Will you recognize Amazon in ten years?

The Web retailer will stock up on its selection of audiobooks and other spoken word content by adding over 80,000 programs from Audible.

Returning to the focus on books that launched its now behemoth retail business, Amazon.com announced on Thursday that it had purchased Audible.com, a New-Jersey-based provider of spoken word content. The company reportedly paid $300 million for the company, which will bring its library of audiobooks under Amazon’s flag.

“Audible.com offers the best customer experience, the widest content selection and the broadest device compatibility in the industry,” said Steve Kessel, Amazon.com's senior vice president for worldwide digital media, in a statement. The site offers over 80,000 programs in total, from books, newspapers and magazines to television, radio and original programming.

Prior to purchase by Amazon, Audible provided audiobooks based on a one-credit-per book system, with credits costing between $7.49 and $12.46 per credit, depending on which plan users selected. All of the site’s downloads were offered with DRM, which may clash with Amazon’s existing commitment to DRM-free downloads from Amazon MP3.

http://news.digitaltrends.com/news/story/15593/amazon_acquires_audiblecom_for_300m

Jobs Urges Apple Shareholders 'Hang in There'

Sure. Trust The Jerk, hang_in_there, dudes. Another dismal week in the tech sector continues to take its toll on Apple, it shareholders and, apparently, even its CEO. If a staff issued e-mail obtained by AppleInsider is to be believed, The Jerk is just as stunned by the company's stock dive as everyone else.

"Wow... what a remarkable last few days," he wrote. "Our stock is being buffeted around by factors a lot larger than ourselves."

With 5.54 million shares directly owned, Jobs is Apple's largest individual stockholder. As such, one could argue that the sting resulting from the company's recent losses is most acutely felt by the CEO. All told, Jobs has seen the value of his Apple holdings plummet from $1.126 billion just before Christmas to just over $770 million this week.

That's a paper loss of $354 million. And as Fortune recently noted, if you combine that with the loses he's experienced as Disney's top sharehold, Jobs has lost more the $1 billion in just over a month...on paper, of course.

And yet Apple's steward remains optimistic about his own company's future. In the same e-mail, he urged investors and shareholders to keep the faith, predicting that Apple's stock would eventually rebound.

As proof, Jobs compared Apple to other blue-chip tech companies like Google and Dell and noted that Apple has continued to outperform them since early 2007.

"I believe that investors who stay with us will be rewarded as the market's confidence is restored over time," he concluded. "Hang in there."

At the time of writing, Apple stock was up slightly from Mondays closing price of $130.

http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/01/steve-jobs-urge.html

Yahoo's Yodel Turns Into a Whimper

Layoffs and a refocusing effort can only do so much. CEO Jerry Yang needs to find exciting new products or services if he hopes to make Yahoo sing again

At the Consumer Electronics Show a few weeks ago, Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang kicked off his keynote speech with a vow: "It is time to get Yahoo yodeling again." But on Jan. 29, after Yang issued a muted outlook for the coming year, including the layoffs of 1,000 employees, it became clear that the turnaround he wants to bring about won't happen for at least another year. As if…..

Yahoo said its fourth-quarter profit fell 23%, to $206 million, on a 14% rise in sales, to $1.4 billion, excluding commissions to marketing partners. But even though that met or outpaced expectations, the company's outlook for 2008 didn't. Yahoo expects revenue of $5.35 billion to $5.95 billion, missing the expectations of many analysts, whose average forecast is for sales of $5.88 billion. "The outlook was the real disappointment," says Rob Sanderson, an analyst at American Technology Research. "They threw in the kitchen sink in terms of reducing expectations."

The stock reeled in extended trading, dropping more than 10%, to $20.81. Even before the report was released, Yahoo's shares were trading at their lowest level in more than four years.
Even as top-line growth fails to meet some projections, spending on efforts to keep visitors glued to the portal could crimp bottom-line growth, too, at least in the near term. Yang expects to continue investing in such areas as Yahoo's home page, its personalized MyYahoo service, e-mail, and mobile features. He also plans to keep spending to improve search as well as to create better technology for marketers to buy both search and display ads on Yahoo. "This sort of transformation takes time," Yang said on an earnings call with analysts. "We are taking an aggressive investment posture. Increased investment is the only appropriate measure at this time."

A Big Ax in Europe

Investors also may be disappointed that Yang, who took over last July with the departure of longtime CEO Terry Semel, didn't make deeper cuts in Yahoo's staff. Some press reports suggested the cuts would affect as many as 2,500 people. The layoffs will mean a charge of up to $25 million in the first quarter, but they could save the company $100 million a year in expenses.

Yang said the cuts, which will come in mid-February, will be not across the board, but selective, focused on areas that aren't doing as well as others. One Yahoo executive told BusinessWeek that sizable cuts probably would come in Europe. Yahoo also has already deemphasized or closed lagging operations such as music subscriptions, photos, and a social-networking service called Yahoo 360.

Analysts had hoped that Yahoo's results might offer clues as to whether the economic slowdown will hit online advertising. The concern is that companies such as Yahoo and Google (GOOG) will suffer from pared marketing budgets. Some analysts also fret that cash-strapped consumers will reduce spending, in the process clicking on search and other ads less often, which also would mean less revenue for the likes of Yahoo and Google. Indeed, this possibility, coupled with small declines in Web search activity in December, prompted investment bank Stanford Group in Houston to cut its Google stock rating to "hold" from "buy" on Jan. 24. "Advertising-driven media typically slows down in a recession, so online advertising should decline in a recession, ultimately," says Stanford analyst Clayton Moran.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2008/tc20080129_566041.htm

Bill Gates advice to wannabes? Dudes, don't get sued

Bill Gates performed the London leg of his farewell tour this morning, telling aspiring entrepreneurs they should sign up to Microsoft's CRM platform and to try not to get sued.

Gates took to the stage at the Institute of Directors as the Eighties soft rock classic The Final Countdown played in the background.

He threw out lots of buzzwords such as "democratisation", "diverse economy", "simplicity" and "community" as he explained what he plans to do after he hangs up his Redmond boots.

He also took the chance to punt the software giants' latest CRM offering, version 4.0, which has been integrated with Microsoft's email client Outlook and was given its general UK release today.

When asked if he would run for president Gates quipped: "I'm certainly not going to do it."

Rather, he repeated that his full-time role after stepping down as Microsoft head honcho in July this year would be working with his missus at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"There's a lot of reform and improvement that, by being off on the side and working with governments and development agencies and filling our unique role - I think that's the highest impact. But running for an election, worrying about the next election? I don't think I'll get into that," he said.

Gates also offered his own advice on how to keep stress levels down when being the boss of a business.

"There's certainly been stressful points along the way – try not to get sued by anybody... especially not your own government... especially if unjust."

Before disappearing for tea and sandwiches at Number 10 with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Gates couldn't resist needling his big rivals.

On IBM, when asked about the inflexibility of Microsoft's licencing, he said: "We'll match their Ts and Cs". And on Google, he said its advertiser-supported biz model was not "a charitable act".

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/30/gates_iod_crm_4/

The Jerk is on the lookout for one million unlocked iPhones

The Steve’s strategic cluster headache

About 27 per cent of the iPhones sold in 2007 are being operated on unauthorized wireless networks, according to research released today. That works out at about one million handsets.

The unlocked phones are used largely in regions where the must-have device isn't officially sold, according to a report issued by Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi. He says the appetite for the modified phones has given way to a cottage industry that sells hacks or phones that come out of the box unlocked. Most phones originated in the US where, thanks to current currency exchange rates, prices are comparatively low.

AT&T reported having about two million iPhones on its network as of the end of the year. Over the same period, Apple said it sold 3.75m units. These figures caught the eye of Sacconaghi last week, prompting him to write an initial research note. "Significant interest" in that note led the analyst to dig deeper into the matter. As a result, he pumped out fresh figures today that include information gained from talking to channel partners and other sources.

"We now believe that 315,000 iPhones were sold in Europe (down modestly from our previous estimate), leaving 1.45m iPhone units missing in action – either sitting in channel inventory or being used 'unlocked,'" Sacconaghi wrote this week.

Subtracting 480,000 units of channel inventory, Sacconaghi reckons about one million phones had been unlocked, up from a previous estimate of 750,000.

The figure represents quite the predicament for the Jerk. Unlocked phones represent a significant drag on the profitability of the device. With Apple receiving $300 to $400 in carrier payments for each iPhone sold, they generate 50 per cent less revenue and up to 75 per cent less profit than normal. The 1m phones translates into as much as $400m in lost revenue.

If 30 per cent of the 10m devices Apple expects to sell in 2008 are never activated, sales are lowered by $500 million for each of the two years the carrier contract would have been in place and earnings per share declines by 37 cents.

Unlocked phones also weaken Apple's hand when negotiating terms with prospective new carriers. That's because the promise of being the exclusive network carries less weight.

At the same time, a sale is a sale. If Apple clamps down too much on unlocked phones it forgoes all the revenue it would have made selling them. And equally unappealing, it risks missing its lofty goal of selling 10m devices by the end of this year.

Steverino has gone to great lengths to make it hard to unlock iPhones. Updates to patch security bugs typically re-lock the handsets. So far, hackers have managed to defeat the restrictions. Less than a week after the most recent version of the firmware was released, so-called jailbreaks that unlock the phone were circulating online

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/29/1m_unlocked_iphones/

Qtrax signs historic music deal

We’re almost out of breath. Just hours ago, music download service Qtrax claimed it has brokered an historic deal that, for the first time, would deliver an unlimited supply of free songs to music fans.

But hopes, it seems, have already been dashed as the three of the big four studios allegedly involved have come forward and denied signing any such deal.

Qtrax, which offers a catalogue of 25 million songs to download for free, said today that its service will be endorsed by the biggest powers in the music industry - EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music and Warner Music.

The service was unveiled at the global music industry's largest annual event, MIDEM, in Cannes.

Qtrax chief executive, Allan Klepfisz, said customers expected to be able to get music for free, but didn't want to use illegal sites. "It's been a long trek to this point for peer-to-peer to find its place in a legal world."He then went on to say that the service would deliver up to 30 million free and legal music tracks for download.

In return for access to the music, users will have to put up with some advertising and Qtrax claimed that Ford, Microsoft and McDonald's have all signed up to advertise.

The files will still contain DRM (Digital Rights Management) software, which means that record companies will be able to keep track of how often their tracks are played and downloaded, and they will be paid in proportion to how popular their music is.

Qtrax says that record labels will also get a cut of the advertising revenue. We were so worried, we haven't been able to sleep nights.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/xml/article/tech/0,,91221-12481,00.htm

4 Million iPhones Sold? Really Steve?

Here is an article that gives serious doubt to Apple's recent numbers:

The talk among Apple watchers today is Toni Sacconaghi’s dogged pursuit of the 4 million iPhones Steve Jobs claimed to have sold as of Jan. 15, the date of his Macworld keynote speech.

AT&T, the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. carrier, reported yesterday that it had activated “just at or just slightly under 2 million” iPhones. That’s quite a discrepancy.

Sacconaghi, Sanford Bernstein’s Apple specialist, did the math and concluded in a report to clients that there are roughly 1.4 million iPhones “missing in action,” either unlocked or sitting in inventory. Assuming that 20% of those iPhones were purchased to be unlocked (a generous assumption given that a jailbreak for the latest iPhone firmware was only released yesterday), he believes that there are at least 650,000 gathering dust somewhere — in warehouses, perhaps, or in closets, as unwanted Christmas presents waiting to be returned.

Here’s how he gets that number:

* 3.75 million iPhones sold as of Dec. 29 (per Apple’s Q1 report)
* minus 2 million iPhones activated through AT&T as of Dec. 31 (per AT&T)
* minus 350,000 iPhones sold in Europe via O2, T-Mobile and Orange
* minus 750,000 iPhones purchased to be unlocked
* equals 650,000 unaccounted for.

Sacconaghi concludes:

This is negative in two ways: (1) it indicates end-user demand for iPhone is lower than many investors may think based on Apple’s sales figure; and (2) it points to slower iPhone sales in the current quarter, since much of this inventory is likely to be drawn down.

Of course, compared to other Apple analysts, Sacconaghi is something of a bear. One day before the Q1 earnings report and the subsequent run on Apple shares, he went out on a limb and predicted that the company would sell only 7 million iPhones in 2008. That’s considerably less than the 10 million target Steve Jobs set — a goal COO Tim Cook said on Tuesday he remained “very confident” they would hit.

Most Apple watchers shared Cook’s confidence, given the 4 million number Jobs had trotted out at Macworld. Today they’re singing a different tune.

“Apple might have a demand problem,” writes Tom Krazit at CNET.

Russell Shaw at ZDNet says the iPhone is at a “crossing the chasm” moment, stuck between early adopters and the mainsteam, and predicts that to survive its price will have to come down to $299 by the end of May at the latest.

Ewan McLeod at the U.K.’s SMS Text News waxes positively elegiac in a post entitled “The Apple iPhone will only ever be a bit player”:

The geeks have all bought one and many have got theirs unlocked. The Nike wearing Soho crowd have splurged the cash. The wannabes and the I-must-have-that crowd have weighed in, swapped networks and got their devices. But that’s it. There’s a ton of people all sitting staring at the iPhone and — SADLY — (this is the bit that’s winding me up), turning their backs and walking away.

This may be premature. A lot could change in the next 50 weeks. New apps. A 16 GB iPhone. A 3G model. New price points. New markets in Canada, Thailand, and maybe even China.

But one thing is certain: having promised and repromised to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008, there will be hell to pay in 2009 if Apple falls even a little bit short.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/61800-4-million-iphones-sold-really-steve

Rogue trader blows sox off control systems

The apparent ease with which a former software developer turned rogue trader was able to sink France's second-biggest bank into a €4.9bn ($7.2bn) hole has sparked questions about the effectiveness of risk analysis systems.

Jerome Kerviel, 31, a junior trader at Société Générale Paris headquarters, caused five times the damage as notorious rogue trader Nick Leeson, who ran up losses of £800m ($1.58bn) that resulted in the collapse of his employer Barings Bank in 1995. Kerviel created fictitious accounts to take risky positions in the derivatives market that resulted in huge losses as stock markets across Europe fell.

The losses, reckoned to represent the largest ever fraud by a single trader, have shaken a banking system already struggling from the effects of the US sub-prime lending crisis. The City of London is buzzing with rumours that it was the unravelling of Kerviel's risky position after SocGen discovered them last weekend led to a drop in share prices across Europe, as market bears responded to a influx of sell orders by pushing markets further down.

SocGen maintains it will be able to weather the storm, with plans to raise €5.5bn ($8.01bn) in order to maintain liquidity. The bank continues to anticipate posting €800m ($1.176nn) profits for 2007.

Kerviel, described in reports as both intelligent and a troubled Walter Mitty-style fantasist, appears to have acted alone and without any personal financial benefit. He apparently joined the bank as a developer working on the middle office systems that control how much a trader can risk. The systems limit how much a trader or group of traders can risk.

"The total potential trades are just summed up, and matched against the limit for an individual/trading desk/company," an IT director at a leading investment bank told El Reg. "I say 'potential' since much may be offers to buy/sell rather than actual transfers. There's also some complex risk analysis processing, though I doubt that's relevant to SocGen."

The role gave Kerviel the knowledge of how to manipulate the system when he became a junior trader in 2005. His role as a hedger involved covering the bank's exposure to large losses by taking positions opposite to those taken out by more senior traders. Trading limits in the order of tens of millions of dollars ought to have been applied.

In December Kerviel removed limits on his personal trading positions and created fictitious customer accounts to balance the books, The Guardian reports. In December he took out a series of short positions, essentially betting that the market would fall. Not much happened. In January, Kerviel went the opposite way and gambled that the markets would rise, with disastrous results. He traded in futures contracts on three major stock markets in France, Germany and the Eurozone that involved highly-leveraged bets on the stock price of market-listed firms.

Kerviel seemed to believe that he had come up with a trading approach that would rake in huge gains for the bank and a fat bonus for himself. In reality he was acting like a woefully misguided gambler. His actions only came to light when one of his trading positions was flagged up on SocGen's internal system as going over his trading limit. After confessing responsibility when interviewed by senior executives last weekend, Kerviel has since gone AWOL amid expectation that SocGen will initiate legal proceedings against him.

Bank officials are puzzling over his motives.

Philippe Collas, from SocGen's global investment management division, said: "In December things were going very well for him, then he panicked, he gambled against the market, he started deliberately losing to try and hide it, to reduce the possibility he'd be caught. He made no money out of this, not a cent, this wasn't done to get rich. What was his motive? I don't know, maybe he wanted to prove himself. It's difficult to get money out of a bank, as soon as you try you will leave a trace."

SocGen is keen ro describe the losses as "isolated and exceptional" but that's done little to subdue questions about why the fraud was not detected earlier. Société Générale is based in France but trades in Europe and in other parts of the world, including the US, where its shares are traded as ADRs. That presumably leaves its subject to controls applied by the Sarbannes-Oxley Act. In case you forgot, that is the regulatory regime introduced in the US in response to accounting scandals at WorldCom and Enron, among others.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/25/socgen_rogue_trader/

PS3 is out of the woods, says Stringer

Sony Corporation boss Howard Stringer has said he's confident PlayStation 3 is on track to beat Xbox 360 in the console war.

Stringer told Reuters sales of the machine are improving, despite an economic slowdown in the US.

"PS3 has now gone past Xbox on the Christmas market. It's moving into its own as it gets into higher bandwidth," he said.

"PS3 is out of the woods and beginning to hold its own."

Stringer's comments echo some made by SCEE boss David Reeves just a few days ago. He reckons the PS3's European installed base will exceed Xbox 360's by late summer, don't you know.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=91486

Is the iPhone demand already starting to peter out or why the Duke of Cupertino has a long face

AT&T, the exclusive American carrier of the iPhone, activated just 900,000 iPhones during the fourth quarter, the company revealed during its earnings conference call Thursday. It wrapped up the year with "just at or slightly under 2 million iPhone customers," according to company executives.

Apple announced at Macworld that it has sold 4 million iPhones through the middle of January, and Toni Sacconaghi, a financial analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, thinks the gap between the figures means that Apple might have a demand problem. He released a research note Thursday after AT&T's earnings saying that the carrier's figures imply that an awful lot of inventory is building up at Apple's channel partners.

Are people getting tired of the iPhone, or just holding out for iPhone 2.0?

"We believe the data points to a significant amount of iPhone channel inventory...This is negative in two ways: (1) it indicates end-user demand for iPhone is lower than many investors may think based on Apple's sales figure; and (2) it points to slower iPhone sales in the current quarter, since much of this inventory is likely to be drawn down," Sacconaghi wrote in his report.

Let's walk through the theory. Apple said on Tuesday that it sold 3.7 million iPhones in 2007. But AT&T said Thursday that it ended 2007 with around 2 million iPhone customers.

One huge difference between the third quarter and the fourth--other than the temperature--was that the iPhone became available for sale in the U.K., Germany, and France through other carriers. But even the most optimistic estimates for iPhone sales in Europe didn't come within shouting distance of 1.7 million units. O2, the exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.K., has said it expects to have sold 200,000 iPhones by around this time, and France's Orange and Germany's T-Mobile were expected to sell about 100,000 units each in 2007.

So that leaves 1.3 million iPhones to find. (Sacconaghi only estimates European sales at 350,000, so he uses 1.4 million.) The first theory would be that iPhone unlocking is rampant.

But how is that possible? The Great iPhone Hack settled into a bit of a stalemate with the release of the 1.1.2 firmware. On the day the iPhone was released in the U.K. and Germany, Apple released the 1.1.2 firmware upgrade for older iPhone users but included an updated version of the iPhone's bootloader--which loads software from storage--on all new iPhones that made unlocking the phone to run on other networks much, much harder and virtually impossible through software.

After venturing a guess in October that as many as 250,000 iPhones had been purchased with the intention of unlocking, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook declined to make an estimate this time around, saying the company didn't have a reliable way of estimating the total. According to Sacconaghi, even if you assume 20 percent of all iPhones purchased in 2007 were bought with the intention of unlocking--which was Cook's rough estimate in October--that still leaves 670,000 iPhones unaccounted for in 2007. Where are they?

Apparently, they're on a shelf somewhere. "Excluding Apple's own stores, there are about 4,400 total iPhone distribution points worldwide, suggesting each had more than 150 units of channel inventory at the beginning of this year. We believe channel inventory likely built even more in the first few weeks of 2008, given Apple continued to ship iPhones at a high run rate," Sacconaghi wrote.

http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9857622-37.html

Windows 7 in 2009? Be careful what you wish for

Take it as a sign that Windows Vista failed to capture the imagination of Windows users, or take it as a sign that sensationalism sells. Either way, the rumor mill is heating up with claims that the successor to Windows Vista—currently dubbed Windows 7—could be released as early as next year, as opposed to sometime in 2010, as currently expected.

The scuttlebutt (condensed): some users have seen early builds of Windows 7, including a poster at Neowin. Ars Technica has also seen an older build, as we told you about more than a month ago. A more recent build was reportedly described as Milestone 1. APC Magazine claims to have seen a roadmap which puts M2 in an April/May timeframe, and a M3 in the third quarter of this year. All of this points to a late 2009 release, they say, which is indicated by this "road map."

Arguing about whether or not Windows 7 will ship in late 2009 is pointless. No one can predict the future, and Microsoft's own history shows that its roadmaps and predictions are not to be trusted. A more interesting question is: should Microsoft be aiming for late 2009? Should the company be aiming at a date, or should it be aiming at an experience? To be sure, a software company can't develop without some kind of general timeframe. The question is what's most important: the date or the product?

Microsoft, please take your time

In its early days as Longhorn, perhaps the project was too ambitious. But once Microsoft rebooted Longhorn's development more than two years into the process, the company made a critical error: in a panic, it focused on when the product would ship, not when it would be ready.

Gates originally had it right. In the thick of Longhorn development problems in 2004, Gates tried to reassure everyone that the release would not become date-driven.

Unfortunately, Vista did become date-driven, and even Gates seemed to admit that Vista shipped before it was ready when Gizmodo talked to him at CES this year. Admission or not, it's quite clear that things that were not "totally together" where included on the "shipping train," and that the departure time became more important than the quality of the release.

With Windows 7, Microsoft needs to deliver in a big way. I personally wouldn't call Windows Vista a bomb, but Microsoft has lost serious mindshare and respect in the many years since Windows XP, primarily on account of Vista. Vista will still sell well, if only because the momentum of the growing PC market will not allow otherwise. It does not appear that Vista is driving PC growth, however, and even among Vista fans, the mood is somber.

What's Microsoft to do? If you can't avoid a mistake, then you do the next best thing and learn from it. You don't want to move too quickly in an effort to fix your mistake, because you can end up making another, potentially costlier one. In Microsoft's case, the company can easily weather the trials and tribulations that Vista has brought it. But should the company release another operating system that fails to gain a critical, but positive reception, it will signal a true crisis for the company's desktop business. While Microsoft can't wait until 2012 to release a new version of Windows, it shouldn't be putting a shipping date before the need to make this release rock solid.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080124-windows-7-in-2009-be-careful
-what-you-wish-for.html

Broadcom Founders Fingered in Court

Federal prosecutors on Thursday identified the co-founders of the Broadcom Corporation, Henry T. Nicholas III and Henry Samueli, as “unindicted potential co-conspirators” in an investigation into the illegal backdating of stock options.

The revelation came as a former human resources executive, Nancy M. Tullos, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. Ms. Tullos struck a deal with prosecutors last year and agreed to the plea in exchange for her cooperation.

Mr. Nicholas and Mr. Samueli were identified as “Executive A” and “Executive B” in the plea deal, but Federal District Judge Cormac J. Carney told prosecutors that not identifying them would undermine the factual basis of the plea deal and violate the principles of open court hearings.

A phone message left after business hours for a lawyer representing Mr. Nicholas was not returned. An e-mail message sent to a Broadcom spokesman also was not immediately returned.

In January 2007, Broadcom reduced previous financial results by $2.2 billion to account for improperly backdated stock option

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/technology/25options.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

SHARKS CIRCLE YAHOO!

Yahoo's dynamic duo, Jerry Yang and David Filo still don't want to sell the struggling Internet company, but its stock price is so low that the duo may not be able to fend off a takeover offer without compromising their fiduciary duty to shareholders.

Yahoo! shares dropped to a low of $18.72 during yesterday's trading session before rebounding along with the broader market rally to close the day at $20.01.

That's a roughly 35 percent decline from the company's 52-week high of $34.08 per share in October and comes despite news of a cost-cutting plan that includes the elimination of about 700 jobs designed in part to prop up its stock price.

Part of the reason for the negative reaction is because Wall Street is wondering when the restructuring and reorganizing at Yahoo! is going to stop and the turnaround is going to begin.

"Yahoo has an execution problem, not a structural problem, and whenever you have an execution problem there are a lot of smart people with a lot of money that think they can do better," said UBS analyst Ben Schachter. "Each day Yahoo's stock gets cheaper, it raises the interest among these people. Yang and Filo don't want to sell until they've had a real chance to turn the business around. Where the stock is now, however, they might not have that option."

While no formal discussions are currently taking place, sources close to Yahoo! said that private-equity firms have been aggressively reaching out since its stock started trading below $24. These sources said Yahoo! has little interest in selling to private equity.

They added, however, that there is nervousness inside Yahoo! that one of the strategic buyers that has kicked the tires on the company in the past - a list that includes AOL, AT&T, CBS, Comcast, Microsoft, Viacom and News Corp. (which owns The Post) - might make a move given its depressed stock price.

"There are a lot of interested buyers standing around looking at Yahoo!," said one source close to the company. "If one of them gets the sense that another is ready to jump, they might move faster [to beat them to it].

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01242008/business/sharks_circle_yahoo__978070.htm?dlbk

Is Oracle really the next Microsoft?

The gobbling-up by Oracle of BEA, the last significantly-sized independent middleware vendor, is another sign of the trend we are seeing towards increasing consolidation in the IT industry. It leads to obvious questions about customer choice, disruption, and protection of investment that will sound very familiar to those impacted by previous acquisitions, such as Oracle’s less than harmonious takeover of PeopleSoft in the ERP space.

While pundits and commentators speculate on how this latest consolidation event will pan out, we thought we would test the sentiment within the buyer and user community itself. To this end, shortly after the announcement of the acquisition, we surveyed Reg readers to gather views on whether the news was positive or negative for the industry and individual customers, providing respondents with the ability to express their thoughts freely as part of the exercise.

Almost three hundred responses were received in total, with over 80 per cent coming from organisations with an investment in Oracle, BEA or both technologies. Most respondents were customers, though a few partners of the two firms also participated in the survey.

On the question of whether the acquisition was good for the industry, a range of views were received, with significant numbers of both positive and negative responses. On balance, however, as we can see from the chart below, the negative view predominates.

We should point out at this stage that polls of this nature tend to be biased towards the more extreme views that exist, as those who heard the news of the acquisition and just thought “So what?” would be less inclined to express an opinion. Nevertheless, it does provide an indication of the general skew of opinion, and we can also learn a lot by looking at what’s behind the headline numbers. Breaking the results out according to respondents’ existing investments, for example, tells us that the BEA customer base is taking the news far worse than Oracle-only or joint customers:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/24/oracle_bea_acquisition/

MacBook Air: skinny but flawed

Long story short - Pro: Seductively skinny and light. Full-size keyboard and widescreen display. With Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and remote software installation capabilities. Eco-friendly features, including mercury-free display.

Con: No integrated CD/DVD drive. Only one USB port and no built-in ethernet or FireWire. Sealed battery.

The MacBook Air laptop that Jobs unveiled last week turns heads. And now that I've used this Twiggy-thin, 3-pound marvel for several days, I can also report that it's a remarkably sturdy-feeling machine, especially given its size and weight.

The skinny — the word can't be emphasized enough — $1,799 (and up) computer will make students and frequent business travelers gush. Encased in aluminum, Air has a comfortable-to-type-on full-size keyboard, widescreen 13.3-inch display and an iSight video camera.

But with too few ports, a sealed battery that you can't replace on your own and no built-in CD/DVD drive, Air is not the ideal laptop for everyone. And while battery power is impressive, it pooped out in my tests well short of the best-case, five-hour scenario Apple has been touting. Here's the skinny:

There are other small and slender computers on the market. Only none as sexy. Air measures an astonishing 0.16 inches at its skinniest point and is just three-quarters of an inch at its thickest.

Little things make a big impression. Air opens and closes with a magnetic latch. The wide, backlit LED screen is lovely. The keyboard keys light up the dark — there's a built-in ambient light sensor. Just below the keyboard is a spacious track-pad on which you can "pinch," "swipe" and apply other iPhone-like touch gestures. You can resize pictures, for example, by placing your thumb and forefinger together.

As with all new Macs, Air has the latest virus-resistant OS X Leopard operating system. (It puts Windows Vista to shame.) The top-notch iLife multimedia suite includes iPhoto (for photo management) and iMovie (video editing).

The basic unit I tested comes with 2 gigabytes of RAM standard and a 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (upgradeable to 1.8 GHz). That's plenty of muscle for conventional computing. You'll want a machine with a more robust processor for doing, say, heavy video editing. You're unlikely to notice, but Air's chip is the weakest Core 2 Duo in the Mac portable lineup; the entry-level $1,099 MacBook has a 2.0 GHz version.

At $1,799, the base configuration is fairly priced, though the 80 GB hard drive isn't generous by today's standards. A version with a faster processor and 64 GB "solid-state" drive — with no moving parts, it's supposed to be more durable — costs $3,098 (ouch).

Air includes Bluetooth and state-of-the-art Wi-Fi, the only path to the Internet without an accessory.

Air does not come with the built-in ability to connect to a speedy wireless data network run by various cellular carriers. Jobs told me last week that Apple considered it but that adding the capability would take up room and restrict consumers to a particular carrier. Through a USB modem, he says, you can still subscribe to wireless broadband with your favorite carrier.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2008-01-23
-macbook-air-review_N.htm

Will Microsoft parachute Windows 7 in early?

Curtains for Vista in 'H2 2009'

Redmond has refused to spike speculation that it is racing to pump out its successor to Vista – Windows 7 – earlier than originally expected.

Windows 7 (AKA Blackcomb then Vienna) had initially been rumoured to hit the market in 2010, but expectations are rising that it will make a crash landing in the second half of 2009.

Australia's APC magazine even claims to have seen Redmond's roadmap for the new OS which marks three so-called "milestone" builds for the product's planned release.

The software giant, for its part, has stayed tight-lipped on the matter, offering a wishy-washy statement in which it insists that Microsoft remains upbeat about its current, unloved operating system.

A Microsoft spokesman said: "We're continuing to work with our customers and partners on the development of Windows 7, the next version of the client operating system. We're not sharing additional information at this time; instead, we're focused on helping customers today get the most value from their PCs using Windows Vista, and we're encouraged by the response and adoption so far."

Meanwhile, APC claimed one milestone build has already reached a number of key partners who are busy validating code, while the follow-up builds will arrive later in the year, APC said.

It reckoned the roadmap didn't reveal any tasty information about further builds, including beta and release candidates. But APC claims Microsoft does spill the beans about the updated RTM (release to manufacturing) release date of Windows 7, pinning it down to H2 2009.

Of course, Vista itself hit manufacturers, then business customers in 2006, but did not reach the mass market until 2007.

Pulling such a major release forward would be out of character for Microsoft. Could this be MS execs having Vista panic attacks behind closed doors? It's hard to know for certain, but it's fair to say that customers aren't exactly rising from their feet to applaud the firm's current OS.

Some are waiting for service pack one to right a few wrongs with Vista, while other punters might be relieved to discover that they will soon be able to escape through the virtual door.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/23/windows_7_release_2009/

Can the Touch Revive Apple’s iPod Sales?

Investors are all in a tizzy that Apple is only promising them a 30 percent growth, year over year, in its first quarter revenue. But looking at the company’s fourth quarter 2007 results, it’s clear that the company is doing very very well.

Of all the blizzard of statistics that get thrown out on an earnings call, here’s the one that cuts through the clutter: $3 billion. That’s the amount of cash Apple stuffed in its bank accounts during the last three months of the year, giving it $18 billion in reserves.

Apple makes computer hardware and consumer electronics, two of the most competitive, low-margin businesses around. It continues to invest in rather innovative technologies (albeit more in refining them rather than inventing them). And it still makes a hefty profit margin year after year.

If there was one potential weak spot in the numbers it is with the iPod: Unit sales were flat in the United States, indicating that the market may have become saturated.

Still, the story isn’t that bad. Apple says it has maintained its market share for music players in the United States and it is growing share in Europe and Asia.

Most interestingly, while overall iPod sales of 22 million increased by only 5 percent worldwide, revenue grew at a faster 17 percent rate, to $4.0 billion. The reason is the growth of the iPod Touch, which costs $299 or $399, more than other iPod models.

On the conference call with investors, Apple executives described the Touch, which can surf the Web over a Wi-Fi connection, as a new sort of device that will open a new market.

“We view the iPod market as bigger than the market for simple music players,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s chief financial officer. “We believe one of the iPod’s future directions is to become the first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform.”

I’m not so sure how many people will want a connected device that’s not their phone, but it will be interesting to see what Apple does next now that it describes the Touch as a platform for mobile computing.

A couple of other tidbits from the call:

* The sales of Macintosh computers, 2.32 million worldwide in the quarter, were better than the company expected.

* The number of Best Buy stores that sell Macs will increase double to 600 in the next six months.

* The company implied that Apple TV was no longer a hobby, now that it has movie rentals as well as purchases. “We think we have it right this time,” Mr. Oppenheimer said. He declined to discuss the financial impact of movie rentals in particular, other than to repeat the company’s strategy to run the iTunes store “a little above break even” in order to spur hardware sales.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/can-the-touch-revive-apples-
ipod-sales/index.html?ref=technology

Eroticism Comes to Microblogging with Boobik?

The tenets of Web 2.0 are not without their pornographic, or otherwise erotic, applications. We’ve covered PornoTube and EroShare, both of which are sites for user-generated porn. Now we’ve come across a site called Boobik? (yes, with a question mark in its name, and no, NSFW). If PornoTube is a YouTube of porn and EroShare is a Flickr of porn, then perhaps it’s best to describe Boobik? as a Twitter of porn.

To be fair, Boobik? doesn’t explicitly bill itself as a place for sharing user-generated pornography. Rather, it places the emphasis on social networking (the Facebook of porn?):

boobik is a place to meet people the sexy way.

You can get to know people through them sharing and broadcasting short experiences, thoughts and fantasies. By that we mean what they did last night, just now (hand in skirt under the desk), with whom and how many times). And don’t forget them pictures as well…

But the result, I imagine, will be mostly just to share pornographic material with others. The site’s frontpage shows a series of microblog posts, some of which contain photos with nudity. You can post text, photos, and video embeds with Boobik?, apparently of any rating level (the terms of service doesn’t preclude explicit material).

Want to share erotic thoughts on the go? You can also post to the site from a mobile phone, IM account, or email.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/22/eroticism-comes-to-microblogging-with-boobik/

Steverino Faces Hurdles to iTunes Movie Rentals

After introducing an online film rental business for American consumers last week, the chief executive of Apple, Steven P. Jobs, said he expected that the service would be expanded into international markets later this year.

But trying to establish a European version of the iTunes movie rental service, which allows users to stream films or television shows to their computers or televisions, will not be easy.

Apple will have to confront legal and regulatory hurdles, copyright challenges, scheduling conflicts and technological issues, reminders that the European media landscape remains a patchwork of individual countries, rather than the single market that the European Commission envisions.

“The biggest challenge that we have is just the structure of the market,” said Kevin Obi, senior vice president for digital assets at NBC Universal in London, which has licensed shows to several online video-on-demand services.

Because of the difficulty of setting up cross-border services, many participants in the nascent market for digital film rentals or downloads in Europe operate in only one or a handful of countries.

They include MK2, a French movie theater owner; Lovefilm, a DVD rental company in Britain that expanded into digital downloads; and Glowria, a similar business in France.

Last month, Microsoft expanded a service that allows users to download movies over its Xbox 360 video game console, opening up in Britain, France, Germany and Ireland, about a year after starting it in the United States.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, warned this month that there were significant barriers to developing digital media distribution in its 27 member countries. And Viviane Reding, the commissioner who oversees media, said that by midyear she would propose ways to make it easier to sell content online, including efforts to streamline digital commerce across borders.

“Europe’s content sector is suffering under its regulatory fragmentation, under its lack of clear, consumer-friendly rules for accessing copyright-protected online content, and serious disagreements between stakeholders about fundamental issues” like copying of digital works, Ms. Reding said in a statement.

One problem she cited was the need for content distributors to secure individual licenses to films and other copyrighted material in every country in which they planned to do business. The commission said it would examine ways to encourage rights holders, including movie studios, to issue “multiterritory” licenses.

While pan-European approaches might seem desirable in Brussels, that is not always the case in national capitals, particularly in smaller countries fearful about the decline of their own cultural industries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/technology/21video.html?_r=
1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

Bloodbath Expected at Yahoo

Yahoo is planning to lay off hundreds of employees in an effort to increase its profitability, prop up its deflated stock price and narrow the focus of its sprawling Internet portal to a smaller number of crucial areas, people close to the company said Monday.

The final number of layoffs from Yahoo’s work force of about 14,000 is yet to be determined and is likely to be announced around the end of the month, perhaps during Yahoo’s conference call on Jan. 29 with analysts after it reports fourth-quarter results, these people said.

Company executives are still trying to determine exactly which areas will be cut. One person close to the discussions said a final plan, or perhaps a few alternative plans, would be submitted to the board at a coming meeting. The plan’s final shape may be influenced by the company’s fourth-quarter performance, this person said.

Yahoo declined to comment specifically on any plan for layoffs. In an e-mail statement, a company spokeswoman, Diana Wong, said: “Yahoo plans to invest in some areas, reduce emphasis in others, and eliminate some areas of the business that don’t support the company’s priorities. Yahoo continues to attract and hire talent against the company’s key initiatives to create long-term stockholder value.”

The statement echoes a strategy sketched out in recent months by Jerry Yang, the company’s co-founder, who was appointed chief executive last summer amid growing shareholder dissatisfaction.

During the weekend, some blogs reported that Yahoo was considering layoffs of 10 to 20 percent of its work force. But the people close to the company, who discussed Yahoo’s layoff plans on condition that they not be identified, said the cuts would most likely be in the hundreds.

The last time Yahoo had sizable layoffs was in 2001, after the dot-com crash. During the last year, the company added several hundred people, some through hiring and some through acquisitions of companies like the online advertising specialists Right Media and BlueLithium and the e-mail provider Zimbra.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/technology/22yahoo.html?ref=technology

And Now for Something Completely Different…..Holden D. Redbone's Top Ten Surprises for 2008

Better late than never dear readers, ,we’re publishing our first annual list of surprises to expect in the coming year. True, these are not tech related, and we don't claim to be a chief investment strategist of anyplace, but in all modesty we got about half of our 2007 ones right., as our friends will admit – although none of them are pleased about what’s happened.

We foresaw the surge in agricultural prices, the Fed refraining from reducing interest rates in the spring, and Latin America putting in a good performance. We furthermore predicted gold bullion at $800 and oil at $80 - perhaps too conservative but nevertheless in the right ballpark.

Although our prediction of higher stock market volatility was on target, unfortunately our other stock market predictions were off. We expected the S&P 500 Index to be 1 600 by the end of 2007 and the Japanese Nikkei 225 Average to gain 15% during the course of the year. Both turned out off the mark - the S&P 500 Index closed the year at 1 468 and the Nikkei declined by 11.1%. We also goofed with our prediction of S&P 500 earnings growth of 10% - the final number was closer to zero.

We believe our ten surprises for 2008 have at least a 50% chance of occurring at some point during the year. Although this is not a very high probability, our predictions nevertheless make for interesting reading. Here goes for our 2008 list:

1. In spite of Federal Reserve easing, and other policy measures, the United States economy suffers its first recession since 2001 as housing starts stay soft and banks are reluctant to lend to anyone where a whiff of risk is apparent. Federal funds drop below 3%. The unemployment rate moves definitively above 5% and consumer spending is lackluster.

2. Standard and Poor’s 500 earnings decline year-over-year and the index drops another 10%. Energy and materials stocks hold up relatively well in what is viewed as a correction rather than a bear market. Market conditions start to improve during the summer.

3. The dollar strengthens in the first half reaching US$1.35 against the euro and weakens in the second exceeding US$1.50. The European Central Bank begins an accommodative monetary policy. Foreign investors flock in to buy cheap assets in the US early in the year but the dollar declines later as several countries holding large reserves diversify into other assets.

4. Inflation rises above 5% on the Consumer Price Index as higher commodity prices and oil finally begin to have an impact in spite of modest wage increases. The 10-year US Treasury yield rises to 5%. Stagflation becomes a frequent presidential campaign and Op-Ed discussion topic.

5. The price of oil goes down early in the year and up later, sinking to US$80 a barrel in the first half as western economies slow and inventories are drawn down, and rising to US$115 in the second. Established wells continue to decline in production while China, India and the Middle East increase their consumption.

6. Agricultural commodities remain strong. Corn rises to US$6 a bushel and cotton to US$0.85 a pound. Gold reaches US$1 000 an ounce as disillusionment with paper currencies spreads across Asia.

7. The recession in the United States slows the Chinese economy modestly but its stock market declines sharply. Investors recognize that paying biotechnology stock multiples for highly cyclical companies doesn’t make sense. The Chinese revalue the renminbi by another 10% to control inflation and as a gesture to foreign governments participating in the Olympic Games who complain that Chinese terms of trade are unfair. Several long distance runners refuse to compete in certain Olympic events because of continuing air pollution problems.

8. The new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, under the tutelage of Vladimir Putin, becomes more assertive in world affairs. He insists that Russian oil and gas be paid for in rubles and demands a Russian seat at major world conferences. Russia and Brazil stock markets lead the BRICs (Better known as the emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India and China).

9. Infrastructure improvement becomes a big election theme for both parties and construction and engineering stocks rally in anticipation of huge programs beginning after the new President’s inauguration. Water becomes a critical problem world-wide and desalination stocks soar.

10. Barack Obama becomes the 44th President in a landslide victory over Mitt Romney. With conditions in Iraq improving, the weak economy becomes the determining issue in voters’ minds. They want to make sure that gridlock ends and Congress gets something done for a change. The Democrats end up with a good showing in the Senate and a clear majority in the House of Representatives.

Apple stocks nosedive after El Jerko’s keynote

After all the Apple's stocks took a beating on the stock exchange on Tuesday 15 January following Steve Jobs' annual keynote speech at Macworld2008 in San Francisco.

Although shares in the company peaked as the CEO took to the stage they soon started to drop until Jobs announced the MacBook Air where they recovered slightly.

However as the news sunk in of what had been said the shares went south even further hitting $165 before a final rally before 4pm brought them back to a closing $169, down $14.88 (around 6%) at the end of the trading day from $180.

Jobs' speech - traditionally the launch pad for big Apple products such as the iPhone that was debuted on stage at the event last year - saw the announcement this year of two new hardware products as well as software and services updates.

As well as the new 2008 products announced, Jobs also revealed figures about Apple's performance in 2007, and it's this, rather than disappointment with the forthcoming devices, that likely caused the dip in share price.

Jobs revealed that the company has sold four million iPhones and five million copies of Leopard. Commentators suggest that analysts and investors were expecting, and hoping, to hear much closer to five million iPhones sold, futhermore the CEO didn't break out figures for Europe suggesting that sales haven't been as buoyant as Apple might have hoped.

Jobs also plainly stated that Apple TV had not been a success so far - and admitted that they had not delivered what people wanted.

Although this drop will be a disappointment to some, especially in the light of many predicting Apple to hit and hold at $200, analysts are recommending people keep a long term view on Apple stock, after all, as Steve Jobs said at the end of his keynote: "all this in the first 2 weeks of 2008 - and we have got 50 more weeks to go"...

http://news.sky.com/skynews/xml/article/tech/0,,91221-12296,00.html

Chinese firm sets legal dragons on Microsoft

It's not just the EU. Redmond is being attacked on all sides these days. A small Beijing software firm is taking Microsoft to court, alleging that it hasn't been keeping its end of a bargain to license technology for converting the Roman alphabet into Chinese characters.

Zhongyi Electronic says Microsoft last paid licensing fees for its patented "Zhengma" product ten years ago, after it included it in the Chinese release of Windows 95, Chinese government-approved news outlet Xinhua said.

Microsoft denies the charge. "Microsoft has fully performed its obligations including paying Zhongyi the license fees in accordance with the license agreements," it said in a statement.

Court proceedings began in Beijing on Tuesday, according to Zhongyi. A defeat for Microsoft would be ironic - Peking style - given it expends so much effort in China defending its own intellectual property.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/18/microsoft_font_patents_china/

Sprint to Slash 4,000 Jobs After Subscriber Exits

According to Reuters, Sprint Nextel reported deeper-than-expected subscriber losses on Friday and said it would cut about 4,000 jobs, sending its shares down 19 percent to their lowest level in more than five years.

The No. 3 U.S. mobile phone service has been losing ground to bigger rivals such as AT&T Inc amid network and customer service problems that drove away high-value post-paid customers who pay monthly bills.

On Friday, the company reported net losses of 683,000 post-paid subscribers, far worse than analyst forecasts that ranged from a loss of 350,000 to 500,000 subscribers.

"They're trying to keep ahead of a business ... that seems to be springing new leaks faster than they can plug them," said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett.

The subscriber losses likely represented a combination of U.S. economic weakness and Sprint's own competitive problems within the industry, Moffett said.

Sprint predicted further pressures on its ability to attract subscribers and turn a profit in 2008, saying it would cut nearly 7 percent of its work force and close about 8 percent of its stores to improve its performance.

The company plans to shutter 125 stores and eliminate more than 4,000 sales outlets within other retailers. Sprint has about 20,000 total distribution points, including some 1,400 of its own retail stores.

Sprint expects the measures to trim labor costs by an annual rate of $700 million to $800 million by the end of 2008. It will record a first-quarter charge for severance costs.

Some analysts questioned whether Sprint should scale back its retail presence at a time when it most needs to bring customers back to its service.

"While that should save expenses, it really puts the company at risk of even slower growth," said Michael Nelson, analyst at Stanford Group. He said the job cuts could help the company in a period of slower growth, provided the layoffs don't further hurt its customer service operations.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-sprint.html?_r=1&ref
=technology&oref=slogin

iPhone won't hit sales target

While the Jerk of Cupertino appeared happy that Apple had sold four million units of the Iphone in 200 days, or 20,000 per day, the company’s seems set to miss its original target of ten million in one year.

Jobs announced the latest sales figure at Macworld, San Fran. But he seems to have overlooked some key factors. For starters, Q4 is when the majority of mobile phones are sold as people give them to each other for Xmas.

So Apple has gone right past the hot sales season and still has six million handsets to sell. There have been persistent rumours that O2 has been gagged over its actual UKIphones sales.

Plus the news from elsewhere is pretty bad. It seems almost certain that Apple's deal with the world's most important cellular market – China – has fallen flat.

China Mobile has hinted strongly that talks with Apple over the Iphone have stalled. Plus there was a great deal of speculation that Japan's NTT DoCoMo would announce a deal with Apple. But that hasn't happened either.

As the INQ accurately predicted, the Jerk also didn't announce a 3G version of the Iphone in San Fran and instead relied on saying how wonderful the new release, 1.1.3, of the Iphone software was.

The most impressive thing about 1.1.3 appears to be that it has reputedly screwed up owners of legally unlocked Iphones who bought them in France and Germany.

The INQ isn't entirely sure of the veracity of such reports because nobody ever seems to quote an irate owner whose Iphone is now useless.

So reports of Continental Iphones being country locked may be exaggerated.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/01/16/iphone-won-hit-sales-target

Magazine launches Save Windows XP campaign

Hey Vole! Leave XP alone!

Infoworld has launched a petition to save Windows XP – based on the news that the Vole will stop OEM and shrink wrapped sales of XP the end of June.

According to the site, lots of people don’t want to move to a shiny new place, but would prefer to relax in the comfy couch of Microsoft’s last operating system.

It is a fact that Microsoft has a record of getting one OS right and the next one wrong – as examples, DOS 5, Windows for Warehouses and Windows Me Me Me.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/01/17/magazine-launches-save-windows

Sun stashes more cash in Q2

Lost in all the hullabaloo over the $1bn MySQL buy were Sun Microsystems' preliminary second quarter results.

For the quarter ended Dec. 30, Sun posted revenue of $3.6bn - a 1 per cent increase over the $3.57bn reported in the same period last year. Working off preliminary figures, Sun thinks it will report net income between $230m and $265m, which compares with net income of $133m in the previous second quarter. Sun will dive deeper into these figures during a conference call with analysts this afternoon.

Sun was set to report earnings on Jan. 24.

Even with just this glimpse of the numbers, you find a Sun that appears quite healthy. Without question, surging shipments and revenues would be better. But Sun is showing fiscal responsibility by making the most of what it has with trimmed expenses and rising margins (48 per cent, up 3 points year-over-year.)

Sun has yet to release any specifics on product and services revenue, but we'll deliver that information as it arrives.

Having seen IBM, Intel and Sun hand in their results, we're looking at technology sector that's holding its own while surrounded by the doom and gloom fostered by the irresponsible folks in the financial sector. Thanks for nothing, Wall Street.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/16/sun_q2/

Google: White bread for young minds, says prof

Google is “white bread for the mind”, and the internet is producing a generation of students who survive on a diet of unreliable information, a professor of media studies will claim this week.

In her inaugural lecture at the University of Brighton, Tara Brabazon will urge teachers at all levels of the education system to equip students with the skills they need to interpret and sift through information gleaned from the internet.

She believes that easy access to information has dulled students’ sense of curiosity and is stifling debate. She claims that many undergraduates arrive at university unable to discriminate between anecdotal and unsubstantiated material posted on the internet.

“I call this type of education ‘the University of Google’.

“Google offers easy answers to difficult questions. But students do not know how to tell if they come from serious, refereed work or are merely composed of shallow ideas, superficial surfing and fleeting commitments.

“Google is filling, but it does not necessarily offer nutritional content,” she said.

Professor Brabazon, who has been teaching in universities for 18 years, said that the heavy reliance on the internet in universities had the effect of “flattening expertise” because every piece of information was given the same credibility by users.

Professor Brabazon’s concerns echo the author Andrew Keen’s criticisms of online amateurism. In his book The Cult of the Amateur, Keen says: “To-day’s media is shattering the world into a billion personalised truths, each seemingly equally valid and worthwhile.”

Professor Brabazon said: “I’ve taught all through the digitisation of education. It’s fascinating to see how students have changed. We can no longer assume that students arrive at university, knowing what to read and knowing what standards are required of the material that they do read.”

“Students live in an age of information, but what they lack is correct information. They turn to Wikipedia unquestioningly for information. Why wouldn’t they - it’s there,” she said.

Professor Brabazon does not blame schools for students’ cut-and-paste attitude to study. Nor is she critical of students individually.

With libraries in decline, diminishing stocks of books and fewer librarians, media platforms such as Google made perfect sense. The trick was to learn how to use them properly.

“We need to teach our students the interpretative skills first before we teach them the technological skills. Students must be trained to be dynamic and critical thinkers
rather than drifting to the first site returned through Google,” she said.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3182091.ece

Sorry The Jerk Has Taken All the Headlines - We think we're going to hurl!

iPhone Hits a Chinese Wall

The Chinese apparently did not get the memo about Apple hoopla during the week of Macworld.

China Mobile has announced that it has ceased talks with Apple about introducing the iPhone in China. The prospect of the iPhone in a booming new market like China, where there are an estimated 350 million cell-phone users, has been mouthwatering to Apple shareholders.

A spokesman for China Mobile declined to comment on reasons for the termination, but industry analysts have long suspected that the companies would have difficulty agreeing on a revenue-sharing arrangement.

MarketWatch cited an official at China Mobile's data-services department as saying that the company was unwilling to accept Apple's request for a 20 to 30 percent share of China Mobile's user fees from future iPhone users.

While the Chinese market has enormous potential, Apple would still face a number of technical and content issues. The United States retail price of about $400 for an iPhone is nearly double the average monthly salary in China.

The wildly successful iPhone is already available in the United States and Europe, and Apple plans to expand into Asia this year. If the tech giant fails to resume negotiations with China Mobile, it may find another potential Chinese partner in China Unicom.

http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/top-5/2008/01/14/
iPhone-Hits-a-Chinese-Wall/?TID=partnershipbadge

EU launches new probe against Microsoft (What again?)

We wanted to say something about beating a dead horse, but then Redmond has plenty of juice...

Focus this time is on whether Internet Explorer is unfairly tied to the Windows operating system, European Commission says.

According to Reuters, the European Commission opened a new antitrust probe against Microsoft on Monday into whether it unfairly tied its Web browser to the Windows operating system and made it harder for rival software to work with Windows.

The new investigation follows a landmark European Union court decision last September that Microsoft could not exclude rivals by tying its products to its near-monopoly Windows product and must allow rival software to interoperate smoothly.

One complaint was brought by Opera, a Norwegian maker of a Web browser that competes with Internet Explorer.

The second was brought by an industry group, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, which said Microsoft did not disclose enough interoperability information for a range of products.

"This initiation of proceedings does not imply that the Commission has proof of an infringement. It only signifies that the Commission will further investigate the case as a matter of priority," the Commission said

http://www.news.com/EU-launches-new-probe-against-Microsoft/2100-1016
_3-6225997.html?tag=nefd.top

Google betting big on mobile market--and Apple

On Christmas Day thousands of people opened up boxes with something cool and functional inside and wasted no time logging onto Google.com through their brand new iPhones.

As a result of those gifts, the number of global queries to Google's search site from iPhones surpassed the number of queries from people using market-leading Symbian-based phones for the first time. Google calls it the "Christmas cross-over."

That is huge given the fact that the number of iPhone units shipped is tiny compared to the number of Symbian-based phones out there. The cross-over only lasted a few days or so, but it shows the impact the iPhone is having on the telecom industry and provides a glimpse into its future market potential for the Web.

"It's about usage, not just units," Vic Gundotra, vice president of mobile and developer at Google, said in a recent interview with CNET News.com. "The data proves that people are using the browser on the iPhone."

The iPhone revolutionized the industry by making it easy and affordable to use the Web on a cell phone, he says. Google is offering Web apps written for the iPhone browser that bring the PC experience to the mobile device, he says.

On Monday--the first day of Macworld, Google plans to unveil a new user interface for its iPhone Web apps that make Gmail, search, Reader, Calendar, Picasa and other services faster to use and more customizable. It also has optimized iGoogle for the iPhone.

Now, new e-mail messages automatically show up so you don't need to hit refresh, messages can arrive in 25 seconds or less and auto-complete makes composing an e-mail faster. Calendar offers a month-at-a-glance view that isn't yet offered on the desktop. Your favorite apps are in tabs at the top of the screen and they can be switched around.

"This app will work great on Android," Google's mobile software platform launched in November, says Gundotra.

What's next? Will more Google apps join YouTube and Google Maps on the iPhone's home screen that shows up when the device is first turned on?

Gundotra smiles mischievously.

"One thing that bothers me is that (mobile) apps don't work offline," he says when prodded.

Given that Google launched Google Gears, which allows people to work on their Web apps even when they are not connected to the Internet, last May it's likely they'll have something similar for mobile soon.

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9849352-7.html

Music Industry, Sick of Jobs, Embraces Amazon

At the Super Bowl next month, the music industry will be switching teams — from Apple to Amazon.com.

The major record labels lined up with Pepsi-Cola and Apple four years ago to give away 100 million songs through Apple’s online store, unveiling the promotion in a Super Bowl commercial with music from the band Green Day. The effort helped spread the word about Apple’s iTunes offerings.

Pepsi’s promotion is back this year on a much bigger scale — but with the star wattage provided by Justin Timberlake instead of Green Day, and Amazon in place of Apple.

The switch is an indicator of the continuing tension between the music industry and Apple. Pepsi’s earlier ad, set to Green Day’s version of the song “I Fought the Law,” prodded music fans to quit pirating music online and instead buy songs — legally — from Apple’s then-fledgling iTunes. Four years later, iTunes is by far the biggest digital music store, and the industry is taking a liking to Amazon’s rival music service, introduced in September.

Though iTunes blazed a trail in encouraging fans to pay for music online, record executives now complain that Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, wields too much clout in setting prices and other terms. At issue now is whether the labels can help popularize a more industry-friendly service and accelerate the pace of digital sales.

Behind this strategy is a growing desperation: sales of digital albums and songs are rising far too slowly to offset the rapid decline of the CD, the industry’s mainstay product. CD sales slid 19 percent last year; after adding in the 50 million digital albums sold last year and counting every 10 digital songs sold as an album, overall music sales were still down 9.5 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

In trying to nurture Amazon’s service, the four major record companies have offered it one potential edge. One by one, they have agreed to offer their music catalogs for sale on the service in the MP3 format, without the digital locks that restrict users from making copies of the songs. (Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the second-biggest company and the last holdout, signed on last week. Sony BMG is a joint venture of Sony and Bertelsmann).

All of the companies except the EMI Group still require Apple to sell their music wrapped in digital rights management software, or D.R.M., which is intended to discourage rampant copying. Some consumers say D.R.M. creates confusing problems, like a lack of compatibility between most songs and the devices sold by Apple and Microsoft. In fact, it was Mr. Jobs who, in February, called on the industry to drop its longstanding insistence on the use of the software, saying it had failed to rein in piracy.

In any case, the industry is waiting to see whether — and how quickly — Amazon can grow into a credible alternative to iTunes, and whether Mr. Jobs will stand by as his service, which commands as much as 80 percent of digital download sales, is challenged.

“This is really a stare-down,” said one major label executive who was briefed on the new Pepsi promotion and who requested anonymity because he had not been authorized to speak about it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/technology/14clash.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

Does Madonna-Centered Investment Strategy Have A Prayer?

You've gotta be kidding; one U.K.-based firm hopes to turn a hobby into a viable trading strategy, giving investors a real alternative for their alternatives portfolio. Marquee Capital is banking on investing in celebrity memorabilia, specifically that related to the singer Madonna, to drive performance for its one-year-old operation.

The firm, formed by four entrepreneurs, boasts what it calls “the world’s largest collection” of Madonna memorabilia, ranging from outfits she’s worn to a signed American Express card. It also has a collection of items from other celebrities, including Michael Jackson and Elton John.

“As far as we know we’re the world’s first investment vehicle specializing in celebrity memorabilia,” said CEO Chetan Trivedi. “Madonna turns 50 this year and, fan or not, she does represent an opportunity to invest in and we’re going to be holding exhibitions this year globally.”

The firm follows a two-prong strategy: long-term investments spanning at least a decade alongside tactical, event-driven acquisitions. Items once belonging to the likes of Madonna and Marilyn Monroe are held for the long-term, while other memorabilia, such as that of the Jackson 5, are flipped within the six to nine months in connection with events like the group’s proposed reunion tour this year.

http://www.finalternatives.com/node/3263

Whatever Microsoft Wants, Microsoft Gets: But, Logitech?

Investors eye $8bn takeover claim

Microsoft wants to buy mouse maker Logitech, if investor speculation is to be believed.
At this stage, neither company is commenting on the rumour, though it pushed Logitech's Zurich-traded shares up 12 per cent today, according to Reuters.

The big question is why Microsoft would make such a move. Logitech was once the world's leading mouse manufacturer, but Microsoft has built a solid business of its own, and the growth of Asian manufacturers means Logitech' no longer the pointer powerhouse it once was.

But Logitech doesn't just make mice, and its Harmony universal remote control family might complement what Microsoft is doing to drive demand for Windows Media Center. The software giant might also have taken a shine to Logitech's Squeezebox networked music player operation, gained when it acquired Slim Devices last year.

Squeezebox could fit in with Microsoft's plans for its Zune range, and help it compete more effectively with Apple, though the deal would surely cost it future Mac and Linux customers, all of whom are currently supported thanks to Slim Devices' and now Logitech's commitment to open source software.

Microsoft's bid was alleged to value the takeover at $8bn, enough to make it the company's biggest acquisition yet.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/10/ms_wants_logitech/

CD copying legal..... maybe

The UK government is currently considering proposals that could make copying music on to blank CDs legal even as some music groups are protesting that such a move will provide a major boost to illegal file sharing.

Currently laws in the country prohibit copying the contents of a CD on to other devices such as computers or music players such as iPod. The legislation was framed 2 decades ago which makes shifting music files to different medias illegal.

Minister for intellectual property Lord Triesman is expected to finish the public consultation process by April 8. If the proposals are accepted, then users can copy music from one CD to the other for personal use. Copying the contents on to different CDs or indulging in file sharing will continue to be illegal.

Jill Johnstone, who is the director of policy at the National Consumer Council, said that such a move was needed in order to move ahead with the times.

"Copying music and films, say, from one piece of equipment to another for your own private use at home or in the car, is currently illegal - even though advances in technology make it possible. This is confusing for consumers and it brings the law into disrepute. That's why we support moves to update this discredited law", Johnstone added.

While a majority of music industry groups welcomed the proposals, albeit on a cautious note, the Association of Independent Music warned that such a move would leave the law to be exploited once the CDs become obsolete which, the group says, will be the case by the end of next decade.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/171255.html