Yahoo Updates Mail

Yahoo Inc. will close an almost two-year public test for its new version of Yahoo Mail on Monday with several new enhancements, as the Sunnyvale, California, Internet giant boosts this Webmail service that is key to both its usage and advertising growth.

Yahoo will remove the beta tag from the new Yahoo Mail version on Monday and will roll it out to all of the service's 254 million active users worldwide in the coming six weeks.

Because the new Yahoo Mail has been available to all of the service's users for almost a year in beta form, its enhancements aren't a secret, but Yahoo is announcing some new improvements.

For example, all users will see an improvement in performance and speed with this "general availability" version of the new Yahoo Mail, as well as an expansion of the search refinement features.

In addition, the capability to initiate an instant messaging session with Yahoo Messenger users from within Yahoo Mail has been extended to include Microsoft Windows Live Messenger users and will be available worldwide as well.

Meanwhile, users in the U.S., India, Canada, and the Philippines will get the capability to send text messages to mobile phones from within an e-mail message window, a feature Yahoo expects to extend elsewhere as it secures agreements with local mobile operators.

Although the new Yahoo Mail will now become the service's primary version, users will be able to continue using the "classic" version. "We'll continue to offer both products for the foreseeable future and we'll let our users decide what's the right Yahoo Mail experience for them," said John Kremer, Yahoo Mail's vice president.

With competition heating up from Google, Microsoft and others, Yahoo has to continually boost Yahoo Mail, which drives a lot of Web traffic for the company.

Apple anti-theft system

Nearly everyone has heard of "iPod muggings"—thieves targeting unsuspecting users on the street because of the presence of those signature white headphones that indicate there's an expensive gadget on the other end. Of course, iPod users aren't the only ones who have ever had gadgets stolen—everything from CD players (yes, some people still use those) to PDAs to GPS units to cell phones have been attractive targets for thieves for years now. And while there have been some attempts to dissuade thieves from stealing our things, most have been pretty easy to get around. But what if a thief knew that if he (or she) stole that iPod, it would only have one charge cycle left before it became useless?

A recently-published patent filed by Apple (and dug up by the New Scientist) could provide one such deterrent. The patent, titled "Protecting electronic devices from extended unauthorized use," outlines a technique that would allow a particular device to authenticate itself with certain, user-approved power supplies and devices so that it can only be charged by those devices. In a lot of ways, it's a lot like DRM, but for electronic devices.

According to the patent, when the device suspects unauthorized use, the recharging mechanism of the device itself is disabled. "Consequently, normal use and enjoyment of the device can be significantly reduced when the recharger is disabled." Thanks, Apple. Suspected unauthorized use, however, could include any number of user-defined conditions. The owner could set a timer for the authorizations to expire, the device could be connected to an unapproved power supply, or—this one is particularly interesting—the device is being used "outside a determined geographical boundary." Under any of those conditions, the device would be alerted that it's being subject to suspect activity and ask the user for its preassigned security code. If authorization succeeds, then everything will continue on as expected. If not, the device won't be rechargeable until it is authorized once again by the owner.

The patent does not discuss what happens in the event of a device reset or when a password is lost. In order to be effective, the system would need to be difficult to get around, but not so difficult that users might accidentally render their iPods useless after being a little too forgetful. There would obviously need to be some sort of back door for Apple to somehow reset the device, but we're left to speculate about those details.

Naturally, some of us might think upon first blush that this is merely a guise for Apple and other manufacturers to lock out third-party chargers, but the patent insists that this is not so. The lawful owner of the device would be able to configure the gadget to work with any authorized devices he or she desires. Of course, that doesn't mean that devices couldn't just "mysteriously" not accept authorizations when hooked up to certain types of chargers.

As today's DRM mess has proven, such a system could easily be subject to compatibility issues. If so, it would result in frustrated users who might just choose to authorize everything instead of fight with it, thus negating the point of the system in the first place. But as long as that option exists—the ability to turn it off altogether if one chooses—then the idea is kind of a cool one. Locking out unauthorized chargers wouldn't exactly help someone get a stolen iPod back, but perhaps if enough potential thieves knew of the limitations, they wouldn't be so eager to steal the gadgets in the first place. Maybe.

Future plans for WiFi on Zune and iPod

On the Microsoft side, the patent takes the Zune's currently-limited music-sharing capabilities a step further and offers more options to Zune users looking to participate in "the social." Microsoft is taking the commerce-driven approach to music sharing with this patent, believing that there is an entire "offline economy" that could benefit both the copyright holder and the user when Zune users squirt music to one another. Under the system described by the patent, users would be able to essentially purchase copies of songs off of other users without the involvement of a Microsoft media server at all. The original sharer's device would store the purchase information until the next time he or she syncs up with a computer, for example, and proceeds from the sale would go to both the copyright holder, with a (presumably small) cut the person who squirted the music.

This would offer a huge incentive for Zune users to start walking around, squirting music to everybody in sight. And according to the patent, the sale system would even "work" in the case of sharing pirated music, which would allow the copyright owner to still recoup the costs of his or her music being shared.

Music labels shouldn't worry just yet, though, as the patent describes at least one implementation that would involve the attachment of an advertisement to the pirated content. How the device will be able to tell the difference between truly pirated content and files ripped from the user's home collection of CDs, however, is very unclear. Such a system looking that carefully into the content on the device could also raise privacy concerns.

Apple's patent describes a wireless sharing system oddly similar to that already built into the Zune. Under the patent, a device with wireless capabilities, such as the iPhone or future iterations of the iPod, would be able to wirelessly detect similar devices on the same network. These similar devices do not have to be other iPods, either, as Apple specifies that it could be a media player, PDA, or some other type of wireless device. The users would be able to share various types of data, which naturally includes music and other media files, but also entire albums, photos, computer games, audio/video presentations, news reports, and more. The media could be transferred to the second device either by full transfer (making a copy of the file on the new device) or by streaming.

Apple's patent also addresses part of the system that would allow the user to purchase media from a server directly from the device. The user could either purchase something on the spot or mark it for purchase later (like when he or she gets home to sync with a computer, for example). It could even involve a "shopping list," which would function as a sort of wish list that can be synced with multiple devices and computers. For those of us who have been looking forward to buying directly from iTunes on our iPods or iPhones, the patent sounds very promising.

Apple's patent is a curious one, as it seems to directly overlap some of the Zune's functionality. Apple's patent cites several other patents ranging from media sharing to wireless communications to media players, with application dates falling as early as 2003. Companies are obligated to search for prior art before filing patent applications, and so this could be a case where Apple's patent differs enough from Microsoft's that there is no technical overlap. Another possibility is that a patent examiner will determine that Apple's filing is too similar to Microsoft's and therefore will have to pay to license the content from Microsoft, like it does with Creative over the iPod UI. Similarly, under the first-to-invent system used in US patent filings, Apple may be end up controlling the IP used in the Zune.