Tag Archives: AV

AeroVironment Lands $13.8 Million Army Contract

By Rich Smith, The Motley Fool

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California-based AeroVironment continues its relentless march — or the airborne equivalent of a march — to raking in every last cent of the $65.5 million the Pentagon has awarded it to produce unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the U.S. Army.

On Wednesday, the drone maker announced the Army has released $13.8 million in incremental funding to pay for additional RQ-11B Raven small UAVs, Mantis miniature gimbaled payloads (i.e. upgraded video cameras), and spare parts. That’s roughly 5% of the amount of revenues AeroVironment collected in all of last year.

The Raven, probably AV‘s most famous product, is a 4.5-pound UAV that can be carried in a soldier’s backpack, and launched by tossing it in the air. It then sends day and nighttime real-time video imagery back to a ground controller wirelessly for “over the hill” and “around the corner” data to permit small tactical units to conduct local reconnaissance. 

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The article AeroVironment Lands $13.8 Million Army Contract originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Rich Smith has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends AeroVironment. The Motley Fool owns shares of AeroVironment. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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AVG Technologies Supports All New Languages in Facebook's AV Marketplace

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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AVG Technologies Supports All New Languages in Facebook’s AV Marketplace

AMSTERDAM & SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)– AVG Technologies N.V. (NYS: AVG) , the provider of Internet and mobile security to 146 million active users, today announced it will support all seven new languages in Facebook’s (NAS: FB) new, multilingual AV marketplace. Facebook® announced new languages today including French, German, Italian, Japanese, (South) Korean, (Brazilian) Portuguese and Spanish.

“Facebook has always been committed to supporting its global user base with the same powerful tools we provide here in the US,” said Joe Sullivan, chief security officer of Facebook. “Protection for a user’s device and account are of paramount importance to us, so it’s only natural we’d expand language support for our AV Marketplace. AVG has proven its ability to protect Internet users from a wide range of threats. Based on the company’s preexisting global reach, AVG was able to support our language expansion in an immediate and seamless manner.”

Signature features for AVG AntiVirus FREE 2013 include award-winning virus, threat and malware detection; prevention of spying and data theft; PC performance enhancement; and 24/7 customer support. The software also offers proactive alerts on suspicious activity with a one-click fix.

“Malware knows no borders,” said Tony Anscombe, AVG‘s senior security evangelist. “AVG is therefore thrilled to see Facebook proactively bolstering its service by localizing the AV Marketplace. To the extent that AVG already supports numerous languages, we will remain in lock step with Facebook as the service continues to grow.”

For more information, please visit www.AVG.com.

About AVG Technologies (NYSE: AVG)

AVG‘s mission is to simplify, optimize and secure the Internet experience, providing peace of mind to a connected world. AVG‘s powerful yet easy-to-use software and online services put users in control of their Internet experience. By choosing AVG‘s software and services, users become part of a trusted global community that benefits from inherent network effects, mutual protection and support. AVG has grown its user base to 146 million active users as of December 31, 2012 and offers a product portfolio that targets the consumer and small business markets and includes Internet security, PC performance optimization, online backup, mobile security, identity protection and family safety software.

www.avg.com

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Panasonic Expands National Cooperative Purchasing Agreement to Include Toughpad Tablets

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Panasonic Expands National Cooperative Purchasing Agreement to Include Toughpad Tablets

National IPA Contract for Public Agencies Streamlines Procurement Process for Panasonic Toughpad™ Family of Rugged Enterprise-Grade Tablets

SECAUCUS, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Panasonic System Communications Company of North America, a leading provider of technology solutions for government and public safety agencies, today announced an amendment by the City of Tucson, AZ to the contract available through the National Intergovernmental Purchasing Alliance Company (National IPA) to include the Toughpad™ family of rugged, reliable enterprise-grade tablets. With this addition, public and nonprofit agencies across the country have a new, efficient method to purchase Panasonic’s industry-leading family of tablet computers built for jobs that demand reliable and secure technology able to withstand challenging conditions – including law enforcement and first responders, field inspectors and medical professionals.

The National IPA works with public and nonprofit agencies and municipalities to competitively solicit national contracts for aggregated use, realizing significant time and cost savings. Through these publicly solicited and competitively awarded cooperative purchasing agreements, public agencies, municipalities and educational institutions benefit from national pricing and a simplified process while remaining compliant with procurement procedures. Panasonic is adding the Toughpad family of tablets to a full line of technology solutions currently available through the existing agreement with National IPA that was awarded by the City of Tucson. The full range of products include professional displays and digital signage, projectors, professional video cameras and AV equipment, video teleconferencing, scanners, whiteboards, mounts, security and surveillance products and antennas, Toughbook™ mobile computers and Arbitrator® 360° mobile digital video systems.

Each of Panasonic’s Toughpad tablets features a MIL-STD-810G all-weather IP65 dust- and water-resistant design, and is able to survive a drop of 4 feet or more. They also offer daylight-viewable screens, long-life batteries, wireless connectivity options, enhanced security and the industry’s most comprehensive 3-year warranty. Toughpad tablets are ideal for a host of demanding usage scenarios, including inventory control, eForms, field sales, field service, route delivery, eCitations, electronic medical records, inspections, mobile point-of-sales and Geographic Information Systems.

Panasonic’s Toughpad family of rugged and reliable tablets includes:

  • Toughpad FZ-G1: A lightweight, fully-rugged 10-inch tablet featuring Windows® 8 Pro
  • Toughpad JT-B1: a 7-inch easy-to-carry, easy-to-see rugged Android™-powered tablet
  • …read more
    Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

DaVita Receives National Award for Patient Safety Efforts

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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DaVita Receives National Award for Patient Safety Efforts

Renal Physicians Association recognizes innovative clinical practices

NEW ORLEANS–(BUSINESS WIRE)– On March 15, DaVita®, a division of DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. (NYS: DVA) and a leading provider of kidney care services, was recognized with the Patient Safety Improvement Award during the Renal Physician Association’s (RPA) annual meeting for the company’s innovative CathAwayTM program.

Each year RPA acknowledges a pioneering initiative to improve the safety of patients with end-stage renal disease. Awardees are selected by a committee of physicians, patients and health care professionals.

Dialysis requires access to the patient’s vascular system, and some access methods are more prone to infection than others. CathAway’s mission is straightforward: eliminate infection-prone central venous catheters (CVCs) and replace them with functioning arteriovenous (AV) fistulas or grafts for safe and effective dialysis treatments.

Since its inception in 2008, nearly 12,000 fewer DaVita patients are dialyzing with CVCs.

“We’re so pleased with CathAway’s outcomes and how we’ve been able to help improve the quality of life of thousands of patients,” said DaVita Chief Medical Officer Allen R. Nissenson, M.D., F.A.C.P., who accepted the award on behalf of DaVita. “By decreasing CVC use, we have also helped patients avoid serious complications, including infection, which often result in hospitalization and contribute to mortality. Not only are the clinical benefits of CVC elimination substantial, but the total costs of health care are decreased—a significant savings to taxpayers.”

DaVita’s clinical team also instituted a series of efforts to keep patients from reverting to CVCs because of thrombosis (clotting) while dialyzing with fistulas and grafts. These efforts included emphasizing the link between clinical goals and patient safety in both internal and external communications; reaching out to physicians through educational seminars that include CathAway information; companywide engagement to encourage patients and clinical staff to listen for signs of distress in their dialysis access; and a pilot test of software for monitoring thrombosis risk.

The CathAway program has been extraordinarily successful. By the end of 2012 the rate of patients on dialysis for more than 90 days with a CVC dropped to an all-time low of 13.9 percent. Clot rates dropped from 42 percent to 12 percent in the pilot surveillance program.

DaVita and DaVita HealthCare Partners are trademarks or registered trademarks of DaVita Healthcare Partners Inc. All other trademarks …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Northrop Wins $174 Million Pentagon Contract

By Rich Smith, The Motley Fool

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For the second time this week, Northrop Grumman has won a contract related to its LITENING Targeting Pod System. On Tuesday, the Pentagon awarded Northrop $7.1 million for sensor enhancement work on the system. On Thursday, though, the Pentagon gave Northrop a much more substantial order — $173.6 million in the form of a firm-fixed-price, cost-reimbursable-no-fee, time and material contract for sustainment of LITENING. Work on this contract is to be completed by December 31, 2017.

Northrop describes LITENING as a “self-contained, multi-sensor targeting and surveillance system” used to “detect, acquire, auto-track and identify targets at extremely long ranges for weapon delivery” (i.e. shooting at). LITENING is also said to be useful for “nontraditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.”

The targeting pod is in use by both the U.S. Air Force, the USMC, and eight allied foreign countries — Australia, Denmark, Finland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. It is installed aboard Block 30, 40, and 50 F-16 fighter jets, aboard the A-10C Warthog, the F-15E Strike Eagle, the B-52 bomber, F/A-18 C/D fighter bomber, the AV-8B Harrier, and the EA-6B electronic warfare aircraft.

The article Northrop Wins $174 Million Pentagon Contract originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Rich Smith has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Northrop Grumman. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

AVG Technologies Kicks Off Security Services Webinar Series for MSPs on Channelnomics

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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AVG Technologies Kicks Off Security Services Webinar Series for MSPs on Channelnomics

AMSTERDAM & SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)– AVG Technologies (NYS: AVG) , the provider of Internet and mobile security to 146 million active users, has inaugurated a five-part webinar series for managed service providers (MSPs) on the Channelnomics website. The series covers the evolution of security as a service, and how managed service providers can capitalize on the migration to scalable cloud services to increase value to their customers and returns to their business.

The first webinar in the series, “Economics of Security and Managed Services,” was conducted on March 12, and moderated by Channelnomics editor-at-large Lawrence M. Walsh, a well-known and respected channel analyst and advocate. Those who missed the first installment in the series will find it posted on Channelnomics during the next week.

“Solution providers are hungry for actionable intelligence and guidance as they continue to transform their businesses for the services era. Participants on this and future webinars will gain real insights into how they can leverage the power of cloud computing in delivering essential security services,” Walsh said.

“The content provides something every small MSP team needs to know in order to grow and prosper,” added AVG channel partner John Rutkowski of Bolder Designs, who was a featured participant in the first webinar.

“Many managed service providers struggle with issues of talent, scalable infrastructure and cash flow. Success requires an understanding of these and the mechanics of the managed services business model. That’s what we’ve set out to achieve with the Channelnomics webinar series,” said Luke Walling, VP of Sales and Operations for AVG Technologies.

“That’s also why we designed AVG® CloudCare™, our cloud-based IT administration platform, to help channel partners to quickly and easily transition to an MSP model with a free-of-charge solution enabling them to roll out “pay-as-you-go” services that make it easier for them to manage and protect their small business customers.”

AVG CloudCare offers free remote management tools, one-click service user activation plus easy policy deployment and automatic removal of older versions of AV software help to save time and reduce the need for onsite visits – allowing partners to serve even the smallest customer more profitably. Additional benefits include sales alerts and one-click reporting to help demonstrate partners’ added value.

The AVG CloudCare platform with AVG Remote IT, AVG AntiVirus and AVG Content Filtering is available immediately via AVG reseller and managed service …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Wednesday's Top Upgrades (and Downgrades)

By Rich Smith, The Motley Fool

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This series, brought to you by Yahoo! Finance, looks at which upgrades and downgrades make sense, and which ones investors should act on. Today, our headlines include downgrades for defense contractors AeroVironment and Harris Corp . Meanwhile, though…

LCD specialist Cree lights up the scoreboards
Great news for Cree shareholders this morning: Wall Street likes your stock again. In twin announcements Tuesday, Cree confirmed that it’s going to begin selling a new LED lightbulb, exclusively through Home Depot, and for the low, low price of less than $10. Even better, Cree’s so convinced this product will be a success that it’s upped its revenue guidance for the fiscal third quarter (that’s the one we’re in now) to a new range of from $335 million to $350 million — and on stable gross margins of perhaps 39.5%.

Wall Street loves the news, with Credit Agricole upping its rating from underperform to outperform in a Paris minute yesterday, and Goldman Sachs praising the company’s new “price points as very competitive” and hiking its own price target for Cree stock to $48. This morning, a third analyst joined the Cree fan club, as UBS went a step further and projected Cree shares will hit $51 before a year is out.

Are they right? Well, let’s see here. According to StreetInsider.com, Cree thinks it can earn between $0.16 and $0.21 per share this quarter ($0.31 to $0.36 pro forma). If it’s right, that would work out to at least a double in GAAP profit over last year’s Q3 levels, and perhaps an increase of 162%. Even pro forma, the growth rate would exceed 50%. Either way, that’s a whole heck of a lot faster than the 37% earnings growth Wall Street has Cree pegged for this year, and suggests there’s reason for the analysts’ optimism.

Granted, at 108 times earnings, Cree shares don’t look like much of a bargain on the surface. But if you value the company on its remarkably strong (four times GAAP earnings) free cash flow, and credit it for its strong cash reserves ($886 million, with no debt in evidence), the stock actually looks pretty fairly priced at 20% projected growth, and an enterprise value-to-free-cash-flow ratio of just 19.4. In short, I wouldn’t short Cree on this rally. This stock‘s not nearly as expensive as it looks.

AeroVironment crashes and burns
If only I could say the same for small unmanned aerial vehicle specialist AeroVironment, which yesterday missed earnings badly, then compounded the fumble with a prediction hat fiscal 2013 earnings will come in at just $0.42 a share — down from earlier projections of $1.43. The news prompted an immediate cut in price target by FBR Capital, which slashed expectations by nearly half, and said AV investors will be lucky if their shares are worth even $19 a year from now. BB&T Capital seconded the emotion, pulling its buy rating and downgrading AV to “hold.”

But is the news …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Old console becomes new gadget (video)

Las Vegas —Are you the type that thinks video games were so much better back in the simpler times, before 3D graphics and realistic settings? Perhaps you’re a fan of the Super Nintendo? Hyperkin would like to speak with you.

This is no emulator: this is literally a chip-set of an SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) inside of a handheld gaming device, shaped conveniently like an SNES controller.

If you’re tired of the little screen, plug it into your TV with the AV-out port, plug in a classic SNES controller to the front of the Supaboy and enjoy your bite-sized console.

Time to grab your old cartridges from the attic, blow out the dust (that isn’t the recommended way to cleaning game cartridges, but you’ll do it anyway) and get your retro gaming on.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Western Digital My Net AC Bridge review: Another great 802.11ac bridge

If you’re building an 802.11ac network, you have two options on the client side: Purchase a second 802.11ac router from the same manufacturer and configure it to operate as a bridge, or purchase a dedicated 802.11ac wireless bridge. Unless you need to connect only one client, we strongly recommend the latter option, as it’s less expensive and a whole lot easier to set up. If you do have just one client, Netgear’s A6200 Wi-Fi USB adapter is a cheaper option (we’ll have a review of that device soon).

Photograph by Robert Cardin
Western Digital‘s My Net AC Bridge delivers great range, but its vertical orientation makes it vulnerable to tipping over after a bump.

Western Digital is the only the third vendor to offer a dedicated 802.11ac bridge, following in the footsteps of Buffalo Technologies (with the AirStation AC1300 bridge) and Cisco (with the Linksys WUMC710). The Buffalo device is basically a clone of that company’s AirStation AC1300 router—it’s equally as big and bulky. WD’s bridge isn’t nearly as compact as Cisco’s, but its footprint is about the same. Whereas the Cisco device is short and squat, the WD bridge is narrow, tall, and permanently mounted to a stand, all of which renders it susceptible to tipping over when bumped. Its height, however, offers an advantage: faster performance at long range.

This 802.11ac wireless bridge offers even better range than Cisco’s Linksys WUMC710 does.

Like the other 802.11ac bridges, the My Net AC Bridge provides four ethernet ports in back for connecting the hardware in your home-entertainment system to your network, and from there to the Internet. Typical clients include a Blu-ray player, a gaming console, a home-theater PC, an AV receiver, and/or a media streamer. LEDs indicating power, WPS (Wireless Protected Setup) pairing status, the Web connection, and the wireless connection are located on the side of the bridge. The LEDs are difficult to see if you’re looking at the device straight on, but you might appreciate not having such a visual distraction in your entertainment center (we certainly do).

We benchmarked the My Net AC Bridge alongside our current favorite 802.11ac router, the Asus RT-AC66U, and then compared its performance with that of Cisco’s Linksys WUMC710, streaming to three locations inside a 2800-square-foot, single-story home. As you can see in the chart above, Western Digital’s bridge delivered about the same performance at close range (the router and client in the same room, about 9 feet apart) and in our home-theater test (35 feet apart, with four walls in between). But Western Digital’s bridge offered much higher performance than Cisco’s model did when we moved the client to a home office that was located 65 feet from the router and separated by three walls.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld