Intel Buys Software Company To Extend Chip Market

The Intel Corporation said Thursday that it had agreed to buy Wind River Systems, a software company, for about $884 million in a bid to put its chips into more consumer electronics and wireless devices.
Intel said it had agreed to pay $11.50 a share for Wind River, a 44 percent premium over its closing price on Wednesday.

Wind River makes operating systems for platforms as diverse as autos and mobile phones, serving customers like Sony and Boeing.

Intel, whose processors run about 80 percent of the world’s personal computers, is expanding into new markets, including chips for televisions and mobile devices. Wind River’s software and customer list will pave the way for Intel to win more chip contracts, said Cody Acree, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Company in Dallas.

“If you have a chip you want to put in a lot of things other than a PC, you need code,” Mr. Acree said. “Wind River brings that, and it brings customers.”
Shares of Wind River, which is based in Alameda, Calif., rose $3.76, or 47 percent, to $11.76 a share. Shares of Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., rose 19 cents, to $16.13 a share.

It is Intel’s first major acquisition since Paul S. Otellini took over as chief executive in 2005.

Intel expects chips for so-called embedded systems, like the electronics in car navigation systems, to generate billions of dollars in annual sales, said Bill Kircos, a company spokesman. Intel already supplies chips to BMW for …

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Microsoft, Sony, and the Nintendo Wii

This year's Electronic Entertainment Expo has been quite the moving experience.

During presentations at the video game industry trade show, both Microsoft and Sony debuted prototype motion-control devices for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 that could rival Nintendo's popular Wii, the first console to employ a motion-detecting controller when it debuted in 2006.

Nintendo said Wednesday they are flattered by the imitations.

"It's certainly nice for us to see other companies adopting the philosophy that Nintendo communicated back a few years ago," said Cammie Dunaway, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo of America. "For us, we're really pleased and excited to bring consumers the next advancement now with Wii MotionPlus."

Nintendo mostly used the show as an opportunity to showcase Wii MotionPlus, an attachment announced at last year's E3 that uses sensors to more precisely mimic gamers' hand movements on screen. The only new apparatus Nintendo debuted this year was the Wii Vitality Sensor, which can check a player's pulse. The doodad prompted some to wonder if Nintendo had run out of ideas.

"That sensor was slightly bizarre," said Paul Jackson, an analyst at Forrester. "But it plays into the success that Nintendo has had with 'Wii Fit' on the health and lifestyle front. I imagine that one does get a bit weary of new things that you can plug into your Wii. I just can't see the Wii Vitality Sensor having more than two or three applications."

Meanwhile, Microsoft unveiled a motion control device, codenamed "Project Natal," that combines a...

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Heads Up, Blog Twist!

I thought that I should give everybody a heads up. Tomorrow (Wednesday, June 3, 2009), I will officially begin to post daily science/technology news. The URL will be changed to http://citech-news.blogspot.com and the title will also change to Sci/Tech News. Don't worry though, the other posts will stay put, and you never know, I might even post an interesting article or two about health and world news.

Apple: New Releases!

Apple on Monday released iTunes 8.2 with support for iPhone 3.0, an indication that the latest operating system will be generally available soon.

While Apple has not made any official announcements, there's been lots of speculation on the Web that Apple could release iPhone 3.0 out of beta at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco next week. The iTunes support makes that scenario more likely.

Apple has been gradually preparing the industry for iPhone 3.0. Last month, the company told developers it would only accept for the App Store programs that are compatible with the upcoming OS.

Apple introduced iPhone 3.0 in March. Currently in beta, the software introduces a number of consumer-oriented features, including cut and paste, multimedia text capabilities, and a universal search function. In addition, it opens the door for more innovative and lucrative apps by enabling in-app purchasing, peer-to-peer multiplayer capabilities, and apps with third-party hardware.

Along with the iPhone 3.0 support, iTunes 8.2 also includes bug fixes and better security. The latter involves improved bounds checking to prevent a stack buffer overflow that could result in application termination or arbitrary code execution, Apple said.

Along with iPhone 3.0, Apple is also expected to use the WWDC to focus on the new version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is not expected to participate in the opening keynote. Kicking off the San Francisco event will be a team of execs led by Philip Schiller, Apple's senior VP of worldwide product marketing.

Last Titanic Survivor Dies At 97

The last living survivor of the Titanic, ­Millvina Dean, has died at the age of 97 in Southampton after catching pneumonia.

As a two-month-old baby, Dean was the youngest passenger on board the giant liner when it sank on its maiden voyage with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.

Her parents had decided to leave England for America, where her father had family in Kansas and hoped to open a tobacco shop.

The Deans had not chosen to be aboard the Titanic, but because of a coal strike they were transferred to the ship and boarded it as third-class passengers at Southampton.

Her father felt the crunch of the ship's collision with the iceberg on the night of 14 April 1912, and went up to investigate. He returned to their cabin telling his wife to dress the children and go up on deck.

Dean, her mother, and brother were placed in lifeboat 10 and were among the first off the liner out of the 706 passengers and crew who escaped.

Her father, however, remained aboard and was among those who drowned when the giant ship finally went down in the early hours of next day.

Dean, born on 2 February 1912, had been in hospital last week with pneumonia, having worked as a secretary until her retirement. Her death came just a month after Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, stars of the Hollywood blockbuster about the disaster, stepped in to help pay her nursing home fees. The pair joined with James Cameron, the director of the Oscar-winning film, to donate £20,000 to The Millvina Fund.

Dean lived at Ashurst in the New Forest, not far from where she set sail on the liner. In the last year she had to sell some of her family's possessions at auction to pay for her stay in the nursing home.

Items included a suitcase filled with clothes given to her family when they arrived in America, and compensation letters sent to her mother from the Titanic Relief Fund. The mementos sold at auction were returned to her by the buyer.

Dean had become the very last survivor of the Titanic when another woman who had been a baby on board, Barbara Dainton, from Cornwall, died in October 2007, at age 96. The last American survivor, ­Lillian Asplund, had died at age 99 in 2006.