Until March, Theflyonthewall.com posted research reports and press releases on its website, usually minutes before the banks the headlines came from were even shared the reports with their clients.
In March however, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ruled that the site “engaged in systematic misappropriation,”, making money and getting a “free ride” from analyst moves which usually move stock prices positively or negatively.
The banks that brought the case were Merrill Lynch, Barclays and Morgan Stanley which also tried to ban the site from using their research reports.
However, TFOTW’s appeal has gained some legs today, with both Google and Twitter backing the site, saying blocking immediate news dissemination is “obsolete” and “wrong.”
Reads the filing: “News reporting always has been a complex ecosystem, where what is ‘news’ is often driven by certain influential news organizations, with others republishing or broadcasting those facts — all to the benefit of the public.”
Both companies say if the court’s decision is upheld, the banks will go after other sites that offer real-time news updates in the financial markets.
Result for: press release
Qualcomm has announced it has begun shipping the world’s first dual-CPU Snapdragon chips, built for high-end smartphones.
The company says the Mobile Station Modem (MSM) MSM8260 and MSM8660 chipsets will run cores up to 1.2GHz.
1 GHz single-core Snapdragon chips can be found in current high-end smartphones such as the Motorola Droid and HTC EVO 4G among others.
“Qualcomm’s first-generation Snapdragon chipsets set a new standard for advanced smartphones and smartbook devices, and our second-generation solutions are already shipping in volume,” says Steve Mollenkopf, executive vice president of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (via Press Release). “We are very excited by the innovation our customers are already showing as they begin designing products based on our dual-core MSM8260 and MSM8660 chipsets.”
The MSM8260 will work on HSPA+ devices and the MSM8660 for “multi-mode HSPA+/CDMA2000® 1xEV-DO Rev. B.”
Additionally, the chips will include 2D/3D acceleration engines for “Open GLES 2.0 and Open VG 1.1 accelration, 1080p video encode/decode, dedicated low power audio engine, integrated low power GPS, and support for 24-bit WXGA 1280 x 800 resolution displays.”
Although not shipping, the company also announced the QSD8672 dual-CPU chip which will have cores running at up to 1.5 GHz.
Result for: press release
Apple has announced the sale of 2 million iPad tablets as of today, a little under a month since the company announced the sale of the 1 millionth unit.
The tablet launched in early April in the United States and the company began selling the device in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK this past weekend, where excitement reached a fervor.
Says Apple CEO Steve Jobs via press release: “Customers around the world are experiencing the magic of iPad, and seem to be loving it as much as we do. We appreciate their patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone.”
The iPad saw 450,000 sales on launch day, and was touted as Apple’s most successful product launch ever.
Jobs notes that there are already 5000 iPad-only apps in the App Store, with 200,000 created for the iPhone/iPod Touch additionally available.
