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from MediaFile:

Bye bye BlackBerry?

As Research In Motion deals with the fallout from service disruptions that have affected millions of BlackBerry users around the world this week, a survey by Aite Group shows that out of 402 financial advisers polled, 45 percent say they would choose an Apple iPhone or iPad, while 14 percent would pick a BlackBerry.

What do you want to see in a passenger bill of rights?

• Extra legroom
• Time stuck on tarmac should not exceed 1.5 hours
• Carry on one bag for free
• Freedom to rebook if flight is delayed over 3 hours
• Restore smoking privileges

Will you use Facebook’s new messaging service?

It’s official.  Soon you’ll be able to adopt your very own “facebook.com” email address.

Facebook announced a new all-in-one messaging tool on Monday, after much speculation that the social networking giant was planning a so-called “Gmail-killer.

But CEO Mark Zuckerberg stressed that his company’s new service offers a whole lot more than just email.  The new tool allows users to send instant and text messages in addition to standard email and Facebook notes, he said.

“This is not an email killer. This is a messaging system that includes email as one part of it,” Zuckerberg told reporters at a press gathering in San Francisco.

Over time, Zuckerberg argued, more and more people will switch from basic email to the integrated, cross-platform mode of communication offered up by Facebook’s new service.  More than 350 million of Facebook’s half-billion users now actively send and receive messages on the website.

Whatever people choose to call it, the new tool offers Facebook users new reasons to spend even more time on the site, posing a potential challenge to popular email platforms such as Google and Yahoo.

Murdoch mad as hell and ready to charge

Rupert Murdoch is mad as hell and it appears he’s not going to take it anymore. The media mogul and News Corp chief is upset at Google, saying the Internet search giant is ruining the newspaper business.

Not one to sit and around and just gripe about things, Murdoch says he might pull News Corp’s news from Google’s Web search results and list the stories on Microsoft’s Bing. The catch is that Microsoft would pay for the service, giving Murdoch a fresh revenue stream.

The problem is that many news organizations are fed their Web audience via Google search. If viewer rates fall, so too, the theory says, will ad dollars.

If it works, however, you can bet big dollars that other publishers and content providers will follow suit.

What do you think? Will Murdoch’s gamble work?  Should search engines pay for the privilege of listing a publisher’s content?

Leave your comments below.

from Global Investing:

Who’s next for the Dow?

Arzu Cevik, director at Thomson Reuters Strategic Research, writes:

"With Citi shares trading below $1, the first time since 1970 that a “penny stock” traded on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, it is widely expected that it will be removed from the index.

"The company was added to the Dow in 1997 when it was still known as Travelers, and the last company to be removed from the Dow was AIG last September (when its stock hovered above $1) and was replaced by Kraft Foods.

"It’s also expected that General Motors may be removed from the Dow. GM shares are trading slightly above $1 and there’s speculation it may be headed toward bankruptcy.

"There are other stocks in the Dow that are now a part of Wall Street's Dollar Menu. In fact, there are currently five Dow stocks trading in the single digit range.

"Who will take their place in the Dow? Mostly likely, another company whose stock is faring better or relatively better in this recessionary environment.

"There aren’t too many of those but if I had to guess, I’d say it would have to be a company with a strong brand name and one that is viewed as influential. Also, one whose shares aren't trading in the single digits.