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Intel saw gains in its CPU market share across all segments, including desktops, notebooks, and servers. But the notebook sector was the only one to grow, climbing 13 percent over the second quarter of 2008. Both the desktop and server segments declined year over year.

(Credit: iSuppli)

Intel’s share of the global CPU market hit a four-year high in the second quarter of 2009, says a report released Monday by market researcher iSuppli.

Thanks to a slight uptick in PC sales, Intel captured 80.6 percent of microprocessor revenue worldwide, growing from 79.1 percent in the first quarter of the year and 79.2 percent in the second quarter of 2008. This is the largest slice of the market Intel’s had since its 82.4 percent share in 2005.

“Intel benefited as the global PC market took a first small step toward recovery in the second quarter,” said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst of compute platforms for iSuppli. “AMD didn’t benefit from the small sequential rise in PC sales because its average microprocessor pricing was lower than that from the first quarter.”

The sluggish economy still took its toll. Overall, CPU sales shrunk for both Intel and AMD, since shipments were down from a year ago.

The gain in Intel’s market share came at the expense of AMD, which saw its share sink to 11.5 percent from 12.8 percent in the first quarter and 11.9 percent in the year-ago quarter.

A federal appeals court has scheduled a hearing next month to decide whether to uphold a ruling that would force Microsoft to stop selling Word in its current form.

Owen said that I4i welcomes the speedy hearing. “This is a vital case for inventors and entrepreneurial companies who, like i4i, are damaged by the willful infringement of their patents by competitors; particularly competitors as large and powerful as Microsoft.”

Microsoft was not immediately available for comment.

In addition to the appeal, Microsoft could also pursue a technical workaround that allows the custom XML function to work in a different way that doesn’t infringe on I4i’s patent, remove that feature from word, or pursue a settlement.

In a statement, I4i said that Microsoft’s appeal will be heard on Sept. 23. Microsoft had asked for an expedited hearing on the matter.

“We firmly believe that the U. S. District Court made the right decision on the merits of the case,” I4i Chairman Loudon Owen said in a statement. “We are confident that we will prevail on the appeal.”

A district court judge last week issued an injunction that would halt sales of any version of Word that includes a custom XML function that was found by a jury to infringe on a patent from Canada’s I4i. In May, that jury also dinged Microsoft with $200 million in damages, an amount that the judge hiked to more than $290 million at the same time he ordered the injunction, which he scheduled to go into effect 60 days after the Aug. 11 ruling.

For its part, Owen told CNET News last week that I4i isn’t seeking to see Word pulled from the market, but rather just to get Microsoft to stop infringing on his company’s patents.

As for the outlook, Symantec projected second-quarter revenue between $1.39 billion and $1.44 billion. Non-GAAP revenue is projected to be 32 cents a share to 34 cents a share. Wall Street has been expecting earnings of 36 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.

In the backdrop of a weak economy, spending on Security and Compliance still appears soft. Our recent checks reveal particular weakness in the SMB market. We think intense competition from McAfee on larger deals could further the top-line pressure.

The company, which makes security and storage software, reported first-quarter net income of $73 million, or 9 cents a share, down from $172 million, or 20 cents a share a year ago (statement). On a non-GAAP basis, Symantec reported first-quarter earnings of $285 million, or 34 cents a share. Wall Street was expecting 35 cents a share. Symantec’s revenue for the first quarter was $1.43 billion, down 13 percent from a year ago.

(Credit:
Larry Dignan/ZDNet)

In a statement, Symantec CEO Enrique Salem said that enterprise customers aren’t signing up for new licenses at a rapid clip. On the bright side, Symantec’s deferred revenue is increasing. Salem noted that Symantec is laying the ground work for a better second half. The problem: Symantec’s deferred revenue was $2.97 billion in the fiscal first quarter, which ended July 3, down from $3.01 billion a year ago.

Symantec’s fiscal first quarter fell short of expectations as corporate customers opted for shorter-term maintenance and license renewals.

Analysts have noted that security spending has been spotty. In addition, competition has been fierce. In a research note, Jeffries analyst Katherine Egbert said:

Here’s a look at Symantec’s first quarter with the trouble areas highlighted:

This was originally published at ZDNet’s Between the Lines.

MyCopernic on the Go boasts that it can find just about any file type–document, image, e-mail, attachment, contact, or calendar item. You can search for files by name or category and even run advanced searches to include options like date and file size.

A preview feature lets you view files without having to download them. Dennis Dion, Copernic’s vice president for sales and marketing, described in an e-mail the preview option as allowing “you to view a mobile-friendly version of your document without even downloading the file. This way, you are able to get the needed information (view your pictures, for example) without having to install anything on your device.”

The MyCopernic on the Go search screen

By subscribing to the $9.95-per-year service, you can find and view files on your PC from any remote device–desktops, laptops, or smartphones including Apple’s iPhone, Palm’s Pre, or BlackBerrys.

From my iPod Touch, I could search for all files or narrow it to such categories as e-mails, music, or pictures. Each category offered me advanced search options. For e-mails, I could plug in the subject and the names of the sender and recipient. For music, I could enter the song title, artist’s name, and the name of the album.

MyCopernic on the Go found every file I threw at it, so the service performed well. The main drawback for me: I don’t typically leave my desktop turned on when I leave the house, so the service wouldn’t help me in that event.

How does it perform?

MyCopernic on the Go lets you remotely search for and access files on your home or office PC.

(Credit: Copernic)

The preview mode worked surprisingly well. I could view the contents of Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PDF files. They were unformatted, of course, but the data was all readable. I could view JPGs, GIFs, and other images. I could even grab the URLs of Internet Explorer Favorites and other Web pages. The preview won’t play music or videos though; for that, you’d need to download the files onto your remote device.

To get started, you set up your subscription at Copernic. You install and load the MyCopernic connector on your source PC. From there, you open the MyCopernic on the Go site on your remote device and log-in to your account. And then your source PC is ready to be searched.

After installing and loading the MyCopernic connector on my desktop at home, I opened the MyCopernic site on my iPod Touch and started searching for files.

I tried MyCopernic on the Go with Windows Desktop Search. Before I could use the service, I had to make sure Windows Search was already indexing the files I wanted to find.

But if you want to download and open a file, that file’s application would need to be installed on your remote device. So, for example, you’d need a music player to download and play an MP3 file.

The service requires that either Windows Desktop Search or Copernic’s own desktop search app be installed on your source computer. (Copernic offers three variations of its search app–a free Home edition with basic features, a $50 Pro version, and a $60 Corporate edition.)

Copernic has created security measures for its new service: your PC is protected by a secure log-in, and the connections themselves are encrypted.

MyCopernic on the Go also searched the contents of my files. I searched for several text strings that weren’t part of any filename but were in the contents of certain files, and the service found them all.

And certainly there are other applications I can use to connect to my PC remotely. But I liked the way I was able to quickly and easily find files on my home desktop from nothing more than an iPod Touch.

Known for its desktop search application, Copernic has a new service for the remote crowd.

I took MyCopernic on the Go for a test spin to see how it fared.

One potential drawback: the service connects directly to your PC to search for files. That means your source computer needs to be powered on and connected to the Net when you run a search. Dion points out the upside of this. “You are literally searching your desktop in real time,” he said. “This means no data is ever copied to the MyCopernic servers, which is more privacy friendly, and there is no need to spend time selecting the content to sync and performing the synchronization beforehand.”

MyCopernic on the Go is available at Copernic’s Web site and at certain mobile vendors, such as BlackBerry App World.

(Credit: Copernic) (Credit: Copernic)

One thing to note is that this only works in Gmail, and not in other places where tasks can be found, including Google Calendar, the mobile version of Gmail, and on iGoogle. Although knowing Google, the e-mailing feature will make its way to each of these places soon enough.

(Credit:
CNET)

Gmail tasks is the one and only feature to “graduate” from Gmail labs, which is Google’s test bed for new and experimental features. The feature was launched in early December of last year, and graduated from labs last month. The rest of the labs-only features, including the 13 that were launched alongside the release of the labs program, continue to require user action to be enabled.

Google has enhanced the task feature that’s integrated into Gmail and other Google products to let users share their lists with others. Gmail users can now choose to share an entire task list in a new e-mail message. Doing so transfers all of your tasks including information like due dates, and any tasks that have been completed which show up as being crossed out.

Gmail users can now e-mail a task list to someone else right through the tasks UI.

Forecasters predicted an 80 percent chance of good weather at launch time, but the air was unstable, storms did not dissipate as expected and the forecast was downgraded to 60 percent no-go after the crew strapped in for launch.

While conditions improved as the morning wore on, the launch team ran out of time and NASA managers were forced to order a 24-hour delay.

(Credit:
NASA TV)

Radar shows storm cells near launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Conditions improved as Discovery's launch time approached, but it was not enough and NASA managers ordered a delay.

Sturckow, pilot Kevin Ford, flight engineer Jose Hernandez, Patrick Forrester, John “Danny” Olivas, European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang and space station flight engineer Nicole Stott climbed out of the orbiter about an hour and a half later, looking tired but in good spirits.

“Well, looks like everything else was cooperating except for our local area weather,” Launch Director Pete Nickolenko said to Mike Moses, chairman of NASA’s Mission Management Team, during a final hold in the countdown.

Finally, with persistent rain showers and lightning strikes near the pad, Nickolenko called off the countdown.

Launch was originally set for 1:36 a.m. EDT Tuesday and other than the weather, there were no problems of any significance.

“We copy that, sir,” Sturckow replied. “When the weather is ready to cooperate, we’ll be ready to go.”

NASA must get Discovery off the pad by August 30, or the flight will be delayed to mid-October because of upcoming Japanese and Russian space station launches and a conflict with the Air Force Eastern Range, which provides tracking and telemetry for all rockets launched from Florida.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.–Florida’s hard-to-predict weather threw the shuttle Discovery’s crew a curve ball early Tuesday, worsening when forecasters predicted improvement, generating unexpected lightning and offshore storms.

Updated at 12:45 p.m. EDT: Correcting shuttle launch window; Discovery must be off by August 30.

“Yep, if we had 30 more minutes to go I think we’d have a real good shot today,” Moses said. “But it’s obviously not the right thing to do. So we can knock it off.”

If the weather or a technical problem prevents a launch Wednesday, the shuttle team likely will stand down for 24 hours and then make two more back-to-back attempts Friday and Saturday.

Assuming no problems develop, NASA will reset the countdown for a launch attempt at 1:10 a.m. Wednesday. The most recent forecast called for a 70 percent chance of acceptable conditions.

“Yes sir, will do,” Nickolenko said at 1:25 a.m. EDT He then called Discovery commander Frederick “Rick” Sturckow, saying “well, CJ, the vehicle and the operations were cooperating but the local weather unfortunately did not. So we’ll have to scrub for the day, but hope to try again tomorrow.”

The primary goals of the 13-day mission are to deliver more than 7.5 tons of equipment and supplies to the International Space Station and to ferry Stott to the lab complex to replace outgoing flight engineer Timothy Kopra.

The way it works is simple: when you log in to the federal court system and pay with a credit card to download a document, the RECAP plug-in automatically and transparently forwards a copy to the Internet Archive, where it becomes available for free to the next person who wants to read it. It’s a collaborative effort, with others benefiting from your purchases, while you benefit from theirs.

RECAP is also available on Download.com.

“RECAP helps users exercise their rights under copyright law, which expressly places government works in the public domain. It also helps users advance the public good by contributing to an extensive and freely available archive of public court documents,” Harlan Yu, a Princeton graduate student, said in a blog post, marking Friday’s public beta release. The other collaborators are Tim Lee, Steve Schultze, and Ed Felten.

There are some potential problems. One is that because the RECAP developers plan to make the source code available, it wouldn’t be hard for someone to seed the Internet Archive with “official court documents” that had been modified in some way. (The answer is for users to pay to download important files from PACER, or for the courts to employ digital signatures.)

Which is why a pair of Princeton University graduate students, with some help from Harvard University’s Berkman Center, have developed a Firefox browser plug-in called RECAP (PACER spelled backward). It’s designed to make more court documents available to the public at no cost.

Another is this: the more successful that RECAP becomes, the more revenue PACER loses, which means the federal courts might eventually attempt to ban the use of it. Then again, that hasn’t happened yet; until it does, RECAP is a must-install feature for any court junkie.

The U.S. Congress allows the federal courts to charge a fee–currently set at 8 cents a page–to search for and download documents. The database, called PACER, is strict about charging and even levies fees for searches that result in no matches.

If you want to use the Internet to peek at documents filed in federal court cases, it’s usually possible. It’s just relatively expensive.

In addition to acquiring syncing smarts, Yahoo’s mobile iPhone site has undergone a dramatic redesign. Once a richly populated, linear site, the new home page on iPhone hosts just three tabs–Today, which features headline news and a search field, My Favorites (described above), and All Sites, which provides shortcuts to a plethora of Yahoo services.

Yahoo’s new iPhone-optimized Web site.

Both Yahoo’s new iPhone-optimized Web site and its new favorites-focused Web app operate now in the following 17 countries: U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.

Here’s how it works on the desktop. When you navigate to Yahoo.com from your browser, you’ll be able to click a link at the top of the page to try out the redesigned home page. You’ll then move to m.www.yahoo.com (which is distinct from m.yahoo.com on the desktop). From there, you’ll see a much sparser design that is flanked on the left by a list of modules–Favorites–that you can add and activate. These include Yahoo finance, eBay, Facebook, MySpace, Movies, Maps, Messenger, Weather, and so on. Hovering over the module displays a summary and some points for interaction. Clicking more deeply may short-cut you to a new Yahoo page.

Interestingly, Yahoo Mobile the Web app is posed to at least temporarily cannibalize Yahoo Mobile the iPhone app, a richer native application that also endeavors to make accessible Yahoo’s reams of services and information. While Yahoo’s iPhone app also has a Favorites section (called My Interests on the app), it does not currently sync with the desktop Web app.

A Yahoo spokesperson told CNET that the PC-to-mobile sync functionality is planned for native iPhone app in the future.

Yahoo has been busy. Last week, it announced a new customizable home page you can personalize by adding favorite Yahoo services and social-networking modules. On Tuesday, Yahoo unveiled a new iPhone-optimized design for the iPhone’s Safari browser that invites you to sync the modules between the PC and your iPhone.

(Credit:
CNET/Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt)

You’ll be able to sync changes to these favorites on the iPhone’s newly optimized site, and vice versa. The second of three tabs on m.yahoo.com from iPhone’s Safari (it redirects to new.m.yahoo.com) is where your preferred news categories and social networks manifest on the Web app. After logging in, you’ll be able to see, edit, and add new favorites.

“We are very happy that AT&T is now supporting VoIP applications,” Apple spokesperson Natalie Kerris said. “We will be amending our developer agreements to get VoIP apps on the App Store and in customers’ hands as soon as possible.”

There are already quite a few VoIP apps available in the App Store, like Skype, Vonage, and Truphone, but they only work over Wi-Fi. Developers will need to enable the apps to work over AT&T’s wireless network and then re-submit them to the App Store.

Before Tuesday, VoIP apps would only work over a Wi-Fi network. In other words, if you wanted to use Skype to call a friend, you had to be connected to a regular Internet wireless network. Once you were out of range of that network, the call would end.

AT&T said it informed Apple and the Federal Communications Commission of its decision Tuesday afternoon. For its part, Apple was quick to react and make its own changes.

AT&T on Tuesday said it has made the necessary changes to enable voice over IP iPhone apps to run on its wireless network.

Of course, the application that everyone will be wondering about is Google Voice. Tuesday’s decision may not have much of an effect on that situation because Google Voice isn’t really a VoIP application. Google’s app still uses your wireless network minutes, but the service does offer other benefits like receiving calls to a single number in multiple places.

(Credit:
Mozilla)

Chrome wiped out the title bar altogether and arrayed its browser tabs in the newly freed space. It also wiped out the menu strip and tucked the options into two drop-down menu buttons to the right of the address bar. Information that would show in a status bar, such as the actual URL of a Web address you’re hovering your mouse over, appear in a temporary box that appears on the lower left. When you search a Web page, another small window appears in the upper right. (Chrome looks somewhat different on Mac OS X, which always uses a menu bar at the top of the screen that’s detached from the browser Window itself.)

An example of Chrome's latest interface on Windows.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Mozilla’s ultimate goal is to make the user interface step into the background as much as possible–indeed, the mobile-phone version of Firefox now under development has no visible user interface until it’s needed. “Every time a user has to think about how to do something, instead of what we want to do, we as software creators have failed,” said Aza Raskin, Mozilla’s leader of user interface work.

Microsoft’s case is illuminating. Its Internet Explorer 7 hid the menu bar, though it could be revealed by pressing the Alt key, but IE 8 shows menus by default. (It can be hidden again by default if people choose, and I do.)

Reclaiming real estate
There’s been some work in this area for years. For example, hitting the F11 key in Windows puts Firefox into a full-screen mode, hiding title, menu, address, and tab bars. And Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 hid the menu bar, though it could be revealed by pressing the Alt key; IE 8 shows menus by default again, though it can be hidden again by default if people choose, and I do.

It takes real work to pare back a user interface without impairing software’s utility. But until the day arrives when my screen is displayed on an entire office wall or directly on my retina, I’ll hoard every pixel that browser developers can give me.

This Firefox 4.0 mock-up shows a very Chrome-like interface.

Missing at launch was a full-screen mode, but Google rapidly filled in that gap. This max-screen ethos is one reason that Chrome, at present at least, is my default browser.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

The Web app era
How all these changes will shake out isn’t clear yet. But what is clear is that influential developers believe thin frames are better than thickets of icons, menus, bars, and boxes.

Another change came with Safari 4 from Apple. Like Chrome, it added the two-button menu icons toward the upper right. Unlike Chrome, it sports a traditional menu bar as well, though with the Windows version it can be hidden to free up some real estate.

Consider for a moment Microsoft Word. Especially when the newer version’s ribbon of icons is active, it requires a fair amount of area to house its controls.

I’m one of those people who wants every bit of display real estate I can get. The more I can see of the document I’m writing, the in-box I’m scanning, and the photo I’m editing, the happier and more productive I am.

Chrome on the Mac can't free up the menu bar real estate, so it looks different than on Windows.

The Web application trend is one reason this trend is important.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, Apple backed off from another change between the Safari 4 beta and final version. Initially, the browser sported tabs in the title bar, like Chrome, but Apple later moved them into the more conservative position immediately above the Web page.

But now the pixel reclamation effort is taking off in earnest. The big statement came in September 2008, when Google revealed its Chrome browser–ironically named because it aims to move the user interface elements, called chrome, as much into the background as possible.

In the same vein, those who were enamored of the Firefox 3.7 mock-up look can try it themselves in the real world with a three-step change LifeHacker put together.

Shortly afterward came the Firefox 4.0 mock-ups, moving the tabs to the title bar in one option that’s even more Chrome-esque.

Safari 4 lets you hide the menu bar–but between the beta and final versions, Apple moved the tabs to the more conservative position immediately above the browser Web page.

So I’m happy to report that browser makers are paying new attention to the issue. It’s important to me for reading Web sites, but it’s really important to me for the new generation of Web applications. A row of pixels saved once in the browser is returned again with each Web-based application.

One of the big assets Firefox has is its extensions system, which can be used to customize the browser. One I like is autoHideStatusbar, which reclaims the status bar real estate except when I need it in order to see where a link on a Web site leads. I also use Tree Style Tab to move tabs off to the left; I typically need vertical space more than horizontal.

I’d personally like to offer browser makers my gratitude for realizing that my screen isn’t big enough.

Now factor in the Web application future–Picnik for photo editing, Zoho for office productivity, Bespin for programming, even Microsoft Office soon. These applications are increasing in number, sophistication, and importance, even if they aren’t replacing desktop applications as soon as Google Chrome OS developers might hope.

“The challenge to reducing UI (user interface) is in recognition versus recall. People generally use what they see,” Raskin said. “How can we provide one-click access to everything possible on the Web without also cluttering the screen? That’s a question we are still answering.”

The maximize button is my friend. Toolbars are my enemies.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

But it’s not simple to redesign the browsers. Users can be confused when interfaces change, some controls are essential, and hiding them can cause problems.

Now consider Google Docs, which must add its word-processing user interface elements with those already present for the browser itself. Those using the application must bear a double burden. It’s like going back to the era of 800×600-pixel displays.

The next move comes from Mozilla, which leads development of the Firefox browser.

A little bit of screen real estate saved in the browser is multiplied many times over across this range of applications. And of course, conventional Web browsing can benefit, too, offering the possibility of more information and less scrolling to get to it.

With the dash to release Firefox 3.5 now over, developer attention again focuses on the future. Last week, mock-ups of Firefox 3.7 arrived to trigger discussions of what the final interface should look like. On display were two Chrome-like characteristics: the two menu icons and the missing menu bar.