The Obama campaign has launched http://www.keatingeconomics.com/, a website that exposes McCain’s involvement in the Keating Five scandal. The Obama camp is pushing with it’s message that the McCain ticket is bad for the economy. When the savings and loan industry collapsed, Charles Keating’s failed company put taxpayers on the hook for $3.4 billion and more [...]
October 5th, 2008 | rp | Comments | ContinuedFeatured
Obama lead increases after VP debate
The Obama-Biden ticket is continuing strong since last Thursday’s vice presidential debate. The debate clearly belonged to Biden as Palin continued with her folksy ways and choose to avoid answering questions and continued with talking points from her notes. There was lots of winking and references to Joe six pack but nothing substantial on how [...]
October 5th, 2008 | rp | Comments | ContinuedNokia 5800, Nokia’s first attempt at an iPhone competitor
Nokia has just launched the 5800 XpressMusic and it’s a lot like the iPhone. As Nokia’s first mass-market device with a touch screen, the 5800 is being positioned as a lifestyle device for music, just like Apple iPhone. The touch interface is designed to have shortcuts from the homescreen to menu items such as calendar, [...]
October 3rd, 2008 | rp | Comments | ContinuedUpdate-4 : House passes bailout plan, Bush signs the bill
Update:
10/03/08 - 4
The House has ok’d the revised bailout bill with a 263-171 vote. President Bush acted quickly and signed the bill providing his approval. The bill will provide money for banks to keep their payroll expenses going and allow them to lend money to each other. What it won’t fix is easy credit for [...]
OpenPandora - an open source handheld device!
The OpenPandora project is ready to ship the first batch of 3000 open source Pandora handheld devices starting the end of September 2008. The system will cost about $330 in the US and is for all practical purposes, a portable computer with game controls. The device boast an impressive spec, includes 3-D acceleration and a [...]
October 1st, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued
WiMAX goes live in Baltimore with Sprint
Sprint’s XOHM mobile broadband service, based on WiMAX technology, is now live and operational in Baltimore. According to Sprint, the 4G network will offer high-speed mobile Internet browsing, social-networking tools, location-centric services and multimedia including music, video and on-demand at download speeds of 2-4 Mbps. This is faster than data rates available on Sprint’s EVDO [...]
September 30th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued
It’s Wachovia now, Citi acquires banking assets
Wachovia is the next big bank to fall and it’s banking assets have been acquired by Citi. Under the terms of the agreement, Citi will pay Wachovia approximately $2.16 billion in stock and assume Wachovia’s senior and subordinated debt, totaling approximately $53 billion. This will create a U.S. retail bank with 9.8% U.S. market deposit [...]
September 29th, 2008 | rp | Comments | ContinuedGoogle G1 to get DRM-free music from Amazon’s Music Store
Amazon’s MP3 is preloaded as an application in T-Mobile’s G1, the first phone designed on Google’s Android platform. G1 users will be able to purchase DRM-free MP3’s from the store to listen on their phone.
The Amazon partnership is crucial for Google’s G1 to compete with the iPhone, which integrates very well with Apple’s iTunes store [...]
Armani and Samsung launch the NIGHT EFFECT
Samsung and Armani have launched the latest luxury mobile phone, the NIGHT LIFE. The two companies are working together as part of an alliance for creating designer portable and home consumer electronics. The goal: consumer devices with the aesthetic appeal of Giorgio Armani and the sophistication of Samsung technology.
The illuminating LED’s around the edge are [...]
Online advertising hit by wall street crisis
The financial meltdown is having a big impact on online image based advertising revenues. According to a study by the Neilsen group, financial services companies are hurting and cutting down on ad spending.
Compares to the first 2 quarters of 2007, financial services companies have spent 27% less in the first two quarters in 2008, a [...]
Bush administration proposes a $700 billion, tax payer funded, bail out
The Bush administration is trying to fix the recent financial meltdown by proposing a mammoth treasury bailout of unprecedented magnitude - $700 billion to buy bad assets using tax payer dollars.
The proposal has been submitted by the White house to lawmakers today, in a desperate attempt to address sliding investor confidence on the stability of [...]
September 20th, 2008 | rp | Comments | ContinuedBiggest bank bail out in decades
The fed is working on, what amounts to the biggest bail out for banks in over a decade. With AIG, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Washington Mutual all falling prey to their own practices and a panic stricken economy, the fed and treasury have come together with separate measures to help struggling banks.
The Treasury [...]
Yahoo search to webplay music
Yahoo has teamed up with RealNetworks to integrate music playback to it’s search results. Beginning today, users who search for an artist with available content on Yahoo! will be able to click & play music right in the Yahoo! shortcut at the top of the search results and instantly stream full-length songs by that artist [...]
September 18th, 2008 | rp | Comments | ContinuedGoogle Maps for Mobile has street views, walking directions
Google maps now offers street view on java powered and Blackberry mobile devices. Street View can be launched from any address and if Google has photos in their database from that location, maps will display the street view for the address. Street View can be overlaid on the map or in full screen and also [...]
September 18th, 2008 | rp | Comments | ContinuedSandisk tight lipped but Samsung sings
Sandisk issued a statement yesterday about rumors that Samsung may be acquiding the flash memory maker. It’s business as usual it seems
“SanDisk periodically has conversations with multiple parties, including Samsung, regarding a variety of potential business opportunities. We evaluate all of these opportunities, but maintain a policy of not commenting on market rumors or speculation.”
However, [...]
HP announces massive layoffs as EDS acquisition completes
As HP integrates it’s acquisition of EDS, the company has announced restructuring of it’s combined workforce. HP will shed approximately 7.5 percent! of it’s employees or about 24600 heads. About half of the reductions will occur in the United States. HP says it will provide employees affected by this restructuring program with severance packages, counseling [...]
September 16th, 2008 | rp | Comments | ContinuedIntel leapfrogs AMD with 6 core processor
Intel has announced it’s 6 core Xeon high performance processors based on it’s 45 nm process technology. The Intel® Xeon® Processor 7400 Series, code-named Dunnington, will support up to 6 cores with 16 MB of shared cache memory. The processors come in frequencies up to 2.66 GHz and power consumption as low as 50 watts. [...]
September 16th, 2008 | rp | Comments | ContinuedAmazon’s IMDB now lets you watch free movies!
Amazon’s IMDB has launched free online videos including popular TV shows and hollywood movies. Over 6,000 full-length feature films and TV episodes can now be watched free on IMDb.com.
The announcement also introduces an easy to upload service for folks who own rights for TV shows and videos using Amazon’s withoutabox service. Withoutabox is a division [...]
Update: Dow slips below 11000, Lehman Brothers files for Bankruptcy protection, Merrill bought by BOA
Update: The Dow Jones is down 500 points and closed below 11,000 erasing about $700 billion in shareholder wealth.
In a shocking turn of events over the weekend, financial firm Lehman brothers has filed for federal bankruptcy protection. The news comes within days of Lehman assuring Wall Street and investors of its survival, and putting itself [...]
Google invests in satellite broadband company
O3b Networks Ltd. has secured the backing of Google for it’s broadband satellite network. O3b Networks is building a new telecommunications infrastructure offering low-latency links from 1 Mbps to 10 Gbps for core trunking and 3G Cellular backhaul.
In telecommunications, backhaul refers to transporting traffic between distributed sites (typically access points like homes, schools, internet cafe’s [...]
Blackberry joins forces with Microsoft and TiVo
Research in Motion, the company behind the popular blackberry line of phones, has announced that it will be partnering with Microsoft and TiVo to further enhance it’s mobile services offerings. With the iPhone taking the smartphone market by storm, RIM is rumored to be working on it’s iPhone competitor, a touch screen Blackberry. Meanwhile it’s [...]
September 12th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued
Mobile game trial company Mpowerplayer raises $2.5 million series A
Mpowerplayer, the mobile game trial and merchandising solutions company for the wireless industry, announced today that it has secured $2.5 million in Series A funding. The round includes investments from New Atlantic Ventures, the Center for Innovative Technology GAP Fund, and LaunchBox Digital.
The company is aiming at casual gamers through game trials using widget based [...]
Sun enters virtualization market with xVM portfolio
Sun Microsystems today released it’s xVM portfolio offering just in time for VMworld 2008 to be held in Las Vegas from September 15th - 18th.
The xVM portfolio includes xVM Ops center, xVM server, xVM Virtual Box and xVM VDI, a comprehensive software offering for server, desktop virtualization and remote management of virtualized infrastructure.
xVM Ops Center [...]
September 10th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued
Google puts competition to shame in online video usage
comScore, a leading digital analytics company, today released latest numbers for online video usage. The results? Well Google is leading the pack and is putting the rest of the competition to shame. In the month of July, Americans viewed more than 11.4 billion videos for a total duration of 558 million hours.
Google Sites once again [...]
Blackberry introduces first Flip phone!
Research in Motion has just announced the first Blackberry flip phone, the Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220. The 8220 smartphone will be available from wireless carriers around the world beginning this fall. In the US, the Pearl Flip will be available exclusively from T-Mobile beginning this fall.
RIM did not reveal pricing for the 8220 and said [...]
Apple refreshes iPod line, prepares for holiday season
Today, Apple refreshed it’s iPod product line with the introduction of the new 4th generation iPod Nano. The 3rd generation Nano was met with much criticism for an un apple like design. The new Nano is sleek and is elongated in shape, much like the 2nd generation nano, a big hit among nano buyers.
Apple also [...]
September 9th, 2008 | rp | Comments | ContinuedGovernment takes control over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
Treasury secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. issued a statement today along with Jim Lockhart, Director of the new independent regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on providing Treasury and FHFA protection to the two government sponsored enterprise’s (GSE): Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
The announcement today is a contract between the Department of [...]
Coming to Wii: ‘Pirates vs Ninjas’ Dodgeball
So who would win in a fight: Pirates or Ninjas?
Now you have two ways of finding that out. The game ‘Pirates vs Ninjas Dodgeball’ is already released for XBOX Live Arcade on September 3, 2008. However, game maker Blazing Lizard and publisher Gamecock have promised a Wii version of the game for Q1, 2009. It [...]
Dell unveils Inspirion Mini UMPC: both Windows and Linux options!
Dell has finally unveiled it’s Ultra Mobile Personal Computer, the Inspirion Mini 9. Michael Dell was spotted carrying one of the early versions of the UMPC at the D-conference a few months back. The device is now official with Dell’s announcement today.
The Mini 9 is small and weighs just 2.28 lbs. It comes with a [...]
What’s Jerry’s plan for Yahoo? Stock at 5 year low!
Yahoo’s stock has been tanking ever since the Yahoo , Microsoft and Carl Icahn fiasco ended. Jerry emerged a victor and kept his post as CEO of Yahoo but shareholders seemed to have gotten the rough end of the stick here.
Yahoo’s stock sank down further today, down almost 6% to $17.75, that’s near 5 year [...]
Why Chrome and not a better Firefox?
Ever since Google’s Chrome web browser has been released, I cannot stop and wonder why Google choose to do it’s own browser versus enhancing Firefox, especially when it has backed the Mozilla foundation for quite sometime. According to wikipedia, the Google , Mozilla partnership contributes about 85% of the revenues for the Mozilla foundation.
The foundation [...]
Google announces Video for businesses, Picasa 3.0 beta released
Google has had a field day with press releases today. The headlines have been flush with news about the public beta of Google Chrome, the new open source web browser from Google. There’s more news from Google though. Today Goggle has also announced Google video for businesses and a beta release for Picasa 3.0.
Google Video [...]
Update: Google announces Chrome, a new web browser
Update: Download now live at http://www.google.com/chrome
Google’s blog revealed today that the company is about to launch a new web browser tomorrow in over a 100 countries. The browser, called Google Chrome, will be launched in public beta on Windows first. The browser will be made available for MacOS X and Linux in the future.
So why [...]
VP Choice: McCain’s horrible joke on America
Our “Country First” candidate, John McCain, has announced as his running mate for the Vice President of the United States of America, Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska. I can’t help but say that I am really hoping for a follow up “just kidding” statement but so far I have seen none.
It seems the republican campaign [...]
John McCain selects running mate as Gallup shows 8 pt Obama lead
In a surprise move, John McCain has selected Alaska governor Sarah Palin as running mate for the post of Vice President of the United States of America. The move clearly seems to be an attempt to woo feminist voters backing Hillary as Barack Obama accepted his nomination for the president of the United States at [...]
August 29th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued