The new Microsoft Surface!

Pixel.com published this news:

Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division - the same department responsible for Xbox 360 - has unveiled a new

“Entertainment and devices has a long history of bringing innovative product experiences to market - such as Xbox, IPTV and Zune. Today, E&D’s vision is anchored in delivering end-to-end hardware, software and services across different pillars of Connected Entertainment, such as music, video, communication and gaming,” said E&D executive Tom Gibbons.

“That’s exactly what we’re doing with Microsoft Surface… The new hardware and software in Surface, along with a predominant focus on the consumer experience, support the Connected Entertainment vision - making entertainment more personal, more interactive and more social.”

Gibbons added, “As a new product category, we see the Surface computing group as extending Connected Entertainment to new devices, categories and platforms.”

Microsoft Surface will initially roll out through partners such as Starwood Hotels, T-Mobile and Harrah’s Entertainment, plus gambling game company International Game Technology. It will be priced at between USD 5000 - 10,000, but Microsoft plans to produce cheaper versions to sell to home users within three to five years.

And if you wont see some images.

American Idol Winner: Jordin!

American Idol for example represents a true cross media phenomenon, explained Matt Booth of The Kelsey Group. American Idol winner is a 'normal' teenager with a crush on the boyfriend of Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt. American Idol has bucked the trend of most successful television programs, past and present, by growing in audience numbers in its fifth season.

Jordin

Jordin won, DWTS is over, Robin and Ted are broken up, Grey's anatomy got all burned down, close to home ended with a. Jordin is a wonderful young girl, but I feel that there were better singers. Jordin Sparks looked exactly as I pictured her in the moment of her Idol victory.

Contestants

The contestants sing a song of their choice based on a theme each week and the two with the least public votes exit from the competition. Once in the top 5, the contestants sing two songs each. The stage is moved to the Kodak Theatre for the finale showdown, where the two remaining contestants perform for an audience of at least 3,400.

Performances

For their final performances, both contestants sang "This Is My Now," the tune picked by viewers in an online "American Idol" songwriting contest introduced this season, along with two other songs of their choice. Most everyone seems to think, especially after last night’s performances, that Jordin is the obvious winner.

American Idol continues to clobber its competitors in the market sector that really matters to advertisers, those 18-49 years of age. American Idol, its judges are fond of repeating, is a singing competition. American Idol’s Latin night was a battle in the latter category, and perhaps the less said about it the better. Imagine "American Idol" if people like Diana DeGarmo, Jon Peter Lewis and Scott Sabol (wrapped in a metallic bodysuit) won every year and no one was.

Ron Paul's point of view

Ron Paul believes that the federal government has been neglecting its constitutional responsibility to protect its own borders and concentrating instead on unconstitutionally policing foreign countries. Ron Paul has voiced support for re-opening the 9/11 investigation to discover why the FBI did not act on 70 field tips from an agent reporting student pilots (and eventual 9/11 hijackers) who were learning to take off but not land and why the various intelligence agencies could not collaborate on information to possibly prevent the attacks.

Government

Paul tirelessly works for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies.

Candidate

As a former Libertarian Party candidate for President, Congressman Paul has been a proponent of ballot access law reform, and has spoken out on numerous election law reform issues.

Iraq

He has spoken out against torture[18] and the abuse of executive authority in the Iraq War to override human rights guaranteed by the Constitution. He claimed that the current circumstances with Iran are similar to those under which the Iraq War began, and urged Congress not to authorize a war with Iran.

Campaign

Paul is they are used to modern campaigns spending millions on pollsters, consultants, and "grassroots organizers" to create the illusion that have an army of passionate supporters. In 2002, he spoke before the Congress in opposition to campaign finance reforms that place any restrictions on citizens and businesses making campaign contributions to the candidate of their choice. If we don’t learn how to use that to its maximum benefit, we won’t have a very viable campaign.

Ron Paul, R-Texas, touches upon the primary themes of his presidential campaign -- Iraq, immigration and abortion. Ron Paul has also formed a presidential exploratory committee (something Gingrich has not even done yet), his name was conspicuously absent from Falwell's list.

Bill Gates: Worried about the Wii?

From: Gearlog

In George Orwell's novel "1984," the main character was charged with rewriting history. Somewhere in Redmond, there must be something similar to Orwell's Ministry of Information at the Microsoft and Nintendo campuses. At least that's the feeling I get when I hear that Bill Gates is saying that Nintendo is the real competition right now, in the never-ending
videogame console wars.

GameDaily reports that
Gates believes that the Nintendo Wii presents "impressive strength," and that the House of Mario, not Sony, is actually Microsoft's toughest competition in the video game space. Microsoft, Gates claims, will see cost-reduction faster than Sony. But apparently Mr. Gates fails to realize that the PlayStation 2 is still the best selling video game system of all time, and Sony isn't exactly throwing in the towel just yet. It did release a little console called the PS3 last year. And no
one is accidentally throwing those controllers at TV screens.

powered by performancing firefox

Nintendo shows Sony Wii are the champions

From: London Free Press
Wii love it!
Wii, Nintendo's latest video game console, is a runaway hit and is far outselling its more expensive competitor, Sony's PlayStation 3.
Both were released to long lineups and much hoopla in November, but only the Wii is still hard to find in London-area stores. Even in Japan, Wii sales are double that of Play- Station 3.
Sony sat solidly on top of the previous generation of game consoles, garnering 70 per cent of the global market by selling 35 million PlayStation 2 consoles. Nintendo was a distant third, behind Sony and Microsoft's 15-million seller Xbox, selling just 11 million GameCubes.
Both Sony and Nintendo say they will sell six million new-generation consoles worldwide by the end of March.
Allan John, manager of EB Games in White Oaks Mall, said his store has been getting as many as 200 calls a day for the Wii, which sells for about $279. The weekly shipment of about 10 to 15 consoles are usually gone in five minutes.
In contrast, the PlayStation 3 is usually in stock.
John said there's no mystery to Wii's wild popularity
"It's the most interactive, fun thing I've bought in the last 10 years. No matter who you are, chances are you're going to like playing it," he said.
The Wii's big innovation is a wand-like controller (Wii-mote) that detects and mimics the hand and body motions of the player, translating them to TV-screen action.
Buyers of the Wii console get a free game called Wii Sports. It gets couch potatoes up and thrashing around in simulated games of golf, tennis, baseball, boxing and bowling.
Parents who have never played video games tell him they've spent hours playing Wii games with children.
"That's something unheard of in the gaming industry. The whole point of this system was to bring in people who don't play video games," said John.
Carol Bennett, of Head 2 Head Games on Dundas Street, said customers sometimes wait an hour on weekends to play on her Wii station consoles.
Head 2 Head has had to clear a bigger space for the Wii players, she said.
"We don't keep them side by side or they (the players) would hit someone. They get right into it."
There have been reports that enthusiastic Wii players have broken the wrist straps attached to the controllers and sent them flying into TVs or other players' faces.
But Bennett is skeptical, saying Head 2 Head has had no such incidents.
There have been more games released for the Wii than the PlayStation 3 and they are easier to play and less violent, appealing to a wider audience, said Bennett.
Playstation 3 has far superior graphics for serious gamers and can play Blu-ray discs, she added.
"But graphics isn't everything. I think that's what Sony is learning," said Bennett.

Google, Digg, Yahoo and more...

When it comes to web brands, you'd be hard-pressed to find ones more popular than Google, Yahoo and Digg. These sites are becoming so well known (2 already are as popular as any brand out there), any major Internet marketing campaign must consider leveraging these sites.



The early part of the New Year has been especially kind to the mobile phone industry in terms of positive buzz - culminating with yesterday's Apple iPhone announcement that knocked the social media side of the web off its feet. Standing at the center of this social media storm (well, perhaps not in the middle, but definitely major players) are none other than Google and Yahoo!.



During yesterday's iPhone announcement - presented by Steve Jobs - Engadget's coverage revealed the iPhone would very supportive of Google's cavalcade of web applications (a Google Maps demonstration was presented during the announcement) as well as confirming a partnership with Yahoo!. Surprisingly, the iPhone is not the only device these competitors have partnered with.



According to numerous reports, both Yahoo and Google have also partnered with Samsung for the recently launched SGH-Z720 phone. Google's partnership allows users to access three of Google's web applications - search, Gmail, and Google Maps.



Yahoo!'s partnership calls for the phones to come preloaded with Yahoo! Go 2.0; Yahoo! oneSearch (Yahoo's mobile web search feature); Yahoo! Mail; Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Personal Information Management. Of course, all of these services are intended to provide potential owners with a more robust user experience and considering all of the applications available, Samsung has succeeded in doing so.

Partnerships like these are good indicator of what powerful search engines like Google and Yahoo are focusing on (not solely of course): the mobile Internet. As more and more users adopt this method of Internet interaction, partnering with the mobile phone companies to provide mobile web services goes a long way towards securing a future beyond organic web search.



Apparently, either the current Google PageRank update or someone at Google doesn't like Digg because the nexus for social media currently has a PageRank score of zero.



That's right, when you navigate to Digg.com, Google's green bar
turns white (this goes for both the www. version and the non-www. version). I've
got a screenshot if you are interested in case this gets corrected anytime soon. Although, when you consider How PageRank Works, then perhaps this wasn't an accident at all.



Hat-tip
to DazzlinDonna for pointing this out at her SEO Scoop blog.

powered by performancing firefox

Pfizer Medication for Obese Dogs Wins U.S. Approval (Update4)

Published from : Bloomberg

Written from: Justin Blum

Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. approved the first
prescription weight-loss drug for the growing number of dogs
whose owners feed them too many scraps and treats.

The Food and Drug Administration today cleared Pfizer Inc.
to market a drug called Slentrol for use in the estimated 5
percent of U.S. dogs that are obese. Veterinarians also could
use it for the additional 20 percent to 30 percent that are
overweight.

The medication, which Pfizer estimates will cost pet owners
about $1 to $2 a day, could be used for the increasing
population of dogs with weight problems due to overfeeding and
lack of exercise, said George C. Fahey Jr., a professor of
animal sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign who specializes in pet nutrition. As with humans,
obesity can lead to diabetes along with heart and joint
problems.

``It would be helpful,'' Fahey said of Slentrol in a
telephone interview today. ``It would be more helpful if people
could feed their dogs less. That would be turning off the spigot
instead of mopping the floor. Not everybody's going to do
that.''

Dogs that are 20 percent more than their ideal weight are
considered obese. The FDA approved the medication for those
dogs, Pfizer said, though veterinarians are free to give it to
dogs classified as overweight. It will be dispensed only by
veterinarians and is expected to be available in the spring,
Pfizer said.

61.5 Million Dogs

There are about 61.5 million pet dogs in the U.S.,
according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, based
in Schaumburg, Illinois.

The FDA warned Slentrol can cause dogs to vomit and
experience loose stools, diarrhea, lethargy and loss of
appetite.

The medication will include a warning saying the drug isn't
to be used by humans, and Pfizer said it shouldn't be used for
cats.

Pfizer originally studied the drug for use in humans to
lower cholesterol, said Bob Fauteux, a spokesman for New York-
based Pfizer. The company discovered it could be used in dogs
and gave up on human uses.

The drug makes it easier for owners -- many of whom are
overweight themselves -- to reduce the amount of food their pets
consume, said Debra Zoran, who ran a clinical trial for Pfizer
and is a professor of animal medicine at Texas A University in
College Station, Texas.

Begging and Stealing Food

``You start to take away the calories from the animal and
they beg and they steal food and they take food from the
trash,'' Zoran said in an interview. With the drug, she said,
owners were able to feed their dogs less ``without having a
fight.''

When dogs become overweight, it can hurt them to walk and
exercise, resulting in more weight gain, she said. Overweight
dogs also can develop arthritis and hip dysplasia.

The drug reduces appetite and fat absorption to produce
weight loss, according to the FDA. It blocks the assembly and
release of lipoproteins into the bloodstream.

Dog owners can give the liquid medicine directly or by
adding it to food. It is to be given in varying amounts, with an
initial dose for 14 days. A veterinarian will determine the
dog's progress on a monthly basis and adjust the dose depending
on weight loss, the FDA said.

After a dog reaches the desired weight, Pfizer suggests
continued use for three months while the best level of food and
exercise are determined, the FDA said.

Shares of New York-based Pfizer fell 8 cents to $26.30 at 4
p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

powered by performancing firefox