Virtual Whistler

Scientists will have to wait until spring to use the world's largest particle collider for groundbreaking research because previously announced repairs will run into the normal Swiss winter shutdown, the operators said.

Experts have been down into the 27 km tunnel housing the Large Hadron Collider to see what they could determine about the damage caused last Friday when an electrical connection between two magnets apparently melted, said James Gillies, spokesman for CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research.

But they will still have to wait several weeks before the temperature can be raised from near absolute zero so that they can go inside the equipment to examine the extent of the damage, Gillies said.

"They're going to have to open up and really investigate what went on there," Gillies said. "So that's going to be two or three weeks before we can put out something that we're sure of."

It is clear that it is going to take at least two months for the whole procedure, and for the equipment to be re-chilled to take advantage of "superconducting" - operating without resistance where it is colder than outer space.

"We are not going to be done with this before the winter shutdown, so there will be no more beam in the LHC this year," Gillies said.

"The winter shutdown will go according to schedule, which means that we start up the accelerator complex in the spring months."

Only then will the Large Hadron Collider be able to collide protons, revealing how the tiniest particles were first created after the "big bang," which many theorise was the massive explosion that formed the stars, planets and everything.

CERN has previously said the meltdown released a large amount of liquid helium into the tunnel.

The laboratory usually shuts down in mid-November and resumes at the end of March or early April so that it can save electricity during the winter months of high demand for power.

After that the operators will go through the process of restarting the "accelerator chain" which prepares the beams of protons to be fired through the machine to make possible the collisions that physicists use to study the makeup of matter and the universe.

That, said Gillies, "is something that we do every year and it's something we have a lot of experience in doing, so there's no reason to think that would not go rather quickly. I suspect that the priority for the restart next year will be to get LHC beams as quickly as possible."

The new collider, launched with great fanfare on September 10, had an auspicious beginning, firing beams of protons from the nuclei of atoms first at the speed of light in a clockwise direction though a fire-hose-sized tube in the tunnel, then through the counterclockwise tube.

Then a transformer failed about 36 hours after dawn. That was relatively easy to fix because it was outside the cold zone. The machine was ready to go again when the electrical fault occurred.

Scientists expected teething problems in getting the extremely complex machine running at full power, but the controlled, warm up-cool down procedure added extra time to repair what would have been fixed fairly quickly on a smaller, room temperature machine.

Scientists hope the powerful Large Hadron Collider will reveal more about "dark matter," antimatter and possibly hidden dimensions of space and time.

They could also find evidence of a hypothetical particle - the Higgs boson - which is sometimes called the "God particle" because it is believed to give mass to all other particles, and thus to matter that makes up the universe.

Smaller colliders have been used for decades to study the makeup of the atom. Scientists once thought protons and neutrons were the smallest components of an atom's nucleus, but experiments have shown that protons and neutrons are made of quarks and gluons and that there are other forces and particles.

Some sceptics have expressed fears that the high-energy collision of protons could eventually imperil the Earth by creating micro black holes - subatomic versions of collapsed stars whose gravity is so strong they can suck in planets and other stars.

CERN and leading physicists dismiss the fears and maintain the project is safe.

London, UK – 10 September 2008 – Sony Ericsson today announces 30 September 2008 as the official launch date for the highly anticipated Xperia™ X1 – initially available to consumers in the UK, Germany and Sweden. The handset will be available in other markets across Europe, Asia and Latin America throughout Q4 2008.

APAC

• Indonesia, Singapore, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam

Western Europe

• Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal

Central Europe

• Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic

Middle East

• UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait

Africa

• South Africa

Latin America

• Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia

Availability dates for North America, China, Australia and Russia along with other countries not mentioned above will be announced by local markets in the coming months.

Webcast
To start the countdown to the launch of Xperia™ X1, Sony Ericsson will host a live global webcast on September 15 at 13:00 GMT + 1, offering viewers the first in-depth demonstration of the handset. The web cast will also premiere the first episode of an alternative reality thriller Johnny X. To register to view the web cast and Q&A session with Xperia™ X1 Senior Product Manager Magnus J Andersson, please visit: www.sonyericsson.com/premiere.

“We are extremely pleased with the innovation and new user experience we have created for consumers on the Xperia™ X1,” said Rikko Sakaguchi CVP and Head of Creation and Development at Sony Ericsson. “The in-depth demonstration on the web cast will showcase how this handset is truly unique. The nine panel eco system puts the user in total control of the primary experiences available on the phone and allows consumers to personalise the panel interface to suit their needs and lifestyle. The Xperia™ X1 has the highest quality screen on the market, four-way navigation keys and optical joy stick to give a stressless browsing experience and, with its super fast processor and network speed the Xperia™ X1 really bridges the gap between personal, entertainment and work mobile needs.”

Johnny X Alternative Reality Thriller
Johnny X is about a young man with amnesia desperately piecing together his identity. The webisodic thriller comprises of nine episodes, created to demonstrate the rich, immersive and experiential elements of the Xperia™ X1.

The storyline follows Johnny X on his mission to rediscover his identity. As he finds out more about his lost life in a race against time, he updates his Xperia™ X1 with new content to piece together his personality and identity, reflecting how the phone can be personalized to suit users’ individual lifestyle and needs. Will Johnny X find out who he really is before it’s too late?

“Producing the Johnny X thriller has given us an engaging platform to demonstrate all the capabilities and features a user can experience with the Xperia™ X1 phone,” said Lennard Hoornik, Head of Marketing at Sony Ericsson. “The panel interface is a perfect way to reflect your personality and can be tailored and changed to suit your exact needs at any given time. No two Xperia™ X1 will ever have the same combination of panels on the phone; we are all individuals and deserve to have a phone that reflects that. ”

Over a three week period, one new episode of Johnny X will be posted online at www.sonyericsson.com/Johnnyx every Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on Monday, September 22. Check out the trailer for the series at www.whoisjohnny-x.com

Global Launch
The official global launch of the Xperia™ X1 will take place at Tent London as part of London Design Week between September 18 – 21st. Journalists are invited to attend the official Tent London opening party on Friday evening 19 September 2008 to see the Xperia™ X1 and meet with Sony Ericsson spokespeople. To register, please email: sonyericsson@bm.com

Tent London is one of the most comprehensive and diverse design events of the year. It is a multi-disciplinary event in an exciting location that will appeal equally to designers, media and consumers - embracing art to architecture, vintage to contemporary and raw talent to established trend-setters.

Open to general public from 18-21st September, from 10am, with admission prices starting at:

• Public & Students £7.50 in advance £10.00 on the door
• Child (under 16) £5.00
• Child (under 5) FREE

For advance ticket purchases, visit: www.tentlondon.co.uk
Address: Circa at Tent London, The Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London, E1

Xperia™
The Xperia™ X1 is the first product under Sony Ericsson’s new premium sub-brand Xperia™. Designed to meet consumers’ needs for a converged entertainment and mobile web communication experience, the Xperia™ X1 is an extremely stylish handset encased in a real stainless steel body, with a striking arc-slider design, supported by a powerful multimedia ecosystem.

Consumers can access a world of experiences by tapping on one of the unique customisable panels on the three-inch high resolution touch-widescreen. Windows Mobile® lets you choose from a dynamic range of activities anytime and anywhere; from enjoying your music, watching a video, checking email, shopping online or working with Windows Mobile Office on-the-move. The full QWERTY keyboard and quality metal casing completes this premium handset. For more information please visit: www.sonyericsson.com/x1

About Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson is a top global industry player with sales of over 100 million phones in 2007. Diversity is one of the core strengths of the company, with operations in over 80 countries including manufacturing in China and R&D sites in China, Europe, India, Japan and North America. Sony Ericsson was established as a 50:50 joint venture by Sony and Ericsson in October 2001, with global corporate functions located in London.

Sony Ericsson XperiaTM X1 – At A Glance

Camera

• Auto focus
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• Photo light
• Video recording

Music

• Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
• Media player
• Music tones
• Windows Media Player™ Mobile
• 3D games
• FM radio
• Java
• Video streaming
• Video viewing

Internet

• Internet Explorer Mobile
• Opera 9.5 browser
• RSS feeds

Communication and Messaging

• Polyphonic ringtones
• Speakerphone
• Vibrating alert
• Video calling
• Email
• Picture messaging (MMS)
• Predictive text input
• Text messaging (SMS)

Design

• Xperia™ panels
• Optical Joystick navigation
• Navigation key
• Picture wallpaper
• Touch navigation

Organiser

• Alarm clock
• Calculator
• Calendar
• Document editors
• Document readers
• Flight mode
• Handwriting recognition
• Notes
• Phone book
• Tasks
• Touchscreen

Connectivity

• aGPS
• Bluetooth™ technology
• Modem
• Synchronisation
• USB support
• WLAN

Windows® Mobile® Operating System 6.1

• Microsoft® Outlook Mobile: email, contacts, calendar, tasks
• Microsoft® Office Mobile: Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• Internet Explorer® Mobile
• Windows Media Player™ Mobile
• Windows Live™
• Exchange ActiveSync®
• Utility Applications: file explorer, calculator, pictures & video, notes

Facts and Figures

• Size: 110 x 53 x 16.7 mm
• Weight: 158 grams

• Available colours: Solid Black and Steel Silver

• Main screen: 65,536 color TFT
• Resolution: 800 X 480 pixels
• Size: 3 inches

• Memory
• Phone memory: up to 400 MB
• microSD™ memory card support

Availability and Versions
Networks

• UMTS 900/1900/2100
• UMTS 850/1900/2100
• EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
• HSUPA/HSDPA

Legal Information
1) Facts and features may vary depending on local variant.
2) Talk and standby times are affected by network preferences; type of SIM card, connected accessories and various activities e.g. games. Kit contents and color options may differ from market to market. The full range of accessories may not be available in every market.

Tags: Sony Ericsson Xperia™ X1, launch dates for Xperia™ X1, Sony Ericsson, Xperia™ X1

For mobile pros, skimping on a laptop purchase could certainly prove penny wise and pound-foolish. Budget notebook PCs are fine if you only occasionally tote the machine in a padded bag, but they lack the durable construction and security features offered by a higher-end model aimed at road warriors. That could spell disaster if your machine takes a hit—or takes a walk—when you’re traveling.

So if you spend most of the time out of the office, you need a notebook like the HP EliteBook 6930p. This business-rugged machine has features to keep its components safe from knocks, as well as hardware and software security measures to keep your data secure.

The impressive HP EliteBook 6930p begs to be on a road warrior's short list.

Sleek, Handsome Design

The first thing you’ll notice about the EliteBook 6930p is its anodized aluminum skin. The brushed metal looks tasteful, gives the 4.7-pound machine a solid feel, and it conveys a professional, polished air to clients. Vanity aside, the aluminum cladding also protects the notebook’s 14.1-inch screen better than the typical plastic lid. The aqua LEDs used sparingly around the unit add to the machine’s modern feel.

For added strength, HP employs lightweight magnesium alloy for the chassis, which makes the notebook less prone to bending and thus better protects interior components. The hard drive's accelerometer senses if the machine falls or bounces (as during turbulence on a flight) and parks the hard drive heads. This keeps the heads from impacting the drive surface, avoiding potential data loss.

Add in a spill-resistant keyboard that can help the machine withstand a few ounces of errant liquid, and you have a machine that is as tough as it is handsome. In fact, HP notes that the EliteBook 6930p meets Military Standard 810F for drops from 30 inches, vibration, dust, high and low temperature and humidity.

Peace of Mind

The EliteBook 6930p also has the latest security features to keep your data safe. You can set the machine so that it requires a password, a swipe of your fingerprint, or both before it will boot or resume to Windows. You can also use the included Privacy Manager utility to automatically encrypt e-mail and instant messages.

HP has also included its File Sanitizer applet to let you be sure that deleted files are truly and completely deleted. When you delete a file In Windows, its name is removed from the hard drive directory and its space is made available for new files. But until a new file is actually written in that space—and with today’s large hard drives, that could be a while—the deleted file continues to reside on the hard drive and can be recovered. File Sanitizer overwrites a deleted file up to seven times with random data, permanently expunging the file.

Helpful Software

Beyond the security utilities, HP has included other thoughtful software that makes your life a little easier, especially if you don’t have a dedicated IT department. Press the “i” icon above the keyboard to launch the HP Info Center. Here you’ll find links to a host of useful applets, including the

• HP Connection Manager and HP Wireless Assistant for easily setting up network connections
• HP ProtectTools Security Manager to help you set backup and recovery options, fingerprint authentication, data encryption, passwords and more
• Presto BizCard electronic Rolodex

Another button above the keyboard launches the Presentation Settings utility to help you quickly set the machine for use with a projector or other external display. In addition to the components that come with the computer’s Windows Vista Business operating system (you can also opt for Windows XP), HP includes

• Roxio Creator Business for creating CDs and DVDs
• InterVideo WinDVD for plying DVDs
• PDF Complete for creating documents in that format

A Pleasure to Use

In our hands-on evaluation, the EliteBook 6930p proved a pleasure to use. Its full-size keyboard has a crisp feel ideal for long bouts of typing, and HP has included both a pointing stick nestled in the keyboard and a touchpad below. Because of the two sets of mouse buttons, the touchpad is a tad smaller than usual on a machine this size, but it’s still usable. Above the keyboard you’ll find a touch-sensitive strip for controlling the volume for the notebook's stereo speakers.

The brushed-aluminum skin on the HP EliteBook 6930p feels great, looks even better and adds a layer of strength.

The EliteBook 6930p uses a 14.1-inch widescreen LCD, and the high-resolution (1440x900 pixels) panel is bright and exceedingly crisp. You can even read tiny on-screen text, although the high resolution means default text sizes on some Web sites and in Windows’ menus (like the All Programs list) can be pretty small. The LCD delivered vibrant colors in Windows apps, as well as good motion reproduction for video.

Above the screen you’ll find an integrated Webcam, ideal for video chat, video e-mail and videoconferencing applications. HP’s easy-to-use utility lets you set the camera’s resolution to eight different levels ranging from 160x120 (good for grabbing a tiny snapshot of yourself to append to your e-mail signature line) all the way up to 1600x1200 (for taking a photo as good as a 2-megapixel camera might). At the default 640x480 resolution, the camera showed good color accuracy, though lots of motion resulted in lots of blur. Icons at the bottom of the utility let you take a still picture, capture video or capture audio only.

Choose Your Hardware

The EliteBook 6930p has all the requisite ports and connectors, including three USB ports, a memory card reader, a FireWire connector, LAN and modem jacks and an ExpressCard/54 slot. It includes 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, and the platform supports the addition of an integrated wireless broadband module to let you connect to the leading high-speed 3G cellular data networks.

Starting at $1,199, the base configuration includes an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processor (running at 2.26-GHz), 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics chip and a multi-format DVD burner. Those components have more than enough power to run even demanding business applications without breaking a sweat. If you need even more speed, the top EliteBook 6930p configuration comes with a 2.4GHz processor and dedicated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 graphics.

HP backs the EliteBook 6930p with a generous three-year warranty on parts and labor and toll-free 24/7 tech support. That alone goes a long way to making the few hundred extra dollars you’ll spend on an EliteBook worth it compared to a budget laptop. Figure in the powerful components, extra security and durability features plus the great looks, and the machine begs to be on your short list.

Cell phone users typically get new handsets every 18 to 24 months. What do they do with the old devices? Sometimes they're retired to desk drawers, never to be seen again. Even worse, sometimes they end up in landfills, bleeding toxins into the environment. Options for recycling old handsets exist. Sometimes they're disassembled for parts and scrap, other times they're sold in foreign markets.

Pity that old cell phone languishing in a drawer. It's missing out on a fascinating afterlife.

Most discarded phones in the U.S. are simply forgotten amid household clutter. A smaller number of handsets make it to a collection center for recycling or a reselling facility. For those phones, their fates can vary from being sold to consumers in developing countries to being melted down for metals like gold and copper.

But getting more consumers to think about their old phones the way they look at an empty soft drink can, as a product to be recycled, isn't so easy.

Low Recycling Rate

According to industry estimates, nearly 200 million cell phones will be sold in the U.S. this year. A large number of these buyers are already wireless subscribers with handsets, so more than 100 million phones will be retired. If improperly dumped in a landfill, they can release toxic materials from their batteries, small fluorescent lights and other parts.

These handsets also represent a lost opportunity, because discarded phones often are still functional, and parts of non-working ones are reusable. Persuading consumers to recycle their phones is part of a larger "e-waste" problem that environmental activists, governments and companies are trying to address as they grapple with a tide of unwanted consumer electronics.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates the U.S. cell phone recycling rate at 10 percent, a figure that's been flat for the last couple of years. In contrast, 2006 data show that American households recycled 51.6 percent of their paper and 45.1 percent of their aluminum cans.

Despite industry-sponsored collection programs, "most consumers still do not know where or how they can recycle their cell phone," said EPA spokesperson Latisha Petteway. "Most people hang on to their old cell phones thinking they may use them again. ... [But] the result is that many people end up with an unused cell phone that could be recycled sitting in a drawer."

In the U.S., consumers tend to replace their handsets every 18 months or two years, partly because the industry offers upgrade incentives and also because cell phones have become fashion accessories that can quickly lose their cachet. The reality is that with a little refurbishing, many phones can last another few years beyond their initial use.

"The more important issue with e-waste is resource conservation," said Jennifer Bemisderfer, a spokesperson for the Consumer Electronics Association. "Electronics contain a lot of reusable, valuable raw materials that are a benefit to everyone."

New Life Overseas

ReCellular, a Michigan-based reseller and recycler of mobile phones, expects to process more than 6 million handsets this year, said Vice President Mike Newman. That's double the 2007 amount, "but it's nowhere near where it could be."

ReCellular sends just under half of the handsets it receives to be recycled for materials. The others are resold in their current condition or passed on to refurbishing companies.

Discarded U.S. phones are often sold in overseas markets where consumers might not be able to afford a new handset. Colorado-based Collective Good auctions about 55 percent of the 8,000 to 10,000 phones it receives every month to refurbishers and resellers, some of which sell the used handsets abroad.

The chain of players is long and murky, and CollectiveGood President Seth Heine acknowledges that it's a "challenge for us to find out where the phones go." But he maintains that for the same price as a basic handset produced for developing markets by companies like Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) , consumers in those countries can buy a used American cell phone with more-advanced features.

Chewed Up, Spat Out, Recycled

Those in the e-recycling business say some phones are diverted to smaller, overseas scrap operations with unsafe labor conditions and improper disposal practices. ReCellular gets "calls from people every day who want to buy our scrap," Newman said, adding that high prices for such commodities as gold have prompted increased interest in electronic waste. "You can bet it's someone who wants to send it over to China. But we're in the business of reuse first."

CollectiveGood sends its end-of-life handsets to Umicore, a Belgian company that reclaims metals from electronics. ReCellular ships its obsolete phones to Sims Recycling Solutions, an Australian conglomerate with facilities in West Chicago and Franklin Park.

The local Sims plants process about 200,000 pounds of cell phones every year. There are between four and six phones in a pound, and each pound can fetch US$2-$3 in reclaimed precious metals at current prices. Still, cell phones make up a minute portion of the 35 million pounds of electronics -- everything from TVs to bulky mainframe computers -- that the Chicago-area Sims facilities process annually.

Amanda Hale, Sims' West Chicago-based vice president of marketing, even recalls a shipment of MRI machines that had to be dismantled with blowtorches.

At West Chicago, smaller electronics such as cell phones and computer monitors are fed through a shredder that reduces the devices into tangles of copper wire and paint-chip-size pieces of aluminum and steel. The metals are later blended into alloys and sold. Bulkier items go through a much larger shredder that chomps up electronics in three stages, resulting in the same colossal piles of metal bits.

Hale said awareness of electronic recycling needs to be higher. The company will run advertisements in advance of the digital TV transition in February, encouraging consumers who are getting rid of their analog sets to bring them in for safe disposal.

CollectiveGood lets people who donate phones choose a charity to receive proceeds from the recycled handset. There are other programs, such as Verizon Wireless HopeLine initiative, that use proceeds from the sale of refurbished handsets to provide phones and minutes to victims of domestic violence.

Heine of CollectiveGood also runs a program that pays consumers for their old phones.

"Our mission is to protect the environment," he said. "You can recycle your phones for love or for money, and we have a little mousetrap for each of them."

MacNN can confirm the existence of the fourth-generation iPod nano and has obtained a verified authentic photo of the Apple music player. The device exactly matches claims by Digg founder Kevin Rose of a tall, tapered design and is enclosed in wrap-around aluminum, as with the second-generation model.

It also has the same offset Dock Connector placement of the 2006 version and marks the return of at least one color that had previously disappeared from the iPod lineup: the example shown to MacNN comes in the same metallic orange as the early 2007 iPod shuffle update.

Other colors will be more vibrant than the pale hues from the third-generation nano, according to the sources. Similar packaging to earlier low-end iPods will also accompany the nano and are visible in the shot.

Most other details of the device are unknown, though people familiar with the update say the new player will be shipping as of next week, likely almost immediately after the "Let's Rock" event, and will be exempt from the last week of the back-to-school promo that provides a free iPod along with the purchase of a Mac.

Most observers expect Apple to maintain similar pricing to the outgoing models but double capacity to 16GB in high-end trim. (Note: image deliberately obscured)

DARMSTADT, Germany: A deep space probe launched by the European Space Agency successfully completed a flyby of an asteroid millions of miles from earth on Friday.

Rosetta rendezvoused with the Steins asteroid, also known as Asteroid 2867 — currently in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter — just after 8:45 p.m. (1845 GMT) Friday at a distance of just less than 500 miles (805 kilometers).

As planned, the spacecraft lost signal for about an hour and a half, as engineers turned it away from the sun and because the craft was moving too fast for its antennae to transmit any signal.

At around 10:14 p.m (2014 GMT), the craft resumed signal transmission to the cheers of ESA engineers and technicians.

"We're extremely happy that it worked," said the mission's manager Gerhard Schwehm, sipping a glass of champagne after the announcement from the control room.

"It's a big relief. People can relax a bit now and everything seems fine."

The images and data from the deep space craft — which was launched in March 2004 from French Guyana, and is 250 million miles (402 million kilometers) from Earth — have begun beaming back to the earth.

Schwehm said the agency would work to get the data and images processed as soon as possible, but said there was a minor glitch.

He said the data must first be sent to antenna stations far away from Europe because of signal issues created by the present position of the satellite and the curvature of the earth.

One of those stations, a NASA laboratory in Goldstone, California was having issues cooling one of its antennae Friday, and was forced to switch the ESA project to another of its antennae.

That switch would delay the analysis of some of the data until 1 a.m. German time (2300 GMT), but Schwehm said that probably wouldn't affect the release of the images to the world on Saturday.

The other antenna station where Rosetta data is streaming is in New Norcia, near Perth, Australia.

"The operation went very well," said Paolo Ferri, the head of the solar and planetary missions division and Rosetta flight operations director in a short speech after the announcement.

"The spacecraft is in exactly the condition we expected, which is good. All indications are that everything was super successful."

The timing of the flyby ensured the asteroid would be illuminated by the sun, making it likely the transmitted images will be clear and sharp. Experts will parse the data from the 3-mile (4.6 kilometer)-diameter irregularly shaped asteroid for keys that could help unlock some of the mysteries of the creation of the solar system.

"Dead rocks can say a lot," Schwehm said.

Astronomers have had to work with limited data from brief flybys, such as when ESA's Giotto probe swept by Halley's Comet in 1986, photographing long canyons, broad craters and 3,000-foot hills.

Steins is Rosetta's first scientific target as it makes its incursion into the asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter en route to its destination, the comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is scheduled for 2014. Between now and then it will do some gravitational experiments and then go into a hibernation, ESA said.

The European Space Agency is supported by 17 countries, including Germany, France, Ireland and the Netherlands. It cooperates with the NASA, the European Union, European national space agencies and international partners. It's expected that the ESA will become the space agency of the EU in the near future.

Dell Thursday started selling a mini-notebook with Microsoft's Windows XP Home preinstalled, the first time that the world's largest computer maker has had a PC to sell with that operating system since Microsoft retired XP from general service in June.

SEATTLE--Microsoft said on Wednesday it plans to cut the U.S. prices of its Xbox 360 video game machine, lowering the price of its entry-level console to $50 below Nintendo's top-selling Wii.

The move makes the Xbox 360 the first game machine of this generation of consoles to sell for less than $200, a key mass-market price that Microsoft said historically has accounted for more than 75 percent of all machine sales.

The lower prices ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season--a period of time when the video game industry racks up most of its sales--puts pressure on rivals Nintendo and Sony to cut the prices of their machines.

The company said it will cut prices for its entry-level Xbox 360 Arcade, which comes without a hard drive, to $199 from its current price of $279 and it also will lower the prices of its mid-range and high-end Xbox 360 consoles by $50 each.

The new prices will go into effect on September 5.

Nintendo's Wii sells for $249 while Sony's least expensive PlayStation 3, which comes with an 80-gigabyte hard drive and a Blu-ray high-definition video disc player, retails for $399.

"Microsoft wants to drum up demand for the holiday. Microsoft's long-term vision for the Xbox is not to turn a profit today," said Toan Tran, analyst with Morningstar. "It's a way to get a foothold into people's living rooms."

Microsoft said it will cut the price of its Xbox 360 Pro, its best-selling version which comes with a 60-gigabyte hard drive, to $299 from $349 and reduce the price of its top-end Xbox 360 Elite with a 120-gigabyte hard drive to $399 from $449.

The U.S. price cut comes on the heels of a similar price cut for the Xbox 360 in Japan where Xbox sales have been slow.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft has sold over 20 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide since its introduction in late 2005 compared to 14.4 million units for the PlayStation 3 and nearly 30 million Wii units since debuting in November 2006.

In recent months, the PlayStation 3 has outsold the Xbox 360 in the United States.

"Microsoft recognized it needed to do something and I think they also can afford it," said Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Morgan. "They've got to make it up by penetrating more households and selling more software."

After losing roughly $5 billion since it entered the video game console business in 2001, Microsoft turned a $426 million profit in fiscal 2008 at its entertainment and devices division, comprised mainly of the Xbox business.

The price cuts were reported earlier by BusinessWeek on its Web site.

HOUSTON, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- In the wake of Hurricane Gustav, Verizon Wireless continues to dispatch teams of network technicians and generators to impacted areas in Louisiana.

While 90 percent of the Verizon Wireless Gulf Coast network is up and running, technicians are now working to restore cell sites into service and to deploy mobile transmission units to boost network capacity in areas where residents and rescue workers must rely on wireless communications in the storm's wake. In addition, network teams pre-deployed COWs (Cells on Wheels), COLTs (Cells on Light Trucks) and several dozen mobile generators to strengthen the network in the Gulf Coast.

Verizon Wireless Provides Emergency Service. Verizon Wireless is also preparing to quickly set up Wireless Emergency Communication Centers (WECCs) to serve residents and rescue agencies in the areas of greatest need. Residents who have lost landline phone service and/or coverage from their wireless carriers may also visit a local Verizon Wireless Communications Store to make free phone calls and charge their wireless phones.

To aid in emergency operations, Verizon Wireless also has provided hundreds of phones to government agencies, emergency organizations and shelters in the Gulf Coast and surrounding evacuation cities.

"Our solid network performance during and after Hurricane Gustav was strong as expected," said Kay Henze, Houston/Gulf Coast region president for Verizon Wireless. "We prepare year-round for severe weather. Verizon Wireless has the nation's most reliable wireless network, and our advance preparation for any situation is a key component of our reliability."

Hurricane Preparedness Efforts
Since the beginning of the year, Verizon Wireless has spent more than $137 million in the Gulf Coast region to strengthen and enhance its wireless network. Additional highlights of the Verizon Wireless 2008 Hurricane Season preparation and network enhancement include:

-- A comprehensive emergency response plan, including preparing emergency command centers across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida in the case of a crisis.

-- Enhancements to its regional switching facilities, which doubled its traffic capacity and back-up power redundancies.

-- Erected 59 new cell sites across the Houston/Gulf Coast region since the start of the year, of which about 85 percent have their own on-site generators.

-- A fleet of Cells on Wheels (COWs) and Cells on Light Trucks (COLTs), and Generators on Trailers (GOaTs) that can be rolled into hard-hit locations or areas that need extra network capacity.

-- Pre-arranging fuel delivery to mobile units and generators to keep the network operating at full strength even if power is lost for an extended period of time.

-- The company has expanded its EV-DO wireless broadband network, including launching its highest-speed Rev. A network throughout the region. This allows the most advanced wireless services (downloads, location-based applications, video messaging, etc.) and makes the network more reliable for usage by residents and emergency agencies.

These new technologies, facilities and other network-strengthening efforts are part of our hefty multi-million dollar investment in the region over the past year. Nationally, Verizon Wireless has invested an average of $5.5 billion annually to enhance its digital wireless network and a total of more than $45 billion since 2000.

Japan's Nikkei is reporting what we've been hearing Stateside for weeks: Xbox 360 price cuts across the board. Expected to go official sometime later today, the Japanese Xbox 360 Arcade will drop to just ¥19,800 or about $182 (tax inclusive, presumably) in hopes of boosting sales.

The new pricing represents a near 30% drop from its previous ¥27,800 (about $256) price and undercuts the Wii sold locally for ¥25,000. Nikkei's sources also claim that Microsoft will cut the prices on all three Xbox 360 models without going into specifics. If true then this bodes well for the US price cuts expected on September 7th.

Update: It's official. Microsoft also announced a new ¥29,800 (about $277) price for the Xbox 360 with 60GB hard disk while the top-end Elite will now sell for ¥39,800 (about $369). The new prices go into effect on September 11th.