Hoping to Draw Market Shares with Touch Screens

This holiday, cellphone makers and carriers are pushing some shiny new toys: phones with touch-sensitive screens like the one on the i Phone.

The companies are hoping to duplicate the blockbuster success of the iPhone with models that, in their glassy minimalism, end up looking a lot like it. These include the G1, powered by Google’s Android software; the Instinct from Samsung; the LG Dare; and, most recently, Research in Motion's much-anticipated BlackBerry Storm. But with consumers keeping a close watch on their bank balances, analysts and industry experts say most touch-screen phones will have trouble getting onto the list of this season’s must-have gadgets.

(Matt Richtel of the New York Times)

Washington Strains for Inauguration

Ian Irbina with the New York Times says even for a city practiced at handling huge protests, marches and funerals, the inauguration of President-elect Barak Obabma will put an unusual strain on local resources. Because Washington has been allotted only about $15 million in federal money to help pay for all major events in the city for the entire year, local officials say they are most concerned about the costs of handling the more than 1.5 million spectators expected to come here, the largest crowd in inaugural history.

“Our city has plenty of experience hosting the inauguration, and it cherishes being the seat of the federal government,” said Elenore Holmes Norton, Washington’s delegate to Congress. “But it doesn’t come cheap.”

Ms. Norton said she was trying to get an additional $15 million allocated to the city, since the $15 million already set aside was supposed to cover the cost of policing all large events throughout the year.

“If we spend all these funds on the inauguration,” she said, “how is the city is going to pay for events like the Fourth of July celebration and the antiwar marches that happen every year and are federal in focus?”

Despite such concerns, local businesses are expecting big benefits.

Industry news assignment...troy oldham

A Handpicked Team for a Sweeping Shift in Foreign Policy

An article by David E. Sanger of the New York Times says as President-elect Barak Obama introduces his national security team on Monday, it includes two veteran cold warriors and a political rival whose records are all more hawkish than that of the new president who will face them in the White House Situation Room.

Yet all three of his choices — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as the rival turned secretary of state; Gen. James L. Jones, the former NATO commander, as national security adviser, and Robert M. Gates, the current and future defense secretary — have embraced a sweeping shift of priorities and resources in the national security arena.

The adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the three have all embraced “a rebalancing of America’s national security portfolio” after a huge investment in new combat capabilities during the Bush years.

troy oldham... industry news assignment

World Falls for American Media, Even as It Sours on America

According to a New York Times article by Tim Arango, shortly after the attacks on 9/11, high-level media executives, including the heads of every major studio, met several times with White House officials, including at least once with President Bush’s former top strategist, Karl Rove, to discuss ways that the entertainment industry could play a part in improving the image of the United States overseas. In the last eight years, American pop culture, already popular, has boomed around the globe while opinions of America itself have soured. But so far, cultural popularity has not translated into new friends. The latest data from the Pew Global Attitudes Project, released in June, shows that the image of the United States remained negative in the 24 countries in which Pew conducted surveys (although in 10 of those the favorability rating of the United States edged up slightly).