Patrick Spence, 14-year veteran of Research in Motion (RIM) and its head of global sales, has departed the company. Spence "will be taking on a leadership position in a different industry," according to RIM spokeswoman Rebecca Freiburger. No comment has been made if the move is in response to the announcement of RIM's new Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer three weeks ago.
Dell has announced its fiscal-year 2013 first-quarter results on Tuesday, as the continuing skid in profits continues. Quarterly revenue was down four percent from a year ago to $14.4 billion. Profit continues to fall and dropped a staggering 33 percent to $635 million. The consumer division continues to weigh down the company, with a revenue of $3 billion, a 12 percent decline year-over-year.
Facebook is in the process of launching a system to allow advertisers to measure the impact of their advertising efforts on the social network. The company is also looking to allow external advertising agencies to buy premium ad slots in users' news feeds. As The Financial Times reports, the changes to the site's advertising policies come as Facebook attempts to instill confidence in its capacity to leverage its massive user base in the world of targeted advertising.
Apple is by far the largest buyer of all kinds of microprocessors, buying 50 percent more RAM, processor and other chips than any other company, with its appetite having tripled since 2009 due to the success of its iOS devices (and to a lesser extent its growing Mac business). At an industry conference, IHS iSuppli researcher Dale Ford said that the company will buy $27 billion worth of chips, up from $9B in 2009.
Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski, speaking during Boston's The Cable Show, has voiced support for data caps on Internet plans. The chief feels that tiered pricing will "increase consumer choice and competition" and result in "lower prices for people who consume less broadband," though he did not clarify what mechanism would drive prices down. Consumer advocates and public-interest groups immediately responded, decrying the comments and urging the FCC to more closely examine the effect of broadband data caps on the market, pricing, and innovation.
HP has reported its fiscal second-quarter financials, pointing to a slight slide in net revenues to $30.7 billion. Earnings per share fell to $0.80, slightly higher than the internal forecast of $0.68 to $0.71, however the company nonetheless confirmed plans to eliminate eight percent of its workforce.
A jury at the US District Court of Northern California has determined that Google has not infringed on six claims contained in two Oracle patents. The unanimous decision is viewed as a partial win for the search giant, however the company still faces potential damages in an earlier verdict that focused on copyright violations for a number of Java APIs.
Storage drive makers Seagate and LaCie on Wednesday announced an agreement that will see the former buy a majority, 64.5-percent share in LaCie. The deal will see about $186 million change hands, and the product portfolios will be merged. The focus will also be on expanding the storage market in Europe and Japan.
Apple and Samsung have failed to reach any kind of settlement after court-ordered talks on Monday and Tuesday, according to the Korea Times. A Samsung official tells the publication that the companies could find "no clear agreement" on their patent dispute. The talks were extremely high-level, involving Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung.
Siri, the voice command system on the iPhone 4S, is being blocked on IBM's internal networks, the company's CIO has revealed. Jeanette Horan mentioned the fact in an interview with MIT's Technology Review this week. The core issue involves the way Siri translates speech; rather than performing the task on a phone, it uploads recordings to Apple servers, where the speech is deciphered before results are sent back. Accompanying this is user data, such as the names of people in Contacts, since the information is needed to interpret some requests.
Apple design guru Jonathan Ive has revealed to The Telegraph that Apple’s current projects are ‘the most important and the best work’ that his team at Apple has ever done. In the UK to formally receive his knighthood from the Queen, Ive said that it will likely be this work that will be his legacy. Ive’s comments, while revealing nothing specific, are likely to set speculation alight ahead of expected revamps of key Apple products as well the rumored Apple TV.
Following last week's compromise between Motorola, RIM, and Apple resulting in a nano-SIM design submission, Samsung has filed a complaint with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) complaining about the voting process on the final design. After an initial denial of Samsung's appeal, Samsung filed the letter with ETSI stating that Samsung believes the vote was advanced before enough time was allowed for discussion and "consensus building" within the organization. Regardless of Samsung's complaint, voting continues and is expected to conclude sometime this week.
In a trio of recent announcements from cable giant Comcast, the company announced Voice 2Go, adding a new assortment of features for the Xfinity Voice suite pulled from the smartphone feature set. Also at Boston's The Cable Show Comcast's new next-generation customizable user interface codenamed "Project Dayview" was demonstrated. Rounding out the trio of announcements, the X1 cloud-based IPTV service was also shown. All three services will be rolled out to select markets by the end of this year.
It is a terrible cliché when a writer begins a story by claiming that a series of real-life events "reads like a Hollywood movie script," but occasionally dramatic stories occur that are hard to distinguish from the intricate plottings of screenwriters or novelists. An unusual operation involving the US-based Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) hiring investigators to spy on a UK couple that ran a "links to streaming video" site has resulted in prosecution with the help of a US defendant.
Alibaba, a Chinese-owned e-commerce giant, has bought half of Yahoo's stake in the company through a buyback deal. The previously speculated arrangement, announced on Sunday, sees Alibaba receive half of the 40 percent stake Yahoo has in the company in exchange for $6.3 billion in cash, and around $800 million in new Alibaba preferred shares. Yahoo will also receive preferential treatment if Alibaba conducts an initial public offering, with either Alibaba buying or Yahoo selling 25 percent of the remaining stake.
MSI and Asus have announced and detailed their first Thunderbolt-equipped motherboards. The companies have released specifications for their Ivy Bridge boards, both using Apple's Mini DisplayPort implementation of Thunderbolt, rather than Sony's custom Light Peak adaptation. Neither company has announced pricing and availability. Both boards are expected to make their debuts at the Taipei Computex show in two weeks.
Libelium has revealed a new technology that can track the amount of foot or vehicle traffic by counting the number of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radio signals from user's smartphones. Integrated into its Meshlium Xtreme multiprotocol router, it will allow the tracking of vehicles as well as their speeds, the amount of time people stand in front of store windows or landmarks, and can even differentiate between local residents and tourists. Any mobile device with a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi radio can be tracked, and no app needs to be installed on the devices.
At The Cable Show in Boston, Verizon Wireless on Tuesday announced it will soon release a new platform called Viewdini that will allow streaming of video content to subscribers of Comcast Xfinity, Hulu Plus, mSpot, Netflix, and TV sites to their mobile devices. Also, 4G mobile plans are required, and the service will only be available to Android-powered devices first, though support for other platforms is promised, as is content from Verizon FiOS.
Apple led the market in mobile PC shipments during the March quarter, at least when including the iPad, according to preliminary NPD data. The company shipped 17.2 million iPads and MacBooks, representing a 118 percent jump year-over-year, and 22.5 percent marketshare during Q1. About 80 percent of those units were iPads though, whereas the other top sellers succeeded on the basis of notebook shipments.
Google has announced that its proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility has been closed, following necessary approvals from the US Department of Justice, European Union and other international agencies. Current Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha will continue to help complete the transition, however he will step down as chief executive as Google veteran Dennis Woodside takes the leadership role.
At a time when businesses are exchanging more and more information online, with a corresponding risk of data theft from cyber hackers, Internet security is more critical than it has ever been. Evizone has developed a unique approach enabling the secure exchange of files, view-only copy protected messages and documents so that businesses can be confident that their vital corporate information remains only in the hands of its intended audience. MacNN recently had the opportunity to put some questions to Evizone CEO Andrew Coutts about what sets Evizone apart from the crowd and why businesses that value corporate security should consider it instead of email and other file sharing services.
Yahoo's former senior director of business management, Robert W. Kwok, and a former mutual fund manager at Ameriprise Financial have agreed to settle insider trading charges. The Securities and Exchange Commission maintains that Kwok and fund manager Reema D. Shah shared confidential information after a chance meeting in 2008 and continued with the information exchange into 2009. Kwok pled guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and Shah pled guilty to conspiracy. Both await sentencing.
A group of notable public figures, including two US presidents and a class of schoolkids -- along with the reunited "Mac and PC" team of Justin Long and John Hodgman -- paid tribute to Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs at the Webby Awards held yesterday in New York City. As part of the ceremony, a video tribute was run featuring "five words" (and sometimes more) from various celebrities and politicians who in turn paid tribute to Jobs, who died in October.
Some details revealed about how Apple intends to make its Maiden, North Carolina data center almost entirely powered from renewable-energy sources have come to light, showing a combination of solar and fuel-cell technology and practical energy-saving policies. The plans show that the company behind the iMac are also applying some cooling lessons learned from computers to the buildings, such as variable-speed fans.
California Senate Bill 1298 unanimously passed the California State Senate today outlining performance and safety requirements for autonomous, or driverless, vehicles on the California roads system. California Highway Patrol would have the responsibility to evaluate the operation of unmanned vehicles. Google, a sponsor of the bill, has tested driverless cars in California in the past.
Spotify has expanded its music service to reach customers in Australia and New Zealand. As of today, both Southern Hemisphere countries will be able to use the streaming service, and will have country-specific apps offering curated music playlists. The launch takes place three months after Spotify first arrived in Germany.
Following a delay of nearly a week after repeated denial of service attacks, low-cost Sprint reseller Voyager Mobile has launched in 22 states. Voyager provides Sprint's 3G and WiMAX network for $39 a month, contract free. Alternatively, a $19/month unlimited-talk plan is available.
The US International Trade Commission has ruled that a patent involved in Kodak's lawsuit against Apple and Research in Motion is invalid, according to AppleInsider. In particular an administrative law judge has quashed the 6,292,218 patent, Method for Live View Display and Digital Camera Using Same, on the basis of claim 15 in the document. Kodak will reportedly appeal the decision to the full commission, a necessary step if it intends to continue suing Apple and RIM for infringing the patent.
The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal against a $675,000 damages award to the RIAA and Sony in a file-sharing trial, reports Wired. Attorneys for Joel Tenenbaum, formerly a Boston college student, argued the defendant should be protected against "unrestrained discretionary jury damage awards against individual citizens for copyright infringement," but was denied by the court without further comment.
Apple CEO Tim Cook was the highest-paid CEO of 2011, according to a study released by the Hay Group and the Wall Street Journal. Cook's package for the year was valued at $378 million, although most of it is locked up in the form of stock grants issued after he took control from Steve Jobs in August. The first half of the shares will vest in 2016; the remainder will follow in 2021, contingent on Cook staying with Apple.
European Union antitrust regulators have threatened Google with fines and a formal antitrust lawsuit if the search giant does not move to resolve lingering concerns. European Commission vice president JoaquAn Alumnia has found evidence of anticompetitive wrongdoing, however regulators are enabling the company to make a "commitment decision" as an alternative to litigation and a potential fine.
Samsung has accused experts on Apple's side of patent litigation as being strong fans of the Cupertino-based company, pointing towards an engineered “cult-like following to all things Apple.” The claims that the experts had “cast aside established scientific methods... in favor of slavish adoration of their client” appear in Samsung motions filed on Thursday, as noted by Florian Mueller.
Microsoft has launched its previously detailed social-networking site So.cl. The software giant bills the site as an experiment, and has no immediate plans to release it as a commercial product.
Samsung is still hoping to settle in its global legal disputes with Apple, Reuters reports. The head of the company's mobile division, J.K. Shin, spoke to journalists at a Seoul airport yesterday shortly before flying to the US. "There is still a big gap in the patent war with Apple but we still have several negotiation options including cross-licensing," he said. Shin is joining Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung to meet Apple CEO Tim Cook today for court-ordered settlement talks.
Asian manufacturer Foxconn is preparing to spend $210 million on a new Huai'an production line for Apple, according to China Daily. The plant has been announced by local officials, and is expected to consume 40,000 square meters (over 430,556 square feet), and employ 35,800 people. Predicted output is valued at 6 to 7 billion yuan, or somewhere between $949 million and $1.1 billion, with an import/export value of $55.8 million.
On the heels of an appeals court win that suggested that Samsung should have been barred from selling its copycat Galaxy Tab 10.1 from the get-go, Apple has now filed a motion for a new injunction against the tablet asking it to be pulled from US shelves. The two companies are scheduled to begin high-level settlement talks on Monday, but should they fail the new injunction request could be ruled on as early as June 7.
Facebook's initial public offering remained the biggest story in tech throughout the day, overshadowing the social network's latest acquisition, Karma, a company that specializes in mobile social gifting. The startup has developed an e-commerce platform that enables mobile users to quickly find gifts, select a personalized card, and notify the recipient via text message, e-mail or Facebook.
Yahoo's new boss, appointed just four days ago, is wasting no time in reorganization and shaking up the company. Interim CEO Ross Levinsohn is consolidating a consumer commerce division created by ex-CEO Scott Thompson. Instead of operating separately, the commerce group will be folded into the company's global media force.
Microsoft has won an International Trade Commission ruling that may result in an import ban on several Motorola devices. The companies are involved in several separate intellectual-property disputes, though the latest ITC ruling focuses on a lawsuit filed by Microsoft over patented Exchange ActiveSync technology.
ARM's CEO expects computers powered by the company's processors to hold 10 to 20 percent of the notebook PC market by 2015. Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Warren East said (sub. required) he expects that ARM will have a bigger impact on the PC market than competitor Intel will have as it attempts to enter the smartphone market.
Google has applied for a patent on an input system that relies on a finger ring to control for technology such as Project Glass. The application, made public by the USPTO on Tuesday, describes a “wearable marker for passive interaction” in the form of a ring, artificial fingernails or other wearable items that could interact with a head-mounted display, following another recent application for the glasses design.
Facebook's record-setting IPO brought significant attention, however the company's stock price (NASDAQ:FB) ended up just $0.27 above the $38 offering price as the trading day came to a close. Shares started off the day trading at $42.05, 11 percent higher than the offering, however the price quickly fluctuated at lower levels before settling later in the afternoon.
Facebook, having just yesterday completed its initial public offering to the tune of a $106 billion valuation, now faces a $15 billion lawsuit in federal court. The suit, Bloomberg reports, alleges that the social network invaded the privacy of the plaintiffs by tracking their Internet use even after they had logged off of the social network.
Location tracking and check-in service Foursquare has hired its first Revenue Chief. Ex-Apple iAd executive Steven Rosenblatt has been hired to fill the newly created position. Foursquare's former head of business development, Tristan Walker, filled the role of revenue chief before leaving early this month.
In the wake of legal "requests" sent to its organizer, the London-based Apple Expo is now called the Appule Expo. Undaunted, Microsoft has recently booked space at the show. The newly named gathering will take place on October 11 and 12 of this year. Apple is not expected to attend.
Dish Network has warned the Federal Communications Commission that it may not be able to meet initial deployment goals for its LTE-Advanced network until 2016 or later. In a filing with the FCC (PDF), the satellite company is asking regulators to modify their official guidelines to accomodate a lengthier buildout schedule.
Apple is one of several parties in talks with Russia's Skolkovo technology park about possible research and development facilities there, according to local publication Izvestia. Other interested companies are said to include Google and Facebook; agreements are reportedly already in place for firms such as Microsoft, IBM, General Electric, and Cisco. Skolkovo's organizers are said to be aiming at making the park a Russian equivalent of Silicon Valley.
The recent decision by General Motors to cease its paid advertising operations on Facebook may have been the result of a failed pitch on Facebook's part to convince the automaker of the efficacy of advertising on the social network. Sources familiar with dealings between the two companies tell Reuters that Facebook's dual pitches—touting both free media advertising and paid advertising—served only to convince GM that its paid ads weren't effective enough to justify the cost.
A MOS Kim-1 single-board computer, originally released 36 years ago in kit form for $245, recently sold on eBay for $1,550. Following the acquisition of MOS by Commodore International, the historic computer became the basis of the Commodore PET.
AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega suggests the Windows Phone platform may see a significant boost from Microsoft's Windows 8 OS when it arrives on the market. Speaking at the JP Morgan technology conference, the executive noted that he was "very upbeat about what they are bringing to the market."
