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Yahoo fires Bartz as CEO, names CFO to fill void (AP) : Technet |
- Yahoo fires Bartz as CEO, names CFO to fill void (AP)
- Second firm warns of concern after Dutch hack (AP)
- Man accused of threatening Google exec via Twitter (AP)
- Just Show Me: How to use Airdrop in Mac OS X Lion (Yahoo! News)
- BMW developing laser headlights for your car (Yahoo! News)
- HOW TO: Follow New York Fashion Week Online (Mashable)
- EBay hires ex-Thomson Reuters executive Wenig (Reuters)
- Yahoo CEO Bartz fired-sources (Reuters)
- Sprint sues to block AT&T's proposed T-Mobile buy (Reuters)
- U.S. must reveal some cellphone tracking cases: court (Reuters)
- Most 'Liked' on Facebook Recently? Jesus, Not Bieber (Time.com)
- Best Buy Reported Planning Sprint iPhone Launch (NewsFactor)
- Sprint sues to block AT&T’s merger with T-Mobile (Appolicious)
- VeriFone raises outlook on mobile payment hopes (Reuters)
- Dead Island Review (Digital Trends)
- More Details Emerge About Possible Amazon Tablet (NewsFactor)
| Yahoo fires Bartz as CEO, names CFO to fill void (AP) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 08:21 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO – Yahoo Inc. fired Carol Bartz as CEO Tuesday after more than 2 1/2 years of financial lethargy that had convinced investors that she couldn't steer the Internet company to a long-promised turnaround. To fill the void, Yahoo's board named Tim Morse, its chief financial officer, as interim CEO. Bartz lured Morse away from computer chip maker Altera Corp. two years ago to help her cuts costs. Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., said it is looking for a permanent replacement. Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock, also a target of shareholder frustration, informed Bartz about the move over the phone, according to an e-mail the outgoing CEO sent from her iPad that was obtained by the All Things D technology blog. The blog first reported Bartz's ouster. A Yahoo spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday. Macquarie Securities analyst Ben Schachter called the handling of Bartz's departure "unseemly" and interpreted it as a sign of even more drama to come at Yahoo. In a research note late Tuesday, Schachter predicted there will be a wide range of conjecture about Yahoo's future, with the most likely speculation centering on Yahoo as a takeover target during a vulnerable time. Alternatively, Yahoo could make a bold move itself by trying to buy the online video site Hulu.com, which is already talking to suitors, or trying to sell its 43 percent stake in the Alibaba Group, one of China's most prized Internet companies. Bartz's tense relationship with Alibaba CEO Jack Ma had fed investor dissatisfaction about her leadership. In a Tuesday statement, Yahoo said it is undergoing a "comprehensive strategic review" in its latest effort to give investors a reason to buy its stock but didn't offer details. Bartz, 63, led an austerity campaign helped boost Yahoo's earnings, but the company didn't increase its revenue even as the Internet ad market grew at a rapid clip. The financial funk, along with recent setbacks in Yahoo's online search partnership with Microsoft Corp. and the Alibaba investment, proved to be Bartz's downfall. Her ouster comes with 16 months left on a four-year contract that she signed in January 2009. That contract entitles her to severance payments that could be two to three times her annual salary and bonus, along with stock incentives she received during her tenure. Bartz received a $2.2 million bonus to supplement her $1 million salary last year. Yahoo has now replaced three CEOs in a little over four years. During that time, Yahoo has lost ground in the Internet ad race to online search leader Google Inc. and Facebook even though its website remains among the world's most popular. Known for her no-nonsense leadership and sometimes gruff language, Bartz arrived at Yahoo as a respected Silicon Valley executive who had won praise for turning around business software maker Autodesk Inc. But she had no previous experience in Internet advertising, the main way Yahoo makes money. That hole in her resume immediately raised questions whether she was qualified for the job, and those doubts only escalated as Yahoo's revenue continued to sag. At first, Bartz blamed bad timing; she started the job during some of the bleakest months of the Great Recession. Later, she would say that she inherited such as mess from her two predecessors, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and former movie studio boss Terry Semel, and that it would take time to get Yahoo back on the right track. At one point, she even compared her challenge to those that faced Steve Jobs when he returned to Apple Inc. as CEO in 1997. Unlike Jobs, Bartz never was able to articulate a strategy to win over investors. "She focused on plugging holes in the ship instead of turning it around," said Gartner Inc. analyst Ray Valdes. The disappointing performance was reflected in Yahoo's stock price, which closed Tuesday at $12.91. That's 81 cents, or 7 percent, higher than where Yahoo shares stood when Bartz was hired as CEO. During the same period, Google's stock price has risen by more than $200, or 66 percent, and the technology-driven Nasdaq composite index has climbed by 60 percent. A group of investors led by Goldman Sachs Group concluded privately held Facebook is worth $50 billion in an appraisal done earlier this year. That's triple Yahoo's current market value. Bartz never hit any of the price targets that the board set for her when she was hired. That means none of the 5 million stock options that she received upon signing her contract had vested by the time she was ushered out the door. Investors seemed happy to see Bartz go. Yahoo shares gained 81 cents, or more than 6 percent, in extended trading late Tuesday. Although Bartz's exit as CEO came suddenly, her departure isn't a shock. The pressure to replace her grew earlier this year after Bartz acknowledged Yahoo's search partnership with Microsoft wasn't producing as much revenue as the companies anticipated. Then, in May, Yahoo stunned investors by disclosing that Alibaba had spun off an online payment service in a move that threatened to diminish the value of Yahoo's investment in the Chinese company. Alipay in July agreed to a complex settlement that could eventually be worth more than $1 billion to Yahoo, but there were too many uncertainties in the deal to placate shareholders. Bostock had steadfastly stood behind Bartz whenever she was attacked by investors or analysts. In a Tuesday statement, Bostock thanked Bartz for "her service to Yahoo during a critical time of transition in the company's history" without providing an explanation for why the board decided to replace her. BGC partners analyst Colin Gillis said Yahoo's board "has got to look in the mirror here." "Swapping the CEO without swapping the (board) chair doesn't solve your problem," he said. "The person that hired Carol to begin with deserves to share the culpability." To help Morse, Yahoo set up an "executive leadership council" that includes some of the executives that Bartz recruited, including the company's products guru Blake Irving and the head of its North American operations, Ross Levinsohn. While he worked for News Corp., Levinsohn helped put together the Hulu video site and is seen as a possible CEO candidate. Analysts also have speculated that David Kenny, an Internet veteran who joined Yahoo's board in April, might be a candidate for Yahoo's CEO job. Kenny is currently president of Internet networking services provider Akamai Technologies Inc. With its stock sagging and its management in limbo, Yahoo could be more vulnerable to a takeover attempt by a private equity group or another opportunistic bidder attracted to what remains one of the Internet's best-known brands. Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, in 2008 only to be rebuffed. ___ AP Technology Writers Rachel Metz in San Francisco and Ryan Nakashima in Los Angeles contributed to this story. |
| Second firm warns of concern after Dutch hack (AP) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 03:49 PM PDT AMSTERDAM – A company that sells certificates guaranteeing the security of websites, GlobalSign, said Tuesday it is temporarily halting the issuance of new certificates over concerns it may have been targeted by hackers. GlobalSign, the Belgium-based subsidiary of Japan's GMO Internet Inc., is one of the oldest such companies globally, and large, but much smaller than industry giants VeriSign and GoDaddy. It said in a statement it does not know whether it has actually been hacked, but is taking threats by an anonymous hacker seriously in the wake of an attack on a smaller Dutch firm, DigiNotar, that came to light last week. The DigiNotar attack is believed to have allowed the Iranian government to spy on thousands of Iranian citizens' communications with Google email during the month of August. Fallout from the Dutch hack continued Tuesday as the Dutch government, which used DigiNotar to authenticate many of its sites, continued to seek replacements. Meanwhile the Netherlands' national prosecutors said they were investigating DigiNotar, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Vasco Inc., for possible criminal negligence. The company did not return phone calls seeking comment. A Dutch government review of the incident conducted by external information technology experts found that DigiNotar — whose business is ensuring digital security — had itself used weak passwords, failed to update software on its public servers and had no antivirus protection on its internal servers. The company first acknowledged it had been hacked on Aug. 30, a day after Google publicly stated that fake and unauthorized DigiNotar certificates for Google sites were circulating in Iran. Google marked the company's certificates as dubious, and other web browser makers followed suit. Only then did DigiNotar acknowledge being hacked on July 19, saying that hackers had issued fake certificates for "a number" of domains. The company said it believed it had withdrawn them all, but missed Google. On Sept. 3, the Dutch government seized control of DigiNotar's operations, saying certificates the company had issued to guarantee the safety of numerous Dutch government websites could also no longer be relied on. The external review by Fox-IT found that the company was actually hacked on June 17th and that hackers had issued 531 bogus certificates for 344 domains in all, including most major Internet communications companies. The fake Google certificates had been used by 300,000 IP addresses by then, more than 99 percent of them in Iran. Fox-IT and other experts have concluded the hackers were helping the Iranian government spy on citizens who thought they were accessing Google email securely due to the bogus DigiNotar seal of approval. "We are definitely going to look at...whether this is culpable negligence by the company that they didn't report this," Interior Minister Piet Hein Donner said at a news conference late Monday. The government also is investigating who was behind the hack, though that may be difficult to verify without help from Tehran. An unknown hacker who claimed responsibility for a similar breach of U.S.-based certificate issuer Comodo Inc. in March, has also claimed responsibility for the DigiNotar hack. In a posting on Pastebin.com under the handle "ComodoHacker" on Monday, he or she offered a user name and password for an administrator's account at DigiNotar as evidence. The post also boasted of having hacked four other "high profile" certificate providers, including GlobalSign. "GlobalSign takes this claim very seriously and is currently investigating," the company said in a statement. "ComodoHacker" has used phrases in the Farsi language spoken in Iran in previous posts to Pastebin — including a phrase that also was found by Fox-IT in a message left on DigiNotar's servers. Monday's post cited anti-Dutch political motivations for the attacks. Donner said that in the wake of the incident the Dutch government is considering legislation that would make it mandatory for companies to disclose computer hacks and data leaks. |
| Man accused of threatening Google exec via Twitter (AP) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 01:52 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO – A federal grand jury in San Francisco has charged a San Antonio man with harassing a high-ranking Google executive with more than 20,000 Twitter posts, some of which were threatening. According to court records, Gregory Calvin King was arrested in Texas last month and transported to San Francisco to face charges he threatened Google vice president Marissa Mayer, the company's first female engineer. The indictment identified the alleged victim only as "M.M." but King's Twitter account shows him sending thousands of threatening posts to Mayer. King faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. His arraignment date hasn't been set. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. |
| Just Show Me: How to use Airdrop in Mac OS X Lion (Yahoo! News) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 06:15 PM PDT |
| BMW developing laser headlights for your car (Yahoo! News) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 06:07 PM PDT |
| HOW TO: Follow New York Fashion Week Online (Mashable) Posted: 05 Sep 2011 03:03 PM PDT [More from Mashable: Facebook Flaw Lets You Hijack Page from Original Owner [REPORT]] New York Fashion Week kicks off Sept. 7, and once again designers and the press are leveraging the web to reach virtual audiences far larger than those present at shows. Building off success from past seasons, many brands will live stream the unveiling of their Spring/Summer 2012 collections on their websites and Facebook Pages, as well as video platforms such as YouTube and Livestream. Still more will be uploading backstage footage via their Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram accounts. [More from Mashable: YouTube Cover Song Face-Off: Beyonce's "Best Thing I Never Had"] Meanwhile, members of the fashion press will be churning out 140-character reviews and mobile snapshots live from the shows, while posting longer, slideshow-accompanied reviews on their respective news sites. With so much to choose from, following Fashion Week online can feel nearly as overwhelming as attending in person -- which is why we've gathered together the best resources for enjoying the festivities online and on your mobile phone. If there's any we've missed, please let us know in the comments section below.
Live Video
For a mostly comprehensive schedule of show live streams, see below. A mobile-optimized version of most of these streams is available at m.youtube.com/liverunway for the first time this season. Nicholas K BCBGMAXAZRIA Richard Chai Supima Tadashi Shodji Luca Luca Rebecca Taylor Nicole Miller Cynthia Rowley Lacoste Jill Stuart Vivienne Tam Charlotte Ronson Monique Lhuillier Derek Lam DKNY Tracy Reese Diane von Furstenberg Custo Barcelona Tommy Hilfiger Carolina Herrera Carlos Miele Rebecca Minkoff Donna Karan Betsey Johnson Perry Ellis Badgley Mischka Vera Wang Herve Leger by Max Azria Oscar de la Renta Tibi Narcisco Rodriguez J. Mendel Milly by Michelle Smith Anna Sui Elie Tahari Ralph Lauren
If you prefer live tweets to live video, we have a few favorites we recommend you follow. @womensweardaily @EHolmesWSJ @CathyHorynNYT @evachen212 @jimshi809 @elvainadine @DetailsMatt @cutblog @CNFashion Some of the most intelligent collection reviews during Fashion Week, accompanied by comprehensive slideshows and videos from the runway. If you're more interested in behind-the-scenes stories, see Style.com's People + Parties section. Reviews and highlights from the collections are paywall-free throughout the week. The New York Times' style blog contains short updates from on and around the runway, often accompanied by slideshows. Editorial coverage and slideshows from The Wall Street Journal. Trend reports and show reviews from The Huffington Post and its contributors. Reviews and slideshows. Amina Akhtar, who founded The Cut, will also be penning a Fashion Week diary for an inside look at parties and shows.
Tumblr
Despite some negative backlash over its Fashion Week plans, Tumblr is once again sending a round of bloggers -- 16 this time -- to chronicle the shows. An internal staff of editors will also be curating posts to display at tumblr.com/nyfw. In addition to Tumblr's chosen 16, we'd also like to put these Tumblrs on your radar for Fashion Week: WWD dknyprgirl Teen Vogue
After enjoying New York Times reporter Brian Stelter's coverage of Hurricane Irene through Instagram, we decided to include a list of some of our favorites for a visual report of the week. To locate them, open up Instagram and search for their usernames under Profile > Search Instagram > Users and usernames. oscarprgirl simonesoliver evachen212 manrepeller burberry Image courtesy of Lauren Indvik, Mashable This story originally published on Mashable here. |
| EBay hires ex-Thomson Reuters executive Wenig (Reuters) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 05:39 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – EBay Inc hired former Thomson Reuters Corp executive Devin Wenig as president of its global marketplaces unit, the online commerce and auction site's largest division. Wenig, 44, was chief executive of Thomson Reuters Markets, one of the company's top managers, before leaving in a shakeup of the division in July. At eBay, he will report to Chief Executive John Donahoe, the online auction and commerce site said on Tuesday. As head of eBay Marketplaces, Wenig will oversee the namesake online marketplace, eBay classifieds sites in more than 1,000 cities and the secondary ticket website StubHub. The position is one of the most important at eBay. Donahoe held it before he became CEO in March 2008. "Those of you that know me well know that I have always looked westward, to the excitement, innovation, and impact of Silicon Valley. I came close to going once before and always believed that there would come a time for me to do a turn in the Valley," Wenig wrote in an email. Wenig led the integration of the unified Thomson Reuters Corp after Thomson bought Reuters in 2008, eBay said. At eBay, he will oversee the company's largest division, which generated more than 60 percent of revenue last year. Still, the division lost market share in recent years as shoppers moved away from auctions as a way to buy online and competition from Amazon.com increased. EBay is now trying to build the business into a broad supplier of technology and support for merchants' online and mobile-commerce efforts. (Editing by Robert MacMillan) |
| Yahoo CEO Bartz fired-sources (Reuters) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 04:57 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Carol Bartz was fired by the company's board, sources familiar with situation told Reuters on Tuesday. Bartz said in a memo to employees that she was fired over the phone, one of the sources said. "I am very sad to tell you that I've just been fired over the phone by Yahoo's Chairman of the Board," she said in a terse email. "It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward." The company's board named Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse as the interim CEO, the other source said. (Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; editing by Carol Bishopric) |
| Sprint sues to block AT&T's proposed T-Mobile buy (Reuters) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 04:38 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sprint Nextel sued to stop AT&T Inc's $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA, staking out its own private antitrust claims alongside the U.S. government's challenge to the deal. Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier, filed its lawsuit in the same federal court that is to hear the U.S. Department of Justice's case opposing the buyout. A fierce opponent of the deal, Sprint said the combination would lead to higher prices for consumers and create a duopoly between AT&T and Verizon Communications. "AT&T's proposed takeover of T-Mobile is brazenly anticompetitive," Sprint said in court papers on Tuesday. Sprint said it would be marginalized by the buyout, and the deal "would force consumers to endure higher prices and be denied the fruits of vigorous innovation." Sprint may have filed its own case in the event that the Justice Department comes to a settlement with AT&T, said Eleanor Fox, a professor at New York University School of Law. "It may want to have its action out there just in case," she said. A Sprint spokesman was not immediately available for comment. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment on Sprint's move. In a statement, an AT&T spokesperson said the company would contest Sprint's lawsuit. "This simply demonstrates what we've said all along -- Sprint is more interested in protecting itself than it is in promoting competition that benefits consumers," said the spokesperson. Sprint's lawsuit was assigned to Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle in Washington, D.C. She was selected at random last week to preside over the Justice Department's case. The success of Sprint's lawsuit may depend on whether AT&T can find a way to appease the government's concerns over the deal. It would be a "very uphill climb" for a competitor to block a merger that has been approved by the government, said Rebecca Arbogast, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus and a former division chief at the Federal Communications Commission. "It's meant to keep a challenge alive even if DOJ ends up settling with AT&T, Arbogast said. The Justice Department, in a surprise move last week, filed a lawsuit challenging the AT&T deal. It argued that eliminating T-Mobile as a competitor would hurt consumers by raising prices. The government challenge came five months after the deal was announced. AT&T has promised to fight the Justice Department in court. It has argued that the merger would let it add capacity and meet demand for high-speed wireless service. Judge Huvelle ordered a status conference for September 21 in the government's case and told the parties to come prepared to "discuss the prospects for settlement," according to the court docket. She also ordered the parties to propose a schedule for the case by September 16. In its suit, Sprint argued that if the deal goes through, a combined AT&T and T-Mobile would use its increased market position to exclude competitors. A big part of Sprint's concern, according to the company's 68-page lawsuit, is its dependence on Verizon and AT&T roaming to provide service to customers when they are outside of a Sprint service area, and backhaul, essentially links from a remote site to a central site. "With today's legal action, we ... expect to contribute our expertise and resources in proving that the proposed transaction is illegal," Sprint's vice president of litigation Susan Haller said in a statement. Sprint's move could be aimed at keeping pressure on the Justice Department to continue pressing its court challenge to the deal, said Jeffrey Silva, a telecommunications analyst at investment research firm Medley Global Advisors. "Some suits start out as litigation, they go head to head, but sometimes they end up in settlement," Silva said. He said "Sprint would rather see this go in a linear fashion" toward blocking the deal. If AT&T fails to get regulatory approval for the deal, it will have to pay T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom an estimated $6 billion break-up fee. The case filed by Sprint is: Sprint Nextel Corp. v. AT&T Inc., U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. For Sprint: Steven Sunshine, Tara Reinhart, Tiffany Rider, Tara Emory, Matthew Hendrickson, and James Keyte of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. For defendants: Not yet available. The U.S. case is USA v. AT&T Inc et al, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 11-1560. (Reporting by Andrew Longstreth; Additional reporting by Diane Bartz, Jasmin Melvin, Jeremy Pelofsky, and Supantha Mukherjee) Follow us on Twitter: @ReutersLegal |
| U.S. must reveal some cellphone tracking cases: court (Reuters) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 01:31 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The government must tell the public how it tracked suspects by cellphone without having given a judge detailed reasons for the tracking in some cases, an appeals court ruled on Tuesday, in a case pitting new technology against privacy rights. A leading civil liberties group claimed victory in one of several cases making its way through the court system weighing privacy rights against law enforcement using data available through the proliferation of new technologies like the Global Positioning System (GPS), cellphones and laptop computers. "I highly doubt that the 90 percent of Americans who carry cell phones thought that when they got cellphone service they were giving up their privacy in their movements," said Catherine Crump, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union who argued the case. The group has argued that prosecutors are getting information about a suspect's location with a judge's approval -- but without a warrant providing probable cause, which is typically needed in criminal cases for a warrant. The ACLU questioned how often prosecutors have used applications for such information and sued to get details, a challenge the Justice Department said would violate the privacy of those under investigation or prosecuted. A federal judge in 2010 ruled the Justice Department must reveal those cases that used such information in which the suspect was convicted, a decision upheld by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. "The disclosure sought by the plaintiffs would inform this ongoing public policy discussion by shedding light on the scope and effectiveness of cell phone tracking as a law enforcement tool," Judge Merrick Garland wrote in the unanimous decision. APPEAL POSSIBLE Disclosure would, for example, provide information about the kinds of crimes the government uses cellphone tracking data to investigate, the appeals court said. Citing privacy rights, the district court judge refused to order the government to reveal other cases in which such applications were used, such as the acquittal of a suspect or a sealed case. The appeals court sent that issue back to the lower court for more proceedings to determine the extent of those cases. The Justice Department could appeal the ruling to the full appeals court or to the Supreme Court, which already has agreed to consider another privacy case involving new technology. Later this year the Supreme Court will hear arguments over whether law enforcement should have obtained a warrant before attaching a GPS device to a suspect's vehicle. Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said the agency was reviewing the decision and had not decided on its next step. After surveying several U.S. Attorneys' offices, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Justice Department, some 255 cases were identified in which an application for cellphone location information was used. The government has offered to identify the nature of the charges as well as whether a motion to suppress that information was filed and the outcome. The ACLU said it was open to ideas on how to provide the public details of the information as a possible settlement. (Editing by Howard Goller and Eric Walsh) |
| Most 'Liked' on Facebook Recently? Jesus, Not Bieber (Time.com) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 08:40 PM PDT |
| Best Buy Reported Planning Sprint iPhone Launch (NewsFactor) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 04:29 PM PDT As Sprint Nextel files suit to block AT&T from acquiring T-Mobile, it may have another slap against the nation's No. 2 carrier up its sleeve: adding the No. 1 selling smartphone to its lineup. AT&T lost its three-year monopoly on Apple's iPhone earlier this year when Verizon Wireless began offering the CDMA version of the iPhone 4. A third carrier for the new iPhone 5, widely believed to be in the pipeline for an October launch, could be more bad news for AT&T after the Justice Department filed its opposition last week to the company's acquisition of T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom. "If a Sprint iPhone were to happen, it would likely slow some of the iPhone growth at AT&T and Verizon Wireless," said wireless analyst Alex Spektor of Strategy Analytics. Pre-Orders Coming Soon? The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 24 that Sprint, which also uses a CDMA network, will carry the iPhone 5 when it is released as soon as Oct. 5. Sprint will also get to carry the iPhone 4, which presumably will go down in price when the new model arrives, as did the iPhone 3GS. Now, the blog Boy Genius Report obtained what it says is a leaked internal document from electronics retailer Best Buy showing notations both on pre-sales for an iPhone launch the first week of October as well as a Sprint iPhone launch. The Best Buy promotional activity document notes that dates are subject to change. BGR's source said pre-orders for the Sprint iPhone could be available as soon as this week. Analysts are taking a wait-and-see attitude. "Following the loss of AT&T's exclusivity on the iPhone and the introduction of the CDMA version for Verizon Wireless, there are no longer contractual or technological constraints for a Sprint iPhone," said Spektor of Strategy Analytics. "All that remains is business decisions for the involved parties." A third carrier should help Apple win back U.S. market share it has been losing to devices powered by Google's Android, which is now the leading OS here, available on all major carriers. "Android has benefited greatly from being available in multiple devices across all carriers," said Spektor. "Broader iOS availability certainly could be beneficial for iPhone volumes, as higher shelf-share could translate into more visibility with consumers." What's New? Likely changes for the next iPhone include a slightly larger, 3.7-inch touchscreen display and a dual-core processor for better multitasking together with a much-improved operating system. It will also likely be thinner and presumably with improvements to the antenna band that caused some connection problems for iPhone 4 customers when they connected the two components with their fingers. That flaw was an embarrassment to Apple but didn't seem to have a major effect on sales. Sprint Nextel announced on Tuesday that it was filing suit against AT&T on grounds that the proposed T-Mobile acquisition violated the Clayton Antitrust Act. |
| Sprint sues to block AT&T’s merger with T-Mobile (Appolicious) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 12:31 PM PDT |
| VeriFone raises outlook on mobile payment hopes (Reuters) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 04:27 PM PDT (Reuters) – VeriFone Systems Inc (PAY.N) posted better-than-expected quarterly results and raised its full-year outlook as it ropes in more customers for mobile payment technologies. The credit card swipe machine maker is betting on strong demand for near field communication (NFC) technology that allows people to pay for their purchases by waving an NFC-enabled mobile phone. VeriFone, whose customers are primarily financial institutions, payment processors, petroleum companies and retailers, is seeing growing demand for these mobile payment technologies in the United Kingdom ahead of the 2012 Olympics. "In London we have now signed nearly 6000 taxis to five-year processing agreements. UK retailers continue to embrace contactless systems," Chief Executive Douglas Bergeron said on a conference call with analysts. The company continues to work with Google Inc (GOOG.O) to roll out the Google Wallet mobile payment service, which uses wireless NFC technology on mobile handsets. "The next big phase of the Google rollout is currently planned for the end of the month where we go from hundreds of locations to tens of thousands of locations," CEO Bergeron said on the call. Verifone is also working with ISIS -- a NFC-based mobile payment joint venture between AT&T (T.N), T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless (VZ.N) -- and PayPal Inc bring mobile payments to point-of-sale terminals in 2012. It has also won a $6.9 million contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York City to deploy 1000 of its TransitPAY systems on buses which allow NFC-enabled smartphone-based payments. If initial rollouts lead to widescale deployment across the industry, the company's revenue would grow by $100-$150 million in the U.S. and internationally. The company expects fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 49-50 cents per share on sales of $395-$400 million. Analysts were expecting a fourth-quarter profit of 49 cents, on revenue of $395.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. However, growth in North America will remain flat in the fourth quarter. Growth in the market will pick up next year, VeriFone said. It expects higher growth from Europe - especially from UK, France and Germany - and from emerging markets. Verifone raised its full-year adjusted profit outlook to $1.88-$1.89 a share on sales of $1.289-$1.29 billion, from its prior forecast of an adjusted profit of $1.80-$1.83 a share on sales of $1.17-$1.18 billion. For the full year, analysts were expecting a profit of $1.84 a share on sales of $1.27 billion. The company, which completed its acquisition of smaller rival Hypercom in August, expects the Hypercom to contribute revenue of about $350 million and adjusted profit of 20-25 cents in 2012. Third-quarter net income rose to $26.3 million, or 28 cents a share, from $18.5 million, or 21 cents a share, last year. Excluding one-offs, the company earned 49 cents a share. The company's sales rose by a fifth to $317 million. Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of 46 cents a share, excluding items, on revenue of $299.4 million. Shares of the San Jose, California-based company were up about 3 percent in extended trade, after closing at $35.07 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Soham Chatterjee in Bangalore; Editing by Viraj Nair) |
| Dead Island Review (Digital Trends) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 03:44 PM PDT
Then details began to drift out. The game didn't sound bad, but walking around and beating zombies to death with a variety of weapons seemed a far cry from the haunting and mature look at a family dying tragically. Granted, it is way more fun to throw an electrified machete and hack-trocute the undead than watching a little girl die, but it was hard to nail down exactly what Techland was trying to give us. Dead Island is a mixed bag of genres, including an RPG, thrown over a massive map with lots of quests and side missions. It is a melee combat game, but it also allows you to combine weapons into various objects. The obvious comparison is Dead Rising, and when you see the four player online, Left 4 Dead springs to mind. In play, it is a bit more like Borderlands, and even has elements similar to games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution. When it works, Dead Island is a fun game that could easily develop a cult following that plays it constantly. The online integration is deftly handled, and the world is incredibly vast and fully populated with zombies. There are, however, also several problems with the game. Not enough to make it a bad game, but enough to hurt its mainstream appeal.
Worst. Vacation. Ever.The story of Dead Island is not its strongest point. You choose one of four characters, each with his or her own backstory, but the real purpose of selecting a character is to choose the attributes you want to begin with. One is a brawler, another a firearms expert, one is strong in bladed weapons and the other is more balanced. Regardless of which character you choose, you are all stuck in the same place: Palms Resort on the South Pacific island of Banoi. And thar be zombies there.The cause of the zombie infection is an ongoing mystery, and that aspect of the story is told through small hints that lead to larger reveals. But really, Dead Island isn’t about the overall story. The missions are mostly standalone, and the majority of quests and side quests are single events that you accomplish, then move on to the next with very little sense of progression in terms of story. There is some, but nothing that you will rush to do so you can see what comes next. If you are hoping for a deep plot, this is not the droid/game you are looking for. The characters in the world are all seriously one-dimensional, and the occasional attempt to pump up the drama becomes almost laughable because of it. It becomes really hard to care about any of the "red shirt," meals-on-feet characters that you will come across before you either move on or watch them get zombified. The setting is the key above the story, and in that Dead Island succeeds. The island is massive and almost entirely explorable. From the beach to the island's city, there is plenty to see and do, and there is no end to the undead, who will constantly be after you. In this, the game succeeds amazingly well. You can suddenly turn a corner and find five zombies ready to eat you. While you are deciding how to deal with them, five more may attack you from behind and send you running for your life, with the undead in tow. There isn't much consequence to dying—just a short delay to respawn and a chunk of cash—but it can still get nerve-racking when you are overwhelmed. The deteriorating look of the island is also impressive to see as the infection spreads. It is dark and bleak, and cool to see devolve. Where the game doesn't do as well, where it flat out kinda sucks at times, is the mission variety—or lack thereof. The vast, vast, vast majority of the missions involve you being told to go somewhere and/or find something. Sometimes the game will mix it up a bit, but that's about it. It becomes little more than an excuse to send you through zombie infested areas. It soon becomes repetitive and dull, and a little mission variety would have gone a long way. Not even a lot of mission variety, just some. But Dead Island isn't about learning important lessons, or understanding the tragic nature of the undead. It is about taking objects you find and beating zombies to un-death with them. If the simplistic nature of the objectives doesn't scare you away, then there are a ton of missions to do. You can easily spend 30 hours playing Dead Island and not come close to finishing every side quest.
The Science of Curb-stomping a ZombieI had to admit that I giggled a little the first time I stomped on a zombie's head and heard a satisfying crack. I even smiled the twentieth time. Around the hundredth, the novelty wore of a bit. Like most RPG-style games, your enemies have hit points that you need to get through to kill them. When you first start, the zombies are all at low levels and aren't particularly difficult to punch and kick to death, but they still take several hits, usually while on the ground. So basically, you hit the zombie to knock them down, then kick them, and kick them, and kick them again and again until they are dead. Repetition will soon become a familiar friend.But that is just in the early going. As you progress, you will earn experience that gives you points, which you can spend on an ability tree. If, for example, you want Sam B—the brawler of the group—to be proficient with guns, you will need to wait quite a while and upgrade until he has that ability. If you would rather keep him as a brawler, you can spread out his points and increase his defense, while upping his damage with blunt weapons. It makes the characters you play feel individual and unique to each gamer's tastes. The abilities are also fairly even, so there isn't really one "right" way to level at first, as with so many other games like it. The weapon customizations also make the combat much more interesting. Through the game you will earn various items that you can later assemble at certain locations, as long as you know what you are building. At first it will just be things like a bat with nails in it, but the more you pick up, the more interesting—and powerful–the weapons become. It takes some patience to get there, but eventually the combat becomes fun, and the gameplay becomes deep.
Zombies are uglyThere are several technical limitations that put a curse on this game and drag it down. None is ever crippling, and many of the minor ones Techland is already hard at work fixing through patches, but some problems go beyond downloadable updates.The enemy AI is dated. You don't necessarily expect much from zombies in terms of strategy, but when one walks into a wall and keeps trying to walk through it, even as you bash its head in with a stick, there are issues. The zombie animations are also off, so while you may dodge a zombie punch, it may still register as having hit you. Little things like that pop up again and again, and just make the game feel like it needed a bit more time (or a lot more money) in development. The graphics are also hit or miss. Sometimes they are amazing, other times there are issues with the textures, anti-aliasing and several other technical problems. The environments generally look good overall (although there are some exceptions), and the zombies look amazing. But many of the support characters and other online characters all look off, and the cutscenes can be distractingly bad. It doesn't happen all the time, but enough to be an issue.
Bring bait/friendsFor all of Dead Island's problems—the lackluster story, the dull missions, the inconsistent graphics—those become secondary to the best feature of Dead Island, the online play.The single player game has its moments, but 30-hours of repetitive gameplay and dull missions can wear down even the most devoted fan. To really get the most of Dead Island, you need to play it online. When you are exploring a new section of the game, you will receive a notification about other players in the same area that are close to you in level. If you accept them, they will join you on your missions, and you can help them on their's. If you want, you can each go off on your own but stay in the game together, and each play the single player with a live person playing in another section of the game. Up to four players can join a single game, and thanks to the ability tree, even if everyone is the same character, they may each have their own abilities. If you don't like the people you are with, you can easily drop out without consequence, and go looking for more people or just continue solo. When you do have a full squad, Dead Island can be amazingly fun. The single player can be trying, but all the issues become minor distractions when you have four people, each working together while still completing their own goals. If you have a good crew of friends looking for a new online game, Dead Island is a definite possibility. This is where the cult audience will be found. The only real drawback to this is that you must play with people near your own level, so the further you go, the harder it will be to find people to play with, at least in the early days of the game.
ConclusionDead Island is a good game with several problems, and one hugely redeeming quality—the online play. As a single player game, Dead Island is mindless fun that gets repetitive, but has so much to explore and see that it is an average game—never a bad one. But mix in some amazing online play, and the game becomes great. Average them together and you have a game that is good, but held back.If you aren't into online gaming, then Dead Island is not for you, unless you have a particular interest (and hatred) of the undead, so much so that you want to spend 30+-hours beating them to a bloody pulp with pipes and knives. If you can get a group together willing to put some serious hours in, or if you are fine with playing with the random straggler, then Dead Island may be a sleeper hit of the year for you.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
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| More Details Emerge About Possible Amazon Tablet (NewsFactor) Posted: 06 Sep 2011 04:08 PM PDT A possible Amazon tablet, whose release later this year could be the first major challenge to the category's dominance by Apple's iPad, is coming into focus with additional reports on the web. The rumors point to a 7-inch, multi-touch device that could help reshape Amazon's website and other parts of its huge retail ecosystem. At least one technology site reports seeing a test device, running Android 2.2 with an Amazon-customized interface. The tablet will be oriented to Amazon's own Android Appstore, which launched in May, rather than to Google's Android Marketplace, to which many other Android devices point. Site Redesign Rumors also indicate that the tablet will be priced at $250, a direct challenge to the iPad's starting price of $499, and that the product will launch in November. A 10-inch version, with a more powerful processor, could follow in early 2012. Amazon is expected to use its marketing strength and distribution channels to support the tablet, possibly including free subscriptions to Amazon Prime, which gives the subscriber access to the company's video streaming service, as well as free shipping on products. According to a report in Monday's Wall Street Journal, Amazon is in the process of testing a redesign of its site, in order to optimize its use on a tablet -- either Apple's, its own, or someone else's. Currently, customers can access the site through a browser or a tablet-specific app, and the redesign would affect those using a browser. Sally Fouts, a spokeswoman for Amazon, told the Journal that the new design was being made available to some customers, but she couldn't "speculate on when the new design will be live for everyone." She said testing for the new design only began in the last week. The new design emphasizes digital products, rather than physical ones. Some observers have noted that, as smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices have shifted the center of gravity for computing, Amazon's site design, packed full of information, has not kept pace. The expectation is that, if the new design is fully launched, it will happen before the holiday season is under way, so as to avoid disrupting customer expectations. Loss Leader? As Amazon gears up its tablet effort, a wave of other $200 to $300 tablets are also populating the marketplace. Lenovo's new IdeaPad Tablet A1 starts at $199, Samsung's original Galaxy Tab is now $279, and Barnes & Noble's 7-inch Nook Color e-book reader-tablet is $249. Amazon is expected to be the big gorilla in lower-priced tablets. The giant retailer is already doing well with its Kindle e-book reader, which can be seen as a close cousin to tablets. Many industry observers expect Amazon to release one or more low-cost tablet models by the end of 2011, possibly at a loss so that it can make money on providing content -- as it has done with the Kindle. According to Forrester Research, an Amazon tablet could sell 3 million to 5 million units in the fourth quarter, which would catapult it into being the key competitor to the iPad. Other rumors are that Amazon will ship more than a million tablets by the end of this month, and that there will be two models -- one with a dual-core Tegra processor, and the other with a quad-core T30 Kal-El. |
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