Microsoft aided by Windows, awaits business revival
SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp is expected to report a strong jump in quarterly profit on Thursday, helped by the successful launch of Windows 7, but it may not be enough to satisfy demanding investors and push its stock higher.
IBM, Google Inc and Apple Inc have all beaten average Wall Street estimates this quarter, but saw their stocks fall or gain only slightly afterward as investors looked for more indications of strength.
Bill Gates worries climate money robs health aid
SEATTLE (Reuters) – Bill Gates, the world’s richest man and a leading philanthropist, said on Sunday spending by rich countries aimed at combating climate change in developing nations could mean a dangerous cut in aid for health issues.
Gates, the Microsoft Corp co-founder whose $34 billion foundation is fighting malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases in developing countries, expressed concern about the amount of spending pledged at December’s Copenhagen global climate meeting.
Bill Gates late to Twitter party
Bill Gates may have been one of the prime movers in the computer age, but now he’s just another middle-aged late adopter.
Only this week, the Microsoft co-founder got around to joining Twitter and launching his own website.
Microsoft lacks wow at CES. Do investors care?
SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp’s dazzling display at a Las Vegas tech extravaganza last week shows that it has not given up on the idea of joining Apple Inc as a leader in home consumer electronics.
But some investors would prefer the world’s largest software maker to save its cash and stick to doing what it does best: pursuing steady but unglamorous growth in software platforms for corporations and individuals.
Ford CEO sees sales boost from new tech
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co launched its new line of in-car technology on Thursday, which the No. 2 U.S. automaker hopes will give it an edge in the competitive market for new cars.
MyFord Touch, an electronic dashboard that lets drivers control climate, entertainment and other standard vehicle functions via voice commands and graphic touch screens, is the latest update to Ford’s existing Sync product, based on Microsoft Corp technology.
Microsoft’s Natal game in stores 2010
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp plans to get its Natal body-gesturing gaming system into stores in time for this year’s holiday shopping season, hoping to boost sales of its Xbox console and associated games.
Natal, which lets gamers control on-screen movements with hand gestures and voice commands, without a handheld device, is the software giant’s counter to Nintendo Co Ltd’s hugely successful Wii.
GM names Microsoft finance chief as CFO
DETROIT/SEATTLE (Reuters) – General Motors Co <GM.UL> has hired Chris Liddell, the chief financial officer of Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O>, as its new finance chief, bringing in a well-regarded auto outsider who could succeed GM’s acting CEO Ed Whitacre when he steps aside.
The move, announced on Monday, is the highest-profile hire for GM since it exited bankruptcy in July and completes a whirlwind reshuffling of the top U.S. automaker’s senior leadership team under Whitacre this month.
Boeing Dreamliner touches down after first flight
SEATTLE, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Boeing Co <BA.N> completed the
first test flight of its new lightweight carbon and titanium
Dreamliner, but the flight was cut short because of bad
weather.
The flight was more than two years behind schedule because
of manufacturing and design problems.
Boeing set for first flight of 787
SEATTLE, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Boeing Co <BA.N> is set to make
the first test flight of its 787 Dreamliner on Tuesday, almost
two and a half years after the new, fuel-efficient plane, which
is key to the company’s financial future, was supposed to leave
the ground.
The lightweight carbon and titanium plane, promising to
save airlines million of dollars in fuel and maintenance costs,
has been hampered by a shortage of bolts, faulty design and a
two-month strike, and it still has a long way to go before it
proves to be a success.
Pole-to-Pole air trek collects valuable air samples
A three-week tour from the Colorado Rockies to the Arctic Ocean, the tropics, Antarctica and then back again to the Arctic again can give a new perspective of the world.”You get a feeling of how small the earth is,” said Pavel Romashkin, project manager for a scientific mission that just completed such a trek. “All of us are on a really small place, this little planet of ours.”The HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observation mission, sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation, takes researchers aboard a highly modified Gulfstream jet to measure carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other gases in the atmosphere at nearly all the earth’s latitudes.Romashkin, a scientist with the Boulder, Colorado-based National Center for Atmospheric Research, was joined by researchers from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a handful of universities and academic institutions.The goal is not to prove or disprove that global warming is occurring, but simply to gather information about what is really in the air 1,000 to more than 40,000 feet above the earth’s surface, Romashkin said.”This is where the emissions are coming up, this is how far they’re going up, this is where they’re staying in the air,” he said. “All we can do is collect facts about what is in the atmosphere. This is a fact of life.”The gathered real-world data can be used to check the accuracy of weather and climate models, he said. Ultimately, such data could be used to ensure the accuracy of carbon-trading or carbon-capping systems, if any are enacted.Among the early observations from the journey, according to Romashkin:* Pollution over the Southern Hemisphere appears to be much greater than atmospheric models predict. Models appear to underestimate the extent of transport from the Northern Hemisphere.* A band of pollutants gave the atmosphere over the Arctic a yellowish cast somewhat like the legendary haze hanging over cities like Los Angeles, according to the scientists. That pollution, seen in early November, was directly attributable to industrial and urban emissions coming from Asia and transported north by atmospheric currents.* Layers of gases and pollutants are often clearly separated from each other, with dirty bands quite distinct from the clear air. The plane could be flying through a band of thickly polluted air drifting from Asia, then increase a bit in altitude and be in fresh, clean air, Romashkin said.The pole-to-pole journey concluded last Sunday with a trip from Anchorage back to the aircraft’s base in Broomfield, Colorado. It was the second of five planned over a span of about three years. The first three-week pole-to-pole trek was last January, and the next one is planned for this coming March and April.The plan is to conduct flights during varying seasons of the year, Romashkin said.As a government-funded National Science Foundation project, the mission makes all its data available to the public.
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