Straight Talk reinvents how to own a mobile phone

 Straight Talk is designed to do exactly what it says: provide everything most people need in a cell phone, without a contract. As the name implies, the programs are simple and straightforward.

Phones: Straight Talk Phones
Straight Talk has a global relationship with major manufacturers such as Motorola, Samsung and LG. Therefore, we are able to bring the highest quality phones and features to customers at the best prices. Our MOTORAZR™ V3a model needs no introduction. It’s the most popular cell phone ever made, with camera, web and many other key features. The Motorola W385 is a great performer, also with camera and mobile web access. The LG200CM color flip phone provides more basic access at a lower price, but with all the features most people need.
Straight Talk is a service of TracFone Wireless Inc., America’s largest no-contract cell phone provider in the U.S., with over 14.4 million subscribers, TracFone Wireless has been the undisputed leader in no-contract wireless since its founding in 1996. TracFone Wireless is a subsidiary of América Móvil S.A.B. de C.V. ("AMX") (BMV: AMX; NYSE: AMX; Nasdaq: AMOV; LATIBEX: XAMXL)

Why So Few Women in Silicon Valley

The NewYork Times

 

Women Out of the Loop in Silicon Valley

Women own 40 percent of the private businesses in the United States, according to the Center for Women’s Business Research. But they create only 8 percent of the venture-backed tech start-ups, according to Astia, a nonprofit group that advises female entrepreneurs.

That disparity reaches beyond entrepreneurs. Women account for just 6 percent of the chief executives of the top 100 tech companies, and 22 percent of the software engineers at tech companies over all, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology. And among venture capitalists, the population of financiers who control the purse strings for a majority of tech start-ups, just 14 percent are women, the National Venture Capital Association says.

That reality is even more complex when race is factored into the mix. Small percentages of workers in information technology are African-American, Asian or Hispanic, and that number is even smaller for women.

WOMEN now outnumber men at elite colleges, law schools, medical schools and in the overall work force. Yet a stark imbalance of the sexes persists in the high-tech world, where change typically happens at breakneck speed.

The latest Web start-ups — for socializing, gaming and shopping — often attract more women than men as users. And many products from tech giants are aimed at women. But when Apple unveiled its new mobile computing device, it called it the iPad — a name that made many women wince with visions of feminine hygiene products.

The Next Key Trend: Unified Networking

Sprint Convergence

Check out how BlackBerry 9700 Bold and MVS can work for you and your mobile workers. Sprint's strategy for a fully integrated converged network includes solution portfolios for Transport, Mobility, Collaboration, and Management. Each provides the scalability needed for a reliable, cost-effective foundation for unified communications by merging your wireless and wireline networks over Sprint's Global IP core. And each offers strategic benefits — with flexibility now and in the future.  h3cnetworks.com

 Network World

Perhaps of necessity, wireless LANs have mostly followed what we today call the overlay model - that is, the WLAN has been planned, configured, installed, managed, and used as a service apart from the underlying wired LAN that enables it. There has always been a well-established and ongoing supportive role played by the wired LAN, in the form of the interconnection of access points, controllers, location and application appliances, and all of the boxes and pieces required to get and keep a WLAN on the air. But we still fundamentally have two separate networks, which has always made little sense to me.

Sure, with wireless LANs constantly evolving (and only a hint of a slowdown here in the air today), it in fact made sense to many network managers to keep the two nets separate, event though users are migrating to the wireless LAN for default and even primary access, and even though two networks cost more (often a lot more) to operate than one. And it was that cost element that got me to thinking quite some time ago that a unified approach minimizing the boundaries between wire and wireless to the greatest degree possible would be the right way to go.


But what to unify? At the very least, we need to replace two management consoles with one. We need to unify all management, security, and related databases. We need to provision user services uniformly irrespective of access. We need to streamline help desk, training, and other support. But we might also want to unify other elements of a given solution. I had a conversation with the wireless team at 3Com (now part of HP) late last year where they described their implementation of unified networking, one of the most complete on the market today. They even go so far as to implement the same OS on all of their products, ensuring uniformity, commonality of services, and, they argue, efficiency and ultimate performance as well.

The debate rages on. So, two things: the 3Com meeting motivated our latest White Paper on Unified Networking, discussing this opportunity in much more detail, which you can find here. And second, if you're at next week's INTEROP conference in Las Vegas.   Mobile Business Conference

You'll be hearing a lot about unified networking this is major trend, one that finally closes the gap between wire and wireless with profound technical and cost benefits.

Top 5 Chip Stocks Focus On LEDs, Networks, Wireless

Investors Business Daily

The top 5 chip industry companies are:

28. Atheros Communications (ATHR) . The maker of Wi-Fi and other chips is set to report its latest financial results after the close of regular trading today — and the numbers could be huge. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect per-share profit minus items of 51 cents, up 750% from just 6 cents in the year-ago quarter. Sales are expected to jump 129% to $210.2 million. The stock cleared a cup-with-handle last month.

64. Marvell Technology Group (MRVL) . The maker of networking, wireless and other chips is the only one of these five that is just returning to the IBD 100 after an absence. The other four have been staples of the list for quite a few weeks. In its most recent quarter, it reported EPS minus items of 40 cents, up 700% from 5 cents a year ago. The MainStay Large Cap Growth Fund is among those that have added to their Marvell holdings of late.
3. Aixtron (AIXG) . The company makes equipment used to make LED, or light-emitting diode, chips. LED is fast gaining steam as a green lighting alternative, and LED chips are used in many different types of computer and cell phone displays. UBS initiated coverage this month with a buy rating.

30. NetLogic Microsystems (NETL) . The maker of so-called knowledge-based chips, which accelerate computer networking traffic, recently completed a 6.7-million-share secondary offering, with most of the shares sold by the company, at $28.85. (It’s trading above 31 even after a tough day so far today.) This includes an 883,000-share over-allotment that underwriters exercised.

61. Cree (CREE) . One of the leading makers of LEDs was upgraded to buy from hold by Morgan Joseph last week. It reports tomorrow and, like Atheros, is expected to post big numbers. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect EPS ex items of 44 cents, up 238% from a year ago. Sales are seen rising 70% to $223.3 million. Its year-over-year EPS percentage growth for the four quarters of 2009 was 30%, 100%, 100% and 90%, respectively.