claytongunshow.com

Prior to the release of myKite, BlackBerry users had to access the company’s mobile site from their phones. According to Hallgren, he used Brightkite’s API to develop myKite because he “wanted a native app for the BlackBerry.”

Location-based social network Brightkite announced its first native BlackBerry application on Thursday. It was created by a third-party developer using the company’s application programming interface. Brightkite already offers native applications to iPhone and Android users.

myKite is available now for free in the BlackBerry App World. BlackBerry owners can download the app by either accessing it from their devices or by following this link.

Dubbed myKite, the BlackBerry app, which was created by developer Chris Hallgren, locates the user through the BlackBerry’s built-in GPS. It then finds other Brightkite users nearby in real time. When other people are found, myKite allows users to browse profiles, check status updates, post photos, and write notes on different establishments around town.

But if this is the case, then why would he give the names to Fritz? Why wouldn’t Fritz weigh in on the controversy if he had this information? There are lots of questions still unanswered about Global Gaming.

Swedish stock exchange AktieTorget on Friday halted trading in Global Gaming’s shares when it did not receive all the information it requested about the company’s finances, according to reports in Swedish newspaper SvD. Separately, SvD reported that Swedish authorities have launched a criminal investigation into possible insider trading related to an inexplicable jump in Global Gaming’s share price a week before the company announced its intention to buy The Pirate Bay. Questions have also been raised about the financial health of Global Gaming and of Pandeya himself, who is the company’s largest shareholder. Both he and the company are wrestling with debt, former Global Gaming CTO Johan Sellstrom told CNET News.

AktieTorget officials confirmed in a statement posted online that they did speak with someone claiming to be an investor. Officials, however, wanted more documentation and it was unavailable Friday. AktieTorget won’t allow trading to resume in Global Gaming until it receives more proof that the money for the acquisition is secure.

I asked Pandeya for the names of the investors under the same terms he offered to Fritz, and I promised not to write about them until after Thursday. That’s the day he has said The Pirate Bay acquisition will be completed.

In a phone interview, Fritz declined to comment and would only refer me to a July 31 story he co-wrote about Global Gaming with Times reporter Dawn Chmielewski titled “Pirate Bay deal surrounded by Hollywood-style headaches.”

“I put the Los Angeles Times in touch with one of (the investors) who confirmed the investment,”–Hans Pandeya,
Global Gaming CEO.”

Since announcing on June 30 his company’s plan to acquire The Pirate Bay, Pandeya has declined to provide the names of his investors, who he has said will put up 60 million Swedish Kroner, or about $8.5 million, to fund the acquisition.

“I put The Los Angeles Times in touch with one of them who confirmed the investment,” Pandeya wrote. “I also provided (Fritz) with the name of the investment bank that is managing the investors provided they did not disclose this. So, the DD (Pandeya presumably means “due diligence”) regarding this has been done. Now, the stock market wanted the names…and I gave them the name of the investment bank (that) confirmed that the money was in place. Now, Ben Fritz and the Swedish stock market know the name of the investment bank (besides the investors and us).”

The report mentions that Global Gaming “has commitments from more than 30 private investors to provide the approximately $4 million cash portion of (The Pirate Bay) acquisition.” The newspaper report does not cite its source for this information nor does it mention anywhere that the reporters spoke to any of the company’s financial backers.

A review of Latimes.com did not turn up any other stories by Fritz about Global Gaming or The Pirate Bay.

Still, none of the questions is bigger than this one: what will become of The Pirate Bay if the acquisition falls through?

In a lengthy e-mail exchange with CNET on Friday, Pandeya said that besides turning over investors’ names to officials from the stock market, he has also given the names to Ben Fritz, a media reporter with the LA Times.

The news that surfaced in the past week has called Pandeya’s credibility into question.

Hans Pandeya, CEO of Global Gaming Factory X–the company attempting to acquire The Pirate Bay and now steeped in controversy, says he has revealed the names of his financial backers to The Los Angeles Times.

“We agreed to keep their names confidential until after the acquisition because they are confused and strongly concerned by the blasting I have received in media,” Pandeya wrote. “I am worried that they will back out if journalists start scrutinizing them.”

Plus, Microsoft confirms Zune HD details.

At more and more companies, employees are being encouraged to play video games together as team-building exercises. CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman has more.

Start-up helps teachers learn their lesson

Apple planning September event?

Listen now:

Guitarist Les Paul dead at 94; pioneered recording technology

Microsoft confirms Zune HD details

Shooting the boss (and getting paid for it)

Download today’s podcast

Today’s stories:

Energy Department eyes superfast Ethernet

Zune HD packs a big processing punch

A multiple-platform suite of products being announced at the TechCrunch50 event will support the service.

I've got Twitter and Facebook in my iPhone AIM client.

AOL’s instant messenger, AIM, becomes on Tuesday the AIM Lifestream and gets support for modern social services Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Flickr, and Delicious.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

The iPhone app for AIM Lifestream is available now, however, because the Apple approval process went much faster than AOL expected, said David Liu, AOL’s senior vice president of global messaging. (You’ll get AIM Lifestream when you download the paid AIM client for the iPhone.)

Finally, AIM won’t be the only IM platform supported. ICQ support is coming soon. Also coming, I was told, is support for other IM networks. Liu wouldn’t say which but claimed that AOL is “having discussions” with the big platforms. That would include Yahoo and Microsoft, as well as Facebook. The Google IM system is is open. Skype support would be a neat trick; I don’t expect it.

AIM Lifestream will end up being a powerful social client due to the sheer number of AIM users who will upgrade from the older version of AIM. And while it’s a great product for AIM power users, I don’t think it’s a good option yet for people whose online social lives revolve around other networks. In my case, for example, I’ll continue to spend time in Twitter-centric clients like Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop, because that’s where my people are. And there’s no way AIM is going to pry my wife away from the full Facebook experience.

Liu said that the mobile clients are key to the AIM strategy and that geolocation features will be rolling out. Already, the iPhone client will report your location (if you let it) to your friends. In the future, Liu told me, you’ll be able to see what your friends have said about places near you. Another big part of the Lifestream strategy is AIM’s e-mail service. You’ll be able to use your new AOL e-mail to read and reply to all the same messages you get in your AIM clients.

In addition to instant messaging, AIM Lifestream will display updates from the social feeds mentioned above and, likewise, enable people to post back to the services. The suite of products, including mobile clients, Mac and Windows desktop apps, and a Web client, will launch on September 22. The current Lifestream Web site shows the development of the project so far. The finished version will bring instant messages into the mix.

Even so, AIM Lifestream is a good direction for AOL and I am looking forward to see how this new strategy evolves.

I tried the iPhone app. It’s a decent combo client, although I found it much better for instant messaging than for Twitter or Facebook. While it is really nice to be able to get social network items and IMs in one client, you don’t get the full visibility and control over your social accounts as you do in a full-featured client like the iPhone app Tweetdeck for Twitter, or Facebook’s own app for Facebook. But if you’re not a heavy user of the other services, the AIM Lifestream client is certainly servicable, and it’s nice to be able to update your AIM status and other sites with just one message.

“I just received confirmation yesterday that…we’re going to be reopening up charity gifts in the Gift Shop,” said Zuckerberg (who is, yes, the sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg). “We are exploring ways for developers to use the Gift Shop to offer…virtual, real, and charity gifts.”

The blog Inside Facebook reported last week that four online gift and greeting companies–American Greetings Interactive, GreetBeatz, Someecards, and Real Gifts–would be selling virtual gifts in the Facebook gift shop as part of a test of the new “Pay with Facebook” virtual currency.

Facebook first offered “charity gifts” for a 48-hour window to commemorate the milestone of 200 million members. A total of 16 nonprofits and advocacy groups participated in the initiative.

This will be rolling out next week with four test partners–Project Red, Kiva, Toms Shoes (which is not a non-profit, but a for-profit retailer that donates a pair of shoes for every pair sold), and the World Wildlife Fund–Zuckerberg said, and pending its success, “we may open to everyone really soon after that.”

The social network already uses “credits” to sell in-house and branded virtual gifts, a change it made last November (gifts had originally been listed in U.S. dollars). The extension of the system to third-party developers on Facebook’s platform has been talked about for quite some time now but finally appears to be nearing a wider launch.

NEW YORK–Four nonprofit organizations will be participating in a test of Facebook’s “credits” platform, marketing and outreach director Randi Zuckerberg said on Friday morning at the Social Good Conference presented by social-media blog Mashable.

Apple has a current market capitalization of about $165 billion (Intel’s is about $110 billion). Two heavyweights with two competing visions of small devices. Will one of the big battlegrounds of the future be Apple tablets versus Intel-based tablets? Or–perish the thought–an Apple Netbook using an Apple chip instead of an Intel Atom? It’s tantalizing to speculate.

Those are all markets where Intel’s Moorestown (and, later, Medfield) will compete.

But it’s really not even necessary to speculate about the future. The Apple chip has already arrived (see photo). Some analysts believe that the Apple-branded chip in the iPhone is a fairly unique design and that Apple is simply using Samsung as a chip “foundry” or manufacturer. That would mean Apple is already competing with Intel’s Atom, not to mention the host of ARM chip suppliers such as Texas Instruments and Qualcomm.

(Credit:
iFixit)

As Intel readies its most potent chip yet for small devices, Apple may already be using competing technology.

One of the themes of the upcoming Intel Developer Forum (starting Tuesday) will be the chip giant’s foray into the smartphone and mobile Internet device (MID) markets. Intel’s current Atom chip is fine for Netbooks but has had little impact on MIDs and zero impact on smartphones, where it is simply too power hungry to be usable.

(See: CNET Reporters Roundtable discussion of IDF and other Intel topics.)

Enter Moorestown. A much more power efficient Atom chip, due by 2010, that should find its way into high-end LG smartphones, MIDs from Asian device makers, and tablets (from HP? Dell?).

Apple iPhone 3GS processor

Just so happens that Apple is doing analogous chip development. When Apple acquired chip design firm P.A. Semi in March 2008 it got a team of very capable engineers that, almost certainly, are designing silicon for future iPhones, iPods, and tablets (or “media pads”–choose your nomenclature).

Note: Here’s the official Intel description of Moorestown: “Intel’s second-generation MID platform, which consists of a System on Chip (codenamed ‘Lincroft’) that integrates a 45nm Intel Atom processor core, graphics, video and memory controller. The platform also includes an input/output (I/O) hub, codenamed ‘Langwell,’ that includes a range of I/O blocks and supports wireless solutions.

And where might Apple supply its own silicon in the future? Beyond the iPhone–where Intel clearly has nothing to offer currently–there’s the expected emerging tablet and MID markets. Make the iPod touch’s screen a few inches bigger diagonally, add a few more features and you theoretically have a MID. (Some, of course, will argue that the iPod is already a MID/media player.) Make the screen even bigger (8 to 10 inches), give it more compute and graphics horsepower, and add a few more software and hardware bells and whistles, and you theoretically have a next-generation Apple tablet and/or media pad.

And 2010 is just around the corner. It should be an interesting year for fresh new device designs and equally interesting competition between two computer industry Goliaths.

Following rumors and reports earlier Thursday, the announcement was made in a company blog post by Owen Van Natta, the former Facebook executive who ultimately did replace DeWolfe as CEO of MySpace earlier this year. Berman, who had previously been the head of MySpace’s video division, had been at MySpace for about three and a half years.

Earlier this week, MySpace also formally confirmed rumors that it would be acquiring iLike, a social music service that’s also supported by advertising–but not successfully enough to rake in real dollars, as its price tag was reportedly a paltry $20 million.

At one point sources said he was a “dark horse” candidate to replace outgoing MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe, but now MySpace ad sales and marketing head Jeff Berman is departing the News Corp. division entirely.

A report earlier on Thursday had suggested that Millard would be hired by MySpace outright; that was erroneous, as it turns out.

MySpace has enlisted the services of media strategy firm Media Link to work on improving its advertising product, Van Natta’s blog post added. Media Link is run by Wenda Harris Millard, the former sales exec from Yahoo and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

The second vulnerability, disclosed last week, involves a flaw in certificate authentication technology that could potentially let an attacker gain access to encrypted information or issue a bogus update to Firefox.

The first vulnerability could let an attacker run arbitrary code on a person’s computer by sending specially crafted authentication information called certificate.

Mozilla on Monday released two new versions of Firefox, 3.5.2 and 3.0.13, to patch two critical security holes. You can download the Windows and Mac versions of 3.5.2 from CNET Download.com, or go to Mozilla for the Linux build and Firefox 3.0.13.

“We strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release,” Mozilla said in a blog posting about the security issue.

A McAfee representative did not return a call seeking comment. Weiss, who is now president and chief executive of self-publishing firm Author Solutions, could not be reached for comment.

The arbitrator never ordered that the award be confidential, and Weiss did not agree to keep it confidential, the filing states.

In January 2007, Weiss filed claims in arbitration for breach of his employment contract. Separately, he filed an action for defamation and breach of his stock option agreements against McAfee in Santa Clara District Court in September 2007. Those court claims were folded into the arbitration.

Former McAfee President Kevin Weiss

(Credit:
Author Solutions)

“If an executive is terminated, how does he get his reputation back? Is it even possible to do that?” Weiss’ attorney, Scott Fletcher, asked rhetorically in a phone interview on Friday.

McAfee claims that the arbitration proceedings were confidential. Fletcher disputes that.

“McAfee’s request is merely the last in a long series of attempts to undermine Mr. Weiss’ credibility and tarnish his reputation,” the court document filed on behalf of Weiss said. “Confirmation of the award provides a means to clear Mr. Weiss’ name publicly–something McAfee is apparently unwilling to do.”

Former McAfee President Kevin Weiss, exonerated of wrongdoing in a stock option-backdating scandal, plans to ask a judge on Monday to unseal the arbitration award that cleared him of wrongdoing and ordered McAfee to pay damages for firing him without proper cause.

On October 11, 2006, Mcfee announced that it had ousted Weiss and that CEO George Samenuk had resigned in a management shake-up attributed to an internal investigation into the stock option backdating.

In addition, McAfee has not shown a compelling need for keeping the award secret, the document claims.

Fletcher could not comment on the arbitration award because a Texas state court had agreed to a McAfee request to put it under temporary seal. Depending on what happens in Monday’s hearing before Judge Carlos Cortez in the 44th District Court in Dallas, the information may stay confidential indefinitely.

In what could be its final public word on the case, McAfee’s latest quarterly filing with the SEC two weeks ago states, “In January 2007, a former executive filed an arbitration demand with the American Arbitration Association, Dallas, Texas, seeking arbitration of claims associated with his employment. McAfee filed counterclaims. The arbitration took place in March 2009, and the matter was closed in June 2009.”

On June 1, the arbitrator ruled in favor of Weiss on his claims for breach of contract and breach of duty of good faith and fair dealing, according to a motion Weiss filed in the Texas court in response to McAfee’s request to seal the arbitration order. The arbitrator found that Weiss had had no part in the stock option-granting process and that he had been improperly fired, and awarded him substantial damages, the document states.

Following the arbitrator’s ruling, Weiss filed paperwork in the Texas court on June 16, seeking to have the award confirmed judicially. McAfee then filed documents asking the court to seal the records relating to the arbitration, and Weiss responded.

Three years after being unceremoniously ousted from McAfee amid the options mess that was sweeping through corporations at the time, Weiss is attempting to clear his name in public.

As a result of the stock option practices, McAfee had to restate its earnings and was subject to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. McAfee was just one of a number of firms that found itself in the predicament involving the practice of granting an employee stock options with a date prior to the date it was actually granted.

The amount of the damages awarded was not disclosed in that document, but a footnote says McAfee withheld “several million dollars” from the payment, designating it as ordinary income for tax purposes, which provides some sense of the size of the award.

At the time, Weiss had been McAfee president only for seven months, having been promoted to the post from executive vice president of worldwide sales and services in March 2006. Prior to joining McAfee, the Princeton University graduate had held senior positions at Ariba, BindView, and BMC Software.

DARPA is spending millions of dollars to identify trash cans, which may have raised a few eyebrows, except these and other common urban objects could in the course of today’s combat missions prove to be tactically significant.

The BAE team has already developed “a system that combines a suite of complementary feature extraction and matching algorithms with higher-level inference and contextual reasoning to detect, segment, and classify urban entities of interest in a fully automated fashion.”

That’s going to be news to veterans of Chechnya, Hue, and Sarajevo.

BAE contribution will be to fuse Light Detection, and Ranging and Geographic Information Systems’ data to automatically detect and classify an urban object’s attributes, function and geospatial features, company officials said.

BAE Systems received a $7.1 million contract to work on Phase II of the Urban Reasoning and Geospatial Exploitation Technology (URGENT) program, which is designed to improve the quality and timeliness of geospatial intelligence U.S. troops receive when facing enemy threats in urban environments.

DARPA’s contention is that since target recognition in urban environments is so far removed from what soldiers have historically focused on, i.e. military objects such as tanks and armored personnel carriers, that the need to preemptively identify urban objects has become an important requirement.

Still, the reasoning is that tanks and cannons have unique signatures and were usually positioned in relatively isolated areas away from civilians and that’s not so with today’s asymmetric threats, where troops are forced to engage enemy combatants in cities with large civilian populations.

This phase of the program’s goal will be to “develop a 3D reasoning engine to query over object shapes, locations, and classifications for rapid urban mission planning, mission rehearsal, and situation analysis,” according to DARPA.

Next up could be the market to identify domestic urban threats-like errant shopping carts and guys with squeegees.

“Even the most common urban objects can have tactical significance: trash cans can contain improvised explosive devices, doors can conceal snipers, jersey barriers can block troop ingress, roof tops can become landing zones, and so on,” hence the need for an all-knowing system.