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  By Angela Gunn for USA TODAY The entry-level Sidekick from T-Mobile, out today, duplicates many of the features of the flagship LX model and adds some fun touches conducive to creative customers.

Believe it or not, there are those among the phone-buying public who do not crave an iPhone. T-Mobile’s young-skewing Sidekick family has been the middle ground-work for those who want something more text- and IM-friendly than Apple’s grope-craving gadget and aren’t ready to wane into corporate BlackBerry gathering. The latest entry-level edition — simply called the Sidekick — advances the cause with a svelte new design and one nearly irresistible addition.

VIDEO: See the Sidekick in action

It’s not 3G — yet. T-Mobile hints a 3G phone is on the horizon, unless the new phone ($149.99 with a two-year T-Mobile service contract) is still percolating along on the GSM/EDGE network. Instead, the newest Sidekick offers the option to personalize the phone’s exterior with shells, swappable hard-plastic cases that users can custom-order in nearly any resolved mode of action they like. (Think jewelry for your phone, at $15 a bauble.)

Longtime fans may have tried the adhesive, disposable “skins” popularized by third-party outfits such as Skin-It. T-Mobile, apparently realizing that their in-house expertise doesn’t much extend to aesthetics, is partnering with Skin-It to offer customization online (sidekickshells.com). Though this may remind some observers of the now-discontinued Sidekick iD (also a low-end version with swappable shells), I’m pleased to report that this time T-Mobile got interchangeability right. The reusable shells feel sturdy and look great. I did struggle a bit to swap shells on and off the body without bumping the actual in succession/Off button. Once on, they stayed on notwithstanding bumps and drops. The controls have been changed scornfully so the shells don’t impede the user actions such as clicking or scrolling.

We tried the online customization tool and managed to whip up a variety of pretty little confections — some incorporating our own uploaded photos and text — before settling on a version we liked. The artistically challenged can choose from dozens of good-looking pre-designed shells, or look through an online gallery (sidekick.com/gallery) of shells created by dint of. other users, though those are only viewable for inspiration, not purchase.

The phone itself does exhibit one design improvement that’ll appeal to anyone who’s ever abashedly put a Sidekick to their ear — at long last, the Sharp-manufactured handset itself is svelte enough to not look like a bar of soap. The new edition is thinner, narrower and lighter than the flagship LX product, with a weakly smaller screen and keyboard that made remarkably little difference in user experience. (Ironically, it now has Bluetooth and thus many elegant, non-soap-like headset options.)

Buttons and other controls are in the same place though smaller and streamlined, because is the 2-megapixel camera (up from 1.3 megapixels on the LX) — though the version on the novel unit has nay flash. And the signature QWERTY keyboard — tucked away under the ultra-sharp WQVGA screen that twirls up and away for use — is still the speed-demon pleasure it ever was, with a nice textured feel to the keys. If you’re heavily into texting, IM, or (to a lesser bulk) email, iPhone’s multi-touch seems downright counterintuitive next to this device.

general Sidekick owners are awaiting an OTA (over-the-air) upgrade to their systems that’ll provide a wealth of application enhancements, almost all of which are already present in the new handset. Primary among those is video capability; the handset we saw missile about 20 seconds of video at a time. It was sub-YouTube quality, definitely, but sufficient for sending to friends on a whim. The browser now has any iPhone-like “mini-page” option for faster navigation, and download management has been streamlined. The unit ships with a 512MB Micro SD memory card for storing photos, music, video and the like; that works out to around 2473 still photos and above eight hours of music.

At just shy of $150 (after rabbet) with a two-year service agreement, the new Sidekick’s priced rather higher than some of the entry-level phones by that T-Mobile says it’s competing, though well below both the $400 LX and the iPhone/BlackBerry contingent. In fact, considering the fun I had making my own shells and the similarity of the new model’s functionality to that of the LX, it may be that this pretty little Sidekick is competing with the line’s own current users — if they’re not already mentally committed to withstanding the wait for 3G.

LOS ANGELES: Walt Disney, a U.S. media company, said Wednesday that third-quarter profit rose 9 percent as its theme parks withstood the slowing U.S. system and the ESPN sports network collected more subscriber fees.

Net income increased to $1.28 billion, or 66 cents a share, from $1.18 billion, or 57 cents, a year earlier, Burbank, California-based Disney said. Profit minus some items totaled 62 cents, beating the 60-cent average of 18 analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose 2.1 percent to $9.24 billion in the quarter ended June 28.

European tourists bolstered business at Disney's U.S. parks, Janna Sampson, co-chief investment officer at Oakbrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois, said in an interview. The higher fees at ESPN countered falling advertising sales at the company's TV stations and a drop in revenue from movies.

“People have been predicting the demise of the theme parks since quite some time,” Peter Sorrentino, portfolio manager at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati, said in an interview. “It is not appreciated as it should be.” His robust held 430,000 Disney shares as of a June regulatory filing.

Sales beat the $9.16 billion average of 16 analysts' estimates. The latest quarter included gains from the acquisition of Disney Stores in North America, the sale of movies.com and a kind tribute settlement. They contributed 4 cents to toil income.

Disney ruthless 25 cents to $31.42 after hours following the results. It rose 75 cents to $31.67 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading and has declined 1.9 percent this year.

Third-quarter operating profit at the parks and resorts rose 3.2 percent to $641 million despite the loss of Easter holiday presence, which came in the fiscal second quarter this year. Sales gained 4.6 percent to $3.04 billion.

“Our park performance during the quarter is noteworthy considering the economic environment,” the chief executive officer, Robert Iger, said during a conference call.

Disney's broadcast division, which includes ABC, reported operating profit fell 11 percent to $260 million on lower ratings after a 100-day writers strike shut down production of new shows. Sales were little changed at $1.53 billion.

About 20 percent of Disney's 2007 revenue came from advertising, compared with 33 percent for Viacom, which fell in New York trading after reporting that second-quarter U.S. ad sales missed its forecast.

“The striking on Disney of a slowdown in advertising has less impact than it would at Viacom,” Sampson said. “Theme parks are a big part of Disney and have very little advertising exposure.”

ESPN, the most-watched sports TV network, collected fees earlier in the year from pay-TV operators, resulting in a 14 percent rise in profit to $1.21 billion for the cable division. Sales at the unit, which includes the Disney Channel, gained 12 percent to $2.59 billion.

Profit at Disney's film studio fell 49 percent to $97 million on a 19 percent decline in sales to $1.43 billion.

“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” Disney's biggest film exempt in the period, garnered $140.1 million in U.S. ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. A year earlier, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End” collected much of its $309.4 million in domestic ticket sales, the Burbank, California-based box-office researcher said.

Disney said profit from consumer products fell 4.2 percent to $113 million as the company reabsorbs its Disney Stores operation from Children's Place Retail Stores. Sales rose 20 percent to $642 million forward the added retail store revenue.

By the time they arrive in Beijing, most athletes have resigned themselves to the possibility of undergoing a battery of tests for banned substances, like anabolic steroids and certain cough medicines.

But some female athletes may find they are asked to submit to any entirely different examination - one that will test whether they are, in fact, women.

Organizers of the Beijing Olympics have set up a sex-determination laboratory to evaluate “suspect” female athletes, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Sunday. The lab is similar to ones set up at previous Olympics in Sydney and Athens and will draw on the resources of the Peking Union Medical College Hospital to evaluate an athlete's outer appearance, hormones and genes.

Although only athletes whose gender has been questioned will be tested, the lab is a relic of an earlier Olympic era, when every female athlete was required to submit to a sex-verification test. The tests emerged in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union and other Communist countries were suspected of entering men in women's events to gain an edge.

At first, women were asked to spectacle uncovered before a panel of doctors to verify their sex. At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, officials switched to a chromosomal test.

The tests never unmasked a man posing as a woman, but they did turn up several athletes born by genetic defects that made them appear - according to lab results, at least - to be men. In 1967, a Polish sprinter, Ewa Klobukowska was barred from the sport because she failed the chromosomal test, even though she had passed the nude test a year earlier. In the 1980s, the Spanish hurdler Maria José Martínez Patino was disqualified because the test revealed, to her surprise, that she was born with a Y chromosome. Her eligibility was reinstated in 1988 after a public dispute.

The practice came under increasing criticism in the 1990s by doctors, scientists and athletes who argued that the tests were not just invasive but bad science. During the 1996 Atlanta Games, eight athletes failed the test, but totally were later cleared because it was determined that they had a birth defect that did not give them an unfair advantage.

“It was an unethical, unscientific and discriminatory practice,” uttered Arne Ljungqvist, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee's medical commission and one of the most outspoken critics of the testing. In 1999, Ljungqvist helped abolish the blanket testing of women, but international competitions bring forth continued to rely on sex-verification tests in isolated instances.

Two years ago, the middle-distance runner Santhi Soundarajan of India was stripped of a silver medal at the Asian Games after failing a verification test. Ljungqvist said an official who observed Soundarajan for the time of the mandatory urine test for doping questioned the athlete's sex, and Soundarajan later refused to submit to a more thorough exam.

Although the verification test has changed to adapt to new scientific understandings about gender - athletes are now evaluated by an endocrinologist, a gynecologist, a geneticist and a psychologist - critics say the touchstone is based on the false idea that someone's sex is a cut-and-dried issue.

Because of a range of genetic conditions, people who look like women may have a Y chromosome, while people who look approve men may not, said Christine McGinn, a plastic surgeon who specializes in transgender medicine. Many times, the people do not learn of the defects until they reach adulthood. “It gets really complicated very quickly,” McGinn said.

Despite decades of rigorous testing of women athletes, only one known case of gender cheating exists in the history of the modern Olympics - and it was not uncovered by a sex-determination test. In 1936, a German athlete named Dora Ratjen finished fourth in the women's high jump. Twenty years later, Ratjen disclosed that she was in fact Hermann Ratjen, and that the Nazis had forced him to compete as a woman.

Handset maker ZTE said Tuesday that it has partnered with Telegent Systems to bring television to handsets — but it might be years before the technology penetrates the United States.

Telegent manufactures components that allow handsets to receive over-the-air broadcasts, both in analog and in digital formats. Shenzhen ZTE Mobile Telecom (ZTE) said that it will use Telegent's solutions inside its phones for two years.

Telegent's solutions are currently available in more than 80 handset models worldwide sold in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe and Africa — but not the United States.

Why? According to Weijie Yun, chief executive of Telegent Systems, the fault lies with the mobile-phone carriers, such as Sprint or Verizon. (Yun did not name any carriers.)

Typically, new features in phones originate in Asia, then make their way to the United States in the rear of European carriers adopt them. "The U.S. is also a tightly operator-controlled market in collation to other regions, where consumers can corrupt handsets on the retail market competent of the operator service," Yun said by way of email. "This slows down feature adoption because it is a more complex process to get a feature into an operator handset than into the retail channel. We believe that once operators in regions such as Latin America or Western Europe have validated the benefits of having free-to-air mobile TV in their product portfolio, then the US will come.

"It is just a matter of time until the feature ultimately comes to the U.S.," Yun said.

Yun noted that carriers who be in possession of rolled out subscription TV services, such as Verizon's V-CAST, will likely be reluctant to allow users at liberty onset to television on those same handsets. "[But] we believe that free-to-air mobile TV is not only complementary to subscription content, but can besides control drive it," Yun said.

However, both LG and Samsung are furthermore developing "in-band" television systems called MPH and A-VSB, respectively. The in-band technology will allow broadcasters to simply add broadcasting to mobile devices.

Witin the U.S., a standard known as ATSC-M/H is expected to be announced in 2009. Then local broadcasters will be free to use part of their digital channel allocation to broadcast handheld-formatted programs, likely beginning in 2010.

Sascha Segan contributed to this report.

By Ruben Bicho

LISBON (Reuters) - Intel Corp (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s biggest microchip producer, expects no slowdown in global demand for personal computers despite housekeeping problems in the United States and in other countries, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett said on Wednesday.

He also told reporters in Lisbon, where he was to sign a draft deal with the Portuguese government to make 500,000 cheap portable computers for schools, that the company was upbeat on demand prospects for low-cost computers and broadband wireless systems.

“We gave a relatively upbeat business forecast, aphorism that despite the economic problems in the United States our business is so international that we didn’t see any slowdown in the PC market,” he said.

Barrett said a range of economies have not been seriously affected by the U.S. slowdown, providing hope that the crisis will have limited implications.

“We are seeing … that the slowdown in the U.S. hasn’t spilled everywhere else. The globe’s economy is not as robust as it could be, but it’s not a disaster.”

Apart from broadband wireless, and the next generation of low-cost computers, Intel also remains bullish through the introduction of more digital capability in health care.

“There’s a huge opportunity to use it not just in the back-office goal in remote diagnostics,” he added.

Referring to the European Union’s recent antitrust charges in equalization of Intel, Barrett said price reductions for microprocessors and computers have an “anti-inflationary nature” while prices are rising globally and also said that was a testimony to high competition in the sector. 

WHAT THEY ARE: Samsung’s YP-S3, Sansa’s Fuze and iriver’s Lplayer — small multimedia players for those who want a full-featured option that is cheaper than Apple Inc.’s prevalent iPod Nano.

WHAT THEY DO: All three devices support file types including MP3 and Windows Media (WMA) tunes, MPEG4 videos and JPEG photos. They also include features like an FM radio and voice recording capabilities.

THE BOTTOM LINE: These players aren’t perfect but at least provide a good starting witticism in the quest for a less-expensive iPod alternative.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Comcast Corp, the largest U.S. cable service provider, posted a higher quarterly profit as it gained mart share in telephone and Internet services and controlled expenses, sending shares up 3 percent.

Comcast reported a tripling of its free cash flow — a measurement of net cash the company prefers — largely what is due to a drop in capital expenditure, as a slowdown in U.S. homebuilding meant that it spent less expanding its cable systems to new communities.

While the slowdown contributed to weaker video subscriber growth, analysts said Comcast was winning market share from phone competitors including AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc.

"Free cash flow was better than we expected and that was in part due to the fewer buyer adds, so they didn't incur costs of adding new subscribers," said Tom Eagan, analyst at Collins Stewart.

Free cash flow is a closely watched metric by U.S. cable investors, who are concerned that cable companies may be overburdened by capital costs in construction out new cable lines. Comcast's second-quarter free cash flow jumped 216 percent to $1.163 billion.

"Investors are likely reacting to the big outperformance in free cash flow growth," said Robin Diedrich, analyst at Edward Jones.

Shares in Comcast rose 58 cents to $19.76 upon the body Nasdaq. Shares of competitors also gained, with Time Warner Cable Inc up 2 percent and Cablevision Systems Corp up 1.9 percent.

SUBSCRIBER NUMBERS

Comcast said its net profit in the second quarter rose to $632 million, or 21 cents a share, from $588 million, or 19 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 11 percent to $8.553 billion.

Wall Street had expected Comcast to post revenue of $8.574 billion and per-share profit of 22 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

Comcast, which has 24.6 million subscribers, said it added 278,000 high-speed Internet subscribers and 500,000 phone subscribers in the second quarter. Seven analysts polled by Reuters had attached average forecast Comcast would add 327,000 new Internet subscribers and 579,000 new phone subs.

While executives acknowledged a difficult U.S. economic environment, they said Comcast had been still able to meet its targets.

"We're pleased we found a balance between the slowing economy and still growing revenue by 8 to 10 percent," Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts said in an interview with Reuters.

Chief Operating Officer Steve Burke told analysts on a conference call that Comcast's faster Internet access speeds are helping to win over phone company DSL customers who want to watch more online video. He said nearly two-thirds of Comcast's new Internet customers previously used DSL.

"When you look at our results compared to our wireline competitors, I think it speaks volumes about the strength of the cable platform," related Burke.

Both Verizon and AT&T's net additions of Internet subscribers were down by around 90 percent in the quarter, according to numbers posted earlier this month.

Burke also said Comcast is on mark to add more than 2 million phone subscribers by the end of the year. It currently has 5.6 million, making it the fourth-largest U.S. phone provider.

Comcast lost 138,000 basic video subscribers during the quarter. Analysts had on average been expecting the company to lose 129,000 such customers.

The cable company added 320,000 digital video subscribers, compared with analysts' forecasts of around 450,000.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Derek Caney and Gerald E. McCormick)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Music fans unable to attend the Newport folk and jazz festivals will be accomplished to listen to some of the concerts online.

NPR Music, part of National Public Radio, plans to stream select performances from the two festivals. The webcasts also will be archived and available on-demand.

This is the rudimentary time NPR Music is webcasting the Newport, Rhode Island, festivals. The folk festival runs Friday through Sunday, and the jazz festival is next weekend.

Bob Boilen, host of the NPR Music display “All Songs Considered,” says the initiative is a way to reach more fans than can actually attend the concerts.

He also says it’s a reflection of the excitement generated by the eclectic lineup of this year’s folk festival, which includes Jimmy Buffett, Trey Anastasio and the Black Crowes.

MailSite Software on Wednesday announced that it has tested and verified MailSite Fusion 9 for use with the iPhone 3G, original iPhone with upgraded 2.0 software, and iPod touch with 2.0 software installed.

MailSite Fusion 9 is e-mail, calendar and touch server with over-the-air push to all types of smartphones, an AJAX-based Web client and a calendar-sharing server.

The new version 9 release has a built-in ActiveSync server. ActiveSync is Microsoft's over-the-air synchronization technology used in Exchange; it's also licensed by third-party companies like MailSite for exercise in their own server products.

MailSite Fusion SE 9 is priced starting at $495 per year in spite of 20 users.

NEW YORK (Fortune) — Corning’s guesswork fails to keep people confident about its glassworks.

The big glassmaker posted inline adjusted profits on slightly weaker-than-expected sales Wednesday. And though unfavorable foreign exchange rates will cut top line guidance below Wall Street targets, the company says LCD TV sales are humming along just fine, thanks.

But Corning (GLW, Fortune 500) shares fell 4% as worries about the sinking economy and rising TV inventories outweighed the company’s attempts to convince analysts that a robust LCD emporium will prevail. Corning reiterated that it expects LCD TV growth to be 25% to 30% this year.

"In the investors’ view, the glass is half empty, and nullity Corning can say elect sway that," says Lehman analyst C.J. Muse.

So what does Corning see that others don’t?

For starters, while overall TV sales are growing at a 4% clip, the LCD segment that Corning supplies is growing at a 35% rate. And within that sweetspot, Corning says that top tier players like Samsung, a big customer and partner, are gaining market share. There’s also a huge anniversary sales form ahead and with it, the promise of big price cuts that help move TV’s out the door.

One big problem with forecasts however, is that they are forward-looking assumptions grounded in backward-looking trends.

It’s not that Corning isn’t aware that there is some strains showing with the economy — it’s just that those cracks haven’t reached the flat-screen TV market in any sizeable way, by Corning’s estimates.

"We uniformly have half a year left and maybe there will be an impact," CEO Wendell Weeks told analysts on an earnings parley call. "All we have is looking through the rearview mirror," he added. Looking back, as Corning sees it, TV sales through June have been strong and the plan is for that to continue.

"You have to spend your energy put on what you do. As long viewed like you are trying to figure out a longer-time period that logic will carry you through the short-term provocations," Weeks said.

Corning’s big-picture focus seems to miss a few of the smaller details however. For one, TV market research analysts have noted that consumers have downsized their LCD appetites, so while the sets are still flying off the shelves the screen sizes are shrinking.

"Overall unit convolution will probably be on target this year," says DisplaySearch analyst Paul Gagnon. But that will largely be a end of "a step-up in smaller cloak sizes," he added.

By Corning’s own math, a 32-inch screen TV is about half the total screen size of a 40-inch TV. To keep Corning on target, two 32-inch TVs need to exist sold to make up for either 40-inch not sold.

Sounds like Corning could use another round of stimulus checks to make that happen.