Category: News

Citi: ‘Softer demand for iPhone 5′ and iPad mini cannibalization hurting Apple growth

Apple (AAPL) may not be “doomed,” but it certainly is dealing with some of the toughest competition that we’ve seen in a long time. CNET points us to a new note written by Citi analyst Glen Yeung claiming that demand for the iPhone 5 has softened and that the iPad mini is cannibalizing sales of the 9.7-inch iPad, thus limiting Apple’s ability to sell larger tablets. As a result of this, Yeung has cut his iPhone sales estimate to 34 million from 35 million this quarter, while also slashing his total June-quarter iPad sales estimate from 19.6 million to 19 million.

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March 6, 2013
Despite major growth, SolarCity shares drop on Q4 loss
In SolarCity’s first earnings statement since it held its IPO in December 2012, the company showed major growth in 2012, but posted a larger loss than expected for the fourth quarter of 2012, causing its stock to drop sharply in after hours trading. SolarCity’s shares dropped as much as 10 percent in after-hours trading.

SolarCity said for the fourth quarter of 2012, it had a net loss attributed to shareholders of $3.04 million, while it had a positive net income attributed to shareholders of $14.07 million for the same period a year earlier. Per share, that was a loss excluding items of $1.10 for the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to a positive gain in net income of $0.24 for the same period a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter was up slightly at $25.27 million.

For the full year 2012, total revenues were $128.66 million, which was double the revenues in 2011 of $59.55 million. SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive said the company is signing up a new customer every five minutes. There were 157 MW deployed in 2012, which was an increase of 118 percent over 2011.

SolarCity now has over 50,000 customers and has deployed close to 300 MW worth of solar panel projects over its lifetime. They also have close to 200 MW of backlog orders to deploy. Rive said on the earnings call on Wednesday that for 2012 “we could not have asked for a better year.”

Unfortunately now that the company is public, it’s a quarterly numbers game to Wall Street and analysts.

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March 6, 2013
Russell Crowe UFO Video Leaves Twitter Fans Baffled

Russel Crowe may be scheduled to play Superman’s father, Jor-El, in the upcoming Superman movie reboot Man of Steel, but it wasn’t a flying Kryptonian that Crowe spotted outside his Sydney offices this week.

The actor posted a YouTube video to his Twitter account this week, showing what he claims in a genuine UFO. Crowe stated that he and a friend set up a Cannon 5D outside his office in Sydney to capture images of fruit bats “rising from Botanic Gardens. Instead, three photos taken over 4.5 seconds show something brightly lit passing over the scenery very quickly.

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Russell Crowe
@russellcrowe

UFO? Time Lapse Photos Outside RC’s Woolloomooloo Office (THESE ARE REAL!): http://t.co/BhTyoyBKql via @youtube

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19 hours ago via Tweet Button · powered by @socialditto

Crowe is technically accurate in that the object in the photos is unidentified and appears to be flying. However, dressing the video up with sinister music and weird editing to imply an alien presence implies that the actor is simply trolling his Twitter followers.

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Russell Crowe
@russellcrowe

I will grant you at the time the music wasn’t playing, also, yes, we have pushed in on the frame..this is 3 photo’s in order, nothing added

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9 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

The stunt has gained Crowe some attention on Twitter, though. The star has retweeted various stories about his video and has replied to several fan theories with his own explanations. He even showed that he’s in on the joke by retweeting what is clearly the best explanation for the phenomenon:

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Mary
@marys_movies

@russellcrowe I think that this will provide a good explanation as to what the U.F.O is: http://t.co/nX08C0ZLEL

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9 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

March 6, 2013
Deadpool: The Game Might Just Be The Funniest Game Of The Year

I’m not a huge Marvel Comics fan, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Deadpool. The Marvel anti-hero has enjoyed a massive surge in popularity over the past few years, and it’s surprising that he hasn’t gotten his own game yet. That all changes this year with High Moon Studio’s Deadpool: The Game.

We got our first look at the Deadpool game at last year’s San Diego Comic Con, but we haven’t seen much from it since. The veil was lifted somewhat today in the form of a new trailer that shows more gameplay and even more of the lunacy that we can expect from what may be the craziest super hero game ever made.

There are certainly going to be better games released this year, but I have hard time thinking of any game that could be funnier than Deadpool: The Game. The only thing I can think of is a scenario where BioShock Infinite turns out to be a buddy cop comedy set in a whacky sky city instead of the critique on religious fanaticism and American exceptionalism it appears to be. Even then, Deadpool may be the funnier game.

There’s no word yet on when Deadpool: The Game will be released, but it’s coming to the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC sometime in 2013.

March 6, 2013
BlackBerry Z10 sell-through may already be slumping

Sales of BlackBerry’s (BBRY) new flagship BlackBerry Z10 smartphone are reportedly slumping in the United Kingdom after having gotten off to what appeared to be a strong start. Following up a note from last month that cast doubt on the likelihood of BlackBerry returning to sustained profitability, Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette claimed in a recent note to investors that Z10 inventory is building up across UK sales channels.

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March 6, 2013
Facebook Adds UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann to Its Board

Facebook has just announced that University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann has joined its board of directors.

Desmond-Hellmann is the second woman to join the board in the past year, after Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg became the first woman to join back in June 2012.

According to Facebook, Desmond-Hellmann “oversees all aspects of the university and medical center’s strategy and operations. She previously served as president, product development at the biotechnology pioneer, Genentech. In this role, she was responsible for Genentech’s pre-clinical and clinical development, process research and development, business development and product portfolio management. During her 14 years with the company, Desmond-Hellmann brought numerous cutting-edge cancer medicines to market to help people battle the disease.”

Desmond Hellman, and M.D., also has a Masters in public health. She also serves on Procter & Gamble’s board.

“I’ve always been drawn to organizations that do ground-breaking work,” said Desmond-Hellmann. “Facebook has an ambitious mission and long-term vision of innovation that is transforming how people connect with one another. I’m proud to be part of a company that is serving such an important purpose in the world.”

Before Facebook added Sheryl Sandberg to the board, the company faced pressure from activists who said that Facebook’s all-male board was unacceptable in this day and age.

March 6, 2013
We’re looking for a reporter who can tell great stories about emerging technology
At GigaOM, we’re all about emerging technology — particularly emerging technology that’s disruptive. We believe there are certain technology shifts, like big data or the cloud, or advances in mobile networks or the spread of digital media, that aren’t mere trends: They are part of fundamental changes in how businesses run and in how we live.

But these big ideas weren’t always big ideas. They may have first popped up in a research paper somewhere, or surfaced when a couple of no-name startups began offering a new product or service. Over time, they’ve become powerful movements. We like to think we were ahead of the pack in spotting some of them before they became truly disruptive.

We’re looking for a reporter who can build on that tradition: We want someone who has a deep interest in technology and science, and business and innovation — and who has a knack for finding interesting and important stories before other reporters.

This person would be a sort of roving emerging-technology reporter, schmoozing with researchers and engineers and technologists to learn about cool projects in the works and ideas that are bubbling up. Who’s doing the most interesting research on 3D printing? What are scientists buzzing about in the world of robotics? What’s coming down the road in materials science? This reporter will tell us.

The ideal candidate will be able to take complex ideas and turn them into clear and compelling stories. He or she will be able to write news stories about research and technologies, and also come up with memorable features about the people and companies and challenges behind these projects. This person should be comforable writing a range of different types of posts — shorter, longer, newsier, bloggier, graphical and so on.

We’re looking for a reporter who is curious, plugged in, and, of course, a great colleague.

If this describes you, please drop us a email at [email protected]

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March 6, 2013
Zoe Lofgren Tries For ECPA Reform Once Again

Alongside the much needed Aaron’s Law, Internet superhero Rep. Zoe Lofgren has reintroduced her ECPA amendment into the House for consideration. The new bill keeps many of the protections from last year’s ECPA 2.0 Act, but features a few important additions.

Lofgren announced today that she has introduced the Online Communications and Geolocation Protection Act in the House. As its name implies, this new bill goes beyond what the original ECPA 2.0 Act hoped to accomplish. For one, the fight is no longer restricted to law enforcement snooping through your emails without a warrant as Lofgren is also targeting law enforcement’s ability to obtain smartphone location data without a warrant as well.

“Fourth Amendment protections don’t stop at the Internet. Americans expect Constitutional protections to extend to their online communications and location data,” Rep. Lofgren said. “Establishing a warrant standard for government access to cloud and geolocation provides Americans with the privacy protections they expect, and would enable service providers to foster greater trust with their users and international trading partners.”

Here’s a breakdown of the core tenets of this new bill:
Require the government to obtain a warrant to access to wire or electronic communications content;
Require the government to obtain a warrant to intercept or force service providers to disclose geolocation data;
Preserve exceptions for emergency situations, foreign intelligence surveillance, individual consent, public information, and emergency assistance;
Prohibit service providers from disclosing a user’s geolocation information to the government in the absence of a warrant or exception;
Prohibit the use of unlawfully obtained geolocation information as evidence;
Provide for administrative discipline and a civil cause of action if geolocation information is unlawfully intercepted or disclosed.

One of the things keeping the ECPA 2.0 Act from getting anywhere was that Lofgren didn’t have any co-sponsors. That all changes with this bill as she has managed to rope in Texas Rep. Ted Poe and Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene as co-sponsors. Both seem genuinely excited to be supporting the bill as well:

“In the past decade, advances in technology and the Internet have dramatically changed the way we communicate, live and work – and in this constantly evolving world, Congress must be a good steward of policy to ensure our laws keep up,” said Rep. DelBene. “When current law affords more protections for a letter in a filing cabinet than an email on a server, it’s clear our policies are outdated. This bill will update privacy protections for consumers while resolving competing interests between innovation, international competitiveness, and public safety.”

Poe wins the best statement of the day award, however, for rightly pointing out that the Constitution does not change in the face of new technology:

“As technology continues to evolve and improve, Congress must ensure that the Fourth Amendment rights of our citizens are protected. We live in a much different world than 1986. It’s time for Washington to modernize this outdated legislation to catch up with the times. Technology may change, but the Constitution does not.”

The addition of geolocation protection should also help Lofgren get a few friends in the Senate. Sen. Al Franken is probably going to introduce his twice defeated Location Privacy Protection Act into the Senate again, and most of Lofgren’s bill would fit snugly with Franken’s legislation. As for the email protections in Lofgren’s bill, it might be able to buddy up with Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s proposed legislation that seeks to modernize the ECPA.

I wouldn’t suggest you get too excited though. Law enforcement agencies have fought against any and all ECPA reform over the past few years claiming that it would make their jobs harder. It may very well do that, but Americans have an expectation of privacy the extends into the digital realm. The law needs to be updated to keep up with this expectation.

March 6, 2013

DSE-dashboard

Has eBay developed one dashboard to rule them all? The company took a big step closer to the holy grail of a unified data center productivity metric, unveiling a methodology called Digital Service Efficiency (DSE) at The Green Grid Forum 2013 in Santa Clara, Calif.

In the conference keynote, eBay’s Dean Nelson outlined a system of metrics to tie data center performance to business and transactional metrics. DSE enables balance within the technology ecosystem by exposing how turning knobs in one dimension affects the others, providing a “miles per gallon” measurement for technical infrastructure. In drawing direct connections between data center performance and cost, the dashboard provides eBay with insights that go directly to its bottom line.

“We’re making $337 million per megawatt,” said Nelson, the Vice President, Global Foundation Services at eBay. “That’s the productivity of our infrastructure, not the cost overhead. Through the DSE Dashboard, these numbers are laid out in simple terms that are understandable across business roles. This starts conversations at every level about how we achieve goals. It’s that bridge that’s been missing for so long.”

That data point provides a vivid example of the productivity of data center infrastructure, which typically has construction costs of $5 million to $10 million per megawatt for large users like eBay.

How To Measure Productivity?

The Green Grid has spent several years evaluating various metrics that could be used to measure data center productivity. The industry group popularized the use of Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) as the leading metric for data center energy efficiency. But PUE was primarily a measure of facilities infrastructure, and didn’t address the effectiveness of IT systems within the data center. Various gauges have been proposed to measure productivity, but none has addressed all the objectives for an industry-level metric.

With Digital Service Efficiency, eBay has developed a methodology it believed can bring these diverse puzzle pieces together. It’s based on eBay’s e-commerce operations, but the company says its approach can be adapted by other data center operators, who can substitute their own business metrics. “While the actual services and variables are specific to eBay, the methodology can be used by any company to make better business decisions,” eBay writes in an overview of its process. “Just as ‘your mileage will vary’ from any MPG rating, DSE provides an introspective view of how well a company has optimized its technical infrastructure.”

Most importantly, eBay believes it has sorted out a way to integrate the many variables that a data center must serve.

“Think about this as a Rubik’s cube,” explains Nelson. ”On one side it’s performance.You have cost on the other side. You’re going to know cost per transaction. The third dimension is environmental impact. The fourth dimension is revenue; how much revenue is generated per transaction. There’s a balance needed – you can solve one side fairly easily, but solving all four sides is the goal and the true value.”

During his presentation, Nelson shared some key metrics on eBay’s data center operations. The auction giant has 52,075 servers consuming 18 megawatts of power to support 112.3 million active users. That equates to revenue of $54 per user, and $117,000 per server.

The development of DSE began three years ago, when the company was looking to unify the view of the business, the infrastructure, and assess it’s impact in terms of energy, cost and environment. DSE is a dashboard for the company’s technical ecosystem – the data centers, compute equipment and software that combine to deliver its digital services to consumers.

An MPG Rating for Data Centers

“Much like a dashboard in a car, DSE offers a straightforward approach to measuring the overall performance of technical infrastructure across four key business priorities: performance, cost, environmental impact, and revenue,” said Nelson. Drawing a parallel to the Miles Per Gallon (MPG) measurement for cars, Nelson argues that DSE enables a view into how a company’s “engine” performed with real customer consumption, how the car performed as it was being driven, or in eBay’s case, how the eBay.com engine ran while its users drove it.

“This is what is being consumed, this is how our customers are driving our car,” he said.