$388 Million Quarterly Loss By Sony

TOKYO — Sony reported a 37.1 billion yen first-quarter net loss on Thursday, and maintained its forecast for a second year of losses as the global economic slump continued to weigh on its bottom line.
Though the shortfall — the equivalent of $388 million — was less than some analysts had expected, the continued losses increased the pressure on Howard Stringer, Sony’s chairman, chief executive and president, to step up his turnaround effort. He was appointed four years ago to resuscitate the struggling company.
Mr. Stringer has promised to bring Sony back to profit by streamlining decision-making and more creatively linking the company’s hardware, Web and entertainment businesses. But like other Japanese exporters, Sony has been battered by declining sales as consumers have cut back on purchases of televisions and other personal technology.
The strong yen, which erodes overseas earnings and inflates production costs at home, has also hurt Sony, which earns three-quarters of its revenue outside Japan.
Sony’s troubles were reflected at its rival Nintendo, which reported a 61 percent drop in net profit on Thursday as sales of its popular Wii game console declined. Net income fell to 42.3 billion yen in the three months that ended June 30, Nintendo said. Should Sony give it up?.

Apple's Tablet Will We See It

Apple has consistently said it isn't interested in making a cheap "netbook" Mac in the US$500 price range. The retail cost of the simple desktop Mac mini ($599) seems to confirm that. In fact, any foray into the mini laptop space by Apple will most certainly erode the high-value MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup. Apple enjoys some of the biggest margins in the computing industry, and I doubt the company is willing to let them slip, especially considering its financial performance these days is the envy of most tech companies.
At the same time, didn't Apple just turn the aluminum 13-inch MacBook into a "MacBook Pro"? This leaves the polycarbonate "plastic" MacBook to anchor the laptop line's low-end entry. Might this maneuver shift the value proposition of the MacBook Pro so that it retains full "pro" value? Definitely. And doesn't this move give Apple some breathing room to create a smaller Mac device? You bet. September is a big month for Apple. For the last several years, that's when the company has made its important new music announcements. Pick an iPod, and most likely the world first heard about it in September.
If Apple CEO Steve Jobs is going to make a public appearance any time soon, there's a good chance he would do it to help launch a new product from the safety of the company's Cupertino, Calif., campus. The resulting flurry of coverage would be nothing less than astounding, of course.

Netflix Proves Critics Wrong Yet Again

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) released its Q2 report on Thursday after the bell. You had to like what you saw. Revenues increased 21%. Total subscribers went up 26%. Growth in net subscribers on a year-over-year basis was impressive, as was the increase observed in the gross margin. Free cash flow was up. And now for the final piece of the performance puzzle: adjusted earnings per share increased 29% to 58 cents. Very good.

Consumers have really taken to the Netflix model. They love getting DVDs by mail. And Netflix has really done a job on its major competitor, Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI). No doubt about it, I'm sure a lot of Blockbuster shareholders are wishing they were invested in Netflix.

How long can the good times last? Netflix also did pretty darn well in Q1. Plus, you have to wonder about the company's future. Although Netflix is attempting to prepare for the day when digital distribution overtakes physical media, will the company truly be up to the task? It sure looks like it, though you never know how smart a management team actually is until it faces a disruptive challenge.

Another thing to consider: Redbox. Redbox is a very convenient rental kiosk, although Netflix still holds an advantage over it. Sure, you might be able to rent movies immediately for a very low price in a supermarket, but since Redbox's model is new-release driven, the depth of selection is an unattractive element.

So, let me ask again: how long can the good times last? They'll likely last a long time, because whatever disruptions Netflix will have to eventually put up with in the future, they haven't arrived yet and the fundamentals of the business continue to be strong. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't take some profits. Netflix was down in yesterday's after-hours session, although they were only down by roughly 1%. What does that say to me? Maybe this: Netflix may take a pause, but it will continue its run higher after the break. I'd wait to see how the quality of the price action shapes up over the next several trading sessions before putting money down on Netflix. Could be the wrong strategy considering how strong the stock has been, but that's what I'd be more comfortable doing.

Hulu Downloader

Hulu downloader is a powerful Windows utility that makes it easy to grab Flash movies from the Internet, save them on your hard drive, and play them when you want, without being connected to the Internet. GetFLV works quietly in the background, and downloads movies quickly and flawlessly. FLV Browser: It's easy to download Flash movies from Internet movie sites. Simply launch the FLV browser, and visit your favorite video site. Select and play a video, and click "download" to save it to your hard drive. FLV Downloader: Hulu downloader dramatically reduces the time that it takes to download Flash movies. The program splits the file into sections, and downloads multiple sections simultaneously, efficiently optimizing whatever Internet connection you're using. The program lets you create custom categories for all of your films, so you can easily find them when you want to watch them again. FLV to Video Converter: It's simple to convert a Flash file to MP4 format, and view it on your iPod. You can also convert movies to AVI, MPEG, 3GP, MOV, and WM formats, without having to wrestle with codecs or external software. After conversion, you can watch your movies on any of your computers or portable devices. Video to FLV Converter: Hulu downloader can convert any of these popular movie formats into Flash files. It supports almost all types of video formats such as MPEG, AVI, WMV, MOV, ASF, MP4, 3GP and etc. FLV Audio Ripper: Hulu downloader's built-in audio ripper can extract the music track from any Flash movie. It's easy to turn these extracted music tracks into MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, and other popular music formats. FLV Fixer: The program can even repair damaged Flash movies. The built-in FLV Fixer and MetaData Injector will analyze and repair Flash files that won't play properly. FLV Player: A built-in simple and handy FLV Player help you play FLV Files on any PC.Version 2.36.12 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.

Palm beats expectations

Looks like Palm (PALM) is roaring back to credibility. After the markets closed today, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based smart phone maker reported a net loss of $105 million, or 78 cents per share, for its fourth quarter ending May 29.

While it was far worse than its loss of $43.4 million, or 40 cents per share in the same period one year ago, it did beat analysts expectations for the quarter. "The launch of Palm webOS and Palm Pre was a major milestone in Palm's transformation; we have now officially reentered the race," Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said in a statement. "We have more to accomplish, but the groundwork is laid for a very promising future here at Palm." Palm now offers consumers a very real alternative to Apple's (AAPL) iPhone. Analysts are forecasting revenue growth of 144 percent in 2010. It is a real achievement since the market for smart phones is more competitive than ever with big players such as Research In Motion (RIMM), Nokia (NOK), Google (GOOG) and Samsung going head-to-head with each other. Palm says it will also go after the enterprise market, an area which Research In Motion dominates and Apple is competing. Expect to see customer relationship management (CRM) software apps from Oracle (ORCL) and Salesforce.com (CRM) among the new apps. Palm is also talking about a few other corporate-friendly features, such as the ability to remotely erase data, encrypt confidential information and even find a lost Palm Pre using GPS technology.

Twitter pushing notifications

The release of iPhone 3.0 at last brought support for push notifications, the technology Apple first announced back at WWDC 2008, only to quietly stop talking about it as it reached and passed its original due date. Fortunately, the feature re-surfaced at WWDC 2009 as part of the new iPhone OS. But with push notifications now in the wild, it’s up to developers to take advantage of them.
So far a few uses have seen the light of day, such as instant-messaging clients and even an iPhone app for Growl notifications, but what of that most hot, hip, and with-it of social networks, Twitter? Twitter’s direct message functionality, which lets you send a private message (as long as the recipient follows you), particularly benefits from the addition of notifications, since it’s become a popular way for people to communicate, just like Facebook messages. In some cases, it’s an excellent substitute for sending text messages, and push notifications helps bring it up to snuff with the iPhone’s SMS support. For the most part, though, it does seem that push notifications are a feature that Twitter users are demanding, and it's likely that almost every popular client will have integrated the technology in some form or another before long. Then comes the real question: how will we handle the endless influx of notifications that is sure to await us? One can only hope there will be an app for that.

Yahoo in Our Sights Says Microsoft

Reports released this week showed that Bing search tool continues to gain ground in the search engine wars.
For the second time since Bing's launch just over a month ago, StatCounter Global Stats, which analyzes Web site traffic, reported that the new search engine's market share has passed that of the Yahoo search tool. According to the StatCounter report released today, Bing held a 12.9% share of the U.S. search market, while rival Yahoo held 10.15% at the start of July.
Both Microsoft and Yahoo are still well behind market behemoth Google.
The traffic tracker had reported last month that Bing had surpassed Yahoo on one day shortly after its June 1 launch.
Google held 74.04% of the search market in June, while Yahoo had 16.19% and Bing 5.25%. Bing did note that Bing's use grew by an average of 25% during each week in June. Microsoft and Google have been going head to head a lot lately. Microsoft threw its hat into the ring to take on Google's dominant search service, and just this week Google made a move to fire its own salvo back at Microsoft. Google pulled back the curtain and acknowledged that its working on putting out an operating system aimed at netbooks and PCs. And analysts say Google is the company in the best position to take on Microsoft and its vaunted Windows software.

$98 Blu-ray player from Wal-Mart

Several blogs are reporting that Wal-Mart has rolled back the price on the $168 Magnavox NB530MGX to $98 (in-store only).
Is the Magnavox NB530MGX any good? It's not a profile 2.0 player (so there's no BD-Live support) and it's about as entry-level as you get. But it is a Blu-ray player, so now all you people who said you'd only buy one when it cost less than $100 this may be your chance.Now that the price is fallen I expect we'll see more of these types of deals as we head into the holiday season with better models showing up at less than $150. Now when will the price of the media start falling? I think the funniest bit of news to this all is even after falling prices, HD players & media (and they're no longer a player in the market) are out selling Blu-Ray! I think this should tell Sony Something.

Some things still missing from MacBooks

There are still a few items on the MacBook wish list:

1-Matte screen options
Despite the fact that nearly every serious laptop user we know prefers matte, non-glossy screens, only Apple's 17-inch MacBook Pro offers a matte option--in the form of a $50 anti-glare coating add-on.
Especially with the current models' edge-to-edge glass, popping open a MacBook outdoors (or in an overlit room) is just asking for trouble. Sure, glossy screens make colors pop and movies more dramatic--but we'd like to have the option of choosing a matte screen anyway (and not for $50, either).

2-Blu-ray drives
While high-capacity Blu-ray drives aren't quite a necessity, the format is slowing gaining a foothold. Many inexpensive Windows laptops at least offer it as an option, and many high-end laptops in the MacBook's price range include a Blu-ray drive by default.
Leaving aside the idea of having a high-capacity optical backup capability, Blu-ray seems like a natural fit for the MacBook's multimedia-friendly vibe.

3-Mobile broadband options
Another widespread option from most PC makers. We're slowing getting to the point where having a mobile broadband account connected to your laptop is just a common tool, rather than an exotic novelty--especially with AT&T's iPhone tethering plan not yet available.
While having to choose one carrier's antenna over another is a hassle, we found the built-in Verizon 3G on the HP Mini 1151nr Netbook to be "an obvious mashup of two useful technologies."

4-HDMI outputs
Mini DisplayPort is Apple's video connection of choice, and we've also seen a push toward it from PC makers such as Dell. But few of us have an external display with DisplayPort--HDMI, VGA, and even DVI are all more common.
Apple offers some helpful adapters (at $29 each) for DVI and VGA--but no way to connect a new MacBook to an HDMI-equipped TV, for example. Fortunately, some third-party vendors now offer a DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter for around $15.

And of course the touch screens
If we had a dime for every blog rumor about an Apple tablet we've seen, we'd have at least enough for a large soy-based coffee beverage from Starbucks. Plus, Apple has already proven it's mastered the touch screen in the iPhone and iPod Touch.

DISH keeps their DVRs for now, TiVo says it's just a matter of time

News of another delay should be absolutely no surprise to anyone that's followed the details of this case, as DISH was granted a stay by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit pending its appeal of a $190 million ruling in favor of TiVo which will allow its customers to continue using their DVRs, at least for now. For its part, TiVo repeated its praise of the "thorough and well-reasoned decision finding EchoStar in contempt of court for violating the injunction and awarding further damages" and is confident the ruling will be upheld, again. Did anyone really think this one would just end so easily?

Read - DISH Network and EchoStar Statement Regarding Tivo
Read - TiVo Statement on Decision by U.S. Court of Appeals to Stay Permanent Injunction Issued by District Court in Lawsuit Against EchoStar