Business
”Bring Romantic Business Time Anywhere with Portable Conmoto Suitcase Fireplace
Fireplaces are great for ambiance, but generally not portable. Kooky German design firm Conmoto, who brought us the bookshelf fireplace back in December, has solved the portable problem with the Travelmate Portable Fireplace. At 55 lbs. it will require a little effort to cart it from room to room, but we think the resulting night of intimacy, wherever it happens to be, will be well worth the strained back. More »Gateway Shutters Online Store, Exits Direct PC Sales Business Completely
Gateway will now no longer be selling its PCs through Gateway.com and has shut down all its direct PC sales to become a 100% retail channel PC company. The move is only somewhat surprising—its newish parent company Acer has always focused on offering its goods through resellers. But seeing how Gateway was one of the original success stories for the selling PCs directly to consumers model, the shuttering of its online store is a little like the death knell of an era. [Cnet]Buy Your Own V22, Kinda: Bell 609 Civilian Tiltrotor Gets Rolled-Out
Forget the improbable promises of the Falx tiltrotor: Bell aircraft has rolled out its 609 civilian tiltrotor for real. Looking and flying like a smaller cousin of the military V22 Osprey, also a Bell vehicle, the 609 will undoubtedly please millionaire business people since it can perform all the rooftop-landing duties of a normal helicopter, but flies twice as fast and can fly 9 passengers up to 25,000 feet altitude. Plus, it'd be undeniably cooler to turn up at your meetings in something that looks like it belongs in a sci-fi flick versus something that reminds people of Magnum, PI.
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Blockbuster Drops Bid for Circuit City, Making Future For Both Unsure
We were excited for the merger talks between Blockbuster Video and Circuit City, as that union could create a probable entertainment behemoth, and we don't mean like Paula Abdul. Sadly word is coming down that Blockbuster is pulling its offer for Circuit off the table. Apparently it was ultimately decided that the match wasn't a good fit for Blockbuster's shareholders, so the plans have been scrapped. What could have been an awesome two-front retailer now means Blockbuster has to find new ways to catch up with Netflix, and Circuit City has to keep its head above water without any help. Bets on what happens next? [Forbes]Nintendo Famicom Business Card Holders Combine Your Idealistic Childhood With Your Sellout Adulthood
What better way to bring your childhood into the present with these Nintendo Famicom business card holders. Your $8.80 will get you one random cartridge or controller, which may or may not be a that really horrible knockoff one made by that one lousy company in the mid '80s. We're looking at you, Ice Climber. If you're lucky, you'll get Zelda, Ballon Fight, or Mario instead. [GameAsylum via Nerd Approved]Nokia Helps Buys Symbian, Turns it Open Source
After a long hardware-software partnership, Nokia's just announced it's buying out all the remaining shares in Symbian it doesn't already own. The purchase amounts to a whopping $410 million, and is actually part of a deal between Nokia, AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone to form what's being called the "Symbian Foundation." This is an attempt by the companies to join forces and develop and promote the Symbian OS together. Full press release below.
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Samsung's P400 DLP Projector is Tiny for Portability, Sleek too
Samsung's new P400 Pocket Imager projector is designed mainly for businesspeople on the go, so it's pretty tiny. Inside, its DLP unit is a native 800 x 600 resolution and its LED lighting pushes out 150 lumens, resulting in a 30- to 40-inch display capability with 1000:1 contrast ratio. It takes the standard RGB, composite, S-video and audio inputs, and has two 1-watt speakers. Plus, though it's no pico-projector, it's just 5 x 3.7 x 2 inches in size and weighs 1.9 pounds, so it'll carry nicely in your laptop bag. And you know what? Just coz it's businessy doesn't mean it has to look ugly or utilitarian: so Samsung has actually made this thing look pretty good. Available now for $749, full press release below.
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Ex-Broadcom Chief Accused of Spiking Tech Execs' Drinks, Having More Blow Than Scarface
Henry Nicholas, co-founder of integrated circuits manufacturer Broadcom, has just been charged with spiking the drinks of other technology execs and maintaining a warehouse full of coke, meth and ecstasy. This is the latest incident for Nicholas, who in July 2007, was accused of constructing a sex cave so he could roll hard on ecstasy and properly love his prostitutes. In addition, Nicholas, along with co-founder Henry Samueli and CFO William Ruehle were charged last month on multiple counts of conspiracy, options backdating, falsifying reported income and securities fraud (BORING!). Call me a dreamer, but I'm still waiting for allegations involving a midget to work their way into this equation. Check out Valleywag for the full indictment document.[NYT]
MSI to Make Thinner Business Wind, Mobile Internet Device
Following the Wind's success, and further advancing in the mini-laptop collective hysteria, Micro-Star International is planning a thinner version for business people, as well as a new, completely unknown smaller-than-a-mini-laptop mobile Internet device. According to Andy Tung, the business Wind will re-use the components of its predecessor, but focus on design:
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Akimbo Execs Hit Eject, Shutter Company For Good
The polymorphous life of Akimbo came to an abrupt end this week, as the embattled video-on-demand turned white label video service was shut down for good. The surprising move went down just four months after Akimbo was given an additional $4 million to fund its video services venture. Now the extra cash will go towards former employees' severance packages. Let us reflect on the tumultuous past of Akimbo.More »
Microsoft and Yahoo Continue To Tango, Re-enters Talks
Looks like Microsoft isn't completely ready to let its dreams of a deal with Yahoo die yet. Despite calling the purple giant's demands "excessive" and retiring its $47.5 billion bid just two weeks ago, Microsoft is now saying that it's discussing an "alternative transaction." Apparently something has changed enough in the last few days for Microsoft to resume negotiations, like a scorned lover lured back by a "I promise everything will be different, baby. I'll really try to make things work this time around!" [BBC]Singapore Airlines Flights Get iPhone/iPod Docks and 15.4-inch LCDs
Singapore Airlines is installing iPod docks and 15.4-inch widescreen LCDs in their all-Business Class Airbus A340-500 flights between NY/LA and Singapore, ensuring that we're going to be flying with them if we ever have to travel to that part of the world. Each business customer can dock their iPhone or iPod and watch their own movies on the included noise-canceling headphones—which will be interrupting when the captain wants tell you to look off to your left so you can see a drunken Superman mooning your plane. Flights from Newark with this will start May 15 (today), and August for the LA ones. Maybe now business passengers won't engage in business time whilst in the air.
Virgin and SK Telecom Actually In Talks Despite SK's Denials
Even though SK Telecom denied being in talks with Virgin Mobile to merge it and the Helio brands, Virgin Mobile is having none of it. VM said that they were in the "early stages" of discussions, but there aren't any "assurances that any transaction will result." Sounds like someone at Virgin is using the press as a weapon in their discussions. [Marketwatch]Steve Ballmer's Presentation Laptop is a Strange Choice
"You do it to yourself, you do
And that's what really hurts."
— Radiohead. [Flickr]
Editor's note: nothing to be surprised about here. Even if he was using a MacBook for his presentation, who cares? Macs run Windows just like any other PC laptop, and also PowerPoint for Mac OS X. Probably Ballmer doesn't give a damn about what computer is running his presentation, as long as it runs Microsoft's software. —JD
Ballmer Says Microsoft Ready for Future Without Yahoo
According to Steve yesterday, that $44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo is "a lot of money," which comes as no surprise to anyone. But he followed it up by saying Microsoft is "prepared to move forward alone without Yahoo." Is he threatening to walk away? One suggestion to explain this is that employees inside Microsoft are uncomfortable: online services staff are wary about job futures, and others are worried the take-over will divert manager's attention off the key Microsoft business itself. What do you think guys? Is this it for the deal? Or is it just another tactic in the game? [WSJ]Psystar Exposed: Looks Like a Hoax
After the Guardian did their own investigation into the Mac clone maker Psystar yesterday, we decided to take it a step further and see if they actually exist, in the physical sense. How could a company so brazenly challenge Apple and have little to no record of actually being a company? We sent the Gizmodo army down there to get pictures of both their supposed addresses, and found that they're as much vaporware as the Phantom Console of yore. Read on for the details and location pictures.
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