TWICE News

• Best Buy Expands Executive Ranks
  
  By TWICE Staff, September 27, 2007
  Minneapolis — Best Buy today expanded its executive team by one and promoted seven company veterans to new positions. The moves come in the wake of the chain’s strong second-quarter earnings and the continued expansion of its store count, up 113 in the past 12 months
  
• Sling Debuts Solo Box, Nokia Software
  
  By Greg Tarr, September 27, 2007
  Foster City, Calif. — Fresh on the heels of its announced pending acquisition by satellite TV provider EchoStar, Sling Media introduced Thursday a new version of its place-shifting video system, called Slingbox Solo, that can connect to standard-definition or high-definition set-top boxes and offer increased streaming performance.
  
• Kodak Begins Shipping Picture Kiosk
  
  By TWICE Staff, September 27, 2007
  Rochester, N.Y. — Kodak is now shipping a low-volume Picture Kiosk to retailers.
  
• Mio Unveils Two GPS SKUs
  
  By Amy Gilroy, September 27, 2007
  New York — Mio unveiled two personal navigation devices (PNDs) for fall including one of the lowest-priced models to announce the street names of upcoming turns.
  
• PNY Donates To Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
  
  By TWICE Staff, September 27, 2007
  Parsippany, N.J. — Memory marketer PNY Technologies said yesterday it would donate $100,000 to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation.
  
• Microsoft Media Center’s Extenders Get 2nd Chance
  
  By Doug Olenick, September 27, 2007
  New York — Microsoft will give the Media Center Extender platform another chance with the public relaunch of the platform today at the DigitalLife show here with partners Linksys, D-Link and Niveus Media.
  
• NAB Releases DTV Transition PSA
  
  By TWICE Staff, September 26, 2007
  Washington — The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) released the first of its digital television (DTV) transition television spots for broadcast on stations across the country.
  
• Jasco Expands GE Sales Into Canada
  
  By TWICE Staff, September 26, 2007
  Oklahoma City — Jasco Products Company announced a new partnership with General Electric to expand the sales territory of its GE consumer electronic accessories license to include Canada. It will take effect Oct. 1.
  
• Sanyo Bows New HD Flash Camcorder
  
  By TWICE Staff, September 26, 2007
  Chatsworth, Calif. — Sanyo will ship a new HD video camera to dealers at the end of October.
  
• CEA: Telecommuting Via CE Saves Energy, Cuts Pollution
  
  b, September 26, 2007
  Arlington, Va. — A new national study commissioned by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) shows that using CE to telecommute saves the equivalent of 9 to 14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year — the same amount of energy used by roughly 1 million U.S. households every year, the trade association said.
  
• Philips Targets Green For More Green
  
  by Greg Tarr, September 26, 2007
  Amsterdam, The Netherlands — Royal Philips Electronics said this week that it has established a goal of achieving 30 percent of total revenues from “green products” by 2012, up from 15 percent of group sales in 2006.
  
• T-Mobile Expands Sidekick Series
  
  By TWICE Staff, September 26, 2007
  Bellevue, Wash. — T-Mobile expanded its selection of Sidekick-branded phones with the launch of the high-end big-screen Sidekick LX at $299 and its first Sidekick with slide-up display, retailing for $199.
  
• Canon Bows New Compact Photo Printer
  
  By TWICE Staff, September 26, 2007
  Lake Success, N.Y. — Canon will ship a new compact photo printer in its Selphy line to dealers this month.
  
• 8x8 To Snatch More Subscribers In VOIP Bailout
  
  By Greg Scoblete, September 26, 2007
  Santa Clara, Calif. — Another VoIP company is going out of business and will recommend 8x8 exclusively to its abandoned subscribers.
  
• Vonage Found Guilty In Sprint Patent Suit
  
  By Greg Scoblete, September 26, 2007
  Holmdel, N.J. — Vonage suffered another legal blow yesterday when a Federal jury in Kansas ordered the VoIP provider to pay $69.5 million to Sprint for patent infringement.
  
• Sanus, Lift-Tech Announce Mount Additions
  
  by Lisa Johnston, September 26, 2007
  New York — Sanus Systems and Lift-Tech announced additions to the flat-panel TV mount market yesterday.
  
• JVC Cutting 18% Of Domestic Force
  
  by Greg Tarr, September 26, 2007
  Tokyo — Victor Company of Japan (JVC) said it will use a voluntary early retirement program to help cut staff by up to 1,150 employees (18 percent), according to a report in Nikkei Business Publications.
  
• Nikon Names Okamoto CEO
  
  By Greg Scoblete, September 26, 2007
  Melville, N.Y. — Yasuyki Okamoto has been named president/CEO of Nikon, Inc.
  
• Pure Digital To Give Video Recorders To Non-Profits
  
  By Greg Scoblete, September 26, 2007
  New York — Pure Digital will offer its Flip Video flash-based camcorders to non-profits in a donor-match program, the company said at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting.
  
• DirecTV Expands HD Channels
  
  by Greg Tarr, September 26, 2007
  Washington — In the first phase of its HD service expansion, DirecTV added 21 new national high-definition channels to its now 31-channel lineup at 6 a.m. ET Wednesday.