Apple opens its massive wallet and buys Israeli flash memory maker Anobit for $500M, according to Reuters and the Calcalist financial daily.

While no official statement is yet available from the typically secretive Apple, further confirmation comes from an unlikely source-- the twitter account of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Natenyahu, who says: "Welcome to Israel, Apple Inc. on your 1st acquisition here. I'm certain that you'll benefit from the fruit of the Israeli knowledge."

In addition to the purchase, Reuters says Apple is going to open Read more...

VARs can now check the Cisco Services Rules of Engagement-- a document outlining the Cisco approach to partner services strategies, available to all badged Cisco partners. 

It outlines pretty much everything a partner or VAR would want to know, from how Cisco wants to package services within solution bundles to how it qualifies partners for services opportunities and the escalation process for partners with a Cisco services conflict. 

Cisco has around 11000 Services employees, in a segment representing 40% of Cisco revenues. 

Midmarket and SMB customers Read more...

Rivals will be rivals-- while Intel blames the recent Thailand floods for slashing Q4 2011 forecasts, AMD CE Rory Read claims HDD supply in the channel is actually "going pretty well."

Such statements leave no doubt that tensions are still high on the PC making front.

Intel says “the worldwide PC supply chain is reducing inventories and microprocessor purchases,” predicting HDD shortages will continue until Q1 2012 before supplies recover sometime around H2 2012.

As a result, Intel reduces Q4 2011 earnings forecasts by $1 billion to $13.7BN. Read more...

IBM takes a close look at current technology market trends and releases Next 5 in 5 2011--  a yearly forecast collection from the company. Science fiction or science fact? Guess we'll be able to tell when the year 2016 comes along...

On top of this year's forecast is Energy: People power will come to life-- according to IBM, the year 2016 will have us harnessing kinetic energy (the energy generated from motion) to power "anything from your house to your city." How does one collect kinetic energy? IBM is testing means to collect ocean wave energy (using special bouys).

Industries are defined by clashes between rivals. Think Pepsi vs Coca-Cola, Microsoft vs Apple or AMD vs Intel. But should we now forget about using the last example?

Speaking in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, AMD spokesman Michael Silverman insists: "We will all need to let go of the old 'AMD versus Intel' mind-set, because it won't be about that anymore." Will AMD now carve its way forward without glancing at where Intel is heading?

If this is the case, it might mean the end of a rivalry (complete with legal feuds and blows) going on since the early 1980s. Intel was founded in 1968-- and AMD only a year later.

THINK. It was 100 years ago that IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, Sr. put this one-word slogan on a nameplate on his own desk to remind his executives what IBM culture required of its executives. Soon signs appeared in IBM offices and factories By the 1920s and in the early 1930s, THINK began to take precedence over other slogans in IBM.

You can still find echoes of Watson's motto in the brand name of IBM's popular notebook computers (now sold-off to Lenovo): the ThinkPad.

For IBM’s 100 anniversary, the centennial iteration is IBM’s THINK Exhibit at Lincoln Center in New York City, an ambitious exhibit that combined live data visualization, a first-of-a-kind immersive film, and giant interactive stations to explore how we live and work. Read more...