Seagate

A digital nanny for all those home PCs

New Home Server aims to bring big-business technology to the home -- but it will be a tough sell HP's MediaSmart Server runs Microsoft's new Windows Home Server operating system. Image from Microsoft.

Yes, it has come to this. Now that consumers have multi-PC homes, wireless networks, and thousands of digital files floating around, they need a computer whose sole purpose is to keep an eye on the other computers.

At least, that's MORE

Dell's new mantra: technology that's simple, not just cheap

Founder and CEO Michael Dell. Image: Dell

Michael Dell's old game plan was ruthless and effective: Crush competitors by building products at a lower cost, and using the Internet to pass the savings on to value-conscious customers. That strategy made his namesake company a darling of the first Internet boom and the largest computer maker in the world.

But times have changed. In recent years archrival Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has stolen Dell's (DELL) MORE

HP offers technology to cut the Internet's energy bill

Servers like this one, which put information onto the Internet, let off a lot of heat – and it takes energy to cool them. Photo: HP

The Internet is hot. Not just hot as in popularity. Hot as in heat.

It's so hot, in fact, that data centers – those expensive warehouses full of computers that serve up information – are racking up huge power bills. According to Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ) calculations, a MORE

iPod sales now driven by style more than storage

Flash-based models such as the new iPod touch are increasingly upstaging Apple's hard drive-based players. Photo: Jon Fortt

In the iPod's world, storage isn't the selling point it used to be.

That's one clear lesson from the sales rankings at the Apple Store, which posts a regularly updated list of the most popular iPod models. Though the iPod classic, which uses a hard drive to store music and video, offers a whopping MORE

Huawei's stake in 3Com could raise security concerns

When does a Chinese company's strategic technology investment become a national security risk?

Lawmakers were starting to ask that question Friday after 3Com, a struggling manufacturer of networking equipment, announced plans to sell itself to private equity firm Bain Capital Partners, and Chinese networking giant Huawei Technologies in a $2.2 billion cash deal.

Why every tech investor should watch Adobe's earnings today

Even if you're not a heavy user of its Photoshop software, or even an investor in its stock, it might be a good idea to watch this afternoon's earnings announcement from Adobe Systems (ADBE).

That's because Adobe, the Silicon Valley-based software maker that also sells Flash, Photoshop, Acrobat, and other popular programs, will give investors the earliest possible peek at how healthy the technology industry was this summer. The next-earliest major MORE

A day ahead: Apple's August surprise

Tuesday is the day.

Apple (AAPL) has summoned the tech press to CEO Steve Jobs's fortress of solitude, the company's headquarters in Cupertino, for an unspecified product announcement. Those of us who have been covering Apple for a while know the drill – generally speaking, Jobs has three stages for product splashes: Macworld, the Worldwide Developer Conference, and home base.

More storage, less profit: Seagate leads the pack in hard drives

Good news for laptop makers and consumers heading into the second half of this year: Competition in the hard drive market continues to keep prices low. Bad news for the hard drive makers (and their shareholders): That same competition continues to keep margins low as well.

Seagate: Extreme makeover coming soon for PC hard drives

As soon as three or four years from now, most of the latest PCs will blend hard drives with flash memory in a new type of hybrid drive, says Bill Watkins, CEO of Seagate (STX), the world's top maker of hard drives. It was the first time I've heard an industry executive give an estimate for when the technology will go mainstream.

Watkins said he expects the hybrid drives to come MORE

Seagate "Crickett": Bluetooth hard drive for phones

Seagate (STX) today will announce perhaps its oddest product ever: a hard drive, code-named Crickett, that uses Bluetooth to connect wirelessly to your cell phone. Starting capacity: 10 gigabytes. $159.

(Above, the device next to a RAZR.)