What Yahoo Needs from Bartz Right Now

With a new chief executive chosen from well outside its decaying orbit, Yahoo (YHOO) now has one last chance to salvage itself from a slow spiral into irrelevance. On Jan. 13, the struggling Internet icon appointed Carol Bartz, the executive chairman and former CEO of computer design software firm Autodesk (ADSK), to succeed co-founder Jerry Yang at Yahoo's helm.

In her first public statements on behalf of the company, on a brief conference call with analysts, Bartz's no-nonsense style shone through. She noted that Yahoo is a strong company that "frankly needs a little management" and said she would take some time to talk with her staff before announcing any plans for what Yahoo should do from here on out.

For her part, Bartz will need a little educating. It's not that most people question her management prowess or her drive to succeed amid huge obstacles. She joined Autodesk as CEO 14 years ago and almost immediately got a diagnosis of breast cancer, returning to work while still in recovery. She also joined a company where she wasn't exactly embraced by the engineers but managed to expand the product line so Autodesk is now a $1.5 billion enterprise, while cutting costs early in the 2001 downturn to keep the business above water.

What Is Yahoo's Niche?

Bartz, however, has no Internet or media experience, so she probably won't change Yahoo's direction on a dime. She'll not only have to figure out Yahoo's operations but also learn where Yahoo fits into a still fast-changing Internet media world. "It will likely take months for her to learn the Internet business and how Yahoo actually works before she can develop an effective new strategy," Bernstein Research analyst Jeffrey Lindsay said in a note to clients.

Observers have no shortage of ideas for what she should do next. None of this advice, it should be said, is something Bartz has asked for outside the company. Indeed, Bartz put it in no uncertain terms that she wouldn't be hurried before she had a chance to examine operations more closely. "Let's give this company some friggin' breathing room," she declared in the conference call.

But investors, advertisers, and employees won't give her unlimited time to decide Yahoo's next steps. Here are five ideas that smart folks are hoping will get Yahoo back on track once and for all. Not all of them are entirely new, but they're all more relevant than ever as Yahoo stares down restless investors, weary employees, and a declining economy that is now taking a heavy toll on Internet advertising.

Continues

Nortel files for bankruptcy protection, shares plunge

Nortel Networks Corp, North America's biggest maker of telephone equipment, filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, as the global economic downturn further erodes its once high-flying business.

The filing came a day before the Toronto-based company was due to make an interest payment of about $107 million.

Nortel and a number of its affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, according to a court filing.

Its shares plunged more than 76 percent to 7.5 cents in electronic pre-market trading.

"Based on this filing, the board of directors must believe that not only is the fourth quarter bad, but that the first quarter is going to be just as bad or worse," said Duncan Stewart, an analyst at DSAM Consulting in Toronto.

"Although they have cash in the short term, even the medium-term outlook is not enough to make the company viable as a going concern."

According to the court filing in U.S. bankruptcy court for the district of Delaware, Nortel's major creditors include Bank of New York Mellon, with claims valued at nearly $4 billion.

Nortel's shares have tumbled along with the company's fortunes, sinking into penny-stock territory in recent months. In mid-2000, at the zenith of the company's success, they were worth more than C$1,100 each, adjusted for a stock consolidation that took place in late 2006.

"It's obviously a remarkable transformation from where it was as the largest company in Canada worth about 35 percent of the TSX in 2000," said Gavin Graham, director of investments at BMO Asset Management.

"But this is a reflection of the way that the telecommunications industry has changed."

Nortel has faced intense competition from North American and European rivals such as Alcatel-Lucent, as well as low-cost Asian vendors such as Huawei Technologies.

The company has also suffered as telecom companies scale back spending on the equipment that Nortel makes.

The global economic slowdown has exacerbated Nortel's problems, leading it to warn last month that because of current conditions, its business was coming under increased pressure and its cash position and liquidity were deteriorating.

In November, it reported a $3.4 billion third-quarter loss, cut its 2008 outlook and announced 1,300 layoffs, or about 5 percent of its workforce. It also said it would freeze salary increases, cut back on consultants and review its real estate portfolio.

(Additional reporting by Scott Anderson; Editing by Frank McGurty)

($1=$1.22 Canadian)

Source : http://www.reuters.com/

Why Windows 7 Better Deliver

The economy stinks. PC makers are going wobbly. Time for a change.

BURLINGAME, Calif.--It's been a rotten decade for Microsoft. During the Web boom, it sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into an effort to catch up with Google online. It didn't work. Microsoft was early to the smart-phone game. Yet businessmen and hipsters favor smart phones from Apple and Research In Motion.

So Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) is getting back to what it does best: putting its Windows operating system onto more computers than anyone else. The release of a beta version of Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 7, has stirred interest amongst the geeky hordes who rejected Vista early on. While Vista was all about flash, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has set just three goals for Windows 7: simplicity, reliability and speed.

"The stakes are high," says Michael Cherry, a senior analyst with Directions on Microsoft. "I'm very comfortable with their approach this time, though, they're almost underselling and over-performing, as opposed to last time, when they over-promised and under-delivered."

Microsoft could use the change-up. Analysts predict that the software giant's total earnings will fall 3.4% to $4.5 billion, or 50 cents a share, for the quarter ended December, compared to $4.7 billion, or 50 cents a share during the year-ago period, according to Thomson Reuters. Total sales are expected to rise to $17.1 billion from $16.4 billion for the year-ago quarter. Microsoft will report earnings Jan. 22.

That's due, in part, to slowing growth for PCs powered by Microsoft Windows software and the mighty kerthunk left by the debut of Windows Vista.

Sales for Microsoft's client unit--which includes Windows--fell slightly to $4.048 billion for the quarter that ended September, from $4.049 billion for the year-ago period. Without a fix, it could get worse, with Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek writing in a note to investors this week that more PC makers could start to evaluate alternatives to Windows, such as Apple's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) OS X and Linux.

Windows 7, however, could help turn that around, reigniting Microsoft's growth prospects just as the shift to Windows 3.1 put it on the right track nearly two decades ago. Microsoft had struggled for years to produce a competitive operating system. It wasn't until 1992, with the economy still in the doldrums, that Windows 3.1 got it right, putting Microsoft on top of the market for a new generation of machines that relied on graphical user interfaces.

Source : http://www.forbes.com/

Analyst: Palm Will Sell 1.5M Pres In First Year

Let the guessing games begin. An analyst from Citi issued a note recently, stating his belief that Palm should be able to convince 1.5 million people to adopt the Palm Pre as their next smartphone. Will it happen?

Anyone notice the jump in Palm's stock last Thursday and Friday after the Pre was announced at CES? The announcement of the long-awaited, next-generation software and hardware from Palm had a significant impact on the company's stock price.

Citi analyst Jim Suva said in a recent note:

Our estimates move significantly higher on the strength of the Pre; however, we still forecast operating and net income losses for the next few fiscal years. Although we are very optimistic on unit volumes, we are taking a fairly conservative view on ASPs and margins. While reaction was overwhelmingly positive (and rightfully so in our view), very little was asked or offered on Palm’s pricing strategy for the Pre. We think Palm will soon have to offer details on expected ASP for the Pre and will likely revisit our estimates in the future. That said, even with a fairly conservative ASP and margin expectation, our forecasted operating losses narrow dramatically and we would expect that trend to be echoed in consensus estimate.

In other words, after a few unknowns are disclosed, the Pre could truly breathe some new life into the much-beleaguered Palm.

It is worth pointing out that Suva's estimate only considers a U.S. launch of the device. We already know that a UMTS version of the Pre is in the works. If/when that variant of the phone will come to market is unknown.Sprint (NYSE: S) has an exclusive of the Pre at launch. Neither Sprint nor Palm said how long that exclusivity will last. I'd be shocked if it were more than 90 days. That means we may see the UMTS version of the Pre as early as August.

The pricing issue will be key. As I reported over the weekend, guesstimates of the Pre's price are putting it at or near the $200 mark. With such a price point, it's sure to move the phone in serious numbers. Will it move 1.5 million of them on the Sprint network? I'd bet Sprint is praying for just that outcome.

Source : http://www.informationweek.com/

The PC World Challenge: 72 Hours of Windows 7!

Switch from Windows Vista to Windows 7 completely. No going back to work with compatible programs. No jumping ship if a driver keeps you away from your Warhammer Online character. No tears. Windows 7 is your new home for 72 hours, starting from your initial download of the software.

Microsoft doesn't know how to manage digital downloads. Nor does Microsoft know how to title its own applications--this isn't Windows 7, not by any means. It's Windows Vista SP2.

Having completed my 72 hours in Windows 7 land, I'm going to adopt the same mindset and cap the writing of this post at one hour's length. Having seen no less than 40 different articles about Windows 7 over the past three days (if not three months), I'm not about to bore you with a list of the 89 most important features Windows 7 brings to the table. What I am going to chat about is what the actual process of jumping to Windows 7 is like. What happens? How do the new features of Windows 7 affect the general usage patterns of an operating system? What's the speed like? Why would I buy this to replace Vista?

I'll start with a cursory note that this article was actually supposed to run Monday morning--the whole concept of "72 hours in Windows 7 Land" being a fun little weekend activity that I would write up and post for all the people who gave up on downloading the beta on its horrible Friday release. About that. Seeing as Microsoft has no idea what "busy servers" entails, and apparently refuses to release its beta clients across a peer-to-peer distribution method a la Blizzard game patches, I waited. And waited. And waited, until I finally acquired a copy of Windows 7 well into Saturday afternoon. Leading the charge into the digital future, that's Microsoft.

Ahem.

I fired up Windows 7 on a drive I had pre-partitioned in preparation for the event. On one half sat a fresh installation of Windows Vista featuring all the latest updates and drivers I could get my hands on. On the other would sit Windows 7, as I wanted to compare the two's initial performance before installing a ton of my typical junk on either. I fired up my Windows 7 ISO and let 'er rip.

Installing Windows 7 (x64) brought a tear to my eye, for I do love nostalgia and this installation routine is virtually a carbon-copy of Windows Vista's. Save for the addition of a new setup screen for establishing a Homegroup--Windows 7's answer to network file-sharing--there's nothing dramatic about the installation in the slightest. Compared to Windows XP, both Vista and 7's installation procedure (side note: I hope this never becomes the nickname for the operating system) are a godsend. But I'd love to see a more streamlined installation: Perhaps a way to set all the options you need to set up-front, so you can just sit back and let the 24:01-minute process do it's thing. I love making customized slipstream OS installation discs for this very fact. Convenience, Microsoft. Convenience!

Both installation processes forced two resets on my computer. And for those keeping score at home, the Vista installation took all of three minutes, twenty-six seconds less time than the Windows 7 installation. That's not a lot minute-wise, but it's still 16 percent more time than its predecessor. I'm also running a pretty souped-up PC--a stock-clocked Intel QX9650 running at 3.0GHz, four gigabytes of RAM, a speedy Western Digital terabyte hard drive, and an ATI Radeon HD 4850 video card. I can only imagine how long Windows 7 might take for a machine of less prowess.

As mentioned, my first act upon installing Windows 7 was to fire up some benchmarks to get a direct, bare-bones impression of OS performance between Vista and Windows 7. I ran PCMark Vantage on an untouched Windows 7 installation and an untouched Vista SP1 installation (both fully updated with all relevant drivers installed). Go figure, Windows 7 is the faster operating system--10 percent faster than Windows Vista, with a PCMark Vantage score of 6557 to 5919 respectively.

A nice touch of Windows 7 is that it installed with more drivers configured than its predecessor. My Windows Vista installation came with five unknown devices attached, requiring me to find and install drivers for the video card and Ethernet drivers for the motherboard in particular. Windows 7 set itself to the highest resolution my monitor supports using what appeared to be Microsoft-friendly ATI drivers. My Internet connection "worked" immediately, allowing me to fetch whatever I needed without having to first find the CD that came with my motherboard. Nice.

(Ethernet woes aside, I like how Windows 7 now gives you a "files processed per second" time instead of a "Megabytes of speed" value.)

Continues

The best 30 features of Windows 7

We've taken our first serious look at Windows 7 and found 30 reasons why you should be keen to get your hands on vista's successor, too.

After the disappointment - perceived or otherwise - of Windows Vista, many are pinning their hopes on a revival with Windows 7. And from our first impressions of the pre-beta code, that's exactly what they can expect.

We were among the first journalists to get their hands on the actual Windows 7 code and have been testing it in the office for weeks. Here, we've ranked the 30 best features we've found in Windows 7 so far, ranging from minor tweaks of the user interface to a full replacement for virtual private networks. Windows 7 won't be feature-locked until the full betas appear in early 2009, so even more could yet emerge.

1. Don't need a new PC

Windows 7 will become the first major Windows release that any of us can remember that doesn't require better hardware than its predecessor. In fact, it might even run on systems that struggle with Vista, especially netbooks.

Our real-world benchmarks show that the performance difference between Vista and Windows 7 is zilch. Our Office benchmarks and video-encoding tests completed in precisely the same time, regardless of which OS was installed on our test machine. However, there's no doubt that Windows 7 feels faster. Applications open in a snap, and there are fewer instances of the whirly waiting wheel that afflicts Vista.

Better still, it runs happily on netbooks. Although we've seen a few netbooks such as the HP Mini-Note 2133 pre-installed with Vista Basic, most resort to Windows XP. However, we installed Windows 7 on an MSI Wind, with an Intel

 
Atom 1.6GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, and it performed spotlessly. The Aero interface is smooth, menus responsive, even Media Center works with commendable polish. What's more, it goes from power off to booted and ready to use in around 50 seconds - only ten seconds slower than Windows 7 boots on a Dell M1330 laptop, with a Core 2 Duo T9500 running at 2.6GHz and 3GB of RAM.

2. Big-screen support

Large, high-definition displays are much better catered for in Windows 7. First, there's no more fiddling around in the Control Panel to make your desktop appear on an external display - pressing Windows + P brings up a pop-up menu with options to duplicate, extend or transfer your desktop on to the second screen.

There's also good news for those who've been squinting at the mammoth LCD panels connected to their PCs. The telemetry from Microsoft's Customer Experience Programme revealed that only half of Windows users are running their PCs at native resolution, with others artificially reducing the resolution as they're struggling to read the text. Consequently, there's a new option to boost the text and other onscreen items to 150% of their normal size. We tested this feature on a 30in widescreen display and it instantly made the text more readable, although you obviously have to sacrifice some screen real estate - which is the main reason for choosing a bigger screen in the first place. The art is finding a reasonable compromise.

If you simply want to zoom in on a small portion of the screen, the Mac-like magnifier allows you to smoothly zoom in and scroll around the screen.

3. Start button search

The Start button search facility introduced with Windows Vista has been given a spruce up that makes it a genuine timesaver. Instead of merely hunting for exact filename and application matches, the search is more intelligent. Search for "disk" for example, and not only do applications such as Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter appear as they would in Vista, but also Control Panel tasks such as "Create and format hard disk partitions" and "Create a password reset disk".

Continued...

Google hopes to take on Microsoft using resellers

NEW YORK, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Web search leader Google Inc (GOOG.O) took another step on Wednesday towards direct competition with Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) by recruiting IT resellers to market its Web-based applications to business clients.

From the end of March, authorized resellers will be able to sell, customize and support premium versions of Google Apps, which includes word processing, spreadsheets, calendars and email.

Google Apps is broadly similar to Microsoft's top-selling Office package except that Apps is completely Web-based and is part of Google's push into so called 'cloud computing' or software-as-a-service. Microsoft said in October it is also looking at adding Web-based features for its Office applications.

Since it launched Google Apps in February 2007, Google has only sold directly to business users over the Web. Analysts said the move to work with third parties is necessary if Google hopes to compete seriously with Microsoft or IBM (IBM.N).

Microsoft, which is the world's largest software company, sells more than 95 percent of its software through more than 440,000 third party resellers, according to Gartner Research, and intends to spend around $3 billion on managing those sales channels in 2009.

By comparison Google has so far only dipped its toe in the water, but sees a great opportunity after running trials with more than 50 resellers in 25 countries. It also has a 9-month old relationship with Salesforce.com Inc (CRM.N).

"We feel that Google has had limited success in winning customers with a singular sales channel," said Tiffani Bova, an analyst at Gartner Research, who estimates Google has around 200,000 Premier customers.

IT resellers typically sell services such as Web hosting, setting up servers and backing up data, as well as software to hundreds of thousands of end user businesses of all sizes.  Continued...

An Ancient Printer in Vista Home

Q: You answered a question from Craig McKay about how to "Install an Ancient Printer in Vista." He indicated that he is using Vista Home Premium, as am I. The problem I am having is that typing gpedit.msc does not bring any results. Did Microsoft turn this feature off in SP1? Or are you referring to a command that's just for Vista Business and Ultimate?—George Pas

A: Hmm. The other reader seemed satisfied with the solution, but I now notice that Vista Home Premium indeed does not include the Group Policy Editor. (There are seven distinct "flavors" of Vista—it can be tough to keep them straight.) Another way to change this policy involves reaching directly into the Registry. In fact, the Group Policy Editor is simply a friendly face that produces this exact same effect indirectly. As always, remember to back up your Registry before making any changes.

Click Start, click Run, enter regedit. Navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers. (Note that it's the "Windows NT" key in there, not "Windows"). In the right-hand pane look for a value named KMPrintersAreBlocked. If it's not present, right-click in the right-hand pane, select New | DWORD Value from the pop-up menu, and name the new value KMPrintersAreBlocked. Double-click that value and set its data to 0. Now reboot. Solved!

Source : http://www.pcmag.com/

First Look: Google Apps Premiere Not For Everyone

By launching Google Apps, Google decided to take productivity applications into the cloud for business. Whether it's good business, in and of itself, still remains to be seen.

Google Apps Premier takes the feature of the original Google Apps (now known as Google Apps Standard) and extends the platform to include functionality of a corporate network.

For $50.00 per user, per year, Google is offering a relatively easy-to-set-up network, hosted on the Google platform. Included is ad-free Gmail, Postini e-mail security and archiving, Google Calendar, Google Talk, SSL security, Google Docs, Video and Storage—essentially all things Google.

That's what Google provides. What's taken away is hands-on control over security and physical access to resources or company property -- the data. For some, that's a nice trade-off. For others, it's a sacrifice that's either not welcome or even permitted under some regulatory structures.

To get started requires two things: a credit card (to initiate a 30-day free trial) and a public domain. After 30 days, it becomes a recurring cost. Anyone opting for this offering would need to factor that into cost and growth projections beyond 12 months.

DNS information for that domain has to be altered so that a CNAME and MX record points to Google's servers. The process is detailed step-by-step in the administrator portal that is set up once a user signs up for the free trial, and is a breeze for anyone with basic DNS knowledge.

Once the domain information is verified -- which can take 24 to 48 hours -- users can be added and you're off to the races. The administrator's dashboard provides granular access of services like Calendar and Docs. That means an administrator can establish which user can access which services or data. Permissions can be set up by Groups as well.

There are some advanced management capabilities. An administrator can specify e-mail white lists from which users can receive e-mail. In-bound gateways that handle spam can be specified in the administrator dashboard as can outbound SMTP servers.

Single-Sign On can be enabled to allow users one-time-only authentication to Web-based apps like Gmail or calendar. Google Analytics is used to report on the traffic of Google services enabled for a domain. This utility will report on where visitors to your site come from and which Google service users are accessing the most.

Google Apps Premier is about anytime, anywhere access to data. Google Sites is an included service that can be used to create an intranet, where users can collaborate on projects or access files from in a variety of sources like Google Docs, YouTube, or any images. VARs and solution providers can use Google Apps Premier to create a robust, network infrastructure for clients without the need to purchase equipment and additional software. There are several considerations, however. One of them is cost.

VARs must decide whether the $50-per-user, per-year price will be cost-effective, more so than the cost of a traditional on-site e-mail and file server network, particularly with regard to a small business.

Another issue is one of control. This is a hosted solution, so ultimately security and controls are at the topmost level the responsibility of Google. Depending on the nature of a client's business and data, this may not be a big issue. For a doctor's office, or a merchant that needs to store customer credit-card information, the issue of adhering to HIPAA and PCI giving up the security that could be easier to control with data residing on-site may be an issue.

Google's site makes the claim that there are security controls in place for compliance issues, but a solution provider must weigh in as to whether a hosted solution is ideal for a client that is bounded by compliance regulations.

The bottom line is that this is an offering that can offer a VAR a lot of advantages: no additional implementation of hardware or software, centralized management and anywhere access are the main ones. The downside: loss of complete control over security and the recurring cost for the service.

To deliver this as an effective solution, VARs need to put their trust not only in Google's infrastructure but in their own assessment as to whether it fits their customers' growth and budget planning.

Source : http://www.crn.com/

Windows 7 is enough to kill Linux on the desktop

FOR THE PAST three years I have been a Linux fan-boy using Ubuntu most of the time and Windows XP when I needed to play games or run CS desktop lay out stuff.

In a bid to focus my bile on something other than Apple for a bit I decided to play with the new Windows 7 beta. I was disappointed. It was pretty good and, if I am right, could result in the move away from Voleware to Linux and OSX being stopped in in its tracks.

Anyway I installed the 64 bit version of Windows 7 on my Phenom 9350e, quad core based machine with 2GB of very fast RAM.

Installation is still slower than anything Linux could dream up, but didn't really require much effort. There was no eye candy at the installation and a couple of times I feared that the process had frozen up. This might be a beta problem and in the final version there will be the usual beating drums or adverts. I gave the installation a clean hard drive to play with although it did offer to upgrade XP for me, which would have been nice if I had known this was an option.

After installation, Windows 7 could not find my wireless dongle, but to be fair neither could Ubuntu. In the end I had to install a Vista version of the thing which sort of worked. Oddly Windows 7 could not find my webcam either, which was a little odd because it was made by Voles in Volish factories in Vole land. I was just about to write up sarcastic comments about this when the OS helpfully directed me to the site where I could get the drivers for the thing. Skype was another problem. Windows 7 directed me to download the latest beta which did work.

So everything was in place and it looked really good. The security nagging is about the same level as Ubuntu.

After years of working on XP and Ubuntu you forget what a decent graphics interface looks like. Vole has spent some money on it and it has several features that make it easy to navigate.

As you would expect, Windows 7 ships with Internet Exploder and after playing around for it a while I started to realise that while I was having no problems with the stability of the OS, I was getting all sorts of hanging and other problems from IE. In the end I downloaded Firefox and the Internet interactions worked like a charm. It is a bit strange that Internet Exploder is more flakey with Windows 7 than it is on Vista, but at the moment it is the weakness in Vole's launch. Fortunately it is not a problem if you install Firebadger.

I installed Open Office which worked fine and means that I can't see the point of any new version of Office, even if I made the switch to Windows 7 permanently. I also installed and ran a few of my favourite XP games which seemed perfectly happy under the new regime.

Speed wise my perception is that it is about the same speed as XP and Ubuntu (64-bit version). Certainly it was not any slower even if it was chewing up a lot more power running eye candy than I use in Ubuntu.

There was a tool I found in the control panel which allows Windows 7 to test how well your machine is performing. It pointed out that my machine was barely running Windows 7 to its maximum (rated 4.4) because my hard drive was so shite. Fair enough, it is not a SATA drive but it seems that Windows 7 leans on the hard-drive in a way that Microsoft has not made public. It also said my 2GB of Ram was okish but was also dragging down my performance.

Running and shutting down still takes longer than Ubuntu and XP and about the same as Vista. However the OS is much less of a resource hog than Vista.

I did have a few beta related problems. A couple of screen freezes when things went wrong with some installation. Most of these probably are down to the fact I am using an ancient, soon-to-be-retired non-SATA disks. These are so old they only display data in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs which makes it difficult for any post agricultural revolution machine to read.

Windows 7 also has a habit of forgetting about drives when they go wrong. The icons just vanish from the screen. I guess this 'out of sight out of mind' problem will go in the full public version.

Given the advantages of using Windows, particularly if you use open source software to do your office functions, it becomes harder to say that more user-friendly versions of Linux, such as Ubuntu are worthwhile.

If the Vole has learned something from Apple is that an operating system has to be simple to use and look a bit tasty. Windows 7 does this in a way that Vista didn't. It also has to work, which Vista didn't properly.

If Microsoft had released Windows 7 instead of Vista there would have been no rise of Ubuntu or OSX. Now, alas, it is only a matter of time until people come back to the claws of the Vole. The Linux crowd were too busy talking about their superiority on the server and ignored the desktop to the OS's eventual doom. Windows 7 is as pretty as Apple stuff, just as easy to use, and does not treat you like a moron.

The only thing that will keep people away will be the price. If Microsoft was a little bit sensible it would learn that the prices it is shipping the software on are far too high. With a product like Windows 7 at a price of less than $100 it would clean up spectacularly. It will not do this of course which might just save other operating systems out there. Me, I will probably get Windows 7.

Source : http://www.theinquirer.net/

CANADA STOCKS-TSX could get lift from oil prices, Nortel eyed

TORONTO, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Toronto's key stock index could open higher on Wednesday as a rally in oil prices support the resource-heavy index, but telecommunications equipment maker Nortel Networks will be in the spotlight as reports suggest it could file for bankruptcy protection.

Toronto's energy sector accounts for about 22 percent of the overall index, and its moves are often influenced by the price of oil, which is a key Canadian export.

As the key energy group has gone the way of oil prices in recent sessions, the rise in oil prices on Tuesday helped steer the broader index from its third straight selloff in the previous session.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE is coming off a sharply higher close on Tuesday when investors raced back into equities after a string of selloffs left the TSX at its lowest level in two weeks.

Here is some of the news that may affect the market:

NORTEL MULLING BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION-REPORT

Nortel Networks Corp (NT.TO) could file for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday as the telecommunications equipment maker faces a large interest payment, a Canadian newspaper said. [ID:N14442869]

OIL RISES TOWARDS $39 ON SAUDI CUTS, US COLD SNAP

Oil rose 3 percent towards $39 a barrel on Wednesday, as OPEC kept up talk of production cuts and a cold snap in the United States boosted heating oil demand. [ID:nLE636936]

GOLD FIRMS ON WEAK DOLLAR, RISING OIL; ECB EYED

Gold firmed in Europe on Wednesday, supported by a weaker dollar and rising oil prices, though it pared gains as the euro slipped from highs against the U.S. currency and equities and base metals turned negative. [ID:nLE364966]

RESEARCH ROUNDUP

Following is a summary of research on Canadian companies. For more, please see [RCH/CA]

* Raymond James cuts ARC Energy Trust (AET_u.TO) price target by 4.8 percent to C$20 with "market perform" rating.

* Genuity cuts Bankers Petroleum (BNK.TO) price target 34.8 percent to C$1.50 with "Buy" rating.

ECONOMIC DATA SLATE  Continued...

New Yahoo CEO lacks Web and deal-making chops

Yahoo's (YHOO.O) new CEO is a straight-shooting, tough-talking technology veteran but she is seen lacking two qualifications investors hoped for most: deal-making savvy and Web business know-how.

Carol Bartz was appointed to the top job at Yahoo on Tuesday after a two-month search, and brings with her a strong track record of revenue growth at software company Autodesk Inc (ADSK.O), where she was chief executive from 1992 to 2006 and still remains executive chairman.

Bartz, however, does not have an established reputation as a deal-maker and Yahoo investors regarded her appointment sceptically, with shares of the Internet search and advertising company dropping more than 3 percent during the trading day.

"People respect her. She is direct and focussed, but not mean-spirited like a 'Chainsaw Al' type of person," said Needham & Co analyst Richard Davis, who covered Autodesk when Bartz was at its helm.

She is credited with increasing Autodesk's revenue from $285 million (£195.5 million) to $1.5 billion during her 14-year tenure, as well as diversifying its business. Bartz, 60, built the company by buying small and medium-sized businesses, including a $444 million buyout of Discreet Logic in 1999.

"She seems to me to be more of a builder than a buyer-and-flipper," Davis said. "I'm sure that plenty of people wanted to buy Autodesk over the years."

Analysts lauded her for being a dextrous, capable and committed executive, but said that without any experience in the Internet sector, she would likely find it daunting to turn around Yahoo, which is a distant second to Google Inc (GOOG.O) in the search advertising market.

Bartz will be under immediate pressure from investors, who have seen the value of their shares nosedive in the past year, to re-open talks with Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and secure a sale of the company at a healthy premium. The software maker has shown no interest in reviving its $47.5 billion takeover bid.  Continued...

Nvidia Predicts Revenues Could Fall By 50 Percent

Graphics maker Nvidia Corp. said fourth-quarter revenue will decline by up to 50 percent sequentially, due to weakness in end-user demand.

Specifically, the massive shortfall was "a result of further weakness in end-user demand and inventory reductions by Nvidia's channel partners in the global PC supply chain," Nvidia said. The company said that no further comment would be offered, and no conference call explaining the situation would be held.

For the third quarter of fiscal 2009, Nvidia reported $897.7 million compared to $1.12 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2008, a decrease of 20 percent. At the time, chief financial officer Marv Burkett said that the company's "point estimate" for the fourth quarter was a revenue decline of 5 percent, but that that estimate was difficult to estimate.

Nvidia's estimate would seem to put revenue guidance at about $449 million or so, roughly 40 percent of fiscal third-quarter revenue. That would represent a 63 percent drop from the fiscal fourth quarter 2008 earnings Nvidia reported in Feb. 2008.

Nvidia will report its fiscal fourth-quarter 2009 earnings on Feb. 10.

Nvidia is certainly not alone among chipmakers predicting poor fourth-quarter showings. Both Intel and AMD, which competes directly against Nvidia in the PC graphics business, have forecast fourth-quarter revenue shortfalls.

Source : http://www.pcmag.com/

Intel Capital invests $23 million in India

Intel Capital, the investment arm of Intel Corp., said Wednesday that it will invest $23 million in three Indian companies in areas ranging from online marketing to education.

The investment comes as Intel's revenues are shrinking and the global credit crunch has made funding, even to relatively fast-growing countries like India, increasingly scarce.

"We believe that we haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg as far as the market and business potential in India. We continue to be very bullish," Sudheer Kuppam, Managing Director of Intel Capital for India, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia, said by phone.

The new investment will go to One97 Communications Pvt. Ltd., which provides value-added services like ring tones and games for mobile phones, IndiaMART.com, an online business-to-business marketplace, and Global Talent Track, a vocational educational institute.

Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, slashed fourth-quarter profit forecasts twice on flagging demand, and is now projecting a sales decline of more than 20 percent from the year-earlier period. The Santa Clara, California-based company is scheduled to report quarterly results Jan. 15.

Kuppam said Intel Capital invests, on average and excluding one-time large deals, about $500 million a year.

"You get much better value for your money in the current environment," he added. "We are going to be really active."

Funds will come from the $250 million Intel Capital India Technology Fund, which was established in December 2005 and has so far invested about 40 percent of its funds, Kuppam said.

Last year, Intel Capital invested about $50 million in 9 companies in India. That amounted to 8.5 percent of total funds committed globally, excluding a $1 billion investment in Clearwire Corp., an Internet provider specializing in a new type of wireless broadband technology called WiMax.

Intel Corp. employs about 3,000 people in India and opened its largest manufacturing site outside the United States in Bangalore, India, in 1998. Intel's investments in India to date have been over US$ 1.7 billion.

The company does not break down its revenues by country, but spokeswoman Saranya Rustagi said Intel has no plans to change the size of its work force in India as global demand shrinks.

Source : http://www.google.com/

Intel's Classmate comes to the UK

A new version of a laptop originally designed by Intel for the developing world is making its debut in the UK.

The newly designed Classmate machine can be converted from a traditional laptop to a tablet PC to allow children to write and draw more naturally.

It will be available in the UK in February, and will be sold directly to schools as well as via online retailer Amazon and high street store Argos.

But with a retail price of £349 the machine will not be cheap.

There are 1.3 billion school-age children around the world but only 5% have access to a PC or the internet.

In 2007 Intel began to market its Classmate PC as a low-cost way of getting technology into the most needy regions of the world with a price tag of between $200 (£137) and $400 (£275).

So far Intel has sold "close to one million units" in the developing world, and last year began to push the machine in more mature markets.

Ballpoint pens

Initially it announced a deal in Portugal which will see the device distributed to 500,000 children aged between six and 11 during the course of 2009.

Gordon Graylish, deputy general manger of Intel Europe, believes there is no conflict between the two markets.

"It doesn't matter whether the children are in Mali, Vietnam, France or the US," he said.

"The research we did across both the developing and the developed world showed that human beings are actually quite similar, with similar needs, particularly if they are five years old."

Each of the 120 vendors signed up to sell the Classmate provides localised software.

The main reason for Intel's push into western countries is down to the renewed efforts governments are making to close digital divides.

Social deprivation

"Two years ago there was not a lot of interest from mature markets, but that has changed and governments are saying they need to do something to combat social deprivation," said Mr Graylish.

The UK government announced last year that it was to revive its Home Access scheme by distributing one million PCs to the most needy households.

It comes loaded with child-friendly software

"It is encouraging that the UK government has publicly committed itself to driving higher standards and better outcomes for children by breaking down barriers to achievement and tackling the link between deprivation and low educational attainment," said Mr Graylish.

Intel is in talks with the UK government about distributing Classmate PCs under this scheme.

It will make the machine available to schools at a reduced price of around £260.

The laptop comes preloaded with educational software, including Algodoo, a 2D simulation environment designed to explain physics, and the Easybits Magic Desktop, a simplified Windows-based interface.

Mr Graylish is convinced that laptops can play a vital role in transforming education.

"Education through technology can have a profound effect on children," he said.

"It's important that we are not cynical. Bear in mind that some of us got excited when we got ballpoint pens."

Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Asus beefs up Eee Box

Perhaps realising the ­potential of the Eee Box as a multimedia playback machine, Asus has beefed up the specifications of its tiny Eee Box desktop computer.

Although the same size as before and still runs on the 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, the B204 and B206 models come with a more powerful ATI Radeon HD3400 with 256MB of DDR2 memory.

This means that the Eee Box will now have more firepower to be able to run high-definition content compared with the Intel GMA950 graphics accelerator from the previous model.

Together with the improved ­graphics accelerator, Asus has also included a HDMI output for easy connection to HDTVs.

Other features remain largely the same — a 160GB 5400rpm hard disk, 1GB RAM, 802.11n and Gigabit LAN running on Windows XP.

The only difference between the two models is that the B204 comes with a built-in battery so your computer will still run for some time if there is a power cut.

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my.asus.com

Source : http://star-techcentral.com/

Asus 1004DN with Atom N280 CPU expected to ship Q2 or Q3 of 2009

Digitimes reports that they expect netbook makers like Asus and Gigabyte to release new 10 inch netbooks with more powerful Intel Atom N280 earliest in Q2 of 2009.
Asus is has the Asus Eee PC 1004DN with the Atom N280 in the works and already exhibited it at the CES 2009. You can see a hi-res photo in our Asus Booth Tour. Besides the new N280 the Asus Eee PC 1004DN is also featuring a DVD Super-multi drive. You can see a close-up of the drive sloth in this photo.
Other features of hte Asus Eee PC 1004DN include 10 inch LED LCD Screen, SSD, 1GB RAM, 1.3MP camera and Windows XP.

Source : http://www.i4u.com/