Apple Inc, is this the death to Palm and Blackberry?

Apple renames itself, unveils iPhone
By RACHEL KONRAD, AP Technology Writer1 hour, 8 minutes ago

Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday announced the iPod maker's long-awaited leap into the mobile phone business and renamed the company just "Apple Inc.," reflecting its increased focus on consumer electronics.

The iPhone, which will start at $499 when it launches in June, is controlled by touch, plays music, surfs the Internet and runs the Macintosh computer operating system. Jobs said it will "reinvent" wireless communications and "leapfrog" past the current generation of smart phones.

"Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything," he said during his keynote address at the annual Macworld Conference and Expo. "It's very fortunate if you can work on just one of these in your career. ... Apple's been very fortunate in that it's introduced a few of these."

He said the company's name change is meant to reflect Apple's transformation from a computer manufacturer to a full-fledged consumer electronics company.

During his speech, Jobs also unveiled a TV set-top box that allows people to send video from their computers and announced the number of songs sold on its iTunes Music Store has topped 2 billion.

Apple shares jumped more than 8 percent on the announcements, while the stock of rival smart-phone makers plunged. The run on Apple stock created about $6 billion in shareholder wealth.

While Jobs noted the explosive growth of the cell phone market, it's not clear that a device as alluring as the iPhone poses a threat to mainstream handset makers due to the price, said Avi Greengart, mobile device analyst for the research firm Current Analysis. "My initial reaction is that this product actually lives up to the extensive hype, and I'm not easily impressed," he said. "But the vast majority of phones sold cost way less than $500." Instead, the rivals most likely to face new competition from Apple's handset are makers of higher-end smart phones such as Palm Inc.

Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, said the iPhone could revolutionize the way cell phones are designed and sold. "This goes beyond smart phones and should be given its own category called 'brilliant' phones," he said. "Cell phones are on track to become the largest platform for digital music playback and Apple needed to make this move to help defend their iPod franchise as well as extend it beyond a dedicated music environment."

Apple currently commands about 75 percent of the market for downloaded music and portable music players. But it's expected to lose market share on both fronts as rivals introduce their own gadgets and music stores.
Jobs said Apple expects to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008, the first full year in which they'll be available. That's about 1 percent of the global market for mobile phones; 957 million were sold worldwide in 2006.

The Apple phones, which will operate exclusively on AT&T Inc.'s Cingular Wireless network, will start shipping in June. A 4-gigabyte model will cost $499, while an 8-gigabyte iPhone will be $599. While wireless carriers typically offer discounts and rebates on new devices when they agree to sign a two-year service contact, Cingular said it was unclear whether this would be the case with the iPhone.

Cingular declined to comment on its financial arrangement with Apple.
IPhone is less than a half-inch thin — less than almost any phone on the market today. It comes with a 2-megapixel digital camera built into the back, as well as a slot for headphones and a SIM card. The phone automatically synchs the user's media — movies, music, photos — through iTunes on computers running either Mac OS X or Microsoft Corp.'s Windows. The device also synchs e-mail, Web bookmarks and nearly any type of digital content stored on a PC.
"It's just like an iPod," Jobs said, "charge and synch."

To make a call, users can tap out the number on an onscreen keypad or scroll through their contacts and dial with a single touch.
"It works like magic," Jobs said. "It's far more accurate than any touch display ever shipped. It ignores unintended touches. It's super smart."
Apple is also introducing what it calls "visual voicemail," so users can jump to the most important messages rather than have to listen to all of them in order.
The phone supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology and can detect location from Global Positioning System satellites. It also can send and display e-mail and text messages. Apple is partnering with Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) on Web-based e-mail and Google Inc. on maps.

With a few finger taps, Jobs demonstrated how to pull up a Google Maps site and find the closest Starbucks to San Francisco's Moscone Center, where Macworld is held. He then prank-called the cafe and ordered 4,000 lattes to go before quickly hanging up.
Jobs demonstrated the iPhone's music capabilities by playing "Lovely Rita, Meter Maid," from the Beatles' "Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band." The audience cheered, spurred by speculation that an announcement was imminent about a deal to sell Beatles songs on iTunes. But there was no such announcement, and Beatles songs still cannot be legally downloaded.
Also Tuesday, Jobs said Apple will begin taking orders immediately for the $299 video box called Apple TV. It will ship next month.

The gadget is designed to bridge computers and television sets so users can more easily watch their downloaded movies on a big screen. A prototype of the gadget was displayed by Jobs in September when Apple announced it would sell TV shows and movies through iTunes.
Apple TV will come with a 40-gigabyte hard drive that stores up to 50 hours of video. It features an Intel Corp. microprocessor and can handle videos, photos and music streamed from up to five computers within the wireless range. Apple also announced Tuesday it will sell movies from Paramount, increasing its online selection from about 100 to about 250.

Meanwhile, Apple's milestone of selling more than 2 billion songs on iTunes catapults the company into the top ranks of music sellers worldwide — more than Amazon.com Inc. and behind only Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Best Buy Co. and Target Corp., Jobs said.

Apple shares jumped $7.10 to close at $92.57 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $50.16 to $93.16.
Nearly 120 million Apple shares were traded on Tuesday, more than four times the average daily volume.
Meanwhile, shares of other smart-phone makers slid: Treo-maker Palm dropped 5.7 percent, BlackBerry's Research In Motion Ltd. lost 7.9 percent and Motorola Inc. shed 1.8 percent.

Watch this Guy get fired for speaking the truth

Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2006 15:56
This from the Denver Post:

This text is from a county emergency manager out in the central part of Colorado after todays snowstorm.
Up here, in the Northern Plains, we just recovered from a Historic event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:George Bush did not come.FEMA did nothing.No one howled for the federal government.No one blamed the federal government.No one even uttered an expletive on TV .Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snowstorm.

Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.No one looted.Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the federal government do something.Nobody expected the federal government to do anything, either.No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water.Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".

We did not wait for some affirmative action Fed. to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 42 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate." It does seem that way, at least to me.I hope this gets passed on.Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does Not owe you a living.

Utah Policy Blog Watch

At Under the Dome, Rep. Craig Frank delivers a long post on laws regulating 16-year old drivers and unintended consequences….Neal Abercrombie posts some highlights from the 2007 Economic Report to the Governor, which was recently released by Gov. Huntsman's Council of Economic Advisors.... Shauna Harris explains "how organic farming can save Utah agriculture".... SLCSpin notes: "Here's something new. And cool. It's the most comprehensive collection of Utah political blogs to date".... At Out of Context, Robert Gehrke reports: "The White House announced Monday that Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt would lead a delegation to the inauguration of Daniel Ortega as president of Nicaragua. For those who missed the '80s, Ortega was a leader of the Sandanista movement, which overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua in 1979. In 1985, Ortega became president, but the Reagan administration didn't approve of his Marxist tendencies and bankrolled, trained and supplied Contra rebels who fought to overthrow the Ortega administration. Ortega lost an election in 1990, but didn't fade from the scene and won the presidential election in November, to the chagrin of the U.S. government. Ortega promises a moderate rule this time. In addition to Leavitt, the inauguration will be attended by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Should provide some interesting conversation for Leavitt: 'Hey, remember that time my government used illegal arms deals to try to throw you out of power? Ah. Good times'".... The Washington Prowler reports: "Sources inside the exploratory presidential campaign for former Massachusetts Gov. [Mitt] Romney say there are high level discussions taking place that would put former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in the top most slot of the exploratory committee. 'The talk is Huckabee serving as chairman of the exploratory committee,' says one insider. Huckabee has been mulling a presidential bid of his own, and was viewed as a potential threat to the Romney campaign, particularly in the South, where the minister and former governor would peel away social conservatives from the Massachusetts moderate. 'This strategically would be an interesting decision, not only for Romney, but for Huckabee,' says one Washington insider who is aligned with the McCain campaign. 'It helps Mitt marginally, I don't see what's in it for Huckabee at all, which to my way of thinking means it won't happen.' On Thursday, Romney released the names of his big money finance co-chairs, which featured at least one eye-brow raiser, eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a woman considered by most to be of a liberal political stripe on social issues, as well as some economic issues. In 2006 Whitman entangled eBay in the 'net neutrality' fight in Congress, sending a letter to millions of eBay customers and clients, asking them to support federal government regulation of the Internet" (hat tip: Article VI Blog).