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San Antonio — The Progressive Retailers Organization was at the Westin La Cantera Hill Coun
OSAKA, Japan -- Matsushita Electric Industrial reported consolidated operating profit of $200 million, up 48 percent, while consolidated group sales were up 1 percent to $16.72 billion for the first quarter ended June 30.
Compared to the same period last year domestic sales were up 1 percent to $8.16 billion, while overseas sales grew 1 percent to $8.56 billion, "reflecting the economic recovery in Southeast Asia and continued growth in North America and Europe," the company said.
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While an ever larger share of the land brims with digital cameras, the question of what to do with a rapidly multiplying store of digital photographs still lingers. It was with an eye toward this fallow market that several digital frame manufacturers added new capabilities to their digital frames.
Ceivaadded camera phone capability to its Ceiva Network and Digital Photo Receiver.
LaCie has made available its 700 LCD monitor series, the 20-inch LaCie 720, the 24-inch LaCie 724 and the 30-inch LaCie 730.
All 700 series monitors come bundled with LaCie's Proof Edition calibration software package.
Each device is monitored by the ColorKeeper, said to be a backlight-stabilizer technology that continually analyzes the "brightness and chromaticity of the backlight" and adjusts it accordingly.
The initial sales data on Microsoft Windows Vista indicates the new operating system did not sell as well as Windows XP, but it did spur PC hardware sales in the days following Vista's Jan. 30 launch.
The NPD Group's weekly retail point-of-sale data analysis for Vista's launch week showed unit shipments down 58.9 percent and dollar sales down 32.1 percent compared with the comparable period for Windows XP's launch, reported Chris Swenson, NPD's software analysis director.
LAS VEGAS -- At its largest-ever convention and buying fair, held here at the Paris Hotel last week, Associated Volume Buyers (AVB) implored its 1,550 member dealers to seize the moment while a "chaotic marketplace" for majaps creates new opportunities for independents.
Despite new challenges from such Johnny-come-latelies as The Home Depot and Wal-Mart, members are well-positioned to build market share by embracing change and doing business differently, AVB's leadership said.
Walmart.com broke a new PC price barrier this week with the entry of two $199 computer systems from Microtel.
To meet this price point Microtel put together a fairly stripped down PC that uses an 800MHz C3 processor from Taiwanese firm Via Technologies, 128MB of SDRAM, a 10GB hard drive and a CD-ROM drive. Customers can choose from a model designed for a broadband Internet connection or one equipped with a 56Kbps modem. A monitor is not included.
Texas Instruments has started shipping samples of is CE WLAN Development Kit 2.0 to manufacturers that will enable mobile products to connect to the Web via Wi-Fi hotspots.
The new chip is a mobile version of the company's DaVinci, which gives stationary devices like DVRs and set-top boxes Wi-Fi connectivity. TI expects the kit to give developers the ability to build 802.11g wireless into an assortment of mobile devices, such as portable music players, game devices, digital cameras and GPS systems.
VoodooPC introduced what the company is billing as its ultimate home theater and gaming desktop computer.
The Vibe f:50 Home Theater PC is a Microsoft Media Center-based device designed to plug seamlessly into any home theater system. It contains two TV tuners, supports 7.1 audio and does not have a cooling fan. This last point is a major accomplishment, said VoodooPC's CEO Rahool Sood.
NEW YORK, N.Y. - At PC Expo, the Palm family gained another member as Sony officially debuted a Palm-OS prototype. Palm Inc. also announced it would join its two licensees, Sony and Handspring, in offering removable flash memory expansion slots, with Palm choosing the postage stamp-sized Secure Digital (SD) format.
The advent of the cable-modem-equipped TV set-top box and increasing popularity of Internet gateways does not spell the end for the standalone cable modem at retail. However, the popularity of these new devices does signal a shift away from the PC as the future hub for broadband access and home networks.
Cable modem vendors, for one, are upbeat over this turn of events.
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