The first terse tweets also outpaced the U.S. Geological Survey’s conventional seismometers, which normally can take from two to 20 minutes to generate an alert. The agency is now experimenting with Twitter as a faster and cheaper way to track earthquakes.

Never have scientists had so much readily accessible, real-time data about what people say. Twitter, the service that allows users to send text updates of up to 140 characters out to the public, publishes more than 200 million messages, or tweets, a day. Compared with information from cellphone records and social-media sites, Twitter texts are as timely as a pulse beat and, taken together, automatically compile the raw material of social history.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

EARTHQUAKE !!!!!

Twitter user @JordnJnkieJuice, who Twitter says was the first user to Tweet about yesterday’s earthquake, a mere 24 seconds after it hit. Newest update from the Virginia-area user: “Finally Famous !”

There are no reports of damage as yet, but it appears that cellular networks are affected by one of two things: Either they’re being overwhelmed by people making calls to talk about the quake and let loved ones know they’re okay, or because of some other disruption.

Californians accustomed to this sort of thing will likely roll their eyes at all the drama for a paltry 5.9, but for New Yorkers this is something new.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a nuclear power plant in central Virginia has lost offsite power. However, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the reactors are safe.

Reports and tweets say that various aspects of wireless service are up or down. One minute voice calls are down, but texting and data still works, and then only data works. Here are a few, all only a few minutes old:

I really wish my phone would start to work already, @ATT. If you can’t handle a minor earthquake, how’re you gonna handle a real emergency?

August 23, 2011 11:35 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@jjburnett82

Josh Burnett

RT @cfohlin: There goes the ATT network. *sigh* #earthquake

August 23, 2011 11:35 am via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@robertfpeterson

Robert Peterson

#earthquake — didn’t feel a thing thankfully, but Verizon calls are going nowhere at the moment

August 23, 2011 11:17 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@nourishnyc

Marissa Lippert

#EarthQuake: T-Mobile Cell coverage is down in Tysons Corner, VA

August 23, 2011 11:37 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@PerryInDC

PerryA

Its gonna be a major earthquake in sprint in about 15 min if my phone still aint workn

August 23, 2011 11:57 am via UberSocial for BlackBerryReplyRetweetFavorite

@NYCDEE

Skateboard Dee

Heard that mobile service was impacted from #earthquake. @att users: is this quake related or just Tuesday?

August 23, 2011 11:38 am via TweetCaster for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite

@TWSS37

Tim K

Web traffic doesn’t seem to be spiking in any significant way based on this Akamai realtime Web monitor. There’s a small area glowing red in the northeast, but its hard to know if that’s above normal.

I just heard on the local NBC affiliate that some of the airports in the region are closing temporarily, including New York’s JFK and Reagan National in DC.

Here’s a Tweet from Verizon spokesman John O’Malley:

No reports of damage to #Verizon Wireless network. Was some network congestion in the East after tremors. Continuing to monitor. #earthquake

August 23, 2011 11:52 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@VZWjohno

John O’Malley

Here’s a statement from Sprint:

Customers in East may experience intermittent delay making/receiving calls after recent earthquake. This is a temporary mass calling event.

August 23, 2011 11:35 am via CoTweetReplyRetweetFavorite

@sprint

Sprint

And one from T-Mobile:

T-Mobile’s network is operational but is experiencing higher call volumes in areas affected by the earthquake. SMS & E-Mail are advised.

August 23, 2011 12:29 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@TMobile

T-Mobile USA

I’m seeing reports of various places that were evacuated: The Associated Press reported that the Pentagon was evacuated. I heard on local media reports that New York’s City Hall was evacuated. I heard the Town Hall in Huntington, Long Island was evacuated. The AP just sent two alerts saying that the National Weather says no tsunami is expected following the quake. Additionally, it reports that the National Park Service has closed all monuments and memorials on the National Mall in Washington D.C.

I happen to be out on the East End of Long Island, and I can tell you that we felt it slightly here. I was sitting at my desk working on a post when I felt my chair sway slightly for what seemed like a good 30 seconds or so.

The U.S. Geological Survey just sent an updated report. You can subscribe to them via email here.

== PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE REPORT ==

Region: VIRGINIA
Geographic coordinates: 37.881N, 77.952W
Magnitude: 5.9 Mw
Depth: 0 km
Universal Time (UTC): 23 Aug 2011 17:51:04
Time near the Epicenter: 23 Aug 2011 13:51:04
Local standard time in your area: 23 Aug 2011 12:51:04

Location with respect to nearby cities:
14 km (9 miles) SSW (195 degrees) of Mineral, VA
17 km (10 miles) SSE (165 degrees) of Louisa, VA
23 km (14 miles) NE (52 degrees) of Columbia, VA
58 km (36 miles) NW (312 degrees) of Richmond, VA
141 km (88 miles) SW (216 degrees) of Washington, DC

And if all that weren’t enough, there’s Hurricane Irene, which is making its way up the East Coast and expected to affect the Washington DC and New York areas by Sunday.

The New York Times is quoting Dr. Arthur Lener-Lam of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Division of Seismology, saying the area of Virginia where the quake was centered is known for what he calls “geologically old faults,” and is known for frequent small quakes.

UPDATE: In a statement, wireless industry group CTIA reported: “The industry’s infrastructure appears to be intact, but because many wireless consumers are using the networks, we are experiencing higher than normal traffic. In these high volume instances, there can be delays. We encourage people to send text messages and emails to contact their loved ones until volume returns to normal.”

The Japanese electronics giant said it posted a net loss of ¥388.80 billion ($4.74 billion) during the January-March period, from a loss of ¥56.57 billion in the year-earlier period.

The tax asset writeoff that translated into the hefty net loss is an indication of how the March 11 earthquake and tsunami has shattered Sony’s expectations for a robust current fiscal year.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

The Japanese entertainment and electronics conglomerate cut its net-profit outlook for the fiscal year that ended in March to a ¥260 billion ($3.19 billion) loss from the ¥70 billion profit it forecast in February.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Originally, the new Kindle was supposed to be available on May 3, but Amazon’s SVP and CFO Tom Szkutak confirmed that it will start shipping tomorrow.

The device, called Kindle with Special Offers, comes at the lowest price yet at $114, which is $25 cheaper than the Wi-Fi-only version.

While the hardware on the new e-reader is identical, it’s cheaper because it is being subsidized by advertising. Initially, sponsors include General Motors, Proctor & Gamble and Visa.

“The team did a nice job of moving the dates up,” he said.

The e-reader will be available from Amazon, Target and Best Buy.

While the new price only represents a drop of $25 (and Amazon promises the device will never be free), it will likely drive additional sales of the already popular e-reader. Sticking with tradition, Amazon did not disclose how many had been sold to date. “We are incredibly excited with Kindle because we see that customers are buying a lot more books….We continue to invest in that business,” Szkutak said.

Also during the call, Amazon hinted at how fast its physical retail sales are growing. Szkutak said it may build more than the nine distribution centers it had been planning on building this year. Already, one has opened, and about five are expected to be based in North America with the remainder opening up internationally.

Analysts watch Amazon’s investments carefully because it affects the company’s profitability. Right now, it is investing heavily, leading first quarter profits to fall despite a 38 percent surge in revenues year over year.

Separately, the company said revenues were hurt internationally by the earthquake in Japan. Had it not been for the natural disaster, it said international revenues would have grown by 32 percent instead of 27 percent.

The T-Hawk, as it’s called, belongs to a class of unmanned planes called “micro air vehicles” that have been used for a few years by U.S. military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan for surveillance. Honeywell International Inc., the maker of the T-Hawk, has supplied four of the funnel-shaped drones to help Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant’s operator. The T-Hawk earlier this month gathered video and radiation data at the Fukushima plant, which was damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Sony, which currently holds a seven percent stake in Sharp Display Products Corp., had planned to raise that stake to 34 percent by the end of this month. The two Japanese electronics makers signed an agreement in July 2009 to set up the joint venture, which produces LCD panels at Sharp’s Sakai plant in Osaka.

Production is currently temporarily suspended at Sharp’s two LCD panel plants–its Sakai plant and Kameyama plant in Mie Prefecture–after the March 11 earthquake.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

“Towards the end of the quarter we introduced the highly anticipated Xperia arc and Xperia Play, which have been well received by both operators and consumers around the world,” CEO Bert Nordberg said in a statement. “However, the Japan earthquake made it a challenging quarter operationally and we are experiencing some disruptions to our supply chain. We will continue to evaluate the situation.”

Investors have been eyeing the report not just to size up the cell phone industry, but also to get a sense of the impact on the electronics industry from the devastating earthquake that struck Japan last month.

Sales for the quarter ended March 31 were down compared to both the prior quarter and year-ago figures. Sony Ericsson said sales totaled 1.145 billion Euros ($1.63 billion), off 19 percent from a year ago and 25 percent from the prior quarter. Profit margins did grow, reaching 33 percent in the quarter, up 2 percentage points from a year ago and 3 percentage points from the prior quarter.

Sony Ericsson has been shipping fewer phones, but it is aiming to improve its bottom line by shifting to Android over a prior lineup that included far more lower-end feature phones. The company shipped 8.1 million phones in the quarter, down 28 percent from the prior quarter and 23 percent from the same quarter a year ago. The average selling price per unit, however, rose about 5 percent from a year earlier and 4 percent from the prior quarter, to 141 Euros ($200).

The company estimates it has about 5 percent of the global phone market, as measured by units, and about 3 percent when measured by dollar value.

The Dallas-based company had already issued warnings about the impact on its two factories in the quake zone. In reporting first-quarter results Monday, TI put costs associated with the disaster at $30 million, which reduced earnings per share for the period ended in March by about two cents. In addition, the company suffered about $20 million in lost sales, said Ron Slaymaker, TI’s vice president of investor relations.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Analyst Chris Whitmore with Deutsche Bank Securities previewed the quarter in a note to clients this morning, and said he thinks IBM closed the quarter on the strong note. While the consensus calls for IBM to report $24 billion in sales and per-share earnings at $2.30, Whitmore is slightly more bullish than the Street on revenues–at $24.1 billion–and less so on earnings–at $2.24.

Checks indicate that IBM’s Power-based systems are taking business away from servers using Oracle’s Ultrasparc-based systems, the server business it took over when it acquired Sun Microsystems last year, though we heard nothing about that from Oracle when it reported earnings on March 24. On top of that, Whitmore foresees strength in the services business, and expects that IBM will report service signings in the range of $12 billion to $12.5 billion.

One headwind to watch: Japan. IBM derives about 10 percent of revenue from Japan and could take a hit on its results following the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that devastated that country last month, Whitmore says. Strength in other areas of the world may offset any weakness in Japan. “We expect management to duly update investors as to what, if any, impact these factors would have on IBM’s results going forward,” he wrote.

Whitmore expects revenues to grow a little more than five percent companywide, which includes a little help from currency rates. He says hardware and software sales both should grow 10 percent year on year, while services will show growth of less than 3 percent. Maybe the strength has something to do with all the publicity generated from winning at “Jeopardy” two months ago.

A few other points to watch: Deals. IBM publicly announced only four deals this quarter versus seven in the year-ago quarter, and only one was valued at more than $100 million. With so little data, it’s hard to get a solid feel for services bookings, Whitmore says, though he expects the bookings figure to track largely with the consensus.

(Image via from an 1980 IBM Poster designed by the late Paul Rand.)

In a repeat of a trend seen last quarter, both firms report that the market shrank in the first quarter of the year. This would constitute the first market contraction in six quarters, and the first since the onset of the recession. They differ, however, on the size of that contraction: IDC pegs it at 3.2 percent since the first quarter of 2010; Gartner at 1.1 percent.

To be fair, let’s remember that the first quarter of the year is always seasonably slow for PC purchases because two things tend to happen in the fourth quarter: Consumers splurge on gifts for family and frankly for themselves too, and take advantage of crazy deals offered by retailers desperate to clear out their inventory. On the business side, some CIOs take the opportunity to use up unspent funds in their budgets, and get employees starting off the new year with a fresh new machine at their desks. However, this tendency is just as often offset by the start of a new budget year. Whichever way you slice it, the first quarter is always weak on consumer sales though a bit stronger on the enterprise side.

So what happened? The iPad 2, for one thing. “With the launch of the iPad 2 in February, more consumers either switched to buying an alternative device, or simply held back from buying PCs,” is how Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, put it. “We’re investigating whether this trend is likely to have a long-term effect on the PC market.” Ya think?

Bob O’Donnell, IDC’s vice president for Clients and Displays, wasn’t quite as willing to blame the iPad: “Slower than expected commercial growth in the first quarter failed to offset the ongoing challenges in the consumer market,” he said in a statement. “While it’s tempting to blame the decline completely on the growth of media tablets, we believe other factors, including extended PC lifetimes and the lack of compelling new PC experiences, played equally significant roles.”

Jay Chou, another IDC analyst put it much more succinctly: “‘Good-enough computing’ has become a firm reality.”

The picture gets no better when you look at regional results. IDC says shipments declined in the U.S. by 10 percent. Gartner pegged it at 6 percent. It was, Gartner noted, the third consecutive quarter for year-on-year declines in U.S. notebook sales. Shipments in Europe contracted too, and Japan, which was already expected to be a weak market this quarter, has other things on its mind since the devastating earthquake and tsunami. Asia was the only bright spot, where shipments increased by 5.6 percent in IDC’s forecast and 4.1 percent in Gartner’s. China, IDC noted, failed to reach double-digit growth, and consumers in India, Gartner says, were distracted by the Cricket World Cup. Okay, then.

So how do the numbers look? Since IDC’s forecast is the most dire, I’ll start there:

The worldwide demand for PCs was 80.6 million units. Hewlett-Packard sold 15.2 million; Dell, which just made it back to second place, shipped 10.3 million; Acer 9 million; Lenovo 8.2 million; Toshiba 4.8 million; while “others” clocked 33 million. All vendors except for Lenovo saw declines. The worst decline was Acer’s, whose shipments fell nearly 16 percent. (Now we know why its CEO Gianfranco Lanci lost his job.) Lenovo, on the other hand, saw its shipments improve by more than 16 percent.

Demand in the U.S. was 16.1 million. HP led with 4.3 million, Dell 3.7 million, Toshiba 1.6 million, Apple 1.4 million and Acer 1.3 million. Unnamed others sold 3.7 million. Acer saw its shipments fall by an alarming 42 percent. Apple and Toshiba posted gains of 9.6 and 10.4 percent respectively. HP and Dell both saw declines.

Now let’s look at Gartner’s numbers (remember that each firm tracks the market a little differently):

Gartner pegged the worldwide market at 84.2 million units. It says HP sold 14.8 million, Acer 10.9 million, Dell 10 million, Lenovo 8.2 million, Toshiba 4.8 million. (Clearly there’s a difference in how they see Acer and Lenovo’s performances.)

In the U.S., Gartner estimated the market at 16.1 million units. By its reckoning, HP sold 4.2 million, Dell 3.6 million, Acer 1.8 million, Toshiba 1.7 million, Apple 1.5 million, others 3.3 million.

Today and tomorrow, Yahoo’s directors are gathering here in Silicon Valley for one of their regular meetings that take place over the course of the year.

While board meetings in general are usually pretty dull affairs–and Yahoo’s, in particular, are typically glacial ones–there is a lot on the plates of those with purview over the machinations of the long-struggling Silicon Valley Internet giant.

Here’s a primer of what might (and might not) be happening, according to sources, of course, as Yahoo continues on its quest to reinvigorate itself–a journey that is beginning to make Siddhartha’s transformation into Buddha enlightenment look speedy.

A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment on anything below, although I did run it all by them.

The U-Shaped Turnaround

At Yahoo’s recent sales meeting in San Antonio, CEO Carol Bartz went all Sesame Street on the troops, using the letter “U” as an illustration to indicate where in the cycle the company was in its turnaround.

Apparently, just on the other side of the very bottom of the letter, heading inevitably upward.

Her argument was that the company has finally cleaned up its platform mess and its confusing corporate structure, and that its display and search advertising business is now recovering nicely.

All true, except there are some other key issues, such as the slowness of the search and online advertising partnership with Microsoft to make some serious hay.

In fact, although its display business will show a definite strong recovery in Yahoo’s quarterly results next week, its search business–both in market share and revenue per search (RPS)–has, as one person close to the situation put it succintly, “fallen off the cliff.”

That’s due, in part, to getting the new system with Microsoft delivering better results, which is not happening yet (if ever!).

In this quarter, Microsoft has honored its contractual guarantees and will make up the difference–which will result in masking the magnitude of the RPS loss. It’s a worrisome trend to watch.

The Asia Situation

Yahoo and its Asian partners are still mulling over various options regarding the company’s large ownership stakes there.

What is happening with its share in China’s Alibaba Group, according to sources, is precisely nothing right now, as has been made clear in recent comments by its CEO and co-founder Jack Ma.

“If you cannot make the business cool, you have no right to be angry with me,” said Ma in an article in Forbes published this week, referring to Yahoo. “I just don’t trust them…I’ve been working with them for years, and I’m disappointed.”

Relations between Ma and Bartz, sources said, remain as bad as ever, and even the normally close one between Ma and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is strained.

Plus, Ma told Forbes, as he has said before, Alibaba is not taking its auction site, Taobao, public–leaving Yahoo in possession of an appreciating but decidedly private asset.

Japan is a different story, with the disposition of Yahoo’s stake in Yahoo! Japan the subject of long and continuing negotiations for a while now.

While the earthquake and tsunami crisis there did slow discussions down, there is still active recent movement about a variety of cashing-out scenarios, all of which have massive tax and regulatory issues.

Without boring you with the specifics, one option is to create a tracking stock, another a spin-off of the asset and still another some sort of stock trade.

But no matter what happens, Yahoo will have to pay some sort of taxes on its 35 percent stake in Yahoo! Japan, now worth $8 billion.

But if its CFO Tim Morse–the key figure working on the deal–can pull it off, what will Yahoo do with all that money?

Acquisition Guns Blazing? Or Sputtering?

In a recent forum in Silicon Valley, one of its M&A minions said Yahoo had its “guns blazing” with regard to acquisition activity in 2011, as deliciously reported in The Wall Street Journal, despite the company’s lackluster acquisition record.

Sources said the exec had his ears soundly boxed by his managers for the dopey remarks, since Yahoo has had such a lackluster record in the arena–especially compared to others.

And, oh yes, Yahoo’s M&A head just decamped to gaming phenom Zynga.

That aside, Yahoo should be deep in the market for hot start-ups to help revive its innovative spirit, but it remains hindered by a continued reluctance by new start-ups to join it and by its reputation for being a place where entrepreneurs go to die.

That certainly could change at any time with the right execs in place, but Yahoo is competing with a plethora of more exciting companies and also a seemingly endless venture capital gusher of cash of late.

While it is the board’s job to approve acquisitions and not source them, perhaps it is its job to pressure Bartz and other execs to get off the stick and hit at least one of the targets Yahoo aims at.

Targets are plentiful in advertising, content and even social, with many start-ups playing right into a lot of arenas Yahoo needs some help.

And help it does need as talent keeps walking out the door daily, mostly to hotter prospects such as Zynga and social buying sites Groupon and LivingSocial.

There is no question it is hard for any large company to hold onto top staff when there are so many enticing bonbons out there as options, but it can be done.

One good thing: Its newish head of product Blake Irving and head of U.S. media and advertising Ross Levinsohn seem to be playing well together and are setting a tone of stability that is much needed.

Enter the Kenny

That said, there remains endless swirl, especially with key investors, about the performance of its CEO.

While she started off as a publicly in-your-face exec, Bartz has definitely stepped out of the limelight of late, as her pugnacious manner started to irritate Wall Street and others.

It was a good idea, since it has taken the focus off the lack of stock and revenue progress she had loudly promised.

Still, Yahoo shares have continued to stay locked in the mid-teens, as investors wait for some sign that Bartz’s turnaround has worked.

The entrance of its spanking new director, Akamai President David Kenny, has further increased speculation about management and board changes at Yahoo.

This is Kenny’s first board meeting, but this well-connected newbie is someone who is clearly going to rise quickly to the top of decision-making at Yahoo.

That’s because the smooth and well-liked Kenny, who also has deep advertising experience as founder of the Digitas agency, has a long relationship with Yahoo and also with Yang.

He also now has much more tech cred as a leader of one of the Internet’s most important infrastructure companies, with a ton of regular contacts with media giants, ad networks and video providers that are Akamai’s clients.

In other words, Kenny (pictured here) is the full package of ad and tech experience that would make him an obvious Yahoo CEO candidate when Bartz’s contract is up in early 2013, if not before.

He’s also the person most likely to take over for longtime BoomTown punching bag Roy Bostock as chairman of the board at some point.

None of this is happening soon, but it is clearly an interesting development.

There are other machinations, of course, from continued interest from private equity players in Yahoo, as well as a variety of takeover scenarios, each more complex than the next.

While often derided as yesterday’s news by the elite of Silicon Valley as on an inevitable downward path, those plots are there because Yahoo remains a stellar brand with consumers worldwide and an Internet property with huge traffic and a big ad business.

In other words, it’s a U that someday maybe could be a V.

Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White says Apple has been working hard to eliminate Japan-related constraints, proactively securing components from overseas suppliers.

“Our checks are indicating that Apple is aggressively attacking the situation in Japan and immediately sent executives to suppliers to ensure adequate supply of components, while also offering upfront cash payments,” White wrote in a research bulletin. “Additionally, our contacts indicate that Apple has been in Taiwan securing component capacity with a “3 Cover” guarantee (e.g., capacity, stock and price) that could block out competitors, providing the company with further market share gain opportunities.”

White’s report lends further credence to market chatter that had Apple seeking out new vendors in Taiwan to ensure access to key components. The company was recently rumored to have tapped AU Optronics as a secondary source of iPad displays, agreeing to pay a rumored 300 percent to 400 percent premium to guarantee a steady supply. Sources said that the deal would require about half of the capacity of AU’s fifth-generation plant in central Taiwan, which could end up producing 100,000 displays daily for Apple.

Add to this Apple’s long-term strategic supply chain investments and the tendency of its customers to wait for its products rather than buying a commodity substitute and the company would appear to be on solid footing. We’ll find out for certain of April 20th, when Apple reports earnings.

As a result, the handheld gaming device, which goes by the name NGP for next-generation portable, may be introduced in only one region in time for the holiday shopping season — instead of launching simultaneously in Asia, Europe and the U.S., said Jack Tretton, president of Sony Computer Entertainment of America.

Tretton told Bloomberg that the delay would also give developers more time to complete their software.

Last month, Nintendo broke sales records after introducing its new portable game unit.

The big feature of the new Nintendo 3DS is the ability to view 3-D images without wearing special glasses. Sony’s NGP doesn’t really have one huge selling point, but rather the company has been meticulous in overhauling the entire device. The game player will have front-and rear-facing cameras, a gyroscope, accelerometer, Wi-Fi and 3G support and built-in GPS. It also boasts a five-inch, touchscreen display and a corresponding touch panel on the rear of the unit.

But that may not matter if it’s not available for sale in time for the holidays.

Edward Woo, a video-games analyst with Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, told Bloomberg that if the NGP gets pushed out until 2012 for some markets, it threatens to put Sony further behind Nintendo.

“It raises the bar on the competitive issues that Sony is going to have to hurdle,” he said. “As it is now, it’s already going to be almost eight months behind Nintendo, and a delay could push that to a year.”

Nintendo, which is based in Kyoto, Japan, said production of the 3DS was not affected by the quake, but it still had to work hard to meet robust demand for pre-sales.

Fusion and other distributors work with computer, telecommunications-gear and electronics manufacturers, as well as auto makers and others, to find sources for electronic components when their normal supply lines break down.

Since Japan was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami, it has become clearer how significant a player the country is in making key components–such as flash drives and integrated circuits–that are used for manufacturing everything from computers to automobile electronics. The result has been a scramble for parts that has worsened pre-quake shortages and created new ones, keeping firms like Fusion busy.

“There are some parts we simply can’t find,” says Fusion’s chief operating officer, Paul Romano.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

“2:46 Quakebook,” a Twitter-sourced collection of personal accounts of the quake and its aftermath that will soon be available for purchase here, is one group’s response to the disaster initiated by the local blogging community that aims to raise money for relief efforts (the title refers to the time at which the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck on March 11). All proceeds will go to the Japanese Red Cross.

The e-book, which has gone from conception to completion in around a week and a half, is a case study in the collaborative power of social networking, a vital tool for many in the immediate aftermath with cellphone communications and transport seriously disrupted. Over 200 people—both Japanese and non-Japanese, but mostly living in the country—submitted their experiences and reflections to the project through written accounts and photography, while the editing and design was handled by an international Twitter-based network of bloggers, writers and designers.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Kureha, which has a 70 percent share of the global market for a crucial polymer used in lithium-ion batteries, had to shut its factory in Iwaki–near the quake’s epicenter–after the March 11 disaster struck. It is the only place where Kureha makes this particular polymer.

Its chief executive said Japan’s natural disaster would accelerate the company’s plans to move more of its production overseas. “For a company like Kureha, this is the only way of surviving,” said Takao Iwasaki in an interview on Monday.

Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The Nintendo 3DS, which allows players to see 3-D images without special glasses, will go on sale in the U.S. on Sunday for $250.

Amazon is already claiming that the Nintendo 3DS was the biggest console launch ever on Amazon.com. It sold more units on January 19–the day it was announced–than any console had before, including the slimmed-down versions of the Xbox 360 last year and the PS3 the year before.

GameStop, which will open 800 of its stores worldwide at midnight on sales day, said pre-sales were strong. “Demand has been so strong that, literally, we are working every day with Nintendo to ensure that we have sufficient product. And they have been very good partners on this, and we fully expect to have sufficient product at launch; the demand is very strong,” said GameStop’s President Tony Bartel during the company’s earnings call yesterday, according to a SeekingAlpha transcript.

Nintendo expects to ship about four million 3DS units worldwide by the end of March, and said 1.5 million of those will likely be in Japan. The device went on sale in Europe today.

The original DS has been insanely popular over the years.

Nintendo has sold more than 47 million portable video game systems in the U.S. since the original model launched in November 2004. By its own measures, it says, that makes Nintendo DS the nation’s best-selling video game system of all time.

Still, it’s unclear whether the 3-D mechanism will draw a new audience, or whether it’s enough to encourage current users to upgrade.

In other words, can the 3DS repeat history? There’s a handful of reasons why this could be game over.

Nintendo warned that children under the age of six should not view the 3-D images due to health concerns, although optometrists have since largely dismissed the worries.

Another concern is price.

The device costs $250, which is $100 more than the original. The games are also $10 more expensive at $39 each.

Finally, there’s the competition.

The Nintendo products are attractive because they don’t require a monthly fee. Increasingly, however, smartphones are offering an equal gaming experience. Apple’s iPad and iPod touch also don’t have monthly fees, and those devices have thousands of games for much less than $39. If 3-D is important, two smartphones were unveiled this week at CTIA with 3-D capabilities–without glasses.

Katie Boehret of The Wall Street Journal and All Things Digital gave the device a mixed review, calling out its clunkiness and remarking that the images sometimes made her dizzy.

However, the device offers a lot more features than the old model. In May, it’s expected to get a software update that will enable downloadable games and add a Web browser.

On launch day, users will have a choice of dozens of game titles, including several created by Nintendo, such as Pilotwings Resort, Nintendogs + Cats: Golden Retriever & New Friends, and Steel Diver.

Typically, the launch of new hardware spurs a spike in game sales.

It’s Ubisoft’s intention to launch more 3DS titles than any other third-party video game publisher this week to ride that wave. It has four titles ready at launch, including Asphalt 3D, Combat of Giants, Dinosaurs 3D and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon. In all, it has more than 15 games in development for the platform.

All of Ubisoft’s games at launch will be in 3-D; however, a toggle on the device allows you to convert the images to 2-D. The games also take advantage of other new features, such as the accelerometer, which in Asphalt 3D allows you to steer the car with motion control.

Ubisoft SVP of Sales and Marketing Tony Key said the goal is to be No. 1 on the platform. “The thing is going to be hot. Our initial prediction is that it will be hard to get your hands on one. It’s going to sell out. All kinds of people will be trying to buy one, ranging from the core gaming men to tweens to every gamer segment out there,” he said. “As fast as Nintendo can make them is as fast as they will be able to sell them.”

Both Amazon and GameStop are providing incentives for current DS owners to upgrade. They are offering $50 to $100 in trade-in credit on old gaming units, depending on the device.

Nintendo, which is based in Kyoto, Japan, has previously said that there’s been no apparent damage to its headquarters after the recent earthquake, and that business operations, including future product shipments, haven’t been affected.

Japanese TV broadcasters TBS and TV Asahi shot the 30-second clips at the makeshift shelters now dotting Japan’s northern region. In them, survivors say their name, hometown and sometimes a message reassuring loved ones that they are safe.

“Friends and family, I just wanted to say: Rest easy,” said Keiji Saito, the beginnings of a white beard on his face. In the background, survivors are gathered in a crowded school gymnasium, wrapped in thick layers to ward off the cold.

“I intend to stay here until the very end,” Mr. Saito added.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Chief Financial Officer Mark Garrett said the company reduced its revenue expectation for the second quarter by $50 million–or roughly one third of the original expectation for Japan–due to an uncertain business environment after the nation was rocked by an earthquake and tsunami.

The revenue hit is amplified, said Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen, because Japanese companies typically close sales in March, which is the end of the fiscal year for many of them. However, he said, the tragedy hasn’t changed Adobe’s optimism about the market and its long-term growth prospects.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Manufacturing has stopped at Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd.’s Shirakawa facility, and MEMC Electronic Materials has stopped manufacturing at its plant in Utsunomiya. Together, the two facilities account for a quarter of the global supply of silicon wafers, the basis of building chips.

The Shin-Etsu Chemical plant by itself supplies about 20 percent of the world’s silicon supply, and it specializes in making 300-millimeter wafers, which are the dinner-plate-size discs of silicon used in the more advanced chip factories, commonly referred to as fabs. Shin-Etsu, iSuppli says, supplies several memory chip manufacturers, particularly those that make flash memory, used in everything from iPhones to memory cards, and also DRAM, the main memory used in PCs and servers. ISuppli says the global market is going to be hit hard, which in turn means you can expect prices on both flash and DRAM to soar. Shin-Etsu has said it would set up production at other plants, but it’s hard to know how long that will take.

MEMC’s Utsunomiya facility accounts for five percent of worldwide wafer supply. MEMC said it expects that shipments from this facility will be delayed during the near term.

In a related note, iSuppli has quantified the impact of the shutdown of operations at Mitsubishi Gas and of Hitachi Kasei Polymer. The two companies produce about 70 percent of the world’s supply of the raw materials used to make printed circuit boards. The key material in question is called copper-clad laminate or CCL. The two companies say they’ll be able to ramp production back up within two weeks. The good news is that electronics manufacturers have enough circuit boards in inventory that they can probably keep their operations running without interruption.

ISuppli goes on to check in on a few chip companies in the affected region: Elpida Memory says its fab in Yamagata has been damaged, and the lack of electricity is hurting production. It’s running at about half its normal capacity.

The quake also damaged about 40 percent of the production capacity of Renesas Electronics. Production has stopped at its Tsugaru fabs where it makes analog and discrete chips, at its Naka fab where it makes system-on-chip and microcontrollers, and at its Takasaki and Kofu fabs, which also making analog and discrete parts.

Half of Fujitsu’s production capacity has been damaged. While its fabs and wafer equipment are intact, the lack of power, gas and wafers have slowed things down considerably, and it expects to recover in about three to four weeks.

One company that is holding up well: AKM Semiconductor, notable for the compass chips it produces for Apple that are used in the iPhone and iPad 2. Its main production fab in Nobeoka is well out of the quake zone and hasn’t suffered any loss of power.

But people who click on those links activate malicious code that is embedded in their personal computers. According to Satnam Narang, a threat analyst with Internet security firm M86, the code not only turns the infected computer into a drone that can be used by hackers to send more spam in the future, but also tricks people into paying $49 for fake anti-virus software.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The latest iPad 2 teardown from IHS iSuppli suggests the device’s screen may be sourced exclusively in Japan. The research outfit’s tests found it to be quite a bit more flexible and durable than the glass used in the iPad 1, possibly indicating that it’s made from Dragontrail Glass–a material manufactured by Asahi Glass of Japan. At least two of the company’s facilities suffered damage in last week’s quake.

Also manufactured in Japan: the iPad 2′s battery and its electronic compass. The former appears to be made by Apple Japan, the latter by AKM Semiconductor. Both escaped the quake relatively unscathed, but are likely to be plagued by the shipping and logistical issues that inevitably follow catastrophic events like these.

“Suppliers are expected to encounter difficulties in getting raw materials supplied and distributed as well as in shipping out products,” IHS iSuppli’s analysts wrote. “They also are facing difficulties with employee absences because of problems with the transportation system. The various challenges are being compounded by interruptions in the electricity supply, which can have a major impact on delicate processes, such as semiconductor lithography.”

And while it might seem like a simple matter to locate alternative sources for these components, it’s not. If the iPad 2′s glass overlay is indeed Dragontrail, it’s proprietary to a Japanese supplier. The battery and compass also pose problems: Because of its very thin profile, the iPad 2′s battery almost certainly requires the advanced battery cell manufacturing tech for which Japan is known. Securing a new source for the device’s compass would be easier, but tweaking that source’s fabs to duplicate the calibration of the iPad 2’s compass, which works in close coordination with the tablet’s accelerometer and gyroscope, would be significantly more difficult. “It’s impossible to simply replace one manufacturer’s compass with another,” said iSuppli.

For these three components, then, Apple could face temporary supply issues not easily resolved by the company’s savvy supply chain management. And iPad 2 shortages could follow.

Which could be a bit troubling for investors, I suppose. That said, none of these things will impact consumer demand, which as best I can tell remains “amazing.“