Apple posts record revenues of $57.6 billion and net profits of $13.1bn for fiscal Q1 2014 (ending December 2013), while iPhone sales reach a quarterly record of 51 million units with 6.7% Y-o-Y growth.

However such numbers are not huge enough for the wolf that is Wall Street-- while technically a new record, the quarter's iPhone sales failed to reach analyst forecasts of 54.7m units, and as a result Apple stock prices tumbled by around -10%. To think Apple is only one of the most popular and successful brands in recent history!

Apple attributes such (relatively) low iPhone growth to contracting sales in the mature N. American market. The iPhone 5C was also a bit of a letdown, since as CEO Tim Cook puts it, "It was the first time we ever ran that [iPhone 5S and 5C] play, and demand percentage turned out to be different than we thought."

When running cables is not an option, Peerless-AV suggest you stream HD content wirelessly with their new HD Flow™ Pro Wireless Multimedia Kit (HDS200).

To be shown at ISE 2014, this professional wireless workhorse streams Full HD 1080p and passive 3D signals up to 131ft (40m) to an HDTV, projector or any other display. For new installations and retrofits alike, this kit is a project-saving tool for professional AV integrators for both commercial and residential applications.

With five (5) inputs and the ability to multicast to up to 4 displays, Peerless-AV says it transmits through walls and ceilings for multi-room streaming capability. The HD Flow™ Pro (802.11n) private network resists interference and network sharing from nearby wireless routers Continue reading...

AMD uses CES 2014 to show the capabilities of Mullins, the low-power successor to tablet APU Temash, with concept devices-- the Discovery Project tablet and a pair of mini PC reference designs.

Readers with longer memories should remember Discovery from the first details leaked on November 2013. As seen at CES, the tablet is a slim device designed around expansion via DockPort technology. A productivity dock turns the tablet into a second PC display, while a gaming cradle adds analogue sticks, face buttons and shoulder triggers.

Equally interesting are the two nano-PCs found at the AMD stand-- one the size of a mailing envelope and the other a mite larger than a Galaxy Note 3. Both manage to run Windows 8.1, and pack a 256GB SSD, camera, Bluetooth, wifi and a DockPort connector.

The Intel CES 2014 keynote was all about wearables, with CEO Brian Krzanch revealing new chips to power such devices and a variety of reference designs for anything from smart earbuds to an Intel-powered baby onesie.

Chipzilla even wants wearables to look good, so it will collaborate with fashionistas from Barneys New York, the Council of Fashion Designers of America and Opening Ceremony. Their aim? To "explore and bring to market new smart wearable technologies, and to increase dialogue and cooperation between the fashion and technology industries."

Powering all is Edison, a computer the size of an SD card. It carries a dual-core Quark SoC and built-in wireless capabilities (wifi, Bluetooth), and supports multiple operating systems.

"Wearables are not everywhere today because they aren't yet solving real problems and they aren't yet integrated with our lifestyles," Krzanich says. "We're focused on addressing this engineering innovation challenge. Our goal is, if something computes and connects, it does it best with Intel inside."

Bloomberg reports Google considers designing own server processors based on ARM technology-- potential bad news to Intel, since it makes an estimated 4.3% of revenues from the selling of processors to the search giant.

According an anonymous source with "knowledge of the matter" own hardware would improve the management of hardware-software interactions, as well as allow the addition of custom IP and accelerators. However the source says the company has made no decisions on the matter, and plans might change.

“We are actively engaged in designing the world’s best infrastructure,” a Google spokesperson tells Bloomberg in reply to the report. “This includes both hardware design (at all levels) and software design.”

HP fiscal Q4 2013 revenues reach $39.1 billion with a 3% Y-o-Y drop-- better than expected results as HP Enterprise Group sales manage to turn around by growing by 2% Y-o-Y to $7.59 billion.

Overall fiscal 2013 revenue reaches $112.3bn with a 7% decline, while Q4 2013 cash flow drops by -31% Y-o-Y to $2.8bn.

Personal systems revenue drop by -2% Y-o-Y during Q4 2013, with a 4% increase in commercial revenues and a -10% decline in the consumer revenues. Total unit shipments grow by 2%, as split by a -5% decline in desktops and 3% rise on notebooks.

Meanwhile printing revenues fall by -1% Y-o-Y.

Acer founder Stan Shih exits retirement and takes place as company chairman and interim corporate president few weeks after the stepping down of CEO J.T. Wang and corporate president Jim Wong.

The board also dumps the CEO position from Acer hierarchy, placing leadership in the hands of the chairman or president in order to "boost... decision-making efficiency"-- thus effectively returning the company to its founder, if for the time being.

J.T. Wang and Jim Wong will stick around as advisers during the "transfer of the management team."

“Due to the situation that now faces Acer and my personal social responsibilities, I must stand up and take the reign without salary," Shih says. "I will also fully support Acer’s ICT device business and carry out the company transformation."

Various devices currently get 3 versions of Windows-- 8, RT and Phone. However Microsoft head of devices July Larson-Green suggests the company might merge the three operating systems into a single, ultimate, version of Windows.

"One Windows to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them," as Tolkien might have put it if he were writing about the IT industry and not elves and hobbits...

Speaking at the 2013 UBS Global Technology Conference, Larson-Green says "We have the Windows Phone OS. We have Windows RT and we have full Windows. We're not going to have three."

Such plans for convergence of major products makes sense following the massive Microsoft management reshuffle of June 2013 creating the so-called "One Microsoft." As part of the reorganisation work on Windows across console, mobile and PC now falls to new OS engineering group headed by former Windows Phone group leader Terry Myerson.