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Seems like iPad 2 owners are having trouble connecting to the 3G of Verizon, which seems to happen when they turn off the data connection and try to reconnect later on and most are saying the only way to truly get back on is by restoring the iPad via iTunes. Funny enough it sounds like Verizon customer service reps are blaming Apple’s hardware and the Apple reps are blaming Verizon’s network. No matter how you slice it, this doesn’t bold well for iPad 2 owners with Verizon. Of course as I am writing this article a colleague of mine has to comment that it works on AT&T as he and I have gone back and forth on the AT&T/Verizon debate. If an official resolution comes out, I will happy to post it. But as of now it seems what have posted today is the only way to get around it.

ThinkEquity analyst Rajesh Ghai issued a note to clients Thursday claiming that it is unlikely that Apple will face component shortages for the second-generation iPad, Barrons reports:
“Apple has already booked approximately 60% of the total available touch panel capacity. While some reports have stated that Apple will be facing component shortages for the iPad resulting from the Japanese earthquake, Hon Hai, Apple’s primary manufacturing source has stated that it does not expect any component shortages, and alternate suppliers have been lined up.”
Ghai maintains a Buy rating on Apple, while estimating $22.94 billion in revenue for the March quarter. According to the report, consensus estimates have come in at $23.2 billion in revenue.

Apple has blacklisted one retail giant Best Buy for how they have handled the sales of the iPad 2. Apparently Best Buy was telling people they were sold out of the hot item when in fact they had plenty in stock. The idea was that Best Buy had met their sales quota for the day and figured why not make the next better as well. So for the time being Apple will not sell iPads to Best Buy. Showing how much Apple has in pull, they feel their product has such a demand they would rather eliminate a huge retailer and spread the iPads to other retailers. This is still considered a rumor but it looks like Apple is investigating and has taken some strong action in the mean time.

Google is looking to make an overhaul of YouTube as it is trying to position itself for what is going to be the rise of televisions that let people watch online videos in their living rooms. Google wants YouTube to compete against broadcasts and cable television. This is a goal to get people to stay on YouTube longer. I don’t know about you but I could watch a Pug singing the Batman theme a hundred times and it still wouldn’t get old. The site is going change the homepage to highlight sets of channels around topics of arts, news, and sports. About 20 channels with have hours of professionally produced original programming per week and there is a possibility they will have channels for content currently on the site. It is said that $100 million to commission low cost content specifically for the web. The reason this could be happening is because Google bought YouTube for $1.6 billion back in 2006 and is pressured to make YouTube a cash cow. The main idea would be to get people to stay on YouTube longer there increasing ad revenues for the website and if any of the shows they plan to produce get big, I am sure they will make tons of money on the ad revenue for that time slot and channel. These new idea should be interesting and maybe I will be watching.

On Tuesday Intel showed their newest line of microprocessors. The Xeon E7! Intel even rented out a bank and showed the chip off in a vault to highlight that this chip will major security and reliability. These new chips are said to be specifically made for mission critical operations such as bank and stock type transactions. The Xeon E7 is suppose to be up to 40% faster than the last chip, the Xeon 7500 series and also with the world trying to go green, more energy efficient. It is been said that one rack of servers that have this new chip is more powerful than eighteen dual-core Intel servers from just five years ago. A single server is said to use 93% less energy which is one of major costs for data centers. The chips are also said to run built-in encryption much faster as well which is very important since most mangers will not use encryption on built into the chips to avoid slower performance. Although the security features have nothing to do with the new acquisition Intel just made of McAfee. With this new chip it is no surprise that Intel has 90% of the chips inside servers. The E7 chips are said to be available in 35 server systems from all major brands including IBM, Dell, Cisco Systems, and more.

A survey done by Baird’s William Powers, shows if it is smarter to write applications for Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android, this survey of 250 working developers was just released on Monday and the results surprised me for sure. 71% of respondents said they were writing apps for Android vs. 2% for iOS. However none of the other platforms drew more than 27%. Although programmers who are writing for Androids find it the ecosystem to be very perilous and here are just some of the problems that can be seen with the Android.
• Device Fragmentation: 56% of developers on the Android stated that the OS fragmentation among the many Android devices was a meaningful or major problem, this percentage has increased over the past three months.
• Store Fragmentation: Developers seem to prefer a unified, single store experience like the Apple’s App Store. Whereas the Android app store is fragmented.
• App visibility: iOS is the front runner, then Blackberry and Android still getting poor marks in this category. Many developers are concerned about many junk apps in the Android ecosystem.
• Ease of development: iOS outscored Android, although both were considered far easier to develop for then the Blackberry OS.

Microsoft has been dropping little tid bits that it wants Windows to be more like the Xbox, to do this it would support the Kinect sensor and using elements of the Xbox Live interface for people who want to play Windows-based games. But it is also looks like the Windows team has its phasers set to Office, Windows Phone and Windows Live. This is just one small little thing we can draw from about Windows 8 or whether ever the geniuses at Microsoft decide to name their next OS. From what has been leaked about this new OS is they are trying to add the most comprehensive OS to be more like the successful devices they already have out. Some have said that the OS has a welcome screen similar to that of the Windows phone. The explorer looks more like the Office bars which would replace the traditional menus and tool bars. Also another leak shows that your Windows Live ID can be incorporated into the OS. With all of these features in Windows 8 so far could only imagine what the first build will be like that they actually show to the public.

As a big gamer I am always on the lookout for stories involving gaming but this one is a sad note as Sony Online Entertainment is closing down game studios in Bellevue, Denver and Tucson, Arizona which will eliminate 205 jobs. Also it is discontinuing the development on an online spy game called The Agency. It is unclear how many jobs will truly be eliminated but from the reports I read 205 is about the right total. It is unclear on why Sony is actually this cut back and has decided to scrape this online game The Agency. Here is the full statement from Sony Online:

As part of a strategic decision to reduce costs and streamline its global workforce, SOE announced today that it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios. As part of this restructuring, SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.
This strategic decision will have no impact on SOE’s current portfolio of live games; additionally SOE will transition development efforts for the Denver and Tucson studios’ suite of products to its San Diego headquarters. This strategic alignment of development resources better positions SOE to remain a global leader in online gaming and deliver on its promise of creating entertaining games for players of all ages, and servicing the 20 million players that visited SOE servers in just the past year.

It looks like AT&T may be in some hot water with the FCC and possibly scalding. The major problem is that the deal would concentrate 80% of the United States wireless contract customers into just two companies, them being AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Michael Copps, the FCC Commissioner stated that he was concerned about the amount of power and influence the merged company would hold, given that two companies would virtually own the wireless landscape. Although for the deal to go through it needs to be approved by the FCC and the Justice department. The merger documents are supposed to be filed with the FCC in the coming weeks, so it will be interesting to see what AT&T uses to defend themselves in doing this merger and how it could benefit the climate of the wireless landscape.

Before I tell you about this amazing idea of $30 movie rentals, happy April fool’s day and this is not a prank, this story is for real and is very interesting. So a $30 movie rental, what is this all about? Four big studios are rolling out a premium VOD offering, in which renters at home can pay to see films that were just in theaters but aren’t yet out on DVD. The companies involved are Time Warner, Sony, Comcast and New Corp.’s movie studios. These studios are working on deals currently with DirectTV and in some Comcast markets soon. This type of move shows why the movie business is fairing much better against the digital disruption that has blown up apart the music and newspaper industry. With the type of flexibility the movie industry has with this, who knows how far it can go. Soon will we be able to rent movies while in the theater? It’s hard to say that a day like that will ever come but right now I think the movie industry has a winner, but one has to question whether or not this will lead to bigger issues, such as more private access to movies can cause piracy to go up. This is something that I will be keeping an eye on as the launch becomes a reality and try and see if there is any correlations with the introduction of this new rental VOD and movie piracy numbers.