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SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Apple’s new iPhone, a “smart” mobile phone offering music storage and Internet access, will be launched on June 29, according to television ads by the high-tech group. 
The iPhone, which combines the wildly popular iPod music player with features found in other smart phones, was unveiled in January by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.
The device, to sell at prices of 499 to 599 dollars, will be distributed in the US market through ATT, the new name for the Cingular Wireless brand.
It will weigh 135 grams (3.8 ounces) and have the Apple OS X operating system and four or eight megabytes of storage. It will be able to play videos as well as music and have a screen of 3.5 inches (nine centimeters).
Analysts are divided on whether the iPhone will be an industry-changing device or be too expensive to compete with other smart phones such as the BlackBerry.
On its website, Apple said the iPhone will include “a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device.” It will also include a two-megapixel digital camera.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Smartphone maker Palm Inc. will sell a 25 percent stake to private equity firm Elevation Partners for $325 million and name the former technical guru behind the iPod to be chairman, the company said Monday.
The deal with the long-term investor brings significant new leadership to Palm, which has been battling stiffening competition in a market that is only going to get tougher with Apple Inc.’s June 29 debut of the iPhone.
As part of the deal, Palm will pay a special distribution of $9 per share, or about $940 million in cash, to shareholders. It said the special distribution would be financed by the new investment, cash on hand and $400 million in new debt.
Palm, best known for the Treo line of phones, said two board members — former CEO Eric Benhamou and D. Scott Mercer — will resign. Elevation partners Fred Anderson and Roger McNamee will join Palm’s board, and Apple Inc.’s former top hardware engineer, Jon Rubenstein will join the board as executive chairman.
Rubenstein ran the iPod division at Apple from 2004 to 2006 and was key in the creation of Apple’s iMac computer before that. He was part of the executive team that joined Apple after Steve Jobs returned to that company’s helm.
Anderson, the former chief financial officer of Apple, recently agreed to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges related to a stock options backdating probe at Apple. He also agreed to pay about $3.5 million in fines, without admitting wrongdoing. Anderson also serves as a director of eBay Inc. and Move Inc.
Among Elevation’s five partners, besides Anderson and McNamee, is the rock star Bono, lead singer of U2.
Elevation’s investment in Palm is the firm’s largest ever.
“We don’t think Palm is faltering or that there’s anything wrong with the present,” McNamee said in an interview. “We just think the future is incredibly bright.”
The $1.9 billion private equity firm seeks to strengthen Palm’s position in a highly competitive market that will only become more so with iPhone’s expected entry at the end of the month.
“Today, you can’t get your highest valued content to your phone, other than e-mail,” McNamee said. “And we think that’s going to change in the future.”
Sunnyvale-based Palm was the subject of extensive takeover speculation this year as it hired Morgan Stanley to examine its options, including a complete buyout. A range of telecoms, including Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp., to private equity firms, were rumored suitors.
“We were approached by larger parties over the last six months,” Palm Chief Executive Ed Colligan said, declining to be more specific. “The reality is that we thought this was the best outcome for our business and our investors.”
For years, Palm’s primary smartphone competitor was Research in Motion Ltd., maker of BlackBerry devices. But as handset giants like Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung Electronics Co. entered the fray last year with lower-priced, slimmer, consumer-oriented models, Palm’s once-groundbreaking Treo design began to appear stale.
Seeking to recapture its innovative streak, Palm last week introduced a new laptop-like device, the Foleo, designed to work with smartphones. However, it was roundly panned.
Colligan said in a conference call with analysts Monday that Palm’s roadmap for the next year is set, but he is looking forward to working with Rubenstein and drawing on his proven record of creating highly efficient engineering teams that produce innovative products.
Rubenstein will work with Palm’s co-founder and top product designer, Jeff Hawkins, who pioneered the Palm Pilot and Treo smartphone, but has been working at Palm only part-time in recent years.
“That’s just a team that can’t be beat,” McNamee told analysts.
Shares of Palm were up nearly 9 percent, or $1.41, to $17.50 in midday trading.
Palm said the deal, which needs shareholder approval, will leave the company with more than $300 million of cash after the transaction.
“The management shakeup at Palm is the key takeaway,” Think Equity analyst Jonathan Hoopes wrote in a note. “Today’s deal should quiet skeptics as these new investors in Palm have ‘been around the block’ and clearly understand the value of a global brand, of a foundation based on software, and of design acumen.”
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Charges against a man accused of being one of the Internet’s most notorious spammers could spell relief from millions of unwanted message clogging e-mail in-boxes, computer security officials said on Thursday.
“This is a great day for the Internet,” said Patrick Peterson, vice president of technology for IronPort Systems, which provides e-mail and Web security products. “Everyone involved in clapping those handcuffs on (him) are heroes.”
Robert Alan Soloway, 27, is currently being held without bail after his initial appearance in U.S. District Court here on Wednesday.
Soloway was indicted by a federal grand jury on 35 counts that include mail fraud, wire fraud, fraud in connection with electronic mail, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.
Consumers may not immediately notice much change in the amount of e-mail-borne spam, because there are other, even bigger spammers out there, Peterson said. But the long-term effect from Soloway’s arrest could be great, he said.
“The message it sends is going to have a much bigger impact than what we see in our in-boxes, which is undetectable,” Peterson said, adding that he have recently seen more aggressive efforts by federal authorities to combat the scourge.
Soloway is the first spammer in the nation to be charged with aggravated identity theft under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.
His detention hearing is scheduled for next Monday. Soloway has been dubbed the “Spam King” by federal prosecutors for allegedly sending hundreds of millions of spam e-mails via hijacked networks.
“Spam is a scourge of the Internet, and Robert Soloway is one of its most prolific practitioners,” Jeffrey C. Sullivan, U. S. Attorney for Western Washington, said in a prepared statement.
According to the indictment, between November 2003 and May 2007, Soloway operated the Newport Internet Marketing Corp, which offered a “broadcast e-mail” software product, at prices ranging from $195 to $495.
Those services constituted illegal spam, or high-volume commercial e-mail messages that contained false subject headers designed to trick e-mail security systems. Spam was relayed via networks of captive computers, known as “botnets,” the indictment claims.
Furthermore, he promised a full refund to customers who purchased e-mail products if they weren’t satisfied. But customers who later complained or asked for refunds were threatened with additional financial charges and referral to a collection agency, the indictment asserts.
Spam volume actually increased in the wake of the CAN-SPAM law, peaking in July of 2004 at 94.5 percent of global e-mail traffic. The rate of spam infection of e-mail networks has fallen back since then to 76.1 percent of traffic in April 2007, according to a report by security vendor MessageLabs.
“Certainly, every spammer in the United States had better think twice about staying in the business,” Peterson said.
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