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Treasury bolsters Citigroup with capital

The U.S. government on Sunday entered into an agreement with Citigroup to bolster the company with $20 billion in capital from the TARP pool. The treasury has also announced that it, along with FDIC, will provide protection against an asset pool of approximately $306 billion of loans and securities backed by residential and commercial real [...]

November 24th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued

Update: McCain concedes, Obama is the 44th President elect of the USA

Update - 3: McCain gives an emotional conceding speech in Phoenix and congratulates Obama as Obama crosses the 320 electoral votes mark
Update - 2: Florida goes to Obama. Landslide becomes closer to reality
McCain loses PA (now called by all major news organizations for Obama) and can’t hold OH either, sealing the deal for Obama. With [...]

November 4th, 2008 | supa | Comments | Continued
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Social gaming play, Playfish raises $17 mil series B

Social gaming play, Playfish, announced today that it has completed a new round of funding led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. The $17 million Series B investment will be used to grow Playfish. The company is betting on social games, which according to Playfish, has an important role in the future of the gaming [...]

October 28th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued

Still the “most popular” governor?

Despite McCain’s personal gaffe’s, his attempts to vilify Obama by taking things out of context, his campaign rallying divisive forces in the country to win an election and his erratic behavior during the financial crisis, it may be Sarah the Barracuda that may ultimately cost him the presidency. Senator McCain choose Sarah Palin without much [...]

October 25th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued

5 Ways You Might be Helping McCain Win

As historic as this election has been,  it is not November 5th yet. In fact, the race is just heating up and if previous Presidential  elections are any guide, the Republican Party is going to get as negative as humanly possible in the final 10 days. Just today, RNC sent out fliers that invoke 9/11 [...]

October 22nd, 2008 | supa | Comments | Continued

Powell endorses Obama: financial crisis, the final exam; McCain appears fickle, Obama a steady hand

General Colin Powell, the secretary of state for the Bush Administration from 2001 - 2005, today confirmed his endorsement for Barack Obama as the next president of the United States of America.
Powell felt that the recent financial crisis was the final exam that he was looking at for the two candidates. According to the former [...]

October 19th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued

Obama unveils middle class economic rescue plan

The Obama-Biden ticket unveiled an economic stimulus plan for the American middle class today at an economic policy address in Toledo, Ohio. Highlights of the plan for the common man include

A New American Jobs Tax Credit. Obama is calling for a temporary tax credit for firms that create new jobs in the United States over [...]

October 13th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued

National Debt clock overflows, needs more digits!

The US national debt clock has overflown the digits as the country’s debt has reached $10 trillion. The one and the dollar sign had to be squeezed into the same square. The clock also display’s the amount owed by each citizen of the US, which as of last week stood at $86,017.
The national debt clock [...]

October 13th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued
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Blackberry Storm: first RIM touchphone with iphone like multi-touch

Research in Motion has announced the Storm, the first Blackberry smartphone with a touch interface. With the Storm, RIM now officialy has an iPhone competitor. The new phone will make it much more difficult for Apple to enter the enterprise market as the Storm is a worthy competitor and has the advantage of the Blackberry [...]

October 9th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued
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AMD reorgs, spins off chip manufacturing

Advanced Micro Devices has announced a reorganization of it’s operations. The manufacturing plants that produce all it’s processors will be spun off as a separate company.
AMD has been going through troubling times as it’s acquisition of ATI has yet to result in synergistic products that can give it an edge over its competitors. Also, AMD’s [...]

October 9th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued

Obama launches http://www.keatingeconomics.com/

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 | Continued
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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 | Continued

Nokia 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 | Continued

Update-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 [...]

October 3rd, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued
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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
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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
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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 | Continued

Google 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 [...]

September 27th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued
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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 [...]

September 22nd, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued

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 [...]

September 21st, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued

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 | Continued

Biggest 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 [...]

September 19th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued
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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 | Continued

Google 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 | Continued

Sandisk 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, [...]

September 17th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued
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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 | Continued

Market Meltdown: Jim Cramer looses it in a financial armageddon prophecy!

Well! See Jim Cramer go nuts over the state of the financial markets. This is before Bear Sterns goes under and all the mayhem breaks loose on wall street. You got to appreciate his passion.

September 16th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued

Intel 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 | Continued

Amazon’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 [...]

September 15th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued

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 [...]

September 15th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued

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 [...]

September 14th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued

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
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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 [...]

September 11th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued
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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
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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 [...]

September 10th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued
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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 [...]

September 9th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued