Apple Schedules Developers Conference For June With Snow Leopard and IPhone OS Focus

March 26, 2009

It appears developers will be hearing a great deal more about Snow Leopard, the new version of Mac OS X at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

Snow Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X, will be detailed at the event

Snow Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X, will be detailed at the event

Apple announced the schedule for the June 8 to 12 conference on Thursday. It will take place at Moscone West in San Francisco.

There will be technical information and hands-on learning about the powerful technologies in iPhone OS and Mac OS X, the company said on a Web site.

Apple recently released a beta version of the new iPhone OS 3.0 for developers. It also has Snow Leopard under development, though few details have been made public.

On a Web site, Apple emphasized Snow Leopard’s 64-bit architecture and it ability to tap the power of multicore chips and GPU processors.

2 Comments | computers, news, software, wireless | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Another Way To Get More Followers On Twitter

March 26, 2009

First of all, let me say it is not a sure thing. But it will increase the odds of getting more followers on the popular micro-blogging site.

With all the focus these days on monetizing Twitter and the likelihood of the company releasing paid services for business, I thought a post getting back to Twitter basics was in order.

About a month ago, Twitter started a “Suggested Users” program that points new members to Tweeters they might be interested in following. “We noticed a certain percentage of new users were signing up and then not following anyone,” which diminishes the relevance of the site, a company blog post explains.

On Thursday, Twitter details how the program works and what people can do to get on the suggested followers list. The explanation is somewhat vague, but here are several points:

Twitter looks at a “bunch of key ingredients such as how much of the profile is filled out, certain indications that the account is interesting to others in some respects, and a few other signals,” according to a blog post.

Then a list is generated and reviewed by the product team to see whether an account is a good introduction to Twittering, whether it has a fairly wide or mainstream appeal and to be sure any celebrities are who they say they are and not fakes.

So it definitely helps to fill out a profile. That’s because “suggested users are getting more followers because they are suggested,” the company says.

Twitters suggested users list

Twitter's suggested users list

3 Comments | news, web 2.0 | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Tesla Unveils $50,000 ‘Mass-Market’ Electric Sedan; But No Factory Yet

March 26, 2009

At the SpaceX Rocket Factory in Los Angeles today, Tesla will show off a prototype of its Model S.

tesla-sedan-launch The all-electric luxury sedan – comparable to a BMW 3-series or a Mercedes C-class – will cost half the price of Tesla’s sporty Roadster, at around $50,000 (after a federal tax credit) when it goes on sale in 2 years; allowing time for more rigorous testing before it actually hits the road.

The San Mateo, Calif.-company still awaits to receive a $350 million loan from the Department of Energy to build its factory in San Jose to produce Model S cars.

1 Comment | Alternative Energy, Clean Tech, news, startups | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Hesitant Financial Industry Will Spend On Risk Management Systems

March 26, 2009

Financial firms are hurting.

So it’s easy to understand why the Citigroups of the world won’t be buying lots of new software this year But there is one area of technology where sales could soar: liquidity management systems.

Since the global downturn upended financial markets last fall, technology purchasing by the financial industry has been depressed, says Don DeLoach, CEO of software maker Aleri. Projects have been delayed or canceled altogether.

The growth of liquidity risk management projects is accelerating, says Aleris Don DeLoach

The growth of liquidity risk management projects is accelerating, says Aleri's Don DeLoach

“A lot of the financial-services firms have pulled in the reins,” says DeLoach. “This is certainly not confined to the U.S.,” but is taking place around the world.

However new regulations are causing major banks to update systems that keep track of their liquidity – the money flows that are the best gauge of an institution’s assets, or financial strength.

Typically, liquidity calculations have been updated once a day. Now regulations expected from the U.S. and elsewhere will require more frequent revisions. Already the Financial Services Authority in Britain has begun imposing the new rules.

DeLoach argues that Aleri is well positioned to capitalize on the opportunity. It has been working on products for liquidity risk management since August 2007 and early this month bought Coral8 to broaden some key technologies.

But it won’t be alone. Giants such as Oracle, IBM and Sybase are already angling for a piece of the business – aware of its potential for attractive growth.

The number of liquidity risk management projects grew 300 percent last year and that growth is accelerating right now, says DeLoach.

While the downturn has brought financial distress to most companies domestically and abroad, at least a few software providers will prosper.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Almost Two Thirds Of Americans Still Reluctant Users Of Mobile Technology

March 26, 2009

The good news is 39 percent of Americans now say they can’t live without their mobile data communications.

39 percent of Americans cant live without their mobile communications. The rest are still satisfied to sit behind a PC

39 percent of Americans can't live without their mobile communications. The rest are still satisfied to sit behind a PC

The bad news is the remaining 61 percent remain content with their home Internet connections and their PC-based e-mail.

The demographic snapshot of the country is the work of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. It once again shows a vanguard of early adopters rushing toward the latest technology, in this case the emerging world of online applications and high-speed 3G Web connections.

It is not surprising to find a sizeable minority of Americans excited about the new mobile possibilities. Devices such as the iPhone have helped simplify on-the-go communications and the access to online data on a variety of topics from stock prices to weather.

But it is surprising to find something of a backlash among the traditionalists. According to Pew, more members of the PC-based majority now say they would not find it difficult to do without their mobile devices, an increase from a year ago.

“The bar for what constitutes a sophisticated tech user has risen with the advent of wireless connectivity,” says Pew Associate Director John Horrigan. It is clear many people are not ready for this always-on, always-connected lifestyle.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Dell Blasts Cisco Server Strategy; Drives For More Standardisation

March 26, 2009
Dell's president of the large enterprise division wishes Cisco good luck entering the server market!

Dell's president of the large enterprise division wishes Cisco good luck entering the server market!

Going after the server market, is not going to be a walk in the park for Cisco. And after Brocade, it’s Dell’s turn to take a shot at Cisco’s data center strategy.

In a conversation yesterday with Stephen Schuckenbrock, the president of a Dell unit that serves large businesses – $20 billion in annual revenues – had strong words to describe Cisco’s inroads into the server market.

From a customer perspective, why do we need another proprietary platform in the industry. Customers want open architected solutions. They want the flexibility to choose what optimises costs and output in their own business. Dell provides that.

A lot of our competitors, whichever one you choose, would like to lock you in their proprietary sofware and services stack that goes on top of the platform. That’s not our approach.

And Schuckenbrock to add,

“Cisco is just another one of those proprietary solutions that happens to be a new entrant that will learn a lot about what it means to be in the server industry.

And they are in generation 1, and we are in generation 11. I think we’re prepared for that battle.”

Up to 18 servers consolidated into 1 new Dell server

Schuckenbrock also talked about how Dell’s new servers will be able to help enterprises reduce costs – up to 40 percent – through the use of consolidation and virtualisation.

“With our new enterprise efficiency platform which comes with 20 new products, we’re seeing customers that can consolidate 9 servers to 1. Just consider that one simple example where each of those servers come with software licensing, maintenance agreements, their own amortization and depreciation schedules, take up space and consume power. And when you consider the costs of all of those things, and contrast with the do-all-that in one footprint, the savings will begin to speak for themselves.

Emerson seen consolidation as they’ve added a lot of virtualisation to that same agenda of up to 18 to 1″ consolidation to our new platforms

Here’s a video excerpt of my conversation with Schuckenbrock:

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Agilent Cuts 2,700 Jobs Amid Depressed Business; No Recovery In Sight

March 26, 2009

A depressed business and no prospects for a meaningful recovery in the foreseeable future.

That’s how Agilent Technologies CEO, Bill Sullivan, described the current state of the Santa Clara-based company business.

As a result, the maker of scientific instruments said today it will lay off 2,700 workers and halt share buyback to preserve cash.

For 2009, Agilent expects revenues for its electronic measurement unit is expected to reach $2.3 billion; down 30% from 2008 and at the lowest level in the company’s 10-year history. Meanwhile, the semiconductor and board test business is expected to be down 50% from the previous year, and 65% below peak levels.

The Hewlett-Packard spinoff is in a drive to cut annual costs by $300 million in its electronic-measurement segment and by $10 million in its chip and board test segment.

With IBM expected to cut an additional 5,000 jobs, the downturn keeps on squeezing tech jobs, and especially in tech-driven regions like Silicon Valley which is already paying a heavy toll with a 10% unemployment rate.

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Intel: Slowest Nehalem Server Chip Outperforms Fastest AMD Opteron; Current Or Future

March 25, 2009
Intel's server chief is very optimistic on Nehalem's performance over AMD's Opteron

Intel's server chief is very optimistic on Nehalem's performance over AMD's Opteron

Today, Intel started to drum up next week’s launch of it’s next-generation server chip dubbed “Nehalem”.

Talking at a Dell press conference today, Kirk Skaugen, Intel’s vice president of the Digital Enterprise Group launched a direct attack on AMD’s Opteron server chip dominance.

“Relative to AMD… I can confidently say that our lowest performance Nehalem will outperform the fastest performing Shanghai. Which is probably an unprecedented statement,” said Skaugen.

Adding that,

“Of course I want the benchmarks to legitimise that from third parties but at least I want you to walk away with the scale of performance that we are talking about here… but I think it’s an unprecedented leap and I think we feel very good that even this 4-core (each core mutithreaded), even with [AMD Opteron] Istanbul out in the end of the year… We feel quite strong that Nehalem is going to be a strong leadership product even against the next-generation coming that is isn’t shipping from the competition.”

Intel made an “exception” for Apple’s Nehalem workstation launch

Skaugen also explained that Apple’s launch of Nehalem workstations three weeks ago was an “exception” and that the “official” launch – with partners, OEMs… – will happen next week, on March 30th.

“We needed to thoroughly test the chip on all the platforms it will be made available on. We did this earlier with Apple, because it only involved one operating system and a small number of hardware configuration,” adds Skaugen.

3 Comments | chips, computers, hardware, news | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Nintendo DSi, Online Game Store Coming Next Week To U.S., World

March 25, 2009
dsiware-vs-package-sales

Digitally distributed DSi games sell better and longer than packaged games

The world is about to discover the Nintendo DSi, six months after Japan!

At the Game Developer Conference today, Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata, confirmed the availability in the United States of the new portable video console for $175 on April 5.

The DSi added many hardware improvements over the current generation:

  1. 2 integrated cameras;
  2. an SD card slot to store data, sound, music;
  3. enhanced microphone and speakers.

Nintendo is pushing the digital distribution of video game with DSi Shop

Masato Kuwahara is a project leader for Nintendo's DSi hardware group

Masato Kuwahara is a project leader for Nintendo's DSi hardware group


DSi’s online game store But perhaps the most exciting news for game developers is the online store dubbed the “DSi Shop,” where users can download games or “DSiWare.”

A Nintendo study also shows that sales of online games in Japan are higher and last longer than packaged software.

“Sales of packaged software drop from 100% to 31% after the first week. For DSiWare games, sales are above 90%, even after the third week. So with the DSi Shop, there’s the potential to make higher sale for a longer period,” explains Nintendo DSi project leader, Masato Kuwahara.

The second-hand market is also another reason for the quick drop of packaged software.

“After the fourth week, games hit the used market, which does not happen for the digitally distributed games,” adds Kuwahara.

3 Comments | hardware, news, software | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Newspapers Missing The Online Opportunities Of Social Media

March 25, 2009

Here are some of the more intelligent recommendations I have seen recently for the troubled newspaper industry.

Why not let readers Tweet stories they like?

Why not let readers Tweet stories they like?

Most local newspapers are notoriously bad at harnessing the power of the Internet to rescue their ailing old-line businesses. But the tools to reverse this are available in the latest wave of social media Web sites and search tools – including Twitter, according to Gartner.

And the benefits might be considerable.

Newspapers are clearly suffering. Many metropolitan dailies are hanging by threads, with advertising revenue falling 10 percent or 20 percent or more a month, and several cites, such as San Francisco and Philadelphia, likely to go dark.

But newspapers aren’t harnessing the power for this most important asset: loyal readers.

In a survey late last year, Gartner found about 49 percent of respondents in the U.S., U.K. and Italy use search engines once a week or more to find content. But only 20 percent use search tools built into a newspaper or magazine site.

So why not improve those tools and make them more prominent on newspaper Web sites?

Many newspapers similarly list their staffers who are on the influential microblogging  site Twitter, but few offer Twitter users the ability to “tweet” stories from their Web sites, says Gartner.

In a similar vien, 24 percent of those surveyed said they share good content with friends via personal communications, such as e-mail and instant messaging. But how many newspapers: think of this as a major source of distribution?

All these ideas are worth considering in a desperate environment.

1 Comment | news, web 2.0 | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

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