Week in review: Has the crunch caught up with IT?

Poor Dell profits spark concern over tech sector

The IT sector has been largely unaffected by the much reported credit crunch', but as Dell posts heavily reduced profits it seems that reality is starting to bite the bytes. Dell's profits have dropped some 17 per cent since this time last year and shares dropped 10 per cent on the news.

Sony boss mulling Ericsson venture

Sony Ericsson has been hitting the headlines recently for all the wrong reasons, with profits dropping at the once successful mobile phone joint venture. The problem is that its starting to drag Sony down with it, leading Sony's chief executive Howard Stringer to make some revealing comments about the future of the venture in a recent interview.

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LG launches X110 Netbook

Netbooks are now becoming ten-a-penny, at least in availability if not in price, as indicated by LG jumping on the budget laptop bandwagon. This is surprising as LG doesn't produce laptops and PCs, but is known mainly for its mobiles. If LG can bring some of its stylish design to the party it could be on to something.

Apple ticked off over misleading' iPhone ad

Oh dear, Apple's been telling porkie pies. Again. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has been baring its teeth by upholding a complaint that Apple's iPhone advert is misleading. It agreed that the ad mislead viewers by suggesting that users could access the entire internet with an iPhone, when in fact sites that use Flash or Java are in fact not properly viewable on the device. Pernickety, but really quite true.

New iPhone firmware leads to huge security blunder

More bad news for Apple, as it's revealed that the much vaunted new security features of the iPhone can easily be bypassed. Pressing the Emergency Call' button from the passcode entry screen gives you access to Favourites, and from here other applications making the passcode rather pointless. Have Apple's enterprise credentials gone up in smoke, or did it not have any in the first place?

Benny Har-Even is a twenty-year stalwart of technology journalism who is passionate about all areas of the industry, but telecoms and mobile and home entertainment are among his chief interests. He has written for many of the leading tech publications in the UK, such as PC Pro and Wired, and previously held the position of technology editor at ITPro before regularly contributing as a freelancer.

Known affectionately as a ‘geek’ to his friends, his passion has seen him land opportunities to speak about technology on BBC television broadcasts, as well as a number of speaking engagements at industry events.