Lisa Evans

The Palm Pre's WebOS browser is a relatively recent entrant in the mobile browser arena, arriving in early June of this year. The opening screen of the Palm Pre's browser contains your bookmarks and a combination address-and-search bar at the top. But the Pre's new mobile browser comes fully prepared for a battle royale with other leading smartphone browsers. When you start typing a URL, the Pre's browser will look through your visited sites and try to match the string you're typing to addresses you've typed previously-so with luck you won't have to type the whole thing more than once.

After you enter the URL that you want to visit, a persistent loading-progress bubble appears at the bottom right of the screen, which then becomes a reload/stop button. If you enter a search term, the browser asks you whether you want to search Google or Wikipedia, and then it directs you to the relevant results. A back/forward button floats at the bottom left of the screen. The transition during zooming isn't as smooth as on the iPhone, however. The page's title appears in a floating bubble at the top (it disappears when you scroll down). Like the iPhone's browser, the Palm Pre's browser can perform adaptive zooming when you double-tap a given area of the page. The Pre's browser doesn't display a scroll bar, so it gives you no way of knowing where you are on a page.

On the other hand, this method does allow you to load two pages side to side (or in the background). Flicking through browser windows on the Pre works exactly the same as browsing through multiple open applications (also displayed as cards), with virtually no limit to how many pages you can open at the same time. You won't find a button on the Pre for switching tabs either, as Palm's playing-card metaphor requires you to open a new browser window from the menu launcher in order to open a new Web page. You can also flick between open browser windows without being in card mode on the Pre, but only by flicking left/right on the touch-sensitive area underneath the screen (the option must be enabled from device settings). One major shortcoming of the Pre's browser is that it doesn't let you save images. On the iPhone, when you tap and hold an image, the browser prompts you to save it.

More than 2 billion applications have been downloaded from Apple Inc.'s App Store, with more than 85,000 apps available to 50 million-plus iPhone and iPod Touch owners worldwide. After the App Store launched on July 11, 2008, it took nine months to hit 1 billion, and only six more months to hit 2 billion, noted Carl Howe, an analyst at Yankee Group Inc. "The more devices that are out there, the more people want to download software, and they see it's an easy and fun experience," Howe said in an interview. The numbers announced by Apple today are staggering to even normally reserved analysts, who noted that after a somewhat slower summer buying rate, App Store downloads globally have exceeded more than 10 million a day in much of September. It also helps that Apple has attracted 125,000 developers to its iPhone Developer Program, he noted.

With the success of the App Store and the growth in other application storefronts backed by BlackBerry, Android and others, "any digital media is fair game," Howe said. After the one-year mark was reached in July, analysts were heralding application stores, including several imitators of the App Store, as the new way to buy software. "You don't have to go to a store to a buy a disc and get the ultimate in instant gratification," Howe said. In fact, while games are a big hit on the App Store, both the free and the paid versions, Apple is calling attention to its "staff picks," which include a free app for the complete works of Shakespeare, with a text-sizing tool. Howe said one of the secrets of the App Store's success is the large number of devices downloading them, but another is the ease with which the apps are downloaded. "If you provide a friction-free way of buying things like App Store, which shortens the time it takes from an impulse to buy to actually buying something, you'll sell a lot," Howe said. "There's not a lot of time for buyer's remorse, and it's a lot like going past a magazine stand in a store and paying $3 for a magazine. In a 28.8 MB app, users get all 40 plays, 154 sonnets and six poems, as well as some works attributed to the Bard, although whether he wrote them remains in doubt. There's not a lot of remorse in buying that item." A Yankee survey of 1,200 U.S. smartphone owners showed that 18% of applications are paid for.

Even the recession has not held back this kind of impulse buying. "The recession doesn't seem to be having an impact. However with growth in the average cost of the paid apps, and the growth in the number of devices, the U.S. revenues from applications will grow by 10 times between 2009 and 2013, reaching $4.2 billion in 2013 . In that survey, more than 70% of all the apps downloaded in the U.S. were games. "It's interesting that you see how the App Store is doing when it was not that long ago - about 2001 when the dotcom bubble burst- that people were saying people would want information to be free on the Internet," Howe noted. These small impulse purchases are kind of recession-proof," Howe said. Enderle said the application store concept might have come along earlier had bricks-and-mortar retailers not objected. "The fact is, that with enough bandwidth, there's very little that can't be delivered over the Web," Enderle said. "We're witnessing what will probably be the end of the traditional software delivery model. Rob Enderle, an analyst at the Enderle Group, said the two billion mark is "outstanding" given the number of phones available for downloads. App Store is an indicator that the times they are a changin'."

Would an extra US$10,000 feel good in your pocket? The CEA launched a contest called Apps for Innovation on Wednesday. If so, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has got a deal for you.

The top prize is, you guessed it, $10,000. The winner also gets a free trip to the huge International CES trade show in Las Vegas in January. Other people are smarter than I am. The CEA, focused on driving a so-called innovation agenda in Washington, D.C., is looking for developers to build software applications that use publicly available data to demonstrate how innovation and entrepreneurship are making an economic impact in the U.S. The trade group is also accepting submissions from developers with applications that help CEA members and consumers advance policy goals that support innovation in the U.S. If those rules sound a bit wide open to you, that's by design, said Gary Shapiro, CEA's president and CEO. "What we're looking for are the things we can't anticipate," he said. "I don't want to limit someone. We're very comfortable with ambiguous definitions, because people are innovative." Pressed for examples, Shapiro said an app could track the country of origin of U.S. Nobel Prize winners and see how many of them are immigrants. Another example: An innovative app could use U.S. Federal Communications Commission broadband data and Internet mapping tools to show the need for high-speed Internet access in rural areas.

Or, a developer could make an app that makes it easier for CEA backers to communicate with each other or communicate with their lawmakers or local media. The contest is open to apps for any type of device or any type of Web platform. CEA launched the Innovation Movement in June in an effort to garner public support for policies including broadband deployment, alternative energy and international trade. Developers can either create something new or submit an app they've already created. "The hope is, frankly, that people have some unnoticed or unused applications," Shapiro said. More than 35,000 people have joined the movement, CEA said.

The contest ends Nov. 6. Winners will be announced Nov. 10 at the CES New York press preview. In addition to the grand-prize winner, judges will award a second place of $5,000 and a third place of $3,500. The best apps will be included in an Apps for Innovation library, where they will be available free to the public.

Ciena has agreed to acquire Nortel's Metro Ethernet Networks business for approximately $521 million in cash and stock. The two companies earlier this week confirmed they were in an advanced stage of negotiations for the sale.  Ciena will pay $390 million in cash and 10 million shares of Ciena stock for Nortel's MEN business. Hottest tech M&A deals of 2009 The MEN business includes Nortel's optical networking and Carrier Ethernet assets. Ciena's stock closed yesterday at $13.05. The product and technology assets to be acquired include Nortel's long-haul optical transport portfolio, including the 40G/100Gbps systems; metro optical Ethernet switching and transport solutions; Ethernet transport, aggregation and switching technology; multiservice SONET/SDH product families; and network management software products.

The assets to be acquired generated approximately $1.36 billion in revenue for Nortel in 2008 and $556 million in the first six months of 2009. Nortel says it has deployed 430,000 optical nodes to more than 1,000 customers in 65 countries, making Nortel – along with Ciena – one of the leading optical transport and switching vendors worldwide. "We believe this transaction will position us for faster growth by giving us greater geographic reach, broader customer relationships and a deeper portfolio of solutions," said Gary Smith, Ciena's CEO and president, in a statement. "We believe we are best positioned to leverage these assets, thereby creating a significant challenger to traditional network vendors." Ciena says it expects to offer employment to at least 2,000 Nortel employees, which represents more than 85% of Nortel's optical networking and Carrier Ethernet workforce. The agreement also includes all patents and intellectual property that are predominantly used in the businesses, and provides for the transition of substantially all of Nortel's Optical Networking and Carrier Ethernet customer contracts. As of July 31, Ciena employed 2,110. Nortel's bankruptcy: A long time coming "Today's announcement is a positive step forward for the future of Nortel's Optical Networking and Carrier Ethernet customers and employees," said Philippe Morin, Nortel MEN president, in a statement. "The sale of these businesses to a strong and stable buyer enables the innovation of one of the foremost leaders in the optical industry to continue to thrive." The transaction is subject to a "stalking horse" competitive bidding process and requires the approval of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Ciena expects hearings before those courts to approve bidding procedures, break-up fee and expense reimbursement will be held within the next several weeks, followed by a bid period and a potential auction, with final sale hearings to be held thereafter. Nortel is liquidating assets after having failed to restructure the company under Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a viable telecom competitor. The transaction is also subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of necessary regulatory approvals.

To date, Nortel has sold its CDMA and LTE wireless assets to Ericsson for just more than $1 billion and its Enterprise Solutions business to Avaya for just less than $1 billion. It's also looking to sell its GSM wireless business. 

Although one of the top consumer security vendors welcomed Microsoft's Security Essentials to the market, another dismissed the new free software as a "poor product" that will "never be up to snuff." Earlier today, Microsoft launched Security Essentials , its free antivirus and antispyware software suite, which has been in development for almost a year. "I think it's a good thing that they're in the market," said Carol Carpenter, the general manager of Trend Micro's consumer division. "We look forward to the competition ... and I think Microsoft's targeting of developing countries and the unprotected is a good approach." Microsoft has pitched Security Essentials, which replaced the now-defunct for-a-fee Windows OneCare, as basic software suitable for users who can't, or won't, pay for security software. And now they've decided to go for the free market, but that's a very crowded market. Not everyone, however, agreed with Carpenter. "Security Essentials won't change anything," said Jens Meggers, Symantec's vice president of engineering. "Microsoft has a really bad track record in security," he added, ticking off several ventures into consumer security that the giant has tried, including Windows Defender, an anti-spyware tool bundled with Windows Vista and Windows 7; the released-monthly Malicious Software Removal Tool; and OneCare. "Like OneCare, Security Essentials is a poor product," said Meggers. "It has very average detection rates. There's not much room to grow there." In a company blog, another Symantec employee called Security Essentials a "rerun" of OneCare , and said: "At the end of the day, Microsoft Security Essentials is a rerun no one should watch." It's no surprise that top-tier security vendors like Trend Micro and Symantec dismissed Security Essentials today.

At the time, a Symantec executive said it was a capitulation by Microsoft, which was tacitly admitting it couldn't compete . But Meggers' take today was even more bearish. "We don't like the notion of 'basic,'" he said. "That makes me very worried, because the risk on the Web today is far too high for 'basic.' Tossing a bunch of little basic tools into the computing environment doesn't make it safe." Even Carpenter had some unkind words for Microsoft. "It's better to use something than to use nothing, but you get what you pay for," she said. "But I don't think it will worry the main security vendors. They did the same thing last year, when Microsoft announced the upcoming demise of OneCare and said it would ship a free, streamlined product. If I were a free, focused security company, trying to get my upsell over time, like AVG [Technologies], then I'd be concerned." Symantec's Meggers also wondered what took Microsoft so long to come up with Security Essentials. "It takes them an entire year to remove features from OneCare, to make something even worse than OneCare?" Meggers asked. "I could have done that with three developers in three months." And that's a good clue that Microsoft won't be able to keep up with the likes of Symantec, Trend Micro and McAfee, Meggers added. "Look how long it took them to build it. When was the last time that Microsoft innovated?" The free Security Essentials can be downloaded for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 from the Microsoft Web site. Security needs constant innovation.