TomTom's iPhone car kit and navigation software priced overseas

TomTom told us that its long-awaited iPhone navigation app and in-car mounting kit would be landing this summer, and at least on our watch, summertime is quickly drawing to a close. If a pre-order listing over at Handtec is to be believed, it looks as if the outfit is exceedingly close to finally having both the software and hardware ready for shipping. The £113.85 ($194) asking price includes a suction mount for your iPhone as well as the mapping software, though there's no indication of exactly how much the app and hardware will run by themselves. Of course, until the iPhone supports multitasking, using it as a dedicated PND is still a risky move; one stray call during a pivotal moment in your travels and you can consider yourself lost. Oh, and then there's the fact that this thing has a TomTom logo on it -- if the iPhone app functions anything like the company's high-end GO 740 LIVE, we'd say you're better off asking Mr. Gas Station attendant (or buying a different
[Via DaniWeb

Intel still won't talk Core i5 details, but you can order one anyway

It's been a long, strange road for the Core i5 series of processors, first announced way back in March not by Intel, but by amotherboard spec sheet. Since then we've seen rebranding talk, lots of grids of various colors, and a delay purely for selfish reasons. Intel still isn't saying how much they'll cost or when they'll ship, but that's okay, because retailers have answered the first question and given us reason to believe the answer to the second is "soon." Two computer hardware sites confirm that the Core i5 570 will have a 2.66GHz clock speed and sport 8MB of cache, matching expectations for this new mass-market processor, and the prices (as low as $233) are a fair bit cheaper than a comparably spec'd but higher performing Core i7. Mind you, both of those retailers list the chip as being out of stock, but we're sure if you're so inclined they'd be happy to put you down for a pre-order.
[Via PC World

Read - Core i5 570 at Fad Fusion
Read - Core i5 570 at Computer Connection

It looks like those that'll accept no less than an IPS panel in their monitor now have another option from Dell, which has just debuted its new 24-inch U2410 monitor in Japan. The big selling point here, of course, is the monitor's color reproduction, which promises to reach 96% coverage of the Adobe RGB color space, and 100% coverage of the sRGB color space. Otherwise, you can expect some suitably high-end specs across the board, including a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution, a 6ms response time, a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, a full range of ports including DVI, DisplayPort, and HDMI, not to mention a built-in 4-port USB hub. No word on a release over here, unfortunately, but folks in Japan can grab one now for ¥72,450, or about $760.

ASUS' Lamborghini VX5 laptop hands-on

While it was admittedly difficult to turn our attention away from ASUS' Dual Panel touchscreen PC, we couldn't help but notice its latest Lamborghini-inspired machine. The newly announced VX5 was on display here at CeBIT, sporting a 1TB SSD, leather panel rests, that iconic Lamborghini logo and a few chrome accents to boot. Oh, and take our word for it -- that leather was supple. Real supple.

Cisco’s Net Income Falls but Outlook Improves

Stability has been an elusive concept for Cisco Systems over the last year. Sales have been on a jagged downward slope as the technology industry dealt with its worst downturn since the dot-com bust.But now Cisco, the world’s largest maker of network technology, says business appears to have reached a “tipping point.”

In the last three months, orders have started to arrive at a more consistent pace when measured against historical trends, said John T. Chambers, the chief executive, in an interview on Wednesday after the company released its fiscal fourth-quarter results.The orders were very good, Mr. Chambers said. It was the first normal order rate we have seen sequentially in a year.Such optimism seemed to run counter to Cisco’s fourth-quarter results, which showed just how much business spending on networking equipment has slowed. For the period ended July 25, Cisco reported a 46 percent plunge in net income to $1.1 billion, or 19 cents a share, from net income of $2 billion, or 33 cents a share, in the same period last year. Excluding charges for stock-option compensation, acquisitions and one-time items, Cisco earned 31 cents a share, beating the forecast of 29 cents a share by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Revenue fell 18 percent year-over-year to $8.5 billion, meeting analysts’ expectations. Sales of Cisco’s flagship routing and switching products fell 27 percent and 20 percent, respectively. Setting those bleak sales figures aside, Mr. Chambers focused on recent sales trends to support his hopes for better results ahead. The $8.5 billion in revenue, for example, was Cisco’s first quarter-to-quarter sales increase in a year. In addition, the increase in orders from the third quarter to the fourth quarter matched past trends, leading Mr. Chambers to characterize the business as more stable. Looking ahead, Cisco expects its first-quarter revenue to come in 15 to 17 percent below the $10.3 billion it reported last year. But even with such declines, Cisco would report quarter-to-quarter growth once again.On a global basis, we are starting to see potential positive trends in Asia-Pacific, the U.S., emerging markets and Japan, Mr. Chambers said. He added that selling equipment in Europe remained difficult.Despite those positive signals, Mr. Chambers, known for his upbeat demeanor, cautioned that a recovery was not guaranteed. “No one knows for sure when the recovery will occur, he said. “You would like to see a couple more quarters of the trends we saw before talking about that.Cisco has cut more than 2,000 jobs over the last year, but on Wednesday, the company declared an end to layoffs. Analysts saw this as a crucial indicator that Mr. Chambers thought Cisco had reached bottom.Effectively we have a new plateau, and moving forward, things appear to be behaving roughly the way they should, said Sam Wilson, a communications analyst for JMP Securities.In the midst of the economic downturn, Cisco has charged into several new markets, including computer servers for businesses and video recorders for consumers. The company is attacking 30 new businesses and could increase that, Mr. Chambers said. For the year, revenue fell 9 percent, to $36.1 billion, and profit dropped 24 percent, to $6.1 billion. Cisco finished with $35 billion in cash — one of the largest hoards in the technology industry.
By ASHLEE VANCE