xerox

Chiplets: The future of circuitry?

Xerox has a different view on the future than most.

The company recently gave The New York Times the opportunity to see a new technology it's working on at its Palo Alto, Calif., research center. Referred to as Xerographic microassembly, the technology is based on the idea of laser printing and could one day become the most efficient way to bring circuitry to electronics products, Xerox claims.

According to the Times, Xerographic microassembly breaks traditional silicon wafers into thousands of "chiplets" and then bottles them up as a physical "ink." Once that ink is produced … Read more

Xerox CFO heading to Apple to assume controller position

Apple will soon have a new top-level member in its financial-management team.

Xerox Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri will leave the company at the end of February to become Apple's corporate controller. Xerox made the announcement today, saying that Maestri was instrumental in strengthening Xerox's "financial foundation."

As Apple's controller, Maestri will likely serve under Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer. Last summer, Apple announced in an SEC filing that Betsy Rafael would retire in mid-October as the company's corporate controller and principal accounting officer.

Over the last several months, Apple has been hit with some … Read more

Book gives look at early Apple designs

Apple fanatics may find themselves foaming at the mouth over some retro conceptual Mac computer photos featured in Hartmut Esslinger's book Design Forward: Creative Strategies for Sustainable Change.

The opus, released today in limited quantities, explores Esslinger's journey as a German designer who worked with the likes of Sony, Louis Vuitton, and others before moving on to Apple in 1982. Apple hired Esslinger (and his company Frog Design) to transform the successful yet scattered startup into a brand with a globally recognizable design mantra. … Read more

What's next from the people who invented the PC?

Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center is a legendary and often misunderstood place. Once Xerox's outpost in Silicon Valley, it's now a separate company within Xerox, and it focuses on applied R&D. PARC is where you'll find the beginnings of the personal computer, LAN, voice command, and laser printing. Today its work branches far beyond computing, with a strong emphasis on ethnography, the study of what people do and how they do it.

I'd met Xerox CTO Sophie Vandebroek before, but was curious to see how things were going on this 10th anniversary of … 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

Apple's legal tactics won't keep competitors at bay

For the last week, attorneys for Apple and Samsung have been arguing over rounded corners, icons, bezels, ornamental designs and horizontal lozenge-shaped slots.

After hearing testimony -- first from Apple's witnesses and then from Samsung -- a jury at the U.S District Court in the heart of Silicon Valley will decide whether Samsung's broad array of mobile products infringed on patents and designs associated with the iPad and iPhone. 

Samsung is contending that its devices are not illegally derivative of Apple's products, and that Apple looked to Sony in developing designs for the iPhone. … Read more

A Kodak moment to forget

Digital Equipment founder Ken Olsen was one of the smartest people ever to grace the tech landscape. Yet seemingly every recollection of his legacy makes sure to cite his dumbest quote.

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home," Olsen told a meeting of the World Future Society in Boston in 1977.

Though Olsen would later claim that the quote was misinterpreted, it's since acquired the status of punch line, an eternal shorthand summation for corporate cluelessness.

What a shame. Long after it became clear to everyone that the PC was … Read more

Eat your own before someone else does, CEOs tell CES panel

LAS VEGAS--The Consumer Electronics Show is really about the here and now, a showcase for the sleekest, fastest, shiniest gizmos that will show up in stores in the coming months.

But a panel of corporate leaders discussed the importance of creating corporate cultures that encourage companies to displace their own gadgets--to develop the next generation of devices that can replace the ones so lavishly displayed on the show floor here. Because if a company doesn't displace its own gadgets, rivals will.

"If you don't make those investments, clearly somebody else will cannibalize your business," said John … Read more

Xerox offers the 2nd Wi-Fi cordless scanner

Though it's not the first as its press release claims, the Xerox Mobile Scanner is a nifty little battery-powered model that uses a 4GB Eye-Fi SD card to connect to Wi-Fi networks for uploading scanned images to mobile devices.

LAS VEGAS--In a bit of a bizarre move, Xerox announced its Xerox Mobile Scanner as the first battery-operated, Wi-Fi-connected scanner. Except Xerox owns Visioneer, which announced the first battery-operated, Wi-Fi connected scanner back in October. They both operate via a bundled Eye-Fi card for the wireless connection, though the hardware looks different. The Visioneer Mobility Air is also cheaper, $199 … Read more