HTC's HD2: Beautiful But Endangered

The HD2 smartphone is a design masterpiece that runs a Windows version that will be out-of-date by yearend. A gorgeous, archaic piece of art?
The Good: Largest smartphone screen on the market, lightning-fast processor, 5 megapixel camera

The Bad: Won't run Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 7 operating system; dearth of applications

The Bottom Line: A great smartphone for consumers who don't feel they need to own a device running Google or Apple software
Sometimes timing is everything. After several weeks of testing HTC 's gorgeous new HD2 smartphone, I can tell you it's unquestionably the best device yet that runs Microsoft's(MSFT)Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system.

Therein lays the problem. Microsoft plans to release a major overhaul to Windows for smartphones—called Windows Phone 7—by the end of the year. As good as the HD2 is, it may have a very short shelf life.
The HD2, which went on sale on Mar. 24 in the U.S., through T-Mobile, is a design masterpiece. It uses Qualcomm's QCOM speedy 1 Ghz Snapdragon processor and sports a stunning 4.3-in. screen surrounded by a thin, black bezel.
Yet HTC's stunning hardware is hobbled by a lack of applications for users to download from Microsoft's Windows Mobile Marketplace. By my count, there are less than 1,000, compared to more than 185,000 from Apple's (AAPL) App Store and more than 30,000 from Google's (GOOG) Android Marketplace for phones that run its operating system. Worse, Microsoft says many of today's apps won't work when it rolls out Windows Phone 7.

If that doesn't bother you—or you want to take a chance that Microsoft will change its stance—I'd recommend the HD2 wholeheartedly. It's available for $199 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile.

Adopting the less-is-more approach that's increasingly common in the smartphone market, the HD2 has hardly any buttons. On the bottom of its face, from left to right, there's a dedicated phone button, one that calls up a customizable home page of applications, a button to access Windows applications, a back button, and a power toggle.

A Couple OF EXTRAS IN THE US

The phone doesn't have much usable memory, but users can add up to 16GB of storage with an additional microSD card. (It takes some work to remove the rear panel to access the slot where you place the card.)
The T-Mobile version of the HD2 includes Blockbuster on Demand software for watching movies and free access to MOBITV for a month. European versions of the HD2 don't offer those.

From a usability perspective, the HD2 stands out by cleverly layering HTC's Sense user interface on top of Windows Mobile 6.5. Reviewers panned the operating system when Microsoft released it last fall, despite a belated move to icon-based applications, or widgets, which do away with a terrible dropdown system that had made navigation a nightmare.
The lower portion of the screen includes a dock that handles the discovery and social aspects of using the phone. The dock includes quick access to a Web browser, YouTube,Twitter a calendar, and other information, including music and video collections. There's also weather, in the form of photorealistic animations of clouds moving across the screen and a windshield wiper when it's raining.

Amazon's Smart Innovation Strategy

Amazon shows how it is possible to build a business with the capability to transform itself
Building a great business and operating it well no longer guarantees you'll be around in 100 years, or even 20. In 1958, the average length of time a company remained on the S&P 500 was 57 years; by 1983, it had dropped to 30 years; in 2008, it was just 18.

Shorter business life cycles require a new sort of management discipline capable of leading an organization through an ongoing process of transformation and renewal. To thrive in today's marketplace, to be built to last, every business now must be built to transform. Consider Amazon which emerged from the dot-com bubble one of the few winners and continued to blaze a trail of impressive growth (from about $4 billion in 2002 to nearly $20 billion in 2008). One of the most unexamine facets of Amazon's high-profile success is its unabashed embrace of transformational growth in its white space Amazon survived the dot-com bust because it had a viable and innovative business model built around a market-changing customer value proposition and a radical profit formula, which upended the staid book industry. Then it quickly expanded beyond books to include all sorts of easily shippable consumer goods, growing from its core into near adjacencies. But Amazon didn't stop there.
A few years later, the company seized its white space when it devised a new value proposition, offering a commission-based brokerage service to buyers and sellers of used books. Then it moved into its white space again by developing a model to serve an entirely different customer: third-party sellers. By opening up its storefront to other retailers that were essentially competitors, Amazon transformed its business from direct sales to a sales-and-service model, aggregating many sellers under one virtual roof and receiving commissions from the other companies' sales.
Then Amazon did it yet again, identifying a new area of potential growth by finding another new customer—the IT community. Serving this new customer's needs required different processes,new busines model In 2002 Amazon launched a web services platform. Perhaps it was risky for a young company that had only reached profitability in that same year to invest its innovation resources in new business models rather than stick to its core, but within five years the site used by Amazon's web-services platform had grown into the seventh-largest in the world. And Amazon kept going. In late 2007, it set up Lab126, whose first product, the Kindle e-book reader, came to market wrapped in a business model not only foreign to Amazon's DNA but also potentially disruptive to the entire publishing industry.

To launch this high-margin, product-based offering, Amazon had to become an original equipment manufacturer (OEM). It wrapped this technology in a seamlessly integrated iTunes-type digital media platform that combined both transaction- and subscription-based content delivery. It partnered with content producers in innovative ways and created an open back-end that allowed independent publishers to generate new content for the Kindle. In its first year, Amazon sold an estimated 500,000 Kindles. Amazon has greatly expanded the market for e-books and positioned itself for success not only in this market but in newspaper and periodical distribution as well.

Amazon at its roots is built to transform. When it finds opportunities to serve new customers, or existing customers in new ways, it conceives and builds new business models to exploit them. Amazon has the unique ability to launch and run entirely new types of businesses while simultaneously extracting value from existing businesses.
Amazon's journey forward will likely be marked by a series of transformations, as it continues to pursue its vision unafraid of white space, business model innovation, or renewal.

To be built to transform requires the courage to focus on delivering value for the customer first. Identifying value begins by thinking of an important unserved or underserved job that customers want done and then coming up with a well-defined value proposition to address that job, however foreign to your current offerings that may be. "If you want to continuously revitalize the service that you offer to your customers, you cannot stop at what you are good at," says CEO Jeff Bezos. "You have to ask what your customers need and want, and then, no matter how hard it is, you better get good at those things." With a well-defined customer value proposition serving a focused, well-articulated job, business leaders and project teams can work together to design the appropriate profit formulas, key resources, and key processes the company needs to thrive.

To do this, business leaders need to become business model thinkers, to understand that both the current model underpinning their existing business and any new models they may devise are complex systems with interdependent elements that must work together to deliver real value. To build these systems, they must think like architects or engineers, to begin with blueprints, build prototypes, and develop working structures that can deliver on new areas of opportunity. Although they can't devise all the answers up front, they can ask the right questions. Then they must pursue those answers like an artist would, exploring with a process of structured creativity that allows everyone involved to freely imagine the possible, not just the easily done.

Business model innovation thrives in cultures of inquiry, environments in which new value propositions, new ways to turn a profit, and ideas for new business models are met with interest and encouragement. In built-to-transform companies, managers recognize that becoming is part of being, and that the road to the next big thing can be traveled only by those with open minds.

Apple updates MacBook Pros with Core i5, i7 processors

Apple on Tuesday released an updated line of its MacBook Pro portable computers, adding in faster processors, new graphics chips, and a longer-lasting battery
The 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros saw the biggest jumps, as they now use Intel’s Core i5 and i7 processors. Designed with a 32-nanometer process, the Core i5 and i7 sport integrated memory controllers and Level 3 caches. A Turbo Boost feature lets the dual processor cores optimize their performance, allowing speeds of up to 3.06GHz for dual core tasks, and 3.33GHz for tasks involving just one core.

As with the previous iterations, both the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models feature two graphics processors, in this case the Nvidia GeForce GT330M for high-performance needs and the Intel HD graphics for more power efficiency. And in an improvement over the last generation, Apple says the system will automatically figure out which graphics processor is needed for a program or operation, and switch as necessary to give you both the best in performance and battery life. In the past you had to go into System Preferences, choose a graphics option, and log out and back in for the change to take effect.We wanted to make the process much more seamless for the user,” a representative told us during a briefing on the Apple campus Tuesday. To that end, the company made it so the Macs intelligently switch between integrated and discrete graphics as needed.Apple also made the point that the company isn’t using Nvidia's Optimus techonology for graphics switching, but rather an Apple-developed technology. Unlike Optimus, Apple said, the MacBook Pro looks for frameworks needed by individual apps at launch (such as OpenGL and Core Animation) to decide when to switch, rather than looking at a specific list of applications. If you’ve been checking your e-mail, surfing the Web, or even watching 720p HD video in iTunes (none of which requires dedicated graphics) and launch Aperture, for example, the MacBook Pro will automatically switch to the GeForce dedicated graphics for all of your work until you quit that app.
One interesting note: the Mini DisplayPort connection on all of the new MacBook Pro models now supports audio output as well. So using an adapter such as the $40 griffin video display converter you can connect a MacBook Pro to an HDTV using HDMI, for example, with a single cable carrying HD video and multichannel digital audio. (Apple said that not all Mini DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapters support audio.)

Pricing has shifted somewhat on the MacBook Pro line as well: while the lowest 15-inch configuration is now $100 more expensive than its predecessor, the top 15-inch model now costs $100 less. And the 17-inch MacBook Pro now sells for $200 less than before.

Meanwhile, the 13-inch MacBook Pro now has faster Core 2 Duo processors, 4GB of RAM, and Nvidia’s new GeForce 320M integrated graphics processor. Fans of swappable batteries may shed a tear, as the 13-inch’s battery is now built-in—that said, Apple’s claiming 10 hours of battery life, which is a pretty solid tradeoff. Batteries can be replaced by Apple Authorized service providers: it’s $129 for the 13-inch or 15-inch models and $179 for the 17-inch model, including disposal of the old battery and installation of the new one.

Battery life in general is also a focus of the line. The 15-inch and 17-inch models can supposedly run for 8 to 9 hours, thanks to highly tweaked power management. From an efficiency standpoint, all Mac notebooks meet Energy Star 5.0 requirements and achieve EPEAT Gold Status. The trackpad on the new MacBook Pros also supports inertial scrolling, which Apple describes as an intuitive way to scroll through large documents and photo libraries.13-inch MacBook Pro
All models feature a 1066MHz front-side bus, 4GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (expandable to 8GB), LED-backlit displays, a slot-load 8x SuperDrive, AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, iSight video camera, Multi-Touch trackpad, and illuminated keyboard.

The 13-inch is available in two configurations: a 2.4GHz model with a 250GB hard drive for $1,199 and a 2.66GHz model for $1,499. Ports include a Mini DisplayPort video out, two USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, an SD card slot, and combined analog/digital headphone and line in jack. The display boasts a resolution of 1280 by 800, and is available only in a glossy option; build-to-order options include a 320GB or 500GB hard drive, both running at 5400 rpm.

13-inch MacBook Pro
All models feature a 1066MHz front-side bus, 4GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (expandable to 8GB), LED-backlit displays, a slot-load 8x SuperDrive, AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, iSight video camera, Multi-Touch trackpad, and illuminated keyboard.

15-inch MacBook Pro
There are three 15-inch MacBook Pro configurations: a $1,799 model with a 2.4GHz Core i5 processor and 320GB hard drive, a 2.53GHz Core i5 and a 500GB hard drive for $1,999, and a 2.66GHz Core i7 with 500GB hard drive, for $2,199. All have both the integrated Intel HD graphics and the Nvidia GeForce GT 330M discrete graphics chip with 256MB of VRAM and a 1440 by 900 glossy display. In terms of ports, they included Gigabit Ethernet, two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, an SD card slot, audio line in (analog/digital), and audio line out/headphone (analog digital).

The 15-inch build-to-order options include a 15-inch 1680 by 1050 high-resolution display available in both glossy and antiglare options.

Famous entrepreneurs History of Fedex company (2 part)

At once demonstrated that is demand,the things went well for him,in the sense that apperead major investors like: Alstrate,Newport securities.The expand wasn't simple,but like this dimension it wasn't way to be.Counted that the business moved permanently to 'breakeven point" that point which income chart intersect with chart spending indicating that the investment was recover after 26 months.

Growth,Growth and Growth

at the midle os 70's Federal Expres made a strong lobby for cargo transport liberalization,thing that happened in 1977 .This change allowed company to use big planes likes:Boeing 727 and Mcdonnell-Douglas Dc-13 so his growth becomed explosive.At the begining at 80's the company reported annual growth of 40%,and in 1983 reached a turnover of 1 billions $ after 10 years of activity .The international expand began in 1984 with services for Europe and Asia .In 1988 penetrated the japanese market then acquisition of Tiger International made to growing the number of countries at 21.In 1995 obtained the acces on the chinese market,thanks an agreement with International Airlines and under this authority become the only us courier company with operating rights in worlwide.
Today Fedex have have largest cargo air fleet (671 planes),including 130 airbus A-300 and A-310,over 200 Boeing and 256 Cessna with a total carrying capacity de 12 000 tonnes,planes fly daily 800 000 km,while land transport with cars (41 000) totals 3.5 milions km in 24 hours the equivalent at 100 detours at the Earth Number of packeges and documents delivered daily over 3.2 million.
The name change to FedEx occured in 1994 based on the customers signs which they
used entirly this option,FEdex Become a verb which means seding an overnight package

What Fred Smith Did say?

' It's essential to have a busines plan which show what have to do but be prepared for course changes.In courier domain any change of price fuel meatters enormously"

"I tell alway to my Employees "you'll not delivery sand and gravel you'll deliver the cardiac simulator of someone,rare medicine and and a vital evidence in a legal proces"

"Surround the people which tell only the truth .If you don't do as busines increases you risk to not be aware with everything what's happens at your company"

Harris Corporation and LG Electronics Demonstrate Scalable Full-Channel Mobile DTV Technology

LAS VEGAS, April 12 /PRNewswire/ -- With an eye on the future for spectrum owners interested in reaching millions of mobile TV viewers, Harris Corporation (NYSE)today took the wraps off its latest technological innovation developed with LG Electronics — mobile digital television delivered in "Scalable Full-Channel Mobile Mode." The demonstration features functioning hardware for both transmission and reception of mobile DTV signals using enhanced technology.

The new system enables as many as 16 different video programs to be sent in the same 6 MHz bandwidth utilized by a TV broadcaster. It has been proposed for standardization to the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) and is being unveiled this week at the 2010 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention.

Current TV broadcasters are required by the Federal Communications Commission to offer at least one standard-definition digital TV program in their 19.4 Mbps broadcast bitstream. Owners of other 700 MHz spectrum, however, have more flexibility. The Harris/LG demonstration will show spectrum owners and all terrestrial broadcasters how to maximize spectrum use with a greater variety of TV programs to reach mobile viewers "on the go" as viewing habits change.

This demonstration can be seen in the ATSC-OMVC Mobile Digital TV Pavilion (Booth SU5217A, South Hall, Las Vegas Convention Center) during the entire 2010 NAB Show.

Multiple Mobile Programs on One Channel

To achieve its robust approach to Scalable Full-Channel Mobile Mode, LG and Harris engineers have trimmed the main digital program to enable a mere trickle of data — enough to advertise available mobile programs on the service to in-home viewers. Most of the 19.4 Mbps bitstream in the 6 MHz TV channel is then cleared for transmission of various mobile programs, which can all be beamed from the same broadcast infrastructure.

"We realize there are applications for digital broadcasting that go far beyond the services transmitted by TV stations," said Dr. Jong Kim, president of LG Electronics' U.S. R&D lab. "Companies that own 700 MHz spectrum are beginning to ask how they might put the power of ATSC mobile digital broadcasting to use, and we're responding by creating a new method of utilizing digital transmission to transmit even more programs. With our Scalable Full-Channel Mobile Mode system, we can offer multiple programs for mobile devices and a 'barker program' that can be seen by in-home viewers."

The LG-Harris Scalable Full-Channel Mobile Mode is designed to be compatible with the ATSC A/153 Mobile DTV Standard adopted by the ATSC last October. It will offer non-traditional broadcasters an effective way to reach millions of mobile, portable and handheld devices.

"LG is committed to providing reception chips to equip receiving devices for Scalable Full-Channel Mobile Mode within four months of standard adoption," Dr. Kim said. "Co-developed by LG, Zenith and Harris, this technology shows how Mobile DTV can be applied to help non-traditional broadcasters reach the viewing public. We're using commercially available Harris transmission equipment and LG Mobile Digital TV receivers — such as portable TVs, netbook computers and prototype mobile phones — to show how spectrum owners might offer multiple programs of diversified content."

About LG Electronics USA

LG Electronics USA, Inc., based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the North American subsidiary of LG Electronics, Inc., a global force and technology leader in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications. In the United States, LG Electronics sells a range of stylish and innovative home entertainment products, mobile phones, home appliances and business solutions, all under LG's "Life's Good" marketing theme. Digital television pioneer and long-time consumer electronics leader Zenith merged with LG Electronics in 1999.

About Harris Corporation

Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 150 countries. Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has approximately $5 billion of annual revenue and more than 15,000 employees — including nearly 7,000 engineers and scientists. Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class assured communications® products, systems, and services

Famous entrepreneurs History of Fedex company (1 part)

How hasn't hear Fedex? The most big courier company in the world ? 25 billions $ annual revenues,138 000 employess ,presented in 220 countries.His reputation is illustaded in the movie" Shipwrecked" by Tom Hanks this company is one of the almost characthers:Tom Hanks plays Fedex manager ,a excellet opportunity for the name of company to show apear in movie.Fedex clled untill 1994, Federal Express is a Young company.It was founded in 1971 honored first command in 1973,and 1975 it was the number 1 in the US ,amd already fixed the standard of the service.His Story illustrade very well that a big business must haven't a 100 years history and famous investors.

A viabel idea

In 1965 Fred Smith was student at Yale University and to economic courses had to propose a business project .He was thinking at a new delivery system ,because the system of that period it seemed stiff and quite weak .They was enough goods ,like medicine and electronic components which need delivered urgently and depending on passenger flights created problems.Six years later thought to put his idea in practice.It was in 1971 ,ijust back Vietnam,he said,I flew in 200 missions as a pilot I leave the world experience so that the busines startup it wasn' intimidating me.But the problem was money,Fred it wasn' poor (his father managed some business) but the financial effort was great ,because the business must starded urgently to large-scale there couldn't be alocal courier services,which to expand by time.
'I wanted custumers like IBM and Xerox' remembered Fred Smith.They were installed equipment in the whole US and the equipments required frequently spare parts.I couln't go to ask them and proposed that I can deliver the pices in just three cities' .Fot begining thought to test the system.He used his owen money to create a network of office and park cars in 25 cities ,and then he rented some planes and during 2 weaks he flew with them naked allond the cross US.It was risky to founded this network beforehe make sure that busines will go,but he considered that it was the only solution to consolidate the avantage first came on the market,avantage that it seems essential.

How to obtain a 90 millions $ financing?

The first step it was made but the great challenge now started .for to expand and become operational nationwide as he wanted at the begining ,FRED Smith neede 90 millions $ .Alot of money,but for getting them he 's based on some things.First 'I'm not only a man which have a idea i put a lot of money in this busines,my own money and this weighs heavily in every investor's eye.
And secondly the busines was working already and it's viability could be proved by his daily activity:the growt for this service it was big,addition demanded to Market research company achivments of markets research and teir concluzion were favorable

Clearway growing on new software IP

In the quiet town of Medfield, a 13-year-old company says it is about to change the way people handle information on their computers. To do so, it has more than doubled in size, spun off five subsidiaries and raised cash from one of the top-ranked golfers in the world — all in the last year.

Clearway Technology Partners Inc. was making a comfortable living for its employees — as well as CEO Kevin Cotter and president and COO Eugene Rodgers — as a consultancy focusing mostly on Microsoft Corp. solutions. But when a series of opportunities to acquire some intellectual property arose that would give the company its first software products on the market, Clearway jumped at the chance.

“We went from a services company to a services and software company. We know that they are two different models,” Cotter said.

Cotter, who was president at Aimnet Solutions and started Application Systems Group in 1987, and Rodgers, whose pedigree goes back to the inventors of the Internet, certainly had the experience to add software sales to the mix. But the profitable firm didn’t have the extra capital lying around.

Enter the world’s No. 10-ranked golfer, Ireland’s Padraig Harrington. Cotter and Rodgers said that Harrington is both a hands-off private investor and a willing participant in the company’s marketing efforts, having spoken before at Clearway client meetings.

With the funding in hand, Clearway bought the so-called game-changer IP from former Digital Equipment Corp. marketing consultant and former Boston College football star Tony Sukiennik, who had been working on the concept for six years at his now-defunct startup Infogenome LLC.

That IP has been spun out into Clearway Insight, and its software will launch this summer, first in a free consumer version.

The software enables the user to save anything he runs across while using his computer and automatically creates links with other related content to enable users to share their content with other Insight customers. It also allows users to pull various elements together into a structured format and publish it like a blog. But the potential killer app is the search function that would possibly cut down search times by as much as 20 percent, Cotter said.

One of the reasons they say the demand for a partner to buy into the product will be so great is because it will allow for ad targeting based on the stored and connected content, not just random search terms.

After the consumer version comes a corporate version for which will they will charge an as-yet undetermined amount, and which will be completely locked down within a corporate firewall for security purposes.

Now at 100 employees, Clearway thinks that it might need to reach 300 across all subsidiaries in one year’s time. To handle the anticipated massive traffic from the planned 2 gigabytes of storage Insight will give each user, the company is building a data center in Hyderabad, India, that will be launched in about 30 days, the company said.

Cotter and Rodgers are not shy about their claims for Insight.

“Whoever we embrace with this is going to have a much better position in the browser wars,” Rodgers said. He specifically targeted Google Inc.’s much-hyped and much-condemned Wave content sharing application.

“We think we can kill Wave,” he said.