SiliconBeat

What is it with those demonic sheep?

IBM rolled out a new line of Unix server systems under the Power 7 nameplate on Monday. Analysts said IBM appears to be positioning the new machines as a counter to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s ambitious plans for selling high-end Sparc servers from newly acquired Sun Microsystems.

Both companies are angling to sell powerful (and expensive) systems that combine hardware and software, engineered and optimized for specific uses such as running complex financial operations. IBM’s press release lays out all their technical specs in detail.

But IBM didn’t stop there. Ellison has been trash-talking IBM for months now, and Big Blue answered back today with a feisty Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ServersForTruth) and a YouTube video that digs at Oracle on several points, including an episode last fall when an industry standards group fined Oracle $10,000 for using the group’s name in ads that didn’t meet its rules.

The video, which IBM says it produced in-house, is a fun spoof of a typically over-heated political campaign spot. Borrowing from former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and her much-discussed ad attacking rival Senate candidate Tom Campbell,  IBM even threw in a cameo appearance by a sheep with glowing red eyes.

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.

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 »

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 »

I’m in Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show. Today is press day, where there is a series of press conferences from 8 a.m. until around 6 p.m.

I’m live-blogging/Twittering throughout the day. You can read my latest observations below.

Chip industry watchers have been eagerly awaiting news about the progress of Intel’s graphics-oriented chip, dubbed Larrabee, which has been under development for what seems like ages.

Intel executives hope Larrabee will help them compete with the highly popular graphic chips offered by Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

But when Intel gave a little demonstration of its chip last week during the Santa Clara company’s annual San Francisco event for people working on Intel-related products, the reaction among some analysts was less than awestruck.

“The 3D graphics were underwhelming” compared with those offered by Nvidia’s and AMD’s chips, wrote Global Crown Research in a note to its clients.

In its own note, Raymond James called Intel’s unveiling of Larrabee “surprisingly pedestrian” and noted that “the sad demo tells us the project is in trouble.”

Ouch!

Over the weekend at home, my wife received just about the last thing I ever expected to get from Google: A coupon in the mail. I’ve posted photos of it above. The envelope also contained a helpful brochure explaining how Google AdWords works. Pictures of that are also above.

We were both surprised and amused. Google using snail mail to send me a discount? Huh?

Here’s a couple thoughts on why I find this so odd. And I’ve submitted questions about the offer to the Google press office and will include any response I get here. Read the rest of this entry »

We figure most people aren’t reading this blog for scoops on haute couture (did we spell that correctly?), but what the heck: Contacts at Hewlett-Packard tell us that designer Vivienne Tam will introduce her latest tech offering, the “HP Vivienne Tam digital clutch,” this Saturday as part of Fashion Week in New York.

Some of you may recall that HP created a buzz last year when it introduced a mini-notebook computer with a striking red floral design on the exterior, created by Tam. Looking somewhat like a stylish purse, it was marketed toward fashion-conscious women who didn’t mind paying a relatively high price ($699 for a netbook) to be able to surf the Web without lugging around a big, ungainly laptop.

This year’s offering, we are told, will have a cover design that reflects Tam’s upcoming spring collection, “inspired by the classic Chinese love story, “Butterfly Lovers,” a beautiful tale of freedom, romance and inspiration.”

And if that’s not enough, the HP announcement adds: “It fuses high fashion, small form factor and innovative function to take the personal computer from a necessity to a lifestyle statement for modern women on the go.”

No word yet on whether Tam will be introducing her own design for an x86 server next fall …

Palm Pixi

After covering Apple’s music event this morning, I met with Palm and got a hands-on look at the company’s new Pixi smartphone, which Palm announced early today

I was a bit underwhelmed by the actual phone, which will be the second to run Palm’s WebOS software. But the Pixi, which Palm plans to launch before the holidays, will have at least one new features that will be very cool.

I found a lot to like about Palm’s Pre, the Pixi’s WebOS predecessor. One of the features that I liked most was something Palm calls Synergy. The feature collects and combines address book information from a variety of sources and displays them all together.

Read the rest of this entry »