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Apple scores as second best global brand in new report

Apple is the second best brand in the world, according to market research firm Interbrand.

Among the 100 best global brands for the year, Apple came in just behind top-seated Coca-Cola. Based on specific factors, Coca-Cola scored a total brand value of $77.8 million, while Apple was given a value of $76.5 million.

In ascending to second place, Apple saw a 129 percent rise in its brand value since last year, the largest gain among all the brands on the list.

How does Interbrand choose which brands it considers best?

The research firm uses three factors: 1) the … Read more

Did a bug in Deep Blue lead to Kasparov's defeat?

It's part of the conventional wisdom now that machines are smarter than us, especially when it comes to specific challenges. Chess, for instance. World champion Garry Kasparov's defeat at the hands of IBM's Deep Blue computer in 1997 was a milestone in the story of artificial intelligence.

But did the machine merely psych him out? Statistician Nate Silver's new book "The Signal and The Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail--But Some Don't" contains an anecdote about how a glitch in Deep Blue may have led Kasparov to overestimate the machine's smarts, according to The Washington Post.

Despite the machine's ability to evaluate 200 million moves per second, Kasparov easily won the first game of the match. In the 44th move, however, Deep Blue made an inexplicable play, moving a rook for no apparent purpose. … Read more

Tech execs top Fortune's list of powerful women

Fortune's list of the 50 most powerful women in business is out, and it come as no big surprise that some of the top players work in the tech industry.

Ginni Rometty, IBM's recently appointed CEO, nabbed the No. 1 spot, up from No. 7 last year. Rometty, a longtime IBMer, ran Big Blue's sales operations before taking over as chief executive in January. Fortune noted she's now in charge of delivering on some of IBM's biggest changes, such as buying PwC and developing a five-year growth plan.

Meg Whitman, CEO of IBM rival Hewlett-Packard, … Read more

IBM's Watson makes Siri look, well, elementary

Compared to Apple's Siri speech-activated personal assistant, IBM's Watson is a genius.

Zooey Deschanel might ask Siri, "Is that rain?"

She might ask Watson, "Who's the author that wrote, 'It was a dark and stormy night'?"

(Edward Bulwer-Lytton, for the literary-minded among you.)

Until now, Watson's tech has been too big to cram into a mobile device. All those smarts takes a room full of servers, an incredible amount of calculations and a thick wire into the electrical mains.

That's about to change.

The power consumption behind Watson's performance is &… Read more

Early chip engineer Victor Poor dies at 79

Victor Poor, one of the founding fathers of early computer innovation, died Friday at the age of 79. He was one of the handful of engineers who helped develop Intel's first single chip microprocessor -- the 4004. Poor continued to be instrumental in microprocessor and computer advancement throughout his life.

According to the New York Times, Poor died of pancreatic cancer in Palm Bay, Fla.

Poor, who was a self-taught engineer, began working with Intel in 1969 when he met with well-known engineer Stanley Mazor to discuss the idea of building a processor for a programmable terminal, according to … Read more

Rumor Has It: $199 for Microsoft Surface tablet? Yes, please.

The latest rumors say so, but we'll explain why the latest rumors are probably wrong. Also on today's episode, we learn why IBM might want to buy RIM's secret treasure chest, and we decipher the tea-leaves of iOS 6. What is Apple not telling us about the new OS for fear of giving away iPhone 5 secrets?

And finally, the next Xbox may hit soon, another rumors suggests. This tweeted image of a swirl of colors supposedly indicates that the Kinect 2 might be awesome. To us it just looks like, well, modern art. But you guys … Read more

IBM has eyes on RIM enterprise-services unit, report says

Research In Motion has been approached by IBM to discuss a possible sale of the BlackBerry maker's enterprise-services division, a new report claims.

IBM has so far held informal discussions about picking up RIM's enterprise-services division, which includes the network that powers its e-mail platform, among other software, Bloomberg is reporting today, citing sources. According to Bloomberg's sources, IBM has made it clear to RIM that it doesn't want to acquire the entire company.

RIM has said publicly that it believes it can turn things around, despite plummeting device sales and rampant delays that have pushed … Read more

IBM posts a good quarter, remains on track for the year

IBM's second quarter earnings were better than expected, but the company took a hit on currency fluctuations that led to lower-than-expected sales.

The software, services and integrated hardware giant reported second quarter earnings of $3.9 billion, or $3.34 a share, on revenue of $25.8 billion, down 3 percent from a year ago. Currency shaved about $1 billion from IBM's revenue. Non-GAAP earnings were $3.51 a share.

Wall Street was expecting IBM to report second quarter earnings of $3.42 a share on revenue of $26.27 billion.

As for the outlook, IBM said it … Read more

Data isn't always the answer

"Big Data" promises to turn terabytes, petabytes, and exabytes (with, presumably, zettabytes and yottabytes to come) of what's often ambient digital detritus into useful results. That promise often seems to come with an implicit assumption; with enough data and the tools to crunch it, useful insights will follow. Insights that can be used to make businesses more efficient, tailor everything from medicine to advertising for individuals, and employ instrumentation and automation on larger and more complex physical systems than ever before.

For example, we're in the early days of what sometimes goes by the name of … Read more