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Technology news. From SFGate.com: the Bay Area's home page, online home of the San Francisco Chronicle and much more.
Posts per week: 50
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Firms channeling apps to TV
Consumer electronics makers and software companies are hoping to take a page from Apple's App Store and turn the TV into a dynamic, evolving platform for widgets and applications. Instead of being just a gateway for broadcast and recorded video or a ...
Tags:
iPhone
Apple
App Store
HP profit up as tech spending rebounds
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s profit jumped 14 percent in the latest quarter, helped by cost cutting and better results from its technology services division. Those factors helped offset the fact that four of HP's major divisions - personal computers, ...
Tags:
Hardware
Hewlett-Packard
HP profit jumps on cost cuts, new market expansion
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s cost-cutting and push into new markets is helping soften the blow from weakness in the company's mainstay businesses. HP on Monday reported big revenue declines in four of its main divisions _ PCs, servers, software and printers ...
Tags:
Hardware
Hewlett-Packard
PC
Google scoops up display ad specialist Teracent
Google Inc. has snapped up another startup in its quest to sell more visual advertising on the Web. The acquisition of Teracent Corp., a 3-year-old startup, provides Google with more tools for customizing the online billboards known as display ...
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Other
Report: Microsoft may pay News Corp. to delist from Google
Microsoft has discussed paying News Corp. to remove its news Web sites from Google's search results and list them on its Bing search engine instead, The Financial Times reported Sunday on its Web site. Microsoft also approached other major online ...
Tags:
Online
Microsoft
Bing
Web site of the week: clicker.com
In a nutshell: Clicker.com is the ultimate programming guide for TV and video on the Internet. Cool factor: Clicker lets you check out an index of 400,000 TV episodes, 50,000 music videos and about 30,000 movies that are found online. Users can see ...
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Other
Holiday tech gifts
Suggestions from Cnet editors for the best gadget gifts of the season, from budget picks to high-end items. Laptops and Netbooks Apple MacBook Pro Cnet rating: 4 stars out of 5 (excellent) Summary: Apple added an SD card slot, improved the battery ...
Tags:
Hardware
Apple
Laptops
MacBook Pro
Cell jamming tempting, but illegal
Q: I ride public transportation a lot. In the last few years, this has become more difficult because of all the people talking on their cell phones, almost always with loud voices. Can you tell me where I can buy a cell phone jammer, which would make ...
Tags:
Other
Firms channeling apps to TV
Consumer electronics makers and software companies are hoping to take a page from Apple's App Store and turn the TV into a dynamic, evolving platform for widgets and applications. Instead of being just a gateway for broadcast and recorded video or a ...
Tags:
iPhone
Apple
App Store
Web site of the week: clicker.com
In a nutshell: Clicker.com is the ultimate programming guide for TV and video on the Internet. Cool factor: Clicker lets you check out an index of 400,000 TV episodes, 50,000 music videos and about 30,000 movies that are found online. Users can see ...
Tags:
Other
Holiday tech gifts
Suggestions from Cnet editors for the best gadget gifts of the season, from budget picks to high-end items. Laptops and Netbooks Apple MacBook Pro Cnet rating: 4 stars out of 5 (excellent) Summary: Apple added an SD card slot, improved the battery ...
Tags:
Hardware
Apple
Laptops
MacBook Pro
Cell jamming tempting, but illegal
Q: I ride public transportation a lot. In the last few years, this has become more difficult because of all the people talking on their cell phones, almost always with loud voices. Can you tell me where I can buy a cell phone jammer, which would make ...
Tags:
Other
Barnes & Noble's Nook sells out before holiday
Consumers who haven't yet ordered Barnes & Noble's electronic book reader, Nook, won't see one before Christmas. The earliest that anyone who orders the $259 device on Friday - or later - will receive it is Jan. 4, the nation's largest bookseller ...
Tags:
Other
Macworld polishes 2010 show without Apple
The show must go on. That's the rallying cry for Macworld 2010, which is preparing to soldier on for the first time in 26 years without Apple as its anchor vendor. The show, a production of IDG World Expo, has been tweaked in a number of ways to ...
Tags:
Other
Apple
A daily dose of postings from The Chronicle's technology blog (sfgate.com/blogs/tech) / U.S. not ready for cyberwarfare, government warns as attacks rise
First, McAfee released a report concluding that the age of cyberwar is upon us. Now, current and former U.S. officials warn in a government report that we're not ready for such times. A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office released ...
Tags:
Security
McAfee
Amateurs get chance to animate 'Live Music'
Viewers of the movie "Planet 51," opening in theaters this weekend, will first see "Live Music," a computer-generated short that is a collaboration of 51 animators from 17 countries who were brought together on Facebook. And some of the people who ...
Tags:
Online
Library group offers text search to 4.6M books
A group of major national research libraries says users now can search the full text of 1.6 billion pages from 4.6 million digitized volumes. Last year, the University of Michigan and 24 other research libraries launched the HathiTrust Digital ...
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Other
YouTube to add automatic captions to aid deaf
Google Inc. announced Thursday that it is using speech recognition technology to create automatic captions for certain videos on YouTube, helping the deaf and hearing impaired to access a rapidly growing form of online content. The Mountain View ...
Tags:
Online
YouTube
Google unveils Chrome OS
Google Inc. painted a bright picture of the personal computing future on Thursday: an always-connected netbook that boots up in 7 seconds, never has to install software, stores all data online and efficiently fends off attack. These are among the ...
Tags:
Online
Chrome
Tech Awards recognize innovation
Silicon Valley, the launch pad of technology dynamos like the iPhone and Google's search engine, recognized innovations of a less flashy sort that may still prove to be game-changers. The Tech Awards, a humanitarian program recognizing technological ...
Tags:
Other
Barnes & Noble's Nook sells out before holiday
Consumers who haven't yet ordered Barnes & Noble's electronic book reader, Nook, won't see one before Christmas. The earliest that anyone who orders the $259 device on Friday - or later - will receive it is Jan. 4, the nation's largest bookseller ...
Tags:
Other
Macworld polishes 2010 show without Apple
The show must go on. That's the rallying cry for Macworld 2010, which is preparing to soldier on for the first time in 26 years without Apple as its anchor vendor. The show, a production of IDG World Expo, has been tweaked in a number of ways to ...
Tags:
Other
Apple
A daily dose of postings from The Chronicle's technology blog (sfgate.com/blogs/tech) / U.S. not ready for cyberwarfare, government warns as attacks rise
First, McAfee released a report concluding that the age of cyberwar is upon us. Now, current and former U.S. officials warn in a government report that we're not ready for such times. A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office released ...
Tags:
Security
McAfee
Amateurs get chance to animate 'Live Music'
Viewers of the movie "Planet 51," opening in theaters this weekend, will first see "Live Music," a computer-generated short that is a collaboration of 51 animators from 17 countries who were brought together on Facebook. And some of the people who ...
Tags:
Online
Dell profit falls 54 pct; report pulls shares down
Dell Inc. said Thursday that its net income dropped 54 percent in the latest quarter amid signs the company isn't fully benefiting from the computer industry's fledgling recovery. Dell's numbers missed Wall Street's forecasts, and the shares fell ...
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Other
On the Call: Dell's CEO Michael Dell
A key element of Dell Inc.'s turnaround strategy has been a vow not to cut prices as aggressively as rivals just to keep market share. The tactic has allowed competitors such as Acer Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. to steal business from Dell, and this ...
Tags:
Hardware
Michael Dell
Acer
Hewlett-Packard
Applied Materials begins offer for Semitool
Applied Materials Inc. said Thursday it has launched its $364 million tender offer to buy all the outstanding shares of Montana-based Semitool Inc. The chip manufacturing equipment maker is acquiring the company to tap the growing market for ...
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Other
Google adding automatic captions to YouTube videos
Think of it as closed captioning for the new media world. Google Inc. said Thursday it is introducing automatic, machine-generated captions for videos on its YouTube site. The new service, being launched this week, is intended to make online videos ...
Tags:
Online
YouTube
Judge rejects AT&T's bid to pull Verizon ads
A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request by AT&T; Inc. to force competitor Verizon Wireless to pull its "There's a Map for That" commercials. But the judge scheduled a Dec. 16 hearing to give the AT&T; attorneys another chance to make their case. ...
Tags:
Mobile
AT&T
Verizon
Verizon Wireless lays off former Alltel workers
Verizon Wireless is laying off former Alltel Corp. headquarters workers in Little Rock. Verizon would not put a number to the Thursday layoffs. Spokeswoman Lucie Pathmann said the company is cutting positions that became redundant with its 2008 ...
Tags:
Mobile
Verizon
Game sales lift GameStop 3Q profit 12 percent
GameStop Corp., the world's largest video game retailer, said Thursday that sales of new hot-selling games helped boost its third-quarter profit nearly 12 percent and offset a sales decline for video game hardware. The profit narrowly beat Wall ...
Tags:
Other
Sony chief executive outlines turnaround plan
Sony said it aims to be profitable in gaming and flat-panel TVs by the fiscal year ending March 2011, pushing 3-D technology as a way to showcase its strength in entertainment and surface from deep losses. "Our work is already bearing fruit," Chief ...
Tags:
Hardware
Sony
YouTube to add automatic captions to aid deaf
Google Inc. announced Thursday that it is using speech recognition technology to create automatic captions for certain videos on YouTube, helping the deaf and hearing impaired to access a rapidly growing form of online content. The Mountain View ...
Tags:
Online
YouTube
Google unveils Chrome OS
Google Inc. painted a bright picture of the personal computing future on Thursday: an always-connected netbook that boots up in 7 seconds, never has to install software, stores all data online and efficiently fends off attack. These are among the ...
Tags:
Online
Chrome
Tech Awards recognize innovation
Silicon Valley, the launch pad of technology dynamos like the iPhone and Google's search engine, recognized innovations of a less flashy sort that may still prove to be game-changers. The Tech Awards, a humanitarian program recognizing technological ...
Tags:
Other
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
You might call him the Mickey Mouse of video games. He's reminiscent of a doughnut, round and sweet and comforting. He's also a vessel, devoid of a real personality so you can live vicariously through him. Mario, the pot-bellied Italian plumber with ...
Tags:
Gaming
Nintendo
Senators blast Web sites for scamming shoppers
With Cyber Monday, the unofficial start of the Internet holiday shopping season nearing, a Senate committee Tuesday condemned three online companies, saying they are tricking consumers into signing up for subscription services they don't want. ...
Tags:
Other
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 friend Facebook
Users of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 video game consoles can now brag about their achievements on Facebook. Both systems are integrating the social network this week. Microsoft Corp. switched on a slew of new features for its Xbox Live online ...
Tags:
Gaming
Xbox 360
PS3
Microsoft
Xbox Live
House lawmakers push ban on peer-to-peer software
Stung by an embarrassing electronic leak last month revealing ethics investigations into dozens of lawmakers, Congress moved Tuesday to prohibit federal employees from using the same type of Internet file-sharing software blamed for the disclosure. ...
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Other
A daily dose of postings from The Chronicle's technology blog (sfgate.com/blogs/tech) / New Oxford Dictionary picks word of the year, and it is ...
The folks at the New Oxford American Dictionary have picked "unfriend" as their Word of the Year for 2009, a testament to how much social media is affecting the lexicon. Here's how the Oxford University Press USA blog defines the word: Unfriend - verb ...
Tags:
iPhone
Dictionary!
Redwood City startup wins green contest
Startup companies with ways to save energy and make plastic from wastewater took top honors Tuesday evening in the 2009 Cleantech Open, an annual contest to find and nurture promising environmental entrepreneurs. The open offers its winners some ...
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Other
Venture firm Maveron opens San Francisco office
Maveron LLC, a Seattle venture capital firm co-founded by Starbucks Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz, will announce today that it is opening a San Francisco office, bucking the contraction trend sweeping the sector. The consumer-focused fund, ...
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Other
Maveron, LLC
McAfee warns of Cold War-style computer attack
The threat of warfare spreading into the digital realm is no longer just a possibility, according to a McAfee report released Tuesday. The Santa Clara computer security firm concluded that countries like Russia, China, France, Israel and the United ...
Tags:
Security
McAfee
IBM takes a (feline) step toward thinking machines
Scientists say they've made a breakthrough in their pursuit of computers that "think" like a living thing's brain _ an effort that tests the limits of technology. Even the world's most powerful supercomputers can't replicate basic aspects of the human ...
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Other
Microsoft's cloud computing system is growing up
Microsoft Corp. leads its industry in part because a vast army of outside computer programmers design software that only runs on its Windows operating system. Now, the company is fighting to keep those programmers working with its tools as ...
Tags:
Other
Microsoft
Science-based US supercomputer fastest in world
At least for the moment, the world's fastest supercomputer is devoted to solving scientific questions that may save the planet _ climate change, renewable energy, new medicines _ rather than advances in nuclear weapons that might blow it up. The Oak ...
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Other
Twitter to overhaul user list seen as partisan
Social-networking site Twitter plans to end a service that links prominent message posters with new users, a service that was criticized in California because of perceived unfairness toward GOP gubernatorial candidates. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone ...
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