The US and South Korea sign a free trade agreement, the biggest such deal the US has sealed in 15 years.
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US-South Korea trade pact signed
Posted: July 1st, 2007, 6:22am GMT by lrenz
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From Intel and A.M.D., Rival Boasts of Technology
Posted: May 10th, 2007, 4:56am GMT by lrenz
Tags: intel amd
The fierce rivalry between the chip makers Intel and Advanced Micro Devices is ratcheting up as both companies claim superiority in technology used for notebook computers.
On Wednesday, Intel introduced an upgrade to its popular Centrino chip set for notebook computers that it says is far more energy-efficient, uses a faster processor and features much improved graphics. The new chip set, which Intel called Santa Rosa while it was under development, also supports a new version of Wi-Fi that executives say can be five times as fast as the current version and can communicate over twice the distance. Last week, A.M.D. held its own news conference here to show new features of its Turion notebook processor and a branding campaign with the theme Better by Design.
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Windows Vista comes
Posted: January 22nd, 2007, 12:47pm GMT by lrenz
Tags: vista windows
Here comes a new Windows operating system from Microsoft.
It’s launch long delayed Microsoft plans an enormous marketing campaign to promote the software as a way to get more out of computers.
But detractors are rolling their eyes and saying the new Windows is nothing more than a weak imitator of other operating systems. And technology analysts wonder whether Microsoft’s dominance is nearing an end, since programs coming over the Internet are emerging as a more powerful force in computing than software tied to individual desktops.
”Each time Microsoft puts out a piece of software, they’re competing with their own previous software,” said Matt Rosoff, an analyst with the independent Directions on Microsoft research firm. “Now there’s not that much extra stuff in the plumbing that they can do. There’s not going to be the big obvious leap.”
While that may be true, analysts think Vista will gradually replace its most recent predecessor, Windows XP, during the next few years.
This is partly because Windows XP is good enough for many computer owners.
In contrast, Windows 3.1, which Windows 95 introduced to the tune of the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up,” was relatively primitive (remember DOS?). More graphical, more polished and easier to use, the 90 U.S. dollars Windows 95 introduced many people to PCs for the first time, just as the Web was about to take off.
Back in August 1995, people actually lined up outside computer stores to buy the new edition of Windows the moment it went on sale at midnight. Don’t expect that to happen for Vista.
A lot of the improvements in Vista, which will retail for 100 dollars to 400 dollars, depending on the version and whether the user is upgrading from Windows XP, are redesign touches, or invisible tweaks toward better stability and security.
In the meantime, Microsoft is working hard to generate excitement for Vista. That includes various “wow” related promotions and viral approaches like an elaborate online game in which the champion wins a trip into low earth orbit.
Asked whether Vista, lacking the pent-up anticipation Windows 95 enjoyed, represented a tough sell for Microsoft, Mike Sievert, who oversees Windows marketing had a diplomatic response. He suggested consumer excitement is simply harder to measure now.
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IBM shares fall despite 11 per cent profit jump
Posted: January 19th, 2007, 12:27pm GMT by lrenz
Tags: ibm
Shares of IBM Corp. fell nearly five per cent Friday even though the computer services giant generated healthy fourth-quarter profits as the company rode cost cuts and software acquisitions to boost its bottom line.IBM’s earnings report, released after the market closed Thursday, showed an 11 per cent gain in net profit, to US$3.54 billion, or $2.31 per share, on revenue of $26.3 billion.
Five cents per share of profit came from gains related to discontinued lines of business, so continuing operations earned $2.26 per share.
That was well above the $2.19 per share and $25.7 billion in revenue expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. But investors apparently wanted even more. Six cents of the earnings upside stemmed from beneficial changes in the company’s tax rates.
The quarterly figures all surpassed results from a year earlier, when profit was $3.19 billion, or $1.99 per share, and revenue was $24.4 billion. However, profit in that comparison quarter was dragged down about $200 million after taxes, or 12 cents per share, by a one-time accounting charge and costs IBM incurred in freezing its pension plan.
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OPEC Talks again about oil price talks
Posted: January 13th, 2007, 12:29pm GMT by lrenz
Tags: opec
For the second time in less than three months, OPEC is considering calling an emergency meeting to rescue plunging crude oil prices. It’s enough to give oil traders a sense of deja vu, harkening back to October when futures prices swirled amid a flurry of will-they or won’t-they headlines.
Prices swayed in a broad $1.45 range Friday on the OPEC talk, settling $1.11 higher, at $52.99 a barrel, heading into a holiday weekend which shuts New York Mercantile Exchange floor trade Monday.
But the first gain after four straight declines hasn’t eased market nerves. For OPEC, the feeling of a rerun scenario in the market dates back further - to the 1998 price crash that slashed oil prices in half, to $11 a barrel.
Back then, it took two years and several output cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to restore prices to levels before that crash, brought by an OPEC decision in Jakarta to raise output quotas by 10%, the start of the Asian economic crisis and an extremely warm winter caused by a strong El Nino weather phenomenon.
OPEC, which has already pledged to cut 1.2 million barrels a day from Nov. 1 to combat the 25% fall in prices between July and October, said it has learned the lesson from Jakarta, and will act aggressively to avoid a replay.
Nymex crude oil futures staged a stuttering 6% rally after OPEC agreed on the Nov. 1 output cut and ministers, in December, pledged to slash a further 500,000 barrels a day from Feb. 1.
But prices have moved relentlessly lower since the start of 2007, prior to Friday’s rebound. Nymex crude futures hit a 19-month low of $51.88 a barrel at Thursday’s settlement, a plunge of 15% from the year-end price Dec. 29 of $61.05.