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As with previous iPhone models, the 3GS–introduced in June–integrates a Samsung processor based on the ARM architecture. The processor accounted for $14.46, or 8.4 percent, of the materials cost of the iPhone 3GS based on pricing in late June, iSuppli said.

The iPhone, largely due to the popularity of the 3GS model, accounted for 13.9 percent of global smartphone shipments in the second quarter, up from 10.1 percent in the first quarter, according to iSuppli. As a result, Samsung accounted for 15.9 percent of global revenue from sales of standalone applications processors. An applications processor is roughly analogous to the main Intel or Advanced Micro Devices processor in a PC: it is basically the brains of a smartphone.

Query: Who makes the Apple-branded chip in the iPhone? Answer: Samsung. This nontrivial detail translated into smartphone chip market share gains for Samsung in the second quarter, according to iSuppli.

The big question, however, is how long a good thing will last for Samsung. Sideco added that “there is a lot of speculation as to whether Apple’s acquisition of PA Semi will change the parameters of this partnership.” Apple announced its purchase of PA Semi in March 2008.

“Since the introduction of the first (iPhone) in January 2007, Samsung has occupied the key applications processor slot in Apple’s iPhone line,” Francis Sideco, principal analyst of wireless communications for iSuppli, said in a statement. “With the new 3GS model allowing the iPhone to gain share in the smartphone market, Samsung also is claiming a larger portion of standalone applications processor shipments.”

One of the most rapidly circulating rumors has Apple using a PA Semi design in the upcoming Apple tablet. The latest word is that the screen size is about 10 inches diagonally, meaning that a tablet will require more processor and graphics horsepower than a smaller device like the iPhone.

Apple iPhone market share gains drove Samsung chip rise.

Although Texas Instruments lost some share to Samsung in the second quarter, the U.S. chip giant retained its dominant position in the market, with a share of 24.4 percent. “Texas Instruments continues to lead the market on the strength of its Open Multimedia Application Platform (OMAP) line of applications processors,” Sideco said.

(Credit:
Apple)

Samsung’s market share was up nearly 1 percent from the first quarter, iSuppli said, though it still trailed No. 1 supplier Texas Instruments. iSuppli defines a “standalone” applications processor as digital signal- or logic-based processors not integrated with the digital baseband function.

“The partnership between Apple and Samsung on the applications processor in the iPhone has been a major coup for Samsung, establishing it as a player in the market and allowing it to challenge the incumbent leader, Texas Instruments,” Sideco said.

Big Blue is in a buying mood. Ounce Labs is IBM’s second acquisition deal of the day, with the company just announcing that it will acquire business analytics forecaster SPSS for $1.2 billion.

IBM will integrate Waltham, Mass.-based Ounce Labs into its Rational software business, which offers security and compliance testing. Big Blue said it believes that the combination of Ounce Labs and Rational will provide its customers with security analysis from source code to final production.

Software developers often face both security and compliance issues with their products. Ounce Labs uses its technology to scan the source code of an application, hunting for security holes and compliance failures. Ounce tries to track down problems early on in a product’s development when they’re easier and cheaper to fix.

The terms of the Ounce Labs acquisition were not disclosed.

IBM has purchased Ounce Labs, a privately held software security provider, the companies said Tuesday.

“The complexity of today’s systems and the sophistication of attacks require comprehensive technology,” said Daniel Sabbah, general manager of IBM Rational Software. “The acquisition of Ounce Labs allows IBM to provide customers an end-to-end application security-testing solution for managing security and compliance across all stages of the software delivery process.”

Ounce Labs, which was founded in 2002, recently sponsored a survey that showed many CEOs and their executive officers don’t necessarily see eye to eye on key security issues.

An Ares 1-X test rocket, made up of a standard four-segment shuttle booster, a dummy second stage and a mock-up of an Orion capsule, currently is stacked and undergoing checkout in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA plans to launch the rocket from complex 39B around October 31.

But a presidential panel reviewing manned space flight options submitted an executive summary to the White House earlier this week saying NASA does not have enough money in its projected budget to pay for the Constellation program.

Said Charles Precourt, vice president and general manager of space launch systems for ATK: “It’s a very humbling experience when you think about harnessing the kind of energy we just unleashed today, 3.6 million pounds of thrust. Our engineers in the back rooms are ecstatic, the preliminary indications look wonderful.”

Hundreds of sensors were used to collect data as the test motor consumed 1.4 million pounds of solid propellant.

A new solid-fuel booster ignites with a roar and a towering plume of exhaust at a Utah test site Thursday.

Two five-segment boosters would be used to help launch a huge new unmanned rocket called the Ares V designed to loft Altair lunar landers into orbit. After docking with an Orion capsule, the Ares V would boost the combined spacecraft to the moon. NASA hopes to establish long-duration research stations on the moon in the early 2020s.

“After witnessing what we just saw, it’s pretty easy to become speechless,” said Alex Priskos, first stage manager for Ares Projects at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. “That was quite remarkable. This did exactly what we wanted to do. We are confident we’re going to get all the data we wanted to get out of this test. I think the team did a great job, we got the test we wanted to get. … We are very, very pleased. The data looks great.”

“Here in another six weeks or so, we’re going to be taking the next great step with a flight test of the prototype of this vehicle,” said Precourt, a former shuttle commander. “We’re just really, really thrilled we’ve achieved this milestone.”

Generating 22 million horsepower, the lengthened 154-foot-long shuttle booster ignited with a torrent of flame at 3 p.m. EDT, sending a towering column of dirty brown exhaust into the Utah sky as hundreds of spectators looked on. Two minutes later, after consuming 1.4 million pounds of solid propellant, the rocket burned out.

With the future of NASA’s embattled moon program in doubt, Alliant Techsystems test-fired a huge five-segment solid-fuel booster in Utah Thursday, a ground-shaking demonstration designed to collect performance data for a new rocket intended to replace the space shuttle.

(Credit:
Alliant Techsystems)

Until the White House and the Office of Science and Technology Policy make a decision on what space architecture to support, NASA is pressing ahead with development of the Constellation program and the Ares 1 rocket.

In a list of five options, the panel strongly favored development of commercial launch vehicles and capsules, although no such systems currently exist.

NASA plans to use a five-segment shuttle booster as the first stage of its Ares I rocket, one of two being designed as part of the post-shuttle Constellation program. Carrying a hydrogen-fueled second stage, the Ares I is designed to boost Orion crew capsules into low-Earth orbit for flights to the International Space Station and eventual trips to the moon.

(Credit:
Alliant Techsystems)

I’m sure a lot of you have had strong reactions to it too. And that’s why I think today’s Road Trip picture of the day challenge is going to be the easiest one of all. And while I usually want to give you something hard to solve, I thought I’d start the week off with an easy one.

GRANBY, Colo.–When I saw this rock formation, during a Road Trip 2009 stop, I was captivated by it. It is graceful, elegant, yet looks quite fragile.

If you are the first one to tell me by e-mail (daniel–dot–terdiman–at–cnet–dot–com) what this is called, and where it’s located, you’ll win a prize.

Update (Wednesday, 9:37 a.m.): The answer is Landscape Arch, in Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah.

Does this look familiar? Do you know what it is and where it’s located? If so, you might win a prize in today’s Road Trip picture of the day challenge.

Good luck.
Click here for the entire Road Trip 2009 package.

(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

Not having the patent to be a lawyer, let alone a patent lawyer, I am grateful that a person whose commenting handle is “nvpatentlawyer” offered this opinion in AdAge: “If someone wants to invalidate this patent, it would likely take very little effort to do so because, if it is not ‘anticipated,’ it is certainly ‘obvious’ in view of past practices in the U.S.”

I’m not the finest googler in the world, but I am struggling to find a Web site that might belong to Denizen. I tried “binging” too, without joy.

These talks seem to have gone on for more than four years and Denizen claims it had a confidentiality agreement in place.

However, the show seems to be the battleground for a less than altruistic lawsuit against Microsoft Bing’s ad agency, JWT and its holding company, WPP.

Naturally the lawsuit uses such strongly sensitive words as “malicious” and “willful.”

This appears to be key in Denizen’s claims to patent infringement. (Here’s the patent, if you enjoy reading that kind of thing.)

According to AdAge, the plaintiff, a Delaware-based company specializing in “program-integrated advertising” called Denizen, is claiming that it was in discussions with WPP as long ago as 2002.

Which leaves me with this strange thought: is it possible that, in these dark economic times, Denizen might, when the shoving has overtaken the pushing, still like to enter into a partnership with the somewhat larger WPP?

I don’t know what made me think of that. It’s the patent cynic that lurks beneath my armpit, perhaps.

I have never watched NBC’s “The Philanthropist.” (I have embedded a small excerpt, to offer you a little excitement.)

However, when they espied “The Philanthopist,” they saw ads outside the normal commercial break for search engine Bing featuring the actors in the show (yes, Neve Campbell still lives and prospers), ads that had a “plot advancing element.”

It’s therefore somewhat telling that Linux users overwhelmingly choose Google as their preferred search engine, according to data released today by Chitika, an online advertising network. Chitika analyzed data from 163 million searches across its advertising network between July 30 and August 16, and came up with the following:

Open source, after all, is all about alternatives. There are open-source alternatives to Google Analytics (Piwik, Open-Tube, etc.), Google Search Appliance (Lucene/Solr), Google Docs (OpenGoo), Google Earth (World Wind), and more.

After all, this is the crowd that has created (literally) thousands of Linux distributions. For a community so devoted to choice, it’s telling that such a disparate community would unify on Google search. Perhaps Yahoo’s apparent willingness to prostrate itself before Microsoft has turned off the Linux crowd, but there are other alternatives.

Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.

Despite the concerns about Google and privacy and despite Microsoft’s rising relevance in search through its Bing “decision engine,” Google wins over Linux users 94.61 percent of the time. While it’s not surprising that Linux users would shun a Microsoft-sponsored search engine, it is surprising that they so heavily congregate around just one search engine.

(Credit:
Dan Ruby, Chitika)

Linux users are known for being a somewhat finicky lot. Despite broader application support for Windows and a better user experience in Mac OS X, Linux “desktop” users swear by the open-source operating system (and sometimes swear at its competitors).

But for search, the Linux contingent of the open-source community seems settled on Google.

Google’s stock was up 1.81 percent to $561 on news of the deal.

Representatives from Google and AdMob are expected to talk about the deal in greater detail later on Monday. This is a friendly takeover, as both companies have already approved the deal, they said in a press release.

AdMob was founded in 2006. The company runs its Mobile Advertising Network across thousands of Web sites, serving up ads from big names such as Ford and Coca-Cola. It also collects and publishes data on mobile trends gleaned from the traffic it manages.

AdMob founder Omar Hamoui

“Despite the tremendous growth in mobile usage and the substantial investment by many businesses in the space, the mobile Web is still in its early stages,” wrote Google’s Susan Wojcicki, vice president of product management, and Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering, in Google’s own blog post. “We believe that great mobile advertising products can encourage even more growth in the mobile ecosystem. That’s what has us excited about this deal.”

It should come as no surprise that Google is back in a buying mood, after several weeks of talk from CEO Eric Schmidt and other company executives about Google’s renewed prospects now that the company believes the worst of the advertising recession is past. At $750 million, the acquisition would rank as one of Google’s largest deals, trailing DoubleClick at $3.1 billion and YouTube at $1.6 billion but edging out Postini’s $625 million selling price.

AdMob is perhaps best known for serving display ads on iPhones, but it also recently started a business unit focused on ads for Android phones. The start-up would appear to fit well into Google’s advertising business model, giving Google a leg up in the still-small but fast-growing world of mobile advertising.

(Credit:
AdMob)

Updated at 9:53 a.m. PST with additional details. See subsequent story for more analysis on the buy.

Google’s back on the acquisition front, spending $750 million in stock Monday to acquire mobile display ad company AdMob.

“I’m excited because I believe this will be an important moment for everyone involved in producing, consuming, or monetizing engaging products on mobile,” wrote AdMob founder and CEO Omar Hamoui in a blog post Monday. “The truth is that the mobile industry has had no shortage of creative energy, amazing products, and talented entrepreneurs. But until now, it has always felt like those of us involved in this space played second fiddle to our online brethren. I believe that time is over.”

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)

After a preliminary agreement last week the Financial Accounting Standards Board made it official Wednesday, accepting proposed changes to how companies recognize revenue.

The new rule won’t change the amount of revenue coming into corporate coffers, but it will allow investors to have a more accurate picture of how much money companies are making every quarter. Apple is a company that many point to as benefiting from this rule change because of the enormous popularity of the iPhone.

With a change in accounting rules, we'll soon have a more accurate picture of the iPhone's success.

The change will be of particular interest to companies like Apple, which has stuck to a rather bewildering accounting practice of recognizing revenue from sales of the iPhone and Apple TV over a period of two years, or eight financial quarters. The practice was put in place on those two products to avoid charging a fee for every product upgrade–something Apple was told it would need to satisfy accounting regulations that require companies to establish a value for product upgrades.

WiMax gains in Western Europe and,chanel bags, to a lesser degree North America,replica handbags, will occur in areas underserved by DSL. Growth in Africa and the Middle East is likely to surpass that of Western Europe,gucci bags, says Juniper, gaining 15 percent of the overall WiMax subscriber base by 2014.

A report released Tuesday by the British research firm describes the growth in WiMax stemming from areas unreachable or unserved by broadband cable or DSL.

More information about WiMax can be found here.

WiMax is a wireless technology that delivers broadband speeds over the last mile, ideal for locations where cabling is not available or feasible. Faster than current wireless 3G technology, WiMax can also serve large metropolitan areas as it covers a wider area than conventional Wi-Fi.

“WiMAX 16e will have opportunities not just in developing countries, but also areas of developed countries where the DSL coverage is weak or nonexistent,” said Howard Wilcox, the author of the report. “The key for the industry ecosystem now is to overcome the challenges and ensure trials evolve into commercial services quickly.”

The number of people grabbing their Internet access through WiMax is expected to jump to 50 million by 2014, says Juniper Research.

Juniper Research, however, believes that the global deployment of WiMax will drive its growth. The larger number of WiMax subscribers will be in the Far East and China region, says the report, due to that area’s early adoption of the technology.

Referenced in the report, the most advanced WiMax standard, WiMAX 802.16e, delivers greater throughput than other WiMax standards.

(Credit: Juniper Research)

Though large-scale WiMax deployments have been delayed, many providers have so far been successful in countries ranging from Pakistan to the U.S., says Juniper.

The new 4G Clearwire wireless networks used by Sprint, Comcast, and other providers, runs over WiMax.

But WiMax faces an uphill climb against the competing wireless broadband standard Long Term Evolution, or LTE. A recent study by research firm In-Stat, predicted that WiMax may ultimately lose the battle against LTE, which is already backed by major telcos AT&T and Verizon.

Social networking is on the rise,replica handbags, both on and off the job, leaving companies uncertain how to monitor their use by employees, reports new survey.

(Credit: Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics)

Of the companies questioned in the survey, 34 percent said they have a general employee policy that addresses all online activity, including the use of social networking, both on and off the job. Only 10 percent said they have a policy specifically geared toward social networks.

Typically, companies shy away from restricting an employee’s actions off the job. But businesses are concerned about employees who use social networking and reveal private details or post inappropriate pictures that could embarrass the company.

Of all those surveyed, 24 percent said an employee in their company had been disciplined for inappropriate behavior on a social network,gucci bags, while 37 percent did not know. The percentage was higher in the nonprofit sector, noted the survey,louis vuitton handbags, with 33 percent reporting an employee incident versus only 13 percent in the for-profit sector.

To conduct the survey in late August, the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Health Care Compliance compiled responses from 798 people in both profit and nonprofit organizations, as well as government agencies.

More than 50 percent of companies questioned said they have no policy to address the use of social networking by employees outside the workplace, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Health Care Compliance Association.

More than half of the individuals said their company has no active system to monitor employees using social-networking sites. Around 32 percent said their company acts only when an issue is discovered.

(Credit: Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics)

“Business clearly hasn’t caught up with what its employees are doing online,” said Roy Snell, CEO of the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics. “The risks are twofold. First there remains the business risk of employees doing things online that may reflect badly on the company. The second is that, as business develops policies and procedures in this area, there are going to be a lot of people finding that what they have long done is no longer acceptable at work. During the adjustment period there is likely to be a great deal of friction created.”

Some organizations, such as the U.S. Marines, have already banned their recruits from using Facebook and Twitter. But the survey found that many businesses aren’t sure what to do to restrict or monitor such usage.