| A blog about technology from BBC News
First, the good news: Sony's games division has made the first profit in two years. Here's the bad news: Sony is cutting its sales goal for PS3 to 9.5 million units for the year from 11 million. So is PS3 succeeding or not? It depends on how you measure it. In comparison to the Wii, the PlayStation is a failure for Sony. Wii sales are stronger, faster and despite predictions of being short-lived, show staying power. But compared to 360 sales, it may be good news for Sony. Xbox 360 sales are slowing - and worryingly for Microsoft they are slowing during a period of arguably its greatest games line-up. So what does 2008 hold? I don't believe titles like Haze or Metal Gear Solid 4 will shift that many more PS3s.
kf Feels Brad Grey's Pain!
CBS seems to be experimenting with a UPS-style voting gizmo that doesn't solve the main problem (which is subtle bias in the selection of which voters get questioned by the liberal-looking college-age interviewers). ... 12:05 P.M. Good Cheap Shot: "Warner Camp in Disarray" .... 1:30 A.M. Wednesday, August 16, 2006 California's safe-seat Democratic legislators kill the anti-gerrymandering plan they promised when they successfully campaigned against Gov. Schwarzenegger's "year of reform" initiative last year. New West Notes' Bill Bradley is not surprised. ... 9:47 A.M. It looks like it will take another weekend's box office to determine whether Paramount's World Trade Center is a hit or a flop. Here's why I hope it's the latter. ... 12:22 A.M.
Daytona 500 shaping up to be a thriller
This Sunday, I think we are headed toward a classic Hendrick/Toyota confrontation. Another car you should keep an eye on is that No. 22 Caterpillar Toyota Camry, driven by Dave Blaney. I don't think you can underestimate Bill Davis' operation. We've been giving credit to Joe Gibbs during the off-season, but after doing more research I found out that it's been a collaboration. Bill Davis has created the standard for Toyota since its conception. We may have been overlooking his due diligence and everybody at Toyota working through this to make the Toyota better. I definitely do not want to sell him short in what he's contributed and what his operation does for Toyota because they have definitely been the cornerstone of this Toyota operation since the beginning. We've heard about how certain members of the Joe Gibbs organization have contributed but I've also been told recently that it's the same way with Bill's organization.
No more weekends off: P’s & C’s reporting
The great L.A. Times scribe Jim Murray once said, "Spring is the time of year when the ground thaws, trees bud, the income tax falls due — and everybody wins the pennant." And so it is that your correspondent, memorably dubbed as the faux "crusading everyman" by one of our angrier blog participants, has already done his taxes, an annual end-of-January ritual before heading to spring training and being immersed in a six-week world where normal life is put on hold and baseball takes precedence over all else. We'll be headed down Wednesday, a day before pitchers and catchers are officially required to report. Need some time to stock the fridge of the rental house and get a lay of the land in our new neighborhood, plus stop by the ballpark at Dark Star to see how many eager Braves arrived early.
797 new area jobs predicted
The lowlights: the fallout from a loss of airline flights and last year's 30 percent downturn in the real estate hot spot of the past several years -- Padre Island. Roland Mower, CEO of the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation; Keith Arnold, president and CEO of the Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau; and Gene Guernsey, real estate agent with Remax Metro Properties, met with members of the Corpus Christi Rotary Club on Thursday to discuss their forecasts. "I really think we are setting up 2009, 2010 and other years for a really good housing market," Guernsey said. "I think the housing market will remain a buyer's market, and we will have about an eight-month inventory. It will continue to be strong compared with national figures." Month-supply inventories ranging from six to nine months -- meaning the houses take that long to sell -- are considered balanced markets.
Classics shine at 50th Grammy Awards
The show opened with Frank Sinatra, dancers performed a Beatles tribute and Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, Ringo Starr and Little Richard all had their moment. The 1980s were, as always, close by: Last year, the telecast led with a reunion of The Police, this year it was a reunion of The Time, with Cyndi Lauper and Prince not too far behind. Jazz pianist Herbie Hancock -- the veteran of all his fellow nominees -- won album of the year for "River: The Joni Letters" (Verve), his re-interpretations of Joni Mitchell songs. He thanked the academy for "courageously breaking the mold" for recognizing jazz in such a prominent category. Prince made the best of the show's opening -- an awkward pairing of Alicia Keys duetting to archival footage of Sinatra -- by later commenting, "Frank Sinatra looked pretty good for 150, didn't he?" .
Iowans begin mopping up
A snowstorm that covered parts of southeastern Iowa with up to a foot of snow today has withered.
National Weather Service meteorologists expect up to another half-inch to fall today. The storm has moved completely out of the Des Moines metro area.
Air flights between Des Moines and Chicago and Milwaukee have been disrupted as the storm moved eastward. Both American and United airlines canceled or delayed flights to and from OHare International Airport. Midwest Airlines scrubbed or delayed
flights between Des Moines International and Milwaukee. .
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