Microsoft announces a record first-quarter revenue of $16.20 billion, $5.41 billion in profit
October 28, 2010 No Comment
Microsoft just beat analyst expectations, announcing $16.20 billion in revenue for the first quarter of its 2011 fiscal year, with $5.41 billion in profit. Microsoft cites Office 2010, the sustained “PC refresh cycle,” and 38 percent growth in the Xbox 360 biz for its good news, with overall revenue up 25 percent over the same quarter last year and a 51 percent gain in profit. The Xbox 360 has been at the top of the console heap for four months running, which can’t hurt. Microsoft will have an earnings call to discuss its results at 5:30PM EDT, so we’ll be keeping our ears peeled for Steve Ballmer to pull a Steve Jobs , hijack the call, and rag hard on the competition — if only we lived in a world of such beautiful symmetry. Microsoft announces a record first-quarter revenue of $16.20 billion, $5.41 billion in profit originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …OCZ amps up performance on RevoDrive X2 PCIe SSD: 740MB/sec, up to 120k IOPS
October 28, 2010 No Comment
Blink, and you’ve probably missed it. Just four short months after we saw OCZ Technology’s original RevoDrive reviewed (and subsequently adored), along comes revision two. The RevoDrive X2 PCI-Express SSD looks, feels and smells the same as the first, but the performance is obviously looking north. The unit we saw introduced at Computex was capable of hitting 540MB/sec, while the X2 pushes that to 740MB/sec and up to 120,000 IOPS — “nearly triple the throughput of other high-end SATA-based solutions.” Furthermore, this guy packs double the SandForce SF-1200 controllers (four versus two in the original), and it retains the onboard RAID 0 design that you’ve come to know and love. It’s available as we speak in 100GB to 960GB capacities, but there’s nary a mention of price; something tells us that you’re probably not the target market if you have to ask. Gallery: OCZ RevoDrive X2 PCI-Express SSD Continue reading OCZ amps up performance on RevoDrive X2 PCIe SSD: 740MB/sec, up to 120k IOPS OCZ amps up performance on RevoDrive X2 PCIe SSD: 740MB/sec, up to 120k IOPS originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Verizon sends $25 million settlement to FCC, credits customers $52.8 million for wrongful data fees
October 28, 2010 No CommentDid we say Verizon would dole out $90 million in credits? It seems we spoke too soon, because the US Government is taking its cut of the carrier’s apology after charging for data that customers didn’t actually use. Verizon says it’s settled with the FCC for $25 million and will cut a check to the US Treasury, and put the remaining $52.8 million towards the bills of 15 million affected customers in the form of $2 to $6 credits each. Verizon’s not taking any blame in the matter, mind you, as it says the original data charges were “inadvertent” and caused by software pre-loaded on some phones. Yet another reason to ditch the bloatware, we suppose. PR after the break. Continue reading Verizon sends $25 million settlement to FCC, credits customers $52.8 million for wrongful data fees Verizon sends $25 million settlement to FCC, credits customers $52.8 million for wrongful data fees originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …NC State gurus find ‘Goldilocks’ of DNA self-assembly, look to improve drug-delivery vehicles
October 28, 2010 No Comment
We’re guessing that most Wolfpackers in the greater Raleigh area are in full-on tailgate mode right now, but aside from laying a beating on the Seminoles this evening, NC State faithful are also trumpeting a new DNA discovery that could one day make it easy to get vital drugs to hard-to-reach places within you. Researchers from the university have purportedly discovered the ‘Goldilocks’ of DNA self-assembly, which holds promise for technologies ranging from drug delivery to molecular sensors. The concept, known as DNA-assisted self-assembly, has been vastly improved by using “computer simulations of DNA strands to identify the optimal length of a DNA strand for self-assembly.” You see, perfection occurs when strands aren’t long enough to intertwine with each other, yet not short enough to simply fold over on each other. We know, it’s a lot to wrap your brain around with half a hot dog shoved in your mouth, but hit the video after the break for a… shall we say, more visual explanation. Continue reading NC State gurus find ‘Goldilocks’ of DNA self-assembly, look to improve drug-delivery vehicles NC State gurus find ‘Goldilocks’ of DNA self-assembly, look to improve drug-delivery vehicles originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Northrop Grumman’s CaMEL ‘bot features one .50 caliber gun, loads of class
October 28, 2010 No Comment
When the dream factory that is Northrop Grumman needed to up the “wow factor” at its Association of the U.S. Army’s Washington conference booth, it did what plenty of CES exhibitors wished they could do: it weaponized. Hence, the deadliest CaMEL yet. The acronym stands for Carry-all Mechanized Equipment Landrover — think of the BigDog robot, but with treads instead of legs. The motorized platform will hump up to 1,200 pounds of gear at seven miles per hour, and as Spencer Ackerman at Wired points out, over sixty of them have been sold to the Israeli military. But the above pictured CaMEL is the only one floating around with armaments: in this case, a .50-caliber M2 machine gun. The gun is fired remotely, via touchscreen controls, and the platform itself could support any number of weapons including the M249, the MK19 grenade launcher, or 30mm cannon. Which kind of proves a pet theory of ours: if you build it, eventually someone will mount a gun on it. Northrop Grumman’s CaMEL ‘bot features one .50 caliber gun, loads of class originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Allow us to clarify, the colors are “fresh” as in “new,” not as in ” The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air .” Don’t get us wrong, though: white almost always looks fresh (in the Fresh Prince sense) on a phone, and the Torch seems to be no exception — partly thanks to the matching white keyboard. Both red and white will be available on November 7 (a day before the HTC Surround and Samsung Focus , interestingly) at the same time as a sweet new promotion that’ll allow folks to buy any two accessories from AT&T and get a third one of equal or lesser value for free. Don’t violate any fire codes stuffing yourselves into your local stores, alright? Follow the break for the press release. Continue reading BlackBerry Torch coming to AT&T in two fresh colors next month BlackBerry Torch coming to AT&T in two fresh colors next month originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Yes, that’s right, just “Venue,” not Venue Pro — and from a glance, it looks to us like this might be the new name for the Thunder Android phone we played with a little while ago judging by this FCC filing that just crossed the wires. As far as we can tell, this thing is basically a carbon copy of the Venue Pro, except it’s running Android instead of Windows Phone 7 and drops the sliding portrait keyboard in favor of a full-touch setup. Notably, the curved glass 4.1-inch AMOLED display carries over, so that should make the design nerds in the audience swoon a bit. Additionally, turns out there’s a Bluetooth SIG certification under the same model name — V03B — that confirms the display’s specs and the fact that it’s a “smartphone” (whew!). Stay tuned on this one — something tells us we won’t be waiting terribly long for an announce. Dell Venue hits the FCC: is this the Thunder’s new name? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Barnes & Noble provided most of the specs for the Nook Color when it launched on the device on Tuesday, but notably absent was any word on the processor that powers the e-reader. Thankfully, Texas Instruments has now come out confirmed that the Nook Color uses its ARM Cortex A8-based, 45nm OMAP3621 processor (still no word on the speed). What’s more, the processor is actually part of TI’s eBook Development Platform, which the Nook Color also relies on. That’s particularly interesting considering that the processor and platform support a few features that the Nook Color does not, not the least of which is 3G connectivity. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see a future Nook Color that takes advantage of those features, but at least we know it’s not too much of a stretch for Barnes & Noble to add them. Nook Color processor revealed: ARM Cortex A8-based TI OMAP3621 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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As sure as the sun, Amazon’s just announced it’ll be bringing Kindle to the Windows Phone 7 platform sometime “in the coming months.” The app was shown briefly today at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC 2010) and, based both on that and the official screenshot from Amazon’s teaser page (above), it’s definitely wearing that stylish WP7 aesthetic quite well. Press release after the break, and check out More Coverage for a couple screenshots from its PDC presentation (care of istartedsomething’s Long Zheng and his Flickr account). And while you wait for its inevitable release, we have full confidence you’ll be able to find another platform to enjoy your Kindle books. Trust us. Continue reading Kindle for Windows Phone 7 revealed, due ‘in the coming months’ Kindle for Windows Phone 7 revealed, due ‘in the coming months’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Nexus Two does (or doesn’t) exist, is (or isn’t) being released this year
October 28, 2010 No Comment
After going most of the year with very little noise on the Nexus One’s successor — a phone Google has never committed to making, by the way — we’ve gotten a handful of conflicting rumors about this thing in the past few days. Let’s take a swipe at the buzz that’s circulating this week: British publication City A.M. says the Nexus Two is a Carphone Warehouse exclusive , will be released in time for the holidays, and probably won’t be made by Samsung. Android and Me is convinced that the Nexus Two will in fact be a Samsung product, will be announced at its November 8th press conference , will ship with Android 2.3 Gingerbread (assuming 3.0 is Honeycomb ), and will be available on multiple carriers. Meanwhile, a quote from Google CEO Eric Schmidt from back in July may suggest there will be no Nexus One successor at all: “The idea a year and a half ago was to do the Nexus One to try to move the phone platform hardware business forward. It clearly did. It was so successful, we didn’t have to do a second one.” Of course, he goes on to say that the Nexus One’s sudden sunset was a shining example of Google’s “nimbleness” — and since the quote is from nearly four months ago, there’s little reason to doubt that the company could’ve easily done a 180 since then, particularly since we’re sure they’d like to have a clean, skin-free, and possibly carrier-free device to showcase Gingerbread. At any rate, time’s running out to get a product advertised and available in time to catch holiday buyers… so this’ll all have to shake out pretty quickly. Nexus Two does (or doesn’t) exist, is (or isn’t) being released this year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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