If iRecord can rip DVDs, why can’t Real?. If I were one of the lawyers for Real Networks, I’d be looking a bit closer at a device called iRecord, which is being showcased this week at Macworld. iRecord basically allows you to take video and audio clips from any source - cable/satellite, DVR, Video game console and, yes, even a DVD - and copy [...]

Satyam fallout: Should customers stick? Full text of chairman’s stunning letter. Indian outsourcing company Satyam has cooked books, a $1 billion cash sink hole and its chairman and founder B Ramalinga Raju has fabricated figures. Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch has bailed on being an adviser to the company and shares of the firm were down 90 percent or so in premarket trading before being halted. What do [...]

Verizon picks MSFT search, gets ready for Kindle killers. Between the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and an investor conference in Arizona, Verizon Wireless is making headlines today on issues ranging from a mobile search deal to plans for Kindle killers to Monday morning quarterbacking about the launch of the Blackberry Storm. Reuters is reporting that Verizon Wireless has chosen Microsoft to provide search [...]

EMC cuts 2,400 jobs. EMC said Wednesday that it will lay off 2,400 workers, or 7 percent of its workforce, as an effort to cut $350 million in costs in 2009 and $500 million in 2010. The company also added in a statement that its fourth quarter revenue will be $4 billion, up 4 percent from a year ago. EMC [...]

Report: Microsoft in stealth Yahoo takeover?. Techcrunch, quoting anonymous sources, is reporting that a group of Silicon Valley executives and investment bankers are proposing a takeover of Yahoo - with the help of financing from Microsoft. The proposal calls for a premium of about 20 percent over Yahoo’s current share price, which closed at $12.71 Tuesday, down 2 percent. Shares continued to [...]

Missing $1 Billion In Cash? Get In Line. The Phone Line.. So we’re shocked. Satyam Computer Services is missing $1 billion of cash and bank loans. Chairman Ramalinga Raju says he falsified accounts. Raju just wanted to maintain operating margins. Which does not quite explain why cash is missing. You don’t need to make up cash or balance sheet assets like bank loans to improve operating [...]

News to know: CES; Windows 7; Satyam. Here are today’s notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily: Ed Bott: Six Vista annoyances fixed in Windows 7 CES Coverage: Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft at CES: Zune Mobile, no; Win 7 Beta 1, yes Live-blog: Ballmer kicks off CES 2009 CES 2009: Summing up Ballmer’s first keynote [day 2] Andrew Nusca: CES 2009: [...]

Understand five things that stink about working in IT [video]. Working in IT is one of the world’s most challenging jobs — and not always in a good way. To build a strong IT department, IT leaders need to understand the problems of the profession so that they can take steps to keep morale and retention as high as possible. This episode Sanity Savers for [...]

Satyam management: We’re staying. Satyam on Thursday said its top management team is staying despite the revelation that founder and chairman Ramalinga Raju cooked the books. In a statement, Satyam followed up on a day that included a stunning letter from Raju revealing a $1 billion cash sink hole and other fraudulent acts. The company said: Ten of the most senior executives [...]

ViewSonic is even jumping into netbook game. Is there anyone NOT making netbooks these days? ViewSonic, best known for making monitors, digital picture frames and projectors, has hopped into the netbook game, launching the VieBook. It also unveiled an all-in-one PC called the VPC 100 ViePC and an attachable PC dubbed the LinkPC. The VieBook and ViePC are available in February with the [...]