Archive for September, 2011

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Tablet Computer Market Is ‘Ideal’ Entry Point for Emerging Wireless Firm OMVS

September 29th, 2011
Share

An unprecedented lack of barriers to entry into tablet computer development makes the revolutionary mobile devices the ideal entry point into the rapidly growing global wireless communications market for On the Move Systems Corp. (otcqb:OMVS), said CEO Patrick Brown on Tuesday.

“Barriers to entry” are the hurdles companies have to overcome to compete in a new industry. For tablet developers, those hurdles are few and far between.

“Tablet computers lack most of the barriers to entry faced by notebook or smartphone developers,” Brown said. “Notebook developers have to pay very high software license fees to install Windows and other popular programs on their machines. Smartphone developers have to cut a deal with at least one major wireless provider in order to make their devices work. None of that applies to the tablet industry.

“The most popular software for tablet computers is open-source, and the only network necessary is Wi-Fi,” Brown added. “All OMVS has to do is wrap cutting-edge hardware, user-friendly software and Wi-Fi functionality together in a sleek, sophisticated package to become a real player in the tablet computer market, and that’s exactly what we plan on doing.”

Currently, the tablet computer market is dominated by Apple. Competitors such as HTC, Samsung and RIM have failed to wrest market share away from the iPad developers. Hardly a deterrent, the lack of strong competitors to Apple presents a major opportunity for emerging players in the tablet market such as OMVS, Brown said.

“Today, even large technology companies are gaining very little traction in chasing Apple,” he said. “Emerging companies like us have an unprecedented opportunity to create a product that outshines those of HP, Dell and Toshiba in order to capture early market share in an industry poised for unbelievable growth.

“There’s no doubt that a serious contender to the iPad will rise to the top of the heap, and OMVS has just as much chance to create that product as the billion-dollar corporations,” Brown added. “We have every intention of capitalizing on that opportunity.”

OMVS is currently negotiating a new partnership with the electronics developer Noitavonne, makers of the Loop Tablet computer.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tablet-computer-market-is-ideal-entry-point-for-emerging-wireless-firm-omvs-2011-09-28

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Why Amazon’s Tablet Matters: It’s Not a Computer. It’s a Store.

September 29th, 2011
Share

The tech world is going into hype-tastic overdrive today with the release of Amazon’s new tablet computer. If the predictions and previews are correct, the new device could be a big competitor to the market-defining Apple iPad and cement Amazon as a major player in the computing game.

But this isn’t really about the chunk of hardware that Amazon will be showing off. The reason Amazon’s entry into the tablet market is such a big deal has much more to do with all the merchandise and media that Amazon can put in your hands, without having to pay Apple some pretty hefty tolls for the privilege.

I’m not saying that competition with Apple in the tablet market isn’t a major piece of this story. Plenty of others have come out with me-too devices to follow the iPad, just as millions of people own smartphones from some other company. But none of those tablets has done much to dent the iPad’s hold on the market. Amazon’s move into tablets, however, is the only effort so far to fundamentally copy the Apple playbook, bringing a unified software, hardware, and application experience to the user.

That’s hugely significant as a piece of business strategy, because it signals that one of the more innovative companies around is truly dumping the old Microsoft view of the world, where companies specialize in one area (like software, or retail) and get others to build around that brand. It’s another vote—a big one—for Apple’s approach, and if it catches on, you’re going to see more movement in that direction. That’s surely part of the reason why Google would pay billions for Motorola.

But something much more basic is going on here. Amazon isn’t putting out tablet computers because it wants to be a computer-maker. It’s doing so because Amazon is fundamentally a retailer, and the tablet is the new digital store.

“People leaning back on their sofas, buying things from Amazon, is another tailwind for our business that I’m very excited about,” CEO Jeff Bezos said during this June’s shareholder’s meeting.

Source:http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2011/09/28/why-amazons-tablet-matters-its-not-a-computer-its-a-store/

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Mercury Computer Systems Stock Hits New 52-Week Low (MRCY)

September 29th, 2011
Share

Mercury Computer Systems (Nasdaq:MRCY) hit a new 52-week low Wednesday as it is currently trading at $11.48, below its previous 52-week low of $11.62 with 194,969 shares traded as of 3:35 p.m. ET. Average volume has been 207,000 shares over the past 30 days.

Mercury Computer Systems has a market cap of $362.4 million and is part of the technology sector and computer hardware industry. Shares are down 35.5% year to date as of the close of trading on Tuesday.

Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets high-performance embedded, real-time digital signal and image processing systems and software for embedded, and other specialized commercial and defense computing markets. The company has a P/E ratio of 16.7, below the average computer hardware industry P/E ratio of 16.9 and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Mercury Computer Systems as a hold. The company’s strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, expanding profit margins and good cash flow from operations. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity and a decline in the stock price during the past year.

Source:http://www.thestreet.com/story/11262104/1/mercury-computer-systems-stock-hits-new-52-week-low-mrcy.html

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Diebold e-voting hack allows remote tampering

September 29th, 2011
Share

Computer scientists have demonstrated a hack that uses off-the-shelf hardware to tamper with electronic voting machines that millions of Americans will use to cast ballots in the 2012 presidential elections.

The attack on the Diebold AccuVote TS electronic voting machine, which is now marketed by Election Systems & Software, relies on a small circuit board that an attacker inserts between the components connecting the touch screen of the device to its microprocessor. The $10.50 card then controls the information flowing into the machine’s internal processor, allowing attackers to change votes with almost no visible sign of what’s taking place.

In a video demonstration, researchers from the Vulnerability Assessment Team at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois showed how the card could be used to briefly kill the power to the voting machine’s touch screen to temporarily black out what’s displayed so voters can’t see their choices being modified. Using optional hardware costing about $15, they showed how attackers can remotely tamper with machines from distances as far away as half a mile.

Anyone with a eighth grade education could construct the cards using standard tools and off-the-shelf components, said the researchers.

“This is an attack that requires less skill, so you don’t have to have people hacking the software,” said David Dill, a Stanford University computer science professor and a critic of electronic voting machines, who reviewed the demonstration. “On the other hand, this does involve messing with a lot of individual machines, so it might be a little harder to change very large numbers of votes without getting caught.”

Another hurdle to be cleared is getting physical access to the targeted machines. In theory, they’re subject to chain of custody procedures to prevent unauthorized modifications to the internals. But as Princeton University computer science professor Ed Felton has documented on numerous occasions (most recently here), voting machines are routinely left unattended in the days and hours ahead of election day, making it possible for attackers to tamper with them.

The AccuVote TS is used in several states, including Maryland and Georgia, although voting officials in some jurisdictions have phased out its use because the DRE, or Direct Recording Electronic, voting system typically offers no print out. That makes it particularly hard to audit results.

The Argonne researchers said they’ve devised an even more powerful attack against the Sequoia Advantage AVC (PDF here), a competing electronic voting machine that’s now marketed by Dominion Voting Systems. Whereas the hack of the Diebold machines allows the control of data sent only from the touch screen to the microprocessor, the attack on the Sequoia device allows “bidirectional” control, they said.

The researchers went on to say they believe their attack will work on a wide variety of electronic voting machines.

“I haven’t seen this particular attack described and actually carried out experimentally,” said Avi Rubin, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University. “Definitely, many including myself have theorized about something like this, but seeing that they actually implemented it and that it was inexpensive and relatively easy, I think, is a significant result.”

Defenders of electronic voting are quick to point out that any system used to record hundreds of millions of ballots is vulnerable to tampering. Critics say e-voting is different because it affords fewer opportunities for officials to audit votes to gauge the accuracy of the results.

“There are a million ways to hack these machines, and there are a million ways these machines can just make mistakes because they have software bugs in them,” Dill said. “You have no way of checking independently of any computer whether the vote was accurately recorded and counted.”

Source:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/28/diebold_electronic_vote_tampering/

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Computer Hardware Lower – WDC, LXK, IBM, AAPL

September 29th, 2011
Share

Western Digital (NYSE:WDC), the maker of hard drives for computers and entertainment systems traded at 27.01, which represents -3.84% versus its previous trading session close,added downward pressure to technology shares, with the Technology Select Sector Spider (NYSE:XLK) trading -2.07% from its previous trading session close.

Technology shares traded flat with the S&P500, which traded lower by -2.07%.

Among the computer hardware makers, Western Digital was the worst performer in the Computer Hardware Index (NYSE:^HWI), which traded lower by 1.93%. The index is had a broad decline with only 1 component trading higher.

Lexmark (NYSE:LXK), is a worst performer as well. The maker of printers and imaging solutions ended the trading session at $27.9 representing -3.56% Versus the previous trading session. Shares of Lexmark have defined support at $25.41 and resistance at $30.44.

Relative strength in the Computer Hardware Index was felt in IBM (NYSE:IBM), which was the top performer in the session, with the stock trading at $177.55 representing -0.09% versus the previous trading session. Shares of IBM, the IT solutions and consulting services provider have defined support at $165.76 and resistance at $177.67.

The other top performer was Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), which traded at $397.01 representing -0.56% from its previous close. Apple, the maker of iPhones and iPads has calculated support and resistance levels at $391.30 and $422.86 respectively.

Source:http://www.tradershuddle.com/20110928156207134/Stocks/computer-hardware-lower-wdc-lxk-ibm-aapl.html

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Seagate Technology PLC (STX): Today’s Featured Computer Hardware Loser

September 29th, 2011
Share

The computer hardware industry closed the day down 2.2%. Hauppauge Digital (HAUP), Stratasys (SSYS), Silicon Graphics International (SGI), and Rimage Corporation (RIMG) were all decliners today within the computer hardware industry with Seagate Technology (STX) being today’s featured computer hardware loser. Seagate Technology fell 35 cents (-3%) to $11.13 on average volume. Throughout the day, 7.7 million shares of Seagate Technology exchanged hands as compared to its average daily volume of 10 million shares.

Seagate Technology Public Limited Company designs, manufactures, markets, and sells hard disk drives for the enterprise, client compute, and client non-compute market applications in the United States and internationally. Seagate Technology has a market cap of $4.7 billion and is part of the technology sector. The company has a P/E ratio of 10.3, equal to the average computer hardware industry P/E ratio and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Shares are down 23.6% year to date as of the close of trading on Tuesday.

TheStreet Ratings rates Seagate Technology as a hold. The company’s strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth and attractive valuation levels. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself, deteriorating net income and poor profit margins.

Source:http://www.thestreet.com/story/11262248/1/seagate-technology-plc-stx-todays-featured-computer-hardware-loser.html

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Oracle has a Sun spot

September 29th, 2011
Share

Oracle’s nothing if tenacious, and they’ve ignored hardware earnings losses to take the recently acquired Sun hardware platform to its next level and renewal with the announcement of the T4 CPU UltraSparc family for its servers. Sun was always a maverick, and its Sparc and UltraSparc processors became the standard bearer for server-based RISC technology. Now it’s dragging Oracle down. Larry Ellison seems to have had a fixation over delivering the Full Meal Deal® to its customers — hardware, software, services, applications, and integration support. The idea has worked well for others, yet others haven’t publicly bruised so many on the way up.

Oracle’s competitors, HP with its EDS integration force, and IBM’s mainframes, servers, and developer network have provided intense competition that made the Oracle-Sun deal sound initially sensible. But Sun’s hardware has become a burden on earnings. And while Oracle’s recently announced T4-family based Sun hardware is impressive, the move may backfire despite impressive T4 vision and specs.

Here’s why: No rational IT executive doubts Oracle’s database infrastructure, and Oracle’s applications suites hold their own. What Oracle faces is a challenge towards industrial shifts at several levels. One-stop shops for apps have become enormously convenient for CIOs and organizations have become successful with Oracle infrastructure as their business process engines, and Oracle’s developer community is comparatively strong. In fact, the Oracle developer conference next week will likely show the same strength that VMware’s VMWorld recently had — lots of international smiling faces.

Oracle’s cloud infrastructure is perceived as less desirable, as fewer and fewer non-Oracle apps are developed on Sun and Solaris, as this combo is perceived as Oracle-centric. There are no Windows server hosts running on an Oracle Sun cloud; they’re not compatible. Solaris, a traditionally rock-solid Unix foundation, no longer has OpenSolaris community support, not that it was huge to begin with. OpenSolaris has been essentially disbanded along with numerous other open source projects. Indeed I’ve yet to find a single independent cloud hosting environment that will spin up instances of Oracle for you at all. If indeed there are cloud organizations hosting Solaris, they’re certainly not wearing this fact on their sleeve. Oracle’s T4-powered Solaris operating system will run lots of VMs, but not one of those VMs will be Windows and only a few will be non-Oracle Linux.

Open source warmth that Sun’s protagonism (actually conversion) spawned into community warmth has met the test of business model credulity at Oracle, and Oracle seems to have systematically disappointed the FOSS community. The open source community watched Oracle almost immediately toast OpenSolaris and cause splits in MySQL, and OpenOffice. Other actions seem to have caused forks in other formerly Sun-sponsored open source development projects. Adding Oracle Linux was a chess move against Microsoft, but also Red Hat, Attachmate/Novell/SUSE, and Canonical. Red Hat went out of its way to make Oracle Linux more difficult to develop for, somewhat isolating Oracle’s Linux fascination.

Some developers quietly voiced betrayal watching Oracle’s treatment of Java’s licensing in its famous litigation with Google over Android. Sun’s character towards open source development was indeed much different. In all, Oracle has gained few open source advocates, although its distribution of Linux has a few friends, Red Hat not likely among them.

Oracle’s famously antagonistic relationship with HP and Google, have garnered much negative press. The intense volume of litigation and patent claims look like the weak defense of a has-been (are you listening, Steve?). Oracle’s mad litigation with HP over HP’s heavily invested Itanium platform seemed to have nothing to do with the Itanium, rather, the firing of Mark Hurd (handily snapped up by Oracle) and the hiring of a sordid competitor’s CEO, Leo Apotheker, now departed. With Oracle’s legal department so wired, does Oracle scare away potentially useful liaisons? Will it stand alone because the onus of litigation is so steep and electrical?

Although a port of Linux onto the T4 is likely — still unannounced — Oracle risks becoming tethered ideologically to Sun, and vice-versa. Oracle’s pugnacious posture doesn’t settle well with developers. While the T4 family might be the next generation of Sparc and Oracle’s cannon against IBM (HP wasn’t mentioned in the press releases to no one’s surprise), Oracle may become increasingly perceived as isolated and monolithic, rather than a team player within the industry.

I’m a processor geek. Oracle’s T4 looks pretty interesting, its advanced architecture and considerable prowess should earn it respect. Oracle misses a huge opportunity to be perceived as an open and entrepreneurial player in T4 family development. But they’d also have to think like a supporter of open source. And they’d have to corral their intense instinct to litigate and browbeat. I’m not sure they will. You don’t have to necessarily like your partners. But you can’t dismiss them.

Source:http://www.itworld.com/cloud-computing/207913/oracle-has-sun-spot

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes