LinkedIn raises IPO ante amid high investor demand (AP) : Technet

LinkedIn raises IPO ante amid high investor demand (AP)
Could the Internet spell the end of snow days? (AP)
HP cuts outlook on services revamp, slow PC sales (AP)
Just Show Me: How to download iBooks to your iPad (Yahoo! News)
Save power with the help of a friendly UFO (Yahoo! News)
5 Tips for Building Vibrant Branded Online Communities (Mashable)
Sony boss: cannot guarantee security after hacking (AFP)
The 14 Biggest News Days on the Web (PC World)
Bill Gates backed Microsoft's takeover of Skype (Digital Trends)
Android 3.1 Update Coming in June to Acer, Asus, and T-Mobile Tablets (PC World)
Facebook group vents anger at Nepal's leaders (AFP)
Bugs and Fixes: Adobe gives Users Privacy Controls; Skype Patches Extremely Dangerous Vulnerability (PC World)
Nook Color’s app store hits a million downloads (Appolicious)
Intel chief says doesn't need ARM for mobile chips (Reuters)
Netflix now the top bandwidth consumer in the United States (Yahoo! News)
The 'Post-PC' Era Is Here -- But Don't Junk Your PC Just Yet (PC World)
Microsoft: One in 14 Downloads Is Malicious (PC World)
Dell profit jumps as computer maker cuts costs (AP)

LinkedIn raises IPO ante amid high investor demand (AP)

Posted: 17 May 2011 02:55 PM PDT

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Tue May 17, 5:55 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Investors are clamoring to connect with the online networking service LinkedIn Corp. in the latest sign of the fervor for Internet companies that specialize in bringing together people with common interests.

The demand to buy a piece of LinkedIn is so intense that the 8-year-old company is expected to make its stock market debut Thursday with a value of at least $4 billion. That would make LinkedIn's initial public offering of stock the biggest by a U.S. Internet company since Google Inc. went public in 2004, according to the research firm Renaissance Capital.

The appetite for LinkedIn's IPO encouraged the company's bankers to raise the asking price by about 30 percent Tuesday to $42 to $45 per share. It won't be surprising if the IPO is priced even higher Wednesday evening and then sells for more than that Thursday morning when they are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "LNKD."

The IPO is expected to raise about $200 million for LinkedIn and produce $125 million to $135 million for existing stockholders, who plan to sell some of their shares. The biggest winner will be LinkedIn's co-founder and chairman, Reid Hoffman, whose 20 percent stake in the company will be worth more than $800 million.

The coming-out party on Wall Street for LinkedIn, which focuses on connecting professionals online, could be the prelude to even more excitement if several popular Internet companies decide to go public during the next year. The list of candidates includes the online messaging service Twitter, online game maker Zynga, online coupon service Groupon and the biggest social network of all, Facebook.

"LinkedIn will be used very heavily as a modeling tool for other companies in this space," predicted David Menlow, founder of research firm IPO Financial. "The pricing is going to have a dramatic effect. This is just the starting point for valuation adjustments."

Facebook is the most prized among the Internet companies still awaiting an IPO. It was valued at $50 billion as part of an investment organized in January by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., a major shareholder in LinkedIn. If Goldman Sachs follows through on its plan to sell its entire LinkedIn stake in the upcoming IPO, the bank would receive about $38 million at the mid-point of the targeted price range.

LinkedIn, based just down the street from Google's Mountain View, Calif. headquarters, has become profitable by building a website that acts both as a Rolodex and a hiring center.

People set up LinkedIn accounts to post the resume on a page and connect with current and past colleagues. LinkedIn members can then ask the people they know to introduce them to other connections that might help further their careers.

Although not nearly as popular as hanging out on Facebook, LinkedIn has emerged as a widely used directory. Through March, it had 102 million members and is adding another million each week.

The company gets about two-thirds of its revenue from fees that it charges for greater access to the website and more data about the expertise listed on each member's page. Businesses and job headhunters use LinkedIn to recruit people who might not even be looking for a job at the time. LinkedIn also has made money from business surveys of its members and a service that offer career advice to college graduates.

The rest of LinkedIn's revenue comes from Internet ads, which serve as the financial backbone for Google, Facebook and many other Internet companies.

The lofty appraisals being given LinkedIn and other online networking companies have raised worries of an investment meltdown if the businesses don't turn out to be as successful as enthusiastic investors anticipated.

That is what happened in the late 1990s when hundreds of unprofitable Internet companies attracted billions in venture capital and then went public to much fanfare. That led to a devastating collapse that still haunts Internet investors.

The big difference this time is that the current Internet darlings haven't rushed to the public markets. Instead, they are waiting until they have developed ways to make money while amassing massive audiences.

"These are serious businesses with huge global market opportunities ahead of them," said John O'Farrell, a partner with Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm that owns stakes in Facebook, Twitter, Zynga and Groupon. "To an uninformed person, the valuations may look like a bubble, but we believe they will in fact prove to be very low valuations."

Last year, LinkedIn earned $3.4 million on revenue of $243 million. Its growth accelerated during the first three months of 2011, putting it on a pace to generate $500 million in revenue this year. Management, though, has warned that the company might lose money this year as it invests in more products and more computers to run its website as it tries to ward off competitive threats overseas.

If LinkedIn's IPO is priced at the mid-range target of $43.50 per share, the company would have a market value of $4.1 billion — about 17 times its 2010 revenue. By comparison, Google's current market value of $170 billion is less than six times its revenue last year. When Google went public, though, its market value of $24 billion was 16 times higher than its revenue from the previous year.

___

AP Business Writer Tali Arbel in New York contributed to this story.

Could the Internet spell the end of snow days? (AP)

Posted: 17 May 2011 03:39 PM PDT

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, Associated Press Heather Hollingsworth, Associated Press – Tue May 17, 6:39 pm ET

PARKVILLE, Mo. – Could the Internet mean the end of snow days? Some schools think so, and they are experimenting with ways for students to do lessons online during bad weather, potentially allowing classes to go on during even the worst blizzard.

"Virtual snow days" would help ease pressure on school calendars. Because districts are required to be in session for a certain number of hours or days, losing teaching time to winter weather can mean extending the school day or cutting short spring break or summer vacation.

And canceling school in the winter, when some of the most difficult material of the year is covered, risks leaving students with a learning deficit heading into the spring, when many states administer standardized tests.

"Even if you can't continue on at the same pace, being able to keep students on track can make a huge difference," said Doug Levin, executive director of the nonprofit State Educational Technology Directors Association.

Virtual learning, which has been widely used by colleges and universities for years, is becoming more viable for younger students as teachers and administrators grow comfortable with the technology. Online learning also saves money because districts don't have to pay for transportation, electricity and custodians.

But there are obstacles, too. Many families don't have Internet access with speeds that would support complex classroom-style work, especially in rural areas and impoverished inner cities. Families with multiple children — without multiple computers — could be hard-pressed to keep up.

And some people say kids just need an occasional extra day off in the depths of winter.

"When deep snow falls, the world becomes quiet and still. And if we listen to our instincts, we settle in and enjoy the pure joy of not doing," David Santner wrote on the website for the Poughkeepsie Day School in New York, where his son is a middle schooler, after the school turned to online learning during a spate of winter storms.

For schoolchildren, old-fashioned snow days used to mean languorous hours spent playing outside in the drifts, watching television or sipping hot chocolate. But someday, kids who can't get to the classroom might just sit down with their computers.

Josie Holford, head of the Poughkeepsie school, which had six snow days and four late starts this past winter, said it's possible to enjoy the outdoors and keep learning. Students in one class were told to draw a picture in the snow for a lesson on angles and to take a picture of their creation.

"We have to recognize as teachers, educators, all of us, that we are in a completely different landscape, and that learning really isn't confined to a textbook or a teacher anymore," Holford said. "We all have to be learning all the time. Why should a snow day stop the progress of learning?"

At St. Therese School in the Kansas City suburb of Parkville, students recently did a virtual make-up day after classes were canceled six times because of weather.

As she used a computer drawing program to complete an art lesson in her kitchen, seventh-grader Cameron Mottet predicted her classmates would embrace the system, especially if it means "they don't have to go to school in June."

Cameron's older sister, whose school isn't making up days virtually, has grumbled that she will be in class while Cameron is free to hang out at the pool.

The first experiments with virtual snow days began a few years ago as individual teachers started logging on during poor weather to drill older students. Since then, entire schools and districts have joined in, using websites such as Skype and YouTube to keep students as young as kindergarten studying during storms.

An increasing number of teachers have their own websites, so sometimes starting virtual lessons is as simple as telling parents to check on snow days to see if any assignments are posted. Other times, the makeup work occurs afterward, with students completing assignments from home on days set aside for teacher training. Students can chat online with their teachers and ask questions via email.

In one school, younger students were directed to a website to play online money games, while older students in another school completed a simulation program to test how the angle of a baseball pitch affects the distance a ball is thrown.

The experiments appear to be the most prevalent in affluent private schools like Cameron's, where only three of 643 students lacked a home computer.

At an all-girls boarding school in Simsbury, Conn., some teachers started using the Internet for lessons when roads become impassable so students who commute didn't fall behind the others who live on campus.

"It's been a really bad winter, so the teachers were grateful they could use these tools and not lose a day or cram too much material in one day," said Vivian K. Elba, director of marketing and communications at Ethel Walker School.

But the efforts aren't limited to wealthy, private schools. The Mississinawa Valley district on the Indiana-Ohio state line has led Ohio's push for virtual snow days. Fifty-two percent of the district's 700 students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

Since Mississinawa got permission last fall to make up two snow days electronically, four other Ohio districts joined the pilot program. Superintendent Lisa Wendel has received calls from other states interested in virtual make-up days.

"It is going to continue to snowball in this country," said Wendel, whose district has been forced to call off classes 11 times this school year.

However, Wendel questions whether virtual snow days will continue in her own district. Ohio lawmakers have thrown out a provision allowing the practice, citing concerns that poor students without home computers and rural students without Internet access could be at a disadvantage. Lawmakers continue to debate the issue.

Jalisa Rush, a seventh-grader in the district who has her own laptop, said she and her friends spent their e-days chatting on Facebook as they did online assignments that included calculating the calories and transfats in favorite foods. Because some of the projects were more creative, she didn't mind committing five to six hours to them.

"I thought it was really exciting and something new to try, which was really pretty great," she said. But she added: "It gets a little harder because you didn't really have the teacher there to explain something if you have a question."

Carol Hussin, principal of Cameron's St. Therese School, said some parents have complained the online work took longer than the six hours teachers intended, but others said they enjoyed getting a glimpse of their children's studies.

"I think it's a great tool to have," said Cameron's mother, Jane. "Obviously it's not going to replace going to school. But for situations like this, I think it's wonderful."

HP cuts outlook on services revamp, slow PC sales (AP)

Posted: 17 May 2011 02:09 PM PDT

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson, Ap Technology Writer – Tue May 17, 5:09 pm ET

NEW YORK – Hewlett-Packard Co. is bracing for weaker financial results this year as it overhauls its services business to undo what its CEO described as years of neglect under his predecessor.

For too long, the business focused on short-term results rather than expand into high-margin areas, such as helping businesses convert their systems to new technologies, CEO Leo Apotheker said Tuesday.

Fixing that will cost the company in the short term, he said. HP cut its full-year earnings forecast Tuesday. Investors responded by sending its stock down more than 7 percent to a two-year low.

Apotheker, who became CEO in November, said HP never followed through on a strategy it laid out years ago to focus on the high-margin areas.

"We are now going to execute the strategy," Apotheker said.

That includes finding an executive vice president of services who will report directly to Apotheker, he said.

"We view these changes as logical, mostly proactive and positive for long-term operating profit expansion," said Jayson Noland, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co.

Although he didn't refer to his predecessor by name, Apotheker implied that he inherited the problems from Mark Hurd, who was forced out in August in the wake of an investigation into his relationship with a former contractor. Hurd, who now works for rival Oracle Corp. as co-president, declined comment through a representative.

To consumers, HP is known as a maker of printers and personal computers, but it has been expanding into providing computer networking and technical services to other businesses. Under Hurd, HP more than doubled its services portfolio with the acquisition of Electronic Data Systems for $13.9 billion. HP became the second-largest company in the market behind IBM Corp.

Services now account for 28 percent of HP's revenue, nearly as much as the PC business.

Apotheker's move to transform the services division is an indirect acknowledgement of a frequent criticism that EDS's work was too focused on low-margin tasks. In the services world, those can include basic services and outsourcing tasks, such as installing new PCs and servers and managing companies' data centers.

IBM often says that its advantage lies in its advanced software and deep industry expertise, which allow it to pursue more profitable work such as analytics and building "smart" power grids and transportation systems.

HP, the world's largest PC maker, is also struggling in the PC business. Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet is cutting into PC sales more deeply than PC makers had expected. Consumers are also holding back on PC upgrades because of the economy, Apotheker said, while sales to businesses are going well.

"There's no question that the impact of tablets has been slowing down the renewal rate of PCs. I think that is a trend that will ebb away. I think the PC will continue to be the main computing device in many homes," Apotheker said in an interview.

Tablets can't do everything PCs can, and the iPad needs to be connected to a PC periodically, for backups and software updates.

HP said it's still on track to launch its first non-Windows tablet, the TouchPad, this summer, based on software it got when it bought Palm Inc. last year.

The company reported its quarterly results a day early after a leaked memo from Apotheker warned that the company was bracing for "another tough quarter" in the May-July period. Apotheker said in the memo that management needed to "watch every penny and minimize all hiring."

The company is now forecasting earnings, excluding one-time items, of $1.08 per share and revenue of $31.1 billion to $31.3 billion for the current quarter, which ends in July. Wall Street analysts were on average looking for earnings of $1.23 cents per share and $31.84 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

For the full fiscal year, which ends Oct. 31, HP now expects earnings of $5 per share. That is short of its earlier predictions of $5.20 to $5.28 per share and below Wall Street expectations of $5.24.

The company also lowered its fiscal-year revenue guidance range slightly, to $129 billion to $130 billion. In February it had forecast revenue of $130 billion to $131.5 billion. Analysts are predicting $130.47 billion

HP's stock fell $2.89, or 7.3 percent, to close Tuesday at $36.91. Earlier, the stock hit a two-year low of $36.04.

HP, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., reported earnings of $2.3 billion, or $1.05 per share, for the three months that ended April 30. That's up from $2.2 billion, or 91 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding special items, HP earned $1.24 per share in the fiscal second quarter, above the $1.21 per share that analysts polled by FactSet were expecting.

Revenue climbed 3 percent to $31.63 billion, slightly above Wall Street expectations of $31.55 billion.

AP Technology Writers Barbara Ortutay in New York and Jordan Robertson in Santa Clara, Calif., contributed to this report.

Peter Svensson can be reached at http://twitter.com/petersvensson

Just Show Me: How to download iBooks to your iPad (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 17 May 2011 07:41 PM PDT

By Barb Dybwad barb Dybwad – 2 hrs 2 mins ago

Welcome to Just Show Me on Tecca TV, where we give you short tips and tricks for getting the best out of the gadgets in your life. Yesterday we looked at how to use the search feature on your iPhone, and today we turn our attention to helping you read books on your iPad.

We showed off Apple's iBooks store in the tip above, but it's by no means your only option for great reading on the iPad. You can also check out the Amazon Kindle and Google Books apps for even more reading goodness. And if you already know all about reading books on your iPad, why not pass this video on to the new iPad or iPad 2 owner in your life?

As always, if you have any requests for something you'd like Just Show Me to cover, please let us know in the comments!

Save power with the help of a friendly UFO (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 17 May 2011 07:40 PM PDT

By Mike Wehner mike Wehner – 2 hrs 4 mins ago

We all know that we're supposed to fully power off our devices to save energy, rather than simply putting them in standby or sleep mode, but power consumption can be a tricky thing to visualize. A new energy management tool called the UFO Power Center is designed to help with that, and uses your iPhone or iPad to give you a precise measurement of how much power your gadgets are utilizing.

The UFO provides 4 standard power outlets that can be used with whatever you desire. The unit then connects to your home's wifi network and syncs up with your iPhone or iPad running the free UFO Energy app. From your handheld device, you can monitor the power usage of each of the four outlets, allowing you to determine what is using the most power. You can also cut off power to an outlet at any time, and even set roles for each device, linking the power of one device to whether its "Master" device is powered up as well.

The power center even offers visual cues to let you know where your power consumption ranks, glowing a pleasant green when power usage is at a minimum, and beaming a bright red when you're really sucking up the power. The UFO Power Center carries a $99 price tag, but with the power it can help you save, it could pay for itself in short order.

Visible Energy via Electronic House

1. Facilitate What Customers Already Want to Do

It's not about ROI or advertising dollars at the beginning. It's not about messaging and positioning. Customers will come back to a place with a compelling reason for going there in the first place. Let the user determine the model, and look at the type of user that you want to attract as the primary driver behind the online presence.

[More from Mashable: What Would a Human Rights Logo Look Like?]

In Facebook's case, they started with simply facilitating the sharing of information -- from personal profiles to pictures. They've kept that same core model but expanded into everything from shopping to events. What can you facilitate that will help your customers?

2. Extend Traditional Success

Most communities, like Facebook, are natural extensions of what happens in the real world. Facebook mimics personal relationships. Your online community should mimic the positive interactions traditionally formed within your company. If connections are made at trade shows, then start discussions online that would typically take place at a trade show. If your company's growth is from sales in a particular vertical, then facilitate connections with influencers in that market.

3. Keep it Clean

If there are two things we learned from MySpace, not everyone is a web/UI designer, and people prefer a clean community. This is online design 101, but it applies to your brand as well.

The web has the power to infinitely enhance your capabilities online, but start small. Keep a simple, clean interface with a clear direction for a user to personally benefit. It will keep your brand's image in focus, and give users a sense of the benefits they'll get from engaging with you.

4. Treat Engagement as a Long-Term Process

Your content should be short, frequent and easy to engage with. Facebook's News Feed is effective because of these principles. This keeps visitors coming back and spending more time with your community.

If done right, these returning visitors will slowly phase out some other older, inferior communication tools. For example, think about the things that Facebook has trumped -- from classmates.com to that old personal blog you haven't updated in months.

5. Make Engagement Easy

Generally, most people online are "lurkers," viewing sites and communities without ever interacting with them. Enter the "Like" button, which made engagement quick, easy and approachable. With your business, create a community of quick and easy participation. This will get people invested in your message and enable continuous interaction.

Keeping these tips in mind, your business will be well on its way to creating unique experiences, increasing engagement and enthusiasm for your brand, and developing a truly interactive and meaningful community.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Sony boss: cannot guarantee security after hacking (AFP)

Posted: 17 May 2011 09:16 PM PDT

– 27 mins ago

TOKYO (AFP) – Sony chief Howard Stringer has warned he can no longer guarantee the security of the electronics giant's gaming network in the "bad new world" of cybercrime after one of the biggest Internet data breaches.

The Japanese multinational has begun restoring its hacked PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment services after the theft of personal data from more than 100 million accounts in a cyber attack estimated to have cost the firm $1 billion.

The company has bolstered security but Stringer, speaking for the first time on the crisis Tuesday, said protecting private information was a "never-ending process" and he did not know if anyone could be "100 percent secure".

Sony shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity music streaming service on April 20 after its data centre in San Diego was hacked -- but it did not reveal the breach until April 26.

The company has said it cannot rule out that millions of credit card numbers may have been compromised.

Stringer, 69, warned hackers may one day target the global financial system, the power grid or air-traffic control systems.

"It's the beginning, unfortunately, or the shape of things to come," he told Dow Jones Newswires. "It's not a brave new world -- it's a bad new world."

The breach is a huge blow for Sony as it focuses on pushing content such as games and music through hardware platforms including game consoles, smartphones and tablet computers amid competition from Apple's iTunes and App Store.

Sony was lashed by bitter criticism over the crisis which overshadowed the earnings bounce-back made by the firm after two years of losses.

Stringer hit back at politicians and Internet privacy advocates who said Sony should have alerted subscribers to the threat of a possible data theft sooner.

He said Sony did not know conclusively until April 25 that personal information had been accessed and added that said talking publicly about the company's suspicions before gathering evidence would have been "irresponsible".

"We were trying to find out in a very volatile situation what had happened and when we did we relayed it," said Stringer. "If your house has been burglarised, you find out if you've lost something before you call the police," he said.

Stringer said the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into the matter was still ongoing but declined to provide an update on the findings.

The CEO said it was too early to assess the financial impact of the outage, with the company reporting its full-year results on May 26, but analysts estimate the breach will cost the company as much as $1 billion.

The 14 Biggest News Days on the Web (PC World)

Posted: 17 May 2011 06:30 PM PDT

Ian Paul Ian Paul – Tue May 17, 9:30 pm ET

Pew Internet & American Life Project recently found that, in the United States, Internet news sources are the second-most-popular way to get news after television. The rest of the world is also big on news, according to the Akamai Net Usage News Index. Since 2005, the Web-monitoring firm has been watching the traffic levels directed at about 100 of the world's most popular news sites to find out which events send the world rushing to the online home of the BBC, CNN, the New York Times, and other news sources. From the World Cup to the Egyptian Revolution to the election of Barack Obama, here's a look at Akamai's top 14 news days online.

Wimbledon and World Cup

Date: June 24, 2010

Peak views per minute: 10,357,646

Notable event: Sports junkies were entranced on a June day in 2010 when American John Isner and France's Nicolas Mahut kept battling it out under the London sun to move on to the next round of Wimbledon. The match went for 11 hours, 5 minutes over the course of three days, with Isner finally emerging victorious. At the same time, soccer fans were watching World Cup qualifying matches among the Group E and F tables. Countries facing off that day included Cameroon, Denmark, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Paraguay, and Slovakia.

UEFA Champions League

Date: November 3, 2010

Peak views per minute: 6,363,725

Notable event: Soccer news claimed second place on Akamai's list as well, when London-based Chelsea took on Spartak Moscow and Zilina went up against Marseille during the UEFA Champions League.

World Cup Kickoff

Date: June 11, 2010

Peak views per minute: 6,039,434

Notable event: The World Cup in South Africa officially started on this day. The United States won one game and tied two during the worldwide tournament before losing to Ghana in the round of 16.

Elephants Stampede Into the House

Date: November 2, 2010

Peak views per minute: 5,660,658

Notable event: Republicans roared back in 2010 after being routed in 2008. The GOP took over the House of Representatives, and the Democratic lead in the Senate narrowed to 6 seats (down from 19) by the beginning of the 112th Congress. The media initially called the election results a repudiation of President Barack Obama's policies. After the election, Obama said that voters were "expressing great frustration [that the government hadn't] made enough progress on the economy."

And Then There Were 16

Date: June 23, 2010

Peak views per minute: 5,647,432

Notable event: On this day, Team USA defeated Algeria 1-0 to move on to the final 16 at the World Cup. The revelry wouldn't last long, however, as Ghana beat the United States 2-1 just three days later.

The House of Windsor

Date: April 29, 2011

Peak views per minute: 5,398,731

Notable event: Wills and Kate were married at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011, and the world went wild for the big event. Journalists descended from all over the globe, retailers sold royal refrigerators plastered with the couple's faces, and some Americans got up as early as 4 a.m. Eastern to watch the blessed event. Worldwide Internet traffic peaked that day at 9:30 a.m. Eastern.

Wild Horses

Date: February 2, 2011

Peak views per minute: 4,953,655

Notable event: News junkies in the United States were glued to the online version of Al Jazeera English during the Egyptian uprising centered in Cairo's Tahrir Square. The world's interest in events unfolding in Cairo peaked around 5 p.m. Eastern during a day when thugs supporting the Mubarak regime tore through antigovernment protesters in Tahrir Square on camel and horseback. The attack, dubbed the "Battle of the Camel," sparked a night of rock throwing and other violence between the two sides.

turning to their iPads and the Web to watch the games, it's no surprise that the start of the 2011 March Madness tournament topped news-site Web traffic.

Super Packers

Date: February 6, 2011

Views per minute: 4,630,080

Notable event: Online news addicts were glued to the Web the day Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers triumphed over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. Peak usage hit more than 4.5 million page views around 10 p.m. Eastern shortly before the Packers hoisted the Vince Lombardi trophy at Cowboys Stadium.

Tectonic Shift

struck the city of Christchurch around 6:50 p.m. Eastern on February 21. The next day online-news buffs were burning up the Web reading news about the disaster as well as the continuing drama surrounding other notable events such as the turmoil in Libya, the Wisconsin protests, and the arrest of CIA contractor Raymond A. Davis in Pakistan.

antigovernment protesters on this day by claiming that he would not seek reelection. Ultimately, Mubarak's bid to remain in power failed, and he resigned from the Egyptian presidency ten days later, on February 11. Online-news traffic peaked during the February 1 address around 4:45 p.m. Eastern, 45 minutes after the speech began.

Catastrophe

Date: March 11, 2011

Views per minute: 4,576,088

Notable event: A massive earthquake off the coast of Japan and the accompanying tsunami took more than 14,000 lives, caused tens of billions worth of damage, and set off a series of dramatic nuclear emergencies at several reactors in the island nation. Around 4 p.m. EST on the day of the quake, news-site traffic peaked as people searched for information about the natural disaster.

NFL Madness

Date: January 23, 2011

Views per minute: 4,379,108

Notable event: The games leading up to Super Bowl XLV appeared to be a big moment for Web news. Traffic peaked around 12:30 p.m. Eastern in anticipation of the Green Bay Packers facing off against the Chicago Bears, while the New York Jets got ready to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Other major news events that day included predictions for President Obama's State of the Union address on January 25.

election of Barack Obama as president of the United States. Traffic peaked around 11 p.m. Eastern, which was about the time the major networks were officially projecting Obama as the winner over Senator John McCain.

Almost...

Despite being major news events, some stories just weren't popular enough to become one of the most highly trafficked online-news stories. Events such as the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Chilean miner rescue, and Michael Jackson's death all fell short of the top 14 online news items. "There are a lot of factors involved with why one news event might be bigger or smaller than another," says Akamai spokesperson Jennifer Donovan. "The World Cup traffic peak, for example, happened during the day when both the U.S. and Europe were in the office, and the only place to watch was online."

Bill Gates backed Microsoft's takeover of Skype (Digital Trends)

Posted: 17 May 2011 08:57 PM PDT

Trevor Mogg Trevor Mogg – 47 mins ago

When it was announced last week that Microsoft had bought Internet phone company Skype for a whacking $8.5 billion, it caused many in the tech industry to carefully place their cup of coffee on their desk, furrow their brow slightly and say, "Eh?"

The news media was filled with stories trying to work out precisely why Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was so excited about the takeover of a company that lost $7 million last year and charges nothing for most of its services.

At the announcement of the purchase, Ballmer spoke enthusiastically about how the companies promised "universal, next-generation communications…..[that will] empower [consumers] to communicate in new and interesting ways." And now, just as people are pondering over exactly what the "new and interesting ways" might be, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has popped up to lend some support to Ballmer.

According to an interview with the BBC to be aired on Wednesday, Gates said that he himself advocated the Skype purchase. Talking to the BBC's Stephen Sackur on his Hardtalk one-on-one interview show, Gates said, "I was a strong proponent at the board level for the deal being done. I think it's a great, great deal for Skype. I think it's a great deal for Microsoft."

Looking ahead, Gates explained that the takeover was a strategic decision, not focussed on Skype's immediate financial situation. He said, "The idea of video conferencing is going to get so much better than it is today." He added: "It'll be fascinating to see how the brilliant ideas out of Microsoft research, coming together with Skype, what they can make of that."

Skype was founded in 2003 and enables its 663 million users to make video and voice calls online. Microsoft's purchase of the company was its biggest ever acquisition.

Android 3.1 Update Coming in June to Acer, Asus, and T-Mobile Tablets (PC World)

Posted: 17 May 2011 06:15 PM PDT

Melissa J. Perenson Melissa J. Perenson – Tue May 17, 9:15 pm ET

The first major update to Google's Honeycomb platform, Android 3.1, was announced last week at the Google I/O developer event, and it's slowly rolling out as an over-the-air update to mobile broadband-connected Motorola Xoom tablets. When announced, Google was vague about when we could expect Android 3.1 on other Honeycomb tablets, but today saw update details flying across the Web for both the Acer Iconia A500 and the Asus EeePad Transformer.

The details remain vague, however. According to reports on ThisIsMyNext and Engadget, Asus Italia used its Facebook page to reveal an over-the-air update was coming in June. And Acer says an update is coming in June, as well. Mind you, we don't know when in June, nor do we know if U.S. models will receive the update at the same time as other regions will. Still, add that T-Mobile says it will be doing an OTA update of the T-Mobile G-Slate,and we've got a bona fide Android 3.1 party.

I've yet to see the Android 3.1 update, but I'm looking forward to it: In addition to adding things like resizable widgets, Google says it has fixed the image rendering issue I've noted before.

Facebook group vents anger at Nepal's leaders (AFP)

Posted: 17 May 2011 07:58 PM PDT

by Claire Cozens Claire Cozens – 1 hr 46 mins ago

KATHMANDU (AFP) – Thousands of young Nepalese have united behind a new Facebook campaign to stop paying the country's battling politicians if they cannot produce a new constitution by the May 28 deadline.

The diverse group, which includes politicians, activists and the reigning Miss Nepal, gave voice to growing public anger with the lawmakers the country voted in three years ago in the first general election since the civil war.

Nepal's 601-member parliament was elected in 2008 with a two-year mandate to draft a new national charter.

The constitution was meant to usher in a new social and political order after centuries of inequality that were a major cause of the decade-long conflict between Maoist insurgents and the state.

But despite a 12-month extension agreed last year, the lawmakers have yet to complete the task -- prompting the Facebook campaign for them to forego their salaries.

"I feel huge regret for voting in undeserving candidates during the elections," 30-year-old teacher Baburam Niraula told AFP at a recent protest in the capital Kathmandu organised on the social networking site.

"The minds of our politicians have become dull and they don't think of anything except power. Educated young people need to put pressure on them and compel them to act properly."

Five years after the end of the war, which claimed at least 16,000 lives, and three years after the abolition of Nepal's centuries-old Hindu monarchy, signs of growing public anger are manifold.

Earlier this month, the owner of a tea shop in central Nepal reportedly slapped a Maoist lawmaker across the face, saying the country's political leaders had "betrayed the people".

It is a view shared by many of his compatriots -- an opinion poll carried out at the start of this year found that 65 percent of Nepalese people believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.

The last extension of the Constituent Assembly (CA), Nepal's parliament, was followed by a leadership vacuum of nearly eight months, during which lawmakers held 16 failed attempts to elect a new prime minister.

The government that was finally formed in February admits it will not be able to complete the constitution by May 28, and even a first draft now looks unlikely to be finished by then.

Parliament is scheduled to vote next week on whether to extend its term by a further year to give it more time.

Talks on integrating the thousands of Maoist former fighters living in camps around the country into the security forces -- another commitment that remains unfulfilled -- are continuing, but disagreements on how to do so persist.

The International Crisis Group, a leading think-tank, says both issues have been reduced to bargaining chips in the ongoing power struggle between the political parties.

In a report published last month, it said any extension of the CA should be short and accompanied by a non-negotiable timeline and at least a partial draft of the constitution for the public to see.

"Visible progress is needed to reassure the fractured polity and public that the task of transforming the state has not been abandoned," said the ICG's senior analyst Anagha Neelakantan.

Journalist and political commentator Prashant Jha said there were good reasons for the public anger, but warned that cynicism about the political process could be counterproductive.

"The promise of a better future has not taken shape and 500 to 1,000 people are leaving the country every day," he said.

"The political class had promised that the country would move into a peaceful, stable federal democratic republic, and that has still not happened.

"We have to keep challenging the politicians, but at the same time, it's crucial that the anti-politician, anti-party mood does not turn into an anti-democracy mood."

Bugs and Fixes: Adobe gives Users Privacy Controls; Skype Patches Extremely Dangerous Vulnerability (PC World)

Posted: 17 May 2011 07:30 PM PDT

James Mulroy James Mulroy – 2 hrs 14 mins ago

This month Skype released a long awaited patch for a vulnerability that is extremely dangerous and could allow an attacker to remotely gain control of a system. Adobe released privacy controlls earlier this month, allowing you to control how much privacy you want. Microsoft also released a tiny Patch Tuesday.

Skype Publishes Updates For Skype For Mac Users

Last month Skype and Pure Hacking, a group of hackers in Australia, found a vulnerability in Skype for Mac 5.x which could cause Skype to crash when an attacker would send a specially crafted message. This vulnerability, according to Pure Hacking, can allow an attacker to remotely gain control of a shell, an interface feature for an application.

Pure Hacking says that that "the long and the short of it is that an attacker needs only to send a victim a message and they can gain remote control of the victims Mac. It is extremely wormable and dangerous."

This vulnerability, according to Skype, is not being explotied in the wild, but Skype urges you to update to the latest version of Skype for Mac (fixed in 5.1.0.922 and later) to avoid any possible attacks.

Additionally, on May 9th, Skype released another update for Skype for Mac users but they did not specify the issues addressed in the new update and will not until a significant proportion of their user-base has upgraded--to avoid making them vulnerable before they can update. To read more about these updates--and to download them--visit: Skype Security Blog-May 6, Skype Security Blog May 9, and Pure Hacking's Blog.

Adobe Patches Security Vulnerabilities With User Controlled Privacy

Adobe released four security bulletins and advisories this month affecting Adobe RoboHelp (a software used to create help files), Audition, Flash Media Server, and Flash Player. Fir

The first update fixes a critical vulnerability in RoboHelp 8 and 7, and in RoboHelp Server 8 and 7. If an attacker successfully exploited this vulnerability your security would be compromised. To fix this vulnerability Adobe recommends that you download and apply the update found here.

In Adobe Audition 3.0.1 and earlier versions a critical vulnerability, which could allow an attacker to run malicious code on your system, has been identified. To be affected by this vulnerability the attacker would have to convince you to open a special malicious binary Audition Session (.ses) file (if you don't know what this is it probably does not affact you). Another vulnerability affecting Adobe Flash Media server 4.0.1 and earlier versions causes data and memory corruption. Both of these vulnerabilities could allow arbitrary code execution on your system and as usual you should up date your system as soon as possible.

Multiple vulnerabilities were found in Adobe Flash Player 10.2.159.28 and earlier versions that could cause the application to crash all potentially allow an attacker to take control of your system. Adobe reports that there are malware attempting to exploit one of the vulnerabilities, but also states that they have not received word of a successful attack. To fix this Adobe released Flash Player 10.3 with increased user-control that allows you to set your own privacy settings. The new update allows any browser using Flash to clear local storage including cookies which can be used by an attacker to to a number of things like track you. You should upgrade to the latest version of Flash Player to take advantage of the new privacy settings.

To learn more about these updates--and to download them--visit: Adobe Security bulletins and advisories and PC Word's Security Alert.

Microsoft Releases Tiny Patch Tuesday

This month Month Microsoft released only two security bulletins (compared to last month's massive release), MS11-035 and MS11-036, which are rated critical and important, respectively. Both vulnerabilities could allow for remote code execution if an attacker successfully exploited the bugs.

Vulnerability MS11-035 affects Windows Internet Name Service (WINS), a name server and service for another system called NetBIOS (if you don't know what either of these are then it probably doesn't affect you). In order for an attacker to use this vulnerability you would have to receive a specially crafted WINS replication packet on an affected system which is running the WINS service. WINS is not pre-installed on any affected operating system and only affects you if you manually installed the component. This vulnerability is rated critical for all servers running all supported editions of Windows Server 2003, Server 2008 (except Itanium), and Server 2008 R2 (except Itanium).

Vulnerability MS11-036 affects Microsoft PowerPoint and could affect you if you opened a specially crafted PowerPoint file. If an attacker successfully exploited these vulnerabilities they could gain the same rights as the logged-on user. MS11-036 affects all supported editions of Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, 2003, 2007, and Microsoft Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac. To prevent this attack you could install and configure Office File Validation (OFV) which scans Office binary file formats before opening them in Office documents.

Another attack called "DLL load hijacking" or "binary planting" is under review by Microsoft but is still not fully patched according to Acros Security, a security research lab. Since applications don't call DLL's (dynamic-link library-Microsoft's library which allows multiple programs to use it at the same time) full path name and only use the filename, attackers can trick your system into loading a malicious file with the same name allowing for remote code execution. According to Acros, the vulnerabilities affect Windows 7, Vista, and XP.

Additionally, you should always keep your system up to date. To learn more about each update--and to download them manually-visit: Microsoft Safety and Security Center, Microsoft Security Advisory (2269637), Across Security, and Computer World's Security Topic Center.

Follow James Mulroy on Twitter and on Stumble Upon to get the latest in microbe, dinosaur, and death ray news.

Nook Color’s app store hits a million downloads (Appolicious)

Posted: 17 May 2011 04:00 PM PDT

Intel chief says doesn't need ARM for mobile chips (Reuters)

Posted: 17 May 2011 03:42 PM PDT

By Noel Randewich Noel Randewich – Tue May 17, 6:42 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Intel's chief executive rejected speculation the world's largest chipmaker might adopt rival ARM Holdings' technology to build mobile chips and said smartphones using its silicon are about a year away.

Intel has failed so far to get its processors into smartphones and tablets, a red-hot market where chips designed with battery-friendly technology from Britain's ARM Holdings are quickly becoming a standard.

Some experts say Intel's architecture, originally aimed at PCs, is inherently tough to adapt to make mobile chips and that Intel should license ARM's technology, a suggestion that Chief Executive Paul Otellini rejected at his company's annual investor event in Santa Clara, California.

"There's no advantage going in there, we'd be beholden to someone else, beholden to ARM. We'd pay royalties to them so it would lower the overall profits," Otellini said. "I think we can do a better."

Intel executives also said consumers in China and other emerging markets who are buying personal computers for the first time are driving healthy growth in the company's core business.

Otellini reaffirmed his expectation that PC unit sales will increase in the "low-double digits" percent this year.

Shares of Intel have surged about 19 percent since the company's record quarterly earnings handily beat expectations on April 19.

But investors remain concerned about PC sales and industry heavyweight Hewlett-Packard on Tuesday slashed its full-year outlook.

Intel's stock closed down 0.38 percent at $23.55.

NEW CHIPS

Intel, whose chips are the brains in 80 percent of the world's PCs, is rushing to improve the power consumption of its mobile processors with new chips for tablets and smartphones.

To put advanced mobile chips on the market more quickly, Otellini said Intel would increase the pace of implementing new manufacturing technologies. Intel currently adopts new manufacturing technology every two years.

This month, Intel took the wraps off next-generation technology that crams more transistors onto microchips, betting it will eventually become a significant advantage in tablets and smartphones, where Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Nvidia are key players and use ARM.

Intel claims the "3D" new manufacturing process delivers as much as a 37 percent jump in performance while consuming less electricity -- a key ARM selling point.

"To be fair, process technology is just one important element of winning for Intel, but it is a major advantage and one we suspect the Street is underestimating," Raymond James analyst Hans Mosesmann said in a note to clients.

ARM Chief Executive Warren East told the Reuters Technology Summit on Tuesday that Intel's move to 3D technology would not affect plans by ARM's partners to manufacture smaller, more powerful chips.

Concern about Intel's lack of progress in the mobile segment has weighed on its stock, which is trading at 10 expected annual earnings, much cheaper than peers like Texas Instruments at 13 times and Advanced Micro Devices at 14 times.

The market for mobile chips is still tiny compared to Intel's PC processor business, but investors expect it to grow quickly.

Smartphones using Intel's new Medfield chip will go on sale early next year, executives said.

"With Medfield we're in the power envelope for phones ... We're working with several customers and we start to expect to see the revenue ramp toward the end of this year," Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith said.

In April, Intel introduced a new chip for tablets, codenamed Oak Trail, and said it will be used in more than 35 upcoming tablets and hybrid computer devices made by companies including Fujitsu and Lenovo.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Bernard Orr)

Netflix now the top bandwidth consumer in the United States (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 17 May 2011 05:41 PM PDT

By Mike Wehner mike Wehner – Tue May 17, 8:41 pm ET

Streaming video is a big business, with companies like Netflix and Hulu raking in hundreds of millions of dollars every year. And now, according to a study by networking company Sandvine, Netflix is now the single biggest user of internet bandwidth in North America. The research shows that streaming video has been steadily taking over the majority of our virtual internet pipes, and web surfing — once the top dog — is now lagging far behind.

Netflix now accounts for nearly 30% of all downstream internet traffic, with traditional websites scrounging up just 18%. This makes sense, as the video that Netflix offers, much of which is in high definition, eats up a lot more bandwidth than a simple web page. Perhaps what's most surprising is Netflix's huge lead over competing streaming services like YouTube, with 11%, and Hulu, garnering just 1% of overall bandwidth.

We seem to be entering uncharted waters in terms of our internet usage, as well as the rules being imposed on it. On one hand we have studies like Sandvine's, which clearly show streaming video is here to stay, and on the other hand we have threats of bandwidth caps, speed throttling, and more limitations than ever before. These two trends simply can't continue to grow without clashing, and predicting which one will come out on top is anyone's guess.

Sandvine via TechCrunch

Posted: 17 May 2011 03:31 PM PDT

Jeff Bertolucci Jeff Bertolucci – Tue May 17, 6:31 pm ET

Has the much-discussed "post-PC era" finally begun? The term has been tossed about for years by industry executives and pundits alike. Its most recent high-profile use came during Steve Jobs' iPad 2 unveiling in March, when the Apple CEO/guru called the iPhone, iPod, and iPad "post-PC devices" that needed to be more intuitive and easier to use than conventional desktops or laptops.

Well, add Forrester Research to the list of industry watchers who believe the post-PC era has begun. In a new report released Tuesday, Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps says that computing devices--and how we interact with them--are currently undergoing a dramatic shift to:

· Ubiquitous computing: Mobile devices with sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, and geolocators are freeing us from the stationary limitations of desktop PCs.

· "Casual" computing: Instant-on/always-on smartphones and tablets remove the formal boot up/shutdown process of the desktop.

· A more intimate experience: Tablets and smartphones are kept close to your body, whereas using a laptop or desktop is "arms-length activity," writes Epps in a blog post. This means that consumers are using computing devices in intimate places, including the bedroom. Sounds like a boon to couples' therapists to me.

· Physical interaction with devices: Touchscreens, voice input, motion-sensing devices such as Microsoft Kinect, and cameras with facial recognition allow your "body and voice" to control the machine. By comparison, the desktop's mouse/keyboard interface is more abstract and less personal.

What's it all mean? Certainly, the mobility and ubiquity of today's tech devices is changing the way interact with our digital assistants. But the laptop and desktop aren't going away anytime soon.

"So what does 'post-PC' mean, anyway? It doesn't mean that the PC is dead," Epps writes. In fact, Forrester forecasts that U.S. consumer laptop sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent between 2010 and 2015, and desktop sales will decline only slightly.

And while 82 million American consumers will own a tablet in 2015, more than 140 million will own a laptop, Forrester predicts.

"In the post-PC era, the 'PC' is alive and well, but it morphs to support computing experiences that are increasingly ubiquitous, casual, intimate, and physical," says Epps.

Contact Jeff Bertolucci via Twitter (@jbertolucci ) or at jbertolucci.blogspot.com .

Microsoft: One in 14 Downloads Is Malicious (PC World)

Posted: 17 May 2011 05:40 PM PDT

Robert McMillan Robert Mcmillan – Tue May 17, 8:40 pm ET

The next time a website says to download new software to view a movie or fix a problem, think twice. There's a pretty good chance that the program is malicious.

In fact, about one out of every 14 programs downloaded by Windows users turns out to be malicious, Microsoft said Tuesday. And even though Microsoft has a feature in its Internet Explorer browser designed to steer users away from unknown and potentially untrustworthy software, about 5 percent of users ignore the warnings and download malicious Trojan horse programs anyway.

Five years ago, it was pretty easy for criminals to sneak their code onto computers. There were plenty of browser bugs, and many users weren't very good at patching. But since then, the cat-and-mouse game of Internet security has evolved: Browsers have become more secure, and software makers can quickly and automatically push out patches when there's a known problem.

So increasingly, instead of hacking the browsers themselves, the bad guys try to hack the people using them. It's called social engineering, and it's a big problem these days. "The attackers have figured out that it's not that hard to get users to download Trojans," said Alex Stamos, a founding partner with Isec Partners, a security consultancy that's often called in to clean up the mess after companies have been hacked.

Social engineering is how the Koobface virus spreads on Facebook. Users get a message from a friend telling them to go and view a video. When they click on the link, they're then told that they need to download some sort of video playing software in order to watch. That software is actually a malicious program.

Social-engineering hackers also try to infect victims by hacking into Web pages and popping up fake antivirus warnings designed to look like messages from the operating system. Download these and you're infected. The criminals also use spam to send Trojans, and they will trick search engines into linking to malicious websites that look like they have interesting stories or video about hot news such as the royal wedding or the death of Osama bin Laden.

"The attackers are very opportunistic, and they latch onto any event that might be used to lure people," said Joshua Talbot, a manager with Symantec Security Response. When Symantec tracked the 50 most common malicious programs last year, it found that 56 percent of all attacks included Trojan horse programs.

In enterprises, a social-engineering technique called spearphishing is a serious problem. In spearphishing, the criminals take the time to figure out who they're attacking, and then they create a specially crafted program or a maliciously encoded document that the victim is likely to want to open -- materials from a conference they've attended or a planning document from an organization that they do business with.

With its new SmartScreen Filter Application Reputation screening, introduced in IE 9, Internet Explorer provides a first line of defense against Trojan horse programs, including Trojans sent in spearphishing attacks.

IE also warns users when they're being tricked into visiting malicious websites, another way that social-engineering hackers can infect computer users. In the past two years, IE's SmartScreen has blocked more than 1.5 billion Web and download attacks, according to Jeb Haber, program manager lead for SmartScreen.

Haber agreed that better browser protection is pushing the criminals into social engineering, especially over the past two years. "You're just seeing an explosion in direct attacks on users with social engineering," he said. "We were really surprised by the volumes. The volumes have been crazy."

When the SmartScreen warning pops up to tell users that they're about to run a potentially harmful program, the odds are between 25 percent and 70 percent that the program will actually be malicious, Haber said. A typical user will only see a couple of these warnings each year, so it's best to take them very seriously.

Robert McMillan covers computer security and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Robert on Twitter at @bobmcmillan. Robert's e-mail address is robert_mcmillan@idg.com

Dell profit jumps as computer maker cuts costs (AP)

Posted: 17 May 2011 04:03 PM PDT

By RACHEL METZ, AP Technology Writer Rachel Metz, Ap Technology Writer – Tue May 17, 7:03 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Dell Inc. said Tuesday that its net income for the latest quarter nearly tripled as the personal computer maker benefited from lower computer component costs and growth in some of its more profitable product lines.

Shares of Dell, which beat analysts' adjusted net income estimates but came in a bit below revenue estimates, rose 5 percent in extended trading.

For the three months that ended April 29, Dell earned $945 million, or 49 cents per share, compared with $341 million, or 17 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, Dell earned 55 cents per share, easily beating what Wall Street expected. Analysts polled by FactSet forecast adjusted earnings of 43 cents per share.

Revenue rose just 1 percent to $15.02 billion from $14.9 billion last year, missing analyst estimates for $15.4 billion. Product revenue remained flat at $12.1 billion, while services revenue climbed 6 percent to $3.0 billion.

In Dell's consumer segment, which makes up about 20 percent of its revenue and so is much smaller than the portion of its revenue that comes from sales to businesses, dropped 7 percent to $3.0 billion.

Consumer demand fell more than Dell anticipated and, in an interview, Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden attributed some of this to the market for consumer PCs being saturated in developed countries. He added that while tablet computers are still a small portion of the PC market, there's "clearly an impact" from them on consumer demand for traditional PCs.

Revenue from large enterprises climbed 5 percent to $4.5 billion, while revenue from small and medium-size businesses increased 7 percent to $3.8 billion. Public sector revenue declined 2 percent to $3.8 billion.

By product category, the company saw the biggest gain in servers and networking, where revenue rose 11 percent to $2.0 billion. Sales of desktop PCs fell 8 percent to $3.3 billion, while mobile PCs rose 3 percent to $4.7 billion.

Dell has been working to increase the proportion of server computers, data storage devices and technology consulting services it sells, because those areas are more profitable than the company's basic PC business. Compared with a year ago, however, most of Dell's product categories accounted for about the same percentage of revenue, and computers for consumers and businesses continued to make up more than half of Dell's revenue.

Still, Dell's gross margin, an indicator of how efficient Dell's business is, came in at 22.9 percent, higher than the 20.4 percent that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting.

Dell's strategy of focusing on more profitable areas of its business and pruning lower-margin offerings "is working well," Gladden said.

Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves called the company's gross margin "impressive" and said Dell should be able to keep it up for now.

"They do have the potential to sustain margins long term, but in order to do so they have to drive toward more services-oriented businesses," he said.

Looking at the current quarter, Dell predicted revenue will rise by a percentage in the mid-single digits over the first quarter, slightly faster than its seasonal 2 percent to 3 percent growth. Analysts are expecting $16.0 billion.

For the full fiscal year, the company continues to expect revenue to grow 5 percent to 9 percent, implying a total of $64.6 billion to $67.0 billion. Analysts expect annual revenue of $64.4 billion.

Dell shares rose 86 cents, or 5.4 percent, to $16.76 in extended trading. The stock finished regular trading down 10 cents at $15.90.

Technet

Tuesday, May 17, 2011