New iPhones Are Said to Be Ready for a Rollout in Beijing

TOKYO â€" Apple is positioning itself for a comeback attempt in Asia.

With sales of its iPhones falling in China, the biggest smartphone market in the world, the company is set to announce two new versions of the device in Beijing next week, according to an announcement that slipped out Thursday on a Chinese social media site.

In Japan, where Apple is much stronger but faces a renewed challenge from domestic smartphone makers like Sony, the company has struck a deal to sell the iPhone via the biggest mobile phone carrier, NTT Docomo, two people briefed on the situation said Friday.

Apple has scheduled a news conference for Beijing on Wednesday, only hours after a similar event at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. The company has long been expected to announce two new phones there â€" an upgraded version of its flagship iPhone 5, as well as a lower-cost phone aimed at people in China and other emerging markets.

Apparent confirmation of the new lineup came Thursday when China Telecom, a network operator that offers the existing iPhone 5, briefly posted a message via its official customer service account on a microblogging platform, Sina Weibo. In the posting, China Telecom solicited preorders for the new devices, which it identified as the iPhone 5S, the high-end model, and iPhone 5C, the lower-cost handset.

The message was quickly removed, and it is not clear whether it had been posted in error or as part of a calculated marketing campaign. China Telecom is in a battle for subscribers against two other major operators, China Unicom, which carries the iPhone, and China Mobile, which does not.

Ivan Wong, a spokesman for China Telecom, declined to comment, citing nondisclosure agreements.

Since news of Apple’s marketing event in Beijing emerged, there has been speculation that the company would use the occasion to announce an agreement with China Mobile, the biggest mobile operator in China, to sell the iPhone. Doing so would give Apple access to the company’s enormous subscriber base â€" 744 million as of July 31.

That would be a much-needed lift for Apple in China, where it slipped into sixth place among smartphone makers in the second quarter, with a share of only 4.8 percent, according to Canalys, a research firm.

“We have heard that there’s an event next week, but we can’t comment on it,” said Rainie Lei, a spokeswoman for China Mobile. Apple did not return calls.

Even if Apple does not immediately sell iPhones via China Mobile, the fact that it scheduled a marketing event in Beijing so quickly on the heels of the one in California indicates that the company is paying China greater attention.

“It shows that they are acknowledging that China is one of the most important markets they need to focus on,” said Nicole Peng, an analyst at Canalys.

The Weibo message from China Telecom also stated that China would be either “the first” or “one of the first” countries to get the new phones, based on Chinese phrasing that could be translated either way.

In the past, Apple did not make iPhones available in China until several months after they had gone on sale in the United States. In the meantime, many Chinese consumers chose phones from growing domestic brands like Huawei, Lenovo, ZTE, Coolpad and Xiaomi.

In Japan, the biggest mobile carrier, Docomo, has been an Apple refusenik, until now. The company has 60 million customers, but it has been losing market share to the other two main mobile operators in Japan, SoftBank and KDDI, which operates under the brand name au. Both of those companies have been marketing Apple’s phones aggressively. Still, Apple’s share of smartphone sales slipped to 30 percent in the second quarter from 36 percent in the first quarter, according to Canalys. Sony’s share rose to 22 percent from 11 percent.

Docomo has countered with smartphones from domestic providers as well as from Samsung Electronics of South Korea. Japanese brands have been falling by the wayside. One company, NEC, said this summer that it was getting out of the smartphone business and another, Panasonic, followed suit this past week. But sales of Sony smartphones have been rising and some of the other survivors, including Fujitsu and Sharp, have held firm â€" in Japan, at least.

Docomo in the past balked at signing on with Apple because it was trying to develop its own mobile content and applications. But the people briefed on the situation confirmed reports in the Japanese news media stating that Docomo had reversed course. It was not immediately clear when sales of iPhones via Docomo would begin, though.

“No decision has been made at this point that requires disclosure,” said Takuya Ori, a spokesman for Docomo.

Neil Gough contributed reporting from Hong Kong.

Yahoo Releases Its First Government Transparency Report

Yahoo on Friday released its first government transparency report showing the number of requests about Yahoo users that it has received from global government agencies.

The report, which was published on the company’s corporate Web site, detailed the number of requests for data on users over the first six months of 2013. Microsoft, Twitter, Google and Facebook issue similar reports.

The United States led the number of requests, with 12,444 data requests that included 40,322 Yahoo accounts, the report said. Yahoo handed content-related data, including communications in Yahoo Mail or Messenger, photos on Flickr or Yahoo Address Book entries, over to American agencies in 4,604 cases. The company gave the government non-content related information, which includes a person’s name, location or Internet Protocol address, in 6,798 cases. The company declined only 2 percent of the requests to share the information.

In comparison to the high volume of requests from the United States, Canada made only 29 government data requests, which affected 43 Yahoo user accounts. The Yahoo report noted that countries including Britain, Mexico, New Zealand, India, Italy and Brazil were among those that made data requests.

“At Yahoo, we take user privacy seriously and appreciate our role as a global company in promoting freedom of expression wherever we do business,” the company said.

The report from Yahoo was the latest in a string of transparency reports from Silicon Valley companies. The Yahoo report seems on par with other reports sharing the number of requests from government agencies around the world.

In late August, Facebook published a similar report that said in the first six months of 2013, government groups in 74 countries demanded information about more than 37,954 accounts on Facebook.

In July Twitter said it received 1,157 requests for data covering 1,697 users, and it turned over at least some data in 55 percent of the cases. The number of requests was up about 15 percent from the last six months of 2012, the company said.

Microsoft and Google have also issued reports about the government requests for information they have received.

In a separate blog post on the company’s site, Ron Bell, Yahoo’s general counsel, noted that the number of requests affect less than a hundredth of 1 percent of the company’s worldwide user base.

“We regularly push back against improper requests for user data, including fighting requests that are unclear, improper, overbroad or unlawful,” Mr. Bell wrote. “In addition, we mounted a two-year legal challenge to the 2008 amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and recently won a motion requiring the U.S. government to consider further declassifying court documents from that case.”

“We plan to publish additional transparency reports every six months, and our team will continually evaluate ways in which we can enhance their utility,” Yahoo wrote in its report.

Do You Understand Syria? Take Our Quiz

Alexandra De Borchgrave/Liaison

Can you locate President Bashar al-Assad in the photo above? Which American official once called him “generous”? Which countries provide the most support for the Syrian government? As the United States debates whether to strike Syria over a chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21, The New York Times invites you to test your knowledge of the Syrian civil war and its effects across the region in this news quiz.

Google Introduces New Desktop Apps

Even if Google is ready to live entirely online, everyone else might not be. 

To celebrate the Google Chrome browser’s fifth birthday on Thursday, the company expanded its ambitions in computing by introducing a new kind of Chrome app that runs offline and on other operating systems besides Google’s.

If trying to figure out what that means makes your head spin, you’re not alone.

Until now, Google’s Chrome Web apps worked only online. The new apps combine the best of online and offline apps, the company says, similar to the apps on a smartphone. For instance, they allow people to work without an Internet connection and plug in hardware like digital cameras. But since they are written in Web programming languages, they can sync across devices, back up to the cloud and receive automatic security updates.

So far, there are only a few such apps, like Pixlr Touch Up for photo editing and Wunderlist for to-do lists. But the development has important implications for the way we use computers and the way Google competes with rivals like Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft made a  similar move with Windows 8.

The surprising part is that Google’s Web apps now work not just on the company’s own Chromebooks, but also on Microsoft Windows machines and, soon, on Macs, as long as they have the Chrome browser.

For Google, it is a way to promote its own services even for people who use computers made by other companies or who have been turned off by the need for an Internet connection to use Google Web apps.

“It’s really increasing the competitiveness or the appeal of Google Apps for people who don’t want to pay for Microsoft Office,” said Frank E. Gillett, an analyst studying computing platforms at Forrester.

It is also an acknowledgment that Google’s dream of a world in which  everyone lives on the Web â€" always with an Internet connection and without desktop software, which Chromebooks do not have â€" is not a reality, at least not yet.

“It’s an admission that their original vision was over-simplistic,” Mr. Gillett said. “I agree with the notion that online cloud services are becoming an important part of the experience of using software. But where the Google guys got mixed up was the notion that it’ll all be inside this thing called the Web browser.”

Though Erik Kay, a Chrome engineering director at Google, said in a blog post that the company still believes in the Web, he said it also acknowledged that people need some of the functionality provided by software installed on devices.

Though low-end Chromebooks, which Google has shifted to marketing as a second computer just for Web access, have sold well, the Chromebook Pixel,  Google’s $1,300 laptop and MacBook competitor, is a hard sell because it has no hard drive or desktop software. The new Chrome apps could change that.

“Even though the P.C. market is in decline, the form factor isn’t going to disappear,” said Brian Blau, a research director at Gartner who studies consumer technology. “Google has a lot of goals in trying to get businesses and education and markets like that, and having the laptop form factor could be important for them.”

Google’s move seems mostly aimed at courting software developers, Mr. Blau said. Instead of being forced to choose among operating systems, they can just write apps for the Web that run on a variety of systems.

Google’s message to developers is, “This is one more reason that app developers should come and use Google products over their competitors,” he said. “That’s the bottom line.”

Google Introduces New Desktop Apps

Even if Google is ready to live entirely online, everyone else might not be. 

To celebrate the Google Chrome browser’s fifth birthday on Thursday, the company expanded its ambitions in computing by introducing a new kind of Chrome app that runs offline and on other operating systems besides Google’s.

If trying to figure out what that means makes your head spin, you’re not alone.

Until now, Google’s Chrome Web apps worked only online. The new apps combine the best of online and offline apps, the company says, similar to the apps on a smartphone. For instance, they allow people to work without an Internet connection and plug in hardware like digital cameras. But since they are written in Web programming languages, they can sync across devices, back up to the cloud and receive automatic security updates.

So far, there are only a few such apps, like Pixlr Touch Up for photo editing and Wunderlist for to-do lists. But the development has important implications for the way we use computers and the way Google competes with rivals like Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft made a  similar move with Windows 8.

The surprising part is that Google’s Web apps now work not just on the company’s own Chromebooks, but also on Microsoft Windows machines and, soon, on Macs, as long as they have the Chrome browser.

For Google, it is a way to promote its own services even for people who use computers made by other companies or who have been turned off by the need for an Internet connection to use Google Web apps.

“It’s really increasing the competitiveness or the appeal of Google Apps for people who don’t want to pay for Microsoft Office,” said Frank E. Gillett, an analyst studying computing platforms at Forrester.

It is also an acknowledgment that Google’s dream of a world in which  everyone lives on the Web â€" always with an Internet connection and without desktop software, which Chromebooks do not have â€" is not a reality, at least not yet.

“It’s an admission that their original vision was over-simplistic,” Mr. Gillett said. “I agree with the notion that online cloud services are becoming an important part of the experience of using software. But where the Google guys got mixed up was the notion that it’ll all be inside this thing called the Web browser.”

Though Erik Kay, a Chrome engineering director at Google, said in a blog post that the company still believes in the Web, he said it also acknowledged that people need some of the functionality provided by software installed on devices.

Though low-end Chromebooks, which Google has shifted to marketing as a second computer just for Web access, have sold well, the Chromebook Pixel,  Google’s $1,300 laptop and MacBook competitor, is a hard sell because it has no hard drive or desktop software. The new Chrome apps could change that.

“Even though the P.C. market is in decline, the form factor isn’t going to disappear,” said Brian Blau, a research director at Gartner who studies consumer technology. “Google has a lot of goals in trying to get businesses and education and markets like that, and having the laptop form factor could be important for them.”

Google’s move seems mostly aimed at courting software developers, Mr. Blau said. Instead of being forced to choose among operating systems, they can just write apps for the Web that run on a variety of systems.

Google’s message to developers is, “This is one more reason that app developers should come and use Google products over their competitors,” he said. “That’s the bottom line.”

Not Ready for a Smartwatch? Try Bluetooth Earmuffs

If you’re going to carry a handbag or wear earmuffs to keep away the cold this winter, why not add headphones or Bluetooth so you can listen to music and talk on your phone, too?

Bluetooth HD earmuffs made by 180s, an activewear company, will debut for $80 at department and outdoor stores this fall. They hide Bluetooth wireless technology, a microphone and hi-def speakers, not to mention wicking away moisture and retaining body heat.

The earmuffs join handbags already on the market that also hide technology, like a clutch from Rebecca Minkoff that opens to reveal Bluetooth-connected speakers, and bags from a Kickstarter start-up called Everpurse that wirelessly charge smartphones.

Wearable technology seems to be the tech world’s hot new thing, from Google Glass to the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch, unveiled Wednesday. But part of the resistance to devices like these is that they involve wearing an unsightly computer on your body, not to mention remembering yet another gadget before leaving the house.

“This is a feature that changes the way we interact, the way we express and the way we capture,” Pranav Mistry, the head of research at Samsung Research America, said at the introduction of the smartwatch in Berlin.

But many people aren’t ready for all that change. So clothing designers are taking a cue from technology companies and incorporating wearable tech into existing accessories. They aren’t as useful as an Internet-connected device with a screen, but they are an easier transition.

These items could turn out to be a bridge, guiding consumers from a world in which technology is a machine sitting on a desk or tucked in a bag to one in which technology is an accessory we wear on our bodies.

“The future of wearable technology addresses the need for people to stay connected to all of their devices no matter what they are wearing, where they are going or what kind of weather they are facing,” said Jim Kenney, chief executive of 180s, which also makes products like gloves that allow people to use a touch screen phone.

In the meantime, as we wire up our earmuffs and clutches, apps could make Internet-connected glasses and wristbands useful enough that more people want to wear them. After all, there was a time when smartphones were only for early adopters.

Tech companies know they need to hide wearable technology in accessories that look less like computers and more like things we would wear anyway. Google is experimenting with including Glass on real, fashionable glasses frames. And Apple hired Paul Deneve, the former chief executive of the Yves Saint Laurent Group, who is likely to bring some fashion smarts to future wearable tech.

Not Ready for a Smartwatch? Try Bluetooth Earmuffs

If you’re going to carry a handbag or wear earmuffs to keep away the cold this winter, why not add headphones or Bluetooth so you can listen to music and talk on your phone, too?

Bluetooth HD earmuffs made by 180s, an activewear company, will debut for $80 at department and outdoor stores this fall. They hide Bluetooth wireless technology, a microphone and hi-def speakers, not to mention wicking away moisture and retaining body heat.

The earmuffs join handbags already on the market that also hide technology, like a clutch from Rebecca Minkoff that opens to reveal Bluetooth-connected speakers, and bags from a Kickstarter start-up called Everpurse that wirelessly charge smartphones.

Wearable technology seems to be the tech world’s hot new thing, from Google Glass to the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch, unveiled Wednesday. But part of the resistance to devices like these is that they involve wearing an unsightly computer on your body, not to mention remembering yet another gadget before leaving the house.

“This is a feature that changes the way we interact, the way we express and the way we capture,” Pranav Mistry, the head of research at Samsung Research America, said at the introduction of the smartwatch in Berlin.

But many people aren’t ready for all that change. So clothing designers are taking a cue from technology companies and incorporating wearable tech into existing accessories. They aren’t as useful as an Internet-connected device with a screen, but they are an easier transition.

These items could turn out to be a bridge, guiding consumers from a world in which technology is a machine sitting on a desk or tucked in a bag to one in which technology is an accessory we wear on our bodies.

“The future of wearable technology addresses the need for people to stay connected to all of their devices no matter what they are wearing, where they are going or what kind of weather they are facing,” said Jim Kenney, chief executive of 180s, which also makes products like gloves that allow people to use a touch screen phone.

In the meantime, as we wire up our earmuffs and clutches, apps could make Internet-connected glasses and wristbands useful enough that more people want to wear them. After all, there was a time when smartphones were only for early adopters.

Tech companies know they need to hide wearable technology in accessories that look less like computers and more like things we would wear anyway. Google is experimenting with including Glass on real, fashionable glasses frames. And Apple hired Paul Deneve, the former chief executive of the Yves Saint Laurent Group, who is likely to bring some fashion smarts to future wearable tech.

Daily Report: Many of Web’s Encryption Tools Compromised by N.S.A.

The National Security Agency is winning its long-running secret war on encryption, using supercomputers, technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communications in the Internet age, according to newly disclosed documents, Nicole Perlroth, Jeff Larson and Scott shane report.

The agency has circumvented or cracked much of the encryption, or digital scrambling, that guards global commerce and banking systems, protects sensitive data like trade secrets and medical records, and automatically secures the e-mails, Web searches, Internet chats and phone calls of Americans and others around the world, the documents show.

Many users assume â€" or have been assured by Internet companies â€" that their data is safe from prying eyes, including those of the government, and the N.S.A. wants to keep it that way. The agency treats its recent successes in deciphering protected information as among its most closely guarded secrets, restricted to those cleared for a highly classified program code-named Bullrun, according to the documents, provided by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor.

Beginning in 2000, as encryption tools were gradually blanketing the Web, the N.S.A. invested billions of dollars in a clandestine campaign to preserve its ability to eavesdrop. Having lost a public battle in the 1990s to insert its own “back door” in all encryption, it set out to accomplish the same goal by stealth.

The agency, according to the documents and interviews with industry officials, deployed custom-built, superfast computers to break codes, and began collaborating with technology companies in the United States and abroad to build entry points into their products. The documents do not identify which companies have participated.

The N.S.A. hacked into target computers to snare messages before they were encrypted. In some cases, companies say they were coerced by the government into handing over their master encryption keys or building in a back door. And the agency used its influence as the world’s most experienced code maker to covertly introduce weaknesses into the encryption standards followed by hardware and software developers around the world.