Bowes Consulting

Amazon.com, which has typically been known for its presence in the virtual shopping arena, has now begun offering over 1 Terabyte (1,000 GB) of data which is sure to completely wow the public via its newest project, called Public Data Sets on Amazon’s Web Services. The company announced the availability of four new data sets last night via a blog post. The data can be accessed via Amazon’s cloud computing service.

Source:Amazon: One Terabyte of public data now available to developers

In January 2008, the European Commission accused Microsoft of illegally
tying Internet Explorer to its Windows operating system in an attempt
to prevent competition in the browser market. Today, the European Union
said it accepted a request from Google to join an antitrust lawsuit
that targets Microsoft’s dominance of the Web browser market.

Source:Google joins Europe in case against Microsoft

DivX corporation announced today the first line of DivX certified HDTVs for Panasonic, which are currently available in Europe. There are nine models in the Panasonic VIERA Z1, V10 and G15 series which allow full 1080p resolutions with DivX video formats output directly onto the TV by the TV’s built-in encoder and a front-load media slot.

Source:Panasonic has first DivX certified line of 1080p HDTVs

Analyst Opinion – I am seeing a lot of ARM activity at the moment that
appears to be drifting towards the x86 space. ARM is the most common
processor used in smartphones like the iPhone. And I’ve been waiting
for a major push by ARM into the netbook space currently dominated by
X86. The first visible broadside happened this week when Marvell
announced they were initially going after the home storage space with
low cost ARM based storage appliances, but the goal appeared to
eventually…

Source:The coming ARM vs. Intel PC battle

Sales of Mac desktops are
free-falling, largely because of the way overdue iMac refresh, and Mac
notebooks are not matching the growth seen by the overall notebook market. In
an economy like this, consumers are turning to ultra-cheap netbooks
that are currently keeping the industry alive. Nevertheless, Apple is
ignoring the netbook market despite being hurt by its refusal to unveil a
Mac netbook. Analysts and investors feel the time is right and are
pressuring the company to bring a $599 Mac netbook to the market, arguing…

Source:The last call for a Mac netbook

China is quickly moving into alternative energy in monstrous proportions. There will be an open-bid competition in March to choose a project lead for the construction of a 10 MWp (megawatt-peak) solar power plant in northwestern China. The plant is estimated to generate 16.37 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year. This follows a previous investment in a 400 megawatt-peak wind farm (content/view/40777/113/), which costs $659 million to construct.

Source:China to build 10 megawatt solar power plant, wind proving far cheaper

Yesterday, the GSMA announced some new developments in the Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) program, an initiative which uses mobile technology to transfer money around. Companies like The Western Union Company have used the service for the past 18 months. Now, the GSMA adds Belgacom International Carrier Services company and eServGlobal as its remittance provider. RBS Group, a global bank, may also soon be on board as a remittance partner.

Source:GSMA expands mobile money transfer program

Apple has confirmed, following a Bloomberg report, that CEO Steve Jobs will not be present at this week’s shareholder meeting. Jobs will turn 54 tomorrow, and the meeting is scheduled for the day after. It is believed his absence is due to previously stated health reasons as Jobs is currently on medical leave until June, said Steve Dowling, Apple spokesman.

Source:Steve Jobs to be absent from shareholder meeting

A tiny search engine is the subject of a 38-page complaint filed by TradeComet.com, LLC, in New York federal court. The complaint accuses Google of “manipulating its system for setting ad rates to make it too expensive for a specialty search engine called SourceTool to promote itself within Google’s vast online marketing network.”

Source:Court claim: Google stifled search engine competition

Yahoo’s new CEO (content/view/41051/118/), Carol Bartz, is reportedly finalizing the last-minute details of what The Wall Street Journal describes as a “blueprint for the organization”. Significant details of Yahoo’s restructuring efforts are being kept even from high-level management, who reportedly “knew few details about it,” suggesting a top-down management restructure.

Source:Bartz may announce major Yahoo reorganization this week