Legit Reviews News History
China's 4G wireless launch leapfrogs 3G
China, still working on its long-delayed homegrown third-generation wireless standard, has leapfrogged itself by launching the world's first fourth-generation standard, state media said on Monday.
A group of 10 "leading domestic institutions" called the "FuTURE Project" on Sunday rolled out 4G in Shanghai, the official China Daily reported. China aims to hold field tests for the 4G system--whose rollout has cost 150 million yuan ($19.3 million) and will allow data transmission at up to 100 megabytes per second, several times faster than current technology--and put it into trial commercial use up until 2010, the paper added.
Posted by | Mon, Jan 29, 2007 - 08:11 AM
A-Data 4Q profits slashed by over 60% on quarter
The nosedive of NAND flash pricing in the fourth quarter of 2006 has led memory module maker A-Data Technology to record that its quarterly profit slashed by over 60% on quarter. A-Data records its gross margins reduced to below 5% in the fourth quarter 2006 from above 8% in the third quarter. Net profits (pre-tax un-audited) at NT$304 million (US$9.2 million), represented a sharp fall of 67% on quarter. Quarterly revenues totaled at NT$14.6 billion, representing a 8.6% on year growth.
Projecting its sales in January 2007, A-Data said a further 20% sequential drop should be seen due to traditional seasonality and the persistent price pressure for both DRAM and NAND flash. For the whole first quarter, A-Data said it expects to see some chip makers introduce price protection schemes to stop the downward price trend and this should help hold the company's quarterly revenues firm. Despite having a sluggish fourth quarter result, A-Data's full year revenues still enjoyed a 38% on year leap to NT$44.1 billion with net profits amounting to NT$1.6 billion, representing a 26.7% on year growth. Earnings per share (EPS) for the whole year were NT$11.91..
Posted by | Mon, Jan 29, 2007 - 08:10 AM
GoDaddy pulls security site after MySpace complaints
A popular computer security Web site was abruptly yanked offline this week by MySpace.com and GoDaddy, the world's largest domain name registrar, raising questions about free speech and Internet governance.
MySpace demanded that GoDaddy pull the plug on Seclists.org, which hosts some 250,000 pages of mailing list archives and other resources, because a list of thousands of MySpace usernames and passwords was archived on the site. GoDaddy claims its customers own about 18 million domains. GoDaddy complied. In a move that Seclists.org owner Fyodor Vaskovich said happened with no prior notice, the company deleted his domain name--causing his site to be effectively unreachable for about seven hours on Wednesday until he found out what was happening and removed the password list.
Posted by | Fri, Jan 26, 2007 - 09:54 AM
New zero-day Word attack strikes
Hackers are exploiting a new, unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Word that could allow them to take control of a victim's computer, Symantec has warned. The zero-day vulnerability is the fourth in Microsoft's widely used Word 2000 software that has not yet been patched, the security company said in its Security Response Weblog. A zero-day vulnerability refers to a security hole for which exploits are already available when it was discovered.
The attack comes via an infected Word document, a method increasingly used by hackers for targeted attacks. If the document is opened, it installs a Trojan horse program, called Trojan.Mdropper.W, onto the computer, Lau wrote. The Trojan also puts other files on a computer that enable a hacker to control it. Microsoft could not be immediately reached for comment. The company released three sets of critical patches on Jan. 9, including ones for Outlook, PowerPoint, and Windows, but not for Word.
Posted by | Fri, Jan 26, 2007 - 09:52 AM
Vista delay reduces Microsoft earnings
The long delay in launching the Windows Vista computer operating system hurt fiscal second-quarter profit at Microsoft, which reported a 28 percent drop in earnings Thursday despite revenue growth that exceeded forecasts.
In the last three months of the year, earnings fell to $2.63 billion, or 26 cents a share, from $3.65 billion, or 34 cents a share, during the same period last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected the Redmond, Wash., software maker to post earnings of 23 cents a share.
Posted by | Fri, Jan 26, 2007 - 09:51 AM
Elpida predicts DRAM prices to drop by 20% in 1Q
While reporting its profit grew by 25% on year in the fourth quarter of 2006 due to strong DRAM pricing, Elpida Memory foresees intensifying price pressure in the first quarter 2007 and estimates that overall prices will drop by 20%, according to the company. Elpida reports record sales and profits in the fourth quarter of 2006, attributing the strong records to capacity expansion at its E300 fab and more procurement from foundry partners. Cost reductions also contributed to profitability and prices of DDR2 stayed stable in the fourth quarter, the company said.
Although projecting a 20% on quarter bit growth in the first quarter of 2007, Elpida said DRAM ASP is not going to reduce by less than 10%. This is contrary to expectations "on the street" for a 10% on quarter ASP drop. However, the Japanese chipmaker does note that price drop for PC OEMs will not be as much as 20% as demand for Windows Vista is strong and prices should sustain stability in this sense. Already negotiating prices with OEMs for February, Elpida did, however, see some customers request reductions up to 20%.
Posted by | Fri, Jan 26, 2007 - 09:50 AM
AMD Announces Strategic Partnership with TCL Computer
AMD today announced that TCL Computer Tech. Co. Ltd., one of China's fastest-growing PC manufacturers, will offer customers a range of commercial notebooks and desktops based on high-performing, energy-efficient AMD64 processors. AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor-based desktop systems from TCL Computer are immediately available, and AMD64-powered notebooks are expected to launch in April 2007.
"As a leading PC provider in China, TCL Computer is committed to bringing value to our customers, creating opportunities for our people, and helping to improve our society," said Mr. Yang Weiqiang, vice president of TCL Corporation and general manager of TCL Computer Tech. Co. Ltd. "Our cooperation with AMD is the result of our commitment to responding to market needs. As a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions, AMD provides our customers diversified choices as well as state-of-the-art open platforms."
Posted by | Thu, Jan 25, 2007 - 08:29 AM
Sony to launch high-end PS3 in Europe
Sony said on Thursday it will launch the high-end version of its PlayStation 3 game console on March 23 in Europe, but it has no plan at the moment to offer the basic model there.
Sony started selling both the high-end model with a 60GB hard-disk drive and the basic model with a 20GB drive in Japan and North America last November. The 60GB model, which will sell for about $775, will also become available in Africa, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand on March 23.
Posted by | Thu, Jan 25, 2007 - 08:25 AM
TSMC earnings drop, sees weak Q1
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract chip maker, reported its worst quarterly net profit in a year and a half on Thursday, as a global chip glut worsened and orders fell.
The current quarter, January-March, will be even worse, TSMC executives said, but it will mark the bottom of the current chip industry downturn. Industry analysts and investors watch TSMC carefully for signs of the health of the global technology industry because the company manufactures chips for so many different kinds of gadgets that it has a unique view of what's going on behind the scenes.
Posted by | Thu, Jan 25, 2007 - 08:24 AM
Rumor: AMD may remain at low-point until launch of AM2+ and K8L in 3Q
With AMD reporting huge losses for the fourth quarter of 2006, motherboard makers in Taiwan say the US chipmaker has plunged to its lowest point, and may not regain its competitive edge until the launch of the Socket AM2+ platform and K8L architecture based CPUs in the third quarter 2007.
The motherboard makers noted that according to AMD's planning, no major 64-bit dual-core processors will be unveiled in the first half of 2007. Processors based on AMD's new K8L architecture, which are currently known by the codenames Agena FX (quad-core), Agena (high-end dual-core), and Kuma (mid-range dual-core), will not hit the market until the third quarter 2007, the makers pointed out. AMD will also have to worry about capacity shortages, the makers said. Dell's adoption of AMD processors in the fourth quarter of 2006 has triggered a serious shortage in AMD processors, and has seen some of the chipmaker's partners, such as Micro-Star International (MSI), raising their proportion of Intel-based products, the makers said.
Posted by | Thu, Jan 25, 2007 - 08:20 AM
January 24th news from around the Web
Wednesday's News from Around the Web
"I always like a product that does what it says it will and does it well. Saitek has such a product in the A-100 My Spkr. This simple yet elegant device belts out the tunes with impressive clarity and the bass response is really amazing for its size. Small light and portable, the A-100 may find a large audience."
Posted by | Wed, Jan 24, 2007 - 03:37 PM
VIA Announces PCI Express Chipset for Vista-Ready Mobility
VIA Technologies today announced the launch of the VIA VN896 digital media mobile IGP chipset for the VIA C7-M processor, certified Vista Basic-ready by Microsoft and designed to provide users with unsurpassed visual clarity for notebooks and the new breed of ultra mobile devices.
The VIA VN896 chipset features the VIA Chrome9 HC integrated graphics processor (IGP) featuring a DirectX 9.0 3D accelerator for high performance and a 2D accelerator for productivity applications. The 3D graphics engine of the VN896 chipset offers the industry’s only simultaneous usage of single-pass multitexturing and single-cycle trilinear filtering, providing stunning image quality without performance loss. Also integrated is the latest generation Chromotion video display engine, featuring advanced video processing, including acceleration for MPEG-2 decoding, and picture enhancement through adaptive de-interlacing technology and video deblocking, all executed in hardware to offset the processor workload.
Posted by | Wed, Jan 24, 2007 - 11:17 AM
Move over Silicon Valley, here come Europe's start-ups
A technology and media conference being held in Germany this week has provided ample evidence that Silicon Valley's dominance of Internet-style technology innovation is waning. The gathering, Digital Life Design, has become a showcase for a range of European entrepreneurs who have taken the start-up culture pioneered in Silicon Valley as a template and are successfully transplanting it here.
"The epicenter was Silicon Valley, but that has created a wave of innovation that has now reached the entire world," said Yossi Vardi, an Israeli entrepreneur and investor who financed his son's development of ICQ, an early Internet chat program later sold to America Online. Internet start-ups in Europe received a significant boost last month with the initial public offering of Open BC/Xing, a German Web site that is a competitor of the American site LinkedIn for social networking among businesses.
Posted by | Wed, Jan 24, 2007 - 11:15 AM
Sun-Intel partnership may spark price war in x86 server market
The strategic alliance formed by Sun Microsystems and Intel has sent competitors worrying that it will spark a price war in the x86 server market, according to market sources. Sun, which chiefly focused on the high-end RISC server market, has teamed up with Intel apparently to raise its x86 server shipments and share of the market, the sources said. While average selling prices (ASPs) for x86 servers have dropped to almost unprofitable levels, growing competition from Sun will send prices further down, the sources added.
In Taiwan, IBM and Dell has launched one-way x86 servers at NT$10,000-20,000 (US$303-606). The ASPs for two-way x86 servers have also dropped below NT$100,000, with margins declining from the previous 20% to the present 10%, the sources said. The sources remarked that Sun's partnership with Intel may create more orders for Sun's OEMs, Mitac International and Tyan Computer.
Posted by | Wed, Jan 24, 2007 - 11:13 AM
Microsoft already planning Vista service pack SP1
Windows Vista is not even fully out the door, but Redmond is already laying the groundwork for its first service pack release of bug fixes and other enhancements for the operating system.
"We expect Windows Vista SP1 to be a standard service pack that will include security updates and hot fixes, as well as limited other changes focused on improving overall quality," the representative said. Microsoft said it was "too early to provide any firm date range" for SP1, but said, "In general, we expect the first service pack for Windows Vista to be released in a timeframe similar to that of service packs for previous versions of Windows."
Posted by | Tue, Jan 23, 2007 - 09:36 PM
Intel Core 2 Duo Ad Spotted on Boobie Name Generator Site
One of our readers with a sharp eye sent us over a link to a site that he found off MySpace. What makes this interesting is the fact that it has an Intel Core 2 Duo video ad that was generated on a site that names your boobies and then gives you the code to add it to your profile. Sure enough when we checked out the URL we got to name our boobies and listen to an ad for the Core 2 Duo.
Posted by | Tue, Jan 23, 2007 - 09:54 AM
Google to run video ads from BMG, Warner
Google Inc. said on Monday it would expand testing of its much-anticipated video advertising system by working with two major music labels to embed video ads on Web sites that make money running them.
Google said it would distribute advertising alongside videos from Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group over its AdSense online ad system to Web site publishers in a four-week test now underway. "Over the past few months, we have run tests to figure out how we work with our partners and advertisers to combine high quality video content with ads and then distribute them (over) the Google AdSense network," Google said in statement.
Posted by | Tue, Jan 23, 2007 - 08:12 AM
Two snowflakes may actually be alike
The old adage that "no two snowflakes are alike" might not hold true, at least for smaller crystals, new research suggests.
"How likely is it that two snowflakes are alike? Very likely if we define alike to mean that we would have trouble distinguishing them under a microscope and if we include the crystals that hardly develop beyond the prism stage—that is, the smallest snow crystals," Nelson said. "Good luck finding them though," he added. "Even if there were only a million crystals and you could compare each possible pair once per second—that is, very fast—then to compare them all would take you about a hundred thousand years."
Posted by | Tue, Jan 23, 2007 - 08:11 AM
India's outsourcing industry to grow by 32.6 percent
Benefitting from a boom in offshore outsourcing, India's software and services exports are estimated to grow by 32.6 percent to over $31 billion in the Indian fiscal year to March 31, according to data released Tuesday by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom).
IT services including software development are expected to contribute $18 billion to exports in the year to March 31, while business process outsourcing (BPO) and call centers are likely to contribute another $8.3 billion, according to Nasscom in Delhi. Engineering services, research and development (R&D) services, and product development work are expected to contribute a further $5.0 billion. The data includes exports by both Indian outsourcing companies, and Indian operations of multinational services and technology companies like IBM, Dell, Oracle, and Accenture.
Posted by | Tue, Jan 23, 2007 - 08:09 AM
Intel seeking graphics-processing talent
It looks like Intel is gearing up for a high-level project to develop discrete graphics chips as part of its future product direction, according to a job ad spotted by Beyond3D. The report notes that Intel's Visual Computing Group has put out the call for developers interested in "developing discrete graphics products based on a many-core architecture targeting high-end client platforms."
Now, it looks like with AMD having announced plans to integrate the PC processor and a graphics processor by 2008, Intel is planning a similar project. The company's job posting says initial development will focus on discrete chips, the kind used in high-end PCs purchased by gamers. But it also sounds like Intel wants to incorporate graphics technology into future multicore processors, based on this line: "VCG will initially focus on discrete graphics products but will also expand the previous charter to include developing plans for accelerated CPU integration."
Posted by | Tue, Jan 23, 2007 - 08:07 AM
Intel to push development of Mini-ITX form factor mini PCs
Intel plans to push the market for mini PCs by promoting sales of motherboards based on the Mini-ITX form factor developed by VIA Technologies, starting in the second quarter of this year, according to sources at Taiwan motherboard makers.
According to Intel's roadmap, the Mini-ITX will be one of the form factors for the platforms based on entry-level processors, and Intel will also recommend that PC makers use Mini-ITX motherboards for the production of small- form-factor (SFF) PCs, the sources indicated. Intel also recommends the use of SIS662 integrated chipsets from Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) for the production of Mini-ITX motherboards, the sources revealed. Although currently mini PCs are available from a number of companies, including AOpen, Shuttle and Acer, production of those SFF PCs are rather limited due to a lack of industry standards, the sources noted.
Posted by | Tue, Jan 23, 2007 - 08:05 AM
NVIDIA Corporation to Open the NASDAQ Today
Wanted to give our readers the heads up that NVIDIA is opening the stock market today! Behind the scenes NVIDIA Quadro technology is powering the NASDAQ MarketSite Tower and Video Wall. Commanding attention in New York City’s Times Square, the NASDAQ MarketSite Tower is the largest stationary video screen in the world—completely powered by NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics. If you want to watch NVIDIA's Jen-Hsun Huang open the market you can watch the webcast here.
The Video Wall in the NASDAQ MarketSite Studio incorporates 96 high-resolution multimedia screens driven by NVIDIA Quadro FX 5500 high-end graphics, showcasing 3D graphics created with eStudio software by Brainstorm Multimedia, a software solution capable of producing multimedia for real-time 3D graphics, virtual sets and on-air graphics.
Posted by | Tue, Jan 23, 2007 - 08:02 AM
January 22 News From Around the Web
Monday's Web Reviews
"Spire has done a great job with the VertiCool III in regards to its cooling ability. It holds up well against some pretty good competition while bringing a bit of its own individuality to the table. The addition of a fan speed control device will allow the user to dial in just the right noise-to-performance ratio for their particular hardware and environment. It doesn't have any fancy lighting or other visual enhancements, just great performance."
Posted by | Mon, Jan 22, 2007 - 10:35 AM
Sun to Tap Intel as Additional Chip Supplier
Computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. will announce on Monday plans to use microprocessors from No. 1 chip maker Intel Corp., according to a source familiar with the situation, in what would be a blow to Intel's smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Under the agreement, Sun Microsystems will buy Intel's Xeon chips to power its servers, in addition to AMD's Opteron chips that Sun uses, the source said. Sun has scheduled a news conference for Monday morning at a San Francisco hotel but declined to give further details. An Intel spokesman declined to comment.
Posted by | Mon, Jan 22, 2007 - 10:27 AM
India's space hopes soar as capsule returns to Earth
India's space agency said on Monday an orbiting capsule had been successfully returned to Earth, marking a major step toward the development of a highly prized manned space program.
The capsule was blasted into space as one of four payloads on January 10 from a launch pad 60 miles north of the southern city of Chennai. It splashed down in the Bay of Bengal 11 days later, boosting plans for a lunar mission in 2008.
Posted by | Mon, Jan 22, 2007 - 10:25 AM
AMD cuts prices for mid- and low-end processors
AMD has announced price cuts for its mid- and low-end Athlon 64 X2 processors amid earlier reports that Intel plans to slash prices for its older Pentium D CPUs.
According to AMD's website, pricing for high-end Athlons, including the FX series, X2 5600+ and 5400+ remains unchanged, while the X2 5200+ saw a hefty cut from US$403 to US$295. Reductions continue down the rest of the range with prices falling around US$25 at the top of the scale to around US$15 at the bottom.
Posted by | Mon, Jan 22, 2007 - 10:21 AM
'Nvidia only' strategy pays off for XFX
When Nvidia launched its GeForce 8800, the whole camp of Nvidia camp graphics card makers was elated, and among them was Pine Technology, which markets graphics cards under the XFX brand name. Based in Hong Kong, Pine has been a loyal Nvidia supporter ever since the company decided to concentrate on the graphics card market. Now, one of Nvidia's key AIC (add-in-cards) partners, Pine is a strong player in a market dominated by competitors from Taiwan.
The graphics card market has been seeing big changes since AMD acquired ATI. The future status of ATI products and Intel's integrated graphics processor (IGP) chipsets will have a crucial impact on the market. ATI dominated the market before 2000. After that, ATI’s R&D, card performances and marketing were in general rather inefficient in terms of "time to market." That gave Nvidia the opportunity. Nvidia started to flex its muscles with the launch of the GeForce FX series. Then, the 6 and 7 series took the market by storm. The 8800GTX/GTS launched in November 2006 are killer products. In contrast, among ATI's last series, only the X1950PRO can effectively compete with Nvidia's GeForce 7900GS in the cost-performance ratio, while the Radeon X1950XTX (codenamed R580+), which only supports DirectX 9.0, is unable to compete with the G80...
Posted by | Fri, Jan 19, 2007 - 09:51 AM
Storm Worm hits computers around the world
Computer virus writers attacked thousands of computers on Friday using an unusually topical email citing raging European storms, a security company said. The virus, which the company named "Storm Worm," was emailed to hundreds of thousands of addresses globally with the subject line "230 dead as storm batters Europe."
An attached file contained so-called malware that can infiltrate computer systems. "What makes this exceptional is the timely nature of the attack," Mikko Hypponen, head of research at Finnish data security firm F-Secure, told Reuters. . Hypponen said thousands of computers, most in private use, had been affected.
Posted by | Fri, Jan 19, 2007 - 09:47 AM
Asetek Receives $4 million in Venture Capital
Asetek, the market leader of thermal management solutions for semiconductors, announced today the investment of $4 million following the investment of $5 million closed last year. Northzone Ventures, Vaekstfonden, KT Venture Group, and a group of private investors participated in the round.
Thermal management is more important than ever: with the arrival of native 4, 8 and 16-core CPUs, multi-CPU motherboards, rapidly increasing graphics chip power, increasing end-user demand for smaller form factors/lower acoustic emission, and finally datacenters that are struggling with cooling and density problems. Asetek has different state-of-the-art solutions to ease this increasing pain. ”During 2007 I expect Asetek to engage in partnerships that enabled by Asetek’s thermal solutions will develop innovative new product concepts in terms of form factors, solution designs and performance,” said Gregers Kronborg, Chairman of Asetek and General Partner with Northzone Ventures. “Asetek will make the thermal solution an enabling design parameter to be considered strategically up front rather than a necessary evil fitted at the back end.”
Posted by | Thu, Jan 18, 2007 - 09:44 AM
China: 2 million teens hooked on Web
hinese teenagers are getting addicted to the Internet and taking to crime at a younger age than in any other country, state media reported on Wednesday. Of China's 18.3 million teen Internet users, more than 2 million were addicts, with "good kids who impress their parents and teachers" the most vulnerable to the affliction, the China Daily said, citing a study by the Communist Youth League.
Most Internet addicts were male and aged between 15 and 20, Gao said, with as many as 15 percent of those in large cities needing "urgent help". Gao blamed a lack of diversions at schools, forcing addicts into often illegal Internet cafes and exposing them to crime and violence. "They will naturally turn to the virtual world if they cannot find an outlet for their energy either at home or school," he said.
Posted by | Thu, Jan 18, 2007 - 09:20 AM
Tech pay on the rise in Illinois
The Illinois Information Technology Association, representing 400 tech companies in the state, reported in its first salary survey of tech companies that pay is expected to increase this year by 4.2 percent for staff and 4.3 percent for management.
he survey found that average total compensation was for chief executives, $238,384; chief operating officers, $206,800; chief technology/chief information officers, $168,210; senior technology architects, $120,308, and junior software engineers, $70,504.
Posted by | Thu, Jan 18, 2007 - 09:16 AM
Microsoft Vista will be available via download
Microsoft Corp. will make its new Windows Vista operating system available for sale and download online, marking a new step for the software company, which has previously sold Windows only on packaged discs or pre-loaded on computers.
A relatively low number of computer users are likely to get Vista by downloading it from the Internet. But the mere availability indicates that Microsoft is fiddling with distribution methods for the extremely profitable franchise at the core of its business. The download program, being announced late Wednesday by the Redmond, Wash.-based software maker, will also include the Office 2007 line of software when both are released for consumers Jan. 30. At least initially, the huge downloads will be available in North America only.
Posted by | Thu, Jan 18, 2007 - 09:14 AM
Sony PS3s in stock show demand may be softening
More than half of a group of surveyed stores had Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 in stock, while Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s new Wii was sold out, an analyst said on Tuesday in a report signaling demand for the market leader's new console may be soft.
"Our channel checks yesterday of 52 retail stores, from boutiques to big-box retailers, showed that 28 of the 52 stores had PS3 consoles in stock, while none had Wii consoles in stock," American Technology Research analyst Paul-Jon McNealy said in the research note. He added that those stores with PS3s in stock typically had units numbering in the low single digits, with only one major retailer having 60-plus machines in stock.
Posted by | Thu, Jan 18, 2007 - 09:13 AM
Intel to invest in ClickandBuy
Intel Capital invested an undisclosed amount in Firstgate Holding, owner of hosted online payment system provider ClickandBuy.
The deal, announced on Wednesday, will help fund ClickandBuy's global expansion into Asia and Latin America and will strengthen it against competitors, the companies said. Intel Capital is the investment arm of Intel Corp. Around 7,000 merchants use ClickandBuy's payment system that can handle many different currencies, various tax schemes, credit card processing and live customer care. The system also features fraud prevention to protect customers and merchants against Internet fraud.
Posted by | Thu, Jan 18, 2007 - 09:11 AM
PC sales grow, but revenue remains flat
Shipments of desktops, notebooks and servers with processors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices grew by about 10 percent worldwide in 2006, according to figures released Wednesday from research firm Gartner. During the calendar year, 239.4 million PCs left factories.
For the year, revenue generated from worldwide PC sales across the industry, however, remained flat at $201.1 billion, according to the firm's early estimate. It doesn't appear that 2007 will bring much change. PC shipments will go up by 9.9 percent, Gartner predicts, but revenue will only climb to $201.3 billion. "It is going to be a tough year," said Charles Smulders, an analyst for Gartner.
Posted by | Thu, Jan 18, 2007 - 09:10 AM
IBM Quarter Looking Good
IBM shares have been on a consistent run since last quarter's impressive earnings beat, and many on Wall Street expect another solid performance when the company reports Thursday after the close.
For the fourth quarter, analysts polled by Thomson First Call peg Big Blue to make a profit of $2.19 a share on sales of $25.66 billion. "We expect IBM to post strong fourth-quarter results," Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst with Bernstein Research, wrote in a Tuesday note. His estimates are 6 cents above the current consensus on EPS and $320 million higher than the average revenue forecast.
Posted by | Thu, Jan 18, 2007 - 09:09 AM
Flash Player 9 ships for Linux
Adobe Systems has released Flash Player 9 for Linux, allowing users of the open-source operating system to create or use multimedia applications with the latest version of Flash. The launch comes six months after the Adobe released versions for Windows and Mac OS X.
Version 9 of the Flash Player runs scripts up to 10 times faster than previous versions, and also allows programmers to write portable applications exploiting more of the capabilities of Adobe's Flex 2 development platform, the company said Wednesday. The player's arrival on the Linux platform will mean Web site developers exploiting the latest Flash features can be sure of reaching the small percentage of Web surfers running Linux on their desktop.
Posted by | Wed, Jan 17, 2007 - 08:45 AM
Global digital-music sales nearly doubled in 2006
Global digital-music sales almost doubled in 2006 to around $2 billion, or 10 percent of all sales, but have not reached the industry's "holy grail" of offsetting the fall in CD sales, a trade organization said.
In its 2007 Digital Music Report, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said on Wednesday it expected digital sales to account for a quarter of all sales worldwide by 2010. The report said consumers last year downloaded 795 million tracks legally, up 89 percent on 2005, from almost 500 online music services available in 40 countries.
Posted by | Wed, Jan 17, 2007 - 08:43 AM
Motherboard shipments expected to grow over 6% in 2007
With many PC users having delayed their purchases in the fourth quarter of 2006, DRAMeXchange projects shipments in the first quarter of 2007 to be stronger. The research firm expects 40 million motherboards will ship in the first quater, which is a 6.7% on year increase, but a 6.8% sequential decline. Compared to 2006, overall motherboard shipments in 2007 are forecast to reach 162.3 million units, a 6.6% growth, according to the company.
In contrast to the usual 10% drop between the fourth and first quarters, the slip in shipments in the first quarter of 2007 is not as high. This mainly stems from the small shipment volume in the fourth quarter of 2006 and the increased motherboard purchase forecast for the first quarter, said DRAMeXchange.
Posted by | Wed, Jan 17, 2007 - 08:43 AM
Intel's Upcoming 45nm Penryn Processor has Booted 4 Major Operating Systems
During today's fourth quarter earnings announcement, Intel CEO Paul Otellini confirmed our story from last week, when he announced that Intel has already booted 4 operating systems (Windows Vista, XP, Linux and Apple Mac OS-X) with their upcoming 45nm processor. He went on to explain that these are good indicators of how healthy Intel's 45 nm manufacturing and future product designs are looking for later this year. Intel now plans to begin manufacturing production in the second half of the year and ramping up three 300mm factories in 2008. Since last June, Intel has introduced 29 server, desktop and laptop processors based on the Core Microarchitecture. Nine of those are quad-core server and desktop processors for in just over two months since our first launch.
Posted by | Tue, Jan 16, 2007 - 05:44 PM
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