16 April 2009
IBM, Samsung, others team up on next-gen chips
IBM, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, and others are teaming up on the development of next-generation chip technology for small, low-power devices with one wary eye on Intel, which is expediting its move to chips with smaller geometries. IBM and its semiconductor technology alliance partners are announcing the availability of 28-nanometer (nm) chip technology, a little more than a generation beyond the 45nm technologies currently used by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices in their latest chips.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10220738-64.html
eBay buying stake in Gmarket; Yahoo selling its
eBay announced an agreement yesterday to acquire Gmarket for a price of up to $1.2 billion, and Yahoo has agreed to sell its 10 percent stake in the South Korean e-commerce site in a move that would raise about $120 million. Gmarket’s board unanimously approved eBay’s tender offer, in which the online auction and commerce site will pay a cash price of 31,767 Korean won, or $24, per share for all common shares and all American Depository Shares. eBay said it’s assured of owning at least 67 percent of the company, and if it acquires all shares in the tender offer, the total price will reach about $1.2 billion.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10220776-93.html
Virgin to migrate customers onto Google Mail
Virgin Media plans to move all its home broadband customers onto the Google Mail platform, the company said yesterday. Google’s Web-based e-mail service is known as Google Mail in the UK and Germany, and Gmail in the rest of the world. According to the Internet service provider, the Web-mail rollout will extend to all of its 4 million home broadband customers, but there will be a delay before it reaches everybody. While the customers will be moved off Virgin Media’s existing e-mail platform, they will be able to retain their existing e-mail addresses.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10220255-94.html
Labour’s £5,000 sweetener to launch electric car revolution
Consumers are to be offered incentives of up to £5,000 to purchase an electric car under government plans to be unveiled today that will also see the creation of electric car cities across the UK and the launch of large-scale experiments with ultra-green vehicles. The proposals are part of a £250m strategy, seen by the Guardian, spelling out a revolution in Britain’s road transport network based on ultra-low carbon vehicles. It will be launched today by Geoff Hoon, the transport secretary, and Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, with the aim of kickstarting the market for cleaner road vehicles and slashing the UK’s CO2 emisisons.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/16/green-cars-transport-incentives-emissions
New mobile application from Nabbit allows users to save ads from TV or radio
Jump Technologies has been expanding it’s Nabbit service a lot in the past while. To begin with, you could only “nabb” music from the radio. Then it spread to TV, so viewers could use interactive features on a dedicated channel during their favourite show. Now Nabbit has moved into advertising, so consumers can “nabb” ads that appeal to them.
http://www.gomonews.com/new-mobile-application-from-nabbit-allows-users-to-save-ads-from-tv-or-radio/
MySpace Music UK set for 2009 launch despite setbacks
MySpace Music, the social network’s ad-funded music service, claims it’s still on target to launch a UK site this year despite a false start. The social network first started approaching ad agencies late last year with a view to signing up top brands to support a launch scheduled for the first quarter this year.
http://www.nma.co.uk/Articles/42185/MySpace+Music+UK+set+for+2009+launch+despite+setbacks.html
CNN acquires leading Twitter account
CNN gained nearly a million Twitter followers yesterday when it acquired the @cnnbrk Twitter account. The account, the largest on Twitter with more than 947,000 followers, had been maintained and nurtured by James Cox. CNN did not disclose financial details of the acquisition, probably because rules at the microblogging site prohibit the selling of Twitter accounts. The acquisition comes as the race to 1 million Twitter followers heats up. As of Wednesday afternoon, Ashton Kutcher was in second place with 917,000 followers, followed closely by Britney Spears, who has about 913,000 followers.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10220629-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
