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RBC: Apple To Change iPhone Sales Model, Sell 14 Million Phones This Year
2008-05-05 22:13:00
Apple's 10 million iPhones in 2008 goal? Too low, says RBC analyst Mark Abramsky in a note today. He thinks Apple (AAPL) will sell 14 million phones this year, up 40% from his previous prediction of 10 million -- and more than 8 times the 1.7 million phones the company sold in the first three months of the year. He also thinks Apple will sell 24 million iPhones in 2009.Why? The most obvious helper: A new iPhone, which should be able to access faster, "3G" wireless Internet service. Also: Broader distribution through new carrier deals in Europe and Asia, broader consumer interest thanks to Apple's forthcoming apps platform, and broader corporate interest thanks to the "iPhone 2.0" upgrade, planned for June, which adds corporate email support, etc. But Abramsky also thinks Apple is going to change the way it sells the iPhone by loosening its distribution strategy. Specifically, he thinks Apple could: Drop or reduce exclusivity in some markets. This would let people buy iPhones witho...
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Microsoft says XP is dead in June, Dell says it ll' keep selling it
2008-04-28 20:42:00
Steve Ballmer kicked up a little dirt last week when he said that Microsoft could "wake up smarter" and keep selling XP after the June 30 cutoff date if customer feedback demanded it, but as you'd expect, the company is busily trying to "clarify" that statement by saying that while it always listens to customers, XP is definitely going to die on the 30th. Well, apart from the ultraportable exception that'll last until 2012 or so. And the backlog of licenses still in reseller's hands. Oh, and a little company called Dell , which, as rumored, is going to take advantage of a Vista licensing loophole that allows it to sell a copy of Vista but preload XP instead. Yep, that's the plan -- Dell's going to report a Vista sale to Microsoft, but deliver an XP box with Vista upgrade DVD to customers. (That sound you just heard was a million accountants sighing in appreciation.) The program will be available for Latitude, OptiPlex, Precision, Vostro, and XPS systems (some with a minor fee), ...
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Apple Buys Chipmaker P.A. Semi For $278 Million
2008-04-23 12:26:00
Wondering what Apple (AAPL) was going to do with all that cash? Here's one answer: The company has acquired small chip designer P.A. Semi for $278 million in cash, Forbes.com reports.Late Tuesday, in response to questions from Forbes.com, Apple's top spokesman said the deal is done. "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not comment on our purposes and plans," Steve Dowling said. The company is due to announce its quarterly earnings Wednesday. The decision to center the iPhone design around a chip that Apple could own marks a significant strategic choice by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs, and is aimed at ensuring Apple can continue to differentiate its flagship phone as a raft of competitors flood the market. According to a source affiliated with the chip company, Jobs and Senior Vice President Tony Fadell led the tiny group of executives who spearheaded the acquisition, which included negotiations that took place in Jobs' home. Apple's...
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Revenge of the desktop app
2008-04-22 14:55:00
The cloud is taking over the world of applications, casting a shadow on the desktop. The browser rules. Operating systems are simply plumbing. The Web is the new OS.Hello folks, Dan Farber has written an interesting article over at Cnet, about the new world of software which is largely RIA ( Rich Internet Application) and how is desktop apps are fitting into this crazy world of software when everything is browser based?Why would any one even want a desktop application when everything just runs off the web browser?Boldinvestors latest and greatest posts: including news items, editorial takes, investing opportunities ideas,and much more.
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Blockbuster offers $1 billion for Circuit City
2008-04-14 21:07:00
Video rental giant Blockbuster on Monday announced it has offered to purchase Circuit City Stores for $6 to $8 per share, or about $1 billion to $1.3 billion. Blockbuster initially made the proposal on February 17, but says Circuit City has not provided the due diligence it needs to make a more definitive offer. On Monday, Blockbuster decided to go public. In a letter to Circuit City CEO Philip Schoonover, Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes notes that the two companies have been discussing proposed tie-ups since December. (Credit: Blockbuster) Blockbuster says the offer is intended to "capitalize on the growing convergence of media content and electronic devices." "Our proposal offers Circuit City a significant premium to its existing stock price and creates a game-changing retail concept with a sustainable competitive advantage. We believe the combination will result in a compelling consumer proposition that will drive significant revenue and margin enhancements as well as cost synergie...
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Now playing: Adobe Media Player 1.0
2008-04-09 18:47:00
Adobe Systems on Wednesday plans to release Adobe Media Player (AMP), a free download for playing Flash-based Web videos on Macs or PCs. Written with Adobe's AIR, AMP is a hybrid online/offline application that lets people subscribe to different video Webcasts. Adobe has signed on some initial partners including CBS, PBS, MTV Networks, Universal Music Group, CondeNet, and Scripps Networks. (See my colleague Rafe Needleman's review of AMP on Webware.) The videos are either streamed from the content producer's Web site or they can be downloaded. Adobe will host a catalog, called Adobe TV, on its site where people can find videos. Because it's written with AIR, people can be offline or online when they watch. Initially, many of the videos available will have advertising attached to them. Using Adobe's digital rights management server, content producers are able to put controls on their media. Later, Adobe intends to enhance the client software so that different business models ...
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9000 school in swiss will switch to linux only
2008-04-05 16:59:00
Duvet-Dayz is reoprting that Beginning from next term, all computers at schools in the Swiss canton of Geneva will be switched to Ubuntu Linux only. Geneva newspaper Tribune de Geneve reports today that from September 2008 all computers at schools that currently are dual-boot MS Windows and Linux will have MS Windows removed and become FOSS (Free Open Source Software) only.Besides lower costs for the administration, students will also profit from the use of Ubuntu, as they then will be able to use the same applications at home without additional cost.Manuel Grandjean, director for the schools (Ecoles-Médias) IT services pointed out that the use of FOSS “…encourages participation and the democratization of knowledge and provides product independent competences…“.He also sees the use of FOSS as a “reinforcement of equal opportunities� for students. More information and the full text of the article at Tribune de Geneve (in French)Boldinvestors latest and greatest post...
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Intel trots out wireless chips, discusses eight cores at IDF
2008-04-02 20:41:00
Intel has started shipping its long awaited low-power chip for wireless devices, but the company is clearly starting at the high end of the market. The Centrino Atom--which took almost four years to develop--is the world's fastest chip under 3 watts of power, according to Intel. The first Atoms run at speeds up to 1.8GHz and sport a thermal ceiling of 0.65 to 2.4 watts. By contrast, the average laptop chip runs at 3.3GHz and consumes 35 watts at a peak. The company unveiled the chip at the Intel Developer Forum taking place in Shanghai this week. Intel also said that the first chips based around Nehalem, a new chip architecture for desktops, notebooks and servers, will come out this year. Nehalem is designed to go up to eight cores. (Hubba, hubba.) Then there is a whole new architecture coming in 2010 code-named Sandy Bridge. Atom will probably get the most attention at the show. Intel has been trying to play a bigger part in the wireless market for years and create new categor...
More About: Wireless , Intel , Cores , Chips

Facebook's goes hyper-viral with 'People You May Know'
2008-03-27 22:09:00
Facebook has about 67 million members. With the new "People You May Know" feature, the number of connections per member will skyrocket, extending the reach and stickiness of Facebook's social graph. People You May Know finds people within six degrees or so of separation and suggests them as potential friends. It appears that the threshold is set at four, meaning you are connected to four of the same people as the suggested "friend." FriendFeed has taken a somewhat similar approach for recommending new people to "follow." This type of recommendation engine, which taps into the social graph, is like a Las Vegas slot machine that keeps on giving. Every time you pull the lever you get a bunch of new friend connections, which makes you want to keep pulling the lever until it runs out of recommendations. The end result is that Facebook generates some exponential growth, creating more density in its web of people connections. And, Facebook members now have an ea...
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Motorola to split in two
2008-03-26 20:35:00
In a clear move to keep Motorola ’s flagging mobile phone sales from pulling down its lucrative broadband and switching enterprise services the company is splitting into two publicly-traded organizations. The Mobile Devices company will focus on mobile handsets while the Broadband and Mobility solutions sector will work on secure voice and data communication along with broadband for enterprises and government. Motorola shareholders will receive shares in each of the companies once the process is completed.(Techcrunch)Boldinvestors latest and greatest posts: including news items, editorial takes, investing opportunities ideas,and much more.
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Inspectd: Test your stock trading skills
2008-03-21 20:48:00
Hello folks, Think you are good at trading stocks? Here’s a good Friday afternoon time waster for those of you who prefer more grown-up games than you can find on Mytopia. Test your trading skills at Inspectd. The site, which has been around for a while, shows you a historical stock chart with nothing more than the price and the moving average. You are given $100,000 in fake money and you have to decide whether to buy, skip, or sell based on nothing other than the price. Once you decide, it tells you the name of the stock, what it actually did over the next 20 days, and adjusts your account accordingly. It is pretty addictive, and cheaper than day trading with real money.(Techcrunch)Boldinvestors latest and greatest posts: including news items, editorial takes, investing opportunities ideas,and much more.
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Facebook to launch IM
2008-03-15 11:46:00
Facebook has been testing a new instant messaging service and will be launching it to the public soon, perhaps in the next week.Our understanding is that the service will be built into user’s Facebook pages and allow them to web chat with their Facebook friends. We’ve also heard that, like Gtalk, it will be built on the Jabber open source platform, allowing users to add the service to many popular Instant messaging clients like Trillian (Windows) and Adium (Mac). I’d also expect web chat services like Meebo and eBuddy to add support for the service. This spells trouble for a slew of instant messaging services that third parties have built on Facebook. Social.IM, for example, is one (funded) startup we’ve written about a couple of times. Those applications are now basically dead. The timing on this certainly is interesting. Yesterday AOL talked extensively about marrying their AIM platform with their newly acquired Bebo social network. There’s a screen shot of this floating...
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AOL buys social network Bebo for $850 million
2008-03-13 19:06:00
AOL has acquired social-networking site Bebo . The price tag: $850 million in cash. (Techcrunch called it last month) Rumors had floated over the past few months that Bebo, which has over 40 million members, was up for sale. Reports suggested a $1 billion price tag, but there were few hints as to potential buyers. Though Bebo had already partnered with AOL's AIM messaging client to facilitate friend-invite interoperability between the two services, even the most creative blogger speculation didn't seem to point to AOL eventually buying the social network. Ironically, AOL itself has been talked about as an acquisition target. Jeffrey Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner, which operates AOL, has spoken recently about plans to spin off or sell divisions of the company. AOL has made it clear that buying Bebo is a move geared toward international growth, as the youth-oriented social network is wildly popular in the U.K., Ireland, and New Zealand. AOL reported that it has launched "17 internati...
More About: Social , Network , Social Network , Million

iPhone: what's next?
2008-03-08 01:07:00
Hello folks, Apple on Thursday finally unveiled the much awaited iPhone SDK, as well as some other very interesting solutions for the enterprise.Apple held a media event at its Cupertino headquarters where it previewed its iPhone 2.0 software, scheduled for release this June, and announced the immediate availability of a beta release of the software to selected developers and enterprise customers. The iPhone 2.0 beta release includes both the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) as well as new enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide secure, over-the-air push email, contacts and calendars as well as remote wipe, and the addition of Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to private corporate networks. "We’re excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community with potentially thousands of native applications for iPhone and iPod touch,� said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs. "iPhone’s enterprise features combined with its ...
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Apple Time Capsule unboxing and preview
2008-03-04 21:22:00
Hello folks, Apple insider has posted a well detailed first take review of Apple latest gadget: Time Capsule, which is basically an Airport Extreme Base Station (a router in Apple's language) with an integrated hard drive and power adapter, or as Steve Jobs rerferd to it: A backup appliance.It looks really good, the only question how well does it work for windows users and linux?Obvieusly it originally made to cope with Time machine, Apple's Leopard biggest feature. But according to Apple it woks on Windows machines too.I really want to get Time Capsule , I guess I would wait for an official full review.Boldinvestors latest and greatest posts: including news items, editorial takes, investing opportunities ideas,and much more.
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Google investing in DNA sequencing project
2008-03-01 17:35:00
Google has financially backed a project from a Harvard University scientist to unlock the secrets of common diseases by decoding the DNA of 100,000 people.The project will be the largest human genome sequencing project in the world, and may lead to new cures for disease. According to Bloomberg, the project will begin in the U.S., U.K., China and Sweden this year, initially deciphering the genetic makeup of 1,000 people at a cost of $50 million. The new investment takes Google further towards its quest to index any and everything on the planet, having invested in genetics testing company 23andme last year, and more recently preparing Google Health for launch.23andMe, the startup widely known as the company whose founder is the wife of Sergey Brin, has plans to make the human genome searchable. Brin, along with Google, gave 23andMe $3.9 million as part of a series A in May of 2007. The company, cleverly named after the number of paired chromosomes in humans, wants to help you underst...
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Apple announces special iPhone SDK event
2008-02-28 21:53:00
Finally weeks of speculation Apple has sent invites to limited members and reporters for an "iPhone Software Roadmap" event."Please join us to learn about the iPhone software roadmap, including the iPhone SDK and some exciting new enterprise features," the company wrote in a digital invite distributed by email.The event is set to take place at 10:00 a.m. sharp Pacific time at the "Town Hall" on Apple's Cupertino campus -- the same venue used for the introduction of the Intel-based Mac mini and iPod Hi-Fi in February of 2006, and the aluminum iMacs this past August.Per usual, seating for the event will be extremely limited due to the size of the Apple Town Hall, which appears to hold only a couple hundred at best.Apple chief executive Steve Jobs had previously announced plans to unveil the iPhone SDK later this month, but true to recent rumors, delays forced the company to push out the unveiling by a couple of weeks. (Earlier information obtained by AppleInsider suggests that Apple...
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Has Apple found the magic Touch?
2008-02-26 21:30:00
Cnet's Tom Krazit takes an interesting look at Apple 's development of the multi- touch user interface. As of this morning Apple also updated its line of Macbooks and expended its multi touch technology into the notebooks carrying it from the iPhone, and iPod touch and of course the highly profile Macbook air. The question now is whether this is something that will boost Mac sales, which have been doing pretty well on their own up to this point. It's hard to assess the impact of the multitouch technology in the early days of the MacBook Air, which has only been out a little over a month and appeals to only a subset of the notebook-buying population. It's clear, however, that the iPhone's multitouch user interface is perhaps its greatest asset. And Synaptics, which makes Touch Pads used in a wide variety of notebooks PCs, expects several PC vendors to introduce similar technology later this year on their own notebooks. Wired brought up an interesting point last week, however, a...
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AMD releases open-source code for multicore development
2008-02-21 22:12:00
Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday released the source code aimed at making it easier to build media applications for x86 multicore processors. The AMD Performance Library, which is now called Framewave, is available on Source Forge. The framework is a collection of routines that optimize performance of media-oriented applications on multicore processors. For example, a developer could link to a library that optimizes video display on a specific graphics card. By starting a project at SourceForge.net, the chipmaker will allow programmers to customize and further optimize the software, which will work with compilers for Linux, Windows, and Solaris, said Margaret Lewis, AMD's director of commercial solutions and software strategy. Experts say creating tools for developers to optimize their work for multicore processors is one of the biggest challenges the semiconductor industry faces. Multimedia applications, in particular, get a relatively big performance boost by optim...
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Multi-touch comming soon to a mac near you?
2008-02-19 18:57:00
Looks like Apple is working to extend an advanced version of its multi-touch technology to future notebook trackpads that would include gesture concepts well beyond what is presently available on its handheld and MacBook Air products.The January 2007 filing, dug up overnight by MacRumors, is titled "Gesturing with a multipoint sensing device" and lists among its inventors Wayne Westerman of Fingerworks, a company absorbed by Apple several years ago as part of its quest to deliver iPhone and a new generation of input devices.Of particular interest are several drawings and descriptions of a new Mac OS X "Gesture Control Panel" nestled deep within the 72-page filing. The panel is split three-way, offering a distinct set of customizable options for "Standard," "Basic," and "Advanced" multi-touch operations.Listed as part of the "Advanced" panel are several pre-defined multi-touch gesture sets for operations not yet supported by Apple's iPhone, iPod touch, or MacBook Air offerings. Amon...
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Amazon web service goes down takes many start up with it
2008-02-15 23:16:00
Amazon Web Service s suffered a major outage this morning, affecting the thousands of Websites that rely on its storage (S3) and cloud computing (EC2) services. Start ups including Twitter, SmugMug, 37Signals, and AdaptiveBlue, for instance, use Amazon’s S3 storage service to store all the data for their Websites. Reports started coming in across the Web, email, and Twitter about the outage (Twitter only uses S3 for file hosting, not its main messaging application). The major difficulties seem to have been fixed, but some issues persist. The outage started at around 4:30 AM PT. This could just be growing pains for Amazon Web Services, as more startups and other companies come to rely on it for their Web-scale computing infrastructure. But even if the outage only lasted a couple hours, it is unacceptable. Nobody is going to trust their business to cloud computing unless it is more reliable than the data-center computing that is the current norm. So many Websites now rely on Amazonâ€...
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Apple TV ads driving online search
2008-02-14 20:52:00
A new report suggests that Apple ’s catchy TV advertisements for the iPod nano, iPod touch, and iPhone are having a ripple effect on online searches. According to the latest numbers from Compete, U.S. consumers made nearly 1 million queries for iPod related commercials or the underlying music from August 2007 to January 2008. 15 of the top 20 searches contained the word “song� or “music,� suggesting that many consumers are searching for the song in the commercial, as very little information is given about the songs and artists featured in Apple’s spots. In particular, research shows that over 425,000 people were actively searching in September for the song used in Apple’s popular spot for the iPod nano, Feist’s �1-2-3-4." Traffic for the song’s music video on YouTube grew 1200% from the month prior to the commercial’s launch, and over 45 times when views of the actual commercial were included. Similar growth was seen for CSS’ �Music is my hot hot sex,� fea...
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Report: Yahoo board rejects Microsoft offer
2008-02-09 21:44:00
The Yahoo Board has mulled it over, and its answer for Microsoft is a simple "no." The "hostile" $44.6 billion bid was rejected by the board, as largely expected. The question now is, why? Report ed first this morning by the Wall Street Journal, a person "familiar" with the situation says that Yahoo believed the offer of $31 a share "massively undervalues" the company, and provides no protections for the risks Yahoo would incur by entering into a deal that would be heavily vetted and possibly overturned by regulators. According to the WSJ's source, Yahoo is looking for bids north of $40 per share, or something in the $56+ billion range. At $31 per share, the Board apparently feels as though Microsoft is trying to "steal" the company and take advantage of recent weaknesses. Such "weaknesses" aren't necessarily recent, however. Yahoo's stock price hasn't been north of $40 since the end of 2005. $44.6 billion was already steep for Microsoft, which has admitted that the company wo...
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Macbook Air reviews
2008-02-09 17:05:00
Hello folks, over the past week Apple has finally began shipping the new shiny Macbook Air, and reviews of the unit have been flying all around the web.Basically there are two models the hard drive version and the more ($ 1300 extra) pricey SSD version. Ars Technica has published a great comprehensive review of the two units comparing their performances.I advice all potential buyers and Apple fans to check it out.Also Appleinsider has posted its insights and review about the new thin wonder.Boldinvestors latest and greatest posts: including news items, editorial takes, investing opportunities ideas,and much more.
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Founder of MP3.com starts busines info wiki
2008-02-05 21:04:00
Serial entrepreneur Michael Robertson has started a new business-information site called Dealipedia. Robertson, founder of such companies as MP3.com and Linspire, is relying on the wisdom of crowds to supply information on IPOs, mergers, acquisitions, closings, bankruptcies, and investments. He said that Wiki pedia has proven that allowing the masses to provide and edit information works. Dealipedia is a "combination (of) news, reference and perhaps a bit of gossip for business deals," Robertson said in an e-mail to CNET News.com. At Dealipedia.com, I clicked on the site's "Who Made the Money" section to see if Robertson's own name was included. Sure enough, it was. According to the site, Robertson pocketed $115 million when he sold MP3.com to Vivendi Universal for $372 million in May 2001. Jason Calcanis made $15 million and Mark Cuban made $5 million when Weblogs was sold to AOL. None of this is breaking news and the section is relatively bare of details. But Robertson is ho...
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Microsoft+Yahoo
2008-02-01 15:59:00
Microsoft went public Friday with a $44.6 billion cash-and-stock bid to acquire Yahoo .Plus: Microsoft admits it can't fight Google alone In its response, Yahoo called the Microsoft bid "unsolicited" but did not reject it. Microsoft's offer, which was contained in the letter to Yahoo's board, amounts to $31 a share and represents a 62 percent premium over Yahoo's closing price on Thursday. Microsoft said it will offer shareholders the option of cash or stock. "We have great respect for Yahoo, and together, we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers, and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online-services market," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement. Yahoo said in a responding statement that its board "will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly, in the context of Yahoo's strategic plans, and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders." The deal comes as Micro...
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Firefox tops 20% market share
2008-01-29 20:42:00
French web survey company XiTi Monitor has published Firefox market share statistics for 2007, which indicate that the open-source web browser is continuing to see gains at the expense of Internet Explorer, particularly in Europe. XiTi's breakdown of monthly Firefox market share gains for the past year show that the browser climbed from about 20 percent two years ago to 23.1 percent in December 2006 to a record 28 percent in December 2007. Firefox market share hit a plateau and hovered around 27.7 percent between June and September before taking a 0.7 percent drop in October, but then recovered prior to reaching 28 percent last month. XiTi also provides market share statistics for 32 individual European countries. Finland currently has the highest Firefox market share in Europe with 45.4 percent, followed by Slovenia with 44.6 percent and Poland with 42.4 percent. Firefox adoption is likely encouraged by the perception of superior security and the availability of extensions and ot...
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Facebook Apps anywhere!
2008-01-27 19:03:00
Facebook announced Friday a new JavaScript client library that will allow Facebook apps to be displayed on any website. The client library allows users to make Facebook API calls from any web site and create Ajax Facebook applications on that website. Wei Zhu from Facebook explains the benefits: Since the library does not require any server-side code on your server, you can now create a Facebook application that can be hosted on any web site that serves static HTML. An application that uses this client library should be registered as an iframe type. This applies to either iframe Facebook apps that users access through the Facebook web site or apps that users access directly on the app’s own web sites. Almost all Facebook APIs are supported. Nick O’Neil at All Facebook writes: Want to build your own social gaming platform that resides on your own website but leverages the power of users’ Facebook relationships? Now you can! There had previously been applications that could lev...
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Apples for sale
2008-01-23 20:53:00
Apple earnings climb 58%, but outlook disappoints.Apple Inc. on Tuesday reported a first-quarter profit that rose 58% from a year ago, but the company's shares tumbled in after-hours trading as the consumer-electronics maker gave an earnings outlook that fell short of Wall Street analysts' forecasts. Usually, on days when Apple Inc. (AAPL) reports earnings, giddy investors have a chuckle about the company's famously conservative forecasts and proceed to load up on the stock—confident that Apple's closely guarded pipeline of new products will keep sales and profits on the rise. But in a reflection of the gloomy mood on Wall Street over the prospect of a recession, investors found little to laugh about in Apple's latest forecast. Apple typically gives conservative forecasts, but the latest one delivered by Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer proved particularly disappointing in light of Tuesday's trading session, which saw nearly every major tech stock lose g...
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Facebook software maker Slide gets $50 million
2008-01-19 19:11:00
Social-network software maker Slide said on Friday it had closed a $50 million institutional financing round, marking the rising valuations of start-ups riding fast-growing Facebook 's wave of popularity. Slide, a 65-employee company founded by Max Levchin, 32, the Ukrainian-born co-founder of online payments company PayPal, is the creator of several of the most popular software programs running on Facebook and News Corp.'s MySpace.com. Its Facebook programs include Top Friends, FunWall, and SuperPoke. Levchin said the new cash will be used to boost the size of the San Francisco-based company to about 100 employees and expand the applications it offers on the upgraded MySpace platform. Acquisitions of other so-called social software developers will be a low priority, he said. Slide started in 2005, originally self-funded by Levchin and backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. PayPal went public and then was quickly acquired by eBay in 2002. Subsequent funding was provided by leadi...
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