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Doomed Apple Is World's Number One PC Maker, With A Snow Leopard Problem
Apple, Microsoft, And Google Have $Billions In Untaxed Offshore Cash Stockpiles - Bloomberg
EU to Vote Next Week on Whether to Ban All Porn
Seven Days In Chromebook Exile Not So Bad
If Steve Jobs Was Right And This Is A Post-PC Era, Why Did Google Release The Chromebook?
Computer Recycling & Data Destruction Giant N2S Goes Global
Doomed Apple Is World's Number One PC Maker, With A Snow Leopard Problem
Computerworld's Jonny Evans says poor, beleaguered Apple must try to make its business out of a minority (20 percent) share of the PC industry, while Mac manufactured six or more years ago are still in active use.
He notes that Canalys tells us that one in six PCs shipped in Q4 2012 was an iPad, and that worldwide PC shipments increased 12 percent year-on-year in Q4 2012 to reach 134 million units, with pads accounting for over a third, and Apple continuing to lead the PC market, shipping 27.0 million units and taking its share over 20 per cent for the first time. Include iPads in the brief and Apple is the world's leading PC manufacturer.
Evans also observes that Apple's OS X Snow Leopard is four years old - the last version of OS X to support PowerPC Macs - and therein lies yet another problem for Apple. Those old Macs, the last of which was manufactured in August 2006, are still on active service. According to Net Applications Snow Leopard still accounts for 28.2 percent of Mac-based browsing sessions.
He suggests that this must be a huge problem for Apple's executive team: how do they encourage users to upgrade their kit more often without sacrificing their reputation for delivering high quality machines?
He notes that Snow Leopard users still love their veteran PowerPC Macs, and don't feel sufficiently threatened by the bugbear of potential security risks to stop taking their machines online. Apple clearly has a quality problem. Macs just work.
Must be a nightmare for Phil Schiller, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and all the other senior Apple executives to know the products they sell customers are generally so reliable they may still be used in six or seven year's time - twice the enterprise-accepted PC lifecycle.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://goo.gl/eWRJK
Apple, Microsoft, And Google Have $Billions In Untaxed Offshore Cash Stockpiles - Bloomberg
Bloomberg reports that U.S. tech giants Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Google Inc. have expanded their untaxed offshore stockpiles by $183 billion in the past year, increasing these holdings by 14.4 percent, and the three companies alone plan to keep $134.5 billion outside the U.S. government’s reach, more than double the $59.3 billion they held two years earlier.
And they're not alone. The report notes that General Electric Co. (GE) again leads all U.S. companies with $108 billion held offshore, up from $102 billion a year earlier, and 83 U.S. forms have sizable cash hoards parked offshore.
However Apple, whose stock has fallen 38.7 percent from its Sept. 19 closing high of $702.10, has been under pressure to return cash to investors in the form a dividend or buyback, and unlike most other U.S.-based companies, Apple has already taken accounting charges for eventual taxes on some of its unrepatriated foreign holdings and reports an associated deferred tax liability of $14.7 billion.
For the full report visit here:
http://goo.gl/Y6lhn
EU to Vote Next Week on Whether to Ban All Porn
DailyTech's Jason Mick reports that the EU is set to vote this week on a proposal dubbed "Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU". Mic says the proposal is merely an initiative report, designed to convey the EU's intentions. However, it could likely form the basis of future legislation, if ratified, and while it frames itself as an equal rights measure of sorts, it quickly veers into censorship mode noting that there is an "increasingly noticeable tendency...to show provocatively dressed women, in sexual poses," suggesting that if pornography isn't proactively addressed now, it may be too late, commenting, "[Pornography is] slipping into our everyday lives as an evermore universally accepted, often idealized, cultural element."
Opinions will of course vary on the desirability of porn prohibition.
For the full report visit here:
http://goo.gl/Y73JS
Seven Days In Chromebook Exile Not So Bad
PC World's Melissa Riofrio notes that the new Chromebook Pixel has attracted much interest--and even greater disdain, considered by many pundits to be an outrageously expensive, disposable toy.
But is the Chromebook platform really such a bad idea asks? She set out to determine whether a Chromebook could substitute for a full-fledged Windows laptop, without performance issues and compatibility headaches.
Ms. Riofrio observes that most tech journalists are power users: tinkerers and early adopters who want full laptop flexibility - to play games and run processor-intense applications like Photoshop and video editors. They don't get the Chromebook, and the Chromebook is not for them, yet they've tended to compare the Chromebook to the full desktop experience, where Google's hardware platform not surprisingly falls short.
However she notes that there are millions of users who've happily abandoned full-fledged PCs for tablets and even smartphones for many common computing tasks, and for them Chromebooks offer something more: a decent keyboard and a bigger display - like the one on the new HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook, or, of course, the "mesmerizing" 2560-by-1700 display on the Chromebook Pixel.
Ms. Riofrio says technorati need to step aside and let the rest of the world enjoy the Chromebook - and especially, the Pixel -for what it is: a more functional alternative to a smartphone or tablet for online life.
"Chromebooks are for the rest of us," she contends, saying she wants to get a Chromebook for her 79 year old mom and wouldn't mind one for herself.
For the full report visit here:
http://goo.gl/2Gnqh
If Steve Jobs Was Right And This Is A Post-PC Era, Why Did Google Release The Chromebook?
Macworld UK's Karen Haslam notes that while a few years have passed since Apple's late CEO Steve Jobs predicted that the "post-PC" era had arrived, Google doesn't seem to think so, having released the Chromebook Pixel, a premium laptop with a touchscreen that boasts more pixels than Apple's Retina display but has an unusual 3:2 aspect ratio.
Ms. Haslam observes that it's worth noting that Apple reduced the price of its 13in MacBook Pro with Retina display by 200/$200 just days before Google unveiled the Chromebook Pixel, with cutting the price of the 13in MacBook Pro with Retina Display so soon after launch indicating that the smaller Retina laptop has been selling poorly.
She notes that while Steve Jobs claimed that putting a touch screen on a Mac would be "ergonomically terrible," and that "Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical," perhaps Jobs was wrong and the PC-era isn't over, and people do want touchscreen laptops. It looks like 2013 will be the year we find out.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/mac/news/?newsid=3428453
Computer Recycling & Data Destruction Giant N2S Goes Global
IT Disposal & Data Destruction giant Network 2 Supplies has gone global with its set of high quality IT services. The company provides services such as Hard Drive Data Destruction, Computer Recycling and Asset Management. Network 2 Supplies is based in Bury St Edmunds, UK. The company was founded back into 2002 and has become a massive player in the IT End of Life industry.
The N2S capability propositions and expansion has been rapid, but has been possible through a range of key partnerships. The company have come a long way since 2002 when their operations, mainly as an IT asset disposal company started. Fast forward to 2013 with presence in 185 countries globally, and a client base ranging from SME's to government organisations to powerhouses in the financial sector - providing IT disposal, data destruction and asset management services - N2S has remained committed to its family values providing the highest level of service to all customers.
Here is a brief overview of services provided by Network 2 Supplies:
(*) Security & Data Destruction:
The services extend to all hard drives, smartphones, media devices, tapes or any other device which stores and holds your critical data.
(*) Computer Recycling:
Do your bit for the planet by recycling your old IT equipment.
(*) Installations:
Qualified engineers install and support a range of IT infrastructure and telecommunications worldwide!
(*) Site Surveys & Due Diligence:
N2S identify areas in need of improvement and apply the crucial changes to minimise risk and costs.
N2S are ISO 27001 accredited and hold all the necessary Environment Agency Waste Management Licences to be fully WEEE-compliant, including a full waste management licence (EAWML100030),waste carrier licence (CB/VE5338ZK) and NAID membership. We are currently undergoing 18001.
Network 2 Supplies:
http://www.n2s.co.uk
Facebook Profile:
http://www.facebook.com/network2supplies
Twitter Profile:
http://twitter.com/n2sltd
Trackback URL:
http://goo.gl/YgwUa
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