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VMware took in less money on virtualization software than expected in the fourth quarter, leading to a steep drop in the company’s shares.

After the report, VMware shares plummeted more than 25 percent in after-hours trading. As of 3 p.m. PST, its shares were trading at $60.60, down $22.40 or more than 26 percent.

“We begin 2008 with more than 100,000 customers, 500 technology and consulting partners, nearly 10,000 go-to-market partners, and more than 5,000 employees,” Greene said. “As others begin to enter the market, VMware and our partners are continuing to broaden and deepen our highly reliable end-to-end virtualization solutions.”

In a statement Monday, CEO Diane Greene praised the company’s position, even as it faces a stepped-up attack from Microsoft and other rivals.

The software maker said Monday that it earned $78 million, or 19 cents per share, as compared with $31 million, or 9 cents per share in the prior quarter. Its sales were also up sharply, to $412 million, though that was slightly less than the average analysts’ forecast.

The service lets you pick all the topics you’re interested in and will group them together on a single page that’s updated throughout the day. There are broad topics to choose from, and each one has its own menu of subtopics in case you want to hone your feed. There’s also an option to call out keywords you want to track, which can help narrow a wide topic such as technology or sports.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

DailyMe is a customizable news aggregator with a neat twist–it can be set up to automatically print up the day’s news at a selected time each morning, emulating some of the experience of having a newspaper delivered to your door.

The one nice thing is that the stories are all hosted on the DailyMe site, meaning you’re not just on a portal page that’s going to jump you off. There’s also an integrated commenting system that’s separate from the original site, as well as a one- to five-star rating system that helps track what’s hot on the site. At the moment DailyMe doesn’t seem to be taking advantage of these ratings or comments, as they’re disjointed from the rest of the content.

DailyMe grabs news from topics you're interested in. If you're feeling old school you can even download a desktop plug-in that prints out the news for you.

I found the actual reading experience to be somewhat bland. The news is spread out over several pages instead of being in one place like other news aggregation services. It’s not a deal killer, but I found it to be too much work to browse through each category. I think a lot of people who are used to getting a ton of stories on a single page on major newspaper sites or news portals will feel a little out of their element.

Other services that aggregate news based on your tastes include: Tiinker, FaveBot, Spotback, and LeapTag.

Users can pick what kind of topics they're interested in to shape the news that comes in. Even terrorism.

DailyMe provides several ways to ingest your news. As mentioned above, using a small desktop application DailyMe will phone home at whatever time you select and automatically print out the latest news from those topics. You can also set up multiple alerts per day if you feel like filling up your e-mail in-box with news feeds.

Besides keywords, advanced users can fine tune the topics by the source. Sources are listed in a directory and with a specific grouping of feeds. In that sense DailyMe becomes more of an intelligent RSS reader, as you can pick the news sites or blogs where you want your stream of information coming from.

Earlier today the company announced that Neil Budde, former vice president and editor-in-chief of Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, and Yahoo Sports is its new president (see News.com story). Budde is also the same guy who helped create The Wall Street Journal Online–so I see big things from DailyMe in the coming months.

The more virtual servers users implement, the faster we will see a transition to 10 gigabit Ethernet switching in the data center. Given the popularity of VMware and the rise of Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V, this year may become a “perfect storm” for this transition.

The other thing to note about virtual servers is that they never stay put. In a virtual data center, VMs are constantly created, replicated, and moved. Networks need to understand these activities so they can continue to filter packets for security and route/switch packets to their end destination.

Here at Interop, lots of folks are saying that networks need to have “virtualization awareness,” and I couldn’t agree more. Citrix, Microsoft, and VMware need to work with Cisco, Extreme, F5, and Juniper to ensure that networks and virtual servers act as an integrated system, not a bunch of unconnected piece parts. This will help users as they build virtual data centers and help vendors sell more stuff. Oh yeah, and it will keep all of us networking geeks in Vegas at Interop each year for the foreseeable future.

LAS VEGAS–Like last month’s RSA Conference, there is a sufficient amount of hype about virtualization here at Interop. From a marketing perspective, this is to be expected. The industry is ga-ga over virtualization, so everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. Beyond the spin however, server virtualization and networking are two of a kind as foundational technologies in next-generation data centers.

First off, virtual servers think they are physical servers and own the entire platform. Each virtual server wants all the bandwidth the physical server can offer, but in the virtual world, bandwidth is a shared service. This has the real potential to create a bottleneck on the network. When 1
car approaches a single lane toll booth, traffic congestion is not a problem. When 100 cars approach this same toll, instant gridlock.

Well, or maybe China mobile has figured they can put 400,000 iPhones on their network without paying Apple a dime, why negotiate a deal and start paying them now?

Responding to the Macalope’s example of unlocked phones in China, Sullivan says:

Where did the number come from? Apparently he has never heard of these little publications called the New York Times, or CNN or MSN Money? Too bad because had he even attempted to read them, he would have found the sources of the numbers and save a whole lot of typing and embarrassment.

On his own site now, Todd Sullivan fires back at the Macalope, asking Is That The Best You Got?

And you certainly wouldn’t want to be that!

Todd, this actually proves the Macalope’s point, not yours. If there’s no way they can get the favorable revenue sharing they get from AT&T then how is Apple supposedly forgoing it?

See, you wrote:

The Macalope knows that other firms get revenue sharing, but that’s not even the point. The point is, as you note, that Apple gets more revenue sharing because of exclusivity. What the Macalope is saying is that the $1 billion figure is simply a bogus multiplication of the revenue Apple gets from AT&T times the number of unlocked phones times the number of years. You can’t do that. If you open the phone up to multiple carriers in a single market, the revenue sharing number is going to drop like a rock.

Let’s move on:

Long-time readers may remember that as the post you’re referencing as the one where you also said that no one wanted an all-in-one device and that you wanted to be able to drive your family down the highway, listen to music and talk on the phone all at the same time.

As for the gPhone which you spookily allude to, the Macalope will just quote Panic Software’s Steven Frank:

Can we be clear on what the Macalope was questioning (mocking)? He was questioning (mocking) the implication that this is somehow surprising. The first quarter is always slower than the fourth quarter and, yes, Apple has cut that already lowered estimate even further. Of course, you can’t tell how much of that is because of iPods and how much is because of iPhones, but the Macalope fully admits that
iPhone orders might be lower than hoped for in the first quarter. It’s not exactly like the economy and/or the tech sector is going gangbusters.

Uh, yeah, see the thing is, Todd, if you click through to those links you provide, they don’t show the math either. Or even name a name.

Actually, CNet takes no responsibility for the Macalope’s writings. They were really clear about that! So, the Macalope’s words are his own.

To which the Macalope responded:

He then cherry picks sentences from the post to make the math seem impossible.

This could cost the company about $1 billion in lost revenue over the next three years, analysts estimate.

The growing usage of unlocked phones could cost Apple $1 billion in lost revenue over three years, analysts said.

Then a couple of days later they wrote back and said “Hey, that’s just a fancy way of saying ‘chopped liver’!” And then we all had a good laugh. Ha-ha!

To quote: “Apple has slashed its 2008 NAND order forecast significantly and has informed suppliers that its demand growth will slow in 2008.” OUCH…

Is there something wrong with selling phones in only a handful of countries and still being third in the world? That sounds pretty darn good. Why is the horny one supposed to have some kind of problem with that?

The Macalope did not. He based the whole article (rant) on the assumption that the number is based on crappy assumptions. You didn’t make it up, you just took it at face value because it fit this preconceived idea you’ve been humping for the last year.

Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd!

Well, the Macalope wasn’t aware it was his job to run around patting you on the back for your brilliance. Why is he supposed to keep track of all of your posts when you clearly don’t keep track of his?

Yes, let’s.

One last thing… he has not mentioned in any of his “posts” that my call before the first phone was sold on the need to drop the price of it was DEAD ON….

As for doubting all things Apple, please note that the Macalope has been known to agree with criticism of the fine folks in Cupertino from time to time. He just asks that it make sense.

Yeesh. Are you sure you really want to call attention to that particular oeuvre?

It is unfortunate but he based the whole article (rant) on the flawed assumption I made the number up.

Sullivan’s site, incidentally, has those awesome keyword ads that everyone loves so much that pop up all over the place like whack-a-moles that just hit a vein of underground crack. As Merlin Mann has noted, they are really useful for first-time visitors to the site because they’re a quick way of knowing you won’t ever be back.

So, now it is CNET taking swipes at yours truly for having the audacity to doubt all things Apple (AAPL).

Yeah, and that’s all got to be the iPhone, right? It’s not like Apple makes anything else that uses flash memory.

This one is priceless…..

Now, some of the Macalope’s antler scratching over Todd’s “analysis” probably stems from the fact that he says he was only considering the U.S. market. Frankly, the Macalope didn’t catch that assumption, probably because it’s not spelled out anywhere. It does explain why he said RIM was #1 and it conveniently allows him to dodge the embarrassment of having to explain why he thought all 10 million iPhones had to be sold to existing AT&T customers. (And even then, he got the number of AT&T cellular customers wrong, saying it was 47 million in May of last year. At the end of April of 2007, AT&T had 62 million wireless customers. But that’s really beside the point.)

He then goes into some wandering diatribe about Research in Motion (RIMM) or Google (GOOG) coming out with new products somehow does not matter or should be dismissed? I can’t figure out what the point was.

The Macalope’s not sure how that would be possible as you didn’t actually do the math in your post. More to the point, though, what he said was that the particulars of the math didn’t even really matter, because the underlying premise stinks.

“Analysts”. Huh. OK. MSN Money?

Looks like the Macalope actually agreed with you on that particular point! Yay! We both win! High fives all the way around!

Hm, a 34-company committee overseeing an open-source suite of mobile software. What could possibly go wrong.

See, the Macalope used to take a somewhat U.S.-centric view and a number of readers outside the States wrote in and said “Hey! Goober! What are we, chopped liver?!” And the Macalope said, “No, indeed, dear international readers. You are not chopped liver. You are foie gras.” And they said “That’s better!”

Yeah, OK, starting to see a trend here. Well, “analysts”, whoever you are, as the Macalope’s 9th grade chemistry teacher Mr. Robinson was fond of saying, “Please show your work. Because it’s bound to be pretty funny.”

Timing is everything in life and had he waited 2 more days to post, he would have again saved himself the inevitable embarrassment of this being affirmed on Thursday.

All cell providers have revenue share agreements. They have them with software developers, providers, wireless companies etc.. it is the way the industry functions. It is the degree of the revenue share that dictates the exclusivity in Apple’s case.

Like a monkey typing on a keyboard, you’ve finally typed something that’s true.

“Some analysts”. Hmm. Well, that’s not terribly elucidating. How about CNN?

Well, the Macalope doesn’t know about “the best”. It was OK, he supposes. Good for a Wednesday night. But “best”? Hmm. That’s kind of asking a lot, Todd. It’s not like yours was very good. Why should the Macalope have to do all the work?

See, you’re still acting like this is “news”. It’s not. Again, this recent report confirms the previous report which confirms what Apple said in its conference call with investors in January.

The irony here is that had I done a post that claimed Apple was a distant third in market share, I am sure his response would have been to attack me for an unfair comparison.

Comparing Apple sales that until recently were only in the US would have been unfair.

For Apple, the booming overseas market for iPhones is both a sign of its marketing prowess and a blow to a business model that could be coming undone, costing the company as much as $1 billion over the next three years, according to some analysts.

But if you want to go another round, the Macalope’s got the time. His nightly frolic with the nymphs doesn’t start for another hour.

The New York Times:

The point is, Apple will also come out with new products. Everyone will come out with new products. The fact that one phone maker will come out with a new product means nothing unless you know something about those future products that makes them inherently better than the other company’s future products. And, as you admit, you know nothing.

There are two ways to play this game. One is to open up your phone to every provider, sell a mess of them but get very little extra per phone sold. The other is to lock it to one provider, sell fewer phones but get a whole lot extra per phone. Apple’s predilection when entering a market is lower volume and higher margin. And when you’re a company that puts emphasis on selling products that “just work” (or, at least, “just work” better than your competitors’ products), starting with one provider makes more sense. None of this discussion takes into account the changes AT&T needed to make to enable visual voicemail and, more importantly, the control over the user experience it ceded to Apple (activation alone was a huge sea change — moving it from the store to the customer’s home). Other carriers were reportedly not willing to make such concessions, but it was critical for Apple because ease of use is one of its primary differentiators.

But, anyway, Todd, the fact of the matter is, the Macalope can’t ignore the rest of the world, scary numbers or not. And your contention that while the Macalope pointed out that Apple was third he would have said it was unfair if you had done so really doesn’t hold any water. Because, you know, it was the Macalope who pointed it out. See?

Then he moves on to question (mock) my thought that Apple’s cutting back on component orders can only mean sales are going to slow.

A $599 phone will not gain mass acceptance no matter what it does…

Well, thanks, Todd. That’s really nice.

Is this thing on? Test. One, two. Check. Check. Check.

If there’s another way to come up with such a ridiculously large number, the Macalope is all ears and antlers. If only we could track down “some analysts”…

The system also works with multiple applications and creates a unique encrypted password for each session. It identifies the app and the make and model of the phone and downloads a version of FireID that is specific for that phone rather than a generic version.

There is a Blackberry version of the FireID app. Apple is testing it on its
iPhone and FireID is in talks with Google, said Dugmore.

The FireID universal personal authenticator app turns any phone that runs Java into a one-time password generator and generates the password directly on the phone instantly so there is no risk of it being intercepted and no waiting for an SMS like with other password-generator systems, said Jenny Dugmore, chief executive of FireID.

FireID was set to announce at RSA 2009 on Monday technology that allows people to access multiple Web sites on their mobile phone without having to remember all the passwords.

The only password the user needs to remember is the one to access the FireID app.

FireID runs on any phone that can run a Java app, and the technology is compliant with the open authentication standard so organizations using key fobs can use it too, Dugmore said.

The suit ties the alleged misrepresentations to Nvidia’s loss of market capitalization since July when the company “belatedly” revealed the information about problems and “promptly” lost $3 billion in market capitalization. The class action covers the period between November 8, 2007, and July 2, 2008–when Nvidia allegedly failed to disclose problems.

Dell at that time also issued a statement and offered a workaround that involved updating the computer’s BIOS (basic input/output system). Other PC makers have also offered BIOS workarounds that try to mitigate potential problems.

Both companies listed more than a dozen laptop models potentially affected by the glitch.

The lawsuit tries to draw a comparison with the infamous Intel chip flaw of 1994 that forced Intel to take a $475 million write down. That flaw, however, turned out to be extremely rare. The lawsuit contends that this kind of “disaster scenario” has “materialized” for Nvidia.

Hewlett-Packard stated in July that it “initiated a customer program to address this issue in November 2007, and have notified registered customers who have notebook PC models that are included in this HP program.”

The most oft-cited graphics chip models potentially affected by the problem are Nvidia’s GeForce 8 series.

Filed in United States District Court for the Northern District of California, the lawsuit names as defendants Nvidia and the company’s CEO and CFO during the Class Period.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges Nvidia lost more than $3 billion in market value because it concealed defects in its graphics chips.

The complaint filed by New York-based Shalov Stone Bonner & Rocco alleges that Nvidia committed “securities fraud” due to “a series of misrepresentations and omissions that actively concealed and failed to disclose the unusually high failure rates of Nvidia’s mobile video adapters.”

Dell characterized the problem as “weak die/packaging material set, which may fail with GPU temperature fluctuations. If your GPU fails, you may see intermittent symptoms,” Dell said at that time.

Symptoms include black screens, duplicate images, wireless networking complications, and the random appearance of lines, characters, and other on-screen interference, according to the complaint.

On July 2, Nvidia announced that it would take a one-time charge of $150 million to $200 million to “cover anticipated warranty, repair, return, replacement and other costs and expenses, arising from a weak die/packaging material set in certain versions of its previous generation GPU and MCP products used in notebook systems.” (GPU stands for graphics processing unit, and MCP for multichip package.)

Last month, Facebook started partnering with other social sites to pull external data into Facebook’s “mini-feeds,” displaying user activity from the likes of Flickr and Yelp on Facebook profile pages.

One Facebook insider, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said to CNET News.com that the project had been in the works for quite some time, and said the announcement wasn’t issued as a response to MySpace’s “Data Availability” project. “We actually think what they are up to is pretty cool.”

“These are just a few steps Facebook is taking to make the vision of data portability a reality for users worldwide,” Morin wrote in his blog post. “We believe the next evolution of data portability is about much more than data. It’s about giving users the ability to take their identity and friends with them around the Web, while being able to trust that their information is always up to date and always protected by their privacy settings.”

The technical details also remain unannounced. “We’re not announcing the details of the partner integration today,” Ling said. “What we’re announcing at a high level is that we will have a program that’s built into partners large and small, and they will be able to access Facebook Connect.”

Social network Facebook announced Friday the debut of Facebook Connect, a new technology for members to connect their profile data and authentication credentials to external Web sites. It makes the company the latest major Web site to embrace the concept of data portability.

Facebook kick-started the social-networking developer platform craze when it launched the Facebook Platform a year ago. But on Thursday, bigger rival MySpace made a big move when it opened its own profile content to outside sites–in a sense the reverse of Facebook’s famous decision to welcome external developers onto its own site. Facebook representatives said Friday that there are now more than 350,000 developers from 225 countries developing for the platform, although one prominent programmer said earlier this week that he believes activity may be slowing.

This post was updated at 1:56 p.m. PDT.

Facebook will handle the authentication process, and while privacy controls have not been made clear, the company has stressed that user security will be a priority. And there’s reason to believe Facebook will be particularly careful: The company already partners with outside services to share data in its Beacon advertising program, and the PR missteps surrounding Beacon’s launch are something that Facebook likely does not want to repeat.

It’s a big move for the site. Until this point, Facebook has had a reputation for keeping its cards close to its chest–even banning the account of popular blogger Robert Scoble when he used a script to export his Facebook contact list to Plaxo. But Facebook has a representative in the Data Portability Workgroup, and executives have said that Facebook has wanted to bring its information outside the site eventually.

MySpace has partnered with the likes of eBay and Yahoo for Data Availability, which means that many of the Web’s biggest names are now warming up to the idea of social-network identity portability. It’s likely to be popular with users eager to quell the onset of “social fatigue” from too many logins and profiles, but privacy and security advocates may raise a red flag–as might advertisers, to whom Facebook’s walled-in user base was ideal for targeted marketing. Spreading that data across the Web could complicate matters on that front.

Facebook has also held over 50 “developer garage” events in 10 countries, and Ling said that Facebook Connect will be discussed at future “garages.”

The formal announcement was made through a post on Facebook’s developer blog by senior platform manager Dave Morin, who has been one of the company’s most visible evangelists in the developer community over the past year. Facebook Connect will launch within the next few weeks.

Through Facebook Connect, members will be able to use their Facebook identities across the Web–profile photos, names, photos, friends, groups, events, and other information. Facebook profile content, for example, could appear on other social sites, and Facebook event listings could theoretically connect with external event and invitation services.

“We believe the next evolution of data portability is about much more than data. It’s about giving users the ability to take their identity and friends with them around the Web, while being able to trust that their information is always up to date and always protected by their privacy settings.” –Dave Morin, Facebook senior platform manager

Representatives from MySpace were not immediately available for comment.

No partner Web sites for Facebook Connect have been announced yet, but director of platform Ben Ling explained to CNET News.com that “there’s been a lot of partner interest.” One partner, however, was displayed in mockups on Facebook’s developer blog: social news site Digg.

The official invite just popped up in our mailboxes for Apple’s long-rumored October 14 press event in Cupertino, Calif. The big picture of a laptop and the headline, “The spotlight turns to notebooks,” leaves us with a pretty clear idea of what Steve Jobs and company will be talking about. Not mentioned here is the most persistent rumor–that at least one of the new systems will hit a meltdown-friendly price of $800.

Here’s the invite itself, for the curiosity seekers out there.

Apple's most cryptic invite ever…

Tivoli unveiled its NetWorks Go Wi-Fi radio in 2007, but it was subsequently delayed its release.

Read: Coming this fall: Two new Tivoli Wi-Fi radios (CNET Crave)
Read: Wi-Fi radio roundup (CNET Reviews)
Read: Tivoli flashes back to 2002, unveils Internet-radio products (Dvice.com)

(Credit: dvice.com)

However, it looks as if later this week we’ll be getting updates on these products. The company’s annual New York City media event is Wednesday, May 7, and the invitation prods attendees to arrive promptly “since Tom DeVesto, Tivoli CEO, will be unveiling the first global audio product at the start of the event to allow for plenty of time to experience it, ask questions and get first-hand knowledge.” Public relations hyperbole notwithstanding, it’s a safe bet that the event will indeed be the relaunch of the NetWorks Wi-Fi radios–though this time, we should be getting final specifications, pricing, and an imminent release date.

We’ll have full coverage of the Tivoli announcement–whatever it may be–on Wednesday. In the meantime: do you have any interest in a standalone Internet radio, or do you just fire up your Web browser when you want to listen to online audio?

We love the idea of a small, easy-to-use Wi-Fi radio–especially one that’s truly portable. The question is, will Tivoli’s solution be too little too late? We’ve seen plenty of other Wi-Fi radios in the past year, with the price on many models dipping less than $200. Price issues are particularly thorny for Tivoli: we’ve noticed its prices–which already include a Bose-like premium–actually creeping upward in recent months. That’s a tough sell to increasingly cash-strapped consumers who are accustomed to falling prices for their consumer tech.

In June 2007, Tivoli Audio unveiled two Wi-Fi radios at a Manhattan event: the Tivoli Audio NetWorks tabletop radio and the portable NetWorks Go (pictured above). Both models were said to offer identical functionality: the capability to tune in any MP3, WMA, or RealAudio Internet radio station, network audio sources (PC-based digital music collections), and standard over-the-air FM radio. And it wasn’t just vaporware, either: company founder and CEO Tom DeVesto used the prototype to quickly pull up two distant stations based on requests from the audience. Unfortunately, neither product was released. The fall 2007 release window came and went, and it wasn’t until February that a brief notice on Tivoli’s Web site officially rescheduled the release date to June 2008.

The question is: what do you think? Does the DTS upgrade make the PS3 an even better Blu-ray player? Does the PlayStation Store makeover finally put Sony’s online offerings on par with
Xbox Live? Is all of this irrelevant compared with the forthcoming releases of Grand Theft Auto IV and Metal Gear Solid 4? Let us know what you think.

From Crackle: PlayStation Store video walkthrough

Sony wasn’t kidding when it said the next PS3 system update was coming in mid-April. Just in time to take the edge off tax day, the version 2.30 of the
PlayStation 3 system software is now available for download. As revealed last week, the software update adds DTS Master Audio decoding (to deliver the best audio from compatible Blu-ray movies), as well as a major overhaul of the interface for the PlayStation Store (as explained in the Sony video walkthrough shown above).