Hasta La Gadget!

Yesterday, reports of an incoming Nintendo Power shutdown hit the Internet, with tweets from Nintendo Power staff members apparently confirming the rumors. Ars Technica has updated its original story with confirmation from none other than Nintendo, which says the magazine will indeed be delivering its final issue in December 2012. After that, Nintendo Power – which has been running since 1988 – will no longer exist.

“Nintendo can confirm that Future US will end the production of Nintendo Power magazine with the last issue slated for December 2012,” Nintendo said in a statement, adding that the magazine won’t be switching publishers. Some were thinking that Nintendo might begin publishing the magazine once again, as it did between 1988 and 2007 when Future US became the publisher, but sadly that doesn’t seem to be the case.

It’s a bummer to see the iconic magazine go, but there is some good news to be found in all of this. In those quickly-deleted tweets from yesterday, we were told that a big send off is planned for the magazine. The editors of Nintendo Power (and everyone else, for that matter) obviously want to see the publication go out with a bang instead of a whimper, so it sounds like we can expect some surprises in the final issue of the magazine.

Still, despite the exciting send off that’s been teased, many will miss the magazine. For a significant amount of adult gamers, Nintendo Power was a part of their childhood. With print taking a large hit in recent years, it’s somewhat unsurprising that Nintendo Power is going dark, but it’s a shame nonetheless. We’ll be sure to keep you updated if Nintendo says anything else, but judging from the company’s statement, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be getting much more information out of the big N.

Nintendo confirms shutdown of Nintendo Power magazine is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Dell announced today that its profits in the second quarter of its fiscal year fell 18% from the year before, landing at $732 million and prompting an after hours stock price dip. At the time of this writing, Dell’s stock is down by 4.28% to $11.81 after hours, with the stock finishing the regular trading day at $12.34, only a 1.75% decrease. The Wall Street Journal reports that Dell’s sinking profits come from the computer manufacturer’s struggles with a consumer base that is increasingly opting for mobile devices while they decide to wait on PC purchases.

Revenues were also down in the quarter, slipping 7.5% year-over-year to $14.48 billion. That’s actually a 0.4% increase over the last quarter, but that tiny increase did nothing to impress investors, who were expecting a 2% to 4% increase over the previous quarter. This less-than-stellar second quarter has forced Dell to not only lower its projections for the third quarter, but for the financial year as a whole.

Dell now expects Q3′s profits to come in 2% to 5% lower than originally expected, settling somewhere in the area of $13.7 billion to $14.2 billion. Despite the fact that profits will be lower than expected, that’s still a pretty decent number for the quarter, but the real kicker comes in Dell’s retooled expectations for the whole year. Whereas once the company was projecting that earnings-per-share would be coming in above FY 2012′s $2.13, it now says that it’s expecting an earnings-per-share value of “at least $1.70.”

Overall, Dell’s stock has fallen 18% over the course of the past three months, which isn’t too good. Now the company is gearing up to post lower-than-expected results for the rest of the year, but you never know with these things, especially with the holiday season just around the corner. That holiday shopping season could give Dell’s profits quite a boost, but then again, consumers could just as easily skip the PCs and go with the smartphones and the tablets instead. Stay tuned.

Dell profits tumble by 18% in Q2, stock price dips is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

BT thinks that it’s “highly likely” it’ll let its 2.6 percent stake in OnLive go to the wall. It told TechRadar that it was keeping a “close eye” on the gaming venture which is restructuring in the face of spiraling debt costs. The telecoms provider has promised that its customers will be able to access the service (for as long as it exists, we guess) and that the investment is a small enough figure that it won’t be worrying too much about its balance sheet.

Filed under: Gaming, Internet

BT planning to write off 2.6 percent stake in troubled OnLive originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Aug 2012 16:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Premiership footballers will be weeping in envy at the way Samsung’s been spending its cash this month. After splashing $822 million on a Korean R&D center, it’s now chucking $4 billion to renovate its semiconductor factory in Austin, Texas. The cash will be used to increase production on system-on-chip products used in a wide variety of smartphones and tablets, presumably to cope with future demand. It’s not clear if this investment is in addition to the $1 billion it was raising in January to add a new SOC and OLED line to the same facility, but it’s certainly a good time to be living in Texas, right now.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs

Samsung spending $4 billion to renovate Austin chip factory originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Aug 2012 06:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On Monday, August 20th, 2012, Apple became the new most valuable United States-made company in the history of the world. Their market capitalization has surpassed that of Microsoft’s previous record of $618.9 billion, that amount having been set back in November of 1999. The current market capitalization of Apple is $622.6 billion, with 936,596,000 outstanding shares as of June 30, 2012 – we’re guessing that everyone reading this post wishes that they’d invested in the company when they had the chance, of course.

This feat comes after an all-time high share price was reached for a second consecutive session today for Apple, reaching up to $664.74 in the morning hours. The highest that Apple has gotten with their market capitalization total today (thus far) has been $623.1 billion. We’re expecting Microsoft to be left in the dust, at this point, but of course it must be recognized that with cash adjustments for time, the latter company might still be on top.

Comparing such things is like comparing the Dream Team to the 2012 USA Olympic basketball team, however, as Microsoft’s current value just is not up for snuff. Apple shares are currently continuing to stay on the rise as they head towards an Autumn season with several new launches (if the rumors are all true). Apple may well have a new iPad mini, iPhone, and more by the time the holiday season begins.

Apple surpassed Exxon earlier this year to be the fifth company in history to have a market capitalization higher than $500 billion. Have a peek at our Apple portal to see what the company has been up to lately, and get pumped up about their new line of devices which may very well be released inside the next month!

[via Mercury News]

Apple now most valuable public company in history is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.