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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Dell cuts guidance, showing industry uncertainty (AP) : Technet

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Dell cuts guidance, showing industry uncertainty (AP) : Technet

Dell cuts guidance, showing industry uncertainty (AP)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 03:44 PM PDT

By JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer Jordan Robertson, Ap Technology Writer – Tue Aug 16, 6:44 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Dell Inc.'s decision to cut its revenue forecast for the year shows how computer makers are getting pulled in two directions at once, stretching some investors' faith to a breaking point.

Corporate and government demand for PCs has been strong for the past year, helping to lift the industry after the Great Recession. But consumer demand has collapsed because of high unemployment and the lure of new gadgets such as tablet computers and smartphones.

Worrisome new economic signs and budget cuts threaten to hamper the recovery. They have cast doubt on the ability of Dell and other PC makers to lift themselves in a meaningful way.

Dell's stock fell more than 7 percent Tuesday even as the company said its net income rose 63 percent in the latest quarter. The company lowered its revenue forecast for the fiscal year ending in January. It blamed "a more uncertain demand environment" than previously envisioned and a corporate decision to focus on more profitable deals.

The downgrade followed a barrage of bad news in recent months about the computer industry's health, and it could be a harbinger of tough times for other computer makers. Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's No. 1 PC maker, reports its results Thursday.

Shaw Wu, a technology analyst with Sterne Agee, said Dell's forecast was surprisingly weak and reflects economic troubles that are leading to lower spending globally on information technology. He added that it "definitely dampens expectations" for HP.

However, Wu added that part of Dell's troubles come as another company — Apple Inc. — is benefiting with a stronger push into small and medium businesses.

Apple, a key player in inventing the PC some 30 years ago, is thriving even as the PC industry suffers because of the company's pioneering of new markets, including tablet computers with the popular iPad. Over the past week, Apple has traded places with Exxon Mobil Corp. as the most valuable company in the world.

Outside of demand for Apple's Mac computers, consumer demand for PCs has cratered, reducing growth and even leading to contraction in the U.S. and Europe. Although consumers make up only 20 percent of Dell's PC business, they remain a powerful force in the digital economy. By snapping up iPads and smartphones, consumers are demonstrating that some hot new technologies — just not PCs — can be strong sellers even in hard economic times.

Meanwhile, government austerity measures have fueled uncertainty. That is threatening to depress not just government spending but consumer spending as well.

The pressures have deepened doubts about the industry's recovery. Dell's revenue from large corporations and consumers each rose 1 percent during the quarter from last year, to $4.6 billion and $2.9 billion, respectively. But revenue from the public sector fell 3 percent to $4.5 billion.

Revenue from small- and medium-sized businesses, where analysts say Dell is losing ground to Apple, grew 5 percent to $3.7 billion. But that growth rate is lower than previous years. In the same quarter last year, revenue grew 25 percent.

Where growth is occurring, it's generally not in Western countries. Dell indicated that India and China were two of its strongest-growing regions in the three months ended July 29, its fiscal second quarter.

After the market closed, Dell said net income rose to $890 million, or 48 cents per share, primarily on the strength of corporate and government spending. Companies have been banking record profits and upgrading older PCs and servers even as hiring remains tepid.

Dell earned 54 cents per share on an adjusted basis, which beat the average estimate of 49 cents per share from analysts polled by FactSet. A year ago, Dell earned $545 million, or 28 cents per share.

But Dell's revenue fell short. Although it rose 1 percent to $15.66 billion, analysts had been expecting $15.75 billion.

The company, which is based in Round Rock, Texas, also said it now expects revenue to grow 1 percent to 5 percent, compared with its previous forecast of 5 percent to 9 percent. The new forecast translates to $62.1 billion to $64.6 billion.

S&P says sell Google's shares after Motorola deal (AP)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 02:05 PM PDT

– Tue Aug 16, 5:05 pm ET

NEW YORK – Standard & Poor's is saying investors should sell Google's stock because it believes the search leader's decision to buy Motorola Mobility increases the risk to the company and its shares.

Google Inc. said Monday it will pay $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility, a major maker of phones using Google's Android mobile software. The deal includes mobile patents that could help Google defend itself against rivals.

S&P said Tuesday that while the acquisition would include a patent trove, that might not be enough to keep Google's Android mobile operating software from encountering intellectual-property issues. It downgraded its rating on Google's shares to "Sell" from "Buy."

Further, the ratings service says the transaction will hurt Google's growth, margins and balance sheet.

S&P cut its price target for Google's stock by $200 to $500.

Google shares fell along with the overall market Tuesday, slipping $18.23, or 3.3 percent, to finish trading at $539.

Sony cuts price of PlayStation 3 by $50 to $249 (AP)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 01:28 PM PDT

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay, Ap Technology Writer – Tue Aug 16, 4:28 pm ET

NEW YORK – Sony Corp. is cutting the price of its PlayStation 3 gaming console by $50 in an attempt to drum up demand for the 5-year-old machine.

It is now $249, down 17 percent from $299. The last time Sony lowered the price of the PlayStation 3 was in 2009, when it launched a lighter, slimmer model of the video game system.

The worldwide price cut announced Tuesday comes less than a month after rival Nintendo Co. cut the price of its handheld Nintendo 3DS player.

The 3DS lets players view 3-D games and videos without special glasses. It launched with much fanfare but lost sales momentum. The value of 3-D hasn't been apparent to everyone. Handheld gaming devices are also facing competition from the iPhone and other smartphones with games such as the wildly popular "Angry Birds."

The latest price cut should give the PlayStation 3 a boost, just as the previous one did in 2009.

"It is no secret that the PlayStation 3 has been struggling for some time against the Microsoft Xbox 360 in North America," though it did slightly better in Europe, said Jesse Divnich, an analyst at Electronic Entertainment Design and Research.

Divnich does not believe Microsoft Corp. will follow with its own price cut immediately. Rather, the maker of the Xbox 360 "will likely wait to see the commercial impact of the price disparity" between the Xbox and the PlayStation. The Xbox 360's popular 250 gigabyte version costs $300. A version with a smaller hard drive, 4 gigabytes, is $200.

Microsoft said it does not talk about pricing plans in advance and so far it has made no announcements about price cuts.

In all, Microsoft has sold 55 million Xbox 360s worldwide, and Sony has sold 52 million units of the PS3. Nintendo is still No. 1 with 86 million, though sales of the console have slowed down considerably.

Sony is also launching its handheld PlayStation Vita in the U.S. early next year. It will cost $249 for a Wi-Fi only version and $299 for a version that will also have cellphone service.

Jack Tretton, the CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said Sony is cutting the price in August instead of closer to the holidays to get it to people during the back-to-school shopping season. While the holidays are the busiest time for video games, August and September are also lucrative as college students stock up on games for their dorm rooms.

Just Show Me: How to upload photos to Flickr (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 06:12 PM PDT

Netflix debuts Just For Kids section, parents get a break (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 06:06 PM PDT

Google's Motorola Acquisition: Was It A Smart Move? [POLL] (Mashable)

Posted: 15 Aug 2011 06:44 PM PDT

Ben Parr Ben Parr – Mon Aug 15, 9:44 pm ET

The tech world is still reeling from Google's blockbuster acquisition of Motorola Mobility for a not-so-insignificant price tag of $12.5 billion. The deal will hand the world's largest search engine control over one of the world's largest mobile device manufacturers, not to mention control over tens of thousands of patents. There are a lot of questions surrounding the acquisition. Will Google get into the business of manufacturing, or will it spin that business off and keep the patents? How will it affect its relationship with its Android partners? How will Microsoft and Apple react? Will regulators even approve the multi-billion dollar deal?

[More from Mashable: Google & AP to Fund Digital Journalists of The Future]

It's going to be months until we know whether Google's biggest acquisition ever was a smart move or a billion dollar disaster, but we still want to hear your reaction. Our poll question of the day: Was Google's acquisition of Motorola a smart move?

Cast your vote below, and let us know why you think that way in the comments.

[More from Mashable: Could Google's Motorola Acquisition Ease Its Patent Woes?]


This story originally published on Mashable here.

Democrats hold seats in Wisconsin recall elections (Reuters)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 08:54 PM PDT

China's Tudou IPO prices within range: underwriter (Reuters)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 05:36 PM PDT

By Clare Baldwin Clare Baldwin – Tue Aug 16, 8:36 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Chinese online video company Tudou Holdings Ltd priced shares in its initial public offering within the expected range on Tuesday, even though investor sentiment toward U.S.-listed Chinese stocks and the recent stock market turmoil had suggested it would be difficult.

Investor appetite for U.S.-listed Chinese stocks has waned after a series of accounting scandals, and 10 of the 12 IPOs scheduled for last week were pulled as concerns about the U.S. economy and the European debt crisis created a volatile trading environment.

Still, Tudou and its owners sold 6 million American Depositary Shares for $29 each, raising $174 million. They had planned to sell ADS for $28 to $30 each.

Much like Google Inc's YouTube, Tudou allows users to watch, upload, rate, comment on and recommend videos. It is the second-largest online video company in China and makes money primarily by selling ads but also sells mobile access to its site to China Mobile and China Unicom customers.

Tudou filed for an IPO last November but the process was delayed due to a lawsuit by the former wife of its founder, chairman and CEO, Gary Wang.

Since the launch of its online video site in April 2005, Tudou's growth has been dramatic. Its registered user base more than doubled to 78.2 million in the two-year period between the end of 2008 and the end of 2010, and was at 90.1 million as of the end of June 2011.

The company's revenue has also risen sharply in recent years, but its losses have widened. In the most recent reporting period, the three months ended March 31, the company's net revenue rose 167 percent to 79.4 million yuan, or $12.1 million. Its net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders widened almost ninefold to 340.7 million yuan, or $52 million, in the same period.

Tudou, whose main business operations are in China but which, like many Chinese companies, is registered as a Cayman Islands holding company, said in its regulatory filings it expects to have enough operating cash flow to continue as a going concern and to be able to raise funds for capital commitments and working capital by issuing redeemable convertible preferred shares or taking loans.

Tudou in the risk factors section of its prospectus, however, said it had found a "material weakness and a significant deficiency" in its internal financial controls.

The company said it does not have enough people with knowledge of U.S. accounting rules, which is not uncommon for Chinese companies. It also said its lack of internal controls had resulted in errors in recording and accounting for redeemable convertible preferred shares, share-based compensation, litigation losses, advertising agency fees, and certain other balance sheet line items.

Tudou, whose name means "potato" in Mandarin and conjures images of an Internet couch potato, said it plans to use its share of the IPO proceeds for content, Internet bandwidth, and working capital and general purposes.

CEO Wang is selling a small portion of the shares he controls in the IPO. Other, non-selling shareholders include funds affiliated with Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek, which will control about 17 percent of the company immediately following the IPO.

Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities and Oppenheimer & Co were the underwriters on the Tudou IPO. The shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Wednesday under the symbol "TUDO".

Shares of rival Youku.com, which went public in December, have risen nearly 87 percent since its IPO. Youku and Baidu Inc were interested in buying Tudou, according to Chinese media reports last week, but a source close to the situation denied the reports.

(Reporting by Clare Baldwin; Editing by Gary Hill, Matthew Lewis, Phil Berlowitz)

Windows phones are getting new Xbox Live features, games soon (Digital Trends)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 08:23 PM PDT

Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – 1 hr 29 mins ago

xbox-mango-mobile

Announced during the Gamescom conference this week, Microsoft previewed a series of new mobile games for the Windows phone platform as well as a series of updates for Xbox Live that are packaged in the next release of the operating system, Mango. Avatar Awardables are one of the upgrades to Xbox Live. Players will be able to earn wearable items for avatars and have a visual representation of bragging rights for tough achievements.

kinectimals-mobileWith the upcoming release of Splinter Cell: Conviction this fall, Microsoft is also adding parental controls to lock out access to content when a game is rated M for Mature. Other improvements include DLC content which can be purchased through the smartphone as well as turn-by-turn asynchronous functionality for games between two players. The ability to purchase add-on content is a helpful step for developers on the platform. Free-to-play games on the iOS platform are often lucrative for developers and publishers due to players spending large quantities of money to advance quickly in the game.

Microsoft claims that 70 percent of all Windows Phone 7 smartphone owners have downloaded at least one game over Xbox Live. The company announced 14 titles for this fall including a mobile version of Kinectimals and a puzzle game called Orbital that has some similarities to Geometry Wars. Also in the mix of new titles includes a couple simulation style games similar to Zynga's FarmVille or Nintendo's Animal Crossing. Bug Village is a game where the player tends to a colony of bugs and Farm Frenzy 2 puts the player in charge of a farm to grow crops, tend to the animals and create a profitable farm. Other games include Gravity Guy, Collapse!, Chickens Can't Fly, Burn the Rope, Beards & Beaks: Cave Area, Fight Game Rivals, IonballEX, Mush, TextTwist 2 and Toy Soldiers Boot Camp. 

AT&T Is Ready To Launch LTE 4G for Computer Users (NewsFactor)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 02:47 PM PDT

Adam Dickter, newsfactor.com Adam Dickter, newsfactor.com – Tue Aug 16, 5:47 pm ET

High-speed, Long Term Evolution wireless data is about to move to a second major U.S. carrier, with AT&T signaling that its network will soon be up and running for computer users. The nation's second-biggest wireless provider, which could soon leap to number one if its acquisition of T-Mobile is approved by federal regulators, announced Tuesday its rates for data-only (non-smartphone) broadband.

Using computers on the new network will cost $50 a month for five gigabytes of data and $10 per additional gigabyte.

Two Modems for LTE

LTE service will be available on a USBConnect Adrenaline modem, released in March and upgradable to LTE beginning Aug 26. It currently runs on the HSPA+ network, which AT&T also calls 4G. The cost of using the AT&T USBConnect Momentum 4G and the new AT&T Mobile Hotspot Elevate 4G will be the same as for current users of Momentum and Elevate.

The Elevate will set buyers back $119.99, while the Momentum costs $99.99, each with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate.

AT&T said the USBConnect Momentum 4G and Mobile Hotspot Elevate 4G will be the only LTE devices in the U.S. to have a 4G/HSPA+ network that will be able to utilize slower, but still fast, HSPA+ if the user moves outside LTE coverage.

A software update downloadable from AT&T's web site on Aug. 26 will enable the LTE chipset.

Coming Soon

AT&T hasn't announced the date it will activate the 4G LTE coverage, but it will initially be in five markets: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Like Verizon Wireless, which began rolling out LTE in December, AT&T's network will support computers and tablets first and smartphones later.

The goal is to offer 4G LTE to customers in at least 15 markets, covering 70 million Americans, by the end of this year.

In December, when Verizon launched its LTE, AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan suggested in a blog post that the rival carrier wasn't investing enough in its network to prevent speed degradation when users leave the initial LTE area.

"Our HSPA+ network and upgraded backhaul is expected to deliver speed performance similar to initial LTE deployments," Donovan wrote then. "That matters, because when we begin commercial deployment of LTE in mid-2011, customers on our LTE network will be able to fall back to HSPA+."

In other news, Engadget on Tuesday posted a photo of what it said was LTE equipment supporting the 700-megahertz and AWS bands at an unnamed Apple store -- equipment that could possibly be used for an LTE-enabled iPhone 5, the site said.

Not likely, said Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner Research.

"The general consensus was that the [iPhone 5] would not have LTE because of the power drain and Apple's incessant concern about battery life," Dulaney said. "What could be happening is that they may have this for laptops which may now support LTE."

The photo was quickly removed for unknown reasons.

Man sentenced for stealing over $50K using information found on Facebook (Digital Trends)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 09:06 PM PDT

Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – 45 mins ago

facebook-login

33-year-old Iain Wood, a man in northeast England that owned a carpet fitting business, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for stealing $57,000 over two years from friends and neighbors. Wood's scam involved befriending people in the vicinity of his home and becoming friends with neighbors on Facebook as well as another social network Friends United. With information collected off the Facebook pages, Wood would make online attempts to access a neighbor's bank account. Wood would bypass the password and go straight for the security question. Since most security questions involve a bit of personal information like a mother's maiden name or a date of birth, Wood could gain access to bank accounts easily with the knowledge gained from the social networks. 

Iain-WoodAfter gaining access, Wood would change the address of the victim and withdraw cash with the new cards that he would intercept in the mail. Banks rarely verify the change-of-address request, thus Wood stole thousands of dollars between June 2008 and June 2010 for gambling purposes. Wood would spend up to 18 hours a day on the computer attempting to access different accounts as well as collecting information. Wood even exploited dormant bank accounts by taking advantage of overdraft fees.

He was caught after attempting to directly transfer about $2,500 from a victim's account into his own account around November 2009. After the initial arrest, police had no idea that Wood stole money from many other accounts until Wood asked "Have you been on to me for a while?". Police searched his home and found plenty of incriminating evidence including other people's bills, bank account pin numbers, passports and other paperwork related to personal finances. Wood plead guilty to all counts of false representation and was sentenced to 15 months at Newcastle Crown Court.

Xbox LIVE dashboard upgrade leaks (Digital Trends)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 05:04 PM PDT

Molly McHugh Molly Mchugh – Tue Aug 16, 8:04 pm ET

xbox dashYouTube user and Xbox 360 mod expert iTzLuPo has posted a video revealing what is purported to be the latest Xbox dash upgrade. He says a friend who wishes to remain anonymous tipped him off to the new look and tools. We've already seen the Windows mobile UI refresh and heard Kinect voice commands will be improved, but the video offered a few more details. Unfortunately, it's been pulled (the above image is not from the video).

As per usual, you're advised to take everything you seen with a grain of salt. That said, there are a few new features that deserve mention, many of which were hinted at during Microsoft's E3 press conference, but since then we've heard very little.

  • Discoverable: A new application called Discoverable shows up in the video and is a service that helps "companion devices" find your Xbox. Smartphones and Bluetooth devices would connect to your console seamlessly. We heard earlier this summer that Windows 8 would integrate Xbox LIVE as well, so maybe there's some sort of PC-connectivity that will be part of this as well.
  • Skype: ITzLuPo insists that Skype will be woven into Xbox and will appear in the dashboard. It will integrate with LIVE.
  • Beacons: These let you update your social sites (Facebook and Xbox LIVE are specifically mentioned) in advance with what time you plan to play.
  • Kinect: Kinect voice command will be more extension and have more gestures you can use. 
  • YouTube: YouTube will be available via the dashboard, as will Bing search. 
The upgrade is alleged going to be available in late August or early September. Since the videos were posted, iTzLuPo says Microsoft was none too pleased and asked him to remove the information.  

 

Android app News360 captures headlines from all around you (Appolicious)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 12:45 PM PDT

Transit agency head defends cell service shut-off (AP)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 05:23 PM PDT

By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Paul Elias, Associated Press – Tue Aug 16, 8:23 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – The idea to cut wireless communications to quell a brewing protest — a tactic that has put San Francisco's subway system in the middle of a global free speech debate — first came to the agency's chief spokesman in the middle of the night.

Bay Area Rapid Transit spokesman Linton Johnson said Tuesday that he was lying awake early Thursday when he was struck by the thought of shutting off power to the agency's wireless networks.

He sent an e-mail to BART police, who had asked employees for all ideas — "good or bad, constitutional or unconstitutional," Johnson said.

BART Police Deputy Chief Ben Fairow responded that he liked the idea, and interim general manager Sherwood Wakeman, formerly the agency's top lawyer, signed off on the plan, Johnson said.

BART's board of directors was told of the tactic before 5 p.m. Thursday when it was deployed, he said.

The tactic is now at the center of a growing debate in the United States — and around the world — over whether BART officials acted properly to ensure commuter safety or overreached and violated free speech rights when it became the first U.S. governmental agency to shut off wireless service to disrupt protest.

The action has been compared unfavorably to Hosni Mubarek's attempt to shut down the Internet in Egypt before protesters forced him from office.

On Tuesday, Johnson said he had no regrets and BART reserved the right to cut power again if faced with the same circumstances.

The agency kept the power on during a rowdy protest Monday that prompted the brief closure of four San Francisco stations during the evening commute.

Johnson said that's because "the information we had Monday didn't meet the constitutional standards" to cut communications like it did last week.

On Thursday, protest organizers posted instructions for the demonstration on websites and on Twitter, indicating more instructions would be issued electronically just before the demonstration was to start.

The demonstration was planned after BART police shot and killed Charles Hill, a 45-year-old transient, on July 3. BART police said he lunged at officers with a knife.

On Monday, organizers simply called for protesters to gather on the Civic Center station platform at 5 p.m. Cutting communications wouldn't have helped police control the situation, Johnson said.

That demonstration was called in response to the communication cut last week. About 50 demonstrators massed on the platform with free speech signs chanting "no justice, no peace." One protester was walking around with a toy phone shouting "can you hear me now."

While Johnson's idea has drawn criticism from some civil libertarians and free speech advocates, others inside and out of the agency supported the decision.

BART board president Bob Franklin said cutting communications led to a safe, uninterrupted commute Thursday night after the protest failed to materialize.

Franklin said doesn't see BART ever again shutting the wireless network to quell a brewing protest. That's because he believes future protesters won't rely on their cell phones to organize, knowing BART has the capability to cut communications in its station.

"I don't see a need to do it again," Franklin said.

In an interview Tuesday, Franklin defended the agency's actions to cut communications, saying it was legal and appropriate to ensure commuter safety.

"It stopped the protest," Franklin said of the action.

Franklin said BART's lawyers also believe its strategy Monday was a legal way to ensure safety on its crowded platforms.

Nonetheless, Franklin said he expects BART will get hit with a lawsuit, even though he thinks the issue of cutting communications to quell potentially dangerous demonstrations needs to be decided on a national level.

"It's an interesting issue of free speech," Franklin said. "The debate is now well beyond BART."

Civil libertarian groups have backed away from threats to legally challenge BART over the issue, even though advocates fear other government agencies will use similar tactics if the practice isn't challenged in court.

The American Civil Liberties Union met with BART's police chief Monday even as demonstrators protested the agency's previous action to block wireless reception.

After the meeting, ACLU attorney Michael Risher said the organization had no plans to immediately file a lawsuit and he was disappointed that he didn't extract a pledge from BART to refrain from similar tactics in the future. He planned to keep meeting with the agency.

"While the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California is not currently in the process of filing a lawsuit against BART for shutting down wireless service, we have not entirely ruled out the possibility," ACLU spokeswoman Rebecca Farmer said Tuesday. "This is a rapidly evolving situation. We are in conversation with BART, and our analysis will change depending on BART's actions going forward."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, too, said it was unlikely to file a lawsuit over the disabling of wireless reception for three hours.

Still, the shutdown of wireless towers in stations near the protest Thursday raised questions about the role that social networks play in helping people, from Egypt to London, organize online. In the U.S., with its history of free speech, critics are saying BART's move was unconstitutional.

Elijah Sparrow, one of the protesters Monday night, called the demonstration "one of the defining battles of the 21st century over who is going to control communication."

BART's actions Thursday night prompted a Federal Communications Commission investigation, and a hacking group organized an attack on one of the agency's websites on Sunday, posting personal information of more than 2,000 passengers online. The group Anonymous called for a disruption of BART's evening commute Monday.

BART officials said they were working on a plan to block any efforts by protesters to disrupt the service, which carries 190,000 passengers during the morning and evening commutes every day.

BART experienced several large protests that turned into riots after a white transit officer shot unarmed black commuter Oscar Grant on New Year's Day 2009. Johannes Mehserle resigned from BART and was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Netflix offers kid-friendly tab (Investor's Business Daily)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 03:40 PM PDT

– Tue Aug 16, 6:40 pm ET

The No. 1 online video service is giving kids and their parents a new reason to embrace its Internet subscription service, a move perhaps designed to mollify customers irate over its recent price hikes. Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX - News) added a "Just For Kids" tab to its website. Clicking the tab pulls up a list of about 1,000 kid-friendly movies and TV shows in Netflix's library. It won't suggest titles only available as DVD rentals delivered through the mail, as Netflix tries to migrate customers to online viewing. Shares fell 3% to 239.04.

Starbucks offering free iPhone apps (Digital Trends)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 05:53 PM PDT

Trevor Mogg Trevor Mogg – Tue Aug 16, 8:53 pm ET

Starbucks and Apple have joined forces to offer free iOS apps to customers.

Coffee drinkers visiting the shop have been able to download free songs from iTunes for a number of years now as part of the popular Pick of the Week program organized by the two companies.

A Cnet report says that visitors to Starbucks can now grab a Pick of the Week app card at the cash register. On the back is a code that the customer needs to enter to begin downloading the free app.

Up first is Shazam Encore, a music identifying service. This app would ordinarily set you back $5.99, so if it's one not already in your collection, it might appeal. The free songs offered in the Pick of the Week music program are worth up to $1.29 a time, so on the face of it the app offer looks like a pretty sweet deal.

The fact that the free offer is available to iOS users only may leave some of those with Android-equipped devices feeling a little envious. Then again, you might have already picked up Shazam Encore for nothing when it was offered in the Amazon app store as a Free App of the Day back in March.

It's not currently clear whether the free apps being offered at Starbucks will replace or run alongside the offer of free music tracks.

Tablet-Optimized Windows 8 Moves Closer To Release (NewsFactor)

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 02:18 PM PDT

Jennifer LeClaire, newsfactor.com Jennifer Leclaire, newsfactor.com – Tue Aug 16, 5:18 pm ET

The mobile-device world just got one step closer to using a Windows operating system optimized for tablet computers. Microsoft is reading Windows 8 for the pre-release stage.

In a blog post, Microsoft President Steven Sinofsky pointed out that more than two of every three PCs are mobile (read: laptops, netbooks, notebooks, tablets, slates and convertibles). He also noted the trend toward cloud-based storage.

"The appearance of touchscreen mobile phones, with the rich capabilities they bring, have together changed the way we all view computing," Sinofsky wrote. "Most of all, computing is much more focused on applications and on people than on the operating system itself or the data. These changes in the landscape motivate the most significant changes to Windows, from the chips to the experience."

An Open Dialogue

Microsoft previewed Windows 8 in June. The next look the market will get is at the BUILD conference in September. There developers will get more details about the tools and capabilities available for Windows 8.

"With our preview in June, we started by showing you user experience, because it is the most visible change to Windows," Sinofsky wrote. "Rest assured we've thoughtfully engineered changes across the full range of Windows capabilities."

He promised to start revealing specifics of features in the coming weeks, from fundamentals to user interface to hardware support and more. Microsoft is working to balance a discussion about the features before executing them, while communicating details of the next iteration.

"Our focus on performance, reliability, compatibility, security and quality is now baked into our engineering process even as we change Windows for a new generation," Sinofsky wrote. "With these changes come new ways of doing work on Windows PCs as well as continual investments in hardware, software and peripherals."

A Three-Horse Race

Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, said it appears that Microsoft is working to have Windows 8 on hardware in time for back-to-school shopping in 2012. That would mean scheduling a release to manufacturing, or RTM, around the middle of 2012.

"Microsoft is getting aggressive. Tablets are chewing into the Windows market share now pretty aggressively, and now they are definitely responding to the competitive threat," Enderle said.

Windows 8 embraces tablets. Enderle expects Microsoft to market Windows 8 as everything the iPad isn't. Microsoft, he said, recognizes that Apple is going down the same path and will eventually merge iOS and Mac OS X. Microsoft, he said, wants to get there first.

"It's an aggressive race. Both Apple and Microsoft are looking at Google, because with this Motorola buy it is likely that Google on Motorola hardware might offer something at or close to free in that same time frame," Enderle said. "So it's a three-horse race, and Windows 8 is one of the horses that Microsoft is riding."
at 10:02 PM

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