Filed under: Analyst reports, Good news, Google (GOOG), Options, Technical Analysis

CNBC’s Jim Cramer calls Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) the “steal” of the tech group, as it he believes it is undervalued and cheap versus the rest of the sector, gaining market share from Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), growing tremendously as always, and selling at only one times its growth rate. If you are inclined to agree, then it could be a good time to get into a bullish hedged trade on GOOG.

After hitting a one year high of $558.58 in July, the stock has dipped slightly over the past six weeks. GOOG opened at $523.40 and has hit a low of $522.25 and a high of $526.74 so far. As of 11:15, GOOG is trading at $523.83, down $1.32 (-0.3%). The chart for GOOG looks neutral and improving, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

If you agree with Cramer, then for a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a September bull-put credit spread below the $480 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn’t do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 4.2% return in just 2 weeks as long as GOOG is above $480 at September expiration. Google would have to fall by more than 8% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

GOOG hasn’t been below $480 since May and has shown support around $510 recently. This trade could be risky if the broad markets crash over the next two weeks, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by support around $485, where GOOG bounced in August, plus its 200 day moving average, which is right around $490 and rising.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in GOOG.

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Filed under: Business, News

Sony is continuing their treatment of the PlayStation 3 as the Ferrari of consoles by teaming up with customer publishing agency Future Plus, to produce a 60 page, high-end brochure for UK consumers. The glossy PS3 novella will be distributed by Sony across the British Isles at special events and kiosks scattered throughout the area.

Over 250,000 copies of the ‘lavishly produced’ brochure will be handed out to consumers in the pre-Christmas ramp-up period. The publication will be separated into four different sections highlighting the HD capabilities of the PS3, upcoming Blu-ray movie titles and games, as well as the console’s robust online features. The hope is that the brochure will provide prospective PS3 owners with all the possible information they need to convince them that Sony’s console is the one to choose this holiday.

It will be interesting to see how well Sony’s high-end marketing campaign will work in the UK. The cost of the PS3 there is astronomical (by American standards at least) so embracing the luxury market may be a good idea. At the same time, it might not do much for the actual sales of the PS3. Think about it — who sold more cars last year? Ferrari or Toyota?

Full Press Release after the jump

Premium handbook promotes Sony’s next-gen console

10/09/07- Sony Computer Entertainment (UK) - SCE(UK) has signed up the UK’s fastest growing customer publishing agency - Future Plus, to produce a high-end brochure for its PlayStation 3(R) console.

The new brochure is part of a wider promotional campaign, as SCE(UK) gears up for the first Christmas of the PS3 (R), which launched across Europe earlier this year.

The brochure acts as a sales and customer acquisition tool for Sony’s console. Over 250,000 copies of the brochure will be distributed by Sony at specially created PlayStation 3 displays and events held across the UK - at major shopping centres, department stores and transport hubs from early October - as the company educates potential buyers about the benefits of the PlayStation 3 console. Aside from hosting the most advanced video games, the PlayStation 3 is a media hub for the front room, playing Blu-Ray movies and offering internet connectivity, with personal video recorder (PVR) functionality coming early next year.

A lavishly produced 60-page perfect bound, matt laminate brochure, the publication is closer to a premium car brochure than traditional video games marketing materials. The handbook is split into four clearly defined chapters, revealing all about the console’s advanced HD technology, the upcoming games and movies, its powerful online capabilities, with all the facts and figures a prospective new owner could want.

Alan Duncan, UK Marketing Director, SCEE, said:

“Future Plus got the objective of communicating the broad functionality of PlayStation 3 in a digestible form from day one. Their solution meets the objective whilst retaining a sense of attitude and personality which is so important to PlayStation. Deepening consumer’s understanding of the PS3 is important for us this Christmas and the brochure will play a key role in achieving this.”

Mike Goldsmith, Editorial Director, Future Plus added:

“We are delighted to be working with SCE (UK) on our first project together. This high-end brochure will be a fantastic marketing tool for the PlayStation 3, designed to encourage, attract and educate potential buyers. There will be fierce competition for console sales this Christmas and the brochure will give many reasons why people should buy a PlayStation 3 over its rivals.”

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, New Line, Fandom, Home Entertainment, Movie Marketing, Trailers and Clips

In about an hour, I’ll be writing another post regarding a new Moviefone gallery featuring the 25 Best Sex Scenes of All Time. One movie that will not be on that list (mainly because it hasn’t come out yet) is Shoot ‘Em Up, which arrives in theaters this Friday. Now before I go on, I must warn you that the clip we’ll be linking to features both nudity and violence — so those of you at work or around children might want to wait until the coast is clear. That said, New Line never even needed to market this film at all. All they could’ve done was show people this clip — make it their trailer — and folks would’ve flocked in masses. For the women, you have Clive Owen. For the men, you have Monica Bellucci. And for the people who couldn’t care less about the sex, you have tons and tons of gun play. Need I say more?

The folks over at IESB are currently housing this clip, although no one seems to know where it came from. They claim it sort of landed in their laps, and so they put it up. Was it leaked on purpose? Was it not supposed to be leaked at all? We don’t know. But what we do know is that the clip itself is flippin’ fantastic — and if I could simultaneously be typing this post and be on line waiting to buy tickets for this flick, you bet your ass I’d be in both places at the same time. (Actually, when you think about it, technically I could buy tickets online while I write this post. Thus, it is possible. So there ya go.) Parts of this clip were briefly shown in that last R-rated clip, but there’s nothing like the whole scene to get you in the mood, so to speak. Here’s a brief description to whet your appetite: While Clive and Monica get down to some between-the-sheets business, guys in ski masks burst into the room, bullets go flying, a baby begins crying and, well, the sex couldn’t get any better. And Clive’s final line — classic! Check out the clip and let us know what you think — Shoot ‘Em Up hits theaters this weekend.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Remember those crazy sons of guns at patent holding firm NTP that ended up working RIM for a shade over $612 million? They’re back at it, throwing lawsuits at AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon — that’s three of the States’ four national carriers, in case you’re keeping count — for alleged infringements of eight patents involving mobile email. The firm seems to be something of a one-trick pony seeing how mobile email was the issue at hand with RIM and later with Palm; for a company that does nothing but sue other companies, two-thirds of a billion dollars seems like a plenty healthy bank account, but heck, what do we know? At this point, we’re assuming that once they’re done suing every company that’s ever offered, used, or mentioned “mobile” and “email” in the same sentence, we’ll finally be able to put this issue to rest — but until that day comes, watch your back, folks, because NTP’s back on the prowl.

Update: Silly us for thinking NTP wouldn’t just go ahead and make it a nice, round four! T-Mobile’s been caught up in the suit, too, with its Sidekick services specifically called out (among others) for infringement of NTP’s email patents.

[Via Phone Scoop]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Jodha Akbar has not been a smooth sailing experience for Ashutosh Gowarikar. The pressure has been so much that Ashutosh Gowarikar fainted on the sets of film, Hrithik injured himself and Ash drained herself doing up and down from Mumbai to Karjat every day. Still it looks like the magnum opus needs more time to […]

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The Phraze-It keyboard has been certified for Windows Mobile 6-powered devices, bringing a full-featured computer keyboard with a rich user interface displayed on the screens of touch screen phones and PDAs. Merely using fingertips of index fingers enable users to type full sentences in a cinch, including punctuation, complete emails, lengthy documents, reports, memoranda, notes, and text messages into their favorite applications. This new virtual keyboard will definitely go a long way in making that souped-up smartphone of yours a viable travel productivity tool without having to lug around a heavy laptop on your travels. It is currently compatible with touchscreen phones such as the Cingular 8525, PPC 6700, Samsung SCH-i730, Sprint IP 830W, T-Mobile MDA, Verizon Wireless XV6700, i-mate PPC, HTC, HTC Touch, and a host of others, as well as PDAs such as the IPAQ, AXIM and more. The Phraze-It Keyboard 2.0 software retails for $17.76 and can be downloaded from the company’s website here.

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Filed under: Computers

For most Internet users, retrieving wanted e-mail messages is like hacking through the dense underbrush of a rainforest using a Jason Voorhees-sized machete. But, instead of vines and tree branches, it’s pitches for stock deals and Canadian penis pills you’re hacking through.

Though junk mail is a modern inconvenience we’ve mostly gotten used to, it’s no less shocking to learn that spam now accounts for a whopping 83% of all e-mail messages sent and received worldwide — this according to a new study by e-mail security firm IronPort Systems. That’s 60 billion to 150 billion bogus messages every single day.

Here are a few ways of deflecting some of that garbage:

• Keep two e-mail addresses — one for personal correspondence and one for Web sites that request your e-mail address, like when you’re shopping or signing up for contests.
• Do not use your real e-mail address on your personal Web site, blog, MySpace page or Facebook page. Ditto for Craigslist or any other type of online classified ad. That’s because spammers use programs called bots, which are constantly trawling the Internet in search of new addresses to hammer with junk mail.
• Services like Dodgeit.com, myTrashMail.com and others let you create temporary, disposable e-mail addresses for signing into sites and forums that require an e-mail address to enter.

Find more tips for blocking spam at GeekSugar and Wired.

Related Links:

• Spammers’ New Methods of Deception Uncovered
• Majority of Americans Can’t Spot E-mail Scam
• The Hit Man Spam Scam

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Filed under: News

Namco Bandai’s recent site update has unearthed a veritable treasure trove of info. First Eternal Sonata’s inevitable move to the PS3 and now Beautiful Katamari is listed as being available for the PS3 in the future too. While neither of these titles have any sort of release date beyond “To Be Determined,” it’s nice to know that we have two potentially excellent Japanese specialties on the way.

We’re intrigued to see what sort of control system they come up with for the SIXAXIS. It seems like the perfect game to utilise some motion controls, especially since a Wii version also seems to be in production. As long as they don’t make the same mistake some developers have and allow an option for analogue controls.

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