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  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 shows up in AnTuTu Benchmarks

    Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_3_10.1_AnTuTu_Leak

    Samsung already announced the 7-inch version of the Galaxy Tab 3, but rumor has it they are working on a 10.1-inch version as well. Further evidence shows it in AnTuTu benchmarks with a model number of GT-P5200. How do we know this is the Galaxy Tab 3? All you have to do is look at the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 model number of GT-5100 and you will come to the same conclusion as us. Ironically though, this probably won’t be the final model number when it’s released since Samsung is probably going to go with a different scheme, as in SM-Txxx.

    Based on the score, we expect it to have a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 or an Exynos octa-core. Either way, we do know that it’s clocked at 1.6GHz. The only other information that we know is that it sports Android 4.2.2, which isn’t unusual. As far as the display, the tab devices aren’t reserved for high end so don’t expect anything better than 1280 x 800. We will certainly let you know more as soon as we hear it.

    source: Ringer’s Blue Men
    via: SamMobile

    Come comment on this article: Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 shows up in AnTuTu Benchmarks

  • Microsoft now issues ISO updates for Visual Studio

    While many of us upgrade software by simply clicking a link — frequently found in the Help menu — many Visual Studio users would prefer other options. In fact, Demand is high for an ISO version of the latest update to the integrated developer environment, which recently moved the 2012 product to update 2.

    Microsoft points out that many customers install Visual Studio Updates from the ‘toast’ pop-up notification or from the Extensions and Updates dialog. In tracking the release feedback, Microsoft also observed a set of users requesting an ISO image as an alternative way to download the update. The primary reasons seen for such requests, the company claims, is familiarity both with the format and with various download management tools.

    In a brief statement Microsoft’s Brian Harry explains that “I’ve had a healthy discussion with some of you on this post and we’ve received quite a lot of feedback on Soma’s blog and other places. Based on this feedback we’ve produced ISOs for Visual Studio Update 2 and decided that for these larger updates, we’ll continue to do so in the future”.

    The 1.8 GB file is perhaps best offered as an ISO, which can be downloaded in the background, as opposed to interfering with someone’s workflow.

    Microsoft has, in the past made new software releases available via an ISO file, but has not done so with updates, so this is a good step forward and should be a welcome option for many customers.

    Photo Credit: Sergej Khakimullin/Shutterstock

  • Bride Killed: Limo Fire Leaves Five Dead

    A new bride and four of her friends were killed in a tragic limousine fire in San Francisco on Saturday.

    Neriza Fojas had been celebrating her recent marriage with a girls’ night out; all nine women were looking forward to an evening of fun after throwing a bridal shower for Fojas. But after just a short drive in their limo, the women noticed smoke coming from the rear of the Town Car. When they alerted the driver, he pulled over on the San Francisco Bay bridge to take a look. As soon as he got out, the car erupted into flames.

    Four of the women escaped; three were rescued by witnesses who pulled them to safety, and one woman managed to crawl through the partition separating the back seat from the driver. The other five, including the bride, died while scrambling to fit through the partition. Firefighters found them lying on top of one another.

    “This is one of the most horrific things I’ve seen in 21 years with this office,” San Mateo County’s medical examiner, Robert Foucrault, said Sunday. “Looking at it, they were on top of each other and doing what they could to get out.”

    At least two of the women are in critical condition today. The driver, 46-year old Orville Brown, was highly distraught and is assisting investigators as they try to figure out what caused the fire.

    “We got out by the grace of God. I just wish that I could have done more,” Brown said. “It’s something you never imagine will happen.”

  • A Better Way to Think About Your Business Model

    The business model canvas — as opposed to the traditional, intricate business plan — helps organizations conduct structured, tangible, and strategic conversations around new businesses or existing ones. Leading global companies like GE, P&G, and Nestlé use the canvas to manage strategy or create new growth engines, while start-ups use it in their search for the right business model. The canvas’s main objective is to help companies move beyond product-centric thinking and towards business model thinking.

    To start, it lets you look at all nine building blocks of your business on one page:

    Each of these nine components contains a series of hypotheses about your business model that you need to test (click or tap for a bigger version):

    Business Model Canvas

    Nespresso, a fully owned daughter company of Nestlé, is a great example of a powerful business model. It changed the face of the coffee industry by turning a transactional business (selling coffee through retail) into one with recurring revenues (selling proprietary pods through direct channels). Here’s what their strategy looks like on the canvas (full-screen mode works best):

    The canvas is one of the three key principles of the lean start-up approach. For the other two, read Steve Blank’s May 2013 article “Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything.”

  • First Dell, now BMC: Which legacy IT company will go private next?

    With BMC being taken private by a pair of private equity firms in a deal worth $6.9 billion or $46.25 per share in cash, one has to wonder what legacy IT vendor will be next to take this route.

    Dell blazed the trail in February when it announced plans to take itself off the public market. That move, valued at $24.5 billion, was orchestrated by founder and CEO Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners. Critics said the price undervalued the company which remains a power in PCs and servers, and is navigating a shift into cloud computing. In the mobile space, Alltel was ahead of the trend, taking itself private in 2007, and was  scooped up by Verizon two years later for $5.9 billion.

    Citing unnamed sources, Reuters first reported Sunday that a BMC take-out by an investment group comprising Bain Capital and Golden Gate Partners was under discussion. BMC is not a household name for consumers but in business it’s a pretty big deal for enterprise IT and database admins.

    BMC brands include Remedy service management software; BladeLogic automated configuration management; and Track-IT  help desk and asset management. These are the kinds of non-glam tools that keep a data center running.  Dell bought Quest Software, probably BMC’s most direct competitor, in deal that was completed in September 2012.

    Who’s next?

    Industry watchers said whatever happens with this proposed BMC deal, be prepared for more action. “There’s a seismic shift afoot with enterprise software vendors as they  move from traditional pricing and distribution models to OpEx, SaaS and cloud models. This means a financial disruption for many of them, not just BMC Software,” said Dana Gardner, principal analyst with Inter-Arbor Solutions and GigaOM PRO analyst.

    To be sure, Dell and BMC are not alone: HP, IBM, Oracle and Microsoft are face withering heat from shareholders who expect the old profitability models to hold up even as the world of computing changes dramatically.  As an example, IBM last month stunned the market by missing on profit and revenue expectations for its first quarter. As Forbes reported:

    “Revenues from cloud computing and analytics initiative continued to see growth in Q1. However, its core software business had a lackluster performance in the quarter and revenues were $5.6 billion, flat year-over-year (y-o-y) and up 1% in constant currency.”

    Cloud upsets the apple cart

    Cloud is the disrupting force here. As more companies evaluate the economics of putting workloads on massive webscale infrastructure —  outside their walls — they will buy far fewer servers and routers themselves. And as more corporate applications are delivered via software-as-a-service models there are fewer huge upfront software licensing deals. Instead payments are spread out across a year or three. There is also pressure on the massive enterprise service and maintenance fees favored by companies like Oracle.

    “There’s a bet to be made,” Gardner said. “Does Wall Street understand such transitions, or does it throw the baby out with the bath water?”

    It’s unlikely that giants like Oracle, IBM, Microsoft would go private, but never say never to a flock of smaller companies like BMC that may be sick of dealing with Wall Street pressures. For those smaller enterprise software (and hardware) companies, it may make sense to revert to private control and then re-emerge on the public markets when the coast is clear, or at least less rocky.

    Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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  • McAfee Set To Acquire Firewall Provider Stonesoft

    Intel’s antivirus software company, McAfee, is acquiring Stonesoft. The company announced that it has executed a definitive agreement to initiate a conditional tender offer to do so.

    Stonewall, if you’re unfamiliar, creates firewall products.

    The deal is worth $389 million.

    McAfee President Michael DeCesare said, “With the pending addition of Stonesoft’s products and services, McAfee is making a significant investment in next-generation firewall technology. These solutions anticipate emerging customer needs in a continually evolving threat landscape. Stonesoft is a leading innovator in this important market segment. We plan to integrate Stonesoft’s offerings with other McAfee products to realize the power of McAfee’s Security Connected strategy. Stonesoft products will benefit from the collective expertise of more than 7,200 McAfee employees. Leveraging McAfee’s cloud-based Global Threat Intelligence service will provide our combined customers with unparalleled security.”

    Stonesoft CEO Ilkka Hiidenheimo added, “The combination of the two companies allows Stonesoft to benefit from McAfee’s global presence and sales organization of over 2,200 employees, best-in-class threat research and technology synergies. Combined, we believe we can offer our customers a world-class product portfolio with world-class support – all backed by Intel.”

    The rationale for the acquisition, McAfee says, is based on network security being a vital component of a comprehensive security solution, and next-generation firewalls are one of the fastest growing segments of this. Stonesoft is considered a leader in the space, and McAfee expects to grow its network security business with a more complete offering.

  • Protecting National Park Soundscapes

    Prepublication Now Available

    America’s national parks provide a wealth of experiences to millions of people every year. What visitors see—landscapes, wildlife, cultural activities—often lingers in memory for life. And what they hear adds a dimension that sight alone cannot provide. Natural sounds can dramatically enhance visitors’ experience of many aspects of park environments. In some settings, such as the expanses of Yellowstone National Park, they can even be the best way to enjoy wildlife, because animals can be heard at much greater distances than they can be seen. Sounds can also be a natural complement to natural scenes, whether the rush of water over a rocky streambed or a ranger’s explanation of a park’s history. In other settings, such as the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, sounds are the main reason for visiting a park.

    The acoustical environment is also important to the well-being of the parks themselves. Many species of wildlife depend on their hearing to find prey or avoid predators. If they cannot hear, their survival is jeopardized—and the parks where they live may in turn lose part of their natural heritage. For all these reasons it is important to be aware of noise (defined as unwanted sound, and in this case usually generated by humans or machinery), which can degrade the acoustical environment, or soundscape, of parks. Just as smog smudges the visual horizon, noise obscures the listening horizon for both visitors and wildlife. This is especially true in places, such as remote wilderness areas, where extremely low sound levels are common. The National Park Service (NPS) has determined that park facilities, operations, and maintenance activities produce a substantial portion of noise in national parks and thus recognizes the need to provide park managers with guidance for protecting the natural soundscape from such noise. Therefore, the focus of the workshop was to define what park managers can do to control noise from facilities, operations, and maintenance, and not on issues such as the effects of noise on wildlife, noise metrics, and related topics.

    To aid in this effort, NPS joined with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and with the US Department of Transportation’s John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center to hold a workshop to examine the challenges and opportunities facing the nation’s array of parks. Entitled “Protecting National Park Soundscapes: Best Available Technologies and Practices for Reducing Park- Generated Noise,” the workshop took place October 3-4, 2012, at NPS’s Natural Resource Program Center in Fort Collins, Colorado. Protecting National Park Soundscapes is a summary of the workshop.

    [Read the full report]

    Topics: Engineering and Technology | Environment and Environmental Studies

  • A virtual field trip to CERN, via Google Glass

    Take a bike ride down the 27-kilometer Large Hadron Collider — thanks to a lucky Google Glass winner, whose ride-along video premiered Friday during TEDxCERN.

    Andrew Vanden Heuvel always dreamed of being an astronaut; he ended up becoming a pioneering online physics teacher. So when he was selected to be one of the first to try out Google Glass, he knew exactly what he wanted to do: travel to Switzerland, go to CERN (aka the European Laboratory for Particle Physics), check out the Large Hadron Collider and beam the live footage back to a classroom.

    More: Sergey Brin talked about the impetus for creating Google Glass, the tech giant’s new augmented-reality headset, at TED2013.

    At TED2008, Brian Cox explained what the LHC is looking for: the elusive Higgs boson.

  • Tactus And Synaptics Create A Reference Tablet For OEMs With An Amazing, Disappearing Keyboard

    tactus-render

    One of the most impressive things we happened upon at CES this year was the Tactus keyboard, a special fluid-filled layer that could be baked into a tablet or smartphone to provide users with a physical keyboard that could recede back into the screen when it wasn’t needed.

    Since then the company has been flying under the radar, but it turns out Tactus has been hard at work on a prototype device with help from a prominent player in the touch interaction space. Tactus confirmed to TechCrunch that it has partnered with touch panel experts at Synaptics to create a reference device — a 7-inch Android-powered tablet — that it will begin shopping around to OEMs and carriers at the end of June.

    As you might expect, the company was hesitant to name names, but newly-installed sales and marketing VP RK Parthasarathy noted that “multiple tier 1 OEMs” are already waiting for a chance to fiddle with the 7-inch reference design kit, and that the first Tactus devices were still slated to be shown off some time this year… just not around these parts. Instead, Parthasarathy expects the first official Tactus-enabled tablet to make an appearance at a trade show in Asia in Q4 (the tight-lipped VP wouldn’t confirm which) before popping up at CES in early 2013.

    Fortunately, it seems as though those Tactus-enabled tablets may able to compete on price just as devices like the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire do right now. Despite the seeming complexity of adding a fluid-filled outer layer to a tablet’s screen, it’s apparently a walk in the park compared to the alternative. According to Parthasarathy, the process of handling and cutting down glass for the traditional cover lenses that sit over tablet displays is cumbersome and pricey enough that implementing a Tactus layer is a viable financial alternative. The fact that the keyboard can be made to work with whatever OS sits below it is an intriguing proposition to boot — there’s nothing stopping Microsoft or Apple from running with these things short of a mismatch in vision.

    The move works rather nicely for Synaptics too — the company’s touch layers have become ubiquitous in laptops and smartphones, but short of an appearance in Samsung’s 10-inch Galaxy Tab 2.0 Synaptics hasn’t had much success in cracking the tablet market.

    “The tablet market has been evolving, and Synaptics has been criticized for being late to the game,” said Synaptics technology strategist Dr. Andrew Hsu. Granted, the tablet market is still relatively small compared to the handset business — while Synaptics’ presence in tablets has been modest, it hopes that partnering with Tactus can help them pick up steam in an already-crowded market.

    It’s an incredibly neat concept and seems to work well enough in practice, but are people really clamoring for a return to more tactile way to interact with their devices? After all, big names in the mobile space like Samsung have been tinkering with ways to users to manipulate their gadgets without the need to lay a finger on them. In short, are touchier keyboards really the way forward? At least one person would probably agree, but as far as Tactus is concerned there’s nothing to stop an OEM from baking a whole host of interaction methods into a single device.

    “What we’re seeing is a natural evolution,” Parthasarathy pointed out. “We don’t believe there is a single interaction mechanism that belongs on every device. Users will have a multitude of interface options, but serious content creation requires a physical interface.” We’ll soon see if the Tactus vision ultimately pans out — with any luck, that initial batch of Tactus tablets will go on sale a few months after appearing at CES.

  • Bain, Golden Gate-Led Group to Buy BMC Software for $6.9 Bln

    BMC Software said Monday it agreed to be acquired by a private investor group led by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital for about $6.9 billion. The group also includes GIC Special Investments Pte Ltd and Insight Venture Partners. Terms of the deal call for the investor group to pay $46.25 a share for all outstanding BMC common stock. Morgan Stanley & Co. and BofA Merrill Lynch are advising BMC. Qatalyst Partners, Credit Suisse, RBC Capital Markets and Barclays are serving as financial advisors to the Investor Group.

    PRESS RELEASE

    BMC Software (NASDAQ: BMC) (“the Company”) has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by a private investor group led by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital together with GIC Special Investments Pte Ltd (“GIC”) and Insight Venture Partners (collectively, the “Investor Group”).
    Under the terms of the agreement, affiliates of the Investor Group will acquire all outstanding BMC common stock for $46.25 per share in cash, or approximately $6.9 billion, representing an attractive premium to the Company’s unaffected stock price. The agreement was approved by unanimous vote of those directors present.
    “After a thorough review of strategic alternatives, the BMC board of directors is pleased to reach this agreement, which provides shareholders with immediate and substantial cash value, as well as a premium to our unaffected share price,” said Bob Beauchamp, chairman and chief executive officer at BMC. “BMC believes the opportunity to become a private company will provide additional flexibility and position us to invest more strategically to drive powerful innovation and deliver cutting edge customer solutions. We look forward to working closely with all parties to complete this transaction and enter into our next chapter of growth and industry leadership.”
    Elliott Management, which owns 9.6 percent of the BMC common stock, has agreed to vote its shares in favor of the transaction. Jesse Cohn, portfolio manager, said: “Elliott applauds the BMC Software board and executive leadership for delivering this value-maximizing outcome for stockholders, which both contains a go-shop provision and reflects what we believe is a substantial premium to BMC’s unaffected stock price. Credit also goes to Bain Capital, Golden Gate Capital, GIC and Insight Venture Partners for recognizing this exciting investment opportunity. This deal represents a tremendous outcome for BMC’s employees, customers and stockholders.”
    “BMC is the only enterprise software vendor that can go from mainframe to mobile, with solutions that help IT drive real business innovation and optimize operations management and employee productivity,” said Ian Loring, managing director at Bain Capital. “We and the rest of the Investor Group look forward to working with the management team and employees of BMC to execute additional growth strategies designed to expand the Company’s capabilities and enhance its relationships with customers and partners around the world.”
    “BMC is an innovative leader in IT operations management and has strong leadership positions in growing segments such as cloud management, service management and workload automation,” said Prescott Ashe, managing director of Golden Gate Capital. “We are excited to work with the management team and employees to accelerate BMC’s growth and strengthen its position as the best-in-class provider of IT management software for heterogeneous environments.”There is no financing condition associated with the proposed acquisition. Credit Suisse, RBC Capital Markets and Barclays have agreed to provide debt financing in connection with the transaction.
    The transaction, which is expected to close later this year, is subject to approval from BMC shareholders, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
    Under the terms of the agreement, for a period of 30 calendar days, BMC may solicit alternative proposals from third parties. BMC does not anticipate that it will disclose any developments with regard to this process unless and until the BMC board of directors makes a decision with respect to a potential superior proposal. There are no guarantees that this process will result in a superior proposal.
    Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and BofA Merrill Lynch are serving as financial advisors, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is serving as legal counsel to BMC. Qatalyst Partners, Credit Suisse, RBC Capital Markets and Barclays are serving as financial advisors to the Investor Group. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as legal counsel and PwC LLP is serving as accounting advisor to the Investor Group. Sidley Austin LLP is serving as legal advisor to GIC. Willkie Farr & Gallager LLP is the legal advisor for Insight Venture Partners.
    BMC will release results for Q4FY13 on or before May 7, 2013.    Due to the pending transaction, BMC will not host an investor call.
    Business Runs on IT. IT Runs on BMC Software. More than 20,000 IT organizations – from the Global 100 to the smallest businesses – in over 120 countries rely on BMC Software (NASDAQ: BMC) to manage their business services and applications across distributed, mainframe, virtual and cloud environments. With the industry’s broadest choice of leading IT management solutions, including the award-winning Cloud Management and MyIT offerings, BMC helps customers cut costs, reduce risk and achieve business objectives. For the four fiscal quarters ended March 31, 2013, BMC revenue was $2.2 billion. www.bmc.com
    About Bain Capital, LLC Bain Capital, LLC is a global private investment firm that manages several pools of capital including private equity, venture capital, public equity, credit products and absolute return with approximately $70 billion in assets under management. Bain Capital has a team of over 300 professionals dedicated to investing and to supporting its portfolio companies. Since its inception in 1984, Bain Capital has made private equity, growth, and venture capital investments in over 450 companies around the world, including such leading technology and software companies as SunGard Data Systems, NXP, LinkedIn, SolarWinds, SurveyMonkey, SevOne, DynaTrace Software, WorldPay, Skillsoft, MYOB, Applied Systems, Archer Technologies and Cerved Group SpA. The firm has offices in Boston, New York, Chicago, Palo Alto, London, Munich, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Mumbai. www.baincapital.com
    About Golden Gate Capital Golden Gate Capital is a San Francisco-based private equity investment firm with more than $12 billion of capital under management. Golden Gate Capital partners with world-class management teams to invest in change-intensive, growth businesses where there is a demonstrable opportunity to significantly enhance a company’s value. The principals of Golden Gate Capital have a long and successful history of investing with management partners across a wide range of industries and transaction types, including going-privates, corporate
    divestitures, and recapitalizations, as well as debt and public equity investments. Golden Gate Capital is one of the most active investors in the software and IT sectors. Other notable software investments sponsored by Golden Gate Capital include Infor, Lawson, Attachmate, Novell, Ex Libris, Micro Focus and Aspect. www.goldengatecap.com
    About GIC The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Private Limited (GIC) is a sovereign wealth fund established in 1981 to manage Singapore’s foreign reserves. GIC’s mission is to preserve and enhance the international purchasing power of the reserves, with the aim to achieve good long-term returns above global inflation over the investment time horizon of 20 years. With a network of nine offices in key financial capitals around the world, GIC invests internationally in equities, fixed income, money-market instruments, real estate and special investments. GIC Special Investments Pte Ltd, the private equity arm of GIC, is one of the world’s largest private equity investors and manages a multi-billion dollar portfolio of fund investments and direct investments in companies. www.gic.com.sg/
    About Insight Venture Partners Insight Venture Partners is a leading venture capital and private equity firm investing in eCommerce, Internet, on-premise and SaaS-based software and data-services companies. Founded in 1995, Insight has raised more than $6 billion and made more than 190 investments. Our mission is to find, fund and work successfully with visionary executives who are driving change in their industries. www.insightpartners.com
    ###
    BMC, BMC Software, and the BMC Software logo are the exclusive properties of BMC Software Inc., are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other BMC trademarks, service marks, and logos may be registered or pending registration in the U.S. or in other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2012 BMC Software
    Additional Information and Where to Find It In connection with the proposed transaction, the Company will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and furnish to the Company’s stockholders a proxy statement. BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING DECISION, THE COMPANY’S STOCKHOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT IN ITS ENTIRETY WHEN IT BECOMES AVAILABLE AND ANY OTHER DOCUMENTS TO BE FILED WITH THE SEC IN CONNECTION WITH THE PROPOSED MERGER OR INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE IN THE PROXY STATEMENT BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION AND THE PARTIES TO THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. Investors and security holders may obtain a free copy of documents filed by BMC Software, Inc. with the SEC at the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov. In addition, investors and security holders may obtain a free copy of BMC Software, Inc.’s filings with the SEC from BMC Software, Inc.’s website at http://investors.bmc.com/sec.cfm or by directing a request to: BMC Software, Inc., 2101 CityWest Blvd., Houston, Texas 77042-2827, Attn: Investor Relations, (713) 918-1805.

    The post Bain, Golden Gate-Led Group to Buy BMC Software for $6.9 Bln appeared first on peHUB.

  • Nintendo Working To Bring Smartphone Apps To Wii U [Rumor]

    The Wii U’s controller has a touch screen that seems like it was made for the simple touch-controlled games that populate smartphones. The only problem is getting those games on the system. Nintendo may be working to address that issue if recent rumors are to be believed.

    Anonymous sources speaking to The Japan Times say that Nintendo is working on conversion software that would help smartphone developers easily port their titles to the Wii U. The push is part of a larger focus on getting more software on the system to help boost console sales.

    If true, the push for smartphone titles falls into line with Nintendo’s recent initiative to get indies on its platform. It can’t readily rely on traditional game publishers to provide a steady stream of games for the system so it has to rely on these indies to bring a number of unique experiences to the console.

    Such a move begs the question – will people buy a Wii U to play games that they can already play on a smartphone or tablet? Nintendo apparently thinks they will. It’s a sharp change of course for the company as it has previously derided smartphone games as devaluing games.

    Software certainly sells hardware, but will smartphone games do the trick? Maybe not, but Nintendo also has a strong first-party lineup of software coming out later this year. There’s even talk of a new 3D Mario game coming out in October. Such a release, combined with Pikmin 3, Wind Waker HD and others, could potentially see Nintendo selling more than its fair share of units this holiday season.

    Of course, Nintendo will have to watch out for the likes of Sony, and possibly even Microsoft, as both will be appealing to indies as well. Sony has been especially aggressive in this area, and even chose to highlight an indie game at its PS4 reveal event. Nintendo may have to start getting that aggressive about indie titles if it wants to bring the best the indie development scene has to offer to the Wii U.

    [h/t: ZDNet]

  • Samsung releases two more graduation-themed commercials showing off Easy Mode and Eraser Shot

    Samsung_Galaxy_S_4_Commercial_Graduation_Eraser

    We had a chance to check out Samsung’s Graduation Pool Party commercial this past weekend, and now we have two more spots. It’s all about the features for Samsung, and these two spots are no exception. Both of these spots are offshoots from the pool party spot. The first one takes place at the pool party and is about Easy Mode, which I think might be the most underrated feature. It allows people who aren’t tech savvy to feel very comfortable with the Galaxy S 4. The second spot deals with Eraser Shot, and takes place during the graduation ceremony, before the pool party. Hit the break for the videos and be sure to check out our Galaxy S 4 guides for tips and tricks as well as our full review.

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    Come comment on this article: Samsung releases two more graduation-themed commercials showing off Easy Mode and Eraser Shot

  • Dolphins Cancel Stadium Renovations

    Planned upgrades for the Miami Dolphins‘ Sun Life stadium have been cancelled following the failure of a bill meant to provide public funds for the venue. According to a report from Miami’s CBS 4, the Florida house adjourned without taking up the bill, which would have raised the state’s hotel bed tax to fund the stadium repairs.

    Dolphins CEO Mike Dee appeared on the news station on Sunday, stating that the Dolphins organization and team owner Stephen Ross in particular were not prepared to fund the proposed $350 million in renovations themselves.

    “From the get-go we had looked at this as a comprehensive modernization, not a band-aid, not a quick fix,” said Dee. “I wouldn’t want to prognosticate what the future holds, but it’s clearly bleak.”

    Dee went on to blame Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford for failing to bring the bill up for a vote. He characterized Sun Life stadium’s state as “desperate” and intimated that, though Ross isn’t interested in moving the Dolphins, a future sale could mean Miami losing its NFL team.

  • Zach Galifianakis Plays ‘Game Of Game Of Thrones’ On SNL

    Comedian Zach Galifianakis hosted the most recent episode of Saturday Night Live, and a number of the show’s segments are generating a fair amount of buzz on Monday morning.

    We already looked at the Google Glass sketch from Weekend Update, in which Fred Armisen played tech blogger Randall Meeks, trying to convince Seth Meyers that the device is cool, and makes life easier. Spoiler alert: it did neither (though the jury’s still out in real life).

    Another one of the most-talked about sketches from the episode features Galifianakis on a game show called “Game of Game of Thrones”.

    It seems that not a day goes by that the Internet doesn’t produce some type of Game of Thrones parody, so it’s no surprise to see SNL take on the show. Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage actually appeared on Weekend Update a few weeks back.

  • Wellspring Recaps API

    API Heat Transfer, a portfolio company of Wellspring Capital Management, has completed a recapitalization. The deal includes a new $300 million first-lien credit facility. The loan will enable API to pay a dividend to its investors, Wellspring says.  Buffalo, N.Y.-based API is a supplier for the design and manufacture of industrial heat exchangers.

    PRESS RELEASE

    Wellspring Capital Management LLC (“Wellspring”) announced today that its portfolio company API Heat Transfer (“API” or the “Company”) has completed a recapitalization, including a new $300 million first-lien credit facility.  The new credit facility will provide API with additional financial flexibility to invest in its business and enable the Company to pay its investors a dividend.

    William F. Dawson, Jr., a Managing Partner of Wellspring, said, “API’s ability to secure this new credit facility reflects the Company’s strong performance under Wellspring’s ownership.  The Company’s enhanced capital structure enables it to return capital to investors while pursuing a range of attractive growth opportunities.”

    John E. Morningstar, a Partner of Wellspring, added, “The combination of API Heat Transfer and ThermaSys created a premier supplier of heat exchangers that is well positioned to provide its customers with the industry’s best products and service.  We are excited to continue our operational and financial support of API as the management team executes its business strategy.”

    UBS Securities LLC, RBC Capital Markets and GE Capital Markets acted as Joint Lead Arrangers and Joint Bookrunners for the credit facility.  UBS Securities LLC acted as Syndication Agent, RBC Capital Markets acted as Documentation Agent and General Electric Capital Corporation acted as Administrative Agent.

    About Wellspring Capital Management
    Wellspring Capital Management, founded in 1995, is a leading middle-market private equity firm that manages more than $3 billion of private equity capital. The firm’s objective is to bring partnership, experience and value creation to each investment. By teaming up with strong management, Wellspring is able to unlock underlying value and pursue new growth opportunities through strategic initiatives, operating improvements and add-on acquisitions. The firm functions as a strategic rather than tactical partner, providing management teams with top-line support, M&A experience and financial expertise, and access to resources. For additional information, please visit www.wellspringcapital.com.

    About API Heat Transfer
    API Heat Transfer is one of the world’s premier suppliers for the design and manufacture of industrial heat exchangers.  API is comprised of six business units that together provide premium brands customers know and trust while providing industry-leading quality and reliability as well as the broadest heat transfer product offering in the market.  The company is strategically positioned to serve nearly every end market with responsive, local, personalized service.  Its range of heat transfer solutions includes innovative designs, performance engineering, and the industry’s best product development and testing capabilities.  For more information, please visit www.apiheattransfer.com.

    The post Wellspring Recaps API appeared first on peHUB.

  • Mobile PC Market To More Than Double On Demand For Tablets And Touch PCs, According To Report

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    The mobile PC market isn’t doing great, but that’s only if you look at it independently of tablet device sales. NPD DisplaySearch now says that over the next five years, however, the mobile PC market will more than double, growing from 367.6 million units in 2012 to 762.7 million by 2017.

    The growth is being driven by a sea change in PC computing, as tablet PCs continually replace your standard notebook form factors, and touch gets built in to more and more laptop devices. Almost every manufacturer now has at least one touch-capable model, which is actually required for Windows 8 certification, and which helps explain ambitious devices like the Asus Aspire R7.

    In the near-term, NPD DisplaySearch expects tablet shipments to rise 67 percent year-over-year in 2013, reaching 256.5 million on their own. Notebook shipments are expected to slow in general, down to 183.3 million in 2017, from 203.3 million in 2013. NPD predicts growth for certain categories, including touch-enabled devices, and even projects that devices like the MacBook Air and Ultrabooks will adopt touch in the coming years.

    NPD doesn’t see Windows 8 actually driving touch adoption, despite the requirement by Microsoft for certification. That’s probably because of reportedly lackluster sales performance by Microsoft’s latest OS so far, but still the category will grow as OEMs look to invest more in hybrid devices, sliders and tablet-style form factors that could potentially resonate better with where consumers seem to be spending their computing dollars these days.

    Despite the generally rosy outlook NPD DisplaySearch paints, the fact remains that now, Apple is the company that stands to gain the most from an upsurge in tablet popularity. It sold around 19.5 million iPads during Q2 2013, representing 65 percent year over year growth, and so far no one has been able to come close to that. Others are slowly making inroads, however, including Asus, which reported its Q1 2013 earnings today, including 3 million tablet sales that offset notebook and PC component losses to the tune of $202 million in profit.

  • eBay Deal of the Week: 1970 Buick Skylark GS

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    This is one of those rare cars that has a reserved spot in my fantasy garage. It’s a 1970 Buick Skylark GS and to me, it’s the perfect example of a gentleman’s muscle car. From the bucket seats, to the beautiful center console with eight-track deck, air conditioning and fully-optioned factory dash, this is a car that I’d probably turn into a daily driver. The one you are viewing here is currently for sale on eBay Motors and looks to be in fantastic condition with 65,000 miles on the clock, AND the original build sheet. These cars are becoming harder and harder to find, so make sure to check out the eBay ad at the link below or click through for more pics.

    Source: eBayMotors.com

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  • Jordan Co. Inks Sale of Reinhold

    The Jordan Co. said Monday it has agreed to sell Reinhold Holdings to HEICO Corp. Financial terms weren’t announced. Reinhold makes advanced custom composite components and complex composite assemblies for commercial aviation, defense and space applications. Lazard advised Reinhold.

    PRESS RELEASE

    The Resolute Fund, L.P., an affiliate of The Jordan Company, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Reinhold Holdings, Inc. (“Reinhold”) to HEICO Corporation (NYSE: HEI.A and HEI). Reinhold is a leading manufacturer of advanced custom composite components and complex composite assemblies for commercial aviation, defense and space applications. Financial details of the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, were not disclosed.
    Acquired by The Jordan Company in 2006 and headquartered in Santa Fe Springs, California, Reinhold produces high-quality, heat resistant, advanced custom composite components and assemblies. Reinhold provides its customers with product integrity, weight reduction and resilience in highly- demanding environments. Its commercial aviation products are primarily composite passenger seating solutions for existing and next-generation large and regional jet aircraft. Its defense and space products serve fail-safe, mission-critical roles for the rocket-propulsion industry.
    “It has been a privilege to partner with the Reinhold management team in building a premier manufacturer of complex composite components and assemblies for safety-critical commercial aviation, defense and space applications,” said Jonathan F. Boucher, Managing Partner at The Jordan Company. “Reinhold provides exceptional service to its expanding list of customers. As part of HEICO, Reinhold is well positioned to further penetrate its growing markets.”
    The Jordan Company worked in partnership with the management team to grow its competitive position through investments in operations and customer relationships. These organic activities have been supplemented by the strategic acquisition of Enpro Engineered Products, Inc. which further expanded the Company’s product portfolio and capabilities.
    “The Jordan Company has been a great partner in supporting the growth and expansion of Reinhold,” said Clarence Hightower, CEO of Reinhold. “Jordan has confidently supported Management by providing the necessary resources and operational guidance, M&A expertise and strategic planning support. With the full support of The Jordan Company, Reinhold has demonstrated significant growth, market share gains and customer satisfaction in its growing Commercial Aircraft and Defense (Domestic and Foreign Military Sales) markets.”
    Lazard acted as exclusive financial advisor to Reinhold. Mayer Brown LLP acted as legal advisor to The Jordan Company.
    About The Jordan Company
    The Jordan Company, founded in 1982, is a leading middle-market private equity firm with approximately $5 billion of capital under management and a successful track record of investing in and growing businesses across a wide range of industries. The firm’s partners have been investing together for more than two decades, establishing The Jordan Company as one of the most experienced and stable investment teams in private equity. The investment team is supported by the firm’s OperationsManagement Group, which initiates and supports operational improvements in portfolio companies. The firm generates deal flow through a well-developed network of sourcing relationships. Headquartered in New York, The Jordan Company also has offices in Chicago and Shanghai. For more information, please refer to www.thejordancompany.com
    About Reinhold Industries, Inc
    Reinhold Holdings, Inc. (“Reinhold”) is a leading manufacturer of advanced custom composite components and complex composite assemblies for commercial aviation, defense and space applications. Its commercial aviation products are primarily composite passenger seating solutions for existing and next-generation large and regional jet aircraft. Its defense and space products serve fail-safe, mission-critical roles for the rocket-propulsion industry.

    The post Jordan Co. Inks Sale of Reinhold appeared first on peHUB.

  • Google Babel to be called Hangouts and might not have SMS/MMS support

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    We have been hearing a lot about Google Babel in recent weeks, which means it will probably be unveiled at Google I/O. The Verge was able to get their hands on a working version of it, and according to them it will be called Hangouts and it will of course have the Holo design. One other interesting tidbit is that it will not have support for SMS/MMS messages, so technically this won’t be a unified messaging system. It might be for Google services, but not as a whole. The last thing that was mentioned was that the icon looks similar to messenger, but it will be green.

    I’m sure Google will unveil lots of new stuff next week with Android 4.3, but it appears that Gmail will get the Holo design and location based reminders is coming to Google Now. These are much needed additions, and I am looking forward to what else Google has up their sleeve.

    source: TheVerge

    Come comment on this article: Google Babel to be called Hangouts and might not have SMS/MMS support

  • Don’t Starve Review (PC)

    The first time I died in Don’t Starve it was at the hands of a pig, who apparently has a number of homes in the woods, and it was mainly my fault: I did not yet understand the fact that I needed to click once for each swing of my axe.

    This game is not about success or even about progress, this is an experience about pure survival, about using the environ… (read more)