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Honda shows smarter robot, helps in nuclear crisis (AP) : Technet |
- Honda shows smarter robot, helps in nuclear crisis (AP)
- Facebook founder returns to Harvard to recruit (AP)
- Cyber weaknesses should deter US from waging war (AP)
- Just Show Me: How to check for a system update on your Android phone (Yahoo! News)
- Robotic seeing-eye dog created with the help of Kinect (Yahoo! News)
- How to Retain Your Startup Workforce (Mashable)
- Google chairman says will not favor Motorola (Reuters)
- YouTube, Disney Interactive strike content alliance (Reuters)
- Microsoft builds giant NYC phone for launch event; Spotify comes to Windows phone (Digital Trends)
- Verizon doubles data allowance in promotion (Reuters)
- Google Needs to Add More Than Business Pages to Google Plus (ContributorNetwork)
- Alaska city councilman faces child porn charges (Reuters)
- Cheer up with these moody iPhone apps (Appolicious)
- Galaxy Nexus Could See Verizon Launch Nov. 21 (NewsFactor)
- Dish Network 3Q earnings climb 30 percent (AP)
- Firefox 8 Caters to Hardcore Twitter Users (NewsFactor)
- Exclusive: HP weighing sale of webOS unit (Reuters)
- Firefox 8 available to download, official launch tomorrow (Digital Trends)
| Honda shows smarter robot, helps in nuclear crisis (AP) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 08:30 PM PST WAKO, Japan – Honda's human-shaped robot can now run faster, balance itself on uneven surfaces, hop on one foot, pour a drink and even almost "think" on its own. Honda's demonstration of the revamped "Asimo" on Tuesday at its Tokyo suburban research facility was not only to prove that the bubble-headed childlike machine was more limber and a bit smarter. It was a way to try to answer some critics that Asimo, first shown in 2000, had been of little practical use so far, proving to be nothing more than a glorified toy and cute showcase for the Honda Motor Co. brand. Honda President Takanobu Ito told reporters some of Asimo's technology was used to develop a robotic arm in just six months with the intention of helping with the nuclear crisis in northeastern Japan. The mechanical arm can open and close valves at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which went into meltdown after the March tsunami, according to Honda. The automaker is working with the utility behind the problem plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., to try to meet demands to bring the plant under control. Ito acknowledged that the first idea was to send in Asimo to help out, but that was not possible because the robot cannot maneuver in rubble, and its delicate computer parts would malfunction in radiation. But in Tuesday's demonstration, Asimo was able to walk without falling over 2 centimeter (0.8 inch) padded bumps on the floor. It can also now jog faster than it did in 2005, at 9 kilometers per hour (5.6 mph), instead of the earlier 6 kph (3.7 mph), pushing better with its toes so its run was smoother and not as jerky. Asimo was also able to distinguish the voices of three people spoken at once, using face recognition and analyzing sound, to figure out that one woman wanted hot coffee, another orange juice, and still another milk tea. The new Asimo got improved hands as well, allowing individual movement of each finger, so it could do sign language. "My name is Asimo," it said, making the signs of its words with stubby fingers. It also opened a thermos bottle and gracefully poured juice into a paper cup. Ito said Asimo had developed autonomous artificial intelligence so that it could potentially maneuver itself through crowds of people, without remote control or stopping each time to check on its programming. But he acknowledged that making robotics into a practical business will take more time, meaning Asimo wasn't about to show up in any home soon. "Maybe at the start this was a dream of engineers to make a machine that was close to a human being, like Astro Boy," he said. "We think Asimo is good." ___ Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama |
| Facebook founder returns to Harvard to recruit (AP) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 06:18 PM PST CAMBRIDGE, MASS. – Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg left Harvard University as a dropout with a novel idea. He returned Monday with a triumphant message: He's hiring. The 27-year-old CEO received a rock-star welcome during his first official visit since he left for California's Silicon Valley in 2004. He made his recruitment pitch to 250 students at Harvard after a similar meeting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "We're just getting started," he told reporters and a few hundred students who gathered at the Harvard campus to catch a glimpse of the Internet pioneer. "The next five or 10 years are going to be about all the different products and industries that can be rethought." So many students turned out to see the sweatshirted billionaire outside a university library that campus officials had to set up temporary barriers to separate him from his audience. Aaron Perez, an 18-year-old freshman from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said Zuckerberg's creation was one of the reasons he chose to study computer science. He said he's encouraged to hear that companies are hiring computer programmers in today's struggling economy. "It's an empowering story, especially these days," said Perez, who risked being tardy to rowing practice to see Zuckerberg. "It makes it seem like I've got a chance." Harvard computing officials were working on their own university-wide online directory when Zuckerberg created Facebook as a campus-only social network. The then-sophomore told the campus newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, it was silly that the university needed years to create the site. "I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week," he said. An earlier Zuckerberg creation, Facemash, almost led to his expulsion after he hacked university computers for student photos. But there were no hurt feelings Monday, as university officials and faculty welcomed Zuckerberg back to campus for the official visit. Zuckerberg has returned to Harvard before on informal recruiting trips. "There are relatively few tech rock stars whose names are known by people all over the world," said Harvard computer science professor David Malan, who cited Microsoft's Bill Gates and Apple's Steve Jobs as two other examples. "He really is in that category." Zuckerberg said his company has plans to expand and needs talented workers to do it. "There's a lot of really smart people here and a lot of them are making decisions about where they're going to work," he said of his decision to recruit in Cambridge. The company's base of operations moved to Palo Alto, Calif., in June 2004, just months after Facebook began to expand outside of Harvard. By the end of the year, the site would have nearly 1 million users. Facebook says it now has more than 800 million active users around the world and 3,000 employees. It could someday open an office in the Boston area, Zuckerberg said. The area's status as a center for technological innovation has improved in the last several years, local entrepreneur Dharmesh Shah said. Shah is chief technology officer and co-founder of HubSpot, a marketing software company, and also runs a blog devoted to technology startups. Shah created HubSpot while an MIT student and said he considered basing his new company in San Francisco but wanted to stay close to MIT and the area's growing talent pool. "There's a vibrant ecosystem here," he said. "There's always been this stereotype that startups on the East Coast won't take as much risk as the startups you see on the West Coast, and that held us back. But it's changing. I've never seen it as vibrant as it is right now." News that Zuckerberg was on campus spread Monday by word of mouth, Twitter and, of course, Facebook. Students held their smartphones aloft to snap photos as he walked through the campus. Harvard student Madeline Halimi of Brooklyn, N.Y., said Zuckerberg's story is encouraging, but also a little daunting. The freshman student is still deciding her field of concentration. "What's really weird is wondering whether the person next to you will be the next person to invent something that changes the world," Halimi said. |
| Cyber weaknesses should deter US from waging war (AP) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 06:36 PM PST WASHINGTON – America's critical computer networks are so vulnerable to attack that it should deter U.S. leaders from going to war with other nations, a former top U.S. cybersecurity official said Monday. Richard Clarke, a top adviser to three presidents, joined a number of U.S. military and civilian experts in offering a dire assessment of America's cybersecurity at a conference, saying the country simply can't protect its critical networks. Clarke said if he was advising the president he would warn against attacking other countries because so many of them — including China, North Korea, Iran and Russia — could retaliate by launching devastating cyberattacks that could destroy power grids, banking networks or transportation systems. The U.S. military, he said, is entirely dependent on computer systems and could end up in a future conflict in which troops trot out onto a battlefield "and nothing works." Clarke said a good national security adviser would tell the president that the U.S. might be able to blow up a nuclear plant somewhere, or a terrorist training center somewhere, but a number of countries could strike back with a cyberattack and "the entire us economic system could be crashed in retaliation ... because we can't defend it today." "I really don't know to what extent the weapon systems that have been developed over the last 10 years have been penetrated, to what extent the chips are compromised, to what extent the code is compromised," Clarke said. "I can't assure you that as you go to war with a cybersecurity-conscious, cybersecurity-capable enemy that any of our stuff is going to work." Clarke, along with Gen. Keith Alexander, who heads both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, told the conference crowd that the U.S. needs to do a better job at eliminating network vulnerabilities and more aggressively seek out malware or viruses in American corporate, military and government systems. But Clarke was more strident about pushing for broader government regulations to enforce such improvements, despite political reluctance. The problems, he said, will not be fixed unless the government gets more involved. He added that the U.S. also needs to make it clear to countries such as China that efforts to use computer-based attacks to steal high-tech American data will be punished. In a forceful and detailed public report last week. U.S. intelligence officials accused China and Russia of systematically stealing sensitive U.S. economic information and technologies for their own national economic gain. The report called on the U.S. to confront China and Russia in a broad diplomatic push to combat cyberattacks that are on the rise and which represent a "persistent threat to U.S. economic security." On Monday, Clarke said that until there are real consequences for the massive espionage, countries like China will still keep stealing. |
| Just Show Me: How to check for a system update on your Android phone (Yahoo! News) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 05:44 PM PST |
| Robotic seeing-eye dog created with the help of Kinect (Yahoo! News) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 05:37 PM PST |
| How to Retain Your Startup Workforce (Mashable) Posted: 06 Nov 2011 10:30 AM PST Morgan Norman is the Founder and CEO of WorkSimple, putting an end to performance reviews by providing a better way for coworkers and teams to share goals, work together, get and give feedback, and make each other shine. Connect with him and WorkSimple on Facebook and Twitter. Startups provide a unique and exciting atmosphere for employees because they have a more hands-on approach to building a company and a brand. Instead of working for an established company, startup workers have the chance to be a part of a team that shapes the brand through every part of its development and launch. The team must possess a more entrepreneurial spirit as they are not always large in size or have big budgets to fall back on. [More from Mashable: Google GoMo Helps Businesses Go Mobile] At many startups, every employee is a partner. It's normal to help outside of the traditional role they were hired for. They get to dive into areas that aren't necessarily part of their job description, and because of this lack of titles and hierarchy, being a part of a startup is a feedback culture. Startup employees have to be flexible and knowledgeable in several different industries, and possess a variety of skills, while the employer must work even harder to hire and train the right employees because he cannot be in constant hiring mode. Entrepreneurs often fear losing employees to competitors and larger corporations. Workers today often see more job security with established companies, and if given the chance to work for a well-known Fortune 500 company, will likely accept the opportunity. [More from Mashable: What I Learned From Four Days With the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs] So, what can employers do to retain hired talent and show the benefits of staying with their startup company?
Proper Orientation and On-Boarding

 While many startups hire people who know the job, you still need to help new employees understand your vision, values, direction, gaps and product. As with a new company or product, there is a greater need for employee education and that can only come at the beginning of the job. 
 Startups tend to have more work cut out for them (and less staff to get it done), so a new hire may not always feel comfortable asking questions or being trained on the job. Block off a few days at the start of a new hire’s week and have someone teach that person the ins and outs of the company and position. Giving employees the tools to succeed from the beginning should be seen as a necessary investment. 

 To understand how they can make good decisions on the job, startup employees need an orientation of what every team is trying to accomplish. This can help new employees assimilate into their new environment quicker and start making real contributions right away. Once you have given new hires all the tools and resources at your disposal, it will then be up to them to succeed at the job. If you do not train them, there is the risk they will feel lost and get fed-up quickly, which can lead to employee dissatisfaction and turnover.
RecognitionBeing recognized for a job well done may seem trivial and unnecessary -- after all, that's what you're paying your employees for, right? Shouldn't they always go above and beyond for a project and blow everyone's expectations out of the water? Unfortunately, always expecting employees to kill it may be pushing your luck. Encourage employees to set personal goals. Start with lightweight goals with no firm end dates. Ask new workers, "What do you think we should do?" Then, work on prioritizing these goals as a team. Once these goals are set, an employer can monitor and recognize an outstanding job on an as-needed basis. This does not mean check up on your workers every day. Instead, when you do come across an exceptional project or proposal, take the time to send a quick email or stop by the worker's desk and personally thank them for their hard work and dedication. Employees appreciate recognition for their hard work and it means a lot coming from supervisors and managers.
FeedbackIn addition to recognizing achievements of candidates, offering more feedback for employees in startups is necessary. Startup workers tend to have higher responsibilities. They are expected to be self-starters, so helping them improve and learn from mistakes is important. This can only be done when sufficient feedback is given on projects and overall employee traits. Instead of simply fixing their mistakes -- and not offering some light into the decisions made -- tell the worker what worked and what could use improvement. Employees will have a hard time growing and becoming independent without learning where their work stands in the company. Ditch performance reviews until you have hundreds of employees. They have limited value in your startup culture, and can't keep up with the pace of the work that is going on. Instead, feedback can consist of a quick email or chat on a project-by-project basis. When offered in a constructive manner, criticism from supervisors and co-workers will be appreciated by employees as their expectations will become more clear.
Professional ReputationA good employee will give 100% to work hard and fit into an organization, but also turn to outside resources for connections and learn about the industry. Being perceived as an all-star is important to most, as a strong professional reputation will open many doors for employees. Provide employees with the resources to better their professional reputation by endorsing additional reading, joining relevant groups and participating in forums to keep them informed.
Similarly, providing books about your company's industry and general self-help or career books are also good ways to invest in employee growth. What are some things you have done to retain your startup workforce? Image courtesy of iStockphoto/Yuri Arcurs This story originally published on Mashable here. |
| Google chairman says will not favor Motorola (Reuters) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 08:57 PM PST SEOUL (Reuters) – The executive chairman of Google Inc on Tuesday played down concerns the search giant would give preferential treatment to Motorola Mobility Holdings after its planned purchase of the handset maker is completed. Asia is home to Samsung Electronics Co, the world's biggest vendor making mobile devices using Google's free Android software. Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola, announced in August, raised concerns Google may become a key rival of Android licensees. "In general, with all of our partners, we told them that the Motorola deal will close and we will run it sufficiently and independently, that it will not violate the openness of Android...we're not going to change in any material way the way we operate," Eric Schmidt told reporters on his visit to South Korea on Tuesday. His comments were widely seen as reassuring his alliances with handset manufacturers including Samsung and HTC Corp. The two flagship Android vendors are in patent disputes with Apple as the iPhone maker seeks to curb Android's strong growth, which has become the most popular mobile platform. In response to a question on criticism by the late Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, that Android phones ripped off its flagship iPhone, Schmidt said, "the Android effort started before the iPhone effort." "I've decided not to comment on what's been written on a book after his death. Steve is a fantastic human being and someone who I miss very dearly. As a general comment, I think most people would agree that Google is a great innovator and I would also point out that the Android effort started before the iPhone effort," Schmidt said. In his authorized biography released last month, Jobs said, "I will spend my last dying breath if I need to...to right this wrong. I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go to thermonuclear war on this." Schmidt, in his second visit to Korea, met executives from handset manufacturers Samsung and LG Electronics as well as mobile carriers SK Telecom, KT Corp and LG Uplus. He also met South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and said Google will open a channel dedicated to Korean pop music on YouTube, Google's video-sharing website, to help spread the "Korean wave," the presidential office said on Monday. Schmidt's Asian tour later includes Taipei and Beijing. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Joonhee Yu; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Matt Driskill) |
| YouTube, Disney Interactive strike content alliance (Reuters) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 04:12 PM PST (Reuters) – Google Inc's YouTube and Walt Disney Co's interactive arm have formed a partnership to bring videos geared toward families to the Web. The alliance, announced on Monday, will provide co-branded videos produced by Disney on both its Disney.com website and YouTube early next year. Disney will also provide current programs already produced. This is the latest move by YouTube to shore up its offerings of original content to its already popular Web destination. Meanwhile, Disney Interactive gets to expand its online audience. "As we prepare to re-launch Disney.com in fall 2012, the Disney/YouTube destination will play a critical part in our next generation platform," said Jimmy Pitaro, co-president of Disney Interactive. The partnership follows YouTube's announcement last month that it plans to introduce channels with other media partners, including Thomson Reuters Corp, to showcase original content. (Reporting by Jennifer Saba; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn) |
| Microsoft builds giant NYC phone for launch event; Spotify comes to Windows phone (Digital Trends) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 07:15 PM PST
The celebration in New York City, hinted at last week as a "big, big surprise", kicked off around noon at Herald Square, close to the Empire State Building. The Big Windows Phone event featured live performances and digital entertainment which was projected onto the LED screens that made up the mock Windows Phone 7 user interface. There were Plants vs Zombies and Fruit Ninjas performances, demonstrations, music and even an impromptu marriage proposal. Everyone that bought a phone was g Along with the official announcement of the four new phones by Microsoft's Andy Lees, Spotify announced that its service would finally be available for the Windows Phone 7. The Windows Phone touted the ability to browse and play friend's playlists, top track and artists; play music and change tracks while the phone is locked or while running other apps; and pin playlists as Live titles on the Start screen for easy access.The Spotify app was promised to be available for download later on today. There's no word on how long the big Windows phone will stay up, though there's been some whisper that it might be taken down tonight. If you're in NYC check out while/if you still can; if you can't make it you'll have to console yourself with this video the Windows team blog released of the supersized marketing stunt being constructed. Funny how 6 stories looks like 3 on camera.
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends More from Digital Trends There is no hope for Windows Phone in 2011 Samsung Focus Flash hands-on impressions – a great phone for $50 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Verizon doubles data allowance in promotion (Reuters) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 01:56 PM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) – Verizon Wireless is aiming to sell more of its fastest wireless phones with a holiday promotion that allows twice as many data downloads for the same price, potentially putting pressure on AT&T Inc to follow suit. For example, instead of limiting usage to 2 gigabytes a month for customers on its $30 plan, the company will offer customers who buy phones with its highest-speed data connections 4 gigabytes of downloads per month. In comparison its biggest rival AT&T charges $25 for 2 gigabytes of data and $15 for 200 gigabytes of data. AT&T declined to say whether or not it would change its own pricing in response to Verizon's move. In an effort to compete with AT&T's cheaper plan, Verizon is also introducing a $20 per month plan for 300 megabytes of data for customers of all its phones, similar to a promotion it held in the holidays last year for a $15 plan for 150 megabytes. Their smaller rival Sprint Nextel still offers unlimited data downloads for a set monthly. Verizon Wireless is also hoping to make more money from text and picture messages by eliminating a $5 plan that allows customers to exchange 250 messages a month. Instead it is raising the text limit to 1,000 from 500 for its $10 plan. Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc. is the biggest U.S. mobile service. (Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Bernard Orr) |
| Google Needs to Add More Than Business Pages to Google Plus (ContributorNetwork) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 03:40 PM PST |
| Alaska city councilman faces child porn charges (Reuters) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 06:43 PM PST ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – An 80-year-old city councilman and former mayor of an Alaska town was charged with possessing child pornography found on his laptop computer after he dropped it off for repairs, officials said on Monday. John W. "Jack" Shay, a pillar of local politics in the southeastern Alaska port city of Ketchikan, was arrested on Friday, said Josh Dossett, Ketchikan's deputy police chief. "He brought his laptop and his printer because they were not printing correctly," Dossett said. Police were notified after the technician began working on the machines, he said. "The printer began printing images that had been queued, I assume, which were child pornography," he said. Shay served as Ketchikan's mayor in the early 1980s and as mayor of the larger Ketchikan Gateway Borough from 1996 to 2002. He also served on the local school board and as state labor division chief under former Governor Bill Sheffield. Shay has also long been active in local theater, co-founding a stage company in the mid-1960s, and has played many roles in musical productions. "I think this is quite a shock to people," Dossett said. "He's been a major part of this community for a long time." Shay was jailed on Friday and released on $30,000 bail after an arraignment on Saturday on 10 counts of possessing child pornography, Dossett said. Shay's attorney, Dennis McCarty, was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Yereth Rosen; Editing by Steve Gorman and Cynthia Johnston) |
| Cheer up with these moody iPhone apps (Appolicious) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 03:00 PM PST |
| Galaxy Nexus Could See Verizon Launch Nov. 21 (NewsFactor) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 05:05 PM PST Google and Samsung's "beyond smart" smartphone could be headed for Verizon Wireless store shelves as soon as Nov. 21, according to a published report of a leaked playbook by the carrier. The feature-packed Galaxy Nexus, announced on Oct. 21, combines the branding of Samsung's premier line of Android-based devices with Google's Nexus brand, which got off to a rough start with last year's low-selling Nexus One. Google has since released the Nexus S with Samsung in December, via Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and AT&T. Screaming for Ice Cream Samsung on Monday confirmed that the Galaxy Nexus, which ships with Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, will be available in the United Kingdom starting Nov. 17th. A growing number of devices are seeing early releases in Europe before the United States, perhaps because Apple has a weaker market abroad for its iPhone and manufacturers see an opportunity to build a market there. "The level of interest and anticipation surrounding the release of the Galaxy Nexus has been fantastic," Simon Stanford, Samsung's Head of Mobile operations for the U.K. and Ireland, said in a statement. "We're delighted to introduce the Galaxy Nexus to the U.K. and are looking forward to seeing it in the shops on 17th of November." The press release did not specify a price for the Galaxy Nexus. Droid Life, a site devoted to Android-based devices, on Monday posted what it said was a leaked Verizon roadmap of coming devices, including the Galaxy Nexus, slated for w/o, or Web-only, on Nov. 21. In an e-mail message to us, Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney did not deny the report but said "we have not announced an availability date for this device. I cannot confirm what is on the Droid Life Web site because it isn't information that we have shared publicly." Wireless Analyst Gerry Purdy of MobilTrax said U.S. carriers and their vendors often delay giving a firm release date in advance because of complications that can arise with FCC certification. "Sometimes that takes longer than expected," Purdy said. "They are constantly pursuing a roadmap, but sometimes they run into glitches that cause problems....They don't mean to do it that way." Thing of Beauty Samsung is marketing the Galaxy Nexus as simple, beautiful and beyond smart. It's powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor. Among the unique features is a facial recognition application that allows users to unlock the device simply by smiling, without a password to remember. Another application, Touch To Beam, uses near-field communication to allow users to share media, apps or information simply by holding two enabled devices together. It's also equipped for voice-input texting and built-in Google+ social networking. The 5-megapixel camera is equipped for zero-shutter-lag panoramic view and, in keeping with Samsung's penchant for increasingly dazzling displays, the Galaxy Nexus packs an HD Super AMOLED display 720p (1280×720 pixels), "ensuring vivid colors and excellent picture clarity." The candybar-form, rounded design measures just 8.94 mm thick. |
| Dish Network 3Q earnings climb 30 percent (AP) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 02:29 PM PST NEW YORK – Dish Network Corp. posted another loss of subscribers from its slowly dwindling satellite-TV business, even as larger competitor DirecTV adds to its base. Investors, however, were cheered by the announcement of a $2 per share special dividend. Dish shares rose $1.18, or 5 percent, to close at $24.66 Monday after rising as high as $25.15 earlier. The stock price reflects a calculation by investors that the dividend didn't quite make up for the results, which missed analyst expectations. Dish declared a similar $2 per share special dividend in 2009. It doesn't pay a regular dividend. Driving the decision to pay out a dividend, said chairman Charles Ergen, was speculation that taxes on dividends will increase. "We'd looked at some other investments and acquisitions and weren't able to do those, so you put all those things together and a non-recurring dividend made some sense," Ergen said. Dish's subscriber losses translated into higher net income for the quarter, as it avoided the short-term cost of getting new subscribers set up with dishes and set-top boxes. The Englewood, Colo., company said its net income climbed 30 percent to $319.1 million, or 71 cents per share, in the three months that ended Sept. 30. That's up from $244.9 million, or 55 cents per share, a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet were on average expecting earnings of 74 cents per share. Revenue rose 12 percent to $3.6 billion from $3.2 billion a year ago, chiefly because of the acquisition of the Blockbuster video-store chain in April. Analysts were on average expecting revenue of $3.64 billion. The period was the first full quarter of results for Blockbuster after the acquisition. The division essentially broke even on $347 million in revenue. Chief Financial Officer Robert Olson said its profitability was inflated because Dish bought the stores and their DVD inventory for less than book value. As the company buys new DVDs, that effect will diminish, and the stores will start posting losses again unless Dish figures out a way to improve profitability. Olson said the company's goal is to have the stores at least break even while it tests new marketing ideas, some of which include the satellite-service. Dish has already launched a Blockbuster-branded Internet TV service for its satellite subscribers. Dish lost a net 111,000 satellite subscribers in the quarter. That was mainly because fewer new subscribers signed up, rather than accelerated losses. But the loss rate is still high, something the company blames on competitor's aggressive promotions. Analyst Mike McCormack at Nomura Securities also noted that the average monthly fee per subscriber was just $76.99, well below his estimate of $78.84, saying that was "of particular concern." DirecTV Group Inc. last week reported adding a record 327,000 subscribers in the third quarter, greatly helped by its exclusive NFL Sunday Ticket. Dish ended the quarter with 13.9 million subscribers, the same number it had two years ago. That makes it the third-largest provider of paid TV signals to U.S. households. DirecTV had 19.8 million, making it second only to Comcast Corp. as a pay-TV provider. The dividend will be paid Dec. 1 to shareholders of record on Nov. 17. |
| Firefox 8 Caters to Hardcore Twitter Users (NewsFactor) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 01:56 PM PST Firefox 8 officially rolls out on Tuesday, but Mozilla quietly made it available in preview mode a few days early. Mozilla offered a Firefox 8 link to its FTP servers on Saturday for PC, Mac and Linux computers. The latest update to Firefox includes a Twitter tie-in. Users can search Twitter right from a drop-down search box built into the browser or highlight text on the screen and right-click and select "search Twitter" to find people, topics or hashtags. "I don't think Twitter is going to be enough to get people to switch browsers," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner. "It appears that it's going to take more than that to drive people forward, but that doesn't mean that browser makers are going to stop trying." Mobile Browser Wars Indeed, the browser wars may not be in full swing but they aren't dead, either. The battle is taking on a mobile dimension even as browser-makers duke it out on the desktop. Google is the aggressor, with its Chrome browser gaining ground. According to Netmarketshare, Chrome is in third place with 17.6 percent, after Microsoft's Internet Explorer with 52.6 percent and Firefox with 22.5 percent. Chrome celebrated its third birthday in September and got one of its biggest market share boosts in October with a 1.4 percent gain in the desktop market. Chrome's gains came at the expense of IE and Firefox. Chrome is seeing momentum at a time when some are questioning the future of Internet Explorer and the success of the Windows Phone mobile operating system. Although Netmarketshare gives IE 52.6 percent of the market, it only has about 6 percent of Web traffic. Apple Safari is making its name known in the mobile market. Safari boasts 62.1 percent of mobile-browser Web traffic. An Incremental Update As for the Firefox 8 release, few expected a major update. Like Chrome, Firefox is releasing a full-version-number upgrade every six weeks. Firefox 8 may actually offers a few reversals of changes to the last version. For example, the third party add-on check is being extended to include add-ons installed directly in the application folder in the profile. Mozilla said this doesn't impact any add-ons installed through the regular add-on installation process. This is essentially a move to beef up security. The way Firefox loads multiple tabs is different. Rather than try to load the content in every open tab when the browser restarts, Firefox now loads the tab that shows first and loads the others if and when the user switches to that tab. Firefox 8 is also supposed to be faster and offer improved support for HTML 5 and WebSocket. "Firefox 8 feels like an incremental update," Gartenberg said. "This doesn't feel like something that's dramatically going to change the browser landscape, but it does show how people are working hard to try to change that landscape." |
| Exclusive: HP weighing sale of webOS unit (Reuters) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 06:15 PM PST NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Hewlett-Packard Co is looking to sell Palm's webOS mobile software platform, a deal that could fetch hundreds of millions of dollars but less than the $1.2 billion that HP paid last year, four sources close to the matter said. Advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HP is trying to figure out how to recoup its investment in Palm, viewed by many analysts and investors as an expensive foray into the smartphone market that has not paid off. Several technology companies have expressed an interest in buying the division, which is seen as attractive for its patents, the sources said. Amazon.com Inc, Research In Motion, IBM, Oracle Corp and Intel Corp are considered to be among the companies likely to be interested in the asset, industry sources said. The future of the unit, which HP acquired when it bought Palm in 2010, was in jeopardy after the company decided to kill its webOS-based TouchPad tablet following poor sales. An HP spokesman said "we are exploring ways to optimize the webOS software," and declined to further comment. HP is still mulling the software's future, including if it should build a new webOS-based tablet, HP's new chief executive Meg Whitman said in a recent interview. "The question now before us is what do we do with webOS software and do we come back to market with webOS devices," Whitman said. "It obviously will not be the same device but it will be version 2.0." In October, HP ditched a plan to spin off its personal computers unit, a month after the ouster of CEO Leo Apotheker whose idea would have cost billions of dollars in expenses and lost business. The boutique investment bank Parella Weinberg, which had been hired by Apotheker at the time to explore alternatives, has since lost the mandate as HP's adviser, the sources said. Parella Weinberg was not immediately available for comment. Bank of America declined to comment. RICH PATENTS? But one of the sources said that any auction would not fetch a high price, given webOS has not received significant investment in over a year. "This won't be the most robust auction in the world," the source said. Palm's former CEO Jon Rubinstein, currently in a product innovation role at HP's Personal Systems Group, which houses the webOS division, is an Amazon board member. HP decided to buy Palm for over $1.2 billion in cash last April, billing the acquisition as a way for the company to participate more aggressively in the red-hot mobile market. HP acknowledged at the time that Palm housed "significant IP assets." HP bought Palm mostly for the patent value and tablets were not an important strategic direction, said a fifth source familiar with the acquisition. The patents held by webOS could be used as defense by potential buyers to ward off patent infringement lawsuits, experts say. Apotheker made webOS a central strategy, announcing in March that HP planned to incorporate webOS across most of its products. The TouchPad was to be the flagship device for the operating system. Then HP discontinued the TouchPad in August -- little over a month after it hit store shelves with costly fanfare -- following poor demand for a tablet priced on par with Apple's dominant iPad. WebOS is widely viewed as a strong mobile platform, but has been assailed for its paucity of applications, an important consideration while choosing a mobile device. Also, the market is now mainly dominated by Apple and Google Android-based products. Microsoft's Mango platform comes a distant third. (Reporting by Nadia Damouni in New York and Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; Editing by Phil Berlowitz) |
| Firefox 8 available to download, official launch tomorrow (Digital Trends) Posted: 07 Nov 2011 07:45 PM PST
While the official launch of Firefox 8 is scheduled for November 8, Mozilla has made the release build of Firefox 8 available for download at day early on the Firefox 7. The main features of Firefox 7 included more efficient user of memory, add-on compatibility, a new version of the HTML5 Canvas element using hardware-acceleration, speed improvements and a variety of bug fixes. Beyond the new security measure, Mozilla has added Twitter to the list of search engines available for the search bar. This is ideal for users that want to get the latest real-time chatter about significant events in the news. Firefox 8 also brings the ability to load tabs as the user sees fit when the browser restarts, thus improving start up time. Instead of loading all tabs that were open when the browser was closed, each tab doesn't load until the user switches to a new tab. Other upgrades in Firefox 8 included a smattering of bug fixes that improve stability, support for HTML5 context menus and improvements with performance as well as memory handling. This article was originally posted on Digital Trends More from Digital Trends Google Chrome on track to overtake Firefox in 2011 Internet Explorer usage to plummet below 50 percent by mid-2012 |
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