Killed by lightning or lost at sea: search for missing balloonists
Two missing adventure balloonists are either bobbing up and down in a life raft somewhere or a lightning strike has exploded their gas balloon, their ground crew believe.
Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis have been missing for more than 40 hours over the Adriatic Sea.
Italian authorities have finished their second day of an air and sea search but have found no trace of the American pair.
Google Celebrates Flintstones’ 50th Anniversary
Google is celebrating yet another historic event today. The day 30th September in 1960 marked the creation of one of the world’s most famous cartoon series Flintstones and today is their 50th anniversary (Flintstones Birthday). Google’s designer doodle has embodied the Flintstones and will show them on its home page all through the day today.
The new Google Flintstones doodle adds to ever growing tradition of Google Inc. of commemorating special events, anniversaries and holidays.
Talking about the special doodle crafted for the day, Flintstones cartoon series depicted the life of a Stone Age man from the workers class and his family, his immediate neighbor and best friend . Barney, Wilma, Fred, Pebbles, and Dino were the highlighted characters of the cartoon film who all grew to turn into the most lovable among the viewers. The animated television sitcom was telecasted till April 1, 1966 in America. The series can nowadays be fetched as a re-release on a DVD and VHS.
New HP CEO seen sharp but holds mixed record
An outsider was what some Hewlett-Packard Co investors had hoped for. But Leo Apotheker, appointed HP’s new chief executive, may not be who they had in mind.
The 57-year old former head of SAP, a bon vivant fluent in five languages, was a surprise choice for the role, which many thought would go to a Silicon Valley veteran, if not an insider.
Those acquainted with Apotheker say he has a sharp business acumen. But his leadership record is mixed, and is stained by an abrupt exit in February from the German software company amid investor criticism.
Among his accomplishments at SAP, Apotheker executed the company’s first major acquisition, a $7.5 billion buyout of business intelligence maker Business Objects, which was completed in 2008.
But he is also known for missteps and gained a reputation along the way of being aloof and having lost touch with employees, clients and shareholders.
Under his watch, the software maker attempted an across-the-board hike in prices, only to back down after a large number of customers complained.
Best Buy wants to carry RIM PlayBook
According to CEO Brian Dunn, Best Buy is already in talks with RIM in an effort to bring the upcoming PlayBook tablet to brick-and-mortar stores around the nation.
“When it comes to market, we’re going to be very happy to offer it to our customers,” says Dunn.
Because the device does not have built-in 3G, there were questions about how the PlayBook would be distributed. Other tablet makers have deals with wireless carriers and therefore the tablets are offered in-store at thousands of locations.
Best Buy currently offers the iPad and Dell Streak.
The tablet will measure in smaller than the iPad at just 7 inches, but it is thinner at 9.7 millimeters. Furthermore, the tablet has a rear and front-facing camera, and the ability to natively playback Flash videos.
Toshiba 46VX700U Review
Newest Toshiba VX700 Cinema Series is Toshiba 46VX700U 1080p 120Hz LED Edge-lit LCD HDTV edge lighting system achieves a high 5M:1 dynamic contrast ratio, and enables the set to show content with rich, lifelike detail, especially with the support of Toshiba’s ClearFrameTM 120Hz technology.Toshiba 46VX700U model includes many of the same innovations as the flagship WX800, making it an exceptional choice for home theater enthusiasts and style aficionados not looking for 3D.
NKorea unlikely to alter strategy toward world
North Korea’s ailing leader Kim Jong Il has laid the groundwork for a transition of power to his youngest son, but it remains to be seen if the reclusive nuclear-armed regime will soften its combative stance toward the international community.
The impoverished nation has long used both carrots and sticks to get what it wants: offering dialogue and promises to dismantle its nuclear program to get aid, and when it runs into resistance, conducting missile and atomic tests and threatening to destroy rival South Korea.
Analysts see little prospect of that strategy changing, and on Wednesday, a top North Korean official told delegates to the United Nations that Pyongyang would continue to expand its nuclear arsenal in order to deter what it perceives as American and South Korean aggression in the region.
Nintendo Falls on Lowered Forecasts, 3DS Player Delay
Nintendo Co. tumbled the most in 20 months in Osaka trading after the company cut its profit forecast and pushed back the release of its 3DS handheld game player until after the year-end holiday season.
Nintendo plunged 8.7 percent to 21,000 yen at 9:43 a.m. on the Osaka Securities Exchange, poised for the largest drop since January 2009. The decline wiped out all of Nintendo’s gains for 2010 and the stock was the worst performer on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index.
President Satoru Iwata said yesterday the company pushed back the release of the 3DS, the biggest overhaul of Nintendo’s flagship handheld device since 2004, until Feb. 26 because of concerns over production. The Japanese games maker also blamed a stronger-than-anticipated yen for slashing its annual net income forecast 55 percent.
“Smacks of a company that has lost its way: Bad forecasting, slow delivery,” MF Global FXA Securities Ltd. wrote in an equity-sales note to clients today. “It’s pretty much the worst case scenario for Nintendo.”
Profit will fall to a six-year low of 90 billion yen ($1.1 billion) in the 12 months ending March 31, while sales will probably drop 23 percent to 1.1 trillion yen, Nintendo said. Operating profit, or revenue minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, will slump 41 percent to 210 billion yen, missing the previous outlook by 34 percent.
Rescuers search for slide survivors in Mexico
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Everything we know about the BlackBerry PlayBook (Q & A)
We were excited and a little bit relieved that RIM announced its widely-rumored BlackBerry PlayBook (with video) yesterday at the BlackBerry Developer Conference in San Francisco.
Although we did learn some specs–like the tablet’s dimensions–there’s still much that RIM isn’t telling. We’ll share what we know and will update our list as soon as we learn more.
What are the specifications?
7-inch screen (1,024×600 pixels)
5.1 inches tall
7.6 inches wide
0.4 inch (9.7mm) thick
0.9 pounds
3 megapixel front-facing HD camera
5 megapixel rear-facing HD camera
1GHz dual-core processor
1GB RAM
1080p high-definition video playback
HTML5-capable browser
802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi
Adobe Flash 10.1 support
Adobe AIR support
H.264, MPEG4, and WMV, HDMI video output
Micro USB, Micro HDMI, and DLNA media streaming
Enterprise-strength e-mail security
Full specs here
IBM to buy Blade to compete with Cisco, HP in data center switching market
IBM intends to acquire Blade Network Technologies, a privately held Santa Clara company that develops data center switching software and devices.
Financial terms of the deal announced Monday weren’t disclosed, but IBM said it expects to acquisition to close in the fourth quarter.
Blade’s technology, which is used by more than half the Fortune 500 companies, routes data to and from computer servers, according to a news release. Blade “provides blade server and top-of-rack switches as well as software to virtualize and manage cloud computing and other workloads,” the release said.
According to a June report by Gartner researchers Naresh Singh and Severine Real, Blade competes with much larger rivals including San Jose network-equipment giant Cisco Systems, which had 47.8 percent of the $1.9 billion data center switching market in 2009. Other companies in the market are Palo Alto tech giant Hewlett-Packard and Sunnyvale network-equipment maker Juniper Networks, an investor in Blade.