Nokia Interim CEO: We Have Three Strong Businesses Remaining

The Nokia that remains after it sells its phone business to Microsoft will be a considerably smaller and lower-profile company.

It will hopefully be a more financially sound entity, as well, Nokia interim CEO Risto Siilasmaa told AllThingsD on Monday night in a telephone interview shortly after the deal was announced.

"We will continue to have three strong businesses," Siilasmaa said.

Nokia, which began by producing paper and rubber in the 1800s, is essentially exiting the mobile phone business that made it world-famous, selling both its Lumia smartphone business and its low-end mobile phone unit to Microsoft.

Remaining are its network-equipment business, its patent portfolio and its Here location-based services arm.

"Overall, we are very happy with the fact we will be able to support those businesses with a much stronger balance sheet," Siilasmaa said.

Nokia has been hit with continual bond-ratings downgrades and concerns about its long-term viability once the checks from Microsoft stopped coming. Under its previous deal with Microsoft, Redmond had been paying Nokia hundreds of millions of dollars in quarterly "platform support payments." However, the balance of payments was due to shift, with Nokia now owing more in minimum guaranteed royalties than it had coming in future payments from Microsoft.

Siilasmaa insisted that selling its namesake phone business to Microsoft was best for all of the company's stakeholders, including its 88,000 employees, 32,000 of whom are due to become Microsoft employees after the deal closes.

It will also immediately be a benefit for owners of Nokia stock, he said.

"The deal is immediately accretive to earnings," he said. "We believe we are making a very good choice for Nokia shareholders."

The deal, which requires regulatory approval and a nod from Nokia's shareholders, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014.

RELATED POSTS:

• Microsoft CEO Promises to Limit Nokia Phone Names to 10 Syllables or Less
• Samsung, HTC Mum on Any Interest in Windows Phone Post-Nokia
• Elop in July: It's "Hard to Understand the Rationale" for Selling Nokia's Devices Business
• Microsoft Is Getting Nokia's Phone Business for a Song
• Nokia Shares Rise, Microsoft Falls in Reaction to Deal
• So Much for BlackBerry's "Clear Shot" at Being No. 3 in the Smartphone Market
• Selling Nokia Was Hard Emotionally, But Right Thing to Do, Says Interim CEO
• Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia's Top Designer, To Leave Company in November
• Steve Ballmer on Why Buying Microsoft's Biggest Phone Partner Makes Sense
• Nokia Interim CEO: We Have Three Strong Businesses Remaining
• Barcelona Rendezvous, 50 Nokia Board Meetings Led to Microsoft Deal
• Microsoft's Nokia Deal By The Numbers
• Microsoft Confirms It Gets Less Than $10 Per Nokia Windows Phone Sold
• Stephen Elop Is Now Microsoft CEO Candidate to Beat
• Microsoft Wants to Keep Licensing Windows Phone to Others, Post-Nokia Deal
• Microsoft Explains the Rationale Behind the Nokia Deal
• Microsoft to Buy Nokia's Device Business in Deal Worth $7.17 Billion

Steve Ballmer on Why Buying Microsoft's Biggest Phone Partner Makes Sense

Given that Nokia was already putting all its smartphone eggs in the Windows basket, it's a logical question to ask how Microsoft believes it will gain an advantage by purchasing Nokia's phone business.

No surprise, since he did the deal: CEO Steve Ballmer thinks the business will be stronger.

In an interview with AllThingsD, Ballmer laid out three reasons why things will be different once Microsoft owns Nokia's phone business.

First, Ballmer said, as close as the two companies were, there were legal and logistical barriers to total cooperation. Each company had to temper its investment based on separate business needs.

"As long as we were on a model with two different companies ... there was always some kind of a boundary along which it was hard to innovate from a hardware/software perspective," Ballmer said. "It doesn't mean we didn't do it, but we know we can improve our agility."

Second, Ballmer noted that each company was separately trying to build its own brand - a duplicative effort that diffused impact and wasted money.

"Just think about the Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 1020, and you will that know we can make simpler, clearer messages to the market," Ballmer said, noting that Nokia accounts for 80 percent of all Windows Phones, although Microsoft still hopes others will continue to make it even after Microsoft takes over from Nokia.

Finally, Ballmer said that as two companies, Nokia and Microsoft had to make different choices about where and how much to invest.

"We know, as we scale, we need to invest behind this business," Ballmer said. "It simplifies the business decision-making and thinking having the economics be more unified."

Translating from this business-speak, buying Nokia's phone business gives Microsoft a greater business opportunity, if it can succeed. Microsoft noted in its case for why the deal makes sense that it currently gets less than $10 in revenue from each Nokia Windows Phone sold, as compared to the $40 or so in profit margins Nokia stands to make.

Of course, Nokia - and soon Microsoft - also has to build the phones, manage inventory, deal with carriers and more. Plus, there's still that pesky challenge of growing beyond single-digit market share.

"We're the No. 3 smartphone player," Ballmer said. "We have a long way to go, and we have a lot we want to do."

RELATED POSTS:

• Microsoft CEO Promises to Limit Nokia Phone Names to 10 Syllables or Less
• Samsung, HTC Mum on Any Interest in Windows Phone Post-Nokia
• Elop in July: It's "Hard to Understand the Rationale" for Selling Nokia's Devices Business
• Microsoft Is Getting Nokia's Phone Business for a Song
• Nokia Shares Rise, Microsoft Falls in Reaction to Deal
• So Much for BlackBerry's "Clear Shot" at Being No. 3 in the Smartphone Market
• Selling Nokia Was Hard Emotionally, But Right Thing to Do, Says Interim CEO
• Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia's Top Designer, To Leave Company in November
• Steve Ballmer on Why Buying Microsoft's Biggest Phone Partner Makes Sense
• Nokia Interim CEO: We Have Three Strong Businesses Remaining
• Barcelona Rendezvous, 50 Nokia Board Meetings Led to Microsoft Deal
• Microsoft's Nokia Deal By The Numbers
• Microsoft Confirms It Gets Less Than $10 Per Nokia Windows Phone Sold
• Stephen Elop Is Now Microsoft CEO Candidate to Beat
• Microsoft Wants to Keep Licensing Windows Phone to Others, Post-Nokia Deal
• Microsoft Explains the Rationale Behind the Nokia Deal
• Microsoft to Buy Nokia's Device Business in Deal Worth $7.17 Billion

Jeff Bezos Reveals He Doesn't Have a Plan to Save the Washington Post

Asa Mathat / AllThingsD.com

Just because Jeff Bezos is going to own the press doesn't mean he has changed his approach to the press. When he speaks to journalists, he says nothing.

The Washington Post has the first interview with the new owner-to-be of the Washington Post today. If you're expecting Bezos to reveal anything about his plans for the paper, then you've never sat through an Amazon earnings call or listened to a Jeff Bezos interview.

The gist: Like he said before, he won't be running the paper day to day. And, like he does with Amazon, Bezos plans to manage the paper for the long haul.

But, when Bezos won't tell you how many Kindles he's sold, he's not saying anything because he doesn't want to clue you in to his plan. The key question for the Post and its readers (and employees): Does he have a plan this time?

If you take him at face value, he doesn't. He's going to take time - "years" - to experiment, and the only thing he knows is that it's important for readers to get value out of reading the paper.

It would be easy enough to dismiss that non-talk as cover for whatever Bezos really is planning for the paper. Except for this part, where Bezos argues convincingly that newspapers in general, and the Post in particular, are screwed. If they produce anything of value, the Web immediately swallows it up and spits it out for free:

But Bezos suggested that the current model for newspapers in the Internet era is deeply flawed: "The Post is famous for its investigative journalism," he said. "It pours energy and investment and sweat and dollars into uncovering important stories. And then a bunch of Web sites summarize that [work] in about four minutes and readers can access that news for free. One question is, how do you make a living in that kind of environment? If you can't, it's difficult to put the right resources behind it. ... Even behind a paywall [digital subscription], Web sites can summarize your work and make it available for free. From a reader point of view, the reader has to ask, 'Why should I pay you for all that journalistic effort when I can get it for free' from another site?"

This would be an excellent rationale for an investment in a Web aggregator like Business Insider, and, of course, Bezos has done just that.

But unless Bezos is suggesting that the Post is going to stop "uncovering important stories" because there's no money in it - and I don't think he is suggesting that* - then what he's really saying is that he can't figure out how to make it work. For now. Just like everyone else.

* Quentin Hardy, who is smart, thinks Bezos will in fact move to a "give the people what they want and/or are willing to pay for" mode, where Cyrus trumps Syria. And if he was making the investment on behalf of Amazon, I might give that theory some credence. But this is a personal investment, and I don't think Bezos wants to be a guy known for asset-stripping an American institution.

Nokia Shares Rise, Microsoft Falls in Reaction to Deal

Shares of Nokia, the soon-to-be-ex-Finnish wireless phone giant, are rising significantly in reaction to the company's $7 billion deal to sell its devices business and license its wireless patents to U.S. software company Microsoft.

After the first hour of trading this morning, American Depository Receipts of Nokia had risen by $1.37, or more than 35 percent, to $5.26. Before the announcement of today's deal, the shares had fallen by more than one percent this year.

Meanwhile, shares of Microsoft fell by more than five percent in reaction to news of the deal. By 10:30 am ET, Microsoft shares had fallen by $1.81 to $31.59. The move mostly erased the benefits of a rally in Microsoft shares that came on Aug. 23, after CEO Steve Ballmer announced plans to retire from the company. Prior to today's news, the shares had risen by more than 25 percent this year.

RELATED POSTS:

• Microsoft CEO Promises to Limit Nokia Phone Names to 10 Syllables or Less
• Samsung, HTC Mum on Any Interest in Windows Phone Post-Nokia
• Elop in July: It's "Hard to Understand the Rationale" for Selling Nokia's Devices Business
• Microsoft Is Getting Nokia's Phone Business for a Song
• Nokia Shares Rise, Microsoft Falls in Reaction to Deal
• So Much for BlackBerry's "Clear Shot" at Being No. 3 in the Smartphone Market
• Selling Nokia Was Hard Emotionally, But Right Thing to Do, Says Interim CEO
• Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia's Top Designer, To Leave Company in November
• Steve Ballmer on Why Buying Microsoft's Biggest Phone Partner Makes Sense
• Nokia Interim CEO: We Have Three Strong Businesses Remaining
• Barcelona Rendezvous, 50 Nokia Board Meetings Led to Microsoft Deal
• Microsoft's Nokia Deal By The Numbers
• Microsoft Confirms It Gets Less Than $10 Per Nokia Windows Phone Sold
• Stephen Elop Is Now Microsoft CEO Candidate to Beat
• Microsoft Wants to Keep Licensing Windows Phone to Others, Post-Nokia Deal
• Microsoft Explains the Rationale Behind the Nokia Deal
• Microsoft to Buy Nokia's Device Business in Deal Worth $7.17 Billion

AOL's Huffington Post Adds Ecofabulous Content

AOL-owned Huffington Post is adding a large amount of environmental-focused content from Ecofabulous, and making its founder, Zem Joaquin, an editor at large of home and lifestyle. In a nonexclusive licensing and revenue-sharing deal, the dedicated Ecofabulous page said that the online content site "will host original product reviews and recommendations featuring environmentally conscious beauty, fashion, home, kids, tech, and lifestyle items; provide resources for readers aiming to live a green life; profile environmentally-pioneering companies; and serve as a place to inspire readers seeking the recommendations of expert editors and designers."

Broadcom Pays $164 Million for Renesas 4G Wireless Chip Unit

Wireless chipmaker Broadcom said today that it will pay $164 million to buy the LTE wireless chip assets of Japan's Renesas Electronics.

Under terms of the deal, a team of chip designers based in Finland, the United Kingdom and India will become Broadcom employees, though the companies aren't yet saying how many people are involved. Bob Rango, Broadcom's executive VP and general manager of its mobile and wireless group, said the group of employees is largely composed of a batch of ex-Nokia chip designers who did some of the early work on setting 4G wireless standards. "This is a very experienced group of designers, many of whom were at the table when the 4G standards were set," he told me.

Broadcom had previously been seen as lagging rivals like Qualcomm in the development of chips for 4G phones.

Renesas had announced that it would stop developing its 4G wireless in June. Rango said the chips are already certified for use by several carriers, including AT&T in the U.S.; Vodafone, Orange and EE in the U.K.; and NTT DoCoMo in Japan.

Broadcom said the deal will cut into non-GAAP earnings to the tune of 12 cents a share when Broadcom reports its results of the quarter ending Dec. 31. It also expects the acquisition will cut into its fiscal 2014 earnings by 10 cents to 15 cents on a non-GAAP basis, but that it will be accretive to earnings starting with the 2015 fiscal year.

The company also boosted its outlook for the quarter ending Sept. 30, saying it now expects to report revenue in the range of $2.075 billion to $2.175 billion, and for gross margins to rise as much as 10 basis points.

Broadcom shares rose in premarket trading by more than one percent, to $25.51 per share.

It's No "Game of Thrones" Finale, but Yahoo Logo-Palooza Ends Tonight

Here are a few choice things I wait for in rapt anticipation:

While "Game of Thrones" is on hiatus after its sensational "Red Wedding" finale, the next episode of "Orange Is the New Black" - which spouse and I are watching two at a time nightly, although I am considering sneaking by day to find out what Pornstache will do to Red.

The new iPhone, which will be unveiled next Tuesday at Apple's Cupertino, Calif. HQ - because I will upgrade to it, my older son will get my old one and my younger son will get his brother's old one as his first phone ever (it's a family of impatience over here).

Whenever anyone says they are "gladiators in suits" on "Scandal" or whenever its star, Kerry Washington as Washington fixer Olivia Pope, gives that long, sad gaze that comes from loving the wrong man who also happens to be President of the United States.

The Oreo version of Google Android - because I like Oreos. A lot more than KitKats.

And even - and I am ashamed to admit this - whatever the next cup-full-of-crazy thing Miley Cyrus gets into.

But, I'll be honest - except for the fact that I have to cover it at the time I would have been watching my daily dose of "OITNB" tonight - I will have to drastically gin up my excitement level over the new Yahoo logo that is set to be unveiled at 9 pm PT.

Doubtless, others have been pre-briefed on this new look, which was last changed a few years ago. But, for the rest of us, over the last month Yahoo has been showing 29 other logos it will not be using to get us all atwitter with expectation.

While I still don't quite get this move from a marketing perspective - it's like having a parade of all the people you decided not to marry before your wedding - there have been some design doozies in the bunch. That might have been the point: Show off all the bad so we will love, love, love the new one.

On that score, mission accomplished!

Such as this one from Day 2 that looks like an air freshener I declined to purchase last week at Safeway:

Or this one from Day 11, which looks like my grandmother, who had excellent cursive penmanship, wrote it (nothing says the future like a handwritten logo from the last century!):

Or Day 20, which resembles what happens when I let those kids of mine play on my computer and they screw up the fonts:

Or Day 28, which is pretty much a flat-out lift of the Yoo-hoo logo, a high-fructose corn syrup beverage I enjoy imbibing from time to time:

Finally, I really don't have one single clue about what's going on with Day 29:

Which, I think, is the goal of the marketers of Yahoo - after this parade of losers, we shall now get to gaze upon the gleaming new spouse that the Silicon Valley Internet giant will be wedded to for years to come. This jazz-hands rollout is very much in keeping with the tenure of new CEO Marissa Mayer, who is trying to generate as much excitement around Yahoo as possible as part of her turnaround efforts.

Presumably, this logo for the new Yahoo will be just the ticket! We'll see - but, until then, I am going to go and see what Crazy Eyes is up to, which is one sure thing to be interesting.

Viral Video: Daft Punk Rocking Out on Rosh Hashanah

It's Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and to celebrate it, here's a very fine video, "Get Clarity," from Aish.com. It is a cover of Daft Punk's hugely popular summer hit song, "Get Lucky," but with new lyrics and a shofar.

Enjoy, and Shana Tova:

Huawei Doesn't Want BlackBerry

Here's one company that BlackBerry need not consider as it works to narrow down the list of parties interested in buying all or part of its business: Huawei.

Asked if Huawei might consider acquiring BlackBerry or another handset maker to bolster that business, board member Chen Lifang said the company is simply not interested.

"No, we have not considered (an acquisition)," she told reporters in London, according to Reuters. "We want to rely on ourselves."

Which makes sense. Huawei has done very well for itself pursuing that strategy. Today, it's the third-largest manufacturer of smartphones by volume, after Samsung and Apple. And it has claimed that title by building devices for Google's Android operating system. So why would it bother with BlackBerry? It clearly doesn't need it, or the company's new BlackBerry 10 platform, which seems to have lost its bid for third place in the smartphone OS wars to Microsoft.

As Lifang said, "In manufacturing mobile phones, we have made very good progress."

LG G2 Coming to T-Mobile, Verizon This Month

LG's newest flagship device finally has a U.S. release date - two, actually. Verizon will be the first to offer the LG G2 when it goes on sale Sept. 12 for $200 with a two-year contract. Meanwhile, T-Mobile is taking preorders for the smartphone today, with expected availability on Sept. 18. The cost is $100 down and 24 equal payments of $21. Introduced in August, the G2 is LG's latest effort to make a dent in the U.S. market; it features a 5.2-inch HD touchscreen and 13-megapixel camera. AT&T and Sprint are also expected to offer the device.

On Chrome Web Store, Real Games Mix With Mario Knockoffs

We've heard it over and over again (and arguably for good reason): Nintendo does not make games for platforms it does not control. So, imagine my surprise yesterday when I stumbled across a dozen or so Mario games on Google's Chrome Web Store.

These games are no more real than that Rolex you bought for $15 in Times Square - they're unlicensed, generally low-quality knockoffs, taking advantage of the openness of Google's browser, which just turned five. Many of the store's new native desktop apps look like snazzy cousins of the apps you might find in the Google Play Store on Android; however, in Chrome's Web app store (I know, these product names are all confusing), it's still the Wild West.

In addition to the fake Marios, a cursory search of the Web app store yesterday turned up knockoffs of many other popular franchises: one for Fruit Ninja, two for Crash Bandicoot, four for Doodle Jump, nine for Candy Crush Saga and 10 for Sonic the Hedgehog. A source with knowledge of the store said Google investigates unauthorized apps if the content owners report the offending apps to the company.

These fakes mix with real apps, like Rovio's official Angry Birds Chrome Web app, and to separate the good from the bad, users have to check the developer's website name. For example, one of the Candy Crush Saga knockoffs lists as its website candycrushsaga.blogspot.com, which is not one of King's sites. The official site for that game is candycrushsaga.com.

I asked a Nintendo spokesperson if the company was aware of the Mario knockoffs, and she returned the following generic statement from Nintendo of America:

Nintendo video games are offered only on Nintendo systems such as the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Applications on the Apple or Google marketplaces that purport to be Nintendo video games are not legitimate and users who download these applications may expose themselves to spyware or other malicious software [...]

Wait, malicious software? Yes, it's possible, as 80,000 users learned last year by way of a fake Bad Piggies Chrome app. According to security company Barracuda Networks, that's the number of users who installed a bogus Bad Piggies and got some "aggressive adware" to boot. Bonus!

The Nintendo statement continued, "Nintendo actively monitors the unauthorized use of its intellectual property, and will continue to seek removal of any unauthorized content in these marketplaces."

Taking these specific games out of the Chrome store won't completely neutralize potential security threats posed by current or future games, of course. But the very thing that makes the store work - a search, discovery and recommendation-focused design that makes these games and services more accessible to Chrome users - may mislead gamers who don't think to look too closely.

"We remove apps from the Chrome Web Store that do not comply with our terms of service," a Google spokesperson said. Some of the Mario games I mentioned in my emails to the company have now disappeared from the Chrome store, but here is a screenshot of how they were showing up for me in the store's main trending section yesterday.

AOL Plans First "Programmatic Upfront"

AOL plans to sell some of its ads via what it is calling the first "programmatic upfront" event in September. The idea, modeled after the method TV networks traditionally use to sell their ads, is to convince marketers to commit to buying a certain amount of AOL's inventory using automated ad technology, a big push for CEO Tim Armstrong.

Nvidia's Project Logan Aims to Bring High-End Desktop Graphics to Mobile Devices

In recent years, mobile devices have come a long way in being able to pull off the kind of computing feats once reserved for desktops and laptops.

Further evidence will come on Wednesday as Nvidia starts showing off Project Logan, the company's first mobile chips that use the same graphics engine the chipmaker has used on the PC.

Nvidia said the effort, still in its early stages, will reach the product stage in the first half of next year as part of the company's next-generation Tegra chip.

"We've been working on this for years to get the convergence," Nvidia senior VP Dan Vivoli said in an interview. The company just got back the initial test chips running the new engine, and decided to show off a prototype at the graphics industry's Siggraph convention, which takes place this week.

Nvidia said the new mobile graphics engine is powerful enough to do one of the company's most intensive demos - real-time rendering of a detailed human face. The company previously showed a demo of "Ira" using its high-end workstation graphics chip.

Now it has done an updated version of Ira, using some of the early silicon for Project Logan. It's not quite the same demo, with the mobile version offering somewhat slower frame rate, with a lower resolution.

"Ira is the most impressive graphics I've ever seen in real time," Vivoli said. "The fact we can do a version of Ira that runs on a mobile platform blows me away."

Google+ Brings Embedded Posts to Publishers (Just Like Twitter and Facebook)

In an effort to expand the reach of its social network, Google on Monday announced that third-party publishers can now embed Google+ posts into their websites.

Simply put: A site like AllThingsD could grab a publicly-made Google+ status update and, with the addition of a snippet of code, display it in a story.

At this point among the major players in social, it's a table stakes move. Twitter has long had embeds available, pitching the feature heavily to news sites and consumer outlets. And now both Facebook - which has made strides to surface more public-facing activity as of late - and Instagram have done the same. Google+ is a natural addition.

It's certainly a sensible move for all three companies, each of which aims for broad consumer recognition and appeal. It's also a trojan horse for potential new user signups if readers click through to the original social site.

Still, part of me wonders if there's a "peak embed" point. That is to say, if users will grow confused at the multiple types of embedded posts, and thereby not be inspired to click through. Or perhaps the different types of embedded posts will run together, and no one network will stand out.

Embeds should be available to publishers beginning today, with instructions on how to make it work found here.

"Just a Reflektor" Brings You and a Smartphone Into Arcade Fire's Latest Video

The band Arcade Fire has come out with another interactive music video designed to inspire and provoke, push the limits of Web technology, and make your laptop fan work in overdrive.

"Just a Reflektor" combines a Web browser, webcam and smartphone to include the viewer's point of view in the video, with the phone (or mouse) used to control what's illuminated. It's a neat way to make the experience of the video more visceral.

Like the band's "The Wilderness Downtown" before it, "Reflektor" was made using Google technology, specifically the Chrome browser, which it requires.

The short film was written, directed and produced by frequent Arcade Fire collaborator Vincent Morisset, and filmed in Haiti. Credits include the Google Creative Lab, the company's internal imaginative product marketing agency, and UNIT9.

On a tech explainer page that breaks down the various effects used in the video, the band highlights technology including the JavaScript Library three.js, WebSockets and the open-source TailBone project.

"Just a Reflektor" is also open source.

Still Playing Catch-Up on Mobile, Intel Takes Aim at Wearables

Despite having a tough time getting its chips into phones and tablets, Intel is setting its sights on not only doing better than that market, but also on getting its chips into even lower-power devices.

At its developer conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, Intel revealed its smallest-ever chip, known as Quark, designed to go into wearable computers and even products that are swallowed or disposable.

"We want to participate in all segments of computing," Intel's Renee James said on Monday. "We really mean everywhere."

The Quark chips, now sampling, are aimed at a wide range of everyday objects that are expected to gain Internet connections in the coming years. Products using Quark will hit the market next year, James said, adding that the chip is five times smaller than today's Atom processors, and 10 times as power-efficient.

But even as it eyes this new market, Intel is still playing catch-up in the market for phones and tablets - a market dominated by Qualcomm and a host of less well-known competitors including MediaTek and others. However, James said, Intel is making progress in both phones and tablets.

On the tablet side, Intel said that device makers are ready with the first products based on Bay Trail, a new version of its Atom processor based on a new generation of manufacturing technology and designed from the ground up to run on both Windows and Android devices. At one point, Intel had planned Bay Trail for a 2014 introduction, but the company decided that it could not afford to wait that long.

Intel has been placing special emphasis on developing expertise around Android, with James noting that the team devoted to that operating system is now equal to the one focused on Android. On the phone side, Intel is expected to showcase new designs from existing partners such as Lenovo, as well as some from newly acquired customers.

The chipmaker will also use the developer conference to show the first machines running chips (code-named Broad Trail) from Intel's next-generation 14-nanometer process. In addition, Intel is announcing a previously undisclosed version of its Haswell chip that can deliver the same performance as today's Core i5 processors and yet run in low-power machines without a fan.

As Congress Dawdles, the World Steals Our Talent

On immigration reform, this has been a slow summer for Congress. After reform passed the Senate in June, it languished in July. While Washington then went on recess, and now has shifted its focus to Syria, what has the rest of the world been up to on economic advancement?

Germany spent the summer rewriting 40 percent of its immigration laws, significantly easing the bureaucratic hurdles impeding talented, foreign-born engineers and professionals from contributing to the economy there. It will now be easier than ever for U.S.-educated graduate students to start new businesses ... in Germany.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Mobile Messaging App Pinnatta Raises $1.5 Million

Pinnatta, a mobile messaging app startup, announced on Wednesday that it raised a $1.5 million Series A round of funding. The app, which emphasizes the multimedia aspect of mobile messaging, raised the new round from Greek firms Odyssey Venture Partners and PJ Tech Catalyst. The new funds bring the startup's total amount raised to $2.2 million.

Why the University of Washington Wants Its Surgeons to Play Videogames

Randall Munroe / xkcd.com

In 1999, an Institute of Medicine study found that as many as 98,000 people die every year as the result of medical error in the U.S., incurring some $17 billion to $29 billion in hospital expenses. In 2009, the Safe Patient Project concluded that the situation may have gotten even worse in the decade that followed.

That's a tragedy, which Dr. Andy Wright - a surgeon and one of the core faculty members at the Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies (ISIS), a health-care education program based at the University of Washington - thinks can be helped by playing videogames.

Wright isn't advocating for surgeons' entertainment, although he personally identifies as a gamer.

"Being a videogamer doesn't get a lot of respect in a lot of mainstream professions," he said at the gaming conference PAX last month. "But, it has been instrumental to me in becoming a surgeon."

Wright's specialty is laparoscopy, meaning that his surgeries require very small incisions, some less than a centimeter long, which may be more easily monitored from a TV screen than by looking directly at the surgical site. His panel at PAX, "Videogames in Medicine," argued that the skills developed by games, such as hand-eye coordination and deliberate practice and teamwork, are also conducive to success in the operating room.

"Running a World of Warcraft guild doing raids is not terribly bad preparation for working in a hospital," Wright said in the panel discussion, noting that between two-thirds and three-quarters of those medical-error deaths were the result of miscommunication. As an example of what not to do, he played this infamous clip of the World of Warcraft guild Pals For Life, seemingly falling apart:

On a more down-to-earth level, Wright discussed how virtual training "games" like the Surgical Science product LapSim can help surgeon trainees. Although every patient is different, simulating surgeries allows students the chance to fail and get feedback without endangering anyone's life. Plus, simulators can easily throw those students into experiences that they might only see once in their entire careers, in order to prepare them for unlikely circumstances.

There's some data to back this up. In a study conducted in 2002, surgical residents trained in a virtual-reality simulation of gallbladder dissection were six times less likely to make an error in the real world than a control group that only received standard training.

However, a review of academic literature on virtual-reality training published in 2010 raised two caveats: VR makes the biggest difference with simpler skills being learned by less-practiced surgeons, and manual surgical technique is just one of the competencies that it takes to become a good surgeon, with good clinical outcomes strongly influenced by interpersonal communication skills and good judgment.

So, can normal videogames - the ones not intended for medical training - help with those non-manual skills?

"Absolutely," Wright told AllThingsD via email. "This is an area where I haven't seen any research on the application of videogames in that context, but the skills are the same," he said. "We teach judgment, team management, communication skills, conflict resolution, and error disclosure in the sim lab. You could easily see training those in a virtual environment or through gaming."

Zuckerberg to Meet With Top House Republicans on Immigration Reform

Mr. Zuckerberg is headed back to Washington.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to meet with four top House Republicans later this week, another in a string of moves into the political realm for the social giant.

The meeting, first reported by Politico, will include sitting Speaker of the House John Boehner, as well as other top Republican House leadership, with Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Whip Kevin McCarthy and Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

"Mark is coming to Washington to discuss issues important to the knowledge economy, including immigration reform," a Facebook spokesperson told AllThingsD.

Ostensibly that includes Zuckerberg's efforts with FWD.us, the political action group founded in conjunction with a host of tech executives that aims to upend U.S. immigration policy and potentially increase the number of foreign-born tech workers allowed entry into the United States.

The meeting is set to occur in Washington this Thursday.