BlackBerry’s Grip Slips as Enterprises Loosen Up

Research in Motion’s (RIMM) strength has long been in the enterprise market, which favors the BlackBerry for its robust security and data management features. But that may be changing according to some dismal prognostications from Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu. RIM’s outlook in the corporate sector is “scary” one, he says, imperiled by the saturation of the enterprise e-mail market and the proliferation of alternative mobile platforms like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.

“The market for corporate mobile e-mail is highly penetrated and saturated outside of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises),” Ferragu wrote in a note to clients. “Growth in the number of companies using mobile e-mail will be limited to the SME market, in which RIM is likely to suffer the most from competition. If there is still some growth in the number of users at companies already using mobile email, it is limited and we suspect it will turn into negligible value growth as it will go along with significant ASP decline.”

A significant threat and far and not the only one RIM is facing these days. With the iPhone and a growing procession of Android handsets making inroads into enterprise, the BlackBerry’s footing in what was once its stronghold is being eroded.

“… Despite the company’s overall dominance of the segment … 74 percent of companies with mobile e-mail have already adopted alternative platforms, including the iPhone and Android,” Ferragu explains. This phenomenon is very new: almost all these companies “opened-up” their systems in the last two years, half of them in the last 12 months. We expect these companies to progressively ramp up the installed based of non-Blackberry solutions and therefore expect increased pressure on RIM’s performance.”

If that’s truly the case, what can RIM do to dig in and hold its position?

Not much says Ferragu. Ultimately, people want to use their personal smartphone at work and their first choice isn’t always the BlackBerry.

“Enterprise satisfaction with RIM solutions is very high, and most managers surveyed said that they expected BlackBerry products to remain innovative and competitively featured,” he writes. “The issue boils down to cost and consumer preferences: employees want to be able to use their own phone, and allowing them to do so presents IT & Telecom managers with a way to substantially cut their operating costs.”

In other words, every employee that switches to a non-BlackBerry smartphone saves their employer money. And that’s a compelling proposition as the graph below shows, Among BlackBerry-exclusive companies, BlackBerry non-exclusive companies and companies with BlackBerry support 50 percent said they would consider eliminating their BlackBerry solution …

Infineon Inside (Intel)

It took a few days longer than expected, but Intel (INTC) has agreed to purchase Infineon’s wireless division. Under the terms of a deal announced early this rnorning, Intel will pay approximately $1.4 billion for the unit, which accounted for nearly a third of Infineon’s revenue last year.

“The acquisition of Infineon’s wireless business strengthens the second pillar of our computing strategy—Internet connectivity—and enables us to offer a portfolio of products that covers the full range of wireless options,” Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in a statement.

Expected to close in early 2011, the deal will see Intel operate Infineon’s Wireless Solutions group as a stand-alone company and continuing to support existing customers, including those including those who use ARM chips. It gives Intel a strong foothold in the market for smartphone chips, netting it a customer list that includes the likes of Research in Motion (RIMM), Samsung, Nokia (NOK) and Apple (AAPL) and — according to Infineon’s annual report, a 5.9 percent share of the wireless chip market. Said IDC analyst Flint Pulskamp, “Infineon would make Intel an instant heavyweight (in the mobile space) and buy them three, four years in R&D.”

The irony, of course, is that Intel was in something close to this position four years ago, but gave it up by selling off its mobile chip business to Marvell. As Intel VP Sean Maloney said at the time, “In recent years, Intel has made significant progress and won major customers with this business. The communications and application processor segments continue to present an attractive market opportunity, and we believe this business and its assets are an optimal fit for Marvell.”

Take That, Mark Cuban! Bengals Receiver Chad Ochocinco Pays $520 a Word for NFL Twitter Fine

When the NFL banned in-game Twittering by its players last year, I’m pretty sure they had Chad Ochocinco in mind. And while it took nearly a year, the Cincinnati Bengals receiver finally got the league to flex its anti-social-media muscles, via a $25,000 fine for two tweets sent out last Saturday.

Ochocinco (old-timers may remember when he went by the name Chad Johnson) sent this one out about an hour before a preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles:

Followed by this one, tapped out during the game itself:

By my count (contractions are tricky), those two missives contain a total of 48 words, which puts Ochocinco’s tab at $520 a word. Which means he trumps Mark Cuban’s $510 per-word Twitter fine he got from the NBA a year ago.

And Ochocinco is sorry. Sort of. Because tweeting is great, but exotic luxury cars are expensive:

How to Rip DVD, Convert Video to iPhone, backup iPhone info, make iPhone Ringone For Windows/Mac

Recently, iPhone has became a really important part of our life. People use it to make a phone call, enjoy music and movies/videos, and play games. Today I will share you a really nice software pack, which can convert DVD and video to iPhone video/audio formats, backup iPhone info on your computer, and make iPhone ringtone easily.

What you need is just this nice Convert DVD Video to iPhone software

Part 1: How to convert DVD movies to iPhone
Use Aiseesoft DVD to iPhone Converter.

Step 1: Load DVD
Put your DVD in your DVD Drive and click “Load DVD” button

Step 2: Choose output profile and Settings
You can choose your output profile in the drop-list when you click profile list.
You can also adjust your settings, such as Resolution, Bitrate, so on.

Step 3: Edit Video
You can do “Trim”, “Crop”, “Merge into one file”and other video editing functions to make your video more enjoyable.

Click “Start” to begin you conversion. After few mins you can enjoy your DVD movies on your iPhone.

Part 2: How to convert videos to iPhone with iPhone Movie Converter

Step 1: Add file
Click “Add File” button to add your video you want to put on your iPhone.

Step 2: Choose output profile and settings
You can choose your output profile in the drop-list when you click profile list.
You can also adjust your settings, such as Resolution, Bitrate and Encoder and so on.

Step 3: Edit Video
You can do “Trim”, “Crop”, “Merge into one file”and other video editing functions to make your video more enjoyable.

Click “Start” to begin you conversion. After few mins you can enjoy your videos on your iPhone.

Part 3: How to transfer songs and vdieos from iPhone to computer, from computer to iPhone and from iPhone to iPhone.

Step 1: Click iPhone Transfer
Click “Computer to iPhone”(1) button, it will allow you to transfer songs and videos from your computer to iPhone easily.
Click “iPhone to Computer”(2) button, it will allow you to backup your songs and videos from iPhone to your computer.
Click “iPhone to iPhone”(3) button, it will allow you to transfer songs and videos from one iPhone to another iPhone dirrectly.

Part 4: How to make your own iPhone ringtone

Step 1: Click iPhone Rigntone Maker and click “Browse” on the right side of "Input File" to import the file that you want to make ringtone from i.t

Step 2: Play it and listen the music to find the segment that you want to use it as ringtone. Then drag and click the start& end slider to set your wanted segment, or type the start & end time in the corresponding text box directly to get the exact segment. You also can pre-listen the converted audio before generate.

Step 3: Click “Browse” on the right side of "Local Output Folder" to choose the output destination.

Step 4: Check "Export to iPhone" option, the converted ringtone will be load to your iPhone directly.

Step 5: After all the settings are finished, click “Generate” to begin making your own iPhone ringtone.

For Mac users I recommend you Aiseesoft iPhone Software Pack for Mac

Using Aiseesoft iPhone Software Pack for Mac, you can convert any video/DVD to iPhone Mac, backup the audio, video files on iPod to Mac and import audio, video files or folders from Mac to your iPod without iTunes with the help of iPod Manager Mac, even make iPhone ringtone from AVI, MPEG, WMV, MP4, FLV, MKV, H.264/MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, MOV, RM, RMVB, MP3, WMA, AAC video and audio sources on Mac.

Where to download free iPod Videos

Free iPod Videos, Legal nano Videos, Places to get iPod, iPod nano Videos
1. The Internet Archive is great for old videos and movies. The Archive’s 256Kb MPEG4 Downloads are unfortunately not iPod-ready as previously thought. The format’s correct, but there are audio pops when played back on the iPod. You’re probably better off downloading the MPEG2 videos anyway. The 265Kb files were pretty low-res and it’s a snap to re-encode the MPEG2 files for your iPod with Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac.
2. The Chronic..What?..cles of Narnia.
3. The iTunes Music Store’s podcast section is loaded with free videos.
4. Channel 101 and Channel 102 offer up some brilliant downloadable videos.
5. PodGuide.tv
6. Channel Frederator offers up some of the best short animations anywhere.

Illegal Places to Get iPod Videos
You’re probably familiar with most of these options, but if you aren’t then they’re new to you!
1. Search the BitTorrent network for iPod.
2. Check Podtropolis
3. The Pirate Bay!
4. Seriously, you should probably stick to LEGAL sources for iPod videos.

Downloading Free Music Without Fear
3hive.com: A great blog-style listing of free iPod-compatible songs offered by record artists and labels in an attempt to entice full-album purchases. Songs are in the MP3 format in a variety of bit-rates generally ranging between 128kbps and 192kbps.



Epitonic.com: Offers highly professional, artist-focused presentation of free digital music downloads in MP3 format, with biographical details and short previews for songs across a narrow collection of genres.



Freekidsmusic.com: Along with its sister site Freechildrensmusic.com, provides a large variety of free MP3 format songs for young listeners.



Garageband.com: Not to be confused with Apple’s music creation application of the same name, Garageband.com collects and provides popularity charts of independent music, featuring over 125,000 bands.



MFiles.co.uk: Provides free downloads of well-known classical music in MP3 format.



MP34U.com: A clean, professionally designed interface to individual free songs sorted by genre, selected by site “sources” who pick and post only music they like.



Music.download.com: The music-dedicated expansion of popular software download site Download.com offers free full-length MP3 songs across all major genres, even including Children’s, Spoken Word, Comedy, Folk and Religious tracks. Most tracks are indie.

PureVolume: Offers over 100,000 free songs for download, and captured many of the best users of what used to be MP3.com (before it was scrapped, sold, and completely changed).



RCRDLBL: An exclusively-online record label which provides free MP3 downloads of exclusive music from emerging artists.
Of course, if you can’t find the song you’re looking for on one of these free sites, you can always visit Apple’s iTunes Store or Amazon’s MP3 Store and make a purchase there. Though these aren’t as cheap as some of the questionable international sites listed in the prior section, they are an entirely safe and legal way to get access to over a million songs.

Free Music with a Catch: Ad-supported Sites
Years ago, the most common source of free music for your listening enjoyment was the radio. Radio stations were able to broadcast music from a wide range of artists at no cost to the listener. Instead they made money through advertising services. The “price” a listener paid to listen to free music in those days was having to endure listening to advertising interspersed with the music.
Recently, some web sites have begun to offer a similar business model: You can download free music, but this is either done through a client or web site with very proactive advertising (as opposed to the standard advertising on most web sites), or the music tracks themselves contain brief advertising spots placed at the beginning of each track.
Unfortunately, most of the sites that offer these types of services, such as SpiralFrog and Ruckus Networks (for U.S. college students) only offer their downloads in a Windows Media Audio DRM-protected format that is incompatible with iTunes or the iPod (or ironically, even the Microsoft Zune). Further, these tracks may not be burned to a CD. These sites are therefore generally of no value to iPod owners.
A notable exception is We7, a UK-based ad-supported site whose founders include Peter Gabriel. We7 provides downloads in a DRM-free 192kbps MP3 format, with the catch being that each track has a 6-12 second advertisement grafted onto the front-end. Ad-free tracks may be purchased outright, and We7 also offers a credit system whereby you can convert some of your tracks to ad-free versions once they have been in your library for 28 days or more. Since these tracks are in an open MP3 format, they can be played on just about any digital media player available.



Although primarily a paid subscription music service, eMusic.com provides a free ad-supported music service as well. In this case, the advertising is directed at the user via the ALOT toolbar which is installed in your web browser (compatible with IE6, IE7 and FireFox 2 only).

Downloading Free Podcasts: Radio for your iPod, iPod nano.
In addition to free music for your iPod, you can also download “Podcasts,” short radio-style programs produced by individuals and companies around the world. Many of these podcasts include music selections, and some are even dedicate to showcasing independent artists and providing music commentary and review.
While podcasts were originally organized in several independent podcast directories out on the Internet, the ITunes Store now includes an extensive catalog of podcasts which you can subscribe to directly via iTunes completely for free. Podcasts available through iTunes include both audio and video podcasts, and cover an extensive range of topics. Basically, anybody who has anything to say on a regular basis can create their own podcast and get “on the air” via iTunes quite easily.
A selection of music-specific podcasts can be found right in iTunes in the Music Podcasts Directory, which includes a comprehensive selection of music-related podcasts from music reviewers, traditional radio stations, and even directly from both small independent and more mainstream artists. So it helps you download your favorite iPod Videos

How to Convert and Edit HD Video

Because of the widely using of HD Camcorder, now it is really convenient to record family parties and other things you are interested in. Nowadays, people would like to share their things with the rest of the world through Internet, such as youtube.com and other video websites.

This guide aims to show you how to convert and edit the video you recorded using your HD camcorder
What you need is a powerful HD Video Converter.

Step 1: Load Video
Click "Add File" to load the video that you want to convert to Aiseesoft MTS Converter.

Step 2: Choose Your Output Profile and Settings
From "Profile" drop-down list you can choose your output profile according to your need.
You can also click "setteing" adjust the settings of your output video, such as "video/audio encoder", "Video/audio Bitrate", "Channels", "Resolution" and so on..
Step 3: Video Editing
This powerful MTS Converter allows you to do many video editings.
1. Click "Effect" to make special effect for your movie.
You can adjust the "Brightness", "Contrast", "Saturation" and also you can use "deinterlacing" to improve you output effect.

2. Trim:
"Trim" function allows you to pick up any part of your video to convert. You can just convert a part of your video that you want.

3: Crop:
Cut off the black edges of the original movie video and watch in full screen on your iPod using the "Crop" function.

Step 4: Conversion
After you have done all the steps above you can click "Start" button to start your conversion.

Here I also recommend you some High Definition video converter, MTS Converter, TS Video Converter.

Pig-Nibbling Inside 11 Giant Imaginations: The Latest Glimpse of Glitch

Here is some video of Glitch–the new game that Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield is in the midst of creating from the Vancouver HQ of his Tiny Speck start-up.

Butterfield showed me the latest iteration of the Flash-based multiplayer game, which takes place inside the minds of 11 giants.

There are book-reading asteroids, fabulous art and lots of unusual quests, from cooking to potion-making.

And, oddly enough, a pig that will give up some meat if you nibble it, and then will walk merrily away after.

If it feels like a FarmVille for the smart set, you are on the right road into the innovative Glitch.

It is set to debut in early 2011, said Butterfield, and is in testing now with a small group of users.

Top AOL Media Exec Marty Moe To Depart (Other Rumors of David Eun Ankling Not So Much)

According to sources close to the situation, one of AOL’s top, longtime media execs, Marty Moe (pictured here), is leaving the company.

Sources said the reasons were personal and Moe was not currently taking another job.

UPDATE: BoomTown just obtained the internal memo on the departure, which is below.

Moe is currently SVP of the Media unit’s News & Information Group at AOL (AOL), although he has held a number of other content posts under different execs at the long-struggling company.

Moe’s former boss Bill Wilson left the company in February, and Moe now works for President of Media and Studios David Eun, who came to AOL from a content job at the YouTube unit of Google (GOOG).

While there have been a spate of rumors recently that Eun was the one on his way out, sources at AOL said such speculation was inaccurate.

There has most definitely been tension in the media group since Eun began making massive changes in its management and strategy.

Media, in fact, has been the main focus of CEO Tim Armstrong, who is betting big on content offerings and the premium advertising that could be sold around it.

BlackBerry Torch Corners The “My Company Gave Me a BlackBerry” Market

It’s looking more and more like the Blackberry Torch isn’t quite the game-changer Research in Motion (RIMM) pitched it as; it’s just another BlackBerry.

In a Friday note to clients Barclays analyst Jeff Kvaal says Torch sales have been healthy — at least on par with those of the Bold 9700. But demand for the device doesn’t seem to extend beyond RIM’s BlackBerry base. “Most sales are to existing BlackBerry users, rather than conversions,” Kvall wrote. “We believe between 50-75 percent of unit sales are replacement sales.”

In other words, RIM’s “fresh but familiar” strategy is resonating with BlackBerry loyalists, but it’s not luring many new customers.

That’s fine given the breadth of the BlackBerry’s current user base (they don’t call it the CrackBerry for nothing), but it’s going to be problematic as the loyalty of that user base fades. And it is fading. According to a recent Nielsen survey 57 percent of current BlackBerry users in the United States say they have been considering defecting to Apple (AAPL) or Android phones.

Downgrade PSP to version1.5 using PSP battery

Lots of users downgrade their PSP to version 1.5 because they can upgrade their PSP to any version from 1.5. And if you upgrade your PSP to version 3.51, you can play any downloaded games and run any applications. Do you know that you can downgrade your PSP system to version 1.5 all by yourself by turning your PSP battery into a pandora's battery? All you need are an original PSP battery (with more than 50% charge) and a Memory Stick Pro Duo with 1GB memory or above.

I. Get ready (Reformat PSP memory stick)
Before you get started with the downgrade, you need to reformat your PSP memory stick. If you don't know how to reformat it, you can refer to the steps below:
1. Press the HOME button on the bottom left of your PSP.
2. Use the arrow keys to move to the Settings area, then move the up and down keys to go to System Settings.
3. Push the "X" button (or the "O" button, depending on which button is the "Enter" button of your PSP) and scroll to find the "Format Memory Stick" option. Push the "X" button again to select this option.
4. Your PSP will now confirm that you want to reformat the memory stick, choose yes and your PSP will be physically formatted in a few seconds.
To do the downgrade, you also need to download an application pack. After the downloading is finished, what you get will be a compressed application pack named "pandora", decompress it to the root directory of a hard disc, say Disc H. In this "pandora" folder, you can see four folders including mspformat, msinst, battery and installer, and a file named UPDATE.PBP.
Now you are ALL ready to turn your PSP battery to a Pandora's battery and use it to downgrade any PSP!
II.Turn your PSP battery into a padora's battery
Step 1: Logically reformat your PSP Connect your PSP to your computer. And your PSP will be recognized as a new hard disc, say K. Then click Start -> Run, input cmd in the popped up dialog box, and click OK to enter DOS system. Use the below commands one by one to run the mspformat file: Input "H:", and press the "Enter" Key on your keyboard. (Here H is the disc where the "panndora" folder is located) Input "cd pandora" and press the "Enter" Key on your keyboard. Input "cd mspformat" and press the "Enter" Key on your keyboard. Then input "mspformat.exe K" and press the "Enter" Key on your keyboard. (Here K is the name of the disc that your PSP is recognized on your computer.) After these commands, your PSP will be logically reformatted in a minute.



Step 2: Open the recognized PSP hard disc on your computer, create a new folder and name it "PSP", open this "PSP" folder, create a new folder and name it "game". Copy and paste the "installer" folder and the "battery" folder into the "game" folder. Then copy and paste the UPDATE.PBP file to the root directory of the PSP hard disc on your computer.
Step 3: On your PSP, switch to the Game option, press X or O (depending on which is the "Enter" key of your PSP). Go to "installer" and press X or O to run it.



In a few seconds, a file named "msipl.bin" will be created on the root directory of your PSP memory disc. And now, you should take out your memory disc and then put it back in, which seems to be useless but is a very necessary step.
Step 4: Connect to your PSP back to your computer. Then enter DOS system as mentioned in Step 1. Use the below commands one by one to run the mspformat file:
Input "H:", and press the "Enter" Key on your keyboard
Input "cd pandora" and press the "Enter" Key on your keyboard.
Input "cd minst" and press the "Enter" Key on your keyboard.
Then input "msinst.exe K K:\msipl.bin " and press the "Enter" Key on your keyboard. (Here K is the name of the disc that your PSP is recognized on your computer.)
When you see a popped up message asking if you are sure, click "Yes".
Step 5: Go back to your PSP, switch to the Game option, press X or O (depending on which is the "Enter" key of your PSP). Go to "battery" and press X or O to run it, press X or O to OK every popped up message to finish running the battery application.



Now, your pandora's battery has been created!

III. Use the created pandora's battery to downgrade your PSP
After you turn your batter to a PSP downgrade battery (pandora's battery), you can use it to downgrade your PSP by following the instructions below:
Take out your PSP Memory Stick and battery, then put back in your PSP Memory Stick first, and put your battery back in.Turn your PSP power on, when you see three options; select the Downgrade option, your PSP will be downgraded in a very short time and it will be automatically shut down afterwards.Turn your PSP on again, and you will see a blue screen. But no worries, you can just press the O key, and your PSP system is already version 1.5!
Note: The above process will turn your PSP battery to a pandora's battery that can be used for PSP downgrade. But the pandora's battery cannot be used to play PSP games, videos or music. And the process is not reversible. You will need to get an additional PSP battery for regular uses. However, you can use your pandora's battery to downgrade any PSP to version 1.5 or even repair you PSP.

Recommended Products For you:
DVD to PSP Converter for Windows
Aiseesoft DVD to PSP Converter for Windows is a professional application that is designed to convert DVD movie to PSP on PC.

PSP Movie Converter for Windows
Aiseesoft PSP Movie Converter is a professional video to PSP converter for Windows that can convert all sorts of video formats to PSP video on PC.

Put Limewire music, YouTube video on iPod

1. Put music and videos from Limewire to iPod
Limewire is a download tool I assume lot of us use. I often use it to download free music and videos and put them on my iPod. I also often visit Youtube to watch videos and sometimes I download videos from Youtube to put on my iPod.
Search and download songs from Limewire. You may get songs in all sorts of formats, but not all formats are supported by iPod. Usually I select three formats: MP3, AAC and M4A formats that are supported by iPod and can be directly transferred to iPod using iTunes. For the detailed specs info, you can visit http://www.apple.com/iPod/specs.html. After you download the songs, open your iTunes, click "File" from the upper left corner, select "Add file to library", browse your computer hard drive and find the songs downloaded by Limewire, select the songs you prefer, click OK and the songs will be put in your iTunes. Then you can just transfer the songs to your iPod from iTunes.

2.Youtube video to iPod
I often visit Youtube to watch videos and sometimes I download videos from Youtube to put on my iPod. Youtube videos are in FLV formats, so I use a free online FLV converter to do the conversion:
Firstly, go to Youtube and open the page of the video you want to put on your iPod. And you will find the Youtube URL of this video to the right of the playback window. Then copy this URL. See the highlighted area in the figure below:



Secondly, go to http://vixy.net/ , paste the copied URL into the URL field of this web page, and select "MP4 for iPod/PSP" from the "Converts to" drop-down list. Then click "Start" below this list to start the conversion. See the highlighted areas below:



Finally, after the conversion, this website will provide a download link for you to download the converted MP4 file. When you see the link, you can just download the final file from the link, save the downloaded MP4 file on your computer and use iTunes to sync it on to your iPod.

Recommended Products For you:
DVD to iPod Converter for Mac
It's a specially designed iPod conversion program to Convert DVD to iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, convert DVD to iTunes on Leopard.
DVD to iPod Converter for Windows
It is one of the best conversion programs for PC that can put DVD on iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano and so on.

How to compress DVD-9 to DVD-5 for Mac

We often use DVD to store video and data file. Varieties of DVDs are sorted by the way data stored.

DVD-9 holds 8.5GB and is supported by the DVD+R and DVD-R formats. It is also known as Single-Sided Double Layer (sometimes called Dual Layer). The official names are DVD-R DL and DVD+R DL.

DVD-5 holds 4.7GB and is supported by the DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW formats. It is also known as Single-Sided Single Layer.

If you want to compress Double Layer DVD-9 to Single Layer DVD-5 on Mac, you must use one Mac DVD Copy software. Download this Mac DVD Copy to have a try;

Buy NowFree trial(Intel PPC)

How to compress DVD-9 to DVD-5 for Mac

Insert your DVD and select the copy DVD mode

Select souce: Choose DVD-video disc from the source pop up menu.

Select target: From the “Target” pop up menu, select the DVD disc, and on the type of DVD disc, please select the disc type “D5(4.7GB)”(there are three types of DVD discs: D5(4.7GB) Disc, D9(8.5GB) Disc and customized disc.)

Start to compress DVD:Click “Start Copy” button to begin your DVD compressing.

learn more on: how to edit DVD file with DVD Copy for Mac.

Half of Us Text Our Families–When We’re All at Home

Ever find yourself texting someone in the same house? I admit texting a dinner-time alert to save walking up three flights of stairs (it’s not a big house, just a tall one) and I’m not alone.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Zynga’s Newest Deal: Snagging MySpace, Facebook Vet Owen Van Natta

Zynga, the dominant social-gaming company that seems to spend most of its time raising money, has finished up yet another deal: It has officially brought in Web veteran Owen Van Natta, giving him the title “Executive Vice President of Business Operations.”

Following last month’s hire of Allen & Co. vet David Wehner as CFO, the move will be interpreted as yet another signal that Zynga is moving toward a big-money public offering. Zynga officials won’t comment on the hire. But if they did, they would sidestep the IPO talk and mutter something about hiring a first-class team, etc, etc.

In any case, there’s no argument that this is Van Natta’s third high-profile Web company in two years. He was a top lieutenant for Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook until February 2008, and in 2009 he took over News Corp.’s (NWS) MySpace, a job that lasted less than a year. Earlier in his career, he made a name for himself at Amazon (AMZN). He also popped in for a very brief stint as CEO at Project Playlist, a streaming-music company that has just filed for Chapter 11.

Kara Swisher sniffed out the hire last month, when she reported that Van Natta was spending a lot of time at Zynga in an unofficial role. She predicted a formal title in his near future, as Facebook prepared for both an IPO and head-on competition with Google (GOOG), which is moving into gaming and social networking:

Sources said [that] has prompted Pincus to increasingly bring in Van Natta as an adviser to the start-up, focused mostly on strategy and operations.

And, said sources, that could eventually result in a more formal role, such as Van Natta joining Zynga in an official job, like COO. Many say that both have been seriously contemplating such a move in recent weeks.

In fact, at the recent Allen & Co. media confab in Sun Valley, which both attended, Van Natta and Pincus told many of Van Natta’s more substantive advisory role.

A COO job like that would not be a big leap for Van Natta, who was COO and close adviser to Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg at the nascency of the company.

Zynga’s official bio for Van Natta:

Owen Van Natta is the Executive Vice President of Business Operations at Zynga. In this role, he is responsible for the company’s revenue strategy, corporate development, international expansion, and brand. Prior to joining Zynga, Owen was consulting for the Company across a number of critical business functions. Owen is also a member of the Zynga Board.

Google Voice Actions and Chrome to Phone Videos and Screen Shots

Here are some videos and screenshots from Google’s two mobile product announcements today: Voice Actions and Chrome to Phone.

The first lets you automatically speak a variety of requests into the mobile phone and get a wide range of results; the latter is a way to send information from the Silicon Valley search giant’s browser to a mobile phone app on an Android smartphone.

How to Rip DVD to iPod Touch, iPod Nano Converter on Windows, Vista and Mac

The software you will need: DVD to iPod Converter Windows(DVD to iPod Vista) and DVD to iPod for Mac.
This guide will show you how to rip DVD to iPod Touch with these iPod Nano Converter.
The following video and audio formats are supported by iPod Touch/iPod Nano: H.264, MPEG-4, MP3, AAC, WAV. So for you enjoy DVD on iPod, you need to convert DVD to these formats.

Part One: How to rip DVD to iPod Windows, DVD to iPod Vista
Part Two: How to rip DVD to iPod Mac

Part One:
1. Download Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Converter Windows(DVD to iPod Vista), then follow the instructions to install and run it.



2. Click "Load DVD" to load DVD, DVD Folder or IFO files.
3. Click "Profile" to set the exact output format. Click "Settings" to set the exact parameters for your iPod. Select "Audio Track" and "Subtitle" for the output file.
4. After finishing all the pre-settings, click "Start".

Part Two:
1. Download Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Mac (Intel, Power PC). Install and run it.



2. All the process are the same as DVD to iPod Windows.

Tips:
1. Click "Effect" to make special effect for your video.
You can adjust Brightness, Contract, Saturation of the video and the adjust the volume of music.
2. "Trim" function is for you to select the clips you want to convert.
3. Cut off the black edges of the original video and watch in full screen on your iPod using the "Crop" function.
4. This software allows you to join several DVD chapters into one clips by using "Merge into one file".

How to put DVD movie into Windows Movie Maker and iMovie

If you want to edit a DVD movie with Windows Movie Maker or import several DVD clips into Mac iMovie to build a new DVD, but you get frustrated with the DVD format, this guide may help you solve the problem.

Before you get started, it will be helpful if you learn something about the DVD, WMM and iMovie.
General DVDs have CSS copy protection in MPEG-2 or VOB format.
(Windows) Windows Movie Maker supports WMV, AVI and MPG video files.
(Mac) iMovie accepts MOV and MPEG4 video files.

This guide includes two parts:
1. How to put DVD movie into Windows Movie Maker.
2. How to add DVD clips to Apple Mac iMovie .

Part1. How to put DVD movie into Windows Movie Maker

Step1. To put a DVD movie into Windows Movie Maker, you have to rip your DVD to WMV or AVI video first, and then you can load it into Windows Movie Maker. I’d prefer using Aiseesoft DVD Ripper to do this. You can get this program at: http://www.aiseesoft.com/dvd-ripper.html Then install and run it, put your DVD disc into your DVD drive, click “Load DVD” to locate your DVD file and import it, or load it by clicking “Load IFO File” to add DVD IFO file. (This DVD Ripper can rip copyright protected DVD movies, but you should remember that it’s illegal rip DVD for any business purposes)

Step2. Select output format and subtitle

After you load the DVD files, click the format drop-down list to select “WMV – Windows Media Video (*.wmv)” or “AVI – Audio Video Interleaved (*.avi)” as the output format. A regular DVD movie has multiple subtitles and audio tracks, and you can select the right one for you. If you just want a certain part of the DVD movie, you can click “trim” to cut the DVD movie. Just drag the timeline bar to set the start and end time, and then blue line will be the captured parts.



For advanced user, if you want to output higher quality video, click the “Settings” button to open the panel, here you can customize video bitrate, audio bitrate, resolution, framerate, etc. Higher bitrate will result in bigger file size.

Step 3. Start to convert

After the above steps, you just need to click “Start” and wait for the conversion to be finished. It provides the fastest conversion speed (>300%), completely support dual core CPU.

Step 4. Edit DVD with Windows Movie Maker (optional)

Run Windows Movie Maker, in the “Movie Task” bar, click “Add Video” to browse your computer and located the converted files, and then you can start to make personal movies.

Tips:Many users may wonder how they can convert Windows Movie Maker file (*.MSWMM) to other video format. Actually, A *.MSWMM file is not a video file. It is a project file of Movie Maker (more like a record file). You have to open this file in Windows Movie Maker and save the movie to your computer: Go to Movie Tasks bar > Finish Movie > Save to my computer. After that you will have a WMV file which can be converted to another video format or burned to DVD.

Part2. How to add DVD clips into Apple iMovie.

iMovie is similar to Windows Movie Maker, it supports MOV and MP4 video, so you just need to convert your DVD movie to the right format. Aiseesoft DVD Ripper has a Mac Version which supports both Mac OS Tiger and Leopard; you can download it for free from here: http://www.aiseesoft.com/dvd-ripper-for-mac.html
It is easy to use for the operation steps being similar to the windows version.



When the conversion is finished, you can run the iMovie, build a new project, and then drag the converted files to the work space to make personal files.
When the task is finished, In the Menu bar, Click "File" -> "Export" and save it as QuickTime video.

Download Aiseesoft DVD Ripper for Windows (put DVD into Windows Movie Maker)
Download Aiseesoft DVD Ripper for Mac (put DVD into Apple iMovie)

New Zune2 review (part 2-1) upgrade, hardware, software and Social

When we first caught wind that Microsoft was in fact doing its own portable media player (and then published the first ever photo of the Zune), we hoped it might finally be the play to knock the iPod off its perch. Sure, in mid 2006 there was no shortage of devices more advanced than any given iPod, but then (and now) the iPod enjoyed unchecked dominance of the market in the US and many countries abroad. Steve Jobs knew the day would come that Microsoft would really enter the game.
What we were hoping for was that the portable media world might be in store for another Sony / Nintendo upset. Remember in the 90s how Sony and Nintendo's partnership went awry, and Sony, totally sick of Nintendo completely owning the game console space, brought out the original PlayStation? Before the console's second generation was through Sony had more market share than they knew what to do with. Sony upped Nintendo's game with the PlayStation, then upped their own with the PlayStation 2 -- and took over.
If Sony could do the impossible and topple the infallible Nintendo of old, surely Microsoft, the world's largest technology company, could make at least make a dent in Apple's armor. Yeah, the first-gen product is important, but the second gen product is crucial, because if you can't up your game -- and everyone else's -- you're just another player. This year, Microsoft really had to make the Zune count. Read on to judge for yourself whether they did.
The first generation Zune, as we all know, was little more than a slew of off the shelf hardware and software Microsoft cobbled together in a rush to make a play for the annual holiday gold rush. And the interesting part is, all things considered, it really wasn't bad at all. No one thought it was "done", but it was a lot better than some of the other PMC-based devices we'd seen to date. This year Microsoft brought a slew of new Zune products (and enhancements) to the table, including two new players (flagship 80GB and the flash model), new device software (which runs on all devices), new desktop software, and a new service (Zune Social, a music-oriented social network reminiscent of Xbox Live).



Device software
Yeah, we know Microsoft technically skipped right past device software v2.0 and jumped to 2.2, but the update is the best place to start since it affects the most users and devices. Microsoft won some well-deserved brownie points for ensuring all Zune players new and old can run the new firmware, meaning that for now your old Zune will have feature parity with the new hardware.
So here's the deal with the device software: it adds some crucial bits (many of which we expected the first time), takes away some minor but important things, and leaves the other 90% largely unchanged. First, the stuff Zune 2.0 takes away:
Song flagging
The five star rating system
The language menu The good stuff, though, is very good:
MPEG-4 and H.264 playback support
Podcasting support
Sync over WiFi (which we'll get to later)
In terms of performance, both old and new hardware and firmware were almost identical in testing. A lot of people have been claiming the new firmware is much snappier, but we didn't find that to be true at all. Two Zune 30 devices boot up within a half second between 1.0 and 2.0 series firmwares, and the flash-based Zune 8 we tested booted to home screen less than a second faster. Traversing menus took no more or less time or when syncing and the like. (Note: scrolling through long lists appears to happen slightly faster, but that's likelier an interface tweak, not a performance increase.)

Related theme:
New Zune review part 2-1
New Zune review part 2-2
New Zune review part 2-3
New Zune review part 2-4

Recommended Products:
Aiseesoft DVD to Zune Suite
It can help you convert DVD, IFO and all video formats to Zune, Zune 2 MP4, WMV and Zune supported audio MP3, WMA, and AAC etc.

China Unicom Gets Wi-Fi iPhone Monday

China Unicom will begin selling Apple’s iPhone with Wi-Fi support next week. Come Monday, the carrier will add the Wi-Fi version of the 8GB iPhone 3GS to its handset lineup, something it couldn’t do previously because of a government regulation prohibiting the sale of Wi-Fi devices that don’t support China’s Wired Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure wireless standard. This bodes well for Apple, which has seen sales of the iPhone undermined by Wi-Fi-enabled gray market devices. With a Wi-Fi iPhone available for purchase through regular channels, sales through China Unicom could ramp up–-a boon for Apple, which has targeted China as its next major geographic growth opportunity.

RIM CEO: If You’re Going to Ban the BlackBerry, You Might as Well Ban the Internet Too

Research in Motion co-CEO Michael Lazaridis has a bit of advice for Gulf states threatening to ban BlackBerry services over national security concerns: “If they can’t deal with the Internet, they should shut it off.”

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Lazaridis said complaints that RIM’s BlackBerry network is not conducive to surveillance reflect a lack of understanding of the Internet. “Everything on the Internet is encrypted,” Lazaridis said. “This is not a BlackBerry-only issue. If they can’t deal with the Internet, they should shut it off.”

That said, it would be bad for business if they did, so Lazaridis says RIM (RIMM) will do what it can to educate the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, India and the like about the dangers of the Internet and the need for encrypted data services like the ones it provides. “This will get resolved…if there is a chance for rational discussion,” Lazaridis said. “We are going to continue to work with them to make sure they understand the reality of the Internet. A lot of these people don’t have Ph.D.’s, and they don’t have a degree in computer science.”

Youch. Can’t imagine that’s going to go over too well with the other folks participating in that “rational discussion”–especially those in India’s information technology industry.

RIM Plays Catch-Up, but Can It Cut the Mustard?

At a New York event Tuesday morning, Research in Motion (RIMM) Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis called the launch of the Blackberry Torch one of the most important in the company’s history. And it certainly is that. As the smartphone has evolved into the standard for the broader consumer market, RIM has begun to lose some of its momentum to Apple’s iPhone and a parade of new handsets running Google’s Android OS. And it’s losing mindshare even more quickly. A Nielsen survey released yesterday shows that 57 percent of current BlackBerry users in the United States say their next handset will NOT be BlackBerry. And, predictably, most Android and iPhone users say the same thing.

So, yes the Blackberry Torch launch is one of the most important in RIM’s history. But is the device a buzz-worthy breakthrough or just another BlackBerry?

Really, it looks to be the latter, though as Ralph de la Vega, head of AT&T’s (T) mobility and consumer divisions, it also looks to be the best one ever. But it’s clearly not the triple axel revolutionary leap RIM proclaims, but more a reactionary Lutz that catches it up with the rest of the market. Universal search, universal in-box, Web-kit browser — these are all commonplace smartphone features, not transformative ones. They do address the shortcomings that undermined previous devices and little else.

And in the end, perhaps that’s all that RIM really needs. The company says “fresh, but familiar” is the goal to which it aspires. The Torch is that and it will likely be a hit with die-hard Blackberry users. But is it really “ a quantum leap over anything that’s out there” as RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie claims? And more importantly is it the device that Lazaridis says will make “anyone that looks at it…say ‘I want a BlackBerry’?

That’s for the market to decide, but at first glance it doesn’t look like it. But maybe it doesn’t need to. As Don Lindsay, RIM’s vice president for user experience said today, “It’s not about bringing something new to BlackBerry but improving what we do best.”

The iPod Family(Part 1)

We're hard pressed to say the iPod family's fallen on particularly hard times, but being under such excruciating public scrutiny can take its toll on any dynasty; especially in a year like 2005, the family shaken to its core by so many tragic deaths. From the humble beginnings of the iPod that began the legacy so many years back, all the way up to the tragic loss of the iPod mini just yesterday, we felt it might be time to take a visit to the iPod family cemetary on this early autumn afternoon.


iPod family Tree

2001


The first generation iPod-October 2001 - July 2002

2002

The second generation iPod-July 2002 - April 2003
But a few mournful months after the passing of the 5GB iPod and the birth of the 10GB iPod, came a new 10GB iPod and the 20GB, which started at $499. Perhaps one of the least well-remembered of the iPod family, this iPod included the first non-mechanical (solid state) scroll wheel, though the center and circumference buttons remained tactile. Perhaps most groundbreaking was the official Windows support (via Musicmatch Jukebox, ironically), though the wired remote, calendar, and artist search were all significant as well. Eventually this iPod would undergo tattoos by Beck, No Doubt, Madonna, and Tony Hawk before being committed to history in April of 2003.

2003

The third generation iPod-April 2003 - July 2004
This was the iPod—born of humbler pedigree—that grew up, provided for itself a higher education, and made its own way in the world. The third generation of the family rid itself entirely of mechanical buttons on its body, shed some of its baby fat around the waist down to 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.62-inches, and came forth at $299 for 10GB, $399 for 15GB, and $499 for 30GB. This was also the first iPod child to feature a remote connector and dock connector—which finally enabled USB 2.0. In September the 30GB iPod was priced at $399, and a 40GB model was released for $499.

Related theme:
The iPod family(part 2)
The iPod family(part 3)
The iPod family(part 4)
The iPod family(part 5)

Recommended Products For you:
DVD to iPod Converter for Mac
It's a specially designed iPod conversion program to Convert DVD to iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, convert DVD to iTunes on Leopard.
iPod Video Converter for Mac
It can convert MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVI, RM, MPEG, ASF and FLV to iPod video with high output quality and various features .

How to use Mac TS converter to convert TS to MP4, MOV, etc on Mac OS X

What is TS?
Transport stream(TS, TP, MPEG-TS, or M2T) is a communications protocol for audio, video, and data which is specified in MPEG-2 Part 1, Systems (ISO/IEC standard 13818-1). Its design goal is to allow multiplexing of digital video and audio and to synchronize the output. Transport stream offers features for error correction for transportation over unreliable media, and is used in broadcast applications such as DVB and ATSC. It is contrasted with program stream, designed for more reliable media such as DVDs.
TS format is a container format that encapsulates pocketsize elementary streams and other data.
Important elements of a transport stream: Packet, PID, Programs, Program Specific Information (PSI) , 1 PAT , PMT , PCR , Null packets

How to play TS files on Mac?
You need media player to play TS files on Mac OS X:
VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. It supports Mac, linux, Windows.
How to convert TS to MP4, AVI,MOV, etc on Mac?
You need a video converter for Mac to convert TS to MP4, AVI, MOV, etc on Mac. Then you can put them on iPod, iPhone, PSP, Xbox 360, iMove, other potable players.
Step 1: Download TS Video Converter for Mac:
We recommend you Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac which can convert TS to MP4, Convert TS to AVI perfectly. This Mac TS Video Converter also can extract audio from TS and Convert to MP3, M4A, etc. Compared with other video converters, this TS video converter for Mac provides you with better output quality, more advanced functions and higher conversion speed. You can download free trial Version here: for Mac intel users, for Mac PowerPC users. Then install and run this program. The trial version should be fully functional for what you want to do.
Step 2: Load the TS files you want to convert



Click the "Add File" button to browse your computer hard disc and add the .TS files you want to convert to the program.
Step 3: Output Settings
After you added TS files, you can select an output format for each video file and specify a directory on your computer to save the output files.
The TS Converter for Mac supports comprehensive video formats including AVI, MPEG, WMV, MP4, XviD, 3GP, FLV, etc.
If you don't know what formats your device supports, you can just select the format according to the device name. Of course, if you don't want to use the default video and audio encoding settings, just click the "Settings" button to customize these settings.



Step 4: Edit your TS files
This TS Video Converter for Mac set video brightness, contrast, saturation, crop video, trim video/audio and even merge multiple files into one file.

Step 5: Start the conversion
Click the Convert button to start conversion and then you can just go out for a walk or take a nap, and the conversion may have been finished when you come back: )

Modifications of transport stream specification for random-access media (M2TS)
Transport Stream was designed for tape and broadcast, but it required modifications for usage with random-access media devices like new generation of digital camcorders that record onto DVD disks, hard drives or solid-state memory cards.
Random-access based systems may save data packets into a temporary buffer if a storage device is not ready, for example on device startup. Packets are written out of order, and to keep track of them, a 4-byte timecode (TC) is added to standard 188-byte packets. The result is a 192-byte packet. This is what is informally called M2TS stream. Sony calls it "BDAV MPEG-2 transport stream". JVC calls it TOD (possibly an abbreviation for "Transport stream on media") when used in HDD-based camcorders like GZ-HD7.[9] M2TS transport stream is also used for AVCHD video files, which often have MTS extension.

Gphone vs iPhone, which is better

As iPhone is the most talked about smart phone on the planet and it has won millions of hearts of users by his multi-touch screen and other powerful/beautiful design. Of course, iPhone has brought so much money for Apple.
On 23rd, Sep 2008 Google released G1 and claimed that they will have a share of the big market of smart phone.
So, which is better about iPhone and G1? That maybe asked by many people who want to buy a new phone. Here I will give some of opinion about G1 and iPhone.
I will compare these two phones in three aspects, hardware, software, and their performance as a media player.

Part 1: Hardware.

1. The price and storage memory
First, the price and storage memory is what I concern most, for iPhone $199 8GB, $299 16GB, for G1 $179 1GB. When you see this you will say G1 is $20 lower than iPhone but G1 is only 1GB and you will pay another $40 for an 8GB SD Card. So I think iPhone win in this round.

2. Appearance
iPhone is 133 grams/4.7 ounces and G1 is 158 grams/5.57 ounces. G1 is taller while iPhone is thinner (G1: 117.7*55.7*17.1, iPhone: 115.5*62.1*12.3).

3. Mobile Network
For mobile Network, they both have Quad Band GSM/EDGE UMTS, but G1 uses T-Mobile-only US 3G and iPhone uses AT&T-only US 3G.

4. Touch screen and input
About touch screen display, iPhone has Multi-touch 3.5 480*320 163 ppi, but G1 does not support mulit-touch. And in input aspect, G1 uses keyboard, Trackball, 6 buttons and touch screen, while iPhone has home button and multi touch screen.

5. Expansion
In expansion ports, G1 uses SD, ExtUSB(USB+audio) but iPhone has headphone, Dock connector (USB+ audio, video, remote). They have the same wireless WiFi 820.11b/g Limited Bluetooth 2.0 EDR.

6. Others
About hardware, the two phones perform almost the same and the only big difference is the iPhone uses multi-touch screen and G1’s camera is better than iPhone. And iPhone has a 1400Ah battery with 300 hours standby time but G1 only has a 1150Ah battery with 5 hours talk time and 130 standby.

Part 2: Software.

iPhone and G1 are both using Webkit as their browser engine. In media playback aspect, iPhone supports music, audiobook, video, streaming, downloads and rental, while for G1, only music playback. G1 has Android Market as its third party software store while iPhone has iPhone app store. G1’s platform is Modified Java development and iPhone uses Cocoa Touch.

Part 3: Their performance as media player.

G1 supports H.264, 3GPP, MPEG4, Codec 3GP video and MP3、AAC、AAC+、WMA、MPEG4、WAV、MIDI、REAL、AUDIO、OGG audio formats.
iPhone supports AAC，Protected AAC，MP3，MP3 VBR，Audible (formats 1, 2, 3), Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV audio formats and H.264 (up to 1.5Mbps), MPEG-4 (up to 2.5Mbps) 640*480, 30fps, AAC-LC (up to 160 Kbps), 48kHz dimensional sound .m4v, .mp4 and .mov format.

Amazon MP3 Store allows you to download 6 million songs without the DRM protection, 89 cents per song. It is similar with the Apple iPhone, you need to pay for the video and audio sources on the Apple store. But how to get free sources for your G1.

For iPhone and G1 you can buy songs and videos from store, which is really expensive, and you can also make songs and videos for your iPhone and G1 by yourself, you just need to convert your DVDs and videos to mp4 format and then you can put them easily to your iPhone and G1.

Here I recommend you Aiseesoft DVD Converter Suite, it includes Best DVD Ripper, Total Video Converter and iPod to Computer Transfer.
For Mac user, I recommend you Aiseesoft DVD Converter Suite for Mac, it includes DVD Ripper for Mac and Total Video Converter for Mac.