'''New i-Phone Bows But Fails To Wow'''

Apple Inc.'s Tim Cook stepped into the spotlight for the first time as chief executive to unveil a new iPhone that was more fizzle than pop.

At a keynote address at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, the new CEO introduced the fifth-generation of the company's smartphone, dubbed the 4S, which features a faster processor and a better camera, as well as voice-command services.

But despite upgrades to its internal components and some new software capabilities, the iPhone 4S looks like its predecessor physically and doesn't make a big leap in its overall capabilities. Many of its features are also already available on competitors' phones. That left some analysts, investors and customers wanting more.

'Underwhelming is the word that hit me,' said Endpoint Technologies Associates analyst Roger Kay. Many of the new software features, such as syncing media among devices over the Internet, are 'really interesting,' he said, 'but when it comes to packaging that for excitement, it is really hard to show people why that is so cool.'

The letdown was echoed in the early performance of Apple's shares, which fell as much as 5% Tuesday and finished down 0.6% at $372.50 at 4 p.m. trading even as the broader market rose.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said there will inevitably be long lines for the new iPhone, which will arrive at stores in the U.S., Japan and several other countries on Oct. 14. 'But those lines could have been longer if they would've just gone to a four-inch screen,' instead of keeping it at 3 1/2 inches, he said.

Mr. Munster estimates Apple sold 22 million iPhones in the quarter that ended in September and will sell 25 million in the next quarter.

The iPhone 4S is Apple's first overhaul of its popular smartphone in nearly 16 months and comes at a vastly different time for the company and the market. Apple now faces a considerable rival in the form of phones running Google Inc.'s Android software, which is also touch operated and offers users access to thousands of apps.

The new iPhone, which comes in black or white, will have an Apple A5 processor, the same chip found in the company's iPad 2 tablet. The new chip can download data twice as fast and can handle graphics seven times faster, making it better for videogames, Apple said. Users can also go directly to the camera even when the phone is locked and take a photo within 1.1 seconds. The phone's battery offers eight hours of 3G talk time, nine hours of Wi-Fi browsing and 10 hours of video.

But with Tuesday's announcement, Apple also sought to focus attention on its software. The new phone will run Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 5, which features new messaging and data-synchronization tools and is part of a wider ecosystem of software and services designed to work together, so that, for example, photos taken on the iPhone show up automatically on a user's iPad.

Some Apple followers -- and more than a few avid customers -- had expected Apple's fifth-generation phone to be called the iPhone 5. But Apple chose to follow the strategy it used in upgrading its iPhone 3G. That phone was called the 3GS and included improvements to software and services but retained the same basic form.

'''Apple Sets iPhone Event Oct. 4, 2011'''

Apple Inc. invited reporters to an iPhone-related event Oct. 4, setting the stage for the widely anticipated launch of its latest smartphone.

On Tuesday, Apple sent reporters an email with the message, 'Let's talk iPhone,' inviting them to an event at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. Apple has traditionally held an event in the early fall to update iPod products, as well as its iTunes digital music jukebox software.

Apple shares recently were up $2.14 at $405.31.

'The company will likely announce a redesigned iPhone 5 with a larger screen and thinner form-factor for $199/$299, and may drop the iPhone 4 to $99, possibly with slightly upgraded components and a new name, iPhone 4S,' Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in a note Tuesday.

He added that the invitation's phrase of 'Let's talk iPhone' may 'refer to new speech-based features for the iPhone.'

Mr. Munster, who rates Apple at outperform with a $607 price target, estimates sales of 25 million iPhones in the December quarter. He noted that demand from Verizon Wireless subscribers could be strong because iPhone 4 had been available on other carriers for more than six months when the carrier got it in February.

The event next week follows what analysts say has been a blowout quarter for Apple's iPhone 4. The device, which was released in June 2010, has been a hit with consumers despite initial customer complaints that the device's antenna was prone to malfunctioning when held a certain way.

Overall, the iPhone has helped to drive Apple's revenue and profit growth to record levels and has become the best-selling smartphone in the world.

Despite its high ranking, however, the iPhone's sales pale in comparison to the mountain of devices sold around the world that are powered by Google Inc.'s Android operating system. The software, which powers phones made by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., HTC Corp. and Dell Inc., is used by 43% of U.S. smartphone subscribers, according to the latest surveys by Nielsen. The iPhone, by comparison, represents 28%.

Still, analysts expect the new iPhone will likely follow a similar path of success as its predecessor, drawing enthusiastic customers to its stores on its release day.

''Attack on America'' September 11

''At 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors. As the evacuation of the tower and its twin got underway, television cameras broadcasted live images of what initially appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 18 minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767--United Airlines Flight 175--appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center, and sliced into the south tower at about the 60th floor. The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. America was under attack.

The attackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations. Reportedly financed by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organization, they were allegedly acting in retaliation for America's support of Israel, its involvement in the Persian Gulf War, and its continued military presence in the Middle East. Some of the terrorists had lived in the United States for more than a year and had taken flying lessons at American commercial flight schools. Others had slipped into the U.S. in the months before September 11 and acted as the "muscle" in the operation. The 19 terrorists easily smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast airports and boarded four flights bound for California, chosen because the planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after takeoff, the terrorists commandeered the four planes and took the controls, transforming the ordinary commuter jets into guided missiles.

As millions watched in horror the events unfolding in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington and slammed into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters at 9:45 a.m. Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a devastating inferno that led to a structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete building. All told, 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in the Pentagon along with all 64 people aboard the airliner.

Less than 15 minutes after the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U.S. military, the horror in New York took a catastrophic turn for the worse when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke. The structural steel of the skyscraper, built to withstand winds in excess of 200 mph and a large conventional fire, could not withstand the tremendous heat generated by the burning jet fuel. At 10:30 a.m., the other Trade Center tower collapsed. Close to 3,000 people died in the World Trade Center and its vicinity, including a staggering 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors. Only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their collapse survived. Almost 10,000 other people were treated for injuries, many severe.

Meanwhile, a fourth California-bound plane--United Flight 93--was hijacked about 40 minutes after leaving Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Because the plane had been delayed in taking off, passengers on board learned of events in New York and Washington via cell phone and Airfone calls to the ground. Knowing that the aircraft was not returning to an airport as the hijackers claimed, a group of passengers and flight attendants planned an insurrection. One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett, Jr., told his wife over the phone that "I know we're all going to die. There's three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey." Another passenger--Todd Beamer--was heard saying "Are you guys ready? Let's roll" over an open line. Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were "Everyone's running to first class. I've got to go. Bye."

The passengers fought the four hijackers and are suspected to have attacked the cockpit with a fire extinguisher. The plane then flipped over and sped toward the ground at upwards of 500 miles per hour, crashing in a rural field in western Pennsylvania at 10:10 a.m. All 45 people aboard were killed. Its intended target is not known, but theories include the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, or one of several nuclear power plants along the eastern seaboard.

At 7 p.m., President George W. Bush, who had spent the day being shuttled around the country because of security concerns, returned to the White House. At 9 p.m., he delivered a televised address from the Oval Office, declaring "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve." In a reference to the eventual U.S. military response he declared: "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."

Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and destroy Osama bin Laden's terrorist network based there, began on October 7, 2001. Bin Laden was killed during a raid of his compound in Pakistan by U.S. forces on May 2, 2011.

''Hewlett-Packard to Computers: Drop Dead''

The personal computer is dead. Or that's at least what Hewlett-Packard thinks.

The company is getting out of the computing hardware business.No more H-P personal computers, no more H-P tablet computers (not that anyone bought them anyway), no more H-P/Palm-made cell phones (ditto). The company is keeping the WebOS operating system, which is part of the operation that includes Palm.

(Read HERE the H-P news release, which also included some ugly financial outlook numbers. H-P shares, which were halted for news, have resumed their tanking, down nearly 8%.)

This is a shift in business for H-P, which is something that happens all the time. The world zigs left, company strategy zigs along with the trend. IBM realized years ago that the low-margin, fickle consumer PC market was an ugly business. IBM gave up the hardware business to the Chinese. IBM figured it's better to focus on business customers and sell them pricey software and services. H-P has come to the same conclusion.

Makes sense. But let's take a moment and reflect on what H-P is leaving behind.

Remember that H-P has a rich history as a maker of electronics and then computing gear. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started their own company in a Silicon Valley garage during the Great Depression. Steve Jobs worked at H-P when he was starting out. Almost everyone in Silicon Valley can trace his or her roots back to H-P, at least a few degrees out.

And now H-P has lost faith in the personal computer, the business that built H-P (and Microsoft) and so many other companies. Bye bye, PC.

Dumping hardware may actually help H-P's business. Hewlett-Packard's personal systems group, which houses its PC business, had $40.7 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, representing nearly a third of the company's overall revenue; however, the group's earnings from operations, $2 billion, was just 13% of H-P's profits. Stifel Nicolaus figures removing the PC business would improve H-P's operating margins to about 15% from the current 12%, based on back-of-the-envelope math.

Thus, a more profitable and more attractive H-P likely would command a higher multiple, say 7 times EV/EBIT vs. 5 times, implying a share price of $41 for the remaining H-P, Stifel says. Of course, that doesn't include any purchase of U.K. software company Autonomy.

''H-P Bows to 'Post-PC World''

Hewlett-Packard Co. performed its own dramatic demotion Thursday, as the world's largest PC supplier disclosed it is considering plans that include a spinoff or sale of its personal-systems group, which brought in $40.74 billion in sales during its last fiscal year, or about a third of the company's total revenue. H-P shipped more than 64 million PCs during 2010, or about 18.5% of the total PC market, according IDC.

The 'post-PC era,' as Mr. Jobs calls it, underscores several sharp changes in the behavior of both consumers and corporations that are shifting growth to the likes of Apple and Google Inc., and away from PC stalwarts like H-P and Dell Inc.

The move by H-P to exit the PC business bookended a tumultuous week for the technology industry, in which search giant Google agreed to pay $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., in a bid to strengthen its position in the smartphone industry and its patent position.

Computing, once tied to desktops, is increasingly carried out on pocket-sized devices or so-called cloud services that manage corporate operations and send data to mobile users.

Sales of traditional PCs─most of them running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system and chips based on designs by Intel Corp.─are growing at an anemic rate, rising just 2.6% during the second quarter, according to IDC.

Stiff competition has squeezed manufacturers' prices and profits. The current rule of thumb is that manufacturers like H-P can expect to make a profit margin of 2% to 6% on PCs, while analysts estimate Apple's profit margin in the mid-teens for its Macintosh computers.

At the same time, mobile devices like Apple's iPhone and iPad are drawing many consumers away from the laptop models that have driven the PC business lately. They are good enough for what most consumers do─surfing to websites and playing simple games─and are also proving attractive for business chores like presentations. Apple said in a June earnings call that 91% of Fortune 500 companies have deployed or tested the iPhone while 86% of them have deployed or tested the iPad.

The H-P decision mirrors that of International Business Machines Corp., which once led the market but acknowledged the changing industry with the 2005 sale of its PC business to China's Lenovo Group Ltd.

'H-P was the biggest seller of PCs in the world, but they have concluded that's tied to looking backwards and they need to look forwards,' said Brad Silverberg, a venture capitalist and former Microsoft executive. He called the H-P move 'another tectonic shift' providing further evidence of a post-PC world.

Not that H-P has done badly in the business. It outdueled Dell, for example, to take the No. 1 spot in PCs several years ago.

Jean-Louis Gassée, a former Apple and H-P executive who is now a venture capitalist, credited H-P executives with tight management of the hardware production process. But they couldn't change the underlying reality that there is little profit to be made in the business.

'It's structural. It's not bad management,' said Mr. Gassée. 'A competent manager could add a point or two' of profit margin, but that still doesn't make it business. It's a commodity.'

Apple, meanwhile, has siphoned a huge share of whatever profits can be earned from selling hardware to consumers. The company has ridden its recent success to become the world's most valuable company, though Exxon Mobile Corp. recently took back the title. In the quarter ended June 25, Apple recorded profits of $7.3 billion on revenues of $28.57 billion by selling record numbers of iPhones, iPads and Macs.

Apple can make outsized profits in part because it controls software for the devices, which helps it charge more favorable prices. It also has developed add-on services, like its iTunes store--to sell music, videos and software.

'As good and sexy as their hardware is, it often uses their hardware as a means to generate revenue for its services,' said Mark Margevicius, an analyst for research firm Gartner Inc. 'It opens doors to more business and more of an annuity stream,' he said.

Nor has it been easy for PC makers to follow Apple's lead into the newer breed of mobile devices. H-P gambled on the business last year when it acquired Palm Inc. and later launched the TouchPad tablet and webOS smartphones, which also gave it rare influence over both hardware and software.

H-P on Thursday said it would discontinue operations for the TouchPad and webOS phones, and write off at least $1 billion─ and potentially hundreds of millions more in goodwill writedowns─in the months ahead.

At the same time, opportunities beckon in selling to companies, many of which are using Web technology to transform the way they handle computing chores in a trend called cloud computing. H-P is the biggest seller of the server systems sold in high volumes to manage such applications, and the company has moved effectively into other segments recently such as computer networking.

Software and services needed by companies hold the promise of even better profit margins. H-P has made a series of acquisitions in the business software field already, and Mr. Apotheker signaled Thursday with a $10 billion deal to buy Autonomy Corp. that he will make good on a pledge to become more active to build that business.

'''Google's $12.5 Billion Gamble'''

Google Inc. forged a $12.5 billion deal to buy Motorola's cellphone business, a move that could reshape the Internet giant's fortunes in the mobile world while also giving it an arsenal of patents for legal warfare with Apple Inc. and others.

The purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., by far the largest in Google's history, thrusts the Internet company into the cutthroat business of making smartphones, tablet computers and cable set-top boxes. It will nearly double Google's work force and test the company's young alliance with other cellphone makers.

The Motorola deal also gives the search giant a trove of more than 17,000 patents to defend itself against a rash of lawsuits against its Android software─which powers more than 150 million devices world-wide, including Motorola's line of Droid smartphones.

But the deal, which must pass a review by the Justice Department's antitrust division, carries enormous risks as Google steps out of its comfort zone as a software maker. It will have to run manufacturing plants, manage inventory, and nurture relations with carriers and retailers.

People close to the deal said one of Google's motivations, in addition to the patent trove, was its desire to design not just the way gadgets work, but also how they look, giving it the sort of control over software and hardware that arch-rival Apple enjoys with its iPhone. Talks between Google and Motorola heated up only in recent months, the people said.

Google Chief Executive Larry Page, in an interview, said Google will continue to promote its software to phone makers that compete with Motorola. 'The strength of Android has been its diversity, and we have 39 handset makers' that use the software, he said.

Industry-watchers still see the potential for conflict. 'Google is in the business of supplying software to hardware makers, and buying one of those hardware makers isn't going to endear them to the rest of their customers,' said Charles Golvin, a Forrester Research analyst.

He added that companies such as HTC Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., which all flocked to Android as a way to compete with Apple, will likely 'hedge their bets' by creating more devices using Microsoft Corp.'s mobile-operating system.

Mr. Page, a Google co-founder who took over as CEO earlier this year, said Motorola Mobility would continue to operate as a separate business and be given no advantages over other makers of Android-powered handsets.

Inside Google, the deal was a tightly guarded secret involving only top management, said a person familiar with the matter. Some senior members of Google's Android team first learned of the deal Monday morning, this person said.

The deal underscores a long-term shift in the power balance in technology from old-line manufacturing companies to younger, nimbler standard-setters that came of age during the Internet era.

In January, Motorola Inc. split itself into two companies; the second company, Motorola Solutions Inc., focused on sales of wireless technology to companies and governments. Motorola Mobility is the more prominent half of the 82-year-old radio pioneer that first commercialized the cellphone but managed to lose $4.3 billion between 2007 and 2009, thanks to a disastrous decline of its phone business.

Since then, Motorola Mobility Chief Executive Sanjay Jha has turned around the cellphone business by betting on Google's software and Verizon Wireless's need for a competitor to the iPhone, over which AT&T Inc. had an exclusive hold until this year. But his company now is a small player going up against bigger and diversified rivals.

Mr. Jha said in an interview that under Google he would run Motorola 'the way I've been doing things for the past three years.' The two businesses 'will coexist and will have different objectives, different ways to be judged,' he said.

Google, meanwhile, built a technology giant by becoming the dominant player in Internet advertising. That was largely a business built on the back of the personal computer as people used Google's search engine to find information and products.

But as phones and other devices become the central point of computing for consumers and businesses, Google is trying to position itself to provide services that help consumers navigate and search for places to eat and shop while on the go─areas in which it is lagging rivals such as Apple and others.

In the same way that Apple has created hit devices by integrating software and hardware into a single experience, the deal for Motorola gives Google a way to create a consistent experience across devices, including phones, tablets and TVs.

'The best way to put itself in a position to win is to be able to influence and control how' Google services end up in hardware, said Matt Murphy, a venture capitalist at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers.

Since Google's 2005 deal to buy Android─a small company led by Andy Rubin, who now heads its mobile software efforts─the company has worked to ensure that its search engine becomes a mainstay in the age of smartphones and tablets. Google was once a partner with Apple, providing it with applications such as the search engine and Google Map. But now the two are competitors.

Motorola's patent trove could become an important factor in that battle. Google has fewer patents in mobile technology than some major competitors, and the company has lost out on two recent deals to buy patents.

Besides countersuing in the event it is attacked, Google could use the Motorola patents to lend a legal hand to Android partners such as HTC Corp., which is entangled in litigation with Apple over Android. Motorola last fall filed patent claims against Apple, which responded with a countersuit of its own.

When he was asked if handset makers had demanded Google do more to protect them from patent suits, Mr. Page said Motorola has 'tremendous expertise in intellectual property' and pointed to supportive statements by HTC, Samsung and others that implied the deal would give them protection.

Besides smartphones, the Motorola deal gives Google a clearer path into cable set-top boxes that can connect TVs to the Web; Google has already used Android to create a system called Google TV, which has sold slowly to date but could benefit from Motorola Mobility's strong position in living room devices.

'Google expects to complete the transaction by early 2012, and is on the hook for a breakup fee of $2.5 billion in cash, according to a person familiar with the matter. The hefty amount may indicate some nervousness about the deal's regulatory prospects as Google is undergoing an antitrust probe by the Federal Trade Commission, which includes an examination of whether Google prevents smartphone manufacturers that use its Android operating system from using competitors' services, people familiar with the matter have said.

Mr. Page said he was 'confident this deal will be approved' by regulators. He added, 'I believe it's tremendously beneficial to consumers,' in part because the deal will act as a defense against 'anticompetitive attacks on Android that try to limit competition'─a reference to lawsuits against Android handset makers.

The $40-a-share offer is a 63% premium to the price Friday of Motorola Mobility's shares. It is also a way to quickly appease activist investor Carl Icahn, who recently argued the company's patent portfolio was an undervalued asset.

Shares of Motorola Mobility jumped 56% to $38.12 in 4 p.m. trading Monday, while Google slipped 1% to $557.23.

'Google got a pretty good deal,' Mr. Icahn said in an interview. 'They are really buying a lot of good stuff. They are getting the patent portfolio relatively cheaply.'

'Apple's Lion Brings PCs Into Tablet Era''

With its iPhones and iPads, Apple has led people toward a new way of operating digital devices that relies on direct manipulation of items with finger gestures, not a mouse and scroll bars. Icons are arrayed front and center, not buried deep in a file system or limited to a strip at the bottom of the screen.

Now, Apple is bringing those concepts and others to the personal computer via its most radical new Macintosh operating system version in years. It's called Lion and it went on sale Wednesday for just $29.99 -- a price that allows installation on as many personal Macs as you own.

Lion is a giant step in the merger of the personal computer and post-PC devices like tablets and smartphones. It demotes the venerable scroll bar at the side of windows and documents, relying primarily on direct manipulation of documents and lists. It eliminates the need to save your work, automatically saving every version of every document. It resumes programs right where you left off. It can display programs, or an array of all your app icons, in multiple full screens you simply swipe through. And it elevates the role of multitouch gestures and adds new ones.

The new system doesn't turn a Mac into a tablet. It retains traditional computer features like the usual file system, multiple windows, the mouse and physical keyboard. It still runs traditional Mac programs, still can handle Adobe Flash, and doesn't run iPhone or iPad apps. It doesn't use a touch screen, instead continuing to rely on the touch pad to perform finger gestures.

But it's a big change. Lion also is a harbinger of things to come. Apple's historic rival, Microsoft, is working on its own radical overhaul of the dominant Windows PC operating system, due next year, which is also aimed at putting multitouch and other concepts borrowed from smartphones and tablets front and center.

I've been testing Lion on four Macs, and I like it. Its many new features -- 250 in all -- make computing easier and more reliable. I found upgrading easy, and compatibility with existing apps to be very good. Only one app I use frequently proved incompatible and its maker has a new revision that works.

I only suffered one crash in Lion. It occurred on one of many occasions I used iTunes, but Apple says a forthcoming version of iTunes made for Lion should eliminate that.

To take full advantage of Lion's new features, programs will have to be rewritten. But, in my tests, current versions ran fine. I am writing this column on a MacBook Air running Lion using an unrevised version of Microsoft Word for the Mac, with no problems.

There are, however, downsides to anything this new and major. The biggest of these is that switching to Lion will require a major adjustment even for veteran Mac users, though it will be easier for those who use iPhones or iPads. Lion will significantly increase the learning curve for Windows users switching to the Mac.

One of the biggest changes is in scrolling. Instead of moving the top of a page upward by dragging the scroll bar down, or moving your fingers downward on the touch pad, you do the opposite -- you just push the page up. A scroll bar appears only while scrolling. (Older programs may still have the traditional scroll bar.)

Standard programs and features like Apple Mail are significantly different, too, and there are smaller changes in almost every corner of the operating system, including some keyboard shortcuts. Just mastering all the new and altered touch-pad gestures -- a couple of which are so unnatural I actually had to practice them -- will take time. Luckily, almost all of the actions performed by the gestures can also be done with a mouse, icons, menu commands, or keys.

If you dislike some of these changes, Apple provides settings to return to traditional scrolling, the classic Mail layout, and to turn off gestures and other things.

Here are some of the main new features in Lion:

-Auto-Save and Versions: Apps running in Lion automatically save your work when you pause or every five minutes. There is no interruption during this process and you can still save manually. This isn't a new idea, but it's implemented beautifully and can work on all programs whose authors issue new versions to take advantage of it. Right now, it works on some of Apple's own programs.

The best part is that each auto-save creates a separate version of your document and you can view all these versions in a visual stack arranged by date, next to your current version. You can swap back to an older version, or even copy and paste text from one version to another. These versions are created by storing the changes behind the scenes, not by creating numerous files.

-Resume: If you relaunch a program, any document you were working on appears again with the cursor right where it was, and even any highlighting is preserved. If you restart the Mac, all your programs are resumed in this manner, unless you check a box to prevent this.

-Full-screen apps: You can launch some apps, or individual browser tabs, in a full screen, just by clicking on an icon at the top right. In full screen, the menu bar and other controls are hidden unless you move the cursor to the top of the screen.

-Launchpad: Pressing a special key on a new Mac, or an icon on an old one, brings up an iPad-like display of all your app icons in full screen. If they occupy more than one screen, you just swipe through them.

-Mission Control: One of the nicer features on the Mac was called Expose, which, with one click, showed all your open windows in miniature. Now, it's been subsumed into something called Mission Control, which does the same thing, but also displays any full-screen apps or extra desktops. I found it cluttered and wished the simpler, prior feature had been retained.

-Gestures: The Mac already had a variety of iPhone-like gestures you could perform on the touch pad. But Lion has changed some of these and added more. One I liked: You can double-tap with two figures to resize a section of a Web page or PDF to zoom in to fill the screen, just like on the iPhone or iPad.

Two I dislike: the gestures for calling up Launchpad and Mission Control require pinching or spreading three fingers and a thumb -- a clumsy method for such important features.

-Mail: Apple's Mail app has been totally overhauled to look and work more like the Mail app on the iPad. It sports a beautiful optional conversation mode, a particularly nice feature which combines and numbers each message in a thread. It also hides duplicate emails. There are too many changes to detail here, but, after hating the new Mail at first, I have come to like it. And you can switch to Classic mode if you wish.

The bottom line: The past two major computer operating system releases, Windows 7 and Snow Leopard, were incremental. Lion is very different. It's a big leap, and gives the Mac a much more modern look and feel for a world of tablets and smartphones. If you are willing to adjust, it's the best computer operating system out there.

In Like a Lion: Moving

To the Operating System

Another big change is in the way Lion is being distributed. It won't be sold on a disk, initially only via download from the Mac App Store. Since it's a 4 gigabyte download, that could be a problem for people with slow Internet connections. Apple says its stores will help such users with the download, and that it will sell Lion on a USB thumb drive for $69 in August.

In my tests, the download alone took under half an hour on a very fast connection, and about an hour and a half on a more typical one. Once I downloaded the product, the rest of the installation took about an hour.

Also, you can only upgrade to Lion directly from the prior OS version, Snow Leopard. So, if you're running an earlier version, you'll first have to pay to upgrade to Snow Leopard.

In addition, Macs with the older PowerPC processors can't run Lion, and even some of the earliest Macs with Intel processors are shut out. These are mainly machines released in 2006. Older programs originally designed for PowerPC, which still ran on Snow Leopard, will no longer work in Lion. The best known of these is Intuit's Quicken 2007.

Even if you buy a new Mac with Lion pre-installed and your older Mac has Snow Leopard, you'll have to download a new version of Apple's migration program for Snow Leopard in order to move over all your programs, settings and files.

The company made this new migration utility available on Tuesday.

When I tried to migrate my stuff from a Snow Leopard machine to Lion using the current migration program -- normally a strength for Apple -- the process failed. The company sent me the new version of the migration program and it worked.

Lion also introduces a new migration feature that will move data and settings -- but not programs -- from a Windows PC to a Mac, though it requires a free Windows migration utility that Apple couldn't provide in time for this review.

Speaking of Macs with Lion pre-installed, Apple also is upgrading its thin and fast MacBook Air laptops so the machines use faster chips from Intel. The company is killing off the bottom model of its laptop line, the plain MacBook.

The new MacBook Airs, available on Thursday, have the same design, prices and base storage capacity as their predecessors.

Official Google Blog: When patents attack Android

Official Google Blog: When patents attack Android: "I have worked in the tech sector for over two decades. Microsoft and Apple have always been at each other’s throats, so when they get into ..."

'''Google Steps Up Its Search-Engine Game'''

Google makes one of the world's leading mobile operating systems. It does e-mail and an office suite and photo sharing and Internet phone service, and does them all well. It's even getting into solar power and is trying to invent the self-driving car. But for all its far-flung ambition, the company isn't synonymous with many things. It's synonymous with one thing: its namesake search engine, the business that started it all.
At a press conference in San Francisco this week, a small army of Google search honchos took the stage to reveal new stuff. Unlike last September's launch event for Google Instant, which shows results as you type, this one didn't involve any single radical change. Instead, it spotlighted a bunch of medium-size tweaks that Google will be rolling out in the days and weeks to come.

The refinements aren't responses to any immediate threat to the company's search-engine supremacy. Its market share remains stable and overwhelming: According to Comscore, Google powers just under two-thirds of all Web searches. Microsoft's Bing is growing nicely, but it seems to be luring users from smaller players, including Yahoo, whose search is now built on top of Bing. And most of today's other interesting search engines come from tiny upstarts such as Blekko and DuckDuckGo. Clearly, Google has a healthy fear of the sort of complacency that's gradually crippled so many other tech giants in the past. (Hello, MySpace!)
The event kicked off with changes to Google's mobile version, which melds classic features with ones tailored for on-the-go use. For instance, its homepage now features quick links to restaurants, coffee and bars: click on any of them and you go directly to a selection of spots in your neighborhood, plus a map that updates automatically as you peruse the listings. Another new mobile feature improves on the existing one that shows search suggestions as you type. Now some of them are accompanied by a plus sign that pulls up related queries. For example, when I typed "farm" I got "farmers insurance" with a plus sign. Tapping on it got me suggestions such as "farmers insurance claims" and "farmers insurance login," either of which I could select with a total of just six taps.

Next, a Google exec lamented that not everybody knows that the company's iPhone and Android apps let you speak into your phone to initiate a search. Google is going to spread the word about its Voice Search offering by bringing it to the desktop, or at least the desktops of folks who use its Chrome browser. When you go to the Google homepage in Chrome, its search field will sport a microphone icon. Click it and you'll be able to say your search terms into your computer's mike, saving you the trouble of typing queries that are wordy or hard to spell.
Rather than making you type or say your search, Google is going to offer yet another option: showing it. Already, the Google Goggles app for iPhones and Android handsets allows you to start a search by pointing your phone's camera at a real-world object such as a book or food package. Now Google is using the same technology to allow you to drag an image off your computer's hard drive and into the search field. In a demo, it uploaded a snapshot of a beach. The search engine analyzed the photo's pixels, identified the Greek island where it was taken, and returned a list of links about that locale. Even if this isn't a feature many people will use all that often, it's a dazzling feat.

Google saved the new feature with the greatest potential to make the largest number of people happy until last. It's called Instant Pages, and it aims to dramatically reduce the delay between when you click on a search result and when the page in question is fully loaded in your browser. While you're examining a page of search results, Instant Pages will be busy behind the scenes, silently downloading and rendering the first page in the results. If you then click on that top result — and odds are that you will — the page will pop into place nearly instantly in many cases.
According to Google, Instant Pages can typically save you 2 to 5 seconds per search. What's not to like? Just one thing, really — like Voice Search, it only works in Google's own Web browser, Chrome. That could change in the future: Google says that it built Instant Pages using open standards that other browser makers can use and that it may add it to a future version of its Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox. But for now, Chrome users will get the most Googley version of Google.
Taken one by one, all these new features look good. Here's the thing, though: This search engine didn't get where it was today by having the most features. It thrived because it gave you almost nothing but a minimalist search field on an otherwise barren homepage — and was still able to deliver the most relevant results in the business. The Google staffers at this week's event kept reiterating that the company is obsessively committed to making its products as fast as possible. But for this Google user, at least, simplicity trumps even speed.

Even before the new announcements, I'd been fretting about Google getting dragged into the sinkhole of cluttered complexity. For instance, I'm still not entirely sold on Google Instant, the feature that gives you results before you're done asking for them. When I type "john" into the search field, I immediately get information on John Wayne Airport in Irvine, California — which strikes me as an unhelpful interruption if I'm beginning a search for John Paul Jones or Johnny Cash. (As a reality check, I asked my Twitter pals what they thought of Instant and found that they were roughly equally divided into fans, haters and indifferent types.)
I'm not saying that Google is blundering by adding so many new capabilities. Overall, in fact, it's long done an expert job of weaving new functionality in so artfully that it's easy to forget it wasn't always there. But when you're as good as Google already is, you don't have to evolve into something different — you just need to keep on being yourself, only more so. And the more Google changes, the tougher that's going to get.

驳斥行动党没马来候选人指控 林吉祥讥慕尤丁史上最差副揆

驳斥行动党没马来候选人指控　林吉祥讥慕尤丁史上最差副揆

Patek Philippe - Nautilus

Patek Philippe's story
In 1839, Antoine Norbert de Patek and François Czapek founded Patek, Czapek & C° in Geneva. At the 1844 Universal Exhibition in Paris, Antoine Norbert de Patek met Jean Adrien Philippe, inventor in 1842 of a pocket watch with stem winding and hand-setting, and offered him the post of technical director as soon as Czapek's contract ran out. In 1845, Patek Czapek & C° was dissolved, and Antoine Norbert de Patek, Jean Adrien Philippe and Vincent Gostowski founded, in Geneva, Patek & C°. In 1851, the three men changed the company's name to Patek Philippe & C°.

1868 Creation of a key-wound watch with brass bracelet.

1887 The Calatrava Cross became the company's registered logo.

1902 The Gondolo Chronometer name was registered.

1914-1930 Creation of grande complication and très grande complication watches, certain of which, with astronomical complications, were sold to James Ward Packard. These included the first two most complicated pieces by Patek Philippe: one, made in 1916, with 16 complications and another, made in 1927, with 10 complications.

1915 Creation of the first ladies' wristwatch with five-minute repeater.

1925 Creation of the first ladies' wristwatch with perpetual calendar (inspired by a pendant watch).

1933 Henry Graves Jr. purchased what was then the most complicated watch ever made by Patek Philippe. It was sold again in 1999 for $11 million.

1936 Creation of an astronomical wristwatch with perpetual calendar and retrograde date.

1940 Special order for a wristwatch with a pulsometric chronograph and world time.

1959 Creation of watches with second time zone.

1974 Creation of the Calatrava model.

1981 Launch of the Nautilus model.

1982 Creation of the Ellipse d'or model.

1989 The Calibre 89, the world's most complicated pocket watch (33 complications), was unveiled to commemorate the company's 150th anniversary.

1996 Launch of the self-winding wristwatch with annual date.

1997 Launch of the Aquanaut model.

2000 Launch of the Star Caliber 2000 (21 complications) to coincide with the third millennium.

2003 Unveiling of the 10 Day Tourbillon with COSC certification.

Corporate Survival Risk Peaks At Three Years.

Public companies face the greatest threat to their survival in the third year after their Initial Public Offerings (IPO), a new study finds, challenging the conventional wisdom that companies lower their mortality risk with each passing year.

The risk of bankruptcy or closure actually peaks at 6% three years after a public listing, professors at Indiana University conclude in a new study of the survival rates of U.S. firms from 1985 to 2006, cleverly titled 'Firm Mortality and Natal Financial Care.' The researchers found that 50% of U.S. public companies will go out of business within 15 years after going public, or if you include the possibility that a firm is acquired or merged, 50% of public companies will cease to be independent within 6 years of their IPO.

'Generally one would expect your mortality risk to decrease over time, but we have that blip in year three,' said Utpal Bhattacharya, an author of the study and a finance professor at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. 'When an IPO comes out, these guys have enough managerial smarts and capital so they are sort of well stocked to make sure they don't die in the next moment. They can survive for two years or so, but after that their stock is depleted.'

The researchers looked exclusively at 'involuntary' deaths of companies (like those that shut down or file for bankruptcy), rather than firms that went private, or were merged. Bhattacharya says it isn't quite possible to use actuarial techniques, like life insurance companies do for human mortality rates, because all humans die someday while companies can live for hundreds of years. They estimate that the average U.S. company survives for 14 years after its initial public offering, but the 'half-life' or numbers applying to 50 percent of companies can be calculated more definitively.

If a firm survives until its second year after an IPO, its mortality rate, or the likelihood of it dying in the next year, is 6% on average. However, companies that were backed by a venture capital firm or worked with investment-bank underwriters that were highly ranked in league tables peaked at just 3%, Bhattacharya said. The difference, Bhattacharya found, is not simply that VCs and top bankers pick the strongest companies to back, but also that they made them stronger through advising, monitoring, financing or other interactions along the way. Venture firms typically stay involved with companies long after an IPO, cashing out only about 70% of their investment within two years.

THINK HAPPINESS: An Open Letter to the Prime Minister

THINK HAPPINESS: An Open Letter to the Prime Minister: "My dear Prime Minister, I refer to your speech at the rally of your political party yesterday. As a first-time voter under the age of 35, ..."

China Telecom Employees Hack Verizon iPhone?

Users concerned that Verizon Wireless' iPhone 4 wouldn't be usable with overseas carriers may have a 'pleasant surprise' coming.
Employees of the Guangdong branch of China Telecom teased users this week with a post on its microblog saying they were working on a way to crack Verizon Wireless' CDMA iPhone, suggesting users might be able to use the device on China Telecom's network.

A post signed the 'Apple Lab Team' on the Sina Weibo accountidentified as belonging to the Guangdong branch of China Telecom said Tuesday the 'CDMA iPhone 4 has made its first call in China' without a hitch. Preceding posts included a photo of a Verizon Wireless iPhone beside a tag labeled China Telecom Guangdong, then a photo of the device displaying the home screen for Cydia, a software application that allows users to find applications and software packages for jailbrokenApple devices.

'Guangdong Telecom's first iPhone 4 has been successfully jailbroken,' one post said. The 'Window's version of Greenpois0n didn't work,' it said, referring to software used to hack Apple's operating systems. 'A switch to the Mac version of Greenpois0n was a success.'

Jailbroken iPhones have been common for a long time in China, where Apple was slowto officially launch the device for the first time, and where official versions are difficult to come by because of supply issuesand buying restrictions. Users can bring locked iPhones home from overseas and have them jailbroken and unlocked for use with the carrier of their choice, or purchase a jailbroken iPhone from a local seller.

While it's unusual for a telecommunications carrier itself to openly encourage such behavior, local branches have been known to take matters into their own hands.

While China Telecom operates a CDMA network, China's two largest carriers China Mobile and China Unicom, both operate GSM networks that are compatible with iPhone models released before the most recent Verizon Wireless iPhone 4, meaning only the latter two could provide voice services to iPhone users. But China Unicom was the only one of the three that could provide higher-speed 3G data services to iPhone users because it operates a compatible WCDMA 3G network. China Mobile's 3G network used a homegrown Chinese standard called TD-SCDMA, and China Telecom uses CDMA-2000 technology.

As a result, China Unicom has lured some customers away from its rivals and, in retaliation, the Beijing branch of China Mobile launched a website last November providing instructions for users on how to activate the devices with China Mobile's service instead, though without 3G service, and began providing a special serviceto help users cut their SIM cards to fit the iPhone 4's smaller microSIM card slot.

A China Telecom official said the test call written about on the microblog was done by individuals within the company and did not represent an official company action. A company spokesman declined to comment on whether China Telecom is in talks with Apple to officially release a CDMA version of the iPhone in China, but the company has said in the pastthat it would be interested in carrying the device if a compatible version were to be made available.

Meanwhile, China Telecom was left out of the mix until recently because all iPhones released prior to the Verizon Wireless iPhone 4 could not be used on its CDMA network. And even if the CDMA iPhone were to be officially launched in China, the world's largest mobile market by subscribers, Apple would likely need to reengineer it to include a SIM card slot and make other changes in accordance with Chinese regulations, the way it has had to reengineer previous models.

It's unclear if the China Telecom employees are using a Verizon Wireless iPhone with a Chinese phone number, because while China Telecom devices use the same network technology as Verizon Wireless, devices used on its network typically require a SIM card while most Verizon Wireless devices do not. If they are using a China Telecom phone number, the 'Apple Lab Team' has not revealed a way for regular users to follow suit.

An article on Sina's Web portal said the current test is being done only by China Telecom's Guangdong branch, but 'insiders' say they are waiting for the company to develop a unified plan of. In the meantime, the employees' microblog says to stay tuned for more 'pleasant surprises.'

Poor in singapore can't afford food

In a nation where ministers and head of state receive more than 10 times the salary of US president, the middle and lower income groups in singapore feeling the pinch in rising costs.

Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong
Salary as Prime Minister $2million yearly
Salary as Finance Minister $1.2million yearly
Variable Bonus: 6months salary minimum yearly
Full Medical Benefits - Private Specialist Consultant on regular standby - Yearly cost to tax payers $200,000
Security cost: Approximately $1.5million yearly
First class travel and stays at top hotels when he travels on business trips

United States of America
President, George Bush: Increased to US$400,000 on Jan. 20, 2001, with US$50,000 expenses
Vice President, Richard Cheney: US$202,900
Cabinet Secretaries: US$157,000 - 186,600
Shaha Ali Riza, Paul Wolfowitz's girlfriend - $193,590 (she now reports to Liz Cheney, daughter of Richard Cheney in the US State Department
Condoleezza Rice - $186,600

United Kingdom
Prime Minister: US$170,556
Ministers: US$146,299

Australia
Prime Minister: US$137,060
Deputy Prime Minister: US$111,439
Treasurer: US$102,682.

One Nation Under Lee (complete video)

A 45 minute documentary on Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of modern Singapore and one of the world's remaining strongman. The film was seized by Government officials when it premiered at a private screening on 17th May 2008. Directed by Seelan Palay.

Adolf Hitler commits suicide'''Apr 30, 1945

On  Apr 30, 1945, holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in Berlin, Adolf Hitlercommits suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. Soon after, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces, ending Hitler's dreams of a "1,000-year" Reich.

Since at least 1943, it was becoming increasingly clear that Germany would fold under the pressure of the Allied forces. In February of that year, the German 6th Army, lured deep into the Soviet Union, was annihilated at the Battle of Stalingrad, and German hopes for a sustained offensive on both fronts evaporated. Then, in June 1944, the Western Allied armies landed at Normandy, France, and began systematically to push the Germans back toward Berlin. By July 1944, several German military commanders acknowledged their imminent defeat and plotted to remove Hitler from power so as to negotiate a more favorable peace. Their attempts to assassinate Hitler failed, however, and in his reprisals, Hitler executed over 4,000 fellow countrymen.

In January 1945, facing a siege of Berlin by the Soviets, Hitler withdrew to his bunker to live out his final days. Located 55 feet under the chancellery, the shelter contained 18 rooms and was fully self-sufficient, with its own water and electrical supply. Though he was growing increasingly mad, Hitler continued to give orders and meet with such close subordinates as Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler and Josef Goebbels. He also married his long-time mistress Eva Braun just two days before his suicide.

In his last will and testament, Hitler appointed Admiral Karl Donitz as head of state and Goebbels as chancellor. He then retired to his private quarters with Braun, where he and Braun poisoned themselves and their dogs, before Hitler then also shot himself with his service pistol.

Hitler and Braun's bodies were hastily cremated in the chancellery garden, as Soviet forces closed in on the building. When the Soviets reached the chancellery, they removed Hitler's ashes, continually changing their location so as to prevent Hitler devotees from creating a memorial at his final resting place. Only eight days later, on May 8, 1945, the German forces issued an unconditional surrender, leaving Germany to be carved up by the four Allied powers.

JABBAWOCKEEZ

'"JabbaWockeeZ- America's Best Dance Crew Champions'''

'''ABDC Champions for Charity JabbawockeeZ""

JabbaWockeez is an all-male hip hop crew from San Diego who won the first season of the reality dance competition America's Best Dance Crew. Since winning, the group has gained greater exposure by appearing in various music videos and commercials, touring internationally, and performing with Shaquille O' Neal at the 2009 NBA All-Star Game. They are known for wearing plain white masks and gloves in order to encourage audiences to focus on their movements as a group instead of on individual dancers. Their name is derived from the Lewis Carroll poem "Jabberwocky" about the eponymous mythical dragon..

JabbaWockeeZ - Apologize

JabbaWockeeZ~Apologize~

: 避谈泰益玛目退休保证马哈迪：他知道怎么做

: 避谈泰益玛目退休保证马哈迪：他知道怎么做: "2011年4月15日 晚上 8点52分 http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/161659 在砂州投票前夕，突然飞往砂州为原任砂州首长泰益玛目助选的前首相马哈迪，避谈泰益早前保证将会在两年后退休的言论，仅含糊地表示“泰益知道怎么做”。 虽然马哈迪..."

Yuri Gagarin 12/4/1961 (9.07am)

My watch, Metro vostok-europe..
- Decorated automatic 2432 Vostok movement with blued parts.
- Day & Night indicator.
- 32 jewels.
- Transparent back cover with 4 screws and engraved serial number.
- my watch serial number is 0903, limited to 3000 pieces.

Born March 9, 1934, near Gzhatsk, Russia, U.S.S.R. [now Gagarin, Russia], died March 27, 1968, near Moscow. Yury Alekseyevich Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut who in 1961 became the first man to travel into space.

The son of a carpenter on a collective farm, Gagarin graduated as a molder from a trade school near Moscow in 1951. He continued his studies at the industrial college at Saratov and concurrently took a course in flying. On completing this course, he entered the Soviet Air Force cadet school at Orenburg, from which he graduated in 1957.

Gagarin's 4 3/4-ton Vostok 1 spacecraft was launched at 9:07 AM Moscow time on April 12, 1961, orbited Earth once in 1 hour 29 minutes at a maximum altitude of 187 miles (301 km), and landed at 10:55 AM in the Soviet Union. His spaceflight brought him immediate worldwide fame. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and given the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union and Pilot Cosmonaut of the Soviet Union. Monuments were raised to him, and streets were renamed in his honour across the Soviet Union.

Gagarin never went into space again but took an active part in training other cosmonauts. He made several tours to other nations following his historic flight, and from 1962 he served as a deputy to the Supreme Soviet. Gagarin was killed with another pilot in the crash of a two-seat jet aircraft while on what was described as a routine training flight. His ashes were placed in a niche in the Kremlin wall. After his death in 1968 the town of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin.

Lee Kuan Yew (Part 3 of 3)

Lee Kuan Yew (Part 3 of 3)

香港无线电视翡翠台-林冠英特备节目 1

曾聒: 换首长犯砂劳越选举大忌

曾聒: 换首长犯砂劳越选举大忌: "砂劳越州首席部长泰益（白毛）国内国外无人不晓，他共拥有49间公司，横跨8个国家，身家无法估计，有人指白毛之富有或能与大马糖王齐名，也因为这样不少外人在猜测是政治带给他富贵，还是他的富贵让政治路途走到这么远。 可以肯定的是，首长之职除了薪金还有不少便利，州内大小投资计划，砂劳越天然..."

倪可敏 - One Malaysia 可以相信吗？

The best speaker YB NGA'''

Residents to Lynas: Go back to Australia!

A group of Pahang residents has urged Australia's Lynas Corp to "pack up and leave" Malaysia and abandon plans to build a rare earth refinery in Gebeng, near Kuantan.

Vincent Jiam, leader of a group of Pahang residents protesting the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant, said that plant would bring more harm than good.

"Please pack up and leave and go home. Don't leave anything behind... don't even leave your slippers behind," he told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.

巫统大会议长用福建话shoot蔡CD！

万人齐赴踢爆性片阴谋讲座 安华促专注砂州选举勿分心

万人齐赴踢爆性片阴谋讲座　安华促专注砂州选举勿分心

霹雳州民主行动党: 拿督T不打自招犯法播色情影带 行动党促警方即刻逮捕维护法治

霹雳州民主行动党: 拿督T不打自招犯法播色情影带 行动党促警方即刻逮捕维护法治: "(图) : 倪可敏吁请警方即刻逮捕不打自招播放色情影带的巫统马六甲前首长阿都拉欣等“拿督T”三人展开调查以维护我国的法律。左起西华、林碧霞及郑福基。 (怡保 23 日讯) 行动党今日要求我国警方马上逮捕现身自招播放色情影带的巫统马六甲前首长阿都拉欣等“拿督T”三人展开调查以维..."

Che Guevara "Heroic Guerrilla"

      Che Guevara was a prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution (1956–59) who went on to become a guerrilla leader in South America. Executed by the Bolivian army in 1967, he has since been regarded as a martyred hero by generations of leftists worldwide. Guevara’s image remains a prevalent icon of leftist radicalism and anti-imperialism.

     

      Guevara was the eldest of five children in a middle-class family of Spanish-Irish descent and leftist leanings. Although suffering from asthma, he excelled as an athlete and a scholar, completing his medical studies in 1953. He spent many of his holidays traveling in Latin America, and his observations of the great poverty of the masses convinced him that the only solution lay in violent revolution. He came to look upon Latin America not as a collection of separate nations but as a cultural and economic entity, the liberation of which would require an intercontinental strategy.

In 1953 Guevara went to Guatemala, where Jacobo Arbenzheaded a progressive regime that was attempting to bring about a social revolution. (Around this time Guevara acquired his nickname, from a verbal mannerism of Argentines who punctuate their speech with the interjectionche.) The overthrow of the Arbenz regime in 1954 in a coup supported by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agencypersuaded Guevara that the United States would always oppose progressive leftist governments. This conviction became the cornerstone of his plans to bring about socialism by means of a worldwide revolution.

He left Guatemala for Mexico, where he met the Cuban brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro, political exiles who were preparing an attempt to overthrow the dictatorship ofFulgencio Batista in Cuba. Guevara joined Fidel Castro's force, which landed in the Cuban province of Oriente late in November 1956. Immediately detected by Batista's army, they were almost wiped out; the few survivors, including the wounded Guevara, reached the Sierra Maestra, where they became the nucleus of a guerrilla army. The rebels slowly gained in strength, seizing weapons from Batista's forces and winning support and new recruits, and Guevara became one of Castro's most-trusted aides. Guevara recorded the two years spent overthrowing Batista's government in Pasajes de la guerra revolucionaria (1963;Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, 1968).

After Castro's victorious troops entered Havana on Jan. 2, 1959, and established a Marxist government, Guevara became a Cuban citizen, as prominent in the new government as he had been in the revolutionary army, representing Cuba on many commercial missions. He also became well known in the West for his opposition to all forms of imperialism and neocolonialism and for his attacks on U.S. foreign policy. He served as chief of the Industrial Department of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform, president of the National Bank of Cuba, and minister of industry.

During the early 1960s, he defined Cuba's policies and his own views in many speeches and writings, notably El socialismo y el hombre en Cuba (1965; Man and Socialism in Cuba, 1967)—an examination of Cuba's new brand of communism—and a highly influential manual, La guerra de guerrillas (1960; Guerrilla Warfare , 1961). After April 1965 Guevara dropped out of public life. His movements and whereabouts for the next two years remained secret; it was later learned that he had spent some time in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo with other Cuban guerrilla fighters, helping to organize the Patrice Lumumba Battalion, which fought in the civil war there.

In the autumn of 1966 Guevara went to Bolivia, incognito, to create and lead a guerrilla group in the region of Santa Cruz. On Oct. 8, 1967, the group was almost annihilated by a special detachment of the Bolivian army. Guevara, who was wounded in the attack, was captured and shot...