• #shortyawards #politics @JIDF b/c he will win always #

• #shortyawards #politics @JIDF bc he's leading the fight #

NEW YORK – Apple Inc. shares hit an all-time high Thursday after a published report suggested the intensely scrutinized yet secretive company may be getting ready for a major product announcement.
Citing unnamed people familiar with the preparations, the Financial Times reported on its Web site Wednesday that Apple has rented space for several days in late January at an arts center in San Francisco.
The company is famed for its highly staged launches. CEO Steve Jobs has used past events to introduce groundbreaking — and lucrative — gadgets such as the iPod and the iPhone.
Although Apple has not acknowledged working on a tablet computer — the company is notorious for keeping upcoming product plans closely guarded — analysts expect the company’s next blockbuster to be something of a cross between a laptop and an iPod Touch, which is essentially an iPhone without the calling features.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request Thursday for comment on the FT report.

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• Noveau Art : http://is.gd/4SL2O #

LOS ANGELES – No Doubt has sued video game maker Activision for putting words in band members’ mouths.

The band on Wednesday sued Activision Publishing Inc. over a feature in the new "Band Hero" game that allows players to control virtual band members and have them sing other artists’ songs.

The lawsuit claims a feature allows players to have lead singer Gwen Stefani perform suggestive lyrics from the Rolling Stones’ hit "Honky Tonk Women." The suit also notes a virtual version of bassist Tony Kanal can be made to sing his band’s hit "Just a Girl," but with Stefani’s voice.

The game, an offshoot of Activision’s popular "Guitar Hero" series, went on sale Tuesday.

The company, which is based in Santa Monica, Calif., said in a statement that it engaged in extensive negotiations with No Doubt’s management and have a valid written agreement for their participation in "Band Hero."

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SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – A judge ordered a California online music service to stop delivering Beatles songs to users, according to a copy of the ruling posted online.

US District Court Judge John Walter in Los Angeles sided with British music giant EMI, which filed suit this week accusing Bluebeat.com and its parent company Media Rights Technologies of infringing on its rights to Beatles songs.

Walter brushed aside Bluebeat’s contention that it wasn’t violating copyright laws because Beatles tunes at its website were re-recorded "audio visual performances with related sounds."

Bluebeat did not submit any reliable evidence to support its claim that it "independently developed their own original sounds," the judge said in his ruling.

Walter issued a restraining order barring Bluebeat from streaming or selling Beatles digital downloads of Beatles music and said he believed EMI was likely to win its legal case against the Internet firm.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – A Motorola Droid smart phone goes on sale Friday, joining the growing ranks of smart phones on the open-source operating system backed by Google.
With Droid, which will work on the Verizon telecom network, Motorola is taking on mobile devide powerhouses such as Apple, Nokia and Research in Motion (RIM).
"People are gravitating to Android phones because they are different and trendy. Droid may be the new ‘in’ phone," said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.
Taiwan-based HTC brought the first Android phone to market late last year.
Google chief executive Eric Schmidt recently proclaimed that the smart phone market was on the cusp of an "explosion" of Android devices.
Market tracking firm Gartner agrees, predicting that there will be at least 40 models of Android phones within a year, and that they will be the second place mobile platform by the end of 2012.
Reports surfaced on Thursday that Verizon is poised to add an HTC Android phone to its stable.
"In a few years Android will be the second most popular smart phone running neck-and-neck with Apple," Gartner analyst Van Baker told AFP on Thursday.

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There was no shortage of netbooks — those inexpensive and underpowered laptops that have been all the rage for the last year — at this year’s CES convention, with many wondering if they haven’t completely hit the point where they’ve become interchangeable commodities.

High-end netbooks like Sony’s Lifestyle PC aside, most netbooks now look and act about the same, offering the same features, components, and screen size.

So what’s the market’s next move? Cut prices, of course. Netbook pricing has been slowly creeping up over the last year as buyers looked for bigger hard drives, better performance, roomier keyboards, and larger screens. That feature creep means it’s not uncommon to see prices well above $400 for entry-level devices.

The folks at Freescale Semiconductor want to turn that trend around, offering a low-power chip designed to sip electricity while letting netbook makers offer devices for less than $200.

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RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – What do Jigsaw from "Saw," Freddy Krueger, and Jason from "Friday the 13th" all have in common, besides serial killing? Video games, if the horror stars’ latest round of promotions are to be believed.

Horror video games are having a record year as zombies, monsters, demons, and chain-sawing wielding psychos fight against the consoles, making video games the new home of horror for some.

Michael Pachter, video-game analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities, said about $147 million worth of horror video games have sold in the United States alone this year through September compared to $131 million in total for all of 2008.

Actor Kane Hodder, best known as the man behind Jason’s mask in the "Friday the 13th" movies, believes scary games have an advantage over horror movies as disillusionment sets in with horror movie remakes and recycling old horror themes.

"Whenever horror movies do well, Hollywood always rushes more into theaters and people get a little burned out on them," said Hodder, who has worked in the videogame industry.

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[E-Commerce Times] – Amazon is offering a service that will let users supply a phrase and a PIN to make purchases at Amazon.com and any other participating Web site. Shoppers would not have to log in or supply credit card information to make a purchase. The system lets users set up multiple "pay phrases" to be linked to the same payment account, and it offers optional settings for preapproving purchases and setting allowances.

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) has introduced a new shortcut for consumers to pay for their purchases on Amazon.com and partner Web sites.

Amazon PayPhrase lets shoppers pick their own phrase — for example, "Knick Knack" or "Jack’s Allowance" — and use it in lieu of entering a credit card number to make purchases. The phrase is accompanied by a pre-established PIN.

Amazon did not return a call from the E-Commerce Times in time for publication.

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