SiliconBeat

Last fall, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) approved changes to the way many high-tech companies will recognize revenue. We saw the first of what will be many earnings reports affected by this when Apple reported on Monday results of its fiscal first-quarter earnings.

Other companies likely to be affected include such heavy weights as Cisco Systems and Tivo.

Often such changes take months for companies to adopt. And in this case, companies have until 2011 to adopt them. But this one is different because it will give companies a significant bump in short-term revenue. So many are racing ahead. As such, investors need to watch carefully to see if a company adopted the new standard, and if they reconciled old numbers to take the new standard into account.

On Monday, Apple disclosed the accounting change up front for this year, and also adopted it retrospectively for the past two years and reconciled past earnings in an amended annual filing. Companies are not required to do adopt it for past years. So good for Apple. Many companies may only make the change going forward, making comparisons harder.

This change is not trivial. To see the impact on revenue, look at the revised numbers from years past. The change bumped revenue for Q1 2009 (last year) from $10.2 billion (0ld) to $11.9 billion (new). As far as I can tell, the company didn’t disclose what the current quarter revenue would have been under the old standard.

Still, that didn’t stop the company, in a press release, from crowing about the big numbers:

“If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”

That’s true. But under the old standard, Apple’s annualized revenue wouldn’t be quite as high. It would probably be four or five billion less, though still over $50 billion.

So what’s going on? For the details, read on. Read the rest of this entry »

I just got a review unit of the new Palm Pre Plus, the new webOS phone on Verizon. I’m testing out the phone and Twittering my impressions of it.

Below you’ll find my latest observations below.

Boy, is that an understatement.

I have been learning that lesson all week since we published my story Monday on  “Why we didn’t get a Wii for Christmas.” The story, which I figured was a pretty innocent tale of my family’s decision, has sent some members of the gaming community off the deep end. Read the rest of this entry »

iPhone

With Apple expected to unveil its tablet computer next Wednesday, my Tech Files column on Monday will be about some of the features I hope the tablet will include.

But I’ve also been thinking a lot about something else that Apple might announce at its special event: iPhone 4.0, the latest version of the operating system that underlies its iPhone and iPod touch gadgets. Apple announced the last two major updates to the iPhone OS at March events, but recent rumors suggest that this update will be unveiled two months early.

The last two updates included significant new features for the iPhone. iPhone 2.0 opened the device to native third-party applications and paved the way for the company’s trend-setting and uber-successful App Store. iPhone 3.0 added long-awaited features, such as copy and paste, multi-media messaging and stereo Bluetooth. I’m hopeful that iPhone 4.0 will be just as significant a release.

Here are some of the things I’d like to see in it: Read the rest of this entry »

Motorola Cliq

When Motorola announced the Cliq smartphone in September, I was pretty intrigued.

I wrote a column about how I thought the Cliq’s interface could represent “the next stage in the evolution of the smart-phone.” I think now that I might have overstated the case.

The Cliq was the first Motorola phone to run Google’s Android operating system. What I found interesting about it was that Motorola had built a custom interface on top of Android that it calls Motoblur. Read the rest of this entry »

Looks like it’s full steam ahead for Google. Revenues rose 17 percent to $6.7 billion. Non-GAAP earnings jumped 35 percent to $2.2 billion.

Altec-Lansing inMotion Max

At long last, I wanted to write an updated review of the Altec-Lansing inMotion Max iPod speaker system.

As some readers may recall, I planned to test out then-new inMotion Max last spring. However, I soon abandoned the idea of writing a full review of the product, because I ran into a serious glitches.

At random intervals, the device would seize up, stop working and stay that way until I unplugged and reset it. At least one reader experienced a similar problem with the device, so it looks like the glitch might have been with a particular batch of the speaker systems.

But it doesn’t look like the problem was endemic with the device. Altec-Lansing ended up sending me a replacement unit to test out, and I played with that speaker system quite a bit over the next several months. The problem didn’t recur with the new unit. So I don’t feel I can fairly mark the device down for the problem. Just be aware that it can occur. Read the rest of this entry »

Once again, Netflix has been placed on a death watch. But I’m not buying it for a second. We’ve heard that too many times over the company’s history. And each time, the company has nimbly defeated new and established competitors, while growing like gangbusters in a horrid economy.

I wrote last year that I was done betting against Netflix. And I’ll stand by that now. Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you thinking the IPO market is going to come roaring back this year, think again.

I just saw the post from Techcrunch yesterday that Yelp was on the verge of taking a $50 million investment from Elevation Partners. This comes after the failed acquisition talks with Google. Here’s what’s interesting:

“The size of the round is in the $50 million range, but includes both a primary investment component as well as a secondary offering for long time employees. These deals are now being referred to as ‘DST deals,’ since DST first invested in Facebook in May 2009 at a $10 billion valuation and later funded employee buyouts at a $6.5 billion valuation. They did a similar deal with Zynga.”

In other words, part of the investment will allow long-time employees to cash out options. Same deal with Facebook and Zynga. But why? Read the rest of this entry »

And lo, the mighty gods of Apple came down from their Cuptertion Mountain on Monday with invitations for members of the press to attend an event Jan. 27 in San Francisco. Though no details were revealed, the invitation contained the tantalizing phrase: “come see our latest creation.”

Of course, if that new creation is not the long-rumored, much-hyped tablet/slate thingy, there will likely be riots on the Streets of San Francisco next week.

The Apple event is scheduled for 10 a.m. PT in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. No word on whether there will be a livestream from the event for the many, many others out there who are eager to get a glimpse of this mythical gadget.

According to The Wall Street Journal, sources have told them that the device would be a 10- or 11-inch touch-screen tablet offering wireless access and sporting a price tag of $1,000.

I have a hard time betting against Apple. But what I’m waiting to see, and probably can’t really know until we have all the details, is this:

What problem will this solve for me?

Read the rest of this entry »