As the Oracle CEO expressed high hopes for the future of the newly merged companies, he criticized reports of mass layoffs

WorksWithU: "Are Ubuntu servers and desktops easy for enterprises to manage? Before you answer, consider some recent and upcoming moves involving Bomgar, Kaseya, Likewise Software, Groundwork Open Source and Canonical itself. Here are some observations."

After being flooded with complaints that the Nexus One can't stay on 3G networks, a Google employee has told users that it will soon offer a patch to repair the technical glitch responsible.

"Our engineers have uncovered specific cases for which a software fix should improve connectivity to 3G for some users," a Google employee named Ravi posted on the Nexus One Forum, which is not affiliated with Google but describes itself as an "enthusiast site."

The employee said Google has worked with its hardware partners on the remedy. "We are testing this fix now, initial results are positive, and if everything progresses as planned, we will provide an over-the-air software update to your phone in the next week or so," he wrote.

But Ravi did not say the Nexus One was completely to blame for connectivity issues. "It may be, however, that users are experiencing problems as a result of being on the edge or outside of 3G coverage, which a product fix cannot address," he said, while thanking users for their patience.

Quick Response

Connectivity problems with the 3G, or third-generation network, which allows simultaneous data and voice transmission at faster speeds, have created a logistical hassle for Google as it tries to market its first smartphone, manufactured by HTC and sold unlocked via its online store or subsidized through T-Mobile. Rather than call their wireless carrier, thousands of users brought their concerns to Google.

It's unclear if the patch will be transmitted automatically or must be downloaded via the Google Android Market. But it is a timely response to the problem, said IDC Research mobile-devices analyst Ramon Llamas.

"The phone only came out about three weeks ago," Llamas noted. "I didn't expect a patch overnight, but after less than a month they are on course and doing their due diligence."

He added that Apple's...

Rumors abound that Apple is thinking about further severing its ties with its new competitor in the smartphone market, bouncing Google and giving Bing premium search placement on its mobile Safari browser. If the rumors are true and Bing becomes the default search engine, there could be a reversal of mobile-search fortunes.

Consider the implications behind the statistics. According to Chitika Research, Google is pulling healthy numbers from iPhone users. Specifically, Google search makes up just more than half of all Internet traffic on the iPhone.

That number is even more significant when placed in this context: It outnumbers the entire genre of non-search traffic. Non-search traffic includes typing a URL directly into the browser, navigating to bookmarks, and clicking links from any non-search site.

Google's iPhone Dominance

If those numbers aren't enough to get the mobile industry's attention, consider how Google's iPhone stats compare with the general Internet. According to Chitika, non-search traffic makes up 65 percent of all web usage for non-iPhone users (mostly people surfing the Internet on PCs). And Google search traffic makes up about 31 percent of overall Internet traffic. Chitika points out that this is 20 points lower than Google's iPhone stats, yet it is still considered the dominant source of search traffic.

In all, Google sees 1.46 million impressions on the iPhone each month. By contrast, Yahoo sees nearly 36,000 impressions, and Bing gets a mere 2,387 impressions. Bing is climbing up the mobile-search ranks, though, already surpassing Ask with its 2,348 impressions and AOL with 401 impressions. The iPhone also dominates total smartphone traffic, with about 28 percent. Android is closing in on Apple, however, with 27 percent, while Research in Motion holds only 10 percent.

"How can Google be so dominant on the iPhone?" Chitika researchers asked. "Simply put, the way people browse through...

A day after Wal-Mart's Web site was discovered promising the Nexus One as "coming soon," the world's biggest retailer said the posting was a mistake and it has no plan to offer Google's troubled smartphone.

"Due to a technical error, [the Nexus One] was erroneously displayed on our site," Wal-Mart spokesperson Anna Taylor said in a brief phone interview Wednesday. "We are working with our partner, Let's Talk, to have it removed as quickly as possible. We have no plans to carry the Nexus One in Wal-Mart stores or online at this time."

She declined to comment further when asked if a future deal is possible.

Google responded to a request for comment with a statement via e-mail: "We currently have no plans to distribute the Nexus One through any channel other than our Google-hosted web store."

The telecommunications company Let's Talk, which manages Wal-Mart's online wireless sales, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Slow Sales

The page on Wal-Mart's web site was discovered by a blog that covers the Android operating system, and another blog speculated that the Nexus One could be sold for as little as $99.

The technical data listed with the smartphone, which is manufactured by HTC, indicated that the Nexus One from Wal-Mart would be compatible with the Sprint Nextel, AT&T and Verizon Wireless networks. The current model sold directly by Google for $530 is unlocked, while T-Mobile sells a version for $180 with a two-year plan.

Early sales of the smartphone have been slow, with about 20,000 handsets sold in the first week, compared to smartphone leader Apple's iPhone 3G, which sold more than a million in the first week. The Nexus One's touchscreen design is meant to mimic the iPhone, but it has unique features such as dual microphones for noise reduction and a one-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor....

Google might think Chinese censorship of the Internet is unacceptable, but Bill Gates says it's not that bad. In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's Good Morning America, Gates called China's attempts to censor the Internet "very limited," and said its controls are not much different than other countries' policies.

Chinese media was glad for the support. On Wednesday, the English-language Global Times, a tabloid published by the People's Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper, trumpeted, "Bill Gates Bats for China," The Wall Street Journal reported. Gates was also the front-page topic of the Chinese-language People's Daily and China Daily, the leading English-language newspaper in the country.

'Easy' To Avoid Controls

Gates said it's "easy to go around" the Chinese government's system of controls. "And so I think keeping the Internet thriving there is very important," he said. Other countries also censor the Internet -- to ban porn, for example, or the way that Germany censors references to the Nazi Party. "And so you've got to decide: Do you want to obey the laws of the countries you're in, or not?" Gates asked.

Make no mistake, Gates' comments are directly aimed at Google. He told The New York Times that Google has "done nothing and gotten a lot of credit for it."

"What point are they making?" he mused. "Now, if Google ever chooses to pull out of the United States, then I'd give them credit."

Aside from these sorts of media swipes, however, don't look for Microsoft to take a strong position with regard to China, says Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle. "Google took a rather bold two-step in this situation. Not only did they claim a state-sponsored cyberattack, but also retaliation by bringing Chinese Internet censorship back to the front line. Who wants to get in the middle of...

WorksWithU: "But as I heard more about Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) in 2009, I realized Ubuntu in 2010 may find a back door into the server market. Here's why."

In a move that could transform the IT industry, Oracle on Wednesday announced it has finalized its $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Oracle held an all-day event to offer more details on its plans, which include delivering open and integrated systems where all pieces fit and work together out of the box.

Oracle's initial plans are to invest in Sun's hardware business, which includes adding 2,000 new sales and engineering professionals. The other side of the labor coin is that Oracle will lay off less than 2,000 of Sun's 27,596 employees over the next few months. Long-term layoff plans have not bee revealed.

Oracle will focus on UltraSPARC Solaris-based servers, along with storage and networking products and clustered offerings around Intel and AMD x64 solutions. Oracle also plans to continue supporting existing Sun product lines.

"Given their 20-plus-year history and numerous shared customers, surely Oracle 'gets' Sun's technologies and company culture in ways that other vendors cannot. Right? Maybe and maybe not," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. "On the plus side, the pair's long, close association should aid their integration and help drive new and future synergies and product development. In other words, the pairing looks good technologically."

A Challenging Marriage

Despite the plus side, King said truly merging Oracle and Sun will have its share of challenges. For starters, there are sharp differences between the software and hardware businesses. Oracle has never demonstrated much understanding of the hardware business, King said, and a successful merger will depend on experienced people who not only have that understanding but who can also navigate the personnel issues on the Sun side.

There's also the challenge of Sun customers thinking UltraSPARC is on a short road to nowhere. In the short term, King said, falling faith in Sun hardware would impact Oracle's bottom line -- not to...

Netstat -vat: "So Canonical will make money from Yahoo searches (really Microsoft now with Bing powering Yahoo search) to help fund their efforts."

Google said Tuesday that it's harnessing HTML5 to deliver Google Voice to Palm webOS and iPhone OS 3.0 and higher smartphones. As the next major revision to the web's core hypertext markup language, HTML5 introduces a number of new elements and attributes that let developers construct powerful new services with the look and feel of stand-alone mobile apps.

Google, which released an HTML5-based version of its Chrome browser Monday, noted that handset load times and network requests are significantly reduced for web services based on the new hypertext language. "Overall, this results in a much faster and smoother user experience," a spokesperson said.

A Standardized Interface

Among other things, the latest HTML5 tags deliver new functionality through a standardized interface that can enable voice mail, for example, to be played directly from the Google Voice web page. What's more, the AppCache stores the HTML, CSS and JavaScript capabilities needed to run the application right in the browser, which means that even when a network connection isn't present, users will still be able to interact with the app, Google said.

With HTML5, moreover, local databases securely store Google Contacts locally. "So even if you close the browser, Contacts load more quickly after your first use of the web app," Google's spokesperson noted.

Even better for Google, Tuesday's launch of an HTML5-based version of Google Voice means that the search giant need not rely on Apple's App Store for approval or distribution. It also renders moot the concerns that Apple raised last summer as the reasons why it did not approve the stand-alone version of Google Voice for the iPhone.

"As submitted for review, it appears to alter the iPhone's distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone's core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging,...

A research organization that tries to warn computer users about programs that do sneaky things on their computers has spun off from Harvard University.

StopBadware says it will operate as a standalone nonprofit with funding from Google Inc., eBay Inc.'s PayPal and Mozilla, which makes the Firefox Web browser. It was initially set up as part of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

StopBadware issues what it calls "badware alerts" about corporations whose applications do what the organization deems unwanted and harmful things to users' computers. For instance, it once put AOL on its badware list because downloads of the AOL program automatically came with other software the group said consumers don't necessarily need or want.

The organization also targets purveyors of spyware and other forms of malicious software.

The idea is to warn users before they access a site with such a program. The Firefox browser, for instance, has used the StopBadware list to power some of its built-in security tools. The list also is meant to pressure companies to change their tactics.

The group, based in Cambridge, Mass., said it decided to break off from Harvard because it had grown beyond its roots as a research project.

"There is still much to do," executive director Maxim Weinstein said. "Badware remains a growing problem, but in the past few years, there's also been a growing sense that this is a problem we -- the Internet community -- can and should work together to address."

Google's latest salvo in its dispute with China came Tuesday, with reports that it's holding off unveiling two new Android phones in that country. However, this move may hurt Google more than it does China, which has a plethora of Android phones from different manufacturers.

After ABI Research projected that Linux represents a 32 percent share of netbooks in 2009 and will overtake Windows in 2013, we spoke with ABI analyst Jeffrey Orr. Orr notes the rise of international consumers and ARM-based netbooks, and discusses Ubuntu, Moblin, Android, and Chrome OS.

Google delays Android launch in China after hacking dispute

Larry Ellison reportedly says Oracle will slash Sun workforce, then hire 2,000 new workers

Ubuntu developer, Canonical, has signed an undisclosed deal with Yahoo! to make it the default search provider in its Lucid Lynx operating system, ousting Google in the process.

Java said to be critical, and Oracle promises to take advantage of Solaris especially for high-demand applications

Oracle promised to aggressively push its newly acquired MySQL open-source database, rather than kill it.

Spidertools: "There are a number of popular choices for Linux enterprise level servers including CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware and others including Red Hat Enterprise. This series of articles on a choice for a Linux Server will compare several of these Linux distributions to examine the advantages and disadvantages of each distribution."

Cyber Cynic: "Firefox 3.6 has just come out and it's great. There's only one problem. Google has released the new version of Chrome, version 4, and it's even better. "