New In The News

China-based TCL Communication Technology Holdings plans to re-launch Alcatel-branded handsets in the China market before the end of this year, according to a company press release.

With Alcatel-Lucent recently signing a cooperation agreement with RIM (Research in Motion), the upcoming Alcatel-branded handsets will include a Blackberry-enabled model, according to sources close to the company.

There also will be a luxury model, the N3, which is jointly developed by Alcatel and Elle, the sources added.

TCL also reported that its handset shipments jumped 30% on year, to reach 3.6 million units in the third quarter of this year, including 1.2 million units shipped to the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) markets.

The company expects its handset shipments to grow 44% sequentially in the fourth quarter, with total shipments for all of 2007 to top 12-13 million units, the company said in the press release.

Total handset shipments are expected to hit 15-18 million units in 2008 and further expand to 25 million units in 2009, company CEO Liu Fei was quoted as indicating in the press release.

source: DigiTimes

Acer has filed patent infringement complaints with the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin and International Trade Commission against Hewlett-Packard (HP), according to a company press release.

The complaints filed on October 30, 2007 involve innovations related to personal computers, servers and peripheral devices, stated Acer, and are part of the company’s response to the “Hewlett-Packard v. Acer and Acer America” case (No. 2:07-CV-103).

With or without a legal proceeding, Acer persists to take all necessary steps to protect and enforce its patented technologies, stated the company.

source: DigiTimes

Global shipments of digital TVs (DTVs) are expected to reach 101 million units in 2007, up 38% from the 73 million units shipped in 2006, according to a Chinese-language DisplaySearch press release. DisplaySearch also estimates that the number of DTVs shipped worldwide will reach 167 million units in 2011, accounting for 76% of total TV shipments, up from 52% in 2007.

In terms of geographic regions, 96% of the TVs shipped in North America this year will be digital, and the share is expected to rise to 100% in 2008, according to DisplaySearch. Japan and Western Europe will not trail far behind this year, with DTVs accounting for 92.3% and 89.8% of the TV shipments in the respective regions.

Other regions, including China (44%) and Eastern Europe (40%) will have significantly lower shipment proportions this year, while regions including Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East will have proportions under 20%, according to DisplaySearch.

In the second quarter of 2007, Samsung had a 16.9% share of all digital TVs shipped worldwide, while Philips and LG Electronics followed behind with each having 8.7% of the market.

source: DigiTimes

Google’s acquisition of Jaiku, a small Finnish start-up active in the obscure and geeky field of microblogging - a word most often associated with the better-known company Twitter - might not appear to be an earth-shaking event.But the deal, announced in October, has much of the tech-tracking blogosphere buzzing with excitement. Some claim it is the harbinger of a brave, new and truly interconnected world, where a large chunk of our existence will migrate online.

To begin with, the reasoning goes, Jaiku is not really about microblogging - those mini-messages submitted by text or e-mail that made Twitter famous. Jaiku is “a mobile company in the business of creating smarter presence applications,” and therefore “a leader in a category most people haven’t fully grasped yet,” according Tim O’Reilly, a technology conference promoter who is credited with the phrase Web 2.0.

In the words of Petteri Koponen, one of the two founders of Jaiku, their service is a “holistic view of a person’s life,” rather than just short posts. “We extract a lot of information automatically, especially from mobile phones,” Koponen said by telephone from Mountain View, California, where the company is being integrated into the Googleplex. “This kind of information paints a picture of what a person is thinking or doing.”

In practical terms, Jaiku’s mobile application allows users to broadcast not only their whereabouts, but how the phone is being used, even what kind of music it is playing. This information is then published online as a “lifestream.”

read the rest here

A television commercial for Apple’s new iPod Touch, which began running in the United States on Sunday, was created by the longtime Apple agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day. But it is based on a commercial that an 18-year-old student in England - an Apple devotee named Nick Haley, who said he got his first Macintosh when he was 3 - created on his own one day last month.

His spot offers a fast-paced tour of the abilities of the iPod Touch, set to a song titled “Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex” by a Brazilian band, CSS.

Haley said he had been inspired to make the commercial by a lyric in the song, “My music is where I’d like you to touch.” He said he had based the visual elements on video clips about the iPod Touch and other new products, which can be watched on the Apple Web site. He uploaded his commercial to YouTube, where it received four stars out of a possible five.

Late last week, Haley’s spot had been viewed 2,131 times on youtube.com. Among the viewers, Apple executives said, were marketing employees at Apple in Cupertino, California, who asked staff members on the Apple account at TBWA/Chiat/Day to get in touch with Haley about producing a professional version of the commercial.
“I was sitting on the bus and I got this e-mail on my phone,” Haley, a native of Warwick, England, said last week in an interview from the University of Leeds, where he is a first-year student.

The message said, ” ‘We represent Apple, and we’ve seen what you have produced and we’d like a chat with you,’ ” Haley recalled. “This seemed ridiculous and far-fetched. My initial reaction was, someone wanted to steal it.”

He was soon convinced that the message was real and traveled to Los Angeles this month, his first visit to the United States, to work on a broadcast-ready version of his spot with creative executives at TBWA/Chiat/Day, part of the TBWA Worldwide division of the Omnicom Group.

Consumers creating commercials “is part of this brave new world we live in,” said Lee Clow, chairman and chief creative officer at TBWA Worldwide, based in Los Angeles.

“It’s an exciting new format for brands to communicate with their audiences,” Clow said. “People’s relationship with a brand is becoming a dialogue, not a monologue.”

The commercial based on Haley’s spot was seen during American football games Sunday afternoon and on shows that night, including “Desperate Housewives” and Game 4 of the World Series. It will also be shown in Europe and Japan.

YouTube visitors have flocked to watch Haley’s original spot since the professional version began running. As of Tuesday, the number of viewings was approaching 480,000.

As for how faithful the professional spot is to Haley’s version, Clow said, “we didn’t mess with his content” because “it has a charm to it, a youthful fun.”

The changes include more polished editing and filming the new version in high definition. “My input was totally respected,” Haley said, adding that he considered the agency’s commercial “pretty similar” to the original.

“This is my first taste” of advertising, he added, but offered a thoughtful response when asked what it means if consumers like him are willing to make commercials.

“That’s the whole point of advertising; it needs to get to the user,” Haley said. “If you get the user to make the ads, who better?”

source: Herald Tribune

The Google phone is inching closer to reality, with wireless handhelds running Google Inc. applications and operating software expected in the first half of 2008, several industry analysts said today.Some see Google’s model as revolutionary in the U.S., where nearly all customers buy their cellular phones from a wireless carrier and are locked into a contract with that carrier. But Google’s entry could signal a more open system where a customer buys the Google phone and then chooses a carrier, they noted.

The Wall Street Journal today cited unnamed sources and said that Google is expected to announce software within two weeks that would run on hardware from other vendors. The Google phone is expected to be available by mid-2008. The company did not comment.

Last week at the semiannual CTIA show in San Francisco, several analysts said they had heard rumors that Google would be offering software to Taiwan-based device maker High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) for the Google phone.

Today, Gartner Inc. analysts Phillip Redman said the rumor was still that the Google phone “is coming from HTC for next year, [with] 50,000 devices initially.”

HTC could not be reached for immediate comment.

Lewis Ward, an analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based market research company IDC, said Google is clearly working on software for a phone, but after making a presentation at CTIA on emerging markets last week, he said, “It didn’t sound like it was on HTC after all.”

Unlike several analysts who said that Google could face a fight from carriers opposed to open networks and open devices, Ward and Redman said some carriers will cooperate with Google. “It’s possible some carriers will work with Google,” Ward said. “AT&T seems to be more open already with its iPhone support and other things, while T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel may be more open than Verizon Wireless.”

Redman said that Google’s “brand is attractive, so I think there will be takers” for building hardware and for providing network support.

At CTIA, Ward said a Google phone would make a wireless portal out of what Google already provides on a wired network to a PC, such as maps, social networking and even video sharing.

“This is about Google as a portal,” Ward said last week. “This is fundamentally about wireless and wire-line converging.”

Ward said Google’s plans for its phone software are still up in the air. “What’s unclear also is whether it will be a Linux free and open [operating system] running on top of the hardware, with applets and widgets and search and all the advanced stuff that Google has done in the past.”

Jeffrey Kagan, an independent wireless analyst based in Atlanta, said many questions are raised by Google’s proposition, including what the phone could be named. “Will it be a regular phone, or will it be more like the Apple iPhone? How will customers pay for it? Will it be different from the traditional way we use and pay for wireless phones? There are so many questions,” Kagan said.

Like Apple Inc. with the iPhone, “Google could be very successful if they crack the code.” Kagan added. “The cell phone industry … is going through enormous change and expansion. Many ideas will be tried. Some will work, and some will fail.”

source: ComputerWorld.com

Good news Wii owners (myself included)! Will Wright, creator of games such as SimCity and The Sims, has announced his new game “Spore” is making its way onto the Wii. In his interview with The Guardian, Will states that “the Wii feels like a major jump – not that the graphics are more powerful, but that it hits a completely different demographic. In some sense I see the Wii as the most significant thing that’s happened, at least on the console side, in quite a while.”

Spore is not your average God Game. Its a game of evolution. You’re responsible for building up mere microscopic organisms into a space-farring race. Since the game will constantly update the ”Spore Metaverse” so to speak, there will be near unlimited planets, with different races, technologies, and attributes. A must play.  

Spore was named Best Game of E3 and is likely to be one of the best games of 2008. This is a highly anticipated game that mnay cannot wait for. This multi-platform game will be available for PC, Xbox 360, and now the Wii. Personally, I’ll probably get it for PC or 360, no offence nintendo. The Game’s release is slated for March 12, 2008.

Apple developers continue to hustle Leopard compatibility updates out the door.Chronos announced that its entire product line is now compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: SOHO Organizer, SOHO Notes, SOHO Business Cards, SOHO Labels & Envelopes, SOHO Signs, iScrapbook and F10 Launch Studio have all been updated to run on Apple’s latest operating system. Leopard-compatible versions are available for immediate download.

CS Odessa is also engaged in updating its software for Leopard, and has confirmed ConceptDraw Business Suite for Mac OS X 10.5 is available now, a suite consisting of: ConceptDraw 7, ConceptDraw Project 4 and MindMap 5.

Bitcartel Software has shipped PandoraJam 1, bringing Leopard support for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) for listeners of Pandora.com radio services. The software lets users stream music wirelessly, record audio for playback on iPods, and submit tracks to Last.fm.

Finally today, DssW, the leading developer of Mac energy saving software, today announced free Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) updates to its software. Power Manager, Sleep Monitor, and Energy Schedule, all of which have been updated to support Mac OS X 10.5.

“Our users are early adopters and environmentally conscious. DssW’s updates ensure that they can continue to save energy while adopting Apple’s latest operating system.” said Graham Miln, DssW’s director.

Power Manager 3.7 helps schools and businesses by allowing them to schedule their Macs to start, wake, shutdown, restart, log out, switch to the login window, and so on — which can offer impressive power savings for places with lots of Macs.

source: MacWorld

 Not much action in this episode, but nonetheless a great one. Wow Peter was in Canada for a whole 2 minutes! So Proud. Check out the full review below care of NBC.

Magic Link

Heroes S2 E6

Peter packs his things to head to Montreal where he believes the clues are leading. Caitlin insists on coming, too. In California, Claire tries out for cheerleading squad, but Debbie rejects her, adding, “You are not extraordinary.” Suresh works with Monica on her muscle-memory ability. Bob interrupts and orders Suresh to give Monica a form of the Shanti virus manipulated to end her ability without harming her. Suresh warns that such tinkering could mutate the virus and make it jump into the general population. When Claire worries about not getting on the cheerleading squad, West advises Claire to bring Debbie down a notch. Meanwhile, near the U.S. border, Sylar questions Maya about her ability and says he also once had power. Alejandro doesn’t trust their mysterious and seductive new traveling companion.

In the Ukraine, Noah and the Haitian arrive at the home of his former mentor Ivan where they tie him up and grill him about the missing Isaac paintings. Ivan, who trained Noah and Claude, denies knowing where they are located. Noah threatens to have the Haitian erase all of his most-treasured memories. After erasing many of Ivan’s memories, Ivan offers a deal: rejoin the Company and he’ll be safe. Suresh is about to give Monica a shot of the manipulated virus when he realizes he can’t do it. He tells Bob he’s leaving and smashes a cabinet filled with the serum. Meanwhile, Maya and her fellow travelers sneak across the border where they are threatened by the “Citizens Border Patrol.” Maya intentionally loses control and kills the patrol members. Alejandro warns Maya against Sylar and tells her the next time her eyes blacken, he’s leaving. Sylar flat-out says he plans on killing them both.

Claire pulls Debbie out of the cheerleaders’ drinking session to ask for another chance at making the squad. As they talk, a masked West flies in, grabs Claire, and drops her onto the stairs with a sickening thud. As Debbie looks on in horror, West swoops in for the final thrill. Later, the police don’t believe Debbie’s story, especially when Claire walks in like nothing happened. And because Debbie was caught drinking on school grounds, she’s kicked out of cheerleading and Claire gets to replace her. Bob apologizes to Suresh for asking him to inject Monica with an untried drug, claiming that he over-stepped his bounds because his mind has been on someone who is a true danger to them. To prevent “further misunderstandings,” Bob offers Suresh someone to be at his disposal.

Hiro, Kensei, and Yaeko creep into White Beard’s camp under the cover of darkness. Kensei battles his way through until the three of them find Yaeko’s father chained in a tent. Her father refuses to leave until he destroys the 1000s of illegal guns that White Beard has built based on his own instructions, for White Beard plots on taking over all of Japan. Kensei and his small army attack the camp. When a bullet is fired at Yaeko, Hiro stops time and brings her from the camp, and she realize that he was the one under the cherry blossoms and not Kensei. When she asks if he loves her, he says, “yes.” She leans in to kiss him, and regardless of the temporal fallout, he kisses her back as Kensei watches from the distance. When Noah threatens to erase Ivan’s memories of his dead daughter, Ivan caves and gives up the location of Isaac’s paintings. Noah then ransacks the apartment to make it look like a robbery before killing his former mentor. Kensei confronts Hiro about kissing Yaeko. Hiro says they are in love and that he didn’t mean for it to happen.

Hiro swears he won’t give into his love and that the kiss will be his last. But with Hiro’s back turned, Kensei punches him as henchman bring Yaeko out in chains. Bob escorts Monica home where he gives her a new cell phone, a packet of information, and the news that she’s enrolled in the Burger Bonanza management program. In New York, Suresh meets his new partner… Niki. Across the world, the Haitian and Noah uncover Issac’s paintings, none of which bode well for the future. Peter and Caitlin arrive in Montreal. In some kind of storage facility, Peter finds a note with his name on it: “You were right about the company. The world is in danger. It’s up to us. Adam.” Peter closes his eyes and hugs Caitlin. When he opens them, they are standing in a completely deserted Times Square…one year from now!

Looks like this is going to be THE GAME. Can it overshadow the giant known as Halo 3? We shall see. Here’s the review from the 1 player demo.

 OPM Review

Hulu sounds pretty promising. Full content and all we have to deal with a are a few commercials. Guess what, we already do that with TV. Its a joint operations from Fox and NBC, which means there will be plenty of 24 and Heroes. If I were Google, I might start thinking of something innovative…again. Below is an exerpt from the article

Fox and NBC, the American media companies, have given the first demonstration on their jointly owned online video service, which they hope will seize back the intitiative from YouTube’s all-powerful site.

Hulu.com, which is still in private testing, will become a platform for distributing professionally produced content on the internet, including new and old television programs as well as some films - all free of charge.

The hope is that users will want to access the two companies’ premium content - including 24 and The Simpsons from the Fox stable, and Heroes and The A-Team from NBC - and will be willing to watch adverts for the privilege of doing so.

Fox, which is owned by News Corporation, parent company of Times Online, and NBC, owned by General Electric, will distribute their content on the newly created site, as well on sites owned by five partners in the venture - Microsoft, AOL, MySpace and Comcast….Full Article

Source: Times Online

Times Online wrote and interesting article about how Google’s headline advertising revenues surpassed ITV1’s in the third quarter as the search engine demonstrated it could generate more money from sponsored links than 30-second commercials in Coronation Street.

An analysis for The Times shows that Google generated £327 million in advertising between July and September, compared with an estimated £317 million for all of ITV1 across the UK during the same three-month period.

That is the first quarter in which Google has overtaken Britain’s top commercial channel and came despite ITV1 reaping an advertising boost from the Rugby World Cup.

Google racked up £925 million in advertising revenue in the UK in the first nine months and is set to come in at about £1.25 billion for the year as it continues to expand. A year ago it generated £871 million, overtaking Channel 4, meaning that its UK annual growth is about 43.5 per cent.

ITV1 revenues, meanwhile, are expected to fall about 7 per cent this year, reflecting the channel’s underperformance of a mature television market. However, ITV1 is still likely to generate slightly more than Google for the year as a whole at about £1.3 billion but only because of its lead in the first half and the strength of its fourth-quarter sales.

ITV as a whole can still claim to be Britain’s biggest recipient of advertising because revenues will be about £1.45 billion this year with digital channels factored in. The search engine does not receive all the money it generates, passing on about 29 per cent to partners, meaning that on a net basis it will take nearly £1 billion for itself.

Nevertheless, the shift in the balance of power has led ITV to call for a reduction in the regulation it faces. Last month, Michael Grade, the executive chairman, said: “Google, whose advertising revenues have overtaken Channel 4’s and which has 75 per cent of the search advertising market, is wholly unregulated. Yet ITV labours under a host of anachronistic proscriptions about what it can and can’t do.”

A spokesman said: “Google operates in a highly competitive market. Online advertising faces stiff competition from television, radio, outdoor, newspaper and magazine advertising as well as direct marketing. Online ad spend accounts for only 11 per cent of overall advertising spend in the UK.”

There are also arguments that both businesses are complementary. Lorna Tilbian, an analyst at Numis Securities, said: “It’s frightening that Google is getting as big as ITV1 in what seems like a nanosecond. But the two companies are in different businesses — one in classified and the other in display. Google has largely increased in size in a way that has helped expand the pie.”

Advertising in the UK grew by 3.1 per cent to £9.1 billion in the first six months of this year, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau, using figures calcuated by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Without a 41 per cent increase in the value of online advertising, to £1.3 billion, total advertising would have fallen by 19 per cent.

ITV executives fall back on the mantra that television is a “brand builder”, while Google is a “brand finder” and that the commercial broadcaster has hosted a series of campaigns from online brands, such as Ask.com, the search engine, and eBay, the online auctioneer.

source: Times Online

Just Some Dexter Goodies, let me know by posting a comment if the links dont work.

 Enjoy! 

Dexter Novels By Jeff Lindsay

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Dearly Devoted Dexter

Dexter In The Dark

 The Series

Dexter Season 1

T-Mobile USA announced the upcoming availability of the T-Mobile Shadow, a handset designed and manufactured by HTC.

The T-Mobile Shadow is based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 platform and features a 2-megapixel digital camera and Wi-Fi and EDGE-enabled high-speed Internet access, according to T-Mobile.

The device will be available beginning October 31 in copper and sage colors.

source: DigiTimes 

I must say, this episode filled in a lot of gaps into Dexters past. It seems Harry, Dexters mentor and foster-father knew more about young Dexter and his mom than he led on. She was not only an informant for Harry, but also his lover. Now we know why Dexter was taken in, because he was directly responsible for her death. She wanted out, and Harry told her to carry on snitching. Dex also finds out that one of his mothers killers is still alive, and working at a bar. Now this is what is driving me crazy! He’s is too damn emotional! If you’ve read the book, you know he just doesn’t care! Now all of a sudden he’s crying and shaking and worst of all, not killing people!

There’s a really interesting scene in a comic shop where a murder takes place, where someone was actually writing a comic based off “The Bay Harbour Butcher”. The name is a lot more catchy however; “The Dark Defender” (seen above). Dex also notices a lot of people are giving “The Butcher” credit for killing. In one scene he overhears one guy telling his buddy that “This guys deserves a medal”. Others however, like Dexter’s dearest sis Deb, who “want to put a bullet through his head”.

I’m really enjoying how the tv show is twisting away from the book, but it saddens me to see what the writer is doing to Dexter’s personality. He’s making him emotional…he’s making him Human. I haven’t heard anything lately on his “Dark Passenger” with his “evil chuckles”.

 Overall this was an excellent episode, and is definately worth watching.

 Magic Link

Dexter S2 E5 “The Dark Defender”