Coleman Research Group’s Technology, Media & Telecom department highlights charges swirl around Intel/AMD deals and virtual world Meez sees profit

Coleman Research Group’s Technology, Media & Telecom Group facilitates consultations between our clients (institutional investors) and leading technology professionals on a wide variety of topics including semiconductors, data storage and security, computer hardware and software, satellite system operators, telecom equipment, cable and wireless providers, and advertising spending.

Our TMT network spans technology industries across the globe and includes CTOs, CIOs, marketing and business development executives, engineers, buyers, and resellers.

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Charges swirl around insider trading on Intel, AMD deals

Think of it as a twist on the old rivalry between chip giants Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. But this time, the rivalry is about which company can make a hedge fund more money.

The complaint filed by the government against six people on Friday details how a relatively obscure Intel treasury executive and a prominent hedge fund manager allegedly participated in an insider-trading ring centered on an Intel investment. The document also shows alleged insider trading of AMD shares by an adviser from McKinsey & Company before the chipmaker spun off of its manufacturing operations.

The case revolves around Raj Rajaratnam, who founded the Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund that manages $7 billion in funds. Federal prosecutors charged Rajaratnam and five others on Friday with securities fraud, alleging they were involved in insider trading of some of the most well-known tech companies including Intel, Google, AMD, and IBM.

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Teen virtual world Meez sees profit

Meez, a start-up that expanded last year from an avatar creation service into a full-out virtual world for teens, is touting some good news: it's been profitable since April and "every month is better than the last month," CEO John Cahill told CNET News.

Right now, Meez has about 13 million registered users, 3 million unique hits per month, and only 20 full-time employees plus about 10 contractors.

Where's the money coming from? Premium subscriptions, ads on the free version of the site, and virtual goods bought and sold with its internal "Coinz" currency--which includes a mobile virtual-gift deal with Verizon.

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Coleman Research Group’s Technology, Media & Telecom department highlights Acer, Dell and Bluetooth

Coleman Research Group’s Technology, Media & Telecom Group facilitates consultations between our clients (institutional investors) and leading technology professionals on a wide variety of topics including semiconductors, data storage and security, computer hardware and software, satellite system operators, telecom equipment, cable and wireless providers, and advertising spending.

Our TMT network spans technology industries across the globe and includes CTOs, CIOs, marketing and business development executives, engineers, buyers, and resellers.

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Acer overtakes Dell in PC shipments

Turns out Acer President Gianfranco Lanci wasn't just idly boasting earlier Wednesday when he said his company would pass Dell in the PC rankings "very soon." By very soon he clearly meant "today."

IDC released its PC tracker report Wednesday afternoon for the third quarter of 2009 and for the very first time, Acer is indeed the No. 2 producer of PCs in the world, with 14 percent. Hewlett-Packard remained on top with 20.2 percent of PCs shipped, and Dell dropped to 12.7 percent.

While not a total surprise considering that Acer's and Dell's momentum have been headed in opposing directions for some time, Acer's rise is indeed impressive. Just a few years ago most people would probably not have been able to recognize the Taiwanese brand, but that changed when it scooped up Gateway and began its aggressive attack on retail laptops in the U.S and Europe. Meanwhile Dell has fallen from the top vendor of PCs as recently as mid-2006 to No. 3 today as it navigates the changing PC market.

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New Wi-Fi spec challenges Bluetooth

A new Wi-Fi specification will let wireless devices discover and connect to one another without a router.

The spec, called Wi-Fi Direct, was announced Wednesday by the Wi-Fi Alliance, the industry group that promotes the technology. By making it much easier for devices to connect directly to each other using Wi-Fi, the new spec could pose a challenge to wireless technologies such Bluetooth.

The way Wi-Fi Direct works is that it allows Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as phones, cameras, printers, computers, keyboards, and headphones to connect to other Wi-Fi devices individually or to multiple devices at once. The spec will support standard Wi-Fi data rates, and devices will be able to connect to one another within about 100 meters of each other. This would allow just about any device that has Wi-Fi built into it to use wireless broadband instead of Bluetooth. It could even eliminate the need for Wi-Fi routers in some places.

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Coleman Research Group’s Healthcare department highlights Rex Healthcare and National Health IT Week

Coleman Research Group’s Healthcare Team facilitates consultations between our clients (institutional investors) and leading healthcare professionals on a wide variety of topics including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, clinical research, medical devices, healthcare providers, insurance, and regulatory issues.

Our Healthcare network spans technology industries across the globe and includes doctors, researchers, scientists, healthcare executives, consultants, and former regulatory officials.

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Rex Healthcare installs 'virtual community'

NORTH CAROLINA – Rex Healthcare, a North Carolina-based not-for-profit health system, is implementing a “virtual community” to promote collaboration between patients and physicians.

Through a new contract with MEDSEEK, a Birmingham, Ala.-based provider of enterprise healthcare portal connectivity solutions, Rex Healthcare will deploy the eHealth ecoSystem.

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National Health IT week begins in nation's capital

WASHINGTON – With 2009 designated by the Obama administration as the year of healthcare transformation, organizers say National Health IT Week delivers a timely message on the potential for healthcare information technology to improve the nation's healthcare system.

Beginning today, the weeklong forum serves as a platform upon which public and private healthcare constituents – vendors, provider organizations, payers, pharmaceutical/biotech companies, government agencies, industry/professional associations, research foundations and consumer protection groups – can raise awareness about the value of health IT among industry leaders and policymakers.

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Coleman Research Group’s Technology, Media & Telecom department highlights iTunes and Freeware Apps

Coleman Research Group’s Technology, Media & Telecom Group facilitates consultations between our clients (institutional investors) and leading technology professionals on a wide variety of topics including semiconductors, data storage and security, computer hardware and software, satellite system operators, telecom equipment, cable and wireless providers, and advertising spending.

Our TMT network spans technology industries across the globe and includes CTOs, CIOs, marketing and business development executives, engineers, buyers, and resellers.

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Music publishers: iTunes not paying fair share

Songwriters, composers, and music publishers are making preparations to one day collect performance fees from Apple and other e-tailers for not just traditional music downloads but for downloads of films and TV shows as well. Those downloads contain music after all.

These groups even want compensation for iTunes' 30-second song samples. In the future, Apple may be required to pay licensing fees to ASCAP and BMI for the downloads of TV shows and films it sells.

At a time when many iTunes shoppers are still fuming over Apple's first-ever increase in song prices, the demands by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), and other performing-rights groups, would likely lead to more price hikes at iTunes. For many, this would also undoubtedly confirm their perception that those overseeing the music industry are greedy.

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Who needs Microsoft Office? Freeware puts twists on old apps

Most people become so accustomed to using Microsoft Office that they never consider its alternatives. But there are more than one way to process words and spreadsheets: Word and Excel aren't the only games in town.

In fact, it's getting easier and easier to do without the most popular Office applications. Other than Outlook--which my company uses--I haven't opened a Microsoft Office app since last February, when my HP laptop died prematurely.

In fact, it wasn't easy removing the trial version of Office Enterprise 2007 that was preinstalled on the Sony Vaio that replaced the piece-of-crap HP that died. I've been working just fine using the free Jarte word processor and Gnumeric spreadsheet.

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Coleman Research Group’s Healthcare department highlights Abortion Debate and Obama on Canada’s healthcare system

Coleman Research Group’s Healthcare Team facilitates consultations between our clients (institutional investors) and leading healthcare professionals on a wide variety of topics including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, clinical research, medical devices, healthcare providers, insurance, and regulatory issues.

Our Healthcare network spans technology industries across the globe and includes doctors, researchers, scientists, healthcare executives, consultants, and former regulatory officials.

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Abortion Debate Could Make or Break Healthcare Reform

Antiabortion groups like the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family Action have spent the last month pummeling Democratic healthcare reform proposals over abortion coverage. They've attacked the House Democrats' healthcare bill, for instance, for leaving the door open to abortion coverage in the public health insurance option and for using federal funds to underwrite private healthcare plans that cover abortion. But conservative Christian groups have also made little secret of their opposition to the very idea of a greater government role in healthcare, the abortion controversy aside. A recent E-mail update from the Family Research Council blasted President Obama's push for healthcare reform without ever mentioning abortion. "The American people," it said, "...don't want healthcare delivered with the empathy of the IRS, the efficiency of FEMA, or the mismanagement of the post office."

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Obama: Canada’s healthcare system is “too radical”

When President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress last week in a desperate attempt to push his healthcare agenda through, he described Canada’s single payer healthcare as too much of a radical shift from the current American medical system.

Gee Barry, do you think that when the government of Canada first became involved in the medical care of its citizens it was by way of a single payer system? Okay you probably do but the reality is that Canada’s present single payer healthcare was not designed or created – it evolved over time into what it is today.

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Coleman Research Group’s Business and Financial Services Group highlights tax on expensive health plans and stocks bounce on deal talk

Coleman Research Group’s Business and Financial Services Group facilitates consultations between our clients (institutional investors) and leading business and financial services professionals on a wide variety of topics including consumer credit trends, banking and investment services, insurance, residential and commercial real estate, student lending, and regulatory issues.

Our Business & Financial network includes an elite assembly of current and former CFOs and senior executives, accountants, former regulatory officials, academics, and top-level industry consultants.

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Tax on expensive health plans proposed

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A proposed health care compromise by the powerful chairman of the Senate Finance Committee lacks a government-run insurance option and would tax the most expensive health insurance plans, a source close to the discussions told CNN Monday.

As expected, the proposal from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, excludes the so-called public insurance option to compete with private insurers. However, it would allow for the creation of nonprofit health care cooperatives -- an idea that some moderate Democrats and Republicans have expressed possible interest in supporting.

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Stocks bounce on deal talk

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks bounced at Tuesday's open, with the major gauges flirting with fresh 2009 highs, as investors welcomed deal talk overseas and a spike in oil and gold prices and stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) gained 31 points, or 0.3%, in the first few minutes. The S&P 500 (SPX) index added 5 points, or 0.5%. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) advanced 11 points, or 0.5%.

September is typically a tough month for Wall Street as market pros return from their summer vacations with a cleaning house mentality. It is the worst month on Wall Street in terms of percentage losses for the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite, according to Stock Trader's Almanac.

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Coleman Research Group’s Technology, Media & Telecom department highlights The Webification of App Security and Hunkering Down, Linux Style

Coleman Research Group’s Technology, Media & Telecom Group facilitates consultations between our clients (institutional investors) and leading technology professionals on a wide variety of topics including semiconductors, data storage and security, computer hardware and software, satellite system operators, telecom equipment, cable and wireless providers, and advertising spending.

Our TMT network spans technology industries across the globe and includes CTOs, CIOs, marketing and business development executives, engineers, buyers, and resellers.

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The Webification of App Security

Web applications are growing in popularity, and with this increasing ubiquity of Web apps, security is more than ever becoming the No. 1 challenge for enterprises. Traditional network component vendors are under pressure to solve security challenges. However, developing this capability on their own is complex, expensive and requires new skills.

Enter the cooperative spirit. Zeus Technology, a load balancing solutions provider, has partnered with Web security firm Art of Defence to supply Web application security technology through an OEM deal .

"A wide range of Web apps exist for the payment card industry and e-commerce," David Day, CTO for Zeus Technology, told the E-Commerce Times. "These organizations are under increasing pressure to meet regulations for security."

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Hunkering Down, Linux Style

Well September is here, and the final days of summer are hard upon us. Autumn is around the corner here in the Northern Hemisphere, and that means it's time to begin thinking ahead to the winter days to come.

It isn't too surprising, then, that Linux bloggers have turned their attention in recent days to how they like to arrange things in the geeky counterpart of the proverbial nest -- the home office .

"I used to keep everything in a single room and it was a nice setup," began Linux Today's Carla Schroder, who kicked off the conversation with a recent post on her blog. "Lots of shelves, lots of tables, lots of computers, and a big closet for storing the usual herds of parts and manuals that breed and multiply over time."

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