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Review: Eee Pad tablet transforms into laptop (AP) : Technet |
- Review: Eee Pad tablet transforms into laptop (AP)
- LinkedIn's IPO priced at $45 a share (AP)
- Should you buy an iPad if you already have an iPhone or iPod touch? (Yahoo! News)
- Caught on Film: How to convert old videos to digital format (Yahoo! News)
- Whereberry Helps You Make Real-World Plans With Friends (Mashable)
- Baidu, China sued in U.S. for Internet censorship (Reuters)
- Search & Destroy: Why You Can't Trust Google Inc (NewsFactor)
- PlayStation Network revival stumbles (AFP)
- Apple and Android phones face strict laws in Europe: report (Reuters)
- LinkedIn IPO prices at $45 per share, top of range (Reuters)
- SNES Controller Mod Plays Nice With Android (PC World)
- Help save the environment with the Zipcar Android app (Appolicious)
- FCC urges Apple to join talks (Investor's Business Daily)
- Label sues Tim McGraw for breach of contract (AP)
- Angry Birds, the next Mickey Mouse? (Reuters)
- San Francisco Migrates to Hosted Exchange (PC World)
- Strong PlayBook Sales Threaten Tablet-Less Microsoft (NewsFactor)
| Review: Eee Pad tablet transforms into laptop (AP) Posted: 18 May 2011 02:57 PM PDT NEW YORK – The tablet computers that compete with the iPad have mostly been uninspiring. The Eee Pad Transformer stands out with a design that isn't just copied from the iPad: It's a tablet that turns into a laptop. For $399, $100 less than the cheapest iPad, you get a tablet computer with a 10-inch screen and hardware that doesn't cut corners. It's fully usable on its own. For another $149, you can buy a keyboard that connects to the tablet. Together, they look and open like a small laptop. The Transformer is made by Asustek Computer Inc., the Taiwanese company that started the brief "netbook" craze a few years ago by selling small, inexpensive laptops. With the keyboard attached, the Transformer is nearly indistinguishable from a netbook. But before you get too excited about the prospect of a laptop-tablet hybrid that combines the best of both worlds, I have to tell you that you're not getting a Windows laptop in the bargain. The Transformer runs Google Inc.'s Android software, originally designed for smartphones. That means it doesn't run full-blown Windows programs or connect to peripherals such as scanners. This isn't all a bad thing, as Android comes with important advantages, such as a long battery life, programs designed for touch input and a computer that comes to life almost immediately when you open the lid. The keyboard may sound a bit expensive for $149, but it does more than help with typing. It has a track pad with "mouse buttons," just as you'd find on a laptop. It also contains an extra battery that charges the tablet's battery, two USB ports for connecting peripherals and a slot for SD memory cards, used in most digital cameras. I tested the battery life by playing a high-definition video over and over again, with the screen set to medium brightness. I got a respectable nine hours from the tablet alone and 13 hours with the keyboard attached. That compares with 10 hours for the iPad 2. The screen uses the same technology as the iPad's, making it easy to read from any angle and in any orientation. It is slightly larger than the iPad's and has a slightly higher resolution. The Transformer has two cameras, as we expect from this year's tablets. The picture quality is so-so but more than adequate for videoconferencing through Google Talk. Of course, you could get an iPad and an accessory keyboard instead. There are good reasons for doing so — I'll talk more about the software below — but let's stick for the moment to discussing what's good about the Transformer. The iPad doesn't make any particular accommodation for a keyboard. The accessory ones connect using short-range Bluetooth wireless technology, which can be a hassle to connect and troubleshoot. It also means the keyboards need separate batteries — Apple's own model uses two AAs. The battery in the Asus keyboard doesn't need to be charged for the keyboard to work, and in any case, it uses the same charger as the tablet. Most iPad keyboards don't attach to the tablet itself, because there's nothing to hang on to. This is fine if you're at a table, but juggling an iPad and a separate keyboard on your lap can be difficult. Some iPad keyboards are built into a case, which covers the tablet and forms a laptop-like unit, though an inelegant one. The Transformer has two slots for the keyboard to lock into, forming a sturdy whole that's easy to use on a lap or tummy, for those really lazy moments on the couch. There's another nice thing about the Transformer keyboard: The keys are designed for the software. There are keys that bring you to the Home screen and Settings. Others control screen brightness, volume and media playback. There are buttons for the Back and Menu functions of Google's Android software. This isn't the first time we've seen small laptops running Android, but it is the first time I've used one that runs Honeycomb, the first Android version specifically designed for tablets rather than smartphones. The update makes Android much better at taking advantage of a 10-inch screen. But as tablet software, Android is still far behind Apple's iOS software for the iPad. The biggest problem is the low quality and poor selection of applications from outside companies. Many of my favorite iPad apps, including Netflix and The Wall Street Journal are not available at all. Others, such as The New York Times, are available only in inferior versions, designed for the smartphone screen rather than the tablet. I also had frequent crashes when using the applications. The Transformer is perhaps the best Android tablet out there, especially considering the price, but the software is still a major weakness. Still, the beautifully integrated keyboard should tempt people who don't want to decide between a tablet and a laptop. ___ Peter Svensson can be reached at http://twitter.com/petersvensson. |
| LinkedIn's IPO priced at $45 a share (AP) Posted: 18 May 2011 05:07 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO – Investors keen to get in on the online networking craze snapped up LinkedIn Corp.'s IPO at $45 per share late Wednesday, hitting the top end of the projected price range. It minted LinkedIn with a market value of more than $4 billion, the highest for a U.S. Internet company taking its first bow on Wall Street since Google Inc. went public nearly seven years ago. LinkedIn Corp.'s shares will make their market debut Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. Mutual funds, pension funds and other major money managers got the first chance to buy most of the IPO's 7.84 million shares because stock in these offerings is typically sold to investment bankers' top customers. That means Main Street investors will get their first chance at LinkedIn on Thursday. Most analysts believe that demand will send shares higher in their first day of trading even though the IPO price already is well above LinkedIn's initial target of $32 to $35 per share. The lofty $4.3 billion appraisal of LinkedIn reflects investors' belief that Internet services that connect people with common interests will be able to make more money as the Web's audience steadily expands. LinkedIn's valuation eventually may look modest compared to other Internet companies that are being touted as potentially going public in the next 18 months. The short list includes: online messaging service Twitter, Web game maker Zynga, coupon site Groupon and Facebook, the social network that boasts more than 500 million users. LinkedIn, based down the street from Google's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, runs a website that serves as part-Rolodex, part-hiring center for workers trying to meet people who might further their careers and businesses searching for talented employees. More than 102 million people have set up LinkedIn profiles so far. Another million join each week. The company makes most of its money from fees charged for better access to the data on its website. It earned $3.4 million on revenue of $243 million last year, but expects to lose money this year as it invests in new products and more computers to run its services. LinkedIn's initial public offering of stock raised a total of $353 million. The company's take works out to $217 million, before investment banking fees and other expenses. The remaining $136 million was divided among 87 stockholders who sold a total of 3 million shares in the IPO. The biggest windfalls went to: Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which will get $39 million from the sale of 871,840 shares; Bain Capital Venture, which will get $29 million from the sale of 653,880 shares; the McGraw-Hill Cos., which will get $20 million from the sale of 435,920 shares; and Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn's co-founder and executive chairman, who made $5 million on the sale of 115,335 shares. Hoffman retains a 20 percent stake now worth $853 million. Now a venture capitalist, Hoffman, 43, also was among the early investors in Facebook, which has said it might file IPO papers before May 2012. LinkedIn's CEO is Jeff Weiner, a former Yahoo Inc. executive who has been running the professional networking company for the past two years. The company's stock will trade under the ticker "LNKD." |
| Should you buy an iPad if you already have an iPhone or iPod touch? (Yahoo! News) Posted: 18 May 2011 07:07 PM PDT
Navigating the touch interface is the same, as well. Pinch the screen to zoom in, or swipe your finger across the display to flip to the next home screen or page. Portability Another thing to keep in mind is that unless you are sitting down somewhere, the iPad takes 2 hands to use รข€" one to hold the device, and one to actually use it. An iPod touch or iPhone can easily be held and operated with one hand, using your thumb to swipe, tap, and text.
Apps and activities that all iOS devices are capable of, such as surfing the web or watching a video, also tend to be much more enjoyable on a larger screen. This is primarily because you don't have to squint to see details or zoom in and out just to read text. Speed Things to keep in mind
Post by Jacob Bolm More from Tecca: |
| Caught on Film: How to convert old videos to digital format (Yahoo! News) Posted: 18 May 2011 07:04 PM PDT
While most camcorders now are digital, that definitely hasn't always been the case. If you have home movies stored on old VHS tapes, Hi8 tapes, or any other analog media, then you may want to transfer those memories into a digital format so they can be preserved and you can share them with others. Thanks to a few video accessories and programs, transferring video from an older format onto your computer can be done fairly easily. The accessories are like tiny converter boxes. You connect your old device to one end and then feed your video through it to the other, digitizing it in the process. There are quite a few different items on the market that can make this magic happen. Two devices, the Elgato Video Capture and Pinnacle MovieBox, set the standard for transferring video on both Windows and Apple computers. They're priced similarly at around $100.
The video import done using Elgato is can be directly imported into iMovie for editing. The included software also offers one-click importing to iTunes. Once your clips are in your iTunes library, you can put them on your iPod, iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV to share with others. Uploads to YouTube can be performed through the software, too, if you want to share your videos on the web. The software permits instant QuickTime playback, if you'd like to view your video before adding it anywhere. The Elgato video capture system works for both Mac and Windows computers. We give it four out of five stars for its small design, and compatibility with both Windows and Mac machines.
The MovieBox, which is made exclusively for Windows machines, allows you to input 8mm, HI8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C, SVHS-C, or VCRs (NTSC/PAL/SECAM) video. The content can then be transferred to your computer, a DV tape, or any HDV camcorder with a firewire input, as well as an iPod, PSP/PS3, Nintendo Wii, or Xbox. You can run your videos through Pinnacle's editing software to spruce them up, then burn them to a DVD to share with friends and family or upload to YouTube. We give the Pinnacle MovieBox HD four out of five stars. We like that it accepts DV inpusts as well as RCA and S-video, but wish it worked with non-Windows systems. A smaller commitment [Image credit: foxumon] Post by Emily Price More from Tecca: |
| Whereberry Helps You Make Real-World Plans With Friends (Mashable) Posted: 18 May 2011 04:32 PM PDT The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: WhereBerry [More from Mashable: The Worst Startup in the World [VIDEO]] Quick Pitch: Whereberry helps you make non-virtual plans with friends. Genius Idea: Focusing on future plans instead of current checkins [More from Mashable: Use Your Phone To Lock & Unlock Doors From Anywhere in the World]
If you have a list of activities you want to do, chances are most of them would be more fun with a friend. Whereberry, which launched Tuesday, makes that list social so that it's easier to coordinate plans. After connecting your profile to Whereberry, your Facebook friends who have also signed up are automatically added as your friends. As with Twitter, you can also choose to "follow" anyone on the platform. You will get email notifications when these people post events, and those events will also show up in your Whereberry newsfeed. Within the newsfeed, it's easy to add to your own list activities that your friend posted and to work out logistics in a group. There's also an option to post the activity to your Facebook feed and avoid the "Does anyone want to go to a movie this weekend?" comment thread.
Whereberry focuses not on what you've done, as most checkin services originally did, but rather on what you plan to do. These types of preemptive check-in services are popping up everywhere -- recommendation engine Ditto, plan maker ImUp4, and location-based Q&A app Localmind are just a few examples. Even Foursquare has cast its gaze toward the future. When people note what they are going to do rather than what they've done, brands connected with that activity have an opportunity to reach consumers at a decision point. Not so if the consumer is already standing in the restaurant. Whereberry eventually plans to sell brands the opportunity to offer deals to relevant consumers. That monetization plan makes sense, but Whereberry will need to acquire users first -- something that may be tricky as many wonder whether anyone needs another social service. If you don't already have friends on Whereberry, it's hard to make a case for joining. While there's a list of activities that populates the newsfeeds of the friend-less, activity guides can be found on the Internet without connecting a Facebook profile. The post-to-Facebook feature is one way you might convince friends to join you on the platform, but truthfully, it's easier to just post a status message. But the startup didn't earn a spot in Y Combinator this winter for nothing. A social network for making plans like Whereberry would be useful if a good chunk of your friends used it. The million dollar question is how to incentivize that environment. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. This story originally published on Mashable here. |
| Baidu, China sued in U.S. for Internet censorship (Reuters) Posted: 18 May 2011 09:14 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) – Eight New York residents sued Baidu Inc and the People's Republic of China on Wednesday, accusing China's biggest search engine of conspiring with the country's government to censor pro-democracy speech. The lawsuit claims violations of the U.S. Constitution, and according to the plaintiffs' lawyer, is the first of its type. In an unorthodox move it names not only a company but also the Chinese government as defendants. The lawsuit was filed more than a year after Google Inc declared it would no longer censor search results in China, and rerouted Internet users to its Hong Kong website. Baidu spokesman Kaiser Kuo declined to comment. According to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Baidu acts as an "enforcer" of policies by the ruling Communist Party in censoring such pro-democracy content as references to the 1989 Tiananmen Square military crackdown. This censorship suppresses the writings and videos of the plaintiffs, who are pro-democracy activists, to the extent that the materials do not appear in search results, the complaint said. It also violates U.S. laws because the censorship affects searches here, according to the complaint. "We allege a private company is acting as the arm and agent of a foreign state to suppress political speech, and permeate U.S. borders to violate the First Amendment," Stephen Preziosi, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in an interview. Preziosi said the alleged censorship also violates federal and New York civil rights laws, as well as New York's human rights law, on the grounds that "an Internet search engine is a public accommodation, just like a hotel or restaurant." The lawsuit seeks $16 million in damages, or $2 million per plaintiff, but does not seek changes to Baidu's policies. "It would be futile to expect Baidu to change," Preziosi said. The plaintiffs live in the borough of Queens in New York City and on Long Island. China's Internet censorship practices are viewed as reflecting its belief that keeping a tight grip on information helps the government maintain control. There have been mounting concerns in China that open dissent on the Internet could contribute to destabilizing the country. Searches for terms deemed sensitive by Chinese censors are routinely blocked, and search engines such as Baidu voluntarily filter searches. China also blocks social networking sites Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Google's YouTube, and President Hu Jintao has called for additional oversight and "mechanisms to guide online public opinion." Google effectively pulled out of China last spring by redirecting inquiries on its main Chinese-language search page to a website in Hong Kong, avoiding direct involvement in any censorship by the "Great Firewall of China." Renren Inc, which went public on May 4 and runs a social networking site promoted as the "Facebook of China," has warned that its business could be shut down if it failed to comply with prohibitions on content. That would include material that could be considered to impair China's national dignity or was "socially destabilizing." Baidu's American depositary shares closed up 3 cents on Wednesday at $131.84 on the Nasdaq. They are up almost four-fold since the company went public in 2005. The case is Zhang et al v. Baidu.com Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-03388. (Additional reporting by Clare Baldwin and Alina Selyukh, Melanie Lee in Shanghai; Editing by Bernard Orr) |
| Search & Destroy: Why You Can't Trust Google Inc (NewsFactor) Posted: 18 May 2011 07:10 PM PDT Scott Cleland's new book tells the other side of the Google story. Published by Telescope Books, Search & Destroy: Why You Can't Trust Google Inc. is the first book to critically examine Google's business practices, mission, and unprecedented power over information access and the digital economy. Google has acquired far more information, both public and private, and has invented more ways to use it, than anyone in history. Information is power, and in Google's case, Cleland argues, it's the power to influence and control virtually everything the Internet touches. Google's power is largely unchecked, unaccountable -- and grossly underestimated. Search & Destroy examines Google's position as the Internet's lone superpower -- the new master of the digital information universe. And Google's power, Cleland points out, depends almost entirely on the blind trust it has gained through masterful duplicity. Search & Destroy demonstrates how Google routinely says one thing and does another. Don't Want To Go There Cleland shows that the world's #1 brand is untrustworthy. He exposes the unethical company hiding behind a "Don't Be Evil" slogan. He uncovers Google's hidden political agenda and reveals how Google's famed mission to organize the world's information is destructive and wrong. Cleland is the first to critically examine where Google is leading us, explain why we don't want to go there, and propose straightforward solutions. Google's unprecedented centralization of power over the world's information is corrupting both Google and the Internet, Cleland says. Google is evolving from an information servant to master -- from working for users, to making users work for the Internet behemoth. In his review, John Eade, president of the Argus Research Company, describes the new book as a wake-up call. "Search & Destroy eloquently makes the case that Google has no respect for Intellectual Property Rights, other than its own." Unchecked Power "Do we want an Internet devoid of privacy, property rights, and data security?," Cleland asks. Generations to come will have to live with decisions being made today based on what Cleland calls "assumed acquiescence" to Google's practices. Search & Destroy conclusively demonstrates that Google's goal is to change the world by influencing and controlling information access. Ultimately, Google's immense unchecked power is destructive precisely because Google is so shockingly-political, unethical and untrustworthy. Availability Search & Destroy is an exhaustively researched investigative book containing over 700 references (including court documents) and more than 150 verbatim quotes from Google executives. The 329-page hardcover book is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. E-book versions are available for Kindle, Nook, and other popular e-readers. For more information, visit www.SearchandDestroyBook.com. About the Author Scott Cleland is the world's leading Google critic. Cleland has testified before Congress three times about Google. He publishes GoogleMonitor.com and Googleopoly.net, and authors the widely read PrecursorBlog.com. As President of Precursor LLC, he consults for Fortune 500 clients. A former #1 ranked Institutional Investor independent analyst known for spotting early on why the Internet dotcom bubble would burst, Cleland was also the first analyst invited to testify before Congress about the missed warning signs of Enron's fraud and bankruptcy. Fortune profiled Cleland as "ahead of the pack in raising questions about WorldCom's debt, profitability, and survival." Cleland is also a former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Information and Communication Policy. |
| PlayStation Network revival stumbles (AFP) Posted: 18 May 2011 06:55 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Sony's efforts to revive its PlayStation Network (PSN) have stumbled after the firm discovered a flaw hackers could exploit when it came to resetting passwords. Sony temporarily disabled PSN and its Qriocity music streaming password reset pages to fix a vulnerability in a system that was just regaining its footing after a cyber attack that resulted in it being shut down for weeks. "We temporarily took down the PSN and Qriocity password reset page," Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold said in an update posted at the PlayStation blog. "Contrary to some reports, there was no hack involved," he explained. "In the process of resetting of passwords there was a URL exploit that we have subsequently fixed." Details of the exploit were not disclosed, but a door open had reportedly been left ajar for hackers to change a user's password if they knew the email address and birth date associated with an account. "Consumers who haven't reset their passwords for PSN are still encouraged to do so directly on their PS3," Seybold said. "Otherwise, they can continue to do so via the website as soon as we bring that site back up." PSN connects PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles to online games, films and more. Sony on Sunday began a "phased restoration" of network services that came under hacker attacks in one of the biggest data breaches since the advent of the Internet. Cyber thieves stole personal data that included names, passwords and addresses from more than 100 million accounts on PSN and Sony Online Entertainment services. Sony has said it cannot rule out that millions of credit card numbers may have been compromised. Sony shut down the PSN and Qriocity on April 20 after its data centre in San Diego was hacked -- but it did not reveal the breach until April 26. The entertainment and electronics giant began restoring the services on Sunday and promised that defenses had been hardened. The Japanese multinational estimated that the cyber attack cost the firm $1 billion. Sony chief Howard Stringer, speaking for the first time on the crisis Tuesday, said protecting private information was a "never-ending process" and he did not know if anyone could be "100 percent secure." |
| Apple and Android phones face strict laws in Europe: report (Reuters) Posted: 18 May 2011 05:56 PM PDT LONDON (Reuters) – Apple and Google smartphones may come under tighter regulation in Europe after a data protection panel ruled that data on the location of their users should be classed as private, the Financial Times said Thursday. The proposals by the panel, which advises the European Commission, are a first step to formulating a law on mobile phone location data, and could be written into Europe's revised Data Protection Directive this year, the FT said. The panel said companies should get permission from smartphone users before collecting user-location data and should specify what purpose the data are being used for. "Since smartphones and tablet computers are inextricably linked to their owner, the movement patterns of the devices provide a very intimate insight into the private life of the owners," the FT quoted the panel as saying. "One of the great risks is that the owners are unaware they transmit their location, and to whom." (Reporting by Karolina Tagaris) |
| LinkedIn IPO prices at $45 per share, top of range (Reuters) Posted: 18 May 2011 06:39 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) – LinkedIn sold shares at the top of an already raised price range in its initial public offering on Wednesday, signaling that stock investors are eager to buy shares of social networking companies even if valuations are lofty. It sold 7.84 million shares for $45 each, for a total of $352.8 million, as investors see the potential for the professional networking site to link companies with customers and job seekers. The company's shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday under the symbol "LNKD". LinkedIn on Tuesday raised the expected price range of its IPO by 30 percent to $42 to $45 per share from $32 to $35. The strong investor demand for the offering bodes well for other prominent social networking companies expected to go public in the coming months and years, including Facebook, Groupon, Twitter and Zynga. While the companies have significantly different business models, they each tap social networks and the valuations for each are skyrocketing. Less than a decade after it began in the living room of co-founder and ex-PayPal executive Reid Hoffman, the Mountain View, California-based company is valued at $4.25 billion. Facebook, which is expected to go public in April 2012, was valued at $70 billion in recent sales of the company's private shares, up from $50 billion at the beginning of the year. "There is a feeding frenzy going on," said Ben Howe, chief executive of boutique investment bank America's Growth Capital. Groupon, which brings people together for deals, has had talks with bankers about an IPO that could value it at $15 billion to $20 billion. Yet to proponents of the value of connecting people online, the high market valuations of these companies may make sense. LinkedIn, for example, is an excellent way for companies to reach prospective customers, one venture capitalist said. Tapping into the social network of a customer is the most efficient way for a company to find new customers, Saad Khan, a partner at venture capital firm CMEA Capital, told the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York. "I think there's a lot of manifest destiny involved," he said. "I think people are looking at the future prospects." Both LinkedIn and Facebook allow users to create profile pages displaying a picture and details about themselves. But while Facebook tends to have more informal profile pages which may include a photo album from a recent trip, for example, LinkedIn is generally seen as the place for a professional persona. The profile pages are basically an online database of electronic resumes. While most of the biggest social networking sites mainly make their money through online advertising or Internet services, LinkedIn actually makes more money through its offline sales force that directly solicits customers, agencies and resellers. In 2010, 56 percent of LinkedIn's net revenue came from field sales, while 44 percent came from online sales. That puts it in competition with niche job-seeking sites and traditional recruiting firms. At the end of the first month after its May 2003 launch, LinkedIn had 4,500 members. At the end of March, that figure was 102 million members. The company's shares were sold on Wednesday at about 17.5 times LinkedIn's 2010 sales. By contrast, Google Inc's shares are valued at about six times 2010 sales. LinkedIn co-founder Hoffman made about $5.2 million selling less than 1 percent of his shares in the IPO. Chief Executive Jeff Weiner made the same amount selling the same number of shares, which accounted for about 5 percent of his stockholdings. Hoffman's remaining, post-IPO stake in the company -- 21.7 percent of the voting power -- is worth about $853 million at the IPO price. Weiner is keeping about 2.5 percent of the voting power, a stake valued at $99 million. Other selling shareholders included Goldman Sachs & Co, which made just over $39 million on the IPO; Bain Capital Venture Integral Investors, which made $29.4 million; and The McGraw Hill Companies Inc, which made $19.6 million. LinkedIn said it would hold its share of the proceeds -- about $217 million before paying the expenses associated with an IPO -- for its general needs and for any future acquisitions or investments, though none have been identified. LinkedIn, which made money for common stockholders in 2010, said in its prospectus it does not expect to be profitable this year. "Our philosophy is to continue to invest for future growth, and as a result we do not expect to be profitable on a GAAP basis in 2011," the company said in reference to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Underwriters on the IPO were lead by Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan. (Reporting by Alina Selyukh and Clare Baldwin; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe, Andre Grenon, Steve Orlofsky and Richard Chang) |
| SNES Controller Mod Plays Nice With Android (PC World) Posted: 18 May 2011 04:01 PM PDT Touchscreen gaming has its charms but sometimes getting hands-on with a physical controller can't be beat. Computer Engineering graduate Rich Degenhardt decided he too would like the tactile feedback that only real buttons can provide. With that in mind, he set to work on getting a Super Nintendo controller talking to his smartphone. Completed as part of a senior design project, the DIY job sees a SNES controller modified so that button presses made on the control pad makes magic happen on a linked Android device--no rooting required. Once the modder had cracked just how the old SNES controller's signalling worked an Arduino board was introduced to get the phone and controller linked up. In addition to making use of an Arduino board, this neat little project also plays host to a BlueSMiRF Gold Bluetooth module. With the Arduino board tasked with conveying the inputs to the Android phone via the Buetooth controller and a 4-AAA battery pack powering the whole operation, all these extras needed a home. Modder Rich created a custom enclosure to house all the circuitry resulting in an aesthetically modified SNES controller. Check out the SNES controller in action: Check out Rich's site for more information, and for instructions on how he created this hack. [via Hack a Day] Like this? You might also enjoy...
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| Help save the environment with the Zipcar Android app (Appolicious) Posted: 18 May 2011 05:00 PM PDT |
| FCC urges Apple to join talks (Investor's Business Daily) Posted: 18 May 2011 03:40 PM PDT The regulator invited tech companies Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - News) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG - News) as well as consumer advocates to a meeting next month to assess the pros and cons of location-based mobile services, following reports that the iPhone and Android devices track users' locations. The FCC said that while location data have sparked innovation, consumers' privacy concerns could slow adoption and use of mobile devices running on broadband networks. Apple rose 1% to 339.87. Google dipped 0.1% to 529.81. |
| Label sues Tim McGraw for breach of contract (AP) Posted: 18 May 2011 12:10 PM PDT NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tim McGraw and Curb Records could be headed to court over an unreleased album. The independent record label filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit last week against McGraw, claiming the country superstar failed to provide a fifth and final album that met contractual obligations under their deal by an April deadline. McGraw turned in an album last fall called "Emotional Traffic," and a No. 1 single from those sessions has been released. But the label contends the singer did not record the songs on the album during a contractually stipulated window, thus breaking the deal. The label asks a judge in the nine-page lawsuit filed in Davidson County Chancery Court not only to force McGraw to turn in new material for a fifth album, but also to revoke an agreement between the two that eliminated a sixth album from the deal. Curb also wants McGraw barred from signing with another label. A spokeswoman for McGraw said in a statement Wednesday that McGraw believes he has met the terms of the contract. "The label is holding the album hostage from country music fans in an attempt to force Tim McGraw to serve perpetually under a contract that he has already fully and faithfully completed," an email statement from McGraw spokeswoman Ambrosia Healy said. McGraw, one of country's top-selling male singers who has crossed over into the film world, has had an often thorny relationship with the label and owner Mike Curb. The two sides clashed about 10 years ago, resulting in an amended record deal that reduced McGraw's obligation to Curb. The release of greatest hits albums over the year has angered McGraw and he contends the label has done so to artificially lengthen his contract. He apologized to fans in 2008 after the label released a third greatest hits package. He thought he was done with the label when he turned in "Emotional Traffic" last fall and told The Associated Press in an interview last month: "All the songs have been done for a long time, and the label has had it. It's the last album that they have of mine, so they're trying to hold on to it as long as they can," he said. "Whenever Mike Curb decides he's going to play fair, it will be out." A message asking for comment from Curb was not immediately returned. Curb contends McGraw turned in "Emotional Traffic" just two days after the window for his fifth album opened, violating a provision in the contract that says material on an album has to be recorded during a specific time period. Curb says some of the songs were recorded in 2008 or before and that the move was a "transparent tactic" to shorten the length of his deal. The suit contends there would be "chaos" if artists were allowed to choose which provisions of a contract they will honor. The move may delay the release of "Emotional Traffic," but it won't stop McGraw from sharing the album's music with his fans, the statement from Healy said. "Tim McGraw has decided to perform new songs from `Emotional Traffic' on his current tour because he feels it is one of his best ever. Most importantly, Tim McGraw wants to thank his fans for their continued support in his efforts to release new and exciting music." ___ AP writer Shelia Burke in Nashville contributed to this report. ___ Online: |
| Angry Birds, the next Mickey Mouse? (Reuters) Posted: 18 May 2011 04:22 PM PDT PARIS (Reuters) – Mikael Hed is unrepentant about the 200 million minutes per day that people around the world fritter away playing Angry Birds, the iPhone game created by the company he heads. "It's great. Think of all the other stuff they could be doing that's so much more boring," said the chief executive of Rovio Mobile, a Finnish start-up almost unheard of before it unleashed the addictive game on an unsuspecting world in 2009. Angry Birds, the most popular paid-for game in the Apple App Store's four-year history, has just passed 200 million downloads. The deceptively simple puzzle game in which players use a slingshot to fire birds at green pigs hiding in buildings has hooked a whole new audience, many of whom were never interested in video games before. "These new touchscreen portable devices have changed the way that people behave. Nowadays, people have to be entertained all the time, whenever you have just a few moments spare," Hed told the Reuters Global Technology Summit in Paris this week. "Much of those 200 million minutes comes from this type of micro spare time, filling the little gaps." Rovio plans to use its hold over of those millions of spare moments as a wedge to expand into Hollywood and possibly even Disney-style theme parks. "Believe it or not, we have had such suggestions, and I believe Angry Birds Land was actually the name they used." "Whether there will be a theme park dedicated to Angry Birds or not, I don't know, but I would be surprised if within 10 years there wouldn't be at least a theme park with something related to Angry Birds in it," said Hed. MICKEY MOUSE For now, the next step is to build the birds' characters and flesh out the rather thin Angry Birds story, which is that the birds are attacking the pigs because the pigs stole their eggs. Hed says there would be news in the next days relating to Rovio's media ambitions, but declined to elaborate. Already, Rovio has teamed up with News Corp's 20th Century Fox to hitch a new game to the animated 3-D movie Rio, which has taken hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office around the world. A clue to Angry Birds Rio even featured in 20th Century Fox's ad at this year's SuperBowl -- the year's highest-profile advertising spot in the United States. Hed has held talks with Hollywood studios about an Angry Birds feature film but so far has not found the right partner or deal. He said he wants to proceed with caution to protect the brand, and sees Mickey Mouse as a brand to aspire to. These may seem grand ambitions for a company with just one megahit to its name, and Rovio is under pressure to show it is not a one-hit wonder. Angry Birds was its 52nd game. Rovio plans to cement the popularity of Angry Birds with a version for Facebook this summer -- which will add social aspects to the essentially solitary game by building in features for players to help one another. Hed also says a new Angry Birds game and another, different type of game are in the works. But he seems relaxed about their likely success. "At some point you get to a point where you no longer associate a brand with just one product," he says. "While games will always be our strong area, I also believe that Angry Birds is already beyond that point. It has the critical mass where it doesn't really need the game in order to be very known." Rovio has just raised $42 million in venture capital funding but is already thinking about going public in two to three years' time. Hed says the company has had takeover approaches but has so far resisted. "We're having too much fun to be a part of something bigger. That said, people do crazy things when presented with obscene amounts of money." Asked whether he has been offered such sums, he answers: "Well, we're still independent, so not obscene enough." (Additional reporting by Joachim Dagenborg, Roberta Cowan and Matt Cowan. Editing by Jane Merriman) |
| San Francisco Migrates to Hosted Exchange (PC World) Posted: 18 May 2011 02:30 PM PDT The city and county of San Francisco have started a transition to using Microsoft's hosted e-mail service, choosing the software giant's service over Google and Lotus Notes. Over the next year San Francisco will transition 23,000 users to the system and has had 300 pilot employees using the hosted service for the past five months. San Francisco will pay Microsoft US$1.2 million a year or $6.50 per month per user, said Jon Walton, CIO for the City and County of San Francisco. "It's a significant cost savings to the city and was one of the key ways the department of technology was able to achieve the 20 percent budget reduction for this year which was a directive from the mayor," he said. The city is currently operating seven e-mail systems, including two different Lotus Notes systems and five Exchange on-premise products. Maintaining those various systems was costly, in terms of supporting the hardware and software as well as management costs, he said. Supporting multiple e-mail systems is common for governments, said Shawn McCarthy, an analyst from IDC. Often each department has its own e-mail system, making upgrading the software and maintaining patches inefficient, he said. "Having a common system across all agencies lets IT managers in government focus on what's their core mission," he said. Moving to the cloud will also help San Francisco more easily use the latest technologies and better handle disaster situations, Walton said. His group hasn't been as disaster-ready as he would like and moving to the cloud means that e-mail should remain functioning even if there's a disaster in San Francisco, he said. Microsoft beat out the competitors because San Francisco saw potential to expand its use, he said. "We have a strategic vision for the city of where we want to be over the next five years and the Exchange solution fit very well in terms of where we're going," he said. For instance, the city currently uses Office and Sharepoint and could migrate that software to Microsoft's cloud services as well, he said. San Francisco is also interested in other Microsoft offerings like video conferencing, he said. "This creates for us a foundation, a core of a system that we can expand in the future," he said. Rather than being alarmed by the outages that hit the hosted Exchange offering last week, Walton said the incident made him pleased to have chosen Microsoft. "I see what happened last week as demonstrating why I think we made the right decision," he said. Microsoft kept San Francisco updated on the problem and ultimately e-mail was affected for four hours with none lost, he said. "Frankly, this isn't the first e-mail outage the city has experienced in the past," he said. During the problems, San Francisco had just one point -- Microsoft -- to contact to find information about the problem, he said. That's an improvement over the current system where San Francisco might have to try to fix seven different systems, he said. In addition, because San Francisco has a service level agreement with Microsoft, it will get a credit for the outage, he said. San Francisco seems to have had a better experience with the outage than others, some of whom complained online about struggling to reach Microsoft support for help. Walton doesn't expect to let go any workers due to the move to the hosted e-mail service. Instead, workers that previously maintained the many systems will be freed up to deliver better service to technology users, he said. Microsoft and Google have been locked in a heated battle for government business and both have won notable contracts. They recently engaged in a war of words over important certifications required to serve some government agencies. Nancy Gohring covers mobile phones and cloud computing for The IDG News Service. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @idgnancy. Nancy's e-mail address is Nancy_Gohring@idg.com |
| Strong PlayBook Sales Threaten Tablet-Less Microsoft (NewsFactor) Posted: 18 May 2011 02:39 PM PDT RBC said Wednesday that Research In Motion appears to have sold approximately 250,000 PlayBook tablets in the first month of availability, with the BlackBerry maker on track to sell 500,000 PlayBooks by the end of the current quarter. If the financial firm's estimates are accurate, it would suggest that RIM has been successful in leveraging the widespread enterprise presence of its BlackBerry smartphones -- and to a higher degree that anyone expected. The RBC forecast is also surprising given the mixed reviews the PlayBook received last month, in part because the Playbook is expressly designed to function in tandem with a BlackBerry handset. If RIM's dual-device strategy is succeeding, it raises questions about the extent to which Microsoft can recover the mobile-market share it lost in recent years without launching its own tablet platform. Gartner analysts strongly believe there is a tight link between smartphones and tablets in the minds of users. "They want a similar experience, a tight ecosystem and applications and content that run across devices," explained Gartner Research Vice President Carolina Milanesi. So Microsoft and Nokia "need a tablet strategy sooner rather than later," she said. A Strategic Mistake Microsoft's current focus is on bringing enterprise-class capabilities to its next-generation Windows Phone 7 mobile platform, and a tablet platform is not expected anytime soon. But Milanesi believes that waiting for Windows 8 may be a strategic mistake. It may be too late for Microsoft "to catch up with competitors and allow Windows Phone 7 to grow -- not just in the enterprise but also in the consumer space in the high end, where users will be looking for that link," Milanesi explained. "As with any new products, I think we should wait and see what RIM does next quarter. Even Motorola sold a similar amount of Xoom [tablets] to start." However, other wireless analysts believe Microsoft still has time to establish a strong tablet presence. "Right now, in terms of sheer volume, between the two device types smartphones easily have the lion's share of the installed mobile-device base," noted Lisa Pierce, an independent wireless analyst with the Strategic Networks Group. "Tablets are complementary to smartphones, not competitive," as opposed to the "growing degree of cannibalization between tablets and notebooks/laptops." Time To Catch Up What Microsoft needs to do is really bring the full weight of the PC ecosystem into the tablet world, noted Al Hilwa, director of applications software development at IDC. "That can be done with the right changes to Windows and its programming model to make sure that it accommodates touch apps better," Hilwa said. "We are really in the early stages [and] I don't blame Microsoft for taking its time to get [its mobile-platform] formula right." Pierce also believes Microsoft still has plenty of time to launch a worthy mobile OS rival that can compete with the tablet platforms launched by Apple and RIM. "In the future, I fully expect Microsoft will release a platform for tablets that has business features, with a very high degree of interworking between Mango and the future tablet platform," Pierce said. Still, Apple continues to command the lion's share of tablet sales and is expected to blow away the competition this year and beyond. Piper Jaffray, for example, is currently pegging Apple's sales "at seven million iPads in the June 2011 quarter and 31.7 million in calendar year 2011." |
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