Link Collection

LOTD for January 27

2012-01-27T16:19:00.001-08:00

UC-Riverside researchers are trying to determine if antimatter weights more than matter--if antimatter does weigh more then that could explain why the universe seems to have no antimatter and why it is expanding at an increasing rate. The assumption has been that matter and antimatter are exactly the same other than properties like charge, but that assumption would lead to the expectation that the Big Bang should have created an equal amount of antimatter:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2012/01/General-Science-Physics-Does-Antimatter-Weigh-More-Than-Matter/

RIM's new CEO backed away from his comments that seemed to indicate that he would continue the policies of RIM's former co-CEOs, saying that RIM has already made a lot of changes (such as the move to QNX) and they have the assets to succeed. He also slammed Android device makers, saying that Android devices "are all the same". It is pretty weird for me to hear that coming from the person in charge of all BlackBerry devices, as BlackBerry devices sure seem to me to be much more uniform than Android devices. Apple and Microsoft talk about Android fragmentation, saying that it is bad for users and developers that Android devices are so different, while RIM says Android devices are all the same:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/rim-ceo-heins-vows-stop-bleeding-slams-android-oems/2012-01-27

Student ordered a used textbook from Amazon for her class on terrorism and was worried when a package of white powder fell out of it, thinking about how terrorists send anthrax in the mail. She took for textbook to the police and was SHOCKED to learn that the $30 textbook she bought had a packet of cocaine worth about $350:
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/offbeat/kansas-student-finds-cocaine-in-terrorism-textbook-she-bought-from-amazon-ncxdc-012612

LOTD for January 26

2012-01-26T18:57:00.001-08:00

Research on some of the most awful smelling creatures on Earth found that they have skin that produces the greatest known variety of anti-bacterial substances that could lead to ways to treat antibiotic-resistant infections. The skin of frogs has long been known to be a source of antibiotics, but what the study found is that the 9 species of particularly smelly frogs have the greatest known diversity of the germ-killing chemicals. Some of the antibiotic substances not only kill bacteria directly, they also activate the immune system to battle against bacteria:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2012/01/Life-Science-Chemistry-Bacteria-Stinky-frogs-are-a-treasure-trove-of-antibiotic-substances/

Department of Energy researchers used the world's most powerful X-ray laser to create and probe a piece of matter in a controlled way for the first time. This will enable scientists to better understand the most extreme matter (the matter they created was at 2-million-degrees Celcius) in stars and giant planets and could help experiments trying to recreate the nuclear fusion process that powers the sun:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2012/01/Energy-Materials-Physics-X-ray-laser-creates-matter-at-2-million-C/

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says that the U.S. needs to reduce restrictions on immigrants who plan to open businesses in the US. They also suggest that a separate Visa be created for potential entrepreneurs. Immigrant entrepreneurs have established 18% of the Fortune 500 companies, with those companies generating $1.7 trillion in revenue in 2010 with 3.7 mil employees worldwide:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-25/eased-immigration-laws-may-spur-growth-u-s-chamber-report-says.html

Global tablet shipments reached 27 mil in the 4Q of 2011, an increase of 150% over the 4Q of 2010. Android market share went from 29% in Q4 2010 to 39.1% in Q4 2011, with Apple still dominant but dropping from 68.2% in Q4 2010 to 57.6% in Q4 2011. Apple went from shipping 7.3 mil tablets in Q4 2010 to 15.4 mil in Q4 2011, while Android went from 3.1 mil to 10.5 mil:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/press-releases/strategy-analytics-android-captures-record-39-percent-share-global-tablet-s

Mexico's media followed the progress of a heart transplant, with the heart traveling 280 miles by ambulance, plane, then a helicopter as the media documenting each step. Traffic was even stopped to allow the helicopter to land near the hospital and the TV crews where there to show all of Mexico how the heart was going to the hospital...but one of the medics stumbled after leaving the hospital and the heart fell out onto the street! The medics quickly pushed the heart back inside the wheeled cooler and the heart was successfully transplanted into its 28-year-old female recipient:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46127543/ns/world_news-americas/#.TyGMGm_y9w9

LOTD for January 25

2012-01-25T17:11:00.001-08:00

Apple had an amazing fiscal first quarter of 2012 (which is the last 3 months of 2011), with 37.04 mil iPhones and 15.43 mil iPads sold! Compared with last year, iPhone sales were up 128% and iPad sales were up 111%. Revenue was $46.44 bil compared to $26.75 in the year-ago quarter, and net profit was $13.06 bil compared to $6 bil in the year-ago quarter. The iPhone and iPad didn't exist 5 years ago and are now 72% of Apple's revenue. In the previous quarter (July-Sep 2011) Apple sold 17.07 mil iPhones and had $28.27 bil in revenue and next quarter (Jan-Mar 2012) they expect $32.5 bil revenue:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/apple-smashes-sales-record-37m-iphone-sales-fiscal-1q/2012-01-24

Kanter said that the iPhone has a greater share of the US smartphone market than Android, saying that Apple has 44.9% while Android has 44.8%. Nielsen and the NPD Group released results that showed Apple was slightly behind Android, but Kanter is the first research firm to have Apple ahead:
http://gigaom.com/apple/apple-pulls-just-ahead-of-google-in-u-s-smartphones/

LOTD for January 24

2012-01-24T17:02:00.001-08:00

Phase I clinical trials have begun for a vaccine that kills cancer cells and prevents disease relapse. I hope that this trial goes well and that the vaccine progresses...a cancer vaccine would be a huge benefit to society:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/01/phase-i-clinical-trials-for-dendritic.html

UCLA researchers used embryonic stem cells to treat 2 legally blind women, and both women appear to gain back some vision after the experimental treatment. This was the first test in humans for stem cells and the results are very preliminary, though promising:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2012/01/Life-Science-Diseases-Genetics-Study-Stem-cells-may-aid-vision-in-blind-people/

The Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement agencies have to get a judge's approval before using GPS technology to track a suspect. The 9-0 ruling says that GPS surveillance violated constitutional rights, which is a game-changer for electronic surveillance in this country:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/srlet20120124-supreme-court-rules-against-gps-tracking

Apple reportedly spent $100 mil on its first patent lawsuit against HTC--Apple started out with 84 claims based on 10 patents, but HTC was ruled to infringe on only 1 of those patents. That patent was for pressing on a phone number in an email or Web page to call of text that number. HTC can resolve their infringement by removing that feature or finding a different way to accomplish that basic task:
http://www.realdanlyons.com/blog/2012/01/23/rumor-apple-spent-100-million-in-its-first-case-against-htc-and-got-almost-nothing/

Verizon sold 14 million Android phones and 10.8 million iPhones during 2011, with Q4 sales of 4.2 million iPhones and 3 million Android/BlackBerry/Windows smartphones. The huge number of iPhone 4S sales reduced Verizon's wireless profits significantly due to the heavy subsidy that Verizon pays Apple, but they will make more than enough money back over time:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/24/technology/verizon_earnings/

LOTD for January 23

2012-01-23T16:59:00.001-08:00

The government of China responded to public pressure by releasing measurements of the air quality in Beijing. It might not be a shock to note that the data they have been releasing may be skewed...they reported 7 hourly figures at the "very low level" of 0.003 mg per cubic meter within the 24-hour period from noon Friday to noon Saturday...but measurements at the US Embassy in Beijing has been measuring the air quality where they are and in the past 2 years, the air quality has only been that good 18 times over 15,000 hours, or about 0.1% of the time:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2012/01/Environment-Atmospheric-Sciences-Beijing-releases-pollution-data-US-figures-higher/

Rising CO2 levels have been found to disrupt a key brain receptor in fish, causing major changes in their behavior and sensory ability. The CO2 rise is "driving fish crazy" and the disruption to their central nervous system has been documented. If CO2 concentrations rise as predicted by the end of this century, it will interfere with the ability of fish to hear, smell, turn and evade predators, which would have serious consequences for the survival of fish:
http://www.coralcoe.org.au/news_stories/braindamage.html

The "Asia 10" increased their share of R&D expenditures from 24% of the world's R&D spending in 1999 to 35% in 2009 while the R&D spending in the US went from 38% of the world's R&D spending in 1999 to 31% in 2009...it might not be a coincidence that the US's share of tech manufacturing and knowledge-intensive service industries (business, financial, and communications) has been dropping quickly while the Asia 10's share has been increasing quickly. 40% of science and engineering employees in the US with Master's degrees and 50% of those with PhDs were born outside the US. Last year more than half of the PhDs working in the US were born in other countries...
http://www.infoworld.com/t/outsourcing/nsf-study-raises-serious-concerns-about-us-investment-in-technology-184749

The number of startups in the US started declining in 2005 and continued to decline through 2010, reflecting the state of the economy. However, startup activity jumped around the world in 2011, jumping nearly 60% in the US. More than 12% of US adults reported starting a business or running new businesses in 2011, where that number was below 8% in 2010. 400 million individuals around the world are currently engaged in entrepreneurship:
http://www.businessweek.com/small-business/startup-rates-surge-in-the-us-and-abroad-01202012.html

Scientists have developed a new way to create Terahertz waves that could be used to make better scanning devices, including devices similar to the Star Trek "tricorder" scanner:
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_20-1-2012-15-50-15

During the 3-week period between mid-December to early January the number of adults in the US who own a tablet nearly *doubled*, going from 10% to 19%, with the same near-doubling also applying to e-readers also going from 10% to 19% during those 3 weeks:
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/E-readers-and-tablets.aspx

Apple is expected to release 802.11ac devices to their numerous platforms this year, where the "Gigabit WiFI" will achieve much faster throughput than existing 802.11n products. It should be noted that Broadcom has been among the chip companies most aggressively supporting this "5G WiFi" and Broadcom is a major chip supplier to Apple:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/01/21/apple_working_to_adopt_80211ac_5g_gigabit_wifi_this_year_.html

Column on what RIM's new CEO needs to do to get BlackBerry smartphones to succeed in the market. RIM replaced their co-CEOs with their COO due to their struggles:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/3-things-rims-new-ceo-needs-execute-devices-carriers-messaging/2012-01-23

LightSquared's wholesale customer Simplexity announced that they will become a wholesale customer on Clearwire's mobile WiMAX nework and offer private-branded mobile broadband services to other MVNOs. Their deal with Clearwire is similar to the one they signed with LightSquared 4 months ago. LightSquared signed a lot of customers last year and I expect most or all of them to switch to Clearwire due to the difficulties that LightSquared is having getting their network approved:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/clearwire-nabs-lightsquared-customer-simplexity-mvne-partner/2012-01-23

Verizon spent more than $69 mil to upgrade its LTE network in Indianapolis to handle the massive crowd that will be attending the Super Bowl. They added 9 new antennas to the outside of the stadium along with a huge internal 3G/4G network and a WiFi infrastructure that allows for 28,000 simultaneous users. The nice thing for the people in Indianapolis is that Verizon is leaving behind just about all of that equipment after the Super Bowl is over...so the LTE speed for Verizon users in Indianapolis should be amazing:
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/01/19/verizon-first-4g-lte-super-bowl-46/

LOTD for January 22

2012-01-22T23:35:00.001-08:00

The oil field discovered in Monterey, California holds an estimated *500 billion* barrels of oil, with the billionaire owner of Continental Oil saying that the San Joaquin Monterey California fields are the next big source for horizontal oil drilling. 15 billion barrels of oil obtained from that oil field would be $1.5 trillion dollars of oil...that could be a game changer for California:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/01/eia-estimates-california-monterey-to.html

UC San Diego has been looking for ways to get more patients and found an interesting way to expand...by buying the Nevada Cancer Institute in Las Vegas for $18 mil. They will get the 142,000-square-foot, 4-story building in Vegas and its medical practice, 2 dozen clinical trials, and the Nevada Cancer Institute name. So, UC San Diego will own and operate research facilities and medical facilities in Vegas. It does sound like they are getting a great deal because over $100 mil was poured into the Nevada Cancer Institute and UC San Diego will own it all, plus the selling organization has to raise more than $20 mil in donations over the next 5 years for the UC San Diego Nevada Cancer Institute--so, they are getting $20 mil in donations for their $18 mil purchase:
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jan/22/ucsd-buying-nevada-cancer-clinic/

LOTD for January 20

2012-01-20T18:45:00.001-08:00

It looks like the protests worked--SOPA and PIPA have been postponed indefinitely by Congress. Congress is going to investigate other ways to combat overseas piracy without "causing massive damage to the Internet". Congress definitely needs to craft a bill that seems to understand technical issues better and hopefully the lobbying process won't change it into something else:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/20/us-usa-congress-internet-idUSTRE80J10X20120120

New bottle scanning machine has already received European approval for enabling aircraft passengers to carry liquid items larger than 100ml through airport security. The machine screens individual bottles in less than 5 seconds to look for any security threats:
http://www.cobaltlight.com/news/2012/insight100-attains-ecac-standard-bottle-screening

The ITU approved specifications for the next generation of wireless broadband--they call this 4G, the industry will call it something else since they call the previous iterations of WiMAX and LTE their 4G standards. Both LTE Advanced and WiMAX 2 meet the 100 Mbps speed standard, and can provide speeds up to 500x faster than typical 3G connections while using spectrum much more efficiently:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/sets-stage-blazing-fast-mobile-devices-15391866#.Txmmhm_y9w9

Verizon plans to roll out Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) services nationwide in early 2013 and is already trialing VoLTE in 2 cities:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=216534

LOTD for January 19

2012-01-19T17:15:00.001-08:00

Missouri researchers conducted a study that found that the studies that indicated that "men are better at math" were scientifically incorrect (major methodological flaws, improper statistical techniques, no scientific evidence). However, they said that because of the "stereotype threat" that woman are worse than men in math results in women having a poor self-image in math that leads to underachievement in math:
http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2012/0118-%E2%80%9Cwomen-worse-at-math-than-men%E2%80%9D-explanation-scientifically-incorrect-mu-researchers-say/

Department of Energy researchers have advanced the study of flammable ice for low-carbon or alternative fuel or as a place to study carbon dioxide:
http://www.pnnl.gov/news/release.aspx?id=909

Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, though they got $950 mil in financing to be able to continue during bankruptcy reorganization and pay employees. Kodak had warned in November that they could run out of money in a year if they didn't sell their 1,100 digital imaging patents, but nobody has wanted to meet their price yet. Kodak used dominate the photography market when I was growing up and they have gone from 70,000 employees to less than 19,000:
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Kodak-files-for-Ch-11-bankruptcy-protection-2621274.php

The National Security Agency released a security-enhanced version of Android that is targeted for companies and organizations that need stricter access-control policies similar to what the DoD requires:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/nsa-releases-security-enhanced-version-android-184285

Amazon reportedly loses between $2 and $3 on each Kindle Fire device they sell, but makes $136 from each Kindle Fire overall thanks to e-books (Amazon typically makes $60/year profit on the 20 e-books the average Kindle Fire owner will purchase), apps (2/3 of Kindle Fire owners have already paid for at least 1 app, 41% have paid for 3+ apps, making Amazon $36/year), etc.:
http://allthingsd.com/20120119/kindle-fires-revenue-starts-flowing-after-the-sale/

AT&T said that they will increase their prices and increase the data allowances for its smartphone customers starting on Sunday, but current customers can stay with their plans if they wish. AT&T seems to be following the tiered data pricing that Verizon has been using:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-increases-pricing-usage-thresholds-smartphone-data-plans/2012-01-18

LOTD for January 18

2012-01-18T17:19:00.001-08:00

Scientists confirmed that 15 pounds of rock collected recently in Morocco fell to Earth from Mars during a meteorite shower last July, only the 5th time in history that scientists have chemically confirmed Martian meteorites that people witnessed falling. The fireball was spotted in the sky 6 months ago, but the rocks weren't discovered on the ground until the end of December. The biggest rock weighs over 2 pounds and all of the rocks are more valuable than gold. Since the last time a Martian meteorite fell and was found fresh was *50* years ago, a meteorite dealer said he is charging $11k to $22.5k an ounce and has sold most of his supply already--getting about 10x the price of gold:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2012/01/General-Science-Space-Geology-Scientists-confirm-rocks-fell-from-Mars/

The Navy's newest ship that is supposed their minehunter of the future has been found by the Pentagon's testing organization to not be able to find and withstand mines. The Littoral Combat ship is the Navy's expensive next-generation ship and has also been found to have serious problems with corrosion and hasn't participated in any of the latest naval wartime missions. The Navy has 3 of the 55 Littoral Combat Ships it planned to buy, but the entire ship may be cut out of the budget:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/01/mines-littoral-combat-ship/

MIT research group is presenting a breakthrough algorithm that improves on the fast Fourier transform, in some cases this new algorithm is 10x faster! They take advantage of how most signals are sparse, and the sparser it is the greater the improvement achieved over the FFT. The algorithm divides signals into narrower slices of bandwidth, sized so that a slice will generally have only 1 frequency with a heavy weight. Their unpublished paper then describes how by sampling the slice of bandwidth at different times they are able to determine where the dominant frequency is in its oscillatory cycle:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/faster-fourier-transforms-0118.html

After 10 years of talks, governments will now vote this week on whether or not the leap second should be abolished. Leap seconds are added at irregular intervals to make up for the irregular wobble in the Earth's rotation to prevent atomic clocks from speeding ahead of solar time. The US, France, and others are pushing to eliminate the leap second while China, Canada, the UK and others warn about the consequences of having atomic clocks no longer synced to the solar day. There are big benefits for machines if the leap second use is eliminated, but eventually the clock would say that it is noon when the sun wouldn't have risen yet...
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2012/01/Information-Tech-Computing-Countries-consider-time-out-on-the-leap-second/

Oracle is looking to increase the value of its patent infringement lawsuit against Google and provides interesting information on the economic value Android represents to Google. Oracle said that more than 700,000 Android-based devices are activated every year (Google announced this themselves), resulting in every day's worth of Android activations adding $10 mil in annual mobile advertising revenue to Google. It appears that Oracle is using the assumption of annual advertising revenues of $14 per Android user that has been published elsewhere:
http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2012/01/oracle-says-each-days-worth-of-android.html

Google is offering users in India free WiFi to increase usage of Google+ and YouTube. O-Zone Networks will allow unlimited usage of Google+ and 10 minutes of free access to YouTube per week, but any other websites can only be accessed by paying for minutes. This sure seems like a smart way to get a huge emerging market to use Google+:
http://www.psfk.com/2012/01/google-free-wi-fi-india.html

More than 7,000 websites such as Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla and Wordpress are blacked out today--this is apparently the biggest blackout of Internet sites in US history and is a big sacrifice for many of the participants:
http://sopastrike.com/

One of many good links to learn more about why so many sites are objecting to SOPA. The initial goal of SOPA was to stop foreign websites from hosting and distributing pirated works, but as the bill went through Congress and through the lobbying process, it appears to have morphed into something that has many other effects. Website owners and their visitors will have serious punishments if they are at all involved in distributing copyrighted material--under SOPA's definiation, YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, Gmail, Dropbox and millions of other sites would be in violation so all of their users could be subject to serious punishment:
http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/sopa-dangerous-opinion/

Google and Twitter are conducting a public argument over Google's search results increasingly showing Google+ pages and missing a number of Twitter pages. Twitter says that by promoting Google+ in search results, Google isn't providing the most relevant social results. Google says that Twitter would show up higher in searchers if Google had permission to promote Twitter pages. Twitter users create 200 million Tweets every day and Twitter includes "nofollow" links on its pages that stop Google's crawlers from understanding where links in tweets point to--Twitter stopped giving Google access to their Tweet firehose in July, which hurts their complaint of incomplete search results. Google results also do not index the "@" symbol (that sure seems like a simple flaw to fix!), so a search for "@WWE" would show Google+ results first since it would just be a search for "WWE", but a search for "WWE Twitter" shows the Twitter results first:
http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/ShowPR~PUBCODE~055~ACCT~0000100~ISSUE~1201~RELTYPE~IN~PRODCODE~000000~PRODLETT~JY.html?et_cid=2430654&et_rid=60838639

LightSquared publicly criticized the test results from a federal GPS advisory board that found that they interfere with GPS systems, saying that those tests were rigged to be biased against LightSquared. They are asking for federal agencies to conduct other tests--they kind of need to take this position because their network is dead without further testing and the Federal Agencies said that they would not do any further testing due to the failure of the recent tests:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/lightsquared-blasts-us-gps-interference-tests-says-sprint-loop/2012-01-18

China Mobile is spending about $633 mil to build a 700,000 square meter call center that will have 20,000 call center representatives and twice as many other staff in the building...60,000 people working in one HUGE call center!
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=48375&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Nielsen found that Apple's iPhone 4S launch in the Fall had a huge impact on the US smartphone market--44.5% of US consumers who got a smartphone in December got an iPhone, compared to just 25.1% of consumers in October, with 57% of new iPhone owners in December getting an iPhone 4S. Android leads in the smartphone market place with 46.3% of US smartphone owners. 60% of US consumers that got a new phone within the last 3 months of 2011 chose a smartphone over a feature phone. Android and Apple simply dominated the Christmas sales season--91.4% of US smartphones sales were for Android or Apple smartphones, leaving tiny slivers of sales for Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and other platforms:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/more-us-consumers-choosing-smartphones-as-apple-closes-the-gap-on-android/

Samsung backtracked from reports that they are merging their Bada operating system with Intel's open-source Tizen platform. Now Samsung says that they are considering the move but have not yet made an official decision:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/samsung-backpedals-badatizen-os-merger-plans/2012-01-18

LOTD for January 17

2012-01-17T17:30:00.001-08:00

An international team of researchers have proposed a way to slow global warming that would help people living in poor countries right now instead of taking decades to show any impact...and might actually be able to work in practice. The proposal addresses global warming without requiring a reduction in fossil fuel usage. By 2050, the amount of global warming would be reduced by about 1 degree Fahrenheit (about 1/3 of the warming projected if nothing is done), much better than the normal proposals that focus on carbon dioxide emissions. The reductions in low-level ozone and black carbon would yield immediate health benefits--700,000 to 4.7 million premature deaths would be avoided because of the cleaner air, and crop yields would enable farmers to produce at least 30 million more metric tons of food each year. This also avoids the political issue of global warming--dealing with dirty snow, poor crops and diseased lungs would seem to be less controversial:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/science/countering-climate-change-without-waiting-for-a-payoff.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

An increasing number of Eastern states have turned to gambling as a way to attract tourists and get more tax dollars. Recently New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania have opened up and/or started huge expansions of casino locations--construction projects like the $4 bil one in New York create a lot of jobs now and in the future and lead to huge tax revenue boosts:
http://news.yahoo.com/casino-plans-sprout-us-states-seek-revenue-171416316.html

Column about the Internet blackout tomorrow, where Reddit, Wikipedia, Boing Boing, Mozilla, Tucows, and dozens of other websites will be offline to protest the 2 proposed copyright laws: SOPA and PIPA. SOPA and PIPA are attempts to combat Internet piracy that occurs outside the US, where US laws do not apply, by making those sites invisible to US citizens by forcing ISPs and other service providers to wipe the names of infringing sites from DNS records (basically making the domain names go away). Unfortunately, the way that SOPA and PIPA are being implemented has a number of flaws that will create a number of problems...they are still making changes to the laws (including reducing some DNS blocking) and my guess is that there will be a series of tweaks before long:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/internet-blackout-has-been-brought-you-the-us-congress-184227

Passengers flying from Miami to London on British Airways were terrified when an announcement said that the plane was going to crash and make an emergency water landing! The passengers were upset that they were afraid that they were about to die and it took 30 seconds for a flight attendant to apologize for the intercom for playing the crash landing message in error:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087427/BA-flight-crew-mistakenly-play-recorded-crash-message-flight-London.html

Report that RIM is actively meeting with almost every company that might be interested in either a part of all of RIM, in addition to being in talks to license its software to other vendors. The report states that RIM is trying really hard to get Samsung to buy them, where Samsung may benefit by integrating BlackBerry Messenger and several enterprise features into its Android devices:
http://www.bgr.com/2012/01/17/research-in-motion-pushing-for-sale-to-samsung/

Samsung was asked about the report and said that they are not interested in buying RIM. RIM's stock went up 8.04% today after the report about RIM trying to sell the company to Samsung, but dropped about 5% in after-hours trading after Samsung denied any interest in RIM:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/17/us-rim-idUSTRE80G1Q520120117

Samsung is merging its "Bada" smartphone operating system with Intel's open-source Tizen operating system. Tizen includes some technology from Intel's former MeeGo project with Nokia, but Nokia dumped Meego for Windows Phone. Samsung said that Bada will probably be used in Samsung's lower-powered phones and possibly in non-phone devices while Tizen is suited for higher-powered devices that don't run Android or Windows Phone:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethwoyke/2012/01/13/samsung-merging-its-bada-os-with-intel-backed-tizen-project/

Comcast and Verizon Wireless are launching a joint marketing program offering consumers bundles of wireless, cablet-TV, landline phone and home Internet services. Comcast's cable-TV areas cover 50 million US homes and all 700 Verizon Wireless stores in those areas will participate in the cross-promotion and will sell the Verizon/Comcast bundles. The promotion currently includes a pre-paid Visa card of $100 to $300 for those who sign up for the bundle:
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/137456608.html

Sprint announced that they won't get any more WiMAX smartphones, instead focusing on Android LTE devices. They are looking at maybe getting another Windows Phone in August or September, but they say that their current Windows Phone is selling poorly and that customers have been returning their Windows Phone smartphone due to the user experience. Sprint said that Android and Apple may own the wireless market, leaving no room for Windows Phone or BlackBerry devices:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398768,00.asp

Cisco is the first major vendor to issue a warning for WiFi users and advise that WPS be disabled on a number of their WiFi products. They did this because a company released a hacking tool that exploits a vulnerability in WPS:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/cisco-disable-wps-vulnerable-wi-fi-devices/2012-01-16

Man revealed in a marriage counseling session with his wife that he was having an affair and refused to end the affair, asking for a divorce. His wife walked out of the marriage counseling session, drove 250 miles to the other woman's home, shot the woman 3 times in the face in front of her mother, then called her daughter and husband to tell them what she did:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/01/woman-accused-of-killing-husbands-mistress/

South Carolina woman was sentenced to 10 days in jail because she failed to pay the $480 fine for having a messy yard:
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/13/10148392-woman-gets-jail-time-for-messy-yard

LOTD for January 16

2012-01-16T16:51:00.001-08:00

Geothermal energy developers will pump 24 million gallons of water into the side of a dormant volcano in Central Oregon, hoping the water comes back to the surface fast enough and hot enough to create cheap, clean electricity that doesn't need the sun or wind. The Department of Energy has given $21.5 mil of the $43 mil that the project will cost, with private investors matching the government's money (Google is the largest private contributor at $6.3 mil). The biggest concern for geothermal energy is that it could trigger an earthquake, but the Newbery area is a kind of seismic dead zone with no significant faults and is far from population centers to avoid property damage, so this is an ideal site for this large-scale experiment:
http://news.yahoo.com/project-pour-water-volcano-power-153124138.html

Tech IPOs may bail out California's budget situation, since California gets a lot of tax dollars when California tech companies IPO. Zynga's $1 bil IPO could bring hundreds of millions of state tax dollars and Facebook's $10+ bil IPO this year may reduce or eliminate the need to cut state services more deeply this budget year. The State of California is not factoring in any tax dollars from Facebook's IPO into their tax revenue forecast. Note that when Google went public, capital gains tax receipts from stock sales went from $39.7 bil in 2004 to $54 bil in 2005! Not only was that $14.3 bil spike in tax dollars, all of those sudden millionaires created other tax revenue by buying homes, furniture, cars, etc.:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-budget-20120116,0,811683.story

The National Space-Based Positioning,Navigation and Timing Executive Committee said that the 9 federal agencies that make up its body have concluded unanimously that LightSquared's proposed network would create significant interference with GPS. They have concluded that there is NO WAY to solve the interference problem with LightSquared, so they say that there isn't even a reason to do any future testing. In other words, there is no way for LightSquared to get approval in time to satisfy their contract with Sprint and it appears that the conclusion is that LightSquared cannot do anything to get approval:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223447/Federal_body_concludes_LightSquared_can_t_work_with_GPS

Horrible cruise accident occurred in Italy when the captain (who is in custody on multiple manslaughter charges) reportedly steered the ship too close to a rocky shore off the coast of Italy to take a "bow" (salute its residents to thrill the passengers). Passengers described a horrible groaning noise, the lights going out, and plates/tables/chairs sliding as the ship swiftly leaned to starboard. The crazy thing is that even while the ship was taking on water and beginning to sink the passengers were being told over the loudspeaker that they had only had a power failure and that everything was out of control!
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-italy-cruise-ship-20120116,0,4403679.story

Passengers are quite upset that the crew failed to give instructions on how to evacuate the luxury cruise ship and that the evacuation drill wasn't scheduled until Saturday afternoon. In fact, one passenger mentioned that they had joked about what would happen if something happened to the ship before they had their evacuation drill...but it wasn't so funny when that exact scenario happened! Most of the 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members were quickly evacuated, but about 200 people were stranded on the ship. 8 people have been confirmed dead so far, with more than 30 injured and many others missing after they jumped overboard when the ship began to tilt:
http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2012/01/costa-cruise-ship-aground-italy/603174/1

Apple's next iPad is expected to go on sale in March and will have a HD screen (1,536 x 2,048 pixels), LTE, a quad-core processor, and have twice the battery life of the iPad 2. Mass production began earlier this month, with factories running 24 hours a day in China. Manufacturing will stop during the Chinese New Year holiday later this month and then ramp back up to a peak in February:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-13/apple-said-to-prepare-march-ipad-3-debut-with-sharper-screen-faster-chip.html

LOTD for January 13

2012-01-13T17:26:00.001-08:00

German researchers developed a device that generated the highest frequency ever achieved by a microelectronic device, 1.11 THz. The device is able to operate at room temperature and could generate 3 THz frequencies. Until this device, THz devices couldn't be used much because they were bulky and very expensive. Terahertz (THz) radiation penetrates common materials such as plastics, paper, fabrics, or ceramics so it will allow nondestructive testing or medical analysis that is impossible at lower frequencies:
http://www.tu-darmstadt.de/vorbeischauen/aktuell/ni_43200.en.jsp

Chinese hackers have embedded malicious software that targets smart cards used by DoD, DHS, State Department, and other government agencies to access restricted servers and networks. By cracking smart cards, Chinese hackers got rid of the final barrier protecting some of the US government's most sensitive secrets. Not only does this software use an e-mail campaign to lure victims into opening an infected PDF attachment, it also contains a keystroke logger that steals PIN numbers for smart cards...given hackers the ability to log in to the server or network to tell the malware where to go and what to steal:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/malicious-software-attacks-security-cards-used-by-pentagon/

Morgan Stanley hinted today that Apple's iPhone 5 will be slimmer than the iPhone 4S and could include a quad-mode chip from Qualcomm that would allow for 3G and LTE operation on all "network flavors". They say that Apple sales will remain strong due to the release of the iPad 3 in the first half of this year and the iPhone 5 later this year:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/01/13/morgan_stanley_apples_next_iphone_to_be_slimmer_may_include_quad_mode_lte_chip.html

Apple's flaship store in Beijing turned into a riot scene when the iPhone 4S went on sale today, with Apple having to suspend sales of all iPhones at its 5 mainland China stores for the safety of its customers and employees. Demand for iPhones in China far exceeds supply, so scalpers hire migrant workers to stand in line overnight for about $16--the scalpers make them easy to identify by matching armbands or hates. When police saw that there were more than 1,000 people in line, they ordered the store not to open--those hired to stand in line were really upset since they would only get paid $1.60 for standing in line all night in freezing temperatures. This same Beijing store had also been forced to close when the iPad 2 was released in China. Apple's other Beijing store and their 3 stores in Shanghai had no problems and the iPhone 4S sold out quickly without any incidents:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/14/technology/apple-suspends-iphone-4s-sales-in-mainland-china-stores.html?_r=1

Target is going to have small Apple centers at 25 of its stores this year. This goes along with the store-inside-a-store concept that Target is trying this year called The Shops at Target, where Target will open small boutiques showcasing local stores inside its locations. Target will have about 400 exclusive items that the local stores will create with Target's guidance, with stores ranging from pet food and accessories to clothing to home goods. Five small boutiques will be in Target for about 6 weeks, then other small boutiques from local stores will replace them (the Apple stores will stay of course), through at least the end of next year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/business/target-plans-apple-mini-stores.html?_r=3

This writer for this BlackBerry-focused site bought a clock app for his BlackBerry that costs $500! He had thought that he was buying the most expensive app in App World, but he later found out that there is a $600 clock app also available for the BlackBerry platform. Needless to say, he has a huge case of buyer's remorse:
http://crackberry.com/500-desktop-clock-app-blackberry-i-was-dumb-enough-buy

LOTD for January 12

2012-01-12T17:52:00.001-08:00

The DFW Airport is proposing to provide a 700 MHz public-safety LTE network, which would be a HUGE project since DFW Airport is larger than the island of Manhattan. The nice thing is that 100% of the public-safety LTE network would be funded by the airport so they do not need any federal grant money:
http://urgentcomm.com/networks_and_systems/commentary/dfw-airport-lte-impact-20120112/

Ford is demonstrating at CES how their Ford Sync integrates with Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry devices, allowing a driver to control smartphone/tablet apps on the device with a combination of voice commands, steering wheel controls, and the center stack and touchscreen:
http://www.androidcentral.com/ford-shows-updated-sync-vehicle-android-integration

Article about how the Apple CEO's $378 mil is the highest salary in US history, more than twice as big as the previous record given to the CEO of McKesson (health care company) in 2010. It is interesting to note that Cook's $378 mil is not tied to any performance standards, he'll get the stock and money as long as he stays at Apple no matter how badly things may go in the future:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/tim-cooks-crazy-payday-shows-whats-wrong-in-business-183895

HP's PC sales were down 26% in the US and 16% globally in Q4 2011 compared to Q4 2010--HP is still #1 in the world and the US but the gap is closing between HP and its competitors. US sales of Macs were up 21% in Q4 2011 from the previous year, moving Apple from the #5 PC market share spot to #3 (they passed Toshiba and Acer). One of the factors for increased Mac sales is the popularity of the iPad:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/desktop-computers/give-ipad-some-credit-apples-brisk-mac-sales-183931

LG announced a number of smart appliances at CEO, including a refrigerator that helps you diet and keeps track of your groceries, to a robot vacuum that is controlled via smartphone. They also have an ultra-fast, eco-friendly washing machine that fits more clothes than before:
http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=055&ACCT=0000100&ISSUE=1201&RELTYPE=CES&PRODCODE=000000&PRODLETT=FR.html

The company that owns Energizer has used its battery expertise to create a cellphone that can maintain its charge for up to *15 years on a single AA battery*. It seems like an ideal solution to throw into the trunk of a car to forget about until there is some emergency where you need assistance. The phone costs just $50:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/12/spareone-cellphone-claims-15-year-battery-life-we-go-hands-on/

Verizon has made 4G LTE "a hard requirement" for smartphones, tablets, wireless hot spots, and Netbooks--that means that almost everything that Verizon offers will come with LTE. That is one reason why there aren't many Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices on Verizon's upcoming device list...and seems to indicate that the next iPhone will have LTE since Verizon wouldn't want to exclude the iPhone and Apple wouldn't want to lose those sales. Only rare exceptions, such as push-to-talk devices, will be allowed to be released with just 3G included:
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-33370_1-57357241/verizon-all-our-smartphones-will-be-4g-lte/

T-Mobile has $3 bil in cash and $3 bil in spectrum from AT&T and is now looking to figure out what its 4G road map will be. T-Mobile's CTO says that they could deploy HSPA+ 84 to upgrade the speed of their network, but the problem will be that device manufacturers are focusing on LTE and Qualcomm won't produce HSPA+ 85 chipsets until 2Q 2013. T-Mobile says that they may look at using its 1.9 GHz spectrum for LTE:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/ceslive/story/t-mobile-likely-deploy-hspa-84-not-ruling-out-lte/2012-01-11

Credit-default swaps on Dish Network debt jumped on speculation that Dish Network may be considering buying T-Mobile. I would think that a partnership would make more sense, especially since Dish has 20 MHz of nationwide 700 MHz LTE spectrum (more than AT&T and LightSquared). SNL Kagan said yesterday that Dish and Google submitted bids to buy T-Mobile (I think they are referring to how AT&T outbid them for T-Mobile, I don't think they submitted bids yesterday to buy T-Mobile):
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/01/11/bloomberg_articlesLXNB2A0D9L35.DTL#ixzz1jFwXoGUq

LG is paying a licensing fee for all of their devices that run Android or Chrome, which means that Microsoft is being paid a fee for more than 70% of Android smartphones sold...it appears that only Motorola has avoided paying Microsoft a license so far. Motorola's patent portfolio is one big reason that Google wants to buy them and appears to have held off Microsoft so far:
http://www.androidcentral.com/lg-latest-android-manufacturer-enter-licensing-deal-microsoft

WiMAX subscribers in Taiwan increased 85% between June and November, reaching 131,000 subscribers in November. One of the 6 WiMAX operators in Taiwan is targeting 250,000 WiMAX subscribers on their network alone by the 2nd half of this year:
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120109PD222.html

LOTD for January 11

2012-01-11T17:48:00.001-08:00

Video showing four Marines apparently peeing on the corpses of suspected Taliban fighters is not going to make it easy for the US to win the PR battle in Afghanistan:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/marines-allegedly-urinate-taliban-corpes/story?id=15341700#.Tw46N2_y9w-

About 1 out of every 10 stars have a planet the size of the Earth with an orbit that would create a temperature and climate roughly like what we have on Earth if the planet has water. This 6-year study over millions of stars concludes that it is common for stars to have planets where humans could live if those planets had water. More of the Milky Way's 100 billion stars have planets similar to Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, but planets like Jupiter and Saturn are more rare:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/01/about-one-out-of-every-ten-stars-has.html

Researchers have discovered a natural hormone that acts like exercise on muscle tissue (burning calories, improving insulin processing, boosting strength) and even transforms white fat cells into brown fat (which generates heat). This could lead to an "exercise pill" that can treat obesity, diabetes, and neuromuscular diseases like muscular dystrophy:
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/39449/?ref=rss

Israel apparently has killed another leading scientist involved with Iran's nuclear program. The deputy director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility was killed when a "sticky" bomb was attached to his car by 2 men on a motorcycle. There are reports that this was a joint operation between Israel's Mossad and the MEK (leftist organization inside Iran that works against their government):
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/bull20120111-israel-takes-out-another-iranian-nuclear-scientist

China succeeded in producing a harvest of 13.9 tons a hectare during its trial planting of a new rice breed--China plants 29 million hectares of rice each year with an average output of 6.3 tons a hectare, so this trial produced more than 2x the rice efficiency. Rice is the staple food for more than half of the people in the world and more than 900 million people in the world experienced malnutrition and hunger in 2010, up from 800 million in 1995. This super rice can be planted in many countries in the world, and if it is grown on 75 million hectares globally then the increased yield will produce 150 million tonnes extra for feeding 400-500 million more people...this could end famine and guarantee food security! Note that this super rice does *not* involved genetic modification, it is just regular hybriding:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-09/20/content_13737437.htm

Intel announced its first 2 major customers for their Atom processor specifically designed for smartphones and tablets--Lenovo and Motorola:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/ceslive/story/intel-notches-lenovo-motorola-customers-its-atom-expansion-mobile/2012-01-10

A tiny company called Globaltel was awarded a patent last year that it claims Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Nokia, most phone makers, and every wireless carrier in the world infringes! The patent covers text messages sent from a computer to a mobile phone that include a URL. Instead of suing the world, they wish to sell their patent for the highest bidder--they don't want to sell to any of the "patent trolls", but their CEO would sell for $100 mil to them. Globaltel also hopes to soon receive a patent for a mobile payment technology--their CEO says they were offered $100 mil for that technology last year *before* they even had a patent for it!
http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/company-says-carriers-phone-makers-infringe-patent-183643

Kodak filed lawsuits against Apple and HTC claiming infringement against Kodak's digital imaging patents. Kodak already was suing Apple about digital imaging patents, but this lawsuit adds 4 new claims and names basically every Apple device with a camera. The lawsuit against HTC includes the 4 patents HTC just sued Apple for, adds a 5th patent, and names a wide range of Android-based HTC smartphones. FOSS Patents speculates that Kodak filed the lawsuits to highlight its patent portfolio, which is has been trying to sell but has been unable to find a buyer for:
http://www.mobileburn.com/18209/news/kodak-files-new-patent-lawsuits-against-apple-htc

Nokia will provide each major US wireless carrier with an exclusive Windows Phone. They say that giving each carrier an exclusive and distinctive smartphone provides their products with more support from the carriers:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/ceslive/story/nokia-deliver-exclusive-us-windows-phone-devices-each-carrier/2012-01-10

Apple isn't displaying anything at CES this year, but they are apparently sending *250* employees to see what their competitors are demonstrating:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/11/us-apple-idUSTRE80A0BK20120111

The CEO of Canonical (which makes Ubuntu) is trying to get Ubuntu Linux onto mobile devices such as tablets to compete with Android and iOS:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/canonical-ceo-ubuntu-tablet-os-will-battle-android-ios-183456

LOTD for January 10

2012-01-10T16:49:00.001-08:00

MIT engineers developed a coating that can stop bleeding nearly instantaneously, something that could save a lot of lives. Sponges coated with the material can be stored for months and easily carried by soldiers or medical personnel. The sponges can be molded to fit the shape of any would and only slight pressure is needed to be applied:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/stop-bleeding-0110.html

Just as we saw yesterday with the NPR Android app, the Tunein Radio app joins the growing list of applications that are compatible with Ford SYNC AppLink. The TuneIn application allows people listen to more than 50,000 AM, FM, HD and Internet radio stations as well as more than 1 million on-demand programs. All hands-free via Ford SYNC AppLink. This is the future, folks. No word on exactly when the Android app will be updated, but the iTunes app should go live soon, and we expect the Android app to follow shortly. Hit the break for the full press release.
http://www.androidcentral.com/tunein-radio-app-now-compatible-ford-sync-control-over-50000-stations-voice-commands

News Corp's new app on Xbox 360 will allow Xbox Gold members to watch Fox TV shows (if they subscribe to cable or satellite TV, they still need to pay for a TV subscription) and read news from the Wall Street Journal:
http://www.adweek.com/news/television/fox-pushes-beyond-set-top-box-137432

The release of the iPhone 4S on October 14 significantly reduced the gap between Apple and Android--Apple's smartphone market share went from 26% in the 3Q to 43% in October and November, with Android's sales going from 60% in the 3Q to 47% in October and November. BlackBerry smartphone market share has gone from 19% in the 4Q of 2010 to 8% in the 3Q of 2011 to 6% in October and November. Smartphone sales were 50% of handsets sold in the 4Q of 2010 and were 67% of handsets sold in October and November:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/npd-apples-ios-closes-android-q4-sales-surge/2012-01-10

Viewsonic announced that they will have a 7-inch tablet available by March that will have a micro SD card slot, HDMI out, front-facing camera, and 4 GB internal storage for just *$169.99*. Those specs are significantly better than the Kindle Fire for a lower price. The ViewPad will have the latest Android operating system but will NOT have the Android Market. So, Google gives away the Android operating system and Amazon, Viewsonic, and Barnes & Nobles makesall the money on the hardware and apps/books/music/video:
http://www.androidcentral.com/viewsonic-announces-170-viewpad-e70-ice-cream-sandwich-tablet

The NY Times chose 45 places to visit this year and San Diego was 1 of 4 places chosen in the US. Instead of choosing San Diego for its beaches or tourist attractions, they chose San Diego for its craft beer industry, saying that San Diego is "a sunny heaven for suds lovers":
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jan/09/coming-to-san-diego-think-beer/

LOTD for January 9

2012-01-09T18:06:00.001-08:00

The Japanese Ministry of Defense revealed that they are developing a "seek and destroy" virus to combat hackers by tracking and disabling the source of cyber-attacks. Japan has been funding this work since 2008 and it has already been shown to work in trials. However, Japanese law forbids "offensive" retaliation to cyberattacks and also forbids the production of viruses, so the laws will have to be changed if Japan is going to use their cyberweapon for their cyberdefenses:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/srinfrastructure20120109-japan-develops-antihacker-weapon

NPR released the first Internet-enabled app by a major news organization for cars with their app for Ford Sync. Users can create playlists of stories and programs with their Android or iOS app, controlling their smartphone App by just verbally responding to the Ford Sync verbal prompts:
http://www.androidcentral.com/ford-announces-voice-controlled-npr-android-app-using-sync-applink-technology

Interesting column about how LightSquared's trouble in getting their network approved may result in Leap dumping its deal with LightSquared and use Clearwire instead for roaming coverage. Leap is one of LightSquared's highest profile customer wins, so this would be a HUGE loss for LightSquared and would be game-changing for Clearwire:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/will-lightsquareds-troubles-push-leap-arms-clearwire/2012-01-08

Article that points out that Sprint's initial markets seem to be an attack on AT&T--instead of choosing their home turf of Kansas city or other top Sprint markets like New Jersey, Sprint picked the key AT&T markets of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Atlanta for Sprint's first LTE markets:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/sprints-initial-lte-focus-att/2012-01-0

Motorola Mobility announced that they will report results below expectation in the 4th quarter. It appears that Motorola and HTC have been losing out to Samsung and Apple, with a survey finding that consumer's' interest in Motorola and HTC smartphones peaked in June 2011 and have declined since then. In December 2011, just 7% of consumers planned to buy a Motorola smartphone and just 3% planned to buy an HTC smartphone:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/motorola-falls-samsung-apple-q4/2012-01-08

Young woman went bungee jumping near the famous Victoria Falls (in Zambia), falling 360 feet from a bridge when her bungee cord snapped. The strong current almost swept her into the rapids, but the rope that tied her feet together caught on some rocks. So, she had her feet tied together, was in a strong current with her body bruised all over, in waters filled with crocodiles...and somehow she survived to give an interview that went along with this amazing (and scary) video:
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jan/09/video-cord-breaks-woman-survives-bungee-jump/

LOTD for January 8

2012-01-08T19:13:00.001-08:00

Article examining how much job fairs help the unemployed found that HR executives rank job fairs as the least effective job-search method, behind "blindly sending résumés to employers" and "cold-calling employers":
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jan/07/how-much-do-job-fairs-help-the-unemployed/

Kaspersky Mobile Security Lite is now available for free on the Android Market and could be a useful security solution for Android users. Malware scanning, SMS and call filtering, and anti-theft tools (track your phone via GPS, remote lock and wipe it) make this an interesting option to other security options:
http://www.androidcentral.com/kaspersky-mobile-security-lite-now-available-android-market

LOTD for January 6

2012-01-06T17:21:00.001-08:00

Missouri researchers have developed a photoacoustic device that can detect cancer cells way before they can become tumors. They are starting commercial production of the device that can be used in clinical trials to get FDA approval for early diagnosis of melanoma and other cancers. Currently, doctors use CT or MRI scans for melanoma cancer detection that cost thousands of dollars--a faster and cheaper screening method like this is good for both patient and doctor:
http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2012/0105-mu-researcher%E2%80%99s-photoacoustic-device-finds-cancer-cells-before-they-become-tumors/

Only 20% of Chinese cities have satisfactory air quality according to air-quality monitoring data available for the first time. The photos showing the air over Chinese cities make an amazing contrast to the photos of cities with clean air...
http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/01/only-one-in-five-chinese-cities-have.html

UCSF researchers discovered that a tiny flatworm (with an amazing ability to regenerate) found in ponds and rivers around the world does not have a key cellular structure called a "centrosome", which scientists have thought was essential for cell division. Every animal ever examined (huge mammals to tiny insects) has centrosomes in their cells until this discovery:
http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2012/01/11260/flatworm-flouts-fundamental-rule-biology

There used to be significant concern that terrorist groups would be able to use social media sites (Facebook YouTube, Twitter, etc.) to attract new members...but it appears those concerns are overblown because terrorist recruitment doesn't seemed to have increased at all since they started using social media:
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/29/144342062/terrorists-struggle-to-gain-recruits-on-the-web

Canadian man was 90 minutes into his 2 hour drive to the US border when he realized he had forgotten his passport. He was allowed to cross into the US by showing a scanned copy of his passport on his iPad:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/flash-of-an-ipad-gets-man-past-border-security/article2290029/

Three years after the TV networks had to switch to digital over-the-air transmission, the first white space communications device has been approved for operation:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/01/first-white-space-radio-communication.html

Study found that 1% of smartphone users consume HALF of all downloaded data, with capacity issues that are causing major problems for mobile operators around the world expected to get worse in 2012:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/press-releases/arieso-reveals-latest-trends-smartphone-data-use

The study also found that Apple's voice recognition software (Siri) has resulted in iPhone 4S users to use almost twice as much data compared to iPhone 4 users, making the capacity problems for wireless operators even worse. Verizon is dealing with this by getting more 3G spectrum (via recent deals they made) and getting 5+ mil subscribers onto their LTE network (leaving 3G data bandwidth for iPhone users). I hope that Sprint and AT&T have similar plans in place this year while they are also rapidly trying to get their LTE networks online:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-06/apple-s-voice-recognition-siri-doubles-iphone-data-volumes.html

HTC had a 25.5% drop in 4Q profit, its first quarterly profit drop in 2 years. Samsung has been winning over HTC in the Android smartphone wars and it should be noted that Samsung's profit rose 73% in the 4Q:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/htcs-q4-profit-drops-nearly-26-samsungs-profit-soars/2012-01-06

Leap Wireless announced plans to launch session-based data services for its tiered data pricing plans, which will allow customers to purchase faster data speeds for short periods of time:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/leap-launch-session-based-data-transactions-top-tiered-pricing/2012-01-05

Splashtop Remote Desktop is the free Android App today from Amazon--this sure seems like a good way to get full access to any PC via an Android phone/tablet:
http://www.droid-life.com/2012/01/06/splashtop-remote-desktop-free-today-in-the-amazon-appstore-normally-4-99/

LOTD for January 5

2012-01-05T18:46:00.001-08:00

Mineral that the first men on the Moon brought back to Earth in July 1969 had been thought to be unique to the moon's surface and the "extremely precious" material was subjected to intense, detailed study over the years...but has now been found at 6 sites in Western Australia. The mineral is called tranquillityite since the Apollo 11 astronauts landed in the Sea of Tranquility:
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/01/rare-moon-mineral-found-on-earth.html

One of Japan's most wanted men tried to turn himself in to a Tokyo police station on New Year's Eve, but the policeman sent him away because he thought it was a prank. Finally, the wanted terrorist (who helped carry out a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo underground that killed 12 people and made 6,000 other sick) found a police station that would arrest him. That sarin gas attack is the worst terrorist attack ever in Japan and the police officer didn't even bother checking into the identity of the man when he tried to turn himself in!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/04/aum-tokyo-makoto-hirata-sarin?INTCMP=SRCH

Pres. Obama announced his vision for the future of the US military, with cuts to the Army and Marine Corps and "outdated cold War systems" part of an effort to cut $487 bil over 10 years from the DOD budget. The US will focus more on the Asia-Pacific area instead of Afghanistan. The Navy and Air Force will gain increased importance, with the focus on spy tools such as UAVs, special operations forces, offensive cyber weapons, jammers, and military presence to deter and confront Iran and China. The Army has been focused on counterinsurgency for the last decade, but counterinsurgency will be extremely limited in this plan:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/01/pentagon-asia-strategy/

The 500+ page National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 has a provision buried in the Space Activities section that appears to be a HUGE problem for Clearwire to get FCC approval in time to satisfy their contract with Sprint. The NDAA was signed into law on Saturday and prohibits the FCC from allowing any operation (cough, Clearwire, cough) that interferes with the military use of GPS in any way:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Networking/LightSquared-GPS-Interference-Issue-Faces-Congressional-Oversight-860245/

The American Cancer Society projects that 1.64 mil new cancer cases and 577k deaths from cancer will occur in 2012. Overall death rates between 1990/91 and 2008 found that overal death rates decreased by about 23% in men and 15% in women, which translates to more than 1 mil deaths from cancer that were avoided. An estimated 1/3 of cancer deaths in 2012 will be cased by tobacco use and another 1/3 will be related to overweight or obesity, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition:
http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/news/News/annualreport-more-than-a-million-cancer-deaths-avoided-in-2-decades

Yahoo chose PayPal's President to be their new CEO, Yahoo's 4th CEO in 5 years. The graphic with this article clearly shows how the highest Yahoo stock price has steadily declined under each CEO, as Yahoo has been losing a lot of business to Google and Facebook:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-01-04/yahoo-ceo-report/52375040/1

This list of the 10 highest paid CEOs in the wireless sector has 1 big surprise to me--Verizon's CEO is at #8, making less than the CEOs from Nokia, Sprint, Motorola, and *2* people from AT&T:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-reports/who-were-highest-paid-executives-wireless

Verizon bought out Qualcomm's 50% of their machine-to-machine joint venture nPhase:
http://www.connectedworldmag.com/blog/?p=743

Verizon activated 4.2 mil iPhones and 2.2 mil LTE devices in the 4Q, significantly more than the other quarters in 2011. Verizon said that their profit margins will decline 5% to 6% from the 3Q, probably due to higher device subsidy costs (one can look at Sprint's balance sheet to see the impact of iPhone subsidies on profit margins). Verizon activated 2.2 mil iPhones in the 1Q, 2.3 mil iPhones in the 2Q, 2 mil iPhones in the 3Q, and 4.2 mil iPhones in the 4Q. LTE device activations were 1Q: 500k, 2Q: 1.2 mil, 3Q: 1.4 mil, 4Q: 2.2 mil:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizon-activates-42m-iphones-q4-warns-margin-decline/2012-01-04

AT&T is rapidly expanding its LTE network, covering 26 markets with 75 million POPs. Verizon covers 200 million POPs are far more markets, but by building out first Verizon has experienced growing pains (3 LTE outages in December alone):
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-expands-lte-coverage-26-markets-74-million-pops/2012-01-05

Clearwire's stock dropped after an analyst reduced their target stock price from $5/share to $2/share. Clearwire's stock dropped to $2/share by closing yesterday and today dropped below $2/share:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/01/04/clearwire-kaufman-cuts-rating-sees-flattish-2012-revs/

Google may launch a tablet competitor to compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire. Google cannot like how the Kindle Fire will be the best-selling Android-based tablet and it uses Amazon's App Store instead of Google's Android Market. The really interesting thing about the rumor is that it will launch in March or April, will run Android 4.0 (instead of the Android 2.2-based smartphone OS that the Kindle Fire used that has been heavily customized by Amazon), and will sell for *less* than the Kindle Fire's $199 price:
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120104PD212.html

Mindpeed is buying Picochip for $51.8 mil ($27.5 mil cash, $24.3 mil Mindspeed stock), plus up to $25 mil more if Picochip achieves certain milestones:
http://www.picochip.com/news/208

San Diego-based Entropic Communications is buying Trident Microsystems for $55 mil to help it compete with Irvine-based Broadcom who is entering Entropic's connected home technology:
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jan/04/entropic-aims-buy-assets-bankrupt-chip-firm/

Man slashed tires on dozens of cars and broke into garages east of Carmel Canyon Road...in Carmel Valley, not far from where I live! At least 17 homes in Carmel Valley were victims of the masked man last night through early this morning:
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jan/05/tires-slashed-burglaries-carmel-valley/

16-foot-long crocodile charged at an Australian reptile park worker and stole his lawn mower, guarding it closely all morning. The keepers lured the 1,110-pound crocodile to the other end of the lagoon with a huge mound of kangaroo meat, and while the crocodile was distracted one keeper jumped into the lagoon to retrieve the lawn mower. The keeper also searched the bottom of the lagoon for two 3-inch teeth the crocodile lost when stealing the lawnmower...searching for the teeth while the crocodile was nearby!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45873833/ns/world_news-weird_news/#.TwXXI9SiFw9

LOTD for January 4

2012-01-04T17:37:00.001-08:00

The numbers show just how popular the iPhone has been on Verizon and explains why Verizon has made a big push to get users to upgrade to 4G (and leave their 3G network bandwidth for the iPhone). During the first 9 months of 2011 Verizon wold 6.5 million iPhones and only 1.5 million LTE smartphones! The 4Q numbers will show if the variety of LTE smartphones released for Verizon will have enticed customers to move to LTE:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/q4-smartphone-sales-hit-record-wireless-operator-margins-wont/2012-01-04

C Spire has canceled its plans to launch an LTE network in the 4Q of 2011. It should be noted that C Spire announced an agreement with Apple to start selling the iPhone in October (the start of the 4Q) and that probably cost them a significant amount of money (Sprint is paying Apple a minimum of $15.5 bil over 4 years to get the iPhone), so C Spire may not have money to build out their LTE network after that deal:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/c-spires-lte-buildout-dead-water/2012-01-04

Microsoft *needs* for Nokia's first Windows Phone to be a huge hit, so Microsoft and its partners (Nokia and AT&T) will spend $100 mil for the marketing campaign to sell the Nokia Ace. The Ace will launch first on AT&T since AT&T has agreed to give it "hero" status...that means that AT&T will promote the device in its advertising, in AT&T's retail channels, and AT&T store employees will push Nokia's smartphone. For quite some time AT&T trumpeted its exclusivity for the iPhone, but now that its competitors have it they will be pushing Nokia's Windows Phone:
http://betanews.com/2012/01/03/windows-phone-partners-bet-100m-on-nokia-ace/

Samsung is expected to report 4Q (Oct-Dec) revenue of $41 bil with $4.1 bil profit in the quarter, with profit up 57% from last year and 11% from last quarter. Samsung is forecast to have sold a record 35 mil smartphones last quarter--to put that in perspective, last quarter Samsung sold 27.8 mil smartphones and the most iPhones Apple has *ever* sold in a quarter is 20.3 mil:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/04/us-samsung-idUSTRE80306Y20120104

I know that they always say that "every vote counts", but it always amazes me when elections are decided by such slim margins--Mitt Romney got 30,015 votes in Iowa while Rick Santorum got 30,007:
http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2012/01/04/mitt-romney-wins-iowa-caucuses/

It is amazing what a difference a typo on a single letter can make...
http://jimromenesko.com/2012/01/04/herniated-dick-ouch/

LOTD for January 3

2012-01-03T18:06:00.001-08:00

Researchers at the University of Georgia Cancer Center have made significant progress towards a cancer vaccine, synthesizing a carb-based vaccine in mice that successfully triggered a strong immune response to cancer cells. It activates all 3 components of the immune system to reduce tumor size by 80%. They have shown that antibody responses can be triggered that can kill cancer cells involved in most solid tumors such as breast, colorectal, and pancreatic cancer. They hope to start human trials this year:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/01/breast-and-pancreatic-cancer-vaccine.html

Engineers in Tokyo have developed an interesting way use biometrics as an anti-theft system in cars and they hope to commercialize this soon. The diver's seat is fitted with 360 sensors to utilize a 3-D image of a butt as a personal identifier and the car won't move if it doesn't recognize the butt in the driver's seat:
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/12/biometric-car-seat/

It looks like we are going to see a LOT of car commercials during the Super Bowl--last year's Super Bowl had a record 20 car commercials and this year will apparently have even more. A 30-second commercial last year cost $3 mil, but it costs $3.5 mil this year and one of the last commercial spots went for $4 mil. NBC sold out all of the commercial spots, but 2 early commercial buyers reportedly want to back out of their spots and NBC will let them back out if the commercials sell to others for enough money:
http://www.adweek.com/news/television/auto-dollars-drive-nbc-super-bowl-sellout-137308

Google was assigned 217 more patents by IBM--Google and IBM seem to have some type of relationship where IBM is arming Google for the patent wars going on in exchange for an undisclosed amount of money and/or other considerations:
http://www.seobythesea.com/2012/01/ibm-assigns-patent-filings-to-google/#more-7107

AT&T may buy Leap Wireless or MetroPCS now that its T-Mobile deal is dead:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-29/leap-wireless-metropcs-may-be-takeover-targets-for-at-t-jpmorgan-says.html

Sprint gave LightSquared a 30-day extension to get FCC clearance to operate its network. So, LightSquared has until January 30 to get FCC approval or Sprint has the right to kill its deal with LightSquared. LightSquared said that it could save $13 bil over the next few years from Sprint's hosting help due to this deal and the deal is worth $9 bil to Sprint...so LightSquared *needs* to get FCC approval this month:
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201201011657dowjonesdjonline000135&title=sprint-grants-lightsquared-30-day-reprieve-on-fcc-clearance

The 2011 CES featured a wide variety of tables and they were calling 2011 "the year of the tablet", but the 2012 CES is going to feature a lot of ultrabooks because 2012 is called "the year of the ultrabook". The MacBook Air and its Windows-based ultrabook clones will be highlighted. 802.11ac (the 1 Gbps upgrade for 802.11n) may also be featured at CES, with Broadcom hinting of a CES product announcement:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/desktop/232300674

USA Today launched a free mobile app optimized expressly for Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet. Kindle Fire owners can read the USA Today for free, with the app sponsored by Volkswagen. My girls *love* their Kindle Fires (they each bought a Kindle Fire with their life savings and they do everything, even email, on it now instead of on laptops) but I think I'll ask them to download that app for me:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/usa-today-launches-news-app-amazons-kindle-fire/2012-01-03

99-year-old Italian man is divorcing his wife of *77 years* when he discovered that she had an affair 70 or so years ago. The couple have 5 children, 12 grandchildren and 1 great-grand child. He apparently will set the record for the oldest man getting a divorce--the previous oldest couple were 98-year-olds from the UK:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8982958/99-year-old-divorces-wife-after-he-discovered-1940s-affair.html

Man in North Carolina was arrested when he tried use a fake $1 mil bill to pay for his $476 in purchases at a Walmart:
http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2011/dec/31/wsmain01-lexington-man-charged-with-making-a-fake--ar-1765473/

LOTD for December 30

2011-12-30T18:28:00.001-08:00

760 bills will become law on Sunday, including a lot of controversial new laws such as requiring public schools to teach gay history, banning the open display of unloaded handguns and banning minors from getting preventative treatment for STDs without parental approval. People under the age of 18 will be banned from using indoor tanning beds. Amazon and other Internet-only companies must collect sales taxes. Children younger than 8 or shorter than 4' 9" must use a car seat (the old law applied to children younger than 6). Landlords may ban smoking in rental housing. People will be able to register to vote online in California soon:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/30/a-new-year-and-new-laws-for-californians-to-follow/

Facebook is being blamed for 1/3 of the divorces in England. More than 30 million people in the UK (about 1/2 their population) use Facebook each month...and things like contacting ex-partners and other ways that people arrange for affairs or flirt with others are apparently leading to divorces in the UK:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/12/status-update-facebook-breaking-up-a-third-of-uk-marriages.html

Verizon is not going to charge the $2 convenience fee like they mentioned yesterday. Consumer objections and the FCC saying that they would look into the $2 fee factored into Verizon's reversal:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/12/verizon-scraps-payment-convenience-fee.html

LOTD for December 29

2011-12-29T18:21:00.001-08:00

Samoa (also called Western Samoa) is going go *skip* December 30 this year due to a time zone change, going straight from 12/29 to 12/31. Instead of being one of the last countries to celebrate the New Year, they will now be one of the first. Samoa is changing its time zone to be on the western side of the international dateline as its closest trading partners (Australia and New Zealand). Samoa used to be on the western side of the dateline until 1982, when Samoa and American Samoa switched to the eastern side to encourage closer economic ties with the US. American Samoa will remain on the eastern side of the dateline, which means that it will be Monday in Samoa when it is Sunday in American Samoa:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/12/29/2011122901552.html

Study found that the use of torture around the world has not decreased, but the techniques used now are more complex and sophisticated. The new forms of torture leave no visible marks but instead leave "invisible scars" that are responsible for a variety of serious mental health problems:
http://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/smd/61438.html

ComScore found that 91.4 million US people owned smartphones during the 3 months ending in November, up 8% from the previous 3 months. Android is at 46.9% market share, up 3.1% from the previous period, while Apple is at 28.7%, up 1.4% from the previous period. RIM dropped 3.1% (now at 16.6% market share), Microsoft dropped 0.5% (now at 5.2%), and Symbian dropped 0.3% (now at 1.5%):
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/12/comScore_Reports_November_2011_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share

Verizon is going to start charging $2 each time customers make single bill payments online or by telephone. There are a few ways they list to avoid the fee, with the big push to get customers to enroll in AutoPay to avoid the fees. Verizon offered my family $10 to switch to AutoPay awhile back, so I won't have to worry about this fee:
http://news.verizonwireless.com/news/2011/12/pr2011-12-29b.html

LOTD for December 28

2011-12-28T17:30:00.001-08:00

The entrepreneurs behind Panda Express are now trying to use their standardization model for the dry cleaning market. They plan to open as many as 200 standardized dry cleaning shops nationwide in the next 5 years with a partnership with Proctor & Gamble. Their first franchised shop, Tide Dry Cleaners, opened Tuesday in Henderson (a suburb of Vegas). The dry cleaning industry has nearly 39,000 locations earning a total of $9.2 bil per year, with the market highly fragmented and the top 4 companies only having 2.5% of total revenue. More than 90% of dry cleaners only have 1 location, so 200 franchised locations around the country is quite a different model:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-panda-dry-cleaners-20111228,0,1653411.story

AT&T completed its $1.9 bil purchase of Qualcomm's 700 MHz spectrum (the mediaFLO spectrum):
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/12/att-closes-1-point-9-billion-purchase-of-qualcomm-spectrum.html

Google+ is adding 625,000 new users a day and could reach 400 million members by the end of next year. The growth of Google+ has increased significantly late, with almost 25% of Google+ members joining this month alone. To put the 400 million member projection in perspective, Facebook has 800 million members now. The rapid growth of Android has boosted Google+, and as people join Google+ they invite their friends and family to accelerate its growth:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-28/google-service-may-have-400-million-users-by-end-of-2012.html#

More Apple and Android apps are downloaded on Christmas than any other day of the year due to the massive number of smartphones and tablets given as gifts. Between December 1 and 20, about 1.5 million Android/Apple devices were activated each day, but on Christmas day a record 6.8 million Android/Apple devices were activated, 353% more than during the first 20 days of December. Christmas 2011 had 140% more new device activations than Christmas 2010. Almost a quarter of a billion downloads occurred on Christmas Day 2011, more than any other day in the history of Android and Apple devices except for December 24 (when 150 million downloads happened):
http://blog.flurry.com/bid/79682/iOS-Android-Shatter-Records-on-Christmas-Day

LOTD for December 23

2011-12-23T18:51:00.000-08:00

Foxconn plans to start making solar power modules at unprecedented scale and cost, which will push capacity higher and prices lower. They are building a $223 mil "robot kingdom" in Taiwan that will use millions of manufacturing robots over the next 3 year. Their solar power manufacturing hub will use about as many robots as the rest of the world! The industrial robots will perform simple tasks such as spraying and assembly, driving costs down by replacing 500,000 of their 1.2 million employees:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/12/foxconn-plans-to-build-new-solar-panel.html

Huge data centers have increasingly experienced congestion due to bottlenecks in moving data between different machines through relatively slow wiring. Researchers from UC-Santa Barbara and Intel Labs found that bouncing wireless signals off the ceiling can boost data transmission speeds by 30%. They used 60 GHz WiFi that was developed for high-definition wireless communications and has a bandwidth in the Gbps range. IBm has also been trying to use wireless technology in data centers, but they point out that 60 GHz WiFi has only 4 data channels and hundreds of wireless data links need to operate in a data center to be useful:
http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/39367/

Apple has applied for 2 different patents to describe ways to use a fuel cell to power a portable computing device, which could work with Macbooks, iPads, etc.. Apple included an explanation why they are looking at this technology, saying they want to build portable computing devices that are not reliant on fossil fuels:
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-apple-fuel-cell-patents-portable.html

LOTD for December 22

2011-12-22T18:31:00.001-08:00

Elon Musk says that he could put a human on Mars in 10 to 20 years' time, for as low as $2 bil...$2 bil is the cost of 4 space shuttle missions and the Space Station has already cost $100 bil. Musk also said that he wants to put 10,000 people on Mars. Musk's SpaceX is already making quite a bit of money, with $492 mil to launch Iridium satellites, $1.6 bil to service the Space Station with options to provide another $3.1 bil more:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/12/elon-musk-says-he-will-put-millions-of.html

India's court system ruled that their central government is liable to pay compensation for Indian citizens killed in terrorist attacks in other countries if the foreign country doesn't compensate the Indian victims:
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-12-08/kochi/30491030_1_compensation-blood-money-saudi-arabia

Google is spending $94 mil and working with KKR to develop 4 solar energy farms that will provide electricity for more than 13,000 homes in Sacramento over the next 20+ years. Google has invested more than $915 mil in clean energy projects, including $800 mil this year, but Google's Sacramento solar deal is its first large US investment that generates solar energy for a grid instead of rooftop systems for homes or businesses. Google has set $355 mil in funds to help solar installers offer special financing deals to homeowners who want to put solar panels on their roofs:
http://news.yahoo.com/google-kkr-invest-california-solar-project-130341143.html

Dish Network's stock rose more than 9% on speculation that AT&T may want to buy Dish or at least its LTE spectrum now that AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile is dead. That would be interesting since Dish was one of the biggest critics of the AT&T/T-Mobile deal and a few years ago AT&T switched their satellite TV partnership from Dish to DirecTV. Analysts point out that Dish's market cap of $12 bil is much lower than the $39 bil AT&T was going to pay for T-Mobile and AT&T would have an easier time getting a Dish acquisition approved since Dish doesn't have a wireless broadband network right now. Dish's nationwide spectrum complements the spectrum that AT&T is buying from Qualcomm:
http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?C=1&ID=470069

T-Mobile's parent company (Deutsche Telekom AG) had planned to use AT&T's $39 bil purchase price to repurchase $6.5 bil in stock, cut debt, and receive an 8% stake in AT&T. With the deal deal, Deutsche Telekom may need to reduce stock dividends because catching up with Verizon and AT&T for LTE may cost them $9 bil:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-21/deutsche-telekom-dividend-pressured-after-at-t-deal-collapse.html

Sprint's CEO says that they won't need to worry about getting more spectrum until 2016 or so:
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2011/12/21/sprint-ceo-meeting-lends-conviction-to-turnaround-says-wells

Source that works for RIM says that BlackBerry 10 is a failure that won't be able to compete with Apple and Android. BlackBerry 10 on smartphones apparently doesn't do email and doesn't worked with BlackBerry Messenger. RIM's CEO had said that they delayed the BlackBerry 10 smartphones for a new LTE chipset...but the RIM source says that the delay is because RIM doesn't have a working product yet. The high-level RIM employee says that RIM is betting its company on a platform and ecosystem that isn't even as good as iPhone OS 1.0 or Android 2.0!
http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/22/blackberry-10-is-a-failure-that-wont-be-able-to-compete-company-source-says/

Page Plus (an MVNO of Verizon) is undercutting its competitors with a new $12/month plan that provides 250 voice minutes, 250 text messages and 10 MB of data for just $12/month.
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/page-plus-mvno-launches-12-monthly-plan/2011-12-22

Amazing to see the impact of a trade...For the first time in StubHub 's history the demand for LA Clippers tickets is greater than the demand for LA Lakers tickets, with more than a 40% difference now. Only the Knicks have sold more tickets than the Clippers to date. Chris Paul's debut with the Clippers was the most watched pre-season game in NBA TV history, getting even more viewers than the previous record when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh debuted with Miami:
http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2011/12/22/stubhub-confirms-it-chris-paul-l-a-clippers-are-a-hot-nba-ticket/

LTOD for December 21

2011-12-21T18:55:00.001-08:00

The US Justice Department is investigating Verizon's deals with cable companies for their potential to hurt competition in the wireless and cable industries. My guess is that the FCC and Justice Department will approve the deal because the cable companies aren't going to become major sources of wireless competition anyway:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-21/verizon-wireless-probed-by-justice-department-over-cable-deals.html

RIM turned down acquisition overtures from Amazon and other potential buyers because they prefer to fix their problems with the BlackBerry platform on their own. Wall Street bankers have also tried to pitch RIM to Samsung, HTC, and Microsoft, but HTC and Samsung already use Android and did not see the value in the BlackBerry platform and Microsoft apparently wasn't interested either:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/21/us-rim-amazon-idUSTRE7BJ26S20111221

Study found that people lie more often when they communicate via text message than when they have face-to-face conversations or speaking on the phone. Apparently, it is easier for people to get away with lying via text because the other person cannot see your facial expression or hear the signs of lying in someone's voice. The study also found that people get more angry when they are lied to via text instead of being lied to in person:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/12/people-more-likely-to-lie-when-texting-study.html

LOTD for December 20

2011-12-20T16:19:00.001-08:00

Article about how the price that AT&T pays for its failed acquisition of T-Mobile will likely be greater than just the $6 bil breakup fee, with signifiicant repercussions to AT&T in many forms:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/price-atts-failed-acquisition-t-mobile-will-be-bigger-6b-breakup-fee/2011-12-20

Article about how AT&T doesn't have any good options to try to keep up with Verizon after the collapse of their $39 bid for T-Mobile. AT&T can either try to buy spectrum from another company (time-consuming, expensive and risky), wait for the US to auction more frequencies (could be a long delay, expensive and risky), or try to get more capacity out of the spectrum they have already said is inadequate for their needs. Sprint is set with its partner Clearwire and has first dibs on any spectrum Clearwire sells (bad for AT&T), Verizon has the cable companies' spectrum and partnership agreement, and T-Mobile will get $3 bil in cash from AT&T and spectrum from AT&T to expand T-Mobile's network. Verizon has 56% more 4G spectrum than AT&Tin the top 10 markets and 46% more in the top 100:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-20/at-t-has-few-weapons-for-verizon-fight-after-failure-of-t-mobile-bid-tech.html

Millennial media reports that ad impressions on the Kindle Fire have grown 19% *each day* since its launch! They are seeing hundreds of millions of ad impressions each month from Kindle Fire uses, with the Kindle Fire's growth being faster than the original iPad when it launched last year:
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/kindle-fire-outpacing-first-ipad-137221

76-year-old British woman was sent to a specialist because of weight loss and diarrhea and was diagnosed with severe diverticulosis...but when her belly was scanned they say something strange there. The woman remembered swallowing a black felt-tip pen 25 years earlier, both her husband and doctor didn't think that actually happened. They had taken X-rays 25 years ago when she claimed to have swallowed the pen and nothing was found. However, when her belly was scanned with today's technology, they found the pen! The pen actually stayed in her stomach for 25 years, sat in stomach acid for all that time...and still could write when it was removed from her stomach!
http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/19/9498879-swallowed-pen-still-works-25-years-later

LOTD for December 19

2011-12-19T15:33:00.001-08:00

AT&T ended its attempt to buy T-Mobile for $39 bil, saying that it will record an accounting charge of $4 bil in the 4Q and that it will get a roaming agreement with T-Mobile:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-quits-39b-quest-acquire-t-mobile-usa/2011-12-19

British Telecom is the 5th large, publicly traded company to bring patent infringement litigation against the Android platform (Oracle, Apple, Microsoft and eBay. An analyst says that with so many patent holders asserting their rights, having to pay royalties may force Google to start charging for Android licensing to pass royalties on to device makers. British Telecom's patents are location-based services and nagivation/guidance patents from the 90s:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/bt-joins-patent-war-against-googles-android/2011-12-19

The UK won't have 4G widely available until 2015, where just a few months ago there were predictions that UK consumers would be getting 4G services by 2013. With Ofcom setting back the 4G spectrum auction by more than a year, it appears that UK consumers might have to wait until 2016 now!
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/4G-Wont-Be-Widely-Available-in-UK-Until-2015-117463

LOTD for December 16

2011-12-16T17:42:00.001-08:00

French semiconductor maker Soitec is building a solar manufacturing plant in Rancho Bernardo that will put San Diego at the forefront for deployment of a relatively new photovoltaic technology. The technology was pioneered on space missions and is expected to have its commercial breakthrough next year for electrical generation for utility companies, and may soon compete with traditional silicon solar panels. The Rancho Bernardo plant will employ 450 full-time workers and generate 200 megawatts, enough to power about 80,000 San Diego homes:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/16/solar-maker-settles-in/

The majority of cyberattacks on US businesses and government agencies come from as few as 12 different Chinese hacker collectives. Their stealthy attacks have resulted in the loss of billions of dollars of IP and state secrets from the private and public sector:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20111216-twelve-chinese-hacker-groups-responsible-for-attacks-on-u-s

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is launching a service that will allow passengers to look at passenger's Facebook and LinkedIn profiles to decide which passenger they want to sit next to. At least they are making people have to opt-in to have their information shown, so those who do not wish to have their information displayed will remain private:
http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2011/12/klm-passengers-use-social-media-to-find-a-perfect-seatmate/583598/1

Smartphones with the QNX operating system are RIM"s hope to turn around BlackBerry's slide in market share and RIM had said they expected to sell QNX-based smartphones in early 2012. Now RIM may not release the new smartphones until 2013! With the iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone sales increasing and 2011 being the first year where RIM's sales declined from the past year, what will 2012 be like for the BlackBerry if they do not upgrade their devices while everybody else has significant upgrades and new products? BlackBerry sales are typically highest in the 4th quarter (Holiday sales are huge for all smartphone companies), but RIM said that they will sell 3.1 million less smartphones this 4Q compared to last year. After hearing about the delay in QNX-based smartphones, one brokerage firm wrote to their clients that "This could be game over for the BlackBerry franchise":
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/rim-launch-blackberry-10-latter-part-2012/2011-12-15

http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/rim-delays-blackberry-reboot-smartphones-takes-hit-tablets-181920

Samsung is making the A5 processor that is basically the brain in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 in a 1.6 million square foot factory in Austin, which Samsung just spent $3.6 bil to build. The iPhone and iPad have basically been built with almost all of their chips made in China, so having such a significant component made in the US is notable:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/16/us-apple-samsung-idUSTRE7BF0D420111216

AT&T claims that they are in desperate need of more spectrum, which is why they told the FCC they need to by Qualcomm's Flo TV spectrum for $1.93 bil and T-Mobile for $39 bil. However, AT&T's plans to customize a 700 MHz band plan affects every regional and rural operator with a license in the lower 700 MHz band, with AT&T's plans specifically preventing those operators could use phones made for AT&T and excluding the possibility for roaming agreements. The regional and rural operators want the FCC to make interoperability in the lower 700 MHz as a condition of the Qualcomm deal approval so that future iPhones and Android phones running on AT&T's LTE network would also work on their network. AT&T says that if the FCC requires interoperability with the other 700 MHz bands, they will GIVE UP on the spectrum they say they need for their LTE network:
http://gigaom.com/broadband/att-awfully-picky-about-the-spectrum-it-claims-to-need/

AT&T wants to prevent any interoperability with regional and rural wireless providers, but Verizon has a huge Rural American program, with 13 rural wireless partners partnering with Verizon on their LTE network. Pioneer Cellular announced the successful completion of end-to-end data testing over its 4G LTE network, with commercial launch in the spring. Pioneer's 4G LTE network will allow Pioneer and Verizon customers to get LTE service from Pioneer within Pioneer's coverage area and LTE service from Verizon throughout the rest of the US. I think that this is great for rural carriers since they can use Verizon's spectrum instead of buying their own, all the devices made for Verizon will work on their network, and they provide their rural customers with nationwide LTE roaming via Verizon. I think that Verizon also benefits greatly because they don't have to pay for the LTE equipment costs and operation in rural areas, enabling them to get nationwide LTE coverage faster and cheaper:
http://news.verizonwireless.com/news/2011/12/pr2011-12-16.html

Verizon is buying the 20 MHz of AWS spectrum that Cox owns for $315 mil. That means that Verizon is paying a total of about $4 bil for nationwide AWS spectrum licenses that the cable companies owned and almost all of the cable companies (Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Bright House) will be reselling and partnering with Verizon Wireless:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizon-buy-coxs-aws-spectrum-315m/2011-12-16

LOTD for December 15

2011-12-15T17:44:00.001-08:00

California is launching a campaign to stop drivers from wasting millions of gallons of oil each year because they change the oil in their car too often. Nationally 51% of car owners say that oil should be changed every 3,000 miles or 3 months, and just 33% wait more than 4,000 miles between oil changes. But technology has made that perception invalid, with BMW owners actually able to wait up to 15,000 miles between oil changes. My Honda Insight just passed 10,000 miles and its sensor still tells me that I still have 10% to 15% of oil life before I need to have my oil changed...about 10 million gallons of oil could be saved each year (and hundreds of millions of dollars!) if people didn't change their oil too frequently:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-autos-oil-change-20111215,0,4554184.story

Alabama's new tough immigration law resulted in the arrest of a German director of Mercedes-Benz last month and the arrest of an executive for Honda this week. The Honda executive was arrested despite the fact that he showed an international driver's license, a valid passport and a US work permit! Honda has 100 Japanese managers in Alabama and they must all be terrified of this Alabama's immigration law. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an open letter for foreign car companies to encourage them to move their auto plants to Missouri--saying "We are the Show Me State, not the Show Me Your Papers State." This new law could kill Alabama's economy--Mercedes-Benz and Honda are major employers in Alabama, with Honda having 4,000 employees in Alabama with an investment of about $1.4 bil. Alabama's new law also resulted in tomatoes rotting in the fields when Hispanic pickers fled and their construction industry has also been hit hard...but arresting executives of major employers in your state who have valid paperwork on them seems particularly idiotic:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/02/alabama-car-boss-immigration-law

The DoD and DoT released the study results that found that LightSquared interfered with the majority of GPS receivers and that the FAA found that LightSquared interfered with a flight safety system designed to warn pilots of approaching terrain. I enjoyed LightSquared's spin where they admit the problem with plans but say they are working with the FAA to address it and they blame the GPS devices for being interfered with. They may have a point that the GPS receivers should not be hampered by their use of their spectrum, but all of those receivers are already in the field and serve crucial roles around the country:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/federal-agencies-say-lightsquareds-operations-interfere-gps/2011-12-15

Amazon has sold more than 1 million Kindles a week for the 3rd week in a row, with Kindle Fire tablet sales increasing each week. The Kindle Fire is the bestselling, most-gifted and most-wished-for product on Amazon's entire website:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/12/amazon-kindle-1-million-a-week.html

Report says that over 6 million US households are now using wireless as their only internet service. The "Mobile-Only" customers do not used wired broadband (cable, DSL, fiber) and instead use 3G or 4G smartphones or PC dongles:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/strategy-analytics-6-million-homes-now-using-wireless-as-only-broadband-service-2011-12-14

ViaSat-owned WildBlue currently has 400,000 nationwide subscribers who are paying $80/month for 1.5 Mbps service, but with their new satellite they can now offer 12 Mbps broadband for $50/month. This makes a competitive broadband solution available nationwide instead of having mainly rural customers use satellite broadband services:
http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_19526368

Teens have more than tripled their mobile data usage over the past year, with teen males using 382 MB/month and teen females using 266 MB/month. Teen females send/receive an average of 3,952 messages (SMS and MMS) per month, with teen boys exchanging 2,815 messages/month. While data usage has more than tripled, voice usage has declines, with teens saying they prefer messaging to calling because it is faster, easier, and more fun:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/new-mobile-obsession-u-s-teens-triple-data-usage/

LOTD for December 14

2011-12-14T17:50:00.001-08:00

Scientists developed new cotton fabric that cleans itself of stains and bacteria when exposed to ordinary sunlight. The compound used to coat the fabric is already used in self-cleaning windows, kitchen and bathroom tiles, and other products. Self-clean cotton fabrics would mean that jeans, sweats, and socks would clean and de-ordorize themselves when exposed to the sun:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/12/Materials-Nanotechnology-Oxides-Cotton-fabric-cleans-itself-when-exposed-to-ordinary-sunlight/

American Airlines is replacing its personal entertainment devices for first-class passengers on international or cross-country flights with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. the Android-based tablet will have a variety of apps to entertain first-class passengers and is the first branded tablet offered by a North American airline:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110613005458/en/Samsung-Mobile-Seals-Landmark-Agreement-American-Airlines

Clearwire raised $402.5 mil in new funds, which triggered Sprint to invest $331.4 mil in Clearwire, which gives $715.5 mil in the bank ($19.4 mil go to the underwriters for fees) to build Phase 1 of their TD-LTE network:
http://gigaom.com/broadband/clearwire-green-lights-lte-build-by-raising-734-million/

LightSquared offered significant concessions to the FCC in order to try to get approval for their network to begin operation. They offered to accept an extra check on before they get to use the most troublesome part of their spectrum and offered to delay/reduce the power increases their network gets to use. LightSquared had planned to launched its base stations at -30 dBm, increasing power to -27 dBm after 1/1/15 and -24 dBm after 1/1/17. However, now LightSquared said that they won't go to -27 dBm until after 1/1/16 and they won't go to -24 dBm at all:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/246180/lightsquared_proposes_concessions_on_lte.html

Microsoft just launched their cloud storage service (SkyDrive) for the iPhone--it has only been available through a Windows Phone app or their website before. iPhone owners that sign up for SkyDrive will get 25 GB of free cloud storage:
http://www.businessinsider.com/sky-drive-iphone-2011-12#ixzz1gW6hUobw

Windows Phone devices that receive a text message (with a certain character sequence) will reboot themselves and disable the Messaging Hub. The SMS bug apparently applies to all Windows Phone devices and the only solution is a hard reset of the phone. If a friend is pinned to the Start Screen and the friend gets the message via Facebook, when the live tile updates to display the message then the reboot is initiated--even though the text message went to the friend instead of to the user's smartphone:
http://www.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-sms-bug-disabling-messaging-hub

http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/windows-phone-bug-reportedly-disables-messaging-181596

Microsoft confirmed the Windows Phone bug and has not said when they would have a fix for it:
http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=9469

Nokia will launch its first US smartphone with the Windows Phone software on January 11. They are trying to attract first-time smartphone buyers with a price of just $49.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate. The phone will be only on T-Mobile for now:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-launch-nokia-lumia-710-analysts-say-more-needed/2011-12-13

Nokia says that "Youth are pretty much fed up with iPhones. Everyone has the iPhone" and that countless other smartphone users are not happy with Android because it is too complex and insecure, which is why the young people "that wants to be on the cutting edge and try something new are turning to the Windows phone platform". They didn't provide any actual statistics or analysis to back up their statements and may be *slightly* biased since they have bet their entire company on the Windows Phone platform. When asked why customers will choose their phones, they say that apps such as Nokia Mix Radio (streaming radio) will draw customers:
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=48307&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Conservative Christian politician who has campaigned against gay marriage has secretly been a sperm donor for lesbian couples. The 2009 candidate for Governor or Alabama has made discussed making donations to at least 9 women without his family knowing anything about it and 3 of the women are now pregnant, with another 3 sperm donations made in the past month:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10772398

LOTD for December 13

2011-12-13T19:44:00.001-08:00

Congress FINALLY reached an agreement to reauthorize the SBIR and STTR programs. The SBIR program allocation will go from 2.5% to 3.2% and the STTR allocation will go from 0.3% to 0.45% (that is a 50% increase!), so the SBIR/STTR programs will be getting more money even when the overall budgets are decreasing:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/12/Policy-Industry-Government-Funding-Congress-reaches-deal-on-SBIR-reauthorization/

The National Transportation Safety Board unanimously recommended that all texting, emailing, and talking on a cellphone while driving should be banned nationwide except for emergencies. This recommendation would apply even to hands-free devices, so this recommendation is far stricter than any current law! The only thing allowed would be for things to aid driver safety such as GPS navigation systems. Banning bluetooth-enabled cell phone use would be a game changer nationwide:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DRIVERS_TEXTING?SITE=FLPEJ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Last year Google's AdMob and Apple's iAd each had 19% of the mobile display ad market, but now Apple is down to #3, at 15% while Google has 24% and Millennial Media has 17%. Apple has cut iAd prices to try to get more advertisers--they used to charge a minimum of $1 mil per iAd campaign but are now down to a $400k minimum, but iAd still has higher prices and is limited to Apple devices so advertisers may continue to move away from iAd:
http://www.fiercedeveloper.com/story/apple-slashes-iad-pricing-developer-revenues-dwindle/2011-12-12

Verizon is reportedly "very serious" about buying Netflix, with a report that Netflix could be sold for about $4.6 bil by Easter. Netflix has a current market capitalization of $4.17 bil after it rose 6.2% yesterday (probably due to the Verizon report), but Netflix's stock is 57% down from what it was at the start of this year. Verizon's CEO says that they want to go beyond their Fios TV service into the streaming-video service:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-12/verizon-very-serious-about-interest-in-netflix-bibb-says.html

This link includes a VERY useful chart showing the year-by-year LTE buildout timelines in the US, including the smaller wireless carriers and Dish Network:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/special-reports/us-lte-buildout-timelines

Dish Network may partner with T-Mobile if AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile fails. Dish could merge its nationwide LTE spectrum assets with T-Mobile or another wireless company to create a strong competitor to AT&T and Verizon. In addition to T-Mobile, Dish is looking at teaming up with Spring or Clearwire:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-12/dish-seeks-to-partner-with-t-mobile-if-at-t-acquisition-fails.html

AT&T estimates that it will cost between $1 bil to $2 bil to integrate Qualcomm's 700 MHz spectrum into its network. AT&T provided that estimate to the FCC as part of how it is seeking FCC approval for their $1.93 bil purchase of Qualcomm's spectrum:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-building-out-qualcomms-700-mhz-will-cost-least-1-2b/2011-12-12

LOTD for December 12

2011-12-12T17:20:00.001-08:00

Laboratory testing by the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) System Engineering Forum found that 69 of the 92 receivers tested (75%) "experienced harmful interference" when they were 100 meters away from a LightSquared base station. Draft summary of results detailing the government testing was leaked on the internet, showing that millions of current GPS units are not compatible with LightSquared's nationwide network:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-09/falcone-s-lightsquared-said-to-disrupt-75-of-gps-in-u-s-tests.html

The Department of Justice plans to postpone its legal case against AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile, which could effectively kill the deal because AT&T and T-Mobile need to finish the acquisition by September according to the terms of their deal. If the deal isn't done by September, AT&T will owe Deutsche Telekom $3 bil in cash and $3 bil in spectrum and roaming agreements. AT&T had hoped to win the DOJ case and then re-apply to the FCC, but the DOJ postponing the case would effectively prevent AT&T from even getting a chance in court:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/justice-department-wants-postpone-attt-mobile-trial/2011-12-09

Broadcom said that they will start shipping IEEE 802.11ac products next year, taking WiFi into its next era with high speed and long range. 802.11ac uses beamforming, wide bands and multiple antennas to deliver up to 1.3 Gbps of real-world throughput, with longer range and better wall-penetration capability. The new standard will operate at 5GHz, leaving behind the crowded 2.4 GHz band, to have 20 channels available instead of the 3 non-overlapping channels available at 2.4 GHz. By using bands as wide as 160 MHz (11n uses a max of 40 MHz), an 11ac radio with one stream can be as fast as an 11n radio with 3:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9222538/Broadcom_pushes_802.11ac_for_faster_Wi_Fi?taxonomyId=15

Amazon plans to increase its dominance of the low-end tablet market by releasing several more Fire tablets, one tablet that is either 9.6- or 10.1-inch Wifi-only and a 7-inch tablet that has either HSPA+ (what T-Mobile calls 4G) and/or LTE (4G). I thought that Amazon was selling the Kindle Fire tablets at cost, but its BOM is $143 so Amazon actually makes $56 on each Kindle Fire. Adding 3G/4G connectivity could cost around $20 more, but 3G iPads sell for $130 more than WiFi-only ones, so adding 3G/4G is expected to increase Amazon's profit margins:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=215439&

Facebook is the most popular app (aside from the Android Market) among all age groups for Android owners, with 80% of smartphone owners aged 18-24 and 25-34 using it recently and 77% of 35-44 year olds also using it recently. Gmail, Google Maps, Google Search, and Google's YouTube app are the next most popular apps. Angry Birds is most popular with 35-44 year olds and 35-44 year olds aer also far more likely to use the Amazon AppStore than 18-24 year olds. I find it interesting to see how different age groups value different apps--for example, Groupon appeals to those 25-34 and isn't even in the top 20 for those 18-24:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/app-happy-with-android-the-most-popular-android-apps-by-age/

Nintendo 3DS users will get free WiFi when they are at the 42 airports that Boingo serves in North America. Nintendo 3DS users will be able to be automatically connected for free when they are in a Boingo hotspot. With the addition of Boingo, 3DS users have free WiFi at more than 29,000 locations in the US:
http://www.boingo.com/pr/articles/?a=2011-12-08-boingo-and-nintendo-team-to-connect-nintendo-3ds-users-on-the-go&id=381&date=2011-12-08

LOTD for December 9

2011-12-09T17:24:00.001-08:00

Boeing has patented an "uninterruptible autopilot system" that would prevent terrorists from repeating what happened on 9/11. The hijack-proof system makes it impossible to crash the aircraft into air or land targets and enables the plane to be flown by remote control from the ground in the event of an emergency. It is activated if the pilot flicks a simple switch or if anyone tries to break into the flight deck, and nobody on board will be able to deactivate the system:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23387585-new-autopilot-will-make-another-911-impossible.do

Researchers found that some substances in a Danish mushroom are particularly toxic towards cancer cells. Danish folk medicine hasn't used mushrooms, unlike how mushrooms have been widely studied for medical use in Asia. I didn't realize that shiitake mushrooms are the primary ingredient in a registered drug extract on the Japanese market to support chemo treatments for cancer:
http://news.ku.dk/all_news/2011/2010.12/danish-mushroom-inspires-cancer-researchers/

Triple negative breast tumors make up almost 20% of breast cancers and do not respond to treatment with targeted therapies such as Herceptin. Clinical trials on whole-genome sequencing could point toward new treatment strategies based on mutations uncovered by sequencing:
http://www.tgen.org/news/index.cfm?newsid=2015

Study found that learning how to drive a taxi in London, navigating through London's thousands of streets and places of interest, actually changes the structure of taxi driver's brains. London taxi drivers have more gray matter in the back of the hippocampus compared to non-taxi drivers, and less in front. The hippocampus is important for memory and spatial navigation, with the studies suggesting that the brain might have changed to accommodate an internal "map" of London:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/12/Life-Science-Neurology-Taxi-driver-training-changes-brain-structure/

Washington DC just had the first link of its 100-gigabit network go live on Wednesday, with ultra-high speeds that will serve all of DC. However, they charge more based on the speed desired--people (companies) that want 1 gigabit access will pay $8600/month:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/12/dc-gets-100-gigabit-network.html

A Verizon spokesman denied that Verizon dumping their LTE trials with DirecTV had anything to do with Verizon's partnership deal with cable companies. Frankly I cannot buy that the two things were just a "coincidence"...even Verizon's CEO said that they ended their relationship with DirecTV to focus on building a relationship with cable companies:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizon-stick-directv-lte-trials-despite-spectrumco-deal/2011-12-09

HP is contributing their webOS operating system to the open source community, providing the underlying code of webOS available as part of an open source license:
http://www.precentral.net/hp-open-source-webos-no-hardware-plans-or-partners-announced

Chinese fabless semiconductor company has released 2 new low-cost Android smartphone platforms that will result in cheap smartphones costing between $40 and $50 (that is WITHOUT a subsidy). China Mobile expects to sell over 30 million TD-SCDMA smartphones next year, most from the low-cost segment:
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4231253/Spreadtrum-releases-platforms-for--40-smartphones

Survey found that even Android, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone smartphone owners would prefer to buy an iPad instead of any tablet based on software related to their smartphone software or any other operating system:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethwoyke/2011/12/08/blackberry-owners-want-ipads-and-so-do-android-and-windows-phone-owners-survey/

A French court rejected Samsung's request to impose a preliminary sales ban on the iPhone 4S--good win for Apple:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/09/us-samsung-iphone-idUSTRE7B801U20111209

An Australian High Court ruled in favor of Samsung over Apple, so Samsung will be able to sell their 10-inch tablet next week in Australia. A ruling last month had overturned the ban on sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and today's ruling was on Apple's appeal of that verdict. Samsung also won over Apple earlier this week in the US, allowing their Galaxy Tab 10.1 to be sold in the US:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/tablets/samsung-slays-apple-in-tablet-war-20111209-1omep.html

Germany's Mannheim Regional Court issued a default judgement against Apple last month and has now granted a "preliminary enforceable" injunction against Ireland-based Apple Sales International because its products may violate some of Motorola Mobility's patents. One of Motorola's European Patents apparently could lead to a ban on sales of the iPhone (3G, 3GS, and 4, with the 4S probably also in violation of the patent), iPad 3G and iPad2 3G. Apple will appeal to try to obtain a stay. The ruling also states that Apple owes damages to Motorola, with the amount to be determined after Apple gives Motorola information on the sales of the products in Germany in the past:
http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/12/motorola-mobility-wins-german-patent.html

This article points out that Motorola now has the option to enforce a Europe-wide iPhone and iPad ban immediately, or wait until the appeals process is through. If Motorola wants to have iPhone/iPad banned for sale in Europe right now, they must put up a $134 mil bond that they would give up if the verdict is overturned in appeal:
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/12/09/german-court-rules-in-favor-of-motorola-possible-ios-device-ban-throughout-europe/

LOTD for December 8

2011-12-08T18:12:00.001-08:00

A bill to allow more high-skill immigrants from India and China to obtain green cards has been blocked by Sen. Grassley (R-Iowa) over his concerns that they should do more to "protect Americans at home":
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/bull20111208-senate-stalls-on-easing-visa-restrictions-for-highly-skilled-immigrants

Russia and China held their first meeting for their partnership in developing nuclear energy solutions for floating power plants and propulsion of large ships. Russia is the only country with a fleet of civilian nuclear ships and they want to expand their leadership by installing small nuclear reactors on a barge. The vessel could be docked in remote places to supply power and heat to the local population or new industry, a mobile floating nuclear power plant:
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NP_Russia_China_work_on_advanced_nuclear_0812111.html

Scientists have figured out how to alter embryos to directly specify the type of new organ to be created at a specific location within a vertebrate organism. Manipulating the voltage of cells in the tadpole's back and tail were able to cause tadpoles to grow eyes outside of their head area...in regions that were never thought to be able to form eyes. Their results suggest that cells from anywhere in the body can be manipulated to form an eye:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/12/Life-Science-Electricity-Bioelectrical-alterations-cause-tadpoles-to-grow-eye-in-back-tail/

NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity found bright veins of a mineral (apparently gypsum) deposited by water. This will enable the study of how water flowed through underground fractures in the rock--it is a find that hasn't been discovered on Mars before and geologists will be studying this to understand the history of wet environments on Mars:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/dec/HQ_11-403_Mars_Rover_Gypsum.html

California is becoming a global center for the electric-vehicle industry--69% of the global VC investment in electrical vehicle companies ($467 mil) during the first half of this year went to California companies. California is tied with Michigan for the number of patents filed for electrical vehicle technology, with California having more EV patents than Germany, Taiwan and France...only Japan and South Korea have more EV patents than California. This is a nice source of jobs growth, especially with companies like Tesla hiring 300 people in California so far this year and planning to hire 1,400 people next year--most of those jobs at their auto production factory in Fremont:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/12/electric-vehicles-venture-funding-jobs.html

A company in LA is teaming with a Chinese investment group to build a *$3.1 bil* martial arts-themed park and resort in central China. The project is expected to create hundreds of jobs in LA and will make millions in revenue for the theme park designing company. This company was just started last year and now has a deal to build a $3.1 bil theme park!
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-1207-china-theme-park-20111207,0,633474.story

A court in southern China rejected Apple's lawsuit over the iPad tradmark--the court ruled that a Chinese company owned the rights to the iPad trademark in China. Proview lawfully registered the iPad trademark back in 2000 for China, years before Apple ever started looking at using the iPad name. Of course Proview says that they would be willing to take some money from Apple or the iPad trademark...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-apple-china-idUSTRE7B52EB20111206

HP is going to have their final sale of their TouchPad tablet, with $99 for the 16GB version and $149 for the 32 GB version. However, they have a limited supply and HP employees will get an exclusive period to buy them before they go on sale on eBay on Sunday. It should also be noted that HP only has *refurbished* TouchPads left to sell:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-57338766-64/hp-touchpad-the-final-$99-offer/

LightSquared says that their tests with 3 GPS devices show that they have solved their GPS interference issues and that they should be allowed to build out their network. GPS device makers and users say that LightSquared may disrupt nagigation by aircraft, boats, tractors and cars, and point out that LightSquared's tests did not show that their network would work with high-precision GPS systems used today:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-07/lightsquared-says-tests-show-gps-devices-work-with-its-network.html

Yesterday's LOTD had an article about how Verizon was planning to create a Netflix competitor, but this article has a lot more detail about Verizon's plans. Verizon apparently is planning a major partnership with *RedBox* to debut a TV and movie streaming and download service this May. They plan to support iOS, Android, Google TV, Xbox, Roku and other streaming boxes and browsers:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/07/verizon-and-redbox-planning-major-partnership-for-early-2012-launch/

Verizon just had its 1-year anniversary of the launch of their LTE network...and a few days later had its second major outage of its LTE service. They finally got their LTE network running properly after a day and a half, but at least their customers were still able to make calls, send/receive text messages, and use 3G data this time:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57339218-94/verizon-says-4g-lte-back-up-and-running/

The world's oldest living dog died in Japan at the age of 26 years and 8 months. The record for oldest dog was a dog in Australia that lived 29 years, dying in 1939:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/story/2011-12-08/Dog-Worlds-oldest/51726488/1

LOTD for December 7

2011-12-07T16:21:00.001-08:00

The International Committee of the Red Cross is studying whether or not the violence in video games violates international law! That could effectively mean that an XBox or PS3 game could be illegal under the Geneva Convention:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/video-games-war-crime/

Study found that giving steroids to extremely preterm infants (those born between 22 and 25 weeks gestation and weighing less than 2 pounds) reduces their chance of death by more than 33% and an significantly reduces long-term complications for the preemies (neurodevelopmental impairment decreased by more than 20%). Pretty significant results for 2 shots that cost only $25 each!
http://www.uab.edu/news/latest/item/1893-steroids-increase-viability-of-preemies-as-young-as-22-weeks

China will make nuclear energy the foundation of its power-generation system in the next 10 to 20 years. They will generate 2 billion kilowatts, with as much as 300 million kW coming from nuclear power. China now has 40 million kW of nuclear capacity and will have to add another 26 million kW each year to reach its goal...spending about $125 bil every year over the next 10 to 20 years for that nuclear capacity:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2011-12/07/content_14223281.htm

Scientists developed one of the world's smallest electronic circuits, formed by 2 wires separated by only about 15 nanometers! The researchers studied how the wires in an electronic circuit interact with each other when packed so tightly together--they found that the effect of 1 wire on the other can be either positive or negative. So, a current in 1 wire can produce a current in the other can is either in the same or opposite direction:
http://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news/item/?item_id=212756

Researchers made a breakthrough for glass that cleans itself--they used candle soot to produce a transparent coating made of glass. The coating repels water and oil effectively due to its spherical nanostructures, even after the layers were purposely damaged with sandblasting:
http://www.mpg.de/4681923/self-cleaning_glass?filter_order=L

A federal judge in Oregon ruled that bloggers don't have the same legal protection as journalists, so an "investigative blogger" may soon owe $2.5 mil to the company that she was trying to expose as corrupt. The judge ruled that the shield law for journalists and the law that prevents corporations from squelching consumer complaints by suing them do not apply to bloggers:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/bloggers-youre-second-class-citizens-now-181148

Broadcom is now one of the top 5 suppliers of chips for smartphones, replacing Nvidia in the top 5. Broadcom's share grew because of the grown of Android device sales at one of their major customers. The smartphone apps processor market grew 59% to $2.24 bil in sales over the past year, so Broadcom is now a top 5 company in a rapidly growing market:
http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/06/broadcom-breaks-into-top-five-for-smartphone-chip-suppliers/

Verizon is planning to launch a Netflix competitor that will allow customers to stream movies and TV shows over the Web, offering the service as early as 2012 wherever it does not offer its broadband/TV FiOS package:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-verizon-paytv-idUSTRE7B527L20111206

A software engineer posted instructions detailing how users could take advantage of a security software bug in Facebook to get access to "hidden" photos on Facebook...including photos of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. If Facebook users labeled or reported a photo as either "inappropriate due to "nudity or pornography", they could then see other "hidden" photos:
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=48289&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

AT&T has been selling 100,000 smartphones per day this quarter and is on track to sell as many as 9 million smartphones this quarter, far surpassing their previous quarterly sales record of 6.1 mil (in the 3Q of 2010, thanks to a certain Apple smartphone release):
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-we-are-selling-100000-smartphones-day/2011-12-07

AT&T once again has the lowest customer satisfaction ratings of any major US wireless carrier--AT&T got the lowest rating for its voice service, phone customer support, and its overall value to consumers! Verizon was #1 with 73% customer satisfaction, Sprint was at 72%, T-Mobile was at 67%, and AT&T was at just 59%. AT&T received its lowest customer rating since 2006:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/120611-att-consumer-reports-253797.html

Verizon's CEO says that Verizon Wireless will get family data plans sometime in 2012--it sounds that this will be similar to family plans for voice calls now, where customers buy buckets of data that can be shared among their smartphones and tablets:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizons-mcadam-family-data-plans-coming-2012/2011-12-07

Google's next flagship smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is about to launch on Verizon, but Google and Verizon are in a public batter over mobile payments, with each company wanting to establish itself in the mobile e-commerce market. Google says that Verizon doesn't want Google Wallet on the Galaxy Nexus, which is a problem because that means that only 1 out of the 200+ Android devices in use will be able to use Google Wallet. Verizon is blaming concerns with how Google Wallet handles security and they point to a real issue, but it should also be noted that Verizon/AT&T/T-Mobile are backing Isis, which is a similar digital wallet system. Only Sprint among the major wireless carriers chose not to be involved with Isis...and it is quite a "coincidence" that Sprint is the only carrier to offer a phone with Google Wallet:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/12/google-wallet-verizon-nexus/

Alec Baldwin was playing Words with Friends on his iPhone yesterday and ignored the flight attendants' warnings to turn off all cell phones and other electronic equipment before takeoff...so, he became the most publicly visible person to be kicked off an airplane due to Words with Friends:
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Alec-Baldwin-gets-booted-out-of-an-AA-flight-for-playing-Words-with-Friends-on-his-iPhone_id24440

LOTD for December 6

2011-12-06T16:26:00.001-08:00

Astronomers have confirmed that the Kepler 22-b is an Earth-like planet in the "habitable zone" around a star not unlike our sun. The planet is just 600 light-years away, the closest confirmed planet that is Earth-like. It is about 2.4x the size of Earth and has a temperature of about 22C (71.6 degrees F):
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepscicon-briefing.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16040655

It looks like the reports yesterday were correct and Iran does have one of the US's stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel UAVs after it crashed near the Iran-Afghanistan border last week. It appears that the CIA operated the Sentinel, though it is unclear why the UAV crashed, what it was doing in or near Iranian airspace, and who was operating it. The Iranian say that the Sentinel was captured "with little damage" after they jammed its control signal...but it is unclear if the Sentinel even has a control signal and how intact it was after it crashed:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/iran-did-capture-a-secret-u-s-drone/

Scientists have shown the energy conditions for stochastic resonance, under which a weak signal supplied to a physical system becomes a stronger signal at the output when random noise is added to the system. This occurs in nonlinear systems when specific energy conditions are met:
http://www.springer.com/about+springer/media/springer+select?SGWID=0-11001-6-1313921-0

To celebrate the Android Market reaching 10 billion downloads, Google is offering premium apps for just 10 cents over the next 10 days, with different apps offered each day. I really like the Swiftkey X keyboard that is part of today's list:
https://market.android.com/details?id=apps_timed_promotion&feature=banner#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDIwMSwibnVsbC10b3BfZmVhdHVyZWRfbXVsdGlfX18xX3Byb21vXzEzMjMxODcwNjMwNzMiXQ..

The ruling that denied Apple's bid to stop Samsung from selling its Galaxy smartphones and tablets in the US was accidentally released without certain details blacked out. The judge's staff quickly corrected the error, but many people had already downloaded the document and saw some of the information that Apple and Samsung have tried to keep from the public during their patent litigation:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/05/us-apple-samsung-ruling-idUSTRE7B425D20111205

Amazon is predicted to ship 3.9 million Kindle Fire tablets during the last 3 months of 2011, giving them 13.8% of the tablet market. Apple is #1 with 65.6% of the tablet market, but Amazon is far ahead of the #3 tablet company (Samsung, with 4.8%):
http://www.pcworld.com/article/245459/amazon_kindle_fire_said_to_be_moving_into_second_place_in_tablet_war.html

Analyst says that the Kindle Fire could kill off all other Android tablet offerings and also "blindsided" RIM's BlackBerry tablet plans due to its price point. By killing off all the most expensive Android tablet offerings, Amazon actually will help Apple--Amazon will own the low end of the tablet market and Apple will own the high end, with little room for other tablet offerings:
http://allthingsd.com/20111206/kindle-fire-will-vaporize-android-tablet-rivals/

Comcast will start selling Verizon Wireless products early next year and Time Warner says that they will start selling Verizon Wireless products almost immediately:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/05/us-comcast-verizon-idUSTRE7B41EU20111205

Interesting analysis about how the AWS spectrum is important for rollout of LTE in the US--carriers are currently building LTE in the 700 MHz band, but they will need the AWS spectrum (1.7 GHz and 2.1 GHz) to keep up with capacity demands. MetroPCS' LTE buildout uses the AWS spectrum (Las Vegas was their first LTE market and uses 5 MHz of AWS, for example) and AT&T's LTE devices support both the 700 MHz and AWS spectrum because AT&T only have 5 Hz of 700 MHz spectrum in some markets (Verizon has at least 10 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum nationwide). So, AT&T needs AWS more than Verizon but Verizon is the company that just bought up all of the cable company's AWS spectrum and is getting Leap's AWS spectrum...AT&T could have serious LTE problems if their T-Mobile deal doesn't go through because it has to give T-Mobile much of its AWS spectrum as part of the penalty clause:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/aws-spectrum-capacity-savior-lte/2011-12-06

Verizon and Leap had previously announced a spectrum swap where Leap would get Verizon's excess 700 MHz spectrum in Chicago (so that Leap can offer service in Chicago) and Verizon would get 3G/4G (PCS/AWS) spectrum in various markets around the US and an additional $16 mil. Leap's majority-owned venture (Savary Island) is also selling other AWS (LTE) spectrum to Verizon for $172 mil. So, Leap will be able to offer service in Chicago and will get $156 mil to build out their networks while Verizon will get some 3G spectrum and a lot of LTE spectrum for their nationwide LTE buildout:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Leap-Enters-Spectrum-prnews-193399171.html?x=0

British lawyers trying to evict a group of protesters delivered their court order by text message:
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/52110.php

LOTD for December 5

2011-12-05T17:55:00.001-08:00

The Navy just signed a $12 mil deal to buy 450,000 gallons of biofuels, probably the biggest biofuel purchase in US government history. The Navy paid 8x the price of oil so this is quite a costly purchase, but the biofuel testing this summer off the coast of Hawaii could get the Navy much closer to their goal of obtaining half of the Navy's fuel from alternative sources by 2020, with first alternative-fuel deployment in 2016:.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/navy-biofuels/

Scientists are looking at geoengineering techniques to reverse global warming--for example, reflecting a small amount of sunlight back into space before it hits the Earth's surface could bring global temperatures to where they were 250 years ago before the industrial revolution began dumping CO2 into the air. Unfortunately, the side effects of geoengineering are not understood well and could possibly end up destroying the Earth:
http://news.yahoo.com/geoengineering-could-save-earth-destroy-054752927.html

Russian and Japanese scientists believe that they will be able to clone a woolly mammoth within 5 years by replacing the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with those taken from the mammoth's marrow cells to produce embryos with mammoth DNA. The key is the discovery of well-preserved bone marrow in a thigh bone recovered from permafrost soil in Siberia:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2069541/Woolly-mammoth-brought-life-cloned-bone-marrow-years.html

Comcast and Time Warner will end their wholesale deal with Clearwire and solely focus on selling Verizon for wireless service. They only have a total of 57,000 Clearwire customers, not much compared with Clearwire's 9.5 mil total subscribers:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=215253&site=lr_cable&

Verizon is going to continue to push its 4G LTE products next year, with the vast majority of its smartphones being LTE devices and with plans to make more 4G devices affordable to drive further adoption. The "vast majority" of their smartphones will include LTE, and they said that their biggest problem with Windows Phone is that they do not have an LTE device yet--they are basically telling Microsoft that they won't add the Windows Phone devices that are being released now (from Nokia, etc.) and will wait until there are LTE versions. Right now Verizon has a ton of new LTE Android smartphones, with it seems 3-4 new smartphones every month...they say that they will spread out their product rollout more evenly in 2012, with at least 1 flagship Droid device coming each quarter:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57335807-94/verizons-big-plans-for-4g-next-year/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

One Economy got $28.5 mil last year in stimulus money to boost broadband Internet service in underserved areas around the country, and they have spent most of their stimulus money on wiring people to the Internet and on teaching them about broadband access. However, I *cannot* understand how they can justify using more than $1.5 mil of stimulus money to create a Web-based show called "Diary of a Single Mom", co-starring Billy Dee Williams! They say their show will help provide an incentive for people to connect to the Internet...I can't see anyone buying that excuse:
http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/1/online-soap-opera-cleans-up-with-stimulus-broadban/

LOTD for December 2

2011-12-02T18:16:00.001-08:00

HUGE controversy over the Carrier IQ software began when a security researcher released a report explaining how Carrier IQ's software can be used by carriers and device makers to track user activity, keystrokes and location data. Only Verizon apparently doesn't use the Carrier IQ software--AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile admit that they use the Carrier IQ software. Apple said that it used to use Carrier IQ's platform, but stopped with its latest version of its operating system...so, AT&T iPhone customers until recently were being monitored by both AT&T and Apple separately:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/att-sprint-admit-using-carrier-iq-apple-says-it-doesnt-anymore/2011-12-01

If you are worried that your wireless carrier might have the Carrier IQ software on it, this app will let you check:
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/12/02/wondering-if-your-phone-has-carrier-iq-software-this-app-will-let-you-check/

Verizon has agreed to pay $3.6 bil for the nationwide AWS spectrum licenses that the joint venture of cable companies owns. The cable companies will be able to resell Verizon's wireless service--they are currently selling Clearwire's WiMAX service but have said that those sales are minor and sluggish. The cable companies paid $2.4 bil for the spectrum in 2006, so Comcast/Time Warner/BrightHouse will make a hefty profit (Sprint and Cox also were part of the joint venture, but both sold their shares to the other cable companies years ago). Analysts were surprised by this purchase because they didn't expect Verizon to need more spectrum until late 2012 or 2013--but now Verizon will be able to offer 20 MHz channels with its AWS band while AT&T has 10 MHz channels and Sprint has 5 MHz channels. AT&T said that the most important reason for their $39 bil purchase of T-Mobile was for T-Mobile's AWS spectrum...Verizon is getting this AWS spectrum for just $3.6 bil:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizon-buy-spectrumcos-aws-spectrum-36b/2011-12-02

RIM's stock dropped the most in 11 weeks after they said that they missed their revenue forecast last quarter due to market-share losses for BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablets to Apple. RIM's stock was already down 68% this year before it plunged 9.9% more today (it should rally a little before the end of the day). RIM will record a $485 mil pretax provision to revalue the inventory for the PlayBook tablet:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-02/rim-third-quarter-revenue-misses-company-forecast-on-slowing-device-demand.html

Anchor for the 9pm TV news on Fox in Chicago went on an anti-Santa rant on Tuesday, saying that children should be told there is no Santa as soon as they can talk, that Santa isn't coming down their chimney, not eating the cookies, and not bringing any presents! After getting many angry letters from parents who had children hear her anti-Santa rant, she read an apology on the next night:
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/wfld-anchor-says-santa-doesnt-exist-apologizes-following-night_b30972

LOTD for December 1

2011-12-01T18:31:00.001-08:00

Economic analysis found that solar systems are very close to achieving mainstream usage, where solar is cheaper than utility costs for consumers. Solar panel prices have dropped 70% over the past 2 years and other costs are also decreasing rapidly:
http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2011/november/story57349.html

Researchers have figured out the secrets of algae that can clean up radioactive isotopes. Fallout from nuclear weapons testing has been shown to be accumulating in humans for the past 50+ years, but there has not been a way so far to clean up radioactive isotopes such as strontium-90...but algae could form the basis of new technologies to clean up contaminated land or water:
http://www.anl.gov/Media_Center/News/2011/news111130.html

LA County declared a state of emergency due to the strong windstorm that hit them today. Century-old trees and utility poles were knocked over (tens of thousands are without power), 450 trees fallen or damaged in Pasadena alone. Schools are closed in many cities tomorrow due to the windstorm damage:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/la-county-declares-state-of-emergency-due-to-winds.html

I was pretty excited to read that Universal Studios Hollywood would be getting a replica of the Harry Potter World in Universal Orlando...until I read that it would not open until at least 2015. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has drawn more than 7 million people and boosted Universal's attendance by 36% over the first 3 months of this year. Universal has a major problem with available space in the Hollywood park, but they agreed to a deal with Warner instead of letting Disneyland get the rights to it. It would have been strange for Universal to have Harry Potter World in Orlando and Disney to have Harry Potter World in California:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/11/harry-potter-theme-park-coming-to-los-angeles.html

This article has a lot more discussion about Universal Hollywood getting the Wizarding World. It will be interesting to see how Disney responds to this news--Universal stole away a lot of visitors in Orlando with their Harry Potter World and all Southern California theme parks will have to respond to the increased competition.
http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/themeparks/la-trb-harry-potter-wizarding-world-universal-studios-hollywood-12201101,0,7050892.story

Sprint and Clearwire announced a series of agreements worth $1.6 bil that will give Clearwire a financial cushion has it transitions from WiMAX to LTE. This removes some of the concern about Clearwire's survival and binds the 2 companies more closely together:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-clearwire-ink-agreements-16b-funding-lte/2011-12-01

Analysis of Sprint's LTE plans discusses how Sprint now has agreements to utilize Clearwire, Lightsquared, and Dish Network for their LTE network:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprints-sprawling-lte-plans-now-include-clearwire-and-lightsquared-and-poss/2011-12-01

AT&T and T-Mobile are reportedly considering whether to create a network-sharing joint venture as a "Plan B" if their merger is rejected:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/report-att-deutsche-telekom-consider-network-sharing-plan-b/2011-11-30

Google's Android team has released a version of Android that will run on x86 chips, which means that Intel and AMD processors could be powering Android tablets of the future:
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-just-made-android-even-more-accessible-2011-12#ixzz1fI0p6H7P

Google Chrome has passed Firefox to become the 2nd most used Web browser in the world. IE has 40.6% of the global market (50.7% in the US), Chrome has 25.7% (up from 4.7% just 2 years ago!) and Firefox has 25.2%. The graph shows that Chrome is increasing its share rapidly while IE decreases quickly and Firefox decreases slightly:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/01/statcounter-chrome-takes-25-7-of-global-market-overtaking-firefox/

Study found that smartphones complement TV usage but tablets reduce TV usage. Tablet usage has resulted in a 15% decrease in PC usage in the UK. In the UK, 35% of tablet users watch on-demand content on their tablets, 40% watch streaming content and 39% watch broadcast TV on their tablets:
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=48267&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Man took a couple in Kansas hostage in their home while fleeing from authorities and is serving an 11-year sentence for kidnapping them and is also facing 8 unrelated charges including murder of a Colorado man. The kidnapper is suing the people he held hostage, claiming that they broke an oral contract made when he promised them money in exchange for hiding him from police. He wants the couple he kidnapped to pay him $235k! The couple fed their kidnapper snacks and watched movies with him until he fell asleep, then they were able to escape their home unharmed:
http://news.yahoo.com/man-sues-former-hostages-says-broke-promise-190902970.html

LOTD for November 30

2011-11-30T16:57:00.001-08:00

Iranian protesters broke into the British embassy near Tehran's central bazaar, tore down pictures of the Queen, looted sensitive documents, smashed windows, and even threw petrol bombs. They burned the British flag and replced it with the Iranian flag and Shia religious banners, and they also burned replicas of the British flag alongside the US and Israeli flags. Diplomatic staff sought refuge in secure rooms and called England for help after Iranian security forces did not defend the main gate and let the protesters into the embassy. The British embassy staff has left Iran and UK-Iran relations are at their worst crisis in decades:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/8924879/British-embassy-staff-leave-Iran-following-ransacking-of-diplomatic-offices.html

A British company sold hacking software to governments that exploited an unpatched security flaw in iTunes that allowed intelligence agencies and police to hack into users' computers for more than 3 years! It is known to have been used by British agencies and records show that the software was offered to Egypt's secret police. Apple was informed about the security flaw in iTunes in mid-2008, but waited more than 1,200 days to fix the flaw:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/8912714/Apple-iTunes-flaw-allowed-government-spying-for-3-years.html

Google Maps for Android now provides indoor maps that include floor plans of large public buildings in the US and Japan such as airports and shopping malls. It provides information about different floors/levels within the buildings and shows the user's location with a blue dot. Cities with airports mapped include SF, LA, Houston, Chicago, even Boise, and in addition to shopping malls around the country big stores such as Macy's, Bloomingdales, Home Depot, and IKEA have indoor maps...so, an Android user can see where they are in places like Home Depot and IKEA and get directions to whatever item they are looking for:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-frontier-for-google-maps-mapping.html

The FCC allowed AT&T to withdraw its application for its T-Mobile acquisition, but they still released the study on the transaction even though AT&T argued that the study should not be made public. The 109-page study shows that the FCC found that the AT&T/T-Mobile merger would harm competition in the wireless market and result in fewer jobs in the industry, directly countering arguments AT&T made in March to try to get the FCC to approve the deal. Analysts now say there is a 10% chance that AT&T will get to acquire T-Mobile and AT&T already announced they will take a pretax accounting charge of $4 bil ($3 bil in cash and $1 bil in spectrum) in the 4Q to reflect the break-up fees due if the deal is not approved. One positive thing for AT&T is that the FCC is circulating a draft order to approve AT&T's proposed purchase of Qualcomm's 700 MHz licenses (I believe that is the mediaFLO spectrum):
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/fcc-releases-study-arguing-against-atts-acquisition-t-mobile/2011-11-29

Verizon and Leap announced a significant exchange of spectrum that they filed for approval with the FCC last week. Leap would get 12 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum in Chicago that would allow Leap to launch LTE service in Chicago. Verizon already offers LTE service in Chicago using its 700 MHz C Block spectrum. The Chicago spectrum that Leap would get covers 11 mil POPs while the spectrum Verizon would get covers 18.7 mil POPs, with the spectrum Verizon would allow them to upgrade their 3G/4G coverage around the country. Leap said that they will also pay Verizon an undisclosed amount of money if the FCC approves the spectrum swap:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizon-and-leap-trade-spectrum-lte-ev-do-buildouts/2011-11-30

LOTD for November 29

2011-11-29T16:58:00.001-08:00

The only living Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in Afghanistan or Iraq risked his life over and over again to save other Marines from a Taliban ambush and was hired by BAE after he left the Corps. However, when BAE wanted to sell high-tech sniper rifle scopes to the Pakistani military, he objected and then he quit BAE. His supervisor at BAE allegedly e-mailed a DoD acquisition official to say that the war hero was mentally unstable, had a drinking problem, and even mocked his Medal of Honor award...which prevented the defense company he used to work for from hiring him because the DoD official passed along the BAE comments. So, Meyer has filed a lawsuit against BAE and BAE may need to defend themselves by trashing a war hero in court:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/bae-dakota-meyer/

Oregon State researchers has discovered that pyrite (known as "fool's gold") has related compounds that offer new, cheap, and promising options for solar energy. Current solar cell materials can be made from rare, expensive or toxic elements, but pyrite-based solar cells would be benign and processed from commonly available elements:
http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2011/nov/%E2%80%9Cfool%E2%80%99s-gold%E2%80%9D-leads-new-options-cheap-solar-energy

With MetroPCS not interested, AT&T has apparently entered into talks with Leap Wireless to try to salvage the T-Mobile deal. AT&T wants to sell Leap Wireless at least 40% of T-Mobile's customer accounts and some of its wireless spectrum, enough to turn the Leap into the 4th largest wireless carrier in the US! AT&T figures that they could keep enough of T-Mobile's spectrum to make the deal worthwhile to them...but Leap would have to come up with a large amount of money to grow that quickly. It is interesting that AT&T was advised by a banker whether or not the T-Mobile acquisition was worth the risk, since the banker is only paid if AT&T makes the deal so financially benefits from encouraging deals. AT&T's board apparently strongly relied on their lawyers...but those lawyers are paid by the hour and also had an incentive to push for the deal:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/atts-11th-hour-plan-to-save-its-deal-with-t-mobile/

Facebook is looking to IPO between April and June of next year and expects to raise $10 bil on a valuation of more than $100 bil:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203935604577066773790883672.html?mod=e2tw

RIM is going to offer software tools for iPhones and Android devices, enabling non-BlackBerry smartphones to connect to corporate systems. So, people can get RIM's network services without needing to have BlackBerry devices--this way RIM can still maintain its leadership in enterprise networking...but they are giving up one of the big advantages of BlackBerry devices:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/29/us-rim-idUSTRE7AS0A720111129

http://us.blackberry.com/business/software/mobilefusion/

Unhappy 57-year-old man was seated for his US Airways flight from Alaska to Philadelphia when a late arriving passenger sat down next to him. Unfortunately, the late passenger was over *400 pounds* and took up much of his seat also. So, the man had to stand for the entire flight, and he is not happy that all US Airways gave him was a $200 voucher that will require him to buy another US Airways ticket when he paid $800 for the flight that he stood through:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/255698/20111124/obese-man-forces-u-s-airways-passenger.htm

LOTD for November 28

2011-11-28T18:00:00.001-08:00

A massive explosion shook Iran's 3rd-largest city today, with a major nuclear weapons-related facility located just 8 miles from the city. There have been a series of unexplained explosions in Iran over the past 2 years, explosions that destroyed military facilities and development centers, natural gas transport facilities, oil refineries, bridges, etc., and have disrupted Iran's nuclear weapons program and program and inflicted damage on key infrastructure. On November 12 a powerful explosion destroyed a large area in a military facility that was the center of Iran's ballistic missile development work, killing about 20 top commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard including the General that founded and led Iran's missile program:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/28/isfahan-explosion-report-iran-nuclear-facilities?newsfeed=true

http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/bull20111128-yet-another-mysterious-explosion-in-an-iranian-nuclear-facility

The US military confirmed that it will launch physical attacks in response to cyberattacks when all other options have been exhausted and when the risks of inaction outweighed the risks of action. The DoD plans to use the threat of military retaliation as a deterrent against cyberattacks:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/srinfrastructure20111127-pentagon-confirms-policy-of-military-response-to-cyberatacks

Interesting article that argues that passengers shouldn't have to turn off their electronic devices on airplanes. The FAA says that studies do not indicate whether or not electronic devices interfere with planes so they do not want to change the policy, even though other studies found that there is no danger from electronic devices. Even the FAA's spokesman says that there has never been any reported accidents from electronic devices on planes:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/disruptions-fliers-must-turn-off-devices-but-its-not-clear-why/

Canalys announced that it expects Apple to pass HP to become the world's leading PC vendor before the second half of 2012, with the iPad changing the dynamics of the PC industry over the past year. The iPad already boosted Apple into second place in the worldwide PC market in Q3 2011:
http://www.canalys.com/newsroom/apple-track-become-leading-global-pc-vendor

AT&T is considering an offer to divest up to 40% of T-Mobile's assets to get their $39 bil acquisition of T-Mobile approved. That could be a big problem because they have to find buyers for 40% of T-Mobile, but the small companies cannot afford and do not need that much of T-Mobile and the Department of Justice will not allow a big competitor like Verizon to purchase the assets:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-25/at-t-said-to-plan-proposing-bigger-asset-sales-to-save-t-mobile-takeover.html?cmpid=yhoo

US regulators are looking to block AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile due to antitrust concerns, but the small wireless competitors US regulators are trying to protect might actually be hurt if the deal does not go through. T-Mobile could be significantly strengthened by the $3 bil in cash and the $3 bil in spectrum and roaming agreements that AT&T would have to give them if the deal does not go through, and AT&T and T-Mobile might also get a network-sharing deal because of the spectrum AT&T will have to give to T-Mobile. Some analysts say that a stronger T-Mobile would be a big problem for its smaller competitors:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/26/us-dealtalk-att-tmobile-idUSTRE7AO1TK20111126

Article about what T-Mobile could do if the AT&T deal doesn't go through. One interesting point buried in this article is that T-Mobile cannot offer the iPhone because T-Mobile's 3G network uses the AWS band, which is a frequency band that the iPhone does not support. T-Mobile could get the iPhone if they can get a network sharing deal with AT&T, and T-Mobile and AT&T are expected to get a network-sharing deal if the acquisition doesn't go through:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/if-att-acquisition-collapses-what-will-t-mobile-usa-do/2011-11-28

Sprint's upgrade to LTE may require it to end its unlimited data plans because Sprint has just 10 MHz of spectrum for LTE while Verizon and T-Mobile have 20 MHz.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/11/27/us-sprint-4g-idUKTRE7AO1O920111127

The telecom regulator in France has told 7 WiMAX license holders that they are in default of their deployment obligations--they were supposed to have begun rolling out their WiMAX networks by June *2008* and finish deploying their WiMAX networks by 2010. The WiMAX license holders say that WiMAX has been abandoned by the entire telecom industry and want to use their 3.5 GHz spectrum for LTE:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/story/french-wimax-operators-failing-meet-deployment-obligation-now-lean-towards-/2011-11-25

WiMAX equipment company Greenpacket is supplying its WiMAX Pocket Modems to California schools as part of California's Digital Textbook Initiative (DTI). DTI plans to replace traditional textbooks with an extensive library of digital information such as digital textbooks, interactive applications and educational tools. The trial program in Kings County School District dramatically improved communication between teachers, students, and parents, with a 95% in student attendance and with improvement in student discipline and an 11% improvement in student test scores credited to students being more engaged in learning:
http://www.greenpacket.com/news_room/nr_02-241111.html

RIM announced a special promotion where the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet would be available at select retailers for $199 instead of the normal $499 price. Best Buy doesn't seem to be interested in the PlayBook, even cancelling orders where the customer's credit card had already been charged and the order was supposedly ready for shipment! Best Buy has reportedly cancelled *all* PlayBook orders and they even removed the listing for the PlayBook from the Best Buy website!
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/11/27/best.buy.sheds.playbook.as.others.follow/

LOTD for November 25

2011-11-28T08:15:00.001-08:00

For the next 3 months, the LA Policde Department will rely entirely on computer software to decide where to deploy patrol officers--the predictive analytics software will predict when and where certain crimes are likely to occur next to that police can be there to stop the crimes. The software is a mathematical model similar to the algorithm used to predict earthquakes and their aftershocks, since researchers found that criminals commit crimes in close proximity to past crimes just like aftershocks. Santa Cruz police tried this earlier this year and found that they had a 27% reduction in crime during the first month of their trial:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20111125-lapd-to-rely-solely-on-computers-to-fight-crime

LOTD for November 23

2011-11-23T16:32:00.001-08:00

Two malls (including one in Temecula) will track shoppers via their smartphones on Black Friday. They are interested in studying where shoppers go, seeing how many shoppers at a certain department store go to Starbucks, how long customers shop in Victoria's Secret, what parts of the mall aren't being visited, etc.:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/22/technology/malls_track_cell_phones_black_friday/

Smartphone shipments in the US fell 7% and rose 58% in China in Q3 2011, resulting in China becoming the world's largest smartphone market for the first time--23.9 mil units sold in China in Q3 vs. 23.3 mil in the US. HTC had 24% and Apple had 21% to lead the US market, while Nokia (28.5%) and Samsung (17.6%) had the most market share in China:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/strategy-analytics-china-overtakes-united-states-worlds-largest-smartphone-

"We were talking about angina and this man raised his hand and said, 'I'm having it right now,'" Phillips said. "I said, 'Are you kidding?'
A doctor was giving a lecture on coronary heart disease and was taling about angina when a man raised his hand and said that he was having an attack right then! The man then collapsed and as the 100+ people watched, the doctor and nearby nurses began CPR and saved the man's life. The doctor finished his lecture (at the request of the other students there) after the patient was taken to the hospital and says that the people there will remember the lecture!
https://bangordailynews.com/2011/06/29/health/heart-lecture-interrupted-by-heart-attack/

Study found that bananas have rarely crossbred over the last 7,000 years, with most standard yellow bananas being mass cultivated as infertile clones. This makes bananas vulnerable to disease, pests and ecological challenges. 85% of cultivated bananas are for local consumption, so any disruption to the banana supply will have immediate consequences and could lead to famines:
http://news.discovery.com/earth/bananas-inbred-disease-pests-110705.html

A robber denied taking part in an armed robbery but was caught and eventually found guilty when police found out that he scheduled the robbery in his day planner. Police said that the day planner was very effective in the robber's prosecution and the robber now says that writing about the robbery in his day planner was stupid:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013349/Robber-caught-planning-hold-diary.html?ITO=1490

LOTD for November 22

2011-11-22T15:49:00.001-08:00

Top international climate scientists and disaster experts say tat the world will have more dangerous and "unprecedented extreme weather" caused by global warming. They warn that unless countries are prepared, extreme weather events may overwhelm some locations, making some places unlivable:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/11/Environment-Climate-Meteorology-Science-panel-Get-ready-for-extreme-weather/

Scientists have found that exposure to sarcasm enhances creative problem solving and makes us smarter because brains have to work harder to understand sarcasm. Not being able to understand sarcasm may be an early warning sign of brain disease:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/The-Science-of-Sarcasm-Yeah-Right.html#ixzz1eMyTCxQY

Facebook chose HTC to make their smartphones and the first Facebook smartphone is code-named "Buffy", after the television vampire slayer. Facebook's smartphones will run a version of Android that has been modified to deeply integrate Facebook's services and support HTML5 as an apps platform:
http://allthingsd.com/20111121/the-facebook-phone-its-finally-real-and-its-name-is-buffy/

The HP TouchPad was the largest selling non-Apple tablet in the US for the first 10 months of this year, thanks to their $99 fire sale to clear out their inventory. HP had 17% of the US tablet market and Samsung had 16%...but Samsung will surpass HP now that HP's $99 sale is over and Amazon will probably pass both companies with their Kindle Fire:
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Fire-sale-helps-put-HP-TouchPad-on-top-of-non-Apple-tablets-sold-in-2011_id23971

HP bought Palm last year for $1.2 bil and has written down a total loss of $1.67 bil for its investment in webOS devices:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/hp-writes-down-nearly-17b-losses-palm-investment/2011-11-22

LOTD for November 21

2011-11-21T17:09:00.001-08:00

Liquid, aerosol, and gel restrictions for overseas travelers from all Australian airports in 2013 due to sophisticated new security equipment being installed that is capable of detecting liquid explosives:
http://www.ausbt.com.au/liquid-restrictions-to-be-lifted-at-australian-airports-in-2013

Discoveries of new quantum states of matter could change the face of technology. Pitt researchers discovered a surprising topological semimetal, with a simle system revealing itself as a new type of topological state--an insulator that shares the same properties as a quantum Hall state in solid materials:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/11/discoveries-of-new-quantum-states-of.html

Amazon has an AMAZING smartphone sale going on right now through next Monday...*any* of their phones for Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint for new lines of service will cost just a *penny*. This includes the latest smartphones such as the Droid RAZR that normally cost $300 with a 2-year contract:
http://wireless.amazon.com/f/pennypincher/ref=amb_link_358857402_2?ie=UTF8&pf_rd_m=A1HBSU70BXNZUG&pf_rd_s=left-1&pf_rd_r=1RZ0CA7KMTRKC2G0DQ4Q&pf_rd_p=1331654162&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=G001

Barnes & Noble has decided to challenge Microsoft's Android patent strategy--instead of paying Microsoft a license for even Android device like more than half of Android devices made today, Barnes & Nobles is fighting Microsoft in court. Microsoft sued Barnes & Noble for patent infringement for their Nook and Nook Color devices, but Barnes & Noble lists more than 100 examples of prior art that would invalidate Microsoft's patents. Microsoft hasn't responded to the prior art claims yet and this legal battle will take years with massive amounts of money at stake:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/android/barnes-noble-takes-microsofts-android-patents-179648

Clearwire is openly considering skipping their $237 mil debt payment due Dec. 1 in order to conserve its cash. Skipping the payment could raise concerns about their liquidity and prospects of avoiding bankruptcy, and even considering skipping the debt payment made their stock drop 31% on Friday afternoon. One analyst said that Clearwire's CEO may be saying this to get leverage over Sprint in their negotiations, since Sprint has a lot to lose if Clearewire defaults on its debt and files for bankruptcy:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/clearwire-may-miss-dec-1-debt-payment-raising-fears-default/2011-11-18

Analysts are becoming to believe that AT&T will not get approval for its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile, with most of them giving the deal as low as a 20% chance of getting approval. Bankers say that for AT&T to get approval, they might have to sell significant spectrum to smaller companies like MetroPCS:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/report-analysts-turn-sour-attt-mobile-deals-prospects/2011-11-21

Amazon reportedly is developing 8.9- and 10.1-inch next-generation Kindle Fire models and decided to start production on an 8.9-inch model in the 1Q of 2012, for a commercial launch in the second quarter of 2012:
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20111121PD200.html

LOTD for November 18

2011-11-18T14:59:00.001-08:00

US water plants have been hit by cyber attacks, with hackers causing a water pump failure at an Illinois water plant and showing off their access to the water supply systems for the city of South Houston:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/network-security/us-water-plants-reportedly-hit-cyber-attacks-179456

Soldiers have modified the MK48 with a belt feeding rig inspired by the movie "Predator", enabling a gunner to carry a load of 500 rounds for all types of machine guns:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/11/soldiers-modify-mk48-with-belt-feeding.html

Password management application provider SplashData released its annual list of the worst internet passwords, prepared from files containing millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers. It is sad that people actually use things like "Password" and "123456" as their passwords...
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/252079/20111118/cyber-security-25-worst-passwords-2011-study.htm

Stanford has posted a 3-course sequence includes the same lectures that Stanford students see. The first course is on Programming Methodology, the second is on Programming Abstractions, and the third course teaches everything that someone needs to know to create an iPhone or iPad app and get it distributed through Apple's App Store:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/development-tools/stanford-posts-six-free-online-iphone-app-dev-courses-179415

Norwegian company showed off a USB stick-sized portable computer prototype that has a dual-core CPU, WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI-out, microSD card slot, and runs the Android OS:
http://blog.laptopmag.com/usb-stick-contains-dual-core-computer-turns-any-screen-into-an-android-station

Google Chrome OS-powered Chromebooks appear to have flopped in the market, with at most 300k units shipped to retailers (with an unknown percentage of that actually bought by consumers). For comparison purposes, 31 million netbooks and 210 million laptops have shipped this year. When IDC asked Samsung about their Chromebook sales and plans, Samsung quietly changed topics:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/thinking-chromebook-christmas-wait-until-2016-178691

Nintendo lost $900 mil over their most recent period and the forecast is for more troubles for Nintendo, with DS and 3DS hardware and software sales far weaker than Nintendo had expected. DS sales have been decreasing since 2009, when iOS hardware was about 1/2 of the number of Nintendo portable systems and Android phones were just starting to come into the market--Nintendo/Sony portable gaming device sales dropped 17% in 2009 and 31% in 2010. iOS and Android have combined for about 4x the sales of Nintendo portable hardware and there are 26x more games available for smartphones than for Nintendo or Sony portable devices. Angry Birds has sold more than 2x of all of Sony's portable game sales and Angry Bird sales has equaled all Nintendo DS game sales combined since 2007. Developers have found that iOS and Android are much more widely available and much more profitable to make games for than Ninendo or Sony portable devices:
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=48236&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Verizon says that they are in favor of letting the AT&T/T-Mobile acquisition go through provided that it does not bring additional regulation. I am not surprised because Verizon won't look as big if AT&T/T-Mobile merge and Verizon is looking forward to buying the spectrum and other assets that AT&T would be forced to sell if the acquisition goes through:
http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=469327

I am surprised with this result--the smartphone that US consumers are most excited about buying is the Samsung Galaxy S II, with 14% of US consumers with the highest intent to purchase. Apple's iPhone 4S was second at 11% of the intent to purchase...maybe Apple was behind because so many of the people who wanted an iPhone 4S already got one?
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/report-consumers-want-purchase-samsungs-galaxy-s-ii/2011-11-18

LOTD for November 17

2011-11-17T16:59:00.001-08:00

Police and Sheriff departments around the US have found that they can save taxpayer dollars by shifting their cars to clean-burning, American-made propane autogas. This allows them to save tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually while reducing vehicle maintenance and harmful emissions. Saving money while benefiting the environment also saves police on time because they can have an autogas station at the police station to enable officers to fill up their car at the station. Autogas costs about $1.25/gallon less than gas, burns cleanly, and reduces foreign oil with an alternative fuel made in the US!
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/serving-and-protecting-and-saving-money-process

The mysterious and highly unusual structures in China's desert that has resulted in so much interest and speculation after Google Maps images were discussed by a variety of sites this week appears to be used for spy satellite calibration and radar testing:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/11/mysterious-structures-in-chinese-desert.html

Researchers at UC-SD developed technology that for the first time allows the electrical brain activity to be noninvasively isolated and measured. They can be a key component to enable a paralyzed patient to "think" a foot into flexing or a leg into moving, allowing a robotic exoskeleton controlled by a patient's thoughts to move that patient's limb:
http://www.ns.umich.edu/new/releases/8077-breakthrough-scientists-harness-the-power-of-electricity-in-the-brain

Scientists succeeded in creating light from vacuum, getting photons to leave their virtual state and become real photons (measurable light). Moore predicted this back in 1970, but nobody has been able to create an experiment to demonstrate the phenomenon:
http://www.chalmers.se/en/news/Pages/Chalmers-scientists-create-light-from-vacuum.aspx

Study found that protein, not sugar, activates the cells responsible for keeping us awake and burning calories. I am surprised with the findings that protein meals make people feel more alert than carbohydrate meals:
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/3pm-slump-why-a-sugar-rush-may-not-be-the-answer/

Open Range Communication will have to liquidate its assets and end its broadband service (with 26,000 subscribers) in 12 states after the sole bankruptcy bidder backed out on Tuesday. The bidder had offered $2 mil, minimal considering how Open Range received a $267 mil loan from the Department of Agriculture in 2009 to provide broadband service to rural areas:
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_19344452

The US military has been evaluating Android and iOS over the past year to decide on the platform for their future smartphones and tablets. Android may get a significant edge next month when it complies with stringent NIST requirements for operation on military-grade networks. Android is expected to be approved for NSA secret networks by April. Apple's iOS isn't even expected to get NIST certification by next August and is far behind with NSA certification. Android allows the military to avoid being locked into buying hardware from a single vendor, important for security purposes because Apple cannot demonstrate its supply chain is secure. Android devices are also cheaper and iOS devices. Android's open source nature will also enable the military to harden and tailor the platform internally, something that cannot be done with iOS:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/mobile-security/android-draws-closer-military-readiness-179266

Article about how the Amazon Kindle Fire has made developers enthusiastic about building Android tablet apps, to a far greater degree than all other Android tablets combined. The Kindle fire also has European and Asian developer interest, with only the year-old Samsung Galaxy Tab having great developer interest overseas. 38% of developers said that the Kindle Fire's price was the most compelling reason behind their interest in building apps for it, with another 30% citing Amazon's content library:
http://www.fiercedeveloper.com/story/how-amazon-lit-fire-under-android-tablet-app-development/2011-11-14

AT&T is in talks to start selling Nokia's Windows Phone smartphones next year, significant for Nokia as they look to get their new smartphones in the US market:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-16/at-t-brings-back-tablet-subsidies-as-big-ticket-pricing-falls.html

Cal State Sacramento Professor requires his students to make sure that someone brings homemade snacks to class every week, working out a schedule so that groups of students make sure every class is covered and that snacks are not repeated...or the Professor and his TA walks out of class and the students lose that week's instruction! The professor is in his last semester before retirement and has been using this teaching technique for more than 30 years, but some students in the class he didn't teach last week complained and the University is now investigating:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2011-11-14/professor-requires-snacks/51198254/1

Detroit man was driving yesterday when he crossed over the median, hit another car, then kept going instead of stopping. Not only did he hit-and-run, he kept driving until his tire blew and and his car came to a stop, then got out of his car and ran away...leaving his 2-year-old and 2-month-old daughters behind in the car!
http://www.detnews.com/article/20111116/METRO05/111160453/Dad-crashes-car-in-Detroit-and-flees--leaving-young-daughters-behind

LOTD for November 16

2011-11-16T18:03:00.001-08:00

Combat veteran has launched an online petition asking for the feds to change their policy on pot as a treatment for PTSD, to at least allow for a single study on the topic. Sgt. Begin was injured by an IED attack in Iraq in 2004, diagnosed with PTSD shortly after returning home, and the doctors had him on more than 100 pills per day, taking a backpack everywhere he went to carry around his dozens of bottles of prescription pills he had to take. He was unemployed and in and out of prison for various reasons and overdosed twice by taking too many pills in what appears to be suicide attempts. He then replaced all those pills with 5 joints a day and found that his PTSD problems have decreased significantly, softening the peaks and valleys of PTSD and making his life manageable:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/pot-for-ptsd/

The European Union's green energy goals depends on 5 technologies: nuclear, solar, wind, bio-energy, and carbon capture...and all of those technologies depend on rare Earth metals. Shortages of key rare Earth metals will prevent green energy production, with their solar energy plans alone requiring 1/2 the current world supply of tellurium and 1/4 the supply of indium:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/europe-faces-rare-earth-metal-shortages

London doctors cured a baby boy of a life-threatening disease that was destroying his live by implanting cells that acted like a temporary liver, allowing the damaged liver to recover. The doctors injected donor liver cells into his abdomen that processed toxins and produced vital proteins just like a liver, with the cells coated with a chemical found in algae that protected them from being attacked by the immune system. About 100 people every year die in the UK while waiting for a donor liver, so this procedure could save a lot of lives in the UK and around the world:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15744176

Northwestern researchers created an electrode for lithium-ion batteries that allows the batteries to hold a charge up to 10x greater than current technology and charge 10x faster than current batteries. So, a smartphone battery could stay charged for more than a week and would only take 15 minutes to recharge, plus this could be a significant breakthrough for electric cars. Researchers say that this technology could be in the marketplace in 3-5 years:
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2011/11/batteries-energy-kung.html

Google launched Google Music today--it looks like they are trying to directly challenge iTunes. It seems like Google and Amazon are going after the Music market that Apple owns, with huge dollars going to the winner(s). Google only has 3 out the 4 major labels (Warner Music didn't sign with them yet), but they are trying to leverage Google+, the 200+ million activated Android devices, higher digital quality (320 kbps) and free songs to try to establish themselves in the marketplace:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/11/google-music-service-android/

T-Mobile is offering free songs via Google Music that are exclusively free on T-Mobile--Drake and Maroon 5 songs are free today for T-Mobile customers:
http://blog.t-mobile.com/2011/11/16/t-mobile-celebrates-google-music-launch-with-free-tracks-from-top-artists/

In May there were 100 mil Android devices activated and now 6 months later there are 200 mil Android devices activated, with 550k more Android devices activated each day...that is a nice growth rate! The graph that Google showed is *really* skewed and not to scale, note that it starts at 100 mil and ends at 200 mil and looks like 200 is 10x higher than 100!
http://androidcommunity.com/google-over-200-million-android-devices-activated-globally-20111116/

LOTD for November 15

2011-11-15T18:03:00.001-08:00

Stanford researchers found that E. coli can convert sugar to biodiesel at "an extraordinary rate", producing high volumes of fuel. If they can figure out how to manipulate the cellular means of production in E. coli, then biodiesel could be made cheaply enough that it could be a power source at far less cost to the environment than fossil fuels:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/november/khosla-ecoli-biodiesel-111011.html

Very interesting article about how Walmart is changing China. More than 20,000 companies supply several hundred thousand items to Walmart,sold to billions of shoppers worldwide--about 70% of the $420 bil of products Walmart sells each year is made in China. Walmart also operates 352 stores in 130 Chinese cities, selling $7.5 bil last year with sales increasing quickly each year. Walmart requires all factories in China to comply with environmental standards (with 3rd-party auditors) or they will be banned from making products for Walmart:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/12/how-walmart-is-changing-china/8709/?single_page=true

Worldwide smartphone sales in the 3Q of 2011 were up 42% from the 3Q of 2010. Samsung was the #1 smartphone manufacturer for the first time, tripling their sales from last year due to their Galaxy smartphones. Android smartphones made up 52.5% of smartphone sales, more than twice its market share from 3Q 2010:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/press-releases/gartner-says-sales-mobile-devices-grew-56-percent-third-quarter-2011-smartp-0

AT&T is way behind Verizon for LTE, but they have a *VERY* attractive offer to attract LTE customers...anyone who buys a Samsung GalaxyTab 8.9 with LTE between 11/20 and 1/7 will get a *free* LTE-capable Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket or HSPA+ Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-bundles-lte-samsung-galaxytab-free-smartphone/2011-11-14

Read more: AT&T bundles an LTE Samsung GalaxyTab with a free smartphone - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-bundles-lte-samsung-galaxytab-free-smartphone/2011-11-14?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz1dnR50mWa
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RIM will reportedly release its first QNX-based smartphones in the 3rd quarter of 2012. RIM has been under pressure to get their new software running on their smartphones as soon as possible because they are losing market share rapidly--they had said that they would release their first QNX-based smartphones in early 2012...and I guess 3Q is as early as they can get:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/rumor-mill-rims-first-bbx-smartphone-will-launch-3q-2012/2011-11-15

LOTD for November 14

2011-11-14T17:29:00.001-08:00

Study found that an experimental weight loss drug resulted in obese rhesus monkeys losing 11% of their body weight after just 4 weeks of treatment. The drug selectively destroys the blood supply of fat tissue:
http://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/news-releases/2011/obese-monkeys-lose-weight-on-drug-that-attacks-blood-supply-of-fat-cells.html

Forecast is that the US will lead in LTE subscriptions through 2015 and then China will have the most LTE subscribers. The US dominates the global LTE market primarily due to Verizon--Verizon is expected to have over 4 million LTE subscribers by the end of this year, which is 63% of the LTE subscribers in the world!
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/us-dominate-lte-market-through-2015/2011-11-13

IDC found that developers are very interested in the Amazon's Kindle Fire--49% of developers in North America are very interested in the Kindle Fire, which is just 4% below developer interest in the iPad before it launched in April 2010. Getting a huge boost from its deal with Nokia, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 went from 30% to 38% of developers that are "very interested" in the platform, the highest every for Microsoft. Developers are abandoning the BlackBerry platform--only 21% of developers are very interested in BlackBerry smartphone apps (down from 28%) and only 13% of developers are very interested in PlayBook tablets (down from 19%):
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/press-releases/appcelerator-idc-report-finds-amazon-kindle-fire-launching-leading-android-

LOTD for November 11

2011-11-11T15:11:00.001-08:00

The South China Sea may hold *213 billion* barrels of oil, almost equal to Saudi Arabia's reserves. China claims "indisputable sovereignty" over most of the South China Sea, even areas off Vietnam and Exxon and Gazprom are exploring. Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, and several other Asian countries have claims to at least some of the areas under dispute. The revenue would be a huge boost for smaller countries like Vietnam and the Philippines, but the longer this dispute drags on the more China may obtain in the future:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-10/oil-riches-languish-on-china-doorstep-as-clashes-delay-drilling.html

Logitech's CEO said that they lost over $100 mil with their gamble on Google TV. They built a lot of boxes because they thought that everybody would spend $300 to get it last Christmas...but the software wasn't ready, the content wasn't there, and the public did not want it:
http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/10/2553406/logitech-ceo-google-tv-cost-us-dearly-no-revue-replacement-coming

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) came to an agreement with Facebook that forces Facebook to changes its policy on user privacy. Facebook could soon be forced to to get users' consent every time it wants to make private data available to other members!
http://rt.com/news/facebook-private-data-security-097/

Apple released a software update that was supposed to fix the iPhone battery drain problem...but a lot of iPhone users are claiming that the update didn't help them and some people say that it makes the iPhone battery drain problem worse:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/iphone-owners-to-apple-ios-501-doesnt-fix-battery-drain-problem/16196

Amazon must have gotten a LOT of pre-orders for its Kindle Fire--they initially ordered 3.5 mil units, raised it to 4 mil units recently, and now they just increased their order to more than 5 mil Kindle Fires:
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20111109PD212.html

Illinois man called 911 *5* times to complain that his iPhone wasn't working. He was eventually arrested when he refused to comply with orders from the deputies that went to his home at 1am to investigate what problem he was reporting:
http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/10/8739346-man-calls-911-five-times-to-complain-about-broken-iphone

LOTD for November 10

2011-11-10T17:51:00.001-08:00

The military spends millions of dollars on weed control every year and they have found that chemicals are expensive and herbicide can devastate the bird population. The Air Force is funding a program to have a company develop a ray gun (laser, pain ray, sonic weapon, etc.) to zap the weeds with a laser cannon, microwave-radiating weapon, etc., to kill the weeds and prevent them from coming back:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/ray-guns-vs-weed/

Researchers have developed a simple way to convert 2-D pattens into 3-D objects using only light. This could be a significant breakthrough for manufacturing and packaging applications:
http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/wmsdickeyfolding/

16 countries are challenging a controversial new South Carolina immigration law, asking to join the U.S. Justice Department's lawsuit against the new law. The 16 nations argue that the new law would encourage racial profiling and discrimination against their citizens:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/sixteen-nations-challenge-south-carolina-immigration-law

The Supreme Court for the first time will hear arguments on whether police need a warrant to track a suspect's vehicle with a GPS device:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/04/us-usa-police-gps-idUSTRE7A36BS20111104

European Union regulators are investigating whether Samsung and Apple may have breached EU antitrust laws with their global legal battle over patent infringement claims. Samsung and Apple are involved in more than 20 legal disputes in 10 countries...pretty amazing when you consider that Apple is Samsung's biggest customer and Samsung is one of the biggest suppliers for the iPhone and iPad:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/04/us-apple-samsung-eu-idUSTRE7A32LD20111104

Article about why Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook 2 Tablet are WiFi-only. Analysts note that wireless carriers have not been able to sell many 3G tablets, with the majority of tablets sold by outlets such as Best Buy or Staples. Tablets are similar to the laptop market, where wireless carriers tried to sell 3G-enabled laptops and actually sold relatively few:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9221642/Why_the_Kindle_Fire_and_Nook_Tablet_are_Wi_Fi_only?taxonomyId=15

Verizon is doubling the amount of data its LTE customer will get per month to get customers to migrate to their 4G network. One big reason they are doing this is to minimize their need to invest more on their 3G network. This is basically Verizon's first price cut in a long time--AT&T's 4GB plan costs $45/month and Verizon's 4GB plan now costs $30/month. Getting customers to migrate to 4G gives Verizon the 3G network capacity they need to serve their iPhone customers:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-27/sprint-said-near-deal-with-clearwire-for-new-3-to-5-year-pact.html

A cleaner in Germany accidentally destroyed a piece of art worth $1.1 mil when she removed what she thought was a "stain" from the artwork. The artist died in 1997 and is considered one of the most talented German artists of his generation. The piece of art was on loan to the museum from a private collector so there are legal and financial implications for this mistake:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/million-dollar-mistake-german-museum-204133529.html

LOTD for November 9

2011-11-09T17:10:00.001-08:00

Russian scientists are scrambling to find a way to fire the engines of a 13.2-metric ton spacecraft that was the heaviest interplanetary craft ever built, with fuel being a large share of its weight. The $170 mil Mars probe was Russia's first interplanetary mission since their failed 1996 robotic mission to Mars. If the controllers cannot get the engines to fire soon, the spacecraft and the *7 tons* of highly toxic fuel it carriers would be the most dangerous manmade object to ever fall from orbit...with no way to control where it crashes:
http://news.yahoo.com/russian-scientists-try-save-mars-moon-probe-082920979.html

Hackers stole critical formulas and plans from major chemical companies in a string of cyberattacks called "Nitro". The purpose of the attacks was industrial espionage, stealing IP for competitive advantage--they got design documents, formulas, and manufacturing processes. The hackers targeted major Fortune 100 companies that focused on chemical R&D, advanced material research for military vehicles, and manufacturing infrastructure for those industries. The hackers also targeted the networks of human rights-related NGOs and the automotive industry:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/chemical-industry-hit-nitro-cyberattacks

NASA developed a super-black material that absorbs on average more than 99% of the UV, visible, IR, and far-IR light that hits it. This could lead to new frontiers in space technology:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/super-black-material.html

Nevada casinos won $864 mil from gamblers in September, nearly 6% less than they won last September. The decline is attributed to baccarat, a high-roller game favored by Asian gamblers--baccarat winnings were down $46.4 mil (36.2%) and if baccarat was excluded, Nevada casino winnings were basically the same as last year:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/11/nevada-casinos-see-big-drop-in-gambling-revenue.html

Google said that it will continue to offer support for companies using its Android system that are involved in legal disputes. Google's support includes information sharing, industry expertise and access to Google's patents:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/09/us-google-idUSTRE7A64T920111109

Google will discontinue their Gmail app for the BlackBerry on November 22, no longer offering tech support to users and not offering the app for download anymore:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/google-discontinue-gmail-app-blackberry-178517

Adobe is ending Flash for mobile devices and mobile browsers and instead will aggressively contribute to HTML 5. The Flash Players currently on so many smartphones and other mobile devices will still be supported with security updates, but no Flash Player will be developed after the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1:
http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2011/11/flash-focus.html

AT&T is the dominant US carrier for the iPhone 4S, with 56% of iPhone 4S users while Verizon has 32% and Sprint has 12%. AT&T had 60% of the iPhone 4 market and Verizon had 40%, so it looks like Sprint ate into Verizon's share of the iPhone market. Note that Verizon's iPhone 4 customers are still under contract while AT&T has a lot of iPhone customers who were eligible for upgrades, so AT&T looks to have been successful at retaining their iPhone customers and getting them to get the iPhone 4S in exchange for another 2-year contract:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/study-att-commands-majority-us-iphone-4s-ownership/2011-11-09

AT&T said that they will launch LTE-Advanced network technology in 2013 and Sprint says that it will deploy LTE-Advanced in the first half of 2013. Verizon hasn't announced when they will deploy LTE-Advanced, but they are in danger of being passed by AT&T and Sprint if they don't upgrade their LTE network by 2013:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-deploy-lte-advanced-2013/2011-11-08

LOTD for November 8

2011-11-08T18:54:00.001-08:00

The next-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the most expensive weapons program in DoD history (up to nearly $400 bil now) will not be ready for combat until 2018, 2 years later than previously scheduled. Thousands more test flights need to be completed before the first batch of regular pilots can begin training, and delays have occurred due to parts failures, design changes, and costs have increased nearly 64% since the program began in 2001. The delay forces the Air Force to keep their 1980s- and 1990s-vintage F-15s and F-16s in service much longer than had been planned:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/fighters-fly-for-50-years/

Phony (counterfeit or used chips sold as new chips) are plaguing US Missile Defense, with the counterfeiting posing a clear and present danger to US troops and missile defense. In one case, 1,700 "new" memory parts showed signs of previous use, forcing parts to be stripped from the assembled hardware. When they checked their stockroom, 67 frequency synthesizer parts had been found to have been "re-marked and falsely sold as new parts":
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/counterfeit-missile-defense/

Dish Network plans to build an LTE-Advanced network using the 40 MHz of spectrum it acquired for $2.775 bil from 2 bankruptcy auctions. Dish will use LTE-Advanced on that S-band spectrum topush a mobile video strategy to complement its wired video delivery service:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/dishs-ergen-spectrum-will-enable-mobile-video-play/2011-11-08

GM has signed a deal to move more than 100,000 employees to Gmail and Google Apps, which would make GM one of the biggest and highest profile companies to deploy Google Apps. This would be a huge blow to Microsoft, which has made a lot of money selling Exchange Server to customers that use old email systems like Lotus Notes (which GM uses now):
http://www.businessinsider.com/gm-is-about-to-move-100000-employees-to-google-apps-2011-11

HP is looking to sell Palm's webOS mobile software platform for "hundreds of millions of dollars" but less than the $1.2 bil that HP paid to buy Palm last year:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/08/us-hewlettpackard-webos-idUSTRE7A66UM20111108

Republic Wireless is selling $19/month phone plans that includes talk, text, and data. They hope that users will be on WiFi for at least half of the time, but their service uses Sprint's 3G network when users are away from WiFi. They currently have the LG Optimus S Android phone available and will add more Android smartphone options in the future. Their fine print says that when not on WiFi, the monthly allowance is 550 minutes, 150 text messages and 300 MB data:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2395906,00.asp#fbid=N7_X04zaGLq

Interesting analysis on why US Cellular turned down the iPhone and will stick with their Android smartphone strategy that has been extremely profitable for them. Apple reportedly gets $450 per iPhone from the wireless carriers and US cellular doesn't have the capital or the margins to be able to afford and profit from that:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/why-did-us-cellular-say-no-iphone/2011-11-07

LOTD for November 7

2011-11-07T17:43:00.001-08:00

Robotic researchers have found a way to give robots a 3D human face, with a computer to control voice and facial expressions. Their Mask-bot has a human-like plastic head:
http://portal.mytum.de/pressestelle/pressemitteilungen/NewsArticle_20111107_151556

Flying robot the size of a dinner plate can be used to inspect building and things that are too high or difficult for a human to reach easily. The robot has multiple cameras which allows it to show the people safely on the ground what is around where it is flying:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20111107-tiny-robot-can-survey-hardtoreach-places

Urine is the most abundant waste on Earth, and American chemists created a new catalyst that can extract hydrogen from urine at a fraction of the cost of producing hydrogen from water. So, this could clean up municipal wastewater and provide a cheap, renewable source of power for hydrogen-powered cars:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/new-source-energy-urine

AT&T pushed back its expected closing date for their T-Mobile acquisition a few months than it originally planned, saying that they will close by the end of the first half of 2012:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-pushes-back-expected-close-t-mobile-deal/2011-11-04

comScore's September figures has Android with 44.8% of the US smartphone market (up 4.6%) and Apple with 27.4% (up 0.8%). With Android way up and Apple up slightly, the other smartphone platforms dropped--RIM dropped 4.6% (exactly what Android gained), Windows Phone dropped 0.2% and Symbian dropped 0.2%:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/comscore-android-closing-45-us-smartphone-market-share/2011-11-07

Verizon is doubling the data for the same price for customers who get 4G smartphones starting on Tuesday, 4 GB for $30/month instead of 2GB. This promotion is supposed to last "through the holidays":
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_7-57319456-251/verizon-to-double-data-amounts-for-4g-smartphones/

LOTD for November 4

2011-11-04T18:52:00.001-07:00

I've heard of backup up data stored on a computer, but the Japanese government unveiled plans to develop an entire backup city in case an earthquake destroys Tokyo. The spare city will be built on a 1,236-acre site 300 miles west of Tokyo, capable of having 50,000 residents and 200,000 workers, with offices, resorts, casinos, parks, and government facilities:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057169/Be-prepared-Japanese-government-plans-backup-city-case-earthquake-cripples-Tokyo.html

Taiwan manufacturer Foxconn plans to invest $223 mil to replace 500,000 mainland Chinese workers with 1 million robots that they will produce themselves. The robot production will create about 2,000 jobs and will generate an estimated $4 bil in production value:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/11/foxconn-will-replace-500000-workers.html

NASA is funding a study for 3 different approaches for tractor beams--we've seen science fiction movies with tractor beams and it turns out that current technology can remotely capture things in space and deliver them to a robotic rover or orbiting spacecraft. For now they need to start with small objects, which is why the first generation tractor beams will be used to capture samples that a rover/spacecraft wishes to analyze:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/tractor-beam.html

US intelligence report says that China and Russia are using cyber espionage to steal US trade and technology secrets to boost their own economic development, which poses a threat to the US economy and national security:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/03/us-usa-cyber-china-idUSTRE7A23FX20111103

The global output of CO2 jumped by 6% last year, the biggest amount on record. Greenhouse gas levels are higher than the worst case scenario that climate experts had just 4 years ago after the 564 million ton increase of carbon into the air in 2010 over the 2009 levels:
http://news.yahoo.com/biggest-jump-ever-seen-global-warming-gases-183955211.html

Article about the 3 factors that seem to be working against Clearwire. Every wireless carrier is talking about how they need more spectrum because their network will run out of capacity by 2014 or 2015...and Clearwire has more than 100 MHz in most major markets are are mostly unused and nobody wants to buy it or wholesale it! One big problem for Clearwire is that if AT&T buys T-Mobile, AT&T will have to sell off a lot of frequency spectrum to get the deal approved...so, companies can get cheap spectrum that way and don't need Clearwire:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/3-factors-are-conspiring-against-clearwire/2011-11-04

US Cellular said that they turned down the iPhone because Apple's was asking for too much money. They said that the iPhone wouldn't have overloaded their network and they would carry the iPhone is Apple would ask for less of a subsidy:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/us-cellular-we-said-no-apples-iphone/2011-11-04

LOTD for November 3

2011-11-03T17:06:00.001-07:00

Bill Gates and his foundation (GAVI) has saved millions of children's lives by fundamentally changing the economics of vaccination. Rotarix has gone from $102 per dose to $2.50, with companies in India looking to get the price under $1. GAVI has promised to buy a certain number of doses of vaccines, which guarantees the pharma company massively efficient volumes, in exchange for a long-term maximum price...Prevnar costs $114 in the US but will cost GAVI no more than $3.50. The results are 3.4 mil lives saved from hapatitis B (which causes liver cancer), 1.2 mil lives from measles, 560k from the Hib bacteria, 474k from whooping cough, 140k from yellow fever, and 30k from polio:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2011/11/02/the-second-coming-of-bill-gates/?partner=daily_newsletter

Verizon will publish an API that could allow consumers to pay a small fee to "turbocharge" the bandwidth that their smartphone gets. When a network gets congested and a smartphone app slows down, the customer can pay to dynamically get more bandwidth for their app. One example is with a customer that has a Skype call that starts to go bad, where the customer hits the turbo button to get a high quality call again. This could seem to reward wireless providers with poor service :
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2395728,00.asp#fbid=N7_X04zaGLq

Analyst report says that the emerging IEEE 802.11ac standard (gigabit-speed wireless LANs) will be quickly adopted by 2015 but 802.11n will still dominate the market. The top theoretical speed for 11n is ~600 Mbps, but typical actual speeds are about 150 Mbps. One big problem for the 1 Gbps rates in the new standard is that most people won't need that speed--for example, broadband connections to homes are much slower than that and smartphone/tablet WiFi will also stick with 11n. The estimate is that 350 mil routers, client devices and attached modems with 11ac will ship annually by 2015, up from just 1 million 11ac units shipping in 2012. However, in 2015 they estimate that 1.5 billion 11n products will be sold, up from 700 million in 2011:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/242991/instat_faster_wifi_will_grow_rapidly.html#tk.rss_news

It is hard for me to imagine how anticipation could build for months about how Google was finally going to release its Gmail app for the iPhone and iPad, the first dedicated Google mail app for iOS...and just 2 hours later Google had to pull the app out of Apple's AppStore and apologize for messing up:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/googles-great-big-gmail-app-fail-177913

RIM has declined below book value for the first time in 9 years, meaning that RIM is worth less (due to its declining stock price) than the net value of its property, patents and other assets. RIM has its first quarterly revenue decline in 9 years in September and has maker software problems right now as they try to get their new operating system on their BlackBerry phones/tablets. The PlayBook tablet went on sale in April without dedicated e-mail, and RIM responded to the criticism of the lack of e-mail by saying they would fix that this summer...but summer has long gone and now RIM says that their tablet won't have the e-mail software upgrade until February:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-02/rim-stock-falls-below-book-value-as-blackberry-s-u-s-market-share-shrinks.html

Apple confirmed that they have bugs in iOS5 that has resulted in poor battery life in some iPhones. Apple says that they will release a software update to fix the bugs in a few weeks:
http://allthingsd.com/20111102/apple-some-ios5-bugs-prompting-iphone-battery-issues/

LOTD for November 2

2011-11-02T16:39:00.001-07:00

Toyota demonstrated yesterday experimental robots that can lift disabled patients from their hospital beds or help them walk. Toyota plans to commercialize their products sometime after 2013, with their products positioned especially well for Japan--one of the world's most rapidly aging countries. The professor who demonstrated the device cannot use his right leg after it was paralyzed by polio, but with Toyota's device he was able to bend at the knee as needed, walk more naturally, and get up from a chair much easier than he currently does with a walker:
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-11-toyota-machines-sick-elderly.html

Harvard researchers found that drinking as few as 3 glasses of wine per week may increase a woman's lifetime risk of breast cancer by 15%. It was known that heavy alcohol use raises breast cancer risk, but this study showed that light drinking raised the risk also. However, light drinking (a few drinks per week) reduces the incidence of heart disease by 25% to 40%:
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-alcohol-breast-cancer-20111102,0,1136014.story

Security researchers spent their spare time looking for publicly posted lists of cracked email addresses and have a list of over 5 million known compromised accounts. If you want to check if your email address or username has been compromised, you can go to their website (link is in the article below) and check...I'm glad that my email and username isn't there!
http://www.infoworld.com/t/hacking/how-find-out-if-your-email-address-has-been-compromised-177847

Apple's head of retail operations left to be the chief executive of J.C. Penney. He was a key executive at Target for 15 years before Steve Jobs recruited him to Apple 11 years ago to take over Apple's retail business. Johnson created the international chain of Apple retail stores that are among the world's most profitable per square foot. Johnson pioneered the successful "Genius Bar" concept that is so important to Apple stores...even though Steve Jobs was against the idea of the "Genius Bar" until he saw how it worked well for Apple stores:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/11/01/apple_retail_chief_ron_johnson_officially_departs_with_no_replacement.html

Interesting article about the biggest handset company flops--not every company can succeed in the handset business, of course, but these are the standout failures:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/worlds-biggest-handset-company-flops/2011-11-02

Due to a loophole in the law, a sex assault victim must pay monthly spousal support to her attacker:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/nov/02/10news-video-sex-sssault-victim-must-pay-attacker/

It is really sad to read about how things are handled so differently now with the Lakers since Jimmy Buss took over from Jerry Buss. Brian Shaw was not treated the way protocol says things should be handled, Jimmy Buss shouldn't try to fire everyone who like Phil Jackson, and people who have been with the Lakers for 25+ years shouldn't be let go because Jimmy Buss just wants to change things:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/ian_thomsen/11/01/brian.shaw.lakers/?xid=shareFB

LOTD for November 1

2011-11-01T18:17:00.001-07:00

The Army is getting ready to use a tiny new UAV (carried in soldiers backpacks) that is designed to hover quietly in the sky, send back a video feed so troops can identify an enemy target, then dive into the target and detonate a small explosive to kill the human. This "kamikaze drone" can be called off even after the kill order is given to avoid the loss of innocent lives:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/us-army-deploy-kamikaze-drones

Australian scientists found a breakthrough cure for high blood pressure that could save millions of lives every year, significantly decreasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The kidney has been suspected as being the cause of high blood pressure, but human kidneys are hard to find--the research team used 42 kidneys donated by cancer patients who had their kidneys removed for medical reasons:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2055969/Cure-high-blood-pressure-save-millions-lives-year.html

MIT developed a new MRI algorithm that could reduce time spent in a MRI machine from 45 minutes to 15 minutes:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/better-mri-algorithm-1101.html

Civil rights groups in the UK are upset at the news that the UK's largest police force can shut down cell phones remotely, intercept communications, track cell phone users, and gather data on thousands of users in a targeted area. The technology has teh capability to operated over a 6 square mile area:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/srlet20111101-u-k-police-technology-allows-tracking-controlling-cell-phones-remotely

California's bullet train will cost an estimated $98.5 bil to build over the next 22 years, nearly *double* any previous projection. The Southern California-to-Bay Area high speed rail project's completion has been delayed from 2020 to 2033...inflation over the extra 13 years of construction is one factor in the price increase:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-high-speed-rail-20111101,0,1124440.story

New forensic toolkit will allow law enforcement officials (and whoever else has one of the toolkits) to bypass the latest iOS5 security measures. So, investigators will have "near-instant forensic access" to encrypted information stored in the latest iPhone and iPad devices even without knowing the password for the device:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20111101-new-ios-forensic-toolkit-circumvents-ios-5-security-measures

Apple 4S users have been complaining about poor battery performance--fully charged devices are apparently running out of power during the course of a workday, even with minimal use. There is a 170-page support forum thread (and other threads also) and a number of media stories about the poor battery life performance, but Apple hasn't responded to users or to the press. This article brings back memories of last year's "antennagate" for the iPhone 4S and gives hope to those expecting a fix:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20128191-248/iphone-4s-battery-issue-reminiscent-of-antennagate/

LOTD for October 31

2011-10-31T17:48:00.001-07:00

The Montgomery County (north of Houston, TX) police department has become the first local police in the US to deploy a UAV that can carry weapons. They bought their ShadowHawk with a $300k grant from DHS to chase escaping criminals and tracking drug shipments. It carries weapons like Tazers that can send a jolt to a criminal on the ground and a gun that fires bean bags known as a "stun baton" that disables suspects:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/texas-county-police-buys-drone-can-carry-weapons

Researchers say that our cars may soon be able to use hydrogen as a fuel source after a breakthrough was made in understanding how hydrogen can be stored in metals. This will allow our cars to run on an abundant, environmentally friendly fuel generated from the surrounding atmosphere:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/hydrogen-use-fuel-source-may-be-near

A prominent physicist and skeptic of global warming spent 2 years trying to find out if mainstream climate scientists were wrong and concluded that temperatures really are rising rapidly. The interesting thing is that his a significant portion of his study was funded by a foundation connected to global warming deniers and the tea party...the people who fund that foundation run a company involved in oil and other industries that produce sizable greenhouse gas emissions, so they probably won't be happy with the conclusion of the study they helped fund:
http://news.yahoo.com/skeptic-finds-now-agrees-global-warming-real-142616605.html

Article giving the top 10 reasons why tablets will overtake laptops next year for the mobile business user:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-reasons-why-tablets-will-overtake-laptops-in-the-next-year/2796?tag=nl.e101

GameStop is now selling gamer-optimized Android tablets, just in time for the holiday shopping season. GameStop is offering 3 different Android tablets (from Samsung, Acer and Asustek), each preloaded with 7 free games:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/gamestop-debuts-android-gaming-tablets-preloaded-ea-titles/2011-10-31

Photo of what a 16-foot-long python looks like after swallowing a 76-pound adult deer:
http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/article/217839/250/Everglades-python-swallows-adult-deer

Two managers of a Domino's Pizza restaurant in Florida have been been charged with burning down a rival Papa John's location. One of the Domino's managers told police that he thought that he would get more pizza business if the Papa John's location was out the way:
http://news.yahoo.com/police-fla-pizza-workers-burned-down-rival-store-235723310.html

LOTD for October 29

2011-10-29T22:34:00.001-07:00

It is really sad that SDG&E (my electrical company) has decided to add a big monthly charge to homes that have solar power. This seems like a way to discourage people from adopting green energy sources and customers who installed solar systems for their homes now have to deal with an extra expense that changes the whole equation on the economics of their solar power decision:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/oct/28/solar-users-feel-burned/

Feature article on how printed books may be going away, as e-books are already outselling adult hardback books this year when last year hardbacks sold 3x more than e-books. Bookstores like Borders are liquidating their stores while Amazon sells more copies of e-books than paper books with the trend going to further e-book adoption. Even Ikea is adapting to the shift, with their revised bookcase coming out next month that is meant to display "ornaments, tchotchkes and the odd coffee-table tome -- anything, this is, except books." Ikea is also pushing glass doors for bookshelves because they feel that customers will increasingly utilize bookcases for decorative purposes:
http://www.economist.com/node/21528611

LOTD for October 28

2011-10-28T17:46:00.001-07:00

Congress is buying 3 Predator UAVs for the Homeland Security Department...even those DHS did not ask for them! Congress didn't provide funds to hire/train pilots and operate the UAVs, so DHS has to shift around their limited funds to operate the UAVs and they cannot even fully use the UAVs because they don't have enough pilots for them. General Atomics gets a nice $32 mil contract for the 3 UAVs that their customer wasn't even asking for!
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-us-drone-20111027,0,1704002.story

Significant deposits of heavy rare earth minerals have been discovered near a mine in California and production could begin in as little as 2 years. Rare earth metal deposits normally have more light elements than heavy elements (the heavy ones are even more valuable), so this discovery of a high percentage of heavy rare earth metals is unusual. The company says that this discovery could help break US dependence on China...that would have significant economic implications that go well beyond the billions of dollars that the rare earth minerals will earn:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/large-rare-earth-deposit-discovered-near-california-mine

Electronic Arts lost $340 mil last quarter, up from a loss of $201 mil in the year-ago quarter. At least they beat analyst expectations for adjusted revenues--analysts predicted $965 mil and they reported $1.03 bil:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/press-releases/electronic-arts-reports-q2-fy12-financial-results

BlackBerry owners have been trading in their BlackBerry devices for the iPhone 4S in record numbers, increasing 80% last week. The iPhone 4S has also resulted in a spike in Android trade-ins as well as trade-ins for old models of the iPhone:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mobiledia/2011/10/27/blackberry-owners-flock-to-iphone-4s-in-record-numbers/

Strategy Analytics says that smartphone shipments increased 44% from last year, with 117 mil smartphones shipped last quarter, with ABI saying that smartphone shipments grew 33%. Strategy Analytics says that Samsung passed Apple to become the world's largest smartphone vendor, with 24% market share. However, Apple sales were down because customers were waiting for the iPhone 4S to be released...so Apple should be #1 again this quarter (which is when the iPhone 4S came out):
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/apple-falls-samsung-q3-smartphone-sales-overall-handset-shipments-grow/2011-10-28

LOTD for October 27

2011-10-27T18:07:00.001-07:00

A secret cache of chemical weapons was found in Libya--even though Gaddafi had promised to give up his WMDs to get international acceptance in 2004:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053988/Gaddafis-chemical-weapons-hidden-despite-pledge-Tony-Blair.html

The robotics industry is apparently on an exponential growth path. Significant advances have been made to key enabling technologies and revenues are rising quickly. This article has an interview with Qinetiq CTO that discusses the major advances in the robotics field over the past 3 decades, as well as the future of autonomous robots:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/10/robotics-industry-is-now-on-exponential.html

Facebook is building a huge 120 MW data center in Sweden, just 62 miles south of the Arctic Circle. That location takes advantage of free cooling--using outside air to chill machines instead of using expensive computer room air conditioners 24/7. Nearby dams provide an abundance of renewable electricity, so this is a green solution and Facebook doesn't have to worry about energy shortfalls:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/data-center/free-cooling-lures-facebook-arctics-edge-177233

I think that it is great that employers are increasingly providing corporate wellness programs and providing gyms and a variety of programs to encourage employees to live a healthier lifestyle. Not only is that a great benefit for employees, it pays off for employers--studies found that for every $1 a company puts into corporate wellness programs, $3 is saved via decreased sick days, increased worker productivity and employee retention:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/oct/26/investing-in-fitness/

Sony is buying out Ericsson's 50% share of Sony Ericcson for $1.5 bil:
http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/corporate/press/pressreleases/pressreleasedetails/ericssonsshare-20111027

Nice review of the $35 Android tablet that is going to be released in India next month, providing an affordable educational tool for students in India:
http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/26/aakash-android-tablet-exclusive/

LOTD for October 26

2011-10-27T05:43:00.001-07:00

Hacker movement Anonymous announced that they are going to go after Fox News' website on November 5 for the way that they have been covering the Occupy Wall Street protests. They also may be going after Facebook on that day. They may also be trying to organize a protest against large banking chains, trying to get people to take their money out of large banking chains and put their money into local credit unions on Nov. 5:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/anonymous-takes-fox-news-177201

Apple was granted a patent for "slide to unlock" even though that feature existed on a Windows CE phone 2 years before Apple claimed to have invented it:
http://www.androidcentral.com/apple-granted-patent-slide-unlock-even-though-it-existed-2-years-they-invented-it

Interesting feature on whether or not Apple should do something with the *$81 bil* in cash it is sitting on right now:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/lowensteins-view-it-time-apple-do-something-its-cash/2011-10-26

Sprint announced they signed an agreement with Clearwire that will allow the companies to work together toward a joint LTE network--that makes sense and will save both of them money. Sprint also announced that they have a $15.5 bil, 4-year contract with Apple for the iPhone, and they expect between $7 bil to $8 bil increase in Sprint's net present value during that contract. Sprint says that a typical iPhone customer is worth more than 50% greater than a typical smartphone user due to efficient network use and lower churn. Sprint expects 20% to 40% of their customer additions and upgrades to be because of the iPhone:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-inks-deal-clearwire-predicts-8b-value-iphone/2011-10-26

Nokia unveiled their first Windows Phone smartphones, which will be available in Europe in November. It is too bad that Nokia won't get their Windows Phone into the US or China until next year, missing the Holiday season in the US:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/nokia-unveils-lumia-800-and-710-its-first-windows-phone-devices/2011-10-26

Last month RIM said that they would release version 2.0 of their tablet operating system in October, but now they announced that the new OS will not be ready until February. That delay will reduce confidence in RIM further and give Apple/Android more time to lock up the tablet market:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/rim-delays-blackberry-playbook-os-20-early-2012/2011-10-26

LOTD for October 25

2011-10-25T16:39:00.001-07:00

Hackers from Anonymous chose a new target to attack last week--they took down more than 40 child porn websites and leaked the 1,589 names of a particular file-sharing site for pedophiles. I like Anonymous choosing this target instead of going after governments or security companies, they could be more effective against these types of websites than governments can:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/anonymous-targets-child-porn-sites-releases-names-1500-members

The Engineering Salary Survey 2011 shows the salaries for each region of the US for different stages of engineering careers:
http://electronicdesign.com/article/careers/Engineering-Salary-Survey-2011-Faces-of-the-Engineering-Lifecycle.aspx

Breakthrough furnace developed by the DoE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory could boost the efficiency of solar cells from 16% to 20%. At a time where the industry considers a 0.5% efficiency increase a huge success, a 4% increase with this furnace is staggering:
http://www.nrel.gov/news/features/feature_detail.cfm/feature_id=1629

Denver had a record high for October 24 of 80 degrees yesterday...and tomorrow they are forecast to get a foot of snow:
http://www.9news.com/dontmiss/226115/630/After-record-on-Monday-snow-starts-Tuesday

Verizon is apparently preparing to offer fixed, in-home LTE Internet service before the end of this year as an alternative to satellite broadband service. Verizon already trialed home broadband service in Erie, Pa, with DirecTV. Verizon could offer in-home broadband service for many of the markets that companies like ViaSat/Wild Blue are going after with their satellite that launched last week:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizon-hints-q4-nationwide-launch-home-lte-service/2011-10-24

The pre-orders have been so strong that Amazon is making millions more Kindle Fire tablets than they had planned. I find it very interesting that Amazon's sales increased 44% from the year-ago quarter ($10.88 bil in 2011 3Q vs. $7.56 bil in 2010 3Q) but their income was just $79 mil in 2011 3Q compared with $268 mil in 3Q 2010. Amazon expects sales to be up between 27% and 44% next quarter compared with 2010, but they predict a base-case income down 47% from last year. Amazon's margins are so tight that they say they could lose $200 mil in the final 3 months of the year or in the best case make $250 mil:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=1621411

LOTD for October 24

2011-10-24T17:23:00.001-07:00

Article about the progress being made in attracting women to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. I didn't realize that females are getting 2/3 of all undergraduate degrees, 60% of master's degree and over half of PhDs in the US. 30 years ago the ratio of 7th/8th grade boys who score more than 700 on the SAT math exam compared with girls was 13:1, but now it is 3:1 so the math gap has been significantly reduced:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/10/22/women_making_slow_sure_strides_in_science_math/

Google has had early-stage discussions with private-equity firms about potentially buying Yahoo's core business. Microsoft is interested in investing several billion in Yahoo, not to own Yahoo but instead to loan Yahoo money and get preferred stock. Microsoft would get a high interest rate on its loan and having preferred stock would allow them to get back their investment before other investors do if Yahoo goes under. Google is #1 in web search, but in the display-ad market this year, Facebook will get more than $2 bil, Yahoo will get about $1.6 bil, and Google will get $1.1 bil:
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970204485304576646232054116582-lMyQjAxMTAxMDIwMjEyNDIyWj.html

The FCC issued warnings to 20 online retailers to stop selling illegal jamming devices, including mobile phone, GPS, and WiFi jammers:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/359439/FCC_to_Retailers_Stop_Selling_Phone_Jammers

Researchers found flaws in Skype and other Internet-based phone systems that could disclose the identities, locations and digital files of the hundreds of millions of users of those systems. They found that Skype can track users' locations over time and users' P2P file-sharing activity, even when a users blocks callers or connects behind a NAT firewall. Even if someone is not on a Skype user's contact list and Skype is configured to block calls from non-contacts, someone can use Skype to obtain a Skype user's IP address without alerting the users with ringing or pop-up windows. By repeatedly doing that, the person can track the locations and movements of any Skype user over weeks or months without the Skype user have any idea they are being tracked:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/privacy-flaws-can-reveal-users-identities-locations-and-digital-files

Microsoft now has licensing agreements with 55% of companies that build Android devices for other companies and has licensing agreements with 53% of the US Android smartphone market. In May it was estimated that Microsoft made 5x more from its Android licensing than they made from Windows Phone, and with all of its recent Android licensing deals Microsoft is likely make much more than 5x from Android than they make from Windows Phone:
http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/23/microsoft-android-licensing-milestone/

http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2011/10/23/microsoft-s-new-patent-agreement-with-compal-a-new-milestone-for-our-android-licensing-program.aspx

Consumers have almost completely left the BlackBerry platform and a surprising new study found that 30% of enterprise companies with 10,000 or more users plan to switch to another platform in the next year. BlackBerry currently has 52% of companies with 10,000 or more users and that is expected to drop to 36% in 2012:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/a-third-of-blackberrys-enterprise-base-to-head-for-exits-in-2012/9571?tag=nl.e101

LOTD for October 21

2011-10-21T17:43:00.001-07:00

NATO's commander of the Libya war announced his intent to end hostilities through *Facebook*. NATO still hadn't put out an official press release, but the news was released through Facebook and then Twitter:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/nato-libya-war-facebook/

The Army has started a project called "Power Dreaming", where digitally-made dream sequences will help traumatized troops battle their nightmares. 52% of combat vets with PTSD reported having nightmares fairly often, with their experiences in the dream world taking a toll on them when they awake:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/real-life-inception/

University of Hawaii astronomer captured the first direct image of a planet being born. The planet called LkCa 15 b is five times younger than the previous record holder:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/hawaii-astronomer-captures-first-image-of-planet-forming-around-a-star/2011/10/19/gIQAUDobyL_story.html

Two senators introduced a bill that would allow foreigners who spend at least $500k on residential property to obtain visas allowing them (and their spouse and kids) to live in the US! About 10% of the luxury home market is composed of foreign investors and offering visas is estimated to triple that figure. Los Angeles would apparently be a huge beneficiary from buyers from China and California, Florida, NY, Colorado, Hawaii and Texas are predicted to see a huge increase in demand. The purchase has to be in cash, the buyer has to live in it for at least 180 days per year (so they have to pay US taxes on any foreign earnings), and the property has to be bought for more than its most recent appraised value...which is a nice way to drive up housing market prices:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-visas-home-buyers-20111021,0,6715779.story

China has about 97% of the rare earths produced in the world and its biggest producer of rare earths is suspending production for 1 month to get prices to rise for the minerals needed in mobile phones, tablets, and other high-tech products. China's decision to suspend production for 1 month and to limit exports in order to get their domestic manufacturing of magnets and other rare earth-based products may fuel tension between China and the US and Europe:
http://news.yahoo.com/china-rare-earths-supplier-suspends-production-065919340.html

New biography of Steve Jobs contains a lot of interesting information, including how he gave up religion because he was troubled by starving children, called executives who took over Apple "corrupt" and tried cleansings and herbal medicine for 9 months instead of getting surgery for his cancer. He came up with the company's name while on a diet of fruits and vegetables, and as a teenager perfected staring at people without blinking. Jobs also said that he would spend his last dying breath if he had to, and spend all of Apple's $40 bil in the bank to destroy Android:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5izacIaKf2hT_w5hDjmST8YtIM4Hw?docId=a5654bae694f41acbd6041476daf2a65

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-20/jobs-regretted-not-getting-cancer-surgery-sooner-biographer-isaacson-says.html

Steve Jobs' biographer said that Jobs had a very slowly growing type of pancreatic cancer that can actually be cured, but it was too late for the treatment to be effective after he waited 9 months because the cancer had spread to surrounding tissues. Jobs regretted his delay in getting the surgery:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/10/steve-jobs-regret-delay-cancer-surgery-biographer.html

Apple's sales went from $3 bil last fiscal year to $13 bil this fiscal year, with the middle class in China aspiring to buy Apple's products. The cult of Apple is so dominant in China that people in China are calling it "the era of Apple":
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-apple-20111021,0,3466575.story

Apple's dominance of the global tablet market has been decreased due to the growth of Android tablets. Apple had 95.5% of the tablet market in Q3 2010, but was down to 66.6% in Q3 2011, while Android went from 2.3% in Q3 2010 to 26.9% in Q3 2011. Microsoft has 2.4% of the tablet market while the BlackBerry PlayBook has 1.2%:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/press-releases/strategy-analytics-apple-android-capture-94-percent-share-global-tablet-shi

Sprint will no longer offer mobile broadband plans with unlimited access to Clearwire's mobile WiMAX network for all non-smartphone customers (tablets, netbooks, hotspots, etc.). This could be a way to limit Sprint's payments to Clearwire because Clearwire bills Sprint for the amount of data Sprint's customers use on its WiMAX network:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-drops-unlimited-wimax-data-mobile-broadband-plans/2011-10-21

Daily deals site BuyWithMe raised $21.5 mil from Bain Capital and Matrix Partners and bought 6 competitors in the last 6 months...but were unable to find anyone interested in investing in a $100 mil round at a $500 mil valuation, so they fired more than half of their employees:
http://www.betabeat.com/2011/10/19/buywithme-lays-off-more-than-half-its-employees/

LOTD for October 20

2011-10-20T17:53:00.001-07:00

Combination of studies that included a total of 1.3 million people found that the chance of dying early is reduced up to 39% through physical activity and/or sports. The significant survival benefits vary depending on the type of activity and for the length of physical activity (at least 5 hours per week achieves the greatest reduction in early mortality). Any physical activity is better than none and provided some reduction in the chance of dying early, but 5 hours per week reached the top level of mortality reduction probability:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/uov-emr102011.php

The Catholic Church opposes embryonic stem cell use, but just agreed to invest $1 mil for adult stem cell education and research:
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-fi-vatican-stem-cells-20111020,0,3102036.story

Interesting story of digital storage service Dropbox, one of the fastest growing tech startups. They turned down Steve Jobs in Dec. 2009 and weren't interested in Apple buying them even for a *9-digit* price. Steve Jobs told them he was going after their market when they turned him down, and iCloud is now a direct competitor to Dropbox. Dropbox raised $7.2 mil by 2008 and didn't need to raise anymore money until they raised $250 mil last month on a $4 bil valuation:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriabarret/2011/10/18/dropbox-the-inside-story-of-techs-hottest-startup/

Qualcomm has been granted its Indian Broadband licenses--they had already paid the $1.05 bil, but hadn't been approved for the licenses due to a paperwork dispute:
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/51394.php

An actress is suing Amazon for more than $1 mil for revealing her age on its Internet Movie Database website (I didn't realize that Amazon owns IMDB!) and refusing to remove her age from her profile when she asked:
http://news.yahoo.com/amazon-sued-seattle-over-revealing-actress-age-140427008.html

LOTD for October 19

2011-10-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

The recent series of disasters that threatens the future of the International Space Station is being blamed on negligence by Russia's underpaid rocket scientists. Russia's space agency and its workers are blamed for the 8/24 cargo ship crash and 8/18 error that put Russia's biggest satellite in the wrong orbit. Russia's space agency has been forced to ground its main rockets, which puts into doubt whether or not Russia can safely deliver humans into space...which could result in NASA abandoning the space station:
http://www.asdnews.com/news/38962/Russia_blames_scientists_for_rocket_crashes.htm

Pennsylvania roboticists have built a robot that can build and repair other robots. The video shows the robot building a quadruped that is able to move around on its own power when it is brought to life:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/robot-builds-robots-foam/

UT-Austin and Peking University scientists found that pesticides and pollutants are related to a *450%* increase in the risk of spina bifida and anencephaly in rural China. Endosulfan and Lindane are both used in pesticides on farms and have only been recently banned in the US. They also found a strong association between both conditions and PAHs, which are byproducts of burning fossil fuels (oil/coal):
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/uota-slp101911.php

The European Union's top court ruled that scientists cannot patent stem cell techniques that use human embryos for research purposes. Some scientists say this threatens important research since nobody can profit from those stem cell techniques if they cannot get patents in that area:
http://news.yahoo.com/top-europe-court-bans-stem-cell-technique-patents-144814447.html

Apple didn't meet quarterly expectations for the first time in years, resulting in a late sell-off of their stock. They had a record quarter, with $6.6 bil in profit over the past 3 months, but analysts had set the bar even higher for them:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/apple-misses-quarterly-sales-disappoints-for-the-first-time-in-years/2011/10/18/gIQASJCFxL_story.html

Sprint customers have been complaining about slow 3G data speeds ever since Sprint got the iPhone 4S last Friday, and PC Mag found that by the middle of Sprint's first day with the iPhone their 3G data rates (for both iPhone and Android smartphones) were down to 300-500kbps. Sprint responded by saying that Gizmodo found that Sprint's network is the fastest...but Gizmodo's iPhone Speed Test actually found that Sprint's iPhone data rates are *half* the data rate that the iPhone gets on Verizon and AT&T:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2394831,00.asp#fbid=N7_X04zaGLq

C Spire (formerly called Cellular South) will soon be the 4th US carrier to have the iPhone 4S. C Spire operates primarily in the South and has less than 1 million subscribers for their CDMA-based network...but they will have the iPhone 4S and T-Mobile will not:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/c-spire-wireless-offer-apples-iphone-4s/2011-10-19

Microsoft's CEO said that Nokia will unveil Windows Phone devices next week and he refused to address the question of whether or not Microsoft will design their own smartphones. Microsoft's CEO also criticized Android, saying that you need to be a computer scientist to use an Android phone while anyone can use a Windows Phone...tough talk from a company that went from 4.9% smartphone market share last year to 1.6% market share now:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/microsofts-ballmer-promises-nokia-windows-phones-next-week-slams-android/2011-10-19

The owner of an exotic-animal farm with Bengal tigers, lions, cheetahs, wolves, grizzly bears, etc. in Ohio deliberately released his animals and then killed himself. About 44 animals have been accounted for with at least 6 large animals still on the loose. Authorities described one incident where a 300-pound Bengal tiger went crazy after they shot it with a tranquilizer:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/10/ohio-game-farm-large-animals-released-.html

LOTD for October 18

2011-10-18T18:13:00.001-07:00

MIT researchers developed new radar technology that shows real-time video of what is going on behind solid walls. They use a row of 8 receiving antennas and a row of 13 transmitting antennas and some computing equipment on a cart...with a potentially huge impact on military operations in the future:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/ll-seeing-through-walls-1018.html

Biophysicist introduced a new class of Monte Carlo moves that is superior to the Monte Carlo technique currently used to determine the odds for a variety of different outcomes. The Monte Carlo technique is used by a wide range of disciplines and applications, so this could be a significant breakthrough:
https://www.llnl.gov/news/aroundthelab/2011/Oct/101811_montecarlo.html

Groupon's IO was being valued at $30 bil a few months ago, but analysts now say that the valuation might be less than $10 bil. There are some disturbing red flags for Groupon that might scare investors--Groupo raised $950 mil in a pre-IPO round in January and paid out $810 mil of that to its investors and employees (Groupon's chairman got $319 mil). Groupon has $225 mil in the bank and lost $103 mil last quarter. Groupon owes $392 mil to vendors (they get the money from customers up front but don't pay their vendors right away) and has just $225 mil in the bank. Groupon has $681 mil in liabilities but only $376 mil in assets...I hope that the funds I have my money in stay away from the Groupon IPO:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/the-missed-red-flags-on-groupon/

Tech companies are only 6.2% of the businesses in San Diego but generate 20.8% of San Diego's payroll. Tech companies last year paid an average salary of $93,800 while the average salary outside of tech companies was $45k. The 6,023 tech companies in San Diego employed 138,758 workers last year:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/oct/17/report-technology-firms-pack-economic-punch-san-di/

LOTD for October 17

2011-10-17T17:11:00.001-07:00

Recent study found that radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has spread further and was more concentrated than expected, with high levels of radioactive material found more than 150 miles away from the nuclear plant in Tokyo and Yokohama. In Tokyo, one sidewalk has radiation levels 50x higher than anywhere else near it...other parts of the same sidewalk had very low radiation levels, so the radiation was concentrated on just one portion of thee sidewalk:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/highly-concentrated-radiation-found-tokyo

UK researchers took samples from the hands and phones of people in 12 cities across Britain and found that 92% of mobile phones and 82% of hands had some traces of bacteria. Even through 95% of people claimed to wash their hands with soap whenever they could, 1 out of 6 hands and phones contained E.coli:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8824568/One-in-six-mobile-phones-contains-e.-coli.html

LightSquared says that their LTE network will be better than Verizon's and AT&T's LTE networks. They say they will use the 10x10 MHz channels for LTE just like Verizon and AT&T so they can match the 5-12 Mbps speeds of their networks. They point out that Sprint's towers were designed for the 1.9 GHz band so they are closer together than needed for their 1.6 GHz LTE band, which means they will have better in-building penetration and overlapping coverage capability. I guess that is all true, but I think the laws of physics would indicate that Verizon/AT&T using 700 MHz will have better in-building coverage than someone using the same power at 1.6 GHz:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/lightsquared-our-lte-network-will-be-better-atts-and-verizons/2011-10-14

Thanks to Verizon and its huge profit margins, the US is the dominant LTE provider in the world, and with AT&T and MetroPCS also providing some LTE coverage, the US will account for 47% of the world's LTE subscriptions. 71% of global LTE handsets sales are in the US. Japan's dominant wireless provider (NTT Docomo) will only cover 20% of the Japanese population with LTE by March 2012 while Verizon will cover over 60% by the end of this year, and Verizon has 5 LTE handsets already while NTT Docomo won't have one until next year:
http://www.pyramidresearch.com/points/item/111010.htm

Apple sold more than 4 million iPhone 4S smartphones over the week, breaking the previous weekend record of 1.7 mil for the iPhone 4:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/apple-sells-4m-iphone-4ss-first-weekend/2011-10-17

RIM is apologizing for their service disruptions by giving more than $100 of premium apps for free to BlackBerry customers. That is a great way to make customers happy and get them to use their BlackBerry devices even more:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/press-releases/research-motion-offers-free-premium-apps-customers-following-service-interr-0

Gambler in Delaware picked all 15 games correctly against the spread yesterday, turning his $5 bet into $100,000! People had tried 74,000 times to get all 15 games correctly and lost, this was the first time someone made the 15-team parlay. Delaware started this parlay in 2009, and in 2009 one person got the first 14 games correct...and lost the last game. In 2010, another person got the first game correct...and lost the last game. Delaware had won all $370k bet on the parlay before this winner, so they are still way ahead after paying the $100k:
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/131965223.html

LOTD for October 14

2011-10-14T21:08:00.001-07:00

The Army plans to build plastic bridges from recycled detergent bottles and car bumpers, with the plastic bridges strong enough to hold up a 73-ton Abrams tank. The recycled plastic bridges take only a month to build (much quicker than conventional bridges), cost 25% less than wooden bridges, and requires virtually no annual maintenance (34x less maintenance cost). Steel, concrete and wooden bridges all require annual upkeep and the Army spends $5.8 bil each year on maintenance, so this could be a green way for the Army to save a lot of money!
http://news.discovery.com/tech/recycled-plastic-bridge-tank.html

Even though 14 million people are looking for work in the US, US manufacturers cannot find people for thousands of jobs that are open. Companies are having a hard time finding skilled people to hire, with 52% of US employers having trouble filling critical positions this year when only 14% had trouble hiring last year. The big problem is that most of the jobs that went away were for positions that do not require a college degree for things like repetitive tasks, while the positions that are open are in the scientific, technical, and computer fields that require a college degree. So, all of these high-paying jobs sit empty while millions cannot take them due to a lack of technical college degree...the projections are that we could have over 10 million unemployed people in 2020 and also have 1.5 mil high-paying jobs that cannot be filled because not enough people have technical degrees:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/13/usa-economy-jobs-idUSN1E79B23O20111013

LightSquared said that it has enough cash to operate through the first quarter of 2012, but they are unable to raise more money because of uncertainty from the FCC regarding the interference problem with high-precision GPS receivers:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/lightsquared-we-need-clarity-fcc-we-can-raise-more-funds/2011-10-

Google reported that there are 190 mil Android devices activated worldwide and their mobile revenue run rate went from $1 bil last year to $2.5 bil now. More than 500,000 new Android devices are activated per day, growing at 4.4% per week:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/google-bullish-mobile-android-devices-top-190m-worldwide-q3/2011-10-13

Google has decided to eliminate Google Buzz, Code Search, and Jaiku:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/fall-sweep.html

Microsoft signed a licensing agreement with Quanta Computer for tablets, smartphones, and other devices that use both the Android and Chrome platforms. This is *huge* because Microsoft hasn't gotten someone to pay them for the Chrome OS (another free OS Google developed) and Quanta Computer makes hardware to spec for other companies--for example, they are making the Amazon Kindle Fire. Microsoft didn't want to sue Amazon to get money for each new Kindle device, so they went after the company making the Kindle Fire:
http://www.androidcentral.com/microsoft-reaches-licensing-agreement-quanta-computers-manufacturer-kindle-fire

Netflix's huge deal will apparently make the CW network profitable for CBS and Warner Bros., even if the network's ad revenue doesn't cover the costs of their programs. Netflix has been losing rights to movies and has been transitioning to a service for TV repeats. TV programs already make up more than 60% of its streaming, and that will increase as Netflix loses movie rights (like for the Sony and Disney movies from Starz) and gets more TV shows (like from the CW):
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/10/netflix-cw-deal-cbs-warner-bros.html

LOTD for October 13

2011-10-13T16:52:00.001-07:00

Northwestern researchers figured out a way to trick the immune system into thinking that nut proteins aren't a threat to the body, turning off a life-threatening allergic response to peanuts! This technique appears to be a safe and quick way to turn off the allergic response to all allergies. Not only would this eliminate reactions to food allergies, it also creates a more normal, balanced immune system by increasing the number of regulatory T cells:
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2011/10/peanut-allergy-bryce.html

Carnegie Mellon researchers have developed a software tool that takes a snapshot of a person via a smartphone and can track down that person's real identity in less than a minute! The problems with facial recognition today are due to the need for greater processing power, people and machines. After the riots in Vancouver after the Stanley Cup, Vancouver police got nearly 1,600 hours of footage from bystanders and they estimated that it would take them 2 years to analyze all the information to identify the rioters. A 20-workstation multimedia lab cut that processing time down to just 3 weeks, and Carnegie Mellon's cloud-centric mobile app identifies people in less than a minute:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/09/cloud-powered-facial-recognition-is-terrifying/245867/

Trains in Germany were hit with 15 firebombs in 7 different locations, delaying hundreds of trains due to partial shut-downs of railways. Nobody was injured in any of the attacks and a left-wing organization claimed responsibility, citing opposition to Germany's role in the Afghanistan War:
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2011/10/12/arson_attacks_disrupt_german_train_system/

LightSquared said that it would cost the commercial GPS industry up to $400 mil to eliminate the interference that could be caused by its network. LightSquared said that there are about 500,000 commercial precision GPS devices that will need devices that cost between $300 and $800 each to protect GPS devices from their network:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12261_7-20119551-10356022/lightsquared-gps-fix-to-cost-industry-$400m/

LightSquared accused the GPS industry of trying to make up a political scandal to discredit LightSquared:
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/187163-lightsquared-accuses-gps-industry-of-orchestrating-political-campaign

The Commerce Department rejected Huawei's application to build a wireless network for first responders in the US. Intelligence officials say that there are security concerns about Huawei that their chips, routers, and other technical equipment will be bugged in a way to give China's government a cyber back door into sensitive information networks:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/11/u-s-blocks-china-telecoms-bid-to-build-wireless-network-over-spying-concerns.html

Huawei plans to significantly boost its presence in the US handset market to become at least the #5 handset vendor in the US within 3 years. They will sell LTE phones next year and our looking to go beyond their Android-only smartphone OS. They plan to heavily advertise their brand in the US, which is a big change because currently the Huawei phones sold by AT&T and T-Mobile are branded by the wireless carrier names and don't have Huawei's name on the phone:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/ctialive/story/huawei-planning-lte-phones-looking-beyond-android/2011-10-11

Google Translate expanded its Conversation mode (enables you to translate speech back and forth between languages) to 14 languages:
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/10/start-conversation-with-google.html

T-Mobile is going on a marketing blitz to highlight their high-end Android smartphones, which they have to do because they are the only major wireless carrier without the iPhone. This year 75% of the devices T-Mobile has sold have been smartphones and 90% of them run Android:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-gears-android-marketing-effort-battle-iphone-4s/2011-10-13

Leap Wireless is going to launch a *feature phone* that runs Android, even though Android is specifically designed for smartphones. The feature phone won't be able to use Gmail, search, or use any Android apps, but it also won't require the monthly fees that smartphone users have:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/ctialive/story/leap-plans-android-feature-phone-wait-what/2011-10-12

Michael Dell pledged loyalty to Microsoft, putting his faith in Windows 8 for their tablets...even though that means that Dell has to wait until mid-2012 (if Microsoft actually is on time with their release) to try for the tablet market. Michael dell said that Android has "not developed to the expectations" that Dell had:
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/10/13/dell.ceo.downplays.google.at.own.conference/

Verizon made a significant change to their privacy policy for mobile users. By default, Verizon will use the URLs of websites you visit over their network and the device's location to make mobile ads more relevant and share some of the information with outside companies. Verizon subscribers who don't want to have their information shared can click on the link in this article:
http://blogs.computerworld.com/19089/verizon_mobile_web_privacy

eBay will integrate image recognition into their mobile app later this year, enabling consumers to take photos of items they wish to buy and then see the products for sale on eBay that match the photos:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/ebay-adding-image-recognition-mobile-shopping-apps/2011-10-13

Here is an example of why Netflix is raising their prices so much. CW gets only a tiny fraction of the viewers of the major networks, but Netflix will pay them as much as $1 bil over 4 years to be able to stream their shows. CW's shows get tiny numbers of viewers and their ratings for repeats are microscopic...but they will get $250 mil/year for small number of shows being streamed on Netflix:
http://www.deadline.com/2011/10/netflix-signs-4-year-licensing-deal-with-the-cw/

LOTD for October 12

2011-10-12T17:01:00.001-07:00

The 99 Cents Only chain (based in the City of Commerce) was bought by an LA privaty equity firm and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $1.6 bil. Most of the 99 Cents Only stores are located in California, but the plan appears to be to expand the chain beyond just the Western part of the US to increase sales and then IPO the company. Wal-Mart has had 9 straight quarters of declines in same-store sales in the US and is now considered less convenient and a little expensive compared to Dollar stores:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-99-cents-only-stores-buyout-offer-20111012,0,5797068.story

RIM had to quickly arrange a conference call due to the 3-day global disruption of BlackBerry services, but they could not say when they would fully restore service to tens of millions of affected customers. They say that their email and IM outage on 5 continents does not seem to have been caused by hacking or a system breach. iOS and Android will be *huge* beneficiaries of this black eye for BlackBerry:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/BlackBerry-outages-spread-to-rb-3189041293.html?x=0&.v=8

There are more wireless subscriber connections than people in the US for the first time, mainly due to business accounts and people with multiple cell phones:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/oct/11/wireless-devices-now-outnumber-us-population/

AT&T's CEO said that the next step in connected devices market will be body-monitoring systems that will allows users to track the physical state of people. Examples include being able to monitor firefighters' body temperature and provide alerts when that temperature got too high, tracking athletes' body functions, or tracking infants' bodies and providing alerts if anything was wrong:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/ctialive/story/de-la-vega-wearable-devices-are-next-step-m2m-market/2011-10-11

LOTD for October 11

2011-10-11T19:10:00.001-07:00

Georgia Tech physicists turned liquid into solid using an electric field:
http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=71054

Study estimates that 100,000 people in India escaped HIV infection over a 5 year period thanks to the Gates Foundation's Avahan project. There are 2.4 million people in India infected with HIV, but the Gates Foundation's program targeted the 6 Indian states with the highest HIV rates and funded needle exchanges, safe-sex counseling, condom distribution, and other interventions to reach vulnerable groups:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/10/Life-Science-Disease-Study-Gates-project-spared-100K-Indians-from-HIV/

A map of the Moon shows a treasure trove of areas rich in Titanium ores, with some lunar rocks harboring 10x as much titanium ore as rocks on Earth have. Apollo data indicated that Titanium-rich minerals are more efficient at retaining solar wind particles, such as helium and hydrogen. The Titanium:is helping scientists understand the Moon's interior and could be a key asset for future Moon bases:
http://www.europlanet-eu.org/outreach/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=360&Itemid=41

Despite getting its first major update in more than 5 years, Java lost popularity with developers in September, with just 17.9% of developers using it as opposed to 18.8% the previous month. If the trend continues, C (17.7%) will be #1 next month. Java has been #1 since 2001 except for some time between mid-2004 and mid-2005 and a few months last year when C became #1. Expert predicts a long-term downward slide for Java because it evolves too slowly compared to languages like C#:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/application-development/survey-java-losing-popularity-among-developers-175573

Apple received 1 million iPhone 4S orders within the first 24 hours of it going on pre-sale Friday, breaking the previous single-day iPhone pre-order record of 600,000 iPhone 4's last year. AT&T and Verizon sold out of their iPhone 4S stock and are now taking backorders, but Sprint still has 32 GB and 64 GB models in stock (they are sold out of the 16 GB model):
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-sells-out-16-gb-iphone-4s-other-models-are-still-available/2011-10-11

LOTD for October 10

2011-10-10T17:52:00.001-07:00

The Army has long wanted a translator that can enable English-only troops to communicate with Arabic, Dari and Pashto speakers in war zones. Instead of trying to get the Army to buy a translator device and have the soldiers carry an extra piece of gear, Raytheon has built a universal translation app with a vocabulary of 30,000 words in Afghanistan's major languages and another 80,000 words in Iraqi Arabic, all geared toward the phrases and questions that soldiers use every day. The Army has plans to issue all soldiers smartphones, studying both iPhones and Android phones, and Raytheon's app works with Android but not iOS:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/universal-translator-app/

The Army's Nett Warrior program is developing a smartphone to network soldiers together. ITT is trying to make Nett Warrior obsolete by offering their custom smartphone to the Army for "only" $1,500 per smartphone. The Army is concerned about costs for Nett Warrior so they are looking at commercial smartphones--last week Gen. Nichols actually went to Best Buy and bought 60 Android phones to take to a networking test:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/begun-these-army-phone-wars-have/

Man paralyzed for 7 years was able to use a mind-powered robotic arm to reach out and touch things. Researchers are getting close to making it possible for quadriplegics to be able to move their own hands again, not just a bionic third hand, and being able to sense what they touch:
http://news.yahoo.com/paralyzed-man-uses-mind-powered-robot-arm-touch-040245421.html

The Venus Express spacecraft discovered that Venus has an ozone layer in its atmosphere. Scientists will compare the ozone layers for Venus, Earth and Mars to help refine their searchers for life on other planets:
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMU3N9U7TG_index_0.html

Romotive is building robots that are powered by Android of iOS smartphones, with the tank-like robots using basic analog electronics to trigger two motors. At launch users will be able to control the robot from another phone via WiFi, have live view and public address capabilities, and even play a version of Mario Kart with digital attacks slowing the other robots you are racing with:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/09/insert-coin-romo-the-smartphone-robot-video/

Sprint's stock fell 20% after they talked about how they would need to raise money to build their LTE network. Clearwire's stock plunged 32% after Sprint disclosed their LTE plans and Sprint revealed they would stop selling devices compatible with Clearwire's WiMAX network at the end of next year as Sprint shifts to LTE. Sprint is Clearwire's majority owner and biggest customer but does not control Clearwire:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/08/technology/sprints-shares-fall-on-news-it-lacks-money-for-upgrades.html

Interesting commentary on how Sprint is engaged in a high stakes leverage game with Clearwire that may push Clearwire into bankruptcy. Even though Sprint owns 54% of Clearwire and Clearwire has more than 100 MHz of spectrum in all of its markets (while Sprint is just planning on 5 MHz x 5 MHz spectrum chunks for its LTE network), Sprint is refusing to engage Clearwire and appears to be planning on getting its 2.5 GHz spectrum via a Clearwire bankruptcy:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/sprints-lte-plans-reveal-high-stakes-leverage-game-clearwire/2011-10-09

Even though the iPhone 4S is also going to be on Verizon and Sprint, AT&T had their most successful iPhone launch ever with more than 200,000 iPhone 4S preorders in the first 12 hours alone!
http://allthingsd.com/20111007/att-says-seen-200000-pre-orders-for-iphone-4s-in-first-day/

eBay processed $2 bil in mobile sales last year and is on pace to process $4 bil in mobile sales this year. eBay's mobile apps have been downloaded over 50 million times and 3 purchases every second are made through eBay's mobile app. About half of eBay's mobile purchases are from outside the US:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/09/ebay-vp-steve-yankovich-en-route-to-4b-in-gross-mobile-sales-tctv/

A 50 foot by 20 foot bridge was stolen in Pennsylvania. The steel bridge is worth $100k and was dismantled and taken from a rural area:
http://www.wtae.com/r/29413287/detail.html

Swiss motorist was arrested and had his license confiscated after police questioned him about something else and found photos on his phone showing that he had driven has car *320 km/h* (199 mph!), nearly 3x the speed limit. The man had driven that fast 6 months ago, but he left the photos on his phone (probably to show to others to impress them) which let the police uncover his crime:
http://news.yahoo.com/swiss-speedster-trapped-own-mobile-phone-162335874.html

LOTD for October 7

2011-10-07T18:24:00.001-07:00

A computer virus has infected the cockpits of Predator and Reaper UAVs, logging every keystroke pilots make as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones. The military's security system detected the virus two weeks ago but every time security specialists wipe out the virus it cmoes back:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/virus-hits-drone-fleet/

The photo of the biggest spy drone ever made shows how it makes an 18-wheeler truck next to look tiny! The Air Force hopes to use the airship next year to look down on 36 square miles of Afghanistan at a time:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/giant-blimp-dwarfs-truck/

Astronomers have found previously undiscovered planets in decade-old Hubble data:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/elusive-planets.html

Notre Dame researchers found a breakthrough approach to allergy treatment that inhibits food allergies, drug allergies and asthmatic reactions *without* suppressing a sufferer's entire immune system. Unlike current treatments, this approach prevents allergic reactions from occuring with no side effects to the person taking the medicine!
http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/26774-researchers-engineer-new-way-to-inhibit-allergic-reactions-without-side-effects/

California-based study found that air quality and traffic-related air pollution has an impact on premature births. Seasonal changes and distance to the coast affect the concentration of toxic pollutants in the air. Exposure to PAH resulted in up to a 30% increase in premature births, diesel fumes were associated with a 10% increase, while ammonium nitrate fine articles were associated with a 21% increase in premature births. Concentrations of those pollutants were higher in winter and lower in coastal areas:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/bc-pma100511.php

Last year 10 babies died and more than 9,000 people were sickened when whooping cough spread throughout California. Last week there were 28 reported cases of measles in California, a 10-year high. Whooping cough and measles are not problems in most of the US due to vaccinations, but more than 11,000 students are entering California elementary schools this year without getting vaccinated. The 2.5% of kindergartners unvaccinated is California's highest rate since at least 1978 (the year before the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine was required). There have been an increasing number of California parents using the personal belief exemption to get around the vaccination requirement:
http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/09/11-000-students-enter-california-schools-without-required-vaccines/245679/

Sprint will launch LTE service by the middle of 2012, using its 1.9 GHz spectrum as they switch from WiMAX to LTE for their Network Vision upgrade. They plan to have their LTE network largely completed in 2013. It would seem to me that Verizon's and AT&T's at 700 MHz would be more ideal than Sprint's 1.9 GHz spectrum, especially since Sprint is talking about 5MHz x 5MHz blocks while even Dish Networks has 20 MHz x 20 MHz blocks at 700 MHz:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-launch-lte-1900-mhz-spectrum-mid-2012/2011-10-07

T-Mobile is projected to lose about 1.2 million customers this year, more than 3x the 390,000 customers they lost in 2010. In the past T-Mobile has used aggressive price cuts to gain customers, but they have avoided doing that now because one reason the Justice Department is opposing the AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile is because T-Mobile has helped keep wireless prices down for consumers:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2011-10-07/t-mobile-client-losses-seen-tripling-on-at-t-deal-review-tech.html

Analysts say that Samsung will likely pass Apple in the world's ranking of smartphone vendors by volumes in the third quarter...remember, the iPhone 4S won't start being sold until the fourth quarter. Samsung has surpassed expectations but it could have problems if Apple begins transitioning away from using Samsung components--Apple is Samsung's bigger customer of handset components and the Apple/Samsung worldwide patent battles could hurt that relationship:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/analysts-samsung-likely-pass-apple-q3/2011-10-07

In March, right after Broadcom transferred some patents to it, Innovatio filed patent infringement lawsuits against restaurant chains and coffee shops (including Panera Bread) and then went after the hotel chains (Hyatt, Marriott, Wyndham, etc.)...in just 5 days they filed lawsuits against over 220 hotels in Illinois alone! Innovatio seems to be suing any business that offers WiFi to customers! They demand a one-time fee of between $2,300 and $5,000 from each targeted defendant (each individual hotel or coffee shop is suing separately, so a chain would have to pay a lot of money) and some businesses have settle because legal fees would cost more...this sure sounds like a shakedown to me. Innovatio has avoided suing any tech companies, they are just going after businesses that provide WiFi to others:
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=48105&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

LOTD for October 6

2011-10-06T20:05:00.001-07:00

The CDC reported that an outbreak of listeria first linked to tainted cantaloupes has resulted in 18 deaths and 100 people sickened across 20 states. The cantaloupes were recalled on September 14, but more cases might still emerge since listeria has a long lag time between diagnosis and lab confirmation and because it can take 2 month to develop listerosis after eating contaminated food:
http://news.yahoo.com/18-deaths-cantaloupe-linked-listeria-outbreak-cdc-130508007.html

NASA awarded $1.35 mil, the largest prize in aviation history, to inspire the development of more fuel-efficient aircraft and sparkthe electric airplane industry. NASA said that the winning aircraft had to fly 200 miles in less than 2 hours and use less than 1 gallon of fuel per occupant, or the equivalent in electricity. The top 2 planes were both electric-powered and both achieved twice the fuel efficiency goal, so they flew 200 miles using just over a half-gallon of fuel equivalent per passenger!
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/10/green-airplanes-fly-200-miles-at-over.html

Photos and a new meteorological model provided the scientific underpinnings to find triple and even quadruple rainbows exist. Reports were so rare before this that scientists had doubted their existence before this discovery:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/10/General-Science-Optics-Meteorology-Photos-prove-triple-even-quadruple-rainbows-exist/

Study of more than 1,000 engineers found that non-compete agreements come with a high cost for employees. About 1/3 of engineers that left their jobs ended up having to leave their chosen industry completely, often at significant financial cost to themselves. The article discusses how the non-compete agreements force many people to take a career detour:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/non-compete-agreements-1005.html

Alabama's new immigration law resulted in many Hispanic students not showing up in school, so Alabama's top education official said that kids will be enrolled even if they don't have birth certificates:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/65197.html

Investors are concerned about how executives at RIM have not bought any of their company's stock for the longest period in at least 6 years. RIM executives even sold stock at least 11 times since July 2010 without buying any RIM stock. At least 55 of the other 59 companies in the S&P/TSX 60 index have had insider purchases since July 2010...investors understandably wonder if RIM execs do not see a value in their stock then why should others buy it:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-05/rim-executives-resisting-buying-stock-make-investors-fret-tech.html

Sony is close to finalizing a deal that will buy out Ericsson's share of Sony Ericcson, making Sony the sole owner of Sony Ericcson (the 6th-largest cell phone manufacturer in the world)
http://www.androidcentral.com/sony-buy-out-ericsson-their-mobile-division-says-wsj

Nuance bought Swype for $100 mil. Nuance has a number of products (even the T9 predictive keyboard that competes with Swype) but is probably best known for its voice recognition tech--such as the Siri feature on the iPhone 4S and the Dragon line of software. Swype is a very, very popular keyboard on Android phones...the combination should be amazing, especially since Nuance already had an excellent keyboard but saw something with Swype worth $100 mil:
http://uncrunched.com/2011/10/06/nuance-to-acquire-swype-for-100-million/

LOTD for October 5

2011-10-05T17:38:00.001-07:00

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs passed away today:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/apple-cofounder-steve-jobs-has-died-175170

Michigan astronomer was surprised when he detected ocean-like water in a comet for the first time. This evidence supports the theory that coments delivered a significant portion of earth's oceans, which scientists believe formed about 8 million years after the Earth formed:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/uom-fcf100411.php

The man who invented the Segway has a patent for an inflatable wind turbine. Currently wind turbines need 10x as much steel and concrete as a nuclear reactor to generate the same amount of power:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/10/dean-kamen-who-invented-segway-has.html

The FCC will require all operators (wireless and VoIP) to integrate GPS by 2018 to help first responders pinpoint the location of 911 emergency calls:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/fcc-mandates-gps-all-phones-2018/2011-10-05

Very interesting pricing on Android tablets. India is offering an Android tablet to college students for a subsidized price of just $35, with plans to sell it at retail for $60. The owner and publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News is offering an Android tablet bundled with digital news subscriptions--consumers can get the Android tablet for $99 if they get a 2-year digital subscription of the newspapers for $9.99/month:
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=0110018Y5PNI

Apple seems to have a marketing problem in Japan because marketing Siri (one of the major additions introduced for the iPhone 4S) sounds like "shiri" in Japan...which means the rear end in Japanese:
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/10/05/seriously-apple-in-japan-siri-fans-bottom-jokes/?mod=WSJBlog

LOTD for October 4

2011-10-04T17:16:00.001-07:00

Researchers utilized the mirage effect from thermally modulated transparent carbon nanotube sheets to create an invisibility cloak. The single-beam mirage effect is also knows as photothermal deflection and is shown off nicely in the video:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/10/mirage-effect-from-thermally-modulated.html

This link has a nice collection of articles about the iPhone 4S announcement today. The big news is that Sprint is getting the iPhone 4S along with Verizon and AT&T, the 4S has a faster processor and is a CDMA/GSM world phone, and Apple integrated the speech-recognition program called Siri:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-reports/iphone-5-complete-coverage

Here is an article about how Apple bought the startup called Siri in April 2010:
http://scobleizer.com/2010/04/28/breaking-news-siri-bought-by-apple/

Sprint basically has bet the future of its company on Apple's iPhone, ordering 30.5 mil iPhones over the next 4 years for a total commitment of *$20 bil*. Sprint's CEO told their board that Sprint will lose money on the deal until *2014*, since sprint will subsidize each iPhone at a cost of $500 per device, with the bulk of its iPhone sales expected beteen 2013 and 2015. The projected hit to Sprint's operating income is called "staggering":
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/report-sprint-buys-305-million-apple-iphones-over-four-years/2011-10-03

NTT DoCoMo has developed a prototype smartphone battery that can be completely charged in just 10 minutes! The new technology uses a lithium-ion battery sleeve and currently supports NEC's Android smartphone in Japan:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/03/ntt-docomo-battery-claims-10-minute-charge-time-we-go-hands-on/?a_dgi=aolshare_facebook

UC-Davis researchers transformed iPhones into medical-quality imaging and chemical detection devices. The cost of materials is only about as much as a typical iPhone app, but it enables a regular iPhone to perform detailed microscopy and spectroscopy:
http://www.osa.org/About_Osa/Newsroom/News_Releases/Releases/10.2011/Researchers-Transform-iPhone.aspx

The US Supreme Court rejected AT&T's appeal for a $500 mil tax refund:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-03/at-t-rejected-by-u-s-high-court-on-500-million-tax-refund.html

The GPS industry argues that if LightSquared operates a nationwide terrestrial network in
LightSquared said that it may sue if GPS interference concerns prevents it from deploying its proposed terrestrial wholesale LTE network:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/lightsquared-threatens-legal-action-over-gps-interference-concerns/2011-10-04

LOTD for October 3

2011-10-03T19:06:00.001-07:00

SpaceX is going to try to develop an orbital booster system where both of the rocket's stages would return to the launch site and touch down vertically, under rocket power, on landing gear after delivering a spacecraft to orbit. Their Falcon 9 rocket costs about $50 mil to $60 mil and the cost of fuel and oxygen for a launch is only about $200k, so reusing the rocket 1,000 times would effectively drop the capital cost of the rocket per launch from $50 mil to $50k:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/09/Industries-Aerospace-SpaceX-to-attempt-fully-reusable-orbital-booster/

Study of the VC investments in the wireless industry over the past 10 years showed that VCs invested $34 bil in the mobile industry and made $54 bil from VC-backed company exits (with many VC-backed wireless companies still operating but not having their IPOs or acquisitions yet)
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/special-reports/ten-years-mobile-vc-investments-34b-and-exits-54b

Interesting article about what people need to know who wish to get a job at Google, Apple, or Facebook. Google gets *1 million* job applications every year, with 1 in 4 young professionals wanting to work for Google. The article goes over what each company is looking for and goes over the types of positions and skills they need and their average tech salaries around the country:
http://mashable.com/2011/10/01/tech-job-google-apple-facebook/

Google's Chairman says that the Android ecosystem is their #1 priority and they will be careful so that their $12.5 bil acquisition of Motorola Mobility won't mess up the dynamics on Android. He says that Google won't play favorites in the way that people are worried about:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-03/google-s-schmidt-says-acquisition-of-motorola-won-t-screw-up-android.html

iSuppli Teardown Analysis found that Amazon is selling their Kindle Fire tablet at a $10 loss. Amazon apparently is hoping for a $20 profit for each tablet over its lifetime for digital sales...if Amazon gets that they still will only make a small $10 profit. However, it appears that Amazon is using their tablet as a loss leader to get shoppers in their door so that they will by other types of goods:
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=48091&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Stratey Analytics projects that Amazon will sell more than 15 million Kindle Fire tablets by the end of 2013:
http://www.bgr.com/2011/10/03/sa-amazon-to-sell-15-million-kindle-fire-tablets-through-2013/

Amazon received 95,000 pre-orders for the Kindle Fire on the first day is could be ordered, even though the Kindle Fire won't ship until November 15:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal-tech/tablets/231602481

Apple is having trouble sell iPhones in India, a market with 602 million wireless subscribers. Nokia and RIM sell more smartphones in India than Apple, helping to make up for their loss of market-share in the US and Europe. Indian wireless carriers apparently do not have data rates fast enough to take advantage of iPhone features, so iPhones only work properly with WiFi. Apple is also criticized for their "pathetic" limited advertising in India:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-02/apple-cedes-surging-india-smartphone-market-to-nokia-rim-tech.html

Sony Ericsson's CEO said that they will continue to rely on Android because the Windows Phone platform isn't strong enough to use yet. Sony Ericsson's global handset market share has shrunk from 4.3% in the 3Q of 2009 to 1.7% in the 2Q of 2011, but they have a goal of being the largest Android smartphone maker (their Android share is now around 11%):
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sony-ericssons-nordberg-dings-windows-phone-acknowledges-us-difficulties/2011-10-03

Nokia is concerned about the limited number of apps for Windows Phone 7 so they are offering to pay developers for Windows 7 apps, pre-install their apps on Nokia Windows smartphones, and give prominent promotion for their apps. One veteran developer says that developers can actually get paid by both Microsoft and Nokia for the apps they make for Windows Phone 7:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/30/tech/mobile/nokia-windows-phone/

The Puerto Rice Department of Justice has joined the lawsuit against AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile:
http://www.mobileburn.com/16852/news/puerto-rico-justice-department-throws-its-hat-into-the-fight-against-attt-mobile-deal

LOTD for September 30

2011-09-30T18:15:00.001-07:00

SpaceX is about to launch their Falcon Heavy which will put twice the payload of the Space Shuttle at about 1/15 the cost of a shuttle launch...an approximate 97% reduction in launch costs compared with the Shuttle!
http://blog.nss.org/?p=3080&cpage=1

UAVs are getting so amazingly advanced that they can even tell identical twins apart:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/09/drones-that-can-see-difference-in-faces.html

Washable, wearable antennas are becoming of great interest in the search and rescue world. Field tests have shown that sewing a search and rescue radio antenna into a life vest can enable someone lost at sea to be pinpointed within minutes:
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMO3L6UXSG_index_0.html

NASA pinpointed the where the UARS satellite crashed to Earth...it hit Earth fairly close to the capitol of American Samoa! Thankfully it splashed down into the ocean, but it could have easily hit into Samoa instead:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nasa-pinpoints-pacific-ocean-grave&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_SPC_20110929

An industrial add-on to geothermal power plans in California could produce the lithium that is required for electric car batteries. The process has been developed to take the brines coming out of geothermal power plants' post-power production and harvest rare-earth materials such as lithium, manganese, zinc, and other materials:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=geothermal-power-plants-could-help-produce-lithium-for-electric-cars

First Facebook got in trouble earlier this year because they had been collecting data from people who had never even been on the Facebook website but had Facebook cookies planted secretly on their computers. Then Facebook had that controversy over its "stalker button" that let users track another users every Internet move. Now, US legislators are demanding that the Federal Trade Commission start an official investigation in Facebook because Facebook continues to spy on users and has been tracking their Internet activities and collecting personal data even when those users have logged out of Facebook. An Australian blogger discovered this week that Facebook continues to collect data from its 750 million users even when they had logged out:
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=48086&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-

Amazon is apparently close to acquiring webOS from HP. The driving force behind webOS at Palm before HP bought Palm became an Amazon board member last year and Amazon definitely has the money, distribution, and interest in expanding in the wireless area. Could Amazon combine its custom-version of Android (which they are using for the Kindle) with webOS to create some amazing tablets and other devices?
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/report-amazon-close-acquiring-webos-assets-hp/2011-09-30

Google gives away Android licenses for free, but Microsoft will make $444 mil this year from its patent-licensing agreements with Android device makers:
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2011/09/29/analyst-microsoft-gets-444m-annually.html?ana=yfcpc

RIM denied an analyst report that said that they will stop making BlackBerry PlayBooks and had cancelled all tablet plans. RIM did confirm that more of its senior management has left the company:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/rim-denies-report-it-will-stop-building-blackberry-playbooks/2011-09-30

Verizon customers with Android devices can get Madden 2012 for FREE this weekend! From October 1-3, that $7.50 game is FREE:
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/09/30/madden-2012-on-android-is-free-this-weekend-from-verizon/

Poll of iOS developers (iPhone/iPad/iTouch) found that 50% of them made less than $3,000 in all of their app sales combined, with the median game making less than $1,000:
http://www.tuaw.com/2011/09/29/ios-game-revenue-survey-50-of-app-store-games-make-less-than/

LOTD for September 29 (late edition)

2011-09-29T18:14:00.001-07:00

HIV could be reduced to a "minor chronic infection" akin to herpes, scientists developing a new vaccine have claimed.
Vaccine could reduce HIV to a "minor infection". Spanish researchers found that 92% of healthy people that got the vaccine developed an immune response to HIV:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8794846/Vaccine-could-reduce-HIV-to-minor-infection.html

Scientists discover a "master key" to unlock new treatments for autoimmune disorders. This could lead to a single drug that could treat asthma, bowel disease, Lupus, and more!
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-09/foas-sda092911.php

LOTD for September 29

2011-09-29T16:50:00.001-07:00

China will be launching the first module of their Space Station in a few days. Nobody (outside of China's leaders) knows if their space station will be a scientific research rival to the International Space Station, a military mission, a jobs program, or a PR ploy:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/chinas-space-station/

Al-Qaida says that it is "ridiculous" for Iran's President to say that the US government was behind the 9/11 attacks--they are asking him to stop spreading conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/28/al-qaida-ahmadinejad-911-conspiracy

New shrimp production technology developed by researchers near Corpus Christi will enable 1 million pounds of shrimp per acre of water, which is up to 50x more per acre than is produced now! This could revolutionize how shrimp is raised and be a huge solution to the protein needs for the world's population as it continues to increase significantly. This could also be a big boost to the US economy, with shrimp exports to the rest of the world--for example, China is currently a shrimp exporter but will soon become a net importer of shrimp, which will increase demand and shrimp prices around the world:
http://agrilife.org/today/2011/09/28/new-shrimp-technology/

The Department of Justice wants more information on Google's proposed $12.5 bil acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which could extend the time that the government takes to review the deal. The Justice Department apparently only makes requests for more information around 4% of all transactions, but Google describes the request as "routine":
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/doj-wants-more-info-googles-125b-motorola-purchase/2011-09-29

Nokia will cut 3,500 jobs as part of another reorganization as it continues its transition to use the Windows Phone platform, with these job cuts being in addition to the 4,000 that Nokia announced in April. Nokia will close a plant in Romania that just opened in 2008, which will cut 2,200 jobs. Nokia also said that along with Siemens it will invest around $1.36 bil in their infrastructure joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/nokia-cut-3500-jobs-invest-136b-nsn-along-siemens/2011-09-29

Western Pennsylvania couple cut down copper wire from 18 utility poles because they needed money to pay for their wedding. They removed the transformer ground wires 4 days before their wedding and sold it to a salvage company. Repairing the utility poles will cost nearly $400 each:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/27/ap/strange/main20112149.shtml