When Acer president Gianfranco Lanci stated that Acer would soon be surpassing dell in shipments, it was a statement that was perceived as more of a rumor than fact. We now know that the statement was correct, because the numbers were released Wednesday and they are clear! Acer has indeed surpassed Dell in number of PC’s shipped.

The numbers come to us via IDC PC tracker report, and they show that Acer has taken the number 2 slot for number of PC’s shipped. The number one spot is currently held by HP with 20.2 percent of PC’c shipped. Acer now is shipping 14 percent, and dell has dropped to 12.7 percent in PC shipments.

Acer was originally an obscure brand to consumers, until they purchased gateway and started selling netbooks, which eventually made them the third largest PC seller in the US. Loren Loverde, the program director of IDC’s PC Tracker stated “It’s a pretty amazing transition in market leadership by Acer.”

ZDNET

The location based social network known as Foursquare, had received $1.35 million in investments during its first seed round of funding. Although some of the investors were disclosed shortly after, there were a number of them that were not. Little by little the mystery investors have been revealed and the latest is Digg founder Kevin Rose.

The major investors that were disclosed by Foursquare were Union Square Ventures, and O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures. The private investors that have slowly been revealed are Twitter creator Jack Dorsey, Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley, and Crowley’s former partner Alex Rainert. The latest of them Kevin Rose.

Rose revealed his involvement in the Foursquare investment during a presentation at FOWA in London. His involvement would definitely indicate the growing popularity of Foursquare. Hopefully the rest of the investors will be disclosed soon.

TechCrunch

The company that runs some of the core mechanisms of the Internet, ICANN has officially been granted independence from the U.S. government. The U.S. Commerce Department signed an agreement today that declared ICANN a separate entity.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was formed in 1998 and was underneath the Commerce Department. The decision to separate the two comes months after the European Union had made the request. They had expressed a desire for an independent ICANN, so that the Internet would have more of a global consistency.

There were a few conditions the US Commerce Department made before finalizing agreement. The first was that ICANN continue to be a non profit organization, and the second that its headquarters remain in the United States.

Reuters

Google’s popular Google Docs, has received a much needed upgrade. It comes in the form of a language translator that has just been added to the application today. With the new feature you will be able to translate any Google doc into any of 42 languages.

If you enter the tools menu of Google Docs, and then click the “Translate Document,” there will be a drop down of the various languages you can choose. Once you click the language you would like to use, Google Docs will automatically translate your text. You will be able to save your doc in the translated version, or save it as a separate doc so you can have two docs in different translations.

The new feature was created in consideration to families who use more than a single language. Rita Chen, a Product Manager Intern used her family as an example. Rita stated that “My cousin is in first grade and sometimes she writes short stories for class. I try to share the stories with her grandparents, but because Japanese is their first language and they don’t speak English very well, it’s been tough.”

The new feature is available now.

Google Blog

After the release of the much anticipated PS3 Slim, some industry analysts are considering the possibility of Microsoft releasing a redesigned Xbox 360 in response. Some have stated that a revamped Xbox 360 console is definitely a possibility and that it could happen in 2010.

Analysts have stated that there is a good chance that a revamped Xbox 360 may be released with Project Natal in 2010. Ben Schachter of Broadpoint AmTech stated “Yes, I think they will release a new look for the hardware in conjunction with the motion sensor next year.”

For some time now there has been speculation that Project Natal would be released as the new Xbox console but that has recently been dismissed by Microsoft. Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for Microsoft stated that new console release for Project Natal was “nonsense.”

Whether a slim version of Xbox is in the works or not is only rumor at this point, Microsoft has not confirmed any speculation.

G4

A month ago, the CEO of Activision, Bobby Kotick, complained about the high cost of Sony’s PlayStation 3. Kotick’s threat to Sony, to lower the price of the PS3 or Activision stops making games for the console, is covered here.

Yesterday, in an investor call, Sony CEO Nobuyuki Oneda revealed that manufacturing costs of the PS3 are down by 70%.

Sony reported the company’s first annual loss in 14 years when it released its fiscal first quarter earnings yesterday. Further, the company is projecting over a $1 billion loss through March 2010. Sony may be blaming poor sales on the state of the economy, but people like Bobby Kotick would be sure to argue the price of the PS3 is to blame.

Why does Sony’s PS3 cost so much?

The cost of manufacturing each console is roughly $800. The price to buy a PS3? $399. While it may be the highest priced console against its competitors, Microsoft’s Xbox and the Nintendo Wii, Sony is taking a hit for every PS3 sold.

Sony saw some relief in January when it announced that the cost of manufacturing had dropped by 35% to $450. Though a 70% drop in cost seems to be just what the company needs, which would allow, as rumored, Sony to drop the price of the PS3. But will Sony really want to eat into its new profits, especially after a first quarter in the red and a poor outlook for the rest of the fiscal year?

Source

Last week, Amazon acquired online shoe store, Zappos, for roughly $900 million. This week, IBM and Sprint decided where to invest some spare change.

IBM Shells Out $1.2 Billion for SPSS

Today, IBM announced its plans to acquire SPSS for $1.2 billion ($50 a share) - a buy that IBM explains will strengthen its Information Agenda initiative, which “helps companies turn information into a strategic asset”.

SPSS, a Chicago-based analytics software specialist, will provide IBM with tools for reducing credit risk, increasing customer loyalty, and detecting and preventing fraud across diverse industries. Financial firms, telecommunications companies, government agencies, and educational institutions have used SPSS software to predict customer behavior and mine historical business data to identify future trends.

IBM also acquired Ounce Labs, a provider of enterprise security testing, today for an undisclosed amount.

Press Release

Virgin Mobile USA Acquired by Sprint Nextel

Looking to strengthen its prepaid business in the wireless market with an “Iconic Consumer Brand” (as indicated by the title of its news release), Sprint Nextel announced that it will acquire Virgin Mobile for $483 million.

Sprint Nextel already owns 13.1 percent of Virgin Mobile and will keep the Virgin Mobile brand. The carrier also announced its plans to put Virgin Mobile CEO Dan Schulan in charge of its prepaid business when the deal closes in fall or early 2010.

Sprint

As reported by Network World, hackers have developed a new, non-traditional form of keylogging, involving nothing more than electrical outlets and cheap lasers. The technique, dubbed ‘Power-Line Exploit,’ is scheduled  to be demonstrated in Las Vegas this month at the Black Hat USA 2009 security conference.

The following from Network World explains the first part of the keylogging technique: “In the power-line exploit, the attacker grabs the keyboard signals that are generated by hitting keys. Because the data wire within the keyboard cable is unshielded, the signals leak into the ground wire in the cable, and from there into the ground wire of the electrical system feeding the computer. Bit streams generated by the keyboards that indicate what keys have been struck create voltage fluctuations in the grounds.”

I know what you’re thinking. You’ll just leave your laptop unplugged, right? You’ll just type away on a fully charged battery with no worries and…WRONG! What did you think the cheap lasers were for?

Network World further explains that, in the case of unplugged laptops, “Attackers point a cheap laser, slightly better than what is used in laser pointers, at a shiny part of a laptop or even an object on the table with the laptop. A receiver is aligned to capture the reflected light beam and the modulations that are caused by the vibrations resulting from striking the keys.”

So next time you’re waiting around in an airport, for instance, shell out some change for a newspaper, or one of those ridiculous, 300+ page Sudoku books to pass the time. Keep your laptop tucked away, or, at the very least, find a damp, dark crevice to crawl into first.

Network World

Yesterday, Google hoped to appeal to businesses by removing the ‘Beta’ label from Google Apps. Hours later, Google dropped a nuclear bomb on Microsoft, via its official blog, by announcing its plans to release a Google Chrome Operating System in the second half of 2010.

Without surprise, Google is aiming to solve problems associated with Microsoft Windows by the release of Google Chrome OS. The following excerpt from Google’s blog entry details some features in the new OS:

“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”

Google Chrome will run within a windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. Google Chrome OS will also be open-source, but Google does not clarify whether that means the OS will be free.

So let’s break this down: fast, secure, simple, free?, web-oriented and….possibly everything Windows is not?  Or is Microsoft Windows as synonymous to the OS as Google is synonymous to search? Will Microsoft have the advantage of releasing the new Windows 7 before Google releases Google Chrome OS? More importantly, will the majority of netbook users, Google’s initial target market, already have Windows 7 running before the official release of Google Chrome OS?

Today, Google announced it is finally peeling the ‘Beta’ label off Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and GTalk.

Gmail, one of the leading email services, was launched 5 years ago. Google Apps suite, which includes Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and more, is used by nearly 2 million companies worldwide. Google hopes to make Google Apps more appealing to enterprises, explains Dan Olds, principal analyst with the Gabriel Consulting Group, “Taking the beta tag off of Google Apps is kind of like taking the training wheels off of your kid’s bike. If there were problems, Google could always fall back on the ‘but it’s a beta’ line either explicitly or implicitly. But now that the apps are fully baked they don’t have that excuse anymore and will be held to a higher standard.”

Google also introduced two new features to Gmail for its enterprise customers today: email delegation, which allows administrative assistants to send e-mail on others’ behalf, and an email retention tool that lets companies automatically purge old e-mails after a certain period of time.

Google assures App users that the removal of the ‘Beta’ label in no way means that the company will stop innovating, updating, and adding new features to its Google Apps services.

Source