Kingfisher in 5 bln euro Airbus deal talks

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Kingfisher Airlines is in talks to buy around 40 Airbus planes in a deal worth about 5 billion euros ($7.33 billion), a French diplomatic source said on Friday.

"There are discussions between Kingfisher and Airbus for a potential of 5 billion euros," a source told Reuters on the sidelines of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's state visit to India.

The source said the deal would involve around 40 Airbus planes but the source did not know which types of planes.

"This could be concluded quite quickly."

Airbus had no immediate comment.

It was not immediately clear whether it was the same deal as the preliminary $7.2 billion contract Kingfisher announced at the Le Bourget airshow last June to buy 50 Airbus planes.

The deal announced in June included 15 A350-800 XWB jets worth $3 billion as well as five four-engine A340-500 planes, 10 A330-200 wide-body models and 20 single-aisle A320-family jets.

Vijay Mallya, the flamboyant liquor tycoon who heads the UB group and started Kingfisher Airlines in 2005 to broaden its beer brand, said the airline was building up capacity to operate non-stop routes between India and the U.S. East Coast.

It already has five A380 superjumbos on order as well as a backlog of 86 A320 short-to-medium range single-aisle jets and 10 of the A330/340 family, making it one of the largest single stakeholders in the Airbus order backlog by number of planes.

Macworld2008: Steve Jobs keynote speech leaked?

Macworld2008: Steve Jobs keynote speech leaked?

We're used to seeing the online tech world go crazy with rumours and speculation in the days before Macworld, but this year a new element has been introduced to the mix.

Steve Jobs' keynote speech, that he is due to make on stage at the Moscone Centre in San Francicso on Tuesday 15th January, has apparently been leaked via Wikipedia.

With highlights including a 16GB 3G iPhone, details of the SDK for the device, a 13-inch 0.8-inch thick redesigned MacBook and direct YouTube for Apple TV, it would not be a dull keynote if it's all true.

In its entirety, if the sources are to be believed, here is what Monsieur Jobs is to cover during tomorrow's time on stage:

MacWorld January 2008 Keynote
Rough Outline; draft 5

Greetings! Welcome to Moscone Center
Quick Overview: iPod/iTunes
- iPod has been extremely profitable for us this holiday season
- Sales figures, market share
- Our new models are doing better than ever
- 3 iPod games released last month accidentally (supposed to be for today)
- Another new game today: Chess
- iTunes doing extremely well (sales figures/market share)
- Today: 30 indie labels releasing their entire catalogs in iTunes Plus
- Many more to follow in the next few months

iPhone
- Best iPod ever
- Sales figures, market share
- Sales beyond our wildest dreams
- Much more than the 1% market share we asked for in January
- Starting today: 8GB $399, 16GB $499
- Four times the memory as original iPhone for the same price
- iPhone is coming to Japan in March with NTT DoCoMo
- SDK is unveiled!

iPhone/iPod Touch SDK
- Apps and Widgets
- Using Cocoa with Objective-C
- Developers submit programs as source code, not executable
- Specify iPhone or both iPhone/Touch (certain features iPhone only)
- Set your own price: Apps $0-$6.99, Widgets $0-$2.99
- Users buy/download in iTunes Wi-Fi Store / iTunes Store (Mac/PC)
- Automatic updating wirelessly or docked

- Demonstration of exporting from XCode 3 to iTunes Store
- Submits source code to Apple for validation (make sure that people aren't abusing the system, prevent malware and viruses)
- If using microphone or GSM, iPhone only; otherwise, available for both iPhone and iPod Touch
- Apps can be free or up to $6.99; Widgets free or up to $2.99
- Developers recieve 70% of revenue for their products
- Licensed under Apple Mobile Software License
- Can download wirelessly from iTunes Wi-Fi Store or docked to computer from iTunes Store
- Demonstration of wirelessly downloading (and running) the app submitted earlier
- Apps and widgets can be rearranged on front screen; front screen scrolls to show all apps/widgets
- Resubmit updated versions of apps; when added to store, iPhone/Touch will ask you to update it next time you use it (or next time you dock the iPhone/Touch)
- Developers can get their hands on a beta version of the SDK tomorrow on ADC and start developing; final version due early February
- iTunes 7.6 and iPhone/iPod Touch Software update 1.3 allowing for Apps mid-February

Example apps/widgets
Apps:
- iChat (coming with 1.3 update) (AIM, Jabber/Google Talk)
-- Quick demonstration
- RSS Feed Reader (coming with 1.3 update) (read feeds online or off)
- One of our partners made something cool: Last.fm (scrobble tracks played on iPhone/touch wirelessly without syncing w/ computer)
Widgets:
- Dictionary (coming with 1.3 update) (quickly look up words, translate, use wikipedia)
-- Quick demonstration
- Yellow/White Book (coming with 1.3 update) (search for contacts, add them to your address book directly from the app, will sync back with address book on your Mac/PC)
- Sports Ticker (coming with 1.3 update) (choose your sports and teams, get updates on their progress)
- Another partner: Twitter (update your Twitter on the fly, see your friends tweets)
- Try these out on the show floor today

Mac
- Sales are getting better and better every day
- Hardware sales figures/market share
- Leopard released October; doing spectacularly
- Sales figures/market share
- Selling extremely well; estimated to overtake Tiger in terms of marketshare by June if you only count the new Macs that come with it preinstalled; even quicker if you include boxed copies
- 10.5.2 out today - many bug fixes, also addressing a lot of issues and complaints users had such as list view with stacks and certain HIG non-compliance issues

New MacBooks!
- What would MacWorld be without a new Mac? (sorry about last year)
- Completely redesigned MacBook
- Completely aluminum body like MacBook Pro
- 13" screen at 1440x900
- Two colors: Black and Silver
- Looks gorgeous at 0.8" thin
- A major feat of engineering - patents abound
- DVD drive pops open on side when eject button is pressed
- New on all notebooks and iMac: iSight HD (720p)
- New backlit keyboard based on recent Apple Keyboard revisions (keys slightly lighter than that of laptop casing, colorwise)
- New matching MagSafe cable (Aluminum ends, cord color matches that of keyboard)
- New matching Apple Remote (slightly smaller with larger overall buttons)
- Intel GMA X3100 graphics
- 3 models
- Completely phasing out the combo drive on all product lines today
- BTO models can upgrade all the way to 2.6GHz/4GB Memory/320GB hard drive
- 4.5 hours of battery life
- Starting at $1199

Product Refreshes
- Refreshing Mac Pro and Mac mini today
- Mac Pro now with Penryn!
- Base model 2x2.8GHz dual-core/1GB/NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB/250GB(1x250GB)/1x16x double-layer SuperDrive
- Upgradeable to 2x3.2GHz quad-core/16GB/NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB/4TB(4x1TB)/2x16x double-layer SuperDrives
- Starting at $2,499
- Mac mini gets slight speed bumps and double-layer SuperDrive in all models
- Base model 2.0GHz IC2D/1GB/100GB
- BTO Upgradeable to 2.4GHz IC2D/4GB/320GB
- Starting at $599

One More Thing
- Been brewing for a while
- YouTube's been in Apple TV and iPhone/iPod touch: now it's in iTunes
- Download YouTube videos straight to iTunes or from iPhone/iPod Touch for later offline viewing (sync back to computer)
- Coming in iTunes 7.6 and iPhone/iPod Touch 1.3 updates

Thanks for coming, and enjoy the expo!

Public Speaking

Ensure your speech will be captivating to your audience as well as worth their time and attention. Videotape your presentation and analyze it. Emphasize your strong points during your presentation.
Be solemn if your topic is serious. Present the desired image to your audience. Appear relaxed, even if you feel nervous. Establish rapport with your audience. If a microphone is available, adjust and adapt your voice accordingly.
Master the use of presentation software such as PowerPoint well before your presentation. Persuade your audience effectively. Speak loudly and clearly. Sound confident. Maintain sincere eye contact with your audience. If what you have prepared is obviously not getting across to your audience, change your strategy mid-stream if you are well prepared to do so. Allow yourself and your audience a little time to reflect and think. Keep audience interested throughout your entire presentation. Remember that an interesting speech makes time fly, but a boring speech is always too long to endure even if the presentation time is the same.
Check out the location ahead of time to ensure seating arrangements for audience, whiteboard, blackboard, lighting, location of projection screen, sound system, etc. are suitable for your presentation.
Tell audience ahead of time that you will be giving out an outline of your presentation so that they will not waste time taking unnecessary notes during your presentation.
Here are just a few hints, public speaking tips and techniques to help you develop your skills and become far more effective as a public speaker.
· Mistakes
Mistakes are all right.
Recovering from mistakes makes you appear more human.
Good recovery puts your audience at ease - they identify with you more.
· How to use the public speaking environment
Try not to get stuck in one place.
Use all the space that's available to you.
Move around.
One way to do this is to leave your notes in one place and move to another.
If your space is confined (say a meeting room or even presenting at a table) use stronger body language to convey your message.
· Tell stories
Stories make you a real person not just a deliverer of information.
Use personal experiences to bring your material to life.
No matter how dry your material is, you can always find a way to humanise it.
· Technology
Speak to your audience not your slides.
Your slides are there to support you not the other way around.
Ideally, slides should be graphics and not words (people read faster than they hear and will be impatient for you to get to the next point).
If all the technology on offer fails, it's still you they've come to hear.
· Humor
Tell jokes if you’re good at telling joke.
If you aren't good, best to leave the jokes behind.
There's nothing worse than a punch line that has no punch.
Gentle humor is good in place of jokes.
Self-deprecation is good, but try not to lay it on too thick.

You can learn to enjoy public speaking and become far more effective at standing in front of a group of people and delivering a potent message.
And remember to keep practicing!