HP's Q3 Financials Beat Predictions

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's largest personal computer manufacturer, breezed past Wall Street's estimates as the technology bellwether continued to cash in on healthy sales of laptop computers and lucrative printing ink. The biggest sales jump in revenue came within the company's Personal Systems Group, HP's biggest source of revenue, a division which includes desktop and laptop computers. Bolstered by laptop sales that grew 54 percent over last year, revenue within the segment grew from $6.92 billion last year to $8.89 billion this year. Even the Imaging and Printing Group showed a healthy growth, with the operating profit rising 11 percent from $884 million to $981 million, providing HP with nearly 40 percent of the company's total operating profit; this comes despite analysts' concerns over a slowdown in Imaging Group sales due to lower priced offerings from Kodak.Overall, HP's net income for the third quarter was $1.78 billion, or 66 cents per share, a 29 percent jump from the $1.38 billion, or 48 cents per share in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time charges, the Palo Alto-based company earned 71 cents per share, 5 cents higher than the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial. Sales for the period were $25.38 billion, a 16 percent increase from the $21.89 billion recorded a year ago. Revenues were more than $1 billion higher than the $24.09 billion in sales that analysts had been predicting. View: Full Story on SiliconValley.com Read full story...

 


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AOL Relaunches Truveo Video Search Site

In 2006, AOL acquired Truveo video search technology. Now, the company has launched a new version of Truveo.com, a one-stop video destination for user-generated clips and professionally produced video. Truveo allows users to search, with advanced video-specific algorithms, and browse through tens of millions of videos from thousands of sources on the Web. The site organizes search results by category (like news, sports, music and movies) and by source. Results will produce both free video and clips for sale. Users can also find popular TV shows, video sites, or channels, and favourite videos selected by other users.AOL said that Truveo.com was designed specifically to enable users to find and watch video in a way that respects copyright while also appealing to users. The site directs users to content owners' original Web sites to view many videos from leading media brands. Truveo.com allows users to save and share links, receive recommendations based on their personal preferences, and receive custom video searches through RSS and personalized Web pages. They can also access open APIs to create video mashups. Finally, users can submit their own video through RSS feeds.  Link: Truveo News source: InformationWeek Read full story...

 


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Second lawsuit filed over iPhone battery replacement

A second class-action lawsuit (for more than $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages) argues that Apple Incorporated and AT&T Incorporated failed to tell early buyers of the iPhone that annual fees of more than $100 would be needed to replace the iPhone battery and maintain service. The nine-page complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of Sydney Leung by Oakland-based attorney H. Tim Hoffman. The suit seeks answers to whether Apple and AT&T "should have known that the time and expense of replacing the iPhone battery would affect initial sales of the iPhone."Apple has stated on its Web site that the lithium-ion battery when properly maintained will hold up to 80% of its full charge at 400 charge and discharge cycles. Also, Apple covers replacement of the battery for a full year and also has a protection plan for $69 for two years of repair coverage for the iPhone, including the battery. Replacing a battery out of warranty costs $79, plus $6.95 for shipping. News source: ComputerWorld Read full story...

 


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Netflix Drops Prices by Another Dollar

The largest mail-order movie rental company, Netflix, has dropped its fees by another dollar for its three DVDs out at-a-time plan. The reduction comes less than a month after an earlier one dollar reduction, which brought the three disc plan down to $16.99 from $17.99. The new $15.99 price appears to be for 6.7 million users (probably the company's entire customer base) although Netflix has not officially confirmed this and only some customers have received notice of the price drop. The new price is cheaper than Blockbuster's current offering - let's hope healthy competition continues to do what it does best. News source: DailyTech Read full story...

 


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eBay says Skype was not attacked

For more than the last 24 hours, millions of Skype users have been unable to use the popular VoIP service, although for some users the issue has been resolved Friday morning. eBay attributes the outage to a problem in a Skype networking algorithm while rumours suggest that code posted anonymously to a Russian security discussion forum could be used to knock the service offline in a Denial of Service attack. eBay's Villu Arak emphasized that "neither Wednesday's planned maintenance of our Web-based payment services nor any form of attack was related to the current sign-on issues in any way."The code in question is designed to repeatedly launch Skype and overwhelm the server with information, said Andrew Storms, director of security operations with nCircle Network Security. "But I couldn't say if it would have this kind of potential DOS effect on all of Skype." The code simply would not work as advertised, said Stefano Zanero, CTO with Secure Network SRL. "The attack code is fake, no doubt on that. I don't think this is the cause of whatever is happening to Skype."  News source: InfoWorld Read full story...

 


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Ubuntu Hacks Downplayed, out-of-date software to blame

Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu Linux, has reported that five of its eight sponsored Local Community (LoCo) hosting servers, which are used by local-area Ubuntu developer communities but hosted outside the company, were compromised this week. The problem first came to light on Monday evening, when Canonical received reports that one of the LoCo servers had been compromised, and an investigation found four more of the servers had been hacked.The systems were being accessed using FTP without SSL and were running more than a dozen outdated web software packages on a version of Ubuntu Linux that is no longer receiving security updates from Canonical. "Since it was reported that they were actively attacking other machines... the decision was taken to shut the machines down," said James Troup, head of Canonical's system administration team. Troup blamed the latter on recent versions of the OS not working with the servers' network hardware. The communities affected will have to choose between moving their servers into the Canonical data center, where they'll be kept up-to-date but will have stricter limits on how they're used, or sticking with outsourced servers but taking on the full responsibility for administration. News source: PC World Read full story...

 


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Nokia Files Patent Complaint Against Qualcomm

From US import bans to patent fines, it seems like popular chip maker Qualcomm just can't cut a break; as the saying goes, when it rains, it pours, and Nokia seem intent on adding its own bucket of water to the storm. Today, Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer, announced it has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, alleging that Qualcomm has infringed on its patents. The Finnish company asked the ITC to open an investigation and issue an order that would bar imports to the United States of chips and products that allegedly infringe on its patents. "Qualcomm's unfair trade practices include importing products, selling products for importation, and/or selling products after importation, and inducing others to import products such as handsets, that infringe Nokia patented technology in certain Qualcomm GSM/WCDMA and CDMA2000 chipsets," Nokia said. View: Full Story on SiliconValley.com Read full story...

 


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First Simpsons Movie Pirate Copy Tracked to Aussie Man

Pirates, beware! Authorities have announced today that they have tracked the first known pirated copy of "The Simpsons Movie" to a 21-year old Australian man, whose home was consequently raided by police. According to Australian Federal Police, the man, heretofore unnamed, has been ordered to appear in a Sydney court in October when he will be formally charged, although details of the likely charge and penalties have not been made public. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) industry group said the investigation into the pirated copy involved News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox movie studio, Australian police, and the private investigation group Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT). According to AFACT, the illegal "Simpsons" copy was recorded by a cell phone in a Sydney cinema on July 26 - hours before its release in most of the world - and uploaded to a video-hosting site based in the US."Within 72 hours of making and uploading this unauthorized recording, AFACT had tracked it to other streaming sites and P2P (peer-to-peer) systems, where it had been illegally downloaded in excess of 110,000 times, and in all probability, copied and sold as a pirate DVD all over the world," said AFACT executive director Adrianne Pecotic . View: Full Story on SiliconValley.com Read full story...

 


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Outage of Skype's VoIP service appears to be over

A log-in problem that shut many users out of Skype's popular VoIP service for nearly 14 hours appears to be over, but the company said more work remains to be done. At 3:53 a.m. GMT, Skype seemed to be operating normally, with users in Asia able to log in, view their contact lists, place calls, and send messages. However, there was no official confirmation on Skype's Heartbeat blog that the glitch responsible for the log-in problem had been resolved. "We're fixing issues in our networking software and monitoring the clients getting online with increased success," the company said in a blog post at 4:00 a.m. GMT. News of the Skype outage first came at around 2:00 p.m. GMT on Thursday, when the company announced that a "software issue" was preventing users from logging into the VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service and said the problem was expected to be fixed within 12 to 24 hours. Eight hours later, the company's engineers were still working on the problem.  View: The full story News source: InfoWorld Read full story...

 


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Microsoft Denies PatchGuard Update, Kernel Hacks Link

Tuesday's update to Windows Vista's PatchGuard, a kernel protection scheme designed to keep malicious or unproven code at arm's length, had nothing to do with recent hacks of another Vista defense, Microsoft said Thursday. The update to Kernel Patch Protection (KPP), also known as PatchGuard, was issued Tuesday to Vista 64-bit users, but the description of the enhancement was inscrutable. All Microsoft said at the time was "this update adds checks to this protection for increased resiliency in Windows."Third-party researchers filled the vacuum with speculation about the update's purpose, with much of that speculation centered on a possible connection between the update and multiple disclosures that Vista's kernel code signing defense -- another barrier Microsoft set up to protect the kernel, but separate from PatchGuard -- could be easily circumvented. Among the end-arounds was a utility written by Alex Ionescu, a Canadian college student interning this summer at Apple Inc. Ionescu's "Purple Pill" used a flawed, but legitimate and signed ATI Technologies video driver, to slip unsigned code past Vista's protection. View: The full story News source: PCWorld Read full story...

 


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Microsoft launches PC-rebuilding scheme

Microsoft Ireland has launched a scheme aimed at keeping PCs out of landfills and re-building them for use by schools and charities. The Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher (MAR) programme, which was officially launched at the Rehab Recycle facility in Tallaght on Thursday, provides companies with a means of disposing of unused or end-of-life computer equipment which can then be serviced, re-conditioned, and installed with new software.These computers can then be donated to local non-profit organisations or educational institutions that might not otherwise be able to afford such technology. View: The full story News source: The Reg Read full story...

 


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Microsoft Seeks Feedback For Office Service Pack

Microsoft on Thursday released an evaluation of the Office 2007 System Service Pack 1 to software testers in its Technology Adoption Program (TAP). Microsoft will be accepting feedback from testers for about 30 days, according to a post on the Windows Connected weblog. With other Microsoft products, people often wait for the release of a service pack before green-lighting the deployment, but that hasn't been the case with Office 2007, according to Richard Opal, vice president at Peters & Associates, Elmhurst, Ill.  "It's the most stable delivery of a product I've seen from them in years," said Opal. "The integration with Office Sharepoint Server, Infopath, and other products has been exceptional."  View: The full story News source: CRN Read full story...

 


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Don't Talk to Strangers on Yahoo Messenger Webcam

McAfee Avert Labs has uncovered a new zero-day in Yahoo Messenger Webcam and are warning people not to accept invites from people they don't trust until a patch is out. Avert Labs is calling this a "classic heap overflow" that can be triggered when a victim accepts a webcam invitation. The issue was first discovered when it was reported on security forums in China. Avert Labs notes in a blog posting that this problem is not the same as the one Yahoo patched in June-that earlier vulnerability had to do with a buffer overflow in Yahoo Webcam ActiveX controls. Besides eschewing invites from strangers, Avert Labs is also advising Messenger users to block outgoing traffic on TCP port 5100 until Yahoo patches the hole. McAfee has added signatures to its NIPS IntruShield to protect its customers who use Messenger.  View: The full story News source: eWeek Read full story...

 


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Intel lines up nine 45nm CPUs for the desktop

Intel recently increased the number of 45nm-based CPUs it plans to launch for desktop PCs to nine, according to sources at motherboard makers. Within the nine CPUs, five will be dual-core processors (Wolfdale) and the remaining four will be quad-core (Yorkfield). All will adopt a 1333MHz FSB. Model numbers for the upcoming products are still undecided, noted the sources. Four of the five Wolfdale processors will have core frequencies of 3.16GHz, 3.0GHz, 2.83GHz and 2.66GHz, while the frequency of the remaining one is unknown. All five Wolfdale processors will feature 6MB L2 cache, detailed the sources View: The full story News source: DigiTimes Read full story...

 


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