Image of a silicon semiconductor. Credit: huangjiahui via Flickr.
Bottoms up!
Intel this afternoon gave investors a reason to hoist a beer mug or two, posting $8 billion in second-quarter revenue powered by sales of its Atom processor, used in fast-selling netbook computers, lightweight laptops that sell for as little as $200.
Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini said the results "reflect improving conditions in the PC market segment with our strongest first- to second-quarter growth since 1988 and a clear expectation for a seasonally stronger second half."
Translation: Computer makers are expecting a surge of back-to-school shoppers and better holiday sales than in 2008, when consumers reined in nearly all discretionary spending.
The Santa Clara, Calif., chip maker, however, posted a $398-million quarterly net loss, or 7 cents a share, primarily because it paid a record $1.45-billion fine imposed by the European Commission on charges that the company restricted competition in the semiconductor market. It had a $1.6-billion net profit in the second quarter last year. Its $8 billion in revenue represented a 12% improvement over $7.1 billion in sales posted for the first quarter of this year but an erosion from $9.5 billion a year earlier.
Even so, Wall Street loved what it heard, pushing Intel's stock up $1.20, more than 7%, to $18.03 in after-hours trading following the earnings release. The stock earlier in the day had closed up 34 cents to $16.83.
Intel's results kick off the earnings season for the tech sector, with Google coming up Thursday and Apple and Yahoo next Tuesday, followed by EBay, Microsoft and Broadcom later in the week.
Taking direct aim at Microsoft's dominance in personal computers, Google last night announced plans to launch an operating system that would compete with Windows and be available to consumers in the second half of 2010.
Dubbed Google Chrome OS, the operating system is designed to work with the company's Chrome Web browser, launched nine months ago and downloaded by 30 million users. Google said the software will be optimized for small, lightweight laptop computers called netbooks, a fast-selling category of inexpensive machines that sell for as little as $250 and are used primarily to surf the Web and check e-mail.
In a blog post announcing the product, Google's vice president of product management, Sundar Pichai, and its engineering director, Linus Upson, said:
Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.
Google did not say whether it would charge for the software, but references that it would work with the open-source community of developers suggest that the company may make it freely available. Microsoft, on the other hand, charges about $200 for each copy of its Windows Vista operating system.
"The release of an operating system is just another part of Google's strategy to more rapidly and cheaply spread access to the Internet via a multitude of different devices -- desktops, netbooks, mobile phones, set top boxes, etc.," Ben Schachter, an analyst with Broadpoint AmTech, wrote in a note this morning to investors.
Schachter said Google wants to eventually lure businesses away from Microsoft's Windows operating system towards so-called cloud computing, in which businesses can use lightweight computers to access applications and data that are managed via large data centers and served over the Web.
"Longer term, Google hopes a free operating system may encourage more small and medium-sized businesses to move towards an enterprise software solution in the 'cloud' and away from Microsoft," Schachter said.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple's upcoming Mac operating system, Snow Leopard, is an important release for the Cupertino company. Much of that has to do with Microsoft.
Software giant Microsoft is revving its engines in anticipation for its critical follow-up to Vista, called Windows 7, in October. But Apple stuck a branch through Microsoft's spokes at the Worldwide Developers Conference Monday with the announcement of a $29 upgrade price and a September release.
Microsoft, which doesn't have much of a hardware presence to recoup its costs compared with Apple, is unlikely to match that price.
As if that and all of the Windows Vista-bashing that Apple has done in its ad campaigns weren't enough, Bertrand Serlet, Apple senior vice president of OS X software development, took some direct jabs at Windows during his speech.
Serlet started by highlighting the low corporate adoption of Vista. Then, he pointed out how ...
San Francisco -- Apple's laptop computers got a lot more professional today.
The company showed off its updated line of MacBooks at the Worldwide Developers Conference that included a new 13-inch Pro model. Of course, the new Pro is really just the old MacBook with a few but important new features crammed in.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro has the same design as the current 13-inch MacBooks with their "unibody" casing made from a single sheet of aluminum, but with an SD memory card slot and a FireWire high-speed connection, bringing it in line with the upgraded 15-inch MacBook Pros that were also presented at Moscone Center today.
Perhaps the most enticing addition for portable users is the new lithium-polymer battery in the Pro models, which runs for seven hours -- two hours more than the previous MacBook Pro.
The Worms in Mud dessert. Credit: PaysImagniaire/ Flickr
Today we unsuspecting L.A. Times tech bloggers were besieged by e-mails from publicists regarding "the Conficker C threat pending for April 1," offering "insight on any scenario that happens tomorrow," and alerting us that companies have been preparing ahead of time "in an effort to prevent the Conficker worm from spreading further and potentially causing substantial damage."
Just like the Y2K hysteria and other bugs du jour, the Conficker worm has been a prime vehicle for the language of terror and fear. And just like those other instances, the warnings make for better conversation than the reality.
"As you are probably aware," read one e-mail from a PR firm called GlobalFluency, "tomorrow, April 1 is the day that the Conficker worm, possibly the most widespread ever, is predicted to inflict its damage through the hundreds of thousands of computers that it has infected. Nobody knows what Conficker will unleash."
GlobalFluency went on to offer an interview with an expert from a computer security firm that markets anti-virus software.
Conficker, a digital worm that has reportedly infected millions of Windows computers, has been widely covered in the media, including in the New York Times, which wondered if Wednesday would bring "An April Fools Joke or an Unthinkable Disaster," and on "60 Minutes," which noted that "so far, the bad guys who created it haven't triggered Conficker. It's just sitting out there like a sleeper cell."
Twitter, a useful heat map for online conversations, lit up today with thousands of worried messagesabout Conficker. "I'm terrified of that conficker virus thing," wroteSarah Rutherford of New York. "Not getting back on here at all for the rest of the week!!"
But as more sober commentators have noted, Conficker is not a ticking time bomb set to ...
If you've seen that Hulu commercial starring Alec Baldwin, you surely know that TV is a plot devised by aliens to turn our brains into mush so they can scoop them out and eat them. And online video and phones are making our brains even mushier, by giving us more places to watch TV.
The human race seems to be falling for this devious scheme, and aliens must be readying their sporks and knives. According to a Nielsen report out today, the average American watches more than 151 hours of TV per month. That's an all-time high, up 3.6% from the 145 or so hours Americans reportedly watched in the same period last year.
Newfangled distribution methods are also adding to the total: an extra three hours on the Internet for people who watch online video, and four hours on cellphones for those who watch mobile video, according to the report.
It's not just the kids who are firing up their computers to check out shows. Adults ages 18-24 spend five hours watching video online, while 25- to 34-year-olds spend just over four hours. Those ages 35-44 and 45-54 spend 3:20 and 2:34, respectively.
And on the Web, work time is still prime time. About 65% of online video viewers ...
Mark Zuckerberg. Sergey Brin. Bill Gates. Hot or not?
DailyCandy certainly thinks they are. The e-mail newsletter that's famous for promoting clothes, shops and restaurants is holding a contest called Get with the Programmer. Readers can nominate their favorite heartthrob "tech dude." Finalists will be announced Feb. 4, and fans can vote online.
If your nominee wins the title of "Hottest Programmer" when it's announced Feb. 13, you each win an HP Mini 1000 XP edition series netbook computer with an upgraded 60-gigabyte hard drive. Not a bad prize for spilling your guts about your secret nerd crush.
We took a little time out to do an instant-message chat with Dannielle Kyrillos, editor-at-large at DailyCandy. Here’s her take on the photos people have submitted (one programmer was naked, with a laptop covering his "mainframe"), plans for future dork fanfare and why picking a winner is going to be "harder than curing a blue screen of death."
Lori: Hey, Dannielle. You there?
Dannielle: hi!
Dannielle: i'm here!
Lori: Awesome.
Lori: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us today.
Dannielle: what a fun way to do an interview
Dannielle: i love it
Lori: Yes! I think it is super techie.
Dannielle: perfect for the subject!
Lori: So, just in time for Valentine's Day, you launched this contest "Get with the Programmer." Where did the idea come from?
Dannielle: A few weeks ago, we were sitting around the big table in our conference room
Dannielle: Discussing some DailyCandy discoveries whether they'd make good items
Dannielle: that sort of thing happens here all the time
Dannielle: well, the conference room is connected via a glass door to the room where our tech guys sit
Lori: ah ha!
Lori: (we call it a cave sometimes)
Dannielle: since we're all girls we like to tease them and flirt with them
Dannielle: bet they love that...
Dannielle: and suddenly it struck us clear as day --
Dannielle: there are boys sitting in dark rooms around the country who are the absolute heart and soul (and more technically, guts) of their companies
Dannielle: and we thought it's high time they were celebrated
Dannielle: enough funny flirting like we do through the glass door
Dannielle: how about some public recognition on a national stage!
When Microsoft said today that revenue from its core client business (Windows, Office, etc.) fell 8% in the last three months of 2008, it blamed a familiar culprit: the fact that companies and consumers are buying fewer computers. But Microsoft also attributed the revenue shortfall to growing demand for the stripped-down laptops known as netbooks. Say what?
Netbooks are generally defined as clamshell computers with a 10-inch or smaller screen, a lightweight processor such as the Intel Atom and no optical disk drives. They have zoomed out of nowhere -- manufacturers shipped just 450,000 units globally in 2007, but 10 million units in 2008, according to the Consumer Electronics Assn. This year, netbook sales are expected to grow 80% to 18 million units.
Isn't that good news for the economy? Not necessarily, said Stephen Baker, an analyst with the NPD Group. Though netbooks may increase the overall number of computers sold, they could very well drag down the PC industry's overall revenue. That's because netbooks tend to cost $300 to $500, far less than laptops or desktops. In addition, computer makers will have to cut the price of their faster laptops to compete better with netbooks.
"History tells us that when we offer lower-priced products, it tends to drive down the average selling price across the board," Baker said. "The net result is to drive down revenue overall, even if there are more units out there."
Netbooks cut into Microsoft's revenue too, to the tune of about $30 to $40 less for each one sold, Baker estimated. That's because netbooks don't have ...
Despite a bleak economy, Apple today reported record revenue and profit for its first quarter ended Dec. 27 -- propelled by surprisingly strong sales of its iPod.
The Cupertino, Calif., company reported a profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 a share, which beat analysts' consensus estimate of $1.39 a share. Revenue rose 6% to $10.2 billion.
Apple shares rose 6% to $82.83 in regular trading then leapt an additional 10% after hours.
Wall Street had worried that the recession and cutbacks in consumer spending would hit all three of Apple's major products: Mac computers, iPhones and iPods. The chill economic winds significantly slowed iPod sales in the first two months of the holiday quarter, which some analysts predicted would fall nearly 18% from a year ago.
But the portable media player exceeded expectations thanks to a last-minute surge in holiday buying that was spurred by retailers' decision to throw in sales sweeteners, such as iTunes cards. Apple said it sold a record 22.7 million iPods, which commands a 70% share of the U.S. market for music players.
"Even in these economically challenging times we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history -- surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever,” Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who is on medical leave, said in a statement.
Analysts reported anecdotal evidence of declining demand for the iPhone since the September quarter, when the iPhone 3G was launched globally. Consumers purchased ...
LAS VEGAS -- When TigerDirect.com bought bankrupt CompUSA a year ago, it seemed like a natural pairing that would quickly expand the bricks-and-mortar side of its business. The company had 11 retail outlets, but most of its $3.2 billion in sales came from its website. By acquiring CompUSA, which peaked at $5 billion in sales before spiraling into liquidation, TigerDirect picked up 16 more stores (it's now in Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Texas and Puerto Rico).
"By June," TigerDirect CEO Gilbert J. Fiorentino said, "I realized it was the worst mistake I could have made." Sales at the CompUSA stores were 50% lower than they had been a year before -- far too much to blame on the slumping economy. Fiorentino spent weeks in the stores trying to diagnose the problem, and he had another revelation: "The retail experience is a bad experience. It hasn't changed in 10 years. It occurred to me that the entire experience had to change."
UPDATE: Fiorentino's publicist just called to say his title has changed faster than his business cards. His new appelation is chief executive of the technology products group at Systemax Inc., the parent company of TigerDirect and CompUSA.
That's how he came up with his idea for Retail 2.0, which tries to bring the online shopping experience into the strip mall. It's not new technology so much as a far better use of the technology already in the stores. And although it seems best suited for merchants selling electronics, it's easy to imagine how it might be applied to other consumer goods.
Starting with a single outlet in Dadeland, Fla., CompUSA is pushing the wealth of information from TigerDirect's website into the aisles and onto products themselves. Instead of having the store's TVs and computer monitors display a movie trailer or nature shots in an endless loop, each set or monitor runs a slide show related to the product itself -- say, a discount offer or some basic specs. Clicking on a keyboard in front of the product brings up TigerDirect's Web page for that specific item, which includes photos of the back and interior, along with reviews, detailed specs, videos and compatible accessories. The company makes this happen by connecting each TV and monitor to a computer hooked to the Internet. That way, if the salespeople are busy, uninformed or hiding in the break room, consumers can answer their own questions.
The store goes one important step further -- it lets customers jump from the product's Web page to competing retail sites or online reviewers. When they're done, the display automatically reverts to the product's TigerDirect page and the slide show. For products not on display, customers can take the box to a bar-code scanner at the end of the aisle and call up the TigerDirect page that way. It makes the usual retail approach -- using bar-code scanners to reveal only the price of an item -- seem feeble in comparison.
One other feature from TigerDirect's site has also made it into the store. The company has networking and software experts at its call center to help customers answer technical questions and shop for specialized products. In the store, it has set up webcams that let customers hold video conferences with those experts through the Net. Those experts help give customers access to about 100,000 products in the company's warehouse and partners' stocks, Fiorentino said.
The changes at the Dadeland store quickly transformed it from the company's worst performer in the region to its best. Some of the improvements might stem from the novelty of it all, but Fiorentino is clearly onto something. One reason retail dollars are shifting online is because consumers prefer the experience -- they're more comfortable buying when they're better informed. By pushing TigerDirect's wealth of information into the physical store, maybe Fiorentino can pump some life back into CompUSA.
Depending on the model, your device features either a hard drive or flash drive that allows you to read and write files to it just like an external drive.
Mark Zuckerberg. Sergey Brin. Bill Gates. Hot or not?
Despite a bleak economy, Apple today reported record revenue and profit for its first quarter ended Dec. 27 -- propelled by surprisingly strong sales of its iPod. 
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