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IT Winners and Losers: YouTube Fans and IBM's CEO Up; Eliot Spitzer, the 'Sparking' iPod, H-1B Debate and Wal-Mart's Linux PC Down

Winners this week included YouTube fans everywhere and IBM's chief. There were plenty of losers: the "sparking" iPod, those on both sides of the H-1B debate and the $199 Linux PC at Wal-Mart.

By Thomas Wailgum

March 14, 2008 — CIO — Which tech vendor had a week to remember—and which had one to forget? Which IT department needs a "do over," and which exec should be looking for a new job? On Fridays, we chronicle what went right and what went wrong in the IT world during the past week.

LOSER: 'Sparking' iPod

LOSER: 'Sparking' iPod
Apple made news this week—but it wasn't about the iPhone. It appears that Japanese government officials have ordered an investigation into "possible defects" in Apple's first-generation Nano after one of them emitted sparks while charging, according to news reports. (The revamped second-gen Nano replaced its predecessor in 2007, two years after the Nano's debut.) News reports cited an "unnamed official at Japan's Ministry of Trade and Economy" who said the agency suspects that a lithium-ion battery could have been the source of the spark. You'll recall that in 2006 there were unprecedented recalls of the lithium-ion batteries made by Sony that were used in Apple and Dell laptops. Japanese officials reported that no one was injured by "the spark."

LOSER: A New (non-Blu-ray) HD DVD Standard Bearer

LOSER: A New (non-Blu-ray) HD DVD Standard Bearer
Thank God the HD DVD wars are over...wait, what did you say? No. No. No! News broke this week of a London company that is offering a new HD DVD format, called HD VMD, that is completely incompatible with Sony's Blu-ray high-def DVD format, which, has just gotten rid of its main competitor, Toshiba's HD DVD format, after a moronic five-year HD DVD war. This competitor, New Medium Enterprises, claims that its "system's quality is equal to Blu-ray's but it costs less," reported The New York Times. (Toshiba's product cost less too.) So far, New Medium has only 17 movies available to U.S. customers. And two of the 17 blockbusters are The Enigma With a Stigma and Kandukondain Kandukondain.

LOSER: The $199 Linux PC at Wal-Mart

LOSER: The $199 Linux PC at Wal-Mart
Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. Wal-Mart said this week that it was going to stop selling PCs running Linux operating systems in its stores. The $199 Green gPC, which was made by a Taiwanese company named Everex, actually sold out on the shelves of 600 of Wal-Mart's stores where it was offered, but demand for the cheap PC apparently wasn't enough for Wal-Mart. "This really wasn't what our customers were looking for," said a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. Don't worry, however: Walmart.com will continue to sell the Green gPC that Wal-Mart's customers aren't going to be looking for.

 

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