DailyFinance.comhttp://www.dailyfinance.comDailyFinance.comhttp://o.aolcdn.com/os/df/2013/img/2-dailyfinance_logo_m.pngDailyFinance.comhttp://www.dailyfinance.comen-usCopyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Facebook's New Feature Wants You to Like the Webhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/04/21/facebooks-new-feature-wants-you-to-like-the-web/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/04/21/facebooks-new-feature-wants-you-to-like-the-web/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/04/21/facebooks-new-feature-wants-you-to-like-the-web/#commentsFiled under: ,

he social networking site Facebook on Wednesday expanded and simplified the ways in which people can use its service to express their interests and intentions online.The social networking site Facebook on Wednesday expanded and simplified the ways in which people can use its service to express their interests and intentions online. The plans, announced during the company's developer conference in San Francisco, are designed to make the Web "instantly personal and social," says CEO Mark Zuckerberg (pictured).

New Facebook "social plugins" will allow sites outside Facebook to incorporate more than just the company's omnipresent "Share" buttons. The company will now offer outside sites the ability to use its "Like" feature, a button that, when clicked, adds a link to that page or site to your Facebook profile and announces your interest to your Facebook friends.

The ability to create such expressions and communicate them is already available in countless online forums. Facebook's coup has been to gradually convince more people to express themselves through its service, centralizing the information under its umbrella and creating a powerful central destination for both its users and the advertisers that want to reach them.

A Monstrous Database

The end result of this monetizable, monstrous database of people's interests and relationships is what Zuckerberg calls the "Open Graph," a world in which connections, actions and intent are neatly labeled, such as when people elucidate their social connections through becoming Facebook "friends," express their intent to attend an event or express their interest in a band by "Liking" it.

"These connection aren't just happening on Facebook," said Zuckerberg. "They're happening all over the Web. Today, with the open graph, we're going to bring all of these together."

The company expects to serve 1 billion Like buttons on the Web in the first 24 hours of launching it late Wednesday.

Watchdogs Are Barking

The new features, dubbed "instant personalization" in Facebook's Privacy Settings panel, will be able to access any information users have made visible to the all-encompassing "everyone" group in their Facebook networks as well as all publicly available information.

For many of Facebook's users, that means they'll be sharing their name, profile picture, gender, current city, networks, friend list and pages with any Facebook-enhanced application or website they visit.

That has raised the hackles of watchdogs like the American Civil Liberties Union. The legal group said in a blog posting Wednesday that it "isn't clear whether users will have real control over how their connections are shared" and that while Facebook users may be able to may be able to "hide" their social connections from other Facebook users, they still have no protection from "government, advertisers, or anyone else with the ability and incentive to create apps or pages."

Users Concerned, Publishers Pleased

"If you quit Facebook, will you soon be isolating yourself from the rest of the web?" former SplashCast Media CEO Mike Berkley asked his followers on Twitter.

An anonymous commenter, "derek_mashable," on the social media news site Mashable claimed to do just that, following the announcement: "Looks like every 3rd party site may soon have access to your public profile when you visit their site. This is scary to me," the person wrote.

Other users around the Web have voiced concern about updates to Facebook's privacy policies, which include the reminder that opting out of the "Open Graph" instant personalization still means "your friends may still share public Facebook information about you to personalize their experience on these partner sites unless you block the application" -an action that takes additional steps to complete.

Such concerns haven't appeared to bother some of the web's most popular publishers, including CNN.com and The Washington Post online, both of which now display a list of stories your Facebook friends have indicated their interest in by clicking "Like" buttons on the sites. Microsoft too has gotten into the game, launching an experimental social document sharing service called Docs.com

More than 400 Million Strong

There are more than 400 million people on Facebook, Zuckerberg reported at the conference. That's huge growth since this time last year, when the company reported having about 100 million users. At that time, the company announced Facebook Connect, a package of features designed retrain the focus of on the Web instead of on social networks themselves.

Zuckerberg called the features announced Wednesday "the most transformative thing we have ever done for the Web."

The company is seeing especially fast growth in the number of users accessing the site from mobile devices, Zuckerberg said. About 36 million people are using Facebook via mobile devices, while about 55 million use Facebook.com

Becoming More Open

Facebook is also becoming more open to having its content searched by outside developers, said Bret Taylor, head of Facebook Platform products. Developers outside the company can now create applications that can search for people and events news feed items.

Facebook provided updates on the company's developer tools and programs, such as Facebook Credits, a virtual currency system currently in beta testing with 100 developers.

"Our goal with credits is to make it so people can use a single currency in every app that they use," said Zuckerberg.

"We're building towards a Web where the default is social," he said.

This story was updated on April 22, 2010.

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]]>Mark Zuckerbergsocial networkingMichael FitzhughWed, 21 Apr 2010 18:00:00 ESTSeas of Spam Keep Rising, Despite Efforts to Hold Back the Floodhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/04/18/seas-of-spam-keep-rising-despite-efforts-to-hold-back-the-flood/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/04/18/seas-of-spam-keep-rising-despite-efforts-to-hold-back-the-flood/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/04/18/seas-of-spam-keep-rising-despite-efforts-to-hold-back-the-flood/#commentsFiled under: ,

computer networkThe amount of junk email targeting your inbox is growing, keeping pace with the swelling tide of all messages, good and bad, sent your way. Overall spam volumes grew 6% in the first quarter of 2010, compared to the same period in 2009, according to analysis by Google's (GOOG) email security and archiving unit, Postini.

Looking at consecutive quarters yields a brighter picture, with total spam volumes falling by 12% between the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010.

Rebounding Spammers

Postini's Gopal Shah shared the statistics on the company's enterprise blog. Google, through Postini, touches more than 3 billion email connections per day, putting it in a great spot to monitor global spam volumes.

Spammers are resilient, too. Several big, high-profile networks of hijacked PCs, pressed into service as spam dispensaries, known as botnets, were crippled or shutdown by security experts in early 2010. But global spam levels held relatively steady over the course of 2010's first quarter.

Other spam enablers, such as rogue Internet service providers, have also been targeted by antispam crusaders, but to little effect. Despite the successful closures of spam promulgators such as Triple Fiber Network (dubbed "the worst domestic ISP in terms of hosting criminal activity" by one security researcher) and Real Host, spam levels have rebounded quickly every time, says Shah.

Cheap Drugs, Gossip, and Money Scams

Google's survey of the daily digital barrage shows junk emails tend to be solicitations for cheap drugs, hot celebrity gossip and breaking news. A similar assessment by private competitor Barracuda Networks adds solicitations for replica products, illegal ads and money scams to the list.

On Thursday, Barracuda had reported blocking 1.4 billion spam message so far, approaching the 1.8 billion it blocked Wednesday. At the gates of your inbox, the battle continues.

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]]>Barracudaemailgooglejunk mailpostinispamspammersMichael FitzhughSun, 18 Apr 2010 10:15:00 ESTEager SF Buyers, Including Steve Wozniak, Line Up for iPadshttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/04/03/eager-buyers-including-steve-wozniak-line-up-for-ipads-in/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/04/03/eager-buyers-including-steve-wozniak-line-up-for-ipads-in/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/04/03/eager-buyers-including-steve-wozniak-line-up-for-ipads-in/#commentsFiled under: , ,

San Francisco Apple store on iPad release dayHundreds of the earliest of West Coast early adopters lined up outside San Francisco's downtown Apple (AAPL) store Friday night and early Saturday morning to pick up the first models of the company's new iPad tablet computer.

For $499 to $699, they walked away with the second coming of Apple's first tablet, the MessagePad, supercharged by more than 15 years of technological, marketing and design progress. (Check out this timeline of Apple's iDynasty.) By year's end, Apple could sell as many as 3 million to 4 million iPads, if the Wall Street consensus is correct.

Hardy Buyers

With iPad-release enthusiasm reminiscent of the June, 2007, launch of Apple's first iPhone, customers craving the tablet computer started pre-ordering units as soon as the company started taking orders online on Mar. 12. Shoppers got a choice of Saturday delivery via UPS or in-store pickup. A limited number of iPads will also be available for walk-in sales at Apple stores and 673 Best Buy locations.

A hardy few camped outside Apple stores overnight, most notable among them, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who waited at the San Jose, Calif., store with a small but adoring group of other Apple enthusiasts.

Shoppers awaiting the San Francisco Apple store's 9 a.m. opening cited varied reasons for their eagerness to buy it.

"It's a giant step in technology," says Max Ackermann, the 41-year-old San Franciscan who landed the first spot in a line of buyers who had reserved or pre-ordered iPads before Saturday.

"Tablets have been around for a long time, but Apple's always able to take existing technologies [and make] a giant leap forward into the mainstream. It's really cool to be in the start period of all that," he adds.

Reasons for CravingSan Francisco Apple store on iPad release day

Ackermann arrived at the store at 10:30 p.m. Friday night to pick up an iPad with 16 GB of memory, which he had reserved earlier. The tablet will join a broad collection of Apple computers and other gadgets Ackermann has collected for most of his life, ever since his father brought home one of Jobs & Co.'s most famous early computers, the Apple IIe.

Kurt Collins, a 30-year old San Franciscan, joined the line for iPads at around 1 a.m.. He'd also waited for the first iPhone at an Apple store in Palo Alto. His top reason for getting an iPad: "It's shiny."

Collins expects his new 16 GB iPad will allow him to work on documents, presentations and spreadsheets in about 95% of cases that would have otherwise required one of his two MacBook laptops.

Buying a WiFi-only iPad instead of waiting for models with cellular data capability was an easy choice, he says. He doesn't expect to be pulling out his iPad on a street corner to pull up a map. That's what his iPhone is for, he explains.

Unveiling to Cheers

Olivia Smith, 50, waited in the line of customers hoping to buy an iPad without a pre-order. But she isn't buying it for herself. It's for her son, 26, who's busy working in her coffee shop Saturday morning.

Smith thinks the iPad's pricing is fair. "It's lower than anticipated, but that's good. It's a recession out here," she notes.

Drew Forster, designer of an off-road version of the Segway personal transporter, was at the San Francisco sales kick-off with one of his custom-built Segways, featuring a flat panel TV bolted to its front.

Shortly before 9 a.m., veils that had shrouded the Apple store's interior from view dropped to cheers from the crowd, revealing a clapping blue-shirted throng of Apple employees inside the store.

A Wait for Cell Connection

At 9 a.m. the door opened, and customers began filing in to pick up their bounty, seemingly without a hitch.

All iPads sold in March will be WiFi-only models. New online orders for those models can still be placed at the Apple store, but the units won't ship immediately. (For those who haven't pre-ordered, find out how to get your hands on an iPad.) IPad models sporting support for paid cellular data plans are slated to ship in late April.

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]]>AppleipadiPad releaseMichael FitzhughSat, 03 Apr 2010 13:15:00 ESTWhy Apple's iPad Has Entrepreneurs Salivatinghttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/04/02/ipad-release-has-entrepreneurs-salivating/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/04/02/ipad-release-has-entrepreneurs-salivating/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/04/02/ipad-release-has-entrepreneurs-salivating/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

The cottage industry serving Apple's iPods and iPhones generates an estimated $6 billion to $7 billion in sales annually, when lumping in headphones, speakers, docking stations, chargers, cases and the likeiPod, iPhone, iPad -- iRich.

That pretty much sums up the desire of entrepreneurs, developers and businesses looking to cash in on Apple's (AAPL) iPad release and Steve Jobs's Midas touch by bringing new iPad accessories and software to market.

With its April 3 release, the iPad marks the latest device to glom onto the multibillion-dollar cottage industry that has sprung up around Apple's iPod and iPhone. As wanna-be entrepreneurs sit on the sidelines debating whether to jump in, analysts say consider this: Accessories are high-profit-margin items.

That cottage industry serving Apple's iPods and iPhones generates an estimated $6 billion to $7 billion in sales annually, when lumping in headphones, speakers, docking stations, chargers, cases and the like, says NPD Group analyst Steve Baker.

The market for iPad accessories, however, isn't expected to be as lucky.

"It won't even get remotely close to $6 billion or $7 billion in a couple of years," Baker says. "If you sold a few million iPads, that would translate into a few hundred million in accessory sales."

Low-Ticket Accessories

Like the iPhone, the iPad is expected to suffer from a case of spurring low-ticket accessories like silicone cases and inexpensive stands that sell for under $100. For example, an iPhone case can usually be had for under $50 and Bluetooth headphones for about $80, whereas iPod accessories tend to cost much more, with docking stations running upwards of $400.

Since the birth of the iPod in 2001, a slew of "i" companies have formed, from theiStore.com, with its iPod-iPhone accessories, to iLounge.com, which offers iPod, iPhone and iPad news to its readers. And, of course, there are more established corporate players from Belkin to Logitech fishing for a new revenue stream by adding "i" accessories to their product lines.

One of the early entrants to adopt the "i" theme was theiStore.com, which launched its Web site in 2003.

"I bought an iPod and couldn't find a silicone case for it. I was trying to bridge that gap when I found a silicone maker in China who had them available in 40 colors," says Michael Lipner, president of theiStore.com. His company quickly set out to be a distributor of these cases.

Opening Splash

Within the first two years of opening, theiStore.com's sales peaked at more than $2 million, Lipner says.

But the demands of being a small distributor were taxing, and Lipner sold off that part of his business to focus on developing unique iPod and iPhone accessories. But by the time he restructured his business, a number of new competitors had entered the market.

The iStore now generates sales under $2 million annually and is taking a cautious look at the iPad, Lipner says. He notes that for people who are considering jumping into the iPod, iPhone and iPad market, it may be too late. "Lots of people have done just that," Lipner says. "Pretty much any URL that starts with iPod, iPhone and iPad has already entered the field."

Renowned venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is looking to stoke the entrepreneurial fire, announcing Wednesday it planned to double its "iFund" to $200 million. That money is earmarked for investments in new applications for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, an area that has attracted an avalanche of attention from software developers.

Developers focusing on entertainment, communication, social networking, commerce, health care and education for the iPad may attract Kleiner Perkins's attention, creating yet another player in this burgeoning cottage industry.

An Allentown's Worth of Developers

With the kind of money that Kleiner Perkins is dangling for developer entrepreneurs, this industry may burst at the seams. According to a Credit Suisse report, Apple has attracted roughly 100,000 developers to create applications for its iPhone operating system -- enough folks to fill Allentown, Penn.

"We expect all ventures to have an iPad strategy," said Kleiner partner John Doerr in a statement. "A new, truly revolutionary platform is rare, and a prize for entrepreneurs."

Already, more than 1,350 iPad apps have hit Apple's iTunes App Store, according to AppAdvice.com, which covers news and reviews on Apple apps. Among those with wares are some of the most established players, such as the successful mobile game developer ngmoco, which has developed seven games for the iPad, including three made exclusively for the new tablet.

"We're finding it to be a Pandora's box of opportunity," says Clive Downie, ngmoco's vice president of marketing. "It has a wonderfully large screen, great touch sensitivity, more touch points than the iPhone. It's an order of magnitude better."

Whether the iPad proves a successful platform for the game developer will depend on Apple's success in selling the device to consumers, he adds. "It's our belief it will be successful and give Apple a foothold in the home environment, in the same way the iPhone and iPod Touch gave them a claim on consumers' time on the go," Downie says. "The iPad is going to give them that in the home."

Good for Independent Developers

Agile Web Solutions, a small independent software developer, says it has had a tremendous number of requests for an iPad version of 1Password and is "treating it like a critical new component" of its 1Password product, a password manager and automatic form-filler first released for Macintosh desktops and laptops.

"We've even heard from plenty of customers who plan on completely replacing either their notebooks or some family members' notebooks with an iPad, so our iPad version has to be the best 1Password client we can make for that device," says David Chartier, Agile's chief media producer.

"I think tablets are going to be an incredible new platform that offers a ton of growth for everyone, but especially independent developers," Chartier says. He expects such developers to push the boundaries of the new device in ways that bigger software developers might not.

"I think we'll see a tremendous amount of useful innovation from Apple with iPhone OS and Google (GOOG) with Chrome OS and Android," he says. "It's all going to translate to a tremendous amount of opportunity for third parties to make these platforms reach their true potential."

With reporting from DailyFinance's Dawn Kawamoto

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]]>developersipadipad appsiPad releasesmall businesssoftwareMichael FitzhughFri, 02 Apr 2010 13:05:00 ESTNovell Is Looking for a Buyer After Rebuffing a $2 Billion Offerhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/22/novell-is-looking-for-a-buyer-after-rebuffing-a-2-billion-offer/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/22/novell-is-looking-for-a-buyer-after-rebuffing-a-2-billion-offer/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/22/novell-is-looking-for-a-buyer-after-rebuffing-a-2-billion-offer/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Enterprise software giant Novell (NOVL) has opened the door for a potential sale of itself while turning away a $2 billion bid offered by its largest shareholder, Elliott Associates. Speculating that a higher bid may come through, investors drove Novell shares to a high of $5.95 on Monday, up more than 30 cents, or 5%, than their value at Friday's close.

On Saturday, Novell CEO Ron Hovsipian called Elliott's offer of $5.75 per share, "inadequate" and said that "it undervalues the company's franchise and growth prospects." Whether Elliott will raise its offer, as S&P Equity research is predicting, remains unclear. The firm said it welcomes Novell's decision to consider selling itself but didn't hint at raising its offer. No competing offers for the Waltham, Mass.-based company have emerged.

Clifton Robbins, CEO of the private investment firm Blue Harbour Group, which own a 4% stake in Novell, echoed Hovsipian's message in a statement that said "the company's value significantly exceeds Elliott's proposal."

Hovsipian spoke to a conference of the company's customers on Monday and reiterated his view that Eliott's offer is too low. He also sought to soothe concerns about any possible business disruptions ahead. "Doing business with Novell will continue to be easy and straightforward," Hovsipian said, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

Shareholder Value Enhancements

Despite investors' hopes of a better offer, the possibility of a white knight making one remains shaky. "Novell's disparate portfolio of software assets contains pieces that would appeal to various industry players, but it remains unclear which company would benefit enough from the aggregate bundle to throw itself into a bidding war," said Morningstar senior stock analyst Michael Holt, when the offer first became public.

In addition to selling the company, Novell's board is considering other moves to enhance shareholder value, including a stock repurchase or cash dividend, strategic partnerships and alliances, joint ventures and a recapitalization. Novell first received the Elliott's offer on March 2, but it didn't make its decision about how to respond public until late Friday, March 19.

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]]>acquisitionnovellMichael FitzhughMon, 22 Mar 2010 18:00:00 ESTCould Twitter Upgrade Pave Way for Ad Revenue?http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/15/twitter-makes-integration-easier-for-techies-bores-them-too/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/15/twitter-makes-integration-easier-for-techies-bores-them-too/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/15/twitter-makes-integration-easier-for-techies-bores-them-too/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Twitter is expanding its Web footprint by giving partners like The New York Times and Amazon.com a new and easy way to integrate some of its core short messaging and social features into their websites.

Dubbed "@anywhere," Twitter says the new platform will allow users to subscribe to a reporter's latest "tweets" directly by clicking her byline and to tweet about a video without leaving YouTube.

Finding interesting people to connect with on Twitter can be difficult, acknowledged Twitter CEO Evan Williams, during a Q&A session at the annual Austin, Texas, media and music conference, South by Southwest, where the platform was announced Monday.

But excitement about the announcement was in short supply Monday, as many of the conferences attendees bemoaned the lackluster tenor of the Q&A and the announcement's lack of monetary impact for Twitter. Many in Williams' initial full-capacity audience simply slipped out the ballroom's back door, according to CNET News.

Still, the announcement could prove to be a win for Twitter and its partners. The @anywhere platform will deliver a new level of ease for integrating Twitter services into websites, says Sean Whiteley, vice president of product marketing for San Francisco-based Salesforce.com (CRM).

"When you look at a Web page, you want to be able to follow a person, look at their feed, view their profile, without having to go through all the steps you have to now," he says. "With @anywhere I think they're trying to make that experience easier for everyone."

Salesforce.com already works closely with Twitter, integrating messages from Twitter.com into its customer support product, and the company is exploring ways that @anywhere can help it meet the needs of its customers, Whiteley said.

In addition to making Twitter easier to integrate into new and existing websites, @anywhere will enable users to log into various sites using their Twitter user names and passwords. A limited number of sites already have this capability.

The new platform could prove to be good news for Twitter, which previously has often been integrated into Web sites by way of awkward widgets that encourage users to promote content on Digg, Facebook, Delicious and countless other social media sites. Breaking out of the crowd with its own integration features could give Twitter more prominence on its partners's sites and eventually lead to a bigger and more socially interconnected audience. That could bode well for the much-discussed ad platform Twitter has been planning to launch.

If the platform turns out to be as easy to work with as Twitter claims -- "site owners need only drop in a few lines of JavaScript," the Twitter Blog boasts -- it could potentially also spell good news for Twitter's partners, which in many cases have had to devote costly development staff to supporting their own "post to Twitter" apps.

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]]>amazonnew york timesSalesforce.comsouth by southwesttechnologytwitterMichael FitzhughMon, 15 Mar 2010 20:45:00 ESTCisco's Speedy New Router Will Take a While to Hit the Bottom Linehttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/10/cisco-introduces-new-super-fast-router-to-cautious-investors-cu/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/10/cisco-introduces-new-super-fast-router-to-cautious-investors-cu/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/10/cisco-introduces-new-super-fast-router-to-cautious-investors-cu/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Cisco Systems (CSCO) reclaimed bragging rights in the world of enterprise information technology on March 9 by unveiling one of the world's fastest routers, equipment that serves a crucial traffic-cop function on the Internet, directing data along its ever-more-congested main arteries.

The company's new CRS-3 router is likely to help Cisco protect and possibly gain market share in the high-end routing market. But despite the company's claims that the router would "forever change the Internet," it didn't even change Cisco's share price, which landed at $26.13 following the news, exactly where it had closed the evening before the announcement.

Still, the real impact of the CRS-3 on Cisco's bottom line may take a while to unfold.

"We believe demand for the product from large service provider customers will materialize due to unprecedented levels of video and mobile traffic on service provider networks," Rohit Chopra of Wedbush Securities told clients.

That growth may not come until fiscal 2011 or fiscal 2012, Chopra said. But the CRS-3, "given the breadth of capacity, speed, and network intelligence could (gradually) help Cisco regain some of the lost share," he said.

Aimed at Videoconferencing and Streaming Movies

The need for high-powered routing capacity is clearly growing. As part of Cisco's Tuesday announcement, AT&T (T) also said its data traffic grew by 40% between 2008 and 2009, due at least in part to the company's wildly successful data-intensive Apple (AAPL) iPhone franchise.

AT&T's Chief Technology Officer John Donovan called the company's successful trial of the CRS-3 "a key milestone in our ongoing effort to deliver the industry's most advanced and capable IP backbone network."

As consumers gradually adopt more network-taxing services, such as personal videoconferencing and on-demand video downloads using set-top boxes, telecommunications companies such as AT&T will need to upgrade their network infrastructures with speedier and more efficient routing equipment.

The CRS-3 can direct data from its source to its destination as much as 12 times faster than its aging predecessor, the CRS-1 (Cisco skipped over a CRS-2 label). It can also integrate with Cisco technology designed to improve the efficiency of data centers, an issue of growing concern for businesses that are reliant on such centralized facilities, but can't always maximize their utility.

Of course, Cisco isn't the only player in this market. Its rivals have already announced their own plans to meet those needs. Both Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) and Juniper Networks (JNPR) are developing routers that will compete with the new CRS-3.

Cleverly Creating Both Capacity and Demand

But Cisco, perhaps more than its competitors, has built its strategy on not only serving but also creating market demand for handling huge amounts of online video traffic. In the enterprise realm, the company announced plans in late 2009 to acquire the videoconferencing company Tandberg ASA, which claims to hold the highest global market share for business video infrastructure products. On the consumer end of the spectrum, it also owns Pure Digital Technologies, the pioneering maker of cheap and easy-to-use Flip video recorders.

Cisco has also worked to integrate technology for serving data-guzzling smartphones into its portfolio with the recent acquisition of Starent Networks.

In Cisco's favor, its new $90,000 CRS-3 router is aimed at an improving market. In January, new orders for communications equipment were up 3.1%, according to a U.S. government report.

Purchases That Are "Large and Sporadic"

Eventually, Cisco hopes the CRS-3 will replace a significant number of the nearly 5,000 current-generation routers worldwide. But the company relies for high-end router sales on the timing of capital spending by global communications service providers -- customers with a "tendency to make large and sporadic purchases," it said in a recent regulatory filing.

Whether or not Cisco's new router will really be the Internet-changing force the company promised in its PR hype remains to be seen. Zeus Kerravala, a distinguished research fellow at Yankee Group Research, said in a recent blog post that he doesn't think so. He also added: "But they did set a very high bar."

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]]>Information TechnologyInternetnetworkingonline videoMichael FitzhughWed, 10 Mar 2010 10:50:00 ESTCisco Eyes Ultra High-Speed Broadbandhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/08/cisco-eyes-ultra-high-spreed-broadband/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/08/cisco-eyes-ultra-high-spreed-broadband/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/08/cisco-eyes-ultra-high-spreed-broadband/#commentsFiled under:

Shares of Cisco Systems (CSCO) rose 4% Monday ahead of a Tuesday morning announcement the networking gear maker says "will forever change the Internet and its impact on consumers, businesses and governments." Behind the hyperbole, most observers expect the San Jose, Calif. company will introduce of a new breed of networked TV set-top boxes utilizing ultra high-speed broadband to provide both digital video programming and home videoconferencing capabilities.

A new super-charged set top box could be a boon for Cisco, which reported that sales of its video systems fell by approximately $80 million in its most recent quarter, primarily due to decreased sales of digital set-top boxes.

A shift in direct-to-consumer sales might also be positive for the company, which has generally sold its set-top boxes by way of cable companies, placing the company and its brand at a remove from the lucrative direct-to-consumer market.

Whatever new technology is introduced, its roll-out will almost certain rely on broadband partners using Cisco's relatively new line of high-capacity network routing equipment. That line, which Cisco has dubbed "Carrier Routing System," can support a neighborhood full of TV viewers watching "watching various 3D HD content on their TV sets simultaneously, including the movie Avatar, live in 3D on a cinema channel without a hitch," according to a recent blog posting by Mike Capuano, Cisco's director of service provider routing and switching.

Cisco shares sold for $26.13 at market close Monday, up 92 cents from their opening value of $25.27.

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]]>Cisco Systemsnetworkingset-top-boxMichael FitzhughMon, 08 Mar 2010 17:30:00 ESTFacebook Credits: Small Tokens With Big Commercial Potentialhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/03/facebook-credits-small-tokens-with-big-potential/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/03/facebook-credits-small-tokens-with-big-potential/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/03/03/facebook-credits-small-tokens-with-big-potential/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Facebook's recently inked partnership with online payment giant PayPal (EBAY) created a new and easier way for the popular social network's members to buy Facebook Credits, a virtual currency for buying virtual gifts and services.

Today, those credits can be used in games such as FarmVille, an agriculture-theme challenge, in which players can buy virtual golden chickens, soybean seeds and hot-rod tractors.

But a more powerful use of the credit technology may be just over the horizon. In the not too distant future, the same technical infrastructure could support real-world commerce, linking the social network to the consumption of a wide variety of consumer goods.

If Facebook does enable its credits as payment for real-world goods, the company could create supercharged link between data-rich Facebook profiles and real-world purchases that would be not only interesting for users but extremely valuable to advertisers.

Virtual Today, Real Tomorrow?

To be clear, the Facebook Credits program is still in early testing, and Facebook says it has no plans to expand the application of the credits as payment for real-world goods.

"We are focused on meeting the unique requirements of a virtual goods economy on Facebook and have built Facebook Credits with that in mind. Beyond what's already possible in our Gift Shop, we have no plans to extend Facebook Credits as a way to pay for physical goods," the company says.

But the infrastructure to make such a move is already partly in place. Facebook Connect allows users to log on to non-Facebook sites using their Facebook email address and password. With that link established, certain applications can already interact with a user's Facebook news feed.

Such connections allow users of the iPhone application RunKeeper, for example, to automatically post the duration and distance of their latest run to their feed. But there seems to be little reason why, with relatively small adjustments, the system couldn't be made to automatically post a photo of a new outfit just purchased from the Gap (GPS) using Facebook Credits.

A Win-Win-Win Situation

"Virtual currencies are going to move more and more into a mainstream environment and attract more attention," says Beth Robertson, director of payments research at Javelin Strategy & Research, a financial services and security consultancy.

"I definitely think they might look into communities beyond the Facebook community." says Beth Robertson, director of payments research at Javelin Strategy. Once there is broader usage of Facebook Credits, more more people might be interested in having them for non-Facebook purposes and be interested in trading them for other virtual or real transactions," she adds.

Take a hypothetical scenario in which a young woman buys a new outfit from the Gap using Facebook Credits: Facebook wins by taking a cut of the transaction. (It currently takes 30% of transactions using Facebook Credits.) Gap wins by getting free or cheap advertising on Facebook; the purchaser wins because Gap might give her a small discount on the purchase as a thank-you for pushing the photo on her news feed -- essentially a Gap advertisement -- to her Facebook friends.

Global Reach

The potential economic ecosystem for socially linked transactions is huge, and PayPal is, in terms of reach, probably a perfect match for making such a scenario happen. Facebook claims to reach 400 million people, 70% of whom live outside the U.S. PayPal's global payment service reaches 190 markets and supports 24 currencies around the world.

That reach is the real driving force behind Facebook's partnership with PayPal: The social network wants to make it easier for advertisers to pay for ad campaigns on the site, which at present provide a far more substantial source of revenue than the sale of virtual currency and goods.

The company is also interested in helping developers of Facebook-based games turn more casual game players into paying customers, an area that analysts have identified as fertile ground for revenue growth.

InsideFacebook, which tracks the company, estimates that direct Facebook Credits account for only $10 million in sales at the company annually, but says industry sources have indicated that figure could jump to as much as $75 million as games and other Credit-linked applications are built around Facebook's network.

But, at least for now, those millions people spend on Facebook Credits will sit locked in the Facebook ecosystem.

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]]>currencyfacebooksocial networkingMichael FitzhughWed, 03 Mar 2010 16:00:00 ESTApplied Materials Swings First Quater Profit on Strong Saleshttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/17/applied-materials-swings-first-quater-profit-on-strong-sales/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/17/applied-materials-swings-first-quater-profit-on-strong-sales/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/17/applied-materials-swings-first-quater-profit-on-strong-sales/#commentsFiled under:

Applied Materials (AMAT) swung a profit during its first quarter of fiscal 2010, spurred by strong sales of its semiconductor manufacturing equipment and improving customer demand, the company said Wednesday. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company raised its full-year revenue target to reflect what CEO Mike Splinter said was higher-than-anticipated demand in the company's semiconductor, LCD display and crystalline silicon solar businesses.

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]]>Applied MaterialsDisplayearningsSemiconductorsolarMichael FitzhughWed, 17 Feb 2010 17:10:00 ESTRecovery Is on the Horizon for Applied Materialshttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/16/recovery-is-on-the-horizon-for-applied-materials/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/16/recovery-is-on-the-horizon-for-applied-materials/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/16/recovery-is-on-the-horizon-for-applied-materials/#commentsFiled under:

Applied Materials (AMAT), the world's largest maker of semiconductor fabrication gear, is expected to report improving performance for the company's first fiscal quarter of 2010 Wednesday, after the market's close. Analysts expect the company to report earning per share of 13 cents, according to Thomson Reuters, a turnaround from a loss of 10 cents per share of in the year ago quarter.

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]]>Applied MaterialssamsungsemiconductorssemitoolsolarMichael FitzhughTue, 16 Feb 2010 19:20:00 ESTMicrosoft Counterattacks in the Smartphone Software Warhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/15/microsoft-counterattacks-in-the-smartphone-software-war/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/15/microsoft-counterattacks-in-the-smartphone-software-war/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/15/microsoft-counterattacks-in-the-smartphone-software-war/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , ,

Microsoft (MSFT) has finally made its move to catch up with its chief mobile software rivals by introducing Windows Phone 7, its newest operating system for smartphones. The software giant made the official announcement on Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

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]]>smartphonesoftwarewirelessMichael FitzhughMon, 15 Feb 2010 12:00:00 ESTGoogle's Android Is Quickly Gaining Smartphone Market Sharehttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/10/googles-android-is-quickly-gaining-smartphone-market-share/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/10/googles-android-is-quickly-gaining-smartphone-market-share/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/10/googles-android-is-quickly-gaining-smartphone-market-share/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , ,

Google's (GOOG) Android smartphone U.S. market share deeply trails that of market leaders Research in Motion (RIMM) and Apple (AAPL). But beware the robot's wiles: Google is making steady progress in getting Android into more handsets, according to new data from comScore and AdMob.

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]]>applegoogleiphonemobile phoneMotorolaPalmwirelessMichael FitzhughWed, 10 Feb 2010 18:50:00 ESTStrong Tech Earnings Suggest Sector Is Getting Its Mojo Backhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/04/strong-tech-earnings-suggest-sector-is-getting-its-mojo-back/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/04/strong-tech-earnings-suggest-sector-is-getting-its-mojo-back/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/04/strong-tech-earnings-suggest-sector-is-getting-its-mojo-back/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Even as the broader markets have plunged this week, hints of economic recovery are beginning to show in the technology sector if recent earnings are anything to go by. Cisco Systems (CSCO) CEO John Chambers was particularly enthusiastic about the networking-gear company's fiscal second quarter 2010 performance, ending Jan. 23. During that time, revenue climbed to $9.8 billion -- up 8% from the year-ago quarter -- a feat that Chambers called "one of the most robust, positive turnarounds I've every seen in my career" and "a tipping point toward the "second phase of a capital spending recovery."

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]]>AkamaiAppleBroadcomCiscoearningseconomyInformation TechnologyIT servicesIT spendingJohn Chambersnews corptechnologytechnology stocksMichael FitzhughThu, 04 Feb 2010 18:00:00 ESTCisco Expected to Report Improved Saleshttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/02/cisco-expected-to-report-improved-sales/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/02/cisco-expected-to-report-improved-sales/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/02/cisco-expected-to-report-improved-sales/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Cisco Systems (CSCO) touted its first-ever Internet router in space in January after testing one on an orbiting commercial satellite. But back on earth, investors are getting ready to focus on the networking-gear maker's second-quarter earnings. That report, due Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. pacific time, is expected to feature news of its first sales growth in a year and to attest to new confidence among Cisco's biggest customers in business and government.

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]]>Cisco SystemscscoearningsJohn ChambersnetworkingpreviewtechnologyvideoMichael FitzhughTue, 02 Feb 2010 19:45:00 ESTApple iPad Reactions: Love, Disappointment and Dismissalhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-reactions-love-disappointment-and-dismissal/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-reactions-love-disappointment-and-dismissal/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-reactions-love-disappointment-and-dismissal/#commentsFiled under: , ,

The early response to the Apple's (AAPL) new iPad tablet computer was decidedly mixed around the Web on Wednesday, with Apple-watchers both panning and praising the device's introduction -- and its name.

After opening at $206.85, Apple shares got pushed down as low as $199.53 during the iPad's introduction, but they later bounced back to close at $208.88. Many analysts had expected a base price for the iPad of no less than $1,000, but at least one portfolio manager was pleased to see models starting at $500 instead.

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]]>AppleipadreactiontabletMichael FitzhughWed, 27 Jan 2010 17:00:00 ESTSteve Jobs Unveils Apple's New Tablet: the iPadhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/27/steve-jobs-unveils-the-much-anticipated-ipad/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/27/steve-jobs-unveils-the-much-anticipated-ipad/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/27/steve-jobs-unveils-the-much-anticipated-ipad/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Apple (AAPL) launched its new iPad tablet computer Wednesday, delivering one of the most anticipated gadgets of 2010 while striking a competitive blow in the mobile data market through a new deal with AT&T (T).

The iPad, which will cost between $500 and $830 depending on the model, first goes on sale in the U.S. in 60 days, followed by models with additional wireless capability in 90 days.

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]]>EAGameloftipadtabletMichael FitzhughWed, 27 Jan 2010 14:00:00 ESTEricsson Still Adjusting to Customer Cut-Backshttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/25/ericsson-still-adjusting-to-customer-cut-backs/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/25/ericsson-still-adjusting-to-customer-cut-backs/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/25/ericsson-still-adjusting-to-customer-cut-backs/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Ericsson, the Swedish company that probably built, installed and services your neighborhood cell phone tower, is preparing for another round of global layoffs as demand for its high tech hardware dips.

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]]>Michael FitzhughMon, 25 Jan 2010 15:10:00 ESTApple Earnings Will Kick Off a Buzz-Filled Weekhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/25/apple-earnings-will-kick-off-a-buzz-filled-week/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/25/apple-earnings-will-kick-off-a-buzz-filled-week/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/25/apple-earnings-will-kick-off-a-buzz-filled-week/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Amid the palpable hype of the run-up to Apple's (AAPL) rumored tablet computer launch Wednesday, the company will offer a somewhat more sober release: its first quarter 2010 earnings announcement, which takes place Monday.

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]]>Appleearnings previewiphoneMacMichael FitzhughMon, 25 Jan 2010 10:17:00 EST