Archive for the ‘Software’ Category

Intuit Inc. on Thursday said strong sales of its tax-preparation software helped lift its fiscal second-quarter profit 34 percent and beat Wall Street’s forecast. The company also raised its forecasts for full-year revenue and profit.

Intuit reported net income of $114 million, or 35 cents per share, for the three months that ended Jan. 31, up from a profit of $85 million, or 26 cents per share, in the period a year earlier.

Seeing that Turbo Tax is selling everywhere you go, it’s no wonder their profits are up.

Attention Blackberry owners, you can now read books on your teeny tiny little screens.

Amazon.com said on Thursday it is launching a new free Kindle application that will give customers access to over 420,000 books on a range of BlackBerry devices.

Called “Kindle for Blackberry”, the free application allows customers using BlackBerry devices on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and other U.S. carriers easy wireless access to Kindle books, most for $9.99 or less.

I’ll stick with my iPhone, thanks.

Python 2.7, expected to be the last major version in the 2.x series of the dynamic language, was released as a second alpha earlier this month by the Python Software Foundation, with the final release set for June.

Two beta version of Python 2.7 and two release candidates are expected in the meantime, said Steve Holden, chairman of the foundation, on Thursday.

I love Python.

Python is one of those scripting languages that you don’t need a heavy dose of lipozene to get through if you’re reading code someone else wrote.

When it comes to laptops, we all need power and convenience in one small package.

Have a laptop or netbook and want to get more out of it? You’re not alone. We’ve experienced the frustration of trying to keep data or bookmarks on a portable synchronized with those of a desktop PC or other laptops. We’ve struggled with diminishing battery life. We’ve needed assistance getting connected at hotspots or staying safe once online. And we’ve wondered how to take full advantage of USB flash drives.

Check out the Yahoo! tech site for 10 free downloads that might make your life much easier.

When you’ve walked a mile in worn out shoes, it only makes sense that you pass on a few tips for the next guy. It’s nice to see the guys from Canonical helping out with the new Chrome OS, under contract of course. If you’re going to help you may as well get some new shoes while you’re at it. I wonder if those shoes will be Naot?

Google has an important ally in its newly revealed Chrome OS. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu–one of the more user-friendly versions of Linux around–has agreed to contribute engineering to the project, under contract.

I can’t believe it took this long for this to play out. It only makes sense that it would end this way. It makes you wonder if the executives at Psystar could have looked better if they had tried to burn fat rather than provoke Apple.

Psystar can’t catch a break. After spending more than a year in a legal battle with Apple for selling Intel based systems pre-loaded with Mac OS X, the company lost its battle on Friday when a federal judge ruled in favor of Apple.

Apparently the federal government doesn’t support companies violating copyright law, EULA restrictions, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act — too bad for Psystar.

I was sitting here working tonight, wishing I could get a new receipt printer to use with my billing software, and I saw this come across my reader.

As an avid iPhone user, and someone who runs several WordPress blogs, I am happy to see this latest release from Automattic.

WordPress 2 for iPhone is now available for downloads in the App Store. The new app is packed with lots of features

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Please note: The WordPress for iPhone 2 is a completely new application. If you are using a older version of WordPress app for iPhone, you will not be able to upgrade it, you will have to download the new application instead. You can safely remove the older version of the app, once you have installed version 2.0.

Awesome stuff man.

I use Firefox for everything. On my PC and my Mac, Firefox is my browser of choice. I use it for everything from ordering pizza to looking at truck accessories.

Mozilla developers have blocked a Firefox plugin that was quietly pushed out by Microsoft, saying that it presents a security risk.

It makes you wonder how bad the plugin has to be in order for Firefox to pull it without warning.

What will happen to the browser wars when Microsoft has to open it up to choice?

Microsoft Corp. will offer computer users a choice of Web browsers to ward off new European Union antitrust fines, EU regulators said Friday.

The European Commission has charged the company with monopoly abuse for tying the Internet Explorer browser to the Windows operating system installed on most of the world’s desktop computers.

Only time will tell, but I bet Internet Explorer won’t be on the top of the heap much longer.

If Intuit makes PayCycle as fun to use as QuickBooks (cough) people are sure to love it.

Intuit has agreed to buy online payroll provider PayCycle for US$170 million in a move to expand its software-as-a-service offerings for smaller businesses, Intuit said Tuesday.

PayCycle is based in Palo Alto, California, and provides online payroll services to about 85,000 small businesses in the U.S. It was founded in 1999 by two former Intuit employees and says its mission is to “make paper-based payroll obsolete.”

PayCycle already integrates with Intuit’s QuickBooks software. It is also offered as an option with Microsoft’s competing Money software, and it was unclear Tuesday if that will still be the case after Intuit completes its acquisition.

Do they really think they will continue to offer support to Money much longer? Come on…