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Apple’s acquisition of Siri is sure to ruffle some feathers over at Google headquarters. Siri is the developer of a Virtual Personal Assistant application for the iPhone platform that aims to give you a real assistant experience. Without beating around the bush, they offer voice search with the implementation of a few other services to bring everything into one application for ease of use. That sure sounds like Apple is trying to compete with Google on another level to me.

The deal was approved by the Federal Trade Commission as a deal granted early termination under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. The company is still fairly new and has raised $24 million in their short, two-year run. Based on that, Business Insider estimated Siri sold for somewhere between $100 million and $200 million, but there was no official disclosure on how much Apple paid out for them. 

Siri’s site claims that they planned to expand to other mobile platforms, so it will be interesting to see what Apple plans to do with them in the coming months.  Check out the video below for a demonstration of the product, and hit the comments with your thoughts!

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Via Business Insider

On a day when further down the Atlantic coast lawmakers actually ponder setting fire to an uncontained deep-sea oil spill, the Obama administration just approved the first off-shore wind farm ever for the USA. After nine years of delays and legal battles using part of the $1 billion pricetag to build it, the Cape Wind project off the coast of Nantucket has been given the go-ahead.

The potential of Atlantic Coast off-shore wind energy is staggering: a colossal 330 Gigawatts, or  almost 200% of the total amount (185 Gigawatts) needed to supply nine states from Massachusetts to North Carolina.

Off-shore wind power off even just the (polled) No-NIMBY states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia could take one third of the US population off the fossil grid. Today we break ground on the beginning of US off-shore wind power.

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Would not want Meade to pull me over

Editor, The Times:

Does anyone else feel nervous by Troy Meade’s statement, “I’m going back to work”? [“Everett cop acquitted,” page one, April 27.]

I imagined being pulled over by this officer for speeding or some other infraction. Upon seeing the name “Meade” next to his badge, I would immediately be stricken with debilitating fear. It is not that I do not believe or trust the jury that decided he is not guilty of murder or manslaughter; I fully realize that not being there that night, I cannot possibly know what happened.

For all it’s worth, cops sometimes have a thankless job, showing up at God-knows-what situation with God-knows-what kind of people and being expected to resolve any situation. But there was another officer there that night. He questioned the use of such force and wondered what had happened, “that he missed” to bring the situation to require such an “extreme level of force.” Meade’s tactics were rightfully questioned during the trial —about why he could not take two simple steps back to safety from the car that might or might not have hit him.

Meade does not have the judgment required to be an effective police officer, to remain in service on the streets. He may have resolved the situation that night, but it was only clearly with use of such force —the most force possible —while other options were still available. If he was in such fear for his life that he fired no fewer than seven bullets at the subject’s head, then if he is not guilty of manslaughter or murder; he is guilty of very poor judgment and emotional instability in a crisis situation.

If he is to remain an officer, Meade should be placed behind a desk in perpetuity.

— Paul Synowiec, Seattle

‘Bad cops deserve the same justice as bad civilians’

I am absolutely sickened by Troy Meade’s acquittal; those jury members have a lifetime of burden on their shoulders.

Drinking and driving is a serious issue and surely Niles Merservey did not respond or act properly. He was drunk. That being said, is that cause to pump him full of bullets?

Merservey’s car was boxed between a fence, a retaining wall and a police car when Meade used his Taser. Acquitting this man was a horrible verdict. Could you imagine getting pulled over by this man?

I would not stop for him. He is a hothead with inadequate resolve for such a position. In an area that has seen police officers getting ambushed and killed by lunatics, verdicts such as these unfortunately fuel the fire. Bad cops deserve the same justice as bad civilians. Some people I guess are above the law, which is crying shame. If I were Officer Steven Klocker, the honest cop, I would find an honest police force somewhere outside of lovely Everett.

— David Gates, Issaquah

Posted by John Byrne at 4:53 p.m.

The Illinois Senate today sent Gov. Pat Quinn a bill backed by Mayor Richard Daley that would increase penalties for certain crimes involving guns.

The proposed change in state law would mandate a sentence of at least one year in prison for a person convicted of unlawful use of a weapon if the gun is loaded and the offender doesn’t have a valid firearm owner’s identification card. Currently in such cases, the offender could receive a lesser sentence of probation.

“This bill protects the rights of law abiding citizens, but also gives us another tool to combat violence in our neighborhoods and protect our children,” Daley said in a news release. “I encourage the governor to sign it.”

The legislation is similar to one Quinn signed in December that applied to gang members.

The measure was one of several gun control proposals Daley pushed last month as part of an annual effort at the statehouse. Most of the proposals, including an assault weapons ban, are unlikely to become law.

The Senate action came just hours after Daley, in a Chicago, made a final pitch for his legislative agenda before lawmakers are scheduled to leave Springfield.

 Property tax relief and a proposal to make banks responsible for maintaining their foreclosed properties in Chicago are other top Daley priorities.

 

"I understand the General Assembly has a lot on its agenda — starting with dealing with the budget issues," Daley said at a news conference on the Southeast Side. "But also you have to act on key legislation that we believe is important to the people of our city."

 

Daley wants the General Assembly to bring back a property tax exemption designed to limit the annual increase in a home’s value for tax purposes in Cook County. The law is set to expire before tax bills hit the mail this fall. But an extension of the tax break seems unlikely, as Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan has not been on board.

A new macroeconomics analysis shows that if you want to create jobs and boost the economy, one of the best things you can do at the moment is enact strong, smart climate change and clean energy policy.

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HP’s buying Palm, in case you haven’t heard, for $1.2 billion. While we doubt many of you were waiting up nights for the Compaq Airlife 100, HP’s Android-powered netbook that we took a look at back at Mobile World Congress, it remains to be seen if HP will be willing (or able, for that matter) to continue any Android development, especially given that a webOS tablet is now a strong possibility. HP did give us the following statement, however:

"We offer choices of OS today, and expect to continue doing so. We’re focused on serving our customers, from individual consumers to small businesses to large enterprise customers by delivering the most appropriate solutions."

Alrighty then. For more on the deal, hit up PreCentral.net.

(And note that I’ll be on the emergency PalmCast Broadcast tonight at 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT, asking these same questions.)

Remember the soapboxes?

I disagree with the argument for making petition signatures secret in “Support signature privacy” [Bruce Ramsey column, Opinion, April 28]. Far more citizens would be affected by any referendum than sign it. The people affected deserve better than the equivalent of a stink bomb being lobbed into a public square from an undisclosed location, which is what appears to be happening more frequently.

Anonymity destroys public discourse, by definition. Look no further than the comments posted anonymously —or virtually so —on Seattle Times stories or columns. When people stood on soapboxes, there was a real person literally standing up for his or her point of view, not hiding behind an invisible cloak with an electronically disguised voice.

Laws have real impacts on real people. When changes to them are proposed, we deserve no less than a public discussion of them, starting with who wants them and why.

A common-sense definition of privacy is that you have a right to do what you want so long as it does not bother anyone else. Proposing to change laws that would affect other people is a public act, not a private one. It is as simple as that.

— Christian Saether, Seattle

Privacy protects people from harassment and intimidation

On one hand, state Attorney General Rob McKenna presents a compelling case for openness in government and points out that there is no current law protecting the petition signers’ identities. But as I see it, the current debate is not really about transparency in government — that is a side issue. The central nugget here is safety from harassment. That is why there was enough energy to get the U.S. Supreme Court to consider it.

The Bopp legal team, on behalf of Protect Marriage Washington, makes a compelling case for keeping petition signers signatures confidential. As we see in the current controversy, activists for gays and lesbians seek to advance their political agenda by the threat of harassment and intimidation.

If the Supreme Court decides that name and address information cannot be protected, the unfortunate response would be a public reluctance to sign any petition. My concern is that in the future, worthy issues, such as voter-approved R-71, might never come before the voters for consideration.

I believe petition signatures ought to fall under the same protection as voter ballot data and be sealed. The Legislature can and should exempt petition and initiative signatures from the public record.

— Paul Heins, Redmond

Steve Largent: No reason to reverse existing regulatory model

The op-ed on April 28 [“Reclassify broadband to keep the Internet a democratic medium,” Opinion] completely ignored the facts of today’s wireless industry.

Quite simply, there are no reasons why the Federal Communications Commission should consider reversing the light regulatory model started by the Clinton administration and continued by President Obama. The classification of broadband as an “information service” and not in the same category as the plain monopolistic telephone industry was a good and sensible policy.

I have repeatedly asked: What is the problem that we need to address with potentially dangerous regulation? This light touch has been —and continues to be —a tremendous success. It has resulted in the United States leading the world in wireless technology. Americans are using their devices more and paying less than almost anyone else.

• We have more third-generation (3G) subscribers than any other nation.
• All of the state-of-the-art handsets are launched first in the United States.
• Consumers could choose from almost 250,000 apps, up from fewer than a 100 a few years ago.

The U.S. wireless industry has invested more money last year in its networks than Germany, France the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain combined.

As Former President Bill Clinton’s FCC Chairman William Kennard said in a 2006 op-ed, “Policymakers should rise above the Net-neutrality debate and focus on what America truly requires from the Internet: getting affordable broadband access to those who need it.” CTIA and the wireless industry could not agree more.

— Steve Largent, president and CEO, CTIA-The Wireless Association, Washington, D.C.

Time to cut expenses and listen to parks visitors

With the resignation of parks supervisor Tim Gallagher [“Seattle parks chief to resign May 10,” NWTuesday, April 27], I hope we get a new chief who would take the parks department’s shaky budget into account and do his or her best to reign in these extravagant and often unnecessary expenses.

In defending the vast amounts of money spent on his trips, Gallagher said “learning from other cities is key to keeping a parks department vital and relevant.” I disagree; learning from the people who pay for all this and the people who care about the parks is more important — and it is hard to learn if you will not listen.

— Nancy Pennington, co-founder of Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, Seattle

Don’t take the road less taken; apply for citizenship

This is a response to “Arizona’s unhelpful law invites racial profiling” [Opinion, April 27].

It is my belief that if you were born here or followed due process to enter this country, then you are entitled to certain rights as a citizen with appropriate documentation.

All Arizona officials are is saying is “no”NO to being responsible for people entering illegally. That “no”NO includes having to provide benefits, medical and otherwise, to people who did not follow the law. Nothing more.

I spent 12 years of my life defending this country’s rights — . Ffreedom of speech, the right to bear arms and, the right to vote. It galls me as a veteran to see that what I worked hard for just given away to people who can not follow a simple law.

If you really REALLY want to be here, go through the same process anyone else from another country has to go through. Paying someone $$$$$ just to cross a border to have your baby or to find a way to put moneydollars into the family’s pocket (regardless of what country….I dont care if it is Iran, to be honest) is not the way to do things.

To the With so many people whothat are citizens here and that are out of work, grow up and grab those jobs that are being given to the illegal immigrants. You have the ability to work your way up — just do it…..JUST DO IT.

For the illegal immigrants: Y, you entered our country without the proper documentation. Do not expect me to subsidize your life with my tax dollars. I promise you, I will not be voting for ANY incumbents.

— Barb Hoerr, Everett

Racial profiling begone, check everyone’s citizenship

Since Tthe Seattle Times claimsto be so fearful of “racial profiling” in Arizona, I propose a simple solution to racial profiling in Arizona. Have any and all government officials dealing with the public — (from the police to educators the educational system and everyone , and all in between — ) ascertain the citizenship of every member of the public they have official dealings with. Check 100 percent % of people the police have dealings with and the r. Racial profiling problem will be gone.

— Philip Peterson, Puyallup

Feeding ‘big government’ to grow border protection

You canno’t have it both ways. First, I read that “big government” is bad for this country. Then I read that a key rationale for the new Arizona iImmigration lLaw is “because the federal government failed to do its part in protecting our borders.”

How “big” would the federal government need to be in order to continually patrol almost 2,000 miles of border between the United States and Mexico? Very, very big.

— Toni Parson, Woodinville

Map of countries and territories by fertility rate.

The Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB, pronounced “mob”) is a new initiative started by a group of social and natural scientists and scholars in the Humanities with the aim of “changing human behavior to avoid a collapse of global civilization.”

Writing in an essay published today on the Public Library of Science – Biology website (The MAHB, the Culture Gap, and Some Really Inconvenient Truths), the multiple award-winning author of The Population Bomb (1968) and Stanford University professor Paul R. Ehrlich details the numerous threats facing the human race and which, collectively, threaten to collapse human civilization this century.

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Google just made a fairly major tweak to its mobile image search. As you can see above, a web-based image search now looks and feels almost like it’s being done natively, on your Android phone. Thumbnails have been optimized for speed, you can flick your way through photos and the black background makes you forget you’re in a web browser. OK, so you You don’t get the zooming effects like you will in an on-device gallery, but it greatly cleans up the mobile interface. And it’s pretty darn cool, if you ask us. Go ahead and give it a shot. [Google]

Computer maker Hewlett-Packard announced today that it will acquire smartphone maker Palm for $1.2 billion in cash. The reason for the acquisition is clear: HP wants to be a bigger player in the lucrative smartphone market. Currently, it has a rather poor showing with its iPaq model. Yet, Palm also has a pretty weak market share. It’s a little hard to see how this acquisition will be a boon for HP.

First, Palm’s operating system accounts for just 0.7% of the market, according to IT research firm Gartner. Bloomberg says that HP’s is even smaller. So HP will instantly go from virtually no presence in smartphones to a very, very tiny presence in the market. That’s not exactly a major foothold.

To make matters worse, Palm has been a disastrous company for some time. Bloomberg also notes:

While Palm has a bigger presence in the phone market than Hewlett-Packard, it too has struggled to match the appeal of Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s BlackBerry and phones using Google Inc.’s Android software. The company’s Pre and Pixi phones, released last year in a comeback bid, didn’t sell as well as expected. The company has reported 11 straight quarterly losses.

This is hardly an acquisition where HP can sit back and let the synergies work their magic. HP will have to invest heavily in Palm to make it a major player. Chiseling away at the market share of the smartphone titans listed in the block quote above won’t be easy. It will take some major innovation to attract new customers to an HP/Palm device. Unfortunately, HP has not been one of the foremost names in technological innovation for some time, with Apple, Google, Samsung and others leading the way.

And yet, HP will purchase Palm for a 23% premium over its share price. That’s sort of like if a home buyer purchased a house for that needed a lot of work for more than its market value. The premium shows the clear winner in this transaction: the Palm shareholder. It’s hard to complain about a 23% premium on a stock that has scored 11 straight quarterly losses. Whether HP shareholders will be better off with this acquisition, however, will take some years to determine. HP must see some potential for Palm to perform significantly better under its watch.

Today, Sally McGee, EDF’s New England Fisheries Policy Director released the following statement on today’s NE Council actions. “I am pleased to support recommendations today for modifications to the skate and the red crab fisheries which will increase flexibility and likely lead to increased profitability for many New England fishermen … “

Read the full post »

Despite falling short of first-quarter earnings expectations, the stock of wood panel maker Norbord Inc. is poised to rise, according to Desjardins Securities.

Citing a fortuitous price surge in oriented strand board (OSB) and blaming the Toronto-based company’s underperformance on bad weather, Desjardins analyst Pierre Lacroix pegged Norbord stock at $20.50, up from $17.25, while maintaining a hold rating.

On Tuesday, Norbord posted first-quarter EBITDA of US$9 million and loss of US12¢ per share, compared with market consensus of US$16-million and EPS of US0¢.

Mr. Lacroix attributed those results to weather conditions which impaired shipments and raised costs.

The company should show “material improvement” in the second quarter, he said.

Since the beginning of April, OSB prices have soared, reaching the highest levels in five years, which the company expects to produce EBITDA of US$17-million in April alone.

“Over the longer term, management believes prices are not sustainable at these levels, and should decline later this year until a more solid U.S. housing recovery takes place,” Mr. Lacroix said.

Rising supply should also put downward pressure on prices, he said.
“We expect volatility will return as soon as pricing pressure resurfaces in the coming weeks.”

For the time being, Norbord will capitalize on inflated commodity prices, but into 2011, a normalized OSB market will put downward pressure on earnings.
Tim Shufelt

There are two huge questions we had with regards as to how Palm would be merged into HP. First: what would happen with webOS (they’re going to keep it – that’s why they bought Palm). Second: what would happen to Palm the company?

Here’s the word, straight from HP during today’s conference call: “We intend to operate it as a business unit, which is in line with the way we’re structured today.”

So the question is, what is a business unit with HP? Hewlett-Packard is currently organized as a series of loosely inter-connected ‘business units,’ including the Imaging and Printing Group (printers, scanners, and cameras), Personal Systems Group (desktops, laptops, handhelds, and miscellaneous ‘personal’ connected devices), Enterprise Business (servers and networking), Software & Solutions (corporate software), and the Office of Strategy and Technology (research and development, marketing, and mergers and acquisitions). Judging by this hierarchy, we’d say that Palm is due to operate independently of but alongside the Personal Systems Group. That’s not to say that Palm will be operating with any degree of autonomy, but given that the majority of Palm staff, including CEO Jon Rubinstein, look to be staying aboard, we wouldn’t count on any major changes in the way Palm operates.

We can’t promise that we won’t spend the entire time staring slack-jawed into the camera, wide-eyed and amazed at the crazy news this afternoon. We’re going to try, though. Join Dieter, Derek, Keith, and special guest/resident HP expert Phil Nickinson tonight on a very special edition of PalmCast Live.

Yes, we’re going to talk about HP acquiring Palm. It will be fun.

8pm Eastern tonight. We’ll see you there.

The Senate passed a bill, 29-4, Wednesday that would allow police officers to be eligible for workers’ compensation if they are faced with imminent danger of serious physical injury or death because of interaction with a mammal, such as a chimpanzee, while in the line of duty.

Police officers who face imminent danger because of other humans is already covered by existing law.

The bill was proposed by Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, after an incident last year in his home town.

“The story of what happened is probably worse than any Alfred Hitchcock terrorizing movie,” said Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, who spoke in favor of the bill.

McDonald told his colleagues about Stamford Police Officer Frank Chiafari, who responded to a call in 2009 and found a pet chimpanzee that went berzerk. Travis, the chimp, had mauled 56-year-old Charla Nash and then came after Chiafari, who had retreated to his police cruiser. Chiafari shot and killed the chimp, and he suffered severe emotional stress and went into a deep depression because of the incident, McDonald said.

Chiafari asked for workers’ compensation, but his request was denied because current law only applies to humans. The officer is currently appealing the decision, and if the bill becomes law, McDonald said he would be elgible for compensation.

McDonald, however, stressed that the bill was not proposed just for Chiafari. It is for future police officers who find themselves in imminent danger because of a mammal attack, he said, noting that those situations would be few. Likely, a mammal would have to be on top of an officer ready to rip his throat, McDonald said.  

Workers’ compensation would only be given to police officers who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances, added Sen. Scott Frantz, R-Riverside, whose district includes Stamford. It sets high standards, he said.   

American Honda Motor Co., Inc. has announced that their thirteen dealers in Oklahoma can now sell the compressed natural gas (CNG) powered Honda Civic GX to customers on a retail basis.

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by Jonathan Hiskes

The ecological fallout
of the Gulf oil spill continues as emergency teams plan
to set fire to the surface slick in hopes of keeping it away from the
coast.

The political fallout
continues as well:

More bad news for the Senate climate and energy bill, as coastal-state senators with key votes voiced concerns about drilling provisions in a potential bill. They include Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.); Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.); Benjamin L. Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.); Mark Warner (D-Vir.); Kay Hagan (D-N.C.); and George LeMieux (D-Fla.), according to The New York Times.

Even more bad news for the Senate bill, as BP, who was leasing the drilling rig, planned to join Shell Oil and ConocoPhillips in endorsing the bill and appearing at the rollout announcement this week (which was scuttled because of Senate drama). At this point, BP’s endorsement might be a kiss of death.

Charlie Crist dropped his support for offshore drilling today after
flying above the slick that is spreading not far from his home state. “If
this doesn’t give somebody pause, there’s something wrong,” said the Republican
Florida governor, who is running for Senate as an independent. “This is, as I
understand it, a pretty new rig with modern technology. As I’ve always said, it
would need to be far enough, clean enough and safe enough. I’m not sure this
was far enough. I’m pretty sure it was not clean enough. And it doesn’t sound
like it was safe enough.”

Sens. Lautenberg, Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) called for a safety
investigation in a letter to Senate leaders. The trio, all strong opponents of offshore drilling in the past, call
the disaster “a sobering reminder of the real risk from oil drilling.”

“The explosion, ensuing
fire, and continuing spill raise serious concerns about the industry’s claims
that their operations and technology are safe enough to put rigs in areas that
are environmentally sensitive or are critical to tourism or fishing industries,” they wrote. “This may be the worst disaster in recent years, but it’s
certainly not an isolated incident.”

Investigation and litigation. Every branch of the government is now
involved in investigating the disaster, as Brad
Johnson notes. In the House, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, are investigating the companies’ emergency plans; the Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service
are looking into the causes; and in federal court, the wife of one of the victims has
sued BP, Transocean, and Halliburton for negligence.

Obama is sticking with his plan to ramp
up offshore drilling, says Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. He’s making sure things are investigated, though.
(Phew. We were worried there for a minute.) “We need the increased
production. The president still continues to believe the great majority of that
can be done safely, securely and without any harm to the environment.”

That response doesn’t seem
to jibe with Rahm Emanuel’s famous advice to
never let a serious crisis go to waste. If this isn’t a good occasion to talk
to Americans about the problems posed by fossil
fuels, well, here’s how “Turkana” at The Left Coaster puts it:

In a time of crisis, you don’t continue to promote that
which is causing the crisis. You teach people how it is causing the crisis and
why we have to stop it. You change the very nature of the conversation. You use
the science. You use every political skill and opportunity you have. You teach
people that we have to change the nature of our behavior. You teach people that
we have to change the nature of our economy. You teach people that we don’t
have time to waste.

 

Related Links:

On the Graham-Reid flustercluck

Oil burn operation begins in Gulf of Mexico

Cape Wind offshore project approved by Obama admin after nine-year battle