Black Friday Sales Rise, But Only Slightly

Black Friday sales rose only slightly from a year ago even though more shoppers visited stores, retail traffic monitor ShopperTrak said Saturday, setting the stage for another uncertain holiday season for retailers.

Sales increased 0.3% to $10.7 billion, according to ShopperTrak, which installs monitoring devices in stores to gauge traffic. Traffic rose by 2.2%, ShopperTrak said.

The smaller than expected increase is due in part to discounts offered earlier in November as well as online-only promotions.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Zynga, Playdom Agree to Play Nice

Last September, social games player Zynga took rival Playdom to LawsuitVille, alleging that some of its trade secrets made their way into Playdom’s hands with the hiring of four ex-Zynga employees. Months of legal unpleasantness followed, but in July, Playdom was bought by Disney, and The Mouse can’t be bothered with loose bits of litigation. So, as of today, hostilities have ended with a settlement. No details, but Zynga says it’s “extremely pleased.”

Pew Study: The Well-Off Use the Net More

This just in from the Department of Unsurprising Research Results: The nation’s wealthier households are more likely than those less blessed to own technology gear and use the Internet. According to recent surveys by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, those making $75,000 a year and up are more likely to: Have desktops, laptops, music players and game consoles; tap into the Internet frequently and for a greater variety of tasks; and engage in e-commerce. One other note: Even among households with similar access to the Net, the wealthier were more active users.

How to Rip DVD to iPod Touch, iPod Nano on Windows, Vista and Mac

The software you will need: DVD to iPod Converter Windows(DVD to iPod Vista) and DVD to iPod for Mac.
This guide will show you how to rip DVD to iPod Touch with these iPod Nano Converter.
The following video and audio formats are supported by iPod Touch/iPod Nano: H.264, MPEG-4, MP3, AAC, WAV. So for you enjoy DVD on iPod, you need to convert DVD to these formats.

Part One: How to rip DVD to iPod Windows, DVD to iPod Vista
Part Two: How to rip DVD to iPod Mac

Part One:
1. Download Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Converter Windows(DVD to iPod Vista), then follow the instructions to install and run it.



2. Click "Load DVD" to load DVD, DVD Folder or IFO files.
3. Click "Profile" to set the exact output format. Click "Settings" to set the exact parameters for your iPod. Select "Audio Track" and "Subtitle" for the output file.
4. After finishing all the pre-settings, click "Start".

Part Two:
1. Download Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Mac (Intel, Power PC). Install and run it.



2. All the process are the same as DVD to iPod Windows.

Tips:
1. Click "Effect" to make special effect for your video.
You can adjust Brightness, Contract, Saturation of the video and the adjust the volume of music.
2. "Trim" function is for you to select the clips you want to convert.
3. Cut off the black edges of the original video and watch in full screen on your iPod using the "Crop" function.
4. This software allows you to join several DVD chapters into one clips by using "Merge into one file".

How to upload videos to YouTube from iMovie

Making movies on your Mac is fun and easy, but how do you share them with the world? Many people choose to upload videos to YouTube from iMovie.
Part 1, How to upload videos to YouTube from iMovie HD
Part 2, How to upload videos to YouTube from iMovie

Part 1, How to upload videos to YouTube from iMovie HD
1. Make sure your video is the one you want to upload, then click the share button in the menu bar.
2. Select the QuickTime option.



3. Click on the menu for your compression options and select web.



4. Save your movie to the desktop or somewhere else. Find your movie and click it once then press apple+I to get its information. Make sure it is less than 100 megabytes or YouTube will not accept it.
5. Log in to YouTube and click on the “upload” button at the top of the page.
6. Enter the name, category, tags and any other information you want for your video.
7. Next click on “upload a video” once you have finished entering your videos information.
8. Click on the “Choose File” button and choose your video file from were you saved it. Make sure its your compressed QuickTime video and not the iMovie file.
9. Lastly click on the “Upload Video” button, it may take a few minutes for your video to upload and it may take several hours for it to show up on YouTube.
I also recommend CD quality. You can save the movie to CD-ROM and then you can upload movie from iMovie HD to YouTube!

Part 2, How to upload videos to YouTube from iMovie
1. Make sure your video is the one you want to share, then click the share button in the menu bar and select YouTube.
2. Choose your YouTube account or create a new one
3. Confirm your sign in.
4. Select the category, name, description, and tags for your video.
5. Select your publish size and click Next
6. Now click the publish button.
7. Your video will be ready to watch on YouTube in 2-120 minutes.

Google has released basic software called Vidnik which is the quickest, simplest way to make movies using the built - in camera on your Macintosh and upload those movies to your YouTube account. You must first sign up for a free YouTube membership to upload videos.
Learn more: How to upload videos to YouTube easily and quickly on Mac?

Aiseesoft are making a promotion of “Buy One Get One” in order to express our gratitude and a long-term support during Thanksgiving season. The time is from 22^nd Nov to 28^th Nov. For more information, please click here: http://www.aiseesoft.com/special/thanksgiving2010.html.

Three Ways to Download Music To Your Zune Player

There are several ways you can download your Zune movies, Zune music videos, Zune MP3's and Zune software to your Zune player.
1) The first is from the Microsoft Zune Marketplace and other Pay-Per-Download Sites which have movie downloads, music downloads, music video downloads, and more. The problem with downloading Zune files from places like Microsoft Zune Marketplace is the cost. The Microsoft Zune Marketplace charges a monthly subscription service called the "Zune Pass" with unlimited downloads for $14.99 per month. The pay-per-download sites charge on the average about $1.00 per Zune download. So, with a Zune player that has a 30 gigabyte hard drive whic allows users to store up to 7,500 Zune MP3s, 2,500 pictures or 100 hours of Zune movies and Zune music videos, that is going to cost a fortune to fill up.

2) WiFi - Microsoft Zune players has a technology called WiFi which allows friends and family to share Zune music, Zune movies, Zune software, pictures and Zune music videos both effortlessly and wirelessly. If you have a cool picture or something you found on a zune download site you can share it easily. Anytime you come in close range of another Zune player you can connect to that Zune player via WiFi and share your Zune downloads. The only drawback is you can only play a shared song only 3 times before it is deleted although, pictures are saved and can be viewed many times. It's a nice feature but needs improvement.

3) The third way is by ripping your music CD's to your Zune player. The definition of ripping means converting CD music files to a file format usable by your Zune player which is either in MP3 or WMA file format. After doing this, all you need to do is plug your Microsoft Zune player into your computer with a USB cable and transfer the ripped music files to your Zune player using the provided Zune software.

1. Put the music CD that you want ripped into your PC.
2. After the media player opens. Select the song you would like to copy and click on RIP.
3. Save the song you just ripped to a folder of your choice.
4. Plug in your Zune Player to your PC using the USB Cable. The Zune Software will automatically search for music that you saved in the folder on your PC. Select the files you want and manually drag and drop them into your Zune player's music folder.

Related theme:
New Zune review part 2-1
New Zune review part 2-2
New Zune review part 2-3
New Zune review part 2-4

Recommended Products:
DVD to Zune Converter
This Zune Converter can convert or rip DVD to what you want video/audio formats.
Zune Movie Converter
It supports convert video to Zune supporting video and audio format.

The Landscape Around Google’s Hiring Binge

After a year or two of stagnancy, the Google employee count is growing rapidly again. But the growth spurt and retention efforts seem forced, and unlikely to be the perfect formula to keep the company at the top of the Web heap, despite its clout, market share and massive revenue. Part of the problem is that the company’s executives seem out of touch with how the Web is evolving.

The search giant has 2,076 job openings, as tabulated in a story by Reuters last night. It has acquired more than 20 start-ups this year, it’s giving all employees a 10 percent raise and it’s still adding search market share–even if only measured in tenths of percentage points. The company is even building a new 1.2-million-square-foot corporate campus in Mountain View, Calif., that is to include housing. Google now has more than 23,000 employees. It’s currently adding about 100 people per week, said a source.

But it’s an awkward time at Google, where a group of employees can leave, create a start-up and come back two years later through an acquisition with $50 million in their pockets. And the stories about competitive hiring wars with Facebook just keep getting more fantastical.

According to a source, a Google engineer recently ended a counteroffer war with Facebook by accepting $6 million worth of Google stock to keep her job there. Apparently she was not in a senior role at Google, but part of what made her so coveted was the fact she’s a female engineer. And this was Google’s second counteroffer after she had already told them she was going to Facebook.

At this point, Facebook (narrowly) has fewer employees than Google has job openings.

Google needs to find a way to foster its employees’ entrepreneurial desires and talents. The promise of exponentially growing stock options versus a simple raise still tempts many people.

Part of why Google needs to “get social” so badly isn’t just on a product or market level, but to impress its own employees. At a place where the top management is firmly ensconced and immutable, younger employees, especially, say they are turned off by their bosses’ lack of social media savviness on a personal level. It’s clear that tomorrow’s tech leaders are already blogging, Tweeting and Facebooking, so why are today’s leaders still resisting?

Here’s a quick tally (tell me if I’m getting any of these wrong): Eric Schmidt has a Twitter account that he updates every week or two, mostly to promote Google stuff. Sergey Brin’s last blog post and Tweet were both in January. Larry Page doesn’t seem to do much of anything personal or professional online; there’s not even a LinkedIn account or a Google Profile that I can see. Marissa Mayer seems to be the most active high-profile Google exec on Twitter, and actually responds to people there, as well as syndicates some Foursquare updates. As for the folks leading Google’s social stuff: Vic Gundotra’s last Tweet was in May. Bradley Horowitz isn’t blogging much anymore, and his last Tweet was a month ago.

Google Turns Its Local Eyes to Groupon–But Who Else Could Enter Bidding?

According to multiple sources close to the situation, Google is in discussions with local deals powerhouse Groupon about buying it.

Without making the requisite joke about the deal of the day, sources said the price being considered is certainly no discount–well above the $2 billion to $3 billion that Yahoo offered Groupon in acquisition talks that took place earlier this year.

But sources cautioned that the talks are not complete, and could also end up without any result, as the Yahoo discussions did.

In an email, a Google spokesperson said with some style: “Per usual, we don’t comment on rumor or speculation. If we did we’d be busy 24/7!”

A Groupon spokesperson was also sassy, noting: “Thanks for the heads up!”

Still, the company appears to be engaged in a pattern of shopping itself around, via its bankers Allen & Co., even though Groupon investors have expressed a desire to stay independent many times.

But could there be other interested parties poking around, given the explosive revenue growth of Groupon–whose revenues are reportedly upwards of $50 million a month–in the huge local retail market?

Sources said only three could pay such a high price: Microsoft, Amazon and, perhaps the most logical buyer, eBay.

As does Google, all have more than enough cash reserves, as well as stock, to pay up for one of the more promising start-ups in a lucrative arena.

That would be local commerce. Currently, despite a plethora of clones, Groupon dominates socially fueled couponing across cities globally.

Owning the hot space around local purchasing and consumer information, combined with social element, would be a tasty treat for Google.

The Silicon Valley search giant has struggled to deliver social tools to users, even as social networking giant Facebook has morphed into a potent rival.

Google had looked at social reviews site Yelp for purchase previously, but that deal fell apart.

It has been introducing various local advertising and commerce efforts, efforts that would be turbocharged given Groupon’s quick progress.

In April, Groupon garnered a valuation of well above $1 billion in a massive venture funding.

It has used that money to buy up companies in the U.S. and internationally, trying to solidify itself as the major player in the marketplace.

If Google were to complete a deal to buy Groupon, it would have echoes of its purchase of YouTube in 2006 for $1.6 billion.

Many felt it a high price at the time, but it looks cheap today given how the site almost completely dominates Web video.

A purchase this size would also likely require bankers. Google’s favored one is Morgan Stanley.

But there is one major issue in a possible Google purchase of Groupon: Even more regulatory scrutiny by the federal government over its power online.

Google narrowly missed getting approval for its $750 million purchase of mobile advertising start-up adMob.

And it is currently under fire from numerous critics for its proposed purchase of huge flight data firm ITA Software for $700 million.

Those opposed to the acquisition, on antitrust grounds, contend that Google would control travel search in a way that would invite abuse.

Having Groupon would garner Google even more powerful pricing information from both customers and merchants across the globe.

Oracle, SAP and the Apotheker Sideshow

Why is Oracle so intent on putting former SAP CEO and new HP chief Léo Apotheker on the stand in the trial that will determine damages in Oracle’s long-running IP battle with its German rival?

SAP insists it’s to create a “PR sideshow”–which is true to an extent. But sometimes there’s more to a sideshow than meets the eye. Which is not to say that some nefarious scheme lies at the heart of all this, just that there is a lot of subtext to make sense of in this case. And it’s being written from two very different views of how damages should be calculated and how important Apotheker is as a variable in that calculation.

SAP’s view is that now that it has stipulated to liability, damages should be determined according to the actual number of contracts won by TomorrowNow and their value–not according to the number of contracts it hoped to win.

Oracle’s view is that damages should be determined by value of the intellectual property stolen from it and SAP’s ambitions for it. And while SAP’s stipulation to liability prevents Oracle from introducing evidence on liability, it leaves it free to introduce evidence for “context” on damages.

And that’s where Apotheker comes in.

According to evidence presented in the case, Apotheker chaired the launch of the Safe Passage program, of which the TomorrowNow acquisition was one part. And in his depositions, former SAP board member Shai Agassi clearly identified Apotheker as having some responsibility for TomorrowNow post acquisition, along with Gerd Oswald.

“I was the guy who led the the evaluation [of TomorrowNow] with Werner Brandt, who managed the acquisition teams at the time,” Agassi said. “The day of the acquisition, it was basically moved to Gerd Oswald, and the sales effort was moved over to Apotheker. So Safe Passage was managed by Apotheker and Oswald.”

Add to this the fact that Apotheker reported on TomorrowNow and the Safe Passage program in SAP earnings calls and was the only senior SAP exec quoted in a company release touting the program’s success, and it seems reasonable to expect that he might be able to provide some of the “context” Oracle is looking for (click document below to enlarge). One could argue that his expectations and forecasts for the program’s success speak directly to Oracle’s damages.

Or one could argue, as SAP and HP do, that his involvement was incidental and that he had no responsibility for TomorrowNow’s day-to-day operations and hence no knowledge of its transgressions.

But unless he testifies under oath, we’ll never know who’s right. And with Apotheker quietly going about his business at an undisclosed location, it’s looking like that’s how things will end up.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Better Late: SAP Co-CEO Apologizes for Oracle IP Theft
• SAP Co-CEO Expected to Testify in Oracle Trial Today
• HP to Oracle: Leave Léo Alone
• Oracle Still Hoping to Snag HP’s Apotheker for SAP Trial
• HP CEO to Oracle: Here’s Looking at You, Kid–Suntory Time!
• Ellison to Self: Damn, Damn. I Knew I Should Have Said $4.5 Billion
• SAP Attorney: Board Knew TomorrowNow Was Infringing at Time of Acquisition
• Oracle Co-President on SAP’s Damages Offer: “It’s Crazy”
• Oracle Enlists Process Servers, Not PIs, to Find HP CEO
• Oracle-SAP Trial: Ellison Swaps Katana for Poison Darts
• Objection: Mr. Ellison Is Referring to the Defendant as “Choleric of Temper” Again
• Oracle Lands Early Shots in SAP Trial
• Your Honor, We Object to Mr. Ellison’s Repeated Use of the Term “Slimy Weasels”
• Oracle to HP CEO: Chicken!
• Oracle Vs. SAP: We Got a Right to Pick a Little Fight–Bonanza!
• SAP’s Tab in Oracle Case: $120 Million and Counting
• Gag Order Denied in Oracle, SAP Trial
• Ellison Taunts HP CEO a Second Time
• SAP to Ellison: Save the Drama for Your Mama
• Ellison to HP CEO: “Warrior, Come Out to Plaaeeay!
• SAP: Please Gag Oracle
• HP Scandal Sucks in New York Times Columnist Over Conflict of Interest
• Welch to HP Board: You Don’t Know Jack!
• Insiders Criticize Ellison For HP CEO Slam
• Was Apotheker HP’s First Choice of CEO?
• HP Names Ex-SAP Chief Apotheker as CEO

How to sync and put cusomized ringtone on iPhone

Previous part: How to convert DVD, Movie, Music to iPhone ringtone and put ringtone on iPhone/iPhone 3G?

There are also some other ways to convert audio to iPhone ringtone and sync it to iPhone with iTunes, but I think these are a little complicated and users may be at a loss with such ways.

Here I recommend iPhone PC Suite, an almighty iPhone manager that can let you manage phone book, software, media and other files between iPhone and computer without iTunes easily.

But before using this tool, make sure your iTunes installed and has been connected with iPhone once before (Then you will never need not run iTunes when you use iPhone PC Suite to manage your iPhone).And when the first time you connecting iPhone, it will install PhoneDaemon on your iPhone, don’t worry it is green software and will do nothing harm.

Now I will show you how to sync the converted iPhone ringtone to iPhone without iTunes. Connect you iPhone to computer, double click” iPhone PC Suite” to start iPhone PC Suite, the program will scan you iPhone automatically for a short while. Then click button “Personal” on the main menu, select ”ringtone”.



Click “New Ringtone” to locate the converted iPhone ringtone.

Select your target iPhone ringtone, then it will upload the ringtone to iPhone automatically.



Then you can select your favorite audio file and set it as your iPhone ringtone on iPhone. Click “setting”->”Sound”->”Ringtone”, the converted ringtone is listed on column “Customize”. Now you can enjoy the fun of your unique iPhone ringtone!
This free iPhone PC Suite also has other powerful functions, we will share them later.

Previous part: How to convert DVD, Movie, Music to iPhone ringtone and put ringtone on iPhone?

How to put DVD movie into Windows Movie Maker and iMovie

If you want to edit a DVD movie with Windows Movie Maker or import several DVD clips into Mac iMovie to build a new DVD, but you get frustrated with the DVD format, this guide may help you solve the problem.

Before you get started, it will be helpful if you learn something about the DVD, WMM and iMovie.
General DVDs have CSS copy protection in MPEG-2 or VOB format.
(Windows) Windows Movie Maker supports WMV, AVI and MPG video files.
(Mac) iMovie accepts MOV and MPEG4 video files.

This guide includes two parts:
1. How to put DVD movie into Windows Movie Maker.
2. How to add DVD clips to Apple Mac iMovie .

Part1. How to put DVD movie into Windows Movie Maker

Step1. To put a DVD movie into Windows Movie Maker, you have to rip your DVD to WMV or AVI video first, and then you can load it into Windows Movie Maker. I’d prefer using Aiseesoft DVD Ripper to do this. You can get this program at: http://www.aiseesoft.com/dvd-ripper.html Then install and run it, put your DVD disc into your DVD drive, click “Load DVD” to locate your DVD file and import it, or load it by clicking “Load IFO File” to add DVD IFO file. (This DVD Ripper can rip copyright protected DVD movies, but you should remember that it’s illegal rip DVD for any business purposes)

Step2. Select output format and subtitle

After you load the DVD files, click the format drop-down list to select “WMV – Windows Media Video (*.wmv)” or “AVI – Audio Video Interleaved (*.avi)” as the output format. A regular DVD movie has multiple subtitles and audio tracks, and you can select the right one for you. If you just want a certain part of the DVD movie, you can click “trim” to cut the DVD movie. Just drag the timeline bar to set the start and end time, and then blue line will be the captured parts.



For advanced user, if you want to output higher quality video, click the “Settings” button to open the panel, here you can customize video bitrate, audio bitrate, resolution, framerate, etc. Higher bitrate will result in bigger file size.

Step 3. Start to convert

After the above steps, you just need to click “Start” and wait for the conversion to be finished. It provides the fastest conversion speed (>300%), completely support dual core CPU.

Step 4. Edit DVD with Windows Movie Maker (optional)

Run Windows Movie Maker, in the “Movie Task” bar, click “Add Video” to browse your computer and located the converted files, and then you can start to make personal movies.

Tips:Many users may wonder how they can convert Windows Movie Maker file (*.MSWMM) to other video format. Actually, A *.MSWMM file is not a video file. It is a project file of Movie Maker (more like a record file). You have to open this file in Windows Movie Maker and save the movie to your computer: Go to Movie Tasks bar > Finish Movie > Save to my computer. After that you will have a WMV file which can be converted to another video format or burned to DVD.

Part2. How to add DVD clips into Apple iMovie.

iMovie is similar to Windows Movie Maker, it supports MOV and MP4 video, so you just need to convert your DVD movie to the right format. Aiseesoft DVD Ripper has a Mac Version which supports both Mac OS Tiger and Leopard; you can download it for free from here: http://www.aiseesoft.com/dvd-ripper-for-mac.html
It is easy to use for the operation steps being similar to the windows version.



When the conversion is finished, you can run the iMovie, build a new project, and then drag the converted files to the work space to make personal files.
When the task is finished, In the Menu bar, Click "File" -> "Export" and save it as QuickTime video.

Download Aiseesoft DVD Ripper for Windows (put DVD into Windows Movie Maker)
Download Aiseesoft DVD Ripper for Mac (put DVD into Apple iMovie)

New Zune2 review (part 2-1) upgrade, hardware, software and Social

When we first caught wind that Microsoft was in fact doing its own portable media player (and then published the first ever photo of the Zune), we hoped it might finally be the play to knock the iPod off its perch. Sure, in mid 2006 there was no shortage of devices more advanced than any given iPod, but then (and now) the iPod enjoyed unchecked dominance of the market in the US and many countries abroad. Steve Jobs knew the day would come that Microsoft would really enter the game.
What we were hoping for was that the portable media world might be in store for another Sony / Nintendo upset. Remember in the 90s how Sony and Nintendo's partnership went awry, and Sony, totally sick of Nintendo completely owning the game console space, brought out the original PlayStation? Before the console's second generation was through Sony had more market share than they knew what to do with. Sony upped Nintendo's game with the PlayStation, then upped their own with the PlayStation 2 -- and took over.
If Sony could do the impossible and topple the infallible Nintendo of old, surely Microsoft, the world's largest technology company, could make at least make a dent in Apple's armor. Yeah, the first-gen product is important, but the second gen product is crucial, because if you can't up your game -- and everyone else's -- you're just another player. This year, Microsoft really had to make the Zune count. Read on to judge for yourself whether they did.
The first generation Zune, as we all know, was little more than a slew of off the shelf hardware and software Microsoft cobbled together in a rush to make a play for the annual holiday gold rush. And the interesting part is, all things considered, it really wasn't bad at all. No one thought it was "done", but it was a lot better than some of the other PMC-based devices we'd seen to date. This year Microsoft brought a slew of new Zune products (and enhancements) to the table, including two new players (flagship 80GB and the flash model), new device software (which runs on all devices), new desktop software, and a new service (Zune Social, a music-oriented social network reminiscent of Xbox Live).



Device software
Yeah, we know Microsoft technically skipped right past device software v2.0 and jumped to 2.2, but the update is the best place to start since it affects the most users and devices. Microsoft won some well-deserved brownie points for ensuring all Zune players new and old can run the new firmware, meaning that for now your old Zune will have feature parity with the new hardware.
So here's the deal with the device software: it adds some crucial bits (many of which we expected the first time), takes away some minor but important things, and leaves the other 90% largely unchanged. First, the stuff Zune 2.0 takes away:
Song flagging
The five star rating system
The language menu The good stuff, though, is very good:
MPEG-4 and H.264 playback support
Podcasting support
Sync over WiFi (which we'll get to later)
In terms of performance, both old and new hardware and firmware were almost identical in testing. A lot of people have been claiming the new firmware is much snappier, but we didn't find that to be true at all. Two Zune 30 devices boot up within a half second between 1.0 and 2.0 series firmwares, and the flash-based Zune 8 we tested booted to home screen less than a second faster. Traversing menus took no more or less time or when syncing and the like. (Note: scrolling through long lists appears to happen slightly faster, but that's likelier an interface tweak, not a performance increase.)

Related theme:
New Zune review part 2-1
New Zune review part 2-2
New Zune review part 2-3
New Zune review part 2-4

Recommended Products:
Aiseesoft DVD to Zune Suite
It can help you convert DVD, IFO and all video formats to Zune, Zune 2 MP4, WMV and Zune supported audio MP3, WMA, and AAC etc.

Cisco: Earnings Up, Share Price Down

Investors unsettled by Cisco’s last earnings report and the “mixed signals” CEO John Chambers said he’d been getting from customers aren’t finding much solace in the company’s latest earnings report. While Cisco did beat analyst estimates, its market outlook doesn’t seem all that much improved from last quarter.

Posting first-quarter results after the bell today, Cisco reported earnings per share of 42 cents on revenue of $10.75 billion, up from 30 cents a share and $9 billion a year earlier. Analysts had been expecting 40 cents a share, on revenue of $10.75 billion.

So a beat, but one couched in some pretty subdued language from CEO John Chambers.

“Cisco delivered solid financial results, during a challenging economic environment. While we have seen capital spending moderate in some areas of our business, our execution in the areas we can control and influence speak to the success and relevance of the company’s strategy. Our position in the market, including continued product innovation, market share momentum and operational excellence, positions us for growth and flexibility well into the future as we strengthen our role as a trusted business partner to our customers.”

“challenging economic environment”
“capital spending moderate”
“execution in the areas we can control and influence”

All red flags for investors, who don’t seem to have much cared for Chambers’s remarks. Cisco shares are down 4.3 percent as I write this.

Oracle Co-President on SAP’s Damages Offer: “It’s Crazy”

Whatever points SAP managed to score in its high-stakes legal battle with Oracle Monday–by introducing an email from Oracle President Safra Catz suggesting the company had not lost any large customers to its German competitor after it bought TomorrowNow–dropped off the board when Catz finally took the stand herself.

Called as a witness for Oracle, Catz reiterated an earlier point made by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, saying that had SAP licensed the materials that its TomorrowNow subsidiary ultimately pilfered, it would have cost “billions.” She also reminded SAP’s legal team that her email on SAP/TomorrowNow as a competitive threat was written without knowing about TomorrowNow’s copyright infringement.

Worse, she dismissed SAP’s offer of $40 million in damages as laughable. “SAP paying us damages of $40 million would be a reward for their bad behavior. “It’s like taking someone’s $2,000 watch and hocking it for $20, and then offering to give us $20. It’s crazy. It completely undervalues the entire basis for our industry.”

A powerful jab, and one that’s making the rounds in media reports on the trial today.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Oracle Enlists Process Servers, Not PIs, to Find HP CEO
• Oracle-SAP Trial: Ellison Swaps Katana for Poison Darts
• Objection: Mr. Ellison Is Referring to the Defendant as “Choleric of Temper” Again
• Oracle Lands Early Shots in SAP Trial
• Your Honor, We Object to Mr. Ellison’s Repeated Use of the Term “Slimy Weasels”
• Oracle to HP CEO: Chicken!
• Oracle Vs. SAP: We Got a Right to Pick a Little Fight–Bonanza!
• SAP’s Tab in Oracle Case: $120 Million and Counting
• Gag Order Denied in Oracle, SAP Trial
• Ellison Taunts HP CEO a Second Time
• SAP to Ellison: Save the Drama for Your Mama
• Ellison to HP CEO: “Warrior, Come Out to Plaaeeay!
• SAP: Please Gag Oracle
• HP Scandal Sucks in New York Times Columnist Over Conflict of Interest
• Welch to HP Board: You Don’t Know Jack!
• Insiders Criticize Ellison For HP CEO Slam
• Was Apotheker HP’s First Choice of CEO?
• HP Names Ex-SAP Chief Apotheker as CEO

Khosla Wins the Bidding War for GroupMe, New York’s Startup of the Moment

GroupMe, a New York startup that lets users send group text messages to to their cell phones, didn’t exist in April. Now it’s worth about $35 million.

Co-founders Jared Hecht and Steve Martocci have raised a $9 million round led by Khosla Ventures, sources say. I’m told the deal will give the company a pre-money value in the “mid-20s”.

Original investors including First Round Capital, Betaworks, Lerer Ventures and Ron Conway’s SV Angel, who put some $850,000 into the company earlier this year, are all slated to invest again.

As The Business Insider’s Nicholas Carlson has reported, a bidding war for the right to fund GroupMe broke out in the past few weeks. The company ended up with multiple term sheets to pick from before signing with Khosla Monday.

So what is it? GroupMe is a simple free service that lets users send text messages, on any kind of phone, to groups of friends. It competes against a handful of similar companies, but investors are impressed at its growth chart, which shows it adding tens of thousands of users a month.

They also like the fact that the company is explicitly targeting a wide range of users — not just those using Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android. GroupMe works on any run of the mill “dumbphone”, and part of the company’s pitch is that salt of the earth folks (Church groups! Hunters!) have been using it since it opened up in August.

It’s also worth noting that Hecht and Martocci left jobs at very red-hot startups — Tumblr and Gilt Groupe, respectively — to put their own thing together. The two formally hatched their plan at TechCrunch’s Disrupt Hack Day event in May.

GroupMe plans on adding an array of bells and whistles to the service, like the ability to send pictures, and a sort of jerry-rigged location feature in the near future. And the more it adds of those, the more it will looks like something that aspires to play in the same sandbox as Twitter and Facebook.

But what investors are really hoping for, at least right now, is that GroupMe follows the same trajectory of another zero-to-hero New York startup — Foursquare. It’s worth nothing that Khosla tried very hard to fund that company’s last round, but missed out. They got this one.

I shot this interview with the two cofounders just two weeks ago* but wasn’t going to run it, because the two of them are framed so comically –Martocci is a tall dude, but he’s not that much taller than Hecht.

But it’s better than nothing, and now that these guys are officially the hot startup of the moment, it’s time for the rest of you to meet them. Sorry, Jared and Steve. But lousy video about big news is a high quality problem.

How to change iPhone Wallpaper

Here are the easy steps you can take to change iPhone Wallpaper easily.

Make preparations:
Step 1: Find an image that you would like to use as wallpaper from iPhone Wallpaper.
Step 2: Right-click on a PC or control-click on an Apple computer and select "Save As" to save the image to your computer. Save it to your "My Pictures" folder or iPhoto library on a PC or Apple respectively, or wherever you prefer to store your images on your computer as long as you will be able to easily locate it.
Step 3: Connect the iPhone to your computer with the USB cable and wait for iTunes to launch itself automatically. Click on the "Photos" tab in the side panel.
Step 4: Click on the "Sync Photos From:" tab in the "Photos" menu on iTunes and locate the folder where your photos are stored. Select all of the images that you would like to transfer your to iPhone. Click on "Sync" in iTunes to transfer all of the photos to your iPhone.

Change iPhone Wallpaper
Step 1: Tap Settings on the iPhone’s home screen:



Step 2: Tap the Wallpaper tab:



Several tabs should appear, including one that says Wallpaper. You can tap any of the tabs to select wallpaper for the iPhone. The Wallpaper tab features a collection of pictures supplied by Apple. The other tabs feature pictures you have added to the iPhone, including those taken with the iPhone’s camera.



Step 3: Tap any picture. A preview screen of the wallpaper will appear, along with the words Move and Scale at the top. You can pinch and reverse pinch the picture to resize. The transparent bars at the top and bottom simulate the bars for the clock and Slide to unlock that will eventually display on top of your wallpaper.
In the example below you can see that the heads of the two peoples will be partially covered by the top bar:



To fix, I will reverse pinch to expand the picture, then drag the picture so that their faces appear in the center:


Step 4:
Tap Set Wallpaper to finish.
To view your new iPhone wallpaper, put the iPhone to sleep by pressing the sleep button on the top of the iPhone. Then hit the home button to wake the iPhone, and you should see the wallpaper.
Note the position of the clock and Slide to unlock transparent bars. If you’re unhappy with the position of the wallpaper, repeat the steps above.

How to backup DVD movies to DVD for free

This is a tutorial that explains the process of backing up a DVD on a PC using DVD Shrink. While there are many software solutions for backing up DVDs, the one on Windows I like is DVD Shrink. On Mac OS X, I like this DVD Copy for Mac.

that can copy DVD movie (D9 to D9, D5 to D5) with the entire movie in 1:1 ratio perfectly. This tutorial will be a concise explanation of how to backup DVD movie to DVD for free. There are many reasons to make a backup copy of DVDs one has purchased, keep reading to learn how to improve the quality of your re-encoded backups.

Step 1, download DVD Shrink
You can download DVD Shrink from: http://www.DVDshrink.org/.
For Mac users, you can download the DVD copy for Mac from here.

Step 2, Run DVD Shrink and insert your DVD movie into the DVD drive
The first thing you will need to do is open the disc. Click on "Open Disk" at the top-left of the program window. A small window will pop up. There is a drop down menu - select the drive and disk that you are going to backup. Then click OK. When you click OK, the DVD will be “analyzed”–this process will last for 1-3 minutes, then DVD Shrink will “suggest” a level of compression.



If you receive an error while trying to rip the DVD (like the one shown in the screenshot above), you will need to use another program such as DVD Decrypter to copy the DVD files off of the disc on to your hard drive. You need to minus the copy protections first. Click here to read how to use DVD decypher to minus the copy protections of DVD.



Step 3. Adjust compression for individual Titles (optional).
DVD Shrink will automatically select the highest possible quality settings that will fit on your disc. You could accept the settings that DVD Shrink chooses. You can also increase the quality of the main movie file by reducing or eliminating other video and audio files on the DVD.
Many modern DVDs will contain bonus footage, trailers, multiple surround sound modes, and other settings that one can reduce or eliminate to improve the quality of the main movie feature.
The main movie quality setting is reported to the left of a slider bar in the top right of the screen. In the screenshot below we see that the default setting requires that the main movie be compressed to 48.2% of its original level to fit on the disc. You can increase this percentage to improve the final quality of the backed-up DVD. But the output file will be larger.



The way in which one goes about improving the quality of the main movie will be different depending on your specific needs. For example, when “Dolby Digital” and “DTS” 5.1 audio tracks are available, you can remove “DTS” (to save hundreds of megabytes), you can also choose to preserve “DTS” and reduce or eliminate other items from the DVD.
Some of the settings I made to this particular DVD were:
--Removed “5.1-ch French” audio track (went from 48.2% to 55.4% compression for main movie).
--Replaced certain Titles with “Still Image” (keep reading for more on this).
To improve the quality of the main movie, you'll need to reduce or eliminate other DVD features, each called a “Title” in DVD Shrink. Click the “plus sign” next to “Extras” in the menu to view the other titles.



The Title I've selected below was 72MB. In this case the video was a “behind the scenes” feature that I did not wish to keep. Since one cannot completely remove any of the “Titles,” the next best thing is to replace them with a still image. In order to do this, select the title you want to replace, and choose “Still Image” from the drop-down menu in the top right. In this case the file went from 72MB to 66MB. The still image is configurable, simply drop an image of your own into the aptly named Still Images directory found under Program Files > DVD Shrink.

Step 4, Burn the re-encoded files to disc.



Click “Backup DVD” and Now select the folder where your temporary files will be saved. DVD Shrink needs to save a bunch of files on your computer (that actually compose your movie) so that it can burn that movie back onto another DVD. This is why you had to clear 5 gigs of space on your hard drive. Once the DVD backup has been burned, you can go ahead and delete these temporary files (the program does not do this itself).
You may as well select “Region Free” (default) under the DVD Region tab.
on the Burn Settings tab make sure “Maximum” burn speed is selected in the drop-down menu.
Once you have the settings the way you like them, begin the burn process. You'll see the “Encoding” happening first. There is a video preview that will show you where you are, but I believe that the encoding process goes slower with this setting enabled.



Once the files have been copied to your hard drive, your original DVD movie will eject from your computer.
You will also have a pop up asking you to put a blank DVD into the DVD burning drive of your computer that you previously selected.
Exchange the original DVD movie for a blank, burnable DVD. Push the blank DVD into the drive. DVD Shrink will begin burning the new DVD automatically in a few seconds. Now you will get a pop up that shows the progress while the program burns your new DVD movie. Once the new DVD has been burned, you will get a window that tells you that it's done. Click OK, close the program, and take your new DVD movie backup. All Done!

Note: DVD Shrink is only for PC users. If you are a Mac user, Please download DVD copy for Mac .

How to convert videos such as MP4, WMV, MOV and AVI to DVD for Free

DVD Flick is a free DVD authoring program that allows you to take a video file saved on your computer and converts it into a DVD that can play back in a DVD player, your computer, or Home Cinema set. The software allows you to add audio tracks and subtitles to your DVD. Your original video files may be in any of the following container formats: AVI, MOV, MPG, WMV, ASF, FLV (Flash video), Matroska and MPG. Supported codecs include MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, XVid, DivX, WMA and WMV (Windows Media Audio and Video), MP3, OGG Vorbis, H264 and On2 VP5/6. The program is open source.
DVD Flick is the all-in-one tool that can convert:
AVI to DVD, FLV to DVD, HDMOV to DVD, MKV to DVD, MJPG to DVD, MPG to DVD, M2V to DVD, MP4 to DVD, M4V to DVD, NSV to DVD, NUT to DVD, QT to DVD, MOV to DVD, RM to DVD, SMK to DVD, OGM to DVD, WMV to DVD, ASF to DVD, 3GP to DVD, 3G2 to DVD for free.
DVD Flick supports DVD Authoring, ISO image creating, DVD burning also in one tool.
System requirements:

• A Pentium or AMD K-6 processor. Pentium 3 or later recommended, the faster the better.
• 64 MB of free physical RAM, 128 MB or more is recommended.
• Windows 2000, Windows XP , Windows Vista (If you are Mac user, use this Mac dvd creator)

Download the latest version of the DVD Flick website
If you are using Mac, Please click here to download the Mac DVD Creator

1. Download and run DVD Flick



2. Click "New project” button to create a new project.
3. Browse your hard drives to select path to the folder, where the resulting DVD folders
(AUDIO_TS, VIDEO_TS) will be saved. It is highly recommended to use NTFS file system in your OS, cause the temporary m2v files in most cases exceeds 4GB limit for FAT32 file system. Additionally, don't use non-English letters to the browsing path, because the errors could occur during DVD authoring process.
4. Add your title - select the video file or files for the project. DVD Flick supports these video file types: AVI, FLV, HDMOV, MKV, MJPG, MPG, M2V, MP4, M4V, NSV, NUT, QT, MOV, RM, SMK, OGM, WMV, ASF, 3GP, 3G2.
5. Title added. Left bar indicates how many bytes is used on the blank DVD disc with the default preferences. The percentage depends on the video file size which you have added in the previous guide step.



6. Edit title.
(1) General settings for the "Title".
reate chapters every: Purpose of the chapters usage is forward/back skipping forward during the DVD viewing. It is recommended to use this option.
You can also use fixed numbers of chapters - check "Create" button.
Aspect ratio is an auto detected value received from video file's frame dimension.


(2) Video sources for the "Title" - this tab informs us about video codec, frame size, Aspect ratio value, frame rate - Frames Per Second.


Frame rate. Check the bottom listing:

• 23,976 FPS - NTSC Film Format
• 25 FPS - PAL Format
• 29,97 FPS - NTSC Format
• 30 FPS - NTSC Format Reccomendations for the non-standard
• 12,5 FPS - PAL Format
• 15 FPS - NTSC Format Warning! Remember the format for your file - it will be the same "Target format" in "Project settings" .

Add a file to a title: This option allow to you to add new file or files to the "Title". It could be additional videos for this DVD, cutted scenes for examples, etc. Important thing is the same FPS for the main video file and the additional file.
Remove a file to a title: You can also remove a file to a title.
(3) Audio tracks tab.
Remove an audio track: Press "Edit" button, then remove from the "Audio track sources" additional audio track.
Add an audio track: Press "Add" button on the ”Audio track sources" tab, select the audio file from hard drive, check in the new "select audio track(s)" window track(s) you wish to add. Press "Accept" button. DVD Flick could extract audio tracks from all supported video files (AVI, FLV, HDMOV, MKV, MJPG, MPG, M2V, MP4, M4V, NSV, NUT, QT, MOV, RM, SMK, OGM, WMV, ASF, 3GP, 3G2), and also native audio file formats: AAC, AC3, Flac, MKA, MP3, MP2, MPA, OGG, WAV, WMA
Select language for the additional audio track. Select the audio track, and then select from the”Track language" list box.
(4). Subtitles tab.
Add subtitles. Press "Add" button on the "Subtitles" tab, and then select from disk file with subtitles. DVD Flick supports these subtitles formats: AQT, JS, RT, SMI, ASS, SRT, SSA, TXT. Subtitle settings. Press "Edit" button to change subtitles settings. Select the language you need. Other settings are for the Font, Font size, and placement of the subtitles. As usually, press "Accept" button to save setting. "Force display" option will force subtitle displaying during playback, even they were not selected in menu.



If everything was made rightly, we will see this window with the changed settings for subtitles. There are no more editing tabs for "Title properties". Press "Accept" button to save preferences.
7. Project settings. At the DVD Flick main window press "Project settings" button.
General tab.
Select a "Target size" for your DVD from list box. The default value is "DVD (4,3 GB)", default values could be changed by pressing "Use as defaults" button. If you need to select custom DVD size just scroll up the list box to the "Custom" value and the bottom "Custom size" option will be enabled for editing.
"Encoder priority" allows to you to use "DVD Flick" with high priority in your operating system to decrease full encoding time.



Video tab.
Set your DVD "Target Format".
"Encoding profile" for better encoding performance is highly recommended to select as "Normal" or "Best". "Fastest" and "Fast" mode decrease full encoding time, but with the lower quality results.
"Target bitrate" is more easy to use as "Auto fit". This option will calculate bitrate for encoding automatically depends on DVD "Target size" and will be set as maximum possible value. If you have some advanced experience with DVD encoding, you can set "Custom bitrate".
Set up advanced video options - press "Advanced" button.
Check "Second encoding pass" to improve output encoding results. It is highly recommended to use this option, but it wills increase full encoding time.
Check "Half horizontal resolution" to enable Half D1 DVD Mode - one of the standard for DVD, decreases frame size to 352x576 for PAL and to 352x480 for NTSC (instead of 720x576 (PAL) and 720x480 (NTSC)). Could be used as a possibility to decrease encoding bitrate, for more video length on one DVD disc.
Check "Add overscan borders" to make your DVD with black left and right borders to view all the source video on your TV.
Deinterlace option is not recommended to use.
Check "Force MPEG-2 recompression" to recompress your mpeg-2 video source files, do not check option if m2v files were encoded with Cam Video Tool 4 DVD Flick.



Burning tab.
If the "Create ISO image" is set, the ISO image file will be created on your disk, in the "Project destination folder". ISO image could be useful, if you prefer to burn DVD using another application, supporting ISO images. "MDS" (Media decriptor) file will be created also. If you want to burn your DVD with DVD Flick, check "Burn project to disc" (red arrow). if you are using DVD+RW, DVD-RW disc, check "Automatically erase disc if it is rewritable". If quick erase will be not possible, ImgBurn (included in DVD Flick installation package) will make full erase for rewritable discs.
Accept all "Project settings" using "Accept" button. Now we are ready to burn our DVD.

8. Create DVD.
Press "Create DVD" button at the main window.
DVD Flick will ask for confirmation to proceed - press "Yes".
Additional warning about "Project destination folder" - Press "Yes".
"DVD Flick Progress" window shows to user all executed steps.
When the DVD burning will be done, we will see this window. Press "Close" to return to the DVD Flick main window. In the main window you can save DVD Flick project to your hard drive.

DVD Flick is only for Windows PC users. If you are Mac user, you can use this best DVD creator for Mac. It is a professional Mac DVD Burner program that converts almost all popular video formats such as FLV, MPEG1, MPEG2, MP4, DAT, 3GP, 3G2, MOV, AVI to DVD on Mac. And it can burn DVD movie playable on portable or home DVD player on Mac.

If you want to convert iTunes videos to DVD, you need to get the videos from iTunes to computer .
And then use DVD flick to convert iTunes videos to DVD for free.

If you want to burn YouTube videos on DVD, you can download the youtube videos to your computer.
And then using DVD flick to burn YouTube videos on DVD for free. If you are a Mac user, use this best dvd creator for Mac to help you. You can also copy videos form other video sites such as veoh, google video, iFlim, vidilife, blip.tv, music.com, zippyvideos, dailymotion, devilducky, etc and then burn them to DVD using this methods.

Here are some other DVD burner.
DVD Styler
DVD Styler is an open source DVD authoring system for Windows and Linux. It converts MPEG files, which you can drag and drop into its window, create NTSC/PAL DVD menus which are highly customizable (you can set image backgrounds, put text and images anywhere, change the font and colors, etc), set chapters for the movie, etc.
DivXtoDVD Perl Script
DivXtoDVD is a Perl script for Linux and other Posix systems (like BSD, Unix, Unix-like operating systems) that converts a DivX movie to DVD compliant files (AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS directories and files). It uses transcode, ffmpeg, mjpeg and dvdauthor to do the job in one step. The software is open source. Note that this is different from the commercial ConvertXtoDVD software which was also formerly named DivXtoDVD. If you're looking for the latter, a trial download is available.
ImgBurn
ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit! It has several 'Modes', each one for performing a different task:
Read - Read a disc to an image file
Build - Create an image file from files on your computer or network - or you can write the files directly to a disc
Write - Write an image file to a disc
Verify - Check a disc is 100% readable. Optionally, you can also have ImgBurn compare it against a given image file to ensure the actual data is correct
Discovery - Put your drive / media to the test! Used in combination with DVDInfoPro, you can check the quality of the burns your drive is producing
Q DVD-Author
Q DVD-Author is essentially a GUI front-end for dvdauthor and other related tools found on a Linux system. You can create DVD menus, convert your projects between PAL and NTSC (and vice versa), create sub-menus, add subtitles, transcode your input videos from other formats, apply multiple audio streams to the videos, give menus multiple soundtracks, create a DVD slideshow, create animated menus, etc. This is an open source program that works under Linux and other Posix OSes.
KDE DVD Authoring Wizard
The KDE DVD Authoring Wizard allows you to create a DVD from a DVD-compatible MPEG-2 file (that is, it doesn't do the conversion from other formats for you). You can add multiple files and create a menu of the playlist if you wish. Your DVD menu can have multiple pages, a soundtrack from OGG or MP3, animated thumbnails and be in the NTSC or PAL format, be in 16:9 widescreen or 4:3 full screen, etc. This DVD authoring tool works under Linux. It is open source.

Look at All the Companies Who Aren’t Buying a Piece of Skype

That Skype IPO is still on, but has been pushed back to 2011, people who know about such things tell Reuters. That news won’t quiet murmurs that Skype’s current owners intend to sell off the whole thing to a single buyer. But for the record, off-the-record sources say that just about everyone has talked to Skype about a “pre-IPO stake or investment” but passed because of price and/or other reasons. A partial list of non-investors, per Reuters: Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Verizon, AT&T, Cisco and Comcast.

Bang! Publishers Say Giant Web Ads Have “Stopping Power”

Bigger really is better!

So say Web publishers who have been running super-sized, don’t-you-dare-look-away-from-me ads for the past year.

Even better, the ad-sellers insist — they have scientific proof to back up their claim.

That comes via industry trade group Online Publishers Association, which commissioned a cool/creepy test: Monitor Web surfers’ eye movements and emotional responses when they encountered giant ad units like the “XXL” and the “Pushdown”. The study placed surfers in front of sites like The New York Times, and showed them big ads from the likes of Microsoft’s Bing.

Short version of the conclusion: Put a really big ad in front of someone, and they’ll notice it.

“They have stopping power”, in the words of OPA president Pam Horan.

Longer take:

• 96 percent of surfers in the study looked at the giant ads when they showed up on screen.
• 67 percent of surfers looked at the giant ads during the first 10 seconds they visited a Web page, then came back and looked at it again.
• Surfers who looked at giant ads after spending more than 10 seconds on a Web page “generated a stronger emotional response” to the ads than the stuff on the rest of the page.
• Surfers liked the ads, giving them a 6.3 ranking out of a possible 9.

No need to tell you how much salt to use when reading research, commissioned by people who sell advertising, that concludes that advertising works. Still, this is interesting stuff. At the very least, you’ll want to skim through the report, embedded below.

For starters, it includes cool/creepy descriptions of the “biometric research” that research firm Innerscope performed for the OPA, which involves contraptions like the ones pictured on the left.

But more broadly, it gives you a sense of what Web publishers are trying to avoid: Advertising that most surfers have learned to ignore after years of training. (Except for Google’s search results ads — they love those, which is why Google posted $2 billion in profits last quarter).

On the other hand, the study doesn’t tell you how the new gigantosorous ads perform compared to run-of-the-mill Web ads. And most important, it doen’t attempt to figure out what marketers most want to know: Whether the new ads — or any Web display ads — actually help them move product.

That one has gone unanswered for 16 years, but it may still be some time before we get an answer.

Time’s Ripe for Apple Execs to Enjoy the Fruits of Their Labor

With Apple’s shares trading near all-time highs, a few of the company’s top lieutenants are cashing in some of their equity for big paydays. Earlier this month, Bob Mansfield, senior vice president of Macintosh Hardware Engineering, exercised 40,000 stock options with a strike price of $36.54, selling them at $308 apiece to clear $10.8 million.

Now Ron Johnson, Apple’s SVP of Retail Operation has followed Mansfield’s lead. According to an SEC filing made public over the weekend, Johnson–the guy responsible for putting the Genius Bars in Apple retail stores, exercised 150,000 options at a strike price of $11.73, selling them at an average price of $306.07 per share to pocket $44.1 million.

Rich rewards and well-deserved. Remember, Mac sales accounted for $22 billion in revenue in Apple’s fiscal 2010. That’s 33 percent of the company’s revenue–enough to make its Mac business No. 110 on the Fortune 500 if it were a standalone operation. Mansfield and Johnson did much to make that possible.