Samsung Set For Record Profit, THANKS GSIII

Our favourite Korean consumer electronics behemoth, Samsung, looks set to post another record quarterly profit on the back of its latest offering the 4G Galaxy SIII smartphone and Galaxy Note tab/phone hybrid.

The company is forecasting a $AU7 billion September-quarter profit, off the back of $45 billion in 3 month sales. That profit forecast is slightly ahead of the average forecast by 16 analysts surveyed by Reuters. Samsung shares were up 0.3 per cent in early Korean trade, and are up almost 30 per cent so far this year.

Analysts say provisions for the $US1 billion payout to Apple for patent breaches, as well as increased competition from Apple’s iPhone 5 are likely to see Samsung’s profit tail off a little in the last quarter of the year to somewhere closer to $AU6 billion :: Read the full article »»»»

Sifteo Cubes Update

Around the same time last year we announced the immanent release of Sifteo Cubes Intelligent Play – Sifteo Cubes! The New Face of Smart Games - a clever little system where the timeless concept of building blocks where given a thoroughly modern makeover. Überclever cubes sporting a touch-sensitive color LCD display, onboard sensing technology, embedded computer, games, puzzles sent wirelessly from a handy PC or laptop.

Sifteo’s clever system has just been treated to an update.

The addition of a new Sifteo Base to the system allows players of the next generation system to venture beyond the radio range of the previous version. The maximum number of cubes available for gameplay has also been doubled for more complex puzzles, to unlock new levels or just to get more family members involved in the action.

The addition of the Sifteo Base completely eliminates the need for a nearby computer during gameplay by allowing game storage on the compact unit itself and wirelessly communicate with the Cubes. The base is battery-powered for portability as well as featuring built-in speakers for in-game audio.

Punters can buy and add games to the base unit using Sifteo Sync desktop software  - via pc –  as the name suggests, the new games automatically download to the Sifteo Base when it’s plugged into your pc :: Read the full article »»»»

OOPS! Microsoft Posts First Ever Loss, Half a Billion Dollars Misplaced?

That behemoth that is Microsoft – under the steerage of Steve Ballmer – has reported its FIRST EVER quarterly loss as a publicly listed company.

The company misplaced almost half a billion dollars – $US492 million – in the fourth quarter due to a massive $US6.2 billion write-down related to its 2007 acquisition of aQuantive, a digital advertising firm aimed at helping Microsoft compete against Google and others.

The news is dire, not deathly though, Microsoft still posted an annual profit of $US16.98 billion and said the results reflected “solid revenue growth and rigorous cost discipline”.

In stark contrast, that other behemoth, Google, has reported an 11 per cent jump in second quarter profit to $US2.79 billion. Google said the result was boosted by a 21 per cent jump in revenues from its internet sites.

Three Decades of Minitel, French Proto Internet Dead

More than three decades after it’s 1978 launched, Minitel, a French forerunner to the internet we know and love today – at its height was installed in 9 million French homes – will shut down for good tomorrow.

Once at the cutting edge of technology, the Minitel allowed users in France to check the news, search phone directories, buy train and plane tickets, make restaurant reservations and even take part in online sex chats long before similar services existed elsewhere.

The advent of the internet made the Minitel’s dial-up connection and black-and-white screen obsolete, despite some pretty vocal protests, Minitel’s operator France Telecom-Orange has decided to finally pull the plug.

Developed by France Telecom in the 1970s and freely distributed, the Minitel reached its height in the early 1990s, with 26,000 services available and annual revenues of about a billion euros, about $AU1.2 billion.

Today only about 400,000 terminals are still in use, many of its services – including booking Air France and railway tickets – have been discontinued and in 2010 the system brought in only 30 million euros in revenues. With 85 per cent of those revenues going to service providers, France Telecom has decided the cost of maintaining the network is no longer financially viable :: Read the full article »»»»

SPAIN: Anonymous Hackers Arrested

Spain and three South American countries have arrested 25 suspected hackers associated with the Anonymous activist group on accusations of defacing government and corporate websites, officials said. Spanish police also accused one of four suspects picked up in the cities of Madrid and Malaga of releasing personal data about police officers and bodyguards protecting Spain’s royal family and the prime minister.Other arrests were in Argentina, Chile and Colombia, and 250 items of computer equipment and mobile phones were seized across 15 cities, Interpol said.

It said Colombia’s Ministry of Defence and presidential websites as well as Chile’s Endesa electricity company were among the targets of the hackers. The loosely organised group Anonymous is suspected of being behind coordinated computer hacking against institutions, multinationals and government organisations across the world.

“These cyber attacks were sometimes individual actions but they were supported by many people who joined forces and knowledge to commit them,” Spanish police said in a statement. ”Those arrested … had a high level of knowledge of information technology.”

Earlier this month, anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks began publishing more than 5 million emails from US-based global security analysis company Stratfor believed to have been obtained by Anonymous supporters. Read the full article »»»»