“For example, the A4 decreases overall IC cost across all Apple devices. That is why the new iPod touch & Apple TV are tagged at lower cost points, while the manufacturing costs of the iPad & the iPhone have also dropped concurrently,” explained Brown & Carey.
“Of coursework, there is also the ease of implementation of design. By deploying the A4 processor across multiple platforms, it makes it simpler for Apple’s internal design team to create the program & firmware for each tool.
“And by using the A4 in Apple TV (as we are speculating), this mobile applications processor now is a processor – its reuse in this application redefines its purpose.
The three also noted that Apple’s recent product refresh illustrates Club Cupertino’s “tried-and-true” method of reusing (effective) parts in new products.
“With the Apple TV, they can expect to see the A4 & the same Broadcom BCM4329 wireless chip that has been used in the iPod Touch, iPad & iPhone 4.
“And with the iPod Touch, you’ll see the A4 (confirmed), the Retina display (which means the same TI touchscreen controller), the same picture sensors from Omnivision & the same gyroscope from ST Micro (the LIS331DLH).
Additional part breakdown & cost estimates include:

32GB version of Apple iPod Touch

Main Electronics – $94.00
Battery – $2.50
Display/Touchscreen – $32.00
Cameras – $5.50
WiFi/BT – $5.00
Non Electronic Parts – $8.00
Final Assembly & Check – $1.00
Total estimated cost: $148.00

New Apple TV

A4 – $15
Processor NAND/SDRAM MCP – $4
512MB Buffer DRAM – $8
Ethernet – $3
WiFi 802.11n – $6
HDMI – $2
Other Chips – $3
Other Parts – $2
Enclosures/Mechanicals $4

Rather than paying $941M over what an analysis said that 3Par was actually worth, Dell took a check for $72M of pure bottom line profit.

So, did Dell really lose?

Did HP Buy a Shell?
The 3Par employees will have retention bonuses and pulling them out of 3Par will be pricey.
However, lots of did not require to go to work at HP because they had worked there and HP’s worker satisfaction scores are apparently the lowest in the segment.
With a company the size of 3Par there’s likely about 40 critical employees necessary to make the unit viable who could likely go and form a similar firm elsewhere.

Granted, getting around the intellectual property issues would be daunting.
However, knowing how something is done often means you know the way you might do it differently had you started with a tidy slate so, while time to market would be slow, the result of the work could actually be an improved offering.
Clearly, HP would fight the use of these resources and they might be kept from actually doing core work for up to a year. Estimates for the cost to Dell for each key resource were the firm to fish 3Par out is about $5M each.

Through the acquisition due diligence, Dell and HP likely both know who these core people are and which of them don’t require to work for HP.
So, to take all 40 would cost about $200M – $72M of which would have come from HP leaving Dell with a net cost of $128M than the $2.7B+ it would have taken to exceed HP’s bid and leave HP with a shell.
Of work, HP can’t even move to adequately protect these employees until they gain control of the company. And while Dell can’t start fishing until the deal is done, nothing is stopping these employees from seeking to modify jobs, in the event that they don’t require to work for HP.
In addition, HP arrived late to the bidding war and only won after Dell’s bid was approved.

This means the 3Par board’s existing recommendation for Dell now has to be rescinded and replaced adding more time (and the $72M penalty) to what already is a painfully long period when employees will be exposed and HP is limited in their capabilities with regard to defending them.
Yes, HP has had a serious issue retaining key talent with the Palm acquisition – which was fished heavily by both Apple and Google showcasing the actual exposure for them here.
So, in the event that they can’t secure the staff quickly this victory will go down in history as one of the most pricey mistakes the firm has ever made.
Wrapping Up: The Actual Cost of Mark Hurd and Feasible Pyrric Victory
Virtually all of the risk for this can be put at Mark Hurd’s feet because it was his mistakes that led to his termination, his termination that made HP late to the bidding method, and his destruction of worker satisfaction that made 3Par key worker assets prefer Dell.
In effect, if this plays out to Dell’s benefit, Mark Hurd will have cost HP over $2.7 B for this one issue and this is likely the tip of the iceberg flipping him from one of HP’s most successful CEOs to one of their most pricey.
For both Palm and 3Par to be successful, HP has to fix their worker satisfaction and loyalty issues otherwise they are basically overpaying for company shells and the actual assets will finish up at Apple, Google or Dell.

Have you ever been in your school’s library or a friend’s house and realized, “Oh shit! I forgot to log out of Facebook”? Well apparently you are not alone.
The social networking behemoth has begun to roll out a brand spanking new feature that will permit users to see exactly where they are signed in to Facebook – mobile rings, computers, Internet-connected TVs, etc. The new feature will let them deactivate their session from any and all of those devices.

Cnet has a report of a prototype for the device being shown off at this week’s IFA conference in Berlin, one of the biggest technology events in Europe.

The laptop, to be sold under Sony’s Vaio brand, has a 3D button that would assumedly be able to transform a 2D picture into 3D. It will come packed with a pair of active shutter glasses, but it’s not known if these will be different than the ones that Sony Bravia TVs use. Current 3D computers require special proprietary glasses from the maker of the computer graphics chip.

Company CEO Sir Howard Stringer confirmed in a press conference that 3D Vaio PCs would be available in retail next spring.

The market for 3D TVs is just barely getting off the ground, so the extremely vast majority of consumers can’t even care about 3D computers at this point. However, unfettered Internet access is already promising to make 3D content more accessible on computers than on TVs, where viewers are beholden to their specific TV manufacturer and service provider.

Sony is also reportedly showing off the WV-90, a 3D video projector. That’s for those consumers who just aren’t happy enough with the 60+ inch 3D TV sets available on the market. The projector will use the same active shutter glasses as all of Sony’s 3D Bravia TVs.

Researchers have developed a new method of predicting solar storms that they say could help to avoid power and communications blackouts.

The next major solar storms are expected in 2012 and 2013 as part of the sun’s 11-year weather cycle. A 2008 US National Academy of Sciences report estimated that modern reliance on electronics and satellite communications means a major storm could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina.

Up to now, solar weather prediction has been carried out manually, with experts looking at 2D satellite images of the sun and assessing the likelihood of future activity. But a team from the University of Bradford’s Centre for Visual Computing has now created the first online automated prediction system, using 3D images generated from the joint NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite (SOHO).

It’s already being put into use by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).The Automated Solar Activity Prediction system (ASAP) identifies and classifies sun spots and then feeds this information through a model which can predict the likelihood of solar flares. The system is able to accurately predict a solar flare six hours in advance, says the team.

“By creating an automated system that can work in real time, we open up the possibility for much faster prediction and – with sufficient data – prediction of a wider range of activity,” says reader in visual computing Dr Rami Qahwaji.

“With NASA’s new Solar Dynamic Observatory satellite which came into operation in May, we have the chance to see the sun’s activity in much greater detail which will further improve our prediction capabilities.”

The system can be seen at work here.

However, according to the European Space Agency, there’s little chance that satellites will actually be fried by solar storms. The agency is shortly to launch its first four operational Galileo satellites.

“These Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV) satellites will indeed go up during a period of enhanced solar activity,” says Bertram Arbesser-Rastburg, head of ESA’s Electromagnetics and Space Environment division.

“But the solar max is hardly a surprise event. Astronomers counting sunspots have tracked the solar cycle for more than 250 years. All the indications are this solar max will not be especially energetic – the last solar minimum has been unusually long and deep. So it’s reassuring the Galileo satellites won’t be faced with the worst of the worst on day one.”

The satellites are built with radiation-hardened components and shielding, with redundancy in key subsystems. Error detection and correction routines guard against charged particles randomly ‘flipping’ bits of computer memory.