During a two-day promotion, Best Buy is offering $200.00 gift cards for old iPads, according to C|Net.
The deal, which runs on Friday and Saturday, allows customers to bring in their old iPads in exchange for a $200.00 gift card, which can be put towards a newer and faster model.
While many parents let their children play with their iPhone or other iOS device for temporary amusement, a story out of Oregon may make some think twice about the practice. According to reports, a 14-month toddler named Sorella Stoute managed to bid on and win an auction on eBay for a 1962 Austin Healy Sprite, buying the junked vehicle (with the name "FrankenSprite" printed on its door) for $225 using her father's logged-in account with the eBay app for the iPhone. While the parents could have nullified the sale, they ultimately decided to keep the car -- and the father, Paul Stoute, plans on restoring it and presenting to Sorella on her 16th birthday. The parents learned of the purchase through an email from eBay after the auction.
Stoute said his daughter enjoys playing on his iPhone, according to Portland's KPTV. Their initial reaction to the notification from Ebay was "panic," but said that Stoute had been recently using eBay to look for fixer-upper cars -- which is probably how Sorella found the auction -- and that after thinking it over decided to keep it and try to restore it over the next 15 years. Christina Stoute, the girl's mother, told the station that her husband has "a major project" ahead of him with the car, known as "FrankenSprite."
"It comes with two engines," she said. "They're both in the back seat."
She added that the incident "cannot happen again" as the couple have since added password protection to their iPhones, and deleted apps that have the option of making purchases. Given the propensity of somewhat older children to rack up enormous bills on in-app purchases that are part of most free games, the Stoutes will likely need to keep a close eye on Sorella as she gets older.
Microsoft has once again reorganized its management structure, marking yet another strategy shift for a company that has a very mixed track record in restructuring its business operations.The shakeup, which Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) announced Thursday, is intended to better align the company's organizational structure with its new corporate strategy. CEO Steve Ballmer declared in October 2012 that Microsoft would transition to a "devices and services" company, focusing on making hardware, online services and apps that work together seamlessly across multiple screens and gadgets.
The company will break up its product silos, concentrating on four core areas: operating systems, apps, the cloud and devices. Teams in each of those units will contribute to all of Microsoft's core products, including Windows, Office, Server and Tools, enterprise software, Bing, and Xbox. (Microsoft Dynamics, the company's business solutions division, will continue to run independently of the larger structure.)
The new strategy, called "One Microsoft," will "enable more cross-group contribution," according to a memo Ballmer sent around to his staff.
That has long been a problem for the company. Insiders say the corporate culture has traditionally been so competitive that collaboration with other teams has been discouraged.
Microsoft will hold a conference call at 12:30 p.m. PT to discuss the plan in more detail.
"Times change, and Microsoft has to change with it," said Al Hilwa, an analyst at IDC. "They are generally executing on the outlines of the right strategy, but speed of execution and responsiveness is their biggest issue right now. The new organization is likely focused on exactly that."
To read the rest of the CNN/Money article, click here.
“Starting April 8, 2014, there will be no more patches or updates — including security ones — issued for Windows XP,” Mary Jo Foley reports for ZDNet. “This is despite the fact that Windows XP still had an estimated 37 percent share of all desktop operating systems as of June 2013.”
“Microsoft and its partners have a lot of work to do between now and then to try to get more businesses
off Windows XP,” Foley reports. “Microsoft’s top Windows priorities for its fiscal year 2014 (which began on July 1, 2013) are to move all businesses off XP and to become the number one business tablet in the market, said Erwin visser, General Manager of Windows Commercial, during a breakout session at the show.”
Foley reports, “Microsoft and its partners would need to migrate 586,000 PCs per day over the next 273 days in order to get rid of all PCs running Windows XP, Visser said… Visser told partners that there’s an estimated $32 billion service opportunity for them in moving users off XP, given that companies are spending an average of $200 per PC to move off XP to Windows 7 or Windows 8.”
Full article here.
