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New IPOD with Battleship
Navy launches deadliest and most expensive warship
By Simon Freeman
HMS Daring, the first of the Royal Navy's £6 billion fleet of six Type 45 Destroyers, thundered down the slipway into the River Clyde in Glasgow today, spouting red, white and blue confetti from her formidable stern.
Weighing 7,350 tonnes, her 14 decks bristling with the latest military technology, Daring's successful launch - on time and within budget - is seen as a symbol of rebirth in the Clydeside shipbuilding yards which faced devastation six years ago.
Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, launched Daring at a ceremony at the shipyard in Scotstoun which was also attended by the Defence Secretary, John Reid.
HMS Daring slid into the water and was manouevred into place by three tugs, who guided her a few hundred yards down river to a dry dock where the finishing touches will be carried out, including the fitting of her guns.
The second and third ships in the six-ship order - HMS Dauntless, Diamond, Defender, Dragon and Duncan - are already being built. BAE Systems hopes the order will be extended to eight. The contract will keep about 3,000 workers employed until the end of the decade at Scotstoun and its sister yard Govan, across the river.
With a price tag of £605 million, the 150-metre long vessels will be the most powerful, advanced and deadly warships in the world when they come into service in 2009.
Among the battery of state-of-the-art equipment is a new Principal Anti-Air Missile System, which can trace and destroy hostile objects as small a cricket ball travelling at three times the speed of sound. Its range is effective over a radius of several hundred miles.
Her PAAMS air defence missiles are the size of a public phone boxes, weigh
two thirds as much as a small car and from launch accelerate to a speed twice
that of Concorde in under 10 seconds.
The Defence Secretary said the launch was a proud day for the Royal Navy. "It’s a huge boost for the Royal Navy because this is the most capable, most powerful destroyer ever built in the UK," he said.
"Six years ago a lot of people had written them [the Clyde dockyards] off but not the workforce, not the new management and if I might say so not the then Secretary of State for Scotland [John Reid] either."
The main sections of Daring were built at Scotstoun, with the bow built by VT Group (formerly Vosper Thorneycroft) at Portsmouth and transported by barge to the Clyde. The ship was entirely designed on computer before the various modules were built and assembled in a dry berth.
HMS Daring's 230-strong crew should be happy too. She and her sisters will be the first "gender-neutral" warships to enter Royal Navy service, and the Hotel Facilities, as the living quarters are known, are the most opulent ever fitted in a British warship. Mess decks are replaced by individual cabins, each with their own I-pod charging points, CD player, internet access, five channel recreational audio and larger berths
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| Macworld world poll says 'good show' for Apple London store.
By Karen Haslam
More than three out of five (65%) Macworld online readers voting in this week’s poll have visited an Apple Store in the UK. Over a third (37%) of these voters have visited the Apple Store in London.
Another 10% have visited more than one Apple Store in the UK – most likely including the Regent Street store. For example, Apple’s customers in the South East may have visited both the London and Bluewater stores.
The Apple Stores outside London score thus on the popularity scale: Birmingham 8%, Manchester 4%, Bluewater 4%, Sheffield 4%.
Another third of the 1,687 voters (35%) have not yet been to a UK Apple Store. This is either because they are “All too far away” (25%), because “you wouldn’t catch me there” (3%), or because they haven’t got around to it yet (7%).
Sticking down South?
Apple has attracted criticism on the Macworld forums for its focus on opening stores in the south of the UK. This southern expansion continued last weekend when Apple opened its sixth UK store in the Brent Cross shopping mall in north London.
With the addition of the Brent Cross store to Apple’s portfolio, UK shoppers in the south of the country can now enjoy the Apple retail experience in London, Bluewater Kent, and Brent Cross. Mac fans in the Midlands have the Birmingham outlet. And fans in the North of England can shop for Apple products in the Manchester and Sheffield stores.
One reader defends Apple’s focus on the South East. “Greater London has at least three times the population of Greater Birmingham, Greater Manchester - so it needs more stores. Hence W1 and Brent Cross.”
But as another reader points out: “There are no stores in Scotland, none in Wales, none in the South West, none on the South Coast. There are none in Northern Ireland. There are none in East Anglia.”
Forum users entered into a debate about whether Apple should open a store in Southampton, and in what could either be proof that Apple reads and reacts to the Macworld forums, or a result of supernatural forces, just days later, Apple added Southampton as an option for those searching for Apple retail jobs in the UK, suggesting that the company plans to open a store in Southampton’s West Quay.
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| Apple to open seventh store in Southampton?
By Karen Haslam
It looks likely that Apple has plans to open a seventh Apple Store in the UK, this time in the West Quay at Southampton.
Although the company has not jet posted job adverts on the retail section of the Apple UK site, Southampton, West Quay has been added as a UK location for prospective jobs in the job search facility on the US Apple site.
WestQuay describes itself as the premier shopping destination on the South Coast.
(Thanks to Macworld reader Danny for the tip!)
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| Scottish iPod chip maker profits sore
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| Apple stock falls due to intel worries
By Macworld staff
Apple's shares are in decline. The stock has fallen more than 16 per cent since closing at a 52-week high of $85.59 on January 13.
Apple sheds $27 billion in market value in four weeks
February 6 - Shares of Apple skidded more than 6 percent Monday in heavy volume to $67.30, their lowest level in more than two months, on concern that the company's expected growth for the year has already been factored into the price
On Monday night it fell $4.55 from just over $72, closing at $67.30. This is still much higher than Apple 52-week low of $33.11.
American Technology Research Shaw Wu told Reuters: "The stock has been under some selling pressure for the past week."
Wu suggested that some investors are concerned about Apple's transition to Intel chips. A view backed by Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer, who admitted in January that his companies shift to Intel chips had already caused a drop in sales.
Apple shares took a hit after January 18, when the company forecast current-quarter results below analysts' estimates.
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