Facebook is revitalizing its effort to create a smartphone, recruiting engineers who have experience with mobile devices, according to a story in the New York Times Sunday.
Facebook has kept its renewed effort to come up with a smartphone quiet, avoiding putting ads on public sites, according to the article, which cited unnamed sources inside the company, people briefed by the company and people who had been the target of recruitment initiatives.
The Facebook IPO may have been a fiasco, but don't put the nail in the coffin just yet for other tech offerings this year.
The success or failure of tech company IPOs will depend on market conditions, not fallout from Facebook, analysts say.
Chinese regulatory authorities have approved Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility, paving the way for the deal to close within the week, company officials confirmed Saturday.
The companies announced last August that they had entered into an agreement for Google to acquire mobile phone and tablet maker Motorola Mobility for about US$12.5 billion.
In the latest move in a complex series of patent-related cases, Apple filed a motion in a U.S. district court late Friday to ban Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the U.S.
The Apple filing came in the wake of an appeals court ruling earlier in the week that sided with Apple on the validity of an iPad design patent. Meanwhile, Apple and Samsung are scheduled to go into court-mandated settlement negotiations, set for May 21 and May 22, so the injunction is not likely to be granted over the next few days.
A range of tech vendors including Cisco Systems, Silicon Graphics International, BMC Software and CA Technologies this week reported quarterly earnings that had some solid numbers, but a cautious outlook for the rest of the year is spooking market watchers.
Shares of computer companies are still up for the year, and trading in IT companies ticked up Friday morning. As of Thursday's market close, computer companies on the Nasdaq were up 15 percent for the year. On Friday, Nasdaq computer companies were up by .79 percent in the morning session.
Crediting a strategy that exploits users' move to cloud computing, Cisco Systems on Thursday reported record net sales of US$11.6 billion for the quarter ending April 28, up 6.6 percent from the year-earlier period.
It was the second quarter in a row of record quarterly revenue. Net income was $2.2 billion, or $0.40 per share, up from $1.81 billion in the same quarter last year.
Responding to a U.S. district court judge's order, Apple and Samsung Electronics have trimmed the number of claims they will assert in a broad intellectual-property lawsuit regarding smartphone and tablet products.
Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on May 2 asked Apple and Samsung to boil down the case, which involves patent infringement and other claims, so a jury can comprehend the issues in a streamlined trial scheduled to begin July 30. Koh wants to give each side 25 hours to present its case.
As the earnings season wanes, quarterly financial reports from the tech sector continue to be mixed, though shares in IT companies are still up for the year.
Professional social networking site LinkedIn wowed market watchers with a strong earnings report after the market closed Thursday, causing company shares to spike by US$8.39 to $117.90 in Friday morning trading. Revenue for its first quarter skyrocketed year-over-year by 101 percent to $188.5 million, while net income more than doubled to $5 million.
Facebook on Tuesday announced an initiative to inspire members of the social network to post their organ donor status, offering a new Health and Wellness section.
Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg talked about the new feature in an interview with the "Good Morning America" television show, noting that the idea for the new set of tools arose when people in disaster areas used Facebook to communicate.
With Apple leading the revenue charge midweek and Amazon providing a kick to trading in tech shares Friday morning, bright spots appeared in what has otherwise been a mixed earnings season.
Vendors as diverse as SAP, ARM and Amazon gave tech-sector watchers some cause for cheer, after IT powerhouses such as IBM and Intel reported flat first-quarter sales last week.
At the request of Computerworld UK the story headlined "ICO received 10,000 data protection complaints in 2011" and posted 04/25/2012 has been removed from the wire. Online editors are asked to immediately remove the story from Web sites and print editors are asked to not use the story in future editions. Questions regarding the story should be directed to John E Dunn, Security Editor, Techworld and Computerworld UK.
Despite concerns about increasing competition from Android devices, Apple managed to exceed expectations for iPhone sales for its second fiscal quarter, on Tuesday reporting a healthy year-over-year jump in both revenue and profit.
For the quarter ending March 31, 2012, Apple posted revenue of US$39.2 billion, compared to $24.7 billion for the same period in 2011. The average forecast of 44 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters was for revenue of $36.81 billion. Net profit jumped to $11.6 billion from $6.0 billion.
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