It has been a hard uphill battle for memory maker Qimonda ever since parent company Infineon began its plan to spin it off in 2006. Today, that battle may have come to a premature end.

If America is ever to regain its footing in the field of microprocessor production outside the CPU, it needs a leg up from international leaders in that field. Three years ago, German memory producer Infineon gambled on producing an innovative DRAM subdivision called Qimonda, with a state-of-the-art production facility in Richmond, Virginia. Infineon would gradually spin off Qimonda, and retain a minority stake as the producer came into its own.

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Google's 18% revenue jump didn't come as any huge stunner, but execs revealed this evening how their company is weathering the financial crisis, through measures that include a new stock option plan aimed at employee retention.

Google's revenues for the fourth quarter of 2008 ending December 31 added up to $5.7 billion, as opposed to $4.83 billion the same period a year ago, the Google officials said in Thursday night's conference call with financial analysts.

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File sharers picking up pirated copies of the newly released iWork '09 apps suite may be biting into a poisoned Apple. Various Mac-security sites and sharing sites such as BitTorrent are reporting that some versions of the file are carrying a Trojan that can phone home and install additional malware.

PC users are encouraged to console their Mac brethren about what sounds, frankly, like a rather familiar scenario. The Trojan, which Intego is calling OSX.Trojan.iService.A rides along with the pirated versions of iWork as a package called iWorkServices.pkg. It installs as a startup item during the usual installation process and gets in contact with a remote server. What happens next can vary, but considering that the Trojan gives itself read/write/execute permissions, it's capable of doing anything from grabbing more malware to turning into a botnet-style zombie under the command of a remote server.

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In the first test of its strategy of divesting its foundries and concentrating on developing IP assets, AMD reveals the extent to which an historically negative chain of events is impacting the already ailing CPU manufacturer.

3:00pm PT: Call wraps up.

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Its first full-year operating loss in 14 years is a scorcher: Sony on Thursday set up a last-minute analyst-and-press call to announce a 2009 forecast predicting 260 billion yen (about $2.93 billion) in operating losses.

And the tumult's just beginning.

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A hotly-rumored branch of updates to the Android operating system that goes by the unusual moniker "cupcake" may not be released to the public.

AndroidTapp received a message from the T-Mobile Forums admin which was traced all the way back to Google via T-Mobile's Product Development and PR departments. In the message it said, "According to the Android team, "Cupcake," which is the code name for an Android software build, is still a work in progress that is considered to be a development branch and not for general availability."

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In its latest month-by-month analysis of the relative state of readiness of US citizens for the DTV transition, still scheduled for February 17, analysis firm Nielsen now estimates that based on its analysis of 37,000 metered households, about 5% of US households remain unprepared -- down from 6.8% in December, 7.7% in November, and 8.4% in September. Nielsen's numbers were revealed this morning by Broadcasting & Cable

So the trend is positive, generally speaking. However, legislators remain concerned that some 6.5 million Americans remain unprepared. On the other side of the picture, the National Association of Broadcasters believes Nielsen's numbers may be exaggerated. An NAB spokesperson told Betanews this afternoon that it believes Nielsen's estimates "do not count customers who have yet to set up their converter boxes, or who are waiting for coupons."

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A name floated this morning by The Wall Street Journal as a likely choice by President Obama to head the Justice Dept.'s antitrust division, may not exactly be the choice Microsoft would have preferred.

Christine Varney, a former Federal Trade Commission member in the Clinton administration, and an attorney in the high-visibility firm of Hogan & Hartson in Washington, DC since then, appears to be the leading candidate for appointment to a deputy attorney-general's post in the Justice Dept.'s Antitrust Division, according to a WSJ report this morning. During the US Microsoft antitrust trial, but following her tenure with the FTC, Varney was an outspoken critic of Microsoft, especially since she was on the team representing Netscape, the company that was most wronged by Microsoft's actions at that time.

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Google today is expected to follow the lead of IBM and Apple, defying the economy by making a positive showing in its results for the latest financial quarter. In spite of the financial downturn, many analysts predict that Google will post an increased profit in results set for delivery before the clang of the stock market's closing bell.

In a note to clients, one financial analyst said Google gained during the quarter from heavy use of search ads by retailers wanting to get deeply discounted merchandise out the door.

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The DHS' US-CERT (Computer Emergency Readiness Team) released a security alert yesterday that disabling Autorun in Windows, an action meant to stanch the spread of the Downadup virus, is actually a vulnerability itself.

The Downadup worm has reached epidemic proportions (meaning, I have begun to overhear conversations between elderly women talking about it). But an announcement from US-CERT this week says that one of the remedies to the problem, a registry fix that disables Autorun, is unsound.

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Earlier this week, TorrentFreak said the upcoming Myka BitTorrent set-top box looks like a scam after the company purported to be on schedule to ship the box in four to six weeks. Betanews sought clarification.

The Myka set-top box promises to deliver a BitTorrent experience on TV via a Linux-based OS. With 80, 160, and 500 GB HDDs, the unit features HDMI, S-Video, SPDIF and composite outs, and is slated to cost between $300 and $450.

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There's not much fun in Finland either today, as mobile-phone giant Nokia turned in an earnings report reflecting glum economic outlooks worldwide.

The company's 69% drop in Q4 net profits surprised analysts, and the company also took the earnings call opportunity to warn that contingent that sales in 2009 were apt to decline more than previously predicted. The company now says that worldwide sales in '09 are likely to be down 10% year-to-year, rather than the previously predicted 5%; as CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo put it, "the macro environment is challenging and, we believe, will remain so in 2009."

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Seagate Technologies spokesperson Michael L. Hall gave Betanews an update this afternoon on the company's situation with its Barracuda 7200.11 hard drives, which have been failing in record numbers. Hall acknowledged that some units manufactured up until last month do have an issue where data is rendered inaccessible after power-up, and went on to acknowledge that the company's initial fix for the problem only made matters worse.

"While we believe that the vast majority of customers will not experience any disruption related to this issue, as part of our commitment to customer satisfaction, Seagate is offering a free firmware upgrade to proactively address those with potentially affected products," Hall stated. "This new firmware upgrade corrects compatibility issues that occurred with the firmware download provided on our support Web site on Jan. 16. We regret any inconvenience that the firmware issues have caused our customers."

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Addressing security issues for both the Mac and Windows platforms, Apple has released an update to QuickTime not unlike the one released last spring, only less prolific.

Seven QuickTime vulnerabilities are addressed in the latest update, all revolving around malware movie files that cause "unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution."

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Although he wouldn't specify where or how many, an IBM spokesperson today confirmed to Betanews that IBM is sending out pink slips this week. An IBM employee union known as Alliance@IBM is predicting 16,000 job cuts.

On the Alliance Web site, IBM employees reported yesterday that the layoffs are already happening in IBM software and distribution divisions in the US and Canada.

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