Despite strong sales by U.S. PC makers, analysts suggest Acer and Lenovo are poised to take advantage of growing markets overseas.
NEW YORK - Apple Inc. has graced the public with another smooth, white, exquisitely designed gadget, this time aiming at making it easier to play iTunes movies and songs on the living-room TV set.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. has announced the launch of Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360, connecting people across Xbox 360 consoles, Microsoft Windows-based PCs and Windows Mobile-powered devices.
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - If you've never heard the term "WiMAX" before, don't sweat it. You're probably not alone.
But in the hyper-wonk, tech-speak jargon of the wireless industry, WiMAX is the latest thing making its way through the byzantine maze of acronyms and buzzwords used to remind the rest of the world (with all apologies to Chevy Chase), "We're wireless, and you're not."
But WiMAX sometime soon is likely to be one of those terms that the music industry, and others in the content world, will need to know all too well as wireless technologies become an increasingly important distribution channel.
Simply put, WiMAX (also known as 4G, or "fourth generation") is a wireless Internet broadband technology similar to Wi-Fi, but with a much greater range. While Wi-Fi access points have a range of about 100 feet, WiMAX base stations can cover an area roughly the same as existing cellular networks, making it relatively easy to blanket an entire metropolitan area with just one provider.
However, unlike Wi-Fi, WiMAX networks require dedicated, licensed wireless spectrum to use -- in the expensive 2.5GHz band. Many operators are willing to pay for this spectrum as it is available now, while the international standard bodies are dragging their feet in offering more high-bandwidth wireless spectrum.
So what does all this mean to the music industry? This bastard cousin of Wi-Fi and wireless networks has the potential to solve several problems that have plagued the evolution of mobile entertainment. First, it costs much less to transmit data over a WiMAX connection than a traditional cellular network. Cheaper distribution means cheaper prices, which in turn likely means more people buying mobile music. Taken together, the result would be a greater slice of the revenue pie for wireless operators and record labels to share.
"Then we're negotiating over a much larger number, rather than the tight margins we have today," Warner Music Group senior VP of digital strategy/business development Michael Nash said at a panel discussion at the recent CTIA Wireless conference.
Second, WiMAX networks can transfer high-bandwidth content much faster and in bigger packets. That means faster download times for not only single tracks but also full albums and video content.
The wireless operator most bullish on WiMAX's potential is Sprint. The company says it will spend $1 billion this year alone, and another $2 billion next year, to build a WiMAX network in 19 cities by April 2008, covering more than 100 million people. It plans to test mobile WiMAX networks in Chicago and the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., area by the end of the year.
Virtually every wireless network infrastructure provider is actively producing equipment for these new services. Samsung, Nortel, Alcatel, Nokia and Motorola are all involved in deploying the technology on a global scale.
With this on the horizon, content producers are already planning to create more sophisticated fare. MobiTV, a producer of mobile video programming, in January began demonstrating high-definition-quality programming on a WiMAX demo network at the Consumer Electronics Show.
And according to MobiTV CEO Phillip Alvelda, WiMAX has the added benefit of supporting multiple delivery functions, not just mobile. So, a service provider can broadcast content over a WiMAX network, which consumers can then access on a mobile phone, home computer or eventually a set-top box at one price through one service.
"We are changing the economics of the mobile and broadband market," Alvelda says. "You'll see a tremendous reduction in cost (and) better access to your fans."
But WiMAX is no slam-dunk. Overlaying existing wireless networks with new technology is not cheap, and building a whole new network is even more costly. For wireless operators still losing sleep over how to pay off their existing third-generation (3G) networks, this is a headache many don't need.
But to be fair, WiMAX networks are much cheaper. Compared with the approximately $40 billion that Verizon is expected to pay to build its FiOS IPTV network, WiMAX seems like a steal.
Another challenge will be the process of outfitting potential customers with new devices that can access WiMAX networks. Reseeding the market with new devices takes about 18-24 months. For content providers, the plus side is that operators will be relying on more sophisticated content to drive this migration--much like entertainment services have spurred people to buying new 3G phones.
However, it's not limited to mobile phones. WiMAX enthusiasts, including several Sprint executives, see video players, digital cameras and even automobiles connecting to the WiMAX network.
For these reasons and others, Ericsson believes WiMAX revenue will account for only about 5%-10% of global broadband wireless revenue by 2010, and as such has opted to focus its efforts on traditional 3G services.
But make no mistake: WiMAX is coming, and coming soon.
"It would not be accurate to call 2007 'the year of mobile WiMAX,"' says Tammy Parker, an analyst with Informa Telecoms & Media. "But it's clear that the future of this technology in the U.S. will be built upon the foundation being created this year."
MINNEAPOLIS - When movies shifted from videocassettes to DVD, retailers simply cleared the tapes off the shelves to make room for discs. That's not so easy now that movies appear poised to follow music onto the Internet.
CHICO, Calif. - Elsie McLean thought she might have lost her ball on the par-3, 100-yard fourth hole at Bidwell Park. Instead, the 102-year-old Chico woman became the oldest golfer ever to make a hole-in-one on a regulation course.
Because of the slope of the green, McLean and her partners couldn't see where her ball landed after she teed off.
"Where's my ball?" McLean asked.
Her friends, Elizabeth Rake and Kathy Crowder, found it in the cup.
"I said, 'Oh, my Lord. It can't be true. It can't be true.' I was so excited. And the girls were absolutely overcome," McLean said.
It was McLean's first ace.
"Well everybody wants a hole-in-one, and I said, 'Why can't I have a hole-in-one?' I came within inches once," McLean told television station KNVN.
McLean, who used a driver, broke the age record of 101 set by Harold Stilson in 2001 at Deerfield Country Club in Florida.
McLean, who has been featured in golf magazines before, will appear on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on April 24 to celebrate her accomplishment.
"For an old lady," she said, "I still hit the ball pretty good."
Breathe easy—new car smell is apparently non-toxic, although it might exacerbate allergies, new research suggests.
The molecules responsible for the characteristic leathery, plastic aroma that suffuses new cars are known as volatile organic compounds. These are regularly emitted from plastics, synthetic fabrics, upholstery, carpets, adhesives, paints, cleaning materials and other sources. Only a fraction of these volatile organic compounds are obvious—the rest are odorless.
Toxicologist Jeroen Buters at the Technical University of Munich in Germany and his colleagues investigated the health effects of volatile organic compounds that cars emit. They focused on conditions mimicking those where the molecules would likely get emitted most in cars—when parked in hot sunshine.
Buters and his colleagues first collected molecules from the air inside a new car and a three-year-old vehicle of the same brand placed under 14,000 watts of light, where temperatures reached up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. They next exposed these compounds to human, mouse and hamster cells grown in lab dishes. These are commonly used to test toxicity.
New car smell does not appear to be toxic, the scientists found. Air from the new car did cause a slight aggravation of the immune response that could affect people with allergies, but the same was not seen with the older vehicle.
The scientists detailed their findings in the April 1 issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Buters also researches "sick building syndrome," in which people apparently get sick after working in new buildings, where the air can be loaded with volatile organic compounds.
Curiously, "if you had the concentration of volatile organic compounds in the air of new buildings that you had in new motor vehicles, you would immediately get sent home out of fear of sick building syndrome," Buters told LiveScience.
This discrepancy might be explained in part by the different mindsets people have when it comes to entering new cars versus new buildings, he said.
"There's a big discussion over whether sick building syndrome is real or not. We do know that in sick building syndrome, mindset is important," Buters said. "People are generally happier entering new cars than new workplaces. But another factor that might come into play is ventilation. If the smell is getting to you in the car, you can roll down your windows."
Buters also noted that car manufacturers have done a good job on reducing new car smell. "They are concerned about reducing these emissions," he said.
AUGUSTA, Ga. - It all seemed surreal to Zach Johnson. Three clutch birdies on the back nine at the Masters. His name atop the leaderboard. Toppling Tiger Woods. Slipping on the green jacket.
"I'm from Cedar Rapids, Iowa," he said when asked to describe himself. "That's about it. I'm a normal guy."
Not anymore.
Normal guys don't beat Woods in the final round of a major, especially when Woods is in the lead. Normal guys aren't unfazed by the ground-shaking cheers of Woods making an eagle to mount a charge.
Jack Fleck was a normal guy from Iowa, too, and he took down the great Ben Hogan in the 1955
Maybe everyone should have seen this one coming.
A strange week at Augusta National saved the biggest surprise for the very end — Johnson as the Masters champion, and beating Woods to get there.
"As they say, a giant has got to fall at some point," he said.
Woods was within two shots after his eagle on the 13th hole, but all he could muster were pars the rest of the way. His last chance ended when his approach to the 18th settled 20 feet to the right of the pin. And for the first time ever in a major, Woods walked the final hole with no trophy waiting for him at the end and no one behind him on the course
"I was sitting in the locker room, waiting for Tiger to hit his shot on 18, and I thought, 'He's done stranger things,'" Johnson said. "The guy is a phenom. The next person to come along like him, who knows how long that will be? It makes it that much more gratifying knowing I beat Tiger Woods."
Even more gratifying to Johnson was winning on Easter.
"My faith is very important to me," he said. "I had people looking after me. It was awesome."
The 31-year-old Johnson is the least accomplished Masters champion since Larry Mize, who also had only one PGA Tour victory, chipped in to beat Greg Norman in a playoff 20 years ago.
But this was no fluke.
The thrills and spills finally returned to Augusta National in the final round. Through it all, Johnson kept his cool.
"I felt like I've been blessed and I'm good enough to take home the green jacket," Johnson said. "That's what I was trying to tell myself the entire time and it worked out in my favor."
Johnson finished at 1-over 289, matching a Masters record last set in 1956 for highest winning score. And it ended a streak of the winner coming out of the final group at Augusta National ever year since 1991.
"He played beautifully," Woods said. "Look at the round he shot out there, the score. He did what he needed to do. He went out there, grinded away, made shots he needed to make."
Woods looked like a lock for his fifth Masters and third straight major when he took the lead after a short birdie on the second hole, only this major didn't work out like so many others.
Johnson and three other players came after him, and this time Woods was the one who backed off with sloppy mistakes — a broken club, shots that either found the water or the bunker and too many putts that stayed out of the cup.
It was the third time Woods lost a lead during the final round of a major, and the first time he ever failed to get it back.
He closed with a 72, the first time as a professional he has played the Masters without breaking par. Goosen and Sabbatini each shot 69 on a day when the course finally allowed something that resembled those fabled charges on the back nine.
Johnson chipped away at the myth that the Masters is only for the big boys. He didn't try to reach any of the par 5s in two all week, yet he played them better than anyone with 11 birdies and no bogeys.
"I knew if I stayed in the present, I'd do well," he said. "I kept rolling that ball, and it was my day, I guess. Pretty lucky."
Defending champion Phil Mickelson presented him the green jacket. It was six years ago when Johnson first showed up at Augusta National with a ticket and followed Lefty around as he tried to stop Woods from a fourth consecutive major.
Now, Johnson can come back to play in the Masters as long as he wants as one of the most unlikely champions.
Woods walked away bitter again, not so much at his play on Sunday but for the way he finished in previous rounds. A bogey-bogey finish on Saturday that ultimately cost him the lead, and a bogey-bogey finish on Thursday that set the tone for his week.
"I had a chance," Woods said. "But looking back over the week, I basically blew this tournament on two rounds where I had bogey-bogey finishes. That's 4 over on two holes. You can't afford to do that and win major championships."
Even so, he didn't help himself in the final round.
Two shots behind making the turn, Woods found a bunker on the 10th and failed to save par. His tee shot stopped next to a Georgia pine on the next hole, and Woods' 4-iron collided with the tree immediately after he hit the ball, bending the shaft almost in half. He did well to save par there, and seemed to hit another gear on the 13th.
With the 4-iron in pieces, he hammered a 5-iron over the creek at the 13th and watched it trickle down the top shelf within 3 feet away for his only eagle of the week.
Johnson, who laid up short of the 15th green, was walking to his third shot when he heard the roar and "I assumed Tiger made eagle" to pull within two shots.
Johnson made par from just off the green, then holed a 12-foot birdie putt on the 16th to cap his run and put Woods in position of needing a charge of his own. Woods simply didn't have it.
His 15-foot birdie attempt on the 14th broke across the front of the cup. And from the right rough on the 15th, needing to bend the ball around the pines, his 3-iron came up just short and into the water. He pitched to 7 feet to save par and stay in the game.
Johnson three-putted from about 35 feet on the 17th for bogey, again leaving Woods hope. But he missed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 16th, and his approach to the 17th came up short in a bunker.
"What the hell was that?" Woods said.
Goosen also had his chances, going out in 32 to take the lead and making only one bogey on back nine, a three-putt at No. 12. But it was a peculiar decision to hit iron off the tee at the 510-yard 13th — easily reachable in two — and he left himself only an 18-foot attempt for birdie, which he missed. He also laid up on the par-5 15th after driving into the trees.
The best chance to catch Johnson belonged to Justin Rose, who made five birdies in a nine-hole stretch through the 16th and was one shot behind until hitting his tee shot into the trees on No. 17 and taking double bogey. Rose finished with a 73 and tied for fifth at 292 with Jerry Kelly (70).
Stuart Appleby, who had a one-shot lead over Woods going into the last round, recovered from a double bogey on his opening hole to join a four-way tie for the lead on the back nine until he hit 7-iron into Rae's Creek on the 12th hole and took double bogey.
With two double bogeys on his card, he shot 75 and finished four back.
"I had too many doubles and a triple," Appleby said. "You can handle bogeys out here. But once you do the big numbers, you walk yourself backwards. It was a tough day. I enjoyed the day. Would have loved a rosier finish."
BAGHDAD - The powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his militiamen on Sunday to redouble their battle to oust American forces and argued that Iraq's army and police should join him in defeating "your archenemy." The U.S. military announced the weekend deaths of 10 American soldiers, including six killed on Sunday.
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