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M$ will not let Nokia fail.
A bounce involving a nickel?
OH Dear..Timmy C is turning aapl retail into Best Buy redux..
http://www.ifoapplestore.com/db/2012/08/27/reports-persist-of-budget-cuts-emphasis-on-revenue/
(Micro Center is the place to career in if you like retail.)
Even Mac Daily is not having it..
MacDailyNews Take: Sounds like Johnson had a good idea of what was coming, which likely contributed to his leaving Apple four months prior to Jobs’ death. Why watch your greatest achievement, the engine that drives much of Apple’s success, be filled with cheap gas and run without maintenance until it seizes?
Make no mistake, if these reports are true, this sort of misguided “thinking,” from Tim Cook on down, will kill the golden goose. (See this related article, also from today: NPD: Nearly 60% of Apple product owners more likely to purchase another Apple device after positive Genius Bar experience.)
Apple shareholders should be very concerned. We suggest that concerned shareholders email CEO Tim Cook directly and ask him what exactly is going on with Apple Retail: tcook@apple.com
Read more at http://macdailynews.com/2012/08/28/reports-persist-of-apple-retail-store-budget-cuts-emphasis-on-revenue-over-customer-satisfaction/#HS1mbY2w2B5s6ZRJ.99
"I think this is actually a sizable win for Samsung. Why? It only cost $1 billion to become the #2 most profitable mobile company, he writes."
--Noted tech expert Robert Scoble says
Hilarious!
News Flash: Surface Pro has a Better Retina Display than the iPad
Posted by RobbCab on August 10, 2012 02:32 pm
http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/10/3226295/news-flash-surface-pro-has-a-better-retina-display-than-the-ipad
I decided to write this post after having too many heated discussions with many users across many blogs. After hearing repeatedly; "The iPad will have a better display" or "It sucks because it's not Retina" I figured it was time to break the argument down and dispel the "Retina" myth.
The Basics: What is "Retina"? Let's start with Apple's definition of "Retina Display"
From iPhone description:"Thanks to the Retina display, everything you see and do on iPhone 4S looks amazing. That's because the Retina display’s pixel density is so high, your eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels." -- Apple.com
From iPad description:
"Those pixels are so close together, your eyes can't discern individual ones at a normal viewing distance." -- Apple.com
From Retina Display Introduction
"It turns out that there's a magic number right around 300 pixels per inch, that when you hold something around 10 or 12 inches away from your eyes, is the limit of the human eye to differentiate the pixels." -- Steve Jobs @ WWDC
From these descriptions we can take-away that Apple's definition of "Retina Display" is the inability to discern the individual pixels from certain "normal" distances. That certainly sounds impressive, but in actuality that claim can be made about any display based on screen size, resolution and viewing distance. For example a 50" 720P (1280x720) television is "Retina" from 9.8 feet away and that display has only a 29.4PPI pixel density. More on this below.
The Math: Finding the "Retina" Sweet Spot Now that we know how to define a "Retina" display, how do we go about finding the right resolution for to achieve this?
The answer lies in knowing the visual angle a human eye can resolve images and applying a little math. For 20/20 vision, that angle is 1 arc minute, or a MAR (Minimum Angle of Resolution) of 1 minute. All that really means is: At a given distance, if two objects resolve at less than 1 arc minute, you will see them as one object. For displays the distance between the pixels is called dot pitch. It isn't used much anymore as a selling point but if you remember the old CRT days, you would see monitors advertised as having a .28 dot pitch.
Now that we have most of our variables, we can figure out the visual acuity, or viewing distance where pixels are indistinguishable from one another. I won't bore you with all the calculations, but the important one looks like this:
VA=dot pitch/(2*tangent(rad(((1/60)(20/20))/2)). So let's look at the visual acuity of some popular resolutions on tablet-size screens.
Device(screen size) Resolution Dot Pitch Pixels Pixel Density Visual Accuity
iPad 2 (9.7") 1024x768 0.008 786K 132 26.1"
New iPad (9.7") 2084x1536 0.004 3.15M 264 13"
Lenovo Tablet 2(10.1") 1366x768 0.006 1.05M 155 22.2"
Surface Pro (10.6") 1920x1080 0.005 2.1M 207 16.5"
What the table above means is: further than about two feet away, ALL of these resolutions are "Retina" to someone with 20/20 vision.Read that last sentence again. Let it sink in... All. Of. Them. That leaves one variable remaining: actual viewing distance.
I Can See My Tablet From Here: Average Viewing Distances I was going to go in to a long example of average human height, limb length and various usage scenarios, but his post is getting a little long in the tooth already. Suffice to say, my findings pretty much agree with averages than can be readily found through searching the web. Display Mate, TAUW and the American Academy of Optometry all seem to agree on a range of 15"-22". I feel the 15" distance is a little close based on how I personally use these devices, which I hope to illustrate below.
Please let me know if these scenarios look similar to how you use/would use a tablet.
So let's take a look at the visual acuity numbers again and see which devices qualify as "Retina" at that distance.
Tablet Resolution Visual Acuity Is Retina?
iPad 2 1024x768 26.1" NO
Lenovo Tablet 2 1366x768 22.2" YES
Surface Pro 1920x1080 16.5" YES
New iPad 2084x1536 13.0" YES
That's right even the lowly 1366x768 resolution is "Retina" at more than 22". The only device in this list that doesn't make the cut is the iPad 2. It's one of the main reasons that iPad users rave about retina display. They're among the few that are actually benefiting from the increased resolution, which says more about how sub-standard the old display was than how great the new display is. Don't get me wrong, the New iPad's display IS fantastic, but it has more to do with the enhanced contrast & expanded color gamut than the PPI. Those two improvements are much more critical to the viewing experience (but that's a whole different article).
For comparison, take a look at what holding a tablet 12"-18" away looks like:
OK, so maybe 22" away is pushing the limit just a smidgen, but 1366x768 is clearly not the "crap" resolution that it is being portrayed as. On a 15" laptop probably, but not on a 10" tablet. I think we all have to agree though that 1920x1080 or 1080p on a 10"-11" screen clearly qualifies as "Retina" since the visual acuity is around 16" for that resolution.
What Apple has done here is create a "density war", much like the mega pixel war that raged in the digital camera world a few years ago. We all know there are 9MP cameras that take much better pictures than 21MP cameras. The same applies. Apple did what they always do. They took the path of least resistance and sold it as a "feature". They chose 2048x1536 because it gave them an easy way to handle scaling of applications as they just doubled everything. It was not because it was the best resolution for viewing their devices. Nor was it the best choice for the customer. Read on to find out why.
But I needs the MOAR Pixels: Diminishing Returns & Performance Hits By now you may be saying to yourself, "Fine, 1080p is 'Retina' on a tablet. But what's wrong with having a higher pixel density?"
The answer is simple. For every uneccessary pixel above visual acuity you add, your device runs slower, hotter & has less battery life.
Any PC gamer will tell you, the higher resolution you're running the fewer FPS (frames per second) your game will run. Hence the need for multi-GB, multi-card gaming rigs to push maximum pixels at high frame rates. All the processing power it takes to push those pixels creates heat, and the hotter a chip runs, the slower it runs. Again, gamers solve this with liquid-cooled systems and large fans.
Retina Displays put un-needed strain on the GPU pushing pixels you can not even see (over a million "invisible" pixels). How much snappier could your iPad be? How much cooler would it run? I guess you'll never know.
As far as power goes, we all know the New iPad is thicker than the iPad 2. We all know it's because it has a larger battery. What you may not know is that the battery has a 70% higher capacity. That's right, almost double! Yet it takes LESS time to run that battery down to zero. Displaymate shows that the New iPad gets about 5% less run time as the iPad 2 at middle brightness and about 20% less run time at maximum brightness. The back light alone uses 2.5 times the power of the iPad 2, and that's before you start illuminating those 3.15 million RGB pixels. Think about it this way... put the New iPad battery in an iPad 2 and it could run continuously with the screen on for over 20 hours.
Perfect PPI: 1080p for Tablets This is why the title says the Surface Pro has a "better" Retina display than the iPad. At normal viewing distances, there is no difference. None. Zero. Nada. The end result gives users an amazing visual experience while leaving more GPU headroom for things like scrolling, hardware-accelerated browsing, better games & more. It provides better battery life & less heat. Lastly they cost less to produce, which in turn lets manufacturers put more resources into things that matter more like brightness, higher contrast and wider color range.
After all, anyone who thinks it's all about pixel density is just...well...dense.
BREAKING..Microsoft Surface for Windows RT tablet coming October 26th for $199(?).
http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/14/microsoft-surface-199/
Game over..
Plop
You seem scared though.
I guess the aapl propaganda sites are the exception?
BREAKING..Wintel Notebook demand rebounding as consumers realize iPad is for entertainment, not productivity
Posted on June 23, 2012 by admin
http://microsoft-news.com/wintel-notebook-demand-rebounding-as-consumers-realize-ipad-is-for-entertainment-not-productivity/
Digitimes reports that Taiwan-based notebook ODMs have discovered the impact of tablets like the iPad is less than they expected, as consumers discover they are good for entertainment, but not for getting work and studying done.
The iPad has created new demand instead of eroding existing demand for notebooks, said Wistron chairman Simon Lin. However, iPad has absorbed a portion of consumer budgets, causing delays in replacement notebook purchases, Lin said. Notebooks are expected to regain demand after the launches of Intel’s Ivy Bridge in the second quarter and Microsoft’s Windows 8 in the fourth, Lin indicated.
The X86 version of Windows 8 uniquely combines the productivity benefits of mouse and keyboard and a multi-window user interface with the full-screen touch interface of tablets.
Regarding the global outlook for notebooks in the second half of 2012, Acer, Asustek Computer and Samsung Electronics are optimistic while Hewlett-Packard and Dell are neutral, sources indicated.
BREAKING..Digitimes: Microsoft Surface RT to be $599+, Surface Pro $799+
Posted on June 20, 2012 by admin
http://microsoft-news.com/digitimes-microsoft-surface-rt-to-be-599-surface-pro-799/
Digitimes, the great eastern rumour house, claims to have identified the ODM for the Microsoft Surface tablets and have fingered Pegatron Technology.
Citing industry sources in the notebook market, they have also placed some bottom ends on the prices of the tablets, saying the Windows RT-based model, featuring Nvidia’s Tegra 3, will be priced above US$599, while the Windows 8 Pro-based Surface tablet PC with Ivy Bridge processor is expected to be at least above US$799.
At $599 that would price the RT tablet at the equivalent price to the 32 GB iPad with WIFI only, making the price not as expensive as it appears.
At $799 the Surface Pro would be priced cheaper than the iPad 64 GB with WIFI and 3G, costing $829, and it is of course a pretty low price for a full PC with an Ivy Bridge processor.
Digitimes notes Microsoft only expects limited profits from the venture, which will hopefully keep both margins and prices low.
Read more at Digitimes here.
AP News Microsoft to make 'major' announcement on Monday
Posted on June 14, 2012
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-06-14/microsoft-to-make-major-announcement-on-monday
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Microsoft is being secretive about a "major" announcement it plans to make in Los Angeles on Monday.
The company invited media to an afternoon event, but it says it won't divulge the location until that morning. In an email, the company says, "This will be a major Microsoft announcement — you will not want to miss it."
Microsoft declined further comment Thursday.
The venue suggests it has to do with the entertainment industry.
In recent months Microsoft Corp. has made more TV programming available on its Xbox 360 video game console. Netflix Inc. is among the offerings on the Xbox, and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is on Microsoft's board.
Microsoft is also preparing to release a new operating system, Windows 8, that works across laptop computers, tablets and even televisions.
What Did Apple Copy From Android and Windows Phone in iOS 6?
Michael Fisher | June 13, 2012 12:15 PM
http://pocketnow.com/2012/06/13/what-did-apple-copy-from-android-and-windows-phone-in-ios-6/
“They copied that from the iPhone!”
It’s become a familiar refrain in the days after a product announcement from Google or Microsoft. Ornery iOS fans or other detractors rise out of the woodwork, pointing out every feature offered in the new Android or Windows Phone version that “was lifted straight from the iPhone!” This was a lot easier back in the days of iPhone 1.0, when the device’s then-groundbreaking UI elements could only be found on Apple’s new darling. When Android, then Windows Phone came out with swipe-able homescreens, kinetic scrolling, and pinch-to-zoom, it was pretty easy to point a finger at them and scream “copy cat!” like someone you’d just found looking over your shoulder on a second-grade math quiz.
As time went on, though, Apple made a predictable move, one that’s become part of its signature style: it put innovation on the back burner and focused on implementing pre-existing features better. This resulted in a very polished lineup of iOS products, but it also allowed other platforms to surpass it in new features. Android and Windows Phone started beating iOS in raw functionality, each bringing new and exciting ideas to the user experience while Apple polished older features.
The natural result was a reversal, as Apple began poaching ideas from its competitors. Nearly every example of this practice is debatable -just visit any mobile-tech forum to see said debates in action- but probably the most flagrant is Apple’s inclusion of Notification Center in iOS 5. Though it traces its roots more to an adapted third-party enhancement for jailbroken iPhones, its “spiritual lineage” is clear.
Android on the left, Apple on the right.
This rampant “borrowing” of ideas is common across many industries, and the consequences are often litigious in nature. These companies are very aware of how much is being appropriated from previous versions of their products, and they often sue one another based on their respective patent portfolios. It’s a pretty exciting landscape.
Recently, though, the pace of that idea-borrowing has slowed. Maybe it’s because there aren’t as many features being announced, but I don’t think that’s it. Maybe all the stuff suitable for copying has already been lifted, and independent innovation is the only way forward. I don’t think that’s it either, though. Maybe everyone’s tired of getting sued. Whatever the reason, we’re seeing less of it with the latest round of updates to popular platforms.
That’s especially true with Apple’s iOS 6, which will bring over 200 new features to iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices. You’d think in all that, we’d be able to find more examples of copycattery, and our own Adam Z. Lein anticipated a few bits last week. But much of the new stuff is either original or extrapolated from third-party apps.
That said, there are a few familiar things which caught my eye.
Do Not Disturb & Call-Message Reply The iPhone’s “Phone” application has remained largely unchanged since 2007, so it’s nice to see some enhancements to this bit of core functionality. The “Do Not Disturb” feature is designed to let you get some sleep even if your night-owl friends are blowing up your spot at 3am. It silences notifications and disables the accompanying screen illumination at set hours, but preserves the notifications themselves so that when you wake up, you can see who tried calling you overnight. It also offers a feature some will welcome and others will decry: if someone really wants to get a hold of you, his or her repeated calls in a short span will “barge” through the screen of silence and cause your phone to ring.
Aside from that last bit of functionality, I’ve used this Do Not Disturb feature before; it’s not a core Android feature, but it’s built into Google Voice. Toggling Do Not Disturb results in all calls to my Google Voice number going to voicemail, and texts being held on the server side until I disable the feature.
Apple has also built in a feature I remember from years ago: an “answering-machine”-like enhancement that allows you to reply to a missed call with an SMS. This is useful if you’re in a meeting and want to advise the person whose call you just rejected why they’ve been unceremoniously dumped to voicemail, and when you might call them back. Third-party apps have provided this functionality across many platforms for years; I first used something like this on PalmOS back in 2005, and these days it’s even built into many feature phones. Sprint Nextel has expanded this feature to its Direct Connect offering, and Samsung offers it as part of its TouchWiz skin as well. Nothing new here. (Edit: This is also a core feature of Android 4.0. Thanks for the heads-up, Michael Heller!)
Safari Tab Sync When Google released Chrome for Android ICS a few months back, I was lukewarm on the notion; I found the stock browser on my Galaxy Nexus to work reasonably well, and the lack of Flash support in Chrome was kind of annoying. But then I learned about Chrome’s ability to sync bookmarks, history, and search logs across devices, and I was immediately hooked. This was as close to a “continuous client” browser as any I’d seen. Since then, I’ve really enjoyed the convenience of synchronizing my browser sessions across desktop and mobile, and it seems Apple will be bringing something similar to iOS.
The new Safari in iOS 6 will maintain continuity across browser sessions on the iPad, iPhone, and OSX-based computers. Users will be able to start a browsing session on their computer, then leave the house and pick up right where they left off on the iPhone. It also offers unified search, not just searching the web but also displaying results from bookmarks and history.
The new Safari is a bit of a soup of lifted features: it mirrors what HP was trying to do with Touch-To-Share on the Palm Pre 3 and HP Touchpad, without the hassle of actually touching devices, but in a modern sense it’s much more similar to Chrome. Full-screen browsing in landscape mode is another welcome addition, one that we’ve seen in many other browsers before.
Turn-by-Turn Navigation With its new Maps application, Apple has patched a huge hole in its offerings and decidedly narrowed the feature gap between iOS and Android. In addition to vector-based graphics, more detailed 3D city models, flyover mode, and a host of other features, iOS’ new Maps offers integrated turn-by-turn navigation.
In the past, turn-by-turn navigation had to be purchased as a separate app, provided by a separate company, and requiring a separate monthly fee. The first turn-by-turn navigation software I used on a phone was a Java-based TeleNav app on a Motorola i730 in 2004, and it cost $10 per month. That pricing was typical, and the service didn’t reach huge levels of market penetration.
That all changed when Google released Google Navigation for Android 2.0 in November 2009. For the first time, a smartphone shipped with a mapping option that included turn-by-turn navigation for free. It quickly became one of Android’s stand-out offerings, one of the first features Google could point to as being truly superior to Apple’s.
Other companies followed suit; most prominently, Nokia included turn-by-turn support with Nokia Drive on its Windows Phone devices. Soon, Apple was the last big kid on the block without a stock, free turn-by-turn navigation app.
Well, it took buying some cartography companies to make it happen, but Apple has finally caught back up with Google in this space. Whether the feature will live up to the mark set by Google Navigation remains to be seen, but it was an idea Apple desperately needed to duplicate, and I’m glad it did.
You Ain’t Cheatin,’ You Ain’t Tryin.’ I’m not scolding Apple for this; as I said above, this is the nature of the industry. Many of these features didn’t even start with the platforms they were “lifted” from; they’ve been stolen and repackaged and redistributed across new ecosystems like a gift nobody wants at the office holiday party.
Nobody loves a bundt cake. Nobody.
It’ll be interesting to see, as we edge closer to iOS 6's release, how many other features pop up out of the woodwork that we’ve seen before. If the past is any indication, though, we can count on Apple’s versions of these tried-and-true features to be highly polished and exceedingly functional. Well worth the price of being branded “stolen property.” But that’s just one man’s opinion.
___
Did we miss a “hot app” you’d like to talk about? Is there something you’d like to see Apple steal so it can do it better? Sound off in the comments below!
Looks like a WWDC pop.
Nice chart.
M$ is a great dividend play. I like dips.
BREAKING..Verizon joins AT&T...
Verizon reps push 4G Android over iPhone
By David Goldman @CNNMoneyTech May 3, 2012: 10:38 AM ET
http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/03/technology/verizon-iphone-sales/
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Want to buy an iPhone? Verizon would really, really like you to consider an alternative.
Anecdotal evidence is stacking up on chat forums and other outlets from people who say that Verizon Wireless' sales representatives actively discouraged them from buying an iPhone and instead pushed hard for rival smartphones.
"Went in to buy an iPhone 4s... but walked out with a Razr," is the headline of one typical post.
"Do sales reps hate the iphone?!" another asks.
I decided to find out for myself. I had 10 conversations with Verizon ( VZ, Fortune 500) sales representatives in New York stores, on the phone, and in online chat sessions, asking about my options for a new smartphone.
Here's what I found: Next time you walk into a Verizon store looking to buy a smartphone, expect the hard sell on a 4G Android device.
In each of the 10 discussions, representatives steered me toward either the Motorola ( MMI) Droid Razr Maxx, the Droid Razr, or the LG Lucid -- all 4G-capable phones running Google's ( GOOG, Fortune 500) Android software. When I asked if those devices were better than the iPhone, they responded that the iPhone was an inferior alternative because it only runs on the company's slower 3G network.
It's true that Verizon's iPhone is 3G-only. Apple doesn't yet make a version compatible with Verizon's 4G network, which potentially offers download speeds up to 10 times faster than on 3G.
"The iPhone is a great phone, but it's on 3G," said one representative at a Verizon Wireless store in midtown Manhattan. "I'm not going to recommend a phone that's outdated."
"The only drawback to the iPhone is it doesn't have 4G, and Verizon is really pushing 4G," another rep said on the phone. "Don't get me wrong, the iPhone is a great phone. It just costs the company a lot of money for returns when customers find out that a faster 4G network is available and the iPhone's only on 3G."
Related story: Which is the fastest iPhone carrier in your neighborhood?
I initially told half the representatives that I wanted "a new smartphone," and half that I was interested in an iPhone.
When I said up front that I wanted an iPhone, none tried to talk me out of it. But when I followed up by asking if it was the best smartphone, they all said no.
"If that's what you want, absolutely we'll order it," one rep said over the phone. "But my recommendation is 4G. I'd want the fastest, best technology that's not going to be outdated when I buy it."
"The Droid Razr Maxx is the faster of the two," another rep said in an online chat after I asked whether he thought the iPhone was my best bet.
Is Verizon asking its sales force to focus on iPhone alternatives? A company spokesman declined to give a direct answer.
"Our sales force's mission is to ensure customers are familiar with our product line and to match the customer with the right device to best meet their needs," Verizon Wireless spokesman Tom Pica said in a written statement. "At the end of the day, our goal is that every customer is delighted with the device that they have chosen."
Carriers have motives to favor some smartphones over others. Verizon and its rivals all pay much heftier up-front subsidies for the iPhone than for other devices. Verizon is also trying to ease congestion on its 3G network by promoting its more capacious and more efficient 4G service.
Yet AT&T ( T, Fortune 500), which faces similar margin and capacity constraints, pointed me directly to the iPhone each time I posed as a potential smartphone customer.
"It's all about the 4S now," one AT&T rep said over the phone, unprovoked. "The iPhone is the most popular phone, you know what you're getting, and it's a status symbol you can't get anywhere else."
A spokeswoman from Apple ( AAPL, Fortune 500) declined to comment for this story, but CEO Tim Cook addressed some of the company's general issues with carriers on a conference call with analysts last month.
The iPhone has some distinct advantages for carriers over competing smartphones, he said, including "far better data efficiency." He added that iPhone customers are the least likely to leave their current carrier and defect to another, something Sprint ( S, Fortune 500) CEO Dan Hesse also said in a recent interview.
"At the end of the day, I think that carriers -- the vast majority of carriers, or maybe even all carriers -- want to provide what their customers want to buy," Cook said.
Buy Intel, Microsoft as They Prepare Assault on Apple
By Rocco Pendola | TheStreet.com
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/buy-intel-microsoft-prepare-assault-194200377.html
NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Intel INTC and Microsoft MSFT have been the sleeping dogs of the stock market. In a world where we measure everybody else against Apple AAPL , recent results are telling. In 2011, AAPL returned over 25%. INTC increased by just over 15% and MSFT dropped by more than 5%. While AAPL still reigns supreme, the tide has begun to turn. As of Monday's close, AAPL is up 42% YTD, compared to 20% and 16% pops for MSFT and INTC, respectively. Over the last month, both MSFT and INTC have outperformed AAPL. AAPL has struggled to retest the highs it set prior to earnings in early April. While this does not spell impending doom for Apple, consider it a harbinger of things to come over the long term. Intel and Microsoft are -- finally -- doing all the right things. If anyone was ever going to wake up and provide Apple with legitimate competition, it was these two sleeping dogs. And their push should help weaker companies such as a whole slew of PC makers, Nokia NOK and Barnes & Noble BKS , not only stay alive, but turn things around. To drive this point home, consider hockey's sleeping dog, and the results of him getting some ice time. If you follow the NHL Playoffs at all, you likely know that Alex Ovechkin scored the game winner Monday night in Washington's victory over the New York Rangers. For a whole host of reasons, Ovechkin is not getting much ice time. In fact, in last night's game, he only played 13 minutes, 36 seconds. Capitals coach Dale Hunter has a whole host of good reasons for limiting his use of Ovechkin and fellow high-flyer Alexander Semin. Those explanations aside, Hunter turned the Russian superstar into a sleeping dog. And you know what happens when you wake sleeping dogs -- they make the most of every single shift and, more often than not, do serious damage. Intel and Microsoft are ready for a little ice time. Let's think about the billions Intel and Microsoft have spent over the last year:
Microsoft buys Skype.
Intel invests $300 million to push ultrabooks.
Intel invests in automotive technology.
Intel looks to move into the content game.
Microsoft invests billions in Nokia as well as Barnes and Noble's eBook/Reader business.
While Intel and Microsoft are not working directly together, their separate efforts will have profound impacts on Apple throughout the spaces in which the company runs. Despite what the headlines lead you to believe, Intel and Microsoft already dominate the laptop and desktop markets. Clearly, Apple -- thanks to the late Steve Jobs -- saw the future first and acted accordingly. Like Ovechkin for much of the regular season, it appeared that Intel and Microsoft merely had their heads down on the bench. While that might have been the case for a period of time, that lack of aggression is history. How Intel, Microsoft Will WinIntel has some new chips. Microsoft is about to hammer the market with a new operating system. Between the two, they'll power a new generation of not only PCs, but, more importantly, ultrabooks, ultrabooks that double as tablets, tablets and smartphones. If you don't believe me, just ask Walter Mossberg at The Wall Street Journal: Windows 8 is the real deal. Clouded by Apple's very real greatness, we often forget that Intel and Microsoft still dominate the computer market. That's not going to change anytime soon. While Mac sales might be increasing, they pale in comparison to the PC's market share. But Windows is no longer only about the PC. It's inclusion in ultrabooks and mobile gadgets has barely begun. Armed with the first truly cross-platform operating system from Microsoft and fresh chips from an obviously agitated Intel, the two companies will break Anroid's mobile foothold and chip away at Apple's tablet and smartphone market share around the world. Microsoft bought Skype and sunk cash into Nokia and Barnes and Noble for a reason. Intel is investing in several different directions with the same thoughts in mind. Just as my media favorites Rogers Communications RCI and Madison Square Garden MSG will dominate by owning and/or investing in every piece of the food chain from content to delivery to real physical properties, Microsoft and Intel will succeed by embracing the reality of a cross- and multi-platform world. It's no longer enough to build chips for computers or design an operating system for students and professionals. Everything you do needs to be seamless, cutting across the various lives of business and pleasure we all lead. Apple, almost solely because of Steve Jobs, gets this. In fact, Jobs invented "this." Microsoft and Intel finally got the message. This makes them both screaming long-term buys. And their resurgence turns stocks like NOK and BKS into worthy speculative plays. As for AAPL, I would hardly call it a sell, but the sleeping giants and their not-so-small beneficiaries will have something to say about those way-too-lofty $1,000 price targets.
I wish they would tank below $28 to pick up more divvy shares.
AT&T Confirms Verizon's Theory: iPhones Hurt
By Anders Bylund
April 24, 2012
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/04/24/att-confirms-verizons-theory-iphones-hurt.aspx
What's good for the goose is most certainly not always good for the gander.
Before its after-hours earnings report, shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL ) plunged, shaving about $9 billion off the world's largest market cap. The culprit is formerly staunch Apple partner AT&T (NYSE: T ) , whose own shares rose 4% on a terrific earnings report.
Yeah, you read that right: AT&T's good news is bad for Apple. Ma Bell beat analyst estimates in the first quarter, with earnings of $0.60 per share on $31.8 billion in sales. Margins expanded nicely, in part thanks to fewer iPhone sales than expected. AT&T sold a record number of smartphones, but the 4.3-million-iPhone haul left many analysts scratching their heads.
Wham, bam, thank you, Apple
Isn't it obvious, though? Verizon (NYSE: VZ ) reported similar trends last week, leaning less on Apple sales and reaping the margin rewards. AT&T has changed its marketing tactics and now treats a Windows phone by Nokia (NYSE: NOK ) as the smartphone to end all smartphones -- and that model comes with far smaller subsidy costs than the iPhone. that model comes with far smaller subsidy costs than the iPhone.
So AT&T and Verizon have found a magic bullet to boost their bottom lines, and it involves selling smartphones with stronger margins for the carriers. Imagine that -- the gatekeepers of mobile services could benefit from selling more profitable products. I think they just might do more of that from now on. The mobile networks have milked Apple for consumer attention for a few years, and now they're ready to move on to more profitable pastures.
From bad to worse
Apple can react to this obvious trend in two ways:
Stay the course on pricing and hope that consumers seek out the iPhone even without marketing help from the network providers. Or …
Ship out phones with a smaller price tag, putting Apple's profit margins more in line with what Samsung or Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI ) would make from each handset sold. Yes. Motorola and Sammy make money on their handsets. But their margins are far thinner than Apple's. By some estimates, Apple currently reaps 80% of all profits in the handset market despite relatively modest market share measured in revenue and units.
The first option is an exercise in futility. Just look at Nokia's presence in the American market, where the Windows-based Lumia 900 is the first Nokia smartphone to get a helping hand. You might need a microscope to find the Finnish carrier.
The second choice would puncture Apple's biggest cash cow right away. iPhone profits would start moving out of Cupertino and into the coffers of network carriers. Either way, I think this is the beginning of the end of Apple's astounding cash machine. Even if the next iPhone update turns out to be a stunner, the easy road to riches is filling up with brambles and beasts. This is great news for telecom investors and not so good for Apple owners. And there's nothing Apple can do about it, since the carriers hold all the cards.
Adding insult to injury, the telecoms also treat their investors with more respect. AT&T spent $4.7 billion on dividends and share buybacks this quarter, for a dividend yield of 5.7% and an annualized direct return of cash to shareholders of $18.8 billion. That leaves Apple's recent promise of returning $15 billion a year to shareholders looking stingy, especially in the light of Apple's seemingly bulletproof cash flows. Learn more about rock-solid dividend stocks in this free report, including a detailed rundown of AT&T's generous policies. But the report won't be free much longer, so grab yours right now.
BREAKING NEWS..The Woz, cofounder of Apple, Proud Nokia Lumia 900 owner, and raving Windows Phone fan.
He shows us that he carried two Apple iPhones (both 4S), a Motorola DROID RAZR and, to our surprise at the time, a Nokia Lumia. It was a Lumia smartphone running Microsoft Windows 7.5 Mango. This podcast is at our lunch while Steve laid his four phones down for us. Blew our minds that he chose the Nokia Lumia — a Windows 7 phone — as his favorite of the four. He said it was no contest.
"I'm kind of shocked. Every screen is much more beautiful than the same apps on Android and iPhone."
“Intuitive and beautiful”
“I’m just shocked; I haven’t seen anything yet that isn’t more beautiful than the other platforms”
“It makes me feel ‘Oh my gosh, I’m with a friend, not a tool’”
"I also surmised that Steve Jobs might have been reincarnated at MS (Microsoft)"
BREAKING..Nokia Lumia 900 launch delayed in UK due to “overwhelming demand …in the USâ€
April 25, 2012 | By Surur
http://wmpoweruser.com/nokia-lumia-900-launch-delayed-in-uk-due-to-overwhelming-demand-in-the-us/
Nokia has told v3.co.uk that the UK version of the Nokia Lumia 900 has been delayed to the 14th May due to difficulty keeping the handset in stock in USA.
"The overwhelming demand for the Lumia 900 in the US with AT&T has, unfortunately, had a small knock-on effect on product availability in the UK," the Nokia spokesperson said.
"The Lumia 900 is now expected to be available from Phones4U around the 14th May."
Nokia has not released any figures for the US launch but has said that sales have exceeded expectations and the company is having difficulty meeting demand. Hopefully some of this hype will spill over into UK, where according to Nokia the Lumia range has been having difficulty cracking the market.
OH MY..Nokia ‘Lumia 900' Sees 1M(AT&T) Q2 Run Rate, Says Town Hall
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2012/04/23/nokia-lumia-900-sees-1m-q2-run-rate-says-town-hall/
By Tiernan Ray Nokia‘s ( NOK) “Lumia 900,†the smartphone developed with Microsoft ( MSFT), and which went on sale a few weeks ago exclusively at AT&T ( T), is “selling at a run rate in excess of 1 million units for Q2, 2012,†writes Jamie Townsend with Town Hall Investment Research today in a note to clients.
That’s a good thing, he writes.
“In our view, this would significantly exceed AT&T’s and street estimates for the 900 and indicate that the Nokia/Microsoft alliance is showing early signs of success.â€
Writing that Lumia’s “share momentum†will be “a very gradual progress at best,†and that Nokia’s Q1 report last week showed “very little in the way of encouragement that the company is on the verge of a recovery,†nevertheless, Townsend is sticking by a Buy recommendation he assigned on March 30th.
The recovery, if there is to be any, hangs entirely on Lumia, he writes, and Townsend cites data from research firm ABI Research, which in turn is based on feedback from a Windows Phone developer:
In this regard, we were intrigued by a recent analysis from Aapo Markkanen, Senior Analyst with ABI Research. In a brief Insight, Aapo alluded to a recent blog post from an independent app developer, FourBros Studio. In the post, FourBros highlighted its recent success with Taptitude, a free game on WP7. It further highlights how the app’s user base was split among different WP7 devices over the last thirty days. Aapo then took the data, made some assumptions and came up with the conclusion that Lumia 900 sales at AT&T are tracking at a level in excess of 1 million for Q2, 2012. Should this be accurate, we believe it would significantly exceed street expectations for the Lumia 900 and be the first real indicator of potential success for Nokia and Microsoft.
Nokia shares today are down 5 cents, or 1%, at $3.65.
OH MY..Nokia ‘Lumia 900' Sees 1M(AT&T) Q2 Run Rate, Says Town Hall
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2012/04/23/nokia-lumia-900-sees-1m-q2-run-rate-says-town-hall/
By Tiernan Ray Nokia‘s ( NOK) “Lumia 900,†the smartphone developed with Microsoft ( MSFT), and which went on sale a few weeks ago exclusively at AT&T ( T), is “selling at a run rate in excess of 1 million units for Q2, 2012,†writes Jamie Townsend with Town Hall Investment Research today in a note to clients.
That’s a good thing, he writes.
“In our view, this would significantly exceed AT&T’s and street estimates for the 900 and indicate that the Nokia/Microsoft alliance is showing early signs of success.â€
Writing that Lumia’s “share momentum†will be “a very gradual progress at best,†and that Nokia’s Q1 report last week showed “very little in the way of encouragement that the company is on the verge of a recovery,†nevertheless, Townsend is sticking by a Buy recommendation he assigned on March 30th.
The recovery, if there is to be any, hangs entirely on Lumia, he writes, and Townsend cites data from research firm ABI Research, which in turn is based on feedback from a Windows Phone developer:
In this regard, we were intrigued by a recent analysis from Aapo Markkanen, Senior Analyst with ABI Research. In a brief Insight, Aapo alluded to a recent blog post from an independent app developer, FourBros Studio. In the post, FourBros highlighted its recent success with Taptitude, a free game on WP7. It further highlights how the app’s user base was split among different WP7 devices over the last thirty days. Aapo then took the data, made some assumptions and came up with the conclusion that Lumia 900 sales at AT&T are tracking at a level in excess of 1 million for Q2, 2012. Should this be accurate, we believe it would significantly exceed street expectations for the Lumia 900 and be the first real indicator of potential success for Nokia and Microsoft.
Nokia shares today are down 5 cents, or 1%, at $3.65.
Microsoft’s Earnings Surpass Expectations By NICK WINGFIELD Published: April 19, 2012
After Hours: 31.94 0.93 (3.00%) 5:03PM EDT - Nasdaq Real Time Price
And might I add, Apple Inc. (AAPL)-NasdaqGS 587.44 20.90(3.44%) X-D
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/technology/microsofts-earnings-surpass-expectations.html
SEATTLE — Microsoft said Thursday that its quarterly revenue rose 6 percent on strong sales of its software to businesses, but the company showed weakness in videogames and other newer areas of investment.
In one of the most surprising developments, Microsoft said sales of its flagship software product, Windows, rose 4 percent in the fiscal third quarter, which ended on March 31. Analysts were expecting a drop in the business because of broader industry data showing weakness in the personal computer business.
Microsoft reported a decline in net income to $5.11 billion, or 60 cents a share, compared with $5.23 billion, or 61 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. That decline was mainly due to a tax benefit of $461 million that Microsoft received last year, without which net income would have increased year over year.
Revenue rose to $17.41 billion, from $16.43 billion a year ago.
Analysts were on average expecting the company to report earnings of 58 cents a share and revenue of $17.18 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
“We’re driving toward exciting launches across the entire company while delivering strong financial results,” Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, said in a statement. “With the upcoming release of new Windows 8 PCs and tablets, the next version of Office, and a wide array of products and services for the enterprise and consumers, we will be delivering exceptional value to all our customers in the year ahead.”
While its core franchises, Windows and Office, continue to gush profits for the company, Microsoft is struggling to adapt itself to some of the deeper changes in the technology industry in recent years, especially the shift to mobile devices. Microsoft’s longtime rival, Apple, has been the biggest beneficiary of that transition with products like the iPhone and iPad and, as a result, now boasts a market value more than twice that of Microsoft.
As it prepares to respond to the iPad with a new product called Windows 8, an earlier effort by Microsoft to counter the iPhone has not yet borne the fruit it intended. For more than a year, the company has been offering its Windows Phone operating system for smartphones, with little success. More recently, phones from the Finnish cellphone giant Nokia, including the Lumia 900, have hit the market with Windows Phone software to generally positive reviews.
Microsoft does not reveal sales figures from its mobile phone software business, including them in the results of a larger division that also includes its Xbox videogame business. That division saw sales drop 16 percent to $1.62 billion in the quarter due to a “soft gaming console market,” Microsoft said in a statement.
But in a sign of the difficulties still confronting Microsoft, its most important partner in the mobile business, Nokia, on Thursday said sales of its new Lumia phones had been “mixed,” with better results in the United States than in other markets like Britain.
BREAKING..Verizon eyes Microsoft push, Windows phones for holidays
NEW YORK | Thu Apr 19, 2012 8:24pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/20/us-verizon-microsoft-idUSBRE83I1B820120420
(Reuters) - Verizon Wireless plans to put its marketing weight behind Microsoft Corp's next mobile phone software to help develop a strong competitor to Apple Inc and Google Inc, according to the chief financial officer of Verizon Communications.
Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon and Vodafone Group Plc, already sells the Apple iPhone and many devices based on Google's Android software.
But Verizon's CFO Fran Shammo said the company wants a third strong software competitor in the mobile market where operators pay hefty subsidies for smartphones like the iPhone.
"We're really looking at the Windows Phone 8.0 platform because that's a differentiator. We're working with Microsoft on it," Shammo said in an interview following Verizon's earnings conference call.
Microsoft has not said anything publicly about the next update of its mobile software, but Windows Phone 8 -- codenamed 'Apollo' -- is expected on phones this holiday season.
The world's largest software maker has been working most heavily with carrier AT&T Inc on its latest Windows phones, but still only has 2 percent of the global smartphone market, according to research firm Gartner.
Shammo said that Verizon Wireless expects to have phones based on the next Microsoft software in time for the 2012 end of year holiday shopping season.
The executive suggested that Verizon could play a similar role with Microsoft as it did with Google's Android.
Verizon Wireless marketing played a big part in boosting the popularity of Android phones from manufacturers including Motorola Mobility, Samsung Electronics and HTC Corp. Verizon's Droid brand even managed to give a struggling Motorola a new lease of life.
Nokia is Microsoft's closest mobile partner as the Finnish company has bet its smartphone business on the U.S. company's software. But Nokia's fortunes have fallen sharply since it took up with Microsoft.
While Samsung and HTC both already sell phones based on Microsoft software, Motorola Mobility's future plans are uncertain as it is in the process of being bought by Google.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew. Additional reporting by Bill Rigby in Seattle, editing by Dave Zimmerman)
OH MY..Majority of new Lumia 900 converts are coming from Android or the iPhone
Posted on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 1:33 am EDT by Daniel Rubino
Filed under: Featured , News
Nearly 60% of those switching to Windows Phone due to the Nokia Lumia 900 or HTC Titan II were former iOS and Android owners. Apple brand-loyalty? We think not.
We ran a poll the other day asking users if they switched to Windows Phone due to the Lumia 900 or Titan II, what OS were they coming from. And although the poll is still technically open, with 3,462 votes tallied so far we can discern a distinct pattern forming from the results.
The majority of users, nearly 60%, are coming from a combo of former Android and iPhone owners with it neatly divided at a close 30% each. Blackberry users are evidently still holding on with just 10% and a nice healthy 14% of adopters were coming from non-smartphones.
While our pals at Crackberry spun it as hope for Blackberry 10 users, we imagine a lot of folks jumped that ship last quarter to either the iPhone or Android, leaving the diehards (or still contract-bound) behind. Personally, we think RIM is DOA and look forward to a Microsoft acquisition at a rock bottom price (insert maniacal laughter).
The Android/iPhone results are interesting only because we're seeing what looks to be equal amount of folks taking up Windows Phone, leaving in the dust the notion that Apple has stronger brand loyalty than any other company.
One could also interpret the results as the Lumia 900 piquing interest from all segments of the smartphone market, represented in a roughly proportional manner. That's good news for Windows Phone as an OS and better news for Nokia who seem more than capable of garnering media attention on a wide scale. That is something the likes of Samsung and HTC have not been able to do in part because of their divided interest between Android and Windows Phone.
With the Lumia 900 seemingly selling very well (and yes, it's still number #1 and #3 on Amazon Wireless) the question now is will it maintain that momentum over the coming weeks?
We think with the glossy-white 900 set for this Sunday, April 22nd it will certainly create even more interest and those rumors of a magenta version for Mother's Daycould also do wonders for the brand. We'll revisit this issue next month.
OH MY..And they said no-one would upgrade from an iPhone to a Nokia Lumia 900…
April 16, 2012 | By Surur
http://wmpoweruser.com/and-they-said-no-one-would-upgrade-from-an-iphone-to-a-nokia-lumia-900/
"RIP iPhone. Nokia Lumia 900, welcome to the World."
There is the rather persistent belief that Windows Phone and the Nokia Lumia 900 in particular is not a viable alternative to the other major smartphone operating systems, and that buyers would mainly be upgrading from feature phones. However this little video shows that not everyone feels this way – for some a smooth, reliable and LTE equipped device is worth more than being part of the turtle-neck ecosystem.
Lets hope we see a lot more such videos in the near future.
Mac OS X Snow Leopard users screwed. Apple releases Flashback malware removal tool, for OS X Lion only
By Ed Bott | April 15, 2012, 5:39am PDT
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/apple-releases-flashback-malware-removal-tool-for-os-x-lion-only/4786
Summary: In its ongoing battle against the widespread Flashback malware attack, Apple has released a standalone removal tool. The utility is available only for users of the most recent version of OS X who have chosen not to install Java.
In its ongoing battle to clean up the Flashback malware mess, Apple has now released a standalone removal tool.
The downloadable utility is available exclusively for Mac owners running OS X Lion. It will not run on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or earlier versions.
A description and download link are available here. The accompanying security bulletin says “This update is recommended for all OS X Lion users without Java installed.”
A Java update released on Friday, in separate downloads for OS X Lion and Snow Leopard, includes the ability to remove the malware from systems where it’s present, while simultaneously fixing the underlying vulnerability. Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 8 is the only Apple-supported method for removing Flashback from systems running Snow Leopard, where Java is installed automatically and cannot be removed.
This standalone tool is intended for users of OS X Lion who never installed Java but might have become infected anyway, perhaps by one of the earlier Flashback variants. Versions of the Flashback malware in circulation last fall were delivered using social engineering, with the malware installer disguised as a fake Flash updater. The widespread version that infected the large number of Macs this year installs silently without any user interaction when the user visits a compromised web page. The exploit takes advantage of an unpatched vulnerability in Apple’s Java runtime engine.
The text of the security update is here:
About Flashback malware removal toolThis Flashback malware removal tool that will remove the most common variants of the Flashback malware.
If the Flashback malware is found, a dialog will be presented notifying the user that malware was removed.
In some cases, the Flashback malware removal tool may need to restart your computer in order to completely remove the Flashback malware.
This update is recommended for all OS X Lion users without Java installed.
The Flashback malware removal tool can be obtained using Software Update pane as well.
The download file is named FlashbackMalwareRemover.dmg. Its SHA-1 digest is d4372b9bb14387a20567817ab7e03ea103fdffc2.
So far, Apple has confined its communication on Flashback exclusively to support pages. There is no mention of the malware on its home page, and the company has not issued any press releases. An earlier support bulletin, “About Flashback malware,” has been updated to include a mention of the standalone removal tool. It also notes Apple’s separate efforts to disable the network of control servers for the Flashback botnet:
In addition to the Java vulnerability, the Flashback malware relies on computer servers hosted by the malware authors to perform many of its critical functions. Apple is working with ISPs worldwide to disable this command and control network.
Apple has not officially acknowledged the discontinuation of support for users of pre-Snow Leopard versions of OS X. Under the “Additional information” heading in its bulletin describing the Flashback malware, the company says: “For Macs running Mac OS X v10.5 or earlier, you can better protect yourself from this malware by disabling Java in your web browser(s) preferences.”
Several security companies have reported the discovery of a different malware variant that appears to attack the same Java vulnerability. Like Flashback, this new Trojan requires no user interaction to infect your Apple Mac. Kaspersky refers to it as “Backdoor.OSX.SabPub.a” while Sophos calls it at “SX/Sabpab-A.”
OH MY..Did The Woz buy a Lumia 900?
http://www.neowin.net/news/did-the-woz-buy-a-lumia-900
Nokia update: Much better experience this time than late on the Monday the phone was introduced:
The good:
All AT&T employees now wearing Nokia Lumia 900 shirts. The entire stores are veritable ads for the Lumia 900
All AT&T employees can now have a Lumia 900 free of charge (90 days).
Corporate plan is that 60% of all AT&T staff will have the phone.
Absolutely georgeous display demos going on the LM900s now. Stunning. Best presented phone in the house. Better than the moving ads on the iPads in the Apple store.
I was demo-ed the camera. It is excellent. Front facing camera is fantastic too. I appear to have been wrong about any sorts of possible problems I was initially wary of.
I swear I didn't think anybody made an AMOLED better than Samsung. I was wrong; the Lumia clearview display is the best I've ever seen; the colors are stunning.
The phone feels great to hold in the hand, light and well balanced. The 4G LGE is something to behold coming from a 3G Samsung Focus.
This trip I met staffers who had owned the Lumia 900 phone for some time (before even commercially available) and loved it to death. None experienced in their personal units the connection problems that were subject of the recall.
It appears AT&T is quite serious about repeating their success strategy of the iPhone this time with Windows Phone. Get a top end, show-stopper that no one else has, and win customers with it. It seems like a good idea, but since some Nokia handsets and Windows phones - albeit not as impressive as the Lumia 900, are available elsewhere, its probably not quite the draw the iPhone was.
The bad
Still no Internet access on the in-store phones. I think the units in the store perhaps were subject of the defect. This was disappointing to me, although the personal units of the staffers worked fine.
The phone is not available for walk-out purchase. All stock was recalled for the software update. Purchased phones would be shipped a few days later.
I think AT&T may be getting their act together on this
.
Store greeting. Guess what phone rules here?
AT&T staffer, very proud Lumia 900 owner. Well informed; loved to show off his personal phone.
Experience Windows 8 Metro UI on iPad with Splashtop
M$ is a dividend growth firm just like the other boring ones like AFL APD BMS CL CLX EMR GPC ITW KO MCD MDT MMM PEP PPG SYY WAG WMT.
Disclosure: I am long in all above, including MSFT except for APD.
BBH Core Select fund picks Microsoft over Apple
Apple, whose market capitalization briefly topped $600 billion on Tuesday, has seen its stock gain 63 percent in the last six months. A few Wall Street analysts expect it to breach the $1,000-per-share mark in a year or two.
In comparison, shares of Microsoft -- the only other company to have crossed the $600 billion market capitalization level -- have risen only about 13 percent during the same period.
BBH Core Select returned about 2.29 percent in March, short of the 3.29 percent returned by the S&P 500, its benchmark.
More at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/11/us-bbhcore-idUSBRE83A11Q20120411
Yea, I'm trying to digest that in my mind.
Back to the Colbert Report..
How has that worked out for ya?
BREAKING..Nokia’s Lumia 900 is Amazon’s Best-Seller
Posted: April 9, 2012 at 12:44 pm
http://247wallst.com/2012/04/09/nokias-lumia-900-is-amazons-best-seller-amzn-nok-msft-t-goog-aapl/#ixzz1raThbizr
Why are the above four messages in the sticky column?
BREAKING..Malware Authors Get Boost from Apple's Sluggish Updates, Infect 600K Macs
http://www.dailytech.com/Malware+Authors+Get+Boost+from+Apples+Sluggish+Updates+Infect+600K+Macs/article24401.htm
Jason Mick (Blog) - April 6, 2012 8:40 AM
Apple refuses to let Oracle patch Java directly, cybercriminals celebrate 2 months of easy hunting
If you have a Mac and you browse the internet, there's a chance your "secure" Apple, Inc. ( AAPL) computer may have been compromised, allowing hackers to use your computer as part of a botnet to spread spam and launch distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks.
I. Half a Million Macs Infected
A report by security firm Dr Web claims to have discovered at least 600,000 Macs to be infected by "Flashback" the latest in a growing deluge of Mac malware [ 1][ 2][ 3][ 4] [ 5].
The new malware first takes root by masqerading as a Flash player update, which many users haplessly approve. It then does various devious and dastardly deeds, depending on the variant.
Early versions disabled XProtect, Apple's pseudo-secret antivirus program, which it quietly slipped in version 10.6.7. The crippling of the protector program was a multi-step sophisticated process where the trojan first decrypted a file attached to the program, then decrypted the path of the updater binary, and finally stopped the updater daemon and overrwrote key files.
The latest version v39, has even more dangerous capabilities:
Systems get infected with BackDoor.Flashback.39 after a user is redirected to a bogus site from a compromised resource or via a traffic distribution system. JavaScript code is used to load a Java-applet containing an exploit. Doctor Web's virus analysts discovered a large number of web-sites containing the code.
The exploit then reportedly downloads other malicious programs to control the computer, conscripting it into the authors' botnet. Typically every program installed on the Mac requires user permission to install, a process similar to the user account control (UAC) warnings in Windows. However, after the Java exploit, users no longer receive such warnings about the malware installations.
II. Apple Moves Sluggishly to Fix Gaping Holes
In recent months Flashback has been exploiting three specific known Java vulnerabilties. Oracle Corp. ( ORCL) had fixed these vulnerabilities way back on Feb. 14, but Mac users did not have access to the free protection as Apple does not allow Oracle to directly update its machines.
Instead Mac users had to wait until 4/4/2012 -- this Wednesday -- to receive a patch for the last of the flaws. A second update was released yesterday, according to security firm Intego. Given that there are commonly other flaws that are patched by Oracle, but not on Macs, these latest patches are likely only to slow -- not stop -- the malware.
In addition, Apple does not automatically install such critical updates on users machines. Rather it prompts them that the update is available in OS X, then allows them to install the update at their own convenience. As a result, many users may never patch the flaws or go weeks unprotected. This contrasts with Microsoft who forces users to endure the occasional nightly reboot in the name of security.
Apple has long practiced a negligent approach when it comes to security. Where Microsoft rewards developers who point out potential security flaws, Apple bans them.
III. Macs -- Not That Safe Anymore
Apple users, like Linux users, long trumpeted their platform's "superior security". Even Apple joined in this fun, attacking veteran operating system maker Microsoft Corp. ( MSFT). While there was some truth in these claims, it was largely due to Apple's miniscule market share -- malicious hacking tends to be profit-motivated and spending a whole lot of work to infect a small portion of a few million machines seemed a lot less attractive than being able to infect hundreds of millions of machines with Windows-geared exploits.
But Apple has risen in market share, shipping 16.8m Macs in its fiscal 2011 (which ended in calendar Q3 2011). Now it's learning the pain Microsoft felt for years.
Many Apple users blindly believe their favorite company will protect them sufficiently. In reality Apple does less than Microsoft to protect its users. [Image Source: Eater]
Apple's reaction has been slow at best. Apple still insists on redistributing third parties security updates, but does so at a leisurely pace, endangering its users. At the same time, the company was revealed to have been instructing its technicians to lie to users and not tell them if their systems are infected.
Timur Tsoriev, an analyst at Kaspersky Lab tells BBCNews, "People used to say that Apple computers, unlike Windows PCs, can't ever be infected - but it's a myth."
Unfortunately many Mac users don't realize that, faithfully believing that Apple is delivering them superior protection. Sadly their faith is misplaced.Sources: Dr Web, BBCNews
Lumia 900: How Nokia And Microsoft Become Disruptors
Posted by Sarah Rotman Epps on April 5, 2012
http://blogs.forrester.com/sarah_rotman_epps/12-04-05-lumia_900_how_nokia_and_microsoft_become_disruptors
The Nokia Lumia 900—the hero product from Microsoft’s premier Windows Phone partner — hits AT&T stores on April 8. In advance of the launch, the reviews have come rolling in. Mossberg focuses on the flaws, and while nothing he’s written is inaccurate, I can say as a consumer that I find that the joys of the product outweigh its shortcomings. I will say it loud and say it proud: I love my Windows Phone. I liked the HTC Trophy (awful camera notwithstanding); I like the Samsung Focus Flash (a bargain at $0.99, with contract); and Nokia brings the platform to a new level with more sophisticated hardware.
Now, with my consumer hat off and my analyst hat on, what I’ve been thinking about lately is the product strategy and product marketing behind the Lumia launch. Nokia and Microsoft have done many things right: They’ve built a great product. They’ve picked the right price — launching a premium product at an approachable $99 sends a message of both humility (we know we’re coming from behind) and savvy (this product is cheap enough to entice unbetrothed consumers to try something new). Their pricing strategy for T-Mobile’s Lumia 710, at $49, was equally smart and has paid off in reportedly brisk sales. Overall, though, Lumia sales across the product line pale in comparison to, say, the iPhone 4S, whose first day of preorder sales equaled analyst estimates of Lumia handsets in their first two months on the market. Launching Lumia at a major US carrier, as well as in China, the world’s largest smartphone market, gives it a chance to gain momentum but also raises the stakes if it fails.
The smartphone market is ripe for disruption — Palm is dead, Symbian is sunsetting, RIM is faltering, and every player in the ecosystem (other than Google and Apple) wants a third player to wedge between Google and Apple. Windows Phone, led by Nokia, can — and should — be the market disruptor, but doing so requires overcoming two challenges:
Paying off the channel. I walked into a Verizon store two weeks ago to replace my broken HTC Trophy, and the salesperson did everything he could to dissuade me from buying another Windows Phone and suggested I buy a 4G Droid instead. At AT&T (which had three models of Windows Phones, compared with Verizon’s one, but did not yet have Nokia models), the salesperson was more accommodating and enthusiastic about WP. If you walk into a T-Mobile store, you can’t ignore the images of the Lumia 710 plastered everywhere. What it means: Channel matters. He who pays the operator sells the phone. Judging from how Nokia has approached promotion at T-Mobile, Nokia’s Windows Phones will sell much better than HTC’s or Samsung’s have.
Targeting the right customer. Nokia’s product marketing is targeted at the vast number of consumers who don’t yet have smartphones. While I see the wisdom of picking a target market whose numbers are large, I also have concerns about this strategy. Not only must Nokia get consumers who don’t yet have data plans to pay for one (a huge ask in a still-soft economy), it also must sell them on the virtues of an operating system that’s less familiar than Apple’s or Google’s. A more disruptive — and in my view, more achievable — goal is for Nokia and Microsoft to convert every BlackBerry user to Windows Phone within two years. BlackBerry users already pay for data, and they’ve consciously or unconsciously opted not to buy into Apple or Google’s ecosystem thus far. And RIM itself acknowledges that it won’t have its next-gen products ready anytime soon. Cash for Curves, I say!
Taking over RIM’s dwindling but still significant smartphone market share — 8.2% globally in Q4 2011, according to IDC — would be a modest but achievable gain for Windows Phone. That takeover, combined with converting some portion of Symbian users to WP — especially in China and India, where Symbian is still strong — positions Nokia and Microsoft as a viable third platform and a foil for Google-Apple hegemony. In the dog-eat-dog smartphone market, viability in itself can be disruptive.
In what way?
Has M$ officially released W8?