JUST WHEN YOU thought things were slowing down in the industry, Intel brings out not one… but two, yes two, new logos. Our lawyers have warned us that people who have weak hearts can’t take that much excitement, so we will only describe the second one – for your safety.

Shock and awe in logo form

With all due speed, we bring you a logo that even Hal* would feel privileged to wear while killing Dave, the new Centrino logo. Impressive hardly describes it, so we will hardly describe the new i7 logo. Think the same thing with Core i7 where Centrino is written, and the blue parts are white, white parts blue.

There you have it, you can die happy now. The new logos are everything you dared dream about, and more. They almost Rox0r, but fall a little short because the E isn’t dropped. Ah well, there is always time when the Core i8s roll out.

While Intel’s sales were flat in 2008, Taiwan was one of the few geographic regions where sales increased. According to the chipmaker’s recently released annual report, revenues from Taiwan increased about 15% in 2008 to US$9.9 billion, while the company’s overall sales of US$37.6 billion were down a slight 2%. Leading the way in terms of sales growth in 2008 for all geographic regions was the Americas (outside of the US), where sales were up 16.5%. Japan was the only other sales region that saw growth in 2008, at a slight 1.5%.

Taiwan accounted for more than 26% of Intel’s sales in 2008, up from 22% in 2007. (continuare…)

With netbook players planning to launch 11.6-inch models later this year, LCD panel makers are gearing up for production of related LCD panels in the third quarter utilizing 5G plants, according to market sources.

Several netbook vendors such as Acer and Asustek Computer are planning to lunch 11.6-inch netbooks with 1366×768 resolution panels, the sources noted.

Vendors plan to differentiate between their 10.1-inch and 11.6-inch models with clear boundaries in price and functionality, the sources added.

Garmin has reported sales of US$1.05 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008, up 20% sequentially but down 14% on year. Gross margin was 41.1%, representing a slight decline from 44.3% in the third quarter and 41.8% in the same period of 2007. Sales in 2008 totaled US$3.49 billion, up 10% on year with a better-then-expected gross margin of 44.5%.

Garmin’s total sales reached 6.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 16.9 million units for the whole year, growing 15% and 38% on year, respectively.

While the PND market has slowed, Garmin continued to experience unit growth in both the North American and Asia‐Pacific regions in the fourth quarter and market share gains around the globe, said Min Kao, company chairman and CEO. According to an independent market research report, Garmin’s global PND market share stood at approximately 35% at the end of the third quarter. Garmin estimates its market share increased further in the fourth quarter, Kao added. (continuare…)

Quanta

In order to save cost and increase efficiency, Quanta Computer is planning to outsource notebook chassis fabrication to Ju Teng International Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed chassis maker. Quanta will then finish the notebooks by installing key components such as the CPU, optical disc drive (ODD), hard drive and motherboard, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report.

Quanta has already outsourced similar work on notebook orders from Sony, Apple and Acer to Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) since second half of 2008. The strategy could help boost Quanta’s gross margin and save time, while also shifting the responsibility of gathering components over to the chassis makers. The new strategy is expected to become Quanta’s standard operating model, noted the paper.
Compal Electronics is also evaluating the strategy, added the paper. (continuare…)

Intel is making a push into cloud computing with forthcoming changes in its Nehalem server line aimed at large data-center deployments.

As part of that initiative, the company earlier this week outlined hardware and software updates that it said will lead to energy savings and offer the scalability necessary for cloud-computing services.

Intel hopes to provide technology for low-range and midrange servers that can share workloads effectively if demand for a cloud application spikes, said Jason Waxman, general manager of high density computing at Intel. Server deployments would depend on resources needed by each cloud, with some requiring faster network connections or more memory. For example, hardware needs of a multimedia-intensive service like Google Earth would differ from those of an e-mail service like Gmail, Waxman said. (continuare…)

Apple

Now that we’re more than halfway through the first calendar quarter of 2009 (which is the second fiscal quarter for Apple), analysts are consulting preliminary sales numbers in order to offer an early indication of how Apple is doing. AppleInsider has coverage of Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster’s initial figures, which suggest that although Apple is being impacted by the recession, the company is faring fairly well compared to its 2008 numbers and to the overall market.

Munster uses some of his own analysis as well as some NPD numbers to come up with his predictions, the current set of which has Apple selling between 2 and 2.2 million Macs this quarter. That range represents a slight decrease from Mac sales of 2.3 million in Q2 2008, but these days “slight decrease” sounds pretty good. As with recent quarters, Mac desktop sales are dropping the most, but sales of some notebooks may actually have grown compared to the same period last year. (continuare…)

Gateway has extended its MC- and MD-series notebook lines with a new compact and lightweight TC-series.

The TC-series is equipped with an 16:9 aspect ratio ultra-bright 14-inch backlit LED display with a 1366×768 resolution and 8ms response time, detailed Gateway

The Gateway TC-series is available now, starting at a price of US$649.99.

The two models that are available now are equipped with an Intel Pentium Dual-Core Mobile T4200 processor, 4GB of dual-channel DDR2 667MHz memory and Intel GMA 4500M IGP.

Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia, has revealed  that Nvidia will launch an Ion platform (Ion 2) supporting VIA Technologies’ Nano CPUs in 2009. The platform is already in development, Huang noted.

The two companies have reportedly been discussing such a partnership since early 2008, with Drew Henry, general manager of MCP business at Nvidia recently revealing that Nvidia is considering cooperation with VIA Technologies on a low-cost PC platform.

Henry indicated that the first Ion-based PC product for Intel’s Atom CPUs will be a nettop priced at US$299, and it will be launched before June this year.

Nvidia and VIA demonstrated a Nano/GeForce 9400 chipset platform last year during Computex 2008.

Lenovo has come up with an idea that is sure to please those who never want to be out of touch–even when they’re sleeping or, better yet, when their computers are off. Working in conjunction with Research in Motion (RIM), BlackBerry’s parent company, Lenovo has developed an accessory card for its ThinkPad laptops that wirelessly downloads email through the BlackBerry when the computer is off or sleeping.

The goal is to make certain that there’s never a missed moment of email. When the laptop boots up, the email, which has been loading all along, is there without needing to connect or reconnect to an employer’s server. As an additional feature of the $150 card, users will be able to send email from their laptop through the BlackBerry without an additional Internet connection.

The initial versions of the card only work with Microsoft Outlook but Lenovo is said to be working with IBM’s Lotus Notes. Lenovo ThinkPads built as far back as last summer can handle the feature as can BlackBerrys built in the last couple years.

Graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp said on Wednesday that a 2004 agreement with Intel Corp allowed it to make chip sets that work with Intel’s next-generation microprocessors.

Intel had alleged in court on Monday that the four-year-old chip set license agreement between the two companies did not extend to its next-generation Nehalem products, Nvidia said in a statement.

“We are confident that our license, as negotiated, applies,” Nvidia Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang said in the statement.

Under the 2004 agreement, Intel let Nvidia make chip sets that connect Intel microprocessors to other parts of a personal computer.

Nvidia’s Ion technology, for instance, enables a two-chip PC architecture for Intel processors, allowing better performance, the company said.

Nvidia chip sets currently being shipped are not affected by Intel’s filing, Nvidia said.

South Korean electronic giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Wednesday it had asked a U.S. trade panel to block imports of Eastman Kodak Co’s digital cameras in an ongoing patent row.

Kodak in November filed a complaint to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), alleging mobile phones and other wireless devices by Samsung and home rival LG Electronics Inc infringed on patented Kodak technology.

ITC voted in December to investigate the case.

Samsung this week filed its own complaint with the ITC, saying some Kodak cameras infringed on Samsung technology.

“Samsung Electronics plans to respond actively to this litigation (by Kodak),” said Lee Eun-hee, a company spokeswoman.

Details on the Samsung patents or Kodak products mentioned in the complaint were not available.

The ITC is a popular venue for patent infringement cases since it can stop imports of items made with infringing technology.

The world’s second-largest cell phone maker, Samsung Electronics, will start to sell several phones using open-source Linux software platforms this year, a senior executive told Reuters in an interview.

Won-Pyo Hong, head of product strategy, said the firm would start selling more than three phones using Google’s Android software by the end of the year and would “definitely” unveil a phone using LiMo’s Linux software this year.

Hong said it was unclear yet whether the first Samsung phones running on Android software would be launched in the United States or in Europe.

“By the end of the year, we will be on both markets,” he said.

Computer operating system Linux has had little success in cellphones thus far, but its role is increasing with the operator-focused LiMo platform and Google’s using Linux for its Android platform.

Linux is the most popular type of free or so-called open-source computer operating system, which is available to the public to be used, revised and shared.