TechEye |  |
- EU ready to sue Google
- Storage market shows sign of growth
- French government wants a Dailymotion
- AMD must face fraud charges over Llanos
- US extends its cyber laws to the rest of the world
- Chinese watchdog furious at Google snub
- Integrated circuit demand picking up
- IBM sells off supply chain software
| Posted: 02 Apr 2015 02:42 AM PDT
A report in the Wall Street Journal said it wants firms that filed complaints against the search behemoth to allow the content to be made public. That indicates that the EU is preparing formal antitrust charges against Google, sources told the WSJ. The EU has spent five years so far investigating Google for alleged antitrust activities, infuriating American authorities who felt it has it in for US technology companies. Google last year launched a charm offensive in Europe, in a bid to demonstrate that not everything it did was evil. Google consistently denies that it acts as a bullying monopoly in the field of search – something that European publishers and others don't necessarily agree about. |
| Storage market shows sign of growth Posted: 02 Apr 2015 02:30 AM PDT
Just short of $61 million external storage sold there in the fourth quarter of last year, but the outlook is better for 2015. IDC, which tracks the market closely, said that enterprise customers moved to virtualisation and data compression and that caused a decrease in sales at the end of last year. But banking, manufacturing, communications, and professional services are set to pick up during this year – particularly because government projects, an infrastructure upgrade for vertical markets and the rise of e-commerce will all boost sales this year. Healthcare and transport applications is likely to fuel growth this year, IDC said. And cloud storage sales are up in the small to medium business sector, wih vendors repositioning their virtual sails to capture the prevailing winds. |
| French government wants a Dailymotion Posted: 02 Apr 2015 02:21 AM PDT
The French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said that France was seeking to promote a strong European digital sector. Speaking on BFM Business, Macron denied that he was opposed to an alliance with Asia’s PCCW, presumably because they did not know how to cook outside of a giant frypan. “I did not say ‘no’ … They have an industrial project which is excellen… What I said was: ‘Should we enter into exclusive negotiations?’ The answer is no. We should look at all the offers,” he said. Macron when asked about media reports that he favoured a European alliance for the operation. He said: “We (France) are a state and we have a European digital policy.” Yes, but are you in favour of the sale, you could easily have just answered "I like Langue de boeuf for all the relevance that answer contained. Part of Macron's problem is that Dailymotion is one of those rarities – a French startup which did really well. The company, founded in 2005, has managed to attract funding and expand globally, but Orange has argued for years that to catch up with Google Inc.'s YouTube, it needs to find partners. In 2013, then-Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg prevented Orange from selling a majority stake in the site to U.S. Web giant Yahoo Inc. After the deal fell apart, Mr. Montebourg said the U.S. tech firm might have "devoured" a French jewel. |
| AMD must face fraud charges over Llanos Posted: 02 Apr 2015 02:17 AM PDT
In an order on Tuesday, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers said plaintiffs have supported their claims that AMD officials misled them by stating in the spring of 2011 that problems with the new processor were in the past. Plaintiffs’ lawyer Jonathan Gardner said he was pleased with the decision. Lawyers for AMD could not immediately be reached for comment. The lawsuit was over the Llano chip, which it had touted as “the most impressive processor in history.” Originally set for product launch in the fourth quarter of 2010, sales of the Llano were delayed because of problems at the company’s chip manufacturing plant, the lawsuit said. The then Chief Financial Officer Thomas Seifert told analysts on an April 2011 conference call that problems with chip production for the Llano were in the past, and that the company would have ample product for a launch in the second quarter. AMD continued to insist that there were no problems with supply, concealing the fact that it was only shipping Llanos to top-tier computer manufacturers because of supply constraints. By the time AMD ramped up shipments in late 2011, demand had dwindled, leading to an inventory glut, the lawsuit said. AMD disclosed in October 2012 that it was writing down $100 million of Llano inventory as not shiftable. Shares fell nearly 74 percent from a peak of $8.35 in March 2012 to a low of $2.18 in October 2012 when the market learned the extent of the problems with the Llano launch. The lawsuit seeks damages on behalf of the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, Belgium-based KBC Group’s KBC Asset Management and other investors who bought the company’s shares between April 2011 and October 2012. |
| US extends its cyber laws to the rest of the world Posted: 02 Apr 2015 02:16 AM PDT
President Barack Obama has today signed an executive order which claims to extend the US administration's power to respond to malicious cyberattacks and espionage campaigns. Foreign hackers who action attacks against American businesses, institutions and citizens could find themselves fined. I guess that if they do not pay up then a US copper will show up on another nation state's soil and if the hacker is not white they will spray him with mace and fill him with more holes than a pasta colander before dragging him off to serve 2000 years in some prison. Obama in an official statement. "Cyber threats pose one of the most serious economic and national security challenges to the United States, and my Administration is pursuing a comprehensive strategy to confront them." "As we have seen in recent months, these threats can emanate from a range of sources and target our critical infrastructure, our companies, and our citizens. This Executive Order offers a targeted tool for countering the most significant cyber threats," he continued. The new legislation will enable the secretary of the Treasury, along with the attorney general and secretary of State, to inflict penalties on cybercriminals behind hacking attacks which "create a significant threat to US national security, foreign policy or economic health or financial stability of the United States," Obama said. Sanctions could include freezing of assets or a total ban on commercial trade. We guess he does not mean China. After all most US products are made in China and if there is a ban on commercial trade, Apple fanboys will not be able to get the latest iPhone. It seems that most of the concern is focused on North Korea to discourage it carrying out another Sony attack. The authorities will be limited to imposing the new sanctions solely in cases where the attacks are considered significant enough to warrant a penalty. Punishable attacks could include malicious security breaches of critical infrastructure, DDoS campaigns against computers and networks, or those that result in the "significant misappropriation of funds or economic resources, trade secrets, personal identifiers, or financial information for commercial or competitive advantage or private financial gain," reads a fact sheet published by the White House.
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| Chinese watchdog furious at Google snub Posted: 02 Apr 2015 02:12 AM PDT
Google said on its official security blog it would no longer recognise the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) certificate authorities, after a joint investigation between the company and CNNIC into a potential security lapse last month. Google’s Chrome users may get a warning when attempting to visit sites certified by CNNICCNNIC, which plays a central role in administering China’s internet by allocating and certifying IP addresses and web domain names, urged Google to consider user rights and interests. “The decision that Google has made is unacceptable and unintelligible,” the agency said in a statement on its website. CNNIC’s certificates came under scrutiny after an official Google blog post said the Chinese agency had allowed Cairo-based MCS Holdings to issue unauthorised certificates for various Google domains. That rendered connections between users and those websites vulnerable to ‘man-in-the-middle’ hacking attacks, Google said. Microsoft and Mozilla also removed trust of those unauthorized certificates last week, following Google’s post. “While neither we nor CNNIC believe any further unauthorized digital certificates have been issued, nor do we believe the misissued certificates were used outside the limited scope of MCS Holdings’ test network, CNNIC will be working to prevent any future incidents,” Google said on Wednesday. CNNIC was welcome to reapply for recognition “once suitable technical and procedural controls are in place,” and CNNIC’s existing certificates would be trusted for a limited time through a whitelist. MCS Holdings said in a statement on its website last week that the security lapse was the result of human error following testing of certificates issued to it by CNNIC, which was meant to take place in a controlled environment.
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| Integrated circuit demand picking up Posted: 02 Apr 2015 02:11 AM PDT
Digitimes said that inventories at non-Apple vendors have been getting better, showing signs that business is picking up. Strong sales of Apple’s iPhone 6 devices in China resulted in excess inventory levels at other mobile device brands in the fourth quarter of 2014, the sources said. However, inventory digestion is near its end, the sources observed. Downstream clients have stepped up chip orders prior to China’s Labour Day holiday, the sources noted. Rollouts of new smartphones and other mobile devices are also expected to stimulate demand, the sources said. Taiwan-based IC design houses are expected to see their sales rebound starting March, the sources indicated. MediaTek, for example, will see its March revenues rebound to previous high levels. MediaTek is expected to report weaker-than-expected performance in the second quarter, if the company fails to generate revenue growth of more than 20 per cent. Such a scenario also implies that overall smartphone demand from China and emerging markets is still grim. MediaTek has estimated revenues for the first quarter of 2015 will register a 10-18 per cent decline. The company has not given its sales guidance for the second quarter. |
| IBM sells off supply chain software Posted: 01 Apr 2015 06:42 AM PDT
But at the same time as it bought companies it felt it needed, it's also been quietly divesting itself of divisions it doesn't feel it needs. The most visible of these sell offs was IBM Microelectronics last year, but now it's emerged that its sold off its Logic Tools supply chain design software. Llamasoft bought this unit for an undisclosed amount – with the acquisition including LogicNet Plus, Inventory and Product Flow Analyst and the Transportation Analyst products. It's also bought the technology and support people that goes with the former IBM products. Llamasoft said it has already started providing software maintenance, support and services to all IBM's former customer. In a prepared statement, Llamasoft said that last year it was one of the fastest growing North American tech firms with 830 percent compound annual growth (CAGR). |
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