We’ve already seen quite a few companies lower their forecasts in the wake of the Thailand floods and subsequent hard drive shortage, and it unsurprisingly looks like Intel is no exception. The company issued a press release today advising that its fourth quarter revenue is now expected to come in at $13.7 billion, plus or minus $300 million, and not $14.7 billion (plus or minus $500 million) as previously expected. If you do the math, that means the company is taking around a $1 billion hit in revenue, due largely to a reduction in the worldwide PC supply chain that’s led to a drop in processor purchases. According to Intel, thing should begin to turn around in the fourth quarter, when it expects computer sales to be “up sequentially,” although it notes that hard drive shortages are expected to continue into the first quarter, with a recovery anticipated to take place over the first half of 2012.

Ready to kick off Monday with some iOS flashing? Excellent, because Apple’s just released the second beta of iOS 5.1, lovingly christened 9B5127c. No Cupertino devices at Engadget HQ have taken the plunge, but as noted by MacRumors, the beta enables individual picture deletion from Photo Stream — which differs from the existing delete all or nothing implementation. Too early to tell if it’ll finally squash any lingering battery bugs once and for all, but you can hit Apple’s developer website to get your download on — just be ready for the next one in two weeks, cool?

SOURCE via Apple

Pancakes? No problem. Cookies? You got it! Sandwich? …is there a Subway nearby? Why robots have such a hard time slapping meat and cheese on bread is beyond us, but we’re glad the crack team at the Technical University of Munich has finally figured out how to teach them. The dynamic duo of James and Rosie don’t exactly blaze through their task of making a sandwich and some popcorn, but at least they’re nice enough to toast the bread for your salami- and cheese-based chow. As usual, the moves here are not preprogrammed, the two bots make decisions on the fly based on a complex “reasoning” mechanism and data it can cull from a Kinect. Check out the videos below to watch two carefully construct a simple, layered lunch. Read more…

Yes, that awesome new 8-core chip in your PC is the fastest thing on the block, but it’s got your utility meter spinning accordingly. Fortunately, researchers from Penn State have come up with a new high performance transistor that may turn future chips from power hogs into current-sipping silicon. The group, in cooperation with semiconductor manufacturer IQE, has created a high-performance transistor capable of significantly reducing power demand whether it’s idle or switching. Doctoral candidate Dheeraj Mohata’s the one who made it happen by inventing an alternative to traditional MOSFET (metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors) technology capable of turning on and off using far less power. Mohata’s method uses a tunneling field effect transistor crafted from dissimilar semiconductor materials to provide instant on-off capability at 300 millivolts — compared to MOSFET’s one volt requirement — to provide a power savings of 70 percent. You can dig deeper into the technical transistor details at the source, but all you really need to know is that the ladies love a PC with paltry power consumption.

SOURCE via Penn State University

AllThingsD is reporting that Microsoft is replacing Andy Lees as head of its Windows Phone division… sort of. It looks like Terry Myerson, who has headed up engineering efforts for the group, will take over many of Lees’ responsibilities, though, he won’t be inheriting his title. At least not just yet.

In a memo seen by AllThingsD, Ballmer announced that Lees would be taking on a new position with the company, though it’s not entirely clear what that might be — describing it only as “time-critical” and “focused on driving maximum impact in 2012 with Windows Phone and Windows 8.” (So, it’s safe to assume he’s not becoming a janitor.) The shakeup isn’t terribly surprising, especially considering the CEO’s own admission that Windows Phone 7 was not performing as well as expected in the market.

The divisions interim leader, Myerson, has been with Microsoft since 1997 and previously headed up the team in charge of Exchange. For now he will continue to report to Lees, who will remain the president of the Windows Phone group, even if that is in name only.

SOURCE via All Things D

We’ve seen plenty of sci-fi movies where the actors pressed a button, and a projection keyboard appears in front of them, and they just type away as if there’s a real keyboard. Looks cool right? Well, have you ever thought that such advance technology may actually surface in this age? Actually, this cool technology has already arrived, thanks to Celluon Magic Cube Laser Projection Keyboard and Touch Pad. Yes, real projection that projects out a virtual keyboard and touchpad which actually works! Read more…