Sirius CEO: 'We Suck Less' Than XM
Though some may find it hard to believe, Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin told investors at the annual meeting of shareholders in New York Thursday that while he is very unhappy over the poor performance of the company's stock price, as a whole Sirius "sucks less" than XM. The company has posted only an 8 percent increase in stock price since September 2004, yet it is much better than the 61 percent decline XM has posted in the same period.
Karmazin said that Wall Street has a negative view of satellite radio in general, and that was holding investors back from buying stocks in either company. He noted that both have made progress in moving towards profitability and attracting new customers. In other comments, he acknowledged it will be an "uphill battle" to get the merger approved, and that he still approved of Howard Stern's $500 million contract.
Pink Zune Outselling White, Brown
Microsoft may have found a way to better compete with Apple's ubiquitous iPod: the color pink. Since introducing the limited edition pink Zune before Mother's Day, the color has become the second most popular, only trailing black in sales, the company said Thursday.
The Zune is still struggling to gain market share, however, with the device holding steady at 9.2 percent of the retail market in April, according to data release from NPD Group. Microsoft has long said its music player strategy is long-term, and the company is rumored to be working on a second-generation Zune in response to feedback and gripes from customers.
Google to Acquire Feedburner for $100 Million
Sources say Google and Feedburner have agreed to a deal where the Mountain View, Calif. company would pay cash for the company, with the deal closing within two to three weeks. However, neither company had responded to requests for comment on the deal as of press time.
Feedburner provides RSS management services for blogs and websites, and has seen tremendous growth in the past several months. Such an acquisition would fit nicely with Blogger, the web log service Google acquired in early 2003. Details of the deal were first reported by technology web log TechCrunch on Wednesday.
Sprint to Offer Mobile Version of Pandora
Sprint said Wednesday that it is offering personalized streaming radio channels through a partnership with Pandora, the free Internet radio service which creates personalized music stations based on what types of music a user likes and dislikes. While the service is free for the first 30 days, the service will carry a $2.99 per month charge thereafter.
While only Sprint is carrying the music service right now, Pandora says it would like to offer its services on other carriers eventually. The company did not specify, however, who it was discussing offering the service through.
Google Launches 'Hot Trends' Service
Google on Tuesday rolled out a new service designed to provide instant insight into what people are searching for in different areas of the world. "Hot Trends," currently in testing on Google Labs, combines the company's Zeitgeist and Google Trends features.
The Hot Trends list is updated throughout the day and links to Google News, blog and Web searches so users can see why the search term made the list. Google is not simply listing the most popular search queries, but rather those that deviate from their typical frequency. As a result, seemingly odd searches make the list, such as "legless chihuahua." Currently, many of the Hot Trends relate to XM Satellite Radio's outage.
Google Continues to Dominate Search
Microsoft's search share lost ground once again as competitors Google and Yahoo gained, statistics from research firm Nielsen/NetRatings indicate. Released Monday, the study showed that once again Microsoft was having trouble holding on to any gains it had made previously. In April, the company's share of the market stood at 9 percent, down 1.1 percent from the month previous.
Yahoo gained a statistically insignificant .1 percent to grow to 21.9 percent, but Google showed the most gains, with its share up 1.5 percent to 55.2 percent of all Web searches. The results are sure to cause consternation in Redmond; Microsoft has expressed disappointment with its search performance. Rounding out the top five search engines were AOL with 5.4 percent and Ask.com with 1.8 percent of the market.
Norton Update Causes Crashes in China
An errant update for Norton Antivirus has caused the computers of at least 1,000 users in a China city to crash, several Chinese news sources reported on Monday. According to authorities, the problem was caused by an update on May 18 that accidentally flagged and deleted two essential Windows XP files, causing the system to lock up -- showing the "blue screen of death" -- and fail to reboot.
Experts say that both the traditional and simplified Chinese versions of the Symantec software are affected. The company confirmed that it was aware of the problem and is currently looking into a solution, although no time frame has been given.
Microsoft, Vietnam Sign Anti-Piracy Agreement
Microsoft said Monday that it had signed an agreement with the Vietnamese government that would require its government offices ensure they are running genuine copies of the Redmond company's software. The country has one of the highest rates of piracy, according to recent studies. The partnership came the same day as another with the state-run Vietindebank banking chain.
Microsoft has put a lot of focus on Vietnam in recent months, with Bill Gates recently visiting the country to address the piracy issue with government leaders. His visit resulted in the signing of an anti-piracy agreement with Vietnam's Finance Ministry.
Avis to Make In-Car Internet Available
Car rental company Avis said Monday that it will provide its customers with a service called Avis Connect, which allows multiple computers to connect to the Internet wirelessly from any location, including within the car. Service would be provided at a rate of $10.95 per day, and would initially be offered at airport locations in San Jose, Oakland, Los Angeles and Newark.
The device was produced by Autonet Mobile, which plugs into the cigarette lighter and runs on 1xRTT and EVDO cellular networks. The cellular data service itself is supplied by an agreement with Verizon Wireless, but all customer support is handled by Autonet. Autonet also plans to market the service independently for $399 USD for the router and $49.95 USD per month for data service, it said.
Google, Salesforce.com Could Join to Fight Microsoft
According to a report in Monday's Wall Street Journal Google is discussing an alliance with Salesforce.com, a provider of Web applications for businesses, in order to better compete with Microsoft when courting enterprise customers.
While Google has reigned supreme on the Web with consumers, businesses have been a harder sell, especially with the ubiquity of Microsoft's Office and server products. In turn, Google was rumored to be interested in acquiring Salesforce.com, but is now looking to a partnership that would integrate services from both companies. E-mail and IM from Google would join Salesforce.com's CRM tools in a single offering.
Google Offers Co-Branded Apps
Google on Friday released a new Partner Edition of its online applications, which enables ISPs, portals and other service providers to offer specially branded versions to their customers. For example, an ISP could utilize Gmail instead of building and supporting their own webmail platform.
Aside from Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs & Spreadsheets will be available with the service. "All you have to do is point and click in the easy admin control panel and figure out what branding you'd like to layer on top of the products in order to create a customized look and feel," says Google Apps product manager Hunter Middleton.
Apple's iPhone Receives FCC Approval
Apple on Wednesday received some good news regarding its highly anticipated iPhone: the company received FCC approval to begin selling the device within the United States. Known for testing purposes as the "A1203," the phone significantly exceeded all the necessary requirements, according to news reports. The tests look for spurious radio-frequency emissions that could cause problems with other electronic devices.
With the approval of the iPhone, the FCC will also publish the test results on its Web site. For this reason, Apple made the unusual step of pre-announcing the device in January at the Macworld conference in order to prevent rumors around the company's wireless plans. Apple said the phone remains on track for a late June release.
Coke, iTunes to Give Away 2 Billion Songs
Coke and Apple said Wednesday that they would be teaming up in Europe to offer one of the biggest music promotions in the region's history. Two billion music downloads are set to be given away between May and August of this year to drinkers of Coke's products, and the company also plans to give away iPods and tickets to iTunes-Coke sponsored concerts.
In addition to the giveaways, exclusive downloads of performances from those concerts will be made available on iTunes. Dance music group Faithless with also record a special track exclusively for the partnership, and the group worked with designers to create a limited edition Coke bottle to ship during the promotion.
Newest IE7 Patch Can Disable Browser
Microsoft on Thursday said it was working to resolve a minor problem caused by its latest cumulative update for Internet Explorer 7, which can prevent the browser from opening altogether. The issue occurs when customers change the default "Temporary Internet Files" after installing the patch.
According to a new Knowledge Base article on the matter, users may see the File Download – Security Warning dialog box raised when starting IE. Once the box is closed, IE7 cannot be started because permissions on the custom temporary files directory are not the same as the default. Users can change the directory back, or update permissions on the new directory in order to regain access to IE.
24/7 Real Media Acquired by WPP
Despite rumored talks between the company and Microsoft, 24/7 Real Media was acquired Thursday by UK ad agency WPP Group for about $649 million. The move further consolidates the growing online ad market. Last month, Google acquired DoubleClick while Yahoo picked up Right Media.
A report last month claimed Microsoft was considering making a $1 billion offer for 24/7 after the company put itself up for sale in April. WPP says it will retain 24/7's management and use the company to expand its geographic presence. "The transaction further validates the importance of emerging, digital media to the global advertising market," remarked 24/7 CEO David Moore.
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