IT City

Computer Sciences sees tax charge after errors

Computer Sciences Corp. the fifth-largest U.S.-based computer services company, said on Wednesday it discovered “significant errors” in its accounting of tax liabilities and expects to take a charge of $300 million to $400 million.

The company discovered the errors in its accounting for fiscal 2000 through 2006. The charges it expects to take cover the period through March 31, 2006, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The amount does not include a cumulative charge of about $60 million through March 31, 2006 related to a stock option investigation it previously disclosed and recorded.

Computer Sciences, based in El Segundo, California, said it expects to restate prior periods in its annual report for the year ended March 30, 2007. The company was unable to file the annual report by the May 29 deadline “without unreasonable effort or expense” and now expects to file it by June 13.

Computer Sciences is the No. 5 U.S. computer services company based on 2006 revenue, behind International Business Machines Corp. Electronic Data Systems Corp. Hewlett-Packard Co. and Accenture Ltd.

Computer Sciences shares were little-changed in after-hours trading after closing up 1.3 percent at $56.68.

Motorola to trim 4,000 more jobs as it cuts costs

Motorola Inc. plans to trim an additional 4,000 jobs this year, bringing the total cuts for 2007 to more than 11 percent of its work force, as the world’s No. 2 mobile phone maker reduces costs to return to profitability.

Motorola, which had already planned to complete 3,500 job reductions by June 30, on Wednesday forecast restructuring charges of about $300 million, or about 8 cents per share, over the rest of 2007 as a result of the latest lay-offs.

The company, which has been losing market share to rivals such as market leader Nokia due to a lack of advanced phones and tough price competition, had said in April that it would announce additional cost-cutting plans by June.

The latest planned cuts at the company, which had 66,000 employees at the end of 2006, will be made by the end of the year, according to Motorola, which did not provide specifics on the break-down of the lay-offs.

But while the job cuts will help with costs, Oppenheimer analyst Lawrence Harris said Motorola, which has been criticized for failing produce a hit to follow its popular Razr phone, would need better phone models to impress investors.

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EU states share monitoring of militant Web sites

European Union states have started sharing monitoring of militant Web sites, including sites linked to al-Qaeda, a draft statement agreed by the bloc’s ambassadors on Wednesday shows.

Police say the Internet has taken on huge importance for militant groups, enabling them to share know-how and spread propaganda to a mass audience, and to plan operations.

“The (EU) member states have started to work on joint projects. At present some member states under German lead responsibility are sharing the task of analyzing al Qaeda’s media department as-Sahab,” the draft prepared for the next meeting of EU justice and interior ministers in June said.

Al Qaeda has its own media arm, as-Sahab, whose output has included a series of statements by its senior leaders.

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Web site error rocks global oil markets

World oil prices jumped briefly on Wednesday after a television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma — the No. 62 U.S. media market — posted an erroneous story about a refinery fire on its Web site.

At 10:14 EDT (1414 GMT), CBS affiliate KOTV reported that a lightning strike had caused a fire at an Oklahoma refinery — sparking a flurry of excitement among energy traders and boosting U.S. crude prices 40 cents.

The refining company announced the story was “completely wrong” and the station withdrew the story.

“All it takes is a screw-up on a Web site to move the market. It just goes to show how tense this market is,” said a Houston-based oil trader.

A string of refinery problems in the United States has propelled retail gasoline prices to record highs in recent weeks.

Cities wage high-tech battle against graffiti

Global positioning systems (GPS), digital photography and computer databases are joining the humble paint can as U.S. cities battle to obliterate graffiti and catch its shadowy perpetrators.

“In the past, authorities had no way of keeping track of who was doing the damage in their city,” said Tim Kephart, the president of Los Angeles-based Graffiti Tracker, whose systems are being bought by a growing number of American cities.

“Paint it out as quickly as possible — that was the strategy. But you’ll never be able to outpaint a tagger because what he can do with $1 can of spray paint is far more than a big clean-up truck can keep up with,” Kephart said.

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Google takes big step to make Web work offline

Google Inc. said on Wednesday it had created Web software that runs both online, and offline, marking a sea change for the Internet industry by letting users work on planes, trains, spotty connections and even in the most remote locations.

The technology, called Google Gears, would allow users of computers, phones and other devices to manipulate Web services like e-mail, online calendars or news readers whether online, intermittently connected to the Web or completely offline.

By bridging the gulf between new Web services and the older world of desktop software, where any data changes are stored locally on users’ machines, Google is pushing the Web into whole new spheres of activity and posing a challenge to rival Microsoft Corp., leader in the desktop software era.

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“The Web is great but it doesn’t work very well when you don’t have a Web connection,” Jeff Huber, Google’s vice president of engineering, said in an interview. “Gears addresses a functional gap on the Web.”

Google plans to make the Gears technology available for free as “open source” software, meaning other developers are free to use and enhance the software in their own products.

Gears promises to expand the usage of scores of Google products and services, as well as thousands of programs from independent software makers, by making them more accessible at previously inconvenient times and places.

The technology also allows developers to build Internet search and indexing of Web pages into their own software applications, Huber said.

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Apple to put YouTube on Apple TV

Apple Inc. said on Wednesday that it will put Google Inc’s YouTube Internet video catalog on television through its Apple TV set-top box.

But the deal also could bring Apple into the middle of a rancorous copyright battle over television shown on the Web.

MTV Networks owner Viacom Inc. which is suing YouTube for copyright violation, said it would welcome the chance to license material to Apple.

“We’re always vigilant about protecting our copyrights. But we would welcome the opportunity to license our content to Apple as we do with all distributors,” a Viacom spokesman said.

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Viacom sued YouTube in March for $1 billion charging it with “massive intentional copyright infringement” after finding hundreds of thousands of Viacom-owned videos uploaded to the service without its permission.

Apple TV will stream videos wirelessly from the Internet on YouTube, starting in mid-June, the company said. Thousands of the most current and popular YouTube videos will be available then, it said, and the full catalog will be available in the fall.

Apple TV works with iTunes to play users’ content — video, movies, television shows and the like — wirelessly on a wide-screen television.

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Apple rolls out copy protection-free iTunes

Apple Inc. said on Wednesday it launched iTunes Plus, a new copy protection-free music download service featuring artists with EMI Group including Coldplay, The Rolling Stones and Joss Stone.

The music download service will operate alongside the existing iTunes, which offers around five million songs at 99 cents per song, but with copy restriction software known as digital rights management (DRM).

Apple’s founder Steve Jobs called on the music industry to allow online retailers like iTunes to sell digital songs without restrictions to give the fledgling digital music sector a boost and to give consumers what they want.

Copy protection software like Apple’s Fairplay prevents unauthorized copying of a digital song bought from the iTunes Music Store, but also restricts the owner to listening to the song on an Apple iPod digital media player or a computer equipped with iTunes software.

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EMI said in April that it would allow retailers to sell its music without protection with its first partner being Apple. Earlier this month EMI said it would also work with online retailer Amazon.com Inc..

To date, EMI is the only major music company to agree to drop DRM. Other record companies including Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group have said they are testing the impact of dropping DRM on digital music sales.

Separately, Apple said it will also offer educational materials from universities on its new iTunes U service.

Shares in Apple closed up 3.9 percent or $4.42 to end at $118.77 after an analyst note from WR Hambrecht & Co. upgraded Apple to a price target of $125.

Video game maker target teens with cancer

Cigna Corp. said on Wednesday it will offer HopeLab’s “Re-Mission” video game, which lets teens and young adults blast cancer while learning how to improve the odds of beating the disease, free of charge on its Web site.

“‘Re-Mission’ has demonstrated that video games have the power to help teenagers better adhere to their cancer treatment and embrace key behaviors that improve their health and quality of life,” Dr. Glenn Pomerantz, medical director of its CIGNA HealthCare unit, said in a statement.

Teenaged cancer patients can face a unique set of challenges, medical experts said. They are old enough to be responsible for their treatment, but may be too young to understand the potentially deadly consequences of skipping required medications that may make them feel sick, lose their hair, get acne, or gain weight.

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Palm unveils compact portable computer

Palm Inc. on Wednesday introduced a compact portable computer to accompany its Treo smartphone, seeking to regain its competitive edge in the crowded high-end handheld device market.

The new “Foleo” is about the size of a hardcover book and, at 2.5 pounds, half the weight of other small laptop computers. It is designed to be used with a smartphone, to help business travelers better manage their e-mail and documents by offering a 10-inch screen, full keyboard and wireless technology.

Palm, best known for personal digital assistants (PDAs) and Treo phones, said it expects the Foleo to eventually work with rival smartphones such as Research In Motion’s Blackberry and Apple Inc.’s iPhone, although it has not discussed technology-sharing agreements with those companies.

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Company founder Jeff Hawkins said he expected unit sales of Foleo — priced at $599 before a $100 rebate beginning this summer — to be smaller than Treo units sales at first.
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