Showing posts with label HP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HP. Show all posts

20 January 2015

The Autonomy Disaster of HP and its then-CEO Leo Apotheker

HPQ stock chart
HPQ (Hewlett-Packard Company) stock chart (screenshot source: Google.com)


Remember the Autonomy disaster of the HP Board and its then CEO, Leo Apotheker? The latest news--

British Fraud Office Ends HP-Autonomy Inquiry - NYTimes.com Jan 19, 2015: "... After reviewing the Autonomy sale, the British authorities said on Monday that they would end their investigation, though a similar inquiry by the American authorities into potential accounting abuses would continue. “In respect of some aspects of the allegations, the S.F.O. has concluded that, on the information available to it, there is insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction,” the British authorities said in a statement on Monday."

For background see:

expri.com | tech news: Autonomy, HP -- the Apotheker mess Meg Whitman is trying to clean up: 02 July 2014 and

Views under the Palm | johnmpoole.com: Apotheker's Legacy of Wrecking HP Continues
Jan 8, 2013 ".... "According to a recent report in Fortune, HP CFO Kathie Lesjak tried to stop HP from buying Autonomy for nearly $12 billion ... thinking the price was too high, but she lost that battle to then-CEO Leo Apotheker."

Léo Apotheker - Wikipedia:"Leo Apotheker is a German business executive. He served briefly as the chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard from November 2010 until his firing in September 2011. He also served as co-chief executive officer of SAP from April 2008 until he resigned in February 2010 following a decision by that company to not renew his contract. During his tenure as chief executive at HP, the company lost more than $30 billion in market capitalization after a series of strategic missteps by the company, leading to his resignation...."

more technology news below ( @ web version--link below)

15 December 2014

Tech News: Mark Zuckerberg Q&A (video), Government Malware


Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, sidestepping communication through the media, held his second public question-and-answer session to address users directly. (Bloomberg 12/12)

Antivirus Companies Shouldn’t Have Hidden What They Knew About Regin Government Malware | MIT Technology Review: "Antivirus companies had tracked the sophisticated—and likely U.S.-backed—Regin malware for years. But they kept what they learned to themselves. Last week we learned about a striking piece of malware called Regin that has been infecting computer networks worldwide since 2008. It’s more sophisticated than any known criminal malware, and everyone believes a government is behind it. No country has taken credit for Regin, but there’s substantial evidence that it was built and operated by the United States. This isn’t the first government malware discovered. GhostNet is believed to be Chinese. Red October and Turla are believed to be Russian. The Mask is probably Spanish. Stuxnet and Flame are probably from the U.S. All these were discovered in the past five years, and named by researchers who inferred their creators from clues such as who the malware targeted. I dislike the “cyberwar” metaphor for espionage and hacking, but there is a war of sorts going on in cyberspace. Countries are using these weapons against each other. This affects all of us not just because we might be citizens of one of these countries, but because we are all potentially collateral damage...."

HP Will Release a “Revolutionary” New Operating System in 2015 | MIT Technology Review: "...The main difference between The Machine and conventional computers is that HP’s design will use a single kind of memory for both temporary and long-term data storage. Existing computers store their operating systems, programs, and files on either a hard disk drive or a flash drive. To run a program or load a document, data must be retrieved from the hard drive and loaded into a form of memory, called RAM, that is much faster but can’t store data very densely or keep hold of it when the power is turned off. HP plans to use a single kind of memory—in the form of memristors—for both long- and short-term data storage in The Machine..."


Quartz

The war against Google in Europe is escalating—but will it make any difference?
Quartz
Also yesterday, on another company blog, Google noted the release of a ... That spurred responses from Google, Yelp, and the Microsoft-sponsored ...


Wall Street Journal

Google pulls Amazon app from Play Store listing
CNNMoney
Amazon and Google are having an app store standoff, resulting in the ... avoiding the standoffs with app developers that Apple (AAPL, Tech30) is so ...
Google Removed Amazon's App From The Play Store - Business Insider

With Amazon Facing $1.5 Billion Income Tax Bill, Bezos Too Busy To Testify
Forbes
Amazon is in quite a tax battle with the IRS. According the Amazon 10-K (downloadable) there is about $1.5 billion in taxes at stake spread over a ...

CNET

Apple under scrutiny in Canada for its contracts with carriers
CNET
Canada's Competition Bureau said Thursday that it is investigating whether contracts that Apple's Canadian unit has with the country's domestic ...


Fortune

Google gives a big 'nyet' to Russian engineering operations
Fortune
The tech publication, which cites anonymous sources, adds that the Google engineers, most of whom are located in Moscow, will have the option of ...

Google Translate Adds 10 New Asian and African Languages
The Next Web
Multilinguals can now learn to say hello in 90 languages using Google Translate, ... You Can Now Shop atApple's Online Store with Paypal ... Microsoft sends out invites for Windows 10 event at headquarters on January 21 ... Mark Zuckerberg is thinking about how to let you 'Dislike' things on Facebook.

Selling Beats to Apple made Dr. Dre 2014's highest-paid musician
The Verge
Dr. Dre made an enormous amount of money in 2014. Forbes puts his single-year payday at $620 million, which is the most of any musician in history.

Google's Android Studio 1.0 Makes Building Apps Easy
Lifehacker
Windows/OS X/Linux: Google's Android Studio is out of beta, replacing Eclipse as the standard for Android application development. Aspiring Android ...

Industry Views: What Does Microsoft Mean for Bitcoin?
CoinDesk
Following Microsoft's decision to embrace bitcoin, CoinDesk surveys thought leaders in the industry for ...Technology ... Microsoft took the bitcoin world by surprise late last night with the sudden announcement that it would allow ...

more technology news below ( @ web version--link below)



18 November 2014

Facebook Launching Work-Based Social Network (video)

Facebook at Work: Zuckerberg Making a Play for Businesses: Video - Bloomberg:
(Allow video to load after clicking play or go to link above)
Yammer Founder David Sacks and Bloomberg Contributing Editor David Kirkpatrick discuss Facebook launching a work-based social network. They speak on "Bloomberg West.” (Source: Bloomberg  Nov17)


Computerworld

HP plugs the Vertica analytics engine into Hadoop
Computerworld
Bringing some enterprise rigor to the wild world of big data, Hewlett-Packard has issued a package that will allow organizations to harness HP's Vertica analytical database engine to investigate reams of unstructured data residing in Hadoop systems.



San Jose Mercury News

Facebook work collaboration tool makes sense, but could be another distraction ...
PCWorld
Facebook is working on a collaboration tool for businesses called “Facebook at Work” in a bid to compete with similar tools from Google, LinkedIn and Microsoft. The tool, which is in early-stage testing, is similar to the social network, a person familiar with it ...


Fortune

Toyota to launch fuel cell car next month
Washington Post
TOKYO — There will only be a few hundred, and they won't be cheap, but Toyota is about to take its first small step into the unproven market for emissions-free, hydrogen-powered vehicles. The world's largest automaker announced Tuesday that it will begin ...


Mashable

Twitter cofounder Biz Stone launches Super, an app that's 'just fun'


Tom's Guide

Intel Unveils $500 MICA Smart Bracelet (Hands-on)
Tom's Guide
With new wearable devices getting launched every day, it's hard for something new to stand out. Intel seems to be going for the gold, however, teaming up with fashion house Opening Ceremony for its $495 My Intelligent Communication Accessory (MICA).


CNET

Tony Hawk rides hoverboard, stays airborne
SlashGear
“Forget everything you know” says Tony Hawk. The skateboarding legend is talking about the Hendo, a hoverboard that actually does what it says it will (and what we want it to). Taking to a copper-lined mini half-pipe, Hawk at least shows what's possible with ...


The Mac Observer

No User Complaints on iOS 8.1.1 and OS X 10.10.1 Updates So Far
The Mac Observer
Apple released two updates on Monday, one for iOS 8 (to 8.1.1) and the first for Yosemite (10.10.1). So far there hasn't been anything to report on either front. Not a suboptimal release like iOS had earlier this year, and as of now, no reports of tragic Mac ...


New York Times

Amazon Moves to Extend Cloud-Computing Dominance
New York Times
Less understood outside the technology industry is just how aggressively the ... its aspirations just as big as those of Microsoft, IBM and Google.



Reuters

Facebook service aimed at professionals to launch in a few months: source
Reuters
The professional version of Facebook, which could compete with services such as LinkedIn Corp, as well as Salesforce.com Inc and Microsoft Corp, ...
Facebook Developing 'Facebook at Work' Service, Says Report - Wired
Report: Facebook planning office version to rival LinkedIn, Google - Washington Post
Facebook building 'workplace network' - BBC News


Bidness ETC

Why Yahoo Can Reach $80 Per Share In The Next Year
Forbes
On July 23, I wrote an article in Forbes about how Yahoo was trading at such a low valuation (then $32/share) that it was an extremely attractive target ...


Yahoo Tech

Facebook Messenger: 4 Things Not to Worry About
Yahoo Tech
A few months back, Facebook made its members switch to Facebook ... worldwide to other Viber users; Google Hangouts (free, Android, Apple) lets ...


more technology news below ( @ web version--link below)



07 October 2014

HP To Split, Last Gasp for Old HPQ? (video)

Hewlett-Packard Splits Into Two Companies, Meg Whitman to Lead HP Enterprise -

Bloomberg’s Cory Johnson examines Hewlett-Packard’s split into two companies and a potential investment in Snapchat by Yahoo. He speaks with Betty Liu on “In the Loop.” (Oct. 6 -Bloomberg)

Hewlett-Packard Breaks Into Two Units to Stay Competitive - Bloomberg"Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) is splitting into two companies, using a breakup to become nimbler after failing to keep up with the shift away from the printing and personal-computing businesses it pioneered." see also: Meg Whitman will be CEO of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and nonexecutive chairman of HP Inc.

Expri's analysis: One big Silicon Valley dinosaur, splits into 2 dinosaurs? One for enterprise in the model of IBM, and one for printers (2/3) and PCs. Doesn't sound like "innovation" but it may improve "shareholder value." Hard to see how HP is going to effectively compete against the likes of Lenovo, Oracle, Google, Amazon. Microsoft, et al.


How Google Could Easily Become A Dominant Investment Manager: Google has been making some waves recently over reports that it intends to enter the asset management industry following recent suitability studies the firm has conducted. Facebook has recently explored entering the financial services industry as well, as the company is reportedly seeking to set up an international monetary transactions service for Facebook users. However, what really sets Google apart in its foray into the financial services industry are its advanced analytics capabilities from Google keyword search volume to advanced satellite imagery that could be leveraged to predict macroeconomic and company trends, which could ultimately be applied to developing highly advanced investment strategies....


Forbes

Why Microsoft Doesn't Care About Windows 10...And Neither Should You
Forbes
Last week Microsoft announced the forthcoming release of its next Windows 10 operating system. And even though the system is still very much in an ...
Windows 10 may be the last piece of Microsoft's cloud puzzle - ZDNet


New York Times

Facebook's Bus Drivers Seek Union
New York Times
A Teamsters official said the union was first seeking to unionize Facebook drivers, and then hoped to organize drivers for Google, Apple and other ...


NPR

Supreme Court To Weigh Facebook Threats, Religious Freedom, Discrimination
NPR
The U.S. Supreme Court opens a new term Monday, but so far the justices are keeping quiet about whether or when they will tackle the gay marriage ...


New York Times

Technology Takes the Wheel
New York Times
DETROIT — Google's driverless car may still be a work in progress, but the potential for semiautonomous vehicles on American roads is no longer the ...


Businessweek

Jeff Bezos's New Plan for News: The Washington Post Becomes an AmazonProduct
Businessweek
It will eventually be available for download on other Kindles as well as to owners of Apple's (AAPL) iPad and various Android devices, and it will carry ...

Facebook looks set to launch mobile payments - CNBC.com


Forbes

Apple Supplier GT Advanced Technologies' Stock Dives 90% After Bankruptcy Filing
Forbes
Shareholders in GT Advanced Technologies GT Advanced Technologies took a massive hit Monday as the manufacturer of sapphire glass used in ...
Apple sapphire crystal supplier GT Advanced files for bankruptcy - 9to5Mac
Apple Watch may be in short supply as GTAT goes bankrupt - SlashGear

Google's Software Removal Tool Removes Crapware, Resets Your Browser
The Coolest Windows 10 Features Microsoft Didn't Announce ... Google's Software Removal Tool Removes Crapware, Resets Your Browser. more info: https://www.google.com/chrome/srt/


more technology news below ( @ web version--link below)



09 September 2014

Apple's Big Day LIVE, iPhone 6, iWatch, iWallet and more!

What To Expect From Apple’s iPhone Event On September 9:  iPhone 6; iWatch; iWallet; iOS 8; iPad Air 2.  Tuesday, September 9, 2014, 11:00 AM EDT - 1:00 PM EDT  - Join our CNET live coverage of Apple's September 9 media event in Cupertino. Among the new products widely expected to be announced: the iPhone 6, and -- possibly -- a wearable product. LIVE Blog:

LIVE Apple Event April 9th

Technology News:
Five ways Apple's iPhone 6, iWatch launches may transform its business model | ZDNet"Apple's iPhone 6 and wearable preview is likely to be the beginning of a series of product launches that could lead to more software and services growth."

Only 5 percent of Android users will switch to iPhone 6, says survey - CNET"A survey insists that only a small proportion of Android users will switch to Apple's new phone. But could that change when they actually see the iPhone 6?"


Why Does The European Union Consult Microsoft On How Google Should Operate?: "Why on earth should Google’s page be set up so as to favour Microsoft’s offerings? The two companies are competing in the search space, correct? Well, go compete then instead of whining to the politicians."


Meet the shadowy tech brokers that deliver your data to the NSA | ZDNet"These so-called "trusted third-parties" may be the most important tech companies you've never heard of. ZDNet reveals how these companies work as middlemen or "brokers" of customer data between ISPs and phone companies, and the U.S. government."


T-Mobile sues Chinese telecom giant Huawei | Business & Technology | The Seattle Times"T-Mobile USA has sued Huawei Technologies, claiming the Chinese telecommunications giant stole its software, specifications and other secrets for a cellphone-testing robot nicknamed “Tappy.”"

HP alleges Autonomy email warning of falling revenues and 'imaginary deals' shows fraud - Telegraph"Chief financial officer wrote to founder Mike Lynch demanding 'radical action' prior to disastrous takeover by Silicon Valley giant"



more technology news below ( @ web version--link below)



02 July 2014

Autonomy, HP -- the Apotheker mess Meg Whitman is trying to clean up

Can Meg Whitman save HP? - CBS News: ".... There aren't many tech companies that have been able to make this type of transition. "You're right," said Whitman. "You have to be willing to cannibalize your existing business. Frankly, I'd rather do it to myself than have someone do it to me." In Las Vegas this month, Whitman revealed that Hewlett-Packard is working on a radical redesign of computing, a project it calls "The Machine." "This changes everything," she said in Las Vegas. How? By building computers in an entirely new way, using light to move data instead of copper wires, and combining all forms of the computer's memory in the same place. What will The Machine be able to do? "It will be able to compute much faster with huge amounts of data," Whitman said. "And it will also take up a lot less space and pull a lot less energy."...."

Not many CEOs have the perseverance of HP CEO Meg Whitman -- if HP survives, she deserves a lot of credit --

Hewlett-Packard and shareholders reach settlement in suit over Autonomy deal - San Jose Mercury News: "...HP has  been widely criticized for ignoring red flags when it paid $11 billion for Autonomy in 2011. For years before that, analysts and others had raised doubts about the software company, and HP in November 2012 wrote down Autonomy's value by $8.8 billion. That prompted some of its shareholders to file suit, claiming the Palo Alto company's executives misrepresented how much prior checking they did on Autonomy, exaggerated the importance of Autonomy's technology and delayed publicly acknowledging Autonomy's problems months after learning of them. In its defense, HP claims it was misled about the British firm's worth because of "accounting improprieties, misrepresentation and disclosure failures" by Autonomy's executives. The U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office all are looking into HP's charges. In addition, Air Force investigators have filed similar accusations against Autonomy officials, seeking to bar them from doing business with the military...."

A look back:
Views under the Palm | johnmpoole.com: Apotheker's Legacy of Wrecking HP Continues: Jan 8, 2013 ".... If only HP had not hired Apotheker but a CEO who could have advanced webOS.... "According to a recent report in Fortune, HP CFO Kathie Lesjak tried to stop HP from buying Autonomy for nearly $12 billion last summer, thinking the price was too high, but she lost that battle to then-CEO Leo Apotheker."--$12 billion down the drain. What a waste!"

Facebook's Study Of Emotion Is About Keeping Us Addicted To Facebook
Forbes
Facebook made some errors of judgment in the way it handled its now-infamous, behavioral experiment on users. We now know it only added ...

Google Shutting Down Orkut
InformationWeek
After Monday, the Orkut mobile app will be removed from Apple's App Store and from Google Play. Those who have already downloaded the app will ...

Microsoft boosts anti-snooping protection in Outlook.com, OneDrive
PCWorld
Microsoft has added encryption safeguards to the Outlook.com webmail ... Cloud computing providers like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and many ...

Yahoo Picks Up 'Community' for Its Streaming-Video Site Screen
Wall Street Journal
Sony Pictures Television and Yahoo finalized an agreement Monday, the last day of the cast ... on Yahoo's site watching video could help the company lure ad dollars fromGoogle Inc.'s YouTube, by far ... Yahoo was the fourth-largest video site, with 52 million viewers, trailing Facebook Inc. and AOL Inc.

Google Is Locking Down The UI On New Android Wear, TV and Auto Spin-Offs
Forbes
This past week at its I/O event, Google disclosed a plethora of additional details regarding its plans for Android Wear and unveiled additional spin-offs ...

Amazon Web Services Introduces New Low-Cost General Purpose Instance Type forAmazon EC2
Wall Street Journal
Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company, today announced the availability of T2 instances, a new Amazon ...

Google Glass taking fans closer to the action
USA TODAY
CHICAGO (AP) -- Your favorite team is playing for the title, and you are in the middle of the field. You have a ticket in the very top row for an NBA ...

Apple patches iOS, OS X and Safari on Mega Monday
Computerworld
Nine of the 19 Mavericks vulnerabilities -- and 8 of the 11 critical flaws -- were reported toApple by Ian Beer, a Google security engineer. Along with ...


Enigmatic Disappearance Of Ocean Garbage Patch"Millions Of tons. That’s how much plastic should be floating in the world’s oceans, given our ubiquitous use of the stuff. But a new study finds that 99% of this plastic is missing. Plastic junk is floating widely on the world’s oceans, but there’s less of it than expected, a study says"


more technology news below ( @ web version--link below)



23 May 2014

Ask the FCC Why Comcast, Verizon and AT&T Can Not Be Like Google Fiber!

Google Fiber: we don’t charge for peering, don’t have fast lanes - Hear that Tom Wheeler, FCC, US Congress, Barack Obama? What is WRONG with Washington DC and the industry incumbents is they all have their heads up their _____. At this point, the incumbents and the US government (including FCC) have done such a poor job providing low-cost, fast internet for the US, let's just turn it all over to Google!

Google Fiber: we don’t charge for peering, don’t have fast lanes — Tech News and Analysis: "....Of course, this was more than Google gloating about how fast Fiber is. The post also comes at a time where Netflix sees itself pressured to strike paid peering deals with companies like Comcast and Verizon to improve an otherwise subpar video streaming experience for the customers of those ISPs."

Google Fiber Blog: "Google Fiber provides the ‘last-mile’ Internet connection to your home. Meanwhile, content providers spend a lot of money (many billions of dollars) building their own networks to transport their content all the way to those ‘last-mile’ connections....we invite content providers to hook up their networks directly to ours. This is called ‘peering,’ and it gives you a more direct connection to the content that you want. We have also worked with services like Netflix so that they can ‘colocate’ their equipment in our Fiber facilities. What does that mean for you? Usually, when you go to Netflix and click on the video that you want to watch, your request needs to travel to and from the closest Netflix data center, which might be a roundtrip of hundreds or thousands of miles. Instead, Netflix has placed their own servers within our facilities (in the same place where we keep our own video-on-demand content). Because the servers are closer to where you live, your content will get to you faster and should be a higher quality."


Google Plans Low-Cost, High Quality Wi-Fi Networks For Small- And Medium-Sized Businesses, Report Says | TechCrunch: "Google is apparently planning to offers subsidized, commercial-grade Wi-Fi hardware to small and medium-sized businesses, The Information reports, alongside software to help greatly improve the quality of the Wi-Fi experience at places like doctors’ offices, restaurants, gyms and more. The hardware would be the only cost involved, as it would use the businesses’ existing Internet connections, unlike the Google-provided Wi-Fi networks running at Starbucks businesses across the U.S."

Wheeler Says F.C.C. Will Examine Peering Arrangements - NYTimes.com: "The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday that the agency would examine the type of paid-priority arrangements that Netflix recently entered into with Comcast, a deal that created an uproar of accusations that the F.C.C. was allowing companies to buy fast-lane Internet access to consumers. The chairman, Tom Wheeler, told a House panel Tuesday that the commission “needs to be looking at and will be looking at” those types of agreements, which are business-to-business contracts known as peering arrangements. Mr. Wheeler also stated that position last week after the commission voted to release its open Internet proposal for public comment. The stance is significant because Mr. Wheeler has long said that peering agreements do not fall under the umbrella of what is commonly referred to as “net neutrality,” which is the focus of the commission’s open Internet proposals introduced last week..."

Google Backs Netflix in Epic Battle With Comcast
Wired
Netflix is now paying Comcast for a direct connection to the internet service provider, as it seeks to ensure that Comcast customers experience fewer ...

House of Representatives passes 'gutted' NSA surveillance reform | The Verge: "Privacy watchdogs hope Senate will roll back amendments to USA Freedom Act"

HP: Cheapest quad-core tablet yet comes in at just $99.99 | BGR: "The HP 7 Plus features a 1GHz quad-core processor, a 7-inch, 1024 x 600 resolution display, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage (and microSD card slot), 2-megapixel rear camera, 0.3-megapixel front camera, 2800 mAh battery and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. If you purchase the tablet from HP’s website, you’ll also receive 25GB of lifetime storage with Box and Kingsoft Office software."

JD.com Is Latest Chinese Company to Soar In U.S. Trading Debut - MoneyBeat - WSJ: "Investors are going shopping for JD.com Inc.JD 0.00%, the newly public e-commerce juggernaut, adding to a mostly buoyant market for Chinese companies listing in the U.S."

Heard on the Street: Sina Spreads Gloom Amid Chinese Internet Boom - WSJ.com: "Chinese Internet portal operator Sina SINA -9.38% is giving investors plenty to worry about, and not much to look forward to."

Google feels political wind shift against it in Europe - FT.com

Marc Andreessen: Tech companies are still fuming over the NSA: "....Chief executives from leading companies including Netflix, Google and Facebook met with senior White House officials in December, and again in March. While the Obama administration said at the time that the meetings helped clear the air on intelligence reforms, Andreessen argued Monday that the White House has not done enough to mitigate the NSA's impact on tech companies' reputations, particularly overseas. "The level of trust in U.S. companies has been seriously damaged, especially but not exclusively outside the U.S.," said Andreessen. "Every time a new shoe drops — and there are 10,000 of them — it serves a blow to the U.S." Some estimates suggest the news about the NSA's surveillance practices may have cost tech companies tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue...."

How the Internet of Things Will Change Business | MIT Technology Review: "....Gordon Bell, a Microsoft researcher and a pioneer of the original computer revolution, believes no one knows exactly what form computing will take on the Internet of things. But he says that’s unsurprising. The importance of the PC and the smartphone became clear only after their development. “The ‘Internet of things’ is a way of saying that more of the world will become part of the network,” he says. “That is what is going on. We are assimilating the world into the computer. It’s just more and more computers.”"

Samsung Music will close its doors on July 1 | News | TechRadar: "Samsung is encouraging anyone using the service to "take the time to download all purchased content and use any remaining vouchers for Samsung Music before July 1, 2014 - after that date they will no longer be available." 

HP Shares Fall on Light Results; Plans to Cut up to 16,000 More Jobs | Re/code

more technology news below ( @ web version--link below)



03 April 2014

T-Mobile fastest 4G LTE network, but goodbye BlackBerry

Sprint is the worst -- no wonder Sprint is trying to take over T-Mobile --

T-Mobile ranked fastest 4G LTE network in the US, Sprint the worst: "If you’re lucky to live in an area where T-Mobile has a good 4G LTE coverage, then you’re using the fastest 4G LTE network in the U.S. According to a report conducted in February, T-Mobile has the fastest 4G LTE network in the US, study from OpenSignal concluded...."

BlackBerry Ending US Licensing Deal With T-Mobile - ABC News: "BlackBerry's existing licensing agreement with T-Mobile U.S. Inc. expires on April 25."

Amazon announces $99 Fire TV set-top box, available now | The Verge"Apple and Roku have a new competitor in the living room. Amazon just announced its own video streaming device: the $99 Amazon Fire TV. It starts shipping today. "We need to invent and simplify on behalf of customers," said Amazon's Peter Larsen. During the presentation, Larsen went over three pain points of current devices: search, performance, and "closed ecosystem." Fire TV promises to avoid the problems that plague other living room hardware, according to Larsen."

Microsoft announces Cortana smartphone voice search
USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft on Wednesday announced new features for ... a widely anticipated Siri- and Google Now-like voice assistant called Cortana. ... e-mail and the like, similar to what you find on Android and Apple devices. Microsoft also announced new features for the Start Screen and a ...

Apple and Samsung Reprise Patent Fight (With Google a Shadow Presence)
New York Times
SAN JOSE, Calif. — As lawyers for Apple and Samsung made their opening statements in their patent trial in a federal courthouse here, they could not ...

Microsoft demos touch-focused Office apps at Build
PCWorld (blog)
Less than a week after introducing Office for iPad, Microsoft showed off the progress of touch-friendly Metro Office apps at its Build conference keynote ...

Microsoft Battles Google, Amazon In Cloud Price War
InformationWeek
Microsoft executives have previously said they planned to match AWS pricing, but that was before both Google and Amazon enacted steep drops in ...

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Now Among Billionaire CEOs Earning $1 Salary
Forbes
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now the company's ... Zuckerberg — worth $27.8 billion mostly in Facebook stock — requested an annual ... Google's Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page, worth roughly $30 billion a ...

Google's 'evil' stock split
Fortune
It's been almost 10 years since Google famously told the world in its filing for an initial public offering that ... Google now is worth more than Microsoft.

Apple patches Safari's Pwn2Own vulnerability, two-dozen other critical bugs
Computerworld
Apple on Tuesday patched the security vulnerability in Safari that was ... Of the others, more than half were reported by the Google Chrome security team, ... 

HP agrees to pay $57 million to settle shareholder lawsuit | Reuters: "...The lawsuit was filed after former Chief Executive Leo Apotheker shocked investors on August 18, 2011 by announcing plans to refocus the company on business services and products. He also revealed plans to scrap WebOS, whose rights HP had obtained when it bought Palm Inc in 2010; pay $11.1 billion for British software company Autonomy Plc; and possibly spin off HP's personal computer business. The company also halted sales of the TouchPad, after just seven weeks on the market....The case is Gammel et al v. Hewlett-Packard Co et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 11-01404."

How Gmail Happened: The Inside Story of Its Launch 10 Years Ago Today | TIME.com: " . . . One remarkable thing about Gmail that wasn’t obvious in 2004: Its creators built it to last. The current incarnations of Outlook.com and Yahoo Mail have nothing to do with the email services Microsoft and Yahoo offered 10 years ago. But Gmail–despite having added features more or less continuously and gone through some significant redesigns–is still Gmail. “I can’t think of another app that has existed so close to its original form for 10 years,” says Fox. “Someone who had only used Gmail in its first iteration and suddenly used it today would still understand Gmail. They’d know how to use it for virtually everything they’d want to do.”..."

more technology news below ( @ web version--link below)



20 February 2014

Google Fiber Continues to Expand

Move over Comcast, Google Fiber is coming to even more cities! --

Official Blog: Exploring new cities for Google Fiber: "... We've long believed that the Internet’s next chapter will be built on gigabit speeds, so it’s fantastic to see this momentum. And now that we’ve learned a lot from our Google Fiber projects in Kansas City, Austin and Provo, we want to help build more ultra-fast networks. So we’ve invited cities in nine metro areas around the U.S.—34 cities altogether—to work with us to explore what it would take to bring them Google Fiber...."

More info at link above and at: https://fiber.google.com/newcities/

HP 'KNEW' about Autonomy's hardware sales BEFORE the whistle blew: report • The Register: "HP knew about Autonomy's hardware and reseller sales long before a whistleblower pointed them out and the company wrote down its acquisition by $8.8bn, theFinancial Times has claimed (paywall), citing emails and Deloitte audit reports. HP has accused Autonomy of "accounting improprieties, misrepresentations and disclosure failures" to excuse the massive writedown it made after it bought the UK software firm for $11.1bn in 2011. A year later, it claimed that it was misled about the state of the company's business when it wrote off most of the cost of the purchase...."

FCC won’t appeal Verizon ruling, will regulate ’Net on “case-by-case basis” | Ars Technica: " . . . Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer of consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge has previously warned that case-by-case regulation is ineffective. "We're in a bad place with net neutrality right now because the FCC got itself tied up in a knot with subtle lawyering," Bergmayer wrote. "Instead of building on its successes as a telecommunications regulator, it tried to come up with a 'third way.' I'm skeptical that yet more subtle lawyering—a fourth way or a fifth way—is going to save us." Public Knowledge CEO Gene Kimmelman released a statement today, saying, "While skeptical that the FCC's initial focus on section 706 will yield meaningful results, we are encouraged to see that the FCC plans to keep its 'reclassification' proceeding open...."

We Need Straightforward Rules to Protect Net Neutrality | Public Knowledge: "Telecom lawyers just can't stop coming up with complicated answers to simple problems. The reason the FCC lost its net neutrality case at the DC Circuit was simple. It tried to both de-regulate broadband access, by classifying it as an "information service" (something like a website or a social network), while applying traditional "telecommunications" rules to it--things like prohibitions on blocking content and discriminating against competing services. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals said--sorry, FCC. If you want to treat broadband access like a communications service, you need to formally classify it as one. Clever legal tricks aren't going to get you around this...."

Official Blog: Thank you, and welcome to the new Google Maps: "Over the coming weeks the new Google Maps will make its way onto desktops around the world. Many of you have been previewing it since its debut last May, and thanks to your helpful feedback we’re ready to make the new Maps even more widely available.... "

Xiaomi kicks off global expansion with Singapore launch | ZDNet: "Chinese smartphone darling, Xiaomi, has kicked off its global expansion plans in Singapore where its Android devices will go on sale this Friday, marking the company's first foray into markets outside of Greater China...."

AT&T reveals number of NSA and location demands in first-ever transparency report — Tech News and Analysis: "AT&T has made good on its promise to publish a report showing how often government demands data about its customers. The report includes information about cell tower searches and once-secret NSA demands...."

Apple passing Microsoft — Benedict Evans: "A symbolic moment, this: in Q4 2013 the number of computers* sold by Apple was larger than the number of Windows PC sold globally. If you add Windows Phone to the mix they're more or less exactly equal. "

Apple, Google, Microsoft: Where does the money come from? | ZDNet: "Three companies dominate the tech landscape in 2014: Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Although they compete directly and indirectly in various segments, each company has its own distinct financial personality. Big Three earnings Apple Q1 2014 hardware sales: By the numbers Microsoft earnings cheat sheet: Windows is back to cash cow number one Google's earnings: What future for plunging AdSense business? The best way to understand the differences between these three publicly traded companies is to look at the detailed reports each is required to file every quarter...."

BBC News - Kim Dotcom mansion raid was legal, NZ court rules: "However, the court did agree that the investigators' cloning of electronic evidence had been unlawful. . . .Mr Dotcom's legal team said it intends to contest the appeal court's decision."

Microsoft kills SkyDrive, launches OneDrive
Computerworld
In comparison, Apple provides only 5GB of free storage space for its iCloud online syncing and storage service, Google offers 15GB free with Google Drive, and the popular Dropbox file synchronization service hands just 2GB to customers free of charge.

Apple, Elon Musk and interplanetary travel
CNET
Apple, as well as Microsoft and Google, wants to be in every car, not just Tesla. The company is betting that iOS users want to have their Apple-ness everywhere. Applehas been working with Audi, General Motors, Ford, Hyundai, and others to integrate ...

Apple Gains Some Ground in China Smartphone Market
Wall Street Journal (blog)
According to research firm IDC, Apple's market share in mainland China rose to 7% in the quarter from 6% in the third quarter. The fourth quarter was the first full quarter afterApple launched its iPhone 5S and 5C in China in late September, on the ...

Google Capital Lands $300 Million and Leaps Into Web Education
Bloomberg
Google Inc. (GOOG)'s new investment arm has $300 million in fresh capital to put to work this year and is starting the dealmaking with its first foray into Web education.Google Capital, established by the search company to back late-stage technology ...

Microsoft Brings Lync, Skype Closer Together
InformationWeek
Microsoft faces strong competitors such as Cisco, Siemens, Google, and ShoreTel in the unified communication and collaboration market, which research firm IDC estimates will be worth $21 billion this year. Lync is formidable in its own right; in ...

Steve Perlman's Artemis unveils his 'breakthrough' wireless broadband ...
VentureBeat
Steve Perlman, the serial Silicon Valley entrepreneur who brought us OnLive and WebTV, has announced a new wireless broadband technology called pCell. The technology will enable full-speed wireless broadband to every mobile device, regardless of ...

more technology news below ( @ web version--link below)

15 October 2013

Why Windows is Dying: "Chrome and Android represent $46 billion of opportunity, growing at 12 percent"

HP doesn't need a crystal ball to figure this out --

Hewlett-Packard saw the future this week, and that future has more and more Android and Chrome devices in it. -- HP gets serious about Android and Chrome | Mobile - CNET News: "Dion Weisler, executive vice president of printing and personal systems at HP, chimed in too. "Chrome and Android represent $46 billion of opportunity and it's growing at 12 percent," he said, speaking at the same event" (read more at link above)

Amazon Web Services wins court case over CIA cloud contract
Washington Post
Amazon Web Services has prevailed in its lawsuit against the government over a cloud computing contract with the CIA, but competitor IBM has vowed to appeal ...

Malaysia Sun

Microsoft's phone update to feature driving mode
Fox News
Apple has a Do Not Disturb feature for iPhones, but that needs to be turned on ... software holds a distant third place behind Apple's iOS and Google'sAndroid, ...

Economic Times

Apple Loop: iPhone's Blue Screen of Death, iPad Trade Ins, Apple's ...
Forbes
Ironic since the BSOD is most associated with Microsoft Windows' software crashes. In any case, The Verge says the reboots are most associated with Apple's ...

Modern Readers

Microsoft Hints At Cross-Platform Opportunities Between Xbox One ...
Forbes
But new console generation, new rules, and Microsoft's Microsoft's Phil Spencer recently spoke in depth about the idea to AusGamers, while simultaneously not ...

VGChartz

Google Jousts With Wired South Korea Over Quirky Internet Rules
New York Times
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea is one of the world's most digitally advanced countries. It has ubiquitous broadband, running at speeds that many ...
Computerworld
....Individuals can also use the toolkit to keep IE11 off their Windows machines without disabling Automatic Updates for all other Microsoft software. ...
Forbes
Now comes Google Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), leveraging its enormous user-base to give a new spin to WOM and Buzz marketing — by selling users' ...

Chicago Tribune

Wolverton: Apple's spaceship is landing in the wrong place
San Jose Mercury News
To fans of Apple's (AAPL) proposed spaceship headquarters in Cupertino, the most important thing is that it will provide Silicon Valley with the landmark it's long ...
Reuters
BOSTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it is paying a well-known hacking expert more than $100,000 for finding security holes in its software, one ...

Financial Post

Apple, Google, Pirates, Take-Two: Intellectual Property
Bloomberg
Apple Inc. (AAPL), maker of the iPod and iPhone, has applied for a patent on a ... Ashley Candler shot the video in December 2010 and posted in on Google Inc...

As Microsoft Updates Mobile Software, a Cautionary Tale - NYTimes ...
By NICK WINGFIELD
If Microsoft has learned anything while competing against Google in the Internet ... Its share in the United States, where Apple and Samsung reign supreme, ...
NYT Bits 
David Fishman
This has been an incremental year for Apple across the board -- but despite ... Google's latest addition to the Chrome OS line -- the Chromebook 11 -- is an ...
Engadget RSS Feed 
Ben Lovejoy
If you're impatiently waiting to see the new iPad 5 in the Apple Store, your ... Google increasing visibility of apps “Designed for tablets” on Google Play starting…
9to5Mac 

Adnan Farooqui
There a perception out there that the Google Play Store doesn't really have that many apps designed exclusively for tablets, despite the fact that there are a ...
Ubergizmo 
Cody Lee
Google has begun work on an iOS version of its mobile augmented-reality game Ingress, according to a new report from AllThingsD.
Archaeological Areas of Pompei - Google Cultural Institute
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the 1st century AD buried the towns of Pompei, Herculaneum and Oplontis (modern-day Torre Annunziata), which were ...

Nokia Design Guru Urges Apple To End Cable Chaos - Slashdot
An anonymous reader writes "Nokia's former head designer has called on Apple to work with the broader technology industry and end its policy of having ...apple.slashdot.org/.../nokia-design-guru-urges-apple-to-end-ca... 

Apple's Latest iPhones Could Be the Most Disappointing in the ...
However, the dominance of Google's platform is certainly not good for Apple ..... less than a year ago the iPad was dead-in-the-water because the Microsoft ...www.fool.com/.../apples-latest-iphones-could-be-the-most-disa... 

InformationWeek
Analysts are weighing in on sales of Apple's new iPhones, and the news isn't much of a surprise: The high-end 5s is outselling the 5c. Further, some believe Apple is prepared to slash orders for the 5c amidst weaker-than-expected demand. What's going ...
more technology news below



26 June 2013

HP Slate 21 all-in-one PC runs on Android OS not Windows

What HP is doing with Android looks interesting--Slate 21 even has mouse and keyboard!--

HP's Slate 21 all-in-one PC rocks Android, not Windows | PCWorld: "The Slate 21 has a starting price of $399 and will launch in the U.S. in September, HP said in a statement. The all-in-one uses the upcoming Tegra 4 quad-core processor from Nvidia, and is built with a high-definition webcam. In the back of the display is a stand that allows the device to be reclined into different viewing angles." (read more at link above)

 . . . . swallowing Surface tabs • The Register: ". . . In reality, however, most businesses are upgrading to Windows 7, finally coming off of Windows XP, and not even remotely considering Windows 8. Overall, Windows 8 has sold so badly that analysts reckon it was responsible for the industry's worst PC sales since records began . . . just 900,000 Surface RT devices and Surface Pros, using Intel, shipped in the first three months of 2013 versus 19.5 million iPads sold. Microsoft is now slashing the price of Surface RTs by up to 60 per cent for students and teachers. ®"

A Chance to See Saturn, For the First Time in 7 Years
Mashable
According to the Cassini Solstice Mission website, the sun will backlight Saturn on July 19, allowing you to clearly see the planet's rings, photograph them and observe the changes over the past seven years, since Saturn was last photographed. SEE ALSO: ...

Facebook phone sells out at AT&T
Ars Technica
AT&T has sold through all of its stock of the HTC First, according to a report from CNET Tuesday. The news comes after the First's Facebook Home interface was almost universally panned, the phone underwent a price drop to just 99¢ on contract, and rumors ...

Larger desks make us more dishonest

Telegraph.co.uk
Having a sense of power can encourage a range of dishonest behaviour ranging from stealing and cheating to breaking traffic laws, researchers said. Psychologists carried out four studies to assess how our physical surroundings, for example having a big ...

New Razer Tool Offers Surround Sound on Any Headphones
Mashable
Gaming computer and peripheral maker Razer released a tool Tuesday that allows anyone to get the full surround sound experience from any pair of headphones. Using Razer Surround software, users can calibrate headphones to 7.1 virtual surround sound, ...

New Firefox earns full WebRTC
CNET
WebRTC may sound like yet another Internet acronym, but what it brings to browsers could be the death knell for plugins -- and it just landed in the latest version of Firefox.

Amazon Takes a Shot, But Netflix is Still King of the StreamWall Street Journal (blog)
With its deep pockets, technical prowess and willingness to operate on thin margins, Amazon has made itself known as one of the most formidable competitors in business. But after getting into video streaming, it has yet to unseat Netflix as king of the ...

Sony Releases Xperia Z Tablet and Smartphone
PCWorld
Sony unveiled a string of new products today, positioning the company to disrupt the smartphone and tablet markets in a big way. The Xperia Tablet Z is a bright new contender in the 10-inch tablet market while the 6.4-inch Xperia Z Ultra is poised to compete ...

Google Gets Boost in EU Privacy Case
Wall Street Journal
MADRID—The European Union's highest court said on Tuesday that government agencies can't force Google Inc. to remove Web links to personal material, a landmark decision in a long battle over EU privacy laws. The opinion by Niilo Jaaskinen, ...

'Secure Work Space' Brings BlackBerry Security to iOS, Android
PC Magazine
BlackBerry today rolled out a new security option for BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 that will let those with iOS and Android smartphones separate their work and personal information. The move comes as more and more people use their personal ...

iPhone 5 sees mixed demand, says analyst
CNET
Retail checks show steady demand for the iPhone 4 and 4S but a mixed reaction for the current iPhone, says analyst Ittai Kidron. Lance Whitney. by Lance Whitney. June 25, 2013 8:57 AM PDT Follow @lancewhit. (Credit: CNET). The iPhone 5 may not be ...

Ouya now available at several retailers for $99, sold out at Amazon
TechSpot
Ouya is off to a good start. Following a very successful Kickstarter campaign, the open-source game console finally launched to the public this morning, and just hours into the day it has already sold out on Amazon. Of course, it's hard to gauge how well it's ...

TechSpot

Microsoft to give first peek at Windows Blue
MarketWatch
Tami Reller, CFO and Chief Marketing Officer for Microsoft's Windows business, has been touting the upcoming Windows Blue update that will be showcased at the company's Build developers' conference in San Francisco, which begins on Wednesday.

New Samsung tablets launching July 7, pre-orders start Tuesday
Los Angeles Times
Samsung will begin selling new versions of its Galaxy Tab tablets next month. The South Korean tech giant Monday announced the Galaxy Tab 3 will go on sale July 7 and will be available in three different screen sizes. It will be available with a 7-inch screen ...

Forrester: Microsoft's cloud deal with Oracle makes Azure a stronger AWS rival
VentureBeat
Enterprise titans Microsoft and Oracle announced a major deal today to be more friendly when it comes to enterprise cloud services. Essentially, the deal means Oracle software can now run on Windows Server, Hyper-V, and Windows Azure, and Oracle ...

Facebook's mobile news plan paints a fat target on Yahoo
Globe and Mail
It's not surprising to learn that Facebook is developing a news service for mobile platforms. The driving forces are coming from several vectors. The shift from desktop browser to mobile app is well underway, but mobile is still green-field enough to warrant a ...

Globe and Mail

more technology news below



technology news - Google News

Amazon News

Apple News

Facebook News

Google News

Microsoft News

Yahoo News

BBC News - Technology

CNET News - Business Tech

Engadget

NYT > Technology

PCWorld Latest Technology News

SAI: Silicon Alley Insider

TechCrunch

Digits

Alive in the Cloud