Archive for August, 2010

Existing US home sales off 27% in July, worse in Midwest. A bigger-than-expected drop in July home sales renewed fears Tuesday that the US economic recovery is stumbling and could be heading for a fall. Sales of previously occupied homes in the United States fell 27 percent in July.

Economists were divided about whether the larger fall-off was temporary or would drag on for many months. “It’s an echo of the ‘cash for clunkers’ program for car sales,” said Dana Johnson, chief economist for Comerica Bank. “People rush in to take advantage of a short-term opportunity provided by the government. Then the opportunity goes away and sales crash for a while.”

Diving home sales stoke new worries about economic recovery. U.S. sales fall for the third consecutive month to the lowest rate since 1999, pushing down stocks and fueling fears of a ‘double dip’ in the housing market.

“You are seeing the sales drop off a cliff again, and that is really starting to scare people,” C.J. Jones, head of institutional trading at Nollenberger Capital Markets, said Tuesday. “Are we going to have a double dip? Nobody knows.”

Biggest U.S. home sales plunge in decades. Sales fell twice as much as forecast, dropping to 3.83 million on an annualized basis, the National Association of Realtors said. The median forecast of economists was 4.65 million, according to a Bloomberg news survey.

“This is a devastating reading on the U.S. housing market,” said Derek Holt, an economist at Scotia Capital Inc. in Toronto. “There’s such an inventory overhang, it shows there will be pressure on prices” in the months ahead.

Are you ready for Dell Aero? Dell Aero is Android smart phone which  available for pre-sale on Aug. 12, is priced at $550, or $300 with a two-year service contract from AT&T. It runs Google’s Android 1.6 operating system, supports UMTS, GSM/EDGE and HSDPA/HSUPA networks, and includes WLAN 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity. SMS, MMS, Email and Web browsing are all supported, and there’s a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera in addition to a front-facing VGA camera. 

“The Dell Aero is built with a focus on style and performance to help people find new ways to connect with friends and express themselves socially, supported by the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network,” Ron Garriques, president of Dell Communications Solutions, said in a statement.

Dell Aero full phone specifiactions:

• General  2G Network  GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
  3G Network  HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100
  
• Announced  2010, March
  
• Status  Available. Released 2010, August
  
• Size  Dimensions  122 x 57.9 x 11.7 mm, 68.6 cc
  
• Weight  104 g
  
• Display  Type  TFT capacitive touchscreen, 256K colors
  
• Size  360 x 640 pixels, 3.5 inches
    - Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
  - Multi-touch input method
  - Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
  - Handwriting recognition
  
• Sound  Alert types  Vibration; MP3 ringtones
  
• Speakerphone  Yes
  
• Memory  Phonebook  Practically unlimited entries and fields,
  
• Photocall
  
• Call records  Practically unlimited
  
• Card slot  microSD, up to 32GB, 2GB included, buy memory
  
• Data  GPRS  Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 – 48 kbps
  
• EDGE  Class 10, 236.8 kbps
  
• 3G  HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
  
• WLAN  Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
  
• Bluetooth  Yes v2.0 with A2DP
  
• Infrared port  No
  
• USB  Yes, miniUSB v2.0
  
• Camera  Primary  5 MP, 2592?1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
  
• Features  Geo-tagging
  
• Video  Yes, CIF @30fps
  
• Secondary  No
  
• Features  OS  Android OS, v1.5 (Cupcake), upgradable
  
• CPU  Marvell PXA310 624 MHz processor
  
• Messaging  SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
  
• Browser  HTML
  
• Radio  No
  
• Games  Yes
  
• Colors  Black
  
• GPS  Yes, with A-GPS support
  
• Java  Yes, MIDP 2.0
    - MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player
  - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA player
  - Google Search, Maps, Gmail,
  - YouTube, Google Talk
  - QuickOffice document viewer
  - Photo viewer/editor
  - Flashlite
  - Organizer
  - Voice memo
  - T9
  
• Battery     Standard battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh
  
• Stand-by  
  
• Talk time

Dell Aero features

# Share your life in a snap. Pictures from the 5 MP camera can be quickly and easily uploaded to Flickr®, Facebook®, Picasa™, YouTube and TwitPic.

# Watch media come to life on the 3.5″ nHD display

# Stay connected with social networking apps fully integrated into your phonebook and synched to your calendar!

# Enjoy PC-like web browsing experience with Flash Lite® support for streaming audio and video content

# Connect to 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots

# Navigate using the onboard GPS system while talking hands-free

Cool Dell Aero Accessories Available Here

AP By AP Hewlett-Packard Co. is trying to outbid Dell Inc. to buy the data storage provider 3Par Inc. Here are some details on 3Par: A: 3Par makes and sells “storage utilities,” or groups of specialized computers designed to store data that are … (A Few Questions and Answers About 3Par’s Business) Hewlett-Packard said Monday it has submitted a bid to acquire 3PAR for $24 in cash, for a total of $1.6 billion. The bid is a 33% premium above the $18 per share Dell offered last week. Shares of 3PAR are higher by 42%. From the Hawlett-Packard co headline news.

HP Is So Subpar It Overpays for 3PAR – Today’s Outrage – If HP(HPQ) is trying to show that it’s not on auto pilot under an interim CEO, then the decision to battle Dell (DELL) for 3PAR(PAR) is an expensive way to do it. … Hewlett-Packard this morning said it has submited a $1.6 billion bid to buy 3Par, just a week after Dell had agreed to buy the virtualized storage maker for $1.15 billion from HP bids $1.6 billion for 3Par.

The Japan Yen rose toward a seven-week high against the euro as signs the global economy is slowing boosted demand for Japan’s currency as a refuge. OJ Gov, PM Kan Discussed Recent FX Moves By Phone 

 While the Nikkei edges down hurt by economy worries Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.4 percent on Monday, dented by what some market players said was selling by hedge funds and foreign investors amid worries that a strong yen would derail a fragile economic recovery and lingering fears about global economic growth.

Dollar falls to lower 85 yen level after Kan-Shirakawa talks – The U.S. dollar fell to the lower 85 yen level Monday morning in Tokyo as the yen drew buying following news that Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa did not discuss whether to intervene in the currency market to stem the Japanese currency’s recent rise during their talk earlier in the day.

Among the biggest reasons for a fresh round of stimulus is the strength of the yen against many other major currencies, dragging on Japan’s vital export … Japan’s stimulus, forex plans remain uncertain

When the Card Act takes effect today it will benefit the consumers who use credit cards and gift cards.

The regulations, which are part of the Credit Card Act, apply to retail gift cards for individual stores as well as cards with a MasterCard, Visa, American Express or Discover logo that can be used wherever those brands are accepted.

As quoted from cantonrep.com

The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, passed by Congress last year, deals mostly with credit-card regulations.

Those fees eat away at the value of the card.

If a gift card remains unused for 12 months, gift-card issuers can charge only one fee per month. Some gift cards could expire in as little as 13 months. Russell said the new gift card regulations are likely to increase purchase of the cards during the holiday season.

Other changes going into effect today concern credit cards. Consumers Union says credit card issuers no longer will be allowed to charge a late payment fee that is larger than the minimum payment.

The new rules don’t apply to reloadable prepaid gift cards and cards that are issued as a reward or through a promotion.