Tech wrap: Sony suffers as TV picture dims
Sony warned of a fourth straight year of losses, with its television unit alone set to lose $2.2 billion on tumbling demand and a surging yen, sinking its U.S. shares and raising concerns about the viability of its high-profile TV business. Investors had expected Sony to reduce its profit forecast, but not flag a swing to massive losses.
The maker of Bravia TVs, Vaio computers and PlayStation game consoles cut its sales forecast for TVs, cameras and DVD players and said it may report a 90 billion yen ($1.1 billion) net loss for the current financial year, scrapping its earlier net profit estimate of 60 billion yen.Sony’s U.S. listed shares closed down nearly 6 percent.
A small Spanish tablet maker won a patent infringement battle with Apple in a rare victory against the tech giant in its global defense of markets for its iPads, a court document showed. Spain’s Nuevas Tecnologias y Energias Catala (NT-K) successfully appealed a 2010 injunction from a local court to ban the import of its tablet computer — manufactured in China — to Spain. NT-K, from the Valencia region of Spain, is demanding compensation from Apple for losses during the ban of its product and is suing the U.S. giant for alleged anticompetitive behavior.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be sent to Sweden from Britain to face questioning over alleged sex crimes, the British High Court ruled, rejecting his appeal against extradition. Assange now has two weeks to consider whether to make a final appeal to the Supreme Court. However, any recourse to Britain’s highest judicial body can only be made on a point of law considered by judges to be of general public interest, so permission to appeal must be obtained first from the High Court.
Google launched and then pulled a much-anticipated Gmail app for Apple iOS devices via Apple’s App Store. Initially launched to make access to Google’s email service faster and easier, the app was removed after it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t working, causing “users to see an error message when first opening the app,” Google said in a blog posting. No estimate was given for when the Gmail app would return to the App Store.
Yahoo unveiled a handful of products to try and bolster its mobile and social networking offerings, as the struggling Web company continues to evaluate its future. Among the new products unveiled were a multimedia newsstand for tablets dubbed Livestand, a weather application for Android mobile devices, and a new version of IntoNow, a social application related to television, for the iPad. Yahoo has long endured criticism for lacking a more comprehensive strategy for engaging Web users who are drifting away from PCs and spending more time on tablets and smartphones.
AOL’s third-quarter revenue dropped 6 percent because of its dwindling dial-up Internet access business though it beat analysts expectations and its stock rose more than 11 percent. “Investors have gotten used to disappointment from AOL especially in the forward outlook,” said Benchmark analyst Clayton Moran. “Mainly there are no negative surprises in this quarter… and the forward outlook seems to be more stable.” Prior to the rally, AOL shares were down more than 40 percent year to date.
Bye bye BlackBerry?
As Research In Motion deals with the fallout from service disruptions that have affected millions of BlackBerry users around the world this week, a survey by Aite Group shows that out of 402 financial advisers polled, 45 percent say they would choose an Apple iPhone or iPad, while 14 percent would pick a BlackBerry.
Which mobile platform is best able to meet your business needs?
- I want to switch to an iPhone or iPad from a BlackBerry
- I already made the change to an iPhone or iPad from a BlackBerry
- I don't plan on abandoning BlackBerry
- Forget Apple and RIM, I'm siding with Android
All networks have problems. Iphones not long ago had reception issues and their network / io5 isn’t without its possible glitches. Android Also has its own set of problems. So pick your poison & just use what you feel more comfortable with.
Apple’s iPhone 4 Launch – The Nuts and Bolts
Sure, you already peeped the next version of the iPhone months ago, thanks to that hapless Apple engineer’s fateful beer-haus outing.
But Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs filled in many blanks about the gadget on Monday during a nearly two-hour on-stage unveiling of the iPhone 4 in San Francisco at the Apple developers’ conference.
Herewith, the key features of Apple’s latest smartphone, as well as some of the other noteworthy nuggets that Jobs ticked off at a rapid-fire pace during his presentation.
THE PHONE: The front and back of the device are made of chemically-strengthened glass, while the rest of the device’s body is made of stainless steel, which does double-duty as the phone’s antennas. At 9.3 mm thick, Apple says the new iPhone is 24 percent thinner than the existing iPhone 3GS, though it was tough to tell any real difference in size when holding it.
Apple loaded the iPhone 4 with its own silicon, the A4 chip, replacing the Samsung application processor that was under the hood of previous iPhones. Apple also said the iPhone 4 has a larger battery, which the company says will extend talk time to seven hours, up 40 percent from the previous model. A 3-axis Gyroscope now complements the existing accelerometer, providing additional motion-sensing capabilities to enhance video games and other applications.
The screen’s 960-by-640 resolution is also sharper than previous models – and Apple says the screen packs four times as many pixels in the same amount of space. The phone runs the new iOS 4 operating system, which offers support for multitasking and the ability to create folders, among other things.
VIDEO CALLS: The iPhone 4 also adds a front-mounted camera, as well as a 5-megapixel rear-mounted camera with LED flash – both of which can be used for shooting high-definition video and for video calls using Apple’s new FaceTime software. Video calls can only be made with other iPhone 4 users and will work only on WiFi connections in 2010 (read: Apple may eventually offer video calling capabilities on cellular networks, but doesn’t want to overload AT&T’s already-stressed wireless network).
Via NewsGallery: Check out the iPhone 4 Design Video and pictures of Steve Jobs Presenting from the WWDC 2010 at the NewsGallery: http://bit.ly/OSiPhone4
