CASEY HAYWARD, CB, VANDERBILT

SCOUTING REPORT:

National Football Post:

Possesses good height and a thin build, but has the frame to add additional girth without losing much athleticism. Displays a natural feel for the pass game in zone coverage. Keeps his head on a swivel, feels routes develop around him and displays the fluidity in his hips to quickly open up and make a play on the football. Is at his best in off coverage where he can sit in routes, read and react, and can simply undercut throws. Displays some natural click and close ability when driving on passes in front of him. However, gets too upright in his drop, doesn’t consistently keep his base under him and wastes too much motion out of his breaks. Not as clean as he could be driving on the football. Picked off 6 passes last year and recorded 17 passes defended. But displays only slightly above-average ball skills. Will leave some picks on the field and I don’t think his ball skills are quite as good as his stats make them out to be. Needs to do a better job catching the football more consistently.

Not real comfortable in man coverage at this stage however. Lacks great straight-line speed and doesn’t seem to trust himself on an island. When he plays closer to the line likes to prematurely open up his hips in order to keep receivers from quickly getting behind him, will give up routine separation underneath. Gets upright when asked to turn and run, doesn’t possess the type of second gear to quickly get back up to speed and can easily be taken advantage of by vertical speed. Gets leggy out of his breaks as well trying to re-direct because of his high pad level.

Click HERE to read the Rest!

View full post on NFL Gridiron Gab

Malaysia may not be on the tip of anyone’s tongue when wireless comes to mind, but that’s not stopping local outfit DMD Mobile from attempting to make its mark. Set for an official unveiling at next week’s Mobile World Congress, the M3 Android NFC Communicator is the outfit’s clumsily titled stab at the prepaid market in South Asia and the Middle East. The touchscreen handset, to be available in both 2.6-inch portrait QWERTY and 3.2-inch candybar form factors, comes loaded up with a surprising mix of last- and current-gen specs: 650Mhz single-core CPU running a skinned version of Gingerbread 2.3.5, support for dual-band HSPA+ (850 / 2100MHz) and quadband GSM, VGA front-facing / 3MP rear cameras, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi and NFC. Sure, it’s not the most thrilling of forward-looking devices to surface this year, but priced at RM500 (that’s about US$165), it’s certainly more of a great deal than it is bargain bin entry. Hit up the source below for additional info on this low-hanging mobile fruit.

M3 Android NFC Communicator mixes something old, something new for prepaid subs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Star  |  DMD Mobile  | Email this | Comments

View full post on Engadget

INDIANAPOLIS — Every year, many who come to cover the scouting combine insist that the drills are relatively meaningless, and that it’s the game tape that really matters. And every year, there are a handful of guys whose performances — whether terrific or terrible — vault them up or down the NFL’s draft boards. Here is a group of offensive players to watch during this year’s combine drills — for each of them, the drills will mean a great deal.

1. The “Best Supporting Actor” Quarterbacks — The top three quarterbacks in this draft class will most likely wait until their pro days to throw. Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III don’t need to because they’re going in the top five on a no-matter-what basis, and Ryan Tannehill is still recovering from a foot injury. So, with the spotlights on them, a host of second-tier quarterbacks will look to impress and up their draft stock the way Christian Ponder and Jake Locker did in 2011.

For Arizona State’s Brock Osweiler, the challenge will be to confirm that he can make every NFL throw — the questions about his experience and ability to run an offense will come later. Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden has all the on-field savvy in the world — and at age 28, he’ll be given credit for the savvy he doesn’t have — but he needs to display the consistent arm that will convince scouts that he can hit tight windows at the NFL level.

That’s even more true for Boise State’s Kellen Moore, who has all the intangibles and a ridiculous “winning record” (for those who take stock in such things for quarterbacks), but he’s generally struggled with any throw longer than intermediate at a consistent level. His throwing session could go a long way to telling his tale. Is he Chad Pennington or Jimmy Clausen? Michigan State’s Kirk Cousins got most of his work done on underneath stuff, but he has flashed a better arm. It’s time to flash that arm again. Arizona’s Nick Foles will have people looking to see if he relapses to some occasionally sloppy mechanics.

2. RB Chris Polk, Washington — Polk bulled through defenses during a serious rebuilding program at Montlake, and now, he needs to redefine himself to a degree. He’ll already have personnel people thinking of him as an inside back in the Mikel LeShoure mold, but a little more shake-and-bake might have people wondering if he could make more of a Marshawn Lynch-type impact, especially after a less-than-spectacular Senior Bowl week. For Polk, the agility drills will be even more important than his 40-yard dash time.

3. RB Doug Martin, Boise State — Martin is also classified by many as a power back, but he’s fast enough to impress as a kick returner as well, which is fairly impressive for a 5-foot-9, 220-pound bowling ball. A time in the 4.4 range could have GMs going back to Martin’s college tape and wondering if he isn’t a first-round sleeper, the kind of do-it-all back any team could feature.

4. RB LaMichael James, Oregon — Mike Mayock put it best during a recent media conference call: James needs to show that he’s more than “just a speed guy.” Mayock opined that James would shine in the 40, but like Martin and Polk, the agility drills might paint him as more than a one-trick pony.

5. RB/WR Chris Rainey, Florida — Like Percy Harvin before him, Rainey has been a very versatile player for the Gators, but he might be like the piano in the middle of the living room to many teams — they’re not sure where to put him. If he puts on a show in the 40 (expect a sub-4.4 time for sure, and possibly sub-4.3), blows people away in the agility drills, and perhaps goes out for drills as a receiver, Rainey might pump his stock up a good round or so. He needs to prove that he’s more than a luxury pick. The upside is Reggie Bush or Darren Sproles. The downside is Dexter McCluster, whose speed has been wasted in an ill-fitting scheme.

6. WR Alshon Jeffery, South Carolina — Well, Jeffery may have more to prove than anyone else at this combine, after rumors that he blew up to about 250 pounds and was running 40s in the 4.9 range in pre-combine training. It would be a red flag of monumental proportions if he showed up at Lucas Oil Stadium in anything but monster shape. All that production would go to waste. On the other hand, blowing those rumors out of the water with a solid performance might move him up in a logjam of bigger receivers in this draft class.

7. WR Michael Floyd, Notre Dame — As with Jeffery, Floyd needs to stand out at the combine to overcome some serious concerns. There are off-field issues that teams will want to grill him about, and his average speed (especially off the line of scrimmage) could be a liability at the next level. Beyond the need to dispel concerns about his inconsistent hands, route correctness and initial burst are the two things Floyd need to display during drills.

8. WR Rueben Randle, LSU — No concerns on or off the field here; what teams will want to see from Randle is an explosiveness that belies the limited production he saw in LSU’s prehistoric offense. He’s got all the skills to impress on this stage — good hands, better speed than people think, and he can high-point just about any throw. The gauntlet drill will be important for him, as Randle has been a bit of a body catcher at times.

9. OG/OT Cordy Glenn, Georgia – The 6-foot-6, 346-pound behemoth was a versatile and valuable player for the Bulldogs; he started 28 games at left guard and 17 at left tackle. There is some question as to whether he could make it as an NFL tackle — his fundamentals get out of whack at times — and he will need work on a tendency to play too high off the snap before he can be an elite guard. People will love Glenn’s raw tools; but they’ll want to see more of the fine points.

10. OG Amini Silatolu, Midwestern State – From San Joaquin Delta Junior College to Division II to the combine? It’s been a whirlwind for one of this year’s more intriguing small-school players. Teams with deep scouting portfolios will know all about Silatolu, the runner-up in the Gene Upshaw Division II Lineman of the Year voting, and he might echo the successes of NFL players like Jahri Evans of Bloomsburg and Jared Veldheer of Hillsdale. The challenge will be for Silatolu to prove that he’s more than a very big fish in a medium-sized pond, and this is the place to do it.

View full post on Shutdown Corner – NFL – Yahoo! Sports

Ahead of its official debut at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show next month, Mercedes Benz has unleashed its new SL63 AMG. With less weight, more power, and an advanced multi-clutch transmission onboard, the new model offers prospective buyers and car enthusiasts an impressive package.

One of the major issues that plagued the last generation model was its weight, which saw the two-seat convertible weigh in at about the same as some full-size SUVs. To remedy this, the new model, which benefits from the same lightweight aluminium construction underpinning the regular 2013 SL Class on which it’s based, weighs in at 4,059 pounds. While this is still considerably heavy for a two-seater it’s now 275 pounds lighter than the model it replaces. This improves performance across the board including faster acceleration, shorter stopping distances, better handling and increased mileage.

AMG’s now familiar M-157 twin turbo-charged 5.5 litre V8 allows the SL63 AMG to offer two different power outputs for the first time. Normally, the engine delivers 530 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque however with the optional AMG Performance Package these figures rise to 557 horsepower and 664 pound-feet respectively. This results in an acceleration from 0-60 mph in 4.1 seconds reaching a top speed 186 mph that is electronically limited with the Performance package. In normal mode the SL63 AMG will take 4.2 seconds to reach 60 mph and max out at an electronically limited 155 mph.

According to Mercedes, fuel economy is estimated at 23.8 mpg combined.

In terms of handling and dynamics, the 2013 SL63 AMG gets an enhanced version of the AMG sports suspension that’s based on the Mercedes-Benz active damping setup. Here, the driver can choose between two different modes – “Sport” and “Comfort”.

The interior is very similar to that found in the new SL Class, although with a few unique AMG elements such the Nappa leather AMG sports seats, AMG DRIVE UNIT for selecting all the varying performance modes of the transmission, AMG badges, and an AMG instrument cluster.

Micheal Schumacher and Nico Rosberg unveiled the Mercedes SL63 AMG alongside the AMG Petronas that they will be driving in the 2012 Formula One World Championship.

Watch the launch in the video below:

Source: Motor Authority

View full post on Car Blog

Two former iPhone factory workers in China, who were critically injured at Apple supplier Wintek’s plant in 2009, are looking to take advantage of Apple’s yearly meeting by attracting attention to the conditions at factories where Apple’s most important products are assembled.

SumOfUs.org is distributing a petition from Gou Rui-qiang and Jia Jing-chuan, both of whom suffered nerve damage from using n-hexane, a toxic chemical, to clean iPhone screens at the factory. One hundred and thirty-five of their colleagues also reported being sickened. Apple no longer allows the chemical to be used, and Wintek reportedly compensated some of the medical treatment, but Gou and Jia want Apple to pay up.

“We have been pressuring Apple, and its new CEO Tim Cook, for years to compensate those of us who were injured working for them, and demanding reform of working conditions at their Chinese factories so that their workers don’t suffer like we do. Now we need your help as customers or potential customers of Apple,” the petition reads.

The goal of the petition, which has 84,000 signatures so far, is to get a total of 100,000 names before delivering it to CEO Tim Cook at the shareholder meeting on Thursday.

There has never been such intense scrutiny of the people who build Apple’s products or the places where they work as now. SumOfUs is the same group that helped back the original petition calling for the manufacturing of “an ethical iPhone,” which brought further attention to the plight of workers in Apple factories in China brought to light by the New York Times last month. SumOfUs and Change.org delivered thousands of signatures to some Apple locations earlier this month. Shortly thereafter Apple announced the Fair Labor Association would be inspecting its third-party manufacturing plants in China.

The investigations began last week, with the head of the FLA saying plublicly that it has found “tons of issues” at Foxconn plants. Apple also arranged for ABC News to get exclusive access to its factories. The Verge has a good roundup of what few new things were revealed by ABC’s tour. Perhaps not too surprisingly, the head FLA auditor told ABC it expected Foxconn to “put on a show” for FLA auditors and the cameras.

Apple’s shareholder meeting, the first for Cook in his official capacity as CEO, takes place at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Thursday at 10 a.m. PT.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• U.S. Wireless Data Market: Q4 and Year-End 2008
• Facebook’s IPO filing: ideas and implications
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis

src='http://ads.gigaom.com/show/rss/'
alt=''
border='0'
/>

View full post on Apple

There are two ways to think about securing information: Enabling access to information that you want to keep, and disabling access to information you no longer want to keep.  In this post, we will focus on the information Mac users no longer want to keep.  If you are thinking that this is as easy as moving a file to the trash, then emptying the trash, think again.  There are numerous data recovery utilities on the market that can recover lost or deleted files.  And these utilities work because most of us do not know how to securely erase information off of our Macs.  The following are some tips on how you can at least make if very difficult for others to recover your unwanted files.

Finder’s Secure Empty Trash

When you just empty the trash on a Mac, OS X no longer keeps track of where the data associated with the file is stored on the hard drive.  The data is still there, it’s just that the Finder can no longer find it.  As you continue to work and OS X saves new files on your hard drive, OS X could write over parts of your deleted files data with the new files data.  What many data recovery utilities take advantage of is the chance that old data is still there, and has not yet been written over by new data.  When you instead elect to use Secure Empty Trash, OS X does in fact ensure that the old data is written over with new data, which will ensure that the old data is no longer there — think of it like scribbling out a written message on a post-it note.  What is not known for sure is how many times Secure Empty Trash writes over the old file’s data.

The U.S. Department of Defense data erasure guidelines require that erased data be written over no less than seven times.  Why seven times?  It just so happens that because of the way hard drives work, there is an opportunity for parts of the data to remain on the physical disk.  There is a mechanical arm that reaches out across the hard drive to read and write data off of a magnetic platter.  That mechanical arm may not pass over exactly the same spot on the hard drive with each pass.  If you remove the platter from the drive, you can actually scan the surface of the drive using a much more precise mechanical arm to read old data off of the drive.  Writing over the data seven times compensates for this opportunity.  Think of it like plowing a field: The more times you plow over the earth, the less likely you are to see last season’s crop lines.

Permanent Erasure Utility

There are utilities that you can use that take this even further.  Available in the Mac App Store is a free utility from Edenwaith called Permanent Eraser.  Tools like Permanent Erasure give the user greater control over how the old data is written over with new data when you empty the trash.  For instance, Peter Gutmann, a computer scientist in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Auckland, had devised a method of overwriting data 35 times, each pass utilizing a different pattern of ones and zeroes.  Permanent Erasure is configurable to take advantage of Gutmann’s research and can apply his technique of writing over old data when the trash is emptied.  In fact, Permanent Erasure goes even further by also scrambling the original file name and truncating the file size to nothing before finally unlinking it from the system.

Gutmann’s technique is quite dated, as it was originally applied to a variety of consumer grade hard drives available back in the late 1990s.  While widely considered the most secure means of erasing data off of an old hard drive that you still intend to use, some have speculated that this technique is no longer entirely necessary on modern-day, high-density and large-volume SATA drives.  Some security forums online have speculated that a single pass of random ones and zeroes is sufficient on modern equipment.  Even though there are tools that make utilizing even the most secure of techniques easy, you do wear down the drive and decrease its lifespan by overemploying this technique on a daily basis.  It is probably best to utilize the Finder’s Secure Erase on a daily basis, and use tools like Permanent Erasure when you have recently deleted something important that you want to make absolutely sure no one will be able to access again.

Time Machine Backups

Lets not forget about Time Machine and other backup solutions you may have implemented.  Going to extremes to erase a file from a hard drive that you routinely back up could be seen as a fool’s errand if you neglect to erase all of the backup copies as well.  But there is a way to delete all backed up versions of a file from within Time Machine.  Before you delete the file you want to remove permanently, open Time Machine and click on the gears to expose a menu.  From the menu select “Delete all backups of this file.” This will remove all references in Time Machine showing that the file ever existed.

This feature of Time Machine will not implement the same technique as Secure Empty Trash or any more advanced utilities like Permanent Erasure by writing over the data on the drive that the original file occupied.  It just so happens that a halfway decent automated backup strategy could end up being the Achilles’ heel of a halfway decent security strategy.  Once you backup your files online for instance, you may not have any way to delete individual files from all of the redundant backups that your cloud-based service provider has elected to employ.  The data is still out there, somewhere.

Disk Utility’s Secure Erase Options

Looking at this problem from an individual file perspective is good if you intend to keep using all of the old hard drives you have ever owned.  But what if you want to sell or give away your old equipment to somebody else?  At such a time it is a good idea to securely erase an entire drive’s data.  Fortunately Mac OS X’s Drive Utility has you covered.  Just open Disk Utility and select the drive you want to erase.  Choose the selector labeled “Erase” and click on the “Security Options” button.  Here you will find a range of options from “Fastest” to “Most Secure.”

Unfortunately, Disk Utility stops short at just a seven pass overwrite and does not employ any other technique of securely erasing an entire drive.  And since OS X 10. 7 Lion, you no longer have the option to boot from DVD in order to gain access to Disk Utility in order to wipe the internal hard drive of your Mac clean.

One of the most widely used and highly recommended tools to use in cases like this, Darik’s Boot And Nuke (DBAN), can be accessed from a bootable CD/DVD on your Mac.  You can also create a customized USB drive that will boot to Ubuntu where you can install and use the terminal command “wipe“ (there is also a GUI interface for “wipe called Parted Magic).  Your best bet is to stick with something like Micromat’s TechTool Pro Wipe Disk feature, which will also boot from DVD or USB.  Any one of these three tools will wipe the internal drive of your Mac completely clean.

Hardware-Based Accessories

You can always try booting your MacBook in target disk mode in order connect to the hard drive externally and securely wipe the internal hard drive.  However, wiping a drive clean may be difficult if the Mac that the drive is in no longer boots up.  There are two hardware accessories for sale at MacSales by NewerTech that can come in handy once you have decided to remove the hard drive from your old Mac.  If you only need to do this on a rare occasion, consider the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Universal Drive Adapter.  It supports both IDE and SATA formats for 5.25-inch, 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives.  If you are looking for a more permanent SATA solution, one that you can connect to via eSATA, then get the NewerTech Voyager hard drive dock.

If you happen to do this a lot, or if you are the go-to person when it comes to IT issues, you may consider investing in a hardware-based wipe solution to securely erase all of the hard drives you have to work with.  WiebeTech’s Drive eRaser Ultra will wipe your IDE and SATA drives clean and won’t lock up your Mac in the process as it is a standalone wipe accessory.

Physical Destruction

There are ways to render a hard drive completely useless to others through the means of bashing, grinding, shredding, incinerating and even exposing the raw elements of the drive to a phase transition by vaporizing all of its components.  Rather than try to handle this yourself by purchasing your own Model 22 HDD Hard Drive Disintegrator, there are services that will take care of this for you.

But even professional disintegration services recommend that you first perform your own due diligence by securely wiping off any private information before submitting the equipment to them for disposal.  One thing to look for when shopping around for such a service is to see if they are NAID Certified, if they offer an audit trail of the destruction process and will issue some sort of certificate of destruction.

Solid State Drives

This is all well and good provided you only have a traditional IDE or SATA hard drive that uses mechanical arms to read and write data off of rotating platters.  But what if you have a solid state drive (SSD), what then?  SSDs utilize a completely different technology that renders many of the above techniques ineffective.  The Non-Volatile Systems Laboratory of the University of California San Diego’s Computer Science and Engineering department has commenced a study to look at the effectiveness of various sanitizing techniques on SSDs. What researchers found was that a new approach to securely wiping a drive is needed.

The SSD’s wear-leveling technology, while designed to prolong the lifespan of the drive, makes it almost impossible to guarantee that a given file has been overwritten.  The implementation of many SSDs’ buffering technology, which was designed to help compensate for memory failures, also challenges many of the established erasure techniques.  The only recourse then is to always use full disk encryption on SSDs.  SSDs store the encryption keys in a Key Storage Area (KSA).  This KSA can be cleared to make the data that remains on the drive practically impossible to recover.  Some newer SSDs provide an “erase unit” command, but this has not been implemented uniformly across all drives and is not exposed in popular drive utility tools currently available to consumers.

When thinking about both your security as well as your backup strategy, think also of the reverse side of the equation — not just how can you continue to securely access your most private information, but also how can you prevent access to your private information by wiping it clean off of any device it has been stored on when you no longer want that device.  Paying attention to someone can access your files stored on old discarded computer equipment is key to any good security strategy.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Carrier IQ and the continued erosion of operator trust
• Mobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era

src='http://ads.gigaom.com/show/rss/'
alt=''
border='0'
/>

View full post on Apple

Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday reported its fiscal first-quarter earnings, which fell short of Wall Street’s expectations. Analysts expected the computer giant to pull in $30.75 billion and $0.87 per share, and while HP’s first-quarter earnings of $0.92 per share beat the Street’s consensus, revenue dipped 7% to $30 billion and missed estimates. “In the first quarter, we delivered on our Q1 outlook and remained focused on the fundamentals to drive long-term sustainable returns,” said HP president and CEO Meg Whitman. “We are taking the necessary steps to improve execution, increase effectiveness and capitalize on emerging opportunities to reassert HP’s technology leadership.” HP anticipates its second-quarter EPS to fall between $0.88 and $0.91, below Wall Street’s consensus of $0.95 per share. Read on for HP’s press release.

HP Reports First Quarter 2012 Results

PALO ALTO, CA–(Marketwire – Feb 22, 2012) – HP (NYSE: HPQ)
First quarter non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.92, down 32% from the prior-year period and above previously provided outlook of $0.83 to $0.86 per share

First quarter GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.73, down 38% from the prior-year period and above previously provided outlook of $0.61 to $0.64 per share

First quarter net revenue of $30.0 billion, down 7% from the prior-year period

Returned $1.0 billion in cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases
HP (NYSE: HPQ) today announced financial results for its first fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2012. For the quarter, net revenue of $30.0 billion was down 7% from the prior-year period, and down 8% when adjusted for the effects of currency.

GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) was $0.73, down 38% from the prior-year period. Non-GAAP diluted EPS was $0.92, down 32% from the prior-year period. First quarter non-GAAP earnings information excludes after-tax costs of $364 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, related to amortization of purchased intangible assets, restructuring charges and acquisition-related charges.

“In the first quarter, we delivered on our Q1 outlook and remained focused on the fundamentals to drive long-term sustainable returns,” said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. “We are taking the necessary steps to improve execution, increase effectiveness and capitalize on emerging opportunities to reassert HP’s technology leadership.”

Earnings highlights

Q1 FY12 Q1 FY11 Y/Y
GAAP net revenue ($B) $30.0 $32.3 (7%)
GAAP operating margin 6.8% 10.5% (3.7 pts)
GAAP net earnings ($B) $1.5 $2.6 (44%)
GAAP diluted EPS $0.73 $1.17 (38%)
Non-GAAP operating margin 8.6% 12.4% (3.8 pts)
Non-GAAP net earnings ($B) $1.8 $3.0 (40%)
Non-GAAP diluted EPS $0.92 $1.36 (32%)
Information about HP’s use of non-GAAP financial information is provided under “Use of non-GAAP financial information” below.

Trends and regional performance

In the Americas, first quarter revenue was $13.2 billion, down 9% year over year and down 8% when adjusted for the effects of currency. Europe, the Middle East and Africa revenue of $11.7 billion was down 4% year over year and down 5% when adjusted for the effects of currency. Revenue in Asia Pacific was $5.2 billion, representing a 10% decrease year over year and down 12% when adjusted for the effects of currency.
Revenue from outside of the United States in the first quarter accounted for 66% of total HP revenue. BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) generated revenue of $3.1 billion, down 13% from the year-ago period, and representing 10% of total HP revenue.

Revenue in HP’s commercial businesses declined 4% year over year. Revenue in HP’s consumer businesses, within PSG and IPG, was collectively down 23% year over year.
Business group results

Personal Systems Group (PSG) revenue declined 15% year over year with a 5.2% operating margin. Commercial client revenue declined 7%, Consumer client revenue declined 25% and Workstations revenue was flat. Total units were down 18%, with a 19% decline in desktop units and an 18% decline in notebook units.

Services revenue of $8.6 billion grew 1% year over year with a 10.5% operating margin. Technology Services revenue grew 2%, Application and Business Services revenue was flat and IT Outsourcing revenue grew 2% year over year.

Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) revenue declined 7% year over year with a 12.2% operating margin. Commercial hardware revenue was down 5% year over year with commercial printer units down 10%. Consumer hardware revenue was down 15% year over year with a 15% decline in printer units.

Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking (ESSN) revenue declined 10% year over year with an 11.2% operating margin. Networking revenue was flat, Industry Standard Servers revenue was down 11%, Business Critical Systems revenue was down 27% and Storage revenue was down 6% year over year.

Software revenue grew 30% year over year with a 17.1% operating margin, including the results of Autonomy. Software revenue was driven by 12% license growth, 22% support growth and 108% growth in services.

HP Financial Services revenue grew 15% year over year driven by an 8% increase in net portfolio assets and flat financing volume. The business delivered a 9.6% operating margin.
Asset management

HP generated $1.2 billion in cash flow from operations in the first quarter. Inventory ended the quarter at $7.3 billion, with days of inventory up 3 days year over year to 28 days. Accounts receivable of $15.9 billion was up 2 days year over year to 48 days. Accounts payable ended the quarter at $12.4 billion, down 2 days from the prior-year period at 48 days. HP’s dividend payment of $0.12 per share in the first quarter resulted in cash usage of $244 million. HP also utilized $780 million of cash during the quarter to repurchase approximately 29 million shares of common stock in the open market. HP exited the quarter with $8.2 billion in gross cash.
Outlook

For the second quarter of fiscal 2012, HP estimates non-GAAP diluted EPS to be in the range of $0.88 to $0.91 and GAAP diluted EPS to be in the range of $0.68 to $0.71.
Second quarter fiscal 2012 non-GAAP diluted EPS estimates exclude after-tax costs of approximately $0.20 per share, related primarily to the amortization of purchased intangible assets, restructuring charges and acquisition-related charges.

There is no change to HP’s previously provided full year fiscal 2012 outlook of non-GAAP diluted EPS of at least $4.00 and GAAP diluted EPS of approximately $3.20.
Full year fiscal 2012 non-GAAP diluted EPS estimates exclude after-tax costs of approximately $0.80 per share, related primarily to the amortization of purchased intangible assets, restructuring charges and acquisition-related charges.

As part of its annual financial review process, HP implemented several organizational realignments effective Q1 FY12. To provide improved visibility and comparability, HP has reflected these realignments in prior financial reporting periods on an as-if basis. These realignments resulted in, among other things, the transfer of revenue within and among various financial reporting segments and business units. The changes do not impact HP’s previously reported consolidated net revenue, earnings from operations, net earnings or earnings per share at the company level. To reflect these changes, HP released modified quarterly and annual consolidated condensed statements of earnings, segment financial results and statements of business unit revenue for fiscal 2010 and 2011, which are available on HP’s Investor Relations website at www.hp.com/investor/home.

View full post on BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech

Tom Martinez, the longtime personal coach to quarterback Tom Brady, has died at 67.

His wife, Olivia, told the San Mateo Daily Journal that he died Tuesday after suffering a heart attack while receiving dialysis treatment. The San Francisco Chronicle reported he died in Redwood City.

Tom Martinez worked with Brady when he was a teenager growing up in San Mateo, where Martinez coached at College of San Mateo. Their relationship continued during Brady’s NFL career.

Martinez told the San Francisco Chronicle before the Patriots’ Super Bowl matchup against the Giants this year that he always enjoyed working with Brady and watching him play.

Brady was equally complimentary, telling reporters before the Super Bowl that Martinez taught him how to throw a football, and he was “forever indebted” to him.

“He’s been a great friend of mine for a long time,” Brady said, adding that Martinez had been seeking a kidney for some time.

“A lot of people are looking for kidneys or some different type of transplants, but he’s very deserving,” Brady said. “He’s a great man.”

A spokesman for the Patriots said early Wednesday that Brady could not immediately be reached for comment. The team posted to Twitter late Tuesday, “Our sincere condolences go out to the Martinez family & all those he mentored throughout his incredible career.”

Click HERE to read the rest

View full post on NFL Gridiron Gab

Toyota has let slip a few additional teasers for the company’s FT-Bh concept headed to the Geneva Motor Show in March. As you may recall, the vehicle is an engineering study designed to evaluate what kind of emission reductions can be accomplished in the city car segment without resorting to exotic materials or science-fiction drivetrains. Toyota says the concept emits around 50 percent less CO2 than your run-of-the-mill supermini thanks in part to the fact that it tips the scales at a feathery 1,763 pounds.

The hybrid’s aerodynamic shape and efficient powertrain also contribute to the reduction. While the FT-Bh isn’t headed to production any time soon, there’s a good chance some of the vehicle’s tricks may show up on consumer models in the near future. Hit the jump to check out a short teaser video and the press release, and be sure to stay tuned for our live Geneva Motor Show coverage.

Continue reading Toyota releases new FT-Bh teasers ahead of Geneva

Toyota releases new FT-Bh teasers ahead of Geneva originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

View full post on Autoblog Concept Cars

Continue reading IRL: Nikon D90, myCharge Portable Power Bank 6000 and Phosphor’s World Time Sport

IRL: Nikon D90, myCharge Portable Power Bank 6000 and Phosphor’s World Time Sport originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

View full post on Engadget