IBM to Announce More Powerful Watson via the Internet

On Thursday IBM will announce that Watson, the computing system that beat all the humans on “Jeopardy!” two years ago, will be available in a form more than twice as powerful via the Internet.

Companies, academics and individual software developers will be able to use it at a small fraction of the previous cost, drawing on IBM’s specialists in fields like computational linguistics to build machines that can interpret complex data and better interact with humans.

IBM’s move to make its marquee technology more widely available is the latest effort among big technology companies to make the world’s most powerful computers as accessible as the Angry Birds video game.

It is also an indication of how quickly the technology industry is changing, from complex systems that cost millions to install to pay-as-you-go deals that provide small companies and even individuals access to technology that just a few years ago only the largest companies could afford.

“The next generation will look back and see 2013 as a year of monumental change,” said Stephen Gold, vice president of the Watson project at IBM.

“This is the start of a shift in the way people interact with computers.”

IBM is wielding Watson in a fight to control the world of cloud computing — huge collections of computer servers connected over the Internet — with other big technology companies like Amazon.com, Google and Microsoft. It is no coincidence that IBM discussed its Watson news the same week Amazon was hosting clients at a conference here to pitch its own computing cloud, called Amazon Web Services or A.W.S.

The competition is still young, but its impact will be significant.

“Companies, governments and people will struggle to figure out what to do with all this,” said Jamie Popkin, an analyst with the research company Gartner. “It means there is going to be a new pace and velocity, making people rethink when humans make decisions, while machines make other decisions.”

Watson, a project on which IBM spent 14 years, is an artificial learning system that digests large volumes of information to find hidden meanings. Initial uses — besides besting humans on game shows — include examining medical patients and records to find an unexpected diagnosis, a bit like the genius portrayed in the television show “House.” Other uses include an online personal shopper and a virtual health aide that tailors exercises by asking questions.

IBM is opening Watson to more people in part to see what additional businesses might be created.

Watson is prominent, but similar projects are being run by other companies. On Tuesday, a company appearing at the Amazon conference said it had run in 18 hours a project on Amazon’s cloud of computer servers that would have taken 264 years on a single server.

The project, related to finding better materials for solar panels, cost $33,000, compared with an estimated $68 million to build and run a similar computer just a few years ago. Akin more to conventional supercomputing than Watson’s question-and-answer cognitive computing, the project was the first of several announced at the Amazon conference.

“It’s now $90 an hour to rent 10,000 computers,” the equivalent of a giant machine that would cost $4.4 million, said Jason Stowe, the chief executive of Cycle Computing, the company that did the Amazon supercomputing exercise, and whose clients include The Hartford, Novartis, and Johnson & Johnson. “Soon smart people will be renting a conference room to do some supercomputing.”

While revenues of Amazon’s cloud business are still small enough that the company does not have to disclose them, Amazon officials say Jeff Bezos, the company’s chief executive, believes A.W.S. could eventually dwarf Amazon’s businesses in books and merchandise, enterprises with $51 billion in revenue. This year, Gartner calculated that A.W.S. had five times the computing power of 14 other cloud computing companies, including IBM, combined.

Since then, IBM has spent an estimated $2 billion to acquire a cloud company called SoftLayer and has reconfigured Watson as a cloud product. It also hired buses that drove around the A.W.S. conference in Las Vegas, sporting ads that said they showed its superiority in cloud computing.

Besides gaining bragging rights and a much bigger customer base, IBM may be accelerating the growth of Watson’s power by putting it in the cloud. Mr. Gold said that Watson would retain learning from each customer interaction, gaining the ability to do things like interacting in different languages or identifying human preferences. IBM has taken steps to keep these improvements for its own benefit, by retaining rights in user agreements that customers are required to sign.

What is not yet clear is IBM’s plan to make money from taking Watson to the computing cloud. The company is experimenting with charging for data storage, or selling computing on a metered basis, like water or electricity. “There is no question the model will change,” Mr. Gold said. “You have to have flexibility to handle the breadth of cases we expect to see.”

It is likely that the competition among advanced computing systems will increase, lowering prices and delivering more capabilities to whatever use companies make of them.

This year, Google and a corporation associated with NASA acquired for study an experimental computer that appears to make use of quantum properties to deliver results sometimes 3,600 times faster than traditional supercomputers. The maker of the quantum computer, D-Wave Systems of Burnaby, British Columbia, counts Mr. Bezos as an investor.

Dutch Man Said to Be Arrested in Powerful Internet Attack

While the authorities did not give the full name of the man in a statement published on a Dutch government Web site, they identified him as “S.K.” A source close to the investigation, who was not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that the arrested man was Sven Olaf Kamphuis, a 35-year-old Dutch man who has been the spokesman of a group that was protesting a European antispam group’s tactics.

Spanish police arrested the man on Thursday at his home in Barcelona, at the request of the Dutch police, and seized his computers and mobile phones. He is expected to be sent to the Netherlands. Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for Dutch national prosecutor’s office, said “S.K.” was suspected of playing a role in a wave of attacks last month.

His arrest came after an investigation by authorities in the Netherlands and other European countries into Mr. Kamphuis’s involvement in one of the largest attacks on the Internet. Mr. Kamphuis has been suspected of starting a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attack against Spamhaus, the antispam group. Such attacks are a criminal offense under Dutch law.

Mr. Kamphuis calls himself the “minister of telecommunications and foreign affairs for the Republic of CyberBunker.” But many consider him to be the Prince of Spam. He runs CB3ROB, an Internet service provider, and CyberBunker, a Web hosting company that in the past has hosted sites like WikiLeaks and the Pirate Bay, a site accused of abetting digital content piracy.

Antispam groups say they believe CyberBunker acts as a conduit for vast amounts of spam. Last month, Spamhaus, an antispam group based in Geneva, added CyberBunker to its blacklist, which is used by major e-mail providers to block spam.

In the days and weeks after the blacklisting, Spamhaus was targeted with an DDoS attack, which flooded the site with traffic until it fell offline.

After Spamhaus hired a Silicon Valley Internet security firm, CloudFlare, to defend against the attack, the attackers turned their ire on CloudFlare. When efforts to bring down CloudFlare were unsuccessful, the attackers hit back with a far more powerful strike that exploited the Internet’s core infrastructure, called the Domain Name System, or D.N.S.

Their attack quickly reached previously unknown magnitudes, growing to a data stream of 300 billion bits per second, which resulted in slowing Internet traffic for millions of Internet users around the world.

Mr. Kamphuis has denied his role in the attack and said he was only a spokesman for Stophaus, a loose organization set up to take down Spamhaus. Asked about his involvement in the attacks last month, Mr. Kamphuis told The New York Times, “We are aware that this is one of the largest DDoS attacks the world has seen so far, yes.”

But through his Facebook page, Mr. Kamphuis has actively called on hackers to take Spamhaus offline.

“Yo anons, we could use a little help in shutting down illegal slander and blackmail censorship project ‘spamhaus.org,’ which thinks it can dictate its views on what should and should not be on the Internet,” he said on Facebook on March 23.

Dutch prosecutors singled out Mr. Kamphuis because of his vocal role. Greenhost, a Dutch Internet hosting service, said in a blog post that it had found CB3ROB’s digital fingerprints while studying the attack traffic directed at Spamhaus.

Mr. Kamphuis’s arrest in Barcelona was made through the European Union’s judicial collaboration unit, Eurojust.

An anonymous statement was posted to Pastebin, a Web forum for hackers, on Friday, proclaiming Mr. Kamphuis’s innocence and threatening another round of attacks if he is not released. “We demand u to release Sven or we will indeed start the biggest attack u humans have ever experienced toward The Internet, and yourself,” the hacker wrote.

Eric Pfanner contributed reporting.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: April 26, 2013

An earlier version of the Web summary on this article misstated who had arrested a man believed to be connected to an online attack. Dutch authorities announced the development, but it was Spanish police who made the arrest, they said, not the Dutch.

Apple Introduces a New iPhone, With a Larger Screen and More Powerful Chip

Apple executives say that does not matter. They care more about building the best phone, they say, and combining technologies into the most attractive package, not being first with the latest bells and whistles.

“I feel the need to be the best,” said Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, in a conversation after the event announcing the new device, the iPhone 5.

“We don’t view our products as a checklist of features,” he added.

The new iPhone has a larger, four-inch screen, faster wireless Internet speeds and a more powerful chip than the previous version of the company’s smartphone. It is 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter.

This is the first time Apple has altered the dimensions of the iPhone’s display, which has measured 3.5 inches diagonally since the original iPhone was released in 2007. While the display at that time seemed gigantic compared with the tiny screens on most cellphones, Apple’s competitors have been far more aggressive in pushing bigger displays on their smartphones, with some screens approaching five inches.

Apple said the new display offered a bigger canvas for activities like reading books, browsing Web sites and watching movies.

The device will also work on the latest variety of high-speed data network with wireless carriers, known as LTE, which other companies have included in their products for some time.

Even though the product is not as startling as the original iPhone — the likes of which had not been seen before in the electronics industry — analysts still expect the iPhone 5 to be a hot seller this holiday season.

Investors seemed to agree, sending Apple’s shares up $9.20, or 1.4 percent, to close at $669.79 after the event.

The device, which will go on sale on Sept. 21, will start at $199 with a two-year wireless contract, a price similar to that of previous versions.

In what could be one of Apple’s more vexing moves with a new product, though, the company got rid of the traditional 30-pin dock connector for attaching the iPhone to power cables, stereo docking stations and other peripherals, replacing it with a smaller connector it calls Lightning.

The change means owners of existing iPhone accessories will have to buy an adapter from Apple so they can plug the new phone into those devices. The adapters are on sale at the Apple store for $30 for one version and $40 for another.

Apple said it made the change because the new connector was more durable, freed space for other technologies inside the iPhone and enabled the iPhone 5’s thinner design. The company said many of the functions of traditional iPhone cables, other than charging, were now handled by wireless connections like Bluetooth.

In a brief interview after the event, Philip W. Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said the company was offering the adapter to try to make the shift to the new technology as painless as possible for its users.

“At some point you have to move to the next generation,” he said

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner, said the iPhone 5 showed how Apple approaches new technologies cautiously until it is sure it can deliver the best experience possible.

The first phones that supported LTE, for example, were often criticized for poor battery life, but Apple waited until it could offer a product that could hold a charge long enough, he said.

In the new product, Apple also chose not to support near-field communication wireless technology, which can be used to make wireless payments but has been slow to take off.

Mr. Cook said the four-inch display was the perfect size because it could be easily held in one hand. Apple made the screen taller, but not wider, than the previous generation of iPhone for that very reason, he said.

Apple Introduces a New iPhone, With a Larger Screen and More Powerful Chip

Apple executives say that does not matter. They care more about building the best phone, they say, and combining technologies into the most attractive package, not being first with the latest bells and whistles.

“I feel the need to be the best,” said Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, in a conversation after the event announcing the new device, the iPhone 5.

“We don’t view our products as a checklist of features,” he added.

The new iPhone has a larger, four-inch screen, faster wireless Internet speeds and a more powerful chip than the previous version of the company’s smartphone. It is 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter.

This is the first time Apple has altered the dimensions of the iPhone’s display, which has measured 3.5 inches diagonally since the original iPhone was released in 2007. While the display at that time seemed gigantic compared with the tiny screens on most cellphones, Apple’s competitors have been far more aggressive in pushing bigger displays on their smartphones, with some screens approaching five inches.

Apple said the new display offered a bigger canvas for activities like reading books, browsing Web sites and watching movies.

The device will also work on the latest variety of high-speed data network with wireless carriers, known as LTE, which other companies have included in their products for some time.

Even though the product is not as startling as the original iPhone — the likes of which had not been seen before in the electronics industry — analysts still expect the iPhone 5 to be a hot seller this holiday season.

Investors seemed to agree, sending Apple’s shares up $9.20, or 1.4 percent, to close at $669.79 after the event.

The device, which will go on sale on Sept. 21, will start at $199 with a two-year wireless contract, a price similar to that of previous versions.

In what could be one of Apple’s more vexing moves with a new product, though, the company got rid of the traditional 30-pin dock connector for attaching the iPhone to power cables, stereo docking stations and other peripherals, replacing it with a smaller connector it calls Lightning.

The change means owners of existing iPhone accessories will have to buy an adapter from Apple so they can plug the new phone into those devices. The adapters are on sale at the Apple store for $30 for one version and $40 for another.

Apple said it made the change because the new connector was more durable, freed space for other technologies inside the iPhone and enabled the iPhone 5’s thinner design. The company said many of the functions of traditional iPhone cables, other than charging, were now handled by wireless connections like Bluetooth.

In a brief interview after the event, Philip W. Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said the company was offering the adapter to try to make the shift to the new technology as painless as possible for its users.

“At some point you have to move to the next generation,” he said

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner, said the iPhone 5 showed how Apple approaches new technologies cautiously until it is sure it can deliver the best experience possible.

The first phones that supported LTE, for example, were often criticized for poor battery life, but Apple waited until it could offer a product that could hold a charge long enough, he said.

In the new product, Apple also chose not to support near-field communication wireless technology, which can be used to make wireless payments but has been slow to take off.

Mr. Cook said the four-inch display was the perfect size because it could be easily held in one hand. Apple made the screen taller, but not wider, than the previous generation of iPhone for that very reason, he said.

App Smart: Powerful Tools for Learning a Language

But learning to speak another language is hugely rewarding and gives you access to amazing insights into other cultures. So I’m still learning, and nowadays the task is a little easier. Rather than having to pore over a book and answer multiple-guess questions, you can find sophisticated apps to help. These study aids are also easy to take everywhere.

The app I’ve found most powerful is Babbel. It’s a companion to the bigger Babbel online package and covers 11 languages. The different language apps are all similar, and they’re free on iOS and Android. You can set up a free account to keep track of your learning, and this will let you try the full fee-carrying online program.

Though Babbel apps may seem like mere companions to its online service, they’re potent language-learning tools. Each has 2,000 to 3,000 words split into topics that start with the basics like food and drink, then move to more complex ones like society and environment. Each topic has subcategories. In the relationships topic, for example, categories include family, couples and social life. Tapping on one takes you to the business end of the app, where the learning is split into three sections.

The first section runs through a list of words and phrases. It’s no simple flashcardlike “learn this word” experience. The app has tricks to help you memorize words, including great matching images, a speech recognizer that scores you on how well you say the text out loud (you can skip this, but you’d be missing out) and simple games like matching phrases in English to the ones you’re learning.

The second section is all about consolidating your learning with more sophisticated games that help with fewer English-based clues. It helps you understand how the words fit into a more complex paragraph or statement, which are written on-screen and read by a native speaker. Section 3 is a vocabulary reminder that can be used later to remind you about spelling or pronunciation.

The best thing about the app is that it remembers your progress and shares it with your profile online. You can access it from different places (like your iPhone or iPad) and then from your PC, where more complex packages round out the learning process with features like writing exercises. The app is also refreshingly clean and simple to look at, so there’s very little to distract you from the business of learning. However, you may find it a bit dry, which, let’s face it, may be an issue, particularly if you have bad memories of language class from your school days. A Wi-Fi or mobile data connection is needed to upload your data, by the way.

I’ve found the app invaluable and inexpensive. Babbel’s makers say they will bring the full course content from their online process to their mobile apps next, including beginner’s sections, grammar and phrase books.

If Babbel’s simplicity doesn’t appeal, then you may like apps from Busuu. It has a similar style of teaching words and phrases alongside an image and with recordings of native speakers, combined with games and exercises to really carve the language into your memory. There’s even a bit of gamification as the apps award you “busuu-berries” if you complete an exercise. You can donate them to someone to motivate them. The apps also hands out stars and digital badges for motivation.

It’s a bit more sophisticated than the Babbel app because Busuu has writing exercises that you submit to other users. You then comment, correct and mark their effort, and then you can check through the crowdsourced responses to your own. It’s a useful trick that offers alternative viewpoints on how words are used in context.

But the Busuu apps are ad-supported and visually more cluttered than Babbel. The iOS version I tried did crash from time to time.

Of course, there are many other apps to help you learn languages, including a powerful one from Rosetta Stone, though this is tied to its not-inexpensive learning package. So try one out, learn something new and if you spot me on the street feel free to say “Bonjour,” or “Bom dia!” or “Ni hao.”

Quick Call

Amazing Alex is a new game from Rovio. It has all the cuteness of Angry Birds, also from the same maker, but it’s a very different and more puzzlelike game that uses simple physics. It’s $1 on Android and iOS, and $3 for the iPad version.

App Smart: Powerful Tools for Learning a Language

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