Business Tech

Mimicking a larger technology industry consolidation trend, the American Electronics Association and Information Technology Association of America trade groups announced on Tuesday plans to merge lobbying efforts.

The AeA-ITAA deal, aiming to create a stronger industry advocacy voice in Washington, D.C. and provide a greater breadth of technology sector-specific programs, is expected to close by the end of the year. The combined group, to be known as the Technology Association of America, is expected to have approximately 2,000 member companies.

Updated at 7:41 a.m. PT to include reductions in temporary and contract workers.

Sony plans to lay off 8,000 workers in its electronics business worldwide as part of a broader plan to trim expenses and tighten its focus in a difficult financial climate, the company said Tuesday.

The Japanese electronics and media giant, which currently has a full-time global workforce of 160,000, joins a long list of tech companies that have cut jobs and scaled back production.

The company will also eliminate a number of contract workers and temporary employees, which would total an additional 8,… Read more

Rumors have abounded over the years about a Google operating system, perhaps based on the Ubuntu version of Linux widely used within the company, but on Monday the company revealed an open-source project that provides a different answer to the same problem: Native Client.

The reason I've been skeptical about Google releasing an operating system of its own is that the company has such a Web-based view of the world. But Web apps have limits, impressive gains of Google Docs notwithstanding, and Native Client is geared to address those.

"At Google we're always trying to make the … Read more

Usually not much happens to a software product from one point release to the next, much less one beta version to the next. But Mozilla has made quite a few changes with the second beta of Firefox 3.1, released Monday.

In the new version are support for video and audio built into Web pages, a built-in service for telling Web sites a user's location if users permit it, private browsing, Web worker support for more powerful Web-based programs, and my favorite feature, the TraceMonkey engine for running the JavaScript programs used to build sophisticated Web sites. TraceMonkey was … Read more

In another bad sign for the consumer electronics market, chipmaker Texas Instruments warned that its current quarter sales and earnings will come in far below earlier estimates.

The company said it now expects revenue of $2.3 billion to $2.5 billion, as compared with prior expectations of $2.83 billion to $3.07 billion. Per-share earnings are now seen between 10 cents and 16 cents, as compared with an earlier range of 30 cents to 36 cents.

TI did not provide further details in its press release, but said it would hold a conference call to discuss its finances. … Read more

Update at 11:01 a.m. PST, with historical information on the alliance.

Salesforce.com and Google announced on Monday an expanded alliance, aiming to offer a set of developer tools and service around cloud computing applications.

Force.com for Google App Engine is designed to enable developers to create applications in the cloud. Here's how it aims to work:

Force.com for Google App Engine is a Python library and test harness that lets you access the Force.com Web services API from within Google App Engine applications. Once it is installed in your Google App Engine application, … Read more

Update at 9:27 a.m. PST, with comments from a shareholder activist research firm. Correction, 9:35 a.m. PST: This story initially had the incorrect day the agreement was announced. It is Monday. Update at 1:33 p.m. PST, with closing stock price and excerpt from Southeastern podcast about its board seats.

Sun Microsystems and its largest investor announced an agreement on Monday that entitles the investor to nominate two directors to Sun's board, marking the latest action it has taken to right the struggling company.

Southeastern Asset Management, which holds a 22 percent stake in … Read more

The online video revolution has begun, and Cisco Systems says it has designed a new strategy complete with new products to help its customers meet the demand.

On Monday, the company, which makes devices that shuttle traffic around the Internet, will announce a new architecture and strategy to help its customers better handle video traffic on their network. CEO John Chambers will be pushing the new architecture and initiative at the company's annual C-Scape press and analyst conference in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday.

It's no secret that Cisco thinks that video is a big deal. The company … Read more

Updated December 8 at 9 p.m. with Inuit comment.

Revisions incorporated into Intuit's TurboTax 2008 have led to a bit of a tax revolt by reviewers on Amazon.com.

The tax preparation program, which is a top seller at the online retailer, has garnered an Amazon customer rating of one and a half stars out of five. As of Sunday afternoon, an overwhelming 82 reviewers (out of 90) gave the program the minimum one star, compared with four reviewers who gave it the full five-star rating.

However, it's not the features nor functionality with which the majority … Read more