Roku's open TV platform

Roku's $99 set-top box made its debut last year as a tool for watching Netflix's online movie streams on a television set. It later added access to Amazon's video-on-demand service and Major League Baseball's online game broadcasts. Today it announced the latest step in its evolution into a more versatile device: a "channel store" of optional video sources for users to add to their boxes.

The store is an open platform, Roku says, providing a route to the TV set for any online video programmer willing to use Roku's software development kit. That's a promising development for content providers looking to bypass cable and satellite operators. Unfortunately, the first 10 channels available through the Roku store do not include Hulu, TV.com, Sling.com or any other source of network TV shows. Instead, they consist of a handful of sites with original online video, such as Revision3; Pandora's customized music webcasts; and sites for posting and sharing photos and home videos, such as Flickr. All are free to use and easy to add to the box's regular channel lineup, although some require viewers to register.

The biggest shortcoming is the lack of a search engine or program guide that would make it easy to browse across all the channels simultaneously. Users have to scroll through what's available channel by channel, which can be tedious.

Viewers looking for something to replace their cable TV won't find it from Roku -- at least not yet. What they'll find is a broader selection of content, a convenient way to display on TV the personal photos and videos they've stored online, and the promise of more to come.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division.

New computers for Windows 7

The TouchSmart tx2 is a tablet computer with a screen that swivels and folds down flat. Credit: Hewlett-Packard

When Microsoft officially unveils its Windows 7 operating system (see our review here) Thursday, the company is supposed to also announce several new computers designed to run the new OS.

But some computer manufacturers have jumped the gun, already disclosing information about their new models, a few of which are designed to use Win7's touch-screen features.

Hewlett-Packard has announced four new consumer products, all of which have touch screens. At the low end is the TouchSmart 300, an all-in-one desktop with a 20-inch screen that will sell for about $900 and up.

The TouchSmart 600, an all-in-one that will sell for about $1,100, will sport a 23-inch screen. A version that will sell for about $1,600 will be able to show video at 1080p resolution.

The TouchSmart tx2 is a tablet computer with a screen that folds down flat over the unit screen side up. It will start at about $800.

Finally, the LD4200tm is a 42-inch touch screen monitor for those who want the PC version of big screen. It will go for about $2,800.

For the budget-minded, HP's bargain line, Compaq (which used to be a high-end brand in its own right) will have the CQ61z laptop with a 15-inch screen (non-touch) at $399. That's what you'd pay for a much smaller netbook computer. But the Compaq price is temporary -- after Dec. 19 it jumps to $499.

Toshiba will have two new Satellite-branded laptops with touch screens. Its M505 with a 14-inch screen will go for about $950, while the U505 with a 13-inch screen will be about $1,050. So why will the laptop with the smaller screen be more expensive? One of the primary reasons is that the case will sport a "textured" finish.

-- David Colker

Start your own print media company with MagCloud

Kalina Magazine, an independent photo magazine that's printed on-demand with HP's MagCloud. Credit: Noah Kalina

And you thought starting a blog was easy…

Why start a blog when you can start a nice, glossy print magazine? Hewlett-Packard recently launched a new service called MagCloud, which flattens the entire magazine distribution process into one website. Give HP the content in PDF form and out comes a magazine. The cost: 20 cents per page. HP handles all the printing, mailing and subscription management. Users can set the subscription price for their rag (above the base price plus postage), leaving some room for profit if they choose. Gutenberg would be proud. And so was the New York Times. 

It used to be that only companies the likes of Amazon.com had access to such print-on-demand power, but MagCloud lowers the barrier of entry for niche blogs about gourmet cashews or antique typewriters seeking to become 'zines. Print-on-demand allows Amazon to offer a slew of niche titles without investing in the actual books unless they’re sold. For a blogger who’d like to see their stuff in print, it’s the same business model: pay only for what you can sell.

Using MagCloud, a one-person blog can go to print with only a little design experience. In fact, with sites like FeedJournal and Tabbloid (which, by the way, HP developed), a blog could completely automate a not-so-shabby print layout, simply by handing over its RSS feed.

It's not free: A 10-page monthly magazine would cost the blogger $24 plus postage per year, per subscriber. But if a dedicated audience is willing to pay a few dollars per month so that they can hold the blog in their hands, then there’s nothing to lose. Make that into a quarterly, annual or one-time e-book, and the profit margin starts to grow quickly.

This could have a impact on the already woeful print publishing industry. Though it seems like a step in the wrong direction, the indie blogs that bite into their online product can take a shot at their stubborn print subscribers as well. And why not? It’s about as risky as starting a blog.

-- Chris Lesinski

Samsung jumps into U.S. laptop market, taking on Apple, HP and Dell

Apple wasn't the only technology bigwig to weigh in on the laptop market today. Samsung Electronics this morning announced it would dive into the hypercompetitive U.S. laptop market later this year.

Samsung will have its work cut out for it, with Chinese manufacturers nibbling away at the low end of the market with ever cheaper machines and big brands dominating the more profitable premium end. But the South Korean company has taken on other Goliaths -- and won. Most notably, it wrested the title from Sony as the largest seller of flat-screen television sets in the country. And now, it's setting its sights on notebooks.

The game plan for taking on this market appears to be similar to its strategy for tackling TVs: Aim high.

Samsung is introducing five models priced between $1,049 and $2,499 later this year. You can read the specs here. The theory is that shoppers who spend less than $1,000 are looking purely at price. Those who spend more tend to value design and high-end features such as anti-bacterial keyboards, lightweight and long battery life -- features that Samsung aims to deliver with its machines.

"We're looking for the more loyal buyer with more discriminating tastes," said Dave McFarland, Samsung's senior product marketing manager.

Will Samsung succeed? The company last year rang up more than $103 billion in sales, making it one of the world's biggest consumer-electronics powerhouses. It's also made and sold laptops outside of North America since 1983. But when it comes to the U.S. laptop business, Samsung is a newbie. Here, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Apple and Toshiba have the market practically locked up. The five players claimed 77% of the North American notebook market in the second quarter, according to DisplaySearch.

Today, Apple made Samsung's job a little harder, introducing a line of MacBooks that feature, among other things, a glass touchpad.

-- Alex Pham

Photo courtesy of Samsung

Fiorina and Whitman to embrace McCain at GOP convention tonight

Tonight is Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's big moment at the GOP convention, when the nation finds out if she's ready for prime time. But the warm-up act includes two powerful women from the technology industry who know how to handle the spotlight (and a wireless microphone) -- Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina.

As our colleagues Maeve Reston and Noam Levey reported today, Whitman, the former chief executive of EBay, will take the stage in St. Paul, Minn., tonight to speak about the economy and energy. Then Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, will speak about what the first term of a McCain presidency would look like.

Whitman and Fiorina are strong backers of McCain. Whitman is co-chair of McCain's campaign, while Fiorina is victory chairman for the Republican National Committee. Both have been mentioned as potential Cabinet secretaries in a McCain administration, and their names appeared on lists of potential running mates before Palin was selected.

For Whitman (pictured above getting close to McCain), the 10-minute speech could help launch a political career. She told the San Jose Mercury News that she'll talk about McCain's plan to cut government spending and lower taxes. She'll also discuss what she called "our generation's moon shot" -- ending the nation's dependency on foreign oil. Her decade leading EBay has made her popular at the convention among users of the auction site, she said.

"They recognize me, and come up and say 'I'm an EBay seller,' or tell me 'I bought my car on EBay,' '' Whitman said.

But leaping into politics ...

From Facebook and Google, most powerful in Silicon Valley have women's night out

There was quite a turnout of high-powered women in technology at Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women dinner in San Francisco on Thursday night.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer and former Google exec (at right); Gina Bianchini, chief executive of social network Ning; Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, head of Google in the Asia Pacific region and Latin America; EBay Senior Vice President Stephanie Tilenius; Catherine A. Lesjak, Hewlett-Packard's chief financial officer; Dina Kaplan, co-founder and COO of Blip.tv; and Ruth Kirschner, head of West Coast sales for Google and DoubleClick (also married to Fortune senior writer Adam Lashinsky, one of the few men invited).

The evening reaffirmed the presence of powerful women in the echelons of Silicon Valley at a time when there is rising concern that women have lost ground, with the recent ouster of Diane Greene as chief executive of VMware and the absence of any women at the helm of the top companies here. Silicon Valley lays claim to some pretty highly placed women who weren't at the event, such as Yahoo President Sue Decker, Oracle Chief Financial Officer Safra Catz and Hewlett-Packard Executive Vice President Ann Livermore.

Fortune magazine started its ranking of the world's most powerful women a decade ago. Fortune editor-at-large Patricia Sellers says it's now the magazine's second-biggest franchise after the Fortune 500. It began with a list topped by Carly Fiorina in October 1998 before she was crowned chief executive of HP the following July. At the time, Fiorina was "squeamish" about women being segregated in such a list, but "she has come around," Sellers said.

Sellers led a panel of three "rising stars" at San Francisco restaurant Jardiniere (the chef ditched judging "Top Chef" to cook for the occasion). The panel included Google's Cassidy, Lululemon Athletica Chief Executive Christine Day and Tilenius, who former EBay chief and technology trailblazer Meg Whitman had recommended by saying that Tilenius had run just about every part of EBay and could lead the entire company someday.

The trio talked about how they define power, balance their families and career ("The key to marriage is negotiation," Cassidy said); whether there is a narrower acceptable range of behavior for powerful women than for men; and how important their spouses have been to their ability to climb the corporate ladder and treasure important moments -- such as making it home for a daughter being crowned homecoming queen.

The message of the evening: Regardless of gender, great leaders are authentic. Tilenius said she was "in pain" watching the presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Tilenius wished that Clinton had campaigned more as herself than as a tough guy. Tilenius recalled a colleague once telling her during a leadership forum that he imagined her leaving the house every morning and donning a gladiator's suit. She realized she could be herself and still be a great leader.

"Just be who you are," Tilenius said.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg. Credit: Google

Doing it the Dell way with new colorful laptops

Michael Tatelman, Dell's vice president of global consumer sales and marketing, was recently in San Francisco to unveil a new brand of Dell laptops, dubbed Studio, which go on sale in Best Buy and Staples stores in the next few days.

In the last year, Dell has made a bigger push into the consumer market by paying closer attention to design. Last year, with the Inspiron line, consumers could pick the color of their laptop from a palette of five colors.

Tatelman said the effort was beginning to pay off. In May, Dell reported that its consumer PC sales grew more than twice the industry rate during the first quarter and that the company had increased its global share of the consumer market by 1.2 percentage points, to 8.8%. (HP is still the king of global computer sales with 19%, compared with Dell's 15%, according to IDC. But in the first quarter, Dell increased its share, most dramatically in the U.S. Here, Dell's share is 31%, up from 28% in the same quarter last year. In the U.S., HP dropped slightly to 24% from 25%.)

The Studio laptops come with the customizable goodies one expects from Dell, such as optional back-lighted keyboard and a 15- or 17-inch screen. They'll cost $799 to $999 and go on sale tomorrow.

But what Tatelman wanted to talk about was how people personalize their laptops. With Studio, consumers will have two more colors to choose from -- plum purple and tangerine orange (chosen because it is also a common school color) -- and an array of accessories such as laptop bags and mice that can be color coordinated with the laptop.

Tatelman sniped at the competitors' approach to customers, indicating that Dell wasn't ready to cede the consumer market yet to Apple, with its thin MacBook Air, or to HP, with its TV ad campaign that focused on the hands of celebrities as they talked about their computers. He described Apple's approach as "we'll tell you what you want" and HP's as "they will tell you what you want." He described Dell's, of course, as "what do you want to do with this?"

And then, Tatelman pulled out a gadget that looked like a midget laptop, about the size of a paperback novel. It was actually a wooden demo model of a future Dell product: a portable Internet surfing device with a keyboard. Then he giggled and put it away.

-- Michelle Quinn

Photo: Dell

Microsoft buying still more share of Web search market

Having been snubbed by prom queen Yahoo at the big dance last month, Microsoft is clearly still on the rebound.

First, the software company's struggling Web search business, which is a distant third, began offering cash rebates to consumers who buy goods from some of its advertisers.

Today, it announced placement of a Live Search toolbar on Hewlett Packard PCs that ship starting in January. (Google, meanwhile, comes pre-installed on top PC rival Dell.)

And let's not forget that Microsoft, after withdrawing its bid to acquire Yahoo, is still in talks to pick up only Yahoo's search business, which is a bit like promising to stop at first base.

While PC desktop placements come and go, they aren't cheap. Microsoft is throwing around the thing it has in ample supply -- money -- in hopes of getting consumers to at least try its search engine.

But they'll only stay if that search engine delivers better than Google and Yahoo's do.

-- Joseph Menn

EDS takeover will test Mark Hurd’s cost-cutting mettle

With his biggest acquisition to date, Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd may prove how ruthless he can be.

Since he took the helm three years ago, Hurd has driven the Palo Alto company back to the top of the computing industry by cutting costs. He’s done it relentlessly and without sentimentality, repeating the efficiency mantra every quarter — even as the company’s fortunes improved. That approach will get its biggest test yet as HP tries to absorb the 140,000 employees of Electronic Data Systems Corp., the Plano, Texas-based technology outsourcing company that HP said Tuesday it would acquire for $13.2 billion in cash.

“This is an order of magnitude bigger than what he has done before,” said Fariborz Ghadar, director of Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Global Business Studies.

Hurd, 51, indicated today that job cuts loomed as HP tried to improve its position in the market for data-center management, consulting and other high-tech services.

“We think we know a lot about how to look at overhead and how to look at costs that result from overhead,” he said during a conference call with analysts. “So think of us doing a lot of work that we know how to do and have done at HP.”

Some investors worried that this time Hurd had bitten off more than even he could chew. They have knocked more than 10% off HP’s stock since reports Monday that the two companies were close to a deal. HP shares tumbled $2.56, or 5.5%, to $44.27 Tuesday.

Read more here about the challenge Hurd faces with this deal.

-- Michelle Quinn

Electronic Data Systems: At your service, HP

Hewlett-Packard's $12.8-billion deal to acquire Electronic Data Systems is all about slow and steady revenue.

Corporate belt-tightening + slumping consumer confidence = a rough time to sell PCs and printers.

But IT services, ah, now there's a smooth business. The idea is to sign huge companies to multiyear contracts setting up their data centers, software systems and other high-tech stuff, then watch the money flow in like clockwork. That can help offset the ups and downs of selling hardware. Here's more from our story:

Analysts said the bid for Electronic Data showed that HP was trying to protect its balance sheet from the softening economy.

The company is the worldwide leader in personal computer and printer sales and a strong competitor in computer servers, but sales of those products ebb and flow.

In contrast, the services business -- which includes consulting as well as setting up and running corporate data centers, software and other technology -- often grows during downturns as companies outsource tasks to reduce costs. Plus, corporations often sign multiyear contracts that pay out in predictable ways.

The services business also holds greater potential for growth than many of HP's computer and printer businesses, said Tom Smith, a computer hardware analyst at Standard & Poor's Equity Research.

"There are more ways to add and invent new consulting services if you can establish long-term contracts," he said. "And if you have good services, it supports the next round of hardware sales, and so on. It creates a steadier business."

David Garrity, director of research at Dinosaur Securities, said offering strong services had made hardware companies such as HP "a trusted advisor to a business."

-- Chris Gaither

Photo by LM Otero / Associated Press