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equipment

Huawei seals deal with Cox

Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies announced Monday that it will provide wireless equipment to cable operator Cox Communications, which is building its own 3G cell phone network.

Cox, the third largest cable provider in the U.S., is using the $300 million worth of spectrum it bought in last year's Federal Communications Commission's auction to build the network. The company also plans to resell Sprint Nextel wireless service. The service is expected to launch later this year.

Huawei is providing the CDMA equipment to build the network, which the company says will be upgradeable to the 4G … Read more

Will Huawei finally make it big in America?

Chinese communications equipment maker Huawei has nailed an important deal and is close to striking a second one with American service providers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The company, which has tried for several years to crack the U.S. market, has scored a deal with cable operator Cox Communications and is a finalist in bids to help Clearwire build its nationwide 4G wireless network using a technology called WiMax.

Clearwire expects its network to be available to 120 million people by 2010. And it is currently selecting equipment suppliers to help it build the network. The new Clearwire … Read more

Food for the future

I always believed the future to be a wonderful place filled with lots of flying things and robots who enjoyed working for humanity. While much of that hasn't happened, at least our food hasn't turned into bland tasteless pellets that we consume once a day for all of our nutritional needs. That would be a very bleak future indeed. While we may not be flying around in jet packs just yet, we still have a rich and diverse food culture that seems to have no end. If there were a future in which we all had to eat … Read more

Report: Nortel may sell off two key businesses

Telecommunications equipment maker Nortel Networks is reportedly in discussions to sell two key business units, a move that may affect its ability to re-emerge from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy status, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Nortel, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, has received interest from competitors in its wireless equipment operation, as well as its unit that creates corporate communications networks, according to the Journal.

In September, the struggling telecommunications equipment maker raised the issue of finding a buyer for some of its assets, after it warned Wall Street its financial situation had worsened.

Avaya and … Read more

Chip gear woes signal more trouble ahead for tech

As chip equipment goes, so goes the electronics industry and the rest of high tech.

It's a pretty simple equation. Electronics gadget makers get silicon from chipmakers, which get production gear from companies like Applied Materials and ASML. So when chip gear suppliers go south, you can bet the entire electronics industry (and the overall tech industry) is in a funk.

And it is. Appearing on CNBC Thursday morning, Peter Wennink, chief financial officer of Netherlands-based chip equipment maker ASML, said the "sudden drop in end demand for electronic products...is forcing our customers to announce severe cuts … Read more

Fully Equipped: Is rear-pro the way to go for a large-screen HDTV?

Around the holiday season we get a lot of e-mails from readers agonizing over what TV to buy. With the economy the way it is, consumers aren't completely shying away from buying new TVs, but they're on tight budgets and appear to be predominantly interested in screen sizes 52 inches or smaller. The big problem with going bigger is that you jump into a whole new price class when you start looking at the Panasonic 58-inch plasma--and it gets worse when you check out Pioneer's 60-incher.

The exception to all this is DLP-based rear-projection HDTVs, where Samsung … Read more

Chip gear industry's funk is a red flag

The chip equipment business is "on hold," said an analyst at a major industry association, and that bodes ill for the electronics industry in 2009.

Chip equipment makers signal how the electronics industry will fare in the future. They take orders from chipmakers which, in turn, take orders from electronic gadget makers.

Lara Chamness, a senior market analyst in industry research and statistics at Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, talked about prospects for the industry in an interview. SEMI is an industry watchdog that covers the manufacturing supply chains for the microelectronic, display, and photovoltaic industries.

"We … Read more

Composer John Adams talks about his past

This week's New Yorker magazine has an outstanding autobiographical piece by composer John Adams, best known for his operas such as 1987's Nixon in China and 2005's Doctor Atomic. While he's an established composer now, back in 1972 he was just another nearly-broke artist with strong a strong bent toward the experimental. Of course, he ended up in San Francisco.

The piece has many scenes that will ring true to any musician who's tried to create something new rather than going for pop gold...the blue-collar day job and attendant financial problems...the underground gigs … Read more

'Prison pen' is just for writing

Looking for the perfect gift for the prisoner in your life? Consider the so-called prison pen, which is made from a soft rubbery material that bends under the slightest pressure, making it virtually impossible to do lethal damage with it.

The pen may not be good for stabbing or shivving, but you just know the ingenious Andy Dufresne from Shawshank Redemption would still be able to incorporate it into some impossibly brilliant escape scheme. The product, which is already in use at U.S. federal prisons, according to Spycatcher, sells at that site for $10. And truthfully, prison references aside, … Read more