Ed Sutherland - page 96

Mac software maker Adobe Wednesday announced it will eliminate 600 jobs as the company blames weak consumer demand and the U.S. recession for less-than-expected fourth quarter revenue.

The San Jose, Calif.-based firm projected it would earn between $912 million to $915 million for the quarter ended Nov. 28, far below the $930 million Wall Street expected. Adobe had earlier estimated revenue between $925 million to $955 million.

Weaker than expected demand for Adobe’s Creative Suite 4, released in October, was given as one reason for the shortfall.

Wal-Mart may be set to sell a 4GB iPhone for $99, Starting Dec. 28, the BoyGenius Website suggested Thursday. The move would mark the return of the iPhone version dropped in 2007 in favor of the 8GB iPhone.

Although BG told readers to take the tip with a grain of salt, reviving the once $399 iPhone comes as handset makers struggle against tightening consumer spending.

“Anyone looking to spend $99 on an iPhone probably doesn’t care that much about storage anyway,” according to the blog.

If true, the action would jive with analysts who have suggested Apple could cut the iPhone’s price to $99. In October, Needham Research’s Charlie Wolf said Apple’s high margins would permit a 50 percent price drop, increasing the marketshare of the already popular iPhone.

The $99 iPhone would require a two-year contract. In October, BG wrote that the iPhone would appear Nov. 15 on Wal-Mart shelves.

With Mac clone maker Psystar potentially on the legal ropes, Apple may now be looking for the South Florida company’s unknown backers identified Tuesday as only “John Does 1 through 10.”

In an amended complaint against Psystar, Apple refers to the new defendants as “various individuals and/or corporations who have infringed Apple’s intellectual property rights” and the Cupertino, Calif. company’s user licensing.

Miami-based Psystar’s emergence and its retainer of antitrust experts Carr & Ferrell has “always been a bit puzzling,” wrote CNET’s Tom Krazit Wednesday.

There is an apparent shortage of iPods in the wake of surprisingly strong demand for Apple’s portable music players on Black Friday.

At Amazon.com, the wait time for 8GB second-generation iPod touchs has stretched to three to five weeks, up from 11 days. The same for the 16GB version, according to Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu.

During the Black Friday weekend, Amazon was offering iPods at an 11 percent discount.

The shortages were also found at Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart and others.

An early version of Windows 7, Microsoft’s follow-up to its ho-hum Vista operating software, may appear at a developers conference in mid-January.

Developers attending the 11-city one-day MSDN Developer Conferences will either be mailed or will receive the new software Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer touts as “Windows Vista, a lot better.”

Microsoft has said it would unveil Windows 7 in 2009.

Another wrinkle in the spy-vs-spy Mac security game appeared Wednesday when a Mac Trojan Horse attempted to disguise itself by naming a file “intego,” a reference to company.

Intego said the OSX.RSPlug.E trojan horse carries a medium-level risk for Mac users, making it the fifth version of the malware first discovered in 2007. In November, the developers outlined RSPlug.D, a trojan horse which downloaded a malicious file.

Like the most recent version, OSX.RSPlug.E entices Mac users with pornographic sites that insist a “missing Video ActiveX Object” must be downloaded in order to view a video. The infected download then contacts a malicious remote server.

Unlike previous versions of the Trojan, two .dmg archives: FlashPlayer.v3.348.dmg or FlashPlayer.v.dmg, create an encoded file named “intego” with read and write permission.

Apple has filed two patents bringing liquid-cooling to increasingly powerful (and hot) laptop computers. Once the domain of massive number-crunchers, liquid-cooled notebooks foresee a day when quad-core processors and better video overwhelms current fan-driven cooling.

In its U.S. Patent Office applications, the Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple outlined an active and passive liquid-cooling process.

The active liquid-cooling process involves bathing circuits, the heat relieved via fins. A more inexpensive passive liquid-cooling procedure would include a heat sink located behind the laptop’s display. Moving the heat away from the computer’s body could solve the dilemma of an overheated lap.

Apple now has 16.6 percent of the world smartphone marketshare, one analyst said Tuesday. The iPhone became the “only reason” why the global smartphone market didn’t enter a deeper slump, Needham analyst Charlie Wolf said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, handset giant Nokia fell from 63.3 percent of the smartphone marketshare to 43.6 percent for the September quarter.

The global numbers reflect the U.S. market standings which puts the iPhone’s 30 percent in second place to RIM’s 40 percent.

IBM is asking to interview several unnamed Apple executives in its court case to block former executive Mark Papermaster joining the Cupertino, Calif. based company.

According to court records filed with U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Karas, IBM seeks to speak with several “senior executives of nonparty Apple Inc,”

Apple CEO Steve Jobs and senior vice president Tony Fadell were among those who interviewed Papermaster.

Apple has added a new wrinkle to its copyright infringement lawsuit against Florida-based Psystar. The Cupertino-based media company now claims the Mac clone-maker violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

In a revised claim filed Nov. 26, Apple charged Psystar “has illegally circumvented Apple’s technological copyright-protection measures,” according to Computerworld.

Apple also named 10 new unnamed defendants, listed only as John Doe 1 through 10.

The amended allegations to the original lawsuit filed in July, charges Psystar also sold a restore disk that Apple claims allows users to install the Mac OS X operating system against the license agreement.

Apple is pushing for wider third-party adoption of its new Mini DisplayPort display connector by offering free licensing of the specification, Monday reports said.

In an updated designed for “systems where space is at a minimum, such as portable computers or to support multiple connectors on reduced height add-in cards.”

The news follows last week’s uproar by MacBook users who complained of problems watching videos on monitors that didn’t support the DisplayPort protocol.

Apple wrestled more computer users from the grasp of Microsoft, according to a November survey of Web users released Monday. Macs comprise nearly 9 percent of computers online, Net Applications announced.

The November marketshare of 8.82 percent is an increase over Cupertino’s 8.21 percent share NA reported in October.

Conversely, Microsoft’s share of Internet usage fell in November. Windows fell to 89.69 percent of online users, slipping below the nine-out-of-10 marketshare Redmond has enjoyed for years.

In spite of the general economic downturn, ‘Black Friday’ sales of Apple computers were “better than expected,” analysts told investors Monday.

Like past Black Friday sales, Apple offered discounts on seven products with an 8 percent discount.

However, Mac sales we more than six times what they were in November, according to Piper Jaffray. Analyst Gene Munster said an average of 13 Macs per hour were sold Friday compared to two computers per hour in November. Munster based his numbers on 10 hours of monitoring five Apple retail stores.

Apple could release an $800 netbook in 2009, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster told investors Tuesday. Munster is just the latest advising the Cupertino, Calif. computer maker to offer an inexpensive laptop.

Although CEO Steve Jobs has poo-poohed talk of a netbook, dismissing the growing trend as just a “nascent market,” Munster believes Apple has the perfect platform: the MacBook Air.

In a note to clients, the Apple watcher said Apple could release an 11-inch version of its MacBook Air notebook and sell the unit for between $800 to $1,000.

For Beatles fans looking to download the iconic British rockers from Apple’s iTunes, it appears its going to be another ‘Hard Days Night.’ Paul McCartney now says negotiations are at a stand-still.

“The last word I got back was it’s stalled at the whole moment, the whole process,” the musician told the Associated Press.

The sticking point, according to McCartney is EMI, which owns the Beatles song catalog, and Apple Corps, a holding company run by surviving members of the UK band.

Apple shares climbed 12.5 percent Monday to close at $92.77 amid bullish analysts who saw demand for MacBooks breaking from the trend to lower expectations.

Despite reducing expectations on iPhone and Mac desktops sales for 2009, several Apple analysts told clients they expected sales of new MacBooks to increase.

On Monday, Oppenheimer’s Yar Reiner raised his projection for MacBook demand to 1.61 million, up from 1.54 million. Reiner pointed to the new unibody construction for his increased enthusiasm.

The developers behind Boxee, the social media center that distributes video content between your computer and TV, announced Monday a fix for Apple’s recent update of AppleTV.

The fix, outlined on Boxee forums, replaces a manual hack to get the application working after disabled by Apple TV 2.3, which Apple released last week.

In a blog post, the Boxee team provided instructions on how to update the USB Creator application. So far, around 35,000 people have downloaded the fix.

Boxee, which includes CBS, Netflix and Hulu among partners, recently received $4 million in venture funding.

Last week, Apple released update 2.3 for its AppleTV devices. Among the new features introduced: AirTunes streaming and wider iTunes support.

Apple faces new lawsuits over its popular aledgedly, including one asking a court to award $5 million because of advertising claims.

San Diego, Calif. resident Peter Keller named both Apple and AT&T in a lawsuit alleging fraud and deceit. Keller’s lawsuit charges the maker of the iPhone 3G and its exclusive American carrier, created false and misleading advertising claims regarding the speed of the 3G network.

“Apple and AT&T have engaged in a collaborated scheme to deceive plantiff and other consumers, since the iPhone 3G and AT&T 3G Network is faulty and rarely provides 3G connectivity to its customers,” the lawsuit reads.

The week on Wall Street kicked off with a mix of projections for iPhone sales. On Apple desktops, there was consensus: 2009 will be the year of the notebook.

Continuing the revised iPhone outlooks of last week, Openheimer nearly cut in half its expectations for the December quarter, projecting 4.8 million iPhone sales will be reported for the quarter, down from analyst Yair Reiner’s previous 7.5 million. Reiner also cut his forecast of yearly iPhone sales to 21.3 million from 27 million.

At the other end of the spectrum were analysts which announced bullish expectations for iPhone sales. J.P. Morgan expert Mark Moskowitz foresees 26.7 million handsets sold in 2009 while Thomas Weisel’s Doug Reid told clients he felt 24.8 million iPhones would sell next year, upping his previous projection of 22.5 million sold.

While there was little agreement on future iPhone demand, no analyst disputed that desktops sales are headed lower as laptops grow in popularity.

Lay-offs have become common as a winter cold as companies from New York to Silicon Valley cope with the ailing economy. But Apple, in its inimitable way, is hoping a bit of employee shuffling will prevent any more pink slips.

Friday, Palm confirmed it would drop employees from the Treo maker, telling CNET the move was made due to “challenges facing our company and the industry.” Although Palm didn’t mention the number of layoffs, Silicon Valley blog Valleyway put the figure at 1,050.

Apple, despite recently eating into Palm’s marketshare, hasn’t escaped worrying about a slowdown in consumer demand for gadgets. However, instead of jobs cuts, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is experimenting with reduced hours for its sales staff and extra duty for Apple Store workers more accustom to answering support questions or tackling creative tasks.

What does it cost to hold an employee’s future on ice? IBM reportedly has paid $3 million in exchange for a preliminary injunction stopping Mark Papermaster from joining Apple.

Last week, Federal District Court Judge Kenneth M. Karas determined Papermaster, a 25-year veteran of New York-based IBM cannot join Apple as the Cupertino, Calif. firm’s senior vice president of hardware engineering.

Along with granting the preliminary injunction, the New York judge required IBM to post a $3 million security bond to ensure any losses by Papermaster while the court challenge is underway. Before the injunction, Apple had announced Papermaster’s hiring and set a salary.

Worldwide PC sales will see only a single-digit increase in 2009 with growth next year reaching only 4.3 percent – a nearly 75 percent reduction over prior expectations of a 11.9 percent increase, a research firm announced Thursday.

The picture for Apple sales appears brighter than the glum outlook for overall PC demand. Earlier this week, Piper Jaffray’s Apple watcher Gene Munster said he expects Mac sales to grow 8 percent to 16 percent when Apple reports in December.

Researchers at iSuppli said the drastically lower expectations were due to the embattled economy.

Apple, long viewed as primarily consumer-oriented, now supplies more smartphones to corporations, taking the No. 2 spot from Palm’s Treo and breathing down the neck of RIM, according to a survey released Thursday.

Apple’s iPhone now has 14 percent of the corporate market. Palm’s Treo fell to 11 percent and third place while RIM’s BlackBerry held 76 percent of the market, according to a ChangeWave Research survey of IT spending plans.

Apple’s gains came mostly at the expense of Palm, which lost 4 percent of its marketshare to the iPhone. Meanwhile, RIM saw its lead trimmed by one point.

Although one analyst described the iPhone as often just corporate bling, the shifting numbers indicate an attempt to keep ahead of the curve in terms of the iPhone in a business.

“IT managers don’t want to be caught flat-footed,” Kevin Burden, ABI Research’s chief wireless analyst, told Cult of Mac.

Microsoft, a day after slashing prices of its Zune media player, Thursday threw a bone to fans of DRM-free music, offering a $15 per month Zune Pass subscription for essentially $5.

Microsoft said it would allow Zune Pass subscribers to keep 10 songs (worth around $10) per month that they can own, even if the subscription ends. Previously, copy-protection meant songs downloaded from the Zune marketplace would be disabled if the $15 per month subscription service expired.

“People want the freedom to listen to whatever they want across millions of songs, combined with the confidence that they can keep their favorite tracks forever,” Chris Stephenson, Zune’s general manager of global marketing, said in statement.

Apple has filed a patent application to add always-on status indicators to the iPhone. The innovation would address a common task for cell phones but a headache for owners of the touch-screen handset.

In most flip-phones and even other touch-screen devices, users can instantly know when they’ve missed a call or received a voice-mail message. However, for iPhone users, it requires turning on the phone and going into settings to retrieve the information.