Planning on getting out of town most weekends the next few months but not going points further than a 300 mile radius? Perhaps out East, on Shelter Island or Martha’s Vineyard? If you answered yes, please be sure transport doesn’t involve helicopter or, god help you, a car, because roads as a means of transport have been declared “over.”

Andre Balazs has a new toy. He is part owner of a seaplane, an eight-passenger Cessna 208 Caravan Amphibian aircraft that has been refurbished and painted bright red, the color that has become synonymous with his hotel chain. StndAir looks like an adorable figment of Snoopy’s imagination. It operates off the pier at 23rd Street and the East River. The plane can travel within a 300-mile area of New York, and it can be chartered to go to places like Martha’s Vineyard ($4,875), Provincetown ($5,575) or Montauk ($3,275). Through the summer, it will make regularly scheduled stops in East Hampton for $495, and Shelter Island for $595. There is also something slightly confusing called an online Flight Board where individuals can book tickets for off-peak flights for as low as $30 a seat. Small pets are welcome on the plane, luggage allowance is 20 pounds and no golf clubs are permitted.

[...]

On Friday, twenty minutes before takeoff, an employee of Mr. Balazs was waiting on the dock welcoming passengers. “Would you like some water?” she said, grabbing a miniature bottle branded with StndAir’s red logo on it from a basket. “While you wait, we also have suntan lotion and spray if you need to put some on.” Inside was plenty of room, and the niceties were especially, well, nice. Before take off, gummi Swedish fish—the color of the plane—were distributed through the cabin. So was a red thermos that read “Rosé.”

And in a blink, StndAir was in the water, pulling up to the beach at Shelter Island. There were dogs on the sand and a naked child waving. It felt very St.-Tropez. “Roads are over,” said Mr. Brambilla, [a friend of Balazs] as he stepped onto the shore.

Taking Off-via SeaPlane- To The Hamptons [WSJ]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

via guestofaguest.com: Now that summer has officially arrived you’re going to have plenty of days of fun in the sun. But you can’t forget to guard your skin from harmful rays no matter how much you want that golden glow, so here’s a mini guide to protecting yourself against the sun in style this summer. MORE>>

Article courtesy of %source%

Engadget’s Terrence O’Brien this morning speculates that a new version of Research in Motion’s (RIMM) “PlayBook” tablet computer with 4G wireless links could be on the way for the summer, as expected, based on Google search results for the phrase “Sprint PlayBook.”

Such as search comes up with links with provocative titles such as “Sprint | Introducing the BlackBerry 4G Playbook Tablet,” although said links actually lead to nondescript pages.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

After enduring this long and cruel L.A. winter, summer is just about here and with it, our favorite weekly party makes its highly anticipated return TONIGHT and we have a feeling it’s going to be on fuego. Ladies and degenerates, Nightswim is back for 2011, and we have the 411 on what to expect and some flashbacks from last summer to help remind you why you should be PUMPED. Read the full story

In case you missed it, The Wall Street Journal had a couple pieces on the gadget wars this morning: A report by Stuart Weinberg says that Research in Motion (RIMM) is on track to sell half a million units of the PlayBook tablet computer in the quarter ending this month, a feat Weinberg calls, “A respectable entrance into the competitive tablet market.”

(I should note BoyGeniusReport’s Jonathan Geller on Friday wrote that the PlayBook’s sales have “fallen far short of expectations,” citing an anonymous source at “a major big box retailer.”)

Also in today’s Journal, Justin Scheck and Ben Worthen chronicle Dell’s (DELL) failed bid to offer consumer electronics, having “pulled the plug” on initiatives such as a music player and an online music store. “Apple-like success hasn’t followed” Dell’s purchase of Zing, a software maker that was supposed to kick-start Dell’s music efforts, the authors write.

The sidebar to that piece is an autopsy of the failure of Dell’s first tablet computer, the $500 “Streak” that was roundly panned when it appeared last year. Scheck and Worthen write that anonymous sources expect Dell may delay a 10-inch version of the Streak, expected this summer, until later in the year because of necessary bug fixes.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

via guestofaguest.com: Summer months were made for light, breezy dresses with feminine details and whimsical prints. Check out this roundup of Christina’s top picks in summer boho dresses and see her guide to the best summer shades to have in her Top Summery Sunglasses. MORE>>

Article courtesy of %source%

ThinkEquity’s Mark McKechnie this morning initiated coverage of Research In Motion (RIMM) with a Hold rating and a $48 target, threading a path between what he sees as the bull and bear cases.

The bear case is that RIM’s BlackBerry service offering will see subscribers decline in coming years, but McKechnie actually thinks the company can add 16 million and 13 million subscribers in the next two years, for $4.25 per share in earnings, on top of what else it can generate. (He models $6.40 per share this fiscal year ending next February, and $6.55 in fiscal 2013.) The network service is the “core asset,” he writes.

But McKechnie also wonders why the company has talked about new handsets based on its “QNX” operating system, while not actually offering them for another year, essentially offering “vaporware,” as he sees it.

While the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9300 that were recently introduced, and that don’t run QNX, will see purchases this summer from loyal BB fans, he thinks the company may prompt IT shops to hold off on purchases until they see the next generation BlackBerry with QNX next year.

But actually the key issue for RIM, McKechnie, asserts, is how the company adjusts to rich media. RIM rose to prominence when phone companies wanted to keep bandwidth usage down in an era of low-bit-rate messaging traffic. That was back when they banned video from their wireless networks. But Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone’s support for video, etc. has up-ended that equation. “Thus, RIM’s advantage — a light footprint for email and messaging — becomes less important.”

As for tablets, McKechnie thinks this will be a two-horse race between Apple and Google’s (GOOG) Android, but he’s not altogether giving up on RIM’s “PlayBook” tablet — because of its support for Adobe’s (ADBE) “Flash” media technology, which could prove appealing to some corporate users: “We do see a market, particularly in the corporate space, which requires Flash support and thus gives RIMM an opening, in our view.”

RIMM shares this morning are down 62 cents, or 1.4%, at $43.61.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) CEO Leo Apotheker had more tough news for investors and analysts this morning on the conference call to discuss the company’s fiscal Q2 results and a reduced year outlook, reported this morning.

Not only is the PC division struggling from lower consumer sales, but the services business is not where it should be, Apotheker suggested.

“As I have been digging into our services business in joining HP and diving even deeper over the past couple of months, I have concluded that we had a solid strategy for Services, but we didn’t invest in the path to support the strategy,” said Apotheker.

“Instead, HP focused on maximizing its shorter-term margins. We have over-executed operationally and underinvested strategically. As a result, our short-term margin expectations have been too high. This has impacted our ability to create sustainable growth for the long term.”

HP has so far failed to get its services business into the “higher value, higher-margin and higher-growth categories,” he said. There’s too much focus on IT outsourcing deals, Apotheker said, bringing down profit margin.

To remedy the situation, Apotheker said the company will look to recruit an executive Vice President for enterprise services, and that the current Enterprise division head, Ann Livermore, will be in that role in an interim fashion. Also, the company will “enhance our services offerings in emerging areas, such as cloud services and consulting, application modernization, business analytics and mobility.”

Regarding the weakness in PCs, where consumer-oriented shipments were down 23% from the prior-year quarter, Apotheker said that the “steepness of our Q2 decline is greater than what we had anticipated.” Although the company is cautious, he said the introduction of HP’s “TouchPad” tablet computer, expected this summer, would be “exciting.”

HP shares are currently down $2.15, or 5.4%, at $37.65.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Shares of Cisco Systems (CSCO) are up 40 cents, or 2.3%, at $18.18 after the company this afternoon reported fiscal Q3 revenue in line with estimates and EPS better than expected.

Q3 revenue for the three months ended in April rose 5%, year over year, to $10.9 billion, yielding EPS of 42 cents.

Analysts had been expecting $10.9 billion and 37 cents per share. The revenue is in line with Ciso’s own forecast back in February for $10.89 billion in revenue. EPS was above Cisco’s forecast for 35 cents to 38 cents.

Gross margin came in at 63.9%, Cisco said, above the company’s forecast for margin of 62% to 63%.

CEO John Chambers remarked, “This quarter played out as we expected. We have acknowledged our challenges. We know what we have to do. We have a clear game plan, and we are a company with a track record of market-shaping innovation. We thank our shareholders, employees, customers and partners as we transition to the next phase of Cisco.”

Cisco said its “days of inventory” declined from 40 in Q2 to 37 in Q3. Inventory “turns” rose to 11.1 from 10.6 in the prior quarter, on a GAAP basis, it said.

Update: Shares are now up 64 cents, or 3.6%, at $18.42.

Update 2: Cisco’s conference call is now underway. You can catch it here.

During the call, Chambers said Cisco intends to cut $1 billion from its costs, as part of a broad “simplification” of its operating model.

Chambers also remarked that fiscal Q4 will continue to show some “weakness,” as “switching margins are under pressure in the high end part of our business.”

Chambers remarked that price-per-port is dropping as the company transitions to its “Nexus” line of switches, bringing pressure on gross margin:

The switching market is in the midst of a significant transition. Across the industry, prices at each speed have been driving down price per port, along with significant transitions from 1-gigabit to 10-gigabit, where we are at the forefront of this innovation. As we have said previously, in the short term, this has placed pressure on our revenue opportunities across the market as customers have begun to adopt these new technologies. Our gross margins have come under pressure due to the transition of our own products at the high end of our switching portfolio as customers adopt the Nexus 7000.

Chambers said the company plans a “workforce reduction,” the scope of which will be decided over the summer.

As for public sector, Chambers said further belt-tightening by government customers had led to a reversal from 30% growth four quarters ago to an 8% decline in Q3. “No excuses. We must adjust quickly,” he said, “We must address very aggressively the dramatic spending changes that will occur.”

Chief operating officer Gary Moore said on the call that Cisco will improve its gross profit margin, “through product simplification, aggressive value engineering, maximizing commodity pricing opportunities, and enhanced supply chain strategies.”

Update 3: This cautious commentary appears to have forced Cisco to give up its after-hours gains. The stock is now down 21 cents, or 1%, at $17.59.

Update 4: For Q4, the company is forecasting $10.84 billion to $11.05 billion in revenue, below the consensus $11.6 billion, and EPS of 37 cents to 39 cents, below the average 41-cent estimate of analysts. Gross margin is expected at about 62%.

Update 5: Cisco’s long-term revenue growth targets of 12% to 17% are “off the table,” management said.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

For Those About To Rock Rage… We Suggest You Mark Your Calendars For July 30th. Not like we thought we’d never see them perform together for their hometown again or anything, but Mr. de la Rocha, Mr. Morello and the rest have set aside their differences, let Chris Cornell recede into the background for a minute, and will come together once more as Rage Against The Machine this summer at the Coliseum. Read the full story