Business Tech

CES: Toshiba undecided on Netbooks in U.S.

LAS VEGAS--If you haven't noticed, Toshiba doesn't offer a Netbook for the U.S. market.

Yes, that's right Toshiba--whose name is practically synonymous with laptops--is still undecided about committing to one of the hottest mobile PC markets in the U.S., according to Toshiba officials at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Thursday.

The Japanese company did launch the NB100 Netbook in December, but it is not marketed in the U.S., according to a Toshiba representative, speaking at CES.

This highlights the Netbook quandary some of the largest mobile computer markers are facing. Throw … Read more

Is Google building its own router?

This may be nothing but blogosphere blah-blah-blah, but a colleague sent me a note Thursday stating that Juniper Networks' share price fell earlier this week because of a rumor that its customer Google is actually building its own router.

This Google news was attributed to multiple sources including at least one within Cisco Systems, according to a story Monday on SDTimes. CNET News sister site BNET contacted Google about the rumor: "The answer was the now-standard 'It's our policy not to comment on rumor or speculation.'"

OK, so my guess is that this rumor is probably true--with … Read more

Notebooks of note at CES: HP, Asus

LAS VEGAS--Some notebooks and an un-Netbook are worth noting on the CES show floor Thursday.

From top to bottom: An Asus concept computer; the just-announced Asus S121 (officially not a Netbook) with an optional 512GB solid-state drive--yes, that's 512 gigabytes; HP's new Pavilion dv2 and dv3 powered by processors from Advanced Micro Devices, including its newest Neo silicon.

Stringer stresses convergence to save CE industry

LAS VEGAS--It was fitting that in a city created as an elaborate fantasy world that a knight would get up on stage and tell us how to save the princess.

In this case, the knight is Sir Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony (and Knight Bachelor, a title awarded by the queen of England), and the princess is the consumer electronics industry. And according to Stringer, one of the keys to slaying the monster of the recession is the convergence of networked entertainment and technology.

In his keynote address on the opening day of CES here, besides pushing various Sony products … Read more

Salesforce.com outage hits thousands of businesses

Thousands of businesses were left without access to their applications Tuesday after Salesforce.com's servers suffered a service disruption.

The problem affected all of the software-as-a-service vendor's data centers for at least 40 minutes.

According to a Salesforce.com status page, the problem occurred at 12:40 p.m. PST Tuesday when a core network device failed, stopping all data from being processed in Japan, Europe, and North America.

When the system failed to trigger a failover to redundant systems, Salesforce.com staff had to carry out a manual recovery.

Most of the services were restored in about … Read more

Dell's Ireland plant to shed 1,900 jobs

Dell announced Thursday that it is closing its manufacturing operation in Limerick, Ireland, and shifting production to its Polish plant and to third-party contractors.

The move will result in the loss of 1,900 jobs in a facility that employs 3,000 people.

Employees and unions in Ireland have long been expecting the decision, which is part of a $3 billion restructuring that Dell announced last year.

Dell said in a statement that the first Limerick employees would leave the company in April and the whole process of switching production will be completed by January 2010. Workers will receive a … Read more

Lenovo to cut 2,500 jobs amid restructuring

Chinese PC maker Lenovo confirmed Thursday that it is carrying out a restructuring, which involves the company letting go of 2,500 employees--about 11 percent of its workforce.

With the changes, the company is targeting to save $300 million annually, according to a Singapore-based company spokesperson.

The announcement comes after a report surfaced earlier this week, saying that the PC maker would lay off 200 employees in its Beijing-based headquarters, including around 10 senior management staff. In response to queries from ZDNet Asia, Lenovo had dismissed the report as rumors.

At its U.S. Web site, Lenovo said the job … Read more

Sony's Webbie cam follows Pure Digital bid

LAS VEGAS--Before making the new inexpensive mini camcorder it unveiled at CES Wednesday, Sony tried to purchase the category leader, Pure Digital.

Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow on Wednesday told CNET News that the vastly popular Flip Video camera made by Pure Digital came onto Sony's radar almost two years ago. Glasgow said he knew he wanted Sony to have a product in the category and talked to San Francisco-based Pure Digital about a possible acquisition six months ago.

Without saying how much Pure Digital was asking, Glasgow said it was much more than Sony wanted to pay. The … Read more

OLPC slashes workforce in half, cuts salaries

The One Laptop Per Child project announced Wednesday that it is slashing its workforce by 50 percent, reducing salaries for the remaining staff, and restructuring its operations.

Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the group that aims to provide low-cost laptops to children in developing countries, announced the cuts in a company blog post:

Like many other nonprofits that are facing tough economic times, One Laptop per Child must downsize in order to keep costs in line with fewer financial resources. Today we are reducing our team by approximately 50% and there will be salary reductions for the remaining 32 people. While … Read more