Technology latest news

DALLAS - Dell Inc. said Thursday that its profit and sales grew in its fiscal first quarter, beating Wall Street expectations and signaling that the computer maker’s turnaround efforts may be paying off.

For the three months ended May 2, Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Inc. earned $784 million, or 38 cents per share, up from $756 million, or 34 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Dell says its revenue jumped 9 percent to $16.08 billion from $14.72 billion.

On average, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected a profit of 34 cents per share on sales of $15.68 billion.

The company said strong growth of commercial and consumer products and services and lower operating costs as a percentage of sales helped drive the results above the forecasts.

Dell shares rose 12 cents Thursday, closing at $21.81 before the quarterly results were released. In extended trading, the shares jumped $2.02, or 9.3 percent, to $23.83.

Dell is trying to cut costs by $3 billion while also chasing Hewlett-Packard Co. in worldwide shipments of personal computers, a category it once led.

Dell still leads HP in U.S. PC sales, according to technology research firms IDC and Gartner Inc., but that could make Dell more vulnerable to a slowdown in the U.S. economy.

Chief Financial Officer Donald J. Carty told reporters that U.S. businesses “are holding back from spending” on desktops but that sales of servers and data-storage equipment were holding up.

The company reported that worldwide notebook computer shipments rose 43 percent from a year ago. Carty attributed the increase to a continuing shift from sales of desktops to notebooks and Dell gaining a greater market share of notebook sales.

On the cost side, Carty said the company has cut 7,000 jobs from a year ago, including 3,700 during the past quarter, while adding about 2,700 employees through acquisitions.

Founder Michael Dell, who returned to the company as chief executive in 2007, said last month the company would go beyond its earlier goal of cutting more than 8,800 jobs. He pledged to slash costs by $3 billion over several years to boost profits.

Carty, who plans to step down next month, said the biggest challenges for the company now were continuing to control costs and, “We’ve got to continue to improve the product line.”

John Enck, a technology analyst for Gartner, said the better-than-expected resulted indicated that Michael Dell’s return refocused the company on controlling costs and repairing relations with business customers.

“The customer experience has been good this year,” Enck said.

Dell became successful by selling machines directly to customers — mostly businesses — by phone or over the Internet. Its new strategy of selling through retailers as well is an uphill struggle, some analysts said.

Barry Jaruzelski, a partner at the consulting firm Booz & Company, said even as Dell expanded beyond PCs, its success was due to a sharp focus on adding foreign markets and products that were in the company’s strengths, such as PC servers and printers.

“Now that so much of the market is consumers, they have been forced into places that traditionally they didn’t want to go, which is retail,” he said.

With retail sales, Jaruzelski said, Dell loses the direct contact that used to give the company immediate feedback on winning pricing and features and an edge over competitors. Now, he said, “They only know what the retailers will tell them, and they have higher overhead rates.”

Glide is getting in on the “All Things Digital” conference action with the debut of Glide OS 3.0, which, among other things, offers updated social networking tools and a new sync application.

As with every other online application on the planet, there is of course a social networking aspect to 3.0. Users set up their own Web sites, but can control how those sites interact with other personalized sites, Glide said.

An addition dubbed Glide Group also lets users who share a common interest or cause to securely network, communicate, share information and collaborate online and offline.

Glide 3.0 will also convert any files sent between users so that they are delivered in the appropriate format and size, the company said. Glide supports more than 250 file formats.

The offering's new “One” sync application, meanwhile, provides file synchronization across Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux computers. Users can automatically synchronize all video, music, documents and photos to and from Windows, Mac OS X and Linux PCs with mobile access on over 75 mobile phones, according to Glide.

Any edits made to Glide documents–regardless of whether they're made online or offline –are automatically replicated. Finally, Glide Spider will serve as a file location tracking system.

“Glide untethers you from your computer desktop and effectively transforms 75 models of mobile phones and counting into 75 powerful mini-computers,” TransMedia Chairman and CEO Donald Leka said in a statement.

Dell on Thursday reported strong earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2009, with laptop revenue growth offsetting a drop in desktop revenue.

Dell's net revenue was US$16.08 billion for the quarter, growing 9 percent year-over-year and beating expectations of $15.7 billion based on analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

The company reported net income of $784 million, a 4 percent year-over-year increase that beat analyst estimates of $696.2 million. The earnings included a $106 million charge related to severance costs and facility closures.

Revenue in the mobility group, which includes laptop sales, totaled $4.9 billion, a 22 percent year-over-year increase. Laptop shipments grew 43 percent during the quarter, the company said. Desktop revenue fell 5 percent year-over-year to $4.7 billion.

Dell reduced its employee headcount by 7,000 in the past year, including about 3,700 employees in the first quarter, the company said. It also added about 2,700 employees through acquisitions. The company cut its headcount by 3,200 by the end of fiscal 2008, which ended on Feb. 28.

The company last year announced plans to reduce its headcount by 8,800, but during the quarter CEO Michael Dell said the layoffs may exceed that number in an effort to further cut costs. The company wants to save $3 billion over the next three years.

Dell is also realigning its manufacturing strategy by shutting down some factories, while opening new operations in emerging markets.

Meanwhile, the company has opened factories in low-cost manufacturing countries like Poland, Brazil and India to meet the growing needs in emerging markets. Dell is willing to shift computer assembly to partners to reduce costs and boost margins.

Developers praised the programming experience and the potential of Google's Android mobile platform at the Google I/O conference as the company emphasized its flexibility and showed cool new features.

There was a lot of buzz around Android at the conference, which covers all areas of Google development, and an “Introduction to Android” session was full. Google wants the technology to open up the mobile industry, where developers have faced hurdles getting applications ported to many different operating systems and approved by carriers. But Android will enter the fray as just one mobile platform among many, including the Apple iPhone SDK (software development kit).

The latest prototype version of Android drew comparisons to the iPhone after it was demonstrated during a keynote session Wednesday morning. Google showed a home screen with colorful widgets similar to the Apple iPhone's, plus a compass and a status bar that can be pulled down in any application to view messages. The compass, which could be built into a handset along with an accelerometer, would be able to orient maps according to which way the user was facing. As demonstrated with Google Maps Street View, it could show the exact view that a user was looking at, with street-name and address information built in to the map. Videos of the demonstrations were posted by the Android Community blog.

Aside from features on high-end phones, Android will reach far more people than the iPhone platform, if it meets its potential, said Atif Iqbal Chaudhry, a graduate student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who attended the conference. The platform could be extended to inexpensive phones with a smaller set of capabilities for average consumers, he said.

Android is an easy way to begin developing a mobile application, because Google provides all the pieces required, unlike some other platforms, such as PalmOS, Chaudhry said. He has been developing location-based applications through the PC-based emulator software for Android and said he is looking forward to trying out the software in the field on a real handset.

Google and its partners in the Open Handset Alliance are pushing Android as more open than other mobile platforms, including the iPhone. Developers won't need to get Android applications certified by anyone, Google Developer Advocate Jason Chen told the Android breakout session. In addition, there won't be any hidden APIs (application programming interfaces) accessible only to handset makers or mobile operators, he said.

Developers will also be able to modify core elements of the interface and come out with replacements for the basic building blocks that come with Android, such as the address book, Chen said. Even the look of the home-screen widgets will be customizable. For users, that will mean being able to control their own experience by downloading their favorite third-party versions, Chen said.

Google expects the first Android-based devices to hit the market in the second half of this year and will make the finished software platform available to developers after that, so anyone can create their own phone platform, Chen said. The core elements of it will be released under the Apache open-source license.

Until all parts of Android are complete, Google won't start translating the platform and documentation into languages other than English, Chen said in response to a question. The team doesn't want translations to lag behind the current information, he said. But he welcomed an attendee to help Spanish-speaking developers by translating materials or participating in message boards.

Developers praised the platform, in which applications are written in the Java programming language and then compiled for the Dalvik virtual machine.

“It's sweet,” said Free Beachler, owner of Longevity Software, in Boulder, Colorado. Beachler wrote an entry for the Android Developer Challenge, a competition to find the 50 best Android applications. His software, designed to store itineraries, contacts, destinations and other travel information for users on their phones, didn't make the top 50. But he's working on two projects for Android Developer Challenge 2, which will take place after handsets are out and the platform are complete.

Beachler, a Web developer, said it took time to learn to use Android but once he did it was logically organized and easy to use. He compared it to languages such as PHP for Web development.

Rob Mickle, a computer science major at the University of Colorado, also said he liked working with Android. Mickle developed Fingerprint, a collaborative drawing application, in about five months. It was selected for the top 50 in the Android Developer Challenge.

Enterprises are asking R Systems International, a software services company in El Dorado, California, to write applications that work on any mobile platform, said Harsh Verma, vice president for global innovative research at R Systems. One way to do this is on browsers, but there are problems with that, including differences among mobile browsers and the need for a network connection, he said. Verma hasn't yet started working with Android but believes it could reach a broad range of devices.

The Firefox evangelists at Mozilla have a novel goal:  they want to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours. To get there, the open source browser builders declared a Download Day and are soliciting pledges to grab the browser on release day, which hasn't yet been announced.

Interesting idea, and I sure hope the marketing folks had a long talk with the network group before running with this one. It's normally sound practice to try and spread out major traffic so as to not overburden your network. Mozilla learned that lesson when it first implemented automatic updates in Firefox- it didn't stagger them out well enough and ended up slamming their network.

Here's hoping they're better prepared this time around (I strongly suspect they are). In any case, I'm eager to see the new browser launch, and even more eager to see my must-have add-ons (like Foxmarks) update for version 3. 

I'm still on Firefox 2 while I wait for those updates, but the more I think about the 'Awesome Bar'- which allows for typing search text in the location bar and finding matches from among your bookmarks as well as browsing history URLs and text- the more I want to make the switch.  Seems like it could be a real time saver, especially if you're trying to find some data at work and just can't recall where that bookmark or visited page went.

For more on Firefox 3 take a look at Ed Albro's “5 Things You'll Love about Firefox 3,” or jump straight in and download the current release candidate from Mozilla.

WASHINGTON - Federal regulators may require the winner of airwaves being auctioned off by the government to provide free wireless high-speed Internet service across a large swath of the country.

The Federal Communications Commission at its June 12 meeting will likely vote on an order setting terms of the spectrum auction that could include the free Internet service provision. A similar proposal was rejected last year.

“We’re hoping there will be increased interest (in the proposal) and for the fact that this will provide wireless broadband services to more Americans is certainly something we want to see,” said FCC spokesman Rob Kenny.

Kenny said he didn’t know when the auction would be held and details must still be worked out. However, he said the resulting network must reach 50 percent of the population four years after the winner gets a license and then 95 percent after 10 years, he said.

Two years ago, a wireless startup, M2Z Networks Inc. based in Menlo Park, Calif., asked the FCC to let it use those underutilized airwaves so it could offer free nationwide broadband service.

In exchange, M2Z — co-founded by John Muleta, former head of the FCC’s wireless telecommunications bureau — would pay the federal government 5 percent of sales generated from advertising on the resulting network.

The FCC rejected the proposal because it meant giving the airwaves to the company without it bidding against other carriers for the rights.

On the heels of The Netflix Player by Roku announcement and in the face of rumors about Blockbuster preparing to announce its own set-top box for streaming videos, TiVo is inking some deals of its own.

TiVo subscribers will soon be able to download movies from the Walt Disney Studios to broadband-connected TiVo DVRs directly from the TV. Subscribers will also be able to receive recommendations for TV shows from the Chicago Tribune and have them automatically recorded.

Downloading Disney

TiVo will make Disney titles available to rent through an agreement with Disney-ABC and CinemaNow. The companies will offer the movies for a 24-hour period in standard definition, with many also available in high definition.

“Adding Disney movies really delivers on TiVo's promise to offer the best television entertainment experience with unlimited content choices that are easy to navigate across broadcast, cable, and broadband using one device, one remote, and one user interface,” said Tara Maitra, vice president and general manager of content services at TiVo.

The service will be available to all broadband-connected TiVo Series2 and Series3 subscribers later this year. TiVo offers more than 30,000 titles through Amazon Unbox, Music Choice and more than 50 other content providers. The company recently announced that TiVo subscribers will be able to access YouTube videos directly on a TV via the TiVo DVR this summer.

TV Critic Comes to TiVo

TiVo this week also announced a partnership with the Chicago Tribune to deliver the recommendations of the newspaper's TV critic, Maureen Ryan, directly to subscribers' televisions while TiVo automatically records the recommended shows listed in the newspaper's TV grids.

Ryan's authoritative and popular print and online column, The Watcher, has made her, according to the entertainment trade publication Variety, one of the TV industry's “favorite (or most feared)” newspaper TV critics. TiVo subscribers will also be able to download recurring video commentaries recorded by Ryan, making the critic an on-air personality for the TiVo audience.

“From the days of the legendary Col. Robert McCormick on, the Chicago Tribune has had a legacy of significant innovation in both print and television,” said James Warren, managing editor/features at the Tribune. “Our partnership with TiVo underscores a present and future tied to those values and the quest to experiment for the good of our consumers.”

The Push for Relevant Ads

Phil Leigh, a senior analyst with Inside Digital Media, isn't surprised at the digital-video announcements in recent weeks — and he expects more in the next two years.

“We are going to see a lot more Internet video, everything from YouTube to Hollywood studios,” Leigh said. “We'll see a trend toward advertising-supported video with overlay ads. This is the wave of the future.”

As Leigh sees it, the era of disruptive advertising is fading. Consumers, he said, don't want to be interrupted while watching video. Google, however, has demonstrated that consumers will respond to ads that are relevant.

“If you interrupt a broadcast with irrelevant advertising, consumers will skip through it with their TiVo or we are going to speed through it,” Leigh said. “The key is to give us relevant ads that don't interrupt our programming because it's the programming that's most relevant to us. Overlay ads accomplish that.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. communications regulators are considering auctioning a piece of the airwaves to buyers willing to provide free broadband Internet service without pornography.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is proposing to auction an unused piece of 25 megahertz wireless spectrum, with the condition the winning bidder offer free Wi-Fi access and filter out obscene content on part of those airwaves, a spokesman for the FCC said on Thursday.

Under Martin's proposal, the winner would be allowed to use the rest of the airwaves for commercial services.

The plan would address criticism from some consumer advocates, who say the government has not done enough to get broadband service into more U.S. households. It also could win praise from anti-obscenity watchdog groups.

“I think there are a number of features of the plan that would be attractive to various constituencies,” said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Blair Levin.

But the plan got a lukewarm response from existing wireless carriers. The industry's chief trade group, called CTIA, said auction provisions such as the free-service requirement were too rigid.

“CTIA supports flexible auction rules that allow any and all entities to participate,” the group said in a statement.

The winning bidder also would have to build out the system to serve 50 percent of the U.S. population within four years and 95 percent within 10 years.

Further details of the plan have yet to be worked out, but Martin's plan is expected to come up at the FCC's next meeting on June 12.

Martin's proposal is similar to a plan put forth previously by a start-up company called M2Z. Under that plan, which was not approved by the FCC, M2Z would have been given the spectrum at no up-front cost. It would have provided free service, generating revenue partly through advertising.

The 25 MHz spectrum at issue is not viewed as highly attractive to wireless carriers, unlike the 700 MHz spectrum auctioned by the FCC earlier this year. There has been little previous interest in it, aside from the M2Z proposal.

(Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Apple's Leopard has some new spots, in the form of the latest version of the Mac OS X Leopard operating system, as well as a security update.

The security update, released Thursday, is also included in the latest Leopard 10.5.3 version, released Wednesday. The releases come as the Apple developer world prepares for the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco the week of June 9.

Time Capsule, Spaces, Aperture 2

The 10.5.3 release deals with a variety of compatibility issues, including some in the Time Capsule backup device and in Apple's work-flow application for photographers, Aperture 2. Updates to the virtual-desktop application, Spaces, corrects a bug in which application windows were reordered when switching desktops and then switching back. Mail also received updates, including stability issues related to large attachments and mailbox changes made while offline.

Fixes in iChat enhance reliability while users are screen sharing, and they also fix a bug where group chats are not indexed in Spotlight. Enhancements to improve reliability have also been made for Automator, AirPort, Address Book, Parental Controls, and VoiceOver.

The separate Security Update 2008-003/Mac OS X 10.5.3 update is designed to address more than 40 vulnerabilities. In a posting on its support site, Apple said the update includes operating-system improvements to “enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac.”

Apple is strongly recommending the 10.5.3 security update for all users of OS X 10.5, 10.5.1, and 10.5.2, if they choose not to upgrade to the newest OS. It can be downloaded through Software Update or from Apple Downloads.

Multiple Flash Fixes

The vulnerabilities include application terminations and arbitrary code executions for Apple Pixlet Video, ATS, CoreGraphics, Help Viewer, iCal, AppKit, AFP Server, Core Foundation, Time Machine, and the Flash Player Plug-in, among others. The common Flash plug-in had multiple issues, according to Apple, and the most serious one could lead to arbitrary code execution.

The iCal issues were revealed last week by Core Security Technologies after a substantial amount of back-and-forth communication with the Apple team. The vulnerabilities can be used to cause iCal to crash, or to run arbitrary code by means of malicious calendar updates or with a special calendar file.

The bugs also reportedly could have been exploited to cause denial-of-service attacks or allow hackers to take over remote computers. Boston-based Core Security Technologies reportedly had decided to make the flaws public when Apple said it would provide a patch but didn't deliver as promised.

There are also fixes that address performance and stability for Active Directory, and a fix for an unauthorized information leak that could lead to one user using another's privileges. Another fix addresses several vulnerabilities in Apache, most notably one that could lead to cross-site scripting.

TOKYO - Japanese scientists say they have used cutting-edge technology to create a noodle bowl so small it can be seen only through a microscope.

Mechanical engineering professor Masayuki Nakao said Thursday he and his students at the University of Tokyo used a carbon-based material to produce a noodle bowl with a diameter 1/25,000 of an inch in a project aimed at developing nanotube-processing technology.

The Japanese-style ramen bowl was carved out of microscopic nanotubes, Nakao said.

Nanotubes are tube-shaped pieces of carbon, measuring about one-ten-thousandth of the thickness of a human hair.

Carbon nanotubes are being explored for a wide range of uses in electronics and medicine because their structure endows them with powerful physical properties such as a strength greater than steel.

The ramen bowl experiment included a string of “noodles” that measured one-12,500th of an inch in length, with a thickness of one-1.25 millionth of an inch.

“We believe it’s the world’s smallest ramen bowl, with the smallest portion of noodles inside, though they are not edible,” Nakao said.

The hardest part was to keep the noodles from rising upright from the bowl “like alfalfa sprouts,” he said. “The achievement was mostly for fun.”

The microscopic bowl was first created in December 2006, but revealed only Thursday after it was entered for a microphotography competition last week.