Chip provider, and thorn in Qualcomm’s side, Broadcom saw its co-founder Henry Nicholas III indicted last week on fraud, conspiracy and . wait for it . drug charges. While the fraud and conspiracy charges are bad news for the company and investors, the drug charges angle is just surprising. It seems Mr. Nicholas III allegedly spiked the drinks of technology executives and customer representatives with goof balls, also known as ecstasy, and maintained a warehouse for goof balls, cocaine and methamphetamines. This is the exact opposite of how we stereotype chip engineers.
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So, Verizon Wireless found a few billion dollars in its change wallet and decided to spend it on little old Alltel. In addition to taking out the No. 5 carrier, the move propels Verizon Wireless past AT&T Mobility into the No. 1 spot among U.S. carriers. Of course both carriers would be trumped if Deutsche Telekom acted on rumors that it was looking to acquire Sprint Nextel, which would bolster T-Mobile USA’s customer base to nearly 85 million customers, and better yet, leave the industry with only three large carriers. Who said we need competition in the wireless space?
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If all goes according to plan, Steve Jobs will have finally announced Apple’s 3G iPhone as you are reading this. We have to say that (even though we had not seen the device as this was being written) it’s an impressive piece of technology. Just look at those smooth contours. And that screen. It’s just gorgeous. It makes the original iPhone look like a Motorola iDEN phone. And we haven’t even mentioned – or actually tried out – the higher speeds the device is capable of. Man, that thing is (will be) amazing. We already have our place in line to get one.
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Researchers at Northeastern University last week put out a report stating that in general we humans are creatures of habit, performing nearly the same task in similar fashion day in and day out. And how did researchers find out such information? Why they tracked 100,000 people in Europe using their cellphones. It appears an unnamed wireless carrier provided the information by tracking its customers using calls and texts sent through cell sites. So heed this as a warning to mix up your daily routine once in a while.
Hedgehogging: hedge*hog*ging v. Interrupting conversations in an office environment by poking your head over the top of the cube.
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