A wonderful animation from Google Japan explains street view and how to protect your privacy:
Sony Walkman Gaining Ground over iPod
According to bcn ranking (jp), in what looks like a stable trend, Sony walkman sales in the last week of August surpassed iPod sales.
Blue represents Sony Walkman, while Red is the iPod. It appears like iPod is losing it’s market share, from around 56% in January to 43% in August, while Sony is gaining steadily.
Sony’s Lineup is quite impressive and offers both Video enabled devices to stylish 2GB earphones.
Google Japan Mobile Promotion
Google Japan is posting once in a while promotional videos on Youtube.
I really don’t like these Google Mobile videos. Maybe because of the annoying music and graphics, or the silly plot:
In the first one, the couple searches for a cinema screening “Super Dog 2” movie:
Second one, “the business story”, our heroine searches for business manners: “Where should she sit in the Taxi?” followed by a search for a train station and directions.
Airspan Announce Preferred Stock Sale
No need to speculate anymore.
In another twist in our plot, Airspan announces yet another preferred stock sale to Oak Investment Partners.
Neither Axxcelera nor Gilat managed to reach an agreement.
The press release explained the process:
Before entering into the Purchase Agreement with Oak, the Company conducted an extensive and lengthy strategic review process overseen by a special committee of independent directors, which retained Stephens Inc. as its financial advisor in February 2009 to assist with the process. While extensive negotiations were undertaken with several parties, no agreements could be reached on terms acceptable to the Special Committee. Following the termination of discussions with one such party on August 10, 2009, Oak made the offer which, following approximately three weeks of negotiations between the parties, resulted in the execution and delivery of the Purchase Agreement on September 1, 2009.
And Airspan’s dire financial situation:
Without the new investment, the Company would deplete its cash resources in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Either Oak Investment partners believe in Airspan’s turnaround or think future negotiations will help them return their investment. It is also obvious that Airspan cannot maintain their current burn rate and in need of extreme measures to save the failing company.
Alvarion's new CEO
Alvarion IR informed today that the board of directors named Eran Gorev (LinkedIn Profile) as the new CEO and president. Eran is currently the Chief Business Officer at NICE systems (another Israeli Company) and will assume day to day responsibility only in December.
I am sure Eran will face many challenges in his new role; I obviously wish him all the best, especially because we both graduated from the same high school (Eran is 6 years my senior).
Tzvika Friedman, the departing CEO, was probably not very effective in Q3, 09 while I doubt Eran Gorev will manage to change anything by end of Q4, 09. I wonder if this lack of leadership will affect the earning reports.
UQ WiMAX Dual Band Dual Modem USB?
May be the wrong photo on WiMAX Forum Certification page, but if not, C-motech, a Korean company, just certified a dual band dual modem USB device with AU-KDDI logo.
C-Motech certification page indicates the board combines WiMAX and CDMA. Does this mean that KDDI and UQ WiMAX planning a joint campaign for data services?
Airspan UL warning
May be old news (from July), but I just bumped into it.
UL has issued a warning for Airspan Ethernet Adapter, including photos of the product. Not sure this warning has any effect on Airspan business.
However, this warning is interesting to me for another reason: How UL found out this product was not certified? Did a product malfunctioned which triggered an investigation, or was it a routine check?
If you can shed some light on UL process and warnings, please comment.
Gibson Dark Fire for $40
I wish!
Gibson website had a temporary bug (which I can’t seem to reproduce).
Luckily, I took a screen capture showing that the Dark Fire MSRP is 3600 Yen, about $40.
Twitter Spam Bots
I do not understand why Twitter does not filter simple spam bots. It appears like spam bots “ride” trending topics to offer their merchandise (or even compromising links). Every email client can filter out these simple spams, but twitter cannot?
Google Code Jam and Quebec
2009 Google Code Jam is announced.
But that’s not really a reason for a blog post. In the Rules section I found the following clause:
You are not a national or resident of any of the following countries or provinces: Burma (Myanmar), Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Quebec, Sudan and Syria, or anywhere where the contest is prohibited by law. Burma (Myanmar), Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria are restricted by US export controls and sanctions programs and are therefore not eligible to participate in Code Jam. Google reserves the right to relax any of these restrictions if permitted by law before the start of the Qualification Round.
It is interesting to see Quebec (Canada) in the same list with countries that are restricted by US export controls and sanctions. Google does not offer any explanation, but I found s Google Group Discussion that sheds some light.