Early Apple iPhone Adopters Feeling Undercut by At Least One Third
FOR MORE: Jobs Apologizes, Apple to Give iPhone Customers $100 Credit
Yesterday's announcement of a $200 price drop for Apple's 8 GB iPhone, and the cancellation and clearance of the 4 GB edition, was all some investors took away from CEO Steve Jobs' gala rollout. Meanwhile, among the Apple faithful, there emerged clear signs of discord, especially after expressions of disapproval on Apple's forums evidently disappeared.
LG Promises New, True Hybrid High-Def Disc Player
We've been down this road before: Covering CES last January, BetaNews was the first to report that LG Electronics' long-promised hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD disc player wouldn't actually be able to play the full content of HD DVDs, due to its lack of support for its iHD interactivity layer - the part that gives you menus and on-screen features.
LG originally promised a hybrid player as far back as March 2006. Now, at the CEDIA custom electronics show in Denver, the company is showing off a new prototype that it claims will play both iHD and BD-J interactive content, and will sell for $999.
Intel Seeks to Upstage AMD 'Barcelona' with Quad-Core 'Tigerton'
The fact that AMD plans to unveil its quad-core Opteron server processor on Monday is the worst kept secret since rumors yesterday that Apple CEO Steve Jobs would unveil something having to do with iPods today. What has come as a surprise is that Intel decided not to wait to let AMD have its day before releasing some initial specifications for its forthcoming "Tigerton" class Xeon MP quad-core server processors.
If you believe the performance test numbers professed by CPUs' own manufacturers, then Intel definitely plans to make a wrestling match out of Tigerton vs. x4 Opteron. This afternoon, Intel stated that an IBM System x3850 M2 4-way server produced a SPEC_int_rate_base2006 benchmark rating of 184. To give you an idea of relative standing, the best 4-way Intel quad-core servers today tend to just break the 90 barrier.
DailyKos and Other Blogs Qualify as 'Media,' Exempt from Finance Laws
Responding to a complaint filed by a blogger for politically conservative Web sites, the US Federal Election Commission yesterday declared that DailyKos, a politically liberal site, operates as a news and commentary provider. As such - in effect, as a member of the "media" - DailyKos is exempt from campaign finance laws that restrict the amounts of money individuals and organizations may contribute.
BlogCritics writer John C. Bambenek alleged in July that DailyKos openly solicited money for what it characterized as good causes, in exchange for which the site would promote the donor through advertising. Rather than simply sell ads like a normal media site, Bambenek claimed, DailyKos was soliciting contributions, with advertising granted to contributors as a token of its appreciation.
Yahoo Acquisition of BlueLithium May Help Close Analytics Gap
It's very clear now that one of Yahoo's principal goals in this latest reorganization, led by once-and-future CEO Jerry Yang and newly elevated President Susan Decker, is to distinguish itself from Google rather than catch up to it. Last week, those efforts culminated in executive reassignments to shore up its content business. This week, they resulted in the company acquiring British advertising firm BlueLithium, perhaps closing one of the most oft-noted gaps in its arsenal: a smart analytics tool.
Boasting of a higher overall audience reach than Google Search, AOL, MSN, or eBay by virtue of the sites it targets, BlueLithium positions itself as an advertising network in much the same way Right Media - last year's Yahoo acquisition - positioned itself as an advertising network.
Palm Cancels Foleo Project in Response to Customer Concern
It may go down in history as a noble experiment that was wisely aborted just prior to perhaps going down in flames: Palm yesterday announced it has decided it won't be launching a little Linux laptop computer after all, devoting its entire marketing efforts instead to what many believe will be a smartphone called Centro to take on the RIM BlackBerry.
"In the course of the past several months, it has become clear that the right path for Palm is to offer a single, consistent user experience around this new platform design and a single focus for our platform development efforts," wrote Palm CEO Ed Colligan for his company's blog yesterday.
Microsoft: Removal of Group Policy Tool from Vista 'Not Significant'
As part of a request to help modify its apparent stance on the upcoming removal of Group Policy Management Console from Microsoft's Windows Vista Service Pack 1, a company spokesperson told BetaNews, "The removal of the GPMC tool with Service Pack 1 is not significant to the majority of Windows Vista users."
This despite the continued presence of remnants of the GPMC campaign, which touted its inclusion in Vista as a boon. "The Group Policy Management Console, or GPMC, was available as a download for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003," reads one TechNet page.
What the Microsoft Standards Battle is Really About
Microsoft's purpose for suggesting its Office Open XML suite of formats become adopted as an international standard is not so it can leverage its seal of approval from the ISO in selling its Office suite to large businesses and to the public sector. Its purpose is to enable the company to be perceived worldwide as cooperating with businesses and with nations in the drive for interoperability, especially for the benefit of the European Commission which maintains that Microsoft is an unfair competitor.
For that reason, whether or not OOXML is eventually adopted by the ISO come February is not as important as whether Microsoft is perceived as trying to play fair. OOXML could still be rejected, but if Microsoft handles this right, it could still argue it's striving for interoperability and fair competition even in the face of that loss. And being able to maintain that argument is of principal importance.
House Could Take Up Patent Reform Measure This Week
The Rules Committee of the US House of Representatives is scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss how the latest sweeping patent reform legislation, H.R. 1908, is to be introduced to the floor of Congress. Pending the registration of proposed amendments, it could be introduced as soon as Friday.
The two most critical reforms the new legislation would make drastically reduce the often windfall amounts that victors in patent infringement suits may be awarded; and replace the post-patent review process to encourage individuals to file objections within a year of a patent's approval, rather than wait for that period to expire and file infringement suits in federal court.
Microsoft Reports Victory in Preliminary ISO Ballot for Office Open XML
3:15 pm ET September 4, 2007 - The International Organization for Standardization finally issued a statement this evening, Geneva time, saying a preliminary vote to publish Microsoft's Office Open XML as an international standard failed to meet the requisite two-thirds majority of support to attain fast-track status. The standard itself has not failed, contrary to many reports this morning.
But for OOXML to emerge beyond the draft status, Microsoft now has until February - not March, as was earlier reported here and elsewhere - to address the comments of members who voted both in the affirmative ("yes, with comments") and the negative ("no, with comments"). At that time, if members believe Microsoft has addressed those comments adequately, they may change their vote to outright approval.
Swedish Standards Vote on OOXML Declared Invalid, SIS to Abstain
After considerable suspicion was cast on the reasons why, and the methods how, 23 extra members joined the Swedish international standards body SIS as recently as the day before it was to vote on recommending Microsoft's Office Open XML to the ISO, the SIS has decided to invalidate its "Yes, with comments" vote, and to cast an abstention in next week's ISO proceedings.
There are three conflicting accounts as to why. Two days ago, Microsoft's corporate standards director Jason Matusow responded to inquiries by BetaNews and others with a blog post that attempted to explain the problem as having been caused by a single Microsoft Sweden employee acting out of bounds.
Dell Q2 2008 Earnings Report Paints an Incomplete Picture
It's difficult enough to judge how fast or how well a company is growing when you already know the record of its past results are incorrect. But the question investors and shareholders are asking of Dell today is, are the company's once-and-future CEO and its very highly esteemed new CFO patching the massive leaks left behind by their predecessors? Yesterday's release of very preliminary earnings numbers for its previous fiscal quarter - which at least were not seriously delayed this time - answers that question with a firm, definitive maybe.
The type of fraud to which Dell Computer admitted two weeks ago that its former executives participated in, concerns shifting expenses around between departments to make earnings look better than they actually are.
Justice Dept. Says Microsoft is Behaving, California Disagrees
In its regular progress report for Microsoft's compliance with the terms of its antitrust settlement, the US Justice Dept. stated today that it believes that since the settlement, there's significant evidence of a more competitive market unhindered by the presence or conduct of Microsoft.
Though the entire DOJ filing had not been publicly released by this afternoon, excerpts cited from a press release show the Dept. wrote, "Since the entry of the Final Judgments, there have been a number of developments in the competitive landscape relating to middleware and to PC operating systems generally that suggest that the Final Judgments are accomplishing their stated goal of fostering competitive conditions among middleware products, unimpeded by anticompetitive exclusionary obstacles erected by Microsoft."
Eolas Settles Microsoft Dispute, Was Likely Paid Cash
As first reported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Todd Bishop, the retrial of the long-running Eolas v. Microsoft case has come to an abrupt end. Eolas shareholders were notified on Monday, Bishop learned, to expect a very special dividend of between $60 and $72 per share.
Since Eolas is not a public company, it isn't possible to do the math to see how much that represents, but that still sounds like a very significant sum. It's indicative of a payout by Microsoft, though probably less than the $565 million it would have had to pay had an appeals court not overturned a judgment against it in March 2005.
Judge: Security Company Protecting Customers is Immune from Prosecution
What might have been a relatively insignificant case brought by a shareware re-distributor against security software firm Kaspersky Labs was granted a landmark dismissal on Tuesday, for reasons whose repercussions could lead to a new shield of legal security for anti-malware firms throughout the US.
Kaspersky invoked the Communications Decency Act in its own defense, saying it immunizes companies from prosecution for their attempts to give customers the means to block unwanted or offensive content.
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