer Nokia raised its sociability profile on Tuesday when it announced the purchase of media-sharing company Twango. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Redmond, Washington-based Twango offers a free mobile and desktop platform for sharing and organizing photos, videos, and other kinds of personal media. Nokia Executive Vice President Anssi Vanjoki said in a statement that Nokia’s “Internet services vision” is to provide “seamless access to information, entertainment, and social networks” from any connected device. With products such as Nokia’s Nseries handsets and Twango, he said, users will enjoy “the most complete suite of connected multimedia experiences.” Making Sharing Easier The privately owned Twango was founded in 2004 by Jim Laurel and Serena Glover, formerly of Microsoft. Its platform supports more than 100 media file types, and offers what Nokia calls “a comprehensive array of options” for sharing media easily. The platform allows outside developers to create applications that run on desktops and mobile devices. On its Web site, Twango said that making photos, videos, and audio is easy, but organizing them “has been tedious” and sharing them “can be a major hassle.” The service aims to make organizing and sharing as easy as capturing. Imagine, the company said, “sending a photo to Twango, then having it appear on your blog or Web site in moments and notifying your viewers — automatically,” or having a group of travelers share a trip with friends back home, “with nothing more than their camera phones.” With Twango, media can be shared with one person, a group, or the general public, or several users’ media can be brought together for teams or clubs. Friends can be invited to view a user’s media collection without requiring them to sign up. Currently, the service offers unlimited media storage, with a 100-MB cap on file size and a…

MySpace Weeds Out 29,000 Sex Offenders
Law enforcement officials in two states have announced that the social-networking site MySpace has identified 29,000 registered sex offenders using its service. That’s more than four times the number identified by MySpace earlier this year, when it yielded to pressure from a group of state attorneys general to turn over the account information of convicted offenders. “The exploding epidemic of sex offender profiles on MySpace — 29,000 and counting — screams for action,” Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement. “Our information demands reveal shocking new skyrocketing numbers of convicted sex offender profiles on MySpace. Each of these 29,000 separate profiles reflects a potential predator willing and able to exploit a child.” Still More Offenders? The identification of the 29,000 registered sex offenders — enough to fill a small city — was aided by the fact that the individuals in question used their real names to sign up for their MySpace accounts. No one has offered any estimate as to how many registered sex offenders might have accounts under false identities. MySpace has been working on identifying sex offenders on its site since late last year, but began pursuing the issue more aggressively this spring. The company initially resisted requests from various attorneys general for individual account information, but then relented and turned over data for roughly 7,000 people identified as registered sex offenders. In numerous states, that information led to the arrest of persons who had violated their conditions of probation or parole by using the Internet. “These numbers dispel any doubt that age verification and other reforms are overdue and undeniable,” Blumenthal said. “Steadfast opposition by MySpace to age verification and parental permission for minors has no shred of credibility.” Social Networking Legislation The ongoing revelations regarding the number of registered sex offenders online has led to numerous legislative proposals to protect children….

Humans Beat Computer in Poker - Barely
Playing our genetically determined hand to the hilt, humans earlier this week pushed back computers — barely — in the legendary game of poker. The poker-playing software program, named Polaris, was developed by researchers at the University of Alberta, which seems intent on embarrassing the human species. Recently, researchers there created a checkers-playing program so infallible that they retired it from playing those of the carbon persuasion because they were certain humans would lose or draw every time. But, if there is to be an OK Corral showdown for games, let it be at poker — Limit Texas Hold’em, to be precise. And, to represent the human species, the researchers chose two of the best poker players in the world — Phil Laak and Ali Eslami. Laak is nicknamed “The Unabomber” because of his preference for sunglasses and a hooded sweatshirt. Humans Challenge Computer Although they chose the human team, the University of Alberta researchers described Laak and Eslami as their “worst nightmare” because they are “super strong players” who understand the mathematical foundations of poker and so can cope with anything that the software could throw at them. But, if Polaris was intimidated, it didn’t show. Without even blinking an eye, Polaris virtually sat down against the pair in the $50,000 First Man-Machine Poker Championship on Monday and Tuesday in Vancouver, as part of the annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. The two humans played against two copies of Polaris. In four matches over two days, the teammates were dealt the same series of randomly generated cards, but from opposite sides, so as to reduce chance and emphasize skill. Neither team was allowed to communicate with the other. After each match, the total number of chips won or lost by each team was totaled to determine the…

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A Closer Look at Sony’s Q2 Earnings
Check out Sony from a distance, but don’t strain your eyes by looking too closely, and you’ll love Thursday’s headlines screaming of double Q2 profits overall and trebled sales in the company’s electronics division. But use that digital zoom, and you might see Sony as a lopsided creature. It’s easy to think of Sony as a four-legged robot — kind of like the company’s AIBO robot dog that was so popular a few years ago among the money-to-burn set. One leg is its film studio business, another supports its PlayStation game console division, the third is consumer electronics such as TVs and digital cameras, and the fourth is the sum of market conditions, including the value of the yen and the mood of the “electronic herd” playing the stock market. With the dollar and digital camera sales soaring high, so-so performance in its studio division, and just a peg-leg for PlayStation 3, it’s a wonder Sony can hobble around at all. Digital Cameras Focus Profits First, the good news. The yen has been performing horribly against the dollar and most other major currencies. When that happens, the value of Sony’s TVs and cameras sold outside Japan increases. Couple that with generally brisk sales of digital cameras — especially its Cyber-shot line — and you have an electronics division that more than makes up for lousy performances in others. “The demand for digital cameras and very expensive TV screens,” said Douglas McIntyre, a stock analyst and editor for 24/7 Wall Street, “is way up.” To some extent, he said, Sony is the beneficiary of the fact that globally there are still many people who want to buy that gear. He added that “a lot of people don’t have a digital camera right now.” People upgrading from old to new technology could keep Sony’s consumer electronics division…

Next-Generation DVD War Heats Up
Blow by blow, the fight between Blu-ray and HD DVD entered a new round this week. On Wednesday, Target announced it would soon start selling a Blu-ray player exclusively in its stores, a major blow to the HD DVD format. But HD DVD landed a punch too, thanks to news from Microsoft that the HD DVD add-on to its Xbox 360 video game console would be reduced $20 and come bundled with five free movies. Target Joins Blockbuster Target said Wednesday that in October it will start selling the Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray player, the first standalone next-gen player to be offered in its stores. It currently offers the Toshiba HD DVD player on its Web site, along with Sony’s PlayStation 3, which has a built-in Blu-ray player. Target said it will continue to sell DVDs in both high-definition formats in the stores, but will not stock HD DVD standalone players. Target also said that the players and Blu-ray DVDs from three studios will be displayed at the more-visible ends of aisles. For this “endcap” position, Sony is paying a placement fee. HD DVD players and discs have reportedly been shown in endcap positions at Circuit City and Best Buy. With Target’s announcement yesterday, the second largest retailer in the U.S. joins Blockbuster in the Blu-ray camp. In June, the video chain announced that it will offer only the Blu-ray DVD format for rental in 1,700 of its stores. The HD DVD format is still being offered through the company’s online channel, blockbuster.com, as well as through the 250 stores that currently carry both formats. HD Less Expensive Microsoft and other backers of the HD DVD format are trying to press their advantage in offering players that are less expensive than Blu-ray boxes. HD DVD players are now being sold for $299 at U.S….

DEA Raids LA medical Marijuana Clinics
Federal agents raided 10 marijuana clinics Wednesday, the same day city leaders introduced a measure calling for an end to the crackdown on the dispensaries allowed under state law. The bust netted five arrests, large quantities of marijuana and cash, and was the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s second-largest since California voters approved medical marijuana sales in 1996. The drug remains illegal under federal law. DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen said the timing of the bust and the city’s action was “purely coincidental.” The agency has maintained the clinics are distribution points for illegal drugs and earn their owners big profits. Those arrested Wednesday included clinic owners and managers, though no patients, for investigation of marijuana distribution. Councilman Dennis Zine, who earlier in the day wrote a letter to DEA Administrator Karen Tandy asking the agency to stop the raids, called the federal agents “bullies.” “Instead of using resources to go after drug dealers ruining neighborhoods and poisoning school kids, they’re going after individuals dying of cancer and suffering from AIDS who need cannabis to have any type of appetite,” Zine said. The clinics are largely unregulated, which Zine and others said invites illegal pot use and sales. He said he and the council support a congressional bill that would prohibit new clinics from opening until the city finds a way to better regulate its more than 100 dispensaries. It also calls for withholding funding for DEA raids on medical marijuana clinics. The council proposed Wednesday requiring existing dispensaries to obtain a city tax registration certificate, a seller’s permit, a property lease, business insurance, proof of dispensary membership and a county health permit within 60 days. DEA agents raided 11 Los Angeles-area dispensaries in one day in January, the largest-ever such crackdown by the agency. Earlier this month, the DEA sent letters to at least 30 landlords of marijuana dispensaries in Los…

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Dual-Mode BlackBerry Faces Uphill Climb
The new BlackBerry 8820 smartphone coming to market as Research In Motion’s first “dual-mode” smartphone, designed to meld cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity, is causing quite a stir among industry observers. The new handset not only can enable mobile data access, but also can seamlessly transfer voice calls across cellular and Wi-Fi networks. Moreover, the device integrates the requisite wireless voice and data capabilities for enabling travelers to roam across GSM cellular networks worldwide. The potential cost savings sound great, but hold the phone, said Forrester Research vice president Lisa Pierce. “Just because I have such a device does not mean everything simply falls into place,” Pierce explained. “You also have to have a carrier willing to participate in that seamless handoff by starting and stopping the billing process.” Journey, Not Destination In contrast to many of Europe’s present-day cellular players, the major U.S. providers have been slow to embrace dual-mode phones. “And remember, each cellular carrier gets to determine how it will activate the device,” Pierce said. T-Mobile has been the only U.S. carrier so far to show a willingness to support dual-mode phones, Pierce noted. So even if the BlackBerry 8820 were available today, “it would not necessarily mean that all of its capabilities would be activated,” Pierce explained. Still, Pierce said she sees the introduction of the BlackBerry 8820 “as an important step on the road to fixed-mobile convergence, which is a journey not a destination.” And she said she is hoping that the major cellular providers will decide to “make it possible for customers to have a wider array of choices.” Enterprise Perspective Noting that RIM’s entire BlackBerry line is primarily aimed at business users, Pierce said she sees the enterprise as the space where fixed-mobile convergence will most likely first gain a firm footing. Only 11 percent of the…

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