Japan’s home mobiles on hold
The News Review:
- Japan’s home mobiles on hold
- Product and profit; Collaboration among chefs and growers is key to…
- Point pocketed in St James’ Park stalemate
- Q4 2005 SINA CORP Earnings Conference Call – Part 2.
- Song and dance in Caribbean.
- China cracks down on animated characters
Japan’s home mobiles on hold
Australian IT – Feb 22, 2006
NEC is studying all its options, from cutting its loss-making offshore cell phone operations, to research and marketing tie-ups, to merging the business with another manufacturer. Japan, as will strike any traveller who brings in a GSM phone expecting it to roam, is a different place. For a start, though about 95 per cent of mobiles in the world run on GSM networks, there isn’t one here, because NTT DoCoMo, then the monopoly operator, went for a home-grown second-generation technology. DoCoMo also pressed furiously ahead with 3G development, based on a high-speed version of the WCDMA standard. DoCoMo introduced its first 3G service five years ago and KDDI’s au service followed suit in 2002, though using the rival CDMA2000. Already nearly half the country’s 90million mobile customers subscribe to 3G services. In Japan, the service providers dominate the manufacturers to such an extent that most handsets don’t even carry their makers’ brands.
Product and profit; Collaboration among chefs and growers is key to…
Free with registration – Sarasota Herald-Tribune – AccessMyLibrary.com – Feb 22, 2006
Surely, the first hunger pang to stab the first human prompted just such a response. Still, all these millennia later, the idea of finding local ingredients in many area restaurants is, well, foreign. “It’s still a relatively small number that do” feature home-grown items, said Jay Schrock, director of the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. “Boy, if it’s one half of one percent, I’d be surprised. ” That may understate the case, according to others in the local restaurant industry, but the gist remains. While “buying local” has taken off in California, the Midwest and elsewhere, the effort has been slow to reach Florida, chilled by misconceptions of cost, availability and more. But there are plenty of people eager to heat things up.
Point pocketed in St James’ Park stalemate
Charlton Athletic Football Club – Feb 22, 2006
After a shot-shy start to the match, Hughes volleyed the first opening wide after Chris Perry’s 10th-minute free-kick was only half cleared. The hosts countered immediately and Nolberto Solano’s fine through pass picked out Ameobi whose firm first time shot flew straight into the arms of Thomas Myhre. The hosts went even closer – albeit inadvertently – moments later after a purposeful burst from home-grown right-back Peter Ramage earned a corner. Turkish playmaker Emre’s curling flag-kick from the right deceived all and sundry in the box and bounced off the top of the bar before dropping behind. Myhre was equal to a low drive from Bowyer and an attempted chip from Emre while Shay Given collected a curling free-kick from Ambrose in the 17th-minute.
Q4 2005 SINA CORP Earnings Conference Call – Part 2.
Free with registration – America's Intelligence Wire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Feb 22, 2006
CHARLES CHAO: Good morning, Jason. JASON BRUESCHKE: Maybe a couple of follow-up questions. On, excuse me, Wallace’s last question, Charles, could you maybe comment when you think you will see the impact of your ability to replace some of your expensive content on the wireless side with some more of your home-grown or your portal-generated content? Is that a first-half event? Or should we be expecting that more in the second half of ’06? CHARLES CHAO: Well, I think in terms of revenue impact that will probably be seen in the second half of the year 2006. And we’re in the process of doing that right now in terms of our product development and also finished model design, and I think all these will take time. Some of these products may be well received by our users and some of these may not be. And it’s also a matter of co-ordination with mobile operators to see if some of these products can be accepted in the [marketplace] and so on and so forth, so all these will take some time. But I think that we are making some good progress right now.
Song and dance in Caribbean.
Free with registration – Europe Intelligence Wire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Feb 22, 2006
(From Leicester Mercury) A singer and dancer are touring the Caribbean to showcase their talents. Candice Shevon, 23, and Krystal Shepherd, 22, who live in Leicester’s West End, will be performing in nightclubs and on television and radio stations. They will visit Barbados, Jamaica and Antigua during the three-week.
China cracks down on animated characters
Digital Spy – Feb 22, 2006
The effect of the order will be that “human live-action, so-called animation pieces will not receive distribution or distribution licenses,” affecting films such as Space Jam and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, state-run Xinhua News Agency reports. The move will only affect future projects, however – features already granted licences will continue to be aired. This order comes in a period in which China is keen to restrict competition from abroad, favouring promotion of home-grown Mandarin-language features. David Wolf, CEO of Wolf Group Asia, told Variety: “SARFT’s notice is a clear indicator that, despite government support, the local animation industry is still struggling. Unfortunately, simply clearing more airtime isn’t going to make the product any better or more competitive. “Chinese regulators have a history of taking exception to films featuring talking animals – Babe, an Oscar-winning film about a talking pig, was banned in case viewers were confused by the pig’s vocal prowess.