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<title>Haaze.com / cash21 / Published News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:10:28 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Lenovo launching Android and Windows tablets]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lenovo-launching-android-and-windows-tablets</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lenovo-launching-android-and-windows-tablets</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:10:28 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lenovo-launching-android-and-windows-tablets</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Lenovo plans several new tablets as follow-ups to its current LePad.(Credit:Lenovo)Lenovo plans on hitting thetablet market this year with devices aimed at bothAndroid and Windows.In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires reported this week by The Wall Street Journal, (subscription required), Lenovo president and Chief Operating Officer Rory Read revealed that the company will launch two 10-inch Android tablets this summer followed by a 10-inch Windows tablet later in the year.One Android tablet, named the IdeaPad, will be geared for the consumer market, while the other, with the ThinkPad name, will be marketed toward the business crowd. Both tablets will run Honeycomb and be priced anywhere from $450 to $900 depending on their configurations, according to the interview. Lenovo's current tablet, the Android-powered LePad, is only available in China. Some tech sites, including TechConnect and Pocket-Lint, are pointing to the IdeaPad tablet as the IdeaPad K1, a device that's already received some buzz and was reportedly listed on a few retail sites, such as Buy.com, according to Engadget.TechConnect describes the K1 as powered by a Tegra 2 processor with a 1280x800 10.1-inch touch screen, 16/32 GB of storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB and HDMI ports, and a battery capable of 8 to 10 hours of life on a single charge.As a follow-up to its Android devices, Lenovo then plans to unveil a 10-inch Windows tablet before the end of the year, even though Windows 8 won't yet be out. Also, the company is eyeing the launch of some 7-inch tablets later on.AtCES in January, Lenovo demonstrated a 10-inch Windows slate with the same overall design as its current LePad tablet but with an Atom processor and a stylus. &quot;We've really been working to tailor the experience&quot; of our tablets, Read said, according to the Journal. &quot;Some of the early-generation Android devices were a little ahead of their time, and what we're doing here is making sure [our tablets] are strong. We only have one opportunity to make that first good impression.&quot;  Read expects tablets to start to replace Netbooks and grab around 15 percent of the PC market over the next three years. But since Lenovo is a major PC vendor, the CEO doesn't see a downturn hitting the overall computer market as a result. &quot;The PC business is going to continue to expand and continue to grow, and especially in emerging markets it could grow very rapidly,&quot; he said. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Has Apple's iPad finally killed the Netbook]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=has-apples-ipad-finally-killed-the-netbook</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=has-apples-ipad-finally-killed-the-netbook</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 May 2011 07:10:35 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=has-apples-ipad-finally-killed-the-netbook</guid>
<description><![CDATA[It's hard to believe that before 2007, a low-cost laptop was one that came in under $1,000. But that was before the Netbook revolution kicked off, inspired by the Intel Classmate and the One Laptop Per Child XO, and spearheaded initially by Asus and its original Eee PC (which had a 7-inch display and ran Linux). From that point on, every PC maker was forced (some more reluctantly than others) to embrace this new subgenre, and Netbooks were everywhere.Until, like all fads, the Netbook burned out. Part of the reason was clearly Apple's iPad, which became the new go-to entry-level computing device for people who either didn't need or want a full PC, or just wanted a reasonably priced travel device for e-mail and Web surfing. TheiPad itself has kicked off a gold rush of sorts, with the same companies that pushed countless me-too Netbooks onto store shelves now doing the same with touch-screen slates (perhaps we'll look back on this a year or two from now as the Tablet Bubble).Coolest Netbook designs, 2007-2011 (photos) But the real reason Netbooks have fallen by the wayside is that they failed to evolve. After the first couple of generations, Netbooks settled into a comfortable niche of a 10.1-inch display, 1GB to 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and Windows (first XP, thenWindows 7 Starter or Home Premium). You could get this basic combo for as little as $299, but some companies would charge more for upgrades such as nicer designs, rugged bodies, 3G antennas, or occasionally a higher-resolution display. But performance-wise, you'd usually be hard-pressed to tell the difference between a $299 Netbook and a $450 one.The most recent Netbooks have almost all moved to the latest version of Intel's Atom processor, the dual-core N550, but in both our benchmark tests and anecdotal use, it hasn't been a huge step past the older models with the single-core Atom N450, adding to the feeling that today's Netbooks weren't much of an upgrade over the ones from a year or two ago.In the meantime, larger laptops have made huge leaps, especially with Intel's second-generation Core i-series platform, which has boosted performance and battery life across the board. And 11-inch ultraportables with AMD's Fusion E-350 CPU have created a new market for laptops that provide relatively good performance and battery life, often for less than $500 (these systems arguably evolved from the handful of larger 11-inch Netbooks we'd seen over the years).To be sure, many PC makers still have a Netbook or two in their lines, and even offer occasional updates and upgrades, but they're not being pushed like they used to. Sony, for example, has dropped Netbooks entirely from its Vaio line. Netbooks have definitely fallen off a cliff, but the question is, just how far One way to get a good barometer of the state of the Netbook market is to look at how many Netbooks (which we're defining for the purposes of this example as a 10- or 11-inch laptop with an Intel Atom CPU) we've tested and reviewed. Here's a quick chart of those numbers for last year and this year.table.geekbox th{background-color:E6ECEF'text-align:left'font-weight:bold'}table.geekbox tr.even{background-color:CCCCCC'}.ratingGood{color:093'} .ratingAverage{color:666'} .ratingBad{color:C00'}January to April 201018 NetbooksJanuary to April 20112 Netbooks, 3 AMD Fusion ultraportablesThe data shows us that Netbooks are down, but not necessarily out. In the same time period, 11tablets have been reviewed, from the iPad 2 to the Motorola Xoom to the BlackBerry PlayBook. Another slice of data shows how many CNET readers have been reading about either Netbooks or tablets each month. Netbook interest peaked in December 2009, and has been declining most months since. Today it's down 54 percent since the launch of the iPad in April 2009. Tablets, on the other hand, have been growing in reader interest since the iPad launch (with a few ups and downs along the way), and is 56 percent higher in April 2011 than it was one year before.The chart below illustrates this inverse relationship, counting unique monthly visitors who have viewed a product-specific page, such as the product review, product specs, or user reviews for either a Netbook or tablet.  (Credit:CNET)  What does the future hold for traditional Netbooks Probably not much, unless the next generation of them offers some substantial evolutionary upgrades, and we'll likely have to wait for Intel's new Atom N2700 and N2800 processors to see if that happens. We've been onboard with Netbooks from day one, but it really does look like this category is getting squeezed from both ends, with tablets on one side and ultraportables on the other, and the prognosis is definitely grim. But in the end, it's what consumers buy that will determine what kind of future products make it to store shelves, so it's really up to you.  Have Netbooks fallen off your radar as a computer user Would you consider retiring your desktop or laptop entirely for a tablet What would new Netbooks have to do to win back your attention Let us know what you think in the comments section below. In the meantime, we've put together a quick walk-through of some of the coolest and most interesting or innovative Netbook designs from 2007 to today in a handy gallery. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[T-Mobile launches voice chat for Facebook]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=t-mobile-launches-voice-chat-for-facebook</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=t-mobile-launches-voice-chat-for-facebook</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Apr 2011 07:10:45 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=t-mobile-launches-voice-chat-for-facebook</guid>
<description><![CDATA[T-Mobile USA wants to offer more than cell phone service. The company is getting into the voice over IP market with a new application that will allow people to make voice calls from Facebook.T-Mobile&amp;39's new VoIP app allows people to make phone calls from inside Facebook Chat.(Credit:T-Mobile USA)T-Mobile USA today announced the Bobsled by T-Mobile service, which will offer voice calls via Facebook. This new application will provide Facebook's more than 500 million users worldwide with free, one-touch calling to their Facebook friends from a personal computer and through the social platform's chat window.It's available now for download here.T-Mobile's move to expand its service offering is yet another indication that the company is not idly waiting for regulators to approve AT&amp;T's bid to buy the company. Last month, AT&amp;T said it would spend $39 billion to acquire T-Mobile USA, which is owned by German telecommunications provider Deutsche Telekom. The acquisition will pair No. 2 carrier AT&amp;T with No. 4 carrier T-Mobile to create the largest wireless operator in the nation. Regulators have vowed to examine the deal closely. Competitor Sprint Nextel and some consumer advocates want the deal blocked. The regulatory review process will likely take at least a year and could take up to 18 months to complete. In the meantime, it looks as though T-Mobile is moving forward with new offerings.In addition to making live voice calls, the new Bobsled app will allow Facebook users to send voice messages to their friends either privately or via their &quot;walls.&quot; T-Mobile said the Bobsled application for Facebook is available starting today as a free download for all Facebook users, regardless of whether they are also a T-Mobile cell phone subscriber or not. Once the app is downloaded, customers can place voice calls to their friends through the Facebook Chat window with a single click. The service is very similar to Skype, which also allows free calling over the Internet. Skype users also initiate Skype calls to other Skype users by clicking on a screen name. T-Mobile believes having the feature integrated into Facebook is helpful since people can simply initiate a call by clicking on someone's name rather than having to remember their Skype handle. But the Facebook chat feature is just beginning, T-Mobile execs say. The company has broader ambitions for its Bobsled service. The Bobsled platform will also power T-Mobile's Group Text and Cloud Text applications on the new T-Mobile Sidekick 4G, the company says. The Group Text feature lets subscribers create, name, manage and participate in reply-all group text conversations. The Cloud Text service allows customers to text from other platforms, such as a PC ortablet.T-Mobile also plans to add other features, such as video chat, the ability to place calls to a mobile phone of landline, and it will also offer apps on smartphones and tablets across mobile platforms regardless of the carrier.It's unclear if the new services that T-Mobile is introducing now as part of Bobsled will become a part of the AT&amp;T service if the merger is approved by regulators. But what is certain is that T-Mobile is still trying to innovate and offer new services to keep its business afloat and attract new users. T-Mobile has always been a price leader in the U.S. mobile market, undercutting its competition in an attempt to attract new subscribers. Last week, the company announced a new &quot;unlimited&quot; voice, data and texting that undercuts its competition by at least $20 a month.  &quot;We are competing and innovating everyday to build the best asset we can no matter who the shareholders are,&quot; said T-Mobile senior Vice President Brad Duea. &quot;And whoever owns us will have to evaluate whether to proceed with certain products and services. But for our customers, the new service is risk free. It's a free app that can be downloaded.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Algae oil could dent U.S. oil imports, report says]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=algae-oil-could-dent-u-s--oil-imports-report-says</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=algae-oil-could-dent-u-s--oil-imports-report-says</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 14 Apr 2011 07:11:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=algae-oil-could-dent-u-s--oil-imports-report-says</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Unrefined algae oil is also known as &amp;39'green crude&amp;39'.(Credit:Sapphire Energy)The U.S. has enough land in the right climate to produce homegrown algae oil that would replace a significant amount of foreign oil imported for transportation use--without endangering its water supply.The Gulf Coast region, the Southeastern seaboard, and the Great Lakes areas are ideally suited to grow algae in outdoor freshwater ponds with minimal water usage.That's according to a study released today by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in the journal Water Resources Research.Biofuel made from refined algae oils, while showing promise, is still in the early stages of development. In addition to the usual scalability questions put to the developers of any new technology, algae developers have been under even closer scrutiny because a lot of water is required to grow it.Related links &amp;149' Algae fuel crosses paths with Monsanto, cancer research &amp;149' Study: Algae biofuels need 10 years of R&amp;D to compete &amp;149' In the lab, designing the ultimate biofuel bugThe PNNL says its study is the first comprehensive land-use and water-use assessment of a potential algae oil industry in the U.S. PNNL researchers found that if you compare algae and corn hectare to hectare, algae grown in outdoor ponds annually produces 80 times more oil than corn. Theoretically, they said, the U.S. has enough available land to produce &quot;48 percent of the current transportation oil imports&quot; with algae. However, that level of production across the U.S. would require too much water--an average of 350 gallons of water to grow and produce one gallon of algae oil.Raceway algae ponds in Southern California.(Credit:Pacific Northwest National Laboratory/QuickBird)Instead, the PNNL researchers, led by hydrologist Mark Wigmosta, recommend producing algae only in regions of the country with both the right land and high humidity. They found that if algae are grown in a climate already high in humidity, much less water is needed. The group also identified the regions mentioned above as the best places to grow it.This would still give the U.S. the ability to produce 21 billion gallons of algal oil a year' roughly 17 percent of the amount of oil that was imported for transportation in 2008.The study involved the creation of a massive database that used 30 years of meteorological data and comprehensive geological surveys of the U.S. in addition to algae oil research data. Mathematical modeling of algae growth rates, and processing, drew on that database for its outcome.&quot;That database contained information spaced every 100 feet throughout the U.S., which is a much more detailed view than previous research. This data allowed them to identify available areas that are better suited for algae growth, such as those with flat land that isn't used for farming and isn't near cities or environmentally sensitive areas like wetlands or national parks,&quot; the PNNL said in a statement.The study concentrated on freshwater algae. The PNNL researchers of the study announced that there next project is a comprehensive study on the feasibility of using salt water and waste water to grow algae.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[An iPhone with slide-out keyboard]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=an-iphone-with-slide-out-keyboard</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=an-iphone-with-slide-out-keyboard</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Feb 2011 08:10:26 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=an-iphone-with-slide-out-keyboard</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Would Apple really add a slideout keyboard after pushing the virtual kind on its iPhone for so long(Credit:CNET)Would Apple really consider a slide-out keyboard for its next-generationiPhone So goes the latest rumor. A Taiwanese blog, Apple.pro, says it has its hands on information pointing to three different models being considered for final production as the iPhone 5, expected to be released this summer (here's a Google Translate link). One has a physical keyboard that slides out, and another is said to be like an iPhone 4 in styling but with a longer-lasting battery and a better camera. The upgrade from an iPhone 4 to that model of iPhone 5, according to the report, would be similar to the modest improvements from iPhone 3G to iPhone 3GS.Obviously the report is to be taken with a grain of salt or two, but the site has gotten some reliable leaks in the past. It's been wrong too, according to Apple Insider.Steve Jobs has expressed his distaste for physical cell phone keyboards in the past. When the original iPhone was introduced in January 2007, Jobs told the MacWorld audience that Apple chose to use a multitouch virtual keyboard in lieu of a physical one, in part because once a keyboard is put on a mobile phone, it's there forever and hard to change the buttons to work with different applications.Not that Jobs has never changed his mind before. But Apple is also carrying the banner for all things touch-related, which likely extends to iPhone keyboards for the foreseeable future.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Apple enforcing rules on e-book publishers]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-enforcing-rules-on-e-book-publishers</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-enforcing-rules-on-e-book-publishers</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:10:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-enforcing-rules-on-e-book-publishers</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Apple is now trying to enforce an ignored but apparently existing rule that specifically targets publishers of e-book apps offered in its App Store. In a nutshell, if the publisher gives customers the ability to buy books outside of the app, such as through its Web site, then it must also offer the ability to buy books within the app itself using Apple's in-app purchase system. Otherwise, that app would be rejected.Of course, if the books are purchased within the app, Apple gets its standard 30 percent cut.&quot;We have not changed our developer terms or guidelines. We are now requiring that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app,&quot; Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman, said in a statement on Tuesday sent to The New York Times and other news sources.The move to strictly apply these guidelines follows Apple's rejection of the Sony Reader app on Monday on the grounds that it would have let customers buy e-books sold at the Sony Reader Store, thereby circumventing the App Store. If tightly enforced, these rules would clearly affect a variety of e-book app publishers, notably Amazon, which sells aniPhone Kindle app that directs its users to buy books at its Kindle Store.Allowing Amazon's app to sell books through its Kindle Store, yet rejecting Sony's app for similar reasons could certainly be seen as a double standard in adherence to the guidelines. The move also ultimately leaves e-book sellers in a quandary. Do they give in to Apple's guidelines and its 30 percent cut as the cost of doing business in the App StoreIt's &quot;highly unlikely,&quot; says the Times, that Amazon, Sony, and other companies would share their e-book sales and customer information with Apple. That's especially true since Apple is not just a marketplace but also a competitor, selling books through its own iBookstore.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Chrome finishes 2010 with 10 percent share]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=chrome-finishes-2010-with-10-percent-share</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=chrome-finishes-2010-with-10-percent-share</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 03 Jan 2011 08:10:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=chrome-finishes-2010-with-10-percent-share</guid>
<description><![CDATA[As of December 2010, Chrome holds 10 percent of browser usage worldwide.(Credit:data from Net Applications' chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET)With the steady rise in Chrome, 1 out of every 10 people surfing the Web in December used Google's browser.Chrome's gains have come largely at the expense of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, whose usage share has been dropping for years, but there's also a ray of hope for Redmond. IE9, which embodies Microsoft's ambition to build a cutting-edge browser once again, is showing signs of real adoption with usage that grew from 0.4 percent in November to 0.5 percent in December, according to new statistics from Net Applications.Fractions of a percent may sound insignificant, but with hundreds of millions of people using the Web, they actually represent a large number of real users. And in the current competitive market, browser makers are attuned to where the growth is occurring.For months now, Chrome has risen. Most recently, it rose from 9.3 percent in November statistics to 10 percent in December, according to Net Applications. That's helpful for Google's ambition to speed up the Web overall' Chrome is a vehicle by which the company can explore, develop, and promote new features, such as Native Client, SPDY, WebP, and False Start, that Google hopes will speed the Web and make it a more powerful foundation for applications.Mozilla'sFirefox, the second-place browser, stayed flat at about 22.8 percent, Apple'sSafari rose from 5.6 percent to 5.9 percent, and Opera was flat at about 2.2 percent. Chrome and Safari grew at the expense of IE, which dropped from 58.4 percent to 57.1 percent.Note that because browser usage overall is increasing, even percentages that remain flat from month to month still mean a growing user base.Microsoft can take consolation that its share losses have come from older versions of its browser. IE6, an advanced browser when released nearly a decade ago but now despised among Web developers for retarding progress on the Web, dropped from 13.7 percent in November to 13.1 percent in December. IE7 dropped from 9.5 percent to 8.8 percent.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Gift idea: 'Eye-Fi' moves photos to MacBook, PC]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gift-idea-eye-fi-moves-photos-to-macbook-pc</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gift-idea-eye-fi-moves-photos-to-macbook-pc</comments>
<pubDate>Sun, 19 Dec 2010 08:10:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gift-idea-eye-fi-moves-photos-to-macbook-pc</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Though Eye-Fi's Secure Digital (SD) card has been out there for a couple of years, it's worth revisiting--just because it works. And it's not be a bad idea as a holiday gift for any digital camera owner. Eye-Fi allows the transfer of photos from existing digital cameras wirelessly. A nice piece of inexpensive technology that has worked well for me. The Eye-Fi card replaces a standard SD card.(Credit:Brooke Crothers)Eye-Fi SD cards come in 4GB and 8GB capacities and, after a relatively painless setup, do away with USB cables and the task of inserting/removing of SD cards. Because I own a couple of MacBook Airs, this technology makes a difference. My first- and second-generation Airs have no SD card slots and just one always-occupied USB port--one of the few downsides to an otherwise superb ultraportable laptop. So, this is a feature I need--though not to the point where I would want to limit my camera purchases to Wi-Fi-enabled models, like the Kodak EasyShare One--that was available a few years back--or the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G3, among other cameras. It's really just a matter of replacing your current SD card with the Eye-Fi card and having an in-home Wi-Fi router, which many people do these days. Setup involves inserting a USB adapter into your system (the adapter is used only once at setup, after that everything is wireless), then confirming your Wi-Fi router information, and finally choosing where you want the photos to be stored on your laptop. There is a background application that handles the automatic transfers when you take photos. Configuring the card requires you sign up for the Eye-Fi center. Setting up an Eye-Fi account did not go swimmingly when I set up the card--asking me to set up an account multiple times--but the Eye-Fi database seems--for now at least--to have resolved that hiccup. I've been using Eye-Fi with my Kodak M580 and MacBook Air. So far, the card has done what it claims. As soon as you snap a picture, the photo is automatically sent to your PC over your home's Wi-Fi network. For me, it has been almost instantaneous. And the Eye-Fi Center software also allows you to set up multiple networks. So, for example, I have Eye-Fi set up for my home Wi-Fi network and my mobile Verizon MiFi network (the latter is a credit card-size router that provides 3G connections for up to five devices.) The 4GB version (which I have) is $39.99 at Best Buy, while the 8GB card is $99.99. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Cisco wins more Greenpeace kudos]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cisco-wins-more-greenpeace-kudos</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cisco-wins-more-greenpeace-kudos</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:10:41 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cisco-wins-more-greenpeace-kudos</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Greenpeace)Cisco, once again, was the leader of the pack as Greenpeace released its latest Cool IT Leaderboard on Tuesday.The environmental watchdog group named Cisco, Ericsson, and Fujitsu, respectively, as the three most environmentally responsible IT companies. Cisco received 70 out of 100 possible points, while Ericsson received 57 points and Fujitsu 52 points. Greenpeace praised Cisco for &quot;making IT climate solutions an increasingly core part of its business strategy.&quot;Cisco was in first place in the group's previous list in April, despite Google upping its public support for climate change legislation in the U.S. at the time.In this latest evaluation, Japan-based Fujitsu was particularly praised for a 12-prong proposal it made to the Japanese government in support of reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a country. The company showed strong leadership in its proposal &quot;while the rest of the Japanese IT companies remained silent,&quot; said Greenpeace.The proposal is timely since the Japanese government has been evaluating whether it will pass a series of laws that could lead to the reduction of the country's greenhouse gas emissions to 25 percent below what they were in 1990 by 2020.Google, which ranked fourth with 47 points, was also praised for publicly opposing Proposition 23, a proposition to suspend the law already in place that mandates emissions reductions in California. Greenpeace, in fact, gave Google the highest rating when it came to environmental advocacy with 30 points, the most any company could achieve. But Google was outranked by every other company except Oracle when it came to reducing its own energy footprint, or offering a timed plan for reducing its own emissions.Companies that did not fare as well with Greenpeace include: IBM (46 points), Intel (31 points), and Microsoft (29 points).Greenpeace deducted points from their ratings because the three companies lobbied against a European Union-proposed plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020, according to Greenpeace. Meanwhile the group praised Sony Europe and Google for publicly supporting that same reduction proposal.The worst-ranked companies included SAP and Panasonic, each with 21 points. Oracle made its debut on the list in last place with 12 points.Officially, Greenpeace says that it evaluated the IT companies based on the three categories of solutions, energy impact, and advocacy. But those categories are then further broken down. The organization has released a comprehensive yet easy-to-read chart (see below) that shows how each category is weighted.The Greenpeace chart signals, as with the organization's previous report, that it's moved beyond simply looking at sourcing, manufacturing, and waste policies when evaluating whether a company is environmentally responsible. It's also monitoring and holding powerful companies responsible for how they wield their lobbying power with regard to government regulation and the environment.(Credit:Greenpeace)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[NASA Ames to host world's largest airship]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nasa-ames-to-host-worlds-largest-airship</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nasa-ames-to-host-worlds-largest-airship</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:10:38 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nasa-ames-to-host-worlds-largest-airship</guid>
<description><![CDATA[This is a 125-foot Bullet Class 580 airship. The airship that will be housed at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., will be 235 feet long.(Credit:E-Green Technologies)If you like big and green, NASA's Ames Research Center will soon have something for you: the world's largest and greenest airship.The space agency announced today that the Mountain View, Calif., research center's Moffett Field will soon play host to a mammoth 265-foot-long and 65-foot-diameter airship from Kellyton, Ala.'s E-Green Technologies. The Bullet Class 580 will be developed and tested at Ames in 24,000 square feet of Ames' famous Hangar 2. The new airship, which has a planned first flight date of early 2011, is expected to run on algae-based biofuel, and fly at speeds of up to 75 miles an hour at altitudes of up to 20,000 feet. Ames and Moffett Field are becoming a hotbed for airships. Already, the facility is the home of Airship Ventures, and its own giant zeppelin. And, of course, Moffett Field has a storied history of hosting airships, stretching back to 1933, when the U.S. Navy's Zeppelin ZRS-5 785-foot-long zeppelin resided there. The U.S. Navy Zeppelin ZRS-5, also known as the Macon, which was berthed at Moffett Field starting in 1933.(Credit:NASA)The E-Green Technologies Bullet Class 580 is expected to fly with &quot;a joint NASA Langley Research Center and Old Dominion University payload, the Radar Oxygen Barometric Sensor Project, a remote sensing instrument for measuring barometric pressure at sea level--an important meteorological measurement in the prediction and forecasting of tropical storms and hurricanes.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[iPad band gives new birth to Xmas carols]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-band-gives-new-birth-to-xmas-carols</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-band-gives-new-birth-to-xmas-carols</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:10:27 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-band-gives-new-birth-to-xmas-carols</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Why should you have to tolerate people with strange eyebrows, woolly hats, and shaving problems turning up at your door and singing badly this Christmas Especially when you can enjoy the full power of festive composition brought to you by nice men with iPads, a couple of iPhones, and fingers as dexterous as those of the national knitting champion Please welcome the Northpoint Community Church iBand. In a year or two, all rocks bands will look like this. But, for now, with your festive proclivities leaning you towards your relaxed side, please bathe in the band's unique exposition of familiar tunes like Boney M's &quot;Feliz Navidad.&quot;As Christmas comes to soothe us from the year's turbulence, the sheer harmony and ingenuity displayed by these very happy men from Alpharetta, Ga., will surely lead this YouTube video to become one of the Web's most beloved.As the members of the band twist their iPads towards the audience, tap them with certainty and guile, and even offer something of a hip-hop accent to holy tunes, only one thing seems to be missing: ultimately, theiPad is a little restrictive as an instrument of performance. If you want to go all Pete Townshend on this thing, you'll only need a dustpan and brush to clear up the mess.If a guitarist were to offer a rock-out version of &quot;God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen,&quot; he would, at the very least, be able to point his axe towards the audience, fling it over his shoulder, play it behind his back, and pluck the strings until they snapped in pain.Instead, the Northpoint iPad performer holds his instrument politely in his left hand while his right taps out the requisite notes, like a personal assistant tapping in the minutes of a board meeting.It might have been a little more physical had the soloist been able to avail himself of the (sadly fictional) iArm from the folks at PrankPack.com .Still, it's clear that an inexorable trend, first set by the universally admired concert pianist Lang Lang when he iPadded his way through the &quot;Flight of the Bumble Bee,&quot; is now upon us.Oh, come (and rock yon iPad), all ye faithful.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google tunes up Chrome's JavaScript engine]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-tunes-up-chromes-javascript-engine</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-tunes-up-chromes-javascript-engine</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:10:19 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-tunes-up-chromes-javascript-engine</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Google's newest test versions of Chrome are equipped with a faster JavaScript engine, an increasingly important browser component for running Web-based programs.The result is faster-loading pages, more powerful Web applications, and another round in the browser performance competition with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla'sFirefox, Apple'sSafari, and Opera.Chrome Canary uses the new Crankshaft version of Google&amp;39's JavaScript engine. On Mozilla&amp;39's Kraken test, where shorter bars are better, it wins handily over the current stable version of Chrome. This and other tests are on a Dell Studio XPS 16 with a 1.73GHz Intel Q820 Core i7 processor and 6GB of memory.(Credit:Stephen Shankland/CNET)The new JavaScript engine works better on Google&amp;39's V8 benchmark, too.(Credit:Stephen Shankland/CNET)On the SunSpider test, now in disfavor in some circles for being obsolete, the two browsers are tied.(Credit:Stephen Shankland/CNET)Chrome's browser engine, called V8, is being upgraded to version 3, called Crankshaft. It uses a technique called adaptive compilation that translates JavaScript into native instructions for a processor and then concentrates more energy on improving the parts of the code used most often, Google said.&quot;Crankshaft uses adaptive compilation to improve both start-up time and peak performance. The idea is to heavily optimize code that is frequently executed and not waste time optimizing code that is not,&quot; Google programmers Kevin Millikin and Florian Schneider said yesterday in a company blog post.The result: &quot;pages that contain significant amounts of JavaScript code&quot; load on average 12 percent faster, the programmers said. And when it comes to how fast JavaScript programs run once they're loaded, they said, &quot;this is the biggest performance improvement since we launched Chrome in 2008.&quot;JavaScript has become such a competitive feature among browsers that they're using brand names. Up against V8 is Microsoft's Chakra, debuting in IE9' Apple's Nitro' Opera's Carakan' and Mozilla's JaegerMonkey, debuting in Firefox 4.JavaScript performance is important, but it's only one facet of browser quality. Others include support for new features such as WebGL's 3D graphics' the ability to accelerate display of graphics and text' privacy and security' how fast it can handle the increasingly important CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) technology for formatting' and performance of interacting with a Web page's DOM--or document object model, the hierarchical description of its elements.All these areas and more are getting ever more attention. And if it wasn't clear what's at stake, look no further than Google's Chrome OS and Chrome Web Store. The first is a browser-based operating system that runs Web apps only' the second is a distribution mechanism to find and buy those apps.There are plenty of uncertainties about how well Google will succeed in its ambition to transform the Web into a foundation for applications, not just static Web sites. But there are some things that aren't so unclear: more and more of people's work and personal life is being spent doing things within a browser. That trend is enabled by better performance and, at the same time, encourages even more advances.The programmers specifically pointed to improvements in Gmail loading times, which I've found excruciatingly slow in recent months. However, my not-terribly-reliable stopwatch tests showed Crankshaft actually slower with that site: 2.4 seconds to load on an average of five runs loading Gmail on Chrome Canary 10.0.603.3 compared with 2.1 seconds for the newest stable version of Chrome, Chrome 8.0.552.215. Given the variability in the results (less than 2 seconds to more than 3), though, I wouldn't read too much into that result.Of course, there are plenty of benchmarks for broader if more more artificial tests of JavaScript performance: Mozilla's Kraken (version 1.0), Google's V8 Benchmark (version 6), and WebKit's SunSpider (version 0.9.1).Here, Crankshift definitely shows a difference, except on the SunSpider test whose influence has waned as browser makers' advancements have rendered it out of date. Bear in mind, though, that this was a test just on a single machine, a quad-core Dell Studio XPS 16 with 6GB of memory and that other machines will produce different results.Browser benchmarks are a thorny issue. It's always tough to represent the full breadth of computing challenges in a single convenient test, and there's always the risk that engineers will design products for good benchmark scores even when the approach has little or no bearing on real-world work. Indeed, Firefox leveled benchmark engineering charges at Microsoft with IE9.Chrome is gaining in popularity, on the verge of 10 percent of browser usage on the Web today for third place after IE and Firefox. It took years and a somewhat subversive effort to convince Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt that the company should release a browser, but it's clearly a force to be reckoned with on the Net.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Yahoo Web tools to demote IE6]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=yahoo-web-tools-to-demote-ie6</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=yahoo-web-tools-to-demote-ie6</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 09 Nov 2010 08:10:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=yahoo-web-tools-to-demote-ie6</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Yahoo is joining efforts by Microsoft, Google, and legions of developers to wean the Web of Internet Explorer 6, reducing its support for how well its Web programming tools works with 2001-era browser.Yahoo announced the IE6 demotion last week for its Yahoo User Interface (YUI) tools, an open-source project that supplies Web developers with code modules they can use to build sophisticated sites. Yahoo, naturally, is among its users.IE6, introduced in 2001, lacks support for many Web standards--many old ones as well as a host of important new ones--and is feeble at processing Web-based JavaScript programs essential to the new era of dynamic, rich sites. It's also more vulnerable to security threats. Although IE6 usage is gradually waning, it's still common, in part because it's built into Windows XP and hard to dislodge from corporate computing environments.Dealing a blow to the browser, YUI developers Eric Miraglia and Matt Sweeney in a blog post said Yahoo expects to &quot;discontinue A-grade for Internet Explorer 6, moving it to C-Grade&quot; in the first quarter of 2011 so there's more time to focus onmobile browsers and other important new areas.That doesn't mean that IE6 users will see broken Yahoo Web sites, starting in a few months, just that the YUI tools will only support basic functions. Here's how Yahoo puts it:We are forecasting the transition of Internet Explorer 6 from A-grade to C-grade in the next GBS [graded browser support] update. The calculus here is simple: The proliferation of devices and browsers on the leading edge (including mobile) requires an increase in testing and attention. That testing and attention should come from shifting resources away from the trailing edge. By moving IE6 to the C-grade, we ensure a consistent baseline experience for those users while freeing up cycles to invest in richer experiences for millions of users coming to the Internet today on modern, capable browsers.Microsoft has been trying to move people off IE6 for months, including among other things a campaign likening IE6 to spoiled milk. Google, whose business relies on browsers and suffers from the problems of old ones, is phasing out IE6 support for many of its sites.Up and coming on the Yahoo support list are mobile browsers. In the current quarter's update of browser support, the built-in for Apple's iOS 3.x and 4.x and for Google's Android 2.2 attained A-level support. That should ease programming chores for those using YUI to reach the mobile realm.When Microsoft releases the final version of IE9 and Mozilla releases the final version ofFirefox 4, those browsers also will get A-level support, Yahoo said.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Private equity firm General Atlantic takes $200M stake in security software vendor Kaspersky Lab]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=private-equity-firm-general-atlantic-takes-200m-stake-in-security-software-vendor-kaspersky-lab</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=private-equity-firm-general-atlantic-takes-200m-stake-in-security-software-vendor-kaspersky-lab</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=private-equity-firm-general-atlantic-takes-200m-stake-in-security-software-vendor-kaspersky-lab</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Private equity firm General Atlantic has purchased a 20 percent stake in Kaspersky Lab for $200 million. The deal shows that security technology companies are hot and it shows how much value Kaspersky has created in its 13 years as an antivirus software vendor, according to the newspaper Vedomosti (translated via Quintura).General Atlantic bought the stake from Natalya Kaspersky, chairman and co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, which is based in Moscow. The company has more than 300 million users of its antivirus software and other security products. It adds more than 150,000 new users every day. Kaspersky Lab has more than 2,000 employees. General Atlantic will become the second-largest shareholder and will take a board seat. Eugene Kaspersky, chief executive, still owns 50 percent of the company.The company reported revenue of $391 million in 2009 and its revenues grew an estimated 35 percent in 2009. The company is the No. 4 security software vendor, behind Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro.This post was sponsored by WatchMouse, a service that monitors websites, Web applications, and web API&amp;'s for availability and performance from an external perspective. WatchMouse delivers a self-service monitoring solution utilizing an infrastructure of over 50 monitoring stations in 30 countries. Multi-step monitoring, Real Browser Monitoring and Public Status Pages are included in all plans. Learn more here. As always, VentureBeat maintains strict adherence to its principles of editorial integrity and WatchMouse had no input into the content of this post.Next Story: Does Google get games Kongregate mobile arcade banned from Android Marketplace Previous Story: Is Bill Gates a green hypocritePrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: antivirus, security softwareCompanies: Kaspersky Lab, McAfee, symantec, Trend Micro          Tags: antivirus, security softwareCompanies: Kaspersky Lab, McAfee, symantec, Trend MicroDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google Mobile Searches Grew 130 Percent In&nbsp'Q3]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-mobile-searches-grew-130-percent-innbspq3</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-mobile-searches-grew-130-percent-innbspq3</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-mobile-searches-grew-130-percent-innbspq3</guid>
<description><![CDATA[As more and more consumers use their phones for both business and product search and purchasing, mobile ad formats for retailers are becoming a more compelling way to connect with these users. Today, Google is bringing its seller ratings ad format to the mobile platform, allowing searchers using Google on the mobile web to see ratings of merchants within a search ad. Another interesting tidbit from the posta4&quot;Google Mobile searches were up 130 percent year-over-year in Q3 of 2010.Similar to seller ratings for web-based search ads, the mobile format allows advertisers to include a rating for a business. Seller Ratings are aggregated from merchant review sites and Google says the the extension will only show when a merchant&amp;'s online store has a rating of four or more stars and includes at least 30 reviews.The ad itself shows the merchants star rating and posts a link to the seller&amp;'s reviews. Google says that the mobile ad formats with seller ratings are only available  on Google.com, Google.co.uk and Google.de domains. And Google cautions that these types of ads are only appropriate for &amp;''advertisers who provide users with paid goods or services or those that enable the buying or selling of products or services via a marketplace.&amp;''It&amp;'s not surprising that Google is continuing to ramp up its efforts in mobile search offerings. Google already does pretty well in terms of mobile revenue (in the company&amp;'s last earnings call, the search giant said that mobile search is on track to be a  $1 billion business in 2010). In the call, Google SVP of Product Management Jonathan Rosenberg said that mobile search queries have grown five times over the past couple of years.CrunchBase InformationGoogleInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Call of Duty and Kinect help video game sales hit record in November]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=call-of-duty-and-kinect-help-video-game-sales-hit-record-in-november</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=call-of-duty-and-kinect-help-video-game-sales-hit-record-in-november</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=call-of-duty-and-kinect-help-video-game-sales-hit-record-in-november</guid>
<description><![CDATA[And there was much rejoicing. Video game sales rose a healthy 8 percent for the month of November compared to a year ago, according to market researcher NPD. The sales were up mostly thanks to strong sales of Call of Duty Black Ops and the debut of Microsoft&amp;'s Kinect motion-control system.That&amp;'s good news for the console video game industry, since many have wondered if core game industry sales would recover given the threats of the ongoing recession and lots of competition from iPhone and Facebook games. If the core of the game industry remains strong, then we should see strong investment in innovation ahead.Overall game sales (including console, portable and PC games) were $2.99 billion, up&amp;nbsp' percent from $2.76 billion a year ago. Video game console-related sales were $2.95 billion, up 9 percent from $2.7 billion a year ago. Hardware sales, which have been lagging for much of the year, were up 2 percent to $1.08 billion from $1.05 billion. Software sales were $1.46 billion, up 4 percent from $1.41 billion a year ago. And accessories saw a big boom, with sales of $413.3 million, up 69 percent from $244.5 million a year ago.&amp;''November sales represent the best November on record in terms of new physical retail sales,&amp;'' said Anita Frazier, an analyst at NPD. &amp;''It bests November 2008 by roughly $30 million, and that time frame was at the height of the music/dance genre sales.&amp;''Another reason for the strong sales were the big Black Friday promotions this year. In October, software sales were up 6 percent from a year ago, while accessories were up 18 percent. The gains in November helped offset the weakness earlier in the year. Hardware sales were down 26 percent. Now, instead of down 8 percent, year-to-date sales are down only 5 percent. Based on seasonal trends, total physical retail sales should come in between $18.8 billion to $19.6 billion, down somewhat from $20 billion a year ago.The top games across all platforms were Activision Blizzard&amp;'s Call of Duty Black Ops, followed by Ubisoft&amp;'s Assassin&amp;'s Creed: Brotherhood, Ubisoft&amp;'s Just Dance 2 for the Wii, Electronic Arts&amp;' Madden NFL 11, Microsoft&amp;'s Fable III, Nintendo&amp;'s Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii, EA&amp;'s Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, Sony&amp;'s Gran Turismo 5 (which went on sale late in the month), Take-Two Interactive&amp;'s NBA 2K11, and Nintendo&amp;'s Wii Fit Plus.All game categories were up, with the exception of portable hardware and software, which are getting hammered by iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch game sales. The Xbox 360 platform accounted for more than 40 percent of total industry sales, thanks to the launch of Kinect on Nov. 4. And within Xbox 360 sales, accessories were 60 percent of total dollar sales.NPD said that brand new game-related purchases account for only 70 percent of the total spend on video games. The remainder includes spending on used games, rentals, digital distribution, mobile apps, and other platforms. Black Ops sold 8.4 million units at retail, making it the seventh best-selling game of all time, counting only 21 days of sales. Black Ops also accounted for 25 percent of all units sold in November. Black Ops has huge numbers in terms of multiplayer engagement.Thanks to good sales of Just Dance 2 and MTV&amp;'s Dance Central for Kinect, music and dance games were up 38 percent from a year ago. Nintendo still had the best unit sales for hardware with sales of the DS. NPD no longer shares unit sales for the hardware companies, but each company reports its own numbers. Nintendo said it sold more than 1.5 million DS units and 1.2 million Wii units in the U.S. in November.Microsoft said it sold 2.5 million Kinect systems in 25 days. Sony, meanwhile, has said it has shipped 4.1 million PlayStation Move motion-sensing controllers (which debuted in September) to retailers. November marked the sixth month in a row that the Xbox 360 came out on top in sales. The Xbox 360 got a boost in June when Microsoft launched a smaller and quieter system. Year to date, Xbox 360 unit sales are up 42 percent.Previous Story: Microsoft&amp;'s Hotmail, struggling to fight Gmail et al, looks to Reddit users for hopePrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Call of Duty Black Ops, Kinect, video game salesCompanies: Activision Blizzard, Microsoft, nintendo, NPD, SonyPeople: Anita Frazier          Tags: Call of Duty Black Ops, Kinect, video game salesCompanies: Activision Blizzard, Microsoft, nintendo, NPD, SonyPeople: Anita FrazierDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Why the Kindle Is Losing&nbsp'Me]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-the-kindle-is-losingnbspme</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-the-kindle-is-losingnbspme</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-the-kindle-is-losingnbspme</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I really loved my Kindle when I first got it. I love writing books, and I&amp;'m for anything that helps people consume and purchase more of them&amp;8211' I don&amp;'t care if I make a fraction of the royalties off electronic sales.I was especially struck by how much I wished I&amp;'d had a Kindle in college. As a literature major I read about five books a week, not to mention all the textbook reading for other courses. There were so many great touches in the UI that elevated the experience from just putting a book on a screen. There&amp;'s the Kindle store and its friction-free, one-click purchases from anywhere, say, a cafe the night before the exam when you still haven&amp;'t bought the book. There&amp;'s the freedom from lugging around a heavy backpack of books. And there are so many features that are designed specifically for collegiate reading like the ability to easily highlight, annotate, store those annotations in a specific file, and be able to easily search around within the book and find certain quotes or passages. I thought, this isn&amp;'t a beautiful piece of hardware, but it is clearly designed by someone who knows high-volume readers.So how the hell is it possible that the Kindle doesn&amp;'t have a feature as obvious as page numbers You know what happens when you don&amp;'t have page numbers You can&amp;'t do a basic footnote for anything you&amp;'ve read. Yeah, that&amp;'s going to be a slight problem for the college market.I know what you are thinking. Sarah Lacy is an idiot, the Kindle has to have page numbers. The features of a book are pretty much words, a cover, table of contents, an index and page numbers&amp;8211' how could they just eliminate one of them I&amp;'ve spent months looking for a way to figure out page numbers on The Kindle 2 and can&amp;'t find it, and no one I&amp;'ve asked seemed to have an answer for me either. And according to this the college edition doesn&amp;'t either.The Kindle does have &amp;''locations.&amp;'' The logic seems to be that because the Kindle allows you to change the font size, you can&amp;'t have page numbers because there are a different number of words on your Kindle pages. I guess some brainiac didn&amp;'t think there&amp;'d be any reason to add a feature that correlates those &amp;''locations&amp;'' to the actual page numbers. Newsflash Amazon: You can&amp;'t force the academic world to change pages to locations in footnotes and assignments. You want that market You have to design for it.I discovered this the hard way trying to do footnotes for my upcoming book. As research, I read about thirty or so books on history, politics and economics of the emerging world, almost all purchased on Amazon and at first I was really gung-ho on reading them all on a Kindle. After all, I was traveling two weeks of every month, refused to check luggage, and the Kindle travels light. But I wound up reading most of them in hard copy because I got tired of relying on battery power to read, having to turn the book on and off when planes were taking off and landing, and worrying about someone swiping the Kindle in rougher areas of the world. (After all, a paperback you can just leave on a cafe table. If someone takes it, oh well, one less book I have to read.)Thank God I am such a dinosaur. Because footnotes from a Kindle edition have been a nightmare. I have had to either use Google books to find page numbers or, worse, repurchase them in hard cover just to do footnotes. I could have just camped out in a bookstore and jotted down page numbers, but most of these books were too obscure to be carried in an average Borders. This all sort of defeats the point of an ebook. Technology is about adding features and functionality to a thing that was limited before&amp;8211' not taking them away. The only way the Kindle survives in an iPad world is by appealing to hardcore readers and students. Amazon needs to fix this now.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Amazon&'s Kindle sales to surpass 8M this year]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=amazonrsquos-kindle-sales-to-surpass-8m-this-year</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=amazonrsquos-kindle-sales-to-surpass-8m-this-year</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cash21</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=amazonrsquos-kindle-sales-to-surpass-8m-this-year</guid>
<description><![CDATA[We knew that Amazon was making a killing with its $139 third-generation Kindles, but since the retailer doesn&amp;'t discuss Kindle sales numbers, it&amp;'s always been unclear just how well it&amp;'s doing.Now it looks like the Kindle is set to surpass 8 million units sold this year, 60 percent more than many analyst predictions, two people familiar with Amazon&amp;'s sales projections tell Bloomberg. If true, it tells us that consumers are far  more interested in standalone e-readers than analysts expect.Analysts at Citigroup, Barclays Capital, BGC Partners and others previously projected that Amazon would sell around 5 million units this year.The 8 million number is particularly impressive in the face of competition from the iPad, which has shipped more than 7.5 million units since it was released in April. In comparison, Amazon sold 2.4 million Kindles in 2009.Ever since the newer Kindles were announced, it seemed clear that Amazon had finally reached a price point that would drive mass consumer adoption. Amazon announced in August that it was the best-selling Kindle ever. Given how difficult it was to find the new Kindle in stock once it finally started shipping, it almost seemed as if Amazon couldn&amp;'t make enough of them to satisfy demand. The company also cited the device as a key element in its revenue and profit gains this past quarter.But as great as Kindle sales are, Amazon still seems more interested in pursuing the proliferation of the Kindle platform. The company recently showed off Kindle for Web, a web-based interface for reading ebooks meant to compete with Google&amp;'s recently announced foray into ebooks. With web interfaces, ebooks can be read on any device with an internet connection &amp;8212' no app, or Kindle, necessary.Next Story: Devicescape helps MetroPCS offload data traffic to Wi-Fi networks Previous Story: Foursquare, Gowalla, Instagram: Basically, mobile photos are everywherePrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: ebooks, ereaders, iPad, kindle, tabletsCompanies: Amazon, Apple          Tags: ebooks, ereaders, iPad, kindle, tabletsCompanies: Amazon, AppleDevindra Hardawar is VentureBeat's lead mobile writer and East Coast correspondent. He studied philosophy at Amherst College, worked in IT support for several years, and has been writing about technology since 2004. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York. You can reach him at devindra@venturebeat.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @Devindra.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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