The Associated Press: Clinton still insists she's more electableBILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Her chances of securing the Democratic presidential nomination narrowing by the day, Hillary Rodham Clinton asserted Tuesday that she would be a stronger candidate than Barack Obama to square off against John McCain in November.
The former first lady has refrained from criticizing Obama directly in recent weeks as he has built an almost insurmountable lead among the delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination. But without mentioning his name, Clinton strongly implied that if the Illinois senator becomes the nominee he could be headed for defeat in the general election.
"We have not gone through this exciting, unprecedented, historical election only to lose," Clinton told several hundred supporters here. "You have to ask yourself, who is the stronger candidate? And based on every analysis of every bit of research and every poll that's been taken and every state a Democrat has to win, I am the stronger candidate against John McCain in the fall."
With just three primaries left in Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota and 86 delegates yet to secure, Clinton trails Obama by nearly 200 delegates. To keep alive her slender hope of winning the nomination, she is counting on a Democratic Party rules committee Saturday to restore the delegations from Michigan and Florida, whose primaries were voided when they moved into January in violation of party rules.
Clinton and her advisers also have pressed the case with uncommitted superdelegates that she is better positioned than Obama to win in November, pointing to her primary victories in swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Even so, most superdelegates choosing sides in the past several weeks have sided with Obama.
Earlier Tuesday, Clinton visited an Indian reservation where she pledged her commitment to tribal sovereignty and Indian health care.
"I want to be a strong partner with Indian country," Clinton told several hundred people in Pablo at Salish Kootenai College on the sprawling Flathead Indian reservation. Among other things, she promised to name a representative of the American Indian community to work alongside her in the White House.
Clinton's visit came a week before primaries in Montana and South Dakota are expected to feature a sizable representation of American Indian voters.
In an exceptionally scenic setting of snow-covered mountains and tall pine trees, the former first lady was greeted by dancers performing a spiritual dance and given a set of moccasins and a necklace by Joe McDonald, president of the tribal college.
"Wear this next to your heart," McDonald told her. Clinton wore the beaded necklace as she spoke, and appeared moved by the scene that greeted her.
"I humbly ask for your support," she said to applause.
Americans Indians are expected to make up as much as 20 percent of next Tuesday's Democratic primary voters in Montana, and more than 10 percent in South Dakota, where Clinton was headed Wednesday. She planned to visit the Pine Ridge Reservation, home to several thousand members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
Obama also has paid heed to American Indian concerns, even as he has begun to focus on the likely general election contest against McCain. Earlier this month, he visited Montana's Crow Indian reservation and was adopted into the Crow Nation during a private ceremony.
McCain also has ties to American Indians. He is from Arizona and is a former chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
The Associated Press: Clinton still insists she's more electable
Microsoft exec predicts big growth for Windows Mobile | Tech news blog - CNET News.com
Microsoft sees big growth for its Windows Mobile operating system.
A Microsoft executive in Asia told Reuters on Tuesday that sales will increase at least 50 percent over the next year as demand for smartphones picks up.
Eddie Wu, the software company's managing director of OEM embedded devices in Asia, said the company expects to sell 20 million "units" of its software in the 2007-2008 fiscal year, which ends in June, according to the article. And the company expects to grow at least 50 percent annually over the next two years, he added. Microsoft sold more than 11 million units of its Windows Mobile software in its 2006-2007 fiscal year, which ended June a year ago.
Wu told Reuters that the company is seeing the fastest growth in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, Brazil, Russia, and India. Demand is also strong in Europe and the United States.
Windows Mobile is a software operating system used on smartphones. Companies such as Motorola, Samsung, and High Tech Electronics (HTC) have all released products that use it. And Sony Ericsson introduced a new Windows Mobile phone earlier this year at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Smartphones, which offer e-mail, Web surfing, music, and other Internet services, are growing in popularity. In the first quarter of 2008, sales of smartphones in the U.S. accounted for about 17 percent of all mobile phone sales, the NPD Group reported. This was an increase of 10 percent over the previous year. The increase in smartphone demand comes as sales of cell phones in general are declining in the U.S.
Microsoft has been working hard to cash in on the growing demand for smartphones. Earlier this year, Microsoft released version 6.1 of theWindows Mobile operating system. This version includes an updated browser, which is supposed to make Internet surfing on a mobile phone look and feel like it does on a desktop. The company also has added support for Adobe Systems' Flash.
Windows Mobile 6.1 will be available on a number of manufacturers' phones including HTC, Samsung Electronics, Motorola, and Pantech. And carriers including AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and Alltel have already announced that they will offer the upgrade.
Despite predictions for strong growth, Microsoft still faces tough competition, and it may have a hard time increasing its market share as competition intensifies. Apple is rumored to be getting ready to launch the 3G, or third-generation, version of the iPhone in a few weeks. The company has already announced software upgrades that should make the iPhone more appealing for business users.
What's more, new phones using Google's Android operating system will soon hit the market. And competitors such as Research In Motion with its BlackBerry devices and Symbian, which is used on Nokia and LG Electronics phones, are also expected to continue to grow.
Mystery of iPhone Shortage May Be Solved - May 28, 2008 - The New York Sun
Since mid-March, Apple Inc. has imported nearly 200 ocean containers full of what are termed "electronic computers," which experts said is a likely reference to the anticipated 3G iPhone. According to ImportGenius.com, which uncovered the mystery shipments, about 40,000 iPhones could fit into each container, or some 7.5 million phones in all.
The shipments couldn't come at a better time. The current iPhones are out of stock at every Apple store in Manhattan, and a number of AT&T outlets are also reporting a shortage. As of May 12, meanwhile, iPhones were no longer available for order on the company's Web site. This would not be the first time Apple has employed a strategy of allowing old products to be sold off before launching a replacement, analysts said.
"There isn't just a shortage of iPhones in New York, but they are generally not available around the world," an analyst who covers Apple, but does not have clearance to speak for attribution, said. "It is an old trick of analysts to study which products are no longer available, as those are likely the ones that Apple will introduce in some new form."
Apple declined to comment, and AT&T maintained that its stores do have a supply of the phones, although a visit to two stores and calls to a handful of others found none.
The iPhone shortage has only served to create more demand. Anticipation is so high, in fact, that rumors of a new shipment of iPhones sparked a rush last week on Apple's Fifth Avenue outpost, with fans spontaneously lining up in the hopes of being first to buy the item.
Wall Street is widely expecting CEO Steven Jobs to announce the new 3G iPhone at Apple's trade show next month in San Francisco. It would mark the first major upgrade to the iPhone, which was introduced last June.
As for the shipments, "starting March 19, I saw that Apple was shipping 40 containers of these 'electronic computers,' and then gradually every two or three weeks another large shipment would appear," a founder of ImportGenius.com, Ryan Petersen, said. With all of the add-ons expected to come with the new iPhone, dubbing the product an electronic computer is logical, Mr. Petersen said. "Based on expectations that the phones will be announced on June 9, they likely need millions of units in the country to satisfy demand, so it seems they are preparing for this."
Adding to the rumor mill is an internal memo that was handed out to AT&T employees requesting they not take vacation between June 15 and July 12 because of an "exciting summer promotional launch." The company, which has an exclusive agreement with Apple to distribute the iPhone, issued a similar memo last year before the phone's launch.
The new iPhone is expected to feature third generation wireless technology technology, which is about 10 times faster than the current iPhone's network connection. There are also rumors regarding other features, including a switch that would allow the user to turn off the 3G network connection, which is expected to use up large amounts of battery power. It may also be lighter, with plastic replacing the aluminum-magnesium shell to reduce its heft by as much as 2 ounces from its current weight of 4.8 ounces. There is also talk that Apple is negotiating with record labels to allow consumers to download music off the AT&T network rather than just Wi-Fi, and a real GPS system that would be an upgrade from the current software the phone relies on.
Lehman Brothers expects iPhone sales to reach 1.7 million in the third quarter and 2.55 million in the fourth quarter. "To date, we believe it is possible to calculate that Apple's 3G iPhone will be able to serve a market of about 650 million wireless subscribers," a report to clients by Lehman Brothers analyst Ben Reitzes read. "We believe this figure could grow considerably by the fall to even 1 billion, potentially enabling Apple to exceed its goal of selling 10 million iPhones in calendar 2008."
Apple's stock rose 2.9% yesterday, to $186.43.
Microsoft: Windows 7 to Include Multitouch Features - News and Analysis by PC Magazine
Microsoft is finally opening up about when Windows 7 will ship, but the company continues to share just a few, yet tantalizing details of what the eagerly anticipated OS update will be all about.
The latest tidbit to drop is multitouch interface support. At the Wall St. Journal's D Conference Tuesday evening in Carlsbad, Calif., company founder and chief software architect Bill Gates and chief executive Steve Ballmer are scheduled to unveil a laptop with a touchscreen that accepts multiple, simultaneous touches. The effect is quite reminiscent of what's possible with the world's most popular, commercially available gesture-based interface device: the iPhone .
| on Yahoo! |
Officially, Windows 7 is scheduled to ship three years after the general availability of Windows Vista , according to Microsoft. Vista's business editions launched on Nov. 30, 2006, which would mean the software could ship as early as that date in 2009, with a beta release in advance. Vista's editions for the home market launched Jan. 29, 2007.
To be fair, this is not Microsoft's first foray into the multitouch arena. The company's innovative "Surface" computing platform, which combines cameras to sense the gestures and touches of either a single user or multiple users, allowing them to interact with a table-top full of digital objects. Surface then uses a projector to project the image onto a screen. Windows 7 would use touchscreen technology to achieve similar effects.
Microsoft would not say specifically whether the OS will support gestures as well as multitouch support, like Surface does. Given the gesture support in Apple's products, however, something similar is likely.
A video posted on Microsoft Windows Client Communications Team Director Chris Flores' blog shows the interface on a laptop and table-mounted LCD screen. During that demonstration a user edits and manipulates photos with his fingertips, navigates a map and plays a virtual piano.
A spokesperson for Microsoft said the company is "working closely with OEMs, IHVs and ISVs to bring the best touch experiences to Windows PCs. The Windows and Surface teams are also working together closely to deliver the best and most innovative touch experiences to customers."
"Touch is quickly becoming a common way of directly interacting with software and devices," Flores wrote on his blog, in something of a validation of the touch and gesture based platform introduced on Apple's iPhone. "Touch-enabled surfaces are popping up everywhere including laptop touch pads, cell phones, remote controls, GPS devices, and more."
TeliaSonera To Bring iPhone to Nordic, Baltic Countries - Hardware - IT Channel News by CRN and VARBusiness
The iPhone is heading to Scandinavia and parts of the former Soviet Bloc. Nordic telecom company TeliaSonera has entered into a deal with Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) to bring the iPhone to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia later this year, according to a statement released by the company on Tuesday. The company did not say whether its deal with Apple would be exclusive, like that between Apple and U.S. dealer and service provider AT&T Wireless, or whether it would follow in the model the company has taken with Italy, where multiple providers will carry the iPhone. Before the Italian deal earlier this month, Apple had been signing exclusive deals with carriers on a country-by-country basis. O2, for example, is Apple's British iPhone partner. TeliaSonera also made no comment on whether it would be selling Apple's current iPhone product or whether it would be bringing the much-anticipated and speculated 3G version of the iPhone to the Nordic and Baltic regions. Analysts and Apple enthusiasts have speculated that Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, will announce the launch of the 3G iPhone at Apple's World Wide Developers Conference on June 9 in San Francisco. The company, however, has neither confirmed nor denied reports that it is manufacturing a version of the iPhone that will run on 3G networks which are capable of transmitting data at faster speeds than the current product. Apple is also launching iPhone software 2.0 in June, bringing compatibility with Microsoft Exchange to the iPhone, among other features. The iPhone was criticized on its release for its lack of Exchange compatibility, rendering it less useful as a business tool. Apple said it expects to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008.
The Associated Press: 'Indiana Jones' tops box office on long holiday weekend
LOS ANGELES (AP) — "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" schooled the competition over the long Memorial Day weekend, as the fourth appearance of Harrison Ford in the role of the adventuring archaeologist raked in nearly $127 million at the North American box office, contributing to an estimated $312 million worldwide.
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Monday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Tuesday by Media By Numbers LLC:
1. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," Paramount, $126,917,373, 4,260 locations, $29,793 average, $151,958,445 (includes $25 million opening on Thursday), one week.
2. "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," Disney, $29,810,163, 3,929 locations, $7,587 average, $97,855,173, two weeks.
3. "Iron Man," Paramount, $26,111,130, 3,915 locations, $6,670 average, $258,278,546, four weeks.
4. "What Happens in Vegas," Fox, $11,363,713, 3,188 locations, $3,565 average, $56,609,605, three weeks.
5. "Speed Racer," Warner Bros., $5,272,202, 3,112 locations, $1,694 average, $37,481,539, three weeks.
6. "Made of Honor," Sony, $4,240,435, 2,393 locations, $1,772 average, $39,901,734, four weeks.
7. "Baby Mama," Universal, $4,208,105, 2,158 locations, $1,950 average, $53,016,250, five weeks.
8. "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," Universal, $2,269,775, 1,073 locations, $2,115 average, $58,798,745, six weeks.
9. "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay," Warner Bros., $1,163,460, 750 locations, $1,551 average, $36,152,416, five weeks.
10. "The Visitor," Overture Films, $940,037, 270 locations, $3,482 average, $4,591,262, seven weeks.
11. "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!," Fox, $625,105, 488 locations, $1,281 average, $152,076,723, 11 weeks.
12. "The Forbidden Kingdom," Lionsgate, $556,015, 487 locations, $1,142 average, $51,358,618, six weeks.
13. "Then She Found Me," ThinkFilm, $503,004, 150 locations, $3,353 average, $2,181,214, five weeks.
14. "Young at Heart," Fox Searchlight, $425,820, 212 locations, $2,009 average, $2,510,297, seven weeks.
15. "Nim's Island," Fox, $397,290, 426 locations, $933 average, $45,794,492, eight weeks.
16. "College Road Trip," Disney, $360,438, 283 locations, $1,274 average, $44,275,094, 12 weeks.
17. "Drillbit Taylor," Paramount, $346,197, 218 locations, $1,588 average, $32,537,768, 10 weeks.
18. "Son of Rambow," Paramount Vantage, $323,617, 152 locations, $2,129 average, $939,530, four weeks.
19. "Prom Night," Sony, $253,294, 287 locations, $883 average, $43,818,159, seven weeks.
20. "Roman De Gare," IDP, $201,142, 35 locations, $5,747 average, $706,277, five weeks.
Nine of 10 tests show Las Lomas water clear of mercury | thecalifornian.com | The Salinas Californian
A second round of tests on a Las Lomas water system came back negative for mercury in 90 percent of the samples analyzed, a California Water Service Co. said. 
The latest round of testing on water samples taken during the weekend showed Tuesday ``non-detect'' levels of the metal in nine out of 10 samples in the water system, with one test coming back positive for mercury contamination, according to the company.
More tests are expected this week after water company workers noticed Saturday a water storage tank at the end of Las Lomas Drive had been tampered with. The Monterey Count Sheriff's Office is investigating whether someone contaminated the tank, which serves about 3,000 customers between Sill and Garin roads.Jim Smith, a spokesman for California Water Service, said the single positive test showed above two parts per billion of mercury. Two parts per billion or below is the safe drinking standard.
``Our No. 1 concern is that customers get back online and get high-quality water,'' Smith said.
No wells serving the water system tested positive for mercury, he said, and the contaminated tank has been isolated and the entire system flushed.But residents who are served by the water system are still under a ``no drink order'' pending further testing, which means residents will have to rely on bottled water for at least a week, Smith said.
He said the company has been receiving calls from people served by the tank who are complaining of sore throats or headaches. The company is telling them to seek medical help.
Smith said someone would have to be exposed to heightened levels of mecury for a long period to fall ill from it.
Sueanne Buggy, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Public Health, said service to customers can't resume until the department's labs verify California Water Service's tests and confirm the water is safe.
The cause of the contamination in a water tank is thought to be vandalism, but the matter is still under investigation by the Sheriff's Office. No one in the Sheriff's Office was available Tuesday to comment on the matter.
California Water Service personnel noticed the vandalism during a routine visit to the water tank Saturday. Workers noticed the tank's ladder lock was missing and the hatch at the top had been forced opened.
On Sunday, when initial test results came back showing heightened mercury levels, water company workers went door to door, notifying residents not to drink from their faucets.
