Belkin Acquiring Cisco's Linksys Unit By March

It's official: Belkin is taking Linksys of Cisco's hands despite previous denials.


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While we were recently told by a Linksys rep that news of Cisco selling off the unit was mere rumor, networking giant Belkin is now saying otherwise.

According to an announcement made on Thursday, Belkin has entered into an agreement to acquire Cisco's Home Networking Business Unit – which includes the Irvine, Calif.-based Linksys – for an undisclosed sum. Once the transition closes, Belkin will account for around 30-percent of the U.S. retail home and small business networking market.

"We’re very excited about this announcement," said Chet Pipkin, CEO of Belkin. "Our two organizations share many core beliefs – we have similar beginnings and share a passion for meeting the real needs of our customers through the strengths of an entrepreneurial culture. Belkin’s ultimate goal is to be the global leader in the connected home and wireless networking space and this acquisition is an important step to realizing that vision."

Belkin said that it plans to maintain the Linksys brand and will offer support for Linksys products as part of this transaction. All valid warranties will be honored by Belkin for current and future Linksys products, the company said.

"Belkin and Cisco intend to develop a strategic relationship on a variety of initiatives including retail distribution, strategic marketing and products for the service provider market," the company said. Having access to Cisco’s specialized software solutions across all of Belkin’s product lines will bring a more seamless user experience for customers. Merging the innovation capabilities of Linksys and Belkin provides a powerful platform from which to develop the next generation of home networking technology."

Reports of Cisco looking to sell Linksys emerged back in December 2012. Unnamed sources said that Cisco was looking to expand its corporate software and technology services. Its trek into the consumer technology frontier backfired, sources said, caused by a slowdown in sales growth. Thus, Cisco eliminated 7,800 jobs and began closing consumer-based businesses such as the Flip video camera unit.

Even in December, sources said that Belkin was hovering, looking to grab the Linksys networking unit from Cisco. But Leah Polk, Senior Global Public Relations Manager of Belkin International, said that it was merely a rumor and there was no official statement to make. Looks like it's official now.

"At Belkin, we’re committed to enabling great experiences for users of today’s mobile and connected home technologies," Pipkin added. "The acquisition of Linksys and the combination of Belkin’s and Linksys’ expertise and innovation will position us to meet the demands of today’s rapidly evolving advances in technology."

The transaction is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to close in March 2013.

808 PureView handset is the last device to launch with Symbian.

Nokia has said that it has officially discontinued its once-dominant Symbian mobile operating system, with the last device to be powered by the platform being the Nokia 808 PureView (a successor is said to be in the works).

The Finnish handset manufacturer said during its 2012 fourth quarter earnings that it'll now exclusively focus on Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, which has powered recent smartphone devices from the former such as the Lumia slate.

"During our transition to Windows Phone through 2012, we continued to ship devices based on Symbian," it said. "The Nokia 808 PureView, a device which showcases our imaging capabilities and which came to market in mid-2012, was the last Symbian device from Nokia."

Symbian-powered handsets shipped a total of 2.2 million units during 2012's fourth-quarter. In comparison, Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphone units, accompanied by a total of 86.3 million total handset sales.

Coming into fruition back in 1998, Symbian started as a joint venture between Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Psion. It enjoyed immense success and was the world's most used mobile platform. During 2006, it accounted for more than 73 percent of the smartphone market. However, its dominance was pushed out by Google's Android ecosystem, as well as Apple's iOS.

Hands-on the Lenovo K900 Intel Clover Trail+ 5.5" Phone

The Lenovo IdeaPhone K900 was one of the first big surprises of CES, after Lenovo had already announced all the products that they would be showing off this year prior to the start of the show. However, the reason for this was because Lenovo couldn’t reveal the K900 until Intel officially announced the CPU powering the K900, the Clover Trail+ dual-core Atom Z2580, at their CES 2013 press event.

The K900 is gorgeous piece of industrial design, having a refined and elegant look, with lots of clean lines and brushed metal. We have already written about it a couple of times, and also reported on the first benchmarks for the Z2580 CPU in the K900 (which are unsurprisingly stellar), but just to recap, the K900 features a 5.5” Full HD 1080p IPS display, 2Gb of RAM, a f1.8 13MP Camera with Sony’s new Exmor RS BSI sensor (the same one as the Xperia Z), in a beautiful 6.9mm thick body, and will run an unspecified version of Android at launch.


The K900’s back is made from stainless steel, rather than the more common aluminum, with the top and bottom being moulded polycarbonate for better reception. The front uses Gorilla Glass 2, and features a very minimal bezel, and the whole phone weighs only 162g. Lenovo was showing it off at CES in four different colour combinations – overall silver/brush steel, almost brown gunmetal, silver with a machined ‘diamond’ pattern on the back, and what we thought was a pretty garish brass/dark gold finish.


We did get a chance to get a demonstration of the K900 on video at CES, which you can check out below. Unfortunately, the Lenovo representative showing it to us was adamant that he couldn’t turn it on to show us the OS in action, which would be understandable for a pre-release device…if Lenovo didn’t then turn around and show some other sites the K900’s software in action! Oh well, what can you do? Those other videos, like these ones from our friends at Slashgear, show that the K900’s present at CES were running a lightly-skinned version of Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, though the OS version is likely to change when the phone is launched later this year.

Sadly the K900 does not support LTE, so it probably won’t be coming to North America anytime soon. It is scheduled to launch in China this April, and in Lenovo’s other phone markets (India, Russia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines) soon after. No pricing was announced at the show.

An entry-level board for AMD's FX family of CPUs.

While Intel earlier this week announced plans to exit the motherboard market after Haswell, it's business as usual for other players in the industry. MSI just today announced a new entry-level socket AM3+ mobo for AMD's FX chips. The board will support AMD's FX, Phenom II X6, X4, X3, X2, Athlon II X4, X3, X2 and Sempron CPU.

Dubbed the 970A-G43, this ATX board is based on AMD's 970 chipset with SB950 southbridge and packs four DDR3 DIMM slots with support for up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3 1866MHz memory, two PCI-Ex16 slots, two PCI-Ex1, two PCI, six SATAIII, 0/1/5/10, two USB 3.0 ports (rear), six USB 2.0 ports (rear), six Audio ports (rear), and gigabit LAN. As an ATX form-factor board, it measures in at 30.5cm(L) x 22.5cm(W) and has six mounting holes.


Release date is not yet clear but we do know the board will be priced at $89.99 when it does launch. We'll keep you posted on availability.

Google Tells Feds to Obtain a Warrant to Access Gmail

American government agencies made over 8,400 requests for nearly 15,000 accounts.


Search engine giant Google has told U.S. government agencies to obtain a warrant should they wish to access Gmail user accounts.

American government agencies, which consists of federal, state and local authorities, made over 8,400 requests for nearly 15,000 accounts from July through to December 2012. 88 percent of those queries saw Google complying with a certain amount of the requests.

Google added that 22 percent of the aforementioned requests were made under search warrants delivered through the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).

"In order to compel us to produce content in Gmail we require an ECPA search warrant," said Google spokesperson Chris Gaither. "If they come for registration information, that's one thing, but if they ask for content of e-mail, that's another thing."

During the December of 2012, the U.S. government approved a bill that sees law enforcement not being able to search through email, private Facebook messages and other electronic forms of communication without a warrant.

IE10 for Windows 7 nears final release, says report

Microsoft is close to wrapping up work on Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) on Windows 7, according to a report published Friday.

Citing sources enrolled in an invitation-only IE10 test group, Microsoft-watcher and ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley said that the Redmond, Wash.-based developer has told those testers that the latest build will be the last before the browser is released to the public.

Officially, IE10 on Windows 7 remains in "Release Preview," a build that debuted Nov. 13, 2012. At the time, Computerworld speculated that a final release would occur before the end of 2012, basing its estimate on the development timetable for IE9. Instead, the browser will apparently launch in 2013.

Today, Microsoft again declined to comment on IE10's shipping schedule.

IE10's public feedback website (requires log-in using a Microsoft account) -- different from the one that Foley cited -- contains a wide variety of bug reports, hinting that Microsoft still has work to do before shipping a final version. Among them, a glitch that disables Windows 7's "Aero" interface graphical elements when IE10 runs.

IE10 will not be released for Windows Vista, the 2007 problem-plagued operating system, nor, with its retirement looming next year, Windows XP. Microsoft was the first, and so far, only, browser maker to drop Vista, just as it was the first -- and again, the only -- developer to abandon Windows XP last year when it shipped IE9.

IE10 is also the browser packaged with Windows 8 and its tablet-centric spinoff Windows RT.

The Release Preview of IE10 for Windows 7 can still be downloaded from Microsoft's website.

Microsoft to raise Windows 8 upgrade prices by 5X

Microsoft on Friday announced Windows 8 upgrade price increases of as much as 400% that will take effect Feb. 1, when a three-month promotional discount ends.

The current $39.99 deal for a Windows 8 Pro upgrade expires in less than two weeks, on Jan. 31. At that point, higher prices similar or identical to those for Windows 7 will move into place, Microsoft spokesman Brandon LeBlanc confirmed Friday.

An upgrade from XP, Vista or Windows 7 to Windows 8 Pro will cost $199.99 starting Feb. 1, LeBlanc said, a five-fold increase. The Windows 8 Pro Pack, which upgrades a copy of Windows 8 -- the edition installed on most consumer PCs -- to the more capable Windows 8 Pro, will run $99.99, a 43% jump from the promotional price of $69.99.

Microsoft will also add a new SKU to the mix that upgrades XP, Vista or Windows 7 to Windows 8, not the Pro edition. The price: $119.99.

The Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro upgrade prices are identical to the suggested list prices for Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional upgrades, but the Pro Pack's $99.99 is 11% higher than what Microsoft charged for the "Anytime Upgrade" from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional.

The prices were not surprising, as numerous retailers had long cited the after-discount costs for Windows 8 Pro and Pro Pack. The only real news was the availability of a Windows 8 upgrade, something that Microsoft had previously declined to confirm.

LeBlanc also noted that download and boxed copy prices were the same, a pricing practice Microsoft has used before.

Although Microsoft was applauded last summer when it unveiled the $39.99 Windows 8 Pro upgrade, Friday's final price tag revelations show that Microsoft has little interest in mimicking Apple. Last year, Apple sold OS X 10.8, aka Mountain Lion, for $19.99. In 2011, Apple charged $29.99 for Lion.

Last summer, when Microsoft revealed the Windows 8 Pro discount, Stephen Baker, an analyst with the NPD Group, pointed out that it wasn't in the Redmond, Wash. company's interest to dramatically drop the price. Microsoft's goal, said Baker, was to sell new PCs, not get customers to upgrade old ones.

"It behooves Microsoft to get people to move to new hardware, so they're not going to make an upgrade extraordinarily cheap," Baker argued then. "This [upgrade cycle] is even more about hardware. Microsoft wants people to get off XP and into the new different types of hardware."

While customers have until the end of the month to take advantage of the Windows 8 Pro and Pro Pack discounts, other deadlines have already come and gone: The Windows 8 previews expired Tuesday, Jan. 15. Since then, the free previews have automatically restarted every one or two hours, and on-screen messages have told users that they must upgrade to a paid license.

More information on Windows 8's upgrade paths can be found on Microsoft's website.

Apple's Q1 revenue grows, but Mac sales fall

Apple's revenue grew but profit was flat in its first fiscal quarter of 2013, during which sales of iPhones and iPads rose, but Mac and iPod shipments dropped.

Apple reported a net profit of $13.1 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 29, matching the profit reported in 2012's first fiscal quarter. Earnings per share were $13.81, which was higher than the consensus estimate of $13.47 from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

The company reported revenue of $54.5 billion, up from $46.3 billion year on year.

Sales of Mac computers and iPods fell during the quarter. Mac sales totaled 4.1 million, dropping from 5.2 million. The fall in Mac shipments comes amid struggles in the personal computer market. Worldwide PC shipments fell by 6.4% during the fourth calendar quarter of 2012 compared to the same quarter in 2011, according to research firm IDC.

IPod shipments fell to 12.7 million units compared to 15.4 million units in the year-ago quarter.

Apple blamed a shorter, 13-week quarter and a shortage of new iMacs for the lower Mac shipments. Apple announced iMacs with 21.5-inch and 27-inch screens in October, but shipments started only later in the quarter as supplies of the all-in-one desktop systems were constrained.

IMac shipments were down by 700,000 units year over year, and sales would have been stronger had the computers become available sooner, said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, during a conference call.

Cook also acknowledged that a weakness in the PC market may have had an effect on Mac shipments, and that growth in iPads also hurt Mac shipments to a limited extent.

Apple sold 47.8 million iPhones during the first quarter, growing from 37 million. Apple sold 22.9 million iPads, growing from 15.4 million.

Apple now offers two iPads -- the fourth-generation iPad with a 9.7-inch screen and the iPad Mini with a 7.9-inch screen. Apple did not provide a breakdown of specific sales related to each iPad model, but there have been concerns among analysts that the iPad Mini sales are affecting the fourth-generation iPad sales. Apple shipped the new iPad models in early November and announced it had sold 3 million units in the first three days.

Apple executives did not break down iPad and iPad Mini shipments. However, Cook said demand for both products was strong.

"For last quarter we had strong sales of iPad and iPad Mini," Cook said, avoiding any breakdown between the products that might have shown the less expensive Mini stealing sales from the iPad.

The supplies of iPad Mini tablets will remain constrained, and the company ended the quarter with a backlog of orders, said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, during the call.

Key Linux contributor Alan Cox steps down

Alan Cox, one of the chief contributors to the Linux kernel, has taken a step down from his volunteer duties, citing the need to attend to family matters.

Cox contributed to Linux in various capacities since 1991, shortly after Linus Torvalds developed the open-source variant of the Unix operating system. Most recently, Cox worked on the kernel on behalf of Intel, where he was employed.

In a message on Google+, Cox wrote he is "stepping down for a bit" to attend to family matters.

Cox then clarified that "I'm aware that 'family reasons' is usually management speak for 'I think the boss is an asshole' but I'd like to assure everyone that while I frequently think Linus is an asshole (and therefore very good as kernel dictator) I am departing quite genuinely for family reasons and not because I've fallen out with Linus or Intel or anyone else."

He also stated that he "may be back at some point in the future."

As the sole arbitrator of what changes ultimately go into Linux, Torvalds' cantankerous attitude is well-known, and perhaps even an effective tool for keeping Linux on a rapid release schedule. In December, he publicly chastised a Red Hat kernel maintainer with great vigor about buggy code. Cox is also not one to temper his displeasure in public. Earlier this month, he slammed the recently released Fedora 18 for being "buggy" and "unusable" in places.

"We applaud Alan's contribution to the Linux kernel and wish him the best for the future. He is one of the best software developers in the world and his contributions to Linux have been many and should not be underestimated," said Amanda McPherson, the Linux Foundation's vice president of marketing and developer programs, in a statement.

Cox is often considered to be one of the most important developers and maintainers of Linux, alongside Torvalds, Andrew Morton, Greg Kroah-Hartman and a handful of others. He did quite a bit of work fixing and updating the kernel's networking stack in the early days. He also maintained the kernel's TTY computer terminal interface until 2009. Most recently, he maintained the version 2.2 tree of Linux releases, and his own version of the 2.4 kernel.

"There is no doubt that his departure is a loss, but luckily, the kernel community has a robust and deep pool of maintainers and developers numbering in the thousands who will ensure that his work is continued. We also hope to welcome him back in the future," McPherson wrote.

Microsoft revenue up, aided by Windows unit sales, though profit declines

Microsoft reported a drop in profit for the second quarter of its fiscal year, though revenue increased, thanks partly to a 24 percent jump in sales from its Windows division.

Microsoft's revenue increased 2.7 percent to US$21.46 billion in the quarter, which ended Dec. 31.

Net income shrunk to $6.38 billion, or $0.76 per share, from $6.62 billion, or $0.78 per share, in Microsoft's second fiscal quarter of 2011, the company said on Thursday.

CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement that Microsoft's "big, bold ambition to reimagine Windows," along with other initiatives like its Surface tablet and the new Windows Phone 8, are paying off.

The Windows division generated revenue of $5.88 billion, up 24 percent year on year. However, on a pro forma basis revenue was up only 11 percent, when factoring in a net deferral of revenue for the Windows Upgrade Offer and the recognition of previously deferred revenue from Windows 8 pre-sales.

The Server & Tools business, which includes products like SQL Server and System Center, posted revenue growth of 9 percent to $5.19 billion. System Center revenue was up 18 percent, while SQL Server revenue climbed 16 percent.

The Business Division, which includes the Office suite, reported $5.69 billion in revenue, down 10 percent. Adjusted for the impact of the Office Upgrade Offer and pre-sales, pro-forma revenue rose 3 percent. Revenue from server software including Lync, SharePoint and Exchange hit "double-digit percentage growth." Microsoft is expected to ship a new version of the Office suite this quarter.

The Entertainment and Devices Division, which includes the Xbox products, saw revenue decline 11 percent to $3.77 billion. Microsoft sold 5.9 million Xbox consoles in the quarter, down 28 percent, while its Skype business, also part of this division, saw a 59 percent increase in call minutes.

The Online Services Division, which includes online advertising generated by Web properties like the Bing search engine, increased its revenue 11 percent to $869 million.

Overall, Microsoft said that its pro-forma revenue was $22 billion, when adjusted in part to reflect revenue deferrals for several Windows, Office and video game offers, as well as pre-sales.

In a conference call to discuss the results, CFO Peter Klein called the numbers "solid," and said Microsoft is building momentum behind Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, and behind upcoming releases like Office 2013 and its Surface Pro tablet.

Microsoft also experienced "strong growth" in multi-year licensing revenue, he said, exceeding 15 percent year on year, a sign that enterprise customers are making long-term bets on the company.

Windows 8 sports a radically redesigned user interface based on tile icons that is optimized for touchscreens found primarily in tablets but also in newer "hybrid" laptops and some desktop PCs, like all-in-one systems.

The new OS started shipping in October, and Microsoft has said it is satisfied with the product's sales, a message that is at odds with skeptical views from market researchers like NPD Group and IDC, as well as financial analysts from Morgan Stanley.

In November and again in January, Microsoft said that Windows 8 shipments were "roughly" in line with Windows 7 shipments at the same stage of the sales cycle three years prior.

However, NPD Group declared in late November that Windows 8 had failed to give the consumer Windows PC and tablet market enough of a boost, and that in the first four weeks after its launch Windows device sales fell 21 percent year on year.

Later in early January, NPD Group said that Windows 8 "did little to boost holiday sales or improve the year-long Windows notebook sales decline."

About a week later, Morgan Stanley financial analysts downgraded the firm's recommendation on Microsoft's stock from Overweight -- the equivalent of "buy" -- to Equal Weight, the equivalent of "hold," citing concerns over Windows 8 sales and over the PC market dynamics.

Meanwhile, IDC reported that worldwide PC shipments fell 6.4 percent to 89.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, year on year, a steeper decline than the 4.4 percent IDC had anticipated. A big part of the problem was that Windows 8 failed to jump-start sales, IDC said.

Even while expressing satisfaction with Windows 8 sales, Tami Reller, CFO and chief marketing officer of the Windows Division, acknowledged in January that OEM partners hadn't made enough Windows 8 touch devices to meet the high demand for that type of computer.

"Frankly, the supply was too short," she said then at an event held at the CES show in Las Vegas where she answered questions from a JP Morgan analyst.

"There was some misalignment between where products were distributed and where the demand was," she added.

Some tablets running Windows RT -- the Windows 8 version for ARM chips -- didn't get the type of distribution that would have been "ideal," she said.

Microsoft's CFO reiterated these points Thursday, saying Microsoft is working with its chip and OEM partners to fine-tune the availability of Windows 8 devices to make sure there is the right mix of price points and configurations.

A similar effort is under way with developers to increase the variety and volume of Windows 8 applications. And Microsoft is taking steps to expand the distribution of its Surface tablets.

Its early days," Klein said. "An ambitious endeavor like this takes time.

Microsoft has sold more than 60 million Windows 8 licenses, he said, repeating what Reller had said earlier this month. At the same time, Windows 7 deployments continue, and it is now on more than 60 percent of enterprise desktops worldwide, according to Klein.

Microsoft is counting on Windows 8 to help improve the operating system's minuscule share in the white-hot tablet OS market, where it lags significantly behind iOS and Android. Meanwhile, the PC market, where Windows has historically been the dominant OS, is shrinking.

Last year, Gartner forecast that worldwide media tablet sales to end users would total 119 million units in 2012, up 98 percent compared with 2011, and that Apple's iOS would continue its dominance with a projected share of over 61 percent. Windows tablet shipments were expected to be only 4.8 million in 2012.

Microsoft has been offering Windows 8 Pro upgrades at discounted prices as low as $14.99, but prices will shoot up after Jan. 31 to $199.99.

One special offer lets people upgrade an existing Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 PC and lets them acquire Windows 8 Pro for $39.99 via Windows.com download or $69.99 from a retail store DVD. The other offer, priced at $14.99, is for consumers upgrading a new Windows 7 PC bought between June 2 of last year and Jan. 31 -- they have until Feb. 28 to register for the special upgrade price.

After Jan. 31, people will also be able to upgrade for the first time to the regular version of Windows 8 for $119.99.

Windows 8 Pro is more advanced than Windows 8 in areas like security, networking, virtualization and remote desktop access.