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Yahoo begin transition to Bing

By Terence Huynh on August 18th, 2010 No Comments

Yahoo has said today that it will start its transition to Microsoft’s Bing, a deal that was struck last year after a two-year on-and-off discussion of a tie-up, with the first two countries to use Bing’s search technology and not in-house will be the US and Canada.

Users will be able to identify if Bing is powering their search results with a “Powered by Bing” graphic on the bottom of the search pages.

No timeline has been struck for other international markets, but the full transition is said to be completed in 2012.

However, one country in particular that won’t be signing up will be Japan, as it has gone to Google in order to power its search – but that is pending any legal challenges and regulatory approval.

Image from JVManna/Flickr.

Mark Hurd resigns as HP CEO because of sexual harassment

By Chris Southcott on August 7th, 2010 No Comments

Mark Hurd, chief executive officer and chairman for HP, has resigned after investigations on allegations of sexual harassment.

The decision was made by Mark Hurd and HP’s board of directors after a sexual harassment claim, made by a former marketing contractor, was made against HP and Hurd.

EU to investigate IBM over abuse in mainframe computer market

By Terence Huynh on July 26th, 2010 No Comments

The European Commission, which is the antitrust regulator of the entire 27-nation European Union (similar to our ACCC), has launched an investigation into IBM on allegations that the company abused its dominant position in the mainframe computer market.

“IBM is alleged to have engaged in illegal tying of its mainframe hardware products to its dominant mainframe operating system,” the European Commission said.

Man claims he owns 84 percent of Facebook

By Terence Huynh on July 13th, 2010 1 Comment

A New York man who runs a wood-pellet fuel distribution company has claimed that he owns 84 percent of the popular social networking company Facebook, claiming that he has a 2003 contract with owner Mark Zuckerberg. He is seeking ownership of the multi-billion company and monetary damages.

Paul D. Cegila claims that he signed the contract to develop and design the website on April 28, 2003, getting a US$1,000 fee and a 50 percent stake in the company. He claims that he also will get 1 percent interest in the business for every day after January 1, 2004 until the site was finished and launched on the February 4.

Nokia sells wireless modem division for US$200m

By Terence Huynh on July 6th, 2010 No Comments

Nokia has announced that it has sold its wireless modem division to Japanese-based electronics company Renesas Electronics for US$200 milion.

The division has been weakened as Chinese rivals have been pushing the price lower. According to the New York Times, the division is selling the modems for 30 euros, substantially down from 120 euros three years ago.

Microsoft to make small name change in Japan

By Terence Huynh on July 6th, 2010 No Comments

According to the Japanese website MyCom (in Japanese with Google Translate), Microsoft is making a small, but sentimental change to its corporate name.

In celebrating its 25th year in Japan, Microsoft will be – on February 1st of next year – changing its company name from “Microsoft Co. Ltd.” to “Microsoft Japan Co. Ltd”. Like I said, small change; but it puts more emphasis on the country where the company has some of its roots.

It’s similar to how Nintendo has “Nintendo Co Ltd” and “Nintendo of America” in the US – it is to put more emphasis on the country.

Also part of the change, it will move its headquarters to the Shinagawa district in Tokyo.

Dell exec confirms Google talks about Chrome OS

By Terence Huynh on June 21st, 2010 No Comments

NEWS IN BRIEF: A Dell executive has confirmed reports that the company is in talks with Google to put the Chrome OS – which is based on the browser – on its laptops. According to Amit Midha, the President for Greater China and South Asia for Dell, the company are talking about the use of the OS and its future. “We have to have a point of view on the industry and technology direction two years, three years down the road, so we continuously work with Google on this,” he told Reuters.

Chrome OS is expected to be released in the late fall, in order to compete with Windows.

New IE8 ad shows customers giving Microsoft personal details

By Terence Huynh on June 9th, 2010 No Comments

Boxers or briefs. No seriously.

Microsoft’s new advertising campaign for its browser, Internet Explorer 8, has appeared on US television with a simple concept – how many people can it dupe into giving private information. This, apparently, was to highlight how vulnerable your personal information is and to focus on the security aspects of the latest version of IE. (Well, the latter might be a bit questionable, as the study showing this was funded by Microsoft).

“To prove just how vulnerable your personal information is, Internet Explorer 8 re-recreated notorious internet scams–live, off the web– in the most street-smart city in world: New York. We used hidden cameras to film reactions of real people. In the first spot we asked people to provide very personal information in order to open a new bank account which would give them a cash reward of $500,” Microsoft blogger Brandon LeBlanc said.

However, will scaring users to Internet Explorer be enough to stop their downward spiral? Will it be another Microsoft advertising failure? Keep your eyes peeled on your TV set (if you are in the USA) for more of these types of ads coming in the next few weeks from Microsoft.

You can watch the ad for yourself, after the jump.

Google’s new indexing technology goes live

By Terence Huynh on June 9th, 2010 1 Comment

Google has finally released into the wild its upgrade to its web indexing technology – Caffeine – today, allowing users to search relevant content (i.e. news story, blog posts) to a specific query much faster than before, rather than a list that is periodically updated as it would index the entire web before updating the index.

“Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it’s the largest collection of web content we’ve offered,” Google said in a blog posting announcing the upgrade.

“With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index. That means you can find fresher information than ever before—no matter when or where it was published.”

“We’ve built Caffeine with the future in mind. Not only is it fresher, it’s a robust foundation that makes it possible for us to build an even faster and comprehensive search engine that scales with the growth of information online, and delivers even more relevant search results to you. So stay tuned, and look for more improvements in the months to come.”

Expect a difference on any search results with Google over the next several weeks – as it is unclear if Google just switched it on or will be gradually rolled out to its users within the next few weeks. In any case, drop a comment and tell us.

Hell has frozen over: Opera Mini now on iPhone

By James Wilson on April 13th, 2010 No Comments

Yes folks, you heard right. As of right now, UK and Australian Appstore goers can officially download the Opera Mini web browser for iPhone. This app approval has come with a collective sigh of disbelief as Apple has approved an app that directly competes with one of it’s native apps – Safari Mobile Browser. Who knows what the future may hold for future approvals?

Google redirects China domain to Hong Kong

By Terence Huynh on March 23rd, 2010 No Comments

Google has acted on its threat of shutting down Google.cn by redirecting all traffic from that domain to its Hong Kong localised version, which effectively means that all Chinese results will be uncensored – unlike the mainland version because of strict laws regarding censorship.

Previously, searches for Falun Gong and the Taiwanese independence were controversial topics that were often censored by localised versions. Like Google, Bing China and Yahoo China opt in a similar practise.

China has quickly responded, via the Xinhua state-run News Agency, by saying the decision is “wrong”.

Dell sues LCD makers for price fixing

By Terence Huynh on March 16th, 2010 No Comments

Dell has accused five Asian LCD manufacturers — Hitachi, Sharp, Toshiba, HannStar, and Seiko Epson – for price fixing in a lawsuit filed in the US District Court of San Francisco, according to a report on Reuters.

For Hitachi and Sharp, it’s familiar territory. In December, Nokia filed suit against the two companies for LCD price fixing; while in March last year, the two companies — along with LG and Chunghwa Picture Tubes — pleaded guilty for the same thing, and their executives were jailed and fined.

Dell has not specified on what it will seek in damages.

Google might shut down China search engine

By Terence Huynh on March 14th, 2010 No Comments

A report in the Financial Times is reporting that Google is “99.9 per cent” sure in shutting its search operations in China after failing in convincing the Chinese Government in allowing it to show uncensored results.

The shutdown, however, might take a few months as Google wants it to go through a process and to make sure its employees are protected from retaliation from local authorities.

After publicly announcing that they were attacked by a Chinese national, Google has stated that it will end its censorship policy in China, implemented in order to gain some market share in China’s search engine market – where it is constantly beaten by rival Baidu. This public revelation lead to several American companies coming out with similar attacks within the past few months.

Other operations, like its research centre in the capital Beijing and a sales team for its Chinese-language version of Google.com (which is different to Google.cn), are hinted to be staying in China – but these are also likely to go if a Chinese government backlash forces them to move out of the country altogether (or possibly, and this is not mentioned in the article, move to Hong Kong).

Apple posts 50 percent jump in earnings, now a “$50+ billion company”

By Terence Huynh on January 26th, 2010 No Comments

Apple has beaten Wall Street expectations after posting its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2009. The Cupertino-based company posted a overall profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.74 per share – an increase of 50 percent from the same time last year. As well, its overall revenue was up – $15.68 billion from $11.88 billion from last year.

In its product lineup, Mac and iPhone sales increased, while sales of the iPod fell. Apple sold 3.36 million Macs, a 33 percent increase from last year’s quarter; while the iPhone saw a 100 percent increase from the same time last year, selling 8.7 million units. It sold 21 million iPods, a decline of eight percent.

“If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. But Jobs has hinted on a “major new product that we’re really excited about” that is to be launched this week on January 27/28 (Melbourne). He has also hinted that there could be more product releases in the year.

Looking ahead of the first quarter of this year, Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said that they expect Apple could have $11-$11.4 billion in revenue and an earnings per share in the range of $2.06 and $2.18.

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