AMD denies reports of layoffs under way
Two separate AMD spokespersons denied to BetaNews this afternoon published reports that the company was already implementing a five percent workforce reduction, and that employees were already receiving pink slips.
"AMD confirms that it has not had a reduction in force," states one AMD spokesperson today. "While AMD cannot comment on speculation about what may happen in the future, we confirm that we have not had layoffs at this time."
Open sourcers create iPhone business applications
An open source project called ICEfaces is now building "collaborative business applications" for Apple's phone, including one that lets you order a taxi electronically and view the cab's dispatch schedule.
NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - Although iPhones are generally considered consumer devices, the open source ICEfaces Project is now at work on Java-based "rich media" business applications that will run across both desktops and Apple's popular handheld platform.
Adobe's plans for iPhone Flash depend on your meaning of 'committed'
Is Flash coming to the iPhone or not? For two consecutive days now, Adobe has said it wants to make that possible. But the way it's handling the issue has the press parsing every participle for latent meaning.
A statement from Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen during the Q&A session of his company's quarterly earnings call last Tuesday appeared to indicate his company was actively pursuing the production of a Flash component for the Apple iPhone. That's how quite a few press sources reported the story, including BetaNews.
ComScore data for February: Yahoo's popular, AOL's everywhere
Media analysis firm comScore yesterday released its 50 top-ranked Web sites for the month of February, showing that Yahoo is still the biggest destination, but the advertising power lies with AOL.
Yahoo continued its lead as the server of the most visited sites on the Web, with 137 million unique visitors in February. Yahoo was followed by Google with nearly 136 million, and Microsoft sites with over 118 million.
Verizon Wireless releases 'open specifications' for device builders
Going forward with an historic initiative launched last November, one of the nation's largest wireless carriers held a gala conference to celebrate the release of specifications for how any wireless device can just plug right into its network.
While Verizon Wireless' vice president for open development, Tony Lewis, read the FCC disclaimer prior to the start of his presentation in New York City yesterday -- the part where he says he's prohibited from discussing the proceedings or outcome of the 700 MHz auction, usually the least newsworthy part of a show -- his wide, beaming smile and jovial demeanor spoke volumes.
Amazon apologizes for lack of Kindles, promises more on the way
A personal letter from Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos graced the front page of the online retailer Thursday, apologizing for the lack of Kindle electronic book readers and promising that production is being sped up.
Since the Kindle made its debut last November, the device has been in very short supply. Many buyers are waiting upwards of six weeks for their Kindle to arrive, and the situation hasn't improved much even after the holidays.
Blu-ray Profile 2.0 update coming to PS3 this month
Sony detailed its plans Thursday to deliver the long-awaited Profile 2.0 update for Blu-ray to its PlayStation 3 later this month. Sony expects the PS3 to have a 10-year lifecycle.
Because the Blu-ray specification was incomplete when Sony launched the format to compete with HD DVD in 2004, consumers have had to wait for more advanced features already found in the rival -- and now defunct -- format. Picture-in-picture wasn't added until Profile 1.1 -- known as Bonus View -- and Internet connectivity and local storage come with Profile 2.0, which has been dubbed BD-Live.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - 2008)
There are so few gentle geniuses left. One more has passed: a man who could not only dream magnificent new things could come about, but who had the competence to actually make his dreams reality.
When most people I know think of Arthur C. Clarke, they think of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and almost immediately, they conjure images and sounds of HAL the computer, spaceships landing in overlit, white parlor rooms, dancing orangutans, Johann Strauss music intertwined with Richard Strauss music, and innocent young fetuses hanging in space. That's generally when I say they're confusing Clarke for Stanley Kubrick.
Should social networks be treated as 'primitive lands?'
It takes almost anthropological skills to understand the still "primitive" land of social networks, contended one of the speakers Wednesday at the Search Strategies 2008 Conference and Expo in New York.
NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - The tribes of online participants who gather together in sites such as Digg, Second Wave, and Wikipedia are actually developing distinct sociological subcultures, according to Rob Key, CEO of a company called Converseon.
Startup Mahalo aims to combat Yahoo, Google with 'semantic relationships'
"We know not everybody wants to give up Google or Yahoo," acknowledged a CEO of a startup that aims to compete with them both. But the future of search, he says, could involve more features than either ever considered.
Search pages of the future might incorporate user-contributed URL links, product recommendations from other social networks, and semantic searches, suggested Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo, in a keynote speech Wednesday at the Search Strategies 2008 Conference and Expo.
A kid-safe service scours the Web for good content
A new service aims to enable kids to browse the Internet while also keeping them safe. Although it's joining an already crowded market for fun and education, KidZui hopes its own browser will differentiate it from the competition.
KidZui is designed for children between the ages of 3 and 12 who can use the service to have access to more than 500,000 Web sites that have already been deemed to be "child appropriate." Rather than offer yet another online environment where kids can socialize, KidZui is based on a whitelist -- a catalog of web sites that were individually checked by human beings.
Sony Ericsson braces investors for a pitfall
Handset manufacturer Sony Ericsson will soon be publishing its quarterly earnings, and this week put out a pre-emptive warning that the struggling economy has had a negative impact on sales.
The company says the mid-range and high-end handset market especially suffered in the quarter due to the economic downturn, but anticipates its growth for the three-month period to be about equal with the same quarter last year.
Google rising in display ads, but Yahoo leads as a 'starting point'
Google may be rising in terms of search relevancy and advertising reach, but Yahoo already leads other portals as a "starting point" site. So an industry panel today concluded these two titans may -- for now, at least -- be equals.
NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - While Google has built up a formidable presence in online advertising, up until its acquisition of DoubleClick finally closed, it hasn't really had a presence in display advertising, the more conventional approach to purchasing space from an available publisher. Both Yahoo and Microsoft, by virtue of timely acquisitions, had been leaving Google in the dust in that department...until now.
Survey: Big decline seen in US consumer tech spending
With an American economy that is becoming increasingly unstable, thanks largely to the credit crunch and the return of inflation, consumers appear to be closing their purse strings tightly when it comes to tech purchases.
Only 19% of 4,427 consumers polled late last month say they will spend more on tech gadgets in the next 90 days, versus 33% who will spend less, according to a study released Tuesday by ChangeWave Research of US consumers. While the number of consumers saying they would not spent as much has remained rather constant, those spending more has not.
What would NVidia want with a CPU company?
There may be an actual window of opportunity for graphics chip producer NVidia to acquire some x86 CPU design expertise and production prowess. But as In-Stat's Jim McGregor told us, there are reasons why NVidia + Via wouldn't work.
There are more than two CPU producers in the known universe, although it's Intel and AMD that tend to dominate any discussion of it. But what could be the world's #3 CPU producer -- a very distant third -- is once again the topic of discussion, as rumors of Via Technologies' possible acquisition by graphics chip producer NVidia were turned up from "simmer" to "high" this morning, by a report from the respected Taiwanese industry daily DigiTimes.
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