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stories filed under: "electronics"
Legal Issues

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Mon, Oct 26th 2009 6:33am


Filed Under:
electronics, sparc, trademark

Companies:
sparc, sparkfun, sun



SPARC No Fun At All; Threatens SparkFun

from the spark-up-the-lawyers dept

John Fenderson was the first of a few of you to send in a link (via Slashdot) to the story of how SPARC, the computer architecture company owned by Sun, is threatening SparkFun over trademark infringement claims. SparkFun is an electronics shop, which sells components and kits and the like. The two are pretty different. This whole situation apparently was "sparked" (heh heh) when SparkFun applied for its own trademark, at which point SPARC sought to block the trademark application. From there, they went on to sending a cease & desist. The folks at SparkFun do a nice job breaking down why the two marks are entirely different, and why even Sun employees seem to have no trouble understanding the difference between the two. This seems like yet another case of overly aggressive trademark enforcement, just because some lawyers feel the need to oppose anything that might conceivably be considered even close to similar.

17 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick

Mon, Dec 1st 2008 4:19pm


Filed Under:
electricity, electronics, patents, standby



What's Wrong With Actually Turning Electronics Off?

from the am-I-missing-something? dept

The WSJ is running an article about some guys in Spain who claim to have patented an algorithm that can detect if an electronic device is in "standby mode" and cut the power. The issue, of course, is that plenty of electronic appliances and gadgets don't really turn off. Instead, they continue to draw power even if switched "off." In reality, they're in standby mode, and continue to draw power. Some estimates say that all of these devices drawing power represent 10% of power usage, and in some techie areas, such as here in Silicon Valley, some estimates say that 26% of power usage comes from such "standby" devices. Perhaps I'm missing something, but what needs to be patented to simply tell these devices to actually turn off, rather than put themselves in standby mode? There's often a reason why these devices go into standby, rather than truly turn off, and removing that ability may end up causing more problems than it solves.

26 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Wall Street

Wall Street

by Carlo Longino

Fri, Jul 27th 2007 3:58pm


Filed Under:
electronics, japan, ps3, video games

Companies:
sony



Is Sony Actually Turning Things Around Now?

from the given-enough-time,-anything-is-possible dept

Sony's attempts at a turnaround have been pretty slowgoing, but their latest quarterly results -- showing profits double last year's -- generated some enthusiasm that things were on the right track. Although some parts of the company's business have picked up, the biggest factor in the increased profits was a weakening yen, which boosted the value of overseas sales. Investors shouldn't discount the currency effect, but they do have some other reasons to be upbeat: the company's movie unit is doing well, and its Sony Ericsson mobile phone joint venture continues to grow its market share. While the electronic business overall is looking healthier, Sony's TV unit is still underperforming, and the gaming business is still in the can. Sony's video-game unit boosted its sales by 60 percent over the same quarter last year, which is great, except that its losses grew as well, partly because it's still selling the PS3 for less than it costs to build. The game unit got a new boss a little while ago, but it doesn't yet look like he's making a lot of progress. Sony announced a price cut for the US on one PS3 model, and also said it will deliver a new high-end version and a load of new games. But it's hard to see those small changes making a big difference in terms of getting the mass market to buy into the PS3, particularly when you contrast Sony's strategy to that of Nintendo, whose business is booming. Still, Sony's problems are far from solved -- but it is showing some signs of life.

14 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Predictions

Predictions

by Joseph Weisenthal

Thu, Jul 19th 2007 9:49am


Filed Under:
electronics, retail

Companies:
wal-mart



Wal-Mart Is Latest To Offer A Cut-Rate Computer

from the cheap-enough? dept

As Wal-Mart continues its push into consumer electronics, the company has announced plans to sell a stripped down Windows PC at a discount price. While it will run Vista, the rest of the software will be open source (Open Office will be pre-installed instead of Microsoft Office), and, perhaps surprisingly, it will be completely free of crapware, an issue that's been getting a lot of attention lately. There are a number of problems, however. The box won't have much processing power, which is really bad news, considering the demands of Vista. Furthermore, this basic concept has been tried many times before. While it seems appealing, in theory, to completely strip down a computer and sell it at a discount, consumers have never really jumped at the idea. Name brand machines can be had so cheaply, much of the time, that there really isn't much value as there would first seem in Wal-Mart's approach.

32 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Up To Date

Up To Date

by Carlo Longino

Wed, Jul 18th 2007 6:48am


Filed Under:
computers, contract manufacturing, electronics

Companies:
apple, dell, hon hai, hp, htc, palm



Taiwanese Contract Manufacturers Set Sights On Brand-Name Prize

from the store-brand-soda dept

Despite manufacturing plenty of the most recognizable electronics products in the world, and making plenty of money, the names of most Taiwanese contract manufacturers aren't familiar to consumers. For instance, Hon Hai Precision Industry generated revenues of more than $26 billion last year by making products for Apple, Dell, HP and other companies. But the Taiwanese firms are increasingly trying to leverage their experience and expertise by establishing their own consumer brands and using them to boost their product margins. Contract manufacturing is a low-margin, volume based business: for instance, one analyst says contract manufacturers of laptops have 3-5% margins; compare that to the 40% or more Apple enjoys on iPods. But growing the brands can be a tricky proposition, and not just because the companies are looking to enter new and unfamiliar consumer markets. The problem is that these companies are looking to become competitors to their biggest customers: for instance High Tech Computer, which makes mobile phones for a variety of companies, is building up its HTC consumer brand, and competing with clients like HP and Palm in the process. Some are trying to get around this by splitting off their consumer operations from their contract-manufacturing businesses, such as Acer did successfully several years ago. Still, that's not the only obstacle. Getting the consumer marketing right remains a big issue -- particularly when the new consumer brands are competing against companies for which marketing, not manufacturing, is a specialty.

6 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
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