Expensive Thing

World's Most Expensive Wines

2010-10-28T02:58:00.001-07:00

Wine & Food Feature
World's Most Expensive Wines
Nick Passmore


	Click here for the slide show.

When an enterprising young man named James Christie opened his sales rooms in London in December 1766, his first auction consisted of the estate of a "deceased nobleman" containing "a large Quantity of Madeira and high Flavour'd Claret." The records don't relate how much these delightfully described "high Flavour'd clarets" fetched but as the whole sale realized a grand total £175, it is a sure bet that if Christie had known that two hundred years later, in 1985, his now famous auction house would sell one bottle of wine for £105,000, or $160,000, he might have held back a bottle or two to enrich his future heirs.

This bottle was a Bordeaux, a 1787 Chateau Lafite, and, according to The Guinness Book of World Records, 18 years later it still is the world's most expensive bottle of wine. Its great age alone would have ensured a good price but what gave it its special cachet, especially to American collectors, and ensured the record price tag were the initials Th.J. etched in the glass.

The bottle had belonged to Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States and one of the most revered of its founding fathers. A philosopher, scientist and statesmen, the aristocratic Jefferson was also an avid oenophile. When he was ambassador to France he spent much of his time visiting the vineyards of Bordeaux and Burgundy, buying wine for his own collection and on behalf of his friends back home. He is also associated with two other bottles of very pricy wine, a 1775 Sherry ($43,500) and the most expensive white wine ever sold, a 1787 Chateau d'Yquem ($56,588).

Of course none of these wines are actually drinkable now; it is unusual for even the best Bordeaux to last more than 50 years, and 200 years is beyond any wine's limit. The allure of these high-priced bottles of vinegar, and other wines of its ilk, is purely in the joy of collecting, not consuming. The 1787 Lafite was explicitly bought as a piece of Jefferson memorabilia, not as a bottle of wine, and it now resides in the Forbes Collection in New York. These wines are rather like old stamps, something to be collected, horded but never used, and they command such high prices not because of their utility but because of their scarcity and consequent appeal to collectors.

Compiling a list of the World's Most Expensive Bottles of Wine is not as simple as it might first appear. How do you compare the price paid for a double magnum--that's four bottles--to a single bottle? Do you rate them on the same scale or do you divide the price of the big bottle by four in order to determine its per-single bottle price?

So, rather than compiling a league table we determined 11 separate categories, then sought out the most expensive bottle in each category, and a pretty interesting search it turned out to be. One of the first things you'll notice is that all the wines on the list were sold at auction, because, except in rare occasions, the seller knows that the publicity surrounding a special bottle, and the heated atmosphere of competitive bidding, often results in even higher prices.

The world's most expensive bottle of wine that could actually be drunk today is also the most expensive wine ever sold in America, a Montrachet 1978 from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti that was hammered down at Sotheby's (nyse: BID - news - people ) in New York in 2001. The lot of seven bottles fetched $167,500, or $23,929 per bottle. This is an extraordinary price for a white wine, even in the rarified world of wine collecting. What happened was that two avid collectors were bidding against each other and got carried away, each refusing to yield as the price rose through the stratosphere.

Michael Broadbent, the former head of Christie's wine department, relates a similar story concerning the sale of the Jefferson Lafite. As the bidding approached £100,000 for this unique bottle, he changed bid steps, that is the amount the bids increased by. One of the two remaining bidders was Marvin Shanken, publisher of the Wine Spectator, and according to Broadbent, he didn't notice the change until, to his very obvious horror, he realized that he had just offered to pay £100,000 for one bottle of wine. As he sat there ashen faced a great hush fell over the packed auction room as everyone waited to see if the other bidder, Christopher Forbes, would come back in. He eventually did, at £105,000, much to Shanken's very palpable relief.

Then there is the strange case of the most expensive bottle of winenever sold. In 1989 William Sokolin, a New York wine merchant, had a bottle of Chateau Margaux 1787, also with Jefferson's initials, on consignment from its English owner. He was asking $500,000 for it but had had no cash offers when he took it along to a Chateau Margaux dinner at the Four Seasons restaurant. (Why would it cost so much more than the 1787 Lafite? It didn't cost more than the Lafite, just that Sokolin was asking $500,000. I don't think he expected to get this much and had had no offers by the time of the accident. However, just by asking such a huge sum he generated a lot of publicity, which some people speculate was the whole point of the exercise. He did however get $225,000 from the insurance company which he claims, with some justification, makes it the world's most expensive bottle, even if it was never sold. Besides everything else it's a fun story about a very expensive bottle however you rate it.)

At the end of the evening he was getting ready to leave when a waiter carrying a coffee tray bumped the bottle, breaking it. Luckily, Sokolin had the foresight to insure his valuable vin, and shared the $225,000 payout with the owner, which makes this the world's most expensivebroken bottle of wine. History does not tell us what happened to the unfortunate waiter.

What all these wines have in common, whether it's the undrinkable 1787 Lafite or the eminently drinkable 1945 Mouton, and what makes them command such astronomic prices, is their scarcity value.

The world seems to have an ever-increasing appetite for collecting unusual old things, be they baseball cards, 1950s Formica furniture or steam train memorabilia, and it's only natural that rare wines are subject to this same collecting mania.

Now, with more and more people discovering the pleasures of drinking wine, especially the newly rich of China and East Asia, the prices of all fine wines will continue to rise and it will only be a matter of time before Mr. Jefferson's bottle, and several others on our list, see their formally eye-popping prices surpassed as ever richer and ever more determined collectors compete for that one, must-have bottle of wine.

Top 5 Most Expensive Cars

2010-03-18T01:36:00.001-07:00

Top 5 Most Expensive Cars

Whom you think the most expensive car in the world? The 1931 Bugatti Royale Kellner which was sold for $8,700,000.Though, there are many coupe which are not be integrated in the listing as you cannot find it in the market today. It is generally difficult to learn about someone who is actually wan to spend 8 million dollars on a car. But, if someone has a good wealth with them self and seeking for an opportunity, then you wouldn't be uttering to expend a diminutive portion of it for theses supercars. Below are 5 most luxurious and exclusive cars in the market.

1. Bugatti Veyron – This is generally most expensive street legal car which one can easily acquire in the market today. The amount considered is $1,700,000 for this coupe. It state to be the fastest car with the top speed of 253 mph+.

2. Lamborghini Reventon – This is the second most expensive and influential car on the list and it's about $1,600,000. It holds the top speed of 211 mph.

3. McLaren F1 – It was the most expensive and fastest car in 1994. It has an incredible speed of 240 mph and varies of about $970,000.

4. Ferrari Enzo – This is one of the most famous cars. It is of about $670,000 and consist a top speed of 217. Only 400 units are formed and it is presently sold for over $1,000,000 at auctions.

5. Pagani Zonda C12 Fv – It is introduced by a diminutive autonomous company in Italy. It is the 5th fastest car in the world and varies about $667,321. It delivers a top speed of 215 mph+.

Intel says hackers attacked around time Google hit

2010-02-24T01:27:00.001-08:00

Intel says hackers attacked around time Google hit

A sign is shown at the entrance to the headquarters of Intel Corporation in Santa Clara, California February 2, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp said it faced a "sophisticated" hacker attack in January about the same time as the recently publicized Chinese hacker attacks on Google Inc but said there was no clear link between the two events.

"The only connection is timing," Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said, declining to elaborate. The company first publicized the attack and pointed out the similarity in timing to the move on Google in its annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mulloy added that hackers attempt to gain unauthorized access to Intel systems on a "very regular" basis.

Asked whether Intel had spoken or worked with Google on this issue, Mulloy said: "Our security folks work very closely and collaboratively throughout the industry."

A Google spokesman said the company would not comment on whether Intel was one of the roughly 20 unnamed companies that the world's No. 1 Internet search engine said had been similarly targeted in attacks that originated in China. The Wall Street Journal has said around 30 companies were attacked.

The attack was just one of what the world's largest chipmaker said were regular attempts on its computer systems, Intel said in the filing, under a heading about potential theft or misuse of the company's intellectual property.

Intel did not say who was behind the attacks, from where in the world they originated, or what information, if any, had been taken.

Intel shares were down 54 cents or 2.6 percent at $20.33 on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Ian Sherr, additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Gerald E. McCormick)

Samsung, Sony Ericsson roll out new smartphones

2010-02-15T20:09:00.001-08:00

Samsung, Sony Ericsson roll out new smartphones

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics and Sony Ericsson unveiled their new top smartphone models on Sunday, both hoping to improve their positions in the more lucrative part of the phone market.

Samsung, the world No 2 handset maker, unveiled its flagship smartphone model Wave -- using a new touch screen technology and the first phone to use its bada operating system.

"Samsung's commitment to Bada is underlined by the fact that it is using it to power its flagship product for the show but it's going to be an uphill struggle to get the developer community on board," said Ben Wood, research director at CCS Insight.

Earlier this month Samsung unveiled a plan to treble smartphone shipments in 2010 and promote its own bada software platform.

Analysts, however, have been doubtful of Samsung's efforts to belatedly build a new open platform. With limited volume, phones using bada will have difficulty attracting application developers or operator support.

"I think the ecosystem is just not ready yet," said analyst Carolina Milanesi from research firm Gartner.

Samsung said it plans to launch five to seven phone models using bada software in 2010.

GROWING MARKET

Samsung and Sony Ericsson have seen consumers seeking Web and other PC-like functions increasingly turning away from their feature phones to computer-like smartphones from top vendors Nokia , Apple and Research In Motion.

JK Shin, the head of Samsung's mobile operations, told Reuters in an interview that with the help of bada - which can be used also in cheaper models -- the company would benefit from surging demand for new smartphones in emerging markets.

"I believe that the smartphone market will grow more than 20 percent every year for a three-year time frame, and the growth rate in emerging markets is much higher than that of advanced countries," he said in an interview.

JK Shin said the company could make phones for Google's Nexus lineup in the future, but Sony Ericsson Chief Executive Bert Nordberg said the company had turned down an offer to make phones for Google.

"(We) will only sell phones under our own brand," Nordberg said.

SONY ERICSSON: HOPE FROM NEW MODELS

The world's fourth-largest phone maker Sony Ericsson, which has reported seven straight quarterly losses, unveiled three smartphone models, using Google's Android operating system in two of them, and Nokia's Symbian in one.

"Some of the obituaries that have been written on Sony Ericsson may be a little premature. There is no doubt the company still has challenges but these new products are a first step to help fuel a recovery," CCS's Wood said.

Sony Ericsson new mini smartphones remind consumers from last small models of Ericsson itself about a decade ago.

"I think the products are competitive and certainly encouraging. The user interface is pretty good and will help them over LG Electronics," said Gartner's Milanesi.

Sony Ericsson said it aims to return to profit as soon as possible. Analysts have said parent companies could be forced to put more money into the venture already during the first half.

"We firmly support Bert (Nordberg) and his leadership team," Sony's chief Howard Stringer told a news conference.

(Additional reporting by Nicola Leske and Niclas Mika; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Apple iPad Tablet (16GB, Wifi)

2010-01-31T18:24:00.001-08:00

Apple iPad Tablet (16GB, Wifi)

Technical Details

Full Capacitive Multitouch Tablet
1GHz Apple A4 Processor;
0.5" Thin; 1.5 Pounds; 9.7" IPS Display
16GB Flash Storage; Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR; Wifi 802.11n;
10 Hours of Battery Life, Over a Month of Standby

Product Details

Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
ASIN: B002C7481G
Date first available at Amazon.com: January 27, 2010

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Apple iPad: Revolutionary Device with Advanced Technology

A truly revolutionary device, the Apple iPad is perfect for your mobile computing lifestyle, including browsing the Web, reading and sending e-mail, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, and much more. It features a brilliant 9.7-inch, LED-backlit display with IPS technology that delivers crisp, clear images and consistent color and a highly precise, capacitive Multi-Touch display that's Amazingly accurate and responsive--whether you're scrolling Web pages or playing games.

Measuring just 0.5 inches thin and weighing a mere 1.5 pounds, the iPad is easy to carry and use anywhere. There's also a slight curve to the back. Which makes it easy to pick up and comfortable to hold. This version of the Apple iPad comes with 16 GB of internal flash memory and ultra-fast Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking.

The iPad runs almost all apps from the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone or iPod touch. And the iPad comes with 12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad, including Mail, Photos, Maps, Notes, and YouTube.

Reading and sending e-mail is on iPad's large screen and almost full-size "soft" keyboard. Import photos from a Mac, PC or digital camera, then see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad's elegant slideshows. Watch movies, TV shows and YouTube--all in HD.

The iPad syncs with iTunes just like the iPhone and iPod touch, using a standard Apple 30-pin to USB cable, so you can sync all of your contacts, photos, music, movies, TV shows, applications and more from your Mac or Windows-based PC. Other features include up to 10 hours of battery life, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR connectivity, and built-in speakers plus 3.5mm headphone jack.

Key Features

16 GB of internal flash memory
9.7 inch LED-backlit, display: The high-resolution, 9.7 inch LED-backlit, IPS display is remarkably crisp and vivid, making it perfect for web browsing, watching movies, or showing off photos. It's also been designed to work in any orientation--portrait or landscape.
Multi-Touch capabilities: The Multi-Touch screen on the iPad uses the same revolutionary technology that's in an iPhone. But for iPad, the technology has been completely reengineered for the larger surface, to make it extremely precise and responsive.
IPS (in-plane switching) display technology provides a wide, 178-degree viewing angle, enabling you to hold it almost any way you want and still get a brilliant picture with excellent color and contrast.
Powered by A4, Apple's next-generation system-on-a-chip: Designed by Apple, the new A4 chip provides exceptional processor and graphics performance along with long battery life of up to 10 hours. Apple's advanced chemistry and Adaptive Charging technology deliver up to 1,000 charge cycles without a significant decrease in battery capacity over a typical five-year lifespan.
Built-in Wireless-N Wi-Fi: With integrated 802.11n networking, the iPad can take advantage of the fastest Wi-Fi networks. And it will automatically locate available Wi-Fi networks, which you can easily join with a few simple taps.
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR enables you to connect to devices like wireless headphones or the Apple Wireless Keyboard.
Powerful, built-in speaker produces a full, rich sound, and the iPad also comes with a headphone jack and a built-in microphone.
30-pin dock connector on the bottom of the iPad allows you to dock and charge it. It also lets you connect to iPad accessories like the Camera Connection Kit or the Keyboard Dock.
Up to 10 hours battery life: To maximize battery life, Apple engineers took the same lithium polymer battery technology they developed for Apple's notebook computers and applied it to the iPad. As a result, you can use iPad for up to 10 hours while surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching videos, or listening to music.
Commitment to environmental design: Continuing Apple's dedication to designing and creating environmentally responsible products, each iPad enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and comes standard with energy-efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. iPad contains no brominated flame retardants and is completely PVC-free.

iPad Apps

iPad will work with almost all of the over 140,000 apps for the iPhone. That means popular apps for gaming, video, Amazon Kindle, cooking, photography -- whatever it is you're into -- are at your disposal.

The process for getting new apps is exactly the same: Just download them from the App Store and start using immediately. Or, if you already have apps for your iPhone or iPod touch, you can sync them to iPad from your Mac or PC. Then run them in their original size, or expand them to fill the screen. And developers are working on new apps designed specifically for this amazing device and all the things it can do.

The iPad also includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad:

Safari: The large Multi-Touch screen on iPad lets you see web pages as they were meant to be seen--one whole page at a time. And with iPad, navigating through the web has never been easier, or more intuitive.
Mail: In landscape, you get a split-screen view, showing both an opened e-mail and the messages in your Inbox. To see the opened e-mail by itself, you just turn iPad to portrait, and the e-mail automatically rotates and fills the screen.
iBooks: You'll be able to buy everything from classics to bestsellers from the built-in iBookstore. Once you've bought a book, it's displayed on your Bookshelf. To read it, all you have to do is tap on it and it opens up.
Photos: The new Photos app displays the photos in an album as though they were in a stack. Just tap or pinch to open the stack, and the whole album opens up. Then you can flip through your pictures, zoom in or out, or watch a slideshow.
Video: The large, high-resolution screen makes iPad perfect for watching any kind of video: from HD movies and TV shows, to podcasts and music videos. You can also easily move between wide-screen and full-screen with a double-tap.
YouTube: The YouTube app organizes videos so they're really easy to see and navigate. To watch one, you just tap it. When you're watching in landscape, the video will automatically play in full screen.
iPod: With the iPod app, all your music is literally at your fingertips. You can browse by album, song, artist, or genre, with a simple flick. To play a song, just tap it, and the now playing screen will show the album art at full size.
iTunes: Just tap on the iTunes Store icon, and you can browse and buy music, TV shows, podcasts--or buy and rent movies--wirelessly, right from your iPad.
Maps: See more of the world with high-resolution Satellite and Street View images. You can even see topography with the new Terrain view. You can also search for a nearby business type (for example, "Restaurant") and then tap on that business to see directions.
Notes: With its expansive display and large, on-screen keyboard, iPad makes jotting down notes easy. In landscape mode, you get not only a note-taking page but also a list of all your notes.
Calendar: You can see an overview of a whole month, or the details of a single day with Calendar's Day, Week, Month or List views. iPad will even show multiple calendars at once, so you can manage work and family calendars at the same time.
Contacts: A new view lets you see both your complete contact list, and a single contact, simultaneously. Need directions? Just tap on an address inside a contact and it'll open Maps.
Spotlight Search: You can search across iPad, and all of its built-in apps including Mail, Contacts, Calendar, iPod, and Notes. It will even search apps you've downloaded from the App Store.
More apps: The iPad will run almost all of the apps designed for the iPhone. If you already have apps for your iPhone or iPod touch, you can sync them to iPad from your Mac or PC. Then you can run any of those apps in either their original size, or you can expand them to fill the screen.

What's in the Box
iPad, dock connector to USB cable, 10W power adapter, documentation
Storage Capacity

16 GB

Wireless Connectivity

Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Location Capabilities

Wi-Fi
Digital compass

Display

9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Processor

1 GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip

TV and Video

Support for 1024 x 768 with Dock Connector to VGA adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Composite A/V Cable, 576i and 480i with Apple Composite A/V Cable
H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

Audio Playback

Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
User-configurable maximum volume limit

Mail attachment support

Viewable document types: .jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel)

Battery and Power

Built-in 25Whr rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system

System Requirements

Mac: Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later
Windows: Windows 7, Windows Vista; Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3 or later

Apple pitches $499 iPad, takes on Amazon

2010-01-28T18:10:00.001-08:00

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs took the wraps off a sleek tablet that it called the iPad, pitching the new gadget at a surprisingly low price to bridge the gap between smartphones and laptops.

A buoyant Jobs took the stage at a packed theater on Wednesday to show off the 9.7-inch touchscreen tablet, which looks like a large iPhone, and to introduce a new iBook electronic reader service that will compete with Amazon.com Inc's Kindle.

The iPad is Apple's biggest bet on a new product since the iPhone three years ago, and seeks to tap an unproven market for tablets. Analysts, while impressed by the iPad's seamless functionality, also pointed out that consumers already have smartphones and laptops for their mobile computing needs.

Jobs described the iPad as a "third category" of devices, a do-everything media gadget that can surf the Web, and play movies and video games. He also left little doubt that Apple was going after the e-book market that Amazon had popularized.

"If there's going to be a third category of device, it's going to have to be better at these kinds of tasks than a laptop or a smartphone; otherwise it has no reason for being," said Jobs, who still appeared thin following his liver transplant last year.

"Now Amazon's done a great job of pioneering this functionality with their Kindle. And we're going to stand on their shoulders and go a bit further," he said.

Famous for his skills as a pitchman, Jobs, dressed in his trademark blue jeans and black turtleneck, created plenty of drama as he waited until late in the event to discuss the cost of the iPad, which analysts had expected to be up to $1,000.

Apple elected to price it for as little as $499 for 16 gigabytes of storage, starting in late March. An extra $130 is needed to equip the iPad with third-generation (3G) wireless capability. Higher-capacity models will sell for $599 and $699.

"Pricing is very aggressive, so it's pretty positive from a mass adoption perspective," said Brian Marshall, an analyst with Broadpoint Amtech.

Research group IDC said it expects Apple to ship 4 million iPad units in 2010, with about 2 million in the United States.

Shares of Apple rose to as high as $210.58 after the pricing news, up 5.5 percent from their session low. The stock closed up 0.94 percent at $207.88 on Nasdaq, within reach of its all-time high of $215.59 logged on Jan 5.

The half-inch thick, 1.5-pound iPad features Apple's own processor and 10 hours of battery life. It runs a version of the iPhone's operating system and can use virtually all of the 140,000 apps currently available for the smartphone.

"What once occupied half your living room can now be dropped in a bag," said Outsell Inc analyst Ned May. "It's pulling together a variety of needs (in) a universal entertainment device."

Apple announced a data plan deal with AT&T Inc, which appeared to have beaten out Verizon Wireless. AT&T will offer two monthly data plans for the iPad, a limited one for $14.99 and an unlimited one for $29.99.

IPHONE-LIKE ANTICIPATION

Other technology companies, including Microsoft Corp and Toshiba Corp, have launched tablets that failed to take off in recent years.

But analysts said they were impressed with the technology that Apple showed off. The iPad has a near life-size touch keyboard, and comes with all the expected features, including a calendar, an address book and maps.

"One thing Apple has proven is that they can consumerise new concepts, new technologies," said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a consulting firm. "That will probably be their claim to fame again with this."

However, some also mentioned potential cannibalization of other Apple products.

"If it's doing all these things and does it better than a notebook then they'd have to tell me why I'd want a MacBook," said NPD analyst Steve Baker.

Some industry watchers said the iPad, with its multimedia bells and whistles, will be a tough competitor for Amazon's Kindle. The iBooks store will let users buy from publishers including Pearson Plc's Penguin, News Corp's HarperCollins, and Hachette Book Group.

But other analysts noted that the Kindle costs less -- $259 for the cheapest version -- and was more tailored for long-form reading, at least for now.

"This is not an e-reader -- this is a device that can be used to read books," Cowen & Co analyst James Friedland said of the iPad. "This doesn't change the game -- at the same time, Apple is a formidable competitor and our view is that over time, Apple and Amazon will emerge as the two largest players" in e-books.

Shares of Amazon took a brief hit but recovered to end 2.7 percent higher at $122.75 on Nasdaq.

In an online poll on reuters.com before Wednesday's media event, 37 percent of more than 1,000 respondents said they would pay $500-$699 for the tablet. Nearly 30 percent weren't interested, while 20 percent said they would pay $700-$899.

(Additional reporting by Edwin Chan, Poornima Gupta, Ian Sherr, Gina Keating, Sue Zeidler, Alex Dobuzinskis and Paul Thomasch; Editing by Richard Chang and Tiffany Wu)

Live Blogging the iPad Product Announcement

2010-01-27T12:42:00.001-08:00

Live Blogging the iPad Product Announcement

By BRAD STONE

Jim Wilson/The New York Times Apple chief executive, Steve Jobs, unveils the iPad.

Over and Out

We're done with the live blog. Check back on Bits later for our impressions after touching the iPad, as well as more analysis of its implications.

What's Missing

Expectations were very high for this device. Some missing features that many people were expecting:

No ability to play Adobe Flash animations, widely used on the Web.
No camera, still or video
No non-Internet phone function
Unclear whether you can bundle your AT&T iPhone plan with an iPad data plan
No removable battery for a device that can suck a lot of power
No removable storage

David Carr: 'The Soul of the New Machine'

From my colleague David Carr:

Over and over, the meme is, "Hold the Internet in your hands." It's a seductive idea, and the promise it contains will be a nice way to draw people in. The video right now is getting into hardware, letting you see into the soul of the new machine. The guts of it are meant to render the gadget invisible, making it a frame around hardware and apps.

Mr. Jobs' Conclusion: It's 'Magical'

After a promotional video, Mr. Jobs is ready to sum things up.

"Do we have what it takes to establish a third category of products?" he says. "The bar is pretty high. It has to be far better at doing some key things. We think we have the goods."

More than 75 million people already know how to use the iPad, Mr. Jobs says — these are the owners of iPhones and iPod Touches. And there are more than 125 million customer accounts with credit cards, all enabled for one-click shopping on iTunes, the App Store and the new iBook store. "We are at scale, and we are ready for the iPad," Mr. Jobs says.

Mr. Jobs' summation: "Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price." Leave no hyperbole behind, apparently.

We are off to play with this thing in the demo room next door. Stay tuned.

David F. Gallagher/The New York Times Accessories for the iPad include a keyboard dock.

Accessories

Mr. Jobs is talking about accessories.

There's a dock, of course, to let you turn the iPad into a nice picture frame or video viewer.

There's also a physical keyboard dock — it charges the iPad and also makes it more functional for typing. "Just keep one of these in your den, and when you have to write 'War and Peace,' just plug your iPad into it," Mr. Jobs says.

Available in 60 Days

The first iPads will ship in 60 days, with 3G models taking another month.

Price Ranges From $499 to $829

And now: price.

"When we set out to develop the iPad, we not only had specific technical goals and user interface goals, but an aggressive price goal, because we want to put this in the hands of a lot of people," Mr. Jobs says.

Mr. Jobs says Apple has met its cost goals: The iPad's pricing starts at $499. (Which means, at the very least, there is little reason to buy the much more limited Amazon Kindle DX.)

For $499, you get 16 GB of storage, with WiFi built-in. For $599, you get 32 GB of storage. For $699, you get 64 GB of storage.

The 3G models cost an extra $130 each.

So all told, there are six models of the new iPad. The most eexpensive 64 GB model, with 3G, costs $829 plus the monthly charge.

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

3G Connectivity for a Price

There will be models with 3G wireless connectivity.

There will be two 3G plans for iPad owners. The first one, for up to 250 MB of data a month, will cost $14.99 per month. For unlimited data, its $29.99 a month.

"We have a breakthrough deal with AT&T, who is providing the service," Mr. Jobs says. No Verizon Wireless, it appears.

He says iPad owners will also get free access to AT&T hotspots. Let's all hope that AT&T solves its network issues before this thing hits it.

No contract — you can cancel the plan anytime you want.

International wireless deals will be coming by June. All the iPad 3G models are unlocked, and use the new GSM micro-SIMs, so it will be easy to put iPads on those networks.

David F. Gallagher/The New York Times Phil Schiller demonstrates Keynote, a PowerPoint-like app that will run on the iPad.

The iWork suite

Now Mr. Jobs is talking about iWork on the iPad, and Phil Schiller, Apple's chief marketing executive, is on stage to talk about it.

There's a new version of Keynote, Apple's presentation software, and Pages, its word processor, and Numbers, its spreadsheet creator, all tailored to a gesture-based input device. All of Apple's productivity software looks workable on the iPad — I'm just not sure why people would want to do this kind of work on a keyboard-less device.

The iBooks App

David F. Gallagher/The New York Times The iBooks bookstore

Mr. Jobs has put an Amazon.com Kindle on the stage and says Amazon has done a great job of pioneering that. "But we are going to stand on their shoulders and go a bit farther."

He's showing a new app, called iBooks.

This is significant for the publishing industry: Apple is going to try to control the e-book experience itself. A new iBooks store is integrated with the iBooks app, allowing people to discover and purchase

Five of the largest publishers — Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette — are supporting the app. No mention of Random House, yet. But that's probably just a matter of time.

The iBooks store looks neat — plenty of colors, vivid book covers. Mr. Jobs is showing "True Compass" by Edward Kennedy, a book that was not available in the Kindle store for weeks after its release.

Changing pages, zooming to the table of contents, color, video, is very easy, Mr. Jobs says.

Needless to say, Apple and Amazon are on a collision course. Media (books, music, video) constitute half of Amazon's revenues, and it won't go down without a fight.

Apple uses the ePub format, the most popular open book format in the world. It's unclear what digital rights management they are using and whether these books will be transferable to other devices that support ePub, like the Barnes & Noble and Sony e-readers.

A Few Observations from David Carr

From my colleague David Carr:

You get the feeling that the iPad is creating and killing categories at the same time. It is a remarkably ambitious project in terms of all the things — photos, games, video and e-mail — that it is attempting to grab market share in.

One of the weird things about the presentation is how it is really all about the software. The gadget itself is transparent, a window into software. There is really only a single mechanical button on the device, the "on" button. The rest is all fingers interacting directly with software.

The scaling of the landscape has significant implications. Seems like it is living up to the hype, or at least coming close.

"Isn't this awesome?" Jobs says. It is, but everything looks good on stage. Nothing ages faster than the future when you get it in your hands.

David F. Gallagher/The New York Times A demo of the tablet version of the Brushes app.

Brushes App for Artists

Brushes allows people to tinker with photos and illustrations, zoom in to images, change colors, add to images and make their own.

"Imagine an artist with a canvas this large," says Mr. Forstall, retaking the stage and introducing game giant Electronic Arts.

The New York Times on the iPad

David F. Gallagher/The New York Times

Next up: us, The New York Times. We'll try not to be too self referential here.

Our colleague Martin Nisenholtz is taking the stage now. Three weeks ago, The Times came to Cupertino, Calif., to develop an application for the iPad, Mr. Nisenholtz says. "We want to create the best of print and best of digital, all rolled up into one," he says.

"We think we captured the essence of reading a newspaper," says Jennifer Brook, another Times colleague.

The app allows people to save stories to the device, resize text and change the number of columns, skim photos and play video. It appears to look quite a bit like the Times Reader application. "It's everything you love about the paper, everything you love about the Web and everything you expect from The Times," Ms. Brook says.

David F. Gallagher/The New York Times

Third-Party Apps

To talk about third party software, Mr. Jobs introduces senior vice president Scott Forstall. The iPad will run "virtually every one" of the apps for the iPhone "virtually unmodified," he says.

The iPhone apps can run in a black box in the middle of the screen or, by doubling the pixels — and I presume losing some resolution — fill the screen.

Games are "incredibly smooth," Mr. Forstall says, demonstrating that Mr. Jobs' capacity for hyperbole is one of Apple's cultural traits.

He also notes developers can modify their apps to take advantage of the large touch-screen display, just as Apple did with its calendar, iTunes, e-mail and YouTube apps. The iPhone SDK, a set of programming tools for developers, will be enhanced to support development of the iPad, and the new SDK will be released today.

"We think its going to be a whole other gold rush for developers as they build apps for the iPad," Mr. Forstall says.

Mark Hickey from Gameloft, a game developer, is now demonstrating Nova, their shoot-em-up, on the iPad.

10-Hour Battery Life

"We been able to achieve 10 hours of battery life" Mr. Jobs says. "I can take a flight from San Francisco to Tokyo and watch video the whole way."

He says the iPad also has more than a month of standby battery capacity. You can leave it alone, and find it still with some charge when you come back in a few weeks.

My colleague Mr. Carr notes that there's a long history of power hyperbole in all categories of gadgets.

Kimberly White/Reuters

The Specifications

And now we're going to dive into the specifications. Half an inch thin. Weighs 1.5 pounds. 9.7-inch IPS display — super high quality, great angle of views, Mr. Jobs says.

Full capacitive multi-touch screen, same as the iPhone — "super responsive, super precise," he says.

The iPad is powered by Apple's own custom silicon, he says — a 1 GHz A4 chip,, 16 GB of memory, 32 or 64 Gigabytes of storage.

There's Wi-Fi, 802.11n, and the latest Bluetooth. (Apparently no 3G wireless, notes my colleague John Markoff.) Accelerometer, compass, speaker, microphone.

Video on the iPad

Jim Wilson/The New York Times Video on the Apple iPad.

Mr. Jobs is demonstrating the movie "Star Trek" on the tablet.

I wonder, will people really want to hold this device, other than on an airplane, while they watch TV and movies? However, the tablet might be the perfect breakfast table companion. You can control it with one hand and don't have to fiddle with a keyboard.

"Watching is nothing like getting one in your hands," Mr. Jobs said.

My colleague David Carr notes that Mr. Jobs is doing little bit of cross-promotion, showing off Pixar's "Up" movie.

David F. Gallagher/The New York Times

Colors are crisp

Some early impressions from looking at the device on stage: It appears to have only one physical button, looks exceedingly light and thin, and the screen has great crisp colors. Mr. Jobs is now demonstrating the device's e-mail and photo capabilities.

Mr. Jobs is now demonstrating the music capabilities of the iPad. Album artwork displays along with songs. However, you ain't strapping this thing to your shorts as you work out.

As he demonstrates the tablet's calendar, I'm thinking that we have yet to see any significant differences between the iPad and the iPod Touch, other than its size.

Mr. Jobs is now showing the maps app. Apple is still using Google Maps, Silicon Valley watchers. Maps includdes a nice integration with Google Earth and Street View. So you can shift from a bird's-eye view of that sushi restaurant you are looking for to a crisp view of its front door.

Browsing the Web on the iPad!

Mr. Jobs is giving an overview: it's very thin, with customizable background images. "You can browse the Web with it. It's the best browsing experience you've ever had."

I'm cutting out all of Mr. Jobs's "phenomenals" and "amazings" and "incredibles," folks. Just assume they are there.

The iPad works in both landscape and portrait mode, like the iPhone. It has a virtual keyboard, access to photo collections, direct access to iTunes' surfeit of content.

"It's awesome to watch TV shows and movies," Mr. Jobs says. "It's so much more intimate than a laptop and it's so much more capable than a smartphone with its gorgeous screen."

He's now displaying the New York Times site, NYTimes.com. If he shows the Bits blog, the space-time continuum may rip. Oh, jeez, he just showed the Technology page, which has Bits on it. I just saw my own name on the screen. Audience is chuckling as they see our tech headlines.

He's now going to Time magazine, thank God. "Did you see what's going on today?" he quips as the audience looks at Time's tech headlines. "A whole Web site in the palm of your hands."

David F. Gallagher/The New York Times

The New iPad Looks Like a Big iPhone

All of us use laptops and smartphones now. The question has arisen lately: is there room for a third category of device in the middle?

The new device will have to be far better than the laptop and smartphone at doing important things: browsing the Web, doing e-mail, enjoying and sharing photographs, watching videos, enjoying your music collection, playing games, reading e-books. Otherwise, "it has no reason for being."

Apple's answer: the iPad.

It looks like, well, a big iPhone, pretty much as anticipated.

Apple is a Mobile Device Company

Mr. Jobs says there are 284 retail stores. At the online App Store, there are more than 140,000 applications, which have been downloaded a total of 3 billion times.

Apple is now a $50-billion-a-year company, Mr. Jobs crows. The revenue comes from iPod, iPhone and of course Mac sales — a majority of which are laptops. All are mobile devices. "Apple is a mobile devices company. This is what we do," he says. He calls Apple the number one mobile devices company in the world.

Now let's get the main event, he says.

David F. Gallagher/The New York Times

Steve Jobs Appears

Update | 1:03 p.m. Apple's chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, has taken the stage. He looks disturbingly thin, much as as he did when he took the same stage in September to introduce new iPods. But there's a sparkle in his eye and a smile on his face as he gets a big standing ovation.

"We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary product," he says. But first, there are some updates: a few weeks ago Apple sold its 250 millionth iPod.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Workers apply the Apple logo to the exterior of the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco.

The Event Begins

The lights are darkening here at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The Wi-Fi is unstable, endangering the tweeting and blogging of hundreds of journalists.

After remaining mum during more than two years of rumors and thousands of speculative articles and blog posts, Apple is finally ready to unveil its "latest creation" on Wednesday at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco.

All signs point to the introduction of a tablet computer. Analysts and high-tech companies have long thought that such a device, at the right price and with the right technology and connections to content, could establish a new category of computing and change how people consume media. It could also bring further disruptive changes (some positive) to all sorts of industries. But tablets have flopped before. On Wednesday we'll see if the Apple tablet is a game-changer.

I'll be chronicling the morning's events here as they happen, with contributions from John Markoff, veteran technology reporter, and David Carr, the Times's media columnist. We'd like to hear any and all questions from readers and will try to answer them in our coverage.

Steve Jobs is expected on stage at 10 a.m. local time, 1 p.m. New York time, so watch this space for updates.

Walk Away From Your Mortgage!

2010-01-07T22:57:00.001-08:00

The Way We Live Now

Walk Away From Your Mortgage!

By ROGER LOWENSTEIN

Published: January 7, 2010

Source : http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazine/10FOB-wwln-t.html?em

John Courson, president and C.E.O. of the Mortgage Bankers Association, recently told The Wall Street Journal that homeowners who default on their mortgages should think about the "message" they will send to "their family and their kids and their friends." Courson was implying that homeowners — record numbers of whom continue to default — have a responsibility to make good. He wasn't referring to the people who have no choice, who can't afford their payments. He was speaking about the rising number of folks who are voluntarily choosing not to pay.

Source: First American CoreLogic, November 2009

Human Empire

Such voluntary defaults are a new phenomenon. Time was, Americans would do anything to pay their mortgage — forgo a new car or a vacation, even put a younger family member to work. But the housing collapse left 10.7 million families owing more than their homes are worth. So some of them are making a calculated decision to hang onto their money and let their homes go. Is this irresponsible?

Businesses — in particular Wall Street banks — make such calculations routinely. Morgan Stanley recently decided to stop making payments on five San Francisco office buildings. A Morgan Stanley fund purchased the buildings at the height of the boom, and their value has plunged. Nobody has said Morgan Stanley is immoral — perhaps because no one assumed it was moral to begin with. But the average American, as if sprung from some Franklinesque mythology, is supposed to honor his debts, or so says the mortgage industry as well as government officials. Former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. declared that "any homeowner who can afford his mortgage payment but chooses to walk away from an underwater property is simply a speculator — and one who is not honoring his obligation." (Paulson presumably was not so censorious of speculation during his 32-year career at Goldman Sachs.)

The moral suasion has continued under President Obama, who has urged that homeowners follow the "responsible" course. Indeed, HUD-approved housing counselors are supposed to counsel people against foreclosure. In many cases, this means counseling people to throw away money. Brent White, a University of Arizona law professor, notes that a family who bought a three-bedroom home in Salinas, Calif., at the market top in 2006, with no down payment (then a common-enough occurrence), could theoretically have to wait 60 years to recover their equity. On the other hand, if they walked, they could rent a similar house for a pittance of their monthly mortgage.

There are two reasons why so-called strategic defaults have been considered antisocial and perhaps amoral. One is that foreclosures depress the neighborhood and drive down prices. But in a market society, since when are people responsible for the economic effects of their actions? Every oil speculator helps to drive up gasoline prices. Every hedge fund that speculated against a bank by purchasing credit-default swaps on its bonds signaled skepticism about the bank's creditworthiness and helped to make it more costly for the bank to borrow, and thus to issue loans. We are all economic pinballs, insensibly colliding for better or worse.

The other reason is that default (supposedly) debases the character of the borrower. Once, perhaps, when bankers held onto mortgages for 30 years, they occupied a moral high ground. These days, lenders typically unload mortgages within days (or minutes). And not just in mortgage finance, but in virtually every realm of our transaction-obsessed society, the message is that enduring relationships count for less than the value put on assets for sale.

Think of private-equity firms that close a factory — essentially deciding that the company is worth more dead than alive. Or the New York Yankees and their World Series M.V.P. Hideki Matsui, who parted company as soon as the cheering stopped. Or money-losing hedge-fund managers: rather than try to earn back their investors' lost capital, they start new funds so they can rake in fresh incentives. Sam Zell, a billionaire, let the Tribune Company, which he had previously acquired, file for bankruptcy. Indeed, the owners of any company that defaults on bonds and chooses to let the company fail rather than invest more capital in it are practicing "strategic default." Banks signal their complicity with this ethos when they send new credit cards to people who failed to stay current on old ones.

Mortgage holders do sign a promissory note, which is a promise to pay. But the contract explicitly details the penalty for nonpayment — surrender of the property. The borrower isn't escaping the consequences; he is suffering them.

In some states, lenders also have recourse to the borrowers' unmortgaged assets, like their car and savings accounts. A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond found that defaults are lower in such states, apparently because lenders threaten the borrowers with judgments against their assets. But actual lawsuits are rare.

And given that nearly a quarter of mortgages are underwater, and that 10 percent of mortgages are delinquent, White, of the University of Arizona, is surprised that more people haven't walked. He thinks the desire to avoid shame is a factor, as are overblown fears of harm to credit ratings. Probably, homeowners also labor under a delusion that their homes will quickly return to value. White has argued that the government should stop perpetuating default "scare stories" and, indeed, should encourage borrowers to default when it's in their economic interest. This would correct a prevailing imbalance: homeowners operate under a "powerful moral constraint" while lenders are busily trying to maximize profits. More important, it might get the system unstuck. If lenders feared an avalanche of strategic defaults, they would have an incentive to renegotiate loan terms. In theory, this could produce a wave of loan modifications — the very goal the Treasury has been pursuing to end the crisis.

No one says defaulting on a contract is pretty or that, in a perfectly functioning society, defaults would be the rule. But to put the onus for restraint on ordinary homeowners seems rather strange. If the Mortgage Bankers Association is against defaults, its members, presumably the experts in such matters, might take better care not to lend people more than their homes are worth.

Roger Lowenstein, an outside director of the Sequoia Fund, is a contributing writer for the magazine. His book "The End of Wall Street" is coming out in April.

Advocacy groups urge FTC to bar Google-AdMob deal

2009-12-28T17:49:00.001-08:00

Advocacy groups urge FTC to bar Google-AdMob deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two advocacy groups asked U.S. antitrust regulators on Monday to block Google's purchase of AdMob, a provider of advertising services for mobile phones, on antitrust grounds and to address privacy issues raised by the deal.

Consumer Watchdog, a consumer advocacy organization, and the Center for Digital Democracy, an advocate of open access to the Internet, said in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission that the proposed deal would "substantially lessen competition in the increasingly important mobile advertising market."

The groups also said the deal created privacy concerns, which are not normally considered in antitrust analyses.

"Google amasses a gold mine of data by tracking consumers' behavior as they use its search engine and other online services. Combining this information with information collected by AdMob would give Google a massive amount of consumer data to exploit for its benefit," said the emailed letter, which was addressed to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.

Google, the No. 1 online search engine, has said that the FTC requested additional information about the $750 million deal last week. In the absence of a second request, U.S. antitrust regulators normally approve deals within 30 days.

If approved, Google's purchase of privately held AdMob would be its third most expensive purchase behind the $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick and the $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube.

Google said in an e-mail statement that it was certain that mobile advertising would remain competitive despite the deal.

"Google has a track record of providing strong privacy protections and tools, like the new Dashboard, for users to take control or opt out of data collection, and it will apply the same approach to privacy following this acquisition," it said in the statement.

Google generates the majority of its revenue, which totaled roughly $22 billion in 2008, by selling ads that appear alongside its Internet search results.

The FTC could not immediately confirm receipt of the letter.

Google has experienced increasing regulatory scrutiny as it has grown. The U.S. Department of Justice in September asked a New York court to reject Google's settlement with book publishers and authors groups that would allow the company to sell digital copies of some books.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Apple shares hit new high on tablet excitement

2009-12-27T19:37:00.001-08:00

Apple shares hit new high on tablet excitement

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc shares reached their all-time high on Thursday as excitement builds over the expected release of its tablet computer.

Although Apple has never acknowledged that a device exists, anticipation is peaking as the company enters the new year.

Option traders exchanged about 275,000 contracts in Apple, above its average daily turnover, as calls outpaced puts by nearly two to one, according to option analytics firm Trade Alert

"Investors are excited about an anticipated release of an Apple tablet," said William Lefkowitz, options strategist at brokerage firm vFinance Investments in New York.

"People are expecting this to be a product that would allow Apple to continue its tremendous growth. In addition, Apple stock hit a new high today and looks very strong on a technical basis," he said.

On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported on its blog that the company has rented a stage at a venue in San Francisco and will make a "major product announcement" on January 26.

The report, which cited people familiar with the plans, did not say whether Apple would introduce the tablet at the event. Apple has declined to comment.

The tablet could be a touch-screen device that resembles a larger iPhone or iPod touch, and could cost anywhere from $500 to $1,000, analysts have said.

There is a 50 percent chance that Apple will announce the tablet in January, with a shipping date by the end of March, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in a research note on Wednesday.

The tablet could be released in late March or April, Oppenheimer & Co analyst Yair Reiner said earlier this month.

Although most analysts have not included the tablet in their financial estimates, many expect it to be significant for Apple, complementing its portfolio of iPhones, Mac computers and iPods.

Reiner said the device could add 25 cents to 38 cents to Apple's earnings per share.

The median price target on Apple is $242.50, roughly 16 percent higher than its closing share price on Thursday.

Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple rose as high as $209.35, passing their previous all-time high of $208.71, before closing up 3.4 percent at $209.04 on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway in San Francisco and Doris Frankel in Chicago; Editing by Derek Caney and Robert MacMillan)

Microsoft loses Word appeal, will adjust program

2009-12-22T22:10:00.001-08:00

Microsoft loses Word appeal, will adjust program

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it will tweak its Word application to remove a feature judged to be a breach of patent, ensuring that it will be able to continue selling one of its most widely used programs.

The world's largest software company made the announcement shortly after a U.S. court of appeals upheld a $290 million jury verdict against it for infringing a patent held by a small Canadian software firm.

The court also affirmed an injunction that prevents Microsoft from selling versions of its Word program which contain the offending software, set to take effect January 11, 2010. Older versions of Word are not affected.

Microsoft said it is taking steps to remove the feature from Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 put on sale from that date.

The disputed patent feature relates to the use of XML, or extensible markup language, used for manipulating text, in the 2007 versions of Word. Microsoft described it on Tuesday as a "little-used feature".

However, Microsoft did not rule out further appeals.

"While we are moving quickly to address the injunction issue, we are also considering our legal options," said Kevin Kutz, a Microsoft spokesman. He said that could include a request for a rehearing by a full panel of judges at the appeals court, or a request for a review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

I4i, the Toronto-based software company which owns the infringed patent, welcomed Tuesday's ruling.

"I4i is especially pleased with the court's decision to uphold the injunction, an important step in protecting the property rights of small inventors," said Michel Vulpe, founder and co-inventor of i4i, in a statement.

END OF CASE IN SIGHT

The ruling -- by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which handles many patent and trademark cases -- may signal the end-game of a long-running dispute between Microsoft and Toronto-based i4i Ltd.

On August 12, a jury in a federal U.S. district court in Texas ruled in favor of i4i against Microsoft, for infringing the XML patent in the 2003 and 2007 versions of Word.

The jury slapped more than $290 million in damages on Microsoft and the court granted i4i's motion for an injunction preventing Microsoft from selling versions of Word that contain the disputed patent technology.

That injunction was stayed while Microsoft appealed the case with the Court of Appeals, but will now go into effect on January 11.

Microsoft shares were up 0.9 percent at $30.79 on Nasdaq.

The case is: i4i Limited Partnership and Infrastructures for Information Inc v. Microsoft Corp, an appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in case no. 07-CV-113.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby, editing by Matthew Lewis and Gerald E. McCormick)

Google investing for growth in display ads

2009-12-15T22:04:00.001-08:00

Google investing for growth in display ads

SAN FRANCISCO

Tue Dec 15, 2009 3:23pm EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc executives said the company experienced very strong growth in its display advertising business in the first three quarters of the year and it will continue to invest heavily in advertising initiatives involving online video and mobile Web devices.

Speaking to investors and analysts during a webcast on Tuesday, the Internet search giant outlined the various elements of its efforts to increase its ad revenue from display ads such as graphical images, videos and interactive Web animations.

Google's Tom Pickett, director of online sales and operations, said the company sold out 90 percent of the ad inventory for the homepage of YouTube, Google's video website, in the third quarter.

Google, the world's No. 1 Internet search engine, did not provide financial updates for the current quarter.

Google has made a number of recent acquisitions to bolster its business selling display ads as it supplements its revenue from the text ads that appear alongside its search results.

The company bought ad serving company DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in 2008. Last month, Google announced plans to pay $750 million to acquire AdMob, which makes technology to serve ads in the applications popular on smartphones like Apple Inc's iPhone.

Google does not disclose how much of its revenue, which totaled about $22 billion in 2008, comes from display ads.

Executives said on Tuesday that efforts to convince large, brand advertisers to spend money on online display campaigns were gaining momentum. And new Google products, such as a tool that allows advertisers to create their own display ads, were enticing smaller advertisers to experiment with display ad campaigns.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic, editing by Maureen Bavdek)

Top Paying Google Adsense Keywords (Channels) 2009

2009-02-10T04:27:00.001-08:00

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Cars Didn’t Cause the Crisis

2009-01-11T18:42:00.001-08:00

DODGE CHALLENGER A time traveler from the '70s

By LAWRENCE ULRICH

Published: December 25, 2008

WITH car sales at a crawl in 2008, and worse numbers projected for 2009, the auto industry is a depressing place. It's worse for the domestic companies, whose leaders should have driven to Washington in the Joads' Dust Bowl truck to plead their poverty case.

Yet the cars themselves are solid, if only people had the cash, credit and confidence to buy them. And while the overnight shift from trucks to cars caught everyone by surprise, the industry has no choice but to dance with the cars that brought them, at least until new faces arrive.

Ford was taken to task in some quarters for rolling out a redesigned Ford F-150 pickup. Yet even in this slumping, truck-averse market, the F-150 remained America's best-selling car or truck, as it's been for 27 years. Calling it quits would make as much sense as Apple pulling the plug on the iPod.

To me, that disconnect between the auto companies' balance sheets and the products they sell is the No. 1 thing that many citizens — and Washington politicians — don't grasp about the industry. Making bad cars eventually catches up with any automaker. But for more than a century, some companies have made good, great, even revolutionary cars without necessarily being successful in business.

Certainly, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have too many deadbeat brands and models. But while G.M.'s financial cupboard may be bare, its product cupboard spilled out more critically lauded models than any other company this year, import or domestic.

Here are my favorite vehicles of the year:

1. BMW 1 SERIES Coupe or convertible, I'd kill to put the 128i or 135i in my own garage. It outhustles the larger 3 Series and costs at least $4,000 less.

2. HONDA FIT I've owned economy cars that made me want to stash them behind a Dumpster. The Fit, in contrast, makes a virtue of cheapness. It's the roomiest, best-handling car in its class and gets 35 m.p.g. on the highway.

3. G.M.'S GIANT SLAYERS I'm referring to the Corvette ZR1, Cadillac CTS-V and Pontiac G8. The 205-m.p.h. ZR1 (638 horsepower), CTS-V (556 horses) and Pontiac G8 GT (361) deserve a three-peat mention. All of them can hang with, or beat, snooty European models with bigger names and much bigger price tags. All three put the lie to the notion that G.M. cannot build a world-class machine that doesn't have a hound dog in the back.

4. MERCEDES-BENZ GL320 BLUETEC The Mercedes M-Class diesel is terrific, but the larger GL may benefit even more from the Bluetec clean-diesel technology. This royal-plush S.U.V. gets 23 m.p.g. on the highway.

5. DODGE CHALLENGER If you never got the pony car you asked for in the '70s, hop into the reborn Challenger. The Dodge, whose three engines max out with a 425-horsepower Hemi V-8, is as fast and extroverted as you'd expect.

6. LAMBORGHINI GALLARDO LP560-4 Lamborghini fixed everything that was wrong with the previous Gallardo — hair-trigger brakes, balky transmission — and amped up everything that was right: the future-classic styling, superb all-wheel-drive performance and a 560-horsepower V-10 served under glass.

7. TOYOTA VENZA Toyota knows more about the American family than Oprah, so it's not surprising that its Venza — a Camry-based tall-wagon thingy — is an ideal family conveyance: Enormous inside, effortless to drive and easy on gas. What's surprising from this conservative automaker is the Venza's daringly different styling.

8. BMW X6 With apologies to my colleagues, some auto reactionaries just don't get it. They say the X6 is ugly. But pretty women reacted to the tall, swoopy design as though Justin Timberlake were inside, so I'll stick with that. The BMW isn't supposed to seat six or be socially defensible. It's supposed to be the Ferrari of S.U.V.'s, and its game-changing performance unseats the Porsche Cayenne as the class benchmark. Only a Hooveresque economy is keeping this Bimmer from being a smash with the style-first, cost-who-cares crowd.

9. NISSAN 370Z The Nissan GT-R has been gobbling up auto awards this year, so I'd rather extol this other Nissan sports car, which costs half as much. Starting at $30,000, the 332-horsepower Z is stronger, swifter and more solid than the departing model, and it looks terrific. If there's a sweeter two-seater for less than $40,000, I haven't driven it.

10. DODGE RAM Conventional wisdom flatters the Ford F-150. But the Ford doesn't satisfy my truck jones as the Ram does. The Dodge looks badder and it rides and handles better. And its available 390-horse Hemi V-8 thumps anything from Ford or Chevy.

Didn't Make the Cut

1. AUDI A4 I'm supposed to love the new A4, which is so techno, so tasteful, so German. So what's the problem? Perhaps it's my sense that Audi has forgotten what the A4 was about: a luxury car that opened its doors to younger, less elite buyers. The new A4 feels overwrought, oversized and overpriced.

2. HYUNDAI GENESIS The Genesis is roomy and well-built and delivers a fat roster of luxury features for around $35,000. In this economy, that may be smart. Yet luxury is also about desire. And it's hard to desire a car that, from its generic grille to its copycat cabin, seems more like cold data than a hot date.

3. INFINITI EX35 My wife adored the EX35, which she correctly assessed was not a crossover at all, but the world's most expensive hatchback. The EX is fast, deluxe and overflowing with gizmos, but I don't see why anyone wouldn't want its sibling, the awesome G37 sedan, instead.

4. FORD FLEX Well packaged and as quiet as most luxury crossovers, the Flex puts the final nail in the Explorer's coffin. The styling grabs attention; now if only the V-6 powertrain were on par with the rest of the package.

How to Become a Blogger

2009-01-05T22:10:00.001-08:00

One of the biggest changes to come with the evolution of new media has been the proliferation of blogs and bloggers. As blogs on seemingly every conceivable topic have been launched, media outlets began publishing more and more of them. Now established media outlets -- magazines, newspapers, TV stations, etc. -- are hiring bloggers and launching blogs.

The Evolution of the Media Blog

In the media world we've seen major papers like The New York Times start pushing editors and writers to write blogs; many are ongoing and some, like the current blog about the presidential primary race, The Caucus, are tied to a topic of interest at the moment. We've also seen the sprouting of immensely popular independent blogs like Gawker, The Huffington Post and The Drudge Report. (Those three are just a few examples, as the number of popular blogs is way too lengthy to list.) Magazines like New York have also expanded into the blogosphere, launching, as the Times, blogs on topics that are regularly covered in the magazine. New York has, for example, blogs like Vulture (about entertainment) and Grub Street (about food).

While many of the blogs launched by papers like The Times and magazines like New York rely on staff editors for their content, the expansion of the blogosphere has created a crop of new jobs in the media world. And, as more and more content migrates to the web, companies are increasingly looking to hire people to blog and write original online stories.

So What Do Bloggers Do?

Bloggers, in many ways, are a cross between reporters and op-ed columnists. What largely distinguishes blogging from regular reporting is that bloggers are often citing information second-hand -- the amount of original reporting bloggers do varies -- and they are injecting more opinion into their pieces, or posts. Bloggers are, more often than not, pulling original reporting from other sources and then commenting on it. (This site, for example, features a blog about media careers on its homepage. And, on that blog, I'm culling stories and information about the media world, from other sources, and commenting on it.)

How much a blog is identified by the author's opinions differs. Some bloggers -- Matt Drudge is an example -- have made a name for themselves by publishing their opinions. Other bloggers take a less opinionated approach to the content.

Why You Should Pay Attention to Blogs and Blogging

The interesting thing about blogs, especially for young media professionals coming up in the business, is that many of them have provided people on the outside of the media world a way in. Not only are there stories about bloggers who've gotten book deals from tinkering online -- former Washingtonienne blogger Jessica Cutler is an example -- there are others who got attention for their work and parlayed it into jobs at more established magazines and newspapers. (New York Magazine, which now employs two former Gawker editors, did an interesting piece awhile ago about some of the New York bloggers making names for themselves. The article highlights how some people got their writing noticed by launching an insightful, well-written blog.)

How to Get a Job as A Blogger

In many respects, it can be easier these days to get a job blogging at many companies. As stated above, media companies are expanding their online presence and many are looking to bring on writers and reporters to run blogs. Like finding other media jobs, look on the job boards for full-time positions in the field. Also, to get experience blogging, either start your own blog, or look for unpaid work as a blogger. Just as clips are needed to land editorial jobs, blog posts from your own site (or someone else's) will probably be necessary for landing a job blogging for a company.

Tutorial Membuat Blog Dengan Blogspot

2009-01-04T02:03:00.000-08:00

Tutorial Dasar Cara Membuat Blog

Trend mode blog sebagai sebuah alat komunikasi dan media opini sangat digandrungi.
Tidak hanya sebagai sarana katarsis diri. Blog juga kadang dijadikan sebuah sarana
komersil, dan tempat berbisnis. Hal ini tentu tak lepas dari internet yang merupakan
gudang data dan basisnya world wide.

Ada banyak jasa web yang menyediakan layanan blog gratis. Diantaranya wordpress,
blogspot, blogsome, dan masih banyak lagi yang lainnya. Akan tetapi tutorial ini lebih
memilih layanan blogspot dikarenakan beberapa sebab;
1. Merupakan anak perusahaan Google, salah satu perusahaan jasa di internet
yang kuat, sehingga selama Google masih ada data blog kita akan aman.
2. Free template yang banyak, banyak sekali web template designer baik yang
professional maupun freelance yang menyediakan templatenya untuk didownload
secara free.
3. HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) yang terbuka, memungkinkan untuk
merombak layout sesuai kehendak dan selera kita, bahkan dengan pengetahuan
HTML yang pas-pasan.

Mungkin itu tiga diantara masih banyak lagi fasilitas yang disediakan Blogspot.
Untuk membuat atau mendapatkan satu account blog di blogger kita memerlukan sebuah
e-mail. Jika anda belum punya, sebaiknya anda membuat terlebih dahulu sebuah email.
Ketika e-mail sudah tersedia maka buka web browser anda (Internet Explorer, Mozilla
Firefox, Opera, etc) dan buka laman http://www.blogger.com anda akan menemui
tampilan seperti gambar dibawah ini.Tampak laman http://www.blogger.com/start

Untuk memulai membuat account di blogger anda tinggal mengklik tanda panah yang
bertuliskan create your blog now anda akan dibawa ke laman selanjutnya.

Di halaman ini anda akan ditanyakan beberapa pertanyaan diantaranya :
Email address : Isi dengan alamat lengkap email anda (nantinya akan
digunakan untuk login)
Retype Email Address : Tulis ulang alamat email anda
Enter a Password : Isi dengan password yang anda kehendaki (minimal
delapan karakter dapat berupa gabungan antara angka dan
huruf)
Retype Password : Tulis ulang password yang anda kehendaki.
Display Name : Tulis nama yang anda kehendaki (akan ditampilkan
dibawah postingan anda).
Word Verification : Tulis huruf yang tampil pada gambar di dalam kotak yang
disediakan.
Acceptance of Term : Check list kotak kecil yang ada untuk menandakan anda
setuju dengan persyaratan dalam penggunaan layanan jasa
blog dari blogger.
Ketika anda sudah melakukan semua langkah diatas maka anda dapat melanjutkan
pendaftaran ke langkah selanjutnya dengan mengklik gambar panah yang bertuliskan
continue.

Langkah Selanjutnya, Halaman pengisian data email, password dan sebagainya.

Pada halaman ini anda diharuskan menamai blog anda;
Blog tittle : Isi dengan nama yang dikehendaki (akan tampil pada
header halaman blog anda)
Blog address URL : Isi dengan nama yang anda kehendaki, usahakan nama
tersebut pendek dan gampang diingat agar mudah
disebarkan dan dibuka oleh pengunjung halaman anda.
Untuk mengecek apakah alamat yang anda inginkan
tersedia anda dapat mengklik link check availability.
Apabila alamat tersebut tidak tersedia maka akan muncul
kalimat this blog address is not available dan jika alamat
blog tersebut tersedia dapat dipastikan seperti screenshot
pada gambar di bawah ini dan anda dapat melanjutkan
proses pendaftaran ke langkah selanjut dengan mengklik
tanda panah bertuliskan continue.
Langkah Selanjutnya, Penamaan blog.
Keterangan, bila alamat blog tersedia maka akan terlihat kalimat berwarna hijau
bertuliskan the blog address is available

Pada langkah ini anda akan diminta untuk memilih template yang tersedia terlebih dahulu
sebagai prasyarat. Anda dapat menggantinya nanti atau memodifikasinya dengan
template gratis yang sesuai dengan selera anda. Pilih salah satu dan click tanda panah
yang bertuliskan continue.
Selamat blog pertama atau kesekian milik anda sudah berhasil dibuat. Sebagaimana
gambar dibawah, langkah terakhir yang akan membuat blog anda menjadi benar benar
blog adalah posting. Istilah yang digunakan para blogger ketika memasukan artikel ke
dalam blog. Klik kembali tanda panah bertuliskan continue untuk terakhir kalinya.
Langkah Selanjutnya, Memilih template pada pilihan yang tersedia.
Selamat , jika anda melihat halaman ini, itu menandakan blog anda sudah berhasil dibuat!.

Pada halaman ini anda akan disuguhkan sebuah kolom untuk memasukan posting dengan
format yang sangat simple yaitu apa yang anda lihat adalah apa yang tampak pada
halaman blog anda. Seperti posting pertama yang anda lihat pada gambar diatas
“Postingan Pertama” ingat selalu untuk melabelkan postingan anda untuk
memudahkan pengunjung. Disini saya memberikan label iseng, internet, browsing
pisahkan label dengan memberi tanda koma - , - diantaranya. Lalu untuk mempercantik
posting kita akan memasukan gambar dengan mengklik tombol panorama pada toolbar
atas, dan akan keluar kotak dialog seperti gambar dibawah ini.

Ketika anda melihat kotak dialog tersebut pastikan photo atau gambar yang akan anda
masukan sudah tersedia. Lalu klik browse dan akan keluar kotak dialog untuk
Posting, kotak yang disediakan untuk menulis atau memasukan artikel.
Kotak Dialog , kotak dialog yang muncul ketika mengklik tombol panorama.

mengarahkan pada photo atau gambar yang anda kehendaki. Seperti pada gambar
dibawah ini.

Anda sudah memilih gambar yang anda kehendaki klik open dan tanda ketika anda
berhasil mengarahkan gambar anda adalah adanya link di kolom browse. Seperti pada
gambar dibawah ini.

Selanjutnya anda tinggal memilih letak yang anda inginkan, none untuk mengatur
letaknya sendiri, left untuk letak pada sisi kiri, center untuk ditengah, right untuk letak
sisi kanan. Dalam hal ini saya menggunakan letak tengah. Selain itu anda juga harus
mengatur besar gambar, small untuk mengubah ukuran gambar menjadi kecil, medium
untuk mengubah ukuran gambar menjadi sedang, dan large untuk mengubah gambar
menjadi besar atau sesuai aslinya. Ketika pertama kali menaruh gambar diblog anda
diharuskan mencheck list persetujuan tentang hak cipta gambar, bahwa gambar itu
Kotak dialog, yang muncul ketika mengklik tombol browse langsung pilih gambar dan klik open. .
Upload Image, ketika link sudah siap check list di kolom persetujuan dan klik upload image.

adalah milik anda jika tidak, tetap check list tanda tersebut dan pada akhir postingan
sebutkan keterangan sumber gambar. Setelah anda menchecklist langsung klik tombol
bertuliskan upload image untuk memasukan gambar, tunggu beberapa saat sesuai
dengan size atau ukuran gambar anda, semakin besar size atau ukuran gambar anda
semakin lama pula proses memasukan gambar.

Tanda anda berhasil memasukan gambar adalah seperti gambar diatas yang anda harus
lakukan hanyalah mengklik tombol done. Maka gambar anda akan masuk ke dalam
kolom postingan sesuai setingan anda. Seperti gambar dibawah ini.
Upload Image. Kotak dialog yang muncul ketika proses penguploadan berhasil. Klik done untuk
melanjutkan proses posting..
Upload Image, Gambar yang muncul akan sesuai dengan setingan yang telah kita pilih.

Ketika semua langkah posting telah selesai yang anda harus lakukan hanyalah mengklik
tombol publish post. Anda juga dapat melihat previewnya terlebih dahulu dengan
mengklik tombol preview di pojok kanan atas, dan apabila anda telah menekan publish
post anda akan disuguhkan laman pemberitahuan postingan anda telah berhasil di
publish atau dipublikasikan.

Sekarang anda tinggal melihat bagaimana blog anda yang baru, ada baiknya jika anda
mengklik in a new window supaya jika terjadi kesalahan pada posting anda bisa
langsung mengeditnya dengan cepat. Atau jika anda ingin membuat posting baru anda
tinggal mengklik link create a new post. Nah seperti inilah blog yang tadi dibuat.

Blog telah berhasil di buat, yang perlu diingat adalah username dan password tentu
saja. Sekarang ketika anda sudah mempunya account tentu saja langkah untuk
melakukan posting akan berbeda.
Publish, halaman yang muncul ketika proses postingan kita telah berhasil di publish.
Blog, tampilan blog yang telah jadi, .

Anda tidak lagi mengklik tanda panah akan tetapi cukup dengan menuliskan email dan
password anda pada kolom yang disediakan, letaknya ada di sebelah kanan laman, anda
akan dibawa ke laman lain yang bernama dashboard.

Yang anda lakukan untuk memposting hanyalah mengklik tombol new post dan anda
akan dibawa ke halaman posting seperti yang telah kita bahas sebelumnya.
“Sangat mudah untuk membuat blog, akan tetapi mampukan anda merawatnya!”
Maintain, tampilan dashboard untuk merawat blog anda.

All the Social Networks, Together on Your Smartphone

2008-12-19T05:08:00.000-08:00

All the Social Networks, Together on Your Smartphone

By BOB TEDESCHI

Published: December 3, 2008

For most people, a quick glance at Facebook, Twitter or MySpace is enough to get up to speed on one’s social circle. So why would you need to haul yourself to a computer just to do that?

Helio Connect sends updates from Facebook and other social networks.

All Cellphone Coverage

You don’t. As long as you’ve got the right phone.

Cellular networks, in their endless quest to make the phone the center of the information-gathering universe, are making it easier to retrieve updates from online social networks. And some are going to the extreme of bundling all the big sites on one screen, as if to create one giant social hub. (MyTwitBook, anyone?)

The trend is being advanced by Helio, the niche cellular network that made a name for itself as a carrier of cool phones and services and was purchased this year by Virgin Mobile USA. Virgin Mobile said it would announce on Thursday a new service, Helio Connect, which delivers updates from MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube on a single page. The service, which eats up part of your mobile data allowance unless you’re on an unlimited plan, will be introduced to Virgin Mobile’s users early next year. In the meantime, Helio users will have a leg up on other social-networking aficionados.

From the Connect application, which will appear on the home screen of Helio’s mobile Web browser starting Thursday, users can enter their Facebook and Twitter account information, for instance, and give Helio permission to save that information and pull updates from the sites.

Entering text was easy using a Helio Ocean ($129 after rebates), a fairly slick but older phone scheduled for an update next year. From there, each time I opened Connect, the service offered up two pull-down menus — one to choose a social network, the other to choose which kinds of updates I might like to see.

This in itself is not such a revolution for people with smartphones like the iPhone on AT&T, the G1 from T-Mobile or the Rant from Sprint, which offer applications dedicated to Facebook or MySpace. Those services are great if your social networking tends to revolve around one or two services, but for a growing number of people, that’s not the case.

On those other phones, you need to head to the Web browser to check other services, or try to download another social networking hub (which we’ll get to in a moment). But on Helio’s Connect service, you need log on only once and all of your updates will appear on the same screen, in chronological order.

The service was not problem-free, at least in its trial stage last week. At least once, the phone’s screen froze, and I had to pull the battery from the Ocean to restart the device. (Helio could not explain the glitch.)

The only other drawback to the service is that it exists only on Helio, at least at the moment. Helio piggybacks on Sprint’s network, so you’ll want to check that carrier’s coverage map to see if that would work for you. Helio also offers a meager selection of phones (four, to be exact), and has been slow to release new ones.

The fact that Virgin Mobile, a prepay-only carrier, will also offer Connect next month is a boon to those who hate usage contracts. Virgin has not yet said what it will charge users for Connect, but a Virgin-specific social network now costs 15 cents a day, and Connect’s charges could be in that range.

For those who want to stick with their existing carriers, there is an alternative to Connect, but there will be a fee. Intercasting, a San Diego-based company, offers its Anthem mobile hub for social network fans on Verizon, Sprint and AT&T. On Verizon, the service is called SocialLife, and it costs $1.50 monthly. On AT&T, it is called My Communities, costing $3 a month, and on Sprint it goes by the name Social Zone, for $3. (T-Mobile is testing the service on a handful of devices; pricing is not yet set.)

As with Helio Connect, this service gives mobile users a quick way to check for updates on their favorite social networks, as long as these users are among the few people who are not on Facebook. The company says it is working toward adding Facebook, but in the meantime, subscribers will have to satisfy themselves with updates from MySpace, Asian Ave, Xanga and nine other services.

There are few differences among the services across the various carriers, an Intercasting spokeswoman said. But the Anthem service is not available on all phones — and the list of phones is often the opposite of what you’d expect. On Sprint, for example, service is available on the Samsung Instinct and the Rant, but many other smartphones, including Blackberrys, are shut out, for now. Other so-called feature phones, however, can use it.

That’s strange, because smartphone users are the high-tech information addicts you’d expect to use Anthem most avidly. But Anthem has not released a version for the software platforms that power the current array of popular smartphones.

And speaking of exceptions, iPhone users also cannot use Anthem. Instead, subscribers can download Yahoo’s OneConnect application, which made its debut in September.

OneConnect is similar to Helio’s Connect service, in that iPhone users (and only iPhone users — the application is exclusive to Apple’s smartphone) get a single hub to view all the major social networks. Another interesting feature to come is OneConnect’s social-location ability: the company said it is working on a function that would import your contacts from each network and show you where they are on a map (assuming they subscribe to a location-based service). But that’s for another column.

Quick Calls

It hasn’t taken long for Google’s new voice-search application for the iPhone to generate competition. Vlingo, a voice-activation technology for mobile phones, released its own free iPhone application on Wednesday. With Vlingo, you can speak a Google search into the phone, but this application also lets you search Yahoo. You can also tell the phone to call one of your contacts, find an address or change your Twitter or Facebook status. ... Feel squeamish about completing financial transactions on your mobile phones? PayPal customers can now sign up to receive security codes, via text message, before they log into their accounts. The code is randomly generated for each use, and the service is free at paypal.com/securitykey. ... If you love (or hate) the food at that new pizza joint and want to share your feelings with the world, you can do it from your tableside. Citysearch.com has released a mobile application that makes it easier to upload reviews. The free application will also detect the type of phone you have and, the company says, offer pages tailored to that device.

E-mail: phonesmart@nytimes.com

Teori Kebutuhan

2008-09-23T21:15:00.001-07:00

Teori Kebutuhan

Nasrudin berbincang-bincang dengan hakim kota. Hakim kota, seperti umumnya cendekiawan masa itu, sering berpikir hanya dari satu sisi saja. Hakim memulai, "Seandainya saja, setiap orang mau mematuhi hukum dan etika…"

Nasrudin menukas, "Bukan manusia yang harus mematuhi hukum, tetapi justru hukum lah yang harus disesuaikan dengan kemanusiaan."

Hakim mencoba bertaktik, "Tapi coba kita lihat cendekiawan seperti Anda. Kalau Anda memiliki pilihan: kekayaan atau kebijaksanaan, mana yang akan dipilih?"

Nasrudin menjawab seketika, "Tentu, saya memilih kekayaan."

Hakim membalas sinis, "Memalukan! Anda adalah cendekiawan yang diakui masyarakat. Dan Anda memilih kekayaan daripada kebijaksanaan?"

Nasrudin balik bertanya, "Kalau pilihan Anda sendiri?"

Hakim menjawab tegas, "Tentu, saya memilih kebijaksanaan."

Dan Nasrudin menutup, "Terbukti, semua orang memilih untuk memperoleh apa yang belum dimilikinya."

(Dari Kisah Sufi: Nasruddin Hoja)

KEPEMIMPINAN ADALAH TANGGUNG JAWAB

2008-09-17T00:35:00.000-07:00

Kepemimpinan bukanlah masalah peringkat, hak istimewa, gelar, atau uang. Kepemimpinan adalah tanggung jawab.

Terlepas dari keragaman yang nyaris tanpa batas dengan menghormati kepribadian, gaya, kemauan, dan minat, pemimpin efektif bertingkah laku sangat mirip seperti ini:
a--Mereka tidak memulai dengan pertanyaan, "Apa yang saya inginkan?" Mereka memulai dengan bertanya, "Apa yang perlu saya lakukan?"
b--Kemudian mereka bertanya, "Apa yang dapat dan harus saya lakukan untuk membuat perbedaan?" Hal ini harus merupakan sesuatu yang perlu dilakukan sekaligus sesuai dengan kekuatan sang pemimpin dan gayanya yang paling efektif.
c--Mereka selalu bertanya, "Apa misi dan sasaran organisasi? Apa yang membentuk kinerja dan hasil dalam organisasi ini?"
d--Mereka sangat mentoleransi keragaman orang-orang dan tidak mencari jiplakan yang sama dengan diri mereka sendiri. Bahkan jarang sekali mereka bertanya, "Apakah saya menyukai orang ini atau tidak?" Namun, mereka sepenuhnya, dengan keras, tidak bertoleransi jika hal itu menyangkut kinerja, standar, dan nilai yang dianut seseorang.
e--Mereka tidak takut akan kekuatan rekan-rekan mereka. Mereka bangga akan kekuatan itu. Entah mereka pernah mendengarnya atau tidak, moto mereka adalah semua hal yang ingin dicantumkan oleh Andrew Carnegie di atas batu nisannya: "Di sini terbaring seseorang yang menarik orang-orang yang lebih baik daripada dirinya untuk bekerja padanya."
f--Mereka memastikan bahwa orang yang mereka lihat di dalam cermin pada pagi hari adalah jenis orang yang mereka inginkan. Dengan jalan ini mereka melindungi diri dari godaan terbesar yang dihadapi oleh seorang pemimpin: melakukan berbagai hal yang populer daripada yang tepat, dan melakukan hal-hal yang kurang penting, biasa-biasa, dan bermutu rendah.
g--Akhirnya, pemimpin efektif bukanlah pengkhotbah, mereka adalah pelaku. Pemimpin efektif mendelegasikan banyak hal baik. Mereka harus melakukannya atau mereka akan terbenam dalam setumpuk hal remeh. Namun, mereka tidak mendelegasikan satu hal yang dapat mereka lakukan dengan sempurna; satu-satunya hal yang akan membuat perbedaan, satu hal yang akan menetapkan standard, satu hal yang ingin orang-orang kenang dari mereka. Mereka melakukannya.
Tidak masalah anda bekerja di organisasi seperti apa; anda akan menemukan peluang untuk belajar mengenai kepemimpinan dari semua organisasi, baik itu pemerintah, swasta, dan nirlaba.
Saya menantang anda untuk bertanya, "Apa yang dapat saya lakukan di dalam organisasi saya yang akan benar-benar membuat perbedaan? Bagaimana saya dapat sungguh-sungguh menetapkan teladan?"

Saya juga berharap bahwa di kemudian hari anda akan melakukannya. (Disadur dari: Peter F. Drucker, Pemimpin Adalah Pelaku. Buku: A New Paradigm of Leadership, Editor: Ken Shelton. Penerbit: Elexmedia Komputindo)

SRIGALA DALAM KANTOR

2008-09-17T00:24:00.000-07:00

Menurut Towery, seorang ahli serigala dalam The Wisdom of Wolves (1995), kelompok serigala adalah kelompok yang mempunyai kinerja tinggi. Dan seperti perusahaan-perusahaan masa kini, ternyata kelompok serigala juga tidak dapat mengantisipasi kejadian.

Namun kelompok serigala mengatasinya dengan membangun fleksibilitas dan kemampuan bereaksi dengan cepat untuk menghadapi situasi-situasi tak terduga. Oleh sebab itu, tampaknya kelompok serigala perlu dipelajari sebagai upaya membangun kelompok kerja yang pas untuk abad ini.

Sikap. Perilaku kelompok serigala didasari oleh satu pertanyaan: Apa yang terbaik bagi kelompok? Serigala tidak akan berlari memburu mangsanya, menyalak, menggonggong, dan menggeram tanpa tujuan. Mereka memiliki perencanaan strategik yang dieksekusi melalui komunikasi terus menerus di antara anggota. Bila saaatnya tiba, masing-masing anggota tahu persis apa perannya dan mengerti persis apa yang diharapkan oleh kelompok darinya. Semua yang terbaik, untuk kelompok. Serigala tidak bergantung pada nasib baik. Kohesi, kerjasama, dan pelatihan menentukan apakah kelompok bakal hidup atau mati.

Keunikan. Jumlah anggota kelompok serigala berkisar antara lima hingga delapan ekor. Para serigala itu sangat berhati-hati untuk tidak meniru satu sama lain. Setiap anggota menduduki posisi tertentu, saling menghormati keberbedaan yang dimiliki oleh anggota lain. Pada kelompok serigala, tidak pernah satu anggota mengambil alih peran dan tanggung jawab anggota lainnya. Terlepas dari seberapa gesit atau lamban, besar atau kecil, kuat atau lemahnya dia. Bila ada yang tidak berperan sesuai dengan tuntutan, maka kelompok menjadi timpang dan akhirnya mati.

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2008-09-16T23:57:00.000-07:00

Ini bercerita tentang tokoh asal Timur Tengah, Nasruddin. Suatu hari, Nasruddin mencari sesuatu di halaman rumahnya yang penuh dengan pasir. Ternyata dia mencari jarum.Tetangganya yang merasa kasihan, ikut membantunya mencari jarum tersebut.

Tetapi selama sejam mereka mencari jarum itu tak ketemu juga. Tetangganya bertanya, "Jarumnya jatuh dimana ?" "Jarumnya jatuh di dalam," jawab Nasruddin. "Kalau jarum bisa jatuh di dalam, kenapa mencarinya diluar ?" tanya tetangganya. Dengan ekspresi tanpa dosa, Nasruddin menjawab, "Karena di dalam gelap, di luar terang."

Begitulah, perjalanan kita mencari kebahagiaan dan keindahan. Sering kali kita mencarinya di luar dan tidak mendapat apa-apa.Sedangkan daerah tergelap dalam mencari kebahagiaan dan keindahan,sebenarnya adalah daerah-daerah di dalam diri. Justru letak 'sumur'kebahagiaan yang tak pernah kering, berada di dalam. Tak perlu juga mencarinya jauh-jauh, karena 'sumur' itu berada di dalam semua orang. Sayangnya karena faktor peradaban, keserakahan dan faktor lainnya, banyak orang mencari sumur itu di luar. Ada orang yang mencari bentuk kebahagiaannya dalam kehalusan kulit, jabatan, baju mahal, mobil bagus atau rumah indah.

Tetapi kenyataannya, setiap pencarian di luar tersebut akan berujung pada bukan apa-apa. Karena semua itu, tidak akan berlangsung lama. Kulit,misalnya, akan keriput karena termakan usia, mobil mewah akan berganti dengan model terbaru, jabatan juga akan hilang karena pensiun. "Setiap perjalanan mencari kebahagiaan dan keindahan di luar, akan selalu berujung pada bukan apa-apa, leads you nowhere. Setiap kekecewaan hidup yang jauh dari keindahan dan kebahagiaan, berangkat dari mencarinya diluar".

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