Roundup: Broadcom backdating, games at work, and more
Former Broadcom executive Henry Samueli to plead guilty in backdating case — The Broadcom flameout saga continues, with former chief technology officer Samueli admitting that he previously lied to SEC investigators about whether or not he had illegally back-dated stock options. Among Broadcom’s two founding Henrys, Samueli was the good cop. That’s why it was surprising that Samueli pleaded guilty to avoid jail time. But the other Henry, former CEO Henry Nicholas, is up for a raft of criminal charges from drug dealing to using prostitutes. [Samueli photo via Forbes.]
Game association trumpets games in the workplace — It’s no surprise that the Entertainment Software Association, the industry cheerleader for companies that publish video and computer games, would produce a positive report about games in the workplace. The ESA-sponsored study, carried out by KRC Research, shows that 75 percent of U.S. organizations that use video game-based training are getting positive results, and looking to expand their usage of games. Meanwhile, more than 75 percent of those without work-focused video games plan to introduce them in the next five years. If we didn’t enjoy any excuse to play games, we’d probably be a little more skeptical. Instead, we think this survey sounds about right.
More than one billion PCs now being used in the world — Research firm Gartner guesses that number and projects it to double by 2014.
Sony has lost $3 billion plus on the PlayStation 3 so far — “Even if the platform is ultimately successful,” an annual Sony company report says, “it may take longer than expected to recoup the investment, resulting in a negative impact on Sony’s profitability.”
LinkedIn may be coming to China — More here.
Review: Psystar’s unauthorized Mac clone is just like a real Mac — Psystar provoked excitement among many bloggers, at least, in April, as it promised to deliver a Macintosh operating system in a machine that it sells for far cheaper than the products that inspired it — in possible violation of Apple’s terms of service. No legal challenge has come from Apple, though. Now, Tom Krazit at CNET has a review of it here, after having used it for a month. He says it’s like using a Mac. [Photo via CNET.]
Five previously-undisclosed features due for Mac’s latest operating system, “Snow Leopard” — According to a scoop published by blog Apple Insider, the new features include a new multi-touch framework, smaller-sized applications, more advanced word processing features, auto activation of fonts, and support for the ZSF file system. Snow Leopard is due next spring. Also, we’ll see how fast Psystar implements it once it’s out.
Old iPhones worth as much as new ones on eBay — Blogger Jason Kottke breaks down observed sale prices on the auction site. And I quote:
- A lot of five never-opened unlocked 16Gb iPhones went for $2,755 ($551 per phone)
– A used unlocked 8Gb iPhone went for $405
– A used unlocked 16Gb iPhone went for $585.
Sun has a massive 256-thread Niagra processor coming in 2009 — The details here.
New York Times: Google News is not growing very fast – This article talks about issues at Google’s automated news aggregator. Although it’s not disclosed in the article, I suppose the New York Times would prefer its readers to use its own automated news aggregator, Blogrunner.
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About the Author, Eric Eldon
Eric currently covers digital media technology and business news, especially what's happening on social networks and their platforms. He also writes and edits stories about venture capital, and lots of other stuff, too. He started at VentureBeat in the spring of 2007, half a year or so after Matt Marshall left his reporting job at the San Jose Mercury News to found the site. Eric previously cofounded a startup called Writewith, that was building editorial software for newspapers and other groups of writers. The startup didn't work out, but he learned a lot.