Hardware Archive

Computer manufacturer Dell is to focus on customer satisfaction, which it admitted on Wednesday it "had not done perfectly in the past". The company is investing USD 150m in customer relationships this year, said chairman Michael Dell in New York on Tuesday. He hopes the business plan, called Dell 2.0, will reverse the flagging fortunes of the biggest computer maker in the world. Recent woes have included a poor quarterly earnings report and exploding laptop batteries.

"When I first heard about the LCD used in the OLPC project, I was equally intrigued and sceptical. The claimed specifications put it, on paper, well into the league of the best panels available and, if manufactured using conventional technology, would present a major step forward in LCDs, which you would expect to carry a significant price premium."

A consortium of investment firms was near a deal late Sunday night to acquire Freescale Semiconductor, a former unit of Motorola, for more than USD 16 billion, according to people briefed on the negotiations. The deal, if completed, would be the largest leveraged buyout ever in the technology sector, surpassing the USD 11.3 billion sale of SunGard Data Systems last year.

The 'pretexting' technique used in a Hewlett-Packard investigation of board members and reporters has been an embarrassment for the company, Chairman Patricia Dunn said Friday. "I am not happy that the way this investigation has been conducted has led to this major embarrassment," Dunn said in an interview with CNET News.com. Asked if she believed pretexting is illegal, Dunn replied, "I have no idea, but it's wrong."

Sony launched on Tuesday the Vaio VGC-LS1 desktop, which serves dual roles as personal computer and TV. The system comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse, as well as with a remote control that can switch the monitor from a Windows-based PC to a TV, thanks to a built-in tuner. With technology similar to a digital video recorder, TV shows can be saved on the computer's 250GB hard drive and burned onto DVDs. Sony has also designed its new computer for space efficiency: Like Apple Computer's iMac, the VGC-LS1's hardware is packed into the back of its LCD screen.

Dell and Sony knew about and discussed manufacturing problems with Sony-made Lithium-Ion batteries as long as ten months ago, but held off on issuing a recall until those flaws were clearly linked to catastrophic failures causing those batteries to catch fire, a Sony Electronics spokesman said. Spokesman Rick Clancy said the companies had conversations in October 2005 and again in February 2006. Discussions were about the problem of small metal particles that had contaminated Lithium-Ion battery cells manufactured by Sony, causing batteries to fail and, in some cases, overheat.

"The biggest technology roadblock to building the USD 100 laptop championed by Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of the One Laptop per Child organization, is close to resolution. That roadblock has been developing a display that is rugged, inexpensive and readable in a wide variety of conditions from low light to bright sunlight." A Google Summer of Code project started the porting of GTK+ to this technology, with Manu Cornet especially testing to determine the tweaking necessary to usual GUI themes, for the goals of performance and display clarity.

You would have thought, in view of the week's events, that Michael Dell would show up at a greet-the-folks gathering here Friday looking like some whiter shade of pale. Not a bit: Appearing in a packed hotel ballroom during a brief stopover, the founder and chairman of the computer maker Dell seemed to glow a sort of sun-drenched pink as he defended his company and his actions. "There are a number of things a company might do in this situation - run and hide, wait for the regulators or claim it's not a problem," Dell told an audience convened by the local chamber of commerce. "We've exercised an abundance of caution. Beyond all the hysteria, we're doing the right thing for our customers, and they'll appreciate it in the long run."

Dell's quarterly profit plummeted 51 percent in the second quarter, and the company disclosed it was the target of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the ways it is reporting its revenue. The PC manufacturer said it would look to improve its financial situation, possibly explaining its broadened relationship with AMD, also announced Thursday.

Transitive, a start-up specialising in software that translates software for one chip so it can run on another, plans to release software this quarter so programs for Sun Microsystems' Sparc chips can be used on Intel Xeon chips.

A start-up called Movidis believes a 16-core chip originally designed for networking gear will be a ticket to success in the Linux server market. The Revolution x16 models from Movidis each use a single 500MHz or 600MHz Cavium Networks Octeon CN3860 chip.

Here's a sober talk about the reality of the mainframe today. This podcast discusses the mainframe's place in the forefront of modern day computing technology and debunks some myths about the mainframe. It also talks about the variety of development environments it has to offer developers, not just the old green-screen approach.

A spokesperson for the One Laptop Per Child program revealed July 31 that the countries of Brazil, Argentina, and Thailand have each committed to buy 1 million Linux laptops through the US-based program. Last week it became known that Nigeria ordered 1 million laptops.

Nigeria has officially ordered and paid for one million of the One Laptop per Child devices, according to the Nigerian Vanguard newspaper. The deal is the first actual order for the project that aims to provide Linux-powered laptops to children in developing economies. Make the cheesiest spam joke, and you get a cookie.