iPad 3G: 'End of April' slips to May 7; early pre-orders still on time

By Philip Elmer-DeWitt

Yet another delay for Apple's "magical" device

According to Apple's (AAPL) Jan 27 press release the iPad 3G was supposed to be "available in April in the US and selected countries."
By March 5, when Apple announced that the iPad Wi-Fi's original March ship date had slipped to April 3, the 3G model's "available in April" had become "late April
Last Wednesday, when Apple let it be konw that international iPad sales had been pushed back to May, it mentioned in an aside that the company had "also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April" — wording that, in retrospect, left open the possibility that delivery might not actually happen by then.

[UPDATE: As several readers have pointed out, Apple cleared up that ambiguity Monday morning with a mailing to early pre-order customers to assure them that their 3G orders would be shipped in late April "as communicated at the time you placed your order."]
Steve Jobs — who can be a master of misdirection — was even vaguer. When a customer asked "will the iPad 3G models still ship on time as planned (end of April) in the US, if I order one today? Or will the 3G US orders be postponed as well?" Jobs' one-word answer, e-mailed from his iPhone, was a terse but ambiguous "Yes."

Early this morning, we found out both meanings were operative. According to Monday's letter, early pre-orders will ship on time. If you order an iPad 3G today, however, shipment will be postponed until as late as May 7th.

Apple attributes all this to "surprisingly strong" demand for the new device. But by definition it's also having trouble building them fast enough.

NOTE: An earlier version of this article, written before Apple's letter to customers came to light, had a snippier headline. It's now clear that it was out of line.

Philips outsources TV biz to Videocon Industries

Consumer electronics giant Philips today said it had outsourced its entire TV business, including manufacturing, distribution and selling, to Videocon industries.

“The brand licensing agreement under which Videocon assumes responsibility for the sourcing, distribution, marketing and sales of all Philips’ consumer television activities in India is aimed at bringing the TV business back into profitability from 2010 onwards,” Philips Electronics India Managing Director and CEO Murali Sivaraman said.
He said the agreement was only limited to the TV segment and is for five years.

A few years ago, Philips had entered a similar arrangement with Japanese firm Funai for their TV business in the US, which proved to be very successful, and the company had decided to replicate the idea in India, Sivaraman said.

“Videocon will ensure that consumers of Philips-branded TVs can continue to count on the same premium quality, design and innovation associated with the Philips brand,” he said.

The Netherlands-based company, operating in India for over 80 years, had earlier announced a strategic shift in focus to healthcare and life-style segment to promote its products in the country.

“Voluntarily, we have taken a position that Philips as company would be working towards projecting itself as a health and wellness company,” Sivaraman had said last year.

The company is now focused more in the lighting and healthcare segment. In lighting, it has 35 per cent market share and it is trying to increase its presence in the healthcare segment.

Over the last few years Philips has been losing its share in the colour TV market in India, which according to an estimate is over 20 million units per annum, to Korean companies such as LG and Samsung.

Videocon officials couldn’t be contacted for comment.

Asked about the boost in sales through this agreement Sivaraman said, “Because of the large sales and distribution network which Videocon has, we expect a significant increase in sale of Philips TVs in India.”

Samsung retakes lead from Intel and Micron in flash memory

BY Dan Nysted ITNEWS

Samsung unveiled flash memory chips made with 20-nanometer production technology

A battle over chip manufacturing prowess in the flash memory chip industry appears to be brewing between Samsung Electronics and IM Flash Technologies, a joint venture operated by Intel and Micron.

Samsung, the world's largest memory chip maker, unveiled NAND flash memory chips produced using advanced 20-nanometer production technology on Monday, just months after IM Flash Technologies said it had started producing the first commercial NAND flash chips made using 25nm technology.

A competition between the companies for chip manufacturing supremacy would be good for users. In general, smaller production processes lead to lower-cost, speedier and more power-efficient chips, which are exactly what's needed for today's mobile devices.

Intel is the world's largest chip maker, while Samsung ranks second. Prior to a few years ago, the two companies had not been direct competitors. Intel specializes in microprocessors, while Samsung is the biggest maker of both DRAM and flash memory in the world. Early in 2006, Intel teamed up with Micron to form IM Flash, a direct competitor to Samsung in flash memory.

IM Flash announced its 25nm technology in January, about a year and a half after it started using 34nm technology. Samsung, by comparison, first announced 30nm flash memory chips in October of 2007, making its trip to 20nm a two-and-a-half year journey.

Advances in chip manufacturing are vital in the memory chip industry because the smaller technology not only reduces costs, but also improves the chips themselves. Samsung said SD cards with flash chips made using the 20nm process have write-speeds 30 percent faster than those made with its previous generation 30nm technology. Flash memory chips store songs, photos, documents and other data in a range of devices, from iPods and smartphones to some laptops.

The nanometer measurement describes the microscopic size of transistors and other parts on a chip. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, about the size of a few atoms combined.

Samsung's new 34 gigabit (4 gigabyte) MLC (multi-level cell) NAND flash memory chip is aimed at memory cards and embedded memory for devices such as smartphones. The South Korean company is already shipping sample SD cards with 20nm chips inside to customers and expects to expand production later this year. The company will make memory cards ranging from 4GB to 64GB available with 20nm flash.

Intel's chip revenue last year reached US$33.3 billion for a 14.6 percent share of the global chip market, according to market researcher Gartner. Samsung took a 7.7 percent share of the market on chip revenue of $17.7 billion.

Morocco’s new Solar Project to Generate 2000MWs

Morocco is a North African country with no oil reserves. But nature has endowed this country with another bounty i.e. over 3000 hours of sunshine per year. Now they are aiming to undertake an ambitious plan of producing 40% of their energy needs via solar energy They will spend $9 billion to generate 2000MWs of energy by 2020. It will require 5 solar power stations to produce 2000MWs of energy. These power stations will be situated in the regions of Ouarzazate, Ain Bni Mathar, Foum Al Oued, Boujdour and Sebkhat Tah. The first station is expected to become operational by 2015.
Morocco’s Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar wants the world to perceive Morocco as an environmentally friendly country. He said, “The project sends a very clear message in the current situation, which is dominated by the need to face up to the challenges of climate change.” The minister added that “Morocco is determined to protect the environment in all its future projects.”

Morocco’s authorities are assured of the success of this project. Energy Minister Amina Benkhadra makes a promise, “This is a bold but realistic project. We will guarantee all the technical and financial resources to make it succeed.”

This country’s politicians are eager to cut its dependence of foreign oil and gas imports and save money and to leave green footprints in the sands of time. For the project, Morocco is mobilizing multiple financing sources and partners. Morocco can get help for this project form the WORLD BANK,the EUROPEAN UNION,Germany and DESERTEC Desertec is a coalition of 13 energy and technology companies aiming for a renewable energy grid in Africa and afterward shipping the energy to Europe. Desertec was founded in 2009. Their organization’s focus is on alternative power generation using wind and sunlight. They want to construct a series of concentrated solar power (CSP), photovoltaic (PV) and wind projects in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Said Mouline is the director of Morocco’s Centre for Renewable Energy Development. He says, “This project will help Morocco reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 3.7 million tonnes of CO2. This will help us play our role in mitigation of climate change.” He said again, “Clean energy projects such as this will create many new jobs in the areas selected for the solar plants as well as boost the country’s scientific expertise in the field of solar energy.”

Now the Arab countries are waking up to the reality of oil reserves. They too want to trap the power of alternative sources of energy. Algeria, Qatar, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Tunisia are all making fruitful efforts to utilize the power of sunlight. Israel is already using solar power successfully in many areas such as water heating systems. Israel is also earning reputation as a world leader in innovating solar energy solutions. Morocco might seek help of Israel on this ambitious project too.

The Energy Minister stressed that they will use the state-of-the-art technology available in the market. She says, “We look for the most sophisticated technology available in the world to use for this project.”

Ali Fassi Fihri is the Chairman of ONE, Morocco’s power utility. He shares his opinion, “The project would add in terms of power generation the equivalent of the current electricity consumption of the country’s commercial capital Casablanca.”

Huawei 'Open' to Opportunities in North America, Executive Says

By Olga Kharif

The Chinese telecom equipment maker is looking to broaden U.S. operations as Palm looks for a buyer
Huawei Technologies, China's biggest maker of phone equipment, is "open to all the possible opportunities" for North American expansion, said Charlie Chen, a senior vice-president at the company.

Chen, who works in marketing and product management for the company's North American division, was responding to a question about whether Huawei may be interested in purchasing Palm the maker of the Pre smartphone. He declined to comment specifically on Palm in the interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek.com.

Based in Shenzhen, China, Huawei has struggled to make inroads in the U.S. handset market. A purchase of Palm would help a foreign buyer compete with smartphone makers including Apple (AAPL) and Research In Motion (RIMN)"The attraction of Palm to the various Asian companies is that Palm would provide them with some entry into the U.S. market," said Lawrence Harris, an analyst at CL KING &ASOCIATES who has a neutral rating on Palm.
Palm is working with Goldman Sachs Group (GS)and Frank Quattrone's QATALIST PARTNER to find a buyer for the company, three people familiar with the situation said earlier this week.

Palm's stock rose 3.1% on Apr. 14 after Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners reported buying 9.5 of the company common shares . It gained 16¢ to 5.32 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

North American Ambitions

Huawei is eager to expand North American phone sales, Chen said. "We see it's more and more important to have smartphones in this market," he said.
Huawei sells smartphones based on Google's(GOOG)Android software in countries such as the U.K. The Chinese company expects to increase its North American employee base by 50% to about 1,500 this year, Chen said. Closely held Huawei has nine North American offices, including in Toronto, Chicago, and San Diego.

Palm approached Huawei in February through an investment bank for "preliminary discussions" about a possible acquisition, Reuters reported on Apr. 13, citing a person familiar with the matter. Palm spokeswoman Lynn Fox didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Last year, Huawei's North American sales rose 63% to $408 million as the company began supplying equipment for Clearwire (CLWR)a provider of high-speed wireless Internet access. Other customers in the region include MetroPCS Communications(PCS)which sells one touchscreen Huawei phone. "In the handset business, we see tremendous potential and growth," Chen said.

Earns millions of euros by cultivating mushrooms-today business startup project

Mushrooms market is high!

more and more people want to eat healthy.More and more people keep post,or prefer vegetarian diet ,but mushrooms are delicious choise you can only realize to enter in mushrooms busines.

Pleurotus mushrooms
Can be cultivate all period of year in special places,the culture had execute after intensive technology,or in adapted spaces,semideposites ,case wich the culture has on based clasic techonology with only two cycles per year

Necessary conditions for growing space
-providing water to a rate of 60 -70 /kg of mushrooms
-posibility that would be desinfect after each production cycle
-don't have wood,straw,land in his structure if it's follows reuse for growing
-to can be ventilated free or mechanically
-to can be warmed to intesive cultivation
-to present technological areas and cultivation (incubation and harvesting)
-to allowed the linear activity withaout return and contact between mushrooms
-to provide access roads

The avantages of pleurotus mushrooms over others mushrooms

compare with Agaricus mushrooms ,Pleurotus Mushrooms required low investment because:
-cab cultivate in space with low termic isolation being resistant to thermal variations by 10 -12 deegrees Celsius daytime
-they are resistant to frost can suport up to -20 deegres celsius
-can be cultivated on termal regim up to 10-30 deegres Celsius
-are more resistant then others mushrooms to attach o various diseases and dosen't require special healt care so the costs are lower
Productivity volume is low at pleurotus mushrooms respectively 4-5 tons/man at clsic cultivation and 6-7 tons to intensive cultivation

Uncle Sam Wants You (To Fight Hackers)

By Rachael King Businessweak

The U.S. government is stepping up recruitment of engineers who can help wage cyberwar

Kyle Osborn does a good job impersonating a technical support rep. On a recent day in Southern California, the 19-year-old is working the phones, trying to persuade people on the other end to download malicious software.

In cybercrime circles, this is called "social engineering," and criminals use the tactics to circumvent companies' Internet security software by tricking employees to download harmful software or cough up passwords. Osborn doesn't look the part of a hacker, with his short blond hair, baby face, and glasses. Yet he's persuasive—after a few calls, he finds an employee who agrees to download malicious software that will open a door into the computer network and let Osborn break in.

In real life, Osborn isn't a cybercriminal; he's a student participating in a cyberdefense competition at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, Calif., that drew about 65 students from Western colleges. The campus is situated on a former ranch east of Los Angeles. Horses and sheep still graze in the pastures.
Boeing(BA)and the Black Hat computer security conference sponsored the regional competition, held Mar 26 to 28. Cisco Sytems (CSCO) and INTEL (INTC)donated computer equipment. The goal is to help companies recruit students who can assist in bolstering their defenses against cyberattacks.

Last year Boeing hired seven students who competed in this event, and the company hopes to fill a few slots with talent discovered this year, too. "It's about [developing] the next generation of cyberwarriors to protect the nation," says Alan Greenberg, technical director of cyber and information solutions at Boeing.
Boeing employs about 2,000 cybersecurity workers, up from roughly 100 in 2004. This year, the company may hire 15 to 30 cybersecurity workers, Greenberg says

Not Enough Applicants

Demand for cybersecurity professionals is growing quickly. Government and industry executives say they need more cybersecurity employees but struggle to find qualified applicants. Just 40% of government hiring managers say they're satisfied with the quality of applicants for federal cybersecurity jobs, and only 30% are satisfied with the number, according to a July 2009 report by Booz Allen Hamilton
While the government's scholarship program can fill about 120 entry-level cybersecurity jobs, the feds need about 1,000 recent grads to fill those spots, according to the report.

Together, the U.S. public and private sectors will need about 60,000 cybersecurity workers in the next three years, says Greenberg. "There will be a shortage."

The number of cyberattacks from organized hackers against the computer networks of U.S. companies continues to escalate. "Two recent examples have highlighted why companies need to work together: the Conficker worm and the Google attack," says Melissa Hathaway, a former cybersecurity adviser in the Bush and Obama administrations.