Verizon Denies Giving NSA Phone Records

NEW YORK - Verizon Communications Inc. on Tuesday joined fellow phone company BellSouth in denying key points of a USA Today story that said the companies had provided records of millions of phone calls to the government.
Verizon has not provided customer call data to the National Security Agency, nor had it been asked to do so, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The statement came a day after Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp. made a similar denial.

"One of the most glaring and repeated falsehoods in the media reporting is the assertion that, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Verizon was approached by NSA and entered into an arrangement to provide the NSA with data from its customers' domestic calls," the statement read.

The denials leave open the possibility that the NSA directed its requests to long-distance companies, which collect billing data on long-distance calls placed by local-service customers of BellSouth and Verizon.

A story in USA Today last Thursday said Verizon, AT&T Inc. and BellSouth had complied with an NSA request for tens of millions of customer phone records after the 2001 terror attacks. The report sparked a national debate on federal surveillance tactics.

The newspaper story cited anonymous sources "with direct knowledge of the arrangement."

"Sources told us that BellSouth and Verizon records are included in the database," USA Today spokesman Steve Anderson said.

"We're confident in our coverage of the phone database story," Anderson added, "but we won't summarily dismiss BellSouth's and Verizon's denials without taking a closer look."

An attorney for the former chief executive of Qwest Communications International Inc., on Friday lent support to USA Today's story. He said the Denver company had been approached by the government, but had denied the request for phone records because it appeared to violate privacy law.

Qwest is a regional phone company with a substantial long-distance business. It was not clear if the government's request applied only to Qwest's long-distance business.

Verizon's statement suggested that USA Today may have erred in not drawing a distinction between long-distance and local telephone calls.

"Phone companies do not even make records of local calls in most cases because the vast majority of customers are not billed per call for local calls," Verizon said.

Tuesday's denial did not apply to MCI, the long-distance carrier Verizon acquired in January. In an earlier statement, Verizon said it is in the process of ensuring that its policies are put in place in the former MCI business.

Three smaller phone companies, with mainly local business, contacted by The Associated Press on Tuesday also denied being approached by the NSA. Representatives at Alltel Corp., Citizens Communications Co. and CenturyTel Inc. all said they had no knowledge of NSA requests to their companies.

The denials by Verizon and BellSouth leave AT&T as the sole company named in the USA Today article that hasn't denied involvement. On Thursday, San Antonio-based AT&T said it had "an obligation to assist law enforcement and other government agencies responsible for protecting the public welfare," but said it would assist only as allowed within the law.

AT&T spokesman Michael Coe said Tuesday the company had no further comment.

AT&T Inc. was formed last year when regional phone company SBC Communications Inc. bought AT&T Corp., the long-distance and corporate carrier, and adopted its name.

The other major long-distance company, Sprint Nextel Corp., has issued a statement similar to AT&T's.

President Bush insisted Tuesday that the government does not listen to domestic telephone conversations among ordinary Americans. But he declined to specifically discuss the compiling of phone records, or whether that would amount to an invasion of privacy.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (news, bio, voting record), R-Utah, Tuesday said that at least two of the chief judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves warrants for intelligence surveillance, had been informed since 2001 of White House-approved National Security Agency monitoring operations, and had not raised objections.

On Monday, a Democratic member of the
Federal Communications Commission said the FCC should investigate whether the companies violated federal communications law.

BellSouth, Verizon and AT&T are facing a number of lawsuits by customers who allege violations of their privacy, including one in New York that seeks $200 billion in damages.

In April, an Internet advocacy group sued AT&T, accusing it of providing complete access to all communications on its network to the NSA.

____

AP Business Writer Harry Weber in Atlanta contributed to this story.

Apple rival 'tries to ban iPods'

Digital music player maker Creative Technology has asked a US court to ban Apple from selling or marketing its iconic iPods in the US.

Creative claims that the navigational menu used for finding and playing music on the iPod, violates its patent for its own Zen MP3 player.

It applied for the patent in 2001 which was granted in August 2005.

Since then it has been threatening legal action. The complaint was lodged at the San Francisco district court.

Import laws breach?

Last year Creative boss Sim Wong Hoo told the BBC he planned to "pursue aggressively" the US patent.

Through the court it is seeking an injunction and increased damages for what it says is a "wilful infringement of the Zen patent".

Creative said it had also filed a complaint to the US International Trade Commission, asking it to investigate whether Apple had breached import laws by selling iPods and the iPod Nano.
It claimed it had met with Apple CEO Steve Jobs and other representatives in 2001 to discuss ways the two companies to work together but had rejected Apple's proposals.

Nobody from Apple would comment on the legal action.

Market share

Creative has struggled against the market dominance of the iPod and earlier this month plunged into the red.

It blamed its $114m (£62m) losses for the three months to March on the plunge in MP3 player prices and its need to get rid of stock.

But it pledged to return to profit in the second half of 2006, saying it was renewing its focus on high-margin products, such as computer sound cards.

Apple launched the iPod in 2001 and now has 72% of the US portable MP3 player market while Creative has less than 10%, according to research group NPD.

Having a Wii good time

Gamers are often stereotyped as couch potatoes, sitting in their bedrooms, staring intensely at a screen.

But at the Nintendo stand at the E3 games expo, enthusiasts were eagerly queuing up to have a go at flicking their wrists or swinging their arms.

The reason was Nintendo's new games console, the Wii, (pronounced we), and its unorthodox way of play.

The Japanese games giant has turned its back on the typical gamepad with a myriad of buttons and opted for using motion sensors.

The right-hand controller is shaped like a slim TV remote, while the left-hand one is rounded and curvy.

Nintendo is giving people the chance to try out the controls for themselves at E3, with 27 games for the Wii available to play.

After having tried out a handful of these games, the initial results are surprisingly promising.

Fore!

First off was tennis. In this you use the right-hand remote as a racket, swinging it to hit the ball across the net.
It takes a couple of misses to connect your actions with the anime characters on the TV screen. But within a few minutes, it was fairly easy to smash the ball and win matches.

The game also quickly revealed that it was not just a case of vague, random movements.

A rapid swing would increase the power of the shot. And turning the controller at an angle would produce a top spin or slice.

Another of the games on offer was golf. Here the device becomes the club and the force of a drive is determined by how far back you swing the controller.

Again, the realism of the experience was impressive. In particular, putting involved controlled strokes, determined by how much you moved the device.

Point and shoot

Sports games like this lend themselves to physical controllers so the real test for the new controller would come with more conventional first-person shooters.
Most fans of shooters prefer to play with a computer mouse and keyboard due to the degree of control this offers.

On the Wii, the right-hand controller lets you point and shoot. The left-hand holds the so-called nunchuck, which has a joystick for movement.

The unconventional set-up takes a while to get used to, especially as it is easy to wander off to one side of the screen by unwittingly moving the controller sideways.

But the point and shoot mechanism works well and adds a degree of realism. Whereas in other games reloading involves pressing a particular button, here a flick of the wrist is enough.

The swordplay was similarly intuitive - swing the right hand to strike and move the left hand to block.

Positive impression

The controls worked less well on another shooter, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

The principles were broadly the same, but some of the action also involved a number of button combinations.

Over time, gamers will probably get used to this but it did not have the same pick and play appeal as the sports games.

Of course, it is impossible to pass judgement on the Wii remote after just playing each game for 10 minutes or so.

Initially, it does feel a little strange to wave your arms around. And the remote worked best with the sport titles.

But on first impressions, Nintendo may have just produced a way of playing games that is fits the cliché - easy to play, hard to master.

bbc, excerpt

Playstation 3 (PS3) News That Matters!

RELEASE DATES / PRICE

November 11th 2006 JPN - 20GB: 59,800 YEN
November 17th 2006 US - 20GB: 499 USD
November 17th 2006 EUR - 20GB: 499 EUR

KEY INFO

PSP will receive GPS, Voice over IP, RSS Video, and a Camera by the end of the year.

On launch, the Playstation 3 will come in black (see pics).

Playstation 3 games will all be playable at E3 booths.

Gran Turismo HD showcased.

Core PS3 online service will be free of charge with various features, which include audio, text messaging, video chat etc.

Micro-transactions service will be available, through pre-paid PlayStation cards.

Demos of Mobile Suit Gundam, Assassin's Creed, Coded Arms Assault, Ridge Racer 7, Brother in Arms: Hell's Highway, Tekken 6, Sonic the Hedgehog, Virtua Tennis 3, and Virtua Fighter 5 all are being shown. Most look very impressive.

Fatal Inertia, Bladestorm: Hundred Years War, Armored Core 4, and Stranglehold are shown.

EA plans to launch more than 10 titles on the PS3, including MOH Airborne and Madden NFL 07.

New Bluetooth PS3 control pad is revealed, which has a feature that allows motion to be detected by moving controller physically.

Two PS3 hardware configuration will be available: 60 GB HDD / 20GB HDD

2 Million Units at launch....

Pre-order Playstation 3 from Lik-Sang today!

> Latest News

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[new!] 7 May April 2006

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At stake is not just pole position in the $25 billion video game industry, but dominance in the next generation of DVDs, the commercial viability of Sony's Cell microchips and possibly control over living-room electronics around the world.

[reuters]

• Pre-E3 2006: E3 Games from EA Games
[new!] 7 May April 2006

Like so many others in this past week, Electronic Arts (EA Games) revealed the games that it will be showcasing at E3 next week. Every platform is covered in the list, including both current and next-gen systems, handhelds, PCs and even mobile phones. However, though it probably won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who knows EA, the list had its usual line-up of sports titles, though there were also a few original properties to be had as well.

[vggen]

• Pre-E3 2006: Sega Reveals The Club for PS3
[new!] 7 May April 2006

As part of its on-going Road to E3 promotion, all leading up to the very first day of the convention, Sega has announced another one of the games that they will be showing at the event. The game, tentatively titled The Club, will be released both here and in Europe sometime in 2007 for Xbox 360 and PS3 (according to Sega's official E3 list at least, the original press release for The Club mentioned only "next-gen consoles").

[vggen]

• New PS3 controller design next week
[new!] 7 May April 2006

If you were one of the many people who didn’t think Sony’s “bananarang” PS3 controller design was much cop then stay tuned – for the big S is going to take the wraps off the final design at next week’s E3 games extravaganza.

[t3]

• PS3: Sony Adds Two New Execs...
[new!] 7 May April 2006

With the Sony PS3 launching within the year, it only made sense when we learned that Sony has appointed two new executives within the company. Recognized as veterans in both the electronics and computer entertainment industries, Peter Dille and Philip Rosenberg have assumed the positions of senior vice president, marketing and vice president, business development, respectively.

[halflife-source]

• PS3 Jack and Daxter named The Lost Frontier
[new!] 7 May April 2006

IGN reports that Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier could be the title of the first PlayStation 3 instalment of the Jack and Daxter series. The US video games site discovered that on April 21 Sony registered the name with the U.S. Patent Office, with notes that the game will be an all-new "real-time online networked game."

[pro-g]

• EA Announces "Army of Two" For PS3 and Xbox 360

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[gamingbits]

• Full Auto 2: Battlelines coming exclusively to Playstation 3

SEGA today confirmed in an official announcement the sequel to "Full Auto" is well into development at Pseudo Interactive. The surprise isn't confirmation of "Full Auto 2: Battlelines," especially considering the success of the first. We all knew a sequel was coming one way or the other. What's shocking is Playstation 3 is the only platform "Full Auto" junkies will find their next Unwreck fix. Xbox 360 has been left out in the cold.

[themanroom]

• Ubi's Assassin's Creed for PS3

Ubisoft's just announced a brand new PlayStation 3 game called Assassin's Creed - due to be shown off at E3 next week and due out next year.

Details on what it's actually like to play are sketchy, but Ubi says it's in development at its Montreal studio and takes place during the 12th century when the Third Crusade was in full flow.

[eurogamer]

• What's The Insider Buzz on Sony PS3?

The launch of Sony's PlayStation Network Platform this fall in conjunction with PlayStation 3 will usher in a new era of digitally distributed entertainment among the three leading game companies. It will mark the fist time that Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo will all use always-on, broadband connectivity to allow gamers the ability to download older games to their next generation console. Sony and Microsoft, in particular, will look at their new boxes as entertainment hubs, which will be able to transport digital music, TV, movies and gaming content straight to the hard disc drive.

[businessweek]

• LucasArts to whip Indiana Jones to PS3...

LucasArt in late April announced that it will develop the latest Indiana Jones expedition for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

The new entry will feature a behavioral-simulation engine from NaturalMotion Ltd in order for characters to move, act, and think that actual human beings.

[punchjump]

• Metal Gear 4 Realtime Demo On PS3 Dev Kit

A video of the upcoming Playstation 3 "Metal Gear 4: Guns of The Patriots" on a PS3 Dev kit demonstrates realtime highlights of the game. Text, hair, realtime lighting, depth of field, HDR and color tarnishing. A programmer comments: "The polygon amount for Snake's mustache is same as one enemy soldier in MGS 3... only in the mustache!". Hideo Kojima and a programmer on the project comment throughout the video on the various details shown.

[gamingbits]

• Sony executive says flat TVs, PlayStation 3 key to recovery...

Sony Corp.'s full-fledged recovery will hinge on the continued growth of its flat-panel TVs and a successful launch for its next-generation game console, an executive at the consumer electronics giant said Friday.

• E3 - 2006 : Preview :: PS3 pricing uncovered

We've been speculating over the price of Sony's Playstation 3 every since we heard how expensive the console will be to manufacture. Playstation magazine claim to know these prices, they say that PS3 will available for about $399 in the U.S., €322 in Europe and ¥45,965 in Japan.

In the latest issue they also state that the final design of the PS3 will appear at E3. The magazine also talks about the 60GB hard drive, which will be a standard feature of the console.

[hexus]

• Tekken 6 for PS3

Namco Bandai's confirmed that Tekken 6 will be appearing on PlayStation 3. That's according to an article in the latest issue of Japanese mag Famitsu, partly translated by IGN.

There's no word on a release date, or indeed anything of any real substance beyond the name, which isn't exactly the most imaginative name ever either, is it?

• Sega to smash Virtua Tennis 3 to PS3

Sega of America, Inc. and Sega Europe Ltd. on Tuesday revealed that the sequel Virtua Tennis 3 is in development for the Sony Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360.

Helio launches

Alright kids, it's the moment we've all been waiting for (and by we, we mean the MVNO nerds). SK Telecom's and Earthlink's joint-venture Helio is officially lighting up today with their first two devices -- the Hero and Kickflip. We're all pretty well briefed to date on the capabilities and general offerings the service was supposed to have, so let's get to the plans and pricing, of which there are two types: the All-In Membership, which includes unlimited data, video, MMS, texting, nights and weekends, roaming, and long distance with the plan; and the A La Carte plan which is as the name implies. The All-In buys you 1,000 anytime minutes for $85, 1,500 for $100, or 2,500 minutes for $135 (which we think is a pretty good value, considering what some are charging for that many minutes and unlimited phone data); the A La Carte gets you a 500 minute $40 monthly plan straight up. Oh, and the devices now have prices, too: the Hero will set you back $275, and the Kickflip will ding you for $250. We have a sneaking feeling we know which will outsell the other. So if you're not ready to wait until the end of the month for their retail rollout to switch carriers (or join Helio as your first), fortunately you can just order direct and cut the middle man.