Monthly Archives: March 2009
LG X120 Netbook Hitting Japan, Europe And 20 Other Countries Within 2 Months
The LG X120 was first showcased during the past CES. Although there is no word when the netbook will be available in retail, but the company did confirm that it will be available in Japan by the end of the month. Within another month, the netbook will be introduced in Europe and 20 other countries. We’re hoping that the U.S. will be one of those fortunate countries.
[via Engadget]
Categories LG Electronics, LG X120
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Home Of Wikileaks.de Domain Owner Raided By Police
Wikileaks is a website that publishes sensitive government information and religious documents. Wikileaks tries to keep the contributors anonymous. The last time I wrote about Wikileaks was when Bill O’Reilly’s website was hacked. Within one year of Wikileak’s launch in 2006, the database has grown to over 1.2 million documents.
According to the organization’s About page, Wikileaks’ “primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations.”
Some of the documents that have leaked on Wikileaks includes Guantánamo Bay procedures, the hacking of Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! account, and 600 internal United Nations reports.
According to the Wikileaks Twitter account, the police has raided the home of the Wikileaks.de domain owner over censorship lists. Check back on the post for an update on what the consequences of the raid will be.
Categories Wikileaks.org
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Sanwa’s Throat Microphone Looks Funny, But Is Supposed To Be Crystal Clear
Japanese company Sanwa Supply creates electronic devices that enhances the experiences for digital music players, mobile phones, and game consoles. One of the company’s latest inventions is the Sanwa throat microphone. This microphone was modeled after the microphones used by the military.
No details on pricing and availability yet. Check this post for later updates.
[via Akihabara]
Categories Sanwa Supply
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Bang and Olufsen Introduces The 103″ BeoVision 4 TV
Bang and Olufsen is a manufacturing company that puts together audio systems, TVs, speakers, phones, etc. B&O’s latest TV is groundbreaking. The BeoVision 4-103 stands proudly at 103″. The TV uses a Panasonic TH-103PF9 panel. It weighs about 500 kilos and has a motorized stand.
The TV’s resolution is about 1920×1080 pixels. The sound system that comes with the TV is a B&O BeoSystem 3. The TV uses VisionClear technology. This technology automatically adjusts the colors and brightness of the picture.
The TV can be ordered right now and will become officially available in July 2009. The cost of the TV is about $134,850.
[via FlatPanelsHD.com]
Categories B&O, Bang and Olufsen, BeoVision 4-103
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Sony Ericsson U.S. Head Najmi Jarwala Steps Down Amid Heavy Losses
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications announced earlier this week that Najmi Jarwala is stepping down. Jarwala was the President of Sony Ericsson USA and the Head of Region North America. He has stepped down to “pursue other opportunities.” Jarwala worked at Sony for three years.
“It has been an incredibly rewarding time for me and we have achieved a lot together in North America,” stated Jarwala. “We have introduced an increasing number of new products, grown market share, built operator relationships and, perhaps most importantly, have laid the foundation for North America to play a key role in the long term growth and success of Sony Ericsson. I have been privileged to have led a team of passionate, creative and innovative people at Sony Ericsson and I wish them every success.”
Jarwala will be replaced by Anders Runevad starting April 1. Runevad is the Executive Vice President of Sony Ericsson and the Head of Global Sales & Marketing.
Categories Anders Runevad, Ericsson Inc., Najmi Jarwala, Sony Corporation, Sony Ericsson
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Steve Ballmer On Apple: “$500 More To Get A Logo On It”
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once again reflected upon what he thinks of the cost of Apple hardware. Back in January 2007, Steve Ballmer laughed off the iPhone and then started talking about the Microsoft strategy.
“Right now we’re selling millions and millions and millions of phone a year, Apple is selling zero phones a year. In six months they’ll have the most expensive phone by far ever in the marketplace and… let’s see.. you know… what’s the expression? Let’s see how the competition goes,” stated Ballmer in 2007. Today Apple has sold over 30 million iPhones and iPod Touch units.
At the McGraw-Hill Media Summit New York conference this past Thursday, Ballmer was interviewed over a webcast by BusinessWeek’s Stephen Adler. Ballmer offered a reason why Mac sales dropped about 16% in February. The stats were put together by NPD Group.
“The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment — same piece of hardware — paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that’s a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be,” stated Ballmer.
I agree with Ballmer to a certain extent. Low cost netbooks seem to be selling by the millions right now and people are not as willing to buy Macs. Right now Apple has enough money to charge as much as they want for Macs. When iPhones and iPod Touch sales slow down, then maybe it would make sense to lower the cost of Macs. As long as the prices stay high, the people that are willing to pay a premium will do so. When they want to lower their standards to a lower income demographic, they will do so.
Acer Aspire One 11.6″ Reaches About 8 Hour Battery Life
Acer is in the process of launching a new kind of netbook. This is quite a bit different from previous models as it has a longer battery life. This netbook has a slimline casing, an 11.6″ 16:9 display, and a 1366×768 resolution. The netbook has an Intel Atom z530 processor and a Poulsbo chipset. The graphics are GMA500.
Other features include ethernet and a VGA port. The Aspire One netbook has about an 8 hour advanced battery runtime. The standard battery itself hits about 4 hours. This is believed to be the netbook that recently passed through an FCC test.
[via SlashGear]
Categories Acer, Acer Aspire One
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Why ExecTweets Is Lame
Microsoft, Federated Media, and Twitter have partnered on a website that I think is a pretty lame concept here. The concept is that Twitter aggregates tweets from business executives and puts it on the homepage of this website. The service is called ExecTweets. Some of the technology executives who they track include Sam Decker, Craig Newmark, Jeffrey Hayzlett, Padmasree Warrior, etc.
Twitter gave the site their blessing and accepted the site to use their logo. There is a revenue sharing partnership between Federated Media and Twitter for this website.
Personally I think that this service is a terrible idea. This experience takes away from the whole Twitter environment. What makes Twitter so great is that you can choose to follow people that have similar interests as you or is the exact opposite as you. Regardless you customize your experiences but in the ExecTweet world, everything is preset.
That is the same reason why I did not like AllTop initially. It is just a bunch of RSS feeds that was preset based on what Guy Kawasaki thinks should belong there. The user cannot customize anything. Ask anyone at the big 3 search engine companies and they can tell you that everyone wants their homepage customizable.
Some people are claiming that through this website “Twitter has found a business model.” Clearly a revenue sharing agreement isn’t a revenue model because they are not utilizing their entire user base. They’re just allowing themselves to receive money from a website that anyone could recreate and not share money with them. Want an example of a site that aggregates users from Twitter and doesn’t give the company royalties? Kevin Roses’ WeFollow.com.
Categories ExecTweets.com, Federated Media, Microsoft Corporation, Twitter
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Redpoint Ventures Announces The Hiring Of Zimbra Co-Founder Satish Dharmaraj
Satish Dharmaraj is the founder of corporate e-mail software company Zimbra. Yahoo! acquired the company for $350 million in 2007. With that kind of money it does not come to any surprise that Dharmaraj would join a VC firm. Redpoint Ventures has announced that they have hired Dharmaraj as a partner of the company.
After many executives leave a company, they move on to a new venture or become an entrepreneur-in-residence at a VC firm, but Dharmaraj decided to become a direct employee. Satish left Yahoo! this past January. Some other Yahoo! alumni executives that joined VC firms include David Goldberg, Jeff Weiner, and Andrew Braccia. Weiner now is the President of LinkedIn.
Currently Zimbra has over 20 million paid users. Comcast helped Zimbra’s user base grow tremendously.
Some of the companies that Redpoint invested in includes Scribd, SocialVibe, Adap.tv, Entertonement, and Oodle.
[via BoomTown]
Categories Redpoint Ventures, Satish Dharmaraj, Yahoo!, Zimbra
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Jennifer Aniston Breaks Up With John Mayer Because He Ignored Her & Used Twitter Too Much
John Mayer is one of the most popular Twitter users. The singer has well over 300,000 followers on Twitter and writes some of the most entertaining “tweets.” Mayer also has several popular clips on Will Ferrell’s Funny Or Die website. Basically Mayer’s social media footprint is massive, but now its coming at a cost: his girlfriend Jennifer Aniston.
Jennifer Aniston is one today’s sexiest actresses according to many publications. She has starred in hit TV series Friends and acted in popular movies such as Marley & Me, Rumor Has It, Along Came Polly, Bruce Almighty, and Office Space. But apparently she has a thing against using Twitter too much.
Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer have reportedly ended their relationship because John Mayer enjoyed using Twitter too much. “John suddenly stopped calling her or returning her emails and when she would finally catch up with him, he’d say: ‘I’ve been so busy with work. I’m sorry I haven’t had time to call you back,” stated a source with the Telegraph. “Jen was fuming. There he was, telling her he didn’t have time for her and yet his page was filled with Twitter updates.
The source added “Every few hours, sometimes minutes, he’d update with some stupid line. And in her mind, she was like ‘He has time for all this Twittering, but he can’t send me a text, an email, make a call?’”
Mayer supposedly did not deny avoiding her. When Aniston decided to end the relationship he just simply agreed and said he was sorry that the relationship did not work out. Basically he took the break-up like a man.
Did Mayer react to the break-up on Twitter? You betcha. He wrote “My six word story: “‘This heart didn’t come with instructions.’”
Categories Jennifer Aniston, John Mayer, Twitter
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