Category: News

By Nick Wingfield, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

For weeks, Electronic Arts (ERTS) has said it has no plans to ditch its association with Tiger Woods, even as the professional golfer’s other sponsors began bailing out on him after allegations of his infidelities. This week, EA again said it will stick with Mr. Woods and plans to release an online game featuring the golfer that it will open for public testing later this month.

In a blog post Monday, EA Sports president Peter Moore said the videogame publisher, unlike other companies that sponsored the golfer, didn’t form a relationship with Mr. Woods in 1997 so “he could act as an arm’s length endorser.” Mr. Moore said EA partnered with Mr. Woods, whose likeness and name are featured in EA’s golf videogames, because it strives to make authentic sports simulation games.

“By his own admission, he’s made some mistakes off the course,” Mr. Moore wrote.

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Last night, Trulia sent me a small pile of information about the fast-growth year the real estate search and information site had in 2009, despite the near-complete collapse of the U.S. housing market.

You can read all the stats below in Trulia’s press release–62.3 million unique monthly visitors, visits up 45 percent, page views up 105 percent and one million inquiries sent by home buyers to real estate agents via the San Francisco start-up, which was founded in 2005 by CEO Pete Flint and COO Sami Inkinen.

BoomTown also had a short chit-chat interview about the site’s prospects for the coming year with Flint, whose last success was being part of the team that sold travel site lastminute.com to Travelocity for $1.1 billion in 2005.

“We want to be the first billion-dollar real estate site,” he said, referring to Trulia’s valuation and not its annual revenue.

Currently, Trulia seems to be valued at about $150 million, having raised $33 million overall, with investors that include high-profile Silicon Valley venture firms Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital.

Getting from here to there is definitely going to be a long slog, but Flint said that the “mass of confusion about real estate” will be a key factor in growing the site’s traffic and engagement over time.

Trulia allows people to search for a range of data about homes for sale in particular zip codes or cities nationwide. Its business and that of its competitors is largely based on advertising, selling subscription services and lead generation.

Flint (pictured here) said Trulia execs started focusing on revenue about 18 months and should achieve profitability by the middle of this year, after which it was “poised for significant profitability.”

To goose that in 2010, Flint said the site would focus on three key areas: Expanding local content, such as blogs and information about the local community; mobile apps; and, perhaps most importantly, launching a rentals offering.

“We are not about checking out what a neighbor’s house looks like, but on buyer intent and monetization,” said Flint, taking a not-so-veiled swipe at Trulia’s clearest competitor–the larger and more funded Zillow, located in the Seattle area.

Still, while he predicted that the overall real estate market would remain flat over the next few years, he noted that it was probably a winners-take-all game for the big and innovative niche sites like Trulia and Zillow.

Flint added that he doubted big Internet giants could easily compete, since their focus was so dispersed.

And, thus, he would not comment on my recent report that Google (GOOG) and Trulia have been “in on-again, off-again acquisition talks…rumors about Google’s interest in the real estate search market–and specifically in Trulia–have been rebounding around Silicon Valley for the last year.”

“We are going to focus on being a big independent company,” said Flint.

Guess those talks are off-again.

In the meantime, here is the Trulia press release:

SMARTER SEARCH AND PERSONALIZATION KEY TO TRULIA’S OUTSTANDING GROWTH AND INCREASED MOMENTUM IN 2009

Mobile and Rich Property & Local Data Provides Enhanced Consumer Experience

SAN FRANCISCO, January 6, 2010–Trulia.com (www.trulia.com ), smart real estate search to help you make better decisions, focused 2009 on providing users with the most relevant and consumer centric experience. As a result, Trulia grew to become one of the Top 5 Real Estate sites on the web according to Hitwise Rankings (November 2009). Last year was Trulia’s largest ever with a total of 62.3 million unique monthly visitors searching for homes, market insights and participating on Trulia Voices.

During the past year, millions of consumers came to Trulia to make sense of the real estate market, spending more time than ever looking at properties and price trend information. Consumer engagement reached record levels: visits grew by more than 45%, total page views grew by 105% and property views grew by more than 130%, according to internal data. On Trulia Voices, consumer questions doubled year over year. Along with increased engagement on Trulia, consumer interest in homes exploded, with nearly 1 million home buyer inquiries sent to real estate agents in 2009.

During the past year, Trulia focused on four key areas for product innovation and enhancements: smarter search, personalization, rich property & local data and mobile. Here is a recap of the key initiatives and highlights from the past 12 months.

SMARTER SEARCH

Price Reduction–A search tool that allows home buyers, sellers, agents, investors and real estate junkies to search for price reductions on Trulia. Users have the ability to receive real-time email updates when homes in their search area have been reduced, or filter their search by the percentage reduced or date of the price reduction.

Compare It!–Allows consumers to compare up to five different properties side-by-side. Users can see all the key attributes of each listing and then eliminate the properties they don’t like and save the ones they do like for future reference. Users can compare key attributes, like price per square foot to the size of the lot, and make educated decisions on what property suits them best.

PERSONALIZATION

MyTrulia–significant enhancements have been added to MyTrulia to make home searches more relevant for every individual home buyer. From saved searches to email alerts, Trulia will immediately notify users if a property they are interested in changes price or is sold. If a similar property comes on the market, Trulia will also notify users of the new home. Trulia also introduced “checklist” to help keep track of all things related to your home buying process and helps you make sense of the entire process.

Local Newsfeed–Trulia’s homepage provide consumers with a snapshot of activity in the neighborhoods they are most interested in tracking with a quick-glance. When a user comes to Trulia, the homepage is updated with price reductions, upcoming open houses, new homes on the market and market data such as average list prices, sales data, foreclosure information and more–only in the areas relevant to that user.

RICH PROPERTY DATA AND DETAILS

Home Price History & Data–Trulia’s product detail pages now includes each homes price history, including sold transactions, listing prices and price reductions. Trulia also added school information and rankings, crime data, competitive mortgage offerings; with a click of a button you can also see all the restaurants, grocery stores, banks and gas stations nearby any individual home.

Neighborhood Coverage–Trulia increased its neighborhood coverage by more than 300%. The expanded coverage improves property search and map displays to help consumers search for and compare neighborhoods, view and track neighborhood market trends, receive advice from local market experts through blogs and Q&A, and find local real estate professionals.

MOBILE

iPhone and iPod touch–the updated Trulia application offers more than 3.5 million homes for sale and has been downloaded more than 300,000 times by real estate enthusiasts, engaged buyers and sellers and real estate agents. The update adds significant new features:

Dynamic Maps–Visual searchers can toggle the map to find homes in areas they most desire. Once the area is defined in the map, a new set of homes that match their criteria is delivered.

Price Reduction Search–With a touch of a button, users can now search for all price reduced homes in their area.

Bigger, Unlimited Pictures–Taking advantage of the fantastic screens on the iPhone and iPod touch, the bigger photos provide searchers with a realistic view of the property.

Augmented Reality Browser Integration–Trulia has integrated with the Layar Mobile Augmented Reality Browser to overlay listings on top of the mobile phone’s camera view. The app allows you to scan all the properties available around you while you look at the actual buildings through your screen.

Trulia for all smartphones–Trulia has also launched a mobile version of its website, m.trulia.com, which delivers all the power and functionality of the web site in a format optimized for mobile handsets. The mobile website works on all mobile handsets from the Blackberry to the Plam Pre and all devices with a web browser, including the iPhone and iPod Touch. Users can search homes for sale, view extensive property details, find price reductions or upcoming open houses, utilize their MyTrulia account, and the Trulia Voices community.

“We dedicated 2009 to delivering a great consumer experience. Looking back on the engagement data makes me believe we are delivering on what the consumer wants. Consumers have told us over and over that they are looking for a real estate site that can deliver relevant and personalized results,” said Pete Flint, CEO and co-founder Trulia.com. “Mobile and local information will be two areas of focus for the coming year. The world is becoming more mobile and real estate information on the go is a very natural combination. On the weekends, 5 to 10 percent of our overall traffic comes from mobile handsets. Deep local information, data and insights is also key to consumers interested in real estate and we will introduce more data and local knowledge during the next year.”

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

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By Gus Mastrapa, Contributor, Game|Life, Wired.com

Anti-smoking watchdogs are up in arms about Sigourney Weaver’s character lighting up in the movie Avatar, but James Cameron says that her character’s cigarette habit was a critique of videogamers.

In Sunday’s New York Times (NYT), the director defended himself against critics, saying that Weaver’s character Grace Augustine was never meant to be a role model for young people. In fact, he said, her smoking was meant to be a commentary on the character’s obsession with climbing into her blue meat puppet.

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By Barry Schwartz, News Editor, Search Engine Land

Last week, I was surprised to find an image of a woman in a thong within a Google (GOOG) search ad. I asked Google if such ads were acceptable, and Google told me they were. These images came from product extensions that were showing up in the search results for a while now.

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By Mike Masnick, Editor, Techdirt

One of Jack Valenti’s final battles while still in charge of the MPAA was his silly, misguided war on DVD screeners. Screeners are copies of the movie (on DVD, obviously) that are sent out to people to view (to “screen”) for awards shows and the like. Valenti freaked out that since these screeners went out before the official DVDs were out, they would lead to people uploading them online, creating a piracy problem.

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Peugeot UK yesterday announced the Peugeot 308 hatchback and SW ranges will benefit from a number of updates in January 2010, with standard ESP for all all 308 SW models and all 308 hatchback models except the Urban. The ESP that can be disconnected for enhanced traction on difficult road surfaces and is reconnected automatically above a speed of 31 mph. It will join other safety equipments, such as traction control (ASR) and stability control (CDS).

Furthermore, the 308 Sport ha… (read more)

What’s New in Papyrology
The Last Pharaohs: Egypt Under the Ptolemies, 305-30 BC
J. G. Manning

Introduction is available as a PDF

The history of Ptolemaic Egypt has usually been doubly isolated–separated both from the history of other Hellenistic states and from the history of ancient Egypt. The Last Pharaohs, the first detailed history of Ptolemaic Egypt as a state, departs radically from previous studies by putting the Ptolemaic state firmly in the context of both Hellenistic and Egyptian history. More broadly still, J. G. Manning examines the Ptolemaic dynasty in the context of the study of authoritarian and premodern states, shifting the focus of study away from modern European nation-states and toward ancient Asian ones. By analyzing Ptolemaic reforms of Egyptian economic and legal structures, The Last Pharaohs gauges the impact of Ptolemaic rule on Egypt and the relationships that the Ptolemaic kings formed with Egyptian society.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

One of the worst years in the Japanese manufacturer’s history ended a few days ago, in a somewhat cheerful note. Simply put, Toyota gained 22.9 percent over the same period last year in its biggest market, the US, on a daily selling rate. In all, Toyota sold 187,860 units, representing a 32.3 percent increase on a raw volume basis.

Emerging from the rollercoaster of 2009, the industry has gained positive momentum for a gradual recovery, Don Esmond, senior vice president of automot… (read more)

Who says you actually have to complete you education to change the world? Well, tons of people, really. But, still. There have been, and there still are, plenty of very successful people out still that gave up on school to achieve their dreams. And they did. In a big, big way.

Walt Disney

Back in 1918, Walt Disney, the man that would one day on to be one of the most recognizable names in the world, was merely a high school student that had dreams of being a cartoonist. To take his first step in to this world, he supplemented his high school education with night classes at Chicago’s Academy of Fine Arts.

By 16, Disney was fed up with school and decided that it was time to join the army, but he ran in to a bit of a problem: He was too young. So he joined the Red Cross with a fake birth certificate. Why he didn’t just use the fake birth certificate to get in to the army is anyone’s guess, but it worked and Disney was off to a World War 1 France where he was an ambulance driver. In love with drawing, Walt decorated the sides of the ambulance with large pictures of some characters of his own creation.

After the war, Walt found himself back in America without a job. He picked up a few paying art gigs with magazines, movie theaters and such, but nothing that stuck. He partnered up with a buddy of his, Ub Iwerks. Together they formed Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. It was with Iwerks that Walt Disney co-created the now globally known character of Mickey Mouse.

Disney would eventually go on to become a multi-millionaire and, at the age of 58, was given an honorary high school diploma.  

John D. Rockefeller

If the name isn’t familiar to you, it’s okay. Rockefeller was only the world’s first recorded billionaire and founded one of the biggest oil companies the world has ever seen in Standard Oil. But before all that, he was a high school student…

…and then he wasn’t when he dropped out of high school 2 weeks before his graduation. He immediately enrolled in Folsom Mercantile College (which he also dropped out of), and later started various small businesses. But in 1870, Rockefeller started the Standard Oil Company of Ohio and quickly became richer than he could have ever imagined.

Rockefeller was a very different kind of billionaire than the ones of today. He gave and gave tons of his own money to charity and to health causes. In fact, the last 40 years of his life was basically on big spending spree as it seemed like he just keep throwing more and more money at charitable causes. And, to top it all off, the self-made billionaire that didn’t graduate high school even helped people all over America receive an education with his many donations.

Thomas Edison

You know those glasses you’re wearing? Edison. The cameras that the movie you just watched used? Edison. All of those light bulbs you see everywhere, wherever you go? Edison. Thomas Edison invented all of those things, held about 1,000 other patents, was a millionaire and won a Congressional Gold Medal. Pretty good for a person that not only never graduated high school, but only received 3 months worth of an education in his entire life. 3 months!

You see, when Edison was just a boy, he was very sickly. He suffered from Scarlet Fever and, as a result, had middle ear infections. His aliments prevented him from starting school with all the other kids his age, so he just stayed home and was taught by his mother, who was a teacher at one point. When his infections subsided, he finally attended a real school but, as mentioned, only went for about 3 months before he found his mind to wander and he was being made an example of by his teacher.

Richard Branson

There’s something about the age 16 that just makes brilliant people give up on formal education and just reach for the stars. Modern day billionaire Richard Branson is one of them. Suffering from a cast of mild dyslexia, Branson dropped out of high school because he lagged behind in his studies and his grades were poor.

An entrepreneur at heart, Branson started selling records that he purchased wholesale from manufacturers to large retail stores. After partnering up with some friends, Branson eventually called their company Virgin, the name being a reference to the fact that neither he nor his friends knew a thing about the world of business. He went on to open his own record store, which earned him enough money to purchase a plot of land that he built a recording studio on. As made more and more money off of the studio, Branson decided to turn Virgin in to music production company, signing various artists to deals.

As he made money off of the record company, Branson branched out and tried other ventures; buying night clubs and television stations. By the 1980, Branson had made so much money that he decided to open his own airline called Virgin Air. This eventually led to perhaps his greatest and what will probably be his most lasting achievement: Offering normal people (albeit, very rich people…for now) the chance to fly to space with his new business venture Virgin Galactic.

The man that didn’t graduate high school and couldn’t pay attention to save his life is now offering people the chance to go to space. Pretty astounding.

Charles Dickens

Sure, one can make the argument that you can still become a successful business man while never going to school. But being a successful writer is a different matter. Well, again, that’s very wrong, as proven by one of the world’s most renowned fiction writers, Mr. Charles Dickens.

At the age of 12, Dickens’ father was sent to prison due to some very heavy debts that were left unpaid. Needing money, Dickens left school and started working 10-hour work days in a shoe factory. As the years past, Dickens held various writing-related jobs including court stenographer and law clerk. This led to a job in journalism, specifically, court reporting. Once he caught the writing bug, Dickens began to write his own short stories, which were eventually collected and printed as his first book, Sketches by Boz.

This opened the doors to his first of many classic novels, The Pickwick Papers.

Bill Gates

Everyone knows the story of one of the richest men in the world, Bill Gates, so I’ll keep this one quick.

In short, Bill graduated high school and went on to Harvard University. He was doing fairly well until his junior year when he read an article in Popular Electronics magazine about a microcomputer called Altair. Bill was so passionate about technology that he deiced that he was going to make himself a career in technology rather than have to wait another young year to graduate, and then try to find a job.

After partnering up his friend Steve Ballmer (the man that would eventually become the CEO of Microsoft), Bill had a long conversation with his parents about dropping out and his plans for the future. After the talk, Bill had his parent’s blessing to do as he pleased. What he pleased was to create a software company. The company’s name was Micro Soft. The space was later removed.

Where does your iPhone or iPod live when not in use?

I guess like mine in a pile of stuff and when you need it you can’t find it. And that is why you need the iBox. A nice box made from solid hardwood with a ceramic tile on top saying iBox and then there is a velvet line inside to keep your Apple gadgets safe. The bottom of this box is lines with felt so that it will not scratch any surface you place it on.

You see this box is great for you gadgets that you need on the go so place them in the box when you come home and you will know where it is next time you need them.

Order you iBox storage box today and stop the search for gadgets in the piles of stuff.

Hair loss is a problem that is quite prevalent around the world. Most commonly, it is seen in adults, but in some cases, adolescents are also suffering from hair loss problems. Many individuals do prefer to let their baldness show it to the world, hence prefer to keep it untreated and unhidden, whereas there are many who really bother about their hair loss and prefer to get a hold with various strategies and possible treatment policies.

Among all other treatments such as chemical-based medications or surgical intervention, herbal hair loss treatment is known as best possible solution.

Since ages Ayurveda is recognized to offer best herbal therapy for a wide range of diseases, so is true for hair loss problems. In particular, subcontinents of India are highly rich with varieties quality herbs that have the power to enhance hair follicles from its root. Herbs like Amla, Tulsi, Basil, Yasthi Madhu, Bringraj, Henna, Brahmi, and Neem are well-recognized for their abilities to nourish hair and ideal ingredients for herbal hair loss treatment. These herbs are particularly beneficial for producing various hair supplements, hair oils and hair tonics for providing you protection from possible hair loss by strengthening health of your hair roots. Below is a brief description of these herbs.

Amla

Amla, rich with vitamin C, works as a great nourishing tonic for hair. In the course of herbal hair loss treatment, it is believed to be used to protect hair from premature graying. It also protects our system internally by lowering cholesterol, enhancing vision, strengthening lungs and respiratory system. The scientific name of amla is Emblica officinalis.

Tulsi

Tulsi is used as the effective measure for hair loss and it is considered as one of the essential ingredients of herbal hair loss treatment. It is extensively used for protecting hair from falling and early graying. Tulsi seed in combination with castor oil is a useful remedy for hair lice. It also helps making the hair root stronger, thus reducing hair fall.

Basil

Basil is an effective herb used in the herbal hair loss treatment. If it is applied on the hair and scalp, it stimulates hair growth. Also it has the ability to condition hair.

Yasthi Madhu

Yasthi Madhu is a multi-purpose utility herb that is used as one of the essential elements of herbal hair tonic and in the herbal hair loss treatment. Hair fall is also caused from liver malfunctioning. Yasthi Madhu has the ability to make you healthy from internally as well by providing you a relief from gastrointestinal and liver malfunctioning.

Bringraj

Since ancient times, Bringraj is recognized as the best ingredient in herbal hair loss treatment. This is the major herb used in the Ayurvedic hair treatment. Considered as an essential element for herbal hair supplements, it rejuvenates hair follicles, strengthens the hair roots, and hence provides protection against hair fall. It also prevents premature graying of hair and bald. It promotes re-growth of hair.

Henna

This is the second best essential herb used in Ayurvedic hair treatment. It helps growing your hair than normal if you can use it regularly. You can use it twice monthly as herbal pack on your scalp or you may use it processed within hair oil. In both of the cases, you will get good results and eventually you will be free from your hair loss problems.

Brahmi

Brahmi brings wonder to mental health. It has the ability to work on an individual’s cognitive ability. Apart from that, it can induce a feeling of peace and calmness when used. Brahmi oil is effective for protecting from hair fall and premature graying. It also helps in re-growing of hair. It has the ability to make the hair root stronger. It is beneficial to enhance the health of hair. Neem

Dandruff can cause hair falling. Neem can be used on the scalp to remove dandruff. It can be effectively used to remove lice as well. Either you can use its Neem juice directly over your scalp or you may apply it mixed with hair oil.

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After the GT9-R and its 1,120 hp, the German tuner 9ff has hit the mark again, producing the fastest Porsche in the world with 1000 hp and 1040 Nm of torque. It has reached a top speed of 391 km/hr at the Papenburg testing circuit in Germany.

The flat six engine of the 911 has larger turbochargers, sport camshafts, a sport air filter, revised ECU and high performance exhaust system to create the TR-1000. 9ff reckon they could beat that top speed record again, exceeding 400 km/hr with the right aerodynamic kit.

Acceleration times are: 0-100 km/h in 3.2 sec, 100-200 km/h in 4.8 sec, 200-300 km/h in 8 sec and finally 300-360 km/h in 16 seconds. Other modifications to keep the TR 1000 stable include a splitter, changes to the side skirts, a rear wing and some adjustments to the suspension. It also has high performance brakes and aluminium dampers.

The modifications to the 911 Turbo cost about 130,000 euros and have apparently been done for the girlfriend of a Greek millionaire. Here’s hoping she can drive. Check out the 9ff GT9-R as well for some more serious Porsche tuning.

Source | World Car Fans

It’s not often that a well-known vendor simply vacates a particular software space, effectively forfeiting a chunk of the market to competitors. But that’s what Open Text has decided to do with its main enterprise search product.

Late last year, in the course of updating our Search & Information Access Research, we were informed by Open Text Corporation that a decision had been made to discontinue the company’s Discovery Server search offering. Open Text will continue to apply its search technology to their other products, but no longer sell it as a free-standing offering.

A spokesperson for the Waterloo, Ontario-based company explained: "We have altered our strategy away from dividing our development efforts between the standalone offering (Discovery Server) and the search of our ECM Suite, to focusing solely on the search capabilities of our Suite." Accordingly, "Open Text is no longer actively marketing Discovery Server to the standalone Enterprise Search market. We have committed to key customers that we will support them going forward."

Regular readers of our Search & Information Access Research already know that Open Text has, for quite some time now, effectively treated Discovery Server as an upsell piece for its existing ECM customers rather than a true standalone search offering in the spirit of Oracle Secure Enterprise Search, say, or IBM OmniFind Enterprise Edition. It’s been years since Open Text put any significant marketing muscle behind Discovery Server (to the extent that it ever did).

Still, it’s unusual to see a company with a long history of distinguished R&D in information-retrieval technology (Open Text was originally founded as a data-retrieval tech firm) remove itself from the search market in order to concentrate on ECM technologies.

Is this the beginning of a trend? Probably not. You shouldn’t expect to see Oracle "EOL" the SES brand (or IBM ditch the OmniFind moniker, or Autonomy walk away from IDOL) any time soon. The search market is as robust as ever, and we don’t expect other ECM titans to forgo their pieces of the search pie.

However, the Open Text experience does tend to show that doing "productized search" in depth is not a trivial undertaking. It’s a complex product space and it requires serious commitments in terms of R&D, sales, support, and all the rest. Search is not something you "also offer." It’s a first-class, tier one undertaking.

And that’s how you, as a customer, should look at it too: Search is a complex problem space. Give it the attention it deserves (confront your needs head-on, without underestimating them), or walk away. There’s no in-between.

Eco Factor: Low-cost hand-powered charger.

From less than 10 million telephones a decade ago, India has grown to the second largest telecom market in the world. This telecommunication revolution is primarily dominated by wireless communication devices such as cellphones, which did connect thousands of rural Indian villages with the rest of the world.

(more…)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc issued a stern warning to Kraft Foods Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld, saying it opposed the food maker’s plan to float new shares in pursuit of Cadbury Plc.

It was the strongest statement yet by Berkshire questioning Kraft’s hostile 10 billion pound cash and stock offer for the UK confectioner. Berkshire is Kraft’s single largest shareholder, with a 9.4 percent stake in its own holdings and its pension funds.

Kraft shares rose 3.5 percent after the Berkshire statement, while Cadbury fell 3.3 percent on concerns opposition by Buffett would severely constrain a deal.

Berkshire said it voted against Kraft’s proposal to issue up to 370 million shares to help the food maker buy Cadbury, but could reverse to a “yes” vote, depending on the final offer’s details. Berkshire declined to elaborate further about the statement.

It said the proposal, if carried out, would give Kraft a “blank check” allowing it to change its offer for Cadbury.

Earlier on Tuesday, Kraft raised the cash portion of its offer to Cadbury shareholders, helped by a $3.7 billion deal to sell its North American frozen pizza business to Nestle. Kraft cited in part concern by its own investors over using undervalued company shares as currency.

“We worry very much that, indeed, there will be an additional change from the revision announced this morning,” Berkshire said in its statement.

Buffett had already warned Kraft against paying too much for Cadbury, and investors said the new statement was a clear signal to Rosenfeld to tread carefully.

“If Buffett votes against something — that carries a great deal of weight with other shareholders,” said Jerry Bruni, CEO and portfolio manager of J.V. Bruni and Co, which holds Berkshire shares. “When he says no, no is what he says and means.”

KRAFT’S ROOM TO MANEUVER

But some shareholders said the statement leaves Rosenfeld with room to maneuver.

“I don’t think he’s throwing a monkey wrench in the deal. This is Warren Buffett 101,” said Frank Betz, a principal at Carret Zane Capital Management LLP and an owner of Berkshire shares who has played bridge with Buffett.

“He’s often used the representation that one certainty is that people are going to continue to want to eat Dilly Bars,” Betz said, referring to Dairy Queen ice cream bars. “By golly, if they are going to want to be eating dilly bars far into the future they are sure going to want to be eating Cadbury milk chocolate.”

A Kraft spokeswoman said the company agrees its shares are “deeply undervalued,” would remain disciplined and would not do anything that hurts shareholder value.

“He is our largest investor and one of the most respected investors in the world so of course we take his opinion seriously,” she said of Buffett.

Berkshire said it does not believe any Kraft shareholder should vote “yes” to the proposal without knowing what they are voting for. However, it said that it would change its own vote from “no” to “yes” if, after seeing the final offer Kraft is expected to present later this month, it concludes that the offer does not destroy value for Kraft shareholders.

Back in September, Buffett warned Kraft not to overpay for Cadbury, saying: “Any time you’re in a takeover, animal spirits run high and all of that. But Kraft has the disadvantage of using an undervalued stock.”

“Using undervalued shares does make the deal more expensive,” said Morningstar analyst Erin Swanson. “So while we agree with that, Berkshire’s vote may not be enough to block a deal for Cadbury. It is definitely a pointed message about the unfavorable position that Berkshire holds regarding Kraft’s pursuit of the confectionary firm.”

(Additional reporting by Michael Erman and Lilla Zuill in New York, Jessica Hall in Philadelphia and Aaron Pressman in Boston; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Tim Dobbyn)

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From Amazon – Apple iPod touch 32 GB (3rd Generation) NEWEST MODEL

NASCAR announced on Tuesday that a new tire testing session will be included in the calendar for the 2010 Nationwide Series. The new car for the aforementioned championship will run the new Goodyear tires on May 18-19 at Daytona International Speedway, a month-and-a-half before the compound will make its official debut in the Nationwide Series.

The new car will run for a scheduled 4 rounds in the 2010 season. Its official debut will take place on July 2, at Daytona International S… (read more)

Besides several world premieres, the Auto Expo 2010 also witnessed the local introduction of the Volkswagen Polo as well as the customized version of the car, the so-called Polo Cup, which is fitted with a more powerful engine.

The regular Polo will go on sale in the local market in March and will be manufactured at Volkswagen’s Chakan plant with an annual capacity of 110,000 cars. It will be offered with a petrol and a diesel variant, as it follows: a 1.2-liter engine with an out… (read more)