Archives

Date

Sales of Macs, iPods Help Apple Soar Past Wall Street Estimates

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 13, 2005 - 10:26am.
Cupertino, Calif. -- Brisk sales of its Macintosh computers and iPod digital music players helped Apple beat the street on Wednesday, as the company reported a net profit of $295 million, or $0.70 per share, up from $63 million, or $0.17 per share, a year ago. Revenue, as well, showed dramatic improvement, rising 74% to $3.49 billion. Analysts, on average, had predicted earnings per share of $0.49 and revenue of $3.18 billion, according to Thomson First Call. Apple said that shipments of its Macs and iPods rose 26% and 525%, respectively, over the year-ago quarter. In anticipation of the news, investors sent company shares up more than 1% in Wednesday's trading.
tags: Apple | iPods | Macs | Wall Street Estimates |

Altnet Pursues Patent Licenses from File-Sharing Firms

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 13, 2005 - 10:24am.
Sherman Oaks, Calif. -- Altnet, a provider of secure file-sharing services that piggyback on the Kazaa peer-to-peer network, has sent letters to fellow file-sharing software providers LimeWire, BearShare and Mashboxx, seeking licensing fees for their alleged use of patented Altnet technology. The Altnet technology in question concerns "hashes," or alphanumeric codes assigned to label individual song or media files on P2P networks. "No lawsuits have been filed at this time, but this is placing companies on notice that their software uses (Altnet's) patented technology. If they wish to continue using it, then they need to obtain a license," Altnet counsel Larry Hadley told CNET News.com. Altnet has sued the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and several anti-piracy firms, which it claims infringed its patents in the process of their monitoring of file-sharing services for copyright infringement. Some recipients of the letters from Altnet told The Washington Post they are negotiating with other file-sharing providers to pool resources for a legal challenge to Altnet's patents.
tags: File-Sharing | Altnet | Patent |

Hong Kong Makes First Arrest of Alleged Movie File-Swapper

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 13, 2005 - 10:22am.
Hong Kong -- Authorities in Hong Kong have made their first arrest of an Internet file-swapper, a 38-year-old man who is alleged to have violated copyright laws by uploading movies including "Daredevil," "Red Planet" and "Miss Congeniality" onto the BitTorrent peer-to-peer network, the Associated Press reported. The unidentified suspect has not been charged, and investigations are still ongoing, Agnes Law, a spokeswoman for Hong Kong's Customs and Excise Department, told AP. Hong Kong law calls for penalties of up to four years in prison and a $6,400 fine for copyright infringement convictions. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) last month launched an international legal campaign against independent server operators for file-sharing services including BitTorrent and eDonkey, resulting in arrests and seizures of equipment in France, Finland and Holland.
tags: Law | Hong Kong | Movie File-Swapper |

Napster Sees 50% Subscriber Jump, Lowers Cost of U.K. Downloads

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 13, 2005 - 9:17am.
Los Angeles -- The Napster digital music service announced on Thursday that its subscriber base increased by 50% during its recent financial quarter, which included the holiday shopping period. The company ended the year with 270,000 subscribers, including 44,000 paid subscribers from its university digital music programs. Los Angeles-based Napster expects substantial subscriber growth in 2005, driven by new features like Napster To Go, which will allow users to download Napster's entire catalog to supported portable devices while they remain subscribed to the service. The company has also cut the price of songs and albums purchased from its U.K. online store, to match the prices at Apple's U.K. iTunes Store. The price for Napster downloads in the U.K. was lowered by 38 cents, to $1.49 per track, while album prices dropped by $3.83 to $14.97 each. Yesterday, the company was sued by SightSound Technologies, which asked a judge for an injunction against Napster while the court examines a claim that Napster has infringed on SightSound's patents on the process of selling audio and video over the Internet.
tags: Subscriptions | Napster | Jump | Lowers Cost | U.K. Downloads |

Report: Yahoo, MSN Search Engines Gaining on Industry Leader Google

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 13, 2005 - 9:14am.
San Mateo, Calif. -- The search engines offered on Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN are closing the gap between themselves and search leader Google, according to a report from Keynote Systems. The survey of 2,000 consumers found that second-place Yahoo's new expanded local search and search results page, as well as third-place MSN's recent separation of sponsored results from its Web search results, contributed to their respective gains in popularity. Since its last study, Keynote said that Yahoo has boosted the number of users who said they would consider the site as their primary search engine by more than 20%, and MSN by almost 30%. The study also ranked Ask Jeeves as the fourth most-popular and Lycos the fifth most-popular Internet search engines. "Google is the king of customer experience in the search engine industry, but Yahoo, MSN and Ask Jeeves are improving," said Keynote director of research and public services Bonny Brown. "Given the open nature of the Web, as these sites continue to improve the user experience, they will undoubtedly begin to attract more users and improve user loyalty. Obviously this will impact the advertising side of the business." Piper Jaffray predicts the search engine industry will generate $8.9 billion in revenues by 2007, up from $2.6 billion in 2003.
tags: Reports | Yahoo | MSN Search Engines | Gaining | Industry Leader Google |

Samsung to Provide Memory Chips for Sony PSP Handheld Game

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 13, 2005 - 9:11am.
Seoul, Korea -- Korea's Samsung Electronics announced on Thursday that it will serve as a supplier of memory chips for Sony's PSP handheld gaming system, which is available in Japan and due to launch in the U.S. and Europe in March. Sony has admitted that problems in procuring some parts for the PSP, such as chips, has limited the quantities it will be able to ship at launch. Sony shipped 510,000 PSP units for the device's launch in Japan, and expects to ship a total of 3 million PSPs worldwide by March 31. By contrast, rival Nintendo plans to ship 5 million of its new DS handheld game systems by the same deadline.
tags: Samsung | Sony PSP Handheld Game | Memory Chips |

Google Releases Scaled Down Version of Corporate Search Appliance

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 13, 2005 - 9:08am.
Mountain View, Calif. -- Google on Thursday began selling a scaled down version of its search appliance that lets businesses use the company's search technology to comb through their internal documents and files. The $4,995 Google Mini search appliance allows small to medium-sized businesses to search up to 50,000 documents. By comparison, Google's larger corporate search appliance costs $30,000 and can search over 100,000 documents. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google said initial customers of the new product include weekly news magazine The Nation, the law firm of Brown Rudnick and DeAnza College.
tags: Google | Releases | Scaled Down Version | Corporate Search Appliance |

Digital Video Systems Gets OK to Keep Listing on SmallCap

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 13, 2005 - 9:05am.
Palo Alto, Calif. -- Digital Video Systems, a developer of digital video technologies, said on Wednesday that it has received the green light to continue listing its stock on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market. The company had appealed a delisting notice that it received in October. According to the market's Listing Qualifications Panel, DVS will be required to provide evidence that shareholders have approved of warrants issued to directors and consultants, as well as a reverse stock split. The company must also have its stock close at $1 per share or higher for 10 straight trading days. "We are pleased with the Panel's decision and that we are on the road toward maintaining our listing status," said Tom Spanier, the chairman and CEO of Digital Video Systems.
tags: Digital Video Systems | SmallCap | Keep Listing |