Apple Price List

Christmas night in Lake Tahoe

Google is working on X phone and X tablet

(Reuters) - Google Inc is working with recently acquired Motorola on a handset codenamed "X-phone", aimed at grabbing market share from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Google acquired Motorola in May for $12.5 billion to bolster its patent portfolio as its Android mobile operating system competes with rivals such as Apple and Samsung.

The Journal quoted the people saying that Motorola is working on two fronts: devices that will be sold by carrier partner Verizon Wireless, and on the X phone.

Motorola plans to enhance the X Phone with its recent acquisition of Viewdle, an imaging and gesture-recognition software developer. The new handset is due out sometime next year, the business daily said, citing a person familiar with the plans.

Motorola is also expected to work on an "X" tablet after the phone. Google Chief Executive Larry Page is said to have promised a significant marketing budget for the unit, the newspaper said quoting the persons.

Google was not immediately reachable for comments outside regular U.S. business hours.

(Re

Red hat

(Reuters) - Red Hat Inc, the world's largest distributor of Linux operating software, posted third-quarter revenue above analysts' estimates on strong growth in its subscription business, sending its shares up 6 percent in after-market trading.

The company also said it would buy privately held ManageIQ, which provides management and automation programs for cloud computing, for $104 million in cash.

The acquisition, its fourth since October last year, is not expected to have any material impact to Red Hat's revenue for the fiscal year ending February 28.

Red Hat expects to earn between 29 cents and 30 cents per share in the fourth quarter, on revenue of $347 million to $351 million, it said on a conference call with analysts.

Analysts were expecting earnings of 30 cents on revenue of $350.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Third-quarter net income fell to $34.8 million, or 18 cents per share, from $38.2 million, or 19 cents per share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, the company earned 29 cents per share, in line with expectations. Revenue rose 18 percent to $344 million, beating estimates of $338 million.

Red Hat's subscription revenue rose 19 percent to $294.2 million in the quarter ended November 30.

Shares of the Raleigh, North Carolina-based company were trading at $55.60 after the bell. The stock closed at $52.61 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.

(Reporting by Neha Alawadhi; Editing by Krishna N. Das)

Kodak in $525 million patent deal, eyes bankruptcy end

Kodak in $525 million patent deal, eyes bankruptcy endt

• 
  Enlarge Photo
  Reuters/Reuters - Kodak World Headquarters is pictured in Rochester, New York January 19, 2012. REUTERS/Adam Fenster

(Reuters) - Eastman Kodak Co agreed to sell its digital imaging patents for about $525 million, a key step to bringing the photography pioneer out of bankruptcy in the first half of 2013.

The deal for the 1,100 patents allows Kodak to fulfill a condition for securing $830 million in financing.

The patent deal was reached with a consortium led by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corp, and which includes some of the world's biggest technology companies, which will license or acquire the patents.

Those companies are Adobe Systems Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc, Fujifilm, Google Inc, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, HTC Corp, Microsoft Corp, Research In Motion Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Shutterfly Inc, according to court documents.

Kodak still must sell its personalized and document-imaging businesses as part of the financing package, and also has to resolve its UK pension obligation.

Kodak said the patent deal puts it on a path to emerge from Chapter 11 in the first half of 2013.

"Our progress has accelerated over the past several weeks as we prepare to emerge as a strong, sustainable company," said Antonio Perez, chairman and chief executive of the Rochester, New York-based company.

The patent portfolio was expected to be a major asset for Kodak when it filed for bankruptcy in January. An outside firm had estimated the patents could be worth as much as $2.6 billion.

Kodak's patents hit the market as intellectual property values have soared and technology companies have plowed money into patent-related litigation.

For example, last year Nortel Networks sold 6,000 wireless patents in a bankruptcy auction for $4.5 billion and earlier this year Google spent $12.5 billion for patent-rich Motorola Mobility.

But Kodak's patent auction dragged on beyond the initial expectation that it would be wrapped up in August. One patent specialist blamed those early, overly optimistic valuations, which he said encouraged Kodak's team to set their sights too high.

"Unfortunately (Kodak management) was misled into thinking it was worth billions of dollars and it wasn't," said Alex Poltorak, chairman of General Patent Corp, a patent licensing firm. "I think they sold them at a very good price."

He said after Google acquired Motorola, the search engine company no longer needed patents at any price, deflating the intellectual property market.

Kodak traces its roots to the 19th century and invented the handheld camera. But it has been unable to successfully shift to digital imaging.

It will likely be a different company when it exits bankruptcy, out of the consumer business and focused instead on providing products and services to the commercial imaging market.

The patent sale is subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

The Kodak bankruptcy case is in Re: Eastman Kodak Co. et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-10202.

IBM 5 in 5 2006realty check

IBM's ‘Next five in five' 2006 predictions – were they right?

This is the first time we can see if IBM's 'five in five' predictions are accurate. Among its 2006 predictions: real-time speech translation and 3D Internet. 6/3/2011 6:00:00 AM by Brian Jackson

The problem with making predictions –even ones that seem distant on the horizon –is that eventually, time passes and it becomes clear whether you were right or wrong.

IBM Corp. is now in its fifth year of its Next Five in Five predictions, in which it attempts to synthesize emerging technology trends with societal progress and predict five ways technology will significantly change our lives five years hither. For 2011, they're predictions include talking to 3D holographic representations of our friends, batteries that you can recharge by giving a shake, and reduced traffic congestion because of intelligent road reporting systems.

Slideshow: IBM's Next Five in Five 2011 Predictions

But the really interesting thing about IBM having done this for five years now is we can look back and see how the first set of predictions have panned out. Douglas Heintzman is the director of strategy for IBM's Lotus division and discussed the 2006 predictions at IBM's Battle of the Brains (more formally called the Association for Computing Machinery's International Collegiate Programming Contest or ACM ICPC) in Orlando. Heintzman wouldn't deliver a pass or fail verdict on the predictions, but I'm happy enough to provide those.

Remote healthcare access

The prediction: IBM said that we'd use wireless sensors to track metrics about our health, participate in a virtual check-in with doctors via video-conferencing, and medical records would be made electronic and accessible online by patients.

The verdict: Pass.

While access to electronic health records is hardly a universal experience now, IBM's vision of remote healthcare portals being used to manage chronic conditions has come true. Take for example the Atlantic Health Sciences Corp. in Saint John, N.B. that has a Web portal its diabetic patients use to track their blood sugar levels and learn about how to better manage their condition. Governments are investing in electronic health records and pushing stubborn doctors into adopting them. Software vendors such as Microsoft Corp. have released programs like Health Vault designed to let people be the arbiters of their permanent health records.

3D Internet

The prediction: IBM was enthusiastic about Linden Labs' Second Life and saw those sort of immersive and graphical virtual destinations becoming more mainstream. Virtual worlds would no longer exist in isolated silos, but be interconnected.

The verdict: Fail.

The hype around Second Life in 2006 was at a fever pitch, but the temperature quickly dipped and our Internet looks pretty much like it did five years ago, with a few more Flash animations and embedded video. Instead of 3D virtual worlds, we're spending most of our time on the Web exchanging text and photos on social networks like Facebook.

The failure of Second Life to become mainstream is explained by its abstraction from the real world, Heintzman says. “It needed to map back onto first life much more immediately.”

Related Video: Ontario's virtual world recruiting effort

If the avatars' facial expressions had changed to match our real expressions by using video-mapping technology, that would add emotional context to online exchanges, he says. Or if users could enter and exit conversations more naturally –say by approaching a group and hearing the conversation get louder, or leaving a group and hearing those voices fade away.

Meanwhile, social networking technology has managed to hit the nail on the head. “Social networking allows for serendipitous alignment of people that are thinking through the same problem sets,” Heintzman says.

But Heintzman says we may yet see 3D worlds fill more online spaces, perhaps combining with current social networking technology.

Context-aware mobile phones

The prediction: Mobile devices would use presence technology to learn and adapt to the preferences and needs of users, IBM said. Phones would learn about a user's whereabouts and likes and react intelligently to meet them.

The verdict: Pass.

Thanks to GPS and Wi-Fi hotspot mapping by the likes of Google, our smartphones are now aware of our location within a few meters. Other apps remind us of our errands when we're near a store where we can complete that task. Bluetooth pairing allows our mobile devices to start working with wireless headsets or computers as soon as they're within range.

Heintzman enjoyed his devices' context-aware abilities while visiting Sea World. “I pulled up satellite mode on Google Maps to help me navigate around the park,” he says.

Real-time speech translation

The prediction: IBM thought we'd be using technology equivalent to Star Trek's universal translator –allowing two people speaking different languages to understand each other fluidly.

The verdict: Fail.

Though IBM's MASTOR project is still in the works to allow for real-time, two-way translation of free form conversational speech, this is still a future aspiration more than a present reality. A beta version of Google Tranlsate allows for speech to text translation for some languages, but its execution is far from perfect. Even text-to-text translation is still imperfect, often resulting in confusing or humourous translations.

Heintzman says IBM's Watson computer could help better translate languages, because it has the semantic understanding to evaluate what it is saying. Current translation technology relies on brute-force analysis of syntax and grammar, which doesn't always turn out well.

Nanotechnology will be used to manage our environment

The prediction: Nanotechnology –literally the programming of molecule-sized robots and organisms –would be used to improve water distribution and filtration, and more efficiently capture solar power, IBM predicted.

The verdict: Pass –mostly.

Solar panels have progressed in the past five years thanks to the use of nanotechnology applications. San Jose, Calif.-based Nanosolar Inc. uses nanoparticle inks to print its solar cells and is looking to produce efficient solar cells as economically as possible.

IBM has pushed the benchmarks for solar panel efficiency in the lab, Heintzman says. Trains in Germany use solar panels on every second rooftop to glean power, showing that distributed energy distribution has caught on.

2012 IBM 5 in 5

* Mind reading is no longer science fiction.
* You will be able to power your home with the energy you create
yourself.
* You will never need a password again.
* The digital divide will cease to exist.
* Junk mail will become priority mail.

The world is changing fast--maybe faster than we ever thought. And within five years, science fiction is going to turn into non-fiction. We'll be able to read each other's minds, forget all our passwords, and create all our own homes' energy.

These are just three of the five predictions IBM announced this morning as part of its annual "5 in 5" prognostication project.

The list is meant to promote long-term work being done under Big Blue's Smarter Planet initiative--and the company says "5 in 5" already has a track record of success. In 2008, IBM says, it suggested that within five years, consumers would talk to the Web--and the Web would respond.

This time, the predictions are perhaps a bit more fanciful:

• Mind reading is no longer science fiction.
• You will be able to power your home with the energy you create yourself.
• You will never need a password again.
• The digital divide will cease to exist.
• Junk mail will become priority mail.

It would seem the most interesting idea posited by IBM is the one about reading minds. But lest you think that what its scientists are saying is that you'll be able to glare at a friend--or perhaps more importantly, an enemy--and know what he or she is thinking, that may be more than five years off. Rather, this is about how our brains might someday be synced with computing devices:

 If you just need to think about calling someone, it happens. Or you can control the cursor on a computer screen just by thinking about where you want to move it.

Scientists in the field of bioinformatics have designed headsets with advanced sensors to read electrical brain activity that can recognize facial expressions, excitement and concentration levels, and thoughts of a person without them physically taking any actions.

Within five years, we will begin to see early applications of this technology in the gaming and entertainment industry. Furthermore, doctors could use the technology to test brain patterns, possibly even assist in rehabilitation from strokes and to help in understanding brain disorders, such as autism.

Another potentially world-changing development that IBM thinks is less than five years away is that we're soon going to be able to produce all the energy we need for our home--ourselves. This is a radical idea, and one that could shake up the entire energy industry. But in a world where every new pound of carbon dioxide that goes into the atmosphere has the potential to help wreak havoc on the planet, this could be a very, very good thing if it turns out to be true.

"Anything that moves or produces heat has the potential to create energy that can be captured," an IBM "5 in 5" release reads. "Walking. Jogging. Bicycling. The heat from your computer. Even the water flowing through your pipes. Advances in renewable energy technology will allow individuals to collect this kinetic energy, which now goes to waste, and use it to help power our homes, offices and cities."

That means, IBM believes, that we may be able to generate power with, for example, the help of small widgets we put in the spokes of our bikes.

No more passwords
Another big innovation IBM believes could soon be improving everyday lives is the death of the password. And that, it says, could come within five years due to each human's unique biological underpinnings. "You will no longer need to create, track or remember multiple passwords for various log-ins," says IBM. "Imagine you will be able to walk up to an ATM machine to securely withdraw money by simply speaking your name or looking into a tiny sensor that can recognize the unique patterns in the retina of your eye. Or by doing the same, you can check your account balance on your mobile phone or tablet.

This is all because of a set of systems that may well be on their way down the pike known as multifactor biometrics. And as a result of our individual faces, voices, and retinas, we may soon be able to access all the things that today require passwords without having to remember anything.

Oracle sailing boat can reach 30 mph or 13 meter per sec

Computers will have five senses in 5 years --- IBM 5x5

IBM Predicts the Rise of Cognitive Computing In its annual "5 in 5" prediction, IBM says that within five years, we will see the rise of cognitive computers -- machines that can experience the world in a similar way that humans do through the five senses. Instead of interpreting objects as a set of data points, a cognitive system would look at the object holistically, as an entity. For example, instead of seeing a painting as a canvas with various colors and brushstrokes, a cognitive computer could interpret it simply as da Vinci's The Mona Lisa. Or a fake of The Mona Lisa. Cognitive systems have advantages over traditional computers by being more efficient and able to learn from mistakes.

Worst school shooting case inhistory

NEWTOWN, Connecticut (Reuters) - People in the small Connecticut community of Newtown grieved on Saturday over one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history and police sought answers about what drove a 20-year-old gunman to slaughter 20 children at an elementary school.

The attacker, identified by law enforcement sources as Adam Lanza, opened fire on Friday morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which teaches children aged 5 to 10. He is suspected of killing 26 people at the school before turning the gun on himself, as well as killing one other person at another nearby site.

Police said the other adult was found dead at a related crime scene in the town. Many media outlets reported it may have been the shooter's mother, Nancy Lanza, who legally owned a Sig Sauer and a Glock, both handguns of models commonly used by police, and a military-style Bushmaster .223 M4 carbine.

Law enforcement officials believe Adam Lanza used at least some of those weapons.

Nancy Lanza was an avid gun collector who once showed him a "really nice, high-end rifle" that she had purchased, said Dan Holmes, owner of a landscaping business who recently decorated her yard with Christmas garlands and lights. "She said she would often go target shooting with her kids."

Crime-scene investigators worked through the night, and state police said they hoped to have more information by Saturday morning, including confirmation of the victims' identities.

President Barack Obama urged Americans on Saturday to join in solidarity as they mourned the victims, saying the hearts of parents across the country were "heavy with hurt."

Obama, in his weekly radio and Internet address, called for "meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this," but stopped short of specifically calling for tighter gun-control laws.

The president wiped away tears in a television address on Friday, telling the nation, "Our hearts are broken."

The holiday season tragedy was the second shooting rampage in the United States this week and the latest in a series of mass killings this year.

It revived a debate about gun-control in a country with a flourishing firearms culture and a strong lobby that has discouraged most politicians from any major efforts to address the easy availability of guns and ammunition.

'JUST BRUTAL'

Newtown, an affluent town about 80 miles northeast of New York City, was mourning its dead in community vigils.

"We're just praying - just need to pray to God that this does not happen again, no matter where," Amelia Adams, 76, said on her way into St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church with her husband Kenneth, 81.

The church, a couple of miles from the site of the shooting, was packed inside and out on Friday night with a crowd estimated at more than 1,000 people, including a large crowd outside.

"It was just, it was brutal. I can't think of a better word. It was just brutal to have to witness the pain today," Monsignor Robert Weiss said after the service.

"We opened the windows (of the church) so people could just hear and feel they could be part of it," Weiss told MSNBC on Saturday, adding, "the worst days are ahead."

"I'm sure this morning when they woke up and realized there was an empty bed in their house, it's becoming more and more real to them," Weiss said of the parents of the young victims.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy told reporters late on Friday he never expected to relive the kind of grief he and others felt after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.

"Evil visited this community today," Malloy said.

The chaos struck as children gathered in their classrooms for morning events. The shootings took place in two rooms, police said. Witnesses reported hearing dozens of shots; some said as many as 100 rounds.

Former classmates of the shooter remembered him as a quiet loner -someone who dressed more formally than other students, often wearing khaki pants, button-down shirts and at times, a pocket protector.

"(His mother) pushed him really hard to be smarter and work harder in school," said Tim Arnone, 20, who first met Lanza at Sandy Hook.

The death toll exceeded that of one of the most notorious U.S. school shootings, the 1999 rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, where two teenagers murdered 13 students and staff before killing themselves.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder of the advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said it was "almost impossible to believe a mass shooting in a kindergarten class could happen.

"We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership - not from the White House and not from Congress," Bloomberg said. "That must end today."

World leaders expressed horror as they offered condolences to the United States. Washington's arch-foe Tehran also offered its sympathies, with Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman describing the killings as "tragic.

Pope Benedict conveyed his "heartfelt grief" through Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

"In the aftermath of this senseless tragedy, he asks God our Father to console all those who mourn and to sustain the entire community with the spiritual strength which triumphs over violence by the power of forgiveness, hope and reconciling love," Bertone said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "The news from Newtown saddens me deeply. Once again, we're completely aghast over an act that we can't comprehend. An incredible suffering has been brought to so many families so close to Christmas."

(

U.S. drops China's Taobao website from "notorious" list

U.S. drops China's Taobao website from "notorious" list

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday dropped a website owned by China's largest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group, from its annual list of the world's most "notorious markets" for sales of pirated and counterfeit goods.

Taobao Marketplace, an online shopping site similar to eBay and Amazon that brings together buyers and sellers, "has been removed from the 2012 List because it has undertaken notable efforts over the past year to work with rightholders directly or through their industry associations to clean up its site," the U.S. Trade Representative's office said in the report.

The move came just before an annual high-level U.S.-China trade meeting next week in Washington.

Taobao Marketplace is China's largest consumer-oriented e-commerce platform, with estimated market share of more than 70 percent. The website has nearly 500 million registered users, with more than 800 million product listings at any given time. Most of the users are in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has called Taobao "one of the single largest online sources of counterfeits."

The Chinese Commerce Ministry strongly objected to Taobao's inclusion on the USTR's 2011 notorious markets list. A ministry spokesman said it did not appear to be based on any "conclusive evidence or detailed analysis.

Alibaba hired former USTR General Counsel James Mendenhall to help persuade USTR to remove Taobao from its list.

The Chinese company's bid to shed its "notorious" label won support from the Motion Picture Association of America, a former critic of Taobao, which praised its effort to reduce the availability of counterfeit goods on its website.

But U.S. software, clothing and shoe manufacturers urged USTR to keep Taobao on the list.

To stay off in the future, USTR urged "Taobao to further streamline procedures ... for taking down listings of counterfeit and pirated goods and to continue its efforts to work with and achieve a satisfactory outcome with U.S. rights holders and industry associations."

USTR said it also removed Chinese website Sogou from the notorious markets list, based on reports that it has made "notable efforts to work with rights holders to address the availability of infringing content on its site."

U.S. concerns about widespread piracy and counterfeiting of American goods in China are expected to be high on the agenda at next week's meeting in Washington of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade.

The 2012 notorious markets list includes Xunlei, which USTR described as a Chinese-based site that facilitates the downloading and distribution of pirated movies.

Baixe de Tudo, a website hosted in Sweden but targeted at the Brazilian market, was also put on the list along with the Chinese website Gougou.

Warez-bb, which USTR described as a hub for pre-release music, software and video games, was also included. The forum site is registered in Sweden but hosted by a Russian Internet service provider, USTR said.

The full report can be found on USTR's website at: http://www.ustr.gov/sites/default/files/121312%20Notorious%20Markets%20List.pdf

(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Will Dunham, Dan Grebler and Jim Marshall) Comm en

Microsoft New Logo in Microsoft Store

Redbox is providing Streaming video to compete with Netflix

Kiosk operator Redbox will launch an instant video streaming service that starts at $6 a month, providing another challenge to dominant movie rental company Netflix Inc in the battle for home entertainment dollars.

The price for online movies from Redbox and Verizon Communications Inc is lower than the $8 monthly fee charged by Netflix for unlimited viewing from its larger online library of films and TV shows.

"Redbox Instant by Verizon" will start selling subscriptions through a limited beta test later this month, the companies said in a statement on Wednesday.

Redbox Instant also will offer an $8-a-month plan with movie streaming plus four one-night DVD rentals from Redbox kiosks, a statement from the companies said. For $9 a month, customers can rent high-definition Blu-ray discs in place of traditional DVDs.

Streaming and DVD-by-mail packages start at $16 on Netflix.

A Redbox spokeswoman confirmed the company also will offer the $6 streaming-only plan.

The shares of Redbox parent Coinstar Inc gained 2.3 percent to close at $51.96 on Nasdaq. Netflixjumped 5.4 percent to $90.73 after a Morgan Stanley analyst raised his price target, citing the company's strong portfolio of content after last week's agreement for first-run Walt Disney Comovies. Verizon shares rose 0.8 percent to $44.79 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Coinstar and Verizon formed a joint venture in February to sell video services in a market that is dominated by Netflix, but also has several new entrants, including Amazon.com Inc's Prime, Hulu Plus and HBO Go.

Redbox Instant subscribers will have access to movies from Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment and MGM through a deal with the Epix premium cable channel, as well as films from Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros. That includes recent hits such as teen death match drama, "The Hunger Games," and Tom Cruise action sequel, "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol."

Customers will be able to stream the films to certain Internet-connected TVs, phones and tablets.

While Redbox Instant will offer a smaller library than Netflix, the new service contains enough content from major Hollywood studios to make it an attractive alternative, said B. Riley & Co analyst Eric Wold.

"They don't need everything Netflix has," said Wold, who has a "buy" rating on Coinstar and a "sell" on Netflix. "I think it's going to be a big draw for consumers."

But Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt said Netflix's broad range of content, enhanced by new Disney movies that will reach the service in 2016, provided a key advantage for a company with 25 million U.S. streaming subscribers.

"It's about having the best and, right now, Netflix clearly has the best content portfolio, domestically," said Devitt, who raised his price target on Netflix shares to $105 from $80.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles and Himank Sharma in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane, Bernadette Baum and Andre Grenon)

Pope is using twetter

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - After weeks of anticipation bordering on media frenzy, Pope Benedictsolemnly put his finger to a computer tablet device on Wednesday and tried to send his first tweet - but something went wrong.

Images on Vatican television appeared to show the first try didn't work. The pope, who still writes his speeches by hand, seems to have pressed too hard and the tweet was not sent right away. So, he needed a little help from his friends.

Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli of the Vatican's communications department showed the pontiff how to do it, but the pope hesitated. Celli touched the screen lightly himself and off went the papal tweet.

"Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart," he said in his introduction to the brave new world of Twitter.

The tweet was sent at the end of weekly general audience in the Vatican before thousands of people.

The pope actually has eight linked Twitter accounts. @Pontifex, the main account, is in English. The other seven have a suffix at the end for the different language versions. For example, the German version is @Pontifex_de, and the Arabic version is @Pontifex_ar.

The tweets will be going out in Spanish, English, Italian, Portuguese, German, Polish, Arabic and French. Other languages will be added in the future.

The pope already had just over a million followers in all of the languages combined minutes before he sent his first tweet and the number was growing.

Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, best-known for investments linking consumers to the Internet, is placing a bet on genetics company, 23andme

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, best-known for investments linking consumers to the Internet, is placing a bet on genetics.

Milner, who backed companies ranging from Facebook Inc to gaming company Zynga Inc, has led a $50 million funding round into 23andMe, a Mountain View, California, company that helps people decipher their genetic makeup.

His investment could shine a spotlight on biotechnology startups, which have taken a backseat in visibility to sectors like cloud computing and Internet services targeted at consumers.

23andMe, named for the 23 pairs of chromosomes that make up each person's genome, also announced a price drop for its saliva-based test, to $99 from $299.

For that price, consumers learn specifics about ancestry and genetic traits, including the possible conditions and diseases to which they may have a genetic propensity.

Existing investors joining the funding round include Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe's chief executive; Sergey Brin, Wojcicki's husband and co-founder of Google Inc; New Enterprise Associates; Google Ventures; and MPM Capital.

The company's last funding round was about $31 million, raised two years ago. Since its founding in 2006, 23andMe has raised about $68 million.

Biotechnology has fostered some hefty investment exits recently. On Monday, Amgen Inc said it would pay $415 million for Iceland-based Decode Genetics.

(

Russia, China alliance wants greater government voice in Internet oversight

Russia, China alliance wants greater government voice in Internet oversight Reuters - 23 hrs ago

DUBAI (Reuters) - A Russia-led proposal calling for sweeping new governmental powers to regulate cyberspace could enable countries to block some Web locations and wrest control of allotting Internet addresses from a U.S.-based body.

The proposal, co-signed by Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates, added to fears in some Western countries of a stalemate midway through a 12-day conference in Dubai to rewrite a longstanding treaty on international communications.

Russia and its supporters, which include many African and Arab states, seek to formally extend the remit of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to govern many aspects of the Internet.

The United States, Europe and other allies including Australia and Japan insist the treaty should continue to apply only to traditional telecommunications such as international wireline and wireless calls.

Countries can opt out of parts of the revised treaty when it emerges or refuse to sign it altogether.

"If we have no agreement it will create political tension around the Internet," said Markus Kummer, vice president for public policy at industry think tank The Internet Society.

A leaked draft of the Russia-led proposals would give countries "equal rights to manage the Internet including in regard to the allotment, assignment and reclamation of Internet numbering."

This could allow governments to render websites within their borders inaccessible, even via proxy servers or other countries. It also could allow for multinational pacts in which countries could terminate access to websites at each others' request.

Such moves would undermine ICANN, a self-governing nonprofit organization under contract to the U.S. Department of Commerce, which is ultimately responsible for making sure that people trying to reach a given website actually get there.

"Much of the Internet was developed from U.S. research funding, and the U.S. has kept a residual role, so many other governments say it's not right that one government 'controls' the Internet," said Kummer.

"The irony is the U.S. has a very laid-back role and protects the Internet from political interference, but the fact it's the U.S. makes it highly political."

'ANOTHER POINT OF CONTROL'

"The reason some countries want to create national control over addresses is so they can have another point of control," said Rod Beckstrom, until recently chief executive of ICANN, which currently sits atop the addressing system.

Decentralizing the process could prove chaotic if many countries demand that companies use only their national system, he told Reuters.

Beyond web locations and addresses, the Russia-led coalition document says ITU member states should be able to control other elements of the Internet's infrastructure within their borders, as Russia has sought for months.

The revision would give nations the explicit right to "implement policy" on net governance and "regulate the national Internet segment," the draft says.

"If you throw in addressing and naming, that puts the entire ecosystem in play, which is what the U.S. and E.U. said they would never agree to," said a Western participant at the conference who asked not to be named to maintain his ability to negotiate.

"You're almost guaranteeing lock-up in certain areas that might prevent the other areas from easily going forward," he said.

The coalition wants the new treaty to include measures to combat spam email, but its definition of spam is so broad that it could be applied to almost any emailed message.

That would provide a pretext for authoritarian regimes to suppress opponents, critics warn, while also doing little to solve what is a technical problem.

Another clause states any country should have the right to know the route of telecom traffic "where technically feasible," which differs from an earlier submission and appears to acknowledge tracing Internet traffic is impractical.

"Internet networks don't follow national borders and a lot of governments are not happy with that notion, that they don't have control over their territory," said Kummer. "Some governments feel threatened, which they see as undermining their national sovereignty."

SIGN OF CRACKS?

Egypt was named as a co-author of the Russia-led submission, but on Sunday it disavowed the document in what may be a sign of cracks emerging in the loose anti-U.S. coalition.

"Our name was associated to this proposal by mere misunderstanding," Nashwa Gad, a department manager at Egypt's Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MCIT), said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

"Egypt has always been supporting the basic Internet principles that ... the Internet should remain free, open, liberal. We do not see that the ITU mandate deals with the Internet."

The United States has made a counterproposal co-signed by Canada that would stop the treaty being applied to Internet companies such as Google or government and business networks.

It say increasing the treaty's scope could provide a platform for governments to stifle free speech, reduce online anonymity and censor Internet content.

But Russia and its supporters argue they need new powers to able to fight cyber crime and protect networks.

After six days of largely private talks, very little seems to have been agreed, with the main plenary committee meeting on Monday to again consider the U.S.-Canada proposal among others.

The ITU usually agrees decisions by consensus, but the intransigence of both sides means it could come down to a vote, which may leave the United States and its allies in the minority.

"The U.S. is not considering walking out of the conference and is still participating as normal," a U.S. spokesman said in an emailed statement, denying an earlier report that the United States could quit the summit, which ends on Friday.

(Reporting by Matt Smith in Dubai, additional reporting by Joseph Menn i

Facebook is buying Microsoft Ad technology

Facebook Inc is in negotiations with Microsoft Corp about acquiring advertising technology that could allow the social network displays ads on other websites, broadly expanding its advertising business, according to media reports on Thursday.

Facebook is in "serious" discussions with Microsoft about a deal to purchase Atlas Solutions, an ad-serving product that Microsoft acquired through its $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive in 2007, according to reports in the technology blogs Business Insider and AllThingsDigital on Thursday.

The deal could allow Facebook to significantly expand its advertising business by showing ads on third-party websites, mounting a challenge to Google Inc's DoubleClick ad network, said the reports, which cited anonymous sources.

The potential price for the acquisition was unclear, though Business Insider said the highest bid for Atlas in Microsoft's previous attempts to sell the business was $30 million.

Facebook and Microsoft representatives declined to comment.

Facebook, the world's No. 1 online social network with roughly 1 billion users, has been moving aggressively to bolster its advertising business with new capabilities, including ads on mobile devices and features that demonstrate the effectiveness of its ads to marketers.

Facebook currently generates 86 percent of its revenue, which totaled roughly $1.3 billion in the third quarter, from ads that appear on its own website.

Shares of Facebook were off 1.2 percent, or 33 cents, at $27.38 in midday trading on Thursday. Microsoft shares were up 7 cents at $26.73.

A New Zealand government spy agency was ordered on Thursday to provide records of its illegal surveillance and involvement in the unlawful raid on Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom's home, which may bolster the internet tycoon's fight against U.S. extradition for online piracy, fraud and money laundering.

A New Zealand government spy agency was ordered on Thursday to provide records of its illegal surveillance and involvement in the unlawful raid on Megauploadfounder Kim Dotcom's home, which may bolster the internet tycoon's fight against U.S. extradition for online piracy, fraud and money laundering.

The High Court also ruled the flamboyant tycoon and three Megaupload operators can seek damages from the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) related to its part in the January raid, when New Zealand police helicopters swooped into Dotcom's mansion compound at the request of U.S. authorities.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) accuses Dotcom, who founded the file-sharing site which housed everything from family photos to blockbuster films, of leading a group that netted $175 million since 2005 by copying and distributing copyrighted content without authorization.

Dotcom maintains that Megaupload, one of the world's most popular websites before it was shut down in January, simply provided online storage services, and should not be held responsible for stored content.

William Akel, one of Dotcom's lawyers, said that the court decision had been expected, given the GCSB had already admitted in September its surveillance on Dotcom was illegal.

"We can now determine the extent of the GCSB's involvement, and we'll be able to claim for damages," he told Reuters.

The court ruled that Dotcom's lawyers can access information about the New Zealand police's request to the GCSB for information, documents the agency holds about his residency status, and which other agencies, including U.S. federal authorities, it shared its information with.

"Plainly most of what is sought by the plaintiffs is relevant," High Court Judge Helen Winkelmann said in a written judgment.

"The plaintiffs are entitled to discovery of the items."

Dotcom, who also goes by the name of Kim Schmidt, is a German national but with residency inNew Zealand, which made it illegal for the GCSB to spy on him.

Prime Minister John Key has already publicly apologized to Dotcom for the illegal spying.

U.S. authorities are currently appealing a New Zealand court decision that Dotcom should be allowed to see the evidence on which the extradition hearing will be based.

The High Court's latest decision is a further setback for New Zealand authorities acting on behalf of the FBI.

Since the initial raid, the courts have ruled that search warrants used in the raid were illegal, freed Dotcom on bail, unfrozen some of his assets to pay living and legal expenses, relaxed restrictions of travel and association, and ordered extensive evidence disclosure.

Dotcom is also selling some of his car collection, which includes a pink 1959 Cadillac convertible and 1957 Cadillac El Dorado, to raise funds.

The extradition hearing for Dotcom and the other three defendants is now scheduled to be held in mid-2013.

Samsung's successor

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co pushed the anointed heir of the company Chairman closer to the top job on Wednesday as the it cemented a global lead in smartphones with a stock price that is close to record highs.

The promotion of the snappily-dressed and bespectacled Jay Y. Lee, aged 44, to the job of vice chairman comes after Samsung marked the 25th anniversary of his father Lee Kun-hee's chairmanship last week.

"It is a stamp of approval from the chairman that the vice chairman has shown capability to manage Samsung. It's a major step forward (for Jay Lee to become) the future successor at Samsung," a Samsung executive familiar with the matter said.

Jay Lee is already chief operating officer and president and was thrust into the spotlight in June when then Samsung Electronics chief executive Choi Gee-sung, known to be his mentor, was promoted to lead the entire Samsung group's strategy, a defacto No.2 role within the group to chairman Lee.

Observers said at the time that Choi's move was aimed at preparing a succession plan for Jay Lee.

"As Vice Chairman, Lee will build on his existing responsibilities and take a broader role in managing Samsung Electronics' businesses," Samsung said in a statement.

"Lee will continue to play a critical role in transforming Samsung's business model -the set (product) business into one based on a platform and the component business into a total solution provider."

FROM SMALL TRADING COMPANY TO TECH GIANT

Samsung Group was founded in 1938 by Lee Byung-chull, Jay Lee's grandfather, as a small trading company and Samsung Electronics which is the jewel in the crown of its vast industrial empire now sells more televisions, memory chips, flat screens and mobile telephones than any other company.

Samsung Electronics alone is worth $195 billion based on Tuesday's closing share price.

Jay Lee will have big shoes to fill as it was under his father's watch that Samsung Electronics was transformed into from a low cost producer into a global player that has overtaken Apple Inc in terms of smartphone sales.

The annual Samsung reshuffle of top management, of which Jay Lee's promotion is a part, comes as South Korean chaebols, or big business groups, are under pressure to reform amid growing anger over their dominance in an economy where wealth gaps are widening.

The issue of family succession is viewed as a key marker of transpareny and presidential candidates from the ruling and opposition parties have pledged 'economic democratization' in a bid to rein chaebols' growing economic prowess.

"I think JY Lee's promotion means that he has somewhat proved himself worthy of following in his father's footsteps," said a fund manager at foreign fund based in Seoul who owns 2 million shares in Samsung Electronics.

"However, because of the political climate that is bent on economic democratization which frowns on the cross-shareholding structure, it would be better if the company were to be sensitive to minority and outside voices," said the fund manager who could not be named due to his company's media policy.

While Jay Lee steers clear of the limelight when his father appears in public, he has become the first point of contact at Samsung for many key customers and competitors.

Jay Lee has met Apple's chief executive Tim Cook as well as political leaders from China, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Critics say he lacks his father's charisma, business insight and entrepreneurship and that he faces tough challenges, not least a patent battle with Apple that is being fought out in courts across the globe.

Lee has a degree in East Asian history from Seoul National University, an MBA from Keio University in Japan and also attended the doctoral program at Harvard Business School. He has two children and went through one of Korea's highest profile divorce cases. ($1 = 1083.4500 Korean won)

U.S. anti-virus software guru John McAfee, in murder case

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - U.S. anti-virus software guru John McAfee, who is on the run from police in Belize seeking to question him in a murder probe, has crossed into Guatemala and said on Tuesday he will seek political asylum there.

McAfee has been in hiding for three weeks since police in Belize said they wanted to question him as "a person of interest" about the murder of fellow American Gregory Faull, with whom McAfee had quarreled.

McAfee smuggled himself and his girlfriend, Samantha, across the porous land border that Belize shares with Guatemala. He stayed at a hotel in a national park before heading for Guatemala City on Monday evening.

"I have no plans much for the future now. The reason I chose Guatemala is two-fold," McAfee told Reuters by telephone from Guatemala's Supreme Court, flanked by his lawyer, former attorney general and lawyer Telesforo Guerra.

"It is a country bordering Belize, it is a country that understands the corruption within Belize and most importantly, the former attorney general of the country is Samantha's uncle and I knew that he would assist us with legal proceedings."

McAfee has denied involvement in the murder and told Reuters on Monday he would not turn himself in. He posted repeatedly on his blog www.whoismcafee.com while on the run, describing how he would constantly change his disguise to elude capture.

On Tuesday, he appeared with his hair and goatee died black, and wearing a dark suit and tie - a far cry from the surfer-style blonde hair highlights, shorts and tribal-tattooed bare shoulders he sported in Belize.

"(Guerra) is now attempting to get political asylum for myself and for Sam. I don't think there will be much of a problem. From here I can speak freely and safely," McAfee said.

TECH GENIUS, "BONKERS"

McAfee says he believes authorities in Belize would kill him if he turned himself in for questioning. Belize's prime minister has denied the claim and called the 67-year-old paranoid and "bonkers."

On the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye, where McAfee has lived for about four years, residents say he is eccentric, impulsive, erratic and at times unstable, with a penchant for guns and young women.

He would often be seen with armed bodyguards, pistols tucked into his belt, and McAfee's neighbor had complained about the loud barking of dogs that guarded his exclusive beachside compound.

His run-in with authorities in Belize is a world away from a successful life in the United States, where he started McAfee Associates in 1989 and made millions of dollars developing the Internet anti-virus software that carries his name.

There was already a case against McAfee in Belize for possession of illegal firearms, and police had previously raided his property on suspicion he was running a lab to make illegal synthetic narcotics.

McAfee says he has been persecuted for refusing to donate money to politicians, that he loves Belize and considers it his home.

"He will go back to Belize once his situation here in Guatemala is made legal," Guerra told Reuters, citing the fact he had crossed into Guatemala illegally to avoid capture by police in Belize.

"He can go to the United States, there is no problem with that," he added. "We have asked the U.S. embassy for support with our (asylum) request."

He said the asylum request would be formally presented on Wednesday.

The U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City said in a statement McAfee would have to work within the country's legal framework, but declined to elaborate. "The embassy does not comment on the actions of American citizens, due to privacy considerations."

(Reporting by Simon Gardner and Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Kieran Murray and Eric Walsh)

Yahoo acquired a five person video chat company OnTheAir

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc said it acquired a five-person video chat company on Tuesday, the second deal by new Chief Executive Marissa Mayer to bolster Yahoo's mobile capabilities.

Yahoo did not disclose the financial terms of its acquisition of OnTheAir, but said the team would be joining Yahoo's mobile group.

A Yahoo spokeswoman said that Yahoo had not plans to offer OnTheAir's existing product, which lets Web users host live video conversations and was launched in March.

The deal marks the second small, mobile-oriented deal since Mayer became CEO earlier this year. In October, Yahoo acquired Stamped, a New York-based mobile startup that allows consumers to share information about favorite restaurants and music on their smartphones.

Mayer, a former Google Inc executive, has said that her top priority is to create a coherent mobile strategy for Yahoo and that she intends for at least half of the company's technical workforce to be working on mobile products.

Shares of Yahoo were up 1.5 percent at $18.82 in trading on Tuesday.

A US start-up has turned to nature to help bring water to arid areas by drawing moisture from the air.

Namib Desert beetle inspires self-filling water bottle

The Namib Desert beetle harvests moisture from the air to survive

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• Nature's copycats flood the world
• Israeli firm saves London's water
• Shortages: Water supplies in crisis

A US start-up has turned to nature to help bring water to arid areas by drawing moisture from the air.

NBD Nano aims to mimic the way a beetle survives in an African desert to create a self-filling water bottle capable of storing up to three litres every hour.

The insect harvests moisture from the air by first getting it to condense on its back and then storing the water.

Using nature as an inspiration for technology, known as biomimicry, is increasingly widespread.

NBD Nano, which consists of four recent university graduates and was formed in May, looked at the Namib Desert beetle that lives in a region that gets about half an inch of rainfall per year.

Using a similar approach, the firm wants to cover the surface of a bottle with hydrophilic (water-attracting) and hydrophobic (water-repellent) materials.

The work is still in its early stages, but it is the latest example of researchers looking at nature to find inspiration for sustainable technology.

"It was important to apply [biomimicry] to our design and we have developed a proof of concept and [are] currently creating our first fully-functional prototype," Miguel Galvez, a co-founder, told the BBC.

"We think our initial prototype will collect anywhere from half a litre of water to three litres per hour, depending on local environments."

3D printer in Staples

3D Printing, the white-hot technology that's promising to transform everything from car repair to bio medicine, is now moving into the most mundane of locations: your local Staples. A European unit of Staples and Ireland-based 3D printing company Mcor have announced plans to bring 3D printing to a handful of European Staples stores in early 2013, and promise to roll it out to other countries shortly after that.

[More from Mashable: Bond’s 3D-Printed Aston Martin Makes ‘Skyfall’ Debut]

Dubbed "Staples Easy 3D," the new service is pretty straightforward. Customers upload CAD or other 3D-printable files to Staples Office Center. Staples prints them on one of Mcor 's Iris 3D color printers. Customers can then either pick up their 3D-printed objects at the store, or have them shipped to them. "Customized parts, prototypes, art objects, architectural models, medical models and 3D maps are items customers need today, in a more affordable and more accessible manner," said Wouter Van Dijk, president of the Staples Printing Systems Division in Europe.

Access to 3D printing services at a local Staples could be a shortcut for consumers anxious to get started in 3D printing. Companies like MakerBot currently sell home 3D printers for roughly $2,300, a price tag likely considered out of the reach of most consumers. Mcor executives acknowledge, though, that 3D printing is following the well-worn path of 2D printing: better equipment, more accessibility and much lower prices. Even so, they don't think consumers will have their own 3D printers in the short term. "Until that time, consumers will look to service bureaus," said Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Conor MacCormack.

[More from Mashable: 3D Printing’s Next Frontier: Guns]

It's also unlikely consumers will have access to an in-home, full-color 3D-printer any time soon. Mcor's Iris reportedly prints in more than 1 million colors.

3D printing service bureaus is not a new idea. U.S.-based Shapeways lets consumers design 3D objects and then have the service print and sent them to their homes. On the other hand, many consumers have probably never heard of Shapeways, but good luck running into anyone who couldn't point you to the nearest Staples.

The announcement, which was made at Euromold in Germany ("World Fair for Moldmaking and Tooling, Design and Application Development") did not include details on how long it will take to print each object or, more importantly, price per print. Our guess it'll cost a fair bit more than a sheaf of bright white paper.

Mashable has reached out to Staples' U.S. division for comment on the announcement and details on service availability outside of Europe and will update this post with their comments.

ITU International Telecommunication Union

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An unprecedented debate over how the global Internet is governed is set to dominate a meeting of officials in Dubai next week, with many countries pushing to give a United Nations body broad regulatory powers even as the United States and others contend such a move could mean the end of the open Internet.

The 12-day conference of the International Telecommunications Union, a 147-year-old organization that's now an arm of the United Nations, largely pits revenue-seeking developing countries and authoritarian regimes that want more control over Internet content against U.S. policymakers and private Net companies that prefer the status quo.

Many of the proposals have drawn fury from free-speech and human-rights advocates and have prompted resolutions from the U.S. Congress and the European Parliament, calling for the current decentralized system of governance to remain in place.

While specifics of some of the most contentious proposals remain secret, leaked drafts show that Russia is seeking rules giving individual countries broad permission to shape the content and structure of the Internet within their borders, while a group of Arab countries is advocating universal identification of Internet users. Some developing countries and telecom providers, meanwhile, want to make content providers pay for Internet transmission.

Fundamentally, most of the 193 countries in the ITU seem eager to enshrine the idea that the U.N. agency, rather than today's hodgepodge of private companies and nonprofit groups, should govern the Internet. They say that a new regime is needed to deal with the surge in cybercrime and more recent military attacks.

The ITU meeting, which aims to update a longstanding treaty on how telecom companies interact across borders, will also tackle other topics such as extending wireless coverage into rural areas.

If a majority of the ITU countries approve U.N. dominion over the Internet along with onerous rules, a backlash could lead to battles in Western countries over whether to ratify the treaty, with tech companies rallying ordinary Internet users against it and some telecom carriers supporting it.

In fact, dozens of countries including China, Russia and some Arab states, already restrict Internet access within their own borders. Those governments would have greater leverage over Internet content and service providers if the changes were backed up by international agreement.

Amid the escalating rhetoric, search king Google last week asked users to "pledge your support for the free and open Internet" on social media, raising the specter of a grassroots outpouring of the sort that blocked American copyright legislation and a global anti-piracy treaty earlier this year.

Google's Vint Cerf, the ordinarily diplomatic co-author of the basic protocol for Internet data, denounced the proposed new rules as hopeless efforts by some governments and state-controlled telecom authorities to assert their power.

"These persistent attempts are just evidence that this breed of dinosaurs, with their pea-sized brains, hasn't figured out that they are dead yet, because the signal hasn't traveled up their long necks," Cerf told Reuters.

The ITU's top official, Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré, sought to downplay the concerns in a separate interview, stressing to Reuters that even though updates to the treaty could be approved by a simple majority, in practice nothing will be adopted without near-unanimity.

"Voting means winners and losers. We can't afford that in the ITU," said Touré, a former satellite engineer from Mali who was educated in Russia.

Touré predicted that only "light-touch" regulation on cyber-security will emerge by "consensus", using a deliberately vague term that implies something between a majority and unanimity.

He rejected criticism that the ITU's historic role in coordinating phone carriers leaves it unfit to corral the unruly Internet, comparing the Web to a transportation system.

"Because you own the roads, you don't own the cars and especially not the goods they are transporting. But when you buy a car you don't buy the road," Touré said. "You need to know the number of cars and their size and weight so you can build the bridges and set the right number of lanes. You need light-touch regulation to set down a few traffic lights."

Because the proposals from Russia, China and others are more extreme, Touré has been able to cast mild regulation as a compromise accommodating nearly everyone.

Two leaked Russian proposals say nations should have the sovereign right "to regulate the national Internet segment". An August draft proposal from a group of 17 Arab countries called for transmission recipients to receive "identity information" about the senders, potentially endangering the anonymity of political dissidents, among others.

A U.S. State Department envoy to the gathering and Cerf agreed with Touré that there is unlikely to be any drastic change emerging from Dubai.

"The decisions are going to be by consensus," said U.S. delegation chief Terry Kramer. He said anti-anonymity measures such as mandatory Internet address tracing won't be adopted because of opposition by the United States and others.

"We're a strong voice, given a lot of the heritage," Kramer said, referring to the United States' role in the development of the Internet. "A lot of European markets are very similar, and a lot of Asian counties are supportive, except China."

Despite the reassuring words, a fresh leak over the weekend showed that the ITU's top managers viewed a badly split conference as a realistic prospect less than three months ago.

The leaked program for a "senior management retreat" for the ITU in early September included a summary discussion of the most probable outcomes from Dubai, concluding that the two likeliest scenarios involved major reworkings of the treaty that the United States would then refuse to sign. The only difference between the scenarios lay in how many other developed countries sided with the Americans.

An ITU spokesman said Tuesday that "the management team has never doubted that consensus will be found" and that the scenarios were meant to aid efforts at facilitating the process.

Touré said that because the disagreements are so vast, the conference probably will end up with something resembling the ITU's earlier formula for trying to protect children online — an agreement to cooperate more and share laws and best practices, perhaps with hotlines to head off misunderstandings.

"From Dubai, what I personally expect is to see some kind of principles saying cyberspace is a global phenomenon and it can only have global responses," Touré said. "I just intend to put down some key principles there that will lay the seeds for something in the future."

Even vague terms could be used as a pretext for more oppressive policies in various countries, though, and activists and industry leaders fear those countries might also band together by region to offer very different Internet experiences.

In some ways, the U.N. involvement reflects a reversal that has already begun.

The United States has steadily diminished its official role in Internet governance, and many nations have stepped up their filtering and surveillance. More than 40 countries now filter the Net that their citizens see, said Ronald Deibert, a University of Toronto political science professor and authority on international conflicts in cyberspace.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said this month that the Net is already on the road to Balkanization, with people in different countries getting very different experiences from the services provided by Google, Skype and others.

This month, a new law in Russia took effect that allows the federal government to order a Website offline without a court hearing. Iran recently rolled out a version of the Internet that replaced the real thing within its borders. A growing number of countries, including China and India, order sites to censor themselves for political, religious and other content.

China, which has the world's largest number of Internet users, also blocks access to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter among other sites within its borders.

The loose governance of the Net currently depends on the non-profit ICANN, which oversees the Web's address system, along with voluntary standard-setting bodies and a patchwork of national laws and regional agreements. Many countries see it as a U.S.-dominated system.

The U.S. isolation within the ITU is exacerbated by it being home to many of the biggest technology companies - and by the fact that it could have military reasons for wanting to preserve online anonymity. The Internet emerged as a critical military domain with the 2010 discovery of Stuxnet, a computer worm developed at least in part by the United States that attacked Iran's nuclear program.

Whatever the outcome in Dubai, the conference stands a good chance of becoming a historic turning point for the Internet.

"I see this as a constitutional moment for global cyberspace, where we can stand back and say, `Who should be in charge?' said Deibert. "What are the rules of the road?"