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I tasted this cheese two days ago at a dinner party with former cheese colleagues and it stopped us all short. It’s always killer, but this time was different.

No better excuse than this week’s column, I thought, to investigate why.

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Since launch, Android has descended into a confusing soup of hardware manufacturers, carriers and software versions, while Google has watched, helplessly. Starting today, they’re taking Android back: Google’s selling Android phones through a unified store, starting with the Nexus One.

Aside from the best-in-class hardware, the potential for newness with the Nexus One (hands-on here) was centered around how they’d sell it. And they have taken a fresh approach with the Nexus One, to an extent: This is the first Android phone sold directly by Google. They’ve opened a new store, from which they plan to sell Android phones from a variety of carriers and manufacturers—Verizon is up next, presumably with the Droid—and which will serve as a single, unified storefront for basically every Android phone on the market. It’ll be a way for people who want to buy one of those “google phones” they’ve heard about—by which they mean an Android phone—from a storefront that lets them compare not just hardware, but carrier and pricing options.

On its own, Google.com/phone isn’t a game-changer, but its a sign that Google’s aware of how fragmentation—not just in software, but in brand identity—could pull Android down, and that they’re willing to do something about it. [Google]

By MarketWatch

Jan. 5, 2010, 1:46 p.m. EST

READ BUFFETT’S PRESS RELEASE ON KRAFT SHARE ISSUE

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Kraft Foods CEO Irene Rosenfeld got an earful Tuesday, when she was told that her costly pursuit of Cadbury Plc amounts to biting off more than her company can chew.

This blunt criticism comes from none other than billionaire Warren Buffett, the usually reserved head of Berkshire Hathaway which, with a 9.4% stake, is Kraft’s biggest shareholder.

Buffett said “no” to Kraft’s request to issue new shares to finance its hostile bid for the London-based chocolate maker. It’s a rare public rebellion by Buffett, whose call for fiscal accountability counters Rosenfeld’s request for what Buffett labeled a “blank check” for the Cadbury pursuit. See Buffett’s “no” vote.

The timing is perfect. Kraft has just raised its bid for Cadbury, which in turn wasted no time rejecting it, just as it has rejected every overture from Rosenfeld since this trans-Atlantic food fight started back in September.

Sensing Buffett’s move could torpedo a deal, investors playing the takeover arbitrage sent Cadbury’s stock down 3.5%, while Kraft shares jumped 3.5%. It’s tempting to assume Kraft shares are rallying on relief that management might see the folly of pursuing Cadbury at the risk of watering down shareholder value still further.

Kraft has two more weeks to submit another offer. While Cadbury has spurned all of Kraft’s bids as unworthy, its share price has spiked 33%. And let’s face it: All that unsolicited attention can make one giddy.

But Nestle has already said it’s not interested in mounting a rival bid for Cadbury, and the other key contenders, Hershey and Italy’s Ferrero, have been sitting quietly in the wings. So if Buffett blocks the deal, Cadbury risks going back to Square 1. So do its investors.

The same goes for Kraft. In the three years Rosenfeld has led the company, her rounds of job cuts, asset sales and restructuring have yielded little growth.

Which means Buffett’s rebellion can really have it both ways: If it shuts down Kraft’s effort to take over Cadbury, it could force the company to refocus on building the business from within rather than pay top dollar for growth via acquisitions. And, at the same time, Cadbury shareholders could see Buffett’s move as a signal that Kraft’s hands are tied — that it simply can’t keep raising its offer. And if that’s the case, maybe it’s time to take what’s on the table.

Either way, Buffett can take credit for calling everyone’s bluff.

— Jim Jelter

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

Newly-independent Skype is kicking off the Consumer Electronics Show with details about its newest attempt to become an everyday communication utility—not just a tool the techies use. It has brokered deals with Panasonic and LG (SEO: 066570) that will bring Skype video-chats to the big-screen TV.

Skype’s software will be embedded into Panasonic and LG’s web-enabled HDTV’s; the models will be available in mid-2010. For the electronics brands, the goal is to make buying a web-enabled TV even more of a draw, as there’s been some consumer resistance to paying extra for them, per the NYT. Still, video chats on the Skype TVs won’t just magically happen, shoppers will also have to buy special web cams (priced in the $100 – $200 range) from the Skype store.

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• Ebay Successfully Spins Off Skype For $1.9 Billion Cash

Shockingly enough, analyst Maynard J. Um “expects” a new iPhone launching in mid-2010. See, this guy is so smart that we must trust him when he says that he “believes” that a CDMA-based iPhone is coming from Verizon, right? RIGHT?

We believe a CDMA-iPhone is also in the works, though believe Verizon Wireless and Apple may currently be apart on pricing.

When he says “We” he refers to him and the Queen of England. I guess that Verizon’s customers are really waiting for this to happen, but other analysts are calling all this wishful thinking. While we wait to see if he is right or not, I would be polishing my

[Apple Insider]

by Agence France-Presse

OSLO—Think, an electric car maker based in Norway, will assemble its vehicles in the United States next year and hopes to roll out more than 20,000 units a year, the Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday, quoting the group’s chief executive.

The Think City. Photo courtesy Think“Nothing has been finalized yet but a decision is expected today,” a Think spokesman, James Andrew, told AFP.

Think, which will receive local and state incentives, is expected to invest $43.5 million to modernize an assembly plant in Elkhart, Indiana, the Wall Street Journal said.

Several U.S. states had been in competition for the investment.

The newspaper reported that the project was to be officially announced in Indiana on Tuesday.

The plant would have an assembly capacity of more than 20,000 cars a year, but production would be “in the low thousands” in 2011, chief executive Richard Canny said.

The Think City, a small plastic vehicle that seats two adults and two children, is expected to sell for around $30,000, after a tax rebate of some $7,500, the Wall Street Journal said.

After teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, Think was saved in August by a group of investors, including Ener1 of the U.S., the owner of Enerdel which supplies batteries for the Think cars.

Enerdel is the largest shareholder in the carmaker, holding 31 percent.

In northern Europe, production of Think cars was transferred last year from Oslo to a plant in the Finnish town of Uusikaupunki, where the Finnish group Valmet Automotive already assembles models for German sportscar maker Porsche.

The Think City has a maximum speed of 68 miles an hour and a range of 110 miles.

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U.S. car fleet shrank by four million in 2009

Sorry guys, Google’s not changing the game today: the Nexus One will be priced like any other smartphone: $180 on contract with T-Mobile, $530 unlocked, both available through Google’s online store. It’s what we’d heard, if not what we’d dreamt.

Buying the phone on contract with T-Mobile is exactly like buying any other smartphone on T-Mobile, aside from the fact that the storefront you’re purchasing from may be Google’s. If you’re buying it unlocked, though, there are some serious caveats: namely that this is a GSM phone, which means that it’ll only work with T-Mobile or AT&T, and that of the two, the Nexus One is only capable of 3G data connectivity on T-Mobile. So “unlocked” here is more or less meaningless, but hey, no contracts! So there’s that.

Google handed the Nexus One out to employees weeks ago, and we even had a change to play with one—in other words, little was left to mystery with the Nexus One, as phone. As a product, though, it had potential: Google’s a cash-rich company with a habit of giving things away for free, so… free phone? A partially subisidized, no-contract phone? A Google telco company? Ha, nope. But still, it’s a hell of a phone at a reasonable price, so that’s worth something. [Google, Nexus One Liveblog]

UPDATE: Existing T-Mobile customers are pretty much getting screwed on the Nexus One discount. Only new customers are eligible for the $180 price.

Veo los modelos que se han presentado en la Auto Expo de Nueva Delhi, en la India, y pienso que el tiempo de los coches pequeños ya está aqui. Ya hablamos sobre la importancia que los salones asiáticos del automóvil han tomado, incluso me atrevo a decir que llegarán a eclipsar a los salones conocidos.

Pero vayamos al grano. El Honda Small Concept, al igual que el Toyota Etios, es un coche que inicialmente sólo competirá a nivel local con el famoso, a estas alturas, Tata Nano. Y para ello ha sido presentado, aunque los datos entregados por Honda con respecto al modelo sean bastante escasos.

El Honda New Small Concept fue presentado sin motor y sin interiores. Por cierto, Honda tiene la posibilidad de hechar mano a unos cuantos motores pequeños de su línea, aunque sea un misterio la decisión final; hay que tener en cuenta que el New Small Concept es un coche pensado para el segmento bajo, de manera que sus costos de producción deben ser bajos para cumplir con ciertos objetivos y que el coche cueste un precio reducido.

De todas maneras, el Tata Nano quedará seriamente afectado contra este coche desde el punto de vista del diseño, lo que se comprueba nada más de ver las fotos. ¿Cuanto costará? ¿Llegará algún día a Europa? Nadie lo sabe, por ahora. Sólo podemos asegurar que el New Small Concept será lanzado al mercado asiático como modelo 2011. El tiempo de los coches pequeños ha llegado, y si son como este concepto, bienvenidos sean.

Honda New Small Concept

Vía | Autoblog

As the global economy limps out of the last decade and enters a new one in 2010, what will be the next big driver of global growth? Here’s betting that the “teens” is a decade in which artificial intelligence hits escape velocity, and starts to have an economic impact on par with the emergence of India and China.

Admittedly, my perspective is heavily colored by events in the world of chess, a game I once played at a professional level and still follow from a distance. Though special, computer chess nevertheless offers both a window into silicon evolution and a barometer of how people might adapt to it.

Read the full article at Project Syndicate –>

Join the conversation about this story »

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by Tom Laskawy

The New York Times has another piece encouraging a flare-up in the cage match between organic farmers and those in favor of genetic engineering as the solution to future food needs. This one is centered on the “unlikely” but happy marriage of a plant geneticist and an organic farmer:

Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak have every reason not to get along.

Ronald, a plant scientist, has spent her past two decades manipulating rice from her lab bench, bending the grain’s DNA to her whim. Adamchak, meanwhile, is an organic farmer, teaching college students the best practices of an environmentally gentle agriculture at his California market garden.

As Adamchak confesses, few have been more vociferously opposed to the genetic engineering practiced by Ronald than his organic movement, which has steadily grown in recent years to constitute an influential, if tiny, part of the U.S. farm system. So it can come as some surprise when Ronald and Adamchak let slip that they have been happily married for more than a decade.

Such a union should not be shocking, the couple argues. And a more modest version—sans marriage—must be considered by any farmer or consumer hoping for a sustainable future for agriculture.

… To spread their message to two communities that rarely speak in measured terms, Ronald and Adamchak have written a book, Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food, which came out in paperback last month.

What Adamchak and Ronald pursue in the book is in essence a unified theory of farming. While critical of Western seed companies that have co-opted genetically modified (GM) crops for questionable business practices, the couple argues that both current and future generations of altered crops will, if responsibly managed, allow much of the world’s hungry to be fed from land already degraded by the plow’s slice and the tractor’s compressing wheel.

Photo courtesy illuminating9_11 via FlickrIn addition to offering the shocking revelation that opposites attract, this news gets the usual contrarian suspects cheering. But to read the article, you’d think there are all these fantastic genetically engineering seeds just waiting to be planted if only the “powerful” organic lobby would let it happen. Only there aren’t. Not a one. And while Ronald, the plant scientist, urges open-mindedness among sustainable agriculture folks, her own major plant breeding project on flood-tolerant rice uses advanced breeding techniques and not genetic engineering.

It’s worth revisiting a Newsweek article from the summer that talked about the “return” of conventional breeding as the favored technique for developing new crops:

Part of the story is that conventional breeding can still do certain things extremely well—even better than genetic manipulation. What GM techniques are best at is isolating particularly useful bits of DNA in a prized plant, and transferring that single gene to another plant that is less well endowed. (In the best-known example, Monsanto spliced a gene from naturally herbicide-tolerant grass into soybeans, so farmers could apply the chemicals without killing their crops.) Conventional breeding still does better at building up qualities that require a complex suite of genes, such as the ability to fight off certain insects or to resist drought, which involves a host of genes that determine the way plants take up and manage water.

Roland would surely agree. And the fact is that the agricultural challenges before us require more than dropping in a gene here or there. To date, genetic engineering techniques have simply not shown themselves to be up to the task. The result is that the debate over GMOs as a sustainable solution remains entirely theoretical. The existing GMO seed lines require heavy doses of synthetic fertilizer and water (in the case of the Bt crops mentioned in the article) or heavy doses of synthetic pesticides, fertilizer, and water (in the case of Roundup Ready crops, the only other GMO seed line), neither of which are consistent with organic—or sustainable—practices.

In essence, this is an argument about federal research dollars not an argument about which seeds to plant. Wake me up when Monsanto invents a seed that can actually do all the things they’ve been promising us for the last couple of decades. In fact, don’t. It’s likely to be decades and decades before someone sees fit to rouse me. I could use the sleep.

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The Nexus One is here, and it brings gifts: Google Earth, a fantastic app that was inexplicably released for the iPhone before its parent company’s mobile OS, is coming to the App Market.

So how is it better than Google Earth on the iPhone? Voice search. Just say where you want to go. And we’re betting the whole experience is a bit smoother thanks to the Nexus One’s oomphier internals.

Posted by Neil Hume on Jan 05 13:41.

… who also delivers an almighty slapdown to Kraft.

In early afternoon trading on Tuesday, shares in the UK confectioner were hit hard – falling over 4% to 770p

The reason? Warren Buffett, who has thrown a rather big spanner in the works.

From a statement just released by Berskhire Hathway.

Omaha, NE (BRK.A; BRK.B)—Berkshire Hathaway has voted “no” on Kraft’s proposal to authorize the issuance of up to 370 million shares to facilitate the acquisition of Cadbury. Berkshire, taking into account both its own holdings and those of its pension funds, believes that the 138,272,500 Kraft shares it owns – 9.4% of the total outstanding – make it the company’s largest shareholder.

The share-issuance proposal, if enacted, will give Kraft a blank check allowing it to change its offer to Cadbury – in any way it wishes – from the transaction presented to shareholders in the proxy statement. And we worry very much that, indeed, there will be an additional change from the revision announced this morning. To state the matter simply, a shareholder voting “yes” today is authorizing a huge transaction without knowing its cost or the means of payment.

Our understanding is that Kraft must announce its final offer for Cadbury by January 19th. If we conclude at that point that the offer does not destroy value for Kraft shareholders, we will change our vote to “yes.” At this time, however, we believe no shareholder should vote “yes” when he can’t possibly know what he is voting for.

Oh dear. This is very embarrassing for Kraft – its biggest shareholder is clearly not onside as far as the Cadbury bid goes.

Buffett’s beef is that Kraft shares are a very expensive acquisition currency.

What we know with certainty, however, is that Kraft stock, at its current price of $27, is a very expensive “currency” to be used in an acquisition. In 2007, in fact, Kraft spent $3.6 billion to repurchase shares at about $33 per share, presumably because the directors and management thought the shares to be worth more.

Does the board now believe those purchases were a mistake and that Kraft’s true value is only the current price of $27 per share – and that it is therefore fine to structure a major acquisition based upon that price? Would the directors use stock as merger currency if the price were, say, $20 per share? Surely the true business value of what is given is as important as the true business value of what is received when an acquisition is being evaluated. We hope all shareholders will use this yardstick in deciding how to vote.

And all this on a day when Kraft removed Nestle from the Cadbury auction with a neat side deal.

Of course, the sale of Kraft’s North American North American frozen pizza business to the Swiss for $3.7bn goes some way to addressing Buffett’s concern; Kraft is offering Cadbury shareholders the option of receiving an extra 60p per share in cash instead of some of the Kraft shares.

But it seems this is not enough, which raises the question of whether Kraft will be forced to make further disposals – its coffee assets for example – if it wants to secure Buffett’s backing. Importantly, though, there is still time for Kraft to do this or at least make a commitment to do so.

At the moment we don’t know whether a Buffett ‘no’ vote can de-rail Kraft’s bid for Cadbury, but this post will be updated when we do. That said, it is probably worth assuming that many Kraft shareholders will follow Buffett’s lead.

Of course this could all be irrelevant because if Kraft does not increase its offer Cadbury shareholders will probably vote ‘no’ as well.

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

Ke$ha performed “Tik Tok” live on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Tuesday…..Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Since when is slithering around stage and talking through a song considered performing? I’ve heard more talented vocalists in a middle school choir.

Are you looking ahead to Valentine’s Day? If you are planning a romantic dinner at home, break out this special cocktail infused with Dos Lunas tequila. This recipe is a nice twist to a traditional glass of champagne and it uses pomegranate juice for a splash of Valentine’s Day color.

Image: Dos Lunas

Makes 2 Cocktails

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces Dos Lunas Silver Tequila
• 2 ounces Orange Flavored Liqueur
• 2 ounces Pomegranate Juice
• Chilled Champagne

Method:

Place Dos Lunas Silver Tequila, orange flavored liqueur and pomegranate juice into a large cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake to blend and chill. Strain evenly between two champagne flutes. Top with chilled champagne. Stir gently.

Post from: Blisstree

Valentine’s Day Cocktails: Dos Amores

It’s still hard to say whether a warming climate will hurt the world’s economy. But if history is any guide, it’s likely to increase the gap between rich and poor.

In a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association, Ben Olken of MIT and Ben Jones of Northwestern University make an important discovery: In poor countries, a temperature increase of only one degree Celsius reduces annual export growth by as much as 5.7 percentage points. The decline occurs in a wide variety of products, ranging from footwear to firearms. In rich countries, by contrast, Messrs. Olken and Jones find no effect.

That’s troubling, given the fact that scientists expect the global climate to warm by two to five degrees Celsius over the next 90 years. “To the extent that the historical impact is a reasonable predictor of the future impact, we should be particularly concerned about the effect of warming on poor countries,” says Mr. Olken.

The new results support previous research done by Messrs. Olken and Jones together with Melissa Dell of MIT. That research found that in poor countries, a one-degree-Celsius temperature rise was associated with a drop in annual economic growth of one to two percentage points. Again, they found no effect in rich countries.

Why poor countries? Mr. Olken says it’s hard to know. One possibility is that poor countries are more vulnerable because they’re more dependent on agriculture, though the export data suggest that’s not the whole story. Another is that poorer countries have less access to air conditioning. Finding an explanation is “an important area for further research,” says Mr. Olken.

For journalists, the Joel Tenenbaum P2P case has been the gift that keeps on giving. Case in point: the team’s court filing asking for either a new trial or a vastly reduced damage award. It turns out that the labels were at least partially responsible for Tenenbaum’s years of P2P sharing.

“Plaintiffs, in August 2004, could reasonably be considered to have been at least partially responsible for the widespread dispersion of their recordings over peer-to-peer networks like Napster and Kazaa,” writes Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson, Tenenbaum’s lawyer.

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Not long after Google announced it had acquired mobile advertising firm AdMob, Apple has announced the acquisition of its own mobile advertising firm, Quattro Wireless. The announcement came today just after All Things D broke the rumor that the deal was imminent. Quattro cofounder and CEO Andrew Miller has been named vice president of mobile advertising for Apple as part of the deal.

Apple paid a reported $275 million for Quattro, a much better deal than Google ended up paying for rival mobile ad firm AdMob. Google ponied up $750 million in an attempt to outbid Apple, which had also reportedly made an offer for the company. That price is approximately 16.7 times AdMob’s sales, “the sort of price rarely seen in takeover deals since the heady days of the dot-com boom,” according to Reuters.

Google contends that its acquisition of AdMob is meant to compliment its own search- and Web-based advertising, though it’s worth noting that AdMob ads are featured prominently in many free, ad-supported iPhone applications. The FTC is currently investigating the deal between AdMob and Google, and there is an implication that Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s recently vacated position on Apple’s board of directors may have made him privy to Apple’s plans to move into mobile advertising.

Meanwhile, shortly after Google announced a partnership with streaming music service Lala, Apple announced that it had acquired the company. It is believed that Apple plans to incorporate Lala into iTunes and extend the iTunes Store with streaming-based options in addition to downloads. In the meantime, the deal with Google remains in place.

Given Apple’s foray into cloud-based services such as MobileMe and iWork.com, and the company’s integration of services with its mobile devices, it’s certain that the acquisition of Quattro will fit into Apple’s growing mobile strategy. The company may be leveraging mobile advertising opportunities for a long-rumored tablet product expected to be announced later this month. It could also be offering a way to advertise on the iPhone. Apple did not respond to a request for comment on its mobile advertising plans.

With Google’s plan to offer the Nexus One smartphone directly to consumers, its Android smartphone OS, and its array of online services and online advertising, it’s clear that the rivalry between Apple and Google is kicking into high gear.

What is a “Brief” post?”

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