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As leaders in the wireless industry meet Monday in Barcelona for the annual Mobile World Congress, they will be buzzing about the latest open software platform for mobile handsets. More companies are signing up to support it. A few phone makers will be flashing hot off the bench prototypes. Software developers will be snapping up just-released development kits.

The surprise is, the platform isn’t the much-vaunted Open Handset Alliance set up by Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ). Instead, a year-old alliance of companies spearheaded by a group called the LiMo Foundation is horning into the spotlight.

Both are working to create a truly open mobile software platform that standardizes how developers build their applications. Currently applications developers spend large amounts of time rewriting or tuning their applications for a myriad of software environments, including Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) Windows Mobile and Nokia (nyse: NOK - news - people ) Series 60, and beginning last year, some Linux-powered phones. For consumers, an open system could translate into faster access to richer mobile applications like mobile TV and location-based services, and more affordable cell phones.

Google made headlines last year when it unveiled its Open Handset Alliance, a group of 34 technology and mobile companies that also is seeking to develop such an open and free mobile platform. That alliance will have news in Barcelona, too: Several companies, including British chipmaker ARM, are expected to exhibit prototype chips and phones running on the alliance’s platform, dubbed Android. Alliance member HTC Corp. has already said it plans to offer an Android phone this year.

But Android has been plagued by reports of glitches since Google released an early version in November. Google recently announced it was tweaking its software developers kit and postponing the deadline for a contest for developers by two weeks, to mid-April. The Android Developer Challenge will provide $10 million in awards for “innovative and useful” Android-based mobile applications.

Meanwhile, LiMo has been steadily chugging away. “[LiMo] is a very practical initiative, but also a deeply philosophical one, based upon the belief that openness in handsets delivers value to consumers,” says Morgan Gillis, LiMo’s executive director. Inspired by this vision and the desire to exert more control over the operating systems that power their handsets, Motorola (nyse: MOT - news - people ), NEC (nasdaq: NIPNY - news - people ), NTT DoCoMo (nyse: DCM - news - people ), Matsushita, Samsung and Vodafone (nyse: VOD - news - people ) joined forces in January 2007 and set up a LiMo program office in the U.K. to facilitate collaboration.

Universal standards mean they can easily port applications from one device to another. That’s roughly the same vision Google has for its Open Handset Alliance. Currently, half of mobile software developments costs go toward ensuring the application will work correctly on different operating systems.

In Barcelona, LiMo will announce nine new members, bringing corporate participation up to 32 companies, including such heavyweights as Motorola, Panasonic and Vodafone. Eighteen handsets from LG, Motorola, NEC, Panasonic and Samsung will use its platform. The lineup includes Motorola’s Motorokr and Razr2, as well as the high-end 905 series of phones supported by Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo. LG is not an official LiMo member, but will be showing a prototype “LiMo Phone” at the event. LiMo partner Azingo Mobile announced in late January that it had built a full mobile Linux suite based on LiMo’s specifications.

New partners are also showing strong support for LiMo. Orange, the mobile arm of France Telecom (nyse: FTE - news - people ), plans to dedicate part of its 150-person Beijing-based R&D center to working with LiMo, says Yves Maitre, senior vice president of devices. The company, which began working with open platforms in 2002, wants to have 50% of its mobile phones run on open source by 2012, he says.

Similarly another recent member, ACCESS, a global mobile software provider that runs another popular mobile operating system called Garnet, has pledged to oversee future LiMo revisions and work closely with developers. To tap a wide range of developers, LiMo’s SDK suite includes native, Java and Web-based SDKs.

LiMo’s official position toward Google is cordial. The two groups share three members: Motorola, NTT DoCoMo and Samsung. In November, LiMo responded to Google’s announcement of its Open Handset Alliance with a press release that said the two shared “core beliefs” and technology that would allow them to “work together synergistically.”

Nevertheless, these new moves bring the two closer into competition. “There could certainly be overlap,” says Gillis. He hopes LiMo will attract developers by avoiding the types of delays that have beset the Open Handset Alliance. “For developers, what really matters is having a platform and having handsets available immediately, as that’s what will bring their applications to consumers,” he notes. LiMo is “completely on schedule” and “extremely well positioned to quickly deliver … new handsets, applications and services,” he adds.

How soon American consumers will benefit from LiMo is unclear as no American carriers have yet signed onto it. Gillis says he expects they will soon, citing AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ) and Verizon (nyse: VZ - news - people )’s recent commitment to open their networks to outside phones and services, and the “strong American presence” of LiMo members Motorola, Samsung and LG. Sprint Nextel (nyse: S - news - people ) and T-Mobile, the country’s no. 3 and 4 carriers, are Open Handset Alliance members.

LiMo-based phones could be a particular boon for consumers in emerging economies. Orange is proud to be the official operator of the iPhone in France, says Maitre, but the phone’s high price limits it to the elite. LiMo will help Orange reach a broader population in places like Africa by enabling it to offer affordable, feature-rich handsets from well-known brands, he says.

Android is believed to be similarly targeting the mass market with low-priced handsets, but it may have a more complicated model that includes subscriptions to Internet access and mobile advertising, backed by Google’s technology, says consulting firm Capgemini.

Leading handset maker Nokia may have its own open-source ambitions, judging from its recent acquisition of software developer–and LiMo member–Trolltech.

No matter who prevails, the shift will usher in a second cellular revolution, in which openness, innovation and collaboration between industry leaders and developers will transform the way people use their phones, say advocates.

It may also pump money into the telecom sector in general and encourage investors to take more risk with start-ups. Says Maitre, “That will bring value to everyone.”

Wide World of Sports presents Australia versus Sri Lanka, live from the SCG.

Join the expert commentary team, including Richie Benaud, Ian Chappell, Tony Greig, Mark Taylor and Ian Healy, for all the action.

Please note: Although we do try our very best to have accurate times and information on tonight’s viewing for you, these details can change without notice. Happy viewing!

One Day Series - Australia v Sri Lanka on WIN at 6.30pm.

It was just a new day. Nothing had changed overhead, the sky was grey, the rain kept coming and going, casting a shadow over the second match of the Commonwealth Bank tri-series as well. Clearly, cricket was struggling to come to the fore.

The Indians were trying their best nonetheless by sweating it out indoors. Although it was an optional training session, they were out in almost full strength barring Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma. There was no slip in intensity as they did whatever they could on the synthetic surface.

There was one change, however, and that was in planning. Up next is a new team that many believe is India’s principal obstacle on the road to the finals, given that almost everyone is convinced that Australia will be there. Irrespective of what India and Sri Lanka think of that, every game featuring them is going to be a semi-final of sorts.

Yuvraj Singh’s knee injury continues to be a concern and the team is not willing to take any chances by fielding him before he has recovered fully.

“He’s better, but not 100 per cent. I don’t think it’s prudent to rush him back in action. We have a break between the second and third match (on Sunday, in Melbourne against Australia) and Yuvraj is expected to be fully fit by then,” Dhoni had said after Sunday’s match. If Yuvraj stays out, there are unlikely to be changes to the XI that played the first match.

It means another chance for Manoj Tiwary and another test for the middle-order that stays an area of concern. Dhoni said he was toying with the idea of tinkering with the order, but there was no confirmation on that.

While worries over batting stay, the bowling has shown encouraging signs. Apart from glaring at the Australia batsmen, Sreesanth was impressive in what he did on Sunday as was Ishant. Even though Dhoni has talked about giving everybody a chance, Munaf Patel is unlikely to get a look-in unless the skipper opts for five bowlers. With the batting looking wobbly, that option is ruled out, at least for the time being.

The focus remains firmly on the batsmen and how they overcome inexperience with talent. Rohit Sharma looked good for a while and by sending him at the pivotal No 4 slot, the team has shown how hopeful the think-tank is of him.

If the first match was an indication, Dhoni’s plan seems to be conserving himself and Robin Uthappa for the big shots later in the innings. The responsibility of consolidating then lies with Gautam Gambhir, Rohit and Tiwary, after of course, the bigger names at the top of the order.

The Indians will be tested again by the likes of Chaminda Vaas, Lasith Malinga or Mutthiah Muralitharan and in that sense, it’s a precious outing for these young batsmen.

How they make the most of this earn-and-learn opportunity will unfold on Tuesday, weather permitting.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Brain scans of people in chronic pain show a state of constant activity in areas that should be at rest, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday, a finding that could help explain why pain patients have higher rates of depression, anxiety and other disorders.

They said chronic pain seems to alter the way people process information that is unrelated to pain.

“It seems that enduring pain for a long time affects brain function in response to even minimally demanding attention tasks completely unrelated to pain,” the researchers wrote in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Dante Chialvo, a researcher at Northwestern University in Chicago who worked on the study, said: “People with chronic pain — meaning pain that lasts more than six months after their injury — have many other issues that affect their quality of life as much as pain. It is not known where they come from.”

Recent studies have shown that in healthy people, certain regions of the brain take over during a resting state, something known as a default mode network. “It takes care of your brain when your brain is at rest,” Chialvo said in a telephone interview.

When a person performs a task, this network quiets down, he said, but not in people with chronic pain.

Instead, a front region of the cortex mostly associated with emotion is constantly active, disrupting the normal equilibrium.

To study this activity, Chialvo did a type of brain scan known as functional magnetic resonance imaging on 15 people with chronic back pain and 15 healthy people.

They gave their volunteers a simple attention task — tracking a moving bar on a computer screen — to observe the brain shifting out of default mode to handle the task.

Both groups performed the task well but when they measured areas of the brain activated, differences emerged.

“Where we were surprised is the difference in how much brain they used to do the task compared with the healthy group. It was 50 times larger,” Chialvo said.

They said disruptions in this default network could explain why pain patients have problems with attention, sleep disturbances and even depression.

“These findings suggest that the brain of a chronic pain patient is not simply a healthy brain processing pain information but rather it is altered by the persistent pain in a manner reminiscent of other neurological conditions associated with cognitive impairments,” they wrote.

QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador’s Tungurahua volcano shot columns of ash miles into the air on Wednesday, as officials ordered the evacuation of 3,000 villagers living near its slopes.

Some 1,000 villagers from the western flanks of the 16,575-foot volcano fled their homes for shelters at dawn, said Roberto Rodriguez, director of Civil Defense. He said 11 families who refused to leave, fearing looters, were removed by force.

“We’ve taken all of the precautions possible,” President Rafael Correa told reporters on Wednesday, adding that a state of emergency already in place in the area will be extended for 60 days.

Juan Salazar, the mayor of the nearby village of Penipe, said 3,000 people needed to be evacuated — a figure that included the 1,000 villagers who had already fled.

Experts at the Geophysics Institute warn that the intense activity shows no sign of slowing down, and compared it to the massive 2006 Tungurahua eruptions that buried entire villages, leaving at least four dead and thousands homeless.

“The volcano has entered a new explosive eruption cycle, a process which does not seem to be slowing down,” said Hugo Yepez, director of the Geophysics Institute.

The institute said Wednesday’s eruptions shot ash 6 miles into the air.

Populations on Tungurahua’s western flank have been most affected, particularly the communities of Bilbao, Cusua, Chacauco and Puela. The popular tourist town of Banos near the volcano, is currently not at risk.

There were no reported victims, according to Rodriguez, the Civil Defense director.

Ash billowing from Tungurahua, whose name means “throat of fire” in the local indigenous Quichua language, has already covered thousands of acres of farmland, destroying property, crops and livestock.

Tungurahua, located 95 miles southeast of the capital of Quito, has been active since 1999.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain’t what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.

“We had decided that money is money and we’ll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank,” Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, told Reuters television.

The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.

“We didn’t realize we would take so much in and there were that many people traveling or having euros to bring in. But some days, you’d be surprised at how many euros you get,” Chu said.

“Now we have to get familiar with other currencies and the (British) pound and the Canadian dollars we take,” he said.

While shops in many U.S. towns on the Canadian border have long accepted Canadian currency and some stores on the Texas-Mexico border take pesos, the acceptance of foreign money in Manhattan was unheard of until recently.

Not far from Chu’s downtown wine emporium, Billy Leroy of Billy’s Antiques & Props said the vast numbers of Europeans shopping in the neighborhood got him thinking, “My God, I should take euros in at the store.”

Leroy doesn’t even bother to exchange them.

“I’m happy if I take in 200 euros, because what I do is keep them,” he said. “So when I go back to Paris, I don’t have to go through the nightmare of going to an exchange place.”

NEW YORK - Tobacco use killed 100 million people worldwide in the 20th century and could kill 1 billion people in the 21st unless governments act now to dramatically reduce it, the World Health Organization said in a report Thursday.

Governments around the world collect more than $200 billion in tobacco taxes every year but spend less than one-fifth of 1 percent of that revenue on tobacco control, it said.

“We hold in our hands the solution to the global tobacco epidemic that threatens the lives of 1 billion men, women and children during this century,” WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said in an introduction to the report.

The WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2008 calls on all countries to dramatically increase efforts to prevent young people from beginning to smoke, help smokers quit and protect nonsmokers from exposure to second hand smoke.

It urges governments to adopt six “tobacco control policies” — raise taxes and prices of tobacco; ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; protect people from second hand smoke; warn people about the dangers of tobacco; help those who want to quit smoking; and monitor tobacco use to understand and reverse the epidemic.

Chan announced the report Thursday at a news conference with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, helped fund it with a $2 million grant. The report examines the tobacco policies of 179 countries for the first time, Bloomberg said.

According to the report, nearly two-thirds of the world’s smokers live in 10 countries: China, which accounts for nearly 30 percent, India with about 10 percent, Indonesia, Russia, the United States, Japan, Brazil, Bangladesh, Germany and Turkey.

It forecast that more than 80 percent of tobacco-related deaths will be in low- and middle-income countries by 2030.

Dr. Douglas Bettcher, director of WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative, said WHO estimates 5.4 million smoking-related deaths a year, rising to more than 8 million a year by 2030 if nothing is done. That adds up to 175 million between 2005 and 2030. Beyond that, he said, deaths will continue to rise and statistical projections put the death toll at near 1 billion by the end of the century.

Tobacco use is growing fastest in low-income countries, the report said, “due to steady population growth coupled with tobacco industry targeting, ensuring that millions of people become fatally addicted each year.”

It warned that “the shift of the tobacco epidemic to the developing world will lead to unprecedented levels of disease and early death in countries where population growth and the potential for increased tobacco use are highest and where health care services are least available.”

For the tobacco industry to survive, and keep existing customers hooked and attract new customers, “it spends tens of billions of dollars a year on advertising, promotion and sponsorship,” WHO said.

Michael Pfeil, vice president for communications for Lausanne, Switzerland-based Philip Morris International, said the company advocates “for tough, fair, cohesive regulation of the industry” and believes many countries need to do more. The company has operations in 160 countries.

He said regulations Philip Morris supports mirror some core provisions of the U.N. anti-smoking treaty that came into force last year. These include mandatory health warnings, restrictions on advertising including bans in some media, and minimum age laws for smoking, he said.

“We’re going to continue to spend money,” Pfeil said in a telephone interview. “I think we have a duty as a commercial entity to continue to grow our business, but … our interest is in marketing to adult smokers who are smoking competitive products.”

Google China (along with Google Taiwan, Hong Kong, and possibly other versions of Google in Asia) celebrates Chinese New Year today.

Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is sometimes called the Lunar New Year, especially by people outside China. It is an important holiday in East Asia. [Wikipedia]

This year is the Year of the Rat, that’s why you are seeing the rats up there. The Chinese character on the logo (福), loosely translates as luck and wealth. Google Translate returns something else though.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Atkins is a city in Pope County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 2,878 at the 2000 census.

Geography

Atkins is located at [show location on an interactive map] 35°14′37?N, 92°56′18?W (35.243485, -92.938212)[1].

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.1 square miles (15.9 km²), all of it land.

Demographics

As of the census[2] of 2000, there were 2,878 people, 1,117 households, and 817 families residing in the city. The population density was 469.8 people per square mile (181.3/km²). There were 1,210 housing units at an average density of 197.5/sq mi (76.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.05% White, 0.87% Black or African American, 0.69% Native American, 0.17% Asian, 0.31% from other races, and 0.90% from two or more races. 0.90% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 1,117 households out of which 34.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.8% were married couples living together, 12.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.8% were non-families. 23.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 2.95.

In the city the population was spread out with 25.5% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 27.6% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, and 17.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 85.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.7 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $30,339, and the median income for a family was $38,309. Males had a median income of $27,470 versus $17,462 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,979. About 11.1% of families and 13.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.6% of those under age 18 and 19.8% of those age 65 or over.

Severe Weather

In the afternoon of February 5 2008, a tornado touched down near the city center. A family of three was killed when the tornado hit their home.

Notable residents

* Ellis Kinder, born in Atkins, major league baseball player[3]
* Wilson Matthews, born in Atkins, former University of Arkansas assistant football coach.

With the stock market slowly moving off of lows set early last week, look for Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) earnings to be just what the doctor ordered to rocket the market forward. As Brian White posted, “Google’s shares have been shaken from a high of over $700 this past Christmas to under $543 today, as the company has joined in with the overall market teeter-totter amid continued housing worries and recession talk and FUD that spreads like wildfire every week.”

I think that the company will report blow out numbers, as it has done in the past. The catch this time is that the market hasn’t set Google up for a fall. I don’t believe expectations are all that high due to the market rout. If Google surprises to the upside, this will be what the bulls among us have been waiting for, and I would expect a nice 7-10% market move to the upside in the next two to three weeks.

A strong Google report would help justify what I have been saying that technology will be leading the market higher. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) had a great report last week, let’s hope Google has a similar report tonight.

Google Inc. yesterday reported that its first-quarter profit more than quadrupled and revenue nearly doubled because of surging online ad sales. The news, disclosed after the close of the regular trading day, sparked a rally in the search engine giant’s stock price.

For the three months ended March 31, Google reported profit of $369.2 million ($1.29 a share), up from $64 million (24 cents) in the first quarter last year. Revenue, almost entirely from online advertising on Google and its partner Web sites, increased 93 percent, from $651.6 million to $1.3 billion this year.

Google stock shot up nearly $20 in after-hours trading as share prices pushed above $220. Google shares, which started the week trading at about $185, started rising earlier this week following rival Yahoo Inc.’s positive earnings report, which was released late Tuesday. Google went public in August at a price of $85 a share.

“Our focus remains very clearly and steadfastly on long-term growth. In the meantime, we have a quarterly earnings report about which we are very pleased,” said Google chief executive Eric E. Schmidt.

Millions of computer users use Google to find information rapidly on the World Wide Web. The firm profits when people click on the text-based ads that it serves up alongside its free search results. The company does business in the United States and dozens of foreign countries.

“We were very busy this quarter launching dozens of new products and features,” said Google co-founder Larry Page. But, he added, “We remain most focused on the core technology of search.”

Sergey Brin, the other co-founder, said the company also put new systems in place that made it easier for large advertisers to join the thousands of small and medium-size firms that promote their products and services on Google. He said Google’s online ads enable firms to measure the results of their spending more precisely than with traditional media. “We also see more use of Google advertising by companies for branding to make sure their name and products are known throughout the world,” Schmidt said.