The Newspaper Shop -- Friday edition

[walktalker]

AMD taps loyal fans to spread the word
What's the key to Advanced Micro Devices' future? Benchmarks and body paint. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chipmaker is in the midst of a multi-pronged marketing strategy to convince consumers, as well as corporate buyers, that its Athlon XP and Duron chips provide better performance and cost less than rival Intel's Pentium 4 or Celeron processors. AMD is talking with computer labs and benchmark testers to come up with new performance metrics for comparing its chips. Kevin Knox, a Gartner analyst turned AMD executive, is also hosting roundtables with CIOs to discuss the benefits of AMD's chips in a business environment.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp01

Police nab fake Windows in $100M bust
Law enforcement officials on Friday announced the largest seizure of counterfeit software in U.S. history, a shipping container of cleverly faked copies of Microsoft's Windows software valued at $100 million. Federal investigators and police said a well-funded syndicate operating in Taiwan and the Los Angeles area had tried to ship the pirated software here by bribing an undercover agent posing as a U.S. Customs Service official.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

DOJ defends its Microsoft deal
The U.S. Justice Department told a federal judge on Thursday that its antitrust settlement with Microsoft will stop the company's monopolistic practices and asked her to endorse it without too much tampering. In documents filed with U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the department's attorneys said the settlement "will eliminate Microsoft's illegal practices, prevent recurrence of the same or similar practices, and restore the competitive threat that (other software) products posed prior to Microsoft's unlawful undertakings."
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Backlash against rude cell phone gabbers
Jacqueline Whitmore's new job is to right the etiquette wrongs of more than 121 million American cell phone users. It can all be so daunting for Sprint PCS' "etiquette spokeswoman." One day she'll persuade a group of executives to switch their phones to vibrate when in meetings. The next day, she'll hear about a pallbearer carrying a casket with one hand, flipping open a ringing cell phone with the other. "Is it a losing battle?" said Whitmore, who also runs the Protocol School of Palm Beach. "People say that to me about etiquette in general." Whitmore's role as the "Miss Manners" of mobile commerce is one of the most visible efforts of several carriers to teach cell phone users some basic manners.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Windows users to get iPod client
Apple made a big noise about the recent launch of its iPod Mac-only digital music player, but Windows users so far haven't been able to jump on the bandwagon. That may change soon, however, with software maker Mediafour planning a Windows client to handle iPod. The software, XPod, would let users with a Windows PC and a FireWire port connect to the device. Mediafour announced this week that it is at work on an XPod beta, but did not give a launch date. IPod has won the praise of many critics for combining the high storage capacity of players like Creative's Jukebox with the pocket-sized form factor of more traditional digital music players. It costs or $399 in the U.S., and is available on Apple's Web site.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Tablet PCs, handhelds ready to rumble?
As the capabilities of handheld computers expand and as Tablet PCs emerge, some in the technology industry believe the two categories are headed toward a collision course. Over the last two years at the annual Comdex trade show, Microsoft and a handful of PC makers have pushed Tablet PCs as the future of the PC industry. Tablet PCs are essentially full-fledged PCs with touch screens, wireless Internet connections and speech and handwriting input. While larger than handhelds today, Tablet PCs will likely shrink over time.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Harry Potter bewitches Web sales
Harry Potter is sprinkling some magic on Net sales of movie tickets. Thousands of bewitched fans of the film "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," which opened in the U.S. Friday, are logging on to the Net to buy movie tickets to avoid frittering away hours standing in box-office lines. AOL's Moviefone.com, Movieticket.com and Fandango.com predict their combined ticket sales could top 1 million this weekend. Mitch Rubenstein, co-chief executive of privately held Movieticket.com, said his company has sold 300,000 tickets for "Harry Potter," eclipsing the company's previous best seller, "Pearl Harbor."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Game makers profit from console fight
When the world's biggest software maker takes on entrenched competitors in a billion-dollar battle over the future of the video game industry, who will be left standing? The smart money is on the guys at ringside. Game software publishers, analysts say, stand to gain no matter how market-leader Sony, challenger Microsoft and perennial favorite Nintendo carve up the market for next-generation game boxes. The game industry is seen on track to top the record sales of $6.1 billion recorded in 1999, with much of that in the crucial weeks ahead.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Episode II trailer entices "Star Wars" fans
Traffic to Starwars.com skyrocketed 115 percent this past week, as movie fans flocked to the site to check out previews for "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones." Starwars.com drew 342,000 unique visitors logging on at home during the week ended Nov. 11, compared with 159,000 visitors the previous week, according to Internet-audience measurement service Nielsen/NetRatings. The site attracted a predominantly male audience with an 82 percent to 18 percent gender split. Surfers spent more than 10 minutes at the site, with 57 percent of the total audience visiting the movie trailer section for "Episode II."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Free Prozac to boost depressed market?
In what may be a sign of the times, one down-and-out dot-com is offering free Prozac to depressed consumers as part of a promotion by a drug company. The Indianapolis pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly has teamed with money-losing Internet healthcare company WebMD to offer Americans a free month's supply of the famed antidepressant. TV commercials direct consumers to the WebMD Web site where they can sign up for one month of free Prozac through a special promotion with Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly, whose brand flashes up on the screen.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Web stockpiles war comic relief
The Net is awash with creative, but often tasteless, parodies expressing anger and outrage at Osama bin Laden and his band of terrorists. Yet tasteless as the material may be, there's no disputing its popularity as it is passed along through e-mail attachments and links to Web sites. Web flashmasters -- experts in creating animated Web-based presentations with Macromedia's Flash multimedia programming tool -- typically use animated cartoons or talking-head images of bin Laden accompanied by songs and sound effects to make their points.
http://freep.com/money/tech/mwend15_20011115.htm

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[cornflakeboyee]