MySpace valued at $15 Billion?!

According to RBC Capital analyst Jordan Rohan, MySpace could be worth $15 billion in a few years.

MySpace was acquired by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. for $580 million less than a year ago. It now boasts more than 90 million active users.

Rohan said MySpace could demonstrate a value of between $10 billion and $20 billion within a few years. Acknowledging he was making an “audacious claim” he justified the forecast on the basis of MySpace’s “raw, unprecedented user/usage growth.”

The basis of his claim is the rapid international growth seen by MySpace. Personally, I can’t stand to be on MySpace for more than a few minutes, its buggy, extremely slow and crashes about 90% of the time. With that kind of “value” and the revenue that they must bring in, how hard could it be to hire some high school AP computer science kids to help fix their insanely buggy code? If anything, I would think that they would lose market share, not gain. Since MySpace has hit the big time, at least a dozen new social networking sites much like MySpace have been launched, yet none seem to be able to garner the kind of influence MySpace does.

THE SITE IS CRAP! Am I the only one that sees this?

Technorati Tags: myspace, social networking

Apple Introduces iTV, Tivo Killer?

Yesterdays Apple keynote address, compared to most keynote address, was pretty lame. iPods were updated, larger hard drives, brighter displays, and iTunes software got an update. However, the biggest news was the sneak peak of the iTV. What was most surprising about the announcement, is that Apple is usually very very secretive about any leaks about products in the work - with the exception of upcoming operating systems.

Just so you know, iTV is just the project code name, look for a more creative name when the product launches in Q1 of 2007. I have a feeling that the “i” part of the name will be dropped, as Apple moves away from that naming scheme.

The iTV appears to be half the size of a mac mini, and essentially transfer HD quality content from your computer to your TV via the iTV which will have the then established 802.11N wireless standard. Think of it as an Airport Express for TV, though you’ll be able to use it for photo’s in iPhoto and other media content you have on your computer. The software interface resembles Front Row, currently used in Macs now.

Prices will start at $299, look for that price to drop after the first year.

Technorati Tags: apple, itv, steve jobs, tivo

Microsoft: Vista Will Cost Same As XP

© 2006 The Associated Press

REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft Corp.’s long-delayed upgrade of its flagship Windows operating system will cost the same as comparable versions of the previous version, Windows XP, the company said Tuesday.

The software maker also said Windows Vista remains on track to be delivered to businesses in November and to consumers in January.

 Microsoft priced Windows Vista Home Basic at $199, or $99.95 as an upgrade for computers already running the consumer version of Windows XP.

Microsoft is hoping most consumers will go for Windows Vista Premium, which will come with entertainment features like the ability to record live television. That version will cost $239.

Windows Vista Business will cost $299; the company set the price for upgrades at $199.

Another version, Windows Vista Ultimate, will be geared toward people who want to do both personal and office work on their home computers. It will cost $399, or $259 for an upgrade.

Vista, the company’s first new operating system in five years, touts a sleeker look, improved security features, better protection against spyware and viruses and more intuitive search tools to help users find saved files.

The prices are in line with the market for operating systems, said Michael Cherry, a lead analyst for the independent research group Windows on Microsoft. But for most consumers, the cost of buying a machine that can run Vista is more relevant.

Vista requires more memory and a more powerful graphics card than XP; people who bought their computers more than a year ago may not have the power to run the operating system at full speed, said Cherry.

“Microsoft will make the point that Vista will run on older machines, but it’s either going to run slow” or without the full graphics-handling capability, Cherry said, adding that he has yet to see what computers fully equipped to run the system will cost.

Microsoft also said Tuesday it will make the most recent test version of Vista, dubbed release candidate 1, available to 5 million customers worldwide this week through its Customer Preview Program.

“We’re in the last mile for Windows Vista, and the release candidate marks a great amount of progress and a great step toward final release,” said Shanen Boettcher, general manager of product management for the division that includes Windows.

Microsoft will decide whether to release another test version of Vista based on feedback from this round of user testing.

Shares of Microsoft fell 17 cents to $25.67 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Technorati Tags: msicrosoft, vista, windows xp

Microsoft releases Windows Vista release candidate 1

Microsoft releases Windows Vista release candidate 1

Software giant Microsoft has finally release the first release candidate of their upcoming Windows Vista operating system to limited beta testers.

This is one of the major achievements for the company as they plan to ship the operating system on its currently announced schedule. Vista already has seen multiple delays.

Microsoft plans to make this release widely available to other testers from next week.

The feedback received on this release would decide on whether Microsoft needs to release another release candidate version in the coming months.

The company is scheduled to deliver Vista to big business clients in November and to consumers in January. However, the release can be delayed if they face major problems in these release candidate editions.

Technorati Tags: Windows, operating system, vista, windows vista

TDK develops prototype 200G Blu-ray disc

Japan-based TDK has developed a single-sided recordable blue laser disc with a capacity of 200 Gbytes, surpassing the current 25-Gbyte capacity for single-layer Blu-ray discs and 50 Gbytes for dual-layer discs.

The 200-Gbyte capacity doubles the capacity of TDK’s existing 100-Gbyte Blu-ray prototype, storing approximately 18 hours of high definition video, said the company.

TDK has been on the forefront of Blu-ray Disc media development, shipping 25-Gbyte rewritable discs since April.

The company’s 100-Gbyte prototype disc uses four 25-Gbyte layers to reach its capacity. For the 200-Gbyte disc, TDK has stretched the physical margins of the Blu-ray Disc format, enabling a disc to store up to 33.3 Gbytes per layer while staying within the tolerances of the BD playback specifications.

Technorati Tags: blu ray, blu-ray, tdk, hollywood, recording industry

Core 2 Duo for notebooks now available

Intel on Monday announce availability of its mobile Core 2 Duo processor tailored for laptops, thus completing a rollout of its 64-bit dual-core processor range.

The processor, code named Merom, was previewed at Intel’s Core 2 Duo launch event in July, but is now available for order from PC companies.

The company announced that nearly 200 laptop models worldwide would incorporate the new chip into their designs.

“This is the closing of the circle, of Intel moving in the client space to the Core architecture,” said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel’s mobile platforms group.

The Intel Core 2 Duo is said to be about 20 percent faster than its socket-compatible predecessor, the Core Duo, while consuming less power and generating less heat and is the first 64-bit notebook processor to come off Intel’s production line.

The Core 2 Duo technology uses two processing “brains” to handle multiple tasks at once — speeding up performance while minimizing power consumption. As a result, makers are able to create sleeker, smaller systems that don’t produce as much heat as traditional laptops and excel at multimedia and gaming activities.

Intel now expects 95 percent of the processors it ships in performance notebooks to have two cores by the end of the year, Eden said. The new chips plug into motherboards designed for the Core Duo.

The announcement of Merom completes Intel’s rollout of its 64-bit dual-core processor range, which also includes Conroe for desktops and Woodcrest for servers.

The rollout of Merom now throws the pressure on to AMD, which has had the edge in notebook chips with its 64-bit Turon chips, to lower prices

Technorati Tags: intel, core 2 duo, notebooks, laptops, meron, AMD

Google expands into business software market

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. is making a concerted move beyond search and advertising into the business software market, starting with a set of Web programs for e-mail, scheduling and communications, it said on Sunday.

The online search leader said it has created a software platform to run basic business activities –
based on programs it already offers separately. The move marks a stepped up challenge to rival Microsoft Corp. as the software giant prepares to upgrade its Windows and Office franchises.

The free set of Web-based programs for small businesses, universities and nonprofit businesses goes by the mouthful “Google Apps for Your Domain” (http://www.google.com/a).

Later this year, Google said it will offer a “paid, premium” version with the option of being ad-free and more administrative control and compliance features to meet the demands of bigger corporations and government agencies. Pricing for this more advanced version is not yet available, it said.

Google will host the applications relieving companies of the need to maintain or install software on individual PCs — support tasks often more costly than software itself.

“If we do it right, we get the best of both worlds — very consumer-friendly software, but also low-cost business
applications,” said Dave Girouard, general manager of Google’s enterprise division, which sells search software to companies.

Individual office workers can sign on to Google Apps — short for applications — through their Web browsers.

Initial apps are Gmail Web e-mail, the Google Talk instant message and Web phone-calling service, group scheduling on  Google Calendar, and Google Page Creator for Web page design.

Technorati Tags: google, microsoft, office 2007, office 2007 live, windows, windows live, gmail, google talk

Google and eBay to team together

Google, the world’s leading search engine, and eBay, the online
auction powerhouse, have inked a multiyear pact that will see Google
exclusively provide text advertisements for eBay’s auction sites
outside of the United States, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Google and eBay will start testing the text ads in 2007, and they’ll
also dually develop “click-to-call” ad projects under which Web surfers
will be able to simply click on an ad to make a call directly to
advertisers or Web retailers, the Journal reports.

Both companies will share portions of the revenue derived from the
new ads, and eBay said such earnings wouldn’t impact its 2006 or 2007
financials, though additional details about the deal weren’t made
publicly available, according to the Journal.

In May, eBay made a similar deal with Google rival Yahoo that
granted the search firm exclusive rights to distribute ads on eBay
sites in the United States, the Journal reports. Yahoo also said it
would push eBay’s PayPal Web payment offering on its sites, according
to the Journal.

The most recent deal suggests that eBay isn’t putting all of its
eggs in one basket in the Web advertising space, and it’s trying to
cozy up to a number of Web heavies to boost its popular online auction
business as well as its thriving advertising service.

The deal is the latest for Google, which has been quite busy in
recent days striking deals with the likes of Dell, AOL and a number of
News Corp. companies to extend its reach on the Web and build
additional services, the Journal reports. Earlier this month, Google
said it won itself a major contract to exclusively provide search technology on the MySpace.com site.

eBay was one of Google’s first advertisers, and it has stayed with
the search firm over the years to become one of its largest ad
customers, according to the Journal.

Within the past year, Google started taking steps into eBay’s
traditional space, launching a service that enables Web surfers to post
on its site products for sale and advertisements, as well as a Web
payment service to rival PayPal, called Google Checkout.

Technorati Tags: ebay, google, search engine, ads

Microsoft Reveals source of iPod competitor

SEATTLE (Reuters) — Microsoft said Friday that Japanese electronics
maker Toshiba will manufacture its upcoming “Zune” portable media
player, the software giant’s answer to Apple’s market-leading iPod.

A company spokeswoman confirmed that a filing made by Toshiba for a
portable audio player to the Federal Communications Commission is for
Zune, due out later this year.

The filing reveals that the device will come with a 3-inch liquid crystal display
screen, a 30-gigabyte hard-disk drive and has wireless connectivity.

Microsoft would not disclose any more details, but said more information was
coming in the “next couple of weeks.” Toshiba was not immediately
available for comment.

The world’s largest software maker faces an uphill climb in closing the gap with Apple’s (Charts) iPod media player and iTunes Music Store, the runaway leaders in their respective areas.

The iPod holds more than half of the digital media player market, according
to research company NPD, while iTunes accounts for over 70 percent of
U.S. digital music sales. In the United States, the iPod has more than
75 percent of the digital music player market, according to NPD.

In the user’s manual section of the filing, Toshiba refers to the device
as “Pyxis” and explains how users can send and receive photos, songs
and albums with nearby users with a wireless connection.

The Pyxis also features a “DJ” function that allows a user to stream music
to up to four other Pyxis devices. It also comes with a FM radio tuner.

Microsoft has not disclosed any pricing details about its media player, but
Toshiba sells its own 30-GB hard-disk player called the gigabeat, which
comes with a smaller screen and without wireless connectivity, for a
list price of $350.

Technorati Tags: iPod, Apple, Microsoft, iTunes, Zune, portable music

Dell Finally Gives Up On Mp3 Market

Dell’s last MP3 player, the DJ Ditty, has vanished from its online catalog, meaning that the electronics manufacturer has exited the market.

The DJ Ditty Dell DJ Ditty web page now redirects to an error page, and all references to the product have vanished from the site.

Dell representatives confirmed that the DJ Ditty has been pulled, part of a retrenching of the company’s strategy.

“As of last week, we did remove the DJ Ditty from our web site and we are not going to offer a follow up product,” Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden said in an email. “We
re tightening our consumer focus in core areas like PCs, printers and TVs because we believe the PCs are the hub of digital entertainment. We always have and will continue to offer third party media players like the Creative Zen that customers will be able to purchase through Dell.”

Dell launched their line of MP3 players in 2003 but never really grabbed enough market share to make Apple, the leader in the space, flinch. In February of this year, Dell discontinued their hard-drive based MP3 players but continued to make the DJ Ditty, the lower-end flash product that was more like the iPod Shuffle. But now the August 2006 catalogue has neither product, indicating that Dell has closed the book on the MP3 player market.

“It is high time they got out of this business, they have not been doing very well at it,” said David Card, an analyst with JupiterResearch. “Nobody is doing well but Apple but Dell was doing particularly unwell. I don’t know why Dell wanted to be in this market so they might as well cut their losses and get out.”

August has not been good to Dell. Last week the company announced the largest consumer recall in history of 4.1 million laptop batteries, just days before they announced that their profits had fallen by 50 percent and that they are under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Dell’s exodus from the MP3 player market is not necessarily indicative that the market is suffering. On Monday, SanDisk announced an 8-GB version of their Sansa e200 series, which will cost the same as the 4 GB iPod nano. While expectations are high that Apple will beef up memory in the nano, the company has so far refused to comment. Additionally, Microsoft is poised to enter the market with its Zune MP3 player, expected out later this year.

“The market is not shrinking, it’s still pretty bullish,” Card said. “SanDisk seems to have been gaining some share but they are gaining share at the expense of other companies, not at the expense of Apple.”

Technorati Tags: Dell, Mp3, iPod, Apple, SanDisk, Hard Drive