What crisis? IBM spoils the bears' day with good Q3 news
Usually when a company these days gives advance warning to the press about earnings numbers that aren't due for another week, it's to help diffuse a negative backlash. Not this time, as IBM handed the market a rare gift.
In an SEC filing this morning, IBM went out of its way to bring good tidings of great earnings for a market that could really use a little Christmas cheer even two months early. Total revenues for the third quarter of this year for the company will be up 5% annually to $25.3 billion; and with margins rising, its net income will likely be up as much as 20% on the year, to $2.8 billion.
It's not over: Broadcom files a new suit against Qualcomm
Can a company with patent rights over a technology charge royalties to anyone who uses that technology...even as it's passed down from reseller to retailer to customer? Recently the Supreme Court said no, and that gave Broadcom an idea.
There for awhile, it really did look as though the legal disputes between the two biggest names in the field of wireless technology licensing, were finally unraveling themselves into something resembling resolution...if not just sputtering out altogether. But as it turns out, a US Supreme Court ruling in a case involving two other parties has breathed new life into Broadcom's hopes attaining full litigation superiority, in its interminable fight with Qualcomm.
Intel expresses concern about the AMD split and intellectual property
For the better part of two decades, AMD has been a producer of x86 chips, and at times sold more of them to consumers than Intel. So since x86 technology was conceived by Intel, what happens to it now that someone else will build upon it?
In an agreement between the two microprocessor manufacturers reached in the spring of 2001 and retroactive to the previous January, Intel granted AMD a license to make certain products that contain Intel's intellectual property; and AMD granted Intel a symmetrical license under that same agreement. A redacted publication of that agreement -- which is the only version that has been allowed to be made public -- clearly shows where AMD was granted "a non-exclusive, non-transferable [redacted] worldwide license, without the right to sublicense, under Intel's Patents to...make, use, sell (directly or indirectly), offer to sell, import and otherwise dispose of all AMD Licensed Products."
Adobe works to pre-empt a 'clickjacking' security nightmare
Cross-site scripting vulnerabilities remain the most difficult for Web browser and tool manufacturers to thwart, especially because legitimate sites may be hosted by multiple domains. Today, Adobe Flash finds itself in the crosshairs.
A relatively ancient technique for hijacking a Web page's hyperlinks by overlapping them with different, invisible hyperlinks that lead the user someplace else, has reared its ugly head again, but this time outside the realm of HTML: Recently revealed proofs-of-concept show that invisible Flash elements can maliciously lead users to mock Web pages; and now it's been revealed that Adobe was already working with security engineers to fix the problem before the latest proof-of-concept was leaked.
Amid hints of Firefox Mobile alphas, 'Fennec' moves forward
So how close is a real, supported version of Firefox for mobile devices? Prototypes have been under way for months, but last weekend, Mozilla's CEO indicated a real Firefox-branded alpha could be made available "in a few weeks."
In an interview with San Jose Mercury News reporter Pete Carey published over the weekend, Mozilla CEO John Lilly made a statement that Carey didn't appear to follow up on: The first official test versions of Firefox Mobile should come this month.
Despite an announcement, 'Kilimanjaro' may not be the next SQL Server
There's a difference between building a new database engine, and building tools that are bundled with an existing database engine for a new product. So even analysts may be surprised to learn the next SQL Server is not two years away.
At a conference in Seattle yesterday that was apparently accompanied by at least one demo that was not on its original schedule, Microsoft made mention of a product with the code-name "Kilimanjaro," in association with SQL Server.
Verizon loses in jury trial against Cox, two patent claims invalidated
In a costly loss in US District Court in Alexandria yesterday, a jury found all of Verizon's claims that Cox Communications infringed upon its VoIP-related patents to be without basis, and even invalidated two of eight patent claims.
Back in January, Verizon filed a patent infringement suit against a Virginia division of Cox Communications, which was establishing VoIP service in that state. It was a boilerplate case that asserted its claims to eight US patents in the field of Internet-related voice telephony. Those patents were mostly acquired by Verizon on account of mergers and acquisitions, having been originally issued to such one-time giants as MCI and Bell Atlantic.
Rambus wins again as Supreme Court denies Samsung's appeal
In an effort to avoid embarrassment, Rambus sought to end a high-profile patent infringement squabble with competitor Samsung. A district court judge ruled Samsung couldn't let it go, but today the highest court says it must.
The US Supreme Court refused yesterday to hear memory maker Samsung's appeal in a case involving competitor Rambus -- an appeal which would have had wider ramifications on the market at large had it been heard.
Down for the count: Dish to pay TiVo $104 million
The nation's highest court today shut the door on EchoStar's and Dish Network's petitions for a final appeal of their patent infringement case. Now all they can hope is for mercy from TiVo, if they are to continue producing DVRs in the US.
After the US Supreme Court declined this afternoon to hear the appeal of Dish Network and its former parent EchoStar in a long-running patent infringement case, EchoStar decided it had no other option: It's paying TiVo $104 million, in hopes that this will settle the companies' disputes over whether Dish Network software infringed on TiVo patents.
Netflix, eBay help trigger a further NASDAQ plunge
Sometimes when investors get the feeling in advance that it's going to be a bad day in the markets, it doesn't take too much bad news to validate their fears. This morning, some relatively minor bad news had a magnified market impact.
Early this morning, Netflix made some admissions that, on a normal business day, would be viewed as a minor downtick in an otherwise healthy company. It missed its nationwide subscriber goal for the past quarter by 3,000. No, not three million -- three thousand, with 8.672 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter.
Google, Yahoo agree to delay their partnership deal again
As the US Dept. of Justice appears to be preparing for an extensive investigation into the two search leaders' cooperative deal, Yahoo and Google have decided that another delay in their implementation is unavoidable.
October 11 was the date in which Yahoo was expected to begin making portions of its search ad inventory available to Google's AdSense. This was based on reports citing comments from both companies, although the exact timing of every event in Yahoo's new AdSense partnership with Google has only been known for certain to government agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, since the public version of Yahoo's notice was redacted.
Mono, the open source .NET counterpart, releases 2.0
Download Mono 2.0 for Linux from FileForum now.
Microsoft has said from the very beginning that it wanted .NET to potentially be a cross-platform environment, but it's letting the open source community tackle that problem instead. This morning, that community celebrates a major milestone.
Was the Yahoo/Google deal a ploy to weaken Yahoo?
With the DOJ expressing skepticism over Yahoo's agreement to sell search ad space to its biggest competitor, a letter from a key US senator urging action could be preaching to the choir. What's interesting is that senator's theory.
In a letter to the Justice Department's antitrust chief yesterday, Sen. Herb Kohl (D - Wisc.), chairman of the Senate Antitrust Committee, advised the Dept. to maintain a close watch over Google and Yahoo as they initiate their search advertising deal, for two reasons: The first is something discussed quite often, that the deal could be used to drive up the price of contextual search advertising.
Payment standards body will let failed security protocol lapse
In what is supposed to be a fast-moving industry, a security hole in an encryption system for global banking has been open for seven years. Yesterday, finally, a standards body mandated that the hole must be closed by 2010.
In its latest amendment to its security standards document, the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council has agreed to finally discontinue the promotion and use of an encryption standard for wireless communications whose integrity was shown by security engineers to be easily penetrated seven years ago.
By 'Windows Cloud,' did Ballmer mean an operating system?
3:46 pm EDT October 2, 2008 - In a move reminiscent of a different CEO named Steve, Microsoft's chief Wednesday expressed the idea of a future service for deploying applications "in the cloud." But perhaps speculators are confused by the "Windows" name.
Until the Professional Developers' Conference convenes in a little over four weeks' time, Microsoft will very likely say nothing of consequence about a concept its CEO publicly called "Windows Cloud" during a developers' meeting in London yesterday. That's by design, of course; Steve Ballmer is, for once, successfully deploying a Steve Jobs tactic of tossing a new concept to the masses like fresh meat to the wolves, and occupying their attention up until the final date of revelation.
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