Electronic Business - The Dodge Report Blog

Batteries running on empty for Christmas

Taiwan-based OEM Compal said last week said it will be unable to fill 100,000 notebook computer orders in the fourth quarter due to DRAM and battery shortages. In the face of strong demand, that's bad news for retailers, parts suppliers and consumers. Compal's 2007 projections call for shipping b... (more)

China bloggers forced to fess up

If you want to instantly turn blogging content into dishwater or largely propaganda, just follow the model the Chinese government is considering - bloggers using their real names. That's not to say you can't have a totally whacked blog name in China like 750 Volts-The Third Rail on the Left Side or Baldor Electric. Of course, the Fort Smith, Arkansas, maker of industrial electric motors, drives and generators is vastly different from semiconductor companies that have to look east for survival and salvation. But I loved the company's pitch, which I heard today at an analyst meeting in Boston (I'm partial to mechancial stuff like motors). B... (more)

Clean room companions - best and worst

Ok, let's have a some fun. Who would you most like to be locked alone in a clean room with for 12 hours? And who would you least likely liked to be locked in a clean room with alone for 12 hours? I have been tempted to ask this question for some time which comes courtesy of EB senior editor Barb Jorgensen. She promises to respond....and I will too...in our comments section.

Clever CLEAN room humor is strongly encouraged!

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Ray Noorda's mighty contribution to networking

Ray Noorda, one of networking's foremost pioneers, died Monday at his home in Orem Utah. He was 82.
I interviewed Ray many times in the late eighties and early nineties when Novell NetWare, which utterly dominated PC networking, had a full head of steam. Ray, as everyone called him, was a visionary and helped give rise to bustling tech community in ... (more)

Dunn, Fiorino fire back on 60 Minutes

60 Minutes was the venue last night for former H-P chairwoman Patricia Dunn to protest her indictment and for former H-P CEO Carly Fiorino to shill her new book in which she says she was unceremoniously dumped by H-P's male run board. Both women charged that H-P was intolerant of women at the top and that for... (more)

California AG makes strong privacy statement with Dunn

Score one for the California Attorney General for filing criminal charges against HP's beleaguered former chairwoman Patricia Dunn and her cohorts at a time when the Administration is routinely trammeling our rights to privacy, which by the way, are addressed in the 14th Amendment, i... (more)

Give me your take on auto electronics

In our November issue, we have a feature running on Flexray, the advanced network protocol for cars. The Germans, namely Benz and BMW, will adopt it first in high end models. Interesting that the Flexray folks won't talk about the technology in any depth, nor will the car companies. In my November column, I interviewed my Mercedes mechanic (Before you say "Dodge is rich guy," mine is a 1999 E320 with 160k miles on it) and he related... (more)

Finger pointing begins at H-P

The H-P leak/Dunn thing just won't quit. Now Former HP chairwoman Patricia is distancing herself from the active and illegal phone record investigation into who was leaking informnation from the HP Board. This came to light in her written statement before she testifies before the... (more)

HP: Investigate (then, maybe, Innovate)

Friend and former colleague Charlie Cooper, for many years now a columnist at News.com, last night attended a bizarre event in San Francisco honoring H-P's embattled board member Patricia Dunn for her business accomplishments. Actually, I should not say he attended, actually, but, rather viewed her induction into The Bay Area Hall of Sham, err, Shame... (more)

H-P eats its own

Last week, I blogged about a once terrifc reporter named Mike Moeller who now is in the eye of the storm in the Paticia Dunn affair at H-P. He's one of H-P's lead spokesman in the unsavory mess. Now, it looks HP board got of hold of his phone records in its illegal jihad... (more)

Where were you on 9/11?

Out of respect for the thousands directly and deeply affected by 9/11 (and 300 million Americans affected but less directly), I've waited to re-post this article that appreared days after 9/11. I'm still trying to track down Roy just to see if he's okay. This is his chilling account of escaping from the 78th floor of One World Trade Center. I have no doubt, several of colleagues perished and should he not want to dredge up the memories with ... (more)

What's Dunn is done

HP announced this morning that Board chairwoman Patricia Dunn will resign as board chairman in January, but will remain on the board as a director. Did she get what she deserved?

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How do you know when Dunn is done?

All the pundits are calling for Patricia Dunn's head on a platter and, indeed, she should go. The H-P board met yesterday and it's unclear whether Dunn is done. She is accused of ordering an investigation into a leak about a Jan. 23

Electronic junk - more than just a nuisance

In my garage sits a bag of old cell phones, power supplies, a really lousy HP multifunction printer (watch this video!) and a three-year-old defunct RCA TV I bought at Walmart. Disposal is becoming a bigger issue as consumer electronics refresh more frequently. The problem sort of takes takes the thrill o... (more)

Microsoft's driving me Zuney

Search "Zune" on Microsoft.com and and it comes back and asks you if you meant "zone." Of course, anyone covering technology knows that Zune is Microsoft's answer to the iPod supposedly due out later this year. That's Microsoft's way of telling the world that the Zune still isn't quite here yet. But latest word is that Toshiba got the Zune deal and... (more)

WiMAX moves in front of Qualcomm

A good indepth update about whose technology - Qualcomm's Flarion or Intel/Moto/Samsung-backed WiMax - appears in today's Wall Street Journal. And you don't have to be a rocket scientist to conclude from the article that WiMax has opened a wide lead what with ... (more)

Will the PS3 save Sony?

Gamers weighing a decision to hold out and buy a PS3 should the machine ever come out might well pick up the September issue of Wired magazine (who says print is dead?) and read "Can the PS3 Save Sony?" Unfortunately, the story is not posted online yet so I'll summarize its conclusions. In short, Sony has made so many missteps that the PS3 may not be its savior.&nbs... (more)

Batteries should not be too hot to handle

We shouldn’t take batteries for granted. They start our cars and power our computers, pacemakers, flashlights, hearing aids and cell phones. And that’s only what they do today. Tomorrow, they’ll likely be central to vehicle propulsion and will power any number of yet-to-be invented devices. They’ll store energy when intermittent power sources such as wind are blowing. Batteries are important.

But they’re increasingly will more going on insi... (more)

The challenge of hot (or burning) batteries will only get greater

I'm looking at my notebook battery, serial number JP-06T087-48360-48V-0559, trying to determine if it's one of 4.1 million batteries Dell is recalling because they could catch fire. Whew. This one is not on the list, but I suspect the batteries in my son's and daughters's notebooks that I bought for them last Christmas might be. I'll check after work tonight. We... (more)

Will Sprint Nextel deal get WiMax over the hump?

WiMax finally got the mega-endorsement from Sprint Nextel, which said this week it will pump $3 billion into a high speed WiMax-based wireless infrastructure in American cities. Sprint Nextel's WiMax puts it in a collision course with Verizon's EV-DO service and Qualcomm's MediaFLO tech... (more)

Nuvi 350: a gadget that delights

Sometimes, we do not appreciate much less mention the products that the chips we cover go into. EB is Chips `r Us along with the companies who make them, but I cannot say enough about my new Garmin Nuvi 350 Pocket or Vehicle Navigator. This nifty little device is ridiculously easy to use and can take you anywhere in the U.S... (more)

FTC Broadsides Rambus

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) dealt a blow to Rambus’ strategy of DRAM patent licensing and litigation. In a 5-0 vote, the FTC ruled today that Rambus hid patents from JEDEC ( now the Solid State Technology Association and formerly the Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council) in its standard-se... (more)

Looking for Hot Startups

Hey, folks, we're looking for hot electronics industry startups to write about exclesively online. Last week, I wrote about Luminus and its potentially groundbreaking LED technology for rear projection TVs. And we have a story from Bill Roberts coming up on Ambarella, a Sunnyvale, Calif. company with a promising HD video technology. We're starting a section called "St... (more)

How bad can United get?

This is a bit off topic, but United Airlines has gone so far downhill, I can't stand it anymore. Here's their record with me between Boston and San Francisco. In April leaving Boston, there was four hour delay because an engine part failed. United borrwed another part from a plane parked next to it. Ok, such things happen.
On Monday morning, it was utter chaos at Gate 16 in Boston, which is too small to accomodate anything but a commuter plane. U... (more)