Hardware Forum

Not a good Friday on Wall Street, but then what else is new? The Dow is down 100 points, and the Nasdaq off 31 points, to 1,585 after a lousy jobs number (but not as lousy as many thought) and a seller’s run on Apple, Cisco Systems, and on semiconductor …

Let's face it, when you have Macworld and the Consumer Electronics Show in the same week, it's an overwhelming amount of news to deal with, even (maybe especially) for a technology journalist like myself who gets paid to follow the latest and greatest and report back to you. I've been …

Tech talk has more predictions for 2009, and the news continues to be grim. Economist Gary Shilling, president of A. Gary Shilling & Co., was on the show this morning with a laundry list of dark projections for the economy and the stock market. Specifically, Shilling says the recession will …

I was carrying around the headline of this post all day yesterday since I saw a [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/05/steve-jobs-apple-health-letters-full"]Guardian article[/URL] yesterday morning with the text of a letter Steve Jobs wrote to the Apple community. Jobs explained that he felt compelled to let everyone know that he was sick, but he was …

Martin Sosnoff, writing in Forbes.com today, offers one of the most comprehensive, clear-minded takes on the U.S. economy in 2009. He’s not bullish on tech stocks – yet – but he is cheerleading the biotechnology sector, which could offer investors some significant upside in a year where profits will come …

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first, and it starts with the semiconductor sector. Last month I wrote how the market for consumer electronics was one of the first to go as consumers buckled down as the recession hit home. That has set the semiconductor market in …

No Santa Claus rally for Wall Street today, with trading activity light and most investors taking it easy before the grind begins anew next Monday. The markets were down, slightly with the Dow off by 31 points and the NASDAQ down 19 points. Some odds and ends worth noting, however. …

Following my colleague's excellent blog yesterday about [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3724.html"]what Apple should produce in January[/URL] one rumour appears to be gaining increasing amount of ground - that there will be an iPhone Nano within weeks. The reason this apparently makes sense is that someone is making a case for it and there's …

This is the time of year for wish lists, so why not make a list of products I would like to see Apple make in 2009. I'm not under any illusions that Apple will actually listen to me, but this is a fun exercise and some of these would be …

Yesterday I highlighted a few gadgets I thought it was worth getting people for Christmas. Today I thought I'd do the opposite - do not, repeat not, buy any of the following. Digital photo frame is a definite no-no. I've bought one for my in-laws last year and they said …

So Dani (of Daniweb fame) was asking me to go through a few gadgets for the Christmas season. So of course I've left it until the last minute - with prices going the way they are at the moment (we're into closing-down sales and stuff over this side of the …

So, Apple isn't going to do the whole razmatazz thing again, the European Macworld is off and Steve Jobs isn't doing the annual presentation in January. Let's get the last item out of the way first: Mr. Jobs' absence has led to a load of speculation about his health. I …

“Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to break free.” It's funny that on the same day that I wrote, [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3665.html"]Hey Apple, What About iLinux?[/URL], that [URL="http://www.apple.com"]Apple[/URL] [URL="http://www.macworld.com/article/137587/2008/12/macworldexpo.html?lsrc=top_1"]announced[/URL] that they will no longer attend or participate in MacWorld Expo and Jobs won't deliver the keynote address. I …

The stock market is up today on news that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates to spur lending and, hopefully, economic growth. The Dow is up 78 points and the Nasdaq is up 24 points in mid-morning trading. Analysts say that the Federal Reserve will lower the key U.S. …

To start hinting that you're going to make the best ever media phone this close to Christmas could of course save many of us a lot of money. "Of course, darling, I was going to spend £500 on a media phone for you but the [URL="http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/12/rumor-zune-phon.html"]Zune phone[/URL] is apparently coming …

It really should come as no surprise that Apple apparently does not consider the iPhone to be a phone at all, but rather what John Geleynse, Apple Director of Technology Evangelism [URL="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/12/12/apple_declares_iphone_a_challenger_to_nintendo_ds.html"]calls[/URL] "a console experience." That's what Geleynse told an iPhone Tech Talk developer event in San Jose, putting the …

The stock market seems to be stabilizing after yesterday’s selloff, with the Dow Jones average up 120 points, and the Nasdaq up 24 points in early trading. We’re starting to see a trend where we have more days in positive territory than not – a historical sign that suggests the …

I love my iPhone, but like any device, it's far from perfect and there are several missing pieces. Fortunately, the App Store gives third party developers the opportunity to fill in these holes. Today, I'm going to review five tools that provide functionality missing on the standard iPhone. [B]Flash for …

The iPhone App Store has been open for just five months, since July 11th to be precise. Yet in this time, so an Apple advert running in the New York Times informs us, no less than 300 million applications have been downloaded. Now those are two hugely important numbers, 300 …

Call it a tale of two headlines: "Microsoft and Yahoo in talks again on online unit": 30 Nov 2008/Reuters "Microsoft-Yahoo deal "total fiction:" 30 Nov 2008/Reuters So which is it? One of the key players originally mentioned as a possible replacement for Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has told a Wall …

Mobile phones have become many things, and I am just waiting for the first to appear which does away with that 'make and receive voice calls' requirement. Mind you, there is some argument that the iTouch does that, considering that it is an iPhone without the phone bit. But I …

There is of course nothing wrong with Apple getting a slapped wrist because of its current advertising campaign for the iPhone in the UK. Essentially the ad demonstrated how simple it is to download and install applications to the phone, followed by how easy it was to surf the Internet …

I've had my iPhone for about a month now and for the most part I'm very pleased with it, but if I could have a meeting with Apple engineers, there are a few things I would tell them to change: [B]1 Protect the Glass Out of the Box[/B] Perhaps my …

Is it 2010 yet? Few people want to wish their lives away, but Wall Street might gladly trade a year of its life for a time machine that would take the market straight to 2010, when hopefully this mess will be behind us. Today's Barron's lays out the numbers and …

When cornered by their wife, men sometimes say the most ridiculous things in order to wiggle out of trouble. However, blaming your iPhone for giving the impression you are having an affair has to rate as one of the best excuses ever. According to a [URL="http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1786497"]posting[/URL] in the Apple discussion …

Was anyone else really looking forward to being able to use the much hyped Google Voice Search feature for the iPhone? I mean, you could not move for news about the thing in the blogosphere last week, even the New York Times ran with a story about it and there …

Gaah, here we go again. Google is attaching video conferencing to its Gmail service. Gmail users, if they have a webcam and microphone, can now download a little utility and IM and talk to people as well as mailing them. The IM facility has been around for a while. And …

The BBC is [URL="http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/11/11/bbc_seeks_gadget_family_for_ne.html"]apparently[/URL] looking for a UK based family which cannot live without gadgets to, err, live without gadgets while being filmed for a new fly on the wall style documentary show. The idea is for a kind of Back to the Future themed series which will transport a …

The competition between Apple and RIM appears to be taking on Ali-Frazier status, even though both companies are taking another beating, as it were, in trading today. Apple is down 3.33%, and RIM is down 2.4% at 3:40 EST - both victims of an overall market decline that once again …

So Apple has taken the rare step of announcing it's not going to update its range by the end of this year. It's done this because the rumors have been floating around for so long - people were expecting a new iMac and a new Mac Mini to come out …

It has been something of an up and down ride to get here, but AT&T seems to have at last succeeded in rolling out free WiFi access for iPhone users in the US. This after popping up back in May only to vanish without trace very quickly for reasons unconfirmed. …

This week at the Professional Developer's Conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft made a big splash by announcing a new [URL="http://cooney.typepad.com/lauren_cooneys_blog/2008/10/welcome-azure-qa-from-the-experts.html"]cloud computing initiative it's calling Azure[/URL]. It's significant on several levels. First of all Microsoft wants to compete with services like [URL="http://aws.amazon.com/"]Amazon S3[/URL] and offer online storage and online computational services. …

[I]“Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then blaming others for inadequate results.” ~Scott Adams. [/I] There is a battle going on out there in cell phone land involving the 3 hottest-of-hot cell phones. I write of course about[URL="http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/specials/iPhone.jsp"] the iPhone from AT&T[/URL], the [URL="http://www.t-mobileg1.com/"]G1 from T-Mobile[/URL] …

I don't care who [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Buck]Joe Buck[/url] supports for President. I just don't want to know. Thankfully, he's never shared his preference while describing plays of the World Series for Fox Sports, at least as far as I've ever heard. Likewise, I don't want to know the views of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Deniro]Robert Deniro[/url] …

The stock market is in apparent free fall again this morning, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 387 points and the Nasdaq is off 56 points. Global markets are particularly hard hit, with Japan's stock index down 10% - at lows we haven't seen since 2003. Weirdly, gold and …

With speculation about it entering the netbook market rife at the moment, you might imagine that we would hear the usual stony silence from Apple regarding the matter. After all, keeping quiet and then leaking droplets of information as a launch approaches has worked well for pretty much every other …

[I]In time the Rockies may crumble Gibraltar may tumble They're only made of clay But our love is here to stay ~Ira Gershwin. [/I] These are heady days for Apple and its CEO Steve Jobs. In spite of a world economy that appears to be sliding out of control, and …

Anxiety over corporate earnings is driving the stock market down this week, with stocks dropping 232 points on Tuesday and the futures market dipping downward in early Wednesday trading. While many companies (like Apple, covered below) are hitting their Q3 numbers, most are forecasting a gloomy revenue picture going forward …

There's been a lot of hullabaloo this week on the internet about Apple's audacity to announce the new Mac Book line without [wait for it] a firewire port [gasp audibly]. I know, it's a bold move on Apple's part, and it didn't help matters when Apple reportedly deleted a thread …

Apple announced a [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3348.html"]retooled line of notebooks[/URL] yesterday, and that means good things for businesses thinking of upgrading laptops for its employees. But, I don't mean that the way you think I do. There's no doubt that the new glass trackpad and fancy casing make Apple's new line of MacBooks …

Apple is making an announcement tomorrow. It's known to be about notebooks and wiser heads than mine are speculating about what it's going to be - so in the meantime I'll present my own wish list for the company. It's not based on any evidence and I haven't based it …

Business intelligence (BI) software vendor [URL="http://www.actuate.com/home/index.asp"]Actuate[/URL] announced plans recently to make BI data available to its customers right on their mobile phones. While most companies are scrambling to jump on the iPhone bandwagon, Actuate hasn't forgotten that plenty of businesspeople still use BlackBerrys and, yes, even Palm devices. Actuate has …

Rumors are flying this week ahead of Apple's big Mac Book event on Tuesday that it will announce the long rumored sub-$1000 notebook. In fact, my friends at [URL="http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/09/800-for-a-new-macbook/"]The Unofficial Apple Weblog[/URL] are reporting that someone has gotten their hands on a price sheet ahead of the announcement suggesting that …

A coordinated effort by global central banks, led by the U.S. and the Federal Reserve Board’s 0.5% emergency rate cut today has more or less calmed the financial markets this morning (down about 100 points in mid-morning trading). I say “more or less’ because who really knows? But the economists …

It seems Apple may be on the brink of yet another iPhone redesign. Not, this time, because of any fault or because of any user demand but because the European Union (that's my continent, folks) is considering a directive that would force phones to have an easily removable battery. This, …

The impact from the ongoing credit crisis is finally starting to translate into layoffs for the tech sector. The folks I'm talking to say that AT&T, Apple, Yahoo, Sun, eBay, Microsoft, Nortel, HP, EDS, and even Google are going to be passing around pink slips with alarming aggressiveness in weeks …

Steve Ballmer should limit his worries to Microsoft and his advice to his employees. Last week the Microsoft CEO reportedly had the audacity to suggest that Apple "become more like Microsoft," and loosen the bonds between Apple hardware and software. Is he really that clueless? Surely he's aware that it's …

With the first availability of an Android-based phone is only weeks away, it's my guess that [url=http://www.htc.com/www/default.aspx]T-Mobile's G1 phone[/url] will be the next big "must-have" gizmo for today's techno geeks. The carrier, which promised delivery on the Oct. 22 launch date to customers placing advance orders, has sold through its …

Adobe Systems has confirmed what many in the media have been speculating for months--that it will produce a version of its Flash runtime environment for Apple's iPhone. The move will open the device to an enormous wealth of applications and Flash-enabled Web content. What remains to be seen is whether …

[I]You can't go back and you can't stand still If the thunder don't get you then the lightning will ~The Grateful Dead. [/I] Gloomy economic reports continue to pervade our daily news. It has me wondering if the problems on Wall Street will eventually trickle down to the tech sector …