Posts by: Jim Kerstetter

Report: HP printers a hit in Iran

Jim Kerstetter | Dec 30, 2008

Hewlett-Packard printers, like blue jeans in the old Soviet Russia, are apparently a hot item among consumers in Iran.

According to a report in Monday's Boston Globe, a third-party distributor in Dubai has been selling HP printers in Iran since 1997. That's two years after President Clinton signed an order banning all trade with the country. If HP executives cut the deal with the Dubai company, called Redington Gulf, knowing it intended to sell HP products into Iran, the deal could be a violation of trade law, according to the Globe.

But did HP know what the small Dubai outfit was doing? As the Globe reported, the distributor's Web site says it began in 1997 "as a team of five people and...HP supplies as our first product, we started operations as the distributor for Iran." The article also quotes an HP executive in the late 1990s enthusiastically discussing sales in Iran.
Read more »

Filed under: Printers
Leave a comment | Bookmark | Share

Slashdot

Digg

Facebook

Twitter

Delicious

Google

StumbleUpon

close this

Add tag

To add tags, you need to become a member. It's FREE.

Cancel

Log in or sign in

Star Trek multiplayer game: Which version would be best?

Jim Kerstetter | Aug 14, 2008

Star Trek is coming to the world of massively multiplayer online role-playing games. By most accounts for fans of the science fiction series and gaming, this is exciting news.

But the real question for Trekkies is sure to be: Which Star Trek?

First the news: At a Star Trek convention in Las Vegas over the weekend, Cryptic Studios revealed the first details and a trailer for Star Trek Online, an MMORPG based on the franchise. Leonard Nimoy was even onstage to unveil the game (a company spokeswoman said they're not saying what the price or release date will be quite yet).

I asked the spokeswoman which Star Trek the game will be based on and she said cryptically that Cryptic is "definitely looking at the movies and TV shows as canon but also looking to comics and novels for additional ideas". Unfortunately, I didn't see the trailer, but the screen shots Cryptic sent me look an awful lot like a Star Trek: The Next Generation fight with one of those smaller, circular Borg ships. I assume the new game will create its own Star Trek universe, inspired by everything from the original series to all of the movies.
Read more »

Filed under: Notebooks, PC & Peripherals
Leave a comment | Bookmark | Share

Slashdot

Digg

Facebook

Twitter

Delicious

Google

StumbleUpon

close this

Add tag

To add tags, you need to become a member. It's FREE.

Cancel

Log in or sign in

Look out iPod, here comes Dell...again

Jim Kerstetter | Jul 31, 2008

That online music market must be awfully tempting catnip to Michael Dell.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Dell for the last few months has been testing a digital music player that could go on sale as early as September. The story (which will surely serve as a nice trial balloon for Dell's marketers) says the music player could sell for less than US$100. It will use Wi-Fi to connect to third-party music services.

If that's deja vu you're feeling, you're not the only one. In 2003, Dell jumped into music biz with its own player. Three years later, it jumped out, with around a 3 percent share of the market. It was one of several disappointing and ultimately abandoned consumer efforts, including forays into televisions and handheld computing devices (though there are reports that Dell may get back into the mobile market).

Could it be different this time around? While it's hard to imagine Dell posing a real threat to the iPod's more than 70 percent share of the digital music player market, never say never. The software behind Dell's device came from Zing, a small company Dell acquired a year ago, according to the WSJ. Dell's music software could also come pre-installed on new Dell PCs. An excerpt from the story:
Read more »

Filed under: Music & Play
Leave a comment | Bookmark | Share

Slashdot

Digg

Facebook

Twitter

Delicious

Google

StumbleUpon

close this

Add tag

To add tags, you need to become a member. It's FREE.