Apple To Unveil iPod Cellphone Next Week?

Apple Computer is planning to hold a major press conference next week (September 7th) in San Francisco and the rumours say that it will be the unveiling of a new iPod cellphone (NYT). The phone would incorporate the popular iTunes software, be built by Motorola and marketed by Cingular Wireless. The companies have declined to confirm or deny the report, which would fit Apple's past pattern of being secretive to maximise the splash on announcement day.

A Slashdot news submission of mine.

Halo Movie Coming in 2007?

Reuters is reporting that Microsoft has signed a deal with Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox to make a movie about the popular Xbox game Halo. The studios agreed to pay Microsoft $5 million and a percentage of ticket sales capped at 10%. Universal will handle production and domestic distribution while Fox will take care of international distribution. Bungie is to be involved with the project's development as well. The movie is planned for a summer 2007 release.

A rejected Slashdot news submission of mine.

Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning finally ready

The 7 year project of filming the sixth installment of the Star Wreck series is finally over and the film premiered in Tampere today for all the folks involved in the project. If you happen to live in Finland you can see the finnish amateur scifi comedy, which spoofs Star Trek and Babylon 5, on the Star Wreck: On Wings -tour. The Internet release date is on October 1st after which you can download the movie for free from the Star Wreck website. Or you can buy it on DVD (for 22 euros) a month earlier. The trailer and teaser are available for download.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launch postponed

NASA's newest Mars probe, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), was originally scheduled to be launched from Kennedy Space Center wednesday morning atop an Atlas 5 rocket. However a potential problem with the Atlas' Redundant Rate Gyro Units (RRGUs), that are part of the vehicle's flight control system, detected at Lockheed Martin's factory has caused the engineers to make sure that the two RRGUs in MRO's rocket are working, thus delaying the launch at least until thursday morning. There is a 1.5 hour launch window daily until the end of the month.

Yet another slashdot news submission of mine. Accepted as Mars Orbiter Launch Delayed.

Cisco thinking of buying Nokia?

According to today's Sunday Business newspaper, Cisco Systems Inc. is thinking of buying the finnish mobile handset giant Nokia in the aftermath of CEO Jorma Ollila's retirement announcement. In the past Cisco has concentrated more on buying smaller, niche tech companies. But this time its chief is believed to be interested in merging with a wireless infrastructure company, and Nokia would fit this bill.

The paper says the merger would help Cisco create "intelligent wireless applications". Convergence is the buzz word of the day and this move would certainly combine the fixed-line and wireless networking capabilities of the companies. Cisco is currently valued at about $123 billion (25.5 times earnings) and Nokia at $71 billion (18.8 times earnings). Neither company has yet commented on the rumour.

A rejected slashdot submission of mine. The story got posted as Cisco Going Mobile, Acquiring Nokia? though. Mine was probably submitted later, so I'm not complaining (although I think my writeup was more informative and better linked).