Business Tech

Why Apple's A5 is so big--and iPhone 4 won't get Siri

Apple's A5 processor includes noise-reduction circuitry licensed from a start-up called Audience, and a chip analyst believes that fact resolves an iPhone 4S mystery and explains why the iPhone 4 lacks the Siri voice-control system.

Audience revealed details of its Apple partnership in January, when it filed paperwork for an initial public offering (IPO) of stock. Teardown work from iFixit and Chipworks revealed a dedicated Audience chip in the iPhone 4, but the iPhone 4S integrates Audience's "EarSmart" technology directly into the A5 processor, the company's S-1 filing said.

The details answered a question that Linley Group more

Firefox 11 to get add-on sync

Following the update to Firefox stable earlier this week, Mozilla released yesterday updates to its Aurora and Beta versions that introduce some pretty hefty changes for Firefox on PCs.

Firefox 11 beta (download for Windows | Mac | Linux) presages some hefty changes for the browser. The biggest one, which wasn't present in the Firefox 11 Aurora release, is add-on sync. You'll now be able to mirror the same add-on installations and settings across multiple desktops. Though Google Chrome has been able to sync add-ons for some time, its implementation has been notably uneven, so it'll be interesting to more

Mozilla preps the Web to push

Mozilla engineers have begun work on a new API for Web sites that will allow them to notify you when they update, similar to how a mobile app notifies you that it has new content for you to check out. But what it really sounds like is a way to drag the concept of RSS feeds into Web 2.0--finally.

Jeff Balogh, a Web developer at Mozilla, explained in a blog post earlier this week that the push application programming interface is designed to extend the idea of the push services we already experience on iOS and Android to the more

HP coughs up close to $47 million on CEO change

For Hewlett-Packard, fiscal 2011 was the year of two CEOs--Leo Apotheker and Meg Whitman--and it cost the company dearly.

In its proxy statement filed today, HP outlined the compensation packages for its relatively new CEO and the parting gift for Apotheker.

The damage? Whitman took a salary of $1 for fiscal 2011 and option awards worth $16.15 million. Toss in other competition and the grand total comes to $16.52 million rounded. And then there's Apotheker, who wrestled with strategy, communications, and a decision on whether to spin off HP's PC unit. Simply put, the Apotheker reign more

Hardware makers suffer through drive shortages

One of the larger questions for tech companies going into fourth-quarter earnings revolved around hard drive shortages and whether the supply chain could adapt after flooding in Thailand.

Answering that question is still fairly tricky. Why? There were no uniform trends. Some companies thrived and a few struggled. Seagate was a clear winner. Western Digital held up better than expected. Meanwhile, other companies such as Sony--a financial basket case to start with--flopped.

The takeaway here is that October's severe flooding in Thailand continues to whack the technology industry. But the impact is far from uniform.

Here's a tour more

Facebook opens its books for historic IPO

Facebook filed papers for its initial public offering and in the process provided us with the secrets to its success--as well as what it sees as its greatest threats.

The company filed an S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission, officially declaring its intention to raise $5 billion through the IPO. The last major tech IPO was Google's, which raised $1.9 billion.

Last year, it saw revenue double to $3.7 billion, while its profit grew 65 percent to $1 billion. Over the past two years, its revenue rose nearly fivefold, while its profit more than quadrupled. more

Adobe gives Photoshop CS6 a new graphics-chip boost

Adobe Systems has released a second advance look at Photoshop CS6 that shows new work to give a hardware boost to the image-editing software.

The graphics processing unit (GPU) speeds the Liquify tool, which lets people smear images in a finger-painting way, according to a Zorana Gee, a Photoshop product manager. She demonstrated the change in a YouTube video, the second in what looks to be a series of previews of the software. An earlier Photoshop CS6 preview showed new raw image editing tools adopted from the Lightroom 4 beta, a darker user interface, and improvements to brush size selection. more

Adobe: Here's why Creative Cloud is worth $600 a year

Unimpressed by Adobe Systems' Creative Cloud, its forthcoming $50-per-month subscription plan? Adobe wants to change your mind.

The company offered some new details today to show people that the Creative Cloud plan gets people access to more than just the full Creative Suite (CS) Master Collection and tablet-oriented Touch programs. Specifically, according to Scott Morris, senior director of product marketing on Adobe's digital media team, there are these elements:

• The Creative Cloud will include Adobe's Muse and Edge software for creating Web pages. Muse won't be part of the Creative Suite, and Adobe hasn't decided more

Dell taps former CA chief to head new software group

Dell has hired John Swainson, former CEO of CA, as president of its new software group.

Reporting directly to Dell CEO Michael Dell, Swainson will lead the new group with a mission to sell products and services to large enterprises as the company continues to expand beyond the PC business.

Dubbed CA's Mr. Fix-It in a CNET story from 2005, Swainson has been credited with turning around and expanding his former company, a talent Dell undoubtedly hopes he can bring to his new position.

The new software group is aimed at helping Dell in its ongoing goal to sell more