3:28 PM
Interesting recap of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and how development costs has increased by $21 bil (61%) and how it is scheduled to enter service at least 4 years later than planned. This really does seem like a classic case of underbidding a program and overpromising capabilities....and the implications are tremendous for our allies to be able to afford to buy the F-35 and how our Marine Corps may have to completely give up jet fighters due to the cost overruns of the program:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/things-could-get-worse-for-troubled-stealth-jet/
Amazon responded to the $269 million bill that the State of Texas sent them for uncollected sales taxes from 2005-2009, plus penalties and interest...by closing a Dallas distribution center and scrapping plans to expand facilities in Texas that they say would have brought more than 1,000 jobs to the state of Texas:
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/theticker/entries/2011/02/11/119_to_lose_jobs_when_amazon_c.html?cxntfid=blogs_statesman_business_blog
Rumors are floating again that AT&T may buy Dish--these rumors floating around a few years ago also, but now Dish owns a significant amount of prime LTE spectrum:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Purchase-Of-Dish-Network-Rumor-Returns-Again-112676
Nokia has forged a mobile alliance with Microsoft, completely changing the direction of its company and leading to a major shift in the mobile phone market. Remember, until the last quarter's results, Nokia was the biggest seller of smartphones in the world...and now their Symbian (which has been the dominant mobile phone operating system in the world) and Meego operating systems will be eliminated. During the transition period that Nokia ends its Symbian phone line, Nokia expects to sell *150 million* Symbian phones before they can fully transition to Windows Phone:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/nokia-forges-mobile-alliance-microsofts-windows-phone-7/2011-02-11
Interesting commentary on how Nokia has bet the survival of its company on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7. Nokia will go from having the dominant smartphone platform in the world to one of the many Windows Phone 7 manufacturers--remember, HTC, Samsung, and LG will have had Windows Phone 7 smartphones on the market for about a year before the first Nokia Windows Phone smartphone. Nokia will now rely on Microsoft for an operating system for tablets, but Microsoft has said that they aren't going to develop a version of Windows Phone 7 that can run on tablets! To put this in historical perspective, 5 or so years ago the battle for the mobile phone industry was between Windows Mobile and Symbian, but neither Microsoft or Nokia used its dominant position to innovate enough to stay ahead of the challenges that Apple and Google brought to the market:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/nokia-microsoft-windows-phone-7-partnership-faces-world-challenges/2011-02-11
Reports are that more than 1,000 Nokia workers walked out of their offices after Nokia announced their partnership with Microsoft...remember, part of the announcement from Nokia was about how they were going to have to have massive layoffs as part of this deal:
http://thenextweb.com/eu/2011/02/11/more-than-a-thousand-employees-walk-out-of-nokia-offices/
Instead of just going after the high-end portion of the smartphone market and letting Android dominate the rest, Apple is now going to go after all of the smartphone market by releasing a cheaper, smaller iPhone. Apple will apparently soon have the iPhone 5 on the market and a cheaper, smaller iPhone that internally will basically be an iPhone 4. The cheaper iPhone will be $200 *before* subsidies--the regular iPhone is $200 after subsidies and $600 or so before subsidies...so, the cheaper iPhone could be offered for free after subsidies:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-10/apple-said-to-work-on-cheaper-more-versatile-iphone-models.html
The BlackBerry tablet is apparently going to be able to run *Android* apps. Combining RIM's BlackBerry security and e-mail capability with Android apps could make that tablet a lot more interesting for consumers...and would give another market for Android app developers:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2011-02-10/rim-is-said-to-plan-playbook-tablet-software-to-run-google-s-android-apps.html
After a car crash that left her 1-year-old brother crying and her Mom that appeared dead, a 4-year-old Iowa girl walked a quarter mile through snow-covered fields in the dark (it was nighttime) until she found a home where she could summon help for them:
http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_d244b46c-3434-11e0-8a26-001cc4c03286.html
This man tried to hide his cocaine...in a place that I cannot imagine any man trying to hide something. Even after all that effort he put in to hide his drugs there, they were found:
http://guyism.com/humor/gentleman-arrested-for-muling-drugs-inside-his-penis-you-read-that-correctly.html
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/things-could-get-worse-for-troubled-stealth-jet/
Amazon responded to the $269 million bill that the State of Texas sent them for uncollected sales taxes from 2005-2009, plus penalties and interest...by closing a Dallas distribution center and scrapping plans to expand facilities in Texas that they say would have brought more than 1,000 jobs to the state of Texas:
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/theticker/entries/2011/02/11/119_to_lose_jobs_when_amazon_c.html?cxntfid=blogs_statesman_business_blog
Rumors are floating again that AT&T may buy Dish--these rumors floating around a few years ago also, but now Dish owns a significant amount of prime LTE spectrum:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Purchase-Of-Dish-Network-Rumor-Returns-Again-112676
Nokia has forged a mobile alliance with Microsoft, completely changing the direction of its company and leading to a major shift in the mobile phone market. Remember, until the last quarter's results, Nokia was the biggest seller of smartphones in the world...and now their Symbian (which has been the dominant mobile phone operating system in the world) and Meego operating systems will be eliminated. During the transition period that Nokia ends its Symbian phone line, Nokia expects to sell *150 million* Symbian phones before they can fully transition to Windows Phone:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/nokia-forges-mobile-alliance-microsofts-windows-phone-7/2011-02-11
Interesting commentary on how Nokia has bet the survival of its company on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7. Nokia will go from having the dominant smartphone platform in the world to one of the many Windows Phone 7 manufacturers--remember, HTC, Samsung, and LG will have had Windows Phone 7 smartphones on the market for about a year before the first Nokia Windows Phone smartphone. Nokia will now rely on Microsoft for an operating system for tablets, but Microsoft has said that they aren't going to develop a version of Windows Phone 7 that can run on tablets! To put this in historical perspective, 5 or so years ago the battle for the mobile phone industry was between Windows Mobile and Symbian, but neither Microsoft or Nokia used its dominant position to innovate enough to stay ahead of the challenges that Apple and Google brought to the market:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/nokia-microsoft-windows-phone-7-partnership-faces-world-challenges/2011-02-11
Reports are that more than 1,000 Nokia workers walked out of their offices after Nokia announced their partnership with Microsoft...remember, part of the announcement from Nokia was about how they were going to have to have massive layoffs as part of this deal:
http://thenextweb.com/eu/2011/02/11/more-than-a-thousand-employees-walk-out-of-nokia-offices/
Instead of just going after the high-end portion of the smartphone market and letting Android dominate the rest, Apple is now going to go after all of the smartphone market by releasing a cheaper, smaller iPhone. Apple will apparently soon have the iPhone 5 on the market and a cheaper, smaller iPhone that internally will basically be an iPhone 4. The cheaper iPhone will be $200 *before* subsidies--the regular iPhone is $200 after subsidies and $600 or so before subsidies...so, the cheaper iPhone could be offered for free after subsidies:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-10/apple-said-to-work-on-cheaper-more-versatile-iphone-models.html
The BlackBerry tablet is apparently going to be able to run *Android* apps. Combining RIM's BlackBerry security and e-mail capability with Android apps could make that tablet a lot more interesting for consumers...and would give another market for Android app developers:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2011-02-10/rim-is-said-to-plan-playbook-tablet-software-to-run-google-s-android-apps.html
After a car crash that left her 1-year-old brother crying and her Mom that appeared dead, a 4-year-old Iowa girl walked a quarter mile through snow-covered fields in the dark (it was nighttime) until she found a home where she could summon help for them:
http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_d244b46c-3434-11e0-8a26-001cc4c03286.html
This man tried to hide his cocaine...in a place that I cannot imagine any man trying to hide something. Even after all that effort he put in to hide his drugs there, they were found:
http://guyism.com/humor/gentleman-arrested-for-muling-drugs-inside-his-penis-you-read-that-correctly.html