apple-list January 2013

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INTEREST: BlackBerry 10 Release Today Critical to Research in Motion

by billing

...from: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/technology/blackberry-10s-debut-is-a-crit… BlackBerry 10 Critical to Research in Motion By IAN AUSTEN Published: January 29, 2013 FACEBOOK TWITTER GOOGLE+ SAVE E-MAIL SHARE PRINT REPRINTS OTTAWA — Research in Motion’s introduction on Wednesday of a new BlackBerry phone will be the most important event in the company’s history since 1996, when its founders showed investors a small block of wood and promised that a wireless e-mail device shaped like that would change business forever. Enlarge This Image Eric Risberg/Associated Press Thorsten Heins, chief executive of Research in Motion, demonstrated functions of the BlackBerry 10 in California. Now with just 4.6 percent of the global market for smartphones in 2012,according to IDC, RIM long ago exchanged dominance for survival mode. On Wednesday, the company will introduce a new line of smartphones called the BlackBerry 10 and an operating system of the same name that Thorsten Heins, the president and chief executive of RIM, says will restore the company to glory. But Frank Mersch, who became one of RIM’s earliest investors after seeing the block of wood, is far less excited by what he sees this time around. “You’re in a very, very competitive market and you’re not the leader,” Mr. Mersch, now the chairman and a vice president at Front Street Capital in Toronto, said of RIM. “You have to ask: ‘At the end of the day are we really going to win?’ I personally think the jury’s out on that.” The main elements of the new phones and their operating system are already well known. Mr. Heins and other executives at RIM have been demonstrating the units for months to a variety of audiences. App developers received prototype versions as far back as last spring. While analysts and app developers may be divided about the future of RIM, there is a consensus that BlackBerry 10, which arrives more than year behind schedule, was worth the wait. Initially RIM will release two variations of the BlackBerry 10, one a touch-screen model that resembles many other phones now on the market. The other model is a hybrid with a keyboard similar to those now found on current BlackBerrys as well as a small touch screen. The real revolution, though, may be in the software that manages a person’s business and personal information. It is clearly designed with an eye toward retaining and, more important, luring back, corporate users. Corporate and government information technology managers will be able to segregate business-related apps and data on BlackBerry 10 handsets from users’ personal material through a system known as BlackBerry Balance. It will enable an I.T. manager to, among other things, remotely wipe corporate data from fired employees’ phones while leaving the newly jobless workers’ personal photos, e-mails, music and apps untouched. The system can also block users from forwarding or copying information from the work side of the phone. Messages generated by e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, instant messaging and LinkedIn accounts are automatically consolidated into a single in-box that RIM calls BlackBerry Hub. Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research, called the new phones “beautiful” and described the operating system as “a giant leap forward” from RIM’s current operating system. Ray Sharma, who followed RIM’s glory years as a financial analyst but who now runs XMG Studio, a mobile games developer in Toronto, has been similarly impressed. But both men are among many analysts who question the ability of BlackBerry 10, whatever its merits, to revive RIM’s fallen fortunes. “If it’s good, it will help inspire the upgrade cycle,” Mr. Sharma said. “But it has to be great in order to inspire touch-screen users to come back. If it’s good, not great, I will be concerned.” Mr. Golvin was more blunt. “They’ll need to prove themselves in the face of a simultaneous onslaught of marketing from Microsoft, not to mention the continued push from Apple plus Google and its Android partners,” he wrote. “This is a gargantuan challenge for a company of RIM’s size.” In the year since he took over from the founders, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, Mr. Heins has certainly remade RIM. He cut 5,000 jobs in a program to reduce operating costs by about $1 billion a year. Along the way, he also replaced RIM’s senior management and straightened out its balance sheet. While unprofitable, RIM remains debt-free and holds $2.9 billion in cash. With BlackBerry 10, RIM not only started over with its operating system, it also rebuilt the company through acquisitions. Its core operating system comes from QNX Software Systems, the design of the user interface is largely the work of the Astonishing Tribe in Sweden while other main components, like the touch-screen technology, came from smaller companies that are now part of RIM. Integrating all of those acquisitions, analysts and former RIM employees say, added to the delays that plagued BlackBerry 10. Now that the new phones are finally here, Mr. Heins is counting on RIM’s remaining base of 79 million users globally to eagerly upgrade. But where those customers reside may be as important in their numbers in determining the success of that plan. In the United States, which leads the world in setting smartphone trends, about 11 million BlackBerry users switched to other phones between 2009 and the middle of last year, according to an analysis by Horace Dediu on Asymco, a wireless industry blog he founded. Until the final months of 2012, RIM continued to increase its subscriber base through sales of low-cost handsets to less developed countries like Nigeria and Indonesia. Although BlackBerry 10 will be made available worldwide, the initial phones will be too expensive for a majority of BlackBerry fans in those regions. RIM may also have confused its loyalists, particularly in North America and Europe, in the run-up to the BlackBerry 10 debut. Many of those users stuck with BlackBerrys because of their physical keyboards. But public demonstrations for BlackBerry 10 were centered on the touch-screen-only version and its virtual keyboard. While some corporations have remained loyal to BlackBerry, RIM not only has to sell them on the new handsets, it also must persuade them to upgrade server software to accommodate the new operating system, a costly and time-consuming process. Companies whose employees continue to use older BlackBerrys will have to run two separate BlackBerry servers. Mr. Heins’s pitch to those corporations is that the BlackBerry 10 server software will also allow them to manage and control data on employees’ Android phones and iPhones. But any corporation or organization that allows those phones to connect with its systems long ago installed mobile device management software from other companies, including Good Technology and SAP. RIM is likely to find that the competition in device management software is as severe as it is in the handset business. This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: Correction: January 30, 2013 An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Frank Mersh is the chairman and a vice president at First Street Capital in Toronto. Mr. Mersh is the chairman and a vice president at Front Street Capital in Toronto. Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 204-474-6649 204-807-3153 (cell) 204-474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca

11 years, 2 months

INTEREST: Microsoft Reports Drop in Profit, Sales

by billing

...from: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/technology/microsoft-reports-drop-in-prof… Microsoft Reports Drop in Profit By NICK WINGFIELD Published: January 24, 2013 FACEBOOK TWITTER GOOGLE+ SAVE E-MAIL SHARE PRINT REPRINTS SEATTLE — Microsoft’s biggest product in decades, Windows 8, helped lift sales of the company’s flagship operating system business, but not enough to rejuvenate overall growth. Enlarge This Image Don Emmert/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Microsoft’s pop-up store in Times Square was set up for the fall release of its Surface tablet, which was available only in the company stores until recently. Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., said on Thursday that its profit declined 4 percent in the holiday quarter as its entertainment and office divisions posted double-digit declines in revenue. While Microsoft has a sprawling portfolio of technology products, like the Xbox game console and programming tools, Windows 8 was its star offering over the holidays, the product’s first quarter on the market. Windows 8 features one of the most radical redesigns of the operating system, with a tile-based interface intended to take better advantage of computers with touch screens, including tablets. Apple’s iPad has been nipping into sales of low-end laptop computers for some time, a trend Microsoft and its partners in the PC business desperately want to stop. There have been mounting signs in recent weeks that sales of new computers running Windows 8 have been sluggish. This month, IDC reported that worldwide PC shipments declined 6.4 percent in the fourth quarter, as Windows 8 failed to reverse a slide in PC sales that continued throughout most of 2012. Microsoft’s sales of Windows, which powers the vast majority of personal computers, appeared to be healthier than those numbers would indicate. It said its revenue from its Windows business, which accounts for more than a quarter of total company revenue, rose 24 percent to $5.88 billion for the fiscal second quarter ended Dec. 31. Those figures, however, included revenue from Windows sales before the product was officially available last November. Microsoft was required to defer that revenue because of accounting rules. Without it, Windows sales would have grown only 11 percent. While sales of Windows tend to closely track the performance of the PC market, Microsoft also sells Windows 8 upgrades to people who already have PCs. For the first time last quarter, the company’s Windows business also included sales of Microsoft’s own tablet computer, Surface, which it was not offering in the same period a year earlier. In an interview, Peter Klein, the chief financial officer of Microsoft, said that in some cases, sales of Windows 8 were hurt by the limited availability of computers with touch screens that more fully exploit the capabilities of the software: “We need to do more of those.” “I think we’ve learned a lot,” Mr. Klein said. “Business PCs are growing faster than consumer, emerging markets are growing faster than developed.” He declined to say how many Surface tablets Microsoft had sold, but he suggested the number was small because of the limited retail distribution of Surface, which was only available in Microsoft’s own stores until recently. The company said its net income for the quarter was $6.38 billion, or 76 cents a share, compared to $6.62 billion, or 78 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 3 percent to $21.46 billion from $20.89 billion a year ago. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, on average, had expected Microsoft to report earnings of 75 cents a share and revenue of $21.53 billion. The company’s shares were down 0.4 percent in after-hours trading. Microsoft’s results showed far more vitality in areas in which the company caters to big business customers, rather than consumers — a market that has eluded Microsoft many times over the years. Its best performing business was its server and tools division, which had a 9 percent increase in sales in the quarter. While its Office suite of applications showed weakness overall, as some customers delayed purchases ahead of the release of a new version of the product, business revenue from that division was up 2 percent and consumer revenue declined 2 percent, excluding deferred revenue. Other consumer-oriented divisions struggled, including entertainment and devices, the group dominated by the Xbox game console, which had an 11 percent decline in sales. Microsoft and its partners sold four times as many Windows Phones during the holiday quarter as they did a year earlier, Mr. Klein said. That is good news for Microsoft’s struggling mobile phone initiative, though the company still has a negligible share of the market. Revenue from Microsoft’s online services, which Bing is a part of, grew 11 percent, but the division continues to hemorrhage money. “It shows that Microsoft is evolving really into an enterprise software company,” said Bill Whyman, an analyst at ISI Group.

11 years, 2 months

INTEREST: Apple reports the largest corporate earnings in the history of the earth, stock down 10%

by Wayne Billing

…from: http://9to5mac.com/2013/01/23/apple-reports-the-largest-corporate-earnings-… Apple reports the largest corporate earnings in the history of the earth, stock down 10% Apple today posted its earnings for the final quarter of 2012, which was ‘disappointingly’ the largest corporate earnings year in human history by a tidy margin, causing many investors to panic as Apple clearly circles the drain in what will be the first step in a short road to the demise of the most valuable company in the world (If Exxon hasn’t indeed surpassed it tomorrow morning). Apple’s 13.1B in earnings this quarter was the 4th largest of all time according to the same metric. Apple stole the top-ranking spot on the corporate earnings list from ExxonMobil, who held the top three spots until this quarter, and was previously ousted by Apple as the world’s most valuable company. Apple’s stock has dropped nearly 11% in after-hours trading during the hour and a half earnings call, costing the company $50 billion in market value.

11 years, 3 months

FYI: Fwd: [C-REPS] REMINDER Wireless Access Update

by Wayne Billing

IST is making some changes in the wireless security. This will force an "accept this new certificate" dialog when you connect. The only information given is for Windows XP, Windows 7, and iOS devices. Presumably the same challenge will be given for an OS X machine using wireless connections. This change is happening tonight. Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 204-474-6649 204-807-3153 (cell) 204-474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca<mailto:Wayne_Billing@umanitoba.ca> Begin forwarded message: From: Help and Solutions Centre <support(a)umanitoba.ca<mailto:support@umanitoba.ca>> Subject: [C-REPS] REMINDER Wireless Access Update Date: 23 January, 2013 12:11:57 CST To: <ist-alerts(a)lists.umanitoba.ca<mailto:ist-alerts@lists.umanitoba.ca>>, um-compureps _lists.umanitoba.ca <um-compureps(a)lists.umanitoba.ca<mailto:um-compureps@lists.umanitoba.ca>>, <all-students(a)lists.umanitoba.ca<mailto:all-students@lists.umanitoba.ca>>, <all-employees(a)lists.umanitoba.ca<mailto:all-employees@lists.umanitoba.ca>> Information Service and Technology would like to inform users of an upcoming change to wireless access. There will be an update performed on January 23rd, 2013. When users first connect to wireless following the upgrade a new validation certificate message will be displayed. Please see the sample screenshots below. NOTE: You MUST ACCEPT the new certificate to be able to successfully use the wireless network. Windows XP [cid:image001.png@01CDF4B4.D61CBA70] Windows 7 [cid:image002.png@01CDF4B4.D61CBA70] iPhone / iPad [cid:image003.png@01CDF4B4.D61CBA70] Please contact the Help and Solutions Centre at 204 474 8600 for further information and assistance. IST Help & Solutions Centre 123 Fletcher Argue 204-474-8600 support(a)umanitoba.ca<mailto:support@umanitoba.ca> To sign up for IST-Alerts please visit the following link: http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/ist-alerts Updated information is also available on Facebook, Twitter and the IST Blog. Please visit http://umanitoba.ca/ist/help and click on the corresponding links. _______________________________________ um-compureps mailing list um-compureps(a)lists.umanitoba.ca<mailto:um-compureps@lists.umanitoba.ca> http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/um-compureps

11 years, 3 months

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apple-list January 2013