HP takes top server spot from IBM

HP took the top spot from IBM in global server revenue in the first quarter, as shipments from all manufacturers rose 23 percent over the previous year, according to Gartner.

The quarterly figures are a sign that businesses are starting to increase their expenditure on servers as the global economy recovers, the analyst company said. However, although the market is bouncing back, server revenue in the quarter was only around 80 percent of its peak in 2008, it noted.

"2009 typically saw users [companies] extending the lifecycles of their hardware," Gartner principal research analyst Adrian O'Connell told ZDNet UK. "I wouldn't say the market has now recovered: it is recovering."

Server revenue rose six percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2010, Gartner said in a report released on Tuesday. The x86 servers were the fastest growing segment, showing rises of 25.3 percent in shipments and 32.1 percent in sales. In contrast, RISC/Itanium Unix servers and mainframes declined substantially, falling 28.5 percent in shipments and 26.9 percent in revenue.

In terms of form factors, blade servers performed the best, with sales up 40.7 percent year-on-year. As for vendors, HP took over from IBM as the leading server manufacturer by revenue. In the quarter, HP had 31.5 per cent of revenue worldwide, up from 28.8 percent the previous year, while IBM fell from 30.7 percent to 28.4 percent. Dell remained in third with 15.6 percent, with Fujitsu in fourth place at six percent. Fifth-place Oracle, which acquired server maker Sun in April 2009, saw its share drop from 9.6 percent to 5.6 percent.

IBM slipped from the top spot partly because businesses are waiting to buy Power7 systems from the company, Gartner said.

HP had a stronger lead in EMEA and increased its market share by revenue to over 40 percent. IBM's market share shrank considerably to 23.7 per cent in the region from 29 percent a year ago. Total EMEA server revenue rose slightly higher than it did globally, increasing 6.6 percent. Year-on-year, shipments were up 19.7 per cent in EMEA, Gartner found. O'Connell said the UK figures broadly followed the EMEA trends.

As server sales plummeted during the recession, there is now some potential demand, according to Gartner. However, that demand will be spread throughout 2010 and 2011, it said.

"To some extent, there is pent-up demand in the market. But companies will take it cautiously and slowly in going through this refresh until there is more confidence," O'Connell said.

A lack of visibility of future economic conditions and consequently a lack of visibility of their future company performance is holding back IT departments from substantial server expenditure increases, Gartner said. O'Connell noted that procurement cycles have become lengthy for high-end systems. In contrast, businesses are quicker to purchase low-end servers.

In addition, the economy has forced companies to re-evaluate how they run their IT, causing them to make different technology choices, he added. But whereas the downturn 10 years ago left IT departments with few choices, there are now considerable options to reduce costs and improve productivity, O'Connell said. He gave the use of blades, virtualisation software and cloud computing as examples

Yahoo, Facebook side with Google against Viacom

Some of the biggest and most respected Web services have come to the aid of Google and YouTube, which are defending themselves against accusations that they violated copyright on a grand scale.

Yahoo, Facebook and eBay on Wednesday filed a friends-of-the-court brief in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. That's where Viacom, parent company of MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures, filed a $1 billion copyright lawsuit against Google in March 2007.

The three companies have urged District Judge Louis Stanton to dismiss Viacom's suit, arguing that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects Internet service providers from liability for copyright violations committed by users. They say that a decision against Google could stifle the growth of important Internet services.

"Plaintiffs' legal arguments, if accepted, would retard the development of the Internet and electronic commerce," wrote a lawyer representing the four companies.

Viacom alleges that YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006, encouraged users to upload unauthorized clips from Paramount Pictures, Comedy Central, and MTV Networks to the video-sharing site. Those clips helped YouTube attract users as well as generate ad sales, Viacom claims.

The amicus brief filed on Wednesday follows a similar type of filing made by NBC Universal, Warner Bros., Disney, the Screen Actors Guild, and Directors Guild of America on behalf of Viacom.

That so many powerhouse companies are weighing in is testament to the importance of the case. The court's decision will likely help establish copyright law as it applies to the Web.

In response to Wednesday's filing, Kelly McAndrew, a Viacom spokeswoman, told Bloomberg: "The courts have been clear that creating and building a Web-based business on the intellectual property of others is illegal. That is exactly what YouTube did in its formative years."

But when it comes to services such as YouTube, the law hasn't been as clear as McAndrew asserts--not to the courts or even Viacom executives.

In September, a U.S. district judge ruled in favor of Veoh, an online-video service, after that site was sued by Universal Music Group for alleged copyright violations. Legal analysts have said that the Veoh case is very similar to YouTube's but Viacom has argued that there are important differences and that decision, which Universal said it will appeal, is not binding on Stanton's decision.

And Viacom also has had trouble determining whether the DMCA protects YouTube.

On Friday, more documents in Viacom vs. Google were released and among them was an e-mail from Michael Fricklas, Viacom's general counsel, in which Fricklas appeared to defend YouTube.

"Mostly, YouTube behaves--and why not," Fricklas wrote in July 2006. "User-generated content appears to be what's driving it right now. Also, the difference between YouTube's behavior and Grokster's is staggering. While the Supreme Court's language IS broad; the precedent is not THAT broad."

A Viacom spokeswoman said Fricklas' e-mail was sent before Fricklas had a chance to fully evaluate YouTube and "in a few short months, it became clear to Mr. Fricklas and others that YouTube's behavior was egregiously unlawful."

Apple tops Microsoft as world's most valuable tech firm

Apple passed a major milestone today, becoming the world's largest technology company as measured by the total value of its shares.

Near the close of trading on the Nasdaq exchange, Apple's market capitalization stood at $223 billion, higher than No. 2 Microsoft, which had a market cap of $219.3 billion.

It was the first time that Apple's total share worth climbed above its rival's.

"Apple's market cap just exceeded Microsoft's for the first time ever, making it the world's largest tech company in terms of market cap," said Brian Marshall, an analyst with BroadPoint AmTech. "It's interesting that just seven years ago, the company traded at less than cash."

A company's market cap is equal to its share price times the number of shares outstanding. A year ago, Apple's shares closed at $130.78; today, the company's shares fell in late afternoon trading to $244.13, a one-year increase of 86.7%.

Microsoft's shares, meanwhile, dropped to $24.99 in late trading, off more than a dollar for the day.

Google, a competitor to both Apple and Microsoft, closed the day with a market cap of $152 billion.

Oil giant Exxon Mobil is the U.S.'s largest company, with a market cap of $278.6 billion.

According to BroadPoint's Marshall, both Apple and Microsoft will generate in the neighborhood of $65 billion in revenues during the 2010 calendar year.

Dell Streak blurs line between tablet, smartphone

Is the Android-powered Dell Streak, coming this summer, a tablet or a smartphone? The answer depends on who you ask.


Dell's Streak blurs the line between tablet and smartphone, which could prove to be an asset, or not.Dell Inc. calls it a tablet, but with a five-inch screen it's nearly half the size of Apple's 9.7-inch iPad.

Blurring the lines even further, it also has a GSM radio for making calls, something not often seen in tablets and certainly not in the iPad.

While it's basically a large pocket-size device, the Streak is small enough to hold up to your ear to make a call, or it can be connected to a wired or wireless headset.

Dell actually hasn't officially announced the dimensions of the full device, just the size of the screen, says Dell spokesman Matthew Parretta. "It doesn't look goofy holding it up to your head to talk," he said, noting he's been using the Streak for eight months as a phone and tablet and loves it.

Dell calls the Streak a tablet and not something else, because it's expected to be used as primarily a data-centric device, Parretta said.

In full landscape mode, a user can download Web pages and see them in full width, rather than having to move back and forth like one would with a smartphone. Moreover, the Streak can be used as a GPS device with Google Maps and Google Voice, he said.

But Dell executives have also recognized that the Streak falls between a smartphone and a tablet. Ron Garriques, president of the Dell Communication Solutions Group, said in a statement that the device "hits the sweet spot between traditional smartphones and larger-screen tablets. Its unique size provides people new ways to enjoy, connect and navigate their lives."

Other Dell representatives have described what the Streak is in a blog post and a video. "It is in a class of device that fits between a smartphone and a full netbook or notebook," said Kevin Andrew, who is on the Streak's development team, in the video.

What's in a name, anyway?
Why does it matter whether you call the Streak a smartphone or a tablet? It probably doesn't matter that much, except that something with a little of both is hard for some people to digest, including analysts such as Gartner Inc.'s Ken Dulaney.

"I find this product is in an odd size category that I do not believe will produce significant volume," Dulaney said via e-mail. "It is definitely not a smartphone, and the screen is only half the diagonal of the iPad, which is obviously successful."

Apple sold 1 million iPads in a little more than a month.

Dulaney said that Intel Corp. had called such "tweener" devices MIDs, for mobile Internet devices, but the concept basically fell flat. "Intel got many manufacturers to make such devices with little success," Dulaney said.

"So Dell has to convince the market that this product has some significant feature set over the iPad and that it's not a fourth computer [category]," he said.

Dulaney said the software in the Streak is also going to have to be competitive with the iPad's offerings.

Dell has said it will be possible to upgrade the Streak to the Android 2.2 operating system later this year, enabling it to support Flash 10.1 and video chat, among other features. The Streak's fast 1-GHz Snapdragon processor and its two cameras, front and rear, would make video chat possible.

PC Magazine's Lance Ulanoff declared the Streak was not a tablet and more like a phone.

Meanwhile, independent IT industry analyst Rob Enderle noted in a column at TGDaily on Wednesday that he had carried the Streak around for months and had found that it was better than both the iPad and the iPhone.

"It is both small enough to be a phone and big enough to do a number of things the iPad does acceptably well," Enderle wrote.

A major factor in Streak's favor, Enderle noted, is that it runs on Android. Android-based devices are close to matching the iPhone's success, he said, and Android could actually attract more developers than iPhone OS.

However, Enderle noted that "there may never really be a one-size-fits-all market." The Streak, he said, is "just the beginning of what we want in a tablet/smartphone, and it may be years until the right size and combination of technologies come to market."

Enderle said he bets there will be other devices in the class of the Streak coming shortly.

Putting aside questions about whether the Streak is a tablet or a smartphone, some analysts have said the device's success will depend on other factors, including Dell's strong brand and reputation and superior ability to market and sell products.

Analyst Jack Gold of J.Gold Associates LLC said on Tuesday that the Streak will do well in the short term, partly because Dell's brand recognition could help differentiate the device from dozens of other upcoming Android devices.

While some bloggers theorized AT&T will carry the Streak in the U.S., Dell has not commented officially on U.S. carriers, nor has it announced pricing or a release date -- except to say that the Streak would arrive "later this summer."

The Dell Streak will first appear in early June in the U.K. at 02 stores and at online retail sites, including Dell's U.K. site later in June.

Intel eyes hardware acceleration for Google's WebM

Intel is considering hardware-based acceleration for Google's new WebM video file format in its Atom-based TV chips if the format gains popularity, an Intel executive said on Thursday.

Google last week announced the high-definition WebM video file format to deliver high-quality Web video to multiple devices including TV sets and handhelds. WebM files will include video streams compressed with the open-source VP8 video codec, which was acquired by Google when it bought On2 Technologies in February.

"Just like we did with other codecs like MPEG2, H.264 & VC1, if VP8 establishes itself in the Smart TV space, we will add it to our [hardware] decoders," said Wilfred Martis, general manager for retail consumer electronics at Intel's Digital Home Group.

Intel is working with Google to bring Internet video to TV sets through the Google TV platform, which will blend broadcast TV and Internet content into one interface. Google will supply the software, and the service will be available later this year in some Sony high-definition TVs and Blu-ray DVD players, for which Intel will supply the highly optimized Atom CE4100 chip.

Intel declined to comment on how the lack of hardware acceleration in the CE4100 chips will affect the Google TV project. Google owns YouTube, which is one of the largest video sites on the Internet.

Intel's CE4100 TV chips will be able to decode and play back WebM files using software, Martis said. However, hardware acceleration could provide higher-quality video through faster decoding while consuming less power.

Intel has been trying to woo major TV makers and consumer electronics companies to use the Atom CE4100 chip. The chip includes a processor core that can run at clock speeds of up to 1.2GHz and is capable of decoding two 1080p video streams. The chips are in production, and the company has said it has received orders for more than a million.

A number of hardware and software vendors announced support for the WebM file format, but Intel was not on that list. Mozilla, Microsoft and Opera Software were some of the early vendors to jump on board, and chip maker Broadcom said its VideoCore IV smartphone processor would provide hardware acceleration for WebM video files.

Border searches of laptops may be conducted off-site for cause, court rules

In recent cases, U.S. courts have supported the government's right to search the contents of computers and other electronic devices carried by travelers arriving at U.S borders.

A federal court in Michigan this week added that if such a search could not be performed at the border, the government has the right to seize and transport a computer to a secondary inspection facility, as long as there's reasonable suspicion.

The issue of border laptop searches is important for business travelers who arrive at U.S airports carrying computers they use for work. Privacy advocates, security analysts and others have expressed concern that such searches could result in the exposure of sensitive company or customer data. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has previously asserted its right to inspect, copy or download the contents of computers or other electronic devices belonging to travelers at U.S. borders even without cause.

The federal court's ruling was first reported by the Web site FourthAmendment.com. The ruling was in response to a motion filed by the defendant in a child pornography case, who alleged that U.S. customs officials violated his Fourth Amendment rights when they took away one of his computers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

The defendant, Theodore Stewart, is charged with transporting child pornography on two laptop computers that were in his possession when he arrived at the Detroit airport after a trip to Indonesia last May. According to court papers, a U.S. immigration and customs agent discovered images that appeared to depict child pornography on one of Stewart's computers during a secondary inspection of his belongings at the airport.

Customs officials were unable to immediately inspect the other computer, however, because its battery was damaged and no adapter was available to power up the system. Both computers were seized, and Stewart was allowed to go after being informed that the seized devices were being transported to a separate forensic facility for inspection.

Stewart was later charged with transporting child pornography based on evidence gathered from both computers during the inspection at the secondary facility. To do the inspection on the second computer, forensics agents had to remove the hard disk and mount it on another system.

Stewart sought to have the evidence from the second computer suppressed. In a brief, Stewart argued that while the initial inspection of one computer at the airport may have been valid, the seizure of the second computer and its inspection at the forensic facility amounted to an unreasonable, extended border search. Stewart also claimed that the evidence found on the second computer was discovered in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable seizure and search.

The government contended that the search at the forensic facility was a continuation of the search at Detroit airport. Having found what appeared to be evidence of child pornography on one computer, it was reasonable to suspect that the other one might also contain such content, the government said. It claimed that the search of the second computer was no different than multiple entries being made into a premises using a single search warrant.

In a 10-page ruling, Judge David Lawson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan said he could not fully accept either argument.

"Removing the laptops from the point of entry into the country and transporting them to a remote forensic laboratory may result in an intrusion greater than one might reasonably expect upon entering or re-entering the United States," Lawson wrote. Stewart was therefore correct in arguing that he was subjected to an extended border search, the judge wrote.

However, the search of the computer was valid, because agents clearly had reason to believe it might contain child pornography based on their inspection of the first computer at the airport, Lawson said.

In dismissing Stewart's motion to suppress evidence from the second computer, the judge also stressed that the search was only justified because the government was able to show "a particularized and objective" basis for suspicion in the case. The fact that the inspections were conducted within a day of the computers being seized also made it a reasonable search, he said.

"There comes a point when the passage of time or other circumstances can transform a seizure of property reasonable at its outset into an unreasonable intrusion," he said. But in this case that did not happen, Lawson wrote

Australian agency hits U.S. carriers over wireless patents

The Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) is suing three of the largest U.S. mobile operators, charging they infringed a patent by selling wireless LAN products.

CSIRO last year settled with 14 wireless LAN vendors, including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, after suing them in 2005 over the same patent. The current lawsuits, filed in late February in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Texas, target AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA.

CSIRO is a government-funded research institute with facilities all over Australia. It claims ownership of U.S. Patent No. 5,487,069, issued in 1996, entitled "Wireless LAN," which it claims covers fundamental aspects of the IEEE 802.11a,b,g and n standards.

In the three lawsuits filed in February, CSIRO is going after companies that are primarily sellers rather than makers of Wi-Fi products. In three separate complaints, CSIRO alleges each mobile operator is knowingly infringing the patent because it informed them about the infringement last year.

The agency is seeking unspecified damages as well as injunctions to stop the carriers from selling infringing products. CSIRO wants a jury to hear the case. One exception to the complaints is that the allegedly infringing products don't include those made with Intel chips. Intel was one of the companies that settled with CSIRO last year.

Verizon issued an answer to CSIRO's complaint last week in which it denied that the patent was "duly and legally issued for inventions" and that it had infringed "any valid enforceable claim" of the patent. T-Mobile also answered the suit, denying it has infringed the patent and that CSIRO has full ownership of it. As of last week, AT&T had not filed an answer to the complaint. All three carriers declined to comment on the case.

At the time of its 2005 lawsuit, CSIRO said it had offered to license the technology to vendors on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms but was turned down. Its legal actions at one point raised concerns over completion of the IEEE 802.11n standard.

The standards board of the IEEE said in 2007 that the approval of 802.11n was at risk because CSIRO hadn't provided a requested form letter in which contributors to a standard state how they will license their technology. The 802.11n standard was approved in September 2009.

AT&T and Verizon are the largest mobile operators in the U.S., and T-Mobile is the fourth-largest. All three sell smartphones equipped with Wi-Fi and include Wi-Fi hotspots as part of their wireless data offerings.

In 2007, T-Mobile provided free Wi-Fi routers through its hotspot@home service, which let subscribers make unlimited calls via Wi-Fi with T-Mobile phones that have the technology. Other companies that settled with CSIRO last year included Netgear, Toshiba, 3Com, Nintendo, D-Link and Buffalo Technologies.

Is there a replacement for Facebook?

Facebook claims to have more than 400 million active users. In fact, according to Web analytics firm Alexa, only Google is a more popular site. So, with all that going for it, why are so many users unhappy, with one poll showing that more than half of Facebook users are thinking about leaving?

The one-word answer: privacy. By default, Facebook has made almost everything on your account open to the world. You can lock down your Facebook account, but it's a tedious process.

New tools unveiled this week are designed to make this easier, but the next time Facebook changes its policies and system, you may need to do it all over again. There are also external tools that can check out just how secure your account is, but again, when Facebook changes its software, they may not work.

Last Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally admitted that Facebook has made some mistakes. Some users are staying put despite their distrust of the company. But others think it's too little too late and are talking loudly about leaving. There's even a group that has announced that May 31 is Quit Facebook Day.

Will a significant percentage of Facebook users actually leave? No matter its faults, Facebook has a huge user base, and those users, in turn, have all their friends on the service, all their photos and, yes, even all their Farmville farms. Will that many people really want to abandon Facebook and start all over with a new platform?

They have before. In social networking's early days -- all of five years ago -- Friendster, MySpace and Xanga all had their days in the sun. Now those once-popular social networks are in decline.

There are, of course, the other existing social networks. But some, like MySpace and LiveJournal, seem to have missed their moment. Others, such as the professional-oriented LinkedIn, have established a specific niche or, like Twitter, address different needs.

The alternatives
A group of would-be Facebook replacements have recently raised their hands, hoping that enough disenchanted users will see them as viable alternatives. Some are already out there, some are in beta, and some have hardly gotten past the "what-if" stage.

Who are these players, and do any of them have what it takes to become the next big social network?

Appleseed
While this open-source project is still in beta, it's an interesting take on social networking. Instead of being under the control of one company and one set of administrators, Appleseed works via a distributed server software package tied together with the ASN (Appleseed Social Network).

That means that as a user, you select and log into an Appleseed site. Once there, you connect with friends, send messages, share photos and videos, join discussions and participate in all the usual social networking stuff. Don't like the specific Appleseed site you're on? Then sign up for a different one and, according to the site, "immediately reconnect with everyone in your network."

It sounds good, but I can't help but notice that even though the program is officially in beta, I couldn't find any ASN sites to log into yet.

In a recent New York Times article, Michael Chisari, an Appleseed developer, said that the project is six months away from opening its doors to the public. It looks promising, but I'm not holding my breath on seeing Appleseed give Facebook serious competition anytime soon.

Diaspora
Diaspora, for all the headlines it's gotten, is still not much more than an idea. Mind you, with almost $200,000 of support from thousands of donors at Kickstarter.com, it's also a very popular idea.

Technically, Diaspora sounds a lot like Appleseed. It's also going to be built from open-source software, and it's going to be a distributed network server application. More power to them, but at least Appleseed already has some code.

The first Diaspora code release is slated for September.

2010 Lamborghini Gallardo

MSRP
$205,000 - $229,100
Invoice
Not Available

The 2010 Gallardo is a 2-door, 2-passenger luxury sports car, or convertible sports car, available in 4 trims,... read more ranging from the LP560-4 Coupe to the LP570-4 Superleggera.

Upon introduction, the LP560-4 Coupe is equipped with a standard 5.2-liter, V10, 560-horsepower engine that achieves 12-mpg in the city and 20-mpg on the highway. A 6-speed manual transmission with overdrive is standard, and a 6-speed automatic transmission with overdrive is optional. The LP570-4 Superleggera is equipped with a standard 5.2-liter, V10, 570-horsepower engine that achieves 14-mpg in the city and 20-mpg on the highway. A 6-speed automatic transmission with overdrive is standard, and a 6-speed manual transmission with overdrive is optional.

The 2010 LP560-4 Coupe is a carryover from 2009. The LP570-4 Superleggera has been reskinned for 2010.

2011 Hyundai Sonata

MSRP
$19,195 - $25,295
Invoice
$18,390 - $23,648

The 2011 Sonata is a 4-door, 5-passenger family sedan, available in 6 trims, ranging from the GLS Manual to... read more the Limited Auto PZEV.

Upon introduction, the GLS Manual is equipped with a standard 2.4-liter, I4, 198-horsepower engine. A 6-speed manual transmission with overdrive is standard. The Limited Auto PZEV is equipped with a standard 2.4-liter, I4, 190-horsepower engine that achieves 23-mpg in the city and 35-mpg on the highway. A 6-speed automatic transmission with overdrive is standard.

The 2011 Sonata is redesigned for 2011.