Japan's NTT DoCoMo has raised its stake in Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT), the Philippines' largest telecom company, lifting the NTT group's overall holding to 20 percent, according to a report from Reuters.
DoCoMo, which controls more than half of Japan's mobile market, bought 12.53 million additional PLDT shares for 86.7 billion yen (US$760 million) since March 2007, raising its stake in PLDT to 13.3 percent from 6.7 percent.
The investment, bringing the NTT group's holdings in PLDT close to a 21 percent-limit previously agreed on, will help the Japanese company strengthen its partnerships in global roaming services and joint technological development, DoCoMo officials said.
About NTT DoCoMo:
NTT DoCoMo is the world's leading mobile communications company. DoCoMo serves more than 51 million customers, of which more than half subscribe to FOMA(TM), launched as the world's first 3G mobile service based on W-CDMA in 2001. DoCoMo also offers a wide variety of leading-edge mobile multimedia services, including i-mode(TM), the world's most popular mobile e-mail/ Internet service, used by more than 46 million users. With the addition of credit-card and other e-wallet functions, DoCoMo mobile phones have become highly versatile tools for daily life. NTT DoCoMo is listed on the Tokyo (9437), London (NDCM) and New York (DCM) stock exchanges. For more information, visit www.nttdocomo.com .
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technorati tags: docomo, pldt
DoCoMo buys more of PLDT
Toshiba halves HD DVD player prices
Toshiba on Monday announced an aggressive campaign to bolster its HD DVD movie disc format against Sony-backed Blu-ray technology, cutting prices on players to as low as $149.99.
The HD DVD camp suffered a serious blow on Jan. 4, when Warner Bros. Entertainment said it would stop publishing movies on HD DVD in May, to focus on Blu-ray and regular DVD.
That leaves only two major studios, Paramount and Universal, still supporting HD DVD, while five support Blu-ray.
Toshiba on Monday slashed the suggested retail price of its cheapest player, the HD-A3, from $299.99 to $149.99. The price for the HD-A30 was also halved, from $399.99 to $199.99, while the price on the high-end HD-A35 went from $499.99 to $299.99.
HD DVD players have been cheaper than Blu-ray players for a while, and sales of standalone players have been strong. But Blu-ray has benefited from Sony's (SNE) cachet among video enthusiasts, as well as the ability of the PlayStation 3 game console to play Blu-ray discs.
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technorati tags: toshiba, hd dvd price
CEA to Gizmodo Crew: Gizmo-B-Gone
By now, you’ve probably heard or read about Gizmodo’s CES crew, who brought a universal IR remote control called TV-B-Gone, and then worked themselves into a giggle-fest by covertly shutting down some devices on the show floor, thereby sabotaging some demos and displays. The Consumer Electronics Association's (CEA) take on them? Banned.
In a blog posting at CNET staffer Rafe Needleman posts CEA's official response:"We have been informed of inappropriate behavior on the show floor by a credentialed media attendee from the Web site Gizmodo, owned by Gawker Media. Specifically, the Gizmodo staffer interfered with the exhibitor booth operations of numerous companies, including disrupting at least one press event. The Gizmodo staffer violated the terms of CES media credentials and caused harm to CES exhibitors. This Gizmodo staffer has been identified and will be barred from attending any future CES events. Additional sanctions against Gizmodo and Gawker Media are under discussion."
I myself am somehow embarrassed with the actions of the Gizmodo staff, especially with the Motorola presentation. If this is a scene in a Hollywood flick, it would probably be hilarious. But it's not. Most of the participants here worked hard and prepared for weeks, even months just to make their presentations as smooth as possible. Maybe shutting down one or two wall displays is tolerable, just for the sake of fun.. but with what they did with Motorola, as what gizmodo editor Brian Lam admitted.. is over the line.
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technorati tags: CES 2008, gizmodo prank, gizmodo banned
Get Broadband.. Save Planet
Can the internet save the planet? Solar arrays and wind farms grab all the green technology attention, but the Internet is quietly providing ways to save energy. Clearly, though, when it comes to energy use, the Web is both a crusader and a culprit. Server farms and data centers burn mountains of CO2, much of it to keep machines cool. But now a new crop of companies and thinkers is trying to make the Internet "carbon neutral" and find ways to use Web-based technologies to reduce worldwide energy consumption through "demand-response" schemes that give energy consumers more direct control over their energy use. Internet-enabled capabilities like telecommuting, e-commerce, teleconferencing, and distance learning that have been around for decades are expected to play an increasing role in cutting energy consumption--reducing air travel and the need for warehouses, trips to the mall, and even malls themselves. The American Consumer Institute projects that telecommuting alone will cut CO2 emissions by more than a half million tons over the next decade (see table, above). Overall, the Internet economy could help reduce growth in greenhouse gas output by 67% over the next several years, the study says, citing data from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
Couple the potential of Internet-related technologies with these investment engines and the optimists among us might foresee a significant dent in the energy crisis. But such pronouncements mask the inconvenient truth that the Internet hogs a great deal of power, particularly for big server farms on Google- and Amazon-like scales.
source: www.informationweek.com
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technorati tags: internet, save planet, save energy
YouTube on Your Boob Tube
As YouTube becomes an ever more popular pastime, major television makers are scrambling to add Internet capabilities to their newest TV models.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the world's biggest plasma maker, has lately teamed up with Google to launch new plasma television series that allows users to search and watch videos from YouTube as well as to share and view photos from the online Picasa Web Albums.
At the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Matsushita, which produces Panasonic-branded products, unveiled the latest Panasonic VIERA PZ850 line of plasma Internet-connected high-definition television sets, which will be available to consumers this spring in the United States.
Google and YouTube will provide Matsushita with special servers for transmitting high-quality images for large-screen TVs. The latest Matsushita Net-enabled TVs will allow users to click into the YouTube and Picasa Web sites by pressing a button on the remote control.
{ source: forbes.com }
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technorati tags: youtube, television, google
CES 2008 kicks off with Gates' final keynote speech
It's a new year and a new January CES (Consumer Electronics Show) expo is about to begin that will hopefully bring enough new stuff to keep us drooling for the rest of the year. Last night, Bill Gates delivered his last opening CES keynote after 12 occasions of doing so in the last 15 years.
Bill Gates' made his final speech January 6 to kick off CES 2008. Explaining that thinking about how he would spend his last full day at the office has inspired a film, Gates presented a short funny video about such a day, starting with Gates driving to the office in a bog standard car, leaving his briefcase on the top of the car in a comedic fashion.
The hilarity continued with guest star appearances from names as varied as Steven Spielberg, Hilary Clinton, George Clooney and a scene where Gates calls Bono and plays a Guitar Hero riff down the phone in an attempt to audition for a place in the band. The picture above is Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash helping Gates on a Guitar Hero bet.
CES is an annual trade show event held each January at Las Vegas, Nevada. At the show, many previews of products are introduced, or new products are announced.
Yugatech will be doing a "remote coverage" of CES 2008 so expect some updates there. For a complete info about CES visit their website at www.cesweb.org
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technorati tags: Consumer Electronics Show, CES 2008, Bill Gates, final speech, technology