Sony Admits: High BD Movie Prices Curtail Sales of Blu-Ray Players

The rumor has been going on for some time now, but we are hearing that Yahoo just sold its comparison price service Kelkoo to a UK based private equity firm (that i never heard of and can’t find on Google). The news has been broken by ex-Kelkoo co founder, Pierre Chappaz and a copy of the internal email announcing the acquisition is available here (or below)

The transaction is supposed to be sub 100 millions euros when Yahoo acquired the service 475 million euros in 2004. Ever since its acquisition Kelkoo lost its momentum, attacked on all sides by more dynamic local competitors

The news has not hit the wires yet and i wonder how the market will welcome this acquisition. Since Yang left the boat Yahoo stock keeps loosing weight now at 8.95 USD

Hello Everyone,

It has been since summer since I gave you update email. I have waited because there are so many things nearing launch that I thought it best to wait till they had happened to give the update. Firstly, I would like to end the speculation from the last few months about the future of Kelkoo. Both Toby and I have announced that we were exploring strategic options for the business. One of the options that Laila and I were exploring, in fact pushing for, was to find it a new home for Kelkoo. I am pleased to announce, today, that we have done just that!

The new owners of Kelkoo are a UK based private equity company called Jamplant Ltd funded by several angel investors, and in their own words: “Jamplant Limited is very excited about the price comparison space, and being able to help Kelkoo continue its rapid growth. Philip Smyth, Chairman of Jamplant, believes that with our backing, Kelkoo should be able to accelerate its growth much faster as a standalone company . We are looking forward to working with the highly experienced and established management team at Kelkoo” Laila and I are also very excited about this new phase in the history of Kelkoo, accelerating the growth strategies we have put in place over the last year, and exploring new opportunities for all of us.

So, what does it mean to our daily lives as Kelkoo employees? We will carry on with the great work already in process. This is due to the fact that many people have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure a very smooth transition out of Yahoo! Today at 3pm GMT (4pm CET), we will schedule a video all hands for Kelkoo staff. Please ask any questions that are on your minds to Sasha ( —— ) before the meeting, we will do our best to answer during the broadcast.

I also want to update you on the things we are delivering on our top 3 priorities. Out of the new organization of Kelkoo last October, the Country Managers and the Exec Team have spent time thinking about and stretching our expectations of Kelkoo. That resulted in the following mission statement (slightly altered with the help of our new marketing director, Bernard):

Ø Kelkoo will be integral to the online retail experience by completely satisfying the needs of our users, helping them to find and discover what and where to buy. In doing this, we will ultimately deliver more buyers to retailers than any other site.

To achieve this, we have all been pushing on delivering on the following priorities:

* Fix the Search
o (Convergence) which has seen the launch of Search 5 in France and Netherlands and is currently showing nearly - - - % uplift on revenue per visit
o (Comprehensiveness) we have finalized the agreement with - - -, are working with them to
* Give more noticeable value to users thru creating Kelkoo Club
o - - - launched in all countries in July
o - - - launched in some countries in September
o Cash-Back launched in beta in the UK yesterday, and will launch in FR next week
* Build the Brand
o We have kicked off our own version of project Goldmine , to study and understand our customers and their needs. We have appointed three agencies to help us with the project, which should complete by the end of February. An exciting part of this project will be to interview some employees on “what is Kelkoo”, and feed that back to the business priorities we will establish over the next 6 months.

So you can see, that we are delivering more and faster than ever in our history. Laila and I are proud of the work that has been done so far, and believe that the future of Kelkoo is really bright.

In closing, I feel that it is important to thank Yahoo! for all the investment and work that has gone into Kelkoo and our employees over the past 4 years. To list all of the people we will miss would take an age, but in particular, I would like to thank Toby and Jonathan Wolf for making the new chapter possible.

Regards,
Glen & Laila

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Some apps wander around the wilderness for a while until they can find the perfect home. For Evernote, that home is the iPhone. The note-taking, picture-capturing, voice-recording, handwriting-recognizing universal memory service has been under development for years and launched last February in private beta on the PC. But it wasn’t until May 29 that it debuted on the iTunes store as an iPhone app. That’s when it started to take off.

Now Evernote has 512,000 registered users, who have created 13.8 million notes. In addition to the iPhone app, Evernote offers its service thorugh a PC client, a Mac client, a Website, and other mobile devices. The iPhone app is the most popular, being used 57% of the time. It is followed by the Web (51%), the PC client (32%), the Mac (28%), and other mobile clients bring up the rear (8%). These numbers add up to more than 100 because nearly half of all users access the service via more than one app.

The PC and Mac clients are the most fully-featured, yet it is the iPhone app that gave Evernote its critical mass. Perhaps that’s because the iPhone app lets you take pictures using the camera, append a note and save it to your Evernote page, where it is archived and searchable. It is more difficult to capture memories with a laptop.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

The suspected head of Basque separatist group Eta is put under formal investigation after his arrest in France, sources say.

The suspected head of Basque separatist group Eta is put under formal investigation after his arrest in France, sources say.

Some eye-catching images from around the world

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Google, It Wasn't Broke  —  Bucket tests and experimental products are one thing.  But to mess with the real Google search is serious stuff.  Why did they do it?  —  Google's overall search share has grown substantially this year (and all other years since it went live).

Mercedes-Benz new myCOMAND system has appeared at the Los Angeles Auto Show, taking on the fourth-generation BMW iDrive. Whereas the latter has an Xbox 360 feeling, this one gets some clues from...

Madonna and Guy Ritchie have been granted a preliminary decree of divorce. Neither appeared at the brief London court session, but after six weeks and a day, the divorce can become final.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=PnOLn"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=PnOLn" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=v6mFN"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=v6mFN" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=eBe2n"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=eBe2n" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=98Hzn"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=98Hzn" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=gjEON"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=gjEON" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=l3VKN"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=l3VKN" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsMain/~4/460753606" height="1" width="1"/

As I wrote previously, do not upgrade to 2.2 yet. Here is yet another warning from the creators of the actual jailbreaking programs. If you don’t listen to me, at least listen to people who know what they are talking about.

So, as anticipated our friends the misfits have recently released the long awaited 2.2 update. We can confirm that this update SHOULD NOT be applied using iTunes if you want the chance of a soft-unlock in the near future.

If you want to keep that option of a ‘soft-unlock in the near future’ available but you want the new features of 2.2, you will be able to update to 2.2 using a PwnageTool created custom ipsw file that disables the baseband update. You will be able to do this using an updated version of PwnageTool that will be released sometime soon.

Some facts -

• The 2.2 firmware for 3G contains a baseband update for the 3G iPhone
• The 2.2 firmware for 2G (1st gen iPhones) doesn’t contain a baseband update and the baseband is still at 04.05.04
• We believe that our Pwnage technique (and therefore the Jailbreak) isn’t affected, but PwnageTool and QuickPwn do not support this release as yet, so DO NOT install 2.2 using iTunes as you will lose your jailbreak
• If you apply this update and you previously relied on PwnageTool or QuickPwn to activate your phone, it may become temporarily deactivated and unusable (until we release the new version of PwnageTool or QuickPwn).
• PwnageTool and QuickPwn updates will be released as soon as possible that will allow a safe update path to 2.2 the release of these updates is inevitable but not imminent, we are creating the modifications right now and we need to put the new software through the usual testing process.
• If you apply this update and you have third-party (non AppStore) applications  that you rely on they will stop working.
• 2G (1st gen) iPhone users who cannot wait for the new PwnageTool or QuickPwn can safely “Update” to 2.2 using iTunes, this will preserve the existing activation. However “restoring” to 2.2 using iTunes will return the iPhone to the unactivated state. If you are in any doubt just wait. NB: This works for 2G ONLY.
• The use of SIM-Proxies (small circuit boards/chips that sit underneath the SIM card) to provide GSM/UMTS service on your locked iPhone 3G is a method that we have always advised against. Early reports suggest that the 2.2 update disables the functionality of these devices. The techniques used were always unreliable and we are surprised that they have lasted this long.
• We are not working on the 2nd generation iPod touch at the moment, so we cannot comment on what the the 2.2 software update may do to this specific model

So, as always, if you are in any doubt whatsoever please delay the install of this firmware on any of your devices until we have investigated the release in more detail. Watch this space

So there it is. The warning. Do not update yet, and I will not have to help you and answer all of your stupid questions dealing with NOT FOLLOWING ADVICE. Thank You.

Also, there is a new version of iTunes is out (8.02). Do not upgrade to this. iTunes is quite stable now, and this update may affect the jailbreaking process. Don’t upgrade until we say it is okay to do so.

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Astronauts have completed further repairs at the International Space Station without mishap, earlier in the week a bag of tools drifted off into space.

Mushrooms. They do funny things to you, honest. I ate a punnet of slightly manky ones from the reduced aisle at Asda once and I’ve never been quite the same since. It’s uncommon to combine mushrooms and*computer games, the reason being that all game developers are beardy and unclean and don’t need any more fungus than they already grow themselves.
There are, however (as is often the case) the odd exceptions. The daddy of the mushroom games is, of course, Centipede. A game which not only featured our little hallucinogenic bundles of basidiomycota,but spiders, scorpions, fleas and, allegedly, a centipede or two.

Few who partook in the trackball-rolling coin-guzzling button-bashing arcade game experience will be able to rid themselves of the thrill of wiping out the last segment of ‘pede on it’s final sweep of the bottom of the screen.
The Atari VCS owners among us will hardly be able to resist looking back on this particular title with fond memories of wasted afternoons waggling their stiff joysticks in a darkened room.
And now there is Prospero’s Millenipede.
Alright, I’ll admit, there’s not exactly a shortage of decent Centipede remakes out there but this is the first in these here parts for a while.
This is actually an update to a game first released way back in April 2007 (when we were kids and the internet was new and shiny…. Alright, a year and a half ago) and boasts improved graphics and audio, new weapons, onling high scores and SO much more.
This is clearly a labour of love for Prospero who has promised naked ladies and fast cars*in the next version (not true) and deserves at least a small portion of anyone’s time. Because it’s fab and colourful and fast and frantic and free (of course!)*and REALLY REALLY Centipedeish!
Alright, I’m convinced, show me the dollarcash….

Certainly sir, walk right this way to the download
And pop into our special Amsterdam style coffee house for a mushroom or two afterwards to share your opinion….


More...

HEre is the words right from the iPhone Dev Team from their site:

This ability we now have to spawn background tasks means we are one step closer to the 3G soft unlock.  We have a clear path to follow, and “all” that remains is the implementation.

A quick summary of the key 3G-unlock-related achievements we’ve made so far:

• Unsigned code execution on 3G baseband
• Reverting 01.45 baseband to previous versions
• Patching of static text (the AT&V demo)
• Injection of AT routines (the task list demo)
• Injection of background tasks (this demo)

Now it’s on to overriding the baseband code that enforces the carrier lock.

A high-quality version of the video is available via bittorrent here.

A version that’s playable on your iPhone or iPod Touch is available here

P.S. That “One more thing!” text is being generated by the backgrounded “steve” task at 5-second intervals.  The “A0” is the task’s priority.

P.P.S. Remember...don’t update to official 2.2 when it comes out if you ultimately want a 3G soft unlock!

Yeah, we finally have some good news. I personally am not affected by this update (I own an iPod Touch), but for all of you with iPhone 3Gs, you can now start becoming excited.

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Boys born to women exposed to hairspray in the workplace may have a higher risk of being born with a genital defect.

h4How much will punter spend on home entertainment now they're not going out as much?/h4 pBlu-ray Disc sales won't meet previously enthusiastic predictions, a senior Sony staffer has warned..../p

A classified US report says the CIA withheld information after the shooting down of a missionary plane in Peru in 2001.

A classified US report says the CIA withheld information after the shooting down of a missionary plane in Peru in 2001.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Pierre Chappaz l’annonce sur son blog : Yahoo! a revendu la société Kelkoo, comparateur de prix, à Jamplant Ltd, un fond d’investissement anglais.

Selon l’auteur du Kelblog, le prix de la transaction ne dépasserait pas les 100 millions d’euros, soit près de 400 millions de perte à la revente pour Yahoo! depuis 2004.

Retrouvez ci-dessous le mail (extraits) reçu par les employés de kelkoo pour les informer de cette nouvelle.

Hello Everyone,

It has been since summer since I gave you update email. I have waited because there are so many things nearing launch that I thought it best to wait till they had happened to give the update. Firstly, I would like to end the speculation from the last few months about the future of Kelkoo. Both Toby and I have announced that we were exploring strategic options for the business. One of the options that Laila and I were exploring, in fact pushing for, was to find it a new home for Kelkoo. I am pleased to announce, today, that we have done just that!

The new owners of Kelkoo are a UK based private equity company called Jamplant Ltd funded by several angel investors, and in their own words: “Jamplant Limited is very excited about the price comparison space, and being able to help Kelkoo continue its rapid growth. Philip Smyth, Chairman of Jamplant, believes that with our backing, Kelkoo should be able to accelerate its growth much faster as a standalone company . We are looking forward to working with the highly experienced and established management team at Kelkoo” Laila and I are also very excited about this new phase in the history of Kelkoo, accelerating the growth strategies we have put in place over the last year, and exploring new opportunities for all of us.

So, what does it mean to our daily lives as Kelkoo employees? We will carry on with the great work already in process. This is due to the fact that many people have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure a very smooth transition out of Yahoo! Today at 3pm GMT (4pm CET), we will schedule a video all hands for Kelkoo staff. Please ask any questions that are on your minds to Sasha ( —— ) before the meeting, we will do our best to answer during the broadcast.

I also want to update you on the things we are delivering on our top 3 priorities. Out of the new organization of Kelkoo last October, the Country Managers and the Exec Team have spent time thinking about and stretching our expectations of Kelkoo. That resulted in the following mission statement (slightly altered with the help of our new marketing director, Bernard):

Ø Kelkoo will be integral to the online retail experience by completely satisfying the needs of our users, helping them to find and discover what and where to buy. In doing this, we will ultimately deliver more buyers to retailers than any other site.

To achieve this, we have all been pushing on delivering on the following priorities:

* Fix the Search
o (Convergence) which has seen the launch of Search 5 in France and Netherlands and is currently showing nearly - - - % uplift on revenue per visit
o (Comprehensiveness) we have finalized the agreement with - - -, are working with them to
* Give more noticeable value to users thru creating Kelkoo Club
o - - - launched in all countries in July
o - - - launched in some countries in September
o Cash-Back launched in beta in the UK yesterday, and will launch in FR next week
* Build the Brand
o We have kicked off our own version of project Goldmine , to study and understand our customers and their needs. We have appointed three agencies to help us with the project, which should complete by the end of February. An exciting part of this project will be to interview some employees on “what is Kelkoo”, and feed that back to the business priorities we will establish over the next 6 months.

So you can see, that we are delivering more and faster than ever in our history. Laila and I are proud of the work that has been done so far, and believe that the future of Kelkoo is really bright.

In closing, I feel that it is important to thank Yahoo! for all the investment and work that has gone into Kelkoo and our employees over the past 4 years. To list all of the people we will miss would take an age, but in particular, I would like to thank Toby and Jonathan Wolf for making the new chapter possible.

Regards,
Glen & Laila

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Marketing the DominiNET Blog, originally uploaded by mstephens7.

These were all over campus yesterday. Simple. Intriguing. I wonder how the blog’s stats might jump after this type of guerilla marketing.

Color me impressed with this one: Prague-based 360 Cities, a network of ‘Virtual Reality’ photographers promoting high-resolution spherical imagery, has integrated its portfolio of stunning 360° panorama shots into the Featured Preview Layer for Google Earth.

A collection of the panoramas just became visible automatically to every user of the free 3D earth visualization software, and the rest of the 360cities database, which is nearly 10,000 spherical images strong, has been added to the Gallery in Google Earth as well. Some of these are breathtakingly beautiful: check out this shot of the Berlin holocaust memorial, or the inside of this Iranian mosque, or this market place in Gambia, or the Cuban corner bar I embedded below.

I love seeing people outside of Google doing their utmost to enhance the Google Earth experience, although it must be said that the company is doing their part too. Recently, they made it possible to visit Ancient Rome in 3D.

Note: this only works with the latest version of Google Earth (4.2), which features the new PhotoOverlay format. You can download the KMZ file here.

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