Your Guide to CES - Consumer Electronics Show from sin city. tablet computers, 3-d TVs, smart phones, social networking anyone?

Your Guide to CES - Consumer Electronics Show from sin city. tablet computers, 3-d TVs anyone?

Barron's Art of Successful Investing Conference - Fred Hickey Likes Microsoft (+50% higher) and Verizon with Margin of Safety

Fred Hickey: Tech Stands Tall

Fred Hickey, editor of The High-Tech Strategist, has been bullish on tech during this rally. Hickey argues at Barron's Art of Successful Investing Conference that Microsoft shares can go far higher and explains why he likes Verizon.

Windows 7: Wall Street is underestimating its Impact

Discussing whether Microsoft can regain its credibility, with Heather Bellini, ISI Group and CNBC's Jim Goldman & Mark Haines.

Microsoft buys Gaming Tech Startup BigPark

Microsoft Corp. announced its intent to acquire BigPark Inc., an interactive online gaming company based in Vancouver.

BigPark was founded in 2007 by a group of industry veterans who led the creation and growth of two hugely successful software companies, Distinctive Software Inc. and Electronic Arts Canada. BigPark's founding team is composed of business leaders with over 80 years of collective experience in the video game industry, having produced or overseen blockbuster franchises including "Need for Speed," "FIFA Soccer," "NBA Street" and "SSX."

"We are delighted by the opportunity to welcome the BigPark team into Microsoft Game Studios," said Phil Spencer, general manager, Microsoft Game Studios. "The team is composed of some of the most experienced and creative minds working in the industry today. The combination of the BigPark and Microsoft Game Studios talent pools will be an accelerant for growth and innovation. We believe BigPark has tremendous potential to create new properties and innovative gaming experiences for our platforms, one of which we're looking forward to showcasing at the E3 Expo in June."

BigPark was founded by Wil Mozell, Erik Kiss, Hanno Lemke and Don Mattrick before Mattrick assumed the role of senior vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. Mattrick's role as an investor in BigPark was fully disclosed to Microsoft before he joined the company, and his ongoing involvement as chairman of BigPark was approved pursuant to the Microsoft Standards of Business Conduct.

Pcmag: Top 10 Hottest Windows 7 features

"You have nothing, nothing to threaten me with. Nothing to do with all your strength." - Joker
All this hype for what? Microsoft's Windows 7 is expected to be released sometime this year. So far the hoopla on the latest MSFT Operating System has been well justified.
Below are PC Magazine's top 10 hottest features after testing the beta version of Microsoft's latest and greatest masterpiece. Let's hope it's not anywhere near the mess Vista has been.

1. Send Programmers a Shock Button
2. Instant Plug-and-Play Driver Installation
3. Wake Up!
4. Clippy Returns - helps you with networking-management issues, security issues, and driver updates
5. On-PC Play Support of Video Games - support full on-PC play of Xbox 360 games, even Halo 3, and the emulation of PS3 games
6. Add-On Drives for Burning VHS Tapes
7. Flying Toasters
8. Improved File Management
9. Windows 7 Viper Widescreen Wipers
10. UberDriver Features

fortune: Microsoft Reality Ad - More on "Lauren" - De Long not Conrad

“I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person.”

All about Microsoft’s “Lauren”
Her hair is red, her eyes dark brown, her physique slim. She stands 5′2″ in her stocking feet and weighs 113 lbs. in her birthday suit.
Her name is Lauren De Long, and she set a million geek hearts aflutter with her spunky performance in the now famous “you find it, you keep it” PC ad, in which she chose an HP (HPQ) Pavillion running Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Vista Home Edition over any computer in the Apple (AAPL) store.

She’s the young, hip, Volkswagen-driving redhead who stars in the latest Microsoft’s (MSFT) TV campaign. Told that if she can find a 17-inch laptop for under $1,000 she can keep it, Lauren ends up — to the Mac aficionados’ dismay — with an HP (HPQ) running Windows Vista.
“I would have to double my budget, which isn’t feasible,” Lauren says as she drives away from an Apple Store, where 17-inch notebooks start at $2,799. Then she sighs and delivers the ad’s coup de grace: “I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person.”

Dealbook: For would-be Twitter Acquirers - Beware of Buyers' Remorse

What were they thinking? AOL’s $4.2 billion acquisition of Netscape, and eBay’s $4.1 billion acquisition of Skype.

From Dealbook:
Whoever buys Twitter, they wrote, “will likely have to operate it at a loss in perpetuity, or until the next cool Web 2.0 social networking concept comes along and Twitter tweets no more.”


All That Twitters May Not Be Gold, Analysts Say
Twitter seems to have gone from obscure to mainstream in about the same time it takes to send a “tweet” over the network.

Despite the fact that the three-year-old microblogging service doesn’t generate revenue — never mind profits — there is already chatter about who might want to buy it.

However, analysts at Sanford Bernstein believe that potential acquirers for Twitter should think twice.

In a research note published late last week, the analysts argued that the Web 2.0 model of building a product and then figuring out how to monetize it has been largely debunked.

The Web is littered with examples of promising but ultimately value-destroying acquisitions, they wrote, citing deals such as AOL’s $4.2 billion acquisition of Netscape, and eBay’s $4.1 billion acquisition of Skype.

The analysts said that monetizing Twitter “would be difficult at best and likely unsuccessful.” People who sign up for free services tend to resent a company for trying to wring revenue from the business later. Subscription fees are out of the question, they said, and advertising-based revenues don’t seem to have yielded enough cash flow to make a Web 2.0 property viable.

Speculation about Twitter has been echoing in the yellow hills surrounding Silicon Valley lately. The chief executive of Google has been peppered with questions about whether the Web search giant might have its eye on Twitter.

But the Sanford Bernstein analysts think Google would do best to steer clear, as it is still struggling to make money from YouTube, a previous takeover target, and the social networking site Orkut, which it created in-house.

Whoever buys Twitter, they wrote, “will likely have to operate it at a loss in perpetuity, or until the next cool Web 2.0 social networking concept comes along and Twitter tweets no more.”

Last fall, reports surfaced that Facebook offered Twitter 3.33 percent of its privately held stock, which it had determined was worth $500 million, based on a $15 billion valuation for Facebook that was set when Microsoft invested in the company a year ago.

Twitter balked, and raised funds on its own instead.

How will Twitter make a profit? The company freely acknowledges that it’s not quite sure:

“Twitter has many appealing opportunities for generating revenue but we are holding off on implementation for now because we don’t want to distract ourselves from the more important work at hand which is to create a compelling service and great user experience for millions of people around the world,” Twitter says on its “about” page. “While our business model is in a research phase, we spend more money than we make.”

SA Insider: 100 Things More Popular Than Twitter

"Take a look:
MySpace
Facebook
Bebo
Orkut
HotOrNot.com
Pizza
Yahoo Mail
Google Mail
Comcast
Hotmail
Verizon Internet
Road Runner
America Online subscriptions
Dogs
Cats
Pet birds
AOL Instant Messenger
ICQ
MSN Messenger
Readers Digest
Better Homes & Garden
AARP the Magazine
Nintendo Wii
PS3
Nintendo GameCube
Apple iPod
Nintendo Game Boy
Sega Game Gear
Tamagotchi
Furby
Titanic
The Dark Knight
Batman Begins
Batman & Robin
Catwoman
The Cheetah Girls 2
CSI
Project Runway
American Idol
Two and a Half Men
America's Got Talent
Barack Obama
John McCain
Bobby Jindal
Ross Perot
The Beatles
Nirvana
New Kids On The Block
Backstreet Boys
nSync
98 Degrees
Christianity
Islam
Mormonism
Judaism
Scientology
Blogger
WordPress
TypePad
Hampsterdance.com
Online newspapers
MSNBC Digital Network
CNN Digital Network
Yahoo! News
AOL News
NYTimes.com
Tribune Newspapers
Fox News Digital Network
Google News
Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division
CBS News Digital Network
ABCNEWS Digital Network
washingtonpost.com
USATODAY.com
BBC.com
McClatchy Newspaper Network
WorldNow
Boston.com
Advance Internet
Hearst Newspapers Digital
N.Y. Daily News Online Edition
MediaNews Group Newspapers
TheHuffingtonPost.com
Topix
Digg
Thriller, Michael Jackson
Born in the USA, Bruce Springsteen
Bat out of Hell, Meatloaf
Breathless, Kenny G
Please Hammer Don't Hurt'em, MC Hammer
Times Square
Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston
Niagara Falls
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee
Universal Studios Orlando
Coca-Cola
Pepsi
Mountain Dew
Fanta
Diet Dr. Pepper

A few things less popular than Twitter:
Microsoft Zune
Pet rocks
Jim Cramer
George Bush
PC Guy

NewVeeTV: TidalTV Raises $15M to Bring TV to Web

"
Advertising.com alums have raised $15 million from New Enterprise Associates and Valhalla Partners to launch an online video platform using premium television content called TidalTV (just a landing site for now, supposed to go into beta next month).
The company is to run traditional channels as well as specialized channels, such as a CSI-only offering, according to the Baltimore Business Journal. It hasn’t announced any content deals yet.
The service will be web-based but also controlled by a remote. TidalTV is saying it is more similar to Hulu than Joost. But since it’s using the language of traditional linear channels, instead of on-demand, it seems more like Zattoo in Europe. Once we talk to TidalTV hopefully we can sort that out.
With its heritage, TidalTV is especially focused on advertising, and promises targeted and interactive ads. Scott Ferber, co-founder of Advertising.com, founded the company, and Mollie Spilman, a former Advertising.com executive, is CEO. Bob Quicksilver, former president of network distribution at FOX, will serves as chief content officer."

Come on down, Google Apps, the price is right

Zdnet writes "I think the BBC hit the right note with its headline today on the launch of Google Apps Premier Edition: Google charges for web programs. Today may go down in history as the day when Google started charging for applications. Suddenly, it's once again become acceptable to charge customers for using Web-hosted software. It's as if the dot-com era never happened."