economy

Facebook touts its economic muscle--but only counts the good stuff

Facebook might be just another social network to us, but for world economies, it's actually helping drive growth.

Or so says one of its top officials, COO Sheryl Sandberg--though some of the figures she cited may be a little too carefully cherry-picked.

Speaking today at the Digital - Life - Design (DLD) Conference in Munich today, Sandberg said Facebook's business goes beyond "posts and pictures" to include "jobs and empowering people." All Things Digital, which attended the event, was first to report on Sandberg's comments.

Sandberg cited a host of statistics from a … Read more

Europe rules ISPs can't be forced to block pirate sites

Good news from Europe: ISPs can't be forced to monitor or block customers from using the Web. A European court has ruled that record labels and film studios can't use the courts to instruct a broadband company to track or try to block a customer.

"E.U. law precludes the imposition of an injunction by a national court which requires an Internet service provider to install a filtering system with a view to preventing the illegal downloading of files," the European Court of Justice ruled.

Record labels, film studios, and other owners of copyrighted music, movies, or media have in recent years tried to steer government and courts toward making ISPs responsible for piracy. They argue that ISPs should keep an eye on what their customers are doing online, and if they spot a customer illegally accessing copyrighted material, courts should order the ISP to boot the customer off the Internet.

Read more of "Europe rules ISPs can't be forced to block pirate sites" at Crave UK.… Read more

Disasters, economic malaise whack chip industry

Bad news for anybody in the business of making the chips that power PCs and store movies on iPads.

IHS today said it's dramatically reduced its forecast for semiconductor sales worldwide for 2011, cutting the expected growth rate from 2.9 percent all the way down to 1.2 percent. The industry has swung from boom to bust many times in its decades of existence, but hard times still have the same unpleasant ripple effects: less money to fund research into next-generation products and to pay for next-generation manufacturing facilities.

And it's those investments that ultimately matter to … Read more

Mary Meeker: Other than the economy, things look pretty good

SAN FRANCISCO--Mary Meeker, a partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, gave one of her typical, blisteringly fast, data-driven talks at the Web 2.0 Summit here.

The slides she used are online on the KP site. I recommend giving them a read.

Some key points: Meeker kicks off by talking about globality. While the top four tech companies are American, there are several up-and-comers, especially from China. And 81 percent of Internet users are outside the U.S. Also, social-network use (aka the "new Internet," according to Marc Benioff) in the U.… Read more

Talking tech with Peter Thiel, investor and philanthropist (Q&A)

SAN FRANCISCO--Peter Thiel believes technology will make the world a much better place. He's simply frustrated at how long it's taking.

The billionaire entrepreneur is best known for co-founding PayPal, and, more recently, for his very early investment in Facebook. He founded Clarium Capital Management, a hedge fund, created the philanthropic Thiel Foundation, and co-produced the irreverent 2005 comedy Thank You for Smoking.

In May, the Thiel Foundation announced the first 24 recipients of a fellowship that awards $100,000 each to youth under 20 years old--essentially encouraging them to drop out of college to become entrepreneurs. The … Read more

11 technologies that increase fuel economy

Short of employing a full hybrid system, automakers are finding many ways to improve fuel economy in current, gas-engine cars. Engineers are looking at every part of the drive cycle to determine where savings can be made.

Some of the technologies being employed are old, such as turbochargers and continuously variable transmissions, but they are being refined to take advantage of new materials and computing power.

There have also been some newer innovations that cut fuel use, such as the use of idle stop and dual-clutch transmissions.

A number of factors are helping push these developments. Consumers are trying to cope with increasing gas prices, and governments are pushing for reduced carbon dioxide emissions, which relate directly to fuel economy.

Check out these 11 technologies that reduce fuel consumption. … Read more

Cost2Drive estimates fuel cost for road trips

Recently, I took a road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles to drive the 2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid. When I told friends that I'd driven over 5 hours one-way just spend even more time driving when I got there, the question I got most often was, "Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just fly?"

Had I known about the Cost2Drive Web service and iOS app at the time, I'd have been better equipped to answer that query.

After entering a starting address, ending address, and a make, model, and year of a vehicle, Cost2Drive … Read more

AT&T promises 5,000 new jobs after T-Mobile merger

Update 8:08 a.m. PT: Just after this story was posted, the Department of Justice said that it has gone to court in Washington, D.C., in an effort to block the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, saying the deal would reduce competition and violate U.S. antitrust laws.

AT&T is using the prospect of more jobs to help make a stronger case for its merger with T-Mobile USA.

If the deal is approved, AT&T today said that it will be able to "bring back" 5,000 call center jobs to … Read more

Dell cuts sales outlook, cites 'uncertain demand environment'

Dell reported better-than-expected second quarter results, but cut its revenue outlook for the rest of its fiscal year.

Specifically, Dell said it will see better profit growth with non-GAAP earnings up 17 percent to 23 percent, but sees a "more uncertain demand environment." As a result, Dell said its fiscal 2012 revenue growth will be 1 percent to 5 percent, down from its previous expectation of 5 percent to 9 percent. Third quarter revenue will be flat with the second quarter.

That flat sequential revenue forecast is well below estimates. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 45 cents … Read more