The PC business enjoyed a bit of a revival last year as companies replaced older systems running Windows XP. Those upgrades are mostly done now, and the slower market has hit Intel’s financial results.The chip maker reported first-quarter revenue of $12.8 billion on Tuesday, flat from the same quarter last year and a bit lower than financial analysts had been expecting, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.Intel blamed lower than expected sales of business PCs but said the decline was offset by strong sales of servers and other data center products. The company had already cut its forecast for the quarter last month.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A jury has found mostly in favor of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in a historic lawsuit accusing one of Silicon Valley’s best-known venture capital firms of sex discrimination.The jury found against Ellen Pao on three out of four claims, including whether her gender was a factor in Kleiner Perkins’s decision not to promote her, according to reporters tweeting from the courtroom Friday.There was some confusion after the verdict was read, however, because the jury of six men and six women did not reach a sufficient majority on one question: whether Kleiner Perkins retaliated against Pao by terminating her employment after she complained that she was discriminated against.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
An IBM project to expand the market for its Power processor is making headway, with new hardware announced Wednesday that aims to challenge Intel's dominance in the data center.IBM still has a lot of work to do, but the project it launched two years ago to open up the Power architecture for use by other hardware makers is gaining momentum. The idea is to lower the cost of Power-based systems so they can be sold into hyperscale data centers and high-performance computing environments, areas dominated today by x86 processors.Tyan, a server manufacturer in Taiwan, will deliver the first commercially available OpenPower server in the second quarter, a two-socket system aimed at hyperscale customers such as Internet service and cloud providers, IBM said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A network switch that Facebook designed for its own data centers will soon be on sale from Taiwanese manufacturer Accton Technologies, the latest sign of progress from the community hardware effort known as the Open Compute Project.Facebook set up the OCP about four years ago as a way for data center operators to collaborate on new hardware designs that they can then ask low-cost manufacturers to produce. Part of the goal is to get cheaper, more standardized hardware than what’s normally supplied by top-tier vendors like Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell.Facebook is already using the top-of-rack switch, known as Wedge, in its own data centers, and it will be available to others in the first half from Accton and its OEM partners, said Jay Parikh, head of Facebook’s infrastructure division. Cumulus Networks and Big Switch Networks will provide software for it, and Facebook has put some of its own network software on Github for companies that want to “roll their own.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The much-heralded Apple Watch will ship on April 24 with price tags ranging from about $350 for the Sports edition all the way up to $12,000 or more for a limited-edition model in 18kt gold, Apple said Monday.
CEO Tim Cook pitched the pricey timepieces at an event in San Francisco, where he aimed to convey that there will be a style of Apple Watch to suit everyone's taste.
"Apple Watch is the most personal device we've ever created. It's not just with you, it's on you," he told the crowd.
There are three basic editions -- the sports model, in silver or "space-grey" aluminium; a standard model, in silver or black stainless steel; and the high-end gold edition. Each comes in two sizes, with a 38mm or 42mm display.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IBM will roll out a cloud computing service next quarter using OpenPower-based servers, continuing an effort to expand the market for Power processors and challenge Intel in hyperscale data centers.The company’s SoftLayer division will provide an infrastructure-as-a-service offering using OpenPower systems in the second quarter, initially from a data center in Dallas, Texas, it said Wednesday. It will roll out the service worldwide at a later date.IBM kicked off its OpenPower initiative about two years ago. Its goal is to license its Power architecture to other server makers, who can use it to design systems targeted at online service providers like Google and cloud providers like Amazon Web Services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Lenovo’s website appeared to have been hacked Wednesday, possibly in retaliation for a piece of adware it installed on PCs that was found to have opened up a security hole.Early Wednesday afternoon Pacific time, some visitors to lenovo.com were greeted what looked like webcam images of a bored teenager sitting in a bedroom, and the song “Breaking Free” from an old Disney movie.The source code for the webpage includes the line: “The new and improved rebranded Lenovo website featuring Ryan King and Rory Andrew Godfrey,” who have reportedly been connected to the hacker group Lizard Squad.Lenovo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
One of the founders of Facebook’s Open Compute Project has launched a new company that aims to cut the cost of running data centers using “community-based analytics.”Coolan announced a beta version of its first product on Wednesday, a service that collects and aggregates data about its customers’ server environments and uses it to predict failures, prevent outages and allow companies to benchmark themselves against peers.The company was cofounded by Amir Michael, a former Facebook engineer who led development of the Open Compute Project’s first server designs. That group aims to give customers more control over how their equipment gets designed and built, and Coolan aims to have a similar empowering effect.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hewlett-Packard has lowered its financial outlook for the year after another quarter of declining sales and profit.CEO Meg Whitman is trying to get HP in shape before the company splits itself in two later this year. One half will sell PCs and printers and the other will focus on back-end business products.But the strengthening dollar has been making life tough for U.S. multinationals, and HP is no exception. A strong dollar can have several negative effects, including making overseas sales seem smaller when they’re translated back into the home currency.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A security company in the U.S. has provided further evidence that last year’s devastating hacking attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment was carried out by a group with ties to North Korea.The FBI has already named North Korea as the source of the attack, but some security experts have been skeptical, in part because the FBI didn’t disclose all the details of its investigation.Security firm CrowdStrike is among those who believe North Korea was the culprit, and on Tuesday it presented another piece of evidence to support that claim.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple CEO Tim Cook has warned of “dire consequences” if tech companies can’t protect the privacy of those who use their products.Giving up our privacy to digital technologies exposes us to greater risks than just identity theft and financial losses—serious though those things are, Cook said in a brief speech at a cybersecurity summit in Silicon Valley on Friday.“History has shown us that sacrificing our right to privacy can have dire consequences,” Cook said.“We still live in a world where all people are not treated equally. Too many people do not feel free to practice their religion or express their opinion or love who they choose—or love who they choose,” he repeated for emphasis, “in a world in which that information can make the difference between life or death.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple is investing in a vast solar plant in Northern California that will generate as much electricity as the company uses to power all its operations in the state.Apple will invest $850 million in the plant through a partnership with First Solar, CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday. It will cover 1,300 acres—equal to about 1,000 football fields—in Monterey County, about an hour south of Apples Silicon Valley headquarters.The plant will generate enough energy that it could power Apples entire operations in California, including its data center, retail stores and offices. That’s also enough energy to power 15,000 California homes, Cook said.It doesn’t mean Apple’s stores and offices will consume power directly from the plant. But the investment allows Apple to lock in a low, fixed rate for renewable energy, and probably also obtain renewable energy certificates to offset its carbon foot print.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
James Niccolai