Dell struggles as founder prepares for vote on going private

Dell has reported second quarter revenue of $14.5bn, flat year on year, with a continued decline in PC sales.

For its  fiscal 2014 second quarter results, the company’s Enterprise Solutions, Services and Software (ES&S) division reported  revenue of $5.8bn, a 9% increase year on year, boosted by  the $2.4bn acquisition of Quest Software. But in the End User Computing division, revenue was down 5% compared to the same period last year.

Operating income for the quarter was $205m, a 71% decrease. Dell desktop and thin client revenue increased 1%, mobility revenue declined 10% and revenue for software from third parties and peripherals declined 5%.

The company’s founder Michael Dell has partnered with private equity firm Silver Lake in a bid to take Dell private. Shareholders will be asked to vote on the deal on 12 September. But activist investor Carl Icahn is against the plan, and has launched a legal challenge relating to how shareholders that abstain from voting are counted.

“In a challenging environment, we remain committed to our strategy and our customers, and we’re encouraged by increasing customer interest in our end-to-end solutions offerings and continued growth in our enterprise solutions, services and software businesses,” said Brian Gladden, Dell chief financial officer.

The latest figures for PC shipments across Western Europe from Gartner showed that year-on-year the market had declined by 19.8% to 10.9 million units being sold, with desktops and laptops down in both business and consumer categories. Dell is the second biggest PC company in the UK. According to Gartner, its market share declined 1.2% during the second quarter.

Paypal founder Elon Musk unveils 760mph transport concept

Elon Musk has unveiled a near-supersonic transport concept to link Los Angeles and San Francisco, cutting the 380-mile journey to less than half an hour.

The blueprints reveal how the US-based billionaire wants to use magnets and fans to fire passenger-carrying capsules floating on a cushion of air through pressurised tubes. The plans were released as part a 57-page document outlining the project.

"Short of figuring out real teleportation, which would of course be awesome ... the only option for super-fast travel is to build a tube over or under the ground that contains a special environment," he wrote.

The SpaceX, Tesla and Paypal founder said the capsules would travel at speeds of up to 760mph or nearly the speed of sound. Musk claimed the solar-powered shuttle would be a quicker, safer, cheaper, and more efficient mode of transport between Los Angeles and San Francisco than the high-speed train line that is currently being built.

The pods could arrive every 30 seconds and even accommodate cars onboard.

Last week Musk described the concept as a cross between a "Concorde, a railgun, and an air hockey table".

He said on a conference call that passengers in the cabins would experience a little bit more than the force of gravity and compared the experience to being on an aeroplane as opposed to a rollercoaster.

He said the concept would work best between destinations less than 1,000km, adding that anything beyond that would be more suited to supersonic air travel.

In order to avoid minimal disputes over land, Musk envisions building the project on an elevated platform alongside an existing Californian motorway. He said the structure holding it up would be designed to withstand earthquakes.

Musk estimated that linking the two Californian cities in this way would cost $6bn (£3.9bn) and said fares could be in the region of about $20 (£13) for a one-way ticket.

Musk has said he is currently too busy to develop the project himself and is therefore making it “open source” so that anyone can improve it, or try to create it.

Pirate Bay founder working on spy-proof text messaging app

Internet, if you didn’t know already, the government is watching! In a move to shoo big digital brother off your back, Peter Sunde, the co-founder of the copyright-be-damned torrent network The Pirate Bay, is raising funds to create what he promises to be a “totally secure” mobile messaging app.

The app, known as Heml.is will use end-to-end encryption so that messages will only be accessible by the sender and intended recipient. Messages will be encrypted with keys generated on the end user devices so that the service provider won’t have access to the plaintext information.

The app will be built with Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) for communication and Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) for encryption. Sunde, however promised that “we’re basing the technology on PGP, not saying it’s JUST PGP,” adding that more techno details will be revealed in upcoming weeks.

Heml.isPeter Sunde doesn't want the
government to read your texts.
But what makes this system different from other encrypted messaging systems? “There aren’t many options for secure mobile messaging,” Sunde said. “There are secure applications, but not entire systems that could be considered secure. There are questions hanging over the infrastructure those applications are running on and the country in which that infrastructure is located.

“We’re unfortunately the only group that is focusing on the whole picture, not just the technology,” he said.

It should be noted that the term “hemlis” is Swedish for “secret,” but also happens to incorporate .is, the top-level domain for Iceland, a nation known to be sympathetic to digital security concerns.

According to Heml.is’ FAQ, “there will not be any way for someone without access to your phone to read anything.” An interested party will only gain access to your messages if they gain access to your phone.

Sunde and company plan to launch the new app for both iOS and Android, and will release it “when it’s done.” The project is currently accepting donations in the form of PayPal or Bitcoin through its website and, as of writing this, has already raised $47,868 of its $100k goal.

Once released, the app will be free and not ad supported, though Sunde comments that “We’re going to nag people for money. We need to make sure that people know that we can’t do this without their money, and we can’t do ads or other funding besides getting money directly from the users, since it would compromise their safety as well.”

Himl.isA surprisingly design-minded mock-up.
Users who donate early to the app’s development will receive codes to unlock “extended features” in the app such as the ability to transmit images. Future users will also be able to purchase these features once the app is released.

To the company’s credit, the app will not just be pushed towards techno-libertarians, and will attempt to reach a broader audience. The company’s tagline is “The Beautiful & Secure Messenger,” meaning that the company is not only interested in the security features, but will also invest in the app’s design.

Early mock-ups of the app take a very flat, colorful iOS 7 approach to design. It actually looks modern and accessible. The company promises that Heml.is is “a messenger for everyone, so we are dedicated to create the most user-friendly messenger ever.”

We’ll see how Heml.is translates beyond the small band of dedicated privacy advocates. Unfortunately, as history has shown, the public tends to get all riled up about security monitoring when issues arise, but eventually forgoes the outrage in exchange for convenience. How many are really taking the time to secure our PCs, when it’s so much easier to just trust that Apple, Google, and Facebook aren’t doing anything too unseemly with our digital lives.

Twitter founder uses phone during takeoff

Twitter creator Jack Dorsey recently tweeted a Vine video he recorded while his plane took off from San Francisco.

Wait, what was that last one?

Dorsey appears to have recorded the takeoff from his seat on the airplane -- which would be directly in conflict with what flight attendants always instruct passengers to do: power down anything with an on/off switch during takeoffs and landings.

Dorsey, who know is is the CEO of mobile payments company Square, did not reply to requests for comment. But a possible rule change could mean that passengers no longer need to heed the warning anyway.

Currently the Federal Aviation Administration prohibits the use of most personal electronic devices on airplanes during takeoff and landings, or whenever the plane is flying lower than 10,000 feet. That goes for both commercial and private planes, although a catchall in the regulation says it's ultimately up to the operator of the airplane to decide what devices to prohibit.

The agency has long claimed that using those devices during takeoff poses a safety issue and that radio signals emitted from electronic devices could interfere with an aircraft's communications.

But FAA officials know that it's not only Dorsey who uses mobile devices when the plane is flying at low altitude. Sixty-nine percent of adult passengers reportedly use a portable device during flights and almost one-third of passengers say they have accidentally left their device on, according to a recent study by the Airline Passenger Experience Association and the Consumer Electronics Association.

The agency created a committee last year to test what kind of devices might be OK for passengers to use on board in those situations. A draft of the committee's report, obtained by The Wall Street Journal, recommends the FAA to relax its ban on using some types of personal electronic devices. This could apply to e-readers and MP3 players -- but not cell phones, which travelers still won't be able to use to make calls at any time during flights.

Related story: The FCC wants to make in-flight Wi-Fi less awful

"The FAA recognizes consumers are intensely interested in the use of personal electronics aboard aircraft," said an FAA spokesman in a prepared statement. "That is why we tasked a government-industry group to examine the safety issues and the feasibility of changing the current restrictions."

The committee, which first met in January, was given six months to make its recommendations, but the FAA said it is willing to wait another two months for the safety assessment before moving forward.

This week's news of a possible rule change is not too surprising. The Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski has publicly advocated for the FAA to relax its rules on electronic device use in the past.

"It shows that people have an insatiable demand to be connected these days," said Michael Small, the CEO of in-flight Wi-Fi provider GoGo (GOGO). "In even those few minutes before takeoff they want to be on their device" he said.