Ryan Tate of Valleywag reports that a Twitter post by Wall Street Journal deputy managing editor Alan Murray while Apple CEO Steve Jobs was demonstrating the iPad to the paper’s staff upset the executive.

Tate reports, “The Journal’s online executive editor Alan Murray quickly deleted the Feb. 4 tweet, which, it is now obvious, was issued during Apple CEO Jobs’ show-and-tell with select Journal staff. A tipster told us the deletion ultimately traces back to a furious Jobs. We asked Murray for comment, and he wrote back ‘I would love to talk about this, but can’t.’ In a later email, he added:

I will say that Apple’s general paranoia about news coverage is truly extraordinary— but that’s not telling you anything you didn’t already know.

“Indeed, Apple is a notoriously tight-lipped company, particularly under Jobs, and is constantly trying to control the flow of news about its product. Apple sued a teenaged blogger who published scoops about unreleased products; it lied about Jobs’ health problems; Jobs called a New York Times columnist a ‘slime bucket‘ for writing about said health problems; and an employee of key Apple contractor Foxconn had his apartment illegally searched after losing an iPhone prototype (he later committed suicide amid intense pressure from his employer).”

Read more here.

Electronic Arts is launching a number of big titles in the coming fiscal year that should get gamers excited, according to the company’s conference call with analysts today.

EA typically announces titles during its quarterly calls to get gamers frothing and to give analysts guidance about its expected financial performance. Those titles could always be delayed, but EA has been shipping more games on time than it used to.

During EA’s conference call with analysts, EA chief operating officer John Schappert ticked off a number of titles that should set tongues wagging, including some mysterious titles in the fourth fiscal quarter that ends March 31, 2011.

One of them is a first-person shooter game coming from Epic Games, the maker of the Gears of War and Unreal shooting games. There will also be new titles in that quarter based on EA’s existing franchises: DeadSpace, EA sports fighting, the Sims, Spore, Hasbro, Need for Speed simulation, and Dragon Age: Origins.

In the fall quarter (third fiscal) that ends on Dec. 31, 2010, EA plans to ship Crysis 2, a sequel to a hot-selling shooting game; a Need for Speed action driving game; a Harpy Potter game, presumably based on the upcoming movies (there are two of them) based on the final book in the series; and the Sims 3 for the consoles.

EA also expects that its digital titles will create a splash. In the coming year, online-based games are expected to generate $75o million in the fiscal year that ends March 31, 2011. That’s up more than 30 percent compared to the current fiscal year. At the same time, EA chief executive John Riccitiello said he did not see any evidence that digital online games are causing core gamers to spend less time with PC and console games.

While EA believes that packaged goods games — those sold in retail stores — will shrink across the industry by 3 percent in the fiscal year that ends March 31, 2011. But with the growth in digital games, EA believes the overall game business will grow 8 percent during the same period.

In the second fiscal quarter that ends Sept. 30, 2010, EA expects to ship its new Medal of Honor game, which will take on Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 franchise. Schappert said he saw the Medal of Honor demo last week and (predictably) believes it is looking great. In that second fiscal quarter, EA also will ship All Points Bulletin, a massively multiplayer online game that is akin to a free-for-all version of Grand Theft Auto. All Points Bulletin is being developed by venture-funded Realtime Worlds.

EA will be supporting both the new Microsoft Project Natal motion-control system and the Sony PlayStation wand-like device (reportedly called Arc). Schappert said EA will have games available at launch for those systems. EA isn’t talking about games for those devices yet, but my guess is that a sequel to EA Sports Active, which ships in the fall of 2010, will use motion controls. Previously, EA Sports Active shipped only on the Nintendo Wii, which pioneered motion controls on a console.

Schappert said he said it is possible that hardware prices may be cut during the year as platform owners try to reduce manufacturing costs and pass on the savings to users, and as platform owners try to stoke demand for games. EA’s BioWare division is also working on an MMO based on Star Wars, dubbed the Old Republic. There is no launch date scheduled for that game yet.

As to current titles, EA starts selling Dante’s Inferno, an original title where you play a knight who goes into Hell to retrieve his beloved Beatrice, tomorrow. EA saw 3 million downloads of a demo, partly due to a strong response yesterday to its Super Bowl commerical advertising Dante’s Inferno.

Last month, the U.S. government granted $37 million to 17 projects developing light-emitting diodesfor various applications ranging from lighting systems to screen technologies. All the while, ongoing research and development is finally driving down the costs and increasing the efficiency of LEDs and their organic, increasingly popular cousins.

With lifespans exceeding 50,000 hours, LEDs have incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs beat hand down. But so far they have been prohibitively expensive. Most of the work taking place at big companies like Cree and Bridgelux are all about bringing down these costs to make the technology practical for everyday consumers. It’s one thing that Rockefeller Center’s iconic tree was lit with LEDs last year — it’s quite another for average homeowners to be buying LED fixtures at Ikea. Now, a stream of recent news makes this area look even more promising:

Philips sees results: Foreshadowing broader adoption, electronics giant Philips announced that LED-based lighting accounted for more than 10 percent of its lighting sales in the third quarter of 2009. This prompted predictions that LED technology, or solid-state lighting as it is sometimes called, will grow annually at a rate of 24 percent, transforming into a $15 billion business by 2013.

Cree reports strong earnings: Public LED company Cree (CREE) just announced solid earnings for its second fiscal quarter. Following a big deal to supply 650 Wal-Mart Stores with LED lighting systems, the company reported a 35 percent increase in revenue, totaling $199.5 million. Profits also jumped from $10.7 million the previous year to $33.8 million. As a result, its stock price went up 9.7 percent to $59.49 a share. Today, it’s back down to $56.11.

Bridgelux eyes cost drops: LED maker Bridgelux says that prices for LED fixtures designed to replace burnt out incandescents will drop sharply this year. They could even come in under $10 by the end of 2010 — eight times cheaper than they are currently being marketed for. Bridgelux has also recruited a new CEO, former Seagate chief Bill Watkins, signaling a new, more aggressive strategy.

More lumens for your buck: Seoul Semiconductors‘ Ariche brand has unveiled the first LED bulb to hit 100 lumens per watt — said to be 25 percent more efficient than its competitors’ runners up. Ariche’s products don’t require an AC-DC converter. This means that LEDs can be used in shapes that otherwise wouldn’t accomodate solid-state lighting. It also avoids the energy losses inherent in standard power converters. The company also claims that the carbon emitted by its LED systems is 10 percent of that emitted by incandescent bulbs.

Combined, the news coming out of these four companies, and the government’s stimulus investment in LED development could make 2010 the year that LEDs finally invade the home.

Business journalists at the Indianapolis Business Journal told Talking Biz News on Monday that they stand by the paper’s story about the moving of Steak N Shake’s headquarters out of the region, despite a company release stating the story was filled with errors.

In a release issued Monday, the company stated, “This week’s Indianapolis Business Journal (‘IBJ’) lead article printed as its headline ‘Steak n Shake moving HQ.’ The headline, along with much information in the article, is misleading.”

The release also stated, “We normally do not comment on published articles, and though we therefore won’t address the multitude of errors in this piece, we do wish to set one salient fact straight: Steak n Shake Operations Inc., the restaurant chain of 485 units, will maintain its principal headquarters in Indianapolis. Moreover, Steak n Shake’s parent company — currently named The Steak n Shake Company with plans to change it to Biglari Holdings Inc. — is headquartered in San Antonio, a move which occurred some months ago.”

Greg Andrews, the managing editor of the paper, said in an e-mail that, “We’re planning to address the press release in a story we’ll post on our Web site tomorrow morning.”

Cory Schouten, the reporter who wrote the story, added, “We all found it pretty ironic how they actually confirmed our story in their press release. The statement has a San Antonio dateline in reference to The Steak n Shake Co., and they confirm the parent company has moved. They also just updated their website, steaknshake.com, to reflect the new HQ address in San Antonio. Bottom line is Indianapolis has lost a publicly traded company.

“Biglari doesn’t return any media or analyst phone calls, and only communicates with shareholders once a year, this year in New York in April. I called again this afternoon to find out what they meant by ‘multitude of errors’ but again, no response.”

In Minnesota, the wind is blowing but turbines aren’t turning. The machines, bought used from California and installed last fall, are completely frozen in place. Even on the windiest days, the blades sit at a standstill, producing no power. Why should anyone care? The problem highlights some of the less intuitive challenges associated with wind power — long considered to be the most feasible and cost effective source of renewable energy.

The likely culprit in Minnesota: frozen hydraulic fluid, unfit for the state’s brutally cold winters. As the temperature continues to drop, these fluids have started to thicken, turning into jelly. This is a big problem, considering how much the Midwest has spent on trying to become the U.S.’s wind power corridor. Wind power is already intermittent — the wind isn’t blowing at gale speeds all the time. But being knocked out of commission for an entire season? That could be a deal breaker.

That is, unless the problem can be fixed. The turbines, each more than 100 feet tall in 11 Minnesota cities, were purchased for $3.3 million — but now even more must be sent to retrofit them for the cold. The first stab at the problem will be to fix heating devices to the turbines to keep the fluid at the right temperature. But this will rob power from the turbines, maybe even negating their usefulness. There’s also a chance this solution won’t work at all.

As new sources of renewable energy are developed — like thin film and solar thermal, for example — more and more doubts about wind are coming to the fore. One of the biggest: the true meaning of energy “capacity.” When you say a turbine has a certain capacity, you’re saying it can produce that amount of energy when it is working under optimum conditions. But no turbine works at maximum capacity around the clock — the figure is misleading. In fact, many turbines operate far below capacity most of the time.

So when journalists write about the 735-megawatt wind installation at Horse Hollow — they should note that the 47,000 acre wind farm will probably generate less than a 300-megawatt coal, natural gas or nuclear plant. Coal and nuclear operate at above 85 percent of capacity on average. Wind installations operate at about 33 percent of its capacity on average. Horse Hollow only produces about 245 megawatts on a routine basis — a lot, but not as much as advertised.

Minnesota’s frozen wind turbines, each more than 20 years old, may be highlighting brand new concerns about over-reliance on wind as a renewable energy source — but even if it were summer and the blades were turning, there’s still a lot of room for improvement in this sector.

Electronic Arts reported third fiscal quarter results today that were in line with the reduced expectations that analysts had.

For the third fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, EA reported revenue of $1.24 billion, down fromm $1.64 billion a year ago. Net loss was $82 million, compared to a net loss of $641 million a year ago. Loss per share was 25 cents compared to a loss of $2 per share a year ago. On a non-GAAP basis, earnings per share were 33 cents a share, compared with 56 cents a share a year ago. Non-GAAP revenues were $1.35 billion, down 23 percent from $1.74 billion a year ago.

Analysts had expected non-GAAP revenues of $1.34 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share of 31 cents. EA had set its own guidance at $1.33 billion to $1.35 billion and EPS of 29 cents to 33 cents. EA had warned that it was going to have another tough quarter last month.

The good thing is that EA’s fourth fiscal quarter line-up looks good. The company has already released Mass Effect 2, which generated more than 2 million unit sales in its first week and high review scores, including a 9 out of 10 review rating by me. EA also released Army of Two: The 40th day in January. Still to come are Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Dante’s Inferno (pictured) which debuts tomorrow.

Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan, said in a note released last week that investors are likely to stay skeptical about EA until the fourth fiscal quarter is finished. EA is focusing on quality titles in its core console games business, but it has been forced to cut back on staff a couple of times due to weak sales in the past year.

Even as it lays off staff, it acquired Playfish, a maker of social games on Facebook, for as much as $400 million last fall. It is also investing heavily in free-to-play online games, the iPhone, and other new game platforms. EA said recently it will launch its NFL Madden football property on Facebook.

EA said that it has sold 9.7 million copies of its latest Fifa soccer game. Digital revenue, such as money from free-to-play online games, was an all-time high at $152 million. And EA said it has cut more than $100 million in operating expenses compared to a year ago. EA has a total of 1.9 million online game subscribers, and EA Mobile’s revenue this quarter was $57 million, up 14 percent from a year ago.

For its fourth fiscal quarter, EA forecasts it will have revenue of $925 million to $1 billion, on a GAAP basis. Non-GAAP revenue is expected to be $800 million to $850 million. Non-GAAP earnings per share are expected to be 2 cents to 6 cents. For the first fiscal quarter ending June 30, EA expects a loss of 35 cents to 40 cents per share on a non-GAAP basis. Revenues are expected to be $710 million to $750 million on a GAAP basis and $460 million to $500  million on a non-GAAP basis.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011, EA expects GAAP revenues of $3.45 billion to $3.70 billion and non-GAAP revenues of $3.65 billion to $3.9 billion. It expects non-GAAP earnings per share of 50 cents to 70 cents.

French nuclear company Areva has just taken its first step into the solar market with the acquisition of Ausra, a Mountain View, Calif.-based maker of solar thermal equipment. The deal represents a major new market for Areva, while simultaneously propping up Ausra, which weathered some hard knocks last year.

Last year at this time, the solar startup provider scrapped plans to build several massive plants across the southwest and California deserts. Weakened by the economic downturn at the end of 2008, it decided to shift its focus away from generation to more lucrative equipment sales. After all, it is known for its proprietary light-focusing mirrors, which concentrate sunlight to create steam that turns turbines. But the decision still came with significant layoffs.

Things perked up a bit in April when the company raised $25.5 million in a fourth round of funding (counting Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Khosla Ventures among its investors) — but that money was earmarked explicitly for the narrower focus on equipment sales, rather than jump-starting its plant-building ambitions all over again. The company found itself in a sticky spot, on one hand bringing in a huge $123 million total from private investors, yet still unable to afford bigger capital intensive projects.

But Areva’s decision to buy Ausra could change all that. As the leading maker of nuclear reactors in France, a country that has been enthusiastic about nuclear to say the least, it appears to have the chops to realize Ausra’s power plant vision. In fact, it plans to build a number of utility-scale facilities in the U.S., Europe, South America and the Middle East. Areva already has a presence in wind, biomass and hydrogen power. It was only a matter of time before it jumped into solar.

With prestigious investors and plant schematics already in the hopper, Ausra seemed like an ideal buy. In fact, several prospective buyers had been circling the company for a while. Limited news on the Areva acquisition reveals that two other unidentified conglomerates also bid on Ausra. Greentech Media has disqualified Siemens as a prospective buyer because it decided to acquire solar startup Solel for $418 million last year.

It’s interesting that Areva, which has been in the market for a solar partner for a while, chose to go with solar thermal. It predicts that that business will grow 20 percent over the next year, and that solar thermal will account for 20 gigawatts of generating capacity by 2020 — that’s enough to power 20 million homes around the world. That’s also good news for competitors like Spain’s Abengoa, California-based eSolar, and Bechtel-backed Brightsource Energy.

Areva has gone as far as to claim that just about 8,000 square miles of California desert (the Mojave Desert alone covers 25,000 square miles), could be enough to power the entire U.S. using Ausra’s concentrating solar thermal equipment. Considering how long that company has been stalled due to the economy, the deal with Areva could be the best thing to happen to all sides, including American utility customers.

Previously, Ausra also took funding from KERN Partners, Generation Partners and Starfish Ventures. Vinod Khosla and Kleiner managing partner have also participated as individual investors.

The Orange County Register real estate news team announced Monday that it will begin sending daily news updates to reader’s cell phones by text message.

Real estate columnist Jon Lansner writes, “Well, we’ve got one solution for you! The Register real estate news team is now text messaging  a daily alert containing top Orange County housing and property news right to your cell phone. (Yeah, we wish we had a cool iPhone app, but that’s coming! Well, then, we wish we had a cool iPhone!)

“So, how to you get our lunchtime wisdom to your mobile device?

• Text ‘RENEWS’ to 21321. (For the text message novices, those 5 digits are a short code address for our texting tool!)
• You will likely get a reply asking you to confirm your desire to get our news. Please replay affirmatively!
• Note: We don’t charge you. Your phone company may have text messaging fees.

“Our goal is one text alert a day … but if something juicy breaks … we’ll let you in ASAP. (But it will never so good to read while you are driving!)”

Read more here.