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UK online phone retailer Omio.com have listed their top 10 phones of 2009, and HTC’s latest smartphones firmly head the top of the list.

The HTC Hero takes the first postion, but second is HTC’s monster smartphone, the HTC HD2.  Calling the HD2 is “the perfect poster boy for the next generation of Windows phones”, the note the device is the “equally at home being a business device as it is a multimedia powerhouse.”

The iPhone 3GS was felt to merely re-iterate rather than revolutionize, and took up the number 3 spot.

Another much vaunted handset, the Palm Pre, only took up 6th spot after disappointing UK sales.

See the full list at Omio.com

‘Write a book critical of the CIA — you
cannot fly. Carry explosives (allegedly from Yemen) on board when the
US is trolling for an excuse to invade and occupy Yemen for its oil –
yes you can! The US needs false flags to provide cover for illegal
invasions and occupations. The 9/11 terrorist attacks (aka inside job,
six ways to Sunday) worked well for the US government; the
security-industrial complex made billions and US corporaterrorists were
able to negotiate the wholesale theft of Iraq’s oil.’

Read more…

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Photoshop comes with various selections tools you could utilize to specify what region of an image you want to manipulate. Once you have a selection area defined using these tools, the software will preserve all pixel information outside the selected region. Selection tools are compatible with each other regardless of their corresponding operations, thus, you could create pixel precise selection regions via any number of steps to define the region itself.

You can find the selection tools right under the Move tool in the toolbox. By default, Photoshop gives you the Rectangular Marquee Tool – hotkey: m – which lets you define a rectangular selection region. The simplest selection you could create in Photoshop is to define a custom rectangular shape with the Rectangular Marquee Tool, though it also is the method to define an area that you want to keep from an image. With a document of your choosing opened, go ahead and designate an area of the document using a rectangular selection. Now try using manipulative tools like a Brush or even Filters on the image. You will see that pixels outside this simple selection will not be affected by the actions you perform, but pixels inside the selection region will be manipulated.

In case you want to define an area of an image that you want to keep without the rest of it, first create the desired selection using the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Now go to Image – > Crop. The picture is restructured and now you are free to deactivate the selection by going to Select – > Deselect, or by relying on the hotkey combination of the same command: „CTRL + d”.

As you have just seen, the Rectangular Marquee Tool gives you a method to define rectangular selections with custom proportions to the shape. In case you need to constrain these proportions to be a mathematically precise rectangle though, you could rely on the SHIFT  modifier key after you started to define the region. Go ahead and draw a column or a row with the Rectangular Marquee Tool, but do not release the mouse button. Instead, hold down SHIFT while still pressing the mouse. As you will see, the proportions will be constrained to a precise rectangle and will maintan this shape as long as the modifier key is pressed.

Additional Selection Modifiers with the left mouse button pressed

There are additional hotkeys you could rely on whenever you define a selection region. The most important thing to keep in mind is to keep the left mouse button pressed until you are happy with the selection. Once you release the button, the current selection will be amended and you will not be able to customize it without adding to- or subsrtacting from it. As long as you keep the mouse button pressed down though, additional modifiers could be invoked.

In the previous example, you constrained a rectangular selection region to maintain the shape of a mathematically precise rectangle, by using the SHIFT modifier key without releasing the mouse button. Now try the SPACE modifier with the mouse button pressed: this hotkey will let you translate the active selection region on both axes. Now give a try to the ALT modifier: this hotkey will set the pivot point of the selection to its center, giving you a whole different method to generate the selection by. The best aspect of these modifier keys is that they are stackable on each other. They will not interfere with each other at all and will remember their corresponding functions even if invoked simultaneously.

Additional Selection Modifiers without the left mouse button pressed

Once you are happy with the current state of the selection, you can release the mouse button, thus amending the selection state. This is where the creation of more complex selections may start from, according to the current need. Once you have created the region, do not change the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Press and hold down the SHIFT modifier once again, instead. As you will see, the cursor will show a tiny “+” sign as long as you keep the modifier key pressed, indicating that a consecutive selection with the Rectangular Marquee Tool will add pixels to the selection area. Now press and hold down the ALT modifier. The cursor will display a tiny “-“ sign, indicating that a consecutive selection will subtract from the region.

Finer Shapes, Finer Selections

You have seen how to generate rectangular selections and how to manipulate those by relying on various modifier keys. To make the selection regions as fine as possible though, you need to be able to define elliptical and even free form regions. Photoshop gives you all these tools and the techniques you have just learned are all compatible with them. To access these tools, click on the tiny arrow on the right side of the Rectangular Marquee Tool’s icon, or press right click on it. This will give you access to the other selection tools that are components of this particular tool group: the Elliptical Marquee Tool and the Single Row- and Single Column Marquee Tools.

The Lasso Tool, right below the Marquee Tools, also comes in different variants. The Lasso Tool lets you define free form selection regions. Its two additional variants, the Polygonal Lasso Tool and the Magnetic Lasso Tool are valuable companions with a similar aim. The Polygonal Lasso Tool will let you define an area using straight lines. Once you are happy with the selection, press ENTER to amend it. In case you want to step backward to a previous point, use BACKSPACE.

The Magnetic Lasso Tool has contrast sensitivity, thus it will do a fairly nice automatic job of guessing what you may want to select. Using these straightforward selection tools and their universal modifier keys, complex manual selections could be made.

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Arts Museum Journal (Stan Parchin)

With photos.

The reinstallation of the Islamic art galleries at the Brooklyn Museum includes works from the 8th Century to modern times. Opened on June 5, 2009, the permanent display highlights 134 objects from some 1,700 in an American collection considered top-notch by art historians. Twenty works have never before or rarely been seen by the public.

Arts of the Islamic World Collection
Especially strong in later Iranian art, the Brooklyn Museum’s Islamic holdings come from North Africa, the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia. On view are illustrated and illuminated manuscripts, calligraphies, drawings, oil paintings, ceramics, glass, metal- and woodwork, carpets, costumes, textiles, jewelry and architectural elements. Originally part of the Department of Ethnology in 1903, the collection was administered by the Department of Asian Art from the 1980s until 2007.

The museum’s reinstallation uses new signage, explanatory texts and maps to describe the thematically arranged works from Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and other countries.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Egypt State Information Service

The Ministry of Culture has completed renovation works of Alexandria Royal Jewelry Museum in preparation for inaugurating it at the beginning of 2010.

The Museum has been supplied with the state-of-the-art showcases suitable for exhibiting valuable jewelry that were owned by Mohamed Ali family. Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, Alexandria Governor, Dr. Zahi Hawas will attend the ceremony.

Minister Hosni said the project took three years to complete and cost LE50 million.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

12/28/2009 11:21 AM ET

Transportation stocks are showing notable weakness during trading on Monday, with railroad stocks weighing down the sector by a considerable margin. The weakness comes after some pessimistic comments about the railroad sector in a report from Barron’s.

The losses by railroad stocks are contributing to a 1.1 percent loss by the Dow Jones Railroads Index. With the loss, the index is pulling back off of the fourteen month closing high set last Thursday.

The pullback comes after Barron’s said comments from the management of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) indicated that the economy and subsequently the railroad industry would not begin to see a substantial recovery until the year 2011.

Despite the comments, Burlington Northern stock is showing a lack of direction and its currently up by only 0.1 percent, as it remains in a tight trading range.

The previous significant move for the stock came in early November, when billionaire investor Warren Buffet announced he reached a deal for his firm Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A) to buy the rail transport firm for $100 per share.

Meanwhile, Trinity Industries Inc. (TRN) and CSX Corp. (CSX) are two of the sector’s steepest decliners, falling by 2.4 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively. Trinity remains in a recent trading range, while CSX is pulling back off of Thursday’s fifteen month closing high.

Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (GWR), Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC) and Union Pacific Corp. (UNP) are also retreating, moving off of their recent highs, while American Railcar Industries (ARII) is bucking the downtrend in the sector, rising by 4.2 percent.

by RTT Staff Writer

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Article Tags: Harvey M. Sheldon, Law/Policy

Green believers give no indication of slowing their quest for carbon dioxide control. On December 7, 2009, coincident with the convening of the since-failed Climate Conference in Copenhagen, the USEPA made final the “finding” that greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, threaten human health and the environment.

According to alarmists and the Obama administration, there is a scientific “consensus” that man’s activities threaten our planet with detrimental global warming, dangerous sea-level rise, disease, and more destructive storms. Even though the North Pole had open water in the 1940s, and temperatures were higher both in the middle ages and 7,000 years ago, we are said to be in danger. An atmospheric trace gas (CO2) is the supposed culprit, even though plants depend on it to live and there used to be much more of it in the atmosphere.

On December 9, news reports said “the Obama administration is warning Congress that if it doesn’t move to regulate greenhouse gases, the Environmental Protection Agency will take a ‘command-and-control’ role over the process in a way that could hurt business.” The threat is to use the Clean Air Act.

Source: americanthinker.com

Read in full with comments »   

Filed under: Government/Legal, Marketing/Advertising, Honda

All Honda wanted to do was save the Earth, one gallon of gasoline at a time. It turns out, though, that in the act of saving said Earth, the Japanese automaker stepped on a few toes – namely, those of Save the Earth Enterprises, an environmental group based in the United States.

See where this is going? That’s right, Save the Earth Enterprises, which trademarked the slogan ‘Save the Earth’ way back in 1972, has sued Honda and its advertising agency, Rubin Postaer & Co., for infringement. The lawsuit seeks to recover Honda’s profits from a recent ad campaign for the Civic and to stop future use by Honda of the Save the Earth trademark.

“The Honda ad campaign confused people into thinking that we endorsed Honda or were affiliated with Honda. We aren’t affiliated with them and don’t endorse them,” said Neal Pargman of Save the Earth Foundation in a statement you’ll find after the jump. The statement adds that Honda ignored cease-and-desist letters from the foundation. Perhaps they were too busy… saving the earth? Check out the official press release after the jump for the details.

[Source: Save the Earth Foundation]

Continue reading Environmental group sues Honda for “Save The Earth” trademark infringement

Environmental group sues Honda for “Save The Earth” trademark infringement originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stating concerns about Google’s dominance in the mobile advertising market and lack of competition, two consumer groups have asked the Federal Trade Commission to block Google’s $750 million acquisition of AdMob.

In a joint letter to the FTC, Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Digital Democracy said Google (NSDQ: GOOG) argued that Google is buying its way to dominance in the mobile advertising, by diminishing the competition “to the detriment of consumers.” In the letter, the two agencies wrote: “The mobile sector is the next frontier of the digital revolution. Without vigorous competition and strong privacy guarantees this vital and growing segment of the online economy will be stifled,” according to a press release. More interestingly, the two groups said the deal raises substantial privacy concerns because both companies gather tremendous amounts of data about consumers’ online behavior, including their location.

When Google originally announced the deal, it believed it would easily be granted federal approval because the mobile market is so nascent. However, on Dec. 23, Google said the acquisition was being held up because the FTC has issued what is called a “second request,” which means that the regulatory body believes it is necessary to have more information to review deal. Now, the deal will be delayed for at least 30 days, so we can assume the deal won’t close until February.

BEIJING, Dec. 28 (UPI) — China adopted an amendment to its renewable energy law Saturday that requires utilities to buy all the power produced by generators of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. Power enterprises that refuse to …

Remember the story of the Russian police officers who went on YouTube and recorded videos condemning rampant corruption throughout the police force? The most prominent among them, Maj. Alexey Dymovsky, has not only been fired from his job – this morning he had fraud charges filed against him for allegedly embezzling $800 while working as a narcotics officer. Dymovsky’s public cry for help has been viewed almost 1 million times on YouTube.

Mark this down as an example of YouTube proving an effective way for whistle-blowers around the world to get the word out but not necessarily to stay safe in doing so. It’s long been hoped that easy online publishing would enable more people to challenge authoritarian governments – but it’s not clear yet whether those governments care.

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Of course it’s possible that Mr. Dymovsky really did embezzle $800 during his time as a cop and perhaps he should be thankful just for being alive so far after challenging corrupt police. None the less, it’s hard not to suspect that these charges were filed as more retribution for the YouTube videos. Being sent to prison after being so visibly critical of Russian police is presumably not something that would be good for Mr. Dymovsky.

Two years ago Egyptian police watch-dog blogger Wael Abbas had his videos pulled from YouTube because the company said they violated Terms of Service against showing violence on the site, though they were reposted after international criticism.

Will the Russian police officer Mr. Dymovsky receive the same type of international support now that he faces charges, perhaps effectively for speaking to the world? These early cases will likely help determine how useful these new, democratizing social media technologies really are in improving everyday peoples’ circumstances around the world.

If people in trouble can use social media to speak to the world at large, but the world doesn’t care, then perhaps we’ll all have to stick to playing Farmville instead of using this Internet thing for more important matters.

Discuss

By Eric Rosenbaum 12/28/09 – 11:39 AM EST

OMAHA, Neb. (TheStreet) — It was not the finest of years for Warren Buffett — indeed, the top ten Berkshire Hathway(BRK.B Quote) holdings have significantly trailed the best S&P index returns in 2009, according to data as of the last week of December.

Most of the Berkshire top ten finished the year ahead of share prices on Dec. 31, 2008 — with the exception of Wells Fargo(WFC Quote).

Still, gains made by Warren Buffet’s biggest portfolio holdings were relatively small when compared to the best performing stock sectors in 2009. The broad recovery throughout the U.S. economy in the second half of 2009 was reflected to a much-lesser extent in Buffett’s biggest bets.

The best-performing stock sectors in 2009 were led by the S&P 500 Healthcare Facilities Index, which was up more than 380% through Dec. 23. The S&P 500 Automobile Manufacturers Index was up 232% through Dec. 23. The S&P 500 Real Estate Services (219%) and Dividend Metals & Minerals (217%) indexes were also both up more than 200% in 2009.

Buffett has always made it clear there are certain sectors he just won’t play in as he doesn’t understand them — the Internet sector most notable among the Buffett-mystifiers. And in 2009, the stocks Buffett does understand couldn’t touch the Internet. The S&P 500 Internet Retail Index was the fifth-best performing sector in 2009, up 183% through Dec. 23.

Even the best-performing of Berkshire Hathaway’s top ten significantly trailed the returns of the fifth-best sector performance, S&P 500 Internet Retail. American Express(AXP Quote), of which Berkshire Hathaway owns 13%, was up more than 120% in 2009, from $18.55 on Dec. 31, 2008, to $41.70 on Dec. 28, 2009.

Among financial stocks, it was a mixed bag for Berkshire Hathaway in 2009, as the gains made by American Express were offset by the continued slump at Wells Fargo(WFC Quote). Buffett owns close to 7% of Wells Fargo, which declined from $29.48 at the beginning of 2009, to $26.91 on Dec. 28, 2009.

Kraft(symbol Quote), of which Berkshire Hathaway owns 9%, inched out minor gains in 2009, from a Dec. 31, 2008 share price of $26.85, to $27.36 on Monday.

Gains made by Coca-Cola(KO Quote), of which Buffett also owns approximately 9%, were at the level of the broad market. Coca-Cola shares rose from $45.27 at the outset of 2009 to $57.40 on Dec. 28, or a gain of roughly 21%, on par with the S&P 500 Index 2009 returns.

Berkshire Hathaway’s biggest holding, Wesco Financial(WSC Quote), rose from $288 to $343 through Dec. 28. Berkshire owns 80% of Wesco.

Burlington Northern(BNI Quote), increased from $75.70 to $98.40 after Buffett announced the premium he was paying for the railroad shares. Berkshire owned 22% of Burlington Northern ahead of the proposed complete takeover.

The Washington Post(WPO Quote), of which Buffett owns 18%, rose from $390 to $445 by Dec. 28, or a gain of 12%, still well short of the broad market.

Moody’s(MCO Quote), in which Berkshire Hathaway has been decreasing its 13.5% stake, gained from $20.00 to $27.47 by Dec. 28. Still, the 2009 gain of 27% for Moody’s was nowhere near the best S&P sector gains in 2009. What’s more, the fact that Buffett was decreasing his Moody’s stake throughout 2009, while big holdings like Kraft and Coca-Cola trailed the markets, did not help the return profile of Berkshire’s biggest bets.

Paul Howard, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott’s Langen McAlenney division, said while the biggest Berkshire Hathaway bets clearly were not aligned with the best-performing stock sectors in 2009 — and, in fact, significantly lagged for the most part — Buffett did make some great investments in 2009 that should perform well over time. Howard pointed to the deals Buffett struck for preferred shares in Goldman Sachs(GS Quote) and General Electric(GE Quote).

Howard noted that the Goldman investment has already proven a “home run” and, especially in a low-yield environment like the current one, both financial sector investments should perform well over time.

— Reported by Eric Rosenbaum in New York.

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If you’re displeased with Verizon’s new $350 early termination fee (ETF) on “advanced devices,” don’t worry – the FCC is too.  Last week, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn sent out a letter to Verizon’s reply, and in short, she’s not pleased. 

Among other arguments, she makes the point that ETF’s have migrated from being tied to the true full retail cost of the device to being something that foots “the bill for advertising costs, commissions for sales personnel, and store costs.”  She implies that the costs to advertise and operate retail locations can be (and are) recouped in high monthly fees for voice and data.  A higher penalty isn’t needed in her book, particularly a high penalty near the end of the agreement.

What’s more, she claims that phantom fees are being charged, despite Verizon’s reports that state otherwise.  Citing “press reports and consumer complaints,” she has vowed to investigate the matter further with her colleagues next year.  Sounds like some bad news for Verizon.  Anyone agree?

Via: Engadget

Pre-toting people around the Internets have been hoping and praying that Palm would add video recording support to the Pre ever since the device launched. When Palm’s CEO Jon Rubinstein mentioned that webOS 1.3.5 would be hitting the Pre in just a few days, people started getting antsy; surely this would be the one that brought video, right?

No such luck. While it does fix a handful of issues (most importantly, they’ve upped the number of apps you can have installed at once), the lack of video isn’t one of them.

The official patch notes are pretty minimal, but here’s what Sprint has to say:

* Improvement in battery life optimization when in marginal coverage areas.
* QCELP capability fix to allow play and audio of video sent via MMS.
* Launch Google Maps or Sprint Nav when tapping an address from contacts.
* Minimized package of MR size through binary difference. Customers can now download over 2G connections if necessary.

We’ve heard a few reports of 1.3.5 hitting handsets already – let us know when you get it, would you?

[Via PreCentral]

Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

You may recall that about a year ago, Trent Reznor jokingly mentioned that 400 gigs of high definition video footage of some shows from Nine Inch Nail’s previous tour had been released online “by a mysterious, shadowy group of subversives.” Not only that, he noted “I’ll bet some enterprising fans could assemble something pretty cool.” Now, of course it was Rezor’s own people who were “leaking” the content, but we’d been hearing all sorts of cool things about what they were doing, and on Christmas Eve they officially released what they had put together called “Another Version Of The Truth: The Gift.” It’s an amazing display of crowdsourced teamwork by a group calling itself “This One Is On Us,” a play on Reznor’s statement when he released “The Slip” as a completely free download, when he said “This one’s on me.”

As they note, it took 12 months, involving a “core team of dozens (with a network of thousands), spanning 3 continents, 4 languages, 5 specialist teams [and] countless sleepless nights.” And what did they come out with? Well, it’s a concert video that’s available in pretty much any format you might want (and they’re still adding more). In fact you’ll soon be able to get it in Blu-ray. But in the meantime, you can get it in standard DVD of dual layer DVD formats. You can get it for the PS3 or as a basic .MOV file. There’s a version catering to those who want to watch on an iPod, and (of course) it’s on YouTube.

And as we’re being told how awful BitTorrent is and how various torrent trackers and search engines need to be shut down, the folks behind this effort released it under a Creative Commons license, and people are being told that they “are encouraged to seed for as long as possible.” As for Reznor himself? He notes that he’s “blown away” and reminded (yet again) that Nine Inch Nails fans “kick ass.”

But Bittorrent can’t be used for any legitimate purpose, right? And musicians can’t possibly embrace what the technology allows? Once again, we’re seeing why those who embrace what technology allows will do just fine moving forward. It’s only those who think that the answer is to bring out the lawyers and try to hold back progress who will find themselves struggling to create business models that work.

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Paul Wallis at Digitaljournal.com shines a light one on of the bigger beneath-the-surface stories of 2009, which is the wild scale of Australian debt:

It’s a pretty hideous story. Our “recovery” and “growth” turn out to be debt based. Like one of the cartoons where the coyote keeps running for a while over going over the cliff, Australia’s debt is now more than GDP. 90 per cent of that debt is tied up in mortgages. The rest is various forms of personal debt. What’s much worse is that these figures have apparently been sitting around for a while, gathering accolades, not concern.

Now- the story here is that: 1. Australia’s GDP is just over $1 trillion per year. 2. Net debt is $1.2 trillion. 3. There are only 21 million people in the entire country. 4. The housing market was propped up by a Federal and State First Home Buyers grant for a year or so, which has apparently added fuel to the situation as interest rates rise. 5. Most houses are ridiculously overpriced anyway. 6. Debt levels currently account for 39% of income. 7. Stress levels on debts kick in according to analysts at 41%. 8. Severe stress starts at 43%.

That Australia is debt-fueld and bubbly has been talked about for awhile, though defenders of Oz will in turn point out that as long as China maintains its incredible growth and voracious demand for materials, Australia is in fine shape. And to some extent that’s true, except that this is a huge “if” we’re talking about.

From the sound of it, it wouldn’t appear that China needs to crash, just hiccough and the whole thread could unravel.

See here for our full guide to the Australia bubble — >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Australia: Copper Production To Slow Next Year, Global Shortage Coming
• Why Investors Are Going Crazy For Australia
• China Should Just Buy Australia

Over the weekend, I had a little debate with a friend on why Buick’s have gotten better and should be more attractive to the younger crowd. However, I couldn’t seem to get the image of very old people driving the same car he would if he were to buy a Buick.

As reported earlier this morning, Buick’s new boss Brian Sweeney, is looking for ways to attract younger buyers to Buick vehicles. Currently, the average age of a Buick shopper is 70 while the average age of a U.S. car buyer is 52. However, a third of the buyers of the 2010 LaCrosse (see our review here) are 55 or younger.

Next year, Buick will add the 2011 Buick Regal sedan, of which a high-performance GS version is expected to debut at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show next month.

With that in mind, and if you’re between the ages of 20-40, would you buy a Buick LaCrosse, Enclave or Regal.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below and give Sweeney Todd some tips on how he can attract younger buyers to Buick.

– By: Omar Rana

The investment strategist who profitably shorted Berkshire Hathaway’s stock in 2008 has a bold forecast for 2010.

Appearing as guest host on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning, Seabreeze Partners’ Doug Kass predicted Warren Buffett will step down in the coming year.

As he ran down a series of coming surprises with Joe Kernen and Carl Quintanilla, Kass told viewers, “With the Burlington Northern acquisition, the Oracle has basically completed his canvas and there’s really very little left for him to do.”

The prediction is number 12 of “Dougie’s Top 20 Surprises for 2010,” as listed last week in a Barron’s blog:

12. Warren Buffett steps down. Warren Buffett announces that he is handing over the investment reins to a Berkshire outsider and that he plans to also announce his in-house successor as chief operating officer by Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in 2011.

(Kass has his own post on the subject today in a paying-subscribers-only section of TheStreet.com.)

Short seller Doug Kass, as seen on TheStreet.com

While Kass says he “worships” at Buffett’s “investing altar,” he’s been very critical of Buffett over the past two years. In January, Kass wrote that “Buffett’s salad days seem to be over; the only question that remains is the timing and to what degree investors will abandon the Oracle of Omaha.”

Buffett has repeatedly said he has no intention of quitting at Berkshire anytime soon because he loves his work so much.

Unless he suffers some unexpected physical or mental impairment, it’s hard to imagine that he would be any happier doing anything other than going into his Omaha office each day looking for more ways to make money.

Current Berkshire stock prices:

Class A: [BRK.A 98715.00 -180.00 (-0.18%) ]

Class B: [BRK.B 3285.25 — UNCH (0) ]

Topics:CEOs and CFOs | Warren Buffett

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Korea Telecom, the country’s second-largest mobile carrier, is buying a 25 percent stake in Omnitel China to enter the mobile content business in China.

Omnitel is a one of South Korea’s largest mobile developers, and has a Chinese affiliate that has been providing mobile video-on-demand and other content to China’s leading mobile carriers, reports The Korea Times. It is unknown how much the stake will cost KT. Separately, KT’s parent company, which operates both landline and wireless divisions, said it will cut almost 6,000 jobs at the end of the year in its biggest-ever workforce reduction ever. Most of the departures will come in the form of voluntary early retirements. The cuts will save $393 million a year, reports Bloomberg.

Omnitel China, which is planning to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, already has 12 million mobile content subscribers via China’s various mobile carriers and has additional plans to develop more entertainment services for the phone. KT will likely secure its ownership stake by the end of July. The investment comes at a time when China is seeing rapid growth of smartphones and netbooks, which are being used for video, media and other applications.