Business, Financial & Legal - Page 163

AMD had some good news this morning. It seems that although they are running far behind Intel in the CPU market and behind nVidia in the desktop GPU market they are the leader in the Discrete Mobile GPU market.

This is an interesting turn of events since nVidia has been shoving its higher end mobile GPUs into everything it can. The reasons for the change are probably less complex than you would think.

The biggest reason is going to be the lingering effect of the defective bump material that is still hurting nVidia. Since the effects of this appeared to be confined to the mobile GPU space it has only impacted consumer confidence in this small area.

AMD for its part was quick to take advantage of the situation and managed to release a few 40nm parts that offer good performance/power/cost ratios. This caused more than a few OEMs to take note and make the switch to AMD products. With a larger number of AMD GPUs and low consumer opinion of nVidia mobile products AMD managed to grab a nice 53% market share. This is a 36.5% increase in market share in the first six months of 2009.

If AMD can turn this new consumer confidence to their advantage (and not sit back and relax) they can possibly gain market share in the desktop market as part of a trickle effect.

More news about the iPhone but this one has a little twist. We always hear about how insanely popular the App Store is. It is on the TV, on the web you name it, there is Apple telling you that.

But you know what? It is not the App store at all, it is the Apps. Yes here I am to state the obvious. People like the idea of downloading and installing different applications for their mobile devices. To prove this point Cydia, the most popular of the third party applications repositories has just passed over 53,000 purchases totaling in almost $.25 million US dollars.

This number will only grow as Apple continues to ostracize its own developers. Look at what happened to GV Mobile, Apple rejected it and now it is available on Cydia. The more arbitrary and inane their approval process the more people will jailbreak their phones just to have access to freedom of choice.

Apple will continue to try and make jailbreaking illegal by tell the lawmakers every lie under the sun from it can cause massive cellular failure to it causes acid rain. But in the end I do not think they will be able to stop the flood of people wanting to use their phones the way they want.

With the advent of possible new CPU manufacturing processes and materials come an interesting article saying that they GPU may reach its limit by 2020.

The article is not an Intel product (in response to nVidia's repeated claims that they CPU is dead). No this is from Tim Sweeney, CEO and Founder of Epic Games.

In a recent presentation Sweeney says that by 2020 developers will move away from the highly optimized GPU and push for more flexible code. Thie code will take advantage of parallel processing and move most hardware "fixed functionality" features to software.

The core argument is that processing technology will move forward considerably and that Intel will have success with Larrabee and also factors in nVidia move away from the traditional GPU. Instead working on a GPGPU style.

Sweeney also dives back in time to when many 3D Engines were rendered completely in software this includes games like UnReal, HalfLife and many others. He foresees a future where rendering engines will move back to software eliminating the need for highly specialized architectures and pipelines present in today's GPUs.

If everything can come together (including improvements in storage and memory) then we can expect to see some impressive changes to the PC as we know it in the next 10 years.

With the rumor of an Apple special event in September of course there are rumors about possible new Apple products.

One that is gaining ground is a rumor that the next gen iPod Touch will have a built in camera. This would be a great idea and would give the Touch a feature that many have asked for.

But is this one of the announcements that is really going to happen? With Apple's track record of leaks and hints and hype it very well could be.

Although there is always the possibility that Apple is going to announce new products based on the Core i5 which is set to debut sometime in September also.

Wow this will be of interest to anyone that has an iPhone in the US. Apple and AT&T might have a price to pay for their heavy advertising of features that they will not support.

In the state of Louisiana there is a class action law suit that is being filed against Apple and AT&T for the continued lack of MMS (multimedia messaging system) despite ads by both companies showing this as a major feature.

The suit claims that AT&T has not upgraded its towers to support MMS properly on their network but continue to advertise this service for other phones and even have a package plan for it.

So I am not sure what they are trying to say here, there is a simple fact that AT&T does have MMS support for other phones but not the iPhone. Apple did state that was a major feature of the new iPhone OS 3.0 and the 3G S. But for some reason there is still no support for this option from AT&T.

This law suit could get interesting if more states pick up the torch and march on Cupertino.

This is not the normal tech news, it is sort of an off the wall story that I found funny.

In Texas a judge has banned Microsoft from Selling, Demonstrating or otherwise advertising Word. This is a permanent injunction put in over a patent dispute between MS and I4I.

I4I claims that MS ran off with their code and has been using this in Word 2003 and 2007. The code they are talking about has to do with XML and the way that Word uses it.

I am not going to go into major technical details, but it is sort of funny to hear that MS cannot even demo the products, this means that they are in violation of the order if they send updates, show it on their office.com website.

Now what makes this funny is that apparently other applications use this functionality. It is just MS that is in the hot seat. Apparently there is no money in going after Sun, or Apple. The injunction "prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML,"

This is on top of a $200 Million fine from May, an additional $40 Million and just for good measure $37 Mill in interest.

Microsoft says they will appeal

Yesterday we covered a tale of Apple and the Dictionary. This is a harrowing tale of an intrepid developer against the mongering troll.
Nah not really, it is a story about a developer getting the shaft from Apple and after the internet press got a hold the story Apple back peddling.

The complete story is very long and can be found at Daring Fireball as can the follow on part of this particular drama.

After the press splashed this all over the internet Phil Schiller from Apple has written to explain that this was all a misunderstanding.
Apparently Apple did not ask Ninjawords to censor the dictionary because of the words F&(k and S^&t but because there are even MORE vulgar urban slang terms that can be found through Ninjawords.

Ninjawords could not be submitted to the App store as it was at the time since there were not parental controls at all. The developers of Ninjawords chose to edit the dictionary and resubmit. This is when all the fun started; it ended with someone thinking that Apple was requiring both the censorship AND a 17+ Rating.

I am not sure what is the truth in this one, both stories sound a little odd to be perfectly honest with you. For example in one of the actual letters about the rejection they specifically mention F*(k and Sh*& but you can find them in "Dictionary!" which is free on the iTunes store and has a rating of 4+.

Foxconn is trying very hard to dig itself out of a hole. The hole is not a financial hole; it is not a manufacturing hole. No this hole is a potential disaster for the large OEM manufacturer.

The problem started when a 25 year old technician committed suicide over the report of a missing fourth generation iPhone prototype.

According to the time line that is generally accepted on July 9th 16 fourth generation iPhone prototypes were delivered to Young Sun Dan. Young was responsible for packaging, sealing and shipping these to Apple.

There are differing reports about whether Young reported the missing phone before or after Apple received them but either way Foxconn began an investigation.

On July 16th Young jumped from a 12th floor window and fell to his death.

In between the 9th and the 16th there are reports of physical interrogation, unlawful searches, solitary confinement and worse. Foxconn began by denying the accusations but saying the event was sad. Apple followed suit.

The hole began when the suspended the director for Central Security, the turned him over to local police. Then released a statement that Young had a history of losing items (you would think after the first he would not be handling them again). Then they paid the family $44,000 and gave them a Mac PowerBook laptop.

Now they are increasing the payment amount to the family and including a yearly payment. Over in the US that would be called something like "hush money" but in the US the amounts are usually significantly larger.

Either way Foxconn is now, more than ever, under the microscope as all eyes turn to them to see how they handle or fail to handle the situation.

The outcome could affect their relationship with Apple, as Apple will continue to try and distance themselves from the event.

In a surprising case of Anti-Microsoft FUD there are reports on a survey conducted by ScriptLogic that people are using to claim 60% of businesses will not be upgrading to Windows 7.

The Survey is interesting. Here are some of the facts behind it. ScriptLogic sent out 20,650 questionnaires. Out of this 20,650 they received 1,100 back. This represents about 5.3% of the sampling.

Out of this 5.3% 59.3% said they had no plans to migrate to Windows 7. Now this is a misleading result as the question was:
"Which below represents the most accurate statement about your plans to deploy Windows 7?"

Possible responses were:
We have no plans to deploy Windows 7
We will likely deploy Windows 7 by the end of 2010
We plan on deploying Windows 7 by the end of 2009
We have already deployed Windows 7

Looking at the responses, if you are undecided you get lumped into the "We have no Plans" category and are part of an inaccurate data sampling.

A portion of the 59% may change their minds in the next month, we cannot know. As such this survey gives a misleading impression that a majority do not want to move to the new OS.

The very next question asked what was the biggest barrier to deploying Windows 7 with 42.7% saying Time and Resources, while 39.1% said application compatibility.

Now I am sure you would think these are very telling, but if you asked the same question about ANY upgrade you would get the same answers. This is where the survey fails. To make it valid they would need to ask if the companies in question have any planned upgrades and what are the reasons for/ for not doing them. If they correspond to the same reasons for not upgrading to Windows 7 it is likely that the cause is not the OS but maybe the fact that many companies are on spending holds. In thin economic times it is usually the IT budget that is the first thing to get cut. This could account for more than a few companies not upgrading anything at all in the next few years.

In the final analysis, the ScriptLogic Survey is misleading to say the least and is being used by many websites to show a lack of desire to use Windows 7 in the business community. It is further being spun to show a lack of confidence in MS products in general. Yet these articles often fail to point out that 39.4% plan on upgrading to Windows 7 within the next two years and that pre-sales of Windows 7 were sold out in many areas the same day they were made available.

First it was Norton now CA is having issues where their latest AV profiles are targeting Windows system files as malicious code.

It is simply not a good thing when your Anti-Virus starts listing off system files and says they are quarantined. It can really ruin your day.

According to posts at CA's Forum many people were receiving these false positives and causing systems to crash.

File infection: C:\WINDOWS\system32\net.exe is Win32/AMalum.ZZNPB infection. Quarantined

CA users we certainly upset and were told that a fix was on its way when they contacted technical support. Unfortunately the "fix seemed to make things worse.

CA has posted an official statement apologizing for the incident and says that they are working to fix the issue caused by an errant file.

During our visit to the Foxconn headquarters in Taipei today, besides looking at new products which the Taiwanese company has been busy developing in recent times, we had to ask a couple hard hitting questions.

We spoke with Andrew D. Ouyang and Sidney Tsai from the channel sales team - that's the folk who are responsible for marketing and selling its range of retail motherboards and othe products.

We asked Foxconn about the rumors floating around that Foxconn is going to quit the channel business of Foxconn branded and marketed products - and the question wasn't met with surprise. The answer we got that was that Foxconn are not quitting the channel business and that "we're still here", from Sidney Tsai.

Those seeking to make hi-def backups of their Blu-ray videos will have to wait a little while longer, but the option is in fact coming.

Last week the final specification for the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) for Blu-Ray was released, bringing provisions for making legal copies of Blu-ray content. While many have been waiting for the spec to be finalized, they are going to have to wait a little longer for the hardware that supports it.

It looks like nVidia's latest round of rebranding might come back to hurt them. In a move that many are saying is very misleading nV is rebranding the G92b (same chip that is going into the GTS240/250) as the GTX260 and GTX280 mobile.

Now it is nothing new for companies to rebrand, ATi, nVidia, Via just about everyone does it to some degree. Where the problem starts is that nVidia is labeling the G92b with the same naming convention as a much more advanced part. (GT200). This means that people searching for reviews or information on the GTX280M will also get reviews of the desktop part which is miles above the 55nm chip that will be used in the mobile part.

As of this writing there are rumblings of class actions suits and even legal action from states over this.

Read more here at Theo Valich's Blog.

Transmeta is once and for all a thing of the past as they were finally purchased by a Novafora.

This Israeli based Novafora has been around since 2004 and, according to their website, is devoted to delivering highest quality video on any display device, at anytime and anywhere. To do this they plan to build a family of video processors that are optimized for video and networks.

Having acquired Transmeta, the failed brain child of Linus Torvalds, they have some unique IP at their disposal. Looks like the system-on-chip market got some new competition.

Read more here.

Yesterday we published an article titled "BFG, A sinking ship?" and today spent a great deal of time following up with industry sources to uncover a tail spun out of deception and unethical business practices. For many months now a steady yet quiet flow of information has passed through the insider world of the industry, all leaving a negative impression of BFG and where the company is headed. At this point it is too early to draw a definitive line back to the sources of misinformation because it looks more like a draw by numbers picture than a clear snap shot.

More iPhone legal woes are popping up. This time it is the browser that is being subjected to litigation.

EMG Technologies is seeking damages as well as future royalties from the fruity company. All this over the way Safari Browses around the internet.

As the title of the EMG Technologies' patent suggests "Apparatus and Method of Manipulating a Region on a Wireless Device Screen for Viewing, Zooming and Scrolling Internet Content" it seems they have a lot of ground covered.

Read more over at TG Daily here.

Hot off the press, Digitimes is reporting that ABIT may begin phasing out its motherboard business after evaluating the success of its forthcoming Intel 4 series lineup of motherboard products. ABIT shipped three million motherboards in 2007 and while that may sound like a large number, it's a mere fraction of what the likes of ASUS and GIGABYTE ship. It had a goal of shipping six million motherboards this year but has since reduced its forecast.

Acer announced that it will acquire E-TEN Information Systems, a well known and respected manufacturer of smartphone mobile and handheld devices.

The acquisition has been accepted by all parties involved, and the undisputed takeover (to date) will go on, subject to the usual takeover procedures such as approval from shareholders and of course if the government regulators approve.

Acer over the last year has had a strong showing, with its acquisition of Gateway, and Packard Bell strengthening capabilities across their entire range of products, but in particular the mobile technologies. The acquisition of E-TEN will be another feather in the cap for the synergies of the hotly contested mobile devices arena.

Look for great things from the Acer group. The acquisition is expected to close during Q3 2008.
Read more here.

Palit's continuing trend to flourish the graphics card market with quality products at lower prices has allowed them to grow rapidly over the past few years in particular; as such they have swallowed up a multitude of smaller companies along the way, including none other than Gainward.

Now it looks like they're shifting their attention toward Galaxy which was established in Hong Kong in 1994, then went on to become add-in board partner for NVIDIA in 1999.

The first steps of an acquisition have apparently been made by Palit, this to help offload excess stock to the new subsidiary due to an over-ordering issue under the Palit branding.

Digitimes have the scoop.

Dell has launched a new range of PCs and notebooks for the Small Business market and the Vostro range looks to be quite a decent option for those looking for simple, but serious business machines. The desktop systems starts at US$319 for the mini tower version and the slim tower starts at $349.

Both of the desktop systems are based on the Intel G33 chipset. The basic model comes with a Celeron 420 and 512MB of RAM for either model, as well as an 80GB hard drive and a 16x DVD-ROM. You can of course as always configure your own system and Dell offers a wide range of options up to an E6700 processor and various graphics options.