Hasta La Gadget!

We know, you’ve heard it all before, but the chip maker’s once again reporting record revenues, reaching a whopping $13.1 billion in Q2 2011. If you’re keeping track, that’s up $2.3 billion, or 22 percent, from Q2 2010, and bests last quarter’s earnings of $12.9 billion by 2 percent. Net income was up 10 percent year-over-year, but down three percent from last quarter, ringing in at $3.2 billion. As Intel humbly points out, this is the outfit’s fifth consecutive quarter of record revenue. So, perhaps a little bit of gloating is in order.

Intel delivers record earnings yet again in Q2 — let the boardroom bragging begin originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maybe, just maybe, this wireless technology in development at Fujitsu makes some sense. When you walk within range of an NFC sensor or GPS coordinate, the cloud-based system takes the liberty of pushing location-relevant apps to your phone or tablet. Enter a museum, for example, and you’ll automatically receive its tour guide app. Your device could even be made to work as a viral transmitter, spreading the app to other visitors’ handsets. Finally, when you leave, all the bloatware just magically disappears. Alternatively, the museum’s marketing department conveniently forgets to configure this last step, accidentally signs you up to its newsletter and grabs a donation from your PayPal account while it has the chance. We would obviously find this rather upsetting, unless the museum has dinosaurs.

Fujitsu wants to push out location-based apps, pull them back again originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Got iOS devices deployed across your enterprise? Listen up. Apple’s just announced the Volume Purchase Program, enabling businesses to procure applications from the US App Store en-masse. Upon registering with Cupertino, corporate overlords can then access a web-form to acquire and sling apps to their plebeian employees at will. And for those needing custom corporate-only software? It looks like bespoke B2B applications — even ones built by third parties — will soon be distributed via the same mechanism. We’re not orchard owners, but them Apples are looking mighty tasty, and it’s past BlackBerry season, right?

Apple intros App Store volume purchasing, businesses enthused originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jul 2011 08:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“I think for people running network businesses, it’s not just about improving your security, because I’ve never talked to a security expert who said, ‘As long you do the following three things you’ll be fine, because hackers won’t get you… the question is how do you build your life so you’re able to cope with those things. It’s been a great experience.”

Phenomenal as it must’ve felt to get in touch with his inner defeatist, Schaaff admitted that he “would not like to do it again” — probably because his mouth can only house one foot at a time.

Sony exec says PSN hack was ‘a great experience,’ apparently means it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Business types will soon be able to buy apps in bulk, just like everything else

You know how the iPad is for content consumption, not creation? Or that it’s just for consumers, not businesses? Apple has proved this latter to be the trash that it is with the Volume Purchase Program for Business (the former was proved nonsense long ago).

That might sound dull, but it could mean that your employer will be buying you an iPad pretty soon. It should also make you IT guys much happier, and we know how important it is to keep an IT guy happy.

A big problem for businesses and schools using iOS devices has been installing apps on people’s devices. Sure, you can buy once and install on all machines, but that requires that everyone uses the same iTunes account. Running more than one account is possible (I have do it to test U.S-only apps), but a pain to do.

Now it’s as easy to buy multiple apps as it is to buy one. The buyer picks the app, chooses how many they want and the purchase is paid for by their corporate credit card. Instead of an immediate download, the buyer gets a bunch of promo codes which they can then send out to whoever they want.

Businesses can also commission custom apps from third party developers.

Volume Purchase Program for Business is, according to Apple, “coming soon.” My guess would be that it will roll out along with iOS 5, or thereabouts.

App Store Volume Purchase Program for Business [Apple via Twitter]

See Also:

• Dell Pulls 'Business' Card to Trash-Talk the iPad