| Dell's task: Reinvigorating the company he founded | | Posted Sunday, February 04, 2007 2:59:59 PM by Blog57 Team | | Many employees and shareholders welcome the news that Michael Dell is back behind the wheel of the company that he founded 23 years ago, replacing CEO Kevin Rollins last week in what is unfolding as a major shake-up at Dell Inc. On Wall Street, many analysts say they are hopeful that Michael Dell can reinvigorate a company that has been losing momentum and market share. .... | |
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| | | Why Blog Reviews Can Bite You in the Butt | | Posted Wednesday, January 17, 2007 1:12:23 PM by Blog57 Team | | The blog world isn't fair. While bloggers have a wonderful way of ferreting out the truth when someone's being less than honest, they also have a way of occasionally placing blame where blame doesn't belong. Case in point? This week's fuss over Microsoft and Edelman, their public relations firm. What did these two companies do to earn the disdain of bloggers? (Ok, Microsoft already had it...but I'm talking about with this specific incident.) Amazingly, they did nothing wrong at all, other than perhaps failing to exercise a little common sense. See, Microsoft, like many companies, has realized that popular bloggers are a great resource for spreading the word about your products. With that in mind, they teamed with Edelman to put together a list of top tech bloggers. They then sent those tech bloggers a top of the line Acer laptop (valued at around $2000) preloaded with Windows Vista.... | |
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| | | Gift laptops from Microsoft ignite 'blogosphere' controversy | | Posted Saturday, December 30, 2006 3:02:05 PM by Blog57 Team | | SAN FRANCISCO - Laptops that Microsoft sent free to authors of popular weblogs had the 'blogosphere' abuzz on Friday with controversy regarding the propriety of the gifts. In recent weeks Microsoft and chip-maker Advanced Micro Devices have sent Acer Ferrari laptop computers to a total of 90 bloggers so they could put the new Vista operating system through its paces, according to the US software giant. Recipients ranged from authors of technology-oriented blogs to those focused on topics such as photography or video in which Vista features could be seen as assets. Word of the gifts spread after Christmas on Monday, triggering debate about the ethical obligations of the bloggers as well as Microsoft's motives. By Friday, the opening web page of Amit Argawal's blog Digital Inspiration listed 15 laptop recipients and what they were going to do with the gifts.... | |
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| | | I'll trade you this if you give me that | | Posted Sunday, November 19, 2006 1:01:04 PM by Blog57 Team | | Last winter, Minal Mehta of Temple City, Calif., needed more equipment for her home office, but she didn't want to buy it. So the 30-year-old Internet marketing consultant posted an ad on bartering site SwapThing.com. Mehta offered to provide consulting services in exchange for a laptop computer or other office supplies. A month or so later, a local entrepreneur building an online music service responded, offering to give Mehta a 2000 Acer laptop if she created a list of keywords he could use to improve his site's search-engine rankings. They worked out the specifics of the deal -- the laptop for a list of 50 words -- at a Starbucks. Mehta paid SwapThing a transaction fee of $1. She estimates her hour and a-half of consulting was worth about $100 and the laptop about $300, but both parties were satisfied with the trade.... | |
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| | | Power Shortage For The Holidays? | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 11:05:41 PM by Blog57 Team | | SAN FRANCISCO - Imagine this: Toyota is forced to delay shipments of the Prius because Goodyear recalled millions of faulty tires, and Michelin can't boost production of replacements fast enough. That didn't happen. But the prospect that notebook makers could face a similar situation with battery supplies is stirring up the PC industry. Last week, contract laptop maker Compal told investors that its fourth-quarter shipments would be affected by a shortage of batteries caused by Sony's massive recall, according to reports. The Taiwanese company makes notebooks for brand-name companies such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard, which, like their rivals, are just about to go into the holiday sales season--the two biggest months of the PC shopping year. Some in the PC industry are shrugging off any notion of shortages, and others are remaining tight-lipped about the impact of the recall on their supply.... | |
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| | | Time to welcome Draft N? | | Posted Saturday, November 11, 2006 7:15:53 PM by Blog57 Team | | After a rough start, it looks like Draft N could be coming together. The top four laptop makers will soon be shipping products that meet a draft of the IEEE's nascent 802.11n standard for fast Wi-Fi, according to Mikc Hurlston, Broadcom's vice president of wireless LAN products. In an interview he made a few more points about the standard. "What we've seen over the last six months is an extreme amount of development," he said. "Things are now far different from six months ago at the launch of Draft N products." It's the new level of stability that has reassured laptop makers enough that Dell, Acer Lenovo and soon HP will be shipping it. Interoperability testing "There is better interoperability amongst chipset makers, and new levels of performance," said Hurlston.... | |
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| | | Motherboard glut forces builders to rethink strategy | | Posted Thursday, November 09, 2006 11:17:30 AM by Blog57 Team | | Local builders are tipping a glut of motherboards brought about by processor refreshes will make it a rocky road for PC sellers as they approach the Christmas season. Their views tie into a recent investment firm report which cited a 20 per cent decline in motherboards orders from whitebox manufacturers in late October. Goldman Sachs (Asia) executive director of technology research, Henry King, claimed desktop motherboard demand was weak. This aligned with the firm's view that Microsoft's forthcoming Vista operating system has had a negative impact on the fourth quarter. Increased demand for laptops, along with Intel and AMD's push on dual-core chips, had also impacted sales. "When Intel released the Core2Duo it meant a complete refresh of chipsets," Altech national sales manager, Kevin Hartin, said.... | |
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| | | Water cooler | | Posted Tuesday, November 07, 2006 7:10:22 AM by Blog57 Team | | What's the latest and greatest news heard around the water cooler? Nov. 5, 2006 SRAM watch Fusion, an independent distributor, on the SRAM market: "The lead times for almost all Cypress SRAM have been pushed out to 20 + weeks with no solution in site. To make matters worse, much of Cypress & Samsung's time is going to be tied up in questions of Anti-trust violations, dealing with a Department of Justice probe into allegations of price fixing." NOR Way "Intel trimmed down their line of StrataFlash and has finally gotten production & deliveries of their Nor Flash products under control with reasonable lead times," according to Fusion. "Spansion on the other hand is recently struggling to meet delivery dates and is starting to push out lead times.... | |
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| | | Uniwill, a Leading Manufacturer of Notebooks, Selects Option's Embedded Wireless Module | | Posted Saturday, November 04, 2006 11:04:23 PM by Blog57 Team | | Option N.V. (Euronext: OPTI; OTC: OPNVY), the wireless technology company, today unveils Uniwill, Taiwan's leading manufacturer of ultra-portable notebook solutions, as the Company's third design win for its embedded wireless modules. Commercial shipments of the wireless module to Uniwill have started in support of the further roll-out in 2007 of the X20 and L51 notebook platforms, both incorporating the Intel Core(R) Duo processor, to Uniwill's OEM customers. Uniwill, an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM), is widely recognized within the personal computer industry for its strength in notebook design and contract manufacturing expertise. The company manufactures notebooks for some of the world's leading brands as well as many strong local brands. With access to Option's wireless module, Uniwill empowers the local brands, many of whom are well known and respected in their home markets, to co-operate with local mobile operators on the development and marketing of laptops bundled with embedded wireless broadband connectivity.... | |
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| | | Can You Really Buy a $450 PC? | | Posted Saturday, November 04, 2006 1:21:28 PM by Blog57 Team | | It seemed like a simple enough task: Buy three identical notebook PCs for my teenage children without exceeding my budget (I had about $1,600 of available credit on my Visa card). Should be a piece of cake, right? After all, I've been an analyst in the PC business since 1978, and I knew a bunch of folks at the major vendors and even some of the management staff at the major national resellers. And I'm no slouch when it comes to technology (if I say so myself). Six weeks and a lifetime of stress later, I came to the conclusion that I had been wrong . . . very wrong. Before I get into the details, though, let me explain why I was buying new computers in the first place. For years I'd gotten by with castoffs, second-hand systems, and other "scrounged" PCs for my kids.... | |
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