2010年7月30日星期五

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
iPod family Tree

2001

first generation iPod
The first generation iPod-October 2001 - July 2002

2002
second generation iPod
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
third generation iPod
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 .

2010年7月27日星期二

Apple on Jailbreak Ruling: Go Ahead and Brick Your iPhone. See If We Care.

Sure, jailbreaking your iPhone no longer violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, but that doesn’t mean Apple (AAPL) supports it. So if you want to modify your iPhone to run unauthorized software, you’re welcome to do so, but not without risk or consequence. As Apple reminds us today, jailbreaking voids the iPhone’s warranty, which could prove problematic if your tinkering bricks it.

“Apple’s goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience,” the company said in a statement given to Cult of Mac. “As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.”

So you’re not going to go to jail for jailbreaking your iPhone, but you may well end up at the Apple Store dealing with an unsympathetic tech. As Greg Joswiak, Apple (AAPL) vice president of iPods and iPhone products and marketing, argued during a rule-making hearing last year, “When you hack the OS and remove all protection, anything can happen….The OS runs everything. And this allows any app, regardless of its functionality, its reliability, or even its safety, to run.”

2010年7月25日星期日

AT&T Has Another 3.2 Million Reasons to Love Apple

AT&T reports Q2 revenue of $30.8 billion and earnings of $0.61 a share. The Street was looking for $30.9 billion and $0.57 per share, so we’ll see how investors react to the mixed result.

But per usual, AT&T’s relationship with Apple (AAPL) is nothing but good news for the company: It says it activated a record 3.2 million iPhones in the quarter, and that 27 percent of those were new AT&T (T) accounts. That is, Steve Jobs and company helped AT&T bring in another 860,000 customers.

AT&T’s Q2 numbers include six days of iPhone 4 sales, including a massive rush of pre-orders that the company says was 10 times greater than its 3GS pre-orders in 2009.

“Sharktopus”

I pretty much don’t have to say any more than this: A mashup of a big shark and a giant octopus, which is also really pissed off.

Here’s the ridonkulous trailer for the upcoming movie, “Sharktopus,” a Roger Corman-produced movie that is coming out on the Syfy cable channel and stars scenery-chomping Eric Roberts.

2010年7月22日星期四

How to reformat an iPod

This is a tutorial about how to reformat Windows Formatted iPod for Mac and how to reformat Mac Formatted iPod for Windows. There are 2 parts:
Part 1. How to reformat Windows Formatted iPod for Mac
Part 2. How to reformat Mac Formatted iPod for Windows

The way you see if an iPod is Mac or Windows-ready is to go to Settings --> About and scroll to the bottom of the screen. If it's formatted for Mac OS X, then the last item will be the serial number of the iPod. If it's Windows-ready, then after the serial number will be "Format: Windows". Simple enough, if a bit obscure.
If you wish to keep the songs you have on the iPod, you must first follow this tutorial to backup your iPod files to your computer.

Part 1, How to reformat Windows Formatted iPod for Mac
Step 1 Launch iTunes by selecting its icon in the dock
Step 2 Connect your iPod to the computer. Once it shows up in iTunes press the Restore button under the Summary Tab.

reformat windows formatted iPod

Step 3 A popup will appear warning you that all the songs on your iPod will be erased. Click the Restore button.
Step 4 An iPod Software Update window will open. Click the Next button.
Step 5 Click the Agree button to accept the license agreement.
Step 6 iTunes will now go and download the latest firmware for your iPod.

reformat windows formatted iPod

Step 7 Once installation begins it will ask you for an Administrator's username and password. Enter this information then click the OK button.
Step 8 iTunes will then format and update your iPod after which it will reboot.
Step 9 Once complete you will be asked to name your iPod. Do this then press the Done button.

reformat windows formatted iPod

Step 10 iTunes will now automatically begin syncing your library to the iPod!

reformat windows formatted iPod

Part2. How to reformat Mac Formatted iPod for Windows
Step 1, Download the latest version of iTunes
Your first step should be to ensure that you have the very latest version of iTunes. You can do that by going to Download iTunes. Install that, and when you hook up your iPod, you should see it show up in iTunes, then when you click on the iPod on the left side of iTunes, you'll get to the summary screen.

iTunes

Step2 , Click the "Restore" button and you should be prompted to choose between four different options:
Restore Option 1: Restore - Restores with same iPod Software version already on iPod.
Restore Option 2: Use Same Version - Restores with same iPod Software version already on iPod even though a newer version is available.
Restore Option 3: Use Newest Version - Restores with the latest iPod Software available.
Restore Option 4: Restore and Update - Restores with the latest iPod Software available.

2010年7月20日星期二

How to Rip DVDs to iPod, iPhone, etc. with Handbrake

Do you want to watch your DVDs on your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV? Here's a guide which explains how to use an excellent software - Handbrake to rip DVD's into MPEG-4 video files.

Requirements:
1. VLC player (Handbrake 0.9.3 and higher)
2. iTunes 6.0.1 or later
3. QuickTime 7.0.3 or later
4. 500 MHz processor or better with at least 16MB of video RAM
Step 1: Download Handbrake
Download Handbrake from here and install it. Handbrake is free. If you already have Handbrake installed, please check to see if your version is out of date. Several new improvements have been made recently to the program, specifically for the iPod and iPhone.

Download Handbrake

Step 2. Insert DVD
Grab a video DVD and put it into your computer. Handbrake can only convert standard video DVD's that you would normally play in a DVD player. If you have a DVD-ROM with video files saved on it as individual files (AVI, MPG, WMV, MOV, etc), Handbrake will NOT be able to convert these files. Handbrake only wants standard video DVD's.
Depending on your computer's preferences, the DVD Player application might automatically open. If it does, just quit it. Only one application should be accessing the DVD at a time.
Launch Handbrake. A screen asking you to select a DVD will appear. Select the DVD you've inserted into your computer and press the Open button.

Insert DVD

Step 3: Download VLC player
What version of Handbrake are you using? As of version 0.9.3, Handbrake will no longer natively rip DVDs. Weird right? I wonder if they were getting some pressure from the movie industry. But don't give up on Handbrake just yet. You can still use Handbrake 0.9.3 to rip DVDs, you just need to install VLC on your machine first.
If you see the VLC screen like the one shown below, then you need to download and install VLC.

VLC on Mac

VLC Download Page:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

The VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, etc.) 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. Handbrake now uses some components of the VLC player and it must be installed if you want Handbrake to read DVDs.
The VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, etc.) 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. Handbrake now uses some components of the VLC player and it must be installed if you want Handbrake to read DVDs.
After you download VLC, you need to install it on Mac:
VLC for Mac OS X is distributed as a disk image. Download the .dmg file, open it, and copy VLC to your hard drive (for instance the /Applications folder). Open VLC by double-clicking on it.

Step 4: Source Settings
Handbrake will now scan your DVD. This makes take up to a minute or two depending on the contents of the DVD and the speed of your optical drive.

scanning

Title: By default, Handbrake will select the longest title in the list. However, this may not be the content you want.
Movies: If you are ripping a movie, the longest title is usually the main feature.
TV Shows: If you are ripping a DVD containing TV shows, you should see a list of several titles all about the same length. The shorter titles on the DVD are usually the video backgrounds used in the DVD menu screens and DVD extras like movie trailers. Unless you are a graphic artist, you probably don't want these tracks.
The shorter titles on the DVD are usually the video backgrounds used in the DVD menu screens and DVD extras like movie trailers. Unless you are a graphic artist, you probably don't want these tracks.

Title

If you only want to rip one title but aren't sure which one, you can click on the Picture Settings button (bottom right of the Handbrake interface) and manually step through several frames of the title to see what it looks like.
NOTE: Sometimes Handbrake is unable to see every track on a DVD. We've noticed issues with very old DVD's from the mid-1990s (before the days of fancy menus and Bonus features) and some newer DVD's like Stealth. There are different techniques and methods to authoring DVD's Sometimes the tracks get nested in weird ways that prevents Handbrake from seeing them. Other DVD ripping applications like Mac The Ripper and OSex might be able to see these tracks. Look for the longest track. That is probably the main feature.

Step 5: Destination Settings
The Destination section has 3 settings you can modify: file format, codec and file destination.
File Destination: You can name your file and choose its destination using this box. Try to pick a location that has sufficient disk space to store the ripped file. On average, you need about 1 GB per full length movie.

File Destination Settings

Step 6: Select A Preset
Handbrake has a variety of handy DVD ripping presets for iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Xbox, Sony PSP and many more. Just select a preset and Handbrake will automatically fill in all the settings for you.

Preset

If you plan on watching this DVD on your iPod, iPhone or even Apple TV, we suggest you select iPod High-Rez and drop the average bitrate to 900 kbps. This will give you a nice high quality file that will work on both big (HDTVs) and small screens (iPod/iPhone) and won't take up a ton of hard drive space.

Handbrake - quality

Step 7: Picture Settings
Click on the Picture Settings button to launch a separate window. The only thing you really want to do here is to compensate for interlaced or grainy, compressed looking video. Handbrake will have adjusted everything here for you based on the preset you selected.
Sometimes video files will have horizontal lines in them. This is called interlacing. To get rid of interlacing, try turning on the Deinterlace option and select "Fast." The image below is animated and will toggle between when the deinterlace option is turned on or off. You can really see the difference around the edge of the flipper.
Handbrake - deinterlace

Denoise will help get rid of graininess and Deblock will help clean up blocky or compressed looking video. Experiment and try to make your video clip look the best possible.
NOTE: Your iPod really only wants video files that are 320 pixels wide by 240 wide. If you don't plan on watching this ripped DVD on anything else, you can mess around with the settings. Turn on the "Keep aspect ratio button" and decrease the Width until it says 320. Handbrake will auto-adjust the height to match the width. If your video source is 3:4 (full-screen), the height will be 240. For wide-screen content, the height will be a lower number. This is fine and isn't something to worry about.
But if you plan on watching this video on your TV with an Apple TV or an iPod Video dock, then you should keep the video size big. If you don't have the money for an Apple TV, there's this amazing iPod video dock called the Keyspan TuneView. If you want to hook your iPod Video up to your TV, you should check out the TuneView.

Handbrake - size

Step 8: Rip
Finally! Click on the Rip button and stand back. The encoding time will depend on several variables including: the duration of the video file, the speed of your computer, what other activity your computer is currently doing, the codec you selected (H264 or MP4) and if you decided to do a 2-pass encoding or not.

Handbrake - encoding

Handbrake will attempt to provide you with an ETA. The time will increase if you Pause the encode or do anything that will hog the processor like start a 3D render in Maya. We suggest you do your DVD ripping overnight or at a time when you don't need to use your computer.
Handbrake will attempt to provide you with an ETA. The time will increase if you Pause the encode or do anything that will hog the processor like start a 3D render in Maya. We suggest you do your DVD ripping overnight or at a time when you don't need to use your computer.

Handbrake

Step 9: Import Into iTunes
Connect your iPod Video or iPhone to your computer using the cable it came with and open iTunes (Applications > iTunes).
Drag and drop the video file into your iTunes library, or select Add to Library... from the File menu.
Make sure the video file you just added to iTunes is in a Playlist that will get synced to your device.
Select "Sync"
The sync may take a few minutes. Once the import completed, you could find the file which is ripped by Handbrake on your iPod or iPhone.

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.

iPod Nano Converter

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.

DVD  to iPod Mac

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".

2010年7月18日星期日

Jobs: Nobody’s Perfect (But We’re Very Close)

One of Steve Jobs’s major points in addressing the iPhone 4 flap today was the universality of the problem. Any phone on any platform might show signal attenuation when held in a particular way, he said. So yes, there’s a problem–smartphones have weak spots.

But in contrast to the media fuss, he said, it’s not a problem for the vast majority of iPhone 4 owners, and he rolled out some numbers to back it up. AppleCare stats show only 0.55 percent of owners have called about reception or antenna issues. The return rate on the iPhone 4 is 1.7 percent, less than a third of the rate for the iPhone 3GS. Jobs did acknowledge that the new model dropped more calls than its predecessor–by less than one call per hundred.

Other numbers from the news conference:

  • Apple has put $100 million into its phone testing facilities and has 18 Ph.D.’s working on antenna design.
  • More than 3 million iPhone 4s have been sold in the phone’s first three weeks.

2010年7月16日星期五

Location, Location, (Geo-)Location: BoomTown Talks Digital Real Estate

Here’s an interesting video interview I did earlier this week with Sherry Chris for the Better Homes and Gardens blog on the impact of digital technology on the real estate industry in the age of consumer empowerment and ubiquitous information availability.

The reason: I was a speaker at the Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco, where about 1,500 real estate professionals gathered to talk apps, cloud computing, tablet devices, mobile innovations and more.

It’s a good idea, since real estate is one of the industries that has been massively disrupted by digital shifts.

2010年7月11日星期日

Wall Street Yawns at Google’s China Deal

“We view this news as a non-event,” writes J.P. Morgan analyst Dick Wei. Wall Street seems to agree, more or less; it has pushed Google shares up a modest two percent in a flat market. More from Wei: “We maintain our view that Google is likely to gradually lose market share in China, with an inferior search experience.”

2010年7月9日星期五

How to change iPhone Wallpaper

Here are the easy steps you can take to change iPhone Wallpaper easily.

Make preparations:
Step 1: Find an image that you would like to use as wallpaper from iPhone Wallpaper.
Step 2: Right-click on a PC or control-click on an Apple computer and select "Save As" to save the image to your computer. Save it to your "My Pictures" folder or iPhoto library on a PC or Apple respectively, or wherever you prefer to store your images on your computer as long as you will be able to easily locate it.
Step 3: Connect the iPhone to your computer with the USB cable and wait for iTunes to launch itself automatically. Click on the "Photos" tab in the side panel.
Step 4: Click on the "Sync Photos From:" tab in the "Photos" menu on iTunes and locate the folder where your photos are stored. Select all of the images that you would like to transfer your to iPhone. Click on "Sync" in iTunes to transfer all of the photos to your iPhone.

Change iPhone Wallpaper
Step 1: Tap Settings on the iPhone’s home screen:

Change iPhone  Wallpaper

Step 2: Tap the Wallpaper tab:

Wallpaper Tab in iPhone Settings

Several tabs should appear, including one that says Wallpaper. You can tap any of the tabs to select wallpaper for the iPhone. The Wallpaper tab features a collection of pictures supplied by Apple. The other tabs feature pictures you have added to the iPhone, including those taken with the iPhone’s camera.

Wallpaper Selections

Step 3: Tap any picture. A preview screen of the wallpaper will appear, along with the words Move and Scale at the top. You can pinch and reverse pinch the picture to resize. The transparent bars at the top and bottom simulate the bars for the clock and Slide to unlock that will eventually display on top of your wallpaper.
In the example below you can see that the heads of the two peoples will be partially covered by the top bar:

Resize iPhone Wallpaper

To fix, I will reverse pinch to expand the picture, then drag the picture so that their faces appear in the center:

Resize iPhone Wallpaper
Step 4:
Tap Set Wallpaper to finish.
To view your new iPhone wallpaper, put the iPhone to sleep by pressing the sleep button on the top of the iPhone. Then hit the home button to wake the iPhone, and you should see the wallpaper.
Note the position of the clock and Slide to unlock transparent bars. If you’re unhappy with the position of the wallpaper, repeat the steps above.

2010年7月6日星期二

How to share the iTunes Music and videos between two computers for free

Some people may meet that situation: You and your brother both have iTunes library under the same credit card account. Occasionally, you want to get the same song, however you wouldn't want you both to pay the $0.99 where virtually the same account is purchasing the song twice. So how can you and/or he download the songs from each other once it's purchased on a single computer? This is a guide to tell you how to share iTunes Music and videos between two computers such as sharing iTunes Music and videos between Windows PC and Mac OS X, sharing iTunes Music and videos between Mac OS and Mac OS X and sharing iTunes Music and videos between Windows PC and Windows PC

Step 1, Networking computers.
If you want to share iTunes videos and music between computers, you need to network PC and Mac first.
If you do not know how to Network Windows with Mac OS X, go there:
Networking Windows (2000/XP/2003*) with Mac OS X (10.3/10.4)
Information you will need to know
1.The IP Address of your PC (Start > Run > CMD {return} > "ipconfig" {return})
2The IP Address of your Mac (Applications > Utilities > Terminal {Run app} > for ethernet connection "ipconfig getifaddr en0" {return} or for wireless "ipconfig getifaddr en1" {return})>
3.The workgroup the PC is in (Right click on My Computer, select Properties, and select the Computer Name tab)

System Configuration
It is important that the account you log in with on your XP system has a password set, if it does not you will not be able to login to your Windows share from OS X. You need to put your Mac in the same workgroup as your Windows PC. To do this open "Directory Access" (Applications > Utilities > Directory Access). Click on the padlock in the bottom left corner to make changes; you will be prompted for your password. If "SMB" is not ticked off, then tick it off. Select "SMB" and hit the "Configure…" button. Now enter the name of your Windows workgroup. In my case the name is "AD".

Share iTunes videos between pc and Mac, iTunes videos from pc to  Mac

Setting up the PC to share files
You need to create and share a folder on your PC that you will then access from your Mac. To do this create a folder (or select and existing one) right click on it from Windows Explorer and select "Properties". Select the "Sharing" tab and share out the folder. I'd recommend you use a one word name for the share. For example "Mac", not "Apple Mac Share", it just narrows the risk of complications.

Share iTunes videos between pc and Mac, iPod videos from pc to Mac

Setting up the Mac to share files
Open "System Preferences" (Applications > System Preferences). Go to "Sharing" under "Internet & Network", and tick off "Windows Sharing", and if it doesn't start by itself, click "Start". This will share out your entire home folder.

iTunes videos from pc to Mac

If You're running Tiger (10.4), you will also need to click the "Accounts" button and tick off the box next to your account name so that OS X knows to share out your particular home folder.

iTunes videos from pc to Mac

Step2, Go to preferences, under the sharing tab, enable "Share library..." and "Look for shared libraries..." on both computers.
Select the items you want to share.share iTunes videos and music for free

It will show up in iTunes' side panel:
share iTunes videos and music for free

To require users to enter a password before they can see your shared items, select "Require password" and enter a password.
You will need to authorize both computers to play purchased content however. You may authorize up to 5 Machines per iTunes Music Store account.
Tips:If you want to share music with other users on your computer ,read this article: iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer

How to fix error while burning DVD with iDVD

If you found message warning while click “Burn” in iDVD program. As same as pictures below:

iDVD error

Following these steps, you can fix the error:
1. Message warning click “Open DVD Map”.
2. New window will display. Find out yellow triangle and “!” inside.

iDVD error - yellow triangle

3. Correct any mistake and then try to burn again.

2010年7月4日星期日

Want to Make Google News Smarter–Or Dumber? Give It a Shot.

Traditional publishers gripe that they don’t get enough love and respect from Google, and they want the search engine to favor their stuff above upstarts and aggregators. A new overhaul from Google News won’t give them that, but it does allow users to favor the MSM–or anyone else they want to: Google is giving users the ability to promote sources they’d like to see in the results and demote unworthy ones.

Google (GOOG) won’t let users completely excise sources from their feed, though. Ben Ling, director of product management for search properties, says you’ll still get news from a particular source if they’re the ones breaking news. So if you think the New York Times is a liberal fish-wrapper, or the Wall Street Journal is a propaganda tool for our corporate overlords, you’re still going to have live with them, sometimes. Don’t worry! It’s not that bad.

On the other hand, anyone savvy and/or motivated enough to spend time customizing the Google News page may not use Google News that much at all. Hardcore newshounds are probably glued to RSS feeds, and/or Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Still, worth playing with. The video below explains how to customize your page. and notes other new Google News features, including the obligatory social media links. Google calls it the biggest overhaul of the site since its launch in 2002. Search Engine Land gave its readers a preview of the overhaul last month.

New From Google Labs: The Eric Schmidt Reality Distortion Field

Like the Nexus One? Well, don’t get your hopes up for a Nexus Two, because Google’s not planning to make one. You know why? It doesn’t need to, because the Nexus One–despite the failure of the direct-to-consumer sales model with which it was launched–was such an epic success. And that’s the real reason Sprint (S) and Verizon (VZ)) both dumped it before even launching it!

“The idea a year and a half ago was to do the Nexus One to try to move the phone platform hardware business forward. It clearly did,” Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt told The Telegraph. “It was so successful, we didn’t have to do a second one. We would view that as positive but people criticized us heavily for that. I called up the board and said: ‘Okay, it worked. Congratulations–we’re stopping.’ We like that flexibility, we think that flexibility is characteristic of nimbleness at our scale.”

Yes. Just like your focus on Nexus One customer support.

Somebody needs to sign Schmidt up for some arrogance management courses, methinks.

2010年7月2日星期五

As Its Stock Languishes, Yahoo Tries $3 Billion Buyback to Juice Shares

As BoomTown wrote last week, Yahoo’s stock has performed poorly over the last year.

Let’s go to the numbers: Yahoo (YHOO) is down 9.8 percent for the month and 17.5 percent YTD.

And while most digital stocks are off in 2010–except for the soaring Apple (AAPL)–Yahoo’s shares performed the worst year over year, down 11.6 percent, compared to a decline of 3.2 percent for Microsoft (MSFT) and an increase of 5.5 percent for Google (GOOG).

The message from investors to CEO Carol Bartz’s efforts to turn around the fortunes of the Internet giant: Meh.

So, today, the company is trying to do something about that via a board authorization to repurchase $3 billion in shares over the next three years.

In its regulatory filing, Yahoo said the transactions could “take place in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions.”

Naturally, the move caused an initial jump in Yahoo stock in after-hours trading, up just under one percent to $13.93.