Amazon Q1 sales, profit climb
By Eric Engleman on Thursday, April 22, 2010, 1:41pm PDT
Amazon.com continues to shine in a drab economy. The online retailer said sales jumped 46 percent to $7.13 billion in the first quarter of 2010, compared with the same quarter a year ago. Profit increased 68 percent to $299 million, or 66 cents per diluted share. The results beat analyst expectations. It was the first full quarter to reflect the performance of Zappos. Amazon completed its acquisition of the online shoe site in November 2009. | | SPONSORED POST | Powerful Connections breakfast, April 30th
Come hear Scott Oki keynote, and support NPower's work in the non-profit community. Generous support from our sponsors (Microsoft, Accenture, Point B, Lake Partners, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), means all donations at the event will go directly to technology know-how for nonprofits. RSVP here. |  | | Microsoft: Record revenue, Windows 7 reaches 10% of PCs
By Todd Bishop on Thursday, April 22, 2010, 1:32pm PDT
Looks like the Windows Vista era is officially over. Microsoft this afternoon became the latest big technology company to post encouraging quarterly results, beating Wall Street's expectations with revenue of $14.5 billion and profits of 45 cents a share. The company credited factors including strong sales of Windows 7, saying that the new operating system is now running on more than 10 percent of PCs worldwide, six months after its launch -- making it the fastest selling operating system in history. It's a sharp contrast from widespread problems that were plaguing Vista, the Windows 7 predecessor, at this point in its product life cycle. | | SPONSORED POST | Seattle University Software Engineering
Upgrade your career! Earn your Masters degree while continuing to work full-time. Our balanced curriculum of technical and management courses enhances professional leadership in planning, design and development of today's software systems. More information here. |  | | Rules for angel financing saved
By Dan Rosen, Joe Wallin and William Carleton on Thursday, April 22, 2010, 11:08am PDT
The first provision would have adjusted the threshold at which angels qualify as "accredited investors," sending two-thirds of active angel investors in the United States to the sidelines, ineligible to participate in getting startups off the ground. The second provision would have required companies to wait 120 days for the SEC to determine if they qualify for a securities law exemption that is self-executing (meaning, no waiting) today. Well, whatever the outcome for the overall financial regulatory reform legislation now being debated in the US Senate, it appears that the startup and angel investing community can breathe a huge sigh of relief this week. That's because it now appears that Reg D will survive largely intact. In fact, Reg D may be amended in a way that will improve it. | Reach for your wallets, 'Halo' fans
By Todd Bishop on Thursday, April 22, 2010, 6:52am PDT
Sure, lots of people say they're fans of "Halo," the blockbuster video-game series for Microsoft's Xbox 360. And there's sure to be lots of demand for "Halo: Reach," the next installment in the series, due out this year. But here's the true test of your "Halo" cred. Do you understand half the stuff in the description below? And, more to the point, would you fork over $150 for it? Game disc, housed in recovered ONI "black box"; An exclusive Elite armor set for use in multiplayer battles; Artifact bag containing Dr. Halsey's personal journal and other classified documents and effects that unravel long held secrets from the "Halo" universe; Individually molded, hand-painted and individually numbered Noble Team statue expertly crafted by the artisans at McFarlane Toys; UNSC-themed custom packaging; An exclusive multiplayer Spartan armor effect. | Roundup: Microsoft earnings, Windows Live, and other notes
By Todd Bishop on Thursday, April 22, 2010, 6:03am PDT
Microsoft is teaming with education-technology company ePals Inc. to expand the presence of the Redmond company's email, calendar and other technologies in schools. Under the agreement, announced this morning, ePals says it will expand its service by offering Microsoft's Exchange-based "Live@edu" system to millions of its users, which includes teachers, students and parents in 200 countries and territories. Among other plans, the companies say they'll also work together to roll out Microsoft's upcoming Office Web Apps in schools. Microsoft yesterday announced SQL Server 2008 R2's release to manufacturing, which is tech lingo for "we're finally done with it." The upgrade of the company's flagship database software includes a heavy focus on business-intelligence technologies, as Ars Technica notes. It's expected to be available starting in May. Changes in Windows Live Hotmail and Messenger will be a big focus of the next Windows Live upgrade, known as "Wave 4," which will soon be released for testing by a limited number of people outside of Microsoft, according to a Microsoft blog post. Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet.com confirms with Microsoft that the related Windows Live PC-based software will no longer work with Windows XP, which is sure to make some holdouts angry. | Isilon's profit surges in Q1
By John Cook on Thursday, April 22, 2010, 5:39am PDT
Isilon Systems, the Seattle maker of digital storage products, continues to post solid financial results as part of a major turnaround ushered in by founder and CEO Sujal Patel. The company today announced revenue of $39.3 million for the first quarter, up 46 percent over the same period last year. Meanwhile, the company -- which posted its first quarterly profit last year -- reported net income for the first quarter of $1.1 million. That compared to a net loss of $10.4 million for the same period last year. | iPad scavenger hunt in Seattle
By John Cook on Thursday, April 22, 2010, 5:07am PDT
Brenthaven, a Seattle maker of laptop cases and bags, has come up with a creative way to promote its new line of eco-friendly iPad cases. Over the next month, the company is organizing a Seattle scavenger hunt where participants are encouraged to find one of its Bill-Fold iPad Sleeves throughout the city. The final winner of the hunt -- which will take place between April 26th and May 31st -- wins a free iPad. So where will the iPad sleeves be hidden? Of course, Brenthaven isn't giving out any clues -- at least not yet. | Ballmer, Doerr and other tech leaders urge support of ARPA-E
By John Cook on Wednesday, April 21, 2010, 7:18pm PDT
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, venture capitalist John Doerr, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and more than 100 other technology leaders today pressed Congress to support the Advance Projects Research Agency Energy (ARPA-E) program. The 3-year-old government initiative -- modeled on DARPA -- was designed to foster research projects that could help reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil. The lobbying effort is being pushed by the National Venture Capital Association and TechNet, with a letter from the groups and the tech execs sent to Congressional leadership today. | F5 shares fall after Q2 earnings
By John Cook on Wednesday, April 21, 2010, 6:41pm PDT
Shares of F5 Networks fell more than three percent in after hours trading even though the Seattle-based maker of networking equipment and software posted strong earnings and revenues for its fiscal second quarter. The company reported revenue of $206.1 million, up 7.8 percent over the prior quarter and up 33 percent over the same period last year. | Confirmed: Target to sell Kindle
By Todd Bishop on Wednesday, April 21, 2010, 3:50pm PDT
Target will sell Amazon.com's Kindle starting this weekend, the retailer announced this afternoon, confirming reports that first surfaced a couple weeks ago. It's the first brick-and-mortar outlet for the Amazon e-reader -- giving it a real-world retail presence to compete head-to-head with the iPads now available at Apple stores and Best Buys, and those Nook reading devices that you may have seen at your neighborhood Barnes & Noble. | Your Microsoft Office document? Yeah, it's on Facebook now, too
By Todd Bishop on Wednesday, April 21, 2010, 2:55pm PDT
If you thought your parents joining Facebook was a major downer, wait until you hear about this. Microsoft today announced plans to roll out a new Facebook application called "Docs" -- no, not Google Docs -- that will make it possible for Facebook users "to create and share Microsoft Office documents directly with their Facebook friends, using the Office tools they already know," as the company explained in a blog post. Great, that's exactly what we were hoping for -- something to boost our productivity when we're trying to waste time on Facebook. What's next, Microsoft, a SharePoint Server 2010 plugin for Xbox 360? | |
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