Vodafone UK considering T-Mobile UK Takeover

In a move that would forge the largest mobile phone operator in Great Britain, Vodafone’s UK branch (VOD.L : 151.60 : +1.80) are looking at potentially buying the UK branch of T-Mobile, the Times Online is reporting.

T-Mobile UK has been placed on the market by Deutsche Telekom, it’s owner, who have appointed J.P. Morgan to advise it on its options. Compared to other operators in Great Britain, T-Mobile is a comparatively small player valued between £2.5 billion and £3.4 billion. It commands a market share of just 15% compared to Vodafone’s 25%. Deutsche Telekom is thought to want out of the fiercely competitive and low-margin British market which, with five big companies, is more congested than most in Europe.

A joint venture or an outright acquisition are among the options on the table however regulators will have to approve any deal. As well as being bound by the competition rules, the industry is regulated by Ofcom, which is investigating charges that operators levy customers for connecting to other networks.

Some analysts believe that consolidation is more likely for Vodafone, as they have previously stated they are constantly vigilant of opportunities of this sort, and Vodafone Australia has recently merged with Hutchison Whampoa.

Vittorio Colao, who became chief executive last July, said that he was an “active supporter” of consolidation with T-Mobile, the No 4 in Britain, and Hutchison 3G, the fifth-largest operator. Mr Colao said last month: “I don’t know if there is a three-way [merger], I don’t know if there is a two-way, I don’t know if there is a way at all — but it is clear to me that there are a few markets around the world where consolidation would make sense and we are one of the leading players, so we have a duty to look at everything. If things make sense and improves the conditions in the market, we will try our best.”

Vodafone announced a fresh wave of costcutting last month after nearly £6 billion of writedowns halved its full-year profits to £3.08 billion. It is the world’s largest operator, by revenue. It wrote down the value of its Spanish business by £3.4 billion and took a £500 million hit on its Turkish division as the global downturn and increasingly tough competition took their toll.

T-Mobile and Vodafone declined to comment last night, however one source said that Vodafone was examining its options.

LG KU990 “Viewty”

The Viewty is similar to the iPhone in its look and feel. It is touchscreen with an animated menu system which gives an immersed and enjoyable user experience

One of the most interesting facts about this phone is that it is relatively easy to unlock, upgrade firmware and modify theme files. Using the correct tools it is possible to clone the look of the iPhone or the look of the Apple Dock on a Mac for example.

This Section is a dedicated resource for information, firmware, themes, mods, software, tweaks and tutorials for the Viewty.

Index of LG KU990 “Viewty”

• LG KU990 “Viewty” Review
• LG KU990 “Viewty” Specifications
• LG KU990 “Viewty” Public Firmware Downloads
• LG KU990 “Viewty” Operating System Filestructure Explorer (EFS MEDIA BUILDER BY AKOM1676)
• LG KU990 “Viewty” Firmware Flashing Tool (LGMDP)
• LG KU990 “Viewty” Gang Image Mode
• LG KU990 “Viewty” Emergency Download Mode
• LG KU990 “Viewty” H3G (Three UK) Network Settings Tutorial
• LG KU990 “Viewty” Start Up & Shut Down Animated GIF Mods
• LG KU990 “Viewty” 10g/10h Firmware Hybrid Mod Preview & Screenshots
• Lg Ku990 “Viewty” Theme Manager v3.2

LG KU990 “Viewty” Theme Manager v3.2 +20 themes

Description:
Theme Manager v3.2 is a tool that allows you to store, and use, an unlimited amount of themes on your Viewty. Themes can be conveniently stored and used from the memory card, or you can use the phone memory itself if you dont have one.

How to use.
When the theme is loaded double tap the “C” button (located on the actual handset) to bring up the Theme Manager window.

Clicking on “Themes” button brings up a list of available themes. Use the left and rights arrows, or use the jog wheel, to navigate through the pages and Click on the theme you wish you use. Once you have a theme you wish to keep double tap “C” button again to hide the menu.

Pressing the “Clocks” button brings up the list of available clock widgets. Again use the left and right arrows or the jog wheel to browse through the pages, double tapping “C” button once you picked a widget.

Finally selecting the “Settings” button enables you to modify certain aspects of all the themes, such as swapping between black and coloured icons. Once you have finished making the changes double tap the “C” button to apply them.

How to Install.
When loading up Theme Manager attempts to locate the ThemeList.txt file which can be stored either in Memory Card or the Phone Memory.

Installing to Memory Card:
1 ) Using EFS Media Builder navigate to “LGAPP/Media/swf/”.
2 ) Drag and Drop “widget2.swf”, “widget4.swf” and any custom NYX files to this location.
3 ) Now with EFS navigate to “LGAPP/Media/swf/theme”.
4 ) Drag and Drop “theme_bg2.swf” to this location.
5 ) Click Disconnect and press YES at the pop-up

Once the Viewty reboots perform the following.

4 ) Enable “Mass Storage Mode” on the Viewty by going to the relevant options on the handset.
5 ) Once in mass storage mode connect to the PC and navigate to the Memory Card/Removable Storage.
6 ) Drag and Drop the “Themes” folder onto the Memory Card/Removable Storage.
7 ) Disconnect phone from PC and go through the handset options and activate the Silver theme (2nd from top).
8 ) Navigate though the handset options and activate the Dual Clock.

Installing to Phone Memory:
1 ) Before installing anything open up “ThemeList.txt” located in the Themes folder and modify all the locations from 0 to 1.
2 ) Using EFS Media Builder navigate to “LGAPP/Media/swf/”.
3 ) Drag and Drop “widget2.swf”, “widget4.swf” and any custom NYX files to this location.
4 ) Now with EFS navigate to “LGAPP/Media/swf/theme”.
5 ) Drag and Drop “theme_bg2.swf” and the “Themes” folder to this location.
6 ) Click Disconnect and press YES at the pop-up

Once the Viewty reboots perform the following.

7 ) Navigate through the handset options and activate the Silver theme (2nd from top).
8 ) Navigate though the handset options and activate the Dual Clock.

Installing Updates.
For any future releases of Theme Manager all you need to do is replace the “Themes” folder, you can follow the guide above to help you do that. After you have replaced the “Themes” folder bring up the Theme Manager browser window by double tapping the “C” key, click “Settings” then at the bottom select “Reload Theme Manager”. This will cause any updates to the ThemeManager.swf file to take effect.

Download
Unbranded-V10a firmware (80)

F.A.Q
If you have a question please read through the following frequently asked questions and see if an answer has already been given, if you fail to find an answer then feel free to post your query.

Q) What is Theme Manager?
A) Theme Manager is a tool that lets you store multiple themes and switch between them when ever you feel like it.

Q) I don’t have a memory card, can i still use Theme Manager?
A) Yes, you can install everything to the phone memory instead.

Q) I’ve ran out of phone memory, what can i do to create some space?
A) Try deleting some themes you don’t need or want from the Themes folder. You will need to remove them from the ThemeList.txt file aswell or they will still appear in the browser window and give errors if you try to use them.

Q) Could Theme Manager break my phone?
A) The installation part is where things can go wrong, but if you follow the step-by-step guide nothing bad should happen.

Q) I have deleted from my phone by accident, where can i get a backup?
A) Look in the Hacking forum, the first post contains links to backups of several different operator softwares.

Q) I no longer use Theme Manager, where can i get the original theme_bg2.swf?
A) Look in the Hacking forum, the first post contains links to backups of several different operator softwares.

Q) When i turn my phone off and back on the theme is reset to the black one, can i stop this from happening?
A) There is no way to store data on the handset so it loads the first theme in the ThemeList.txt file. You can modify this so that it loads up your favourite theme however.

Q) Why do certain menu’s have a Silver background instead of the themes custom background?
A) Those background are handled by a Brew application and are outside the control of themes. There is currently no known way to change them dynamically.

Q) I can’t find / I don’t see a “C” button anywhere.
A) It’s the actual C button located on the handset, between the Green (call) and Red (end call) keys.

Q) I’m pressing “C” button twice but nothing is happening.
A) Make sure you are using the Silver theme, if you are and its still not working make sure you have installed Theme Manager correctly as per the step-by-step guide in the Readme.txt.

Q) I press the “C” key twice and all i get is the error message “Error loading settings. Please check Theme Manager is installed correctly”.
A) Theme Manager tried to locate the ThemeList.txt file and couldn’t. Make sure you installed Theme Manager correctly by following the step-by-step guide in the Readme.txt.

Q) I keep getting the following error message “Error loading settings. ThemeList.txt file is out of date, please update to v3.0″.
A) It means you updated the theme but not the ThemeList.txt file, download ThemeManager again and make sure you install it properly.

Q) I try to load a theme and all i get is the error message “Error loading theme. Please check this themes install path and ThemeList.txt settings”.
A) Make sure that the ThemeList.txt file is looking for the theme in the correct location. If you installed Theme Manager to the phone memory you need to update the ThemeList.txt file by default.

Q) I installed Theme Manager and all i get is the error “Error loading Theme Manager.\r\rCheck you have installed Theme Manager correctly”.
A) Theme Manager could not find the ThemeManager.swf file in the correct location, make sure you have installed it correctly following the instructions in the readme.txt

Q) Theme Manager was working fine but then suddenly started giving me the error message “Error loading Theme Manager. Check you have installed Theme Manager correctly.” and the reload button does nothing!
A) The Viewty has a bug where it randomly stops detecting the memory card, you need to turn the phone off and back on to fix the problem.

Q) I tried to use the custom clocks but nothing happened.
A) Make sure you have Dual Clock activated in the handset options, check this post by ECBomb on how to do that. If it still doesn’t work make sure you have installed “widget2.swf” & “widget4.swf” correctly as per the install instructions.

Q) What is the password for Viewty Ultimate?
A) The default password is ‘123456′ but this can be changed by editing the params.txt file located in the Viewty Ultimate folder.

Q) The Memo widget doesn’t work corrently.
A) LG didn’t support their own Memo widget, it’s not supposed to be used however i have that option in Theme Manager for future usage.

Q) When i click on certain shortcut icons they either crash the phone or go to the wrong thing.
A) Different operators use different application codes for launching shortcuts, you will need to edit the .xml/.txt file located in that themes specific folder.

Q) Some themes have a picture i’ve taken showing in the background, how can i remove this.
A) On the Viewty navigate to “Settings”, “Screen”, “Main Display”, “Home Screen” and select “Use Theme”.

Q) What is a NYX file and what does it do?
A) The NYX file is the main part of the Viewty, it is responsible for showing you things like the clock widget, shortcut window and the menu. Each mobile operator has their own unique version of this NYX file which contains custom images to do with their services.

Q) There is a bug with , can you fix it?
A) It’s not really up to me, it’s up to the author of that theme to fix it.

Q) I found this cool theme i’d like to use, will it worth with Theme Manager?
A) Yes, but if the author of that theme didn’t create it to work with Theme Manager then it will be a little tricky and is really for advanced users only.

Whistleblower Exposes Insider Trading Program at JP Morgan

A confidential memo obtained by Wikileaks shows that not only has the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission created an insider trading loophole big enough to drive a truck through, but that Wall Street is taking full advantage of it, establishing ‘how-to’ programs and even client service divisions to help well-heeled clients circumvent insider trading regulations.

Most of us think of insider trading as illegal. It allows those with inside knowledge to tilt the playing field, with the small investors invariably losing to the privileged few. Unfortunately for the small investor, the big boys get to play by different rules, and it has all been made legal, thanks to the SEC.

In 2000 the SEC promulgated Rule 10b5-1. The new Rule was designed to address the confusion caused by a series of court decisions that had left investors uncertain about what constitutes insider trading. Rule 10b5-1 was designed to “clarify” what constitutes illegal insider trading.

But top Wall Street houses were not to be deterred from advantaging their big clients at the expense of their small ones. Wall Street firms like JP Morgan (JPM : 43.15 : -0.03) found loopholes in Rule 10b5-1 that allowed them to continue trading on inside information “legally.” Indeed, JP Morgan has gone so far as to set up an entire ’selling program’ within its Securities division to help their clients profit from the loophole.

Documents obtained earlier this month by Wikileaks from JP Morgan Private Bank, which subtitles itself as “World class solutions for wealthy individuals and families”, show the firm has a dedicated ‘10b5-1 Selling program,’ along with a ‘dedicated 10b5-1 team’ to help its clients take advantage of the loophole.

Here’s how it works:

1. An insider client transfers all or a portion of their company stock into a JP Morgan Securities Inc. brokerage account.

2. The insider then develops, in conjunction with the 10b5-1 team, a ‘phased, pre-planned sales program to be executed at either market or specified prices’.

3. Depending on the information available to the insider (but not the public), the insider can decide whether to execute the sale or not.

By gaming the system this way, JP Morgan teaches insiders how to use their knowledge to create a rigged market, one in which it is the “house” that always wins, and the small investor that always loses.

Alan D. Jagolinzer, an assistant professor at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, completed a study of roughly 117,000 trades in 10b5-1 plans by 3,426 executives at 1,241 companies. He found that trades inside the plans beat the market by 6% over six months. By contrast, executives at the same firms who traded without the benefit of plans beat the market by only 1.9%.

One can only guess at how many wealthy executives profited under JP Morgan’s “insider trading program,” leaving small investors holding the bag.

KEVIN WILSON, MARIA CHRISTINA PADRO, JULIAN ASSANGE & staff.
March 16, 2009, Wikileaks.org.

See the full confidential JP Morgan Private Bank insider trading memo:

JP Morgan Private Bank insider trading how-to

JP Morgan Private Bank was successfully contacted by Wikileaks, but declined to comment on the report.

The Barclays Effect: Memos detailing offshore tax scam leaked

Barclays PLC (BARC.L : 351.27 : +7.52) , the high street bank, is alleged to be making about £1 billion a year from an international web of financial schemes designed to avoid paying tax in the UK and abroad.

The claim has been made by a whistle-blower who passed internal Barclays documents to Vince Cable, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Tax benefits were to be generated by an elaborate circuit of Cayman islands companies, US partnerships and Luxembourg subsidiaries.

The anonymous whistleblower wrote to Cable: “The last year has seen the global taxpayer having to rescue the global financial system. The taxpayer has already had a gun put to their head and been told to pay up or watch the financial system and life as we know it disappear into a black hole.

The documents, now published on wikileaks.org detail a trail of transactions allegedly created to legally avoid tax by a team within Barclays Capital, a subsidiary of the bank.

Cable, a former chief economist at Shell, has been unable to confirm the identity of the whistle-blower. But he believes the documents are genuine.

“The documents suggest a deeply ingrained culture of tax avoidance. The Barclays team looks like the spider at the centre of a highly artificial web of non-transparent transactions through tax havens. Reputable banks don’t turn tax avoidance into a profit machine,” he said.

The allegations come as Barclays has opened discussions with the Treasury, asking for financial help from UK taxpayers to bail out some of its toxic assets. “Barclays can’t pick taxpayers’ pockets with one hand and hold the other out for a hand-out,” said Cable.

The Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, Matthew Oakeshott, said that the leaked documents showed that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) attempts to keep up with the banks’ tax avoidance were like “a fat policeman chasing a speeding Ferrari”.

In correspondence with Cable, the whistle-blower claims that he works for Structured Capital Markets (SCM) at Barclays Capital. He describes it as “a team of some 110 people with the sole purpose of structuring tax-aggressive transactions to avoid tax not only for Barclays but also for banks and companies across the world”.

The team was led for years by Roger Jenkins, who is believed to be one of the City’s highest earning bankers with a pay package of more than £40m a year. Jenkins is now based in the Middle East.

The whistle-blower says the team has recently been hiring more people to take advantage of the credit crunch, although Barclays says it is cutting staff. The whistle-blower writes: “Where the world sees turmoil and destruction, the leaders of SCM see opportunities arising from tax exploitation and corporate restructurings throwing up all sorts new and juicy areas of the tax code that can be profitably exploited.

“For the last 10 years the SCM team has generated a formidable amount of profits, peaking in the last few years at circa £1 billion per annum.”

Cable said it was both “incongruous” and “offensive” that banks that rely on state support should avoid paying tax and therefore be “selling the taxpayer short”. Although the taxpayer has not had to directly support Barclays by taking an equity stake, the bank had relied on the government’s special liquidity scheme to provide funding for loans.

“The banks are able to organise their activities in such a way that they can run rings around the Inland Revenue,” he told the Telegraph. “It serves no other purpose than to reduce tax. The fundamental point is that it is incongruous and offensive that banks which are either directly or indirectly dependent on the government should be systematically finding ways to avoid tax.”

Cable, who passed the documents to HMRC and the Financial Services Authority, told the Sunday Times this week: “The documents suggest a deeply ingrained culture of tax avoidance. The Barclays team looks like the spider at the centre of a highly artificial web of non-transparent transactions through tax havens. Reputable banks don’t turn tax avoidance into a profit machine.”

A Guardian spokesman said “Tax avoidance is a matter of high public and political interest. These documents showed for the first time how major banks set up artificial schemes with the aim of earning hundreds of millions in tax-free money, which is why the Barclays whistleblower leaked them. “All decisions about tax are taken in secret, hidden from public view.”

“No agency in the US or the UK has the resources or the commitment to challenge SCM. SCM has huge amounts of resources, the best minds rewarded by millions of pounds. Compare this with HMRC recently advertising for a tax and accounting expert with the pay at £45,000.”

“HMRC will never, in its current state, be up to the job of combating this business.”

One 2007 scheme, named Project Valiha, was allegedly designed to help Barclays save £99m in UK tax by embarking on a rapid series of transactions across just three days and involving a Swiss bank and companies in the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg.

Richard Murphy, a forensic tax accountant, said the documents relating to Project Valiha indicated that it would be financed with £2 billion from Barclays, but it had no real underlying commercial activity.

“It is designed so the money goes round in a big circle and comes back to Barclays so that they make £99m in tax savings without taking any risk at all. The whole thing takes three days,” he said.

Other schemes named in the documents are Project Knight and Project Brontos which, according to the whistle-blower, generated £100m and £55m. The documents state that Knight was an elaborate scheme for corporations. Its aim was to create a large loss for a company in the UK, which could be claimed against tax, while creating a profit for the same company elsewhere in the world.

A commentator to the Financial Times stated: “I was lucky enough to read through the first of the Barclays documents…”

“I will say it was absolutely breathtaking, extraordinary. The depth of deceit, connivance and deliberate, artificial avoidance stunned me. The intricacy and artificiality of the scheme deeply was absolutely evident, as was the fact that the knew exactly what they were doing and why: to get money from one point in London to another without paying tax, via about 10 offshore companies. Simple, deliberate outcome, clearly stated, with the exact names of who was doing this, and no other purpose. ”

“Until now I have been a supporter of the finance industry – I work with people there regularly and respect many of them, and greatly enjoy the Financial Times and other financial papers. However this has shone a light on something for me, and made me certain that these people belong in jail, and companies like Barclays deserve to be bankrupt. They have robbed everyone of us, every single person who pays tax or who will ever pay tax in this country (and other countries!), through both the bailouts and schemes such as this. ”

The documents show exactly how Barclays Capital executives proposed to structure complicated movements of funds to create a financial loss in the UK and thus pay less tax through the creation of temporary trading entities, offshore companies, currency swaps and money transfers.

References

Barclays tax dodge ‘nets £1bn a year ’ – The Times Online
Revenue investigates Barclays tax mole claims
Barclays gags Guardian over tax
Barclays Bank gags Guardian over leaked memos detailing offshore tax scam

The Infamous George W. Bush

"President Bush accused Senator John Edwards, the newly chosen running mate of Senator John Kerry, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, of being too inexperienced. No one pointed out that prior to Bush's election as president, his only political experience had been serving as governor of Texas, which was considered by many to be little more than a hand-holding position." -- July 7, 2004.

Bush is well known for his stupid comments, but Where did one get such insperation we ask ourselves?

As a child, Bush attended public schools in Midland, Texas until the family moved to Houston after he completed seventh grade. He then went to The Kinkaid School, a prep school in Houston, for two years.

Bush finished his high school years at Phillips Academy, a boarding school (then all-male) in Andover, Massachusetts, where he played baseball and during his senior year was the head cheerleader. Bush attended Yale University from 1964 to 1968, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in history. During this time, he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, being elected the fraternity’s president during his senior year. Bush also became a member of the secretive Skull and Bones society as a college senior. He characterized himself as an average student.

Beginning in the fall of 1973, Bush attended the Harvard Business School, where he earned an MBA. He is the only U.S. President to have earned an MBA.

Mitsuharu Misawa 1962-2009 RIP

The wrestling world is still in shock after the tragic and shocking death of one of the most legendery names in Japanese wrestling. Original story from PWInsider. by Mike Johnson @ 2009-06-13 10:32:26.

I am extremely saddened to report that one of the greatest in-ring workers of the modern age and the founder of Pro Wrestling: NOAH, Mitsuhau Misawa, just a few days short of his 47th birthday, died earlier this morning (tonight in Japan) following an in-ring accident stemming from a suplex.

PRO WRESTLING NOAH FOUNDER MITSUHARU MISAWA PASSES AWAY AFTER COLLAPSING IN-RING

Misawa was wrestling in a tag team bout at the Hiroshima Green Arena, teaming with Go Shiozaki to challenge Bison Smith and Akitoshi Saito for NOAH’s Global Honored Crown Tag Team championships Around 15-17 minutes in, Saito delivered with what was described to me as looking like a “routine” back suplex. Misawa went over for the bump but didn’t get back up. The entire roster surrounded the ring as they attempted to revive him. The crowd, realizing something was wrong, went silent and then began chanting Misawa’s name.

It is believed Misawa may have suffered a heart attack as he immediately stopped breathing. EMTS attempted to revive him in the ring via AED in the ring and he was rushed out to an ambulance.

In the wake of the Misawa incident, the show was immediately halted. The NOAH roster were instructed to return to their tour buses and were later informed Misawa had passed away.

Yomuri Online in Japan reported that Misawa passed away en route to the hospital at 10:10 PM Japanese time. It’s possible he passed away before that, but 10:10 is the official time in media reports.

Misawa was groomed for stardom from the day he was brought into All Japan by Shohei “Giant” Baba after being successful amateur High School wrestler. He became the second Tiger Mask (under the hood, he wrestled Bret Hart in 1990) before eventually competing under his real name.

Misawa’s classics with Toshiaki Kawada and Kenta Kobashi were the stuff of immediate legend, with Japanese photos of the bouts showing hard-hitting still photos that looked more like boxing matches. Then, when you’d see the tapes via trading, you were awe-struck at how intensely athletic and competitive the bouts were. Before hardcore was a buzz word used to promote a certain style, that’s what All Japan main events were – a hardcore, physically brutal style of storytelling in professional wrestling that was unlike anything else in the era.

When All Japan Pro Wrestling owner Shohei “Giant” Baba passed away in 1999, issues with Baba’s widow, Motoko Baba eventually led to Misawa leading an exodus of most of the core All Japan talents from the company a year later, forming Pro Wrestling NOAH. The biggest hold-out was Toshiaki Kawada but every other major AJPW name at the time jumped. NOAH, almost immediately, became one of the top in-ring products anywhere in the world, with Misawa as one of the key figures in and out of the ring. All Japan was never the same, although it continues to live on under the ownership of Keiji Mutoh.

Stateside, Misawa made very few trips to the United States to perform, working a pair of shows for Ring of Honor and Harley Race’s WLW last year as well as appearing for California’s Pro Wrestling Iron, an American satellite promotion for NOAH a few years prior run by Mike Modest and Donovan Morgan.

In Japan, Misawa was one of the all-time greatest in-ring performers and in many ways, was still carrying the torch for the style that Baba and All Japan, in their prime, excelled at. He wasn’t in his prime shape anymore and physically, was beaten down by the punishment he put his body through, but when needed, could still perform at an incredible level in comparison to others half his age.

I can’t even begin to express what an awesome performer Misawa in his prime was. In many ways, the style that he, Kenta Kobashi and Toshiaki Kawada, among others, popularized in the United States via tape traders helped inspire the entire “strong style” phase of wrestling on the independent level of the United States. It’s impossible to even access the influence his work had on the entire wrestling industry.

To read a translated version of a Yomuri Online report, click here.

Our deepest condolences go out to Misawa’s family, friends and fans on a truly sad day for this business.

No more words need to be said.

RIP.