Economical Mania

NU SUNT AICI NOTELE DE LA ETICA BAH !

2008-02-04T11:10:00.000-08:00

NU SUNT AICI NOTELE DE LA ETICA BAH ! NU SUNT AICI NOTELE DE LA ETICA BAH !
NU SUNT AICI NOTELE DE LA ETICA BAH ! NU SUNT AICI NOTELE DE LA ETICA BAH !
NU SUNT AICI NOTELE DE LA ETICA BAH ! NU SUNT AICI NOTELE DE LA ETICA BAH !
NU SUNT AICI NOTELE DE LA ETICA BAH ! NU SUNT AICI NOTELE DE LA ETICA BAH !

PLAY STATION SALES ! CHECK WIKIPEDIA FOR MORE !

2007-11-27T11:52:00.001-08:00

The PlayStation 3's initial production cost is estimated to have been US$805.85 for the 20 GB model and US$840.35 for the 60 GB model;[55] however, they were priced at US$499 and US$599, respectively.[56] The high manufacturing costs meant that every unit was sold at a loss of approximately $250,[55] contributing to Sony's games division posting an operating loss of ¥232.3 billion (US$1.97 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 2007.[57] In April 2007, soon after these results were published, Ken Kutaragi, the head of gaming at Sony, announced plans to retire. Various news agencies, including The Times[58] and The Wall Street Journal[59] reported that this was due to poor sales, whilst SCEI maintains that Kutaragi had been planning his retirement for six months prior to the announcement.[59]

Since the system's launch, production costs have been reduced significantly as a result of phasing out the EE chip[60] and falling hardware costs.[61][62] The cost of manufacturing Cell microprocessors has fallen dramatically as a result of moving to the 65 nm production process[63][62] and Blu-ray diodes being around $100 cheaper to manufacture.[61][64]

The cumulative reduction in production costs is as follows:

* Blu-ray (cost reduction: US$100)
* Cell B.E. (cost reduction: US$29 – US$40)
* EE removal (cost reduction: US$27)
* Chipset Modifications: Sony has removed a CXD9208GP, 2 RDRAM chips (US$5), and some passives and are planning on moving the RSX graphics chip from 90 nm to 65 nm production process and "the unification of separate smaller ICs — such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi — into single chip solutions and a change to a more specialized Southbridge." (cost reduction: unknown)

This brings the total cost reduction to at least $156 excluding the chipset modifications. Excluding the 65nm Cell B.E. change, the minimum cost reduction based on this approximation becomes $127.[65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72]

On January 7, 2007, Sony met its goal of shipping 1 million units to North America.[73] Just over a week later, on January 16, 2007, Sony confirmed they had shipped 1 million units in Japan, bringing the worldwide total to over 2 million shipped.[74] As of April 1, 2007, approximately 5.5 million units had been shipped worldwide.[57]

In the worldwide marketplace, PlayStation 3 is currently behind its competitor systems, the Xbox 360 and the Wii, both overall and in monthly sales. In Japan the Wii outsold the PS3 by 3 to 1 in August, 4 to 1 in July, 6.5 to 1 in June, 5.6 to 1 in May and 4 to 1 in April;[75][76][77][78] likewise the PS3 sold 2.5 times more units in June than the Xbox 360. In Japan 2,800,576 Wiis have been sold in total, compared to 1,143,798 PS3s; however the Xbox 360, which was released almost a year earlier than its competitors has sold only 380,131 units.[79][80]

In North America, the PS3 was outsold 4.4 to 1 by the Wii and 2.2 to 1 by the Xbox 360 in June 2007, and sold the least units of any seventh generation console in the period January through April.[81] Additionally, the PS3 saw the largest drop in sales of the three systems, selling 37% less in April than the previous month; Sony has attributed the poor sales in April to a lack of new software for the console.[81] In many cases, the system has been outsold by its predecessor, the PlayStation 2.

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA !

Indiana Jones + Tomb Raider for PLAY STATION3

2007-11-27T11:47:00.001-08:00

CALGARY -- Blending the best of the Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider franchises, Uncharted introduces a new hero to the gaming world by the name of Nathan Drake.

If his first adventure is any indication, we'll soon be seeing a lot more of him.

Claiming to be a descendant of the explorer Sir Francis Drake, Nathan convinces a documentarian to pay for retrieval of his ancestor's coffin, as long as she captures it on film. When he pulls it from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, he discovers a coffin empty save for one thing: Francis Drake's personal diary, which contains a 400-year-old map to the fabled treasure of El Dorado.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Sony
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What follows is one of the most entertaining, engaging adventures you're likely to have on PlayStation 3 all year.

On a mysterious Pacific island, fortune hunter Drake tries to track down this priceless treasure while evading mercenaries out to kill him. And that involves a game that seamlessly blends action, adventure and puzzle-solving. Halfway between a 3-D adventure platformer and a third-person shooter, it requires you to use your running-jumping-swinging skills to solve environmental puzzles in order to get to the next spot. Sometimes it's as obvious as swinging from a vine to a ledge. Other times, it can be a frustrating exercise until you finally notice the clue that helps you on your way.

There are some excellent production values, beyond good graphics and audio. As video gaming continues to morph itself closer to cinema, we find in Uncharted some smart dialogue, a strong story, great action and likable characters - elements you'd find in any great Hollywood adventure flick. When some of the puzzle-solving gets tedious, when you have to traverse yet another cliff face by hanging off ledges, the desire to see the story unfold keeps you going.

This is suddenly getting to be a very good year for video gaming, one in which Uncharted: Drake's Fortune could easily be overlooked among such winners as Guitar Hero 3, Halo 3, Heavenly Sword and Call of Duty 4.

In any other year, Uncharted would be the one I'd tell you to hunt down and play right away; you won't be disappointed if you do.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Platform: PlayStation 3

Rated: Teen

Rating: Four-and-a-half stars out of five

MORE ON: SONY PS3 NEWS!

NINTENDO DS sold 21 MILLIONS

2007-11-13T08:25:00.000-08:00

Nintendo announced today that it has sold 21 million DS units world-wide in less than two years, and gave new insight into its expectations for the next-gen Wii console.
Broken down, that equals roughly one DS sold every two minutes.

The DS: soon to be renamed the "Nintendo Cash Cow"
Nintendo also today released their consolidated financial report, which revealed a few interesting predictions about Nintendo's hopes for the Wii: the company expects to sell 6 million Wii consoles by next March, as well as 17 million Wii games.

But ahead of the Wii's holiday launch, the DS's strong sales are already highlighting Nintendo's unique marketing strategy. "We attribute this success," said George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior VP of marketing and corporate communications, "to Nintendo's overall strategy of offering something for everyone, from five-year-olds caring for their Nintendogs to 65-year-olds tuning their mental agility with Brain Age: Train your Brain in Minutes a Day."

Launched in November of 2004, the Nintendo DS has become a popular choice amongst gamers. That's especially true in Japan, where used DSs were recently considered more valuable than a new Sony PSP or Microsoft Xbox 360. The recently released DS Lite, which features a smaller form-factor and brighter screens, is also proving hugely popular world wide.

BioShock ! THE GAME OF GAMES !

2007-11-13T08:22:00.000-08:00

When it comes to high profile games, the weight of expectation can do one of two things to it - Cause it to sink under the weight of its own initial promise, or to ride it like a wave to become the classic that everyone was hoping for during its development cycle.

As far as BioShock goes, that weight of expectation really couldn't get much heavier. For starters, the developers of this game are broadly based around the team who worked on the cult classic, and much venerated, System Shock 2. Couple that with the general feeling of hype and anticipation that has built up around this title across various online communities, particularly over the past few months, and you have a game that will be branded a failure by gamers if it proves to be anything other than 2007's game of the year. That's a pretty big ask for any first-person shooter, no matter how classy its origins or intentions.

For all its delusions of grandeur (to use a rather harsh term) BioShock is, at the end of the day, a first-person shooter. That in itself might be enough to turn some people off of this game as 'just another FPS', and to be honest I can't argue with that line of thought. Although BioShock looks to take the genre to some new places in certain senses, if first-person shooters aren't your thing then I don't see BioShock being different enough to grab your attention.

If you're still reading after that opening paragraph of this section, it's safe to assume that the FPS is still your cup of tea - Welcome to the review!

Once you fire up the game, it takes very little time for you to be hurled headlong into 'Rapture', the world in which BioShock is set. The game begins with a brief introduction as to when and where you are (1960, in case you're wondering), but the next thing you know the plane upon which your character is travelling is plunged as a flaming wreck into the Mid-Atlantic. From here, it's a case of swimming for your life to the conveniently placed monolithic structure in the middle of the ocean - A building which leads to a door, which leads to a capsule, which leads deep under the sea... To Rapture, the creation of a man known as Andrew Ryan.

Like most huge underwater cities in science fiction, Rapture has been built as one man's utopia - A world for the brightest minds in science and art, and the hardest working men and women wishing to escape from the oppression of capitalism, religion, communism and the like. This freedom from the normal constraints of humanity has led to numerous scientific breakthroughs, giving the people of Rapture access to what are known as 'Plasmids' - Serum which can rewrite a person's genetic code to give them, to put it bluntly, super powers. Need to perform telekinesis, or shoot lighting from your hands? Buy yourself the relevant Plasmid, and enjoy your new abilities to your heart's content.

At least, that was the plan, but again, as with all of the best (and indeed cheesiest) science fiction, life is never that simple. As you soon learn upon reaching Rapture itself, the use of Plasmids has had horrific side-effects on the populace, causing anxiety, paranoia and above all, violence. After being thrown into this nightmare scenario, you have no choice but to learn the 'rules' (and I use that term loosely) of this new world, helped along your way by a young Irish fellow named Atlas. But exactly why has everything deteriorated so quickly in Rapture? What is driving the chaos? Who are these young girls wandering the city with huge, terrifying protectors? As you wander around this huge city, the answers slowly begin to present themselves...

After an introduction to Rapture that oozes reminders of that initial train journey in Half-Life, BioShock throws almost non-stop action at you from that moment onwards. Within minutes of leaving the capsule that has taken you down into the bowels of Rapture you'll find yourself needing to defend yourself against so-called 'Splicers' - Inhabitants of the city ravaged by over-use of Plasmids, and not long after that you'll need to take the plunge and become a Plasmid user yourself. A few Plasmid and weapon upgrades later, you'll wind up facing your first 'Big Daddy' - A terrifying creature whose sole purpose in life is to protect its 'Little Sister', those seemingly innocent girls we mentioned earlier who aren't at all what they first seem.

To differentiate itself from the slew of other first-person shooters on the market, BioShock has a couple of claims to fame in its arsenal. The first one is obvious - The presence of Plasmids alongside conventional weapons gives for far more variety when it comes to how you deal with your various opponents in the game, with sensible usage of the two required to progress at a reasonable rate. As you can only 'carry' a limited number of Plasmids at any one time (while others can be stored in your 'gene bank', where they can be switched around at kiosk littering the game's corridors), there is a certain amount of tactical awareness required to make sure you equip yourself with Plasmids that suit your playing style or the tasks assigned to you. This soon becomes second nature as you find a playing style that you're comfortable with, and there will most likely come a point where you find at least one or two Plasmids that become a staple part of your BioShock experience, be it the ability to freeze or electrocute enemies so that you can finish them off with conventional arms through to the use of telekinesis to catch and throw objects. Needless to say, all of these abilities have advantages and disadvantages, which need to be weighed up dependant on various scenarios.

As you progress, things only become more complicated with regard to building up an arsenal of abilities to match your playing style - Aside from Plasmids, you also encounter various other upgrades in a number of disciplines, which are again limited in the number you can actively use at any one time. These range from upgrades to help your hacking skills (more on that later), to the ability to give a small electric shock to your enemies when they manage to land a blow on you. Again, this adds to the more tactical aspects of the game, as juggling these upgrades becomes ever more complex.

Indeed, choosing the path to follow for yourself (aside from the actual base storyline, which is fixed as you might expect) is a real hallmark of this game. Beyond choosing your weaponry and upgrades, one of the biggest choices of all comes each time you face up to a Big Daddy. Once this huge, underwater suit-clad giant has been defeated, you're left with a defenceless, scared Little Sister to deal with. Little Sisters are valuable because they contain a concentration of 'Adam' - In essence, they are the source of points which you can spend on Plasmid upgrades and the like. But, at this point you are left with two options - Harvest the Little Sister for the maximum amount of Eve, or rescue her, turning her back into a normal little girl, but receiving far less Adam in the process. The choice you make at this juncture will change certain elements of the game quite heavily, while also potentially adding replay value - Play the game through once as a nice guy and rescue all the girls, then again as the self-centred type who will happily harvest them all for Adam aplenty.

Even simple tasks offer you several different options to juggle - For example, take coming across one of the electronic sentries that are dotted around Rapture. On one hand, a swift grenade will destroy the sentry easily and put it out of commission. Or, you could try temporarily deactivating it with a bolt of electricity from the relevant Plasmid, and then finishing it off with a hail of bullets. Thirdly, you could deactivate it in the same manner, then race in close up to try and hack the device. At this point, you can pay money or use an autohacking tool (if you've picked one up or bought one on your travels) to hack the device, so that it will then work for you, attacking any of your opponents, or you can hack it the good old-fashioned way - Manually. Choosing this option takes you to a Pipe Dreams-esque sub-game, where you have to complete the puzzle presented to you in time. It's an interesting little distraction from the constant shooting action, and the fact that you don't have to hack devices if you don't fancy tackling this puzzle-based element says it all about the open-ended gameplay BioShock offers. Speaking of sub-games, as you progress you also get to pick up a research camera - This will be somewhat familiar to anyone who has ever played Dead Rising on the Xbox 360, as it allows you to take pictures of Splicers and your opponents in general, which will then be rated and used towards unlocking bonuses to help you defeat the enemies you snap. Another nice little aside to add to the fun factor as you explore Rapture.

Aside from simple game mechanics, BioShock is clearly heavily focused on telling the story of Rapture, and in a suitably atmospheric/creepy atmosphere to boot. This is done in many ways, from the cries of anguished Splicers to promotional posters on the walls, and scrawled graffiti through to audio tapes left lying around the city. Indeed, the last of these is possible the weakest link in the BioShock experience - Although the voice acting and storytelling from these recordings is good in its own right, the whole concept of residents of Rapture leaving said recordings strewn around feels rather forced.

Overall though, the world of Rapture is certainly an immersive one, and the granularity in your choices with regard to weaponry and how you handle certain situations puts it a cut-above many a more generic first-person shooter. Add to that the unique feel of using Plasmids to aid you on your travels, and the basic puzzle element of the hacking sub-game, and you have a surprising amount of depth to enjoy. Thankfully, even the basic moving and shooting side of the game is well polished, with exploring Rapture and switching quickly between weapons and Plasmids quickly becoming second nature. The AI isn't always great, but is often good enough to offer at least something of a challenge later in the game.

Graphics

After exploring the city of Rapture for a while, only one words springs to mind - Sumptuous. Even ignoring the actual graphical quality itself, the imagination behind the artwork and design of the game is difficult to ignore. While the 1940s/1950s style practiced by BioShock has been done to death in science fiction, 2K Games have somehow managed to pull off making it look both fresh and relevant, while also working hard to make sure that every aspect of the game fits into this world stuck in time - Even the brief videos which show when you pick up a new Plasmid take great pleasure in presenting themselves in a tongue-in-cheek 1950s advertising style. Everything from the architecture to the way Splicers are dressed fits perfectly, and it's that kind of attention to detail that helps to immerse you so thoroughly in the game world.

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Of course, if all this wasn't backed up with decent graphics quality it would all go to waste, but thankfully that isn't the case here. 2K Games have leveraged Epic's Unreal Engine 3 here, utilising all it has to offer to make for a really quite beautiful gaming experience. Even with a DirectX 9 graphics board, the game looks stunning, with DirectX 10 functionality offering some additional improvements to water, smoke and shadow effects. As long as you have a relatively powerful GPU though, you can't help but be impressed with the various effects on show - The first seconds when Rapture is revealed to you are a definite 'wow' moment that will stick in your mind for some time. Meanwhile, all of the characters in-game are well-rounded enough visually without ever being overly recognisable, aside from Big Daddies, who are of course the pinnacle of an instantly recognisable (and not to mention creepy) individual within the game world.

Of course, it isn't all perfect from a graphical point of view. The biggest gripe at present is the lack of anti-aliasing in-game, although this is currently working for GeForce 8 series users under Windows XP - Hopefully future drivers will fix this, as the game is sorely in need of AA in places. That aside, my only other complaint is that BioShock seems to have been struck by the 'shiny factor' that we've seen in so many titles since DirectX 9 became prevalent. While some things in-game need to be shiny, on some surfaces it either looks over done or just plain unnecessarily. It isn't hugely distracting most of the time, but it's certainly noticeable on occasion.

One final piece of kudos has to be handed to 2K Games on account of the lighting used within the game. We all remember Doom 3 and its overly dark, flashlight-heavy corridors, which were all designed in the name of atmosphere. However, BioShock finds no need for the player to carry a flashlight, yet still provides a moody, atmospheric and sometimes downright scary scenario without relying on any of the predictable shock tactics of id Software's creation.

Audio

While the quality of audio and voice acting is often a secondary consideration for even high-profile game titles, this really isn't the case with BioShock, as 2K Games have set out to make the audible experience of the game at least as important as its visual impact. On this front, BioShock is nothing short of a tremendous success - Coupled with the overall tense atmosphere of the game, every deranged cry from a splicer and each sound of something being knocked over nearby can really ramp up the tension, and if you don't keep your cool you can soon find yourself spinning around at every little sound, convinced you're about to run into a bunch of Splicers intent on doing you some serious damage. Above and beyond that, sound actually becomes an important part of gameplay, as you find yourself listening for the whirr of security cameras and trying to pin-point exactly where that Big Daddy or Splicer you can hear is located.

Voice acting throughout the game is also good, treading the thin line between sounding genuine and over-acting very nicely. Again, it's the mentally anguished cries of the Splicers that add much to the game's tension, hearing them lament their lives adding both pathos and creepiness to the otherwise abandoned corridors of Rapture. I know that some have expressed frustration with Atlas, the Irishman who helps you through the game via a radio link, but personally I didn't find that it detracted from the game at all at any point. Again, an excellent lesson in how to create a first-person shooter with real atmosphere.

Conclusion

So, BioShock is here, and the hype is turning into actual experience with the game itself. Can it possibly live up to the pre-release hysteria? The answer is, of course, no - No game will ever turn out as good as you envision it in your mind's eye.

But does that make it a disappointment? Absolutely not. BioShock may still be a humble first-person shooter, but boy does it do it well. It has a story that captivates, an atmosphere that is largely second to none, and the whole gameplay experience oozes polish from the graphics and audio down to the control scheme whether you're using keyboard and mouse or an Xbox 360 controller.

SOURCE : EliteBastards.com

NINTENDO SALES OUTBURST !

2007-11-13T08:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Nintendo overtook Canon to become the second most valuable company in Japan, with a current market value of 8.39 trillion yen (a phenomenal £36.4 billion).

Whilst the number one company - Toyota - has a value of over three times Nintendo's, this still represents an astonishing return to form, considering Nintendo make only games consoles, and are up against some of the biggest and most famous companies in the world.

It is not so long ago, with the sale of Rare, with the failure of the Gamecube, with the threat of the PSP looming, with Microsoft banging on the door of the console market, with the DS seemingly a gimmick, that Nintendo seemed to be in waters that were a bit too deep for them to handle.

(more at dsgaming.co.uk)

2007-10-22T03:03:00.001-07:00

Sony pleased by recent PS3 sales climb

Sony has responded to this month's NPD reports on sales. "We were obviously very pleased to see that PS3 sales increased with 159K units sold at retail for the month of July, which puts us up 61% over June numbers." Impressive! Although the PS3 didn't outsell the Xbox 360, it got close (the Xbox 360 sold 180k).

The sales increase is most likely spurred by the recent price drop, but also the upcoming library of games that will be arriving on the PS3. However, it seems unlikely that Europe will receive a price drop. In a statement to Next-Gen, the always outspoken David Reeves admitted that a price drop so early in the game would be like admitting defeat. "Had we gone down in price in July, that's three months after we launched PS3. It'd be kind of like saying, 'hey, we failed.' But we didn't. We've been selling through much more than we ever thought we would be, even in Germany. If [a price cut is] what they want to do in the US, fine... But we don't need to do it in Europe."

With games like Warhawk and Heavenly Sword available in the coming weeks, it'll be interesting to see how Sony's next-gen platform fares. Until then, Sony can enjoy the still-incredible sales of PS2 hardware and software.

Source: PS fanboy !

Nintendo DS Sales Pass 50 Million

2007-10-01T06:50:00.001-07:00

The popular DS handheld has surpassed 50 million in worldwide sales says Tech.co.uk; nearly as fast as Apple sells iPods.

According to the report, almost 40 percent of DS owners reside in Japan. That means one in six people own a DS in the country.

Only a handful of products reach the seminal 100 million milestone. Apple announced in April that it had sold its 100 millionth iPod player, doing so in only five and a half years. It took Sony 13 and a half years to sell 100 million Walkmans, 10 years to sell 100 million units of the original PlayStation, and five an a half years to sell 100 million PlayStation 2 machines.

Nintendo's personal best is 100 million GameBoys sold in 11 years; something the company's newest portable should easily surpass in much less time. By comparison, Sony's PlayStation handheld has sold 25 million units to date.

The DS was first released in late 2004. In 2006, Nintendo released the DS Lite, a more streamlined version of the original.

For more computer gaming news, visit GamePro. Story copyright © 2007 IDG Entertainment. All rights reserved.

(source PC WORLD)

Nintendo DS Sales Top 50 Million

2007-10-01T06:49:00.001-07:00

In just 3 years, Nintendo has sold more than 50 million DS units. Sure, that number includes two iterations of the portable—both the original fatty version and the updated light—but we offer the same sales flexibility to other consumer electronics, like iPods and PS2s.

Given that Nintendo took 11 years to move over 100 million GameBoys, the DS is on track to become the most successful portable gaming system of all time, even if the new PSP Slim outsold the DS last week in Japan.

Apple Opens A Pantera’s Box With The iBrick

2007-10-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

Apple Opens A Pantera’s Box With The iBrick
September 28th, 2007

Apple appears to have opened a veritable Pantera’s box with its decision to fight hackers with an update that could turn your iPhone into an iBrick.

We tested the update and it worked perfectly on an unhacked, locked iPhone. The update adds several great new features, including the iTunes WiFi store, which is more useful and usable than we expected, and double-clicking options for the Home button.

Unfortunately, the update also is turning some users’ phones into iBricks, which has unleashed a sh**storm of discussion:

* The New York Times is unusually tuned-in on this issue. They say that “Apple essentially has two choices. Either it exposes most of the iPhone’s capabilities to developers. Or it will have to gird for an ever escalating war in which it will have to send ever more electronic brick-bombs to its best customers who don’t follow its strict rules.”
* PodTech’s Robert Scoble thinks Apple has a PR nightmare on its hands. “Tons of people on Twitter are reporting problems with their iPhones. Including my son. Patrick’s iPhone lost all of its data.”
* MacWorld’s Jonathan Self bricked his iPhone and survived to tell the story.
* Wired says that Apple’s plan to turn your hacked iPhone into an iBrick is legally sound. “After talking to a handful of lawyers this week, it seems abdundantly clear that Apple is entirely within its right to refuse warranty service on unlocked iPhones.”

The group of people that are most likely to blog about the iPhone are people pushing the limits of what they can do with the phone, even if that means unlocking it and hacking it. By fighting customization and carrier freedom, Apple is also fighting some of the most vocal people on the Internet.

Apple needs to find a middle ground, giving users some ability to load up apps - perhaps “sandboxed” to minimize potential side effects. If the main justification is keeping rogue apps from tieing up AT&T’s already slow Edge network, then perhaps Apple could limit sandboxed apps to communicating via the device’s WiFi connection.

Apple has a fantasic product on its hands with the iPhone - but it’s even more fantastic when you can customize it by adding your own ringtones and applications and use it with the service provider of your choice.

(thanks to source: podcastingnews)

Apple Sells One Millionth iPhone (states apple.com)

2007-09-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

CUPERTINO, California—September 10, 2007—Apple® today announced it sold its one millionth iPhone™ yesterday, just 74 days after its introduction on June 29. iPhone combines three devices into one—a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod®, and the best mobile Internet device ever—all based on Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface and pioneering software that allows users to control iPhone with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers.

“One million iPhones in 74 days—it took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.”

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video

Note: information taken from apple.com

p.s. this in amazing ... selling so many Iphones in 74 days ... I wonder how apple will do in 10 years from now ... what will become of microsoft and windows vista ...
forexample we might buy apple cars in the future ... no more ferrari or lamborghini

APPLE SALES

2007-07-23T07:46:00.002-07:00

Apple Inc. is expected to show a 35 per cent surge in quarterly profit this week, but the focus will be on just two days: the last 48 hours of June when its highly anticipated iPhone went on sale.

The iPhone contributed virtually none of the $637 million Apple is forecast to have earned, but investors are eager for the first official word on how many of the combination phone, Web browser, media player devices were sold at launch.

“Perhaps the most significant catalyst from the report will be feedback regarding initial iPhone demand,” Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore said in a research note. “We believe initial iPhone demand is very robust.”

Wall Street reckons Apple sold up to 700,000 iPhones in the first weekend, but the company is booking sales from the $500 and $600 handsets as subscription revenue over two years, so only one-eighth of that will show up in the income statement when it is released Wednesday.

Optimism over the iPhone's prospects have helped push up Apple shares nearly 50 per cent, to $143.75, since Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled the product in early January.

But analysts say that until iPhone shipments reach tens of millions of units a year, Apple's underlying financial performance will still be driven largely by its Macintosh computers and iPod music players.

For Apple's third fiscal quarter, analysts are looking for unit shipments of Mac computers to rise more than 25 per cent from a year earlier, led by new laptops with upgraded parts.

The Mac growth rate is more than double that of the overall PC market, thanks partly to iPod buyers switching to Mac computers, and recent industry figures show Apple gaining share against PCs running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system software.

“We believe that Apple is gaining share in PCs and that its growth continues to outpace the PC market,” Lehman Bros. analyst Harry Blount said.

Shipments of iPods are expected to have risen more than 20 per cent from a year earlier, but fallen short of the previous quarter as consumers postponed purchases in anticipation of the iPhone and new iPod models expected later this year.

Profit margins would be helped by stable or falling prices of memory chips, though few expect Apple to match the 35.1 per cent margin it saw in its second quarter.

“In addition, strong demand for higher-end Macs should also support better-than-anticipated gross margins,” Deutsche Bank's Whitmore said.

All that adds up to an expected profit of $637.5 million, or 72 cents per share, compared with $472 million, or 54 cents per share, a year earlier, according to the average forecast on Reuters Estimates.

Sales are seen coming in at $5.29 billion, up 21 per cent from $4.37 billion a year earlier.

One place where Apple will see instant benefit from iPhone sales is in its balance sheet.

While iPhone revenue is spread out over two years, that is ultimately an accounting trick and Apple will still bank the cash from each sale right away.

“We expect Street focus to be on iPhone units and ‘booked' revenue,” PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster said.

Munster also estimated that AT&T Inc., the exclusive iPhone network provider for two years, is paying Apple $3 a month for each subscriber, plus $8 for customers who switched from another carrier.

On Friday, Munster raised his price target on Apple shares to $205, saying that was justified by an iPhone “tidal wave” that would see 45 million units sell in 2009 at an average price of $330.

“One thing we learned with the iPod is that when a device is game-changing, the demand will come. However, it is difficult to predict the inflection point,” when a product moves beyond niche appeal to widespread market success, Munster said.

He noted that investors over the past month have shown little awareness of just how big an impact the iPhone will have on earnings down the road.

IPhone news again ... love this thing

2007-07-23T07:46:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK: With lines snaking around Apple stores and hype in overdrive, the iPhone seemed like a good investment — not for keeping but for reselling.

There are, after all, plenty of examples of popular products in short supply attracting huge premiums on sites like eBay and Craigslist. Think Sony's PlayStation 3, Nintendo Co.'s Wii or Fisher-Price's Tickle Me Elmo.

To try out the online market in this overheated atmosphere, I bought an iPhone and listed it on eBay.

This wannabe profiteer lost money. It turns out lessons for investing in stock and real estate apply to flipping iPhones: Learn as much as you can about market conditions, trust your instinct, understand how the process works and take into account all the transaction costs.

Neither Apple nor carrier AT&T were much help in figuring how many iPhones would be available at launch last month, but all indications — pointed to a shortage. Lines formed days before they went on sale and advanced reviews were raving.

Though I initially wanted one for myself, I passed after studying the specs of the hybrid cell phone, media player and wireless Internet browser. It was too pricey at $499 and $599, and its limited memory wasn't enough for my music. And since I have a decent cell phone plan on another carrier, I wasn't itching to switch to AT&T and its pokey data network.

Then I found myself surfing eBay the day after the iPhone was released, and noticed some were going for well above the retail price. If I could get hold of one, reselling it didn't seem like a big risk because I could return it within two weeks for a full refund if it was still wrapped and unused.

With my laptop still open in front of me, I called the Apple store on Manhattan's posh Fifth Avenue, where just days earlier a crowd of ardent Apple fans camped out just to make sure they were the first to get their mitts on the gadget.

"Hey, do you have any more iPhones?" I asked a saleswoman, expecting a sigh and negative answer.

Surprisingly, she said the phones were still in stock. Without spending much more time thinking about it, I headed to the store expecting a circus.

When I arrived, there was no mob or even a line. Though a swarm of customers surrounded an iPhone display, the scene was surprisingly calm.

I walked up to a salesperson, asked whom I needed to speak with to purchase an iPhone, and was pointed toward an almost-empty checkout area.

HARRY POTTER

2007-07-15T14:41:00.001-07:00

The fifth film based on J.K. Rowling's novel about a British boy wizard is the No. 1 movie at the box office this weekend after breaking the record for a non-holiday U.S. debut.
July 15 2007: 3:02 PM EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" whisked its way to No. 1 at movie box offices with weekend ticket sales of $77.4 million and a five-day total of just over $140 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The fifth film based on J.K. Rowling's novel about the British boy wizard broke a record for a U.S. and Canadian debut on the Wednesday of a non-holiday week, topping the five-day total for "Shrek 2" at $128.9 million, said Dan Fellman, chief of domestic distribution at Warner Bros.
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"Order of the Phoenix" sold more tickets in its initial five days than the first three "Potter" movies in their initial week and fell behind only the fourth, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," with $146 million in its first seven days.

Rowling's seventh and final novel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," is set to debut on bookshelves on July 21, and Warner Bros. already is working on movies No. 6 and No. 7.

"It's an amazing franchise," Fellman said. "The book comes out in a week, and that should help set the last two up for another big score."

Overall, the first four films have grossed $3.5 billion at global box offices.

Meanwhile, last week's champion, alien robot movie "Transformers," racked up another $36 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices to land at No. 2 on the charts.
Bay's best

"Transformers" dropped 49 percent from last week and its overall total now stands at $223 million. In just 10 days, it has become the highest grossing film of director Michael Bay's career, topping $201 million for "Armageddon,"

The No. 3 movie was Disney's (Charts, Fortune 500) "Ratatouille," about a food-loving rat who longs to be a chef in Paris. It cooked up a weekend total of $18 million, down 38 percent from one week ago, and its cumulative total is now $143 million.

Disney's domestic distribution chief, Chuck Viane, said the movie now appears on track to top $200 million, overall.

Coming in No. 4 was action adventure "Live Free or Die Hard," starring Bruce Willis, with $10.8 million to bring its overall gross to $103 million.

Rounding out the top five was romantic comedy "License to Wed" with $7.4 million over the weekend for a total to $30.5 million.

IPHONE NANO ?

2007-07-12T13:26:00.001-07:00

Since Apple scored a success with its stripped-down Nano version of the iPod music player, many have been expecting a similar move with the iPhone.
Apple may meet their expectations with a phone based on the slim iPod Nano itself.

Combing through filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, JP Morgan analyst Kevin Chen found a new product suspiciously tantamount to an iPhone Nano in a patent that was filed by Apple on Nov. 1, but only published by the patent office July 5.

“Invention pertains to a user interface for controlling an electronic device, particularly a multifunctional electronic device that is capable of operating in multiple modes as for example a phone mode for communications and a media player mode for playing audio files, video files, and the like,” Chen wrote in a report released Monday, quoting from the filing verbatim.

That patent also suggests the use of a scroll wheel, similar to the iPod.

After sounding out suppliers, Chen concluded that Apple is planning an iPhone Nano, a cheaper version of the iPhone with limited functionality, and lacking the iPhone's distinctive capacitive touch screen. The launch date: the fourth quarter of this year, Chen believes.

At the end of the day, Chen believes this strategy is most likely to evolve into a wholesale conversion of the iPod Nano into a cheap iPhone to avoid cannibalizing the two low-priced products and boost sales, likely to the range of around 30 million and 40 million units, assuming no bottleneck supply problem.

That sale volume estimate would be slightly lower than the 50 million units of iPods that Apple sells in a year and the number of the wildly popular Razr phones that Motorola sold in 2006.

Its Taiwanese metal casings supplier for the iPod Nano, Catcher, is positioned to become its major supplier for casings for the iPhone Nano, he said.

It could translate into a revenue stream of between 6 billion New Taiwan dollars ($183 million) and 8 billion New Taiwan dollars ($245 million) for Catcher, up from projected yearly revenue in fiscal 2007 of between 18 billion New Taiwan dollars ($550 million) and 19 billion New Taiwan dollars ($581 million).

Catcher shares soared on the news in morning trading Monday in Taipei, rising 22 New Taiwan dollars (67 cents), or 6.9%, to 339.5 New Taiwan dollars ($10.40). Catcher shares have risen steadily since last August from 275 New Taiwan dollars amid a concerted rally of Taiwanese iPod suppliers.

iPhone's casings are mainly supplied by Foxconn Technology, the Hong Kong-listed unit of Taiwanese electronics conglomerate Hong Hai Precision Industry.

An iPhone Nano most likely would retail for around $300 and could go lower — between $99 and $149 — if cellular service providers were to subsidize it, Chen wrote. Mobile phone services providers often discount phones as a lure to lock subscribers into long-term contracts.

That would create a clear price segmentation with the current iPhone, whose high-storage 8-gigabyte model sells for $599. The 4-gig model goes for $499. (See: “ Will iPhone’s Momentum Last?”)

The high price of the iPhone could prevent it from reaching a mass market, but a cheaper Nano model would help bridge that gap.

Apple refused to accept subsidies on the iPhone from its cellular partner AT&T in order to maintain flexibility in retail pricing and avoid cannibalizing iPod sales. In return, AT&T has been rewarded with an unusually lengthy exclusive contract on the phone of five years.

Microsoft extends Xbox 360 warranty

2007-07-09T00:46:00.002-07:00

Under a new warranty, Microsoft will pay for shipping and repairs for three years, worldwide, for consoles afflicted with what gamers call "the red ring of death."

Microsoft(MSFT) on Thursday extended the warranty on its Xbox 360 video game console and said it will take a charge of more than $1 billion to pay for "anticipated costs."

Under the new warranty, Microsoft will pay for shipping and repairs for three years, worldwide, for consoles afflicted with what gamers call "the red ring of death." Previously, the warranty expired after a year for U.S. customers and two years for Europeans.

Microsoft said it should take two to four weeks to repair damaged consoles.

The charge will be $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion for the quarter ended June 30. Microsoft reports its fourth-quarter results July 19.

The announcements come amid customer complaints and speculation among bloggers that Microsoft was running out of "coffins," special return-shipping boxes Microsoft provides to gamers with dead consoles.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Thursday | Microsoft | Xbox | Bach | Robbie Bach

Microsoft acknowledged "an unacceptable number of repairs." It said it had investigated the sources of hardware failures indicated by three red flashing lights. The software giant has made manufacturing and production changes to reduce the hardware failures, says Robbie Bach, president of the entertainment and devices division.

"There isn't one certain problem; it's a combination of a number of different factors," Bach said in an interview.

Bach declined to say what Microsoft fixed, nor would he say how many gamers sent in machines for repair. The percentage is "a meaningful number, and it has our attention," he said.

Microsoft shipped 11.6 million Xboxes through June, compared with a target of about 12 million, CFO Chris Liddell said in a conference call Thursday.

"The majority of Xbox 360 owners are having a great experience with their console and have from Day One," Bach added.

Analysts said the scope of the problem, plus nagging concerns about the reliability of the Xbox 360 — introduced to much fanfare in November 2005 — forced Microsoft to take drastic actions.

"Microsoft is finally acknowledging that there's a serious problem and doing what it has to do to keep existing customers happy and buying games," says Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft.

But the charge and change in warranty could hinder sales as Microsoft dukes it out with Sony(SNE) and Nintendo in the $12.5 billion console market, he says.

Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, which makes the Xbox 360 and the Zune digital music player, reported an operating loss of $315 million on $929 million in sales in the third quarter this year.

Microsoft made its announcements after markets closed. Its stock fell 11 cents to $29.88 in after-hours trading.

(Source USA Today)

Apple Issues Battery Program for IPhone

2007-07-09T00:46:00.001-07:00

A consumer advocacy group has expressed outrage over Apple Inc.'s battery replacement program for the iPhone, while developers and hackers are trying to figure out ways they could expand the capabilities of the hot new gadget.

The hybrid cell phone, iPod media player and wireless Web-browsing device launched to much fanfare on June 29. On the same day, the Foundation for Consumer and Taxpayer Rights fired off a letter to Apple and AT&T Inc., the cell phone's exclusive carrier, complaining that customers were being left in the dark about the procedure and cost of replacing the gadget's battery.

The iPhone's battery is apparently soldered on inside the device and cannot be swapped out by the owner like most other cell phones.

Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Hakes said Thursday the company posted the battery replacement details on its Web site last Friday after the product went on sale.

Users would have to submit their iPhone to Apple for battery service. The service will cost users $79, plus $6.95 for shipping, and will take three business days.

The procedure is similar to the one it has for the company's best-selling iPod players, but because some users will not want to live without their cell phones, Apple is also offering a loaner iPhone for $29 while the gadget is under repair.

Harvey Rosenfield, founder of the Santa Monica, Calif.-based consumer watchdog group that wrote the letter last week, contends the iPhone's battery and repair costs should have been clearly disclosed earlier. The company outlined its cellular service rates and many other features of the iPhone in advance of its launch, which drew snaking lines around stores across the country.

"Some of them might be waking up now," Rosenfield said, "wondering who they got in bed with."

Apple did not have an immediate comment on the consumer group's concerns.

Rosenfield said he didn't detect the battery information, which is located under several layers of links on Apple's support page on its Web site, until earlier this week. Technology blogs also started reporting their discoveries of it this week while one of the questions Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg fielded Thursday from his readers was about what happens when the iPhone battery dies.

"The cell phone industry is notorious for not being consumer-friendly while Apple has a fairly good reputation, so for Apple to stand on a technicality of a hidden disclosure that's going to cost the user as much as 20 percent of the purchase price I think will prove to be a colossal mistake," Rosenfield said.

The iPhone costs $499 or $599, depending on the model, and requires a minimum two-year $60-a-month service plan with AT&T.

The consumer and taxpayer organization has gone to court over these kinds of issues in the past. It is embroiled in a pending lawsuit against Cingular, now part of AT&T, over its service termination fees, and is also one of the plaintiffs in a pending lawsuit against Apple over an early model iPod Nano that was allegedly defective because it scratched easily.

In addition, Rosenfield said, replacing the iPhone battery should be free to begin with while the product is under its one-year warranty.

He also questioned why Apple chose to go against the norm of what cell phone users are accustomed to -- swapping out their own batteries and generally at a cost that is less than half of what Apple is charging now for the iPhone.

"I'm just surprised at Apple's decision to defy the common practice of allowing people to purchase replacement batteries," he said. "And the fact that the information is buried is just not appropriate."

Apple has not disclosed how many iPhones were available at launch, though analysts have speculated the amount was 500,000 or more. AT&T said the gadget had sold out at most of its stores on the night of the launch while many Apple stores ran out of stock by early this week. Those ordering the iPhone online through Apple's Web site on Thursday were being promised delivery would be in two to four weeks.

Meanwhile, software developers anxious to find ways they could introduce applications tailored for the iPhone's Web browser were preparing to get together in Silicon Valley this weekend at an ad hoc conference called iPhoneDevCamp.

Also, a tech-savvy audience cheered the latest work this week of a hacker known for cracking copy-protection technology and creating workarounds of Apple products. Jon Lech Johansen, also known as "DVD Jon," posted on his blog Tuesday a method for people to turn on the iPod and Wi-Fi features -- but not the cell phone functions -- of the iPhone without going through the required activation process and service fees of AT&T.
(Source MSN Money)

Asia needs to continue financial reforms

2007-07-04T15:09:00.000-07:00

What Asia has learnt from the Asian Financial Crisis? Can Asia weather another crisis? These are the questions that local political and financial leaders keep asking themselves and being asked by media exactly 10 years after the worst financial disaster to hit the region on July 2, 1997.

The answer is mixed. Some analysts believe Asia is much better off now and the likelihood of another crisis is minimal as the economies are doing well and the region has continued to reform banking and broaden capital markets. But others warn of “something is coming.” As Singapore ‘s Second Financial Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam told the World Economic Forum on East Asia meeting last Sunday there is a big build-up in global finances and risks which is fueling fears of a big shock to come, “Although everything seems fine now, there are bubbles everywhere in commodities and even in property markets.”

On July 2, 1997, the Thai government, after months of struggling against international speculative capital, was forced to announce the abandonment of its US-dollar-pegged foreign exchange system. The ensuing daily slump of the Thai baht by some 20 percent sparked the Asian Financial Crisis, which quickly enveloped most of the Asian economies, including Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea and Hong Kong of China, as well as incurred huge losses.

Today, Asia’s economies are once again experiencing robust growth, at a rate much faster than the rest of the world. Asia’s combined gross domestic product (GDP) grew by over 5 percent last year, at its strongest since the crisis.

One important lesson Asia has learned, Singapore’s Minister of State for Finance Lim Hwee Hua said recently, is the need to maintain high standards of institutional quality, governance and transparency of the financial system.

“These are critical prerequisites of establishing sound macroeconomic frameworks and building robust and stable financial sectors. This would in turn enable countries to reap the potential gains from financial globalization whilst mitigating the risks of capital volatility,” she said. Joseph Stiglitz echoed this point of view, telling Monday’s The Straits Times, a local English daily, that government matters, regulatory oversight is essential, and the rule of law is crucial.

He cited Singapore as the country that weathered the storm best, because it has the best-developed regulatory systems. After paying costly tuition fee, Asian countries now routinely publish information concerning their external debt positions. Regional central banks have also moved on to more clearly-defined monetary policy frameworks, and have undertaken to publish regular monetary policy statements.

“There have also been material initiatives to reform financial sectors and improve corporate governance,” Minister of State for Finance Lim said, adding that “at the regional level, we have also seen a number of regional initiatives aimed at enhancing financial integration and resilience through increased policy dialogue and capital market development.”

She also noted that another development is to strengthen bond market, once the weakness area in the financial system.

Following the crisis, individual countries started to build more liquid and efficient local currency bond markets. As at 2006, the capitalization of Asian local bond markets was US $2.7 trillion, 4.5 times higher than that before the crisis. In addition, only 15 percent of private sector financing was raised through the bond market in 1997 while it is almost a quarter now.

In a word, analysts agreed that weaknesses of 10 years ago have been fixed. Bankruptcy laws have been tightened, regulators now exercise much greater oversight over the banking sector, current account deficits have been turned into surpluses, and foreign exchange reserves are at all-time highs. However, they warned that the region faces new threats, such as the mounting global imbalance, the surges of capital flows.

Gerard Walsh, regional director of Asia for the Economist Intelligence Unit in London, told local English daily TODAY, “You have to wonder how big trade imbalances can remain without causing a backlash. Asia would be intimately involved in risks in world trade emanating from that.” Lim also pointed out that one challenge that many Asian countries face is surges in capital flow. “Surges in inflows can exert strong upward pressure on currencies, and potentially contribute to asset price bubbles.”

Economist Joseph Stiglitz agreed that unusual flows of capital can produce virulent boom-bust cycles. Manu Bhaskaran, head of economic research at the Centennial Group, told TODAY: “The price of risky assets has soared, suggesting investors are generally too sanguine on risk. A small change in sentiments could lead to massive reversals of capital flows.”

Furthermore, Stiglitz, also a Nobel laureate in economics, said in an article published by Monday’s The Straits Times that there are two most important lessons of the crisis that have not been learnt.

The first is that capital market liberalization opening up developing countries’ financial markets to surges in short-term “ hot” money is dangerous.

The second lesson is that in a highly integrated world, there is a need for a credible international financial institution to design the rules of the road in ways that enhance global stability and promote economic growth in developing countries, he added. So, reforms are still needed. Lim Hwee Hua urged that regulators and market players must remain committed to banking reforms and seek to further broaden and deepen capital markets. Creating a more integrated regional market to increase attractiveness to investors is also pivotal, she added.

While MasterCard, the world’s second-biggest credit card, in its latest insights report released on Monday, entitled Asia- Pacific 10 Years After the Crisis, suggests a paradigm shift from the region’s successful export-led approach to globalize services, in order to build a robust, resilient and efficient financial sector that can withstand new risks to economic stability. courtesy xinhua people’s daily online

2007-07-04T14:15:00.001-07:00

CNN states that he first cars made by Chery could hit North America, Europe and other major automotive markets within three years.

BEIJING (Reuters) -- The first made-in-China Chrysler cars, built by local partner Chery Automobile Co., could reach the United States or Europe within 30 months, as ambitious Chinese rivals race to penetrate the world's big auto markets.

Ten-year old Chery, Geely Automobile and Brilliance China Automotive Holdings already export to developing markets, but have had little success in mature markets where competition is more intense.
Chrysler, China carmaker near deal

Will a new subcompact from a Chinese company help Chrysler survive? CNN's Eunice Yoon reports (April 20)

The two partners will develop, manufacture and distribute Chery-made small and sub-compact cars in North America, Europe and other major automotive markets under Chrysler brands.

The first exports will be a Dodge model, but will not be to the U.S. or Europe.

"The first product within one year, and then into the United States and Western Europe within two to three years," Chrysler Group Chief Executive Tom LaSorda told reporters Wednesday at a ceremony marking the strategic alliance.

Chrysler needs a partner to help develop small cars because of the cost of designing, making and marketing a vehicle in a segment where prices and margins are small, analysts said.

"I would say there are endless possibilities," said LaSorda. "We are looking at multiple approaches," adding that volumes could be "maybe 50,000 or 100,000 and maybe more" depending on the region.

But like the Koreans and Japanese before them, the price advantage enjoyed by Chinese exporters is offset by poor quality, outdated design and the lack of brand recognition.
Quality matters

A Brilliance unit said last week the failure of its BS6 sedan to pass a crash test in Germany was only a temporary setback and it still expected to sell 158,000 cars in Europe over the next five years.

Jiangling Motors Group's sport utility vehicle Landwind failed the same test in 2005, fueling doubts about the reliability of Chinese-made vehicles.

China, the world's second-largest auto market, last year became a net vehicle exporter for the first time, but sales were mostly to South Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

The Chrysler-Chery tie-up was first announced last year but was delayed due to the sale of Chrysler by parent DaimlerChrysler AG (Charts) to Cerberus Capital Management.

Chery, a medium-sized auto company based in eastern China, has posted fast sales growth at home by offering a line-up of inexpensive vehicles, but must convince European and American consumers it can build safe vehicles.

"Quality and safety are our main concerns," said Yin Tongyao, Chery's chief executive.

With the Chery deal, Chrysler sees its sales outside North America doubling over the next four to five years, as it branches out from the NAFTA region, its home market.

That development path has helped many local automakers expand rapidly to where they now account for around a quarter of China's car sales - a market that roared ahead at 30 percent last year - and could capture a 40 percent share within four years.

(source CNN.COM ... check out for the rest of this news excerpt and other stunning news)

BlackBerry 8830 information ...

2007-07-03T12:04:00.001-07:00

Bell Canada today announced the availability of the much-anticipated BlackBerry(R) 8830 World Edition smartphone, offering worldwide roaming, true high-speed Internet access, and advanced multimedia applications such as GPS navigation.

The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition from Bell is the first BlackBerry smartphone to take advantage of the world's two leading wireless network technologies. It offers the high speed Internet access and premium North American coverage of CDMA networks in Canada, the United States and Mexico, and the global reach of GSM/GPRS technology when clients travel around the world.

"Bell Mobility is proud to be the first to bring the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition to Canada, and to offer the only BlackBerry smartphone with the ability to operate on both high-speed CDMA voice and data networks in North America and GSM networks outside of North America," said Wade Oosterman, President of Bell Mobility. "The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition is a sophisticated and powerful multimedia communications device that truly offers the best of both worlds."

"BlackBerry smartphones continue to provide an unmatched mobile experience for people who want a full-featured phone to help them stay connected and productive in their personal and professional lives," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO of Research In Motion. "The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition is a stellar choice for customers with its international roaming support, GPS functionality, multimedia features and a thin and stylish design."

Operating on the most powerful data network in Canada, the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition offers GPS navigation capabilities, instant messaging, mobile browsing and other robust multimedia applications:

*
GPS Navigation offers turn-by-turn navigation capability with audio voice and onscreen functionality supported by 2D and 3D maps; using RIM's intuitive user interface with an easy-to-use trackball, clients can easily initiate route requests right from the BlackBerry address book
*
Customer Relationship Management and Sales Force Automation tools allow clients to record sales leads, manage contacts, obtain product inventory and pricing details, revise forecasts and recall complete customer histories in real time
*
Field Force Automation applications let clients manage work orders and status reports, accurately track equipment and supplies, and enable the electronic dispatch of mobile field staff to ensure the most cost-efficient deployment of resources
*
Business Continuity and Emergency Preparedness tools allow clients to manage events that can disrupt business operations and critical data networks in real time, with the sophisticated communications and process tools they need when every second counts.

The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition can also easily tether to a laptop computer to double as a wireless modem operating on the Bell wireless high speed network. Clients can also subscribe to Smart Connect, a Bell service that delivers seamless connectivity across multiple wireless networks, including EVDO, public and private WiFi hotspots, and virtual private networks.

Offering extensive multimedia capabilities, the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition also includes a media player for videos, music and photos and access to the world's most popular instant messaging network, Windows Live Messenger, exclusively available from Bell Mobility.

The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition is now available for as little as $299.95 on a three-year term. For more information, please visit bell.ca/fastest.

(source BlackBerry.com)

AT&T says iPhone activation improving

2007-07-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

While blogs continue to simmer with complaints from people who waited months to buy an iPhone and now are experiencing problems activating it, AT&T Inc. said Sunday that the situation has improved.

'We are working on any issues on an individual basis with customers who were impacted,' said Michael Coe, a spokesman for AT&T, the Apple Inc. device's exclusive carrier. Nearly all customers have been able to activate their phones within five to eight minutes, he said.

Without activation, not even the phone's alarm clock works, leading some unhappy customers to joke that their inactive iPhones are little more than expensive paperweights.

AT&T attributed the problems to overloaded servers as large number of customers tried to activate their phones over the weekend. After being hit with the initial onslaught, AT&T made technical adjustments to its activation system so that new users wouldn't face the same delays, Coe said.

Customers with corporate accounts might also experience delays because AT&T needs authorization from the telecommunications manager at their company to switch them to an individual account, he said.

Timothy Johnson, 36, of Collegeville, Pa., said his phone was activated Sunday afternoon, about two days after he bought it.

'The experience of the activation is unacceptable,' Johnson said. 'It all just reeks of ill-preparedness to me.'
Johnson said he was happy with the iPhone and credited Apple for acknowledging the problem. But he expressed concerned about the type of service he would get from AT&T in the future.

Rob Enderle, an industry analyst with The Enderle Group, said the activation problems probably won't hurt iPhone sales.

'This kind of thing is not unusual when you have this number of people trying to buy something all at once,' Enderle said.

Depending on how the companies handle customer's complaints, it could in fact help, he said. If customers feel the company has treated them well, they are more likely to buy and recommend its products in the future.

'It doesn't matter whether your product breaks or not,' Enderle said. 'It matters how well you treat your customers.'
The iPhone, which also serves as an iPod media player and a wireless Web device, went on sale Friday evening after months of anticipation. Thousands of people lined up in front of Apple and AT&T stores across the country to be among the first to get one.

Apple has been updating its Web site nightly to report which of its stores have iPhones in stock. Nearly all AT&T stores have sold out, Coe said.

Bell Canada in one of biggest buyouts ever (very very kool)

2007-07-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

he parent of Bell Canada said Saturday it agreed to be bought by a group led by two private equity firms and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan for about $33 billion (U.S.) in cash in one of the biggest leveraged buyout deals in history.

Including the purchasers' assumption of $16 billion in debt, the value of the deal to buy BCE Inc. is worth about $48.6 billion.

The pension plan along with U.S.-based Providence Equity Partners and Madison Dearborn Partners won out over several other bidders, BCE said in a statement.

BCE has about 54,000 employees and serves millions of wireless, landline and Internet customers across Canada in addition to about 1.8 million satellite television subscribers.

Under the deal, Providence Equity, Madison Dearborn and the teachers' pension plan will acquire all BCE (Charts) common stock not already owned by the pension plan for C$42.75 a share, the company said in a statement. Financing for the transaction will be provided by banks.

The price is a 40 percent premium over the average trading price for BCE in the first quarter before news of a possible buyout surfaced, the company said.

(for more visit cnn.com)

Final reading on first-quarter economic growth edges up to 0.7% but key price measures also accelerate.

2007-06-28T10:40:00.000-07:00

The economy grew at a slightly faster pace in the first quarter than previously thought, the government said Thursday, but the reading also included slightly higher inflation pressures.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity, grew at a 0.7 percent annual rate in the first quarter, the Commerce Department reported.

That's up from the 0.6 percent rate reported a month ago, but slightly below the 0.8 percent pace forecast by economists surveyed by Briefing.com. As was the case with the previous reading, the pace of growth is the weakest since the fourth quarter of 2002.

The so-called PCE price deflator, a measure of prices paid by consumers, picked up a bit, and grew at a 3.5 percent rate in the quarter, versus the 3.3 percent estimate a month ago.

The even more closely watched core PCE deflator, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, grew at a 2.4 percent rate, up from 2.2 percent.

Policymakers at the Federal Reserve, who conclude their two-day meeting Thursday, are widely believed to want to see the core PCE deflator growing at a 1 to 2 percent rate.

Inflation was a drag on economic growth in the quarter. Another major drag continues to be the battered housing market, which cut about 0.9 percentage points from growth in the quarter, slightly worse than the previous reading.

Still, consumer spending stayed strong, growing at a 4.2 percent rate, down only slightly from the earlier estimate of 4.4 percent and better than the full year increase in any of the three previous years.

The weak first quarter will likely leave the economy with below average growth this year, though most economists forecast a pickup in the current quarter.

"I think the best case scenario is 2.5 percent for full year," said Jeoff Hall, chief U.S. economist for Thomson Financial. "To get that, you'll have to get 3 to 3.5 percent growth in the second half. That's going to be difficult to accomplish."

While full-year economic growth is expected to stay sluggish, most economists are expecting to see second quarter GDP grow at between 3 and 3.5 percent, due to the bounce back from the first quarter weakness.

"However, in the same way that the very weak first quarter numbers understated the strength of the economy, the strong second quarter numbers will exaggerate the amount of momentum," wrote Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for economic research firm Global Insight. "Excluding the volatile inventory and net export components of GDP -- which pushed down Q1 growth and are pushing up Q2 growth -- the underlying rate of growth is now around 2.5 percent."

Aaron Smith, economist for Moody's Economy.com, said much of the growth the rest of the year will depend upon the interest rate environment. He said that when the yield on the 10-year Treasury note recently spiked up to near 5.3 percent, he was concerned that his firm would have to cut economic forecasts for the rest of the year. But since they've retreated closer to 5 percent, the firm has kept forecasts of 2.1 percent growth for the full year.

"My feeling is we're still doing fine on this balancing act," he said.

(source: www.cnn.com ... check out for more ... fantastic news)

Mutant Rice - cnn called it ...

2007-06-28T10:37:00.001-07:00

Back in the spring of 2001, a 64-year-old Texas rice farmer named Jacko Garrett watched a fleet of 18-wheelers haul away truckloads of rice that he had grown with great care. "It just bothers me so bad," Garrett said. "I'm sitting here trying to find food to feed people, and I've got to bury five million pounds of rice." No one likes to waste food, but for Garrett, who runs a charity that collects rice for the needy, the pain was especially acute.

Garrett's rice was genetically modified, part of an experiment that was brought to an abrupt halt by its sponsor, a North Carolina-based biotechnology company called Aventis Crop Science. The company had contracted with a handful of farmers to grow the rice, which was known as Liberty Link because its genes had been altered to resist a weed killer called Liberty, also made by Aventis.

ut by 2001, Aventis Crop Science was living a biotech nightmare. Another one of its creations, a variety of genetically modified corn known as StarLink, had been discovered in taco shells made by Kraft. Because the StarLink corn had been approved as animal feed - and not for human consumption - all hell broke loose.

Food safety at issue, local farming praised

Hundreds of corn products were recalled. Consumers and farmers sued. Greenpeace dumped bags of corn in front of federal regulatory agencies, and an Environmental Protection Agency official accused Aventis Crop Science of breaking the law. So shell-shocked was Aventis SA (Charts), the French pharmaceutical giant that owned Aventis Crop Science, that it decided to sell the U.S. biotech unit and abandon the very emotional business of reengineering the foods we eat.

So dumping the Texas rice was a no-brainer. "We didn't want to take any chances," says a former Aventis executive. "We burned and buried enough rice to feed 20 million people."

Eventually Aventis paid about $120 million to settle the StarLink lawsuits. It sold its crop science unit to Bayer (Charts), the German drug giant that makes aspirin, Aleve and Alka-Seltzer. Bayer Crop Science dropped plans to bring Liberty Link rice to market, largely because rice grown in the U.S. is exported to Europe and other places that don't want genetically modified foods. And everyone forgot about Jacko Garrett's rice.

Can you guess where this is going? Yep. In January 2006, small amounts of genetically engineered rice turned up in a shipment that was tested - we don't know why - by a French customer of Riceland Foods, a big rice mill based in Stuttgart, Ark. Because no transgenic rice is grown commercially in the U.S., the people at Riceland were stunned. At first they figured that the test was a mistake or that tiny bits of genetically modified corn or soybeans had somehow gotten mixed up with rice during shipping. They said nothing.

(If you want to read more visit www.cnn.com)

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2007-06-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

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