Posts Tagged ‘San Francisco’
Written by admin on 02 February 2010
San Francisco, Feb 2 (DPA) Global sales of computer chips fell nine percent during 2009, the Semi Conductor Industry Association said Monday – but not as far as expected.
Annual sales fell from 248.6 billion dollars in 2008 to $226.3 billion in 2009, beating earlier estimates that the global recession would drive sales down to $219.7 billion.
’2009 turned out to be a better year for the global semiconductor industry than expected,’ George Scalise, president of the association, said in a statement. ‘A strong focus on inventories throughout the supply chain mitigated the impact of the worldwide
economic downturn and positioned the industry for growth as the global economy recovers.’
The industry trade group forecast that sales will grow by 10.2 percent to $242.1 billion in 2010, driven by sales of computers and mobile phones, with the most growth coming from China and India.
‘With improving consumer confidence and signs of economic recovery around the world, the semiconductor industry is well positioned for growth in 2010,’ Scalise said.
Tags: San Francisco
Posted in America | No Comments »
Written by admin on 28 January 2010
San Francisco, Jan 28 (DPA) Apple wowed many in the tech world with the launch of a new tablet computer – the iPad – that could pioneer a new style of media use in the digital age.
But some critics said Apple’s new device fell short of expectations.
Hopes for the device had been high. In the words of The Wall Street Journal: ‘The last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it.’
Amazingly, Apple’s iconic chief executive Steve Jobs managed to blast those expectations out of the water by showing a device that users cannot but crave.
Like the company’s other revolutionary breakthrough, the iPhone, the iPad is trying to define a new category of digital devices by giving customers something they didn’t even know they needed before Apple came up with the idea.
Analysts had predicted that the device could cost as little as $600 and sell 5 million units in its first year. But Apple outdid that with units starting at just $499, and a device that could appeal across a huge audience.
‘It’s a mainstream device, not a geek gadget,’ Apple enthusiast Mark Jaro said as he watched a live stream of the invitation-only event.
Some of the enthusiasm that rocketed over the blogosphere can be put down to Jobs’ legendary presentation skills, known in tech circles as the RDF, or reality distortion field.
But even the most pragmatic of tech users had to be watering, if not outright drooling, over some of the iPad’s capabilities.
Functioning something like an iPhone on steroids, the iPad is designed to perfectly execute the everyday tasks that have become so common in the digital age. Small enough to be handled comfortably on the couch or in the car, yet with a large multi-touch screen that offers many advantages over the mouse and keyboard – the iPad could define a new category of casual computing.
With his characteristic lack of modesty, calling it a ‘magical and revolutionary device’, Jobs said: ‘iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.’
Email, web browsing and media tasks like music playing, photo sharing or video viewing appeared to work beautifully with hand gestures on the screen and the large on-screen keyboard. Utilising the built-in accelerometer turned the iPad into an impressive game machine.
The New York Times crowed about its own iPad edition of the paper developed in just three weeks, that it called ‘the next generation of digital journalism’.
Like other news sites, the NYT is hoping that the quality of the iPad experience will enable it to charge readers who have largely accessed content for free on the plain old Internet. Book publishers are also excited about the iPad, which will feature a store called iBooks that is like iTunes for books.
Apple had some pleasant surprises about the price of the 1-centimetre thin device.
The base version, which features 16 GB of flash memory and a wi-fi capability, will cost 499 dollars. The top of the line device will offer 3G and wi-fi connections and 64 GB of flash for $829.
Consumers have been able to buy tablet computers for years, but largely ignored the often clunky devices that never really distinguished themselves from cheaper laptops. With its innovative design and fairly low price, Apple has the best chance of creating a new market, experts say.
But there were critics, too.
‘Yawn,’ one poster wrote on the tech site Gizmodo. ‘I was hoping for something revolutionary.’
‘Will people buy it in droves? Is there actually room for a device between smartphones and laptops?’ wondered Ryan Block, who covered the unveiling for popular gadget blog gdgt.com. ‘That I don’t know – I’ve always been sceptical there’s room for a third category in there. But if there is a contender for this space, the iPad is it.’
Tags: San Francisco
Posted in America | No Comments »
Written by admin on 19 January 2010
San Francisco, Jan 19 (DPA) Web search giant Google has created a centralised search system for tracking down people missing in the Haitian earthquake, the company announced Monday in a blog posting.
The new platform incorporates the major people search services that sprang up in the US media in the days following the devastating temblor. However, news sites like CNN, The Miami Herald and The New York Times, all collected similar information, people may not find each other if they’re looking in the wrong places online.
The new service overcomes that problem and is built to easily integrate into other media sites to become the central trove of information about missing people and those looking for them.
Google’s missing people finder – available in English, French and Creole – was developed in 36 hours by Google engineers ‘in consultation with the US State Department’, according to details distributed by the company.
The international community was bracing for a possible death toll between 150,000 and 200,000 from the strong earthquake, according to US Lieutenant General P.K. Keen, who is in command of US military relief efforts.
Google reacted swiftly to the disaster updating its Google Earth application with up-to-date imagery soon after the earthquake struck in order to help aid organisations assess the damage.
Tags: San Francisco
Posted in America | No Comments »
Written by admin on 15 January 2010
San Francisco, Jan 15 (DPA) Camera and film company Eastman Kodak said it had sued Apple and RIM, claiming that the camera technology used in iPhones and Blackberries violated one of its patents.
Eastman Kodak said the way those two smartphones preview images violates a digital-imaging patent owned by the company.
‘We’ve had discussions for years with both companies in an attempt to resolve this issue amicably, and we have not been able to reach a satisfactory agreement,’ Laura Quatela, Kodak’s chief intellectual-property officer, said in a statement Thursday.
‘In light of that, we are taking this action to ensure that we protect the interests of our shareholders and the existing licensees of our technology.’
Kodak recently settled a similar case with Samsung after an International Trade Commission judge issued an initial finding that Samsung had infringed on Kodak’s image-preview patent.
Tags: San Francisco
Posted in America | No Comments »
Written by admin on 15 January 2010
San Francisco, Jan 15 (DPA) Intel reported net income of $2.3 billion Thursday for the fourth quarter, a staggering 875-percent rise over the same period a year ago.
The world’s dominant maker of computer chips said it had sales of $10.6 billion, up $2.3 billion or 28 percent from the year-ago period. Intel forecast sales of about $9.7 billion for the current quarter, compared with the $9.3-billion average estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of Wall Street analysts.
Intel’s earnings kicked off two weeks of quarterly reports from the largest US technology companies, including International Business Machines Corp, Google Inc and Microsoft Corp.
It came after research firm IDC reported that worldwide sales of personal computers rose 15 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009. Sales were particularly strong in the US, where the number of computers shipped surged by 24 percent, IDC reported.
Tags: San Francisco
Posted in America | No Comments »
Written by admin on 15 January 2010
San Francisco, Jan 15 (DPA) Google has updated its Google Earth application to provide crisis responders with up-to-date images of the devastation in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, the web search giant said Thursday.
The new images were taken on Wednesday, Google said in a blog posting and could be helpful to aid organizations trying to assess the damage to the region.
Available as a new downloadable layer on Google Earth, the new images give a bird’s eye view of the destruction, showing sites like the National Palace and the Sylvia Cator Stadium strewn with debris.
Google said that it was working with its satellite partners to continually update the images of Haiti.
Tags: San Francisco
Posted in Europe | No Comments »
