QuickLogic continues to make strides for improving the performance of pico projectors. Recently, we reiterated their progress in the area of power consumption and enhanced image contrast. Well, today QuickLogic is announcing a new technology called Background Color Compensator (BCC).
Apple reported a monster first quarter last Tuesday that sent the company’s stock skyrocketing over the past week. Apple’s holiday quarter was the most profitable quarter ever reported by a technology company, and the second most profitable quarter reported by any U.S. firm. With a market capitalization that now sits in excess of $420 billion, Apple is currently the most valuable company in the world, and with more than $97.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of calendar 2011, Apple has amassed an unbelievable war chest that is unrivaled among its competitors. Business blog MBA Online recently put together an infographic to help us visualize just how big Apple has grown since it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy in the late 90s. Among the graphic’s bullet points are the facts that Apple’s year-end cash pile is enough to buy an iPad for each and every person living in Canada and Greece combined, and it’s also enough to pay off the entire public debt of eight countries within the European Union. The site’s full infographic follows below.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is probably not a happy man today, with the company reporting disappointing fourth quarter 2011 earnings, including a dramatic 58 percent decline in net income.
Many analysts were unsure where Amazon would stand this past quarter with the launch of the hyped $199 Kindle Fire tablet. The device was estimated to not be immediately profitable for Amazon, but the company expected people to purchase media for their devices and counting on media sales to make up for it. One analyst predicted Amazon sold 6 million Fires this quarter but Amazon would not say how many units were sold.
“We are grateful to the millions of customers who purchased the Kindle Fire and Kindle e-reader devices this holiday season, making Kindle our bestselling product across both the U.S. and Europe,” said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, in a statement. “Our millions of third-party sellers had a tremendous holiday season with 65% unit growth and now represent 36% of total units sold.”
From a revenue standpoint, the company did fairly well with $17.43 billion in sales, a 35 percent increase from the year-ago period. But the company missed wide on profits, with net income decreasing 58 percent to $177 million, or $0.38 per diluted share, compared with net income of $416 million, or $0.91 per diluted share, a year ago. Operating income for the company was $260 million in Q4, compared with $474 million in the year-ago period.
Unfortunately, even the revenues did not meet steep Wall Street expectations of $18.3 billion in revenues, according to estimates from FactSet Research.
Amazon’s stock price in after-hours trading reflected the disappointment, with the price down between 8 and 10 percent in the past half hour.
Jeff Bezos photo: James Duncan Davidson/Flickr
Two new Samsung tablet model numbers have popped up in front of the Wi-Fi certification body, codenamed P3100 and P5100. We already know the rumor that Samsung might be pulling out all stops with a 2560x1600 pixels tablet with 11.6" display and 2GHz multicore processor under the hood at MWC...
When your chip designs are all over the mobile space, you shouldn’t be surprise if your growth just continues with every quarter. Which company are we talking about?…
It's been over fifteen years since MasterCard, Visa and Europay developed EMV technology to make your credit cards more secure, but it has yet to really catch on here in the US. However, MasterCard has created a master plan to help usher in the EMV era and sound the death knell for the magnetic strip. Why? The EMV infrastructure is far more fraud-resistant because each transaction is authenticated dynamically using cryptographic algorithms and a user-specific PIN. That's why MasterCard plans to help build out the EMV POS infrastructure by April of next year and have its secure e-payment system functioning at ATMs, online and with its myriad mobile payment options as well. For now, the nuts and bolts of how the credit card firm plans to bring its plan to fruition are few, but more details will be forthcoming, and there's a bit more info at the source and PR below.MasterCard reveals roadmap for our electronic payment future: EMV in, magnetic strips out originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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RIM: It's okay, we have superheroes originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Just a month and half after agreeing to be acquired by Salesforce, social performance management service Rypple has launched a native Android app to make sure managers and employees can connect no matter where they are.
Rypple’s software helps managers improve employee performance through “social goals” and consistent feedback and recognition. It’s in an increasingly competitive market for cloud-based human resource management services. Leading competitors include SuccessFactors, which enterprise giant SAP agreed to acquire for $3.4 billion, Workday, Taleo, Ultimate Software, and Cornerstone OnDemand.
The new Android app will join Rypple’s iPhone app in helping an increasingly mobile work force connect with daily feedback. The key features of the Android app include public recognition for colleague praise, real-time feedback and social goals for tracking priorities.
“The best feedback often comes on the taxi ride back to the office after an important meeting,” Rypple co-founder and co-CEO Daniel Debow told VentureBeat via e-mail. “Rypple’s investment in an Android app lets our users stay aligned with key priorities, get real-time updates, and recognize great work — away from the office.”
The Android app has three versions at different prices: free with basic capabilities; Premium for $5-per-user-per-month with real-time feedback, one-on-one coaching, and recognition applications; and Phenomenal for $9-per-user-per-month with performance review application, Loops, Social Goals 2.0, and integration into existing company work systems.
Before the Salesforce acquisition agreement, San Francisco-based Rypple had raised $13 million in three rounds of funding from Bridgescale Partners, Edgestone Capital Partners, Peter Thiel, and others. The deal with Salesforce is expected to close by the end of April 2012 and when it goes through, Rypple will be re-named as “Successforce.”
You can see a few more screens from the new Rypple Android app below:
