Hewlett-Packard gave Wall Street some much needed cheer by revealing that its next results will exceed analysts’ estimates
Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd has a simple credo: Follow the numbers. His insistence that employees focus on the bottom line is beginning to pay off.
On Nov. 18, the tech giant countered a spate of recent dour warnings from tech bellwethers, saying fiscal fourth-quarter results would beat analysts’ forecasts. HP also issued a surprisingly upbeat outlook for fiscal 2009. “It’s surprising, and not,” says John Madden, a research director at Ovum in Boston. “This is a company with great financial discipline, and that certainly helps when the economy takes a tumble.”
Palo Alto (Calif.)-based HP (HPQ) said profit for the quarter ended Oct. 31 was $1.03 a share, excluding items such as restructuring and acquisition charges related to its recent takeover of tech outsourcing firm Electronic Data Systems. Wall Street was expecting earnings of $1.00 a share, excluding items. “HP delivered another solid quarter as it continues to benefit from its global reach, diverse customer base, broad portfolio, and numerous cost initiatives,” Hurd said in a statement. “Our ability to execute in a challenging marketplace differentiates HP, enabling it to increase share, expand earnings, and emerge from the current economic environment as a stronger force.”
Cost-Cutting Pays Off
HP didn’t elaborate which areas of its sprawling tech empire, ranging from PCs and printers to services and software, were doing well. The company is due to report full results on Nov. 24. Yet the preliminary results stood in stark contrast to announcements from tech giants Intel (INTC) and Cisco Systems (CSCO), which earlier this month pointed to a sharp slowdown (BusinessWeek.com, 11/12/08) in virtually all sectors of the PC and server markets. Retailers Best Buy (BBY), Circuit City, and Target (TGT) also have indicated consumers are conserving cash amid credit market turmoil. “There is just enough demand out there to feed some of the vendors who positioned themselves well ahead of time,” says Roger Kay, president of tech analyst firm Endpoint Technologies Associates.
While tech stocks surged on Nov. 18, led by HP’s 14.5% gain, much of the rest of the industry isn’t faring nearly as well. HP is benefiting from Hurd’s near-obsessive cost-cutting and what analysts consider world-class management of sales and supply chain. In what Hurd calls “data-driven decision-making,” every segment of the company now uses metrics regularly to determine which hardware, software, and services merit the most attention. Research and development has been aligned closely with product planning, while a revamped sales organization has been given greater incentive to succeed, with “specialists” bearing responsibility for growth in their particular area of interest. HP also attributed some of its performance to global reach. About 70% of revenue comes from outside the U.S.
Looking ahead, analysts say HP stands to benefit from Hurd’s strategic investments in areas such as managing corporate computer networks, which offer new sources of recurring revenue. The company in September completed its purchase of EDS, which specializes in providing IT services to corporations.
Source: Businessweek
November 20, 2008
Posted by danielpk |
Computers, Computing components, Corporate and legal, Desktops, General Technology, Security and Protection, Technologypublic, Web and Internet |
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Axes Windows Live OneCare and Equipt, just one month after launch….
Microsoft is getting serious about global security, offering a free anti-malware package code-named Morro that has been specially designed for low cost PCs in developing nations.
The software will be available in the second half of 2009 and will provide ‘comprehensive protection’ from ‘the majority of online threats’, including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.
Morro is based on – and will replace – the current Windows Live OneCare subscription service, although it has been architected to use fewer computing resources, making it ideal for low-bandwidth scenarios or less powerful PCs.
Also destined for the chop is Equipt, Microsoft’s shortlived excursion into consumer software-as-a-service, offering cloud storage of files, updates to Microsoft Office packages and Windows Live OneCare, for an annual cost of £59. Microsoft Equipt launched just one month ago.
Microsoft vs malware
Amy Barzdukas, Senior Director at Microsoft, said: “This new, no-cost offering will give us the ability to protect an even greater number of consumers, especially in markets where the growth of new PC purchases is outpaced only by the growth of malware.”
Morro will deliver the same core protection against malware as Microsoft’s enterprise solutions, but without the additional non-security features found in many consumer security suites, which probably means password managers, identity protection software and online secure storage.
“By offering basic protection at no charge to the consumer, Microsoft is promoting a safer environment for PCs, service providers and e-commerce itself, since it is through unprotected PCs that the worst threats are introduced to the system as a whole,” said Roger Kay, Founder of Endpoint Technologies Associates.
Cross-platform support
Morro will be available as a stand-alone download for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Windows Live OneCare will continue to be sold until June 30, 2009, and all existing subscriptions to it will be honoured.
Microsoft will end retail sales of Equipt within the next 90 days and halt subscription services in the first half of 2009. The company says that customers who subscribed to this service continue ‘to get value from it’ until the end of their subscription period – October 2009 – and will provide detailed information about ‘customer options’ early next year.
If those ‘options’ are the same as US users of Equipt received, UK purchasers can expect a free license key to Microsoft Office Home and Student (worth about £70) and possibly even a pro-rated refund, which isn’t a bad deal.
If you want to take the risk, PC World is still selling Equipt as of this post.
Source: Techradar
November 19, 2008
Posted by danielpk |
Computers, Microsoft, Operating System, Security and Protection, Web and Internet |
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With identity theft and online banking fraud on the rise, users are understandably nervous about which computers and networks they use to check their bank accounts or carry out money transfers. IBM’s Zurich lab has come up with one possible way of attacking the problem of man-in-the-middle attacks on online banking transactions; if it works, it could prove popular with both banks and users.
IBM’s solution, called the Zone Trusted Information Channel (ZTIC, pronounced like “stick”), is a small USB device that plugs into the user’s computer and talks directly to the bank’s servers via an SSL link. The device has a small processor, volatile and nonvolatile storage, a display, and on-board software, all of which it uses to establish a secure link directly to the bank’s server.
As an online transaction proceeds, the ZTIC displays critical and tamper-proof transaction information via the integrated display, which the user can then compare to the output of the browser. If what’s being shown in the user’s browser doesn’t match the output of the USB device’s display, then the user knows that a man-in-the-middle attack is probably in progress and can cancel the transaction.
IBM Zurich’s ZTIC homepage has a great explanation of the technology behind this. Essentially, the ZTIC sets up a pass-through proxy that the user’s browser can use to connect to a predetermined list of supported banking sites. So when the browser launches and the user begins his or her banking session, all the traffic passes through the ZTIC, which in effect acts as a “man in the middle” between the browser and the bank.
The ZTIC can monitor all the Web traffic and siphon off critical information, like account numbers and money values, directly from the bank to be displayed on the user’s display. This way, the screen’s output reflects what the bank has sent directly to the ZTIC.
If the user’s browser is infected by a man-in-the-middle virus whose aim is to use the banking session to transfer funds to a third party while maintaining the appearance of an undisturbed browsing session, then the user will detect that activity because he or she will be able to see what’s actually happening on the ZTIC screen.
All of the keys for the SSL session reside on the ZTIC, so an infected PC can’t get to them.
So the ZTIC has to be configured to work with a user’s bank, but this is a matter of enabling the client software to understand how the bank talks to the browser, and it requires no changes on the bank’s end. IBM will be able to add support for more banks to the device over time, which should increase its appeal.
The device is currently available only as part of a trial. IBM has not announced a timeframe for commercial availability.
I don’t have a ton of expertise to evaluate this as an alternative to other USB-based security schemes, like IronKey, in which a secure browser is stored on a USB stick. So I’d be very interested in hearing from the security experts in the audience about the pros and cons of IBM’s approach. For my part, I’d buy one tomorrow if they had one that works with Chase, because I’m extremely paranoid about where and how I do my online banking.
Source: Arstechnia
November 5, 2008
Posted by danielpk |
Security and Protection |
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Why is it that the BlackBerry Storm doesn’t have Wi-Fi? If you believe BoyGenius—and how could you not!—it’s because Verizon Wireless doesn’t want it to have Wi-Fi. That’s a fine conspiracy theory, yes, but consider the following:
• Name one CDMA BlackBerry with built-in Wi-Fi. You can’t.
• Doesn’t VZW require you to have a BlackBerry data plan? So it’s not like having built-in Wi-Fi prevents VZW from making money
Now, whether or not VZW was concerned with battery life and/or performance is another matter, but to imply that VZW is some James Bond villain hoarding all the Wi-Fi is silly, I think.
Source: CrunchGear
November 1, 2008
Posted by danielpk |
BlackBerry, mobile phones, Mobile Technology, Security and Protection |
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by Mark Hendrickson
I had a phone call late last week with a semantic startup called Siri that was spun out of SRI International (the birthplace of the computer mouse and the LCD screen, among many other important technologies). Most startups are willing to talk about their products “off the record” but this one wouldn’t divulge much beyond the fact that they’ve raised $8.5 million in Series A funding from Menlo Ventures and Morganthaler.
What we do know is that the company was incorporated in December 2007 with the goal of commercializing aspects of the CALO cognitive learning system, which receives heavy funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a supporter of research in a broad range of technologies that could potentially benefit the Department of Defense.
From the sound of things, Siri’s 19 developers – mostly engineers who count Yahoo, Google, Apple, Xerox, Nasa, and Netscape as their former employers – have been working on a system that will use artificial intelligence to automate many of the tasks that people currently have to conduct manually online. The founders describe themselves as out to change the fundamental ways that people use the internet.
All of this sounds very high and lofty, and we won’t know for sure whether this is all hot air until we actually see a product. But the company is very concerned that existing companies (Google, Microsoft or Apple, perhaps?) might seek to copy their ideas – hence the tight-lipped secrecy, which is expected to remain the status quo until the first half of 2009.
Until then, you can check out the startup’s teaser website which, appropriately enough, is located at stealth-company.com.
October 14, 2008
Posted by danielpk |
Security and Protection, Softwares, Technologypublic, Web and Internet |
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Orange UK has temporarily stopped selling Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Bold while it tries to figure out a solution to unspecified 3G-related problems on the handset.
The operator halted sales of the popular handset on Friday. According to a spokesperson, sales will resume when a software fix becomes available, though no date was given.
“Orange UK is committed to providing the BlackBerry Bold to its customers in the U.K.; however, Orange UK and (BlackBerry manufacturer) RIM are currently working on providing a maintenance release of software to address some reported 3G-related concerns,” a statement from Orange on Monday read.
“Although the reported 3G concerns have been limited to a minority of Orange customers in the U.K., Orange UK and RIM both take customer concerns very seriously and felt it was prudent to introduce a maintenance release of software for Orange UK customers,” the statement continued. “Orange UK and RIM apologize to customers for any inconvenience and expect to provide a software maintenance release soon.”
The company declined to give details to ZDNet UK about the problem. The BlackBerry Bold is the first in RIM’s line of smartphones to include high-speed 3G, or HSDPA, connectivity.
Source: Cnet
October 14, 2008
Posted by danielpk |
BlackBerry, Business, Security and Protection, smartphone, Technologypublic, Web and Internet |
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By Matt Burns
You have to imagine that at least a few Xbox Live users have a BlackBerry and this app is aimed right at ‘em. XBerry Live! seems to do about everything a Live user would want on the go, but be warned that this BlackBerry app isn’t going to make your day go by any quicker. Just think, it’s around 2 o’clock and you see all your buddies gaming away on COD4 while you have a stack of TPS reports right next to you. How’s is that going to make you feel? Probably like you were back in High School and done with your day by 2?
October 13, 2008
Posted by danielpk |
BlackBerry, Gaming, Security and Protection, smartphone, Softwares, Technologypublic, Web and Internet |
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Mobile-app development company MobUI announced Monday that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding and acquired Action Engine, a fellow mobile-app firm with customers including TiVo, AOL, and The Wall Street Journal.
Though terms of the acquisition haven’t been made public, the motivation for MobUI’s move is obvious: the success of Apple’s iPhone App Store. Since it was launched on in early July, more than 100 million mobile applications have been downloaded.
Other Action Engine customers include MarketWatch, Barrons, MSNBC, and Sports Illustrated. With the acquisition, MobUI said it plans to rapidly create iPhone, mobile Web, and downloadable applications for major consumer brands.
The round of funding was led by GlobalNet Mobile Solutions, a wireless application services provider in Latin America.
Source: Cnet
October 13, 2008
Posted by danielpk |
Business, Politics and Law, Security and Protection |
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Nokia has sprung something of a, well, obvious statement by announcing that it will be bringing an N-series branded touchscreen phone in the coming months.
Devinder Kishore, director marketing, Nokia India, said: “We will have lot of touchscreen phones coming up,including an N-series device very soon.”
Speculation about what the device might be has led to the inevitable belief the new phone will be the N97, with an 8MP camera truly making it the flagship device to bring Nokia into the touchscreen fight.
Losing appeal
But it’s more likely that Nokia will look around the N85 mark, not wanting to cannibalise the N96 handset’s appeal after releasing it so recently.
Word is the new handset will be launched in the latter part of Q4 2008, but given the delay on the 5800 XpressMusic until 2009 in developed markets, don’t be surprised if nobody has heard anything by February.
Source: Techradar
October 13, 2008
Posted by danielpk |
Business, Mobile Technology, Nokia, Science, Security and Protection, smartphone, Softwares, Technologypublic, Web and Internet |
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