World's Most Expensive Smartphone: $15M iPhone Has a Black Diamond

Expensive, high-end smartphones or smartphone cases are nothing new - Vertu's got a $9,600 Android phone and London Loutus made a $300,000-plus iPhone case with crystals. But Stuart Hughes, a longtime designer of aftermarket electronics, has topped them all with a $15 million iPhone 5, believed to be the most expensive smartphone ever made.

The phone has a solid-gold chassis that Hughes crafted by hand. But the real cost comes from the most expensive home button in the world.

That home button is made of a single, deep-cut, black diamond that weighs 26 carats. The diamond is said to be worth $14.5 million.

And the diamonds don't end there. There are 600 white, flawless diamonds located within the Apple logo on the back and on the edges.

The English designer and jeweler has made gold Apple products before - his Solid Gold iPhone costs $33,678 ( £21,995) and the iPad Supreme Fire Edition costs $168,424 (£109,995) - but with this one, "it's all about the rarity and value of the deep-cut, black diamond," he told ABC News.

The phone isn't available to the general public - not that most of the world's population could afford it. Hughes spent nine weeks creating the phone specifically for a Hong Kong businessman whom Hughes will only refer to as "Joe." Joe had owned the black diamond for awhile and decided he wanted to place it on an iPhone after buying other, "cheaper" items from Hughes in the past.

However, Hughes isn't worried that the world's most expensive smartphone might soon become outdated when Apple puts out a new iPhone (possibly this summer). He is confident other customers will want that next iPhone - whether it be called the iPhone 5S or 6 - to be adorned with diamonds and gold, too.

"I have been commissioned to do all of the iPhones from when the 3G version first came out," said Hughes, who added he gets most of his business through referrals.

And no, you can't purchase any of Hughes' blinged-out iPhones with bitcoins.

Austin next city for ultra-fast Google Fiber

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Google Inc. picked tech-savvy Austin on Tuesday as the next city where the search giant will wire homes with ultra-fast Internet connections, but did not say how much customers will pay or when the fiber-optic experiment might expand elsewhere in the U.S.

Austin and Kansas City are the only places to get Google Fiber — a broadband service 100 times faster than the competition and an alternative to cable or satellite TV providers.

The rollout is an expensive undertaking and gamble for Google, which must first build costly new broadband pipelines that can handle "gigabit" speeds. Google hopes the rollout will drive innovation and pressure phone and cable companies to improve its networks, since Google benefits when people spend more time online.

Google expects Austin homes to begin receiving Google Fiber in mid-2014.

"Equipping them with a gigabit network will allow them to build new kinds of applications and services that will help write the next chapter in the story of the Internet," said Milo Medin, Google's vice president of Access Services who heads up Google Fiber.

What Austin residents will pay is not yet known. Medlin said the prices will likely be "roughly" similar to what Google charges in Kansas City, where customers pay $70 a month for a gigabit connection. For another $50, customers there can also receive a cable TV-like service that offers a channel line-up featuring mainstays such as ESPN, Nickelodeon, FOX News and MTV.

Some popular channels remain unavailable on Google Fiber, including HBO and AMC.

Medin would not say when Google might announce another city to receive its sought-after network. Google says more than 1,100 cities applied starting in 2010, and some used gimmicks or elaborate videos in hopes of outshining the competition. Topeka even informally renamed itself to "Google, Kansas."

Kansas City wound up prevailing, and Google began signing up residents there last year. By the end of 2013, Google expects that 180 neighborhoods that were selected for service based on demand will be completed.

The $70 fee in Kansas City is more than what cable or phone companies charge for basic Internet service, but the service is also much faster. "Gigabit" speeds, or 1,000 megabits per second, are generally unavailable from other companies. One exception is the city-owned electric utility in Chattanooga, Tenn., which has pulled its own fiber and sells gigabit service for $350 per month.

However, it's expensive to pull optical fiber compared with using existing phone and cable lines to provide Internet service. Verizon Communications Inc. is the only major U.S. telecommunications company to have connected homes directly to fiber. Some Wall Street analysts have estimated that project, which has cost $23 billion, is not paying off.

Kansas City residents can sign up with Google for a slower, standard Internet connection at no monthly fee for a one-time cost of $300. Medlin said Austin homeowners will also be offered free standard broadband.

Google made the announcement in a sleek and trendy downtown warehouse building, where a giant video board greeted guests with "Hello, Austin. Goodbye, loading bars."

Gigabit customers are unlikely to notice substantial difference with basic activities, such as Web surfing or email. Higher speeds are most desirable for uploading, creating online backups and playing video that doesn't buffer — what Google calls "instantaneous Internet."

Google has not revealed how much the company is spending to build gigabit networks. A report this week from analysts at Bernstein Research put the cost at $84 million for Google to pass through 149,000 homes in Kansas City.

The authors of that report were skeptical that Google Fiber made financial sense to be expanded to a large portion of the U.S.

"In the end the effort would have limited impact on the global trajectory of the business," the Bernstein report concluded.

Yahoo acquires mobile news start-up Summly

 Yahoo Inc has snapped up mobile news aggregator Summly, the latest in a string of small acquisitions intended to bolster the Web portal's mobile services.

Summly, founded by 17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio two years ago from his home in London, sorts news by topics in quick bites for smartphones. The start-up works closely with News Corp and is backed by Chinese investor Li Ka-Shing and angel investors including actor Ashton Kutcher and artist Yoko Ono.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though technology blog AllThingsD reported that Yahoo paid roughly $30 million, citing anonymous sources.

D'Aloisio said Yahoo would use the technology that powers Summly to reinvent the delivery of information such as news, weather, stocks and finance for mobile devices.

"What I am excited about with Yahoo is under the new leadership of Marissa Mayer, it's a classic Internet company that has such a big opportunity," he told Reuters.

Yahoo said it will shut down the Summly app but will integrate the company's natural language processing and machine-learning technology across Yahoo's various online services, particularly Yahoo's line-up of mobile services.

Yahoo Chief Executive Mayer is stepping up the company's efforts to build online services for the smartphones and tablets that consumers increasingly use to access the Web. Yahoo has acquired a handful of small, mobile start-ups since Mayer took over in July, though the company has yet to do any large acquisitions.

Three Summly employees will join Yahoo as part of the deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter, according to Yahoo Senior Vice President of Mobile and Emerging Products Adam Cahan. Summly founder D'Aloisio will remain in London and be Yahoo's youngest employee, Cahan told Reuters.

D'Aloisio, a pupil at King's College School, said he was unperturbed about moving from a start-up to multinational.

"I'm looking forward to it because they've built a really great environment for start-ups and founders," he said.

He said he planned to invest his multi-million pound windfall, although he added that due to his age, he "could not really touch it" yet.

Aplikasi teknologi RFID untuk Perpustakaan

Tentunya kita semua tahu perpustakaan adalah tempat dimana kita bisa meminjam buku baik itu di sekolah atau perpustakaan kota atau daerah. Seiring berkembangnya teknologi dan modernisasi suatu perpustakaan, efisiensi, kecepatan dan akurasi dibutuhkan dalam mengatur buku-buku maupun media lainnya yang ada di perpustakaan. 

Tidak dapat dipungkiri bahwa manajemen system yang baik pada perpustakaan bisa meningkatkan efisiensi, kecepatan dan akurasi dari pengaturan buku atau media maupun tingat mobilitas "transaksi" pada perpustakaan itu sendiri. Biasanya perpustakaan modern sudah menggunakan teknologi Barcode dan bantuan komputer dalam mengolah database buku atau media yang mereka miliki. Seiring dengan kemajuan jaman, teknologi bergeser kearah yang lebih baik dan lebih maju. 

Teknologi RFID saat ini mulai ramai dibicarakan bahkan digunakan oleh perpustakaan modern saat ini, meskipun tidak menutup kemungkinan, digunakan bersama dengan teknologi barcode. Teknologi RFID mengatasi kelemahan-kelemahan yang ada pada teknologi barcode. Kemampuan RFID untuk pengaturan buku dan otomasi transaksi peminjaman atau pengembalian buku (media) pada perpustakaan lebih baik dari teknologi barcode, karena bisa dilakukan secara mandiri, bahkan tanpa bantuan operator atau petugas perpustakaan. 

Untuk mengaplikasikan teknologi RFID dalam perpustakaan modern, sebaiknya dilakukan secara bertahap , sehingga transisi tidak akan terasa dan tidak mengganggu kerja dari system perpustakaan yang ada. Misalkan perpustakaan sekolah ABC sudah menggunakan komputer untuk manajerial buku-buku koleksinya , dan memanfaatkan barcode scanner untuk mempermudah transaksi peminjaman dan pengembalian buku atau media tersebut. 

Secara garis besar yang dibutuhkan adalah tagging buku atau media di perpustakaan, hardware pembaca dan atau penulis tagging RFID dan software interfacing atau interfacing ke database yang sudah ada. Jadi bisa diringkas untuk hardware RFID ada 2 jenis: 

- stiker/label tag untuk buku ( tag yg lain untuk media lain juga) 

- Desktop Reader/Writer untuk membaca/menulis informasi pada RFID tag 

Sedangkan dari sisi software, secara umum hanya interfacing antara hardware RFID dengan database yang sudah ada. 

Dengan tahapan investasi awal yang minim ini, maka proses transisi diharapkan akan berjalan dengan mulus. Desktop RFID reader/writer di program terlebih dahulu sehingga sinkron dengan database software perpustakaan yang ada (interfacing proses). 

Tahapan pengerjaan berikutnya adalah buku-buku atau media yang dikoleksi perpustakaan ditempel dengan tag RFID dan diisi informasi oleh desktop writer/reader, melalui cara upload dari database PC atau scan barcode atau manual diketik via PC. Buku yang sudah ditempel stiker RFID dan sudah di isi data via RFID Writer siap di sirkulasikan dengan teknologi RFID. 

Meminjam atau mengembalikan buku, cukup dengan mendekatkan buku ke Desktop RFID reader dengan bantuan petugas perpustakaan. 

Pengembangan selanjutnya adalah otomasi dan manajerial total dimana implementasi teknologi RFID dilakukan secara terintegrasi dan terotomasi penuh, sehingga petugas perpustakaan bisa dikurangi atau bahkan tidak diperlukan selama transaksi peminjaman atau pengembalian buku/media perpustakaan. Dalam tahapan ini ada beberapa hardware RFID yang dibutuhkan, disamping pengembangan software tentunya. 

Adapun hardware yang dibutuhkan adalah : 

-Gate reader yang support EAS, dipasang pada pintu keluar-masuk perpustakaan 

-Robust RFID multi tag reader untuk anjungan peminjaman mandiri atau drop box pengembalian 

-Handheld RFID untuk manajemen dan pencarian buku langsung pada rak di perpustakaan 

 Adapun proses perpustakaan modern seperti terlihat pada demo video di bawah ini:

Dengan bantuan teknologi RFID ini diharapkan mampu menghemat waktu dan tenaga, baik itu dari segi pengguna maupun petugas perpustakaan itu sendiri. 

Artikel ini dipublikasikan oleh http://rfid.rosesana.com in English

Bartendro robot mixologist crafts cocktails with Raspberry Pi

Cocktails may never be the same again. Robot can handle up to 15 bottles of booze and mixers and can dispense precision cocktails in less than 10 seconds.

Some tasks are better left up to computers, like playing "Jeopardy," calculating pi, and mixing cocktails. Wait ... mixing cocktails? If you don't think a computer can whip up a compelling cocktail, then you haven't met Bartendro.

A creation of the awesomely named company Party Robotics, Bartendro is a robot mixologist crafted from peristaltic pumps, Raspberry Pi, custom electronic dispenser boards, and food-grade tubing. It may simultaneously be the least-necessary and most-desirable robot in the world.

The cocktail-dispensing machine can turn out a drink in less than 10 seconds. It can churn out 200cocktails in an evening -- and it won't break a sweat, take a bathroom break, or hit on your girlfriend. Don't worry, you can still sit there and tell it all your problems. It won't interrupt and it won't judge you.

Perhaps the best part of Bartendro is that it's not relegated to a lab somewhere far away where you'll never get to bask in its boozy glory. It's on Kickstarter. Early backers can get in on a Shotbot for $249, a working robot that dispenses shots from a single bottle.

Let's be realistic, though. You won't be satisfied with just a Shotbot. You're going to want to move up the pledge ranks and jump straight to the $2,499 level for a 15-bottle Bartendro. You just need to provide a tablet or smartphone to tell it what to do. Sure, the smaller Bartendros cost a lot less money, but for sheer overpowering robotic cocktail mayhem, you can't beat a Bartendro 15.

Let's raise a glass to Bartendro. I'm hoping it reaches its $135,000 goal, and Party Robotics is able to put the machines into wider production. If I had one of these, I would never leave my house again.

Apple and Samsung: A defining rivalry in a changed mobile market

At the end of August, Apple Inc seemed on top of the world. Fresh off a resounding $1.05 billion U.S. legal victory over arch-foe Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the company was gearing up to launch the fifth iteration of its iconic iPhone. Just a week prior, its market value had surpassed Microsoft Corp's and it became the most valuable technology company in history.

That was then. Since winning a landmark U.S. patent infringement case in August, its stock has dived 18 percent, wiping $108 billion from its value. But the shares of defeated party Samsung have surged, rising 16 percent.

The dramatic reversal has sparked raging market speculation. Some pundits say concerns are growing about the seemingly inexorable advance of Google Inc's Android, the rival software championed by Samsung. Others say fears about higher capital gains taxes have prompted investors made rich by Apple's stock-price growth to sell.

But it is the Apple-Samsung rivalry that defines a global mobile device industry with a growing list of struggling players. Together, the two mobile juggernauts account for more than 1 in 2 smartphonessold globally.

Analysts say Samsung is beginning to shed its aura as a "fast follower" and becoming a serious innovator, while Apple has failed to deliver on a truly seminal product in years - the oft-rumored Apple TV remains a well-honed rumor.

"Apple's actions have started to appear as if innovation is slowing and they're defending turf with a zero-sum market view rather than continuing to innovate as a world-beating leader," said Tony Nash, managing director at IHS, a business information provider.

The clash of the gadget titans underscores a broader battle between Apple and Google's increasingly popular Android mobile software, now installed on about two out of every three smartphones sold.

But some Asian analysts also point to Samsung's very different business model as helping it get a leg up on Apple.

The iPad maker's outsourcing structure provides fatter margins, but cedes some control to an army of suppliers, while Samsung's competitiveness is driven by keeping most of its manufacturing in-house.

And while Apple focuses on a few high-end mobile devices, Samsung's product breadth helps it scoop up new, less affluent users who can then be driven towards higher-margin devices, such as the phone-tablet combo Galaxy Note.

"In Asia, Samsung is still in the stronger growth position when it comes to smartphones - bringing large-screen models to the masses, re-introducing the pen with its Galaxy Note series and also, at the lower-end, with its entry-level Galaxy Y devices driving emerging markets like Indonesia and India," said Melissa Chau, Singapore-based research manager at IDC.

SAMSUNG SHIFT

No one is writing off Apple, still the world's most valuable listed company and expected to chalk up 27 percent revenue growth to almost $200 billion in fiscal 2013 - about level with Samsung.

"There have certainly been missteps at Apple ... but if we look at what's been achieved in the year since (co-founder Steve) Job's death, there are things that keep their competitors quaking in their boots," said Rachel Lashford, Managing Director, Mobile and APAC, at consultancy Canalys in Singapore.

Among its strengths, she cited unprecedented demand around new launches, the expansion of content on iTunes and the Apps Store, a possible move to product updates twice a year, efforts to improve parts supply and manufacturing, the dogged legal pursuit of Samsung and cash reserves of more than $120 billion.

Its gross margins of above 40 percent are double Samsung's.

But the South Korean company is now beginning to generate some buzz with recent improvements in its line-up. This week, news emerged that it is likely accelerating the launch of its next-generation flagship Galaxy smartphone - which sports an unbreakable screen.

Codenamed "Project J," the Galaxy S IV could be released as early as March or April, according to leading industry analysts and tech blogs. With smartphones increasingly looking alike, an unbreakable screen could be a big selling point for the Galaxy over the iPhone.

"Samsung's richer product line-up and vertically integrated supply structure are among its strongest advantages over Apple's simpler product range and strength in software," said Kim Young-chan, an analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp in Seoul.

Samsung is estimated to have shipped close to 56 million smartphones in July-September, more than double the number of iPhones, and analysts expect it to sell around 30 million more smartphones than Apple this quarter.

The South Korean firm's shift comes as its Cupertino, California-based rival suffered from some missteps in its iPhone 5 mapping app, supply constraints that have prompted delivery delays and allegations of employee abuse at supplier plants in China.

Charles Moon, Singapore-based principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, a research consultancy, sees these as a sign Apple is adjusting to maturing markets.

"A completely offensive strategy with uncontested gains are a thing of the past," he said. "Apple is not positioned well at the moment following a couple of disappointing quarters and continued negative news flow.

"Regardless of what happens (in the court ruling), Samsung and Android are winning where it counts - outside the courtroom - and this is likely to go on unless Apple can continue to reinvent itself. Very difficult, considering how far they've come, but not impossible. They've done it before," he added.

APPLE MISSTEPS

In the key battleground of China - the world's No. 1 cellphone market - Samsung and Android devices in general appear to be making headway against pricier Apple gadgets.

Third-quarter data shows Apple slid to sixth place in China, its largest market after the United States.Samsung kept top slot, according to research firm IDC, which estimated the Chinese smartphone market at a record of more than 60 million in July-September.

IDC analysts forecast a rebound for Apple with this month's iPhone 5 launch there, but it has so far failed to crack the country's largest carrier by far, China Mobile Ltd.

Apple's "loss of market share and of opportunities like a stalled China Mobile agreement are notable and, potentially, show some strengths of an integrated hardware-led model of players like Samsung against the comprehensive hardware-software ecosystem model of Apple," said Nash at IHS.

"This competition is far from over and my hope is that it forces very strong and continued innovation from Apple, Samsung and others."

Drone Pilots May Need Distractions

Distractions can be lethal while driving, but they may help when flying drones, researchers say.

Operating a drone such as the Predator may seem like playing a video game, involving a joystick to steer the unmanned aerial vehicle and firing missiles at targets seen on computer screens via a camera on the UAV. However, such adrenaline-charged moments are much rarer in real life than in video games. Drone operators, many of them seasoned fighter pilots, typically spend most of their shift just watching and waiting while automated systems keep the droid running. A shift for the operator of a Predator can involve up to 12 hours of such boredom.

"You might park a UAV over a house, waiting for someone to come in or come out, and that's where the boredom comes in," said researcher Missy Cummings, a systems engineer at MIT. "It turns out it's a much bigger problem in any system where a human is effectively baby-sitting the automation."

Such mind-numbing work can impair performance by making it difficult for an operator to leap into action when intervention is necessary. Cummings and her colleagues have been looking for ways to keep drone operators alert during tedious downtimes.

[Military Test: Drones Could Refuel Themselves Mid-Air]

"We need to accept that we're automating the world more and more, and a side effect of this increased automation is that people are going to be bored monitoring those systems," Cummings said. "But we still need smart people to monitor those systems when they fail; we need smart people to intervene when complex systems go wrong."

The researchers have found that most pilots operating a UAV simulation are less bored and perform better when they have some distractions, such as checking their cellphones, reading a book, or getting up to snack.

"We should think about sterile environments, workplaces where we tell people they can't play 'Angry Birds' on their iPhones during really dull and boring moments. When we're enforcing sterile environments, we're almost setting people up to fail," Cummings told LiveScience.

The scientists enrolled 30 volunteers to interact with a UAV simulation in four-hour shifts. Participants each had to monitor the activity of four drones and create "search tasks," or locations UAVs had to investigate. Once a UAV identified a target, volunteers labeled it hostile or friendly based on a color-coded system. The participants ordered UAVs to fire on hostile targets, destroying them and earning points in the simulation. The volunteers were videotaped to see when they were paying attention.

The volunteer who scored the highest during the experiment also was the one who paid the most attention. "She's the person we'd like to clone for a boring, low-workload environment," Cummings said.

However, the volunteers with the next-highest scores performed nearly as well even though they were distracted 30 percent of the time.

"We get bombarded in the news with studies that distractions are bad. Certainly for real-time control tasks such as driving, we're all in agreement, distractions are bad," Cummings said. "However, one of my issues are things like the Federal Aviation Administration's recent decision to fire an air traffic controller for watching movies at 2 a.m. to stay awake while waiting for something to happen. We want to think about how to keep people who work in low-task-load environments engaged so that when something does happen, they can respond appropriately."

While their simulation required human input only 5 percent of the time, the researchers discovered that most of the volunteer operators tried to work 11 percent of the time, showing they wanted more to do to keep from getting bored. This suggests that distractions or busywork once in a while may be good for productivity, by keeping operators engaged when they might otherwise lose focus.

"We know that pilots aren't always looking out the window, and we know that people don't always pay attention in whatever they're doing," Cummings said. "The question is, can you get people to pay attention enough, at the right time, to keep the system performing at a high degree?"

Personality may be another key to concentrating on drone work. Personality surveys of the volunteers  ranked them in five categories — extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience — and found that conscientiousness was a common trait among top performers.

Such conscientiousness may be a two-edged sword. Conscientious people may perform well in environments with relatively light workloads such as UAV operation, but they may hesitate when the time comes to fire a weapon.

"You could have a Catch-22," Cummings said. "If you're high on conscientiousness, you might be good to watch a nuclear reactor, but whether these same people would be effective in such military settings is unclear."

The researchers are continuing experiments to see what conditions might best keep boredom at bay. For instance, regular gentle reminders might help people keep alert. The scientists also are looking into the best length for shifts and the best time of day to hold them.

"We need people who can monitor these systems and intervene, but that might not be very often," Cummings said.

The research might have larger implications, such as for operating automated vehicles like the Google Driverless Car.

"People are already bored when they're driving, and they're going to be really bored when automation drives the car," Cummings said.

The scientists detailed their findings Nov. 14. Their research will appear in the journal Interacting with Computers.

Microsoft CEO sees company becoming more like Apple

Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has signaled a new direction for the world's largest software company, pointing to hardware and online services as its future, taking a page from long-time rival Apple Inc.

Ballmer's comments in his annual letter to shareholders published on Tuesday suggested that Microsoft may eventually make its own phones to build on its forthcoming own-brand Surface tablet PC and market-leading Xbox gaming console.

"There will be times when we build specific devices for specific purposes, as we have chosen to do with Xbox and the recently announced Microsoft Surface," wrote Ballmer.

The new approach mimics Apple Inc, whose massively successful iPhone and iPad demonstrated tight integration of high-quality software and hardware and made Windows devices feel clunky in comparison.

Ballmer, who took over as CEO from co-founder Bill Gates in 2000, said the company would continue to work with its traditional hardware partners, such as Dell Inc, Samsung and HTC, but he made it clear that Microsoft's role in the so-called 'ecosystem' was changing.

"It impacts how we run the company, how we develop new experiences, and how we take products to market for both consumers and businesses," he wrote.

Microsoft already makes money from providing services online, such as access to servers to enable 'cloud computing', or Web versions of its Office applications, but Ballmer's new emphasis suggests an acceleration away from its traditional business model of selling installed software.

"This is a significant shift, both in what we do and how we see ourselves — as a devices and services company," he added.

BONUS CLIPPED

Alongside the shareholders' letter, Microsoft's annual proxy filing, which deals with the shareholders' meeting and other governance issues, showed that Ballmer, 56, got a lower bonus than he did last year, partly for flat sales of Windows and his failure to ensure that the company provided a choice of browser to some European customers.

He earned a bonus of $620,000 for Microsoft's 2012 fiscal year, which ended in June, down 9 percent from the year before, according to documents filed on Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

His salary, which is low by U.S. standards for chief executives, remained essentially flat at $685,000.

It is the third year in a row that Ballmer has not earned his maximum bonus, set at twice his salary.

Microsoft's recent financial year was scarred by a $6.2 billion write-down for a failed acquisition and lower profit from its flagship Windows system as computer sales stood still.

In the company's filing, Microsoft's compensation committee said it took into account a 3 percent decline in Windows sales over the year, as well as "the Windows division failure to provide a browser choice screen on certain Windows PCs in Europe as required by its 2009 commitment with the European Commission."

Microsoft's failure to provide a browser choice in Europe was an embarrassing setback for the company, which has been embroiled in disputes with European regulators for more than a decade and paid more than $1 billion in fines for including its own Internet Explorer browser on Windows. It now faces further fines from a new investigation.

Separately, Microsoft said that independent lead director Reed Hastings, the CEO of online video rental company Netflix, would not seek reelection at the shareholder meeting in November. A new lead director will be chosen at the meeting, Microsoft said. Hastings, 51, said he wanted to focus on Netflix and his education work.