Week in review: Premature death notice for 3D movies; Just wait until 'Tron Legacy'

News reports recently have pointed to signs that interest in 3-D movies is waning.
But their interpretation of box-office figures is somewhat flawed. Also, the stories fail to take into account event movies like Disney’s upcoming “Tron Legacy,” set for release in December.
The following is a roundup of my stories last week from Investor’s Business Daily at Investors.com and Click, IBD’s Tech Blog.

Money grows on Ancestry.com’s family trees. (July 30, 2010)

iRobot terminates Wall Street’s estimates with better-than-expected Q2 results. (July 29, 2010)

Microsoft pledges “all in” commitment to cloud computing. Says it’s taking business from IBM, Google and Novell. (July 29, 2010)

Four-week delay for renting new-release movies from Fox and Universal hurts Redbox’s Q2 sales. (July 29, 2010)

LogMeIn logs better-than-expected Q2 results, but loses Intel partnership. (July 29, 2010)

Reports of the death of 3-D movies are premature. Wait until Disney’s “Tron Legacy” comes out this December. (July 28, 2010)

Prevalence of iPhone jail-breaking likely overstated. (July 27, 2010)

Week in review: Microsoft, Apple and booth babes are in the news

Actually two weeks in review, so I’m playing catch-up.
The following is a roundup of my stories from Investor’s Business Daily at Investors.com and Click, IBD’s Tech Blog.

Can the iPad and online subscriptions save newspapers? (June 4, 2010)

Converting customers from free to fee. Best practices of Netflix, Ancestry.com and LogMeIn. (June 4, 2010)

Booth babes! Tech expos continue to use sexy ladies to attract visitors in the male-dominated industry. (June 4, 2010)

Most iPhone users won't pay more with the new AT&T data plans. (June 3, 2010)

Microsoft doesn’t see Google as a serious threat to its Office productivity suite. Microsoft has high hopes for Office 2010. (June 2, 2010)

Sonic Solutions places a big bet on online video with its purchase of DivX. (June 2, 2010)

Monotype Imaging wants to make the Web more attractive. The company is launching a cloud-based service to deliver fonts to websites. (June 1, 2010)

Microsoft’s Bing search engine turns 1 this week. So how's it doing? (June 1, 2010)

Apple sells 2 million iPads; P.T. Barnum would be proud. (June 1, 2010)

Apple is facing antitrust scrutiny for its music and mobile apps businesses. Analysts think Apple is in the clear. (May 26, 2010)

Another executive shakeup at Microsoft. CEO Steve Ballmer is most concerned about the company’s mobile device unit. (May 25, 2010)

Notebook PC sales are on fire. Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer benefit. (May 25, 2010)

Photo: Booth babes at the Computex trade show in Taipei from gallery by TechwareLabs. 

Week in review: Top 10 tech rivalries today

The technology industry has seen a lot of fierce rivalries over the years and some big ones are raging right now.
Investor’s Business Daily just published its list of the top 10 tech rivalries today. At No. 1 is Apple vs. Google, followed by HP vs. Cisco and Apple vs. Adobe Systems.
The following is a roundup of my stories from Investor’s Business Daily at Investors.com and Click, IBD’s Tech Blog.

Top 10 tech company grudge matches today: Apple vs. Google, HP vs. Cisco, etc. See who makes the list. (April 30, 2010)

Activision counters EA move by snagging “Halo” developers. (April 30, 2010)

Dolby earnings sound sweet to investors. Shares up on Q2 sales and earnings beat. (April 30, 2010)

Ancestry.com, iRobot and LogMeIn jump on upbeat earnings reports. (April 29, 2010)

Apple’s iPad 3G launch is a big test for the tablet computer and its emerging usage model. Is the iPad mostly for use at home or on the go? (April 29, 2010)

Redbox takes home video market share from fading Blockbuster. (April 29, 2010)

Dolby Laboratories likes the sound of the PC sales rebound. (April 26, 2010)

Photo: Because of Apple’s rivalry with Adobe, Adobe’s Flash video and animation software is not supported on Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad. Web surfers on those devices see blank spaces with blue Lego bricks where Flash was supposed to be.
The website, The Blue Lego: The World Without Flash, has posted a series of images with the blue Lego superimposed to show something missing. The above photo of Apple CEO Steve Jobs with a blue Lego is a good example.

Week in review: iRobot ramps up military robot production; Tech firms seek Olympic gold

Athletes are pursuing gold medals at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver this month and sponsors are hoping to boost their brands by affiliation with the games.
Acer, Atos Origin, Panasonic and Samsung are worldwide Olympic sponsors. The four companies are in British Columbia to entertain potential clients and showcase their technology products.
Also this week, iRobot, the company best known for its Roomba vacuum-cleaner robot, outlined its plans to increase production of robots for the U.S. military. It already has delivered 3,000 such robots for use in reconnaissance and bomb detection and disposal missions.
The following is a roundup of my stories from Investor’s Business Daily at Investors.com and Click, IBD’s Tech Blog.

Samsung, Panasonic, Acer and Atos Origin seek Olympic branding gold in Vancouver. (Feb. 19, 2010)

Dell defends its consumer PC business performance. (Feb. 19, 2010)

Logitech, Panasonic, Best Buy and others see big opportunities in the home video surveillance gear market. Best Buy is test marketing home video security gear in its stores. (Feb. 18, 2010)

Dell still unable to resume profit growth. But sales in Q4 rose for the first time in six quarters. (Feb. 18, 2010)

iRobot is ramping up its military robot production. (Feb. 18, 2010)

LogMeIn predicts boost from Apple’s iPad. (Feb. 18, 2010)

Redbox blindsides customers planning to rent “The Blind Side.” (Feb. 17, 2010)

From spy gear for kids to dog collars that post pet activity on Twitter, toy makers are using more tech. (Feb. 16, 2010)

Coinstar's Redbox caves to Warner Bros., agrees to delay DVD rentals. (Feb. 16, 2010)

Mattel’s latest toy discriminates against cats. The fur will fly when cat lovers find out. (Feb. 16, 2010)

Photo: iRobot’s SUGV 320 robot climbing stairs