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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

PCs sales in 2010: Tale of the Tablet (AP) : Technet

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PCs sales in 2010: Tale of the Tablet (AP) : Technet

PCs sales in 2010: Tale of the Tablet (AP)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 06:30 PM PST

By JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer Jordan Robertson, Ap Technology Writer – Wed Jan 12, 9:30 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – The story of the personal computer industry in the second half of 2010 could well be called "The Tale of the Tablet."

New data from market research firms Gartner Inc. and IDC released Wednesday offered more evidence that Apple Inc.'s iPad, which has essentially created the tablet market, is having a serious effect on PC sales.

Shipments of new PCs in the fourth quarter rose but not as strongly as either Gartner or IDC expected. Both blamed weak consumer demand, particularly in the U.S., and the iPad's influence, as it forced consumers to think twice about what type of device they'd like to buy.

Some 92 million PCs were shipped during the quarter, according to IDC. Gartner put the number at more than 93 million. The companies measure the market in different ways. The increases over last year, 2.7 percent by IDC's method, and 3.1 percent by Gartner's, were below each firm's prior estimates.

Total PC shipments in 2010 reached 346.2 million, a 13.6 percent increase, according to IDC, and 350.9 million units, according to Gartner.

While the iPad has energized the PC industry, it has also created a threat for the old guard of PC makers and their suppliers, which are scrambling to get in on the action. More than 7 million iPads were sold in the device's first six months on sale.

The threat to the PC industry is that people might buy fewer PCs, and buy tablets instead. Gartner and IDC emphasized that the extent to which that is happening still isn't known, but said the rise of tablets will create hard decisions for people about how to allocate their technology dollars.

What's also unclear is whether the trajectory of tablets' sales will follow what's happened with so-called "netbooks" — inexpensive, mini-PCs used mostly for surfing the Internet. Spurred by marketing pushes by PC makers and Intel Corp., the world's biggest PC processor maker, netbooks helped buoy the PC industry during the depth of the recession, as people sought bargains.

But expectations for those devices have come down. Some argue that the iPad has shown that tablets can be easier to use and perform better than stripped-down laptops. PC companies argue that new generations of chips with better graphics and other features will improve netbooks' performance.

David Daoud, an analyst with IDC, said the U.S. market was expected to shrink year-over-year last quarter given a strong fourth quarter in 2009.

"Growth has been steadily slowing throughout the year as weakening demand and competition from the Apple iPad constrain PC shipments," Daoud said in a statement. "This situation is likely to persist in 2011, if not get worse as a wave of media tablets could put a dent on the traditional PC market."

IDC cited "consumer fatigue" and people watching their budgets more closely as reasons for dampened interest in netbooks. It added that the industry has more to worry about than tablets: Softening demand in Asia and the potential for ripple effects in other regions represents "the biggest potential shift in PC growth" this year, said Jay Chou, another IDC analyst.

Both firms noted that PC sales to corporations were strong, as companies replace old machines.

"Overall, holiday PC sales were weak in many key regions due to the intensifying competition in consumer spending," Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said. "Media tablets, such as the iPad, as well as other consumer electronic devices, such as game consoles, all competed against PCs."

"The bright side of the PC market during the fourth quarter of 2010 was a steady growth in the professional market driven by replacement purchases," Kitagawa added. "For all 2010, the results indicate the PC market recovered from the recession, as it returned to double-digit growth, compared to low single-digit growth in 2009. However, the PC market will face challenges going forward with more intensified competition among consumer spending."

IDC had the top three PC makers in the quarter as Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and Acer Inc. Gartner had them as HP, Acer and Dell.

Wall Street will get more insight into the PC industry's trends in the when Intel reports its fourth quarter numbers Thursday afternoon. Intel CEO Paul Otellini has said repeatedly that the PC industry is robust and growing, with more than 1 million PCs now being sold every day.

Review: Technology helps golfers fine-tune game (AP)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 01:27 PM PST

By RON HARRIS, Associated Press Ron Harris, Associated Press – Wed Jan 12, 4:27 pm ET

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. – Golf is a constant quest for improvement, which is why new clubs, balls, training aids and other gadgets are introduced each year. If gadgets were truly the answer, of course, there would be more top-notch golfers littering the links.

Nonetheless, I tested a few new golf devices in the off-chance one might bring me a step closer to breaking 80 on a par-72 course for the first time. Although I didn't manage that, I found some promising companions.

• The Callaway uPro ($399.99), from Callaway Golf Company, is a GPS device about the size of a deck of cards. It tells you where you are in relation to the hole you're trying to knock the ball into.

Global positioning system technology is familiar to the golf bag, but the uPro has several notable features. It lets you download full-color, birds-eye-view video clips of the course you're playing, so you can see trees, fairway widths and hazards that lie around the blind corner.

I connected the uPro to my PC and downloaded some of my local golf course maps to the device.

There are both free and paid versions of various golf courses. A single course map costs $10, and multi-course packs go for as much as $180 for 150 courses of your choosing.

The free ones provide basic yardage to the green, icons representing hazards and a few other features. The "Pro" paid versions gave me the flyover videos.

The Pro version also helped me select the best clubs for my shots by giving me the distance from where I stood to the spot I wanted my ball to come to rest. Using a navigation pad on the device, I moved an on-screen icon to my desired landing spot, and uPro gave me the distance to that location.

As I played the nine-hole Candler Park course in Atlanta, uPro gave me accurate yardage for all of my shots. That helped my game when I made solid contact with the ball, though very little when I misfired a shot.

The uPro is a fine device with premium GPS capabilities. It's lightweight, and I barely felt it when I shoved it in my back pocket during shots. I was also able to keep score for my round with the uPro, which handled all the multitasking just fine. I'd buy it if I played a lot of long courses where distance data are at a premium, but it's disappointing to have to pay extra for the Pro course maps.

• The Garmin Approach S1 ($249.99), from Garmin International, is a nifty GPS watch that offers important course info at a glance. No golf aid I've ever tried was easier to use than this one. I simply put it on my wrist and headed to the course.

All the course data are free and appear automatically. When I got to the Stonemount Course in Stone Mountain, Ga., the Approach S1 immediately recognized the course and my hole and gave me the yardage to the front, middle and back of the green. The numbers adjusted automatically when I arrived at my next shot, the next hole, and so on.

I never had to press a button unless I wanted to measure the distance of a shot I just hit. I could simply glance at it and know that I had 143 yards to the middle of a green. I can't consistently hit 143 yards, but that battle is for another day.

• My favorite device was the Garmin Approach G5 ($349.99). It's a smart, waterproof handheld GPS device that gave me all the features I could want.

It had thousands of free, detailed golf course maps preloaded into memory, gave me accurate yardage for shots and allowed me to keep score for multiple players. Best of all, it's a touch-screen device with a brilliant display and intuitive menus.

The Garmin S1 merely provides yardage numbers. The G5 device gives you everything, in a detailed graphic display. It was easier and faster to input scores and plan shot strategy with Garmin's G5 than using the Callaway device, which has a similar feature.

To plan my shots, I used my thumb to move a red circle on the screen to my desired landing spot on each hole at Stonemount. I could quickly measure my shots and log distances into the device's memory. After the yardage was measured, I simply tapped an on-screen button to select the club I used. It only takes a few seconds.

After my round, I went home and connected the Approach G5 to my PC. I saved scorecards for each round and displayed them on a Web page. Garmin's free software (PC or Mac) also tracked the number of putts I tapped for the round (many), the number of greens I hit in regulation (few) and the average distance I hit with my clubs.

I won't be shooting under 80 any time soon. But I loved the full repertoire of features that the Garmin Approach G5 provided. It would make a good addition to my golf bag.

___

Online:

http://www.garmin.com

http://www.callawaygolf.com

Hands-on with HTC Evo Shift 4G, Motorola Cliq 2 QWERTY phones (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 01:13 PM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Wed Jan 12, 4:13 pm ET

Tablets and dual-core smartphones may have been hogging the spotlight at CES, but we also got a pair of high-profile, QWERTY-packing Android sliders at the show: the HTC Evo Shift 4G from Sprint, and the Motorola Cliq 2 for T-Mobile. I've got both handsets here at Gadget Hound world headquarters; read on for some first impressions.

Both the Evo Shift ($149 with a two-year contract, available now) and the Cliq 2 (due January 19, no pricing details yet) are staking out the middle ground of the emerging Android landscape.

For example, we're not talking cutting-edge processors here: The Evo Shift has a middle-of-the-road 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7630 processor, while the Cliq 2's 1GHz processor will pale compared to the dual-core Tegra 2 chips in upcoming hot-rod Android phones.

Also middling are the phone's cameras: 5MP each, with only the Evo Shift capable of HD video capture, while neither handset has a front-facing lens for video chat.

But neither Sprint nor T-Mobile are marketing these QWERTY devices as top-of-the-line Android phones, anyway. Sprint's $150 two-year contract plan for the Evo Shift is a good $50 less than its flagship Android handsets, while T-Mobile is positioning the Cliq 2 (which, I'd hope, will also end up in the $150 range) as a sensible, business-minded companion.

That's not to say that the Android 2.2-powered Evo Shift and the Moto Cliq 2 are devoid of cutting-edge features. The Evo, after all, works on Sprint's speedy 4G WiMax network, while the Cliq 2 (which is only a 3G phone) comes with the latest version of Motorola's Motoblur service, which offers features such as wireless backups and a steady stream of social messaging updates. They're also both capable of doing double-duty as mobile hotspots for nearby Wi-Fi devices.

Both handsets veer toward the bulky side — not too surprising, given that they each have slide-out QWERTY keypads. The Cliq 2 weighs in a a good 6.2 ounces, while the Evo Shift is slightly lighter at 5.8 ounces, and both devices are a little over a half-inch thick (the Cliq 2 is a hair thicker than the Evo Shift). That said, both phones managed to pass my pocket test — that is, each one fit comfortably in my front jeans pocket, even when sitting down.

The competing QWERTY phones both boast vivid, sharp-looking WVGA displays; because it's slightly shorter and squatter, though, the Evo Shift's display looks a bit bigger than the Cliq 2's, which went for a taller, narrower look.

The Evo Shift also scores points with its snazzy "Sense" skin, which comes with a great-looking analog-flip clock and animated weather widgets. The Cliq 2's Motorblur-enabled social networking widgets aren't bad, and they're perfectly functional, but lack the razzle-dazzle of HTC's Sense UI.

On the other hand, I preferred the smoother slider action on the Cliq 2, which slides open with a satisfying click. The Evo Shift 4G felt stiff when I slid the keypad open, and just sort of stopped when fully extended.

And that brings us to the main event: the QWERTY keypads themselves. The HTC Evo Shift (above) plays it safe with relatively conventional, roomy four-row keypad with chicklet-style keys.

The Cliq 2, meanwhile, goes a riskier route with a one-piece membrane, with the domed keys arranged honeycomb-style and squeezed together a little more tightly than they are on the Evo Shift.

At first glance, I thought I'd hate the Cliq 2 keypad; it looks chintzy, and I typically prefer individual QWERTY keys to the single-membrane approach.

But a funny thing happened as I launched into my testing: I quickly warmed to the Cliq's highly tactile keypad, my thumbs flying across the keys with nary a wrong tap. On the Evo Shift's wider keypad, my typing was more tentative, with the slippery keys a little tougher to distinguish from each other.

That's just my opinion, though. Make sure to test-drive both handsets yourself before getting one (or neither) of them. Speaking purely for myself, I'm split; I like the overall look and feel of the HTC Evo Shift 4G, but I prefer the Cliq 2's keypad.

Any questions? Let me know.

— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.

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CES 2011: End-of-show scrapbook (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 09:03 AM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Wed Jan 12, 12:03 pm ET

The biggest tech show of the year is a wrap. Now that the dust has settled, check out some of the coolest gadgets — including the Motorola Atrix laptop dock, a glasses-free 3-D TV and Nike's new GPS watch — that I didn't have time to write about in Vegas. I even have a star sighting to share.

Motorola Atrix 4G smartphone: more than meets the eye

When it's not being merely a dual-core Android phone, the 4G-ready Motorola Atrix can do double-duty as a laptop — seriously. Just plug the Android 2.2-powered smartphone into the back of this 11.6-inch laptop dock (which, as you can see below, drew quite a crowd after the Motorola news conference) to fire up a thin desktop app complete with e-mail, calendar and contact apps, as well as a full version of Firefox.

Another accessory that'll be available for the Atrix is this multimedia dock, which connects to a PC monitor and a keyboard for more Atrix-powered desktop action, or for viewing multimedia galleries and slideshows. (Pricing and availability for the Atrix laptop and multimedia docks have yet to be announced.)

ViewSonic's quick-and-dirty photo scanner

Don't have the patience to digitize your snapshots with an honest-to-goodness photo scanner? ViewSonic's new 8-inch photo frame/"copier" ($199) comes with a built-in, rear-facing 5MP camera and a retractable stand that holds the 4-by-6 picture you want scanned at precisely the right distance. Press a button, and the frame snaps a picture (there's no flash, so proper lighting is up to you), which you can then crop and store for instant slideshows. Clever, but clearly not for perfectionists.

LG's glasses-free, not-ready-for-prime-time 3-D HDTV

3-D without glasses was all the rage at CES this year, with both Toshiba and LG showing off their latest stabs at the still-nascent technology. I got the chance to check out LG's glasses-free 3-D display, and the results were … well, mixed. Yes, you can see decent-looking 3-D without big, bulky and expensive (in the case of active-shutter technology) glasses on your face, but you have to be standing in precisely the right place. LG helpfully painted a thick white line where we were supposed to stand about 5 yards from the screen. Move anywhere else — to the side, farther back or too close — and the 3-D effect turns into a blurry mess of double images. No wonder these things haven't shipped yet.

Snapstick video streaming

Remember Snapstick, the new player in the video streaming game that I blogged about last month? The company's founders made the trek out to CES to show off their prototype device and talk up the future of the service, which lets you "snap" Web-based videos from YouTube, Hulu or other sites onto your HDTV with your iPhone or Android handset, or via a PC or Mac browser add-on.

Snapstick is hoping HDTV and Blu-ray manufacturers will bake its Nvidia-powered technology into their latest devices. The company says it's already in talks with D-Link, maker of the new Boxee Box. The demo I saw looked pretty good — yes, HD is supported — and by designing its custom Firefox browser to identify itself as a garden-variety PC desktop version, Snapstick claims that it'll be immune to video blocking. Guess we'll find out when the first Snapstick devices ship (hopefully) in the second quarter.

Nike+ GPS-enabled SportsWatch

Sporty digital watches with built-in GPS sensors are nothing new, but Nike's upcoming 66-gram SportsWatch (due to arrive in May, no pricing details yet) sets itself apart with its cool styling and the USB port that's molded into the strap, perfect for uploading details of your latest run — including your route, times and strides — into your PC or Mac.

Verizon puts on an LTE show

Despite all the hoopla, Tuesday's Verizon iPhone announcement was a relatively low-key affair, or at least it was for those of us in attendance. Not so Verizon's CES news conference, which featured strobe lights, giant HD screens, pounding techno music and — wait for it — a smoke machine. (Unfortunately, I snapped the photo below several seconds after the smoke had cleared, although it still gives you a sense of the rock-star vibe that Verizon was going for.)

T-Mobile's new 4G spokesmodel makes a cameo

Nope, the star of T-Mobile's CES presser wasn't the LG G-Slate, the upcoming Android "Honeycomb" tablet that made an all-too-brief appearance in Sin City.

Instead, it was the charming Carly Foulkes — star of those new T-Mobile 4G commercials — who stole the show, gamely posing for pictures and introducing a new round of TV spots.

— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.

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Our Favorite Flash Games in Viral Views 16 (PC World)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 05:08 PM PST

Armando "Android" Rodriguez Armando "android" Rodriguez – Wed Jan 12, 8:08 pm ET

We're sorry for the lack of Viral Views last week: It seems like CES madness got the best of us and for that we'd like to offer you our sincerest apologies by giving you twice the Views this week. After all, we don't want to start the New Year off on the wrong foot. So to start the year off right, we bring you another offering of our favorite Flash-based browser games. We hope you enjoy them!

Exit Path

Exit Path has you running, sliding, jumping, and diving to avoid obstacles and make it to the end of a deadly arena. You can take as much time as you need to finish a level, but your ranking on the leaderboards will suffer as a result. You can even play multiplayer and race people all around the world.

Crush the Castle 2

Who needs Angry Birds when you can crush a castle? In Crush the Castle 2 you'll be launching cannonballs trying to take down the monarchy and their castles. Personally I prefer the CtC series over Angry Birds, there is only so much vengeance you can take on swine before it starts being stale.

Tower Of Doom

Best described as a tower defense game with only one tower, Tower Of Doom has you ravage the land with your ever growing evil tower. Upgrade your tower archers, fireballs, and freeze spells to show those pesky farmers who is the boss.

Fade

Run your llama heart out in Fade. The more you run, the more power-ups you can acquire to turn your weak little llama into a hulking charger of destruction. If you enjoyed Robot Unicorn Attack, you'll probably enjoy Fade as well.

Balloon in a Wasteland

One of the best games I've seen in quite a while, Balloon in a Wasteland has you defending yourself against hoards of monsters while trying to repair your crashed balloon and flee the wasteland. What makes this unique from other last stand flash games I have seen is that you have to rest to recover stamina in order to keep fighting. How long can you survive before the swarm overtakes you?

Corporation Inc.

Ever wanted to run your own company? Try out Corporation Inc. and see if you have what it takes to become CEO of a multibillion dollar company. Hire office drones, build bathrooms, and watch your corporate empire expand. Or you know, play like I do and go bankrupt within 10 minutes.

Thanks for dropping buy for this week's Viral Views (Part one). Again, we are sorry we weren't here last week. Just know that we still love you.

Like this? Visit GeekTech every Friday afternoon for more Viral Views; for best results, follow @viral_views on Twitter (that's with an underscore).

Hands-on impressions of the Nokia E7 (Digital Trends)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 03:54 PM PST

Jeffrey Van Camp Jeffrey Van Camp – Wed Jan 12, 6:54 pm ET

nokia-e7-ces-2011Nokia did its best to avoid CES this year, but we caught it at a small booth at the Digital Experience event. Nothing unreleased was on display, but we did get a chance to play with Nokia's E7, which is a lot like the N8, but with a nice slide-out, bump-up keyboard. When I reviewed the N8, one of the odd things about it was how much it seemed like it should have a slide-out keyboard. All of the design cues pointed toward one, but it remained a touch-only phone. The E7 is what I wanted the N8 to be (minus a new OS).

Representatives constantly told me that the E7 is only for business and the N8 is only for consumers, but aside from the keyboard, I failed to notice any significant changes. Both devices run Symbian v3.0, have 8MP cameras that record HD video, AMOLED screens, and a smooth brushed metal look. However, the E7′s screen is a bit larger at 4 inches and the device just looks slicker, overall. It also has a better grip to it and feels more solid than the N8.

I'd love to see more of this kind of design from Nokia. From a hardware standpoint, this is a fantastic device. I just wish it wasn't stuck running Symbian v3.0. I look forward to when they unveil their much-needed new MeeGo operating system. Nokia does not yet have a carrier contract to sell the E7 in the United States. It can be purchased for about $600-$640 online.

CES Demo

Here is a walk-through of the device by a Nokia representative. I apologize for the horrid lack of focus! I had a setting on the camera wrong.

Correction: Gadget Show story (AP)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 01:02 PM PST

By The Associated Press The Associated Press – Wed Jan 12, 4:02 pm ET

In stories on Jan. 2 and Jan. 3 about the International Consumer Electronics Show, The Associated Press provided an erroneous first name for a DisplaySearch analyst. He is Paul Semenza, not Richard.

CES Tablets Jockey for Traction Against Apple's iPad (NewsFactor)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 11:48 AM PST

Barry Levine, newsfactor.com Barry Levine, newsfactor.com – Wed Jan 12, 2:48 pm ET

The dust is settling from the big Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, and the positioning has begun. One of the hottest questions is which product will emerge as the second-place contender against Apple's iPad, the leader in the tablet category.

Going into CES, Samsung had a credible claim to second place with its Galaxy Tab being distributed by all four major U.S. carriers. The company said it shipped a million units in the first two months of release.

More Than 85 Tablets

But CES can reshuffle perception and momentum, as Nintendo's Wii and other devices can demonstrate. But while the gaming-console category is a battle between three contenders, including Microsoft and Sony, there was no shortage of tablets at this year's CES.

Some contenders included tablets from Lenovo, Dell, NEC, Acer, Motorola, Research In Motion, Toshiba, Samsung, ASUS and others. By some counts, more than 85 tablets were announced at the show.

Two tablets receiving a great deal of post-CES attention are Motorola's Xoom and RIM's PlayBook.

Motorola stoked anticipation for its tablet with a pre-show, highly engaging video that literally put its product on a pedestal -- under wraps as the latest evolution in a museum exhibition of the greatest tablets in history. The lineage started with the Ten Commandments.

As unveiled at CES, Motorola's Xoom sports dual-core processors, compatibility with 4G, HDMI-out, a two-megapixel camera in front and a five-megapixel camera in back, and a 10-inch screen. It also uses Android 3.0, known as Honeycomb, which has been optimized for tablets. And it has a secret asset -- a built-in barometer for measuring atmospheric pressure in case you want to predict your own weather.

RIM's PlayBook contains a one-gigahertz ARM processor, a seven-inch screen, 1GB of RAM, HDMI-out, and two cameras -- a three-megapixel in front and a five-megapixel in back. There's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and, for 3G connections, the PlayBook connects through Bluetooth to a BlackBerry smartphone.

Whither Sony, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard?

Other tablets that gained attention include Toshiba's, with a 10-inch display and what the company calls Adaptive Technology to automatically adjust visual and audio settings to match the environment. Vizio's Via Plus has three speakers for left, right and center spatial separation and an infrared emitter that can act as a universal remote for home theaters.

The ASUS Eee Pad Slider features a slide-out keyboard, and Lenovo showed the IdeaPad U1, which can flip between being a Windows 7 or Android notebook, or an Android tablet. And a dual-screen tablet from NEC, the Cloud Communicator, shown at CES as a prototype, could point to the next generation of tablet form factors.

Three companies were conspicuous in their absence at CES. Sony said it deliberately did not release a tablet for CES because it's carefully studying the market to find how its product can be differentiated. Microsoft, which so far is not a player in this category, has said it will be. And HP has said that early next month it will announce a lineup of products based on the Palm webOS, presumably including one or more tablets.

Michael Gartenberg, research director at the Gartner Group, said Android Honeycomb tablets in general will become a big challenger to the iPad. He noted that Sony has said its tablet strategy is based on Windows 7, which "so far has not been very successful."

Gartenberg pointed out that Microsoft talked about creating a Windows version for ARM mobile processors, but "didn't really talk about tablets all that much."

Current Analysis' Avi Greengart said that Xoom starts with three assets -- it's the first Honeycomb tablet, it has 4G LTE built in, and it will initially be distributed through Verizon Wireless. Because it's a 4G tablet, he said, "it is likely Verizon will advertise it, at least as a way to promote their new network."

Greengart said RIM's decision to tie its PlayBook to an accompanying BlackBerry smartphone isn't a good idea for the consumer market. But for the enterprise market, it's "a unique value proposition," he said, because "it's a boon for IT managers" who can more easily manage such a device as part of a fleet.

IBM and Samsung collaborate on chip research (AFP)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 05:38 PM PST

– Wed Jan 12, 8:38 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – US computer giant IBM and South Korean electronics titan Samsung have announced they will begin working together on ways to make better chips for smartphones and other gadgets.

Samsung researchers will team with scientists at the IBM Semiconductor Research Alliance in New York State to create computer processor "solutions that are optimized for performance, power consumption, and size."

"Collaborative innovation will be critical if the semiconductor industry is to continue driving new forms of consumer electronics and new methods of computing," said IBM microelectronics general manager Michael Cadigan.

"That's why we're excited to have Samsung scientists working with us at the most fundamental stages of the R&D process."

The companies are striving to develop chips to power a high-performance generation of "smarter, connected and more mobile" devices.

MySpace Confirms Sale Is Likely in the Near Future (Mashable)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 03:28 PM PST

Ben Parr Ben Parr – Wed Jan 12, 6:28 pm ET

MySpace has confirmed that parent company News Corp. is looking for a way to unload its flailing social web property.

MySpace's decline has been well chronicled, but the company hit its lowest point yet when it laid off 47% of its staff yesterday. While MySpace tried to claim that its new design shows promise, the reality is that there is no way to sugar-coat slashing half of your staff.

That's not all, though. Today, MySpace CEO Mike Jones has confirmed what we've suspected all along: The company is looking for someone to buy the failing property before it's too late.

"News Corp. is assessing a number of possibilities including a sale, a merger and a spinout [sic]. The process has just started," MySpace's Rosabel Tao recently told Bloomberg after a company-wide briefing from Jones.

At this point, there's little doubt that News Corp. wants to unload the money-draining Internet property. News Corp. could once justify its MySpace acquisition just from the hundreds of millions that Google paid it as part of its multi-year search deal.

However, while MySpace renewed its ad deal with Google last month, we hear that the terms were shifted significantly in Google's favor. In the old deal, MySpace was guaranteed around $900 million in search revenue. In contrast, there is no guaranteed money at all in the new deal. MySpace's revenue stream has been greatly reduced, and no redesign will bring Google's money back.

A few weeks ago, we predicted that News Corp. would sell MySpace this year. We just didn't expect that the media company was looking to offload its toxic Internet asset so soon. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Image based on photo by Flickr user derralynsarkohemo.

Mobile hotspot feature coming to all iPhones with iOS 4.3 (Appolicious)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 09:55 AM PST

Investors bet on Nvidia's new mobile chips (Reuters)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 04:06 PM PST

By Noel Randewich Noel Randewich – Wed Jan 12, 7:06 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Nvidia shares soared 15 percent on Wednesday, their biggest one-day rise in over two years, as investors bet the company's new chips would win it a major stake in future tablets and smartphones.

The rise in Nvidia's stock brought its gain since the company's debut last week of its new Tegra 2 dual-core mobile chips to about 50 percent.

Wedbush analyst Patrick Wang said the stock was "trading purely on momentum at this point."

He said he had been taking calls from clients to help them estimate how large an impact Nvidia's mobile chips could make on the market.

Nvidia's new chips, boasting powerful graphics processing horsepower, give it a lead but competition is expected to increase from Qualcomm and Texas Instruments.

"Look for all of Nvidia's competitors to come out and throw their hats in as well," Wang said. "You've got very large, powerful technology companies that are all going for the same market."

Micron Technology Inc shares rose 7.1 percent to $9.34 after investor relations vice president Kipp Bedard told investors at a Needham & Company conference that a downturn in prices for DRAM memory chips was turning around quickly.

Shares of Cisco, Dell and other technology heavyweights also rose ahead of bellwether Intel's kick-off of the technology sector's quarterly earnings season on Thursday.

Major technology companies are expected to keep up sales and profit growth in 2011, although concerns about economic growth in the United States and Europe could temper results.

PUSH INTO MOBILE

Nvidia, based in Santa Clara, California made its name designing high-end graphics chips for PCs.

But as competition increased with Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Intel expanding into its market, Nvidia's co-founder and Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang pushed into mobile, combining central processors based on ARM Holdings Plc architecture with Nvidia's own graphics technology.

Wednesday's stock rise was Nvidia's largest in a single session since October 2008, and its shares have doubled since October 2010.

Interest in Nvidia was high in the options market, as well, with more than 29,000 call options with a January strike price of $22.50 trading on Wednesday, according to Caitlin Duffy, equity options analyst at Interactive Brokers.

"The majority of the calls traded on the ask, indicating buyers are dominating volume at that strike today," said Duffy. Heavy activity was also seen at the $24 and $25 strike prices, she said. Nvidia's shares closed at $23.35.

Validating Nvidia's focus on graphics technology, Intel said earlier this week it would pay the company $1.5 billion to license its patents, settling a legal dispute.

And at last week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Nvidia said it was developing an ARM-based PC central processor, directly challenging Intel in its own traditional market.

At the CES trade show, Motorola, LG, Dell, Acer, Asus and Toshiba Corp announced or showed smartphones and tablets using Tegra chips.

Adding to upheaval in the chip industry, Advanced Micro Devices' chief executive, Dirk Meyer, left the company this week due in part to the company's lack of a mobile strategy.

"People are digesting the Intel settlement, digesting CES ... Their primary competitor (AMD) just got a lot weaker," said Alex Gauna, an analyst at JMP Securities. Micron makes NAND flash memory used in smartphone and tablets.

(Additional reporting by David Gaffen in New York; Editing by Andre Grenon and Steve Orlofsky)

Facebook inches closer to becoming a diary with new memories feature (Digital Trends)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 05:35 PM PST

Molly McHugh Molly Mchugh – Wed Jan 12, 8:35 pm ET

Memorable StoriesFacebook is reportedly testing out a "Memorable Stories" application that collects users' status updates throughout the year to give you a text flashback of your own thoughts.

According to select users who have seen the application popping up on their profiles, the feature shows up as a sidebar when you view a specific post. Instead of ordering the stories in chronological order like Facebook does now, users are given a seemingly random anthology of updates. You're also able to eliminate entries you don't want to read to see another.

Facebook introduced its "Photo Memories" application recently, which was met with some criticism. After users complained about being shown photos of exes, Facebook decided to eliminate pictures between any other user you had previously been listed on the site as in a relationship with. It's safe to say this new feature could introduce some similar regulation.

Those who have seen the application (including AllFacebook) on their pages found it went back as far as 2008. It's been intermittently showing up on profiles, so keep your eyes open for it on your Facebook page.

YouTube mobile video viewing tops 200 mln a day (AFP)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 08:47 PM PST

– 51 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – YouTube has said it is serving up more than 200 million videos daily to smartphones and other Internet-linked mobile devices.

News of the milestone came as the Google-owned video-sharing service began routing Vevo music videos from artists such as Lady Gaga and U2 onto smartphones powered by newer versions of Google-backed Android software.

"As the world goes mobile and more people watch videos on their smart phones, we expect more partners will take advantage of these new mobile advertising capabilities and make more of their content available across more devices," YouTube mobile product manager Andrey Doronichev said in a blog post.

Android smartphones running on "Froyo" or newer versions of the mobile operating software will be able to access Vevo's music video library using a free YouTube application, according to Doronichev.

Vevo music website is a joint venture between Google, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Abu Dhabi Media and has deals to feature content from EMI and independent recording labels.

Revenue will be generated from advertisements played prior to music videos starting, according to YouTube.

Remains of the Day: All Verizon, all the time (Macworld)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 04:30 PM PST

Dan Moren Dan Moren – Wed Jan 12, 7:30 pm ET

Let's face it: the big news of the week is the Verizon iPhone. So I'm going to give up pretending there was anything else worth covering. Read on for the dirty background secrets on Verizon and Apple's deal, the AFL-CIO's opinions on Big Red, and Jon Stewart's impassioned monologue about carrier freedom. The remainders for Wednesday, January 12, 2010 are five bars strong.

Apple, Verizon Took Years to Clear iPhone Differences (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Sure, it looked easy when Verizon president Lowell McAdam waltzed onto stage and showed off the Verizon iPhone, but getting to that point was hard work. McAdam and Apple's COO Tim Cook hammered out the deal in 2010, after years of negotiating, overcoming technical hurdles, and, well…"They don't put a lot of logos on their phones," McAdam told Bloomberg. "So that wasn't a major issue for us." Huh. I wonder why his left eye keeps twitching?

AT&T—Not Verizon—Is Place to Shop for iPhones (AFL-CIO)

The iPhone may be on Verizon, but the AFL-CIO would like to suggest you buy it from AT&T—because AT&T is union and Verizon isn't. Also, you'll get exclusive access to the GPS-enabled "Where's Jimmy?" app.

Daily Show: Oliver - Verizon iPhone Announcement (The Daily Show)

Jon Stewart is thrilled that the iPhone is coming to Verizon. And while we̢۪re not surprised that the man standing up and yelling expletives during the Verizon press conference on Tuesday was Daily Show correspondent John Oliver, we are a little surprised that he was the only one.

India's Infosys reports 14.1% net profit rise (AFP)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 09:16 PM PST

– 21 mins ago

BANGALORE, India (AFP) – Indian software exporter Infosys posted Thursday a 14.1 percent rise in consolidated net profit, lagging forecasts as a strong rupee and wage costs offset improved outsourcing demand.

Net profit for the Nasdaq-listed firm rose to 17.8 billion rupees ($397 million) during the three months to December from 15.6 billion rupees a year earlier.

Revenues, by international accounting norms, for the Bangalore-based outsourcer rose 24 percent to 71.06 billion rupees, the company said in a statement to the Mumbai stock exchange.

Analysts had expected Infosys, India's second largest software exporter, to show an 18 percent rise in quarterly profit.

Infosys shares fell 3.2 percent, or 106 rupees, to 3,268 rupees in early trade after the earnings were announced.

The company, which is closely watched by investors as a barometer for the country's technology sector, added 40 clients and a net 5,311 staff in the quarter.

ERP Investments to Slow in 2011 (PC World)

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 12:50 PM PST

Chris Kanaracus Chris Kanaracus – Wed Jan 12, 3:50 pm ET

The number of companies planning to invest in their ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems will drop slightly this year, according to a Forrester Research report, even as IT spending overall is expected to rise.

Twenty-five percent of the roughly 900 companies surveyed by Forrester plan to upgrade, expand or implement an ERP system, down from 29 percent in a study last year, according to the report by analyst Paul Hamerman.

But 72 percent are "in a holding pattern for 2011, with plans to stand pat or no specific plans to invest in ERP," Hamerman wrote.

Roughly half of ERP customers are running product releases that are two versions behind the current one, according to the report. But expiring support windows and related price increases will spur more upgrades over time.

Still, overall the ERP market has nonetheless rebounded well from its "disastrous" 2009, Hamerman wrote.

Although many customers may not adopt them for some time, ERP vendors will continue to roll out features and functionality. Those trends include cloud-based deployment options, mobile applications and embedded business process modeling, Hamerman said.

One of the most significant ERP product launches in recent memory, Oracle's Fusion Applications, is expected to happen this quarter.

Perhaps with one eye on the economy, Oracle has set modest public expectations for adoption of the long-delayed software, which is supposed to combine the best attributes of its various ERP lines into a next-generation suite.

Fusion Applications will be available in modular fashion and available for deployment both on-premises and in the cloud. Oracle has stressed that customers will be able to adopt Fusion at their own pace.

SAP is also expected to make news this year, with the release of a series of SaaS (software as a service) applications that are meant to be extensions of its on-premise ERP systems, as well as mobile software based on a platform that combines its technology with that acquired through the purchase of Sybase.

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris's e-mail address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com
at 9:51 PM

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