Red ink flowed throughout the broader markets Thursday following unsettling news that General Motors auditors are casting doubt on the company's ability to survive..

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 281.40 points, or 4 percent, to 6,594.44, a low it hasn't seen since 1997.

The Nasdaq closed down 54.15 points, or down 4 percent, to 1,… Read more

It seems like the headlines are more and more depressing each day. Layoffs, stock market drops, budget deficits, etc. Heck, even my friends in the ever-optimistic Silicon Valley are bummed out.

Yeah, it's looks pretty gloomy, but it's important to remember that the economy isn't binary-- different industries are feeling the pain in different ways. ESG Research recently compared internal data on 2009 IT budget changes by industry with external data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary from February 2009. This comparison uncovers some interesting trends:

Three industry sectors will experience employment … Read more

Far from a project that is fading into oblivion, OpenOffice.org is still thriving under the support of a vibrant developer community and plans for further performance improvements, says its primary sponsor and owner Sun Microsystems.

Bruce Souza, director of worldwide open source initiative at Sun, said there are currently more than 1,000 OpenOffice contributors supporting 100 different localizations. "It's a great international effort and one that shows no sign of decreasing," he maintained, in an e-mail interview with ZDNet Asia.

Souza said some 100 active developers have moved to the software's new repository and … Read more

As bad as the second half of 2008 treated the PC industry, 2009 is shaping up to be even worse.

PC shipments worldwide will drop 8 percent in the first half of this year, according to a forecast update Thursday to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. The fourth quarter saw a 1.9 percent decline, driven in large part by large enterprise companies delaying buying replacement PCs during the recession.

But after a rocky start, the industry should turn around a bit by year's end. IDC predicts that shipments will improve over the second half of the year, … Read more

Nvidia is in at Apple. So, what's the connection between Apple's graphics-fortified lineup and Snow Leopard OS X?

First a quick canvass of the state of Apple's graphics. Low-performance Intel integrated graphics have been booted from MacBooks, replaced by Nvidia. And, earlier this week, Apple updated the iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro with Nvidia graphics across the board and didn't mince words on its Web site: "Ultrafast Nvidia graphics" ad copy is prominently displayed for the iMacs. ATI graphics are also promoted for the Mac Pro and offered on the iMac.

Then, there'… Read more

Google wanted to release version 1.0 of Chrome in part so it could bundled with other products, and now one such deal has arrived.

The option to install Chrome is checked by default, which no doubt will help some people to add the software without really deliberating much on its merits or drawbacks. However, the Chrome option shows on a separate stage of installation, so it's not hidden on some invisible "advanced options" section off the beaten track of the process.

Contrary to its practice with most of its products and services, Google is actively promoting Chrome … Read more

Corrected at 3:45 p.m. PST: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Adobe announced it will miss both its revenue and profit forecasts for the first quarter. The company said it will miss its previous revenue forecast.

Faced with growing weakness in it business, Adobe Systems announced Wednesday it will miss its previous revenue forecast. But, the software maker said it expects to meet its profit forecast thanks to cost-cutting measures.

On Wednesday, Adobe shares were up nearly 9 percent in after-hours trading to $17.75. During the regular trading session, Adobe closed up 2 percent … Read more

Updated at 7:45 a.m. PST with new stock prices and information on Dell's two largest investors.

Dell's stock acted like a bit of a contrarian against the broader markets for a second day Wednesday, after a peculiar rise of 8.5 percent the previous day on no news.

Dell closed at $9.15 a share on Tuesday, up 72 cents from the previous day, while the broader markets posted losses. Dell's share performance was rather peculiar, given that the company had issued no significant financial news and that the rumor mill was relatively quiet.

Investors, … Read more

Advanced Micro Devices' former manufacturing operation, which was spun off recently by the chipmaker, launches on Wednesday as "Globalfoundries."

The new company is expected to make New York a hub of chip development and manufacturing.

Globalfoundries, which had been provisionally named The Foundry Company, is headed by Doug Grose, formerly senior vice president of manufacturing operations at AMD. Hector Ruiz, formerly AMD's chief executive, will become chairman of the board. It will be headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.

The breakup of AMD will present challenges from day one. AMD has become, essentially, a design house for chips.

"… Read more