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Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell is trading in his old job for a new role at General Motors.
GM announced Monday that Liddell will join the automaker at the start of 2010 as its new vice chairman and chief financial officer.
As Microsoft's CFO since May 2005, Liddell led the company's global finance group where he managed a variety of tasks, including acquisitions, corporate strategy, treasury activities, tax planning, accounting, internal auditing, and investor relations. Microsoft said that during this past fiscal year, it slashed costs by $3 billion and rewarded investors with $14 billion in dividends and stock buy-backs.
Liddell announced in November that he would be leaving Microsoft at year's end. At the time, he didn't indicate specific plans for his next professional role, but said he wanted to look at opportunities beyond his career as a CFO. Stepping in for Liddell as Microsoft's new CFO will be Peter Klein, currently the CFO of Microsoft's Business Division.
"Chris brings a depth and experience to this job that were unmatched in our search for a new financial leader," said Ed Whitacre, GM chairman and CEO, in a statement. "Chris will lead our financial and accounting operations on a global basis and will report directly to me. We're also looking to his experience and insights in corporate strategy as a member of the senior leadership team in helping our restructuring efforts."
The 51-year-old Liddell has an educational background that includes an engineering degree with honors from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and a master of philosophy degree from Oxford University in England. He also served with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a member on its Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting.
Before joining Microsoft, Liddell was finance chief at International Paper and, before that, chief executive of Carter Holt Harvey, the paper company's New Zealand-based affiliate.
Intel is launching the biggest makeover of the Atom processor since the seminal chip debuted in the spring of 2008, and consumers can expect a crush of new Netbooks to follow.
Dozens of Netbooks are now offered at this Fry's Electronics store in southern California
(Credit: Brooke Crothers)As previously reported, Intel's latest N450 processor and NM10 Express chipset--technology that had been previously referred to as "Pine Trail"--will be used in a new raft of Netbooks that will debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Dell, Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo and others are expected to either announce new systems before the show or exhibit new models there.
Intel said there will be more than 80 new Netbook designs--typically priced around $350--on the way, with systems coming available by January 4.
The Pine Trail design squeezes the graphics function, previously on a separate chip, onto the central processing unit, or CPU, a first for Intel. The result--by decreasing the number of chips from three to two--is a reduction in the overall chip package size by 60 percent.
"This is the first monolithic processor with the graphics built in and the memory controller built in," said Anil Nanduri, director, Netbook Marketing at Intel, in an interview. The size of the accompanying NM10 "I/O" chipset has also been reduced, Nanduri said.
To the consumer this means better battery life and thinner designs. "We'll see sleeker designs coming into the market and longer battery life," said Nanduri, adding that average power consumption has dropped 20 percent over the previous generation of Atom technology.
"We got more than eight hours of battery life out of this system," said CNET Review's Dan Ackerman, after testing the new Asus Eee PC 1005PE Netbook, which is equipped with the updated Atom silicon.
Intel has integrated the graphics function onto the CPU, resulting in lower overall power consumption
(Credit: Intel)Atom-based systems will be sold primarily with Windows 7 Starter or Home Basic. "These are the ones that hit the right price points," Nanduri said. "The kind of applications you load up as you go into Home Premium--with a much more richer experience--more performance is needed for that," Nanduri said, referring to higher-price Windows Home Premium.
Windows XP Home and Intel's Moblin Linux operating systems will also be supported. Moblin offers some benefits over Windows. "You will get a very snappy experience on Moblin and faster boot times because it's very purpose-built for this category," Nanduri said.
Intel expects robust growth ahead for Netbooks. Nanduri cited numbers from ABI Research that show Netbook annual shipments reaching 100 million units sometime in the next three years. Since introduction, Intel has shipped more than 40 million Atom chips for Netbooks to major PC makers.
Intel is also launching a new Atom processor with two processing cores, the D510, which it is targeted at entry-level desktops and replaces an existing dual-core Atom. Also, a new single-core D410 design is being introduced.
New Atom processors:
- N450: 1.66GHz, 512KB cache, DDR2-667, TDP: 5.5W
- D510: 1.66GHz, 1MB cache, DDR2-800/667, TDP: 13W (2 cores)
- D410: 1.66GHz, 512KB cache, DDR2-800/667, TDP: 10W
Though radically redesigned, ... Read more
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The quality and speed of the browser is an essential feature for smartphones these days. And it's here that the BlackBerry Storm 2 has some catching up to do vis-a-vis rivals such as the iPhone 3GS.
The Storm 2 is an underrated smartphone in many respects. The interface is clean and easy to navigate, the standard software feature set competitive, and the ability to integrate all email accounts into one screen convenient.
But unbelievably--to me, at least--RIM failed to improve the browser on the Storm 2. Or let me put it this way: RIM failed to make perceptible improvements. (See RIM statement below.)
This is no small oversight. The key reason why the Motorola Droid has been a hit is because it couples a big screen with a high-quality, fast browser--making it the only premium smartphone to date in the U.S. to approach the status of the iPhone.
Which brings us to the gold standard of smartphone browsers: the Safari browser on the iPhone 3GS. This is nothing short of phenomenal. It's the closest a smartphone user can get to the full-fledged browsing on a laptop.
And the browser will only become more important as the smartphone screen size creep continues, from the 3.5-inch diagonal screen on the iPhone 3GS to the 3.7-inch screen on the Droid to the 4.1-inch display on the Toshiba TG01 (sold in Europe).
So, what was RIM thinking? The Storm 2's browser (like its predecessor's--which I had previously been using) can be glacially slow when loading Web sites. So slow that many Storm users opt for downloading the Opera Mini or Bolt browsers. But these browsers have shortcomings of their own, so they don't necessarily serve as satisfactory replacements for the Storm's built-in browser. (The Bolt browser does not zoom and Opera Mini--though blazingly fast--has trouble rendering some Web sites.)
As shown in the embedded videos, which demonstrate the load times for the CNET News page and the zoom features of the two phones, respectively, the iPhone 3GS (bottom) beats the Storm handily.
It is important to note that the Storm 2's built-in browser will speed up significantly if you turn off (uncheck) "Support javascript" in the "Browser Configuration" settings. And in the side-by-side page load-time comparisons with the iPhone 3GS (embedded videos), support for javascript is turned off.
But RIM needs to hurry up and match the competition. A fast, high-quality browser is ... Read more
The semiconductor industry is set to post a revenue drop of $29 billion for this year, according to research firm Gartner.
Worldwide revenue for 2009 totaled $226 billion, down 11.4 percent from 2008, the company said in a research report published on Thursday. It marks only the sixth time in 25 years that the semiconductor industry has posted an annual decline, and is the first time it has seen a drop for two years in a row, according to Gartner.
While revenue fell sharply at the beginning of 2009, carrying on a fall prompted by the economic recession the year before, it began to rise again in the spring, according to the report.
Read more of Chip revenue falls 11.4 percent in 2009 at ZDNet UK.
Mozilla Messaging hopes to release Thunderbird 3.1 in early April, a date that reflects a new frequent-release strategy adopted from the better-known Firefox effort at Mozilla.
Dan Mosedale, a programmer for the open-source e-mail software, published the date in a Thunderbird schedule draft he announced Thursday.
"If we're lucky, we relabel 3.1RC1 [release candidate 1] as final and ship it on Tuesday, April 6. Otherwise, there's an RC2," Mosedale said in the planning document.
The new version is due to get an updated Web browser engine. Using the same Gecko project that Firefox is built atop means Thunderbird messages can integrate with Web activity such as Google Calendar.
Another possibility for 3.1 is a revamp of the Thunderbird start page, Mozilla Messaging CEO David Ascher said Friday. That redesign, which Ascher described in May, could show more useful information than the present splash screen--for example, information about what activity people has been up to help pick up where they left off.
"The 'start page,' which makes a lot of sense in Firefox, never made a huge amount of sense to me in Thunderbird. In particular, it's shown only when a folder is selected, and no message is selected. That's hardly a logical time to show the (colorful, pretty, but fairly useless) page we show now. Instead, why not show information about the selected folder and help people who clearly intended to select a folder, so most likely wanted to do something related to that folder," Ascher said in the blog post.
The faster Thunderbird release cycle is just one attribute the Thunderbird team is trying to adopt from Mozilla's higher-profile Firefox effort. Also on the longer-term plan is financial self-sustenance. Those are big challenges, though. An easier adoption will be fun names.
Starting now, Thunderbird versions will be named after beaches, Ascher said in a blog post this week.
"Firefox releases have cool code names while in gestation," Acher said. "Firefox picks national parks as code names, as metaphors for the values that go into making a Firefox release. The idea made a lot of sense to us, so we decided to follow suit for Thunderbird. Rather than parks, we picked beaches."
First up: Hawaii. Thunderbird 3.1 gets the name Lanikai, Ascher said, adding that he misspelled it "Lanakai" in the blog post.
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The Federal Trade Commission needs to do a better study of Intel and chip the market before it pulls the trigger with a veritable scattershot of last-minute accusations.
In addition to the FTC's litany of charges against Intel relating to the chipmaker's alleged anticompetitive behavior in the central processing unit, or CPU, market for PCs, the FTC document also refers to "Intel's unfair methods of competition...and future competition in the relevant GPU (market)." GPUs, or graphics processing units, and CPUs comprise the two main processors in all PCs.
A more thoughtful, studied, and contemporaneous analysis by the FTC would reveal that future personal computing markets are not so much about graphics chips--which is the basis of its new found emphasis on Nvidia as the object of Intel bullying and misbehavior--but about small mobile devices. And here Intel faces a raft of competition and is at least a year behind its rivals.
And that includes Nvidia, whose tiny Tegra processor is already in the Microsoft Zune HD and the Samsung M1 and whose next-generation Tegra 2 chip will be in dozens more handheld devices and smartphones. Intel's current offerings in this space? Zero.
Nvidia's Tegra processor is based on the same ARM design that other competitors use such as Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Samsung, Apple, and Freescale Semiconductor use. And which Nvidia's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said is expected to account for half of Nvidia's business in a few years.
Unbelievably, the only reference to ARM in the FTC complaint is: "Another example of a non-x86 microprocessor architecture is ARM. ARM is used primarily in handheld devices and mobile phones." One sentence in a 20-plus page document seems oddly dismissive, as though ARM was practically irrelevant to future chip market competitive dynamics as relates to Intel. Especially when you look at it in the context that that FTC is referring to the world's most popular consumer chip architecture--that is, ARM.
How large is this exploding market today? The ARM processor market totaled well over 2 billion units shipped in 2008. The "x86" PC chip market, where Intel and Advanced Micro Devices compete, a fraction of this--a few hundred million.
"The growing market is...a whole swath of interconnected devices and Intel doesn't have much a presence there," said the CEO of ARM Warren East in an interview I had with him recently in Los Angeles. And he accurately asserted that ARM can either match or exceed Intel in market clout and spending because it works, to some extent, in concert with the manufacturers--like TI, Nvidia, Samsung--that collectively have a massive revenue stream to tap into for marketing and research and development. "Well, actually there's about $25 billion of ARM semiconductor revenue coming in through the front door. So, it isn't Intel versus ARM, it's Intel versus everybody else," he said.
And if there is any truth to the Google Netbook rumors, ... Read more
(Updated at 1:56 p.m. PST, after I put down my own bottle of Lapin Kulta.)
If you've ever spent a long night drinking with Finns, you may have noted that after the 10th beer, they can become jolly, effusive, and positively inventive. Well, please hark the words of Martti Roth, an alleged employee of Intel Finland, who thought of something rather special while under the influence of alcohol.
I am not libeling him, truly. Because Roth says he really did come up with the notion, while at a bar, that he and his Intel friends should create the world's biggest Intel chime ever by firing themselves out of cannons.
On the special Intel Cannonbells site, Roth declared: "I thought about the biggest, most exciting way we could create those five notes. And the longer I stayed in the bar, the more sense it made."
Roth says he is a field applications engineer. And his family has a history with cannons. No, not in some 19th century war, but, well, it sounds like a tragic story.
"In 1906, my great grandfather tried to fire himself from a cannon over the widest part of the river Vantaa in Helsinki," Roth said on the site.
I cannot imagine why he might have made this interesting choice. In answer to the question "did he make it?" Roth replied: "Some of him did. Funny really, but on the day [of the Intel Cannonbells launch], I really felt as though he was looking down on me and guiding me through the air towards that big, metal pipe. It was very emotional."
I cannot possibly suggest that Roth did this interview when still under the influence of the finest Lapin Kulta (supposedly Finland's finest beer). Or that, as some (including the site's disclaimer writers) might suggest, he is merely an actor.
Oh, all right, here's the full, tucked-away disclaimer: "All copy and videos are part of a marketing campaign for Intel Sponsors of Tomorrow. No Intel employees were harmed in the making of this film. All characters featured in the videos were played by actors specially trained in silly costumes and Finnish accents. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to fire anyone out of a cannon."
Still, I trust that the video will inspire you to aim higher in the coming year to create technological feats that will truly make a noise in the commercial world. Even if it might make you mistrust Finns a little in the immediate future.
Microsoft and Intel this week are finding themselves on opposite sides of antitrust favor, while Facebook may find itself in the crosshairs.
Microsoft and the European Commission have settled their differences over the choice of Web browsers in Windows. As part of the settlement, Windows PCs sold in the European Economic Area will now present users with a Choice Screen, allowing them to install alternative browsers beyond Internet Explorer.
The Choice Screen will offer users the ability to install up to 12 of the most widely used Web browsers that run under Windows. The choices will include the more widely known browsers, such as IE, Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox, Opera, and AOL's browser, and lesser-known products including Maxthon, K-Meleon, Flock, Avant Browser, Sleipnir, and Slim Browser.
Microsoft initially proposed stripping a browser out of Windows 7 entirely, a move first reported by CNET. Both competitors and the EU balked at that idea though, instead favoring some sort of ballot screen. Microsoft eventually relented, though the company and its rivals have gone back and forth for a while over the details.
• Microsoft top lawyer: EU deal opens new chapter
FTC sues Intel over 'anticompetitive tactics'
The agency says Intel has robbed consumers of both choice and innovation in microprocessors, "running roughshod over the principles of fair play."• FTC wants Intel to mend its ways
• Graphics chips a new legal front for Intel
• Nvidia CEO: FTC action 'transforms' industry
FTC may enter latest Facebook privacy debacle
Scattered griping about the social network's new privacy policies could turn into a firestorm, as EPIC complains about the decision to push more member content public.• FTC's new strategy: Kick 'em when they're down
More headlines
Microsoft: We did copy Plurk's code
The software maker says that an investigation shows that the Juku microblogging application on MSN China did swipe code from a rival.• Plurk holding Microsoft's feet to code-copying fire
• Start-up claims Microsoft China took its code
• Microsoft investigating charges it stole rival's code
• Microsoft pulls China blog site amid code-theft charges
787 Dreamliner takes to the sky
After two years of delays, Boeing's new plane finally got off the ground Tuesday. Its first flight was witnessed by thousands of company employees and excited fans.
Google phone looks 'supersharp'
After Google distributes its Android phone to employees to test, CNET gets a look. The slick-looking unlocked HTC "mobile lab" device runs the Android 2.1 operating system.• Inside the Google phone: A 'snappy' chip
Facebook sues men for allegedly phishing, spamming
Facebook's latest lawsuit accuses three men of getting access to Facebook user accounts by phishing and then sending spam from their accounts.• Facebook's audience is diverse--carve it up, advertisers
• How to hide your Facebook friends list
• Russian firm DST on a roll, upping stake in Facebook?
• Facebook helps reunite woman with her rescuers
• Forgot your anniversary? Facebook's got it covered
Firefox, Adobe top buggiest software list
Open-source Firefox reports all holes, putting it at the top of the list for bug reports, while Adobe replaces Microsoft in the second spot, reports find.• Adobe to patch zero-day Reader, Acrobat hole
• Firefox 3.6 beta released
Study: The road ahead for electric cars
Decisions made in 2010 will play a crucial role in shaping how consumers and the auto industry adopt all-electric and hybrid vehicles.• Struggling Saab finds partner on electric vehicles
• Yet another hybrid supercar
• Plugless power is coming
Also of note
• Biden to unveil $2 billion in broadband grants
• Windows 7 leaving Redmond's help desk less busy
• PC shipments turn positive in third quarter
The Sony A850, the least expensive full-frame SLR on the market, now has raw-image support from Adobe.
(Credit: Sony Electronics)Adobe Systems released an update to its Photoshop and Lightroom products on Thursday night to support raw images from a raft of newer cameras from Canon, Nikon, Sony, and others.
Raw image formats, which record the unprocessed image sensor data from various higher-end cameras, offer higher quality and more flexibility than JPEGs but require more processing and take up more space. Adobe, Apple, and others write their own modules to decode the proprietary formats.
Adobe's update supports several newer SLRs from Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Sony; compact cameras from Olympus, Panasonic, and Canon; and several medium-format camera models from Mamiya. Here's the full list of cameras now supported in Lightroom 2.6, the Camera Raw 5.6 plug-in for Photoshop CS4, and the DNG Converter 5.6 utility:
• Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
• Canon EOS 7D
• Canon PowerShot G11
• Canon PowerShot S90
• Leaf Aptus II 5
• Mamiya DM22, DM28, DM33, DM56, M18, M22, M31
• Nikon D3S
• Olympus E-P2
• Pentax K-x
• Panasonic FZ38
• Sigma DP1s
• Sony A500
• Sony A550
• Sony A850
The software also fixes a problem that, on PowerPC-based Macs, could create artifacts in highlight areas in some circumstances with medium-format sensors and with some cameras from Sony, Olympus, and Panasonic.
The Camera Raw plug-in also works for customers of Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8. The free DNG Converter software can translate raw files into the Digital Negative format Adobe is trying to promote and standardize as a way to address file format longevity issues for archiving, expand use of raw photography, and handle metadata better.
Supporting raw processing keeps software makers on a new-camera treadmill. Apple updated its support for some of the new cameras on Wednesday, and DxO Labs announced it supports Canon's high-end S90 compact with the new DxO Optics Pro v6.1.1.
Oracle delivered better-than-expected fiscal second quarter results, touted its applications business vs. SAP and said it expects the European Union to "unconditionally clear the acquisition of Sun in January." Oracle also outlined some of its strategy for taking Sun hardware upmarket.
The company reported net income of $1.5 billion, or 29 cents a share, on revenue of $5.9 billion, up 4 percent from a year ago. On a non-GAAP basis, Oracle had earnings of 39 cents a share, 3 cents better than Wall Street estimates. Oracle's second quarter sales were also better than the $5.7 billion expected by Wall Street.
According to a statement, Oracle reported its best second quarter operating margin in its history. In addition, the third quarter outlook was also strong. Sun projected GAAP earnings of 36 to 38 cents a share, or 30 to 33 cents a share in constant currency. Wall Street is expecting fully loaded earnings of 29 cents a share and non-GAAP earnings of 36 cents a share.
Meanwhile, Oracle said it expected the EU to approve its acquisition of Sun...
Read more of "Oracle delivers strong quarter, outlines plans for Sun" at ZDNet's Between the Lines.
