Palm Shares Slump as Sales Forecast Trails Analysts’ Estimates
March 19 (Bloomberg) — Palm Inc., creator of the Pre smartphone, dropped as much as 17 percent in early U.S. trading after forecasting sales this quarter that were less than half of analysts’ estimates.
Revenue in the period ending in May will be less than $150 million, Chief Financial Officer Doug Jeffries said yesterday on Palm’s third-quarter conference call, compared with the $300 million average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The company also reported its 11th straight quarterly loss.
Palm started selling updated versions of its Pre and Pixi smartphones at Verizon Wireless in January, competing with Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry and Motorola Inc.’s Droid, which runs on Google Inc.’s Android software. In the quarter ended in January, Android’s share of the U.S. smartphone market more than doubled to 7.1 percent, while Palm’s fell to 5.7 percent from 7.8 percent, according to researcher ComScore Inc.
“Our recent underperformance has been extremely disappointing to me personally and the entire Palm team,” Chief Executive Officer Jon Rubinstein said yesterday on a conference call. “We’re very realistic about our near-term challenges, but the issues we’re facing are far from insurmountable.”
Neon Angels: The Runaways Movie
The new film The Runaways, opening in theaters today, tells the tale of five trailblazing female rockers who started the first seminal all-girl rock band in Los Angeles in the mid-‘70s. Led by guitarist Joan Jett and fronted by vixen-singer Cherie Currie, The Runaways played DIY rock with the same spite and conviction as the boys, changing a woman’s role in rock and roll forever — and paving the way for bands like The Go-Gos, L7 and The Donnas.
Based on Cherie Curie’s book Neon Angel: A Memoir of A Runaway, the film focuses on Cherie’s journey from humdrum teenage boredom to international rock stardom, and the perils that she falls prey to along the way. Cherie, portrayed flawlessly by Dakota Fanning, embraces the glamour and excitement of her new world only to discover not everything is what it seems.
The band’s Svengali-manager Kim Fowley sees dollar signs in the “jail-bait” rock group and manipulates their image to his liking, sexing up frontgal Cherie through naughty lyrics and sleazy photo shoots, causing rifts in the band with jealousy and a classic bout of lead singer syndrome.
Twilight star Kristen Stewart shows her range as an actress by playing a near-perfect Joan Jett with her tomboyish good looks and cool swagger, though Joan’s more rebellious moments find Kristen a tad too timid to scream and shout with believable aggression.
YouTube accuses Viacom of secretly uploading videos
Google has accused Viacom of secretly uploading videos to YouTube in an effort to support its copyright infringement claims against Mountain View.
In March 2007 the US media giant filed a $1bn lawsuit against Google, alleging the video-sharing site was responsible for Viacom-owned clips posted to YouTube.
Now, in the latest soap opera-like twist, YouTube chief counsel Zahavah Levine has claimed that Viacom hired firms to upload its videos to the Google-owned site to help bolster its copyright violation allegations.
“For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site,” wrote Levine in a scathing blog post that cites the unsealing of related court documents.
Lenovo U150 11.6-Inch Laptop Review
The new U150 notebook review offers the Lenovo U150 11.6-Inch Laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium,the Lenovo U150 features 11.6-inch 1366×768 LED Display (16:9); Intel GMA 4500MHD Graphics,2GB 204 Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM Memory ,160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM); 802.11 b/g an Ultralow Voltage Celeron processor from Intel and the latest technologies from Lenovo, the ultra-thin IdeaPad U150 notebook features long battery life, is just .5” thin and weighs just 3.31 lbs, yet it delivers a brilliant Windows 7 experience. With Windows 7 Lenovo Enhanced Experience certification, the U150 features fast boot and shutdown, rich multimedia capabilities and easy system maintenance tools. Best of all, it’s from Lenovo, makers of the award-winning ThinkPad notebook.Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
Sony VAIO VPC-EB12FX/T 15.5-Inch Laptop
The best Sony VPC Notebook PC review on the Sony VAIO VPC-EB12FX/T 15.5-Inch Laptop with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium,for $749.99 + Free Shipping,the Sony VAIO VPC-EB12FX/T has power by 2.1GHz Intel Core i3-330M Processor,4GB Memory; DVD+-R DoubleLayer / DVD±RW Drive; Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit).Performance and multimedia entertainment in a colorful and affordable 15.5-inch (diagonal) display (1366 x 768)Hard Drive. Plus,an Intel Core i3 processor gives you smart performance and amazing picture quality all in a sleek, up-market design,4GB of RAM & a 500GB Serial ATA HDD* HDMI out & instant Web buttonSpecifications,500GB /5400rpm/SATAMemory: 4GB (2GBx2/DDR3/1066MHz)Graphics (Video RAM): Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD Integrated
ASUS K50AF-X1 15.6-Inch Laptop Review
The Latest K50AF-X1 notebooks offers the ASUS K50AF-X1 15.6-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium,the ASUS K50AF-X1 is perfect fit for work and play,features 15.6″ HD LED Display (1366×768); ATI 5145 512MB DDR2 Graphics Card,And Powered by the AMD M520 (2.3GHz) processor, and 4GB of RAM, the K50AF-X1 supplies the horsepower for your versatile computing needs.The ATI 5145 512MB DDR2 dedicated graphics engine, a feature not typically found in laptop in this price range, enables smooth playback of videos and enables robust PC gaming.The K50AF-X1 comes with a 1 year global warranty, one month zero bright dot guaranty, free two-way standard shipping, twenty-four hour tech support seven days a week, and a one year accidental damage warranty.
Cell-phone ban for Georgia Tech as players try to tune out distractions
MILWAUKEE — After Georgia Tech practiced Thursday at the Bradley Center, players turned in their cell phones to their coaches. They will get them back once Georgia Tech finishes playing here this weekend.
The Yellow Jackets (22-12), seeded 10th, will play No. 7 seed Oklahoma State (22-10) Friday in a first-round game of the NCAA tournament.
The cell-phone ban is a way for players to put aside potential distractions and be more in tune with the team, according to Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt.
“You see them talking more,” Hewitt said of his players. “You see them interacting more.”
The team was successful with a no-cell-phone-rule in last weekend’s ACC tournament, reaching the tournament final and getting an NCAA bid.
“Maybe it helped last weekend, maybe it didn’t,” Hewitt said. “Maybe it’s just my paranoia. I feel better that they’re talking to each other a lot more and really getting to know each other more.”
Google may announce China plans next Monday: report
(Reuters) – Google Inc may make an announcement next Monday about whether it will pull out from China, the China Business News reported on Friday, quoting an unnamed Google employee.
The report also said a local authorized agent had received unconfirmed information that Google would leave China on April 10.
“I have received information saying that Google will leave China on April 10, but this information has not at present been confirmed by Google,” the agent was quoted as saying.
Google officials were not immediately available for comment.
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said last week he hoped to have an outcome soon from talks with Chinese officials on offering an uncensored search engine in the country.
The “Oscar curse,” real or Hollywood invention
(Reuters) – They turn heads on the red carpet, are besieged by the world’s top designers, give tearful acceptance speeches, and go home with a little gold man called Oscar.
But shortly after many actresses win the movie industry’s highest honor, their most important relationships fall apart in what has become known in Hollywood as the “Oscar curse.”
Sandra Bullock and Kate Winslet, the 2010 and 2009 best actress Oscar winners, this week joined Halle Berry (2002), Julia Roberts (2001), Reese Witherspoon (2006) and Hilary Swank (2005) on that list.
Bullock’s husband of five years, motorcycle enthusiast Jesse James, responded to allegations of cheating on Bullock with an apology on Thursday for the grief he had caused. The reasons behind the separation of Winslet from her film director husband Sam Mendes have so far remained private.
Tom O’Neil of the awards website TheEnvelope.com, pondered the link between such breakups and Oscar glory.
“Is it because victory goes to their heads and these women become impossible divas?,” O’Neil wrote in a blog. “Or is it because their men are overly macho types who can’t tolerate being upstaged?”
Healthcare bill to cut deficit: CBO
(Reuters) – Congressional budget analysts said on Thursday a broad healthcare overhaul would cut the U.S. deficit over 10 years and sharply expand insurance coverage, boosting the momentum for final passage in the House of Representatives.
President Barack Obama postponed a scheduled visit to Indonesia and Australia to help round up support on what is expected to be a close vote on Sunday on his top legislative priority.
House Democratic leaders unveiled the final changes to the overhaul, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated would expand coverage at a cost of $940 billion over 10 years and cut the deficit by $138 billion in the same period through new fees, taxes and cost-saving measures.
Obama said the healthcare bill, which has faced solid Republican opposition, represented “the most significant effort to reduce deficits since the Balanced Budget Act” of 1993.