AMD: Six-core Istanbul server CPUs moved up to May
During the early part of this afternoon's conference call with analysts this afternoon, AMD CEO Dirk Meyer told analysts -- one day ahead of a momentous product call scheduled for tomorrow afternoon -- that strong reception and testing for its Istanbul-architecture server CPUs will enable the company to start orders for its first six-core products next month. This will enable shipments of six-core systems from suppliers as soon as June, said Meyer.
This despite a continuing, if somewhat diminished, loss for the first quarter of the year of $416 million, on revenue that was 21% lower annually. The server side of the business, Meyer admitted twice, was something of a downer for the quarter, while sales of CPUs and graphics chips in the desktop and mobile segments rose to compensate. The company continues to be cautious about its outlook, and disputes Intel's claim earlier in the week that the fallout in the technology industry had hit bottom.
MySQL 5.4 gets bigger anyway, encroaching on new parent Oracle's turf
When Oracle CEO Larry Ellison announced his acquisition of Sun Microsystems yesterday morning, he didn't mention MySQL at all -- his company's principal competitor in the small systems database space. Maybe that was just for spite: It's no secret that Ellison wanted MySQL; he said so explicitly three years ago. It was one of the key missing elements in the top-to-bottom stack he's been looking for, a way to create a line-up of pre-configured systems with everything customers need right out of the proverbial "box."
But MySQL's place in Ellison's stack doesn't extend to the enterprise, where the Oracle DB still rules -- at least in his mind. Eleven million installed MySQL customers plus a resurgent Microsoft SQL Server aside, Oracle DB is, from Oracle's perspective, an unstoppable juggernaut.
Firefox 3.0.9 is publicly available, announcement to come
After a weekend of stability testing, version 3.0.9 -- the latest security update to the Firefox 3.0 browser series -- can now be downloaded. As usual, Mozilla isn't making the new version's release public for at least another day, so if you select Check for Updates from the Help menu, you won't see the new version just yet, though you can download it from Fileforum and install it manually without problems.
When the company releases its list of addressed security issues -- perhaps as soon as tomorrow -- expect a larger than normal list. Among the general bugs the organization is addressing is one we've experienced ourselves, especially since many of us use Firefox for communicating with our Betanews CMS: Submitting data content in large forms can sometimes be a real bear, and we've noticed this since version 3.0.7. This issue, among others, has apparently been addressed and fixed.
Interview: Former WSJ publisher Gordon Crovitz on paying for online news
For newspapers that have seen their advertising revenue -- especially in classifieds -- cut in half or worse by the rapid acceleration of Internet news as an alternative, publishers are faced with a situation where they must transform themselves in order to survive. Just over the last few days, we've learned that Gannett, publisher of USA Today and The New York Times Co. are posting losses for the last quarter at an annual rate of as much as one-fifth, on account of declining ad revenue. Some may not be able to sustain similar losses through the rest of the year, and the Times Co. is threatening the shutdown of the Boston Globe.
Maybe newspaper publishers can save some form of their print media products, and maybe they can't; but in any event, they will need to find some way to make their online operations workable, because print alone will no longer sustain the newspaper business.
Sun goes down: Larry Ellison disrupts the software landscape again
There were two business models for the software industry, and now once again, there are two respective champions of those models: In one corner is the undisputed master of the "embrace and extend" principle, perceived worldwide as looking after itself and its own interests, while recently opening up its communications protocols to free licenses, supporting developers with free tools, and giving away the software needed for users to build its platform. In the other corner is a seasoned dealmaker, stalking after prey sometimes for years before trapping it into a deal it can't refuse, preaching the principle of openness while clearly and even transparently acquiring the components for a comprehensive platform where all roads lead through the company and into the company, not even hiding the fact that it rarely creates its own technology.
Pop quiz: Which one's Microsoft and which one's Oracle?
Microsoft: All netbooks will run any Windows 7
There will very likely be some netbooks shipped in the US and other developed markets this year that will feature the Windows 7 Starter Edition SKU announced in February. But this version will have some limitations to it that go beyond the inability to display the Aero front-end using Windows Presentation Foundation -- the direct implication of a statement made by a Microsoft spokesperson to Betanews this afternoon.
But that will not mean that premium editions of Win7 will not be able to run on netbooks, the spokesperson continued, but rather that OEMs may end up choosing to pre-install this limited edition on netbooks for sale.
Now an Oracle product, what happens to MySQL?
Attendees at the open source database's annual developers' conference in Santa Clara this morning are waking up to the incredible news that their own product, whose value to Sun Microsystems was to have been lauded by none other than Sun co-founder Andreas von Bechtolsheim in a keynote address scheduled for Thursday, is now owned by Oracle Systems.
The initial value of MySQL to Oracle -- up until this morning, its biggest competitor -- was obvious by its absence from this morning's joint press conference featuring Sun and Oracle executives. Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz mentioned MySQL along with OpenOffice as part of what he now calls the world's largest supplier for open source software. Until Oracle's SEC filings are made public, we won't know whether MySQL even factored into its valuation of Sun.
'Industry in a box:' Sun acquisition will lead to Oracle Java
After spending decades waking up every morning, as Scott McNealy's old keynote speeches used to repeat, thinking singularly of how to slay the beast that is Bill Gates, his company finds itself this morning swallowed by Larry Ellison. Signifying the apparent catastrophic collapse of Sun Microsystems and IBM to have come together, in bargaining efforts that both sides vehemently and vociferously declined to comment about, Sun has agreed to be acquired by Oracle.
"One of the key reasons that Oracle's acquisition strategy has been so successful is because we buy companies with market-leading products," stated Oracle CEO Larry Ellison this morning, literally parading his latest acquisition like the latest trophy among many, or like a big game fisherman hauling in a shark. "PeopleSoft was #1 in human resources. Siebel was #1 in customer relationship management. BEA's WebLogic was the #1 Java virtual machine. Hyperion was #1 in enterprise performance management. And so on. Sun Microsystems has a variety of exciting products, but two of their software products -- the Sun Solaris operating system and Sun's Java programming language -- were instrumental in Oracle's decision to acquire Sun."
RIM finally distributes BlackBerry System 4.5, enables Pandora
The real reason people started buying Windows 3.0 wasn't really because of the wealth of new software made for Windows for the first time. Seriously, that wasn't the reason. By the time people learned about stuff like Lotus 1-2-3G and WordPerfect for Windows -- which were both going to change the world, if you'll recall -- they were already sold on Windows 3.0 for another reason: the smooth on-screen fonts. Because let's face it, Windows/386 looked like it belonged on an 8-bit computer, compared to Macintosh.
Late last night, the BlackBerry System 4.5 upgrade finally came through for users of those older-style units that actually look like BlackBerrys. In it, you'll find relief...in the form of the replacement of the thing that made the 8800s and older units look pale compared to the (slow) Storm, or the iPhone: the disgusting looking default system font.
There will be an Office 2010 public beta sometime, reasserts Microsoft
The news from Microsoft Tuesday evening of the first technical previews of Office 2010, coming in the third quarter of this year, referred to being limited to several thousand testers -- Exchange product manager Julia White told us perhaps a few hundred thousand, after all the invitations were processed. But a technical preview is not exactly a "public beta," so when a prepared Q&A Monday with Microsoft's senior VP Chris Caposella failed to mention a public beta for Office 2010, some bloggers and journalists came to the conclusion that there wouldn't be one.
So when Microsoft reported today that there would be a public beta, it was reported in various locations that the company had changed its mind. In fact, as a Microsoft spokesperson verified for Betanews this afternoon, not only was there no change of mind, but no statement regarding the lack of a public beta was ever made. Microsoft told Betanews earlier this week that there would be a public beta of Office 2010, though the company has not yet finalized a date.
Code-frozen Firefox 3.5 beta gains 4% more speed against Chrome 2
We may see the latest Mozilla Firefox 3.5 public beta -- now with the whole numbering thing straightened out -- as soon as next Wednesday, and quite likely a Firefox 3.0.9 update in the same timeframe. In the meantime, as Mozilla's developers test the final nightly build prior to the opening of the floodgates, Betanews tests reveal that regular Firefox users should appreciate about double the speed and performance of Firefox 3.0.8, and 450% the performance of the final release of Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.
But as Mozilla's developers make tweaks to its rendering engine and its new TraceMonkey JavaScript interpreter, Google's developers (some of whom, admittedly, are the very same people) are making tweaks to its development series browser, Chrome 2.0.172.6. (Google's development browser now co-exists with its Chrome 1 series, which represents finalized code.) As a result, our latest tests show Apple may not hold claim to "the world's fastest browser" for much longer, as Chrome 2 pulls within 2% of Safari's general performance, and as Firefox 3.5 makes up some ground.
IBM's bid to one-up Intel next year with 28 nm processors
Last February, Intel made some changes and adaptations to its processor roadmap in what was generally perceived as a sensible move in light of the current economy: It's expediting its move from the 45 nm to the 32 nm generation of CPUs with increased investments in facilities, but then extending the market lifespan of the 32 nm generation to compensate, and to help reap back the costs incurred. That extension will include the introduction of a "mainstream" 32 nm architecture code-named Westmere, as part of its continued strategy -- successful so far -- to introduce certain elements of its newer designs to a broader market of buyers first.
That strategy was confirmed Monday during Intel's quarterly conference call -- where it also revealed sharply lower profits on much lower revenue: "We have pulled in Westmere, our first 32 nanometer product family, and will now be shipping those products later this year," reported CEO Paul Otellini (our thanks to Seeking Alpha for the transcript). "We have shipped thousands of Westmere samples to over 30 EOM customers already. We also look forward to the launch of our new consumer ultra-low voltage products, which will enable many new...light notebooks at very compelling price points."
How much would you pay for news? A new coalition seeks an answer
For a great many Internet users -- perhaps a majority -- who believe they're already paying monthly fees for content, the thought of paying a subscription fee for online news may be akin to yet another "tax." Certainly the purveyors of the news-is-by-nature-free argument may elect to characterize such a fee as a "tax." But challenging and defeating the new conventional lack-of-wisdom is just one of the challenges facing a group of businessmen at the nucleus of a new online news coalition.
Perhaps if there were just one fee that pertains to a whole portfolio of news providers, enough readers would see enough value in their product as a collective, to subsidize it through a single subscription fee. That's the bet being placed today by Journalism Online, LLC, the latest venture from business innovator and Court TV founder Steven Brill, venture capitalist and former TCI CEO Leo Hindery, and former Dow Jones executive vice president and The Wall Street Journal publisher L. Gordon Crovitz.
One extra week for Microsoft to defend tying IE to Windows
After a Financial Times report this morning cited April 28 as the deadline for Microsoft to comply with a request by the European Commission to respond to its latest Statement of Objections, reporters close to the story wondered why that seemed like one week too many. As it turned out, the FT had something of a scoop and didn't even know it, as Microsoft confirmed the news to Reuters later in the day. April 21 had been the company's anticipated deadline.
Last January, the EC issued a formal objection to Microsoft regarding its practice of bundling Internet Explorer with Windows, which it claims doesn't give browser competitors a level playing field. Statements of Objections are the first steps taken in launching formal court proceedings against a prospective defendant; yesterday, the EC issued a similar notice against the government of the United Kingdom, for interpreting or "transposing" an EU law in a way which could enable interception of private Internet communications data.
Mainstream support for Windows XP ended Tuesday
Without a reprieve from the governor this time, Microsoft's free product support for paid users of all versions of Windows XP officially ended as of April 14. What this means is that the company will no longer give complementary product support to XP users.
This doesn't mean the end of the free security updates, however, and there could very well be a big batch of those as soon as next Tuesday. Customers can still purchase product support for XP from Microsoft per-incident for at least the next five years.
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