Smartphone shipments reached new high in Q3
The smartphone market continued to mock the still troubled economic conditions in Q3 when shipments of such mobile devices were of a record 43.3 million units. According to IDC, the results translate into a 4.2% increase over the same period of 2008 and a 3.2% climb sequentially.
"Demand for converged mobile devices has remained strong all year," said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. "As users expect greater functionality from their devices beyond telephony, we believe the converged mobile device market will continue to grow faster than the overall mobile phone market."
In terms of vendor performance, Nokia remained at the top of the game with 16.4 million shipped smartphones and a 37.9% market share (up from 37.1% in Q3 08) and was followed by BlackBerry maker RIM (Research in Motion) which had a 19% share.
On third place this past quarter was Apple with a 17.1% share and 7.4 million shipped iPhones, while on fourth and fifth we can find HTC (5.6%) and Samsung (3.5%), the latter actually failing to sell more smartphones than it did one year before (1.5 million units).
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T-Mobile outage likely caused by software malfunction
T-Mobile hardly have the best reputation for reliability at the moment, given the recent Sidekick data loss - so it wasn't surprising when the announcement came that the recent loss of coverage to millions of customers was down to a software fault on one of its more vital systems (something that could have, of course, been entirely avoided).
The company's base stations begun malfunctioning this week, cutting off what they call 5% of their 33.5 million U.S. customers from both voice and data access - but when it is considered that New York City was one of the black out zones, this figure would appear to be on the lower-end of estimations.
"On Tuesday, some T-Mobile customers may have experienced service disruptions impacting voice and messaging services. We restored full service to all affected customers later in the day," the company said in a statement. "After investigating the cause, we have determined that a back-end system software error had generated abnormal congestion on the network. T-Mobile has since implemented additional measures to help prevent this happening in the future. We again apologise to those customers who were affected and may have been inconvenienced."
No specifics have been given at this stage, but the rumours point to the 1990 crash that took down AT&T. In that case, a software upgrade went... bad. Phone connection nodes all began to register as busy and pass traffic on to other parts of the network, but with the number of nodes on the new software nearly the entire network went down.
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Offerpal media replace CEO after onstage argument
Embarrassment has been put behind Offerpal media this week as they replace their CEO following a high-profile onstage argument about their services.
Offerpal media help social networking application developers actually earn a living from the offers and surveys that they generate and parse through the creator's userbase. Anu Shukla, company founder and former CEO was replaced by George Garrick, former CEO of large internet businesses such as Flycast, Wine.com, Jingle networks, etc.
Shukla made a statement to the press, and from the way it reads she really wants people to believe that this is just a coincidental replacement.
"I have known George for a long time... After many months of searching, I believe that George is the best CEO to scale the company to new heights. I am looking forward to working with him closely"
The trouble started when Michael Arrington, reporter for TechCrunch, confronted Shukla on a panel at the Virtual Goods Summit in California, accusing her of running an entire scam operation that is essentially tricking consumers into unwittingly spending money... to which Shukla unwittingly replied "sh*t, double sh*t, and bullsh*t".
This controversy has actually been taken quite seriously, with social game developers coming out against Shukla saying that they will simply ban shady and misleading offers regardless of whether they generate more revenue- something that MySpace just joined the debate with, and has now modified its terms of service to outlaw so called "app scams."
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Netsuite walk through Q3 financials
Netsuite aren't posting the best quarterly financials this week, losing nearly أ‚آ£5 million despite the increase on revenue and cashflow from last year. The company's CEO, Zac Nelson, told shareholders in an earnings statement that regardless they are positive toward the outlook of the market as a whole, and that they are "weathering gale force economic winds".
He continued to say "We modelled the third-quarter results to be seasonally flat from the second quarter, so the fact that we exceeded most of our metrics is indeed exciting. We have seen record revenue, record cash flow, continued non-GAAP profitability, our best new bookings growth in a year, reduced downsell and increased upsell and the largest number of OneWorld customers ever sold. All of these bode well."
NetSuite's revenue is apparently up by 4% to more than أ‚آ£25 million for the past quarter, and even though they managed to generate أ‚آ£1.2 million in Q3 pushing their cash flow into positives for the year, business costs (in particular marketing and administration) have risen sharply and hit the company hard.
Q4's outlook is quite positive according to Nelson. Traditionally the last quarter is always the strongest for NetSuite, but the firm are also currently reporting an increase in demand from medium sized businesses in Europe and Asia.
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Max File Shredder version 2.3 update
Max File Shredder is privacy protection software that protects your privacy by completely shredding the files you specify, beyond recovery. It destroys files and folders, frees hard drive space and shreds your recycle bin contents instead of only deleting them. We use 7 pass destruction scheme as per DOD std 7 for shredding the data. This assures the users that the shredded data is irrecoverable.
Changes include:
- Max File Shredder now compatible to Windows Vista/Windows 7
- Privacy Guard feature to protect your privacy with scheduler
- Various updates, enhancements and improvements
Website: Max Secure Software
Download: Max File Shredder 2.3 (Freeware)
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Moblin version 2.1 released
The Intel-founded moblin project has seen to the release of version 2.1 of the Linux-based Moblin operating system - software geared for netbook computers. The patch brings various updates as well as a few new features, and it is highly recommend users on older versions update as soon as possible.
Version 2.1 brings browser enhancements with plug-in supports, and 3G data updates. The Moblin Application Installer is now integrated, providing a list of applications from the Moblin Garage that users can choose to install. As well as these features, to top it off the user interface scaling now allows for a wider range of display resolutions on nettop systems.
Moblin is headed up by microprocessor giant Intel but is overseen by the Linux Foundation. The software is a free downloadable platform that is geared specifically for devices running Intel Atom processors (including netbooks, nettops, mobile internet devices and various other units).
Instructions for downloading Moblin can be found here.
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DFI MI P55-T36 Mini ITX P55 motherboard detailed
You've seen it in ATX, in micro ATX form and now it's time to admire Intel's P55 chipset powering a Mini ITX motherboard. The rather cute and compact model seen below is the MI P55-T36 made by DFI and it features a 6-phase PWM, support for Core i5/i7 LGA 1156 processors, the ABS II CPU auto upgrade technology, and two DDR3 memory slots.
The mini ITX board also boasts one PCI-Express x16 slot, one eSATA and three SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 channel integrated audio, a Clear CMOS button and a debug LED.
The MI P55-T36's pricing and release date are yet unknown.
Pictures courtesy of Clunk.org.uk.
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Buffalo's MiniStation Lite portable HDDs get two more color options
Currently available in Crystal Black, Ruby Red and Pearl White, the MiniStation Lite portable hard drives from Buffalo will soon be ready for purchase in two more funky colors - Sakura Pink and Lapis Blue. Apart from the new paint job, the upcoming models have no changes compared to their predecessors and feature a sleek casing measuring 81 (W) x 16 (H) x 130 (D) mm, an USB 2.0/1.1 connection interface, a power consumption that can go down to 1.27W, Memeo AutoSync for automatically synchronizing with PCs/Macs and SecureLockMobile for encrypting stored data.
"We are seeing an increase in customer demand for storage devices that aren't the traditional black, grey or white," said Paul Hudson, Northern European sales director, Buffalo Technology. "More and more people want their technology to fit in with their lifestyle. This is the ideal consumer storage device. It's extremely easy to use, has a stylish design and won't break the bank. The built in software ensures that users' files are protected and can be easily updated at the click of a button."
The 320 and 500GB MiniStation Lite Sakura Pink/Lapis Blue drives will go on sale later this month and cost about أ‚آ£70 and أ‚آ£90, respectively (in the UK).
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Buffalo readies new trio of external hard drives
Buffalo has today announced the HD-CLU2-WH series of external hard drives which is set to debut this month with three models boasting 500GB, 1TB and 1.5TB of storage space. The drives measure 45 (W) x 175 (H) x 156 (D) mm and weight 1kg, have a shiny and sleek white enclosure, a USB 2.0/1.1 interface, and come with the eco Manager software which will help cut power consumption by up to 75% when they are not being accessed.
The 500GB, 1TB and 1.5TB HD-CLU2-WH HDDs will reach stores late this month and cost about $115, $174, and $221, respectively.
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Olympus PEN E-P2 camera made official
Following leaks and some more leaks, Olympus has today decided to officially unveil the PEN E-P2 interchangeable lens camera. Seen below looking all retro and cool, the E-P2 is powered by the TruePic V image processor and features a 12.3-megapixel Live MOS sensor, in-body Image Stabilization, a dust reduction system, fast Imager Autofocus, high ISO settings (up to ISO 6400), the new Continuous Autofocus (C-AF) tracking system and a 3-inch color (230,000 pixels) HyperCrystal LCD.
"The high demand for the E-P1 demonstrates that today's photo enthusiasts and consumers want the high-quality imaging like that of DSLRs in a compact retro design. The fact that it also offers HD video, creative functions and high-end stereo sound makes it even more desirable," said John Knaur, senior marketing manager, Digital SLR, Olympus Imaging America Inc. "The new PEN builds on the success of the E-P1 by adding many of the features that were on enthusiasts' wish list for the second generation: an EVF for composing with your eye close to the camera, the ability to add an external microphone, C-AF tracking, and a black metal body. With each new PEN, Olympus continues to enhance the line, and the future looks very bright."
The Olympus PEN E-P2 will debut in December and be available in two bundles (both priced at $1,100) - one with an ED 14-42mm f3.5/5.6 Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens, and one with 17mm f2.8 Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens.
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