50,000 Blackberry Playbook Tablets Sold On Launch Day Says Analyst
Research in Motion's Blackberry PlayBook may have sold more tablets on day one than its closest rival, the Motorola XOOM, according to a preliminary analysis of sale figures from one Canadian analyst firm. RBC Capital Markets, which is the investment arm of Royal Bank of Canada, says that one in every nine retail stores probed in North America said that they had sold out their PlayBook stock on the opening day.
Facebook thinks there is too much free speech in the world
Social networking outfit Facebook is starting to think that giving free speech to countries which are not used to it is a bad idea. The outfit's Washington lobbyist said that Facebook could block content in some countries because there has been "too much, maybe, free speech". Adam Conner told the Wall Street Journal that Facebook is occasionally held in uncomfortable positions because "now we're allowing too much, maybe, free speech in countries that haven't experienced it before."
China Mobile Users Pass 600 Million, Fueled by Rural Areas
April 21 (Bloomberg) -- China Mobile Ltd. became the world’s first phone company to exceed 600 million subscribers as it signed up more rural customers in the first quarter. China Mobile added 16.8 million subscribers in the first quarter, an almost 3 percent increase from the 584 million customers at the end of December, the company said yesterday.
Sony delays launch of 3D camcorder due to parts shortage
Sony is delaying the launch of its 3D Handycam video camera by roughly a month due to difficulty securing parts following the March 11 earthquake in Japan. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami halted factories and disrupted the distribution networks and supply chains on which Japanese electronics makers rely. For Sony, the knock-on effect of this disruption has been a shortage of at least one component for the new camcorders. A Sony spokesman wouldn't elaborate on the component or components in question.
Ofcom: TalkTalk gets most broadband complaints
TalkTalk customers are the most likely to complain to Ofcom about their broadband, the watchdog has revealed. The communications watchdog is releasing company-specific complaints data for the first time, following pressure from consumer groups. However, Ofcom isn't revealing the total number of complaints each firm received, only the proportion per 1,000 customers.
The 1,000mph car that can outrun a bullet
It's difficult to imagine exactly how fast 1,000mph is.But try this; if you were up in the stand at Wembley Stadium, and an object flew into the arena at 1,000mph before exiting at the other end, if you blinked at the wrong moment, in the 300 milliseconds it would take you to close and reopen your eyes, you would completely miss it.
New Microsoft and Sony games consoles in 2014?
According to anonymous sources who spoke with Kotaku earlier today, the next Xbox and PlayStation consoles shouldn't be expected until 2014. One insider believes that "both MS and Sony are telegraphing to each other that they're delaying, to milk the current [generation] and fill in previous craters better." One source claims that Microsoft hasn't yet decided on the hardware makeup of a new Xbox. According to them, the company's board is "wrestling with whether to be profitable on day one" by using behind-the-times technology, or to launch the new console at a loss. Past Sony and Microsoft consoles have followed the latter approach, while the Wii was widely believed to be immediately profitable thanks to its more outdated technology.
Virgin to trial world's fastest cable broadband
Virgin Media is to begin trialling what it claims will be the world's fastest cable broadband system. Trials begin this month with four companies situated around Old Street in east London. Virgin is aiming for download speeds of up to 1.5Gbit/sec, although the upload speed is limited to just 150Mb/sec. Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media, explained the purpose of the project, saying: 'Demand for greater bandwidth is growing rapidly as more devices are able to connect to the Internet and as more people go online simultaneously.'
Analyst speak: Shopping with your smartphone is becoming a common practice
According to the IAB UK, smartphone ownership grew 70% between 2009 and 2010. IMS Research predicts smartphone shipments to Europe will top 200m by 2015. Last year saw many retailers move seriously into mobile commerce. With this in mind, we surveyed more than 1,100 smartphone owners in February to understand what physical products they’re buying from their devices, their attitudes to shopping via mobile, and whether they plan to continue shopping in this way.
Microsoft gets cloud certification
Software giant Microsoft has been given certification for its cloud-based Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services-Federal product. Normally this sort of thing is a big yawn, but this time the certification is part of a bigger handbags at dawn war between Vole and the search engine Google. A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft slammed Google for misleading customers about the FISMA certification of its competing Google Apps for Government service.
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