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September 2008
Dell loading Iron Man on PCs
Dell has started selling computers preloaded with this summer’s blockbuster, Iron Man, the first in what it expects to turn into a broad array of movie offerings for customers.
The company said it eventually will offer a range of movies from Paramount Pictures, including the Marvel Entertainment films the studio now is distributing. Customers currently can order a special, digital edition of Iron Man for $20 here. (Loading the page was a hit-and-miss affair this morning.)
“It’s another way customers can customize their PCs,” said spokeswoman Anne Camden.
Dell eventually expects to offer a range of content, including movies, music and other products, that customers can order with their PCs or download through its online sites. Many of the post-sale downloads ultimately will run through Zing, a small Silicon Valley firm the company acquired in August 2007.
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Applied Materials adds former DOE exec to board
In the latest sign of its continued push beyond semiconductors and into solar, Applied Materials Inc. has named the Department of Energy’s former renewable energy czar to its board of directors.
Andrew “Andy” Karsner, who served as assistant secretary of energy efficiency and renewable energy in the Bush Administration, has deep ties to Texas and the energy industry. Before he was nominated for the DOE job by Bush in December 2005, he was a wind energy developer and manager of several international energy projects. He graduated from Rice University.
Applied gets its bread and butter from making equipment and tools for semiconductor companies such as Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., But in recent years, it also has branched out into making equipment for the solar industry and today gets about 10 percent of its revenues from the solar equipment business.
Applied is based in Santa Clara, Calif., but its global manufacturing center and much of its operations are in Austin.
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Oracle entering hardware business
SAN FRANCISCO - Oracle Corp., the big database software company, is teaming up with Hewlett-Packard Co. and getting into the hardware business too.
At the Oracle OpenWorld conference here Wednesday, CEO Larry Ellison just unveiled what he said were the first hardware products ever produced by his 30-year-old company.
The new HP-Oracle Database Machine and separate Exadata Storage Server, which come pre-loaded with Oracle software, are being produced through a new partnership between Oracle and HP.
Ellison, who’s famous for his excesses, went to great lengths to tout the size of his new storage servers. They’ll have 64 Intel processor cores for processing and 112 cores for storage and hold 168 terabyes of data.
“It holds really a lot of songs,” Ellison joked. “We’re not talking iPod nano here. This thing is 1,400 times larger than Apple’s largest iPod.”
With the new storage servers, Oracle comes into direct competition with other hardware and software companies, namely Dell Inc. and Teradata Inc., the big Ohio data warehousing company.
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Dell sees the light on LED displays
Taking the lead in making laptop monitors more environmentally friendly, Dell Inc. said today it will begin using light-emitting diode (LED) back lights in its laptops.
The company plans to phase-in the new LED lights - the same type used in stoplights - over the next 12 months as part of its plans to become what it claims will be “the greenest technology company on the planet.”
LED lights are more efficient than other types of bulbs, including the fluorescent lamps found in most computer monitors today. LED bulbs also contain fewer harmful chemicals, specifically mercury.
Dell claims its new 15-inch LED displays will consume 43 percent less power than similar-sized fluorescent monitors. As a result, users of the new laptops could save a total of approximately $20 million in energy costs and 220 million kilowatt hours worth of energy - and drastically reduce the amount of greenhouse gases like carbon released into the atmosphere too.
Dell said at least 80 percent of its laptops will have LED displays by 2009. By 2010, it plans for all of its laptops to be lit by LEDs.
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A Greener Open World for Oracle, Ellison
SAN FRANCISCO - Oracle CEO Larry Ellison may burn up a bunch of fossil fuel in his 450-foot motor yacht and his collection of fighter jets, but at his company’s massive Open World tech event in San Francisco this week, green’s the word.
The conference features special “Green Room” sessions on subject like how make data centers more energy efficient and how to cut down on office printing to save trees.
Meals are served in biodegradable containers. Waste is placed in separate containers for recyclables, compost and regular old garbage. Instead of water bottles, there are “water stations” where waiters fill up attendees’ “green” cups made entirely from plant material.
Most unusual, though, has to be the bicycles. In the corners of the exhibit hall, attendees can plug their cell phone or PDA into a stationary bicycle, hop on and recharge their gadgets with pedal power.
And in the park behind the convention hall, there’s an Internet cafe that gets its power from participant pedaling too.
Attendees who hop on a hooked-up stationary bike for 15 minutes get a free cup of coffee along with their mini-workout.
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Video: Up close with T-Mobile’s G1
Here’s a quick (and silent) look at the T-Mobile G1 running the Android operating system from Google:
(Video: T-Mobile)
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UPDATED: T-Mobile launches G1 phone with Google Android
T-Mobile is unveiling the first cell phone with Google’s Android operating system this morning. A webcast of the event is ongoing here.
The phone will be available at certain T-Mobile stores and online on Oct. 22 for a price of $179 with a two-year voice and data agreement. The G1 will also be available in the United Kingdom in November, and across Europe in the first quarter of 2009.
While the company has not shown the handset yet, a press release describes it as combining “full touch-screen functionality and a QWERTY keyboard with a mobile Web experience that includes the popular Google products that millions have enjoyed on the desktop, including Google Maps Street View, Gmail, YouTube and others.”
UPDATE:
The first look at the G1 shows a large touch-screen phone reminiscent of the Apple iPhone with the added bonus of a keyboard hidden beneath the slide-out screen plus a trackball.
More details on the G1 from the company:
-T-Mobile G1 is the first phone to provide access to Android Market, where customers can find and download unique applications to expand and personalize their phone.
-With one-click contextual search, customers can search for relevant information with a touch of a finger.
-A full HTML Web browser allows users to see any Web page the way it was designed to be seen, and then easily zoom in to expand any section by simply tapping on the screen.
-Built-in support for T-Mobile’s 3G and EDGE network as well as Wi-Fi.
-With Google Maps, T-Mobile G1 users can instantly view maps and satellite imagery, as well as find local business and get driving directions.
-The T-Mobile G1 also includes Google Maps Street View, allowing customers to explore cities at street-level virtually while on the go.
-The Google Maps feature syncs with the built-in compass on the phone - an industry first - to allow users to view locations and navigate 360 degrees by simply moving the phone with their hand.
-The T-Mobile G1 multitasks, so you can read a Web page while also downloading your e-mail in the background.
-It combines Instant Messaging support for Google Talk, as well as AOL, Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger in the U.S.
-A 3-megapixel camera with photo-sharing capabilities.
-Built-in support for YouTube.
-The T-Mobile G1 comes pre-loaded with a new application developed by Amazon.com that gives customers easy access to Amazon MP3, Amazon.com’s digital music download store with more than 6 million DRM-free MP3 tracks.
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Dell: 1 percent of profits to tech charities
With an eye towards the next generation of Internet users, many of them in China and India, Dell Inc. announced today the launch of a global philanthropic strategy designed to help make young people more computer-savvy.
The company plans to increase overall corporate giving to a level of 1 percent of company pretax profits by the beginning of the company’s fiscal year 2011, which begins in February 2010.
Organizations in emerging countries will be able to apply for grants for projects that help promote technology skills development for youths aged up to 17.
Speaking at a conference in London on the IT development of emerging country, Michael Dell said the company is keenly focused on both China and India, where it is seeking to move beyond its innovative direct model.
In India, for example, Dell said the company has opened retail stores where salespeople will walk consumers through the process of buying a computer over the Internet.
One challenge: personalizing the brand. “We’re known in these countries as the computer one has if they are working in a big company,” Dell said.
When asked what he wished he’d done differently in emerging markets, he said that he wished he would have been able 10 years ago to develop a stronger cadre of nationals inside each country.
“We’d love to have more skilled managers from these countries who really understand the culture,” he said.
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Dell and Bigfoot team on gaming PC
Dell will start offering a network card for high-end gaming rigs that’s developed by Austin-based startup Bigfoot Networks.
The computer maker will offer Bigfoot’s Killer NIC K1 card, which is designed to enhance online gaming. Gamers can add the card as a $149 option on Dell XPS 730 and 630 gaming desktops.
Dell also will start selling a special edition XPS online gaming PC, a version of the XPS 630 that’s designed specifically for online games. That model will start at $1,199.
Bigfoot designs network hardware and software that reduces the lag and latency that often comes with online games.
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Google Android phone unveiling Sept. 23
The official debut of the first smart phone powered by Google’s Android software has been set for next Tuesday.
In an e-mail invitation sent to reporters and analysts, T-Mobile says it will hold a New York press conference to unveil the handset on the morning of Sept. 23.
T-Mobile reportedly plans to begin selling the highly-anticipated phone, an HTC handset called the “Dream,” in October.
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Survey says: All teens play games
If it seems like just about every teenager is playing a video game these days, it’s because they are.
In the most comprehensive study of its kind, a new survey shows that 97 percent of all teenagers and 99 percent of all male teenagers regularly play video games of some sort, whether on a console like Xbox 360, a computer or their cell phone or iPod.
But the survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project debunks the stereotype of a typical gamer as an anti-social teenage boy addicted to violent games involving shooting or fighting.
About 76 percent of teen gamers said they played games with others - online or otherwise - at least some of the time and 65 percent said they play games with others in the same room.
And while shooter-games are certainly popular, the most played games involve less violent play like NASCAR racing, puzzles like Tetris or Bejeweled or sports games like football, soccer and skateboarding, according to the study.
“This report does a lot of myth-busting,” said Amanda Lenhart, the Pew senior researcher who authored the study. “It’s not just about 14 year old boys alone in the basement blowing things up.”
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UPDATED: Dell shares plunge on weaker demand outlook
Shares of Dell Inc. fell about 9 percent in late morning trading after the computer giant said it saw weakening global demand for personal computers.
Analysts said the announcement could be a precursor to more cost cuts. Dell already has announced a 10-percent worldwide workforce cut and is seeking to sell all of its manufacturing plants to contractors to cut costs.
Dell shares were down $1.65, or 9.17 percent, to $16.34 at 12:43.
Earlier this year, Dell was among the first computer companies to warn of softening demand in the United States. This morning, the company said that “continuing conservatism” had spread to Western Europe and parts Asia.
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HP cutting almost 25,000 jobs
Hewlett-Packard Co. Inc. just announced it will ax 24,600 jobs or about 7.5 percent of its worldwide workforce as it digests its mega-merger with Plano, Texas-based EDS Corp.
HP CEO Mark Hurd, who briefed analysts on the restructuring at a meeting this afternoon, isn’t saying specifically where the jobs cuts will be made, but said nearly half of them will be within the United States.
EDS and HP are both huge employers in Texas, and HP also has a large sales, service and marketing operation in Atlanta, Georgia.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP completed its $13.9 billion, or $25 per share, purchase of EDS last month. The deal was the second-largest buyout ever in the high-tech industry, behind only HP’s 2002 acquisition of Compaq Computer, which was based in Houston.
Since the EDS deal was announced earlier this year, workers and Wall Street have been bracing for the fall-out.
Monday, it finally came down. And hard.
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Best Buy buys Napster
Best Buy Co. Inc. has agreed to buy Napster, that badboy pioneer of music downloading, for $121 million.
Under Monday’s morning’s deal the electronics retailer will get the company’s 700,000 subscribers, its CEO and other top managers.
Best Buy plans to use Napster to help it sell music, movies and other media over the Internet. It’s especially interested in Napster’s push recently into the mobile phone space.
“We believe Napster brings us excellent capabilities in the mobility space, as well as international operations and an established team of technology experts,” Best Buy Executive Vice President Dave Morrish said in a statement. “We can foresee Napster acting as a platform for accelerating our growth in the emerging industry of digital entertainment.”
Los Angeles-based Napster was founded in the late 1990s by Massachusetts college student Shawn Fanning as a way to share MP3 files with his buddies. The service started the file-swapping phenomenon and spread like wildfire, turning the music industry on its head along the way. (Legend has it that Napster’s name has its roots in Fanning’s nappy haircut).
Though kids liked it, musicians didn’t. In 2001, the Recording Industry of America won a copyright lawsuit against Napster that forced it shut down and pay more than $25 million to artists for copyright violations.
After that, Napster had an on-again-off-again life. It was resurrected briefly by music giant Bertelsmann AG. Then a porn company briefly flirted with buying the company. Eventually, it ended up in the hands of Roxio, which makes music and video replication software.
Napster never really found its way back to prominence. But it did start the music downloading revolution that today is dominated by Apple Inc.
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WSJ: Dell plans to sell factories
Dell Inc.’s computer factories around the world might be for sale. The Wall Street Journal reported the story in its Friday edition.
The company operates factories in Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, Ireland, India, China, Brazil, Malaysia and Poland. According to an unnamed source in the Journal’s article, the computer maker expects to sell most or all of the factories in the next 18 months. Other factories would close, the newspaper reported.
The proposed sales would be a new direction for Dell, which makes its own products. According to the Journal’s article, other large contract manufacturers likely would make the computers and sell them to Dell.
A Dell spokesman referred to inquiries to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that said Dell is “continuing to expand our use of original design manufacturing partnerships and manufacturing outsourcing relationships.”
Dell reported a disappointing quarter last week. The company’s profit plunged 17 percent, and the stock tumbled 18 percent.
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Its worst-kept secret: Dell officially releases its mini-notebook
Photos of a new mini-notebook from Dell hit the Web months ago. A pretty good estimate of the price was nailed down soon after. And some of the key features leaked out earlier this week.
This morning, Dell officially took the wraps off the Inspiron Mini 9, an 8.9-inch notebook available immediately in the U.S., Japan and parts of Europe. The “netbook,” as this growing category of small laptops is called, will come in white or black. (Oops, the previous pictures had it in red, apparently not an option out of the gate.)
The first batch of the 2.28-pound Mini will run on Windows XP and will sell for $399. Upcoming versions will offer a choice of XP or the Linux Ubuntu operating system, as well as a special Dell interface. Versions with the custom interface will sell for $349.
As reported earlier this week by the Wall Street Journal, Dell said it also will provide online storage services through a company called Box.net. A free basic plan will give users 2 gigabytes of online storage but can be upgraded to as much as 25 gigabytes.
Basic models will carry 512 megabytes of storage, with options up to 1 gigabyte.
The netbook category has mushroomed over the past year, sparked in large part by the popularity of Asustek’s Eee PC. Hewlett-Packard Co. and now Dell, the two largest computer makers by volume, have released netbooks this year.
Gartner Inc. expects computer makers to ship more than 5 million netbooks in 2008.
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Its worst-kept secret: Dell officially releases its mini-notebook
Photos of a new mini-notebook from Dell hit the Web months ago. A pretty good estimate of the price was nailed down soon after. And some of the key features leaked out earlier this week.
This morning, Dell officially took the wraps off the Inspiron Mini 9, an 8.9-inch notebook available immediately in the U.S., Japan and parts of Europe. The “netbook,” as this growing category of small laptops is called, will come in white or black. (Oops, the previous pictures had it in red, apparently not an option out of the gate.)
The first batch of the 2.28-pound Mini will run on Windows XP and will sell for $399. Upcoming versions will offer a choice of XP or the Linux Ubuntu operating system, as well as a special Dell interface. Versions with the custom interface will sell for $349.
As reported earlier this week by the Wall Street Journal, Dell said it also will provide online storage services through a company called Box.net. A free basic plan will give users 2 gigabytes of online storage but can be upgraded to as much as 25 gigabytes.
Basic models will carry 512 megabytes of storage, with options up to 1 gigabyte.
The netbook category has mushroomed over the past year, sparked in large part by the popularity of Asustek’s Eee PC. Hewlett-Packard Co. and now Dell, the two largest computer makers by volume, have released netbooks this year.
Gartner Inc. expects computer makers to ship more than 5 million netbooks in 2008.
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From Pez to Peace Coffee on eBay
eBay on Wednesday launched a new site for all of us concerned about fair trade, the environment and doing some public good.
eBay’s new worldofgood.com shopping site features products that eBay says “have a positive impact on people and the planet, empowering consumers to align their social values with their shopping.”
Items up for sale on the first day of the new do-good site include lots of products made from recycled or natural materials, organic coffees and other staples and and jewelry made by artisans in developing nations.
Don’t necessarily expect typical eBay bargains here, though: A bag of “Peace Coffee” from Guatemala was up for sale Wednesday for $51.70. A glass vase from Brazil carried a $209.99 price tag.
That’s a long way for from the Pez dispensers you could get for less than a buck on eBay back when it first started.
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Google’s shiny new browser
First came search, then came documents and spreadsheets, now comes a new browser from Google.
The Internet behemoth is taking one more step in its head-to-head fight with Microsoft, introducing an Internet browser on Tuesday that’s designed to compete with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Google boasts that its new browser, which it calls Chrome, is better designed for today’s Internet and to handle Web applications like video or document sharing - two areas where it also has big stakes.
Of course even if Chrome shines, it won’t be easy unseating Microsoft as the king of the Web browsers. Internet Explorer is the most widely used browser in the world.
Google plans to make a beta version of Chrome available for Windows users beginning Tuesday, the company said in a posting on its official blog.
Interestingly enough, the news that Google’s getting into the browser biz came by way of a company-sponsored comic book that apparently was accidentally released by Google mailroom workers a day early, according to the company.
