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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

With Jobs out as CEO, Apple looks to the future (AP) : Technet

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With Jobs out as CEO, Apple looks to the future (AP) : Technet

With Jobs out as CEO, Apple looks to the future (AP)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 09:48 PM PDT

By RACHEL METZ, AP Technology Writer Rachel Metz, Ap Technology Writer – 1 hr 5 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Since Steve Jobs' return to Apple Inc. in 1997 as CEO, the company has been on an unparalleled upswing, highlighted by the immense popularity of the iPad and iPhone.

Now, with Jobs no longer leading, Apple will have to prove it can keep its momentum. If the recent past is any indication, the company will continue to move forward.

Apple said late Wednesday that Jobs, 56, resigned from the CEO post, in a move that seems motivated by his ongoing, yet still unspecified health issues. Jobs had taken an indefinite medical leave in January, marking his third such leave in seven years. Jobs, who co-founded Apple in 1976, previously survived pancreatic cancer and received a liver transplant.

Taking on the role of board chairman, Jobs now passes the CEO role Tim Cook, 50, the company's chief operating officer. Cook had been acting CEO since January. For years, he has been running Apple's day-to-day operations, and has long been seen as the natural successor. He also served as Apple's leader for two months in 2004 while Jobs battled cancer, and again for five-and-a-half months in 2009 when Jobs received a liver transplant. The company has thrived under Cook's leadership, briefly becoming the most valuable company in America earlier this month.

Cook is not nearly as recognizable as Jobs, who after returning from a 12-year hiatus in 1997 became the very public face of Apple, clad in his signature blue jeans, black turtleneck and wire-rimmed glasses when trotting out the company's iPhones, iPads, iPods at immensely popular and anticipated media events. Though Jobs has looked increasingly frail, he emerged from his leave twice this year to tout products at such events: First, he unveiled the second version of Apple's iPad tablet computer in March. Then, in June, he resurfaced to show off Apple's iCloud music synching service.

But while Jobs is the most recognized person at Apple, he is not the only one responsible for the company's success. Many industry watchers believe that despite his importance, Apple will continue to innovate and not just survive, but thrive.

Says Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross: "Steve Jobs put in place at Apple a culture of innovation."

And its innovation has translated to sales. With Cook running the company, Apple sold 9.25 million iPads during the most recent quarter, which ended in June, bringing sales to nearly 29 million iPads since they first began selling in April 2010. Apple also sold 20.3 million iPhones in the same period, which was millions more than analysts expected. The company's stock has risen 8 percent since Jobs announced his most recent medical leave.

Cook's track record at Apple is strong. The first time he was in charge back in 2004, things went so well that Apple promoted him from executive vice president to chief operating officer in 2005.

During the second time, which lasted from mid-January to the end of June 2009, Apple released a new version of the iPhone and updated laptop computers on schedule. The company also announced that its iTunes app store hit a major milestone: More than one billion apps were downloaded within the first nine months of its existence.

Apple's stock rose 62 percent during that time, satisfying investors' concerns over Jobs' absence.

Cook, an Alabaman with short, gray hair and a broad, thin-lipped smile, has been an asset to Apple since his arrival in 1998. He is credited with tuning Apple's manufacturing process to solve chronic product delays and supply problems. His inventory management skills helped Apple build up its $72.6 billion hoard of cash and marketable securities — funds that it can use to keep its lead in the portable electronics market.

Like IBM, McDonald's or Ford, all of which lost visionary CEOs, Apple is not necessarily dependent on the immortality of the genius behind it, says Terry Connelly, dean of the Ageno School of Business at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

"A company is dependent on its ability to institutionalize that genius in the corporate DNA," he says. "Apple shows every sign of having done that. We will see that when we see how Cook responds to competitive pressure."

And, as Cross points out, Cook won't be leading Apple alone. His supporting team includes Jonathan Ive, who oversees the elegant, minimalist design of Apple's products; Ron Johnson, who runs Apple's stores; Philip Schiller, the marketing chief; and Scott Forstall, who supervises the iPhone software.

"The bench at Apple is extremely strong," Cross says. "He has a good group of executives behind him."

And consumers — the group Apple really depends on to make its products popular — may not be that affected by the change.

Apple customers don't buy the company's products because of Steve Jobs, Gartner Research analyst Michael Gartenberg says, they buy Apple products because they're Apple products. Without Jobs, he believes the company's challenge will be the same as it was with him: continuing to find ways to raise the bar with its consumer electronics.

"Yes, this is quite some transition at the end of Steve's role and his time at Apple, but it doesn't mean Apple itself will fundamentally change," he says. "Certainly Apple's competition would be foolish to think this is a situation they could somehow capitalize on."

___

AP Technology Writers Barbara Ortutay and Jordan Robertson in San Francisco contributed to this report.

In Jobs' second act with Apple, a dramatic revival (AP)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 09:20 PM PDT

By JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer Jordan Robertson, Ap Technology Writer – 27 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Steve Jobs' resignation as Apple Inc.'s CEO on Thursday was freighted with sentimental significance, the curtain call on a dramatic 14-year performance in which he rescued one of the world's most beloved brands from the brink of technological irrelevance.

As second chances go, Jobs' stewardship of Apple since returning in 1997 to the company he created with a high school friend in a Silicon Valley garage in the 1970s is widely seen as nothing short of first-class. And his job isn't done; he's staying on as chairman, where it remains to be seen how meaningfully his role in product design will change.

As mercurial as many employees and suppliers and business partners have found Jobs, few can deny how deeply his ideas have transformed the consumer technology world.

Jobs' contributions to the world of technology are numerous. He led a fierce battle against Microsoft's Windows stronghold on the front lines of the personal computer revolution; he changed the way people listen music; he essentially created the consumer smartphone market and turned tablets from objects of derision into lusted-after luxury items. The innovation attached to the Steve Jobs brand is something that might be impossible to replace.

Investors expressed their concerns with a selloff that knocked Apple's stock down $19.08, or 5.1 percent, to $355.58 in extended trading Thursday, following the announcement that Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, would be assuming full-time CEO duties.

"Apple is Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs is Apple, and Steve Jobs is innovation," said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research. "You can teach people how to be operationally efficient, you can hire consultants to tell you how to do that, but God creates innovation. ... Apple without Steve Jobs is nothing."

Jobs has now stepped down twice as Apple's leader, both times under unfavorable circumstances.

Whereas unmatched technical innovation and single-mindedness defined Apple's early years, and unchecked hubris and micromanaging helped doom Jobs' first go-around as CEO, he has redeemed himself, pulling off one of the most remarkable turnarounds in corporate history.

Like many Silicon Valley companies, Apple traces its roots to a garage where two tinkerers came up with an idea that would change technology forever. But perhaps more than any other technology icon who has risen from the scrum of Silicon Valley entrepreneurialism, Jobs has been as much of a polarizing figure as he has been an inspirational one.

He has invented and masterfully marketed ever-sleeker gadgets that have transformed everyday technology, from the personal computer to the iPod and iPhone. Cultivating Apple's countercultural sensibility and a minimalist design ethic, in his second go-around as CEO he has rolled out one hit product after another, even in the face of the late-2000s recession and his own failing health.

Jobs helped change computers from a geeky hobbyist's obsession to a necessity of modern life at work and home, and in the process he upended not just personal technology but the cellphone and music industries.

Perhaps most influentially, he launched the iPod in 2001, which offered "1,000 songs in your pocket." Over the next 10 years, its white earphones and thumb-dial control seemed to become as ubiquitous as the wristwatch.

In 2007 came the touch-screen iPhone, and later its miniature "apps," which made the phone a device not just for making calls but for managing money, storing photos, playing games and browsing the Web.

And in 2010, Jobs introduced the iPad, a tablet-sized, all-touch computer that took off even though market analysts said no one really needed one.

Investors have become enraptured. "Fanboys" follow Jobs' words with almost religious fervor, and shareholders have cast big bets on Apple's prospects.

Earlier this month, Apple briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil as the most valuable company in America, with Apple stock on the open market worth more than any other company's.

Under Jobs, the company cloaked itself in secrecy to build frenzied anticipation for each of its new products. Jobs himself had a wizardly sense of what his customers wanted, and where demand didn't exist, he leveraged a cult-like following to create it.

When he spoke at Apple presentations, almost always in faded blue jeans, sneakers and a black mock turtleneck, legions of Apple acolytes listened to every word. He often boasted about Apple successes, then coyly added a coda — "One more thing" — before introducing its latest ambitious idea.

But recent performances have been clouded by a different kind of interest. Observers have scrutinized Jobs' appearance and mannerisms for clues about his health. Apple won't say whether Jobs' health has worsened.

In 2004, Jobs revealed that he had been diagnosed with — and "cured" of — a rare form of operable pancreatic cancer called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor. In early 2009, it became clear he was again ill.

Jobs took a half-year medical leave of absence starting in January 2009, during which he had a liver transplant. Last January, he announced another medical leave, his third, with no set duration. He returned to the spotlight briefly in March to personally unveil a second-generation iPad.

The adoration now surrounding Jobs would have seemed highly unlikely in his early days.

Jobs, whose hippie sensibilities made him somewhat of an outcast in his early adulthood, grew up in California and after finishing high school enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Ore. His foray into advanced formal schooling didn't last long. He dropped out after a semester.

"All of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it," he said at a Stanford University commencement address in 2005. "I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out."

His career in technology started inauspiciously. When he returned to California in 1974, Jobs worked for video game maker Atari and attended meetings of a local computer club with Steve Wozniak, a high school friend who was a few years older.

Wozniak's homemade computer drew attention from other enthusiasts, but Jobs saw its potential far beyond the geeky hobbyists of the time. The pair started Apple in Jobs' parents' garage two years later. Their first creation was the Apple I — essentially, the guts of a computer without a case, keyboard or monitor.

His ascent into fortune and technological superstardom was swift.

The Apple II, which hit the market in 1977, was their first machine for the masses. It became so popular that Jobs was worth $100 million by age 25. Time magazine put him on its cover for the first time in 1982.

But his rise wasn't without controversy. Three years earlier, during a visit to the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Jobs again spotted mass potential in a niche invention: a computer that allowed people to access files and control programs with the click of a mouse, not typed commands. He returned to Apple and ordered the team to copy what he had seen.

It foreshadowed a propensity to take other people's concepts, improve on them and spin them into wildly successful products. Under Jobs, Apple didn't invent computers, digital music players or smartphones — it reinvented them for people who didn't want to learn computer programming or negotiate the technical hassles of keeping their gadgets working.

"We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas," Jobs said in an interview for the PBS series "Triumph of the Nerds."

The approach may have had its critics, but under Jobs, Apple found its rhythm and delivered hit products. He stumbled a few times, however.

Based on what Jobs saw at Xerox, his engineers responded with two computers. The pricier one, called Lisa, launched to a cool reception in 1983. A less-expensive model called the Macintosh exploded onto the scene in 1984.

The Mac was heralded by an epic Super Bowl commercial that referenced George Orwell's "1984" and captured Apple's iconoclastic style. In the ad, expressionless drones marched through dark halls to an auditorium where a Big Brother-like figure was lecturing on a big screen. A woman in a bright track uniform burst into the hall and launched a hammer into the screen, which exploded, stunning the drones, as a narrator announced the arrival of the Mac.

The commercial cemented Apple's image as the opposition party in a world dominated by massive corporations, particularly IBM Corp.

There were early stumbles at Apple that led to Jobs' unraveling. Jobs clashed with colleagues and even the CEO he had hired away from Pepsi, John Sculley. And after an initial spike, Mac sales slowed, in part because few programs had been written for the new graphical user interface.

Meanwhile, Microsoft copied the Mac approach and introduced Windows, outmaneuvering Apple by licensing its software to slews of computer makers.

With Apple's stock price sinking, conflicts between Jobs and Sculley mounted. Sculley won over the board in 1985 and pushed Jobs out of his day-to-day role leading the Macintosh team. Jobs resigned his post as chairman of the board and left Apple within months.

He said the departure crushed him. "What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating," Jobs said in his Stanford speech. "I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."

Jobs didn't know it then, but the next phase of his career would set the stage for his triumphant return to Apple years later.

Jobs dove into two other companies: Next, a computer maker, and Pixar, a computer-animation studio that he bought from George Lucas for $10 million.

Pixar, ultimately the more successful venture, seemed at first a bottomless money pit.

Then came "Toy Story," the first computer-animated full-length feature. Jobs used its success to negotiate a sweeter deal with Disney for Pixar's next two films. In 2006, Jobs sold Pixar to The Walt Disney Co. for $7.4 billion in stock, making him Disney's largest individual shareholder and securing a seat on the board.

With Next, Jobs was said to be obsessive about the tiniest details of the cube-shaped computer, insisting on design perfection even for the machine's guts. He never managed to spark much demand for the machine, which cost a pricey $6,500 to $10,000.

Ultimately, he shifted the focus to software — a move that paid off later when Apple bought Next for its operating system technology, the basis for the software still used in Mac computers.

That decision would mark the beginning of the end of Apple's slow slide into the technological backwaters.

By 1996, when Apple bought Next, Apple was in dire financial straits. It had lost more than $800 million in a year, dragged its heels in licensing Mac software for other computers and surrendered most of its market share to PCs that ran Windows.

Larry Ellison, Jobs' close friend and fellow Silicon Valley billionaire and the leader of Oracle Corp., publicly contemplated buying Apple in early 1997 and ousting its leadership. The idea fizzled, but Jobs stepped in as interim chief later that year.

He returned with a vengeance, slashing unprofitable projects, narrowing the company's focus and presiding over a new marketing push to set the Mac apart from Windows. The new ads featured with an intentionally ungrammatical encouragement to computer users: "Think different."

Apple's first new product under his direction, the brightly colored, plastic iMac, launched in 1998 and sold about 2 million in its first year.

Jobs later dropped the "interim" from his title. He changed his style, too, said Tim Bajarin, who met Jobs several times while covering the company for Creative Strategies.

"In the early days, he was in charge of every detail. The only way you could say it is, he was kind of a control freak," he said. In his second stint, "he clearly was much more mellow and more mature."

In the decade that followed, Jobs returned Apple to profitability while pushing out an impressive roster of new products.

Apple's popularity exploded in the 2000s. The iPod, smaller and sleeker with each generation, introduced many lifelong Windows users to their first Apple gadget.

ITunes gave people a convenient way to buy music legally online, song by song.

For the music industry, it was a mixed blessing. The industry got a way to reach Internet-savvy people who, in the age of Napster, were growing accustomed to downloading music free. But online sales also hastened the demise of CDs and established Apple as a gatekeeper, resulting in battles between Jobs and music executives over pricing and other issues.

Jobs' command over gadget lovers and pop culture swelled to the point that, on the eve of the iPhone's launch in 2007, faithful followers slept on sidewalks outside posh Apple stores for the chance to buy one. Three years later, at the iPad's debut, the lines snaked around blocks and out through parking lots, even though people had the option to order one in advance.

Jobs' personal ethos — he is a natural food lover who embraced Buddhism and New Age philosophy — has been closely linked to the public persona he shaped for Apple.

Apple itself became a statement against the commoditization of technology — a cynical view, to be sure, from a company whose computers can cost three or more times as much as those of its rivals.

Longtime fans say they're encouraged that Jobs is sticking around, even in a limited capacity. Cook has received mild approval.

"No one can replace Steve Jobs, but (Cook) is good at what he does, which is make sure the right people have the right jobs," said Jeff Gamet, managing editor at The Mac Observer website. "It's not like as of today everything for Apple changes. It's going to feel a little different, though, because Steve won't have the CEO title."

But Gamet acknowledged that there's a sentimental loss in Jobs' stepping down.

"It sure would have been fun to see Steve at the helm a little bit longer," he said.

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO and creative force, resigns (AP)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 08:06 PM PDT

By RACHEL METZ and JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writers Rachel Metz And Jordan Robertson, Ap Technology Writers – 1 hr 41 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO – The man in the black shirt and jeans who knew people would fall in love with the iPod, iPhone and iPad before they did is stepping back from Apple Inc., which grew into one of the world's strongest companies as its leader's health failed him.

Steve Jobs' resignation Wednesday appears to be the result of an unspecified medical condition for which he took a leave from his post in January. Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, was quickly named CEO of the company Jobs co-founded in his garage 35 years ago.

In a letter addressed to Apple's board and the "Apple community," Jobs said he "always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."

The company said Jobs gave the board his resignation Wednesday and suggested Cook be named the company's new leader. Apple said Jobs was elected board chairman and Cook is becoming a member of its board.

Genentech Inc. Chairman Art Levinson, in a statement issued on behalf of Apple's board, said Jobs' "extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world's most innovative and valuable technology company."

He said that Jobs will continue to provide "his unique insights, creativity and inspiration," and that the board has "complete confidence" that Cook is the right person to replace him.

""Tim's 13 years of service to Apple have been marked by outstanding performance, and he has demonstrated remarkable talent and sound judgment in everything he does," Levinson said.

Jobs' health has long been a concern for Apple investors who see him as an oracle of technology. After his announcement, Apple stock quickly fell 5.4 percent in after-hours trading.

Jeff Gamet, managing editor of The Mac Observer online news site focused on Apple, said Jobs' departure has more sentimental than practical significance, and that he has been telegraphing the change for several years.

"All Apple really has done is made official what they've been doing administratively for a while now, which is Tim runs the show and Steve gets to do his part to make sure the products come out to meet the Apple standard," he said.

"I expect that even though there are a lot of people that right now are sad or scared because Steve is stepping back from the CEO role, that ultimately they'll be OK," Gamet said.

But Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research, said Jobs' maniacal attention to detail is what set Apple apart. He said Apple's product pipeline might be secure for another few years, but predicted that the company will eventually struggle to come up with market-changing ideas.

"Apple is Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs is Apple, and Steve Jobs is innovation," Chowdhry said. "You can teach people how to be operationally efficient, you can hire consultants to tell you how to do that, but God creates innovation. ... Apple without Steve Jobs is nothing."

Earlier this month Apple became the most valuable company in America, briefly surpassing Exxon Mobil. At the market close Wednesday its market value was $349 billion, just behind Exxon Mobil's $358 billion.

Jobs' hits seemed to grow bigger as the years went on: After the colorful iMac computer and the now-ubiquitous iPod, the iPhone redefined the category of smart phones and the iPad all but created the market for tablet computers.

His own aura seemed part of the attraction. On stage at trade shows and company events in his uniform of jeans, sneakers and black mock-turtlenecks, he'd entrance audiences with new devices, new colors, new software features, building up to a grand finale he'd predictably preface by saying, "One more thing."

Jobs, 56, shepherded Apple from a two-man startup to Silicon Valley darling when the Apple II, the first computer for regular people to really catch on, sent IBM Corp. and others scrambling to get their own PCs to market.

After Apple suffered a slump in the mid-1980s, he was forced out of the company. He was CEO at Next, another computer company, and Pixar, the computer-animation company that produced "Toy Story" on his watch, over the following 10 years.

Apple was foundering as he returned as an adviser in 1996 — a year it lost $900 million as Microsoft Windows-based PCs dominated the computer market. The company's fortunes began to turn around with its first new product under Jobs' direction, the iMac, which launched in 1998 and sold about 2 million in its first 12 months.

Jobs eventually became interim CEO, then took the job permanently. Apple's popularity grew in the U.S. throughout the 2000s as the ever-sleeker line of iPods introduced many lifelong Windows users to their first Apple gadget. Apple created another sensation in 2007 with the iPhone, the stark-looking but powerful smart phone that quickly dominated the industry.

The iPad was introduced less than a year and a half ago but has already sold nearly 29 million units as it inspired myriad rivals in a tablet computer market that scarcely existed before Apple stepped in.

There have been some setbacks. Apple was swept up in a massive Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into stock options backdating in the mid-2000s, a practice that artificially boosted the value of options grants. But Jobs and Apple emerged unscathed after two former executives took the fall and eventually settled with the SEC.

As Jobs was praised for his vision, concerns about his health persisted. The January leave was Jobs' third medical leave over several years. He had previously survived pancreatic cancer and received a liver transplant.

Shannon Cross, an analyst at Cross Research, said Cook is a good choice to replace Jobs.

"He has taken over for Jobs twice in two medical leaves and the company has functioned extremely well," she said, adding that Cook has been Jobs' "right hand guy" for many years.

Cross also said Jobs put in place a "culture of innovation" that will help Apple remain a creative force in the industry.

"Steve Jobs is an extremely strong leader and clearly has made Apple a leading consumer electronics company and one of the most innovative companies in the world," she said. "However, he didn't do it alone."

___

AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in San Francisco contributed to this report.

NASA spots chilled-out stars cooler than the human body (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 05:45 PM PDT

$9,000 in stolen camera equipment recovered through Flickr search (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 01:36 PM PDT

Twitter Co-Founders Want to Help Unlock Human Potential With New App (Mashable)

Posted: 23 Aug 2011 03:02 PM PDT

Ben Parr Ben Parr – Tue Aug 23, 6:02 pm ET

Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams have announced their first project since leaving Twitter: a partnership with Lift, a new app designed to unlock the human potential. The project falls under the domain of Obvious Corporation, an entity founded by Williams in the mid-2000s to support his various projects. Obvious was revived earlier this year with Biz Stone and former Twitter VP of Product Jason Goldman as co-founders.

[More from Mashable: Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone Now Advising on Startup Investments]

"Our approach is threefold: Build, partner, and invest," Stone said in a blog post. "We've started working on some ideas ourselves, we're researching how best to create an investment vehicle, and today we're thrilled to announce our first official partnership."

Their first project is a partnership with with Tony Stubblebine (CrowdVine, Odeo) and Jon Crosby (Path, Songbird). Their new startup is Lift, "an interesting new application for unlocking human potential through positive reinforcement." Stubblebine and Crosby will be the driving forces behind the project, while Obvious will help with design, strategy, funding and recruiting. In return, Obvious will own equity in Lift.

[More from Mashable: Explore Twitter's Evolution: 2006 to Present]

Obvious and Lift aren't releasing any more details about the app -- it is in private Alpha -- but as the first Obvious company, it will have to live up to high expectations. Lift boasts an all-star team, and the support of Twitter's co-founders will give it an instant audience.

Lift may be Obvious Corporation's first startup, but it won't be its last. Williams, Stone and Goldman are just getting started.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

SK Telecom says no plan to bid for Hulu (Reuters)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 08:25 PM PDT

– 1 hr 22 mins ago

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea's top mobile carrier, SK Telecom, said on Thursday that it had no plans to bid for U.S. online video site Hulu.

"We are aware that Hulu is up for sale, but we do not plan to participate in the auction," a SK Telecom spokeswoman said.

The operator was believed to have entered the auction for Hulu, according to one of the people close to the sale process.

Yahoo, Google Inc, DirecTV and Amazon.com were among the parties preparing to submit offers for the company, sources said.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)

Amazon brings new local deals site to more cities (AP)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 07:23 PM PDT

By RACHEL METZ, AP Technology Writer Rachel Metz, Ap Technology Writer – 2 hrs 24 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Amazon.com Inc. is expanding its new local deals site to New York and other parts of the country, hoping discount-happy consumers will flock to its offerings as they have embraced market leader Groupon.

With the additions, AmazonLocal will be operating in 30 locations in 10 states, all within about three months of the service's initial launch in Boise, Idaho, in early June. Although it's still small compared with the market leaders, Groupon and LivingSocial, it shows that Amazon is keen to leverage its popularity as an online retailer to compete in this nascent yet fast-growing market. Amazon also has an investment in LivingSocial.

Mike George, vice president of AmazonLocal, said an online deals site seemed like a natural fit for Amazon because the company has always focused on helping customers find anything they want to buy.

"This felt like a very comfortable and logical extension of our general mission," he said.

George wouldn't say how many users AmazonLocal currently has. Overall, Amazon has more than 144 million active customers.

The online retailer said AmazonLocal deals are coming to five locations in New York — Manhattan's Upper East and Upper West Sides, Downtown and Midtown neighborhoods, and Brooklyn. AmazonLocal will also come to Charlotte, N.C., Austin, Texas, and Orlando, Fla., northern Virginia and other locations. Amazon is making a formal announcement Thursday.

The service already is available several neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle, where the company is headquartered.

Deals planned for New York locations include $50 for $100 worth of food at Turkish restaurant Uskudar on Manhattan's Upper East Side and $13 for $27 worth of cupcakes at bakery Brooklyn Cupcake in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood.

Most of AmazonLocal's deals are coming from LivingSocial.

As the name would suggest, AmazonLocal's primary focus is on deals with local merchants in the places it operates.

But George said AmazonLocal will also hawk exclusive deals from Amazon.com and Amazon-affiliated sites. For example, it plans to offer a deal where customers pay $25 to get $50 to spend on jewelry and watches on Amazon.com, or $25 to get $50 worth of merchandise at discount apparel site 6pm.com, which is run by Amazon-owned shoe site Zappos.

George wouldn't give details about where AmazonLocal may expand next, but said it will "continue to be aggressive" in adding locations in different states.

Rumor: New BlackBerry smartphones to run Android apps (Digital Trends)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 07:24 PM PDT

Trevor Mogg Trevor Mogg – 2 hrs 23 mins ago

New BlackBerry 7 smartphonesIn a shrewd move to increase its appeal among consumers and kick-start sales, the next generation of BlackBerry smartphones could be designed to run Android apps. It is thought the phones will be launched in the first half of next year.

The news comes via Bloomberg, which cited "three people familiar with the plan" as its source.

Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian company behind the BlackBerry product line, is currently building smartphones that will use its new QNX software. Phones with QNX will be able to run Android apps, the sources said.

Such a move is likely to heighten the appeal of BlackBerry smartphones among consumers. BlackBerry phones run on the BlackBerry OS, but this means they can only run apps from BlackBerry App World.

It has to be said, App World looks a bit sorry for itself when compared to Google's Android Market. App World currently has around 40,000 apps available for download. If next year's phones are able to run Android apps, that'll open up owners of the new BlackBerry devices to a further quarter of a million. If BlackBerry can create some unique, feature-rich phones in the coming months, that may well cause consumers to pay RIM's devices some serious attention.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Steven Li, a Raymond James Ltd analyst in Toronto, said, "Being able to run Android apps, that's a big plus. If you get the tonnage of Android apps and the top 50 apps through BlackBerry's App World, that addresses many of the concerns people have about RIM's ecosystem."

RIM has seen a decline in sales of its smartphones in the US although in other countries sales are growing. The Ontario-based company will be reporting earnings on September 15 and has said it believes quarterly sales could fall for the first time in nine years.

SF transit board developing cellphone policy (AP)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 03:49 PM PDT

By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Paul Elias, Associated Press – Wed Aug 24, 6:49 pm ET

OAKLAND, Calif. – Transit agency directors appeared ready Wednesday to set a policy allowing police to cut wireless phone access on San Francisco Bay area train platforms, but only in extreme public safety circumstances.

Eight of the nine Bay Area Rapid Transit directors gathered in a special meeting Wednesday after the agency ignited a global debate over free speech when it shut off its wireless access in downtown San Francisco stations to disrupt a planned protest earlier this month.

The board didn't take a formal vote at the meeting at Oakland headquarters, but members expect to adopt a formal policy within a month.

The board was divided over whether the tactic was appropriate as officials tried to stop a protest over the police shooting of a transient man that threatened to disrupt the Aug. 11 evening commute.

Officials devised the plan to cut wireless access after learning that protest organizers would issue last-minute instructions through text messaging and social media. The plan appeared to work, and the protest never took place that day.

"I thought it was a good idea at the time," director Thomas Blalock said. He said letters he received from the politically conservative district he serves south of Oakland were overwhelmingly in favor of the shutoff.

Director Lynette Sweet, who represents liberal parts of Oakland, said BART was wrong to turn off wireless access, a move she said prompted two subsequent rowdy demonstrations that disrupted the evening commute the last two Monday nights.

"Instead of fixing a situation, we escalated it," Sweet said. Still, Sweet agreed with the other directors that rare situations — defusing a bomb controlled by a cellphone signal, for instance — warranted the action.

Board president Bob Franklin said the agency will adopt a formal wireless policy within a month, after holding another hearing and consulting with outsiders, including the American Civil Liberties Union.

BART is the first reported U.S. governmental agency to turn off wireless access to quell social unrest. British authorities considered the tactic during the recent London riots and Hosni Mubarak tried to block Internet access in Egypt in an unsuccessful bid to blunt demonstrators calling for his resignation.

The two demonstrations were organized by the hacker group Anonymous, which also claimed credit for hacking BART's marketing website and releasing the personal information of 2,000 passengers who gave their data to MyBart.org. Anonymous disavowed responsibility for the hacking of the BART police union's website last week and the posting of officers' home addresses.

The group said Wednesday it would continue to call for demonstrations unless BART complied with several demands, including the disbanding of the BART police and the firing of chief spokesman Linton Johnson, who first came up with the idea to turn off wireless access.

The board was unanimous in its refusal to consider disbanding the BART police. Franklin, the board president, said the agency supported Johnson and had no plans to dismiss him.

Johnson was on vacation and unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Johnson said the idea came to him in the wee hours of Aug. 11 as he lay awake thinking of how to deal with the planned demonstration over the police shooting. Johnson said he sent an email to BART police, who liked the idea and interim general manager Sherwood Wakeman approved it.

Wakeman told directors Wednesday that he believes the action was legal because it was used briefly and for the narrow purpose of ensuring public safety on the subway's dangerously crowded platforms.

Twitter users respond to Steve Jobs' decision to step down (Digital Trends)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 08:02 PM PDT

Trevor Mogg Trevor Mogg – 1 hr 44 mins ago

Minutes after Apple announced that Steve Jobs was stepping down as CEO, people around the world pulled out their iPhones (or some such device) and began tweeting their feelings about the news – in 140 characters or less, naturally. #SteveJobs quickly became a top trending topic.

Of the continuing flood of tweets, some are humorous, some plain silly, but most express gratitude for Jobs' work over the years, as well as concern for his health.

Jobs has suffered from poor health in recent years and had been on a leave of absence. In a letter to the board of Apple dated August 24, Jobs wrote: "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."

He continued: "I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you."

Here’s what some Twitter users are saying about the news:

@tanvinz "Steve Jobs Resigns as Apple CEO –Good luck to you and your health, Steve."

@Effektive “It’s fitting that most of us will read the news of #stevejobs resignation on a device that he made possible. Thanks Steve.â€

@Billy_Chea "#earthquakes on the east coast, #stevejobs resigning, this is a sign the world is ending."

@spencerpratt "Apple says new CEO will be better, faster, and will be replaced by near identical CEO in 6 months."

@greggrunberg "Thank you #SteveJobs for giving us all things cool, innovative, smart & mobile. Without YOU we would still be using flip phones."

@DarryleP "Sad news about #stevejobs. Even with his ingenuity and resources #cancer is a brutal opponent. Hope he can pull off a miracle."

@karlbright "My biggest concern about Apple – can Tim Cook pull off a turtleneck?"

@noufalmudhayan "Why's everyone upset about #SteveJobs resignation? People plzz chill! it's not like they're taking away ur ipads :p"

@vengo "Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter. Going to bed saying we've done something wonderful that's what matters #SteveJobs"

@daveahl “You know the white Apple stickers that came in the box? Time to put them up.â€

@AnthonyLawlor "Some have genius minds, others have unifying hearts, others have inspiring aesthetics. Very few combine all 3 so exquisitely."

@dhanuxz  "Why people talks about #SteveJobsas if he's dead. C'mon he's just stepping down as CEO. He's even still at Apple."

@ajdoes "Who is #stevejobs?"

TiVo results beat estimates, patents in focus (Reuters)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 03:52 PM PDT

By Liana B. Baker Liana B. Baker – Wed Aug 24, 6:52 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – TiVo Inc, a maker of digital video recorders, reported second-quarter results on Wednesday that beat expectations and said it is looking at ways to boost the value of its patents.

Shares of the company rose more than 9 percent in after-hours trade.

TiVo (TIVO.O) stands to benefit from the recent surge in interest in tech patents, in light of Google (GOOG.O) buying Motorola Mobility (MMI.N) in August and the Nortel patent auction earlier in the summer.

As companies scramble to secure patents, analysts have been identifying TiVo as a holder of valuable intellectual property related to digital recording.

Chief Executive Tom Rogers said the company is looking at ways to tap the value of its patents, but he declined to provide further details.

"We like the whole environment that is putting focus on patent value and we think that there is certainly going to be a lot of increased attention on advanced television as a sector. We are exploring various ways of looking how to accelerate that value," he said in an interview.

When an analyst on the conference call asked Rogers if TiVo would license, sell or spin off its patents, he said those options were "worthy of consideration" but did not elaborate.

So far, TiVo's strategy has been to cash out on its patents in court. In May, it settled a drawn out court case with Dish Network (DISH.O) and won $600 million in licensing fees and damages.

It recorded $11 million in revenue in the second quarter thanks to the Dish settlement.

The company is currently in litigation with Motorola, AT&T (T.N) and Verizon (VZ.N) and said it expects to go to trial in October. TiVo's patents become more valuable once they have been tested in court, Rogers said.

"You're seeing a lot of focus on patent value, but the overwhelming number of patents that are changing hands have never been tested. Ours have been battle-tested, and the more battle-tested they are, the more valuable they are," he said.

For the third quarter, TiVo said it would have net loss of $27 million to $29 million. This is a bigger loss than analysts were expecting.

In the second quarter, TiVo lost $19 million, or 17 cents per share, compared with a loss of $14.3 million, or 13 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. TiVo beat Wall Street estimates by 4 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 19 percent to $61.1 million from $51.5 million a year earlier. This beat analysts' expectations of $48.31 million.

The company is also gaining traction with its new strategy of licensing its recorder technology to cable operators. Earlier on Wednesday, it said it would provide Texas-based Grande Communications with DVRs exclusively.

Its stock was at $8.85 per share in after hours trading after closing at $8.12 per share on the Nasdaq.

(Editing by Andre Grenon and Steve Orlofsky)

Jobs expected to be “closely involved” in iPhone 5 and next iPad launch (Appolicious)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 05:18 PM PDT

FCC asks AT&T for more info on T-Mobile bid (Reuters)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 07:30 PM PDT

– 2 hrs 17 mins ago

NEW YORK/BANGALORE (Reuters) – AT&T Inc (T.N) said on Wednesday that the Federal Communications Commission has requested more information about its acquisition of T-Mobile in relation to its commitment to expand high-speed wireless services to 97 percent of all Americans.

"Requests from the FCC staff for additional information are to be expected given the detailed review they are undertaking," AT&T spokesman Michael Balmoris said.

"In this case, the FCC is seeking supplemental information on our commitment, following merger approval, to bring 4G LTE mobile broadband to 97 percent of all Americans," Balmoris said.

Earlier this month, AT&T sent a letter to the FCC about the merger that accidentally included confidential data that has since been removed, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal said that the document had said AT&T had considered and rejected plans to expand its network on its own to 97 percent of the U.S. at a cost of $3.8 billion, which is roughly one-tenth of the price tag for its proposed purchase of T-Mobile USA.

But a source familiar with the matter told Reuters that this information was theoretical.

"All the money in the world isn't going to deal with it in time because of spectrum exhaustion," the person said.

(Reporting by Martinne Geller and Sinead Carew; Additional reporting by Abhishek Takle; Editing by Matt Driskill)

Hulu seen drawing bids from Yahoo, others: sources (Reuters)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 07:08 PM PDT

– 2 hrs 39 mins ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The deadline for initial bids in the auction for Hulu was extended from Wednesday until the end of the week to allow interested parties more time to examine the online video site's financial information, according to people familiar with the situation.

Yahoo, Google Inc, DirecTV and Amazon.com were among the parties preparing to submit an offer for the U.S. online company, the people said. Hulu is jointly owned by News Corp, Walt Disney Co, Comcast Corp's NBC and Providence Equity Partners.

South Korean giant SK Telecom is also believed to have entered the fray, according to one of the people close to the sale process, though an official bid from the company could not be confirmed.

Hulu's owners hope to fetch at least $2 billion, according to several people close to the sale process who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity as the negotiations are confidential.

Last year, Hulu planned to raise $200 million to $300 million in an initial public offering that would have valued the company at about $2 billion. But it backed out in favor of a focus on new subscription models.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that offers could come in as low as $500 million.

One of the people described the likelihood of such a "low bid" winning the auction as "ridiculous."

Hulu's financial advisers, Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim Partners, have already met with some potential buyers.

Representatives for all the companies mentioned in this article declined to comment.

(Reporting by Soyoung Kim and Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Apple fans: Company is more than Steve Jobs (AP)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 09:46 PM PDT

By BARBARA ORTUTAY and CHRISTINA REXRODE, AP Business Writers Barbara Ortutay And Christina Rexrode, Ap Business Writers – 7 mins ago

NEW YORK – Apple fans and would-be customers seemed to agree that while Steve Jobs' charisma and innovative genius is one-of-a-kind, the company he built will survive without him.

On Wednesday night, after he resigned as CEO of the iconic gadget maker, Jobs was not the topic of conversation among shoppers, browsers or the blue-shirted employees at the Apple store on Manhattan's swanky Fifth Avenue across from Central Park.

On the display computers set up around the store, people scrolled through Facebook photos, looked up bank account balances and watched videos on YouTube. They weren't, from the looks of it, reading news stories about Jobs.

"Apple's created an identity for themselves that is well above and beyond Steve Jobs. People don't think of Steve Jobs when they think of Apple, they think of a sexy brand," said Jared Karlow, 23, who works in information technology for the financial services industry. "You could say the same thing about Microsoft. They have outlived Bill Gates."

Jobs resigned as CEO on Wednesday, saying he could no longer handle the job and would continue to play a leadership role as chairman of the board. He has been on medical leave since January. Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, who has been filling in for Jobs, was named as CEO.

Karlow, 23, was shopping with his girlfriend, Maegan Tabbey, 21, on the evening that Jobs resigned. They didn't know about the news until told by a reporter. But both believe the company will be fine and that Jobs' role likely became less integral as the company grew.

"There are thousands of employees who do the work that brought Apple to where it is," Karlow said. "It's not just one man."

Added Tabbey: "My sister just bought a Mac laptop and I promise you she doesn't know who Steve Jobs is."

Apple may be known for its rabid fan base, but the company's creative genius lies in being able to attract a mass-market audience. These are the folks who may only vaguely know that Steve Jobs, the guy in the black mock turtlenecks, is the force behind the iPhone in their pocket or the iPad in their hands.

Walking out of an Apple store in Phoenix, Zanzucchi, 49, said he'd never heard of Jobs, and he didn't believe the CEO's departure would mean less innovation for the company.

"I don't know if he's the person who thought of it all," he said. "I'm sure he wasn't. I'm sure there's a host of people below him."

Unless prompted by a reporter, customers didn't seem to be discussing Jobs' departure in the Fifth Avenue Apple store. Instead, they were asking employees about the products and how much each cost. Business flowed as usual.

"He has so much charisma, I'm curious if they can keep it up because there is kind of this cult around him," said Selim Sevinc, 25, a medical student from Germany. But Sevinc said it was Apple's products — not Jobs — that influenced him to get an iPhone and switch from PCs to Macs.

"When Dell catches up, I would switch to Dell," he said. "Maybe."

In San Francisco, software engineer P.K. Kalyanraman said he was worried his Apple stock would decline in value.

"I think Steve Jobs has been a shadow figure for the last 1 1/2 to 2 years now with his health problems, so I still feel like the company will function perfectly fine without Steve Jobs for at least a few more years," he said.

But, he added, "how they progress into new technology and how they keep up with the market is what we've got to look for in the new person who comes in over there."

The biggest Apple fans certainly felt Jobs' departure.

Seanmichael Rodgers, 35, was saddened. He made his way to the Fifth Avenue store after work, after reading the news on his iPad 2 while on a break.

"I just want to be close to him," he said with a laugh. He sat on the plaza in front of the store and played Words With Friends, a Scrabble-like game, on the Apple tablet computer.

When asked why he didn't invite anyone to come with him, he said, "I didn't really think it was a moment to share."

Besides being an Apple fan, he also worked at the company's Fifth Avenue store four years ago, for six months. He now designs closets in people's apartments. Rodgers said Jobs "envisioned how we can use devices to enhance our lives."

___

Ortutay reported from San Francisco. AP Business Writer Joseph Pisani in New York, Associated Press writer Michelle Price in Phoenix and Associated Press writer Terence Chea in San Francisco contributed to this story.

Newsmaker: Steve Jobs has a different operating system (Reuters)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 08:25 PM PDT

By Poornima Gupta and Peter Henderson Poornima Gupta And Peter Henderson – 1 hr 22 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Hard to understand, difficult to work with and deemed irreplaceable by many Apple fans and investors, Steve Jobs has made a life defying conventions and expectations.

And despite years of signs of poor health, his resignation as chief executive of Apple Inc caused a global gasp as the world contemplated the future of an icon and the company he symbolizes.

"Steve Jobs is the most successful CEO in the U.S. of the last 25 years," said Google Inc Chairman Eric Schmidt, who used to sit on Apple's board but stepped down because of overlapping business interests.

"He uniquely combined an artist's touch and an engineer's vision to build an extraordinary company, one of the greatest American leaders in history," Schmidt said in a statement.

A college dropout, Jobs floated through India in search of spiritual guidance prior to founding Apple -- a name he suggested to his friend and co-founder Steve Wozniak after a visit to a commune in Oregon he referred to as an "apple orchard."

With his passion for minimalist design and marketing genius, Jobs changed the course of personal computing during two stints at Apple and transformed the mobile market.

The iconic iPod, the iPhone -- dubbed the "Jesus phone" for its quasi-religious following -- and the iPad are the creation of a man known for his near-obsessive control of the product development process.

"Most mere mortals cannot understand a person like Steve Jobs," Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple employee who considers Jobs "the greatest CEO in the history of man", said recently. "He's just got a different operating system."

Charismatic, visionary, ruthless, perfectionist, dictator - these are some of the words that people use to describe the larger-than-life figure of Jobs, who may be the biggest dreamer the technology world has ever known, but also a hard-edged businessman and negotiator through and through.

"Steve Jobs is the business genius of our generation," former eBay Inc chief Meg Whitman said recently. "His contributions to Apple, his contributions to technology, frankly his contributions to America, are unparalleled in the business world. He is amazing."

Former nemesis Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, has called Jobs the most inspiring person in the tech industry and President Barack Obama has held him up as the embodiment of the American Dream

It's hard to imagine a bigger success story than Steve Jobs, but rejection, failure and bad fate have been part and parcel of who he is. Jobs was given away at birth, driven out of Apple in the mid-80s and struck with cancer when he finally had regained the top of the mountain. His resignation as CEO on Wednesday comes at the relatively young age of 55.

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come," he said in a brief letter announcing his resignation.

A source close to Jobs said he plans to be active in his new role as chairman of Apple's board.

Jobs grew up with an adopted family in Silicon Valley, which was turning from orchards to homes for workers at Lockheed and other defense and technology companies.

Electronics friend Bill Fernandez introduced him to boy engineer Wozniak, and the two Steves began a friendship that eventually bred Apple Computer.

"Woz is a brilliant engineer, but he is not really an entrepreneur, and that's where Jobs came in," remembers Fernandez, who was the first employee at Apple.

Wozniak said that his goal was only to design hardware and he had no interest in running Apple.

"Steve Jobs' role was defined -- you've got to learn to be an executive in every division of the company so you can be the world's most important person some day. That was his goal," recently joked Woz, who is still listed as an employee reporting directly to Jobs, even though he has not worked at Apple for years.

AWFUL-TASTING MEDICINE

Jobs created Apple twice -- once when he founded it and the second time after a return credited with saving the company, which now vies with Exxon Mobil as the most valuable publicly traded corporation in the United States.

"Every day to him is a new adventure in the company," said Jay Elliot, a former senior vice president at Apple who worked very closely with Jobs in the eighties. "He is almost like a child when it comes to his inquisitiveness. Steve has such a thirst of understanding for what's going on in the company. What he is intolerant about it - politics, bureaucracy."

But the inspiring Jobs came with a lot of hard edges, oftentimes alienating colleagues and early investors with his my-way-or-the-highway dictums and plans that were generally ahead of their time.

Elliot was a witness to the acrimony between Jobs and former Apple Chief Executive John Sculley who often clashed on ideas, products and the direction of the company.

The dispute came to a head at Apple's first major sales meeting in Hawaii in 1985 where the two "just blew up against each other," Elliot said.

Jobs left soon after, saying he was fired.

"It was awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's gonna hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith," he told a Stanford graduating class in 2005. He returned to Apple about a decade after he left, working as a consultant. Soon he was running it, in what has been called Jobs' second act.

To this point, he has reinvented the technology world four or five times, first with the Apple II, a beautiful personal computer in the 1970s; then in the 1980s with the Macintosh, driven by a mouse and presenting a clean screen that made computing inviting; the ubiquitous iPod debuted in 2001, the iPhone in 2007 and in 2010 the iPad, which a year after it was introduced outsold Macs.

Start-up Pure Storage uses exclusively flash-based storage (Digital Trends)

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 08:03 PM PDT

Derek Mead Derek Mead – 1 hr 44 mins ago

It's doubtless that one day flash storage, like SSDs, will replace hard disks for data centers and enterprise storage. SSDs are generally faster, more reliable and use less power than hard disks. As usual in the tech world, the question is who's going to make the first leap, and when's it going to happen?

There have already been a bunch of start-ups looking to cash in with all-flash storage solutions, but one in particular made a big splash this week: Pure Storage announced it raised $30 million in fresh capital while unveiling an flash-storage array that's nearly ready for market.

The Pure Storage FlashArray FA-300 Series is the stuff IT guys dreamed of only recently. It's a purpose-built flash array, unlike the flash-disk hybrids that are more commonly available now, that the company claims is ten times faster and ten times more space efficient than current hard disk offerings.

Using custom software to control data flow and write/rewrite processes, Pure Storage says its array can achieve a twenty-time reduction in inline data; in other words, the firm claims that using its flash storage for servers and the like can reduce workflow data transfers by up to 95%. The array comes in sizes from 10 to 100 terabytes at an estimate cost of $5 per usable gigabyte.

As impressive as Pure Storage's offering is, it's hardly the only player in the game, and lags behind others in terms of bringing a product to market. As far as other start-ups are concerned,  Violin Memory has leaped out to become the current favorite. The company's already gathered $310 million in financing, and with products already on the market, expects to eclipse $100 million in sales this year.

On the slightly smaller end, Nimbus Data Systems doesn't have the kind of numbers Violin Memory has, but it has proven profitable. Even better for the company, it's already scored a couple hundred contracts including one with eBay.

at 10:11 PM

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