Strafing the supermarket from 10,000 feet!

Ever wished you could fly to the shops? What about jumping over that traffic jam that’s held you 400m away from your motorway exit for the past hour? Maybe, just maybe, you’ll soon be able to soar high in the Moller M400 Skycar.

Ok, I’ve taken the fantasy a little too far; the Moller M4 isn’t a car that converts into a plane at the flick of switch so you won’t be seeing cars lifting off from the motorways anytime soon.

* the 300mph flying car

The M400 is the brainchild of Canadian-born inventor Paul Moller and it basically the equivalent of an airborne supercar - the Supercar with wings that cruises at 300 mph. And at 20 mpg it’s certainly more economical than some its earth bound brethren.

The Moller M400 is powered by eight, tiny Wankel rotary engines, each cranking out 150 hp. The engines are hidden away inside pods that can rotate to give the M400 VTOL just like the Harrier Jumpjet…the ideal opportunity to imagine yourself as Maverick, Danger Zone blasting out whilst you manouevre your airborne VW Beetle in attack formation. Sweet.

There is a major sticking point - the authorities. Before the M400 gets the green light, Moller needs to convince them that this isn’t going to create a motorway pile-up in the sky. If he’s successful we could soon be seeing the (low level) skies filled with M400’s.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Sun, the UNIX giant has announced a round of what is termed in the industry as ‘restructuring’ - basically, it means lots of people will lose their jobs. In fact, 3,000 people are being made redundant!

The announcement comes following a 7 percent drop in first-quarter revenue last month. It may not seem like a big number but when you considering the billions Sun turns over in revenue it equals an awful lot of pay packets.

The restructuring will see between 15 percent and 18 percent of Suns global workforce being laid off - including Rich Green, executive VP of software.

Sun’s restructuring will result in a charge of between $500 million and $600 million over the next 12 months, with about $375 million to $450 million coming in the current 2009 fiscal year.

The company said it should start seeing cost savings in the third quarter of the current fiscal year. Sun expects the restructuring to save it between $700 million and $800 million annually. I wonder how much of that cash will be eaten up in the first year by redundancy payoffs?

Sun is also planning to realign its software organization into new business groups: Application Platform Software, Systems Platforms, and Cloud Computing & Developer Platforms, with a focus on “boosting open-source momentum and growing new sectors of the market who view technology as a competitive weapon.”

Popularity: 2% [?]

In the words of  MySpace CEO, Chief Executive Chris DeWolfe, “It’s possible”. So, I guess that a ‘yes’. Although MySpace is currently concentrating on improving the MySpace Music service a move into the iTunes territory doesn’t seem unrealistic. By teaming up with the likes of Sony, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group MySpace Music is attempting to become THE online place to access your favourite tracks.

Just like Apple, MySpace Music allows you create and share your playlists and browse those of your friends which is a rather clever way of advertising to users who wouldn’t ordinarily browse for tracks other than those they’re interested in.

Apple currently has the advantage in the form of music downloads to a dedicated device, the iPod which dominates the market. But the growth of social networks as a place to share more than just your personal details and interests represents a tantalising source of revenue for an industry struggling to monetise itself. In these circumstance, MySpace would be unwise to discount something like a ‘MyPod’. Maybe Apple know this already hence Apples game downloads

Popularity: 3% [?]