Microsoft to Wall Street: Analyze This

Microsoft reported earnings for the first quarter of the company’s fiscal 2011 this afternoon, and they were record-breaking despite the pessimism of analysts who have been downgrading its stock lately.

Earnings per share were 62 cents on revenue of $16.2 billion, better than the 55 cents per share on $15.8 billion in revenue that analysts had been expecting. Net income spiked from $3.57 billion in the same quarter a year ago to $5.41 billion in the current one, bolstered by strong sales of Windows 7 and Office 2010. And pretty much all of the company’s divisions showed significant growth.

• Revenue at Microsoft’s Windows division rose to $4.8 billion from $2.9 billion, with a profit of $3.3 billion.
• Revenue at the company’s business unit, which includes Microsoft Office, rose to $5.1 billion from $4.5 billion. Profit was $3.4 billion.
• Revenue at its Entertainment and Devices Division rose to $1.7 billion from $1.5 billion. Profit was $382 million.
• Finally, revenue at Microsoft’s money-losing online services division rose to $527 million from $487 million, though it did post a wider loss of $560 million.

“This was an exceptional quarter, combining solid enterprise growth and continued strong consumer demand for Office 2010, Windows 7 and Xbox 360 consoles and games,” Microsoft CFO Peter Klein said in a statement. “Our ability to grow revenue while continuing to control costs allowed us to deliver another quarter of year-over-year margin expansion.”

Ellison Taunts HP CEO a Second Time

If Larry Ellison’s Tuesday evening harangue against former SAP chief Léo Apotheker was, in the words of an SAP spokesperson, “a sideshow,” then the Oracle CEO’s latest tirade is more of a gala.

With Oracle’s high-profile trade secrets case against SAP scheduled to begin in a few days, Ellison is in rare form and is filing copy like Hunter S. Thompson’s software magnate doppelgänger.

On Wednesday evening, Ellison let loose with another screed against Apotheker and his new employer, Hewlett-Packard, accusing the former of knowingly stealing Oracle’s intellectual property and the latter of helping him dodge a subpoena.

“HP Chairman Ray Lane has taken the position that Léo Apotheker is innocent of wrongdoing because he didn’t know anything about the stealing going on at SAP while Léo was CEO,” Ellison wrote. “The most basic facts of the case show this to be an absurd lie. Oracle sued SAP for stealing in March of 2007. Léo became CEO of SAP in April of 2008. Léo knew all about the stealing. In fact, Léo did not stop the stealing until 7 months after he became CEO. Why so long? We’d like to know. Ray Lane and the rest of the HP Board do not want anyone to know. That’s the new HP Way with Ray in charge and Léo on the run. It’s time to change the HP tagline from ‘Invent’ to ‘Steal’.”

Did I say Ellison’s latest tirade was more of a gala? Make that carnival–or bacchanal. This is goading of the top order, beginning with an accusation of outright theft and deceit, and ending with the verbal desecration of the hallowed HP Way, which Ellison attributes to Lane–a former Oracle president.

Sadly, Ellison gets his facts wrong again. As I noted here yesterday, Apotheker didn’t become SAP’s sole CEO until June of 2009–seven months after SAP shuttered the TomorrowNow division at the center of Oracle’s suit. But as I also noted yesterday, that’s just semantics. Apotheker wasn’t just some prole prior to his CEO appointment; he was co-CEO.

And anyway, who’s this latest philippic of Ellison’s really about? HP Chairman Lane’s name is mentioned in it nearly as many times as Apotheker’s. And he never worked for SAP.

But he did work for Oracle–until he ran afoul of Ellison–and now, of course, he works for HP, an Oracle rival. Look at the statement through that lens and you’ll see that it actually fulfills a threefold purpose:

1. Trash-talking SAP
2. Trash-talking Apotheker to smear HP
3. And trash-talking Lane to smear HP and vent some old resentments

This trial is every bit as much about HP as it is about SAP.

PREVIOUSLY:

• SAP to Ellison: Save the Drama for Your Mama
• Ellison to HP CEO: “Warrior, Come Out to Plaaeeay!
• SAP: Please Gag Oracle
• HP Scandal Sucks in New York Times Columnist Over Conflict of Interest
• Welch to HP Board: You Don’t Know Jack!
• Insiders Criticize Ellison For HP CEO Slam
• Was Apotheker HP’s First Choice of CEO?
• HP Names Ex-SAP Chief Apotheker as CEO

Using iMovie to edit videos on Mac for free

This is a tutorial which explains the process of editing videos on a PC using Windows Movie Maker and editing videos on Mac using iMovie. This tutorial will be a concise explanation of how to editing videos for free. Then share your movie via the Web, e-mail, or CD. Using dvd burner you can even take movies you've made and turn movies into DVDs.
You can also save your movie back to the video tape in your camera to play back on a TV or on the camera itself.

This tutorial includes three parts, this is part two:
Part 1. Using Windows Movie Maker to edit videos on PC for free
Part 2. Using iMovie to edit videos on Mac for free
Part 3. A table that compares free video editors.

iMovie '08 makes viewing and working with video as intuitive as enjoying your photos. A built-in library automatically organizes your video, so all the clips you've captured and movies you've created are just a click away. With its revolutionary interface, iMovie makes it quick and easy to browse your library and create new movies. And iMovie is built for sharing. In just a few steps, you can add movies to your website, publish them on YouTube, and create versions for iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV.



Step 1, Create an iMovie Project
Before doing anything in iMovie, you must create and title a new default folder as well as title and save our new project.
Step 2, Connect DV Camera
Make sure the camera is in PLAY (VCR) mode
Step 3, Add video
When your viewer says "Camera Connected," click the "Import" button. iMovie will play and import your digital video. When you wish to stop importing, click the "Import" button once more. Drag your imported clip(s) from the clips pane to the editable timeline along the bottom of the iMovie interface. iMovie treats deleted files differently that most other programs. If you delete a clip you CANNOT get it back.
iMovie will also allow you to import the following file formats:
3gp, AVI, DAT, MOV, MP4,MPG
If your videos are not the format that is compatible with iMove such as FLV and M4A, AIFF, AAC, you can use the video converter for Mac to convert the video first.
Step 4, Edit video
To Split a Clip: Place the cursor beneath the viewing window at the place in the movie where you want to split the clip into two. Go up to the "Edit" menu at the top, and select "Split Video Clip at Playhead."
To Crop a Clip: Drag the little triangles beneath the viewing window timeline to the desired in and out points. Go to the "Edit" menu at the top and select "Crop."
To add effect: Select "Effects" from the menu below the clips pane. Select a clip from the editing region to add an effect to it. Select an effect. Adjust the parameters of the effect beneath the preview window. The effect should automatically preview in the preview window. If you adjust the parameters of the effect, click "Preview" again to load the new effect settings. Click "Apply," and wait for the effect to render. You can monitor the effect rendering by the red progress bar that occurs within the clip the effect is being added to in the editing region. Save your work.
Step 5, Save your project
From the main menu, go to File > Save Project.
If you want to convert the movies made by iMovie to other video format, you can use this video converter for Mac. If you want to burn the movies made by iMovie to DVD, use DVD Creator for Mac.

How to connect your Mac and Xbox 360

If, like me, you have your Xbox 360 placed near your wifi-enabled computer, but away from your wireless router or modem, then you'll want to take advantage of the Xbox's ability to "borrow" your computer's internet connection. For Windows users, this process is simple; it's just a matter of "bridging" your computer's wifi connection to your PC's internet port which is plugged into your Xbox. For Mac users, the process is not so easy. What follows is a guide for getting your Xbox 360 to accept Mac OS X's internet sharing option.
Before you start configuring, open up Terminal (in Applications -> Utilities) and type "ifconfig en0" (zero, not a capital-o). You're looking for the bit that says "inet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx". In my case, the number I get here is 192.168.2.1 Second, note down the IP address of your wireless router, which in my case is 192.168.0.1

On your Mac
1. Connect your Mac to your wireless internet connection
2. Connect your Xbox 360 to your Mac via Ethernet
3. In System Preferences -> Sharing, enable Internet Sharing between your Airport and Ethernet connection

On your Xbox 360
1. Start up your Xbox and navigate to the Network settings menu
2. Under IP address, enter the number you got from the "ifconfig en0" command earlier on, but with the final number one place higher. In my case, I take the 192.168.2.1, and input 192.168.2.2 in the IP address box on my Xbox 360.
3. Under subnet, input 255.255.255.0
4. Under router/gateway, enter the number you got earlier from the "ifconfig en0" command. In my case, that's "192.168.2.1"
5. Move onto DNS. Enter the IP address of your wireless router (in my case, "192.168.0.1") in both the primary and secondary IP address fields
6. Leave PPPoE and advanced settings blank (i.e. OFF and Automatic)
7. You should now be able to connect to Xbox Live via your internet sharing Mac

This guide shows the connection of Mac and Xbox 360 is not so difficult. You can try it by yourself.

How to Make iPhone Ringtone

You bought an iPhone and love all its features, but wish you didn't have to pay for your songs twice to get a ringtone. (We know that iPhone, iPhone 3G Ringtones use the file extension .M4R. And the users must pay $2 for a piece of song through Apple iTunes store). There are plenty of songs in your music library, but no way to make ringtones from any of them. Rihgt?

Actually, with a little bit of trickery (nothing illegal) you can create ringtones from any one of your non-DRM songs.

This works on both Mac and Windows PCs.

Window Users

You can create free iPhone Ringtones by yourself with Aiseesoft iPhone Ringtone Maker.
You can take the following step-by-step instructions to start.
Step 0: Download and install Aiseesoft iPhone Ringtone Maker.
After a short while, you can see the following interface:

Step 1: Click "Browse" on the right side of "Input File" to import the file that you want to make ringtone from it.
Step 2: Play it and listen the music to find the segment that you want to use it as ringtone. Then drag and click the start & end slider to set your wanted segment, or type the start & end time in the corresponding text box directly to get the exact segment. You also can pre-listen the converted audio before generate.
Step 3: Click "Browse" on the right side of "Local Output Folder" to choose the output destination.
Step 4: Check "Export to iPhone" option, the converted ringtone will be load to your iPhone directly.
Step 5: After all the settings are finished, click "Generate" to begin making your own iPhone ringtone.

Key function
* Convert any video to iPhone ringtone M4R
* Create iPhone ringtone from any audio files
* Get any clips from video and audio
* Edit Added iPhone ringtones

Using Aiseesoft iPhone Ringtone Maker, you are free to edit the added iPhone ringtone by removing it or renaming it directly.

For Mac Users, please go to Aiseesoft iPhone Ringtone Maker for Mac.

Win7 Win: Microsoft Recovers From Vista Stumble

A year after it first shipped, Windows 7 continues to be the commercial success that Windows Vista never was. Microsoft boasted today that it’s sold (or rather sold and pre-installed) more than 240 million Windows 7 licenses to date, making it the fastest-selling OS ever.

As of last month, Windows 7 was running on 93 percent of new consumer PCs. More interestingly, it’s being sold by 100 percent of Microsoft’s OEM partners–quite a bit more than the 70 percent that picked up Windows Vista during a similar time period. Sort of a startling admission, isn’t it? Thirty percent of the company’s OEM partners turned up their noses at Vista.

In any event, analysts have been predicting that Microsoft will sell 300 million or so Windows 7 licenses by the end of this calendar year. Certainly looks possible.

Apple’s Momentum Points to Another Big Quarter

Apple’s shares broke $300 for the first time last week, pushing its market cap to well past $280 billion–second only to that of oil behemoth Exxon Mobil. Should the company’s rally continue, it won’t be long before it overtakes Exxon on the Standard and Poor’s 500.

And there’s no reason at all to think that it won’t. Apple is scheduled to report its fourth quarter results today after the bell, and by most accounts it will be another blowout. Consensus among analysts seems to be that strong sales of the iPhone 4, the iPad and the Mac will push Apple’s earnings per share to $4.05 on revenue of $18.8 billion–quite a leap over the earnings of $1.82 per share on revenue of $9.87 billion the company posted during the same period last year.

And according to some analysts, this quarter’s leap may well leave the company poised for an even higher one in the next quarter. Said UBS analyst Maynard Um, “With continued momentum in all product lines as well as easing supply constraints for both iPhone and iPad, we see the potential for Apple to surprise to the upside on guidance again.”