IBM Lotus Embraces Apple's iPhone with Free iNotes App

IBM threw its hat into the iPhone ring with the introduction of iNotes ultralite, a free Web application that lets corporate workers access their Lotus Notes e-mail, calendar and contacts lists through Apple's Safari browser on Apple's iPhone. The messaging and collaboration application heightens the iPhone's viability as an enterprise-grade device. How soon before IBM creates a Lotus Notes application for T-Mobile's G1 phone, based on Google's Android operating system?

Lotus Notes and Domino adoption has grown to more than 140 million licensed users worldwide, but most of these Lotus Notes mobile users are owners of RIM BlackBerrys, Nokia Symbian devices, maybe even Palm Treos.

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All-polymer solar cells improve efficiency, flexibility

Polymer-based solar cells have received a fair bit of attention in the research community, some of which has been covered here at Nobel Intent. Much of the attraction is in being able to move away from the expensive raw materials used in inorganic solar cells and the costly manufacturing that accompanies them. Researchers have recently demonstrated an all-organic solar cell with a high efficiency, one that can provide both thin and flexible solar cells and routes to cheap manufacturing.

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What's eating eBay? Market bidding isn’t going Ebay’s way

Recessions are supposed to be boom times for yard sales and flea markets, so what’s eating eBay (EBAY), the world’s largest bargain bazaar? Ebay shares hit a new five-year low Thursday as yet another analyst weighed in on the nagging deterioration of the auction giant’s business. 

But wait there is more! Power sellers are unhappy about rate structure changes, they claim the new CEO drove off good sellers while keeping the below par ones, changed feedback policies so buyers can rob sellers (and sellers can't even leave negative feedback about it) and messed up the site’s SEARCH beyond repair. Most buyers have walked away because they cannot find anything on the site.

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Accurate Economist Predicts Widespread Hunger & Cold Homes

By The Common Sense Investor
Almost every financial call Peter Schiff has made relating to the current US economic crisis has turned out to be right, and now he's predicting that things will get so bad that a large portion of the US population will not be able to heat their homes or buy the food they need. Make sure to click on the read more to see all of the videos.

Peter Schiff is the Permabear who appears on all the financial shows as a foil to all the optimistic pundits. He’s told his clients to short sub-prime mortgages when everyone was buying, he told people to get out of tech stocks in 1998 and 99. Every financial call Schiff has made has turned out to be right, and this time he’s saying the stock market is headed even lower, gold prices are headed up around $1,500 by the end of the year, and at the minimum, the dollar will lose another 40 to 50 percent of its value. Schiff thinks we’re headed for a period worse than the Depression.

Every time Peter Schiff appears on TV, other pundits always seem to get upset, and it invariably turns into a screaming match, but he’s always right. Time has always proven him correct, consistently on almost every call he’s made. Learn from it, realize it’s happening, and most of all, take his advice, buy gold and Euro stocks and foreign currency. His track record speaks for itself, it’s just Common Sense.

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Credit card processors finally get clue, will ban WEP

Companies that accept major credit cards will be barred from using WEP for their WiFi security, but not until mid-2010. The rule is part of new security standards defined and released this week by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, which is made up of companies like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. The sad thing is that WEP—which can be cracked in as little as two minutes—is still widely used in the old and decrepit point-of-sale systems used by many retailers; the new rules should help move along the long-overdue adoption of tighter security in credit card processing.

WEP's hackability has been widely known since 2001, and has been blamed for the largest incident of consumer data theft in history. TJX, parent company of discount retailers T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, disclosed last year that hackers had stolen data covering over 45 million credit and debit cards over an 18-month period. In addition to pilfering over 45 million—and possibly as many as 200 million—credit card and debit card numbers, the hackers were also able to obtain other personal data from over 450,000 customers. This included driver's license numbers and Social Security numbers.

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The Curious Politics of Pizza and Ranch Dressing, it should be a crime!

Where Frank and Vinny come from, dipping pizza in ranch dressing is not done. “It's a crime against nature,” railed New York food writer Ed Levine, author of Pizza: Slice of Heaven, when I e-mailed him about the pizza/ranch combination.But pizza dipped in ranch dressing is gaining ground in the rest of the country. The Washington Post credited inebriated college students with making the combination popular at a pizzeria in Georgetown. “Ranch Chicken Pizza,” a grilled chicken pizza covered with ranch dressing, was a special this summer at the Schlotzsky's sandwich chain. The pizza came with more ranch dressing for dipping.

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Apple Threatens iTunes Shutdown

For five years, Apple's iTunes Music Store has been the Internet's most successful music store. "If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the ... royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss - which is no alternative at all," Cue wrote. "Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably."But as music publishers have sought a higher share of its proceeds, Apple has threatened to shutter iTunes.

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