http://adland.tv/sites/default/modules/swftools/shared/flash_media_player/player.swf Intel has released its financial report for Q2 2010, and things are lookin’ good. I know finances aren’t really the focus of CG, so let’s stick to the interesting bits: Atom sales are up 16% to $413 million (they’re appearing in more than just netbooks) $2.9 billion in net income, i.e. → Read More
It’s 2010, and we’re still exchanging printed business cards. There are quite a few solutions to digitize the cards, but most existing scanners, for example, aren’t practical enough. This is where Pitrec [JP], a new handheld for digitizing business cards made by Japanese stationery maker King Jim, comes in. → Read More
Yesterday we learned that Intel tore it up during the first quarter of 2010. Good for them, but what about longtime rival AMD? Turns out they’re doing nicely as well, with record quarter revenue and signs of general recovery for the semiconductor business. I won’t get into the details (check the Register) but it looks like the daring footwork done over the last couple years is paying… → Read More
The recession is over! —for the semiconductor industry, at least. Intel has reported monster numbers for its first quarter, showing over $10bn in revenue, a huge jump over last year. Recovery of demand in places like China has driven the numbers, and Intel is happy as a clam — so much so that they’re going to be hiring a thousand or more workers. I’d also guess that the success of the… → Read More
Patents, patents, everywhere! It seems you can’t swing a cat these days without infringing on someone’s patent. The latest victim/perp is Microsoft; an Illinois doctor is suing them because of a patent he was granted in 2002 which allegedly covers the Zune’s ability to tag a song directly from the radio and then download that song once an internet connection is established. Obviously it’s for the… → Read More
With a list of allegedly infringed patents as long as my arm, Apple could be considered as filing this lawsuit with nothing but the idea of getting what’s rightfully theirs. I imagine that’s true as far as it goes, but there’s a little more to it and I think this conflict may expose even further the cracks that are appearing in our patent and trademark system. → Read More
Woo! It’s finally over with. Panasonic has completed its acquisition of Sanyo, which has been in the works for some time now. Hopefully it’s a good thing for Sanyo, and I’m sure we’ll see Sanyo branding for a long time to come. Just thought you should know. → Read More
A few weeks ago, Microsoft made a minor splash by announcing they’d offer an ad-supported version of Microsoft Office. Most of the functionality would be there, but there’d be an ad down there in the corner. A tempest briefly raged in this teapot, but died down once people realized they’d been using ad-supported software for years and never even thought to complain. After all… → Read More
Nobody expected that this Apple-Psystar affair would be rapid or easy, but at this point it’s positively interminable. Psystar has just switched out a lawyer, who probably just about keeled over from constantly parrying Apple’s well-founded injunctions against his client’s business. Here’s hoping Mr. Welker takes a well-deserved vacation. → Read More
I was on a panel a few weeks ago with Rob Enderle a few weeks back and he was asked by an international journalist what he expected in terms of financial news in the next few months. He made a very interesting point that, being an Apple fanboy, I ignored at the time. He said that Windows 7 would drive a whole new wave of hardware buying and inflate (in a good way) IT spending. I filed this tidbit… → Read More
Word on the web is that Apple’s latest and greatest, the iPhone 3G S has been sporadically popping up on AT&T’s Premier business customer site. A few folks on the MacRumors forums have reported spotting it on the Premier customer site as early as yesterday afternoon, and a few users got very close to putting a preorder in, before being rejected right at the very end. → Read More
So we got the big reveal: a new iPhone, some hidden tricks in Snow Leopard and the iPhone OS, a lot of rumor run-up and, most importantly, a Jobs-less keynote. In the end we saw another incremental keynote, a session of chest-beating (Palm’s “18 Pre apps in its app store” slide got quite a chuckle and I heard a man audibly orgasm when he heard about the compass app) and… → Read More
We hear of so many frivolous and petty lawsuits against (and from) Apple, it’s a bit weird to see one actually connect like this. A serious technical suit filed in 2007 alleged that Apple willfully violated a patent owned by Opti Inc. Apple did it’s darnedest, but in the end got their buns handed to them. → Read More
In news that will surely shake the computer world to its very core, it has been revealed that Apple has shipped less computers this last year than the previous one. Mother of God. We may as well all just surrender to oblivion. → Read More
There are two sets of combatants in the long war of attrition called the iPhone Unlock Conflict. The newest battle is over the latest firmware, 3.0, and it’s starting to show how these two parties, the Dev Team and the Unofficial QuickPwn Hackers, are entering a new stage of conflict.
Jailbreaking, for those not in the know, is the process of unlocking the iPhone’s filesystem in order to install… → Read More
Sandisk may be the target of yet another buy out attempt. Rumors are starting to go around again that both Samsung and Toshiba are looking to make an attempt. Analysts are skeptical, but no one knows anything for sure as none of the companies involved wanted to comment. → Read More
NVIDIA is known primarily for their PC graphics cards, but they’ve been in the news recently both for the expansion of their CUDA and PhysX initiatives as well as (allegedly) developing a CPU to challenge Intel and AMD. They’ve been proponents of parallel processing for quite a while, naturally, and have made some investments in companies like MotionDSP and Elemental Technologies, both of which… → Read More
This isn’t exactly new, in the strictest definition of the word, but why let that stop us? A group of Sirius XM creditors, creditors whose money makes the company hum on a daily basis, have threatened to seek the ouster of chief executive officer Mel Karmazin if the company files for bankruptcy. (Remember: that could happen as early as tomorrow.) The WSJ notes, however, that the odds of this… → Read More
We heard rumors about it a couple months ago, and indeed it appears that Eidos will be bought by Square-Enix, for “32 pence a share in cash.” They’re paying in funny money! Well, no. They’re paying in yens. → Read More
There’s nothing solid on this yet, but there are murmurs (from respectable, if not necessarily reliable sources) that Panasonic may be girding its loins to buy itself some Leica. Perhaps not all of it, perhaps just a little bit, but they’re definitely sniffing around. Given Leica’s skill with glass and Panasonic’s with consumer electronics, they might make a good team in… → Read More
Midway Games, famous for developing the Mortal Kombat franchise and other games, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. They cite the onset of debt troubles as the cause.
It doesn’t come as a surprise to the shareholders, really, but that doesn’t make it any less sad to see yet another…fatality of the market. → Read More
In a move that has shocked investors and industry analysts, Nintendo has adjusted its expected net down from ¥345bn to ¥230bn, a drop of more than a billion dollars. Do they know something we don’t? → Read More
Just so you know it isn’t just the younger players dropping jobs like it’s going out of style, it looks like the blue chips are feeling it, too. IBM and TI filed their papers just recently and they have been found to be scraping the bottom as well. TI more than IBM, but still. Condolences to all. → Read More
Seagate’s earnings report was released today, and it was revealed that during the most recent quarter, they had a net loss of $496 million. That’s a lot! Of course, the fact is most companies are showing enormous drops in revenue, and are weathering it variously well depending on their volume and incidental costs like restructuring, acquisitions and so on.
I’d be more worried about their actual… → Read More
It’s about time for eBay to reveal its fourth quarter income, revenues and all that to investors, and no one is expecting anything but bad news. The company’s revenue, despite increasing competition from every angle, has grown for ten years straight, but it looks like that simply wasn’t sustainable lately, and they’re going to post a decline in income. eBay is philosophical about it, however, and… → Read More
More bad news for AMD. They announced today that they would be reducing their workforce even further. This will be their third round of layoffs, and things are not looking good for the future. At least with Intel, NVIDIA, and other semicondunductor companies also feeling the hurt, AMD doesn’t have to suffer alone. → Read More
Actually, there’s a real reason they’re splitting. Their LCD and semiconductor arms will be combining, being the two most stricken in these dark economic times, which leaves mobile and media to be together in (hopefully) lasting harmony. Sudden loss of credit (that probably never existed really) and loss of consumer confidence have hammered income in their LCD and memory sectors, normally cash… → Read More
Intel released its quarterly earnings report today, which revealed a 90% drop in profits compared to the same quarter last year. I’m no economy major, but if I try to work through the jargon I believe they’re saying that their profits dropped by 90% over a year period.
Considering how much of a lead they have on rival AMD (also hurting) and the immense popularity of Atom-based netbooks, this… → Read More
Looks like we’re going to be seeing price increases of about 10% on Nikon glass come February 1st. Although a reason was not really given (it’s not even confirmed by Nikon yet), it makes sense after prices were raised in other countries. Japanese exports are down and consumer spending is dropping as well; I guess Nikon is thinking that if someone is going to spend $6000 on a lens, they’re probably… → Read More
Looks like Seagate is being dashed on the rocks by the worldwide financial gale as much as anyone else. In addition to cutting nearly 3000 jobs, they’re changing course by giving their CEO the boot.
Not only are sales down, but their flagship line of hard drives has been plagued with failures (including this bargain drive, which I urge you not to buy at the moment). And just lately the failures… → Read More
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