Rumor has it there are big games going on this weekend–at least one of which involves football players. The rest involve the usual players, though they might appear in different positions–and on different teams–from week to week. These games, most likely, will continue through Monday and beyond. Scores will be kept on an ongoing basis.
With little in the way of exciting news to announce, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s CES keynote address tonight promised to be a lackluster, if not downright wearisome affair–even if you’re unnaturally excited by the idea of Windows 7. And so it was, by and large. With the beta version of the operating system widely leaked last week, there wasn’t all that much to reveal. Unless, of course, Windows 7 PCs–like Vista PCs before them–ship with XP downgrade rights…
After market close Thursday, Motorola posted a loss of $397 million, or 18 cents a share, and said it will sack 3,000 employees this quarter and next as it cuts costs, reorganizes its mobile devices business and generally tries to reverse its continued descent into the maelstrom.
The arduous task of reversing the ongoing collapse of Motorola’s post-Razr phone business will begin with thousands of layoffs and a big bet on Google’s Android mobile operating system. Sanjay Jha, Motorola’s new co-chief executive and head of mobile devices, is expected to announce a major overhaul of the company’s cellphone division when it reports earnings Thursday. And sources close to the company say it will include a new round of job cuts and the jettisoning of four software platforms.
Just because Microsoft acquired Danger doesn’t mean the company has its eye on Research in Motion, though some observers apparently feel otherwise. Noting the ugly decline in RIM’s share price in recent months and a financial crisis that’s already slowing the corporate IT spending that is its lifeblood, Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek speculates that the Blackberry peddler is a good takeover target for Microsoft.
Looks like somebody’s got a case of the Mondays–Research in Motion. Shares in the company slipped more than 6 percent to a new 52-week low today. This after charting a new 52-week low last Friday driven by the 27 percent drop they took after RIM issued a lower-than-expected forecast for the current period. That decline was the company’s steepest in eight years and belied CEO Jim Balsillie’s claims that emerging competition from new handset makers isn’t undermining RIM’s competitive position.
With Apple’s much lauded iPhone having captured about 19.2% of the smart-phone market, expectations were high in advance of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’s keynote at the company’s World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco. And Jobs did not disappoint, unveiling the iPhone 3G, which will go on sale July 11 for $199.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Best use of the Beeker “meee” ever.
While the technology behind the Telephone is new, the design is reassuringly old-fashioned, reminiscent of a phrenologist’s horn or ear-candle in form. We found the experience far more comfortable than the one we had with the Telegraph.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
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