Apple iPad Tablet (16GB, Wifi)

 Apple iPad Tablet (16GB, Wifi)

Technical Details

• Full Capacitive Multitouch Tablet
• 1GHz Apple A4 Processor;
• 0.5" Thin; 1.5 Pounds; 9.7" IPS Display
• 16GB Flash Storage; Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR; Wifi 802.11n;
• 10 Hours of Battery Life, Over a Month of Standby

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Product Details Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. ASIN: B002C7481G Date first available at Amazon.com: January 27, 2010

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Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Apple iPad: Revolutionary Device with Advanced Technology

A truly revolutionary device, the Apple iPad is perfect for your mobile computing lifestyle, including browsing the Web, reading and sending e-mail, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, and much more. It features a brilliant 9.7-inch, LED-backlit display with IPS technology that delivers crisp, clear images and consistent color and a highly precise, capacitive Multi-Touch display that's Amazingly accurate and responsive--whether you're scrolling Web pages or playing games.

Measuring just 0.5 inches thin and weighing a mere 1.5 pounds, the iPad is easy to carry and use anywhere. There's also a slight curve to the back. Which makes it easy to pick up and comfortable to hold. This version of the Apple iPad comes with 16 GB of internal flash memory and ultra-fast Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking.

The iPad runs almost all apps from the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone or iPod touch. And the iPad comes with 12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad, including Mail, Photos, Maps, Notes, and YouTube.

Reading and sending e-mail is on iPad's large screen and almost full-size "soft" keyboard. Import photos from a Mac, PC or digital camera, then see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad's elegant slideshows. Watch movies, TV shows and YouTube--all in HD.

The iPad syncs with iTunes just like the iPhone and iPod touch, using a standard Apple 30-pin to USB cable, so you can sync all of your contacts, photos, music, movies, TV shows, applications and more from your Mac or Windows-based PC. Other features include up to 10 hours of battery life, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR connectivity, and built-in speakers plus 3.5mm headphone jack.

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Key Features

• 16 GB of internal flash memory
• 9.7 inch LED-backlit, display: The high-resolution, 9.7 inch LED-backlit, IPS display is remarkably crisp and vivid, making it perfect for web browsing, watching movies, or showing off photos. It's also been designed to work in any orientation--portrait or landscape.
• Multi-Touch capabilities: The Multi-Touch screen on the iPad uses the same revolutionary technology that's in an iPhone. But for iPad, the technology has been completely reengineered for the larger surface, to make it extremely precise and responsive.
• IPS (in-plane switching) display technology provides a wide, 178-degree viewing angle, enabling you to hold it almost any way you want and still get a brilliant picture with excellent color and contrast.
• Powered by A4, Apple's next-generation system-on-a-chip: Designed by Apple, the new A4 chip provides exceptional processor and graphics performance along with long battery life of up to 10 hours. Apple's advanced chemistry and Adaptive Charging technology deliver up to 1,000 charge cycles without a significant decrease in battery capacity over a typical five-year lifespan.
• Built-in Wireless-N Wi-Fi: With integrated 802.11n networking, the iPad can take advantage of the fastest Wi-Fi networks. And it will automatically locate available Wi-Fi networks, which you can easily join with a few simple taps.
• Bluetooth 2.1+EDR enables you to connect to devices like wireless headphones or the Apple Wireless Keyboard.
• Powerful, built-in speaker produces a full, rich sound, and the iPad also comes with a headphone jack and a built-in microphone.
• 30-pin dock connector on the bottom of the iPad allows you to dock and charge it. It also lets you connect to iPad accessories like the Camera Connection Kit or the Keyboard Dock.
• Up to 10 hours battery life: To maximize battery life, Apple engineers took the same lithium polymer battery technology they developed for Apple's notebook computers and applied it to the iPad. As a result, you can use iPad for up to 10 hours while surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching videos, or listening to music.
• Commitment to environmental design: Continuing Apple's dedication to designing and creating environmentally responsible products, each iPad enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and comes standard with energy-efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. iPad contains no brominated flame retardants and is completely PVC-free.

iPad Apps

iPad will work with almost all of the over 140,000 apps for the iPhone. That means popular apps for gaming, video, Amazon Kindle, cooking, photography -- whatever it is you're into -- are at your disposal.

The process for getting new apps is exactly the same: Just download them from the App Store and start using immediately. Or, if you already have apps for your iPhone or iPod touch, you can sync them to iPad from your Mac or PC. Then run them in their original size, or expand them to fill the screen. And developers are working on new apps designed specifically for this amazing device and all the things it can do.

The iPad also includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad:

• Safari: The large Multi-Touch screen on iPad lets you see web pages as they were meant to be seen--one whole page at a time. And with iPad, navigating through the web has never been easier, or more intuitive.
• Mail: In landscape, you get a split-screen view, showing both an opened e-mail and the messages in your Inbox. To see the opened e-mail by itself, you just turn iPad to portrait, and the e-mail automatically rotates and fills the screen.
• iBooks: You'll be able to buy everything from classics to bestsellers from the built-in iBookstore. Once you've bought a book, it's displayed on your Bookshelf. To read it, all you have to do is tap on it and it opens up.
• Photos: The new Photos app displays the photos in an album as though they were in a stack. Just tap or pinch to open the stack, and the whole album opens up. Then you can flip through your pictures, zoom in or out, or watch a slideshow.
• Video: The large, high-resolution screen makes iPad perfect for watching any kind of video: from HD movies and TV shows, to podcasts and music videos. You can also easily move between wide-screen and full-screen with a double-tap.
• YouTube: The YouTube app organizes videos so they're really easy to see and navigate. To watch one, you just tap it. When you're watching in landscape, the video will automatically play in full screen.
• iPod: With the iPod app, all your music is literally at your fingertips. You can browse by album, song, artist, or genre, with a simple flick. To play a song, just tap it, and the now playing screen will show the album art at full size.
• iTunes: Just tap on the iTunes Store icon, and you can browse and buy music, TV shows, podcasts--or buy and rent movies--wirelessly, right from your iPad.
• Maps: See more of the world with high-resolution Satellite and Street View images. You can even see topography with the new Terrain view. You can also search for a nearby business type (for example, "Restaurant") and then tap on that business to see directions.
• Notes: With its expansive display and large, on-screen keyboard, iPad makes jotting down notes easy. In landscape mode, you get not only a note-taking page but also a list of all your notes.
• Calendar: You can see an overview of a whole month, or the details of a single day with Calendar's Day, Week, Month or List views. iPad will even show multiple calendars at once, so you can manage work and family calendars at the same time.
• Contacts: A new view lets you see both your complete contact list, and a single contact, simultaneously. Need directions? Just tap on an address inside a contact and it'll open Maps.
• Spotlight Search: You can search across iPad, and all of its built-in apps including Mail, Contacts, Calendar, iPod, and Notes. It will even search apps you've downloaded from the App Store.
• More apps: The iPad will run almost all of the apps designed for the iPhone. If you already have apps for your iPhone or iPod touch, you can sync them to iPad from your Mac or PC. Then you can run any of those apps in either their original size, or you can expand them to fill the screen.

What's in the Box
iPad, dock connector to USB cable, 10W power adapter, documentation
Storage Capacity

• 16 GB

Wireless Connectivity

• Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Location Capabilities

• Wi-Fi
• Digital compass

Display

• 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
• 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
• Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
• Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Processor

• 1 GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip

TV and Video

• Support for 1024 x 768 with Dock Connector to VGA adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Composite A/V Cable, 576i and 480i with Apple Composite A/V Cable
• H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

Audio Playback

• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
• Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
• User-configurable maximum volume limit

Mail attachment support

• Viewable document types: .jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel)

Battery and Power

• Built-in 25Whr rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
• Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
• Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system

System Requirements

• Mac: Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later
• Windows: Windows 7, Windows Vista; Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3 or later

READ MORE - Apple iPad Tablet (16GB, Wifi)

Apple pitches $499 iPad, takes on Amazon

 

 

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs took the wraps off a sleek tablet that it called the iPad, pitching the new gadget at a surprisingly low price to bridge the gap between smartphones and laptops.

 

A buoyant Jobs took the stage at a packed theater on Wednesday to show off the 9.7-inch touchscreen tablet, which looks like a large iPhone, and to introduce a new iBook electronic reader service that will compete with Amazon.com Inc's Kindle.

The iPad is Apple's biggest bet on a new product since the iPhone three years ago, and seeks to tap an unproven market for tablets. Analysts, while impressed by the iPad's seamless functionality, also pointed out that consumers already have smartphones and laptops for their mobile computing needs.

 

 

Jobs described the iPad as a "third category" of devices, a do-everything media gadget that can surf the Web, and play movies and video games. He also left little doubt that Apple was going after the e-book market that Amazon had popularized.

 

"If there's going to be a third category of device, it's going to have to be better at these kinds of tasks than a laptop or a smartphone; otherwise it has no reason for being," said Jobs, who still appeared thin following his liver transplant last year.

 

"Now Amazon's done a great job of pioneering this functionality with their Kindle. And we're going to stand on their shoulders and go a bit further," he said.

Famous for his skills as a pitchman, Jobs, dressed in his trademark blue jeans and black turtleneck, created plenty of drama as he waited until late in the event to discuss the cost of the iPad, which analysts had expected to be up to $1,000.

 

Apple elected to price it for as little as $499 for 16 gigabytes of storage, starting in late March. An extra $130 is needed to equip the iPad with third-generation (3G) wireless capability. Higher-capacity models will sell for $599 and $699.

"Pricing is very aggressive, so it's pretty positive from a mass adoption perspective," said Brian Marshall, an analyst with Broadpoint Amtech.

 

Research group IDC said it expects Apple to ship 4 million iPad units in 2010, with about 2 million in the United States.

Shares of Apple rose to as high as $210.58 after the pricing news, up 5.5 percent from their session low. The stock closed up 0.94 percent at $207.88 on Nasdaq, within reach of its all-time high of $215.59 logged on Jan 5.

 

The half-inch thick, 1.5-pound iPad features Apple's own processor and 10 hours of battery life. It runs a version of the iPhone's operating system and can use virtually all of the 140,000 apps currently available for the smartphone.

"What once occupied half your living room can now be dropped in a bag," said Outsell Inc analyst Ned May. "It's pulling together a variety of needs (in) a universal entertainment device."

 

Apple announced a data plan deal with AT&T Inc, which appeared to have beaten out Verizon Wireless. AT&T will offer two monthly data plans for the iPad, a limited one for $14.99 and an unlimited one for $29.99.

IPHONE-LIKE ANTICIPATION

 

Other technology companies, including Microsoft Corp and Toshiba Corp, have launched tablets that failed to take off in recent years.

But analysts said they were impressed with the technology that Apple showed off. The iPad has a near life-size touch keyboard, and comes with all the expected features, including a calendar, an address book and maps.

 

 

"One thing Apple has proven is that they can consumerise new concepts, new technologies," said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a consulting firm. "That will probably be their claim to fame again with this."

 

However, some also mentioned potential cannibalization of other Apple products.

"If it's doing all these things and does it better than a notebook then they'd have to tell me why I'd want a MacBook," said NPD analyst Steve Baker.

 

Some industry watchers said the iPad, with its multimedia bells and whistles, will be a tough competitor for Amazon's Kindle. The iBooks store will let users buy from publishers including Pearson Plc's Penguin, News Corp's HarperCollins, and Hachette Book Group.

But other analysts noted that the Kindle costs less -- $259 for the cheapest version -- and was more tailored for long-form reading, at least for now.

 

"This is not an e-reader -- this is a device that can be used to read books," Cowen & Co analyst James Friedland said of the iPad. "This doesn't change the game -- at the same time, Apple is a formidable competitor and our view is that over time, Apple and Amazon will emerge as the two largest players" in e-books.

Shares of Amazon took a brief hit but recovered to end 2.7 percent higher at $122.75 on Nasdaq.

 

 

In an online poll on reuters.com before Wednesday's media event, 37 percent of more than 1,000 respondents said they would pay $500-$699 for the tablet. Nearly 30 percent weren't interested, while 20 percent said they would pay $700-$899.

(Additional reporting by Edwin Chan, Poornima Gupta, Ian Sherr, Gina Keating, Sue Zeidler, Alex Dobuzinskis and Paul Thomasch; Editing by Richard Chang and Tiffany Wu)

READ MORE - Apple pitches $499 iPad, takes on Amazon

Google releases new Google Voice for iPhone

Google releases new Google Voice for iPhone

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc unveiled a new version of its Internet phone service on Tuesday in its latest effort to bypass Apple Inc's gatekeepers and make Google Voice a popular service on the iPhone.

The new version of Google Voice can only be accessed through a smartphone's Web browser, unlike the so-called native apps that can be downloaded directly onto an iPhone.

In July, Google said that Apple had turned down its application to offer Google Voice as a native iPhone app. The rare public spat underscored the growing competition between the two tech giants and prompted the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to request more information from the companies on the matter.

Apple responded at the time that the Google Voice app had not been rejected, but that it was under review.

Google Voice allows users to make cheap long-distance calls and to forward calls from a single phone number to multiple phones, among other things.

The disagreement over Google Voice comes as Google, the world's No. 1 search engine, and Apple are increasingly encroaching into each other's markets. Earlier this month, Google began selling the Nexus One smartphone directly to consumers, and Google is developing an operating system for PCs that could compete with Apple's line of Mac PCs.

In August, Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's board of directors.
Google already had a version of Google Voice available through mobile Web browsers.
But Google described the new version of Google Voice as a "Web app," noting that it is much more interactive than the previous browser-based version of the service, with the ability to listen to voice mails directly from within the browser and to dial phone numbers on an interactive on-screen keypad.

Google said the new version of Google Voice is designed for iPhone 3.0 and higher and Palm Inc Web OS smartphones.

A Google spokeswoman said the company had not received any updates from Apple regarding offering a native app version of Google Voice on the iPhone. An Apple representative could not be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Gary Hill)

READ MORE - Google releases new Google Voice for iPhone

Google profit rises, revenue misses some forecasts

Google profit rises, revenue misses some forecasts

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc posted a higher-than-expected fourth-quarter profit, but revenue growth was not as strong as some investors had hoped, sending its shares down 4 percent.

Analysts also pointed to signs that Google was ramping up spending as a possible cause for concern, but said that overall the company continued to dominate the Internet search market and delivered a strong quarterly report that fell short of only Wall Street's most bullish forecasts.

Google's problems in China have been an overhang on the stock, which is down about 12 percent since hitting a 52-week high in early January. The company said last week that it might have to close its China operations after a cyber attack and its decision to stop censoring search results.
Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Thursday that the China business is unchanged but the company expects to make changes in a "reasonably short time from now."

Google's fourth-quarter profit per share, excluding items, was $6.79, above the year-earlier period's $5.10 and beating analysts' average forecast of $6.48, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net revenue, which excludes the traffic acquisition costs Google paid to partners, rose 13 percent to $4.95 billion, which was at the low end of some estimates for 13 percent to 15 percent growth. The average forecast was $4.92 billion.

Expectations "got higher as they came closer to reporting and they delivered fundamentally sound numbers, but did not deliver a blowout," said Martin Pyykkonen, senior analyst at Janco Partners. "I think the stock will recover. I don't think it will fall through the floor.
Other analysts pointed to a disappointing 2 percent sequential rise in average cost per click, which is the price advertisers pay Google when Web surfers click on an ad.

"Earnings were much ahead of expectations, but top-line fell slightly below expectations," said Sameet Sinha, analyst at JMP Securities. "I think that is because cost per click was up about 2 percent sequentially, and we had been expecting closer to 5 percent growth."

Google, the world's No. 1 search engine, said its headcount increased to 19,835 employees in the quarter, reversing three consecutive quarters of declines. And the company said it expected to continue to make significant capital expenditures.

"As we enter 2010, we remain hugely optimistic about the Internet and are continuing to invest heavily in technological innovation for the benefit not only of our users and customers, but also the wider Web," said Schmidt in a statement.

He said on a conference call that he expects Google to continue to make an average of one acquisition a month, and saw the mobile business providing the fastest revenue growth outside of search on a percentage basis in 2010.

Net income was $1.97 billion, or $6.13 a share, in the three months ended December 31, compared with $382.4 million, or $1.21 a share, in the year-earlier period when the company took charges for its investments in AOL Inc and Clearwire Corp.

Total revenue at Google rose 17 percent to $6.67 billion. Revenue from outside the United States was 53 percent of the total. Google does not disclose the size of its business in China, where it lags home-grown search powerhouse Baidu Inc, but analysts peg Google's annual China revenue at between $200 million and $600 million.

Google shares fell about 4 percent to $556.75 in after-hours trade.
(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Additional reporting by Tiffany Wu, Sue Zeidler and Gina Keating; Editing by Richard Chang)

READ MORE - Google profit rises, revenue misses some forecasts

Microsoft seeks to replace Google on iPhone

Microsoft seeks to replace Google on iPhone: report

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc is talking with Microsoft Corp about making it the default search engine provider for the iPhone, replacing Google Inc, BusinessWeek reported on Wednesday.

If Apple displaces Google from its preferred status on the smartphone, it would be perhaps the clearest sign of the growing tension between two Silicon Valley icons, which were considered allies in a common cause against Microsoft.
Talks between Microsoft and Apple have been going on for weeks, the article said, citing two people familiar with the matter. Negotiations might not conclude quickly and might still fall apart, the article said.

Microsoft and Google declined to comment. Apple was not immediately available for comment.
Microsoft's Bing search engine, which debuted last year, is trying to wrest market share from Google, the leader in Internet search.

Apple's rivalry with Microsoft dates back years, though they work together in certain areas of the software market.

In contrast, the Apple-Google rift is only emerging. The companies compete on a number of fronts, including operating systems and the fast-growing smartphone market.
"Obviously with Google and Apple, they seem to be having some friction," said ThinkEquity analyst Vijay Rakesh.

Until recently, replacing Google with Bing would have been seen as unreasonable, but now such a move might be possible, said Oppenheimer & Co analyst Yair Reiner.

"While Microsoft and Google pose similar threats to Apple, Google's budding success with Android and Chrome may represent more immediate dangers to Apple, which could push it into the arms of Microsoft," Reiner wrote in a research note.

Google and Apple have lived in friendly coexistence for years as each became leaders in their arenas. Google is the default search engine on Apple's desktop and laptop computers.
Their ties run deep. Google director Ann Mather was chief financial officer at animation company Pixar, while Apple founder Steve Jobs was CEO. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is an Apple board member and also a senior adviser to Google.

But Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's board in August, even as Google increased its presence in Apple's markets.

Google has been gaining strong support from handset makers and operators with its Android mobile operating system. Earlier this month, the search giant unveiled its Nexus One smartphone, which will compete with Apple's iPhone.

MOBILE RIVALRY
Google recently agreed to buy mobile advertising company AdMob for $750 million, a company that Apple reportedly pursued. Apple bought AdMob competitor Quattro Wireless.
Apple is working on ways to manage ads displayed on its mobile devices, a move that would challenge Google's advertising business, the BusinessWeek article said.

"Apple sees Android as a competitive platform driving competitive devices and it recognizes that Microsoft is desperate to gain search market share," said Clayton Moran, an analyst at Benchmark.

"Microsoft, I'm sure, will give Apple favorable economics so strategically and financially it could make good sense for Apple," said Moran.

The terms of Google's deal with Apple are unknown, though browser toolbar deals in the PC world typically involve the search provider paying an upfront fee to the PC maker, said RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler.

The search provider makes the money back when PC users click on search ads.

IPhone searches using Google's search bar appear to return more standard, unpaid results than paid search ads, suggesting that Google might lose money on the deal, Sandler said.
For Microsoft to displace Google on the iPhone, "they're going to have to be willing to lose more money than Google is losing," Sandler said.

Microsoft has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its money-losing online business as it tries to gain an edge in Internet-based advertising markets.

"They're both playing the same game," Sandler said of Microsoft's and Google's mobile plans. "They both need to be there longer term, it's just a question of how much do you have to give up today in order to chip away at that longer term vision."

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway, Alexei Oreskovic, Sinead Carew and Franklin Paul, writing by Gabriel Madway and Yinka Adegoke. Editing by Derek Caney and Robert MacMillan)

READ MORE - Microsoft seeks to replace Google on iPhone

Malaysian GP boosted by Lotus, Petronas

Malaysian GP boosted by Lotus, Petronas

By Jonathan Noble

Lotus's return to Formula 1 and the decision by Petronas to sponsor the Mercedes GP team have been a huge boost to the Malaysian Grand Prix, claims its circuit boss.
Razlan Razali, the CEO of the Sepang track, believes that interest stirred up by the Malaysian-backed Lotus effort and the national oil company's affiliation with Michael Schumacher have provided an unexpected boost to his venue.

"The last six months have seen a tremendous development for Malaysian motorsport," Razali said on the main stage at the AUTOSPORT International Show. "We have seen Lotus F1, which is backed by Tony Fernandes as the new Malaysian team.

"Then Petronas was searching for a new partner. There was a lot of speculation and suddenly out of the blue, it came out with Mercedes. It is a really good development, a world champion team, with the return of Schumacher.

"So for us, as Malaysians, it cannot get any better than this. It is good for us and the country especially."

Razali is hopeful that the event's shift in start time to 4pm, one hour earlier than last year, will help avoid a repeat of the forced abandonment of the 2009 grand prix through bad weather and poor light.

"We haven't seen rain like it!" he said of last year's race. "It was totally different for us as well. At the 2009 F1 race, it was my first F1 event, so it was not helping. But we have shifted the time to 4pm this year and hopefully the weather will be okay this year, but who can control that?
"It was crazy. You couldn't do anything, and there was no room for error really. We ran out of light so we could not continue the race. It was sad, good for television, but I did pity the guys who came to the track on the day."

READ MORE - Malaysian GP boosted by Lotus, Petronas

Google unveils Nexus One "superphone"

Google unveils Nexus One "superphone"

 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (Reuters) - Google Inc took the wraps off the first of its smartphones on Tuesday, a device with speech recognition that it hopes can take on Apple's iPhone over time and help shore up the company's dominance in Internet advertising.

 

 Analysts say the phone -- to be sold directly to consumers -- is not expected to dramatically alter the carrier-hardware vendor relationship the industry relies on, nor is it likely to yield a revenue windfall in the short term, though executives said it could be profitable.

 

Google plans to use what it calls a "superphone" -- the first of many types of smartphones that it will make -- to expand its reach from the PC to the mobile world and ensure its online products and ads get prominent placement on a new breed of wireless Internet devices.

 

 

The highly anticipated Nexus One, which marks the first time the 11-year-old Internet search titan has designed and sold its own consumer hardware device, could provide Google with a viable challenge to the iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry.

 

It "wasn't the game-changer people thought it could be," Canaccord Adams analyst Jeff Rath said. Google could have shaken up the industry by offering the device for free, but instead chose more traditional pricing, he said.

 

Rath added that though his early impression was that the Nexus One was a good phone, it was unclear how much better it was than Motorola's Droid, released last year and that also runs on Google's Android operating system platform.

 

 

"It's very close to the Droid, some people will debate whether it's better. But it looks like an incremental improvement rather than a blow-the-doors-off improvement," Rath said.

 

The Nexus One, which was garnering favorable first reviews on tech Websites and forums on Tuesday, ships immediately from Google's online store for $179 with a two-year contract from Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA, or $529 without a service plan.

 

Executives said the phone will be carried on Verizon Wireless's network in the United States, and eventually on Vodafone's in Europe. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Vodafone and Verizon Communications.

WAIT AND SEE

Investors are taking a wait-and-see view on Google's first effort to sell a hardware product directly to consumers.

Google's stock has risen about 7 percent since the start of December, setting a 52-week high of $629.51 on Monday. But analysts say that was driven by improvements in its core business of Internet search advertising, rather than the prospect of tapping a new pool of revenue selling smartphones.

 

Its shares closed 0.44 percent down at $623.99.

The Nexus One phone comes a little more than two years after Google jumped into the mobile market with the announcement it was developing a free smartphone operating system. Google's Android software is currently available on more than 20 phones from vendors including Motorola and Samsung Electronics.

 

It pits Google -- the world's No. 1 Internet search engine, with annual revenue of about $22 billion in 2008 -- against a variety of more experienced players in the increasingly crowded smartphone market, including Palm Inc and Nokia.

Some analysts were positive on Google's effort to continue to establish the Android as a popular operating system for smartphones and wireless devices.

"It will help them keep consistency for Android platform," said Jim McGregor, Chief Technology Strategist for In-Stat.

The new phone helps Google "get their partners all on developing a single platform that applications can be developed on."

 

 

Motorola, which is banking on the Android system to power a new generation of smartphones to revitalize a flagging business, said on Tuesday it welcomed the competition. Co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha told Google's audience he did not see the Nexus One as a threat, but as an expansion of the market.

Google worked closely with HTC to develop its phone, which uses a 1 gigahertz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm Inc. The Nexus One is 11.5 millimeters thick and weighs 130 grams -- which executives said was lighter than a Swiss Army knife and no thicker than a No. 2 pencil.

 

The phone will feature a 3.7-inch (9.4 centimeter) touchscreen display. It will run the 2.1 version of the Android operating system and feature OLED display technology, a trackball for user interface control, an accelerometer chip, and a 5 megapixel camera.

(Writing by Gabriel Madway; Editing by Edwin Chan, Phil Berlowitz)

READ MORE - Google unveils Nexus One "superphone"

Tweets, sexting "unfriended" in U.S. banned word list

Tweets, sexting "unfriended" in U.S. banned word list

 

KANSAS CITY (Reuters) - If you recently tweeted about how you were chillaxin for the holiday, take note: Fifteen particularly over- or mis-used words and phrases have been declared "shovel-ready" to be "unfriended" by a U.S. university's annual list of terms that deserve to be banned.

After thousands of nominations of words and phrases commonly used in marketing, media, technology and elsewhere, wordsmiths at Lake Superior State University on Thursday issued their 35th annual list of words that they believe should be banned.

Tops on the Michigan university's list of useless phrases was "shovel-ready." The term refers to infrastructure projects that are ready to break ground and was popularly used to describe road, bridge and other construction projects fueled by stimulus funds from the Obama administration.

And speaking of stimulus, that word -- which was applied to government spending aimed at boosting the economy -- made the over-used category as well, along with an odd assortment of Obama-related constructions such as Obamacare and Obamanomics.

"We say Obamanough already," the LSSU committee said.

Also ripe for exile is "sexting," shorthand for sexy text messaging, a habit that has caused trouble this year for public figures from politicians to star athletes.

Similarly, list makers showed distaste for tweeting, retweeting and tweetaholics, lingo made popular by users of the popular Twitter networking website. And don't even get them started on the use of friend as a verb, as in: "He made me mad so I unfriended him on Facebook," an Internet social site.

Male acquaintances need to find another word than "bromance" for their friendships, and the combination of "chillin" and "relaxin'" into "chillaxin" was an easy pick for banishment.

VOTED OUT

Also making the list was "teachable moment."

"This phrase is used to describe everything from potty-training to politics. It's time to vote it out!" said one list contributor.

"Toxic assets," referring to financial instruments that have plunged in value, sickened list makers so much the phrase was added to the list, along with the tiresome and poorly defined "too big to fail" which has often been invoked to describe wobbly U.S. banks.

Similarly, "in these economic times" was deemed overdue for banishment due.

Also making the list -- "transparent/transparency," typically used, contributors said, when the situation is anything but transparent.

One list contributor wanted to know if there was an "app," short-hand for "application" popularized by the mobile iPhone's growing array of software tools, for making that annoying word go away.

And rounding out the list -- "czar" as in car czar, drug czar, housing czar or banished word czar.

"Purging our language of 'toxic assets' is a 'stimulus' effort that's 'too big to fail,'" said a university spokesman.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

READ MORE - Tweets, sexting "unfriended" in U.S. banned word list