October262011
Blog Guy, I gather from your recent posts that you’re a big fan of Siri, the personal assistant on the new iPhone 4S who carries on conversations with users?
I am. I’m pretty dazzled, I must say.
So, have you gotten to know her personally?
Well, I don’t like to boast, but as you can see from this screen grab, yes. Siri sent me her personal, private phone number.
Blog Guy, you’re just pathetic. That’s one of those fictitious 555 numbers that they use in movies, which don’t really exist. Siri is just having fun with you. So, I heard a weird rumor about the timing of the release of the iPhone featuring Siri.
Yeah, it’s true. Apple released the phone a couple of weeks before Halloween so they can cash in selling Siri costumes for trick-or-treating. All the kids will be trying to look and sound like Siri next Monday night.
But does anybody know what she looks like?
Yes. She sent me this photo of herself. She’s sassy, perky, coy and confident.
So this woman who wouldn’t even give you her real phone number claims she looks like a fashion model in Russia? I give up, Blog Guy.
It’s only going to get better. On the next iPhone release, you won’t even have to punch that button to get Siri’s attention. She’ll answer if you just give the phone a whirl, spinning it around quickly.
That’s amazing! I hadn’t even heard that yet!
Really? You don’t know about the Whirled Siris?
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A model presents a creation by the winners the Grazia youth fashion contest during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia in Moscow, October 22, 2011.
More stuff from Oddly Enough
5AM
Blog Guy, I gather from your recent posts that you’re a big fan of Siri, the personal assistant on the new iPhone 4S who carries on conversations with users?
I am. I’m pretty dazzled, I must say.
So, have you gotten to know her personally?
Well, I don’t like to boast, but as you can see from this screen grab, yes. Siri sent me her personal, private phone number.
Blog Guy, you’re just pathetic. That’s one of those fictitious 555 numbers that they use in movies, which don’t really exist. Siri is just having fun with you. So, I heard a weird rumor about the timing of the release of the iPhone featuring Siri.
Yeah, it’s true. Apple released the phone a couple of weeks before Halloween so they can cash in selling Siri costumes for trick-or-treating. All the kids will be trying to look and sound like Siri next Monday night.
But does anybody know what she looks like?
Yes. She sent me this photo of herself. She’s sassy, perky, coy and confident.
So this woman who wouldn’t even give you her real phone number claims she looks like a fashion model in Russia? I give up, Blog Guy.
It’s only going to get better. On the next iPhone release, you won’t even have to punch that button to get Siri’s attention. She’ll answer if you just give the phone a whirl, spinning it around quickly.
That’s amazing! I hadn’t even heard that yet!
Really? You don’t know about the Whirled Siris?
Join the Oddly Enough blog network
Follow this blog on Twitter at rbasler
A model presents a creation by the winners the Grazia youth fashion contest during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia in Moscow, October 22, 2011.
More stuff from Oddly Enough
October172011
* GMV, ex-autos, seen rising 14 pct in US — analystBy Alistair BarrSAN FRANCISCO, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The performance of eBay
Inc’s main Marketplaces business will dominate results
from the e-commerce company later this week.EBay has been working on a turnaround of its online
marketplaces for over a year and growth has begun to pick up in
recent quarters.EBay shares are up more than 20 percent so far this year,
but further gains will depend on growth continuing, or even
increasing, analysts and investors said.”Continued acceleration at the core eBay Marketplaces will
be of paramount importance,” said Fred Moran, an analyst at
Benchmark Capital.EBay’s Internet marketplaces, the biggest of their kind,
bring together buyers and sellers and the company makes money
by charging fees on transactions and other activity.The marketplaces business started as an auction website,
but eBay has moved away from that model and now about 60
percent of sales are fixed price.Having more fixed prices has made eBay’s marketplaces more
accessible to a broader audience of shoppers, helping the
company compete better with Amazon.com Inc , the
world’s largest Internet retailer.”The transition to fixed-price has paid off and enhanced
the growth rate,” Moran said. “If that continues in the third
quarter, the stock should be rewarded.EBay is expected to report earnings of 48 cents per share
on revenue of $2.91 billion, according to Thomson Reuters
I/B/E/S. The company is due to unveil results after the stock
market closes on Wednesday.When eBay reported second-quarter results in July, the
company forecast third-quarter revenue between $2.85 billion
and $2.95 billion and earnings of 46 cents to 47 a share.EBay also forecast full-year revenue of $11.3 billion to
$11.6 billion in July and profit of $1.97 to $2.00 a share.A closely watched metric will be the Gross Merchandise
Volume, or GMV, that changed hands on eBay’s marketplaces,
excluding vehicle sales.”How people react to the earnings will depend on how much
GMV has been transacted,” said Bill Smead of Smead Capital,
which owns eBay shares. “We expect not spectacular but steady
improvement there. EBay is participating in the growth of
e-commerce, while a few years ago they weren’t.”Justin Post, an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch,
is expecting U.S. GMV growth of 14 percent in the third
quarter, versus a year earlier. But growth could be as high as
16 percent, he noted.The focus on fixed price sales makes eBay a much more
effective destination for holiday shopping, while the company
has also reduced clutter on its website and improved cataloging
and search functions, according to Post.
6PM
“The deterioration in debt metrics and the potential for further contingent liabilities to emerge are exerting pressure on the stable outlook of the government’s Aaa debt rating,” Moody’s said in a statement.
October142011
* Pipeline was not damaged, but aftershocks expected
(Adds detail)MOSCOW, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Russian oil pipeline monopoly
Transneft (TRNF_p.MM) said it halted oil shipments to China and
the Far Eastern port of Kozmino following an earthquake, adding
that the ESPO pipeline was not damaged and deliveries could
restart on Friday.The U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.1 magnitude earthquake
struck at 0610 GMT on Friday in Russia’s Amur region, about
5,150 km (3,200 miles) east of Moscow and 210 km (130 miles)
north of Heilongjiang, China.Russian authorities said there were no casualties or
significant property damage.”The company halted supplies as a preventive measure.
Transneft expects aftershocks, but theoretically shipments can
be restarted today,” company spokesman Igor Dyomin told Reuters,
adding that the power supply to some pumping stations was
interrupted and reserve capacity was plugged in.He said that the company has also stopped loading railcars
destined for Kozmino where oil exports continues.”We have enough oil reserves at Kozmino to carry out
continuous loadings,” Dyomin said.He added that Transneft, which operates the 50,000 km-long
pipeline network, has continued receiving oil from producers.The East Siberia - Pacific Ocean pipeline, launched on Jan.
1, carries 300,000 barrels of oil per day to China, while
another 300,000 bpd go via the rail line to Kozmino.
October122011
“In the first half of this year, our overseas production
increased 29.8 percent on-year; the second half growth will be
about the same,” Sinopec Group vice president Zhang Yaocang said
in Beijing on the sidelines of a shareholders’ meeting.”Overseas production next year will surely step up,” Zhang
added, without giving details.Sinopec Group just signed an agreement to acquire Canadian
oil and gas explorer Daylight Energy Ltd for C$2.2
billion ($2.1 billion) in cash.”The asset’s quality is good, the price is good, and the
potential to add value is good, too. We are optimistic about the
value that will be added,” said Sinopec Group chairman Fu
Chengyu.The company also completed the purchase of an 18 percent
stake in Chevron Corp’s Indonesian deep-water project
for $680 million recently.Asked whether the company’s overseas acquisitions would
speed up, Zhang said: “That depends on if it is suitable. If
resource conditions are good, fiscal and tax policies are good,
political environments are good, we will start doing something
when we should.”Sinopec Group is the parent of Hongkong-listed and
Shanghai-listed China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec)
. The group does overseas upstream oil and
gas investment and operations via its wholly owned unit, Sinopec
International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corp (SIPC).
