E-lectronics

More hardware acceleration in Chrome beta, dev gets latest JS

2012-02-12T11:56:00.000+04:00

The newly-minted Chrome 18 beta expands the scope of hardware acceleration in the browser to older computers, but it's still not available to all. Meanwhile, Chrome 19 dev goes bleeding edge with JavaScript.
Released today, Google Chrome 18 beta for Windows, Mac, and Chrome Frame improves 2D Canvas support and introduces a software rasterizer. The new features are not yet available on Chrome 18 beta for Linux.
Basically, this means that games and animations based in the HTML5 Canvas tag ought to run faster and appear smoother. Google noted in its blog post announcing the changes that this was hard for them to implement because of the "numerous hardware and operating system configurations" that people use.
It's complicated enough that to display 3D content on older computers or those running Windows XP, Google went out and licensed a software rasterizer called SwiftShader from TransGaming. SwiftShader only kicks on when Chrome's built-in GPU acceleration doesn't activate.
Adventurous types can see precisely what's being accelerated by typing chrome://gpu into the location bar, or can force SwiftShader on by adding the--blacklist-accelerated-compositing and--blacklist-webgl flags to the browser's command line.
Also updated today, the developer's build of Chrome 19 (download for Windows, Mac, Linux) begins to support the latest version of JavaScript.
Code-named "Harmony" and not due until the end of 2013, Google has nevertheless decided to begin to support some of its components. These include Lexical scoping, weak maps, collections, and proxies.
Harmony support will not work by default; you must enable it by first going to chrome://flags in the location bar and activate "Experimental JavaScript features". And of course, this is more for developers than for practical application. As few of the Harmony standards have been fully baked, not many sites will have implemented them yet. This continues to push Chrome's reputation as an early adopter of many technical browser advantages, its lack of Do Not Track support notwithstanding.

Seth Rosenblatt

Apple's week filled with iPad 3 rumors, court dates

2012-02-12T11:53:00.001+04:00

It wouldn't be a normal week in Apple news land without a healthy dose of lawsuits, rumors, and spy shots of future products. This week did not disappoint in any of those categories.
First things first, the iPad 3. Rumor has it we'll see it the first week of March, or at least a device that will succeed the iPad 2. Word of that was joined with a photo of what might just be the back casing of the new device, which when stuck next to an iPad 2 suggested we could be looking at the real deal.
If new hardware isn't your thing, there's always legal paperwork (yes I just said that). There was plenty of that to go around this week with several key court decisions and new lawsuits worth keeping an eye on. The FBI also released a nearly 200-page background check on Apple co-founder Steve Jobs from 1991.
You can catch up on these stories, and others from the past week, in this edition of Apple Talk Weekly.
Apple Talk Weekly is a collection of some of the week's top Apple news and rumors. It appears every Saturday, and is curated by CNET's Apple reporter, Josh Lowensohn.

News
FBI releases background check on Steve Jobs
The FBI this week released a heavily-redacted background check it did on late co-founder Steve Jobs back in 1991, some six years before Jobs would return as Apple's CEO and when U.S. President George H.W. Bush was considering Jobs for a position on his Export Council.

A snippet of Jobs' FBI file, released this week.

(Credit: FBI/CNET)

Among its findings are that there was once an attempt to extort Jobs and Apple with a bomb threat that later turned out to be false. There are also a handful of accounts from individuals interviewed by the FBI who weigh in on his personality and business style.
Apple share hit new highs
Apple set new records on Wall Street this week, reaching an all-time high in intraday trading and closing at several record highs. Apple's stock neared $500 for the first time, marking a considerable gain over the past three and a half months. The rise coincided with credible rumors that the company planned to announce a new iPad next month (more on that below).

Petitions asking for better working conditions delivered to Apple retail stores
Members from Change.org this week hand-delivered printed copies of a petition with 250,000 signatures asking Apple to improve working conditions at the overseas manufacturers where it both sources components and has its products built. The petitions, which were a combination of two separate grassroots efforts, were delivered to Apple Stores around the world, including the U.S., India, Australia and the U.K.

Letters, lawsuits, court decisions galore
This week there was no shortage of legal happenings, one of which was a letter from Apple to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, asking it to change the way it handles patents. That included setting royalty rates and keeping certain patents from being leverage to force injunctions. It was unearthed the same day Google made a pledge to set reasonable royalty rates for patents held by Motorola Mobility, which it announced plans to acquire last year.

In court, Motorola Mobility failed to get an injunction against Apple this week in Mannheim's Regional Court in Germany after a judge said that Motorola didn't make a strong enough case that Apple was infringing on a patent it held. Apple fired back yesterday in a U.S. court, taking aim at the company for breaching a contract it had with Qualcomm that both companies shared, saying Motorola shouldn't have been using it against other licensees.
Earlier in the week a judge for Germany's regional court in Dusseldorf sided with Samsung in a separate case brought on by Apple, which had asked for an injunction on Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1N--the version of Samsung's tablet that had been re-designed per Apple's request.
Separately, a China-based Proview Technology filed a restraining order against Apple in China for the use of "iPad," saying it owned the trademark in the country and was looking for a ban of sales of the tablet there. There was also a lawsuit against Apple filed by Swiss company SmtartData, accusing it of infringing on one of its patents with the iPhone, Apple TV and Remote app for iOS.

App Store rankings not something to game, says Apple

Apple this week warned developers not to use services that offer to raise the rankings of software into the company's coveted top rankings. Apple did not name names of third-party services that are able to do that, but did tell developers that they could be kicked out of its developer program if they chose to use them. In the past Apple has made a number of changes to its algorithm to combat app ranking manipulation, however this is one of the first times the company has come out against the practice outright.

Apple holding iPad 3 event first week of March?
Stop me if you've heard this one before. Apple will once again unveil a new iPad on the first week of March--just as it did last year--a new report claimed this week. In a brief report citing anonymous sources, AllThingsD said Apple will hold an event in San Francisco that week to show off the iPad 2's successor, which the outlet believes will look much like the iPad 2, but with a higher resolution screen and a speedier processor, mirroring other reports.
15, 17-inch MacBook Airs on the way soon?
Remember that old rumor about Apple expanding its MacBook Air line to include models larger than 13 inches? Apple Insider said yesterday that Apple is cooking up an overhaul to its MacBook Pro line that involves stripping out components like the optical disc tray and hard drive in its two larger models, and replacing the latter with flash memory like it did on the MacBook Air. The report suggests Apple is focusing its efforts on making those changes to its 15-inch model first, later rolling out a similar design for its 17-inch MacBook Pro model.
Is this the housing for the iPad 3?
Do you get excited viewing photos of machined aluminum that might be future Apple products? Then you might enjoy these shots from Repair Labs that cropped up this week, which the site says is the rear housing (read: the metal part behind the screen) for an iPad 3. While unconfirmed, the cases show a few notable differences from existing iPad 2 parts, both confirming some previous rumors and suggesting that they could be the real deal.
Canadian cable operators already in possession of Apple's TV set
A report from The Globe And Mail made waves this week for its claims that Apple's in talks with Rogers and BCE in Canada to make the two companies partners for the launch of its TV venture. The chewy part of the report came with the claim that those companies already had Apple TV units in their labs for in-house testing. The news followed a survey from Best Buy that gave a wish list of specs for an Apple-made TV, a survey the electronics retailer later said was simply "hypothetical."
iPad 3 won't have quad-core chip?
Are those rumors of Apple bringing four cores to the next iPad 3 a big crock? CNET talked to two analysts to get a feel for where mobile chips are and where they're going. The short answer? Four cores may not be in the cards just yet, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Read the story to find out why.

Apple mini stores headed to Sam's Club?
Wholesale retailer Sam's Club is rumored to be in talks with Apple to bring store-within-stores to Sam's Club warehouses. A report this week said the two companies were in early discussions about just such a thing, but that no deal had been struck just yet. Sam's Club already sells a number of Apple products including iPods and the iPad. The rumored mini store deal could expand that to Apple's Mac computers too. iOS 5.1 to coincide with iPad 3 unveiling?
Deep within the carrier profiles found inside of Apple's latest beta of iOS 5.1 are hints that the software may have a final release date of March 9, 2012. That date wouldn't be all that significant except for the fact that it's the same week Apple's now rumored to be taking the wraps off its next iPad. These release hints within developer beta versions of iOS have been wrong plenty of times, so take this one with a grain of salt. As a frame of reference, Apple's last iOS 5.1 beta was released in early January.

cnet.com

Apple seeks U.S. ban on Galaxy Nexus

2012-02-12T11:39:00.000+04:00

Apple has requested a ban on sales in the U.S. of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone, claiming that the showcase for Google's heavily touted Ice Cream Sandwich version of the Android operating system violates four Apple patents.
According to Florian Mueller at Foss Patents, Apple brought a motion for a preliminary injunction against the device on Thursday with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. A public, redacted version of the filing was made available late Friday, and the motion was filed simultaneously with a new federal lawsuit, Mueller reports.
The motion, Mueller says, is based on four patents: a "data tapping" patent, a patent involving Siri and unified search, a new slide-to-unlock patent, and a word-completion patent for touch-screen entry of text.
The unified search patent, which involves voice assistant Siri's way of searching the Net, could be a direct threat to Google's core search business, Mueller says, and he adds that the word-completion patent may cover functionality involved in Google's mobile search app.
The "data tapping" feature, which, for example, lets users tap on a phone number in an e-mail to automatically make a phone call, got Android-handset maker HTC into hot water last year, when the International Trade Commission ruled the company had violated Apple's patent and said it would enforce a ban on HTC's products that use the feature. HTC quickly said it had developed a workaround.
Slide-to-unlock is currently at play in an Apple legal action against the Galaxy Nexus in Germany, where a resolution of some sort is expected in March.
Earlier this month, a German court rejected Apple's request to ban the Galaxy Nexus in that country. Apple had taken issue with Samsung's products for bearing resemblance to its own products. In this new case, Mueller claims, Apple "focuses completely on strong technical patents" as opposed to "softer, design-related rights."
Google and Samsung collaborated closely on the Galaxy Nexus and unveiled it in October (at which time Samsung claimed it had been Apple-proofed).
Since the first Nexus One (from HTC), Google has used its line of Nexus phones as a showcase for the latest user interface and features available with the updated version of Android, and the Nexus phones include no OS extensions from carriers. In this case, then, "stock Android itself is at issue," as Mueller puts it. "This means that Google cannot deny its undivided responsibility for any infringement findings." Meuller adds that the Galaxy Nexus' "role as a 'lead device' could also contribute to the willingness of the court to order a preliminary injunction."
Apple's Steve Jobs thought Android was a knock-off of his company's iOS operating system and famously said Apple was "going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this." Since then, the battle between the two companies has only intensified, with information recently surfacing that suggests a Google home entertainment device may be in the works.
Apple and Samsung, meanwhile, have quickly become fierce competitors in recent years with a rise in popularity of smartphones and tablets. Their ongoing global legal dispute was kicked off with a U.S. lawsuit filed by Apple against Samsung in April of last year that said Samsung was violating its intellectual property in the design of its mobile devices, specifically the Galaxy series of smartphones and tablets. Samsung quickly countersued, saying Apple was infringing on multiple patents. Since then, Apple has gone after Samsung heavily in Australia and parts of Europe--particularly Italy and Germany, the latter of which is considered to be friendly to patent-holders and faster than courts in the U.S.
The loss of cutting-edge features in a mobile device due to patent issues can, of course, hamper the device's competitiveness. It's possible however, for companies to devise workarounds that avoid legal problems but approximate desired functionalities.

Edward Moyer

Electronic News

2012-02-12T11:33:00.001+04:00

Electronic News was a publication that covered the semiconductor production equipment industry. It was originally a weekly trade newspaper, which covered all aspects of the electronics industry including semiconductors, computers, software, communications, space and even television electronics.

Fairchild Publications started the newspaper in 1957, as a complement to its other trade newspapers, including Women's Wear Daily, Home Furnishing Daily, Supermarket News, among others. At its peak in 1984, Electronic News took in $25 million in revenue with margins above 50%.^{[citation needed]} The following year, the newspaper began losing advertising and influence to rival Electronic Engineering Times, beginning a decline that eventually led to the newspaper's demise.^{[citation needed]}

In 1971, journalist Don Hoefler published a series of articles entitled "Silicon Valley, USA" in Electronic News. This is thought to be the first published use of the phrase Silicon Valley to describe the area of the southern part of the San Francisco Bay area in northern California, USA, an area known for its concentration of companies making semiconductors, among them Intel, LSI Logic, National Semiconductor.

Also in 1971, Electronic News was where Intel first advertised the Intel 4004 microprocessor, considered to be the first single-chip microprocessor.^[1]

A decade later, in 1981, when IBM's top-secret Project Acorn emerged as the IBM Personal Computer - the PC - the first reports were published in Electronic News in the weeks before the introduction, much to IBM's consternation.^{[citation needed]} Also in 1982, Electronic News communications industry reporter Frank Barbetta broke the story on the Bell System Divestiture which resulted in the break-up of American Telephone & Telegraph Company, and published the first interview with Judge Harold H. Greene.

The paper eventually grew to have a staff of three dozen full time journalists, working out of headquarters staffed by full time journalists in New York and bureaus in Boston, Washington DC, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis and Tokyo. In addition, stringers reported in from more than 100 locations around the world.

In 1967, the paper's corporate parent, Fairchild Publications was acquired by Capital Cities Broadcasting, which went on to acquire the American Broadcasting Company, now a unit of The Walt Disney Company. The publication was transferred from Fairchild to Chilton, then a division of Capital Cities/ABC, as the result of a reorganization. After barely a year as part of Chilton, the paper was in 1991 sold to the publishing house International Data Group. After a year of losses, IDG sold the paper in 1993 to an independent investor group put together by one-time publisher Zachary Dicker. In 1996 the paper was sold to its current owner Reed Business Information.

The final edition of Electronic News to be printed on paper was dated December 2, 2002. It has since that date been published exclusively online. It was later merged into EDN.

Apple: Analyst Says TVs Could Be 11% Of Profits In FY 2013

2012-02-08T14:37:00.002+04:00

Apple could substantially boost its profits if the rumors are true and the company is planning a move into the TV business, Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes asserts this morning in a research note.
Reitzes picks up on the latest flurry of rumor-mongering on the subject, which was triggered by a Best Buy survey asking for feedback from consumers on how they’d respond to Apple offering a 42-inch $1,499 TV running iOS, complete with iCloud and App Store access, and the ability to use an iPad or iPhone as a remote control.
The theoretical device Best Buy lays out would include an iSight camera and microphone for Skype (and FaceTime, I would imagine) and access to streaming content from Netflix, YouTube and Flickr.
“If Apple were to sell a TV, we continue to believe its margins and pricing could be industry leading given its vertical integration with content,” writes Reitzes, who has weighed on this possibility more than once in the past. “We believe that Siri could be used as a groundbreaking interface for a TV, which could be used as a content hub – glued together by iOS and iOS devices. In fact, Apple’s eventual television could be so much more than a TV – including gaming, video communication, content delivery, Apps, computing and all the capabilities of the current Apple TV – it is really not fair to compare it to products already on the market.”
Reitzes thinks Apple’s TV line could contribute $17 billion in revenue and $5.40 a share in profits in FY 2013, or 11% of his current EPS estimate of $48.46 a share.
AAPL shares today set another new all-time high; the stock is up $5.25, or 1.1%, to $469.22.
Update: The Toronto-based Globe and Mail reports that Apple has helped secret discussions with both BCE and Rogers Communications about potentially partnering with Apple on a Canadian launch of the company’s TVs. The story says both Canadian telcos have been testing the product in their labs. As you might imagine, none of the companies involved are commenting.

Forbes.com

Nokia Launching At Least One High-End Phone At MWC Barcelona Show This Month

2012-02-08T14:32:00.000+04:00

Nokia will unveil at least one new, high-end handset at the upcoming Mobile World Congress trade show, Forbes has learned from an industry source. The MWC show, the mobile industry’s largest annual conference, is scheduled to run in Barcelona from Feb. 27 to March 1.
Nokia’s MWC announcements should shed light on its 2012 device strategy. The Finnish device maker has been highly deliberate in the way it rolls out its new Windows Phone handsets. In the year since Nokia said it would use Microsoft‘s mobile operating system for its future smartphones, Nokia has disclosed three Windows Phone handsets.

Two of those devices — the Lumia 710 and 800 — are in market now. The AT&T-bound Lumia 900, which was confirmed at the January Consumer Electronics Show, isn’t believed to be going on sale until mid-March.
Like its competitors, Nokia keeps its trade show announcements closely guarded. But one of the company’s partners revealed Nokia’s plans to Forbes while promoting its own MWC product news. While the partner did not specify whether the upcoming device was a Windows Phone handset, it did say it was a phone that would run an unusual software feature normally found only on high-end smartphones.

Tech blogs have been buzzing for awhile over the kinds of news Nokia might have at MWC. One prevalent rumor concerned a high-end, speedy HSPA+ smartphone called the Lumia 910. As the name suggests, the 910 was believed to be the European version of the U.S. Lumia 900 with some upgrades, such as a 12-megapixel camera.
Nokia recently debunked that rumor, with a representative alleging the 910 doesn’t exist. Nevertheless, Nokia is holding a MWC press conference — something companies generally only do when they have major device or service news.
Nokia’s press conference is scheduled for Feb. 27, the morning of the first official day of MWC. Its press invitation, which simply said “Adventure in Barcelona” did not include any hints about the news to come. Other blogs have speculated about a Windows 8 tablet debut and new phones running Symbian, Nokia’s longtime operating system.
The other reason for the heightened interest in Nokia and MWC is that the company has varied its MWC presence over the years. In 2010, Nokia declined to invest in a booth, which some industry observers equated to skipping the show.
Last year, Nokia hosted an offsite press conference that felt more like a heart-to-heart conversation with its then-newly appointed CEO, Stephen Elop. The event outlined Elop’s vision for the company and for Windows Phone, but did not unveil any new devices.
This year, Nokia is returning to the official MWC event space for its booth and press conference.
I will be at Mobile World Congress, so please check back here for show news, starting on Feb. 26th.

Google's Big Problem They Don't Want You To Know About

2012-02-08T14:26:00.001+04:00

Since Larry Page took over as Google (GOOG) CEO, he has promised more “velocity” in strategic decisions and more focus.
To my eyes, what he’s also brought to the forefront is an marked increase in squishiness of “milestone” numbers he throws out to analysts to explain Google growth.
For several years now, Google has been big on sharing the number of daily “activations” for their Android phones, with no specific definition of what that exactly means. They just keep going straight up is the conclusion Google appears to want us to draw.
Page has also been very aggressive about touting the numbers of Google+ members and engagement since the service launched. Last week, he crowed triumphantly that Google+ had hit 90 million users with 60% engaging daily. Again, the problem is that Larry didn’t define his terms. If I’m forced to sign up for + as part of registering for Gmail, YouTube or search, should that count as a registration? And if I then do a search or check my Gmail, should I be counted as engaging with +? It’s laughable.
Google is also fond of talking about its annualized revenue numbers for its nascent businesses. For example, from recent calls, we learned that:
- From last week: “Display has now reached an annualized run rate of over $5 billion as we engage with multiple advertisers and get tremendous support from our agency partners.”
- From last quarter: “We’re also seeing a huge positive revenue impact from Mobile, which has grown 2.5x in the last 12 months to a run rate of over $2.5 billion.”
- We of course also have received daily or point-in-time updates on Chrome, enterprise customers, and Android activations.
- We even got an update last week that Google is adding one feature update to Google+ per day last week from Page
Google’s top brass are very very smart. Nothing gets dropped into their prepared remarks by chance.
I thought it was interesting when Susan Wojcicki, SVP of Ads, referred in her prior answer in her “script” when answering an analyst’s question later. Everything Google says to the public comes from a “script.” Nothing is dropped by chance into a comment.
Larry, Patrick Pichette, Nikesh Arora and Susan know that statistics are like pablum for business media and Wall Street analysts. They eat it up and then they regurgitate it like a 12 month old child. They don’t question it – because they haven’t developed their vocabulary skills yet. They just take it in and throw it back up.
What’s more, once one person in the media or on Wall Street repeats that stat, it becomes cited by a 100 other (so-called) journalists or web-scrapers as it bounces around the Internet echo chamber. Who has time to question these numbers? We’re just lowly journalists on a deadline for our next story. We’re not compensated to actually push back and think. It’s just on to the next drive-by report we’ll write.
What’s more, this is Google – and Larry Page! I’m not going to be the one to say this emperor has no clothes, seems to be the thinking on their part. Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM and no journalist ever got fired for repeated back what number some tech CEO throws out.
But let’s pause and take stock of what is going on right now at Google. It has perhaps the best core business that has ever existed in business for at least the last 100 years: its ad business (AdSense/AdWords). That business accounts for 96% of Google’s revenues (for a breakdown, see here). From that business, it’s stockpiled $44 billion in cash – up $10 billion from a year ago.
With this enviable cash, Google has been able to invest in a lot of new products and businesses, such as YouTube/display, mobile, Docs, Android, and Gmail. Although Google is eager to tell you how well each of those nascent businesses are doing on an annualized basis, they still account for 4% of Google’s overall revenues.
The core business — the 96% — is slowing. Google of course will not say this but it inarguably is. The best explanation I have seen of this since last week’s call is from Business Insider’s Henry Blodget. Among Henry’s conclusions:
- Google’s core search business slowed more sharply than expected even in the US
- Mobile search, which is accounting for an ever-bigger percentage of overall searches, is less profitable than standard PC-based search – and this is not likely to change
- International’s growth in the core business is down to 28% from 41% a year ago
- The growth in the US for the core business was flat at 26% year-over-year
Google tried to blunt this criticism on the call with Pichette (the CFO and attack dog on these analyst calls) saying — in response to a good question from Macquarie’s Ben Schachter:

You also have to remember that last year at this time, right, we had such a strong comp. We had such an amazing Q4 of 2010. That the year-over-year comparison in a way represents also this really high kind of level on which to start from. And so from that perspective — and if you also look at our mix between our own Google websites versus all of our network, I mean, our core properties continue to be actually very strong. So for all these reasons, I wouldn’t be worried of the way that you’ve described it. In fact, we’ve got — continue to have very strong growth.

The other elephant in the room last week was why the sudden drop in CPCs (cost-per-click or basically how much profit Google makes from each click as part of their ad business)? Blodget – I think quite rightly – suggests that it’s from more and more people searching Google on mobile where Google doesn’t make as much money as they do from PC-based searches.
Not so, claims Wojicicki and others on the call:

So there are definitely multiple factors whenever we look at these metrics because these metrics are aggregate. But I would say the 2 biggest factors this quarter were FX as well as the changes that we had made, their ad quality or format changes, which increased the paid clicks and again were revenue positive, advertiser positive, user positive. But those clicks, as I explained, may be lower CPC like in the example that I gave in my script with sitelinks. So those were the 2 factors. But again, it’s always important to remember there are many factors that contributed to these aggregate numbers.

Pichette chimed in:

Yes, I mean, at the highest level and then maybe Susan can jump in if she wants to add additional, if you think of the core elements of it, she mentioned quality. And we — the — all of the Panda changes and everything we talked about, right, its full year is going to be represented only by the next spring. And then FX rate, we don’t control ourselves. So obviously, it has a significant impact. The rest of it is actually the mix between how the innovation that we drive to our products, which is if you have a great product that drives a ton of clicks and it happens to have lower cost or CPC, then that’s still for the benefit of everybody. So then, that’s really about our innovation agenda, but we don’t give forward guidance on that.

So, Google’s profitability was down because it innovated too much. You got that? Wojcicki took another crack at it:

I mean, the one thing I would just add is, the way we think about the business is we’re focused on how do we provide better ads for our users and for our advertisers, and we look at all of those metrics combined. And what we saw in Q3 was we made a bunch of changes. They were small. There was no one individually that actually affected things, but it just so happened that the changes we made drew more attention and caused an increase in paid clicks. And so, as I mentioned, there are many factors. But really, what we use as a guiding metric are to understand that something is revenue, advertiser and user positive.

So Google did some stuff – at the end of Q3 – to purportedly provide better ads and, as a result, advertisers paid less for them in Q4, even though paid clicks were up. Men at work. Nothing to see here. Move along.
But the analysts wouldn’t relent and Wojcicki had to try again:

So the 2 biggest factors, as I mentioned, were the FX and also the changes that we made to — in terms of ad quality or format changes that we made. And those were changes that we made in Q3. There was no, I think, one significant one that drove the metrics. Or like this quarter, we made 20 different changes. Last quarter, we made something similar. And it was the combination of those different changes. Now it’s important to remember that we rolled those out over the course of Q3. And so that meant that if we rolled one out at the end of Q3, that you wound up seeing that impact in Q4 period. And so there was a cumulative effect. But again, there was not any one big one. It was the sum of a bunch of other changes. And those changes that we wind up making are changes that may make the ads more readable, they may be more visible, they’re UI treatments or quality changes. They’re a bunch of different things that make it more visible so that users are noticing the ads. And we see those as positive. We measure the metrics, how do our users respond, how do our advertisers respond. And they are revenue positive.

That’s some serious gobbledygook.
So, I’m going to try and translate super-smart Google mensa-speak to everyday talk: “Trust us, this stuff is so complex that you wouldn’t understand even if I took the time to explain it to you. It would be like a rocket scientist talking shop with a 5 year old.”
I loved Pichette’s addendum comment next:

Yes. Another way to think about this is in many quarters, we would have a bunch of them that would actually move down the CPC, a bunch of them that would have moved up in [ph] click. It just happens that in the latter part of this year, they kind of all moved one way, which is not neither good nor bad. It just happens that the quality team and the advertising teams actually have kind of unearthed these type of opportunities. So it’s a bit of circumstantial as well.

Say what? I know Pichette is a Rhodes Scholar, but me thinks the lady doth protest too much.
At this point, it was getting so confusing that Larry jumped in:

I can take, say, a little bit about CPC from my perspective. I think — and I don’t have the detail here, quarter or whatever, but I do think that CPCs — do vary a fair amount, and we’re not surprised by that. There are lots of product changes that we can make that can increase CPCs or decrease CPCs and kind of have a — or an inverse effect on the number of clicks and sort of not change the actual dollars spent, for example. And that’s not that surprising because we can do things that — in product changes that affect people’s attention to ads that Susan mentioned or that affect the quality of the conversions that advertises receive. They might receive better quality clicks, or they’re — or those — each CPC that they got that’s more likely to convert into what they care about. And so we are constantly optimizing all those things across a number of different product areas and ad placements and everything else. And our advertisers are doing the same, and the algorithms are also doing all that. So I think in any healthy economic — economy, like we have of advertising, we’re going to see variation in the different factors we use to measure it. And I’m not surprised by that.

Clear? No?
Pichette finally offered: “It’s — that’s just the nature of experimentation in our systems.” Innovation, again.
This slowing growth in their core business was also obvious last quarter. However, it didn’t stick out as much because the profits from the newly-acquired ITA covered it up.
Google bulls like to dismiss the idea that the core business is slowing because they believe Google has so much money that it can just keep buying other companies to get more profits and then finally hit the gusher of new profits from display, social, mobile search, and mobile phones.
However, I think the Google management team’s use of language suggests a deliberate effort to conceal just how big the slowdown in their 96% core business is.

Forbes.com

How Facebook Might Fail Investors (In Its Own Words)

2012-02-08T14:19:00.002+04:00

With 845 million users each month and 483 million active each day, it is hard to declare Facebook anything but a smashing success—even if we acknowledge the fuzziness in those numbers. The challenge for Facebook’s early investors, however, is not Facebook’s business success but whether the company can grow into and beyond its lofty initial valuation.
In a recent Forbes post, Eric Savitz did the math to show that a Facebook valuation of $100 billion (a commonly bandied about number) would imply a P/E of 100x trailing earnings, compared to Apple’s P/E of 10x trailing earnings (minus cash). Buying into a Facebook valuation in this range would constitute a tremendous vote of confidence in Facebook’s growth potential over the Apple juggernaut. Savitz also pointed out that in order for investors to double their money, Facebook would have to reach a valuation ($200 billion) that is higher than AT&T, Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson, and be on par with General Electric, Google, or Berkshire Hathaway.
How might Facebook fail to attain and sustain the business growth required to grow into and beyond its frenzied IPO valuation? It will be like walking on the edge of a knife—where any hint of potential slowing will deal a tremendous blow to investors. Imagine, for example, what a drop of the P/E to “only” 50x trailing earnings would do to early investors?
While there have been no lack of critiques, the most knowledgeable source is Facebook itself—in the form of the risk factors specified in the company’s S1. Here is the summary, in the company’s own words, of how an early bet on Facebook might turn sour (the categories are mine):

Growth slows — Remember the challenges of starting from such a large base:

If we fail to retain existing users or add new users, or if our users decrease their level of engagement with Facebook, our revenue, financial results, and business may be significantly harmed;

Slowness in translating user traffic into advertising revenue, especially in the context of mobile devices:

We generate a substantial majority of our revenue from advertising. The loss of advertisers, or reduction in spending by advertisers with Facebook, could seriously harm our business;

Growth in use of Facebook through our mobile products, where we do not currently display ads, as a substitute for use on personal computers may negatively affect our revenue and financial results;

Facebook user growth and engagement on mobile devices depend upon effective operation with mobile operating systems, networks, and standards that we do not control;

We may not be successful in our efforts to grow and further monetize the Facebook Platform;

Failing to dominate all the next new things — for both user attention and advertising dollars:

Our business is highly competitive, and competition presents an ongoing threat to the success of our business;

Potential restrictions due privacy breakdowns and concerns, both real and imagined:

Improper access to or disclosure of our users’ information could harm our reputation and adversely affect our business;

Our business is subject to complex and evolving U.S. and foreign laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, and other matters. Many of these laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could harm our business;

Dependency on a few key individuals:

Our CEO has control over key decision making as a result of his control of a majority of our voting stock;

The loss of Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl K. Sandberg, or other key personnel could harm our business;

Share price deflated by financial engineering hurdles:

We anticipate that we will expend substantial funds in connection with tax withholding and remittance obligations related to the initial settlement of our restricted stock units (RSUs) approximately six months following our initial public offering

The market price of our Class A common stock may be volatile or may decline, and you may not be able to resell your shares at or above the initial public offering price; and

Substantial blocks of our total outstanding shares may be sold into the market as “lock-up” periods end, as further described in “Shares Eligible for Future Sale.” If there are substantial sales of shares of our common stock, the price of our Class A common stock could decline.

While it is hard to imagine that Facebook, the social network, will stumble any time soon, it is plausible to imagine that Facebook, the investment vehicle, will not reach the comparative heights implied by its IPO numbers. The stock market is, after all, a battle for investors.
There is, of course, a completely different way to look at a potential Facebook investment, which is that early investors “only” have to ride the IPO price up and get out before there are any signs of trouble. If your strategy is to trade on sentiment rather than fundamentals, you’ll need to pay even more attention to the early warning signals that these risk factors represent.
Whichever approach you choose to take, caveat emptor!
__

Chunka Mui is the co-author of “Unleashing the Killer App” and “Billion-Dollar Lessons.” Follow him at Forbes or on Twitter @chunkamui

Celebrity-endorsed headphones: Some good, some bad

2012-02-06T13:20:00.001+04:00

Monster and Dr. Dre spearheaded the trend of celebrity-endorsed headphones, starting with the eponymous Monster Beats by Dr. Dre and Lady Gaga's own signature earbuds. But an increasing number of artists are partnering with other manufacturers for their own collaborations.
Signeo announced the Soul by Ludacris headphone series at CES 2011, and 50 Cent stopped by the CNET stage this year to demo his own wireless cans, but does a celebrity shout-out mean that those devices sound better than the competition?
Check out the following list to get the real scoop on all these new headphones supported by famous musicians.

SMS Audio Sync by 50 Cent

The SMS Audio Sync by 50 headphones are a trendy fashion accessory while they rest on your shoulders, but their flimsy plastic housing makes me question long-term reliability.
The decision to choose Kleer wireless technology over simple Bluetooth extends its utility as a home theater headset and draws the attention of audiophiles who appreciate lossless quality, but SMS needs to lower the inflated price tag and re-evaluate the hardware design before I can recommend these to active listeners.

The Beats Pro by Dr. Dre from Monster Headphones

Although the price is relatively high for the casual consumer, it is consistent with how much professional DJs spend for headphones. At the same time, these headphones probably won't satisfy the hard-core audiophiles who demand uncolored, accurate sound.
For faithful, accurate, natural tone in your headphones, these cans don't offer that kind of precise audio reproduction. What they do offer, however, is a massive amount of swagger. We see these headphones satisfying aspiring DJs or people with a good deal of spare cash who really enjoys blasting the wax out of their ears.

Soul by Ludacris Sl300

The Soul by Ludacris SL300 headphones are suitable for blocking outside noise and add a colorful sonic boost to bass-heavy genres like hip-hop, house, and rock music.
We recommend them over competing models like the Monster Beats by Dr. Dre headphones thanks to their more controlled low-end that doesn't sacrifice ambient noise isolation.

Monster Cable Heartbeats 2.0 by Lady Gaga In-Ear Headphones

To a certain degree, the attraction of these earphones is the design, and their celebrity backing--or not. If you're a Gaga fan, these are quite decent-sounding earphones that have the added bonus of including a built-in microphone for cell phone calls, as well as a flat, tangle-resistant cord.
Yes, you can get less flashy earphones that sound about the same for around $100, but that extra $30 is the price you pay for the leather-and-stud flair that goes along with the Lady Gaga and Dr. Dre mantles.

Monster Miles Davis Trumpet High Performance In-Ear Headphones with Control Talk

Depending on how you look at it, the unique design of Monster's Miles Davis Trumpet earphones will either be a big selling point or a deal breaker. I liked their design and got a lot comments about it (yes, these will attract some attention). That said, I didn't find the earphones incredibly comfortable on the go and I'm not sure if I would use these on an everyday basis to travel to and from work in New York City (on the subway) or in more-active situations.
But aside from those "mobility" drawbacks, they sound good enough to have you itching to relisten to your music collection and hear just how all your stuff sounds through the Trumpets.

Cnet.com

ELECTRONICS

2012-02-04T14:09:00.000+04:00

Electronics -is the branch of science, engineering and technology dealing with electrical circuits that involve active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies. The nonlinear behaviour of active components and their ability to control electron flows makes amplification of weak signals possible and is usually applied to information and signal processing. Similarly, the ability of electronic devices to act as switches makes digital information processing possible. Interconnection technologies such as circuit boards, electronics packaging technology, and other varied forms of communication infrastructure complete circuit functionality and transform the mixed components into a working system.

Electronics is distinct from electrical and electro-mechanical science and technology, which deals with the generation, distribution, switching, storage and conversion of electrical energy to and from other energy forms using wires, motors, generators, batteries, switches, relays, transformers, resistors and other passive components. This distinction started around 1906 with the invention by Lee De Forest of the triode, which made electrical amplification of weak radio signals and audio signals possible with a non-mechanical device. Until 1950 this field was called "radio technology" because its principal application was the design and theory of radio transmitters, receivers and vacuum tubes.

Today, most electronic devices use semiconductor components to perform electron control. The study of semiconductor devices and related technology is considered a branch of solid state physics, whereas the design and construction of electronic circuits to solve practical problems come under electronics engineering. This article focuses on engineering aspects of electronics.

Electronic devices and components

An electronic component is any physical entity in an electronic system used to affect the electrons or their associated fields in a desired manner consistent with the intended function of the electronic system. Components are generally intended to be connected together, usually by being soldered to a printed circuit board (PCB), to create an electronic circuit with a particular function (for example an amplifier, radio receiver, or oscillator). Components may be packaged singly or in more complex groups as integrated circuits. Some common electronic components are capacitors, inductors, resistors, diodes, transistors, etc. Components are often categorized as active (e.g. transistors and thyristors) or passive (e.g. resistors and capacitors).

Early electronic components

Vacuum tubes were one of the earliest electronic components. They dominated electronics until the 1950s. Since that time, solid state devices have all but completely taken over. Vacuum tubes are still used in some specialist applications such as high power RF amplifiers, cathode ray tubes, and some microwave devices.

Types of circuits

Circuits and components can be divided into two groups: analog and digital. A particular device may consist of circuitry that has one or the other or a mix of the two types.

Analog circuits

Most analog electronic appliances, such as radio receivers, are constructed from combinations of a few types of basic circuits. Analog circuits use a continuous range of voltage as opposed to discrete levels as in digital circuits.

The number of different analog circuits so far devised is huge, especially because a 'circuit' can be defined as anything from a single component, to systems containing thousands of components.

Analog circuits are sometimes called linear circuits although many non-linear effects are used in analog circuits such as mixers, modulators, etc. Good examples of analog circuits include vacuum tube and transistor amplifiers, operational amplifiers and oscillators.

One rarely finds modern circuits that are entirely analog. These days analog circuitry may use digital or even microprocessor techniques to improve performance. This type of circuit is usually called "mixed signal" rather than analog or digital.

Sometimes it may be difficult to differentiate between analog and digital circuits as they have elements of both linear and non-linear operation. An example is the comparator which takes in a continuous range of voltage but only outputs one of two levels as in a digital circuit. Similarly, an overdriven transistor amplifier can take on the characteristics of a controlled switch having essentially two levels of output.

Digital circuits

Main article: Digital electronics

Digital circuits are electric circuits based on a number of discrete voltage levels. Digital circuits are the most common physical representation of Boolean algebra and are the basis of all digital computers. To most engineers, the terms "digital circuit", "digital system" and "logic" are interchangeable in the context of digital circuits. Most digital circuits use a binary system with two voltage levels labeled "0" and "1". Often logic "0" will be a lower voltage and referred to as "Low" while logic "1" is referred to as "High". However, some systems use the reverse definition ("0" is "High") or are current based. Ternary (with three states) logic has been studied, and some prototype computers made. Computers, electronic clocks, and programmable logic controllers (used to control industrial processes) are constructed of digital circuits. Digital signal processors are another example.

Building blocks:

Highly integrated devices:

Microprocessors
Microcontrollers
Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)
Digital signal processor (DSP)
Field-programmable gate array (FPGA)

Heat dissipation and thermal management

Main article: Thermal management of electronic devices and systems

Heat generated by electronic circuitry must be dissipated to prevent immediate failure and improve long term reliability. Techniques for heat dissipation can include heat sinks and fans for air cooling, and other forms of computer cooling such as water cooling. These techniques use convection, conduction, & radiation of heat energy.

Noise

Main article: Electronic noise

Noise is associated with all electronic circuits. Noise is defined^[1] as unwanted disturbances superposed on a useful signal that tend to obscure its information content. Noise is not the same as signal distortion caused by a circuit. Noise may be electromagnetically or thermally generated, which can be decreased by lowering the operating temperature of the circuit. Other types of noise, such as shot noise cannot be removed as they are due to limitations in physical properties.

Electronics theory

Main article: Mathematical methods in electronics

Mathematical methods are integral to the study of electronics. To become proficient in electronics it is also necessary to become proficient in the mathematics of circuit analysis.

Circuit analysis is the study of methods of solving generally linear systems for unknown variables such as the voltage at a certain node or the current through a certain branch of a network. A common analytical tool for this is the SPICE circuit simulator.

Also important to electronics is the study and understanding of electromagnetic field theory.

Electronics lab

Main article: Electronics lab simulation

Due to the empirical nature of electronics theory, laboratory experimentation is an important part of the study of electronics. These experiments are used to prove, verify, and reinforce laws and theorems such as Ohm's law, Kirchhoff's laws, etc. Historically, electronics labs have consisted of electronics devices and equipment located in a physical space, although in more recent years the trend has been towards electronics lab simulation software, such as CircuitLogix, Multisim, and PSpice.

Computer aided design (CAD)

Main article: Electronic design automation

Today's electronics engineers have the ability to design circuits using premanufactured building blocks such as power supplies, semiconductors (such as transistors), and integrated circuits. Electronic design automation software programs include schematic capture programs and printed circuit board design programs. Popular names in the EDA software world are NI Multisim, Cadence (ORCAD), Eagle PCB and Schematic, Mentor (PADS PCB and LOGIC Schematic), Altium (Protel), LabCentre Electronics (Proteus), GEDA, KiCad and many others.

Construction methods

Main article: Electronic packaging

Many different methods of connecting components have been used over the years. For instance, early electronics often used point to point wiring with components attached to wooden breadboards to construct circuits. Cordwood construction and wire wraps were other methods used. Most modern day electronics now use printed circuit boards made of materials such as FR4, or the cheaper (and less hard-wearing) Synthetic Resin Bonded Paper (SRBP, also known as Paxoline/Paxolin (trade marks) and FR2) - characterised by its light yellow-to-brown colour. Health and environmental concerns associated with electronics assembly have gained increased attention in recent years, especially for products destined to the European Union, with its Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), which went into force in July 2006.

(Wikipedia.org)

External links:

Electrical and electronics web portal

Electronics tutorials, projects and software

Navy 1998 Navy Electricity and Electronics Training Series (NEETS)