2008

Applied Materials warned Monday of a first-quarter loss. One of the biggest charges cited was doubtful accounts, as customers failed to pay up.

The largest maker of chip production equipment said that it expects a net loss in the range of 9 cents to 11 cents per share for its first fiscal quarter, which ended January 25. It pointed to a restructuring charge of approximately $133 million (or 6 cents per share) associated with a cost reduction program announced on November 12, 2008, as the largest charge. At that time, Applied said it would cut 1,800 jobs, or about … Read more

Updated at 4:00 p.m. PST throughout

Texas Instruments posted a sharp drop in profit as it looks to cut 12 percent of its workforce.

TI's fourth-quarter profit fell 86 percent to $107 million, or 8 cents a share, from $756 million in the same period last year, or 54 cents a share. Excluding restructuring charges, TI had earnings of 21 cents a share, exceeding the 12 cents forecast by Wall Street analysts.

Revenue was $2.49 billion, down 30 percent, from $3.56 billion last year. The company also warned that revenue in the first quarter would … Read more

Updated at 6:15 p.m. PST with AMD statement about a letter it received from Intel on January 20.

Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday reported a bigger-than-expected net loss of $1.4 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008. This is the chipmaker's ninth consecutive quarterly loss.

AMD also disclosed that it received a letter from Intel regarding the two companies' patent cross-licensing agreement.

The $1.42 billion loss, or $2.34 per share, was below the $1.77 billion loss, or $3.06 per share, reported a year ago but worse than Wall Street analysts had expected… Read more

The first numbers for 2008 are out and it appears that LG had a very good year. According to the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Daily, LG sold 100 million handsets last year, boosting it to third place worldwide and barely bumping Motorola to fourth place.

Nokia, of course, was the top dog. Preliminary numbers show that the Finnish giant sold 470 million handsets in 2008, putting it far ahead of Samsung, which claimed the number two spot with 200 million handset sold. Nokia shows no sign of losing its No. 1 status, even though Samsung pumps phones out nonstop.

Motorola, … Read more

Updated at 11 a.m. PST with additional information from analysts.

These are not ordinary times. Not for Advanced Micro Devices, which reports earnings on Thursday. Nor for Intel.

For starters, AMD said last week that it would slash its workforce by 9 percent and institute temporary salary cuts.

This comes as the company enters the final stages of bifurcating into AMD the product company, which designs chips, and The Foundry Company, which manufactures them. A measure taken to stave off collapse. (There are still a few more steps that have to be taken before the split is sanctioned by … Read more

Sure, you're all jazzed about Barack Obama and looking forward to a brighter 2009, but what about the catastrophes of 2008? I'm not talking about the financial meltdown, Sarah Palin, or The Love Guru, I'm talking about the worst downloads of the year.

Every three months, Tom Merritt (of CNET TV renown) and I collaborate on a lighthearted tribute to the software failures that stick out among the many excellent programs on Download.com worse than John McCain supporters at the Inauguration Day gala.

To qualify, these downloads have to meet the minimum requirements specified by Download.… Read more

Updated at 4:25 p.m. PST throughout, including correction to mobile processor revenue

Intel reported Thursday a 90 percent drop in net income for the fourth quarter, as the company continued to cite an "uncertain" environment.

Revenue met the expectations that Intel set last week when it issued a warning on fourth-quarter revenue. The $8.2 billion in revenue amounts to a 23 percent drop from the year-earlier period, when it reported revenue of $10.7 billion.

Profits plunged 90 percent to $234 million, or 4 cents a share, for the quarter. This is in stark contrast … Read more

Secure, easy to set up, and simple to access are the basic requirements for encrypted virtual drives. Steganos Safe 2008 meets all those requirements, but forces users to register to test drive the software. The app's very simple interface won't take users 30 seconds to study and master. A comprehensive Help manual explains the app to those who want more behind-the-scenes details.

The download link actually opens the Steganos Web site, where users must register with the publisher to receive a link to the demo installation app and 30-day registration serial number.

After program install, you'll create … Read more

For Vista users not happy with Vista's built-in tools, this suite of optimizing and maintenance tools offers an easy-to-use alternative. The tools don't necessarily work better than their Vista counterparts, but they come in one easy-to-understand package.

Infibia Easy Tools for Vista launches a colorful, nicely designed palette of icons, each of which represents a tool for performing system maintenance and enhancement. The provided tools include the usual suspects for this type of performance toolbox, including a disk cleaner, memory optimizer, defrag utility, and a registry fixer.

The utility performed well in our tests. Some of the tools, … Read more