(Reuters) – Tattoos have become increasingly popular among U.S. young people, but women may be more likely than men to regret getting their “body art” so much that they try to have it removed, researchers said on Monday.

About a quarter of Americans ages 18 to 30 have at least one tattoo, and this figure is expected to jump to 40 percent in the next few years, the researchers said.

Along with lots of happy customers — an estimated 80 percent are pleased with their tattoos — some are so unhappy that they undergo laser treatment to have them erased. An estimated 6 percent of tattoo customers eventually undergo procedures to erase them.

A team led by Texas Tech University’s Myrna Armstrong went to tattoo removal clinics in Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts and Texas to see who was getting rid of their tattoos and why.

About two-thirds of them were women. And many said their tattoos had caused them embarrassment, drawn negative comments and created problems when choosing clothing to cover them up.

A similar study a decade ago found that more men than women sought tattoo removal, the researchers said.

“You can’t go to a wedding these days without seeing one bridesmaid with a tattoo on her back. But there are still a lot of people in our society who have problems with that. So anybody who gets a tattoo takes a social risk,” Armstrong said in a telephone interview.

The women in the study, published in the journal Archives of Dermatology, said they were pleased with their tattoos when they got them, but changed their mind within a few years. Women are estimated to make up about half of those getting tattoos. Continued…

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – A new rule requiring New York chain restaurants to post calorie information on their menus took effect on Friday, marking a first for a U.S. city.

Starting on Saturday, health inspectors can slap fines of up to $2,000 on fast-food and casual-dining chains if calorie counts are not displayed on their menus in the same font and format as the name or price of food items.

The move follows the city’s 2003 ban on public smoking and a ban on artery-clogging trans fats that began on July 1.

New Yorkers appeared unfazed by the rule, and some said they would not be dissuaded from ordering a 540-calorie Big Mac at McDonald’s or a 440-calorie Iced lemon Loaf at Starbucks.

“I’m going to eat whatever I’m going to eat,” said Erika Roberson, 19, leaving an Applebee’s restaurant in Brooklyn.

The rule affects such restaurants as McDonald’s; Burger King; Applebee’s, operated by DineEquity Inc; Dunkin Donuts; Starbucks and Subway.

“I’m for it. I don’t think the average person has any idea what they’re eating,” said Amanda Goodwin, 33, a school administrator.

Analysts said they did not expect the rule to have much impact on consumer habits. Continued…

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Ssg. Lorie Jewell/U.S. Army, via Associated Press

Senator Barack Obama with Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American military commander in Iraq, in a helicopter above Baghdad.

enator Barack Obama arrived in Baghdad on Monday, meeting with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other senior Iraqi politicians, as an Iraqi spokesman said that the government was hopeful that foreign combat troops would withdraw in 2010.

Mr. Obama, on the latest leg of his first overseas tour as presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, arrived in the Iraqi capital in the early afternoon with an American delegation after first stopping in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

Mr. Obama met with Mr. Maliki; the United States ambassador to Iraq, Ryan C. Crocker; the Iraqi national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, and other Iraqi officials at the prime minister’s residence in the Green Zone.

Mr. Obama described his talk with Mr. Maliki as “a wonderful visit,” but news agencies reported that a government spokesman said that they did not discuss the timing of any troop withdrawal. However, the spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, addressed the issue. According to Reuters, he said, “We cannot give any timetables or dates but the Iraqi government believes the end of 2010 is the appropriate time for the withdrawal.” The Associated Press quoted Mr. Dabbagh as saying, “We are hoping that in 2010 that combat troops will withdraw from Iraq,” but noting that any plans would have to change should violence rise.

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Rice said Iran had to choose talks or “punitive measures”

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has warned that Iran may face further United Nations sanctions.

Iran has been set a two-week deadline to respond to an offer of incentives in return for halting its uranium enrichment programme.

Ms Rice said the US would consider asking the UN to take further measures against Iran, while the US would impose more of its own sanctions.

She said Iran could not stall on the deadline set at talks on Saturday.

On Sunday, the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, described the talks as a step forward.

[The meeting sent a] very strong message to the Iranians that they can’t go and stall… and that they have to make a decision Condoleezza Rice US Secretary of State

Iran says its nuclear programme is for entirely peaceful purposes, while the US and its allies believe it could be used to develop a nuclear weapon.

At talks in Geneva on Saturday, envoys from the US, EU and UN asked Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment in return for a pledge not to introduce new sanctions.

Iran gave no guarantees it would halt its activities, so the diplomats gave Tehran two weeks to provide an answer.

The meeting was the first time US and Iranian officials have held face-to-face talks on the nuclear issue. Senior US official William Burns was present at the Geneva talks.

‘Strong message’

“[The meeting sent a] very strong message to the Iranians that they can’t go and stall… and that they have to make a decision,” Ms Rice said.

“It clarifies Iran’s choices and we will see what Iran does in two weeks. But I think the diplomatic process now has a kind of new energy in it.”

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SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- A deal ending a proxy fight between activist shareholder Carl Icahn and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) means a quick sale of the Internet portal to Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) isn’t in the immediate future. But Microsoft may still look to buy all or part of Yahoo in order to jump-start its money- losing Internet operations.

On Monday, Yahoo announced it had struck a deal with Icahn, who launched a proxy battle to replace the Sunnyvale, Calif., company’s board after it rejected an initial deal. The end of the proxy battle takes heat off Yahoo, which has seen its shares sink almost 28% since the initial Microsoft bid was launched.

Still, Microsoft badly needs to expand its presence in the increasingly rich Internet search advertising space. And with investors pressuring the Redmond, Wash., software firm to either make its Internet strategy work or stop pouring money into it, an acquisition of Yahoo, or some of its parts, is almost certainly still the best way to get where it wants to be.

Increasingly, investor concerns about the direction of Microsoft’s Online Services Business, the unit that houses all its Internet operations, are beginning to outweigh worries about the terms of a potential deal for Yahoo. At a strategy briefing for analysts Thursday, Microsoft is expected to face pressure to articulate its online goals and how it will challenge Google Inc. ( GOOG), the leader in Internet search.

“Many investors’ positions have shifted from being scared about (Microsoft) overpaying for Yahoo to being scared about what not having Yahoo means for their Internet strategy,” a person familiar with the thinking at one of Microsoft’s biggest shareholders said.

Microsoft didn’t respond to calls seeking comment.

In February, Microsoft offered $44.7 billion for Yahoo, the world’s second- largest Internet search company. The deal was rejected, though several separate rounds of further background talks have taken place since.

In retaliation, Icahn tried to remove the Yahoo board by proposing a slate of alternative directors inclined to sell the company to Microsoft. Icahn owns about 5% of Yahoo’s shares.

Walter Pritchard, an analyst with Cowen & Co., said investors are increasingly concerned about Microsoft’s Internet strategy.

“Microsoft has damaged itself, both by raising questions about its inability to be a strong No. 2 to Google without Yahoo and also through the way this process has been conducted,” Pritchard said. “This is reflected in the company’s share price.”

Microsoft’s shares have fallen by almost a third since its original Yahoo offer and are trading near its 52-week low of $24.87, set July 11.

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The latest installment in the Caped Crusader franchise, “The Dark Knight,” enhanced its status as the biggest movie opening of all time at the North American box office, according to final data issued on Monday by its distributor, Warner Bros. Pictures.

The film grossed $158.355 million during its first three days of release across the United States and Canada — a $3 million improvement over Sunday’s estimate from the Time Warner Inc-owned studio.

It’s not unusual for final weekend data to veer slightly from the initial estimate. In the case of “The Dark Knight,” some rival studios had suggested Warner Bros. was a little optimistic, though no one really doubted that it would beat the opening-weekend record of $151.1 million set by “Spider-Man 3” in May 2007.

Moreover, “The Dark Knight” collected $41.3 million in ticket sales from 20 foreign markets — up from Sunday’s estimate of $40 million. That brings its worldwide total to $199.655 million.

Foreign sales were led by No. 1 openings in late co-star Heath Ledger’s native Australia ($13.7 million), Mexico ($7 million) and Brazil ($4.45 million). Upcoming openings include Italy on Wednesday and Britain on Friday

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Startup CherryPal on Monday introduced a low-cost, hassle-free “cloud computer” aimed at people who need a PC only for Web browsing, some light document work, and checking e-mail.

The $249 Linux-based system consumes only 2 watts of power, compared with the 100 watts of some desktops. Called the CherryPal, the paperback-size computer has no moving parts. The system contains 256 MB of memory and a 4-GB solid-state drive and runs on a 400-MHz Freescale MPC5121e processor, which is a Power Architecture chip. Apple used Power processors before switching to Intel (NSDQ: INTC) x86 a couple of years ago.

The CherryPal also includes two USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet jack for connecting to wired broadband, built-in Wi-Fi support, and a VGA connector for a display. The mini-PC weights 10.5 ounces.

For software, the device ships with the OpenOffice.org office productivity suite, Apple iTunes, and a CherryPal-branded media player and instant messaging client. The computer’s OS, open source Debian Linux, is inaccessible to the user. The Mozilla Firefox browser provides the user interface.

In launching the CherryPal, the user is automatically connected to the “CherryPalCloud,” the company’s Web portal. Accessible through a user name and password, the portal, which is available at no additional cost, offers 50 GB of free storage and handles software upgrades.

The company plans to make money through advertising, which it expects to roll out this year. CherryPal is taking orders now for the mini-desktop, which is scheduled to ship at the end of the month.

No-frills computers, particularly lightweight, sub-$500 notebooks, are growing in popularity among people who want a simple device to browse the Web and check e-mail on the road.

Asus sparked the mini-notebook craze with the introduction of the 7-inch Eee PC in October. Since then, the Taiwanese company has sold several hundreds of thousands of units and said it’s on track to sell between 3 million and 5 million notebooks by the end of this year.

The success of the Eee PC has prompted others to follow with their own competing products. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), for example, has shipped the Mini-Note PC, and Dell (Dell) has confirmed working on its own mini-system.

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Financially ailing Motorola has slapped Michael Fenger, a former executive of mobile phones, with a lawsuit for allegedly violating a non-compete pact and landing in a position to reveal trade secrets at Apple, a company that has taken Motorola’s crown with the second-generation iPhone.

The lawsuit alleges that Fenger — who is now Apple’s VP of global iPhone sales — received “millions of dollars in cash, restricted stock units, and stock options” in return for inking an agreement not to work for a competitor for two years after leaving Motorola.

Fenger took the job at Apple on March 31 of this year, less than a month after leaving his position at Motorola, where he was senior VP of mobile devices for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), according to Motorola’s complaint.

Filed in Illinois on Thursday, the suit doesn’t claim that Fenger stole any documents, but it does purport that Fenger “cannot perform his duties for Apple without inevitably disclosing Motorola’s trade secrets.”

Motorola’s phone sales have taken a nosedive over the past two years due to its ongoing failure to produce a successful follow-on to the Razr.

After the ousting of Ed Zander as CEO last year and the subsequent departure of Padmasree Warrior, who moved on to Cisco, many other staff departures followed in a massive restructuring fueled by the desire of majority shareholder Carl Icahn to spin off Motorola’s mobile phones as a separate division. Now that Icahn is also snapping up Yahoo stock, the activist shareholder is becoming an increasingly influential figure at Yahoo, too.

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upertino (CA) – Research data from Gartner and IDC show Apple is battling Acer for the third spot in US computer system sales for the second quarter. As always, estimates from Gartner and IDC differ slightly, but they are enough to place Apple ahead of Acer by 65,000 units in Gartner’s estimate, while IDC data shows Apple just behind Acer by 2,000 units. We have to wait for the official second quarter reports from vendors to know more (Apple will report earnings Monday). Cupertino-based gadget maker’s exceptional growth should continue into the upcoming quarter since its continues to target upwardly-mobile middle class citizens resilient to economic downturn – meaning they still have bucks to spend.

Both research firms concluded that PC shipments are steady, but warn there are no guarantees that growth can be sustained in the upcoming quarter. Some cracks have already appeared, forcing vendors to decrease average selling prices (ASP) at their expense in order to stimulate consumers and enterprise customers into purchase. Notebook shipments were the primary growth driver, both in the US and internationally, helped by aggressively decreased ASPs.

US market outlook

Second quarter US shipments reached 16.5 million units (IDC: 17 million), a 4.2% increase (IDC: 3.6%) from the same quarter a year ago. Gartner points out that US shipments “actually accelerated during the quarter,” but warns that “this acceleration appears to have been achieved at the expense of revenues as vendors appear to have cut prices in response to the economic woes.”

Home notebooks continue to drive the US market growth due to aggressive pricing. Gartner warns that ASP declines with notebooks “were greater here than in other segments.” Although several mini-notebooks were introduced during the quarter, Gartner says they accounted for less than 3% of US mobile PC shipments.
Big business responded to economic concerns by shrinking IT budgets and lesser unit orders. Gartner says that some pro users with tight budgets pushed desktop sales due to lower deployment costs with desktops than that of mobile PCs.
Apple overtakes Acer to become third-largest PC vendor in the US?
Dell remains top US vendor with 31.9% share of the market (IDC: 32%), up from 29.7% (IDC: 29.6%) from a year-ago quarter. The company shipped an estimated 5.2 million systems (IDC: 5.4 million). Dell continues to see double-digit annual growth (Gartner: 11.9%, IDC: 12.1%) and is likely to continue the trend with aggressive channel and retail expansion. Dell recently launched a series of service centers located within Wal-Mart stores to compete with Best Buy’s Geek Squad.

HP pushed estimated 4.2 million units (IDC: 4.3 million) in the quarter, coming in second with 25.3% market share (IDC: 25.1%) in the US. The company’s recovered from a slower first quarter, with 5.6% growth (IDC: 5.9%), a little above the US industry average. Gartner says that HP’s inventory issues now appear “resolved.”

The third place depends on who you ask. Gartner placed Apple on the third spot in US shipments for the quarter, ahead of Acer by 65,000 units. IDC puts Apple in the fourth slot, lagging behind Acer by just 2,000 units. We will know who is right when Apple reports its earnings Monday morning.

Gartner estimates Apple shipped 1.4 million PCs (IDC: 1.3 million) between April and June. The company is estimated to have increased its US share of the market by 2 percent, grabbing 8.5% (IDC: 7.8%), up from 6.4% a year ago (IDC: 6.2%). Mac sales grew 38.1% (IDC: 31.7%), far outpacing the industry average. Mac sales to consumers and education institutions head of the back-to-school were the strongest driver for Apple.

Apple’s outstanding growth defies economic situation but is not without logic since it aims buyers who are immune from the economic slowdown. “The mindshare of that company is significant. Not only among consumers, but small-to-medium businesses and even enterprises are looking at Apple hardware,” said David Daoud, research manager at IDC. He estimates that Apple will sustaining growth in the upcoming quarters, citing strong more PC switchers and third quarter back-to-school shipments as the primary growth driver. According to the analyst, Apple is seeing notable growth in Japan where it shipped 130,000 Macs in the first quarter of 2008.

The remaining two of the top five US vendors are Acer (1.3 million units) and Toshiba (907,000 units, IDC: 888,000) who grabbed 8.1% (IDC: 7.8%) and 5.5% (IDC: 5.2%) respective shares of the market.

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7 months of beta testing later, Microsoft is finally ready to say it has squashed the data corruption bug that has plagued Windows Home Server since its launch last year, releasing the final build of Power Pack 1 to existing customers and OEMs.

The update to the company’s operating system designed to function as a media server in the home was originally slated to include features such as backing up of shared folders, Vista x64 support, more efficient power consumption and improved performance. However, the release was delayed so Microsoft could figure out, and a include a fix for, the data corruption problem.

The issue occurred when certain programs were used to edit or transfer files stored on a Windows Home Server-based computer that has more than one hard drive. Applications that caused the corruption included: Windows Vista Photo Gallery, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Office OneNote 2003 and 2007, Office Outlook 2007, Money 2007, SyncToy 2.0 Beta, Intuit’s QuickBooks, and uTorrent.

Why did it take so long for Microsoft to resolve the bug? After isolating the issue, the company was forced to completely rewrite the storage subsystem for Windows Home Server. A beta release of Power Pack 1, which Microsoft hoped would “prove we fixed the bug,” was released last month to testers to make sure nothing was missed.

“Our OEM partners will be updating their systems with Power Pack 1 and HP will release a software update for the HP MediaSmart Server, delivering enhanced media streaming capabilities from PacketVideo, server-side anti-virus from McAfee and compatibility with 64-bit home PCs,” the Windows Home Server team wrote in a blog post Monday.

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