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Things are looking up for Rambus, as is their stock. “Newly disclosed e-mails from computer chip makers Micron and Hynix provide details that point towards a global price-fixing conspiracy that could support allegations made by Rambus, the Wall Street Journal reported.”

WSJ: “The emails, mainly among sales personnel at Micron and Hynix, refer to other messages, phone calls, lunches and meetings among direct competitors in the memory-chip business. In some cases, the messages suggest competitors traded information in an effort to keep chip prices up.

Other messages, involving a competitor to Rambus technology known as DDR, for double data rate, suggest some companies wanted to temporarily keep prices down to discourage the use of Rambus technology.”

Read More: CNNMoney
Source: Wall Street Journal: Emails Emerge in Memory-Chip Antitrust Case”>

“Advanced Micro Devices may be looking to buy graphics company ATI Technologies, a move that would benefit the overall graphics industry, according to RBC Capital Markets.”

“Walia based his prediction on recent checks in the PC food chain. RBC has an ‘outperform’ rating and $23 price target on ATI, and no rating on AMD. The firm expects ATI to report fiscal 2007 earnings per share of $1.06.”

Read More: Forbes

FORTUNE has a great article on the story behind the Motorola RAZR. A phone that was to help revitalize the company’s image wound up turning into a commercial success that they never expected. It also proves that companies can make great phones when they aren’t listening to everything the wireless companies want. It’s definitely worth a read.

“The phone was supposed to be something beautiful, like jewelry - a pricey gem in the $500 range at retail, rather than a mass-market staple. Motorola needed a reputation builder, badly. The moneymaker phones would come after, or so the plan went, piggybacking on the company’s restored allure.”

“The ‘thin clam’ project became a rebel outpost. Money wasn’t an object, but secrecy and speed were. Normally Motorola consults closely with the wireless companies that sell the phones to try to integrate whatever favorite features they request. It also conducts ‘mall intercepts’ to gauge consumers’ reaction.

Not this time. Jellicoe hid the details of the project even from company colleagues.”

Source: FORTUNE

Nintendo has said that the Wii will launch in the fourth quarter of 2006 and will cost less than $250. Nintendo has recently said it will cost a maximum of 25,000 yen. With taxes figured in and shipping costs, that comes out to about $223.

A very attractive price when compared to the high price of Sony’s Playstation 3 ($499 - $599). And you get an innovative remote with built in motion sensing, and possibly a port on the Wii for an audio device such as a microphone. I wonder if the recently discovered audio-in port in Wii schematics could be used to connect a device such as an iPod. That would definitely put it on-par with other gaming machines. Nintendo innovates and does it at a low price.

Source: VideoGamesBlogger (Via Slashdot), CNET News

Vonage is set to price its initial public offering today for between $16 and $18. Despite their user growth, they have yet to make money. The VoIP sector is increasingly getting more crowded, and Vonage continues to lose money. Reports have showed that Vonage’s customer acquisition costs appear to be around $275 for each new customer, based on how many users they added in 2005 and the amount of money they spent on advertising.

Source: BusinessWeek, VoIPNews

A Food and Drug Administration panel said a proposed Merck vaccine designed to protect against cervical cancer in women was safe and effective.

The decision of the outside panel of medical experts amounts to a recommendation that the agency approve Gardasil for use in girls and women ages 9 to 26.

The FDA typically follows its panels’ advice but isn’t required to. The agency is set to make a decision on the vaccine by June 8. If approved, it would be the first vaccine on the market that would offer protection against many cases of cervical cancer and genital warts.

Source: WSJ

BitTorrent has inked a deal with Warner Brothers to distribute and sell over 200 WB movies and TV programs through the BitTorrent file-sharing program. Titles range from movies like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to TV shows Dukes of Hazzard and Babylon 5.

According, to the article Warner Brothers is attempting to convert the BitTorrent audience over to legitimate buyers of their products. This further validates BitTorrent as a valid distribution venue, and further legitimizes the technology.

“The digital episodes of shows and movies from Warner Brothers will be loaded with special digital rights management software, keeping the files from being distributed illegally. That means that while BitTorrent will take advantage of users’ bandwidth to redistribute the bits and pieces of the movie files to other paying customers, it will be impossible for users to share files with their friends, unless those friends pay up.”

Source: BusinessWeek

In the new cool fact of the day scientists are experimenting with the idea of using sharks as spies. The Pentagon wants to control the movements of these sharks with a newly designed neural implant. It could become a new technique in stealth warfare to use animals as scouts.

I can’t wait to hear what PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has to say about this. It would probably be something like, “how can humans treat sharks this way, sharks have never done anything to us, why they wouldn’t hurt a fly”.

Check all about these new spy sharks at NewScientist.com.

Designtehnica has put together their list of the best examples of web 2.0 sites from each category. There are so many sites out there and this list will give you the best of the best in every category that best utilizes web 2.0 technology.

Photo - Flickr

Video- Vimeo

Social Bookmarking- Del.icio.us

Digg

Newsreaders/RSS feeds- Bloglines

Start Page- Netvibes

Collaboration/Wordprocessing- Writeboard

Maps/Directions- GoogleMaps

Local Directories- Google Local

Chat/IM- Meebo

You can check out describtions for all these sites at Designtechnica

Very Cool, finally a transformer. Now we just play the waiting game until they make one lifesize.

Thanks to the TecheBlog for helping me find it.

Google reported third-quarter net income rose to $381.2 million, or $1.32 per diluted share, more than six times higher than the year-ago quarter’s $52.0 million, or 19 cents a share. InsideGoogle has the details but, to no one’s surprise, Google has done pretty well this quarter.

Source: InsideGoogle

To the left, “a practice golf putter currently being commercialized by Infics Inc. of South Korea. A small attachment with an LCD screen is fitted to the putter. It accurately measures the trajectory and speed of the swing, as well as impact data. The golfer is then able to view this information on a color LCD screen fitted to the non-contact side of the putter”. It’s certainly a way to impress your friends but doubtfully going to do anything for your swing!

Source: Ceatec via Engadget

“We’ve all heard the hype about how Sun and Google may someday, somehow, produce a version of StarOffice or OpenOffice.org that you’ll access online through your browser instead of installing an office suite on your hard drive.” But apparently this is a bad idea for three reasons: “until our Internet connections become a lot more reliable than they are now, I expect we will all go on using local applications instead of Net-based ones…” says Robin Miller of NewsForge. Robin says there are three reasons as to why the web-based applications are a bad idea. I’ll just save you time and tell you that somehow Robin turned one reason turned into three: no internet access, no vital applications.

Point taken but I can’t really think of a time when I don’t have internet access and if I don’t have internet access I rarely have a reason to be doing anything! If it’s school-work I typically need the internet to reaseach or download instructions, etc. If it’s anything work-related… well, I do that at work and again, a lot of that stuff is heavily dependant on the internet already… heck, if were to loose email there’s not much else I would be able to accomplish. I don’t just sit around typing up documents all day.

I think if we depend so heavily on the internet already it’s not like another application or two are going to make much of a difference. In fact, it’ll make the ISP’s accountable for so much more they’ll be forced to deliver a higher quality service…

…right?

Source: NewsForge via Memeorandum

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates hit the road last week to urge college students to pursue degrees in computer science. The three-day, six-college tour was the second such pilgrimage made by Gates in two years to emphasize the potential of technology careers and to dispel concerns about outsourcing. He said that in the new few years he (Microsoft) will need a lot more software engineers. Coming from a guy who didn’t finish college? Coming from a guy who started his own company? He may be right, college advisors and the BLS agree, but the article makes a good point: is he the most appropriate messenger?

Source: Yahoo News

Yahoo Inc. is considering buying a stake in America Online Inc., joining other Internet powerhouses interested in the company’s Web portal, a person close to the talks said Friday. They say the talks are not as “advanced” as Google, Comcast, and Microsoft’s… whatever that means. In any case, why on earth is this media company now so popular? What changed in the last month? They’ve always had a huge userbase! It must be Web.20 fever…

The WSJ says, though, that a partnership between AOL and Yahoo would face antitrust issues. Basically combining the two largest web audiences is somewhat unfair.

Source: Forbes, WSJ