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I have a strong interest in the health of Apple as a company turning out good hardware and software. I have not traded Apple in some time, investing in dividend stocks, and I could not make a contribution to a discussion of APPL the stock. So I pass along the observations of others. And I do enjoy the posts here.
08:42 AAPL Apple Computer tgt raised to $84 from $79 at BofA (74.53 ) -Update-
BofA raises their tgt on AAPL to $84 from $79 following earnings. The firm says one major issue they identified yesterday was gross margins. - mgt did indicate that gross margins would be down q/q about 100 basis suggesting that their thesis on recent product price cuts negatively impacting margins is appropriate - though the firm believes that they may have overestimated the magnitude. The firm is modestly increasing their gross margins by 10-30 basis points in the back half of the year, though largely offset by higher op ex, leaving operating margin little changed.
07:21 MSFT WSJ's Walter Mossberg reviews Microsoft's new Internet Explorer (28.52 )
WSJ reports "I have been testing IE 7, and I agree with Microsoft that it's much improved. If you are a confirmed IE user, upgrading to this new version makes perfect sense, because it is likely to be more secure and its new features make Web browsing better.
But if you are already using Firefox, IE's main competitor, I see nothing in IE 7 that should make you switch. The only really notable new interface feature in IE 7 is something called Quick Tabs, which lets you view, on one page, thumbnails of all the pages you have open in tabs.
But the most important new security feature in IE 7 -- something called Protected Mode, which stops Web sites from changing your computer's important files or settings -- will work only in the new Vista version of Windows, due next year, not in Windows XP."
07:38 AAPL Apple Computer: Color on quarter (74.53 )
Thomas Weisel notes AAPL reported solid Q4 results with Mac units of 1.61 mln came in roughly in line with their recently increased numbers (following positive checks during the quarter). Firm notes that DRAM prices were up during the quarter while NAND was stable, and although AAPL refused to comment, they believe that AAPL is benefiting from the lower cost on other components due to INTC transition...
ThinkEquity believes upside in fiscal 4Q06 was driven by PC share gains, strong Retail Store performance, and the iPod refresh. Although it has yet to file June-quarter financials (fiscal 3Q06), firm says AAPL is well-positioned to deliver in Dec and beyond thanks to multiple catalysts that include: 1) further CPU share gains; 2) strong BtB momentum; 3) retail store success into the holidays; 4) a software upgrade cycle; and 5) a likely move into the enterprise...
Prudential notes AAPL reported strong Q4 earnings on higher than expected sales of MacBooks and iPods. Firm expects Mac momentum to continue, but thinks upside to street estimate will be harder to come by in iPods due to increasing competition and the absence of new product offerings, and on the margin front due to recent price cuts and stabilizing component prices. Firm believes AAPL's new product pipeline appears promising and expects the co to unveil two cellular phone models and a new wide screen video iPod early next year. Firm believes these products represent significant upside earnings potential for the co, although near-term questions remain on the timing and ramp of these new products.
07:43 AAPL Apple Computer estimates trimmed at BofA (74.29 ) -Update-
Banc of America says they are cautious on AAPL into the qtr; firm maintains their Q4 (Sept) est, but trims their Q1 and Q2 ests by a penny each. Firm cites a 50bp cut overall in their gross margin est, as they don't believe that component cost and mix can offset recent price cuts.
Net, firm believes that the stock will trade weak in the near-term on conservative guidance (firm estimates $6.0 bln in revs and $0.70 in EPS, vs Street of $6.4 bln and $0.77), and some level of disappointment in gross margins. Firm would be more aggressive after the qtr, with potential product announcements looming of iPod video, phones, iTV, an Apple TV, and Leopard. Maintains Buy.
09:05 AAPL Apple Computer: Cautious on Dec quarter; more details on IPhone - Prudential (75.02 ) -Update-
Prudential notes AAPL will report Sept Q earnings on Wed Oct 18, after the market close. Firm expects AAPL to post upside to street ests driven by Mac strength and favorable component cost declines. Firm models rev of $4.8 bln and EPS of $0.55, ahead of consensus of $4.7 bln and $0.51.
Firm is more cautious on the outlook for the DecQ and thinks that iPod sales and overall margin could fall short of investor expectations. Firm sees upside to iPods as limited given the absence of new product offerings and increasing competition from MSFT's mid-Nov launch of Zune and sees recent price cuts to AAPL's iMac and video iPods placing pressure on co's margin. Firm expects AAPL to introduce two cell phones in the March quarter, including a smart phone. Firm says co will produce these in limited quantities due to market acceptance concerns and battery life.
08:14 Long waits and glitches mar Amazon, Apple film services - WSJ
WSJ reports Amazon.com (AMZN) and Apple Computer (AAPL) recently launched highly anticipated movie downloading services, heralded as the juice that would make downloading and watching movies on a computer screen a new consumer habit.
A month later, however, the services are off to a rocky start. Amazon.com has had to placate consumers with refunds after some couldn't get the service to work. Customers of both services are reporting problems downloading the software on their machines and complaining of seemingly interminable download times, sometimes in excess of several hours.
Picture quality and equipment requirements also are stumbling blocks. The glitches aren't universal, and some customers say they are fully satisfied with the downloading services. Both Apple and Amazon caution that it is still early and say they are doing well. Bill Carr, vice president of digital media for Amazon.com, says the rate of customer-service calls is comparable with those generated by Amazon's other businesses. Apple is "off to a great start with movies," says Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes, who says that in the first week alone iTunes sold 125,000 Disney movies.
09:25 AAPL Apple Computer: Other studios will have content on iTunes in the next six months, but not likely before the holidays - Piper Jaffray (74.63 )
Piper Jaffray notes that while Disney feature films are available on iTunes, other studios have not yet made similar moves. They believe there are three key reasons why other studios are taking their time in opening up film libraries to iTunes: 1) "retailiation," 2) copy protection issues, and 3) a desire to have a flexible pricing model vs. standard pricing. The firm's checks lead them to believe other studios will have content on iTunes in the next six months, but not likely before the holidays.
09:11 AAPL Apple Computer: Anticipate strong Sept qtr; Dec qtr revenue guidance likely conservative - Amtech (74.22 )
Amtech notes that AAPL will report its Sept qtr on Oct 18, and they believe the co will report results at the upper-end -- if not exceed -- guidance. Firm anticipates continued strength in its Mac business and a rebound in its iPod biz. For the Dec qtr, firm believes that AAPL will likely guide conservatively given its preference in setting reasonable expectations and tough Y/Y iPod comparisons.
As usual, firm finds sell-side consensus out-quarter rev ests unreasonably aggressive. With a potential soft reset in Dec qtr ests, they think AAPL shares will likely see a pull-back. Maintains Buy, and advises investors to take advantage of this weakness and aggressively buy AAPL in the high-$60s.
Friday, October 6th
Intel accused of "open-source fraud"
Key OpenBSD developers have accused Intel of being an "open-source fraud" due to firmware "blobs" in open-source projects which are not distributed freely and without restriction. "By withholding, Intel is being an open-source fraud," said leading OpenBSD project creator Theo de Raadt, who went on to suggest that Intel should follow the example of other companies in the market, according to Slashdot and KernelTrap. "Intel must do this firmware grant in the same way that Adaptec, Atmel, Broadcom, Cirrus Logic, Cyclades, QLogic, Ralink, and LSI and lots of other companies have granted distribution firmware to be used by others."
Apple receives its CPUs exclusively from Intel, but the Cupertino-based company also maintains its proprietary AppleACPIPlatform driver -- which is necessary to boot the current Darwin OS -- and was said to be stonewalling open-source developers by the administrator of the GNU-Darwin Distribution back in early August.
12:34 SBUX Starbucks says forming digital music partnership with Apple (AAPL) - Reuters (38.61 +2.65) -Update-
08:10 AAPL Federal prosecutors have begun to investigate Apple's options practices - WSJ (75.38 )
WSJ reports Steve Jobs knew that Apple Computer manipulated some of its stock-option grants, the co said, citing the conclusions of an internal probe that found 15 instances of improperly backdated options and raised "serious concerns" about the conduct of two former Apple execs.
Federal prosecutors in San Francisco have begun to investigate Apple's options practices, and Apple-appointed lawyers met with prosecutors and securities regulators Tuesday, a person familiar with the matter said. Kevin Ryan, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, has made the stock-options manipulation investigations a top priority of his office, which created a stock-options task force in July.
08:31 AAPL WSJ's Walter Mossberg reviews the new iPod (74.08 )
WSJ reports next month marks the fifth anniversary of one of the most successful products of the digital era, Apple Computer's iPod music player. For the main iPod, there's now a search feature that lets you find items alphabetically, by using the scroll wheel to select letters. In our tests, it worked well. The iPod Nano has been given a new aluminum skin, like the old iPod Mini had. This has two advantages: It resists the scratches that affected the first Nano models last year, and it allows for a range of bright colors.
The coolest new feature on iTunes is called Cover Flow, an optional way of viewing your music library. Unfortunately, Cover Flow puts such heavy demand on computer graphics systems that it doesn't work properly or at all on some machines, especially older or more limited Windows computers. It's impossible to know if Apple can sustain its remarkably high mkt shares in the face of new competition, but it is going into the battle with better products at better prices.
Investors are saying "Show me the money!"
And though it frustrates me too, we need more of this in the markets.
I'm having the same experience with a couple of oil sands plays, CLL.TO and PBG.TO. Large reserves and great potential, both for production and takeover.
01:26 AAPL Apple mentioned positively in Follow Up - Barron's (76.98 )
Barron's reports there is still room for Apple (AAPL) shares to run up a bit more before Christmas. While they won't know for certain until quarterly results are posted on Oct. 18, it looks like late-summer computer sales were very solid, says hardware analyst Charlie Wolf of Needham & Co. "Based on what I've been hearing, my estimate of Mac shipments is most likely low for September," Wolf tells Barron's. That forecast called for 1.5 mln Macs to be sold in the September quarter, versus 1.2 mln in the corresponding 2005 period. Their bullish call was based largely on the promise of robust sales for revamped Macintosh desktops and notebooks, which have been priced more competitively than ever and now can easily run Windows, as well as Apple's own operating systems, owing to the co's pragmatic switch to Intel (INTC) processors.
Wolf's thesis is that the ability to directly use Windows will boost the switch rate to Macs from Windows-based PCs. Previously, he had assumed that the switch rate wouldn't jump until the new Leopard operating system (OS 10.5) was shipped, together with a commercial version of Boot Camp (the software that allows Windows to run on non-Intel-powered Macs), which now seems unlikely until 1H07. However, "Apple has already begun to market the Mac's dual-operating-system capability, even though Boot Camp is still in beta tests," says Wolf, who has a target price of 90 on the stock.
Mac sales -- especially of notebooks used by students -- appear to have been robust in the quarter ended in September. Apple promoted MacBook sales by throwing free iPods into the deal. Ironically, the recent success of the MacBook probably has more to do with the price cuts and the machines' appealing design than with the ability to run Windows. Once Boot Camp arrives, however, Mac sales will gain even more momentum, Wolf asserts.
13:33 AAPL Apple Computer and Wal-Mart talking about being friends - AppleInsider (77.05 +0.04) -Update-
AppleInsider reports Apple Computer and Wal-Mart (WMT) are in discussions over an alliance that could allow the retail giant to profit from iTunes movie downloads, says Variety. According to the report, a deal could take the form of a digital download "coupon" that would allow consumers to buy movies, television shows or music on iTunes with Apple paying Wal-Mart a percentage of the proceeds.
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is said to have personally reached out to Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott, "who badly wants to get into the digital film biz." Apple's new iTunes movie service has been a source of frustration for the retail giant, mainly because Jobs has mandated that movie studios license new movie releases through iTunes for about $3 less than the wholesale price charged to Wal-Mart.
So far, only Walt Disney (DIS) agreed to such terms. "Studio sources say the rest of the majors are very close to joining Disney in a deal with Apple but are holding off until the end of the key fourth quarter, when half of all DVD sales occur," Variety said.
11:30 AAPL Apple Computer iTunes deal with Norway - Inquirer.net (76.53 +0.12) -Update-
Inquirer.net reports Apple is closer to getting an agreement with Norway over its iTunes digital jukebox. Norwegian consumer regulators were unhappy about the anti-trust issues involved with iTunes which does not allow players other than those blessed by Steve Jobs. Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman Bjoern Erik Thon said he will be meeting with Apple representatives from the US, Britain and Belgium to discuss ways to resolve the dispute other than legal action.
The Nordic regulators are opposed some of iTunes' Internet contract terms, such as its contention that British law applies to the sale and the fact that iTunes the right to change terms of purchase without notice, even after a sale. Apple has apparently moved on some of the objections and after the meeting the regulators will review the meeting results and plan to send a formal letter to iTunes in October.
08:32 AAPL Apple Computer: Major League Baseball pulls podcast clips from Apple's iTunes - WSJ (77.61 )
WSJ reports the Internet arm of Major League Baseball has pulled podcast clips of its games from Apple Computer's iTunes Store, in a move to exercise greater control over how its games are presented online. Although the loss of the league's podcasts is unlikely to have a financial impact on Apple, it shows the unease some providers of digital content have with Apple's growing clout in digital media.
Bob Bowman, chief executive of Major League Baseball Advance Media, the Internet arm said the decision was prompted, in part, by the lack of control the league had over how its podcasts were promoted with iTunes. He says Apple declined to give Major League Baseball podcasts better visibility on the site when the league asked for it. He also says Apple wouldn't give the league a say in where promotions for its podcasts would appear on iTunes, leading to situations in which the league's content was adjacent to podcasts by individual baseball fans, Mr. Bowman says. "That may sound immaterial, but again the brand is very important to us," he said.
08:43 AAPL Apple Computer: Checks suggest strong notebook demand but just ok iPod demand; raising Mac and overall ests - Thomas Weisel (77.61 )
Thomas Weisel's checks suggest strong demand for INTC-based notebooks as checks show 50% of Mac buyers are switchers and that there is quite strong demand for MacBook. Firm's checks also indicate a healthy demand/supply balance and availability for most products, thus AAPL should be in position to deliver upside relative to firm's original ests for notebooks.
Firm believes the real key to the AAPL story in the next 12 months will be the actual Mac units sold, as iPod momentum is likely to fade. Firm believes iPod checks show less excitement related to new products compared to previous launches. Firm believes the iPod nano remains a dominant MP3 player but checks indicated less excitement for the new colored nano and 8GB nano and expects results roughly in-line with their expectations of 8.6 mln units for the current quarter and 14.7 mln for Dec.
Firm raises ests on Mac rev from a 24.9% y/y increase to a 31.1% y/y increase and believes this could mean that AAPL might post numbers above current Street est, but notes that expectations appear to be increasing.
08:59 AAPL Apple Computer: Removing from Focus List; big move in short time, would rather buy on a dip; Zune likely to splinter windows market - AmTech (77.61 ) -Update-
AmTech is removing AAPL from the AmTech Focus List. Since firm added AAPL on September 5, 2006 in conjunction with their analysis of AAPL's significant technical progress in its cell phone efforts, shares have appreciated 15% vs. 3% in the NASDAQ. While firm remains long-term positive, they believe AAPL shares may reflect too much near-term cell phone optimism. Firm would not be surprised to see a near-term pullback and would be aggressive buyers at lower levels (low-$70s, high-$60s).
Firm has learned that the forthcoming Zune portable media player and service will likely use a new proprietary Zune DRM that is incompatible with MSFT's PlaysForSure DRM that MSFT and its OEM "partners" including CREAF, SNDK, SNE, Samsung, iRiver, Archos, etc. Firm believes the unexpected side effect will be further fragmentation in the Windows Media market, creating more confusion to consumers.
07:57 AAPL Apple Computer iPhone to be Cingular-exclusive at launch - Think Secret (75.75 )
Think Secret reports Apple and Cingular (T)(BLS) have signed an agreement that will make the US' largest cell phone provider the exclusive carrier of Apple's forthcoming phone, sources report. Apple's iPhone remains on track for an early 2007 release. Apple's exclusive contract with Cingular is said to be good for the first six months, sources report, meaning other providers will be able to sell the phone in the second-half of 2007.
Cingular had an exclusive on the Motorola (MOT) ROKR—the first phone to feature iTunes—when it launched last year. Sources say Apple is in talks with providers in other parts of the world on exclusive deals, but are short on specifics. O2 had the exclusive on the ROKR in Europe, however, suggesting that provider may again be tapped to launch Apple's phone. Meanwhile, insiders say Apple is internally estimating that shipments of the iPhone will top a staggering 25 mln in 2007 alone.
07:59 AAPL Apple Computer: Comments on INTC transition, iPod & iPhone from European customer base; music phones more widely available - Piper Jaffray (74.65 )
Piper Jaffray notes that less than half of AAPL's most loyal European Customers have upgraded to an INTC-based Mac. Of the 50 European AAPL customers firm spoke with, only 44% have upgraded to an INTC Mac. Of the 56% that have not made the transition, firm says half expect to upgrade in the next 6 months. Firm had expected that a higher percentage of these loyal customers would have already made the move to an INTC Mac and they see this as a sign that APPL has so far just scraped the surface of the Mac transition opportunity. Firm notes AAPL's most loyal European Customers have, on Avg, owned 1.6 iPods over the last 5 Years. Firm believes iPod/iTunes is still in early growth stage in Europe, similar to the U.S. iPod market 4-6 quarters ago.
Firm asked European APPL customers if they would be interested in an iPhone that holds 1,000 songs and found that 74% would be highly likely to buy such a product. Firm says APPL must price an iPhone in the $300 range to gain significant traction with the product. Firm says while there are more music enabled phones in the market than they had expected to see, firm believes the hype related to this market has yet to begin. Firm believes APPL will launch an iPhone in the next 3-6 months, which will likely draw more attention to this market and contribute the significant growth expectations implied in industry analyst market forecasts.
09:51 AAPL Apple Computer in iTV content licensing talks with Google - AppleInsider (73.59 -0.51) -Update-
AppleInsider reports the co may tap Internet search giant Google (GOOG) to help deliver a steady stream of Internet video content for its upcoming iTV digital media hub. According to the Sept. 25, 2006 issue of Newsweek, both parties have been in discussion about making files from Google's free online Video easily accessible by the new Apple device.
"Is it possible that when iTV ships next year, you may also be able to choose a menu item called Google Video, and then zip through the best of the thousands of user-submitted videos on the search giant's service?," columnist Steven Levy wrote. Levy added that Google's consumer product chief, Marissa Mayer, has confirmed that the two cos are engaged in talks.
OT: He was really wild in those first couple of years. A lot like Bob Feller, who was my favorite.
For both of them, a little wildness was useful. Kept the batters from digging in.
OT: Koufax pitched in the NL in 1955 with a record of 2-2. His first game in the majors was June 24, 1955.
OT: Sain was traded from the Boston Braves to the New York Yankees in 1951. He pitched for the Yankees 1951-1955 and in 1955 was traded to the Kansas City Athletics where he was 2-5 in 25 games. In 11 years he was 139-116.
His peak was 1946-1950 when he won 20 games 4 times.
08:37 AAPL Apple Computer tgt raised to $92 from $80 at UBS (57.00)
08:55 AAPL Apple Computer: Cell phone is a reality; new product cycles including Macs, iPods, and cell phone drive ests higher; increasing tgt to $91 - AmTech (68.38 ) -Update-
AmTech says Skeptics abounded when AAPL first launched their iPod MP3 players and revolutionized an emerging market and created a new business segment and a major rev driver for the co. Firm believes the new AAPL handset will be a major player and competitor set to disrupt another industry.
Firm has learned that the kinks have been worked out of the new handset, and it is set for production. Firm is confident that AAPL will time their launch opportunistically, and that the new handsets are positioned to gain significant traction. This new market could easily represent an incremental $2 bln annual rev run-rate rev opportunity in Y07. Firm says 10 mln units does not seem a lofty target to them. This is not even contemplating sales of potential services and accessories which would be incremental.
With Steve Jobs' history of revolutionizing the PC industry, the music industry, and the movie industry, firm encourages investors to get aggressive in purchasing shares of AAPL prior to the potential revolution of the handset industry. Firm ests for FY07 are now $22.2bln and $2.60 EPS up from $22 bln and $2.45. Firm adds AAPL to their Focus List, and their new tgt $91.
08:30 AAPL Apple Computer to roll-out iTunes movies and 'one more thing' - AppleInsider (68.38 )
AppleInsider reports Steve Jobs plans to summons the worldwide media to a special event this month in which he'll usher in a new chapter in the co's digital media strategy. Although the semi-official word out of Apple Americas is that invitations to the event have "not been sent" out, a seemingly inadvertent leak out of Apple Europe last week pinned the affair for Tuesday, September 12.
Jobs will have much to talk about during the event, sources familiar with the chief exec's plans have said, including new iMacs and a much-anticipated update to the iPod nano. But the real push, they say, will be tied to the big screen. After what has seemed like nearly two years of rampart speculation and unbridled enthusiasm on the part of its fans, Apple is ready to introduce its al la carte feature film download service as part of iTunes.
For some time now, published reports have insinuated that Apple and Jobs would be unwilling to launch a movie download service without a wide, touch-screen video iPod player to coincide. Jobs many months ago commissioned an elite group of Apple engineers to get the ball rolling on an intuitive hardware solution that would more closely tie the co's digital media strategy to the living-room. And so AppleInsider has been told, Apple has been quietly developing a video streaming device that will interface with an updated version of its iTunes jukebox software.
More important to me is basic functional compatibility, particularly with Excel. There are about a dozen spreadsheets that are critical to me for record-keeping, and every time I try an office wannabe something breaks.
08:13 MSFT Sources: Microsoft ramps Zune, sales goal set in millions - AppleInsider (25.80 )
AppleInsider has learned that despite ongoing software interface testing, Microsoft this month began manufacturing its much-anticipated Zune digital media players overseas. People familiar with Microsoft's portable media strategy say the co commissioned the release of the 30GB, Wi-Fi-enabled media player to manufacturing partner Toshiba several weeks ago.
The software giant has since been slowly ramping production with hopes of selling 3 mln of the $299 players by the close of the holiday shopping season, those same people said. For Microsoft, that means selling at least a million of the players each month beginning in October. That's a little less than one fourth the number of iPods Apple Computer (AAPL) is expected sell during the same time period.
Though the majority of the players Apple is expected to sell will feature flash memory-based storage, not hard disk storage like that employed by Zune. Still, it's unclear in what month Zune will be introduced into the market and go on sale.
08:56 MSFT Microsoft's upcoming Zune appears to be more bark than bite - AmTech (25.84 )
AmTech notes they are frankly underwhelmed by the much-hyped Zune device. It appears that the Zune is essentially a repackaged Toshiba Gigabeat that has seen limited success. Also, like the Chocolate phone from LG and other vendors, the Zune includes a fake clickwheel that does not scroll nor is touch pressure sensitive making navigation difficult, particularly for users with large music, video, and photo libraries.
The firm believes Zune will likely see some success due to MSFT's strong brand name and strong marketing effort, but it will be limited by its lack of differentiation vs. other Windows players (CREAF, SNDK, Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, iRiver, Archos, and others).
Tea leaves? My original post was from briefing.com which in turn cited the San Francisco Chronicle.
The "options stuff" itself is not new. But this was the most specific suggestion I've seen that Jobs might be taken out of Apple. Everything else I've seen has pretty much brushed it off.
AAPL was off almost two points. Is there a better explanation?
The "options stuff" itself is not new. But this was the most specific suggestion that Jobs might be taken out of Appleleast that I've seem.
The "options stuff" itself is not news. But the specific suggestion that Jobs might be taken out of Apple was new, at least to me.
09:25 AAPL 'Timely' grants at Apple, Pixar could haunt Jobs - San Francisco Chronicle (68.75 )
San Francisco Chronicle reports if chief executive Steve Jobs were to be personally implicated in the options irregularities the co is investigating, Apple and its stock price would surely suffer, at least in the short run. A Jobs departure would overshadow any financial restatements the co makes.
Despite his reputation as a hands-on manager, investors and most analysts seem to think there is little chance Jobs was involved in any options problems at Apple. But analyst Richard Farmer of Merrill Lynch says he can't rule out the possibility that Jobs was involved in options backdating at Pixar. If Jobs was involved, it could jeopardize his role at Apple, Farmer says in a research report.
He says the key question for investors "is whether he knowingly participated in creating option irregularities (at either Apple or Pixar) in a way that constitutes serious direct personal misconduct, which could lead the SEC to take legal action against him, including potentially barring his ability to serve as a director, officer, or financial reporting executive of any public company, including Apple."
"Some indication of subversive activity" indeed.
Activist's remark starts FBI probe
By JIM SUHR, Associated Press Writer 46 minutes ago
ST. LOUIS - Jim Bensman thought his suggestion during a public hearing was harmless enough: Instead of building a channel so migratory fish could go around a dam on the Mississippi River, just get rid of the dam.
Instead, the environmental activist found himself in hot water, drawing FBI scrutiny to see whether he had any terrorist intentions.
A watchdog with teeth?
Microsoft Will Meet Korean Windows XP Deadline Wed Aug 23, 2:06 PM ET
Microsoft will release four new editions of Windows XP next week in South Korea to meet demands of the country's antitrust watchdog.
Yes, that was my impression. The details weren't as bad as the general tone of the article. Still, my first reaction was - again? And at back to school time, too.