Friday, December 28, 2012

Whitney Houston was murdered by drug dealers, private investigator says

Whitney Houston: 1963-2012

Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music’s queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, died Saturday in Beverly Hills. She was 48.

Whitney Houston was murdered, according to claims by private investigator Paul Huebl published in the National Equirer.

The Hollywood detective has allegedly uncovered evidence – including CCTV footage – that points to her being the victim of an attack by two men who were sent to collect a debt for drugs.

The troubled “Bodyguard” singer, who died on February 11 2012 at the Beverly Hilton, is said to have owed in excess of $1.5 million to dangerous dealers before her shock death in Los Angeles.

“I have evidence that points to Whitney being a victim of high-powered drug dealers who sent thugs to collect a huge debt she owed for drugs,” he told the tabloid.

He also believes that despite a coroner’s report that claims there was no foul play involved, the signs on her body tell a different story.

“Whitney’s body shows classic defense wounds that would have occurred while she was battling for her life,” he said.

Huebl claims to have discovered the new information through a network of informants and says he is now handing the evidence over to the FBI in an attempt to have the case reopened.

EXCLUSIVE COVER STORY: WHITNEY HOUSTON WAS MURDERED!

^-A ⁺A

Published on: December 26, 2012

by DAWNA KAUFMANN & JOHN BLOSSER, NATIONAL ENQUIRER

Photography by: The National Enquirer

A leading private investigator has unearthed bombshell new evidence that tragic diva WHITNEY HOUSTON was murdered – and he’s taking it to the FBI to get the case reopened.

The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively that Paul Huebl, a former Chicago police investigator and now a top Hollywood private eye, plans to present his secret dossier to the bureau’s Chicago office – revealing shocking evidence that details who killed Whitney and why.

In a sensational disclosure that can crack the case wide open, Huebl says he’s received a tip from knowledgeable sources that Whitney’s killers are actually caught on hotel videotape, and he’s contacting FBI agents to take a fresh look at the case he believes local authorities bungled or covered up.

“I have evidence that points to Whitney being a victim of high-powered drug dealers who sent thugs to collect a huge debt she owed for drugs,” Huebl told The ENQUIRER.

The veteran investigator believes he is close to learning the identity of the vicious killers.

He says they are two men from a group of scruffy hangers-on – unknown by Whitney’s usual entourage – who kept showing up in the days before the singer’s untimely death at age 48.

His confidential informants insist that close examination of the surveillance videos from the Beverly Hilton hotel, where Whitney died, will show two shadowy characters entering and leaving her suite right around the time she died.

Ever since America’s greatest female singer was found floating face-down in a scalding-hot bathtub on Feb. 11, 2012, Huebl

Whitney Houston was murdered by drug dealers, private investigator says

200 Utah teachers take free firearms training class

Dec. 27, 2012: Clark Aposhian, President of Utah Shooting Sport Council, demonstrates with a plastic gun during concealed-weapons training for 200 Utah teachers. (AP)

SALT LAKE CITY – Gun-rights advocates in Utah offered six hours of training Thursday in handling concealed weapons for hundreds of Utah teachers in the wake of the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

The latest effort to arm teachers to confront school assailants was organized by the Utah Shooting Sports Council, which hosted the training session to help educators become eligible for concealed firearm permits, FOX 13 News reported.

More than 200 teachers flocked to the training class in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Valley City. Raye Ann Blauer, a kindergarten teacher, told FOX 13 she is considering using her permit to carry a firearm at school.

“[A]fter everything that happened in Connecticut, I want to be aware of how I can help in the classroom and protect my kids and whatnot. Be aware,” Blauer said. “I think it’s really smart. Especially with everything that’s happened lately.”

English teacher Kevin Leatherbarrow holds a license to carry a concealed weapon and doesn’t see anything wrong with arming teachers in the aftermath of the deadly Connecticut school shooting.

“We’re sitting ducks,” said Leatherbarrow, who works at a Utah charter school. “You don’t have a chance in hell. You’re dead — no ifs, ands or buts.”

In Ohio, a firearms group said it was launching a test program in tactical firearms training for 24 teachers. The Arizona attorney general is proposing a change to state law to allow an educator in each school to carry a gun.

The moves come after the National Rifle Association proposed placing an armed officer at each of the nation’s schools after a gunman on Dec. 14 killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

There are already police officers in some of the nation’s schools. Parents and educators, however, have questioned how safe the NRA proposal would keep kids, whether it would be economically feasible and how it would alter student life.

Some educators say it is dangerous to allow guns. Among the dangers are teachers being overpowered for their weapons or students getting them and accidentally or purposely shooting classmates.

“It’s a terrible idea,” said Carol Lear, a chief lawyer for the Utah Office of Education. “It’s a horrible, terrible, no-good, rotten idea.”

Utah educators say they would ban guns if they could, but legislators left them with no choice. State law forbids schools, districts or college campuses from imposing their own gun restrictions.

Educators say they have no way of knowing how many teachers are armed. Gun-rights advocates estimate 1 percent of Utah teachers, or 240, are licensed to carry concealed weapons. It’s not known how many do so at school.

Gun-rights advocates say teachers can act more quickly than law enforcement in the critical first few minutes to protect children from the kind of deadly shooting that took place in Connecticut.

“We’re not suggesting that teachers roam the halls” for an armed intruder, said Clark Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, the state’s leading gun lobby. “They should lock down the classroom. But a gun is one more option if the shooter” breaks into a classroom, he said.

The council said it would waive its $50 fee for the training. Instruction will feature plastic guns and a major emphasis will be for people who are facing deadly threats to announce they have a gun and retreat or take cover before trying to shoot, he said.

“Mass shootings may still be rare, but that doesn’t help you when the monster comes in.”

At the class, teachers offered their fingerprints for a permit as an instructor in the “psychology of mass violence” kicked off the gun class.

“I just bought a bra holster,” said Jessica Fiveash, a 32-year-old Utah teacher and wife of a retired Army sergeant who grew up shooting and said she had no hesitation packing a gun at school. “Women can’t really carry a gun on their hip.”

Utah is among few states that let people carry licensed concealed weapons into public schools without exception, the National Conference of State Legislatures says in a 2012 compendium of state gun laws.

Leatherbarrow said he often felt threatened while working at an inner-city school in Buffalo, N.Y., where he got a license to carry a pistol. He moved less than a year ago to Utah, where he feels safer.

But he said gun violence can break out anywhere. He said he was highly trained in handling guns — and was taking criticism from parents who don’t appreciate his views on school safety.

“I’m in agreement not everybody should be carrying firearms in school. They’re not trained. But for some parents to think we’re cowboys, that frustrates me,” he said. “I wish parents would understand.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

200 Utah teachers take free firearms training class

Lawmakers ramp up the rhetoric, with no plan in sight to avert fiscal crisis

Dec. 18, 2012: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks to reporters following a Democratic policy luncheon on Capitol Hill. (AP)

The rhetoric heated up Thursday as time on the clock wound down for a fiscal crisis deal, with lawmakers trickling back into Washington and no plan of action in place for averting the tax hikes and spending cuts scheduled to hit next week.

President Obama returned Thursday afternoon from vacation in Hawaii, as the Senate gaveled into session for unrelated business. House leaders announced that members will return late Sunday – but that leaves just one full day to act on any legislation before the deadline passes.

Rumors were flying Thursday afternoon about last-ditch efforts to craft some sort of a scaled-back package that can shield most Americans from the more than $500 billion in tax hikes scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. Congressional leaders are expected to meet with Obama on Friday.

But with hope fading, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said on the floor that “it looks like” the nation is going to miss the deadline.

Reid also put all the blame on House Speaker John Boehner, likening him to a dictator and claiming he was putting his speakership before the good of the country.

“John Boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than about keeping the nation on firm financial footing,” Reid said. “He’s waiting until Jan. 3 to get re-elected as speaker before he gets serious with negotiations because he has so many people … that won’t follow what he wants.”

Boehner’s office quickly shot back: “Senator Reid should talk less and legislate more. The House has already passed legislation to avoid the entire fiscal cliff. Senate Democrats have not,” Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on the floor that his party has “bent over backwards.”

“We stepped way, way out of our comfort zone,” he said. We wanted an agreement, but we had no takers. The phone never rang. So here we are five days from the new year and we might finally start talking.”

But he also warned, “Republicans aren’t about to write a blank check for anything the Senate Democrats put forward just because we find ourselves on the edge of the cliff.”

Separately, Vice President Biden said he was neither optimistic nor pessimistic about a deal. “You tell me what will attract Republican votes and I will tell you” what sort of plan might work, he said.

Each side continues to call on the other to act.

Reid, on the floor, urged the House to pass a Senate bill that would extend current tax rates for most families but let them rise on top earners. Reid, who wants Boehner to let the bill pass with mostly Democratic votes, claimed the chamber was “being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker.”

Boehner earlier put the onus on the Senate, referring to two Republican-passed bills in his chamber — one extending current tax rates for everyone; the other rearranging the $110 billion in spending cuts set to hit next year.

“The Senate first must act,” he and other GOP leaders said late Wednesday.

McConnell’s aides, meanwhile, claimed they expected some sort of plan to emerge from the Democratic side.

After Obama spoke separately with all four congressional leaders Wednesday before leaving Hawaii, McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said: “The leader is happy to review what the president has in mind, but to date, the Senate Democrat majority has not put forward a plan. When they do, members on both sides of the aisle will review the legislation and make decisions on how best to proceed.”

With each side refusing to make the first move, it may be incumbent upon Obama to give a negotiated bill one last try, presuming he can get all the stakeholders in the same room. Also unclear is what role McConnell, who has stayed largely quiet throughout this debate, may play in pushing for an 11th-hour deal.

A new Gallup poll, though, showed Americans are growing increasingly pessimistic about the chances for an agreement over the next few days. Considering the time it takes to write and pass a bill of this magnitude, the best route for averting tax hikes may be to pass a short-term extension of current rates with the goal of approving a larger package early next year.

Lawmakers have not even agreed to that, though. Without a deal, more than $500 billion in tax hikes are scheduled to go into effect. This includes increases in income tax rates, investment tax rates, the estate tax, the payroll tax and other provisions. Budget cuts to the Pentagon and other federal agencies threaten to hit government contractors. All together, a prolonged failure to avert these policies could cause another recession, economists warn.

Lawmakers ramp up the rhetoric, with no plan in sight to avert fiscal crisis

Autonomy founder fires back at HP after news of DOJ inquiry

After HP announced an investigation into its purchase of the software company, Autonomy founder says, “We can confirm that we have as yet had no contact from any regulatory authority.”

Autonomy founder Mike Lynch

(Credit: HP)

Autonomy founder and former CEO Mike Lynch is firing back at Hewlett-Packard after the release of HP’s annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today. The report states that the federal government opened an inquiry into HP’s acquisition of Autonomy in November and hints that Autonomy’s accounting is partially to blame.

“It is extremely disappointing that HP has again failed to provide a detailed calculation of its $5 billion write-down of Autonomy, or publish any explanation of the serious allegations it has made against the former management team, in its annual report filing today,” Lynch said in an e-mailed statement. “Furthermore, it is now less clear how much of the $5 billion write-down is in fact being attributed to the alleged accounting issues, and how much to other changes in business performance and earnings projections.”

HP acquired the enterprise software company in August 2011 for $11.1 billion, or 11 times its annual earnings. Since the purchase, controversy, lawsuits, and an $8.8 billion charge against HP’s earnings have ensued.

Mobile: 10 predictions for 2013

Verizon and HTC are just two companies that are expecting a busy 2013.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

If nothing else, 2012 has shown that the mobile industry is a pretty tough business to be in.

Consolidation continues
The wireless industry has long talked about the need for fewer service providers, and 2013 should follow through on some of the groundwork laid this year. SoftBank’s controlling stake in Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA’s merger with MetroPCS may signal a long-anticipated industry consolidation.

Other regional carriers such as U.S. Cellular and prepaid provider Leap Wireless could be in someone’s crosshairs. MetroPCS and Leap were long rumored to be dance partners, but that talk ceased when T-Mobile opted to form a new company with MetroPCS. But perhaps there’s room for Leap on that bandwagon?

Sprint attempted to make a run at MetroPCS, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing made by MetroPCS. Sprint could make another run at MetroPCS, or perhaps go after Leap. The wireless business is a scale business, where bigger is better, so maybe Sprint looks elsewhere?

It’s a safe bet that the big two, Verizon Wireless and AT&T, won’t be making any major deals. Verizon just managed to get approval for its deal to acquire spectrum from the cable companies, while AT&T is likely still gun shy after regulators squashed its attempted takeover of T-Mobile last year. AT&T has been content to strike smaller deals and get those through the regulatory maze.

CEO Steve Ballmer and the Windows Phone 8X from HTC.(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

No clear third OS emerges
Next year sees a vicious battle for the so-called coveted No. 3 spot for mobile operating systems behind Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.

The contenders are Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry 10. Both have expressed confidence that they have what it takes to be the third player in this increasingly crowded business. Windows Phone 8 benefits from an earlier launch and the coattails of the massive Windows 8 campaign from Microsoft. RIM, meanwhile, already boasts a large base of customers and will get a launch window all its own early next year.

Our call on this: nobody wins. Both will scrape by with just enough sales to warrant continuing, but neither will see spectacular performance.

While Microsoft is selling its Windows Phone 8 platform as part of a family of Windows 8 products, Windows 8 itself isn’t off to a scintillating start, and that might slow adoption of the mobile OS.

BlackBerry 10, meanwhile, may get some traction with hardcore BlackBerry users who want an upgrade, but it’ll take a while for RIM to convince other consumers to take another chance on the platform. While RIM likes to boast of its 80-million-strong customer base (now 79 million after the fiscal third quarter), many of those customers are using the more affordable BlackBerry 7 devices.

In addition, the dominance of Android and Apple make it extremely difficult for any third player to make inroads on the market.

RIM in store for a shake up
If BlackBerry 10 isn’t a success out of the gate, expect to see some agitation within the investment community — or what’s left of it — which has patiently held out hope for a turnaround. Investors don’t have unlimited patience, and an early stumble could mean pressure on the company to shake things up.

That could mean anything from another change on top, although CEO Thorsten Heins has led the company with relatively far fewer mistakes than his predecessors, to a potential sale of the company. The company could make good on its push to license its BlackBerry 10 operating system to different industries.

Last year, I called for RIM to get taken out, and I won’t be burned by that prediction again. RIM does survive, but it either a drastically reduced or transformed way.

Spectrum grab
It’s amazing what a few deals will do to the state of a crisis, right? All of the industry’s biggest players, including AT&T and Verizon Wireless, all claimed a looming spectrum crisis in justifying their respective deals. After Verizon got its cable spectrum, and AT&T scooped up a number of smaller businesses, the rhetoric has changed greatly. Even Sprint and T-Mobile are sounding a lot more optimistic about things.

But the companies do insist that they need more spectrum, or the airwaves used to carry cellular traffic like voice and data, and they will likely pursue further deals next year. Sprint bought spectrum from U.S. Cellular, likely a prelude of future spectrum swaps. Verizon is also selling off a swath of its spectrum as a condition to acquiring an alternative patch of spectrum from the cable providers, something that’ll likely entice all companies, including T-Mobile to other smaller regional companies.

Dish Network, meanwhile, is sitting on a wealth of spectrum. The most likely scenario is that it sells to AT&T, but the company is considering dabbling in mobile video.

A new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is expected to replace Julius Genachowski next year, but with President Obama back for a second term, the FCC’s agenda and focus on spectrum shouldn’t change too much.

Google gets more active in wireless service
Sound farfetched? Well, the recent rumors that Google met with Dish to talk about a new wireless service lends some credibility to this prediction.

And Google already has a wired business in Google Fiber. While the deployment is limited to one area, the fact that it exists shows the Internet search giant is willing to dabble in different projects.

Dish has slowly been amassing enough spectrum for a nationwide service of its own, and has made it clear it would like to build a network. But the business requires a lot of capital, and it’s unclear whether Dish has the firepower to actually meet its goals. Enter Google, which has a lot of cash and technical resources.

This prediction is admittedly on a longer limb. It wouldn’t be surprising if this never happened.

What does Sprint CEO Dan Hesse have in store for us next?(Credit: Lynn La/CNET)

Softbank kick-starts Sprint
The infusion of $8 billion in additional capital should do wonders for Sprint’s prospects in the wireless market. The company has been criticized for its slow deployment of 4G LTE, which has managed to avoid major cities while covering “key markets” such as Rome, Ga., and Rockford, Ill.

Well, the extra cash should get CEO Dan Hesse moving a lot quicker when it comes to its 4G LTE rollout, which lags behind AT&T and Verizon. Unlike AT&T, which at least has a relatively quick HSPA+ network for its phones, Sprint customers using the most high-end devices are stuck on the painfully slow 3G CDMA technology, since it dropped using its variant of 4G, WiMax, in favor of LTE.

Sprint should get a wider selection of smartphones thank to its relationship with SoftBank. If SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is to be believed, Sprint will get even more competitive with pricing as it takes on its bigger rivals.

Higher focus on prepaid
Every carrier is going to rededicate itself to attacking the prepaid market, particularly with growth in the contract subscriber market quickly evaporating.

T-Mobile, which already has a sizable prepaid business, should only see its presence grow there once it joins up with MetroPCS, which only offers no-contract plans. CEO John Legere’s hints at a “different experience” for its iPhone could mean an affordable prepaid option for Apple’s marquee device.

Even larger carriers such as Verizon can’t ignore prepaid, given the need to keep customer growth humming. Sprint, which has been aggressive in prepaid with its Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile lines, was seen as the biggest potential loser of the T-Mobile-MetroPCS marriage.

Using Google Wallet to pay for a cab ride was complicated and awkward.(Credit: Roger Cheng/CNET)

Mobile payments whiff again
Next year is the year for mobile payments, really! Yeah, that line has only been uttered a few times over the past several years, and so far, we’ve got a few limited launches.

Google continues to have the most visible initiative out there, and it hasn’t really taken too many people by storm, despite seeding the capability and Google Wallet out to its Nexus smartphones. Isis, the joint venture between AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile, just started its trials last month, and there are no signs when it’ll move beyond that. The deal between Starbucks and Square seems interesting, but for now, it’s largely Square processing Starbucks payments and not fully utilizing the advantages of full mobile payments.

Mobile payments continue to be hampered by rival groups all with their own agendas, and some don’t even feel it really addresses any real problems.

Apple, meanwhile, hasn’t committed to the Near-Field Communication technology used by many of the mobile payment parties, and offers its PassBook as its take on a mobile wallet. Even then, the implementation has been limited and disappointing.

Apple, Samsung will dominate, but new entrants could mix things up
With the iPhone and, increasingly, the Galaxy S, brands coming with their own built-in hype machines, expect the two companies continue reaping in a majority of the profits. Companies such as HTC, LG, and Sony have struggled this year, and those struggles are expected to continue with few of them bringing out a product that really changes their circumstance.

HTC has the best shot with its Droid DNA, but it too lacks the resources to effectively compete against Apple and Samsung. Sony, LG, and a myriad of other companies are still looking for the right answers.

Next year could see some interesting new smartphones from Microsoft and Amazon, both long rumored to be building their own handsets. Google’s Motorola Mobility unit is reportedly building an “X” flagship phone that will better compete with the iPhone and Galaxy S III.

(Credit: CNET)

Samsung and Apple reach a settlement
Let’s file this one under the wishful thinking category. But I can’t be the only one sick of writing and reading about patent lawsuits, right?

This one is (sadly) not looking so good, especially if Samsung is saying this.

Let’s hope that the goodwill from the holidays carries through to Apple and Samsung’s lawyers. But most likely, the hostilities will continue as both try to one-up each other in courts around the world.

Mobile: 10 predictions for 2013

Thursday, December 27, 2012

YOUTUBE top funny video 2012

KYOUTUBE top funny video 2012

YOUTUBE top funny video 2012

Is Windows a big BUST?

BELLEVUE, Wash. — It used to be that a new version of the Windows operating system was enough to get people excited about buying a new computer, giving sales a nice pop.

Not this time. Windows 8, the latest edition of Microsoft’s software, failed to pack shoppers into a Microsoft store in a mall here last week, at a time when parking lots in the area were overflowing. The trickle of shopping bags leaving the store with merchandise was nothing like the steady stream at a bustling Apple store upstairs.

Claude Ballard was among the customers at the Microsoft store who tried out Surface, a new Microsoft-designed Windows tablet. Mr. Ballard, who described himself as a “semiretired” computer systems manager for a real estate firm, said he was intrigued by the eye-catching design of Windows 8 — but not enough to scrimp to buy a new computer this year.

“It’s economics, really,” he said. “It’s going to be a better year for my mechanic than it is for me.”

Weak PC sales this holiday season suggest that the struggles of Microsoft and other companies that depend heavily on the computer business will not abate soon. Plenty of consumers already own PCs and seem content to make do with what they have, especially in a shaky economy in which less expensive mobile devices are bidding for a share of their wallets.

While there are also many tablets running Microsoft’s new, touch-friendly Windows, they have so far failed to emerge from the shadow of competing products from Apple and Amazon and other devices that are being snapped up by holiday shoppers.

Emmanuel Fromont, president of the Americas division of Acer, the world’s No. 4 PC maker, said sales of the company’s Windows 8 PCs had been lower than expected. He said one factor was the system’s unfamiliar design, which appeared to be making consumers cautious.

“There was not a huge spark in the market,” Mr. Fromont said. “It’s a slow start, there’s no question.”

The clearest evidence of Windows 8’s disappointing introduction comes from the research firm NPD, which estimates that sales of Windows machines have actually dropped from a year ago.

According to NPD, stores in the United States sold 13 percent fewer Windows devices from late October, when Windows 8 made its debut, through the first week in December, than in the same period last year.

Those figures do not include sales in Microsoft’s own stores, which were the only place to buy a Surface tablet during that period, but because the stores are scarce, analysts believe it is unlikely they made a big difference.

“I think everybody would have hoped for a better start,” said Stephen Baker, an analyst at NPD. “The thing is, this market is not the same market that Windows 7 or Vista or even XP launched into.”

Those earlier versions of Windows all came out during periods when the PC’s status as the center of computing seemed far more secure. In the intervening years, smartphones and tablets have become much more serious rivals for a share of consumer spending on technology. Sales of PCs have been declining for much of the year.

While most people are not getting rid of their PCs altogether in favor of mobile devices, analysts believe they are postponing purchases of new ones.

“What you’re seeing is not a retirement of PCs, but a push-out in the replacement cycle,” said A. M. Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “If people used to buy PCs every four years and are now buying them every five years, that could lower PC sales by 20 percent over time. That’s substantial.”

Mr. Sacconaghi predicted that global PC shipments would be down 3 percent in 2012.

The shift in spending to tablets is one reason that Windows 8 is so critical for Microsoft’s future. The company overhauled its operating system with a radically different, tile-based interface that is easier to navigate on touch-screen devices. Microsoft intends the software to be flexible enough that it can still be used on conventional laptops and desktops, including newer models with touch screens.

But the changes have disappointed a lot of reviewers and interface design experts, who have focused in particular on the potentially confusing coexistence of the new tile interface alongside the old desktop one.

Mr. Fromont of Acer said he thought there would be more excitement around PCs when more of the devices on store shelves had touch screens. Only 15 percent of Acer’s current Windows 8 products in North America have touch screens, he said.

Mark Martin, a spokesman for Microsoft, declined to comment, referring to past statements by Microsoft executives arguing that because Windows 8 is such a big shift, its rollout cannot be fairly judged over one shopping season.

The company says it sold 40 million copies of Windows 8 during its first month on the market, a figure that includes upgrade discs sold to consumers and copies installed on new machines by PC makers.

Apart from Acer, PC manufacturers showed little interest in discussing holiday sales of their products. Representatives for other big PC makers, including Lenovo, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Asus and Toshiba, either declined to comment on sales or did not respond to requests for comment.

Bill Calder, a spokesman for Intel, which provides the microprocessors at the heart of most PCs, did not dispute that PC sales had been slower than hoped for this holiday season, but he predicted that new Windows 8 devices coming out next year would change that. “We’re excited about the prospects,” Mr. Calder said.

Big retailers of PCs were also mostly silent on their holiday sales. Jeff Haydock, a spokesman for Best Buy, said Windows 8’s effect on PC sales had “met our expectations.” Abt Electronics, a Chicago-based retailer, painted a more positive picture, estimating that unit sales of computers were up 13 percent so far this year.

Amazon’s list of its 100 best-selling electronics products offers a telling overview of the must-have devices for this holiday season: tablets like Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD and Apple’s iPad. On Friday afternoon there were just five computers on the list, all laptops, including two from Apple that cost more than $1,000. Only one laptop on the list came with Windows 8 as an option, while another ran Windows 7.

Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, said tablets were sapping the growth of laptops, which represent the biggest chunk of computer sales. “Tablets are doing to the laptop market what laptops did to the desktop market,” he said. “They’re not going away.”

At a cavernous Best Buy store in Tukwila, Wash., last week, displays of mobile devices like the Kindle Fire HD and the iPad were much more crowded than the displays of Windows 8 devices arrayed around a much bigger section of the store. Hunched over a Windows 8 laptop was Jeff Lindstrom, a resource specialist at a Y.M.C.A. in Seattle, who said he needed to buy a computer that day for a youth program.

He didn’t care for the design of Windows 8 himself, though, and said he had no plans to replace his own six-year-old laptop. “I’m not impressed,” Mr. Lindstrom said. “It’s such a different direction than what I’m used to.”

http://www.cnbc.com

By: By Nick Wingfield

Is Windows a big BUST?

Hangout Networks

Friday, December 28, 2012

Whitney Houston was murdered by drug dealers, private investigator says

EXCLUSIVE COVER STORY: WHITNEY HOUSTON WAS MURDERED!

200 Utah teachers take free firearms training class

Lawmakers ramp up the rhetoric, with no plan in sight to avert fiscal crisis

Autonomy founder fires back at HP after news of DOJ inquiry

Related stories

Mobile: 10 predictions for 2013

Related stories

Thursday, December 27, 2012

YOUTUBE top funny video 2012

Is Windows a big BUST?

About Me

Blog Archive