Applications for the 2010 program accepted from Jan. 4 through Feb. 5, 2010; program to provide funding for character-education initiatives in schools and districts across the country

Sprint Employees Voluntarily Pledge Not to Text or Email While Driving

New Motorola i410 Completes Boost Mobile’s 2009 Device Roadmap

Eye-catching “now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t” keypad and display are stylish on the outside, while full QWERTY keyboard inside makes Incognito a messaging powerhouse

In his recent column in Barron’s Technology Trader Eric J. Savitz writes that PC sales are yet to pick up the rush despite Microsoft Corporation's (NASDAQ: MSFT) recent launch of Windows 7. Microsoft claimed that Windows 7 was a runaway success. However, the rush does not seem to be visible in PC sales.

The recent 3rd quarter results of Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) seems to indicate that. Dell’s 3rd quarter results were much below the Wall Street’s expectations. Dell’s margins are under pressure and it seems to be falling behind in notebooks sales.

While Savitz feels that IT buyers may rush back to purchase PC in the second half of 2010, he still has a caveat. The evidence of economic pickup must be clearer. Savitz is of the opinion that those investors who want to take positions based on PC sales rebound may also look at Hewlett-Packard Company (NASDAQ: HPQ) and Microsoft Corporation.

On “Pixi” – a lower price offering by Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM), Savitz wonders why anyone should buy it, when its predecessor “Pre” is available at low prices. Palm’s Pixi is being offered by Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) – through a 2 year contract. Savitz writes that, Pixi’s price is too steep. For instance, Research In Motion's (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry Bold offered by AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) can be purchased for a small price on Amazon.com, Inc.(NASDAQ: AMZN).

On “post - transaction marketing”, Savitz writes that the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation has recently released a report on this phenomenon. Three Connecticut companies - Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty – were behind the spread of this marketing strategy. Buyers ordering through the Internet are offered a bait. Those who fall for it, find that they were enrolled for services which they do not need.

The report indicates that these 3 companies and the retailers have garnered $1.4 billion through this way. The retailers list includes United Online, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: UNTD) Classmate.com which collected more than $ 70 million in revenue using this strategy.

A look at this week's movers and shakers.

Below are interesting large-cap stocks on the NYSE and NASDAQ that have lowest price to book ratio.

By Leah SchnurrNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks could sputter this week as volumes dry up in holiday-shortened trading and with a slew of economic reports likely to illustrate the recovery is still fragile.Investors will also get a glimpse of how holiday shopping could shape up with "Black Friday," which...

It's been a tough week for the big three rating agencies: Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service, and Fitch Ratings, which seem to be following in the footsteps of the big three auto makers. First the National Association of Insurance Commissioners put up a "No Help Wanted"...

Motorola Inc. (MOT) has decided to purchase iDEN base station assets of the privately held RadioFrame Networks Inc. The iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network) technology allows cell phone calls to move on the same network as communication from two-way radios. In general, this technology resembles walkie-talkie features on cell phones. Financial terms of this deal [...]

(MOT) Motorola Boosts iDEN Business

Palm Inc.’s (PALM) new smartphone, Pixi — a lighter and cheaper version of the Pre — can now be bought for just $24.99. Both Wal-Mart (WMT) stores and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) have slashed the price of the new Pixi phone by 75% from the original $100 after the Pixi went on sale last week at Sprint [...]

(PALM) Palm Cuts Price on New Smartphone

Palm Inc.’s (PALM) new smartphone, Pixi -- a lighter and cheaper version of the Pre -- can now be bought for just $24.99.

Both Wal-Mart (WMT) stores and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) have slashed the price of the new Pixi phone by 75% from the original $100 after the Pixi went on sale last week at Sprint Nextel Corp. (S). Amazon has also cut the price of Palm’s Pre to $79 from $99.

The price cut may attract consumers in the coming holiday season, however we remain unsure about the future of Palm. Moreover such steep price cuts confirm our view that both the Pre and the Pixi are just not selling in a market crowded by devices such as Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, Motorola’s (MOT) Droid and Research In Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry.

Palm’s Pixi and Pre are still available via Sprint for $99.99 and $149.99, respectively. Both the phones come with a two-year contract with instant rebate and a mail-in rebate.

Palm’s Pixi has features like 8 gigabytes of built-in memory, an exposed QWERTY keyboard and personalization features, but do not support Wi-Fi capabilities. Pixi has a 2-megapixel camera and a slower processor with a smaller screen.

Thus the performance of Pixi is still not clear given its slower processor and lack of Wi-Fi. Pixi runs on Palm's WebOS but relies on Sprint's 3G network for connectivity.

We believe Palm’s competitive position has been permanently damaged by its antiquated offerings and the company is still selling only a small fraction of Pre phones to smartphone users.

We maintain our Underperform rating on PALM shares.
Read the full analyst report on "PALM"
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Read the full analyst report on "S"
Read the full analyst report on "AAPL"
Read the full analyst report on "MOT"
Read the full analyst report on "RIMM"
Zacks Investment Research

Companies featured in this edition of the newsletter: ACTC, CUR, CVM, DKAM, ENZ, IMUC, MFGD, NXOI, OMCM, ONEZ, PSID, XSNX Markets continued to carry momentum during the early stages of last week, as the absence of significant economic news led to a continuation of the upward trend characterizing the past few weeks, until an earnings miss [...]

Motorola Inc. (MOT) has decided to purchase iDEN base station assets of the privately held RadioFrame Networks Inc. The iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network) technology allows cell phone calls to move on the same network as communication from two-way radios. In general, this technology resembles walkie-talkie features on cell phones. Financial terms of this deal have not been disclosed so far. Motorola itself is the pioneer of the iDEN technology that RadioFrame had licensed for its base station products.
 
The main reason for this acquisition is the superior iDEN-based base station products of RadioFrame that are lower cost and more power efficient. This proposed acquisition will enhance Motorola's portfolio of multi-channel base stations products that are optimized to support non-contiguous spectrum allocations in the special mobile radio business. Motorola may use RadioFrame’s lower-cost iDEN architecture into entirely separated spectrum bands that are allocated to the wireless carriers in the international (outside the U.S.) markets. RadioFrame has a solid client base for its base station products, notable among them being Sprint Nextel Corp. (S).
 
RadioFrame’s base station products will be a part of Motorola’s Home and Network Mobility segment. This segment makes equipment for cable and wireless operators. Recently, industry rumors indicated that the company has decided to sell this segment for more than $4.5 billion. As of now, Home and Network Mobility is the largest segment of Motorola. In the third quarter of 2009, this segment generated more than $2 billion revenue and $199 million operating profit.
 
Earlier this month, Motorola’s Home and Network Mobility segment decided to purchase IPTV specialist BitBand and will do venture funding to the LTE chip making business of Sequans Communications together with Alcatel-Lucent (ALU). BitBand has more than 60 commercial IPTV deployments throughout the world and Paris based Sequans Communications has intended to demonstrate its first LTE chipset in early 2010. Whether Motorola sells its Home and Network Mobility segment or not, it seems that the company is increasingly focusing on optimizing the resources of its largest business segment.
Read the full analyst report on "MOT"
Read the full analyst report on "S"
Read the full analyst report on "ALU"
Zacks Investment Research

Schaeffer's analyst Morgan Searcy takes a look at news on the Street before the market open.

Investment Intelligence Research The Power to Make You Money™ Gold-mining Value Opportunity... How you can turn back the clock on investing in Gold & Silver Three years ago, as Gold was...

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Stacy Summary:  I recommend you follow all the related stories on ZeroHedge about Sergey’s lawsuit against Goldman.  I think there is the makings of a thriller in this story . . . S&P downgrades Latvia and Estonia Sergey Aleynikov files suit against Goldman

Schaeffer's analyst Morgan Searcy takes a look at news on the Street before the market open.

Stacy Summary:   Be careful what you wish for Mike/Liverpool!  The S & P downgrade doesn’t even mention the fact that North Sea oil revenue will continue falling.   Okay, what are your thoughts?  Do you agree that S & P is hardly credible after rating subprime AAA?  The the UK will grow its way [...]