Sign up for our Technology Newsletter 
PC Sales Takes Toll On Seagate
Seagate Technology Plc’s shares tumbled as much as 8 percent on Tuesday, after the hard disk drive (HDD) maker projected first-quarter revenue below estimates on slowing sales of personal computers.
The company has been hit by sluggish economic growth and shaky sales of PCs as consumers shift toward tablets and smartphones.
FBN Securities cut its price target on Seagate’s stock to $32, saying selling prices had started to decline from their peak levels after theThailand floods last year and inventory had started rising.
Seagate’s weak outlook follows an upbeat fiscal 2013 forecast from rival Western Digital Corp, which is banking on strong sales to big businesses.
The company forecast first-quarter sales of about $4 billion, below analysts’ estimates of $4.62 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Dell’s Cloud Plans Falls Behind Schedule
Comments Off on Dell’s Cloud Plans Falls Behind Schedule
Dell announced an aggressive schedule last year to roll out cloud-based application services, but it appears that the schedule was a little too aggressive.
Dell said last August that it planned to launch an online analytics service in the first half of this year for small and midsized businesses, but that service isn’t due now until early next year, a Dell executive said.
“Like a lot of development projects, it can take a bit longer than you think,” Paulette Altmaier, general manager of Dell’s Cloud Business Applications group, said in an interview Thursday.
Dell also said it would launch a platform-as-a-service offering this year based on Microsoft’s Azure platform. On Friday, a Dell spokeswoman said the company no longer has a delivery date for that service.
The delays are a setback for Dell, which is trying to reduce its dependence on PCs and build more profitable businesses in services and software. But a lot of companies are moving slowly to the cloud, so the hold-up isn’t a disaster, said Peter Ffoulkes, an industry analyst with 451 Research Group.
“The move to the cloud is not a fast journey and for most people it is still largely a future. I would not expect a quarter or two to make a big difference in practical terms,” he said.
Dell has also made a string of software acquisitions in the past year that might be causing it to rethink its software-as-a-service strategy. It updated press and analysts on its software plans Thursday.
When it does arrive, the analytics service will offer “cross-app” analytics, meaning customers will be able to import data from one or more applications to a data warehouse that Dell will host for them online, and then perform analysis on that data.
Windows 7 Most Used OS
Windows 7 is now the leading operating system (OS) for PCs, according to figures from web traffic analysis firm Statcounter.
The report claims that in June more than half of all internet connected PCs, or 50.2 per cent, ran Microsoft’s most recent Windows 7 OS.
Statcounter’s statistics show that Windows XP was the next most popular operating system, used by 29.9 per cent of users.
This might be the first time that Windows 7 has had more market share than the other operating systems put together, but with the launch of Windows 8 looming, it’s only a matter of time before Microsoft will begin pushing Windows 7 users to make the switch to its next operating system.
That’s already started happening with XP. Launched back in 2001, the OS was a massive hit for the software giant and for this reason it’s finding it hard to wean users away from Windows XP – especially considering how rubbish Windows Vista was. However, Microsoft has said that it’s time to move on, and it will end business support for Windows XP in the next two years.
Spray-On Battery Coming To The Office
July 9, 2012 by admin
Filed under Around The Net
Comments Off on Spray-On Battery Coming To The Office
Researchers at Rice University in Houston have created a prototype spray-on battery that could allow engineers to rethink the way portable electronics are developed.
The rechargeable battery boasts similar electrical characteristics to the lithium ion batteries that power almost every mobile gadget, but it can be applied in layers to almost any surface with a conventional airbrush, said Neelam Singh, a Rice University graduate student who led a team working on the technology for more than a year.
Current lithium ion batteries are almost all variations on the same basic form: an inflexible block with electrodes at one end. Because they cannot easily be shaped, they sometimes restrict designers, particularly when it comes to small gadgets with curved surfaces, but the Rice prototypes could change that.
“Today, we only have a few form factors of batteries, but this battery can be fabricated to fill the space available,” said Singh.
The battery is sprayed on in five layers: two current collectors sandwich a cathode, a polymer separator and an anode.
“It was difficult optimizing the components in the form of a paint,” said Singh. Initial versions were sensitive to moisture and would peel off, but the addition of a polymer and a heat-sealing step solved this problem.
The result is a battery that can be sprayed on to plastics, metal and ceramics.
.
Will More Win8 RT Hybrids Start Showing Up?
June 29, 2012 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
Comments Off on Will More Win8 RT Hybrids Start Showing Up?
Rumour has it that Nvidia has the best drivers and might be close to fine tuning its Windows RT platform, but we are sure Qualcomm and Texas Instruments aren’t far behind.
The Asus Transformer series has set a new trend by providing tablet users with a keyboard dock with some extra ports and an additional battery. This is definitely the way to go as you get the best of both worlds in a single package Windows 8 RT is finally bringing Microsoft in the ARM market and needless to say there will be many systems to be ready for launch.
Nvidia with Tegra, Texas Instruments with OMAP and Qualcomm with S4 are getting ready to embrace tablets as well as hybrid notebooks based on Windows 8 RT. The Asus Transformer 600 is just the first of many to come and there will be at least a few more similar designs to launch this year with Windows 8 RT, so we have no doubt that we will see quite a few convertible Windows tablets.
Microsoft Says Windows RT Best For ARM
Microsoft has said its upcoming Windows RT will be loaded on laptops and tablets, claiming it is the “most compatible” ARM operating system.
Microsoft’s Windows 8 will be the first time the firm has launched a desktop operating system that supports the ARM architecture, albeit with the Windows RT branding. Now the firm has said that laptops and tablets will feature Windows RT and called it the most compatible ARM operating system.
Erwin Visser, senior director of Microsoft’s Windows Commercial Business Group said, “Windows RT devices in tablet and laptops will run all the apps from the Windows store. It will also include [Microsoft] Office components like Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Onenote and support a large amount of PC peripherals through in-box class drivers. Relative to other ARM offerings in the market, Windows RT will be the most compatible ARM offering on the market.”
When The INQUIRER asked Visser what he meant by “most compatible” Visser replied, “Taking into acount ARM is a completely new processor architecture and what we’re focused on is a couple of things to help enterprise customers embrace Windows RT. […] All the Windows 8 apps that run on x86 will also run on Windows RT.” Visser also cited inclusion of in-box drivers for PC hardware, something that is largely missing from both Android and IOS devices.
Visser also said users can side-load applications on Windows RT devices, meaning the Windows Store isn’t the only source of applications. When we asked whether this could be a security risk Visser said, “In the case of side-loading apps, the app will be certified through the enterprise IT organisation.”
As for why Microsoft will allow side-loading applications in Windows RT, apparently that is what big business wants. Visser said, “If you think about apps that are used internally, so not apps that are built by enterprises for their consumers or customers but apps that support internal processes, customers do not want to put those apps – because they always have some competitive advantage – in the Windows App Store, which is a public place. So they want to keep those apps within their own infrastructure and [with] side-loading they can still load them on Windows x86 and Windows RT systems.”
Is Iridium A Friend Of Cellular Phones?
June 13, 2012 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
Comments Off on Is Iridium A Friend Of Cellular Phones?
Cellular phones squashed Iridium once, but in its second coming the satellite phone maker and owner of the biggest satellite fleet is relying on them to resurrect their business.
For all their seeming ubiquity, cellular services cover only about 8 percent of the globe, leaving large regions where the only way to communicate is to use a satphone made by Iridium Communications Inc or one of its smaller competitors.
“The need for communication devices and services where terrestrial can’t be there is rising, and as bandwidth needs increase it’s surely helping Iridium,” Macquarie Research analyst Amy Yong said.
Investors have taken notice, pushing up the stock of the company nearly 50 percent over the past eight months.
“It’s a different company, with a prudent and successful financial model,” Raymond James analyst Chris Quilty said.
“They’re growing, they have extraordinarily high barriers to entry and some of the end markets and applications they’re targeting are vast and untapped,” he said.
Unlike its competitors, Iridium’s satellite constellation covers the entire globe, including the poles, and its array of 66 satellites dwarfs the fleets of its rivals. Inmarsat Plc has 11; GlobalStar has eight and is aiming to have 32 in orbit by the year-end; Thuraya has three, with one planned.
AMD Gives Opteron A Boost
AMD has shown there is a little life left in its Bulldozer Opterons by bumping up the clock speed of five Opteron models.
AMD launched its Bulldozer Opteron processors last November amid widespread anticipation that its brand new Bulldozer architecture would once again make it competitive with Intel. Its new architecture failed to impress, but the company has managed to eek out another 100MHz from five Opteron processors in what is likely to be a last hurrah before Piledriver Opterons make their appearance.
AMD bumped up the clocks by 100MHz on the 16-core Opteron 6284 SE and Opteron 6278 to 2.7GHz and 2.4GHz, respectively, while keeping TDPs the same as before, at 140W and 115W, respectively. The firm gave four Opteron 4200 series chips the same 100MHz bump, including the eight-core Opteron 4276HE to 2.6GHz, the six-core Opteron 4240 to 3.4GHz and the Opteron 4230 to 2.9GHz.
AMD was keen to point out that its speed bumped Opteron chips have been picked by Dell and by HP for 11 of its servers. Although the firm has not been able to compete with Intel’s Xeon chips on perfermance, its chips are considerably cheaper, a fact that AMD is using to win customers.
Although AMD’s 100MHz speed bump isn’t going to set the world on fire, every little bit of performance will help the firm as Intel ploughs on with its hugely impressive Sandy Bridge E and Ivy Bridge Xeon chips. AMD’s answer to Intel’s latest Xeon chips is expected to be the Piledriver Opterons.
Powerful “Flame” Virus Found In Iran
Security experts have uncovered a highly sophisticated computer virus in Iran and other Middle Eastern states that they believe was deployed at least five years ago to engage in state-sponsored cyber espionage.
Evidence suggest that the virus, dubbed Flame, may have been built on behalf of the same nation or nations that commissioned the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran’s nuclear program in 2010, according to Kaspersky Lab, the Russian cyber security software maker that claimed responsibility for discovering the virus.
Kaspersky researchers said on Monday they have yet to determine whether Flame had a specific mission like Stuxnet, and declined to say who they think built it.
Iran has accused the United States and Israel of deploying Stuxnet.
Cyber security experts said the discovery publicly demonstrates what experts privy to classified information have long known: that nations have been using pieces of malicious computer code as weapons to promote their security interests for several years.
A cyber security agency in Iran said on its English website that Flame bore a “close relation” to Stuxnet, the notorious computer worm that attacked that country’s nuclear program in 2010 and is the first publicly known example of a cyber weapon.
Iran’s National Computer Emergency Response Team also said Flame might be linked to recent cyber attacks that officials in Tehran have said were responsible for massive data losses on some Iranian computer systems.
LG Only Wants To Support Android
May 7, 2012 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
Comments Off on LG Only Wants To Support Android
Smartphone-maker LG Electronics has backed off manufacturing Windows Phone devices for now and will instead focus on Android phones, according to a report.
The Korea Herald reported Monday that LG, based in Seoul, South Korea, will take a step back from the Windows Phone platform, though it intends to “continue research and development efforts” on the Microsoft operating system.
LG currently makes the Optimus 7 based on Windows Phone 7 and other WP7 handsets.
LG has noted that Windows Phone 7-based devices hold less than 2% of the global smartphone market, according to multiple market analysts.
“The total unit[s] of Windows Phone sold in the global market is not a meaningful figure,” an LG spokesman told the Korea Herald.
In 2009, LG had decided to make Windows Phone its primary smartphone OS, with plans for 26 new Windows phones in 2012.
Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner, said the LG decision to cut its Windows Phone plans, at least temporarily, is likely not an absolute reversal of strategy.
He theorized that LG may be waiting for Windows Phone 8 to materialize late this year before producing more devices on the platform.