Computer giant IBM Corp. has raised its annual forecast for this year as the technology sector batted for bigger sales in the coming months.

The company made the announcement despite shaky market conditions in the technology sector, saying that the worst is finally over for the sector and bigger sales will be at hand in the comings months.

IBM also reported that its net income for the second quarter of this year has spiked up by nine percent ($3.39) billion, or roughly $2.65 per share. The figures have topped earlier analysts’ projection of $2.58 per share.

But the company said that its Q2 revenue has slipped by two percent to $23.7 billion, below the $24.2 billion analysts predicted.

The computer giant blamed the currency changes over the past three months, which cost at least $500 million worth of losses to the company. IBM said that experts, who have estimated the revenue projection, have failed to include the data in their calculations.

The currency value is important for IBM since most of its businesses were outside the United States, particularly Europe.

With the dollar-euro rate at its lowest, the computer giant gained less possible revenue when the euros were converted to greenbacks.

Also, despite the consistent positive forecasting by Wall Street, IBM also disclosed that the company shares dropped by four percent on Monday due to reductions in its services contract value.

IBM announced a 12 percent slip in the value of services contracts signed during the second quarter of 2010, costing to about $12.3 billion.

Meanwhile, other major players in the technology sector expressed belief that the economy will soon pick and more corporations will start to replace their old computer systems, which in turn could bring higher revenue for the tech firms.

Other Internet companies such as Google also shared the same view, citing the continued increase in the advertising revenue online.

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A human rights group on Wednesday cried foul over recent moves of the Chinese Internet regulators, who want to reduce the anonymity among online users in mainland China.

State Council Information Office director Wang Chen, in his address to the national legislature in April, has called for the extensive system that would require all Internet users to use their real names when going online or buying a mobile phone.

Chen said that the new registration system will allow the Chinese government to better manage the Internet and the content being provided by its users.

The Chinese government tried to remove the full context of Chen’s speech from its websites to avoid the watchful eyes of its critics. The media’s reporting on the issue was abruptly cut by the government.

However, a New York-based human rights group in China, which managed to obtain the original copy of the speech, expressed fear that the new proposal would make another row of human rights violations in the country, saying that they have found “an unexpurgated text and discrepancies” in the documents.

“This only shows that Beijing is wary that its push for tighter information control to its people,” the group said in its China Rights Forum magazine.

China’s move, according to the group, will plug all the loopholes in its existing Internet control called “The Great Firewall” by limiting anonymous access to contents or comments online.

It will be recalled that the tight Internet control by the Chinese government led to row with online giant Google.

But the due to the large consumer and advertising potential of the country, Google was forced to vow down to the Chinese, allowing it to resume operations in the mainland after months of absence.

Despite the pervasive censorship and stricter controls online, China’s online population continued to grow with over 400 million active users, the largest in the world. Also, China has over 233 million mobile Internet users.

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A group technology experts and volunteers has released on Thursday a new version of the popular open-source blogging website WordPress.

Dubbed as WordPress version 3.0, the new software hosts more than 2, 700 upgrades, which include 1, 217 bugs fix. At least 218 volunteers have provided the software upgrades for the 13th version of the software.

Research and consulting firm Real Story Group analyst Adriaan Bloem said that WordPress has now become the “most capable” blogging platform on the Internet, citing the most notable upgrade in the website’s feature – the multi-task blogging capability.

Real Story group, a company that specializes in content management software, said that with the addition of the WordPress MU, administrators can now run multiple blogs simultaneously.

“MU has been integrated into the main version of WordPress ensures that it should be easier to deploy,” Bloem noted.

Bloem believe that the addition of the MU capability to the main WordPress website has now put it directly ahead of its rival MovableType, which has long offered the multiple blogs.

“Despite MovableType’s long history of running multiple blogs, many of the online users still prefer WordPress because of its user-friendly interface. And with the addition of the MU, WordPress has overtaken MovableType in the race for blogging supremacy,” Bloem added.

It was learned that WordPress run on PHP platform, which is much easier to use than the Perl Language platform of MovableType.

WordPress users can now define whether their articles will go to certain categories such as products, models, and other specification they will require – through the website’s custom post capability.

Prior to the implementation of the custom post, WordPress user content were often limited to just blogs.

“The custom post types will further help establish WordPress as a good candidate for managing an entire Web site’s content, in addition to just the blogs,” Bloem added.

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In a bid to attract more consumers to its doors, the world’s largest coffee chain Starbucks Corp. announced on Monday that it will be offering unlimited use of wireless internet access (Wi-Fi) in all company-operated stores starting July 1.

Starbucks hopes to take back lucrative share of the restaurant business from its rivals like McDonald’s Corp. and other coffee chains that have long used free Wi-Fi connection to attract customers.

This time, Starbucks takes one step further by giving customers free Wi-Fi access, which will include special news networks and entertainment contents.

The Starbucks Digital Network was done in partnership with Yahoo, giving customers free access to online news websites like the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Patch and USA Today as well as free music downloads on Apple iTune Stores.

Previously, Starbucks offered only two hours of free Internet access to each user everyday.

The company started implementing the earlier Wi-Fi scheme based on its study, which showed that customers login on the Internet in an average of one hour on each visit to Starbucks stores. Meanwhile, Smartphone users use Wi-Fi access on an average of 15 minutes.

The coffee giant hopes to extend its quarterly gains, which has been slumped for the past 13 quarters due to the recession and rapid expansion plans.

Starbucks also hopes to take back major market shares from McDonald’s, which has offered unlimited Wi-Fi access to some 11, 5000 stores. The coffee giant lost major clientele to McDonald’s due to its McCafe chain.

Following the announcement, Starbucks shares jumped by 1.5 percent or 41 cents ($27.56) during midday trading on Monday.

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A mobile phone security firm on Monday revealed that hackers have developed new types of computer virus that can be planted in Smartphones running on Microsoft Windows operating system.

In a statement, San Francisco-based security firm Lookout said that the viruswas planted in video games designed for Smartphones such as “3D Anti-Terrorist” and “PDA Poker Art.”

“The worst part is that these games were available on websites that provides legitimate software for cell phones and Smartphones,” Lookout chief executive John Hering said.

Hering, citing the results of their investigations, said that the mobile video games are usually bundled with malicious software (malwares), which are designed to automatically dial premium rate telephone services in different countries like Italy, Somalia, and Spain.

“Our investigations also showed that many of the unwitting victims were charged hundred or sometimes thousands of dollars in a month,” he said.

“Most of them did not even have a clue that their phones were infected by the virus. Not until they receive their phone bills with hundreds of dollars worth of premium-rate services,” he added.

Hering also disclosed the identity of the virus developers, saying that they were also the programmers of the telephone services.

With the boom in the use of the Apple iPhone, Google Android, and Research in Motion Blackberry, the official said that Smartphone users have become the favorite target of these hackers because the technology was relatively new and still has several loopholes in the software design.

Sought for comment, Microsoft Corp said that they were unaware of the new viruses that have been plaguing its clients.

“As always, Microsoft continues to encourage customers to follow all of the steps of the ‘Protect Your Computer’ guidance of enabling a firewall, applying all software updates and installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software,” the company added.

Microsoft said customers should visit http://www.microsoft.com/protect/ for guidance on protection from viruses.

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Jen-Hsun Huang, the president and chief executive officer of Nvidia, revealed on Monday that majority computer hardware makers are now pushing for the establishment of Google’s Android technology as the primary operating system for new tablet computer lines.

“It is good news that we finally have an operating system to unite behind. Android is an operating system that has gained a tremendous amount of momentum all over the world,” Huang said.

The official said that Android-based tablet computers will be one of the highlights in the annual Computex Show, which will be held in Taiwan.

“Most of the manufacturers and other hardware makers are expected to come up with Android-based prototypes since it is the ideal software to use in tablet computers,” he said, adding that Windows OS is not the best choice for such hardware.

“Microsoft Windows OS is too heavy and too full-featured for a tablet computer or a smartbook,” he added.

Smartbook is a term used to describe low-cost laptops containing processors designed by Arm instead of x86 chips from Intel or Advanced Micro Devices.

Originally designed for Smartphones and other smaller devices of similar size, Android has gained the trust of major computer makers.

One of the best example is Acer, one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world, which has released an Android-operated version of its popular Aspire One netbook.

“Android has become the fastest growing mobile operating system in the world and, in fact, it has surpassed the iPhone in terms of growth and in terms of users,” the CEO said.

Huang, however, refused to comment on issues that Nvidia has vested interest in pushing for the development of Android-based tablet computers. According to reports, the company has been pushing for the Android OS since it will benefit majorly in the hype with its Arm-based processor called Tegra 2.

Tegra 2 is specifically designed for tablet PCs, and Android OS.

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The Pakistani government blocked on Friday some 800 websites and webpages that have been identified to contain “blasphemous” materials, a Pakistan official reported

Following the ban of popular social networking sites like Facebook, Youtube, and MySpace, the Pakitan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has extended its Internet control to some 800 webpages, including restrictions on Wikipedia access, in line with its belief that the following pages contains “sacrilegious contents.”

“Since the our government’s order to ban access to Facebook and Youtube, at least 800 individual webpages and web addresses have been blocked to prevent our people from viewing or reading such blasphemous contents,” Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan Spokesperson Wahaj Us Siraj.

The order came after the “Everyone Draw Mohammed Day” on Facebook has been removed.

The said competition was aimed to promote “freedom of expression” among Muslim communities. But the government immediately seized control since Islam Law prohibits such illustration and depiction of their holy prophet.

Also, millions of conservative Muslims in other countries were angered by the said contest. Even moderate and well-educated elite expressed disappointment over the said action but stressed that the blanket ban on the popular website is “too much.”

They said that the ban should only be implemented on the webpage that has done the sacrilegious contents and not the entire Facebook website.

But PTA, along with the Internet service providers in Pakistan, vowed to block or close down any attempt in restoring the social networking site.

Before being closed down, the “Everyone Draw Mohammed Day” Facebook page has attracted over 105, 000 fans and has produced over five pages of “crudely manipulated” pictures and caricatures of the prophet Mohammed.

Meahwhile, PTA Spokesman Khurram Mehran stressed that the ban on Facebook will only be lifted if they receive instructions from their government.

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Google Inc., the maker of the ever-more popular Android phones, has now taken away the Top 2 spot from Apple Inc. after outselling the iPhone in the US market during the first quarter of 2010.

Many of the analysts said that the change in lead for the Smartphone software industry has now sparked a tougher competition among mobile phone makers in the coming years, which could potentially generate more advance devices.

However, Google’s success was cut short after reports that one of its key partners, Sprint Nextel, has parted ways with the Internet giant.

Sprint officials, in a statement, said that they will no longer support the distribution of the Nexus One Smartphone. The new sleek touchscreen Android phone was developed by Google with the help of HTC, and was being sold directly in its website.

Based on records, Google’s Android operating system has accounted for some 28 percent in the US Smartphone unit sales in the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, Research in Motion’s Blackberry device remained on top with 36 percent share of the market sales.

Smartphone sales in the US have significantly increased over the past year due to its flexibility, allowing users to surf the Internet and send emails while on the go.

Millions of users, based on a survey, also told that they are looking forward of having a Smartphone to replace their outdated phones, making the Smartphone market a viable business opportunity for the mobile phone companies.

It will be recalled that Hewlett-Packard Co expressed its intention to enter the Smartphone market by acquiring Palm Inc for $1.2 billion.

According to technology experts, the company that will bring together all the capabilities and features of the Smartphone in a sleeker package will win the top spot in the market.

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The United States, European Union and the rest of the global community have asked China to drop or temporarily suspend the deadline to technology companies to enable them to finish computer encryption and other security programs that will be used in country’s “Green Dam” policy.

The US and EU has condemned the pressure by the Chinese government to technology companies, saying that it is an act of protectionism.

Earlier, China has warned computer suppliers and manufacturers to immediately comply with the deadline set this Saturday or face sanction. The Chinese government also said that it will not hesitate to shut out the companies that will fail to comply for billions of dollars in computer purchases.

Many of the suppliers of smart cards, anti-spam software, and security routers were also asked by China to bare the encryption codes and other trade secrets during a government panel meeting.

But the technology firms expressed fear from the deadline imposed by the government, saying that the information they will reveal in the panel discussion might leak out to Chinese rivals.

Meanwhile, the US and EU accused China of using its Internet regulation program as an excuse to gain grounds over its foreign rivals.

“No other nation imposes such high demand from foreign companies. China should scrap the policy, or at least, suspend its implementation,” the group said in a statement.

Some of the companies believe that the Chinese government is helping its own companies at the expense of other countries’ technology, citing the recent dispute between Europe, America, and China.

The Chinese people have scaled back a technological plan to favor its companies’ technology products in US and European government procurement.

But this time, Washington stood pat, saying that China should now follow global norms in dealing with other countries.

“China is bullying the other companies by imposing a deadline that has no real base in reality,” a company spokesperson said.

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After the Chinese government was accused of ordering the series of hacking to some US organizations’ websites, Internet giant Google Inc. was allegedly attacked by hackers from China and stole its key program used by the company to access most of the online services it provides to users.

According to The New York Times report, the hackers stole the password system called Gaia, a program that is used for Google’s online services including those which are used by schools, government agencies, and businesses.

While the Internet giant declined to give any comment about the issue, Google spokeswoman said the company has prevented previous attempts by hackers from accessing any personal information from Gmail accounts.

Meanwhile, the newspaper said the person who gave the information about the issue has a direct knowledge on the previous investigation which revealed that the IP addresses of the hackers have originated in China.

In January, Google officials said their services have been under a series of cyber attacks, with some of their intellectual property stolen by the hackers.  To prevent the incident from happening again, the company said that it has improved its computer security.

Few months ago, several foreign journalists and human rights advocates in China accused the government of hacking their e-mail accounts.  And as the attacks against progressive groups became more frequent, some of them have temporarily shut down their websites.

Also, about 20 companies said that they have received similar attacks.

The Chinese government filters websites deemed as insidious and offensive.  Because of this strict rule, the country’s Internet law is dubbed as the “Great Firewall of China.”

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